shall rejoice; their gray hairs shall go down to the grave in peace! Impressed by their precepts, penetrated by their affection, while living; and cherishing with pious love and reverence the memory of the departed-be ambitious of fulfilling their affectionate wishes and of answering the just expectations of the world in general. Building on the foundations laid by worthy and excellent progenitors; 'tis fit their posterity should copy their excellencies, avoiding their defects; should not merely endeavour to compensate to society the loss it must sustain by their removal; but to fill up with progressive accuracy that sphere of usefulness which they have filled to the comfort and satisfaction of those around them. Nor let us indulge the gloomy apprehension that here end the sacred ties of nature, of virtue, and affection; but, looking forward with hope, prepare with diligence for that better world, where parents and children, who have faithfully discharged their respective duties, shall meet in complete happiness! where parents shall exult with boundless joy in the virtuous offspring through the long line of their posterity, trained by their original care and culture for glory and immortality; and where all their generous love shall be answered by the virtuous and blessed objects of it, with warm returns of never ending gratitude! while both unite in thankful praise to the Eternal Father, the everlasting fountain of life and bliss! SERMON IX. THE DUTY OF BROTHERS. GENESIS xlv. 14. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck: moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them. CAN we behold this family, after long separation, strange vicissitudes, and utter disunion of hearts-thus meeting in cordial reconcilement, and, along with the renewal of affectionate intercourse, recovering, with increase, their former plenty and prosperity,without acknowledging the beauty and the blessedness of fraternal love? Although, as Solomon observes, "there is a friend that sticketh closer than a Brother," and though we must often look for perfect congeniality of character, beyond the enclosure of a single family, to the wide circle of society; and thus it hath pleased the Divine Providence to link together the great brotherhood of mankind;-still, the virtuous offspring of the good will naturally spring up in habits of mutual affection: by well trained and well disposed minds, the ties of early association, domestic familiarity, and common origin, will be held sacred: and that is no sound philosophy which tends to dissolve or relax a bond so amiable, as well as beneficial; or to represent it as mere prejudice and superstition. It is no new thing however for vain hearts and superficial heads to argue against the feelings of nature and the maxims of daily experience. The amiable Plutarch, who tells us that he prized the cordial and steady kindness of his brother Timon, above all the other bless ings of his life, relates that, being at Rome, he was chosen arbitrator of some difference, between two brothers; one of whom was a philosopher; and when he exhorted them to treat one another, as it became brothers; the man of learning replied, "this may sound plausible to the illiterate; but of what consequence is it to me, that we both sprang from the same root?" "What then," says Plutarch," do you feel no tender reverence for "those to whom you owe your being? and whom, next to Heaven, the consent of all nations teaches us to honour? or how can you honour your parents, while you disregard the joint objects of their affection?" To parents, to good parents, how heartrending must be the animosities of their children! How much beyond all other ills of life, to observe them, instead of loving and helping, hating and reviling, opposing and persecuting each other, and at last bringing upon the whole family, disasters, perhaps ruin. How delightful, beyond all other joys, on the |