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with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee.* When the captivity and deliverance of the ancient church were predicted to Abraham, the divine declaration was, That nation whom they shall serve will I judge; and the fulfilment of this awful threatening is witnessed by the remonstrance of the servants of Pharaoh, Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? But the divine judgments were also denounced upon the king; and the word of the Lord addressed to Moses is, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. And again, I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host. We find it recorded in the Book of Exodus, that the Egyp tians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. If we deny the government of God as a just and righteous Governor of the world, we deny the truth and the authority of his word, and become worse than Deists-we are practical Atheists. But the sacred history rests upon too solid a foundation to be shaken by the wind of infidelity and false assertion. We pass on to the Book of Job, who was a holy and righteous

*Levit. xxv. 35, 39, 40. + Exod. i. 13, 14; ii. 23-25.

man, and regarded the miseries of the poor. We have a portrait of his character in the 29th Chapter, where he declares, among other excellent things, I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind; and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not, I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. The wise man has well explained the meaning of the last words of Job, where he compares the unfeeling and uncharitable to wild and ravenous beasts, who make a prey of the poor. There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. Thus it is that Scripture agrees with Scripture, and by its harmony proves the truth of the whole. The wise king who knew human nature well, and what is called the world, has given us one of the most sublime and striking sentences to be found even in the volume of inspiration, where he says, speaking on this very subject, If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than the highest regardeth ; and there be higher than they. These words of wisdom, which are, no doubt, adapted to all ages and nations of

the earth, are adapted in a particular manner to these times, and to the place and country in which we live. They shall be the rule of my conduct, and I wish them to be the rule of yours, in connexion with the law of God, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I proceed, in pursuance of my design, to call your attention to the writings of the prophets. The Prophet Isaiah, who stands first in order, says, The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the principles thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye, that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.* Let those who have now the charge of the poor answer this question of the prophet, in the name of the Lord. The Prophet Jeremiah gives us a very true and exact description of religion, and of the blessedness which attends it, when he declared to the Jews the sin and wickedness of oppressing the poor, and departing from God. Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.† With what point and force does the prophet put the question! There is no evading the answer, nor the conclusion to be drawn from it. If you are not just and kind to the poor, you have no knowledge of God and of true religion. *Isa. iii. 13-15. + Jer. xxii. 15, 16.

The Prophet Zechariah has pointed out the intimate connexion between the practice of religion and the exercise of charity to the poor, in the most plain and positive manner. And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion, every man to his brother; and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger nor the poor ; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.* Did the people, and the rulers of the people, listen to the voice of God and obey it? No; human nature was the same then as it is now. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets : therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts. Heavy judgments followed their disobedience, and they suffered grievously for this their sin.

I have hitherto given you an explanation of this duty in the ardent words of prophecy, and from the records of sacred history in the Old Testament. I come now to compare the language of the New Testament with that of the Old, and to establish the same truth from the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles. The life of our blessed Saviour may be considered as one act of charity to mankind; his death was the perfection of

*Zech. vii. 8-10.

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