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rich is to measure his bounties by his wants, of which he has none: not again that any man is to commit sin for another, though he might desire it to be committed for himself: but that every one, in dealing with his fellow-creatures, should put himself in his neighbour's place, and so act, as he might fairly and righteously wish another in that case to act towards him. The poor ask relief of their necessities from him who swims in affluence and plenty he neither needs nor desires an alms but he may not therefore refuse to bestow it: he must bring home the sufferings of others to his own sympathies; he must suppose himself poor and destitute, in tatters, and starving, as the beggar at his door; and consider, what an argument for bounty he would then find in another's opulence; how pinching deprivation would plead, that he who had enough, and to spare, and to waste upon extravagance, ought to help him who had nothing; and that the very obligation to relieve want arose from a man's never

feeling it, and being raised, as it were, out of the reach of its sensation. It is too common among the wealthy and prosperous, to do as they would be done by in the literal, and therefore the wrong, sense of the words. They do not wish for help, and so they imagine that they need not help another. They are happy, and do not want consolation, and so they never think of giving it. They are careless or secure as regards themselves, why then should they be careful for others? This is indeed to distort the intention of our Lord's precept, to turn the rule of benevolence into a maxim of worldliness, and pervert the Gospel to selfish ends. It is true, we are not altogether to forget ourselves, and leave either our fortunes or morals at the discretion of those about us. In that which may be my ruin, it is not imperative on me to become surety for a neighbour, because, if our situations. were changed, I might desire him to do so for me. Still less can it be my duty to commit evil. He may ask me to ex

tricate him by falsehood from his difficulties; he may desire me to say what is untrue, or to give false evidence, that he may be rescued from his danger; and, pressed by his apprehensions, I might be wicked enough to wish the same of him: but the rule of Christian charity will lend no countenance to his request; what he wants is altogether foreign to our Lord's precepts; for it is what neither he nor I ought to ask, or to receive, of any man. But whatever we may justly ask, whatever another may justly ask of us, that we ought in charity to do. And to melt cold indifference to a neighbour's sufferings or injury, place yourself in his situation, when a question arises of benevolence, or affront, or wrong: ask yourself, if in his circumstances you would like to be refused, or your self-respect would be wounded, or your interests prejudiced by the course you now propose to pursue :and you will often discover, that what seems reasonable enough to one party concerned, becomes an outrage to another,

and what was harmless in your esteem as the active agent, is converted into insult, or injustice, when you have made yourself the passive recipient or sufferer.

In the first and literal sense of the commandments, there is a distinction between those that can be enforced by human penalties, and those that can not. God, being able to read the thoughts, applies his laws to the heart and disposition. Man, being able to judge by actions only, opposes his precautions to the actual commission of crime. Hence to honour parents, or to covet, so far as it is an inward duty of the soul, is not, and cannot be, a subject for human legislation.

Again the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth commandments forbid certain definite actions. The infraction of these then, in their first sense, can be, and is, punished by man. But the fifth is a positive precept: it does not forbid any thing; but enjoins you to do some thing. And positive precepts are generally indeterminate; you cannot de

fine precisely the extent or manner, in which each and every child should honour his parents. It is not for every child to support his father or mother, but it is the imperative duty of some. Marriage, profession, or position in life, emancipates one child early from parental control: another of the same house is retained in filial obedience to advanced years. Circumstances must determine what is right in each case. And, amid the infinite variety of circumstances that occur, human laws cannot meet the variety of obligations which are created. They may, indeed, repress some flagrant violations of the duty but they cannot enforce the adequate discharge of it.

Let it not then be supposed, that the commandment is unimportant, because men have passed it by in making laws for society. The Apostle calls it "the first commandment with promise." In the prophet Ezekiel to "set light by father

1 Ephes. vi. 2.

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