The Oberlin Evangelist

LECTURE XII.

June 3, 1840

BLESSEDNESS OF BENEVOLENCE

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

The Bible does not record when our Lord Jesus Christ said these words. But, we have the authority of an inspired Apostle, that Jesus did say this. In considering this subject I will address the following three questions.

I. What constitutes true religion?

II. What are some of the elements that enter into the happiness of the true Christian?

III. What are some forms of delusion under which multitudes are laboring?

I. What constitutes true religion?

Benevolence or unselfish love constitutes true religion. This unselfish love must be supreme towards God, and equal towards the whole human race. This love is unselfish and impartial. In other words, we must love God for who He is, and we must choose and seek our neighbor’s happiness for its own sake, and not because of any selfish interest or motive. But let me delve deeper into what unselfish love, or that love that constitutes religion, implies.

1. True unselfish love implies a spirit of justice.

2. Unselfish love implies a spirit of mercy.

3. Unselfish love implies a spirit of truth.

4. Unselfish love implies a spirit of satisfaction and approval in goodness.

5. Unselfish love implies a spirit of opposition to sin, and sinners as sinners.

These are only some of the modifications of unselfish love. We develop these modifications by manifesting them in different circumstances.

6. Unselfish love implies a desire to promote the happiness of all beings. Unselfish love is good will, or a desire to promote the happiness of its object. It is love for every being that exists, and a desire to promote happiness for its own sake. It regards the happiness of every being capable of happiness, as a real substantial good all by itself, and most of all, it desires the happiness of the one who has the greatest capacity for happiness.

7. Unselfish love implies a desire to promote the happiness of our enemies as well as our friends. True unselfish love does not distinguish between enemies and friends, but regards the happiness of all as a real good. Happiness is its goal, and it does not matter whether we can promote this in an enemy or a friend.

8. Unselfish love not only implies a desire, but it chooses the happiness of all beings, as far as it is possible. It is very common for people to desire things that they do not choose, because their desires or emotions are often opposed to their will. You should understand that unselfish love is good willing and not merely good desiring. Our desires don’t influence our outward conduct any more than we choose to will according to our desire. Good willing always produces good actions, because our will always governs our external conduct. However, you can have lots of desire that never produces corresponding action.

9. The unselfish love that constitutes true religion is an attitude of our mind. This is different from those accidental choices that we sometimes make under the pressure of peculiar circumstances, which really don’t constitute our true character. Someone in great distress may so pressure a miser, and excite his emotions so much, that, for a moment, he opens his wallet to provide relief; and perhaps five minutes later he is calling himself a fool for having done so. No one would say that this was true unselfish love. There was no radical change in his character. The money was wrung from his selfish hand by the force of circumstances acting on his emotions. It was not in his heart to give, and the only reason that he gave that money was to relieve his own agony at the time.

Please understand that the unselfish love that constitutes true religion is an abiding disposition of the mind. A disposition is the controlling inclination or tendency of a person’s mind. We say that someone has a greedy disposition, or a worldly, jealous, or envious disposition. We call this a disposition because we observe that it is a permanent tendency of his mind. The greedy man manifests his greedy disposition in everything he does. We see that everything he says and does is to gain worldly possessions. We see the envious man comparing himself with others, and naturally and always displaying an ill temper towards those he considers as competitors or superiors. Now an unselfish person has an unselfish disposition. That is his character. The happiness of everything that exists is the great goal he pursues. He makes plans to do good, and carry out and gratify his leading disposition, just as naturally and certainly as a greedy man would. But while the greedy person makes plans to get and hoard up, the unselfish person makes plans to diffuse abroad.

All other people are aiming, under some form, to promote self-interest, to promote their own happiness by direct efforts. But the unselfish man does not seek his own happiness. He finds happiness trying to make others happy. He does not pursue his own happiness. Yet, the less he regards his happiness, the more certainly he will find it. Let me illustrate this. Suppose a miserable beggar, in desperate need, approaches two men. One man is selfish; the other is unselfish. Compassion moves both of them, and both give some money to help the beggar. It is easy to see, that the one who is happier in giving is the one who is more unselfish and has the least regard for his own happiness, because relieving the beggars desperate situation is his greatest gratification. If real piety and true unselfish love were the sole reasons that encouraged the unselfish man to give, relieving the beggar would produce unmingled satisfaction in him. However, the one who was less unselfish would feel less intent on relieving his needs, and less gratified and less happy by witnessing the relief.

Please remember, that unselfish Christian love is a controlling disposition. It develops just like any other disposition develops; by the daily walk of the person who possesses this love.

II. What are some of the elements that enter into the happiness of the true Christian?

1. Happiness consists in the exercise of unselfish love. God so created us, that exercising unselfish love is always very sweet and pleasing. Unselfish love has an excellent relish and sweetness that enters into the very substance of that person when he exercises that love. A conscious happiness, that seems woven into the very texture of unselfish love, diffuses throughout his mind. To the unselfish mind, this is like a perennial fountain, continuously pouring forth the sweet and refreshing waters of life.

2. Another element of Christian happiness consists in gratifying our unselfish disposition. I have already said, there is a sweet satisfaction exercising unselfish love. Still, exercising unselfish love is one thing, and the gratification that results from exercising unselfish love is another thing. Gratification is another ingredient that greatly increases our total happiness. To will to do good is sweet, but to really succeed in doing the good that we desire, is sweeter still.

3. Another element of the Christian’s happiness is the self-complacency that follows and accompanies whenever you exercise unselfish love. This is indispensable to complete happiness. People may experience a kind and degree of happiness when they indulge in those things that don’t give them peace and harmony. If they indulge in things that their consciences oppose, the inward mutiny and conflict that results, mingles the gall of bitterness into their cup of gratification. But, unselfish love always has the approval of our conscience. And our mind, from its very structure, automatically feels a self-complacent satisfaction in exercising unselfish affections.

4. Another element of this happiness is the life and harmonious action of all the powers of our soul when we exercise true unselfish love. God created us in such a way that that is the only way our soul can harmonize. God made us to unselfishly love. Unselfish love is the proper element of our soul, and we can no more properly enjoy life when we exercise selfish desires, than a fish can live out of water. But there is an excellent harmony, like a finely tuned instrument, in the movements of all the powers of our mind when we exercise true unselfish love. We become like a precision machine, made of fine materials, kept clean, and oiled to reduce friction as much as possible, that moves so still, so sweet, so safe that there is a loveliness in the harmony of its movements. That is how our soul harmonizes when we exercise unselfish love. Every power of our mind agrees in harmony. There is no jarring, no grating, no friction, no inward mutiny or resistance to grate like discord; but all is lovely; quiet, and assured forever.

5. Another element of the Christian’s happiness is the full assurance that he pleases God. God has made our mind in such a way, that when we become aware of exercising perfect unselfish love, we can no more doubt that we please God, than we can doubt our own existence. Perfect love naturally and necessarily casts out all fear. There is, in the very workings of unselfish love itself, the accompanying assurance that these affections, and this course of conduct, pleases God.

6. Another element in the Christian’s happiness is joy and rejoicing in the happiness and the glory of God. Remember, the happiness of God and others is the goal of the unselfish person. The unselfish person always rejoices in true happiness, wherever he sees it; and he feels even happier by how much more happiness he contemplates or beholds as existing. To him the happiness of God is by far the greatest good in the Universe; and he considers the glory of God, since it is connected with the happiness of God and His government, as the supreme good. The consideration, then, of God’s infinite and eternal happiness, of His infinite and eternal glory, is the source of His present, perpetual, boundless, and eternal consolation. The infinite and unchanging happiness of God is a glorious consideration for an unselfish mind to dwell on; an infinite, fathomless, shore less ocean of perfect, infinite blessedness. To an unselfish mind, this is an unfailing source of eternal joy.

7. Another element of the Christian’s happiness is the happiness and good things of all other beings. A truly unselfish mind participates in the happiness, and really enjoys the happiness of everyone around him, as if those things were his own. And nothing can prevent an unselfishly loving mind from tasting the cup of every man’s happiness and sharing, with every person, the happiness of those good things that God bestows on him. And he does all this without diminishing the bliss of the one with whom he shares his happiness. He is completely satisfied. He rejoices to see things bestowed on others that are withheld from him. If, in time of great drought, for example, a cloud arises that promises to water his farm, his garden, or his neighborhood; if a change of wind carries the blessing to another town, where it is needed just as much, he is equally pleased, and enjoys the refreshing of his neighbors lands as if it were his own.

8. Another element of the Christian’s happiness consists in his direct personal efforts to promote the good of others. His very toils and labors have a savory sweet taste in them, and carry with them and in them their own reward. Why, an unselfish person has a disposition to do good to others. Now in doing good that person gratifies his natural tendencies. He demonstrates his governing disposition; so that, since he is not seeking his happiness as his goal in life, he is finding an exquisite enjoyment in his unselfish efforts to do good.

9. The Christian’s happiness consists in presently and eternally indulging in a ruling tendency or disposition to do good. A Christian has nothing else to do any more than God has. And from the very moment of his conversion, he has nothing to do to throughout all eternity but to pursue, as zealously as he pleases, the ruling disposition of his soul. In addition, God arranges his circumstances, so that he is continually surrounded with objects on which he can gratify his unselfish love. He has an ample field to exercise and pour out of all the unselfish love of his soul, in efforts to do good; without ever, for one hour, being called away from that which constitutes his chief delight, from pursuing and indulging without restraint, the grand, peculiar, absorbing disposition of his soul.

III. What are some forms of delusion under which multitudes are laboring today?

1. Many seem to mistake light for religion. They receive some new views of religious truth that excites their mind and stirs their souls, and they bustle about, under the impression that this excitement is religion. However, if they would pay attention, they would notice that their heart is still selfish, and not unselfish, that their ruling disposition is not changed, that while they are excited by their new views of religious truth, they are stirred by their emotions, and not their will. Their business habits and transactions will soon expose the fact that selfishness is still, in some form, the ruling disposition of their mind. They are laboring under a radical error. They are laboring under a fatal delusion.

2. Many deceive themselves, by exercising a legal religious zeal. Paul said about his fellow citizens, “they had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”. (Romans 10:2) I have long been convinced that much of the zeal manifested by professing Christians, and many of the professing converts, is like this. They sleep on, until they are awakened by the thunders of Sinai. Then they bustle about, urged by a sense of duty and conscience, and a multitude of legal considerations, although they are aware that the deep love for God and for souls does not influence them. The evidences of their legal spirit are:

(1.) They have a clear lack of a deeply heart-broken and humble spirit.

(2.) They have a clear lack of a deep satisfaction in the work itself.

(3.) They lack that abiding satisfaction that comes from exercising and gratifying feelings of unselfish love.

Many very zealous people today are anything but truly happy with the affections that are working within them. They always carry a sense of condemnation. They feel as if they need to confess their holiest exercises as sins. There is always a grating and friction within, and they feel that something is wrong. They have a sense of defilement, a lack of integrity and a lack of a perfectly upright or honest intention. They are aware that selfishness lurks in everything they say or do. Now people in this state of mind don’t know what a clean heart is. They don’t understand the immense and radical difference between their feelings and the exercises of a purely unselfish mind. They don’t understand how a person can live without condemnation. And because their experience is what it is, they look with great suspicion on anyone who says that he lives without a sense of condemnation. They judge that it is because he is not familiar with his own heart, and he is ignorant of the purity of God’s law. Now I can understand very well, from my own experience, what this state of mind is like. I had a legal zeal that would compass land and sea to win a convert, and yet carry with it, as if woven into its very texture, a sense of condemnation. The fact is that God has so constructed us that once we are enlightened, we won’t be satisfied with a legal zeal. Nothing but the exercise of unmixed unselfish love can make us truly happy. Nothing but a conscious exercise of the right affections can free us from the sting of self-condemnation. Here we have a tremendous delusion. People who are under self-condemnation will likely think that this is the only state that Christians can attain in this life; and then they judge, censure, and condemn anyone who admittedly knows he has a clean heart.

3. Many mistake emotion for disposition. They do not distinguish between the emotions that constitute their excitement from that controlling disposition, or state of their will, that constitutes true unselfish love.

4. Others even mistake mere agreement for disposition. They are enlightened, and hold correct opinions. They know that religion does not consist in emotion. They are satisfied without emotion. But they don’t consider that, although emotion may sometimes exist independent of their will, yet as a matter of fact and philosophy, their emotions are easily stirred when it agrees with their disposition, and their emotions are most naturally and easily stirred when they focus on that subject that most fully chimes with the leading disposition of their minds. Therefore, if an individual thinks that he has an unselfishly loving disposition, he is deceived if his emotions are not easily enkindled and fanned into a flame when others present objects of unselfish love to him. He has a religion of opinion, but true unselfish love is not his controlling disposition.

5. There are many situations where individuals are deceived because they believe that benevolence is only one form of selfishness triumphing over another. For example:

(1.) The love of reputation may be someone’s supreme ruling tendency; and it triumphs over lust, intemperance, and many other subordinate tendencies. Therefore, someone may give liberally; they may be pure in their conversation and in their behavior. They may have temperate habits; and they may think that all of this is true benevolence, or religion, when it really is only the love of reputation.

(2.) Again, a literary ambition may triumph over sloth or appetite, and many other evil, but subordinate, tendencies.

(3.) A spirit of greed may be the ruling tendency, and it may triumph over lust, intemperance, and many forms of sin.

(4.) Selfish fears and hopes may restrain inward wickedness, and we may think that all these restraints result from pure unselfish love. But, it is only one form of selfishness, controlling and subordinating other forms of selfishness.

6. The only remaining form of delusion, that I will mention, is where the individual’s happiness consists, not in the exercise of his unselfish love, but in the consideration of his own safety. We sometimes see people settle down into a false security, and their mind becomes quiet and peaceful, whenever they base their happiness and peace on the belief that they are spiritually safe. Now this is as far as possible from a truly religious state of mind. True religious happiness comes from the true saint. Yes, thinking about the grace of Christ, the joys of Heaven, and an eternity of blessedness at God’s right hand, are an important contribution to a Christian’s total happiness; but the basis and foundation of everything belongs to the exercise and gratification of unselfish affections themselves.

REMARKS.

1. The natural heart does not understand the true nature of religion. I have often wondered what skeptics think, and how can they doubt that they need a change of heart. But, it is easy to see why they doubt when you consider how selfish their hearts are. Their state of mind is the exact opposite of God’s state of mind. Unselfish love is the opposite of selfishness. Selfishness seeks happiness in getting; unselfish love finds happiness in giving. Selfishness is always trying to promote its own happiness; unselfishness is always trying to promote the happiness of others.

2. Here we can see the need for examples, to illustrate the true nature of religion. A leading goal of Christ in taking to Himself human nature was to associate with people, and possess their minds with the true idea of God’s character. Therefore, Christ lived and associated with them, so they could observe what God would be like as a Neighbor, or a Brother, or a Son, or even a Friend; so they could see what spirit and behavior He had, and He would manifest under the same circumstances that they were in. As soon as a few caught the rare idea that God was love, He sent them forth, “as sheep among wolves”, to lay down their lives for a rebellious world, as He had done. (See Matthew 10) They caught His spirit, imitated His example, and waves of salvation rolled wherever they went; and it appeared as if the world would fall prostrate at the feet of Christ in a matter of years. But alas! The world, with her selfish and polluting embrace, soon seduced the Church into selfishness and apostasy from God. And the world can never be converted, unless examples and illustrations of what true religion really is like, are held up in the lives of professing Christians before the eyes of the whole human race.

3. You can see from this subject, what is real apostasy from God. The moment you set up your own selfish interest as your goal, go anywhere, engage in any business, marry, or take any other step, inconsistent with the exercise and pursuit of the great goals of God, you are in a state of apostasy from God. You have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and you are “hewing out broken cisterns that can hold no water”. (Jeremiah 2:13)

4. You can see from this subject, what constitutes the happiness of God. Unselfish love is His whole character. His unselfish love is infinite. Therefore, His happiness is infinite and unchangeable.

5. You can see, that Christians may and should be as happy, in proportion to their capacity, as God is.

6. You can see why so many professing Christians are unhappy. It is because they are selfish. It is naturally impossible that a selfish person should be happy. Selfishness lets loose an infernal brood of scorpions and vipers, to sting the soul’s happiness to death.

7. You can also see why people are so miserable. People are seeking after happiness but they cannot find it, because they are seeking for happiness in things that don’t contain any happiness. If a person pursues his own happiness as his goal in life, he might as well expect to outrun his own shadow. God created us in such a way that we can’t possibly find happiness through selfishness. To unselfishly love is the only possible way to be happy. To seek not your own, but another’s good, is forever and unalterably indispensable to the happiness of a moral being.

8. The human constitution provides striking evidence of God’s unselfish love! God has so created us, that happiness is the certain and necessary result of unselfish love. No other possible working of our constitution can result in happiness. What striking and unanswerable testimony this is to the unselfishness of the Author of our nature!

9. Those who do not enjoy the good things of others, those who don’t find reasons to rejoice, or feel a spirit of gratitude when others are blessed, are not Christians. True unselfish love is the love or desire of our neighbor’s happiness. It is willing or choosing his happiness. Now whenever other people receive blessings, we are pleased. We choose to rejoice in the blessings of others. It agrees with and satisfies the ruling tendency of our minds. It is just as certain as our existence, that if we are unselfish, we will rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. We will participate in the joys and sorrows of those around us, and rejoice in and be thankful for all the good bestowed on the world.

10. From this subject, it is easy to see what kind of spirit some people possess, when they complain about others who receive good things that they don’t have. Did you ever witness a family of selfish children, and see how they complain and murmur whenever one child gets something that the others don‘t have? “Now, Mom, you gave my brother that thing and you never gave me one. Let me have the best things. Let me have the largest piece, and the most and best of everything”. This is a supremely selfish spirit; but this is the spirit of many professing Christians. Instead of rejoicing to see their brothers and sisters blessed with material or spiritual things, they are ready to complain and get upset, because God did not bestow these things on them. This reveals the supreme selfishness of their hearts, and provides the clearest evidence that they are not Christians.

11. Those who have no heart to thank God for bestowing blessings on their enemies are not Christians. There is no religion in selfish gratitude. A supremely selfish person might be thankful for blessings bestowed on him, or on his friends who he considers close to him. Nevertheless, a truly unselfish person will rejoice in blessings bestowed on enemies as well as friends.

12. It is easy to see, that the covetous and the ambitious are not and cannot be Christians.

13. A spirit of worldly competition is completely inconsistent with the spirit of unselfish love.

14. We see what kind of person is never willing to do an act of kindness for a neighbor without being paid for it. Some people never seem to have the spirit of doing good, or of doing favors for anybody but themselves. Pay seems to be the only motive for doing almost anything and everything for those around them. They never seem to enjoy the luxury of making those around them happy for its own sake. And, if they do anything for a neighbor, it is not for the sake of doing good, but for the sake of receiving a reward. Now everyone can see, that if a minister is motivated by these same motives in visiting the sick, and in preaching the gospel, everyone would say there was no virtue in it. Ministers will go and visit the sick as often as the physician does, and make as much effort to restore the health of the soul as the physician does for the health of the body; and in all this they are expected to be motivated by pure unselfish love. They never think of asking for any pay, whether they have a salary or not. What minister has not traveled hundreds of miles, and spent hours, days, weeks, and months, in labors of love, without ever expecting or desiring to receive any earthly compensation for it. He finds, in the very exercise of his duty, an excellent comfort and an exquisite relish, that, to his unselfish mind, is worth more than gold. However, what we expect ministers to do, should be true of everybody. Everyone should, as far as possible, “do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return”. (Luke 6:35) Unselfish love should motivate them, knowing that “with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you”. (Matthew 7:2)

15. Now, what do you think of people who refuse to exercise any self-denial so they can do good to others? Look at that man over there. He will not give up, what he calls, the temperate use of alcohol for the sake of doing good. He says that it is all right for him to use it moderately; that others have no right to turn his use of alcohol into an obstacle to them. As for practicing a little self-denial so he can set an example, he refuses to do it. Look at that woman, who says she loves God more than anything else, and she says she loves her neighbor as herself. She prays for the heathen, and thinks that she is truly religious. Yet, she will not deny herself the use of tea and coffee, to save the heathen world from hell. The wail of billions of human beings is coming on every wind of heaven, crying out, “send us tracts, send us Bibles, send us missionaries, send us the means of eternal life; for we are dying in our sins”. “But ah”, says these professing Christians, “We are in hard times. Money is scarce. We are in debt. We must turn our ears away from hearing these wailings of woe.”

Now brother, now sister, let me sit down at your table. What do you have here? How much does this tea and coffee cost you every year? How much do these worse than useless articles of luxury hurt your ability to send the gospel to the perishing? My sister, how many Bibles, and tracts have you used up this way? How many Bibles, at five shillings each, could you send to the heathen every year, if you were willing to exercise a little self-denial, and I am not talking about that self-denial which your own health and highest good demands? Brother, perhaps you use tobacco. How long have you used it? How many Bibles could you buy with the money that you spend on tobacco in one year? And how many heathen might have Bibles in their hands today, who will now go down to hell, without ever hearing about the Savior; who might have had a Bible and eternal life, if you had one particle of unselfish love in your heart? Will you figure it out? Will you ask how many Bibles and tracts you could have purchased with the money you have squandered? And, will you definitely settle the question whether you are influenced by the love of God and of souls? Will you decide whether you eat and drink these things for the glory of God, or for the gratification of your own lusts? Surely, the question is just as important, as whether unselfishness or selfishness constitutes your character.

16. Now, we know what to think about those people whose religious duties are not sources of their highest enjoyment. The religion of many people seems to make them miserable, and whatever they do for the cause of Christ, they seem to do it painfully and grudgingly. The reason is, they are not motivated by love. If love were the ruling disposition of their hearts, their religion would be a source of the sweetest enjoyment to them.

17. We now know what to think about people who prefer getting, to giving for the cause of Christ. The truly unselfish, value property only as the means of advancing the great goal on which their heart is set. The more their property relates to and bears on the Kingdom of Christ the more they appreciate it. Life, health, time, property, talents, all these things, are brought into the service of God, and regarded only as the means of promoting His glory and the good of souls. A truly unselfish person places no value on money for its own sake. He no more desires to hoard money to gratify and please him, than he would hoard chips and stones. In short, unselfish love places no earthly value on money, or anything else, only as it can be used as an instrument to do good. Therefore, when you see a man that loves to make great bargains, who is engaged in getting all he can, and gives to the poor and to the cause of Christ grudgingly and sparingly, it is a simple matter of fact that he is a selfish, worldly man, and not a Christian at all. Can you see the delusion of that professing Christian, who will be more zealous in seasons of speculation, and enter with more enthusiasm into a moneymaking enterprise, than into a money-giving enterprise for the cause of Christ?

18. You can see the delusion of that professing Christian, who more rapidly loses the spirit of revival than the spirit of speculation. In other words, when an opportunity to make money comes along, his religious zeal cools down. The opening of the navigation routes, the coming in of the business season, or any new opportunity to make money that is advertised, quickly drives him away from God. There are many painful cases, where professing Christians seem to bustle about and become active in religion, at times of the year when they have little else to do, or when they really aren’t able to make much money. However, they are quick to backslide whenever an opportunity occurs to favor their own interests. But this example of delusion is almost too simple to comment on.

19. In the light of this subject, you can see that there is no true spirituality without real unselfish love of heart and life. Many people seem to be engaged in the most absurd attempt to keep up spirituality and a spirit of prayer and fellowship with God, while they live and conduct their business on principles of selfishness. Now nothing can be a greater insult to God, than to pray for His Spirit, to attempt to fellowship with Him, or even pretend to be His friend, while selfishness is the rule of your life.

20. If “it is more blessed to give than to receive”, what infinitely great satisfaction must God take in supporting so great a family. God is pouring out, from His unlimited fullness, an ocean of blessings continually. And what an infinite gratification it must be to His unselfish mind to plan and execute all the good that He is planning, and executing, and will plan and execute throughout all eternity.

21. We see from this subject, how to understand that declaration concerning Christ, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”. (Hebrews 12:2) Although many things connected with the Atonement were painful, yet, that great work was a source of infinite satisfaction to the Father and the Son. And God is virtuous in the Atonement, just in proportion as He really enjoyed doing it Himself. “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor 9:7) and we always consider our self-denial most virtuous when we exercise it most willingly. And where we exercise the greatest self-denial, not only with great willingness, but also with great joyfulness for the sake of doing good for others, we pronounce the highest degree of virtue. We see that the Father is well pleased with the conduct of Christ in the Atonement. He was greatly satisfied with the virtue of His Son, and to see His Son consider the work joy. Christ freely and joyfully denied Himself to save His enemies from death.

22. If God finds it “more blessed to give than to receive”, why shouldn’t we abound with every blessing that we need? Why should we, by our narrow-mindedness and unbelief, make it impossible for God to gratify His unselfish heart in giving us great things?

23. You now can see the secret of all unbelief in prayer. It is our own selfishness. I have already said that a selfish person finds it difficult to see the true character of God. A selfish person knows that he gives grudgingly; and he very naturally sees God, as being just like him. He finds it very difficult to get a hold of the rare and great idea, that God is his exact opposite in this respect. That giving is God’s happiness. That God has infinitely more satisfaction in giving good things, than we have in receiving them. That He has greater pleasure in giving things, than the greediest person on earth has in getting. It is no wonder that selfish minds are slow to understand and believe this.

24. There is no religion but that which consists in a sympathy with God, in being unselfish as He is unselfish; in having a unselfishly loving disposition - a settled, fixed, abiding disposition to love one another as Christ has loved us. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (I John 4:7-8,16)