t, and never be at a
loss respecting individual gifts in specific instances when the heart is
right. The following are such.

The great truth that God has a supreme and inalienable right in us and
in all that we possess. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,
saith the Lord of Hosts." "For every beast of the field is mine, and
the cattle upon a thousand hills." "Behold, all souls are mine; as the
soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine."--The
injunction to dedicate ourselves to God. "I beseech you, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."--The
requirement to love God and his cause and interest more devotedly than
the dearest worldly possession. "If any man come to me, and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my
disciple."--The command to love our neighbor as ourselves; that we are
to supply his necessities, and relieve his sufferings, so far as lies in
our power, with the same willingness that we do our own.--The intimation
that our gifts should be such as to call into exercise our faith and
self-denial. The poor widow cast into the treasury of the Lord "all
that she had, even all her living;" with which generous sacrifice Christ
was well pleased; and Paul commends the Macedonian Christians, because
they gave not only according to their power, but beyond their power.--
The promises to the benevolent. "The liberal soul shall be made fat."
"He that watereth shall be watered himself." "It is more blessed to
give than to receive."--The duty of imitating Christ, who "suffered for
us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps;" that we
should "walk even as he also walked."

Also, the very large amount of their income, (which has been estimated
at not less than one fifth) required of the Jews to be given for the
support of religion, and in charity, was intended to convey to us
similar instruction. For though the law of tithes or double tithes is
not binding upon us, the great sacrifices which they were required to
make, are designed to have a _moral influence_ on succeeding
generations. It is not the idle record of a bygone race, or of a
dispensation that has vanished away; it utters a voice to us; it is the
li