Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/426

 Since life overflows with misery, and the world is filled with evil, natural and moral, with temptation and danger, with calamity and wickedness, there are very frequent opportunities of showing our unanimity, our sympathy, and our brotherly love, by attempts to remove pressures, and mitigate misfortunes. St. Peter, therefore, particularly presses the duty of commiseration, by calling upon us,

scornfully, on the miseries of others; but to apply such consolation and assistance as providence puts into our power.
 * To be pitiful; not to look negligently, or

To attempt an enumeration of all the opportunities which may occur for the exercise of pity, would be to form a catalogue of all the ills to which human nature is exposed, to count over all the possibilities of calamity, and recount the depredations of time, the pains of disease, the blasts of casualty, and the mischiefs of malevolence.

Wherever the eye is turned it sees much misery, and there is much which it sees not; many complaints are heard, and there are many pangs without complaint. The external acts of mercy, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to visit the sick and the prisoners, we see daily opportunities of performing; and it may be hoped, they are not neglected by those that abound with what others want.

But there are other calls upon charity. There are sick minds as well as sick bodies; there are understandings perplexed with scruples, there are consciences tormented with guilt; nor can any greater benefit be conferred, than that of settling doubts, or comforting despair, and restoring a disquieted soul to hope and tranquillity.

The duty of commiseration is so strongly pressed by the gospel, that none deny its obligation. But as the measures of beneficence are left undefined, every man necessarily determines for himself, whether he has contributed his share to the necessities of others; and amidst