of gratitude I can show, every exertion for their spiritual welfare I can make, is abundantly due from me to them; for never was greater favour and attention shown to any minister, than they have constantly manifested towards me. I have long felt the obligation, and, I hope, I shall be thought to have discharged it to the utmost of my ability. Whatever be my future destination, I trust that neither time nor distance will occasion, on my part, a forgetfulness of past kindness, nor diminish my regard for those, whose anxious desire to be instructed in the knowledge of the Gospel, has given energy and facility to my labours, and in whose service I have spent many happy years of my ministry. Should it please Providence to remove me to another charge, the occasional perusal of this Volume may bring to their remembrance their affectionate Lecturer, whose heart, though engaged in other cares and in new connexions, will never, while it retains the power of sensation, cease to own the attachment, which is now its pleasure and its pride. ་ ། I cannot close this Preface without returning my warmest acknowledgments to those, who, in their endeavours to serve me in the present undertaking, have evinced a friendship too sincere and gratifying ever to be forgotten, too great and generous ever to be adequately repaid. From my heart I thank them. I have long been attached to them by the bond of affection, and am now drawn more closely to them than ever by the tie of gratitude. |