holds the crimes of theft and rapine, and the awful threats which he denounces against their perpetrators: " Hear this," exclaims the prophet Amos, " you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, saying, when will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares, and the Sabbath, and we shall open the corn; that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sickle, and may convey in deceitful balances?" [1] Many passages in Jeremiah, [2] Proverbs, [3] and Ecclesiasticus, [4] breathe the same spirit; and these, doubtless, are the seeds from which have sprung great part of the evils, which in our times overspread the face of society.
That Christians may accustom themselves to acts of generosity and kindness towards the poor and the mendicant, an exercise of benevolence inculcated by the second part of this commandment, the pastor will place before them those ample rewards which God promises, in this life and in the next, to the beneficent and the bountiful.
But, as there are not wanting those who would even excuse their thefts, they are to be admonished that God will accept no excuse for sin; and that their excuses, far from extenuating, serve only to aggravate their guilt. How insufferable the perversity of those men of exalted rank, who stand excused in their own eyes by alleging, that, if they strip others of what belongs to them, they are actuated not by cupidity or avarice, but by a desire to maintain the grandeur of their families, and the station of their ancestors, whose estimation and dignity must fall, if not upheld by the accession of another man's property. Of this mischievous error they are to be disabused; and are to be convinced, that to obey the will of God and observe his commandments is the only means to preserve and augment their wealth, and to enhance the glory of their ancestors. His will and commandments once contemned, the stability of property, no mutter how securely settled, is overturned; kings are dethroned, and hurled from the highest pinnacle of earthly grandeur; whilst the humblest individuals in society, men towards whom they cherished the most implacable hatred, are sometimes called by God to occupy the thrones, which their rapacity had forfeited. The intensity of the divine wrath, kindled by such cruel in justice, God himself declares in these words, which are recorded in Isaias: " Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves; they all love bribes; they run after rewards. Therefore, saith the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries; and I will be revenged of my enemies; and I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross." [5]
Some there are, who plead in justification of such conduct, not the ambition of maintaining hereditary splendour and an-
