He, who is unsteady in his habits, now indulging in ease, and now
straining every muscle; who, as some excitement arouses him,--such
perhaps as the fresh inculcation of economy and industry, flares up and
bustles about, resolves that his business shall henceforth be prosecuted
with vigor and managed with precision, and in a few days relapses into
his old, careless, inefficient habits, heedless alike of prudence and
precept, gives little promise of success in any department of life. Or
should one be perseveringly industrious, but suffer his affairs to lie
in confusion, like the material world at its birth, he would be deemed
at best but a busy-body. If he intends to succeed, he must have some
established principles and a fixedness of purpose, which will prompt to
accuracy and method, would be the universal decision of the wise. This
is reasoning correctly. But must men practise on system in providing
the means of personal supply and gratification; while in the Divine work
of relieving the sorrows and wants of others, all system is matter of
indifference? Is order so important in the _accumulation_ of property;
while the _diffusion_ of it, in obedience to God's commands, may be
safely left to the spontaneous impulses of feeling? The more important
any business becomes, the more essential is precision in its management.
This is a universal maxim. Now, as beneficence, in its comprehensive
import, rises superior to all other employments, so, if it ever reaches
its highest possible results, it must be carried on systematically. How
often does benevolence to the poor fail of accomplishing all that it
otherwise might, were it not exerted irregularly; whereas, when
proceeding in equable flow, by encouraging frugality and economy, it
fills even the dwellings of poverty with comfort. How much more
efficient would our great benevolent societies become, were the
contributions of the churches uniform, or uniformly rising like the
waters from the sanctuary in Ezekiel's vision; so that those who conduct
them might have sufficient data on which to erect their schemes for the