One word more, and I have done. The former Exhibition was opened with prayer. The act was a declared recognition of God’s right to control our recreations, and of the necessity of his blessing to make them either innocent or happy. Will the projectors of the new undertaking DARE to open their building thus? Will they, holding in their hands the outspread charter of desecration, DARE, with the breath of invocation, to blaspheme the God of heaven? I hazard no reputation for prophecy when I say they will NOT. For, though I have no right to infer that they would hesitate at mocking GOD by such an act, if they thought it would raise their shares, I am persuaded they would fear so to mock the ENGLISH PEOPLE. There is an element of veneration in our national character, which will not suffer itself to be outraged beyond a certain limit. Our people, even the worst of them, have no love for gratuitous profanations. If they _do_ consent to sit down at Belshazzar’s feast, yet they will not drink wine out of the sacred vessels. Hence, whoever may be present at the coming inauguration of the god of this world in his palace, he will with difficulty repress the feeling, ‘I know this place is to be opened in utter defiance of the laws of God, and therefore for me to ask his blessing upon it would be as if a robber should first kneel down and ask God that he might be successful in his plunder, or as if the traducer of his neighbour’s fame should pray that he might have the benediction of heaven upon his ill report.’ No, brethren, if this Charter be granted, the building will be opened, as it has been commenced, without God, without a blessing, without a recognition of any power in the universe save that of Belial, who is to direct the pleasures of its votaries, and that of Mammon to fill the coffers of its founders with the fruit of unhallowed gains. For the honour of our religion, then, for the moral happiness of our people, for the lengthening of our tranquillity, for the salvation of our land,—let me entreat you, while there is yet time, to protest against this uncalled-for impiety. Our voice made itself heard a short time ago, when a crafty Socinian influence, at the Post-Office, threatened our cherished sanctities:—we deserve to lose our Sabbaths for ever, if that voice be silent now. Wherefore, brethren, “Watch ye; stand fast in the faith; quit you like men; be strong.” Slacken not in your exertions, till all the weapons both of heaven and earth are spent; until you have vindicated your character as citizens, your rights as subjects, your religious consistency as Protestants, your faith, and love, and zeal, and piety, as Christians and as men of God. So shall “the Lord be entreated for our land,” and the on-coming “plague be stayed.” Amen. NOTE A.