in sympathy with his own. Holy love must perpetually glow in our
bosoms; otherwise, we shall sometimes fail in the correctness of our
conclusions. Thus the first impulse of benevolent feelings puts us in
the way to increase them; for every desire to give must be attended with
a scrutinizing estimate of our motives, and a constant struggle with
selfishness, lest the latter gain the ascendency, and mar the beauty of
the deed. The legitimate result of the process, therefore, is a deep
and watchful piety; while the works of beneficence, thus determined,
never degenerate into superstition or self-righteousness; and its
obligations will seize at once and unrelaxingly the conscience of all.

The conclusion, therefore, at which we arrive touching the amount of our
charities is this: it should be such as our means, a distinct knowledge
of the wants of others, and a heart of overflowing love, shall
prescribe; leaving each one to his own solemn convictions of duty,
amenable to the bar of God.

But it may be objected, if beneficence is thus left without the
specification of some stated amount, selfish, or but partially
sanctified men, will not give as liberally as they ought. Perhaps they
will not. But all we can so is to press on their attention the commands
of Jehovah, and the claims of a dying world--claims, as strong and
affecting as those which brought the Saviour from the throne to the
cross; and telling them what the Apostle, enforcing also sparingly; "and
he who soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully," leave them to
settle the matter of their covetousness with their Final Judge. We may
pray and weep over them; but we may use no efforts to move a single
individual from that moral basis--his own conscience--on which God has
placed him. Here he must stand; and here we must be willing he should
stand; while he himself is under infinite obligation to lay bare his