The value of life and charitable institutions : a discourse delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at their semi-annual meeting, June 11th, 1805. ... / By Thomas Gray, minister of the Church of Christ on Jamaica Plain, Roxbury.

  • Gray, Thomas, 1772-1847.
Date:
1805
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of life and charitable institutions : a discourse delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at their semi-annual meeting, June 11th, 1805. ... / By Thomas Gray, minister of the Church of Christ on Jamaica Plain, Roxbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    filial piety, and faithful friendship pour into one stream their tears, and swell it in abundant tide. Communities have not always been exempted froifi similar calamities, any more than individu¬ als. From the natural, or political death of tried and faithful, of just and pious rulers, what wretch¬ ed divisions, what unfounded jealousies, what little animosities, and mean rivalships have resul¬ ted ; and which, in their course, have spread ru¬ in, over the fair face of many a nation ? God of everlasting mercy ! wilt thou spare our country— for our hope is alone in thee. If life derive such interest and value from the considerations, to which we have already adver¬ ted, how much more consequence does it assume, when viewed in all its interesting connexions, with Christianity ? Here we are taught, that we are probationers for a future state ; and that our final glory, or shame, is most intimately allied to the cultivation of goodness, or the indulgence of pur vitious propensities. In this view, the pres¬ ervation of life is the continuance of the time of gur probation. It is lengthening the period of usefulness to the good, and protracting the space C>f repentance to the bad. If future glory be proportioned to present moral acquisition, it is adding new lustre to our future crown; and if, by repentance, we may escape from punishment* it affords time to extract poison from the sting of death. B