man. It perverts the judgment; it enfeebles the pubhe mind; it gives predominance to ignorance and fraud; it lays the foundation of that total ruin, which must, sooner or later, fall upon the community

Here,

Here is

Yet, worse, more wicked, more detestable, even than such openly prostitute abusers of their mental faculties, are those, who assume the garb of godli. ness for the purpose of abetting, and covertly pro fiting in, the commission of acts of bribery. This is the very tip top, twig of the tree of iniquity. if to be found on earth, is real blasphemy. a settled design to do injury to man and to make a mokery of God. Many and horrid are the acts of wickedness committed in the world; acts in defiance of all law human and divine; but, in his whole course, does the sun cast his rays upon a wretch so detestable as he, who, with the Bible in his hand, and with piety on his lips, undeviatingly pursues through life the path of oppression, practised through the means of bribery; who coolly and with inward delight enjoys the fruits of his corruption; and, dying, bequeaths his hypocrisy as an inheritance to his children? SAMUEL'S sons were abashed, and skulked from their high office: even Iscariot had some compunction; but, the habitual, the hypocritical briber, or bribe-taker, becomes, in time, wholly bereft of conscience: fire may consume his itabernacle; he may fall headlong; his bowels may-tumble forth; but remorse, even at his latest gasp, finds no

way to his filthy soul. Like Judas he goes to his

proper place," where he finds, that, though hypocrisy gave him impunity with man, there is a God to inflict vengeance on bribery.

THE

RIGHTS OF THE POOR,

AND THE

PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS.

66

"Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make "the poor of the land to fail: saying, when will the new moon "be gone that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the Ephah small and the Shekel 66 great, and falsifying the balances by deceit; that we may 66 buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; "yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? Shall not the land "tremble for this; and every one mourn that dwelleth there"in? I will turn your feasting into mourning, saith the Lord "God, and your songs into lamentations."

Aмos, ch. viii. v. 4 to 10.

SEEING that man is what we find him to be, the existence of poverty seems indispensible, whether a people be in a wild or in a civilized state. God does not actually furnish us with food and raiment: he only tenders us the means of furnishing ourselves with even the bare necessaries of life. He sends the fowls, the fishes, the beasts, the fruits, the trees, the rocks; but, Defore we can apply them to our sustenance or our covering, we must perform labour upon them. The means are, indeed, most abundantly supplied; labour is sure to be repaid a hundred fold for every movement

it duly makes; but, still, there must be labour performed before any thing in the way of food or raiment can be obtained.

· In

Man, and, indeed, it is the same with every living thing, delights in ease; and labour, though conducive to health, and, therefore, in the end, to pleasure, does, in itself, partake of the nature of pain: it fatigues the body, or the mind, and, therefore, to cause it to be performed a motive is requisite, and a motive, too, sufficient to outweigh the natural love of ease. proportion as the labour is of a nature to cause fatigue, to give pain, to place the body in a state of risk, the motive to undertake and perform it must be strong. And the fear of poverty; that is to say, the fear of being destitute of food and raiment, appears to be ab solutely necessary to send the savage forth to hunt for the flesh of the deer and the skin of the bear, and to induce men to perform all the various functions necessary to their support in civil society, and not less ne cessary to the existence of civil society itself.

This motive is, too, the great source of the virtues and the pleasures of mankind. Early-rising, sobriety provident carefulness, attentive observation, a regard for reputation, reasoning on causes and effects, skill in the performance of labour, arts, sciences, even publicspirit and military valour and renown, will all be found, at last, to have had their foundation in a fear of poverty; and, therefore, it is manifest, that the existence of poverty is indispensably necessary, whether a people be in a wild or in a civilized state; because without its existence mankind would be unpossessed of this salu tary fear.