29 Law, "for ye were once strangers in Egypt so may the moralist say, with parity of reason, support the weak, for ye were once weak as they are. In virtue of this argument, the first debt is due to parents and all relations; but it extends to all mankind. Want and weakness, whereever they are found, carry their own recommendation to a benevolent mind. And we must not be too strict in enquiring after the causes of them. They may be the effects of vice and folly; yet sinners have a claim upon sinners and if they stand in need of admonition, no man has so just a title to reprove and amend the follies of another, as he that relieves his wants. If God were extreme to examine into the claims of all those who apply to his mercy, how few would be fit to say their prayers! The most proper objects for the exercise of true benevolence are those who have it not in their power to make any return: perhaps they will never have it in their inclination; yet the Father of mercy, who is to be our pattern, extends his goodness to the unthankful and to the evil, and sends his rain upon the just and upon the unjust. * Deut. x. 19. When When we consider ourselves as Christians, every page of the New Testament will suggest some additional obligation to the practice of this duty. There we are instructed, that no man liveth to himself; that neither our effects nor our persons are at our own disposal; that we have nothing but what we receive; that we are all related in Christ Jesus, as members of the same mystical body, animated by the same Spirit, and called to the same faith and hope that we have the same friends and the same enemies. On which considerations, the Christian Society, in the purest ages of the Church, subsisted as one family upon a common stock. No man said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but they, who had houses or lands, sold them, and a fund was raised, out of which distribution was made unto every man according as he had need*. This charitable mode of allotting to him that lacked the superfluities of him that abounded, was suggested to the people of God by the distribution of the manna in the wilderness : of which he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; every man had a supply according to his wants. We are not to suppose that Christians are to surrender * Acts iv. 32, &C. surrender their whole substance now as at first: our present circumstances seem to render that impracticable but this we are never to forget, that God permits, we may say, ordains, inequality of possession, that the piety of his servants may correct it by an equality of distribution. And the opportunity will never be wanting. Poverty shall never cease; distress shall never have an end; and tears shall flow for the merciful to wipe them away, till God shall take that office upon himself: and when there shall be no more sin, there will be no more sorrow. Hence we infer, that the abundance of one man above another is no effect of chance, nor of any partial intention in Divine Providence ; it must be so; and he who wishes to see men in a state of equality, wishes to see them more like the beasts, who are incapable of considering each other's wants, and are rather taught by their instinct to chace away, every poor stranger as an intruder: but by man, superior property is held in trust; whence every rich man will have an account to render as an overseer of the poor upon his own stock; and if any should be found to have perished for want of the relief which he might and ought to have bestowed, but did not, justice will one day ་ day have a claim upon him, which no money can satisfy; and many a poor man will have. reason to thank God he was not that rich man. If possession were absolute, it would follow, that God is a respecter of persons: and they, who think it or wish it so, are under a very unhappy mistake. Their idea of enjoyment is false and abject; it is contradictory to the noblest affections of the soul, and the truest notions of greatness, as well as to that memorable sentence of our Lord, It is more blessed to give than to receive. A generous mind never enjoys its possessions so much as when others are made partakers of them. In this, man is enabled most nearly to resemble God; who gives all things to all, but can receive nothing from any. Yet in one case, when we give to the poor for his sake, he is pleased to take it to himself: inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my poor brethren, saith our blessed Saviour, ye did it unto me. If there is a way of lending unto the Lord, as the Scripture hath expressed it *, he above all men must be blessed, to whom the proprietor of heaven and earth is a debtor. Hence it appears, that what is given is not lost, as an usurer would reckon; it is more properly our own than it was before. Prov. xix. 17. It It is as seed sown in the earth, which returns to the sower with an abundant increase. What is received is as the corn we bestow upon ourselves; it is eaten, and perishes. What is given, is as corn cast into the earth, which cometh to us again at the harvest. There is no better encouragement to an active and busy life, than this one consideration, that it puts us into a capacity of having more to spare for the wants of others. Industry, on this principle, is the first social duty, because it leads to the greatest, which is charity. Ye yourselves know, said the great Apostle, that these hands have ministered to my necessities, and to them which were with me. Blessed is he whose labours have furnished him with something to give! But what must he do who is idle? Where is his blessing? He can give nothing, for he has nothing: he must live upon other men's labours; which is a mean and servile condition. There ought therefore to be a curse upon idleness: he, who does no good, should receive none. And if we look to the dispositions of men, we shall generally find, that the slothful are never easy in any situation, but always complaining and discontented; neglecting their own affairs, and troubling themselves to no purpose with fretful remarks upon |
