834.]
of all that is good amongst us, and such the efforts making to extend it over the face of the whole earth, that, instead of look- ing to former times as better than our own, we may rather hail the approach of the millennial period, when the Messiah him- self shall reign, and diffuse peace and happiness over the face of the whole earth.]
2. It is pernicious in its tendency —
[What is the tendency of this inquiry, but to hide from our eyes the blessings we enjoy, to magnify in our minds the evils toe endure, and to render us dissatisjied even with God himself? It is notorious, that they who are most clamorous about the comparative excellence of former times, pass over all our present mercies as unworthy of notice. Nothing has any attraction for them, but some real or supposed evil. And their aim is, to diffuse the same malignant feeling throughout the whole community. And, though in their own immediate purpose they do not intend to complain of God himself, they do so in effect : for it is his providence that they arraign, and his dis- pensations that they criminate ''. " There is not evil in the city, any more than good, but God is the doer of it"^ :" and it were far more likely to be rectified through personal humilia- tion before him, than by intemperate and factious clamours against his instruments. In the midst of such complaints there is not a word to call forth gratitude to God, or even submis- sion to his holy will. There is no recollection of our ill deserts, no admiration of God's tender mercies, no encouragement to praise and thanksgiving. Nothing but murmuring is uttered, nothing but discontent is diffused. Whether, therefore, men consider their own happiness, or the happiness of the commu- nity, they will do well to abstain from this invidious inquiry ; or, if at any time they feel disposed to make it, to ascertain, in the first instance, that the grounds of their inquiry are just.]
A word of ADVICE shall close the present subject —
1. Instead of complaining of the times, let us all endeavour to make them better —
[Much is in our power, for the improvement of the worst of times. It must be expected, in this distempered world, that troubles of some kind or other will arise: they cannot be wholly averted from individuals, or families, or nations. But, if all ranks of the community would unite, as they might weU do, to lighten the burthens of each other, and to contribute, according to their respective abilities, to the haj^piness of the community, we should have little occasion to complain of pre- sent times, and none at all to institute invidious comparisons with former times.]
«= Exod. xvi. 7. Numb. xiv. 27. ^ Amos iii. 6.