the indigent and distressed. Nor is there any mark so appropriate to the disciples of Christ as that of loving one another. And if the principles I have endeavoured to enforce in this discourse, be so high and holy as I am assured they are; if the Holy Scriptures be the book bestowed on man to teach him the way to Heaven; if this book is to be communicated to the young from their earliest childhood; and if it be able to make them wise unto salvation; then all the ordinary motives to Christian benevolence acquire, in this instance, a double force. Nor let us fear to act nobly on an occasion like the present. Few persons have ever lost by their charities. The blessing of God maketh rich. Economy is the spring of real benevolence. We are injured indeed by negligence of our affairs, by prodigal expense, by pride, by ostentation-but no man was eventually the poorer for what he gave away-Honour the Lord with thy substance and the first-fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenteousness, and thy presses burst out with new wine. He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord; and, look, what he layeth out, it shall be paid him again. Need I add, that the best evidence we can give of our gratitude for the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, with which God has blessed us, and for that eternal salva tion to which he calls us by faith in Christ Jesus, is to assist others in attaining these blessings; which, if God had pleased, we might have been under the necessity of supplicating ourselves, and which we have received freely that we may freely communicate them to our more necessitous brethren. THE DUTIES AND TEMPER OF THE CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD. A SERMON PREACHED AT THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON, On Sunday, July 11, 1824, ON OCCASION OF BEING INDUCTED INTO THE VICARAGE OF THAT CHURCH. FUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE CHURCHWARDENS, AND MANY OF THE PRINCIPAL PARISHIONERS. THIRD EDITION. |