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    with God by an unity of will and of effort . To save sinners is represented in word and in deed as the great work of God , of Christ , and of apostles . The highest and the most holy energies are engaged in the enterprize—engaged with an earnestness and a tenderness , with an ardour of devotement and a constancy of endeavour , that are truly sublime . What condescension in the Deity , what benignity in his Son , what sacrifices in his messengers ,

    do we there read of ! Religion as beheld in the New Testament is no light thing— " it is your life . * ' However low may be our estimate of the value of the soul , the whole world is no measure of it in the judgment of our Lord , " For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " Nor less is its value in the sight of the Creator . To form the human soul , to make it a free , active agent , choosing and pursuing good , desirous and capable of everlasting happiness—to form and save the soul , he

    made the world , the retinue of the heavens , the furniture of the earth , the frame of the body ; he appointed the relations and discipline of life , he sent his well-beloved Son , and yielded him up even unto death . All things , says the apostle to his converts—all things are yours ; because all things , the whole furniture ! and discipline of the school in which man is placed , works together for our good , and contributes to build up the noblest work of God , the soul of man . Must not that , then , be inexpressibly valuable which God himself so estimates as to create the world for its nursery , and the infinitude

    of objects therein for its instructors ? What , therefore , ought to be our estimate of the soul ' s value ? What God hath cleansed , shall we call that common or unclean ? What he hath esteemed , shall we disesteem ? What he created the world and gave his Son to form and bless , shall we neglect ? Let us not so far lose the spirit of the Gospel . All other things are as the light dust of the balance in comparison of the human soul . Let us then remember that the true Christian has a constant sympathy with the spirit of the gospel .

    Whatever may have been the doctrine of heathen philosophers , whatever may now be the doctrine of the world on this subject , beneficence with the Christian is not optional , but obligatory . To do good is with him a law equally binding as to be good . Christ has in his code changed that which was aforetime voluntary , into a matter of obligation . He requires each of hig followers , in imitation of himself , to advance the interests of his

    fellowrhen , and he represents the awards of the final judgment as taking place according as each man had used or neglected the talent entrusted to him . Among the considerations by which the duty of beneficence is enforced on Christians , that is amongst the most interesting and constraining which is derived from considering the mercy and grace which each has received of

    God through Christ . If we have received mercy , we ought to shew mercy ; if we are in the way of salvation , we ought to lead others into the same paths . It is the least we can do for mercy and grace unmerited and often despised . In exercising our gifts we shall augment , not waste them . And this is a fact which merits peculiar notice .

    Homo qui erranti coraiter inonstrat viam Quasi lumen dc suo lumine accendat , fucit Nihilomiuus ipsi luceat cum illi accciiderit . Our own piety is not extinguished by kindling another ' s . Like the widow ' s cruise of oil and barrel of meal , it wastes not , however used . On the contrary , it grows the more the more h imparts . For so strong are the inducements to beneficence which the Creator has planted in our frame , that the

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    Beneficence obiigutory . 851

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 851, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/35/