should be yet less inclined to insist upon them, if we considered that the best fruits of our labour and our love are to be seen in the conduct and the well-being of those to whom we give; for to a contemplative mind, to a feeling heart, what recompence, I would ask, can be afforded more glorious than this? I mean, that all the virtues which the objects of our kindness are able to practise, all the misery which they avoid, all the comforts which they enjoy, are to be ascribed to our anxious concern for their good morals and for their welfare. He that can survey such a prospect with coldness or with disgust, because his vanity is not gratified by obsequious or ostentatious acknowledgments of favours received, may with reason suspect the rectitude of his own motives. He understands not the dignity of true benevolence, or the genuine purity of Christian charity; and to a character so abject, and so contemptible, it were mockery, I confess, to apply the words of my text, that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

The merit of human actions depends after all upon the intention of the agent, and if we are still obdurate enough to make the presumed unthankfulness of others a plea for our own determined unkindness, the futility of such a plea is to be exposed not by subtle and circuitous reasonings, but by splendid and prominent examples. We read then of a heathen philosopher, who, being tasked and taunted for relieving an unworthy object, blunted the edge of the reproach by this memorable answer, "I gave my kindness not to the man but to humanity itself." We read what is yet more instructive to us in sacred

history, that the blessed Redeemer of the world went about doing good, not less to those who persecuted than to those who believed on him. We are taught by Revelation, and we know too by experience that, through the bounty of our common father, the rains descend and the sun shines upon the unjust as well as the just. Mistake me not, I am far from wishing to encroach upon the right you have to the regard of those whom you may have succoured in their distress. I consider the thaukfulness of him who receives, as a part of the recompence assigned to him who gives. But it constitutes not the greater or the better part; and in the moment when you follow the emotions of benevolence, the expectation of gratitude seldom prompts any particular act, however it may have strengthened the general habit by previous reflection. The sight of misery, which it is in your power to relieve, begets instantaneously and instinctively an inclination to relieve it. The indulgence of that inclination is accompanied by a delightful approbation of the moral sense, and if the affection you bear to your fellow-creatures is invigorated by a consciousness of the duty which you. owe to your Creator, the action itself assumes a higher importance, and the performance of it is productive of a more sublime and rapturous pleasure. You then feel it as a splendid distinction of your moral agency, that it enables you to co-operate with an all-wise and gracious Deity in communicating felicity to these best and fairest works of his hands to those whom he has made in his own image-to dependant beings who in common with yourselvesare the objects of his provi dential care

to redeemed creatures whom he has destined for immortal life. In this just and comprehensive view of things, the importance of benevolent acts will not appear inconsiderable, though bestowed upon the humblest of your species. And when you reflect that Jesus Christ has distinguished by peculiar marks of affection the innocent and young, or that your heavenly Father has graciously described himself under the character of a friend to the poor and the needy, you will exult surely in the consciousness of imitating such examples-you will scarcely wait for the impulses of a command to be charitable-you will love and practise charity, as being in itself a source of the purest and most exquisite enjoyment.

I shall now in the last place point out the importance of charity when employed in the cause of education, and especially for the benefit of such persons as are admitted into your school. Many are the complaints which are now circulated concerning the sloth and the profligacy of the poor. I have myself bestowed no small share of attention upon the grounds, and let me not forget to say upon the motives, of these complaints. The fact I admit and deplore, but in ascertaining the cause much is to be laid to the account of example in the higher ranks of the community; for it is always an easier task to reprove others than to amend ourselves. Something is also to be charged upon our insensibility, or at least our indifference; for our arms are strengthened by the authority of law, and we think it a speedier and less irksome expedient to crush the criminal, than to employ our time

and our money in the prevention of crimes. It was the institution of a very humane and enlightened people that a father, who had neglected to bring up his child to any honest employment, should not be permitted to receive from that child any offices of filial duty, when he was himself overtaken by the pains and infirmities of old age. Let us apply the principles of this institution to ourselves. The effects of industry, sobriety, and good order in the lower ranks ascend to the higher, and procure for us many of those external advantages, the alleged insecurity of which gives rise to our accusations against the poor. But what right have we to partake of those good effects, if we have not employed the means which Providence has given us for cherishing their growth? What reason have we to expect that the unlettered part of the community should control the natural turbulence of their passions-should submit to the hard circumstances of their lot-should practise all the salutary, and in them, let me say, the arduous virtues of patience, of temperance, and diligence, unless we teach them the importance of what they are to practiseunless we qualify them to become good citizens by instruction and exhortation-unless we encourage them to be so by protection and praise? Instead, therefore, of multiplying the clamours of reproach, which are already loud enough, or the restraints of punishment, which by wise and good men have long been suspected of being too indiscriminate and too severe, we should be better employed in making the experiment at least, of a virtuous education; and though the effect should not be correspondent to our

sanguine and generous wishes, it will be sufficient to warrant our well meant and well-directed endeavours; it will shorten the catalogue of human crimes and human woes; it will lead many of our poor Christian brethren into habits of sobriety and decency, and obedience to the laws; it will enable some to pass through life with a tolerable share of comfort; it will rescue others from the dreadful extremities of inveterate incorrigible wickedness, and of helpless hopeless ruin.

Here indeed appears the peculiar excellence of the charity you patronize, because it tends to prevent many of the flagrant vices, and many of the severe afflictions to which the inferior orders of society lie open. But I will not pursue this subject at length, especially, as my sincere and serious thoughts upon it have already been twice submitted to the judgment of a discerning, and I have reason to add, an attentive publick.

If, however, you would calculate fully the importance of the services you are now rendering, you have only to reflect upon the probable consequences of not having rendered them. They who by your means have been formed into virtuous and useful members of the commonwealth, might have degenerated into opposite characters. You might have seen them pining with hunger, or shivering with cold, or agonizing under sharp and yet lingering diseases, the sad companions and unrelenting avengers of laziness, intemperance, and lust. If your compassion had then been awakened, it might have been exercised too late to have produced any