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life in the acquisition of knowledge, and

Shall we pawn

and to ambition,

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in the pursuit of wealth? our souls to party, and grudge those few moments which we give up to solid deeds of virtue, the only deeds we shall look back on with pleasure, when old age, and death near at hand, show us the world in another, and in a true light? Can we find leisure for all the intricacies of business, and science, and no leisure to reconcile the man to his own heart? Shall we go to our grave, knowing all wisdom but the best ?" If," says Job, in the midst of his afflictions, " if I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the

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eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath "not eaten thereof: If I have seen any

perish for want of covering, or any poor "without clothing if his loins have not

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blessed me, and if he were not warmed "with the fleece of my sheep: If I have lifted up my arm against the fatherless, " when I saw my help in the gate; then let "mine arm be broken from the bone, and "let it fall from my shoulder blade:"

VOL. I.

These charitable visits to the poor, which I have endeavoured to inculcate, are of importance, not only because they prevent imposture, by making you certain of the misery which you relieve, but because they produce an appeal to the senses, which is highly favorable to the cultivation of charity. He who only knows the misfortunes of mankind at second hand, and by description, has but a faint idea of what is really suffered in the world: A want of charity is not always to be attributed to a want of compassion: The seeds of this virtue are too deeply fixed in the human constitution, to be easily eradi cated: but the appeal to this class of feelings is not sufficiently strong; men do not put themselves into situations where such feelings are liable to be called forth; they judge of the misfortunes of the poor through the medium of the understanding, not from the lively, and ardent pictures of sensation. We feel, it may be said, the eloquence of description; but what is all the eloquence of art, to that mighty, and original cloquence with which nature pleads her cause; to the eloquence of paleness, and of hun

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ger; to the eloquence of sickness and of wounds; to the eloquence of extreme old age, of helpless infancy, of friendless want! What persuasives like the melancholy appearance of nature badly supported, and that fixed look of sadness, which a long struggle with misfortune rivets on the human countenance! What pleadings so powerful as the wretched hovels of the poor, and the whole system of their comfortless economy! These are the moments in which the world, and its follies are forgotten, which throw the mind into a new attitude of solemn thought, which have rescued many a human being from dissipation and crime, which have given birth to many admirable characters, and multiplied, more than all exhortation, the friends of man, and the disciples of Christ.

In truth, if these observations be any where applicable or necessary, it is in great cities that they are peculiarly so; for as misery increases with vice, and dissipation extinguishes charity, the poor suffer more, and meet with less relief, at least with less of that kind of relief which proceeds from

the exertions, and interference of individuals. Far be it from me, in talking of the dissipation of great cities, to wage war with the innocent pleasures of life; with youth there should be joy, for the best days of life are soon fled; but the danger is, that amidst the constant enjoyments, and diversions of society, the heart should become callous, and lose that noble irritability, that moral life, which is the parent of all that is good in the world. Enchanting as the pleasures of society appear, they would still derive an additional charm from the consciousness that you deserved to enjoy them, that you had acquired a right to be happy, from having made others so; and that an evening of innocent gaiety, was earned by a morning of virtuous

exertion.

You are not, I hope, of opinion, that these kind of cares devolve upon the clergy alone, as the necessary labours. of their profession: Those who teach Christianity, ought certainly to be most forward in every Christian exertion; but, unquestionably, it is not from them alone

that these exertions are expected, but from every one whose faith teaches, and whose fortune enables him to be humane. I have touched on this point, because such an opinion, though too absurd to be openly avowed, is not too absurd for that crude, and hasty palliation with which we smother the conscience that we cannot satisfy.

Nor let it be imagined, that the duties which I have pointed out are much less pressing and imperative, because the law has taken to itself the protection of the poor; the law must hold out a scanty, and precarious relief, or it would encourage more misery than it relieved; the law cannot distinguish between the poverty of idleness, and the poverty of misfortune; the law degrades those whom it relieves; and many prefer wretchedness to public aid; do not, therefore, spare yourselves from a belief that the poor are well taken care of by the civil power; and that individual interference is superfluous;-many a hand is held up, and no man seeth it; many a groan is wasted in the air, many die in secret, and, like the moments of the day, they perish, and are forgotten: Go, then, while good

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