amount of capital, I decided to give half, and, on acquiring what I
determined would be a full sufficiency of capital, then to give the
whole of my net profits.

"It is now several years since I adopted this plan, and under it I have
acquired a handsome capital, and have been prospered beyond my most
sanguine expectations. Although constantly giving, I have never yet
touched the bottom of my fund, and have repeatedly been surprised to
find what large drafts it would bear. True, during some months, I have
encountered a salutary trial of faith, when this rule has led me to lay
by the tenth while the remainder proved inadequate to my support; but
the tide has soon turned, and with gratitude I have recognized a
heavenly hand more than making good all past deficiencies."

The following deeply interesting particulars are recorded in the memoir
of Mr. Cobb, a Boston merchant. At the age of twenty-three, Mr. Cobb
drew up and subscribed the following remarkable document:

"By the grace of God I will never be worth more than 50,000 dollars,

"By the grace of God I will give one fourth of the net profits of my
business to charitable and religious uses.

"If I am ever worth 20,000 dollars I will give one half of my net
profits; and if ever I am worth 30,000 dollars, I will give three
fourths; and the whole after 50,000 dollars. So help me God, or give to
a more faithful steward, and set me aside."

"To this covenant," says his memoir "he adhered with conscientious
fidelity. He distributed the profits of his business with an increasing
ratio, from year to year, till he reached the point which he had fixed
as a limit to his property, and then gave to the cause of God all the
money which he earned. At one time, finding that his property had
increased beyond 50,000 dollars, he at once devoted the surplus 7,500
dollars.

"On his death-bed he said, 'by the grace of God--_nothing else_--by the
grace of God I have been enabled, under the influence of these
resolutions to give away more than 40,000 dollars.' How good the Lord
has been to me!"

Mr. Cobb was also an active, humble, and devoted Christian, seeking the
prosperity of feeble churches; labouring to promote the benevolent
institutions of the day; punctual in his attendance at prayer meetings,
and anxious to aid the inquiring sinner; watchful for the eternal
interests of those under his charge; mild and amiable in his deportment;
and, in the general tenor of his life and c