"11. 'That giving money encourages idleness and vagrancy.' This is true only of injudicious and indiscriminate generosity.
"12. 'That we have too many objects of charity at home, to bestow any thing upon strangers; or that there are other charities, which are more useful, or stand in greater need.' The value of this excuse depends entirely upon the fact, whether we actually relieve those neighbouring objects, and contribute to those other charities.
"Besides all these excuses, pride, or prudery, or delicacy, or love of ease, keep one half of the world out of the way of observing what the other half suffer."
The sentiments expressed by the profound Dr. Barrow [[44]] will form an appropriate conclusion to the present chapter.
"If we contemplate our wealth itself, we may therein descry great motives to bounty. Thus to employ our riches, is really the best use they are capable of; not only the most innocent, most worthy, most plausible; but the most safe, most pleasant, most advantageous, and consequently in all respects most prudent way of disposing of them. To keep them close, without using or enjoying them at all, is a most sottish extravagance or a strange kind of madness; a man thence affecting to be rich, quite impoverished himself, dispossesseth himself of all, and alienateth from himself his estate; his gold is no more his than when it was in the Indies, or lay hid in the mines; his corn is no more his than if it stood growing in Arabia or China; he is no more owner of his lands than he is master of Jerusalem or Grand Cairo; for what difference is there, whether distance of place or baseness of mind sever things from him? whether his own heart or another man's hand detain them from his use? whether he hath them not at all, or hath them to no purpose? whether one is a beggar out of necessity or choice? is pressed to want, or a volunteer thereto? Such an one may fancy himself rich, and others, as wise as himself, may repute him so; but so distracted persons, to themselves and to one another do seem great princes, and style themselves such; with as much reason almost he might pretend to be wise or to be good. Riches are Χρηματα things whose nature consists in usefulness; abstract that, they become nothing, things of no consideration or value; he that hath them is no more concerned in them than he that hath them not. It is the heart, and skill to use affluence of things wisely and nobly, which makes it wealth, and constitutes him rich that hath it; otherwise the chests may be crammed, and the barns stuffed full, while the man is miserably poor and beggarly; 'tis in this sense true which the wise man says, 'There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing'"
Lydia.
Chapter XI.
Account of Paul and his Companions meeting with Lydia by the River-side at Philippi--the Impression produced upon her Heart by the Preaching of Paul--Remarks on Conversion as exemplified in the Case of this Disciple--its Seat the Heart--its Accomplishment the Result of divine Agency--the Manner of it noticed--the Effects of a divine Influence upon the human Mind, namely, attention to the Word of God and the Ordinances of the Gospel, and affectionate Regard to the Servants of Christ--Remarks on the Paucity of real Christians--the multiplying Power of Christianity--its present State in Britain--Efforts of the Bible Society.
The historical part of the New Testament, called the ACTS or THE APOSTLES, contains a faithful record of the early propagation of the Gospel and the incessant exertions of the first labourers in the vineyard. They were not men who "wasted their strength in strenuous idleness," or dissipated the time of action in "laboriously doing nothing;" but were endowed with extraordinary qualifications and an inextinguishable zeal for their novel and interesting employment. They reflected the light of the Sun of Righteousness upon a dark age, and glowed with the very spirit of their ascended Lord. Remarkable effects were produced upon the moral world, notwithstanding the counteracting influence of human prejudice and opposition; and as they quitted the world, amidst the whirlwinds of persecution and in the flames of martyrdom, they dropped from their ascending chariots the mantle upon their successors in office, who "entered into their labours," and continued "with great power" to give "witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all."
So wonderful are the appointments of Providence, that we find a youth who took an active part in the murder of the first martyr to the Christian cause, and afterward breathed forth an unrelenting hostility against all its adherents, selected as the chief instrument of its extension in various countries. That mighty energy which "commanded the light to shine out of darkness," as he was on a persecuting expedition to Damascus, "shined into his heart," and by a miraculous interposition not only checked him in his career, but communicated to him "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus," and turned all the energies of his character into a new and most important course of exertion. He became a Christian, a preacher, an apostle, and a missionary to the Gentile world: and while by his indefatigable labours he benefitted so large a proportion of his contemporaries, by his inspired epistles he has instructed the church 'of God in every succeeding age of the world.