for this, the same cause must continue to operate. It is important,
therefore, that these truths be systematically applied. Seasons should
be set apart for daily meditating and reasoning upon them, attended by
earnest supplication for the impressing influences of the Holy Spirit.
The mind must thus be drilled to reflection upon them till they become
principles of action, so vital and permanent, that a shape and
inflexibility shall be given to the moral sensibilities, which no wear
of time or circumstances shall change or efface.

This is the only process by which the soul can be brought into, and kept
in, that state of unity implied in volition; especially of that abiding
unity implied in a general purpose, without which no scheme of action
can be long sustained. This, too, is the only method by which unhappy
influences exerted on the heart by the pursuits of gain can be
counteracted. As one engages in active business, and his property
accumulates, his thoughts usually become more engrossed, and his love of
money increases. Why is it? Precisely on the principle recognized by
the Psalmist, "While I was musing, the fire burned." It is a law of our
mental nature, that the more we think of any subject naturally pleasing,
the greater interest we feel respecting it. Now the management, the
proper investment, and safe keeping of property, must engage, more or
less, the attention; and owing to the extreme selfishness of the heart,
are very liable to awaken a lively interest. Hence, the more people are
employed in the acquisition of affluence or competence, the more
covetous they usually become. This influence, so chilling to the
generous affections, can be resisted only by a counter process of
reflection. The truth that ourselves and all we have belong to God; the
extreme selfishness of the natural man; the insufficiency of worldly
good to satisfy the cravings of the soul; the dangers attending
acquisition; the obligations and privilege of giving; the benevolent
mission of the age; the spiritual wants of the world; the worth of a
soul redeemed; and all those great and solemn considerations fitted to
incite to munificence, must be presented before the mind as frequently
at least as ideas of property, in order to counterbalance the influence
of the latter; and, indeed, more frequently, so as to repress the strong
tendencies of the selfish heart, which the avocations of gain are so
well calculated to invigorate. This ca