superiors! An opportunity which to every man of benevolence, of public spirit, nay, even of any honest ambition, must be such a temptation to right conduct, as one would think it impossible for him to withstand. What a fair and obvious path to reputation and applause is here marked out to the upper part of the world! How How easy is it for them to merit, and to obtain a place amongst the most distinguished friends and benefactors of mankind, merely by living as they ought; by being as eminently good as they are eminently great. There are, it must be confessed, numbers who are really so; and were those numbers to increase in the proportion they might and ought, we should soon see the infinite utility of such examples. It is an experiment that well deserves to be tried in its utmost extent, and the reward would amply repay the labour. For surely there is no gratification that wealth or power can bestow, equal to the feelings which THEY must have, who see multitudes of their fellow-creatures growing every day better and happier under their hands. It can be exceeded only by the unspeakable joy they will experience hereafter, when they percieve themselves surrounded in the realms of light by those who have been brought there principally by their means; whose grateful transports will overwhelm them with delight, and for whose virtues they will be rewarded as well as for their own. V. Another very easy and unexpensive method of being serviceable to others is, by vindicating the characters of those that have been unjustly defamed and traduced. If the injured persons are strangers to us, it is generous and noble to stand up in their defence. If they are our friends, we are bound by the most sacred ties to repel the insults offered to their good name. If they are set in authority over us, it is our duty to rescue them from the obloquy which we know they do not merit. In all these respects we have, it must be owned, at present, an ample field for our benevolenee to work in. With opportunities of doing good in this way, we are, indeed, most liberally furnished by the licence and malevolence of the age. For surely it is doing it no injustice to say, that one of its most distinguishing features is an intemperance in calumny, an indiscriminate wantonness of defamation, of which no other country, no other period, even in this country, furnishes any example. It becomes, then, every friend to humanity, or even to common justice, to set himself with the utmost earnestness against this most unchristian fury of detraction. He can hardly do a greater kindness to individuals, or a more substantial service to the public, than by discouraging and repressing to the utmost every groundless slander, every unmerited reproach, let who will be the object, whether in the higher employments or the most private stations of life. VI. But though in these and many other instances that might be mentioned, we may do most essential service to our fellow-creatures, yet they who have the strongest claim on our benevolence are undoubtedly the afflicted and distressed. To these, when pecuniary relief is all they want, it should certainly be administered in proportion to their necessities, to our circumstances, and the right they have to expect assistance from us. But it frequently happens, that the kindness they stand in need of is of a very different nature. Sometimes they require nothing more than a little support and countenance against some petty tyrant, that "deviseth mischief continually." Sometimes they have undeservedly lost the affections of their best friend, whom they wish to regain. Sometimes they seek in vain admission to those who can alone effectually assist them. Sometimes a load of grief lies heavy on their minds, which calls for some compassionate hand to lighten or remove it, by consolation, by advise, by encouragement, by sympathy and condolence, by tender care, every soothing expression that humanity can dictate. In all these cases, and a multitude of others that might be mentioned, true benevolence will accommodate itself to the various distresses that fall in its way; will, with a versatility truly admirable," become all things to all men," and assume as many different shapes as there are modes of misery in the world. It will compose the differences of friends; it will arrest the violence of enemies; it will bring back the ungrateful child to a sense of his duty, the offended parent to the feelings every * Proverbs vi. 14. of affection; "it will visit the fatherless and "widows in their affliction; it will rejoice "with them that rejoice, and weep with "them that weep ;" it will protect the helpless and the weak; will exert its influence will exhaust its powers in redressing their injuries, and vindicating their rights; it will facilitate their access to the seats of justice; it will knock for them at the doors of the great; it will raise them up friends, where they could never have thought of looking for them; it will be as Aaron was to Moses, "a mouth to them *;" it will speak those wants which they are unable to represent, and plead for them with an eloquence which nothing can resist. The man of charity, in short, will not merely content himself with giving alms; he will give what people are often more unwilling to give, his attention, his thoughts, his care, his friendship, his protection. These are so many instruments of beneficence that God puts into our hands for the benefit of others. These were intended to supply the place of *Exodus iv. 16. |