imperfectly discharged, or entirely abandoned, if the poor frame be disordered, and we, like Job, be made to possess months of vanity?" The apostle, therefore, tells us that life is a part of the Christian's treasure: " Life," says he, "is yours." The saints on earth possess one privilege above the saints in heaven they who are glorified have lost all their opportunities of doing good: they cannot exercise candour towards those who differ from them; they cannot forgive injuries; they cannot relieve the distressed; they cannot instruct the ignorant; and they cannot convert the vicious. "The grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day; the fathers to the children shall make known thy truth." A clergyman, some time ago, in a letter pressed your preacher to publish something against the prevailing crime of suicide but there are enough excellent things already against gross and immediate self-murder: perhaps something is necessary still to guard persons, and even some professors of religion, against killing themselves, gradually and gently, by lying late in bed, by table indulgences, by the neglect of air and exercise, by harbouring uneasy and malignant passions. For what are all these but "rottenness in the bones?" "And, therefore, though man be mortal," says Dr. Gregory, "I am persuaded not one individual in a hundred dies a death v purely natural." "What," says Voltaire, "is a physician? A poor pitiful gentleman, who is always expected and required by his patients to work miracles."

Let us proceed to observe again, that you are not required to be regardless of your reputation. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” The man who makes free with his reputation, not only sacrifices his comfort, but his usefulness too. Character is credit; it gives weight to a man's counsel and advice. And, as a professor of religion in particular, never give place to the maxim, "I care not what people say of me." You ought to care what people say of you: your religion is involved in it; the way of truth may be evil spoken of; the worthy name by which you are called may be blasphemed : you may prove a stumbling-block to the weak, and a distress to the strong : you may discourage the hearts, and weaken the hands, of God's ministers. A Christian is like a female, he is not only to maintain purity, but delicacy: like her, so it is with him-to be suspected is almost as bad as to be guilty and in both of them carelessness is a crime: and therefore, says the Apostle, "Avoid the appearance of evil."

Neither are you required to be careless as to the welfare of your family. With regard to this it would be enough to repeat the language of our apostle: "He that provideth not for his own, and specially those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."

We, therefore, only remark further, that in your secular matters you may look upon your own things. You are, indeed, required to abide with God in your calling; but the God you abide with will never make you unprincipled and imprudent, foolish and neglectful, in your worldly affairs. Never relieve an idler; (by an idler I do not mean those who would work, but cannot; but those who could work, but do not ;) but always endeavour to starve them into existence, or out of it; for they are of no use here: according to the language of the Apostle to the Thessalonians: "When we were with you, this we

commanded you, that if any one would not work, neither should he eat.' "Mind thy business," says Franklin," and thy business will mind thee." And what says Solomon? "Whoso keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof; so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks; and look well to thy herds. For riches are not for ever and doth the crown endure to every generation? The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered: that is, "Make hay while the sun shines." "The lambs are thy clothing and the goats are the price of the field. And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens." "I went," says he, "by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction." (O that others would do so too!)—“ Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.' You will observe that the Apostle, in addressing the Romans, calls upon them to be "fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;" and yet, says he, "not slothful in business." Paul would have a tradesman a morning man; he would have him punctual, regular, obliging, active, intelligent. Why should the children of this world. be wiser in their generation than the children of light? "If a Christian man," says Mr. Newton, "be a tradesman, I would have him the best in the nation; yea," says he, "if he be but a blacker of shoes, I would have him the best in the whole parish."

To draw towards a close here. You see there is no impropriety in your looking upon your own things: but, says the Apostle, "Look not upon your own things." How is this? Why he explains himself-you are not to look upon them exclusively or only. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also”—"also," this is the interpretation-" but every man also on the things of others." It is much, therefore, like the second commandment"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:" or like the Saviour's requisition-"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Self-preservation, including the promotion of our welfare, as well as the conservation of our being-has been called the first law of nature, and it is so: and if man were a solitary creature, it would he the only law of his nature. There would be no other for him to care for, but his own dear self. But now man is variously associated and related; and therefore he is made a social being, and consequently is required to be social. Therefore he is told, that "No man liveth to himself:" and only a Cain will question this, and ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Let us therefore notice, wHAT THE ADMONITION ENJOINS-" Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."

Two inquiries will be here necessary: the first of which is, How we are to look upon the things of others. In answer to this we would observe that you are not to look upon them curiously, inquisitively: that is, needlessly; prying into other people's history, and into their condition and circumstances, from

mere curiosity, or vanity of mind; or in order to furnish materials for the tongue, which, as the Scriptures say, "walketh through the earth." If this be not absolutely a vice, it is a great vexation, and a great impertinence: and it is found to prevail principally among advanced spinsters, and women who have no families, and men who have no business, and all those who have nothing to do: for, as Dr. Watts observes,

"Satan finds some mischief still,

For idle hands to do."

And Bishop Watson says, that “our idle days are always Satan's busiest ones.' Paul, therefore, says to the Thessalonians: "For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for nought, but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you." "For we hear that there are some among you who walk disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies." If persons will render themselves obnoxious, if they will draw upon themselves reproach by meddling with the concerns of others, rather than their own, let them bear the consequences; but let it not be supposed that it is religion that makes them thus obnoxious; but the want of it. Let them remember the language of the Apostle Peter: "Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy body in other men's matters."

Again, you are not to look upon them enviously. "Be not thou afraid," says David," when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul; and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." It is as if he should say, "The distinctions, and the acquisitions, and the cares, which make others so uneasy around you, are not worthy you. What is a man the better for them?" But O what evil is there in the temper itself! It is earthly, sensual, and devilish. Milton describes Satan as looking on the happiness of Adam and Eve in Paradise, and then turning away with a malignant leer. What a wretched, cursed disposition is this, for a man to be uneasy just because another is at ease; to be miserable because another is happy; and to dislike him, just in proportion as by his excellency and success he should love him, and rejoice in him! And yet this principle is so common, so powerful, it is so subtle in its various workings, that Solomon says, "Who can stand before envy?"

You are not to look upon the things of others unconcernedly; but so as to feel for them; so as to have an interest in them by sympathy; so as to make them, in a sense, your own; so as that if the subjects of them rejoice, you may "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Thus it was with Job: "Did not," says he, "I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?" Thus it was with David: though, you will remember, they of whom he spoke were his bitter enemies, yet says he, "As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself

as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother." Common sense tells us, that this must be the meaning of the Apostle here; for when he says, "Look on the things of others," he cannot mean with such a look as the priest and Levite gave to the poor, wounded, bloody traveller, and then went by on the other side: but he means such a look as that the eye shall affect the heart; such a look as should awaken commiseration, and produce corresponding emotions and exertions. Every thing else will be found vain, and despicable too; mere pretence. As the Apostle James says, "For if a brother or sister be destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?"

We must, secondly, inquire, Why we should thus "look every man also on the things of others." For it is a reasonable service; and we wish you to be able to give a reason of your practice always in religion, as well as your hope. There are five things to which I must here refer you.

The first of which is, the authority of God. I need not, I think, take up any of your time in endeavouring to prove that God has a right to command you. A king has no such right to the obedience of his subjects; a master has no such title to the duty of his servants; a father has no such claims to the. regards of his children-as God has to all your homage. The reason is this: they have not, and never can have, an absolute property in you; but God has: for God" made you, and not you yourselves." You derive from him your being, your powers, your possessions, all your enjoyments, and all your hopes: you are therefore his by infinite ties, and bound to serve him. And you cannot complain that you do not know what his demands are upon you: he has shewn you what is good; he has told you what he requires of you: he has given you his Word, and in his Word you have his will; and to this you may repair, unawed by every authority in the universe, unless his own, to know what he enjoins upon you. And can you peruse that Book without reading, "To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." "As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." "If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" "And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God, loveth his brother also." You, therefore, know his will, and "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." "The servant which knoweth his Lord's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."

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Secondly, observe, the need you have of each other. There is no such thing as independence in our world; it is only ignorance and pride that leads people to affect any thing like it. It is in the social body as it is in the natural body; there are many members, but there is only one body. "Ye," as the Apostle says, are all members one of another; so that the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you." "The very king is fed," says Solomon, "by the labour of the field." And upon how many more does he depend than you! Indeed the higher men rise the more dependent do they become. The rich owe much more to the poor than the poor owe to them; the foundation of the building is the lowest

part, but then it sustains the whole. Were you obliged to make your own bread, to prepare your own food, to dig your own fuel, to make your own apparel, and to attend in every thing upon yourselves, you would soon learn how dependent you are, and how much more others have done for you, than ever you will be able to do for them while you live.

So we turn, thirdly, to the pleasures of beneficence. He who leaves his neighbour in hunger and wretchedness, while he is surrounded with the means and opportunities of doing good, is just like a man who dies of thirst with a cup of nectar in his hand. Do you ever feel any thing like ingratitude and discontent? Do you ever begin to murmur and repine? Go and visit immediately the widow, the fatherless, the sick and the afflicted; and then with what feelings will you return! We are aware of an objection here; but it is one of no force. You do not deny that there are pleasures in music: though some leather-eared ✰ people can hear even Handel without ecstasy and emotion: and so it is here; the selfish and unkind are not able to enjoy the pleasure of doing good; but they ought to be able, and it is their disgrace that they are not: the disposition would increase with the practice; and in the same proportion that you are really benevolent will be your happiness. This is the meaning of our Saviour when he said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive." Some of you do not enter into this, because your benevolence is not real and disinterested. If a benefit be conferred by you in the true spirit of kindness, it will yield a thousand times more blessing to the giver than to the receiver. I wish you would try it. Did you ever give way to a pure, generous emotion, without looking askance, and expecting any kind of remuneration? What were your sensations? What luxury ever equalled that of Job when he said, “When the ear heard me then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me; because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." Here is pure pleasure; durable pleasure; pleasure that will bear examination, bear review; pleasure that, like the rose, will yield perfume even after it is dead. Mr. Howard, (and in a sermon upon charity who can help, somewhere or other, referring to that great philanthropist ?) presented his wife one day with a purse, with one hundred guineas in it, in order to enable her to take an excursion of pleasure in the summer: "My dear," said she, "what a pretty cottage this would build! How soon the pleasures of a summer excursion will have dropped from the mind, and faded away from the feelings: but to see a little cottage rising, to see a simple, worthy couple entering it; to see the flowers in the front garden, and behind to see a number of chubby boys and girls playing about-O what a perpetuation, what a multiplication of pleasure is here!" I one day read--and I believe the relation is substantially true-of a person who was going to drown himself under an intolerable oppression of melancholy; (and where is the person that does not sometimes feel a weight upon his spirits, a burden that presses his very life down to the ground?) but as he was going, a little girl met him, who piteously implored relief, not only for herself, but her poor starving mother and sisters. What was money to a man in such a condition as he was in? And so he gave her several pieces of silver. She received them with unutterable