ed to form
themselves into a social circle from which all _mechanics_ were to be
excluded. The paper, drawn up for the purpose, was presented to Dr.
Franklin for his signature. On examining its contents, he remarked
that he could not consent to unite his name inasmuch as by excluding
mechanics from their circle, they had excluded God Almighty, who was
the greatest mechanic in the universe!

SERMON XVII

"And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephesians iv. 32.

A tender heart is the kind boon of heaven, and forgiveness is a virtue
too little exercised in the common intercourse of life. Men are too
apt to be in character Pharisees. They are too apt to love those that
love them, and hate their enemies. Retaliation is inconsistent with
the spirit of the gospel, and is a vice deeply to be stigmatized and
deprecated by all lovers of peace and morality. By retaliation, we are
to understand the injuring of another because he has injured us. This
spirit of revenge betrays a contracted mind in which the feelings of
compassion and forbearance never found a permanent abode. A man of a
peevish, irritable and revengeful temperament, is to be pitied,
instead of being injured in return. By retaliating the evil he may
have done, you involve yourself in the same condition of meanness, and
in your turn become the injurer.

All those men, whose names are rendered illustrious and immortal, have
been distinguished for a spirit of forbearance, kindness and mercy.
Were there no examples of rashness--no failings and imperfections
among men, there would, then, be no opportunity to distinguish
ourselves by a spirit of forgiveness. God has so constituted the
present existence of his creatures, that the perfections of his divine
character might be manifested to them in the unchanging exercise of
his paternal compassion and forgiveness; and thus afford them an
opportunity to imitate himself in the exercise of those exalted
feelings, which emanate from heaven.

We are not, however, to understand that tenderness of heart and
forgiveness are to be exercised to the utter exclusion of the
principles of honor and justice. If our children offend, or our
dearest earthly friend do wrong, we are to manifest the feelings of
tenderness and forgiveness, but these ought not to induce us to
overlook their crimes or faults, by remaining silent in regard to
their vices. This wou