It would seem as though the way-faring man, if he were a fool, could never er here-if he stumble and fall over some things hard to be understood in the writings of a single Apostle, b.e has yet no excuse for stumbling here. Duty is plain. The will of God is explicit. And when men clench their hands and steel their bosoms against the cries of the 'poor, we are obliged to have recourse for reasons of the fact, to the covetousness of their hearts-a covetousness that ensnared Balaam, destroyed Ahab, and has overthrown thousands of every generation." It is a bed, shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and a covering, narrower than that he can wrap himself in."

We have sometimes seen the mere doctrinal believer, penurious and hard-hearted, we have seen him-like the ice of the polar regions, maintaining the unabated rigors of his nature under the softest influences-like the prowling native of the forest, inaccessible to the pleadings of reason and of tears. O" tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ascalon-lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph!" Religion never yet scathed the soul, and bound every tender sympathy in "adamantine chains;" her origin is from Heaven, and like Him who dwelleth in the bosom of Eternal LOVE, she goeth about doing good ;" her rule of action, is that which guides the Angel's way, when flying on errands of mercy to suffering humanity; that, which rescues hesitating Lot from the flames of Sodom, and oppressed Israel from Egypt's iron yoke. She hears-and she obeys the high command of God, "what ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them ;"" feed the hungry,-clothe the nakedvisit the sick”—they cannot recompense you, but you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

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Now how much soever we admire the materials that compose the system of Christianity, how ardently soever we love those doctrines of grace that lie at its foundation, and those unostentatious virtues that form its strong pillars; we wish also to discover fair proportions, and to see the whole edifice ornamented with " works af faith, and labours of love." Nor can it be admitted for a moment, that faith without works is a living faith, any more than it can be admitted, that works may supersede the righteousness of Christ in man's salvation. Faith has its appropriate situation in every temple of the Lord's building ; works too, have theirs; and among these works, none are more distinguished than the wise distribution of our goods among the poor.

4. These appropriations are not the business of a short bour, but of life. "All the rivers run into the sea, yet is not the sea full"-they are constantly flowing, but make no sensible addition to the waters of the Great Deep. So, space for the exercise of charity will always remain. "The poor ye have always with you." One generation

may be swept away, but another cometh.

The objects of

your beneficence twenty years ago, may now be all sleeping in the dust of the earth; yet others in quick succession have followed-and have not these last, equal claims with the first? The wants of the poor and the miserable are like the drops of the ocean for multitude, and ever will be, till sin ceases its mad control, and "evèry · mañ sitteth under his own vine and fig-tree." Let the streams of your bounty flow ever so freely, this ocean will not be full; pour into it the most ample contributions-there is room for more.

"Ah! that's my judgment too," says the close-fisted worldling," I have always found that the more I did give, the more I might give, and I am determined to put an end to these exactions on my benevolence." My hearers, your presence assures me that such is not your language, and that such will not be your course of conduct. Where, I ask, where would be the pleasure of living in this ungodly world, if one were denied the sweet consciousness of contributing to the happiness of the wretched? The cup of our bliss would be drained of its last drop, if in the present state of things, we had not the privilege of supplying the wants of the destitute and relieving the aching heart. Is it not a luxury to hush the sobs of a poor orphan who is returning from his father's grave to a desolated tenement, by saying to him" My son ! I will be a father to you!" Is it not luxury to assuage the overpowering, or half-stifled griefs of that poor woman, whose husband's arm is torn from under her, by saying "trust in God-look to me-you shall never want!" Who that is blest with opulence, will not estimate its value, according to the ability it furnishes him of doing good? For what can any one who is worthy the name of MAN be more grateful to Heaven, than for the privilege of being a Benefactor to his suffering fellow-creatures? Take away this privilegelife becomes a burden-wealth an idle pageant-honor an empty puff.

No! Man was made for deeds of benevolence. When he scorns those deeds, he debases the dignity of his nature; he abandons the high station assigned him by Deity; he surrenders himself to the dominion of a passion, too ignoble for brutes to indulge. It is that he may retrieve his fallen character, and show himself the disciple of Jesus,

that he is planted in these wide wastes of natural disorder and spiritual death. The All-wise God permits evils to abound, for the purpose of affording to those who would lay hold on eternal life, an opportunity to show their faith, their love, their zeal, in the cause for which Jesus bled ; and thereby to gain evidence of their Union to Him, and meetness for Heaven.

Say not then, that the scope for charity is too large, or its demands too imperious. God requires you to do no more than you are able-he requires you to do all that, constantly. By obedience, you assimilate yourselves to Him-you become fellow labourers with angels and the Lord of angels. "Be not weary in well doing.”

5. Those who prudently and cheerfully distribute their goods to feed the poor, will find their liberality returned into their own bosoms. It is the decree of Heaven, that while all created things are mutable, "the rivers shall return again whence they came." The benefactor of the poor shall not be impoverished, the friend of the friendless shall never want friends in time of need.

What if I cannot answer the question of hard-featured Avarice" how can this thing be?" Shall I doubt the fact? Must I deny what I may be unable to comprehend --or reject whatever I cannot explain ?-far from it.

The fact is supported by analogy. If trees decay, they spring up again. If the sea ebb, it does not forget to flow. If the Sun goeth down, still it riseth. If man dieth, yet he shall live again. And what in the nature of things forbids, or rather what does not justify the expectation,

that the liberal man shall receive again, what he may have

wisely dispersed ?

The fact is supported by reason.

God is good. He

loves those who bear the image of his goodness. Those whom he loves, he will bless; therefore he will bless those who do good, like Him. God requires us to be compassionate and kind; his commands imply a promise of favor to the obedient; whoever is obedient, therefore, will be rewarded. Beside, kindness always begets kindness; the reputation of disinterested generosity creates friends; a man's friends are his shield; they will either interpose themselves between him and disaster, or fly to his succour when he has fallen. On the contrary, the selfish man has none but bribed friends, and when Gold, his god, forsakes him, they forsake him too. His hand is commonly against every man, and every man's hand against him. An object of affection he cannot be, though he may be an object of dread; for while he grinds the faces of the poor, and shuts his ears against the voice of distress, he more resembles the King of terrors, than the Lord of Heaven. But the good man-the man of liberal feeling and charitable deed, meets a welcome wherever he goes, and enjoys that universal confidence, which cannot fail to sustain him in circumstances of trial, and advance his interest when the interposition of kind offices is required.

Point me out the abundance of his

The fact is supported by experience. man that ever felt the poorer for the charities. Point me to the man who has tasted the pleasures of giving freely to the Lord, and to the poor, that is willing to be debarred those pleasures. I need not say, that thousands are now living, who will testify that the