GIVING AND GIVING UP

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 30, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 13.

GIVING AND GIVING UP.

"HE certainly is a most generous giver. He has just given five thousand pounds to the work of foreign missions. It's one of the most munificent gifts we have ever received."

"Not quite so," was the answer. "I know of at least one more generous giver."

"Really? Well, I was looking through the reports of the last few years, and I saw nothing like that sum on the donation list."

"No; the gift to which I allude has not appeared in print, and will be known by very few except the Lord. The other day I was calling on a friend of mine, a very aged man, who told me, with tears running down his cheeks, that his only son was about to leave home for missionary work in a far-away land. The father had discovered that the young man felt called of God for such service, but was tarrying at home for his sake. 'How could I keep him back?' said the old man. 'I had prayed all my life: "Send forth laborers into thy harvest;" and with all the pain of parting with my boy, in the certainty I should never see him again on earth, there is a deep joy in giving him up for Christ's sake.'"

I said to myself, on overhearing this conversation, Surely here is a true test of love—not giving only, but giving up. For though love cannot exist without giving, there may be large giving without love; but we can hardly doubt that it is love alone which for another's sake gives up what is held dear.—Selected.