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a suitable improvement of this occasion, by inquiring, whether our benevolence towards men, springs from love towards the Saviour of our souls; whether our humanity is something more than the offspring of mere sympathetic tenderness; for it is a truth which rests on the authority of our final Judge, that, without the principle of divine love within our breasts, we may bestow all our goods to feed the poor, we may give our very bodies to be burned, and yet by all this be profited nothing.
While we seek, therefore, to sooth the distresses and dispel the ignorance of the unfortunate objects of our regard; while we would unfold to them the wonders of that religion, in which we profess to believe; and set before them the love of that Saviour, on whom all our hopes rest; let us be grateful to God for the very superior advantages which we enjoy; consider how imperfectly we improve them; be mindful, that after all we do, we are but unprofitable servants; and thus, feeling the necessity of our continual reliance upon Jesus Christ, trust alone to his righteousness for acceptance with God. That this may be the sure foundation, to each one of us, of peace in this world, and of happiness in the next, may God of his mercy grant: Amen.
