III. Do what we will, however, and all we can, much poverty, in the present constitution of society, must remain, and much, which is not the result of vice, profligacy, idleness, and improvidence, but of circumstances which no human sagacity nor power can foresee, or control, or remove. Remember it is your duty to do all you can to alleviate its sufferings, by personal attentions, by bestowment of money, by your ready sympathy, and by every kindness you are able to exercise. Withhold not good from him to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hands to do it. You are but the almoners and stewards of the divine bounty. Be it your great desire to render a permanent benefit to your fellow men; but consider no service, which you can render, a small matter, and therefore to be disdained. Seize with eagerness every opportunity of doing good, and be thankful to God, when by so easy a charity as that of dispensing from your abundance, you can brighten even for an hour the dark chamber of poverty, or soften the couch of sickness and death, or dry up the orphan's tears, or make the widow's heart to sing for joy.

In all these duties, you have the highest motives to exertion, which can be addressed to reflecting and benevolent minds. Motives of interest press upon you. In seeking to remove the great causes of pauperism by promoting the virtue of the poor, you are directly ministering to the protection of your own property, the security of your own domestic peace, and the defence of your children's virtue. The poor are the inmates of your dwellings, the guardians of your property, the companions of your children, having in many cases a far greater influence over their characters than it is possible even for you to exert. How impor

tant is it then, that you should seek to elevate their character and condition and to render what they should be those to whom such a sacred trust is committed.

Motives of justice press upon you. The labors of the poor are the foundation of your prosperity. They plough your fields; they navigate your ships; they minister to your pleasures; they serve your wants. You are as dependent upon the poor, as the poor upon you. It is but a fair measure of justice that they should share in the prosperity and abundance of which they themselves have been the source and occasion; and the poor laborer, who has toiled for you, and the sailor, who has encountered the perils of the sea and all the dangers of foreign climes for your advantage, should never be forgotten in the enjoyment of your pleasures and the distribution of your bounty.

Benevolence and religion urge innumerable motives upon you to remember the poor. Beneficence is one of the first of duties, as it is one of the highest privileges of your nature. The true enjoyment of wealth is found only in the beneficent use of it. Follow the great law of your religion and do to others as you would have others do to you. The caprices of fortune are most extraordinary. Its reverses may visit you. No skill nor care nor vigilance nor art can secure the uninterrupted possession of wealth or enable you to transmit it with any certainty to those who come after you. You or yours may require such aid as others now demand of The value of wealth is never certain, but as you you. make it certain by making it immediately useful. You yourself are a pensioner upon the divine bounty. You live upon God's goodness and unmerited kindness. Thank him continually that he has made you capable of beneficence; and, in your humble measure, copy his

infinite and unwearied bounty, which is poured out in unrestricted measure upon the evil and the unthankful, upon the just and the unjust. The most privileged of all duties is the duty of doing good; the best of all powers, the power of conferring happiness; the sweetest sentiment, which can possess the soul, the consciousness of having made others happy; and the highest and noblest purpose to which our talents can be applied and our lives devoted, that of relieving the sufferings, securing the virtue, and advancing the happiness and improvement of our fellow-men.

17*

SERMON XV.

PARENTAL SOLICITUDE.

MATTHEW xx. 21, 22.

THEN CAME TO HIM THE MOTHER OF ZEBEDEE'S CHILDREN WITH HER SONS, WORSHIPPING HIM, AND DESIRING A CERTAIN THING

OF HIM. AND HE SAID UNTO HER, WHAT WILT THOU? SHE SAITH UNTO HIM, GRANT THAT THESE MY TWO SONS MAY SIT, THE ONE ON THÝ RIGHT HAND, AND THE OTHER ON THE LEFT, IN THY KINGDOM.

We have here, an example of strong parental solicitude; in this case, an imprudent and misguided solicitude; directed to attainments which were not desirable, and the possession of which would have contributed nothing to the virtue or happiness of their possessors ; but must have endangered the former and perhaps proved the bane of the latter. This incident may afford an instructive lesson. Parental solicitude is one of the strongest sentiments of which the human heart is capable. Fully to understand its power you must be yourself a parent. We see it constantly displaying itself in the arduous but willing labors, in the painful yet cheer