difficult to engender, and harder to keep alive, but it is best produced
and quickened to energy by frequently engaging in the duties of charity.
Benevolence, to become strong, must be cultivated; and it is so much of
an exotic in the human breast, that it needs the most earnest and
assiduous care; while selfishness, such is its strength and tenacity of
life, can be deadened and kept in abeyance only by repeated and vigorous
assaults. As a general rule, that system, as to frequency, should be
chosen, which comes most strongly in collision, and wrestles most
powerfully with the selfishness of the heart. Some, I know, would deal
gently with this obnoxious principle; rather humor than goad it; and on
this ground urge the importance of frequent, and, of course, small
contributions, which will scarcely be felt; maintaining that on the
whole a larger amount will be collected. But I would not urge frequency
of donations on this account. I would advocate benevolence only on
those principles which will give it life and vigor for eternity. The
Bible says nothing about humoring the selfishness of the heart, of
adopting plans of beneficence that will be scarcely felt. Its language
is, "Crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts." It directs us to
_die_ unto sin or self. It makes no compromise with covetousness. It
bids us not rock it to sleep, but slay it. Let every one then stand up
in the lofty sternness of his spirit, and adopt that system as to
frequency in giving, which, other things being equal, is most crucifying
to the carnal heart.

But a system of almost continued contributions will not be peculiarly
crossing to our avaricious desires, if trifling sums are given, or those
greatly disproportionate to property. In this case, selfishness,
instead of being disturbed, may be rather cajoled into a species of
benevolence; though a species as sickly and unsubstantial as the vine
that grows amid the damps of a vault, never aspiring to heaven as the