mind free from care; and a conscience at

peace with GOD. Compare what I say, my friends, with the result of your own observation, or experience; and you will soon acknowledge, that it is but truth. Look, for instance, at any labourer, mechanic, or manufacturer, in your neighbourhood, who is industrious, honest, and religious, (for such only can be expected to have the blessing of GoD,) and what will you see? You will see a man, healthy in body, and cheerful in mind; because he is always employed, and has none of the cares of riches to disturb him. You will see him happy with his wife and children; because he has endeared the one to him by his kindness. and affection, and has brought up the other in the nurture and admonition of the LORD. You will see him enjoying the little comforts of his home; because he is not like the rich and great, a stranger to his own family and house. You will see him taking no anxious thought for to-morrow, as if he distrusted the goodness of Providence, but expending his small gains with proper prudence and economy, and laying up what remains of them for the use of another day. In like manner, if you look at the faithful servant, who loves his master, and is diligent, careful, and honest in the dis

charge of his duties; you will behold another picture, which should teach you the christian virtue of contentment. You will see him or her, with no cares of their own, but the care of doing their duty. You will see them enjoying the confidence of their employers, and treated more like brethren than dependents. You will see them, not wasting their gains in unbecoming dress, or foolish vanities, but laying them by as a provision for those years when they shall be incapable of servitude. You will see them light of heart, cheerful in their looks, and with minds easy and contented; be⚫ cause constantly employed in that useful manner, which Providence has appointed for them, as their lot of life here below.

No man, indeed, who has either huma nity or common sense, will deny that poverty has its evils; and that many of the lower orders of society may sometimes be reduced to severe sufferings. Want may be extreme; hunger pressing; work difficult to be procured; and sickness may attack the poor man, when he is maintaining himself by his labour, and cut off all his supplies. These evils must occasionally happen, from the imperfect state of human society; and GOD comfort those on whom they fall! But this may be truly said,

-that, when the labourer, the mechanic, or the servant, happens to fall into these melancholy circumstances; if they have been faithful, sober, honest, industrious, and religious, in their several callings, God will not forsake them; but will raise up for them friends and protectors, who will comfort them in their need, relieve them in their difficulties, and make them "a bed in their "sickness." In our own country, blessed be GOD, are innumerable means of refuge for the miserable; and no truly deserving poor man will want the private assistance of some good Samaritan, or the comfort and protection of some public charity, if acci dent or misfortune shall have reduced him to want and wretchedness.

I trust, my friends, that what I have said, will be sufficient to convince you of two things. First, that whatsoever situation of life it may have pleased Gov to have placed you in, it is your duty therewith to be content; because happiness is very equally distributed; and because, if the lower classes want some advantages, they have others which the rich do not enjoy. And, secondly, that it is equally your duty to love that constitution and form of government, and to revere and obey those laws, which protect you in the enjoyment of your humble com

forts; because if the constitution were overturned, and those laws destroyed, the poor, as well as the wealthy, would be equally cut off from all their present means of happiness.

No man who believes, the Bible, can doubt that it is a christian virtue, of great importance, to be contented with his lot in. this world; for he has not only the commands of his Saviour to this effect, but, what is still more striking, his own holy example. For though he was despised "and rejected of men, a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief;" he, notwithstanding, bore every hardship without a murmur; and always submitted himself to the will of his Father, in patience and resignation, with this pious expression of content, "Thy "will be done." Nor will any man, however Humble his situation may be, (if he is blessed with a common understanding,) wish for, or endeavour to promote, a change in the government or laws of his country; which would only jumble all ranks together, in universal ruin; and, in the end, throw all power into the hands of the wicked and the mischievous. On the contrary, he will, according to the advice of the apostle, "study to be quiet, and to do his own bu"siness;" enjoying, in gratitude and con

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tentment, the comforts of his own situation; shewing forth, in his behaviour, the virtues of a good christian, a good subject, and a good neighbour; honouring and obeying "all that are put in authority over him ;' and, if ever the legal government of his country should be endangered or threatened by enemies, abroad or at home, ranging himself under the banner of the constitution, as it is settled in church and state; and say ing with the people of Jerusalem, when Zadok the priest anointed Solomon the son of David,

"GOD SAVE the King."