Page images
PDF
EPUB

ed from the body of humanity, they are dead, and devoid of feeling. "A thousand may fall at their fide, " and ten thousand at their right hand;" they are fatisfied if it does "not come nigh them." An attention to their own indulgence regulates all their actions. They pafs by the poor traveller wounded, bleeding, half-dead, left their feelings fhould be shocked at the fpectacle. If they ever give of their abundance, or diftribute any thing that remains after every paffion and appetite is gratified to excefs; they avoid every facrifice of charity; all expense of trouble and of feeling; they do not "visit the fatherless and the widows

in their affliction." The eye would affect the heart; and the heart must not be affected; it is their plan to live "at ease." And forry am I to be compelled to fay, that there is not a few florid profeffors of the gofpel, who expose themselves to this cenfure; perfons who are zealous for orthodox fentiments, but cold in generous affections; "having a name to live," while they "are dead" to all thofe fine and tender feelings, which render us focial and ufeful; which constitute the glory of the man, and of the christian-" This "man's religion is vain."

Our difpofitions, my brethren, are always to correfpond with the providence of God, and the purposes for which he placed us in the world. He continues the poor always with you, and encompaffes you with diverfified fcenes of diftrefs, to awaken your attention; to increase your benevolence; to discover your excellencies; and to form you into a refemblance of Himself, that "you may be merciful, even as your Father which is in heav"en is merciful." The Stoics indeed placed all mercy in

beneficence, as diftinguished from fympathy and commiferation. Weeping with another, was a littleness of foul unbecoming a wife man. Their doctrine required this; for if they were to be infenfible to their own afflictions, they were furely forbidden to feel the calamities of others. But it is obviously the defign of God, that we should lay the miseries of others to heart, and that the kindness we fhew them should flow from compaffion; and fo neceffary is the exercife of this tendernefs to the condition of mankind, which is a state of mifery and dependence, that He has bound it upon us by a natural, as well as by a moral law. Such is the very frame and organization of the body, fuch the motion and direction of the animal fpirits on the fight of distress, that we cannot help being moved and pained, and therefore before we can be unmerciful, we must become unnatural; and before we offer a violence to morality, we must offer one to nature. And we may

observe also, that the strength of the social instinct is in proportion to the importance of its exercise in human life; the degree of emotion which excites us to weep with the miferable, is ftronger than the degree of fenfation which urges us to rejoice with the profperous; because the former stand more in need of our fympathy and affiftance than the latter. God has clearly expreffed his will in the Scriptures. There he requires us to "mind every man also the things of others;" to "be pitiful;" to "put on bowels of mercies." Society is placed before us, both civil and religious, as a body, where "if one member fuffers, all the members "fuffer with it." The gofpel, we are affured, not only illuminates but softens; it takes away "the heart

"of stone," and gives us "hearts, of flefh." This influence of divine grace we are never suffered to overlook in those characters which are held forth as worthy of our imitation. View David; what think you of a man who could fay even of them who had "rewarded "him evil for good, to the spoiling of his foul"—" But "as for me, when they were fick, my clothing was "fackcloth, I humbled my foul with fafting; I behaved "myself as though he had been my friend or brother; "I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his "mother." Nehemiah, though high in office, the favourite of the king, and enjoying every perfonal fatiffaction, is diftreffed because his "brethren are in af"fliction, and the city of his God lies wafte." Jeremiah cries," for the hurt of the daughter of my people am "I hurt, I am black; astonishment has taken hold "on me; O that my head were waters, and mine eyes "a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night "for the flain of the daughter of my people." Paul could "afk who is weak, and I am not weak; who is "offended, and I burn not?" But, Oh! contemplate Him who "went about doing good;" who when exhaufted with fatigue fuffered the moments allotted to needful repofe to be invaded without murmuring; who" in all our afflictions was afflicted;" who by an exquifite fenfibility made the forrows he beheld his own; who "took our infirmities, and bare our fick"neffes;" who when he faw the multitude fainting, and having nothing to eat, "had compaffion on them;' who wept WITH friends around the grave of Lazarus, and OVER enemies as "he drew near the city." Was He ever at "eafe in Zion ?"

Woe to fuch as have no claim to the honour of claffing with these men of mercy, headed by the God of love. You may perhaps be ready to congratulate your felves; you may imagine that you efcape much anguifh; and that you would only increase your fufferings by fharing in the grief of others. Now acknowledging this, would it not be virtuous, and peculiarly praiseworthy; would it not refemble Him, who "pleafed not "himself;" and who, "though he was rich,yet for our "fakes became poor ?" But we are not going to applaud infenfibility; the tenderness we recommend is accompanied with sensations far fuperior to any the selfish and the unfeeling ever experience. If it is a fource of pain, it is also a fource of pleasure. This fenfibility gives another degree of life, adds a new fenfe, enlarges the sphere of fatisfaction, and increases the relish of enjoyment.

For the unfeeling wretch confcience has no kind office to perform; it has no pleafing recollections or profpects, with which to refresh him; no delicious entertainments with which to feast him. It never careffes, but it often smites. "Neither do they which go by "fay, the bleffing of the Lord be upon you; we bless 66 you in the name of the Lord." For him no orphan prays, no widow fings. To all the luxury of a Job he is a stranger: "when the ear heard me, then it bleffed

66

me;

ઃઃ

eye faw

and when the witness to it gave me, me, because I delivered the poor when he cried, the "fatherlefs, and him that had none to help him: the

[ocr errors]

bleffing of him that was ready to perish came upon "me, and I caufed the widow's heart to fing for joy." For him the evil day comes on charged with every

;

[ocr errors]

horror. He has no afylum in the feelings of the community, the happiness of whofe members he never fought. When he fails, there is none to receive him every application is rejected; homeless and deftitute, he hears from many a merciless lip, "his mifchief is "returned upon his own head, and his violent dealing "is come down upon his own pate." Seized with affliction, he is led into his chamber, but hears from no inspired voice as he enters, "the Lord will deliver him "in time of trouble; the Lord will strengthen him up"on the bed of languishing; he will make all his bed in "his ficknefs." His offspring appear; he beholds "the defire of his eyes, on whofe defolate hours he "should have entailed mercy; but not to him belongs "the promise, his feed is bleffed;" no divine Comforter fays, "leave thy fatherless children, I will preferve them alive; and let thy widow trust in me.' "The memory of the juft is bleffed; but the name of "the wicked fhall rot." To a dying man there is fomething in the thought that he fhall not be miffed, that his character is more perifhable than his body, that the door of life will be fhut upon him, and bolted, before he is scarcely out, that finks the wretch lower than the grave. But "after death, the judgment;' and his rolling eyes read infcribed on the wall," he "fhall have judgment without mercy, who fhewed no mercy." Have you courage to pursue him further? See him at the bar of God; there to answer for crimes, which at no tribunal here are punishable; he is tried for being clofe-fifted and hard-hearted; and what fellowfhip can there be between an unfeeling wretch, and a Saviour full of" tender mercy? Then fhall the

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Z

« PreviousContinue »