XII.

DISC. in thefe public repofitaries-It is lodged in good hands, and will be employed, to the uttermoft farthing, as your hearts can defire. Did I plead only for one of them, attention would be due; let me not lift up my voice in vain, when I lift it up for them all. 66 Among thofe actions," fays the great moralift of the age. 66 among "thofe actions which the mind can most

fecurely review with unabated pleasure, "is that of having contributed to an hof"pital for the fick."-But we have a more fure word, a word which cannot fail, which fhall ftand faft for ever a word of promife, that he who has been the means of giving comfort to the fick, befides being bleffed with profperity in the days of health, fhall, when himself in fickness, be comforted with comfort from above. "Bleffed is he that confidereth the poor; "the Lord will deliver him in time of "trouble. The Lord will preserve him "and keep him alive, and he fhall be "bleffed upon the earth; and thou wilt "not deliver him into the will of his ene→

XII.

"mies. The Lord will ftrengthen him DISC. upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt "make all his bed in his fickness." The fame gracious hand will conduct him, in perfect fafety, through the valley of the shadow of death, to that holy and heavenly hill, where he shall be hailed by the thoufands he has relieved, and see the face of that Redeemer, for whofe fake he has relieved them.

DISCOURSE XIII.

CHARITY TO THE BRETHREN OF CHRIST.

MATT. XXV. 40.

And the King fhall answer and fay unto them, Verily, I fay unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the leaft of thefe my brethren, ye bave done it unto me.

Y

XIII.

ET once again, by the favour of DISC. the Almighty, we have lived to fee the return of this holy feafon; again we are affembled in the house of God, to turn our thoughts towards the second Advent of our Lord. The church by her services on this day directs us to do fo, and we will obey her. In the portion of Scripture felected for the Gofpel, his

appearance and

the

DISC. the forerunners of it are marked out for

XIII. our contemplation; figns above, and terrors beneath the earth distreffed and perplexed, the powers of heaven fhaken, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after thofe things which are coming-the trumpet founds through all the regions of the grave, 86 Arife, ye dead, and come to judgment:" the everlasting doors are unfolded: the King of glory, triumphant Meffiah, Lord of men and angels, appears in the refplendent robes of celeftial majesty: the armies in heaven follow him, in proceffion, down to this lower world: the throne is fet; the books are opened: the dead are judged; and that fentence is paffed, from which there lies no appeal.

Is all this true? Moft affuredly it is. No person who hears me at this moment dares even to think it is not. A monitor within bears a faithful teftimony to what I fay, and will not fuffer infidelity or doubt to intrude.

And