us by pious Jews of former ages lay us under no obligation to those who are ungodly in the present day," I would reply, that no one of us would argue thus in matters of mere temporal concern ; but that, on the contrary, we should rather feel the claims of such persons augmented by their very necessities. Suppose, for instance, that a rich man had disin- herited his own son for some offence, and conferred all his estates on us, who had no relation to him, and no claim upon him whatever; and that, in process of time, the descendants of his son were reduced to extreme want and misery; should we regard them with the same indifference as we might, perhaps, if no such circumstance had ever occurred ? Should we not think they had some kind of claim upon our charity ; and that, out of the wealth so undeservedly conferred on us, and in the full enjoyment of which we were living, we should do well to bestow on them at least the crumbs which fell from our table ? and, if we re- fused them this boon, should we think, or would any person think, that gratitude " had its perfect work within us ? Let us judge righteous judgment ;" and let the verdict which conscience would give in that case be given in the other ; only with this additional aggravation, that, whilst the charity which we refused them would in the one case have diminished our wealth, in the other it would have enlarged it, and have enriched us whilst it aided them.
There is yet one more point of view in which I will place the conduct of which I am speaking. Consider the impiety of it. What has not our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ done for us ? He has left the bosom of his Father, and disrobed himself of all his glory, and assumed our nature (being " made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted"), and " borne our sins in his own body on the tree," and " become a curse for us, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law," and reconcile us to our offended God. And, in return for all this, what does he require at our hands ? What, but that we should henceforth " live not unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us,