t exerts a powerful reflex influence
on the affections and purposes. Nothing tends more to give strength and
spirit to a mental principle than accordant action; and nothing tends
more to obliterate an emotion from the breast, or to paralyze a
resolution, than the neglect of its appropriate manifestations. However
deeply the one may be engraven on the soul, or however solid the texture
or vigorous the life of the other, a few instances of neglect or
violation will strike them with the chills of death.

Principles and resolutions, then, are of little avail without
corresponding efforts. The "well of water" must not only spring up in
the soul, it must flow out in the life. We must act as well as think
and resolve; and act, as if we _felt_ that ourselves and all that we
have belong to God by the twofold right of creation and redemption; act,
as if selfishness were our deadliest foe, and as if it were our great
business to attain its mortification and overthrow; act, as if
disinterested love, a soul like angels, like God, were the greatest good
to be possessed by an intelligent being; act, as if we were prayerfully
watching the calls of Christ on our generosity, and were ready and
determined manfully to meet them; act, in laying our pecuniary plans, as
if the highest object of acquisition were the means of diffusing good;
act, as if self-denial were the main condition of our being on earth,
and as if the circumstances of the age were requiring of us peculiar
sacrifices in order to rescue millions, perishing in mental thraldom,
whose souls are as precious as our own; act, as if we were in earnest,
as if the whole soul were kindled to a blaze of zeal, and bent on the
most determined efforts for the exaltation of Christ in the salvation of
men; knowing that the time allotted for the accomplishment of a task
eternal in its consequences, is but a hand-breadth.

Act with _forecast_. This is a point of unspeakable importance. I
would reiterate and enforce the thought, till it shall be wrought into
the very web of all our benevolent purposes. There must be
_contrivance_ to give. Worldly men make previous arrangements to
increase their stores. Lovers of pleasure contrive to support their
follies. Why should not lovers of Christ be equally wise to fill the
world with light, and heaven with anthems?

Act _systematically_. With a mind illumined with knowledge, a
conscience impressed with obligation, and a heart glowing with