they ought to be given; and, that they may he now given not grudgingly, or of necessity, but with that cheerfulness which the apostle recommends as necessary to draw down the love of God upon those by whom they are bestowed, let us consider,
Thirdly: The reasonableness of laying hold on the present opportunity for the exercise of our charity.
It is just that we should consider every opportunity of performing a good action as the gift of God, one of the chief gifts which God bestows upon man, in his present state, and endeavour to improve the blessing, that it may not be withdrawn from us, as a talent unemployed; for it is not certain, that he, who neglects this call to his duty, will be permitted to live till he hears another. It is likewise reasonable to seize this opportunity, because perhaps none can be afforded of more useful or beneficial charity, none in which all the various purposes of charity are more compendiously united.
It cannot be said, that, by this charity, idleness is encouraged; for those who are to be benefited by it are at present incapable of labour, but hereafter designed for it. Nor can it be said, that vice is countenanced by it, for many of them cannot yet be vitious. Those who now give cannot bestow their alms for the pleasure of hearing their charity acknowledged, for they who shall receive it will not know their benefactors.
The immediate effect of alms given on this occasion, is not only food to the hungry, and clothes to the naked, and an habitation to the destitute, but, what is of more lasting advantage, instruction to the ignorant.
He that supports an infant, enables him to live here; but he that educates him, assists him in his passage to a happier state, and prevents that wickedness which is, if not the necessary, yet the frequent consequence of unenlightened infancy and vagrant poverty.
Nor does this charity terminate in the persons upon whom it is conferred, but extends its influence through the whole state, which has very frequently experienced,
