hand, what bereavements have been suffered, from fire, from inundation, from reverses in trade, from the failure of others, from war, from civil commotion, or even from sickness, which has incapacitated men for their proper duties ! ]
And what do these call for at our hands ? [Are the rich to sit down satisfied, as if their abundance was given them for themselves alone ? or are they not rather to consider themselves as stewards of the Lord, appointed by him to minister to the necessities of their poorer brethren ? God himself, in the wilderness, shewed us what his end was, in so diversifying the lots of men. He gave to his people manna from the clouds of heaven ; and he appointed that every one should gather an omer of it daily, for his own use. But it frequently happened, through some accidental circumstance, that some gathered less than the measure prescribed, and some, perhaps through illness, gathered none at all : yet, without any concerted plan, it constantly happened, that if some of a family gathered less than their proper measure, others had gathered more : and in all the families of Israel, for the space of forty years, it was found, that when the whole of a family put their gatherings together, they amounted to the precise quantity that was enjoined ; " those who had gathered much having nothing over, and those who had gathered little having no lack '^." Now God would have us also to know, that all which we have, however laboriously gathered up by us, was His gift, and given by him for the express purpose of admi- nistering to the necessities of our more indigent brethren. True, we are not called now to put all ive have into a common stock ; but we are called to " make ou7- abundance a supply for the necessities of others ;" that so there may be such a measure of" equality," as will consist with a due maintenance of all the different orders in civil and social life.]
With these inequahties we shall be well satisfied, if we consider, II. The vast advantages derived from them —
Exceeding great benefits arise from such dispensa- tions : for,
1. They call forth from men the greatest possible exrecise of grace —
[To all classes of the community, the poor as well as the rich, are these dispensations truly beneficial. The jwor derive instruction, which they would not attain in any other way: they learn both resignation to the Divine will, and dependence
d See Exod. xvi. 16—18.
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