The Blessedness of Giving
By Arthur G. Daniells
“REMEMBER the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35. This statement of the Lord Jesus declares a truth that but few believe. Many who assent to it as being true, do not know by experience that it is true. The natural, or carnal, mind looks upon giving as a stern duty, and receiving as an agreeable privilege. Giving is regarded as a detriment, a privation, a loss. Receiving is looked upon as an advantage, a benefaction, a profit. The idea of giving is unpleasant, forbidding, and disagreeable to the natural heart. But the thought of receiving is pleasant and gratifying. But this is not the view, or contrast, presented by our Lord. He does not contrast giving and receiving. He compares them. He represents both as a blessed privilege, and giving to be the more blessed of the two. This, says Dr. Pierson, “Lifts giving to its highest plane, and crowns it as the true secret of the most exalted blessing to the giver himself.” This view of giving is mysterious and incomprehensible to the natural mind, for the reason that it is contrary to nature. But all gospel service and experience is contrary to nature, and beyond the grasp of the natural, unspiritual mind. There is a spiritual law—a divine working by which:— All this is contrary to nature, but it is the law in the realm of the spiritual. Rest from labor. Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The yoke is an emblem of labor and toil. It represents the earnest, constant service every follower is to render to the Master. To the natural mind the yoke does not mean rest. Yet every Christian whose heart is full of the love of God, can testify of the sweet rest that comes from wearing toil for Christ. Joy from sorrow. Of Jesus we read, “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” What a revelation this is of joy coming from sorrow. As the Son of God, Christ occupied the second place in the universe. He was next to his Father. He had been the happy recipient of all that his Father could bestow upon him. In him were “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He was his Father’s “Darling.” O what honor, what glory, what vast treasures were his! But in the possession of all these, his heart was filled with grief when he gazed upon the face of a sorrowing, perishing race. He knew that there was one way by which this lost world could be saved. And that way was the way of sorrow. But the way of sorrow would bring to him a joy that he could never obtain in any other way. So, for that joy, he gave himself to that sorrow. He became “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.” “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” This is just what the natural heart endeavors to shun. It shrinks from trials, sorrows, and afflictions. It selects a smooth, pleasant path. But, in doing so, it misses the sweetest joys that can come to the human heart. Says Paul, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” 2 Cor. 1: 3-5. Life from death. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto6sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” “He that hath the Son hath life.” “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” How true all this is, and yet it is as contrary to nature as is the result of spiritual grafting, presented by the apostle Paul in the eleventh of Romans. In nature the fruit produced by the union of a graft with the trunk is always of the nature of the graft, and never of the trunk or roots. But this spiritual grafting worked contrary to nature—the graft from the wild olive tree partook of the nature of the trunk, and bore the fruit of the trunk. In other words, the Gentile became a Jew, an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile, and bore the fruits of the Spirit instead of the fruits or works of the flesh. Increase from giving. This same spiritual law, this mysterious working, is just as manifest in the matter of gospel giving as in any other feature of the gospel. O that this lesson of priceless value may be learned! Many Christians go far enough to learn by experience that rest comes from labor. Some learn that joy comes from becoming partakers with Christ in his afflictions. But how few learn the precious lesson that increase comes from scattering, yea, that riches come from poverty. We can believe that God made all that we behold from nothing; that “he spake, and it was.” We can believe that when God speaks of “things that be not as though they were,” that that very speaking produces the things. Rom. 4: 17. But O, it is so difficult for a selfish heart to believe, without reserve, that giving, imparting, scattering, means a return, an increase! Listen to the voice of God. The Lord says:— “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Prov. 11: 24, 25. “There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.” Prov. 13: 7. Could anything be plainer? Do not these statements show that there is a course to take, that, to all human appearance, would reduce one to poverty, but which actually increases and multiplies his goods? And do they not also plainly declare that there is a course to take, which, from a human standpoint, will bring great increase, but which results in loss and poverty?—They certainly do. Then here we find, in the matter of Christian beneficence, the working of that spiritual law so contrary to nature. “The contributions required by the Hebrews for religious and charitable purposes, amounted to fully one fourth of their income. So heavy a tax upon the resources of the people might be expected to reduce them to poverty; but on the contrary, the faithful observance of these regulations was one of the conditions of their prosperity. On condition of their obedience, God made them this promise: ‘I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field. . . . And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts.’”—“Patriarchs and Prophets.” “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.” Deut. 8: 18. “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.” “The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” “And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.” “The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.” “And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou harken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.” Deut. 28: 3, 8, 11-13. All this divine working in behalf of our temporal prosperity, is promised on condition of our obedience to all of God’s requirements. But if we distrust and disobey God, we shall have a very different experience. He says:— “Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. “Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them. “Thou shalt have olive trees, throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast her fruit. “Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.” “All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. “He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.” Deut. 28: 38-44. Here are the promises of wonderful prosperity, and warnings of terrible adversity, made by him who can not lie. They are not confined to any one race or age; they are for all people in all ages. The Bible presents some impressive records of the fulfilment of both the promises and the warnings.