ESSAY III.

THE subject which ought at all times to claim man's special attention in his preparation for another world, and, through his Saviour's atonement, to secure his inheritance thereto, is, next to his duty to God, man's duty towards his neighbour. On the due observance of the one depends, in a great measure, the right fulfilment of the other. A man who conscientiously performs his duty to God, generally manifests this diligence in the exercise of it also towards his fellow-creatures; on the contrary, he who fails in the proper discharge of this, his first responsibility, often shrinks back in the performance of his second. The application of our lives to the glory of God, and the good of our neighbour, is the evidence and illustration of a noble and Christian spirit which actuates us; the manifestation of a broken and a contrite heart; but, specially, it is the vital proof of never-fading gratitude to that Omnipotent Being, whose boundless love to our vile human

nature far surpasses our weak and finite conception; a love which claims the best return of which our depraved understanding is susceptible, to Him in whose image man was, ere his fall, created.

To our heavenly Father, in whom " we live, and move, and have our being,” and from whose bountiful hand issue daily fresh supplies, we owe our primal and devoted allegiance: a duty which ought in no respect to prevent that incumbent on us towards those whose lot it is to share with us the bitters and sweets of life.

The ten commandments delivered by God to Moses from Mount Sinai, were the constitution of the moral law; as well for the better regulation and adaptation of men's lives to their duty to the Creator and the creature, as for the better distinction between those who transgress, and those who obey the will of God; whom He in return, for His Son's sake, will either reward or punish, as their merits will allow. The first four of these commandments have especial reference to man's duty to Him who gave them; while the remaining six are employed, in setting forth his duty towards his neighbour.

The first of these six, as the objects who

demand man's love, next to his Creator, very properly binds on him, the obligations of respect and obedience to his parents, which he lies under. "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." This command, as a chosen vessel, has a particular mark of Divine favour stamped on those who faithfully discharge it; "it is the first commandment with promise!" To them "to whom under Providence, we owe our earthly existence;" to them who have for us, conjointly, "borne the burden and heat of the day;" to them who have watched, and, with the most tender solicitude, guided our tottering steps over the slippery paths of infancy; to them who have, through the heedless years of youth, directed, and warned us from being caught by its fleshhooks; and, to them whose love to our more advanced stage of maturity, is still paramount; we owe a deep and binding obligation. Has not all this, the evidence of the refulgence of their love towards us, their offspring, a claim on our most filial, most decorous conduct towards them? To Him who works all things together for the good of His creatures; and who has, through the voluntary sacrifice of His own dear Son, opened a way by which He will exempt us from

the service of Satan, if we will but walk in it; to Him who has, through the same mediation, been pleased to adopt us as children, we can look up, and, in the language of Scripture, say, Abba, Father."

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"Thou shalt do no murder," is the next exposition of God's will to man. Besides the external act of shedding man's blood, there are other means whereby this command may be transgressed; there may be a breach made in this Divine law, by rendering the lives of our fellow-creatures burdensome to them by oppression, or by an excessive exercise of envy, anger, or any of the like passions this body of clay is heir to. This decree can be broken, when noticing our neighbour perishing from hunger, cold, or thirst, if we do not bestow on him such timely aid as may be in our power to afford. But, specially, this commandment may be violated, when seeing a brother run in that "broad way which leadeth to destruction," in not warning him of his perilous position; and plucking him, as it were, as a "brand from the burning." When we behold our fellow-mortal thus situated, our highest aim should be to direct his attention towards that fatal consummation to which he is naturally hastening, and to dissuade him from that which is evil, to

the persuasion and practice of that which is good. Our words ought never to respond to, nor our feelings be contemporary with, those of Cain, when he exclaimed, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Next in order follows, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." This command, the infringement of which has, in all ages, been the most detestable in the sight of Him whose law it is, has also been the main origin of all those heavy judgments, and sharp arrows wherewith God has, from time to time, considered it best to chastise His people. Was not this the predominant sin of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which former large city were not found ten righteous, and both of which were destroyed by fire from heaven? Was not the pursuit of this most vicious of every vice, at one time, the chief characteristic of the whole world, except eight persons? Did not such reproachable conduct irritate most justly God's wrath and indignation against those who indulged in it, in sweeping them all away by a flood, except those who would use the required means for their safety, which a merciful Father had provided; although they had thwarted His will? And has not this sensuality in our own age-of this enlightened age of Christendom—