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The following striking re- variable tenor of his conduct marks are extracted from a sermon of Cappe.

"THE piety of Jesus was not merely the piety of devotion, of prayer and praise and thanksgiving. His religion was not merely the religion of retire ment and secrecy; it was not merely the first and the last moments of the day, and besides these, one day in seven, that he devoted unto God; every hour of every day he consecrated unto him. "He set the Lord always before him, and in all his ways he acknowledged God." Was his doctrine excellent and amiable? They were not his own words that he spake, but the words of the Father who sent him. Did his miracles excite the wonder and reverence of the beholders? It was not he, it was the Father that did the works. Did he call upon the world to believe his doctrine and obey it? It was not his own honour that he sought, it was that his Father might be glorified.

"It were superfluous to allege any particular instances of his piety; it shines in every thing he says, and is displayed in every thing he does. The in

is that of a man determined at every hazard, at every expense to himself, to do hatever is well-pleasing in the sight of God. To explain his will, to assert his providence, to magni. fy his excellences, to set forth the vast importance of his favour or displeasure, to correct every error that he met with concerning these interesting subjects, to engage men to consider these things, to awaken in their hearts those sentiments and affections which ought to be excited by them there, and to persuade them to submit their conduct to the influence of these things, Jesus was continually attentive. His glory, is the service to which he is appointed, and his joy, the interest he possessed in the friendship of him who sent him. His diligence in the work of God bespake the high esteem in which he held his service, and the pleasure it was to him to conform to his will.

His content and cheer fulness amidst all his privationsand wants; his patience and resignation under all his various dangers and afflictions, whick never could deter him from his duty, nor damp his zeal in the

discharge of it, declare unto the world in the most credible and affecting language, that his confidence in God, was not to be shaken, and that he loved his Father better than his life.

"Such, Christians, was the piety of Jesus; such the honour that he did to God and to religion in his intercourse with mankind. Compare your piety with his; does it show itself in your conduct, as well as your devotions ? If it does, you are worthy of your name. But will any man call himself a Christian, will any man pretend that he has the spirit of Christ Jesus in him, who does the work of God with a reluctant mind, and bears the will of God with an impatient spirit ? Will any man usurp these saered appellations, and assume the hopes that belong to his disciples, who despises the word of God, who profanes the day of God, who forsakes the assemblies of God's worship, and neglects the ordinances of religion? Can any man think himself a follower of Jesus who is afraid or ashamed to confess the truth, and discharge his duty before men; frighted out of his religion by the frown of power, or laughed out of it by the jests of folly? It was not thus that Jesus had his conversation in the world: this is not the piety that will glorify your heavenly Father, and adorn your Christian profession. True piety is a purer, a nobler, and a steadier principle; which arising from just ideas of the nature, the character, and the government of God, and from true

eonceptions of the obligations that we owe to him, thinks well of all that he appoints, takes pleasure in all that he commands, reverences every thing that comes from him or relates to him, and delights to hold communion with him, in the contemplation of his works, in the perusal of his word, in the celebration of his ordinances, in the prayers and praises and thanksgivings of his sanctuary, as well as in the sacred exercises of devout retirement. It is a principle, which, remember ing that God is every where as well as in his temple, carries with it a reverent sense of the divine presence into company, into business, into scenes care and pleasure, no less than into scenes of leisure and devotion; which, perceiving or believing the goodness of God in all things, does all unto his glory; which, esteeming his favour to be life, and preferring his loving-kindness to all that life can give, looks with a jeal

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eye on every thing that will endanger its interests with God; which, glorying in his service, abhors the very thought of denying God, or of dissem bling its relation to him ; which, rejoicing in the hopes and consolations of that service, would have all men to lay hold on this happiness and honour; which, sensible that its obligations to the great Ruler of the world are continually increasing, embraces with joy and gladness every opportunity that occurs to serve the cause of truth and virtue among men, and thus to promote their present and their future happiness, and so to ex

press its gratitude to God in advancing the interests of his kingdom.

True piety, confiding in God, is never backward to confess him; declines no duties to which he calls, and no trials into which he leads it: it is ashamed of nothing but its imperfections in his service and afraid of nothing in comparison of his displeasure; is solicitous above all things to maintain its character, and to live in the world as a servant of, and dependent upon God; as entrusted by him with ten talents; as indebted to him for ten thousand comforts; as an heir of his promises, and an imitator of his glory.

"In the character of Jesus you have the fairest and most perfect portrait of the piety which ought to distinguish your conduct to the world. Can any thing be more reasonable, than that you, who through him have such glorious displays of the perfections of God, and such liberal communications of his love, should not live as being without God and without hope in the world? Can any thing be more reasonable than that you should live to his glory who gave you life? Can any thing be more reasonable than that your religion should express itself in your conversa tion? Can any thing be more absurd than that the followers of Jesus should show no more of piety in all their conduct than those who have no knowledge of him or of his Father? Can any thing be more unnatural or in excusable, than that there should be no more traces of reVol. VI.-No. 2.

ligion in your commerce with mankind, than if you had wil fully shut your eyes against the light of gospel truth, turned away your ear from the voice of reason, and perversely laboured to eradicate from your heart those sentiments of rcligion which spontaneously spring up there? Can any man acknowledge you for Christians, if with all his searching he can find no piety about you, or no more of godliness than the form? You cannot suspect that it would hurt you with your Maker if you lived godly, as well as soberly and righteously, in the world: religion, would not hurt you with the great object of religion. Do you think, then, that it would hurt you with the world? If you thought so, and if that thought were true, dictated by reason, and established by experience, yet who could hesitate between two such unequal masters as the world and God; and between two such unequal periods, as the life that now is, and that which is to come?

"But in truth, religion will not hurt you with the world, any more than with its Maker. "Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. » According to the ordinary course of divine providence, piety enjoys the happiness of both. For superstitious fancies, for fanatic flights, for the empty forms of godliness, for the high-strained affectation of religion, it is probable you may suffer, if in no other way, yet at least in the esteem of the wise and good; and it is just that for these

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Has not thy breast with anger burn'd,
And ill for ill how oft return'd?
Nay, hast thou not misunderstood;
And evil oft return'd for good!

Hast thou been thankful to the Power
Which sav'd thy life in danger's hour?
With blessings who has crown'd thy
days,

Say what returns of grateful praise?

When he chastis'd, think, hast thou then

Submissive to his chastening been? Say, didst thou not aloud repine When Heaven had cross'd some fond design?

Or, if thy speech has been restrain'd, Has not a secret murm'ring pain'd?

Has envy ne'er thy breast annoy'd
All good which others have enjoy'd?

Hast thou according to thy store,
Been lib'ral always to the poor?
And didst thou, sympathetic, grieve
O'er ills which thou couldst not relieve?

Hast thou been kind to all thy friends,
Not seeking merely selfish ends?
And hast thou from thy early youth
Adher'd to plain and simple truth?

Were all thy dealings strictly just,
And faithful always to thy trust?
Have those who watch'd thee never
found

Thy footsteps on forbidden ground?

Hast thou been thankful for that light, Which Heaven has shed o'er Nature's night?

Hast thou the Gospel rightly priz’d,
And ne'er its sacred truths despis'd?

Say hast thou kept thy heart from sin?
Has all been pure and right within?
Didst thou in secret always be
As seeing Him who seeth thee?

The past review'd with solemn care
Will call for penitence, and prayer
To Him alone who can forgive,
And bid the penitent to live!

Philanthropist, March, 1816.

The Philanthropist gives these lines as composed by a gentleman of Bos ton, and first published in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser for Oct. 9, 1815.

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THE PRUDENT MAN'S FRIEND SOCIETY.

AT Bristol, England, a Society has been formed under the name now before us. The following extracts from their Report, December, 1816, will show the character and object of the Society.

"To raise the labouring man from the degraded state into which the poor laws and injudicious charity have a tendency to sink him; to cherish the honest independence of spirit, which would lead him to refuse the aid of others in the maintenance of himself and family; and to teach him that industry and prudence are a more certain and inexhaustible resource than the bouuty of the rich; appears now to be the aim not only of enlightened individuals, but of a large body of men assembled in the benevolent hope of lessening those distresses which war and a peculiarly unfavorable season, have brought upon us."

"Before such just views of the real interests of the laboring classes, every impediment to the growth of the moral and social virtues among them must quickly disappear, and especially that monstrous system, by which one man's family is supported by the labor of another man's hand. Indeed to tax industry and foresight for the sup port of idleness and improvidence is an anomaly in legislation which cannot long be tolerated in the 19th century."

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"There have been deposited in your fund of savings 7,3981. 10s. 3d.

of which sum 4,3611. 16s. 7d. have been received since the last annual meeting." "-4191. had been loaned to 1,200 persons, 2,453 vagrants and travellers had been relieved by the bounty of the society. On account of the great scarcity and distress, the Committee had established soup shops at which they distributed a comforta ble meal daily, to about 1000 persons. The Committee add,

"That at a time when the utmost exertions of benevolence are barely sufficient to keep famine from the houses of our poor, it is impossible to prevent the mind from continually recurring to the loss, which this society, in common with every distressed individual and every asociation for the good of others, within what he considered as his sphere of action, have sustained in our venerable and respected vice-president, RICHARD REYNOLDS. The views of this truly great man, in the science of political economy, were as enlightened as his benevolence was extensive. To teach the idle, the thoughtless, and the improvident, the value of industry, prudence, and economy, were, in h opinion, in the attainment of the object of the labors of his long life, the happiness of his fellow-creatures; and though he never turned from suffering, whether the consequence of impru dence, or the result of misfortune, he knew that, important as is the duty of relieving distress, there is one still higher, that of preventing it. As the friend of the prudent man, therefore,

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