ercy, will gain the ascendency, and, under artful guises, control
our determinations;--thirdly, because our decisions on such occasions
are some of the most influential in their consequences, both upon
ourselves and others, which we are ever called to make in the common
routine of duties. Take a simple instance. The question whether
we give to the Bible Society one dollar or ten, fifteen dollars or
twenty-five, is virtually whether we will send forth for the enlightening
and felicitating of this dark and wretched world, four or forty, sixty
or a hundred, volumes of the Word of Life. And when, aside from all the
distorting and hardening influences exerted on our own moral natures by
a grudging refusal to meet the calls of benevolence, we consider the
civil and social melioration which has attended the pathway of this
heavenly light, together with its refining and sanctifying influences of
the individual soul; when we stretch our thoughts into the eternal
world, and catch the songs of joy, unuttered and unutterable by mortal
tongues, which will thrill forever the souls of the redeemed, what acts
of life can the thoughtful mind contemplate, demanding more solemn
consideration, more fervent prayer, than such decisions?

Thus the practice of coming to our determinations of charity with
prayer, a practice involving, as it does, both mental and moral
principles of the first importance, and even leading on to
interminable consequences, may not be neglected. We should
cultivate, therefore, a docile temper, a simple, child-like spirit
towards Christ. We should cherish such vital nearness to our Lord,
that we may commune as freely with him as friend communes with
friend; feeling that we can and would do nothing, even in the
common affairs of life, without his aid and guidance. It is said of
a lady in one of our cities, whom an intimate acquaintance urged to
spend a few days with her in the country, that she replied, "I
should like to, but I don't know, it may not be best;" and added with
great simplicity, and in agreement with the spirit of her life, "I will
go and ask my Saviour." Thus, on the reception of worldly
treasures, or in determining beforehand what proportion of our
expected increase we shall appropriate to the Lord, we should go to
Jesus with the same sweet simplicity and earnestness, crying, "Lord,
what proportion of these thy bounties shall I share with the
destitute?" failing not to devote that portion which