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DUTIES PECULIARLY CHRISTIAN.

[Part VI.

The evil effects of an intemperate indulgence of the appetitesare so many beacons which the Maker of our bodies has erectedto warn us against danger. So also of the angry and malignantpassions. It is universally known, that a peaceful disposition isconducive to health, and, on the contrary, an irascible dispositioninjurious to it. Hence, the care of skilful physicians, in criticalcases, to have the minds of their patients kept in peace and tran-quillity. It may, therefore, be affirmed, that the rule which requiresus not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good,is adapted both to the physical and the moral constitution of man.

II. This rule of conduct, prescribed and enjoined by the Gos-pel, is also the one best adapted to man’s character and condi-tion. This position may be confirmed and sustained by viewingman under three aspects ; as a social being ; as a sinful being ;as a being responsible for his actions, and destined to an immortalexistence beyond the grave.

1. As a social being. It is manifestly the design of the Cre-ator, that man should cultivate and cherish the social and kindlyaffections. Life begins with the tender relations of parents andchildren, and brothers and sisters, relations eminently calculatedto call forth kindness and sympathy. The earliest feeling, awak-ened in the heart of the infant, seems to be love. Its first act ofintelligence is, to recognise its mother with a smile. The moth-er’s kindness soon leads the child to distinguish her from all others,and to cling to her as the object of its affection and confidence.From this early period, the child grows up in the bosom of thefamily, where the kind affections are daily cherished, and extend-ed to other objects, until brothers, sisters, grand-parents, andneighbours, as well as parents, are gradually brought within thecircle of its attachment and kindness. Now what is this but anevident preparation for after years ? These relations are designedby Providence to give character to the child, and to fit it for thestill larger circles of life, and to teach it, by degrees, to regard allmen as members of the same family, where sympathy, and love,and beneficence may find new objects and more enlarged exer-cise. To entertain affections other than kindly is, then, contraryto the earliest and most natural lessons instilled into our minds.

Further, this rule is suited to man as a social being, because he