270 THE RULE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY.

He claims at their hands? Are there not many who feel unhappy, dissatisfied, or even fretted, when any cause of charity is pressed upon their attention? Are there not many who, if absent from church when any object is presented for its support, never think of giving their proportion towards it, even though it be one of the regular seasons of systematic contribution? Are there not some who absent themselves when a collection is expected to be taken up in church? Are there not some who never approve of any one object for which their contributions are solicited and whose charity is actually paralysed by conscientious scruples? And are there not some who with shameless effrontery allege that they have done giving while never known to have begun? And are not our churches altogether in fault when censure or discipline is extended towards other shortcomings and sins of christians, and when christian professors who are known to be covetous and penurious in their charity are allowed to pass and unreproved?

We confess, Brethren, we have deep feelings and great fears on these points? We sit in judgment upon no individual, but "we have continual heaviness of heart" on account of this very matter. Bear with us, then, if even by general surmise we give pain to any heart conscious of a right spirit and a right purpose in this matter. But be assured, the warning is not unnecessary, nor any subject more needful to be frequently, fully, and faithfully examined.

The subject of christian liberality, is a great, a practical and a vitally important matter, and stands intimately connected with your own personal salvation and the salvation of others, with the prosperity of our churches, and with the extension of the kingdom of Christ.

Be ye then, my brethren, instructed and warned. Remember, that the mere approbation of the worth and goodness of any cause the wishing of its prosperity and advancement-or an inclination to assist it-is not charity, because all these may exist, while there is no will to give-no recognition of our duty and obligation to give-and no conscientious conformity to the rule laid down for our giving. The disposition of men's hearts is revealed by those many excuses by which they apologize for their own conscious neglect of this great duty. "It is wonderful to consider," says the celebrated Dr. South, "how a command or call to be liberal either upon a civil or religious account, all of a sudden impoverishes the rich, breaks the merchant, shuts up every private man's exchequer, and makes those men in a minute have nothing at all to give, who at the very same instant want nothing to spend. So that instead of

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relieving the poor, such a command strangely increases their number, and transforms rich men into beggars presently." Now if a man really has nothing to give this is a sufficent reason for his not giving both to God and man, but if he has means from which he might give, such an excuse as Dr. South says, "is an intolerable hypocrisy towards both. And do men in good earnest think that God will be put off so? Never then pretend that thou hast a heart to pray, while thou hast no heart to give, since he that serves Mammon with his estate cannot possibly serve God with his heart; for as in the heathen worship of God a sacrifice without a heart was accounted ominous, so, in the christian worship of Him, a heart without a sacrifice is worthless and impertinent. Consider therefore," he adds, "with thyself that there is a God, who is not to be flammed off with lies, who knows exactly what thou canst do and what thou canst not; and consider in the next place, that it is not the best husbandry in the world to be damned in order to save" the expenses of christian charity.

Assuredly times are coming which will try men's principles. "Merchandize and hire SHALL BE holiness to the Lord." "Beyond their power" men will again "communicate, and pray with much entreaty for a reception of the gift." Sordid excuses and reservations will be no longer made. Superfluity and luxury will be ashamed of their indulgence. Inconvenience and selfdenial will pour in their offerings. And "the gold and silver will be found to be the Lord's," not only in fact, but by the actual and willing consecration of its possessors. "To whom much is given from them much is required." And the question therefore, for each of us to decide in the presence of conscience and an omniscient God, is "AM I DOING ALL I CAN AND ALL I OUGHT, AND AM I DETERMINED, ACCORDING TO MY ABILITY, TO HONOUR THE LORD BY A REGULAR, SYSTEMATIC, AND CHEERFUL APPROPRIATION OF MY MEANS, AS GOD HATH PROSPERED ME?" May God enable us on the one hand to rejoice in the mercifulness of His rule, and on the other to acknowledge its justice, to behold the goodness of God to them that love him, and His severity towards them who are disobedient. And are any thinking seriously about their souls and their duty publicly to devote themselves to Christ and His cause? To such let us say, that when a certain young man came to Christ in order to know what good thing he was to do in order to obtain eternal life, the whole discourse of Christ consisted in this advice-"Go sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and then come and follow me." And if any man is now unwilling to give up his property and to hold it in trust for Christ and His cause, then

it is as true of him now, as it was of the young man, that "he is none of Christ's." "He is not worthy of Him."

Merciful God, in whose hands our hearts are, incline them to do Thy will, and to spend and be spent in Thy service.

NOTES.

THE PARSIMONY OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANS.

NOTE A.

In my opinion, there is nothing which lays the Church more open to infidel attack and contempt, than its parsimony to the cause of Christ. Professors of religion, in general, give nothing in comparison to what they ought to give. Some literally give nothing, or somewhere in that immediate neighbourhood. I shall not inquire whether such persons are really christian men. One might almost question whether they are human.

I have used the word give; I must correct my language. Deliver up, I ought to say, when speaking of christians who have so often acknowledged themselves as not their own, but themselves and their's to be the Lord's. Not a farthing, or not much more, will some of these deliver up, of all that their Lord has given them in trust. What stewards we christian are! We act as if we were undisputed owners and sovereign proprietors of all; when we know, and, if pressed, acknowledge, it is no such thing. The infidels know that we profess to be but stewards, and in our devotional hours, we write on everything we have, "This is the Lord's;" and they naturally expect to see some correspondence between our profession and practice; and when they perceive it is but bare profession, and that we do not mean anything by it, they are very apt to conclude that this is true of our religion generally. Moreover, these shrewd characters see common humanity constraining men of the world to greater liberality than the love of Christ constrains his reputed disciples to exercise; and that, though they hear christians continually saying that there is no principle which has such power to carry men out to deeds and sacrifices of benevolence as the love of Christ. What must they conclude from this? Either that there is no such principle, or that christians do not feel the force of it.

Again: Infidels hear us speak of giving, as lending to the Lord. Now, they don't believe any such thing; but since we do, they are astonished that we do not lend more liberally to such a paymaster, and on such security. They are in the habit of lending liberally, and they wonder christians do not. They hear us also repeating and admiring that sentiment, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Must they not think us insincere in our commendations of this sentiment, or else that we have very faint aspirations after the more blessed part, when 18-VOL. VII.

they look on, and see with how much more complacency and good humour we receive a great deal, than give a little.

But about the parsimony of christians. I do not hesitate to say, having well considered the import of my words, that men are not so mean (I must use the word) to any cause, as christians, in general, are to Christ's cause. They give more sparingly to it than to any other.

Many persons never give until they have done everything else; and when any pressure occurs, it is the first thing they stop doing. They go on spending, not only for necessaries and comforts, but even for luxuries, never minding the pressure. They only stop giving; commencing retrenchment with their donations, and generally ending it with them. They are liberal still for everything but charity. You could never suppose, to look at their dress, equipage, furniture, table, &c., that the times were any way hard. No; they forget that, till they are called on to give; then they feel the pressure of the times.

The manner in which some persons give is worthy of no very commendatory notice. They say, when applied to, "well, I suppose I must give you something." Mark the word must, where will ought to be; and give where contribute, or strictly speaking, yield up, should have been; and you-give you. It is no such thing. The man is no beggar. He is not asking any thing for himself. He has himself given to the same object; and more than money-his time and thought, his cares and efforts; nay, perhaps, has given his own person to the service which he asks others to aid by their pecuniary contributions. Christians, so called, talk of giving to the support of missionaries, as if they laid the missionaries under some obligations to them. Preposterous! How it sounds to hear a real christian indulge such a remark in reference to the richly gifted, and profoundly learned Martyn, who, when he might have shone at home, went into the sickly East, to hold up the light of life in those dark places! To call men who give themselves to the work of the Lord, and to labour and die for their fellow-men, the protégés, beneficiaries, and obligated dependants of us who live and luxuriate at home, is really too bad; men, who, when the alternative is to go or send, consent to the weightier branch of the alternative, and go; that they should be looked upon as inferior to us, who choose the lighter part of the alternative, and only send! I say it is too bad. "I must give you something!" Really!

I do not wonder, for my part, that God does not give "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven," to the present generation of saints. Their souls are not sufficiently expanded to receive it. It will require