HOW MUCH OWEST THOU THY LORD?
By Harris
[The following extract sent us by Bro. E. Goodwin, we are happy to lay before the readers of the REVIEW. It is peculiarly worthy of consideration at the present time. It should not only be read, but studied, and its principles laid up in all our hearts for convenient and perpetual reference.—Ed.] In order that our benevolence may become a valuable habit, it must be provided with regular resources. Nothing good or great can be effected without plan. In their own worldly business, men perceive the importance of method; and, if they would render their liberality efficient, they must adopt a system for that also. On this subject the gospel itself prescribes: "Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." "By which," says Paley, "I understand St. Paul to recommend what is the very thing wanting with most men, the being charitable upon a plan; that is, upon a deliberate comparison of our fortunes with the reasonable expenses and expectations of our families, to compute what we can spare, and to lay by so much for charitable purposes." To take indeed a weekly account how God hath prospered us, is not, in all cases, possible; but the spirit of the direction would be equally satisfied, if, on taking the account at other stated times, we only lay by for God as he hath prospered us. Owing to the want of a plan like this, the cause of Christ is often an unwelcome and an unsuccessful applicant; selfishness, which has always the advantage162of being able to be the first claimant, squanders in superfutilities what conscience would have devoted to God; and many, it is to be feared, from not having wherewith to answer the calls and impulses of charity as they arose in the heart, have at length lost the very disposition to do good. While the advantages arising from the adoption of such an arrangement are numerous, we are under less temptation to withhold our charity; our duty is made more convenient by rendering it thus in easy installments; our love to Christ is more gratified by being able to present him in the end with a larger offering; the hand of God is regularly recognized in our worldly affairs; his presence is invited, so to speak, into the very heart of our prosperity, wherein the world is most anxious to exclude him, invited to audit the account of our gains; our offerings are presented with cheerfulness, because they come from a fund designed expressly to no other end than charity; and the cause of benevolence, no longer a dependant on precarious charity, is welcomed and honored as an authorized claimant, a divine creditor, while what we retain for our own use is divinely blessed by the dedication of the rest to God. Nothing that is good, or great, we repeat, can be effected without plan. Business, to be successful, must be conducted on system; and why should not the book which records the occasional and the regular contributions of charity be kept and inspected as carefully as the ledger of trade? Covetousness plans for selfish purposes; and why should not benevolence counter-plan, and organize its resources for objects of divine philanthropy? Political economy plans for national purposes; and why should there not be an ecclesiastical economy to systemize its resources of that kingdom which is not of this world? We desire not a revival of sumptuary laws to restrain extravagance in diet and dress, but a tax self-levied on all the luxuries and indulgences of life. We ask not for an inquisitorial Roman census, but for a conscientious assessment of all the property of the christian church, as scrupulously made and regularly repeated, that, like that ancient republic, we may have accurate returns, from time to time, of all the statistics of the christian empire, and may know our resources for war with the kingdom of darkness. But what proportion of our income ought we to devote to charitable uses? If christian love be permitted to answer this question, and assign the amount, there is no reason to fear a too scanty allowance. On the other hand, if selfishness be suffered to decide, there is ground to fear that even an inspired reply, could such be obtained, would be heard only to be overruled. Besides which, the gospel of Christ, in harmony with its great design of establishing a reign of love, leaves its followers to assess themselves. It puts into their hands, indeed, a claim upon their property, but leaves the question, how much? to be determined by themselves. In assisting them to fill up the blank with the proper assessment, the only step which it takes is to point them to the cross of Christ; and, while their eye is fixed there in admiring love, to say, "How much owest thou unto thy Lord?" "Freely ye have received, freely give." It must be quite unnecessary to remind the christian that a principle of justice to man must be laid as the basis of all our calculations on this subject. "For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt-offering." To present him with that which his own laws of justice would assign to another, is to overlook the claims of even ordinary honesty, and to make him the patron of unrighteousness. But, while the worldling looks on justice as the only claimant on his property, and concludes that when that is satisfied, he may warrantably sacrifice the whole remainder to himself, the christian views it only as a preparation for sacrificing to God. It is observable that Abraham and Jacob, on particular occasions, voluntarily devoted to God—what afterwards became a divine law for the Jewish nation—a tenth of their property. Without implying that their example has any obligation on us, we may venture to say, that one tenth of our whole income is an approved proportion for charity, for those who, with so doing, are able to support themselves and families. For the more opulent, and especially for those who have no families, a larger proportion would be equally easy. For some, one-half would be too little; while, for others, a twentieth, or even a fiftieth, would require the nicest frugality and care. Indeed, of many among the poor it may be said, that if they give anything, they give their share—they cast in more than all their brethren. But, in determining the proportion to be made sacred to God, the christian would surely rather exceed than fall short of the exact amount. With whom is he stipulating? For whom is he preparing the offering? Well may the recollection put every covetous thought to instant flight; tinging his cheek with shame at the bare possibility of ingratitude; and impelling him to lay his all at the feet of Christ. Only let him think of the great love wherewith Christ hath loved him; only let him pass by the cross on his way to the altar of oblation, and his richest offering will appear totally unworthy of divine acceptance. When Christ is the object to be honored, the affection of the pardoned penitent cannot stop to calculate the value of its alabaster box of precious ointment—that is an act to which only a Judas can stoop—its chief and sole regret is, that the unction has not a richer perfume, and a higher value. When a Zacheus finds himself standing, a sinner saved by grace, in the presence of the being who has saved him, he exclaims, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wronged any man by false accusation, I restore unto him four-fold." Covetousness, a moment before, was enthroned in his heart, but now it is beneath his feet. A moment ago wealth was his idol; but now its only value consists in furnishing him with an offering of love to Christ. What things were gain to him, those he counted loss for Christ. And as the great principle of love to Christ will not allow the more opulent to give scantily, so neither will it permit the poorest to come before him empty. It was one of the divine enactments even of the legal dispensation—None shall come before me empty. But that which was matter of law with the Israelite, the christian will seize as a golden opportunity for evincing his love to Christ; and will bring, though it be only a grain of incense for an offering, or a leaf for that wreath of praise and honor which the church delights to lay at the feet of Christ. Whatever scripture examples others may profess to copy, he will select the example of the benevolent widow; and, while others content themselves with only admiring it, he will often reflect on its imitativeness. Nor will the language of the Apostle be ever heard by him but as an address to himself. "Let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." "These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 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." Agreeably with these sentiments, the man who, at one time, imagined that his poverty quite exempted him from the obligations of charity, and only rendered him an object of it, is no sooner made the partaker of grace, than he feels himself impelled to place some offering on the altar of christian benevolence; and, with the ready eye and hand of affection, he soon detects, for this end, some small superfluity which can be retrenched, or some leisure time which can be profitably employed. And when his mite-like offering, the fruit of hard self-denial or of the sweat of his brow, is presented, nothing could inflict on his grateful heart a deeper wound, than to see that offering rejected on the ground of its comparative insignificance, or of his supposed inability to give it. It is the offering of a sinner's gratitude to a Saviour's love, and heaven rejoices over the oblation.—Mammon, by Harris.