glory of God;" that "there is none that doeth good, no not one," not the father of the faithful himself; that we have but one example which we cannot follow too closely or copy too minutely, even the Lord Jesus Christ, for he alone was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners."

66

The famine in Canaan having ended, the patriarch returned from Egypt, where, as we have seen, he had taken up his temporary sojourn, and "went up, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south." "Abram," continues the inspired historian, "was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold; and he returned to Bethel, unto the place of the altar which he made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord."

"How hardly," said our blessed Saviour-"How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven;" yet here was one who was 66 very rich," and

yet esteemed the love of God and the service of God, his highest honour and his greatest wealth.

9

My brethren, you whom it has pleased God to call to the higher and more influential stations in society, I would earnestly desire you to remember, that in reviewing the life of Abram, we are reviewing the life not only of a very good man, but of a “very rich" and powerful man; one who, as the prophet expresses it, was laden with as much" thick clay," and beset by as many temptations, as (considering the different circumstances of society) the wealthiest among yourselves. Yet this rich man, in the midst of his abundance, still thought the service of God his chief good, and the hope of a better country his richest inheritance. Permit me, then, to apply the example of the patriarch more especially to yourselves; it is a valuable opportunity, and must not be neglected: we do not often

8 See Hab. ii. 6.

read of the very wealthy ones of the world among the people of God, for we are expressly told, that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." Let me, then, inquire of you who are placed in the middling and higher classes of society, whether, although rich in silver and gold, you are content, with Abram and with Moses, to "esteem the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;" whether you can truly affirm with the apostle, that you are willing to reckon "all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord," and to "count them but dung that you may win Christ, and be found in him?" Or, on the contrary, when riches increase, do you set your heart upon them? and are you fostering that most unscriptural and yet too common misapprehension, that the rich and the poor cannot be tried by precisely the same laws, and subjected to precisely the same penalties,

by Him who shall come to be our judge? Few, perhaps, will freely confess that they are thinking thus; and yet how often in society do we find a tacit acknowledgment of so unholy a proposition? that the same strict observance of God's laws and his sabbaths, the same self-denying application of the great truths of the Gospel, can hardly be expected from persons of rank and fortune, as from persons in poverty and obscurity; that the intrigues and the duels of the wealthy are sins of a very different colouring from the adulteries and murders of the vulgar that the former have infinitely more temptations than the latter, and that, therefore, great allowances should no doubt be made for them.

If by this it be only meant that we, their fellow-mortals and fellow-sinners, should make the greatest allowances in passing an opinion upon their character and conduct, remembering that their difficulties and impediments are greater

than our own, the observation is most true, and few would desire to controvert it: we cannot be too cautious, too careful, too charitable in judging others, more especially when they are placed in high and responsible situations, that we may counteract the common tendency of the human mind to lower all that is great, and to detract from all that is above us, and that we may obey the apostolical injunction "not to speak evil of dignities." But if it be intended, as we fear it too often is, to encourage the belief that the UNERRING Judge will make these allowances, that God himself will admit of any such distinction; that the man who has been clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day, will be at the last amenable to one code, and the beggar who has lain at his gate will be tried by another; we must beseech you to discard from you for ever so dangerous, so unscriptural a delusion. There is not the smallest hint of such