DONATION PARTIES by R. F. C.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 2, 1860

DONATION PARTIES.

By R. F. C.

THE Lord is abundantly able to sustain his own cause without appealing to his enemies for help. He is rich. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his. Hence he says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." Ps. l, 12. His cause and his ministers need not, and do not, apply to the world for help. Not that his servants have always a fullness; for they know both how to be abased, and how to abound. Everywhere and in all things they are instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. See Phil. iv, 12. If, in their necessities, the Lord opens the hearts of those without, unsolicited, to supply their wants, the offering is not scorned but thankfully received and God is praised. But when the world are solicited to aid in the support and spread of that gospel which they reject, there is a compromise of principle upon the face of it, and the church makes overtures for an unholy alliance or co-partnership with the world.

But we are amid the perils of the last days. The prophecy of Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, chaps. iii, and iv, is having its fulfillment. The time has already come, as predicted, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, after their own desires, they have heaped to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they, both preachers and hearers, have turned away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables. Now these teachers, though they should be as numerous as the locusts of Egypt and as greedy as those dumb dogs prophesied of by Isaiah, chap. lvi, which "can never have enough," must still have a support. But how shall this be effected in this money-loving age, when even those that have a form of godliness are lovers of their own selves, covetous, &c.? Notwithstanding the mutual compact, by which the people agree to support their ministers, and these in return are to serve their hearers with a pleasing dish of fables from week to week, suited to their vitiated appetites, and set forth with "excellency of speech" and "enticing words of man's wisdom," still there is a deficiency. How shall this deficiency be supplied?

Ah! here is the remedy. Though men in and out

of the professed church are money-lovers, as foretold, yet they are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Nothing will loosen the purse strings like a pleasure party. Now if such a party can be projected, a good supper got up, (for this, like the “days of Noah,” is a feasting age), and the “young people” be invited “in the evening,” the object will be accomplished, if it can be at all. Giving in public also, where the left hand knows more than the right, is especially grateful to the taste; for men were to be “boasters” and “proud,” as well as lovers of pleasures and the rest of the catalogue. Who would do their alms in secret and not so much as have the name of it?!

Nearly a year ago I was among strangers in Steuben Co. N. Y., where I chanced to hear a conversation between two young men concerning donation parties they had recently attended. They were speaking of the losses their friends had sustained at these parties. One had had a pair of gloves, another a handkerchief, &c. &c., picked from their pockets; and such a one had had his overcoat stolen. They descanted upon the inconvenience of having donation parties at private houses, where there was a “perfect jam,” and their property was not safe from the fact that there was a class that came to get their supper free and plunder others. And they agreed in this conclusion: That it was far better to go to a tavern and have a “regular ball.” That more money would be raised in this way; for they would have their regular tickets, and none would get their supper without paying for it, and it would be a much more “decent scrape” in all respects.

This put me in mind of the fact, that I was traveling in that country some years before and stopped at a tavern to obtain a lodging. The house was filled with a donation party; and the inn-keeper informed me that every room was full, and that they would not probably leave till morning, and consequently there was no chance for a traveler to rest there that night. And though it was becoming late in the evening, and I was weary with my journey, I very willingly left the scene that was there being enacted, and made my way to the next village.

Christian reader, please compare these festivals in all their bearings with the spirit and teachings of the gospel of Christ. Observe in these the fulfillment of prophecy and some of the signs of the times. The advent messages have been announced. But the language of the evil servant is, My Lord delayeth his coming. He will not come yet. But while he cries peace and safety, and begins to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. R. F. C.