Instead, then, of urging a rule of duty which is at once irrational
and impracticable, there is another course, which commends itself to
the understandings of all. For whatever may be the practice of
intelligent men, they universally concede the principle, that our
physical gratifications should always be made subordinate to social,
intellectual, and moral advantages. And all that is required for the
advancement of our whole race to the most perfect state of society is,
simply, that men should act in agreement with this principle. And if
only a very small portion of the most intelligent of our race should
act according to this rule, under the control of Christian benevolence,
the immense supplies furnished for the general good would be far beyond
what any would imagine who had never made any calculations on the
subject. In this nation alone, suppose the one million and more of
professed followers of Christ should give a larger portion of their
means for the social, intellectual, and moral wants of mankind, than
for the superfluities that minister to their own taste, convenience,
and appetite; it would be enough to furnish all the schools, colleges,
Bibles, ministers, and missionaries, that the whole world could demand;
or, at least, it would be far more than properly qualified agents to
administer it could employ.
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