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Giving and Receiving

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 23, 1872

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 39, No. 19.

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Giving and Receiving.

By A. P. Lawton

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Gal. 6: 7, 8. If in our liberality, or rather want of it, we sow sparingly, we shall reap sparingly. God knows if we withhold, that we may consume it upon our lusts. The cattle upon a thousand hills are the Lords, and the hearts of men are in his hands. He can, will, and does, bless those who scatter blessings to others. He who is a benefactor receives the benefice, inasmuch as it is more blessed to give than to receive. If we scatter smiles and good cheer, we reap the same. If asperity and bitterness, the same. No one can reasonably complain of any treatment of which he sets the example. In our smiles or frowns we are our own mirrors. How little a smile costs, and yet how much sorrow it ofttimes mitigates. What a rich income from so small a capital; and yet so grudgingly, often sparingly, given.
He who sows discord among brethren, is classed among those whom God hates. If we were careful to examine all our motives and acts, what different fruit we should reap. What peace where now is discord. What pleasure where now there is pain. By our own indiscretions we plant thorns in our own pillows, which it is not easy to extract. With a little carefulness, we may make all around us happy, or benefit them by our amiable and confiding deportment; and what a sensation of joy to know we have made, even one, more happy. If we have been an accuser of the brethren, let us turn a short corner, and do violence to our unholy tempers, and God will help us to overcome. This can never be done by holding up our brother’s faults as an off-set, or cancellation, to our own. May God help us to be in haste to correct our errors while we may.
A. P. LAWTON.
Winfield, April 1, 1872.