"distressed in mind, body, or estate; (espè"cially those for whom our prayers are desired *) "that it may please Thee to comfort and relieve "them according to their several necessities, "giving them patience under their sufferings, " and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. "And this we beg for Jesus Christ His sake. "Amen."

The spirit of universal charity which the gospel breathes, indicates its origin, and affords conclusive internal evidence of its Divinity. "Who is he among the gods that may be com

pared unto the Lord?" And where is that system to be found, among all the various schemes of religion which have been promulgated to mankind, that will bear a comparison with Christianity? When they are weighed in the balance, they are found wanting; as in a variety of other things, so especially in the effects which they produce on the human mind. He who inhabiteth eternity, though He was infinitely glorious and happy in His own perfections, chose to communicate His felicity, and with this view called the world of angels and the world of men into existence; and, when man had destroyed himself, "God so loved the

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world, that He gave His only begotten Son" for its ransom, "that whosoever believeth on "Him should not perish, but have everlasting "life." Those who are made "partakers of "the Divine nature," resemble their heavenly Parent in the universal benevolence of their characters. Not satisfied with the solitary enjoyment of Christian privileges, not contented

* This is to be said when any desire the prayers of the congregation.

to feast alone on " the fat things full of marrow, "and the wines on the lees well refined," to the participation of which they are called by the boundless goodness of God; they feel a solicitude that all their fellow-creatures who are through sin involved in the same guilt and misery with themselves, may be, through grace, brought into the fellowship of the same salvation. This is one characteristic of a real Christian, in whatever age or country he may live, and of every genuine member of the church of England. It is impossible for any one to receive Christ into his heart by faith, and remain destitute thereof. Every true disciple of Christ feels an holy anxiety in his bosom for the enlargement of his Redeemer's kingdom, and the conversion of his fellow-creatures. Are you sensible of any such solicitude? Surely, reader, you have abundant reason to suspect the reality of your profession, however splendid it may be, if it be unaccompanied with this Divine enlargement of heart, which causes you to labour and pray for the salvation of all around you. This is genuine charity, and it is as far superior to that which is fashionable in the present day, and which is confined to the relief of the corporeal. wants of others, as the ineffable pleasures to which the Gospel calls us are superior to the gratifications of sensual appetite. The charity which man applauds, and which too often arises from the vanity of the fallen mind, is only occupied in the erection and endowment of infirmaries and hospitals, and such like means of provision for the wants of the perishing body. But the Christian grace* which God implants

*The real Christian, while he possesses an exclusive claim to a charitable disposition, lies under an imputation

and approves in the bosoms of all His people, while it neglects not these calls of humanity, has higher objects in view. Its first concern is to promote the eternal felicity of mankind, by communicating the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In our intercessions for all conditions of men, we address God with the highest propriety as "the Creator and Preserver of all mankind." While we call on Him as the universal Parent of the human race, we bring to our remembrance our obligation to a performance of the duty in which we are engaging. For if "God "made all men of one blood," then we are all brethren, whether we inhabit the burning

The

of being totally destitute of this amiable virtue. And this has been the case through every age of the church. The ancient people of God were charged with bigotry and narrowness of mind, because none could be admitted to religious communion with them, unless they became proselytes to their creed, underwent circumcision, and submitted to worship the God of Israel only. The various Gentile nations acquiesced in the worship of each other's Deities, and the admission of each other's rites and ceremonies. This the law of Jehovah absolutely prohibited to His people, and hence arose the general outcry against them. The case was the same with the primitive Christians. Roman empire tolerated a thousand differing religious sects. The Emperors offered to have an image of Jesus erected in the Capitol, that He might have an equal share of worship with the false gods with whose statues its walls were polluted. But Christians claimed for Him an exclusive right to adoration. And this was a principal cause of the hatred and persecution they experienced. The case remains the same between Christians and the world in the present day. Christians believe that, "if any man be in Christ, he is a "new creature;" and therefore, though they are not called to sit in the seat of judgment, they cannot flatter men to their eternal destruction. And on this account they are condemned and hated as being destitute of charity. But "to their own Master they stand or fall."

regions of Africa, the frozen shores of Greenland, or the more favoured temperate climates of the earth. It is unnatural for the children of the same family to be indifferent to the welfare of each other. The manifest langour of the Christian church, in her efforts to extend the evangelization of the Pagan world for many centuries past, is perhaps one of the most striking symptoms of its declension from its primitive zeal, purity, and excellence. While the diffusive benevolence of the religion of Jesus maintained its empire in the hearts of its first professors, every possible exertion was made to communicate the gospel, with all its lovely train of blessings, to the world at large. No dangers intimidated, no difficulties or hardships discouraged the disciples of Jesus from the glorious enterprise. But what has been the motive which has influenced our excursions to the distant regions of the globe? Not a dissemination of Divine truth, nor a communication of happiness by a manifestation of the gospel to their benighted inhabitants, but the advancement of commerce, or at best the promotion of philosophic research. Where one ship has been freighted with the incomparable treasures of Divine truth, may it not be safely asserted that ten thousand have sailed for other purposes? Could Apostles and Evangelists rise from their graves, and revisit those climes through which they travelled with the Bible in their hands and the love of a crucified Saviour in their hearts, would they not blush to own their degenerate followers? If God be "the Creator and Pre"server of all mankind," then all the inhabitants of the earth, in respect of any natural right to the inestimable blessings of Divine revelation,

are exactly on a level. "Who hath made us "to differ, and what have we that we have not "received?" As all, without exception, have sinned, all have forfeited every claim to His favours, so that He may justly withhold them from whomsoever He pleases; and none have any right to call Him to account for any sup posed partiality in His dispensations. But if we feel ourselves to be of all men the most unworthy of the privileges we enjoy; if we know that in our Father's house there is bread

enough and to spare;" and if we love our neighbours as ourselves, ignorant as we are of the secret counsels of His will, we shall anxiously pray, and laboriously endeavour, that the Saviour's name may be made known to our brethren, towards the east and the west, the north and the south. And though the difficulties that occur in the evangelization of heathen countries may appear to us to be almost insurmountable; yet we shall call to remembrance, that in all the dispensations both of His providence and grace, He works by the intervention of rational means, and we shall therefore exert ourselves under the comfortable conviction, that He who is "the "Creator and Preserver of all mankind" can, at any time when he pleases, create them anew in Christ Jesus, and cause a nation to be born in a day to the praise of the glory of His grace.

A cursory view of the present state and condition of the world will be sufficient to excite those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin"cerity," and who are possessed with real charity towards their fellow-creatures, to an ardent importunity in the use of the prayer which is before us. "Divide the world into