Proverbs 3:27

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due.

A plea for the shop-men

When the first man had fallen into sin labour was imposed upon him as a punishment. And yet there was mercy mingled with the judgment. That stern necessity which forced man to eat bread in the sweat of his brow became one of his purest and sweetest sources of enjoyment. What would the world be without labour? Do we not owe to it the occupation of time which otherwise would be a burden too heavy to bear? Is it not indispensable to our mental and physical vigour, to the healthy mind in the healthy body? And does it not contribute, directly and indirectly, to our best and most enduring pleasures? But the labour is as God imposed it upon man. Not labour that is incessant, or, in itself, unfriendly to the interests of body or mind. Man has too frequently made labour a curse. To bring back labour to the position which it held after the expulsion from paradise, to guard its rights, and to render industrial occupation a help rather than a hindrance to the progress of humanity are objects of noble and Godlike enterprise.

I. This purpose is good.

1. It is good personally. Putting wise limitations on labour is good for the body, for the mind, for the soul.

2. It is good relatively. Good for employers--good for their interests, for their consciences. It is good for the commonwealth and for the Church.

II. This movement for the limitation of labour is just. Young men have a right to a fair portion of time to be used as they think best. We speak not now of expediency, but of lawful claim. They have a right to be happy. It is a sin to stop any fellow-creature from being happy. We commit this sin if we help to place impediments in his way so that he cannot obtain his share of joy. They have a right to advance their own interests. Young people may have no golden opportunities because they have no leisure. They have a right to fulfil some moral design. What this should be, each young man should find out specifically for himself. He is then bound to effectuate it. And he has a right to demand from society opportunity to obey the divinely implanted impulse. He must have breathing time, time for moral achievements.

III. The demand for shorter hours of labour is also practicable. It can be done. Late hours are not indispensable. A little domestic arrangement would make it just as easy to purchase in the broad daylight as in the dark evening hour. (W. M. Whittemore, S.C.L.)

Withholding dues

Many are the forms of this dishonesty, borrowing without payment, evading the taxes, keeping back the labourer’s hire. But the rule probes deeper than this surface. If we have no legal debt to any, we have a gospel debt to all. Even the poor is bound by this universal law of his poorer neighbour. Every one has a claim upon our love. Every opportunity of doing good is our call to do so. (C. Bridges, M. A.)

Beneficence

I. Human beneficence has its claimants.

1. What you have is given in trust.

2. It is given you for distribution.

II. Human beneficence is only limited by incapacity. Our power is the measure of our obligation.

III. Human beneficence should ever be prompt in its services.

1. Because the postponement of any duty is a sin in itself.

2. Because the neglect of a benevolent impulse is injurious to self.

3. Because the claimant may seriously suffer by a delay of your help.

IV. Human beneficence excludes all unkindness of heart. True charity thinketh no evil. A selfish heart is an evil desire. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The duty of charity

I. Charity, as of moral obligation, stands at the head of religious practice. It is not a duty purely of positive command and institution, but in its own nature, and by a constant and eternal obligation. The Jews easily confounded things morally good and evil with things made good and evil by positive command. The distinction was vigorously set forth by the prophets. Charity, then, is the principal duty of our religion, as being universal and indispensable and a perfection in its own nature.

II. Charity is the nearest imitation of the divine nature and perfections that we are capable of. The Divine perfections are not imitable by us, as to the degree and extent of them. They are all infinite in God. We may do good according to our power and in our sphere. God will accept according to that a man hath.

III. This good disposition of mind is made of the immediate conditions of our future happiness. The virtue of charity is an immediate gospel-condition of our future happiness, and it is a natural cause of it, or such a temper of mind as may be called beatific. In the nature of things, it prepares men for admission into the quiet regions of peace and love. This is also a virtue proper and necessary to this life, without which the world cannot subsist. This earth is the only stage where this virtue can and must be exercised. It is not easy to prescribe rules, measures, and proportions to men’s charity, but neither is it necessary. (Francis Astry, D. D.)

The duty of charity stated and enforced

That charity in general is a duty nobody will deny. But many, on account of particular circumstances, think themselves entirely discharged from the performance of it. Many, though they own the obligation, yet disown it in its due degrees.

I. Who are the persons obliged to give to charitable uses, and in what proportion? By charitable uses is meant the relief of the helpless, the sick, the needy, etc. The great, the opulent, and the able should undertake the principal share in this duty. They are stewards, and must give an account. Their good deeds ought to bear proportion to their abilities. Everybody looks with abhorrence upon a man who is ever amassing riches without laying anything out in charitable uses; as greedy as the sea and as barren as the shore. Those whose circumstances are but just easy, who can only just meet the demands of their families, claim to be totally exempted from the performance of this duty. But often such persons have secret indulgences, which form their real excuse. Those in straitened circumstances think they have nothing to do in the works of charity. Rich and poor are equally concerned in the duty, but in proportion to their circumstances. He that has little is as strictly bound to give something out of that little as he that has more is obliged to give more. Charity consists in doing the best we can and doing it with a willing mind. The smallest present imaginable may be the greatest bounty. The only persons who have a fair right of pleading an entire exemption from this duty are those whose circumstances are deeply involved; for until we can satisfy our creditors we ought not to relieve the poor. It would be unjust to give away what is not our own. There is much difficulty in pitching upon any fixed and stated proportion short of which our charity ought not to fall. Where the determinate measure of duty is not or cannot be assigned, there men’s interests or covetousness will be ever suggesting excuses for the non-performance of it. In this we ought to follow the rule laid down in all doubtful cases, i.e., to choose the part which is least dangerous. In the exercise of charity we should rather exceed than fall short, for fear of incurring the guilt of uncharitableness. The Jews had to appropriate the tenth part of their revenue every three years to charitable uses. This was a thirtieth part of their yearly revenue. We should not at any time fall short of this measure.

II. Who are the persons qualified to receive our charity?

1. We ought rather to succour the distressed than increase the happiness of the easy, because we are to do the most good we can. Even the bad are to be relieved in cases of extreme necessity.

2. The best charity we can give to the poor that have ability and strength is to employ them in work, that they may not contract an habit of idleness.

3. Those suffering reverse of fortune are proper objects of charity.

4. Fatherless children demand our care. Charity is misplaced upon vagrants and common beggars, who may be counterfeits.

5. The sick have claim upon our charity.

III. The manner in which we are to dispense our charity. Acts of mercy should be both public and private. If charity were entirely secret, removed from the eye of the world, it would decay and dwindle into nothing. If charity were always done in public, it would degenerate into mere hypocrisy, formality, and outward show. Care is necessary not to be influenced by ostentation or any sinister motive. An action good in itself is greatly recommended by an agreeable manner of doing it, an agreeable manner being to actions what a lively manner o| expression is to our sense--it beautifies and adorns it, and gives it all the advantage whereof it is capable. It is our duty not only to have virtue, but to make our virtue truly amiable. A delicacy of this kind is most chiefly to be observed with those who have not been used to receive charity.

IV. The motives to charity.

1. Compassion. As ingrafted in us this is mere instinct; as cultured and cherished it becomes a virtue.

2. The pleasure of benevolence. He that centres all his regard upon himself, exclusively of others, has placed his affections very oddly; he has placed them on the most worthless object in the world--himself.

V. The recompense of the reward. At the last day the question will not be whether you have been negatively good, whether you have done no harm, but what good have you done? Our Saviour has made the poor His representatives. The riches that we have given away will remain with us for ever. When we have shown mercy to our fellow-creatures we may safely expect it from our Creator. (J. Seed, M. A.)