THE ECONOMY OF GIVING by L. A. Reed

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 30, 1900

THE ECONOMY OF GIVING.

By L. A. Reed

L. A. REED.

AND now a few closing words upon this subject of economy. We have found that economy is the right use of the gifts of God; that is to say, it is the right use, the best use, of all the gifts of God. It is not economy to make a good use of a part, and let the rest go to waste; for by just so much as there is waste, by just so much do we fail of being economical. And so, if we waste the largest and best gifts of God, if we waste those of most worth, though we may save all the rest, we have been far from being economical.

Suppose a man owns a mine filled with gold of priceless worth, and suppose that instead of marketing this wealth, he markets the building stone that also exists in the mine, and which brings him not a fraction of what the gold would bring; would you call him wise? would you call him economical?

If a house were burning, and some of the property within were to be saved, which would be the wise way—to save that which is of little value, or that which is of almost inestimable value? I am writing to reasonable people, and I know your answer.

And what application shall I make of it?—Simply this: You have not been economical if you have been laying up treasure for yourself, and are not rich toward God; for you have neglected the most of what you could have done, and you have lost not most, but everything, and have died like a beggar, or worse than a beggar, when you might have died as rich as God.

“Heirs of God,” says the Word; is it a mockery? Some of us make it so. We save a few dollars or a little property, which never in the widest and best sense was ours,—it is not a part of us; only that which enters into our characters, and becomes a part of us, is truly ours,—and lose everything that God meant us to have, not only here, but for all the running cycles of eons of ages.

The world has its books devoted to political economy and to domestic economy. They are taught in schools, and academies, and colleges, and universities. And the idea of it all, as usually gathered, is that economy is a word for saving and hoarding and making the largest pile of wealth possible. “The practical end contemplated in political economy is the production of wealth, in the largest measure and of the highest value, and its application to the fullest and most general satisfaction of men's desires.”—Wayland, “Elements of Political Economy.” Follow out that definition at your leisure, and see how much of heathenism there is in it. Think of what it means to apply the largest measure and the highest value of wealth to the fullest and most general satisfaction of men's desires. Which way do men's full and most general desires run?—You know. And so you know which way this wealth must be applied in order that it may satisfy these most general desires to the full, and thus give men the fullest and most general satisfaction.

In nature God gives untold examples of economy. And the moth, and the rust that corrupt the treasures of earth are but one constant protest against hoarding. Earning belongs to economy, but hoarding does not. Saving belongs to economy, but savings do not. Accumulating belongs to economy, but accumulations do not. If you wish to know what is economy, look to nature; here is a husbanding of resources, but there is no stagnation anywhere,—constant action, constant change, always receiving, always giving.

He is no sort of economist who seeks only to give, and neglects to receive. Economy is a giving that we may receive, and a receiving that we may give. It is not all giving, or soon we would have nothing to give. It is not all receiving; for this is an attempt to monopolize the goodness, the gifts, of God. It is both receiving and giving rightly measured over against one another. “Freely ye have received, freely give.”