To such poor, therefore, no consolation can well be given. But to those patient sufferers, who are truly God's servants, I hope, we may speak a more comfortable language. Receive with meek resignation God's holy will. The times are hard: no doubt they are. But it is God's will to make them so; and it is impossible for you to make them otherwise by opposing his will. On the other hand, by resigning yourself to it, you may make them better. When you resign yourself to God's will, you make the act partly your own; and so far as you suffer voluntarily, you make the suffering easier. But when you oppose God's will by repining at it, you add the uneasy fretfulness of your own temper to what you are obliged to suffer.-Be of good cheer, therefore. Make God your friend, and you are in hands that will never forsake you.- Be quiet and peaceable-industrious and frugal-trust in God, and endeavour to please him; and you may hope for his protecting care even in the time of dearth. He who provided a table in the wilderness - he who fed Jacob and his family in the day of famine —will, I trust, raise you up friends, who will secure you at least from the distress of want.

Let

Let us then all, my brethren, rich and poor, attend seriously to the admonition of the text. When God's judgments are abroad in the world, let us learn righteousness. These times of scarcity afford means of trial to us all. The rich, in whatever way God hath blessed them, are called upon for their utmost charity and assistance to the poor. It is the office assigned them. In the very beautiful and expressive language of the prophet, they should draw out their souls to the hungry.*.

The poor again are called on for quietness—for patience for gratitude to their friends-and, above all, for trust in God.

Let us all then, in our respective stations, do our duty, and we shall at least alleviate the distresses of the times. We shall have a friend, who can occasionally do wonders for his faithful servants. He can prevent the barrel of meal from wasting, and the cruise of oil from failingt, till he send in his goodness more plentiful times.

On the other hand, severe as the present distress is, if we do not avert God's wrath, it may only yet be the beginning of sorrows. This nation may,

Isaiah, lviii. 10.

1 Kings, xvii. 14. like

like many others, be over-run with our enemies, however secure we may think ourselves from the situation of our country, and our triumphant fleets-Orthe plague, as in many other nations, at this time, may break out amongst us-Or the scarcity we now feel, may increase still farther to a famine. Events, which at first appear of little consequence, by degrees become evils of magnitude. The war, in which we are now engaged, was thought of little moment when it first broke out. We have had a train of naval victories since that time, but we are still so involved in this pernicious war, that we see not how it may end; and yet it may be suddenly ended at once, by some trivial unexpected event. With God it is nothing to save with many, or with few.-In the same way, the present scarcity may be alleviated, and the poor supplied with food in a manner which we do not now foresee. In the mean time, let us endeavour to please God, and avert his judgments by amending our lives. If we are good, I trust we shall see happier times: if we continue still farther to provoke God by our wicked lives, it may be feared (as our Saviour threatened the cripple at Bethesda) that a worse thing may come upon us.

4

SERMON XII.

1 COR. xiii. 13.

AND NOW ABIDETH FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY.

WE do not often, I believe, find in Scripture one virtue set above another. The authority of God, on which they all rest, in some degree equalises them. It was under some idea of this kind, that an inquiring lawyer asked our Saviour, which was the great commandment? Our Saviour mentioned the first: but immediately subjoined, that the second was like unto it; and that equally on these two depended the law and the prophets. Yet, if he had meant to give the great commandment, at the head of

VOL. III.

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the

the decalogue, a distinguished place, it is only an exception we might expect.

Notwithstanding however this general idea of equality, we find, in the passage I have just read, three Christian virtues compared, and one of them placed in a higher rank than the other

two.

This is rather singular, as it does not obviously appear, why charity should be placed before faith and hope. I shall endeavour therefore to explain the difficulty. I shall, first, examine the three virtues of faith, hope, and charity apart. I shall, secondly, endeavour to point out a reason for the apostle's giving a preference to the last: and, thirdly, draw a conclusion from the whole.

With regard to faith, some people include in it the whole range of duty both to God and man. And this is very true: for as all Christian virtues flow from it, they may all be said to be included in it. In this sense, no doubt, every good Christian will subscribe to faith, as the sum of religion. But it certainly is not always taken in this enlarged sense. St. Paul may sometimes, in a concise argument, consider faith as another word for Christianity: but in various passages,

and