solicitude? Surely, reader, you have abundant reason to suspect the reality of your profession, however splendid it may be, if it be unaccompanied with this Divine enlargement of heart, which causes you to labor and pray for the salvation of all around you. This is genuine charity; and is as far superior to that which is fashionable in the present day, and which is confined to the relief of the corporeal wants of others, as the ineffable pleasures, to which the Gospel calls us, are superior to the gratifications of sensual appetite. The charity which man applauds, and which too often arises from the vanity of the fallen mind, is only occupied in the erection and endowment of infirmaries and hospitals, and such like means of provision for the wants of the perishing body. But the Christian grace, which

*The real Christian, while he possesses an exclusive claim to a charitable disposition, lies under an imputation of being totally destitute of this amiable virtue. And this has been the case through every age of the church. The ancient people of God were charged with bigotry and narrowness of mind, because none could be admitted to religious communion with them, unless they became proselytes to their creed, underwent circumcision, and submitted to worship the God of Israel only. The various Gentile nations acquiesced in the worship of each other's Deities, and the admission of each othor's rites and ceremonies. This the law of Jehovah absolutely prohibited to His people; and hence arose the general outcry against them. The case was the same with the primitive Christians. The Roman empire tolerated a thousand

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God implants and approves in the bosoms of all His people; while it neglects not these calls of humanity, has higher objects in view. Its first concern is to promote the eternal felicity of mankind by communicating the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In our intercession for all conditions of men, we address God with the highest propriety as the Creator and Preserver of all mankind.' While we call on Him as the universal Parent of the human race, we bring to our remembrance our obligation to a performance of the duty, in which we are engaging. For if God made all

men of one blood,' then we are all brethren ; whether we inhabit the burning regions of Africa, the frozen shores of Greenland, or the more favored temperate climates of the earth. It is unnatural for the children of the same family to be indifferent to the welfare of each other. The

differing religious sects. The Emperors offered to have an image of Jesus erected in the capitol, that He might have an equal share of worship with the false gods, with whose statues its walls were polluted. But Christians claimed for him an exclusive right to adoration. And this was the principal cause of the hatred and persecution they experienced. The case remains the same between Christians and the world in the present day. Christians believe that, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' And therefore, though they are not called to sit in the seat of Judgment, they cannot flatter men to their eternal destruction. And on this account they are condemned and hated as being destitute of charity. But to their own Master they stand or fall.'

manifest languor of the Christian church, in her efforts to extend the evangelization of the pagan world for many centuries past, is perhaps one of the most striking symptoms of its declension from its primitive zeal, purity, and excellence. While the diffusive benevolence of the religion of Jesus maintained its empire in the hearts of its fist professors, every possible exertion was made to communicate the gospel, with all its lovely train of blessings, to the world at large. No dangers intimidated, no difficulties or hardships discouraged the disciples of Jesus from the glorious enterprize. But what has been the motive, which has influenced our excursions to the distant regions of the globe? Not a dissemination of Divine truth, or a communication of happiness by a manifestation of the gospel to their benighted inhabitants; but the advancement of commerce, or at best the promotion of philosophic research. Where one ship has been freighted with the incomparable treasures of Divine truth, may it not be safely asserted that ten thousand have sailed for other purposes? Could Apostles and Evangelists rise from their graves, and revisit those climes, through which they travelled with the Bible in their hands, and the love of a crucified Saviour in their hearts; would they not blush to own their degenerate followers? If God be the • Creator and Preserver of all mankind,' then all the inhabitants of the earth, in respect of any

natural right to the inestimable blessings of Divine revelation, are exactly on a level. Who hath made us to differ, and what have we that we have not received?' As all without exception have sinned, all have forfeited every claim to His favors; so that He may justly withhold them from whomsoever He pleases; and none have any right to call Him to account for any supposed partiality in His dispensations. But if we feel ourselves to be of all men the most unworthy of the privileges we enjoy; if we know that• in • our Father's house there is bread enough and to spare: and, if we love our neighbours as ourselves; ignorant as we are of the secret counsels of His will, we shall anxiously pray, and laboriously endeavour to make known the Saviour's name to our brethren towards the east and west, the north and the south. And though the difficulties that occur in the evangelization of heathen countries may appear to us to be almost insurmountable; yet we shall call to remembrance that in all the dispensations both of His providence and grace He works by the intervention of rational means; and we shall therefore exert ourselves under the comfortable conviction that He, who is the Creator and Preserver of all 'mankind,' can, at any time when He pleases, create them anew in Christ Jesus, and cause a nation to be born in a day, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

A cursory view of the present state and condition of the world will be sufficient to excite those, who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin

cerity,' and who are possessed with real charity towards their fellow creatures, to an ardent importunity in the use of the prayer which is before us. Divide the world into thirty parts, • nineteen of them are pagans; of the eleven that • remain six are Mahometans."* How widely extended, and how deep is the gloom of mental darkness, which still prevails in the world around us! Merciful Creator and Preserver of all mankind,' have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty !' Those places of the earth,

* Bp. Hall's sermon on Ps. Lxviii. 30.

+ Ps. 1xxiv. 20. Almost every heathen country, either by human sacrifices or other practices from which humanity recoils, affords an illustration of this passage. But it may properly be asked, is there no other species of cruelty, besides that which is practised on the bodies of men? Is there not a more atrocious instance of barbarity, which is practised by thousands, even in this civilized land; but which nevertheless is little thought of, and seldom condemned? Which, however, surpasses in horror even that of Robespierre himself. The reader needs not to be informed that cruelty to the souls of men is here intended; of which thousands are the daily victims. Are not parents cruel, who neglect to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition ' of the Lord?' Does not the charge lie also against masters of families, who by their wicked example or total indifference to religion, leave their dependents to perish in sin? Is it not equally