And how has it come to pass that while _they_, imitating their bloody idols, could take pleasure in _sacrificing their prisoners of war! beholding murderous fights of gladiators!_ and even giving up _their own children to be burnt alive!_ Franklin, by imitating the moral character of God, attained to all that gentle wisdom and affectionate goodness that we fancy when we think of an angel? To what, I ask, can we ascribe all this, but to the very rational cause assigned by Mr. King, viz. his having been _born and brought up in a land of Gospel light and love_? Indeed, who can read the life of doctor Franklin, attentively, without tracing in it, throughout, that true Christian charity which bound him, as by the heart-strings, to his fellow men--on every occasion going out of self to take an interest in them. "Rejoicing with them, when they acted wisely and attained to honour."--"Weeping with them when they acted foolishly and came to shame." Never meeting with any good fortune, through wise doings of his own, but he made it known to them for their encouragement in similar doings--never falling into misfortunes, by his own folly, but he was sure to publish that too, to deter others from falling into the like sufferings. Now what was it but this amiable _oneness of heart_, with his fellow men; this _sweet Christian sensibility_ to their interests and consequent generous delight in doing them good, that filled his life with such noble charities. "_Where love is_," said the great William Penn, "_there is no labour; or if there be, the labour is sweet._" And what was it but this, that bore him up so bravely under his many toils and hardships for his selfish brother James? What made him so liberal of his money and services to the base Collins and Ralph? What made him so patient and forgiving of the injuries done him by the worthless Keimer and Keith? What made him so importunate with his young acquaintance in London, to divert them from their brutalizing and fatal intemperance? What set him so vehemently against pride and extravagance, which besides starving all justice and hospitality among neighbours, tend to make them demons of fraud and cruelty to one another? What made him, through life, such a powerful orator for industry, frugality, and honesty, which multiplied riches and reciprocal esteem and usefulness among men, and would make them all loving and happy as brothers? In short, all those labours which doctor Franklin took under the sun--labours so various and unending, for public and private good, such as his fire-engines; his lightning rods; his public libraries; his free schools; his hospitals; his legacies for encouragement of learning, and helping hundreds of indigent young mechanics with money to carry on their trades after his death--whence originated all this, but from that love which is stronger than death, subduing all obstacles, and overleaping the narrow limits of this mortal life?