of mankind, belong to that class who possess "neither poverty nor riches." Wealth heaped on wealth, nor truth nor safety buys; To these facts which observation furnishes of the dangers of wealth may be added the solemn and unerring testimony of the Scriptures. "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in distruction and perdition." How true! "The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word." How true again! "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" Blessed Saviour! how little are thy words regarded by those parents, who do not only themselves love wealth, but are keeping back God's part of their increase, to heap the same soul-destroying curse upon their children! Christian parent! the Saviour says, with holy earnestness, that they that have riches shall hardly be saved, and yet you are laying up in order to place your children in these circumstances, where it will be as easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle as it will be for them to be saved. Oh! how cruel to your children are your tender mercies! Again parents who are laying up for their children ought seriously to ponder the fact that these children may not be proper stewards to receive their wealth in trust. The parent is not sure that his children will be disposed to use the wealth which they inherit for the Lord; on the contrary, there is a strong probability that the Lord may be less remembered in it by them than he was by the parent while it was still in his hands. If this is foreseen by Providence the parent will either not succeed in transmitting it into their hands, or if he does, it will not long remain there. The eye of God is on it, for it is his, and it must promote his glory. The father is opposing Providence, or at least he fails to see his will, in hoarding it for them, but God will succeed, in spite of his caution, prudence, or dulness, to get it into the hands of proper stewards. To effect this He may perhaps even find it necessary to make the wrath of man to praise Him! Thus the children, by the very means of entailed wealth, may become high minded, profligate and wicked, as has a thousand times been the case, and it will soon be squandered; but while it is squandering the hand of God is on it. To the parent who lays by the Lord's part of the increase, and the children who are first made profligate by it and then squander it, the words of the wise man have a fearful application: "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." (Prov. xvi: 9) The parent may "devise" and plan the circumstances into which he intends to place his children, and to this end he may at death by will entail that upon them which in life he should have laid by him in store for the Lord, but God has a "will" too! "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand!" It is not a man's will, or any thing that his will can entail, that can make his children rich. "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich." (1 Sam. ii: 7) Let no one expect to make his children rich, by hoarding for them the Lord's part of the increase. Experience shows abundantly that very often it does not remain with them, and when it does, it is to them a curse instead of a blessing. That ill-gotten wealth-and that which is kept back from the Lord is certainly ill-gotten-does not pass to the third generation, has long ago become a common proverb. 3. This duty will become farther clear, when we consider eve ry christian as a steward for God. So he is represented in the Bible. A steward is one who superintends the business and property of another. He does not own the property over which he presides, he has only that which is allowed him of the owner. He has evidently no right whatever to hoard up, or appropriate to himself the income; but as fast as it comes in, it is his for whom he is steward. God is the householder, for whom all men are stewards. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. We have our living, and he has the increase. What we need he kindly grants us as our wages, but what we do not need is not ours, and we must not keep it back, for "will a man rob God!" It is required of a steward that he be found faithful, not only in presiding over the property of his master, but in regularly presenting him with the increase of his stewardship; but could a steward be considered faithful who would hoard up, or apply to his own use, the regular income, and give to his master such portions, and at such times, as he felt disposed, without any regularity. Yet this is the common way in which God is served by his stewards. Let such beware lest God take from them the stewardship, and pronounce them with righteous indignation wicked, slothful and unprofitable servants. II. Even if it could not be shown from positive injunction to be duty, still if the plan IS IN ITSELF INNOCENT and involves no violation of clear duty, and can be shown to be a wise plan to do good, we would be bound to adopt it. We are to be wise as serpents to do good, provided only that our wise plans are at 3* VOL III.NO. I. the same time harmless as the dove. God finds fault with the children of light, because they are not as wise in their generation to lay plans as the children of this world. God has endowed us with wisdom, that we may be wise to win souls and to do good. That this plan is innocent, is evident from the fact that the Apostle Paul recommends it, and ordered the churches of Galatia and Corinth to adopt it. That point then is settled. Now it only remains to show that it is wise to do good, and adapted to the end which benevolence seeks to reach. This is a wise plan, because in this way any christian is enabled to give more, and feel it less, than if he give only from impulse produced by direct appeals. The man who pays a few cents each day for tobacco considers it as nothing, he scarcely feels the amount, but what a considerable sum does the aggregate make at the year's end. Families send a few cents, here and there, to shops and stores daily, for small articles, and they do not feel that it is of any consequence, but if an account were kept they would be astonished how it would run up in a year. So if a man will lay by him in store, but a small part of his income when he receives it, he would not much miss the amount, and yet at the end of the year he would find with joy that it far overran what he was enabled ordinarily to give by irregular impulse. The plan would also have a tendency to check useless squandering of money among professing christians. To squander our income is just as much misapplying it, as it is to hoard it. This is at the present day a crying sin among professing christians. How much of what may be denominated "loose change" is wantonly spent on luxuries, to satisfy appetites that are self-created, and that grow only more hungry by being fed. If this plan were adopted, there would at every presenting tempation of this kind be a conflict excited in the mind. The question would be, whether a foolish appetite or religious benevolence has the strongest claims upon a christian's loose change. Thus habits of selfdenial would gradually be formed, which is one of the first, the plainest, and most important duties of one who would follow Jesus. For this there is great need; for where is the spirit of self-denial? Do most of our wealthy christians deny themselves of any thing? Do they not procure all that their hearts can wish in the way of personal luxury and domestic convenience and comfort?-yea, and much is found both upon their persons, and in their dwellings, that is not even a convenience, but rather a burden and a care! But if a treasury of the Lord were thus kept open, would not conscience sometimes insist upon retrench ments and self-denials, and direct into the treasury what otherwise finds it way into the great world-market, where all the little self-created and imaginary wants of men are supplied? By this plan too, the treasuries of the church would be regularly and steadily replenished, and her operations would not be so fluctuating and uncertain. The expense of employing agents, and the unpleasant business of continual solicitation on the part of ministers and religious papers, would all be set aside. A fountain of benevolent resources would be opened up, the stream of which, like the waters of Shiloah, would go softly, but the heritage of God would smile in its course, and this desolate world of wants and woes, would be like a garden which the Lord doth water. The benefits of this plan of regular contributions can be still more fully seen, when we look at the operations of the same mode, in substance, as it is employed in the state to replenish its resources. In the state, every individual is required to give reg. ularly a certain sum according to his income. And what efficiency is here seen! What resources are at hand! What astonishing aggregates are raised! Its capitals are built, its national councils are supported at heavy expense; its officers are richly paid; its internal improvements are energetically carried forward; armories are built; navies are supplied with ships at great expense; wars are carried on, at the expense of millions on millions; penitentiaries, prisons, almshouses and asylums are erected, and a thousand nameless expenses are met, and yet plenteous resources are always at hand! Now, if the love of country will induce men to submit to such taxation, ought not the love of Christ and of souls have an effect still stronger. If the benefits of having a well-supported government are enough to recompense men to make such contributions, ought not the desire to have the enterprises of the church efficiently carried forward be stronger still; and if the amount is so easily gotten by regular contributions, why ought not the children of light, in this respect, be as wise as the children of this world? The church stands under heavier responsibilities, and has higher hopes to inspire to duty, and yet in the spirit of enterprise, she falls far short of the state! What is wrong? Has not the church forgotten the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich? III. All ANALOGY proclaims the wisdom of this plan of regular benevolence, and is loud in urging to its adoption, both as a blessing to himself and to those whom he wishes to benefit by his gifts. A spring that has a regular outlet has the purest and the healthiest water. A tree that is regularly pruned will be itself most flourishing and bear the best fruit. Machinery that is regularly and temperately used will be better, work better, need less repair, and require less expense, than that which is often stopped for a time only to run faster when it is started again. The physical system of man is healthiest and most efficient, when its energies are regularly replenished with nourishment and moved by exercise. Irregular and intemperate exercise or food are alike injurious to the body and the mind. The strength of the black-smith's arm is increased, not by laying up and saving its strength, but by a regular application of it. So it is in nature, and so it is also in grace. Rust is the consequence of hoarding silver and gold, and just so, rust and stagnation of spirit is the consequence of hoarding the resources of benevolence with which God has blest us. Coin is kept bright by being used, and it is just so with our benevolent affections. The intellectual well-being of the mind depends upon its stores being regularly put to use. By communicating regularly to others, our own stock of knowledge is increased. To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath. Under this view, those paradoxical passages in Proverbs have a strong and beautiful meaning. "There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches" (13: 7). "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." (11: 2426) This also explains "the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." The requirement which God made of the Jews to give regularly a fixed portion of their increase, was founded upon this principle that regular giving is good for the giver. He required regular gifts of the Jews, not because He had absolute need of them, but because He knew it would have a good influence on them. The law ceremonial as well as moral, was disciplinary a schoolmaster to correct them, and to prepare them for coming blessings. Nothing can be plainer than that all God's requirements were designed for their good. His laws are laid in wisdom, and in complete adaptation to the nature and wants of man. He knew that requiring a certain regular portion of their increase, would restrain them from cultivating too strong a desire for gain, and make them feel at the same time that what |