CHRISTIAN GIVING | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 8, 1881

CHRISTIAN GIVING.

A CONGREGATION, which has about four hundred communicants, had taken up a collection, which the treasurer was about to count. The editor of the Christian Giver thought he would like to see just how the collection was made up and asked the privilege of counting and classifying it. The following table shows the result:—

No. of pieces.	Value of each.	Total.
145	1 cent	$1 45
2	2 cents	4
8	3 cents	24
25	5 cents	1 25
7	10 cents	70
3	25 cents	75
190		$4 43

This was about one cent to each person present and two cents average for each giver. More than half gave nothing. Apropos thereof, we add the following: At a large gospel meeting in Cooper Institute, recently, Mr. Sawyer announced that a collection would be taken to assist several poor and suffering families, and asked that each would aid according to his ability and the pressing need of the case. A general movement was made for purses and pocket books. In a front seat sat a man whose whole appearance bespoke comfortable circumstances. He got his purse open and as a half dollar pushed itself to the front he took it out and laid it in his hand. Next a quarter came out and was laid beside the half. Then a dime looked out and was passed on to the company of its superiors. At last the long-looked-for cent appeared. It was picked out and placed between the lips until the other coins were replaced in the purse and the purse in the pocket, then it was held in the fingers until the basket came and carried it off to relieve the suffering families. Perhaps that cent represents the value of the treasure laid up above by the one who bestowed it.—Christian at Work.