Page images
PDF
EPUB

are heavenly. Thoughts determine on the character; as the man thinketh, so is he.

What a scene will open upon us, when, from our eternal state, we shall look back on the use we have made of time ! What a revolution will be wrought in our opinions! What a contrast will be exhibited, when we shall take a clear retrospect of all we have done, and all we ought to have done! And shall we, then, put off the inspection to an uncertain period, to a period when we can neither repent to any purpose for what was wrong, nor begin to do what we shall then perceive would have been right? Let these frequent meditations on death, lead us to reflect what the feelings of a dying bed will be. Let us think now what will then be the review of riches misspent, of talents neglected or perverted, of influence abused, of learning misapplied, of time misemployed! To entertain serious thoughts of death now, is the most likely method for rectifying tempers, for conquering propensities, for establishing principles, for confirming habits, of which we shall then feel the consequences; for relinquishing enterprises and pursuits, for the success of which we may then be as much afflicted, as we should now be at their defeat.

He who cannot find time to consult his Bible, will find, one day, that he has time to be sick; he who has no time to pray, must find time to die. He who can find no time to reflect, is most likely to find time to sin; he who cannot find time for repentance, will find an eternity in which repentance will be of no avail. Let us, then, under the influence of the divine spirit, seriously reflect, under what law we came into the world: "it is appointed for all men once to die, and after death, the JUDGMENT." Is it not obvious, then, that the design of life is to prepare for judgment; and that in propor tion as we employ time well, we make immortality happy?

CHAP. IX.

On Charity.

In that general use of the talents, suggested in the parable, there is also a particular vocation, on the exercise of which every man must equitably determine. Each is particularly called upon to acquit himself of that more immediate duty, for the practice of which God has given special endowments and opportunity. Our Maker requires the spe

cific exercise of the specific talent. The nature of the gift points out the nature of the requisition. The use of the endowment is a peculiar debt, a marked obligation. This is not a gift confounded with the mass of his gifts, but one by which God designs to be, by that individual, more remarkably glorified.

But charity is a virtue of all times and all places. It is not so much an independent grace in itself, as an energy, which gives the last touch and highest finish to every other, and resolves them all into one common principle. It is called "the very bond of perfectness," not only because it unites us to God, our ultimate perfection, but because it ties all the other virtues together, and refers them, thus concatenated, to him, their common source and centre.

St. Peter having given a pressing exhortation to many exalted duties, finishes by ascribing to charity this emphatical superiority: "Above all things, have fervent charity." It is, indeed, the prolific principle of all duty; a confluence of every thing that is lovely and amiable; the fountain from which all excellencies flow, the stream in which they all meet. It is not subject to the ebb and flow of passion or partiality; it is true Christian sympathy. It is tender without weakness; it does not arise from that constitutional softness which may be rather infirmity than virtue. It is the affection of the gos pel; a love derived from the Spirit of Christ, and reciprocally communicated among his genuine followers.

Charity comprehends an indefinitely wide sphere, both in feeling and doing. According to the arrangement of St. Paul, in his beautiful personification of this grace, *she may be said to embrace almost the whole scheme of religious, per sonal, and social duty. “Patient and kind," she does not wait to be solicited to acts of benignity, she seizes the occa sion-she does more, she watches for it. She "endures" evils, but inflicts none; she does not select her trials, but "bears all things." Though "she believes all things," yet she exercises her hope without relinquishing her prudence; sometimes, where conviction forbids her thinking favorably, even then it does not prevent " her hoping all things." She subdues" vaunting," conquers the swellings of insolence, and the intractableness of pride. Not only "she envieth not," not only she disallows the injustice of desiring what is another's, but, by a noble disdain of selfishness, she even “ seek、 eth not her own." Her disinterestedness stirs her up to the perpetual rooting out that principle wrought by nature into

*First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. xiii.

the constitution of the soul. So far from thinking it a proof of spirit to resent injuries, she is not "easily provoked" by them. She smooths the fierceness of the irascible, and corrects the acrimony of the evil-tempered. She not only does not perpetrate, but "she thinketh no evil." She has found a shorter way of becoming rich than avarice ever invented, for charity makes another's goods her own by a simple process; without dispossessing the proprietor, she rejoices so much in another's prosperity that it becomes hers, because it is his.

Here we see that the apostle places charity not only before all the virtues which he thus gracefully marshals, before qualities the most moral, gifts the most spiritual, attainments the most intellectual, but he actually degrades these last in the comparison; he does not barely lower their value, he annihilates it. Without this principle of life, this soul of duty, this essence of goodness, they are not only little, they are nothing. Without charity, possessions, talents, exertions, are all fruitless. They are of no value in the sight of God: they are of no efficacy to our salvation. Charity alone sanctifies our offerings, recommends our prayers, and makes our very praises acceptable.

And though nothing is formally efficacious but the blood and merits of Christ, yet charity, as a divine grace, and one that will never cease, shows that our interest in him, and union with him, are real and genuine.

But to descend to the particulars of charity, and apply the different branches of it to the common purposes of life.Whenever we are promoting the good of mankind, either by assisting public institutions, or relieving individuals, we are obviously helping on the cause of charity; and when we cannot effectively assist the work, we may exercise the principle; we may pray for the happiness which we cannot confer, and rejoice in every addition to the general good towards which we cannot contribute. On the other hand, the purse may sometimes be open where the heart is shut. And it is perhaps a more rare and a higher virtue to exercise forbearance towards the faults, and to put a candid construction on the actions of others, than to supply their wants, or promote their temporal interests. But whether candor in judging, or liberality in giving, be the virtue in exercise, by the adoption of each as a law, and the practice of both on the ground of conformity to the divine will, we shall acquire such a habit of exercising the kind affections, that what was adopted as a principle will be established into a pleasure: what was a force upon nature, will almost grow into a part of it; obliga

tion will become choice, law impulse, duty necessity; the energy will become so powerful, that the heart will involuntarily spring to the performance; indolence, selfishness, trouble, inconvenience, will vanish under the vigorous operation of a habit whose motive is genuine Christianity.

One Christian grace is never exercised at the expense of another, nor is it perfect unless it promotes that other. Thus charity enjoys abstinently that she may give liberally. While she restrains every wrong inclination, she stimulates us to such as are right. She is never a solitary quality, but is inseparably linked with truth and equity. She leads us perpetually to examine our means, dispositions, and opportunities, and to exert their combined force for the promotion of the greatest possible good. She teaches us to contribute to the comfort of others as well as to their necessities. She converts small kindnesses into great ones, by doing them with reference to God; for it is not so much the worth, as the temper, which will render them acceptable to him.

We must not judge of our charity by single acts and particular instances, for they are not always good men who do good things, but by our general tendencies and propensities. We must strive after an uniformity in our charity-examine whether it be equable, steady, voluntary, and not a charity of times, and seasons, and humors. If we are as unkind and illiberal in one instance as we are profuse in another, when the demand is equal, and we have both the choice and the means, whatever we may be, we are not charitable.

Though charity, as we have already observed, is a quality of universal application, and by no means limited within the narrow bounds of almsgiving, yet not to allow a due, that is, a high rank and station to those works of benevolence, to which our Redeemer gives so conspicuous a place in his exhibition of the scrutiny at the general judgment, would be mistaking the genius of Christianity, would be departing from the practice and the principles of its Founder; it would be forgetting the high dignity he conferred on this grace, when he declared that he should consider the smallest work of love done to the least of his followers for his sake as done to himself.

This pecuniary charity is not to be limited to our particular connections-must not be confined to unfounded attachinents, to party-favorites. It must be governed by the law of justice. We must not do a little good to one which may involve a greater injury to another: yet though we should keep our hearts always open, and our feelings alive to the

general benefit, still, as our power must be inevitably contracted, whatever right others may have to our beneficence, local circumstances, natural expectations, and pressing necessity, confer the more immediate claim. The most iminediate is that of "the household of faith.”

From hence it appears, that in inquiring into the duties of charity, we must not overlook the use to be made of riches, one of the talents implied in the parable. The application of money, whether "kept by its owners to their hurt," or squandered to their destruction, will equally be made the subject of final investigation. Lord Bacon's remark, that "riches, when kept in a heap, are corrupt like a dunghill, but, when spread abroad, diffuse beauty and fertility," has been more admired than acted upon. All the fine sentences that have been pelted at the head of covetousness' have probably never reformed one miser; nor have the most pointed aphorisms, not divinely directed, ever taught the luxurious the true use of money. Happily the age in which we live is so generally disposed to acts of beneficence, that there never was a period which less imposed the necessity to press the duty, to enforce the practice, or to point out the objects. A thousand new channels are opened, yet the old ones are not dried up; the streams flow in abundance, as if fed by a perennial fountain.

Let not any one, however, intrench himself in the supposed security of surrounding goodness. Let not any take comfort that he lives in an age of charity, if he himself is not charitable. We are not benevolent by contact or infection, or by breathing an atmosphere of charity. Yet who has not heard persons exultingly boast of this noble characteristic of the age, who are by no means remarkable for contributing their own contingent towards establishing its character? Probably many a man gloried in the valor of his country, and exulted in the pride of being an Englishman, after the battles of Trafalgar and Salamanca, who, had he been sent into the action, would have been shot for cowardice.

Who has not seen the ready eye discharge its kindly showers at a tale of woe, and the frugal sentimentalist comfort himself that his tears had paid more cheaply the debt of benevolence, for which his purse had been solicited. The author, many years ago, made one in a party of friends an expected guest, who was rather late, at length came in; she was in great agitation, having been detained on the road by a dreadful fire in the neighborhood. The poor family, who had gone to bed, had been with difficulty awakened. The

« PreviousContinue »