various functions of magiftracy; the management of local concerns and inftitutions; and the discharge of many public trufts connected with the fuperintendence of the revenue and the civil and military welfare of the community. In fome of the occupations appertaining to men of your clafs pride often seeks its gratification; and the enfnaring influence of intereft, immediate or remote, is powerfully felt. The temptation however to which you are peculiarly obnoxious is, partly because your labour feems voluntary, partly because it is not unfrequently gratuitous, to applaud yourfelves as nobly and needlessly relinquishing a portion of your time and ease for the benefit of others, and as laying up merit with God and man by works of fupererogation. Merit! Shall they who have received the moft from God, labour for Him the least? Shall they who have the largest opportunities, the ampleft leifure, for looking on the things of others, for advancing the general and individual welfare of their fellow-creatures, labour for them the leaft? Works of fupererogation! To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not; to him it is fin (i).

VOL. II.

(i) James, iv. 17.
P

Occupy

Occupy till I

come, is the universal mandate of your Lord. And what was his example? Chrift pleased not himself (k); lived not to his own indulgence. Was not his life a continued fcene of fpontaneous extreme and moft difinterested labour? Do you grudge difinterested labour, and profess to follow his steps? Are you fo blind to the demerits of your best performances as to demand reward not of grace, but of debt? When ye shall have done all, fay; we are unprofitable fervants: we have done that, and that only, which was our duty to do (1).

III. Confider briefly fome of the benefits refulting to the individual from Occupation; and you will confefs that, if God enjoined labour as a judgement, he enjoined it alfo in mercy.

Labour, in the first place, not only is the medium of acquifition; but naturally tends to improvement. Whether the body is to be ftrengthened or the mind to be cultivated; whether fubfiftence or knowledge is fought; whether the neceffaries or the accommodations of life are at stake whether our own interest or that of others

(k) Rom. xv. 3.

(1) Luke, xvii. 10.

is to be forwarded: by labour, under the bleffing of Providence, the object of to-day is attained; by the labour of to-day are augmented the facilities of attaining similar objects to-morrow.

Labour is, in the next place, a powerful prefervative from fin. The unoccupied hand is a ready inftrument of mischief. The unoccupied mind is a vacant field, in which the feeds of evil natural to the foil shoot with unlimited growth. On what day is the wickedness of the irreligious the most flagrant? On the Sabbath: because to them it is a day of idleness. When are popular exceffes moft to be dreaded? When Idleness gives the reins to licentiousness. Behold, this, faith the Lord God, was the iniquity of Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her (m). Abundance of idleness was among the primary fources of thofe enormities, which drew down the fiery deluge from above. He who liftens not to the voice of temptation because employment prompts the anfwer, "I have not leifure to attend to "thee:" though he has not attained the praise of virtue, may have escaped the guilt of tranfgreffion.

(m) Ezek. xvi. 49.
P 2

Occu

Occupation, reftricted to laudable purfuits, claims a place among the fecondary causes, which pre-difpofe men to progress in religion. Idleness is irreligious in itself, as a breach of duty: and contributes to form and establish a habit of mind not merely averse from all exertion; but commonly marked by ftronger repugnance to religious efforts and researches than to any other branch of employment.

Farther: Occupation, originating in Christian principles and directed to Chrif tian purposes, is effential, not only to the refreshing enjoyment of leifure (for the reft that refreshes is reft after toil); but to the acquifition of genuine compofure, of serenity of conscience, of that peace of God which paffeth all understanding. To be a blank in creation, a cumberer of the ground; to be torpid amidst furrounding industry; to be entrusted with talents, and employ them not for good; to owe infinite obligations, and withhold active evidences of gratitude; to be commanded to occupy until the coming of your Lord, and to waste life in habitual difobedience-with these features in your character is your mind at ease? Have you ftable fatisfaction within? Does not shame redden your cheek? Does not alarm agitate your foul?

Single out from the paffing crowd of examples a character habitually flothful: a character slumbering in lazy listlessness, or bufied in the laborious idleness of folly. Single out a fluggard protracting night unto noon, fauntering in the irksomeness of inactivity, hearing in languid vacancy the news of the day; and killing time (weigh well the import of this his customary phrase), killing time evening after evening at the card table! Select a young man devoted to the chafe and its attendant cares: or with skill worthy of a game-keeper, with ardour which might befit a savage in a wilderness constrained to a perilous war against the beafts of the field, dealing day after day and year after year deftruction from his gun amidst the animal race. Select a young woman rolling round the vortex of diffipation, living to accomplishments and fashion and the fong and the dance. Is this to improve life? Is this to watch against fin? Is this to prepare the heart for religion? Is this to be a fervant of Chrift, who could not but be about his Father's business? Shall the Idler, roufed on the great day by the enquiry, "What has been thy oc"cupation," reply to the Judge; "Ifcoffed "not at thy word: I refpected thine or"dinances:

P3