It springs from a right source. It is all referable to a Divine Agent. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”—no sentence of condemnation. This is Christian liberty—a deliverance from the curse; but it is not licentiousness—it releases from no moral obligation, and it requires the active exercise of Christian liberality. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” If “every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,” how distinctly may we trace all our kind affections, under the regulation of religious principle, to that greatest and best of Beings, of whom it is emphatically said, “God is love.”
The liberality which springs from a right source will be always governed by a right motive. We seldom err so entirely as on this great point. Hypocrisy is a wilful deceiving of others; an unblushing pretension to qualities which the individual is conscious he does not possess; and regarding which he is careless—excepting that the assumption of them subserves some supposed interest. But it is very possible for a man to deceive himself, who intends to practise no deceit upon others; and to give himself credit for qualities which he does not really possess. Christian exertion may meet with opposition and hostility; but it will also, in the present day, be encircled with distinction and applauses. Ah! who can be certain of his motives, when so much intermixture of interest, influence, and approbation, is found in connexion with the consecration of our time, our talents, and our property, to God? It is a solemn inquiry, which we ought closely to put to our own consciences—Should we be the same persons, if attachment to the cause of religion (for the subject is Christian liberality,) subjected us to privations and persecutions, fines and imprisonments, disgrace and death, as we now are, when a superiority of exertion in the cause of God and humanity, commands the esteem of a large proportion of society, and thus confers a present reward of the most flattering description? What man can trust his heart on such a point without incurring the censure of the wisest of men—“He that trusts his own heart is a fool?” On what point are we so liable to be deceived as upon one so intimately associated with our self-love? Singleness of heart is essential to simplicity of operation. The Apostle, therefore, fastened upon one motive—he touched it as the main-spring of whatsoever things are “true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report”—of whatsoever things declared “virtue,” deserved “praise,” and were worthy of Christian consideration—of all the sacrifices which he himself made—of all the labours which his colleagues achieved—of all the privations which primitive Christians cheerfully endured—of all the mighty and unparalleled characteristics of that matchless age—the “first-born,” the “beginning of the strength” of Christianity—every motive, every power, every feeling, reposed in one commanding and irresistible principle—“The love of Christ constraineth us”—all human hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, were borne along the bosom of this irresistible tide of attachment to the Redeemer—and all earthly considerations were rendered subservient to his cause.
Liberality springing from a right source, regulated by a right motive, could not fail to exhibit a corresponding operation. The principle is accordingly seen in all it’s beautiful influence—those who feel it’s power have not “the grace of God in vain”—nor “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.” They value men according to their qualities, and not according to their rank; and they are prepared to produce that “charity which is the bond of perfectness,” on every occasion which requires it’s exercise. They will know how to shew candour and brotherly tenderness—“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” They will know how to manifest Christian sympathy—“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” They will know how to apply their property and their influence—“And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” I have chosen to borrow the illustration of this principle, in it’s diversified operation, from the context—that we may discern the union between the cause and the effect, and the connexion of both with the passage which I have selected, as bearing upon the subject of discussion, and as demanding, and exhibiting, active Christianity.
Christian liberality distinguishes itself by it’s perpetuity. Man is a capricious being; his views, his emotions, his affections are perpetually changing. Persons of quick feelings, and extraordinary sensibility, are especially fluctuating. Those who have power, and property, put the question of human instability beyond dispute, by movements as unpremeditated on their own part, as unexpected by others. Hence have arisen the melancholy details of changes connected with humanity—the emptiness of human trust—the uncertainties of human friendships—all of which have become common-place topics, that excite but little attention from their recurrence—or are considered as ornamental only to moral disquisition—as appropriate to point a verse or to round a period—until some stroke of calamity brings the conviction home to the individual—and then this worn-out truism strikes him with all the force of novelty—and he complains, as though he had sustained personally some unexpected and unprecedented injury. “A double-minded man”—a man of mixed motives, and of unfixed principles, “is unstable in all his ways”—but the operation of Christian liberality, because of it’s source, and it’s motives, cannot fail.
“This holy fire for ever burneth—
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth.”
Independent of human considerations, it survives them all—and let us place our generous principles out of the reach of accident, and out of the controul of our own caprice, by subordinating them to the unchanging law of our Eternal Lord—“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
Thirdly, There are MANY CLAIMS upon Christian liberality—This is supposed by the requisition that we should (attempt at least to) adjust their proportions.
There are religious claims—and these occupy, and deserve to occupy, the first rank. The Christian world is at length awakening to some perception of the wants and the miseries of man—to the purposes of the divine mercy, and the freeness of the divine promises—to the fulness of time, the lapse of ages, and the great crisis so long foretold, and so rapidly approaching. The voice of more than six hundred millions of the human race, rises at last above the collision of human passions, and rouses professors of religion from their criminal slumbers. The obligations which we owe to that scattered and despised people, from whom we derive the oracles of truth, and all the hopes of immortality, begin to be better understood, and more powerfully felt. The moral wastes spreading around us, even in this highly-favoured country, this Eden of the world, have attracted the eye, and moved the heart, of Christian benevolence; corresponding instrumentality is employed—and exertions, not indeed commensurate with the work, but proportionate to our ability, are called into complete and effective operation. Bible Societies are multiplying throughout Europe and America, having lighted the torch of scriptural knowledge, from the fire which burns on the altar of Great Britain—and the divine blessing upon human industry, applied to a cause so sacred, has almost supplied the absence of the miraculous gift of tongues. Men of God have been found, fired with apostolic zeal, who, after having prepared themselves so far as human effort could extend, have given themselves wholly to the sublime work, of “preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ,” to unenlightened nations, and heathen countries. They have sacrificed country, home, family, personal ease and distinction, every thing that men most esteem, for this arduous, this laborious undertaking. Some of them have fallen martyrs in the cause—they have fallen under the effects of an unhealthy climate, or the oppression of wicked men—but their graves are watered with the tears of strangers, and their memory is cherished in the hearts of their countrymen—foreign eyes have wept their departure—foreign hands have prepared their sepulchre—and an unknown tongue has recorded their disinterested and successful labours. At home, the education of the poor has occupied the public attention, throughout all classes of society, and all denominations of Christians—it has called forth the most astonishing exertions—and been crowned with the most unexampled success. Corresponding efforts have been made, in preaching the gospel—that scriptural and divinely authorized mode of diffusing religious truth—and the increasing spirit of hearing, and the multiplication of our sanctuaries of every description and denomination, prove that these things have not been in vain.
The claims of humanity have kept pace with those of religion—necessarily so—for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, has identified itself with whatever can contribute to the alleviation of human wretchedness here, while it has eternally secured human salvation hereafter. Philosophy erected no asylums for the afflicted—and made no provision for misery. As the Roman empire waned, and the influence of the gospel began to be felt—some efforts were made to wipe the tear from the cheek of wretchedness—but nothing of a fixed and national character established itself, until the religious reign of Jesus obtained in society. Then arose the structures of mercy—then, all the powers of the human mind were bent to the alleviation of distress—then, encouragements to industry were proposed—and it was attempted to repel affliction so far as it was possible—and to ameliorate it, where it could not be excluded. Then female virtues were elicited and cherished—woman was advanced to her proper rank in society—released from the chains, physical, mental, and moral, in which an unnatural bondage had held her; and her ministering graces, her tender sympathies, her soothing powers, were called into exercise. Now it is only necessary to name the wrong which requires to be redressed—to state the woe which can be alleviated—to present to Christian compassion a new picture of human misery—or to open before Christian philanthropy a new channel in which its exhaustless streams may flow—in order to command attention and secure success. Men are no longer willing to settle down upon a barren creed: but have learned from inspired oracles—that “pure religion from God even the Father is this—to visit the fatherless and the widow in their afflictions, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.”
Fourthly, All these things are to be met in their variety of claims, and in due proportion.