nent funds as the endowment of a professorship support a professor in giving instructions now; and may continue to support one as long as time shall last. Some of the endowments of the great English Universities are more than 500 years old; and for more than 500 years, amid the revolutions of that long period, they have kept the voice of instruction continually sounding, and educational influences continually operating. The noble characters which they have contributed to perfect, and the superior intellects which they have contributed to develop, have been of the greatest service to their country and the world. The endowment of Colleges and Academies is one of the greatest works of the present age, and opens one of the widest and most inviting fields for the exercise of liberality. Let men of property who wish to open perennial fountains of usefulness, examine thoroughly this subject; and they will find it one of far greater interest than is generally imagined.

Most of the Colleges of Great Britain have been endowed by private liberality. The same is true of most of the Colleges and Academies of this country. The work of endowing institutions of learning is still going forward in Great Britain; and is far from being completed in this country, especially in the Central and Western portions of it.

$555. Liberality in the support and diffusion of religion is a general duty. It is more so in this country than in some others, because no provision is made by law among us for the accomplishment of these objects. Liberality in the support of religion implies a disposition to bear one's full part in building churches, supporting the ministry at home, contributing to the support of domestic and foreign missions, and to the diffusion of religious knowledge and religious institutions generally. The support of religion requires regular annual contributions, and ought to be given. systematically.

Liberality to individuals comprehends many interesting duties. It may be exercised in contributing to repair the losses of those who have been unfortunate; but its widest field is that of encouraging industry, enterprize, learning, and skill, by patronizing persons who employ them in the prosecution of works of usefulness. Liberality is particularly due to the young. Multitudes have risen to distinction and influence through the liberality of friends, who

would not, and in many cases could not, have risen without assistance of this kind.

Liberality involves liberal views in regard to the wants and necessities of our fellow-men, and proper sensibility to their joys and sorrows. Those who never think of their fellow men, cannot be liberal towards them. The same is true of those who are essentially insensible to the joys and sorrows of others. Thought awakens sensibility; and sensibility awakened and properly cherished, leads to beneficence. The cultivation of liberality requires exercise. Without exercise the attainment of a liberal disposition is impossible. One act of liberality leads to others; and they to others still, without end. When acts of liberality are not performed, the spirit languishes, and sometimes expires, giving place to the most absolute selfishness, and often to miserly avarice. Liberality ought to be exercised with discrimination and sound discretion. To give indiscriminately, is to act with profusion, but not with liberality. Liberality consists in giving for good objects.

§ 556. Liberality is a peculiarly honorable virtue. So much is this the case, that persons who are perfectly destitute of this principle, not unfrequently perform acts of apparent liberality for the sole purpose of acquiring reputation. Christ charges this upon the Pharisees of his time; and it has been justly chargeable upon many in all times. The Scriptures inculcate liberality in the most explicit and forcible manner. It was a maxim of Christ, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. This accords with the experience of all wise and good men. The truly liberal are liberal from principle. They use their property and other means to promote the good of others, because they take a real interest in it, and make it their own. Having made the interest of others their interest, and the happiness of others their happiness, they feel the same satisfaction in promoting the benefit of others, which they do in promoting their own benefit; and they have more satisfaction in exercising liberality than in being the objects of it, because there is no merit in receiving benefactions, but distinguished merit in giving them. The blessedness of liberality consists to some extent, in the consciousness of having performed a virtuous action; but it is not restricted to this. The exercise of liberality procures proportionable honor to the subject. The reputation of being liberal is a signal advantage.

and is often worth more than money; whereas the reputation of being avaricious and niggardly, is in every respect injurious. The credit of liberality is no inconsiderable benefit; and the discredit of being illiberal and selfish, is a great evil.

It is essential to true liberality that benefactions should be conferred cheerfully. Giving from constraint and with reluctance, is no part of this virtue. Men of real beneficence will not be importunate in requesting favors, and will exercise delicacy in accepting them. Men of hereditary estates are said to be usually more liberal than those who have acquired their property by their own industry. The reason of this is, that habits of eager acquisition naturally beget a love of property, and a reluctance to part with it. A truly liberal man will not be an extortioner or an oppressor; for the same principles that make him liberal, will deter him from extortion and injustice.

§ 557. The Christian religion is essentially liberal. It is among its fundamental laws that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, and as Christ has loved us; and that we should do good to all men as we have opportunity. To submit to Christ as our Master and Lord, is to submit to these laws and obey them; and the man who does not submit to them, is not a Christian. He has not the Spirit of Christ, and is none of his, but is yet in his sins, and is not washed from their filthiness. Many seem to think that piety is something different from goodness, and that if a man believes certain propositions, and performs certain religious rites, and especially if he adds to this explicit disclaimers of any righteousness of his own, and unbounded confidence in the righteousness and merits of Christ, he is certainly in the way to heaven; but the Bible teaches a very different doctrine. That blessed book calls us to be holy, in order that we may be happy, and teaches us explicitly that without holiness no man can see the Lord. It admits of no substitute for holiness, and allows of no sin on any pretext whatever. Those men who live in known sin, and expect justification through the blood of Christ, are preparing themselves for a dreadful disappointment. God will not clear the guilty. They may cry, Lord, Lord, and make great professions of faith, in the hope that faith without works will save them; but their sentence has already gone forth, and their doom is sealed. "Not every one that

saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity!"Jesus Christ.

It is impossible to understand and appreciate the duty of liberality without viewing it in relation to the moral system of the Creator. God is a Father and Friend of his entire family of creatures. He interests himself in the happiness of all, not excepting the ravens and the young lions, but especially in the happiness of man. The whole human family is God's family, with one common interest in him, and dependent mainly on him. The smaller families of domestic life are but symbols of this. The interests of all are to a great extent one in other respects; but as children of one God, they all meet in common relations to him. In serving one another, therefore, we are not only serving brothers and sisters of the same family, but we are serving God, and gratifying the heart of his parental affection and tenderness. A father is not indifferent to kindness shown by his children to each other, but observes it with delight, and rewards it with favor; much more will God be pleased with kindness shown by his children to each other, and reward it with his more distinguished favor. We cannot view men both as our brothers and sisters, and as children with us of God, and objects of his love and care, interesting his heart as much more than the children of earthly parents interest their hearts; as he is greater and better than they, without being kind to them, and willing to do every thing possible for their good. An illiberal spirit proves the want of all just conceptions both of God and men, and is incompatible with moral goodness and true religion.

CHAPTER IX.

NATURE AND OFFICE OF COURAGE.

§ 558. Courage is a disposition to encounter evils with firmness and composure, in the discharge of our duty; and is the opposite of cowardice and excessive timidity. This virtue is of great importance to the soldier, and has been possessed to an unusual extent by all the great warriors of ancient and modern times. Aristotle places it at the head of the entire list of virtues, and inculcates the cultivation and exercise of it with great force and energy, and at the same time with great discrimination and propriety. His illustrious pupil, Alexander, seems to have entered fully into the views of his great master, on this subject, as well as on several others, and takes rank among the bravest of heroes, as well as among the most successful of conquerors. Martial courage was demanded in ancient times more generally than it is at present, and was of the greatest necessity. War was almost the principal business of mankind, and every man was liable, on the slightest notice, to be called into military service, and to be placed in circumstances of peril, requiring the most determined bravery. The Ethics of those times, therefore, were not as erroneous as might be supposed, in giving the first place among the virtues to courage. If courage was not the first of virtues, it was one for which men had the most urgent necessity, and without which nothing was secure.

§559. The general demand for courage in modern times, has less reference to the perils of war, than among the ancients; but there are evils of other kinds incident to all states of society, which must still be met, and which demand the exercise of courage, no less than the evils of war; and even in ancient times, when every man was a soldier, the exercise of courage in the other departments of exertion, was scarcely less important and illustrious than in war. Courage is requisite in the cabinet as well as in the field, and in private as well as in public life, and no man can be greatly useful without it.

It requires some courage to be a Christian, and when this is attained, and persons have dared to commence the