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Gospel light? Were you thus unfeeling? Did you think to deceive
the heart-searching Jesus? Oh, no! I cannot believe it; and you
are appalled at the suspicion. But what did you mean by those
all-surrendering vows? What do you mean, often as you renew them at
the sacramental board? Let the question come home to your conscience;
_what do you mean_? If they lead you not to hold your property at the
call of God, ought you not to tremble lest you never gave yourself away,
and are, therefore, with all your professions an heir of hell? Did
Christ once weep over covenant-breaking Jerusalem? Does he not now
weep over you, as he thinks of all his agonies to rescue you from
unquenchable fire; of your voluntary vows; your unfaithfulness; and your
mockery, as perhaps you have prayed that the kingdoms of the world might
speedily become his; while amid your numerous comforts, you have refused
to deny yourself scarce a convenience, or even superfluity, for the
salvation of those whom he died to redeem? How inconsistent! Well
might tears still bathe the Saviour's cheeks. Oh think, are these the
kind returns you owe for pardoning love? It is unreasonable that you
spend your worldly goods for him, who shed his blood for you? Go, I
beseech you, to your closet, and there plead, till from the heart you
can say: "Lord, here I am and all I have. Take the worthless sacrifice,
now and forever."

Will the rich, they who have enough and abound, reject this rational
scheme of principles, feelings, actions? What treatment is this of the
compassionate Giver of your abundance? Do you not owe to him alike your
being and possessions? Perhaps you refuse to give even _yourselves_ to
him; and employ to private ends those bodily and mental powers with
which you are endowed for his service. Is not this robbing God? And
how is it with the favors of his hand? Have not the crucibles of your
selfish hearts melted and moulded them into household gods? As the
streams of Providence have poured in upon you to overflowing, instead of
dispersing abroad as God intended, have you not carefully enlarged your
own reservoirs so as to retain the whole? Thus grasping all that lies
within your reach of that wealth which God has created for the
advancement of his kingdom, have you not withheld it from its
appropriate channel, and thus become doubly guilty of robbing God?

What a spectacle do you present to holy intelligences! They behold you
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