would suffer still more, should GoD deny it this testimony of his favor. So the LORD hearkened unto the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: And Elijah said, see, thy son liveth.

It would be a pleasure to a good mind, to stop here a moment, and figure to itself the picture of so joyful an event.-To behold, on one hand, the raptures of the parent, overcome with surprize and gratitude, and imagine how a sudden stroke of such impetuous joy must operate on a despairing countenance, long accustomed to sadness.To conceive, on the other side of the piece, the holy man approaching with the child in his arms→ full of honest triumph in his looks, but sweetened with all the kind sympathy which a gentle nature could overflow with upon so happy an event. It is a subject one might recommend to the pencil of a great genius; and would even afford matter for description here, but that it would lead us too far from the particular purpose, for which I have enlarged upon thus much of the story already; the chief design of which is, to illustrate by a fact, what is evident both in reason and scripture, that a charitable and good action is seldom cast away, but that, even in this life, it is more than probable, that what is so scattered, shall be gathered again with increase. Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days. Be as a father unto the fatherless, and instead of a husband unto their mother: So shalt thou be as the Son of the Most High, and he will love thee more than thy mother doth. Be mindful of good turns, for thou knowest not what evil shall come upon the earth; and when thou fallest, thou shalt find a stay. It shall preserve thee from all affliction, and fight for thee against thy enemies, better than a mighty shield and a strong spear.

The great instability of temporal affairs, and constant fluctuation of every thing in this world, afford perpetual occasions of taking refuge in such a security.

What, by successive misfortunes; by failings and cross accidents in trade; by miscarriage of projects What by unsuitable expenses of pa~ rents, extravagance of children, and the many other secret ways whereby riches make themselves wings and fly away; so many surprising revolutions do every day happen in families, that it may not seem strange to say, that the posterity of some of the most liberal contributors here, in the changes which one century may produce, may possibly find shelter under this very plant which they now so kindly water. Nay, so quickly sometimes has the wheel turn'd round, that many a man has lived to enjoy the benefit of that charity which his own piety projected.

But, besides this, and exclusive of the right which God's promise gives it to protection hereafter, charity and benevolence, in the ordinary chain of effects, have a natural and more immediate tendency in themselves, to rescue a man from the accidents of the world, by softening the hearts and winning every man's wishes to its interest. When a compassionate man falls, who would not pity him? who, that had power to do it, would not befriend and raise him up ? or could the most barbarous temper offer an insult to his distress, without pain and reluctance ?-So that it is almost a wonder that covetousness, even in spite of itself, does not sometimes argue a man into charity, by its own principle of looking forwards, and the firm expectation it would delight in, of receiving its own again with usury.-So evident is it in the course of Gon's providence, and the natural stream of things, that a good office, one time or other, generally meets with a reward.-Generally, did I say how can it ever fail ?

when, besides all this, so large a share of recompence is so inseparable even from the action itself. Ask the man who has a tear of tenderness always ready to shed over the unfortunate; who, withal, is ready to distribute, and willing to communicate; ask him, if the best things which wits have said of pleasure, have expressed what he has felt, when by a seasonable kindness, he has made the heart of the widow to sing for joy. Mark then the expressions of unutterable pleasure and harmony in his looks; and say, whether Solomon has not fixed the point of true enjoyment in the right place, when he declares, "that he knew no good "there was in any of the riches or honors of this "world, but for a man to do good with them in his "life." Nor was it without reason he made this judgment-Doubtless he had found and seen the insufficiency of all sensual pleasures; how unable to furnish either a rational or a lasting scheme of happiness; how soon the best of them vanished; the less exceptionable in vanity, but the guilty both in vanity and vexation of spirit. But that this was so pure and refined a nature, it burned without consuming; it was figuratively the widow's barrel of meal which wasted not, and the cruse of oil which never failed.

It is an easy matter to add weight to the testimony of the wise man, upon the pleasure of doing good; or else the evidence of the philosopher Epicurus is very remarkable, whose word in this matter is the more to be trusted, because a professed sensualist; who, amidst all the delicacies and improvements of pleasure which a luxuriant fancy might strike out, still maintained, that the best way of enlarging human happiness, was by a communication of it to others.

And if it was necessary here, or there was time to refine upon this docline, one might farther maintain, exclusive of the happiness which the VOL. III. F

mind itself feels in the exercise of this virtue, that the very body of man is never in a better state than when he is most inclined to do good offices;

that as nothing more contributes to health than a benevolence of temper, so nothing generally is a stronger indication of it,

And what seemes to confirm this opinion, is an observation, the truth of which must be submitted to every one's reflection-namely—that a disinclination and backwardness to do good, is often attended, if not produced, by an indisposition of the animal as well as rational part of us; So naturally do the soul and body, as in other cases, so in this, mutually befriend, or prey upon each other. And, indeed, setting aside all abstruser reasoning upon the point, I cannot conceive, but that the very mechanical motions which maintain life, must be performed with more equal vigor and freedom in that man, whom a great and good soul perpetually inclines to show mercy to the miserable, than they can be in a poor, sordid, selfish wretch, whose little, contracted heart, melts at no man's affliction; but sits brooding so intent, ly over its own plots and concerns, as to see and feel nothing, and, in truth, enjoy nothing beyond himself; and of whom, one may say what that great master of nature has, speaking of a natural sense of harmony, which, I think, with more justice, may be said of compassion, that the man who had it not,

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"Was fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils : "The MOTIONS of his spirit are dull as night s "And his affections dark as EREBUS :

What divines say of the mind naturalists have observed of the body,-that there is no passion so natural to it as love, which is the principle of

doing good; and, though instances like this just mentioned, seem far from being proofs of it, yet it is not to be doubted, but that every hard-hearted man has felt much inward opposition before he could prevail upon himself to do aught to fix and deserve the character: And that what we say of long habits of vice, that they are hard to be subdued, may, with equal truth, be said concerning the natural impressions of benevolence, that a man must do much violence to himself, and suffer ma ny a painful struggle, before he can tear away so great and noble a part of his nature.Of this, antiquity has preserved a beautiful instance, in an anecdote of Alexander, the Tyrant of Pheres, who though he had so industriously hardened his heart, as to seem to take delight in cruelty, insomuch as to murder many of his subjects every day, without cause, and without pity; yet, at the bare representation of a tragedy which related the misfortunes of Hecuba and Andromache, he was so touched with the fictitious distress which the poet had wrought up in it, that he burst out into a flood of tears:The explication of which inconsistency is easy, and casts as great a lustre upon human nature, as the man himself was a disgrace to it. The case seems to have been this:

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real life he had been blinded with passions, and thoughtlessly hurried on by interest or resentment; -but here, there was no room for motives of that kind So that his attention being first caught hold of, and all his vices laid asleep ;-then NATURE awoke in triumph, and showed how deeply she had sown the seeds of compassion in every man's breast; when tyrants, with vices the most at enmity with it, were not able entirely to root it out.

But this is painting an amiable virtue, and setting her off with shades which wickedness lends us, when one might safely trust to the force of her own natural charms, and ask, whether any thing