I have done Giving by Nevins

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 15, 1863

I have done Giving.

By Nevins

A GENTLEMAN of high respectability, and a member of the church, made this remark the other day, when informed that an application was about to be made to him in behalf of some charitable object. "I have done giving," said he. When I heard of this remark it awakened in my mind a train of reflection, which I have thought it might not be amiss to communicate.

"Done giving!" Has he indeed? Why? Has he given all? Has he nothing left to give? Has this disciple done what his Master did? Was he rich, and has he become poor for the sake of others, that they, through his poverty, might be rich? O no! he is rich still. He has the greatest abundance—more than enough to support him in elegance, and to enable him to leave an ample inheritance to his children. What if he has a great deal? He has not only not impoverished himself, but is probably richer now, through the favor of Providence, than he would have been had he never given anything. Now if, by honoring the Lord with his substance, his barns, instead of being emptied have been filled with plenty, he had better continue this mode of honoring him. He should rather increase than arrest his liability.

"Done giving!" Why? Is there no more need of giving? Is every want abundantly supplied? Is the whole population of our country furnished with the means of grace? Have missionaries visited every shore? Is the Bible translated into every language and distributed in every land, a copy in every family, and every member of every family taught to read it? Are the accommodations for widows and orphans as ample as they should be? Is there a house of refuge for every class of the human family that needs one? Or have the poor ceased from the land? O no! There are no such good reasons as these for ceasing to give. Why then has he done giving? Is it because others do not give as they ought? But what is that to him? Will he make the practice of others his rule of conduct rather than the precept of Jesus Christ? If others do not give, so much the more should he. Will he add another name to the list of niggards?

Does he feel worse for having given away so much? Has it made him unhappy? Is his experience different from that of the Lord Jesus, who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive?"

Has he, who thinks he will give no more, been led to that conclusion by having found that what has been given hitherto has done no good? And is it so, that no good has been done by all the Bibles published, and all the Tracts distributed? And yet at this time, when a dollar goes so far in doing good, here is a man who says, "I have done giving!" If I had his ear for a moment, I would ask him if he has done receiving—if God has done giving to him. I would ask him,

moreover, if he has done spending, or done hoarding, or done wasting. Now, if he has not, he surely should not stop giving. When he ceases to waste, to hoard, and to spend, except for the merest necessaries, then he may stop giving, but never till then.

“Done giving!” that is, done lending to the Lord! Done sowing and watering! Done offering the sacrifices with which God is well pleased! Done making the widow’s heart leap for joy, and bringing on himself the blessing of them that were ready to perish! Well, I am sorry—sorry for the sake of the poor, and the sick, and the orphan, and the ignorant, and the heathen. But no less sorry am I for the man’s own sake. Poor man! poor with all his affluence, for there is really no one more poor than he, who, with the ability to give, has not the inclination. He has it in his power to give, but not in his heart. He is enriched with abundance, but not with liberality.

“Done giving!” well then, if he will not give his money, he must keep it. And yet how short the time he can keep it! Had he not better freely give away some of it, than to wait for it all to be torn from him? The thought that he has given, will be at least as agreeable a meditation in his dying moments, as the reflection that he spent, or that he laid up.

I hope that gentleman who said “I have done giving,” will recall his resolution, and taking revenge on himself for having made it, give more liberally than ever.—Nevins.