is sorrow, of comforting the mourner and reviving "the heart of the humble and contrite ones," of inspiring life into such as are morally dead, and in the regions of the shadow of death, and of raising the immortal mind to contemplate the unfading glories and eternal happiness beyond death and the grave.

These are important parts of duty for man towards his neighbour in all places; and no considerations of an inferior kind which men are disposed to start as excuses, should be permitted to interfere to prevent the discharge of so momentous a duty as may involve the loss or salvation of an immortal soul. Think of that and then of commanded duty, and put the question,

whether ye should obey God, or yield to the suggestions of a diffident mind. Christian men should consider themselves in a subordinate sense, as missionaries to their more ignorant neighbours, and all with whom they come in contact who need counsel and instruction. No act they can perform for their spiritual need, is less a duty than what they can do for their temporal need; and although possibly the one may be more valued at the moment, the incomparable disparity will appear, when the understanding is open to eternal realities, and an everlasting condition contrasted to the fleeting shadow of an earthly existence. Man can, and may properly commence his work at home, even as Christ commissioned his disciples to begin at Jerusalem. Having a world for a parish, there need be no restriction to labour, he may in his travels through life, visit many a gloomy abode and wretched hovel, or

with the philanthropy of a Howard or a Fry, pay passing visits to a prison, and in a double sense preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound." Oh, that men were more impressible to their duty and the real interest of their race; in worldly things they are full of conception and perception, prone to lavish all their faculties on the empty and unsatisfactory pursuits of time and sense, instead of aspiring to the higher and soul-ennobling luxury of doing good. Was man studiously inclined, in every walk through life, he may see objects to admire which are calculated to remind him of duty, especially to his neighbour. All the bounties of Providence, are intended for man generally, and not individually for the great ones of the earth. For man all nature wears a smiling aspect; the sun sheds its lustre, the flowers their fragrance, the mountains and valleys and green fields, their invigorating air, and verdure, and fruit and all living creatures enjoy its existence and perform their several functions with pleasurable delight (except goaded by inconsiderate man); and just because his eyes are daily familiar to the grandeur of the scenes of universal nature, he shuts his eyes and senses from contemplating, and drawing lessons of wisdom from them. The seasons as they roll on, and the sustaining power of the everlasting God, all combine to remind man of his duty. "While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease," "but man dieth and wasteth away," "and soon

will be called to render his account for the deeds done in the body. Therefore he should be ever gathering fragments of knowledge, and learn lessons of duty to God, to his neighbour, and to himself. On the whole, our argument is intended to convey the idea, that man in the exercise and proper discharge of his duty to his neighbour, is to carry out God's wise and benevolent intentions, in all natural, reasonable, and revealed law, and scriptural enunciation of duty, in order to the social, moral, and spiritual improvement of mankind universally; and that his individual and humble agency is demanded, to forward those designs of his Creator, to be overruled by Himself for the accomplishment of His merciful purposes. We are led to this firm persuasion by the whole of God's revealed history of our race, from the beginning of creation; by the duties imposed on man, and by his final emancipation from the thraldom of sin, and triumphant deliverance from its eternal curse.

Waterloo Street,

WILLIAM CHAMBERS.

Newcastle.

ESSAY VIII.

"And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; there is none other commandment greater than these."-MARK Xii. 31.

2

FIRST, then, the love of our neighbour here is not to be taken separate from the love of God, but is included in it, or flowing from it. God, whom we see not, will be loved in our neighbour whom we see; He will have us manifest our love to him by loving our neighbour for His sake. In these words we have, first the duty enjoined, which is loving our neighbour; secondly, the manner of this love, or how we are to love our neighbour, viz., as ourselves; thirdly, the resemblance betwixt this and the first and great commandment. "And the second is like unto it." I shall first endeavour to state who is our neighbour. We learn from our Saviour's sermon on the Mount, that the Jewish teachers had greatly corrupted the general commandment of the second table touching the love of our neighbour. "Ye have heard it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." But there is not a word commanding or allowing us to hate our enemy; that was the addition of the corrupt Jewish teachers. They corrupted the text in two ways; first, by a misinterpretation

of the word neighbour, confining and restricting it to a friend or a relation; and second, by a false inference from it, that because a man must love his friend, therefore, he must hate his enemy. For though our friends and relations, and those who live near to us, are our neighbours, yet, in Scripture, enemies are called neighbours. Thus, the Egyptians are said to be neighbours to the Israelites, yet we all know that they were deadly enemies to them, (Exodus xi. 2,) "Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman borrow of her neighbour, jewels of silver and jewels of gold." But these neighbours of whom they borrowed were the Egyptians. The Samaritan, as our Saviour teaches, was neighbour to the Jew who was in distress and wounded; yet were the Jews and Samaritans enemies to one another. Therefore, by neighbour, we are here to understand mankind at large, and so every man is our neighbour.

Having seen who is our neighbour, I proceed now in the second place, to explain the great duty enjoined towards our neighbour, viz., love, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour." Now to see this duty in its full extent, I would consider it in a twofold view. First, to love our neighbour is to do no harm to our neighbour; this is the lowest sense in which we can understand

the precept. Secondly, to love our neighbour is to do him all the kind and good offices we

can.

First. To love our neighbour is to do him no harm ; and in general I call that doing harm