the desert places, when the reservoirs at home are so capacious and strong, as to hold all which is not wanted for immediate use? Unless God send his ministering spirits to preach in an audible voice to translate the Bible into human language, large portions of the earth must remain dumb in respect to divine worship. The Sun, in his daily course, must continue to travel over vast territories, and shine upon multitudes; nor suggest to them the idea of the Son of Righteousness, because there is not knowledge to mount up by the comparison; nor gratitude to express the favor. The flower must bloom and wither-nor any shall see on it, the decorations of divine skill. The bow must brighten and fade on the cloud-nor any read in it the gracious promise of Him who set it there. All is pregnant with riches, and yet all barren of glory to God—a wilderness of native beauty and excellence, which only needs the animating breath of the Gospel to give it life, and voice, and

song, and worship. Is it not an evasion of the last command to provide for the future ease and extravagance of our households, at the direct expense of robbing Jehovah of his Glory, and in the act, depriving many of his creatures of present and eternal happiness? Possessions, held under the light of the Gospel, have too much value to be wasted in trifles: much more are they too precious to be kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. Surely, to withhold from the needy and the suffering, in order to secure future affluence, and it may be future indolence to our children, is an unsheltered refuge for our selfishness. It affords no protection from the stern rebuke of the divine word and example; nor will it afford defence, from the goadings of a conscience, which is fully awake to perform its office.

CHAPTER XII.

THE DOER OF THE WORD IN POVERTY.

THE apostle has asked, "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith?" And every age since the christian era has answered, yes; he has chosen them; not simply because they are poor; not that a man's poverty makes him a christian, or even virtuous. So far from it, extreme indigence is, sometimes, evidence of personal profligacy, or some fault which is no ornament to human character; much less to the christian. Let no one be deceived with the idea that poverty is an inherent excellence. Let him not count that as merit, which, perhaps, he ought to be ashamed of-the extreme of which he

might avoid, by a more strict adherence to the divine precept. Diligence in business is as really an enjoined duty, as fervor of spirit. They are not separated in the sacred text. And, as inspiration has given them in the same breath, it was doubtless the divine intention, that they should co-exist and have a joint exercise in the human mind and body.

He, therefore, who undertakes to effect a divorce between piety and honest, persevering industry, undertakes to put asunder what God has joined together. Verily, he acts against his own interest, and runs counter to that economy which, constitutes an important item in Jehovah's moral government. Still, this world has always had its virtuous poor. Piety, the most devoted, has ever found a lodgment with indigence. And if such persons are to do nothing for the Lord, because they are poor-if poverty gives them an absolute and full discharge from all labor and self-denial for Christ's sake, then it would almost seem, that Infinite

Wisdom had committed an error. Why should he invest so much excellence

where it can be turned to so little practical account? It does not well agree with the analogy of the Divine proceeding, if those who are best qualified to labor, and the most strongly inclined to do so, are not to enter the vineyard at all; nor have any thing to do with it, as matter of personal effort. And yet, there are those who think and say, that the indigent cannot engage, with propriety, in any department of benevolent enterprise, except prayer.

Because a certain amount of goods has not come into their hands, they have no title, and no privilege in this employment. But does not this position involve an error, whose influence extends farther, than the authors of it are aware? The position implies that, whatever the indigent give is so much subtracted from their scanty support; while nothing comes to them as a compensation, either directly or indirectly. Hence their be