Doubling the Fund by F. D. Starr

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

Doubling the Fund

By F. D. Starr

F. D. STARR

Now that the raising of the $150,000 fund is so nearly finished (after a two-years’ effort) that we can take a look over the summit of the height to see what greater heights there may be beyond, it may not be out of place for us also to take a view backward from our place of eminence to discover what lofty structures of like character lie behind us.

In the Sabbath-school lessons for the past quarter, was found a very practical lesson from the history of the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple, as recorded in Nehemiah 7. We learn from the last few verses of that chapter that the governor, the rulers, and the people together gave in gold and silver a sum of money which, reduced to our own currency, according to the value of the weights there given, amounts to about three hundred thousand dollars, a sum exactly double that which we have just been raising. This was given freely by a poor people, scarcely fifty thousand strong, not much over half of our numerical strength. Surely we do not wish to be outdone by our brethren in tribulation, the children of the captivity; and so if we are ever invited to see and do greater things in this line than we have yet done, let us heartily respond. The raising of funds for carrying on the work of God has always been an essential part of the gospel.

Forest, Idaho.