The Faithful Steward | Page 3

hand of
charity never weary. He must be god-like. With permanency and
uniformity of conduct, imitative of his own, our Holy Sovereign will be
well pleased. But with him who is wavering in his principles;
vacillating and impulsive in his purposes of good; at one time toiling
for others with the utmost earnestness, and then, forgetful of their
wants and woes for months together, he must be displeased. How
unlike our Great Exemplar. He was always doing good. "The labor of
his life was love." Reader, would you please your compassionate
Savior? Go, and do likewise.
III. From the necessity of system to success in any kind of business.
One cannot accumulate wealth, acquire learning, rise to distinction in
any of the professions or trades without system. Even the pleasures of
life depend much on regularity; otherwise they cloy and become insipid.
He, who is unsteady in his habits, now indulging in ease, and now
straining every muscle; who, as some excitement arouses him,--such
perhaps as the fresh inculcation of economy and industry, flares up and
bustles about, resolves that his business shall henceforth be prosecuted
with vigor and managed with precision, and in a few days relapses into
his old, careless, inefficient habits, heedless alike of prudence and
precept, gives little promise of success in any department of life. Or
should one be perseveringly industrious, but suffer his affairs to lie in
confusion, like the material world at its birth, he would be deemed at
best but a busy-body. If he intends to succeed, he must have some
established principles and a fixedness of purpose, which will prompt to
accuracy and method, would be the universal decision of the wise. This
is reasoning correctly. But must men practise on system in providing
the means of personal supply and gratification; while in the Divine
work of relieving the sorrows and wants of others, all system is matter
of indifference? Is order so important in the accumulation of property;
while the diffusion of it, in obedience to God's commands, may be
safely left to the spontaneous impulses of feeling? The more important
any business becomes, the more essential is precision in its
management. This is a universal maxim. Now, as beneficence, in its
comprehensive import, rises superior to all other employments, so, if it
ever reaches its highest possible results, it must be carried on

systematically. How often does benevolence to the poor fail of
accomplishing all that it otherwise might, were it not exerted
irregularly; whereas, when proceeding in equable flow, by encouraging
frugality and economy, it fills even the dwellings of poverty with
comfort. How much more efficient would our great benevolent
societies become, were the contributions of the churches uniform, or
uniformly rising like the waters from the sanctuary in Ezekiel's vision;
so that those who conduct them might have sufficient data on which to
erect their schemes for the future. It would infuse new life into all their
operations; elevate them to a loftier position, from which they might
stretch their arms around the world, and kindle joys reaching to heaven.
Besides, is it not matter of personal experience, that when order enters
into, and pervades our worldly business, we accomplish far more than
when it is left to the driftings of fortune, or to the mere suggestions of
the mind? And can any reason be assigned why the same practice
should not be equally productive in carrying out the noblest work of
our being?
Thus personal experience in other matters observation, and theory,
alike teach us that the work of benevolence may not be left to the
impulses of natural feeling--to the influence of lectures and appeals, or
casual stimulants. It must be planted in principle, and issue in regular
contributions, like the tree of life yielding her fruit every month, if we
would have the blessing of many ready to perish come upon us. Those
who depend on intermittent springs are liable to suffer thirst.
IV. From the deep-seated depravity of the human heart. Depravity is
supreme selfishness. This, in unregenerate men, is the governing
principle. Quick-sighted, ever on the alert, and lying, as it does, at the
foundation of the active powers, it becomes the propeller of the mind. It
leads to a series, and thus substantially to a system, of actions. They
may not always be rational; yet, as they spring from a fixed principle,
and proceed in an uninterrupted current, they may properly be termed
systematic. Hence the natural man feels a constant pressure of motives
to conduct pleasing to himself; and is thereby borne away on the
maddening torrent of self-gratification. There must be a counter-current;
billow must battle with billow. The antagonist principle demanded is

benevolence; and antagonist principles, coming in collision, must press
with equal force, or one gradually gaining upon