them why you attend on Dissenting worship, and on that of Unitarians among Dissenters, in preference to all other; that, perceiving the good grounds you have for your conduct, they may not be drawn away by what is more fashionable and agreeable to the spirit of the world. If all of you who have families do what you can to bring the whole of your families into the congregations to which you belong, and to inspire them with zeal and lead them to exert themselves in the Unitarian cause, this will do much towards producing a revival among you. Fervently praying that God may bless you and your families, and crown with success all your efforts to promote his cause, I remain, most faithfully and affectionately, yours, &c. R. WRIGHT. Lines to the Memory of an Infant. SIR, Epping, May 15, 1826. EVEN amid what are termed the "dull repositories of the dead," something enlivening is to be found. Passing a few days since through a Churchyard in Essex, the following lines, engraved on a tomb-stone erected by a kind and exemplary parent to the memory of an infant, struck me as being so exceedingly beautiful, that I could not forbear sending them to you for insertion in your valuable Reformer. Oh! sweet, my baby, liest thou here, Oh! sweet, my baby, is thine head And is the dreary grave thy bed Thy lullaby a mother's sighing? Oh! changed the hour since thou didst rest J. C. Oh! can I e'er forget the kiss I gave thee on that morn of mourning? The Conclusion of a Sermon preached in the Meeting-house, Wolverhampton Street, Dudley, May 7, 1826, in aid of a Subscription for relieving the Unexampled Distress of the Labouring Classes in Lancashire and Cheshire. By James Hews Bransby. Romans xiii. 9: "And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." - CONTINUE, then, my friends, to regard yourselves as ministers and instruments, as stewards and almoners, of the God of love. Scatter blessings around you, even where you can expect to reap no advantage,-where you can look for no reward in this world, but the sweet and holy satisfactions of your own generous hearts. Rest not contented with indolent desires and inactive wishes. Seize every opportunity of doing good; and never be weary of the work. No business can be more honourable: in a nobler or more interesting service you cannot engage. And here it becomes my painful duty to point your thoughts to the immediate occasion on which we are met together, and to lay before you a few particulars of the sad condition of the poor in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Cheshire. Their calamities, so unlookedfor and so overwhelming, are, I believe, without a parallel in the memory of the oldest among us. I shall not at present stay to inquire into the primary origin of these calamities for when the fainting voice of misery is heard, the jarrings of politicians should for a while be still. At such a moment, instead of balancing abstract arguments, or entering into an elaborate discussion of questions on which the opinions of men are divided, we should open our hearts. to the influences of compassion, and stretch forth a merciful hand to succour, to bind up, and to save. There are few of you, I presume, who are not familiar with the accounts which have lately appeared in our public journals. They concur in the most affecting statements of the wretchedness that prevails, and place beyond the slightest doubt the melancholy fact, that thousands are in want of the common necessaries of life, and that their children are famishing before their eyes. One report informs us that the people are emaciated, that with some the natural love of life itself has been subdued, and that others have been excited by the cravings of hunger to plunder for provisions. The old and the young, the vigorous and the infirm, are alike drooping under the burden of their sorrows. In a town* containing between twenty and thirty thousand inhabitants, it is said the distress is so great that “ upwards of one-third of the population have nothing to do, and the unemployed live entirely upon soup, which consists of three-fourths barley and one-fourth rice, sweetened with treacle and seasoned with spices, and which costs rather less than one penny per quart.' An eye-witness has declared, in the most solemn manner, his conscientious conviction, that," without some friendly and decisive interference, devastation, bloodshed, and ruin will speedily be extended from one side of the kingdom to the other." The poor weavers have been obliged to give up their houses; and are now without a home. They have no cheerful table around which to gather with their little ones they have no pillow on which to rest their weary heads and forget their cares :-so hopeless is their situation that, unless extraordinary and prompt efforts are made in their behalf, they will perish in the streets. If you turn away from their cries, or even if you pause and deliberate, their doom will be sealed, they will be beyond the reach of your compas sion: "For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share.”† How exquisitely pathetic is the remark of the King of Israel, as recorded in the Jewish Scriptures: "While I was busy here and there, he was gone," the person whom I should have counselled, encouraged, and blessed! But I check myself. It has hitherto pleased God to shelter our own neighbourhood from the fury of the storm; Macclesfield. + Gray, Kings xx. 40. and, my brethren, I will no longer harrow up your feelings by dwelling upon distresses, at the bare recital of which the ear tingles and the heart grows sick, and which it is my most fervent supplication at the throne of mercy, that you may not be destined to undergo. We are surrounded by a population that is seldom chargeable with atrocious offences against the peace and the dearest interests of society; and, alarning as is the aspect of the times, in no part of the kingdom-I affirm it without fear of contradiction are the labouring classes more honourably distinguished by a quiet and respectful demeanour. What ought to be our gratitude, that the outeries of human violence have been kept afar from us! In the district to which our thoughts are this afternoon directed, it has been otherwise. There the frantic multitude have busied themselves in the work of destruction, and the streets have resounded with the noise of the footmen and the noise of the horsemen." The unhappy sufferers have forgotten, in their delirium, that by violating the law they add sin to sorrow, and can only deepen the gloom that encompasses them, and enhance their misery. While we employ every means that we can command, to restrain their criminal excesses while we labour to make them sensible of their infatuation-while we endeavour to shew them that there is no reason for distrusting the goodness of God, and giving themselves up to despair, let us bear it in mind, that where coercion is in vain, and the terrors of the sword produce little or no effect, the weapons that are furnished from the armoury of Christian kindness may prove irresistible. If these deluded men can but once attain the conviction, that we are not indifferent to their welfare, that we are indeed their friends, that we cherish in our breasts a sincere, undissembled commiseration for them and for their children, they may not be able to withstand its power. It may touch and soften them;-it may, by the blessing of the Almighty, be successful in awakening their gratitude, in delivering them from their errors, and in bringing them back to the straight and peaceful path which they have forsaken. After all that you have heard, I earnestly exhort you to come forward in support of your poorer brethren, who, but for your timely assistance, must languish and expire in the horrors of famine and disease. I call upon you who know not what hunger is, who "have bread enough and to spare," to sympathize with your fellow-men who feed only on wretchedness, and are compelled to drain the cup of woe. I confidently call on every one whose bosom is alive to the feelings of humanity, to contribute " of his abundance," or even from the limited resources of his poverty, to the relief of those who, except for your disinterested and generous. help, can see no mitigation and no end of their sufferings, but in the appalling prospect of a most miserable and frightful death. I address myself equally to the indigent and the wealthy; and I beseech you, by all that is good and great and heavenly, to mingle your tears of pity, to offer a joint oblation upon the altar of piety and love, and to convert, if possible, the moan of complaint into the song of thankfulness and joy! I cannot conceive a question more strongly put, or more tenderly enforced, than that of the apostle, "If thou seest thy brother have need, and shuttest up thy bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in thee?"* Nor let any one be deterred from exertion in so pious a work, by the idea that what can be done by this assembly for the relief of the sufferers, will be trifling and useless. Our blessed Saviour assures us, that the widow's mite was estimable in the eye of a heart-searching God, on account of the kind disposition with which it was bestowed. I trust also that from springs, separately considered, scanty and insignificant, will be formed a reservoir of charity, in some degree commensurate with the exigencies of the distressed. I rejoice to observe that the cause for which I am pleading, is patronized by the Sovereign with a munificence that will be remembered when the meteor glories of this transitory state shall have vanished away, and that it is most liberally supported by persons of all political parties and of all religious denominations. It is when I behold in my countrymen such exercises of their high and philanthropic spirit,-it is when I witness the extent and perseverance of their labours for the improvement and happiness of their fellow-creatures,—it is when I reflect on their institutions for diffusing the most important knowledge among the humbler classes of the community, on their zeal in assuaging the horrors of persecution, in holding forth the word of saving truth to every nation and to every clime under the canopy of heaven,-it is when I see this energy of benevolence on whichever side * 1 John iii. 17... |