Southern Christian Advocate

PRACTICAL
LESSONS OF ACTIVE BENEVOLENCE LEARNT
FROM THE GOSPEL.

We should learn from the gospel lessons of
active benevolence. The Lord Jesus, who went
about doing good, has let us an example that we
should follow his steps. Christians, on whom
he has bestowed affluence, rank or talent, should
be the last to disdain their fellow-men, or to look
with indifference on indigence and grief. Pride,
unseemly in all, is detestable in them, who confess
that by grace they are saved. Their Lord
and Redeemer, who humbled himself by assuming
their nature, came to deliver the needy when
he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no
helper. And surely an object, which was not
unworthy of the Son of God, can not be unworthy
of any who are called by his name. Their
wealth and opportunities, their talents and time,
are not their own, nor to be used according to
their own pleasure; but to be consecrated by
their vocation as fellow-workers with God. How
many hands that hang down would be lifted up;
how many feeble knees confirmed; how many
tears wiped away; how many victims of despondency
and infamy rescued, by a close imitation
of Jesus Christ. Go with your opulence, to the
house of amine and the retreats of disease. Go,
deal thy bread to the hungry; when thou seest
the naked cover him; and hide not thyself from
thine own flesh. Go, and furnish means to rear
the offspring of the poor, that they may at least
have access to the word of your God. Go, and
quicken the flight of the angel, who has the everlasting
gospel to preach unto the nations. If you
possess not wealth, employ your station in promoting
good will toward men.

Judge the fatherless; plead for the widow. Stimulate the exertions
of others, who may supply what is lacking
on your part. Let the beauties of holiness pour
their lustre upon your distinctions, and recommend
to the unhappy that peace, which yourselves
have found in the salvation of God. If
you have neither riches nor rank, devote your
talents. Ravishing are the accents, which dwell
on the tongue of the learned, when it speaks a
word in season to him that is weary. Press your
genius and your eloquence into the service of
the Lord, your Righteousness, to magnify his
word, and display the riches of his grace. Who
knoweth, whether he may honor you to be the
minister of joy to the disconsolate, of liberty to
the captive, of life to the dead? If he has denied
you wealth, and rank, and talent, consecrate
your heart. Let it dissolve in sympathy.--
There is nothing to hinder your rejoicing with
them that do rejoice, and your weeping with them
that weep; nor to forbid the interchange of kind
and soothing offices. A brother is born for adversity;
and not only should Christian be to Christian
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,
but he should exemplify the loveliness of his
religion to them that are without. An action, a
word, marked by the sweetness of the gospel, has
often been owned of God for producing the happiest
effects. Let no man, therefore, try to excuse
his inaction; for no man is too inconsiderable to
augment the triumphs of the gospel, by
assisting in the consolation which it yields to the
miserable.--Dr. J. M. Mason.