ous, and submissive, for your bringing them into the service of your common Lord.*

ON DOING GOOD TO OUR SERVANTS.

I HAVE Somewhere met with a paper under this title, the RESOLUTION OF A MASTER; which may be properly inserted in this place.†

1. I would always remember, that my servants are, in some sense, my children; and by taking care that they want nothing which may be good for them, I would make them as my children; and, as far as the methods of instilling piety into the mind, which I use with my children, may be properly and prudently used with my servants, they shall be partakers in them. Nor will I leave them ignorant of any thing, wherein I may instruct them to be useful to their generation.

II. I will see that my servants be furnished with Bibles, and be able and careful to read the lively oracles. I will put Bibles and other good and proper books into their hands; will allow them time to read, and assure myself that they do not mispend this time. If I can discern any wicked books in their hands, I will take away from them those pestilential instruments of wickedness. They shall also write as well as read, if I may be able to bring them to it. And I will appoint them, now and then, such things to write, as may be for the greatest advantage.

III. I will have my servants present at the religious exercises of my family; and will drop, either in the exhortations, in the prayers, or in the daily sacrifices of the family, such passages as may have a tendency to quicken a sense of religion in them.

*In the original work, some obesrvations are made in this place with respect to the usage of slaves; but as the subject has happily no connection with our country, the passage is here omitted.

†The modesty of the author thus expresses, probably, his own production.

IV. The article of catechising, as far as the age or state of the servants will permit it to be done with decency, shall extend to them also. And they shall be concerned in the conferences in which I may be engaged with my family, in the repetition of the pub. lic sermons. If any of them, when they come to me, shall not have learned the catechism, I will take care that they do it, and will give them a reward when they have accomplished it.

V. I will be very inquisitive and solicitous about the company chosen by my servants; and with all possible earnestness will rescue them from the snares of evil company, and forbid their being the "companions of fools."

VI. Such of my servants as may be capable of the task, I will employ to teach lessons of piety to my children, and will recompense them for so doing. But I would, by a particular artifice, contrive them to be such lessons as may be for their own edification too.

VII. I will sometimes call my servants alone; talk to them about the state of their souls; tell them how to close with their only Saviour; charge them to do well, and "lay hold on eternal life;" and shew them very particularly how they may render all they do for me, a service to the glorious Lord; how they may do all from a principle of obedience to him, and become entitled to the "reward of the heavenly inheritance."

To these resolutions I add the following passages as an Appendix.

Age is nearly sufficient, with some masters, to obliterate every letter and action in the history of a meritorious life; and old services are generally buried under the ruins of an old carcase. It is a barbarous inhumanity in men towards their servants, to account their small failings as crimes, without allowing their past services to have been virtues. Gracious God, keep thy servant from such base ingratitude!

But then, O SERVANTS, if you would obtain "the reward of the inheritance," each of you should set

yourself to inquire-"How shall I approve myself such a servant that the Lord may bless the house of my master the more for my being in it?" Certainly, there are many ways in which servants may become blessings. Let your studies, with your continual prayers for the welfare of the families to which you belong, and the example of your sober carriage, render you such. If you will but remember four words, and attempt all that is comprised in them,

OBEDIENCE, HONESTY, INDUSTRY, and PIETY, you will be the blessings and the Josephs of the families in which you live. Let these four words be distinctly and frequently recollected; and cheerfully perform all your business, on this consideration-that it is an obedience to Heaven, and from thence will have a recompense. It was the observation even of a Pagan, "that a master may receive a benefit from a servant;" and, "What is done with the affection of a friend, ceases to be the act of a mere servant."* Even the MAID SERVANTS of the house may render a great service to it, by instructing the infants, and instilling into their minds, the lessons of goodness. Thus, by Bilhah and Zilpah, may children be born again; thus the mistresses, by the travail of their hand-maids, may have children brought into the kingdom of God.

man.

I proceed-Humanity teaches us to take notice of all our kindred. Nature bespeaks what we call a "natural affection" to all who are a-kin to us: to be destitute of it is a very bad character; it is a brand on the worst of men, on such as forfeit the name of But christianity is intended to improve it. Our natural affection is to be improved into a relig ious intention. Reader, make a catalogue of all your more distant relatives. Consider them one by one; and make each of them the subject of your "good devices." Ask this question. "How may I pursue the good of such a relative: By what means may I render such a relative the better for me?" It is possi

* Quod fit affectu amici, desinit esse ministerium.

ble that you may do something for your relatives which may afford them cause to bless God for your relation to them. Have they no calamity under which you may give them relief? Is there no temptation against which you may give them some caution? Is there no article of their prosperity to which you may be subservient? At least, with your affectionate prayers, you may go over your catalogue; you may pray for each of them successively by name; and why may you not put proper books of piety into their hands, to be durable memorials of their duties to God, and of your desires for their good?

ON DOING GOOD TO OUR NEIGHBOURS.

THIS excellent zeal should be extended to the NEIGHBOURHOOD. Neighbours you stand related to each other; and you should contrive how others should have reason to rejoice in your neighbourhood. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour;" but we shall scarcely allow him to be so, unless he be more excellent as a neighbour: he must excel in the duties of good neighbourhood. Let that man be better than his neighbour, who labours most to be a better neighbour-to do most good to his neighbour.

And here, first, the poor people that lie wounded must have oil and wine poured into their wounds. It was a charming trait in the character of a modern prince" to be in distress is to deserve his favour." O good neighbour put on that princely, that more than royal quality. See who in the neighbourhood may thus deserve thy favour. We are told that "pure religion and undefiled (a jewel not counterfeited, and without a flaw,) is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction." The orphans and the widows, and all the children of affliction in the neigh bourhood, must be visited and relieved with all suitable kindness.

Neighbours! be concerned that the orphans and the widows may be well provided for. They meet

with grievous difficulties, with unknown temptations. When their nearest relatives were living, they were, perhaps, but meanly provided for: what then must be their present solitary condition? That condition should be well considered; and the result of the consideration should be, "I delivered the orphan who had no helper, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy."

By the same rule, all the afflicted in the neighbourhood are to be considered. Would it be too much for you once in a week, at least, to think "What neighbour is reduced to pinching and painful poverty, or impoverished with heavy losses? What neighbour is languishing with sickness, especially with severe disease, and of long continuance? What neighbour is broken-hearted with the loss of a dear and desirable relative? What neighbour has a soul violently assaulted by the enemy of souls ?" and then consider, "What can be done for such neighbours ?”

la the first place, you will pity them. The evangelical precept is, "Have compassion one of anotherbe pitiful" It was of old and ever will be a just expectation, To him that is afflicted, pity should be shewn;" and let our pity to the distressed be expressed by our prayer for them. It would be a very lovely practice for you in the daily prayer of your closet every evening to think, "What miserable object have I seen to-day, for whom I may do well now to entreat the mercies of the Lord?" But this is not all; it is possible, nay probable, that you may do well to visit them; and when you visit them, comfort them; carry them some good word, which may raise gladness in a heart stooping with heaviness.

And, lastly: Render them all the assistance which their necessities may require. Assist them by your advice; assist them by obtaining the help of other persons on their behalf; and, if it be needful, bestow your ALMS upon them; "Deal thy bread to the hungry; bring to thy house the poor that are cast out; when thou seest the naked cover him :" at least, exercise Nazianzen's charity; "Si nihil habes, da lacrymulam;" If you have nothing else to bestow