A SERMON.

15th Chap. DEUTERONOMY, 11th v.

"For the Poor shall never cease out of the Land."

It seems to follow, as an obvious and necessary consequence of this declaration, that if the poor shall never cease out of the land, so neither can the rich.

If the terms rich and poor may be justly considered to be terms of comparison, and to have no substantive meaning, no intelligible application, but by reference to each other, there must of necessity be an order of rich individuals, with whose superior wealth the possessions of others of inferior extent and value may be compared, in order to render the terms rich, as applied to the possessors of greater wealth, and poor, as applied to the owners of smaller property, intelligible terms.

If all men were in the same circumstances and condition of life,-if all had precisely the same wants and necessities, and possessed alike the same means of supplying them, the terms rich and poor could have no intelligible application to any one.

There must be inequality of circumstances and condition to render them, according, at least, to their common acceptation, intelligible in their application. And if so, since God has himself declared that the poor shall never cease out of the land, it follows, of necessity, that neither can the rich; and, consequently, that that illusory, delusive, that fallacious system of universal equality, which it has been attempted to introduce throughout the world in our own days, never can be established on Earth.

And even had the sacred Oracles been silent on the subject, the difference we observe in the physical powers of that constitution which God has appointed for man would alone preclude the possibility of such an order of things, of a state of universal equality throughout the world; so great is the difference in the natural faculties both of mind and body in different individuals, that while we see some men living in a state of inactivity throughout their days, and never seeking to emerge from the obscurity in which they have been born, we see others, by the force of those energies which their natural constitutions supply (where aided by the divine blessing on their endeavours), exalting themselves from the same obscurity to stations of wealth and rank and eminence among men, and transmitting their well-earned acquisitions to the enjoyment of their posterity, in whose possession we not unfrequently find them remaining, a valuable testimony, an honourable monument, of

the wisdom, intelligence, and integrity of their forefathers.

The reflections, however, which result from this arrangement of the divine wisdom, from this appointment of rich and poor, from this divine ordination of the different ranks and orders of society in the world, might furnish subject matter for endless volumes; nor could the shortest outline of them to which we could possibly confine ourselves be brought within those limits to which, in this place, we are necessarily restrained. We shall only, therefore, briefly advert to some few of those leading considerations which the conclusions we have endeavoured to establish from the words of the text seem naturally to suggest ; and these, we may remark, are either of universal concern, and involve in them the general duties of the whole race of mankind, or of partial application only, and relate exclusively to the peculiar duties of each particular class of society among men.

With respect to those considerations which are of universal concern, we may briefly observe-that if that inequality of condition among men which exists throughout the world in the present day, and has existed since the world began, be of God's ordination, it must be the obvious duty of every man, whatever his condition in life, whether rich or poor, to submit with pious and cheerful resignation to this arrangement of the divine wisdom, the divine economy, the divine will, and to be contented with the

station which his Creator has been pleased to assign him.

It will be our wisdom to learn, and with pious thankfulness and grateful love to God for all those general and universal blessings of his creation, which are withheld from no peculiar condition of life, but are alike common to every individual of his creatures, to endeavour faithfully to fulfil, both to God and to our neighbours, and as to God, and not as to men, the various duties of the several stations to which, in his all-wise arrangement of our different conditions on earth, he has seen fit to appoint us, as the best calculated to promote not only the gracious, the merciful, though inscrutable, purposes of his holy and perfect will, but therein we may rest assured, both our present comfort and our everlasting peace.

With respect to those considerations which are of less extensive application, and relate only to the peculiar condition and duties of each particular class of society among men, without adverting to all the intermediate ranks and stations of life, we shall limit our observation to the two leading classes, the rich and the poor, to which the declaration contained in the text, by implication with regard to the former, and expressly with respect to the latter class, more immediately directs our attention.

In considering the duties which the divine arrangement of our various conditions in life imposes on the poor man, it will be obvious to all that it requires

him not only to be contented with, and thankful for the station to which God has been pleased to appoint him, but to learn and labour truly therein to get his own living, remembering that God himself has declared, "if any will not work, neither shall he eat;" and to use his utmost efforts to render the station to which he has been called effectual to the purpose for which he was ordained to it; remembering also that the honour of God requires of us, to promote, by all our powers, all the purposes of his holy will to the advancement of his glory; and that if, by idleness and misconduct, we fail to get our living in the station we are called to, and thereby become burthensome to others, we render our station ineffectual to the end for which God has placed us in it, and disappoint, so far as his righteous designs can be disappointed by the misconduct of man, the all-wise purposes of his gracious will, and must draw down on ourselves his severe and heavy displeasure.

And not only does this divine appointment of man's condition on earth impose on the poor man the duty to get his own living, but it also requires him to labour truly for the maintenance of all who may be justly dependent on him for support. For the Apostle declares, that if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an Infidel.

Nor is the duty which this divine ordination im-. poses on the poor man limited by the wants and necessities of himself and his family; it requires him