the diffusion of the gospel, which have not yet been imagined; that efforts and sacrifices will yet be made on so gigantic a scale, as to throw the puny doings of the present day completely into the shade. SECTION I. CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY EXPLAINED. To assert that the cause of Christian liberality exhibits no signs of improvement, would only evince insensibility to obvious facts, and ingratitude to the great Head of the church. Even the feeling which has called for "an essay, bearing upon selfishness as it leads us to live to ourselves, and not unto God and our fellow-men," is to be viewed as an indication that many a Christian more than ever deplores that selfishness. While the ready assent which is generally accorded to every faithful appeal as to the necessity of increased liberality to the cause of God; the growing conviction of the church, that, compared with what will be done, we are at present doing nothing; the approbation with which every new expedient for augmenting the funds of benevolence is hailed; the streams which appear in almost every new channel of mercy as soon as it is opened; and the increase of funds which our great benevolent institutions have almost annually to announce, all concur to show, that the church is not only dissatisfied with its past parsimony, but is gradually awaking to the claims of Christian liberality. But pleasing as these circumstances are, it must be remembered that they are little more than indications of improvement. All the great defects in the charity of the Christian church remain with very slight modifications. It is still adapted to a former state of comparative inactivity, rather than to the present period of Christian enterprise. It waits for impulses and appeals. It wants calculation, proportion, and self-denial. It does not keep pace with the growing demands of the kingdom of Christ. It wants principle and plan. The great current of Christian property, is as yet undiverted from its worldly channel. The scanty rills of charity which at present water the garden of the Lord, and the ingenuity and effort employed to bring them there, compared with the |