Of Gratitude to man, much has been, and much still remains to be said.
It may be urged that, in our Gratitude to God, every kind of gratitude
is contained. This may be granted; and, therefore, to Him should we give
the glory. If we are really grateful, we shew it not only to Him, but to
those whom he makes the instruments of his goodness.
From the earliest period, we find that centre of every virtue,
Gratitude! honoured, revered, and even adored. How many have sacrificed
their lives in gratitude for services received from others; and, dying,
blessed the cause in which they died! Gratitude to man consists in a
grateful remembrance of every favour, however trifling or essential. It
is to be hoped that a man, plunged by misfortune into dire distress,
confined within the narrow and dreary cell of a prison, surrounded by an
infant family, some senseless of the misery they endure, sleeping on a
bed of straw, a helpless babe in his arms, pining for it’s mother, who
is gone, alas! in vain, to soothe the obdurate heart of a relentless
creditor---it is to be hoped, I repeat, that human nature does not
produce such a man, who, were he relieved from this horrid situation, by
the benevolent hand of smiling Affluence, would ever cease to remember,
without the softest emotions of extatic pleasure, the truly generous
act: if he could, he should cease to live.
Other instances, equally forcible, might be brought forward; but man who
ought not to forget the smallest obligation, or neglect the slightest
opportunity of manifesting his gratitude. It matters not, whether our
gratitude be called forth into action by pecuniary assistance in the
hour of distress, solace in the hour of misfortune, or help in the
moment of personal danger. He who relieves another in a pecuniary
manner, he who sighs with him in his misfortunes, or he who saves the
life of another, is equally entitled to our prayers, our praise, and our
gratitude.
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