ABSTRACT
With regard to the building of churches, people's lord’s testimony to the widow’s mite, and the costly ointment; and to the intention of the man after His own heart, prove such works to be in the highest degree acceptable to Him, and therefore necessarily productive of good. And the sacrifices they require are greatly beneficial to the individual, merely as religious sacrifices. It is also very important as setting up a witness, of which character alone many of the best actions must be. All acceptance of divine truth, and all religious worship must be the spontaneous act of the individual, and the more inconvenience or self-denial such an act is accompanied with, the more does it partake of the nature of such spontaneous action. With regard to preaching, that it cannot of itself supply the want of the other requisites, is evident. George Herbert, indeed, speaks highly of it as an instrument of good, but only as subsidiary.
