APPENDIX I.

The following reprint of an American Tract deserves to be carefully studied. It is so direct as not to be easily evaded, and so comprehensive that, if blessed from on high, it would exterminate covetousness in the soul.

I WILL GIVE LIBERALLY.

I HAVE a number of REASONS.

1. The objects for which I am called to give are great and noble. It is the cause of letters and religion, of man and of God, for which my donations are wanted. The interests of time and eternity both are involved in it. I cannot give calculatingly and sparingly to such a cause, and for such objects.

2. Liberal donations are needed. The cause not only deserves them, but requires them. It takes a great deal to keep the present operations agoing; and we should every year extend the works. Do you not know that we have the world to go over, and that the millennium is just at hand? Behold, the morning of that day is getting bright. We can almost see the sun peering above the horizon.

3. I can afford to give liberally. My means either now enable me, or, by economy and self-denial, may be so increased as to enable me to give liberally. I will never give liberally, so long as I do not

resort to economy and self-denial; and if I do resort to them, that will enable me to give liberally.

5. I will give liberally, because I have received liberally. God has given liberally. He has not only filled my cup, but made it to run over. He has given me good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." I will imitate him in my gifts to others, and especially in my donations to his cause.

5. I am liberal in my expenditures, and therefore I will be in my donations. Why should I spend much, and give little? Is spending the more blessed? No; it is giving that is said to be more blessed. The conduct of a man whose expenditures are large, and his donations small, is literally monstrous. I will not act so out of all proportion. If I must retrench, I will retrench from my expenditures, and not from my benefactions.

6. The time for giving is short, and therefore I will give liberally, while I have the opportunity of giving at all. Soon I shall be compelled to have done giving.

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7. A blessing is promised to liberal giving, and I want it. liberal soul shall be made fat ;" therefore I will be liberal. he that watereth shall be watered also himself;" therefore I will water. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth;" therefore I will scatter; and not sparingly, but bountifully: for “he which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully.”

8. I will give liberally, because it is not a clear gift; it is a loan. "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord”—lendeth to the best of paymasters, on the best security, and at the highest rate of interest: for the Lord renders double, aye, a hundred-fold, in this life, to say nothing of the life to come. I will lend him liberally.

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9. I will give liberally, because however hard the times may with me, they are harder with those who have not the Gospel. 10. I will give liberally, because there are many who would give liberally, but cannot and many that can, and will not. It is so much the more necessary, therefore, that those should, who are both able and inclined. I used to say, "I will not give liberally, because

others do not. There is a richer man than I am who does not give so much as I do." But now, from the same premises, I will draw the opposite conclusion. Because others do not give liberally, I will.

11. I have sometimes tried giving liberally, and I do not believe I have ever lost anything by it. I have seen others try it, and they did not seem to lose anything by it; and, on the whole, I think a man is in no great danger of losing, who puts liberally into the treasury of the Lord and Possessor of all things, who is himself the giver of every good and perfect gift.

12. And finally, when I ask myself if I shall ever be sorry for giving liberally, I hear from within me a prompt and most decided negative, "No, never."

Wherefore, I conclude that I will give liberally. And now I will take care that I do not nullify my resolution, by putting an illiberal construction on liberally. I will understand it as meaning freely, cheerfully, largely; or, in other words, as meaning what I ought to give, and something more. I will tell you how I will do An object being presented to me, when I have ascertained what justice requires me to give, I will add something, lest, through insidious selfishness, I may have underrated my ability; and that if I err, I may be sure to err on the right side. Then I will add a little to my donation, out of generosity. And when I have counted out what justice requires, and what generosity of her free-will offers, then I will think of Him who, "though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich ;" and I say not that I will add a little more, but how can I keep back anything?

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small :

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

This is my resolution, and these are my reasons for it. Reader, what is your resolution? Will you not give liberally too? But perhaps you hesitate, and have some objections to suggest. Peradventure you say, for it is often said, "THE CALLS ARE SO MANY." Well, let us see how that is, and what sort of an objection it consti

tutes. Are they really so many? Reckon them up. Perhaps they are not, after all, so many as you imagine. Anything which annoys us at intervals, is apt to be considered as coming oftener than it really does. When a man has rent to pay, how frequently quarterday seems to come round. But it is not so with him who is the receiver.

But if the calls are many, are they more than the wants? And ought they not to be as many? Would you have the calls fewer than the wants? That would never do. In that case some wants would never be supplied. Besides, you should consider who makes or permits the wants—and therefore the calls-to be so many, lest your complaint cast a reflection on God.

If the calls are so many, and we must decline some of them, which shall they be? Widows and orphans, and the poor generally, you dare not, as you fear God, exclude from your charities. Will you refuse the call of the Bible agent, or the Tract agent? Will you withhold from the cause of Sabbath-schools, or of Temperance; from Foreign Missions, or from Home Missions, or from both? Or will you contribute to send out and support missionaries, but refuse to aid in their education? For my part, I do not know what calls to except; and therefore I judge the safer way to be, to refuse

none.

If the calls for donations are many, the calls for expenditures are more; and yet we are patient of these last. And perhaps we not only spend, but waste, in more ways than we give. Then it should be remembered, that if the calls are so many, the importunity will not last long. Not more than some seventy or eighty years does it ever continue. If it is an annoyance, yet you can bear it a few years. In eternity you will not receive these or any other calls. And if they vex you, yet consider, they very differently affect others. Yonder is a poor woman reading the Bible which your money paid for. There is another, weeping over a Tract, for which she is indebted to your donation. There is a third, blessing the good people who support domestic missions; and there is a heathen mother, who, perhaps, would, ere this, have immolated her child, if your contribution had not helped to send her the Gospel.

But perhaps you say, I would meet all these calls-I would give liberally, but "I can't afford it." This is another common apology. Let us look at it. Can you not afford it? It may be you are mistaken. Perhaps you can afford it. The heart is deceitful. We are very apt to say we can't do things which we can do. But admitting that you cannot afford it, that is no sufficient apology. There is another thing besides the fact of the inability to be considered the cause of the inability. Why can you not afford it? Might you not have the ability?

If that be the All you have to Only be a little

Perhaps you do not earn as much as you might. case, your not being able to afford it is no excuse. do is, to earn more, and then you can afford it. more industrious, and a little more enterprising, and the difficulty will vanish. And why should not a man earn to give, as well as earn to eat, drink, and put on? Are these last more blessed than giving?

But perhaps the case is, that you do not save as much as you might. You earn enough, but you do not economically use it; and so it is for want of economy that you cannot afford it. Neither is this any valid apology. You have only to practise economy, and then you will be able to exercise liberality. And is it not worth a man's while to save, that he may have it in his power to give?

It may be that I have not yet suggested the true cause of your inability. Perhaps you wear so much of your money that it leaves you without the means of giving. Or the reason you can't afford it may be found, if not in your apparel, yet in the style of your furniture, or in the service of your table, or in the expensiveness of your equipage. Now, if any one of these suppositions be correct, you see you are left without excuse. All you have to do is, to retrench in these respects, and then you can afford it. If you neither can, nor could afford it, then, and then only, do you make out a good apology. If you can earn no more, save no more, and spend no less, then you are excused-you can't afford it.

But it is my opinion, there are few persons who cannot better afford to give than not to give. There is no loss in giving. There is great gain in it. Giving is sowing. What farmer cannot afford