Such being the proper spirit of a Christian, let us consider,
II. The benefits that will accrue to the possessor of it — However great may be the good which a person of this spirit may do, I hesitate not to say, that he will receive far greater benefits than he imparts : he will receive them,
1. From the very exercise of the principle itself — ■
[The high-priest within the vail, whilst offering incense before his God, was regaled with the odours of his own offer- ing ; a privilege which no other individual was permitted to enjoy. So the person who exercises love will derive from that very employment a blessedness of which.no one else can form any just conception. Well is it said, in a foregoing verse of this chapter, " A merciful man doeth good to his oum soul'^." The exercise of liberality and benevolence tends exceedingly to the suppression of evil in the solU, and to the cultivation
and establishment of every holy disposition*^ And is it
not a sweet evidence to the soul, that God has wrought a good work within it? No doubt it is: for if we " love, not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth," we may, from that very circumstance, " know that we are of the truth, and may assure our hearts before God*^." Indeed this is no small part of the recompence which God will bestow on those who serve him with fidelity : he would even consider himself as vniright- eous and unjust if he did not thus remember our work and labour of love, which we have shewed toward his name in ministering to his saints:" and on this very ground the Apostle
^' Job xxix. 11—16. <: ver. 17.
<' ]\Iark the contrast which is drawn, 1 Tim. vi. 10, 11.
e 1 John iii, 18, 19.
777.] CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY ENCOURAGED. Ill
says, " We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence unto the full assurance of hope unto the end*."]
2. From the immediate agency of Almighty God —
[God has said, that " what we give to the poor, we lend unto him, and he will repay it again^." And this he will do both in this life and in tlie life to come. Very remarkable is his promise in relation to the present life : " Give, and it shall be given unto you : good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again '^." In a spiritual view, more especially, will God recompense his faithful people. Hear the words of the Pro- phet Isaiah, which remarkably accord with the expressions of our text : " If thou draw out thy soul (not thy purse, but thy soul) to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day ; and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and make fat thy bones ; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of ivatcr, whose waters fail not\" Nor shall our labours of love be forgotten of Him in the eternal world. He holds forth this as an encouragement to us to exert ourselves in all the offices of love : " Charge them that are rich in this woi'ld, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foun- dation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life'^." And that no doubt may remain on this head, he tells us expressly, that such persons shall " be recompensed at the resurrection of the just;" and that to those who have administered to the relief of the poor and the distressed, he will say, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Thus freely and thus richly shall " he who watereth be watered also himself;" yea, as the prophet says, "with showers of blessings shall he be blessed'.]