^^^^/^ 2^ 
 
 BV772 .C752 1860 c.2 
 Cooke, Parsons, 1800-1864. 
 Divine law of beneficence. 
 
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 more blessed 
 to give than to receive. — Acts 20 : 35. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORE. 
 
'•>^>^: 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. God's design in requiring benefioence, .... 5 
 
 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, 2, 27 
 V. Reasons for compliance with the law, .... 51 
 
 1. It is one of the most important means of grace, 51 
 
 2. This system of henevolence tends to thrift, . . 66 
 
 3. The superior efficiency of this system, ... 75 
 
 4. Example of the primitive church, 78 
 
 Conclusion, 84 
 

 K%7' 
 
 .irTnmOETOH 
 
 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 I. aOD'S DESIGN IN REQUIHINa BENEF- 
 ICENCE. 
 
 God is not dependent on us for the support of his 
 poor. He could have so difiused 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, " Every 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, for 
 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, /or 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 
 Buch influences, as to keep him habitually and con- 
 stantly giving to the poor — if vi^e 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 mam design in laying on us the necessity 
 of giving, was to give scojoe to our henevolent 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 Imgers upon the nations for 
 human henevolence to enlighten, is suffered to exist, 
 among other purposes, as a means of developing 
 Christian character. 
 
 But let none imagine that the 7iecessity 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 
 dovvm 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 
 80, as it were, repeats the act of his humiliation, that 
 the din of their sohcitations 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 
 
10 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 reheved, 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 accoi-ding 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. H 
 
 the duty is enforced from higher grounds than the 
 fact that here is so much suffering to be reheved. In 
 one case we are exhorted to "do good and commu- 
 nicate, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.'^ 
 In another, we are prompted to remember "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 mam argument. One 
 of the most distinct references to the distress was 
 this : " For the administration of this service not only 
 
12 LAW OF hENEFICENCE. 
 
 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 CHARITY 
 
 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 we 
 shall enter upon a series of periodical acts of self- 
 denial for the 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 is 
 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 difiusion which 
 
14 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 it 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 habitual 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 
 from 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-ofTerings, 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 themiselves. 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 f'lie 
 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 
 
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 charity 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 narrow bounds, M^as 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. fg 
 
 III. THE NEW TESTAMENT LAW 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 the 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 
 of 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 intenser 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 instnictive portion of history from this 
 perversion. If, by the community system, we under- 
 stand the rehnquishment of all private property, and 
 consolidating the goods of all in a common stock, 
 nothing like that resulted from thepentecostal revival. 
 This appears from the fact, that the sequel of the 
 history speaks of these and other Christians as being 
 in possession of their 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 Avhen 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 beheve 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 theit 
 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 needf 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 tliey 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 world — 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, both the 
 church and the world would soon he transformed. 
 New force would be 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, com.e and 
 solve all doubts, by adopting the simple principle of 
 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 the church, 
 and of a sjoreading 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 rehgious. 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 and 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. These 
 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 subhme 
 
26 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 instance of alms-giving, in the organized Cliristian 
 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 other 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 possessions " 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 per- 
 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 are yielding good incomes, for any 
 emergencies of charity. Yet here we see, that in 
 the spring-time and 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-IVINa. 
 
 God's plan, in making the wants 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 presisnted 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., 16:1,2. 
 
28 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 *' Now CONCERNING THE COLLECTION FOR THE 
 SAINTS, AS I HAVE GIVEN ORDER TO THE CHURCHES OF 
 GaLATIA, EVEN SO DO YE. TJPON THE FIRST DAY OP 
 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, a portion of their 
 income or their means of living, as God shall prosper 
 them, for charitable uses : it being understood, that 
 this, Uke 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 S(y)7ie 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 and 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 de- 
 
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 alms- giving is a ivoi'k 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 
 
TERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 3] 
 
 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 first day of the week. It would seem that 
 the first Christi3.ns had such a type of religion, that 
 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 is quite an annoyance to those who have 
 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." 
 
32 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 It will naturally be asked, Why this duty must 
 needs he done on the Sahbath? "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 coUec 
 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 
 
TERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 33 
 
 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 only 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 
 
 Law of Bencf. 3 
 
34 LAW OF BE^'EFICE^CE. 
 
 additions to tlieir charity-treasure, tliey may produce 
 a rich result at the year's end ; and in all this process 
 of laying aside the Httle 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, oyr 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 Avhich the poor abounded. And then 
 it was found to be equally suitable to the ivealth- 
 ier Christians at Corinth, situated amidst temp- 
 tations to luxury and extravagance. At any rate. 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 35 
 
 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 pubhc 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 
 obhgations 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- 
 
36 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 travagance, this must be the remedy. By imposing 
 this rule, God, as it were, every Sabbath takes each 
 Cteistiaii aside and puts to him the deHcate 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 woVds 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 of 
 praise for redeeming love. 
 
 Again, the religious nature and ohligatimis of the 
 duty of alms-giving, make the appointment of the 
 Sabbath for the time of doing it, peculiarly proper. 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 37 
 
 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 tend 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 wdth 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, and 
 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 theii 
 minds 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- 
 
38 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 this is the 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 reahzed. Even 
 the merchant, who monthly or at other stated times 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 39 
 
 carries to a benevolent account the sum devoted to 
 charity, may derive great advantage from s'^tting 
 apart on the Sabbath a httle season for '' grateful 
 communion" 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 07i every one. " Let everij 
 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 rehgious 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 
 
40 LAW OF JBENEFICE.\CE. 
 
 such responses of gratitude from them ? 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. 41 
 
 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- 
 
42 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 ing influences of giving. As an instrament 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 Hedeemer, 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 'pow 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 more 
 abound than in the primitive ages ; never did evan- 
 gelizing go forward Mdth greater rapidity and power : 
 yet, " not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
 mighty, not many noble Avere called." It was the 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-GIVING. 43 
 
 gifts of the humbler classes, flowdng 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 suigle drops. And so is 
 every other shower. He who is the Father of the 
 rain, and 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 and 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 accordiiig 
 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." 
 
44 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- 
 merce 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, comes 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 hench 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. 45 
 
 income shall exceed a certain sum, he will give a 
 larger percentage, " as God shall prosper liim." 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 ivheyi 
 X come.'' Tliis 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 
 
46 LAW 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^hould 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, because 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. 47 
 
 M'liicli had already been communicated to them. 
 He reminded them of their obhgations to Christ, who 
 had given himself for them — of the fact that they haa 
 already " given their own selves to the Lord," which 
 gift involved all the donations that were needed from 
 them ; he reminded the^ji 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 their 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 
 
48 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 (^r dispensing with them, 
 muse 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 on 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- 
 thetic appeals. The nearer they come to the plan 
 of Christ and his apostles in this matter, the more 
 efTective will be their command over the hearts of 
 their hearers. Their main endeavor should be to dig 
 
PERIODICAL ALMS-SIVING. 49 
 
 I reader 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, " tliat there be no gatherings 
 ivhe7i 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. And 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 
 
 Law of Benef. 4 
 
50 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 the 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 somcAvhere, 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. 51 
 
 located and bereft of its power. And previous to 
 examination, who 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 
 duty. 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 commiand 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 FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE 
 LAW. 
 
 1. IT IS ONE or 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, 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 
 
52 LAW OF BENEFICE^fCE. 
 
 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 
 jharities — those who abound in verbal faith and or- 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 53 
 
 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- 
 
54 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 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. 55 
 
 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 reahn 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 
 
56 I'AW 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 also, 
 that our benevolent affections 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 covetous- 
 ness 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 of 
 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. 57 
 
 sake, 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. E very- 
 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 ino7iey 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 pomt 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 
 
58 I-VW OF BEXEFICENCE. 
 
 and beware of this covetousness, he has 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 " holiness to the Lwd'' 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 lucve to give to him that needetW 
 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, while it embraces them both. 
 The adoption of this principle of laying oft' 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 heartily as unto the Lord," 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 59 
 
 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 dihgent pursuit of some 
 methods of gain, as the means of living. They are 
 put upon constant toil and care to keep up their 
 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 Tich : 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. Risks 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, 
 
60 LAW OF BENEFICE.NCE. 
 
 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 forward 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 afiections 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 the 
 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. 61 
 
 We have often seen those who, when in compara- 
 tive poverty, loere generous luith their little, but who 
 have 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, 
 
62 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 a grasping desire for more, which Hke the grave will 
 be ever crying, Give, give. A case has been known 
 of a man at the age of threescore and ten, with his 
 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 of 
 conduct to keep our benevolent activities in use. Our 
 condition is hke 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 you7ig, 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 
 eternity, it is immensely important that he adopt this 
 divinely appointed method of enlarging his heart. 
 
 And the church as a whole, and each professed 
 Christian, has a special interest in this matter, be- 
 cause covetousness is more esjoecially the sin of the 
 visible church. It is so, because it is of such a nature 
 that it can better conceal itself under a Christian 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 63 
 
 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 : mdeed, the church is 
 quite too charitable towards her uncharitable mem- 
 bers, and that because her own standard of benefi- 
 cence is too 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 'iniser — a man 
 of large means, whose selfishness is so extreme, as to 
 defeat its own purpose and 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, and 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 wholly to himself in the church of Christ, is 
 even a more gross violator of the primitive law of 
 
64 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 tliis 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 efiectual 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 afiections, as one great end of 
 
A MEANS OF GRACE. 65 
 
 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 own 
 enlargement. 
 
 It is very 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. 
 
 Law ot Beuef. 
 
66 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 2. THIS SYSTEM OF BENEVOLENCE TENDS TO THRIFT. 
 
 Another reason why each one should enter upon 
 these habits of systematic beneficence is, that God so 
 attaches his blessing to them, that even the temporal 
 interests of the giver are usuallij '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 
 other purpose, and treat of the habit of giving simply 
 as a means of benefi.ting 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, 
 so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for 
 
TENDS TO THRIFT. 67 
 
 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 
 and 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. 
 
68 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 God, 
 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. 69 
 
 which hveth and abideth for ever," which Hves by 
 an ever-expansive hfe, 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. 
 
70 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 Into this work we enter when we contribute for 
 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. 71 
 
 outgoes is so manifest as to strike the most careless 
 observer. Providence has a thousand w^ays 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 
 
72 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 to 
 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. 73 
 
 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." " Brmg 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, and 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, and 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 in 
 operation, why is not the wealth of the world con- 
 centrated in the hands of the benevolent, or of the 
 
74 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 bhght 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 thenct 
 works upward, with a steady elevating influence on 
 all. Leaving the mountains of hoarded wealth, she 
 comes ta 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 the 
 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. 75 
 
 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 
 Bho'elsful, and God Almighty sho'els it back again." 
 
 3. THE SUPERIOR EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 
 
 A reason for adopting this rule of systematic char- 
 ity, which is only second to the main reason, is, that 
 it secures a greater amount of benefactions than any 
 other. It was evidently appointed by divine wis- 
 dom, first, because of its being best adapted to cul- 
 tivate a benevolent character, and secondly, because 
 best adapted to increase the amount given in charity. 
 This adaptation is obvious. 
 
76 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 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 deposites 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. By this remark we would not imply that the 
 gifts of the poor are now entirely withheld. We 
 have already remarked, that a majority of the ag- 
 gregate of what is now given comes from those who 
 do not rank as rich. And of those to whom the 
 term poor most fitly applies, there are 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 luxury of be- 
 neficence ; 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 
 
EFFICIENCY OF THIS SYSTEM. 77 
 
 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 revolu- 
 tionized. There are in the churches many, who 
 seem never as yet to have got the idea that benefi- 
 cence is any part of religion, and who give nothing 
 or next to nothing for evangelizing the world. But 
 let this rule be respected as it ought, and they will 
 come under it, or seek other connections than those 
 of the church of Christ. 
 
 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 
 soon 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, 
 
78 LAW OP BENEFICENCE. 
 
 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 allmeans 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 or THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 
 
 The example of the primitive church may instruct 
 us in this duty. The type of benevolence that ap- 
 peared in the Pentecostal revival, was nobly sustained 
 in the church for several ages. The church first 
 gathered at Jerusalem being scattered abroad, went 
 
PRIMITIVE EXAMPLE. 79 
 
 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 
 own 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 
 
80 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 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 ivas 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 
 suffering 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 
 
PRIMITIVE EXAMPLE. 81 
 
 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 one 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 
 in a dungeon, than crowds of Christians came around 
 the prison- doors begging admission, meekly bearing 
 the insults of surly guards, and using every means 
 -io procure the prisoner's release. Some would beset 
 
 Law of Benef. 6 
 
8^ LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 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 Eg}^t 
 in the depth of winter, to relieve some brethren in 
 the mines of Cilicia. They came to Cesarea, and 
 there tha 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 
 
PRIMITIVE EXAMPLE. 83 
 
 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 beneficiaries, 
 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 hfe 
 
84 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 to the dead. Here is the ever-memorable testimony 
 of that crafty and politic emperor : " Let ns 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 Sire not your own : ye 
 are bought with a price," and are bound to " glorify 
 God," not only with your money, but with " youi 
 body and your spirit, which are his." " Ye are bought 
 with a price " — " not with corruptible things, as sil- 
 
CONCLUSION. 85 
 
 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 tliink 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 pro- 
 fessions, is this the real temper of your mind ? Look 
 the thmg in the face again. By becoming poor, he 
 has made you rich ; and m his poverty, which pleads 
 in the mouth of his poor, he asks you to return enough 
 of the gifts wliich 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 reahze 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- 
 
86 LAW OF BENEFICENCE. 
 
 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 Ave 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 ajms-giving, will be regarded in the church 
 
CONCLUSION. 87 
 
 as the miser now is in society. This living to one's 
 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 mucli 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 of 
 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 mdividual 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 aside ? 
 
Date Due 
 
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