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The fact, however, is not the less certain because we are unable to discover the cause. Proceeding in this journey of human life, we, here and there, meet with a few scattered spots where the fruit of enjoyment grows; but the far greater part of our road presents to our view nothing but a bleak and desert wilderness, where no beauty or verdure is to be seen. Happy are we if briars and thorns do not obstruct our path, if rocks and precipices do not beset us on every hand.

But a question of more practical importance occurs; Does this diminution of our enjoyment add nothing to our virtue? Yes, certainly. If no dangers were to be avoided, and no wants to be supplied, feeble would be the motives to industry and exertion, which are the great laws of our nature, and the chief sources of our improvement. Were no suffering to be endured, patience could not have its perfect work. If we were mutually independent, friendship, the balm of life, and love, the sweetener of society, would be unknown in the world. Were there no objects of distress, compassion would be an useless principle in the human frame. If, by an equal distribution of fortune, the poor were removed

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out of the land, we could have no opportunity of practising works of charity and mercy.

When, therefore, we peruse the page of history and read the details of the various calamities, miseries and disasters, which, in every age, have happened, at one time to individuals, at another time to nations; when, in our own days, we behold in one quarter of the earth the horrours of war and famine, in another multitudes flying from their homes to avoid the assassin and the murderer, wandering in exile and pining in poverty; when we see, in a third, fair and flourishing cities laid in ashes by the devouring element of fire, their inhabitants cast upon the wide world without habitation, and the industry of many years blasted in a moment: when around us and among us we behold many labouring under disease, when we hear the cry of the needy and the oppressed, and see the tears of the widow and the fatherless, let us not idly spend our time in inquiring how all this comes to pass, in reasoning about its consistency with the attributes of God, or in speculation concerning the causes and purposes of such an arrangement. On the contrary, let us encourage sentiments of pity and

compassion; let us consider the miseries and distresses of our fellow-men as the best lessons which our great preceptor in holiness can give us for the improvement of our social virtues; let us cheerfully embrace the opportunity presented to us of promoting the happiness of the world, by relieving the distressed, consoling the wretched, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. We shall thus con

vert the unavoidable calamities of life into a nurse of the most pleasing and amiable feeling of the heart, Compassion, and its fairest daughter, Charity.

In the language of sacred writ, charity has for the most part a different meaning from its usual acceptation in common language. In the former, it expresses that general principle of love to our neighbour, which leads us to benevolent thoughts and beneficent actions of every kind. In common language it is more limited, being applied only to a particular exertion of this general principle, and denotes either that disposition which leads us to entertain a candid and favourable opinion of others; or that good will which is expressed in relieving the distresses and supplying the wants of the poor and the wretched.

Having, on a former occasion, discoursed to you of charity in its more general and extensive sense, as signifying the same thing with the love of our neighbour. I shall now endeavour to prevail upon all who hear me to follow after charity in its more limited sense, "to deal their bread to the hungry, to bring "the poor that are cast out to their house, "when they see the naked to cover them, " and not to hide themselves from their own "flesh."

In discussing this subject I propose

I. To explain the obligations we are under to follow after charity.

II. To consider the excuses which men employ to justify themselves to the world, and to satisfy their own minds, for the neglect of this duty.

III. To suggest some directions for the exercise of this duty; and

IV. Lastly, to state those motives which should induce you to follow after charity :

A plan, you will easily perceive, too extensive to be fully discussed in one discourse; but you have so often heard and are all so well acquainted with topicks of this nature, that it would be an affront to you to consider the

matter too minutely; and you will readily excuse me for saving you the trouble of listening to familiar truths.

I. The obligation of this duty will require only a very short discussion ; for however men may excuse themselves in particular cases, and differ about the extent in which charity ought to be practised, few are disposed to dispute the duty itself.

That charity is a duty will appear with the fullest evidence, if we listen to the voice of nature, of conscience, and of revelation.

In a state of nature it is evident that all men have an equal right to the earth and its productions. But this state, if it ever existed, could only be momentary. Possession itself would constitute an exclusive right, and every man would consider as his own the spot which his body occupied, and the tree under the shade of which he reclined. Superiour wisdom, strength and industry, in conjunction with the kind aspect of providence, would soon procure to those who possessed them a larger share of the good things of this life. The skilful and diligent would become rich; the idle and ignorant, unable to avail themselves of their natural rights, would sink into

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