will suggest many. The encouragement of manufactures, the establishment of new fisheries in different parts of the kingdom, the cultivation of waste lands, of which (strange to tell!) there are thousands of acres lying within a few miles of the metropolis— these are the objects which rival statesmen should unite to prosecute. Let us hope we shall live to see the day when they will do so. "In the multitude of "the people is the strength of the king." Provide employment, and you will never want people, nor will those people want food. Hands will flock where there is work to be done; and between working and eating the connexion is indissoluble".

In the second class of the poor may be ranked those who are able to work, but not willing. These compose a band very formidable to society. To maintain them in idleness, is to render them every day more so. They must be inured to labour by wholesome discipline. You cannot show them a greater kindness. Thus, and thus only, can their ferocity be tamed, and their passions subdued; good principles may in time take the place of bad ones, and habits of industry by degrees be formed and matured. To effect this end by these means is the design (and a most admirable design it is) of one part of those many charitable institutions, for which this great and flourishing city is so deservedly famous throughout the world, and for which I have the ho nour this day to appear as an unworthy advocate. Another part of them is calculated to diminish,

See M'Farlan, p. 416.

as much as may be, the numbers of this class of poor; it goes directly to the root of the disorder, and endeavours that the good principles and habits abovementioned may from the very beginning be implanted in the young and tender mind, by a virtuous and well conducted education, thus sowing the seeds of felicity for future ages.

In the most ample and munificent manner is provision made by others of them for a third class of poor, such, I mean, as are willing to work but not able; for, of whatever nature the disability may be, or from whatever cause it may have proceeded, whether from casual hurt, from the languor of disease, or from a distempered mind, immediate help is at hand. All the pressing miseries incident to man have here their peculiar houses of reception and relief, where the most consummate skill, medical and chirurgical, that can be obtained by him who is the possessor of millions, is readily and cheerfully exerted for the ease and recovery of the poor-institutions these, unknown, unthought of, in the polished ages of Greece and Rome-peculiar to the days of the Gospel-the boast of Christianity (were it capable of boasting), the ornament and glory of this great emporium!-How effectual they have proved in answering the several ends proposed, the Report, now to be recited, will best inform you.

Here the REPORT was read.

The case itself speaks so forcibly to your feelings, and

* M'Farlan, 299.

calls so loudly for your kind assistance, that it renders needless any long exhortation from the preacher. The expenses annually incurred by the several hospitals you find to exceed their certain revenues; and therefore they must depend, for support, on the farther donations of the benevolent. Suffer not the blaze of charity, which now burns with so much heat and splendour, to die away for want of lasting fuel. You have heard how useful these establishments have proved; be it your endeavour to make them permanent. Whatever can be spared (and with proper management much by every one may be spared), let it be lodged as a treasure-a treasure to yourselves, as well as to them-in these public repositories-It is lodged in good hands, and will be employed, to the uttermost farthing, as your hearts can desire. Did I plead only for one of them, attention would be due; let me not lift up my voice in vain when I lift it up for them all. "Among those actions," says the great moralist of the agethose actions which the mind can most seamong curely review with unabated pleasure, is that of having contributed to an hospital for the sick.”— But we have a more sure word, a word which cannot fail, which shall stand fast for ever-a word of promise, that he who has been the means of giving comfort to the sick, besides being blessed with prosperity in the days of health, shall, when himself in sickness, be comforted with comfort from above. "Blessed is "he that considereth the poor: the Lord will de"liver him in time of trouble. The Lord will pre"serve him and keep him alive, and he shall be

66

66

"blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver "him into the will of his enemies. The Lord will "strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou "wilt make all his bed in his sickness."-The same gracious hand will conduct him, in perfect safety, through the valley of the shadow of death, to that holy and heavenly hill, where he shall be hailed by the thousands he has relieved, and see the face of that Redeemer, for whose sake he has relieved them.

89

DISCOURSE VII.

CHARITY TO THE BRETHREN OF CHRIST.

MATTHEW, XX v. 40.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

YET once again, by the favour of the Almighty, we have lived to see the return of this holy season; again we are assembled in the house of God, to turn our thoughts toward the second advent of our Lord. The church by her services on this day directs us to do so; and we will obey her. In the portion of Scripture selected for the Gospel, his appearance and the forerunners of it are marked out for our contemplation; signs above, and terrors beneath; the earth distressed and perplexed, the powers of heaven shaken, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming-the trumpet sounds through all the regions of the grave, Arise, ye dead, and come to judge"ment;" the everlasting doors are unfolded; the King of glory, triumphant Messiah, Lord of men and angels, appears in the resplendent robes of celestial majesty: the armies of heaven follow him in