for in vain elsewhere.

Confidered merely as a quotation from oriental poetry, the metaphors in the text have uncommon force, and peculiar beauty. They are bold, but chafte; and exprefs the most comprehenfive fense with wonderful precision.

THE holy prophet is painting, in glowing colors, the heavenly mercies of our Redeemer's love; his great good-will to the wretched; or, to make ufe of more expreffive language, his bleffing to them that mourn, and his gracious favor to repentant finners.

THE poor wretch, who has been shattered by the storms of fortune, or whose heart" has been pierced through with

many forrows," in yielding to the infirmities of his nature, is prefented to the mind, under the frail, but ftriking emblem of "a bruifed reed." And he, who has indulged himself in the lawless exceffes of guilty paffions, but in whofe bofom the generous fpark of virtue is not yet quite extinct; he, who though he has

been

been deluded, is not yet "hardened through the deceitfulness of fin;" but fometimes liftens to "the ftill, fmall "voice" of confcience, is likened to "fmoaking flax ;" under which the fleeping fire may, with prudent care and timely attention, be yet re-kindled, or suffered, from negligence, to go out for ever.

SUCH are the peculiar objects of our Saviour's love. Such is the weakness which he never bruised; but, on the contrary, was always ready to comfort and support. Such was the frailty which he would not caft off, or finally condemn; but which he ftudied, with a divine benevolence, to ftrengthen and reclaim.

PERMIT me, therefore, on the prefent occafion, to recommend the conduct and example of our bleffed Lord in these particulars, to your ferious attention, as a rule of moral and religious duty, which claims, in the most diftinguished manner, our love and imitation.

IN

IN contemplating the character of our Lord and Redeemer, he never appears in a more pleasing point of view, than as the "healer of the broken-hearted, and the "comforter of thofe that mourn." When we regard him as the heavenly Meffiah, come from the everlasting Father, to teach us the fublimeft truths and most important doctrines, we are awed by reverence and inspired with adoration. When we confider him as the foother of every affliction, and the gracious mediator for human frailty between God and and man, we are fmitten with love, and melt into the grateful emotions of exalted piety.

If we compare this part of his character, as a moral teacher, with the practice of those who are ready to profefs themselves his disciples, what a melancholy contrast fhall we difcover! The friendship, the charity and kindness of the world are often confined within the narrow limits of felflove. Men, in all ages, have too much resembled the Scribes and Pharisees of old,

who

who did good to those only who could do good to them. Few are the benevolent actions that flow from the pure fource of christian charity; that have, for their object, the favor of God, and, for their reward, the fecret fatisfactions of virtue. Let the voluptuary, however, and he, who carries on a fort of traffic in good works, feeking his reward from man only, liften to the precept of his merciful Redeemer. "When thou makeft a feaft" or, in a more extenfive fenfe, when thou wishest to shew thy liberality, "call the poor, the "maimed and the blind, and thou fhalt "be bleffed; for they cannot recompenfe "thee: for thou fhalt be recompensed at "the refurrection of the juft." But this is a rule of duty but little confidered, and less practised. The intercourse of social life is, for the most part, upheld by gratifications that fometimes fpring from intereft, and oftener, perhaps, from vanity. Hofpitality and kind attentions to the happiness and ease of others are generally bestowed on those who are least benefited

nefited by them, while the unfortunate may figh unpitied, or, at leaft, unrelieved.

;

How widely different was the conduct of the bleffed Jefus ! He often vifited the chearless hut of poverty, the bed of ficknefs, and the habitations of the wretched. It was his fupreme delight to feek out the fatherlefs and widow, and bid the afflicted be of comfort, wherever he met them to quell the wild diforders of dæmoniac phrenfy, to hufh the tumults of contending paffions, and point out the path that leads, through the miferies of life, to the bleffedness of heaven! But, alas! we cannot believe that "the house of mourning "is better than the houfe of feafting;" and fhrink from fcenes of calamity, as from fomething that would annoy our peace. The forrows of others are often not interefting to the human heart, because they are real; though from fome myfterious principle in our nature, we are always ready to fly to the fplendid

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