The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

$^ SERMONS.noti and to flatter and foment thofe tliey have. Ifthey panited to the life the temper and the vices ofthofe vi^ho refort to them, they w^ould foon be offended,and withdraw, unwilHng to be mortified with theview of their real felves. How dreadful, if ever thepulpit fliould be debafed in this manner ! or Ihouldever verge towards any art of that kind ! One hadbetter never preach at all, or ery in a defart, than beguilty of any fuch grofs and criminal proftitution.6th, The want of pomp and fhow in our mannerof worfhip, tends perhaps to diminifh the number ofpiofeflbrs. From the firft eftablifhment of our conllitution,the public fervices of religion have been donewith much fimplicity, and without any thing of glaresnothing to ftrike the fenfes or entertain the imaginationof the worfhippers. Not that I imagine there isany value in that wcrihip which is altogether occafjonedby outward fhow : no. It is the fpirituality ofworfhip which gives it value. " God is a fpirit, andthey that worfhip him, muft worfliip him in fpirit andin tr^th." But where the right inward principle isweak or awanting, external things may have fome influenceon religious profefTion. And I believe ourworflvip is lefs attractive, or at leafl is performed iniefs decent places, than might at firfl be intended.This proceeds from the felfifhnefs of the age, andtheir backwardnefs to be at any expence abou^ facredthings. Churches have been ere^ed and endowedby the piety of our forefathers, in the times of povertyand fimplicity ; had thefe things been left to this ageof riclies and commerce, it may be very queflionablewhether or not they would ever have been done. Wemight have had none or fewer places of public wor-pfhip, arid inflead of the fcanty provisions for the teachersof rightecufnefa, there might have been no fuchprovifions at all..The attachment of a country to religion may, iageneral, be cftimated from the Itate and condition of