DR. HAMLIN ON SYSTEMATIC GIVING.
DOCTOR HAMLIN, the veteran missionary of Constantinople, says recently of its working in Turkey: "You take a poor, miserable beggar, as I have known some instances, a beggar who has become converted, and apply to him that iron system of tithing, which the oriental world loves and always has loved, perhaps always will love, and make that beggar, as the one condition of enjoying the privileges of the Gospel, give one-tenth of what he begs, and as much more as you can make him give, and in a short time he will not be a beggar; in a short time he will support himself, and in circumstances comparatively comfortable. Why, give a man something higher than himself to live for, and you immediately elevate him intellectually, even physically. You give him a better economy and more power to work; you give him more than intellectual power; you give him a spiritual power, and you invest him with the almighty providence of God. You can not keep that man down where he was; he will rise every way, and he will become a worker." CHRISTIANITY is a thing which must be learned by doing it. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life," said Christ, and life is known by living. The expert in regard to Christianity is not the man who has learned about it, but he who has lived it. Men are sometimes held back from active Christian experience by their own lack of experience. They want to know about what they are to do before they undertake it, and they can only learn by doing. The way to build a character is to build it, learning by mistakes as well as triumphs, and seeking aid wherever it is to be found. To him who endeavors, God sends aid. To him who stands still, God only sends invitation, an invitation to take the forward step, which is the beginning of the continuing journey. In the figure of Christ's own story, the pound employed increases to five pounds, or ten, while the pound hidden away is of no use, and its hiding brings condemnation.—Congregationalist. WE should never forget that the missionary cause is an enterprise of faith. It requires faith in the promises of God, in the power of God. . . . It is a work of the Spirit of God, "whom the world can not receive;" therefore the world can approve of missions only when they go forward with the highest prosperity. Let no friend of missions become discouraged when the work proceeds slowly. . . . Among our forefathers in Europe a12whole century was occupied with the introduction of Christianity. Sometimes a nation received Christianity to cast it off again after thirty or forty years. It required a thousand years to bring them up to the height at which we now stand.—Rev. Andrew Murray. RICHARD BAXTER said: "My rule has been to study to need as little as possible for myself; to lay out nothing on need-nots; to live frugally on little; to serve God on what he allowed me, so that what I took for self might be as good for the common good as that which I gave to others; and then to do all the good I could with the rest. The more I have done this, the more I have had to do it with. When I gave away almost all, the more came in, I scarce know how, when unexpected and unplanned for. When of improvidence I was led to use too much on myself or on things of little importance, then I prospered less than I did otherwise. If I had planned to give only after my death, then all might have been lost; whereas, when I gave away at present, and trusted God for the future, then I wanted nothing and lost nothing."