INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.

THE Society, in aid of whose funds the following Discourse was preached, was introduced into this County by Sir John and Lady Shelley, in the year 1825 *. They immediately established it in the Parishes of Maresfield, Rotherfield, and Fletching, in which their Sussex property is chiefly situated; and this example was almost instantly followed by the Clergy and principal Landed Proprietors in Uckfield, Buxted, Horsted, and Framfield.

By these means, a large tract of country, very unequally populated, and the inhabitants of which are placed in very dissimilar circum

A similar Society was at that time, and probably continues, in active operation on the property of Viscount Palmerston, in the neighbourhood of Broadlands.

stances, both with respect to the extent of their poverty, and the degree of their moral and religious information, was at once brought under the influence of this Society. The experiment, therefore, has been fairly tried, and it has completely succeeded.

The objects of the Society have been stated at large in the body of this work. In the appendix will be found a Report of its progress in one Parish, which may be taken as a sample of the rest that have been named. There is also added a sketch of its constitution, and a short code of laws, which have been found sufficient for its regulation, and are easily understood by the poor.

A

SERMON.

GALATIANS V. 10.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

On this sacred day, brethren, have we entered on the first, and perhaps the holiest portion of the Christian year. This solemn period has been consecrated by our Church to prepare the souls of its members for the celebration of that great mystery of godliness, the manifestation of God in the flesh. It is also designed to warn us of that time when God shall be manifested in the Spirit, and all who ever bore the form of living man shall be summoned to appear before Him. In proportion, therefore, to his belief in the revealed mercies and terrors of the Lord, will the Christian, who looks forward to the solemnities of the day of Christ's appearance in His glorious majesty to judge both the quick and dead, strive to improve the time of this

mortal life, "in which He came to visit us in great humility."

Neither can we be at any uncertainty as to the mode of occupying our time, which may give us the best ground to hope that in fulfilling the will, we are gaining the approbation of that Holy One on whom our eternal doom must then depend. Most true indeed it is, that did we reason of what men know, from the manner in which they act, we might often pronounce them destitute of the very first elements of heavenly wisdom. Yet our own conscience would always protest against such a conclusion; and, as long as its warning voice was heard, would remind us that our crimes arise not from ignorance of our Master's will, but from want of principle to perform it. The most incorrigible sinner will scarcely venture to plead, in extenuation of his guilt, that the absence of light was the cause of his going astray. No, my brethren, we have all great reason to bless God, that, however arduous the acquirement of other branches of knowledge may be, the knowledge of the privileges and conditions of the covenant of grace may be acquired so readily, that no one ever yet failed in a sincere endeavour to attain it.

From this merciful covenant we learn that the claims of our Christian vocation, and, con

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