A SERIES OF ARTICLES AND DISCOURSES, DOCTRINAL, PRACTICAL, AND EXPERIMENTAL; CONSTITUTING THE SELECT WORKS OF SIMON CLOUGH. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. Geo. W. Wood & Co., Printers, 45 Gold-street. L 1431-41 .44.39... HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 1864, ollar. 19. Girof BOUND DEC 8 1909 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. In presenting this volume to the public, the author deems it proper to remark, that the Articles which compose the first part of the book were intended for a Magazine, expected to have been published by the "General Christian Book Association," and which was to have been placed under his direction; but, in consequence of the occurrence of unexpected and unforeseen events, the execu tive committee of the said Association decided not to proceed in the publication of the said Magazine for the present. But, in the meantime, the author had made preparations to proceed in the publication of the said Magazine, before he was notified of the resolution of the said committee. After this notification, he decided to engage in the publication of his own select works, using the same type and paper which had been provided for the Magazine. This circumstance will be sufficient to account for the Articles being inserted in the first part of the book; and, also, for having inserted two Articles, one from the pen of Elder Hazen, and the other from the pen of Elder Shaw, which were originally intended for the Magazine, and not for the present volume. The Discourses, which constitute the second part of the book, were written by the author at different and distant periods of time, during the course of his public ministry, and without any special reference to publication. Several of the Discourses should have been re-written, but the state of the author's health would, by no means, admit of this laborious exercise, having entirely wasted and exhausted his strength in writing the Articles; so that he was under the necessity of either presenting the Discourses in their original dress, or of withholding them entirely from the public. The plain style, however, in which these Discourses are now presented, may be as acceptable and as profitable to common readers, |