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whether there can be examples of very extreme want, in our opulent and charitable city? Yes, my friends, even in our rich and benevolent city, where there is as highly moral a poor population as in any city of its numbers upon the earth, and where as much is done for the poor, as in any city on the earth, there are yet examples of heart-rending distress, which will scarcely be known but to those who seek out the poor, that they may relieve and save them. On one of the days of the last winter, when the mercury in our thermometer was below zero, I went into a room, where I found a mother in bed with an infant but three days old. On one side of her, in the bed, was a child about a year and a half old; and on the other side one about three years old. At the foot of the bed, but within it, was a child about four and a half years old. Here was not a spark of fire ; and all the food in the house was a single small crust, which the oldest of these children was eating. Again, in one of the coldest days of winter, when the wind drove the snow through every crack by which it might enter a dwelling, I found a poor creature,-a female, lying upon the floor of a room which no one would have thought at that season to have been tenantable. She was very ill, and was without food and fuel. And here she lived alone, with no resource but the kindness of those in a neighboring room, who were almost as destitute as herself. She was indeed a vicious woman. But she was our fellow being; a child of our Father; a partaker of our own immortal nature. And had she no claim upon our interest, our sympathy? I have but recently, also, visited another family, in which are a husband and wife, and four small children. The husband was dan

gerously ill of a fever, and three of the children were very ill with the whooping cough. This family occupies two rooms, the largest of which measures seven feet by eleven; and the smaller, the bed room, seven feet by nine. In this bed room all the family slept. Here were the sick husband and father, and three sick children, with a roof over them, through which the rain passed almost literally in streams upon the bed. And here, a day or two after a heavy rain, you might see the damp mould which had gathered on the walls around the sick man. The mother had not had a night of quiet sleep for a fortnight; and the family was without fuel, without food, and without a farthing. But I will not continue the detail of such sufferings. You need them not, and I have not strength to give them. It is enough to say, that while charity may be abused, it may also be demanded by all that concerns us as men, and as immortal beings. My friends, feel the goodness of God to yourselves, beware of your own sins, of your own immortality, and your own accountableness, and you will be alive to the wants and sufferings of your fellow beings. Regard the poor as Jesus Christ regarded them, and then, while you are dispensing blessings, you will understand what Jesus Christ meant when he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Let me be your almoner to those whom you cannot visit in their wants and sufferings. Give from Christian motives, and with christian wisdom, and you will accumulate possessions which will be retained, when all outward possessions will have passed away from you; treasures of the soul, which will be as lasting as the soul. O how rich will he at last be, who shall be rich towards God! How

ineffably blest will he then be, to whom Jesus will say, "I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; sick, and in prison, and ye came unto me; for, inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me!"

PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY Father, we render to Thee our humble and hearty thanks, for thy great and altogether unmerited goodness to us. How great is that goodness, which has daily remembered us, when we have forgotten Thee; and has crowned us with blessings, even when we have been evil and unthankful! Help us more deeply to feel how unworthy we have been, and are, of the parental kindness with which Thou hast protected and prospered us; by which Thou hast saved us from so many of the evils and sufferings, to which our race is exposed. May we be more constantly sensible, that our blessings are responsibilities; that the poorest and most vicious of our fellow beings are, equally as ourselves, thy children; and that Thou hast conferred upon us the talents and means of happiness, with which we are distinguished from others, that we may be the instruments of thy benevolence to our suffering fellow creatures. Father, we desire to have more than we have ever had of the spirit of Christ; a stronger sense of the value and excellence of our own nature, as thy children ; a spirit of greater humility, and self denial, and disinterestedness. Help us, O Father, to overcome every pas

sion within us, which wars against our duties either to Thee, or to man. We need the influence of thy Holy Spirit, to help us in our infirmities; and we beseech. Thee to grant it to us, that we may be enabled so to use all the good things with which Thou shalt entrust us here, and so to pass through all the trials and temptations of this mortal state, that we may finally be brought to immortal blessedness with Thee, and Jesus Christ our Lord, and all holy spirits in thy heavenly kingdom; which we ask in the beloved name of him, who gave himself for us, through whom to Thee be glory and thanksgiving for ever! Amen.

SERMON II.

THE BEREAVED PARENT COMFORTED.

Luke vii. 11–16.

66 AND IT CAME TO PASS THE DAY AFTER, THAT HE WENT INTO A CITY
CALLED NAIN; AND MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES WENT WITH HIM, AND
MUCH PEOPLE. NOW, WHEN HE CAME NIGH TO THE GATE OF THE
CITY, BEHOLD, THERE WAS A DEAD MAN CARRIED OUT, the ONLY
SON OF HIS MOTHER, AND SHE WAS A WIDOW AND MUCH PEOPLE
OF THE CITY WAS WITH HER. AND WHEN THE LORD SAW HER, HE
HAD COMPASSION ON HER, AND SAID UNTO HER, WEEP NOT. AND HE
CAME, AND TOUCHED THE BIER: AND THEY THAT BEAR HIM STOOD
STILL. AND HE SAID, YOUNG MAN, I SAY UNTO THEE, ARISE. AND HE
THAT WAS DEAD SAT UP, AND BEGAN TO SPEAK. AND HE DELIVERED
HIM TO HIS MOTHER. AND THERE CAME A FEAR ON ALL; AND THEY
GLORIFIED GOD, SAYING THAT A GREAT PROPHET IS RISEN UP AMONG
US, AND
THAT GOD HATH VISITED HIS PEOPLE.

THERE is no trait in the character of our blessed Lord more calculated to call forth our admiration, and awaken our gratitude, than the sympathy which he uniformly manifested for human sorrows. When we read of a Being possessed of such rare gifts and endowments, -the holiest, the most exalted Messenger of Godwhose birth was announced by angels, and whose course through life was accompanied by a series of the most

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