our hearts, to awaken our affections, to soften our passions, and to regulate our desires. Our blessed Saviour, when on earth, spent the whole of his time in acts of charity and beneficence. He was full of compassion for the miseries of men. He sighed for their woes, and wept for their misfortunes. To the blind, he restored the faculty of sight; he gave vigour and strength to the maimed

He

and the lame :-be loosened the tongue, and gave voice and speech to those that were dumb. always raised the drooping, and poured balm into the bleeding heart. Disease fled at his approach; -health came at his call;-and sickness and infir. mities were dispelled. The merciless, hard hearted Jews were not excluded from the influence of his compassion. The approaching calamities of Jerusalem, who had "stoned the prophets and persecuted those were sent to her," drew from him tears and lamentations, and touched him with the deepest concern. He lived among us, to teach us how to be happy in this world. He laid down his life for us, to secure us bliss and immortality hereafter. How, then, can we be his disciples, unless we conform to his precepts, and imitate his bright example? "His yoke also is easy, and his burden light." He enjoins us nothing that is grievous, when he commands us to love one another :-and indeed, he makes our eternal happiness itself to depend upon actions which in the present life, contribute to our own comfort and satisfaction.

The Scriptures have made our love of each other the test of our love to God. The Almighty is not one, whom we can, by any of our senses, perceive. He is not visible to our eyes;--and, as he is perfectly happy in himself, our actions can in no wise affect Him. He refers us, therefore, in the first instances of practical duty, to beings of our own species. He teaches us, that, by making all mankind the objects of our benevolence, and by extending our consolations in the best manner we can, to those who need them, we give evidence of our gratitude to Him, and ensure to ourselves his approbation.

But he that loveth not his brother is not of God." If we are unpitying and hard hearted to our brethren, we can expect no mercy or favour from the Almighty. We act in opposition to all the precepts and to the example of our blessed Saviour; and, whatever we may be in word and in tongue, we are not in heart and deed, his disciples; nor will He, or his heavenly Father, come to us, or take up an abode with us.

We should apply, then, to our own breasts, and try whether our secret thoughts are mild and gentle, and whether they are intent on our own prosperity, so far only as it unites or is combined with that of others. We must learn to root out all rancour and malice that are concealed there, to dispel the gloom of ill-nature, and to free ourselves from the torments of envy. The mind of a Christian should be habitu

VOL. II.

S

ated to benevolence; always ready itself to do good, and studious of promoting the charitable dispositions of others. Christ, the great Shepherd of our souls, did not refuse to perform, in the way of charity, even the most servile offices:-for we read that he condescended to wash the feet of his disciples. Shall we, then, who have promised and vowed that we will imitate him, grudge our small endeavours to serve our brethren and promote their advantage? He wrought miracles, to feed the hungry multitude: --and shall we refuse to a languishing fellow-creature our mere superfluities, or the crumbs that fall from our table? He laid down his life as a propitiation for our sins; and shall we not shew our gratitude to Him, by submitting gladly to inconveniences, whenever it may enable us to do good to any of our brethren? Cruelty and inhumanity are quite opposite to a Christian spirit:-and the man who pretends to religion, and yet has no pity or tender feeling for others, deceives himself; for he has no religion in him; he is dead in sin, and is a child of wrath. If the precepts of the gospel were thoroughly understood and diligently practised, this earth would be a paradise again, and mankind would be happier than we can now imagine. If men would but employ themselves in doing good to each other, with half the zeal and eagerness with which they are often bent upon doing injury --if they were as intent upon mutual quiet and relief, as they are upon being turbulent and burdensome, with what comfort might we

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pass our pilgrimage here, and how truly should we delight ourselves with the abundance of peace!" Why are we so blind as not to see, and so perverse as not to practise, what is obviously and highly our interest? Never was a commandment so well calculated to effect a most desirable purpose, as this of loving one another. A stedfast observance of it must necessarily tend to the glory of God and the peace of the world :—it would raise us to the highest degrees of excellence here, and would qualify us for those mansions of eternal happiness, where the rewards of piety and holiness are such as "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive."

SERMON XX.

ON THE DUTY OF GLORIFYING GOD.

1 CORINTHIANS X. 31.

-Do all to the glory of God.

THE condition in which we are placed on earth, suggests to us that we are subject to the divine Power and Providence, but are, at the same time, superior, to the classes of God's other creatures around us. The same truth is confirmed to us by the holy Scriptures. Feeble,-dependent,-and unable to do any good thing as of ourselves, or without the aid of a permissive favour from above,—we look up to our Almighty Creator for strength, for protection, and for help at all times. The rashness and folly of presuming on our own power and sufficiency are discoverable even in early life; for it requires but very little experience or observation to be convinced that health is precarious, that prosperity is unstable, and that earthly hopes and speculations are often