the heart is indeed engaged in the good work. Some would shut these sluices of benevolence on the part of the poor, and deprive them of the highest gratification of which a generous mind is susceptible, under the pretext of compassion for their circumstances. But the Apostle produced this liberality of the Macedonians amidst the contractedness of their means, as an evidence of the power “of the grace of God,” upon their hearts; and such persons as would restrain the hand of the indigent, would, if they preserved any measure of consistency, have condemned the widow whom the Lord commended—and have censured the act which he approved. 4. _Domestic wants and claims must be first regarded_.—“If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” These natural claims are allowed to act with all their power upon the heart of the Christian; and he is charged to pay homage to them in all the extent of their commanding influence. He cannot resist, or neglect, them, without renouncing his character and his religion. This furnished the great and palpable distinction between Christianity and the infidelity, which in modern times borrowed the venerable name of philosophy. The philosophy, “falsely so called,” was always boasting of universal philanthropy, applying the telescope to the vision, to bring near distant objects, in the mean while neglecting those which were at home, and branding the respect due to the ties of nature, with the epithets of weakness, or of crime; teaching that while speculation upon abstract principles is virtue,—gratitude, love, natural affection, are vices. Such monstrous propositions, however plausible in theory, were in practice destructive of human happiness, and ruinous to society. The beneficence of Christianity, on the other hand, resembles the pebble dropped into the centre of the lake; circle expands beyond circle, until they wash the distant shore. She first implants in the heart the seed of Christian benevolence, whose diffusive influence extends to the most remote claims; but the operation is progressive—it passes through all the nearest relations of life to the great family of man. She teaches the man to set first an infinite value upon his own soul, then to feel the most lively interest for his family, for his neighbours, for his countrymen, for the whole human race. The characteristics of the parent, the patriot, the true citizen of the world, the universal philanthropist, are successively developed; and they all centre in the Christian. Neither is this a theory of speculation; but a system of active and unwearied benevolence.