2. It is an evil most carefully to be avoided —
[The bestowing of alms, like every thing else, must be judged of by the motive from which it springs : when done in order to acquire a character for benevolence and liberality, it is pride ; when with a view to the obtaining of influence, it is ambition. It is then only to be deemed piety and charity, when it is produced by a concern for God's honour, and from real love to our fellow-creatures. Precisely in proportion as any sinister motive actuates us, the action, how good soever it may be in other respects, is debased. It is not only stripped of all the good which it might otherwise have, but has in it a positive infusion of evil. Our blessed Lord called those " hy- pocrites," who in distributing their alms, sought to draw the attention and admiration of the public : and such are all who tread in their steps. If our actions proceed from principles different from those which are pretended and avowed, we may palliate them as we please ; but God will affix to them no other name than that of vile hypocrisy. It is scarcely needful, methinks, to say, that such a disposition must be put away with abhorrence.
But there is yet a farther reason for guarding against this evil ; namely, that actions proceeding from such a principle can never be accepted of God. They may, and probably will, procure us the reward we seek after : they may render us populai', gain us applause, increase our influence, and bring us into high repute for liberality and goodness : but they will never receive any reward from God: they are not done /or him ; and therefore he will not accept them : they have no real piety in them ; and therefore he vfiW not reward them. We can easily see, that, if a person should spend ever so large a sum in feeding those by whose suffrages he is to be raised to eminence and distinction, he would not for a moment imagine that he laid God under any kind of obligation, or was entitled to expect any remuneration from him : the sums he lavished were the price of his worldly honours. Thus, as far as pride, or ostentation, or vanity, or worldly interest, excite us to liberality, we renounce all claim upon God. He has said indeed, that " what we give to the poor, we lend to him ; and that he will repay it^;" but he will never acknowledge as a loan to him, what was given by us to purchase the applause of man. Supposing it was pure gold in the first instance, we turn it all to dross the very moment we begin to pride ourselves in it.
In both these views then the caution deserves our deepest attention, and ought to be followed with the greatest care.]
^ * Prov. xix. 17. ■