Tears vs. the Pocket

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1871

Tears vs. the Pocket.

The last step in sanctification, we are inclined to think, is the conversion of the pocket. You may convert men from profanity, from intemperance, from the theater, from fashion and frivolity in their varied forms, to attending meetings, distributing tracts, exhorting, singing, and praying, the hand is still unclasped from its gains.

It is not sometimes very difficult to move audiences to tears while an earnest man pleads the cause of the poor and the needy. But, not unfrequently, the speaker is surprised to see the large amount of tears people will shed over the poor, and the small amount of money they will contribute to relieve them.

One of the most effective speakers in behalf of this Association, furnishes this striking illustration of the point:—

“On a Sabbath afternoon in the autumn of 1867, I presented our cause to a crowded house in the town of ——. In the course of my address I noticed, in front of me, a fine-looking, well-dressed man, bearing all the marks of wealth and high social position. His eyes, riveted on the speaker, were brimming with tears, rendering necessary the frequent use of his handkerchief. Indeed, he seemed so moved and interested that I almost forgot the great auditory around me, and talked and pleaded with him alone. When I reached the home of the good deacon with whom I stopped, I described my auditor, and found that he was what I expected, a leading citizen, wealthy, and of high social standing.

“The deacon, too, noticed his emotion, and said, ‘I know what he gave; how much do you think?’ “‘I replied, ‘I should not suppose that a man in his circumstances could afford to be moved as he was for less than ten dollars.’ “‘Ten dollars!’ was the reply, ‘he gave three cents!’

“Tears, I have since learned, oftimes flow from very shallow springs. But I still wonder how a man could weep so much for ‘three cents.’—C. L. W.”

We copy from the Congregationalist a similar story:—

“STIRRED TO THE BOTTOM.”

A pastor of a church in one of the pleasant country towns of New York has lived on a pinching salary for four years. Not many Sabbaths ago, when the chronic pinch had made the sore places too hard to bear any longer, he stated the case fully from the pulpit, compared his means of a livelihood with that of his average parishioners, and showed that he was working on little more than half pay, and was hampered in his work among them by poverty.

This fair statement indorsed by the known economy, and faithful, loving ministry of the pastor, had its effect, and bore fruits as follows:

A leading man in the church and the community, a well-to-do farmer, remarked to some friends, “What an eloquent sermon! There is no getting away from it. We have not done our duty. That sermon stirred me as I never was stirred before—stirred me to the bottom.”

It was suggested that a subscription be started, and the impressed brother be invited to head it. He took the paper, took time to weigh well what he was doing, and put down opposite his name—twenty cents! Starting out with this beginning, in the course of a few days, the deacons brought to the pastor, as compensation for the unpaid half service of four years, a purse of fifteen dollars!—Am. Missionary.