304 LIBERALITY, BENEFICENCE. Ed. Licentious habits are strong men, well armed with slaughter-weapons, and difficult to conquer. Ib. Lewdness is a very broad way to death, well ornamented with artful flowers, and begins to allure and seduce travellers at a very early age. The young need a very watchful and faithful parental guard from early childhood, to keep them from this road to ruin. Ib. Lewdness is a very contemptible, though common vice. The best way to avoid or to overcome it, is to think about something more important, and shun the tempters and temptations to it with fierce and holy indignation. [See 453.] 533. LIBERALITY, BENEFICENCE. Mackenzie. There is no use of money equal to that of beneficence; here the enjoyment grows on reflection, and our money is most truly ours when it ceases to be in our possession. Secker. Liberality does not consist in good words, but in good works. Less of your courtesy, and more of your coin, gentlemen! Penn. Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. Proportion thy charity to the strength of thine estate, lest God in anger proportion thine estate to the weakness of thy charity. Beneficence is the salt of wealth. The way to have nothing to do, is to do nothing; and the way to have nothing to give, is to give nothing. Homer. By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to these we give, to Jove is lent. Lavater. No communications can exhaust genius, no gifts impoverish charity. Sterling. Be busy in trading, receiving, and giving, For life is too good to be wasted in living. Henry. The riches we impart are the only wealth we shall always retain. Bruyere. Liberality consists rather in giving seasonably, than much. Cleobulus. Do good to thy friend, that he may be wholly yours; to your enemy, that he may become yours. A man never loses, by doing good to others. LIBERALITY AN IMPERATIVE DUTY. 305 Bion. It is more desirable and magnanimous to distribute the fruits of one's own industry, than to reap the benefit of other people's. Ed. Those who serve God without view of receiving a reward, are appointed to inherit all things. [See 112.] 534. LIBERALITY, AN IMPERATIVE DUTY. Edwards (Tryon). Liberality was formerly called honesty, as if to imply, that unless we are liberal, we are not honest, either toward God or man. Ib. Abraham gave one-tenth of all his possessions to religious uses, and so did Jacob and the Jews generally; and even the heathen, the Arabians, according to Pliny; and the Greeks, according to Herodotus, did the same; and shall the Christian do less for his Saviour than the Jews for their ritual, or the heathen for their idols? Sh. What is yours to bestow, is not yours to reserve. Eccl. 11: 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. Fuller. It is the glory of true religion that it inspires and inculcates a spirit of benevolence. It is a religion of charity, which none other ever was. Christ went about doing good; he taught the doctrine; he censured the Pharisees for setting it aside; he set the example to his disciples, and they abounded in it. 1. That, with which we do good, must be our own. "Cast thy bread." As there are some who withhold more than is meet, so there are others who, from ostentation, give what is not their own. 2. We are to do good liberally. "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight." It is a great obstacle to many, and a common objection, that cases are so numerous. This is true; and every person must judge whether he ought to give to all. If not, he must select the most deserving and important. But the 306 LIBERALITY AN IMPERATIVE DUTY. caution, "Be not weary in well doing," is not given without reason. 3. For the sake of doing good, we should deny ourselves. "Thy bread." It is a notion of many that they are required to give only superfluities; but this is treating God and the poor with only a dog's portion-the crumbs, as it were, which fall from their table. "Cast thy bread on the waters." Emulate the churches of Macedonia, (2 Cor. viii,) whose deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality. 4. We are to do good, notwithstanding discouraging appearances in providence. We must not regard wind and weather, but resemble the husbandman in sowing the grain. The work must be done the corn must be sown, let wind and weather be what they may. “Here is a cloud," says one; "stay awhile. I am apprehensive of loss in this quarter and in that; and I may not have enough for myself." Nay; but "in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand.” Give as the Lord hath prospered you, and leave another day or another year to take care for itself. Consider the motives by which this duty is enforced. 1. The reward which awaits you. "Thou shalt find it again." God so orders it, that merciful men meet with mercy in this life, and their children after them, Ps. 112: 20; and who knows what ours may need? Or, if we never find it here, we shall find it in a dying hour, and still more at the judgment, Matt. 25:31-46. The poor are Christ's receivers. Yea, it will add to our joy hereafter, else it could not be called, “laying up treasure in heaven." 2. The impending ills that threaten us. "Thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth." Covetousness would turn this to another use: "We know not what we shall want; we must every one look to himself." No! that which you now possess may be taken from you: foes may consume it, floods may sweep it away, enemies may invade it, or internal changes may strip you of your all. Do good while you have it in your power, by and by, you may be unable. LIBERALITY ADVANTAGEOUS. 307 3. The design of God in affording us what we have — not that it may be hoarded, but communicated. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. Inanimate nature is brought in to provoke us. We are but stewards after all, and must give account of our stewardship. 535. LIBERALITY, ADVANTAGEOUS. The husbandman scatters his seed; it springs up, is gathered into his barns, and crowns his labors with joy and plenty. So the man who distributes his fortune with generosity and prudence, is amply repaid by the gratitude of those he obliges; by the approbation of conscience, and by the favor of Heaven. He that lays out for God, lays up for himself. Charity is twice blessed, in him that gives, and in him that receives. Benevolent persons are the darlings of Providence. Henry. Those that venture in a good cause, with a good heart, are under the special protection of a good God, and have reason to hope for a good issue. Ed. Liberality or charity secures the friendship and favor of God, of man, and of conscience. These friends will sustain the heart, and that will infuse vigor into the body. And where both mind and body are active, and the reputation good, the purse will have ample resources, and may be drawn upon with great frequency. Ib. Do your part in supporting literary and religious institutions, even after you are unable, and then you will soon be able. Ib. The more we absolutely invest in the Bank of the Lord, the better our credit with men. Why? Because the Bank of the Lord pays better interest than any other. Isaiah. The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand. Solomon. 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. He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. Milton. Where liberty dwells, there is my country. Price. Nothing can be of so much consequence to us as liberty. It is the foundation of all honor, and the chief privilege and glory of our natures. Ib. As no people can lawfully surrender their religious liberty, so neither can any civil societies lawfully surrender their civil liberty, by giving up their power of legislating for themselves. Such a cession being inconsistent with the inalienable rights of human nature, would either not bind at all, or bind only the individuals who made it. This is a blessing which no one generation can give up for another; and which, when lost, a people have always a right to resume. Em. Religion and government must be allowed to be the greatest of all national concerns; and to enjoy complete liberty in respect to these important objects, is to enjoy the greatest civil and religious freedom that any nation can possibly possess. Ib. Liberty is the birth-right of man, and congenial with his nature. It ennobles and exalts the mind, inspires it with great and sublime sentiments, and at the same time invites and encourages its highest exertions, with hopes of success and the promises of reward. For, in free Republics, where liberty is equally enjoyed, every man has weight and influence in proportion to his abilities, and a fair opportunity of rising by the dint of merit, to the first offices and honors of the State. Wesley. Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air; and no human law can deprive him of that right, which he derives from the law of nature. Milton. The liberty to know, to utter, to argue freely, according to the dictates of conscience, I prize above all liberties. Spring. The Protestant principle, that "God alone is Lord of the conscience," has done more to give the mind power, and to strike off its chains, than any principle of mere secular policy in the most perfect Bill of Rights.' ль. Civil liberty is not freedom from restraint. Men may |