"Not as the Hypocrites do."
AMONG the various offenses of His day which Jesus condemned, that of ostentation was conspicuously denounced. A very large portion of the Sermon on the Mount abounds in forbidding this sin. "Take heed," said the Master, "that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them;" and he significantly added, "otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." His disciples were not to "sound a trumpet," as the hypocrites did—and still do; alms were to be bestowed in secret; and in place of ostentatious prayers offered in public places, the disciples were commanded to enter into their closet and shut the door. Even in fasting all publicity and conspicuity were to be avoided; and all through the Gospels we meet with the lessons of humility and self-abnegation, followed with the declaration that "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Does it not seem as if the church were largely in danger of forgetting the Master's command—and is there not a marked tendency to offend in this direction exhibited in the various forms of ostentation which characterize many in their utterances and in their acts of benevolence? Very often this offense of ostentation is apologized for by the remark that it is "only a bit of harmless vanity"—yet perhaps nothing more completely demoralizes character, and visits a keener reproach upon religion, than this irrepressible hankering after popular approval, this itching for public notoriety and applause. Some years ago a noted reformer lived not far from Albany who had a wide reputation as a public philanthropist. The papers often proclaimed his deeds of benevolence. Sometimes it was one hundred dollars to one institution, and fifty dollars to another; but whatever the amount, it was sure to find its way into the newspapers. A minister once going to him for a contribution to a benevolent object, was refused: "I have heard nothing from my contribution of last year," was all the explanation the minister received;—in other words, he had neglected to place the previous benefaction prominently before the public in the newspapers! Nor is it so very surprising to know that although this gentleman was a professed reformer in a certain direction, he allowed his property to be devoted in just the opposite direction, and under the guise of a law-suit which deceived no one. And so careful and exact was he in his financial matters that at his death it was easy to trace nearly every dollar of his disbursements; and it was noticed that scarcely anything had been given to benevolence which had not already found its way into the public press. At a series of religious meetings held in this city some two years ago, a gentleman not unknown to the public was noticed to be continually appearing on the speakers' platform, constantly going out and returning, yielding to an irresistible propensity for exhibiting himself. In like manner with our Albany friend, this gentleman bestows his benefactions very ostentatiously. His acts of benevolence have been flashed along the ocean cable, and sent by telegraph to all parts of the country. And yet, numerous as his benefactions have been, his means have also been great and his opportunities many. But, and we rejoice to say it, there are those in our city and elsewhere who have given munificently, and although occasionally their benefactions have come to the light when they could not be hid, we know how gladly they would have shunned publicity. In their own quiet way they have given of their means, and relieved distress to an extent little guessed at by the outside world, and which only the last great day will reveal. Between the quiet beauty of such charity and that counterfeit spirit of beneficence which flaunts its gifts like circus posters in the face of the public for every passer-by to read, and which keeps a telephone in its right hand by which the left may be constantly advised what it is about, a mighty chasm intervenes. In this matter it is to be feared that ministers themselves are by no means wholly free from blame. Quite apart from the fact that they are liable to the foibles and failings of mankind, they not infrequently assist in the development of vanity and ostentation in others whose benefactions they herald from the pulpit. What Mr. So-and-so has generously contributed to the Relief Fund of the church, or what the generous deed which Mrs. This-and-that did on a particular occasion, is not unfrequently announced from the pulpit, and in the face of the parties themselves. Sometimes this spirit of personal exaltation takes the form of servile flattery, uttered in the face of some one only too glad to receive it; indeed, we once heard a minister—a good brother he was—proclaiming at a public meeting, and in the presence of the previous speaker, a layman, to whom he referred, "I feel, standing here in the presence of the brother who has just spoken, as if I ought to take my shoes from off my feet!"—a great many in that audience thought the best thing that speaker could do would be to take his feet off that platform! Alas and alas for those men who make a pulpit-show of their benefactions, and wear their religion on their backs! The world keeps its eyes open, and has long since learned to distinguish between those who stand on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men, and those others who do their alms in secret, and whom, in His own good time, the Father who seeth in secret will reward openly.