raiment and medicine can relieve. He remembers that his fellow creatures have minds to be enlightened, and souls to be saved, as well as bodies to be fed and clothed and healed. Hence he takes a lively interest in the cause of education. Nor does it it satisfy him to know, that the children of the poor, as well as the rich, are every where found in the schools, and faithfully instructed in elementary and common learning. He is fully aware that higher seminaries are necessary to train men for professional and other public duties; and thus to meet the wants of the state, of the church, and of the world. Hence, if he is a man of liberal and comprehensive views, he feels a deep interest in the prosperity of colleges, and other public institutions of the highest rank, and is ever ready to aid them, according to their necessities and his own pecuniary abilities.

But the institutions of the gospel, he holds above all competition and all price. The preaching of the word, and the administration of christian ordinances, he values more than his necessary food. This makes him a liberal and firm supporter of the holy ministry. Those who are able to do but little, he cheerfully relieves by increasing his own contributions, nor does he stop to inquire, whether every man who is equally able with himself, is ready to bear his equal share of the burden. To their own master he leaves them to stand or fall. He will do any thing, will make any sacrifice, rather than not have the bread of life broken every sabbath day to himself and his children, and the people among whom he dwells. And not satisfied with securing these inestimable blessings during his own life-time, he will, if need so require and his circumstances permit, open a fountain from which his munificence may flow into the house of the Lord down through distant generations.

Moreover, that Heaven-born charity which thus begins at home, is sure to send out its vivifying streams into other fields, which need to be refreshed in the same manner. He regards all the religious and benevolent institutions of the age, in which he lives, as so many channels, opened by God himself, for the distribution of his income.

So far from regretting that so many of these already exist, he rejoices whenever a new one is opened, for the conveyance of temporal, or spiritual blessings, to any destitute branch of the human family.

Instead of covetously asking, when will these calls for money cease-when will these agents be satisfied? He says, Let them be multiplied-let them come-let them grow louder and louder in their importunity, till the great work of evangelizing the world is accomplished. He does not wish that he had been born a century earlier, nor that he could come upon the stage of action a century later; but blesses God for being permitted to live, just when so many new ways of doing good are constantly found out, and for giving him the means of co-operating with others, in promoting the temporal and eternal wellbeing of mankind. When he hears of thousands perishing with famine, on the sun-burnt isles of western Africa, he thinks, at once, of the hundreds of millions, on that great continent, who are sinking down to perdition in Pagan darkness. Anon his thoughts are away to Birmah, to Siam, to China, to the great Islands of the Indian seas. His prayers ascend to the God of heaven for their speedy conversion, and his abundant free-will offerings attest the sincerity of his prayers.

This is a hasty glance at the good man's course; and I need only add, that his path is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.'

The way is now prepared,

III. To mark the reflex influence of such a course upon his own character and happiness.

It is just as impossible to do good, from right motives, without improving one's character, and increasing his happiness, as it is to do evil, without producing directly the contrary effects. All the paths of benevolent action are ascending. At every step, the atmosphere becomes cleare, brighter, and more exhilarating; just as all the paths of selfishness lead the traveller down towards the nether regions of darkness and death.

He

The first reflex advantage of benevolent action that I shall notice, consists in a great increase of personal happiness. The good man knows from his own experience, that it is far more blessed to give than to receive.' feels an inward satisfaction, the cause of which he may not be able fully to explain; but which, he would not exchange for ten times the amount of what it may have cost him.

No money which he expends for other purposes, yields him half so much satisfaction, as that which he casts into the treasury of the Lord. Having sown bountifully, he reaps also bountifully, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.' The more liberally he gives of his substance, the more readily he denies himself for the sake of making others happy, the more does he enjoy the residue of his property. And when the habit of living and acting for the glory of God, and the good of mankind, is once formed, nothing would induce the real christian to abandon it, even if present enjoyment were its only advantage and reward. You may tell him that he would be far happier in laying up his money for his children, or in devoting it to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life; but he will not, he can

not believe you. It is in vain to reason and remonstrate against his own consciousness. He has the highest possible evidence, that 'by watering he is watered himself.'

Secondly. Another reflex advantage of benevolent action is, that this godlike principle constantly gains strength by exercise. The more a man does and gives for worthy and pious objects, the more he will wish to do and to give. Nothing grows so rapidly as the germ of benevolence, when it is planted in a genial soil. From a slender shoot, it soon becomes a great tree; and in its annual produce, rises quickly from thirty to sixty, and from sixty to an hundred fold.' Thus without any increase of property, ten or a hundred dollars is given this year, to a missionary society, easier than half the sum was given last year; and thus is the good man's heart continually enlarged, till the habit of giving becomes identified with all his earnings and sources of income, as well as with his highest happiness.

The true

Thirdly. Benevolent action is one of the most powerful stimulants to industry and frugality. value of property, is never seen so clearly, as in the light of genuine christian benevolence. The more the good man does, to instruct the ignorant and save the perishing, the greater will their necessities appear; and the more cheerfully will he apply himself to business, in some lawful calling, that he may increase his power of doing good. With the same object in view, he looks more carefully to his own expenditures-cuts off superfluities makes retrenchments-and, as I have already remarked, he is richly rewarded, and still more richly by the inward satisfaction which these efforts and sacrifices produce.

Fourthly. Another great reflex advantage of active benevolence upon the good man himself, is, that by increasing his interest in all the religious enterprises of the day, it excites him to more fervent prayer to God, for his blessing, to give them success. We always feel interested in that which costs us time and money and self-denial; and very much, too, in proportion to our own efforts and sacrifices. This is a law of our nature. Who can doubt, that parental affection is exceedingly strengthened, bý unremitting care and exertions, for the temporal and spiritual good of a rising family? Who does not know, that long watching, by the sick bed of a child, begets a peculiar tenderness in the mother's breast, and makes her cling, more closely, to the suffering object of all her protracted anxieties? What so sure a way of becoming interested in the welfare of a poor neighbor, or a famishing stranger, as by relieving his necessities?

It is hardly necessary to add, that the very same labors and sacrifices, for the good of others, which create a deep er and deeper interest in their welfare, and stimulate one to new efforts in their behalf, will induce him to ask aid for them, whenever circumstances require it. Thus, parents, when their children are sick, call in the ablest physicians-and above all, when they themselves are pious, do they apply in earnest prayer, to the great Physician of body and soul. Just so is it with the good man, who embarks with all his heart, in the benevolent enterprises of the present age. The more he labors and gives, the more does he love the miserable and destitute objects of his beneficence. And as he sees how entirely inadequate his own unassisted efforts must be, he is led to beseech Him, who has all hearts in his hand, to raise up a multi