portions of them-the trespass-offerings, the sin-offerings, &c.; the expense of pilgrimage to the temple, thrice in the life of every male; the half-shekels for the sanctuary, and the remission of all debts every seventh year. Besides these, there were numerous expenses for hospitality and relief to the poor; and then come the tithes -the tenth of the produce of the fields-for the Levites; and, finally, the remainder was assessed for another tenth, to be spent for the worship of the temple and for the poor; and then at the end of every third year, in order to secure the integrity of the law, the people made solemn declaration before God that this last tenth had been faithfully provided. It has been estimated that the devout Jew gave away about one third of all his income to the poor and to religion. Dr. A. Stevens.

BENEFICENCE—during Life.

:

Do not so do good that we may thank your deathbed for it, and not you. Late beneficence is better than none, but so much as early beneficence is better than late. He that gives not till he dies, shows that he would not give if he could keep it. And God loves a cheerful giver. That which you give thus, you give it by your testament I can scarcely say you give it by your will. The good man's praise is, "He disperses his goods," not, he left them behind him and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God, "His righteousness endureth for ever." Our Saviour tells us that our good works are our light, "Let your light so shine, that men may see your good works:" which of you lets his light go behind him, and hath it not carried before him, that he may see which way it goes, and which way himself goes by it? Do good, therefore, in your life, that you may have comfort in your death, and a crown of life after death. Bp. Hall.

BENEFICENCE-Nature Teaches.

Human Nature is fallen, and I am not in the habit of unduly exalting it; yet, regarded from this point of view, it presents some vestiges of a departed glory-the last lights of sunset. Let me illustrate this by an example, over which I can fancy the angels bending with admiration. A boat of castaways lay on the lone sea drifting on a shoreless ocean; bread they had none; water they had none; no ship, no sail hove in sight. Among the dead and dying a boy lay clasped in his mother's arms; with looks-for his lips were black and speechless-that seemed to cry-"Mother, mother, give me bread!" A rough sailor, who had kept and concealed a shell-fish for his own last extremity, looked on the child; the tears started to his eye; he raised his

rough hand to wipe them from his cheek; and then, drawing out his prized last morsel, put it to the lips of the dying boy. I don't know where he sailed from-perhaps from your own port-I know neither his name nor his creed ; but, sir, I know this, that I would rather my soul were bound up in the same bundle with his, than with the souls of those who go to chapel or to church, and, having no bowels of mercy, heap up money while other men are dying of starvation. Till she has sunk into the lowest depths of selfishness and sin, Human Nature could not enjoy the banquet when hungry faces were staring in at the window and not the music of tabret and viol filled the air, but the low moanings of manly suffering, and the weeping of mothers whose children cry for bread and they have none to give them. The Gospel of Jesus Christ directs us to love even our enemies-if they hunger, to feed them; if they thirst, to give them drink; and though human nature may not be great enough to forgive an enemy, she is kind enough to pity a sufferer, and to sympathise with suffering. Give her way, then! Yield to her generous impulses! If not Christians, let us, at least, be men-be brothers! Act here as you would were you in presence of a miserable wreck-men hanging in the shrouds ; every wave threatening to engulf them; their hands pitifully stretched to the shore; their cries for help wafted on the wind, and heard above the roar of breakers. If you could do nothing else you would pity them-you would pray for them. But if you could do more, you would gallop off for the life-boat, leap into her, or hire men to man her; follow her with eager interest; and, as now lost in the trough, and now riding on the top of the sea, she came back with her living freight, oh! who would not throw open their houses to the rescued, chafe their limbs, leave their own beds to couch them, and thank God that night on their knees that they had had a hand in saving them that were ready to perish? Dr. Guthrie.

BENEFICENCE-Practice of.

Never did any soul do good but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love, or gratitude, or bounty practised but with increasing joy, which made the practiser still more in love with the fair act. Earl of Shaftesbury.

'Tis not enough that we with sorrow sigh, That we the wants of pleading man supply; That we a sympathy with sufferers feel, Nor hear a grief without a wish to heal: Not these suffice-to sickness, pain, and

woe,

The Christian spirit loves with aid to go;

Will not be sought, waits not for want to plead,

But seeks the duty-nay, prevents the need. G. Crabbe.

BENEFICENCE-Prompt.

You are so to put forth the power that God has given you; you are so to give, and sacrifice to give, as to earn the eulogium pronounced on the woman, She hath done what she could." Do it now. It is not a safe thing to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of a cold world. If you intend to do a mean thing, wait till to-morrow: if you are to do a noble thing, do it now-now! and like the blacksmith, who at one long stride swings the glowing bar to the anvil, and rings his hammer on it, "strike while the iron is hot."

BENEFICENCE-Rewarded.

Dr. Guthrie.

Not many years ago a person died, leaving a very good estate to his widow and two sons; but the young men were profligate, and the widow. who was a Christian lady, seeing how they were running through the property, and determining that it should not all be lost, sent £20 to a missionary society. The sons complained sorely of it, and told her she might as well have thrown the money into the sea; but she said she had cast it upon the waters and should find it again after many days. The sons enlisted into the army; their regiment was ordered to India, and when the eldest son was several hundred miles up the Ganges, he was, by the preaching of a missionary, brought to the knowledge of the truth. He went down to Calcutta to his younger brother, and died there of cholera almost immediately. The first news his mother heard of all this was of his happy and triumphant death; and she exclaimed, "Here comes my £20 back." But before his death the elder had induced the younger to attend the worship of God, and he also was converted; he took orders, became a missionary, and came to England just before his mother died, closing her eyes in peace, and enabling her to say, "Here again comes my £20 back."

Major Jacob.

One of the wealthiest individuals in a distant city (in America), who spends immense sums for benevolent purposes, was heard to say, that he hardly knew how his property came to him; it seemed to increase without effort on his part, and whether he would or no. The reason may have been because he was not selfishly eager in the pursuit of it, and because he

consecrated it to good objects, and therefore God blessed him as he did Solomon. W. H. Lewis.

Tiberius II was so liberal to the poor, that his wife blamed him for it. Speaking to him once of his wasting his treasure by this means, he told her, he should never want money so long as, in obedience to Christ's command, he supplied the necessities of the poor. Shortly after this, he found a great treasure under a marble table which had been taken up; and news was also brought him of the death of a very rich man, who had left his whole estate to him.

BENEFICENCE-Sphere of.

J. Whitecross

The sphere of beneficent activity was never so large. To infuse the leaven of purity into the disordered masses-to thaw

the death-frost from the heart of the misanthrope to make the treacherous one faithful to duty-to open the world's dim eye to the majesty of conscience—to gather and instruct the orphans bereft of a father's blessing and of a mother's prayerto care for the outcast and abandoned, who have drunk in iniquity with their mother's milk, whom the priest and the Levite have alike passed by, and who have been forced in the hotbed of poverty into premature luxuriance of evil,-here is labour which may employ a man's whole lifetime, and his whole soul. W. M. Punshon.

BENEFICENCE-Works of.

Churches, chapels, schools, hospitals, asylums, almshouses, religious institutions, charities, visitations of the sick and poor, and in one word, everything that has been done and is being done for the physical, moral, and religious well-being of humanity, by those who have it in their will and their hand, may be included in works of beneficence. John Bate.

BENEFICENCE AND BENEVOLENCE.

There is an intimate connection between them in their existence, but a difference in their nature and action. Benevolence is well-willing-beneficence is well-doing. Benevolence says, "I will do good;" beneficence says, "I am doing good." He is a benevolent man who from the motion of a gracious will makes his plans and forms his purposes for the communication of good things; the same man is beneficent when he in fact communicates the good things which he had benevolently planned to do. We see the benevolence of God in the heart which He had to save the world; we see His beneficence in the actual "Unspeakable Gift," which He bestowed for that purpose.

The connection and difference between them are those which exist between inten

tion and action, willing and doing, cause and effect. Benevolence in man may exist without beneficence; but beneficence cannot exist without benevolence. A man may have the will to do good, but not the power. He may mourn in his soul over distress, but not be able practically to help it. He may construct his plans for usefulness, but not be equal to their execution, from an unexpected failure of means. Benevolence, too, may be larger in its proportions than beneficence. A Christian may have a good will towards every man, and towards all means and agencies of good in the world, but he may be able practically to communicate only to a few of them. John Bate. BENEFICENCE AND CONSCIENCE.

There cannot be found a better example than I have met with in reading some memoirs of the great and good Colston, the founder of those excellent charities in London, Bristol, and elsewhere. I find this passage in his life:-" It happened that one of his most richly laden vessels was so long missing, and the violent storms having given every reason to suppose she had perished, that Colston gave her up for lost. Upon this occasion, it is said, he did not lament his unhappiness, as many are apt to do, and perpetually count up the serious amount of his losses; but, with dutiful submission, fell upon his knees, and with thankfulness for what Providence had been pleased to leave him, and with the utmost resignation, relinquished even the smallest hope of her recovery. When, therefore, his people came soon afterwards, to tell him that his ship had safely come to port, he did not show the signs of selfgratulation which his friends expected to see. He was devoutly thankful for the preservation of the lives of so many seamen; but as for the vessel and cargo, they were no longer his; he had resigned them; he could not in conscience take them back. He looked upon all as the gift of Providence to the poor; and as such, he sold the ship and merchandise-and most valuable they were-and praying for a right guidance, distributed the proceeds to the poor." How beautiful is such a charity! Here is no false lustre thrown upon the riches and goods of this world, that, reflected, blinds the eyes that they see not aright. The conscience of such a man as Colston was an arbiter even against himself; sat within him in judgment to put aside his worldly interest, and make a steady light for itself to see by, where, naturally, was either a glare or an obscurity, that alike might bewilder less honest vision. Blackwood.

BENEVOLENCE-without Beneficence. Sometimes men are in circumstances where they have to look on a misery which

they cannot relieve. This happened a few months ago in Scotland. A vessel laden with bricks and coal was undergoing repairs on the shore of the Solway Firth. The tide there runs like a race-horse. By some gross mismanagement the vessel began to heel over. A cry of alarm was raised; and all escaped but one man. She settled down on his loins, and pinned him to the ground. The neighbourhood was raised; hawsers were attached to the masts; and the power of strong arms and hearts brought to raise her-but in vain. She could not be moved. The tide was making-it would float her soon; but before it floated her, it would float over him. All further effort was abandoned. A minister was brought to the sad scene. He prayed, and the people wept. On and on came the remorseless sea; inch by inch it rose-cold at his heart, at his throat and now death in the salt foam kisses his lips. He asks that a handkerchief be thrown over his head, that he may not see the waves. It is done; and with a weeping, sobbing crowd around him, but none there to help, at length the wave washes over his head, and washes away the prayer that I hope, through our blessed Saviour, opened the gates of heaven for his departing spirit. They could not help.

A lovely young lady, in her near approach to dissolution, observing her father overcome with grief, thus pertinently remonstrated with him: "Why, sir, so much grief? Had an offer of marriage been made me by one who in himself was all you could wish, and whose situation in life was far superior to mine, but whose residence must be in a remote part of the kingdom, perhaps, the consideration of advantage and promotion to me would have reconciled you to my removal, though it would have been little other than a separation for life. But I am now about to be promoted incomparably beyond anything that could have occurred in this world. Then why this reluctance? Our next meeting will be in circumstances of high improvement, joyful and perpetual."

We have lost a child-nay, she is not lost to you, who is found to Christ; she is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star, which, going out of our sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere, ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. If her glass

were but a short hour, what she wanteth of

time that she hath gotten of eternity; and ye have to rejoice that ye have now some plenishing (furniture) up in heaven. Build your nest upon no tree here, for ye see God hath sold the forest to Death; and every tree whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end that we might flee and mount up, and build upon the

Rock, and dwell in the holes of the Rock. S. Rutherford.

Could those of our Christian children and friends whom we have conveyed to the chambers of the dead, and over whom many sorrowing tears have fallen from our bleeding hearts, speak to us from their shining abodes of blessedness above, they would say, "Weep not for us, we have escaped all sorrow, all sin, all temptation; we are with Jesus. Weep not for us, but rather weep for yourselves, that you are yet in the world of trial and woe; weep for your children that are yet with you, unsaved and unprepared for heaven; weep for your friends who are still without God and hope in the world. Weep not for us, but rather rejoice that through death we have gained such rest and peace in heaven." John Bate.

BEREAVEMENT—Design of.

The only child of two thoughtless parents died. The parents became on this account not only sorrowful, but disposed to question the goodness of God. They even petulantly inquired of their minister how it could be possible that a God of love could have dealt so hardly with them. To this question the pastor replied as follows:-"You Would know from me why God has taken your child from you. Well, then, He is determined to have from your family at least one member in heaven. You parents would not prepare to enter into heaven; and if that child of yours had been allowed to remain, you would also have prevented it from going thither. Hear, further, a parable: There was a good Shepherd, who had prepared costly fodder in his fold for his sheep, but the sheep would not enter. He gave Himself much concern to induce them

Thou hast lost thy friend; say rather, thou hast parted with him. That is which we cannot hope to see any more. properly lost which is past all recovery,

It is not so with this friend for whom

thon mournest. He is only gone home a little before thee; thou art following him. You, too, shall meet in your Father's house, and enjoy each other more happily than you could have done here below. How just is that charge of the blessed apostle, that we should not mourn as men without hope for those who sleep in Jesus. Did we think their souls vanished into air, as a heathen poet profanely expresses it, and their bodies resolved into dust, without all possibility of reparation, we might well cry out our eyes for the utter extinction of those we loved. But if they do but sleep, they shall do well. Why are we impatient at their silent repose in the bed of death, when we are assured of their awaking to glory? Bp. Hall.

BEREAVEMENT-Reliefs in.

First there are reliefs arising from our constitution. There is a self-healing principle in nature. Break a branch from a tree, &c., wound the body, cut the flesh, or break a limb; and you see the self-healing power exude and work. It is so in the soul. Thought succeeds thought like the waves of the ocean, and each tends to wear out the impression its predecessor had made. Secondly, there are incidental reliefs. New events, new engagements, new relationships, tend to heal the wound. Thirdly, there are Christian reliefs; the assurance of after life, the hope of a future reunion, &c. Such are the reliefs. These like the flowers and shrubs of a lovely garden spring up around our hearts and cover the grave of our sorrows and trials with the shadow of their

foliage. YES; though we have our trials,
we have still our blessings.
"Life's dreariest path has some sweet
flowers,

Its cloudiest day some sun." Dr. Thomas.
BEREAVEMENT-Resignation in.
Dear as thou wert, and justly dear,
We will not weep for thee;
One thought shall check the starting tear,
It is, that thou art free.

Your dearest Lord hath made you a widow that ye may be a free woman for Christ, who is now suiting for marriage love of you; and, therefore, since you lie alone in your bed, let Christ be as a bundle of myrrh, to sleep and lie all the night betwixt your breasts (Cant. i, 13), and then your bed is better filled than before. And seeing that among all crosses spoken of in our Lord's word, this giveth you a particular right to make God your husband (who was not so yours while your husband was alive), read God's mercy out of this visitation Let God and men and angels now see what is in you. The Lord hath pierced the vessel, it will be known whether there be in it wine or water: let your faith and patience be seen, that it may be known that your only beloved, first and last, hath been Christ; and, therefore, now, were your whole love upon Him, that He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the affections of your soul.

S. Rutherford.

Say, why should friendship grieve for those Who safe arrive on Canaan's shore? Released from all their hurtful foes,

They are not lost, but gone before.

How many painful days on earth
Their fainting spirits number'd o'er!
Now they enjoy a heavenly birth;

They are not lost, but gone before.

Dear is the spot where Christians sleep, And sweet the strain which angels pour; O, why should we in anguish weep?

They are not lost, but gone before. Secure from every mortal care,

By sin and sorrow vexed no more; Eternal happiness they share

Who are not lost, but gone before.

To Zion's peaceful courts above,

In faith triumphant may we soar; Embracing in the arms of love

The friends not lost, but gone before.

BESETTING SINS-Consequence of.

Just as certainly as a single match may explode a whole magazine, or lay a town in ashes-just as surely as a single leak may sink the proudest vessels that ever marched the seas-so one solitary sin, if suffered to invade and rule the heart, will destroy the piety of the holiest saint. If other illustrations of this principle were needed, we have them unhappily in abundance. Look at Solomon. How devout and holy before his "heart went after strange women!" How shameless a libertine thereafter! Look at Judas, the Balaam of the New Testament. So corrupted and accursed did he become, through the sin of greed, that he could sell his Redeemer for thirty pieces of silver. Look at Demas. Nay, look not so far away; look around you, at those whom you know as having once run well, but also, alas! as having been utterly overthrown by some besetting sin. One was overcome by the sin of intemperance. Another fell like Demas. When you first knew him, he was an humble-minded, devoted, zealous Christian; but God greatly prospered him in business, and he was not proof against "the deceitfulness of riches." His love of money increased in the ratio of his increasing possessions, and ate away his piety as doth a canker. Young women also you have known, bidding fair for honorable distinction in the ranks of Christian devotedness, who afterwards yielded to the seductions of worldly pleasures as they solicited them in the voluptuous dance or the drama; who, like other moths, were blinded with the blaze, and at last came forth with the wings of their spiritual life all scorched and shrivelled, if indeed through the mercy of God they did not perish in the flames. T. Akroyd.

BESETTING SINS-Cure of.

A traveller in Burmah fell asleep upon the damp hot ground. He was awakened