LOWERING MORALS BY RAISING MONEY.
EVERY time that the church of Christ asks an individual to contribute to the progress of Christ's kingdom, and offers a saucer of ice-cream, or a fancy scrap-basket, or two hours of comic charades, as a partial and tangible return for the investment, the worthiness of Christ's cause is questioned, and the motives of the one solicited are discredited. To put it bluntly, money-getting for the church by barter is an insult either to the church, or to the one whose money is sought, or to both. Such "money-raising" practically says: "The church of Christ is not worth supporting; you know it, and I know it, therefore I won't ask you to believe that it is. But it has got to be supported, so buy this thing, almost getting your money's worth, and we'll turn over the profit to the unworthy church." Or it says: "The church is worth supporting, but we don't give you credit for believing this, or for any willingness to help in its support, so we'll offer you something that will appeal to you." Such an appeal is a travesty on Christ's charge: "Freely ye received, freely give." The root evil in church fairs and all commercial methods of securing money for the Lord's work is that they are an unworthy appeal to an unworthy motive. They defraud people of a blessing that God wants to give, and that can only come from faith-filled, free-will offerings. "Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, . . . and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." If the church fair is right in principle, then far better let the church trustees conduct a regular and high-class business enterprise as a permanent institution, the profits of which shall go to meet church expenses. If that would not seem advisable, why make amateurish and cheap and spasmodic attempts at the same thing?—Sunday-School Times.