of Liberality, and to Projects of Public Utility.

to please Him, we cherish a spirit of goodness towards each other, and do every thing in our power for our common and mutual benefit.

Hence, my brethren, you directly infer that, to assist any project of public utility; to join in any measures for the interests of religion or virtue, for the alleviation of human suffering, or the extension of human happiness; with a desire to please God; is an act of righteous

ness.

Now there are many modes, many objects, and many sources of beneficence both to the public and to individuals; but the good intention of the benefactor is often disappointed.

We may distribute liberally, and our gifts may only beget or encourage idleness, or improvidence, in those who receive them, and nourish in them a disposition hostile to their eternal welfare. We may bestow much pains and trouble, to extricate another from difficulty or error; and the result of our labours may be the hardening and blinding of the sinner, whom we endeavoured to enlighten, reform, and save. We may contribute largely to the support of public institutions, for the relief

U

The doing of Righteousness in reference to the Practice

relief of the unfortunate, the deserving, and the destitute; but through the mismanagement, or abuse of the institutions, the benefits of our liberality may fall to those, who are neither so unfortunate, nor deserving, nor destitute, as to be the proper objects of it. We may educate the poor with the best intention, to make them pious Christians, and useful members of society; but if we do not mark, with necessary vigilance, the tendency and character of their expanding minds; or if we neglect duly to impress them with the principles and doctrines of true religion, as they are forwarded in useful learning; they may abuse the education given them to the prosecution of evil purposes; and instead of forming them honest men, good subjects, and faithful followers of their heavenly Lord, it may only give them dexterity in wickedness, enabling them the more effectually and securely to disturb the peace, or prey upon the prosperity of the community, which it should have taught them to serve and defend.

To abuses like these most of the projects, which we can form for the comfort and relief

of

of Liberality, and to Projects of Public Utility.

of our necessitous brethren, are liable. So prevalent, indeed, are these abuses; that the considerate mind, anxious for the eternal happiness, as well as the present comforts of man, sometimes hesitates in opening the hand of charity. For liberality, if it be profuse and indiscriminate, is certainly an evil. Even when it is prescribed and limited, by our best discernment and judgement; the extent of its benefit to society, and to the majority of the individuals who become the objects of it, is a problem, which human sagacity can never solve. Nevertheless, to him, who bestows the charity, bestowing it in humility and sincerity, with a heart of love towards God and his fellow-creatures, it is indeed a blessing. Most true it is, that to give is more blessed than to receive. We may give to the needy, who do not deserve, although they want our bounty. They may be ungrateful, and misapply the gift. But, according to what I have already shewn, the mind of the giver desirous to obey his Heavenly Father in administering to the necessities, and alleviating the sufferings, of a . brother, will be recorded in the book of Heaven, U 2.

to

t

The doing of Righteousness in reference to the Practice

to be produced among the evidence for his justification at the great assize of the world. The Christian, who loves his God and his Saviour, cannot see his brother in need, and shut up his bowels of compassion from him; cannot behold him in hunger or affliction, and withhold from him the good, which it is in the power of his hand to bestow.

Liberality, then, as a part only of charity, is a duty which the true Christian cannot neglect. It is a righteousness, without which faith is made vain; which he, who doeth not, is not of God. And, there are some modes of doing good to one another, and of promoting a reciprocal, common, and very estimable benefit, which may be almost excepted from a liability to abuse. Of this description are the objects of the association assembled here today to worship their God and Saviour, and hear the instruction of religion.

The society, which I am now addressing, is so constituted that the relief, which it affords, .can in no case be superfluous; nor can it be obtained by those, who do not need it. The

funds,

of Liberality, and to Projects of Public Utility.

funds, from which it is drawn, have accumulated chiefly by equal, but scanty, contributions from the earnings of the honest industry of its members. All the aids to these funds from the casual benevolence of its friends can scarcely swell them to an useless amount, or make them greater than may be necessary, for the purposes to which they are appropriated. These purposes are to make some provision for the contingencies of sickness, infirmity, or misfortune. None, but the honest, sober, and industrious, can partake of its benefits. Those only, whose characters can bear inspection, can be admitted its members. The advantages. proposed are so moderate, that they cannot afford the means, nor prove a temptation, to any of its members actuated by the moral principle which your rules indicate, to be otherwise than temperate in all things. They afford no facilities or indulgences particularly tending to attach the heart to this world, or take away the attention from preparation for another. The assistance, they are calculated to afford, can be nothing more than a desirable and necessary alleviation of the unavoidable