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be firmly and faithfully administered upon them. This is what we need. Such a course as this, quietly and perseveringly pursued for ten years, would shew the most delightful results. Different, alas! very different, is the present state and character of our efforts to do them good. Our poor have not the gospel preached to them.
And now I proceed to bring forward:
III. Some consideration which should rouse us to this much neglected duty.
And, First,
God has committed the gospel to us, as Christians, for the very purpose, of our servingg that it is preached to the poor. Our business in this world, our very object in living, and God's purpose in keeping us alive, is that we may promote this end. If it were not for this purpose of God's, my brethren, you would not he alive this day. If it were not to aid in this and other similar works of benevolence, the property you now hold would have, been placed in other hands. By being faithful to this duty, and not other wise, our own Christian graces will flourish. Christ, was a friend of sinners, the associate of publicans, the benefactor of the poor. If we do not seek the benefit of our poor, how can we be like Christ? An interest, a deep and lively interest, in the spiritual well being is this population, would be of incalculable spirtual advantage to ourselves. The missionary spirit is an element of the inmost life and potency in the moral constitution of any church. But a spirit of concern for the salvation of these our poor would be the missionary spirit. What Dr Chalmers says to his friends in Edinburgh, I may say, with far greater propriety and emphasis, to you: "Do not think that it is necessary that you should travel thousands of miles, or that you have immense oceans to traverse, before you can engage in a missionary work. There are wretched creatures in many parts of this town who are at as great a moral distance from the gospel, and from all its lessons, as if they had been born and lived all their days in the wilds of Tartary."
Secondly,
The grand distinction of the gospel is, that it is designed especially for the poor. This is its leading object, and end. Why seek to confine it to the rich, the intelligent, the great, the virtuous, when it is given to he preached especially to the poor and wretched and sinful? "I don't want to supeificialize,
