ving exemplification of a principle which we are bound to adopt. If
even the poor among the Jews could give so much, the poor can still give
bountifully in proportion to their means,--and, were they disposed, how
profusely might the rich lavish their munificence. With the fact before
us of the great sacrifices the Jews were commanded to make for the
support of religion in their own narrow bounds; when we consider the
breadth of the field we are called to cultivate,--the spiritual
necessities of the perishing millions of our race, the opportunities to
reach them, the worth of the undying soul, the revenue of glory its
salvation will yield the Saviour, what sacrifices ought the poor, at the
present day, to make in their penury, and the rich in their abundance,
to promote the glory of Christ in the salvation of souls; and how
terrible the doom of those who refuse.

These principles, requisitions, promises, and examples, show us that our
sacrifices should be _great_, and the amount of our contributions
_large_, when either the worldly or spiritual necessities of others
demand our aid; while they leave the treasuries of benevolence to be
filled by the spontaneous flow of each individual soul.

The desire, therefore, to fasten on the consciences of men the
obligation to contribute periodically a certain portion of their income
or property, as universally binding, is not to be gratified by arguments
drawn either from reason or revelation. We may resort to no artificial
means. We may trust in no machinery which does not work and glow with
the living fires of the heart. Love, conscience, and reason, must be
the originating and guiding forces. We must fall back upon, and confide
in, these vital principles of holy conduct. First the heart, and then
the act, is the Gospel scheme, and we may not reverse the process. To
attempt it, and to say, "What we seek in a system of beneficence, is not
a benevolent heart, but benevolent _actions_;" is to come in open
collision with the spirit of the Gospel. It is apparently a lurking
disposition to induce men to discharge the duties of beneficence,
without laying their hearts on the altar of God, and keeping them
perpetually burning there; whereas Christ requires the _heart_, and the
heart _always_; and then that conduct which inevitably bursts from a
consecrated soul. As Paul says of the Macedonian Christians, "_They
first gave their own selves to the Lord_;" and then their wealth, t