the very temper of heaven. Consider, next, the peculiar force with which this branch of charity, alms-giving, is recommended to us in these words, "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord," Prov. xix. 17: and in these of our Saviour, "Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it," relieved the sick and needy, "unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me," Matt. xxv. 40. Beware you do not explain away these passages of Scripture, under the notion that they have been made to serve superstitious purposes; but ponder them fairly in your heart, and you will feel them to be of irresistible weight. Lastly, let us remember, in how many instances we have all left undone those things which we ought to have done, and done those things which we ought not to have done. Now, whoever has a serious sense of this, will most earnestly desire to supply the good, which he was obliged to have done, but has not, and undo the evil which he has done, or neglected to prevent; and when that is impracticable, to make amends, in some other way, for his offences—I can mean only to our fellow-creatures. To make amends, in some way or other, to a particular person, against whom we have offended, either by positive injury, or by neglect, is an express condition of our obtaining forgiveness of God, when it is in our power to make it. And, when it is not, surely the next best thing is, to make amends to society by fervent charity, in a course of doing good: which riches, as I observed, put very much within our power.
How unhappy a choice, then, do those rich men make, who sacrifice all these high prerogatives of their state to the wretched purposes of dissoluteness and vanity, or to the sordid itch of heaping up, to no purpose at all; whilst, in the mean time, they stand charged with the important trust, in which they are thus unfaithful, and of which a strict account remains to be given.
