reckon not only what will support our life, but also what will maintain the decency of our estate and person; not only in present needs, but in all future necessities, and very probable contingencies, but no farther. We are not obliged beyond this'." Thus then we must hold our property. But surely there is nothing in all this which authorizes us to spend it as we please; and it is the plain duty and wisdom of every man to whom any measure of it is intrusted, to sit down and count the cost; to estimate deliberately, after much consideration and earnest prayer, the proportions into which it ought to be divided; not to provide first for every thing else, and then to offer the remainder to his God and Saviour.

And that the measure thus devoted to God should be very much greater than we are ready to suppose, is no less certain. Let us hear the words of our Master. We are the disciples of the same Lord who said, to an innumerable multitude that followed Him, "If any man will come after Me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish

1 Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, ch. iv. sect. 8.

it; lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." And again, to the rich man who came unto Him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come take up the cross and follow Me." Can we call Him Master and Lord, who spake thus, and yet live as we do? How do His words reprove us, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" For although He does not require of every disciple the exact sacrifice which He demanded of the young ruler, yet beyond all question, as He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, He requires of all who will follow Him, now as then, some sacrifice of the world and worldly goods. We are too ready to limit to the days of our Lord's personal ministry, such parts of His teaching as bear hard on our self-indulgence, and luxury, and worldliness. We have discovered that in time of persecution, riches were a continual snare and temptation to apostasy, and that with the danger from Jews and heathens, the danger of riches too is gone by, and the need of forsaking them :—as if riches were less likely to produce worldliness of heart in a time of peace, than open apostasy in days of

danger; as if at this very hour there were not thousands among us, who worship gold with an idolatry as gross as that of the most wretched apostate that ever bowed down to the gods of the nations; only the modern idolater is in danger far more imminent; because he knows it not, and calls himself Christian, and frequents the Church, and draws near to the Holy Communion, and is respected by his neighbours, and accounts himself a religious man, until he sinks at once and for ever into the pit of destruction. And then we proceed to show, that in the beginning of the Gospel there was need of greater sacrifices; that the mass of the converts was poor, and that a greater burden was in consequence thrown upon the rich few; as if there had ever been a time when sacrifice was so much demanded as it is now, if it be indeed true, as we have seen, that there are hundreds of thousands of our countrymen, perishing in sin and ignorance of Christ and His Gospel; and that the cost alone forbids us to give to each his parish Church, and to appoint for each a minister to watch for his soul. Men acknowledge that for every piece of gold expended we may hope, by God's blessing, to know hereafter of some soul snatched from the very jaws of death; and they tell us that it is hopeless that we should obtain the necessary funds; and yet they go on to say, that selfdenial and the abandonment of this world's goods

for Christ, is less necessary now than of old! But, in truth, we are wrong in principle when we attempt to estimate thus the necessity of abandoning the world for Christ. It was not for the sake of his riches, but for his own that He bade the young ruler to go and sell that he had. He sought not his but him. He required of him to forsake his property, that He might be able to give him treasure in heaven. Surely it were impious to deem otherwise. For if He had so willed, all the treasures of the world might in a moment have been before Him, to whom they appertained as their Creator. But He would save the soul of His creature whom "He loved," and for whom He had come down from heaven, and for whom He was about to die; and therefore He commanded him to sell all, because He knew how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of GOD," and that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of GOD.” And for the same cause He accepts and demands our worldly goods from us. We have too long accustomed ourselves to think of money, given for Christ's sake, as a benefit only to those on whom it is bestowed. When, indeed, men give only that which they do not want, such no doubt is the case; but in giving freely, bountifully, largely, for Christ's sake, it is far otherwise. Then the blessing to the receiver is but a faint image and reflection of that which is

unto

poured out an hundredfold upon the giver; secured to him by the promise of Him who cannot lie, and who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." He measures the gifts which we offer for His sake, not by their magnitude in man's sight, but by the cost to ourselves, and the self-denial which they require; for when He stood of old by His Father's home, and "saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury, and saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites, He said: Of a truth I say that this you widow hath cast in more poor than they all. For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offering of GOD, but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had." A small thing, given with much difficulty, is certainly more to the giver, and being more highly esteemed by Christ, it may probably do more in His cause, than large sums given carelessly out of a great abundance. For He, without whose blessing our gold and silver is but dross, may (if He please) command the most abundant blessing upon that offering which He most highly approves, and which hereafter He will most abundantly repay.

He warns

Such are the demands of our Lord. us that if we will come after Him we must take up the cross, must hate all that we have; and, as a proof that we do so, must give thereof liberally and cheerfully for His sake; and as He demands all this for our sake not His own, He

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