I WAS born in New England. My father was a member of the Baptist Church in the village. He was a man who believed in looking out for number one. He owned the farm which had been managed by his father and his father's father. This farm had supported several generations. It was being continually improved until it had become one of the best in the State. Father was never absent from prayer-meeting and was considered one of the substantial members of the church. He gave twenty-five dollars for the support of the gospel, every year. All his children were given a fair education. They inherited from their father a good degree of selfishness. He had taught them to be very careful as to how they spent any money, and to be sure their investments would yield the largest possible income. Everybody said I was "a chip of the old block," and with these qualities I left my Eastern home twenty years ago to come to the West. I succeeded in getting a farm very reasonably. Crops were excellent the first year, and I was able to build me a comfortable house and have a little to spare which I invested in farming implements. The second year's crops were even better than the first. I was comfortably situated. As the years passed by, children came to gladden our hearts and home. No man and wife had more reason for thankfulness than we. As settlers came into the neighborhood, we felt the need of church privileges, and soon a missionary from our Home Mission Society located near us. Meetings were held in the old log school-house, but it was the place where many were born again. Of course we ought to do something for the support of the gospel. I pledged ten dollars the first year and we raised in cash and donations about two hundred dollars for our minister. The following winter there was a powerful revival and our church membership was doubled. About this time a Baptist minister from New England located a claim in our neighborhood. He talked with a few of us and said he would be willing to preach for us if we would raise him fifty dollars a year. He was very generous-hearted and said while we were getting our farms into shape, it would help us not to have to pay out so much for preaching. We talked it over and finally decided to let our home mission man go and employ our New England preacher. I tell you we did miss the pastoral visits of Elder Williams, but thought we could do without pastoral visitation until we had all got our farms paid for and pretty well improved. That winter there was no revival and the young people assembled two or three times a week for a dance, but did not care anything for the worship of the Lord. A spiritual coldness came over the members of the church, and in less than a year our neighborhood was a Sabbath-breaking and pleasure-seeking community. We sold our farm; for we did not wish to bring up our children with such surroundings, and moved into the growing railroad town a few miles away. We took our church letters and united with the Baptist Church recently organized. What we realized from our sale enabled us to buy a good corner lot on which we built a store. The Lord prospered us and soon we were able to buy another lot and built us a house. My business increased; I gave twenty-five dollars a year for the support of the gospel and felt good over being able to give as much as my father used to in New England. I saw good chances for investing in real estate in our rapidly-growing town and flattered myself that my New England shrewdness, inherited from my father, was placing me in very comfortable circumstances. Our children were converted and united with our church. We all had good health and no family had more cause for real gratitude than we, and we were thankful to our kind heavenly Father for giving us such prosperity. I was a little proud when I decided we could give fifty dollars a year to the Lord. I am now entering upon the year 1882; my business last year was more prosperous than ever. As I have been balancing the accounts in my ledger recently, I took a piece of blank paper and wrote along the top:— DEACON HOWELL, DR.
In account with the Lord.
To pardon from sin,
A hope for the future world,
Good health,
A prosperous business,
Attendance upon divine service,
The joy of Christian children,
Continual increase in value of lands,
100 or more acres of good farm lands.
CR.
By cash paid for pastor's salary..........$50.00
Benevolence...................................................15.00 I looked the piece of paper over very carefully, and was compelled to admit that the amounts placed to my credit do not balance any one of the debits. The question flashed into my mind, "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" I took my Bible and learned that Paul says, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him." Then, I said, it is my business to lay by something every week for the Lord's treasury. The wise man says: "Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase." Then it is my business to give first to the Lord. That seems all right, for all the money in the world belongs to the Lord (but what a sight of it is stolen). I've been thinking lately whether I haven't been robbing God. What Malachi says in his book in the third chapter, from the eighth to the twelfth verse, keeps coming to me. I have just given it another careful reading: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that they may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land saith the Lord of hosts." When I had finished reading this passage I said, I have been a robber, for I haven't begun to give the Lord a tenth of all the money I have received; but have looked after my own comfort and ease and never dared to figure how much of my money belonged to the Lord. Then I resolved to give this year ten cents of every dollar I receive. But if a tenth belongs to God, I should be very much about given till I pay him what he calls for. Then I wondered if these verses did not contain the explanation of the great spiritual dearth in all our churches. Not one of us in a thousand "honors the Lord with the first fruits of all our increase," and if we brought all the tenths into the Lord's treasury, I verily believe the blessing would come. I again looked over my "account with the Lord." The first three debits I cannot in any way balance. The fourth is where I must begin. I took my cash book and found the footing for the first week of this year to be $576.57, the amount of the Lord's money I had received. The wise man says, "Honor the Lord with the first fruits of all thine increase," and Paul says to do it on the first day of the week, and I hear the Lord saying, "Bring all the tithes into my treasury." Then a tenth of the first week's receipts is $57.65. Just here this thought was suggested: "You owe several parties for goods and the bills are coming due in a few days," and then "you must look out to supply your family's needs." Then a terrible fight occurred. God's word arrayed against my own selfishness and pride. I knew not what to do. After a long struggle I said: "Lord, my obligations to thee are far above what they can possibly be to men and I bring thy tithe first." I then opened an account in my ledger headed, "The Lords Treasury," and immediately passed to the credit side of it $57.65. There came into my mind a restful feeling that at last I had begun to do what ought to have been done during the past thirty years of my life. I have related this experience with the hope that it may lead other Christian men to see how much they owe unto the Lord, and especially the young men who, if they give as the Lord prospers them, will not have the painful recollections of having robbed the Lord all their life-time.—Christian Secretary.