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But I cannot dwell longer on this part of my subject. I pass on therefore to mention

In the second place-some of the motives which press upon us to become liberal.

These may be comprised in the influence of liberality on one's own character, and its effects on the character and prospects of others.

As to one's own character-liberality enlarges the mind. While parsimony diminishes the mind, and shuts it up viewing its own dark chambers, heedless of every thing without: liberality assists it to look out of itself and take a survey of the world around it. No man has a narrower view than the miser. His horizon is bounded by his treasures; and security for his money lent and the interest thereon to be accumulated, are the subjects of his daily meditations. Who has not seen his low, niggardly calculations, his mean dimensions of mind, and his unmanly feeling? All this he has formed into a character by long habituating himself to follow the dictates of avarice. We cannot act continually in a particular way, without receiving a stamp from our actions in our own souls. This is a law of human nature. The man who constantly trades in small things, and receives his few cents at a time, if he is obliged to depend on these bargains for a livelihood, will be apt to contract his mind to small calculations. From the habit he is compelled to maintain of reckoning with great exactness for every cent, he will be in danger, if there be no counteracting influence, of placing a greater value on it than is due to it. So on the other hand, the man who deals in large things-who is receiving and paying much, will be apt to take a bias in his mind accordingly.

He will not consider every cent as of momentous consequence; but will be looking to the great objects which lie before him in his merchandize. He will deal with his fellow men on a large scale, and his plans will be laid in a comprehensive manner. A man may amass a great estate by small trading, but it requires no stretch of mind to do it. Whereas to obtain such an estate by liberal merchandize shows a mind of some dimensions— able to lay plans and to calculate the thousand circumstances that are likely to occur and to provide for them. Hence there is always more liberality among the merchants of a large commercial city than among others of the same means elsewhere. No public enterprize seems to be too great for them to undertake, only convince them first that it will be beneficial; but among those who deal in small things, all exertion by way of diture is a mountain.

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Now it is precisely in this way that liberality operates on the mind. He that is accustomed from his youth to do good with the property he possesses, receives a stamp to his character by that means. He will have a certain expansiveness of mind on the subject of benevolent operations which is a stranger to him who hoards up all he can get, and anxiously reaches after more. able to comprehend those plans which promise to ameliorate the condition of man below, and to prepare him for the blessedness of heaven above. And he can take that deep interest in them too which can only arise from a comprehension of them. On the other hand, no man takes a narrower view of the necessities of mankind than he who has arrived at old age on the road of avarice. His mind has contracted with his covetous de

sires till he is unable to see any thing out of himself. The little dimensions of his own family circle embrace all the feelings of compassion that he knows; and even there, himself is the focus to which he would compel all the rays of happiness to converge. Tell him of the millions who are perishing for want of the gospel: he is as a deaf man that understands not. Tell him of the blessedness which the Saviour declares is attached to giving it is to him a contradiction in terms. Tell him of the present charities of the christian public: he knows not and cares not. Liberality has never shed her benign influence on him; and he remains a solemn monument of what avarice can do-freeze up all the sensibilities of the soul; and as the heart in ordinary cases governs the understanding, break down that faculty also, till it can comprehend nothing but the addition and subtraction of money making.

This leads me to another remark, that liberality gives enjoyment to life. The words of the Lord Jesus when he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive, will always remain true. They who have tried the truth of this maxim, know it; and it is a blessedness which you cannot persuade them to relinquish. The man who lives from year to year within himself, and never looks abroad to ascertain the wants of the suffering and to bestow his charities according to his ability, is a stranger to this enjoyment, and therefore cannot judge of it. His life is not for God, nor his fellow men, but for himself; and therefore he knows nothing of any joy but that which springs from himself. And what a poor, contracted fountain this must be, has already appeared.

He that acts on the principles of liberality, on the other hand, feels a consciousness of not being a blank in the creation of God. He cannot but know that he is doing his duty; and he feels the approbation of an enlightened conscience. He can look around and see the objects which his benevolence has reared, and rejoice. Or if his means are small, he can read of the charitable operations of the present day, and feel the interest of a fellow labourer. And therefore when he sees the immense good that is daily accomplishing for our race, he does not look on with the envious feeling of an opposer, or the indifferent feeling of one that has done nothing, but with the joyous emotions of one that has himself helped in the same cause. The consciousness of having a part in these great works, small though it may be yet according to his ability, gives him a brotherhood to the benevolent spirits of the age, and makes him feel that he is not living altogether in vain.

Besides all this, there is a pleasure in doing good for its own sake, and in reference to what God has promised. Who that has drunk at all of the spirit of Christ does not love to spread happiness around him? And what such person does not love to put in his mite toward replenishing the treasury of the Lord-to put forth his hand to accelerate the wheels of that blessed chariot which is scattering, as it passes, peace and good will to men? And when the promises of God are taken into view, who that believes, and is therefore accustomed to rely on those promises, does not feel his satisfaction increased? Who can read such declarations as this, "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself;" or such as this, "Give

and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and running over;" or such as this, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again;" without some additional pleasure in the act of doing good? Whatever be the meaning of these passages and others like them, nothing less can be argued from them than a promise to liberality. Whether the promise be fulfilled here or hereafter, it cannot fail.

The Providence of God, however, is not contrary to the idea that liberality is rewarded even in this world. It is not found that the liberal man is poorer on that account. That rule of Divine Providence which our text records is full of meaning on this point-"There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Many an example might be adduced of living men who have found their liberality abundantly recompensed in the smiles of Providence on their daily business, as well as in the pleasure which the very act of doing good affords. It is safe trusting the Lord. If he give not temporal blessings, he will pour out upon us and our children what is infinitely more valuable, the influences of his Holy Spirit, and make us heirs of that inheritance which fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens. It is a remarkable fact, that since the churches of this country have engaged in Foreign Missions, and other benevolent operations, there have been more revivals of religion among them than ever before; while at the same time the universal appearance of comfort and worldly prosperity as a people, has told to the passing stranger that we are a happy country. Does not

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