we devote to them any considerable portion of our income. The generality of persons account the keeping of high com- pany, and the being able to entertain them in a splendid way, as the chief use of wealth ; and they launch out into these kinds of expenses the very instant they have received such an accession of fortune as will enable them so to do. But we must shew ourselves of a different spirit, and not sanction by our example any such evil practices.]
2. Devote your property rather to the relieving and comforting of the poor —
[God has ordained that there shall always be poor amongst his people, in order that graces of every kind may be called forth into exercise among them0. These therefore are to be the special objects of our care; but especially those among them whom God in his providence has visited with afflictions which incapacitate them for labour ; " the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind." The talents which God has committed to our care, are to be laid out with a particular reference to them. Under the law, it was appointed that every person should lay up the tithe of his increase every third year, for the express purpose of feasting " the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, in the courts of the Lord," that all of them together might " eat and be satisfied*1." In a similar manner, we also are enjoined at stated periods to " lay by us in store as God has prospered use:" and even those who are forced to work with their hands for their own maintenance, are yet required to labour the more, in order " that they may have to give to him that needethV It is true, that there is no need of throw- ing down all distinctions in society, and feasting with the poor on terms of strict equality; but to make them happy, should be an object near our hearts. Indeed it is, if I may so express myself, a godlike employment : for God himself has shewn a marked respect for the poor, in that " he has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of his kingdom g." He has set us an example of this very thing in the dispensation of his Gospel. In the verses following the text, he represents himself as having made a great feast, and invited many : and, because his invitations are slighted by the rich, the gay, the worldly, he says to his servants, " Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind: yea, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled11." Thus, as by his Gospel he makes them pre- eminently partakers of his spiritual blessings, so we also, as
c Deut. xv. 11. d Deut. xiv. 28, 29. e 1 Cor. xvi. 2.
f Eph. iv. 28. e Jam. ii. 5. h ver. 16—23.