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will never injure this cause; nor will it deter one who is worthy to embark in it. While it may keep some out of the field, some whose timidity and want of faith, would render them an incubus upon its movements, it will lead every true and worthy soldier to put on the whole armor of God; that he may be able to stand in the evil day; to take the shield of faith; that with it he may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the adversary; and when he goes to his work, he will not look on the things which are seen and temporal, for encouragement : he will labor as seeing him who is invisible; and reckon that the sufferings of the present life, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in the faithful.

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CHAPTER VII.

CONSTANCY IN PERSONAL BENEFICENCE.

"CHARITY never faileth." Prophecies shall fail because the time will come ; when the object of them shall be accomplished. Tongues shall cease. They have already ceased, in the sense given to the word as used by the apostle; and knowledge shall vanish away. But charity is constant; because its exercise will be always needed; and no substitute can supply in its absence. Charity is love; and love is of God. And not only so, but God is love. And whosoever loveth, is born of God. This attribute is fundamental in the character of the Supreme; and its existence, in men, assimilates the creature to the Creator. Why should it not be permanent wherever found? Its origin has the permanence

of immutability. Infinite resources are a foundation for its supply; unfailing promise the pledge of its support.

The soul of charity is love; and beneficence is charity at work doing good. A charity without beneficence is a sluggard virtue at best; if not a libel to the name it bears. It is in the nature of animal life to act. Action does not cease until disease prostrates the vital energies, or coertion restrains them. Much more do we expect to find love doing something; since it is not only from God, but the same in nature with an attribute of his. Divine love has been at work for every part of the universe, since the early dawn of creation, when the morning stars first sang together. Through the whole scale of being, from the lowest species of animal, up to the highest orders of unembodied spirits, the influence of this activity is felt at every moment. Should the exercise of divine love cease, there would instantly be a cessation of enjoyment in every sentient being.

But love is an exercise; and activity in some form is essential to its existence. If it does not act in some way, it does not live, and is not. Then it is not exageration to say that true charity can no more live, for any length of time, without being embodied in beneficent action, than the soul can be recognized in society, when the body is dead.

There may be professions of charity unattended by these evidences of vitality. The spurious can say, with as much show as the real, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. And, if this show of words were the best evidence, the fairest in reputation would often be the most hollow in reality. But we are told that our professions profit nothing, unless we actually provide the needful things. This erects a different standard of judging. This sweeps away all that which is in appearance only, and leaves the reality to be tested by activity, its essential attribute.

1. The true christian knows that his charity should and must be active. But

this activity must be constant. His personal interest demands this. Doing good is the essential exercise which gives love in the soul a healthful tone. When we cease giving and doing, love ceases to breathe in a healthful manner, and gives dubious signs of vigorous existence. Again; when the heart is full of benevolent feeling, and the hands are active in giving it off, the mind is emptied of many things which are corrosive to all that is lovely and of good report. When benevolent feeling is going out in beneficent action, all the physical, mental and moral, functions of the man are in harmony with each other; because in harmony with the great law of God, both as revealed in the scriptures and as inwrought to the constitution. When all the powers are thus united in following out this great law of love, there can be no clashing. One part of the man cannot act against the other, because all are in one direction, and that toward the same object. Indeed beneficence pro

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