can see his table spread with dainties, with all that nature aided by art can set before him to pamper his appetite; who knows, that he owes no part of this to his own labour'; and yet, who can, while he affects to thank God for the blessing, studiously defraud and degrade those whose labour has created all that he poss sesses, all that fills his heart with pride?

shivering limbs

God has comhave their full

Oppressors, and especially oppressors of this des scription, seldom fail to be hypocrites, hypocrisy being necessary to screen them from public odium. In the ranks of feigned and ostentatious humanity such men generally stand amongst the foremost. But, will this avail them ought? Will this take them out of the purview of the prophet's denunciation? God has not said, nor has he left room for the oppressor to hope, that he who has delighted in, that he who has fattened on, the the gain of oppressions," is to purchase forgiveness by flinging his orts to the almost expiring oppressed, or by hiding their naked and with the cast-off coverings of his horse. manded, that those who labour shall share of the fruits of their labour; that they shall be liberally furnished out of the flock, the floor and the wine-press. He has most pointedly commanded, that this shall be as matter of right, and not of favour; and he has strictly forbidden the giver to make any humiliation of the receiver a condition of, or a circumstance belonging to, the gift. Obedience and fidelity in servants God strictly enjoins, but the compensation for these is not to consist of garbage, rags and beds of straw out of that which arises from his labour the servant is to share, not only in all things needful unto him, but in all the pleasures springing from the same source. And, again, what must that man be, who can

reason, to exGive him the

enjoy festivity, arising out of the fruit of his servant's labour, while he knows that the limbs which have created the feast are perishing with cold: while he knows the feast to be the fruit of unrequited toil, and that that which fills his body and makes his heart glad, is, if traced home, the flesh, blood and bones of the labourer? To attempt persuasion, to postulate, with such a man is vain. thing in kind: cut up the carcase and serve it him in a charger he remains unmoved. Nothing short of the vengeance of God can touch his heart of flint: he has lowered the measure and heightened the price; he has made the Ephah small and the Shekel great; he has falsified the balance by deceit; he has robbed the hired servant of his hire; he has bought the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes; he has fattened on the gain of oppressions; he has "eaten the "flesh and drunk the blood of his poorer brother ;" "his feasting shall be turned into mourning, saith the "Lord God, and his songs into lamentations.”

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GOD'S JUDGMENT

ON

UNJUST JUDGES.

"Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranfatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, "Amen."-DEUT. Chap. 27, V. 19.

ger,

"That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the "prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the “great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire : so they wrap it up." MICAH, Chap. 7, V. 3.

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"Therefore have I made you contemptible and base before "all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but "have been partial in the law."-MALACHI, Chap. 2, V. 9.

TO JUDGE, when we are speaking of our conduct towards our neighbour, means, not only the exercise of the faculties of discernment and discrimination; not only the forming of an opinion, but also the giving of that opinion and, in speaking of judicial matters, it, of course, includes, the acquittal, or condemnation, of any one whose conduct has been submitted to our examination and decision.

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very

From this definition we, at once, perceive, that there are two distinct kinds of judging, and that, in judging, we may, on different occasions, act in two characters, different from each other in point of importance. In the one character, we are merely the voluntary givers of opinion on the conduct of our neighbour, without having the power to add direct consequences to that opinion; but, in the other character, we are clothed with power to acquit or to condemn, to add, immediately, consequences deeply affecting our neighbour.

Even in the former of these characters we ought to take our steps with great circumspection. An unjust opinion of our neighbour, when we give it utterance, becomes slander; and, in the catalogue of sins, slander is by no means the lowest. "Whoso privily slandereth his "neighbour, him will I cut off.”—PSALM ci, V. 5. We are warned in MATTHEW, Ch. vii, V. 1, not to judge, lest we be judged; and, in numerous other parts of the Scriptures we are most solemnly cautioned against unjust opinions of, and censures on, our neighbour. Christ tells us "not to judge according to appearances; "but judge righteous judgment." JOHN, Ch. vii, V. 24. That is to say, to consider well and patiently the motives, or the temptations, that may have led to our neighbour's conduct, before we condemn that conduct even in our own minds, and more especially before we give

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utterance to our censures on it, and thereby expose our neighbour to calamities that may arise out of our cen

sure.

Cases do, indeed, frequently arise, when the evil of withholding our censures would be far greater than that of pronouncing them. In such cases duty calls on us for promulgation. But, when this latter proceeds from a desire to place ourselves in advantageous contrast with our neighbour, or to gratify the selfish feelings of others to whom we may wish to make our court, or, , from the still more odious but too frequent motive› of finding an excuse for fickleness in friendship, breach of fidelity, or want of active compassion; then the promulgation of censure, even though that censure be founded in truth, is, in itself, an act of injustice, and generally a much greater sin than that to which the censure is applied.

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If, then, we are to be thus scrupulous, and are to guard ourselves with such great care against acting upon conclusions, drawn even from facts which admit of little or no doubt, and in cases where our decision has only a probable and remote effect on the well-being of our neighbour, what ought to be our anxiety in cases where our decision is attended with certain and immediate consequences affecting his life, liberty or property, and where by our serroneous, intemperate, cor