a discreet and respectful manner recommended both his person and his admonition. Let all reprovers, both public and private, imitate this lovely example. Let them seek, by a prudent and respectful mode of address, to insinuate needful reproof into the affections of men, and thus to give it desirable success; which brings me to add,

Thirdly, Rebuke must be dispensed in a meek and compassionate manner. Nothing can be more unbecoming and cruel, than haughty, sarcastic, or insulting treatment of a guilty brother, which seems to triumph in his pain and confusion. The spirit of Christian charity forbids all scurrilous reflections on the person reproved, and every needless aggravation of his offence. It requires us to probe his wound with the hand of tender pity, as those who participate in the distress, which duty and love compel us to inflict, and who wish to excite no more anguish, than the real necessity and benefit of the patient demand. We have an excellent model of this compassionate manner of reproving in the prophet Nathan, when sent to admonish David of his shocking guilt in the affair of Uriah. Instead of directly painting, in strong and aggravated colours, the crimes of adultery and murder, he imperceptibly steals into David's conscience and heart, by the nicest arts of gentle address. By reciting a most apposite and moving parable he leads the guilty monarch insensibly to pronounce his own condemnation. Having thus brought him to confess his sin, he adds not one severe word to heighten his affliction, but hastens to comfort him with an assurance of divine forgiveness, seconded, however, by a kind but faithful warning; "The Lord has put away thy sin, thou shalt not die,-Howbeit, as by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme," thy infant son, the

K

offspring of thy crime, "shall surely die." How tender, yet how effectual, was this manner of dealing!

This compassionate style of reproof is ever connected with a humbling sense of our own guilt and remaining depravity, and a thankful acknowledgment of that divine grace, which has preserved us from the same or even greater vices, than those, which we reprove in oth, ers. This humility and pious gratitude will prevent us from looking down upon offenders, as the proud Pharisee did on the poor Publican, with a boasting, vain glorious air; and will lead us to adore the distinguishing mercy of God in keeping, or delivering us from those temptations, by which others have fallen.

Fourthly, Reproof must not be continued or repeated, after the occasion is removed by the reformation of the offender. When our guilty brother repents, he ought to be forgiven; and, if we forgive a crime, we ought to forget it; that is, to feel and behave, as if we had forgotten it, in a friendly and respectful manner, as we treat those, who have never offended us.

If those, who call themselves Christians, would diligently discharge the duty before us, in the manner now recommended, they would evidence and promote their brotherly love to the best advantage. Their admonitions, for the most part, would be kindly received, and would frequently, by the divine blessing, produce the desired effect. Such faithful reprovers would, at least, preserve their own souls from sharing the guilt and ruin of their offending brethren; and would possess unspeakable comfort and benefit in the present approbation and improvement of their own minds, and in the final applause and recompense of their Judge.

Let these considerations prevail on you, my brethren, to comply in good earnest with the precept of the text. Remember that it forbids you, on any pre

tence, or for any reason whatever, to omit this humane and benevolent office. Be entreated then to banish the excuses, and to remove the causes, which obstruct or mar your performance of this duty.

Some of you are perhaps deterred from reproving others, by a consciousness that you are equally guilty yourselves, You cannot with any spirit or confidence press those duties upon your neighbours, or even your own children, which you yourselves secretly or openly neglect. You cannot rebuke them for sin, when you commit the same, or equal transgressions. You have

not courage, by attempting to reform them, to expose yourselves to that cutting 'retort, "Physician, heal thyself." Those parents, rulers, or masters, those Christian professors and teachers, may well be afraid and ashamed to reprove and exhort others, who are not religiously careful of their own temper and conduct; for the admonitions of such can have little authority, acceptance, or utility. All of us, therefore, especially those, who are appointed to watch over others, have a double motive to attend to ourselves, since without this attention we can neither save ourselves, nor usefully perform our duty to mankind, but directly contribute to the destruction of both. Let our charity, then, begin at home, in the thorough conversion and genuine integrity of our own hearts and lives. Then, our experience and example will give energy to our endeavours for the reformation of others.

Again, some of you are probably hindered from the performance of this duty by a desire of pleasing, and a fear of offending men. But though the favour of those around us be a desirable good, both in itself and its ef fects, and the contrary be an equal evil; yet it is cer tainly our duty and interest to please God, rather than men. To please men for their good to edification is

true Christian benevolence; but to please them to their destruction is base and savage cruelty.

Another hindrance to this duty is an excessive constitutional tenderness, which will not suffer us to give pain to a fellow creature, even on the most urgent occasions. Thus the tender feelings of some parents will not permit them to curb the extravagant humours and passions of their children, or to administer the most needful correction, or even reproof. The same principle withholds many neighbours and friends from bearing proper testimony against the follies and vices of each other. But a tenderness, which thus restrains persons from a necessary duty, instead of being an amiable and useful virtue, degenerates into a cowardly and pernicious vice.

.

Another great hindrance to this duty is shame, or a dread of reproach and ridicule. But if the servants of Satan are not ashamed of their master, shall the disciples of Christ blush to stand up for theirs? If the former are not ashamed to swear, to riot, to trample upon the Sabbath and worship of God; shall the latter be ashamed to reprove such daring abominations? If infidels and libertines proclaim their wicked and destructive principles and practices with an unblushing, and even exulting countenance; shall not serious Christian believers be at least equally bold in testifying against these evils, and endeavouring to reform them? Does it not become them to manifest a noble superiority to the jeers and mockings, which a faithful discharge of their duty may draw upon them from ignorant or abandoned men? In short, let us all remember, that there is no dishonour in being censured or ridiculed, but in deserving to be so; that it is a real glory to be reproached for our distinguished Christian courage and zeal; but that, "if we are ashamed of Christ

and his words before an adulterous generation, he will be ashamed of us before his Father, and before his angels."

Another impediment to this duty is an indolent disposition, or such a love of personal ease and quiet, as cannot relish or endure laborious and persevering ef forts for the reformation and salvation of others; especially as those efforts often provoke the most unthankful and malevolent returns. But to excuse ourselves from this generous, though self-denying office, on this ground, betrays a vile preference of present selfindulgence to the will and honour of God, and the highest good of our fellow-creatures.

Near akin to this is that exclusive devotion to our own interest, which shuts out all feeling or care for the welfare of others, and prompts us to ask with wicked and murderous Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Let my neighbour take care of himself. But it is sufficient to reply, We are all charged by God, by nature, and Christianity, with the care of our brother as well, as of ourselves; and consequently we cannot neglect his welfare, without endangering and finally destroying

our own.

Pride is also a frequent source of this neglect. I mean that pride, which disdains the humble office of familiarly instructing, exhorting, and reproving the poor, ignorant, and baser classes of mankind. But such haughty, pretended Christians forget how low their Master stooped for them; how he descended from the bosom and throne of God to mingle and converse with the dregs of mankind, with a view to reform and save them.

Ignorance is another cause of this neglect. Some are ignorant, that the business of mutual reproof is a common Christian duty, or at least is their duty; es