Putting Money in a Hole.
By The Baptist Teacher
IN the time of Jehoash, king of Judah, when money was needed for the Lord's house, he didn't arrange for a fair, or a concert, or an oyster supper, or some other ingenious subterfuge in the nature of a pleasure-bait for a pious hook. He simply had it announced that they wanted money, and what they wanted it for; and he put a chest right by the door—a chest with a hole in the top,—so that this was the very first thing that a worshiper encountered when he entered the house of God. He never came without being appealed to for money—not, indeed, by an expert agent, with his stereotyped stock of begging stories, but by the silent eloquence of that ever-present chest. To give to the Lord was as much a part of worship as the offering of praise; and, presently, the chest was full, and provision was fully made for the long-neglected work. There was no ostentatious parade of names and amounts, to the glorification of some and the mortification of others; but each one gave what his piety prompted and his ability allowed; and thus quietly and quickly all the money needed was deposited in the treasury. Oh, for radical reform in our methods of benevolence! While it is immeasurably important that the children be brought to know the will of God, it is still more important that they be trained to do the will of God; and no doing is of greater consequence to the glory of God's cause than thoughtful, prayerful, self-sacrificing giving for its furtherance.—The Baptist Teacher.