ness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. I have thus endeavoured to lay before you the uses and abuses of this day; and, having stated the great mercy of God's interference, and the blessings this country has secured to itself in resisting the errors and follies, and superstitions of the Catholic Church, I have endeavoured that this just sense of our own superiority should not militate against the sacred principles of Christian charity. That charity which I ask of others, I ask also for myself. I am sure I am preaching before those who will think (whether they agree with me or not) that I have spoken conscientiously, and from good motives, and from honest feelings, on a very difficult subject, not sought for by me, but devolving upon me in the course of duty;-in which I should have been heartily ashamed of myself (as you would have been ashamed of me), if I had thought only how to flatter and please, or thought of any thing but what I hope I always do think of in the pulpit,—that I am placed here by God to tell truth, and to do good. I shall conclude my sermon, (extended, I am afraid, already to an unreasonable length,) by reciting to you a very short and beautiful apologue, taken from the Rabbinical writers. It is, I believe, quoted by Bishop Taylor in his "Holy Living and Dying." I have not now access to that book, but I quote it to you from memory, and should be made truly happy if you would quote it to others from memory also. "As Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent, there came unto him a wayfaring man; and Abraham gave him water for his feet, and set bread before him. And Abraham said unto him, 'Let us now worship the Lord our God before we eat of this bread.' And the wayfaring man said unto Abraham, 'I will not worship the Lord thy God, for thy God is not my God; but I will worship my God, even the God of my fathers. But Abraham was exceeding wroth; and he rose up to put the wayfaring man forth from the door of his tent. And the voice of the Lord was heard in the tent, Abraham! Abraham! have I borne with this man for three score and ten years, and canst not thou bear with him for one hour? "* *This beautiful Apologue is introduced by Bishop Taylor in the second edition of his Liberty of Prophesying. (See Bishop Heber's Life of Bishop Taylor, vol. viii. p. 232.) Bishop Taylor says, "I end with a story which I find in the Jews' Books." [The story is almost word for word a translation from the Persian poet, Saadi, in his poem of the Büstan; translated into Latin by George Gentius, a Jew, and published by him at Amsterdam in 1651. Taylor's first edition of the Liberty of Prophesying was previous to that date; his second edition was soon after it.] Bishop Taylor adds, "Upon this (saith the story) Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction." "Go thou," says Bishop Taylor, " and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham!" The original of Saadi ends with the reprimand of the Almighty. Gentius has added the subsequent sentence. The Persian poet, Saadi, was born at Shiraz, A. H. 571 (a. D. 1193). He died at Shiraz, A. H. 691 (A. D. 1313), aged 120 years. |