Life and health can be sustained in the humblest dwellings, with the
plainest dress, and the simplest food; and, after taking from our means
what is necessary for life and health, the remainder is to be so
divided, that the larger portion shall be given to supply the moral
and intellectual wants of ourselves and others, together with the
physical requirements of the destitute, and the smaller share to procure
those additional gratifications of taste and appetite which are
desirable but not indispensable. Mankind, thus far, have never made
this apportionment of their means; although, just as fast as they have
risen from a savage state, mere physical wants have been made, to an
increasing extent, subordinate to higher objects.
Another very important consideration is that, in urging the duty of
charity and the prior claims of moral and religious objects, no rule
of duty should be maintained which it would not be right and wise for
_all_ to follow. And we are to test the wisdom of any general rule by
inquiring what would be the result if all mankind should practice
according to it. In view of this, we are enabled to judge of the
correctness of those who maintain that, to be consistent, men believing
in the perils of all those of our race who are not brought under the
influence of the Christian system should give up not merely the
elegancies but all the superfluities of life, and devote the whole of
their means not indispensable to life and health to the propagation
of Christianity.
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