The Faithful Steward | Page 3

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 the other, will eventually secure the victory. The combatant, who is for a moment off his guard, or ceases to struggle, falls. As selfishness is always awake, benevolence must never slumber. The latter must be as spirited and persevering as the former. Hence, benevolence