The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-16 00:00:00

moval of mitigation if the evil. Every one may
do soutethit g towards this object in his own parish and
neighbiurhood, and imnsb may be dune by the Oohed efforts
of associated Christian,. I teed rardly urge se an addi-
tion.' motive tt e happy remit which follows from every sue-
.•ewful attempt to hexer the condi•ion of the bumbler
closes, namely, that of knitting together the different enders
of society, now too widely sepa►ated, in the Minds of
Chriatiar. sympathy and love. Let these, then, my brethren,
he the substantial evidences of our thankfulness to God for
His great mercies vouchaafed to us; .not merely the united
acclamations and joyful hallelujah of the assembled church,
woe only the sincere tribute of pious hearts both in public
and in retirement, but with the sae: Oleo. with which God is
well pleased—the offering of ourselves, ear souls and belies.
for lii. service, and the doing good is others for the sake of
Hint wbo ba'b done all for us." The right rev. prelate con-
cluded with a solemn exhortation to repentance and to holi-
ness of life.

A collection wu made immediately after the conclusion of
the sermon.

ST. MARGARETS, WESTMINSTER.
DEAN MILMAN.
The text selected by the Very Rev. Dean MILMAN
for hi, th inksgiving s rmon was Ephesiane, v, 28, " (living
thanks always for all things unto God the Father in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ." History and individual '
observation but too plainly taught us Met in human nature,
imperfectly disciplined, the principle of fear No much pre-
vailt over the principle of fortitude, that the infinite bene-
volence of the Creator seemed scarcely heeded by us, ex PM
as those periods when our persevering inaratitude had called
down upon us We marked indignation ; and when the heavi
nese of our affliction enforced upon our re fl.,c ion the
tenderness of the mercies which we had so long
slighted. Yet cur gratitude should be as ever present, a.
unceasing as the benevolence of the Almighty. The terror
which war, or famine, or pestilence naturally inspired in the
breast of man was not the lactose due to the Maker, or
which merited His mercies; the relig:on which lie require('
from us was the retie-an of love, not of fear. True, never
within the preacher's recollection had there been a mot,
strikingly spontaneous outburst of religious feeling, a more
fervent manifestation of devotion in crowded congregations,
who scarcely awaited a summons to present themselves in
the house o' flail ; never had the service a of the church been
listened to in more reverential silence, with more absoebed
interest ; never had the truths of religion appeared to pent).
trate more deeply, more searchingly into men's hearts, than
during the prevalence of the late pestilence; but the grand
question was, whether this religious feeling was to be per-
manent—whether a sense of God's perpetual presence hod
become impressed upon His creatures, rescued by:His mercy
from that sfilicti n which had wet2hed co hesvily, more or
lass directly, upon so many hundreds of thousands
of our fellow-creaturte not more sinks' than our-
selves? The question was whether the fearful warning
which all had so recently and so unmistakeably received,
was to remain without effect; whether the Christian p ,pu
lation, of late so vividly, so awfully aroused to a sense of its
guilt by a sense of its immediate danger, would, now that
the danger seemed passed away, revert to its guilt, forgetful
of the lesson which had so appalled it. He prayed that this
might mot be.

ST. GEORGE, BLOOMSBURY.
REV. MONTAGUE VILLIERS.
This gentleman preached in this church last even- '
ing to en overflowing congregation. The sermon was
in aid of the Society for Improving the Dwellings
of the Lab, using Poor. Amongst those for whom the
prayers of the congregation were desired was her Majesty
the Queen Dowager. The rev. gentleman chose for his text
the rouge, Psalm 2, verse 11, • &join wish trembling."
After noticing the general drilt of the Psalm, ea descriptive,
prophetic, sod hortatory, he said be would first consider the
puty enjetr.ed. to rejoice: and next its limitation, " with
trembling." Toe duty of rejoicing was repeatedly insisted
on in Holy Writ. But the rejoicing of the Christian was not
to be in creature comforts, ner merely because God's provi-
dential dielings tell in with the promotion of human
happinem, for tne wicked often liour.shed as a error. bay-
tree. The Christian was only. to rejoice in God ; this wee
the only ground of real happiness. for it was suer-during.
In the lit Sew weeks God bad plsihly manifested himself
as a prayer-hearing God; nay, almost from the very day
that a number of Christians had determined on setting apart
a day for humiliation, it had seemed as thoutitt God had
begun to withdraw his scourge. God was merciful, and this
was another source of the Christian's rejoicing. Even sorrow
itself was sanctified, and made anoth• r cans • for thankful-
ness. But why the limitation—" Rejoice with trembling ?"
First, lest the absence of fear should produce indifference to
national amendment. Too often did it happen that those
who had mat earnestl7 called on God in trouble were
most ready to forget him in preeperity. Secondly, lest the ab-
sence of amendment should produce another and yet severer
blow. This was the cgs. with God's ancient people ; the
Prophet Amos upbraided them with it, and concluded his
reproach with the solemn warring, " Prepare to meet thy
God, 0 Israel." Two years ago we had humbled ourselves
before God ; he had accepted it ; but where was our na-
tional amendment, either I. public morals or in social con-
dition ? Had poverty become less squalid, or luxury dimi-
nished? No; both had increased, and the consequence
was they were further then ever from each other. He im-
plored the audience net to neglect their poorer brethren
while dwelling in their comfortable ceited houses ; let the m
imitate the example of the Red. emer, and strive to raise the
condition, physical as well u spiritual, of the destitute poor of
this great metropolis.

SCOTCH CHURCH, CROWN-COURT.
DR. CUMMING.
The Rev. Jodi COMKING, D.D., had announced his in-
tention of advocating the cause of the City Mission and the
nagged School in Wild-street. The rev. doctor selected for
his text the 6th verso of the 103rd Psalm—. The Lord
executeth righteousnesi and judgment for all that are op-
pressed." if. read the whole of the Psalm, observing that it
mightbo considered the heals of the discouree,but that he should
confine himself principally to an exposition of the 6th veil%
Every verso in this psalm, he observed, was a magi fog
blessing the Lord, who, in his guidons, had uswered the
prayers of his people in their depression. The petitiocs of
the 91st psalm, used on • former occasion, might now be
convertid into grateful acknowledgments. On this day of
national thaniugiviog, us he rejoiced to call it, the fact
must be recognised that the late epidemic, which swept of
60,000 souls in six weeks, was a providential visitation. It
was the most fatal epidemic by which this country had been
visited since the great plague, and indicated the period of
divine prophecy at which the world had arrived. They also
recognised the fact that God bad removed the disease ; and
by this public acknowledgment, every christian looked to
something beyond seesad causes. Had the seasons or the
laws of nature removed the epidemic, let them be
praised ; but it was not so. A third fact was recognised that
day—that national prayer and thanksgiving was a duty.
Our rulers had thus rectified the error of their first omis-
sion. The Psalmist, in the subsequent verses of this psalm,
especially 'aimed the daty of • people being just and
generous, merciful and kind to thou who were oppressed.
This congregation comprised many masters and heads of
offices; it would be extremely hard for their servants to be
deprived of their day's wages ; let thaw who were intend-
ing to do so rather omit contributing on that occasion to the
ragged schools and City Mission. Those, on the other
hand, who had given their servants not only the opportu-
nity, but the means of thankfulness, would also, no doubt,
be meat forward with their oontributiots to the charities he
had named ; they would thus be link just and generous
God bad visibly interposed " to execute justice and judgment
for the oppressed" on many put occasions—at the protestant
reformation—in the extinction of the slave trade—and in the
exposure, in the present year, of the horrors of the Popish
inquisition at Rome. Our selfish nested of the poor, oar
insensibility to the cry of the down-trodden, our apathy and
disregard of the fact that thousands lived in dens and places
by the side of ditches and pollution—places so graphically
described by Mr. Bizaem—might have led to the recant inter-
position of Providence; and as the great havoc that had
been done might be regarded as • beneficent mission from
above. The dismiss had first appeared in the subterranean
pools of the metropolis, thous radiating its deadly foci
from Bethnal-green to Bolgrayseqsarie ; and the dwellers
in that region felt they could not be healthful
se long as hotbeds of disuse were suffered to
exist in Lambeth, Bethnal-green, and elsewhero,_ •
proof that the warning wee of divine origin. Tho
awful fact had been made patent that two-thirds of the
people never attended • plus of worship; and when it had
been disclosed that thou places were peopled with the dead
more densely below than with the living above, with bet •
thin plank between, through which deadly and pestiferous
gases exhaled—what wonder that people did not go to
churches where there were vaults ? It was now generally
known that a man might be poisoned more easily through
his lungs than through his stomach; the veil had beta lifted
from the subterranean life and death of London; and though
the selfish and %dealing might flee from the taintodl-
ties, the epidemics would follow them, and they would be
doomed to a similar fate, as the criminal of old, who had to
dreg about with him a dead body wherever he went. God had
thus made it patent that the neglect of duty was not only
sinful, but dangerous to temporal welfare. Let us then be
thankful, not only for the removal of the dime*, but for its
visit. If some decided and extensive effort were not made
by the exertions of practical benevolence, to improve the
condition of the poor, the plague would infallibly return,
not merely as a chastisement, but as • consuming and over-
wbelmingjudgment. The ministry which should undertake
and aooomplisk this—whig, tory or radical—would immor-
talise and hallow its nacv. Bix weeks' devastation of the
cholera had slain more than fell at Waterloo; and three
months' continuance of the plague, at its greatest virulenoe,
would have swept away from the metropolis more than fell-
beneath the death-dealing cannon in the revolutionary riots
of Paris. Towards the great work be had recommended,
Individuals could do much. Let those who bad suffered do-
=colic afilietionsor bereavement be excited to increased be-
nevolence. Slight cases were often productive of great
events. In his own life be could trace almost every
one of the relations he held to games sio trifling
that they might be compared to the turning of a straw
to the right or the left. Doubtless, ethers could do the
same. Could that, then, be chews ? Rather let each one
adopt the language of the Psalmist, and say—" Bless the
Lord, Cmy soul, and forget not all his benefits " The
City Mission now emplovedatween 100 andloo lay agents;
they were most active in visiting the poorest of the poor;
five of them had fallen victims to the cholera, the patients
sufferiag from which they had most benevolently visited.
The other charity, whom cause he had to plead and to
which • smaller portion of the collection would be devoted,
was the Ragged School, in Wild-street—a moat deserving
institution, which had slready been productive of great