us,

In passing through the streets of this spacious and magnificent metropolis, the emporium of the globe, there is no sight so pleasing, as that of the numerous and noble edifices rising on every side of for the reception and relief of poverty and misery; all the fair daughters of divine Charity, and each admirable in its way. Many daughters have done "virtuously, but THOU"-if it be invidious to say, "excelleth them all," though" charity envieth not"

66

at least we must say the experience of sixteen years warrants us to say it-art equal to any, in the selection and management of those who are so fortunate as to be the objects of thy care!

They are such, as have, on all accounts, an indubitable claim to our compassionate regard. Deprived of every parental aid, both father and mother had forsaken them, when the Lord Almighty, the father of the fatherless, by your means took them up and supported them. Destitute of Destitute of any abode upon the earth, wide and extensive as it is, your bounty provided for them a comfortable habitation; hungry and thirsty, you fed them, and gave them drink; naked, you clothed them: exposed continually to the wiles of those emissaries of the Destroyer, ever watchful, and ever busy, who sleep not, unless they have betrayed unwary innocence to prostitution, profligacy, shame, disease, and death; you snatched them, with an angel's hand, from ruin, and conducted them to a little Zoar, where their souls might live. In danger of every evil, into which idleness and ignorance could render them liable to fall, you employed and instructed them; employed them in the principles of that

religion which alone can make them faithful; that religion, which not only teaches, but infuses into its true disciples the virtues of humility, modesty, meekness, patience, temperance, truth, and honesty. Happy they who are thus qualified and disposed to serve; happy the family which hath such to serve it; in these days more precious than gold; yea, than much fine gold. Having been well taught themselves, they will be able to teach others also, and their fellow-servants may receive everlasting benefit from them; nay, let it not be forgotten, that the general of the Syrian armies was, by a servant-maid, directed to a prophet, and induced to worship the Lord God of Israel. Our institution, in a word, seems to have been formed after the model of that heavenly love displayed, by the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, to lost mankind. He found them as fatherless children, the outcasts of Paradise, in a state of utter destitution. He opened for them a house of refuge, he fed them with celestial food, he gave them the water of life to drink, he clothed them with the garments of salvation, he instructed them in the way of righteousness, he trained them to obedience, and took them into his own service, which is perfect freedom, and leads to perfect bliss. How pleasant a thing it is to behold an assembly united as one person in the furtherance of so godlike a work! Wearied with the din of politics, and the noise of folly, here the soul rests and expatiates, as in her proper element. element. Councils and senates may bestow applause, but scenes like this administer comfort. Those may compliment the head, but these do honour to the heart. In the heraldry of heaven, goodness

precedes greatness; and the patronage so early and with such effect vouchsafed to the ASYLUM, affords an illustrious instance upon earth, where the latter glories only in becoming instrumental to the former, esteeming it MORE BLESSED TO GIVE, THAN TO

RECEIVE.

495

DISCOURSE XXXIII.

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD MANIFESTED IN THE RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRES.

1 SAMUEL, II. 30.

Them that honour me I will honour; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

WHEN we peruse the instructive page of history, we behold empires in the world, like waves in the ocean, successively rising and disappearing again. Exalted for a moment, one glitters before our eyes in power and majesty; but is suddenly overwhelmed and absorbed by the superior force of another, which, itself, perhaps hardly stays to be gazed at, but as quickly vanishes from the sight, and is no more. In silence we contemplate the affecting scene. adore the providence of him who ruleth in the kingdoms of men; who putteth down one and setteth up another; ordering all things according to the counsel of his own will.

We

From the sacred Scriptures we learn what that will is, and how gracious an aspect it always bears towards the servants of the true God. We see the

most untractable of things and persons secretly working together for good to them that fear and worship the Creator of the Universe. We perceive the potentates of the earth becoming subservient to the kingdom of the Messiah, and carrying on the dispensations of mercy and judgement towards his people, as their obedience, from time to time, pleads for the one, or their transgressions call for the other. Our hearts are filled and warmed with a sense of his goodness, who causeth the world and all that is in it to conspire in promoting the felicity of his chosen.

Considered in this light, let us take a view of the divine economy in the government of the world from the beginning, by an induction of those particular facts, together with the grounds and reasons of the same, with which we are furnished by history, sacred and profane. Such a view, it is humbly hoped, will not be an unpleasant employment of the time usually allotted upon these occasions. It cannot be an unprofitable one; since, by studying the ways of him who is perfect in knowledge and happiness, we shall best learn to rectify and regulate our own. And it will be found peculiarly adapted to answer the end proposed by the wisdom and piety of our ancestors, when they ordained, that the solemn administration of justice should commence with due and devout meditation on the proceedings of that Being, concerning whom it is said, that, as mercy and truth go before his face, so righteousness and judgement are the habitation of his throne.

A large and comprehensive, that is, a proper survey of the scheme of Providence, as formed upon the