nothing which overlooks the constraining influence of that principle.

Familiarity with large sums of money may lead a person to make benefactions as munificent as the heart of charity could wish. Animal generosity may act the donor with all the promptitude and easy grace of Charity herself. But "though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, . . . and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." The absence of evangelical love is the want of the incense which alone could impart to the sacrifice a sweet-smelling savour unto God. And while its absence would reduce the collected gifts of a nation to penury itself, its presence imparts to a widow's mite a value which God appreciates, and by which heaven is enriched. It turns "a cup of cold water" into a sacramental symbol; for it is given "in remembrance of Christ." Suspended from the throne of heaven, it transmutes the least gift that may be hung on it into a jewel destined to augment the glory of him on whose head are "many crowns."

That which constitutes the superiority of evangelical piety, as a self-propagating and diffusive system, to every form of false and heterodox

religion is, that it has for its great actuating principle the love of Christ. This is "the seed in itself; the leaven which shall never cease to ferment till it has leavened the entire mass of humanity. Hence, every thing which would obtain acceptance with God must exhibit marks of the assimilating and sanctifying power of this principle. Nay, every thing which would find favour in the eyes of the Christian himself, even his own acts and offerings of charity, must bear evident relation to Christ, or receive the condemnation of his own grateful heart. In the exercise of a holy jealousy for his blessed Lord, he is led to scrutinize his motives, to trace his benevolence to its source, to examine whether or not it took its rise at the cross; and, if it did not, he finds cause for penitence and humiliation before God. Thus, while false religion makes its almsdeeds a substitute for piety, the gospel heightens benevolence into one of the most spiritual and improving duties the Christian can perform. For, by imbuing his heart with the love of God, it enables him to taste the godlike enjoyment of doing good; and, by teaching him to refer all his acts of benevolence to Christ, to

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perform them as expressions of gratitude to him, to hope for their acceptance through him, and to pray that they may tend to his glory, it keeps him near to the cross, in an atmosphere of spiritual and elevated piety. And when once he has become native to that element, when the expansive, delightful, irresistible power of the Saviour's grace has become his ruling motive, he would feel an inferior principle to be little less than degradation and bondage. He accounts the costliest sacrifice he can offer as poor; resents the limits which a cold and calculating selfishness would impose on his offerings as chains and fetters; and if called to pour forth his blood as a libation on the altar of Christian sacrifice, he would feel that he had rendered an ample explanation of his conduct, by saying, with the apostle, "The love of Christ constraineth us."

In order that our benevolence may become a valuable habit, it must be provided with regular resources. Nothing good or great can be effected without plan. In their own worldly business, men perceive the importance of method; and, if they would render their liberality efficient, they must adopt a system for that also. On this sub

ject the gospel itself prescribes," Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." "By which," saith Paley, "I understand St. Paul to recommend what is the very thing wanting with most men, the being charitable upon a plan; that is, upon a deliberate comparison of our fortunes with the reasonable expenses and expectations of our families, to compute what we can spare, and to lay by so much for charitable purposes."

To take, indeed, a weekly account how God hath prospered us is not in all cases possible; but the spirit of the direction would be equally satisfied if, on taking the account at other stated times, we only lay by for God as he hath prospered us. Owing to the want of a plan like this, the cause of Christ is often an unwelcome and an unsuccessful applicant; selfishness, which has always the advantage of being able to be the first claimant, squanders in superfluities what conscience would have devoted to God; and many, it is to be feared, from not having wherewith to answer the calls and impulses of charity as they arose in the heart, have at length lost

the very disposition to do good. While the advantages arising from the adoption of such an arrangement are numerous; we are under less temptation to withhold our charity; our duty is made more convenient by rendering it thus in easy instalments; our love to Christ is more gratified by being able to present him in the end with a larger offering; the hand of God is regularly recognised in our worldly affairs; his presence is invited, so to speak, into the very heart of our prosperity, whence the world is most anxious to exclude him, invited to audit the accounts of our gains; our offerings are presented with cheerfulness, because they come from a fund designed expressly to no other end than charity; and the cause of benevolence, no longer a dependant on precarious charity, is welcomed and honoured as an authorized claimant, a divine creditor, while what we retain for our own use is divinely blessed by the dedication of the rest to God.

Nothing that is good or great, we repeat, can be effected without plan. Business, to be successful, must be conducted on system; and why should not the book which records the occasional