cient to animate the coldest, and make the weak strong! For what is it that is offered? Not the fading splendor of an earthly crown; not the unstable pomp of mortal greatness; not the transient raptures of human pleasure; not the existence of a few days, or months, or years: but it is the offer of a heavenly kingdom that cannot decay; it is the offer of immortal powers; it is the offer of unchangeable happiness; it is the offer of an eternal existence in the presence of God and his angels. And all this in return for that small pittance we bestow out of our abundance upon the sons and daughters of affliction, in obedience to God's command, and from a heart animated with the enlivening beams of Christian faith and benevolence. Such an offer, if rightly weighed, is sufficient to make us run with eagerness the race that is set before us,' to make us grasp with joy the out-stretched hand of indigence, and contend who shall be foremost in discharging the duties of humanity, to which these great things are promised.

To do good, therefore, and to communicate, let us not forget; knowing that with such sacrifices God is well pleased, and will not forget our work and labour of love.

And surely I may without injustice say, that there never can be a fairer opportunity of discharging the duty of benevolence than in the support of that amiable and charitable institution, for which I now stand a willing, though unable, advocate, For what branch is there of this duty which we may not, nay must not, exercise, in contributing to the maintenance and instruction of these poor innocents now before us?

Is it a principle of this duty to do good to all men freely and without distinction of persons, or partiality of affections ? Here we may do it in the most perfect manner, and in the highest degree. For, in selecting and maintaining these poor objects, there is no distinction made of friend or foe, of sect or party, They stand not here imploring your benevo

lence,

lence, as being the children of those from whom ye have received past, or expect future favours; their true recommendation is, that they are the children of God and the children of affliction. Your benevolence is therefore free, generous, and disinterested; is agreeable to that noble precept of the gospel, which commands us "to do good unto all men, hoping for "nothing again."

Are we again commanded to be rich in good works, and to diffuse the beams. of charity on all around us? This kind institution will never fail to supply us with the means and opportunities of doing it. For so long as sin and calamity continue to make their ravages in this wide extended world, so long objects of our charity will never be wanting, adequate to the most enlarged and diffusive benevolence. Indeed every day and hour is adding to the number of them; and we need but look around us to see thousands, who, from those various changes and chances of life to which every man is exposed, stand in need of that protection K 4

and

and assistance, which is here given to the miseries of unsheltered youth and innocence. Here the fatal stroke of death leaves a wretched mother, destitute of her only support, to struggle with sorrow and distress. There the profligate extravagance of a thoughtless parent exposes a group of deserted infants to all the horrors of famine and nakedness. Here the gripe of oppression seizes upon the last morsel of an industrious pair;-there the honest labourer, enfeebled by sickness, impoverished by want of employment, or undone by the increasing dearness of all the necessaries of life, stands in silent anguish, surrounded by the cries of a famished brood of children, for which his hands are willing, but alas are unable, to procure bread. Here the robber, that walketh in darkness, spoils the labour of the industrious trader, and cruelly strips him of his little all;-there the fire, that destroyeth at noon-day, dashes down the fond hopes of industry in an unlooked-for moment, and leaves a distracted parent without children, or unfriended children without bread, to the wide, and too often

unfeeling

unfeeling, world.

This is but a faint

sketch of the thousand miseries which are strewed in the road of human life; but so long as thousands are exposed to these, and numberless other accidents, the most benevolent will never want opportunities of being rich in good works, by extend ing their liberality to fatherless or unsupported children.

Is our charity again to be extended to the souls as well as bodies of men? And where shall we find a better opportunity of discharging this branch of humanity?

I believe no man will scruple to say, that it is much to be wished that all the children, who are here clothed and instructed, could also be wholly supported and confined to useful labour, under the direction of their benevolent Governors, But though this will probably ever be. more in our hearts to wish, than within the reach of our ability to attain; yet we may safely affirm, that it is even now no inconsiderable advantage, that they are all, in part at least, removed from the

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