EIGHTEEN PRACTICAL DISCOURSES, FOR FAMILIES AND YOUNG PERSONS; BEING SKETCHES OF SERMONS DELIVERED AT BERMONDSEY CHAPEL, NECKINGER ROAD, SURREY. BY JAMES CARTWRIGHT. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR; AND SOLD BY PALMER, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND H. QUELCH, OLD CHANGE. 1829. PREFACE. IF in the following Sketches nothing uncommon, in a literary point of view, presents itself to the Reader's notice, he will please to remember, that the Author's object is not to afford an intellectual treat, but spiritual benefit and moral advice. The way in which he seeks this end, by calling the attention to, and elucidating passages of the Sacred Volume, though a simple method, has often been successful, under the blessing of God, and has ever received the countenance of the Christian community. If the task has been already performed by abler hands, it is yet possible that this little book may find its way into the possession of many families and where similar works of a supepersons, rior kind, but larger price, may not have extended. It is a feeble, perhaps, but sincere effort, to promote the cause of truth, and in this cause every man should attempt something; and if the aid he brings be trifling, he is not to blame, when, like the widow who cast two mites into the treasury, he does what he can. J. CARTWRIGHT. Bermondsey, March, 1829. PRACTICAL DISCOURSES. THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FORMATION OF A PEOPLE. This people I have formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.-Isai. xliii. 21. Ir has always been a favourite study of the learned world to trace the origin and progress of nations, and not without good reason: for after contemplating the half-savage appearance of a great portion of mankind in all ages, it becomes an interesting and useful employment to mark how empires, illustrious in the annals of fame, have at different periods emerged into civilized life, and by what steps they have attained to arts, sciences, and moral culture. How surprising, therefore, that men of literature, going back as they do, in the pursuit of this branch of knowledge, to ancient days, and delighting to roam in imagination among states that flourished then, have so seldom taken any notice of the singular people mentioned in our text. They are familiar with Egypt, Persia, and Chaldea;— they converse fluently respecting Greece and Rome, and speak in raptures of their laws, their philosophy, their poetry, their oratory, their architecture, and their military prowess;-they are well B |