duce into his heavenly country, those who have exercised mercy towards the poor. Their respective sentences have been already pronounced by the lips of the Son of God: " Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you;" "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." [1] The pastor will also cite those texts of Scripture which are calculated to persuade to the performance of this important duty: " Give and it shall be given to you." [2] He will cite the promise of God, than which imagination can picture no remuneration more abundant, none more magnificent: " There is no man who hath left house, or brethren, &c. that shall not receive an hundred times as much now in this time; and in the world to come life everlasting;" [3] and he will add these words of our Lord: "Make unto your selves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings." [4]
But the pastor will explain the different heads into which this duty naturally resolves itself; and will remind the faithful, that whoever is unable to give may, at least, lend to the poor where withal to sustain life, according to the command of Christ our Lord: "Lend hoping for nothing thereby." [5] The singular happiness, which is the reward of such an exercise of mercy, is attested by David in these words: " Acceptable is the man that showeth mercy and lendeth." [6] But should it not be in our power otherwise to relieve distress, to seek, by labour and the work of our hands, to procure the means of doing so is an act of benevolence, by which we attain the double purpose of avoiding idleness and of discharging a duty of Christian piety. To this the Apostle exhorts all by his own example: "For your selves," says he, writing to the Thessalonians, " know how you ought to imitate us;" [7] and again, " Use your endeavour to be quiet, and that you do your own business, and work with your own hands, as we commanded you;" [8] and to the Ephesians: " He that stole, let him steal no more; but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need." [9]
We should also practise frugality, and draw sparingly on the kindness of others, that we may not be a burden or a trouble to them. This exercise of temperance is conspicuous in all the Apostles, but pre-eminently so in St. Paul: writing to the Thessalonians he says: "You remember, brethren, our labour and toil; working night and day lest we should be chargeable to any of you, we preached amongst you the Gospel of God;" [10] and again: "In labour and in toil, we worked night and day, lest we should be chargable to any of you." [11]
To inspire the faithful with an abhorrence of all sins against this commandment, the pastor will recur to the prophets and the other inspired writers, to show the detestation in which God
