This is the only process by which the soul can be brought into, and kept in, that state of unity implied in volition; especially of that abiding unity implied in a general purpose, without which no scheme of action can be long sustained.  This, too, is the only method by which unhappy influences exerted on the heart by the pursuits of gain can be counteracted.  As one engages in active business, and his property accumulates, his thoughts usually become more engrossed, and his love of money increases.  Why is it?  Precisely on the principle recognized by the Psalmist, “While I was musing, the fire burned.”  It is a law of our mental nature, that the more we think of any subject naturally pleasing, the greater interest we feel respecting it.  Now the management, the proper investment, and safe keeping of property, must engage, more or less, the attention; and owing to the extreme selfishness of the heart, are very liable to awaken a lively interest.  Hence, the more people are employed in the acquisition of affluence or competence, the more covetous they usually become.  This influence, so chilling to the generous affections, can be resisted only by a counter process of reflection.  The truth that ourselves and all we have belong to God; the extreme selfishness of the natural man; the insufficiency of worldly good to satisfy the cravings of the soul; the dangers attending acquisition; the obligations and privilege of giving; the benevolent mission of the age; the spiritual wants of the world; the worth of a soul redeemed; and all those great and solemn considerations fitted to incite to munificence, must be presented before the mind as frequently at least as ideas of property, in order to counterbalance the influence of the latter; and, indeed, more frequently, so as to repress the strong tendencies of the selfish heart, which the avocations of gain are so well calculated to invigorate.  This can be done by no merely external system of benevolent action, any farther than such a system has a reflex influence on the moral feelings.  Farther than this, the effort would be like attempting to stop the floods of the Amazon with a bulrush.

The great work, therefore, in erecting a system of beneficence, must be wrought in the soul,—­in impressing views and regulating affections.  For this there can be no substitute.  This deep and steady current of truth and thought, is to the mind in connection with the Spirit’s operations, what showers are to the earth.  If there are none, it soon becomes parched, and verdure withers; if they descend frequently and copiously, the ground is filled with moisture, vegetation blooms, and fruits ripen; springs burst forth, the streams dash along the valleys, sweep through the meadows, and pouring into the ocean, roll their mountain waves around the world.

II.  Standing on this high ground of established principles and correspondent affections, we are prepared to take the second step in a universal system of beneficence; consisting in the exercises of the will in the formation of general purposes and resolutions.  These should be made with a solemn sense of the responsibilities of our being; of our relations to the world and to the judgment-seat; and with a full conviction of our own weakness and entire dependence on the grace of God to assist us in their fulfilment.