PREFACE. DURING the year of our Lord 1824, whilst travelling in England, Ireland, and Scotland, the Author of the following Discourses received much attention, and many civilities from zealous Christian Friends, in every part of the United Kingdom, to whom he had no introduction but his public character. His having resided many years in a distant heathen, populous country, for the purpose of transfusing into its language the Holy Scriptures, excited on his behalf an interest which, under other circumstances, could not have been felt. Having had the satisfaction, during his stay in England, to see originated a public attention to the language of China, he is now about to revisit that country; and therefore, in accordance with a principle he has often advocated, he avails himself of THE PRESS, to leave with his Friends, and the Public, this Volume, as a PARTING MEMORIAL. VIII Although he does not assume that these discourses possess, irrespective of the circumstances connected with them, intrinsic excellence, sufficient to call for their being published; he still thinks, that they may prove instructive to some individuals, and not an unedifying memorial to many among whom he has travelled, occasionally preaching the Gospel. On the means to be employed for the propagation of the Christian Religion throughout the world, the same ideas will frequently recur, but perhaps in a varied connexion, that will, on the whole, strengthen the argument. He has used great plainness of speech, without effort or design, in his natural, unassumed manner; not with malevolence or intentional asperity, but with a frankness which is spontaneous; and, if he knows his own heart, affectionate, though seemingly severe. He humbly prays that the Almighty Father's blessing, and the "Power of Christ," may rest on all Christian Churches; and that the Holy Spirit's influences may be abundantly shed down from on high upon all men; to the end that all the nations may be turned from darkness to light, and from dumb idols to the living God;-that Truth and Righteousness, Holiness and Happiness, may fill the whole Earth. 5, GROVE, HACKNEY, March 11, 1826. |