increase that number. It is impossible for human feelings to witness the calamitous complexion of the present time, without doing so. Without pressing

you this day to all that is godlike in charity, I am as responsible as you for the fate of all such creatures. Woe unto me, were even one excluded from your protection, through the defect of zeal and fervour in my ministry. Complete your work! I know, I repeat what you are capable of. Look back to the period when this institution consisted but of a handful of children. Had any man then told you, that you would raise it to what it now is, you would have received the idea as the dream of extravagant enthusiasm. You knew not yourselves.

Every year the merits of the object led you insensibly into greater efforts. Early you let the spirit of the world in your hearts, sink lower and lower, before the superior influence of God and humanity. You now look with astonishment, with pride, with delight, on the glorious result. Can I doubt, therefore, that you are made of materials to be roused to the highest pitch by an unparalleled crisis; that while your hands and hearts are open out of this place, to meet the shocking exigencies of the poor; while application succeeds application at your doors, and each finds you equally beneficent; can I doubt that you will think of the degree to which such objects as these have increased in the general disaster? Yes, my brethren, the present solicitations for admittance into this institution, are heart-breaking. They exeeed in number and complexion of misery, all precedent, all credibility. To me, as the long-known

advocate of it, they are incessant. I see creatures brought before me every hour, that would move bowels of iron; brought by persons who have no human interest in them, but what arises from irresistible compassion. Whom do I address at this moment? Is it the inhabitants of a single parish, or the greatest portion of the wealth, the beneficence, the rank of the Metropolis? Is it possible, that I should lay such circumstances before you without effect? No. My soul tells me you will feel them as you ought. And as separate streams, when drawn to a common centre, become mighty and majestic in their flow, so, under God, shall the redoubled efforts of every individual of this congregation, in a case so affecting, when united into one mass, present to Him and to the world a new prodigy of Christian charity.

Now to God the Father, &c.

L

SERMON IV.

[In Support of the Female Orphan House.]

EPHES. vi. 4.

Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of

the Lord.

IT has long been the most earnest desire of my heart, to see the education of destitute children, in this country, taken up with a spirit, and extended to a degree, proportioned to the idea we must all have formed of its sacredness and importance. It is impossible, I think, that any man capable of the least reflection, should not be sensible, that, to draw an incorrupted generation from the evil of the day, would to society be an incalculable blessing. Nor can we be ignorant, that, if the religion of Christ has any one duty more imperious than another, or common humanity any claim on our hearts, that may be deemed paramount, or even irresistible, it is certainly this. Very numerous, indeed, have the occasions been, on which it has fallen to my lot to enforce these truths: and, though I confess I feel both pride

and consolation in contemplating even the slender benefits that have ensued; yet deeply, at the same time, do I regret, that the consequences naturally to be expected from insufficiency of attention to this great concern, are, every hour we exist, more and more awfully verified.

I fear, my friends, we need not go far to discover the true source of our torpor and indifference in this cause. Had we more of fervent, genuine religion in our breasts, it would not have been thus long and shamefully neglected. But the truth is, that, with the exception of a chosen few, we have universally departed from the letter and spirit of our calling. We have sunk a religion, destined to elevate man to the sublimest virtue, into a system of vile accommodation with the passions and interests of this world. To the design once formed of extirpating Christianity by violence and persecution, has succeeded one more likely to effect that purpose, because less apparent. The great enemy of our salvation has not ceased to combat. He has merely changed his weapons.

In the days of Christian fervor he went about "like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour." In these days of refinement and effeminacy, like the timid serpent, he creeps, and gives death under flowers. Violence is abandoned as a

bad system. For, contrary to his hopes, it only tended to people the world with proselytes, and heaven with martyrs. To seduction and insinuation