Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Jesus wept. "ADAM SMITH's theory of moral sentiment," should be patiently studied by every philosopher, parent and christian. Not that he can explain by his system every moral phenomenon ; but we are indebted to him for a most ingenious exhibition of the facts pertaining to our moral perceptions. He is master of the moving springs of thought and feeling. The variety and felicity of his illustrations, the richness and fluency of his eloquence and the practical tendency of his disquisitions, give to his book the attractiveness of a novel. He considers sympathy the great basis of our moral sentiments.— Sympathy is that principle of our nature, which leads us to enter into the feelings, affections and motives of other men. The sentiment of approbation is thus explained. Sympathy is that analogous feeling, which arises from an imaginary application to ourselves of the circumstances of him with whom we sympathize. When the spectator thus places himself in the situation of the agent, he finds he can or cannot go along with him in the affections and motives by which he is actuated. If he can, he approves; if he cannot, he disapproves. This brief explanation is introduced for the practical good which may be deduced from the system. The general sympathies of our nature will be allowed by all, to hold a most powerful influence over our moral perceptions and feelings. It is useful "to see ourselves as others see us. Though the virtues of prudence, justice and beneficence, may, upon different occasions, be recommended to us almost equally by two different principles; those of self-command are, upon most occasions, principally and almost entirely recommended by one; by the sense of propriety, by regard to the sentiments of the supposed impartial spectator. Without the restraint which this principle imposes, every passion, would, upon every emergency, rush headlong, if I may say so, to its own gratification. Anger would follow the suggestions of its own fury; fear those of its own violent agitations. Regard to the sentiments of the impartial spectator, overawes mutinous and turbulent passions into the tone of submission. Resentment is termed a natural principle. It must be regulated most cautiously. If we always recollected in our defences of ourselves, that we should be supported and approved by others, only so far as they could go along and sympathize with us, it would often moderate our resentment and render us just, as well as discriminating. So in general intercourse; if we keep in mind, that we shall be acceptable only so far as an attentive spectator can coincide with our feelings and actions, we shall be led to do unto others as we ought to wish others to do unto us. Let us feel, that in the noble efforts of charity, and the generous sacrifices of affection, every philanthropic bosom will pronounce, "well done." When we are truly useful, all the wise go along with us. We are fellow Jabourers with God. In sympathy's attractive chain, Their ev'ry pleasure, ev'ry pain REPAIRING TO CHRISTIAN TRUTH. JANUARY 7. 15 When the poor and the needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst; I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. LET all classes of the unhappy repair to Christian truth, and draw with joy out of its wells of salvation! Come, ye votaries of ambition, who burn for the applause of your fellow men-the voice of the Son of God to you is, If any serve me, him will my Father honour. Come, ye avaricious, who pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor-the voice of religion is, Wisdom is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her— but what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Come, ye, who, being convinced of sin, fear lest the fierce anger of the Lord fall upon you. The voice of the Son of God is, Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. I, even I, saith Jehovah, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Come, ye disconsolate, whose souls are sad, because the Comforter is away-the voice of religion is, The Lord hath sent me to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Come, ye tempted, who are borne down with the violence of the law in your members-the voice of God is, I will be merciful to your unrighteousnesses; and if the wicked turn from his evil way he shall surely live. Come, ye children of domestic woe, upon whom the Lord has made a breach, by taking away your counsellors and support-the voice of God is, Leave thy fatherless children with me; I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. Come, ye, from whom mysterious providence has swept away the acquisitions of long and reputable industry-the voice of God is, My son, if thou wilt receive my words, thou shalt have a treasure in the heavens that faileth not; and mayest take joyfully the spoiling of thy goods, knowing that thou hast in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Come, ye poor, who without property to lose, are grappling with distress and exposed to want-the Son of God, though the heir of all things, had not where to lay his head; and the voice of religion to the poor is, Be content with such things as ye have for I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure. Come, ye reproached, who find cruel mockings a most bitter persecution-the voice of the Son of God is, If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of God and of glory resteth upon you. Come, in fine, ye dejected, whom the fear of death holds in bondage-the voice of the Son of God is, I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues! O grave, I will be thy destruction !-Blessed God! thy loving kindness shall be my joy in the house of my pilgrimage! and I will praise thee while I have any being, for that gospel which thou hast given to the poor ! Come said Jesus' sacred voice, Come and make my paths your choice: I will guide you to your home; Weary pilgrim! hither come. 16 IMPARTING CHRISTIANITY TO THE HEATHEN. JANUARY 8. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel. TRUE religion has its foundation in the character of God. How should the soul be touched by their condition who are alienated from all the sacred privileges by which we are embraced. Will God give them a new religion? No-for christianity is fitted for all human beings. Will he miraculously promulgate his truth again? No.From whom, then, are the heathen to receive God's revelation ? From us. Go preach the gospel to every creature. Is not the blind idolator a man of the same nature with ourselves? He feels the ties of kindred and the sensibilities of affection; and it is only by unnatural perversion that he at last yields to selfishness, treachery and bondage. He languishes in pain, sighs in penury, and toils in servitude-injuries awaken his quick resentment and kindness softens his obduracy-he is a relentless enemy and he is a generous friend. He feels the sting of sin, the warnings of conscience, the fear of death and the dread of punishment. Yet he lives without God,without Christ, and without christian hope! I compare his situation with mine and I feel he has claims upon me.-Look over those wild and unreclaimed regions of moral desolation, how sad, how appalling the view! What ruin do we witness in the noblest work of God! What waste of intellect, what perversion of energy, what pitiable depravation of affection, what unrelenting tyranny of errour! Like the despotic elements of nature broke loose from their office of ministering to the health and solace of mankind, the moral energies of man seem there to emulate the operations of the earthquake and the whirlwind. Yet they are men of like passions, affections and sympathies with ourselves. What have we attained, that they might not have surpassed, had they shared our means? To what depth of degradation have they fallen, that might not have been our condition, had we, like them, been aliens from a true theology? They might have been our benefactors, had God willed it and more faithful to the claims of brotherhood than we have been, might have sent us their apostles, their ministers of reconciliation, their ambassadors of peace. Under the starless sky of their unbroken night, lie buried the elements of all that is great and exalted in our common nature--the materials whence the divine Illuminator can elicit sparks of heavenly fire--the instruments he can harmonize to the touch of heavenly love --the souls he can form for a blessed immortality. Have they not, through their long series of thickly peopled and quickly passing generations, fallen where they rose ?-like those majestic, but unprofitable forests, which nature, prodigal of strength and wasteful of beauty, scatters over the mountains of her untracked continents, their gloomy shade unpenetrated by the luminary of day that gladdens happier vales! The unblest existence of one falling race, has closed, as often as another was ready to replace it. Is the God of nature thus vigilant, and the God of grace neglectful of his creatures? Does he not appeal to us? Having prepared the ample blessing of the gospel, he committed it, not to angels, but to men. God grant, that his spirit may move on the face of these waters, and rays of glory return to us from the regions of darkness and the shadow of death. With none his name and power will he divide, For HE is GOD, and there is none beside. He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down and without walls. APPETITE, as given us by nature, is no more than a pleasant or irksome feeling, according as it is more or less intense: it does not properly become desire till we have learned what will satisfy it.— Little children when uneasy, through hunger or sleepiness, do not know what is the matter with them and are so far from being led by appetite to the gratification of it, that they fight against their victuals, and other methods of relief when offered them. er. Every desire is not a passion; otherwise we should never be tranquil for a moment, for we are always desiring something or othBut when the end we aim at does not follow upon our first endeavours, the mind redoubles her efforts to attain it, in hopes that a stronger exertion may succeed where a weaker did not. After having practised frequent exertions of this sort, the spirits get a habit of rising in a ferment at the least difficulty, which will let no other idea intrude but that of the desired object; and then desire takes the form of a passion. Violence constitutes the essence of passion; the same emotions of soul in a gentler degree are called affections. Passion may be styled the fever of the mind, which disturbs and weakens, and cannot continue long or return often, without pernicious consequences: but affection, like the steady beating of the pulse, actuates and invigorates, and keeps the mind continually alive. Our affections multiply our enjoyments beyond mere sense and appetite, and are the incentives to most of our actions, for were we totally unconcerned and unaffected by any thing, we should lie like logs of wood without sense or motion. Passions are a stronger sort of habits acquired early in childhood: habits are feebler passions learned later, when the organs, being grown tough, are less susceptible of new forms, but having once taken them are less easily thrown out of them again. Passion works by vehemence and impetuosity, bearing down all opposition; and can only be mastered by strong resolution, and that not without difficulty. But habit prevails by perseverance and importunity; it steals upon you imperceptibly, or teazes you into compliance; it is easily restrained at any time with a little attention, but the moment you relax in your vigilance, it returns back again, and is extremely difficult to be wholly eradicated. Passion grows feeble with age, but habit gathers strength. Old people are the hardest of all others to be put out of their way; and in the few desires they have remaining, shew a great deal of stubbornness, but very little of the eagerness of passion. And when they are devoted to any object, it is not so much from the strength of their attachment to it, as from the feebleness of their other desires leaving it without any competitor. Let these remarks teach this great lesson-that every passion, affection and power, should occupy the exact place in the character, which God ordained in the constitution. Search, gracious God, my inmost heart, 18 PROPRIETY IN MANNERS. JANUARY 10. Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom.-Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. THE objects with which men in the different professions and states of life are conversant, being very different, and habituating them to very different passions, naturally form in them very different characters and manners. We expect in each rank and profession, a degree of those manners, which, experience has taught us, belong to it. But as in each species of things, we are particularly pleased with the middle conformation, which in every part and feature, agrees most exactly with the general standard which nature seems to have established for things of that kind; so in each rank, or, if I may say so, in each species of men, we are particularly pleased, if they have neither too much, nor too little of the character which usually accompanies their particular condition and situation. A man, we say, should look like his trade and profession; yet the pedantry of every profession is disagreeable. The different periods of life have, for the same reason, different manners assigned to them. We expect in old age, that gravity and sedateness which its infirmities, its long experience, and its worn out sensibility seem to render both natural and respectable; and we lay our account to find in youth that sensibility, that gaiety and sprightly vivacity, which experience teaches us to expect from the lively impressions that all interesting objects are apt to make upon the tender and unpractised senses of that early period of life. Each of those two ages, however, may easily have too much of these peculiarities which belong to it. The flirting levity of youth, and the immoveable insensibility of old age, are equally disagreeable. The young, according to the common saying, are most agreeable when in their behaviour there is something of the manners of the old ; and the old, when they retain something of the gaiety of the young. Either of them, however, may easily have too much of the manners of the other. The extreme coldness and dull formality which are pardoned in old age, make youth ridiculous. The levity, the carelessness, and the vanity, which are indulged in youth, render old age contemptible. The propriety of a person's behaviour, depends not upon its suitableness to any one circumstance of his situation, but to all the circumstances, which, when we bring his case home to ourselves, we feel, should naturally call upon his attention. If he appears to be so much occupied by any one of them, as entirely to neglect the rest, we disapprove of his conduct, as something which we cannot entirely go along with, because not properly adjusted to all the circumstances of his situation: yet, perhaps, the emotion he expresses for the object which principally interests him, does not exceed what we should entirely sympathize with, and approve of, in one whose attention was not required by any other thing. Let us learn, that moderation is the law of enjoyment; and justice is the rule of action. Let heaven-eyed prudence be my guide, And when I go astray, Call me, O God! from folly's path, To wisdom's better way. |