If we view this microcosm, the human body, we shall find that the heart does not receive the blood to store it up; but while it pumps it in at one valve, it sends it forth at another. The blood is always circulating everywhere, and is stagnant nowhere. The same is true of all the fluids in a healthy body; they are in a constant state of expenditure. If one cell stores for a few moments its peculiar secretion, it only retains it till it is perfectly fitted for its appointed use in the body; for if any cell in the body should begin to store up its secretion, its store would soon become the cause of inveterate disease. Nay, the organ would soon lose the power to secrete at all, if it did not give forth its products.
The whole of the human system lives by giving. The eye can not say to the foot: "I have no need of thee, and will not guide thee." For if it does not perform its watchful office, the whole man will be in the ditch, and the eye will be covered with mire. If the members refuse to contribute to the general stock, the whole body will become poverty-stricken, and be given up to the bankruptcy of death. Let us learn, then, from the analogy of nature, the great lesson that, to get, we must give; that, to accumulate, we must scatter; that, to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that, to get good and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good and seek the spiritual good of others. — SPURGEON.
Showing posts with label giving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giving. Show all posts
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Religious "Slot-Machine"
1899
In the Adirondack Mountains, at a place of popular resort, there is a chapel where the contributions are often liberal in the summer season, but where the contributions still chiefly consist, as far as bulk goes, of small coins. The rector of this church, who is a man of dignified and ministerial appearance, is accustomed to go with the Sunday offering to one of the hotels, and receive a check for the amount of it.
One Monday morning he was counting the money at the desk of the hotel cashier, and was at that moment scraping together the nickels and coppers, which were in abundant supply. Just then a bell-boy came up who seemed to have something on his mind.
"What is it, my little man?" asked the rector, in his most honeyed tone.
"Beg pardon, sir," said the boy, "but are you the man what runs the slot-machine down-stairs?"
The boy could never understand why all the people, including the rector, laughed at him. The laugh was really on the Sunday contributors to the church funds. Many clergymen, we have no doubt, will sympathize with this supposed proprietor of the slot-machine. — Youth's Companion.
In the Adirondack Mountains, at a place of popular resort, there is a chapel where the contributions are often liberal in the summer season, but where the contributions still chiefly consist, as far as bulk goes, of small coins. The rector of this church, who is a man of dignified and ministerial appearance, is accustomed to go with the Sunday offering to one of the hotels, and receive a check for the amount of it.
One Monday morning he was counting the money at the desk of the hotel cashier, and was at that moment scraping together the nickels and coppers, which were in abundant supply. Just then a bell-boy came up who seemed to have something on his mind.
"What is it, my little man?" asked the rector, in his most honeyed tone.
"Beg pardon, sir," said the boy, "but are you the man what runs the slot-machine down-stairs?"
The boy could never understand why all the people, including the rector, laughed at him. The laugh was really on the Sunday contributors to the church funds. Many clergymen, we have no doubt, will sympathize with this supposed proprietor of the slot-machine. — Youth's Companion.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Watch!
1874
There is no period in a Christian's life without peril of sin. A wily foe attends his steps, watching with sleepless vigilance for opportunities which may be made occasions for his fall. The only security for the child of God, therefore, throughout his entire pilgrimage, is in unrelaxing watchfulness. As the citadel is only secure against surprise and capture, when faithful sentinels, with pauseless step, pursue their steady tread along its walls and before its gates, so, the soul, the temple of the Holy Ghost, is alone impregnable against the Prince of Darkness when all its powers, clad in Gospel mail, guard every avenue, with incessant vigilance, against the entrance of evil.
But there are seasons of peculiar jeopardy, when unusual perils beset the Christian, and so insidiously, as to threaten his safety with more than ordinary promise of success. We are passing through such a season now, and there is need of the note of warning which we sound from the head of this article. We have seen and heard enough already to satisfy us that without great caution, the Adversary will gather rich spoils from the present "panic." The scarcity of money will be a strong temptation to many to disregard the sacred obligations by which they are bound to support the cause of God in its various departments. The pressure is so great, the future so threatening, the necessity for retrenchment so imperious, and "withholding more than is meet" so much more consonant with natural inclination, than the self-denial which enhances the gifts we lay upon God's altar, that, without weariness, many good people will be seduced into the sin of "robbing God" who would shrink from wilfully bringing upon their souls so grievous a crime. This is the supreme peril of the times; let Christian people guard against it. Be sure that you are personally cramped by the prevalent stringency, before you make it a plea for withholding your dues from the Church or the claims of charity.
If really straightened, see to it that personal gratification is postponed to the claims of Him whose steward you are. It is right to be provident, but it is safe to give when the cause of God presents its claims, so long as there is anything with which to respond to its demands. The widow of Sarepta passed a "crisis" incomparably more trying than any we experience or are ever likely to encounter; and passed it safely, by dividing her scanty store with the prophet of the Lord. There is infinitely greater danger of damaging your soul by treacherous dealing with duty, than there is of impoverishing yourself by excessive contributions to the Lord's treasury. "Take heed then, and beware of covetuousness," which has a powerful ally in the present monetary stress. There is blessing or disaster for us in these trying times, according as we use them. Let us watch against the evils they threaten, and enrich our experience with all the spiritual benefits they are capable of yielding.
There is no period in a Christian's life without peril of sin. A wily foe attends his steps, watching with sleepless vigilance for opportunities which may be made occasions for his fall. The only security for the child of God, therefore, throughout his entire pilgrimage, is in unrelaxing watchfulness. As the citadel is only secure against surprise and capture, when faithful sentinels, with pauseless step, pursue their steady tread along its walls and before its gates, so, the soul, the temple of the Holy Ghost, is alone impregnable against the Prince of Darkness when all its powers, clad in Gospel mail, guard every avenue, with incessant vigilance, against the entrance of evil.
But there are seasons of peculiar jeopardy, when unusual perils beset the Christian, and so insidiously, as to threaten his safety with more than ordinary promise of success. We are passing through such a season now, and there is need of the note of warning which we sound from the head of this article. We have seen and heard enough already to satisfy us that without great caution, the Adversary will gather rich spoils from the present "panic." The scarcity of money will be a strong temptation to many to disregard the sacred obligations by which they are bound to support the cause of God in its various departments. The pressure is so great, the future so threatening, the necessity for retrenchment so imperious, and "withholding more than is meet" so much more consonant with natural inclination, than the self-denial which enhances the gifts we lay upon God's altar, that, without weariness, many good people will be seduced into the sin of "robbing God" who would shrink from wilfully bringing upon their souls so grievous a crime. This is the supreme peril of the times; let Christian people guard against it. Be sure that you are personally cramped by the prevalent stringency, before you make it a plea for withholding your dues from the Church or the claims of charity.
If really straightened, see to it that personal gratification is postponed to the claims of Him whose steward you are. It is right to be provident, but it is safe to give when the cause of God presents its claims, so long as there is anything with which to respond to its demands. The widow of Sarepta passed a "crisis" incomparably more trying than any we experience or are ever likely to encounter; and passed it safely, by dividing her scanty store with the prophet of the Lord. There is infinitely greater danger of damaging your soul by treacherous dealing with duty, than there is of impoverishing yourself by excessive contributions to the Lord's treasury. "Take heed then, and beware of covetuousness," which has a powerful ally in the present monetary stress. There is blessing or disaster for us in these trying times, according as we use them. Let us watch against the evils they threaten, and enrich our experience with all the spiritual benefits they are capable of yielding.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Living the Life of Self-Surrender
1902
There will come to every manly man times in his life when he will see that there is something which is legitimately his, something which he has a right to, something which nobody can blame him if he takes and enjoys to the fullest, and yet something by whose voluntary and uncompelled surrender he can help his fellow man and aid the work of Christ and make the world better.
Then will come that man's trial. If he fails and cannot make the sacrifice, nobody will blame him; he will simply sink into the great multitude of honorable, respectable, self-indulgent people who take the comfortable things which everybody says they are entitled to, and live their easy life without a question.
But if he is of better stuff, and makes the renunciation of comfort for a higher work, then he goes up and stands humbly, but really, with Jesus Christ. He enters into the other range, that other sort of life where Jesus Christ lived. He is perfectly satisfied with that higher life. He does not envy, he does not grudge, the self-indulgent lives which he has left behind. He does not count up what he has lost; he does not ask whether he is happier or less happy than he would have been if he had kept what everybody said he had a right to keep.
It is not a question of happiness with him at all, but gradually, without his seeking it, he finds that the soul of the happiness which he has left behind him is in him still. Like fountains of sweet water in the sea it rises up and keeps him a living soul. He has left the world's pleasures and its privileges only to draw nearer to its necessities, which are its real life. So what he gave he keeps a thousand fold in this present time, and eternity is still before him, in the end everlasting life. — Phillips Brooks.
There will come to every manly man times in his life when he will see that there is something which is legitimately his, something which he has a right to, something which nobody can blame him if he takes and enjoys to the fullest, and yet something by whose voluntary and uncompelled surrender he can help his fellow man and aid the work of Christ and make the world better.
Then will come that man's trial. If he fails and cannot make the sacrifice, nobody will blame him; he will simply sink into the great multitude of honorable, respectable, self-indulgent people who take the comfortable things which everybody says they are entitled to, and live their easy life without a question.
But if he is of better stuff, and makes the renunciation of comfort for a higher work, then he goes up and stands humbly, but really, with Jesus Christ. He enters into the other range, that other sort of life where Jesus Christ lived. He is perfectly satisfied with that higher life. He does not envy, he does not grudge, the self-indulgent lives which he has left behind. He does not count up what he has lost; he does not ask whether he is happier or less happy than he would have been if he had kept what everybody said he had a right to keep.
It is not a question of happiness with him at all, but gradually, without his seeking it, he finds that the soul of the happiness which he has left behind him is in him still. Like fountains of sweet water in the sea it rises up and keeps him a living soul. He has left the world's pleasures and its privileges only to draw nearer to its necessities, which are its real life. So what he gave he keeps a thousand fold in this present time, and eternity is still before him, in the end everlasting life. — Phillips Brooks.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Pastor Has Pretty Girls for Ushers: Attendance, Giving Up
1897
Girls Fill The Church
Pretty Ushers Prove a Paying Move at Trenton, N.J.
Rev. Maurice Penfield Fikes, of the First Baptist church, Trenton, N. J., has astonished religious circles by introducing in his church a novel feature in the form of girl ushers, whose business it is to take up the collections as well as to show church attendants to seats.
Mr. Fikes advertised the fact that there would be girl ushers in the church, and it was incidentally announced that in selecting care would be taken to pick out half a dozen, of the prettiest maidens in the congregation. The announcement was sufficient to draw to the church recently such an attendance of young men as was never there before.
Every seat in the church was filled long before services were begun, and it was necessary to set chairs in the aisles to accommodate the crowd. As ushers the girls were a grand success, but their best service was given when the time came to take up the collection. Pastor Fikes, prior to the time for starting the girls out with the contribution boxes, announced that the Lord loves a cheerful giver and said that he who gave to a church invested his money in an institution that was better than a savings bank. "Give freely and cheerfully," said he, "and the Lord, as well as these good girls, will appreciate it." The contribution was the largest ever taken in the church.
—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, IA, Dec. 4, 1897, p. 7.
Girls Fill The Church
Pretty Ushers Prove a Paying Move at Trenton, N.J.
Rev. Maurice Penfield Fikes, of the First Baptist church, Trenton, N. J., has astonished religious circles by introducing in his church a novel feature in the form of girl ushers, whose business it is to take up the collections as well as to show church attendants to seats.
Mr. Fikes advertised the fact that there would be girl ushers in the church, and it was incidentally announced that in selecting care would be taken to pick out half a dozen, of the prettiest maidens in the congregation. The announcement was sufficient to draw to the church recently such an attendance of young men as was never there before.
Every seat in the church was filled long before services were begun, and it was necessary to set chairs in the aisles to accommodate the crowd. As ushers the girls were a grand success, but their best service was given when the time came to take up the collection. Pastor Fikes, prior to the time for starting the girls out with the contribution boxes, announced that the Lord loves a cheerful giver and said that he who gave to a church invested his money in an institution that was better than a savings bank. "Give freely and cheerfully," said he, "and the Lord, as well as these good girls, will appreciate it." The contribution was the largest ever taken in the church.
—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, IA, Dec. 4, 1897, p. 7.
Chicago Evangelist Assails Church Socials
1897
Causes a Commotion at Kewanee
Not for years have religious circles at Kewanee, Ill., been so agitated as they were the other day because of an address delivered in the M. E. church by Evangelist Lindfield, of Chicago.
Church socials and entertainments have been given by the religious organizations of the city, so many, in fact, that the evangelistic services held by Mr. Lindfield have not been well attended. In the pulpit he took clippings from the local newspapers giving the reports of such social's and read them aloud to the congregation, after which he made most scathing remarks about the Christianity which tolerated them. In the newspaper-reports there were the names of many prominent ladies of the various churches, and their sincerity was questioned by the speaker, with the result that the address has aroused much feeling and antagonism.
"When a real Christian wishes to give 25 cents to the cause of the Lord," said Mr. Lindfield, "he has no right to demand that an oyster supper be thrown in. The church social and kindred entertainments are only means of extorting money from unwilling people, and I put them in a class with the saloon and the gambling den. They are a form of robbery, and the church which accepts money from such sources is full of the works of the devil."
Especially bitter was the speaker against a Klondike social to be given the coming week at one of the large churches, and he openly ridiculed the promoters, who are among the most prominent people of the city.
—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, IA, Dec. 4, 1897, p. 3.
Causes a Commotion at Kewanee
Not for years have religious circles at Kewanee, Ill., been so agitated as they were the other day because of an address delivered in the M. E. church by Evangelist Lindfield, of Chicago.
Church socials and entertainments have been given by the religious organizations of the city, so many, in fact, that the evangelistic services held by Mr. Lindfield have not been well attended. In the pulpit he took clippings from the local newspapers giving the reports of such social's and read them aloud to the congregation, after which he made most scathing remarks about the Christianity which tolerated them. In the newspaper-reports there were the names of many prominent ladies of the various churches, and their sincerity was questioned by the speaker, with the result that the address has aroused much feeling and antagonism.
"When a real Christian wishes to give 25 cents to the cause of the Lord," said Mr. Lindfield, "he has no right to demand that an oyster supper be thrown in. The church social and kindred entertainments are only means of extorting money from unwilling people, and I put them in a class with the saloon and the gambling den. They are a form of robbery, and the church which accepts money from such sources is full of the works of the devil."
Especially bitter was the speaker against a Klondike social to be given the coming week at one of the large churches, and he openly ridiculed the promoters, who are among the most prominent people of the city.
—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, IA, Dec. 4, 1897, p. 3.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
