difficulty; every day of my life I feel it. There are locusts that prey upon the generous, and grub up all that they can catch from Christian benevolence, idlers, deceivers, wretched spendthrifts, and contemptible souls, who steel one against giving, and draw down upon one the character of a mere novice in London life. But, if to be an adept in London life is to shut one's purse to charity, and open it to gaudy shows, then Heaven keep all my flock in a constant noviciate. For, after all, let the greatest novice yesterday imported from the most innocent and unpolluted simplicity of rural life, gratify all the freshness of a Christian and benevolent heart for one year, and, when the year is over, cast a reckoning, and, after deducting from his whole expenditure the necessaries, examine what part of the residue went to liberality, what part to please the world's fashions, which in his heart he doth nauseate and despise, and I mistake if he shall not find a result turn out which shall silence into shame any talk about being duped into over-liberal giving. But as I said at the beginning, it is not my part to recommend a clothing of all the backs of the thriftless, and a feeding of all the mouths of the dissolute. I know that too much clothing, systematic clothing, charityschool clothing, is carried to excess in those parts, which makes men of a northern training blush for the paltry meanness of those who receive, and the thoughtless squandering of those who bestow. If the Baptist did support or command this, then I would argue against his position upon a thousand grounds. For, connected as For, connected as it is with schooling, it doth almost more harm to the little creatures than their education doeth good; and upon the parents and the population generally it worketh the basest effects, which I do not speculate upon, but know from much study and observation and converse with the lower classes in this city. First of all, it lowers their ideas of schooling or learning, which they think worth nothing of itself, but needing the bribe of clothing to make it worth the having. Then it separates the child from the family, who now think him provided for; or it makes the little degraded thing in his charity-living a little idol upon holidays to the family, to corrupt the fine old homely independence of this ancient land. Then, being dissevered from

his parents, it casts the little nursling into the lap of some lady's favour, where he remains until he can have a place obtained for him. Now, if there be good in educating men, it is to teach them to act for themselves, not to act as another's puppet. If there be any good in educating one of a family, it is to cast him back into the bosom of that family that he may raise the honest pride of his father's house; and if there be any good in educating the people, (which I am sorry to see men calling themselves Christian, and at the head of our most self-magnifying Christians, begin in this realm to doubt,) if there be any good in educating the people, which was wont to be the watchword and is now the bugbear of Christian leaders, it consisteth in raising the tone of the people's mind, in fermenting and inspiriting and ennobling the populace, and delivering them from vulgar, sensual, and brutal vices. All which good effects this system of drafting out from the midst of them a sort of pigmy militia of school-boys and schoolgirls, all dressed and marshalled in uniform, doth completely hinder; for instead of casting them back upon the mass from which they came to improve and soften its character, it doth make them despise their birth-place, forget their lineage, and oft, very often, despise the parents who gave them birth.

Therefore to such a system I do not ask your help, except it were to open its blinded eyes and introduce into it the heart of better feeling; but nevertheless I ask your rags of clothing for the naked, your crumbs of meat for the hungry. It is no excuse to tell me that there are impostors. That is no argument against what I say, but it is an argument for another duty which I shall shortly explain. There are impostors, I allow, but there are necessitous cases, you must allow me in return. Well, between these two descriptions of persons, how are we to proceed?

I am well aware, that in a city like this, or any other city or country, by blindly following the rule of the Baptist you would foster idleness and reward deception, and do much more injury to the community than you would do good. You say truly it is borne in upon your conviction, when beholding an object of want, that it is a case of importance, and between your doubts and your feelings you are sorely distracted what

to do. Now, it is not difficult to tell you what it behoves you to do. Consider what an impostor is, one who invadeth the sacred domain, the sanctified domain, of poverty and want, in order to pilfer it of its heaven-derived right upon humane and Christian hearts. Now, say you saw a man slinking out of a poor cottage, which you knew for the moment to be deserted of its inhabitants, and suspected he had been upon no good errand there, what would be your duty?-to keep your eye upon the skulking knave, and watch his hiding-place; and if aught is amissing, hand him over to justice. And where, I ask you, is the houseless stranger's cottage? is it not in the heart of charitable men? And where is the naked man's wardrobe? is it not in the heart of charitable men? And where is his meal of meat? is it not from the crumbs of the table of generous men? And what is he who takes his stand in the way of generous men, or solicits at their gate with false appearances, to win that remnant which is holy to the children of poverty and want? Is he not a pilferer upon their undefended habitation? is he not a filcher of their poor, uncertain pittance? is he not a vilifier of their whole order, yea, a murderer of their pitiful existence? And who is to right the state of abject poverty from these its stout and daring plunderers? Can poverty right itself?—poverty which lives by grace and favour, can she exalt her voice and talk of right? Can she who bends in suppliancy and asketh aid to her feebleness take arms into her withered hands, and exile from her domain these marauders and these vilifiers of her poor, abject condition? Who, then, shall right her wronged estate? Who is to right the man stricken of God's providence out of his means, and out of his hopes, and out of his confidence; and by being rendered dependent, rendered likewise bashful and timorous, and incapable of making siege on such? Who is to right this claimant of God's from the hands of the ruffian, mighty in artifice and guile, stored with all pitiful tales, and pertinacious in all bold solicitations?

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LECTURE V.

LUKE III.

WE had intended, as we stated in a former lecture, to apply the Baptist's exhortation of the publicans to that part of our character and conduct which concerns the public, and his exhortation of the soldiers to that part of our character and conduct which concerns our own defence, and the power we hold over others; but, upon second thoughts, we have abandoned this purpose, conceiving it to be too minute for the nature of the lecture, which should follow strictly the current of the text, diverging as seldom as possible into any adjacent topic, however useful. We shall therefore continue to follow forth the train of the Baptist's discourse.

In the exposition of this discourse, whose unity we have endeavoured to restore, we had advanced to the point at which the publicans came forward, asking what it behoved them to do. These publicans were the collectors of the revenue in the interest of the Romans. At Rome, where everything was saleable, to the very city itself, according to the saying of the Numidian prince, the revenues of the provinces were set up to sale by the Senate, and were generally rented or farmed by men of the equestrian or second rank. But these Roman knights would have thought themselves degraded by personally collecting the dues, and were wont to employ some of the conquered people-to one, farming the toll of a bridge; to another, the impost of a particular commodity; and so forth through all the articles of excise and custom. These were the publicans, who made their living by gathering the taxes for the conqueror. It was their interest to be extortioners, for all beyond the rent they paid to the Romans was their own. It was the nature of their office to press upon the sorest feelings of the people. They were the tools of the

conqueror to fleece the conquered, and made their living out of their country's degradation: all which made it an office for unfeeling and ignoble spirits to undertake. Its tendency was to extortion and to false accusation, as we see by the declaration of Zaccheus, a chief man among the publicans: "If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." On these accounts, this class was excommunicated from the very privileges of Jews, and ranked upon the same file with the heathen, as we learn from that expression of our Lord, "Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." It was disgraceful to eat with them, and in this respect they ranked with heinous and hardened sinners, as we learn from that railing of the Pharisees, "He eateth with publicans and sinners." The sense of this degradation had eaten into the heart of these people, and they stood aloof like men infected with disease; they came not to John with the rest of the people, but in a body by themselves. In the parable, the publican durst not draw near, he stood afar off; he dared not lift up his eyes, but looked upon the ground; he smote upon his breast under the agitation of strong remorse for crimes, and cried, in the agony of his heart, "Lord have mercy upon me a miserable sinner." All this is necessary to be understood in order to perceive the force of the Baptist's exhortation, which struck home to the heart of their besetting iniquity. The publicans came to be baptized, and said unto him, "Master, what shall we do?" And he said unto them, "Exact no more than that which is appointed you." In which reply the Baptist shewed as much discretion as he shewed faithfulness. He did not blame them for occupying a place which must be filled by some one, and without which no government can uphold itself for a single day; he did not involve his ministerial character with political questions, and rebuke them for lending themselves to the conqueror, knowing that conquest and subjection are dispensations of God for good, however bitterly they may taste, and however evil they may work: and yet, while he kept clear of these questions foreign to his vocation, he did not fail to strike a sure and decisive blow for the sake of righteousness, -admonishing them upon the weakest part of their character,