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fuch anniversaries fhould be difcontinued or flighted. Succeffive generations of men require fucceffive information; and the fame men, though they may want to be informed but once, may want often to be reminded. Good impreffions, we know, are impaired in much less time than that of a year, by the cares and pleasures of life, and need therefore to be frequently retouched. Many hear with more effect than they read: many alfo may hear, who do not read at all: and of thofe who do read, numbers may read a new fermon, who never read the old (though the old be better;") and by coming into new hands, it may procure us new friends and allics. Fresh hints, and those of confequence, may be afforded by the occurrences and publications of the times. Fresh accounts are communicated of the progrefs made, to encourage the defponding; or of the farther fupplies requifite, to give the opulent and generous an opportunity of furnifhing them.

It is matter of general complaint, that the fervor and zeal which, at the commencement of a

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charitable institution, diffused warmth and fplendor on all around, are but too apt, by degrees, to languish and die away, unless fome expedient be employed periodically to revive and cherish the holy flame. Let me congratulate the Society: on the additional circumstances of folemnity, devifed, with equal benevolence and tafte, to grace their anniverfary, in the place where we are now affembled. The eyes and ears of all prefent will atteft the propriety with which they have been adapted to answer the purpofe in view.

And refpecting that part of the entertainment to be provided by the preacher, it is but doing juftice to the fubject to fay, that though in itself old, and "what we have heard from the beginning," to the well-difpofed mind it is ever new. No man is the lefs pleased to receive a vifit from a muchloved friend, on the account of his having received many before. No man naufeates the meal of today, because one compofed of the like falutary viands was ferved up to him a year ago. Should he do fo, we well know where the fault muft lie;

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not in the quality of the meat, but in the appetite of the eater.

To prevent any thing of the kind from taking place, let us ftrengthen and encourage one another by applying, as we may with great propriety do, the exhortation of the Apostle to those who are engaged in forwarding the defigns of the Society, Let us endeavour to fhew, that all fuch are engaged in well-doing, and therefore, that they ought not to be weary.

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Manifold, in the present state of the world, are the wants of mankind; and the virtues of one part of the fpecies confift much in relieving the neceffities of the other. It is the leading feature in his character, on whom angelic as well as human fpirits are directed to fix their attention, that " He "went about, doing good;" in other words, as the explanation immediately follows, "healing all *Acts x. 38. "that were oppreffed of the devil," and afflicted with the maladies and calamities introduced into the world by fin, of which that evil spirit was the author. An idea of a fimilar nature is always fuppofed to be

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conveyed, when we fay of any person departed, that "he did much good in his life-time." Nay, to the great Governor of the Universe, we have no other way of giving the glory due, than by proclaiming, as we are enjoined to do, that " Jehovah

is good, and that his tender mercies are over all his works *." Godlike are the labours of Pf.cxlv. 9. Charity; and they, who are employed in them, are, without all doubt, employed in well-doing.

The external indigence of our fellow-creatures, as it strikes directly upon our fenfes, is apt to be first and principally noticed. The cafe of a brother or a fifter, deftitute of food and raiment, of habitation, health, and comfort, calls upon us, for commiferation and affistance, in a voice fcarcely to be refifted by the man, much lefs by the Chrif tian. And to the praife of our age and nation be it spoken, no pains are spared to relieve all fuch objects of bodily distress.

But the plan of the Society extends farther, and penetrates deeper into the constitution of human nature. It enters the cottage of clay, and reaches

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the inhabitant contained within, the immortal guest doomed for a while to fojourn here below; fuccouring the infirmities and neceffities, to which, during fuch its temporary abode upon earth, the foul of man is become fubject. For there is an inward and fpiritual, as well as an outward and vifible poverty; and that we may conceive proper ideas of the former, the facred writers have defcribed it under figures and images borrowed from the latter. There is a fpecies of food neceffary for the support of the mind, after which it is faid to

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hunger and thirst." There are garments, with which the fpirits of juft men appear cloathed and there is a state of the foul, which, through all its powers and faculties, is a ftate of health and falvation. Nothing of a corporeal kind was certainly intended in that reproof given by the Spirit to the church of Laodicea-" Thou fayeft I am rich, " and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretch"ed, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and *Rev.iii. 17. naked *." An attention to this intellectual diftrefs and mifery, and the proper methods of relieving them, is excellent in proportion to the value

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