kindnesses, and which this tribute of sincere gratitude but poorly repays. Mr. C. S. MORRIS, of Gloucester County, Virginia, was the first in that section who took me by the hand in 1831, when opposition against me and my sentiment was most virulent and untiring. He is a gentleman of high respectability, and has continued to this day, the unswerving friend of our cause. Dr. G. C. MARCHANT, of Indiantown,. North Carolina, has long been a believer in Universal Salvation, and has done much for our cause in the section where he lives. I have spent many happy moments in his society, and often look back upon them with pleasure. He is a respectable gentleman, and one in whom our friends may repose entire confidence. Dr. S. S. GRIFFIN, of Williamsburg city, Virginia, and also ROBERT ANDERSON, Esq., of the same place, and Mayor of that city, extended to me the same hospitality and kindness, and sustained me when our sentiment there was very unpopular. They are gentlemen who hold the first rank in the esteem of those to whom they are best known, and are the uncompromising friends and advocates of equal rights and liberal Christianity. Mr. GEORGE L. LUMSDEN, of Petersburg city, Virginia, is a respectable gentleman, who long stood firm in the belief of endless punishment, and not until lately has he renounced that sentiment, and avowed his belief publicly in the doctrine of Universal Salvation. This change of sentiment he attributes to the reading of my "Twenty-four Short Sermons," and it is principally through his urging their republication, that I have been induced to present the volume, in this enlarged and improved form, to the public. JUNE 1st, 1840. J. B. DODS. my humble The public may expect another volume from pen, the present summer, entitled "THE CROWN OF LIFE," containing sentiments in theology not yet advanced by other writers. THIRTY SHORT SERMONS. SERMON I.* THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH. "Surely the bitterness of death is past." 1 SAM. xv. 32. ΑΝ army of more than two hundred thousand men marched under Saul, king of Israel, against Agag, king of the Amalekites, and slaughtered every individual in his kingdom, and took him prisoner. It was, in the strict sense of the word, a war of extermination. Old and young, and great and small, were swept to the grave in the tempest of battle. Agag alone was left alive. Among the slain, his dearest friends and connexions were numbered, so that there was not a solitary being left, to whom he was bound by the ties of consanguinity. His government was demolished, his subjects were consigned to one common tomb, and the glory and grandeur of his kingdom were eclipsed forever! Stripped of all * Delivered in the Universalist Church in Provincetown, Mass., by the pastor, Sunday, Nov. 17th, 1839, on the death of CHARLES COLLINS PARker. |