Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/110

, we have Christ for our counsellor, we have God for our rewarder, and a great treasure in heaven for our recompense and restitution ."

When we have set apart our offering to God, we should determine what measure of it is due to the temporal wants of those to whom circumstances give the first claim upon our bounty. And after them, we can hardly have any call on our charity more urgent than the spiritual destitution of so many thousands of our own countrymen, which, as we have seen, can be fully supplied only by the complete developement of the parochial system. For this purpose, let us give largely and wisely. One most obvious method is that of supporting those societies which are already labouring in the work. This is the special duty of those who not having much to give, should be thankful to unite their own to the offerings of many of their brethren. Societies, as we have seen, are to the poor a great blessing: they afford to them the same opportunities of self-denial which are furnished to the rich by great and splendid works. They have moreover an important function of their own, in that they encourage great undertakings, by preventing that sense of hopelessness which often withholds men's hands. Thus, church-building societies occasion the erection of many churches, to which they often contribute no