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ACTIVITY is the life of nature.

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planets rolling in their orbits, the earth revolving on her axis; the atmosphere purified by winds, the ocean by tides; the vapours rifing from the ground and returning in freshening fhowers, exhaled from the fea, and poured again by rivers into its, bofom, proclaim the universal law. Turn to animated exiftence. See the air, the land, and the waters in commotion with countless tribes eagerly engaged in attack, in defence, in the conftruction of habitations, in the chafe of prey, in employment fuited to their sphere and conducive to their happiness. Is man born an

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exception to the general rule? While the whole creation toils around him, is he to flumber in fupineness? Man is born to labour. For labour, man while yet innocent was formed. The Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. To that exertion which was ordained to be a fource of unmitigated delight; painful contention and overwhelming fatigue, when man apoftatifed from his God, were fuperadded. In the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread. By toil must thy daily food be purchased. To toil muft thou look as the inftrument of fecurity, of accommodation, of comfort, of improvement. Such was the decree. And are none exempted? Nohe. To Adam, as virtually including the whole human race, of whom he was to be the progenitor, was the mandate iffued. Of bread, as the reprefentative of earthly acquifitions among which it is pre-eminently neceffary, did the mandate fpeak. On every individual labour is enjoined. Through labour is every bleffing to be fought.

In the early ages of the world employments now confined to the lowest claffes were deemed not unbecoming perfons of the most elevated rank. The wearifome

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cares of agriculture, and the humble offices of domeftic life, occupied princes and kings. Thus fpeaks the voice of profane Hiftory: and thus, even on a fubject of comparatively fmall importance, bears teftimony, unfufpicious because incidental, to the veracity and infpiration of the Sacred Records. Of the wealth of the Patriarchs flocks and herds formed a diftinguifhed branch and to the fuperintendence of flocks and herds was their daily folicitude devoted. Abraham, who was very rich in cattle, in filver and in gold; Abraham, whofe household was fo numerous, that he had already produced in arms on a critical occafion three hundred and eighteen of his trained fervants born in his oren boufe; when he beheld three travellers approaching him as he fat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day, difpatched not an attendant with offers of hofpitality, but rån himself to invite them to pause and refresh themselves; and haftening to the herd, with his own hands felected the calf for their entertainment. His grandfon. Jacob is now gone down with his family into Egypt. Jofeph, the ruler of the land under Pharaoh, foreseeing that the king, to whom his brethren are about to be prefented, will

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queftion them concerning the mode of life to which they have been habituated; directs them, for a special reafon fubjoined to the general obligation of veracity, to ftate the truth in its amplest extent, When Pharaoh Jhall call you, and fhall fay; What is your occupation? Ye shall fay; Thy fervants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth beven until now, both we and alfo our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen. 35. Though Pharaoh, when he invited the brethren of his favoured minifter out of Canaan, had fent to them this exprefs mef-, fage; Regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours: though, after their arrival, he said to Joseph, The Land of Egypt is before thee in the best of the land make thy father and brethren, to dwell: the idea that they had hitherto dwelt, or were henceforth to dwell, in idleness, entered not the mind of the king. On their introduction he enquired of them, according to the reasonable expectation of Jofeph; What is your occupation? On their reply; Thy fervants are fhepherds, both ave and aljo our fathers he affigned to them the land of Goshen, as fuited by its fingular fertility for the pafturage of their flocks which they had conducted from Canaan:

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and having thus provided them with the means of continuing their antecedent em ployment, he added, in his conference with Jofeph; If thou knoweft any men of activity among them, make them rulers over my cattle.

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From every individual in his dominions, and from each according to his vocation, Pharaoh looked for ftedfaft and diligent exertion. From every individual among us, as throughout His boundless empire, the fupreme Lord of all demands habitual labour in the daily employment of the ta lents entrusted to our management. In the emblematical language of the parable, the Son of God cries to every one of his profeffed fervants; Occupy till I come. us then, in the first place, contemplate the motives under the guidance of which we are, each of us, to labour: fecondly, fome of the general lines of human labour, with their attendant temptations: and thirdly, the principal benefits immediately resulting from Occupation.

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I. Whatfoever ye do, do all to the glory of God (a). Behold the universal motives of a Chriftian! Health and strength, whether

(a) 1 Cor. x. 31. \

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