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Every religious society ought to take care of its own poor, and see that they want nothing that is needful to their comfort. The New Testament commands us to look after all that are poor. It will not allow us to shut our hands against our enemies. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." But it requires us to be especially attentive to our fellow christians. To allow a fellow christian to be in want, when we have the means of relieving him, is spoken of as a crime, and as a proof that a man has not the love of God abiding in him. Neglect of the poor is represented as neglect of Christ himself, and when the Judge sentences those on his left hand to eternal fire, he gives as his reason their want of attention to his poor and afflicted followers.

Christians are called brethren, and as brothers will share with each other what is in their father's house, and not suffer one of their number to starve, so long as there is enough for all; so christians are called upon to see to it, that not one of their Father's house be neglected. But the relation of christians to one another is closer than that of brothers.

We are said to be "one body, and every one members one of another." And as it is in our bodies, if one member suffer, all the members sympathize with it; so it should be in the church. One christian's trouble should be every christian's trouble; and one christian's joy should be every christian's joy. The right hand does not put warm clothes upon itself, and leave the left hand naked. The head does not wrap itself in furs, and leave the feet bare. Every member is employed in keeping the whole body, and the whole body labours, that every part may be decently and comfortably covered. How monstrous it would seem if a man should carry all his clothes on his head; or wear them all on one side of his body. But it is just as monstrous for one member of the church to be richly clothed, while another member is without raiment; it is just as monstrous for one christian to live in luxury, while another is destitute of daily food. "Consider them that are in bonds," says the Apostle, 66 as bound with them; and them that suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body." That is, make the bonds and chains, and afflictions and hardships of your fellow christians your own; and be as ready and anxious to help them out of their troubles, as you would be to help yourselves. But we are very ready to help ourselves in adversity; and if we were slaves or prisoners, we should never think we had done enough for ourselves, till we had got our liberty. Thus we ought to feel for others. We should make haste to help each other, and never leave off our kind endeavours, till we have succeeded in giving relief and comfort to all our brethren.

It may be said, they are provided for by the poorlaw, but this, in my opinion, is no excuse. If I were destitute I should not like to go to the parish. If the provision made by the parish was ever so good, I should neither like to go into the poor-house, nor receive parish allowance at home. I should not think it kind of my fellow christians if they left me to seek relief there; and I could not think it kind in me to leave my brethren to do so. I should wish to receive my relief from kinder

hands, and from hearts that could sympathize with me. We ought not to trust to any state provision, nor ought we to desire that our brethren should be relieved by any but ourselves.

And we could make provision for our poor without difficulty. It is very little that would be wanted in the first place. Christians do not impoverish themselves or bring on premature sicknesses by drunkenness. They do not throw themselves out of work by idleness or insolence, nor do they ruin their reputation by dishonesty. They do not break their bones in fighting, or wrestling, or hunting or poaching. Nine tenths of the poverty and wretchedness of other people are brought on by drink and wickedness; but all this is avoided by christians. A true christian will train up his children well, and in most cases his children will support him in sickness and old age. Industry and temperance and carefulness, will make cases of distress among christians very rare; so that a rate of one penny will go as far in relieving the godly poor, as a rate of a shilling in relieving the wicked.

Not only will there be few in a well-regulated church that will need help, but there will be many that will be able to afford it. The diligence and frugality of christians, their truth and honesty, their prudence and kindness can hardly fail to improve their circumstances, and raise their income above their own necessities. There are few churches where there are not some members, who could, if they were disposed, support singly the whole of their poor brethren. If all professors were to live as the gospel requires, they would be able to support all the destitute in the world, and have plenty left for other purposes of benevolence when they had done. For christians to support their own poor, would be no more a task than for a strong man to lift a feather.

But some of our poor members, it will be said, had no need to be poor, if they had done as they ought. That may be, but it is no reason why the church shonld not relieve their own poor. If some are idle or extravagant, let them be admonished; if they do not mend,

let them be cast out. If some have been suffered to go on in extravagance or idleness, without reproof or expulsion, do not begin to blame them when they come to want. Let us support the needy who are our members, however faulty they have been: it is as little punishment as our neglect to admonish them can have; and let us, for the time to come, be more careful what kind of persons we receive amongst us, and how they act while in our communities. The Quakers support all their poor, and their rules expressly forbid any charge to be brought against a man for past misbehaviour, when he becomes dependant on the society for his bread. If he behave ill after, he may be admonished, but they think it neither right nor honourable to let a man bring himself to want by misconduct unreproved, and then refuse to help him in his distress. The Quakers take care both of their members and of their members' children. They will not suffer their children to go out as parish apprentices, nor as servants into other people's houses. Much less will they allow any to go into work-houses, or be sent, they know not where, to distant places and masters. They see that they are all well-educated and properly provided for, and have as fair opportunities of doing well as the children whose parents are living.

What the Quakers do is no more than the gospel requires, and no more than every christian society ought to do. It is no more than the ancient christians did, and that in times when the poor christians were much more numerous than they are at present, and when very few of them were rich. It is a disgrace to a christian church, to allow any of its members to seek relief from the parish; and it is especially disgraceful, to leave the orphan children of their members unprovided for. If we are not well enough organized to do as the Quakers do, it is a proof that our discipline is deficient; and we ought to improve it without delay. The Socialists will never be fully overthrown, nor will other Infidels and enemies be converted, till christians begin to do their duty to their needy brethren. But let us act according to our

principles, and love each other as Christ loved us, and the whole world will be convinced that our system is from God. This will do more to convert Infidels, than all the treatises on the evidences of religion, that were ever written. Men will then see that we believe our religion ourselves, and that is the argument that is wanted to convert the world.

AIM AT USEFULNESS.

Every christian should make it his aim and his endeavour, to promote the welfare of his fellow men. The New Testament abounds with exhortations to works of charity, and every part of the religion of Christ is adapted and intended to make men benefactors of their fellow men. To be a christian, and to be at the same time indifferent to the interests of others is impossible. To be a christian is to obey the commands of Christ; but the sum of his commands, so far as they concern our duty to mankind, is to love our neighbour as ourselves, and to do good, as we have opportunity, unto all men, especially to the household of faith. To be a christian is to believe Christ's doctrines; but the tendency of all his doctrines is to make men labour to be useful. One of the first sentences the Saviour uttered was, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy;" and another of his expressions was still more tender: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." To be a christian is to be of the same mind as Christ, and to follow his example; but the mind of Christ was full of love, and the business of his life was to do good. Riches were offered him, but he refused them; earthly power was urged upon him, but he shook it off; ease and plenty invited him to their dwellings, and friendship would have held him in its embraces; but friendship, and ease, and pleasure pleaded in vain. He heard the cry of sorrow, and he must hasten to assuage it; he saw a world of dying creatures, and he must go to save them. He lived and died for man.

He therefore who takes upon himself a profession