Sereno D. Clark

“ Selfishness may so control the conscience, that it will utter no upbraiding accents; and so bewilder the keen-sightedness of reason, that one may put darkness for light, and bitter for sweet, and sin for holiness, while complacently feeling that he is standing on the everlasting hills of truth. Neither the natural sympathies, nor conscience, nor reason, then, can form the substantial basis of a system of action which is to battle with the selfishness of the human heart. It must be informed with a higher and nobler principle. Holy love is such a principle. ”

“ So familiar were we to be with the glories of our spiritual existence; our tastes and moral sensibilities were designed, by intercourse with Infinite Purity, to become so elevated and refined, that the glitterings of gold, and the fascinations of wealth, would fail to charm. Our home was to be so near the throne, that its light would perpetually shine in upon our souls; its spirit always bathe our spirits; so that seraph-like, possessing the benevolence of heaven, we should breathe the love of heaven on all around. ”

“ We should bear in mind that we were not made for ourselves, but for the service of God. Let the truth, "Thou art God's," be written with fire on the heart, as well as its legitimate consequence, that all that appertains to our being is his;—our strength, our health, our powers of reason and love, our capacities of acquisition, our property, our time, our all, so that its thrilling accents, "All that thou hast is God's," will ring in our ears at every turn. ”

“ Every call of charity from which you turn coldly away will be a drop of anguish to your undying soul. How trifling your gifts to the Lord, compared with the vastly greater sacrifices of many far poorer than yourself, and whom, perhaps, you now despise. When these shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, where, O, where will you be found? O, how will all that affluence in which you have garnered up your hopes appear, when hearing the voice of your Final Judge, "Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me;" ”

“ Thus it is a system equal in its pressure, and therefore adapted to fasten on the conscience of every one, whatever his age or circumstances. No one can justly plead exemption from its claims. None can reasonably propose questions of casuistry to shield his bosom from its shafts. None can shake off the convictions of duty it impresses, but by shutting its principles from the mind, or by rousing the heart to resistance. In short, it leaves every man to himself, facing his God, his conscience laid bare to the quenchless rays of truth. ”

“ Then let us realize, now and always, how all our uses of property will appear at the bar of God, where the thought of every misimprovement will be sharper than a serpent's fang; how, in eternity, as we contemplate those who might have been saved by our liberality in undying misery; how, if we are lifting up our eyes with them in torments; how, if, while we ourselves shall be saved as by fire, we behold them excluded from those blissful seats by our covetousness. Let each one put these searching questions to his own conscience ”

“ Principles and resolutions, then, are of little avail without corresponding efforts. The "well of water" must not only spring up in the soul, it must flow out in the life. We must act as well as think and resolve; and act, as if we felt that ourselves and all that we have belong to God by the twofold right of creation and redemption; act, as if selfishness were our deadliest foe, and as if it were our great business to attain its mortification and overthrow; act, as if disinterested love, a soul like angels, like God, were the greatest good to be possessed by an intelligent being ”

“ That the true mission of the church in the present age is beneficence. Though the gospel has been preached nearly 2000 years, yet a deep night of spiritual darkness is still brooding over the greatest portion of the world. Millions on millions have no knowledge of the Saviour, and other millions have no right appreciation of his truth and grace; while, blinded by sin and fascinated by its treacherous charms, they are treading their way, rank after rank, to woes everlasting. ”

“ Implanted in the tender mind, and nurtured with its strength, it assumes the tenacity of a first principle. But it is altogether erroneous. It is the product of the selfish heart. No sentiment is more fertile in covetousness, or more blighting to that generous humanity, which it is the first object of the Christian to cherish. It is a sentiment grovelling in its tendency, bowing multitudes, it is feared, even of professedly good men, to a species of slavery, over which devils smile, and angels weep; knowing that it obstructs the flow of thousands into the treasury of the Lord. ”

“ The blessedness of self-denying efforts for the salvation of souls cannot be estimated. It is god-like; it is harmonizing with our dying Lord; co-working with him in carrying out the redemptive scheme; wakening a joy which the harps of eternity alone can utter. "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." What a revenue of glory will forever flow into the enraptured souls of such men as Baxter and Doddridge, and Swartz and Martyn, and Goodell and Norman Smith, as they cast their crowns at the feet of the Saviour ”

“ When resting on such a mind and heart, resolutions are not frail; but invincible as adamant.
Our purposes of charity, therefore, must rest on an unshaken foundation; and in order to this, the principles and considerations fitted to promote benevolent sentiments and feelings must be pressed on the mind, till in view of them the bosom warms, and throbs, and swells, and bursts forth in high and determined resolves. It is not enough that they pass like a burning ray across the mind, producing a single flash of benevolence. ”

“ How glorious this idea of creation, and how beautiful the universe produced!—the whole mantled in the effulgence of the eternal throne; the Sovereign Creator upholding all ranks of intelligences in the hollow of his hand, and pouring into their bosoms the fullness of his own fruition; while their hearts, in turn, rise to the Source of their being in sweetest incense of joy and praise; each burning with a seraph's love to communicate his own overflowing enjoyments to those around him. ”

“ Will the young refuse to enter upon this systematic course of doing good?—You who are in the warm glow of youthful affections and sympathies, I presume are not prepared to answer in the negative. You feel that it would be delightful, the highest grade of human excellence, to go about scattering charities—feeding the hungry, relieving distress, smoothing the dying pillow, and sending the light of salvation to those on whom the dayspring of the Saviour's mercy has never dawned. ”

“ But a system of almost continued contributions will not be peculiarly crossing to our avaricious desires, if trifling sums are given, or those greatly disproportionate to property. In this case, selfishness, instead of being disturbed, may be rather cajoled into a species of benevolence; though a species as sickly and unsubstantial as the vine that grows amid the damps of a vault, never aspiring to heaven as the place of its nativity. But when the sums are so large as to demand personal sacrifice, the self-appropriating principle feels it keenly. ”

“ I know that the gentleman who used to skip his silver dollars on the fair bosom of the Connecticut for the amusement of his friends, and he who freely tosses around the social glass to his boon companions, may be pronounced generous fellows. But such may be as entirely destitute of all true benevolence as the most determined miser, and, what is more deplorable, as offensive to Infinite Love. Property is God's gift, and he does not require us to undervalue his gifts, but to use them with his own good-will to men. ”

“ God has placed it on a pedestal high as the eternal throne, and there it will stand and burn forever. We must bind our consciences to this standard; they must rise to its height, and shine with its radiance. If to our selfish hearts it appear a blood-stained cross, we must nail them to it, and let them bleed and agonize there. To gratify our selfish desires, God will never lower his claims. ”

“ They approve of no external act, only as it proceeds from a holy heart; otherwise, they stamp it as self-righteousness or superstition. A system of benevolent action, resting on any other foundation, falls under the same condemnation; it contains no element of life, nothing truly pleasing to God. Men may endeavor to find other bases on which to rear schemes of charity; they may bring to the task the most penetrating sagacity, and traverse again and again the secret windings of the mind, to find some other lurking principle which can resist and subdue the batteries of covetousness ”

“ What a spectacle do you present to holy intelligences! They behold you rational and accountable beings like themselves; upheld in existence by Jehovah's mercy, partaking freely of his bounties, and treasuring up future supplies; but resolutely refusing to share your abundance with the perishing, even when the generosity required would but enhance your personal enjoyment. And yet, perchance, you are the professed followers of the compassionate Jesus. Dare you compare your spirit and conduct with his?
Truly, you, who have redundant stores, sustain tremendous responsibilities ”

“ According to the plainest principles of interpretation, covetousness is here put in the same category with some of the worst vices that degrade man and provoke the wrath of heaven. Indeed, if benevolence is required equally with justice, then covetousness is as distinctly a violation of the divine law as injustice; and he who hoards as the expense of the suffering poor, is as guilty in the sight of God as he who rifles another's goods. And is it strange that he who nurtures a principle thus pernicious in its tendencies, should be excluded from heaven? ”

“ Have not the crucibles of your selfish hearts melted and moulded them into household gods? As the streams of Providence have poured in upon you to overflowing, instead of dispersing abroad as God intended, have you not carefully enlarged your own reservoirs so as to retain the whole? Thus grasping all that lies within your reach of that wealth which God has created for the advancement of his kingdom, have you not withheld it from its appropriate channel, and thus become doubly guilty of robbing God? ”

“ The Bible says nothing about humoring the selfishness of the heart, of adopting plans of beneficence that will be scarcely felt. Its language is, "Crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts." It directs us to die unto sin or self. It makes no compromise with covetousness. It bids us not rock it to sleep, but slay it. Let every one then stand up in the lofty sternness of his spirit, and adopt that system as to frequency in giving, which, other things being equal, is most crucifying to the carnal heart. ”

“ We may resort to no artificial means. We may trust in no machinery which does not work and glow with the living fires of the heart. Love, conscience, and reason, must be the originating and guiding forces. We must fall back upon, and confide in, these vital principles of holy conduct. First the heart, and then the act, is the Gospel scheme, and we may not reverse the process. To attempt it, and to say, "What we seek in a system of beneficence, is not a benevolent heart, but benevolent actions;" is to come in open collision with the spirit of the Gospel. ”

“ And though thousands have flowed into the treasuries of charity from this source, when an accomplished agent, with a soul heated to a glow with his theme, has stirred the sensibilities of his hearers as the trees of the forest are rocked by the tempest, or some other influence has violently swept the chords of the heart; yet it is a source of too little depth and durability to give vitality to the persevering work of beneficence, in a world cankered to its center with corruption. Selfishness soon leads off the mind to other subjects ”

“ In our pride we may resolve that we will use our money as we please; but God commands us to use it as he pleases. A vivid sense, then, of the tremendous scenes before us should be ever associated in our minds with ideas of property. We should realize how our wealth will appear in the final hour, as its pleasures and enchanting illusions begin to fade from the dying eye, and as we reflect how short and unsatisfactory, like "a dream when one awaketh," all these enjoyments have been. Rioting amid the luxuries of affluence, and giddy with its bewildering joys, these may be unpleasant thoughts. ”