to the Paradise of God, where they flourish, beautiful and immortal.

"Death may the bands of life unloose,

But can't dissolve his love:

Millions of infant souls compose
The family above."

Let your sentiments and conduct be conformed to those of the Redeemer. Like him, pity, love, and relieve these little ones. Can you have a safer guide than He, who came down from heaven to teach you the path to immortal glory? Can you have a more illustrious model than that of the adorable Son of God?

3. Jesus presents you with another motive: Despise not these little ones, for the everlasting Father does not despise them: "It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He is their merciful Creator, and from the feelings that he has implanted in the bosoms of earthly parents, he permits us to judge of his own. "If ye, being evil," said Jesus to his disciples, "know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him ?” words authorizing us to attribute to God an affection for his offspring as far exceeding that of mortals, as in his nature he is elevated above them. Behold then the tenderness of the mother for her child; and God, who inspired the mother with this tenderness: God, whose benevolence and mercy are as unlimited as his nature; God, who by the precepts of his religion, and the influences of his Spirit, gives greater warmth and deeper energy to those parental feelings which he originally interwove in the very constitution

of man; can he despise these little ones? He is not only their Creator, he has also purchased them by that victim of infinite value whom he himself provided can he then despise them? His goodness has not only brought them into being, but his providence and his angels have watched over them since their first breath. He offers them immortal glory: so soon as they are capable of understanding, he beseeches them to love him and be happy in him; and even if they unkindly, ungratefully, and foolishly reject his invitations and wander from him, still entreats them to return. All the attributes of his nature, all the declarations of his word, all the course of his providence, prove the kindness and the care with which he watches over them. Concur then with your heaven'y Father, since it is not his will that any of these little ones should perish, endeavour to pluck them from temporal and from everlasting ruin.

4. "Despise not these little ones;" pity, assist, support them, for (it is the last motive which your Saviour presents to you in the text,) "whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me." • Whoso shall be kind to these children from regard to my authority and from love to me, shall be regarded by me as though I myself had received that kindness.' Is your heart unmoved by this motive? Notwithstanding this declaration of Jesus, can you still treat these little ones with cruelty and disregard? Then, whatever may be your professions and your hopes, you are totally destitute of love to the Redeemer. Christians, you have often thought of the felicity of those happy persons who ministered to the wants of the Saviour while he was upon earth; you have often imagined what would have been your joy

if, with the happy family at Bethany, you could have received him; you have to-day an opportunity of thus ministering to him; he descends from his throne and comes to you as a suppliant in the person of these little ones: He asks; it is man who bestows. Oh, think what he has given to you! He left his heaven, he veiled his glory, he expired on the cross for you; every temporal enjoyment, every spiritual privilege, every eternal hope, comes to you dyed with his blood. Having conferred such infinite obligations on you, he cries to you, "Whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me:" and can you, dare you, close your hearts against your Saviour, who in them implores your be neficence? If you can, add not to your guilt by impiously mocking him, and crying "Lord, Lord!" if you can, outrage him not, by saying that you are his disciple; if you can, insult him not by pretending to value his atoning blood and his infinite grace; if you can, openly acknowledge that you utterly disregard the transactions of that great day, when all shall be banished to agony unutterable to whom the Redeemer shall say, "Inasmuch as ye did it not," exercised not charity, " to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me!"

I pause, my brethren, and will no longer prevent you from exercising your willing benevolence. I could easily present new motives for kindness to these little ones, but it is unnecessary. There are few among you, (I love to declare it.) whose hearts are so obdurate, that you can behold poverty and distress without a wish to relieve them. Whenever I preach to you on charity, I always preach with the fullest confidence. I know that you will cheer

fully assist in " enlightening ignorance, and relieving poverty, in implanting virtue in the mind of these little ones, and in warding off the blasts of indigence that might destroy it in the bloom."

Preached for the benefit of the Savannah Union Society.*

LUKE X. 29-34.

But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering, said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

THIS parable was originally addressed by our Saviour to a teacher of the law with whom he was conversing, in order to prove to him that true charity

*This society was instituted about seventeen years after the establishment of the colony of Georgia. Its object is the education of orphans, and other helpless children whose parents are unable to support them. The good that it has done and is still doing to the community, is incalculable.