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from his own mind, inspired it with his own virtues, endued it with his own tenderness, and left it as an example to his own disciples; He is indeed the good Samaritan; He found humanity lost and destitute; He raised it up redeemed and hopeful; He found unhappy man left helpless by the way-side of life, robbed and wounded by sin and misery; and curing his wounds, and strengthening his powers, he conducted him to a place of rest, of virtue, and of happiness. Go, then, My Brethren, and learn, though at humble distance, to imitate this benevolence; go, and wherever you find a brother sinking in want, or pining in ignorance, rejoice that you have found a field for charity and love; and if, in administering relief and remedy, you advance a little beyond the common prescriptive rules of liberality, and spend a little more than worldly prudence would dictate, remember there is one that promiseth "when I come again, I will repay thee."

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SERMON VI.

CHRISTIANITY THE ONE THING NEEDFUL, OR THE DE CASE OF MARTHA AND MARY CONSIDERED.

LUKE X. 41, 42.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,

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thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good `part, which shall not be taken away from her.

It was never within the scope and intention of Christianity, to absolve mankind from the performance of those duties towards their fellowcreatures, to which, by the laws of nature, the laws of society, and the laws of expediency, they stood immutably bound. That Gospel, which was deemed worthy to be heralded by the tongues of angels, breathed nothing but " peace upon earth." That dispensation which was to emit "glory to God in the highest," was also fraught with "good will towards man." Heavenly in its nature, it sent no earthly pageant as its harbinger, and brought no earthly riches in its train, but, if it occasionally militated with worldly

from his own mind, inspired it with his own virtues, endued it with his own tenderness, and left it as an example to his own disciples; He is indeed the good Samaritan; He found humanity lost and destitute; He raised it up redeemed and hopeful; He found unhappy man left helpless by the way-side of life, robbed and wounded by sin and misery; and curing his wounds, and strengthening his powers, he conducted him to a place of rest, of virtue, and of happiness. Go, then, My Brethren, and learn, though at humble distance, to imitate this benevolence; go, and wherever you find a brother sinking in want, or pining in ignorance, rejoice that you have found a field for charity and love; and if, in administering relief and remedy, you advance a little beyond the common prescriptive rules of liberality, and spend a little more than worldly prudence would dictate, remember there is one that promiseth "when I come again, I will repay thee."

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CHRISTIANITY THE ONE THING NEEDFUL, OR THE CASE OF MARTHA AND MARY CONSIDERED.

LUKE X. 41, 42.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

It was never within the scope and intention of Christianity, to absolve mankind from the performance of those duties towards their fellowcreatures, to which, by the laws of nature, the laws of society, and the laws of expediency, they stood immutably bound. That Gospel, which was deemed worthy to be heralded by the tongues of angels, breathed nothing but " peace upon earth." That dispensation which was to emit

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glory to God in the highest," was also fraught with "good will towards man." Heavenly in its nature, it sent no earthly pageant as its harbinger, and brought no earthly riches in its train, but, if it occasionally militated with worldly

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was imbued with her feelings and her frailties; he was doomed to her penalties, animated by her passions, sensitive to her pains, and trémblingly alive to her miseries; from his own he had learned to judge of others' woe, and seeing a fellow-creature in distress, he stayed not to ask his name, his tribe, his kindred, or his faith; enough for his kind and manly heart, that he was a brother of the same species, that he was bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh; and though he might have perceived by his habit that he was a Jew; and by the same token that he was an enemy, he felt only that he was a man, and this simple but universal claim was sufficient in his philanthropic mind, to call forth every sympathy, and to overpower every hatred, and to paralyse every prejudice, and to excite a generous and an unreserved surrender of all the offices of humanity. The history is but the création of a benevolent mind; the good Samaritan lived but in the fame of the parable; the lesson is an exhibition of human nature, rather as it should be, than as it is; but the whole afforded the monument our Saviour wanted, on which to grave the most touching and the most sublime of epitaphs; "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.' This then is the extent, and this the boundary of the claim of neighbourhood; an extent, which enfolds within its ample pale every class and description of

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