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In this fituation did our bleffed Lord find the inferior clafs of mankind when he entered upon his miniftry. He found them without guide, instructor, counsellor, or friend. He faw them (to ufe the affecting language of Scripture) "fainting and fcattered abroad as

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fheep having no fhepherd, and he had com"paffion upon them *." He took them inftantly under his protection, he shared with them the miferies of their condition. He affumed the form of a fervant, fubmitted to all the hardships of that fituation, and frequently "had not even where to lay his head." Although he did not reject the wealthy and the great, but, on the contrary, received them with the utmost kindnefs, whenever they shewed any marks of a right and teachable difpofition, yet not many noble, not many mighty, were "at firft called +." It was from among fishermen and mechanics that he chofe his companions and apoftles. It was to the poor he chiefly addreffed his difcourfes. With these he principally. lived and conversed; and to their understandings was the greater part of his parables, his allufions, his reafonings, his

* Matth. ix. 36.

+1 Cor. i. 26.

precepts,

precepts, and his exhortations, moft kindly accommodated.

Thus did our heavenly Inftructor most ex-. actly fulfil the predictions of the prophets and his own declarations, that he would evangelize to the poor. The confequence was what might naturally be expected from a measure, as full of wisdom as it was of humanity, although totally oppofite to the ufual practice of moral teachers. In a short space of time that Gofpel, which was at first preached more particularly to the p poor, was embraced also by the rich; and became, in a few centuries, the established Religion of the most powerful and extensive empire in the world, as it now is of all the most civilized and most enlightened kingdoms of the earth. Whereas the renowned fages of antiquity, by purfuing a contrary course, by making it their only object to please, amufe, and inform the learned and the great, were never able, with all their wifdom and eloquence, to enlighten or reform a fingle province, or even a fingle city of any note or magnitude *

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Hence it is obvious to remark, how very unfortunately thofe writers againft Chriftianity have employed their time and

labour,

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We have here, then, the utmost encouragement to tread in the fteps of our divine Lawgiver, and to imitate, as far as we are able, that method of propagating his Religion which he adopted, and which was attended with fuch fignal fuccefs. Although it is undoubt edly our duty" to preach the Gospel to every "creature" to prefs it on all ranks of people, high and low, rich and poor; yet the example of our Lord plainly calls upon us to fhow a peculiar attention to thofe whom Providence has placed in the humbler conditions of life. The reafons for this are obvious: they are the fame which probably influenced our Saviour's conduct in this refpect, and they still labour, who have taken fo much pains to prove, that among the first converts to that Religion, there were but few in proportion of any confiderable rank or fortune. This is a charge which the first preachers of the Gofpel were fo far from widing to dený or diffemble, that they openly avowed and gloried in it f. Their fucceffors have as little reafon to be afraid, or afhamed. of acknowledging the fact as they had. They juftly confider it as one proof, among many others, of that divine wisdom which fuperintended and conducted the progrefs of Chriftianity, in a way fo different from what worldly wisdom would have dictated; beginning with the cottage and ending with the imperial throne. Falfe religion has generally reverfed this order, and has fucceeded accordingly.

Mark xvi. 15.

+ Cor. i. 26.

fubfift

fubfift in their full force. The poor have in general much fewer opportunities of learning their duty themselves than the wealthy and the great their education feldom qualifies them, and their constant cares and labours leave them but little leisure, for acquir ing fufficient religious knowledge without af fiftance. Their fpiritual as well as temporal neceffities are but too often overlooked, and difregarded by their fuperiors, and yet they form by far the largest and most necessary part of the community. Add to all this, that they are commonly much freer from prejudice, much lefs wedded to fyftems and opinions,: more open to conviction, more anxious to obtain information, and more ready to embrace truth, than the higher ranks of men. Thefe circumstances evidently point them out as objects highly worthy of our utmost care and diligence, in furnishing their minds with those facred truths, thofe rules of moral and religious conduct, which are neceffary to render them "wife unto falvation."

With this view it was, that The Society for promoting Chriftian Knowledge was first inftituted. It breathes the true spirit of Christi

anity, and follows, at a humble distance, the example of its divine Author, by diffusing the light of the Gospel more especially among the POOR. This is its peculiar province and employment; and there are two ways in which it carries this benevolent purpose into exe

cution.

The firft is, by encouraging the erection of charity-schools in every part of the kingdom, and by fupplying them afterwards with proper religious inftructions, and wholefome rules for their direction and good government. The fruit of these its pious labours and exhortations in this city and its neighbourhood, you have now before your eyes. You here fee near five thousand children collected together from the charity-fchools in and about London. and Westminster. A fpectacle this, which is not, perhaps, to be paralleled in any other country in the world; which it is impoffible for any man of the leaft fenfibility to contem plate without emotions of tenderness and delight; which we may venture to say, that even our Lord himself (who always fhewed a remarkable affection for children) would have looked on with complacency; and which

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