you

while-and it can be but a little while-before must leave them. However gay and prosperous you go through life, death will certainly strip you of all, and leave you more truly destitute than the neediest wretch that was ever laid at your gate. Neither land nor money can accompany you to the grave. The hour must come-and while we speak, it is hastening forward-when strength will droop, beauty will fade, and spirits will fail; when physicians will despair, friends will lament, and all will retire; when from the palaces of the city, and the paradises of the country, you must go down to the place where all these things are forgotten, and take up your residence in the solitude of the tomb.-What, then, will riches avail?-Much every way, if they have been bestowed in charity; if the thought of death-that most profitable and salutary of all thoughts, that epitome of true philosophy-shall have excited you, through life, to "consider the poor."

For it is in the Gospel, that we must seek full information on the subject of this most important duty. It is there, and there alone, we are instructed to behold the poor as we ought to behold them; to consider (if I may use such apparently strange expressions) their pre-eminence, their dignity, and those especial privileges with which they are invested under the new economy. The world was redeemed by one who, for that purpose, did not disdain to appear in the form of a poor man; one who, while the foxes had holes, and the birds of "the air had nests, had not where to lay his head." I speak to them that "know the grace of our Lord

"Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for our "sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty,

might be rich.” His appearance in this state has cast a glory round it, and forces us to view it in a new light; so that, although to the bodily eye nothing appears but what is base, mean, and contemptible, yet the interior eye of the understanding, enlightened from above, discovers the person of the Saviour, the images of his poverty, the citizens of his kingdom, the heirs of his promises, the stewards of his blessings. Let it be allowed me, in passing, barely to suggest a hint in favour of the religion which has thus furnished a remedy for the inequality of mankind, and, while its precepts shall be obeyed by the rich, has provided for the welfare and comfort of the poor.

But in what measure, it may be said, are these precepts to be obeyed? How are we to proportion our donations to our fortunes? The number of those who call upon us for assistance is daily increasing; and so are the expenses of life, which render us less able to assist them.

In answer to these questions, it might, perhaps, be asserted, that, were the Christian principle firmly rooted in the heart, they would never be asked. True charity stands not in need of being told how much it should give. It is in its nature free and unbounded, as the air diffused through the spaces around us, or the light which flows in every direction from the centre, for the support and animation of the world. It fulfils the law, or rather, goes beyond all law, and of its own will effects that wherein law itself

VOL. III,

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fails. It not only "works no ill to its neighbour;" it does him all the good in its power, and wishes it could do him more. Thus much might be replied in general. But as this is a part of our subject which comes home to men's business and bosoms; as, through the infirmity and corruption that are in us, the divine principle may at times be upon the decline, and the selfish principle likely to gain the ascendant; it may not be improper to dwell a moment longer upon it, and to lay down a rule or two, the observance of which will greatly conduce towards sustaining the one and repressing the other.

The first rule shall be this: Let every person, at those seasons when he is in the receipt of his income, lay aside a certain proportion, as he is disposed in his heart, for charitable uses; and let it be, ever after, sacred to those uses. A bank of this kind would enable a man to answer bills of considerable value at sight, which otherwise not being able to do, or at least not without great inconvenience, many opportunities of succouring the distressed must needs be lost. The money being once appropriated, he feels not the loss, nor grudges the payment when demanded. Thus he is always giving, and has always something to give.

The second rule, if you please, may be the following: Practise economy, with a view to charity. The same charity, which is desirous of doing the utmost for the benefit of its poor neighbour, is likewise very ingenious in devising the ways and means of doing it.

4

• See Bourdaloue sur l'Aumône, et Bib. Chois. 14. 291.

1

And though, in the present state of society, it be not required, that the opulent should sell their possessions, and divide the produce among the indigent, or that persons of all ranks and conditions should live in the same style; yet, surely, no one can survey the world, as it goes now among us, without being of opinion, that something-and that very far from inconsiderable-something, I say, might be retrenched from the expenses of building, something from those of furniture, something from those of dress, something from those of the table, something from those of diversions and amusements, public and private, for the relief and consolation of the many who have neither a cottage to inhabit, garments to cover them, bread to eat, medicine to heal them, nor any one circumstance in life to lighten their load of misery, or cheer their sorrowful and desponding souls in the day of calamity and affliction. Certainly a man would be no loser, who should sometimes sit down to a less profuse and costly board at home, if, at his going abroad, "when the ear heard him, then it "blessed him; and when the eye saw him, it gave "witness to him; because he delivered the poor that "cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him if the blessing of him that was ready to "perish came upon him, and he caused the widow's "heart to sing for joy."-Beneficence is the most exquisite luxury, and the good man, after all, is the genuine epicure.

Here, then, is a mine opened, which, when worked by economy, under the direction of prudence, will be found inexhaustible, furnishing a constant and ample

revenue for the disbursements of charity, to the profit of multitudes, without oppressing or injuring any one human being. Nay, from that diversion (if it can be called such) under the effects of which the nation now groans through all its powers, the evil might soon be extracted, could a law be positively carried into execution, enacting, that the sums respectively lost and won should be applied to the same blessed purpose. The amusement might continue, and pleasure be employed in the interest of virtue. The supplies thus provided, let us advert to the expenditure.

Of the poor, some are both able and willing to work. When these are forced to beg because no one will hire them to dig, their lot is truly pitiable. The most excellent method of showing charity to such is by finding them employment, which at once relieves their wants, and preserves them from temptation. Every scheme that policy can devise should be put in practice at this time, when so many thousands that have been engaged, at the hazard of their lives, in our defence and protection, by sea and land, must otherwise be reduced to starve, to steal, or to emigrate. Individuals blessed with affluence, have a noble opportunity of adorning their estates, while, with this farther end in view, as citizens they most effectually serve their country, and as Christians they shall by no means lose their reward. The community should strain every nerve in the cause. Days of peace should be days of improvement. Designs of public utility should be forthwith entered upon. Returning and increasing commerce