Your ShelfYour Projects

THE LORD'S MONEY

6%

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 27, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 21.

Read the full edition

THE LORD'S MONEY.

"BERTIE! Bertie! isn't this a shame?" cried little Casper Hall, as he held up a silver quarter for his elder brother to look at.
It was a bright quarter, and at first sight there was nothing the matter with it, but closer inspection showed that it had been bored and the hole afterward carefully filled up.
"They wouldn't take it where I bought my slate," said Casper ruefully; "and I tried to pass it at the candy shop, and the old lady shook her head; and when I offered it to the conductor of the car, he was quite cross, and asked me if I didn't know how to read. When I said, 'Yes, I do,' he pointed to the notice in big letters, 'No mutilated coin received here.' What shall I do with it?" finished the little fellow with a sigh.
"You have no idea who gave it to you, have you, Casper?" said Bertie.
"Not in the least. It is part of the change I had from Uncle John's Christmas gift to me."
"Well, you must be sharper next time. Now, if I were you, I would put it in the missionary box. The society will work it off somehow."
"But I don't want to put a whole quarter in the box."
"It is not a whole quarter, Casper; it is a quarter that's had a hole in it. Nobody'll take it from you. You may just as well get rid of it in that way as any other."
Bertie and Casper Hall were in their father's library when this conversation took place. They thought themselves alone, but just on the other side of a curtain which divided the room from the parlor, their cousin Ethel was sitting. As Casper moved toward the mantel, where the family missionary box stood in plain sight, Ethel drew the curtain aside and spoke to him.
"Boys," she said, "I did not mean to listen to your conversation, but I could not help overhearing you. Casper, dear, don't drop that quarter into the box, please."
"Why not, Ethel?"
"The Lord's money goes into that box."
Bertie looked up from his Latin grammar to meet the glowing face of the little girl. Her eyes were shining, and her lips quivered a little, but she spoke gravely: "It was the lamb without blemish, don't you know, that the Hebrews were to offer to the Lord? If you saw Jesus here in this room, you would not like to say, 'I give this to thee because nobody else will have it.' It was gold, frankincense, and myrrh the wise men offered the infant Jesus."
The boys drew near Ethel. She went on: "It isn't much we can give to him who gave himself for us, but I believe we ought to give him our best, that which costs us something. Excuse me, but it seems you mean to drop a battered coin into God's treasury just to get it out of sight."
Casper and Bertie agreed with Ethel. They were about to do wrong for want of thought.Are there not older people who should remember that the Lord's money ought to be perfect and of the best?