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angels thou shalt learn, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

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Another fatal effect of great wealth is, that it is apt to harden the heart; wealth gives power; power produces immediate gratification; the long habit of immediate gratification, an impatience of unpleasant feelings; à claim to be exempted from the contemplation of human misery, of every thing calculated to inspire gloom, to pollute enjoyment, and protrude a sense of painful duties; the compassion with which prosperous men are born in common with us all, is never cherished by a participation in the common suffering, a share in the general struggle; it wants that sense of the difficulty and wretchedness of existence, by which we obtain the best measure of the sufferings of our fellow-creatures: We talk of human life as a journey, but how variously is that journey performed? there are some who come forth girt, and shod, and mantled to walk on velvet lawns, and smooth terraces, where every gale is arrested, and every beam

s tempered; there are others, who walk on he alpine paths of life, against driving nisery, and through stormy sorrows; nd over sharp afflictions, walk, with bare eet, and naked breast, jaded, mangled, and hilled: It is easy enough to talk of misortunes; that they exist, no man can be gnorant; it is not the bare knowledge of hem that is wanting, but that pungent, ital, commiseration, under the influence of hich a man springs up from the comforts f his home, deserts his favourite occupations, bils, invents, investigates, struggles, wades through perplexity, disappointment, and disgust, to save a human being from shame, poverty, and destruction; here then is the jet, and object of our blessed Saviour's menace; and reasonable enough it is that he, who practically withdraws himself from the great christian community of benevolence, should be cut off from the blessings of christian reward: If we suffer ourselves to be so infatuated by the enjoyments of this world, as to forget the imperious claims of affliction, and to render our minds, from the long habit of selfish gratification, incapable of fulfilling the duties we owe to mankind, then

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let us not repine, that our lot ceases in this world, or that the rich man shall never inherit immortal life.

As to that confidence and pride of which riches are too often the source, what can the constitution of that mind be, which has formed these notions of divine wisdom and justice? Was this inequality of possessions contrived for the more solid establishment of human happiness, that there might be gradation, and subordination among men? or was it instituted to give an arbitrary, and useless superiority of one human being over another? Are any duties exacted for the good conferred? or was a rich man only born to sleep quietly, to fare sumptuously, and to be clothed in brave apparel? Has he, who does not create a particle of dust but it has its use, has he, do you imagine, formed one human being, merely as a receptacle of choice fruits, and delicate vinds; and has he stationed a thousand others about him, of the same flesh, and blood, that they might pick up the crumbs of his table, and gratify

the wishes of his heart? No man is mad enough to acknowledge such an opinion; but many enjoy wealth as if they had no other notion respecting it, than that they were to extract from it the greatest enjoyment possible, to eat, and drink to day, and to mock at the threatened death of to-morrow.

The command of our Saviour to the rich man, was, go thy way quickly, sell all thou hast, divide it among the poor, and take up thy cross, and follow me; but this precept of our blessed Lord's, as it was intended only for the interests of the gospel, and the state of the world at that period, cannot be considered as applicable to the present condition of mankind; to preach such exalted doctrine in these latter days, would, I am afraid, at best be useless; our object is to seek for some fair medium between selfishness, and enthusiasm. If something of great possessions be dedicated to inspire respect, and preserve the gradations of society, a part to the real wants, a little to the ornaments, and superfluities of life, a little even to the infirmities

of the possessor, how much will remain for the unhappy, who ask only a preference over vicious pleasure, disgraceful excess, and idle ostentation.

Neither is it to objects only of individual misery, that the application of wealth is to be confined; whatever has for its object to enlarge human knowledge, or to propagate moral, and religious principle; whatever may effect immediately, or remotely, directly, or indirectly, the public happiness, may add to the comforts, repress the crimes, or animate the virtues of social life; to every sacred claim of this nature, the appetite for frivolous pleasure, and the passion for frivolous display, must implicitly yield: if the minutiæ of individual charity, present an object too inconsiderable for a capacious mind, there are vast asylums for sickness, and want, which invite your aid; breathe among their sad inhabitants the spirit of consolation, and order, give to them wiser arrangements and wider limits, prepare shelter for unborn wretchedness, and medicine for future disease; give opportu

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