honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.”*

Admitting this fully and faithfully, we then feel bound to consult the pleasure of the Lord of all as to the uses we are to make of property. We have to ask what is forbidden, what is allowed, and what is enjoined. That sensuality, self-indulgence, pride, vanity, lust of power, are not the proper ends to which money should be devoted, will be more readily and widely granted than acted upon. Thus to appropriate wealth, would be to support a war against our rightful Lord, out of his own treasury. It is to supply the armour, the sustenance, the defences, of a base rebellion at his cost against whom we rise. And yet how common is it to look upon wealth but as the means and occasions of fostering and venting selfimportance, idolatry of the world, and sensual gratification? And do not even Christians seem often to rival the world, and to crave money that they may figure in a higher sphere, more largely indulge themselves, or acquire a wider control over their fellow men? O is it not an unhallowed competition which Christians sometimes carry on with a godless world for gratification, self-aggrandizement, and vain-glorious distinction ? This is to descend, woefully to descend.

* 1 Chron. xxix. 10-14.

The citizens of heaven, entering upon the poor, degrading, beggarly rivalry with the sons of carnality and sin! And this vain and guilty contention carried on at the expense of their "Lord's money"—by the faithless and flagrant squandering of property which might have served high, and holy, and divine purposes! Is not this "making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof?"

We have little difficulty in perceiving that to make money itself, irrespective of its purposes, an object of deep and absorbing care, is a gross offence against Him to whom the silver and the gold belong. Were the wealth thus hoarded, and thus loved, melted and wrought into a costly image and worshipped with formal rites, the idolatry-the God-dishonouring idolatry-would scarcely be more apparent, certainly not more real. It is consistent with our great rule to look upon wealth as the means of sustenance, of comfort, and of provision. It is compliance with the rule to take with devout and cheerful mind enjoyments as they are thus furnished-guarding on the one hand against niggardly and unseemly parsimony, and on the other against excess, extravagance, and waste. He surely does not honour the Lord with his substance, who refuses to devote it to its first and most obvious uses; nor he who squanders it as a most worthless gift.

But besides what goes to the support and comfort of life, there are the benevolent and holy uses of money. God has made it a channel of relief, melioration, solace and enjoyment to our fellow-creatures. We cannot neglect so to employ it, without disregarding the design and pleasure of Him who has in

trusted us with it, and who has not failed to point out and enjoin these modes of its appropriation. It opens to us numerous avenues by which to reach the bodies and minds of men, for their welfare and improvement; and if we slight these facilities, our inhumanity becomes the proof of our impiety; our contempt of the claims of man, the measure of our defiance of the requirements of God, and we discover at the same time that we "fear not God, neither regard man." "He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his Maker; but he that honoureth him, hath mercy on the poor." Exalted piety has ever sought the cottage and the hovel. It is most instructive to mark the union of devotion and compassion in the most eminent examples in every age. The prayers and alms of Cornelius which " came up for a memorial before God," was no fortuitous combination. They have a real affinity. God is honoured by devout beneficence. How remarkable is the Apostle's description of the liberality of the Macedonians, "whose abundance of joy and deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality," who "to their power, and beyond their power were willing of themselves," and, who, as the recorder of their benevolence adds, "not as we supposed, but first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God." ↑ This was glorifying God. Their benevolence was begun in piety. It was founded in Christian principle and discharged with Christian wisdom. And this combination of what is devout with what is compassionate and beneficent, is not only exemplified, but distinctly commanded. By him therefore let

Prov. xiv. 31. † Acts x. 4.

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2 Cor. viii. 2--5.

us offer the SACRIFICE of praise to God, continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But, to do good and to communicate, forget not; FOR WITH SUCH SACRIFICES GOD IS WELL

But though in these methods of imparting temporal alleviation and comfort, devotion unites with beneficence; yet those modes of giving, most glorify God, which unite the highest pursuits of benevolence with the loftiest exercises of piety. That property is consecrated peculiarly which flows into the treasury of the Spiritual Temple-which goes to uphold the worship of God, to sustain and perpetuate the preaching of the gospel, to comfort the poor of the flock of Christ, to instruct the young in the mysteries of redemption, to circulate the Scriptures, and to send forth" the glorious gospel of the blessed God." The stream of wealth which moves freely in this direction seems to flow in a straight course to the throne of God. The glory of God-in his truth, in his worship, in the diffusion of the knowledge of his character and will and grace, in the impartation of his image, in the triumph of his gracious cause-is the end defined, avowed, and final. It may seem at first somewhat strange that God should make these things instrumentally dependant upon money. He does nothing without reason; and it should seem that he intended to make gold-that great corrupter -that instrument of ruin-that tempter to pollution. —that strength of "horrid war"—that incentive to dishonesty-that hardener of the heart-that per

* Heb. xiii. 15, 16.

verter of reason-that occasion of endless and widespread evil—the instrumental diffuser and restorer of knowledge, piety, and peace. By giving to property this important and beneficial place, providence has supplied a salutary vent for what otherwise might prove a source of many evils. Wealth, which might become stagnant and pestiferous in the church, is thus drawn off into pure and wholesome streams. What might have been the perpetual temptation to vanity and sensual gratification, becomes the occasion of excellence, the means and aliment of goodness. Another end answered by the arrangement is, that a test is furnished for the principles of benevolence, of gratitude, and self-denial. These it sometimes discloses with delightful evidence and clearness; but alas, how powerful is it in developing the deep and deadly selfishness of the heart! That the Divine Being has put money in this momentous and exalted position, should awaken the most vivid sense of responsibility in the minds of those to whom he has intrusted this means of good; and it should excite the liveliest thankfulness in the hearts of Christians that such easy means (easy on the scripture plan, "according to what a man hath") of accomplishing the greatest and most lasting good are put into their hands.

If such are the ends to be answered by money, and if such are the reasons why God has appointed it as the means; it is not difficult to see how greatly the promotion of the divine glory is involved in this mode of using wealth. But it is difficult to understand how these obligations can be excluded from a christian's view of the glory of God as the end of life. For these duties are not extraordinary; they are not