Ps. Ixvi. 16. Come and hear, all ye that fear God! and I will declare what lie hath do?ie for my soul,
ANY person of benevolence who should have dis- covered an antidote, or remedy, to a very fatal dis- order, would feel happy in communicating information respecting it, wherever such knowledge was re- quired \ If indeed great gain would accrue to him by concealment, we must concede to him the right of procuring to himself the advantages to which his superior knowledge has entitled him : but where the very act of communicating information will enrich, rather than impoverish, the instructor, and he him- self will be made a gainer by imparting, he would be highly criminal if he withheld from the world the blessings he was enabled to confer. This is invariably the case in things pertaining to the soul : and hence we may expect to find all who have been taught of God, ready and willing to impart to others the bene- fits they have received. The early apostles, Andrew and Philip, no sooner found the Messiah, than they sought to bring their brethren, Peter and Nathaniel, to an acquaintance with him''. And the Samaritan woman was no sooner convinced herself of the Messiahship of Jesus, than she went to invite all the men of her city to come and see the person, whom she believed to be the Christ ^ Thus it was with David : he communed much with God : he learned much from God: he was favoured with the richest communications which God himself could bestow. But he would not keep these things to him- self: he hoped, by a free communication with pious characters, to bring them to a participation of all that he himself enjoyed : and therefore, filled with divine philanthropy, he sent out, as it were, this general in- vitation, " Come and hear, all ye that fear God; and I will declare what he hath done for my soul."
In
* This has been done in reference to vaccination. ^ John i. ^0,45. " John iv. 28, 29.