THE BLESSING OF GIVING.
By G.
ALL that Christ said or did while on earth is not recorded in the four Gospels. At the end of John's record we find this testimony: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." There is one very important saying, not noted by any of the Gospel writers, which Paul cites in Acts 20: 35. The apostle's statement to the Ephesian elders is, "I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Nowhere else in the Scriptures are these words to be found, nor their exact equivalent. Yet the Lord amply teaches the importance of giving, and the gain, temporal and spiritual, to be derived from giving. "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." Matt. 19: 29. Many will inherit the kingdom of God because of the faithful performance of duty that involved comparatively-small investment of means, altho the spirit of love and self-denial for the Lord's poor will have been manifest in large degree. They will have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, and visited those who were sick and in prison; and the Lord counts it as having been done unto Him. See chapter 25: 31-40. The magnitude of the blessing attached to such giving is emphasized by contrasting the doom of those who selfishly neglect such Christian benevolence. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Verse 46. It is not the intrinsic value of the gift that is rewarded, for all is the Lord's before anything is given; but it is the spirit of love and self-denial that is rewarded in heaven. The poor widow's two mites were reckoned as more than all the larger gifts of the wealthy donors, because of her sacrifice for the Lord's cause. Mary's box of precious ointment, because of the loving sacrifice in honor of the Saviour, was given a place in Sacred History, that it might be spoken of as a memorial of her wherever the Gospel should be preached throughout the whole world. See Mark 14: 3-9. Thus the Lord gives honor for honor an hundredfold.4And the little cup of cold water given as a disciple of Christ will not fail of its reward. So the Lord has our own welfare in view—not our selfish ambition—when He says, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Matt. 10:8. G.