“How condescending is our covenant God.  All we have or enjoy is from his hand; he gave us our being; our lives, although forfeited a thousand times, have been preserved.  ’Our bread has been given us, and our water sure;’ and not only these necessaries, but many comforts and good temporal things have fallen to our lot; ’thou hast furnished our table,’ hast provided medicines and cordials when sick.  Lord, I thank thee for all these mercies, but above all, that we can call thee our reconciled Father; that we have them not as the world have them, who are far from thee, and have no portion among thy children, nor interest in thy well-ordered covenant; but that we have them as thy redeemed, as part of covenant provision, and with a covenant blessing, and among the all things that work together for our good.  Lord, enable us to be rich in good works.  How condescending, that thou acceptest a part of thine own as freewill-offerings, and hast annexed promised blessings to those who consider the poor; hast said, ’He who giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord.’

“I thank thee that thou hast laid to hand a sufficiency to enable me and mine to eat our own bread; even that which, according to the regulations of society, men call our own.  Thou only hast a right to call it not so, for we are thine, and all that thou hast given us; but of thy free bounty and kind providence, ’thou hast enabled us to provide things honest and of good report in the sight of all men,’ and to give a portion to them who need.

“I trust thy Spirit has directed my judgment in the determination I have taken to set apart, from time to time, this portion, according as thou prosperest us in business, and preservest us in health and ability to pursue it.  I bless thee for indulgent, encouraging appearances, that since I began the practice thou hast added to my stock, and that which I have given has never straitened, but thou hast prospered me more and more.  My poor’s purse has never been empty when called for, neither has my family purse.  Of thine own I give thee, and bless thy name for the privilege.

“Grant direction with respect to whom, and how much to give.”

The following meditations will afford refreshment to every Christian heart: 

“1797.

“’As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding there in with thanksgiving.’

“Yes, just so, and no other way shall any poor corrupted creature attain holiness, in the very same manner that he received the Lord Jesus at first.  He is’ the Alpha; and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’