earth into glorious harmony with all things in heaven. The world is the field of the church's sacred enterprise; and until all at home and all abroad are introduced into the light and liberty and joy of the Saviour's spiritual kingdom, her work will not be done, nor her mission fulfilled. This is saying, in other words, that no power can release you from the duty of caring for the souls of others, or of doing to the utmost of your means for their present and everlasting happiness.

What proportion of your property you are to devote to these sublime and sacred objects must be settled between God and your own conscience. What does God require? And does conscience ever dictate more or less than He claims? Liberality does not consist in the largeness of the gift, but in its relative value to what is possessed. The poor widow, who threw her two mites into the treasury of the temple, was more generous by far than many of those who laid down the most costly offerings. They only gave of their abundance, but she gave her all. Neither humanity nor Christianity makes any such demand as this. It would be neither wise nor prudent to expend all that you have on the most benevolent or the most sacred enterprise. There are the claims of family, of kindred, of coming old age, and others of a like character; but having made even liberal provision for these, may there not be left a margin sufficiently wide to enable you to aid the church of God in her humane, philanthropic, and Christian efforts? Remember, God looks not so much at what you give, as at what you retain. Your gifts may bear no true proportion to your treasures. The whole of them may not amount to more than a fraction out of the total. And is this honestly to employ the talent which God has committed to you? Is this to act the part of a faithful servant? You are accountable for what you keep, as well as for what you give.

Of this law of proportion we may speak to you more at length on some future occasion. But now, to set forth your duty in its clearest light, and, if possible, to induce you to make a wise and liberal distribution of your property, let me ask you seriously to ponder the following simple truths :

That God claims an absolute property in all that you are, and in all that you have. Ye are not your own, and whatever you possess has been bestowed upon you in the exercise of infinite goodness. Just as certainly as you live, and move, and have your being in God, so in Him are all your springs of comfort and enjoyment; and He it is who gives you all things richly to enjoy.

That wealth is a positive good only so far as it is devoted

THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY, 27, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON.

to proper and worthy ends. If it be used merely to pamper the flesh, or to fulfil the cravings of self-indulgence, or to nourish the pride of a family, or to enrich those who might well provide for themselves, or to insure no higher objects than those of time and earth, then it comes short of the end for which it was given, and yields not the happiness which it promised.

That a man's own happiness is very much affected by the extent to which he employs his property in promoting the good of others. Who loves a parsimonious and penurious spirit in the midst of abundance? Does not the word NIGGARD express at once the character of him to whom it is applied, and our detestation of that mean, sordid, selfish character? Nor is it often that fortune favours such an one. Do not these words of the wise man contain a deep truth," There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty"? Might not examples without number be brought forward to prove that those who keep back what is due to the cause of humanity and of God, yet grow poor in spite of their parsimony? And how effectually do they rob themselves of all higher enjoyments! They have nothing on which their thoughts may fall back with satisfaction and delight. Their life is barren of good. Though in possession of the means, they do little, if anything, to benefit the world or their race. They overlook the simple fact that he only who sows bountifully can reap bountifully. The more abundant the seed which he scatters broadcast over the field of humanity, the richer and the larger must be the harvest; and in the harvest will he find his reward and his joy. But, unwilling to part with the seeds of wealth, sowing them with a sparing and less than half-filled hand, he reaps sparingly. The fruit is scanty and poor, and proclaims yet more emphatically the poverty and the littleness of the man's own soul. Generous deeds-acts corresponding to your facilities and your means-are indispensable to all higher joy. How can you be happy if conscience is ever accusing you of disobedience to her judgment and decision? It is in keeping the divine commands that there is great reward. Nothing must be kept back which you feel it your duty to give.

That wealth never has given happiness: for "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he hath.' Happiness is the inward satisfaction of the soul. Now, it is not possible to fill up the longings of your immortal nature with anything inferior to itself; and if you except the everblessed God, what is there that is superior to the human soul? Is it not the greatest of all created things? And do you

suppose that its desires are to be met and fulfilled by allowing them to terminate on the things of time and earth? What is an atom to a world ?—and what are all worlds but just so many atoms to the soul of man? It is only by rising into something above itself and greater than itself that it can become truly happy; but it has no superior except God; and into God's infinite fulness it must rise to partake true blessedness either in time or in eternity. Joseph in prison was a happier man than Pharaoh in his palace. Alexander sat weeping on the throne of the world, while Lazarus, who was fed with the crumbs which fell from the table of the rich man, could look up into an opening heaven, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

That wealth, directed to wise and beneficent ends, insures its own return. It is like bread-corn cast upon the waters, which, finding an appropriate soil, will take root and vegetate, and yield a corresponding harvest. Elsewhere the wise man tells us, that "he that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given Him will He pay him again."

"Would'st thou be rich? Give unto the poor;-thou shalt have thine own with usury;

For the secret hand of Providence prospereth the charitable always; Good luck shall he have in his pursuits, and his heart shall be glad within him."

Not that the hope of return is to be the motive from which you give. The spring of all benevolent action must rise higher far. But if the motive be pure, and the object be good, then it may be taken as a general principle that riches so spent will be productive of results which will bring their own happiness and reward; and to him who is faithful in that which he hath, more shall be given him. Heaven will bless the labour of his hands, and he shall have yet more abundantly.

That such an use of worldly substance is only a fitting expression of the debt of obligation which every Christian owes to the grace of God. If you are a believer in Christ, then, as such, God hath loved you, and redeemed you with the blood of his own Son, sanctified and transformed you, and begotten you to the hope of eternal glory. And can your gratitude. ever equal his claim? If you have presented body, soul, and spirit a living sacrifice to Him, what else can you keep back? His love demands your soul, your life, your all.

That, for this consecration of your property to God and to good, you have the highest and purest examples. How many have thus devoted their all, and become the subjects of a

voluntary poverty, that they might advance the cause of God and promote the happiness of man! But we turn to the Model of all excellence, the Pattern of every virtue. "Ye. know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." If he emptied himself of his essential glory, and came down to the condition of our humanity, that he might lift us up to communion with God, and into the enjoyment of every conceivable good, then nothing should limit the influences of His love on our hearts. Christianity has done nothing for us if it has not destroyed the selfishness. of our nature, and made our bosoms dilate and expand with a divine benevolence.

Now, if there exist all these grounds for an enlightened and Christian distribution of your property, then what a tremendous responsibility attaches to its possession! Possessing the one, you cannot get away from the other. Before you can free yourselves from your accountableness you must cease to hold your wealth. Nor let it be forgotten that the responsibility is in the degree of what is enjoyed. To whom much is given, of the same much shall be required. It will come out, amid the solemnities of the last day, what use you have made of your riches. Fidelity on earth is inseparable from glory in heaven. It is to him who is true to his trust here-whatever that trust may be that the Saviour and the Judge will then address the cheering plaudit-"Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord;" and bright will be the crown which shall encircle his brow; and full will be the bliss which shall flow into his soul.

Trust not in uncertain riches. If they increase, set not your heart upon them. Do not lose the wealth of immortality in chasing a shadow. Whatever be your possessions on earth, be careful to lay up treasure in heaven. Rise, through faith in Christ, into communion with God, and He will fill you unto His own fulness. The riches of his grace will become your immediate, inalienable, immortal possession-a possession which continues undiminished and the same amid all the changes which time may disclose or which eternity may conceal; and which beyond the grave will swell into one boundless, everlasting property of blessedness and joy. In the presence of God our Saviour is fulness of joy: at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

It may be that you have property, but not piety. Your heart does not throb with pure love to God, and hence you have no disposition to devote your wealth to any higher or

more sacred object. You leave that to the saints, as you are pleased to denominate those who deem the things of time infinitely inferior to the things of eternity. But keep in memory that your want of piety does not free you from the responsibility connected with the possession of wealth. Not less than the good man you will have to answer for the use you make of your riches. You cannot plead ignorance of your duty, nor want of opportunities for the wisest and the most discreet exercise of your charity; and does not The Book say, that he who knows his master's will and does it not shall be beaten with many stripes? The wilful neglect of commanded duty increases the burden of conscious sin; and the consequence of sin is death-eternal death.

We have not even a whisper to breathe against the possession of wealth, provided only that you are faithful to your solemn trust. Still, money touches only the outer and the coarser elements of your nature. It is a material thing, and can insure for you nothing more than material good. It can never overtake the desires and the longings of your deathless spirit. The soul has its deeper-mightier yearnings, and these yearnings can be met and satisfied only by that which corresponds with its own spiritual and immortal being. In other words, nothing can overtake the profound poverty of man's moral nature, but the boundless provision of infinite love as it is set forth in the gospel of Christ. To rise, through faith in the one all-atoning sacrifice of God's Son, into the enjoyment of pardon and peace, acceptance and life, inward purity and conscious happiness, adoption into the family of God, and a well-grounded hope of everlasting bliss-this-this is possession worthy of a name. Nor can these infinite blessings become your property, either in time or through eternity, otherwise than by a total renunciation of self and of all self-dependence, followed by a confiding faith and joyous trust in the one only Saviour Jesus Christ; the surrender of your whole nature to the sanctifying and transforming power of the Holy Spirit, and the consecration of your entire being to the service and the glory of Him, of whom, and to whom, and through whom are all things; to whose redeeming mercy we commend you, and in whose presence we pray that you may at last stand perfected and glorified.

J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, AND
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON;

AND W.INNES, BOOKSELLER, SOUTH HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.

J. & W. Rider, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close, London.