your families, and even dishonouring the purity of your domestic life. Wait but a few years longer, and you shall see some of these same orphans, whom your want of charity shall have, in their infancy, shut out from this asylum, patrolling our streets in all the effrontery of mature vice, and with all the secret misery of lost virtue, gnawing consciences, corrupted health, and impending dissolution. Wait yet a little longer, and you shall see these same victims carried, in the arms of charity, to die in the infirmaries and hospitals, which you may be compelled, at last, to provide for the wretched and the guilty, whom a little additional bounty to this institution might have saved from the ruin of their health and morals, from a long life of sin, and from a death of horror and despair.

It would seem, indeed, that all exhortation, on a subject like this, ought to be superfluous. The supreme value of that charity, which is bestowed upon the young, is too plain to be enforced upon such an audience. In comparison with it, every other mode of charity shrinks into unimportance. In the bounty, which is bestowed upon old age, infirmity, pain and sickness, the good is too often at an end, when their immediate relief is effected; but, for the good consequences of such an institution as this, we may look as far as the eye can reach in the long perspective of distant years and successive generations, and yet see new blessings continually evolved. For this is an asylum for the mind, as well as for the body. Its excellence consists, not so much in relieving or correcting, as in preventing evil; not so much in saving a child from want, as in rescuing it from the vices of a corrupt world ; and, therefore, if you would know the full effects of such an institution as this, you must extend your view to the regions of eternal blessedness and charity, where, I trust, these children, and many more will live to bless you.

Look up, ye little ones, and let your countenances tell us, what these mothers have done for you. When you go out into the world, tell those, who will hear you, from what you have been saved, and to what you have been educated. May your good example, when you grow up, be felt among the numerous ranks of domestics, whom our riches and our luxury are continually multiplying. May you remember the story of the little Hebrew maid, who waited on Naaman's wife, and who was made, in the hand of Providence, an instrument of so much good to her master. Forget not the lessons of neatness, industry, frugality, honesty and piety, which you have been receiving here; and remember, that the only way, in which you can ever hope to repay your patronesses and benefactors, is, by preserving all the good, which you have learned here, and by imitating, as far as you can in your stations in life, their generous goodness.

What remains, then, my christian hearers, but that you should help these women? I beseech you, in the name of that sex, which you profess to admire; in the name of that religion, which has given you wives, whom you can respect, and children, of whom you hope every thing, send them not away empty. I beseech you, in the name of these little ones, of whom Jesus would say, Suffer these children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven; I beseech you, in the venerable name of Jesus himself, the affectionate friend of this sex, who was always ready to lay his hands on their orphans and bless them, hear what our blessed Lord saith: Take heed, that ye cause not one of these little ones to offend-how much more, then, to perish-for, verily I say unto you, their angels do always behold the face of my Father, who is in heaven. What! their angels do always behold the face of God? Perhaps, then, they are witnesses of this scene. Perhaps they

will carry up with them to their blessed seats the story of this hour's bounty. Perhaps they may consent to join in the songs of thanksgiving, which we send up to the ear of the Most High, in joy of this day's charity. Do you say, that these are only illusions of a heated or a benevolent fancy? Be it soBut this, at least, is certain, that, in a very few years, these orphans will themselves bid adieu to this world and its neglect, to this world and their benefactors. Children, may you carry with you to heaven the remembrance of this day's goodness; or, if your hopes and mine should now be disappointed, plead for us, dear children, at the feet of the God of mercy, and obtain our pardon from the Father of the fatherless, and the widow's Friend.

SERMON XXIV.

2 PET. 1. 5--7.

ADD TO YOUR FAITH, VIRTUE; AND TO virtue, knowLEDGE; AND TO KNOWLEDGE, TEMPERANCE; AND TO TEMPERANCE, PATIENCE; AND TO PATIENCE, GODLINESS; AND TO GODLINESS, BROTHERLY KINDNESS; AND TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS, CHA RITY.

THIS

HIS enumeration of graces or christian accom. plishments gives us a fine picture of the various excellencies of the christian character, and particularly of the character to which the apostle wished his converts to attain. Though the text is not liable to any considerable misapprehension, yet, as the manner of expression appears to be, in some respects, tautological, it may not be amiss, to offer some remarks on the separate clauses.

As the text now stands, when the apostle exhorts his converts to add to their faith, virtue, and to virtue, temperance and patience, it would seem to be a looseness of expression, which we should not expect, because our definitions of virtue include the subsequent qualities of temperance and patience. In the same general English word, too, are included brotherly kindness and charity; and these

two last qualities, also, are generally supposed to be nearly the same. But there is not this want of discrimination in the original. The word, rendered virtue, here, accurately means, courage or fortitude; temperance, here, is properly, self-command; and brotherly kindness, as distinguished from charity, means, here, the peculiar affection of the converts to their christian brethren, in distinction from universal love, the perfection of all social virtue.

The apostle, then, addressing his converts, as believers in the gospel, exhorts them to take the most earnest care to add to their faith, or to their simple belief of the gospel, which, alone, was unprofitable, courage a quality very necessary in those days, when an open profession of christianity was a dangerous, but an indispensable duty-and to their courage, knowledge-for, at that time, the miracles of the apostles might produce a sudden and irresistible conviction of the divine original of the gospel in many, who had never heard of it before, and who, therefore, had very little knowledge of its doctrines and duties and to knowledge, self-command, or an habitual control of the affections, passions and appetites; and to self-command, patience under afflictions; and to patience, godliness, or piety; and to piety, brotherly kindness, or love of their christian brethren; and to love of the brethren, charity, or love to all men, the ultimate point, the perfection of all moral excellence. This view of the several qualities is, with some slight variations, given by most commentators.

Thus we find the text contains a copious enumeration of christian virtues in their connexion and mutual dependence. Perhaps they are not all placed in the precise order, in which they commonly appear, or in which they are most successfully cultivated; but it is enough to remark, that the apostle intimates their mutual connexion and influence, and that he represents faith and knowledge barren and unfruitful without