Why Should I Give?

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 19, 1863

Why Should I Give?

WHERE God is forgotten, it is pitiful to see how riches harden the heart of him who gains them. Sometimes the man who was liberal while he was poor, becomes niggardly as he becomes wealthy. The tendency of gain is to nourish selfishness if the hand that bestows it is overlooked, and the thirst of selfishness can never be shaken. The reservoir of the covetous never overflows. Recognizing no obligation he yields to no claim. A man of this sort once said:—"Others never give to me, why should I give to others?" Infatuated man! is there none that ever gives to thee? What hast thou that thou hast not received? Who gave thee reason, life, success? Who prospered thy plans? Who gave thee power to get wealth? Who has kept thy dwelling safe? Who has warded off from thee a thousand calamities which have overtaken thy fellows? And art thou indebted to none—has none a right to thy bounty? Will thou rob God? Shall he have no share of what is his own?