multitude, will raise its appealing voice. Disease, indeed, and sickness are the common heritage of all; but with what a crushing weight do they fall upon the poor. The rich (in which term I include all who possess the comforts and conveniences of life,) have their alleviations. They can command all the aid of skill and science, and the means for the support and restoration of sinking nature. the poor, sickness paralyzes. It comes to dry up the source of scanty earnings; to exhaust, if such there be, the savings of many a toilsome day; and to darken the future by the prospect of added burdens with diminished energies and weakened powers.

But

What a spectacle does this world present to a thoughtful mind in this apparent injustice and inequality! True it is that the Christian is bound to remember, that the temporal advantages of the rich are more than balanced by the spiritual advantages of the poor; nor may we doubt, but that in the mean dwelling-places and homes of humble poverty, have been formed, from age to age, those great but hidden saints of God, who (though immeasurably removed,) have, like their Great Master, "been made perfect through suffering;" whom the world has never known, or, if it had, would have lightly esteemed,-they themselves unconscious of their deep blessedness; but who, in the morning of the Resurrection, shall "flourish from the tomb," to shine as stars for ever and ever.

But still the visible, sensible, undoubted distress of their weary pilgrimage has, doubtless, a two-fold object-to perfect them, to draw forth into active exercise the graces of

charity and compassion in, what the world would call, their more fortunate brethren. So in this, as in every thing else, we catch a glimpse of the manifold wisdom of God. The veil is for a moment lifted up, and the way of this world-" a way of darkness and gloominess; a way of clouds and of thick darkness"-is illumined and cheered by a light from Heaven; and we see God's merciful dealings with his creatures in those eternal and spiritual objects, which are the only true solution of the mysteries with which we are compassed round, and that wealth and poverty, health and sickness, joy and sorrow, are made to minister to one great object-the object for which Christ died and rose again :-" the bringing many brethren unto glory."

Now, it is not too much to assert that Institutions, such as that whose cause I now advocate, are amongst the most effective modes of mitigating, removing, or diminishing human suffering; and have besides this great advantage, that they stand apart from all party feelings and prejudices, whether political or religious; and are a direct and simple appeal from poverty to wealth, from sickness to health, from pain of body and disquietude of mind to all on whom these forms of trial have not yet been laid; and still more appealingly to those who know them by their own sad experience.

Here it is that to the poor and destitute are offered all the resources of medical skill and science, so combined, as to give the poorest and humblest all the advantages which the wealthy and powerful could command. Here the suf

ferers enjoy those alleviations of diet, and careful, and judicious attendance, which exert such a soothing and invigorating power over the wasted body and enfeebled and desponding mind. Here, too, they enjoy the blessing of comparative repose; they are removed from the sight of that distress which their own sickness, it may be, has occasioned; and though they may be conscious it still exists, they are spared the keener feelings and more corroding anxiety which the daily and hourly sight of it would undoubtedly inflict.

To be enabled to mitigate suffering even to this extent, is no slight privilege; but other and higher considerations necessarily come in, and sanctify, if I may so speak, the temporal blessing thus conferred. When we remove or diminish the pressure of worldly anxiety, we pave the way for the spiritual improvement of sickness; we set free, in a measure, the struggling soul; we bring it into a more serene atmosphere; we open a door for religious thoughts and spiritual desires to enter in, it may be, for painful but wholesome looking back, for self-examination, for a true, deep, and lasting repentance. We may not doubt, that in the comparative quiet of the Hospital, where there are but few disturbing objects to distract the mind, that a new and spiritual life has been formed in thousands, amidst bodily disease and helplessness, or the gradual advance of a lingering death. Yes, as we tread those courts, we may dwell upon the consoling thought that pain and suffering do not reign there unchecked and unabated; that there are many, who "whether they live, will live unto the

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Lord; or whether they die, will die unto the Lord: so that living or dying they are the Lord's."

We may go further. We may believe that many there receive that healing medicine which blesses both themselves and others. That they come in, perhaps, careless, thoughtless, thinking only of bodily suffering and worldly loss; they depart with higher views, better hopes, and more enduring objects;-views, hopes, and objects, not to be confined within their own breasts, but to be imparted with a joyful alacrity to those who are nearest and dearest to them. Who shall limit the extent and duration of these spiritual impulses thus given one by one? "like circles in the water, never ceasing to enlarge themselves ;"— not, indeed, "till by large spreading they disperse to nought;" but to be borne on with increased and accumulating impulse, till they break in waves of light and gladness on the shore of the Eternal Morning.

The blessings present and perspective, direct and indirect, of spiritual aid and instruction in these Institutions, cannot be over-estimated. May I venture to express a hope, that in these days, when, by God's grace and mercy, the religious energies of the country are rapidly developing themselves in every class of society, there may be found, in these Homes for the Suffering, those, who, for Christ's sake, and acting under, and as handmaids to His Church, may devote themselves to the visiting the sick and the afflicted, ministering help and consolation, and pouring forth those gentle influences which, in their full force and efficacy, can come only from those whom God has appointed as

the sources and partakers of all our earthly joys — the most persuasive soothers of all earthly sorrows.

One part only of my duty now remains: it is a painful one. It is to state that the funds of the "Devon and Exeter Hospital" are not increasing, but diminishing ;— diminishing with increasing calls on it,-diminishing to such an extent, as to threaten to impair permanently its future usefulness; and, without entering into minute details, I may here say, that if speedy, effectual, and permanent aid be not afforded, several wards of the Hospital will be obliged to be closed.

On this occasion I have no wish to make a mere appeal to your feelings, which, if for the moment successful, would soon pass away and be forgotten; but to shew briefly the nature of the duty of Christian Almsgiving, and its necessary and permanent connexion with the Christian character.

Almsgiving is no mere momentary impulse: it is an abiding duty, adapting itself to, and making a claim on, all to whom Providence has assigned more than sufficient for their daily wants. Alms, Prayer, and Fasting, are the divinely appointed and three-fold discipline of the Body, Soul, and Spirit: all enjoined by our Lord Himself, no distinction being drawn between them, as one being greater or less than another; but, in the Sacred Records, they are introduced with precisely the same form of words, (“ when thou givest alms"-"when thou prayest"-" when ye fast,") with the same impressive earnestness, as all in their degree ministering to the health of the soul. I need not here recapitulate the many and varied forms in which the duty of