ness incident to our species may be, as far as practicable, averted, as well as universally allayed. But the affirmation of Holy Writ, that a due benevolence is exemplified in the fulfilment of the law, is tantamount to a declaration from the Divine Legislator, that the greatest amount of happiness in general is attained in the allowance and cherishment of all those principles which the law supposes and approves.

Taking, then, the explanation which the Apostle has given us of the second great commandment, it follows, that that commandment binds us to pursue the happiness of our neighbour, inasmuch as it is dependent on our observance of the law. Accordingly, it is allowed that we cannot absolutely value his personal safety, his property, his reputationan instrument of his welfare, or element of his comfort and satisfaction, as though it were our own; yet in whatever instance, any thing that is his may have been brought into danger, or may suffer diminution, from an excess of our passions, from an arbitrary, capricious, or inconsiderate indulgence of our inclinations-in that instance, we are bound to hold it to be as precious and inviolable as our own to exercise a sympathy in behalf

of our neighbour as sensitive and vigilant as the love of self.

We can do little more, in these limits, than suggest some primary and general positions on the comprehensive subject before us; but, in adverting to the liability of our neighbour to suffer wrong from the excess of our passions, it is important to intimate, that as property is the most effectual means of selfgratification, the instrument and representative of an indefinite variety of pleasures, accommodations and luxuries, the desire of wealth, it is evident, must become the ruling passion of a civilized community. The Christian, therefore, must perceive that in the strict subjection of that desire to a scrupulous conscience, to the supremacy of truth and justice, will he especially manifest his love to his neighbour; demonstrate the moral energy of the faith which he professes; and illustrate the excellence of the Christian religion; -- that excellence which a farther consideration of the commandment under discussion may bring more particularly into view.

Having referred thus generally to the rule by which the love of our neighbour is to be guided, we proceed to remark the necessity of that love itself, in order to the observance

of the rule, and the consequent use and value of the second great commandment, inasmuch as it founds the fulfilment of our duty to our neighbour on a principle of universal bene

volence.

There is, confessedly, a law of equity which prescribes the conduct of man towards his fellow, whether unfolded in the exercise of reason, or more explicitly revealed in the Holy Scriptures, awakening universally a sentiment of moral approbation. That law, as its Great Expositor has admonished us, is the foundation of the precept, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise:"*-a precept which mankind are continually urging in their transactions one with another; which we are very rarely in the condition of not knowing in what manner to apply; and at all times profess to venerate and obey. But we lack that affection of the mind which alone can prompt us to fulfil the law: we fail of that love to our fellow-creatures which moved "the Father of all" to promulgate it to his rational offspring; to 'place it among the elements of their knowledge; to impress it on the conscience; and

*Luke vi. 31.

even to restore the characters in which it had been originally written, and, by signal manifestations of his own interposition, to attest its rectitude, and confirm its authority. The precept adverted to has at all times received. the assent and plaudits of mankind; but how scantily it has been honoured in their observance, appears in a humiliating saying, which has obtained an almost equal currency with the precept itself—namely, that every one is unjust in his own cause-and why? Clearly, because he is careless to cherish, he does not aspire after, a righteous sympathy in the cause of his neighbour-a sympathy which restrains, or rather supersedes, the selfish and injurious propensities; operating a quickness to discern, as well as an anxiety to avoid, the danger or possibility of inflicting wrong; and in all oppositions of interest, or conflicts of feeling, predisposing to adjustment and reconciliation. We are wanting in that concern for the welfare of others which alone can kindle and sustain the love of justice; which, rather, under the guidance of an active intelligence, is itself the love of justice;-for what is this high attribute of character, but a desire of that happiness which it is the end of justice to diffuse and perpetuate in the world? Our

moral convictions, our intellectual perceptions of the right and the wrong in human conduct, are of little value to our practical virtue, any farther than they meet with a response in the feelings of the heart, and are seconded by the strength of congenial affections; for these are manifestly the incentives to upright conduct; these are the active powers of goodness. To fulfil the rule of duty towards our neighbour, it is essential that we sympathize with him in the sense of his equitable claims, and actually desire his possession of that happiness which the law of all righteousness demands for him. Accordingly, it is the purport and excellence of the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves, to engage us in the cultivation of such a benevolent disposition towards mankind universally as induces, in our conduct towards every individual, the easy and spontaneous observance of that rule of equity between man and man which commends itself to our reason, and binds the conscience as just and good; which we approve as impartial spectators; and which, in the clear, unbiassed exercise of our judgment, we should demand to be exemplified towards ourselves.

The affection of sympathy, that principle by which the human being extends or trans