minister in person, and in tenderness, to their manifold wants that they are the people who need not the gaze of the world, nor the excitement of romantic or aggravated distress, to awaken their compassions, and to quicken their alms-givings; but who devote themselves silently and habitually, steadily and unweariedly, to the labours of a substantial and painstaking beneficence-that they are the people upon whose pecuniary contributions you can count with certainty, and whose individual services you can command almost at pleasure, where there is any scheme of mercy to carry forward-that they are the people whom difficulties do not discourage, and ingratitude cannot arrest, in their career of benevolence, but who persevere in it with an ardour that never cools, and an activity that never stops, and who do so, because they act under the conviction that God himself is their witness and their reward, that the love of the Saviour calls for all the love they can show to their fellow-men, and that true charity is a virtue which "never faileth" in heaven, and must, therefore, never fail upon earth.

But we are still told, that our doctrine, and the practice founded on it, cannot be right, because the good we do to the objects of temporal benevolence among ourselves is certain, whereas the good we propose to do to the objects of spiritual benevolence, either among ourselves or in foreign parts, is at the best but problematical. This objection, however, if it be carried its legitimate length, will be found to go a great deal too far, and, on that account, to be good for nothing. If suppositions are to stand for arguments, there is no scheme and no conduct to

which we might not discover valid exceptions. We might say, "You should not give to the poor, because it may lead them to be idle, dissipated, and improvident. You should not restore a sick man, because he may employ his recovered health in working mischief to his fellow creatures. You should not relieve the distressed in any case, because it may be a motive for their friends to cast them, in such circumstances, on the public bounty, and thus prove destructive of the affections of kindred. And you should not give assistance to a neighbour, in order to recover him from his embarrassments, or to advance his honest views in trade, because, after all, he may not succeed." If such hypotheses were to be admitted as principles of action in secular things, it is evident that the business of the world must stop. And then, why they should be excluded from the consideration of these, and admitted into our reason~ ing on spiritual things, is a question of which it may not be easy to give a satisfactory solution.

Just see how this objection applies to certain institutions for intellectual and religious purposes which we have in our own land. Have we not the institution of schools? And is it not, in one sense, problematical, whether the education which our children receive there may not be afterwards abused, as indeed it often is, to purposes which are to be deprecated as altogether foreign to their tendency and design? And yet would you agree to abolish the office of teachers, and pull down our seminaries of elementary instruction, and abandon the youth of our country to the dominion of ignorance?-Have we not the institution of churches, for the Christian edification of

the people? And is it not problematical, also, whether the people shall receive and profit by the lessons that we convey to them? Nay, how often do we dispense the word and ordinances of the gospel, without any visible effect! How often do we preach to those who hear us as if they heard us not! And how many

are there who will not attend our ministrations! And how many are there who attend them regularly, and yet continue ignorant, careless, and unsanctified to the very end! But would you, on that account, propose to shut up our sanctuaries, to abrogate the ordinance of pastors, and to put an end to the whole system of external means for the support and prosperity of religion? No; you would agree to none of these things. And why should it be, that, without any better reason, you would forbid us to send the word of God, and the Gospel of salvation, in which we ourselves rejoice, to the inhabitants of every region that is yet covered with the shadows and the darkness of spiritual death?

It is painful to be under the necessity of descending into such minute discussion, on a subject so plain and intelligible. But its practical importance, and the captiousness of those with whom we have to do in this argument, render such apparently trifling reasonings expedient, if not indispensable. We shall not, however, enter farther into the controversy, than to remark, that the reason and truth of the case seem to be comprised in these two simple propositions. In the first place, we have to perform our duty, whatever be either the known or the problematical result of it; and our duty, as followers of Jesus, is to do good, according to our abilities and opportunities,

both to the bodies and to the souls of men, leaving the consequences to him with whom is "the residue of the Spirit," and who will accomplish his own purposes, at his own time, and in his own way. And in the second place, if we do our duty in the exercise of spiritual, as well as of temporal charity, good will and must be effected. There is here nothing problematical, more than there is in all things which lie in the womb of futurity, and have man's wisdom, and man's virtue, as the instruments of their attainment. From the constitution of human nature, and from the experience of human society, it is abundantly evident, that if you circulate useful knowledge, you will more or less advance the improvement, and interests, and happiness, of the species, both individually and collectively. And surely we may trust the faithfulness of God, who has promised that the time will come when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," and who, as the means for attaining that glorious end, commanded his disciples to "go into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," and also commands us to be zealous and active in pursuing the same object within the sphere of our influence, and according to the measure of our ability.

It may be safely concluded, then, that spiritual charity and temporal charity are perfectly consistent, -that the former is the best security, and the most powerful stimulus that we can have, for the latter, -that those who discourage our exertions for enlightening, and converting, and saving the souls of our fellow-men, are proportionally, though, it may

be, unintentionally, hostile to the work of benevolence in all its forms,-that whenever we cease to feel for the eternal well-being of those who, of whatever colour, and in whatever clime, they may happen to be, are still "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh," then, most assuredly, our provisions for the mitigation or removal of temporal distresses, will languish and decay,-and that no man could confer a higher or a richer boon on our common charities, than by persuading all to whom they can look for support, to mind the things which belong to their own eternal peace, and to compassionate the helpless and heart-rending case of those who, for want of religious instruction, are still without Christ, and "without God, and without hope in the world."

III. The ground of discussion over which we have been travelling, is both interesting and important. And we trust that our remarks are calculated to give a just view of the duty of doing good. But there are several points, to which it is still of consequence to direct the reader's attention, in order that he may be guided in the discharge of that duty, so as to make it more worthy of his character as a Christian benefactor, and more extensively useful to those for whose advantage he performs it. Various errors, notional and practical, prevail concerning it, which tend very much, either to hinder the good that may be done, or to make the good that is actually done less productive of credit to its authors, and of benefit to its objects, than it would otherwise be ;-and at the removal or correction of