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THE REWARD OF CHARITY
TO instruct men how to ensure success in their agricultural pursuits or commercial speculations, is no part of a minister’s office. Were we able substantially to benefit mankind in those particulars, there would be no want of hearers, nor any complaint that we laboured too zealously in our vocation: on the contrary, the more successful we were in effecting our wishes, the more gratefully should we be acknowledged as public benefactors. Shall I then, for once, exceed, as it were, the commission given me, and attempt to teach you how to thrive in this world? Yes; suffer me for once to usurp this office: and to assure the most unlearned person amongst you, that by acting on the principles which I will set before him this day, he shall be as sure to prosper in his business, as if he were ever so conversant with the arts of trade. I mean not indeed to say, that a person going out of his own proper line shall be enabled to prosecute that line to advantage: but that, whilst proceeding prudently in his proper vocation, he shall succeed more certainly, and to a greater extent, than on other principles he can expect to do. And I say this the more confidently, because the directions which I shall give are not the results of fallible reasonings or of uncertain conjectures, but the plain unequivocal declarations of Heaven: “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
In these words we see,
I. Our duty—
We must “honour the Lord with our substance”—
[All that we have is the Lord’s. “Our very bodies and souls are his;” and much more the property which he has committed to our care. With the whole of that he is to be honoured; and in the disposal of it, respect must be had to his will, his interests, his glory. We are to consider every thing that we possess, not as given to us, but merely as confided to us, to be improved for him; and we must so employ the whole, as to meet his approbation in the day that we shall give up our account, and to be acknowledged by him as good and faithful stewards.]
We must honour him, also, “with the first-fruits of all our increase”—
[The first-fruits under the Law were claimed by God as his, and they were to be presented to him as his peculiar property: “Thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring, of the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there [Note: Deu_26:2.].” Besides these, was the tithe of all their increase to be offered to him every third year: “At the end of three years thou shalt bring all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite, because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand, which thou doest [Note: Deu_14:28-29.].” Under the Gospel, the letter of this law is abolished; but the spirit of it yet remains in force: for the express command of God to us is, “On the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him [Note: 1Co_16:2.].” We are not to wait for the gathering in of our harvest; and then give a portion to the Lord after our own interests are secured: but rather to honour the Lord first, as the real proprietor of all; and then, trusting him for a supply of our own wants, to employ for ourselves what he shall graciously bestow upon us.]
This duty will not appear hard, if we consider what God has spoken for,
II. Our encouragement—
It should seem as if the giving of our substance were the way to diminish it: and the devoting of our first-fruits to him, the way to endanger our own provision through the year: but God has declared the very reverse, and has pledged himself that he will amply make up to us all that we part with for his sake.
This, under the Law, he did, visibly, according to the letter—
[Under that dispensation, a present and visible retribution marked, for the most part, the approbation or displeasure of God. When the people delayed to build his temple, he chastised them with famine, and referred to that visitation as a judgment inflicted on them for their sin: “Ye looked for much, and, lo! it came to little; and when ye brought it home. I did blow upon it. Why?. saith the Lord of Hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man to his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is staved from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit [Note: Hag_1:9-10.].” And when they were stirred up to begin the work, he not only assured them of his blessing on their temporal concerns, but bade them note down the day that the foundation of his temple was laid, and see whether their blessings were not augmented from that very hour: “Consider now, from this day and upward, from the four-and-twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider it: from this day will I bless you [Note: Hag_2:18-19.].” He bids them even to prove him in relation to this matter, and to see whether his bounty would not keep pace with their piety: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house: and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it [Note: Mal_3:10.].”]
Under the Gospel, also, he will do it, but invisibly, and according to the spirit—
[We are not taught to look so much to temporal rewards, as to those which are spiritual and eternal: though still we are told that “godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come [Note: 1Ti_4:8.];” and that, if we “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all needful things shall be added unto us [Note: Mat_6:33.].” A temporal recompence for our liberality we may not obtain: but a spiritual reward is sure. For thus said the Lord: “If thou deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor that are cast out to thy house; if, when thou seest the naked, thou cover him, and hide not thyself from thine own flesh; then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in thought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not [Note: Isa_58:7-11.].” An eternal recompence will also most assuredly await us: for our blessed Lord has expressly told us, that if, instead of lavishing our money in feasting the rich, we delight to expend it on the poor, “we shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just [Note: Luk_14:12-14.].” He has commanded us on this account to “make friends to ourselves of the mammon of unrighteousness,” in the full expectation that at out death “we shall be received into everlasting habitations [Note: Luk_16:9.].” And St. Paul speaks to the same effect, when he says, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life [Note: 1Ti_6:17-19.].”
But, after all, we must not altogether put out of our consideration even a present reward in the precise sense spoken of in our text: for it is beyond a doubt, that God does engage to supply the necessities of those who honour him with their substance [Note: Php_4:18-19.]: and we can appeal to many, and ask, whether they have not seen, in relation to their temporal concerns, many gracious interpositions of God in their behalf? But, independent of these, who does not know that liberality is the parent of economy, and economy of wealth? A man desirous of honouring God with his substance, is delivered at once from all those vices and follies which ruin the estates of thousands. Besides, who that delights in doing good has not found incomparably greater delight in self-denial for the benefit of others, than the utmost latitude of self-indulgence could ever have afforded him? Granting, then, that no addition is actually made to our wealth: yet, if our desires are moderated, and our expenditure restrained, the same effect is ultimately produced: for we are not more truly enriched by the increase of our substance, than we are by the diminution of our wants and our consumption.]
Let me now point out the bearings of this subject,
1. On those who are engaged in visiting the sick [Note: This part must be varied, according to the occasion. It was preached in behalf of a Visiting Society: but it may easily be accommodated to a Spital Sermon, or any other Charitable Institution.]—
[Persons engaged in imparting instruction to the ignorant, and consolation to the afflicted. Have yet, in a more eminent degree, the promise in our text fulfilled to them. Their light perhaps, at first, is but very imperfect: but by imparting it to others. their own views become enlarged, and their own experience of divine truth becomes deeper, from the very circumstance of their improving it for the benefit of others. Indeed, I can hardly suggest any better method for enlarging our own knowledge, than the making use of it for the instruction of our less enlightened brethren: for besides the natural effect which may be expected from the communication of knowledge, we may expect a peculiar blessing from God whilst we are so employed. A remarkable instance of this may be found in Apollos: “He, when he knew only the baptism of John, spake and taught diligently the word of the Lord.” “Aquila and Priscilla hearing him in the synagogue, took him, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” And then, going forth with his augmented light, he prospered far more in his labours of love, not only “convincing the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, but helping them much who had believed through grace [Note: Act_18:24-28.].” This example is most encouraging to all, to improve for God the light which they possess: for, whatever we do for God, is regarded by him as a loan which he will repay [Note: Pro_19:17.]: and in every instance shall it be found, that “he who watereth others, shall be watered also himself [Note: Pro_11:25.].”]
2. On those who contribute for the support of the charity—
[On these, the subject bears to its full extent: and we are warranted to affirm, that men shall “reap either sparingly or bountifully, according as they sow [Note: 2Co_9:6.].” But there is one point of view in which they pre-eminently “honour God.” and with peculiar advantage secure their reward. They honour God particularly, not merely by the distribution of their alms, but by employing and calling forth into activity the piety of others, for the benefit of their fellow-creatures. It is obvious that individuals of small property could not, without assistance from others, relieve the necessities of the poor to any great extent: and if they could not administer some temporal relief, they could not find easy access to the chambers of the sick. But being furnished with the means of easy access, they can pour the light of instruction and the balm of consolation into the souls of the afflicted to great advantage; and the persons so instructed and comforted, not only abound in thanksgivings to God for the benefits received, but in prayers to God in behalf of their benefactors. This St. Paul speaks of, as ennobling charity far beyond the mere conveyance of temporal relief [Note: 2Co_9:12-13. Cite the words, and mark what is said of their thanksgivings and prayers.] — — — Now, then, let me ask, How can you honour God more, than in causing thanksgivings to arise to him from the altars of many hearts? and, What compensation under heaven can equal the prayers and intercessions of saints in your behalf? Put your alms in one scale, and the prayers offered to a prayer-hearing God in the other, and say whether your recompence be not very abundant, or whether it is possible to lay out money in any other way to such advantage? Let all of you, then, according to your power, “abound in this heavenly grace” of charity, after the example of your blessed Lord; “who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich [Note: 2Co_8:9.].” Only get a sense of his love upon your souls, and a “sincere love to him” in return, and we shall have no occasion to entreat liberality from you; for “you yourselves will be willing of your own accord, and will be ready to pray us, with much entreaty, that we will take upon ourselves the office of ministering to the saints” as your stewards [Note: 2Co_8:3-8.].]