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no difficulty in determining this matter. In short, a tender conscience, bent upon obedience, will easily devise ways and means to discharge its duty. It may increase trouble, it may call for self-denial, but what are they when duty and the soul are at stake?

As to the objects to which your beneficence should be applied, your own judgment will direct. Great discrimination however is necessary. The interests of our own. Church, and that particular section of it to which you belong, would naturally claim your first attention; and then, like a stone cast into a lake, it must take a wider and yet wider circle, until the whole world is made to feel the effects of your benevolence.

Now, my dear hearers, examine this subject candidly, honestly. First, the duty of benevolence-then, of systematic benevolence—then, the proportion that should be systematically appropriated—then, examine your own conduct, remembering that omissions are sins, as well as commissions. The tree that brings forth no fruit, is nigh unto cursing, as well as that which brings forth sour grapes.

"If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

SERMON XIV.

"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. iii. 9, 10.

The general principle that Christians ought to be benevolent, none will deny. That some system in our charity is in a high degree expedient, few, I suppose, will dispute.

Systematic benevolence has many advantages, on which we cannot enter at large, but on which it may be proper just to glance.

System is good in everything. God is a God of system, and all his creatures that are not affected by sin are creatures of system. Disorder and confusion are infallible marks of depravity.

System is the very soul of business. Behold two families, two merchants, or two armies, the one moving by the most exact rules, the other, without regularity, without order; to which would you predict success? The answer is obvious. So system is of vast advantage in our charities. Without it, you are left to the whim of the moment, and are much exposed to the influence of nature, caprice and selfishness; with it, you are able to act entirely upon principle. Without it, the mind will be liable to be disturbed by every demand upon your purse, and you will, perhaps in reality, almost certainly in appearance, give "grudgingly and of ne

cessity;" i. e. through the force of entreaties, or to keep up 'appearances: with it, you will give cheerfully, and “ God loveth a cheerful giver."

Charity without system, like a river in a bed of rocks, will ever be liable to obstacles. Like such a river, it may make a wonderful clamor; but, in utility, it will bear no comparison with the deep, pure, uninterrupted current of systematic charity. Without system, the mind will seldom be able to judge of any call which requires money; but with it, the merits of the case may be weighed in an even balance. How often is a good cause scouted and condemned, because, if the individual expresses approbation, he has a secret thought that he will be expected to give; whereas, had he already set apart a portion for the Lord, he would be able to judge candidly, and then as freely to minister according to his ability and the necessity of the case.

Further, system in our charities will tend to make us systematic in all our concerns. It makes a man exact and frugal in his expenditures, and in this, if in no other way, brings an abundant temporal reward by making him a thriving man.

We proceed now to notice the promise connected with the duty we have been considering. "Honor the Lord with thy substance, &c., so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."

It is a peculiar trait of our holy religion, that it requires nothing from us, but it ensures an ample return. Our text is proof in point, and were there no other in the whole range of the word of God, this would be sufficient for the believing heart: but, there are many more, and, if there is truth in God, we shall be no losers by our charities.

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ount of the promise is, that "they who do good hey have, shall have more to do good with; and

that if we make our worldly estates serviceable to religion, we shall find religion serviceable to our worldly affairs."

We have shown in a former discourse that godliness has a tendency to make men healthy and to lengthen their days; it has likewise a tendency to make men prosperous, according to the law of cause and effect. It gives contentment, and thus saves them from the risks attendant on speculations: it delivers from slothfulness, which eats the substance like a canker: it produces industry, and thus brings honey day by day to the hive: it makes men upright and just, and thus insures to them the confidence of their fellow men: it makes them economical, and thus delivers them from wilful waste which is the parent of want: and, lastly, it makes them benevolent, and thus ensures that which crowns the whole,—the blessing of heaven! and such an one must be a thriving man.

It may be objected that there are some Christians who, notwithstanding all their endeavors, cannot thrive. God may in His sovereignty doom some such to poverty, but it is for wise purposes. We are of opinion that, perhaps in every case, if we could see with His eye, we should discover that they were deficient in some grace, or some duty. Either, property would be a snare to them, or they are not so industrious, contented, frugal, or charitable, as they ought to be. We must remember that the promise is to those who are right in all these respects. It is not to the benevolent alone, nor to the diligent and economical alone; but to those in whom these traits all centre: and we are bold to challenge the world to produce an individual in whom they were combined, who did not prosper in his station in life.

As benevolence is the grand regulator of all the rest― for it follows, almost of course, that he who is benevolent upon right principles, will be industrious, and upright and economical-we may go further, and "challenge the world

to produce an individual whose charity has undone him. On the contrary, as the more we draw from living wells, the more freely they spring and flow, so the substance of the charitable man frequently multiplies in the distribution, as the five loaves and few fishes multiplied while being broken and distributed, and as the widow's oil by being poured out."

"Honor the Lord with thy substance, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty," &c. Is it necessary to prove that God can thus bless? We are not willing to think that any here present are so far gone in infidelity as to doubt it; but, if any such there be, let them remember Abraham and Lot, whose substance became so great under the blessing of God that "the land was not able to bear them." Remember Jacob, who with no earthly substance but his staff, left his father's house and returned" two lands," so that he was able to meet his brother with a present of near six hundred head of cattle.

Remember Job, who, under the smiles of heaven, became the greatest man in the East, and, under its frowns, the most abject and poor; and again, when the clouds dispersed, he obtained "twice as much as he had before."

That this blessing is linked with our regard to the cause of God and the poor, is equally manifest. Men are afraid that, if they should enlarge their bounty towards others, they or their children may be sufferers by it. No fear is more groundless. It would be endless. to recount all the promises, which give the strongest pledges and assurances to the contrary.

"He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed"-blessed with an abundant blessing and recompense from God. "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given, will He pay him again."+

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