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The Habit of Liberality

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 24, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 32.

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The Habit of Liberality

A WELL-KNOWN financier in New York, who died lately, was noted during life for lavish and unceasing liberality, as well as for the wisdom with which he gave to individuals, to charitable and religious purposes, in a word, to every worthy cause. On one occasion, when a friend spoke to him of his generosity, he said, bluntly: "You mistake. I am not generous. I am by nature extremely avaricious. But when I was a young man I had sense enough to see how mean and belittling such a position was, and I forced myself to give. At first, I declare to you, it was torture to me to part with a penny; but I persisted, until the habit of liberality was formed. There is no yoke like that of habit. Now I like to give."