THE SPIRIT OF A GREAT PEOPLE: A SERMON, DELIVERED IN THE BRUNSWICK AND THE GREAT HOMER-STREET CHAPELS, LIVERPOOL, On FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1839, ON OCCASION OF THE RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENARY OF WESLEYAN METHODISM. BY JOHN ANDERSON. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. "The World is my Parish."-John Wesley. 1840. LIVERPOOL: PRINTED AND SOLD BY THOS. KAYE, CASTLE-STREET. SOLD ALSO BY BAINES, CHURCH-STREET; MASON, 14, CITY-ROAD, 421. A SERMON, &c. MY BELOVED FRIENDS, We are assembled before the "face of God," under circumstances of no ordinary interest and importance. The day has dawned upon us, to which we have long looked forward, when, in obedience to the appointment of our honoured fathers, we are met to celebrate the first Centenary of our religious and connexional existence. I have strong hope, that this will prove to us one of those days, which leave a joy to memory. That it may be even so, that our most sanguine expectations may be realised,―let us sanctify ourselves to approach unto God; let us anew, and with firmer faith, "lay hold on the hope set before us,” even the precious blood of our Lord's atonement; let us fervently implore the descent of the Holy Spirit, and with one heart and one voice glorify God, who hath made us a people which were not a people. "This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise." "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen.” THE difficulty of selection, for this occasion, arises more from the number, than from the paucity of appropriate texts of Scripture. Whatever be the selection, it must be accommodated to the people called Methodists. We have B |