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THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF MANKIND. [Part III.

1. When, in the interchange of hospitalities of this kind, menincur expenses beyond those, which in sober calculation are jus-tified by their resources and means of living. When men are ofa social temper, there is always a strong temptation and tendencyto fall into this abuse ; higher claims are, in consequence, disre-garded, higher duties are neglected, debts are incurred, and per-haps the patrimonial estate is wasted. The hospitality, too,which has respect to the personal comfort and accommodation ofothers, especially to their wants and necessities, is a duty ofmanifold greater importance, than that which spreads the festiveboard, and presides over the social circle ; and it is the formerbranch of hospitality, which is chiefly commended by the sacredwriters. One ground of the benediction, to be pronounced byour Saviour on the righteous, at the day of judgment, will be,that they have hospitably entertained strangers, as well as givenfood to the hungry and drink to the thirsty ; — and one ground ofhis malediction upon the unrighteous, on the same most solemnand august of all occasions, will be, that they have refused theclaims of hospitality to strangers, as well as refused to give foodto the hungry, and drink to the thirsty.* Even the heathenismof the Greeks and Romans invoked the vengeance of the high-est divinity known to, and acknowledged by, the heathen system,against all who treated with cruelty and bad faith the unprotectedand way-worn stranger.f Some nations have been distinguishedfor hospitality, (we have all heard, for instance, of Arabian hos-pitality,) who seem to have few other virtues.

2. Again, it is a flagrant abuse of hospitality, when festive andsocial entertainments are made the occasions of luxury, intem-perance, or excess of any kind. Christianity subjects men tono hardships. It justifies them in eating and drinking, and inenjoying, with sobriety and temperance, the full measure of thefruits of their labor. But it justifies no excess or intemperanceof any kind or degree. And, to be satisfied of the magnitude ofthe abuse, to which the pleasures of the table always tend, it isonly necessary to call to mind the enormous and criminal extentto which they have sometimes been actually carried. Instances,

Matt. xxv. 31 - 46.

t Odyssey, IX. 969 - 378.