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bonds of unusual and paramount obligation. This, as I at first stated, is of itself quite a sufficient ground of benevolent activity. But if, in addition to this, the Jews are still in covenant with God and beloved for their fathers' sake,if they are to be assuredly converted to the Christian faith,-if the use of means is to be employed in effecting this,-if no nation has been so honoured of God as our own, or so zealous in promoting every cause of piety and love, if the present period has been distin guished by the perfectly unprecedented success of various noble religious institutions,-if the whole of the Heathen and Mohammedan nations are waiting, as it were, for the salvation of God, and a spirit of inquiry is springing up in the furthest recesses of superstition,-if the most judicious divines conceive that the predicted termination of the reign of Antichristian corruption and darkness cannot on any calculation be very distant,-if even among the Jews themselves some symptoms of religious investigation begin to appear,-and if, above all, the full coming in of the Gentiles into the Church is to be dependant, as the Scriptures repeatedly assert, on the previous restoration of Israel; then I feel compelled to conclude, that no cause can be more deeply affecting than that in which we are engaged-no cause where the faith and patience of the Christian can be better employ

ed, none where success will stand connected with such important consequences on the greatest designs of God and the highest interests of the whole family of man. It seems to me, therefore, that the circle of our charities would be materially defective, if the unhappy Jew were forgotten. I cannot but think, that the least return we can make to that people for the immense obligations under which we lie to their fathers, is to labour assiduously for their conversion; and that at length each Christian, awakening to his duty in this respect, should resolve with David, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning, if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Or rather should address himself to the Giver of all grace, and say, in accents of fervent supplication,—and I am sure I may be permitted in this way to close these few remarks-Vouchsafe, O blessed Saviour, to prosper the work of our hands upon us! Vouchsafe to direct us in all our measures! Do Thou grant us such wisdom and tenderness and fidelity, that we may not disgrace the sacred cause in which we are engaged! And, O, that it might please Thee to enlighten the minds of thy Antient people; to "remove from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of

thy word; and so to fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved with the remnant of the true Israelites, and become one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord!"

ADDRESS at the Fourth Anniversary of the MERIONETHShire AuxiliaRY BRITISH and FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, held at the County Hall, in Bala, on Saturday, August 10, 1816, on moving the thanks of the Meeting to Sir W. W. WYNN, Bart. M. P. &c.

MR. HIGH SHERIFF,

I BEG leave to apologize to you and to this Society for appearing before you, an utter stranger, on the present occasion; but being accidentally in this neighbourhood on behalf of another Society, I did not feel myself at liberty to decline the invitation of the Committee to attend at this Anniversary; and I can truly say I shall be most happy if my residence in the metropolis, and my opportunities of frequenting the Committee of the Parent Society, shall enable me to forward in the humblest manner a cause which I verily believe to be

more nearly connected with the glory of God and the salvation of mankind than any other project of mercy now on foot in this nation.

But, Sir, before I come to the special mo, tion now assigned me, I may perhaps be expected to take a view of the question connected with the British and Foreign Bible Societythe object of which is, to circulate the Holy Scriptures without note or comment throughout the world. And here I will first ask, Whether it be in itself a good and right thing to disseminate the Word of God as widely as possible? But surely I need not seriously reply to such a question. If it be our duty to love our neighbour as ourselves, it must surely be the principal part of that duty to communicate to him those sacred oracles which the mercy of God has bestowed upon ourselves. The parting command of our Saviour to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, has never yet been recalled. It is the reproach of Christendom, that after eighteen hundred years so little has been done to diffuse the blessings of revealed truth. The greatest gift of God to man, next to the gift of his Son to die for our sins, is the Bible; and can it be a question whether we shall distribute this volume to the whole human race? If we disseminate with the utmost eagerness our inventions in the arts and sciences, how much more should we labour

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