point, and we cannot part with any thing with greater ease, than those sins which are our chief obstructions in the school of virtue.

The offences which most easily beset us are those which corrupt nature cherishes in opposition to our neighbour. To counteract these malignant feelings, christianity offers a powerful antidote in the venerable and attractive form of charity. "A new

"commandment I give unto you, that ye "love one another." If we receive this genial spirit into our breast, we at once perceive the internal evidence of our religion, which is known or felt by the transforming power which it produces on the will and affections. It never fails to direct its happy influence to the inmost recesses of the heart: it leads us, in every instance, to look upon our fellow-creatures with complacency, to sooth their sorrows, to heal their wounds, to relieve their distresses: it shrinks from the thought that there is one amongst the millions of mankind whom we dare not bid, God speed! it is as ready not to offend, as to forgive when an offence has been.com mitted.

JUN..

After

After having reflected on the advantages which would accrue to mankind if they would unite themselves in bonds of religious friendship, let us bestow a little further reflection, and we shall find that our duty takes a larger range, and directs us not to confine our kindness to our friends alone, but to extend it to those whom we have unfortunately been obliged to call our enemies. "If ye love them which love you," says our Saviour, "what reward have yer-If ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?" The religion of the gospel requires a great deal more. However irksome it may be to the natural man to break through prejudices which have been long and deeply established, the spiritual man should strive to conquer. This is the great proof of his sincerity, the test of his religious principles. By this shall all men "know that ye are my disciples," says Christ. "Be ye therefore perfect," he adds, alluding to this important conquest, even "6 as your Father which is in heaven is per"fect." God is kind and merciful, though he is assaulted daily by the most implacable

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enemies:

enemies be ye kind and merciful in imitation of him, and as he forgives you, so also do ye.

Whether the precept of loving our enemies be an original doctrine of christianity, is a matter of small importance, if christianity adopt the precept, and recommend it on motives peculiar to itself. The Mosaic law undoubtedly understood it; for though it says, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a "tooth," this can only be considered as a proverbial expression to denote, in certain cases, the execution of strict and impartial justice. The law-giver of the Jews expressly says "thou shalt not hate thy brother in "thine heart-thou shalt not avenge or "bear grudge against the children of thy people *.* "If thou meet thine enemy's ox, or his ass, going astray, thou shalt "surely bring it back to him again †."

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So amiable and excellent an injunction, it is likely, our Lord would enforce in his admirable discourse from the mount. He did so, in the most striking manner; and

* Lev. xix. 17, 18.

† Exodus xxiii. 4.

he

he had a further reason in doing it, as it had been falsely interpreted by the Pharisees, and, perhaps, totally neglected by the great body of the Jewish people. It is for this cause that he opposes his own expressions to those which they had been accustomed to hear. "Ye have heard that it hath been "said, &c. But I say unto you, Love your "enemies." If any could command the precept with more than ordinary emphasis, it was Christ.

We were his enemies when

he died for us. If any may be expected to obey this precept above the rest of mankind, they are Christians: for we are forgiven our offences through the propitiatory sacrifice of him, whom we have so often and so grievously offended.

When the antiquity of this precept is considered, as well as the sacred fount from whence it flowed, it will be no matter of triumph to the adversaries of revelation, that it has been discovered in the ancient poems of oriental writers. "The beautiful "A ry'a couplet," says Sir William Jones, [Dis. II.] * "written at least three cen

* Asiatic Researches, Vol. IV.

"turies

"turies before our era, pronounces the duty "of a good man, even in the moment of "his destruction, to consist not only in 'forgiving, but even in a desire of benefiting, "his destroyer, as the sandal tree in the "instant of its overthrow, sheds perfume on "the ax which fells it; and the verse of "Sadi represents a return of good for good

as a slight reciprocity, but says to thie "virtuous mau, confer benefits on him who "has injured thee, using an Arabic sen"tence, and a maxim apparently of the "ancient Arabs. Hafiz has illustrated that "maxim with fanciful, but elegant allu"sions," which I have prefixed to this me ditation.

I fear, by every one of us, the command to love our enemies has been thought an hard precept. But it should be remembered that to have enemies is our fault. I mean not to say, that in the chaos of interests with which the world abounds, it is possible to be the object of universal good-will, or even to be without enemies. Alas! no man can expect it. But we should be careful, lest the enmity which has been once ex

cited,