TRUE BENEFICENCE | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 19, 1881

TRUE BENEFICENCE.

MR. SENEY, of New York, has lately given to various benevolent and educational institutions sums amounting to considerably over a half million dollars. From an exchange we clip the following conversation held with Mr. Seney, and we hope the stewards of God's treasures will weigh and consider it carefully. Wills are uncertain things, and to leave wealth of money to heirs to quarrel over brings no honor to a man's memory. There is a genuine satisfaction in knowing that your gifts are applied just as you want to have them:—

"Mr. Seney was asked recently, 'Why is it that you give all this money in your life-time? Most of such gifts are made in the form of bequests.'

" 'The fact is,' Mr. Seney replied, 'that I have seen so many instances of men's apparent wishes, as expressed in their wills, becoming of no avail, that I wanted to make sure that the money would go exactly where I wanted it to go. By making these gifts in my lifetime I am sure that the precise object I desire is accomplished.'

" 'Most men who have been able to accumulate that amount of money are disposed to keep it to make more of it,' was suggested.

" 'I have observed that,' Mr. Seney said. 'I think that one motive I had was to prevent myself from getting a disposition to hoard money for the sake of hoarding, as men who accumulate money are apt to do. I do not see why it is not better to make these gifts in my lifetime, and to enjoy the pleasure of seeing them appropriated to their several objects. When a man gets to hoarding money it tends to make him closefisted and mean. I want to avoid that disposition, if I can.'"