And it never faileth in respect of its proceeding from an unchangeable GOD. We are not to understand, that our charity is always the same: No, there may, and frequently are, ebbs and flowings; but still it never totally faileth: No, the grace of love remaineth for ever. There is, and will be, a charity to all who have erred and run astray from GOD. We cannot be easy to see souls in the highway to destruction, and not use our utmost endeavour to bring them back from sin, and shew them the dreadful consequence of running into evil. Christians cannot bear to see those souls for whom CHRIST died, perish for want of knowledge: and if they see any of the bodies of their fellow-creatures in want, they will do the utmost in their power to relieve them.
Charity will never fail, among those who have a true love to the LORD JESUS, and know the value of souls: they will be charitable to those who are in distress. And thus you see, that true charity, if it proceeds from a right end, never faileth.
I now proceed, my brethren, in the
_Last_ place, to exhort all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to practice this valuable and commendable duty of charity.
It is not rolling in your coaches, taking your pleasure, and not considering the miseries of your fellow-creatures, that is commendable or praise-worthy; but the relieving your distressed poor fellow-creatures, is valuable and praise-worthy wherever it is found. But alas! how very few of our gay and polite gentlemen consider their poor friends; rather they despise, and do not regard them. They can indulge themselves in the follies of life, and had much rather spend their estates in lusts and pleasures, while the poor all round them are not thought worthy to be set with the dogs of their flock. If you have an abundance of the things of this world, then you are esteemed as companions for the polite and gay in life; but if you are poor, then you must not expect to find any favour, but be hated, or not thought fit for company or conversation: and if you have an abundance of the things of this life, and do not want any assistance, then you have many ready to help you. My dear brethren, I do not doubt but your own experience is a proof of my assertions; as also, that if any come into distress, then those, who promised to give relief, quite forget what they promise, and will despise, because Providence has frowned. But this is not acting like those who are bound for the heavenly _Jerusalem_; thus our hearts and our actions give our lips the lie: for if we profess the name of CHRIST, and do not depart from all iniquity, we are not those, who are worthy of being esteemed christians indeed.
For, if we have not charity, we are not christians: charity is the great duty of christians: and where is our christianity, if we want charity? Therefore, let me beseech you to exercise charity to your distressed fellow-creatures. Indeed, my dear brethren, this is truly commendable, truly valuable; and therefore, I beseech you, in the bowels of tender mercy to CHRIST, to consider his poor distressed members; exercise, exercise, I beseech you, this charity: if you have no compassion, you are not true disciples of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. I humbly beg you to consider those who want relief, and are really destitute, and relieve them according to your abilities. Consider, that the more favourable Providence has been to you, it should make you the more earnest and solicitous to relieve those whom you may find in distress: it is of the utmost consequence, what is well pleasing to your fellow-creatures, and doing your duty to GOD.
When you are called from hence, then all riches and grandeur will be over; the grave will make no distinction; great estates will be of no signification in the other world; and if you have made a bad use of the talent which GOD hath put into your hands, it will be only an aggravation of your condemnation at the great day of account, when GOD shall come to demand your souls, and to call you to an account, for the use to which you have put the abundance of the things of this life.
To conclude, let me once more beseech each of you to act according to the circumstances of life, which GOD, in his rich and free mercy, has given you.
If you were sensible of the great consequences which would attend your acting in this charitable manner, and considered it as a proof of your love to GOD, the loving his members; you could not be uncharitable in your tempers, nor fail to relieve any of your distressed fellow creatures.