part of, systematic beneficence. They should lie like
blazing fuel on the heart, kindling their appropriate feelings and
affections. I have briefly unfolded them, as a specimen of that process
of reasoning and personal application, which, according to our mental
laws, when attended by the Holy Spirit, is fitted to soften and
harmonize the mind preparatory to benevolent action; a process which
all, as rational beings, are bound to engage in and carry out. I know
this part of the system requires unpleasant work. Most are willing to
feel, but they would feel without principle; and if they act, they would
act only from the impulse of the moment. They shrink from
introspection; from working on their own hearts through the laborious
operations of the intellect, so that the affections may be at once both
right and rational. But if we would see the gorgeous palace towering in
symmetry and grandeur, unpleasant work must be done; the rubbish must be
removed, the soil excavated, the marble chiselled into form, and the
unsightly timbers erected. Without these, though it might glitter in
the sunbeams, it would be but a gossamer tissue. So this mental part is
the bone and sinew, the life, of a system of beneficence. Confined to
resolutions and conduct, its movements would be like the effects of
galvanism on the muscles of the dead--unnatural and spasmodic. The
truth is, there can be no system of action without some system both of
intellectual views and of the moral sensibilities. All inconsistency
among Christians arises from defects in one or other of these respects.
The fountain is not invariably at the same height, and therefore the
stream alternately swells and sinks.

Resolutions are proverbially frail; and they are so, because they rest
not on a mind consolidated by principles, and a heart glowing like a
furnace with corresponding feelings. When resting on such a mind and
heart, resolutions are not frail; but invincible as adamant.

Our purposes of charity, therefore, must rest on an unshaken foundation;
and in order to this, the principles and considerations fitted to
promote benevolent sentiments and feelings must be pressed on the mind,
till in view of them the bosom warms, and throbs, and swells, and bursts
forth in high and determined resolves. It is not enough that they pass
like a burning ray across the mind, producing a single flash of
benevolence. What is needed is a continuation of the same effect; and