dew wet it, and the increase it yieldeth is of God. "The profit of the earth," as it is written in the book of Ecclesiastes, "is for all; the king himself is served by the field?" In this sort, the rich and the poor meet together, and are mutually dependent one upon the other. Without the hand strong to labour, the earth must yield once more thorns and thistles. Its fair beauty of cultivation must depart, and the hemlock spring up, as saith the prophet, "in the furrows of the field "." But God, whose mercy is over all, has provided otherwise. And so, because "two are better than one," the rich are benefited, and, if they do their duty by their brethren, "the poor have a good reward for their labour." If they have not, they are wronged. "The course," of those who grind them, "is evil, and their force is not right "." And what then? Why, as Christians, they must study to be quiet, and "to do their own business," still remembering that it is written, "The Lord God of recompences shall surely requite "." Neither is it written to no purpose in St. James; "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of your labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth "."

But this appertains only to their members which are upon earth. "The rich and the poor meet together" also, as to their better part, the spirit. And here the "poor man is endowed with as excellent a soul as the rich man. Hath the rich man a soul endowed with the admired faculties of reason, and liberty of will? So hath the poor man. Hath the rich man an immortal soul that shall have a being to eternity? So have the poor. Hath the rich man the image of God stamped upon his soul? So hath the poor. Doth the soul of the one owe its original immediately and solely to God? And so doth the soul of the other. Is God the Father of the spirits of the rich? So is He of the spirits of the poor. Is the soul of the rich capable of unspeakable and endless happiness in the immediate vision and fruition of God, in whose presence is the fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore?' So too is the soul of the poorest. Once escaped from the prison of the body, and the weight of the flesh which presseth it down, it shall be as all-glorious without, as it has hitherto been within. Faith in the Lord Jesus, and a holy life, and the death of the

7 James v. 1-4.

righteous, thanks to the zeal of the Lord of Hosts, shall perform this 3."

morrow.

8

But furthermore. "The rich and the poor meet together," subject to the same changes and chances of this mortal life. Whatever is incident to the one is incident to the other. Day unto day telleth the unstable lot of mortality, and night unto night uttereth the same speech. The rich to-day may be poor toHis money may "take wings and fly away," or, he may "put it into a bag with holes." And so, bearing in mind these vicissitudes, the ups and downs, as they are called, of life,—it behoves us to know how uncertain our own condition is, and to have the kindlier feeling for all such as are in "necessity and tribulation," hereby following on in our Saviour's steps, who, though rich from all eternity, became as poor for our sakes, in time.

To pass over other instances of our meeting together as rich and poor,-unequal in condition, but equal in privilege as heirs of a better hope;-Here, Christian brethren, in the house of God, the rich and poor do more especially meet together as one. None here is afore or after other, none is greater or less than another. We confess ourselves to be, what we most assuredly are, miserable sinners! "We sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God." And why?" We have erred and strayed from thy ways, like lost sheep. We have followed too much the

* See Conant's Ser. vol. i. p. 180, ed. 1699.

devices of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. And there is no health in us!" Verily, in this, we are all equal. Our sins have taken such hold upon us, that we could not look up but for the mercies of our "God, reconciling the world unto himseif by Jesus Christ.” But for the power of the Holy Ghost, "helping our infirmities," we were all as dead men,-dry as those bones in the valley of Ezekiel, or ever the Spirit breathed on them, and they lived.

May God indeed bless the assembling of ourselves thus together in his house of prayer! may He teach us how we are all dependent upon Him, and, according to his ordinance, one upon another! May He turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and the uncharitable and leprous hand of a closefisted brother to the openness of Christian day!

For consider, good Christian people, how sad and grievous a thing it is when the poor are vile in another's sight. For they are God's workmanship. As saith the text of rich and poor, "The Lord is the Maker of them all." And is it possible that any can come here, under a pretence of prayer, forgetting this? Are there such as are never known to unlock their store to provide for " the fatherless children, and widows, and all that are desolate and oppressed?"—

VOL. I.

K

Much as we could wish it otherwise, we know the

9

hard grip which mammon has on many a heart, and how many need to be told that "covetousness is idolatry," and that it is denounced of the God of heaven and earth. Little chance is there for those who have riches, and do not use them aright, to go to heaven. Far, far happier is the pennyless beggar, than the man who spends his all upon himself, or, what is equally sinful, hoards it in that darkness which is figurative of the darkness reserved for the unmerciful hereafter!

But it may be said, This is but a one-sided view. No mention is made of the duties of the poor, and the Lord, the Maker of the both, has imposed on each their several and respective ones. Just so. And the origin of wealth is God's blessing on care and diligence, and, beyond all doubt, in the long run, drowsiness clothes a man in rags'. Therefore let the poor be respectful in that situation in which it has pleased God to place them, and if they would increase their store, let them be diligent. The disres

9 "What daily watch is made, the soul of man to flea,
By Lucifer, by Belzebub, Mammon, and Asmodé!
In devilish pride, in wrath, in coveting too much,
In fleshly lust, the time is spent—the life of man is such.”
Quoth Tusser.

How severe! how true! are those lines in Hall's Satires.
"If Mammon's self should ever live with men,

Mammon himself shall be a citizen.”—Book iv. Sat. v.

1 Prov. xxiii. 21.