Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/111

 large proportion. They amply deserve the support of all: but those to whom God has given the means and the heart to give great sums, may commonly dispose of them to better advantage than by multiplying their contributions to these associations. It is their privilege to imitate holy persons of old, by undertaking at their own expense some great and good work.

That this is no unimportant suggestion will be plain to any one who compares the ecclesiastical edifices of our own day with those of our forefathers. Our modern churches are generally the work of societies and committees; and we need no inscription to tell us that they are so; they bear it on their front. A society can as little cultivate architectural taste and magnificence, as it can call forth gratitude in those who benefit by its bounty. Its operations are of necessity conducted on cold dry rules of economy; every thing is done by weight and measure; and nothing is spent but that which can in no way be saved. And while those who execute the work are thus minded, the donors whose bounty they administer, only hear of course general statements of the number of sittings provided, and they cannot but want all that particular and personal interest in the work to which they contribute, which would turn their duty into a pleasure. Thus do we build churches by calculation, as a matter of necessity; but of old church building was a delight, a luxury, a passion. Then men