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THE 
 
 DIVINE LAW OF BENEFICENCE ; 
 
 ZACCHEUS, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE SCRIPTURAL PLAN OF BENEVOLENCE; 
 
 AND 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 OR 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE. 
 
THE DIVINE 
 
 LAW OF BENEFICENCE 
 
 BY REV. PARSONS COOKE, 
 
 LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is mors 
 to give than to receive. ACTS 20 : 35. 
 
 
 V 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. God s design in requiring beneficence, .... 6 
 II. The Old Testament law of charity, .... 12 
 
 III. The New Testament law of charity, . . . .19 
 
 IV. Law of periodical alms-giving, 1 Cor. 16 : 1 , 27 
 V. Reasons for compliance with the law, . . . .51 
 
 J . It is one of the most important means of grace, 5 1 
 
 2. This system of benevolence tends to thrift, . . . GG 
 
 3. The superior efficiency of this system, ... 75 
 
 4. Example of the primitive church, . - . . . .78 
 Conclusion, . >^J|^> 84 
 
fcjn 
 
 .-/] * 
 
 THE DIVINE 
 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 I. aOD S DESIG-N IN REQUIRING- BENEF 
 ICENCE. 
 
 GOD is not dependent on us for the support of his 
 poor. He could have so diffused the gifts of his prov 
 idence as to have had no poor. Or he could so have 
 fitted our frames to the world, and the world to them, 
 that all the elements of human life and comfort would 
 have been as abundant and free as air and water, so 
 that, like the lilies of the field, the whole human 
 race might meet every want without toil or spinning ; 
 and he might have published his gospel to every 
 creature without our aid. He might have made his 
 angels, in another sense, "ministering spirits, sent 
 forth to minister to the heirs of salvation." Or he- 
 might have written out the whole on the face of the 
 heavens, and made them in a higher sense " declare 
 the glory of God ;" and made it in a higher sense true, 
 that " their line is gone out through all the earth." 
 He does not ask us to do this work or that, because 
 of any dependence on us. He says, " Eveiy beast of 
 
6 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand 
 hills. If I were hungry I would not tell thee, foi 
 the world is mine and the fulness thereof." 
 
 Whatever necessity there is of our agency he 
 has purposely laid, in the present arrangement of 
 things, for our good. His benevolence could have 
 reached its object without our concurrence, if it had 
 not made us also its object, and formed the design of 
 blessing us in its course by enlisting us as coworkers. 
 He knew that it was " more blessed to give than to 
 receive." And when he put in motion the broad 
 mechanism of his mercy, he put upon it laws of action 
 and reaction, and made the work of heavenly charity, 
 in all its branches, twice blessed blessing him that 
 gives, and him that takes. He laid on us a necessity 
 of cultivating benevolent affections. If we could so 
 arrange one s circumstances, and throw around him 
 such influences, as to keep him habitually and con 
 stantly giving to the poor if we could attach to him 
 dependent relatives, or in some other way bring to 
 act upon him a constant succession of calls that he 
 would not resist, we should bring him under the best 
 means of cultivating benevolent dispositions ; and 
 this is what God does with us, in laying on us this 
 necessity of giving alms. 
 
 The fact that he could have published the gospel 
 and fed his poor without us, while he could not, with 
 out our concurrence in giving, secure to us the bless 
 edness which attaches to those that give, indicates 
 
GOD S DESIGN. 7 
 
 that his main design in laying on us the necessity 
 of giving, was to give scope to our benevolent affec 
 tions. For this end he has ordained that we shall 
 have the poor with us always, in so many forms of 
 human distress besetting our path, pleading at the 
 bar of our conscience for the forth-puttings of that 
 charity which is the high excellence of our nature. 
 Yea, he has placed all the interest which we have in 
 evangelizing the world on such a footing, that it will 
 advance no further than his redeemed people pour 
 forth the means of its advance ; that in that forth- 
 pouring the church may take in those riches of grace 
 in which the whole work of redemption has its termi 
 nation. In other words, he will not have the evan 
 gelizing of the world advance faster than the sancti 
 fying of his church ; and will sustain a reciprocal 
 action between the two, advancing together. 
 
 Nor do we exaggerate in presenting this as the 
 main ground of what necessity there is for alms 
 giving ; for all the ends of redemption accomplished 
 upon man are comprehended in his renovation from 
 a state of supreme selfishness to that of perfect benev 
 olence ; and if we should say that all these occasions 
 for benevolent action were created for the sole pur 
 pose of furnishing means of exercising men to benev 
 olence, we should not make the means dispropor 
 tionate to the end. The whole work of Christ, his 
 humiliation, ministry, death, resurrection, and medi 
 atorial government, the whole work of his gospel and 
 
8 LAW OF BENEFICENCE, 
 
 his Spirit, and all the enforcements of his providence 
 look to this end. We speak therefore not without 
 warrant, when we say that all the human suffering 
 that now pleads for human charity, and all the 
 heathen darkness that lingers upon the nations for 
 human benevolence to enlighten, is suffered to exist, 
 among other purposes, as a means of developing 
 Christian character. 
 
 But let none imagine that the necessity for giving 
 alms is on that account the less real. Divine wis 
 dom has appointed it, and made it as unchangeable 
 and imperious as if God himself were bound by it. 
 The poor that God has cast upon the charity of men 
 will inevitably suffer and die, if men do not feed 
 them. The people that are perishing for lack of 
 vision will continue to perish, until Christian men 
 convey to them the light of life. God will not lay 
 this work on men for wise reasons, and then send 
 down his angels to take it out of their hands. It is 
 by establishing such an order of things, and sustain 
 ing it after he has established it, that he gives reality 
 and force to the motives to benevolence, and to the 
 means of drawing out and strengthening benevolent 
 affections. And all his purposes to secure the sanc- 
 tification of his people and the whole ends of his 
 redemption, will lead him to an inflexible support of 
 this order of things. 
 
 The sum of the matter thus far is this, that God 
 throws on us his poor, for the purpose of enriching us. 
 
GOD S DESIGN. 9 
 
 He sends the poor, as the representative of himself, 
 and of the cause of his gospel, out to begging of us, and 
 so, as it were, repeats the act of his humiliation, that 
 the din of their solicitations ever sounding in our ears, 
 and the sighs of a ruined world borne on every breeze, 
 may draw forth from us those benevolent emotions 
 and acts that shall more and more assimilate us to 
 him " who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes be 
 came poor." God takes the place of man : in his poor 
 he asks, and man bestows ; that in bestowing, man 
 may accumulate the true riches more precious than 
 gold, which perishes. It is God himself who asks ; 
 and our enriching with grace is the end for which 
 he asks. He asks in the only way in which he could 
 test and exercise our benevolence. For this purpose 
 he must needs ask as a beggar, and not as a king. 
 Should he come to us in regal splendor or heavenly 
 glory, his asking would be a command, which we 
 should not dare to disobey ; but our giving would be 
 no act of compassion or benevolence. But now he 
 comes to us in the person of his poor he comes as 
 the king dethroned and dependent banished from 
 heaven, covered with rags, pining in want he comes 
 uttering the tale of misery and real suffering, unless 
 we afford relief. And now what we give is given 
 by the promptings of compassion, and from no sor 
 did motives. Here is both a proof and exercise of 
 benevolence. Yet, to enforce his calls, he gives us 
 to know that it is He that speaks and pleads for 
 
]Q LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 compassion, through the open wounds and uttered 
 agonies of dying men ; and that every donation shall 
 be acknowledged by him in person when he shall 
 come in the glory of his Father, with all the holy 
 angels, and say to every one who has exercised com 
 passion on his poor, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
 one of the least of these, ye did it unto me." It 
 is not for his good but ours, that he thus beggars 
 himself, and pleads as a beggar before us. "Our 
 goodness extends not to him." A wise father often 
 draws out the dispositions of his child by bestowing 
 gifts and then soliciting a portion in return, or getting 
 proxies to solicit for him, anxious to open the child s 
 heart to an expansive generosity. So Christ -clothes 
 himself in rags and casts himself on our compassion, 
 for no purpose so much as to give us the reflex ben 
 efit of our own benevolent acts. 
 
 And here we wish it to be specially remarked, that 
 this design appears prominent in the manner in which 
 the duty of alms-giving is inculcated in Scripture. 
 Like the other graces, this charity seems to be insist 
 ed on for its own sake not because there is so much 
 suffering to be relieved, but because it is good and 
 right for us to engage in its relief. God will have 
 us give, not of necessity, but from the spontaneous 
 flo wings of the heart. " Every man according as he 
 purposeth in his heart, so let him give : not grudg 
 ingly, or of necessity ; for God loveth a cheerful 
 giver." Almost in every instance, you will observe, 
 
GOD S DESIGN. 11 
 
 the duty is enforced from higher grounds than the 
 fact that here is so much suffering to be relieved. In 
 one case we are ^exhorted to "do good and commu 
 nicate, for with such sacrifices God is ivell pleased" 
 In another, we are prompted to rememher "the grace 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, 
 yet for our sakes became poor." In another, the 
 parity of reason drawn from the other graces is urged : 
 " Therefore as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and 
 utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and 
 in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace 
 also." In another case it is, " Freely ye have re 
 ceived, freely give." In another, "Give alms of 
 such things as ye have, and all things shall be clean 
 unto you," as if charity were the centre in which all 
 virtues meet. "When the poor Christians at Jerusa 
 lem were in great suffering, and the apostles went 
 round to solicit relief of Gentile churches, their in 
 spired letters, sent here and there, contained no rhe 
 torical painting of the distresses to be relieved. In 
 all that they said, there appears next to nothing 
 adapted to draw upon the natural sympathies. In 
 this work they seem to be laboring with a single eye 
 to the sanctification of the Christians of whom they 
 asked relief as if no relief was wanted. The fact 
 that God was to be glorified, and the hearts of men 
 were to be sanctified, was their main argument. One 
 of the most distinct references to the distress was 
 this : " For the administration of this service not only 
 
12 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant 
 through many thanksgivings to God." And here 
 the revenue of praise to God is the great considera 
 tion absorbing the other. 
 
 Now, for a right appreciation of the views which 
 we are to present, this fact, that man s sanctification 
 for the glory of God is the main design of the scrip 
 tural provisions for alms-giving, and the main thing 
 aimed at in the methods in which the Scriptures 
 inculcate the duty, should be kept well in view ; for 
 by overlooking it we have lost a principle that is 
 the key to the understanding of this portion of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 II. THE OLD TESTAMENT LAW OF CHARIT7 
 
 From the foregoing remarks, it may appear that a 
 habit of charitable giving holds a higher place in the 
 divine method for saving a lost world, than most have 
 realized; and the Christian who is wont to ask, 
 "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" may be 
 expected to go to the Scriptures, not to find there the 
 vague doctrine that he ought to be occasionally gen 
 erous, and generally charitable, but something that 
 will inform him why, and how he shall do it. And 
 he will find that, both in the Old Testament and in 
 the New, it is made a matter of distinct command, 
 not that we shall do occasional acts of benevolence., 
 when the appeal is too strong to be resisted, or the 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LAW. 13 
 
 public sentiment allows of no evasion, but that \np 
 shall enter upon a scries of periodical acts, of self- 
 denial for Ike good of others ; and thus sustain a sys 
 tem and fixed habits of giving Whatever diversity 
 there may be between the Old Testament and the 
 New, they agree in this, that both, by express pre 
 cept, require habits of periodical appropriations from 
 our income to sustain religion and feed the poor. 
 And they require that the habit of doing this should 
 be as much a part of the character of the children of 
 God, as the habit of prayer. They require a man 
 not simply to hold himself in a position to be as it 
 were forced to give now and then for the relief of 
 distress, but to enter on the formation of an active 
 character of beneficence, by keeping in constant flow 
 a stream of bounties, lesser or larger, in proportion 
 to his means. 
 
 Alms-giving did not originate with the Mosaic 
 economy. There appears to have been a standing 
 custom of giving gifts for religious ends, as an act of 
 homage to God and benevolence to man, long before 
 the Mosaic system was framed. Abram gave tithes 
 to Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God. 
 The custom is fully recognized in the book of Job. 
 Jacob at Bethel vowed to give a tenth. And the 
 principle of giving gifts under religious obligation ia 
 doubtless as ancient as religion itself coeval with 
 that of sacrifices in the family of Adam. And this 
 may account for the early and wide diffusion which 
 
14 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 i^ had among all heathen nations. And though 
 neither the customs of the patriarchal ages, nor the 
 institutions of Moses are binding on us, they may 
 serve to illustrate God s general plan of dealing with 
 his people. He having his chosen nation before him 
 in the wilderness, and about to enter upon the land 
 flowing with milk and honey, put them under such 
 laws as might bind them, as far as laws could bind, 
 to a periodical series of acts that would counterwork 
 their selfishness, foster their sense of dependence, and 
 cultivate their love to God and man. These laws 
 are found inwoven with the Mosaic ritual ; and in 
 their general design they concur with the New Tes 
 tament law of charity. They required gifts to be 
 made at stated times, often recurring, to insure the 
 formation of the habit, and not to let the heart, open 
 ed by one gift, have time to close up before it opened 
 for the next. * 
 
 As to the amount required, there was as much 
 definiteness as was needful to guide to a generous 
 result, and as much as consisted with the other ends 
 of the requirement ; while room was left for the heart 
 and conscience to play between different degrees of 
 generosity. The nature of an act of charity requires 
 some liberty of determining when and how much to 
 give. If our Lord, after the purchase of our redemp 
 tion, had written and hung out upon the skies a 
 tariff, adjusting each one s tax for charities to his 
 income, so that he might see at a glance that his 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LAW. 15 
 
 Redeemer required him to give just so many dollars 
 and cents, he would have brought the requirement 
 down to bind the conscience. But he would have 
 constructed a system of taxation, rather than of 
 charity. That would have changed the whole na 
 ture of the duty, and its whole influence upon the 
 heart. 
 
 Two things were required in the law of charity : 
 the terms must be specific enough to guide us to a 
 course of ha^bjjujl- and generous giving ; and they 
 must be indefinite enough to allow us to show our 
 heart, and give exercise to our love to God and man 
 in what we give. And these ends were provided for 
 in the Hebrew economy. The lawgiver seemed to 
 have designed to set God s mark on the most com 
 mon articles of property ; so that while employed in 
 his fields and with his flocks, and in gathering his 
 harvests, each one should be constantly reminded of 
 God s claims, and of his own obligation and de 
 pendence. 
 
 In the first place, each one was required to give 
 the first fruits both of his flocks and of his field. 
 The first fruits of the harvest were by custom a six 
 tieth part of the whole. Then money was to be paid 
 as the ransom of the first-born male child. Then in 
 reaping, the corners of the field were to be left for 
 the poor ;here also custom defined the requirement 
 to be a sixtieth of the whole. Then whatever fell 
 f<0m the reaper s hand belonged to the poor Then 
 
16 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 every seventh year all the fields were to be left un- 
 tilled, to produce spontaneously for the poor. Then 
 a tenth of all the products of the fields was* to be 
 given to the Levites. Then there were trespass- 
 offerings, sin-offerings, and specified portions of most 
 of the sacrificed animals devoted to the priesthood 
 and Levites. Then every seventh year all debts 
 must be remitted ; and the three yearly journeys to 
 Jerusalem, which were required of all the males, at 
 the festivals, must have been no small tax. Added 
 to these were the half shekels for the sanctuary, and 
 abundant hospitalities and gifts for the poor. So 
 that a conscientious Hebrew could hardly have spent 
 less than one-third of his income in religious and 
 charitable gifts. 
 
 Nor did this generous charity hinder the secular 
 thrift of the people. It was so adapted to their wel 
 fare, spiritual and temporal, and so sustained in the 
 providence of God, that the people were prosperous 
 or straitened in proportion as they obeyed or disobeyed 
 this law. When they honored the Lord with their 
 substance, and the first fruits of all their increase, 
 their barns were filled with plenty. When they 
 robbed God in tithes and offerings, they soon found 
 that they had robbed themselves. And both in giv 
 ing such a law, and in its providential enforcement, 
 God impressively taught that he would have his 
 people respond to his gifts by large and systematic 
 outlays from them. Call this law, if you please, one 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LAW. 17 
 
 of the rigors of the Hebrew economy which Christ 
 has set aside. It rigorously bound that people to 
 that course for the attainment of their highest good. 
 It was really no burden, except when their trans 
 gressions involved them in the penalties of the breach 
 of it. 
 
 The specific provisions of the tithe system have 
 now vanished with the whole fabric of Hebrew insti 
 tutions ; but the end for which it was framed has 
 never for a moment departed from the mind of the 
 Framer, and the general obligation to extend religion 
 and feed the poor, by freewill offerings, was far from 
 being set aside in the more full unfolding of the 
 mercy of God in the gospel. In displacing the an 
 cient ritual with a simpler and nobler economy, the 
 gospel has given vastly higher enforcements to what 
 was of moral and permanent obligation in the He 
 brew religion ; and this is preeminently true of the 
 substance of the ancient law of charity. Before the 
 frame of Judaism was reared, the requirement for 
 man to love God with all his heart ? and his neighbor 
 as himself, was recorded on tables of stone, to stand 
 unobliterated for all ages. Then came in Judaism, 
 specifically defining in what forms that love should, 
 under such institutions, have expression. But when 
 Judaism passed away, the original law stood unim 
 paired, and the gospel came in, specifying other forms 
 of expressing this love. 
 
 On the basis of the original law of love, the gospel 
 
 LawofBenef. 2 
 
18 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 lays another specific law of alms-giving. The temple 
 and its costly apparatus, its sacrifices and its army 
 of priests are set aside, and with them many of the 
 occasions for the gifts prescribed. But the provis 
 ions of the gospel bring in vaster occasions for the 
 employment of the grateful offerings of redeemed 
 sinners. The command to publish the gospel to 
 every creature, and to feed the poor which we are to 
 have with us always, brings upon the Christian 
 world occasions as great and urgent as those of the 
 old economy ; nor is there any intimation or ground 
 of inference that the gifts of pious men under the 
 gospel were to be more stinted than before. If the 
 principle announced by Christ, that to whom much 
 is given, of him will much be required, is applicable, 
 a much more generous chanty is required of us. 
 There were many things in Judaism adapted to 
 narrow the range of charity. It confined the view 
 to one small nation, as the field of all benevolent 
 operations. It gave no hint of the conversion of the 
 world as a present duty. And yet, if a good man s 
 charity, confined to such nariow bounds, was expect 
 ed to consume one-third of his income, can less be 
 expected of us whose charity is bound to embrace 
 the world ? Not that the poorest of us are required 
 to give as much ; but taking men of all conditions, 
 who shall say that our average ought not to be as 
 great ? 
 
NEW TESTAMENT LAW. 19 
 
 III. THE NEW TESTAMENT LAAV OF CHARITY. 
 
 Before we come to the direct inquiry, as to what 
 is the specific law of the New Testament on this 
 subject, it may be well to see how the law of gospel 
 love, as written in the hearts of ike first Christians, 
 expressed itself in their conduct. In other words, 
 we will notice the effects produced on the church, in 
 this particular, by the setting aside of the Hebrew 
 law ; and watch the motions of the first converts to 
 Christianity, and see if they understood the New 
 Testament law of charity as requiring less than that 
 of the Old. Charity, in the form of gifts to the 
 needy, because it was a prime element of Christian 
 character, was made one of the most prominent traits 
 in those specimens of that character that were first 
 given to the world. There was no result of the first 
 outpouring of the Spirit, after Christ s ascension, 
 which the historian records with more of zest and 
 delight, than the remarkable spirit of individual 
 sacrifice for the good of the whole. On no other 
 trait of character does he so much expand his descrip 
 tion. And after an interval of two chapters, he 
 returns to it again, and gives us other particulars, as 
 if here were one of the most surprising phenomena 
 cf the whole. But this was a specimen of Christian 
 character in its first formation. And would any one 
 gather from it, that the law of charity had con 
 tracted its compass in passing over from Judaism to 
 
20 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 the gospel ; or that the spirit of love breathed less 
 freely in the heart of a redeemed sinner under the 
 clearer light and intenscr quickening power of the 
 new covenant ? 
 
 But a common misconception here intervenes, and 
 robs us of the practical instruction of this lumin 
 ous portion of Christian history. Most Christians, 
 in determining their own duty, are wont to lay this 
 wholly out of view, in the conceit that it is an, 
 instance of the practice of the community system, 
 and of course impracticable for them. And it may 
 be worth the while to devote a few paragraphs in 
 rescuing this instructive portion of history from this 
 perversion. If, by the community system, we under 
 stand the relinquishment of all private property, and 
 consolidating the goods of all in a common stock, 
 nothing like that resulted from theperitecostal revival. 
 This appears from the fact, that the sequel of the 
 history speaks of these and other Christians as being 
 in possession of tlicir private property after these 
 scenes had passed away, and it gives us no trace of 
 the common stock, nor of its managers, nor of any 
 community of people gathered around it. After 
 wards, Christians are casually spoken of as having 
 their own houses, here and there, like other people ; 
 as in the case of Mary the mother of John, Tabitha, 
 Simon the tanner, and Lydia. Nor did Paul think 
 of a community system when he said, "If any pro 
 vide not for his own, and especially for those of his 
 
NEW TESTAMENT LAW. 21 
 
 own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse 
 than an infidel." 
 
 We have, then, no reason to believe that there 
 was here a melting down of all individual property 
 into a common mass, to be controlled by managers 
 of the common fund ; but that in laying the founda 
 tions of Christian institutions in the mother church 
 at Jerusalem, and in meeting the wants of multi 
 tudes of strangers detained there long beyond their 
 expectations, those Christians who had property sub 
 mitted it to the free use of the whole, as far as the 
 existing occasion required. This limitation is ex 
 pressly inserted. " Distribution was made unto every 
 man according as he had need;" but there was not 
 an alienation of property beyond the present need. 
 There was no actual formation of a common stock ; 
 but, for a limited time, there was a subsistence of the 
 strangers upon the freewill offerings of those at home 
 in Jerusalem. Peter, after this mode of action had 
 been in use, makes an express acknowledgment of 
 each one s right of property, by saying to Ananias, 
 " While it remained, was it not thine own ; and after 
 it was sold, was it not in thine own power?" The 
 assertion that they "had all things common," had a 
 parallel in this Pythagorean proverb, "With friends 
 all things are common." But the Pythagoreans did 
 not mean by this, that among friends each one had 
 not his own wife, children, property, profession, and 
 business. Nor does the community of those first 
 
22 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 Christians exclude such distinctions. The historian 
 says, " Neither was there any among them that 
 lacked ; for as many as were possessed of lands sold 
 them, and brought the prices of the things that 
 were sold, and laid them down at the apostles feet;" 
 but to show that the sale of possessions went no 
 further than the wants of those that " had need 
 and that it was not a general and entire alienation 
 of property, one person is named who actually gave 
 up all, and one who pretended to have done it. One 
 would not have been thus named, if the same had 
 been done by all. 
 
 It is not asserted, then, that all gave up all their 
 property, but that all subjected their property to a 
 free use, so far as the existing occasions required. 
 This fully justifies the broad terms of the historian. 
 In a like sense, the disciples were said to have left 
 all and followed Christ. Yet they neither alienated 
 their estates, nor dissolved their families. For after 
 that, Christ went to Simon s house, and found his 
 family, even to his wife s mother, in it. After that, 
 he taught in Peter s ship, and committed his mother 
 to John s adoption and support an act unmeaning, 
 if John had no separate family nor means of support. 
 And, after his death, the disciples seem to have re 
 turned to fishing in their own ships. Indeed, neither 
 here nor in any other scripture, can we find a shred 
 of a warrant for a community of goods. Such a sys 
 tem would nullify the whole law of alms-giving ; 
 
NEW TESTAMENT LAW. 23 
 
 for, how can they exercise themselves in giving alms 
 who have no property to give ? 
 
 That development of the spirit of Christian charity, 
 which was one of the greatest wonders of the pente- 
 costal scene, was then no abnormal condition of the 
 church, no production of a peculiar and temporary 
 policy, but the natural unfolding of the Christian 
 spirit, under the quickening influence of the Holy 
 Ghost. It was nothing more than what would be 
 required of all Christians, in the same circum 
 stances. It was alms-giving, occupying the due 
 relative position among the other Christian graces. 
 It seems wonderful to us, because so strange to 
 our present habits, so above our low conceptions of 
 the duty. It involves no principle which cannot 
 be shown to be universally binding. And as we 
 pass from Hebrew institutions over into the first 
 practice of Christian alms, we not only come into 
 the sphere of a more expanded charity a charity 
 well escaped from confinement to a single nation, 
 and going forth to embrace the wo-rld but also find 
 ourselves in a centre of light as to the duty in ques 
 tion. 
 
 In the first place, this example, vindicated from 
 misconception, shows by what tenure the Christian 
 holds his property. "While those Christians had pos 
 sessions of property, they had them "as though they 
 possessed not" Each felt that he had no claim to 
 his own which could bar the claim of Christ. And 
 
24 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 he let Christ fully into his houses, and lands, and 
 possessions, as far as the need of his people would 
 carry him. Here we have the germ of the all-per 
 vading principle of Christian alms. That principle 
 makes every holder of property a steward, not an 
 original owner. That principle was here set up, in 
 the first setting up of the Christian church, claiming 
 deference as a fundamental law of Christ s kingdom, 
 in the whole work of raising supplies for the sacra 
 mental host of God s elect, in the conquest of the 
 world. And if this principle could now fully reas 
 sert its dominion in every Christian heart, hoth the 
 church and the world would soon be transformed. 
 New force would he given to the law of love in all 
 its ramifications. Let professed Christians feel that 
 they hold their property only as stewards, bound at 
 any time to surrender it when the wants of the poor 
 or of the church are such that the general good 
 requires the surrender, and the church will speedily 
 come in possession of the means for every conquest. 
 Let all, then, who have perplexities and cases of 
 conscience about the right use of property, corne and 
 solve all doubts, by adopting the simple principle ol 
 those first Christians, and have "as though they 
 possessed not." 
 
 Another point of instruction in the example of the 
 early Christians is, that the exigencies of Ike church, 
 and of a spreading gospel^ are not second to those 
 of suffering humanity in their claims on charity. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT LAW. 25 
 
 The occasion for the pentecostal contributions was 
 chiefly religious. Those converts were no paupers, 
 nor beggars, but rather learners of the gospel, for 
 the instruction of the world. They had come up to 
 the annual festival of ingathering, as usual, with 
 sufficient provision for their return. But, having 
 themselves been gathered in, they found unexpected 
 occasions to protract their tarrying. It was needful 
 that they should " continue steadfastly in the apostles 
 doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and 
 in prayers." Those were most busy arid important 
 days. For there were the germs of the church for 
 a thousand cities and villages, sprinkled over the 
 world. Jerusalem was the only centre of light 
 where they could get the instruction and furniture 
 of mind which they needed, to become radiating 
 centres wherever they went. And the interests of 
 the whole Christian cause required that these first 
 Christians should tarry at Jerusalem long enough 
 to get adequate instruction, and the baptism of the 
 spirit of the gospel. For, at that time, all the 
 Christianity in the world was there. Not a word 
 of it had been written ; not a preacher of it had 
 gone anywhere else. And all these Christians must 
 there abide, till they got an adequate idea of what 
 they were to communicate to the world. Theso 
 interests, in such hearts, being paramount to all 
 others, extinguished, so far as any had need, all pri 
 vate claims to property. This first and sublime 
 
26 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 instance of alms-giving, in the organized Christian 
 church, was an instance of alms given for religious 
 ends for the spread of the gospel. 
 
 This instance also shows what a high position re 
 ligious charity holds among oilier Christian duties 
 These men, after embracing religion in its trans 
 forming power, and then in its outward ordinances, 
 are said to have attended to Christian instruction, 
 prayer, and fellowship. And the next thing said of 
 them is, that among these prime duties of the Chris 
 tian life they exercised this remarkable liberality. 
 This duty is not located out on some remote branch 
 or twig of the system, where our habits have placed 
 it, but in the very heart and centre. And it is dwelt 
 upon, and repeated by the historian, as one of the 
 most delightful and characteristic events of the whole. 
 Surely the genius of Christianity, as there developed, 
 has entered but poorly into our conceptions. 
 
 There is also instruction in the fact, that those 
 Christians " sold their 2iossessio?is" to raise money 
 for the emergency. This is a hint to us, that the 
 advantage of good investments of property must 
 yield to the higher law of the necessities of Christ. 
 Many cannot afford gifts proportionate to their 
 means, because their property is so invested that 
 they cannot command the ready money. And pei- 
 haps some unconsciously felicitate themselves that, 
 they have their funds hid away from Christ, and 
 dream not of any obligation to change investments 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 27 
 
 of funds that arc yielding good incomes, for any 
 emergencies of charity. Yet here we see, that in 
 the spring-time arid primitive development of Chris 
 tianity, men were of another mind. 
 
 You will next observe, that these gifts were all free- 
 will offerings. Each one s right of property was re 
 spected ; no law imposed a fixed rate of contribution, 
 and none required the whole of any one s property. 
 One. prompted by his glowing love for the cause, 
 judged it to be his duty in his circumstances to sur 
 render the whole. Here operated that principle 
 which we have already noticed, leaving individual 
 hearts to spontaneous action, and yet securing a gen 
 erous action. So much for the Christian law of alms, 
 as it appears on the first page of Christian history. 
 
 IV. LAW OF PERIODICAL ALMS-G-IVINQ. 
 
 God s plan, in making the warns of the church 
 and of the poor a lever to bring the hearts of Chris 
 tians up to higher elevations and habits of benevo 
 lence, appears on every page of the gospel, but our 
 purpose confines us to those passages wherein the 
 Christian rule of alms-giving is presented in its di 
 rect and specific form. We need not a law of char 
 ity which is every thing in general and nothing in 
 particular. We need that which comes as near to 
 regulating the proportion of each one s income, as 
 the design of alms-giving will allow. And this we 
 have in 1 Cor., 1C :.l, 2. 
 
28 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 "NOW CONCERNING THE COLLECTION FOR THE 
 SAINTS, AS I HAVE GIVEN ORDER TO THE CHURCHES OF 
 GrALATIA, EVEN SO DO YE. UPON THE FIRST DAY OF 
 THE WEEK, LET EVERY ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN 
 STORE, AS GOD HAS PROSPERED HIM, THAT THERE BE 
 NO GATHERINGS WHEN I COME." 
 
 We have here, as we propose to show, a rule 
 which binds all to the principle of setting apart, 
 every Sabbath, or at least statedly, abortion of their 
 income or their means of living, as God shall prosper 
 them, for cliaritable uses: it being understood, that 
 this, like all other rules of its class, binds in its gen 
 eral principle and intent, but is subject to modifica 
 tions in its details, when brought to individual appli 
 cation. Even the law of the Sabbath, uttered in the 
 broadest terms, bends in adjustment to cases of need 
 ful mercy. And though the rule here given is as 
 universal in its terms, it does not of course bind those 
 who have no income to set apart a portion of income. 
 Nor does it bind the man whose salary or means of 
 living is received annually or quarterly, or the mer 
 chant engaged in large adventures, or any one who 
 cannot know at every week s end what his income 
 has been, actually to set apart a weekly proportion 
 of income. But it would seem to require that every 
 one should have his stated seasons for a conscientious 
 apportionment to his charity fund, either in cash or 
 by entry on a benevolent account, according to his 
 circumstances, and in such a mode as he shall see fit 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 29 
 
 to adopt. The intent of the rule cannot be answer 
 ed without some form of stated, systematic action, 
 Each one is required to adopt some regular system 
 of charity which shall come within the spirit of the 
 rule ; and it seems to have been a prominent design 
 of the Lawgiver to put each one upon the exercise of 
 his own judgment and conscience, in the execution 
 of the general provisions of his law. 
 
 For illustration, and for suggestion to those who can 
 not devise for themselves a better mode, we here state 
 the method in which two persons, unknown to each 
 other, and in circumstances widely different, have ful 
 filled their own idea of this rule, with benefit, as they 
 believe, to themselves arid to the cause of Christ. 
 
 One, every Sabbath evening at the hour of his 
 private devotion, lays aside the sum which he thinks 
 he ought to devote for that week to charitable pur 
 poses. If he has not the money, he charges the 
 amount against himself in favor of his charity fund 
 When there is a call for donations, he takes from this 
 fund what he thinks he should give. If a call of 
 special urgency comes, which what he has set apart 
 will not fully meet, he overdraws the fund, and 
 charges against it the balance, to be cancelled by 
 future incomes. Thus in a very simple and easy 
 way the work is reduced to a system, in connection 
 with the spiritual exercises of the Sabbath. 
 
 The other is a prosperous merchant, who resolves 
 that whatever his future profits shall be, he will dc- 
 
30 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 vote a certain per cent, to charity, enlarging the per 
 centage if his profits shall exceed a certain sum. On 
 the first day of every month he takes an inventory, 
 ascertains what have been his profits, and credits 
 the percentage on his charity account. When calls 
 are presented, he draws from this fund ; and for some 
 years he has been surprised to find that it is so pro 
 ductive. He meets calls with pleasure, and is a 
 happy man in prayer and labor to obtain means, of 
 which not a stinted portion is sacredly consecrated 
 to God. 
 
 But to return to the passage before us : the first 
 point of instruction here presented is, that this rule 
 is not given as mere advice, which we are at liberty 
 to disregard. Paul says, "I have given order" to 
 this effect. Nor was it a rule framed for mere local 
 and temporary use. He. had imposed it before on 
 the Galatian churches, and now lays it on the Corin 
 thian church, whose circumstances were very differ 
 ent ; and it was laid in imperative terms by an apostle 
 speaking by inspiration. 
 
 The next point is, that it is not a mere exhorta 
 tion to benevolence in general, but a specific rule re 
 quiring action in a particidar ivay, and binding 
 alike on all. True, it has, like the command to 
 preach the gospel to every creature, been lost to the 
 church for a thousand years. Yet man s neglect can 
 not annihilate God s command. That it was intend 
 ed for all is fully apparent. The epistle is addressed 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 31 
 
 not to the Corinthians alone, but " to all that in eve 
 ry place call upon the name of Jesus Christ" This 
 is not a mere unmeaning salutation. Paul could not 
 have saluted all Christians in his epistle in such 
 terms, unless he intended to address to them all, the 
 instructions contained in it, so far as they were in 
 nature and form applicable to all. And no part of 
 his epistle is more capable of general application than 
 this text. Nor does this rule here come out in a sol 
 itary instance in Paul s teaching. The same which 
 he here gives to the Corinthians, he had given, jji 
 more than one instance, to other churches "to the 
 churches in Galatia." 
 
 It is the way of the Spirit of inspiration to speak 
 to the whole church, or the whole world, through a 
 small company of immediate hearers. How comes 
 it that Paul s letter " to the church of God which is 
 at Corinth," with all its details of instruction, reproof, 
 and correction in righteousness administered to them, 
 should have been put forth as God s book of inspira 
 tion for the regulation of our heart and life ? Every 
 thing in that epistle which contains this rule, has as 
 much of a special direction to those Corinthians, as 
 this rule itself has. For instance, this same epistle 
 contains directions about the discipline of the church, 
 which all churches acknowledge as binding on them ; 
 yet they were given about a single case then existing 
 there. It contains exhortations to purity of life, with 
 a reference to impurities existing there. It gives 
 
32 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 important principles touching the law of marriage, 
 with reference to cases existing there. It gives the 
 Corinthians rules requiring of them a support of 
 their ministry, and instructions respecting the Lord s 
 table respecting the exercise of spiritual gifts, and 
 the like. None have doubted that the instruc 
 tions and rules given, on all these subjects, were as 
 much intended for us as for the Corinthians ; and a 
 principle of interpretation that would set them aside 
 from present use, would exclude all the epistles from 
 the sacred canon, and indeed a greater part of the 
 other scriptures, for the great body of scripture is 
 written on the same principle ; even the ten com 
 mandments, the eternal law of the universe, were 
 uttered specially to one people, and grounded on the 
 fact that God had brought them out of the land of 
 Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. Scarcely one 
 of the rules in this epistle is given out with as much 
 formality as that before us ; and such formal rules of 
 conduct, given by inspired men claiming to speak as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and to speak to 
 the few for the instruction of the whole world, may 
 be taken as meant for all, unless there be found in 
 their structure, context, or occasions, some implied 
 limitation. But no limitations are here implied. 
 
 There is another question : Did Paul require these 
 weekly deposits to be made, and appoint that there 
 should be no gatherings under the impulse of his elo 
 quence when he should come, in expectation that lie 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 33 
 
 in this way make a larger collection for tliat 
 time? Evidently lie was not providing for that 
 single occasion, but for the permanent influence of an 
 established rule. If for one occasion only, he would 
 most naturally have ordered the gathering to take 
 place after he had come and exerted the force of his 
 eloquence upon them in setting forth the details of 
 the distress which he asked them to relieve. Who 
 that knows with what force Paul could speak how 
 he spoke on Mars-hill, before the assembled wisdom 
 of G-reece how he thundered in the ear and con 
 science of the hardened Felix what effect he wrought 
 upon Agrippa who can doubt, that for a single col 
 lection, he would have secured vastly more if he had 
 said nothing of weekly deposits, and had relied upon 
 an appeal to the Corinthians with the electric force 
 of his eloquence, backed by the moral force of his 
 apostolic character and presence ? It is clear, at a 
 glance, that his object in giving that order, could not 
 have been to get the greatest amount of money for a 
 single occasion ; and if not, it follows that he was 
 looking to permanent results forming the general 
 practice of alms-giving hi that church ; and if in that 
 church, why not in all churches ? 
 
 If, then, the rule given have an evident fitness for 
 universal application if the circumstances of those 
 for whom it was first made, show no reason why it 
 was more fit for them than for all if, from reason 
 and the -nature of things, the rule appears to be as 
 
 Law of Benef. 3 
 
34 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 well adapted to all as to any, the case is clear that 
 this utterance of the divine oracle is the voice of God 
 to universal man. 
 
 And let it be well considered that all that is shown 
 in this discussion, of the fitness of this rule for the 
 cultivation of the divine life, and enlarging tho 
 streams of Christian beneficence, is so much in con 
 firmation of its claims to be considered a law of God 
 requiring your obedience ; and if it be such a law, 
 you are as much required to act according to it, as 
 you are to keep the Sabbath. And those professing 
 Christians on the continent of Europe, who ignore 
 their obligation to remember the Sabbath-day and 
 keep it holy, have no more occasion to review their 
 theory touching that law, than you have yours re 
 specting this. They are no more offenders against 
 the one law of God, than you are against the other ; 
 and the Christian minister, or Christian teacher in 
 any sphere, who neglects to inculcate this rule, as 
 really neglects his duty, as the teacher who neglects 
 to inculcate the law of the Sabbath. 
 
 The next point is, that alms-giving is a work for 
 every Sabbath. " Upon the first day of the week, let 
 every one of you lay by him in store." Here noth 
 ing is said for or against collections made in the 
 church on the Sabbath. The command is, that as 
 often as the Sabbath comes, we should take out of 
 our means of living a portion, and devote it to char 
 itable uses. And this, in its very terms, refutes one 
 
PERIODICAL ALAlJi-GIVlNG. 35 
 
 of the commonplaces of Christian penuriousness : 
 that the handling of money is a desecration of the 
 Sabbath, and the preaching about filthy lucre is a 
 profanation of sacred things ; for here is an express 
 command of God, to handle money for one purpose 
 on the firs": day of the week. It would seem that 
 the first Christians had such a type of religion, thai 
 their handling of money was indispensable to Sab 
 bath sanctification, and that their Sabbath prayers 
 and praises could not ascend, but as accompanied 
 with their alms. 
 
 Another penurious maxim is also set aside by this 
 text, to wit, that calls for charity are too frequent, 
 Enterprises of Christian philanthropy are so multi 
 plied and various, that scarcely a month passes with 
 out a call from Christian pulpits for new donations, 
 and this i.i quite an annoyance to those who hava 
 some conscience and less benevolence. Now this 
 text points out a way in which this struggle be 
 tween conscience and inclination can be forestalled. 
 Let every one come into a habit of not waiting for 
 any calls, but of setting apart every Sabbath, or at 
 other stated periods, the portion which he ought to 
 give, and he will experience no annoyance from the 
 frequent calls of agents. Until he does this, he fails 
 to come up to the apostolic rule as to the frequency 
 of his alms. This is the way to "make up before 
 hand your bounty, that the same may be ready as a 
 matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness." 
 
36 kAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 It will naturally be asked, Why this duly must 
 needs be done on the Sabbath? Whatever may 
 have been the reason of this provision, it is a matter 
 of fact, that the converted Jews had been accus 
 tomed to a like arrangement. Both Philo and Jose 
 phus inform us that the Jews were wont every Sab 
 bath to make collections at their synagogues, of their 
 tithes and spontaneous gifts, to be sent to the temple. 
 This custom was adopted into the Christian church, 
 with such modifications as the new dispensation re 
 quired. The appropriation required to be made at 
 home, irrespective of a church contribution, would 
 secure a more universal compliance, than if it was 
 to be made in the church from which some would 
 be detained ; and yet it did not hinder public collec 
 tions, when convenience required them. 
 
 One of the reasons for connecting alms-giving with 
 the Sabbath doubtless was, to secure the periodical 
 and constant action of the heart in the work. To 
 make this action sure, a particular day of the week is 
 named when it should be done, and when it would 
 be less liable to be crowded out of mind by other 
 cares. And this order being obeyed, the habit of 
 frequent giving is secured. The mind as often as 
 the Sabbath comes round, is put upon reviewing the 
 course of providence, and the prosperity experienced, 
 and deciding in view of it how much ought to be 
 given, and so is kept in the constant exercise of be 
 nevolence, and holding constant checks on avaricious 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GtVINU. 37 
 
 aspirations. So this employment, while it secures its 
 main end upon the heart of the giver, harmonizes 
 with all the other employments of the Sabbath. For 
 the sanctification of the soul in its Sabbath work, it is 
 required, not only to bring the mind under the quick 
 ening influence of the gospel, read and preached and 
 meditated upon, not only to engage it in acts of 
 prayer and praise, but to enlist it in acts of love to 
 man, and in conflict with selfishness. Our Sabbath 
 religion must be not or ;y a matter of thought and 
 feeling, but of self-denying action. "It is lawful to 
 do good on the Sabbath-day." This action, steadily 
 and habitually sustained, plays upon the very citadel 
 of our selfishness, which is the great enemy of our 
 sanctification our keeping up a sleepless warfare 
 at this point, brings assistance to the other appropri 
 ate operations of the mind, and employs the whole 
 mechanism of the soul in harmony with Sabbath 
 engagements. And the constant repetition of small 
 gifts does more towards a benevolent formation of 
 heart, than the same amount given in larger sums 
 at wider intervals.. 
 
 Another reason is, that gifts so often repeated, 
 most effectually secure a large amount. The rule, 
 in its structure, bears an evident design to favor the 
 poorer classes, and give them an effective share in 
 the blessedness of benefaction. Living more from 
 hand to mouth, they have not the means at hand, if 
 they would, to make large donations, but by weekly 
 
38 J-AW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 additions to their charity-treasure, they may produce 
 a rich result at the year s end ; and in all this process 
 of laying aside the little that they can spare, they 
 are making just as much sacrifice and cultivation of 
 heart, and of course doing as much towards the prime 
 purpose of giving, as- their wealthy neighbors who 
 give ten times as much. The little sums thus laid 
 aside fall into their place in the ordinary calculation 
 of expenses, and are provided for at the same time 
 with our meat and drink ; and in thus sharing, as it 
 were, our daily sustenance with the poor, and bring 
 ing the toil-worn missionary, as it were, to eat at our 
 table, we come into a most affecting form of com 
 munion with Christ, and all who love his cause, 
 while we are taking the best course to enable us to 
 make the most of our contributions from a slender in 
 come. Without some plan like this, the constantly 
 recurring calls for things needful and superfluous 
 would absorb our income, and for the most part ex 
 clude our charities. But were all who acknowledge 
 the obligation to give at all, including old and young, 
 rich and poor, to come under this rule, a vast increase 
 of charitable funds would be realized. 
 
 The first application of this rule in its definite 
 form, which we have on record, was to the churches 
 in Galatia, in which the poor abounded. And then 
 it was found to be equally suitable to the wealth 
 ier Christians at Corinth, situated amidst temp 
 tations to luxury and extravagance. At any rate, 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVINh. 39 
 
 it is at once adapted to operate kindly among the 
 necessities of the humbler classes, and to hold salu 
 tary checks upon the extravagances of the rich. It 
 brings each one, once a week, to a reckoning with 
 himself as to his use of the gifts of Providence, 
 Is there a Christian whose easily besetting sin is 
 extravagance, who is spending more than a good 
 conscience would dictate, in the matters of style, or 
 in the elegances and superfluities of life, this rule 
 would seem to have been made on purpose for him. , 
 It arraigns him once a week before his conscience and 
 his God, to debate questions touching this very sub 
 ject. Let him adopt the rule, and he is led at once 
 to a course of mental exercises, in which he cannot 
 retain both his peace of mind and his habits of extrav 
 agance. The Sabbath comes, and after engaging in 
 the devotions of the day, both public and private, 
 he sits down under the full impression of all he has 
 heard and read of Christ and his salvation, and of 
 all that he has himself uttered in his prayers and 
 praises, and makes his decision as to how much the 
 Lord has prospered him, and for what end, and what 
 obligations that prosperity confers ; and he must be 
 slow to admit reproof if some of his superfluities are 
 not soon lopped off. If he fail to take the hint at 
 first, this debate in conscience is of course renewed 
 once a week, and he is brought back -to the subject in 
 all varieties of circumstances and modes of feeling , 
 and if any thing can cure a Christian s habitual ex- 
 
40 I AW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 travagance, this must be the remedy. By imposing 
 this rule, God, as it were, every Sabbath takes each 
 Christian aside and puts to him the delicate question, 
 how he has been prospered, and how much he can 
 afford to give to Him from whom he receives all. 
 And he does this at the time when the rational pow 
 ers and spiritual affections may be supposed to be in 
 the most vigorous exercise. 
 
 But there may be a more specific reason why this 
 day, and not any other of the week, is set apart for this 
 purpose. We may be invited to bring our grateful 
 offerings to the Lord s treasury on this day, because 
 the very design of the Sabbath makes it a day of 
 thanksgiving and of grateful remembrance of the 
 work of redemption. The Christian Sabbath cele 
 brates a new creation as a subject of more elevated 
 praise than that on which " the morning stars sang 
 together." And it is fitting, that our grateful joy 
 should have expression in substantial acts, as well as 
 in words and songs. He who made the mind, and 
 who best knows how to touch all its springs and 
 cause us to make melody in our hearts to the Lord, 
 knows that the giving of gifts is a natural expression 
 of grateful joy, and that the incense connected with 
 freewill offering, sweetly blends with our songs c,\ 
 praise for redeeming love. 
 
 Again, the religious nature and obligations of the 
 duty of alms-giving, make the appointment of the 
 Sabbath for the time of doing it, peculiarly proper. 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 41 
 
 The several Sabbath employments naturally aid 
 each other. Prayer and praise quicken and elevate 
 the mind for more effectual meditation on the word 
 of God, and so all the fit employments of the Sab 
 bath may tepid to revive our sense of obligation, and 
 our benevolent emotions, and thus serve as prompters 
 to our acts of charity. The Christian mind as really 
 communes with God, in the act of devoting to a char 
 itable use a portion of the gifts of God, as in prayer 
 and praise. God s authority binds the conscience, 
 and the love of Christ constrains the heart to the 
 act, and the mind moves responsive to the known 
 will of Christ. Such acts are a proper expression of 
 that charity of which Paul says, " Now abideth faith, 
 hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is 
 charity." This is, then, one of the graces of the Spirit, 
 and as the design of the Sabbath is for the quicken 
 ing of grace, this grace should be called into action 
 on the Sabbath ; and as this grace is in many minds 
 one of the most difficult of exercise, the aids which 
 other Sabbath exercises give should be called in, arid 
 our prayers and our alms should go up together as a 
 memorial before God. The fitness of this connection 
 of things has illustration in the experience of minis 
 ters, who, after the exercises of the Sabbath, find their 
 rninds vastly quickened in forming conceptions of di 
 vine truth, and in all spiritual exercises. 
 
 God has established this connection between our 
 Sabbath employments, and set the duty of alms- 
 
42 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 giving high, among them, doubtless with the design 
 that it .may have a more effective performance. A 
 time has been chosen when the mind may be sup 
 posed to be in the most favorable posture, a time 
 when we have retreated farthest from the world and 
 its excitements to avarice, and are most susceptible of 
 spiritual motives. If we wished to get a large dona 
 tion from one, for some benevolent object, we should 
 choose our time to approach him, and especially the 
 time when the realizings of eternity were most upon 
 him. Thus God does, and comes to us for our gift 
 in the midst of our Sabbath devotions in the midst 
 of our professions of gratitude and love. He comes 
 in and takes us at our word. "We have perhaps been 
 singing, 
 
 "All that I am, and all I have, 
 
 Shall be for ever thine ; 
 
 Whate er my duty bids me give, 
 
 My cheerful hands resign." 
 
 He then comes in with an opportunity for us to give 
 what our duty bids ; hence the admirable fitness of 
 the time. If there is to be a set time, who will not 
 say that tins is tJie time? If it had been a uni 
 versal custom to do this work on one particular day 
 of the week, and that not the Sabbath, and if now a 
 transfer were to be made, and the work were to be 
 brought within the Sabbath, a great advance in the 
 amount given would doubtless be realized. Even 
 the merchant, who monthly or at other stated times 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIYJNG. 43 
 
 carries to a benevolent account the sum devoted to 
 charity, may derive great advantage from sotting 
 apart on the Sabbath a little season for li grateful 
 communion 1 with Christ in reference to the claims 
 of the various departments of benevolence, and in 
 prayer for direction and a blessing on his humble 
 offerings. 
 
 Further, the duty is laid on every one. Let every 
 one of you lay by him in store." Though those who 
 are themselves objects of charity and have nothing 
 to give, would not come within the rule ; and though 
 those whose incomes do not admit of so detailed a 
 distribution, would be allowed to answer the intent 
 of the rule in the form which their circumstances re 
 quire ; yet, with such modifications, the rule is univer 
 sal with rich and poor. If it be thought an objection 
 that too much of religious charities must thus come 
 from the gifts of the poor, we answer, it will not be 
 so, provided they do not go beyond the measure of 
 the prosperity which God has given them. Hither 
 to religious enterprises have been mainly sustained 
 by the confluence of small streams, coming in from 
 those in moderate conditions. Yea, it is one of the 
 excellences of these enterprises, that they unite the 
 hearts of rich and poor ; and convey to the poor as 
 much of the benefit of giving as to the rich. And 
 will any count it treason to allow the poorest to share 
 in the luxury of sending the gospel to the poor ? Has 
 not the gospel done enough for the poor to warrant 
 
44 LAW o? BENEFICENCE. 
 
 such responses of gratitude from them 1 Has not 
 God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and 
 heirs of the kingdom ? And has he denied to these 
 heirs of the kingdom all share in the work of ad 
 vancing his kingdom ? His order to the churches in 
 Galatia, where the poor abounded, was, " Let every 
 one of you lay by him in store." 
 
 Nor did he intend to impose a burden, but to con 
 fer a privilege. And he has so shaped the require 
 ment, because unwilling to exclude the poor from a 
 needful means of grace. He who was anointed to 
 preach the gospel to the poor, would not so frame 
 his system as to cut off the poor from the channels 
 through which he conveys the riches of his grace ; 
 and most impressive is the assurance which he has 
 given us of this, in the value which he stamped on 
 the widow s farthing. While sitting in the temple 
 and watching the people casting their gifts into the 
 treasury, and after some had made princely dona 
 tions, he saw a poor widow come and drop in two 
 mites, which made a farthing. That went to his 
 heart; and with solemn emphasis in the use of that 
 "Verily," or Amen, which only he ever used in such 
 a way, he asserted that the value of the widow s gift 
 exceeded the sum total of all the rest ; and why ? 
 Because there was more of sacrifice made, more of 
 benevolent heart expended, and so a deeper and rich 
 er participation of sanctifying experience had, which 
 is the ultimate end of all gifts. 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 45 
 
 Here is presented such a scale of valuation of oui 
 gifts as brings the rich and poor upon one level, and 
 puts to flight all reasons that would exclude the poor. 
 Whatever others may think, Christ makes the small 
 est gifts of the poor as indispensable, and of as much 
 value, as the large donations of the rich. Ever 
 watchful for fit incidents from which to flash forth 
 instruction upon all ages, he here seized upon a case 
 of the smallest donation made by extreme poverty, 
 and held it forth as our warrant to value all gifts ac 
 cording to the sacrifice made, and so make the gifts 
 of the poor, not only as acceptable to God, but as val 
 uable towards the ultimate end of filling the world 
 with the glory of God, as the proportionate gifts of 
 the rich. And so when he said, " It is more blessed 
 to give than to receive," he intended not to utter 
 startling paradoxes, but to declare a plain matter of 
 fact in that divine plan which in many ways betrays 
 a generous partiality to the poor, in the distribution 
 of spiritual favors ; and to sustain this partiality, he 
 must give the poor an equal share in the blessedness 
 of giving, and this, and even more than this, they 
 have ever had. 
 
 But if it be a general law of Christ s kingdom, 
 that gifts in charity weigh in the balance of the- sanc 
 tuary according to the amount of the sacrifice made, 
 the concurrence of those of the smallest income is 
 indispensable. Suppose you can give but a cent a 
 week, that shall introduce you to all the soul -enrich- 
 
4(5 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 ing influences of giving. As an instrument of com 
 munion with Christ, and of binding your soul to him, 
 your copper coin is as effectual as the gold of others. 
 And who can tell, that carrying a special blessing 
 with it, and guided to its result by the partial re 
 gards of the Redeemer, it may not actually produce 
 more than the larger gifts, made with less sacrifice 
 and prayer ? Cases are not wanting of the single 
 penny-tract having originated trains of light and sal 
 vation, branching forth and extending beyond human 
 computation. And who can tell that these small 
 grains of mustard -seed, that have produced the great 
 trees, have not come from those whose " deep pov 
 erty abounded to the riches of their liberality." 
 
 Make the small gifts of the poor a matter of indif 
 ference, and confine to the rich the obligation to give, 
 and you would render the whole commandment a 
 nullity. If God had left to all but the poor the com 
 mand to give,- this would have been a poverty-stricken 
 world. To make it of any effect, it must run impar 
 tially from the highest to the lowest. It must hold 
 the pence as carefully as the pounds. 
 
 Indeed, imperfectly as this rule has been understood, 
 the greatest aggregate of gifts has come from those 
 of more limited means. Never did charities moro 
 abound than in the primitive ages ; never did evan 
 gelizing go forward with greater rapidity and power : 
 yet, "not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
 mighty, not many noble were called." It was the 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING 47 
 
 gifts of the humbler classes, flowing in countless 
 minuter rills, which cut the channels to convey the 
 riches of salvation over the civilized world. That 
 broad and fertilizing shower that in the space of one 
 generation made the wilderness bud and blossom as 
 the rose, was composed of single drops. And so i& 
 every other shower. He who is the Father of the 
 rain, arid who begets the drops of the dew, finds it 
 not beneath him to produce the single drops and the 
 smallest drops, without which there can be no show 
 ers. Sometimes when the ground, under a scorch 
 ing sun, is opening the seams on its bosom, implor 
 ing from heaven the mercy of a shower, a thin cloud 
 comes over, dispensing a large drop here and there 
 a fair similitude of what the work of charity, confined 
 to the rich, would be. The drops are large arid gen 
 erous in themselves ; but they are too few, and do 
 but mock the distress. It is the constant distilling 
 of the small rain by which God gladdens the earth. 
 
 And this law of charity lays itself on men in all 
 varieties of condition, with an admirable equality 
 of pressure. It requires each to give according 
 to his means, and according to his own judgment, 
 formed ivith an enlightened conscience and a be 
 nevolent heart. It puts into the hands of each one 
 a scale of duties, ascending and descending with 
 the increase or decrease of his means. The poor 
 man is expected to " labor, working with his hands, 
 that he may have to give to him that needeth." 
 
48 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 If this rule presses heavily anywhere, it is on 
 those who have difficulty in meeting their urgent 
 wants from week to week. But even they could 
 make a cent a week sacred to the cause of benev 
 olence, without any sensible increase of their bur 
 dens ; and that for them might answer all the ends 
 of the requirement, and make them equal co-part 
 ners in the soul-enriching and world-enriching com 
 rnerce of benevolence. But to an amount lesser 
 or larger, each is bound to form the habit of giving 
 a portion of his income to act every week on the 
 question of apportioning his gifts to his income. 
 Among the duties of the Sabbath, cornes that of di 
 viding off a portion for alms. And this is a duty no 
 more to be forgotten than that of prayer. The act 
 involves an exercise of conscience and of heart of 
 love to God and man, in giving back a portion of 
 God s gifts. The Sabbath s sun invites you anew 
 to settle the question, how much you ought to deny 
 yourself for Him who gave his life for your ransom. 
 
 The flexibility of this rule is one of its advantages. 
 It bends in perfect adjustment to each one s circum 
 stances, and to all changes of circumstances. It does 
 not require, that one shall, at the beginning of a year, 
 commit himself to give so much for the year, not 
 knowing whether his present ability will continue 
 through the year, or whether it may not be increased ; 
 he may determine on the proportion, or percentage 
 of income which he will contribute, and that, if his 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 49 
 
 income shall exceed a certain sum, he will give a 
 larger percentage, " as God shall prosper him." It 
 does not require each one to give just so great a 
 proportion of his income ; but it makes each one 
 to judge for himself, in view of all his circum 
 stances. There may be circumstances which would 
 require one to give twice the percentage of his 
 income which another gives. One may be under 
 obligations to creditors, and bound to be just before 
 he is generous ; while the other, with the same in 
 come, is free from debt though the man who early 
 adopts and adheres to the scripture rule, will find 
 it operating as a powerful dissuasive from contract 
 ing needless debts. There are a thousand other cir 
 cumstances which may vary the proportion that 
 different persons ought to give ; and these are wise 
 ly committed to be judged of by each one s own 
 conscience. 
 
 There is still another important point of instruc 
 tion in this text : " That there be no gatherings ivhen 
 I come" This detects a capital error in our present 
 policy of benevolence ; in that we are wont to wait 
 to be lashed up to our duty by the periodical visits 
 of the agents of the several benevolent societies. 
 Paul was operating as an agent for gathering funds 
 to relieve the distress of Christians at Jerusalem. 
 But he did not tell the Corinthians, Wait till I come 
 and lay before you the thrilling details of that dis 
 tress, and by dint of eloquent appeals, move you to 
 
50 kAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 an amount of donations which you would not other 
 wise reach. He placed no reliance on such means. 
 He preferred that all should be done without a word 
 from him. He would have every dollar that was to 
 be given, actually in the treasury before he came, 
 " that there be no gatherings when I come." This 
 uncovers a grand feature in the divine plan, and it 
 may show us the error in our policy which makes it 
 so hard to bring the churches up to this duty. We 
 begin at the wrong end. "We make the great reason 
 why we should give to be, that somebody will suffer 
 if we do not. And we depend on our agents to set 
 forth that suffering, with an energy of eloquence 
 which those only can command who give themselves 
 wholly to a single branch of the work. And the re 
 sult is, that the main spring appointed to move the 
 soul to this work, is left untouched. The animal 
 passions and natural sympathies are quickened, the 
 understanding is convinced of the fitness of the work, 
 and the justice of its claims upon us ; in a second 
 ary sense the religious affections are enlisted ; but the 
 whole energy of the heart is not roused, becaute we 
 do not place the main reliance on the main motives. 
 We wait for Paul to come first, and tell us all about 
 the sufferings of the poor saints at Jerusalem ; ex 
 pecting by that communication of intelligence, to be 
 led into the great and moving inducements to give. 
 
 But Paul just reversed this process. He relied on 
 the intelligence of higher and more moving facts, 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING.- 51 
 
 which had already been communicated to them, 
 He reminded them of their obligations to Christ, who 
 had given himself for them of the fact that they had 
 already " given their own selves to the Lord," which 
 gift involved all the donations that were needed from 
 them ; he reminded them that he was proving the 
 sincerity of their love that he was seeking the cul 
 tivation in them of one of the parent graces that 
 all their supplies came from God, who would cause 
 them to reap bountifully from a bountiful sowing 
 and that the great end which he sought, was the en 
 riching of ihcir souls " to all bountifulness" These 
 were the motives on which he relied. His great care 
 was, not to stir their sympathies in view of the dis 
 tresses of the needy, but to make those distresses 
 an occasion of their exercising one of the Christian 
 graces. And this he did by reminding them of their 
 relations to God and Christ. His argument was 
 purely evangelical made out of the prime elements 
 of the gospel. He was thus saved the necessity of 
 descending to lower themes. He put the Corinthi 
 ans upon the formation of habits of giving constantly 
 and from principle, and so secured the gifts in actual 
 preparation, when call should be made for them. 
 
 Now, so far as our present system has departed 
 from this principle, we shall sooner or later be com 
 pelled to retrace our steps. There has long been 
 with many, a desire to save the necessity of employ 
 ing agents in the collection of funds ; and yet, there 
 
52 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 has been a prevalent conviction, that in the present 
 condition of the churches, they could not be safely 
 dispensed with. Most experiments of dispensing with 
 them have resulted unfavorably. And it is plain, 
 that any change of the temper and habits of the pub 
 lic mind, that will warrant our dispensing with them, 
 must; have a gradual introduction. If we are not 
 mistaken, that change, so much desired by all and 
 by none more than by our most efficient agents 
 can be secured by the restoration of this rule of 
 alms-giving, and by our ministry returning to the 
 scriptural method of inculcating the duty. If a 
 display of facts and statistics, and the communica 
 tion of intelligence respecting the particular charity 
 for which the agent pleads, is to be the great lever 
 to lift the church up to an apprehension of its duty, 
 then we shall ever want agents to do the work. 
 But if the more excellent way be found to be, to 
 bring the obligations to bear en Christian hearts first 
 and mainly for their own sanctification, then the 
 regular ministry will be the best of all agencies 
 And while we find it necessary to employ agents, 
 they will find it for their advantage to take a stand 
 point nearer the heart and centre of the gospel, and 
 make less reliance on their facts, statistics, and pa- 
 thotic appeals. The nearer they come to the plan 
 of Christ and his apostles in this matter, the more 
 effective will be their command over the hearts of 
 their hearers. Their main endeavor should be to dig 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING 53 
 
 broader and deeper fountains of benevolence in the 
 heart of the church, and not to eke out the largest 
 possible stream from the shallow fountains that now 
 exist. 
 
 There is then great wisdom in that single stroke 
 of the inspired pen, " that there be no gatherings 
 when I come." It tells us, that our gatherings have 
 been so meagre, because not before prepared in hab 
 its of giving, and in affections of the soul previously 
 cultivated under the application of motives more 
 purely evangelical. Arid it reveals a capital error 
 in our present mode of action, and shows the remedy 
 for existing deficiencies. Let the work of charity be 
 taken up, like that of repentance, to be done because 
 it is right, because the wants of the soul require it, 
 because it is due from us as homage to God, and in 
 gratitude to Christ. Let the ministry urge it on 
 these grounds mainly, and let the great themes of 
 redemption come to bear on the heart in a way to 
 enlarge its fountains of benevolent feeling, and the 
 result will be most happy. 
 
 Thus have we endeavored to give the spirit of 
 Paul s injunction, to engage in alms-giving every Sab 
 bath. In this we show a definite rule, formed by 
 divine wisdom, binding by divine authority, requiring 
 us to sustain a constant habit of giving more or less 
 according to our means, and independently of particu 
 lar calls ; and so as to be beforehand, and ready for 
 them when they come. This rule we propound to 
 
54 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 every one, as claiming his obedience. It is as defi 
 nite and authentic as any of the rules by which the 
 revenues of the Hebrew church were gathered. 
 
 But you will perhaps plead, that it has become 
 obsolete ; and say, that it has for many centuries 
 been unknown to the Christian world. And so have 
 many other things, which are as clear as the sun 
 when attention is effectually turned to them, been 
 unknown to the Christian world. The great duty 
 of evangelizing i;he world, which is in some sense 
 the sum of all duties, has, till within a short time, 
 been buried from the sight of the church. The com 
 mand to "go into all the world and preach the gos 
 pel to every creature," stood plainly forth on the 
 inspired page. It was "read and conned by rote" 
 among the lessons of childhood. It was a theme for 
 the pulpit and the commentary. But it was but 
 yesterday when its true meaning, simple as it is, 
 began first in modern times to flame forth, and 
 awake the hearts of a slumbering church. And it 
 is nothing more strange, that this other command, 
 written by an apostle, clear as a sunbeam, has slum 
 bered so long. 
 
 Facts compel us to open our Bibles with the im 
 pression, that the church is committing some great 
 error somewhere, in her practical sense of her duty, 
 as to furnishing the means of evangelizing. There 
 must be something out of joint. Some principle to 
 which God has committed a moving power, is dis- 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 55 
 
 located and bereft of its power. And previous to 
 examination, wlao can say that the oversight has 
 not been committed on this very page? The lan 
 guage is plain, binding every one to make alms-giv 
 ing a matter of business, of habit, and part of his 
 Sabbath work. And the fact that all Christians 
 have so strangely overlooked this duty, is by no 
 means a solitary fact. Nor can the united vote or 
 non-user of all Christendom, vacate such a Christian 
 dutv. Remembering what a new impulse was re 
 ceived when the church began to recover the mean 
 ing of the command to evangelize the world, let us 
 seek to recover the force of the command which binds 
 us to furnish the means of that evangelizing. 
 
 Such is the law of the New Testament, binding- 
 US to interweave with our Sabbath-keeping, a con 
 stant habit of consecrating to God a portion of our 
 means of living. "We pass now to some reasons for 
 a compliance with this law. 
 
 V. REASONS FOE, COMPLIANCE WITH THE 
 LAW. 
 
 1 IT IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MEANS OF GRACE. 
 
 This we place first in order, because it is the first 
 in importance. We have shown, that all other ends 
 of alms-giving terminate in this ; and that the duty, 
 in Scripture, t is enforced chiefly on the ground of its 
 being a means of sanctification to the heart of the 
 giver We have shown, that it is indispensable to 
 
06 LAW OF BENF FICENCE 
 
 the growth of Christian character, that Christian be 
 neficence have exercise ; that it has been appointed 
 that we shall have the poor with us always, as the 
 means of exercising us in those habits which will 
 promote us to true riches. If God s poor suffer, or if 
 God s cause suffer, it is to give scope for cultivating 
 the graces of those who exercise compassion. So 
 when the poor saints at Jerusalem were in distress, 
 and claiming the compassion of gentile Christians, 
 the apostles were with divine skill making their suf 
 ferings an occasion of growth in grace to others. 
 
 See how Paul uses the occasion with the Corinthi 
 ans : " Therefore as ye abound in every thing, in faith, 
 and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, 
 and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this 
 grace also" Here, this grace, which has exercise in 
 alms, is set into one and the same family with faith, 
 love, and Christian diligence. And the same rea 
 sons why we should abound in one, are made good 
 reasons why we should abound in the other. This 
 branch of benevolence is here recognized as a grace. 
 And what is a grace, but one of those qualities of 
 mind, gratuitously imparted by the Spirit of God in 
 regeneration, and put forward in sanctification one 
 of those qualities which make out the Christian 
 character ? It is one of a sisterhood that is never 
 separated from the rest. Those who think that they 
 can be good Christians, and have nothing to do with 
 charities those who abound in verbal faith and or- 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 57 
 
 thodoxy, and in fluent prayers, while they are deaf 
 to all calls to give for the love of Christ, are strangers 
 to the power of godliness. The Spirit of God never 
 committed such an oversight, as to regenerate a soul 
 and then leave it under the power of covetousness 
 complete. The product of the new birth is a new 
 man, with all the members of a man developed ; and 
 not one mutilated and wanting in this or that limb. 
 Every grace of the Spirit has a proportionate, though 
 it may be a feeble development. And it would be 
 no more absurd to speak of a Christian without faith, 
 than of a Christian without beneficence. A Chris 
 tian infidel is no more a contradiction in terms, than 
 a Christian without charity. 
 
 True and healthy piety involves in itself an ad 
 vance of the several graces in fit proportions, as the 
 growth of the body advances in all its several limbs. 
 And to say that such a one is an earnest Christian in 
 every thing else, but that he will give nothing and 
 sacrifice nothing for the cause of Christ, is an abuse 
 of language. Of such a one the Scripture says, " How 
 dwelleth the love of God in him?" "When we see 
 large developments of Christian character in other 
 respects, connected with small developments of be 
 nevolence, the large must be taken with some allow 
 ance keeping good the principle, that as ye abound 
 in the other, ye will "abound in this grace also." 
 
 This grace has its root in our self-consecration to 
 God. For the apostle in the same connection, en- 
 
58 LAW OF BEJMEFICENCE. 
 
 forcing this grace from the example of liberality in 
 the churches of Macedonia, says, they " first gave 
 their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will 
 of God." Here is the beginning of all charity. The 
 man ceasing to live to himself, and beginning to live 
 for God, asks himself, not how shall I most success 
 fully rear a separate and selfish interest ; but how 
 shall I best employ my means, great or small, tow 
 ards the true end for which I live ? He has in his 
 soul a propensity to acts of Christian generosity ; 
 and this propensity is the grace that is to be culti 
 vated in harmony with the rest. 
 
 This propensity has its main impulse in the love 
 of Christ. As Paul intimates in the same connec 
 tion, it " knows the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became 
 poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." 
 In every gift, the Christian, acting as a rational be 
 ing, has a reason for his act. And though he may 
 not have analyzed his feelings, so as to be con 
 scious of it, his chief motive is, that he acts in har 
 mony with the will and benevolent design of the 
 Saviour, who embraced poverty to confer on the re 
 deemed the riches of heaven. The loss which he is 
 to incur by his gift, reminds him of the amazing loss 
 by which Christ bestowed on him an unspeakable 
 gift. When his selfishness begins to rally, and he is 
 half resolved to withhold his reasonable share in any 
 good work, the thought comes back, that He who 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 59 
 
 was rich in all the wealth of heaven, emptied him 
 self of all, and had not where to lay his head, that 
 he might hereafter have a house of many mansions 
 to open, and an inheritance incorruptible to make 
 over to him. Seeing what Christ has done and lost 
 for him, to confer the wealth of the eternal God as a 
 free gift, and seeing that all he demands in return is 
 the natural response of a grateful heart, he becomes 
 ashamed of his best gifts, and says, 
 
 "Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
 
 That were a present far too small ; 
 Love so amazing, so divine, 
 
 Demands my soul, my life, my all." 
 
 If such a thing could be, as a redeemed sinner in 
 flamed with the love of Christ, and now and then 
 lifted to rapturous elevations and well-nigh mingling 
 with the white-robed harpers before the throne, in 
 that song, " "Worthy is the Lamb," and yet this same 
 redeemed sinner with a heart of stone against every 
 appeal to benevolent feeling, he would be a monster 
 for which we have no name. 
 
 Thus the same motives which actuate every other 
 grace, are the motives to this ; and these may all be 
 reduced to one, the love of Christ constraining us. 
 It is as important that this love should have ex 
 pression in this form, as in other appropriate forms. 
 And this grace, like the rest, grows by exercise by 
 bringing the motives to bear, and calling it into fre 
 quent action. That the love of God may be called 
 
60 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 forth and cultivated to be a strong and permanent 
 principle of character, it is made our duty to be much 
 in acts of prayer and communion with him. So alstr, 
 that our benevolent a flections may have strength, it 
 is made our duty to hold ourselves to constant rep 
 etitions of benevolent acts. For this reason, divine 
 wisdom has appointed that each Christian shall en 
 ter upon a series of such acts, and hold himself to 
 them while the weeks and years go round, that he 
 may bring to bear upon his soul a divinely construct 
 ed mechanism, for its gradual transformation into 
 the divine image. You have then the great reason 
 for this rule of habitual and systematic charity, in 
 that it is the will of God for your sanctification in 
 that it is among the most important means of grace. 
 
 And that it may still further appear to be such, 
 let us contemplate it in the opposite view in the 
 antagonism which it presents to the native covctoirs- 
 ncss of the heart. That which most effectually pro 
 motes our benevolent affections, best counterworks 
 our avarice ; for our evil affections are displaced only 
 by bringing in their opposites. And these habits ol 
 constant giving are prominent among the means 
 which God has appointed for our habitual resistance 
 to that love of the world which is idolatry, and that 
 lawless will to be rich which involves us in a " snare, 
 and in many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown 
 men in destruction and perdition." 
 
 The purpose to accumulate money for its own 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 61 
 
 Bake, or for the selfish gratifications which it minis 
 ters, when once admitted to rule the mind, takes 
 possession and spreads and fortifies itself, and leaves 
 no place in the heart for homage to God. Every 
 power of the soul submits, as if smitten with a palsy. 
 All motions are excluded that do not obey the im 
 pulse of this ruling passion : the understanding can 
 not entertain the thoughts of God, for it is tasked to 
 its utmost in gainful contrivances ; the memory is 
 imbecile as to all remembrance of God, for its main 
 power is exhausted upon other things. The affec 
 tions are so occupied with treasures of earth, that they 
 set no value on the pearl of great price. In short, 
 this love of accumulation is the easily besetting sin 
 of the world, and one of the most dangerous enemies 
 of our salvation ; and the strategy of our spiritual 
 warfare needs to be specially directed against it. 
 
 Selfishness is the parent form and central element 
 of all sin ; and the love of money is one of the main 
 branches of selfishness, " the root of all evil ;" and 
 upon this " root of all evil," this dangerous enemy of 
 our salvation, the enginery of redemption is made 
 effectually to play, in the formation and nurture 
 of habits of benevolence. Aware that this was our 
 great point of danger, Christ said to them that "trust 
 in riches," that is, them that come under the power 
 of this love of money, that it is easier for a camel to 
 go through a needle s eye, than for them to enter 
 heaven And having given command to take heed 
 
62 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 and beware of this covetousness, be lias also shown 
 the way of resisting it, by bringing the benevolent 
 affections into vigorous and constant play. The 
 Christian law of alms-giving he has made to give 
 a benevolent character and a sanctified direction to 
 our necessary employments for gain. 
 
 He who, out of a principle of true benevolence, con 
 secrates to a benevolent use whatever can be wisely 
 spared from his income, and possesses the rest as 
 though he possessed not, holding it as God s steward, 
 does in fact write " lioliness to the Lord" on all that 
 he acquires. In all his labor of acquisition he is as 
 much actuated by a benevolent design, as if he were 
 laboring with the intent to give every cent of his 
 gains to the poor ; and in all his labors he is as much 
 accepted of God, and is doing as much for the sanc- 
 tification of his own heart, as if- his own and his 
 family s support being provided in other ways he 
 was laboring exclusively for God s poor. Accord 
 ingly the apostle says, " Let him that stole, steal no 
 more ; but let him labor, working with his hands, 
 that he may have to give to him that needeth." 
 Here, it is not labor to supply his wants, or support 
 his family ; but he must be actuated by a design which 
 looks beyond these, Avhile it embraces them both. 
 The adoption of this principle of laying off the Lord s 
 portion from our income, if done from right motives 
 changes the whole direction of our labor for gains, 
 and enables us to "do it heartilv as unto the Lord," 
 
A MEAXS OF GRACE 63 
 
 to make his glory the end of our ordinary employ 
 ment ; and this inverts the whole machinery of the 
 mind, that had before labored to accumulate for 
 selfish gratifications. 
 
 Most have need of the diligent pursuit of some 
 methods of gain, as the means of living. They are 
 put upon constant toil and care to keep up theii 
 supplies ; and they make more or less acquaintance 
 with anxious solicitudes about the future. This ex 
 perience will operate to promote inordinate desires 
 to be rich : the details of gathering cents and dollars 
 by the hardest, for subsistence and for children s 
 bread, tend to form habits of inordinately desiring 
 riches ; and these habits, with no counteracting force, 
 would soon fearfully contract the heart. 
 
 Then the multiplicity of cares which come upon 
 one devoted to worldly accumulations, and the keen 
 solicitudes employed on money- adventures, are so 
 exhausting to the benevolent affections, so adapted 
 to fix an undue value on money, that we need, for 
 our own safety, all possible engagements of mind in 
 opposite directions. No apology for neglecting the 
 soul is so much in use as that of the multiplicity of 
 cares, the want of time occasioned by labors and en 
 terprises for gain. Hisks must be run ; the issue of 
 pending adventures must be anxiously waited ; new 
 plans must be framed ; the eye must be out on all 
 turns of times and shifts in the currents of business. 
 Alternations of hope and fear, of success and disaster. 
 
64 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 must keep the mind upon a stretch. And here is the 
 occasion for the action of some counteracting element ; 
 for this is the reason why the gospel, preached to 
 anxious worldlings, is a precious seed thrown away 
 among thorns. The cares of the world and the deceit- 
 fulness of riches choke the word ; they follow a man 
 like his shadow, engrossing his thoughts, absorbing his 
 soul, even while his body is in the house of God. 
 
 Now the more one is exposed to this deluge of 
 cares, all tending to put forw r ard the growth of selfish 
 affections, the more he needs that method of counter 
 action provided in the divine rule under consideration. 
 The mind acting so much in one direction, needs to 
 regain its health and balance by much action in the 
 other ; and God has interposed to bring relief to this 
 point of danger, and laid on us the duty of combat 
 ing our love of money by making sacrifices of money. 
 In this way he engages us to put one of our greatest 
 enemies to the torture, and crucify him till he dies. 
 This is a main branch of that great duty of mortify 
 ing the flesh with its affections and lusts : we give 
 our love of money a new wound as often as we make 
 a sacrifice in- a gift to the poor. It comports with 
 the economy of grace, that our giant enemy shall not 
 die by a single blow ; his destruction must be tho 
 work of time, of our whole life ; and the plan of war 
 fare best suited to its design, and to our natures, is 
 one which engages us to a constant repetition of 
 wounds, under which he dies by inches. 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 65 
 
 We have often seen those who, when in compara 
 tive poverty, ivere generous with their little, but who 
 nave become penurious in becoming rich. While 
 their means were small, their outgoes trod close 
 upon their incomes ; their habit of giving was exer 
 cised and strengthened in some proportion to that of 
 receiving, and the passion for accumulating had not 
 room to spread its roots. But when the gains began 
 sensibly to advance beyond the outgoes, a habit was 
 formed of calculating how long it would take to reach 
 such and such a sum ; and with no active principle 
 of benevolence proportionally counterworking the 
 growing passion for gains, every little increase served 
 to feed the passion, and every call for charities was 
 resisted, because it postponed the time of reaching 
 the proposed amount to be laid in. Aware of this 
 principle of human nature, divine wisdom has given 
 the caution, "If riches increase, set not your heart 
 upon them ;" hinting to us that the " setting of the 
 heart upon them" is a common result of increase. 
 
 How many thousands have said in their hearts, 
 if I were as rich as such a one, how would I multiply 
 the streams of my bounty ; I would do nothing 
 else than employ my wealth in doing good. But all 
 such talk is vain ; the process of becoming so rich 
 would expose you to the fiercer heats of temptation, 
 consuming all benevolent affections. The process of 
 increasing wealth, without the outgoes of benevo 
 lence, is a process of confirming a feeling of poverty 
 
 I/RW of Bencf. 5 
 
66 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 a grasping desire for more, which like the grave will 
 be ever crying, Give, give. A case has been known 
 of a man at the age of threescore and ten, with hia 
 hundred thousand dollars, free from debt, and well 
 invested, and yet crying like a child in apprehension 
 of a possible experience of poverty. And this state 
 of feeling was induced by a most natural process, by 
 a mind given up to the passion of accumulating, with 
 out the counter-process of distributing. This is an 
 invariable result of human experience in like circum 
 stances, and it shows the importance of some law oi 
 conduct to keep our benevolent activities in use. Our 
 condition is like that of a leaky vessel, which needs 
 the constant labor of the pump in throwing out, to 
 prevent its being submerged. 
 
 This fact in human nature should be well consid 
 ered by the young, who are just entering upon a 
 course of business, and upon the formation of char 
 acter. Here is a powerful element in the production 
 of character, which one cannot overlook without great 
 damage to himself. Whether the young person re 
 gards his happiness and usefulness for time or for 
 etornity, it is immensely important that he adopt this 
 divinely appointed method of enlarging his heart. 
 
 And the church as a whole, and each professed 
 Jhristian, has a special interest in this matter, be 
 cause covetousness is more especially the sin of the 
 visible church. It is so, because it is of such a natur* 
 that it can better conceal itself under a Christian 
 
A MEANS OF ^fRACE. 67 
 
 profession. Spurious conversions more often consist 
 of a change of the dominion of one lust for that of 
 another ; and as long as the heart remains unchanged, 
 the lesser changes must consist in some substitution 
 like this an outward reformation must have its com 
 pensation in indulgences of inward lusts. It is no 
 easy matter to be a drunkard, or profane, or dishon 
 est, or licentious, and maintain a reputable standing 
 among Christians ; but one may indulge his supreme 
 love of the world in the form of covetousness, and 
 yet maintain a specious semblance of religion, and a 
 fair standing in the church : indeed, the church is 
 quite too charitable towards her uncharitable mem 
 bers, and that because her own standard of benefi 
 cence is toe low, and her own perceptions of Christian 
 obligation in this matter are dim. There is now and 
 then in human society what is called a miser a man 
 of large means, whose selfishness is so extreme, as to 
 defeat its own purpose arid inflict misery on himself. 
 Such a one is held in general abhorrence, as a vio 
 lator of the primitive law of society. Living only for 
 himself, ard refusing to contribute to the pleasures 
 and advantage of society, he is by the common con 
 sent of men degraded to a lower order of beings ; 
 men make themselves merry at his expense, and 
 find amusement in discourse of his strange habits. 
 But the man who, under more decent appearances, 
 lives Avholiy to himself in the church of Christ, is 
 even a more gross violator of the primitive law of 
 
68 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 that society, and his character deserves no more in 
 dulgence. Yet, for the reasons which we have given, 
 it finds a degree of indulgence ; and worldly minds in 
 the church can indulge their covetousness, when they 
 could not other forms of sin as gross ; and for the 
 same reason, there are probably many in the church 
 in supreme devotement to this form of sin, without 
 being conscious of it. Hence, this sin should be the 
 more guarded against in the church, by extending 
 and confirming those habits of beneficence that coun 
 terwork it. 
 
 The grace of God first finds us in love of the world, 
 inveterate, and supreme. It comes " teaching us, 
 that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should 
 live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
 world." But its most effectual form of teaching this. 
 is by experience and active resistance. It uses not 
 only the word of instruction, but the power of action. 
 All must be wrought into us, and wrought out by 
 us. We cannot be put into the possession of a be 
 nevolent temper, and delivered from the tyranny of 
 selfishness, by mere intellectual processes by a mere 
 presentation of reasons and inducements to benevo 
 lence. There is a work for the Holy Spirit; and, 
 under that, there is occasion for all the processes of 
 the human mind, by which the temper and habits 
 are changed. And in the gospel law of alms, every 
 Christian is bound to address himself to the cultiva 
 tion of the benevolent affections, as one great end of 
 
A MEANS .OF GRACE. $9 
 
 life. Christ made it the duty of every one to pray, 
 because his soul has need of all the quickening in 
 fluences which prayer attracts ; and so he has made 
 it the duty of every one to be constantly giving, be 
 cause the heart has need of all these acts, for its c wn 
 enlargement. 
 
 It is veiy possible, however, that some have never 
 felt any want of the aid of such habits, and have 
 never thought of giving as a means of crucifying the 
 old man -just as many a prayerless man has never 
 felt any need of those influences of the divine life 
 which the good man secures by prayer. Of course, 
 they have nothing in their own experience by which 
 they can appreciate this Christian law of alms. They 
 have no conflicts with the power of selfishness, 
 because they have always been submissive to it. 
 Such, however, would soon discover what is want 
 ing, should they set this Christian rule before them, 
 and endeavor to adopt it as the law of their conduct. 
 Ye who have no need to cultivate a more benevo 
 lent heart, will of course find no reluctance to put in 
 practice a rule of benevolence so reasonable. And 
 if ye are reluctant, that reluctance is proof of your 
 selfishness, and your need to enter a school of vigor 
 ous discipline. This reluctance is proof that you 
 have need to exercise your heart to self-denials as 
 constantly as the rule contemplates. 
 
70 J<AW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 2, THIS SYSTEM OI BENEVOLENCE TENDS TO THRIFT. 
 
 Another reason why each one should enter upon 
 these habits of systematic heneiicence is, that God so 
 attaches his blessing to them, that even the temporal 
 interests of the giver are usually promoted by them, 
 Out of the gifts of God to us, we bestow our gifts ; 
 and out of our gifts he brings the elements of our 
 increase. There is here a circulation not unlike to 
 that between the clouds and the earth watered by 
 them. Suppose the clouds should withhold their 
 gifts, and all the waters in the bottles of heaven 
 should be hoarded there, for fear of exhaustion ; the 
 earth would soon become parched, and its lakes and 
 rivers dry, and the supplies of rising vapor to fill the 
 clouds would be diminished. But let the clouds 
 freely dispense their treasures, and these treasures 
 will have prompt returns. 
 
 In order to illustrate the principle that benevolence 
 tends to thrift, let us now leave out of view every 
 jther purpose, and treat of the habit of giving simply 
 as a means of benefiting ourselves. The Scriptures 
 speak abundantly of this result. Take one example 
 out of many, and one wherein temporal and spiritual 
 benefit are intimately blended in the result. " He 
 that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly ; and 
 he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. 
 Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, 
 BO let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for 
 
TENDS TO THRIFT. 71 
 
 the Lord loveth the cheerful giver ; and God is able 
 to make all grace abound towards you, that ye 
 always, having all sufficiency in all things, may 
 abound in every good work." The increase here 
 promised is "all sufficiency in all things," to enable 
 us to "abound in every good work." And as the 
 giving of alms is one of the good works, a supply of 
 the means for future gifts must here be included 
 with the increase of grace which is promised. The 
 imagery holds forth the idea of a rich soil, well pre 
 pared, and which requires only a generous dispensing 
 of seed, in the shape of alms, to produce abundant 
 increase of the seed sown. It tells us, that if we 
 withhold the seed, we shall lose the advantage of a 
 richly prepared soil ; and if we dispense with a liberal 
 hand, we shall have proportionately liberal returns. 
 In other words, a wise and generous use of our prop 
 erty to charitable ends is, like the sowing of seed, a 
 means of enriching ourselves, both spiritually and 
 temporally. 
 
 That is, indeed, a narrow view which sees a re 
 ward in nothing but what terminates on ourselves. 
 " None of us liveth to himself." The Christian 
 blends his spiritual prosperity with that of the cause 
 of his Redeemer. If he gives his money to carry 
 jmd deposit the seed of the word in the most distant 
 climes, and afterwards finds that that seed is bear 
 ing fruit sixty or a hundred-fold, he has his reward 
 that increase is a rich compensation for his money. 
 
72 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 His own soul is enriched, both by sowing the seed 
 and reaping the harvest. This is one of the most 
 encouraging views of this work. By " dispersing 
 abroad" and "giving to the poor," we "sow beside 
 all waters," and deposit seeds which God watches 
 over with delight. We have a wide and hopeful 
 field on which to plant. And if the field be over 
 grown with briars and thorns, such agencies, under 
 the divine economy, go along with the seed such a 
 powerful hand of a divine Cultivator prepares for it 
 a place, that it will not return void. 
 
 "He that goeth forth bearing precious seed," goes 
 in the strength of all the agencies that, in the econo 
 my of salvation, precede and enforce the word dis 
 pensed. And he that gives his alms to give wings 
 to gospel truth, mingles his agencies with those of 
 the Redeemer, labors in an enterprise which fills the 
 heart of a God of mercy, which commands the minis 
 try of angels, and which is sure to give glorious 
 returns to all benevolent action. He casts his seed 
 on a field where showers of grace are to fall, and 
 over which the life-giving breath of the Spirit of G od, 
 like the winds of heaven, is to sweep. This is doing 
 more than to give impulse to the most powerful 
 human agencies. It is touching the springs of divine 
 power, and securing results proportionate to that 
 power. "We also enter into the advantage of the 
 precious nature of the seed. sown. It is the living 
 word of the living God, "the incorruptible seed, 
 
TENDS TO THRIFT. 73 
 
 which liveth and abideth for ever," which lives by 
 an ever-expansive life, shooting forth new roots and 
 branches, and yielding seed for new plantings, long 
 after the hand that planted is laid in the grave. 
 
 By contributing to convey the gospel into contact 
 with the minds of men, whether through the pulpit 
 or press, we are sowing seeds for a glorious harvest. 
 We are applying heaven s remedy to the deadly 
 wounds of a world. True, some of the seed will be 
 devoured by the fowls, some will be choked with 
 thorns, and yet, in the general result, the sower will 
 not be disappointed. The purpose and promise of 
 God insures him. Thus saith the Lord, "As the rain 
 cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and re- 
 turneth not thither, but watereth the earth and 
 maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give 
 seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall 
 my word be, that goeth forth out of my mouth. It 
 shall not return unto me void. But it shall accom 
 plish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the 
 thing whereto I sent it." God has " magnified his 
 word above all his name." The more it has been 
 dishonored hitherto, by a world s rejecting it, the 
 more is he pledged to magnify and vindicate it in 
 time to come. And among the great events yet to 
 transpire upon the face of this world, no event, or 
 series of events, will compare with the lustre of that 
 in which God will bring forth to view the power and 
 glory of his own truth. 
 
74 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 Into this work we enter when we contribute foi 
 the sowing of this seed. We not only cultivate our 
 own benevolence, in acts of giving, but in the par 
 ticipation of the hopes, and prayers, and efforts for 
 a world s conversion, we are holding our hearts in 
 communion with God, and enriching them with all 
 divine communications. 
 
 But, in a narrower sense, these habits of giving 
 tend to thrift, and promote our temporal interests 
 Jacob, in that crisis of his history when he was 
 thrown out from his father s house, empty upon the 
 world, with his whole fortune to make, made a vow, 
 responsive to the heavenly vision which he had at 
 Bethel, that of all that God should give him he 
 would give a tenth. He adopted essentially the 
 same rule which we here recommend a rule which 
 is within the reach of all. And how he prospered 
 under it we are well informed. And, in the general 
 result, it will be found that men will accumulate 
 property faster under the rule of habitually giving 
 a due proportion of their income, than they would 
 without it. Nor does the fact that men often come 
 into possession of property in disregard of this rule, 
 show the contrary. For though men often acquire 
 property without diligence, economy, or honesty, yet 
 these virtues tend to thrift. So, all other things 
 being equal, one may be said to be more sure to 
 thrive with habits of beneficence than without them. 
 Sometimes the reciprocity between the incomes and 
 
TENDS TO THRIFT. 75 
 
 outgoes is sc manifest as to strike the most careless 
 observer. Providence has a thousand ways of sus 
 taining it. 
 
 Habits of giving favor the formation of other habits 
 that tend to thrift. This rule operates as a law of 
 conduct in the use of one s income, which excludes 
 the waste made upon many frivolous, not to say 
 hurtful gratifications. Most are wont to spend on 
 needless things many small sums, whose aggregate 
 is a large sum. But he who taxes his income to do 
 good, soon finds in doing it a gratification greater 
 than in all those little wasteful expenditures, and 
 saves more than the amount of his charities. He 
 has a better estimate of the value and use of mon 
 ey, and he feels a steadier impulse both to benev 
 olence and to a wise economy. He has inserted 
 into his mind a better regulator, and so saves what 
 without it he would have wasted upon his vices. 
 And not only his economy, but his industry, and 
 indeed the whole sisterhood of thrifty virtues, are 
 fostered by his habits of charity. Then these vir 
 tues, by a natural attraction, draw him into connec 
 tions with others of like mind, and so secure him 
 against temptations to wasteful expenditures. 
 
 This habit of benevolence also involves a practi 
 cal acknowledgment of God and his blessing as the 
 source of all thrift, which acknowledgment is a di 
 rect means of securing blessings. Then, as it is a 
 general law of Providence that thrift shall follow 
 
76 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 diligence, so it is a general law that thrift shall fol 
 low benevolence. There is in this what may be 
 called a secondary rule of retributions, having rela 
 tions to human society somewhat similar to those 
 which the retributions of the last day have to the 
 kingdom of God. God, when higher interests do 
 not interfere, sustains a providential retribution in 
 the secular affairs of men, that they may learn from 
 others experience how to regulate their own con 
 duct. These retributions are conducted according 
 to general laws, which exist for reasons similar tp 
 those for which he sustains the constancy of nature s 
 works. Nature in all her processes is unvarying, 
 that we may use her best by knowing and obeying 
 her laws, that we may know before we try it, that 
 fire will burn, and water will drown. And for a 
 like reason, God maintains a law that the benevolent 
 shall thrive. It is written in the book of his prov 
 idences as well as in that of his revelation, "Cast 
 thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it 
 after many days." And there is nothing in human 
 experience that gainsays it. There are indeed ex 
 ceptions. For now and then God has some better 
 and higher ends to answer, which require him in 
 individual cases to suspend the rule. 
 
 That it is really a rule of divine Providence, is 
 abundantly asserted in such scriptures as these : 
 " Honor the Lord with thy substance, and the first 
 fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be 
 
TENDS TO THRIFT. 77 
 
 filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out 
 with new wine." " There is that scattereth and yet 
 increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than 
 is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." " The liberal 
 soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall 
 be watered also himself." " He that hath pity on 
 the poor, lendeth unto the Lord ; and that which he 
 hath given, will He pay him again." " He that hath 
 a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his 
 bread to the poor." "Bring ye all the tithes into 
 the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, if I 
 will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour 
 you out a blessing, that there shall not be room 
 enough to receive it." These scriptures have a 
 meaning, and the meaning which they plainly ex 
 press, arid one which an observant eye will see veri 
 fied in human experience. You hear God himself 
 saying, " With what measure ye mete, it shall be 
 measured to you again. Give, and it shall be given 
 unto you ; good measure, pressed down, shaken to 
 gether, arid running over." Thus is the liberality 
 of men paid first in their own coin, and then paid 
 again in the coin that goes current in heaven. While 
 bad crops, bad debts, midnight fires, and the like 
 disasters may soon consume what is gained by with 
 holding more than is meet. 
 
 But you will ask, If this principle have been iri 
 operation, why is not the wealth of the world con 
 centrated in the hands of the benevolent, or of the 
 
78 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 church ? One reason is, that there has been with 
 professed Christians a sad want of habits of testing 
 the power of this principle. When the Jews were 
 under a blight and curse for withholding their tithes, 
 their poverty was no disproof of the principle. And 
 the like to some extent may be said of us. But 
 there is another view. Christianity usually begins 
 to work on the lower strata of society, and thence 
 works upward, with a steady elevating influence OH 
 all. Leaving the mountains of hoarded wealth, she 
 comes to preside over the countless agencies that 
 work for the elevation of the humbler classes. Her 
 influence in this particular may be best seen as 
 exerted on a whole community. For instance, the 
 foundations of New England were laid by self-sacri 
 ficing men, whose " deep poverty abounded to the 
 riches of their liberality." With smallest ability, 
 they secured the best means of mental and spirit 
 ual culture then had in all the world. And they 
 did it in a spirit of self-sacrifice for the honor of God. 
 And all this was done in the rigors of a life in a 
 newly opened forest. The gifts of gold and precious 
 stones which they contributed to adorn their taber 
 nacle of God, were gifts made while dwelling in tho 
 wilderness. And to that wise generosity every sub 
 sequent year has been bringing in returns in secular 
 advantages. The present vigor of the New Eng 
 land character, and all that it has achieved for this 
 country and the world, is traceable to that liberality. 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM 79 
 
 And there are luminous illustrations of our princi 
 ple wherever the descendants of the pilgrims are 
 found. 
 
 But if any doubt the soundness of the principle, 
 they have an easy and satisfactory way of resolving 
 their doubts. Let them try it. Let them begin by 
 giving a due proportion of their income for charities, 
 and observing the result. There would be less of 
 doubt if there were more experiments. But there 
 have been some examples of those who, in some 
 good degree, have lived not to themselves. Most of 
 these, occupying humbler stations, have been little 
 noticed ; yet their record is on high. But some 
 have stood forth conspicuous, both in wealth and 
 liberality ; and also as illustrations of the principle, 
 that "he that watereth shall be watered also him 
 self." Andrew Fuller says the poor people of Glas 
 gow used to say, " David Dale gives his money by 
 sho elsful, and God Almighty sho els it back again.* 
 
 3. THE SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 
 
 It belonged to divine wisdom to lay the plan for 
 raising supplies for the wars of the cross the plan 
 for gathering from a people, few, scattered, and poor, 
 as the first Christians were, the funds for the wide 
 propagation of the gospel. And the plan which 
 divine wisdom devised for this purpose is above the 
 products of human wisdom in its measure, as much 
 as is the plan of salvation by the cross. In its sirn- 
 
80 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 piicit*, there is a comprehensive and far-reaching 
 skill. m its seeming foolishness, there is the wisdom 
 of God and the power of God. 
 
 Let as contemplate this rule of beneficence given 
 by Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as a 
 part of the system employed to gather resources for 
 the first propagation of the gospel. Here was, so to 
 speak, a great and expensive war to be sustained. 
 The little company of Christians were about to en 
 gage with the powers of darkness, entrenched in the 
 jtrongholds of heathen Rome. Jehovah had sum 
 moned them to conquer the empire that had conquer 
 ed the world ; and he gave them a plan for raising 
 the supplies, that was equal to the emergency. He 
 saw that if all Christians, as fast as they became 
 such, adopted this rule of Sabbath-gifts, the war 
 would be self-supporting in its progress and cumu 
 lative in its energy. Look then at the merits of this 
 rule, considered simply as a part of a system of 
 finance for such a vast enterprise. 
 
 And let not its great simplicity conceal its merits ; 
 for this itself is one of its great advantages, betoken 
 ing its divine origin. All that comes from God unites 
 simplicity with comprehensive utility and grandeur. 
 And this, unlike the complex systems of national 
 finance, requires not the profound skill of the states 
 man to execute it. Its simplicity puts it into the 
 hand of the merest child ; it makes each person a 
 treasurer for the Lord, and appoints his conscience a 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM 81 
 
 collector of the weekly dues, and disbursing agent to 
 meet all demands upon the treasury. The great 
 wisdom of the plan consists much in this, that so 
 many and great ends are secured by a provision so 
 fcimple, so easily and universally applicable. 
 
 Nearly allied to this feature is that of its great 
 economy. Most systems of finance consume a large 
 percentage of the funds in the expense of collecting ; 
 and the same is true of our benevolent agencies. 
 But the universal adoption of this rule will, as we 
 have seen, save what is now a great loss, which we 
 suffer as the penalty of our neglect of the heaven- 
 taught plan. We may, if we will, retain our old 
 habit of passive giving under casual appeals, and 
 pay for working the machinery that gives the im-* 
 pulses ; but if one and all should adopt the system 
 which makes each a vigilant and conscientious treas 
 urer for the Lord, there would be, through the length 
 and breadth of Zion, an omnipresent and spontane 
 ous inflow, every cent of which would be available 
 to the main purpose. 
 
 Then this rule secures us against ruinous bur 
 dens. Our revolutionary statesmen were often at 
 their wit s end to find how to get adequate supplies 
 for so exhausting a war without absorbing the means 
 and alienating the hearts of the people. But in this 
 war of the cross, the wealth of the people from 
 whom the supplies must come is in still less propor- 
 ;ion to the wants ; yet here is a rule of finance which, 
 
 Law of Bef. 6 
 
82 LAW OF BJSNEFICENCE. 
 
 if fully adopted, would fill the treasury, and leave 
 every contributor none the poorer and more attached 
 to the cause ; for its whole tendency is to nourish 
 and cultivate our love to the cause, to widen and 
 deepen the fountains of our benevolent feeling, while 
 it guards against laying heavy burdens, by leaving 
 each to judge of his own obligations. 
 
 The equity of the rule is another advantage of it 
 in a financial view. Paul says, " I mean not that 
 other men be eased, and ye burdened ; but by an 
 equality, that now at this time your abundance may 
 be a supply for their want, that their abundance also 
 may be a supply for your want : that there may be 
 equality." In respect to the equality of the press 
 ure of the burdens, the universal adoption of this 
 rule would effect a great change. Now the main 
 burden is borne by a part of those whom it concerns. 
 Probably one half of professing Christians contribute 
 nothing. And it deserves to be considered, whether 
 their neglect has not, at least in part, come from our 
 neglect of the scriptural mode of laying the demands 
 upon them from our neglect to convince them that 
 there is such a specific and universal law of benevo 
 lence binding upon them. But if this rule of Chris 
 tian finance could be restored, and set in the place 
 where the Holy Spirit has put it, every Christian s 
 conscience might be reached. Let those who are 
 now in a habit of giving, contribute by their exam 
 ple to make it a common law of Christian life that 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 83 
 
 each shall keep his treasury for Christ, and the time 
 will soon come, when it will not be easy to hold a 
 fair repute among Christians while avoiding every 
 pecuniary burden of the Christian cause. Why is it 
 a matter of common law in the church, that all pro 
 fessing Christians shall habitually partake of the 
 communion ? That is not more expressly and re 
 peatedly enjoined in the Bible than this duty. But 
 there is in the case of the Lord s supper a specific 
 rule generally acknowledged. Let such a rule be 
 generally acknowledged as to acts of beneficence, and 
 it is easy to see how the restoration of this rule 
 would tend to equalize the burden and work. 
 
 But the inculcation of this rule is desirable not 
 so much for the purpose of equalizing the burdens, 
 as for multiplying the bearers of them. If it be 
 true, that one-half of professing Christians, to say 
 nothing of others, are practically disowning their ob 
 ligations to give alms of such things as they have 
 for evangelizing the world, some means not now in 
 use are requisite to awake the public conscience 
 where it slumbers. What is wanted, in order that 
 the work should advance with the requisite rapidity 
 and all-pervading energy, is, that every individual 
 of the church should be an actual coworker in it 
 that every church, lesser or larger ; that every fam 
 ily, rich or poor ; that every individual Christian ; 
 yea, every one who means to maintain a practical 
 sense of allegiance to Christ, shall become a regular 
 
84 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 source of supply. And it is natural to ask, In what 
 way shall this result be secured ? The present mode 
 of presenting the claims of Christ upon his church, 
 has, for the last quarter of a century, made little 
 progress in this direction. The proportion of persons 
 in the church who contribute next to nothing, has 
 scarcely diminished in that time. It is hence plain 
 that some different mode of reaching the public con 
 science is requisite. And who will say that this 
 requisite lies not in a restoration of this apostolic 
 rule? If those who now sustain habits of benefi 
 cence were to adopt the rule, and in their practice to 
 commend it to the public mind as an acknowledged 
 law of Christian life, it would soon acquire a living, 
 moral force upon the public conscience, such as it 
 cannot have while it is treated with neglect, and 
 such as it would not be easy to resist. For who 
 does not see, that a requirement taking this specific 
 and imperative form, and laying its grasp on "every 
 one," would reach many that cannot be reached by a 
 mere general exhortation to benevolence. Every one, 
 indeed, thinks himself already benevolent, after some 
 sort. Every one thinks he is in a degree complying 
 with the spirit of the general requirements, even if 
 he give not a cent a year. But ask him to do this 
 thing in this way, and he will see that you require 
 what he is not doing. Tell him that God requires 
 him to do it in this way. Let him see that the 
 church are practically regarding this rule as binding 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 85 
 
 on each and all, and that in his neglect of it, he is as 
 much setting aside a law of the divine life as he would 
 be in the neglect of daily prayer, and you would 
 reach his conscience with a force entirely new. So 
 it strikes us, that here is the remedy for that wide 
 spread neglect of this branch of Christian obligation 
 over which Zion mourns. Give to this specific rule 
 of beneficence the binding force of a living command 
 of God, addressed to every man ; let it live and 
 breathe and speak through the common practice of 
 those who sustain the work of evangelizing, and very 
 soon all professing Christians would either adopt the 
 rule, or disburden the church of their connection 
 with it. 
 
 It also gives omnipresence and ceaseless activity 
 to the collecting agencies. It saves the expenses of 
 itinerant agents by establishing a local agency in 
 every man s mind, and so commanding the gratu 
 itous services of a thousand agents where it dismisses 
 one. It gives to each conscience an agent s com 
 mission, a pulpit to occupy, a sermon to preach, and 
 a collection to take up every Sabbath. And as 
 every Christian s conscience is supposed to be quick 
 ened and guided by the ever-present Spirit of God, 
 these countless agents are supposed to act under the 
 guidance and control of one central mind. So that 
 the universal adoption of this rule would secure a 
 countless host of collecting agents, all acting harmo 
 niously under the omnipresent agency of the Spirit 
 
86 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 of Christ. Seen from this view, this system has a 
 simplicity and grandeur unrivalled. 
 
 And then no odium attaches to these collecting 
 agencies. Having learned the excellence of the 
 work of gathering treasures for beneficence, we are 
 in the best way to be reconciled to such agencies. 
 If an appointed agent of some benevolent society 
 were, like Paul, to come to receive the gatherings 
 made before he came, we should receive him as an 
 angel of mercy. Now, when an agent comes, some 
 give him a cold reception, because they think he 
 wants their money ; but if they had first com 
 menced acting under their appointment as the Lord s 
 treasurers, having a portion of his, fund? in charge, 
 they would welcome the agent as a convenient 
 bearer of the Lord s funds to the point of their des 
 tination. 
 
 In some rare cases, this rule is needed as a check 
 on those who, giving from casual impulse, give more 
 than they ought. Some may perhaps do injustice to 
 themselves and families, by an inconsiderate profu 
 sion of their gifts. One excellent minister s wife 
 eaid, that she rejoiced that her husband aad adopted 
 this rule, because she was now sure that his gifts 
 Would be regulated by his deliberate judgment, and 
 not exceed his ability. And if the reader has a like 
 amiable weakness, here is his protection. Let all 
 your gifts go first into ,the Lord s treasury, kept in 
 your own house ; then, when a case of want appeals 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 87 
 
 to you, the simple question will be, how much of 
 that portion of the Lord s money under your hand 
 you ought to appropriate to that case. And when 
 demands are made for undeserving objects, or when 
 you are tempted to give, as the easiest way to dispose 
 of a troublesome applicant, the question will be, 
 Shall I take this portion of my Lord s money, which 
 is sacred to his uses, and thus throw it away ? 
 
 This rule also aids to a discrimination between 
 what are, and what are not objects of charity. There 
 is such a gradual shading off between gifts in charity 
 and gifts for other purposes, that we are likely to 
 credit ourselves too much on the score of charity, 
 unless we have first made it a rule to take every 
 gift in charity out of a fund already distinctly appro 
 priated to the Lord. In that case, we should avoid 
 underrating our obligations through our overestimate 
 of our actual gifts. 
 
 This financial rule works admirably, in producing 
 large results from small means, in that it both gen 
 erates wealth where it gathers it, and makes mas 
 sive ingots out of the carefully-garnered grains and 
 dust of gold. A financier for a nation plans to gather 
 into the public treasury the needed percentage of the 
 existing wealth of the people. But Paul s plan of 
 finance was laid to work where wealth was not 
 among those required to labor, working with their 
 hands, that they might have to give to him that 
 needeth. God has not set in progress a kingdom of 
 
88 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 poor men, and put it upon a work that involves great 
 expenses, without putting it upon a course of action 
 that will furnish the supplies. This is done by grad 
 uating the value of the gift of each by the ability 
 and sacrifice of the giver by putting the widow s 
 farthing as high as the rich man s pound ; thus mak 
 ing sure of the small grains, that will grow into the 
 mass of a mountain. As it is not the dash of a sin 
 gle water-spout here and there that fertilizes the 
 broad bosom of the earth, but the countless little 
 drops falling thick and fast over the whole surface, 
 so it is with the accumulations of evangelical finance. 
 The wonderful capacity of that system lies in its 
 power of generating and gathering up the minute 
 grains, till they produce effective funds ; and the 
 secret of the power which brings forth even the 
 smallest gifts, lies in the consideration given to the 
 smallest gifts proceeding from the love of Christ 
 The plan which puts the poor man s cent on a par 
 with the rich man s dollar, generates funds where 
 there are none, gathers the thick and pregnant cloud 
 from accumulations of vapor too thin to be visible. 
 It enables the poor to join in making many rich. 
 
 But we have not the whole of this idea, till we 
 have seen how this system increases the giver s 
 ability. Other systems only transfer a portion of the 
 people s wealth to the public treasury ; but this goes 
 in among the contributors, and disciplines them to 
 economy, diligence, temperance, and all the virtues 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 89 
 
 that tend to thrift, and so generates more wealth 
 than it gathers. If the poor man wishes to enter 
 upon a thrifty course, he does well to begin where 
 Jacob did, when, an exile and a penniless wanderer, 
 he lodged in Bethel, with a rock for his pillow and 
 heaven for his canopy, and when he made that vow, 
 " Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give 
 the tenth unto thee." It is no miracle, but the 
 ordinary process of providence, that makes this habit 
 of returning a portion of God s gifts contribute to our 
 wealth. And this process of providence challenges 
 our observation as much as the miracle by which the 
 widow s handful of meal and cruse of oil wasted not, 
 according to the word of the Lord. 
 
 A special beauty of this system is, that whatever 
 it brings into the Lord s treasury, it brings by means 
 most purely voluntary. There is not even the com 
 pulsion of eloquent appeals to sympathy. The Lord 
 loves a cheerful giver, and will have his conquests 
 made with no forced supplies. He will have the 
 energy of his cause sustained by the concurrence of 
 willing hearts. For this reason, he frowns on all 
 attempts to sustain his gospel in its purity by com 
 pulsory means. Those battles of the warrior which 
 are with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, 
 may well be sustained by supplies raised by force. 
 Before them is the garden of Eden, and behind them 
 a wilderness. But Zion s King seeks this as his espe 
 cial honor, that when his conquests shall be complete, 
 
90 LW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 and the world shall have welcomed his sceptre, it 
 may be seen that all the supplies of his armies have 
 come from the spontaneous gifts and the loyal hearts? 
 of his people. He has a right, indeed, to make forced 
 loans ; for in them he would only be drawing upon 
 his own funds, since the silver and the gold, and the 
 cattle upon a thousand hills, are his. And he does 
 in many ways force an unwilling service from hearts 
 and hands that intend it not. Yet his wisdom has 
 appointed, respecting the carrying forth of the gospel 
 to the benighted, that through your mercy they shall 
 obtain mercy that thus faith shall come by hearing 
 the preachers of your sending. He will have it ap 
 pear in the grand result, that the very essence of his 
 kingdom arid its self-expansive power, consists in that 
 love to God and man which has expression in gifts 
 for the spread of salvation. And that mode of be 
 nevolent action most intimately harmonizes with his 
 plans, which is most purely spontaneous on behalf of 
 his people coworking with him. 
 
 Another desideratum in public finances is, that the 
 supplies shall be steady and reliable. And were 
 this plan generally adopted, there would be no need 
 of the expenses of our evangelizing societies running 
 beyond their income no need for extra and spas 
 modic efforts to throw off a crushing debt ; for the 
 income would be a steady stream, supplied by count 
 less overflowing springs. 
 
 Another advantage of the rule is, that it has that 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 01 
 
 in its own structure and use which disarms objec 
 tions. If one absolutely refuses tribute to Christ, 
 and denies that he has any money-account to keep 
 with him, he has indeed no use for it ; but let any 
 one admit his obligation to give alms of such things 
 as he has, and he can give no valid reason why he 
 should not do it in the way which this rule describes. 
 If alms-giving be no part of your religion if you 
 think that your having been "bought with a price" 
 confers no pecuniary obligations, you must be left to 
 settle your accounts with the Redeemer at the final 
 reckoning. But those who think alms-giving as much 
 a duty as prayer or honesty, have here a rule which 
 God has given for its performance. It claims their 
 adoption by divine authority, and by reason of its 
 intrinsic excellence and manifold advantages. And 
 any one who refuses to adopt it, may be asked to 
 bring against it a reasonable objection. Is it, that 
 it would bind you to do more than you are able ? 
 The terms of the rule show the contrary. Is it, that 
 your ability is small, and your gifts would be incon 
 siderable ? It was for just such cases that the rule 
 was more especially made. Is it, that you cannot 
 always be sure of having the money in hand at the 
 time ? That is not needful. Is it, that you cannot 
 BO often judge of your ability ? You do as often judge 
 of your ability, in graduating your ordinary expendi 
 tures. Do you say that many have gone well through 
 life without such a rule ? Now, a command of God 
 
92 LAW OF BENEFICENCE 
 
 which has slumbered for a thousand years is coming 
 to life, and you will do well to heed it. 
 
 Furthermore, this plan of finance exceeds all oth 
 ers in its enforcements. In these the great Contriver 
 employs his infinite wisdom, and shows his control of 
 the springs of our minds. He proposes an end to be 
 accomplished upon ourselves by what we give to 
 him ; and he asks our gifts, not so much because he 
 or his cause needs them, as that he may have them 
 as proofs of our self-devotement to him. He comes, 
 not so much to awaken our sympathies for the suffer 
 ing, as to constrain us by the love of Christ. When 
 he calls us to beneficence, he speaks not so much of 
 the sufferings of man, as of the mercies of Christ. 
 He says, " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes 
 he became poor." And by a substitution, warranted 
 by his having stood as surety for a dying world his 
 having come to seek and save the lost, and his hav 
 ing made the lost his own he says, " Inasmuch as 
 ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have 
 done it unto me." So he causes the wants of the 
 world to plead with us out of his own mouth, and 
 to plead all that he has done for us, and all the 
 claims which he has upon us. And the whole is 
 backed by eternal sanctions. He does not bind this 
 law upon us with civil pains and penalties. If men 
 prefer to set aside his claims, and snatch and hoard 
 all that he gives them, he holds his peace for the 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 93 
 
 time. It may be, he lets the stream of his bounty 
 flow on, and lets them pass with credit among men, 
 and without censure in the church. But in a com 
 ing day he will say, " Inasmuch as ye did it not to 
 one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." 
 
 This rule then commends itself to our adoption by 
 its superior efficiency as a mode of financial action. 
 It was evidently appointed by divine wisdom, not 
 only because of its being best adapted to cultivate a 
 benevolent character, but because best adapted to 
 increase the amount given in charity. 
 
 It opens a way in which the poor can contribute a 
 considerable amount. Indeed, there is no other way 
 for a large class of Christians, many of whom are 
 the excellent of the earth, the true nobility, to bear 
 any considerable part in the most excellent of all 
 enterprises. The amount which they can give at 
 any one time, without the previous process of laying 
 aside a little now and a little then, is so small, that 
 they would be discouraged from attempting any 
 thing. But let this rule be adopted in the church, 
 and restored to its proper place, and secure a general 
 concurrence in it, and you will vastly multiply the 
 hearts and hands engaged to swell the general 
 amount. The single deposits of each will be small : 
 but even the poorest at the year s end will bring 
 you a handsome donation. And the aggregate dona 
 tions of the poor will surpass all previous expecta 
 tions. Of those whose means are smallest, there are 
 
94 i>AW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 some who, taught by an instinctive benevolence and 
 sagacity, have adopted the substance of this rule as 
 their only means of procuring their share in the lux 
 ury of beneficence, and are now actually laying aside 
 their penny at a time, to nurse it up to the pound, to 
 be devoted to the cause of Christ. But while this is 
 true of some, the greater part are discouraged and 
 excluded, in our exclusion of God s appointed rule, 
 which is their deed of partnership in the enterprise. 
 A restoration of this rule would then bring at once 
 a strong reinforcement to the army for subduing this 
 world to Christ. 
 
 But the reinforcements would come not alone from 
 the poor. Let this rule be recovered from oblivion, 
 and let it come to_be a universally admitted truth, 
 that every Christian is bound to obey it, as much as 
 he is bound to keep the Sabbath, and the habits of 
 a large portion of professed Christians will be revo 
 lutionized. 
 
 But the greatest increase will be from the opera 
 tion of the rule on those who now sustain the bur 
 den of these enterprises. Let them come under a 
 regular system, and from week to week set apart a 
 portion "as God has prospered them," and they will 
 eoon find themselves giving more, with less of seem 
 ing sacrifice. They will come out at the year s end 
 with much greater amounts deposited in the treasury 
 of the Lord, and with their own funds not lessened 
 by that increase. They will find their beneficence, 
 
PRIMITIVE EXAMINES. 95 
 
 as it has become a matter of more frequent recur 
 rence, and more constant business, to have become 
 also a matter of more substantial satisfaction ; thus, 
 more will be done with more pleasure, and with more 
 ability for doing it. 
 
 Here then is a method by which, if the church is 
 willing to obey a simple and plain command of her 
 Lord, a vast increase may be secured to the means of 
 evangelizing the world. And this fact pleads with 
 unlimited power, when we reflect to what rich ac 
 count all means can now be turned when we reflect 
 that the whole world is one inviting field of mission 
 ary labor that Bibles will be received and used as 
 fast as they can be made and given that preachers 
 will find a hearing in as great numbers as they can 
 be sent that colporteurs might advantageously be 
 increased a hundred-fold, and that Christian presses 
 might find employment in unlimited numbers. This 
 is the time to sow abundantly beside all waters, and 
 if there is any principle of action, that can put us in 
 possession of ten-fold the present incomes of our evan 
 gelizing societies, we want it now. 
 
 4. EXAMPLE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 
 
 The example of the primitive church may instruc* 
 us in this duty. The type of benevolence that ap 
 peared in the pentecostal revival, was nobly sustained 
 hi the church for several ages. The church first 
 gathered at Jerusalem being scattered abroad, went 
 
96 LAW OF BENEFICENCE 
 
 everywhere preaching the word and kindling the 
 fires of their own zeal and love ; and apostles testi 
 fied of the new churches reared in Gentile nations, 
 that " their deep poverty abounded to the riches of 
 their liberality," and that they extended their gifts 
 even " beyond their power." Next to bringing their 
 OAvn minds into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 
 their chief care was the conversion of others. 
 
 The history of the first two centuries of Christi 
 anity abounds with remarkable facts, showing with 
 what zeal and entireness of soul, the church went 
 into the work of converting the world. Those who 
 perilled their lives and suffered the loss of all things 
 in preaching, were not the only ones who made sac 
 rifices for the spread of the gospel. Some spent all 
 besides a bare support of themselves, to furnish the 
 means of evangelizing others ; those who had no 
 property gave the avails of their labor ; and it is re 
 corded of one man that he sold himself as a slave to 
 a heathen family, to get access to them for their con 
 version, and for years cheerfully endured the labor 
 and condition of a slave till he succeeded with the 
 whole family, and took his liberty from the gratitude 
 of the converts. The same person, on a visit to 
 Sparta, again entered himself as a slave in the fam 
 ily of the governor of Sparta and served two years, 
 and again succeeded in his design. The fires of such 
 a benevolence, burning wherever a company of Chris 
 tians was gathered, could not fail soon to overspread 
 
PRIMITIVE EXAMPLES. 97 
 
 the world, and in the space of one generation most 
 of the nations then known to the civilized world, 
 were more or less evangelized. And if such a tone 
 of benevolent action could be now restored to the 
 church, another generation would not pass before the 
 earth would be " full of the knowledge and glory of 
 God, as the waters cover the sea." 
 
 And their kindness to the poor was boundless. 
 Christians felt as much bound to this as to prayer, or 
 to the hearing of the gospel. Contributions and act 
 ual exertions for their relief, were made indispensable 
 parts of Sabbath exercises. At the close of public 
 Worship, lists of the needy, the widows and orphans, 
 were produced and considered, and additions were 
 made from time to time as new cases occurred ; and 
 the wants of these were supplied from the funds 
 gathered by free contributions. No heart-stirring 
 appeals were needed to awake dormant sympathies. 
 The spontaneous flowings of the fountains of their 
 benevolence supplied every stream. There were no 
 hospitals for the poor and sick except of their creat 
 ing, and few of the heathen ever entered abodes of 
 Buffering on errands of mercy. The Christians sup 
 ported not only their own needy, but bore the burden 
 which hardness of heart in their heathen neighbors 
 cast upon them ; and the zeal with which they 
 entered into every labor of love is well-nigh incredi 
 ble. Ladies of highest rank acted as nurses for the 
 sick, exposing themselves to contagions, and devoting 
 
 l*w of Benef. 7 
 
98 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 their purse, their toil, their prayers, and their in 
 structions, to pour consolation into the cells of ex- 
 tremest wretchedness. It was a day when scenes of 
 wretchedness specially abounded when the world 
 was often visited by famines and pestilences, and 
 the heathen had become shockingly corrupt in mor 
 als, and desperate and reckless under the fearful 
 visitations of heaven ; and the miracles of Christian 
 benevolence shone brighter through the darkness, 
 and contrasted strangely with the cold indifference 
 of the heathen towards their nearest friends. For 
 instance, in the time of Cyprian, the plague came 
 upon Carthage with fearful and protracted visitations. 
 The heathen abandoned their sick and dying. The 
 highways were strewed with corpses which none 
 dared to bury. But Christians faced every danger, 
 and often sacrificed life in alleviating sufferings and 
 burying the dead, whether of Christians or heathen. 
 "While, among the heathen, parents deserted their 
 own children, and children trampled on unburied 
 corpses of parents. 
 
 But oi;e of the greatest taxes on primitive benevo 
 lence was laid by persecution, which now and then 
 went through the church like a tempest. No sooner 
 did the report go abroad that a fellow-Christian was 
 ill a dungeon, than crowds of Christians came around 
 the prison- doors begging admission, meekly bearing 
 the insults of surly guards, and using every means 
 to procure the prisoner s release. Some would beset 
 
PRIMITIVE EXAMPLES. 09 
 
 the prison-walls days and nights, praying for the de 
 liverance, or the triumphant death of the imprisoned 
 martyrs. "When any were doomed to waste their 
 lives in toil in distant and unwholesome mines, con 
 tributions were sent for their relief, by the hands of 
 those who undertook long journeys to convey the 
 sympathies and offerings of the church. To show 
 the temper of the times, a party set out from Egypt 
 in the depth of winter, to relieve some brethren in 
 the mines of Cilicia. They came to Cesarea, and 
 there the heathen seized a part of them, put out their 
 eyes, and horribly mutilated them. But in spite of 
 such dangers, such journeys were often performed. 
 No floods of persecution could quench the desire to 
 convey consolation to those suffering for Christ s sake. 
 And those who lived to return and tell what they 
 had seen of martyrs in the mines how they toiled, 
 and bore their chains, and honored their Redeemer, 
 were loaded with many honors. 
 
 To supply resources for this great variety of press 
 ing calls for charity, there was the Sabbath contri 
 bution, commenced by order of Paul, in which all, 
 rich and poor, concurred. Then, in case of great 
 public calamities, the people held fasts, and gave to 
 the church what they saved by abstinence from food. 
 In pressing emergencies, the plate which the church 
 had acquired in more prosperous days was melted 
 down and sold. Others bound themselves to set 
 apart a certain portion of their income ; others held 
 
JOO LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 periodical fasts, devoting the saving thereby to the 
 church. Some wealthy individuals, when converted, 
 sold their whole estates, and betook themselves to 
 manual labor for their own support. Others man 
 aged their estates, devoting the whole income to the 
 cause. 
 
 Indeed, so much did the first Christians excel in 
 acts of charity, that these constituted their peculiar 
 characteristic, and the wonder of the heathen world. 
 If the church had any thing whereof to boast, it was 
 this. This is illustrated by the well-known act of 
 the deacon of the church at Rome, in the time of 
 the emperor Decius. The tyrant demanded that 
 the treasure of the church should be surrendered. 
 The deacon required one day s time to gather it. 
 In that time, he assembled all the blind, lame, sick, 
 and poor, that were supported by the church, and 
 then called in the emperor, and said, these are the 
 treasures of the church ! In the time of Chrysostom, 
 the church under his care had on its catalogue of 
 sick and poor, three thousand regular baneficiaries, 
 besides extraordinary applications every day for as 
 sistance. 
 
 Indeed, so glorious and impressive was the robe 
 of Christian charity worn by the primitive church, 
 that Julian the apostate, seeking to effect in his day 
 a resurrection of the prostrate heathen institutions 
 endeavored to put this robe upon paganism, expect 
 ing that it would, like the bones of Elisha, give life 
 
CONCLUSION. 101 
 
 to the dead. Here is the ever-memorable testimony 
 of that crafty and politic emperor : " Let us consider 
 that nothing has so much contributed to the progress 
 of the superstition of Christians, as their charity to 
 strangers. I think we ought to discharge this obli 
 gation ourselves. Establish hospitals in every place. 
 For it would be a shame for us to abandon our poor, 
 while the Jews have none, and the impious Galile 
 ans provide not only for their own poor, but also for 
 ours." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Place, now, distinctly before the mind, what, if 
 we have rightly read the New Testament, the Lord 
 requires of you, be your property less or more. It 
 is, that you shall now commence, if you have not 
 already, a habit of setting apart a portion of your 
 income on the Sabbath, or at other stated times, for 
 charitable uses, regulating with a generous heart and 
 a good conscience the amount appropriated by the 
 ability which God shall give you. Knowing this to 
 be a plain requirement of Christ, can you hesitate ? 
 If you can, you are not able to say, " The love of 
 Christ constraineth us." Indeed, what right of choice 
 have you in the case ? " Ye are not your own : ye 
 are bought with a price," and are bound to " glorify 
 God," not only with your money, but with "your 
 body and your spirit, which are his." " Ye are bought 
 with a price " " not with corruptible things, as sil 
 
J02 LAW OP BENKFICENC2 
 
 ver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." 
 Where Christ asks your silver, he has given his 
 blood. Do you realize that he has borne the curse 
 for you, and snatched you from the gates of hell ? 
 And yet, have you no generous emotions when he 
 asks for these gifts, in token of your love ? Do you 
 forget the mercy of " our Lord Jesus Christ, who, 
 though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, 
 that ye through his poverty might be rich?" And 
 now that through his poverty you are becoming rich, 
 or think you are, now that the riches of his grace 
 begins to flow in upon your soul, and God is endow 
 ing you with the wealth of the divine nature, and 
 he comes to you in the person of his poor, and asks 
 for a portion of his own gifts to be returned, have you 
 a heart to deny him ? After all your hopes and p?o- 
 fessions, is this the real temper of your mind ? Look 
 the thing in the face again. By becoming poor, he 
 has made you rich ; and in his poverty, which pleads 
 in the mouth of his poor, he asks you to return enough 
 of the gifts which he has put into your hand, to serve 
 as a substantial token of your grateful love. And 
 have you no heart to give it? We ask you, then, 
 just to realize what is the state of your heart. We 
 ask, how dwelleth the love of God in you ? We 
 ask you to realize with whom you are dealing, and 
 to whom he will say, " Inasmuch as ye did it not to 
 one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." 
 - Furthermore, this mode of consecrating our prop 
 
CONCLUSION. 103 
 
 fe 
 
 erty to Christ was included in the terms of our oath 
 of allegiance, or surrender to him. That surrender 
 included all that we are and have. Any thing short 
 of this would not bring us into covenant with God. 
 And if we have really covenanted with him, we 
 stand pledged by oath to make such a use of our 
 property. And as far as we are coming short of this, 
 are we not keeping back a part when we had sworn 
 to devote the whole ? And how does this differ from 
 the sin of Ananias and Sapphira ? 
 
 But you say, perhaps, that the great body of pro 
 fessed Christians, and those of reputable standing 
 have gone through life without any such rule of ac 
 tion, and why should more be required of you ? " The 
 times of this ignorance God winked at." A veil rest 
 ed upon the minds of most respecting this matter ; 
 but the views of the Christian world are in the pro 
 cess of a great change. As new enterprises have 
 been thrown upon our hands, new light has come 
 into our minds. We now begin to see this thing as 
 it is, and are now without the excuse which our fa 
 thers had. We are in a state of transition to posi 
 tions of purer light and more scriptural benevolence ; 
 and soon the church will look upon neglect of this 
 rule as we now look upon preceding ages, that for a 
 thousand years gave scarcely a dollar for the conver 
 sion of heathen. We trust the time is not distant, 
 when the professed Christian who has no habit and 
 system of aims-giving, will be regarded in the .church 
 
104 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 as the miser now is in society. This living to one 
 self, and withholding from Christ, will be as odious 
 as is now the trade of the swindler. 
 
 But perhaps some will still say, that they admit 
 the obligation to practise a generous charity, but 
 they hold that the gospel leaves every one to decide 
 for himself how much he ought to give ; and why 
 not let each one decide as to the mode of giving ? 
 "Why insist so much on its being done in this particu 
 lar way ? You might say the same about the duty ol 
 Sabbath-keeping. You admit the obligation to preach 
 and hear and pray and praise ; but why insist on its 
 being done on that particular day? "We could in 
 both cases give many reasons. But this is enough, 
 that God has commanded it ; and the command to 
 do this work of charity on the Sabbath, or at other 
 stated times, is as explicit as the command to keep the 
 Sabbath. Some individuals might devote as many 
 hours to spiritual exercises, if there were no Sabbath ; 
 and some individual might give as much in charity, 
 if there were no law requiring this stated appropria 
 tion of portions of income. But to make the matter 
 sure with all, divine wisdom has made this appoint 
 ment , and who are we, that we set it 
 
ZACCHEUS; 
 
 c 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE SCRIPTURAL PLAN 
 
 OF 
 
 BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 BY REV. SAMUEL HARRIS, 
 
 CONWAY, MASS. 
 
 And Zaccheus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of ray 
 goods I give to the poor. LUKE 19:8. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU -STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PLAN PRESCRIBED IN THE BIBLE, --- 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PRINCIPLES WHICH GUIDE IN REDUCING THE SCRIPTURAL 
 PLAN TO PRACTICE, 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DUTY OF SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE INFERRED 
 FROM THE NATURE AND MOTIVES OF PIETY, 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY OF SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE IN 
 PROVIDING FUNDS FOR BENEVOLENT ENTERPRISES, 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TENDENCY TO SECURE GOD S BLESSING ON BUSINESS AND 
 TO ENLARGE THE MEANS OF GIVING, 37 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE ANTIDOTE OF COVETOUSNESS, 49 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 ESSENTIAL TO THE HIGHEST SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS, 61 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 INCREASES THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE CHURCH, 71 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PROMOTES HAPPINESS, 74 
 
SCRIPTURAL 
 
 PLAN OF BENEVOLENCE, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PLAN PRESCRIBED IN THE BIBLE. 
 
 THOUGHTFUL readers cannot but observe the im 
 portance ascribed in the Bible to acts of charity; 
 the boldness with which the inquirer for salvation 
 is commanded, " Sell that thou hast, and give to 
 the poor ;" the preeminence in deadliness assigned to 
 the love of money as " the root of all evil ;" the ear 
 nestness and frequency with which men are warned 
 of its perils, and of the absolute incompatibility of 
 serving God and mammon ; the elevation given to 
 the standard of benevolence, " Let this mind be in 
 you, which was also in Christ Jesus ;" and the vital 
 connection everywhere implied between alms-giving 
 and the highest attainments of piety, of spiritual 
 power, and spiritual joy. They cannot but be star 
 tled, sometimes, with the apprehension that there is 
 a strange contrast here between the Bible and the 
 church ; that the faithful applying of scriptural truth 
 on this point, might make many a professed disciple 
 
6 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 go away, like the young ruler, sorrowful, or cry, as 
 they did of old when Christ had been preaching on 
 this very subject, " Who then can be saved ?" And 
 they cannot but be justified in inferring that this very 
 contrast between the church and the Bible is a promi 
 nent cause of embarrassment in our benevolent en 
 terprises ; of the prevailing worldliness of Christians ; 
 the limited success of efforts for the conversion of 
 souls ; the fewness of those who enter into the deep 
 est experience of the spiritual life ; and the absence 
 of that rapidity of enlargement and energy of action 
 which marked the apostolic church. 
 
 But the Bible not only teaches the importance of 
 charity, it lays down principles systematizing it. To 
 secure its divinely appointed prominence in advanc 
 ing the enterprises, the piety, the power, and the 
 blessedness of the church, it is necessary to under 
 stand and to practise the divinely appointed plan ol 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 " UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK LET EVERY 
 ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN STORE, AS GOD HATH PROS 
 PERED HIM." 
 
 This requires that charitable appropriations be 
 systematic. It requires some plan, deliberately and 
 prayerfully adopted, assessing on the income a deter 
 minate proportion for charitable purposes. It forbids 
 giving merely from impulse, as under the excitement 
 of an eloquent charity sermon, or the accidental sight 
 of distress It forbids giving merely at random what 
 
PLAN PRESCRIBED. 7 
 
 happens to be convenient. It transfers the control 
 of charity from the capriciousness of sensibility and 
 the parsimony of convenience, to the decisions of rea 
 son and conscience. It regulates impulse by princi 
 ple. It brings the whole subject into the closet, to 
 be determined by prayer and deliberation, according 
 to the rules of the Bible, in the fear of God, and the 
 spirit of consecration to him. In carrying into effect 
 the plan thus deliberately adopted, charitable appro 
 priations will enter into the calculations as much as 
 the necessary expenditures on the person, the family, 
 or the business ; they will be managed with as sys 
 tematic exactness as any branch of business ; they 
 may with advantage be as regularly booked. A line 
 written on a memorandum of his charities, kept by a 
 systematic giver and found after his death, suggests 
 an important reason for keeping such a record : "I 
 keep this memorandum lest I should think I give 
 more than I do." 
 
 They who obey the scriptural rule of benevolence, 
 do not wait to be solicited. Like the impoverished 
 but liberal Macedonians, they are " willing of them 
 selves." If a way of conveying their gifts is not 
 at hand, they seek one out, as Paul describes the 
 Macedonians : " praying us with much entreaty that 
 \ve would receive the gift, and take upon us the fel 
 lowship of the ministering to the saints." Thus, ac 
 cording to the inspired plan, the urgent solicitation is 
 not on the part of the agent of benevolence to draw 
 
8 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 charity from the giver, but on the givers part to find 
 the agent to receive and disburse their charities. Let 
 this system be adopted, and the funds of benevolent 
 societies would flow in unsolicited, and the expense 
 of collecting agencies would cease. 
 
 The scriptural rule requires frequent and stated 
 appropriations. " On the first day of the week, let 
 every one lay by him." If it is allowable some 
 times to depart from the letter of this law, the 
 spirit of it must be regarded. Having adopted his 
 plan of giving, the giver is required at frequent and 
 stated times to examine his income, assess on it the 
 prescribed proportion, and set aside the amount sa 
 cred to benevolence. His appropriations must be 
 frequent, to keep pace with his earnings and with 
 the constant calls of benevolence ; stated, that they 
 may not be forgotten. This is inconsistent with giv 
 ing a large sum, and then for a long time nothing, 
 and with the intention of giving only or chiefly at 
 death. 
 
 The text cited requires that charities be propor 
 tionate to the income. In the laws regulating the 
 Jewish tithes and offerings, God prescribed precisely 
 what proportion should be given. This was prac 
 tic able in a system of laws for a single agricultural 
 people, among whom every family was entitled to 
 an inalienable inheritance in the soil ; but the gos 
 pel, designed for all nations and ages, could not with 
 equity fix the precise proportion. And it fits the en- 
 
PLAN PRESCRIBED. 9 
 
 tire character of the gospel free grace from God, 
 free love from man to leave the decision of this 
 point to the unconstrained love of those who have 
 freely given all to Christ ; for " God loveth a cheer 
 ful giver." But the principle by which the pro 
 portion to be given is determined, is most explicitly 
 stated. " Let every one lay by him in store, as God 
 liatli prospered him." Nothing can satisfy God s 
 claim less than a consecration to benevolence of an 
 amount proportioned to the prosperity God has giv 
 en. Do you think yourself benevolent because you 
 give something much ? If you give less than " ac 
 cording as God hath prospered you," yours is but the 
 benevolence of Ananias and Sapphira. 
 
 Tin s principle of proportionate benevolence is re 
 peated in various forms in the Bible. " If any man 
 minister, let him do it as of the ability that God 
 giveth." " As every man hath received the gift, 
 even so minister the same one to another, as good 
 stewards" of the manifold grace of God." "As we 
 have opportunity, let us do good unto all men." 
 "I am debtor" to put forth benevolent efforts "as 
 much as in me is." " Honor the Lord with the 
 first-fruits of all thine increase." There are three 
 points in this requirement of benevolence propor 
 tioned to the income, 
 
 1. All must give. "Let every one." The gos 
 pel does not release the poor from giving. The 
 smallest income can pay a proportion. Nothing 
 8 
 
10 SC-Rll TURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 short of the total cessation of God s gifts can exempt 
 from the law, " As God hath prospered him." The 
 Macedonian church were praised for giving in " their 
 deep poverty." The story of the widow s two mites 
 settles for ever the acceptableness to God of offerings 
 from the poor. And one dollar thus given, has 
 often a moral power greater than a thousand. The 
 benevolence of Louisa Osborn the colored domestic, 
 who, from the wages of one dollar a week, paid 
 twenty dollars a year to educate a youth in Ceylon. 
 as it has been brought to light by the missionary 
 who witnessed the unusual benefits of her donation 
 to the mission, has thrilled the hearts of American 
 Christians. The widow s two mites, which were 
 all her living, lifted to the gaze of the universe and 
 illuminated by the Saviour s commendation, have 
 exerted and will exert a power which no mine of gold 
 can equal as if a dew-drop, expending its whole 
 being to refresh one tiny flower, had been trans 
 formed, as it exhaled to the skies, into a star, and 
 fixed in the brightness of the firmament to bless the 
 creation for ever. 
 
 2. Donations should increase with the increase of 
 ability to give. "As God hath prospered him." 
 This requires the rich to give proportionally to theii 
 increasing wealth, though, in order to do it, they 
 must give thousands of dollars where they used to 
 give one. And these great donations are not to be 
 regarded as specially praiseworthy, more than small- 
 
PLAN PRESCRIBED. H 
 
 er gifts which cost as great sacrifice and are propor 
 tionally as much. In both cases the giver has but 
 " done what it was his duty to do." 
 
 3. The rich miist give a larger proportion of 
 their inconle than the poor. A poor widow with a 
 helpless family cannot give a tenth of her earnings 
 without taking bread from her children. Will any 
 imagine that a man who has wealth, or even a com 
 petency, is required to give no larger a proportion 
 of his income than that widow ? A poor laborer 
 may be subjected to more inconvenience by giving 
 five dollars, than a man of wealth by giving five 
 thousand. Hence, the greater a man s wealth, the 
 larger must be the proportion of income which he 
 gives. Hence the propriety of a rule adopted by 
 Mr. N. R. Oobb, a merchant of Boston : to give from 
 the outset one quarter of the net profits of his busi 
 ness ; should he ever be worth $20,000, to give one 
 half of the net profits ; if worth $30,000, to give 
 three quarters; and if ever worth $50,000, to give 
 all the profits. This resolution he kept till his 
 death, at the age of 36, when he had already acquired 
 $50,000, and was giving all his profits. 
 
 Different individuals, who have aimed at system 
 atic benevolence, have come to different conclusions 
 as to the proportion which they ought to give ; and, 
 perhaps, each one to a correct conclusion, in his par 
 ticular circumstances. Zaccheus gave half of his 
 goods to the poor, besides restoring fourfold his unjust 
 
]2 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 gains. The first converts at Jerusalem, to meet their 
 peculiar circumstances, sold their possessions and 
 made distribution of the avails, as every man had 
 need. Paul repeatedly intimates that he had suf 
 fered the loss of all things. Others have adopted 
 plans similar, in the main, to that of Mr. Cobb, al 
 ready cited. Others, after paying what has been 
 needful for a most economical support, have given all 
 their income. John Wesley is an example. " When 
 his income was 30 a year, he lived on 28, and 
 gave away 2 ; the next year his income was 60, 
 and still living on 28, he had 32 to give. The 
 fourth year raised his income to 120, and steadfast 
 to his plan, the poor got 92." Others, again, have 
 given a tenth of the gross amount of their receipts. 
 
 Such is the scheme of Christian beneficence de 
 vised in heaven and enjoined by inspired wisdom. 
 Let every man consider that in neglecting it, he sets 
 at naught the authority and the wisdom of God. 
 Men may deride it ; and so it is written of one 01 
 our Lord s many discourses on the right use of prop 
 erty, " The Pharisees, who were covetous, heard these 
 things,, and they derided him." 
 
REDUCED TO PRACTICE. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PRINCIPLE S WHICH G-UIDE IN REDUCING 
 THE SCRIPTURAL PLAN TO PRACTICE. 
 
 WE now suppose that the child of God, convinced 
 that the foregoing is the scriptural plan of benefi 
 cence, has retired to his closet solemnly to adopt this 
 plan, and to determine the details of its application 
 to himself. We direct his attention to three princi 
 ples which should guide him. 
 
 1 . The aim of all business must be to glorify 
 God. This aim must give simplicity and unity to 
 the entire life. Property is to be sought, not as the 
 chief end, but as a means of doing good. The Chris 
 tian is not to ask, " What part of my income shall I 
 consecrate to God s service ?" By the very act of 
 becoming a Christian, he consecrated ALL to God s 
 service in doing good. He has only to ask what part 
 he must devote to this particular way of serving 
 God charitable gifts in order that his whole prop 
 erty may accomplish most for God s glory. He is 
 to remember, that the same principle is to regulate 
 every step in the conduct of business, every new en 
 terprise, every investment, every expenditure ; that 
 ho is not at liberty to appropriate a dollar in any 
 way, except as he can see that by so appropriating 
 it he can do most to glorify God. He is not to think 
 of setting aside a certain proportion for God, and do- 
 
14 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 ing what lie pleases with the rest ; he is to devote 
 all to God s service, and expend, invest, or give it, in 
 such proportions as will effect most for that end. 
 
 The law of systematic benevolence, therefore, does 
 not forbid spending money on ourselves, educating 
 children, laying aside something for the future. It 
 does not forbid acquiring property ; we may make 
 the five pounds, ten. We are even required so to do 
 serving God in the act; "not slothful in business , 
 serving the Lord." But no act of acquiring or spend 
 ing money can be justified, unless it appears that by 
 it most can be accomplished for God s glory. 
 
 The Bible everywhere exhibits business as wholly 
 subservient to this great end. " Whether ye eat, or 
 drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God." " Seek ye first the kingdom of God." It 
 teaches that Christians are stewards, having nothing 
 but the talents which God has intrusted to them to 
 be increased for him. The requirement, " Sell that 
 ye have and give alms," the similar direction given 
 by Christ to the young ruler, cannot mean less than 
 that all worldly business and possessions are to be 
 entirely subservient to doing good. 
 
 Benevolence, then, must be not only systematic, 
 but systematizing, pervading and regulating the whole 
 business How is it possible to be seeking first the 
 kingdom of God, when, practically, the controlling 
 aim of all the transactions of business is to make 
 money ; when giving to the treasury of the Lord 
 
REDUCED TO PRACTICE. 16 
 
 is only occasional and secondary, seldom occupying 
 the thoughts ; called forth, perhaps, only by solicita 
 tion ; trifling, it may be, in amount ; and determined 
 only by the impulse or convenience of the moment ? 
 It is as if the steward of an estate should devote its 
 income to himself, making only an occasional and 
 trifling gift to the family of the absent owner, nay, 
 leaving its members to suffer without caring for their 
 wants. It is reversing the sentiment of the humble 
 suppliant, " The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall 
 from their master s table," and giving the crumbs to 
 the master, while the dogs eat at the table. 
 
 In view of this principle, let the Christian decide 
 what part of his income the promotion of God s glory 
 and the advancement of his cause require him to ex 
 pend on himself and his family, what part to invest, 
 what part to give. 
 
 2. The Christian will recognize the duty of self- 
 denial. Does he say, " I give all that is conven 
 ient?" This language has widely different mean 
 ings on different lips. Some do not find it convenient 
 to dispense with the most costly, or even the most 
 hurtful luxuries. Some do not find it convenient to 
 give half as much in a year as they spend on a sin 
 gle article of luxury, or in the indulgence of a single 
 pernicious habit. The Bible does not say, "Do 
 good as much as is convenient," but, " as much as 
 in you is." The necessity of self-denial is too plainly 
 revealed to allow the thought that the scriptural 
 
16 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 law of benevolence can be obeyed without it. It is 
 not only reiterated in direct commands, but is woven 
 into all the inspired teachings respecting the Chris 
 tian life. The spirit that breathed on the cross is 
 presented as the spirit which must breathe through 
 the whole church. If the church is " the body of 
 Christ," Christ s heart beats within it, sending to the 
 remotest limb the throbbings of its own love. He 
 who is not thus " in Christ," and imbued with his 
 self-sacrificing love, is none of his. The Christian, 
 then, must make his appropriations to charity in the 
 spirit which says, " What things were gain to me, 
 those I counted loss for Christ." 
 
 Here, however, every Christian is left to the decis 
 ion of his own mind, guided by the rules and ani 
 mated by the love of Christ. The following fact 
 shows Wesley s practice : "In 1775 the Accountant- 
 General sent him a copy of the excise order for the 
 return of plate : Rev. sir, as the commissioners can 
 not doubt but you have plate for which you have 
 hitherto neglected to make entry, etc. to which he 
 wrote this memorable answer : Sir, I have two sil 
 ver tea-spoons at London, and two at Bristol. This 
 is all the plate which I have at present, and I shall 
 not buy any more while so many around me want 
 bread. " Normand Smith of Hartford, deeming his 
 house too expensive to be consistent with his rules of 
 Christian benevolence, determined to sell it. An ac 
 count was published in the newspapers a few years 
 
REDUCED TO PRACTICE. 17 
 
 since of a man who lived in a garret, on bread and 
 water, that he might have the more to give. The 
 writer knows a minister and his wife who lived 
 without many of the comforts of life, for the same 
 object. Admit that some have gone to an extreme. 
 But is not this nobler and more acceptable to God, 
 than to go to the extreme of indulging self, without 
 any denial ? And where one goes to an extreme in 
 this direction, are there not thousands in the church 
 es who have never learned by "experience what self- 
 denial is ? And which is most like Him who had 
 not where to lay his head ? As to. the extent to 
 which self-denial must be carried, "let every man be 
 fully persuaded in his own mind;" as to its necessity 
 to full compliance with the scriptural rule of benev 
 olence, let every one heed the Saviour s words, " If 
 any man wilt come after me, let him deny himself." 
 And it is to be supposed that the rich are not excused 
 from the duty, nor debarred from the privilege, more 
 than the poor. 
 
 3. The Christian will regard his charities, how 
 ever great, as the discharge of an obligation. The 
 right to give or withhold at pleasure belongs to God 
 alone. To his creatures God says, " Ye are not your 
 own ;" and emphatically to his ransomed children, 
 < Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price." 
 The very beginning of the religious life is an act of 
 entire consecration to God. The Christian s profes 
 sion is a constant proclamation to the world, that the 
 
18 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 claim of Him who bought him with his blood, covers 
 his estate, his faculties, his all. " "What hast thou 
 that thou didst not receive ?" Therefore, ransomed 
 sinner, whatever thou givest, thou dost but "render 
 unto God the things that are God s." So Paul felt : 
 "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbari 
 ans." But why a debtor rather than a giver ? Be 
 cause he was not his own, but bought with a price. 
 So are we all debtors to the ignorant, the wretched, 
 and depraved of whatever nation ; and when we pay 
 into the Lord s treasury for their benefit, must say, 
 " Oh Lord our God, all this store that we have pre 
 pared cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own." 
 Hence the terrible declaration of God not against 
 those who gave nothing, but against those who gave 
 what was of inferior value " Ye have robbed God." 
 
MOTIVES OF PIETY 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DUTY OF SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE INFER 
 RED FROM THE NATURE AND MOTIVES OF 
 PIETY. 
 
 PIETY begins with a change of heart. The great 
 er part of life is usually occupied with the acquisi 
 tion and use of property. A change of heart, if real, 
 cannot leave this principal part of life unaffected. 
 The subject of it must be expected to show that he 
 has found a more valued treasure in heaven by his 
 new aims in getting, his new principles in using the 
 treasures of this world. If, in that chief part of life 
 occupied with gaining and using property, the pro 
 fessed subject of a change consisting in placing the 
 affections on things above, continue to show the same 
 estimate of property as the great end to be sought, 
 the same eagerness in getting, the same tenacity in 
 holding, the same self-seeking in using it, need it 
 be surprising that his worldly competitors doubt the 
 reality of the change? Must not Christ repel such 
 professors with his own searching question, " What 
 do ye more than others ?" There is nothing less 
 than absurdity in the idea of a change, in which the 
 man becomes " a new creature in Christ," in which 
 "old things are passed away, behold, all things are 
 become new," which yet does not carry a new spirit 
 through the business and consecrate the property as 
 
20 SCRIPTURAL. BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 well as the heart to God in which the theory is 
 all for the glory of God ; the practice, all for making 
 money. 
 
 Religion is love. And love is active. It is as nat 
 ural for love to act beneficently, as for a fountain to 
 flow, or a star to shine ; and its action is ungrudging, 
 unstinted, delighting in toil for the loved object. 
 Witness, for instance, the toils of parental love. 
 Can love to God and man be the very essence of the 
 character, while beneficent efforts are left to hazard, 
 crowded into the by-corners of life, supplied by chip- 
 pings and remnants? Can love control the heart, 
 and not control the action of the life ? 
 
 Christians are laborers together with God. God 
 is always giving : if we labor with him, we must la 
 bor in his work ; we must give. God is love ; if we 
 labor with him, we must labor in the work of love. 
 God would form us into his likeness ; to this end, we 
 are no sooner brought into his kingdom, than we are 
 put to doing his work. In revealing his will by in 
 spired men, in the conversion of every soul, in the 
 whole work of spreading the gospel through the 
 world, we discover this sublime partnership in labor 
 between God and his children. 
 
 Behold, then, believer, your sublime position, work 
 ing with God in delivering the world from ruin. To 
 reclaim men to holiness is God s great work ; to it 
 he has moulded his plans, and for it ordered his prov 
 idence, since time began. May you be a laborer with 
 
MOTIVES OF PIETY. 21 
 
 God, and make that secondary which he regards as 
 first ; pursue without plan, energy, or steadfastness, 
 the object which he seeks with a steadfastness which 
 knows no abatement, a zeal which spares no sacri 
 fice, an outpouring of treasure which arithmetic can 
 not calculate ? A laborer with God, and yet that 
 object to which with him the destiny of nations and 
 the movements of heavenly hosts are subordinate, be 
 with you secondary to money-getting, to furniture, 
 equipage a mere appendix to business ? Let the 
 great fact possess your soul with the fulness which 
 its reality demands, that you are a laborer together 
 with God, and you will lose sight of self in the great 
 ness of man s salvation, and instead of beneficence 
 being an appendix to business, business itself will 
 become but a means of beneficence. -. 
 
 The cross of Christ urges to systematic benevo 
 lence. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes 
 he became poor, that ye through his poverty might 
 be rich." This is one of the most touching appeals 
 to Christ s sufferings. Yet Paul wrote it expressly 
 as a motive for taking up a charitable collection at 
 Corinth. This beautiful sentiment in such a con 
 nection may seem sadly out of place to those who 
 are wont to regard a charitable collection as an an 
 noyance; but it shows the apostolic view of the 
 connection of this .duty with all that is sublime and 
 affecting in the cross of Christ. 
 
22 SCBIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 The peculiar motive of Christianity is expressed 
 in the affecting words so often on the lips of Jesus, 
 For my sake." " Blessed are ye when men shall 
 revile you, and persecute you, for my sake" "hated 
 of all men for my sake" "hath left houses and 
 lands for my sake" " loseth his life for my sake/ 
 He presents this motive as effectual to induce the 
 greatest sacrifices, even of property and life. And it 
 would seem that a sinner, pardoned through Christ s 
 blood, could not, for very shame, lift his eye to meet 
 the melting look of his dying Saviour, if he felt not 
 the overcoming power of that appeal if he could 
 net. like the apostle, say, "I take pleasure in infirm 
 ities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in 
 distresses, for Christ s sake." " What things were 
 gain to me, those I count loss for Christ." 
 
 In a world so intensely selfish, it was needful that 
 the cross of the divine Redeemer, sacrificing himself 
 to save transgressors, should stand in the centre of 
 the plan of salvation : the first object which greets 
 the eye of the convert, and the last which cheers the 
 dying saint ; the source of the Christian s hope and 
 strength through all his warfare, his joy on earth, 
 and the anticipated theme of his everlasting song 
 that the great lesson of self-denying, all-consecrating 
 benevolence may always be before the view that 
 with every look at the bleeding Author of salvation, 
 may fall on the soul, with an eloquence too deep for 
 words, the admonition, " Forasmuch as Christ hath 
 
MOTIVES OF PIETY. 23 
 
 suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise 
 with the same mind;" "he that saith he abideth in 
 Christ, ought himself also so to walk even as he 
 walked." 
 
 If God himself were in our circumstances, how 
 would he measure his efforts for the good of men ? 
 Receive the answer in the conduct of Christ, " God 
 manifest in the flesh." He would sacrifice his riches 
 and lay aside his glory; he would consume all the 
 energies of his earthly existence ; he would lay down 
 his mortal life, to do them good. The first promise of 
 the arch-deceiver was, "Ye shall be as gods" ye 
 shall become so by gratifying self. Christ has uttered 
 the same promise, " Ye shall be partakers of the di 
 vine nature ;" but ye shall become so by denying self. 
 " Gratify self, get, and ye shall be as gods," is Sa 
 tan s lie. " Deny self, give, and ye shall be partak 
 ers of the divine nature," is Christ s truth. Satan 
 has blinded mankind by this lie, so that they look 
 for bliss and exaltation only by getting; Christ over 
 turns this whole scheme, and teaches to find godlike 
 bliss and exaltation by giving. This is godlike in 
 man, to sacrifice self for the good of others. That 
 was the highest elevation of human nature when it 
 was lifted on the cross in the blood of its own agony 
 for man s redemption ; then human nature was ex 
 alted to participate in the sublimest of all the dis 
 plays of God s glory. And there is no elevation of 
 man to the godlike, except as he is elevated to the 
 
24 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 spirit of the cross. Who then can imagine that he 
 has been made by regeneration a partaker of the 
 divine nature, if he does not systematically devote 
 of his choicest treasures, as God hath prospered him, 
 for the good of men. And how little even that gift 
 appears in the light of the cross ; how little in con 
 trast with the offerings of many who have laid down 
 their lives for Christ s sake ! 
 
 Thus systematic benevolence, instead of being an 
 isolated and uninteresting topic, is seen to be a duty 
 based on the very nature of piety, and enforced by its 
 most affecting motives. 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY. 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY OF SYSTEMATIC BE. 
 NEVOLENCE IN PROVIDING^ FUNDS FOE 
 BENEVOLENT ENTERPRISES. 
 
 SYSTEM always promotes efficiency. What would 
 become of a man s worldly business, if he managed 
 it without system, never executing a plan or making 
 an investment till solicited, and abandoning labor to 
 the control of impulse or convenience ? And can he 
 hope for any better results from a like disregard of 
 system as a steward of God ? From such lack of 
 order, what but embarrassment and failure can result 
 to the enterprises of benevolence ? And what shall 
 we say of those professors of Christ s religion who 
 show so thorough an understanding of the necessity 
 of system in worldly business, so utter a neglect of 
 it in their contributions to benevolence : who are full 
 of forethought and anxious calculation to realize the 
 utmost of worldly acquisition ; deliberate and far- 
 sighted in planning, cautious in executing, lynx-eyed 
 to discern an opportunity of gain, exact to the last 
 fraction in their accounts, but heedless and planless 
 in all they do for charity ? Verily, " the children of 
 this world are wiser in their generation than the 
 children of light;" but "the children of light" show 
 no lack of that wisdom, till they come to use prop 
 erty for the benefit of others than themselves 
 9 
 
26 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 Systematic benevolence will usually dispose the 
 giver to increase his contributions. If a man gives 
 without system, lie will commonly give too little. 
 Under the hallowed influences of the closet, let him 
 estimate the claims of a world lying in wickedness, 
 and the means of benevolence with which God has 
 blessed him ; let him ponder what amount of charity 
 would be acceptable to God and is demanded by the 
 love of Christ ; and it will be strange if he is not con 
 vinced that he ought to increase his donations. 
 
 It is more convenient to set apart money for char 
 ity in frequent instalments. He who neglects to pro 
 vide for his charities until the call for them is made, 
 may find it inconvenient or impossible to raise at the 
 time the one dollar, or the hundred dollars, or what 
 ever sum it is his duty to give. But had he set 
 apart a proportion from his earnings as they were 
 received, he would not be incommoded by giving the 
 &um required. Persons even in the most moderate 
 circumstances, adopting the practice of systematic 
 benevolence, are often surprised at the amount they 
 can give without serious inconvenience. 
 
 System will enlarge the amount of money expend 
 ed in beneficence by being a barrier against the 
 temptations of selfishness. Many a man means to 
 answer the calls of charity, but does not weekly or 
 monthly set apart a specific sum as sacred to the 
 Lord. Hence, when he sees some tempting article 
 of luxury, having by him unappropriated the money 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY. 27 
 
 which should have been the Lord s, he buys it ; 
 when some tempting, though perhaps hazardous in 
 vestment presents, having the money by him unap 
 propriated, he invests it. Thus, through lack of sys 
 tem, many sums in the purses even of the benevo 
 lent are turned aside from the Lord s treasury. Self- 
 interest has the advantage in being beforehand and 
 having constant access to our hearts. Systematic 
 charity helps to put the interest of Christ s cause on 
 an equal footing. 
 
 System prevents yielding to second thoughts and 
 withholding a purposed charity. Many a man, under 
 the influence of a charity sermon, or of the teachings 
 of conscience, or of the sight of distress, purposes in 
 his heart to give a certain amount. As the subject 
 first strike? his unbiassed judgment, such an amount 
 seems not too large for the urgency of the case and 
 his own means. But selfishness steps in and argues 
 the point ; it presents to the man his various wants, 
 and pretty soon convinces him that the purposed sum 
 is quite too much ; then, forgetting Paul s injunction, 
 "Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, 
 so let him give," he gives little or nothing. But let 
 a man have a fixed plan, in accordance with which 
 he consecrates a fixed proportion to the Lord as reg 
 ularly as he meets his notes when they fall due, or 
 pays the expenses of his family, and the matter is 
 settled. Here is a breastwork by God s grace im 
 pregnable against all the pleading of selfishness. 
 
28 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 System increases the contributions by making it 
 more pleasant to give. When a man has no sys 
 tem of charity, every call to give is unprovided for : 
 if he comply, he must give from money which he 
 was expecting to spend otherwise ; it is so much 
 taken from what he had reckoned his own ; it seems 
 so much dead loss. Hence, every donation chafes 
 him ; he is tempted to make it as small as possible ; 
 giving comes to be surrounded in his mind with un 
 pleasant associations ; he often looks back with re 
 gret, when he gives any thing, that he gave so much ; 
 and the call of charity becomes repulsive. But when 
 he systematizes his charities and at stated times sets 
 apart to benevolence a sum proportioned to his in 
 come, he no longer reckons that consecrated money as 
 his own, or depends on it for the supply of any want 
 When the call of charity is heard, he is not obliged to 
 take from what he had reckoned his own, but from 
 what was already consecrated to the Lord. He can 
 give both largely and cheerfully, and with no draw 
 back from the blessedness of doing good. 
 
 System remove?, many common excuses of selfish 
 ness for "withholding more than is meet:" "I have 
 lately given to another cause;" "I give as much 
 as convenient ;" "I have so many expenses ;" "I 
 give as much as others." 
 
 System increases the amount of charities by form 
 ing habits of benevolence. From earliest life, habits 
 of gaming and using money for self have been 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY. ^9 
 
 strengthening, and these consolidated habits have 
 never been overcome. Even in the church the cov 
 etous use of property is too generally the habit, the 
 benevolent use of it only an occasional act. And it 
 is but dimly apprehended that the gospel requires it 
 to be otherwise. Hence, the gifts of the church are 
 exceedingly stinted. To remedy this evil, it is neces 
 sary to make the beneficent use of property the habit 
 of the Christian s life, and thus turn to the advantage 
 of Christ s cause- that law of habit which has been all 
 against it. To do this, there must be systematic be 
 nevolence. It were the extreme of folly to think of 
 subduing these consolidated habits by desultory ef 
 forts to send up now and then a platoon of light 
 troops against these most massive and well-appointed 
 fortifications of selfishness. We must approach them 
 by well-concerted, persevering siege, till they fall into 
 our hands and the guns are turned against the foe. 
 Mere occasional, unsystematized donations scarcely 
 make a perceptible impression in subduing selfish and 
 forming benevolent habits. But when beneficence 
 is systematized, the habit of doing good is formed, it 
 moulds the whole life, it becomes second nature, and 
 shows in all its results its efficacious vigor. 
 
 These considerations show the duty of Christian 
 parents to train their children to the habit of system 
 atically making a benevolent use of money. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties in the way of ob 
 taining an increase of funds, is found in another in flu- 
 
30 SCRIPTU11A.L BENEVOLENCE 
 
 ence of this same law of habit. Of those who con 
 tribute regularly to particular causes, and thus have 
 made an approach to system, a large portion are in 
 the habit of giving from year to year about the same 
 sum. The same twenty-five cents, the same dollar, 
 or five dollars, stands from year to year against their 
 names. The wants of benevolent enterprises in 
 crease, the property of the giver increases, but the 
 contribution is stereotyped. The attempt to increase 
 this amount breaks up their settled habits of thought 
 and action. They have never thought that perhaps 
 Christ requires a revision of their whole plan of be 
 nevolence. The adoption of the divine plan of fre 
 quent and proportionate appropriations would remove 
 this difficulty. 
 
 It must be added, that systematic benevolence may 
 be expected by God s blessing to increase the givers 
 means of usefulness. But this thought will be re 
 served for a more extended examination in another 
 chapter. 
 
 In these various ways the scriptural system increas 
 es the funds of benevolence. Were it universally 
 adopted by the churches, nothing but the experiment 
 would show how immense would be the resulting 
 increase. Without expense of collecting agencies, 
 thousands in the churches who now give nothing, 
 would begin to give ; and a permanent and grooving 
 increase would be realized a , once from those who 
 have given occasionally. Then would the channels 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICEIN6Y. 31 
 
 of benevolence be like "the river of God which is 
 full of water/ and the waters of life issuing from 
 the sanctuary with their healing power, would flow 
 as the prophet saw in vision, ever swelling to the 
 ends of the earth. 
 
 The following facts confirm the argument of this 
 chapter. In 1844, Rev. Dr. Baird received, in two 
 payments, thirty-eight dollars for some benevolent 
 cause, from " one of the poor disciples of Jesus ;" in 
 acknowledging which he says, " The donor of it 
 commenced giving, in a strictly systematic manner, 
 the tenth part of all the money which he earned 
 from the time of his conversion, and through God s 
 blessing he has been enabled to give sums from time 
 to time, to many, if not all the great enterprises for 
 building up the kingdom of our Lord, varying from 
 five to twenty-five dollars." 
 
 There is a farmer in one of the retired mountain 
 towns of Massachusetts, who began business on his 
 farm in 1818, being six hundred dollars in debt. He 
 began with the determination to pay the debt in six 
 years, in equal instalments, and to give all his net 
 income, if any remained, above those instalments. 
 The income of the first year, however, was expended 
 in purchasing stock and other necessaries for his farm. 
 In the six next years he paid off the debt, and hav 
 ing abandoned the intention of ever being any richer, 
 he has ever since given his entire income, after sup 
 porting his family and thoroughly educating his six 
 
32 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 children. During all this period he has lived with 
 the strictest economy, and every thing pertaining to 
 his house, table, dress, and equipage has been in the 
 most simple style ; and though he has twice been a 
 member of the state senate, he conscientiously re 
 tains this simplicity in his mode of life. The farm 
 is rocky and remote from the village, and his whole 
 property, real and personal, would not exceed in 
 value three thousand dollars. Yet sometimes he has 
 been enabled to give from $200 to $300 in a year. 
 
 Let it be further considered in this connection, 
 that some feasible plan of enlarging the funds of 
 benevolence must be adopted, in order to realize the 
 hopes of the churches from their missionary enter 
 prises. This is apparent from the difficulty of sus 
 taining these enterprises on their present scale. This 
 deficiency is not owing to a -want of means in the 
 church. There is money in profusion for railroads, 
 manufactories, any enterprise which promises a re 
 turn to self. But where is the money for the Lord ? 
 " The great current of Christian property isas yet 
 undiverted from its worldly channel. The scanty 
 rills of charity which at present water the garden 
 of the Lord, and the ingenuity and effort employed 
 to bring them there, compared with the almost 
 undiminished tide of selfish expenditure which still 
 holds on its original course, remind one of the slen 
 der rivulets which the inhabitants of the East raise 
 from a river by mechanical force, to water their 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY. 33 
 
 thirsty gardens ; the mighty current meanwhile, 
 without exhibiting any sensible diminution, of its 
 waters, sweeping on in its ample and ancient bed." 
 
 The aggregate of gifts from its members to the 
 church was probably larger in the times of its great 
 est corruption than now. When it was believed that 
 salvation might be bought by charity, wealth from 
 the poor and the rich was lavished on churches and 
 monasteries. But as, in the advance of the Refor 
 mation, charities with this motive have ceased, the 
 churches have failed adequately to bring in the gifts 
 of gratitude and love in their stead. It should make 
 the ears of him that heareth it to tingle, that in this 
 boasted age of progress, this nineteenth century, less 
 is probably bestowed in charity by the Protestant 
 churches to spread the true gospel through the world, 
 than was given in the darkest ages to heap up the 
 treasures of the church of Rome that the love of 
 Christ constrains to less valuable gifts than the arts 
 and deceptions of a corrupt priesthood. 
 
 But the church is aiming at the conversion of the 
 world. It is plain as sunlight that the world cannot 
 be supplied with the means of grace without an 
 immense enlargement of these operations. It was 
 this contrast between the greatness of the enterprise 
 which Christians profess to prosecute, arid the little 
 ness of the means which they devote to it, that wrung 
 from the godly Abeel the exclamation respecting our 
 missionary work, " If the great God could despise 
 
 Zacheut. 
 
34 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 his creatures, it would be despicable in his sight." 
 There must be some way devised of realizing such 
 enlargement, if the world is to be converted. Nor 
 is the expectation of realizing it vain. The scrip 
 tural system of benevolence, generally adopted, would 
 realize it without embarrassment to the church. 
 
 Let it also be considered, that when God by Ids 
 providence proclaims, " Behold, I have set before you 
 an open door," " he openeth, and no man shutteth 
 Then, if his church will enter, no obstacles or opposi 
 tion can prevent her triumph. But if his people 
 will not enter, presently the door is shut ; and " he 
 shutteth, and no man openeth." Ages may pass be 
 fore, in the revolving cycles of his providence, he will 
 open it again. And when thus shut, the costliest 
 labors of his church are labors where God is not. 
 One day God opens Canaan to the Israelites and 
 urges them to go up, assuring them that the Anaks 
 and the cities walled and great shall not retard them. 
 They will not go. Next day they are all eagerness 
 to go, but the door is shut ; the pillar of cloud 
 moves not they go up only to perish before their 
 foes. All history demonstrates this principle de 
 monstrates, that as we must follow God s movements 
 in the circling seasons, would we reap in harvest ; so, 
 in the enterprises of benevolence, we must not fall 
 behind the workings of his providence, would we 
 achieve success., When God in his own spring-lime, 
 drives the ploughshare through the nations, as with 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY. 35 
 
 such startling energy he of late has done, then must 
 his people cast in the seed of truth ; lest, neglecting 
 it, they be compelled to fruitless toil till another 
 spring-time returns. And when the time is come to 
 set the fore-front of liberty and Christianity face to 
 face with the hoary forms of Asiatic despotism and 
 idolatry when God reveals from the bowels of the 
 earth the treasure which he had kept hid for this 
 very juncture, and calls a population together from 
 every land, arid a nation is born in a day then must 
 his church bind the new-born state with the sweet 
 influences of religion, and guide it to the advance 
 ment of piety in the earth, or it will lift its young 
 and giant energies to smite her. God s providence 
 never stands still. His church must move with it, 
 if she would move effectively if even she would 
 avoid disaster. Hence, the necessity of adopting 
 some mode of increasing promptly and efficiently the 
 contributions of the church, so as to improve at once 
 the precious opportunities which God opens. 
 
 It only remains to add, that the prophecies foretell 
 that, in accomplishing the renovation of the world, 
 an increase of appropriations to God s treasury, like 
 what has been urged, will take place. " The daugh 
 ter of Tyre shall be there with a gift ; the rich 
 among the people shall entreat thy favor." " The 
 wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gath 
 ered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great 
 abundance. In that day shall there be upon tho 
 
36 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 bells of the horses, HOLINESS TO THE LORD." " Sure 
 ly the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tar- 
 shish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver 
 and their gold with them, to the Holy One of Israel." 
 I will shake" all nations, and the Desire of all na 
 tions shall come. The silver is mine, and the gold 
 is mine, saith the Lord." Psalm 45 : 12 ; Zechariah 
 14 : 14, 20 ; Isaiah 60 : 9 ; Haggai 2 : 7, 8. 
 
 Thus the necessities of benevolent societies, the 
 claims of a ruined world, the indications of Provi 
 dence, and the predictions of the Bible, unite in de 
 manding a great increase of benevolent contributions. 
 These contributions, as now usually conducted, war 
 rant no hope of realizing this increase. But the 
 general adoption of the scriptural plan of frequent, 
 systematic, and proportionate charities, will easily 
 meet the demand. 
 
ENLARGES MEANS OF GIVING. 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TENDENCY OF SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE 
 TO SECURE GOD S BLESSING ON BUSINESS, 
 AND TO ENLARGE THE MEANS OF GIVING. 
 
 THIS is a subject of difficulty, yet of importance. 
 There is danger of extravagant theories on the one 
 hand, arid on the other, of an unbelief which shuts God 
 out of the daily business, and practically denies that 
 " godliness has the promise of the life that now is." 
 
 It is not to be supposed that systematic benevo 
 lence will insure wealth. Wealth is, in God s judg 
 ment, too cheap a gift to be made the reward of his 
 servants. 
 
 " Wealth on the vilest often is bestowed, 
 To show its vileness in the sight of God." 
 
 Multiplied as are God s warnings of the dangers 
 attending wealth and the love of it, and his exhorta 
 tions to set the affections above, it would be prepos 
 terous to suppose that he offers wealth as the reward 
 of obedience the gratification of cupidity as the re 
 ward for denying it. And he whose heart is on a 
 better portion, whose longings for God and holiness 
 forbid his rinding satisfaction with any thing less 
 than being with God and like him, would feel it the 
 bitterest mockery to be turned off with the promise 
 of riches as his reward. 
 
 But there are various ways in which systematic 
 
38 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 beneficence tends to promote prosperity . It promotes 
 industry, energy, and enterprise. The man has 
 placed before himself a lofty object, suited to draw 
 out all his energies. Henceforth he is no trifler, but 
 an earnest man, sharing in the very sentiments of 
 earth s purest and greatest ones. The grand idea of 
 toiling to rescue the world from sin never mastered 
 a man s soul without enlarging it, without stimulat 
 ing all his faculties to unprecedented vigor, unfolding 
 resources not imagined to be in him, and producing a 
 concentration and perseverance of action, which can 
 not fail of realizing great results. An account was 
 published some years ago of two shoemakers whose 
 hearts had begun to glow with zeal for the salva 
 tion of men. The elder proposed to the younger to fit 
 himself to preach, promising to support him by his 
 labor. The proposal was accepted ; the promise was 
 kept. The sublime purpose which had mastered that 
 man s soul, and which surrounded his humble shop 
 with a grandeur that never ennobled worldly great 
 ness, gave him an energy and industry which enabled 
 him to educate his companion, and to sustain him as 
 he went out to preach to the destitute. When Chris 
 tendom shall be full of missionary merchants, farmers, 
 and mechanics, plying their business with the sub 
 lime aim of saving mankind from sin, no doubt it 
 will be full of energy and industry unsurpassed. 
 
 Nor does the practice of scriptural beneficence 
 stimulate the active powers alone. It promotes so 
 
ENLARGES MEANS OF GIVING. 39 
 
 briety cwid economy. "With an object so glorious in 
 full possession of his soul, the man will have no time 
 nor money for gratifying either vicious or luxurious 
 desires. What others waste on dress, delicacies, 
 equipage, and show, he will save for the Lord. He 
 finds, in advancing the cause to which he is wedded, 
 a gratification, compared with which the daintiest 
 gratifications of selfishness are insipid. 
 
 Such a course attracts the favor of the good, wins 
 their confidence, and if the man be poor, or a youth 
 ful beginner, their friendship gains him employment 
 and otherwise promotes his interests. Besides, be 
 ing thrown into company with such, he avoids the 
 temptations of evil associates. 
 
 The habits of fidelity to his trust, ofivatchftdness, 
 system, and exactness, which systematic benevolence 
 forms, are the very habits to win for a young man 
 respect, employment, and friends, and to lead to a 
 judicious management of business through life. 
 
 Systematic benevolence tends to restrain from 
 hazardous adventures. In prosperous times, when 
 business is brisk and its returns speedy and large, 
 men become discontented with slow and steady gains ; 
 they "make haste to be rich" and "fall into a snare;" 
 they become inflated with a rash confidence ; they 
 rush into hazardous and ruinous adventures and 
 speculations ; or the ostentatious desire of displaying 
 it large business, tempts to an enlargement beyond 
 their means, and to consequent ruin. But when a 
 
40 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 man has consecrated his business and its gains to the 
 Lord, according to the scriptural law of benevolence, 
 the feverish haste to be rich abates, and he is less 
 tempted to dangerous speculations. Accustomed to 
 do business with a sense of constant dependence on 
 God, he is not puffed up with rash confidence by 
 temporary prosperity. Accustomed to determine 
 every enterprise with prayerful seeking God s will, 
 and to regard property as sacred to his service, he 
 will not thoughtlessly risk the Lord s money in haz 
 ardous adventures. Absorbed with the grand desire 
 of aiding Christ s cause, he will be in little danger of 
 ostentatious but unsafe expansion. Thus, " he that 
 considereth the poor, shall be blessed upon the earth ;" 
 but " he that hasteth to be rich, considereth not that 
 poverty shall come upon him." 
 
 It may be added that benevolence, in an impor 
 tant sense, identifies, the giver ivith Christ s inter 
 ests, and therefore may naturally be expected to se 
 cure Christ s blessing. The Saviour says, " Inasmuch 
 as ye have done it to one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." He receives 
 into his own bosom every favor to his church. Nor 
 is there any surer ground of expecting the continued 
 prosperity of an individual, a church, or a nation, than 
 that by their abundant efforts for Christ s kingdom, 
 they have identified themselves with his cause, and 
 are likely to be carried on in its triumphs. The very 
 beast, of which it was said, " The Lord hath need 
 
ENLARGES MEANS OF GIVING. 41 
 
 of him," had his way strewed with palms and gar 
 ments, as it bore the Saviour to Jerusalem. The in 
 dividual or the community that gives abundantly to 
 advance religion, is the humble instrument of bearing 
 the Saviour onward in his triumph. Of such it may 
 reverently be said, " The Lord hath need of them ; * 
 and it may reasonably be expected that their way 
 will be made prosperous before them. 
 
 In these several ways compliance with the scrip 
 tural law of benevolence may tend to temporal pros 
 perity. There may be other ways known only to 
 Him who holds all the invisible lines of influence in 
 his hand. 
 
 If now we open the Bible, we find it full of prom 
 ises of temporal blessings to the benevolent. A few 
 must serve a*, specimens of the many. " Thou shalt 
 surely give thy poor brother, and thy heart shall 
 not be grieved when thou givest unto him ; because 
 that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless 
 thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest 
 thy hand unto." Deut. 15 : 10. " He that giveth 
 to the poor shall not lack." Prov. 28 : 27. " Honor 
 the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits 
 of all thine increase ; so shall thy barns be filled with 
 plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new 
 wine." Prov. 3:9. " The liberal soul shall be 
 made fat ; and he that watereth shall be watered 
 also himself." Prov. 11 : 25. "Seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added 
 10 
 
42 SCRIPTUllAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 unto you." Matt. 6 : 33. "Give, and it shall be 
 given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and 
 shaken together, and running over, shall men give 
 into your bosom." Luke 6 : 38. And in urging the 
 Corinthians to give, Paul said, "He which soweth 
 sparingly, shall reap also sparingly ; and he which 
 soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully." 2 
 Cor. 9 : 6.* To these special promises the benevolent 
 are entitled. Resting on them, they may give with 
 the expectation that the Lord will follow them with 
 his blessing arid protection. They will not fear want 
 while they can hear God saying, " Trust in the Lord 
 and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed." The same 
 Being who made the Bible, orders the events of prov 
 idence ; and by what he does in the latter, he will 
 not contradict what he says in the former. The prin 
 ciples of the Bible fit into all the windings of provi 
 dence, like a key to all the wards of a lock for which 
 it was made. Hence, however obscure the plan of 
 Providence, and however uncertain what shall be on 
 the morrow, he that conducts his business in con 
 formity to all the rules of the Bible, may be sure that 
 he has found the track of God s goings in the world, 
 and that, if he continue to follow it step by step, it 
 will guide him in the way of the divine blessing. 
 
 * See also Matt. 6:3,4; Psa. 37 : 3 ; Prov. 11 : 24; 19: 17, 
 22 : 9; 25 : 21 ; 24 : 11, 12; 13 : 7; Psa. 41 : 1, 2, 3 ; 112 : 5, 
 6, 9 ; Eccl. 11:1; Isa. 32 : 8 ; 5S : 6-11 ; Mai. 3 : 9-12 ; Dan 
 4:27; 2 Cor. 9 : 6, 7, 8, 11. 
 
ENLARGES MEANS OF GIVING. 43 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing reasoning, that 
 it is not pretended that God s servants will be uni 
 formly led in the way to worldly prosperity, and sin 
 ners visited with adversity in this life. The Bible 
 makes no such representation. It teaches, that in 
 this probation temporal benefits are scattered on the 
 good and the evil, and refers us to the other world 
 for the solution of this seeming confusion of right and 
 wrong. " When the wicked spring as the grass, and 
 when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is 
 that they shall be destroyed for ever." It teaches 
 that wicked men are prospered, but " the prosperity 
 of fools shall destroy them." It teaches that God 
 sometimes gives men " their request, but sends lean 
 ness into their souls." Their selfish wishes are grati 
 fied ; but the gift comes, like the quails to the longing 
 Israelites, attended by God s curse. Their riches in 
 crease ; but they wrap the soul in the flames of cov- 
 etousness, and " eat as it were fire." Their riches 
 increase, but their "portion" is "in this life, and 
 in the labor that they take under the sun." They 
 are rich as Dives ; yet soon will they be impover 
 ished to beg " a drop of water to cool their tongues." 
 Thus, inspiration explains these inequalities, and 
 teaches, that " a little which a righteous man hath, 
 is better than the riches of many wicked;" that Eli 
 jah, fed by unclean birds, but receiving his portion 
 with God s smile, has no need to envy Ahab, cursed 
 in the riolies of a palace ; that Lazarus the beggar 
 
44 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 with a home nowhere but in Abraham s bosom, 
 is more blessed than Dives with a home nowhere 
 but in his own luxurious palace. But at the same 
 time it teaches, that he who humbly uses what God 
 has given for the honor of the Giver, freely giving 
 as he has freely received, may feel at peace in the 
 thought, that all his business is blessed with his 
 Father s smile. 
 
 Facts corroborate the foregoing sentiments. There 
 are, indeed, comparatively few facts to furnish data 
 for this argument. Yet the writer knows a consid 
 erable number of instances, in which a greater or 
 less approach to scriptural benevolence, has been 
 attended with unusual prosperity. Mr. Cobb, whose 
 case has been mentioned, giving away a quarter, 
 then half, and then three quarters of his income, not 
 only became worth $50,000 before the age of thirty- 
 six, but gave besides more than $40,000. Normand 
 Smith, a saddler of Hartford, Connecticut, after prac 
 tising for years an elevated system of benevolence, 
 bequeathed in" charity $30,000. An anonymous 
 writer says of himself, that he commenced business 
 and prosecuted it in the usual way, till he lost $900, 
 which was all he was worth, and found himself in 
 debt $1,100. Being led by his trials, through God s 
 grace, to trust, as he hoped, in Christ, he, at the age 
 of forty, determined to take God s word for his guide 
 in his business, and consecrated his earnings to the 
 Lord The first year he gavf^ $12. For eighteen 
 
ENLARGES MEANS OF GIVING. 45 
 
 years, the amount has increased by about 25 per 
 cent., and the last year he gave $850 ; and he says,, 
 he did it easier than, during the first year, he paid the 
 $12. Besides, though with nothing but his haids 
 to depend on when he began this course, he paid the 
 whole, debt of $1,100 with interest, though it took 
 him nine years to do it. Jacob went out from his 
 father s home " with his staff," a poor man ; but at 
 Bethel he vowed to give to God the tenth of all that 
 God should bestow on him. Commencing thus, God 
 blessed him, and in twenty years he returned with 
 great riches. 
 
 "We may also refer to the history of communities, 
 in confirmation of the argument. When God issued 
 his laws to the Jewish nation, he required, besides 
 other liberal offerings, the tenth of all their income. 
 We are not to suppose that every specific regulation 
 for the Jews is the best for all nations. But in his 
 dealings with the Jews, God meant to illustrate the 
 principles on which, as to worldly affairs, he deals 
 with all ; and this is one reason why their history is 
 so minutely recorded. Thus, we find the law of 
 tithes and offerings incorporated into their system as 
 an exemplification of a universal principle in God s 
 dealings with men. Many have pitied their unhap 
 py lot in being compelled to give so much ; infidels 
 have delighted in the objection that the wretched 
 Jews were taxed so terribly for the support of relig 
 ion. But the All-wise knew best what regulations 
 
46 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 would harmonize with the course of his providence, 
 and prescribed accordingly. And it ever proved that 
 the nine tenths were worth more to them than the 
 ten tenths. If ever, to increase their gains, they 
 robbed God by hoarding the tenth, or by bringing 
 the lame and the blind, disaster and -loss were sure to 
 follow. Say not this was all a miraculous interposi 
 tion. Inspiration has only lifted the veil here from 
 the workings of that providence which, unseen, un- 
 traced, is ever working in the affairs of men on the 
 same principles and with the same aim. Say not, 
 either, that the tithe was a positive institution. 
 True ; and as to its specific form it might, therefore, 
 pass away, as it already has. But was there ever a 
 positive institution of God not founded on something 
 permanent, either in man s nature or God s scheme 
 of providence and grace ? Therefore was the law 
 of the tithe founded on a principle as enduring as 
 God s government on earth ; and as the tithe was a 
 blessing to the Jews, so regard to that principle will 
 be always a blessing. We may find facts of the same 
 import in modern times. Those churches which are 
 most systematic and liberal in their contributions, 
 are, without exception, the most prosperous. The 
 same is true of nations. The history of New Eng 
 land is a striking instance. The first settlers were 
 men who, in a great trial of affliction, and in deep 
 poverty, abounded in the riches of their liberality, in 
 sustaining schools, and ministers, and colleges, and 
 
ENLARGES MEANS OF GIVING. 47 
 
 in laying deep a foundation for Christ s kingdom in 
 this new world. It is not so fitly said that they con 
 tributed much, as that they offered all to Christ. 
 Arid it is admitted that New England is, and in all 
 her history has been preeminent in contributions and 
 efibrts to sustain every benevolent institution and en 
 terprise. And where is the state or the nation which 
 has ever possessed more of all the elements of true 
 prosperity ? 
 
 But an appeal to facts in the history of churches 
 and communities must rest on imperfect data; for 
 where is there one in which the efficiency of the 
 scriptural law of benevolence, in developing and en 
 larging the resources of benevolence, has been fully 
 put to the test ? 
 
 In closing the argument, the thought may be sug 
 gested, that business, conducted as it is on the max 
 ims of selfishness, when viewed as a system in its 
 management and results, presents a picture of any 
 thing rather than of permanent and healthy pros 
 perity. The number of business men who fail once 
 or. oftener in the course of life ; the numbers doing 
 business who, should they pay up the as yet unpaid 
 debts of their past lives, would strip themselves of 
 all or a large part of their present property ; the 
 small proportion of those commencing mercantile 
 life in cities, who, in the final winding up of their 
 affairs, possess a comfortable independence ; the fact 
 that the property of those who die rich so often proves 
 
48 SCRIPTUKAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 a curse to their children, and that so many who are 
 born rich, die .poor ; the periodical recurrence of a 
 crash" in the commercial world; the alternation of 
 commercial prosperity and distress, which for genera 
 tions has marked the history of business, realizing 
 the inspired declaration, " He hath swallowed down 
 riches, and shall vomit them up again ;" all these 
 facts indicate any thing rather than a system of busi 
 ness which, as a whole whatever may be true of 
 individuals receives the smile and blessing of God ; 
 they present evidences of the divine displeasure such 
 as might be expected to mark a selfish and ungodly 
 system of business. 
 
 The discussion of this part of the subject will not 
 have been in vain, if it help to remove the impres 
 sion, that the rules of the gospel cannot be obeyed to 
 the last jot and tittle in business, consistently with 
 its successful management ; to rebuke the practical 
 atheism which shuts God out of the details of daily 
 life ; to make men s hearts alive to the thought that 
 the hand of God is on their ships, their merchandise, 
 their cattle, and their shops ; that the claims of his 
 law and the promises of his gospel are twined about 
 all the acts and gettings of daily toil, not less than 
 about their destiny for the life to come ; and that 
 there is a reality here on earth in God s smile on 
 those who heed his claims, in his blight and curse 
 on those who disregard them. 
 
ANTIDOTE OF COVETOUSNESB 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI." 
 
 THE ANTIDOTE OF COVETOUSNESS. 
 
 COVETOUSNESS is deadly in its influence. " Covet 
 ousness is idolatry." It is inconsistent with piety. 
 It is unmitigated rebellion against God. It is the 
 object of God s abhorrence and curse. It is classed 
 by inspiration with fornication, drunkenness, theft, 
 and extortion. It is "a temptation and a snare." 
 It is unsurpassed in its power to harden the heart 
 and make it impervious to divine truth, to deaden 
 all the religious sensibilities, and to resist the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 Covetousness is prevalent. The miser is one of 
 the most universally abhorred of men. But plume 
 not yourself that you are not covetous, because you, 
 are not a miser. Misers are the rarest specimens of 
 this sin. Under other forms, it rankles everywhere. 
 You are warned against a covetousness of a more 
 respectable appearance. It may exist unsuspected. 
 There may be covetousness in saving parsimony 
 under the "alias" of frugality, avarice, which nevei 
 parts with money without a twinge. Oftener there 
 is covetousness in getting sometimes rapacity which 
 ^Tuples at no means if money may be gained ; but 
 much more generally the more respectable form of 
 worldliness, keeping within the limits of honesty but 
 swallowing all the energies in money-getting, deaden- 
 
 Zochew. 
 
50 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 ing the benevolent susceptibilities, pinching and shriv 
 elling the soul, living only to " buy and sell and get 
 gain." Covetousness may be found even in connec 
 tion with prodigality : greediness to acquire, to supply 
 the extravagance of expense. It enslaves multitude^ 
 who are neither misers in hoarding, nor rapacious 
 nor extortionate in getting. In its diversified forms 
 it is one of the most prevalent of the vices, and often 
 under its various disguises, honored rather than con 
 demned ; as it is written, " The wicked blesseth th( 
 covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." 
 
 And there is a liability to become covetous and tr 
 groiv in covetous-ness, to the existence and dangers 
 of which the most of men seem not to be awake. 
 In the prosecution of business, the love of money is 
 freezing deeper and harder into their souls, and seal 
 ing up the springs of benevolence, and they know it 
 not. One remarkable feature in the Saviour s teach 
 ing, is the frequency and earnestness with which he 
 rebuked this sin, and pointed out the danger? of 
 wordly acquisitions. He exposed it in the mansions 
 of wealth and the circles of devotion, in the temple 
 and in the street, in amiable inquirers after salvation, 
 in pharisaical professors and vicious publicans. His 
 Warning was, " Take heed and beware of covetous- 
 ness. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The 
 frequency and earnestness, of his warnings contrast 
 strangely with the eagerness and security with which 
 his professed followers make haste to be rich, and 
 
ANTIDOTE OF COVETOUSNE SS. 51 
 
 show that he saw a danger imminent and prevalent 
 to which they are sti mgely blind. We do not vary 
 from the spirit of his teachings in saying, that covet- 
 ousness is the most common, the most insidious, and 
 the most dangerous form of selfishness, the one which 
 the most deadens the church, and is the most likely 
 to crush it. 
 
 A little consideration will show the reality of this 
 danger. " Money answereth all things." It is the 
 representative of all commodities and the means of 
 procuring them. It is natural that selfishness should 
 fasten with peculiar strength on an acquisition which 
 is the quintessence of all objects of desire. Besides, 
 men are necessarily occupied during the most of their 
 waking hours in earning money. To this end the 
 thoughts must plan and the hands must toil. It is 
 natural that what so occupies the man should grad 
 ually grow upon his mind ; as a picture long gazed 
 at intently, gradually fills the eye and enlarges to the 
 dimensions of a real landscape. Especially must 
 this result be expected, when the object which thus 
 occupies the attention is one so pleasing to the selfish 
 heart. 
 
 Besides, it is the nature of covetousness to grow by 
 what it feeds on. Acquisitions increase its strength 
 In accordance with this well-known fact, the ten 
 dency of gainful business is to make the rnan more 
 covetous, 
 
 These tendencies would be exceedingly strong, and 
 
52 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 would need to be most diligently guarded against, 
 under circumstances the most favorable to benevo 
 lence. But they are strengthened by outward cir 
 cumstances. 
 
 There is a perverted public sentiment, a prevalent 
 overvaluing of wealth, which silently sinks into the 
 inmost soul the scarcely acknowledged, yet control 
 ling feeling, that wealth is the great good of human 
 existence, which has incorporated itself into our very 
 language; so that "to do well," "to be success 
 ful," " to accomplish much in life," are phrases sy 
 nonymous with making much money ; " gain " is 
 equivalent in our language to " filthy lucre " in God s ; 
 and " goods " on our lips, is " the unrighteous mam 
 mon " on Christ s; and a late writer has suggested 
 the idea, that we speak of a man as being "worth 
 much," or " ivorth nothing," as if all worth centred 
 in money. 
 
 Worldliness, too, is the general character of the 
 community, and a man finds few examples of scrip 
 tural benevolence, to show him his own selfishness 
 by contrast, and to stimulate him to beneficence. 
 
 It is also an important circumstance, that the man 
 has been trained from childhood under worldly influ 
 ences ; he has seen, perhaps, that whatever their pro 
 fessions, the chief actual anxiety of his parents con 
 cerning him has been to have him making money, 
 and that to get him "a good situation," and a "situ 
 ation where he can make money," and to "give him 
 
ANTIDOTE OF COVETOUSNESS. 53 
 
 a good start," and to " start him well in the career 
 of acquiring property," mean in their minds about 
 the same thing ; and that in all his training for busi 
 ness, he is taught that "the main chance" is to 
 make money, and in effect, that a man s life does 
 consist in the abundance of the things that he pos 
 se sseth, From childhood he has been indoctrinated 
 by precept and example with the maxims of worldly 
 policy, rather than the principles of benevolence 
 with the proverbs of "Poor Richard" respecting 
 property, rather than the precepts of Jesus Christ. 
 
 All these circumstances tend to make wealth the 
 central idea of the mind, to beget a materializing, 
 deadening worldliness, to blight benevolence, and to 
 make men as laborious and untiring in their business, 
 and at the same time as callous to the interests of 
 others, as so many iron steam-engines at their work. 
 The pious and benevolent, who mingle constantly in 
 business, know that the danger is imminent ; they 
 know that the maintenance of benevolence is opposed 
 by silent but powerful influences, with which contact 
 with the world every day surrounds them ; and they 
 tremble at their own liability to fall under the insid 
 ious but fatal power of covetousness. It is alarm 
 ingly easy for gold and silver to " canker," and the 
 love of it to become an eating cancer on the soul. 
 Hence, the multitudes whose benevolence never grows 
 with their riches ; who, when rich, give nothing like 
 the proportion which they gave when poor ; nay, 
 
54 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 who give no more who give less than they gave 
 then. Hence is explained the admitted fact, that the 
 greater part of the funds of benevolent associations 
 comes from those of moderate means. Hence arises 
 the general necessity of agents for collecting funds, 
 and of the most pungent appeals for contributions. 
 Have you ever considered seriously your own danger, 
 and taken measures to guard against it ? If not, your 
 very thoughtlessness is presumptive evidence that you 
 are already consuming with the love of money. 
 
 We see, then, that the path of worldly business is 
 fraught with constant danger of a deadly evil. He 
 who sets out on that path must climb a snow-capped 
 mountain, where every step is along icy precipices, 
 where the air chills to the heart the spiritual life, 
 where every touch is upon nipping frost, and where 
 the cold is perpetually producing a sleepiness almost 
 resistless, but which, if indulged, will be the sleep of 
 death. It is, then, a question of spiritual life or 
 death, " How shall I do my necessary business, and 
 escape covetousness benumbing, paralyzing, deadly 
 covetousness?" Alas, that Christians so seldom ask 
 this question so little take the tremendous meaning 
 of Christ s assertion, " Ye cannot serve God and mam 
 mon " so little realize the danger which gives the 
 thrilling emphasis to his warning, " TAKE HEED AND 
 BEWARE of covetousness." 
 
 He who knows what is in man, lias provided a 
 safeguard against this danger. He has, indeed, so 
 
ANTIDOTE OF COVE TOUSNE S3. 65 
 
 contrived the plan of salvation, that all the motives 
 of the gospel, radiating as they do from the cross of the 
 Son of God offering the stupendous sacrifice of himself, 
 may bear directly against selfishness and tend to unfold 
 self-sacrificing benevolence. But this is not all. He 
 has enjoined systematic benevolence. This is God s 
 remedy for covetousness. Infinite wisdom would not 
 trust to unsystematized contributions, knowing that 
 irregular efforts, sustained by no habit, no fixed time, 
 no predetermined plan, giving way to every casual 
 expenditure, would be but a slender barrier against 
 a tendency so constant and powerful. God requires 
 systematic and proportionate benevolence. 
 
 This plan is most beautifully fitted to this design. 
 It accords with the laws of the human mind. There 
 is no way of subduing one of our active propensities, 
 but by refusing it indulgence, and so starving it to 
 death. This the scheme of benevolence does to the 
 sinful love of money. As fast as treasures are gained, 
 it tears them from the gloating eye of covetousness 
 to consecrate them to the Lord. It compels the man 
 to give something from the wages of every day, from 
 the profits of every enterprise and investment. Thus, 
 drop by drop, it drains the lifeblood of that giant pas 
 sion. And as the gains enlarge, God follows with 
 his enlarging claims : should money come into the 
 hands by thousands a year, there would be none left 
 as food for covetousness, and the man would be ne 
 cessitated to obey the command, " If riches increase, 
 
56 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 set not your heart upon them." And there is no 
 way of strengthening our active propensities but by 
 exercising them. Therefore God s rule requires ap 
 propriations to charity every week, that benevolence 
 may be strengthening itself by frequent exercise, and 
 the disposition to give be consolidated by habit ; it 
 requires appropriations from all the earnings, that 
 benevolence may preside in every department, and 
 the heart, kept always open, may have no opportu 
 nity to contract ; and it requires appropriations pro 
 portionate to the means, that whereas covetousness 
 naturally grows by increasing acquisitions, this ad 
 vantage may be wrested from it and given to benev 
 olence. Thus the practice of this scheme becomes, 
 with God s grace, like a fire-proof coat, in which the 
 wearer may walk collectedly in the fiercest furnace 
 of worldliness, and " not the smell of fire pass on 
 him." It is impossible, according to the laws of the 
 rnind, to practise on this plan without continually 
 weakening covetousness and strengthening benevo 
 lence ; nay, the wonted influence of worldly pursuits 
 is reversed : by pouring treasures into the lap avarice 
 is starved, while even by the toils. of money-getting 
 benevolence is exercised and strengthened. Thus, 
 by the very processes of business the power of benev 
 olence goes on enlarging, till she stands up in her 
 godlike majesty, the queen of the soul, and crushes 
 beneath her heel the tyrant that had enslaved it. 
 We must not leave this part of the subject with- 
 
OF 
 
 ANTIDOTE OF C V E fjt^&KJRSa. .- -. 57 
 
 out considering its bearing on the community, as we 
 have already considered its bearing on the individual. 
 Since the revival of commerce, the warlike spirit of 
 chivalry, the love of martial glory and of conquest 
 have been gradually giving place to the spirit of 
 trade; this spirit has been gradually extending, till 
 it has become, more than any other, the controlling 
 influence in the world. This change constitutes an 
 era in history, the causes, development, and effects 
 of which are worthy of the most serious study. 
 While it has produced many happy effects, as in mit 
 igating the spirit of war, it is yet a problem what 
 results it will finally work out a problem which, 
 alarming as already is the tendency of the public 
 mind to covetousness, is one of the most momen 
 tous subjects now demanding the attention of phi 
 lanthropists. There is an absorption of all interests 
 and energies in money-getting, such as was never 
 witnessed in the world before. Under this stimulus 
 the country is filling with power-looms, steam-en 
 gines, and telegraphs, and energies and resources are 
 employed in the prosecution of peaceful business, 
 which w r ould once have been more than enough to 
 build the pyramids or to conquer the world. We 
 acknowledge all the blessings of these inventions. 
 But while every orator and every newspaper is 
 dwelling on our commerce whitening every sea, our 
 enterprise penetrating every country, on the mir 
 acle-working of the iron horse and the lightning 
 11 
 
58 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 messenger, on our boundless territory and exhaustless 
 resources ; and while a manufacturing city . is laid 
 out in an uninhabited spot, and built up in a year or 
 two, as the early settlers would have built a frame 
 house we cannot blind ourselves to the alarming 
 tendency in the public minU to regard these things 
 as the sum total of all prosperity and the essentials 
 of all blessedness ; nor to the fact that the energies 
 which are so effective in aiding the acquisition of 
 wealth, are scarcely less effective in stimulating the 
 love of it. We cannot blind ourselves to the danger 
 that the love of money will become more and more 
 the ruling influence, absorbing into itself even that 
 powerful passion, ambition ; swallowing up the love 
 of office in the love of the salary ; overshadowing the 
 enterprises of religion by the gigantic and spirit-stir 
 ring achievements of business ; drawing the church 
 into the current of the world, and making its mem 
 bers undistinguishable in their pursuit of money from 
 worldlings ; nullifying the influence of the means of 
 grace, choking the word and making it unfruitful, 
 and finally overwhelming in worldliness the piety of 
 the church the danger that the spirit of trade, not 
 checked as it should be, by a contrary example from 
 the good, will engulf the nation in a Dead sea of 
 cupidity and luxury, or degenerate into that merce 
 nary spirit which, reckless of honor and virtue, un 
 scrupulous, untrusty, rapacious, despicable, has no 
 principle but the Judas question, " What will ye give 
 
ANTIDOTE OF COVETOUSNESS. 59 
 
 me ?" no measure of good arid evil but the profit 
 and loss of dollars and cents. 
 
 Systematic benevolence is God s appointed safe 
 guard against this danger. Practised generally and 
 from the heart, it will introduce a loftier end of exist 
 ence than the acquisition of property ; will ennoble 
 the pursuit of business by the spirit of love ; will 
 hold up a spiritual and sublime principle in antago 
 nism to the materializing tendencies of the spirit of 
 Uade ; will make civilization centre no longer on 
 wealth, but on " charity that seeketh not her own," 
 and thus will form it into a civilization pure, gener 
 ous, heavenly, expressing in every aspect the godlike 
 purpose of doing good ; a civilization uncursed by 
 want, ignorance, and crime, unblighted by oppres 
 sion, unclouded by irreligion, because wherever were 
 misery and degradation, millions of hearts will throb 
 in pity, millions of hands be extended and purses be 
 opened to relieve ; a civilization which we see only in. 
 bright glimpses revealed in the prophecies of God. 
 
 From all these views of the relations of the sub 
 ject to covetousness, it is plain that, to the church, 
 systematic benevolence is a first duty of self-preser 
 vation. She has no walls and battlements but her 
 own active benevolence, no army with banners but 
 her sons and her daughters toiling to do good. If the 
 church do not bless the world, she must be buried in 
 it. If the piety of the church, as it makes its way 
 through this wilderness, do not, like a fertilizing 
 
60 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 stream, make all its banks " rejoice and blossom as 
 the rose," it must be swallowed up in it like a river 
 lost in the desert sands which it fails to make fruit 
 ful. But let the scriptural law of charitable appro 
 priations be adopted, and thus let benevolence keep 
 pace with advancing business, following it into every 
 new path, and laying her gentle hand on all its mi 
 folding resources, then will covetousness wither amid 
 increasing enterprise, and benevolence will unfold 
 with an energy rivalling the energies of business, and 
 making them her ministers. Then the enterprises of 
 religion, no longer cast into the shade by the achieve 
 ments of worldliness, will encircle the earth with a 
 vastness and a vigor more amazing than the triumphs 
 of commerce and manufactures, and the miracles of 
 modern art. 
 
 We must gratefully notice the remarkable coinci 
 dence of God s providence in calling his children to 
 great enterprises, and in opening the world for un 
 limited effort, at the very time when, from the 
 unprecedented pressure of worldliness, there is un 
 precedented need of such counteraction to covetous- 
 ness. Let Christians understand that it is God s 
 mercy which multiplies the calls to give, to save 
 them from the multiplied assaults of covetousness. 
 Let them know that they neglect these calls at 
 their peril the peril of perishing in covetousness, 
 of drowning in the "destruction and perdition" ot 
 ihem " that will be rich." 
 
SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. 61 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE ESSENTIAL TO 
 THE HIGHEST SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 ALMS-GIVING was thought so important in the an 
 cient church, that it used to be called one of the wings 
 of prayer ; and the angel seems to have placed them 
 side by side as means of access to God s favor, when 
 he said to Cornelius, " Thy prayer?, and thine alms 
 are come up for a memorial before God." So Christ 
 said, " If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous 
 mammon, who will commit to your trust the true 
 riches?" plainly declaring the intimate connection, 
 now so little appreciated, between high spiritual at 
 tainments and the right use of property. In the 
 duty of systematic benevolence, then, may be found 
 an essential requisite, seldom thought of, for securing 
 that elevated tone of piety, the want of which is so 
 much lamented. 
 
 It produces a more vigorous and elevated tone of 
 piety by giving to love that exercise which is essen 
 tial to its health and growth. Love is the essence 
 of piety ; and it is as preposterous to expect it to 
 thrive without the habitual exercise of beneficence, 
 as to expect the body to be healthy in perpetual in 
 action. Piety cannot thrive as an ineffectual sen 
 sibility, exhausting itself on its own emotions in 
 the heart ; but from the spiritual affections of the 
 
C)2 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 inmost soul, it must issue, a transforming and control 
 ling influence, pervading the whole life. It is a life- 
 blood, which it is death to drive back on the heart ; 
 which as the only condition of health, must flow 
 through the whole being, and throb with living 
 power in the remotest and minutest acts. This con 
 dition of spiritual health systematic benevolence is 
 indispensable to secure ; and thus it is essential to 
 meet one of the greatest wants of the churches, and 
 to remove one of the greatest, though not one of the 
 most noticed obstacles to higher attainments in the 
 spiritual life. 
 
 It aids growth in grace by promoting a constant 
 intimacy ivith God. It requires the will of God to 
 be considered in every act of business, and links every 
 expenditure with a regard to his glory. "The hand 
 of God is recognized in our worldly affairs ; his pres 
 ence is invited, so to speak, into the very heart of our 
 prosperity, whence the world is most anxious to ex 
 clude him, invited to audit the account of our gains." 
 Thus it leads to "walk with God." 
 
 It awakens a deeper earnestness for the salvation 
 of men, and of course, a greater fervor in prayer. 
 It is a law of our natures, that doing kind deeds to 
 others strengthens our love for them more than re 
 ceiving kind deeds from them. We love most those 
 for whom we do most. Hence, the more we do ibr 
 the welfare of men, the more we shall feel and pray 
 for them. Thus systematic charity keeps the spirit 
 
SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. 63 
 
 of prayer lively and the religious feelings tender and 
 fresh. He who practises it will be likely to become 
 an eminent Christian, entering with all his heart 
 into every effort to do good, sympathizing in every 
 feeling with the soul of Christ, and electric to every 
 touch with his loving and self-sacrificing spirit. 
 
 It concentrates the energies, and thus favors spir 
 itual growth. It prevents the division of purpose 
 which is the great hmderance of success, fills, enlarg 
 es, and nerves the soul with the sublime purpose oi 
 doing good, and bending every power to that one 
 object, enables us to say with Paul s earnestness, 
 " This one thing we do." 
 
 But its most important influence in promoting the 
 spiritual growth, is in counteracting tJie deadening 
 influences of worldly business. It has already been 
 considered as the antidote for covetousness. In thus 
 grappling directly with this mother sin, it withers 
 the strength of some of the most powerful tempta 
 tions, and exerts a varied and extensive influence in 
 unfolding the whole Christian character in its beauty. 
 It extracts the poison from worldly pursuits ; it coun 
 teracts their usual perniciousness ; and not only so, 
 it compels them to become actually helpers to growth 
 in piety, as the exercise and discipline of heavenly 
 affection ; so that Christians may be 
 
 "Like ships in seas, while in, above the world," 
 and all the agitations of busy life be but the bounding 
 billows which bear them on their appointed course. 
 
64 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 It is a common impression that the highest exer 
 cise of religion is incompatible with the highest ac 
 tivity and enterprise in worldly business ; that as 
 business increases, the activity of piety must decline ; 
 and that revivals are not to be looked for in those 
 periods when business is peculiarly urgent. This im 
 pression is wholly unscriptural. The Bible requires 
 us at the same time to be " not slothful in business, 
 fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" a requirement, 
 plainly, that fervor and activity in God s service go 
 hand in hand with fervor and activity in business. 
 Nothing is plainer than that the whole system of pre 
 cepts, promises, and warnings in the Bible is adapted 
 to man amid the annoyances, temptations, and cares 
 of every-day business. Should a man become a her 
 mit for the better exercise of religion, he would find 
 a large part of the Bible with no applicability to his 
 circumstances. Besides, such a withdrawal is im 
 possible, for necessity is on the most of men to spend 
 their time in business. God requires them to be in 
 dustrious in some useful calling. To suppose God 
 requires a piety which it is impossible to exercise in 
 its higher degrees in the midst of that business which 
 his providence makes necessary and his law enjoins, 
 is to charge God with unreasonable and inconsistent 
 requirements. 
 
 But such an impression prevails. Not only so, but 
 it is certain that business, as usually conducted, jus 
 tifies it ; for it has tendencies almost sure to check 
 
SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. 65 
 
 the growth of the Christian, so that the good feeling 
 aroused in the closet or on the Sabbath is benumbed 
 as by the shook of a torpedo, as soon as he takes his 
 worldly affairs in hand ; and it has tendencies to pre 
 vent the unconverted from attending to religion, and 
 to harden them in hopeless inpenitence. Business 
 occupies the time so that the prayer-meeting is neg 
 lected, and sometimes the family altar, the closet, 
 and the word of God ; so that the fatigue of exces 
 sive toil through the week causes slumber in the sanc 
 tuary, or is made an excuse for absence. Sometimes 
 the pressure of business, or the fear that machinery 
 will lose a few hours in the week, leads to flagrant, 
 perhaps habitual profanation of God s day. Busi 
 ness occupies the thoughts, so that all the week long 
 nothing else obtains a lodgment in the mind, and 
 though the body be in God s house on the Sabbath, 
 the thoughts are on the world ; and thus, like one 
 perishing in the water, the man of business scarcely 
 gets his head above the worldliness which ingulfs 
 him, to catch a breath of the pure air of heavenly 
 life. And worse than all, his business seizes his 
 heart ; there is a fascination about it which draws .to 
 itself all his affections and energies. " He makes 
 gold his hope, and says to the most fine gold, Thou 
 3irt my confidence. " In short, it is tending perpet 
 ually to make him at last a worldling, for whom the 
 claims of benevolence arid the schemes of philan 
 thropy have lost their charm, who has no eye for the 
 
 Zacheus. 
 
G6 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 glories of heaven, no ear for the terrors of hell ; 
 who heeds his "piece of land," his "merchandise," 
 his "five yoke of oxen," more than the invitations 
 of mercy and the attractions of the cross ; whose 
 heart is in his purse, and his life circumscribed to his 
 farm, his counting-room, or his shop ; who as to spir 
 itual life is dead and buried in worldliness, and his 
 prosperity is but the magnificent monument of his 
 soul s burial-place, on which all who weep his un 
 timely ruin, may read with shuddering the inscrip 
 tion which God s finger has engraved : " Lo, this is 
 the man that made not God his strength, but trusted 
 in the abundance of his riches." " So is he that lay- 
 eth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toivard 
 God." 
 
 Systematic benevolence restrains this pernicious 
 influence of business. But mere restraint is not all. 
 It is not enough to ask how business is to be kept from 
 injuring the church. Doing business is not necessa 
 rily serving mammon, therefore not necessarily the 
 antagonist of serving God. It is dangerous for Chris 
 tians to stand merely on the defensive here, and 
 think merely to shield religion from the onslaught of 
 worldliness. We must go further. The question 
 must be, "How shall we bring business within the 
 pale of religion, make it a part of religion, and an 
 aid to its growth ? How make it help in exercising 
 and strengthening piety, as really as docs prayer?" 
 The Bible requires business to be thus identified with 
 
SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. 67 
 
 God s service, and never will the church be saved 
 from wasting woiidliness and grow to her full stature 
 in piety, till she carries the war into the enemy s ter 
 ritory, " overcomes the world," and makes it tribu 
 tary to herself; and that, not merely by securing the 
 silver and gold for her enterprises, but by securing 
 in the very acts of worldly business a discipline of 
 piety and an exercising and strengthening of grace. 
 Business must occupy almost all the time of the 
 most of God s children : how preposterous to expect 
 them to make great attainments in piety if this busi 
 ness, like a poisoned atmosphere, is perpetually en 
 feebling their strength ; if their religion is confined 
 for its sources of nourishment to the Sabbath and the 
 closet, and during almost their entire waking exist 
 ence, is helplessly exposed to an ever-blighting agency 
 from their own pursuits. They must bind their 
 business on God s altar, or it will bind them on the 
 altar of mammon. 
 
 The practical separation of business from religion, 
 the belief that the former is necessarily antagonisti- 
 cal to the latter, and conducting it so as to make it 
 so, are among the principal causes why the tone of 
 piety is so low, and the mass of the church are but 
 babes in Christ. Nor till this difficulty is removed 
 have we a right to expect the church to " look forth 
 as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
 and terrible as an army with banners." 
 
 Systematic benevolence is a most important and 
 
68 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 an indispensable agency in making business a helper 
 and not a foe to the religious growth. When a man 
 acts on this principle, his place of business becomes 
 a Bethel ; every transaction becomes like a renewal 
 of his consecration to God ; money and bills and la 
 bor are associated with his obligations to his Master, 
 and fragrant with the memory of the cross ; and like 
 the attraction drawing every part of the earth and 
 binding it to the sun, divine love fastens its attrac 
 tion on every possession, on every toil, and every 
 gain, and binds him with all that he has to God 
 the centre of his whole life s orbit. Then he is 
 intimate with God not less on the exchange or the 
 farm, than in the closet. Then his whole course of 
 life becomes a help and not a hinderance to his spirit 
 ual progress; and like a healthy child, he grows 
 steadily and unconsciously amid the ceaseless activ 
 ity of life. 
 
 Noimand Smith, when roused to a more entire con 
 secration to God, falling in with the common notion 
 that a life of secular business is incompatible with a 
 life of eminent usefulness and piety, seriously pur 
 posed to abandon it. But more scriptural views led 
 him to continue in business, consecrating it to God. 
 He put on record the " purpose to engage in my busi 
 ness, that I may serve God in it, and with the expec 
 tation of getting to give." His biographer says, 
 "From that time it was observable by all who knew 
 him, that he made rapid progress in religion. There 
 
SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. 69 
 
 was a fervor and engagedness of spirit, a purity and 
 elevation of aim, that could not be misunderstood or 
 concealed. He rose towards heaven like the lark of 
 the morning." From that time "he found no ten 
 dency in his worldly engagements to chill his piety, 
 or to enchain his affections to the earth. His busi 
 ness became to him a means of grace, and helped 
 him forward in the divine life, just as truly as read 
 ing the Scriptures arid prayer." 
 
 When a similar habit shall become general in the 
 church, one of the most important steps will have 
 been taken to secure that elevation of piety for 
 which as yet we sigh in vain ; and the law of love, 
 now written in Christ s word, will be written on the 
 hearts of his disciples and read by all the world in 
 their lives. 
 
 Says President Edwards of alms-giving, " There is 
 no external duty, by which persons will be so much 
 in the way, not only of receiving temporal benefits, 
 but also spiritual blessings, the influences of God s 
 Spirit in the heart in divine discoveries and spiritual 
 consolations." " That this is one likely means to 
 obtain assurance, is evident from 1 John, 3 : 18, 19, 
 My little children, let us not love in word, neither 
 in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby 
 we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure 
 our hearts before him. " "If God s people in this 
 land were once brought to abound in such deeds of 
 love, nothing would have a greater tendency to bring 
 
70 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 the God of love down from heaven to earth ; so ami 
 able would be the sight in the eyes of our loving and 
 exalted Redeemer, that it would soon as it were fetch 
 him down from his throne in heaven, to set up his tab 
 ernacle with men on the earth and dwell with them." 
 " The late remarkable revival of religion in Saxony, 
 which began by the labors of the famous professor 
 Franke, arid has now been carried on for above thirty 
 years, and has spread its happy influences into many 
 parts of the world, was begun and has been carried 
 on by a wonderful practice in this duty." Thoughts 
 on the Revival, part 5, sect 3. 
 
BLESSING THE CHURCH. 71 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE INCREASES THE 
 SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 THE increase of spiritual power will be the neces 
 sary consequence of the increase of piety. And by 
 promoting an increase of piety, systematic benevo 
 lence imparts an efficacy to the prayers and teach 
 ings of the church, an influence to her character, a 
 success to her enterprises, a mightiness through God 
 to the pulling down of strong holds, such as money 
 cannot bestow. 
 
 Here, also, we may consider principally its influ 
 ence in counteracting worldliness. No argument is 
 oftener urged against religion than that founded on 
 the alleged inconsistencies of its professors. The 
 chief foundation for this plea, so far as it has any, is 
 the conformity of Christians to the world in all the 
 aims, the maxims, and the manner of getting and 
 spending money, so that too commonly, Christians, 
 away from their devotions, can scarcely be distin 
 guished from the better sort of worldlings. Let the 
 scriptural law of benevolence be usually obeyed ; let 
 the world behold Christians actuated by the sublime 
 desire to do good in all their gettings and their expen 
 ditures, and consecrating spontaneously to the Lord 
 as he hath prospered them ; let it be seen, when men 
 become Christians, by the change in their pursuit of 
 
72 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 earthly treasure, that they have found a better por 
 tion, and now have their hearts a^iid their treasure in 
 heaven ; and the church will stand up before the 
 world with a consistency and elevation of piety which 
 will prove that gainsaying springs only from opposi 
 tion to goodness with a triumphant power which 
 will compel the exclamation, " God is in the midst 
 of her; she shall not be moved" with a manifest 
 and practical renunciation of the world, like that 
 which in the apostles days compelled both Jews and 
 Gentiles to confess the reality and feel the power of 
 religion, and which, reappearing in the church, will 
 go far towards restoring the like rapidity and glory 
 to her conquests. 
 
 It would be ungrateful, indeed, riot to acknow 
 ledge, among the striking characteristics of this age, 
 the revival, in a degree, of the benevolent and mis 
 sionary spirit of apostolic times. We hail it as an 
 omen of good ; we have marked already its happy 
 results ; we wait as " they that watch for the morn 
 ing " for "the glory that should follow." But alas, 
 how much in vain ! For the icebergs -and snow- 
 fields of the long winter still linger, and the piercing 
 winds from them wither the plants of righteousness 
 and keep back the buds of promise, and when we 
 might be looking for the luxuriance of summer, be 
 hold the lingering, frost-bitten growth of a backward 
 and chilling spring. 
 
 "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and 
 
BLESSING THE CHURCH 73 
 
 prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I 
 will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour 
 you out a blessing, that there shall not be room 
 enough to receive it." We so constantly spiritual 
 ize this text, as to forget that its literal and proper 
 application is to contributions to the Lord s treas 
 ury. Paying these fully is declared here to be the 
 condition of God s great blessing. Let this chal 
 lenge of the Most High be accepted. Let his sin 
 cerity in it be as for generations past, by the church 
 generally, it has not been put to the test. Let his 
 disciples "prove" him, by giving all that he requires, 
 and see if, through its direct and indirect influence, 
 it will not elevate the piety and enlarge the power 
 and successes of the church if spiritual stupidity 
 will continue to be, for the larger portion of the time, 
 the lamentation of the churches at home, and slow 
 and limited success the history of benevolent opera 
 tions abroad. 
 
 12 
 
74 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE PROMOTES 
 HAPPINESS. 
 
 IT is a privilege to give, and a reason for thankful 
 ness to have the opportunity and the means. Money 
 given to the Lord leaves a sweetness like the per 
 fume of the alabaster-box of precious ointment, fill 
 ing the soul long after the offering has been poured 
 out. Those who have given most regularly and in 
 the largest proportion, remember with the most joy 
 ous gratitude what God has enabled them to do. 
 When David and his people had contributed im 
 mense treasures "willingly" to build the temple, we 
 read that " the people rejoiced, and David the king 
 also rejoiced with great joy. And David said, Our 
 God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. 
 But what am I, and what is my people, that we 
 should be able to offer so willingly after this scrt ? 
 for all things come of thee, and of thine own have 
 we given thee." The first Christian converts, after 
 "parting their goods to all men," "did eat their meat 
 with gladness." Mr. Cobb said, " By the grace ot 
 God nothing else by the grace of God, I have been 
 enabled to give more than $40,000. How good the 
 Lord has been to me!" Said a man in moderate 
 circumstances, who was giving his whole net income, 
 " I could not feel happy to spend the money on my- 
 
PROMOTES HAPPINESS. 75 
 
 self, while so much is to be done for the needy and the 
 perishing. I coald not enjoy myself if I should do 
 it." At another time, when necessary extra expen 
 ses greatly diminished his charities for a time, he 
 said, " I find it one of my greatest trials, that I can 
 not do more for the heathen." 
 
 Systematic benevolence promotes happiness by its 
 influence in subduing covetousness and strengthen 
 ing benevolence. 
 
 As we have already seen covetousness to be a 
 principal hinderance to the spiritual groivth and the 
 spiritual power of the church, so now we find it a 
 hinderance to spiritual enjoyment nay, to human 
 happiness in the broadest sense. And that same 
 divine scheme which we have already seen to be 
 essential, chiefly by its influence in subduing covet 
 ousness, to the growth of the church s piety and the 
 advancement of its triumphs, we now see to be es 
 sential, in the same way, to happiness. This com 
 bined view of these arguments may show us at once 
 the far-reaching and appalling dangers of covetous- 
 ness, and the simplicity, efficacy, and unfailing adapt- 
 edness of God s scheme of prevention. 
 
 The covetous or selfish scheme of doing business 
 is always tormenting. It is accompanied by great 
 anxiety. He who does business on this system is 
 perpetually anxious and chafed, feverish with an ex 
 citement and perturbation, which are avoided by him 
 who calmly does business for the Lord, and asks only 
 
76 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 what the Lord would have him do. "What shall I 
 do for the hundred talents which I have given to 
 the king of Israel ?" is like the feverish questioning of 
 the former. "The Lord is able to give thee much 
 more than this," is like the trustful reply of the latter. 
 Normand Smith incidentally shows what a preser 
 vative he had found for unruffled calmness amid the 
 annoyances of business, by the following entry in his 
 diary : " I have forgotten and broken my resolutions 
 to conduct all to the glory of God. This has been 
 manifested in my being fretted at what I deemed 
 untimely calls for settlement and for debts." He 
 seems to imply that so long as he adhered to his 
 "resolutions," fretting at the annoyances of business 
 w r as not a thing to be expected. A man who for 
 years has been doing business in one of our cities on 
 the scriptural plan of benevolence, but who had pre 
 viously done business otherwise, says of himself, that 
 " the anxiety, the feverish excitement, and the im 
 patience to get the news and the results of sales, or 
 the results of their own business operations, which 
 merchants, speculators, and others are continually 
 burdened with, and at times almost to distraction, 
 and from which there seems to be little or no pros 
 pect of relief, all such perturbations of mind, com 
 mon to others, were once common to his experience ; 
 but he now seldom feels any thing of the kind ; for 
 he has learned in his Bible to cast his burden on 
 the Lord. " 
 
PROMOTES HAPPINESS. 77 
 
 Besides, upon the covetous or selfish scheme of 
 business, a man can never be satisfied. " He that 
 loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he 
 that loveth abundance with increase." This senti 
 ment has been in the mouths of the wise from Solo 
 mon s day till now. Its truth must for ever cut off 
 the covetous man from solid contentment. The 
 more he acquires, the more he wants ; and in the 
 midst of the greatest acquisitions, he remains the 
 very realization of those lean and ill-favored kine 
 which devoured all that was fair and thriving before 
 them, only to remain as lean, as ill-favored, and as 
 voracious as ever. There has appeared in the news 
 papers a horrible story about a man who had an 
 enormous tape-worm in his stomach : however much 
 the man ate, it was devoured by the ugly reptile 
 within, nourishing itself to greater bulk and voracity 
 thereby, while the wretched man was wasting in the 
 torment of perpetual starvation. "Whether the story 
 be true or false, it is a lively picture of covetousness. 
 That is a worm in the soul, nourishing itself to 
 greater strength and voracity by every acquisition, 
 and wasting the soul in the agony of perpetual want. 
 Relief, sought in vain by trying to satisfy, can come 
 only by killing the devouring desire by killing it 
 speedily, before it proves itself "the worm that never 
 dies." 
 
 It is related in the history of ancient Rome, that 
 an immense chasm once opened in the midst of the 
 
78 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 city. The superstitious Romans, to appease the god 
 whose anger, they supposed, had opened the abyss, 
 threw in the costliest garments and the richest treas 
 ures ; but in vain. At last one of the most distin 
 guished nobles put on his richest armor, and mounting 
 his steed leaped into the abyss, and it closed. Covet- 
 ousness, in its insatiability, realizes this fable. It is 
 an abyss yawning in the covetous man s path. He 
 gathers treasures and casts into it, but it closes not 
 He toils harder, he gathers more and richer treasures 
 and casts into it, but it closes not it closes not, till 
 the wretched man himself sinks into the widening 
 chasm, and it shuts on him in the gulf of perdition 
 for ever. 
 
 The very opposite is the result of love, which the 
 adoption of God s scheme of charity cherishes. There 
 is " comfort in love." In every act of relieving the 
 wretched which it requires, is a present bliss, which 
 partakes more of heavenly than of earthly joy. It 
 produces trustful peace amid annoyances, perplexi 
 ties, and calamities. It leads to satisfaction, even 
 with little. In peace of conscience, the conscious 
 ness of doing good and of receiving God s smile, it 
 imparts blessedness which gold selfishly used can 
 never buy. It gives a lasting joy. Spend money on 
 self, and how quick the gratification is gone. But 
 the joy of beneficence grows and brightens in the 
 remembrance. To know that by foregoing a selfish 
 gratification I have relieved the misery of a fellow- 
 
PROMOTES HAPPINESS. 79 
 
 n that for my gifts arid self-denial there is less 
 ignorance, less vice, less wretchedness in the world ; 
 to know that I have helped to vindicate truth and 
 right, and to establish the blessed reign of Jesus ; to 
 hope that, by God s blessing on my charities, even 
 cue dark soul has been made acquainted with the 
 Saviour and led to everlasting bliss ; what can thrill 
 the soul with a richer, and more lasting joy ? And 
 at the bed of death, when all earthly treasures are 
 slipping from the grasp, and the memory of selfish 
 gratifications, now past for ever, but imbitters the 
 spirit, these memories of charities and sacrifices, 
 offered for Christ s sake and by his grace, will stand 
 like angels of mercy, fanning the soul with airs of 
 heaven, and cheering it with an undying joy in the 
 agonies of dissolution. 
 
 No language oftener meets a pastor s ear, than the 
 complaint, " I do not enjoy religion." The churches 
 present a painful contrast with the habitual happi 
 ness of the apostles, whose writings, though written 
 usually in the depths of distresses, more than any 
 human compositions overflow with a deep and exult 
 ant joy. But there is little apprehension of what 
 is a prevalent cause of this lack of spiritual joy the 
 withholding of charity, and the consequent increase 
 jf worldliness and the stagnation of holy love. Hap 
 piness cannot be poured into the soul from without, 
 like Abater i n t a cistern ; the water of life is not said 
 to flow into a man, but to flow " out of him." To 
 
30 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 regain lost enjoyment, the Christian must increase 
 the exertions and self-denial of love. Let him fill life 
 full of efforts and sacrifices to do good, and he will 
 fill it full of bliss. He can be blessed only in ac 
 cordance with that law of the entire moral universe 
 expressed in the comprehensive words of Christ, "I 
 is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 
 Consider, now, the universality of this law. God 
 is love. So far as any addition to his blessedness is 
 concerned, God never received any thing. If, as many 
 imagine, every thing given is just so much taken from 
 the comfort of the giver, God would have lost more 
 happiness than all his creatures, for he is always giv 
 ing. But he is the most blessed of beings ; and he 
 is so, not so much in spite of his ceaseless beneficence, 
 as by means of it. His infinitude of bliss is an eter 
 nal expression of the law, "It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." 
 
 Angels toil for others, happy in what to selfish 
 hearts would be the humiliating and self-denying ser 
 vice of ministering to those immeasurably their infe 
 riors in character and rank ; waiting upon the very 
 " babes in Christ " in this nursery for heaven. 
 
 In hell is neither giving, nor blessedness. Selfish 
 ness reigns alone. 
 
 Thus the spirit of Christ s self-sacrificing love is 
 the spirit of all heaven, and the essence of its bliss. 
 The spirit of selfishness is the spirit of hell, and the 
 Bource of its misery. The principle of the cross, 
 
PROMOTES HAPPINESS. 81 
 
 " Give, give" carried out to all its results, makes 
 heaven. The principle of the worldling s search for 
 happiness, " Get, get" carried out to all its results, 
 makes hell. 
 
 The same law is discernible even in the confusion 
 of probation on earth. The purest joy is found, not 
 in halls of wealth, power, or gayety, nor yet in cot 
 tages where covetousness is always craving ; but, 
 whether in palace or hut, in the heart most com 
 pletely filled, the life most completely controlled by 
 self-sacrificing love. Even at the martyr s stake are 
 witnessed scenes of most ecstatic bliss, because there 
 selfishness is most effectually crushed, because there 
 love enfolds the martyr s soul brighter and purer 
 than the flames which enfold his body, and is the 
 chariot of fire and horses of fire which bear him up 
 to heaven. 
 
 Imagine a young lady surrounded with wealth and 
 luxury, who, instead of living to strew around her 
 blessings, is the spoiled child of indulgence, the vic 
 tim of a selfishness that has always reigned un 
 checked. She passes her existence, full of fretful- 
 ness and discontent, in the vain attempt to satisfy 
 desires which indulgence has made numerous and 
 insatiable as an army of locusts, and which, in their 
 devouring march through life, turn all the anticipa 
 tions and opportunities of enjoyment opening invit 
 ingly before her, into unhappiness, arid make the life 
 of their victim to be alwavs "like the garden of 
 
 Zaoheui. 
 
82 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wil 
 derness." 
 
 Contrast with this imaginary case an historical 
 personage. She was one of the first missionary 
 band that left our shores, when every step was un 
 certain and hazardous, and war redoubled the dan 
 gers of the untried undertaking. Arrived in Asia. 
 she is driven from the country, tossed again upon the 
 ocean, and buffeted with discomfort, sickness, and 
 difficulty, till she dies. But her life was blessedness, 
 and her death was peace. For the former, all out 
 ward circumstances combine to produce happiness ; 
 but selfishness makes her miserable. For the latter, 
 all outward circumstances combined to bring discom 
 fort ; by her own self-consecrating act she had rushed 
 into the midst of trials ; but all the floods of afflic 
 tion could not quench the fire of her love, nor drown 
 the flame of joy which ever mo-unted from the altar 
 of heir consecrated heart. The former will vapor 
 life away and die, and she and the silks that clothed 
 her will decay and be forgotten together ; but the 
 memory of HARRIET NEWELL will always refresh 
 the earth, and hope, and love, and self-denial will 
 spring ever with new freshness from her sea-girt 
 grave. Yes ; better is it, greater is it, that, in doing 
 good, we be like the sweet incense burned before the 
 Lord, consumed ourselves while spreading a sweet 
 savor of beneficence about us better that we be like 
 the sacred oil of the seven-branched candlestick, con- 
 
PROMOTES HAPPINESS. S3 
 
 sumed ourselves, while giving a holy light to others, 
 than to gain for our own enjoyment all that selfish 
 ness ever won. 
 
 Paul and Silas, having " suffered the loss of ail 
 things," bloody with scourging, fastened painfully in 
 the stocks in the inner prison, broke the silence of 
 midnight with songs of joy. And love always sings : 
 toiling, sacrificing, suffering, yet it sings. And in 
 proportion as that love fills our hearts, controls our 
 lives, subdues the tormenting covetings of selfish 
 ness, and makes it our " meat to do the will of Him 
 that sent us," in that proportion will be the fumes? 
 and the continuity with which we shall join the 
 song of love that song which no prison walls nor 
 stake of martyrdom can silence ; which, ceaseless as 
 the exhalations from the bosom of the earth, is going 
 up everywhere from humble hearts toiling and suf 
 fering to do God s will that irrepressible song, 
 which, when death shall have broken down the bars 
 of this mortality, shall burst into the shout of eter 
 nal and heavenly praise. 
 
 Thus has God made the universe according to that 
 law, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 Let any intelligent being cease to seek the good of 
 others, arid he ceases to be blessed himself. Let the 
 sun cease to pour his beams abroad, let him gather 
 his rays only into his own bosom, and he will not 
 only cease to shine on others, but will become black 
 and unseen himself in the universal night. So, while 
 
84 SCRIPTURAL BErsEVOLENCE. 
 
 any spirit that God has made lives not for itself, but 
 for its Maker and its Maker s works, it shines above 
 the brightness of the sun in glory. But when it be 
 gins to gather its efforts into itself and to pour its 
 blessings only into its own bosom, that moment its 
 glory goes out in night, and it becomes a part of " the 
 blackness of darkness for ever." 
 
 In vain, then, do you look for happiness, while the 
 business of life is not penetrated and controlled by 
 benevolence. It were a contradiction and disorder 
 ing of God s whole scheme of providence to permit 
 it. And it were equally a contradiction of God s 
 word ; for as the w r ord of God is true, they who 
 " will be rich," and therefore neglect in their business 
 the beneficence which God requires, must " pierce 
 themselves through with many sorrows." 
 
 Hasten, then, thankfully to adopt God s plan for 
 saving you from these many sorrows, and learn by 
 your own experience that "it is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." 
 
 Nor think that these sorrows are for this life only. 
 &od has lifted the veil from the awful future, and 
 recorded the decision, " No covetous man hath any 
 inheritance in the kingdom of Christ." " Be not de 
 ceived ; neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards 
 shall inherit the kingdom of God." If there be one 
 cause more effectual than any other in satisfying men 
 with false hopes, or in turning the attention quite 
 away from religion, hardening the heart in impeni- 
 
CONCLUSION 85 
 
 tence, and peopling the realms of woe, that cause is 
 worldliness. If you value your immortal interests, 
 if you have any just apprehension how many and 
 powerful are the obstacles to your salvation, and 
 how imminent your danger of being snared into a 
 fatal negligence of your soul, it will be presumptuous 
 trifling with your eternal welfare, if you adopt not 
 the scriptural plan of subduing, by God s blessing, 
 that worldliness which is the deadliest of all these 
 opposing influences, and which the apostle so solemn 
 ly warns you is sure, if not subdued, to plunge you 
 " into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish 
 and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction 
 and perdition." 
 
 Such are the motives to systematic benevolence ; 
 and such its vital and extensive connections with the 
 Christian life and the prosperity of Christ s kingdom. 
 And the force of these motives is enhanced by God s 
 own revealed estimate of the importance of the duty 
 of giving to relieve the wretched. There is some 
 thing peculiarly interesting in the language of Christ, 
 when guarding his disciples against selfish motives in 
 alms-giving, and enjoining the precautions useful to 
 secure an eye single to the glory of God. " Thy Fa 
 ther, which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee 
 openly." As if the Monarch of the universe- felt a 
 eculiar pleasure in the humble disciple whose aim is 
 to honor him by his secret charities, and would bring 
 
85 SCRIPTURAL BENEVOLENCE 
 
 him before the assembled universe and with his own 
 royal hand encircle his brow with the incorruptible 
 crown. And verily, one " Well done, good and faith 
 ful servant," from the lips of the King of heaven, 
 may well outweigh all human applause, all selfish 
 gains. And as if to show the intensity of his interest, 
 and the particularity with which he notices and re 
 wards what is given and what is withheld, God has 
 revealed from heaven that even so insignificant a 
 gift as " a cup of cold water only," given with right 
 motives, shall not lose its reward ; and has trans 
 mitted to all generations the solemn record of his ap 
 probation of the widow s farthing. 
 
 And the Saviour has invested the duty with an 
 immeasurable sacredness, even with all the sacred- 
 ness of love to him and regard to his sufferings ; for 
 he declares from the throne of judgment, that every 
 gift, given with the pure desire to aid his church, 
 he receives as given to aid himself; and every re 
 fusal to give, he regards as a refusal to minister to 
 his own wants. He puts himself in the place of his 
 church ; he bares his bosom to receive every neglect 
 of her in her necessities ; he opens his heart to treas 
 ure up as a favor bestowed on himself, every favor 
 bestowed on her. " Inasmuch as ye did it," or did 
 it riot, " to one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
 did it," or did it not, " to me." 
 
 Having thus invested these objects of charity with 
 the sacredness of his own person, and, as it were, 
 
CONCLUSION. 87 
 
 linked the performance or neglect of the duty with 
 every sensation of his own throbbing heart, he in 
 vests it with a new solemnity, and reveals in it a new 
 importance, by declaring, that in the final judgment 
 the duty of charity to the distressed will be selected 
 as the key to the whole life and the test of the whole 
 character. " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
 the world ; for I was a hungered, and ye gave me 
 meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was 
 a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed 
 me ; I was sick, and ye visited me ; I was in prison, 
 and ye came unto me." " Depart from me, ye cursed, 
 into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels ; for I was a hungered, and ye gave me no 
 meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I 
 was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and 
 ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited 
 me not." 
 
 Behold, then, in God s own estimate of this duty, 
 that we have not overrated its importance. Behold 
 your hardihood, if you leave, unsystematized, to ca 
 price and chance, a duty which is held so important 
 in the solemn estimation of God, and is presented by 
 the Judge himself, as the key and test of the char 
 acter in the final decision. Behold with trembling 
 your peril, lest, though you have even sat at Christ s 
 table, you be found at last with those who have not 
 ministered to Christ. 
 
THE 
 
 MISSION OF THE CHURCH ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE. 
 
 BY REV. EDWARD A. LAWRENCE, 
 t 1 
 
 MAR.BLEHE AD, MASS. 
 
 Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. 
 ISAIAH 27 : 6. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY TH 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU -STREET, ?: E W YORK, 
 
 13 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OR ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 BENEFICENCE. 
 The elements of Christian beneficence are, 
 
 1. An intelligent spirit, 7 
 
 2. A diffusive spirit, 10 
 
 3. An equitable spirit, 14 
 
 4. A benevolent spirit, 15 
 
 5. A self-denying spirit, 17 
 
 6. A spirit of grateful love, 18 
 
 7. A spirit of prayer, 22 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 
 
 First general proposition. Every man s charitable contributions 
 should be proportionate to the vastness and importance of the 
 objects sought in beneficence. 25 
 
 A. brief survey of the field Statement of the objects, 25 
 
 Second general proposition. Every man s charitable contribu 
 tions should be proportionate to the adequacy of the instrumental 
 ity to be applied, 37 
 
 The insufficiency of certain alleged remedial agencies The gospel 
 the only adequate instrumentality Harmony of the instrumental 
 ity with the objects of beneficence, 38 
 
 Third general proposition. Every man s charitable contributions 
 should be proportionate to his pecuniary means and facilities for 
 applying the instrumentality, 55 
 
 1. The beneficence of the Jewish church, 56 
 
 2. The beneficent spirit of the early Christian church, 63 
 
 3. The scripture declarations concerning property, and the duty of 
 iberality, 68 
 
 Particular propositions. Every man s beneficence should be pro 
 portionate, 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 1. To the sum total of his property, 76 
 
 2. To his annual income, 83 
 
 3. To what he can earn by industry, 90 
 
 4. To what he can save by economy, 96 
 
 5. To what he can spare by self-denial, 102 
 
 Motives. Beneficence gives to wealth its greatest value, secures our 
 
 own highest interests, and promotes the glory of God, 107 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 
 I. Provisions of system. 
 
 1. Instruction concerning the use of property, and communicating 
 information respecting the condition and wants of the world,- 116 
 
 2. The appropriation by every one, at stated times, of a due propor 
 tion of his property to charitable purposes : 1. The weekly period. 
 2. The monthly period. 3. The annual period. 4. Setting 
 apart a portion of each gain in every enterprise, 121 
 
 3. Some plan by every church for collecting its contributions, and for 
 applying them to their objects. 130 
 
 II. Tendencies and advantages of system. 
 1 To diminish the expenditure of benevolent societies. - 134 
 
 2. To secure a larger number of contributors, 135 
 
 3. To secure from each contributor an amount more proportionate to 
 his ability, ; - 136 
 
 4. To give to charitable contributions the more scriptural form of 
 free-will offerings, 139 
 
 5. To make these free-will offerings the fruit of a more cheerful 
 spirit, 142 
 
 6. To give consistency and efficiency to the character of Christians, 
 by bringing their life into harmony with their doctrines and profes 
 sions, 1 ^ 
 
 7. To raise the church in its charitable contributions to a more ele 
 vated Christian devotion, 149 
 
 8. To promote union among Christians of different denominations, 
 and thus increase the power of the whole church for the good of 
 the world, 153 
 
 CONCLUSION, 159 
 
THE 
 
 MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SPIRIT, OR ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES 
 OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 THE mind that was in Christ, the spirit that 
 moved him through the whole period of his earthly 
 life, was a deep, ever-flowing spirit of love. It was 
 an illimitable and inexhaustible benevolence. Every 
 stage of his history, from the manger to the cross, is 
 a peculiar expression of " good will towards men." 
 By his life he became an example, and in his death 
 he made atonement for sin ; thus illustrating the 
 spirit of Christianity, and opening a way whereby it 
 might be infused into the hearts of his disciples. In 
 its impulses and operations, both in the Head of the 
 church and in its members, it is the spirit of benefi 
 cence. To be Christian, therefore, beneficence must 
 be prompted by the Christian spirit, and be in 
 harmony with the great design of Christ in his 
 redeeming work. This gives it the fullest scope in 
 the objects of the gospel, and the highest character 
 in the spirit of the gospel. By the development of 
 
6 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 this spirit in the church, through the perfecting of 
 the Christian life of its members, it finds its true 
 mission in seeking the salvation of the race. It thus 
 answers its fittest description " the salt of the 
 earth," " the light of the icorld" 
 
 The spirit of Christian beneficence is distinguished 
 from mere human kindness, which is neither uni 
 versal in its extent, uniform in its operations, noi 
 Christian in its principle. It is distinguished from 
 natural pity, in that this arises from spontaneous 
 sympathy, and does not take into account the praise 
 or blameworthiness of its objects. It differs from 
 generosity, which is not scrupulous to abide by the 
 rules of justice, and has no end in the honor of God, 
 or the highest welfare of man. It is unlike that de 
 sire of applause, which in the spirit of Phariseeism 
 often prompts to liberal donations, but only " to be 
 seen of men." Its bestowments are dissimilar to the 
 grudging remittances made to purchase relief from 
 the wearying importunity of persevering applicants. 
 It is distinguished from the reluctant yielding of the 
 crumbs which fall from the table of abundance, in 
 order to pacify a clamorous conscience, and procure 
 exemption from its upbraidings. It is the antagonist 
 of that alms-giving which is relied on as the ground 
 of justification before God, thus making salvation 
 by grace superfluous and impossible. 
 
 Between all these and that beneficence which is 
 truly Christian, there is a wide difference. Chris 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 7 
 
 tian beneficence neither disowns the constitutional 
 principles or emotions, nor takes its character from 
 them. Incorporating into itself all the elements of 
 joy and sorrow, pity and sympathy, honor and gen 
 erosity, it constitutes a complex principle, ahove and 
 beyond any one or all of them. Jesus was kind, 
 and sympathizing, and compassionate, and generous 
 But he was something more than these. Purer mo 
 tives urged him a higher impulse moved him a 
 nobler spirit inspired him. It was the impulse of 
 love, whose spontaneous outgushings made his life 
 an example of the most sublime beneficence. 
 
 Among the peculiar and positive elements of be 
 neficence, distinguishing it as Christian, is, 
 
 1. An intelligent spirit. "Whosoever would dis 
 charge the duties of life, must first know what they 
 are. In nothing is this more manifest than in efforts 
 to do good. As all alms-giving is not from benevo 
 lence, so neither is it all beneficent. It is as essen 
 tial to the latter, that it should be directed to* a right 
 end, as to the former that it should spring from 
 a right principle. Nor does even a good motive in 
 the donor necessarily secure to his deed the character 
 of beneficence, unless it is well directed ; the ac- 
 tion may be praiseworthy in its purpose, while, from 
 want of knowledge, it may be disastrous in its effects. 
 Under the incubus of ignorance, well-meaning men 
 may multiply the ills which they would remove. 
 Through unacquaintance with the condition of those 
 
8 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 whom they wish to benefit, or through ignorance of 
 the proper remedial agencies or modes of applying 
 them, they may diffbse the hane instead of the anti 
 dote, propagate darkness instead of disseminating 
 light, and carry havoc and dismay where they in 
 tended only healing and consolation. Arid the more 
 munificent is such ill-directed charity, the greater the 
 waste fhe more wide-spread the ruin. 
 
 Christian beneficence walks not forth blindfold 
 amidst the world s mendicity and its mendacity, 
 scattering alike to both. She wields not her full 
 hands, as the Cyclops his huge limbs, at random. 
 Her zeal is an enlightened ardor, never roaming in 
 the dark, and never impatient of results that come 
 only through the gradual operation of appropriate 
 causes. 
 
 In this age of busy reform, all kinds of objects have 
 their solicitors. Men who aspire to philanthropy 
 even, must discriminate : much more does Christian 
 beneficence demand a wise and careful circumspec 
 tion. She wishes to know what the work is, and 
 where it is, and how it is to be done. She sends 
 out her pioneers to survey the ground gjid gauge the 
 difficulties. She takes the altitude of mountains to 
 be brought low, and the depth of valleys to be filled. 
 She examines the crooked places to be made straight, 
 and the rough places to be made smooth, and trav 
 erses " the wilderness and solitary place," which, by 
 her culture, are to " bud and blossom as the rose." 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE . 9 
 
 By this pioneer service, in which such men as How 
 ard and Buchanan and Martyn and Marshman have 
 been most successful explorers, benevolent men are 
 better enabled to adapt means to their ends. They 
 obtain a quicker discernment of the various phases of 
 wickedness and want, and of the avenues of access 
 to them. The delusive fancies of sentimental phi 
 losophers concerning the virtues and happiness of 
 the savage state, have been thus dispelled. The 
 glowing eulogies pronounced upon the mythology of 
 modern paganism, have, by the testimony of honest 
 and indefatigable examiners, been thrown into entire 
 discredit. The principles of evil, inherent in fallen 
 humanity, are found to hold their woful empire over 
 the comparatively mild inhabitants of Southern Asia, 
 "with such an absoluteness of possessive power, and 
 displaying this disposition in such wantonly versatile, 
 extravagant, and monstrous effects, as to surpass all 
 our previous imaginations and measures of possi 
 bility." 
 
 For those who desire information concerning these 
 things, the means are at hand. Let them study the 
 character and operations and claims of the various 
 humane and benevolent associations, as exhibited in 
 their lucid and condensed reports and other publica 
 tions. Let them study the providences and prophe 
 sies and promises of God, in his works and word. 
 His providence is casting clearer light upon the 
 prophecies, and his Spirit is fulfilling the promises, 
 
10 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 to a degree that illumines the whole Christian world. 
 The spirit of Christian beneficence, in her reforma 
 tory power, is entering the convict s cell, and is 
 applying her benign and recovering agencies to the 
 condition of the poor, the orphan, the sick, the insane, 
 the deaf, the dumb, and the blind. She is penetrat 
 ing the darkest nooks of heathenism, inspecting its 
 habitations of cruelty, and scattering light concern 
 ing the wants and woes of the race. A goodly 
 cluster of eleemosynary institutions of almshousep, 
 hospitals, and asylums, is diffusing an ameliorating 
 and remedial influence throughout Christendom. A 
 bright constellation of Bible, Missionary, Tract, and 
 other kindred and affiliated societies, is pouring a 
 flood of light upon the world, demolishing the tem 
 ples of paganism, hastening the wane of the crescent, 
 dissipating the delusions of Judaism, and discovering 
 the hoary abominations of the man of sin. The Sun 
 of righteousness begins to gild the hill-tops of India, 
 Southern Africa, Syria, Persia, and Turkey, and Las 
 generated moral greenness and beauty in many of 
 the islands of the sea. These things, all who wish 
 to know, can know, and all who can know, should 
 know. 
 
 2. The spirit of Christian beneficence is a diffu 
 sive spirit. The distinctions of home and foreign, far 
 off and near, it knows only as different spheres for the 
 occupancy of the same general agency, and for the 
 achievement of the same lofty ends. Remoter guilt 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. \] 
 
 and misery affect the heart of the benevolent, if not 
 as sensibly, yet with as really a moving power, as 
 do those more near. Moral wretchedness makes 
 its appeal as urgently from India as from Ireland, 
 from the Celestial empire as from Wisconsin. And 
 yet, in his beneficent mission to the far distant, the 
 benevolent man averts not his eye from sin and 
 suffering at his own door. No one is more eagle- 
 eyed to espy the mute signs of contiguous want, or 
 more ready to respond to the calls of charity at home, 
 than he who, overstepping such narrow limits, car 
 ries the blessings of his bounty to the farthest verge 
 of sin and woe. 
 
 The plea of " charity at home" has passed into a 
 proverb, the significance of which seems often to be, 
 hoarding all one gets, and getting all he can. It 
 is sometimes only the sanctimonious garb of parsi 
 mony, put on to cover the shame of its nakedness 
 the formulary by which covetousness seeks baptism 
 at the hands of the Christian priesthood a broad 
 phylactery worn by one who " devours widows 
 houses." " Charity begins at home." True. And 
 where else should she begin ? She is born at home, 
 and she begins to act where and when she receives 
 her birth. This is the order of nature. All vital 
 principles work from the centre outwards. It is the 
 order of Providence also. But it is contrary both to 
 nature and to Providence, for charity to seek only 
 her own," and allow her cultivated and fertile fields 
 
12 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 to do no more than " supply their own wants and 
 replenish their own wastes." 
 
 He, therefore, who in Christian beneficence ends 
 with the beginning, cannot be said to have begun at 
 all. And he who bestows nothing to relieve the 
 misery of which he only hears the description, will 
 be likely to turn away from that of which his eye 
 gives him the living picture. Or if perchance, by 
 some sudden antagonistical impulse, his iron-nerved 
 grasp be tremulously relaxed, it is but to let slip a 
 pittance much nearer the mockery of woe than its 
 mitigation. He who thus contravenes the order of 
 nature, of Providence, and of the word of God, gives 
 no equivocal proof of being tight bound in the chains 
 of icy selfishness. Covetousness has cast him into 
 her iron-cage, and crushing out of him all humane 
 and generous feelings, has contracted his aims to the 
 narrow circle of his own selfish involutions. Doing 
 good to his fellow-men is not his mission. He has 
 lost the primal dignity of man. He has set himself 
 aside from the human brotherhood, and his ear is 
 bored in servitude to mammon. He no less needs 
 a mission of mercy from the abode of angels, to re 
 assert in him the power of conscience, and restore 
 him to his lost human fellowship, than does the poor 
 idolater who makes to himself a god of one piece of 
 his wood, and warms himself at the fire kindled by 
 the other. The one worships a god of wood the 
 other, a god of gold. 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 13 
 
 The spirit of Christian beneficence neither halts 
 nor hesitates at geographical boundaries. Contiguity 
 of guilt and misery has the advantage only as afford 
 ing opportunity for speedier relief. Hence, the faint 
 est sigh of want, and the softest wail of sorrow, from 
 whatever source they come, touch a responsive chord 
 in the soul of the benevolent man, and vibrate there 
 as the voice of God. 
 
 Thus diffusive is the spirit of Christian benefi 
 cence. Her " field is the world." Her own nature 
 allows her no narrower limits as the sphere of her 
 action, and the circle of the globe no wider one. 
 With, "onward" for her motto, she shrinks from no 
 region however rigorous, and from no clime however 
 sultry or remote. No barbarism is too rude, and no 
 forms of error too venerable, for her assailment. No 
 human condition is so degraded and no misery so 
 woful, no wretchedness is so appalling and no terror 
 so intimidating, as to check her flowing sympathy or 
 daunt her adventurous courage. The arm of power 
 may be raised to protect or to repel her, yet, with 
 her eye upturned to the throne of the Eternal, and 
 her hand fast hold of the cross, she goes forth to her 
 work. See the illustration of her diffusive energy in 
 the propagation of primitive Christianity, which, in 
 less than three centuries, she made the sole accred 
 ited religion of the civilized world. See her too, in 
 this age, planting her standard amid the snows of 
 Greenland, and on the burning sands of India. She 
 
14 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 is unfurling the banner of the cross in every quarter 
 of the globe. She is climbing the snow-clad sides of 
 the Himmaleh and the Andes, crossing the Rocky 
 Mountains and ranging the coasts of the Pacific, 
 bearing in one hand the torch of truth, and pointing 
 with the other to the Lamb of God. Nor will she 
 rest, till every son and daughter of Adam is blessed 
 by the gospel, and the whole earth smiles with the 
 beauty and verdure of heaven. 
 
 "Breathe all thy minstrelsy, immortal harp, 
 Breathe numbers warm with love, while I rehearse 
 Thy praise, Charity; thy labors most 
 Divine, thy sympathy with sighs, and tears, 
 And groans ; thy great, thy godlike wish to heal 
 All misery, all fortune s wounds, and make 
 The soul of every living thing rejoice." 
 
 3. The spirit of Christian beneficence is an equi 
 table spirit, recognizing the principles of steward 
 ship. From just views of man s relations to his 
 Maker arises the idea of right ; and from the idea 
 of right, comes the sense of moral obligation or duty. 
 It is indeed essential to true beneficence, that it 
 should be voluntary. " God loveth a cheerful giver." 
 But it is also essential that respect should be had to 
 a higher than human will, as the rule of duty. Thus 
 then stands the case. Man is free to give, and free 
 in giving. But he is also bound to give, and to give 
 equitably. 
 
 Every man is a steward of God All that he 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 15 
 
 possesses is committed to him in trust, with the in 
 junction, " Occupy till I come." At a future day it 
 will be said, " Give an account of thy stewardship." 
 Of every one who hides his Lord s money by hoard 
 ing, or embezzles it by squandering, it shall be said, 
 " Bind the unprofitable servant, and cast him into 
 outer darkness." He, on the other hand, who em 
 ploys it for the glory of his Master and the good of 
 mankind, shall receive the faithful servant s approv 
 al, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 Give to this idea of stewardship a practical preva 
 lence in the church, and it bars out covetousness, and 
 raises multitudes of nominal professors from guilty 
 worshippers of mammon, into honored coworkers 
 with Christ in the world s redemption. 
 
 4. The spirit of Christian beneficence is a benevo 
 lent spirit. " Love thy neighbor as thyself," is the 
 great philanthropic principle of the gospel. It anni 
 hilates selfishness, and brings men into the sweet 
 bonds of one common brotherhood. It plucks from 
 the heart the "root of all evil," and plants in its 
 stead the seeds of a universal charity. 
 
 We love our children, in some sense, as we love 
 ourselves ; but this is not benevolence : our instincts 
 prompt it. "We make common cause upon some sub 
 jects, and on some occasions, with our kindred or 
 friends ; but this is not benevolence : self-interest dic 
 tates it. We join in civil compact, and pledge "our 
 J*fes, our fortunes, and our sacred honor," and some- 
 
16 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 times pour out our blood like water for the common 
 weal; but this is not benevolence : call it patriotism, 
 or what we will, it has no Christian element, and 
 oftentimes conflicts with every gospel principle, and 
 charitable feeling. Benevolence makes a man the 
 denizen of the world. By its inherent tendency to 
 "do good unto all men," it annihilates distance, and 
 by sympathy brings remote evils near. It knows no 
 demarcation lines of sect, or tribe, or color. Its boun 
 daries are the limits of humanity. In its expansive 
 schemes, it regards men as under one common condi 
 tion of guilt and suffering ; subjects of one common 
 righteous government ; liable to one common woe ; 
 and for whom there is provided one common divine 
 dispensary one Gilead of the world. The African 
 is our " neighbor," and has fallen "among thieves; " 
 benevolence calls for the appliance of our " oil and 
 wine." The Hindoo is our brother, and is "sick;" 
 it bids us bear to him the " balm" from " Gilead," 
 and tell him of the " Physician there." 
 
 To what enlarged schemes of beneficence would the 
 prevalence of this spirit prompt the church. "What 
 masses of wealth would it consecrate to the cause of 
 humanity. What thousands of devoted men, glow 
 ing with the spirit of Mills and Martyn and Brainerd, 
 panting to carry the light of truth to lands darkened 
 by sin, would it bring into the educational processes, 
 preparatory to such a work. What fleets would it 
 give to the winds, taking their course towards the 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 17 
 
 heathen world, laden with the printed word, and the 
 living preacher. How sublime the spectacle the 
 whole Christian church moved by such a spirit of 
 beneficence. 
 
 5. The spirit of Christian beneficence is a self- 
 denying spirit. It is the nature of sin to exalt self 
 to preeminence, This disorders our relations both 
 to God and to our fellow-men. It subverts the 
 law of love. It discards the divine will as the rule 
 of action, and substitutes each man s own will. Its 
 tendency is to convert the world into an arena ol 
 ceaseless and sanguinary conflict, for as many sepa 
 rate interests as there are individual combatants. 
 
 Now, the tendency of Christianity is directly the 
 reverse of this. It casts down self and enthrones 
 the Creator in the soul. It meets the selfish spirit 
 in all its vicious cravings, with an imperative denial. 
 The foundation of the Christian faith was laid in a 
 sacrifice, " Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor 
 ner-stone." And as each disciple is built on this 
 foundation, he receives from it a subduing power, 
 which imparts to him this self-denying spirit. The 
 beneficent career of Jesus on earth was marked in 
 every period by humiliation and suffering and sacri 
 fice. And shall his followers have no fellowship 
 with him in these ? Is the vital sap of the branches 
 unlike that which flows in the vine ? Shall there be 
 self-sacrifice in the head, and self-indulgence in the 
 members ? Self-denial is the condition of spiritual 
 
 Miss, of Church. 
 
18 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 progress "A despicable indulgence," says Henry 
 Martyn, " gave me such a view of my character, that 
 on my knees, I resolved to live a life of greater self- 
 denial. The love and vigor of my mind rose rapidly, 
 and all those duties from which I usually shrank, 
 seemed recreations." Self-denial is the very condi 
 tion of discipleship. "If any man will come after 
 me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
 daily, and follow me." 
 
 See this spirit burning in the bosom of the apos 
 tle to the Gentiles. With unsurpassed devotion, he 
 lays his ease and learning and cherished hopes joy 
 fully at the feet of his Saviour. He is " in perils of 
 waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own coun 
 trymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, 
 in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
 perils among false brethren ; in weariness and pain- 
 fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
 fastings often, in cold and nakedness." And does he 
 complain that his labors and sacrifices are too weari 
 some, or too costly ? Rather does he glory that to him 
 is "this grace given," that he may "preach among 
 the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." The 
 same flame glowed in the breasts of the martyrs, and 
 the same holy fire should be kindled in the bosoms oi 
 the whole company of the disciples, consuming selfish 
 ness, and converting their hearts into censers, whence 
 should perpetually ascend sweet incense unto God. 
 
 ^. The spirit of Christian beneficence is a spirit of 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 19 
 
 grateful love. The most concise definition of the 
 Christian religion is love. "God is love," and "love 
 is the fulfilling of the law." " Though I bestow all 
 my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be 
 burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." 
 The love of Christ takes the deepest hold of all the 
 principles of our being. It allows no rival. It ad 
 mits no equal. It must reign supreme in the soul, con 
 trolling all its emotions, and directing all its energies. 
 Under the influence of this love, benevolent impulses 
 become pemianent affections. Our strongest desires 
 for the welfare of man and the glory of God, assume 
 the character of fixed principles. Beholding the 
 world as the scene of moral achievement, surveying 
 its desolations, its poverty and misery, its hatreds 
 and strifes, its malice and murders, how sublime ap 
 pears the enterprise of its recovery. Ascending the 
 mount of vision fast by the cross, and witnessing the 
 vast funeral processions bearing annually on their 
 biers to the world of woe, twenty-five millions of lost 
 souls, how moving the spectacle, how imploring the 
 scene ! Yea, Christian, mounting up to the throne 
 of the Eternal, see Him whom your soul loveth 
 casting down his cross upon the golden pavements 
 of the celestial city, and by all his agonies upon it, 
 by the accumulated worth of six hundred millions 
 of guilty human spirits, to whom the church has not 
 these eighteen hundred years carried his saving gos 
 pel, see him interceding for that church, that it may 
 
20 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 be filled with his own spirit, that it may become more 
 self-denying, that it may cease its strifes at home, 
 and go on its mission abroad : see this, and if love does 
 not burn like a fire in your bones, if apathy does not 
 seem madness, and the consecration of all fit means 
 to such an end but a poor return, the very least you 
 can offer, thou hast not known the love of Christ. 
 
 When Dr. Doddridge, having procured a pardon for 
 a condemned criminal, entered the prisoner s cell, the 
 grateful man threw himself at his feet, exclaiming, 
 " Every drop of my blood thanks you, for you have 
 had mercy on every drop of it Wherever you go, 1 
 will be yours." So entire is the devotion prompted 
 by grateful love. But redeeming love ! Oh, it is this 
 which awakens all that is tender in affection, all that 
 is generous and self-sacrificing in devotion, and which 
 gives direction to all that is executive in energy for 
 high moral achievement. It imparts to the meanest 
 sacrifice a divine fragrance. It gives to " a cup of 
 cold water " a preeminence on the catalogue of be 
 neficent acts, not reached by the pharisaic donor of 
 millions. It clothes the simplest prayer of the poor 
 est disciple with a power for the world s conversion, 
 to which the most skilfully adjusted moral machinery 
 can make no approach. It is the divine alchymy, 
 which transmutes in its crucible the baser metals 
 into gold, and sets the smallest gift as a priceless 
 jewel in the diadem of Him on whose head are 
 " many crowns." 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 21 
 
 As Christ s mission was to the poor, these, wnom 
 we " have always " with us, should be regarded as 
 his representatives. To each of his disciples, he says, 
 "In these I am an hungered; feed me: thirsty; 
 give me drink : I am sick in the islands of the sea ; 
 minister to me there : I am a prisoner in Asia ; procure 
 my release : I am bound in Africa ; seek my deliver 
 ance. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these, ye have done it unto me. " And when 
 you have laid all your possessions and yourself with 
 them, at the foot of the cross, and viewed him sus 
 pended upon it, how insufficient seem all human en 
 ergies and offerings as a requital of his love. You 
 wish that gold had a million times more value, and 
 you a million times more gold to devote to him ; that 
 your energies were augmented into superangelic pow 
 ers, that in the consecration of them all, your grateful 
 love might find more fit expression. 
 
 "Oh thou who keep st the key of love, 
 
 Open thy fount, eternal Dove, 
 
 And overflow this heart of mine ; 
 
 Enlarging, as it fills with thee, 
 
 Till, in one blaze of charity, 
 Care and remorse are lost, like motes in light divine. 
 
 "Till, as each moment wafts us higher, 
 By every gush of pure desire, 
 
 And high-breathed hope of joys above, 
 By every sacred sigh we heave, 
 Whole years of folly we outlive, 
 In His unerring sight who measures life by love. 1 
 
22 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 7. The spirit of Christian beneficence is a spirit 
 of prayer. It is this which distinguishes the enter 
 prises of the church from all other schemes for amel 
 iorating the condition, and relieving the wants and 
 woes of the race. While it does not impair the feel 
 ing of responsibility, it impresses the sense of depend 
 ence. It impels the heart to look upward for wis 
 dom to direct its efforts, and for power to render them 
 efficacious. Plans of moral achievement which, on 
 any other principle than that of the divine efficiency, 
 would be Utopian, by this are rendered rational and 
 hopeful. It clothes the most gigantic and daring 
 moral heroism with the garments of humility, and 
 elevates the simplest efforts of faith and love to the 
 most honorable position of successful instrumental 
 ity. Recognizing the divine agency as the sole effi 
 cient cause of all beneficent human agency, his peo 
 ple lay their gifts upon the earthly altar, and in 
 answer to prayer, the angel presents them as an 
 accepted offering upon the golden altar before the 
 throne. Without prayer, alms fall like lead to the 
 ground. On the wings of prayer they seek the skies, 
 and come up as an acceptable " memorial before 
 God." 
 
 Even Jesus the Son of the Most High labored not 
 to do good without prayer. His life was one fervent 
 intercession, the ardor of which abated not when it 
 had consumed him on the cross. It mounted up to 
 heaven. It still breathes and burns in the ear of 
 
SPIRIT OF BENEFICENCE. 23 
 
 God, with a prevalence that gives birth, in the mis 
 sion of the Spirit, to all human prayer, and efficacy 
 to all human instrumentality for the good of the 
 world. 
 
 See too how the apostles prayed when entering upon 
 their beneficent work. Returning from the mount 
 from which they had seen their Master ascend, 
 they retire to " an upper room," and continue with 
 one accord in prayer and supplication, until their 
 baptism by the Holy Ghost. They then go forth to 
 their labors praying with the conviction that they 
 can do nothing without prayer, and laboring as if 
 they could accomplish all things without it. Behold 
 the martyrs, kindling their ardor at the altar of 
 prayer, and pouring out their blood on the altar of 
 sacrifice. The period of the Reformation was a pe 
 riod of intense, concentrated prayer. And the effi 
 cient power of all beneficent enterprise is a power 
 answering to the voice of prayer, going up from the 
 heart of the church. Here is a field into which all 
 may enter as reapers. The pathway to the throne 
 of grace is barred to none, and none are more ac 
 cepted laborers than those who, having nothing else 
 to bestow, pour out their strongest desires and their 
 richest affections upon the angel s "golden censer." 
 
 Here is the divine philosophy of Christian benefi 
 cence. The church lays down her offerings at the 
 cross, and sends up her prayer to him who died upon 
 it, and one angel descends into the Bethesda around 
 
24: THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 which earth s "impotent" are gathered, and anothei 
 " angel having the everlasting gospel," is seen flying 
 through the earth, " to every nation, and kindred, 
 and tongue, and people," and "great voices are heard, 
 saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the 
 kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall 
 reign for ever and ever." 
 
 Such are the leading elements which give charae 
 ter to beneficence as a Christian work. 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 
 
 EVERY man s charitable contributions should evi 
 dently be proportionate to the vastness and impor 
 tance of the objects, sought ; to the adequacy of the 
 instrumentality ; and to his pecuniary means and 
 facilities for applying that instrumentality. 
 
 FIRST GENERAL PROPOSITION. 
 
 EVERY MAN S CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS SHOULD 
 BE PROPORTIONATE TO THE VASTNESS AND IMPOR 
 TANCE OF THE OBJECTS SOUGHT IN BENEFICENCE. 
 
 What, then, is the object or end which Christian 
 Beneficence proposes to secure ? Comprehensively, 
 and in a word, it is, THE RECOVERY OF THE HUMAN 
 RACE FROM SIN TO HOLINESS. " The field is the 
 tvorld." Ascend some mount of vision and behold 
 the spectacle a world in ruins. Sin has entered 
 and strode across it, and death follows, mercilessly 
 sweeping its guilty generations into the unfathom 
 able abyss. 
 
 1. Look at Protestant Christendom, and what 
 do you see ? In the most favored lands, where the 
 governments are popular and the people free, where 
 science is cherished and the arts nourish, where civ 
 ilization smiles and the. word of God has free course, 
 how do ignorance of the divine law and defiance of 
 
2G THK MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 right join in unhallowed compact, and generate a 
 race of giants in wickedness ! How are such lands 
 covered over with houses of correction, and jails, 
 and dungeons, and filled with the insignia of deprav 
 ity the proofs as well as preventives of dishonesty, 
 treachery, and crime. How are all remedial and 
 sanative agencies despised or disregarded by multi 
 tudes of the people ; while cupidity gloats on gain 
 and ambition strives to supplant and trample on a 
 rival, and lust reeks in her dens of infamy, or saun 
 ters forth in the guise of innocence to capture and 
 destroy. 
 
 2. Inspect those portions of the earth s surface, 
 designated as Roman-catholic Christendom. They 
 are left to the occupancy of a religious system that 
 incarcerates in dead languages the prophets and 
 apostles, and dispenses its dry dogmas and uncom- 
 inanded ordinances where the Saviour has appoint 
 ed the nutritious bread of heaven and the healing 
 waters of life a system, in whose fiscal arrange 
 ments sin is set down as a marketable commodity, 
 by traffic in which, the guilty may purchase indul 
 gence to any amount, and with no penalty except 
 the prescribed pecuniary one, may escape from De 
 lilah s lap into Abraham s bosom wherein prayers 
 and pardons, births and burials, suspensions of the 
 divine law and its satisfaction, every thing, in short, 
 is paid for in gold, except the liberty to believe and 
 to teach the pure gospel wherein the living are laid 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 27 
 
 under tribute for the benefit of the dead, whom, not 
 content with assessing while in the flesh, it consigns 
 to purgatorial torments, release from which can be 
 procured only by purchased Pater-nosters and Ave 
 Marias : a system in which freedom is fettered, and 
 conscience is bound, and the right of private judg 
 ment has fallen among thieves, and the priest passes 
 by on the other side in which the Redeemer of the 
 world is displaced from his mediatorial office by the 
 elevation of his virgin mother ; and the holiness of 
 the poor canonized saint, is made transferable for 
 the benefit of the rich repenting sinner in which 
 " science and ignorance, refinement and barbarism, 
 wisdom and stupidity, taste and animalism, mistaken 
 zeal and malignant enmity, may sanctimoniously 
 pour out their virulence against the gospel, and cry, 
 Hosanna, while they go forth to shed the blood, 
 and wear out the patience of the saints of the Most 
 High." 
 
 And if in any thing the workings of this match 
 less machinery for deceiving the people and destroy 
 ing its opponents, is less wasteful than formerly of 
 human blood, as the means of giving prevalence to 
 its dead but gigantic formalism, it is because its for 
 mer plenary power has departed, and it is hemmed 
 in by moral and political influences which render 
 such means both impolitic and impracticable. It is 
 not, we believe, from any essential improvement in 
 the system. That is unchanged and unchangeable. 
 
28 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Reform in the spirit and principles of the church oi 
 Rome, would be its ruin. Let it but give an open 
 Bible to the people, with liberty to read and think for 
 themselves, and it bites the dust. Yet, to the bale 
 ful nurture of this "mother of harlots," more than 
 one hundred millions of the dwellers on the globe are 
 subject, displaying the full " effects of knowledge de 
 nied" of " a famine of the words of the Lord." 
 
 3. Next, turn your eye to the followers of the false 
 Prophet, of whom there are over one hundred mill 
 ions more. Here, instead of the Bible, you find the 
 Koran instead of the cross, the crescent. If the tu 
 telary genius of Mohammed complimented the patri 
 archs, it was to " beguile the Jew." If the Saviour 
 of the world was admitted as among the prophets, 
 it was as a lure to nominal Christians. And by hold 
 ing out to the faithful the certainty of sensual grati 
 fication, it was seen that a more easy conquest would 
 be secured over papists, pagans, and infidels. The 
 moral maxims from the Bible incorporated into the 
 system, were only sufficient to give plausibility to its 
 claims, and durability to the compact. Strong and 
 resolute in the ignorance which it inculcates, its 
 darkness has "strangled the travelling lamp" of 
 truth, and its pride beaten back even the precursors 
 of knowledge. To make disciples was its first ob 
 ject. Its second, was to make them iron-nerved and 
 ferocious The third, was to crush all whom it 
 could not lure or compel to the faith. Occupying 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 29 
 
 for centuries the fairest portions of the earth, it has 
 converted them, into a wilderness, and covered them 
 with moral desolation. Thanks to an overruling 
 Providence, Islamism is in its dotage. " The keepers 
 of the house tremble, and the strong men bow them 
 selves. The daughters of music are brought low ; 
 fears are in the way, and the grasshopper is a bur 
 den." 
 
 4. To complete the view of the field which benefi 
 cence seeks to occupy, cast the eye over lands shroud 
 ed in Paganism. Bereft of the idea of one all-perfect 
 and controlling divinity ; with no standard of truth 
 and right no guiding demonstration, leading to a 
 comparison of the false with the true, the malignant 
 with the good the appetites and passions rising 
 into supremacy and converting the enfeebled remains 
 of moral sense into auxiliaries of debasement, what 
 can Paganism be but one " mighty labor of human 
 depravity to confirm its dominion?" Vedas and 
 shasters, filled with interminable genealogies, and 
 transmigrations of the human soul, and of male and 
 female divinities, are its holy books, containing neither 
 precept nor example of moral excellence. Brahma, 
 Vishnoo, and Siva, the consecrated patrons of the 
 vices, are its chief deities. Vain theorists, skilful 
 impostors, and lascivious sorcerers are its only guides 
 and intercessors. Parricide, infanticide, sutteeism, 
 self-torture, laborious pilgrimages, and obscene rites 
 are its most approved forms of religious service. 
 
30 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Caste, with its impassable walls, fixing unalterably 
 the station of each individual, annihilates all motive 
 to improvement in the lower classes, and gives to 
 the higher free course in vice and crime, by securing 
 them against deposition or disgrace. " The entire 
 empire of polytheism," says Harris, " is a realm of 
 diabolical dominion. It assembles its votaries only 
 to blaspheme the name of God ; erects its temples 
 only to attract the lightning of the impending cloud 
 on their devoted heads ; calls them around its altars, 
 only that, in the very act of supposed atonement, 
 they may complete their guilt ; and gives them a 
 pretended revelation only that they should believe 
 a lie. " 
 
 And the worst feature of all is, that in the systems 
 of Paganism, there is no element of improvement, no 
 principle of progress, except in the road from bad to 
 worse. Time only deepens the gloom, and legitimizes 
 among them the processes of ruin. Even the moral 
 sentiments that here and there shone out of ancient 
 heathenism, like stars in deep night, and the skill 
 and taste apparent in the temples and divinities of 
 Greece and Rome, find no place in modern Paganism. 
 It has no recuperative, but only a degrading and de 
 structive power. 
 
 And does no Macedonian cry, coming up from such 
 an Aceldama, make its appeal to Christian hearts 
 for some more vigorous and sustained beneficent ef 
 fort ? Behold poor, abused, bleeding Africa, pillaged 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 3] 
 
 and plundered by lawless and inhuman marauders, 
 yielding up her tawny, barbarous sons to still more 
 barbarous strangers from Christian lands. See Asia, 
 " wholly given to idolatry," her miserable poor crushed 
 under the heel of an oppressive and polluted priest 
 hood Asia, the cradle of the race, torn by intestine 
 feuds and foreign aggressions, pouring her dense 
 population of wretched and guilty spirits into the 
 abyss of woe Asia, with no Bible and no Sabbath ; 
 with no Saviour but the Ganges and her countless 
 idols ; with no worship but that of demons, or rep 
 tiles, or monsters of vice ; and with no morality ex 
 cept what hastens the desolating work, and hurries 
 human souls to perdition how does she lift up her 
 imploring voice, and call on us for a deliverer. 
 
 " Oh, could I picture out the full effect 
 Of that soul-withering power, idolatry, 
 I d write a page which, whoso dared to read, 
 His eye, instead of tears, in crimson drops should bleed. 
 
 Now, it is the object of Christian beneficence to 
 recover this guilty and lost world to the service and 
 enjoyment of God. It is to purify the earth fiom 
 all its vile abominations, and clothe it in the loveli 
 ness of moral beauty. It is not her work to admire 
 the proportions of ancient architecture, or the state- 
 hness of modern palaces ; to imitate the great mas* 
 ters in statuary and painting, or to gather the results 
 of modern science ; it is not to adorn the galleries of 
 ra t, or enrich the collections of antique curiosities ; 
 
32 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 not to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, or muse 
 on the remains of ancient grandeur, laudable as all 
 this may be ; but it is her work to found hospitals, 
 open dispensaries, and establish asylums, wherein 
 the poor may be cared for, the sick visited, the blind 
 be made to see, the deaf to hear, and the dumb to 
 speak. For such beneficent institutions, there was 
 no place among all the public edifices, or structures, 
 or organizations of ancient heathenism, as for them 
 there was no name in all their languages. We might 
 say, it is the MISSION OF THE CHURCH to raise up 
 debased and brutalized mind, oppressed and degraded 
 almost to extinguishment, and impart to it vigor and 
 fertility ; to give exercise to the kindlier sympathies 
 and more elevated sentiments of the heart, and to 
 restore liberty and supremacy to conscience. She 
 aims to bury every tomahawk, to " beat swords into 
 ploughshares and spears into pruning- hooks," to bear 
 the olive-branch into all climes, plant the tree of 
 peace in every soil, and bring wandering, warlike 
 tribes into a social, civil, and religious position, sur 
 passing that of the happiest and most prosperous 
 community on the globe. What objects of temporal 
 good are comparable with these ? What career more 
 like the earthly mission of Him who went about 
 doing good ? 
 
 But beneficence has a still higher object than to 
 bless men in this life. She carries her projects for 
 consummation, across the boundary of time, into the 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 33 
 
 vast and indescribable eternity beyond. In the ac 
 complishment of her design, she seeks to open a 
 moral Bethesda in every land, and to make the Bible, 
 God s directory to heaven, the book of the world ; to 
 "preach the gospel to every creature," and to make 
 it " the power of God unto salvation" in every heart. 
 She aims to break the frightful coalition of ignorance 
 and crime, formed by " the prince of the power of 
 the air," and to transfer the wretched captives from 
 the power of Satan unto God. She seeks to tear 
 down the funeral pile of the miserably devoted wid 
 ow, and to give her, in her affliction, to the benign 
 influences of the heavenly Comforter ; to detach from 
 the blood-stained car of Juggernaut its murderous 
 human propellers, to raise up from before its ponder 
 ous wheels the deluded human victims, and to send 
 them to the shrine of a pure worship, and to the al 
 tar of the living God. She enters the precincts of 
 the demon-temples, surveys the abominable, soul-de 
 stroying rites, weeps over the appalling spectacle, 
 and wrests from " the ruler of the darkness of this 
 world" the prostrate human spirits there trampled 
 into the dust. She points them to the cross of Christ, 
 and tells them that " God so loved the world, that 
 he gave, his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 Ileveth in him, might not perish, but have everlast 
 ing life." She stands by the Ganges, and assures 
 the suicidal worshippers that the path to heaven is 
 not through its turbid stream, opens to them Jesus 
 
 Miw.ofChuixh. 15 
 
34 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 as " the way," and bathes them in the pure waters of 
 the river of life. Like a visitant from the bosom of 
 love, she sits by the shrines of Brahma, Vishnoo, and 
 Siva, and proclaims to the millions of eager votaries, 
 that these " cannot answer, and save them out oi 
 trouble." She would bear the cross into the very 
 heart of Mohammedan imposture, and plant it with 
 in the grand mosque at Mecca, sprinkling the multi 
 tudinous mass of deluded pilgrims with the blood 
 which " cleanseth from all sin." She would poui 
 the light of a pure Christianity upon the darkened 
 domains of Romanism, and introduce "the power o) 
 godliness" to a region wherein is found little save 
 its gorgeous but lifeless forms. She would dispel the 
 dark and inveterate disbelief of the Jews, scattered 
 and peeled and oppressed, and lead them, through 
 their own prophets, to the acknowledgment of Jesus 
 as the Messiah, and unite all the dwellers on the 
 earth under his tranquil and happy reign. 
 
 Arid is it nothing to you, that a mission is pro 
 posed for the accomplishment of such an object ? 
 Are there found in suph forms and fruits of sin any 
 sufficient remedial agencies to justify apathy arid in 
 action ? And is it thus you would shield yourself 
 from the urgency of appeal which the case presents, 
 and baffle the beneficent design of Imraanuel in giv 
 ing his life a ransom for the world ? Can you think 
 that pollution is as good as purity ; that idolatry is as 
 likely to lead to heaven as the service of God ; that 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 35 
 
 blasphemy and defiance of divine command are as 
 efficacious for salvation as faith in Jesus ? Will the 
 eternal law of truth and rectitude be repealed, in 
 consideration of the prevalence of error, imposture, 
 and crime? ill ablutions in the Ganges, or the 
 declaration of pardon by a darkened and ambitious 
 priesthood, make their robes white, as if washed in. 
 the blood of the Lamb ? Will the flames of suttee- 
 ism purify the guilty soul like the sprinkling of the 
 clear waters of the gospel ? Do the rumblings oi 
 Juggernaut s bloody car make sweet music in the 
 ear of God, like the prayer and praise of redeemed 
 spirits, uttering their thanksgiving and love? Oh, 
 speak it not think it not. " Without faith it is 
 impossible to please God." "But how shall they 
 believe on Him of whom they have not heard ? And 
 how shall they hear, without a preacher ? And how 
 shall they preach, except they be sent ?" Such is 
 the resistless logic of the apostle, which divinely de 
 monstrates the necessity of a mission to the ignorant 
 and guilty in every land ; and which proclaims the 
 gospel as the sovereign balm for all wounded spirits 
 the grand panacea for all human ills the " pharos 
 of a benighted vy-orld." 
 
 To carry this gospel to the guilty and miserable 
 of earth s teeming population, is the appropriate 
 MISSION OF THE CHURCH. It is to tell them of the 
 amplitude of God s love to man, arid raise them to 
 him by the efficacy of that love. It is to efface the 
 
36 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 foul blot of sin from the polluted soul of man, to re 
 store primeval paradise to earth s outcast inhabitants, 
 to people heaven with redeemed and blissful dwellers, 
 and to give back to God his revolted, dismembered 
 kingdom, in sweet and peaceful subjection. 
 
 How lofty is this aim ! How. sublime the end ! 
 It is in agreement with the end of Jehovah in creat 
 ing the race. It is promotive of the object for which 
 Christ died. It is included in the grand sweep of 
 God s providential plan for the government of the 
 world. It is identical with the main design of Heav 
 en in the constitution of the church, and the continu 
 ance of redeemed ones for a time, as pilgrims on the 
 earth. All holy motives converge to this one point, 
 the glory of God in the salvation of men. All moral 
 arguments, in their loftiest bearings, strengthen and 
 confirm this. All spiritual appliances, in their ulti 
 mate reference and highest utility, minister to this 
 one comprehensive and sublime end, the healing of 
 the nations by the gospel of Christ, " to the praise 
 and glory of Gsd s grace." Nor will the period ar 
 rive when it can be said of the work, " it is finished," 
 
 till 
 
 " The dwellers in the vales, and on the rocks 
 Shout to each other, and the mountain-tops 
 From distant mountains catch the flying joy 
 Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
 Earth rolls the rapturous liosanna round." 
 
 Now, if we have succeeded in impressing the read 
 er with the vastness and importance of the objects 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 37 
 
 of Christian beneficence, he has probably been led 
 to the following conclusion : if there is an adequate 
 instrumentality for the accomplishment of this object, 
 tlie question of expense is worthy to be considered 
 only so far as to ascertain whether it is within the 
 limits of possibility to meet that expense. He will 
 say, the cost is nothing in comparison with the end 
 to be gained. If the work is practicable, it cannot 
 cost too much. He feels that it is paltry meanness, 
 w r ith such an object in view, to haggle about dollars 
 and cents ; that it is treason against humanity to 
 withhold giving, where such motives urge to liber 
 ality. He sees that he may never have taken a just 
 view of his own duty and responsibility in this mat 
 ter, and he resolves that his rate of benevolent contri 
 bution, in time to come, shall be more proportionate 
 to the value and importance of the end sought in 
 beneficence. And he also determines that what is 
 done, should be done quickly. " Roma deliberat, 
 Saguntum perit" While the church deliberates, the 
 heathen perish. 
 
 SECOND GENERAL PROPOSITION. 
 EVERY MAN S CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS SHOULD 
 
 BE PROPORTIONATE TO THE ADEQUACY OF THE INSTRU 
 MENTALITY TO BE APPLIED. 
 
 The fallen world what can raise it up from its 
 revolted and degenerate state, and give it back to 
 God redeemed, and clothed in its primeval loveliness 
 
38 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and beauty ? What can make atonement for sin, 
 and give satisfaction to the dishonored law of God, 
 and repair the ruin wrought ? What can penetrate 
 the obdurate heart of man, and turn its selfishness 
 into benevolence, and impel the tide oT its sympa 
 thies, ever tending inward to the contracted centre, 
 to flow outward to the circumference and upward 
 towards its Maker ? Is there an adequate redeem 
 ing power ? Are there sufficient remedial agencies 
 for a work so vast, so momentous ? These are ques 
 tions which press upon the spirit of every earnest 
 inquirer concerning the means of man s redemption, 
 and of the mission of the church to the world. 
 
 The great desideratum with Archimedes, for mov 
 ing the world, was a place whereon to stand. This 
 was his necessity. A similar necessity meets the 
 Christian philanthropist in the scheme for bringing 
 back the revolted world into the sunlight and favor 
 of heaven. The philosopher could obtain no such 
 standpoint. The Christian can. The one could 
 find no place outside of, or above the world which 
 he wished to move. The other takes his stand on 
 the Gospel of Christ, which is "from heaven" and 
 not " of men." This gives him a position and a 
 powei fully adequate to his most enlarged and com 
 prehensive benevolence. All other expedients for 
 the conversion of the world are cumbered by the 
 same unremovable difficulty which met the Syia- 
 cusan philosopher 
 
FROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 39 
 
 Within the most costly temples of Paganism, no 
 divine light illumines the benighted worshippers, 
 and no celestial fire warms their devotion into life. 
 In the very act of giving " the fruit of the body for 
 the sin of the soul," they but enhance the evil which 
 they would remove. Notwithstanding the smoke of 
 their ten thousand sacrifices, ascending to blacken the 
 heavens they would appease, the sting of conscience 
 rankles in their guilty bosoms still. In all these 
 things, "they feed on ashes." "Pass over the isles 
 of Chittim and see, send unto Kedar and consider dili 
 gently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a 
 nation changed their gods, which are no gods ?" 
 
 Nor is there more hope in the alleged recuperative 
 power of reason, and the progress of science. For 
 nearly six thousand years, there have been promul- 
 gators of the doctrine of human perfectibility, and 
 dreamers of such a result through the devices of rea- 
 eon and the advance of science. And successive gen 
 erations have been working out demonstrations of the 
 futility of the doctrine, as decisive as they are hu 
 miliating. Human reason has no such recovering 
 moral energy. It can never relieve itself from the 
 dominancy of the passions, or rise from its subjection 
 to the perverse will. It may intimate, in some 
 things, the right, the true, and the good ; but it can 
 not compel to their observance. Reason and science 
 may polish the exterior into a degree of comeliness 
 and decency, but they cannot successfully resist the 
 
40 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 on- workings of the law of sin. They cannot remove 
 from the soul its appalling sense of guilt. They can 
 not lead man to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
 and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
 present world." See their boasted triumphs in the 
 reign of terror which swept across France at the 
 close of the last century, deluging the land with 
 blood, and leaving it in a state which forced from 
 the republic the humbling confession, that their 
 " children are without any idea of divinity, with 
 out any notion of what is just or unjust." 
 
 And what are the claims alleged in favor of civil 
 ization as a remedial agency ? It should be a suffi 
 cient answer to say, that civilization contemplates 
 man only as an inhabitant of this terrestrial globe, 
 and provides not for his weal beyond. And its most 
 beneficent instrumentality is composed of the imple 
 ments of agriculture, and of the mechanic arts. It 
 sends to the savage tribes of the earth, as its best 
 boon, the plough, the spindle, and the loom, whereby 
 they may clothe themselves " in purple and fine linen, 
 and fare sumptuously every day ;" but it leaves the 
 soul a prey to remorse, and under the frown of heav 
 en. It excites no^hope of future good ; awakens no 
 gratitude to the Father of mercies ; points to no 
 divine, atoning work ; tells of no redeeming love, 
 through which is seen, 
 
 "Up earth s dark glade, 
 The gate of heaven unclose." 
 
rROtOHTION IN BENEFICENCE. 4} 
 
 The Bible, the Sabbath, and the cross constitute no 
 elements of beneficent power, in all its boasted in 
 strumentality. In its happiest influences, it leaves 
 man as it finds him, guilty and miserable, in darkness 
 and distress, where he most needs light and relief. 
 
 Nor can there be more reliance upon the enact 
 ment of civil law. This is only a defensive expedi 
 ent, adopted by communities to prevent such overt 
 crimes as are injurious to the social compact. But 
 in preventing the criminal act, can it dictate to the 
 heart, and sway a resistless sceptre over its stormy 
 passions, and hush its wild discord into harmony and 
 peace ? Can it carry the force of truth into the dark 
 caverns of the soul, combating and conquering ini 
 quity, dethroning selfishness, purging away lust, cast 
 ing out revenge, and turning the plottings of villany 
 into plans of benevolence ? Can it restore to the 
 conscience its legitimate supremacy, and cast down 
 pride, and introduce love and mercy and meekness ? 
 Can it break up "the fallow ground," and "scatter 
 the good seed," and fructify the barren soil, and 
 cause it to bring forth a rich harvest unto God ? 
 "Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook; or 
 bore his jaw through with a thorn? Law is a rule, 
 not a remedy. Its language to the guilty is of pun- 
 isliment, and not of pardon. " The letter killeth." 
 It is the Spirit that giveth life. It is not the twelve 
 tables and the Justinian code that man needs, but tha 
 four gospels and the twenty-one epistles. 
 
42 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Literature and its refinements are no more ade 
 quate to the ends of Christian beneficence, than is 
 civilization or law. If we look to the periods of an 
 tiquity in which the arts were carried to the highest 
 degree of refinement, and the muses were most suc 
 cessfully wooed ; if we take our stand at Athens, tho 
 eye of ancient Greece, and muse on the banks of the 
 Ilyssus with Socrates, or sit in the academy with 
 Plato, or walk in the grove with the Stagyrite ; or 
 if we ascend Parnassus to Apollo and the muses, or 
 sit by the Castalian fount, what do we see and hear ? 
 Poetry, the enchanting priestess of Nature, by her 
 creative genius originating a popular, pantheistic my 
 thology, breathing an ideal divinity into inanimate 
 objects ; singing of Elysian fields, and delighting and 
 deluding the people by allegory, fable, and fiction 
 Sculpture, setting forth her matchless skill in the 
 works of a Phidias and Praxiteles, to maintain, amid 
 the perfection of physical development by gymnas 
 tic exercises, the endangered preeminence of the 
 gods Eloquence, with ease, with grace, with action, 
 " pouring the persuasive strain," and stirring the 
 soul to deeds of daring and of blood and "Philos 
 ophy, flitting across the night of Paganism like the 
 lantern-fly of the tropics, a light unto herself, but 
 alas, no more than an ornament of the surrounding 
 darkness." 
 
 In surveying the wide field of ancient literature, 
 the Christian eye scarcely rests upon one spot of 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 43 
 
 moral greenness and beauty. Rich in intellectual 
 productions, abounding in the fruits of taste, acute 
 in metaphysical discrimination, and sparkling some 
 times with admirable moral precepts, the mass of 
 ancient literature is nevertheless, in its moral influ 
 ences, corrupt and corrupting. 
 
 Nor has the literature of modern times, when di 
 vorced from Christianity, accomplished any thing 
 more beneficent for the world. The offspring of 
 scepticism and sensuality, baptized by the priests of 
 mammon, it has sold itself as the servile minister of 
 selfishness, the base pander to lust, to pride and 
 power. It is the arsenal of evil, rather than an 
 auxiliary of good to mankind. The unsanctified lit 
 erature, the prostituted press of the nineteenth cen 
 tury opposes one of the greatest obstructive forces 
 to the progress of Christianity. 
 
 Almost equally imbecile has a corrupted Christi 
 anity been found, in the work of repairing the ruin 
 of sin. When its doctrines are adulterated by the 
 subtleties of the schoolmen, and its morality is dis 
 placed by the refinements of Jesuitical expediency ; 
 when the church, instead of transporting the word 
 of God to the benighted abroad, locks it up in clois 
 ters at home, practically teaching salvation through 
 the efficacy of sacraments, rather than by the power 
 of the cross ; when priestcraft joins unholy alliance 
 with kingcraft to pervert the pure gospel into an en 
 gine of state, fettering freedom and forging chains for 
 
44 THE MISSION OF THE UlOJRCH. 
 
 conscience ; when pride and power put on the sacer 
 dotal garb, and ambition strides into the metropoli 
 tan chair, and wicked men lord it over God s heri 
 tage, and shut up the fountains of living waters from 
 the thirsty people, and give the hungry children s 
 bread to dogs then Christianity is shorn of its 
 mighty power, and grinds in the prison-house of its 
 enemies. Such dreadful perversion blots out the 
 sunlight of heaven, and leaves men to walk in dark 
 ness. It intercepts them in their approach to the 
 inner court and the mercy-seat, and leaves them to 
 wander around their heavenly Father s house as 
 orphans or criminals. It bolts the windows of heav 
 en, pushes back the hand reached down for human 
 deliverance, and turns out of its appointed channels 
 the current of divine life gushing forth for the cleans 
 ing of human souls. Oh, how has such corruption 
 made the church, instead of light and life and salva 
 tion, a kind of pestilence and plague, the occasion of 
 a more malignant development of the general dis 
 ease, rather than of its cure ! " If the light that is 
 in" her "be darkness, how great is that darkness !" 
 From all such instrumentality, Christian benefi 
 cence studiously withholds herself. Instead of rely 
 ing upon such means, it is her appropriate work to 
 assail them, and by rectifying reason, sanctifying gen 
 ius and taste, and leading men to the pure foun 
 tains of divine science, to transfer them from the 
 heathen to the Christian side of the conflict. For 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 45 
 
 this she levies no armies, except those bearing the 
 weapons of a spiritual warfare. She sends out no 
 fleets, save those under commission from the great 
 King. She lays no siege but for the bombardment 
 of the strongholds of principalities and powers, and 
 to pour forth the "junipers of hot conviction" into 
 the ancient battlements of spiritual wickedness in 
 high places. She has no gaudy trappings, no glit 
 tering pageantry, no bewitching mysticism for the 
 vain-glorious and imaginative. She comes to us with 
 the Gospel of Jesus. The hopes of the race are sus 
 pended on the simple but powerful doctrine of the 
 cross, rendered effectual by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 See now its operation. It lays its account directly 
 with the heart, and in the attire of simple truth, 
 seizes the conscience, piercing the innermost soul 
 with the conviction of sin, and pointing the guilt- 
 stricken sinner to the cross of Christ. Subduing the 
 heart, its first conquest gives the pledge of victory in 
 all its subsequent encounters. It unites the believer 
 through a living faith to a divine Redeemer, by whom 
 he is borne up into the dazzling visions of the spirit 
 ual world, and permitted to look upon glories that 
 eclipse the brightness of all earthly splendor. It 
 presents to him the great overmastering truth, that 
 " God is love," and illustrates it to him by the cross. 
 " Herein is love." 
 
 " God so loved the world, that he gave his only be 
 gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 
46 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." "What words 
 are those you read ? What sounds are those I heard ? 
 Let me hear those words again," exclaims a poor 
 South Sea islander, as the missionary Nott is read 
 ing this passage from the gospel of John. " Is that 
 true? Can that be true? God loved the world 
 when the world did not love him ! Can that be 
 true ?" And when assured that it is true, with a 
 heart too full for utterance, he retires to meditate on 
 the amazing love of God, which has reached and 
 subdued his soul. A wretched pilgrim on the coast 
 of Malabar inquires of his priests how he can make 
 atonement for his sins, and is directed to drive iron 
 spikes through his sandals, and walk four hundred 
 and eighty miles. While he reposes under a shady 
 tree, and waits for healing and strength, as from 
 the loss of blood he is often compelled to do, the 
 herald of the gospel comes forth, and preaches to 
 him from the words, " The blood of Jesus Christ 
 cleanseth us from all sin." The victim of Pagan 
 delusion rises from the ground, throws oil his tortur 
 ing sandals, and crying out, " This is what I want," 
 becomes a living witness of the power of the truth 
 to which he listened. " That is what I want, that is 
 what I want" exclaimed a poor Hindoo, on hearing 
 that the Son of man came to seek and to save that 
 which was lost." And this is what the heathen 
 want what all men want. It is light in darkness, 
 hope in despair, life in death. 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 47 
 
 And this is just the instrumentality which heaven 
 has provided. To the polluted, the gospel opens a 
 fountain of cleansing waters. To the condemned, 
 it -presents a forgiving God. To the thirsty, it is a 
 river of life. To the hungry, it is the bread of heav 
 en. The weary it lays in sweet repose on the bosom 
 of a loving Saviour. The fallen heir of glory it 
 makes a king and a priest unto God. It illumines 
 the darkened understanding. It rouses the slumber 
 ing conscience. It subdues the rebellious will. It 
 descends into the affections, and like the angel- visit 
 ant at Bethesda, imparts a purifying and healing 
 power, and recovers the whole man. 
 
 See, too, the harmony in the operations of this in 
 strumentality, by principles seemingly paradoxical. 
 The doctrine of man s apostasy is most impressively 
 taught by the means appointed for his recovery. 
 The soul is impressed with a sense of its ruin by 
 that which takes from it the deep gloom of despair. 
 Provision is made for the pardon of sin in a way 
 which demonstrates that it cannot be palliated. The 
 gospel provides for moral purity by a transaction 
 which deepens the sense of moral pollution, and dis 
 pels the terrors of guilt by a fact that proclaims the 
 turpitude of transgression. It awakens the keenest 
 sensibility to the claims of duty by that which makes 
 propitiation for the sin of neglected duty. It recti 
 fies reason and subdues the will by a process which 
 elevates the moral sentiments. It nurtures zea 
 
48 THE. MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 without making zealots, and leads to the contem 
 plation of mysteries, yet has no tendency to make 
 mystics. It fosters alike reflection and action, joins 
 faith and charity, teaches dependence and respon 
 sibility, harmonizes the discordant elements of our 
 nature, and turns all our energies into the channel 
 of sweet obedience and love. It unites sublimity 
 with simplicity, gives high moral dignity to the 
 smallest act of obedience, and chronicles for the ad 
 miration of the world the donation of " two mites " 
 as the testimonial of love. Prudent, it is neither 
 temporizing nor timid ; cautious, it is nevertheless 
 decisive and energetic ; " sorrowful, yet always re 
 joicing ; as having nothing, yet possessing all things." 
 Thus radically and thoroughly, and almost paradoxi 
 cally, does the gospel work in the heart of the indi 
 vidual, preparing its way to permeate and pervade 
 society. 
 
 Going forth into the icoj ld, the gospel knows no 
 truce with error, no compromise with sin, no compact 
 with artifice, no resort to stratagem. Openly and 
 boldly it lays the axe at the root of every evil tree, 
 and destroys its fruit, not by clipping oil the twigs, 
 but by hewing down the trunk. It dries up the 
 streams of human woe, not by artificial processes 
 of heating the air, but by closing up the fountains. 
 And it gives good guarantee of its effectual working 
 by the class among whom it begins. "To the poor 
 the gospel is preached ;" and from this class it works 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 49 
 
 upward through all the intermediate strata of society 
 to the highest. 
 
 The gospel comes to man as a benefactor in his 
 social relations. Prescribing his duties, it utters its 
 severest anathemas against those who rudely trench 
 upon the rights and privileges, or overleap the boun 
 daries of the social state. It raises woman from ser 
 vile, almost soulless barbarism, to civilized and Chris 
 tian refinement, and leads her, as among the Cafires, 
 to regard the missionary as " the shield of woman," 
 and to consider his approach, as the female savages 
 of New England did that of Eliot, the "advent of 
 an angel." It nurses feeble infancy, and trains th< 
 opening mind to virtue and happiness. It extends 
 its protecting arm to infirm old age, and adminis 
 ters rebuke to the " child " that demeaneth himself 
 " proudly against the ancients." All " the lesser 
 charities that soothe, and cheer, and bless," the do 
 mestic virtues, the sacred endearments which consti 
 tute the bliss and charm of social life, all find their 
 source in the gospel of Christ. 
 
 With equal efficiency and success, does the Chris 
 tian religion operate upon the civil condition of man. 
 By creating a sense of individual responsibility, it 
 awakens a desire for personal freedom ; and through 
 the restraint which it imposes, by motives drawn from 
 higher than human enactments, it makes that free 
 dom safe and salutary. It presents the Bible as the 
 great statute book of heaven for men, and creates 
 
 Miss, of Church. 1 G 
 
50 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 loyal subjects, by securing just rulers and the enact 
 ment of just laws. It maintains incessant warfare 
 with pride and ambition and false honor, the three 
 grand procurers of barbarism, brutality, and blood 
 shed. It sets forth the law of equity, humility, and 
 love as the rule of international commerce, and 
 binds kings as well as subjects by the principles of 
 individual responsibility and honesty. Under the in 
 fluence of the gospel, oppression shall cease from the 
 earth. The clarion of war shall no more call hostile 
 armies to the field of sanguinary conflict. The hero 
 shall be stripped of the guise of false glory, in which 
 men 
 
 " Smile assent at giant crime, 
 And call the darkest deeds sublime;" 
 
 and he only whose works of love and mercy procure 
 for him the approval of heaven, shall receive the 
 applause of men. A new standard of glory will 
 Christianity present to the nations of the earth, arid 
 challenge kings and potentates to a new style of 
 achievement. To do good and not evil, to save man 
 and not destroy him, will characterize that day when 
 love shall smile in every eye, and peace shall dwell 
 in every bosom, and earth shall become a type and 
 foretaste of heaven. 
 
 The auspicious dawn of such a day already gilds 
 the eastern horizon. What has swept idolatry with 
 its diabolical abominations from the Tahitian, Sand 
 wich, and Society Islands, and from nearly a huti- 
 
PROPORTION IN BEISEFICENCE. 51 
 
 dred adjacent and other islands of the sea, and is 
 leading to its downfall in India ? The Gospel. What 
 has brought nearly half a million of the worshippers 
 of stocks and stones to the knowledge of the true 
 God, and gathered half as many more youthful and 
 adult pupils into schools in the process of intellect 
 ual and moral improvement? The Gospel. Behold 
 a JNTew Zealand chiqftain, the veteran warrior of 
 many battles, rising in the midst of a group of New 
 Zealand children assembled by their native teachers 
 for examination in the presence of their parents 
 Hear him exclaim with irrepressible emotion, " Let 
 me speak ; I must speak. that I had known that 
 the gospel was coming ! that I had known that 
 these blessings were in store for us ! Then I should 
 have saved my children, and they would have been 
 among this happy group, repeating these precious 
 truths ; but alas, I destroyed them all, and now I 
 have not one left." Then bursting into tears, and 
 cursing the gods which they had formerly worship 
 ped, he continues, " It was you that infused this sav 
 age disposition into us ; and now I shall die childless, 
 although I have been the father of nineteen children. 
 that some one had seized my murderous hand, and 
 told me the Gospel is coming to our shores." What 
 has wrought this change ? The Gospel. What has 
 enabled the missionary to exclaim of two hundred 
 thousand converts gathered into more than a thousand 
 Christian churches, as Paul did of the Ephesians, " Ye 
 
52 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the 
 Lord ?" The Gospel. What has borne up before the 
 throne that bright throng of ransomed ones. " out of all 
 nations and kindreds and people and tongues," from 
 South Africa, from Eastern Asia, from Greenland, 
 from the savage tribes of North America ; and from 
 the islands of the sea ; and has put a new song into 
 their mouth, " Salvation to our God which sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb?" The Gospel 
 proclaimed by the missionary. Oh, it is this pre 
 cious doctrine, Christ and him crucified, that shall 
 be the instrument of bringing down out of heaven 
 the new Jerusalem from God, " which shall have no 
 need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it ; 
 for the glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb 
 shall be the light thereof." It is by this only, that 
 guilt is cancelled and sin taken away, the polluted 
 cleansed, the outcast called home, and the miserable 
 filled with " the peace of God " and "the comfort of 
 love." Who can compute the results of such an 
 instrumentality ? They are measureless as the bliss 
 of heaven, endless as the duration of God. Who 
 can estimate the importance of such instrumental 
 ity? It is wise as the councils of heaven, "precious 
 as the blood of Christ," necessary as the salvation 
 of the soul, and commensurate with the most wide 
 spread and disastrous consequences of sin. 
 
 But can this instrumental agency prevail over all 
 the mighty and malignant foes which set themselves 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 53 
 
 against it ? The trial has been met, the experiment 
 made. Benevolence has prevailed over selfishness, 
 love over hate. God over man. The church has sur 
 vived, and not only so, but she has flourished in her 
 bitterest persecutions. Fire cannot burn her, water 
 cannot drown her, nor the "wild beasts out of the 
 wood devour her. Two converts are born, for 
 every one that is burnt. " The blood of the mar 
 tyrs is the seed of the church." The fires burnish 
 her, and the waters purify her. Dangers enlarge 
 her, and the rack emancipates her. Her opposers 
 help her on, and her foes build her up. The fulmi- 
 nations of kings and cardinals against her hasten 
 the accomplishment of the purposes of the King ot 
 kings in her favor. From temporary defeat, she 
 rises with renewed energy for permanent triumph. 
 Every external pressure she throws off by the op 
 eration of an internal divine power. Decrees arid 
 bolts and bars and fire and faggots hinder not her 
 progress. Bonds and tortures and terrors and death 
 prevent not her increase. Yea, in all these, and by 
 means of these, she triumphs. What would destroy 
 other things, developes the mighty power of the gos 
 pel. What would put back other causes, advances 
 this. Under those circumstances in which other 
 organizations would perish, the church prevails. 
 
 Do you ask how these wonders are to be accounted 
 for ? By the inherent divine power, by the elements 
 of increase and of immortality residing in the Gospel 
 
54 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of Jesus. The covenant of the church, in carrying 
 out its grand beneficent work of converting the world, 
 is with her almighty Head, who sits above the storms, 
 and infuses his own insuppressible and indestructible 
 spirit of energy into the hearts of all his followers. 
 " The Lord her God in the midst of her is mighty." 
 " The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes 
 of all nations," therefore, " all the ends of the earth 
 shall see the salvation of our God." Is not this an 
 instrumentality adequate to the most sublime and 
 comprehensive benevolence of the church? Is it not 
 adapted to every want of man, in every clime and 
 every condition ? It is the "power of God." What 
 can resist it ? It is " the wisdom cf God." What 
 can counterwork it ? It involves the highest moral 
 energies, the purest moral influences, and the wisest 
 adaptation of moral means to their ends. It is heav 
 en s matchless instrumentality for accomplishing 
 heaven s own most gigantic purposes of love. 
 
 See now, how this instrumentality harmonizes 
 with the ends sought in beneficence. Are they vast ? 
 It is commensurate in its achieving power with their 
 mightiest and most far-reaching aspirations. Are 
 they important ? It is equal in efficiency to the ac 
 complishment of their weightiest results. The im 
 mortal soul, with its expanding capacities for happi 
 ness or misery, may be safely trusted to its redeeming 
 efficacy. It has borne millions of suc;h souls from the 
 pollutions and miseries of earth, to bask in the sun- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 55 
 
 light and "bliss of heaven, clothing them in robes of 
 spotless purity, and placing on their heads crowns of 
 fadeless glory. Millions more, now on the earth, it 
 is bearing on to the same glorious consummation. 
 And of the countless spirits yet to pass through this 
 world of sin and sorrow, not one, to whom its mighty 
 power may be applied, shall fail to reach that " bet 
 ter land," where faith passes into bright fruition, and 
 hope melts away into the fulness of inexpressible 
 bliss, and love achieves her seraphic heights and 
 burns with more than seraphic fire. 
 
 " Rise, kindling with the orient beam ; 
 Let Calvary s hill inspire the theme ! 
 
 Unfold the garments rolled in blood. 
 touch the soul, touch all her chords 
 With all the omnipotence of words, 
 
 And point the way to heaven to God." 
 
 THIRD GENERAL PROPOSITION. 
 EVERY MAN S CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS SHOULD 
 
 BE PROPORTIONATE TO HIS PECUNIARY MEANS AND FA 
 CILITIES FOR, APPLYING THE INSTRUMENTALITY. 
 
 This is the divinely established rule of proportion. 
 " According to the ability that God giveth." " As 
 God hath prospered you." " Every man according 
 to his several ability." In these and similar passa 
 ges of the word of God, it is implied that every one 
 is able to do something, and it is affirmed that each 
 one should do according to that ability. The only 
 question on which there can be doubt or difficulty is, 
 
56 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 What is each man s ability? In determining this 
 question, we shall be assisted by the three following 
 references. 
 
 1 . By reference to the beneficence of the Jewish 
 church. There is a tendency to make the benefi 
 cent economy of the former dispensation a directory 
 in the Christian dispensation ; and most men feel 
 that by employing a tenth of their income for char 
 itable purposes, they are meeting the requirement of 
 the Mosaic law, and consequently fully discharging 
 their duty. But there are two errors in such an 
 hypothesis. One is in supposing the proportion re 
 quired by the Jewish system to be only a tenth ; and 
 the other in assuming that the measure of liberality 
 which answered the law of Moses, equally harmo 
 nizes with the law of Christ. 
 
 After their deliverance from Egypt, the first-born of 
 every creature was required to be consecrated to tlio 
 Lord, in memory of that signal event. The first 
 born child belonged to the Lord, and was to be re 
 deemed at the age of one month, by a price paid to 
 the priest. Such beasts as it was not lawful to oiler 
 in sacrifice, as horses and camels, might be redeemed 
 or exchanged for such as were lawful to be offered, 
 as sheep or oxen. The first-born of all clean beasts 
 were to be sacrificed, and their flesh given to the 
 priest. At the harvest and vintage, the first-fruits 
 of the fields, the corn and wine and oil, were to be 
 brought to the priest, and the gleanings and the 
 
PROPORTION IX BENEFICENCE. 57 
 
 corners of the fields were to be left for the poor. 
 Also the first-fruits of the wool when the sheep were 
 shorn, of the wheat when threshed, of the dough 
 when kneaded, and of the bread when baked, were 
 to be offered before the Lord. Of fruit-trees, they 
 were allowed to gather nothing for themselves, until 
 after the fourth bearing year. All fruit till this 
 period was considered sacred to the Lord, and was 
 given to the poor, as was also the spontaneous fruit 
 of the fields every seventh year. In addition to these, 
 one tenth was paid to the Levites, as a remuneration 
 for their services to the church and nation; and 
 after this, what remained was again assessed, and 
 another tenth was expended in the feasts and sacri 
 fices of the temple, and for the poor. At their 
 feasts, besides the Levites, widows, orphans, stran 
 gers, and the poor of every description, were to be 
 invited. And at the close of every third year, that 
 there might be no evasion of the law, all were re 
 quired to make solemn asseveration before the Lord, 
 that the whole of this second tithe had been applied 
 to the prescribed objects. Lev. 27 : 30-34; Deut. 
 12:17,18; 14:22-29; 26:12-15. 
 
 And what was the chief point of instruction which 
 Jehovah designed to impress- upon his people by such 
 an admirably arranged system of beneficence ? That 
 ho was the proprietor of their fields, their flocks, and 
 their herds, and that they were dependent on him 
 for sunshine and rain, for seed-time and harvest 
 
58 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 How expressively, then, does the patriarchal and 
 Mosaic doctrine of tithes carry along with it the 
 Christian idea of steicarchliip. How suited to meet 
 and to counteract the tendencies of the human heart 
 to covet ousness. It should also be remembered, that 
 this proportion, large as it is, was the minimum meas 
 ure of Jewish liberality, the least which their system 
 allowed ; while the attractive and exciting circum 
 stances under which they presented their tithes and 
 offerings, and the influence of the temple service, 
 especially of their public festivals, led them often 
 greatly to exceed the rule. 
 
 But there were peculiar exigencies in the history 
 of the Jewish church, which illustrate the spirit of 
 their beneficence even better than the annual im 
 posts levied upon them by the law of Moses. The 
 liberality of the Jews in the construction of the tab 
 ernacle, and the erection of the temple, has seldom 
 been equalled in the Christian church, and perhaps 
 never surpassed. Just emerging from the oppressive 
 bondage in Egypt, and destined to be wanderers for 
 forty years in the wilderness, we should hardly have 
 expected them to be called on to make large offerings 
 for any purpose. Yet scarcely were they free from 
 their pursuers, ere the word of the Lord came to 
 Moses, saying, " Speak unto the children of Israel, 
 that they bring me an offering : of every man that 
 giveth it willingly with his heart, ye shall take rny 
 ofLering. And this is the offering that ye shall take of 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. f j 
 
 them ; gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and pur 
 ple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats hair, and 
 rams skins dyed red, and badgers skins, and shittim- 
 \vood, oil for the light, spices for anointing oil and for 
 sweet incense, onyx stones, and stones to be set in 
 the ephod, and in the breastplate." Out of these, 
 the tabernacle and its utensils and appurtenances 
 were to be constructed, the ark of testimony, the 
 mercy-seat, the altar, and laver and candlesticks, all 
 wrought of the most precious materials, and overlaid 
 with pure gold. See now this people, just from their 
 degrading servitude, with comparatively small pos 
 sessions, and little means of adding to them. When 
 religion is to be promoted at the call of God, they 
 withhold nothing, until the end is accomplished. 
 All give with a willing mind, not a certain portion 
 of their income, but a large part of their possessions. 
 They devote it freely and joyfully to the service of 
 the church. And they thus give an example of lib 
 erality which it has pleased the Almighty to trans 
 mit to all following generations, as an incentive to 
 the same devotion, and a proof that inauspicious cir 
 cumstances are not always an excuse for refusing the 
 calls of benevolence. 
 
 Pass now to the reign of David. It was not for 
 him to build the temple, although it was in his heart 
 so to do. Yet, before the affairs of his kingdom were 
 settled, and he was quietly seated on the throne, he 
 began the work of gathering materials for the mag- 
 
60 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 nificent structure. "Behold," says he to his son, "in 
 my trouble I have prepared for the house of the 
 Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a 
 thousand thousand talents of silver ; and of brass and 
 iron without weight, for it is in abundance ; timber 
 ako and stone have I prepared ; and thou mayest add 
 thereto. - " Of the gold, and the silver, and the brass, 
 and the iron, there is no number." With these im 
 mense and other additional materials, the vast and 
 splendid edifice was reared, at an expenditure esti 
 mated by some at three thousand millions of dol 
 lar?,. How did they respond to this extraordinary 
 call ? Reluctantly ? No. Did they allege pleas of 
 poverty, or of concurrent claims for other objects ? 
 Not one. The people rejoiced, for they offered will 
 ingly, and more than was needed. And David 
 blessed the Lord before all the congregation, and 
 said, "Who am I, and what is my people, that we 
 should be able to offer so willingly after this sort ?" 
 Now, what is the principle upon which is made 
 this voluntary consecration of treasure unto the Lord ? 
 This happy monarch s eucharistical prayer contains 
 its announcement : "0 Lord our God, all this store 
 that we have prepared to build thee a house for 
 thine holy Name, cometh of thine hand, and is all 
 thine own;" "for all things corne of thee, and of 
 thine own have we given thee." It is the Chris 
 tian principle of stewardship, which inheres as an 
 essential element of every dispensation from Gene- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 61 
 
 sis to Revelation. It is the doctrine, that " the silver 
 and the gold are the Lord s ;" that he has an indis 
 putable right to all that his creatures possess ; that 
 there are higher uses to which it may be applied, 
 yielding purer and more elevated and permanent 
 enjoyment than personal aggrandizement or selfish 
 gratification ; and that when God calls, whatever 
 may be the proportion or amount, man s cheerful 
 response always secures the divine favor. 
 
 When Christians refer to the tithing system of the 
 Jews, as a guide in adjusting the proportion of their 
 income which should be devoted to objects of benefi 
 cence, it is important to take into account the free 
 will offerings which accompanied the working of 
 the system, as well as the regular imposts laid upon 
 the people. The deep, underflowing spirit of the 
 economy should be understood, as well as the simple 
 letter of its statutory enactments. Yet, the careful 
 collation of these laws will be sufficient to explode 
 the popular idea, that the devotement of a tenth of 
 our income brings our beneficence into agreement 
 with the divine rule given to the Jews. The Old 
 Testament doctrine upon the subject of beneficence 
 cannot be fully exemplified by a less proportion, as 
 we have said, than one fourth of a man s income 
 
 And this proportion was required of the Jews, 
 under circumstances, in some respects, widely differ 
 ent from those under which Christians are called to 
 live. It was simply for chatty, and the mairite- 
 
62 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 nance of religion at home. The Jewish church had 
 received no commission to diffuse her religion ibroad 
 The difference in this particular, between the dispen 
 sations of Moses and of Christ, is great. The formei 
 was simply conservative and defensive. The latter is 
 essentially reformatory and aggressive. The one was 
 a system of special rules and of a cumbersome ritual 
 service. The other is a system of religious principles, 
 and of spiritual worship. One was for the twelve 
 tribes; the other is for the world. In the one, :HE 
 TRUTH dwelt in gorgeous symbols and attractive cer 
 emonies ; in the other, He manifested himself in " the 
 fulness of the Godhead, bodily," and still is present 
 by his spiritual and subduing power. 
 
 Can those living under dispensations so diverse, 
 with blessings so unequal, have devolved upon them 
 only an equal measure of duty and effort ? Can we 
 make the rule of Jewish beneficence in a conserva 
 tive system, the measure of our own in a diffusive 
 and an aggressive one ? Can the Christian con 
 science be satisfied with a scale of liberality, for both 
 domestic and foreign beneficence, less than half as 
 large as that which the claims of one of these ob 
 jects made upon the Jewish conscience ? 
 
 An opulent man deducts one tenth from his in 
 come for charity. Half of the remainder may be re 
 quired for his necessary family expenditures. After 
 this he adds four times as much to his stock in trade, 
 or capital at interest, a* he allows for charity. He 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 63 
 
 reserves for himself nine parts of all that with which 
 he has been blessed, and allows one part to God for 
 the salvation of the world. Is he benevolent ? 
 
 There are circumstances, it is true, in which a 
 tenth of a man s income, would be a large proportion. 
 But there are other circumstances, in which it would 
 be a small proportion. In some, it would cost self- 
 denial. In others, it would not be felt. Three 
 fourths of a large income might be a less proportion 
 than one tenth, or even one fiftieth of a small one. 
 So that he who gave least would, in an important 
 sense, give most, for he would do it at the greatest 
 sacrifice. Such is the inequality which would result 
 from adopting any fixed proportion as applicable in 
 all cases. 
 
 2. A reference to the beneficent spirit of the early 
 Christian church. It will be admitted, that the 
 early Christians were in a condition, as favorable at 
 least, for forming a correct judgment in the matter 
 of beneficence, as any who have come after them 
 Some of them were called by the Saviour himself. 
 They received instructions from his own lips. The 
 sweet and elevating influence of his personal pres 
 ence and conversation, embalmed in their memory 
 t lie recollection of all that he did and said and suf 
 fered. Under this influence, they went forth to the 
 world, bright examples of Christian beneficence. 
 They " sold their possessions and goods, and parted 
 them to all men as every man had need." They 
 
G4 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 felt that they were made the executors of their Sav 
 iour s last will and testament to a lost world, and 
 that whatsoever of their possessions could subserve 
 the accomplishment of the sacred trust, should be 
 freely laid upon the altar of sacrifice. Nothing 1 short 
 of the dedication of their entire substance and lives 
 to the cause of such a Master, in the execution of 
 such a testament, met their ideas of duty, or ex 
 pressed their sense of gratitude and love. Their 
 renunciation of the world in its pride and pomp 
 and power, was actual and entire. They lived in 
 it only to do good. The glad tidings which they 
 had received, it was their great object to communi 
 cate. They had contemplated the infinite riches 
 of the grace of God, and had lost the desire for 
 all other riches. Honor, power, wealth, learning, 
 eloquence, were valued by them only as they con 
 tributed to diffuse the blessings of the cross, or con 
 stituted the means of a more costly sacrifice to Him 
 who died upon it. The cross ! For this> they could 
 relinquish all, and endure all. In this, they gloried. 
 And in the ardor of love, inspired by this, they " took 
 joyfully the spoiling of their goods," and the crown 
 of martyrdom. Selfishness was nearly annihilated 
 by the antagonist power of the cross. Covetousness 
 was quite dead, from the withholding of all that 
 whereby it lives. A parsimonious Christian would 
 speedily have obtained among them the unenviable 
 notoriety of an Achan, or a Judas In giving them- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 65 
 
 selves to Christ, they gave all, and were made rich 
 by what they gave. More than this they could not 
 do ; less, their love would not allow. And to make 
 more sure to themselves the blessings of such liber 
 ality, arid as a safeguard against the growth of a 
 penurious spirit, " On the first day of the week, 
 they laid by in store as God had prospered them." 
 Of the Macedonian churches the apostle says, " In 
 a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their 
 joy, and their deep poverty, abounded unto the 
 riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear 
 record, yea, and beyond their power, they were will 
 ing of themselves ; praying us with much entreaty, 
 that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the 
 fellowship of the ministering to the saints." 
 
 The test and the fruit of discipleship among these 
 early Christians, was a spirit of entire devotion. 
 But were their obligations more imperative than 
 ours ? Was the commejid "to do good and to com 
 municate," more binding then, than now ? Were 
 the blessings promised to the liberal soul, more rich 
 or full, or the danger and evils of covetousness less, 
 or the calls of sorrow and of want more urgent ? 
 Were souls in greater peril then than now, or was 
 the Gospel more effectual ? No ; the difference is 
 not in the gospel, but in the spirit of the men re 
 ceiving it. They understood Christianity ; they felt 
 its beneficent power, and they exemplified it. Taking 
 their divine Master as their model, they "pressed 
 
 * Miss, of Church. 17 
 
66 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 towards the mark for the prize of their high call 
 ing." " Our blessed Lord," says one of the early 
 fathers of the Christian church, " ate his food from a 
 common dish. He sat upon the ground, and washed 
 his disciples feet without a silver basin. Nay, he 
 quenched his thirst from the earthen pitcher of a 
 poor Samaritan woman. And are we better than 
 he ? Will not a table contain our food, unless its 
 legs be ivory ? Certain it is, that a lamp made by 
 a potter will give light as well as if it were the 
 work of a silversmith." 
 
 The spirit of beneficence among these primitive 
 Christians, led them to make no provision for the 
 flesh. They counted self-denial better for themselves, 
 as well as more honorable to their Master, than self- 
 indulgence. They were Christians, and they gloried 
 in maintaining their consistency, despite the sword 
 and the stake. Says another of them, " We say we 
 are Christians, and we say it to the whole world, 
 under the hand of the executioner. In the midst of 
 all the tortures you can heap upon us to make us 
 recant, torn and mangled and covered with our own 
 blood, we still cry out as loud as we are able, we are 
 Christians. Call us by what names you please. 
 Fill our flesh with fagots to set us on fire, yet let me 
 tell you that when we are thus begirt and dressed 
 about with fire, we are in our most illustrious ap 
 parel. These are our victorious palms and robes of 
 glory ; and, mounted on our funeral pile, we feel our- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE 67 
 
 selves as in a triumphal chariot. We conquer when 
 we die, and the spoils of that victory is eternal life." 
 " What you reproach us with as stubbornness, is the 
 best means of proselyting the world. For who has 
 not been struck with the sight of such fortitude, and 
 from thence pushed on to look into the reason of it ? 
 And who ever looked well into our religion, but em 
 braced it ? And who ever embraced it, but was 
 willing to die for it ?" 
 
 Does any one now ask what proportion of their 
 possessions such men devoted to beneficence ? They 
 gave the ivhole, and themselves with it. Does he 
 ask how much they w r ere able to do for the diffusion 
 of Christianity ? They were able to live for it to 
 die for it. Their ability was measured only by the 
 extent of their possessions, the length of their lives, 
 and their capacity to labor and to suffer. They 
 stopped not a whit short of this. But was their lot 
 cast in a different dispensation from ours ? No, it 
 was the same dispensation. What then constitutes 
 the difference ? Ah, we repeat, it is in the spirit of 
 the men. The early Christians were wholly devoted 
 to their Master. The hearts of later ones are divided 
 between him and the world. Covetousness has crept 
 into the church, and like the strong man armed, 
 has bound its members and spoiled their goods. This 
 is the difference. We^of the nineteenth century sow 
 sparingly and reap also sparingly. The early Chris 
 tians sowed plentifully, and they reaped also plenti- 
 
68 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 fully. We say, charity costs too much, and yield 
 only a pittance. They said, it cannot cost too much, 
 and laid down their lives. 
 
 3. A reference to the Scripture declarations re 
 lating to property, and to the duty of liberality. 
 " To the law, and to the testimony ; if we speak 
 not according to this word, it is because there is no 
 light in us." What then saith the Scripture ? Does 
 it prescribe the exact proportion of his income which 
 should be devoted to charitable purposes ? No. It 
 is a book of facts, of doctrines, of principles and pre 
 cepts. It proceeds on the assumption that inquiry, 
 reflection, and prayer are essential to the develop 
 ment of the Christian character. It leaves men to 
 a sense of responsibility in employing the facts, and 
 applying the principles to the question of individual 
 duty. Does a man wish to know what proportion 
 of his property should be consecrated to beneficence ? 
 He will not find it stated in so many words, whether 
 one tenth, or one fourth, or more, or less, ought to 
 be thus employed. But by a careful consideration 
 of the scripture doctrine contained in the following 
 passages concerning property and the duty of liber 
 ality, he may be led to conclusions as safe and as 
 certain, as if the amount were determined in every 
 case by specific divine command. 
 
 (1 .) Riches sue from the Lord, and belong to him. 
 " Both riches and honor come of thee." " The silver 
 is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 69 
 
 hosts." " Every beast of the forest is mine, and the 
 cattle upon a thousand hills." " The earth is the 
 Lord s, and the fulness thereof; the world and they 
 that dwell therein." " The Lord maketh rich." 
 "The Lord thy God, it is he that giveth thee powei 
 to get wealth." 
 
 (2.) Riches are in themselves a transient, unsat 
 isfying, and disquieting possession. "Nor trust 
 in uncertain riches." " Riches are not for ever." 
 " Riches make themselves wings and fly away." 
 " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
 where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
 break through and steal." " There is that maketh 
 himself rich, yet hath nothing." " He that loveth 
 silver, shall not be satisfied with silver ; neither he 
 that loveth abundance, with increase." "There is 
 one alone, and there is not a second ; yea, he hath 
 neither child nor brother ; yet there is no end of his 
 labor, neither is his eye satisfied with riches ; neither 
 saith he, For whom do I labor and bereave my soul of 
 good ? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail." 
 " He that is greedy of gain, troubleth his own house." 
 " In the revenues of the wicked is trouble." " The 
 abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep " 
 " Then I looked on all the works that my hands had 
 wrought, and behold, all was vanity and vexation 
 of spirit ; and there was no profit under the sun." 
 " For what hath man of all his labor, and of the vex 
 ation of his spirit wherein he hath labored ? For all 
 
70 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 his days are sorrows, and his travail, grief; yea, his 
 heart taketh not rest in the night." 
 
 (3.) They bring no relief in man s greatest dis 
 tress. "Riches profit not in the day of wrath." 
 " Their silver and their gold shall not be able to 
 deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord." 
 " Because there is wrath, beware lest ho take thce 
 away with his stroke : then a great ransom cannot 
 deliver thee. Will he esteem thy riches ? No, not 
 gold, nor all the forces of strength." " There was 
 a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and 
 fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. The 
 rich man also died, and was buried. And in hell, 
 he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." 
 
 (4.) It is unlawful and dangerous to trust in and 
 to hoard them. " If I have made gold my hope, or 
 have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence ; 
 if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and be 
 cause mine hand had gotten much ; I should have 
 denied the God that is above." " If riches increase, 
 set not your heart upon them." "Lay not up for 
 yourselves treasures upon earth." " Labor not to be 
 rich." " Beware, lest when thou hast eaten and 
 art full, and when thy herds and thy flocks are mul 
 tiplied, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied ; 
 then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the 
 Lord thy God, and thou say in thine heart, My power, 
 and the might of mine hand, hath gotten me this 
 wealth." " Covetousness, let it not be once named 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 71 
 
 among you, as becometh saints." " He that trusteth 
 in his riches shall fall." " How hard is it for them 
 that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of 
 God." " The cares of this world and the deceitful- 
 ness of riches choke the word, and he becometh un 
 fruitful." " He that hideth his eyes from the poor 
 shall have many a curse." " Woe unto them that 
 join house to house, that lay field to field." " They 
 that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, 
 and into many hurtful and foolish lusts, which drown 
 men in destruction and perdition. For the love of 
 money is the root of all evil ; which, while some 
 have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, 
 and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 
 But thou, man of God, flee these things." * 1 
 have seen riches kept for the owners thereof to their 
 hurt." "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, 
 for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your 
 riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth- 
 eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the 
 rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall 
 eat your flesh as it were fire." " No covetous man 
 hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of 
 God." Balaam " loved the wages of unrighteous 
 ness, but was rebuked for his iniquity." " Achan 
 answered Joshua, and said, Indeed, I have sinned 
 against the Lord God of Israel. When I saw among 
 the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hun 
 dred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold gf fifty 
 
72 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them. 
 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us ? the 
 Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel 
 stoned him with stones." To Gehazi, for coveting 
 the Syrian s silver and the garments, the prophet 
 said, " The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave 
 unto thee and unto thy seed for ever. And he went 
 out from his presence a leper as white as snow." 
 " Judas, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, 
 repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces 
 of silver to the chief priests and elders. And he 
 cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and de 
 parted, and went and hanged himself." 
 - (5.) Liberality is characteristic of the righteous, 
 and is expressly commanded. " The righteous show- 
 eth mercy and giveth." " He that honoreth his 
 Maker, hath mercy on the poor." " The righteous 
 considereth the cause of the poor." "Withhold not 
 good from him to whom it is due, when it is in the 
 power of thine hand to do it." " Say not to thy 
 neighbor, Go, and come again ; when thou hast it 
 by thee." " Give to him that asketh thee." " Give 
 to him that needeth." " Give alms of such things 
 as you have." " Honor the Lord with thy sub 
 stance." " To do good, and to communicate, forget 
 not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." 
 " Charge them that are rich in this world, that they 
 be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to 
 communicate ; laying up in store for themselves a 
 
rROPOJlTION IN BENEFICENCE. 73 
 
 good foundation against the time to come, that they 
 may lay hold on eternal life." " Whoso hath this 
 world s good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
 shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how 
 dwclleth the love of God in him ?" " Thou shall 
 not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy 
 poor brother ; but thou shalt open thy hand wide 
 unto him." " As ye abound in every thing, see that 
 ye abound in this grace also." " Freely ye have 
 received, freely give." "Upon the first day of the 
 week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as 
 God hath prospered him." 
 
 (G.) The highest and best use of riches is in be 
 neficence, which secures exemption from ivant and 
 the blessing of heaven. " Make to yourselves friends 
 of the mammon of unrighteousness." "The angel 
 of God said unto Cornelius, Thy prayers and thine 
 alms are come up as a memorial before God." 
 " Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he 
 said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 " And there came a certain poor widow, and she 
 threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And 
 he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, 
 Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath 
 cast more in than all they which have cast into the 
 treasury. For all they did cast in of their abun 
 dance ; but she of her want did cast in all that she 
 had, even all her living." "For if there be first a 
 willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man 
 
74 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 hath, -and not according to that he hath not." " He 
 that giveth unto the poor shall not lack." " Trust 
 in the Lord and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in 
 the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." " Cast thy 
 bread upon the waters ; for thou shalt find it after 
 many days." " He that hath pity upon the poor, 
 lendeth to the Lord ; and that which he hath given, 
 will he pay him again." " Honor the Lord with thy 
 substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine in 
 crease : so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, 
 and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 
 "Blessed is he that considereth the poor." "He 
 that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed." " He 
 that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he." " There 
 is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." " The liberal 
 soul shall be made fat ; and he that watereth, shall 
 be watered also himself." " Give, and it shall be 
 given unto you ; good measure, pressed down, and 
 shaken together, and running over, shall men give 
 into your bosom." "Do good and lend, hoping for 
 nothing again ; and your reward shall be great, and 
 ye shall be the children of the Highest." "When 
 thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the 
 lame, and the blind. And thou shalt be blessed; 
 for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of 
 the just." "If thou draw out thy soul to the hun 
 gry, and satisfy the afflicted soul ; then shall thy 
 light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the 
 noonday. And the Lord shall guide thee continu- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 75 
 
 ally, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat 
 thy bones ; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, 
 and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." 
 
 Now, if the word of God is admitted as an infalli 
 ble guide, will it not aid an inquirer in determining 
 his ability, to reflect upon these passages until his 
 mind is imbued with their spirit ? "Will it not give 
 the claims of benevolence a firmer hold on his con 
 science, and check the tendency to covetousness, to 
 read that God regardeth it as idolatry, that the 
 love of money is the root of all evil, leading the soul 
 into foolish and hurtful lusts, piercing it through with 
 many sorrows, and drowning it in perdition ? Who 
 would not feel his ability to give in charity increas 
 ing under the growing conviction that he that sow- 
 eth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully? Does 
 a wise man grudge the seed grain, when the increase 
 depends on the amount that he scattereth? Will 
 he garner up what he gathers, when he feels that 
 much as he may have been blessed in receiving, he 
 would be more blessed in giving ? But alas, unbe 
 lief is the vampire that consumes the ability of the 
 church. Men do not believe, when the mouth of 
 the Lord hath spoken it, else they would not be so 
 slow to lend to him. Let them study these pas 
 sages in their full significancy, and imbibe their 
 heavenly spirit, until all . doubt vanishes, and the 
 soul is raised up in liberality to the high ground of 
 the Bible doctrine. Stand by the cross and study 
 
76 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 them there, invoking the divine Spirit to guide you 
 into the truth. Cast yourself forward to the soul a 
 transit into eternity, and study them there. Place 
 yourself at the tribunal of God, amidst the throng 
 of ransomed spirits in the heavenly glory, and study 
 them there. Behold those shining ones casting their 
 crowns at the feet of Jesus, and sweeping their harp- 
 strings in full chorus to his praise, V Saying with a 
 loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
 receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
 and honor, and glory, and blessing :" do this, and it 
 will be easy to understand the scripture doctrine of 
 beneficence, and to determine the proportion of your 
 property which it is your duty and privilege to em 
 ploy for Him on earth, who has all riches ascribed 
 to him in heaven. 
 
 PARTICULAR PROPOSITIONS RESPECTING 
 PROPORTION. 
 
 If the reader has gone along with us in our refer 
 ence to the liberality of the Jewish church, to the 
 beneficent spirit of the early Christians, and to the 
 scripture declarations relating to property and the 
 duty of liberality, he will be prepared to consider the 
 subject of proportion in beneficence, in the following 
 particular propositions. 
 
 1. Every man s beneficence should be proportion 
 ate to the smn total of his property. It will be appar 
 ent in the outset, that we have to do with something 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 77 
 
 more than the single question of income. For al 
 though with a man who, from the commencement 
 of his business life, has regulated his charities by 
 the scripture rule, it might be only a question of 
 income, yet as there are few who have done this, 
 in determining each man s ability it is obvious that 
 any inquiry would be partial, and any result de 
 fective, which should not involve a consideration 
 of the sum total of a man s property. It may be, 
 that, lured out of the pilgrim s path by the winning 
 voice of Demas, you have been digging at the mine 
 in " the little hill called lucre," and hoarding more 
 than is meet. It may be, that overpowered by the 
 spirit of woiidliness which steals away the vigor of 
 piety, you have. been adding income to capital, that 
 you might retire from business and live in ease and 
 luxury and splendor, until a rate of liberality adjusted 
 to your present ability would trench on your vested 
 capital, or break in upon your accumulated stores. 
 It may be, that the influence of fashion, or of increas 
 ing wealth, or of a plan of early retirement, like a 
 subtle poison, has benumbed the moral sensibilities, 
 and rendered you -reluctant to draw, for benevolent 
 purposes, upon your vested funds. All this is very 
 natural and very probable. Early in life, John 
 Wesley said that he had known but four men, whose 
 piety had not suffered from their becoming rich. 
 Longer observation led him to make no exception. 
 His own case, however, may be alleged as an exam- 
 
78 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 pie of the power of grace to withstand the withering 
 influence of increasing wealth. His income at first 
 was thirty pounds a year. Of this, he reserved two 
 pounds for charity. The next year, it was sixty 
 pounds. Still using but twenty-eight for himself, lie 
 employed thirty-two pounds in charity And when 
 his income amounted to a hundred and twenty 
 pounds, he lent ninety-two pounds to the Lord, and 
 lived himself on twenty-eight as at first. At his de 
 cease, his whole property was found to consist of his 
 clothes, his books, and a carriage, although he had 
 probably given away more than a hundred thousand 
 dollars. Did the root of all evil find no more con- 
 genial soil in the hearts of other men, than it did in 
 that of John Wesley, how different would be the state 
 of the world ! But alas, it strikes deep, and entwines 
 its threads about every fibre of the soul, and " chokes 
 the word, that it becometh unfruitful." 
 
 Are you sure that a course of constant accumula 
 tion is right ? Are you never troubled with doubts 
 in withholding your tens of thousands, and it may be 
 hundreds of thousands, from the cause of God, merely 
 as security for your own future ease, or for the grati 
 fication or aggrandizement of your children ? Are 
 you certain, in view of the pressing calls in our OWD 
 land and from the heathen world, that such a course 
 is consistent with your public vows as a disciple oi 
 Christ ? Is it plain, that a portion of your interest 
 money and other income, is all that you are called 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 79 
 
 upon to consecrate to Christ, for the salvation of a 
 world for which he died ? Did you begin right ? 
 And if so, have you continued as you began ? Have 
 you, in past time, laid by in store for yourself, no 
 more than you should have done no more than you 
 would have done, if your piety had been as elevated 
 as was that of Brainerd or Martyn, or your *love as 
 glowing as that of John ? Has avarice, or covetous- 
 ness, or selfishness had no voice in determining the 
 amount laid up for yourself? And if you have been 
 influenced by such a motive in amassing more than 
 was meet, is it from any better motive that you now 
 withhold what has been thus accumulated ? Might 
 not a portion of your property, invested in charity 
 for the poor, in missionary labor and in Bibles for the 
 conversion of the world, yield you a larger revenue of 
 happiness and enrich you more than the whole now 
 does ? By the accredited maxims of the world, and 
 even of the church, we readily admit, that the man 
 who devotes all his income to charity is justly re 
 puted liberal. But are you sure, that under your 
 circumstances, this is a rate of liberality proportion 
 ate to the " ability which God giveth?" Is it open 
 ing thy hand wide unto thy poor brother ? Is it 
 sowing plentifully abounding in the grace of giv 
 ing ? Is it acting on the principle, that it is more 
 blessed to give than to receive ? Is it fulfilling the 
 injunction, Freely ye have received, freely give? 
 We would not be understood a^ implying, that 
 
80 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 there are no circumstances in which men may law 
 fully accumulate property. They may have large 
 schemes of benevolence, in reference to which they 
 are every day prosecuting their labors. There are 
 also departments of business, extensive manufactur 
 ing and commercial interests, the successful conduct 
 of which requires large capital. Under the influence 
 of a benevolent spirit, and on the principle of doing 
 all to the glory of God, this employment of funds 
 need not conflict with the claims of charity. But to 
 retain large fortunes with no such projects in view, 
 devoting only the income to beneficence, places a 
 disciple of Christ in a false position. His wealth is 
 out of proportion to his necessities, and to the claims 
 of benevolence. And nothing but the bestowment 
 of a portion of his accumulated treasure, will restore 
 him to his true position. 
 
 We are not unapprised of the plan whereby some 
 endeavor to recover their consistency. They have 
 made a testamentary bequest, a plan truly benevo 
 lent in circumstances which render an earlier dis 
 posal of property impracticable. But in many cases, 
 a will is only an expedient of covetousness, to satisfy 
 conscience, and atone for the sin of sending the needy 
 away empty in our lifetime, by allowing the claims 
 of charity to take effect when we are dead. God 
 has made you his steward, and has nowhere author 
 ized you to leave to others, that which he has re 
 quired you yourself to do. The calls of benevolence 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 81 
 
 will never be more urgent than now. Your property 
 will never do so much good as now. Every day 
 that you postpone its devotement, you by so much 
 lessen the time in which it might be bearing fruit 
 unto Christ. Therefore, God would have you the 
 executor of your own will. No one can administer 
 your charities so advantageously as yourself. By so 
 doing, you make the most profitable investment of 
 your money, and avoid the danger of losing, by re 
 verse of fortune, what you had intended to bequeath 
 to benevolent objects. God would also that your 
 death be deplored as a loss to the church, rather than 
 welcomed as a gain to its beneficent operations ; that 
 the world be blessed with the influence of your be 
 neficent example while living, rather than be left in 
 doubt concerning the motives of your testamentary 
 charity when you are dead. He would not have you 
 deprived of the blessedness of giving, by the interven 
 tion of a will, rendering it necessary for you to be 
 cast out of your stewardship, before your Lord s 
 money can be put to " the exchangers." 
 
 We have read of " a faithful steward," whose 
 whole property at the commencement of his busi 
 ness life, besides the wilderness land on which he set 
 tled, valued at forty dollars, consisted of a horse and 
 an axe. With this God gave him " power to get 
 wealth." He began on the principle of honoring the 
 Lord with his substance, and with the first-fruits of 
 all his increase, and his bams were filled with plenty 
 
 Mis. . ofOiuroh, IB 
 
82 TIIK MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and his presses "burst out with new wine. Togethei 
 with the^ expense of rearing a large family of chil 
 dren, he is supposed to have contributed to benevo 
 lent objects not less than thirty-five thousand dollars 
 4 He made two wills at an interval of twenty-eight 
 j ears, but he lived to be his own executor, paying 
 his bequests and settling his accounts to the utter 
 most farthing; so that, in fulfilling his last testa 
 ment, nothing remained to be looked after when he 
 was gone but his wearing apparel, the large Bible, 
 Scott s Family Bible, a psalm-book, the case in which 
 he had kept them, and the spectacles with which he 
 had read them. Not a pound no, not a penny, was 
 found hid in the earth or laid up in a napkin." 
 
 Thence we conclude, that in adjusting each man s 
 proportion in beneficence, the sum total of his prop 
 erty should be taken into the account, and that char 
 itable bequests are an unsatisfactory substitute for 
 living benevolence. In view of the subject, let us 
 "charge them that are rich in this world, that they 
 be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to 
 communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good 
 foundation against the time to come, that they may 
 lay hold on eternal life." 
 
 " Largely thou givest. gracious Lord ; 
 
 Largely thy gifts should be restored : 
 
 Freely thou givest, and thy word 
 
 Is, Freely give. 
 
 He only who forgets to hoard, 
 
 Haa learned to live." 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 83 
 
 2. Every man s beneficence should be proportion 
 ate to his annual income. As there are some with 
 whom the adjustment of their proportion might trench 
 on vested capital, so there are others from whom it 
 would require only a portion of their income. We 
 now refer to the latter class. Your income, then, is 
 to be divided between your own personal and family 
 necessities, and the claims of benevolence. On what 
 principle should the division be made ? You are a 
 young man just entering on business, wishing to 
 arrange your plans of benevolence according to the 
 principles of the gospel. You will thence seek to be 
 governed, i.i your expenditures, by Christian simplic 
 ity. In this, you will find the more difficulty, be 
 cause the prevalent customs and fashions of society 
 are so adverss to it. Yet be not conformed to the 
 world, Ycu can no more be a devotee of fashion 
 than a worshipper at the shrine of mammon. 
 
 If you would make the duty of beneficence easy 
 and delightful, you will commence your charitable 
 donations where your income commences, and give 
 as the Lord prospers you. Let your maxims and 
 motives of liberality be drawn from the word of God, 
 and not from the practices and opinions of those 
 around you. Let your plans and principles be fixed 
 in the outset, subject only to such revision as increase 
 of light and love may suggest. Before the love of 
 money shall be strengthened by increase of gains, 
 you will be more likely to judge correctly in the, 
 
94 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 matter of proportion. Your liberality will then 
 readily grow into habit, and habit will make it a 
 delight, and both will perfect and confirm your prin 
 ciples of benevolence, and give symmetry and beauty 
 and energy to your whole Christian character. 
 
 Your danger is not of a too rigid economy, but that 
 you may practise it from wrong motives with a de 
 sire of hoarding rather than of giving. Beware of 
 covetousness, which is idolatry. Here will be your 
 chief temptation, despite your firmest benevolent re 
 solves. The present low standard of liberality among 
 older and more experienced Christians, and the fact 
 that covetousness scarcely militates against a reputa 
 ble profession of Christianity, will enhance this dan 
 ger. Necessary contact with business men, with 
 whom a distinction between the morality of trade and 
 the morality of the Bible involves no solecism, will 
 add to it. The unhallowed estimate placed upon 
 money, by which " worth means wealth, and the only 
 wisdom, the art of acquiring it," will increase your 
 danger. The world is not atheistic, but the god it 
 serves is gold. "I do confess I am an atheist," says 
 Sir Thomas Brown. " I cannot persuade myself to 
 honor that the world adores." Fortify yourself 
 against all such peril in the beginning, by putting 
 on the whole armor of God. Resist the devil of 
 cupidity, when he proposes to give you all the king 
 doms of the world, and he will flee from you. 
 
 "When you are deciding on the proportion of your 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 85 
 
 income to be added to your capital, or invested for 
 future contingencies, two questions deserve particu 
 lar attention : What are the objects for which you 
 make this reservation ; and what are the motives 
 that prompt you to do it ? 
 
 In reply to the first question you will probably say, 
 " My object is to make provision for the education 
 and settlement and usefulness of my children. "We 
 admit the legitimacy of the object, and only ask your 
 attention to the amount necessary for its accomplish 
 ment. You wish to employ your property, in respect 
 to your children, in such a way as shall prepare them 
 for the greatest usefulness here, and the highest hap 
 piness hereafter. 
 
 Now it is essential to this, that you should make 
 provision for the development of their physical, intel 
 lectual, and moral powers ; that they should be in 
 structed in relation to their social, civil, and religious 
 duties ; that they should be subject to the influence 
 of pure examples, and brought under the power of 
 the gospel of Christ. You wish for them, under the 
 combined influence of culture and Christianity, that 
 mental expansion, that refinement of taste, that ele 
 vation of sentiment, and that firmness of moral prin 
 ciple, which will harmonize with their sphere of 
 action, and with the highest ends of their existence. 
 Is not this the sum total of what they require at your 
 hands, the substance of your parental duty ? But is 
 it necessary for this, that you should lay up for them 
 
86 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 large stores of wealth? "Would not these ends be 
 better secured by such a degree of libera ity on your 
 part, as would leave them, when entering upon the 
 responsibilities of life, dependent, under God, chiefly 
 on their own exertions ? Yea, do not facts abun 
 dantly demonstrate, that by exemption from the 
 necessity of effort, through reliance on inherited, or 
 expected wealth, their prospects of success in busi 
 ness or in professional life would be greatly dark 
 ened? On whom have the Indies bestowed their 
 richest treasures, and to whom have the mines of 
 Peru yielded most abundantly their shining dust ? 
 Who are the master-spirits of the age, that in the 
 senate, at the bar, or in the pulpit, hold in their 
 hands the secret of power, and wield most resist- 
 lessly the sceptre of influence, and sway as by a spell 
 the councils of nations, and the destinies of men ? 
 Are they those whose paternal ancestry spent their 
 lives in toil and parsimony that they might, leave their 
 children rich ? Are they those who commenced their 
 career cumbered by the cares of wealth, and subject 
 to influences which prevent personal exertion, and 
 paralyze the power of noble achievement ? No ; they 
 are generally those, for whom their parents could do 
 little except in the way of thorough mental and 
 moral training, and the formation of industrious hab 
 its ; whose chief inheritance was a healthful influ 
 ence and a bright parental example ; and who came 
 forth to meet the trials of life, and to discharge its 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 87 
 
 duties, trusting in Providence, and dependent on their 
 own industry and skill. 
 
 But if you can overlook such well-attested facts, 
 and jeopard the temporal interests of your children, 
 by amassing for them the almost certain means of 
 their failure, turn to another aspect of the subject. 
 You desire above all things their usefulness, and their 
 religious welfare. What can you do better to render 
 them useful, than to be so yourself? You wish them 
 to form habits of benevolence. How can your desire 
 for them be more effectually accomplished than by 
 the influence of your own example of benevolence ? 
 Withholding your property from objects of charity 
 will not teach them to be charitable Hoarding your- 
 .self large stores of wealth, will not dispose them to 
 consecrate it to Christ. If you would teach them that 
 the value of money consists primarily in the good 
 which may be accomplished by it, in what way can 
 you do it so successfully, as by showing them that this 
 is the great end for which you are acquiring it ? And 
 if you would secure to them the blessing of ht-aven, 
 how can you do it more certainly, than by demising 
 to them your own bright example the illustration 
 of your full conviction that the love of money is the 
 root of all evil ? I* this way, a check will be early 
 given to the tendencies of selfishness, and their hab- 
 jts be formed on the principles of Christian benevo 
 lence. You will thus bring your children to the 
 idtar, not like Hannibal, to swear eternal enmity to 
 
88 1HK MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 a hostile nation, but to encourage in them, by the 
 most sacred domestic influences, a desire to "do good 
 unto all men, as they have opportunity." 
 
 Recur now to the second question, the motives 
 which determine the proportion to be reserved foi 
 future contingencies. Write down the various ob 
 jects of benevolence which solicit your attention : the 
 claims of the poor, the ignorant, and the oppressed ; 
 the calls of Home and of Foreign missions, of the 
 Bible, the Tract, Educational, and Seamen s asso 
 ciations, and other kindred humane and reform a 
 tory agencies. Against these, set down the amount 
 which you have appropriated to them. Considei 
 this amount as the measure of your regard for the 
 poor, your interpretation of the law of benevolence, 
 and the exponent of your love to Christ. Then write 
 down on the opposite page the items of your per 
 sonal and family expenditure, with the several sums 
 applied to them. Look upon these as the index ol 
 your sense of personal and family necessities, as 
 what you have considered due to your station in life. 
 Then compare the balance-sheets. Carry them with 
 you to your closet, and when you pray " after this 
 manner," " Thy kingdom come," see how much you 
 are in earnest, by the portion of your income appro 
 priated to the advancement of that kingdom. And 
 when continuing, you repeat the petition, " Give us 
 this day our daily bread," inquire if you may not 
 have been taking much more than you have asked 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. . 89 
 
 from God. And when you further say, " Lead us not 
 into temptation, but deliver us from evil," ask your 
 self if some of your expenditures may not have had 
 a direct tendency to lead you into that from which 
 you pray to be kept, and to confirm in you that from 
 which you seek to be delivered. Write over one side 
 of the equation, " The claims of the poor, the blind, 
 the naked, of ignorance, misery, and sin;" and over 
 the other, " The claims of myself and family soon to 
 pass to our final account." Then decide whether 
 you have consecrated of your income to charity, 
 according to the ability that God giveth. Do this, 
 and the result will assist you in determining the mo 
 tives by which you have been governed in your cur 
 rent expenditures, and in your reservations for future 
 use. Is this asking too much? Does it seem un 
 necessarily exacting ? But why should you shrink 
 from such a test ? Is it that you are fearful of the 
 results ? If your scale of liberality is such as your 
 own interests and the claims of beneficence require, 
 an examination like this would only confirm your 
 convictions of duty, and render its discharge more 
 easy and delightful. But if it is otherwise, and you 
 fear the necessity of retrenchment on the side of per 
 sonal ease and gratification, 
 
 "Think heaven a better bargain, than to give 
 Only thy single market-money for it. 
 Join hands with God, in making men to live." 
 
 Oh. it is sweet to know that we are doing the will 
 
90 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of God, and nowhere more so, than in dealing our 
 bread to the hungry, lighting up the abode of sorrow 
 with the smile of gladness, recalling the wandering 
 prodigal, and guiding the weary pilgrim to his heav 
 enly home. 
 
 3. Every man s beneficence should be proportionate 
 to what he can earn by industry. Labor, although 
 connected with the curse pronounced upon man in 
 consequence of his sin, must yet be considered as a 
 blessing. His physical, mental, and moral condition 
 renders it necessary to his own welfare. The gen 
 eral law of equity also requires it. " If any man 
 work not, neither should he ea t." " Not slothful in 
 business," holds an important place among the apos 
 tolic injunctions. Idleness is therefore an evil and a 
 sin. It is burying our talent, and exposing ourselves 
 to the condemnation of the slothful servant. No 
 one, however opulent, is at liberty to be indolent. 
 Self-interest forbids it, and the law of benevolence 
 forbids it. To how many reputable disciples might 
 the Saviour now say, " Why stand ye here all the 
 day idle ?" What are they accomplishing by their 
 personal exertions, for the honor of God or the wel 
 fare of men ? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Yet 
 health, and time, and power of productive enterprise 
 are talents intrusted to us, even more directly than 
 is wealth, acquired by means of these. "It is God 
 that giveth power to get wealth." Well-directed 
 \3bor, either manual or mental, in some of the vari- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 91 
 
 ous forms of human effort, is therefore a means of 
 doing good, which cannot be left out of account in 
 estimating proportion in beneficence. 
 
 By this means, many a poor man might obtain the 
 blessing of giving, who now contents himself with 
 tli at of receiving. By toiling a little longer, or a 
 little harder, or by turning their labor into more pro 
 ductive channels, not a few, from being themselves 
 objects of charity, might become its happy distrib 
 uters. Instead of drawing upon the resources of the 
 benevolent, they might help to swell their amount 
 by the addition of their own " farthing." And if 
 they could do this, should they not do it? Would 
 not their temporal condition be improved by the- 
 effort, and they find by sweet experience that it is 
 more blessed to give than to receive ? We have 
 read of a woman in very needy circumstances, who 
 oflered to subscribe a penny a week to the mission 
 ary fund. " Surely," said one, " you are too poor 
 to afford this." She replied, "I spin so many skeins 
 of yarn a week, for a maintenance : I will spin one. 
 more, and that will be a penny for the Society." How 
 beautiful in its simplicity is this illustration ! Let 
 each poor man so employ the fragments of time, that 
 it may be said of him as of Henry Marty n, "He is 
 the man that never lost an hour," and he shall eat 
 the labor of his own hands, and "have to give to 
 him that needeth." 
 
 The rich, too, who in their ease can give of their 
 
92 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 abundance, by diligence would be able to abound in 
 this grace. Where is the warrant for a Christian to 
 retire from active life while in the full enjoyment 
 of his business powers ? It is obvious, however, 
 that men may sometimes be called to leave the 
 sphere of labor in which they have accumulated 
 their property, in order to superintend its beneficent 
 expenditure. Public interests may require such a 
 portion of their time and attention as shall be incom 
 patible with the continuance of their more private 
 business schemes. 
 
 But how different is this from the case of those 
 who bring to a period their active business career at 
 a time of life when they are most capable of con 
 tinuing it with success. In the course of twenty or 
 thirty years of prosperous enterprise, a man finds 
 himself in possession of a competency, that is, he has 
 become affluent. Now he is content. He will re 
 tire and give place to others. He has enough. But 
 why does he retire ? That he may enjoy the luxury 
 of dealing his bread to the hungry, and of endowing 
 institutions for the promotion of science and religion, 
 or for the mitigation of human woe and the reclama 
 tion of man from the power of Satan unto God ? 
 No ; but because he has enough. Enough for what ? 
 Enough for himself, for his idol, self enough for his 
 own enjoyment, for ease and elegance enough to 
 vie with the devotees of fashion, and to revel in 
 splendor. So, these are the motives which have 
 
PROPORTION 2N BENEFICENCE. 93 
 
 impelled him forward in his eager haste to be rich 
 ease, elegance, splendor. No thoughts of God enter 
 into his purposes. No pity for the poor influences 
 his plans. Poor man, thou art dead while thou liv- 
 est. Thou hast " denied the God that is above," 
 and disowned thy brother. No beam of heavenly 
 light guides thee in. thy dark career. No genial 
 fire of love melts thy icy selfishness. " Lo, this 
 is the man that made not God his strength, but 
 trusted in the abundance of his riches." "The 
 righteous shall see, and shall laugh at him." " Men 
 shall clap their hands at him, and hiss him out of 
 his place." 
 
 But it may be, that amid the smiles of Providence 
 and your increasing stores, you have not been alto 
 gether unmindful of the fatherless and the widow. 
 Yet you propose to retire from business. You are a 
 professed disciple of Christ and have sympathy with 
 suffering and sorrow, and have not forgotten " to do 
 good and to communicate," and yet you have enough. 
 And can you then do all that you desire for the cause 
 of God, and of humanity ? Are there no poor that 
 will remain destitute ; no benighted that will be left 
 sitting in darkness, when you have done what you 
 can ? Is the Bible translated into every tongue ? 
 Has the missionary visited every land, and carried 
 the gospel to every tribe, and made it the power of 
 God in every heart ? Oh, no. And yet you have 
 enough. You are retiring from business, it may be, 
 
94 THE MISSION OF TI1S CHURCH. 
 
 at the very maturity of your powers of business. 
 Has Providence then smiled on your efforts and poured 
 into your lap the fruits of the earth, or the products of 
 commerce, that you might take your discharge from 
 his service ? " What, know you not that you are not 
 your own," and that "none of us liveth to himself?" 
 Have you forgotten the price with which you were 
 bought ? Does gratitude call for no more self-denial ? 
 Does the cross oppose no obstruction to your plan of 
 ease and indulgence ? 
 
 You may indeed be giving according to what you 
 have. But are you giving according to what you 
 might have ? Your powers of business are no in 
 considerable part of the ability that God giveth. 
 His command is, "Go work in my vineyard." And 
 it is also, " Work while the day lasts." 
 
 Besides, if you would give more if you had it, why 
 cease acquiring ? Is your beneficence on a large scale 
 now ? By adding to it the products of your contin 
 ued labor, you would make it still larger, arid would 
 enjoy a richer blessing, both in what you bestow in 
 charity and what you expend for yourself. And this 
 blessing might come in the form of a better phys 
 ical and mental, as well as of an improved spirit 
 ual condition. You would be preserved from wast 
 ing indolence and enervating ennui. By continued 
 efforts to acquire, that you might abound still more 
 in giving, you would be kept from the danger of cov- 
 etousness attending undue concern respecting what 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 96 
 
 you now possess. By observing the command, "Oc 
 cupy till I come," you would be protected from the 
 erisnaremerits accompanying a life of leisure, and 
 procure at last that highest approval of your Master, 
 1 Well done, good and faithful servant ; enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 What if Christ had retired from his work, ere ho 
 had arrived at that period when he could say, "It is 
 finished." What if he had ceased from his weary 
 ing toil, and ascended to his throne of glory, before 
 he had come to that labor of soul in the garden, and 
 that conflict of spirit on the cross where would then 
 have been the hope of the world ? And why did he 
 not thus retire ? Ah, he was joined to his work by 
 the invincibility of his love, and his devotion to his 
 Father s will. Thence he toiled up to the very hour 
 of his death, and expended the last of his human 
 powers in completing his redeeming work. And 
 shall his example have no influence to retain his fol 
 lowers in the field ? thou Son of Mary and of 
 God, didst thou spend thy life in poverty and in toil 
 for the miserable and the guilty, and in a world all 
 thine own, have not where to lay thy head ? And 
 shall we who reap the fruits of thy godlike labor, 
 seek exemption from service, and weary out our lives 
 in ignoble sloth ? Didst thou bear thy heavy cross, 
 and wear thy thorny crown, and drink thy bitter cup 
 that we, clothed in purple and fine linen, might re 
 cline upon our couch of ease ? 
 
90 THE MISSION OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 " Woe worth these barren hearts of ours, 
 Where thou hast set celestial flowers, 
 A.nd watered with the balmiest showers, 
 Yet naught we yield." 
 
 4. Every man s beneficence should be proportion 
 ate to what he can save by economy. In any ade 
 quate view of this subject, it is apparent that some 
 limits are to be placed to the scale of expenditure. 
 The gospel is no more explicit against covetousness, 
 than against prodigality. Nor is the sin of the one 
 greater than of the other, or the evil of it more af 
 flictive to the church. These seemingly contradic 
 tory vices are sometimes found in the same person. 
 He covets another s wealth and squanders his own. 
 So intense sometimes is the sense of want occasioned 
 by wasteful expenditure, that the prodigal, as the 
 miser, not only " stoppeth his ear against the cry of 
 the poor," but rapaciously devours widows houses, 
 as the means of continuing his riotous living. Thus 
 prodigality leads to covetousness, and covetousness 
 to rapacity. Unholy desire clamors for gratification, 
 and gratification only increases the intensity of insa 
 tiable desire, until, in the midst of abundance, the 
 soul finds itself in famine, flooded with waters, yet 
 pining in thirst. 
 
 The economy induced by the spirit of beneficence, 
 is equally remote from covetousness and from prodi 
 gality. It neither wastes nor buries the intrusted 
 talent, but uses it. And the expenditure which is 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 97 
 
 consistent with the claims of charity, is also in har 
 mony with what is due to our station in life. True 
 dignity is never found in conflict with benevolence . 
 When the calls of the latter are responded to by an 
 appropriation of the just proportion of our property, 
 the residue will be found to impart the highest dig 
 nity to rank and station, and the most benign and sal 
 utary influences to character. " Whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso 
 ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
 report," are in happiest agreement with its claims. 
 But it dissuades from enervating indulgences, from 
 effeminate voluptuousness, from factitious and extrav 
 agant conventionalism, as being as incongruous with 
 the spirit of the gospel, as the former virtues are be 
 coming and accordant with it. 
 
 Nor can prodigal expenditures, coming as they do 
 into the class of unproductive consumptions, be more 
 easily justified by the principles of political economy, 
 than by the spirit of benevolence. Consumed as 
 they are in needless, if not hurtful self-indulgence, 
 the use of luxuries adds less to the national wealth 
 than do beneficent appropriations. Rightly directed, 
 Charity touches the deep springs of the mental and 
 moral energies, and instead of wasting them in prof 
 itless excitement, arouses them to the most healthful 
 and productive effort. She feeds the poor and clothes 
 the naked ; she enlightens the ignorant, assists the 
 
 Mu. of Church. 19 
 
98 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 feeble, and raises up the fallen. She discourages 
 vice, that waster of time and money, that weakener 
 of physical, intellectual, and moral vigor. She en 
 courages Virtue, and leads her into the field as the 
 most productive laborer for the weal of the race. She 
 excites industry and rewards it, and stanches earth s 
 flowing miseries by healing its deep wounds of sin. 
 She turns the current of human desire from war to 
 peace, from oppression to freedom, from idolatry, big 
 otry, and imposture, to the pure worship of the true 
 God. 
 
 Such is the productive mission of charity to which 
 we would divert the streams of wealth, now flowing 
 in the spendthrift channels of wasteful superfluity. 
 And for one who admits her claims as obligatory, it 
 would not seem difficult to arbitrate between them 
 and those of prodigality. Perceiving the difference 
 in their nature from their different results, he will be 
 sweetly impelled to economy, feeling that the noble 
 ness of the end raises it above the suspicion of mean 
 ness, to the rank of the most generous and honorable 
 virtues. He will reflect that what he expends in 
 luxury and self-aggrandizement, is so much withheld 
 from the poor, so much refused as a loan to the Lord, 
 leaving a corresponding amount of grief unassuaged, 
 of vice unchecked, and of eternal misery unprevent- 
 ed, He will reflect that such expenditures not only 
 diminish his power, but lessen his desire to do good ; 
 that they are not only a robbery of others, but an 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 99 
 
 injury to himself. He will remember that such su 
 perfluities, by placing him in the rank of eager com 
 petitors in the circle of fashion, take him out from 
 the simplicity of the gospel, and setting him in prac 
 tical contradiction to its precepts, present him as a 
 tempter to others by his evil example. 
 
 Are you anxious to do good on a larger scale than 
 you have felt your means would allow? Inspect 
 your wardrobe, and see if something may not be 
 saved by economy from the imposts which it has 
 laid upon your resources, and your condition be as 
 comfortable and your attire as comely. Survey your 
 table, and see if something may not be spared from 
 its viands and dainties, and enough remain for rich 
 contentment and hospitable cheer. Make Conscience 
 the steward of thy house, holding his lamp, like that 
 in the urn of Olybius, " alive and light, although 
 close and invisible." Let him report of all your ap 
 propriations, how much is for the gratification of the 
 appetites, how much ministers to pride, to vanity, to 
 ambitious rivalry with lovers of themselves. Let his 
 inspection be minute, and deem him not an inter- 
 meddler. Accept his report, and from all upon which 
 he writes extravagance," turn the current of your 
 expenditures into the channels of beneficence. Are 
 you reluctant to do this ? Reluctant to part with 
 your superfluities, your luxuries ministers to pride 
 and fashio i and voluptuousness in order to obtain 
 the means of a more enlarged beneficence ! 
 
103 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 But " rny station in life is fixed, and I must con 
 form to the circle in which I move." If you belong 
 to a circle, the customs of which require you to waste 
 your Lord s money, may it not be your duty to 
 "come out from among them, and be separate?" 
 Would not this, besides enabling you to give more, 
 exempt you from many temptations and evils from 
 which your character and influence are now suffer 
 ing. 
 
 Are you unable to give more in charity than you 
 now do ? How can this be, when you are able to 
 spend so much in superfluous and costly attire, -n 
 ornaments, " the chains and the bracelets, the rings 
 and changeable suits of apparel, and mantles, and 
 wimples, and crisping pins ?" If you are too pooi 
 to appropriate more in beneficence, are you not too 
 poor to wear such exponents of wealth, too poor to 
 feast on such costly dainties, too poor to dwell in 
 habitations which are the index of princely fortunes ? 
 
 You can afford to give no more ! Yes, if you will 
 economize, you can. If you will "remember the 
 words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive," you will feel that 
 you are too poor to give so little. Has not your econ 
 omy, if you have practised it, been rather in the de 
 partment of beneficence, than in that of superfluous 
 expenditures ? Transfer retrenchment from the giv 
 ing to the expending side, and you will be able to 
 give more. Wear less of your wealth, and you will 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 101 
 
 be able. Consume less in the Epicurean delicacies 
 of your table, and you will be able. Dispose of that 
 part of your plate and jewelry which subserves no 
 higher purpose than ostentatious display, and you 
 will be able to give more for the mitigation of hu 
 man woe, and the salvation of the world. The very 
 decision to commence such retrenchment from benev 
 olent motives, would bring your Christian character, 
 under God, to the period of a new development, and 
 the recollection of such economy, for such a purpose, 
 would be a sweet reflection mingling in your dying 
 thoughts. 
 
 Happy was that distinguished example of Chris 
 tian simplicity, economy, and beneficence, John Wes 
 ley, in the generous devotion with which he conse 
 crated his substance to the cause of humanity and 
 of God. Suspecting that he had more wealth than 
 was apparent, the Accountant-general sent him the 
 following note, with a copy of the " Excise order for 
 the return of plate." " Reverend sir As the com 
 missioners cannot doubt but you have plate, for which 
 you have hitherto neglected to make an entry," etc. 
 To this, the following answer was returned : " Sir, 
 I have two silver spoons at London, and two at Bris 
 tol, and I shall not buy any more while so many 
 around me want bread." 
 
 If all Christians would devote to beneficence the 
 fruits of a reasonable economy, from what practical 
 inconsistency would the church be reclaimed. From 
 
IQ2 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 what reproach, would she be saved, among those 
 who now see her bowing with the eagerness of a 
 cfevotee at the shrine of Fashion, that " Juggernaut 
 of Christian lands." Oh, how would it contribute 
 to make her "the perfection of beauty, the joy of the 
 whole earth." 
 
 We do not assume to prescribe any certain degree 
 of economy or scale of retrenchment, or to interfere 
 with the refinements and proprieties of a pure Chris 
 tianity ; but only to assert, that no one can be sure 
 that he is doing what he ought in works of charity, 
 unless he has introduced the principle of saving by 
 economy. No rank or station or amount of wealth 
 can exempt him from the obligation involved in it. 
 And no one, from love to God, can thus bring his bene 
 ficence into harmony with his ability, without great 
 benefit to himself. Subjected to the influence of His 
 example who never wasted a single moment, nor 
 squandered a single feeling, but turned every thing 
 to the beneficent account of saving the world, his life 
 would be more happy, his death more peaceful, and 
 a brighter crown would wreathe his brow in the 
 heavenly glory. 
 
 5. Every man s beneficence should be proportion 
 ate to what he can spare by self-denial. "What is 
 self-denial ? Is it to give liberally of our income, 
 yet withholding for ourselves the whole of the vested 
 wealth from which it is derived? Is it to make 
 large donations to the destitute and miserable, retain- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 103 
 
 ing enough to live according to the fashion of this 
 world, in luxury and splendor ? Is it to cut off the 
 extravagances and superfluities of life, reserving for 
 ourselves all its conveniences and comforts? Is it 
 not something more than this ? Look at the spirit 
 of devotion signalizing the conduct of some Chris 
 tian philanthropists, of Mrs. Fry, of Sarah Martin, 
 and of Howard, " the habitual passion of whose mind 
 was a measure of feeling almost equal to the tempo 
 rary extremes and paroxysms of common minds." 
 Look at the self-sacrificing spirit of not a few modern 
 missionaries of a Harriet Newell, a Mrs. Judson 
 of a Swartz, a Gary, and a Morrison of a Dober 
 and a Leopold, who, that they might tell the poor 
 negroes of a Saviour s love, offered to sell themselves 
 into slavery, if no other means could be found of 
 access to them. Look at the patriarchs Abraham 
 offering up his son, his only son, at the command 
 of the Lord; Moses "refusing to be called the son of 
 Pharaoh s daughter, esteeming the reproach of Christ 
 greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." Look 
 "at the apostles, counting not their own lives dear 
 unto them, " rejoicing that they were counted worthy 
 to sufTer shame " in their Master s cause. Look at 
 the life of Jesus, at his humiliation, his ignominy, 
 his agony, and learn what self-denial is. Are you 
 poor ? So was he, yet it was for your sake. Are 
 you rich? So was he, yet "he became poor, that ye 
 through his poverty might be rich." He "redeemed 
 
104 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 us from the curse of the law, being made a curse foi 
 us." It is in Christ crucified as a sacrifice for sin, 
 that we are to learn the full significance of the term 
 self-denial. It was not simply in his leaving the 
 bosom of the Father, in his enduring the contradic 
 tion of sinners, that Christ s sacrifice consisted, no, 
 yet in the infamy of being pronounced guilty, and sen 
 tenced as a malefactor at a human tribunal ; but it 
 was in the burden of sin which he assumed, anr s 
 on account of which he was forsaken of his Father 
 It was in the agony of soul the anguish of a spirit 
 which " knew no sin, yet was made sin for us." Here 
 is suffering sacrifice here is self-denial in its di- 
 vinest form. The subjection of our personal ease 
 and tastes and conveniences, our comforts and time 
 and possessions, to the will of Christ, for his glory 
 and human good, is in us, its highest realization. It 
 leads to the performance of whatever may contribute 
 to Christ s glory, and to the relinquishment to his dis 
 posal of whatsoever of our possessions may subserve 
 the advancement of his kingdom. 
 
 Self-denial is the great law of our religion. It 
 began in Christ, our Head. It must pervade all the 
 members. It led him to give up all for us. It should 
 lead us to give up all for him. "Whosoever therefore 
 would become a benefactor of the race, must share the 
 wants and woes of his fellow-men by personal sacrifice, 
 in his efforts to relieve them. This is self-denial, tho 
 subjection of self to the principle of love, the annihi- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 105 
 
 lation of selfishness, and the enthronement of Christ 
 in the soul. Away, then, with the idea of ease, of 
 luxury, when that work of mercy, commenced with 
 such a sacrifice, is pressing upon the church with all 
 the urgency of the Saviour s last command. Away 
 with the idea of convenience, of comfort, when such 
 a motive calls us to sacrifice and self-denial. Oh, it 
 is a shame that a work like this should be retarded 
 by the self-indulgence of the disciples of so self-deny 
 ing a Master. It is a sin that devoted co-laborers 
 with him should be allowed to feel the necessity of 
 retrenchment in their heaven-commissioned work, to 
 stop their presses, disband their schools, and give back 
 half-reclaimed territory to the barrenness and blight 
 of Paganism; and this, because those who sent them 
 to the work, are unwilling to deny themselves. We 
 blush to remember, that in the progress of modern 
 missions, laborers have been kept back from the 
 whitening fields, and the reaper s sickle has been 
 hung upon the bough, and the harvest has wasted 
 because there were none to gather it, and this for 
 want of nothing but self-denial. And we pray the 
 Lord of the vineyard to forgive our apathy and self- 
 indulgence, to blot out the record of the past, and to 
 save his people from causing it again to be traced. 
 Under the most pressing pecuniary embarrassments, 
 imbued with the beneficent spirit of the gospel, and 
 influenced by the example of Jesus and the worth 
 of souls, the church could have doubled her contribu- 
 
106 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 tions from what she might have spared by self-denial. 
 Constrained by the influence of such motives, self- 
 denial "becomes a kind of self-gratification, and it is 
 tenfold harder to retain what can be spared by self- 
 denial, than to lay it at the feet of Christ. Before 
 the cross, the sanctified soul repels the idea of re 
 stricting its offerings to that which costs it nothing. 
 Gratitude casts all her living into the treasury of 
 the Lord, and Love pours her most precious ointment 
 upon the Saviour s dying head. The one feels that 
 her all is too little, and the other, that her most 
 costly tribute is too poor to express the fervor of her 
 affection, and the entireness of her devotion. 
 
 Go, then, walk with Christ in the garden. Stand 
 by him upon Calvary, and witness his ignominy and 
 his agony. Remember, that " He was wounded for 
 your transgressions," that " He was bruised for your 
 iniquities." By the crown which he left in heaven, 
 by the cross which he endured on earth, by the love 
 which he bears for you, by the worth of the soul for 
 which he died, he calls you to deny yourself. By 
 the superior moral value of the gleanings of self- 
 denial over the surplusage of abundance, and by the 
 heavenly glory, the way to which is through his 
 own sacrifice, he calls you to deny yourself. He 
 calls you to this, as the only proof that " the same 
 mind is in you which was also in him." He asks 
 for your choicest treasures, your best services. "Whom 
 wilt thou deny? Him, or thyself? When, as from 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 107 
 
 the cross, ye liear him say, "Freely ye have received, 
 freely give," will ye not freely give ? When, as 
 ascending up on high, ye see him pointing to the 
 whitening fields, will ye not deny yourselves, that 
 the wasting harvest may be gathered in ? 
 
 " Commit to Christ thine all, so shall thy treasure be 
 Secure from moth and rust, from theft, and fire, and sea ; 
 And in the final day, transmuted to pure gold, 
 Thy safe investment then shall yield thee wealth untold." 
 
 We have now submitted the main principles relat 
 ing to proportion in beneficence. We have endeavor 
 ed to show that each man s charitable contributions 
 should be proportionate to the ends sought, to the 
 instrumentality to be applied, and to his pecuniary 
 ability. We have examined the question of ability 
 in the light cast upon it by the beneficence of the 
 Jeivish church, by the beneficent spirit of the early 
 Christians, and by the Bible doctrine, as deduced 
 from the express declarations of Scripture. We have 
 also viewed the question of each man s ability, ac 
 cording to which his proportion should be adjusted, 
 in its relation to the sum total of his property, to 
 the amount of his income, to what he can earn by 
 industry, to what he can save by economy, and to 
 what he can spare by self-denial. 
 
 In concluding this part of our subject, we wish 
 comprehensively to re-state and to enforce the lead 
 ing MOTIVES which should secure the practical adop 
 tion of the principles. 
 
108 r IHE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 1 . The devotement to beneficence of a just por 
 tion of our property gives to it its highest value 
 Nothing is more obvious than that the value of 
 money is wholly relative, and that it is determined 
 by its use. "We concede the legitimate value and 
 use of property for sustenance and comfort, for in 
 tellectual and moral improvement. And the amount 
 thus applied should be all that the circumstances 
 require. What is not necessary for these purposes, 
 finds its highest value when devoted to beneficence. 
 Compare its value, when thus consecrated, with that 
 which it possesses when expended for selfish pur 
 poses. One man accumulates and hoards. His gains 
 answer no higher an end than to inflame a sordid 
 desire for wealth, and to feed a hidden fire that con 
 sumes all humane and generous affections. He makes 
 " gold his hope, and says unto the fine gold, thou 
 art my confidence." He toils for wealth, but when 
 obtained, he will not use it. And the more he ac 
 quires, the less he is satisfied with what he has. 
 His wants increase faster than his possessions, so 
 that the richer he becomes, the poorer he feels. 
 To such madness has this abuse of wealth been per 
 mitted, in judicial visitation, to carry men, that the 
 possessor of thousands has clung to his hoarded 
 treasures with such an insane tenacity, and been in 
 such an agony of want for more, that he has died oi 
 actual starvation. Truly, " There is that maketh 
 himself rich, yet hath nothing." Well does the 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. 109 
 
 Scripture say of such an one, "He shall be buried 
 with the burial of an ass." " His riches are cor 
 rupted, his garments are moth-eaten, his silver and 
 gold are cankered, and the rust of them shall be a 
 witness against him, and shall eat his flesh as it 
 were fire." 
 
 Another accumulates and squanders. Appetite 
 and pleasure absorb his substance. Disease is en 
 gendered, time wasted, vice nurtured, and mind 
 imbruted. And the more he squanders in sensual 
 gratification, the more imperious is the demand for 
 still farther gratification, until "the floor of the 
 wine-press shall not feed" him, and "he shall eat, 
 but not have enough." Thus, whether wealth be 
 hoarded or squandered, it loses its value. It is an 
 abuse of the divine bounty an abuse which deranges 
 the mental and moral, as well as the physical pow 
 ers, and dooms the soul to eternal penury an abuse 
 which has made the world an abode of paupers and 
 prodigals, of misers and maniacs. 
 
 See, now,, the value of wealth when appropriated 
 to cliarity. It feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, 
 is eyes to the blind, and feet is it to the lame. 
 It "visits tfre fatherless and the widow," reclaims 
 the vicious, and leads wandering, guilty man back 
 to the fatherly mansions, and to a forgiving God. 
 Such a use gratifies the benevolent desires, and this 
 gratification adds to their strength and intensity, 
 and every such increase of force imparts a greater 
 
HO THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 excellence to the character, by bringing it into agree 
 ment with the character of God. In this way wealth 
 attains its highest value. Thus applied, it harmo 
 nizes with the benevolence of the Creator, and with 
 the compassions of the Redeemer. It is promotive 
 of the end for which God created man, and of the 
 objects for which Christ died. Its use is based upon 
 the recognition of a higher than sensual principle in 
 man, and a loftier than earthly destiny. It sets 
 forth the cross as the grand central attraction, and 
 proceeds on the conviction that the noblest of all 
 influences, and the sublimest of all agencies, are 
 those which combine to draw men unto it. It is, 
 we repeat, precisely here that wealth attains its 
 highest value in subserving the interests of hu 
 manity, and the glory of God. This end, from its 
 intrinsic dignity, imparts to whatsoever means it 
 employs their greatest worth. Apart from this, 
 nothing is truly noble or exalted. This makes giv 
 ing the art of gaining the true philosopher s stone. 
 It turns the hoarded gold into lead, and the given 
 mite into gold. When one sees that beneficence 
 thus embalms his wealth in the form of its highest 
 possible value, and gives it to him as a perpetually 
 increasing fund, as an instrument of good, as a means 
 of grace, and as an auxiliary of heaven, will he not 
 labor to acquire, and acquire that he may give ? 
 
 2. The devotement to beneficence of a just por 
 tion of our property, secures our own highest inter- 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. HI 
 
 ests. It is a satisfaction to know th&t the proportion 
 of our, substance devoted to beneficence is in ngree- 
 ment with the divine will. It is an additional satis 
 faction to feel that our wealth is thus attaining its 
 highest value. It is a happiness to witness the 
 blessed influence thus exerted, in the alleviation of 
 human woe, and the removal of human sin; in 
 kindling immortal hopes, and adding star after star 
 to Immanuel s diadern. To know and feel this, is 
 to enjoy the luxury of doing good. " When the ear 
 heard me, then it blessed me ; and when the eye 
 saw me, it gave witness to me : because I delivered 
 the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that 
 had none to help him. The blessing of him that 
 was ready to perish came upon me ; and I caused 
 the widow s heart to sing for joy." Such a use of 
 our property brings us into harmony with the attri 
 butes of God, and with the highest interests of man. 
 It identifies our interests with the interests of Jeho 
 vah. Placing them under the protection of infinite 
 power and the guidance of infinite wisdom, by the 
 operation of all moral principles and the fmmutabil- 
 ity of the divine purposes it secures them beyond 
 the possibility of invasion. 
 
 The great secret, then, of advancing our own in 
 terests, is in the annihilation of selfishness, and in 
 assimilation to God. His peculiar blessedness con 
 sists in doing good. He " giveth us richly all things 
 to enjoy." Air and sunlight, rain and dew, are 
 
112 THE MISSION OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 ceaselessly flowing from his hand. Our happiness 
 will be like his, as, in beneficence, our lives resemble 
 his. Hence, it is more" blessed to give than to re 
 ceive ; for giving brings us into more perfect sym 
 pathy with Christ in his redeeming work, and pours 
 into the soul the blessedness which he contemplated, 
 when, " for the joy that was set before him, he en 
 dured the cross." "What we give is given back to 
 us again, good measure, pressed down, and running 
 over. It is this that scattereth, and yet increaseth. 
 This maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow therewith. 
 "We honor the Lord with our substance and our barns 
 are filled with plenty, and our presses burst out with 
 the new wine of joy. We sow bountifully, and we 
 reap also bountifully of all the fruits of the Spirit. All 
 that we thus give in charge to Providence, shall 
 return in the elements of a greater good. All that 
 we thus employ for Christ, Mall be treasure laid up 
 in heaven to await our arrival. For all that we thus 
 give to the poor, we " shall receive manifold more in 
 this present time, and in the world to come life ever 
 lasting." Thus is solved that old, paradoxical epi 
 taph, "What I kept, I lost; what I gave, I have." 
 Truly, " There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath 
 great riches." When we see that it is only what 
 we give that enriches us, shall we not give ? When 
 we see that, in respect to property, we are worth 
 just the amount of good which we do with it, shall 
 we not do good ? When we see that beneficence is 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE. H3 
 
 the chief work of God, that we live in a world cf 
 which the fittest description is, it " is full of his good 
 ness ;" when we see that our happiness can be like 
 his, only as our character and conduct resemble his, 
 shall we not be beneficent ? 
 
 3. The devotement to beneficence of a just portion 
 of our property, promotes the glory of God. This 
 is the highest motive which can influence holy beings, 
 the noblest end to which they can devote their lives. 
 This overwhelms all conflicting influences, and, go 
 ing beyond all considerations of self-interest, leads to 
 entire consecration. It is this its direction to the 
 noblest end that gives to Christian beneficence in 
 the simplest act, its intrinsic worth and dignity. 
 This joins the " farthing" of a grateful love to the 
 ends for which Jehovah created and is governing 
 the world . It brings it within that system of means, 
 by which is to be wrought out, in the recovery of 
 a lost world, the demonstration that " God is love." 
 Every beneficent act ascends up high as the throne 
 of God, and, incorporated among the redeeming agen 
 cies of the cross, stretches wide as the curse is found. 
 It is in this connection of beneficence with the 
 means and influences by which the Almighty is ac 
 complishing the redemption of the world, " to the 
 praise and glory of his grace," that we find the 
 most urgent calls to it. Here motive reaches its 
 highest power, and argument its most persuasive 
 appeal. In this is the realization of man s highest 
 
 Mi,of-h .uvh, 20 
 
114 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 interests, by the attainment of the highest ends of 
 his being the ceaseless oblation of his substance 
 and himself to God, as a living protestation against 
 the selfishness which dishonors and would dethrone 
 him. 
 
 Is the divine glory promoted by human obedience ? 
 Beneficence is obedience. Is God honored by the 
 expression of a grateful sense of his goodness ? Be 
 neficence is such an expression. Does he delight in 
 the testimonials of a fervent love ? Beneficence is 
 such a testimonial. " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto them, ye have done it unto me." Do the oppo- 
 sites of these dishonor God ? Covetousness is the 
 concentration of them all. It closes the ear to his 
 claims in the cries of his poor, and withholds from 
 him the heart. It denies him his crown, and places 
 a stigma upon Christ s voluntary assumption of pov 
 erty for the redemption of the world. " Take heed, 
 and beware of covetousness." It is among the most 
 humiliating forms of sin among the greatest tri 
 umphs of Satan. Shall we dishonor him whom all 
 the angels in heaven adore? Shall we withhold 
 from him what it should be our chief joy to lay at 
 his feet, our wealth, our influence, our all ? By the 
 highest value of riches, by your own best interests, 
 by the honor of the Saviour, by the glory of God, 
 "trust not in uncertain riches." By the goodness 
 of the Lord, by the love of Christ, by the bliss of 
 heaven, be " rich in good works, ready to distribute, 
 
PROPORTION IN BENEFICENCE, H5 
 
 willing to communicate, laying up for yourselves a 
 good foundation against the time to come, that ye 
 may lay hold on eternal life." 
 
 Thy gold s ui-ue worth, thy weal, God s glory, are agreed 
 Then scatter wide and free thy heaven-intrusted seedj 
 So shalt thou reap a golden harvest most divine, 
 And like th.3 brightness of the firmament shalt shin?.** 
 
116 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 
 I. PROVISIONS OF SYSTEM. 
 
 No system can be considered as complete, as suit 
 ed to develope in the church the beneficent spirit of 
 the gospel, and secure from each of its members a 
 just proportion of his substance in charitable contri 
 butions, Avhich does not make provision for proper 
 instruction concerning the use of property, and for 
 communicating information respecting the condi 
 tion and ivants of the ivorld ; for the appropriation, 
 at stated times,, by each one, of a due proportion of 
 his substance to beneficence ; and for some plan on 
 , the part of every church for collecting the contribu 
 tions of its members, and for applying them to the 
 objects for which they are designed. 
 
 1 . System in beneficence provides for instruction 
 concerning the use of property, and for communi 
 cating information respecting the condition and 
 wants of the world. Too much may have been pre 
 sumed on the knowledge of Christians respecting the 
 use which God requires them to make of their prop 
 erty, and consequently, in the prosecution of their 
 business, they have, through ignorance, been exposed 
 to the growth of a covetous spirit, with the increase 
 of their possessions. From motives of delicacy, relig 
 ious teachers who receive their support from the vol- 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. H7 
 
 untary subscriptions of their people, may have shrunk 
 from the same "degree of explicitness upon this sub 
 ject which they have felt to be necessary in respect 
 to other Christian duties. And the difficulty which 
 some pastors have experienced in securing the full 
 amount of their support, or the. consciousness that 
 when received it was inadequate for this purpose, 
 has increased the embarrassment. 
 
 And many hearers, who have been ready to ap 
 plaud the clearest and fullest exposition of dogmatic 
 truth, have sometimes evinced a remarkable sensi 
 tiveness to any direct application of the duty of be 
 neficence. They are sound on all points of accredited 
 orthodoxy, and lend their approval to the rebukes of 
 all heresy, except that of believing that their money 
 is their own, and that they may expend it as they- 
 please, without let or hinderance. That such has 
 been the feeling of not a few hearers, and such the 
 condition of some pastors, is quite certain ; and as a 
 natural consequence, many churches, that have been 
 thoroughly taught in respect to other Christian doc 
 trines and duties, have failed to receive due instruc 
 tion upon the subject of Christian beneficence. 
 
 If a people feel that they are too poor to contribute 
 to charitable objects, let the pastor ascertain whether 
 it may not be merely a matter of feeling, occasioned 
 by the want of more scriptural views, or by the 
 absence of information respecting the wants of the 
 world, for which they may justly have looked to 
 
118 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 him. Are they poorer than the widow who cast 
 into the treasury of the Lord all her living ? If not, 
 instruct them in the doctrine, and duty, and bless 
 edness of Christian liberality, and they will give. 
 Spread out before them the wastes and wants of the 
 world, and they will give. Let them give a little 
 once, and they will wish to give again, and a little 
 more. And what they give to other objects will 
 not be taken from the support of him who is lead 
 ing them to the luxury of doing good. The specific 
 for a pastor to starve himself away from his people, 
 is to decline instructing them in the duty of benefi 
 cence, and to withhold from them a knowledge of 
 the ivants of a j)erishing ivorld. By such a course, 
 he injures both them and himself, and dishonors his 
 Master. His people are entitled to instruction. It 
 is his duty to give it to them. This should enter, 
 as an important element, into his plans of ministe 
 rial labor among them. If they will be covetous, 
 let them know that no " covetous, man, who is an 
 idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of 
 Christ and of God." If they refuse to deny them 
 selves, they should understand that self-danial is the 
 condition of discipleship, and that they have turned 
 away from the cross, " sorrowful," it may be yet 
 they HAVE turned away. 
 
 But no; those who love our Lord Jasus Christ 
 will no more disobey him here than elsewhere, if 
 they are rightly instructed in their duty. The 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. H9 
 
 church will respond to his calls, if she understands 
 them. She did do it in the days of the apostles and 
 primitive Christians, and she is beginning to do it in 
 our own days. Let the spirit of beneficence, as the 
 antidote to selfishness, be developed in the hearts of 
 Christians, by instruction from the pulpit, in the 
 concert of prayer, or convention. Let the claims of 
 benevolence be freely canvassed. They are founded 
 in principles of the most genuine philanthropy and 
 the purest religion. They are enforced by the power 
 of the cross. They are urged by the woes of count 
 less millions, and by the bliss of which these mill 
 ions are capable. Oh, let them be known, let them 
 be seen by the church, and she will open her arms 
 to leceive them as the representatives of her divine 
 Redeemer, and honor them with her most precious 
 treasures. If we would displace covetousness from 
 the hearts of Christians, and introduce benevolence 
 in its stead, we must apply the power of Christian 
 doctrine, and open before them the channels of Chris 
 tian beneficence, and lure them by the attraction of 
 Christian motives. This is God s remedy, and, if 
 applied, it will be made effectual. 
 
 If the world is to be recovered by the propaga 
 tion of Christianity, nothing is more evident than 
 that the rising generation is to be prepared, by 
 thorough instruction, for a more martyr-like devot- 
 edness, and a higher style of achievement than has 
 marked the present generation. The hope of the 
 
120 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 church, in respect merely to its own perpetuity, is, 
 under God, in the young. For any reasonable plans 
 of successful propagation, the main preparatory work 
 must be with them. The present generation has 
 accomplished more in this respect than did the, last. 
 The next must go far beyond the present. But, for 
 this, the spirit of beneficence must be earlier infused 
 into it, that, through its deeper root in a richer soil, 
 it may yield a riper and more abundant fruit. " Tell 
 your children of this, and let your children tell their 
 children, and their children another generation." 
 But who shall give this instruction ? We answer, 
 first, an important duty devolves on parents. They 
 should teach their children, by precept and example, 
 to give liberally and systematically. The shepherd 
 of the flock has also a responsible agency. It is his 
 work, made incumbent by his relations to his people, 
 and by the terms of his commission. The main reli 
 ance, under God, for the cultivation of a beneficent 
 spirit in the church, and for making her charity a 
 work of intelligence, of principle, and of habit, must 
 be upon her ministers. And auxiliary to the min 
 istry in securing this important result, is the Chris 
 tian press. By religious journals, and reports oi 
 benevolent societies, by tracts and treatises upon 
 missions and beneficence, much may be done to dif 
 fuse information, cultivate a sense of stewardship, 
 and awaken the elevated sentiments of Christian 
 philanthropy. In this view, the religious press is 
 
S.YSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 121 
 
 as the right arm of the Christian ministry, the cir 
 culation of a good book like a perpetually self-repeat 
 ing sermon, and all beneficent organizations are as 
 dutiful handmaids to the Christian_church. 
 
 2. System in beneficence provides for the appro 
 priation by every one, at stated times, of a due pro 
 portion of his property to charitable purposes. This 
 provision of the system is essential in order to secure 
 the full benefits of the former provision. Without 
 something of this, the principles inculcated might be 
 left inoperative, and the impressions made be soon 
 effaced, to be revived perhaps, from the pulpit, and 
 lost again by inaction, or the resumed reign of cov- 
 etousness. There are three stated periods, the weekly, 
 the monthly, and the annual, which deserve partic 
 ular consideration. 
 
 (1.) The ^veekly period. " UPON THE FIRST DAY 
 OF THE WEEK," says the apostle to the Corinthians, 
 
 " LET EVERY ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN STORE, AS 
 
 GOD HATH PROSPERED HIM." The same direction he 
 also gives to the Galatians. Here is a simple but 
 comprehensive system. Each one is required to give 
 something. This is beneficence. His charity is to 
 be " as God hath prospered him." This is pi opor- 
 tion in beneficence. It is to be laid by " upon tJie 
 first day of the iveek." This is system in benefi 
 cence. 
 
 The chief characteristics of this apostolic plan, 
 PROPORTION AND SYSTEM, are precisely those in re- 
 
122 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 spect to which the beneficence of the church is most 
 defective. And it is a little singular, that this divine 
 type should have been left on record for the express 
 benefit of the church, and yet should have been so 
 little regarded. It is simple, easy of application, 
 and effective. That some such plan should not have 
 obtained general adoption, may perhaps be best ac 
 counted for by the absence of that beneficent spirit 
 which prevailed in the primitive church. 
 
 The advantages of this plan are obvious. It rs 
 the occasion of very frequent recurrence to the prov 
 idence of G od as the source of our prosperity, and of 
 a recognition of our dependence upon him, arid of 
 our obligation to him for all that we receive. It is 
 suited to mingle thoughts of him with the pursuit 
 of all our worldly affairs, so that our religion, instead 
 of being secularized by our business, is made to ele 
 vate and sanctify it, by leading to its prosecution 
 upon the highest principles. By bringing us to so 
 frequent a review of our stewardship, it deepens the 
 feeling of responsibleness, and quickens the sensibil 
 ities to the condition of our fellow-men, and to our 
 final account. The mind being kept thus constantly 
 familiar with the ennobling principles and constrain 
 ing motives of Christian beneficence, selfishness is 
 restrained, and covetousness meets with constant 
 und almost impassible barriers. Thus a- more cor 
 rect judgment will be formed of the proportion which 
 luty requires, and the devotement of that proportion 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 123 
 
 will be prompted by more elevated religious affec 
 tions. 
 
 The most indigent can probably lay aside a cent 
 a week for an object to which they may feel unable, 
 at any one time, to contribute fifty-two cents. Many 
 more can invest in this way five, ten, or twenty 
 cents a week, who would think it impossible to sub 
 scribe two dollars and a half, or five dollars, or ten 
 dollars at any one time in the year, and who per 
 haps may not, at any one tune, be in possession of 
 an amount so large. And yet, by giving it in small 
 weekly instalments, they will defraud no one ; but, 
 doing it from gratitude to God and love to man, they 
 will become better neighbors, better citizens, better 
 men, and better Christians. 
 
 Some forty years ago, a worthy deacon of an 
 infant church in Vermont adopted this plan, from a 
 simple desire to obey the injunction of the apostle. 
 While under the elevating influence of the Sabbath 
 services, he consecrated to beneficence such a portion 
 of his income as would meet the measure of his 
 prosperity. From this deposit the various calls of 
 charity were answered, and the poor and needy were 
 never allowed to go empty away, unless it had been 
 previously much overdrawn. In this practice he 
 continued until his death, greatly to his own tempo 
 ral and spiritual advantage ; for " his root was spread 
 out by the waters, and the dew lay all night on his 
 branch." There are those who still remember the 
 
124 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 email tin trunk to which he committed these weekly 
 instalments, and who, receiving the rich legacy of 
 his example, bear testimony to its happy influence 
 upon themselves, the prosperity of the little church, 
 and the destitute around. 
 
 The only plausible objection to this plan may arise 
 from the difficulty which some might experience in 
 estimating the profits of their business, so as to ad 
 just their weekly proportion. With day-laborers, 
 and multitudes of others, this objection could have 
 little weight. With not a few it might be removed 
 by a different mode of conducting their affairs, and 
 the change might make them safer and more pros 
 perous business men. But those whose vocations 
 are of such a nature that this plan could not be 
 fully carried out, might still lay by something, and 
 refer the full adjustment of their proportion to the 
 monthly or annual estimate, as the Jews were allow 
 ed to close the appropriation of their tithes for feasts 
 and sacrifices at the expiration of every third year, 
 if not done before. 
 
 (2.) The monthly period. Those who cannot 
 decide on their degree of prosperity week by week, 
 may be able to do it once a month, and to " lay by 
 in store" accordingly. But for those who adopt the 
 monthly system, the temptation to withhold may be 
 increased by their being under the necessity of con 
 secrating a sum four times as large as the weekly 
 adjustment would require. And there may be less 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 125 
 
 tendency to create a sense of constant dependence 
 upon God, and to form as perfectly the habit of asso 
 ciating his glory with the prosecution of all their 
 worldly affairs. Still, as a substitute, in the case of 
 those who cannot do it oftener, let them- adopt the 
 spirit of the apostolic direction, and " lay by in 
 store" every month, "as God hath prospered them." 
 This has been found to possess important financial 
 as well as religious advantages. Says a prosperous 
 merchant who has adopted this plan, " This system 
 has saved me from commercial dangers, by leading 
 me to simplify business and avoid extensive credits. 
 It has made me a better merchant ; for the monthly 
 pecuniary observations which I have been wont to 
 take, though often quite laborious, have brought me 
 to a better knowledge of the state of my affairs, and 
 led me to be . more cautious and prudent than I 
 otherwise should have been. Since adopting this 
 plan, I have been no longer perplexed with doubts 
 about giving, and there is no one I meet with more 
 cheerfulness than a servant of Christ calling for 
 aid." 
 
 (3.) The annual period. To an annual survey 
 of one s business affairs, and an apportionment of 
 profits to beneficence, there can be no objection from 
 its impracticability. It accords with the principles 
 and habits of the best business men, to take an 
 annual account of stock, and estimate profits and 
 losses. The reputation and success if any one as a 
 
126 THE MISSION Of THE CHURCH. 
 
 business man require this. Men who do nothing of 
 it evince so little practical wisdom, that not much 
 can be expected from them on the score of systematic 
 beneficence. If they, give largely at one time, their 
 generosity may be at the expense of their justice, 
 and they cannot be counted upon as having any 
 thing to give when the call is repeated. But he who 
 annually casts up his accounts will know what are 
 his profits, and what the whole amount of his prop 
 erty. Then let him apply the rule of proportion, 
 and set apart for the cause of his Master, the amount 
 which that rule requires, and let the consecrated 
 sum be considered as sacred to charity. Only let 
 him be sure that the amount does not fall Lelow the 
 claims of duty, and of well regulated self-interest. 
 And if he should act upon his right to go a little 
 beyond mere duty, transcending the stern mandates 
 of conscience, and borne on by the higher sentiments 
 of gratitude and love, he would neither do himself 
 wrong, nor his neighbor harm. 
 
 We cannot withhold a joint letter, written in 1822, 
 to the treasurer of one of our foreign missionary so 
 cieties, by two individuals who had adopted a plan 
 similar to that which it has been our object to rec 
 ommend. 
 
 " When, a few years since, we commenced house 
 keeping, God in his providence saw fit to commit to 
 our care a small farm in a country town, for which 
 we owed about one-quarter of its value We had 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 127 
 
 read the various accounts of the benevolent exertions 
 of the day, and were anxious to join with our fellow- 
 Christians in their acts of charity. But how could 
 we obtain the means ? Our family must be support 
 ed, and we must pay our debts, or we should wrong 
 one man while giving to another. 
 
 " After deliberating upon the subject, and reflect 
 ing that what we owed would not probably all be 
 wanted for several years, we concluded, in the first 
 place, to attend diligently to business, as God should 
 give us health and strength, and to expend nothing 
 for the support of ourselves and family but what was 
 absolutely necessary for our health and comfort 
 We then fixed upon a certain proportion of our debts, 
 which we would endeavor to pay annually, and so 
 much only, unless more was wanted ; but if wanted, 
 we would pay to the last of our ability. After pay 
 ing the proportion of our debts agreed upon, the 
 remainder of our income, whether more or less, was 
 to be expended, according to the best of our judg 
 ment, in doing good. 
 
 " When we adopted this plan, we concluded that 
 it was best to review it at stated periods, and if we 
 conscientiously thought it our duty, to alter it ; but 
 not otherwise. After several years experiment, we 
 are more and more convinced that it is our duty 
 strictly to adhere to it. God has blessed our labors 
 in a remarkable degree. We can almost say that 
 he has fulfilled to us his promise to Israel, that he 
 
128 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 would bless them in all that which they should put 
 their hands unto." 
 
 How striking is this illustration of the ease with 
 which systematic arrangements may "be introduced 
 into our beneficent operations, even in difficult cir 
 cumstances. Let every disciple of Jesus go and do 
 likewise, and the days of retrenchment and penury 
 and mourning to the cause of benevolence would be 
 ended, and " Israel would blossom and bud, and fill 
 the face of the world with fruit." 
 
 (4.) There is yet one other plan, which has been 
 adopted by some with advantage. It is that of set 
 ting apart a certain portion of each gain in every 
 enterprise, and devoting it to beneficence. This per 
 haps approaches nearer to the Jewish system than 
 either of the others. Of all their several gains, the 
 Jews were required to give a portion to the Lord, in 
 the form of first-fruits and tithes. This brought them 
 almost constantly under the influence of some sacred 
 claim upon their substance. Everywhere they were 
 reminded of their dependence upon their Maker, and 
 of their obligations to him. Everywhere they were 
 taught that they were constant receivers, by being 
 called to be constant givers. And why was this but 
 to prevent and destroy cov etousness, and to induce 
 habits of beneficence ? And what could be more 
 admirably adjusted as means to the end, everywhere 
 meeting a divine claim, or the most animating mo 
 tives to liberality ? How must such a system bring 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 129 
 
 one into an all-surrounding atmosphere of benefi 
 cence. 
 
 Its advantages are nearly allied to those of the 
 first-named plan. And the near resemblance of the 
 system proposed by the Jewish lawgiver to that pre 
 sented by the Christian apostle, is easily accounted 
 for by the fact, that both the lawgiver and the apos 
 tle were under divine guidance. It was in both 
 cases the all-creative Mind propounding to man 
 principles of beneficence most suited to his charac 
 ter and condition, and most conducive to his highest 
 interests and the glory of God. 
 
 The operation of these principles is beautifully 
 illustrated in the following epistle, written in 1823, 
 and addressed to the secretary of one of our benevo 
 lent societies. 
 
 " I have long been desirous of rendering some aid 
 to your society. My circumstances, however, have 
 been such that I knew not how to contribute money. 
 But having recently commenced business, with very 
 moderate prospects, it occurred to me that I had a 
 right, if it were not clearly my duty, to set apart a 
 certain portion of the Lord s gifts, for his cause in 
 the earth. I have therefore taken a certain part of 
 every gain, small or great, and devoted it to the 
 service of God. I would not trouble you with this 
 communication, were it not to tell you of the satis 
 faction I have derived from this plan. The money 
 laid aside is not considered mine. The only inquiry, 
 
 Miss, of Church. * 1 
 
130 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 when an application is made, is, Have I any thing 
 in the treasury, and how can I dispose of it to the best 
 advantage ? I feel as though I were putting my hand 
 into the Lord s treasury and acting for him. I have 
 no doubt, sir, that the deductions made on every 
 gain have been saved in carefulness and economy." 
 
 Who can resist the conviction of the superior ex 
 cellence of such principles as this letter and the pre 
 ceding illustrations exhibit? Who can doubt the 
 utility of reducing them, as these Christians did, to 
 systematic operation ? Were they not better for their 
 beneficence ; richer in all that which constitutes 
 true worth richer in the means and the desire of 
 doing good richer in all the elements of rational 
 enjoyment here, arid in the immortal hopes of bless 
 edness hereafter ? 
 
 3. System in benelicence provides for some plan 
 in every church for collecting its charitable contri 
 butions, and for applying them to the objecis for 
 ^vh^ch they are designed. It is obvious that this is 
 essential to the completion of a perfect system. 
 
 There are some objects to which the donors them 
 selves should be the distributers of their own bounty, 
 as the poor, the sick, and the afflicted, within the 
 sphere of their immediate action. The benign and 
 ialutary influence of bestowing private charities is 
 too precious to be lost by making another the almo 
 ner of our bounties, when we are in circumstances 
 to apply them ourselves. 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 131 
 
 It is mainly with respect to the prominent and 
 accredited institutions of benevolence, whether relat 
 ing to the claims of our own or of other countries 
 that this part of our system is to be arranged. Foi 
 these various objects, collections are sometimes taken 
 at the close of public service, at the -time when the 
 objects are presented. It is an objection to this 
 method, that it leaves out of account those who may 
 on such occasions be absent, and secures a smaller 
 sum from those who are present, than a different 
 plan might elicit. Cards are sometimes placed in 
 the slips of the church, upon which each one is 
 requested to write his name, with the sum which 
 he wishes to give. In -addition to the above-named 
 objection, which is equally applicable to this mode 
 many who would otherwise contribute, a little, dis 
 liking to place their names to a small sum, subscribe 
 nothing. We believe that by some wise system, a 
 larger amount may be secured, and with greater 
 advantage to the donor. The minutiae of a plan 
 for charitable collections must be determined by the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case. Little more can 
 here be done than to draw the outline of one, which 
 can be filled up by those who may carry it into 
 operation. 
 
 Let provision be made by the church, at the open 
 ing of the year, for the presentation of the claims oi 
 the various benevolent objects at stated times, and 
 let one or more suitable persons be appointed for 
 
132 THE MISSION OF THE CHU11CH. 
 
 each different object, to solicit donations hi its be 
 half. 
 
 When these stated periods arrive, it will be in 
 harmony with the provision for systematic instruc 
 tion, for the pastor, either himself or by an agent, to 
 present such facts and principles as will increase the 
 religious intelligence of the people, elevate in their 
 minds the great work of Christian beneficence, and 
 bring them more under the influence of appropriate 
 motives to liberality, in behalf of the particular ob 
 ject presented. 
 
 Let the solicitors appointed follow the presentation 
 of these claims by calling from house to house, giv 
 ing an opportunity to each individual, children as 
 well as parents, to contribute what they may have 
 appropriated for the object, answering any inquiries, 
 and imparting such additional information as they 
 way be able to give. 
 
 Let each one of these solicitors make a list of the 
 names of those upon whom he calls, with the sev 
 eral sums contributed by each, to be given to the 
 pastor when the collection is completed. Of the 
 sum total of his collections let him also make a return 
 to a treasurer chosen for the purpose, or to the pas 
 tor, by whom the money will be transmitted as soon 
 as practicable to the treasurer of the society for 
 which it is designed. 
 
 From the lists returned for the several objects 
 during the year, let the pastor make an annual 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. l^J 
 
 report to the church and congregation, with such 
 instructions and remarks as the facts in the case 
 may suggest. 
 
 Such are the provisions which seem essential to a 
 complete system in beneficence, whether viewed in 
 relation to the wants of the church, or the condition 
 of the world. A system like this imposes a duty 
 upon pastors, upon individual Christians, and upon 
 the church. It secures instruction and religious in 
 formation, thus touching most effectively the springs 
 of beneficent action. It provides for a stated time, 
 at which each one shall apply the rule of propor 
 tion, and lay by in store according to the ability 
 that God giveth. It includes a simple but compre 
 hensive plan for charitable collections, and for apply 
 ing funds to the objects for which they are designed. 
 It is in harmony with the means appointed by the 
 Redeemer for the sanctification of his people, and 
 through them for the salvation of the world. And 
 it may be regarded as a recommendation to this plan, 
 that while it recognizes the instrumentality of the 
 general benevolent organizations, as the applying 
 agents of the church, their influence comes in to 
 confirm, rather than disturb the relations of the pas 
 tor to his people, and to impress upon the church its 
 responsibility in regard to its beneficent mission ab 
 the great divinely instituted body for the world s 
 conversion. 
 
134 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 II. TENDENCIES AND ADVANTAGES OF SYSTEM. 
 
 1. System in beneficence diminishes the expen 
 diture of benevolent societies for agencies. It is 
 one of the evils resulting from the present unsys- 
 tematized beneficence of the church, that so much 
 expenditure is necessary for the support of agents 
 for collecting funds. There can be no doubt, that 
 in regard to the principal benevolent organizations, 
 some expenditure of this kind in the past state of 
 things has been necessary. But any considerable 
 appropriation for this purpose has come to be felt by 
 all to be a serious drawback, not only in respect to 
 the funds thus expended, but also from its tendency 
 to occasion distrust in the minds of the less informed 
 and less interested. And it is also felt that the 
 time has come when, by means of system, nearly 
 the whole of this expenditure might be saved. The 
 secretaries and officers could communicate intelli 
 gence to the pastors and churches through reports 
 and periodicals. The pastors could diffuse informa 
 tion by the circulation of these publications, and by 
 their own preaching impart such instruction as might 
 secure systematic contributions, and regular remit 
 tances to the treasurers of the several societies. This 
 plan carried out would be found effective, and would 
 save to the cause of beneficence thousands of dol 
 lars. 
 
 But would it be safe to discontinue all agencies 
 for the collection of funds ? This question will find 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 135 
 
 an answer in the reply to another question. Will 
 the pastors and churches adopt the plan ? Will they 
 reduce their beneficence to system, and carry out the 
 system ? If they will do this, it will be safe. Indeed, 
 there seems scarcely an alternative. The business 
 of raising funds belongs to the churches. The ten 
 dency, in the progress of benevolent operations, espe 
 cially for the last few years, has been to devolve it 
 upon them. It should not be a matter of expense 
 to those organizations whose appropriate work is to 
 apply these charities. This expense is not allowed 
 in other corporate institutions. The stockholders 
 pay in their assessments at their own expense. And 
 thus it should be hi furnishing supplies for our be 
 nevolent associations ; and thus it might be, if Chris 
 tians would conduct their beneficence as other men 
 do their business, on principles of economy and by 
 system, not allowing " the children of this world " 
 to be " wiser than the children of light." 
 
 2. System in beneficence tends to secure a larger 
 number of contributors. It has been ascertained, 
 that of the professed Christians who regard one of 
 our oldest and most efficient boards as the organ of 
 their appropriations for foreign missions, but little 
 more than one half contribute any thing to promote 
 the object. Can it be that they feel no interest in a 
 work so plainly enjoined by the Head of the church ? 
 Is not the reason rather to be found in the want of 
 instruction respecting their duty, of information con- 
 
136 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 corning the condition of the world, and of a system 
 atic plan for securing their cooperation ? 
 
 The churches which include the largest number 
 of regular contributors, are those on which most pre 
 paratory labor has been expended. Let the same 
 labor be bestowed upon other churches, and accord 
 ing to their ability will their members become inter 
 ested and uniform coworkers with other laborers in 
 the vineyard of the Lord. Let them have arrange 
 ment, system, plan in beneficence, and they will 
 bring forth fruit in this department of duty as cer 
 tainly, as by similar means they do in other depart 
 ments. He who performs one religious duty from 
 the right principle, may be led by proper influences 
 to perform any other. 
 
 Thus does system in beneficence tend to secure to 
 charitable enterprises a larger number of contribu 
 tors, and to make their cooperation more regular and 
 effective. It opens fountains of benevolence "in a 
 dry and thirsty land, where no water is," arid turns 
 intermittent springs into the sources of perennial 
 streams, which shall fertilize the barren wastes, and 
 " make glad the city of our God." 
 
 3, System in beneficence tends to secure from 
 each contributor an amount more proportionate to 
 his oMlity. Men sometimes do less than duty re 
 quires, for no other reason than that they do not 
 know how little they are doing. System would tend 
 to remove this difficulty, and to raise the standard oi 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE 137 
 
 tlieir liberality. Those who give at ..random, and 
 from impulse, frequently imagine that the amount of 
 their charities is greater than it really is. This mis 
 apprehension leads them to withhold more than they 
 would otherwise feel at liberty to withhold. System 
 would correct this mistake, and enlarge their dona 
 tions. Many, also, give little, because they have no 
 plan for giving any thing. The thing wanting is a 
 purpose. There may be the elements of beneficence, 
 but they are chaotic. What is needed is develop 
 ment and direction. Temporary ebullitions are not 
 sufficient. Fitful, meteoric bursts of feeling are fol 
 lowed by a darker day of apathy and inaction. Ex 
 traordinary, spasmodic exertion, occasioned by the 
 galvanism of large assemblies and exciting speeches, 
 is not the kind of effort which the objects of benefi 
 cence demand. There may be excitement awaken 
 ed enthusiasm. No vast and noble achievements 
 are secured without this. But how unlike to an 
 elevated moral state are those flashes of benevolent 
 feeling, which for a moment astonish the beholders 
 by their glare, and in a moment more leave them in 
 equal amazement at the darkness which follows. 
 
 The excitement which the church needs to bring 
 its beneficence into agreement with its ability, is 
 occasioned by deeply pondering the principles of the 
 gospel, and considering the miseries and the guilt 
 of mankind ; by constant contemplation of the char 
 acter of Jesus, and communion and sympathy with 
 
138 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 him. It is enthusiasm generated by the spirit of 
 God in the deep well-springs of the soul, which bears 
 the whole man right on, over all obstacles, in the 
 steady prosecution of the great work of beneficence. 
 It is excitement and enthusiasm which come from 
 the union of the heart and the head, the blending of 
 feeling arid intellect in a uniform, growing desire to 
 do good. Where this is, there is little danger that a 
 man s charities will be disproportionate to his means. 
 Every one in whose heart this healthful excitement 
 has been produced, will give " to his power," and 
 be willing even "beyond his power." Yet this is 
 no hot-bed process of forcing unnaturally the benev 
 olent sympathies. Nothing is done that, in seasons 
 of serenest reflection, could occasion a moment s 
 regret. All is calm, quiet, Christian deliberation. 
 Reason approves it, conscience approves it, and the 
 word of God approves it. 
 
 But alas, for want of this, how comparatively lean 
 is the charity of the church. She grazes in barren 
 fields. Caprice, accident, self-indulgence, or apathy, 
 often determines the objects and time and amount of 
 charitable contributions. Multitudes of the poor re 
 main still unrelieved, of the ignorant unenlightened, 
 and of the vicious unreclaimed. The field ripens 
 faster than the reapers are ready to gather in the 
 harvest. To millions who need the gospel, and to 
 many who ask for it, the church does not give it. 
 The demand vastly outruns the supply. And so it 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 139 
 
 will be, until the church comes to act, in her benefi 
 cence, upon principle and by system. Till then, in 
 her means of fulfilling her high mission, and execut 
 ing the last charge of her Lord and Master, she will 
 be poor, while her individual members, for all other 
 purposes, may be rich. 
 
 4. System in beneficence tends to give to charita 
 ble contributions the more scriptural form offree-tvill 
 oj/erings, and thus to render them more acceptable 
 to the Lord, and a means of greater good to men. 
 The scriptural idea of charity is love, good- will ; and 
 xvhen donations to the poor are called charity, it is 
 by metaphor, wherein the action or the gift receives 
 the name of the feeling supposed to have prompted 
 it. But it is tiften a misnomer to apply such a word 
 to the donations of those esteemed charitable. It is 
 true, that funds which are relinquished to the cause 
 of beneficence may be attended with good to the 
 recipients. God may employ them for such a result 
 on the ground of his own right in them. But his 
 ordina.ry mode of procedure leads to the conviction, 
 that less good can be expected from such donations 
 than from the free-will offerings of affection, while 
 to such reluctant releasers of their property we find 
 no promised reward. And although, in respect to 
 the condition of the poor and the wants of the world, 
 this is a better disposition of their wealth than to 
 hoard or squander it, still they lose the blessing which 
 follows the free-will offering, because, in what they 
 
(40 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 do, "they sacrifice to their own net, and burn in 
 cense to their own drag." 
 
 There are others who have principle and feel 
 ing, which are called into action in other depart 
 ments of duty, but not here. They pray from prin 
 ciple, but give grudgingly or of necessity ; or they 
 contribute to sustain the gospel at home from love 
 to that gospel, but have made its diffusion a subject 
 of so little inquiry and prayer, that the same feeling 
 hardly prompts them to do any thing for extending 
 its blessings. So that often what they are con 
 strained to yield to this object approaches, in their 
 mind, to a kind of religious extortion. Such a man 
 gives as little as he can, consistently with the gener 
 ally received opinion that all professhig Christians 
 should give something. When he can plead inabil 
 ity without incurring the odium of penuriousness, he 
 does it ; and when he gives, it is reluctantly, anJ 
 without faith or charity. 
 
 Now, what such a man needs, in order to change 
 his views and his habits of giving, is, together with 
 a larger measure of the divine Spirit, system, instruc 
 tion respecting his duty, and a plan for doing it. Let 
 him be taught whose is the silver and the gold, and 
 why it is intrusted to him ; that the great business 
 of a disciple, so far as his property is concerned, is to 
 give as freely as he has received. Let his thoughts 
 dwell on the import of that petition which he so often 
 repeats, "Thy kingdom come," until he feels that by 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 141 
 
 his agency its advent may be hastened. Let him go 
 to the cross and view his possessions there, and he 
 will attain a moral elevation unreached before ; his 
 eye will catch visions new and strange to him, and 
 he will begin to feel that wealth is power, and that 
 it is a blessed thing to wield that power for the good 
 of his fellow-men. He is now predisposed to look 
 with favor on some plan for beneficence which may 
 be submitted to his inspection. He has a new object 
 to live for. New enlargement is given to his mind. 
 New thoughts take possession of him. A new spirit 
 inspires him. His donations, now prompted by love, 
 are set apart as sacred to charity, and this gives to 
 them the form and spirit of free-will offerings. And 
 what is thus offered is accepted ; for, 
 
 "Where love is, the offering evermore is blest." 
 
 This is the spirit of true beneficence, which leads to 
 the voluntary consecration of one s entire self, body, 
 soul, and spirit, "a living sacrifice, holy and accept 
 able unto the Lord." It puts charitable donations 
 into the most acceptable and pleasing form. It 
 writes." holiness to the Lord " upon every thing, and 
 converts human instrumentality into divine applian 
 ces for the recovery of lost man. How great would 
 be the addition of moral power to the beneficent 
 agencies of the church, if all her bounty came reg 
 ularly and systematically as free-will offerings to 
 the Lord. 
 
142 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 5. System in beneficence tends to make free-will 
 offerings the fruit of a more cheerful spirit, and ren 
 ders beneficence a delight, as it is a duty. " The 
 Lord loveth a cheerful giver," and he who gives 
 cheerfully finds delight in giving. But seldom does 
 one experience much pleasure in beneficence, who has 
 left it to the contingencies of accident or circum 
 stance. The call may come when he is " unpre 
 pared," because his bounty has not been i{ made up 
 beforehand ;" or he may have some sense of duty, but 
 not be sufficiently influenced by the motives for doing 
 good to make it a pleasure. 
 
 In order that doing good may be a cheerful and 
 happy work, it should be, in principle at least, a 
 business And in this, as in other things, practice 
 leads to perfection. Exercise gives strength to the 
 benevolent as well as to the social affections. Giv 
 ing once is seed sown, of which the fruit is a dispo 
 sition to give still more. Scattering to the poor in 
 creases both the desire and joy of scattering. And 
 these will be still more increased by the adoption of 
 a regular, systematic plan for doing it. 
 
 By system, preliminaries are arranged, resources 
 provided, and the proportion adjusted and consecrat 
 ed to the Lord. Nothing remains but to make the 
 appropriation. Such a man has no conflict with 
 covetousness. The battle has been fought, and the 
 victory won. He is impeded by no doubts respect 
 ing the worthiness and importance of the object. 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 143 
 
 He is hindered by no pleas of human imperfection 
 in the workings of accredited disbursing a gencies. 
 Nothing causes hesitancy or misgiving. He lays 
 his offering upon the altar with a cheerfulness and 
 delight which he has experienced in 110 other mode 
 of employing his property, and his only regret is, that 
 it is no larger. This is the pleasure of beneficence, 
 the luxury of doing good to see joy lighted up in 
 the abodes of poverty and distress, to hear of bless 
 ings conferred through Bibles and books distributed, 
 and the gospel proclaimed. It is a pure and per 
 manent delight. When it has passed away as a 
 present consciousness, it continues as a joyful reflec 
 tion, and a sweetly impelling force to still more 
 enlarged plans of beneficence. 
 
 One who thus regulates his charities by plan, is 
 always ready to give when he is called upon, and 
 always cheerful in giving, because he is ready. . Far 
 from looking upon the solicitors for benevolent objects 
 as religious mendicants, whom he sends from his 
 door with only a covetous " Be ye warmed and filled," 
 yet " giveth not those things which are needful," he 
 deals to them liberally of what he has "laid by him 
 in store," and to this adds his grateful God-speed 
 to them in so noble a mission. Yea, his benevolence 
 waits not to be asked, but impelling him by a spirit 
 which " seeketh not her own," he goes forth unurged, 
 unsolicited, to minister to the objects of want and ol 
 woe. He cannot keep his Lord s money long hid in 
 
144 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 a napkin. He puts it speedily to the exchangers, 
 that it may gain more for his Master s use. To do 
 good with his property has become his habit. It is 
 his business, his pleasure, his life. He has experi 
 enced the blessedness of doing good, and now nothing 
 can prevent him from continuing his enjoyment of 
 it. He has discovered the true value of wealth in 
 discovering the right way of using it. He is hap 
 piest himself when he does most to make others 
 happy. 
 
 Here is the great secret of happiness, the panacea 
 for half of earth s afflictive ills "to do good, and to 
 communicate." It is the intenseness of desires con 
 centrated upon self which makes the soul a prey to 
 itself, and multiplies its artificial wants and its cor 
 roding cares, and deprives it of the joys of life. Let 
 men do good, and they will find happiness. To 
 many of a constitutionally morbid temperament, who 
 are almost strangers to the sweet sunlight of life, or 
 to those over whose spirits the blight of hope has cast 
 a cloud, let it be said, 
 
 " Whoso would sun himself in peace, may be seen of her in 
 
 deeds of mercy, 
 
 When the pale, lean cheek of the destitute is wet with 
 grateful tears." 
 
 Where can the afflicted find consolation so readily 
 as in assuaging the griefs of others? In their mis 
 sions of mercy, they shall find a blessed ministration 
 made to themselves by the great Comforter. 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 145 
 
 li Wouldst thou from sorrow find a sweet relief? 
 Or is thy heart oppressed with woes untold ? 
 Balm wouldst thou gather for corroding grief? 
 Pour blessings round thee like a shower of gold. 
 ^ * * * * # 
 
 The seed that in these few and fleeting hours 
 Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow, 
 Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, 
 And yield thee fruits divine in heaven s immortal bowers." 
 
 6 System in beneficence tends to give consistency 
 Did efficiency to the character of Christians, by bring 
 ing their life into harmony ivith their doctrines and 
 professions. The piety of the church needs consist 
 ency and symmetry. And this because it needs sys 
 tem to bring its practice into harmony with its doc 
 trines and professions. There is a glaring contrariety 
 between the standards of the church and its benefi 
 cent action. This is observed by the infidel, and is 
 used as a reproach. It is perceived by the pagan as 
 soon as he understands our professed belief and our 
 practical disbelief. " If you Christians have known 
 all these things," said an inquisitive heathen to the 
 first missionary at Bombay, " and really thought that 
 we heathens must perish unless we believe in your 
 Jesus Christ, how could you leave so great a part of 
 the world for so many generations to go down to per 
 dition, without coming sooner to tell us of this only 
 way in which we can be saved?" How can such 
 most natural questions be answered, except by the 
 admission of great inconsistency ? 
 
 Miss, of Church. 2 2 
 
146 I HE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 We recognize the justness of the comparison in oui 
 Saviour s declaration, that it shall profit a man noth 
 ing to " gain the whole world and lose his own soul," 
 and yet we seem almost to have reversed the com 
 parison in our systematic exertions, seeking the world 
 as the infinite good, and passing by the soul as of 
 little worth. We admit that "the cares of the 
 world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, 
 and render it unfruitful," and yet we cultivate the.se 
 cares and riches, as if they would make our hearts a 
 more fertile soil for the good seed. We profess to give 
 up all for Christ, and yet live much as if we ad 
 mitted his claim to nothing. We admire the spirit 
 of the martyrs, but have little idea of witnessing for 
 the cause in which they died by the surrender of any 
 considerable amount of our property for its advance 
 ment. We profess to have laid up our treasure in 
 heaven, but from all visible appearances, far the 
 greater portion of it is still on the earth. In our 
 creeds, we renounce " the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil ;" and in our lives practically renounce our 
 creeds, which contain such a renunciation. We 
 pledge ourselves, in our profession, to entire conse 
 cration, and seal our vows in "the cup of blessing, 
 and yet evince by our practical reservations that we 
 do not feel obligated by these vows. Doctrinally, 
 the church admits self-denial as the condition of dis- 
 cipleship ; practically, as a body, she construes the 
 condition as consistent with the denial of almost 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 147 
 
 every thing rather than self. The practical sign in- 
 cancy of the golden rule with many, is the surfeit 
 ing of self from the table of abundance, and the 
 bestowment upon our poor neighbor of the crumbs 
 that fall therefrom. Our great Exemplar was self- 
 denying, and we admit ourselves bound to be like 
 him, yet our course of life is eminently self-indulgent. 
 The church is organized for aggressive movement, 
 but as a body remains stationary. As she strives 
 for more extended empire, she strengthens, and yet 
 she strives not. Inaction enfeebles her, and yet she 
 is comparatively inactive. It is by scattering that 
 she increases, and yet she scatters little. Exporting 
 her treasures enriches her, and yet, for the greater 
 part, she consumes them at home. Keeping her 
 goods is her bane, and yet she keeps them. Hiding 
 her Lord s money, it shall be taken away, and yet 
 she hides it. 
 
 Is this consistency ? Is there not a sea of apathy 
 lying between our creeds and our conduct, between 
 our doctrines and our deeds? The Saviour and the 
 perishing world are on one side ; the body of the 
 church, with its wealth, is on the other. The voice 
 says, " Come over and help us ;" but there is no an 
 swering movement. There is indeed some stir in 
 the camp of the Lord s hosts, some feeble attempts 
 at crossing a few bold leaders have seized the ark, 
 and borne it over. But what are these from so 
 rrmny ? And these are left to fight almost alone, 
 
148 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 What are two or three thousand missionaries for six 
 hundred millions of benighted souls ? 
 
 What, now, is needed ? We answer, consistency. 
 Nothing but consistency in the life of the church. 
 The fault is not in her creeds. Her organization is 
 in harmony with the letter and spirit of her commis 
 sion. Her professions and admissions are explicit 
 and full. The fault is in her practice the life of 
 her members. In this, she virtually disowns her 
 creeds, repudiates her organization, and contradicts 
 her admissions and professions. Without plan in 
 beneficence, this contrariety is reduced to system. 
 Men pursue their various schemes for self-indulgence 
 or self-aggrandizement most systematically. When 
 we contemplate the grandeur of the objects proposed 
 to her, and the comparative pittance which she 
 relinquishes for their accomplishment, we are con 
 strained to say, that she is systematic in the diver 
 sion of her energies arid her possessions from the 
 great end to which her doctrines and her professions 
 direct them systematic in self-contradiction. 
 
 Now, let this order of things be reversed let the 
 system be extended from schemes of selfishness to 
 those of benevolence let plans be formed for har 
 monizing the practice of the church with its doctrines 
 and professions let her charitable contributions be 
 made from an elevated Christian devotion, and be 
 proportionate to the legitimate objects of beneficence, 
 and regularly applied ; and how changed will be the 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 149 
 
 whole aspect and condition of the church. As she 
 joins with Christ in his great work, he will join with 
 her in a visible success, that will animate her hopes 
 and strengthen her courage for renewed effort and 
 fresh victories. What symmetry and beauty would 
 such a change impart to her to cease planning for 
 self-indulgence, and to begin to plan for the glory of 
 God. How would she put on her beautiful garments, 
 the fragrance whereof is like the smell of "myrrh 
 and of cassia." " No weapon that is formed against 
 her shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise 
 against her in judgment, she shall condemn." " She 
 shall break forth on the right hand, and on the left ; 
 and her seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make 
 the desolate cities to be inhabited." 
 
 7 . System in beneficence tends to raise the church, 
 in her charitable contributions, to a more elevated 
 Christian devotion. "Whatever shall lead the church 
 to a greater simplicity of purpose, and give her a more 
 single eye to the glory of Christ whatever shall kin 
 dle in her the spirit of entire consecration whatever 
 shall train her to a higher standard of faith and a 
 more ardent love, and a purer and more constant 
 zeal whatever shall give an elevated Christian basis 
 to her benevolent efforts, and excite a more intense 
 longing after the coming of Christ s kingdom, will 
 directly augment her moral power, and give increas 
 ed efficiency even to the present rate of charitable 
 contributions. God requires the pecuniary resources 
 
150 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of the cliurch, not because he cannot accomplish his 
 plans of redemption without them, but because he 
 sees that it will be for her advantage to do it by 
 means of those resources. His object is to perfect in 
 his people their estrangement from the world and 
 their devotion to him, while he employs this devotion 
 as the means of accomplishing his scheme of redeem 
 ing love towards the race. 
 
 And in proportion as this spirit of obedience and 
 self-denial and love is increased, however small the 
 amount of charitable donations which it yields, the 
 work of beneficence will be found advancing. If the 
 resources of the church are only as a " handful of 
 meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise," with 
 the devotement of these in the spirit of entire conse 
 cration, " the barrel of meal shall riot waste, neither 
 shall the cruise of oil fail," until the whole work be 
 accomplished. He who could feed five thousand 
 with "five loaves and two fishes," can convert the 
 world through the generous, self-denying sacrifices of 
 his people, be they ever so small. On the other hand, 
 the absence of this spirit leaves the church to declen 
 sion, and the world to perish, although the richest 
 mines in the bosom of the earth be dug up and cast 
 into her treasury. Though we "bestow all our 
 goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it profiteth 
 nothing." Who have accomplished so much for mod 
 ern missions, in proportion to their means, as the 
 Moravians ? When their whole number did not ex- 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. \\ 
 
 ceed six hundred persons, a large part of whom were 
 exiles, they began the beneficent work of Christian 
 missions. At the expiration of ten years, they had 
 carried the light of truth to Lapland, Greenland, St. 
 Croix, Surinam, and to the Indians of North Amer 
 ica ; to Algiers, the cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and 
 Tartary. Whatsoever they possessed which could 
 subserve so sublime an end, they laid upon the altar 
 with a noble and self-denying devotion to Christ ; 
 and their success was according to their faith and 
 love. So it was in the first propagation of Chris 
 tianity. It was not their numbers, nor was it their 
 wealth which gave such signal triumphs to the prim 
 itive followers of Christ, but it was their invincible 
 moral courage, their ardent love, their untiring zeal, 
 their pure Christian devotion. 
 
 It is the spirit of entire consecration which makes 
 the soul rich in all the elements of liberality. It is 
 a simple, confiding trust in Providence, a warm and 
 glowing love to Christ, which, withholding all sacri 
 fices to pride and fashion, and pervading the whole 
 business and arrangements of life with the spirit of 
 supreme devotion to God, produces a degree of benefi 
 cence which men who live unto themselves deem 
 extravagant and ruinous. This entire subjection of 
 the soul to Christ forms a style of philanthropists 
 who, in the esteem of many even in the church, are 
 so far beyond the requirements of reason and Scrip 
 ture, that their influence is lost as examples, and 
 
152 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 they are considered as fit only for ridicule or admira 
 tion. And this, because the spirit of the world has 
 crept into and corrupted the church. Her benefi 
 cence is meagre, and upon low and earthly principles. 
 Her light is dim. Her strength is weakness. Her 
 enemies exult over her. Feebly does she fulfil her 
 mission to the poor, the ignorant, and the vicious at 
 home. Still more feebly does she execute her com 
 mission to the Pagan, the Mohammedan, and the 
 Jew abroad. Nothing but supreme devotion to Christ 
 will restore her beneficent power, and open fountains 
 of benevolence, and send forth streams, " to satisfy 
 the desolate and waste ground, and .cause the bud of 
 the tender herb to spring forth." 
 
 Urgent as are the calls for funds from the waste- 
 places of our own country and from heathen lands, 
 there is a greater urgency that the whole subject 
 of beneficence be canvassed and systematized, and 
 placed on a higher and broader ground of Christian 
 principle arid Christian devotion. This done, the 
 requisite amount of contributions will be made sure, 
 and the condition of their greatest efficacy will be 
 complied with. 
 
 The very attempt to form a system will give a 
 new impulse and elevation to all the beneficent move 
 ments of the church. And the incorporating in a 
 plan, of such influences as l&d to its formation, will 
 give them permanency as causes, of which still other 
 advantages will be the legitimate effects. The plan 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 153 
 
 has given these influences prominence, as elements 
 of a man s daily life. They interweave themselves 
 in all his thoughts and business. What was low in 
 the church would thus he raised up ; what was weak, 
 would be made strong; what was wavering, would 
 be confirmed, and her beneficent career become like 
 the rising light, " shining more and more unto the 
 perfect day." 
 
 c; Oh, then, let her scatter broadcast of her seed, 
 Rich in prayer, and in alms, and in every good deed, 
 Till her seed-grain is garnered in ripe golden sheaves, 
 And her guerdon of glory from Christ she receives." 
 
 8. System in beneficence tends to promote union 
 among Christians of different denominations, and 
 thus to increase the moral power of the whole church 
 for the good of the world. The ground of hope that 
 the adoption of system in beneficence would increase 
 the spirit of union among the several denominations 
 is, that it presents a common object to be accom 
 plished, and a common plan for accomplishing it. 
 How might all distinctions of name and sect be 
 blended in the great work of blessing the world, like 
 the primary colors in the beams of light, that glad 
 den the earth and make it fruitful. Or, at least, 
 how might they be so harmonized, like these same 
 colors set in the resplendent arch of glory which 
 spans the darkened heaven, as to betoken that the 
 wrathful storms are past, and to give promise of 
 perpetual peace. And this hope is the greater, in- 
 
154 THE MISSION OF THE CHUHOH. 
 
 asrnuch as the main object is, not to unite the church, 
 but by new conquests to enlarge it not to form a 
 new association, but to perpetuate and make univer 
 sal an old one. It is not so much to harmonize 
 creeds, as to give system and consistency and effi 
 ciency to practice. However much may be gained 
 in the work of uniting the church by discussions and 
 conferences and alliances, it will readily be admitted 
 that much more may be done by leading the follow 
 ers of Christ to a self-denying, systematic effort for 
 the conversion of the world. 
 
 It is to action, rather than discussion, that we 
 look with most sanguine expectations for the union 
 of the church. By the former, good men will work 
 themselves, in a common cause, into greater doctri 
 nal or ecclesiastical proximity, while, by the latter, 
 they may reason and resolve themselves into a wider 
 separation. The one places them upon their points 
 of difference. Passion and self-interest, always irrel 
 evant in the search after truth, creep in and blind 
 the eye, arid inflame the zeal for fortifying and de 
 fending those points. The other sets them upon their 
 points of agreement, and all their ardor of engage 
 ment deepens their sense of the absolute and relative 
 importance of these points. Each will rejoice in 
 the fruits of the labor of all, as ripened by the same 
 divine influence, and gathered from the same com 
 mon field. " Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and 
 Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE 155 
 
 upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the 
 west ; they shall spoil them of the east together." 
 A common cause gives them common sympathies 
 and bonds of attachment. By engaging in earnest, 
 and upon system, in the great work of doing good, 
 the \vhole church is pervaded by one spirit, the 
 spirit of Christian beneficence, influenced by one mo 
 tive, elevated by one sentiment, the tendency of all 
 which is to overpower sectarian peculiarities, and 
 melt the whole company of disciples into one mass, 
 and mould them after one divine likeness. Instead 
 of repelling the world by her frowning battlements 
 reared for intestine warfare, the church, united in her 
 separate sections, like the several tribes of Israel in 
 one common phalanx, and moving at the sound of 
 the same " silver trumpet," towards the same land of 
 promise, would attract and subdue the world. 
 
 By what name soever you may call yourself, if you 
 are a child of God, the points on which you differ from 
 your brethren are probably fewer, and certainly less 
 important, than those in which you agree with them. 
 The views and feelings which characterize both you 
 and them, as the friends of God and of man, are the 
 catholic views and feelings the only bond of a com 
 mon fellowship among all. the regenerate and holy 
 on earth and in heaven. These constitute precisely 
 that character which qualifies all Christians to en 
 gage in the work of beneficence with the highest de 
 gree of success, and which, the more earnestly and 
 
156 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 systematically that work be prosecuted, assumes more 
 and more the ascendency over all dividing lines and 
 enfeebling agencies. This would give to the church 
 a union, and a power and stability from union, to 
 Avhich she is now a stranger. The preponderating 
 force would be a centripetal force. The attraction 
 would be to a common centre, by a common law 
 of affinity. With what deep grief did the devoted 
 Marty n, an attached member of the church of Eng 
 land, hear, while at Aldeen, of an order of the 
 British government, to prevent his Baptist brethren 
 from preaching and distributing tracts. " So per 
 plexed and excited was he by the intelligence," says 
 his biographer, " that it even deprived him of sleep. 
 And he spoke afterwards with so much vehemence 
 against the measures of government, as upon reflec 
 tion, to afford him matter of self-condemnation." 
 " How small and unimportant," exclaims this heroic 
 servant of God, in view of the combined powers oi 
 evil that oppose the progress of the church in hea 
 then lands " how small and unimportant arc the 
 hair-splitting disputes of the Messed people at home, 
 compared with the formidable agents of the devil, 
 with whom we have to combat here" 
 
 We would not affirm, that all differences of opin 
 ion and denominational distinctions would neces 
 sarily disappear, even in the most systematic and 
 successful prosecution of the work of beneficence. 
 We only say, that the elements of system are the ele- 
 
*si*ir"i* c 
 
 *<, \ O 1 j*v 
 
 SYSTEM IN BEIiEFlCENPlS.Tlli 157 
 
 */ a- vr v V to u -> T r u "v 
 
 ments of success, and thati these, combining a rule 
 that is safe with motives that are sufficient, ara 
 common to all the followers of Christ. We nay, 
 " the field is the world," the harvesTis alfeauy ripe, 
 the command is, " Go, work in my vineyard." .The 
 world is to be saved by the inculcation of those 
 essential doctrines on which the disciples of Christ 
 are agreed. Christianity is, therefore, incomparably 
 better than the peculiarities of any sect of Christians. 
 Let it be remembered, that our Saviour s last com 
 mand to the church is, " Go ye into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature," and let 
 her begin this work in earnest and upon system, 
 and strifes will cease. Discordant tempers and con 
 flicting interests will be harmonized in hearts fused 
 into one common constraining love, by the ardor of 
 their zeal in the accomplishment of one common, 
 sublime end. Let the church task herself to minis 
 ter to the poor and distressed, to give the word of 
 God free course in every language and dialect under 
 heaven, to place Bunyan s Dream in the hand of 
 every pilgrim to the " celestial city," and to make 
 Doddridge and Baxter as living preachers in the 
 tent of the Arab, the hovel of the Hindoo, the hut of 
 the Hottentot, the wigwam of the Indian in every 
 human habitation setting forth the simple power of 
 the cross grace, in its beginning and continuance 
 in. the soul, the same in every age and every clime, 
 Aad its consummation in "the saints everlasting 
 
A 59 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 rest " Le* the church begin and continue this work 
 systematically till it is completed, and in the sym 
 metry and consistency and beauty and power ac 
 quired in such a work, let those who together have 
 achieved such victories, return and strive and 
 dispute with and malign each other, if tliey can. 
 Their differences would all disappear in their love 
 and labor for the common cause, or, by general con 
 sent, would be allowed to cause no unhallowed 
 division among brethren on earth, and would be 
 left to be lost in the harmonies of heaven. 
 
 We have now contemplated beneficence in its most 
 prominent aspects, as Christian, proportionate, and 
 systematic. We have analyzed it in relation to its 
 distinguishing spirit, in the elements or motives 
 which give to it its moral character. We have con 
 sidered it in the degree of effort which each one in 
 called upon to make, as indicated by the wards of 
 the world, the instrumentality for supplying those 
 wants, and the ability of each one to aid in applying 
 that instrumentality. We have surveyed it in respect 
 to the presentation of its appropriate motives, and 
 the plan for carrying its principles into most effective 
 operation. We have seen the tendency of system in 
 beneficence to diminish the expenditures of benevo 
 lent societies, and enable them to prosecute their 
 work on more effective plans; to enlarge the number 
 of contributors to benevolent objects; to give to their 
 
SYSTEM IN BENEFICENCE. 159 
 
 contributions greater regularity ; to make them more 
 proportionate to each man s ability ; to impart to 
 them the more acceptable form offree-zvill offerings, 
 thus increasing their moral value ; to render benefi 
 cence a delight, by causing it to flow from a more 
 cheerful spirit; to give increased consistency to 
 Christian character ; to raise the benevolent action 
 of the church to a more elevated Christian devo 
 tion; and to promote union among Christian de 
 nominations, thus bringing the ivhole united church 
 into active cooperation with Jehovah in the redemp 
 tion of the world. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We hardly need say, that iii the work of reducing 
 beneficence to system in the church, and prosecuting 
 it vigorously, more, under God, depends upon pas 
 tors, than upon any other class. They are the reg 
 ularly constituted leaders of the flock. Their ordi 
 nation is to this end. Their calling is to explain 
 and enforce the doctrines of the gospel, and to de- 
 velope and illustrate the spirit of that gospel, in it? 
 beneficent bearings upon the church and the world 
 Christianity is a mine of the richest ore. Who shall 
 enter it as explorers, bring out its precious treasures, 
 and apply them for the enriching of the church, for 
 the good of the world, and for the glory of God, if 
 
160 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 they do not ? "It depends upon us," says a distin 
 guished pastor to his brethren, with respect to the 
 great work of beneficence " it depends upon us 
 mainly, under God, whether the blessing shall ooze 
 and trickle upon the world in scanty or occasional 
 drops, or whether it shall now in mighty streams. 
 We are icebergs to the cause, or central fires in the 
 midst of our population." 
 
 All things conspire at the present period to call 
 out the beneficent power of the gospel, and to awaken 
 its benevolent spirit in the hearts of God s people, 
 for the salvation of the world. The prophecies and 
 promises and providence of God bear directly and 
 powerfully on the church, to arouse it to its appro 
 priate work of doing good. Who shall interpret 
 these to her, if her ministers do not ? Who stand on 
 such vantage ground as they, for bringing her to 
 feel her obligations, and discern her privileges ? The 
 benevolent habits of her members need to be formed 
 upon higher principles, and their beneficent action 
 to be called forth by purer and more elevated mo 
 tives. Who can be instrumental in accomplishing 
 this, if they cannot ? Who will lead the disciples to 
 walk in the garden with their divine Master, and 
 teach them to view their possessions there ; or take 
 them to the sacred mount, where all selfish consid 
 erations are lost in the love of the cross : who will 
 io this, if they do not ? 
 
 And if it is the duly of the shepherd to lead, is it 
 
CONCLUSION 16] 
 
 not the duty of the flock to follow ? If he must in 
 culcate the doctrine of beneficence, should they not 
 cherish and exemplify its spirit? It is the spirit of 
 Christ, and it flows out from him to the hearts of all 
 his followers. And from them it should go forth, 
 in ministries of love to the ignorant and suffering 
 and guilty of earth s teeming population. For the 
 diffusion of this spirit, the extension of Christ s king 
 dom, the church was constituted, and in this it is 
 "the light of the world," "the salt of the earth." 
 But it is only as ye Christians who compose this 
 church, are like your divine Exemplar only as the 
 mind that was in him is also in you only as ye com 
 mune whh him in the garden, and have sympathy 
 with him on the cross, that these his declarations 
 can be verified. " Let your light so shine before men, 
 that they may soe your good works, and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven." " Remember the words 
 of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to 
 give than to receive." " Freely ye have received, 
 freely give." "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
 them, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 " A poor wayfaring man of grief 
 
 Hath often met mo on my way, 
 Who sued so humbly for relief, 
 
 That I could never say him nay : 
 [ had not power to ask his name, 
 Whither he ^yellt, or whence he came ; 
 Yet there was something in his eye 
 That won my love 1 know not why. 
 
 MiiS. Of CtlsUVh. <- -> 
 
162 THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 " Once, when my scanty meal was spread, 
 
 He entered not a word he spake 
 Just perishing for want of bread. 
 
 I gave him all ; he blessed it, brake, 
 And ate, but gave me part again . 
 Mine was an angel s portion then. 
 And while I fed with eager haste, 
 The crust was manna to my taste. 
 
 " I spied him where a fountain burst 
 
 Clear from the rock; his strength was gone 
 The heedless water mocked his thirst ; 
 
 He heard it, saw it hurrying on. 
 I ran and raised the sufferer up 
 Thrice from the stream he drained my cup, 
 Dipt and returned it running o er ; 
 I drank, and never thirsted more. 
 
 "Twas night, the floods were out, it blew 
 
 A winter hurricane aloof; 
 I heard his voice abroad, and flew 
 
 To bid him welcome to my roof: 
 I warmed, I clothed, I cheered my guest, 
 I laid him on my couch to rest, 
 Then made the earth my bed, and seemed 
 In Eden s garden, while I dreamed. 
 
 " Stript, wounded, beaten nigh to death, 
 
 I found him by the highway side ; 
 I roused his pulse, brought back his breath, 
 
 Revived his spirit, and supplied 
 Wine, oil, refreshment : he was healed. 
 I had myself a wound concealed, 
 But from that hour forgot the smart, 
 And peace bound up my broken heart 
 
CONCLUSION. 163 
 
 " In prison I saw him next ; condemned 
 To meet a traitor s doom at morn : 
 
 The tide of lying tongues I stemmed, . 
 
 And honored him midst shame and scorn. 
 
 My friendship s utmost zeal to try, 
 
 He asked if I for him would die ; 
 
 The flesh was weak, my blood ran chill, 
 
 But the free spirit cried ; c I will 
 
 ^ Then in a moment to my view, 
 
 The stranger darted from disguise, 
 The tokens in his hands I knew 
 
 My Saviour stood before mine eyes. 
 He spoke, and my poor name he name d . 
 c Of me thou hast not been ashamed, 
 These deeds shall thy memorial be ; 
 Fear not, thou didst them unto me. " 
 
 MoNTGOMJCKY, 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF STATEDLY "LAYING- BY 
 STORE AS GOD HATH PROSPERED US." 
 
 ABLE treatises on this subject, and discussions from the 
 pulpit and the press,* show that the great principles in 
 culcated throughout the Scriptures are taught with divine 
 wisdom in the apostolic injunction, " Upon the first day 
 of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as 
 God hath prospered him." Here is recognized the prin 
 ciple of giving, not merely to relieve present suffering or 
 meet the call of importunity, but as an essential part of 
 true religion, an act of joyful homage to God which he 
 graciously accepts and returns in spiritual blessings into 
 our own souls; of giving as a free-will offering, giving 
 statedly, giving in proportion to what we receive, and 
 connecting our gifts with acts of religious worship. Trace 
 the teachings of the Scriptures and the example of scrip 
 ture worthies : the religious offerings of Abel, Noah, Abra 
 ham, and Jacob } the gifts for the tabernacle and the 
 temple ; the whole system of benevolence inculcated by 
 God upon his ancient people; the example and instruc 
 tions of our blessed Saviour, of his disciples in pentecostal 
 days, and of his inspired apostles, and this text comprises 
 a practical summary of the whole. He who knew what 
 
 * See especially " the Divine Law of Beneficence," price in paper 
 live cents, and Tract No. 535, " Religion and Beneficence," less than 
 two cents, both by Rev. Parsons Cooke ; " Zaccheus, or the Scriptu 
 ral Plan of Benevolence," by Rev. Samuel Harris, five cents ; and 
 " the Mission of the Church," by Rev. Edward A. Lawrence, tea 
 cents ; all to be had of the American Tract Society. 
 
2 ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
 
 was in man, has adapted this scripture system to his spir 
 itual condition, his growth in grace, and his fruitfulness 
 in giving ; and were it universally adopted, it would ren 
 ovate the church of God ; identify the followers of Christ 
 with their Lord in the great objects for which he died, 
 make our benevolence an important part of the care and 
 business of life, and give an impulse to the cause of evan 
 gelizing which has hitherto been unknown. Every man 
 who faithfully adopts this divine system of giving, lives 
 a new Christian life, and enters on a course in which he 
 will wax stronger and stronger both in personal piety and 
 in benevolence.* The system has been briefly expressed 
 in the form of a pledge or covenant, hereto annexed, in 
 the adoption of which substantially, great numbers have 
 found a rich blessing. 
 
 * The biography of eminently pious and useful men since the Ref 
 ormation shows that great numbers of them have recognized the 
 obligation statedly to devote a portion of their income to charitable 
 uses. Lord Chief-justice Hale, Rev. Dr. Hammond, Baxter, Dodd- 
 ridge, and others regularly gave a tenth; Dr. Watts a fifth; Mrs. 
 Howe one half. Rev. John Wesley, when his income was thirty 
 pounds, lived on twenty-eight and gave two; and when his income 
 rose to sixty pounds, and afterwards to one hundred and twenty, he 
 still lived on twenty-eight, and gave all the remainder. Mr. Nathan 
 iel R. Cobb, a merchant connected with the Baptist church in Boston, 
 hi 1821, at the age of twenty-three, drew up and subscribed the fol 
 lowing covenant, to which he faithfully adhered till on his deathbed 
 he praised God that by acting according to it he had given in charity 
 more than $40,000. 
 
 " By the grace of Ood, I will never be worth more than $50.000. 
 
 "By the grace of God, I will give one-fourth of the net profits of 
 my business to charitable and religions uses. 
 
 " If I am ever worth $20,000, I will give one-half of my net prof 
 its ; and if I am ever worth $30.000. 1 will give three-fourths ; and the 
 whole, after $50,000. So help me God, or give to a more faithful 
 
 steward, and set me aside. 
 
 "N. R. COBB." 
 
SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE. 3 
 
 A SHOEMAKER being asked how he contrived to give so 
 much, replied, that it was easily done by obeying St. Paul s 
 precept in 1 Cor. 16:2: " Upon the first day of the week let 
 every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered 
 him." "I earn," said he, "one day with another, about a 
 dollar a day, and I can without inconvenience to myself or 
 family lay by five cents of this sum for charitable purposes ; 
 the amount is thirty cents a week. My wife takes in sewing 
 and washing, and earns something like two dollars a week, 
 and she lays by ten cents of that. My children each of them 
 earn a shilling or two, and are glad to contribute their penny ; 
 so that altogether we lay by us in store forty cents a week. 
 And if we have been unusually prospered, we contribute some 
 thing more. The weekly amount is deposited every Sunday 
 morning in a box kept for that purpose, and reserved for future 
 itsc. Thus, by these small earnings, we have learned, that it 
 is more blessed to give than to receive. The yearly amount 
 saved in this way is about twenty-five dollars and I distribute 
 this among the various benevolent societies, according to the 
 best of my judgment." 
 
 A CLERGYMAN every Sabbath evening sets apart a portion 
 for his charity-fund. If at any time he has not the money, 
 he credits the sum on a benevolent account. As calls are 
 presented, he draws from this fund ; and if an urgent call at 
 any time requires more than he has thus set apart, he charges 
 the balance on his benevolent account, to be replaced from 
 future incomes. Thus his contributions are identified with 
 his own enjoyment of religion and growth in grace ; he gives 
 "not grudgingly," but of " a willing mind;" applications for 
 charity are met with pleasure ; and he feels that in all he re 
 ceives and expends, he is*acting as a steward of God. lie 
 has also secured the adoption of the system by his congrega 
 tion with very encouraging success. 
 
 Some, who have little money at command, who keep 
 few accounts, and who live mainly on the yearly products 
 
4 ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
 
 of the ground they cultivate or other fruits of their indus 
 try, judge that they conform to the spirit of the divine 
 rule by giving at longer stated periods of such things as 
 they have. One statedly consecrates a certain proportion 
 of the products of his farm j another of mechanical labor ; 
 another of the needle, or other domestic industry every 
 one using his Christian liberty in giving statedly as ho 
 sees best in his own circumstances, according " as God 
 prospers him." 
 
 Others, engaged in merchandise and extensive business 
 transactions, accustomed to taking a stated inventory of 
 what they possess, familiar with accounts and percent 
 ages of profit and loss, not knowing every Sabbath what 
 has been the income of the week, have found great satis 
 faction and a blessing in determining beforehand what 
 portion of all the proceeds of their business, they will 
 monthly, or quarterly, or yearly devote to benevolence ; 
 and some have resolved on a percentage to be statedly 
 given, and diminished, or increased, in proportion as God 
 shall prosper them. 
 
 A MERCHANT, in answer to inquiries, refers back tu a 
 period, when, he says, " In consecrating ray life anew to God, 
 aware of the ensnaring influence of riches and the necessity of 
 deciding on a plan of charity before wealth should bias ray 
 judgment, I adopted the following system. 
 
 "I decided to balance my accounts, as nearly as I could, 
 every month; and reserving such portion of profits as might 
 appear adequate to cover probable losses, to lay aside, by en 
 try on a benevolent account, one-tenth of the remaining profits, 
 great or small, as a fund for benevolent expenditure, support 
 ing myself and family on the remaining nine-tenths. I fur 
 ther determined, that if at any time my net profits, that is, 
 profits from which clerk-hire and store expenses had been de 
 ducted, should exceed $500 in a month, I would give twelve 
 
SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE. 5 
 
 and a half per cent. ; if over $700, fifteen per cent. ; if over 
 $900, seventeen and a half per cent.; if over $1,100, twenty 
 per cent. ; if over $1,300, twenty-two arid a half per cent. ; 
 thus increasing the proportion of the whole, as God should 
 prosper, until, at $1,500, I should give twenty-five per cent., 
 or $375 a month. As capital was of the utmost importance 
 to my success in business, I decided not to increase the fore 
 going scale until I had acquired a certain capital, after which 
 I would give one-quarter of all net profits, great or small ; and 
 on the acquisition of another certain amount of capital, I de 
 cided to give half, and on acquiring what I determined would 
 be a full sufficiency of capital, then to give the whole of my 
 net profits. 
 
 "It is now several years since I adopted this plan, and 
 under it I have acquired a handsome capital, and have been 
 prospered beyond my most sanguine expectations. Although 
 constantly giving, I have never yet touched the bottom of my 
 fund, and have repeatedly been surprised to find what large 
 drafts it would bear. True, during some months I have en 
 countered a salutary trial of faith, when this rule has led me 
 to lay by the tenth while the remainder proved inadequate to 
 my support ; but the tide has soon turned, and with gratitude 
 I have recognized a heavenly hand more than making good all 
 past deficiencies. 
 
 " This system has been of great advantage to me, enabling 
 me to feel that my life is directly employed for God. It has 
 afforded me happiness in enabling me to portion out the Lord s 
 money, and has enlisted my mind more in the progress of 
 Christ s cause. Happy privilege, which the humblest may 
 e.ijoy, of thus associating the common labors of life with the 
 grateful service of the Saviour, and of making that which 
 naturally leads the heart from God, subserve the highest 
 spiritual good. 
 
 "This system has saved me from commercial dangers, ty 
 leading me to simplify business and avoid extensive credits. 
 It has made me a better merchant ; for the monthly pecuniary 
 
6 ILLUSTRATIONS, ETC. 
 
 observations which. I have been wont to take, though often 
 quite laborious, have brought me to a better knowledge of tha 
 state of my affairs, and led me to be more cautious and pru 
 dent than I otherwise should have been. I believe this sys 
 tem tends to enlarge the Christian s views, increase his disin 
 terestedness, and lead him to shun the tricks of trade. My 
 own observation also confirms the belief, that even warm 
 hearted Christians must determine beforehand on the system 
 they will adopt, if they would secure the benefits of the gos 
 pel plan to themselves, under the grace and providence ol 
 God, or its happy results to the cause of Christ." 
 
 God has appointed no means of extensive usefulness 
 which does not involve the self-denying and persevering 
 exertions of his people and if this divine system is to be 
 generally adopted, it is essential that pastors of churches 
 and public men, to whom others look for example and 
 counsel, should first themselves put it in practice, and 
 then commend it to others, and help them to form wise 
 plans to render it practically efficient. Especially should 
 all do this who are engaged in any way in raising funds, 
 or collecting for benevolent objects. Every one who is 
 brought to understand the power and efficiency of tins 
 system, is bound to spread it among all within the reach 
 of his influence. The circulation of the treatises named 
 above will be an effective means to this result. 
 PLEDG-E OR COVENANT. 
 
 Eelieving that the scripture system of benevolence requires 
 every one statedly to "lay by him in store as God hath pros 
 pered him," I engage, on every Sabbath or at other stated 
 periods, to set apart such a portion of what God shall give 
 me as my judgment and conscience shall dictate ; to be sa 
 credly applied to charitable objects according to my sense of 
 their respective claims. 
 
 SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 
 
TESTIMONIES. 7 
 
 TESTIMONIES FROM CLERGYMEN 
 AND CIVILIANS. 
 
 An esteemed and devoted pastor says, u For many 
 years it has been my delight to i lay by in store as God 
 has prospered me. I am sure it is good to do so, and I 
 not only put my name to the pledge, but shall endeavor 
 to encourage others to do the same." 
 
 A distinguished civilian says, "I have for many years 
 adopted the rule of setting apart a portion of income as 
 the Lord has prospered me. I have felt that more than 
 a tenth was my duty; and I can testify to the blessed 
 influence of the system. It enables us the better to dis 
 criminate between the various objects ; to discover how 
 far we have denied ourselves for Christ and a perishing 
 world and benevolence thus becomes interwoven with 
 our Christian principles, our high and sacred duties." 
 
 A distinguished citizen says of the system of " laying 
 by in stove on the first day of the week, as God has 
 blessed us," " I have practised it for several years, and 
 found a blessing in it. It is God s own plan, and there 
 fore better than any other. So every one will find it, 
 who will but try. It increases our charity fund many- 
 fold, without our perceiving any diminution of capital 
 or income and the fund thus set apart being consecrated 
 to the Lord, we are able to distribute it without grudg 
 ing, and with a more unbiassed judgment, as occasion 
 arises. I am one of the witnesses for God, that in this 
 matter, as in all others, he is good." 
 
 An eminent clergyman says, " I have for many years 
 had a fixed system of devoting from one fifth to a quarter 
 of my income to religious and charitable uses. I have 
 laid out my plan at the beginning of each year, keeping 
 a private account of all donations, and leaving nothing 
 
8 TESTIMONIES. 
 
 to mere accident or excited feeling at the moment. At 
 the end of about thirty years, during which I have carried 
 on this system, I find my property materially increased ; 
 and I am surprised to find, on looking over my accounts, 
 how many hundreds of dollars I have thus been permitted 
 to contribute to the cause of benevolence." 
 
 A prosperous merchant says, " I have myself acted on 
 this principle for many years ; and have some faith to 
 believe that spreading before the people the great princi 
 ple of systematic giving is to be a mighty instrument in 
 the hands of God for the conversion of the world." 
 
 An eminent jurist says, "Impressed as I am with the 
 correctness, and great practical importance, of the three 
 simple principles the scripture plan of benevolence 
 that every one should give, and at stated periods, and as 
 God hath prospered him, I cheerfully record my name 
 as one who wishes to adopt the system and pledge pro 
 posed." 
 
 An officer of one of our benevolent societies says, "I 
 give my deliberate and cordial adhesion to the plan of 
 each one s laying by in store, upon the first day of the 
 week or at other stated periods, as God has prospered, 
 for the purpose of creating a private fund for religious 
 charities. It is the scripture plan in its perfectly simple 
 form that I assent to, as ably set forth in the prize es 
 says, especially by Rev. Dr. Cooke, and more concisely 
 in the Tract Religion and Beneficence. " 
 
 An officer of another benevolent society says, " I havo 
 acted substantially on this plan for nearly thirty years. 
 On the first of January last I adopted the pledge proposed, 
 privately consecrating to charity for the present, a tenth 
 of what I may receive, believing it will assist me and 
 may encourage others in the better performance of duty." 
 
PUBLICATIONS OP THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 Gregory s (Olinthus, LL. D.) Evi- 
 
 D Aubigne s History of the Reforma 
 tion. A new translation, revised 
 "by the author, in four volumes 
 12mo, with portraits. Price $1 75, 
 extra cloth. 
 
 Family Testament, with Notes. 
 
 Baxter s Saints Everlasting Rest, 
 12mo, in large type ; also 18mo. 
 
 Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress, 12mo, 
 in large type, and I8mo. Both 
 editions neatly illustrated. 
 
 Memoir of Jas. Milnor, D. D. 
 
 Mason s Spiritual Treasury, for every 
 day in the year. Terse, pithy, and 
 evangelical. 
 
 Havel s Fountain of Life, or Re- 
 demption provided. 
 
 Havel s Method of Grace, or Re 
 demption applied to the Souls of 
 Men. 
 
 Havel s Knocking at the Door; a 
 tender, practical appeal. 
 
 Bishop Hall s Scripture History, or 
 Contemplations on the Historical 
 Passages of the Old and New Tes 
 taments. 
 
 Bishop Hopkins on the Ten Com 
 mandments. Two standard works 
 of the times of Baxter. 
 
 President Edwards Thoughts on Re 
 vivals. 
 
 Venn s Complete Duty of Man. 
 
 Owen on Forgiveness, or Psalm 
 130. 
 
 Riches of Bunyan. 
 
 dences of Christianity. 
 
 Paley s Natural Theology and Hona 
 Paulinas. 
 
 Baxter s Reformed Pastor. 
 
 Baxter s Treatise on Conversion. 
 
 Dr. Spring s Bible Not of Man, or 
 the Argument for the Divine Ori 
 gin of the Scriptures drawn front 
 the Scriptures themselves. 
 
 Alleine s Heaven Opened. 
 
 Nelson s Cause and Cure of Infidelity. 
 
 Memoir of Mrs. Isabella Graham. A 
 new and standard edition. 
 
 Memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Hunting- 
 ton Smith. 
 
 Memoir of Summerfield. 
 
 Elegant Narratives, Select Tracts, 
 illustrated. 
 
 Willison s Afflicted Man s Com 
 panion. 
 
 Doddridge s Rise and Progress of Re 
 ligion in the Soul. 
 
 Edwards History of Redemption. 
 
 Pike s Persuasives to Early Piety. 
 
 Pike s Guide to Young Disciples. 
 
 Anecdotes of the Family and the 
 Social Circle. 
 
 Universalism Not of God. 
 
 Dibble s Thoughts on Missions. 
 
 Songs of Zion. 
 
 Considerations for Young Men. 
 
 Who are the Happy ? 
 
 Letters on Universalism. 
 
 The Bible True. 
 
 ELEGANT PRACTICAL WORKS. 
 
 Wilberforce s Practical View. 
 Hannah More s Practical Piety. 
 James Anxious Inquirer. 
 Elijah the Tishbite. 
 Kevins Practical Thoughts. 
 Melvill s Bible Thoughts, selected by 
 the late Rev. Dr. Milnor. 
 
 Harris Mammon. 
 Gurney s Love to God. 
 Foster s Appeal to the Young. 
 Abbott s Young Christian. 
 Abbott s Mother at Home. 
 Abbott s Child at Home. 
 James Young Man from Home. 
 
 CHRISTIAN MEMOIRS. 
 
 Rev. C. Buchanan,i,L. D., including I Harlan Page. 
 
 his Christian Researches in Asia. 
 Rev. John Newton. 
 Rev. Henry Martyn. 
 Rev. David Brainerd. 
 Rev Edward Payson, D. D. 
 Harriet L. Winslow, Missionary in 
 
 India. 
 James Brainerd Taylor. 
 
 Nprmand Smith. 
 Richard Baxter. 
 Archbisop Leighton. 
 Matthew Henry 
 Rev. Samuel Pearce. 
 Rev Samuel Kilpin. 
 Madam Rumpff and Duchess do 
 Broglie. 
 
OTHER SPIRITUAL WORKS. 
 
 Edwards on the affections. 
 Baxter s Call to the Unconverted. 
 
 Alleine s Alarm to the Unconverted. Baxter s Dying Thoughts. 
 Flavel s Touchstone. Andrew Fuller s Backslider. 
 
 Redeemer s Last Command. 
 
 Burder s Sermons to the Aged. 
 MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. 
 
 Mason on Self-Knowledge. 
 
 Flavel on Keeping the Heart. 
 Helffenstein s Self-Deception. 
 
 Guide to Acquaintance with God. 
 Pike s Religion and Eternal Life. 
 
 Bogue s Evidences of Christianity. 
 Keith s Evidences of Prophecy. 
 Morison s Counsels to Young Men. 
 
 Spirit of Popery, [12 engravings.] 
 
 The Colporteur and Roman-catholic. Hymns for Social Worship. 
 
 POCKET MANUALS. 
 Clarke s Scripture Promises. 
 The Book of Psalms. 
 The Book of Proverbs. 
 Daily Scripture Expositor. 
 Ten Commandments Explained. 
 Advice to a Married Couple. 
 Hymns for Infant Minds. 
 Daily Food for Christians. 
 
 BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 MANY OF THEM BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH EXGEAVTXGS. 
 
 Divine Law of Beneficence. 
 Zaccheus. or Scriptural Plan of 
 nevolence . 
 
 Chaplet of Flowers. 
 
 Heavenly Manna. 
 
 Cecil and Flavel s Gift for Mourners. 
 
 Crumbs from the Master s Table. 
 
 Milk for Babes. 
 
 Provision for Passing over Jordan. 
 
 Dew-Drops. 
 
 Gallaudet s Scripture Biography. 
 
 Youth s Book of Natural Theology. 
 
 Peep of Day. 
 
 Line upon Line. 
 
 Precept upon Precept. 
 
 Anzonetta R. Peters. 
 
 The Night of Toil. 
 
 Hannah More s Repository Tracts 
 
 Mary Lundie Duncan. 
 
 Charlotte Elizabeth. 
 
 Advice to a Young Christian. 
 
 Fletcher s Lectures to Children. 
 
 Scudder s Tales about the Heathen. 
 
 Trees, Fruits, and Flowers of the 
 
 Bible, [9 cuts.] 
 John D. Lockwood. 
 Memoir of Caroline E . Smelt 
 
 Gallaudet s Child s Book on the Soul 
 
 Children Invited to Christ. 
 
 Isabel. 
 
 The Dairyman s Daughter, etc. 
 
 "Walker s Faith Explained. 
 
 Walker s Repentance Explained. 
 
 Peet s Scripture Lessons. 
 
 Child s Book of Bible Stories. 
 
 Children of the Bible. 
 
 Amos Armfield. 
 
 The Child s Hymn-Book. 
 
 Scripture Animals, [16 cuts.] 
 
 Letters to Little Children, [13 cuts.] 
 
 Great Truths in Simple Words. 
 
 Margaret and Henrietta. 
 
 Bartimeus. 
 
 Pictorial Tract Primer. 
 
 Watts Divine and Moral Songs. 
 
 With numerous similar works. 
 
 Martha T. Sharp. 
 Jessie Little. 
 
 ALSO, Dr. Edwards Sabbath Manual and Temperance Manual, and 
 more than 80 volumes in German, French, Spanish, Welsh, and Danish. 
 
 ALSO, upwards of 1,000 Tracts and Children s Tracts, separate, bound, or 
 in packets, adapted for convenient sale by merchants and traders many ot 
 them with beautiful engravings in English. German, French, Spanish, 
 Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and "Welsh. 
 
 23^ It is the design of the Society to issue all its publications in good 
 type, for the poor as well as the rich ; and to sell them, as nearly as may 
 be at cost, that the Society may neither sustain loss nor make a profit by 
 all its gales. 
 

 
 
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