A Giving That Is Not Giving
A Giving That Is Not Giving.—In replying to a question in reference to entertainments for church needs and purposes, the editor of the Sunday School Times thus wisely replies: "There is no specific Bible prohibition of money-raising for church purposes by picnics or entertainments. But it would require a freak of the imagination to picture the men of the early church—men like Peter or Paul—urging their followers to sell tickets for a musical and literary entertainment for the benefit of any church organization. Those clear-headed leaders would have known, as the wiser leaders to-day know with profound conviction, that the buying of a ticket to an entertainment is not giving to the church. Any plan that offers a substitute for genuine giving sets a lower standard for God's people than a plan which leads to giving without any thought of return to the giver. And just so far as it is wrong to replace a high standard with a lower, at least so far is it wrong to replace free giving with a mercantile transaction in which a buyer, who is falsely supposed to be a giver, gets a good percentage of earthly return for his money. . . . Men and women and children ought to be asked to give. It is good for them to be asked, and better yet for them to give when they are asked, and to do so with no thought of what they will get for the money."