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Microfiche
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CIHIVl/ICIVIH
Collection de
microfiches.
Canadian Inttltuta for Historloal MIororaproduotlons
Inatltut Canadian da miororaprodiiotiona Itiatorlquaa
1960
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2
3
1
2
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c
"HI
AUTH
r
Systematic Giving
BY
" HEIRS OF GOD, JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST,"
BY
"JARVIS"
(J. rwtu maclbam)
AUTHOR OP "EPPIE MELVILLE'S RED LETTER DAY." "ANECDOTES
OF PKT ANIMALS." "TWO NEW YEAR'S EVES,"
••THE PATMOS EXILE." Etc., Etc.
PUBLISHED FOR THK AUTHOR.
TORONTO WILLARD TRACT DEPl>aiTORY.
COR. YUNUK AND TRMPKRANOK HT8.
TORONTO.
3=
Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Oanada, in the
Office of the Minister of Agriculture, by Archer G. Wathon, Agent for
the proprietor, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine.
CONTENTS.
Pkbfacb 4
Introdoction 5
Chapter I 1 1
Chapter II 22
Chapter III 35
Chapter IV 43
Chapter V 63
Chapter VI 83
Chapter VII 95
Chapter VIII 104
Chapter IX 115
Chapter X 128
The production of this little volume was occasioned
by reading in the Presbyterian Record recently, the
following resolution of the General Assembly of the
Church in Canada :
"The General Assembly app<iiDts a committee on the subject of
Systematic Beneficence, for the purpose of bringing, through the press
and otherwise, the important subject herein referred to, earnestly and
fully before the whole Church, with the view of promoting on sound
Christian principles, the heartfelt and continuous growth of iHMrality in
connection with every department of the Church's work. Presbyteries
and Sessions are requested to co-operate with the committee, and
especially to assist ihem in gaining the ear, if posaible, of all the
congregations and families of the Church."
Having been encouraged by the favourable criticisms
of several Conveners cf Mission Boards and others,
and desiring earnestly to influence some young people
in whom a warm interest is felt, the author now hum-
bly ventures to present the following pages to the eye
of her readers.
JARVIS.
SYSTEMATIC GIVING.
INTRODUCTION.
Before commencing to write on the subject
of *• Systematic Giving," would the reader join
us in an imaginative ramble to the neighbour-
ing hill top on this sweet May morning.
The sun has not yet risen, for it is only half-
past five o'clock, and more than a whole hour
before breakfast.
Having kindly agreed to accompany us, we
would further request another stretch of imagina-
tion that would transform us into the close
friends of Tennyson's "In Memoriam," before
"death, like a narrow stream," intervened between
them, so that our souls expand under the warmth
of congenial communion of soul with soul.
• We step forth, pausing a moment on the
threshold, thinking of the kindly sheltering roof,
the dear inmates still enjoying their restful
slumbers, and of the peaceful quiet reigning
around. We are on the path -way now. Ah .
those supple, healthful, energetic limbs ! They
(a)
Systematic Giving.
are ready to go twice as far as to the summit of
the hill.
We meet a cripple hobbling uncomfortably
along to the village near by, and each knows
the thoughts welling up in the soul of the other,
without requiring to break the delicious stillness
by the sound of the voice.
Oh, the freshness, the coolness, the balmi-
ness of this country air ! How many breaths
of it have we inhaled since we left the house }
Streaks of red, yellow, orange, lavender and
purple become more radiant in the east — our
eyes are by mutual, mute consent, fixed on one
spot. "There he is," we together exclaim, as old
Sol bounces up above the horizon. Ah, we are
off on another silent reverie in the same direction,
but roaming over a very extensive gift field of
warmth and light and love and grandeur !
The sun rises higher and higher; life becomes
visible on all sides. Men going to work, cows
gathering in the yards to be milked, sheep and
lambs spreading out from where they have been
folded all night. Ah, there again ! — we know
just as well as if audible expression had been
given to them, the line of thought on which our
companion's mind is dwelling, and we think an
th
M
inj
re]
b(
usi
Introduction.
invisible third Friend has joined us, by the expres-
sion in the face at our side — " the angel face,"
telling of the soul's absorption in Divine subjects.
The budding trees are vocal now with a joy-
ous hymn of praise. As we stand together on
top of the hill, our heated cheeks fanned by the
passing breeze, we note the gratification pour-
ing into our very souls through the channels of
each of our seven senses — those wondrous gifts
of God.
We think of *' The God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob" — the God that has cared for us
all our lives long— of "Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday^ and to-day^ andforevery We think of
Bethlehem^s Babe, of the Cross and of the empty
tomb, and of many — yea, innumerable instances,
incidents, and special blessed memories. Thank
God for that most wonderful of His gifts, the
gift of memory — blessed memories, we say, of
the Saviour's love tokens as our own beloved
Master, and of God's wonderful personal deal-
ings with each of us.
With our whole hearts and souls we reve-
rently say, with eyes uplifted to Heaven, before
beginning to retrace our steps, the hymn taught
us in the nursery: —
8
Systematic Giving.
t
^^
" When all Thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul suryeys,
Transported with the view, I'm lost
In wonder^ hvt ^tA praise.
O, how shall words with equal warmth
The gratitude declare
That glows within my ravished heart ;
But Thou canst read it there.
Thy Providence my life sustained,
And all my wants redrest ;
When in the silent womb I lay.
And hung upon the breast.
To all my weak complaints and cries
Thy mercy lent an ear,
Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learned
To form themselves in prayer.
Unnumbered comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestowed,
Before my infant heart conceived
From whom these comforts flowed.
When in the slippery paths of youth
With heedless steps I ran ;
Thine arms unseen conveyed me safe.
And led me up to man.
Through hidden dangers, toils and death.
It gently cleared my way ;
And through the pleasing snares of vice,
More to be feared than they.
req
tha
Introduction.
When worn with sickness, oft hast Thou
With health renewed my face;
And when in sins and sorrows sunk,
Revived my soul with grace.
Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss
Hath made my cup run o'er ;
And in a kind znd faithful friend^
Hath doubled all my store.
I'en thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ ;
' Nor is the least a cheerful heart
That tastes these gifts with joy.
Through every period of my life
Thy goodness I'll proclaim ;
.\nd after death, in distant worlds,
Resume the glorious theme.
When nature fails, and day and night
Divide Thy works no more ;
My ever grateful heart, O Lord,
Thy mercy shall adore.
Through all etefnity to Thee
A joyful song I'll raise ;
For O, EttrnHys too short
To utter all Thy praise."
Of course the Christian reader does not
require to be reminded in the following pages
that the tithe of his income is not his own
V
lO
Systematic Giving.
to give ; it is the Lord's by right always , and the
man or woman who is not handing over for the
Lord's work this proportion of his or her pos-
sessions, is simply robbing God of His own,
just as much as if one were to appropriate a
principal belonging to another and from which
he had the privilege granted him of using the
interest.
So our " Systematic Giving " has only to do
with what we give over and above the tenth
part.
We propose to divide the ideas which, by
God's own hand helping us, we shall be enabled
to transcribe, somewhat as follows :
What to give ; namely — money, work, with
time and influence.
Included with these will be the suggestions
as to when to give, and how, and to whom to,
or in what channels to give.
These thoughts then will form the basis of
our theme.
I
CHAPTER I.
*• Sons of God^ joint heirs with Christ."
HOUSE divided against itself cannot
stand." — " E pluribus unum," " Union is
strength."
Every-day life proves the profound
truth of these two statements.
When the members of a household
belong to one family only, the interests, the aims, the
pleasures and the joys — aye, and the sorrows also, are
one, and nothing is so near the heart of the parent and
that of each child of that parent, as the general
advancement and improvement of the family and of
the family property.
The sons and the daughters are entrusted, accord-
ing to years and ability, with departments to experi-
ment upon, and to do their best to increase the
value and extent of that to which they are them-
selves the heirs. They love their father, and they love
one another, and sweet to each soul is the appro-
bation of that beloved parent.
And so the work goes cheerily on. " Many hands
12
Systematic Giving,
\ ■
11
1
make light work," and love makes even the heaviest
labor light.
Pocket money, and by-and-by earnings, are eagerly
laid out to enclose a new bit of ground, or to engage
an additional workman, or for some other well-planned
object tending to the general aggrandizement of the
future inheritance, but all the while having deep, true,
ardent filial love as the root, the mainspring, the
chief motive power of every effort.
And as the members of this intelligent " home
circle " are reading and hearing daily of *' systems of
stars" with their regulating suns, in the great science
of Astronomy; of systems of rocks and petrifactions in
the bowels of the earth ; of systems of railways, of
telegraph wires, and of telephones, of wheels in
machinery.and of the systematic arrangement through-
out the wide range of the wonderful vegetable creation,
as well as the system pervading the marvelous
mechanism of the human body, the beautiful syste-
matic arrangement of the fibres of nerves and so forth —
they see that they will be able to accomplish more
in less time, and with less expenditure of strength, by
introducing system into their plans for fulfilling their
Father's trusts.
" Giving " — " Systematic Giving " — to their own
beloved Father, God ! How is it possible for the
"heirs," the "joint heirs with Christ," the "elder
brother," ever to think of their renderings to God, be
it work, or time, or influence, or money, in the light of
" givmg.
Systematic Giving.
13
Still we must stick to the theme as entitled above,
" Systematic Giving," and strive to delineate some-
thing that may prove helpful to those who are anxi-
ously seeking to do their best with their Heavenly
Father's trusts.
To begin with perhaps the least important and the
easiest to give, we will first speak of money.
How much have we ? How much per year ?
Divide that sum by fifty-two and find out how much
per week ; divide again by seven and find how much
per day. Then of this sum we are at last quite con-
vinced, after much consideration for years past, that
of this sum, be it much or little, the tenth is not ours
at all. In fact, if we touch upon it we are thieving,
and thieving from God.
So after we have each laid aside the tenth we may
commence " Systematic Giving " with some of the
balance left.
With which end of this balance are we to com-
mence " Systematic Giving " ? T\\t first part, or what
remains after our wants are supplied }
The. writer used to make many inquiries on this
very point, sometimes of worthy Divines, of Superin-
tendents of Sabbath Schools, and of pious, well-read
Christians of different degrees of experience in
Christian life, and of different denominations in the
Christian Church, but notwithstanding much verbose
discussion, could never get the question distinctly and
satisfactorily answered. Every person consulted, ap-
peared to be indefinite in his own mind upon the matter.
s
M
Systematic Giving.
i
It was perhaps wellio be thus thrown back on God's
own pure, definite, reliable word of truth, which was
diligently searched, and of course, according to God's
sure word of promise, "Seek and ye shall find,"
the answer was found — so clear, so pointed and exact,
that it could be measured with a ruler.
Take the case, the minimum case, of a poor illiterate
girl, who is nevertheless a dear child of God, who
knows that the loving Saviour is her " Elder Brother,"
and is even beginning to realize as she moves about
performing menial duties at the bidding of her mis-
tress, that she is a "Joint heir*' with that "Elder
Brother" to an " Eternal Inheritance" of a deeper, fuller^
ricJier, far more glorious and enjoyable Heaven of peace,
love, joy, thain that which has al/eady begun in her own
heart, purifying its springs of action and filling it with
love, love, love to her Heavenly Father, and to His
entire kingdom in Heaven and on earth.
This girl's wages per month are (we are, you
remember, stating a minimum case) only three dollars.
What can three dollars a month do towards neces-
sary clothing, hat, boots, gown, gloves, etc. ?
Seventy-five cents per week or less — surely there is
nothing to invest in that " Eternal Inheritance " out
of so small a sum as this. Besides, if we were to
deduct the tenth which is to be returned at once to her
Heavenly Father from whom all came at the outset,
the amount remaining is but 6"/]^ cts. per week.
Well, what we want to make out now at this point
is whether she is to go and procure the boots, the
Systematic Giving.
15
gown, the hat and the g\o\Qs first, and take out of
the balance remaining for " systematic giving."
We are all familiar with the beautiful comforting
verse in I Peter, v. 7, " Casting all your care on
Him, for He careth for you." The text applies only to
God's children — to those who are striving to rule their
lives by the measure He has delineated so plainly in
His own word. And if we turn to Matt., chap. vi. and
verse 33, and link the two passages together, as all
passages in the " Book of Holy Inspiration " can be
united, as it were,into a precious chain, each link related
to the other, we think the reader will find the same cer-
tain answer as the writer sought and found. " Seek
y^ first the kingdom of God and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you."
We cannot possibly expect the latter part of the
verse to be fulfilled to us unless v;s are fully doing the
part so distinctly assigned to us in the verse just quoted.
Nor have we any right whatsoever to act upon the
gracious invitation," Casting all your care on Him, for
He careth for you," unless we " sack first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness."
Then by all means we say, let this humble servant
of God, without fear of " to-morrow" and its necessities,
give (we do not relish the word) "systematically"
whatever proportion the Heaven-born measure of love
in her own heart suggests, before she expends a farth-
ing for her earthly wants, towards the advancement of
her Heavenly Father's kingdom — a little investment
of her own where " neither moth nor rust " can
i6
Systematic Giving,
I- i
li
N
destroy, a something wherewith to answer her Lord
when He puts the solemn question to her, as He will
to each one of the " heirs " to the " Eternal Inheritance,"
What hast thou done with thy talent ?
What porportion of the sixty-seven and a half cents
per week should be given must be determined by the
possessor. We know how utterly incalculable has be-
come the principal, interest and compound interest,
through the instrumentality of a few Divine words
from an All-Powerful Source, of what was originally
only two little mites, so it is not amount that counts
with God. The two mites have been used by Him to
do more than the many millions given by rich donors.
Therefore the proportion decided upon should be
a matter between God and the soul alone. But hav-
ing once made a vow as to how much is to be set
aside for the Master's use, see that no whim — no
necessity, seemingly — be allowed in the slightest
degree to encroach upon it, and as the income in-
creases proportionately increase the " systematic
giving."
Then we can say to that young Christian girl, the
promise roll is all your own.
" Fear not ; ye are of more value than many
sparrows. "
" For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of these things."
" Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain
thee."
" Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer
Systematic Giving.
17
ve
un
:er
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. "
And she may rest assured that when she asks for
•' bread " she will not be given a " stone," nor for a
" fish " a " scorpion."
The writer has heard of a young Christian girl who
was sometimes in great need of money, but who was
maki/fg an effort to give first to God, that on taking
her wants to the throne of grace, there were miracles by
hundreds performed in her daily life.
The weather would suddenly and unexpectedly and
unseasonably become suited to the thin or the thick
garment until a change could be procured. Or money
would come from some unthought-of quarter, so that
while her love to the Master who was " caring for all
these things " so tenderly, was greatly increased, so
was her trust increased till she actually ^oi past being
" anxious " for any earthly thing.
Thus was her Heavenly Father adding the *' more
abundantly " to what she asked for, by giving her over
and above " more than she had asked or thought of, ''
things for the " Eternal Inheritance " too, namely,
increase of the two best Christian graces — Love and
Trust.
If God interested Himself sufficiently in the little
minor details of the life of the children of Israel of old
as to make their garments to wlx not old in forty years,
surely He is as able and as willing to do the like in the
case of any of His own true followers of the present day.
We have no right to question how or by what
Qoin
i8
Systematic Giving.
methods, or to what extent He will provide for the
wants of His people. All we have to do is our own
appointed duty faithfully, and to trust ourselves
implicitly to His care in all things temporal and
spiritual.
The case we have stated will adapt itself to all
men, women and children who are earning wages or
salaries, or who are receiving pocket money in what-
ever way, so it perhaps covers more population ground
than any other that could be cited.
But there are many people whose incomes are
uncertain, changing sometimes with a jerk, for instance,
the thousands of people who are engaged in private
tuition ; the income is liable to constant fluctuations
even in the course of a half term ; also those engaged
with agencies on commission, and many other kinds of
business. Those who bring the produce of their lands
and their dairies to market, their profits are as variable
as the winds, and yet amongst each of these classes
there are very many of God's dear children anxious to
know their duty as "joint heirs with Christ," and to do
it faithfully.
To the first of these we would suggest that a
minimum sum per term be fixed upon and kept to
regularly and systematically, and this regular sum pro-
portionately added to according to increase of income.
Whatever else you dispense with, see to it that the
daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly returns to the
Master are never interfered with, no matter how strong
the temptation to do so may be. This is of course
Systematic Giving.
19
not counting the tenth, which was never yours to touch
at all.
In the case of commission agents and all those
whose business returns fluctuate very much daily, we
would advise that in the same way a daily certain
minimum proportion be kept out of each day's profits,
to be added to proportionately according as the
profits rise above the minimum standard. And in the
other classes mentioned we think there can be no
better way than this of setting aside certainly a
minimum proportion of the day's or the week's profits
and adding to it proportionately.
Doing this regularly, faithfully, unflinchingly, and at
the same time implicitly trusting in the All-Powerful,
Ever- Watchful care of Him of whom it hath been said,
** He faileth not," we believe that unto the systematic
giver will be given for the supply of his daily
necessities according to the measure and implicitness of
his trust.
" He who hath led will lead
All through the wilderness ;
He who hath fed will feed ;
He who hath blessed will bless ;
He who hath heard thy cry
Will never close His ear ;
He who hath marked thy faintest figh
Will not forget thy tear ;
He loveth always, faileth never,
So rest on Him to dav^ forever J
20
Systematic Giving.
'I
Ml
I !
iJ
"fii
" He who hath made thee whole
Will heal thee day by day ;
He who hath spoken to thy soul
Hath many things to say ;
H^e who hath gently taught,
Yet more will He m^ike thee know ;
He who so wondrously hath wrought,
Yet greater things will show ;
He loveth always, faileth never ;
So rest on Him to-day^ forever !
" He who hath made thee nigh
Will draw thee nearer still ;
He who hath given the first supply
Will satisfy and fill \
He who hath given thee grace
Yet more and more will send ;
He who hath set thee in the race
Will speed thee to the end ;
He loveth always, faileih never ;
So rest on Him to-day^ forever !
\ !
'* He who hath won thy heart
Will keep it true and free ;
He who hath shown thee what thou art
Will show Himself to thee ;
He who hast hid thee live^
And made thy life His own,
Life more abundantly will give.
And keep it still His own ;
He loveth always, faileth never :
So rest on Him to-day ^forever !
Systematic Giving.
21
•• Then trust Him for today
As thine unfailing friend,
And let Him lead thee all the way,
Who loveth to the end,
And let the morrow rest
In His beloved hand ;
His good is better than pur best,
As we shall understand,
If trusting Him who faileth never,
We rest on Him to-day ^ forever I "
(3)
CHAPTER II.
HERE were once two flower gardens situ-
ated within a few blocks of each other,
within the limits of a certain city. The
gardens consisted of quite a number of
neatly laid out flower plots.
x^. The owners of these gardens respectively
were ladies who were no relation to each other, were
totally unlike in appearance, and whose natural disposi-
tions were even more dissimilar than their forms and
features. The elder of the two, from long habit of self-
love, self-esteem, etc., had become so completely wrapt
up in self and the surroundings that ministered to the
gratiflcation of self, that all unconsciously the very
garden she laboured so laboriously to make the envy
of her neighbours, suffered from self-absorption.
As the summer advanced the difference in the
richness and quantity of blossoms in the two gardens
became more and more apparent to friends who were
in the way of frequently seeing them both.
In that of the lady whose self-absorbed disposition
we have been describing, the flowers, though carefully
watered and watched and kept free from weeds,
became smaller and smaller and fewer and fewer,
dwindling away to insignificance simply f6r want of
those
"S
man.
debtoi
to inj
tion
expan
An
the wr
may
notice.
In a
of a gei
gone b}
t
Systematic Giving.
23
plucking and '* scattering!* She tried to retain them
for self enjoyment alone, and the natural consequence
followed.
The flowerfe in the other garden, on the contrary,
were cultivated with a loving heart and freely gathered
and bestowed on every comer and goer. The chief
pleasure they gave the owner consisted in that of
giving them away, and in witnessing the joy of the
recipients of her floral gifts. The little children all
around knew that garden. They knew they had only
to come and present a bright little eye between the
pickets of the fence, to get a kiss from the lady and a
pretty sprig of starry calliopsis and sweet scented
mignonette, or a bright bit of gay geranium.
It is not to be wondered at, then, that fresh blossoms
kept coming thicker and faster, and far richer than
those that were plucked with so generous a hand.
" Systematic Giving," then, we say impoverishes no
man. God never allows Himself to be any man's
debtor. To withhold our hand from giving is, in fact,
to injure and to wrong ourselves — to suffer contrac-
tion and dwarfing of our own souls, instead of the
expansion we might otherwise enjoy.
And this recalls to mind a beautiful allegory which
the writer has read, and which is now out of print an J
may therefore come with freshness to the reader's
notice. It was entitled "TheOld Man's Home."
In a pretty secluded village, situated on the banks
of a gently winding stream, there lived, in years long
gone by, a man with his wife and five children.
( •
24
Systematic Giving.
I .
I
^ii^
The picturesque little cottage, covered with wood-
bine and roses, in which they dwelt, was their own
property, and a sweet, happyhome it was.
Here they had lived in peace and happiness and
comparative health for quite a number of years. Few
families could boast of a more calm, unruffled flow of
domestic comfort and enjoyment of life than the
members of this household.
The rose covered cottage contained the world or
each, and it and its inmates was the centre around
which all their thoughts, actions and motives revolved.
Many a time it occurred to the husband and father
as he worked away daily improving his little property,
and meditating on his happy and prosperous condition,
that he really had all that his heart could desire, and
that there was nothing left out of his lot in life to wish
for.
An affectionate, industrious, thrifty wife — dear
sweet, intelligent, healthy children, ever trying to please
their parents by good behaviour and by many tokens
of thoughtful love — means to provide for all the
reasonable wants of his family and for occasional
indulgences and extra pleasures, besides having a snug
little sum in the bank to be in readiness against a
rainy day, in case such should ever come.
But year after year went quietly and peacefully on
without a shadow of a rainy day, till he began to
doubt or to forget that it might not be " always May "
with him and his. Alas ! (or shall we say " alas " ? )
very great changes and very dark days proved to be
Systematic Giving.
25
part of the plan or pattern to be wrought out by the
Divine Hand in the woof and weft of this individual's
earthly pilgrimage.
When his eldest daughter was approaching her
seventeenth birthday in the month of June of a certain
year, she was suddenly stricken down with a malignant
fever which infected and devastated the village for
many weeks, silently entering house after house, and
leaving vacant chairs and sorrowing hearts in its wake.
This lovely, gentle girl, the joy and pride of her
father's heart, lay tossing from side to side on her
couch, the bloom of her beautiful cheeks deepened into
the flush of burning fever, and her rich golden hair,
usually so neatly and so gracefully arranged, straying
in disheveled mas-^cs over the snowy counterpane.
Soon the verdict went forth that death was in the cup.
That this treasure should be going from them seemed
utterly impo.ssible to believe. Death was an unknown
stranger to this household, and the very happiness and
peacefulness of their past lives rendered a realization
of the solemn fact almost beyond their grasp.
At midnight the dreaded call came, and by the
same hour the following night the yoiMigest, a darling
bright little girl of three, also lay cold in death. Two
days subsequently, the mother and her three bright
boys, aged nine, eleven and fifteen respectively, were
smitten down with the same cruel disease, and within
the short space of ten days from the first appearance
of the fever in the once happy home, the grave had
closed over the mother and all the children.
w
26
Systematic Giving.
The bereaved father and husband left thus entirely
alone, refused at first to be comforted by such kind
neighbours and pious friends as ventured to brave the
danger of infection, and at length, unable to bear the
desolation of his position, wandered away from the too
familiar scenes of past joys now gone forever.
Bereft of reason, he wandered from place to place,
never caring to retrace his steps. Had he returned to
the place where once had stood the rose covered cot-
tage, he would indeed have found it no longer there
for by some accident during the illness of his family a
burning cinder had been dropped in among some wood
(at least, so the neighbours supposed), and after
smouldering away slowly for days, suddenly burst into,
flames, and before help arrived all was reduced to
ashes.
But the wanderer never thought of returning, and in
his state of mental aberration no remembrance of his
property appeared to enter his poor distraught mind.
The bank in which his savings had been placed
had failed and his money was all lost, but he never
knew it, and if he had known of the failure, of what
consequence was it noiv to him .-* Efforts were made by
the villagers from time to time to discover what had
become of their once prosperous neighbour, but with-
out success. He was found by some sportsmen one
day in a wood, not able to tell whence he came, and
evidently quite deranged. He assured the gentlemen
that he was on his journey home, would reach it " to-
morrow," and that his family were waiting for him.
Systematic Giving.
27
The sportsmen sent the poh'ce to have him conveyed
to an insane asylum, where he h'ved under severe
restraint (well meant, no doubt, but in this case most
cruel) for many years, till he became an old grey-
haired man with bent shoulders and shuffling gait.
In time past lunatic asylums were not managed in
the same judicious manner that they are in later days.
The unfortunate inmates were treated with inhumanity,
and no trouble was taken to find out the point or
points where the reason failed to aid the thoughts of
the brain, and mild types of insanity were treated
with like harsh restraint as the more awful ones.
Therefore, when a stage coach overtook this poor
fellow one day, when he had, after years of foiled
attempts, effected his escape from the institution where
he had been confined, the travellers and stage driver
were mystified to see him vainly trying to hide with the
cuffs of his coat sleeves the deep discoloured marks
which iron hayid-ctiffs had left on the wrinkled wrists
Of course they supposed he must be an escaped
criminal, and imagination was busy conjecturing what
degree of enormity the forlorn wretch had reached.
Was it murder ? And was it wife, or child, or brother,
or companion, whose life he had in rage and hatred
taken ?
The timid, shrinking manner, combined with the
stealthy efforts at concealment, first of himself as the
stage gained on him, and then of the wounded wrists,
when he had at last with great difficulty been per-
suaded to take a seat beside the occupants of the
28
Systematic Giving,
vehicle, together served to produce in the minds of all
a painful and awe-stricken doubt of the poor fellov/.
Who could he be ? Whence had he come ? and
whither was he going ?
The questions were put with cautious wording,
sometimes by one and sometimes by another, while the
others bent an attentive ear to catch the answers given
in a thin, weak, aged voice.
The name by which he had been known seemed to
be as completely lost as if he had never had one, so
that no definite information on that point could be
elicited.
There was a twxmhQv fifty-eight marked distinction
the collar of his coat, and also on his coloured hand-
kerchief when he drew the latter forth to wipe the per-
spiration which still covered his face and neck, either
from fear or from the exertions he had made to keep
himself invisible.
Probably by this number he had been known while
an inmate of the asylum.
His only reply to the second question was a look of
intense dread as he cast his eyes over either shoulder,
at the same time beseeching the passengers to let no
one take him away.
But when asked after a considerable interval * where
he was gomg," the aged face became illuminated by a
smile of exquisite joy and placidity, and pointing in a
westerly direction towards the setting sun which was
disappearing beneath a bank of glorious colouring, he
exclaimed in a clear, distinct voice, ' I am going home,
'n
Systematic Giving.
29
and I hope to be there to-morrow^ and my wife and
children are waiting for me." A thought of possible
madness flashed across the minds of the questioners.
The old man's face had assumed an expression of child-
like simplicity, and his own reflections on the prospect
of his journey's speedy termination seemed sufficient
occupation for all his thoughts.
Again his face lighted up with gratification and de-
light as one or two of the passengers handed him
small coins from their purses.
Ah ! here they thought they had found a clue to vice
and crime in the old man I He was evidently passion-
ately fond of money. His besetting sin was that,
which has been called " the root of all evil, " namely
" the love of money."
The donors expected to see the eagerly grasped
gifts as eagerly and carefully deposited in some filthy,
well-worn, miserly looking receptacle, but no I What
was their astonishment to see him immediately hand
over the pieces of silver to the stage driver, murmuring
some familiar words about " moth and rust, " and
about " where your treasure is there will your heart be
also." Nay, when he saw the good-hearted driver again
in turn insist on handing the monev over to another
person, asking that it be given to some good object, the
old man laughed outright with childish joy, his whole
countenance beaming with pleasurable excitement.
The soliloquies which he incoherently indulged in for
some time afterwards, revealed the " blessed " pure-
ness of heart of the aged child of God in a way that
I
aa
■ ! ■
'I
I
m\ I
;i I
30
Systematic Giving.
the listeners never forgot. Verily, he was of those of
whom our Saviour has said that " They shall see God."
It became quite apparent that his eagerness and
evident joy in accepting the money in the first place,
and which had been wrongly judged to arise from
avaricious greed, arose solely from his large-hearted
gladness that two of his travelling companions were
benefiting their own souls by the act of giving.
Similar motives for his own sake had caused him
immediately to pass the gifts on to the coach driver, who
had shown him kindness, and gained his affections by
taking him up in his weariness. Coupled with this
last feeling was the habitual knowledge ever present
with him that his treasures were not of earth at all, and
that he must " lay up " everything for the Eternal
Home to which he was going. It had been his invari-
able habit ever since his sorrows, to give away any-
thing he received, realizing with beautiful child-like
simplicity, that he was thus only forwarding it to " the
home" where all his "treasure" was already "laid
up," and to which he always expected himself to
arrive not later than " to-morrow. "
The kind sympathy shown him by the driver had
caused the tenderness of his loving child-like heart to
go out towards him, so that he clapped his withered
'v^ ds with glee when he saw his kind, new friend in
\ ,0 Jo his soul good by passuig the silver over to
a;. Awci, md thus " lay up " some " treasure " for him-
r.fv", 'vo in that " home beyond."
Ah yes, it was a beautiful, never-to-be-forgotten
Systematic Giving.
31
to
:d
lin
Ito
lesson that those travellers learned on their journey
that day. It was, we are sorry to say, rudely inter-
rupted by Fome officers from the lunatic asylum, wh >
now overtook their escaped patient.
In vain he wept and besought them to let hirri
hasten on his journey, that he would reach his "home
to-morrow, " and that his wife and children were await-
ing his arrival.
Those who had been sent to hunt for and recapture
him had no authority to do otherwise than carry out
the orders of their superior officers, so the hand-cuffs
were produced and refastened upon the bruised wrists,
and amid tears and heart-rending petitions, the poor
old man was lifted into the conveyance that was to
bear him back to the asylum, where he had been so
long kept in close confinement.
The humane passengers of the coach, who had
be come deeply interested in his pitiful case, tried
to usetheir influence in his behalf and to advise
different treatment, but of course it was useless for
any person to interfere at the present juncture of
affairs.
A few days later, however, one of the travellers, a
gentleman whose name was well known and whose
influence had weight, made it his duty to call at the
institution and hold an interview with the superinten-
dent, offering to become himself responsible for the
care of the patient, and asking to be permitted to have
him removed to a refuge for the aged and infirm, of
which he was himself one of the directors. The re-
32
Systematic Giving,
quest was granted, and the change seemed most bene-
ficial to the health and spirits of the invalid.
Here he was allowed to walk about freely in the en-
closure, and even in the neighbourhood of the refuge ;
for he always returned safely at nightfall, murmuring
. incoherently that he would pursue his journey and
reach ' home to-morrow."
The caretaker had a little girl of nine years of age
who soon made great friends with the old man. Hand
in hand they took many walks together, chatting away
quite familiarly, until the child began to take a warm
interest in the home to which her aged friend was
journeying, and the dear relatives who were ready to
welcome him when he reached it.
When her parents became aware of the constant
theme of conversation between the two, they tried to
break'the intimacy, fearing the child's mind and spirits
might become affected by dwelling ever on the one
subject; but the little one so pined for her favorite
companionship that the parents were obliged to indulge
her. So, day after day, the two would sit for hours
together on a rude bench in the enclosure.
Visitors frequently bestowed little attentions in the
way of sixpences, fruit and flowers, on the old man,
whose attenuated frame and placid countenance never
failed to attract their attention. These he invariably
passed on, for the reasons which we already know, to
his little friend, and she again, quite understanding
their mutual motives for .so doing, sped fast on " swift
and beautiful feet" and distributed the gifts to the
other inmates, rarely keeping any portion for herself.
girl
connj
reachj
affecti
entire
Systematic Giving.
33
The silver pieces and pence were always dropped
into a private money box kept in her own bed-room,
and intended for a certain charitable object, and which
was not opened until after the old man's death.
For only a few months after he had become an in-
mate of the refuge, she missed him once for a whole day-
She wandered about 'vaiting for him for many
hours, and then when her patience was quite exhausted,
she forced her way to those who were sure to be able
to give her the information she desired concerning the
old man.
Very tenderly they told her that through the night
he had completed the journey he had trod so long, and
was even now enjoying a welcome from the wife and
children who had preceded him to " the old man's
home. "
Ah, would that we were all insane, if indeed it were
insanity to be " in the world, but not of it," to have
the mind so absorbed by longings and aspirations con-
nected with Eternity and the home beyond the grave
as to be oblivious to every thing else, and to be ready to
give our all in the same beautiful, trustful, child-like
manner as the subject of this allegory.
When a little funeral procession wended its way to
the quiet church-yard two days afterwards, the little
girl who had lost her much cherished friend scarcely
connected the ont with the other. The old man had
reached in safety the home where all his desires and
affections were centered, and with this fact she, with
entire self-forgetfulness, took complete satisfaction.
I' I
i!|!
•'I
1 Un I
l>f i'
':;i
II
■ I I
I i
1 I
• il
1
1
'.:'i II
;t . ; ■ j
Il
34
Systematic Giving.
In loving remembrance of the " life hid with Christ
in God, " which had lighted up the Refuge for these few
brief months, the inmates and officials raised a small
head-stone to mark the spot to which his earthly re-
mains were consigned.
The words engraved ypon the stone were these : — " I
go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a
place for you I will come again and receive you unto
myself, that where I am there ye may be also." And
below : — " For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also."
The time-worn, old-fashioned device of hands clasp-
ing each other which surmounted the quoted texts, had
a few hieroglyphics arching it, which, on closer inspec-
tion, read thus, evidently taken from some obscure
poem : — "Then 'vanished hands' you'll clasp again."
CHAPTER III.
Y this time we hope we have come to the
undoubted conclusion that giving system-
atically ought to be the pleasurable duty
of the *' sons of God, joint heirs with
Christ, " and not only so, but that we realize
in some small measure the inestimable bene-
fit to our own souls thus done.
Before leaving the subject of money giving^ we shall
take a retrospective glance at history, and bring before
the mind of the reader some men and women who have
made " their lives sublime " by the beneficent use of
money,entrusted to them by the Heavenly Father.
And in this connection we would remember to say
that very great and thoughtful consideration as to our
objects of giving is absolutely necessary.
These objects may be varied from time to time, per-
haps yearly, or quarterly, or even monthly, but if the
"heir" is to "occupy" fully and worthily, his mind
should be quite settled as to the channels for his
money to flow. At the same time it would be well to
try also to be prepared for sudden emergencies as they
arise. We often quote with perhaps a faint odour of
self-righteous satisfaction, the Master's most precious
commendation, ** Inasmuch as ye have done it to one
|p-5«
1. n
!!
■<; ,
! !
■i! «! !
36
Systematic Giving.
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me," but we are hardly as ready to bear in our mem-
ories the equally important and solemn condemnation,
" Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these,
ye did it not to me." Therefore, it is well and advisable
to keep by us, if possible, something for what we may
term, " Inasmuch " emergencies.
The schemes in connection with the Church form of
each individual should commend themselves primarily
to the giver's notice, and proportions be assigned to
them according as their usefulness is estimated. We
would refer our readers to Chapter VI., where will be
found a synopsis of the schemes and Missionary work
of the Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Episco-
palian and Presbyterian denominations, as gathered
from the yearly records, and other sources.
The address of the treasurer in each department is
supplied for the convenience of those desiring to find
channels for Christian beneficence.
After these no one need be at a loss in this nine-
teenth century to find suitable objects for beneficence.
They stretch out and yawn with hungry open mouths
in every direction.
Thank God for our nineteenth century asylums for
every possible class of His needy or afflicted creatures.
We have our " homes for incurables, " our " hospitals
for sick children," our " orphans' homes," our asylums
for the deaf, the dumb, the blind, and for those more
to be pitied than any others, who are under the dark
and mysterious dispensation of dethroned reason.
Systematic Giving.
37
And thank God for the nineteenth century illumin-
ation of many Christian hearts which has caused them
to give tangible expression to their thankfulness for
the unbounded privileges of the age in which they live,
by founding and setting in motion these benevolent
institutions.
An open Bible, a preached Gospel, religious freedom,
advancement in printing, and, indeed, the lightening
and shortening of labour in every department of work,
by invention and machinery, which gives mankind in
general, time and opportu7iity for the appreciation and
enjoyment of the vast accumulations of literature so
freely disseminated throughout the entire world from
ocean to ocean. We have only to take a glance through
the extensive catalogues representing the rows and
shelves of finely bound books in our luxurious free
libraries, to see the advanced stage to which culture and
thought have reached. We see there side by side with
all the old standard authors, Josephus, Cicero, Homer,
Plutarch, and so forth, our later literary stars, whose
appreciation by the intelligent nineteenth century mind
is evinced by neglect and crowding out of literature of
a lighter and more frivolous stamp. Our Macaulay,
Coleridge, Thackeray, Froude, Carlyle, Emerson, Brew-
ster, Kinglake, Layard, Livingston, Kingston, Frank-
lin, Herschell, Millar, Dawson, Butler, Paley, Robert-
son and Robinson, Christopher North, Allison, Pol-
lock, Milton, Sigourney, Hemans, Adelaide Proctor,
Jean Ingello, Havergal, Hannah Moore, Barbauld, and
where shall we stop ? Not surely till we have named
(4)
i:i
-!■ i
' I
1^
I
i ■■ :i
38
Systematic Giving,.
those authors who are infusing the very essence of the
giving spirit into the hearts and minds of our young
girls and growing boys — such books as Charlesworth's
" Ministering Children," Ballantyne's " Dusty Dia-
monds," Havergal's " Bruey " and " Kept for the Mas-
ter's Use " ; the " Pansy " books, S. S. Hewlett's
" Daughters of the King," and the papers and magazines
and leaflets that convey to us such soul-reviving and
heart-warming intelligence from our missionary fields.
And what has been at the very fountain-head of
this brilliant, glorious stream of literature ? Is it not
the unprecedented educational advantages of the age ?
In Britain and her colonies, in Switzerland, Ger-
many and many countries educational advantages are
not only made free to the masses, but are made com-
pulsory, so that no one can grow up unable to use the
further benefits of the free libraries in these countries.
We see by a reference to an article in a pamphlet
of recent date from the pen of a traveller on the
continent, the following in regard to compulsory
education in Switzerland : — " Education is free and
compulsory. The public school-houses are among the
finest edifices in the country. The result of this
extravagance, as some people call it, is a greater ratio
of general intelligence than is to be found in any other
country under the sun. Children must go to school at
six, and must remain in it until they are thirteen years
of age. The gymnasium, the blackboard, and object
lessons generally, enter largely into the curriculum.
Politeness is inculcated as a cardinal virtue, also
.eld. MX are taught ojn, ."^He '"^ "^^'-^ '"e
The people are very S^. ■ ^°^' °" t° ^ay :
;M'ed mechanic and S 7"hf°7 'r ^^- "-■-
'ate. The women are T dMi . ''^'^^ ^arly and
"""■e so. There are m ?'"' "' ^^ men, often
Ben^eand Genela'^x^^^^f -- ^^, ^,
are guaranteed equally to I^f" °"'"^"" «"<! faith
"?en and women, el"w f ."^°'=^'^S°^"ning
The uneducated ino aTe ,f the°™ °' ~"^<^''--
W.nd them to the imposita°a„w ■"""''' ''''P^'^ '°
but the spread of genera '„?.n '"•"'^"'=e« of misrule,
- fast dispersing all E ^ "f "« -" i"«-ination'
Despotism and fh« ^ ""««.
Christfan re,i;"on L Z: T"'"' ^''-^'" <"• the
gether; the former must ultL"?^°."'"'"'<= '° ^^-^ to
°f the latter. Edla i'Tshlf' '° ''^ '■"«'"--«
Wows to the one and to ex end fh"^ '° «'><= death
fuller flow of the other the channels for the
In Denmark we see thot r
has not only been compu's„rv7""'' P"'' '''"^^tion
but the poor children Sau^.t ""'" '° ■^'""-'«".
In Austria and Hun^L "^ ^'"""''""*-
f-m Jx to twelve y^Sir '^'^^''-''-ompulsory
40
Systematic Giving.
In Germany it is a rare thing for a single person to
miss learning to read ; education is compulsory and
universal. Russia expends — we are speaking of the
year 1870 — two million sterling on education. In
Italy, in 1864, one million. While in Great Britian
compulsory education years since cost ;^3,9i544i for
England and Wales alone, and all readers are aware
how justly proud Scotland is of her unsurpassed
system of education from her infant schools to her
Universities of profoundest lore.
In centuries past there may have been many noble
minds, many whose genius and deep range of thought
have been lost to the world simply for lack of educa-
tional advantages.
It is remarkable how frequently the greatest minds
have arisen from obscurity and poverty, and amidst
almost insurmountable difficulties and struggles.
The thirst for knowledge might exist ever so pro-
foundly and the wherewithal and the time be im-
possible to command. But those days of expensive
and meagre education are all passed away in the
philanthropic, intelligent nineteenth century.
Education is one of the hobbies, we may say, of our
own century.
Improvements and extensions are made every day,
not only in imparting knowledge to the myriads of
young people who crowd the streets going to and
fro to school, but in training and equipping the teachers
and providing adequate salaries to remunerate them.
And here we would not leave out that seventh day
'•'li;!...;
Systematic Giving.
41
teaching which has reached so high a standard of
perfection. The loving teaching and the loving
learning of the Sabbath school, the fields and fields
of ripening grain that have sprung up from that first
sowing of Robert Raikes. It iswidening and spreading
and deepening to an extent of which our conception
is but small comparatively, and even now a vast over-
whelming tide of influence which is to permeate all
future generations is fast setting in. We feel the wave-
lets in every direction we turn. Oh, may the earnest-
ness and devotion in this field of labor for the Master
(none greater) increase day by day and year by year !
Surely our world has arrived at the stage of which it
was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in chap. liv.
and 1 3th verse, " All thy children shall be taught of
the Lord."
It — the Sabbath school teaching — is going on and on,
for it is the first weapon for the Lord that is usually
thrust in, in our mission fields.
When we think of our wonderful farming imple-
ments, not to speak of telephones, telegraphy and steam
power introduced into our manufactories the world
over, and even giving us such wonderful command
over the waters of our rivers, lakes and oaeans, can we
forget for a moment how deep our debt of gratitude
should be — we who live in the nineteenth century. And
again, when we compare the educational advantages
and resources of the present century to those of the
past, we may well tremble at the enormous responsi-
bilities that have been laid upon us, lest we fail to offer
m
ill
H
IM
■m
42
Systematic Giving,
incessantly from full and grateful hearts our thanks-
givings to the great Giver of all good.
But all this belongs perhaps to a different point in
our observations, and we return to speak of some givers
of money that the world has known.
•■I I
CHAPTER IV.
EORGE PEABODY, who came into the
possession of great wealth as an Ameri-
can merchant in London, England, and
whose name is synonymous with philan-
thropy, was a giver of millions, and with
very wide systematic, philanthropic views,
thoroughly weighed and measured, and planned
most economically in every case. That is, he spared
himself no trouble nor time to have his money laid
out on good objects in the particular way that would
result in the widest good, with the least expenditure of
time and money and labour possible.
We will not stop to mention more than one or two
of the beneficent gifts of this unparalleled giver.
One of the greatest and widest in good results
was the half million pounds sterling given to build
tenement houses for the poor in London and other-
wise to ameliorate their condition. There was also a
gift towards education in the Southern States, to
include all colours and creeds, of another similar sum
of half a million of pounds sterling.
For founding and carrying on of Peabody Institute
in Baltimore, Maryland, he gave one million five
hundred thousand dollars.
If
Hi
I «! ■
i
44
Systematic Giving.
To Peabody Institute, Peabody, Massachusetts, for
founding and. carrying on, two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. For erection of a memorial Church
in Georgetown, Massachusets, he gave a sum of ten
thousand dollars:
These are only a few of his larger bequests. The
total, not including divisions of property to relatives
and gifts to the same, is between eight and nine millions.
We gather a litt; .- ;'if into the motives under-
lying all these munificeii » * i from George Peabody's
reply (of which we quote ?i ; =*ntence or two) to a
letter of thanks and a^.p 'oval w ^ he received from
her Majesty Queen Victori:;, . rclng Peabody
Square in London. Not only did the stupendous out-
lay from one individual meet with her astonished
commendation, but the very wise, careful, systematic
way in which the plans for the tenement houses were
carried through, so that it is no wonder that such
immense benefits should have flowed and shall continue
to flow from this benevolent expenditure of money,
coupled with wise consideration. Extract from George
Peabody's reply to the Queen : — " On the occasion
which has attracted your Majesty's attention of setting
apart a proportion of my property to ameliorate the
condition and augment the comforts of the poor of
London, / have been actuated by a deep sense of grati-
tude to God, who has blessed me with prosperity, and of
attachment to this great country, where under your
Majesty's benign rule, I have received so much personal
kindness, and enjoyed so many years of happiness."
+
Systematic Giving.
45
Brassey, the man of railway enterprise, gave away
during his life time at least half a million pounds
sterling, and his giving was always executed with
great discretion and consideration, never rashly and
impetuously. And if this sum does not appear large
in comparison to the large amounts which sometimes
welled up suddenly out of his railway speculations, we
must remember that his millions could. hardly be
counted his own, as they no sooner came to his credit
than he would launch them out again in some new
railway concern.
We are glad to think that Mr. Brassey, whose enter-
prises have done so much for the commercial, and we
may say scientific advancement of the world, was
not too busy in his very busy career to take time for
'* Systematic Giving," that while he must have been
greatly occupied with affairs of this world, he was able
to bestow some thoughts on the " Inheritance" beyond.
To have won the respect, admiration and love of the
innumerable agents and workmen whom he employed,
in the manner that was constantly evinced by them
during his years of activity, and also when the strong
man's life was ebbing away, said volumes for him.
The writer has had the pleasure of hearing strong,
affectionate testimony of his fine qualities of heart from
one of his favourite agents or contractors, whose ■
acquaintance was formed in Canada. This contractor
had the management of the laying of many miles of
rails on the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.
William Allen was an eminent philanthropist. His
46
Systematic Giving.
t
I! I
1 1
■%
Iffi, !'V
:»,l:
!
motto is worthy to be remembered, especially as his
philanthropy showed that he acted upon it throughout
his life, " Make temporals give away to spirituals."
Ah ! that is just where so many givers, Christians
though they be, err. They reverse this order of things
and make spirituals give way to temporals.
Another which we would mention is Walter Powell,
whose father failed as a merchant in London, and
emigrated to Van Dieman's Land.
From the time that Walter Powell began to earn
money he was a giver, one of his first benevolences
being a gift of ten pounds, a large proportion of his
savings at the time, as his salary was only one hundred
pounds per annum, to a poor man with a large family
who was out of employment and in very low spirits in
consequence. The ten pounds was to enable the poor
fellow to set up as a dealer. As Mr Powell's business
prospered he at once recognized the claims of benevo-
lence.
In the vicinity of Melbourne, Australia, he settled
down in a very plain, simple, unostentatious residence,
and then threw all his energies into good deeds for
the benefit of all within his reach.
He was the chief promoter, if not the founder of the
Immigrant's Home, and also of the Book Depot. It
is impossible to count up his aids to good objects.
He established schools and churches, and helped
he needy of all classes. The religious history of
Victoria owes much to the beneficence of Walter
Powell.
i
Systematic Giving.
47
He increased at his own expense the ministerial
strength to keep pace with the growing population.
Established the Wesleyan Immigrants' Home.
Provided additional church accommodation for the
great influx of immigration.
He erected and furnished Wesley College, and
also built mission churches for the gold fields.
Gave fifteen hundred dollars to Wesley College.
To these could be added a great many of those
gifts so precious in the estimation of the Omniscient
Heavenly Father, in which the " left hand " was kept
in ignorance of what the " right " was doing.
The sainted John Angel James, whose exalted
standard of Christian life may be gathered from his
" Anxious Enquirer " — a volume which has been singu-
larly blessed of God to many souls, the writer being
able to testify to its enjoyment and the influence of its
precious maxims in very early childhood — this author
bears the highest testimony to the systematic giving
of Thomas Wt/sou, of Highbury, who devoted his
whole fortune to the education of men for the
ministry, and for the building of places of worship.
Many Congregational churches in England are to-
day reaping benefits past reckoning from his systematic
expenditure of his means in their comfortable chapels
and earnest ministers.
He had a /louse of business, an office, a clerk, all in
relation to his schemes of systematic giving.
He erected and founded three large schools and
spent a great deal of money in other useful benefactions
48
Systematic Giving.
lii:
I- ■ i
' ■ 4
Edward Denison simply gave himself and his means
entire, with wisely-directed system, to the east end of
London.
Dying at the early age of twenty-nine years at
Melbourne, Australia, whence he journeyed in the
interests of emigration and colonization, it seemed to
his friends and all who knew him that he was
anxiously endeavouring to accomplish this culmina-
tion of his earnest life-work ere it would be too late, as
his health was fast failing before he set out on the
journey. Experimentally he discovered a rule for the
guidance of his associates and successors in his difficult
field of labour.
He says : — *' Give no money except what you sink
in building school-houses or in paying teachers, giving
prizes or forming workmen's clubs ; help them to help
themselves; lend them your brains. To give bodily
aid to the poor is a mistake ; let things work them-
selves straight."
We cannot give any record of the amounts given by
Edward Denison, but we know that he gave his «//,
besides no doubt expending his strength in such large
measure that he came to the end of it in twenty-nine
years.
We think to his memory we may fitly appropriate
Cowper's ode to his friend Thornton : —
" Since thrice happy thou must be —
Not thee I mourn, but the world no longer thy abode ;
Thee to deplore were grief mis-spent indeed :
Systematic Giving,
49
It were to weep that goodness has its meed —
That there is bliss prepared in yonder sky,
And glory for the virtuous when they die.
What pleasure can the miser's fondled hoard,
Or spendthrift's prodigal excess afford,
Sweet as the privilege of healing woe,
By virtue suffered, combating below ?
That privilege was thine : Heaven gave thee means
To illumine with delight the saddest scenes^
Till thy appearance chased the ^ooxw^ forlorn
As midnight^ and despairing of a morn.
Thou hadst an industry in doing good.
Restless as his who toils and sweats for food.
Avarice, in thee, was the desire of wealth
By rust unperishable, or by stealth ;
And if the genuine worth of gold depend '
On application to its noblest end.
Thine had a value in the scales of Heaven,
Surpassing all that mine or mint had given.
And though God made thee of a nature prone
To distribution boundless of thy own —
And still by motives of religious force
Impelled thee more to that heroic course.
Yet was thy liberality discreet^
Nice in its choice^ and of a tempered heat ;
And though in act unwearied, secret still,
As in some solitude the summer rill
Refreshes^ where it winds, the faded green.
And cheers the drooping flowers, unheard^ unseen^
Such was thy charity \ no sudden starts
After long sleep of passion in the heart,
50
Systematic Giving.
H
■ 1
1
1
tl::,'i
'\ '
i ; ■ ; 1 .
'4
1
i\
i 1
I'll
li
1
But steadfast principle^ and in its kind,
Of close relation to the Eternal Mind,
Traced easily to its source above —
To Him whose works bespeak His nature — Love.
Thy bounties all were Christian, and I make
This record of thee for the Gospel's sake,
That the incredulous themselves may see
Its use and power exemplified in thee."
Robert Owejt, of New Lanark Mills, Scotland, who
was eager to amass money only for the schemes
for social reform which he had in view, devoted many
thousands of pounds sterling to his schemes, and
if the results did not always meet his expectations, we
are not at all to judge that the estimation by God of
his gifts was any less on that account. It is a
beautiful comforting thought that not the sower nor the
giver is responsible for results, but God Himself, and
that His measurement of actions themselves goes not
further than the spontaneous heart motive at the root
of all.
The devoted Livingstone's name stands out pro-
minently in the line of giving and philanthropic
self-sacrifice. Readers of his volume of " Missionary
Travels" know well the labours and privations that
come to the surface necessarily there.
His own hard-earned money was bestowed freely
and cheerfully wherever it would do good, during all
the years represented by his travels.
The profits of his volume were spent thus : — More
and
maj
Systematic Giving.
51
than half went towards one single object dear to the
great missionary's heart, namely, the expedition up the
Zambesi river ; half of the remainder was expended
on another favourite and equally important missionary
object, that was to pave the way for colonization, but
the particulars of which have not been chronicled.
The only reservation he allowed himself was a suffi-
ciency for the education of his children.
At another epoch in his noble history Dr. Living-
stone devoted a sum of two thousand pounds sterling
towards colonization of poor British in Africa, the
hitherto " unknown " continent.
In this connection we will quote some of his own
earnest words. " My heart yearns," he says, " over our
own unfortunate poor when I see so much of God's
fair earth unoccupied."
Dr. Livingstone also spent much money and energy
in endeavours to stop the inland slave trade in Africa.
Valuing intensely the souls purchased at the inestim-
able price of the blood of God's owft Son, his own
inmost soul was pierced with horror and commisera-
tion at the iniquitous traffic of human beings.
We get a glimpse of his feelings on this subject
from a letter to a brother in Canada : — *' If the good
Lord permits me to put a stop to the awful inland
slave-trade, I shall not regret my hunger and toils ; "
and what these were we can only faintly imagine.
How long the " unexplored regions " of this great
and richly-fertile continent, with its mighty rivers and
majestic tropical forests, would have remained in
52
Systematic Giving.
\m
\i
,i 1,
uncivilized darkness and obscurity but for Livingstone
and those who were led on by his noble example to
follow in his steps and associate themselves with him,
it would be hard to say. God might have seen fit to
use other instruments for His work had there been no
Livingstone ; but this was the honoured vessel " set
apart," and no doubt trained in the Master's school
for his particular and unique mission, just as a Joseph
or a Moses were trained.
There is also the time-honored name oi Henry Mar tyn^
who devoted his short life and spent his means without
stint in the missionary cause. How the little circle of his
influence has widened and goes on widening since he
was called to higher work in the kingdom above ! And
to his name we would add the names of those earnest
lovers, promoters and supporters of missions, Edwards,
Lake and Lawrence, and of recent date, General
Taylor and Colonel Martin — men whose delight and
joy it was to spend and be spent in the advancement
of God's kingdom among the heathen.
The great prison reformer, Hoivard, got two bits of
sharp training for his life-work which influenced his
whole life, and led, as we know, to results for good
beyond computation.
The vessel in which he was once voyaging with
other passengers had — we can hardly, in the face of all
the stream of good that flowed from the experience,
call it — the misfortune to be captured by a French
privateer. Howard and the rest of the travellers were
confined in a foreign prison, where their sufferings
repi
issu^
ensi
to
by
to thl
m
com<
Systematic Giving.
53
)d
Ith
all
Ice,
>ch
:re
from want of air, hunger, thirst, and effects from
unwholesome food during the short space of one
fortnight, were such as to give the bent to this noble
man's philanthropic spirit.
Howard was determined to bring about a thorough
prison reform. Having been Sheriff of Bedford Jail
for a time, he became so absorbed with this idea that
he resolved to give himself entirely to the arduous
task for the remainder of his life.
After visiting the prisons in Britain, he proceeded to
examine those of Holland, Switzerland, Flanders,
Germany, Italy and part of France.
Having thoroughly posted himself in every detail,
employing years of laborious toil, and dangerous
exposure in accumulating information as an eye-
witness of the cruelty and inhumanity practised upon
prisoners confined in the jails, he set to work to
get all in order for publication, an undertaking
rendered especially difficult by the meagre educa-
tional advantages to be had in his time.
At length his volume of some six hundred pages,
representing years of patient research, was ready to
issue from the press. It was sold at less than cost to
ensure wide circulation, and manycopies were presented
to influential people holding office.
A sum of ifteen thousand pounds sterling, left him
by a sister, was, i/i addition to this, devoted entirely
to the object he had so much at heart.
His total self-for,':^etfulness, or rather self-abnegation,
comes out strongly in the matter of the intention of
(5)
54
Systematic Giving.
%
f i
an admiring and grateful public, who desired to erect
a statue in memorium of the great benefits he had
conferred, and was still conferring on humanity.
Quite a considerable sum towards this object had
been subscribed before Ho.vard became aware of
what was being done, and when he did hear of it the
information was received by him \\\t\i positive pain.
His first feeling was one of indignation that his
more intimate friends who knew his heart motives in
all he was accomplishing, should not have taken
immediate steps to prevent what they must have felt
would be so repugnant to the feelings of a man
actuated by the Christ-like motives that he was. His
own expression of the effect such a public acknow-
ledgment of his good deeds had upon him was this —
" It damps and confounds all my schemes. My
exaltation is my downfall — my misfortune."
Howard insisted on the money, as far as possible,
being returned to the donors, and what could not
easily find its way back to those who had given it for
the purpose of the statue, was applied to what he con-
sidered a far more worthy use, namely, to free
unfortunate debtors from their hopeless imprison-
ment.
Not content with what he had done for the
amelioration of the condition of those confined in
prisons and jails, he set to work to root out of cities
and villages all that had a tendency to burst forth in
waves of plague, pestilence, and disease, such as the
never-to-be-forgotten " Black Death." For this pur-
wh
opj
reqi
l\
whii
"Inl
nai
ben(
Systematic Giving.
55
in
ties
in
Itbe
ur-
pose he visited every lazaretto and hot bed of disease
and misery in Europe.
Fearlessly on he went in his self-imposed duty into
the very midst of infectious and loathsome disease.
Committing himself to the care of the God, to serve
Whom was his sole aim, he seemed literally to '* take
no thought for his life." Indeed it would appear from
remarks quietl}'' made to his physician, when death
really was approaching, that his mind was accustomed
to dwell calmly on the subject daily, and that each
day he anticipated the probability of contracting that
contagion which would end fatally.
But what was death to such a man as Howard.
It was the " abundant entrance" on his " Inheritance."
It is a noticeable fact that Howard, while in no way
shrinking from danger in pursuing his course of duty,
was careful to take all the necessary precautions while
instituting the sanitary imprcements to which we are
so indebted for health to this day.
His diet was carefully studied, and was so low that
it could not be lowered when he did contract the fever
which terminated his earthly career.
Thankful that the statue project had been nipped
opportunely in the bud, he made a few characteristic
requests regarding the recording of his name.
It was merely to be added on the same little simple
white marble slab that had been previously erected
"In memory of" his wife, "Henrietta." Just the
name, with his age and the date of his death, and
beneath five short words, sufficient, however, to tell
'W-
matm
mmmm
56
Systematic Giving.
11
the world the weight in which he held all he had been
honoured by God to do during his life. The words
were these : " My hope is in Christ."
We are sure our readers are ready to agree with
us that although Florence Nightingale devoted her
entire fortune for the relief of the sick, the wounded
and the suffering at the time of the great Crimean
War, that the money she gave is the least valuable of
her givings and benefactions.
Had she merely sent the money for the relief of the
Crimean soldiers, it would have been reckoned by the
world as a most worthy and benevolent act of self-
sacrifice ; but that this accomplished, cultivated lady
should leave a particularly happy and luxurious home,
where she was surrounded by loving and admiring
relatives and friends, including an affectionate father
and mother, and travel to the seat of war herself,
laden with that which money could not buy, namely,
delicate womanly sympathy, eager to express itself in
a systematic practical manner, was more than if she
had given millions of money.
And well she and her attendants performed their
critical duties as gentle nurses of the sick and
wounded.
The surgeons were ready to acknowledge their full
appreciation of the daily offices performed by award-
ing more than half the honour of convalescent
patients to the careful and judicious treatment of
Florence Nightingale and those whom she directed.
Florence Nightingale is the youngest daughter and
01
re/
coj
^i
th(
to
Systematic Giving.
57
\\\
fd-
:nt
of
ind
co-heiress of Mr William Shore Nightingale, of
Embley Park, Hampshire, and the Lea Hurst, Derby-
shire, England.
The noble and unique step taken by a young lady
of her position has opened up new fields of Christian
usefulness among women everywhere.
Training schools for nurses have sprung up, and are
crowded with earnest, self-denying pupils, since the
one organized from the '* Nightingale Fund " was set
in motion.
After the battle of Balaclava the public enthusiasm
was anxious to express itself tangibly ; especially was
this desire whetted and rendered keener by the heroine
whom thiiy desired to honour giving them the slip —
becoming suddenly invisible when the tender, delicate
hand was no longer needed.
Being naturally excessively modest and retiring
and anxious to avoid publicity, she glided quietly
home incognito on board a French vessel, rather than
on the JB'*itish man-of-war specially assigned for her
triumphant and imposing homeward voyage.
It was deemed next to useless to offer the wealthy
heiress national gifts in the shape of money, and she at
once declined all such " for herself , " therefore a
grateful nation expressed itself by the " Fund " already
referred to, and we venture to say that many an equally-
consecrated, though perhaps less conspicuous, life than
Florence Nightingale's, issues from time to time from
the doors of the great " Training School for Nurses,"
to which the " Nightingale Fund " was applied.
■■■
m
I!
tn'i
llf.l .
I 1
58
Systematic Giving.
History may not have it in its power to record their
names, but God knows His own — those gentle, active
sisters, who are going about with tender, loving hearts,
and neat, skilful hands, gathering for themselves the
Master's gracious " Inasmuch."
Florence Nightingale has always spent her means
freely on any charitable object commending itself to
her discretion, coming under notice.
The mother of the Crossleys, the great carpet manu-
facturers in England, expressed a vow in presence of
her sons, years ago, before their prosperous career had
set in, " If the Lord prospers us the poor will have a
share."
The establishment now covers acres of land, and it
is well known how, year by year, this noble Christian
mother and her sons are keeping the vow they made.
Their benevolent gifts are munificent, and are
expended open handed, according to the increase of
their prosperity.
Chinese Gordon was always empty handed, owing
to the freedom with which he expended money on the
needs of others or for philanthropic objects, before it
almost got the length of his pocket.
The late Lord Shaftesbury s career of useful benevo-
lence is too well known to need recording — a man who
spent his money for others.
And as these wise stewards of their Master's talents
are called home, others step into their ranks and fill
their places. We see by a late article, copied from
" The Sunday Magazine " by one of our standard
III
Systematic Giving,
59
it
journals, a paragraph concerning Mr. Carnegie's phil-
anthropic gifts, that we think it would be well to note
in reference to the subject of the last few pages.
The article is headed "A Millionaire's Advice," and
goes on to say : '^Mr, Carnegie seems to be one of the
few men who can preach and practice with equal
energy. He made a fortune in America and is now
setting himself to spend it in the most useful way.
" He has just given fifty thousand pounds sterling to
establish a free library in Edinburgh, and has already
four similar institutions in other towns. But his words
have won as much attention as his deeds. He actually
confesses that he believes the day will come when a
' man who dies rich will die disgraced '; and he asserts
that to leave wealth *to a child is to gratify the vanity
of a parent, and is in no degree for the welfare of the
child.'
" This is an idea of life which is more Christ-like
than it is popular. That men who are rich should
become poor that others through their poverty may
become rich, is a more literal following of the Lord
Jesus Christ than is likely to become common."
We trust it will " become common," and that the
little leaven will go on and on till it leavens evenly the
whole lump of humanity in all their different grades of
poverty and wealth.
The writer, and we trust, the reader, feels inclined to
endorse heartily Mr. Carnegie's opinions. Let wealthy
parents give to their heirs every educational and train-
ing privilege and advantage that their money can
li
%l
4'i
i-i
-r*!
V !. i
^•■'V
!3,
60
Systematic Giving.
purchase, and very little more, unless they would strip
those whom they love, and for whom they would wish
to do their best, of energy, and self-reliance, and many
another good quality.
We see evidence of the truth of this assertion around
us every day in wrecks of humanity and useless mem-
bers of the community.
Give your money freely to charities; for benevolent
causes; spend it with freedom during your lifetime; get
all the good out of it you can, and have an inexhaust-
ible fund of happiness and enjoyment infused into
your life while it lasts, by watching the issues, and
widening circles of good resulting from your beneficent
expenditure.
Hoarding money for whatever purpose is, we believe
with Mr. Carnegie, an unwise, if not yet deemed a
" disgraceful " thing.
Before forwarding this manuscript volume for publi-
cation we turn back to insert a page referring to the
investments in the Heavenly " Inheritance " made by
an " Heir " who has just entered upon possession.
The tidings of the death of Hon. William McMaster^
of Toronto, Canada, touches with more than ordinary
grief and sense of loss a wide circle of the community.
Mr. McMaster was a most liberal giver throughout
his entire life.
Of his known bequests the principal were twelve
thousand dollars towards Woodstock Literary and
Theologial Institute.
A sum of one hundred thousand dollars for the site,
of
Systematic Giving.
6i
id
building, and furnishings of the McMaster Hall,
Toronto.
He also gave annually the sum of fourteen thousand
five hundred dollars towards the efficient equipment
of the six chairs which he endowed in that institution.
Towards the building of Jarvis Street Baptist Church
he gave sixty thousand dollars. Also the munificent
donation of two hundred thousand dollars towards
changing Woodstock Baptist College into a University.
He also gave liberally towards the Upper Canada
Bible Society, of which he was treasurer. There are
doubtless many others which have never been recorded
on earth.
It has been rather a difficult task to keep within
bounds in selecting instances of benevolent systematic
giving, the names crowd and crop up in the memory
so fast, but within our limited space we can only find
room for one more whose honoured name we cannot
leave out —
William Burns, who, under the auspices of the Mis-
sion Committee of the English Presbyterian Church,
went out as a missionary to China. Exposure and
hard work brought his life to a termination at fifty-
three years of age. His worldly possessions were sent
home to his friends, and on being opened in presence
of a small, awe-stricken group, were found to consist
of the following :
A few sheets of Chinese printed matter, a Chinese
and an English Bible, an old writing case, a single
Chinese dress, and the blue flag of the " Gospel Boat."
fr
mm
62
Systematic Giving.
\
That was all. " Surely he was very poor," whispered
a wondering child.
Oh, no ! we would answer the little one, he has
money besides ; we know of two hundred and fifty-
pounds beyond reach of earthly loss which he once
sent home to pay for the sending out of another
missionary. It was one whole year's salary, and meant
privation and the want then to him of the barest
necessities of life.
And he has also quite a large number of very valuable
bundles. We do not know by what name the contents
are designated in the " Sweet Beulah Land" to which
he has emigrated, but in the world from which he has
departed they would be known as big bundles of
fatigue and weariness, of self-sacrifice and loving ser-
vice for his Master.
These he has " laid up safe " along with the two
hundred and fifty pounds.
in
CHAPTER V.
CONGREGA TIONAL.
C HEMES and Channels for Systematic
Beneficence, with Synopsis of Home and
Foreign Mission work, as reported in
the " Year Book" for 1888-89 :—
CANADA.
Congregational Missionary Society, — Formed in 1853
from union of Societies previously existing in Upper and Lower
Canada. Object, to plant new churches and to sustain those that are
weak in the provinces. Expenditure for year, $10,668. Treasurer,
Rev. Samuel Jackson, M.D., Kingston, Ontario.
Men and means insufficient for the woifk to be done.
The Society anxious to erect a " Memorial Church " in Brandon,
Portage La Prairie, or some other good centre in Manitoba, to the
memory of the late Rev. Henry Wilkes, D.D., to be called "Wilkes'
Memorial Church."
We would urge some of our readers of the Congre-
gational denomination to begin their new year with a
contribution to aid in the commencement of this last
most worthy object.
Congregational Foreign Missionary Society.— Organized
in 1881. Treasurer, T. B. Macaulay, Esq., Montreal. Object, to
spread the Gospel among the heathen and other unenlightened people.
Work opening up satisfactorily in South Africa, the Beld taken up by
this Society.
I
64
Systematic Giving.
til
\i t
Money and missionaries, male and female, greatly
needed.
Congregational Provident Fund. — Established 1856 as a
Widows' and Orphans' Society; in i873 ^he Pastors' Retiring Fund,
branch was added. Secretary-Treasurer, Charles R. Black, Esq., 65
St. Peter Street, Montreal. Provides annually $100 tor widows of
deceased members, and for sons under 16 and daughters under 18, $20,
but youngest child, $40. Superannuated ministers receive $100 a year
for life. Paid out during the year to widows and orphans alone,
$13,350.
Donations to the Provident Fund would be money
well expended.
Canada Congregational Women's Board of Missions. —
Au:tiliary to the C.C. Missionary Society and the C.C. Foreign
Missionary Society. Treasurer, Mrs. A. Burton, $6 Charles Street,
Toronto. This Board is doing excellent work with its numerous
auxiliaries and mission bands. Apportionments of funds amounting to
$,.-■^4.3.44 for the year 1888-89 as follows :— For church building in the
Nor. h- West, $217.87 ; foreign missions, $130,98 for Miss Lyman's
salary in Bombay ; for support of a pupil at Euphrates College,
Harpoot, Turkey, $25 ; $292.32 for general purposes of Board ; $11.50
for French Bay Mission ; and $10 for Wood Bay ; Mr. Currie's work
in South Africa, $44.65, with other items, and a balance on hand of
more than $300.
Newfoundland Congregational Home Missionary Society,
England. — Headquarters, St. John's. Missionary churches established
in three of the out-ports. Treasurer, W. H. Seymour, St. John's.
Money required.
Ladies' Home Missionary Society, of Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick. Treasurer, Mrs. C. H. Dearborn, St. John,N.B. Object,
cultivation of a missionary spirit, and for the raising of funds for
carrying on mission work in the home and foreign fields.
Members, money, time and work always required.
ENGLAND.
The London Missionary Society.— Sustains missions in Chii..i,
India, South Africa, Central Africa, Madagascar, the West Indies,
Polynesia and New Guinea. Treasurer, Albert Spicer, Esq. Office —
Mission House, 14 Blomfield Street, London-Wall, London, England.
Can too much money ever flow in this channel ?
enh
SecJ
SW
Systematic Giving.
65
id.
Colonial Missionary Society. — Area of operations — the British
Colonies and, lately added, the continent of Europe. Treasurer and
Secretary, Rev. W. S. H. Fielden, Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street,
London, E.C. Ministers sent out ; those in the fields sustained, and
students trained in the Colonier.
Irish Evangelical Society. — For promoting the preaching of
the Gospel in Ireland; 18 stations and 70 out-stations. Treasurer,
Rev. 11. H. Noble, Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, London,
England.
English Congregational Chapel Building Society. — It has
already met the needs of half a million of people by building churches
and manses in England, Wales, Channel Islands, Ireland and the
Colonies ; 669 churches and 53 manses. Treasurer, C. E. Conder,
Esq., Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, London, E.C.
Pastors' Retiring Fond and Pastors' Widows' Fund. —
Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. R. T. Verrall, B.A., Memorial Hall, Far-
ringdon Street, London, E.C.
SCOTLAND.
Congregational Union of Scotland. — Sustains to the church
and the work the relationship of a Missionary Society. Its affairs are
managed by four district committees. Income (;^i,400) expended in
grants to churches. Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. John Douglas, 5 Garden
Street, Burnbank, Glasgow.
Ministers' ProvidentFund. — Annuitants, 10. Secretary-Treasurer,
J. McFarlane, Glenbourne, Oswald Road, Edinburgh.
Ministers' Widows' Fund. — Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. W. J.
Cox, Dundee.
Chapel Building Society. — Area of operations, Scotland.
Secretary-Treasurer, Robert Murdoch, Esq., 25 Prince's Square,
Regent's Park, Glasgow.
C.J. Home Mission. — Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. George Glad-
stone, 4 Ann Street, Hillhead, Glasgow.
IRELAND.
The Congregational Union of Ireland is the denominational
Mis>ionary Society of the country. Organized in 1829 to promote the
vangelization of the country. Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. Jas. Ervine,
Kingstown, Dublin.
Provident Fund.— Secretary-Treasurer, S. Hicklio, 56 Clifton
Park Avenue, Belfast.
AUSTRALIA.
Victo' \ Congregational Mission. — For maintenance and
enlargem uf religious liberty, rights and privileges in the province.
Secretary easurer, Rev. J. J, Halley, Congregational Hall, Russel
Street. t>oume.
66
Ui
I -
II
!
if'
Systematic Giving.
Victoria Building Association — Object, to build and repair
Congregational Churches, Sunday Schools and Parsonages, and to
remove debts. Secretary-Treaburer, Rev. S. Day, Westbury Street,
St. Kilda.
New South Wales Church Extension Society. — Ten
churches assisted. Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. S. Savage, Sydney.
UoME Mission of South Australia. — Secretary-Treasurer, J.
C. McMichael, Adelaide.
Provident Society for Victoria. — For ministers and for their
widows and orphans. Secretary-Treasurer, A. M. Strongman,
Melbourne.
Chapel Building Society for South Australia. — Established
in 1858. Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. J. C. McMichael, Adelaide.
Providen'i Association for South Australia. — Capital.;^3,S38.
lion. Secretary, R. M. Steele.
Mission of Tasmania, in Association with Congregational Union
for Home Mission purposes. Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. J. W.
Simmons, Hobart Town.
UNITED STATES.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. —
Organized 1810 for foreign mission work. Treasurer, Langdon S.
Ward, Boston, Mass. 22 missions, 9S0 stations and out-stations, 472
missionaries and assistant missionaries, 2,135 native labourers, 336
churches, 98 high schools and seminaries for young men and women,
with nearly 6,000 students and 42,733 children under Christian
instruction.
Women's Boards. — Three auxiliaries to the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One for the East in Boston, one
for the Interior in Chicago, and one for the Pacific in California.
American Missionary Association. — Organized 1846; devoted to
work among white and colored people of the South, the Indians and
the Chinese on the continent of America. Churches in the South, 132,
with 6 colleges ; 16 graded and normal schools und 32 other schools ;
teachers, missionaries and assistants, 415 ; 10,218 children and youth
taught in the colleges and schools. Secretary-Treasurer, H, W,
Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade street. Now York City.
The American Congregational Union.— Object, erection of
parsonages and churches. It has aided in erecting 1,728 churches and
140 parsonages.
Urgent call for $200,0CX) this year. Treasurer, Rev.
L. H. Cobb, D.D., 59 Bible House, New York.
Systematic Giving.
67
American Home Missionary Society.— It is the recognized Mis-
sionary Society of the United States j 1,625 missionaries employed in
41 States and Territories. The Society has il auxiliaries and 16
superintendents supervising the work in the Western and Southern
States and Territories. Treasurer, Rev. A. IT. Clapp, D.D. ; office,
34 Bible House, New York City.
CoNGREGATiO|fAL S.S. AND PuHLisHiNG SOCIETY.— Congrega-
tional House, Boston, Mass., organized 1832 ; total number of Sabbath
schools aided during six months, 1,056. Secretaries, Rev. G. M.
Boynton and Rev. E. Dunning, D.D.
The American College and Education Society. — The number
of ycung men aided in their studies for the ministry since 1816 is 7,237,
ana the number now receiving assistance 291. Secretary, Rev. John
A. Hamilton, Congregational House, Boston.
American Congregational Association. — Founded 1853 for
the purpose of erecting in Boston a Congregational House or head-
quarters for all our Congregational benevolent societies having offices
in Boston ; extensive library. Secretary, Rev. Daniel P. Noyes, Byfield.
The New West Educational Commission. — To promote Chris-
tian civilization in Utah and adjacent States and Territories, furnishes
sites for churches, as well as sustaining 28 schools. Treasurer, Mr. W.
H. Hubbard, 151 Washington street, Chicago.
We wish we had space to particularize and give
fuller statistics of the wide Congregational Mission
fields, with their yawning channels for systematic
beneficence. The record is a noble one.
In the Sandwich Islands there are 57 Congregational Churches ;
Theological Institute at Honolulu educates ministers for home and
foreign fields ; in 60 years all Christiani£ed.
Sweden and Norway.— 400 churches ; membership, 100,000.
Madagascar. — Churches, 700 ; ministers, European or native, 782 ;
church membership, 60,581 ; native preachers, 4,000; schools, 1,000;
dcholars, 94,000.
China. — Two Union Churches, besides all those sustained by Lon*
don Mission Society.
India. — Eight self-sustaining churches and 8 by London Mission
Society ; 12 native churches presided over by ordained native preachers ;
and 3 English Union Churches.
West Indies. — Jamaica Congregational Union includes 10 churches,
9 ministers, 31 out-stations, 26 day schools, 20 lay preachers, and 6,000
adherents. In British Guiana the Congregational there compriiM 37
churches and 13 miniitcii.
,.. i " ' JiJiM
!li
68
Systematic Giving.
Africa.— Unions of Natal and South Africa— In former, 19 minis-
ters (exclusive of stations among the heathen) ; 26 churches. In South
Africa, 40 churches ; 38 ministers.
Europe. — There are Congregational Churches in France, including
the greatly blessed McAll Mission ; Russia, Germany, Spain and Bel-
gium. In Paris suburbs and provinces, the Rev. R. W. McAIl, Con-
gregational minister from England, has, in connection with the
Evangelical Alliance, 104 Mission stations with 1 5, ix>o sittings, and 25
Sunday schools.
Australasia. — In Australia and New Zealand there are 7 Congrega-
tional Unions, 230 churches, 80 preaching stations, 159 pastors, and 32
resident ministers without pastoral charge.
And we have not been able to touch on the Educa-
tional Institution Funds, which are always open for
further endowment :
The Congregational College of British North America ; and in the
United States, 26 colleges, n seminaries; and 43 colleges in foreign
lands ; also lo institutes in India, Madagascar Island, South Sea
Islands and South Africa, for the training of 300 native pastors, con-
ducted by agents of London Mission Society ; and 18 Congregational
theological colleges in Great Britain and the colonies.
Surely the Congregational denomination of the
Christian Church has every inducement to enter en-
thusiastically into the subject oi systematic giving.
BAPTIST.
* '. rr
■^Hi-j
, I" I.-
, ' 111
Schemes and Channels for Systematic Beneficence,
with Synopsis of Home and Foreign Mission Work, as
reported in the " Year Book " for 1888 :—
Baptist Home Mission Socirty of Ontario —Treasurer, John
Stark, 28 Toronto street, Toronto. 1 10 churches receive support from
this society ; membership, 4,000 ; and upwards of 10,000 hear the
gospel each Sabbath, as there are 40 piecching stations in connection
witn these churches, making 150 altogether. About 5,000 Sabbath
school children are also thus instructed in such as have formed schools.
Men and money always much needed.
'■W '!;l'
Systematic Giving,
69
m-
|ce,
as
lohn
Irom
the
Ition
jath
bols.
Women's Baptist Home Mission Society. — Treasurer, Mrs. A.
B. Alexander, 28 Dovercourt road, Toronto. 121 Circles of earnest
women aiding in all the schemes of Home Mission Work, including
salaries of home missionaries, chu rch building for missionary stations,
student labor, and the support and education of a future missionary in
Grande Ligne Institute.
Money ^ time and work can never flow too freely in
this channel.
Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of Ontario and Quebec.
— Treasurer, T. S. Shenston, Esq., Brantford.
Male and female missionaries required, and money
always needed for extension of the great work being
done in India — Zenana work, girls' schools, building
operations.
Women's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of Ontario
AND Quebec— Treasurer, Mrs. F. B. Smith, 2 Thistle street, Montreal;
42 circles for the furtherance of Foreign Mission Work. There are
also many Mission Bands among the young people.
The appropriations of a yearly income of $1,556
show the careful systematic consideration of the many
pressing claims in the foreign fields.
Dominion Board of Baptist Home Missions.— Treasurer, C. J.
Holman, Esq., Toronto.
Carries on missionary work in fifteen different fields
throughout the great North-West and British Colum-
bia, expending a sum for the year, of $2,500, an aug-
mentation of which amount is greatly desired, accord-
ing to statement of the Year Book, as the Board is
responsible for the support of nine missionaries in the
above fields.
Grand Ligne Mission.— Treasurer, Joseph Richards, Esq., 114 St,
Peter street, Montreal, to whom all contributions may be sent, is
accomplishing a most important work amoni; the French- Canadian
children. The Year Book for 1888 says : •' The school opened with 55
boarders and 15 day pupils, with 3 teachers."
(6)
:i
70
Systematic Giving.
|t III
ftiii ' i
ill!'
!' W
More workers much needed.
Two thousand five hundred pupils, 60 of whom are now teachers, mis-
sionaries, or colporteurs themselves, have passed through this well-
equipped Institute, and this number might have been doubled but for
lack of means and room. The sum of $50 annually provides for and
educates a pupil.
Surely this is a most worthy channel for Christian
giving.
Superannuated Ministers' Society.— Treasurer, William Craig,
Ejq., Port Hope, Ontario. There are ll aged ministers, 14 widows,
and 7 children under 15 drawing from the funds. Since the year 1868
the sum of $29,215 has been distributed.
The duty of giving in this direction needs no expla-
nation.
Church Edifice Society for Ontario and Quebec. — Treasurer,
William Buck, Brantford, Ontario. This society is fur aiding congrega*
tions in the building of churches and schools, especially in destitute
parts. New Mission stations are encouraged by its timely assistance.
" With more funds more good could be done."
American Baptist Christian Union.— Treasurer, Rev. E. P.
Coleman, Bostcu, Mass.
It is impossible to do more than give a list of the
countries in which lie the extensive and ever-extending
mission fields of this great organization. Means for
carrying on work of such magnitude cannot possibly
be too plentiful. The countries where missionary
work is carried on by the Union are :
European. — Sweden, Germany, Russia, Poland, Denmark, France
and Spain — 361 missions.
Africa. — Liberia, Congo, Mukimvika, alabala, Banyer, Manteke,
Lukunga, LeopoldvilU, Equator Station — 10 missions with many
schools.
Japan. — 11 churches; missionaries, 38 — male and female, with
Theuloi^ic^l Seminary.
More workers for Japan much required.
Systematic Giving.
71
Asia. — Burman, 21 churches ; 51 missionaries. Karen, 494 churches ;
49 missionaries ; Theological Seminary.
Kachin Mission, 3 churches ;
Chin
7
Assamese '*
IS
Garo •'
10
Naga
3
Telugu ••
52
, 2
miasionaries.
5
9
4
8
44
Also Brownson Theological Seminary and very many schools. Chinese
Mission, 19 churches : 30 missionaries. In all, 1,296 churches and
262 missionaries..
Who will help on this great work }
The translating and publishing of the Bible into 26 languages is
undertaken by the Board. There is also a Home Department of the
American Baptist Union carrying on the home work on a similarly la;'ge
scale. Treasurer, Rev. E. P. Coleman, Boston, Mass. Also a Women's
Society East and a Women's Society West for each department. The
missionary enterprise of the Baptist denomination in Great Britain cor-
responds to that of America and Canada, as given in the preceding pages.
P.
Ifance
iteke,
lany
with
METHODIST.
Schemes and Channels for Systematic Beneficence,
with Synopsis of Mission Fields and Operations.
A year book for the large and influential denom-
ination of Methodists in Canada and the United States
would form such an important and interesting addi-
tion to the extensive and valuable literature of the
Methodist Church, that we are surprised to find that
none such is published. We had hoped to introduce
some pages of interesting statistics in connection with
their benevolent schemes. However, with the aid of
the "Church Discipline" for 1886 (it being published
only once in four years), we are enabled to gather
some information.
H
i!-i
■■
72
Systematic Giving.
I
^1
!-<•:?
III
m I
The Missionary Society of the Methodist Church.—
Object, the support and enlargement of the Indian, French, Domestic,
Foreign and other Missions which are carried on under the direction of
the Methodist Church. Auxiliaries, Branch Societies and Juvenile
Branches (from the Sabbath Schools) in great numbers spring from
this Society, and must be powerful weapons for good. There are about
fifteen different schemes for the Dominion of Canada, and the Church in
Britain and the United States corresponds with these. »
To throw one's infiuence^ time, work and money into
any of the auxiliaries, branches or schemes, is to ad
vance the Kingdom of Christ, and to be co-workers
with Him as heirs of salvation.
The object of the mission work is to "extend vital Christianity by
raising up, as speedily as possible, a self*sapporting, self- propagating
Methodism." Japan, Victoria, New Westminster and Port Simpson dis-
tricts, with Manitoba and the North-west, are mission fields of the Church
in Canada. Treasurers of the missionary department 4n Canada, Rev.
Alexander Sutherland, D.D., and Hon. John Macdonald, Toronto, Ont.
From items in the Presbyterian Record, published monthly, we gather that
the receipts for " Missionary Society" of the Methodist Church in Can-
ada for 1886 were $189,811, an increase on the previous year of $9,681 ;
the total expenditure for missionary purposes for that year was $184,609 ;
and, speaking of women's work for Foreign Missions in 1888, the number
of Societies among our Methodist sisters is given as 6,000. We find also
another item of interest, that three of the ten Protestant Churches in
Milan in 1887 are of the Methodist denomination. In France they
have 40 ministers. Rev. George Brown, Missionary to the Friendly
Islands, under the auspices of the " English Wesleyan Missionary
Society," with a number of agents under him, has entered on the new
field taken up by the above Society in New Britain, Duke of York's
Island, etc.. East of New Guinea. Natives are employed in carrying
on these missions. In Manitoba the Methodists number 1,800. A
Theological College has also been opened at Winnipeg.
There is room for all to aid in, and advance the great
cause among Methodist church-goers, the world over.
From the annual report of the Missionary Society in Canada
for 1888- 1889, we And that the income for Foreign Mission Work is
$220,000, and that Japan is one of the chief fields. This mission was
begun in 1873, and there are now 11 missionaries and 15 evangelists
employed — many of them natives. Membership, 1,283.
Contributions for the building of comfortable places
of worship earnestly requested.
Pa:
/un(
the
to
gati(
sterl
rk is
was
elisis
ices
Systematic Giving.
73
The Chinese Mission, British Columbia, is another field in
which much work is being done. A Girl's Rescue Home is being
built in Victoria. The W.M. Society apportioned $250 towards this
object. The mission was commenced in 1885.
The Indian Mission, British Columbia (13 mission stations),
employs 14 missionaries and assistants.
Indian Mission, Manitoba (12 stations, employing 12 mission-
aries).
The McDougall Orphanage — buildings muph required
— and the Industrial Ins itution should be well kept
up.
The French Work. — 8 stations and 8 missionaries. Day schools
provided by W.M.S.
We have not had access to the English annual
report, a volume of wide interest to all interested in
missions.
EPISCOPALIAN.
Schemes and Channels for Systematic Beneficence,
with Synopsis of Missionary Work Carried on in Dif-
ferent Fields Throughout the World.
The Official Year Book of the Church of England furnishes ample
information concerning the missionary schemes and channels for the
Systematic Beneficence of Episcopalians all over the world, wherever
the Church's banner has been placed.
The foreign fields are numerous and engage the earnest attention, etc.,
of numerous associations.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts has for its objects : 1st, To receive and manage and dispose of
funds contributed for religious instruction of fellow-countrymen beyond
the seas ; 2nd, To provide sufficient maintenance for the orthodox clergy
to live among them ; and 3rd, To make other provision for the propa-
gation of the Gospel in those parts. The income in 1885 was ^ 9,000
sterling, larger than any previous year.
Donations can scarcely be too frequent or too large
for the requirements of this powerful agency.
1^,
.V-
I
[[
1
-.1
1&
iiiiii '
'?f
111! I \
74
Systematic Giving.
33 volunteers offered themselves for the work in foreign fields and i6
have gone to their respective spheres. There are 575 missionaries on
the Society's list, 10 )f whom are bishops ; 166 labour in Asia, 142 in
Africa, 15 in Australia and the Pacific, 195 in North America, 31 in
the West Indies, and 26 fn Europe ; 250 of these are working among
the heathen ; of the latter i^o are native clergymen. There are also in
the Society's Missions 1,700 catechists and lay teachers, mostly native,
and about 350 students in the Society's colleges ; and every year brings
a wonderful addition to the figures. The Society's Missions in Asia
are divided into 4 groups with 41 ordained missionaries. St. John's
Collfge, in Rangoon, educates 600 boys, and is doing a great work.
Additional missionaries have gone to Burmah, some of them medical
men. Madras mission is divided into three groups, employing 55 clergy,
40 of whom are natives.
For the Telugu country, missionaries are greatly
needed — only two ministering to 5,000 or 6,000, in-
cluding the catechumens.
At Bombay, Colombe and Singapore, there are also missions under
the Society's care.
North China. — Mission is centred at Pekin and Chefoo ; arduous
work needing more help.
Japan Mission. — A Missionary Brotherhood eagerly engaged in this
most interesting mission, under the Bishop's supervision. The Society
has given a grant to aid the Brotherhood.
Africa. — Province of South Africa, 122 missionaries ; 40 to the
heathen ; 8 dioceses. Mauritius and Madagascar are also taken up.
Australasia. — Australia, ;^226,ooo of the Society's aid and 90
years of its care on the three diuceseti uf Sydney, North Queensland and
Perth, and to the unsettled regions on the north of the continent.
Missionaries and money in any number and quan-
tity required for the Perth gold digging regions, among
the agriculturists and aborigines. Fiji, Norfolk Island,
and ionolulu receive grants from the Society for sup-
port of the clergy.
British North America.— The work on this continent (including
that done in the colonies now forming the U.S.) cost this powerful
Society about two million pounds sterling. There are 1,000 clergy in
B.N. A., and 19 dioceses. That of Algoma is largely helped by the
Society, j{^5oo having just been granted towards endowment of the See.
Colonial and missionary work is carried on in the dioceses of New
Systematic Giving,
75
ling
srful
by in
the
iSee.
iNew
Westminster and Caledonia. Rupert's Land gets annually ;^3t95s.
In Newfoundland 40 out of 61 clergy are supported in part by the
;^2, 900 sent by the Society. Six dioceses in the West Indies, South
America and Panama Isthmus receive aid from the Society to a large
extent. Much work is being done among the Coolies and Indians in
Guiana. The Windward Islands are included also in the Society's
operations.
Europe. — Ailditional grants have lately been given in to supplement
the one of ;^200 for continental work in Europe.
Here is indeed a worthy channel for Episcopalian
Systematic Beneficence.
Ladies' Association for the Promotion of Female Education
IN India and other Heathen Lands, in connection with the above.
Objects — I. To provide female teachers for the instruction of native
women and children in the missions of the Society. 2. To assist female
missions by providing clothing and a maintenance for boarders.
Branch associations formed and much work done by the 300 English
working associations sending out 30 or 40 valuable boxes to India and
South Africa, to be distributed amongst the various missions ; 2,000
pupils are under instruction in the Zenana Missions, and in addition to
these the Ladies' Association have 1,250 children under instruction in
Burmah, Japan, Madras, Madagascar and South Africa, 180 being
maintained at the expense of members of the Association. A monthly
magazine, "The Grain of Mustard Seed," is issued with full informa-
tion. Secretary of Ladies' Association, S. P. G., 19 Delahay street,
Westminster.
Ladies or children of the Episcopal Church desiring
to consecrate time, work, influence, money, have an
open channel here for the coming new year.
Church Missionary Society. — Treasurer, Sir T. Fowles Buxton,
Bart. Communications addtessed to the secretaries, Church Missionary
House, Salisbury Square, E.C. Included in this are the three Unions
— Lay Workers Union for London, 300 members ; Ladies* Union,
London, 600 members ; and Union of Younger Clergy for London, 200,
26 candidates for missionary work accepted m year, among them four
ladies. The operations of this Society are in Africa — West, East and
Central ; Egypt, Persia, Palestine ; in India, Ceylon, Mauritius, China,
Japan, New Zealand, North West America, North Pacific, etc.
We have not space to enlarge on the great work
being done by this organization, but would mention
the Leper Asylums in India, also the work among the
I
i r i
:f : 11!
'V" I' i ! . 1^ .t
1'^ i;;(
76
Systematic Giving.
Red Indians of the North-West, and an item specially
interesting to ourselves, the Frances Ridley Havergal
Fund, which has enabled several of Miss Havergal's
works to be translated into two or three languages —
we trust, among others, her beautiful " Loyal Re-
sponses." We like to think of those foreign Christians
reading daily some of our own favourites —
" Through the yesterday of ages,
Jesus, Saviour, still ihe same ;
Through our own life's chequered pages
Siill the one dear changeless name."
Statistics for l886 — Stations, 271 ; missionaries in holy orders, 230 ;
native and Eurasian, 261 ; lay missionaries, European, 38 ; ladies, 20 ;
schools, 1,868 ; scholars, 70,000.
Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (in co-opera-
tion with the above). — Between 500 and 600 Associations are formed
in connection with the Society in England, Ireland, the Contin ent,
Australia and Canada. This work is e-'pecially woman's work. Object,
to make known the Gospel to the ladies and high ca$:te children in the
East. Its agents are women, as medical missiDnaries, teachers, Bible
women, visitors to the Zenanas. About 40 stations filled by 91 mis-
sionaries ; 48 m local connection and 349 Bible women. Those
wishing information how to aid the Society should apply to Rev. Gilbert
Karney, 9 Salisbury Square, E.G.
The Missionary Leaves Association. — The funds are expended
fbr the children in mission schools of the C.M.S., erection of schools,
mission churches, etc., furnishings of same, etc., etc. H. G. Malaher,
Esq., 20 Compton Terrace, Islington, N. England, Secretary.
Colonial and Continental Church Society. — Labours carried
on in 30 colonial dioceses, situated in British North America, India,
Australia, and other parts of the world. Clergymen employed in 1886,
106 ; schoolmasters, female teachers and pupil teachers, and pupil
teachers in training, 137 ; total, 243 ; income for 1886, ;^40,ooo. All
communications addressed to Rev. D. Lancaster McNally, 9 Serjeant's
Inn, Fleet street, E.G.
The operations of this Society are so extensive and
important that money, teachers, etc., cannot be sup-
Systematic Giving.
77
lert
Ked
)ls,
er,
ied
id
IP-
plied too freely. Especially should Canadian colonists
take an interest in it, as it covers their mission ground
pretty fully, including the schools for French evangel-
ization.
Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge. — Bibles,
prayer-books, and a large number of other books of Christian literature
produced in many different languages. Address communications to Rev.
Edmund McCiure, Editorial Secretary, S. P. C.K. And now we have
left no space for the long lists of Home and Special Missions. We can
only name a few :
Urgent appeal for money to aid this most invaluable
Society.
Chubch Building Society. — Treasurer, H. G. Hoare, Esq.
Cheques should be sent to Rev. R. Milburn Blakiston, M.A., F.S.A.,
Secretary, 2 Dean's Yard, Westminster, London, S.W.
National Society. — For promoting education of the poor in the
principles of the Established Church. Treasurer, Messrs. Drummond,
National Society Office, Sanctuary, Westminster, S.W.
The pressing needs of the Society call for donations
and annual subscriptions.
Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy.— Grants pensions to
clergymen incapacitated by infirmity for work, or to widows and
daughters of clergymen.
Benefactions, annual subscriptions, etc., may be sent
to W. Paget Bowman, Esq., Registrar, 2 Bloomsbury
Square, W.C. It is with regret that we merely give a
list of the following :
Missions to Seamen and Emigrants. — Including 12 Roadstead
Missions, lo Mission Yachts, the Dock Missions, Deep Sea Missions,
Deep Sea Fishermen, the Royal Navy, Canal Men, Foreign Seamen in
British Ports, Thrifty Seamen, etc. Mission staff — two superintendents,
clerical, who visit 50 stations ; 24 chaplains, 41 readers and 5 lay
helpers ; also 70 honourary chaplains render good service. Contribu-
tions should be addressed to Commander W. Dawson, R.N., Secretary,
II Buckingham street. Strand, London, W.C.
It would require many pages to give particulars of
this great work.
'I li>
78
Systemcttic Giving.
St. Andrew's Water Side Mission.— For supplying literature on
vessels, etc. All communications addressed to M. W. Evan Franks
Secretary, 65 Fenchurch street, London, E.G.
Women's Work Amono Sailors. — Affiliated branches all over the
world. Miss Weston's is a wonderful work, systematically carried on,
providing Sailors' Rests, etc. All communications addressed Miss
WeRton, Sailors' Rest, Portsmouth.
St. Andrew's Club Home for Working Boys.— Secretary, Mr.
T. G. Biddulph, 43 Chiring Cross, S W.
Homes for Working Girls in London.— Secretary, Mr. John
Shrimpton, 38 Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
Besides those named there are many others —
Orphanages, Sisterhoods, etc., etc., all established and
in good working order; very wide-mouthed channels
for Systematic Beneficence on the part of the great
Army of Episcopalians in the year '88-'89 of the nine-
teenth century.
PRESBYTERIAN.
Schemes and Channels for Systematic Beneficence,
with Synopsis of Missionary Work Carried on in the
Different Fields Throughout the World.
m' Liii
The Schemes in connection with the Presbyterian Church in
Canada are : — Presbyterian College Halifax Fund, Assembly Fund,
Home Mission Fund, Stipend Augmentation Fund. Foreign Mission
Fund, Knox College Fund, Queen's College Fund, Knox College
Missionary Society, Knox College Alumni Association, Manitoba
College Fund, Knox College Endowment Fund, Widows' and
Orphans' Fund, Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, Church and Manse
Building Fund. Contributions to any of these can be sent to the agent
of the Church, Rev. Dr. Reid : office, 15 Toronto Street, Toronto ;
Post Office, drawer 2,607 ; or to the agent at Halifax, Rev. P.
Morrison : office, Chalmer's Hall, Duke Street ; Post Office, box 338.
French Evangelization, Treasurer, Rev. Dr. Warden, 198 St. James
Street, Montreal. Widows' and Orphans' Fund in connection with the
Church in Scotland, James Croil, Esq., Treasurer, Montreal.
Systematic Giving.
79
m
Ind,
lion
There is also The Women's Foreign Missionary Society, con-
sisting of (Western Division alone) 21 Presbyterial Societies, 348
auxiliaries and 122 misdon bands — total, 478 branches, and these ever
rapidly increasing. There are a large number of Presbyterial Societies,
with Auxiliaries and Mission Bands in the Eastern Division and in the
Maritime Provinces as well.
Work, time, money, influence wanted to an unlimited
extent in all these, and above all, fully consecrated
men and women to go forth to the mission fields, and,
equally important, to use their talenis of intelligence
and culture and power lovingly and with self-forgetful-
ness Rtid tact to keep these large organizations in good
working order.
The Mission Fields are : — Central India — (Rutlam, Indore, Mhow,
Neemuch, etc.) 5 missionaries, 5 ladies, and 46 other teachers and
helpers. In each Field there are schools for girls and boys. Formosa
— 4 missionaries (2 of them native), 38 preaching stations and 38 native;
preachers, 53 elders, 45 deacons, 9 stone churches and 29 chapels.
In passing we would refer to the suggestive and
most appropriate memorial of the long life of syste-
matic self-sacrifice in the interests of the Poor, etc., of
Kingston, Ont., of the late Mrs. Machar, to whose
momory one of the churches in Formosa has been
built. May such fitting monuments to deceased
Christian friends and relatives become more general.
The Episcopal Society for Funeral and Mourning
Reform no doubt enlarge on this topic.
The Formosa Mission is miraculously successful and prosperous
under the devoted Dr. McKay's energetic labours.
Money for schools, churches and chapels, or for the
hospital or the college, etc., always required.
Mission to the Indians in the North- West.— 10 mission-
aries, with many teachers (male and female). The reserves taken up
are Mistawasis, Omanase, Birdtail, Round Lake, Cote's Reserve,
8o
Systematic Giving.
'''' !
! 'I,
II
ill
i ,
i
"ii
• i
:i:i
t
(i
[■
■i'
(
■
Piapot's, Crow Stand and Long Lake. There are lo schools. This
Mission grows more interesting each year. The W.F.M.S. send boxes
of clothing, quills, etc., the mission bands contributing largely by work.
Native Auxiliaries begin to be formed.
DEMEtiARA. — Mission for the coolies ou "^^he West Coast — One mis-
.sionary and 3 teachers. The W.F.M.S. and bands send boxes of
costumes, work for the schools, books, dolls, et*:.
New Hebrides Mission. — Three missionaries (Eromanga, .Santo
Espiritu, Efate). About 40 teachers aid the missionaries.
The islands are rapidly becoming Christianized and
contributors to missionary funds. Money, mission-
aries and teachers needed.
Trinidad Mission. — Five missionaries (Tunapuna, San Fernando,
Couva, PrincetoA-n). Schools, 32 ; population (coolie), 50 000.
Auxiliaries being formed.
Money much needed.
CkxNA (Honan). — A new mission to which Rev. Mr. Goforth and
his wife have gone, and others are to follow.
Being a new mission money and interest are required.
Are not all these wide open Channels for the
Systematic Beneficence of every man, woman, boy,
and girl of the Presbyterian denomination ?
The Home Mission Fund is used for the extension and support
of the Presbyterian Church throughout a very large area, viz., Presby-
tery of Quebec, Moskoka and Parry Sound, Algoma, Manitoba and
the North- West (Prairie BeU, Rocky Mountain Belt, Ranching Belt),
Islandic Mission in Manitoba, British Columbia, Labrador, Newfound-
land, Mission to Lumbermen, etc., etc.
In Manitoba there are 28,406 Presbyterians, 93 missionaries ; pastors,
22; self-sustaining do., 13 ; Indian missionaries, 17 ; |. .'ofessors and
tutor in Manitoba College, 4 — total, 149.
The Presbytery of Quebec work, includes the French Evangeliza-
tion Schemes. The Point aux Trembles Schools are doing a great
and good wc;k among the Roman Catholic population in Montreal ;
money is required to enlarge the building by the addition of a win<.'.
Dr. Warden, 198 St. James Street, Montreal, is Treasuier fi)r the
Board of French Evangelization ; many colporteurs and Bible women
are employed throughout the Province, and important and encouraging
work being done.
iiSikjr'!
Systematic Giving.
8i
j)ort
[by
ind
kit),
[nd-
>rs,
md
The other Funds in connection with the Presbyterian
Church in Canada already named are equally requiring
and deserving of support from the Systematic Bene-
ficence of the Church, members and adherents in the
Dominion.
SCOTLAND.
The Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee. —
Object, support and planting of missions in all the different Helds taken
up in foreign lands (China, India, Japan, Mexico, Africa). Income in
1884, ;^23,337 ; expenditure, ;^23,323.
Colonial Committee of the Church of Scotland. — Aids
the churches, colleges, etc., and sends out ministers and professors to
the British Colonies, grants scholarships, etc., etc. Queen's College,
Kingston, has a token of affection of this kind from the mother
Church's Committee ; also, Manitoba College, Winnipeg, a similar
grant, and innumerable branch ladies' societies and special missions.
The Free Church contributes annually ;^ioi,378 for missions among
the neathen, the Jews, the Colonies and the continent.
We are sorry to have so little space that we cannot
enlarge on these and many others of the Presbyterian
Church in Great Britain.
1 ne U. P. Church expends ;^40,ooo per year ; the Church in Ireland,
;^ 14,000 on missions in the foreign fields. The Welsh Presbyterian
Church has an interesting mission on the borders of the Sea of
Galilee.
Money, etc., always needed for all these.
UNITED STATES.
Home Mission employed during one year 1,435 ordained ministers
and 175 missionary teachers in Western States and territories, etc.,
etc. ; organised 192 churches and 380 Sabbath Schools.
The Board of Foreign Missions extends its operations to the
Indians (American), Chinese in U.S., and in Japan, China, Corea, Siam
and Laos, India, Syria, Africa, South America, Mexico and European
Papal countries. The Women's Societifs raise very large sums of
m-jney for these ; they number 947 auxiliaries in the North Western
Strtes and 582 bands, supporting 60 missionaries. The Northern
Nt*' York, 103 auxiliiiries and 1x3 bands and two other societies,
nuni..ering 797 auxiliaries ; the Southern Church 737, and many others,
while the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. North, report 1,267
auxiliaries and 13,000 bands.
82
Systematic Giving.
We cannot find room to mention others, but there
is certainly no'lack of channels for Systematic Giving
o^ Work, Time, Labour, Money, Influence, Mission-
aries and Teachers by the twenty millions of Presby-
terians. Yes, twenty million Presbyterians in the
world ! So say the statistics. Supposing each one of
these were to give over and above the tenth of income
a sum of two cents per day, one hundred mid forty-six
million dollars surplus of tenth would be yearly con-
tributed by this denomination towards the coming of
the Kingdom of God.
And if those twenty millions of Presbyterians (this
number is exclusive of Sabbath school children) could
only be induced for one single year to do their full
duty in the matter of giving of Money, Work Time,
and Influence, who can estimate the extent of the
mighty work that wt?uld be accomplished }
The operations of the great work carried on by the Bible Society,
which is undenominruiona'. are too well known to require any reference
in this volume.
mm''
11
"iiil
CHAPTER VI.
O far our attention has been carried along
the line of thought of money giving, and
we have still a few pages to add to what
has already been said on this point before
passing on to other talents in the stewardships
of the " Joint Heirs with Christ."
vVe are sure that we include no insignificant number
of our fellow beings the world over when we proceed
to make suggestions on Systematic Giving for the
guidance of poor, depressed, crushed debtors — those
who have unwittingly, or by unforeseen disasver, or by
unmerited injustice, been condemned to v/ear for a
time hopelessly the galling chain of indebtedness to
their neighbour.
There are people, unnappily, and those who make
a profession of Christianity, too, who rush into debt in
in unguarded and unprincipled way. It may be for
••xpenses which, by exercising self-denial, they could
dispense with ; or those who having, without any
blame to themselves, got behind hand with their
accounts, make uo effort to retrieve and make up that
which they owe. To these we can say absolutely
nothing on the giving subject as long as they continue
in this lethargic state.
84
Systematic Giving.
li
I f
i i
If such men or women are in possession, through
the kind Providence of Ahnighty God, of ordinary
health, there must be some honest means of at least
showing an anxiety to extricate themselves from what
is, to some sensitive natures, intolerable bondage.
If they are Christians in heart as well as in name,
holding constant close communion with God, and are
at a loss what couri:e to pursue to get money to pay
off their debts, let them lay the matter before the
Judge Himself " If any of you lack wisdom let him
ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and
upb.-aideth not."
But we are diverging from what we had intended to
say.
To an honest debtor striving to get once more even
with his neighbour by degrees, or to retrace extrava-
gant steps, we would urge the even more urgent
necessity of systematically discharging his debts to his
largest, and most patient, and most indulgent, and
most forgiving creditor of all, his Father in Heaven.
It will never right matters with earthly creditors to
go on robbing God oi His dues and withholding from
Him His just meeds of thanksgivir j, and that which
He requires of our " first fruit " offerings for the
extension of His kingdom.
"Lord, suffer me first to go and" — not even the
payment of a just debt to a neighbour should stand
before our " follow Th( e " — our giving duties to God.
The man or woman who is in debt to members of
the community in which he or she resides, is deprived
Systematic Giving.
85
ry
ist
\at
me,
are
pay
the
him
and
;d to
even
ava-
•gent
the
itand
God.
;rs of
iifived
of very much of the satisfactory pleasure incident to
systematic giving to God.
We grant that what would otherwise be a pure,
genuine source of heavenly joy, must have in it to the
unfortunate one burdened with debt, an alloy of posi-
tive pain.
As he drops in his contribution for missions, or his
little donition for the building of hospital or church,
or it may be a few thanksgiving cents into a ** mite
box " for any of the Lord's ever recurring person^il or
family benefits, a vision of the face of some individual
to whom he has not yet been able to pay an over-
due debt comes suddenly on to the retina of his eye,
covering the entire space to the exclusion of every
other object.
We will suppose that he is giving a few mites to aid
in making up the sum of fifty dollars required to give
a Turkish student a year's schooling and preparation
for evangelistic work in the new institution in memo-
rium of St. Paul, about to be organized in Tarsus,
Silesia.
If it were not that the retina of his eye is already
quite filled up with the features of the man to whom a
debt is owing, his imagination might have occupied
the same space with the olive tace and dark eyes of
the earnest Turkish student, pouring over the Words
of Life, and drinking in Salvation's drau-ht. The
circle of influence would be imagined widening and
including other olive faces eagerly gathered round this
instructed centre, and sc) on.
(7)
n
iii. \
86
li<:i|! i
I ^
i :1
,(1
Ir liillii
Systematic Giving:
We are sure that wearing the bondage yoke of
indebtedness, even though in a very limited degree,
debars and deprives the Christian girver of much of the
giver's enjoyment, but ^tever of his r/^/;/ and privilege
and duty to begin, if he has not done so before, or to
continue, as has been his habit, his plans of systematic
giving to God.
Let him lessen any personal or family expenses he
please^ or thinks wise, in order to free himself, but by
all means lessen in no degree his renderings tor
Eternity.
The most acceptable money gifts, or rather render-
ings back to God, must ever be those that come from
practices of real self-denial.
A great deal of the giving' of the present day is
hardly worthy the name of giving.
It costs the donor no inconvenience whatever.
It is there in the purse ; it can be given and never
missed ; there is plenty more where that came
from
We like to think ot Barnabas of old. Not much are
we told of him in Scripture, but what we do read, tells
of the Christ-like disposition of a man who had loved
and honoured his Divine Master, and was finding it
quite natural and easy to follow in the sacred footsteps.
He it is that wedges in the few gentle, re-assuring
words to his assembled brethren in behalf of Saul of
Tarsus, now the converted Paul. The influence of a
quiet, consistent, Christian life gave all iveigkt to the
sentences uttered, the suspicious scowl disappears from
h,
S;
f"lil:i I'
Systematic Giving.
87
IS
are
ells
Ived
it
;ps.
ring
ll of
)f a
the
Irom
the grouped faces, and the approved-of-^^r««^«5" is
accorded the cordial clasp of Christian fellowship.
But it was the giving spirit of Barnabas we were
going to speak of.
Here were God's poor on every side.
They had been brought up to Jerusalem by the
wealthy Jews from all those different countries men-
tioned in Acts i: , 9-1 1. They had come there to the
feast.
The rich Pharisaical Jews had paid their travelling
expenses in the caravans up to the feast at Jerusalem,
but, indignant when they became proselytes to the
new religion taught by the disciples of our Lord — a
religion that met their every need, and which seemed
designed specially for the poor^ though suited to the
rich as well — their wealthy patrons cast them off, and
left them penniless and far from their own homes.
Ah ! it was beautiful that the earnest preachers in
the midst of this dilemma did not lose their presence of
mind — did not become entangled in "worldly worries"
— in considerations for the temporal supplies for this
crowd left unexpectedly on their hands. " The
kingdom of God and His righteousness ^rj-A"
Were they not carrying into practice the lessons
taught to themselves by the voice that was now silent }
" They continued to preach unto them " (to this poor
company, numbering a little later three thousand
souls, of weary, hungry, homeless, penniless Jews, who
had accepted the Risen Christ as their pe^-sonal
Saviour) " Jesus Christ and the resurrection."
ilS
! |l
! I
I it
ill!
i , ;i
88
Systematic Giving,
But, Barnabas ! we were going to speak of him. He
is poor ; quite poor, too. He has just no money at
all, but his very heart is burning with zeal for the
Master's cause, and he must — *' the very love of Christ
constraineth him " — help these poor " sheep," his own
Master's " sheep." It would be ahuost the same as if
he were to hold back from helping the Master Him-
self.
" In ismuch." We cannot tell whether or no
Barnabas had heard the Master's precious words on
that subject, but Barnabas some way feels them just
as if he had been present at the close of the Sermon
on the Mount, and he could no more have restrained
himself from helping, nay, doing all in his power for
these Jewish " sheep," than if it were Jesus Himself
standing there requiring food and shelter.
There is that piece of land that probably he had
inherited from his father ; at all events it is his own
possession, and it is his all.
He does not seem to stop to weigh the matter.
He is responsible only to God for his act.
" Eccentric," would ve call it in these latter
days ?
That is the term not unfrequently used in such cases
now.
Well, Barnabas converts the land into money.
He sells the land, and receives the money for it.
What "proportion" does he "consecrate" to the Mas-
ter's use ?
Ah! noble, self-denying Barnabas, we love his
Systematic Givivg.
89
id
ter
fees
us
memory. He never thought of what he had better keep
out for this want and that of his own.
He brought it all.
Barnabas did not starve either, though he had given
his all, for it is after this that we read other mention
of his name, including the one connected with his in-
troduction of Saul of Tarsus to the Christian brethren,
to which we have a ready referred. And also his \ov-
m% sympathetic '^ cox\X.tvi\\on'' with that same Paul for
forbearance with the natural and almost commendable
home sickness of the missionary lad Mark on his first
absence from home.
Instead of starving, we feel very sure that with the
supply of his temporal necessities, he received into his
soul from his Master's own hand, a perfect flood
of fresh love and peace and unspeakable joy.
Beyond the price for his landed property, he took
no time to_^ think of other compensation which was to
come to his own soul, till it rushed in, and took him by
surprii.e.
Think you not that he had laid considerable store
by his " real estate," his patrimonial inheritance, but
the tenderness of *' social " and Christian " love " ex-
ceeds and quenches every other consideration.
We wonder if any pleasing reminiscence of Barna-
bas floated through Paul's mind when he was penning
his letter to the Corinthians, or that particular part of
it which a later hand has beautifully paraphrased. To
us it appears that Barnabas fits the picture drawn at
each place in Scripture we read of him.
^ m
90
Systematic Giving.
t(
..111
Though perfect eloquence adorn'd
My sweet persuading tongue,
Though I could speak in higher strains
Than ever angels sung.
Though prophecy my soul inspired,
And made all myst'ries plain ;
\'et, were I void of Christian love.
These gifts were all in vain.
Nay, though my fiiith with boundless powir
• E'en mountains could remove,
I still am nothing if I'm void
Of charity and love.
Although with liberal hand I gave
My goods the poor to feed,
Nay, gave my body to the flames,
Still fruitless were the deed.
Love suffers long, love envies not, •
But love is ever kind,
She never boasteth of herself.
Nor proudly lifts the mind.
Love harbours no suspicious thought,
Is patient to the bad ;
Grieved when she hears of sins and crimes,
And in the truth is glad.
Love no unseemly carriage shows.
Nor selfishly confined,
She glows with social tenderness^
kvid^ feels for all mankind.
Systematic Giving.
91
Love beareth much, much she believes,
And still she hopes the best,
Love meekly suffers many a wrong,
Though sore with hardship pressed.
Love still shall hold an endless reign
In earth and heaven above,
When tongues shall cease and prophets fail,
And every gift, but love.
Faith, Hope and Love now dwell on earth,
And earth by them is blest,
But Faith and Hope must yield to Love,
Of all the graces best.
Hope shall to full fruition rise,
And faith be sight above,
These are the means, but this the end,
For saints for ever love."
Christian love ! Christian sympathy ! Why, why is
it withheld .?
. How is it possible for so many Christian men and
women to go on from year to year, and from one com-
munion season to another, each bearing with rigid care
and complacency his or her own " Untransferable
ticket to Paradise^ Content it may be to see the same
faces weekly in the house of prayer, and yet manifest
not a particle of interest in the everyday life and wel-
fare of the individual worshippers at the one Throne
of Grace.
If for the coming year we could but bring ourselves
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SysUmatic Giving,
f'\
to unite in the removal of this icy cloak — this chill
wet blanket of selfish indifference, and dip dowft^ or
mount up to the level of the human lives around us
with all the sympathy ditiA human interest o{ vthxch our
little narrow minds and contracted hearts are caoable,
we would do more good infinitely, and preach far more
eloquent and impressive sermons than the best that
emanate from our pulpits.
Is it pride ? Is it shyness ? What is it holds us
back ?
Never mind whether the hand we shake is rough or
smooth, gloved or ungloved.
Never mind if sympathy is all we have to give.
Never mind misjudgment and meagre response;
give sympathy and love wherever we can, and receive
the reward of a Ifarnabas.
We were wont to have a rather exalted opinion of
the perfection of that stage of giving which induced a
child to devote the penny intended for candy to the
cause of missions, but in the year eighty-nine of this
our nineteenth century we would wish to take a step
further.
The candy, the ribbon, the extra row of buttons,
was after all not a requisite; it was something over and
above our requisites, it was a something added on, and
not really required, which we decided commendably to
do without, not to add on, not to indulge in for Christ's
sake.
Are there any of God's own dear children reading
these pages who have already been through this phase
Systematic Giving.
93
hill
.or
1 us
our
ble,
lore
that
Is us
Thor
onse ;
iceive
on of
iced a
;o the
,f this
step
Ittons,
and
In, and
Ibly to
\hrisfs
:ading
phase
of giving, and who, as sanctification goes on to work
its perfect work in their souls, would like to go deeper
into thi».. river of life described in Ezekiel xlvii. 1,-5,
to taste still fuller joys in the line of money giving?
Doing without some article, it may be of food or nf
clothing — something that we have always hitherto
looked upon as an essential to our comfort, and which we
will really miss, and feel transient discomfort in dis-
pensing with.
It might be some equipments of the table. The ex-
pensive sauce, the seasonable game, the dainty pudding.
Would one be in reality any the worse for omitting
butter on the bread, or sugar in the tea, or the spoon-
ful of marmalade for a week or a month ?
And after the season is past, would we not entirely
forget that we had felt the hat, the coat, or the gown
too warm, or too cold, occasionally ?
The money that would have been spent on any of
these, we may say, unnecessary expenses, applied to
God's \vork, and given purely for Christ's sake, would
be real Christian giving in the highest sense of the
word, for it would represent loving self-denial and self-
sacrifice.
The soul would grow and expand under systematic
giving of this description, and the body would be none
the worse.
It was fever, not low diet, that brought Howard's
life to a close, and his diet was always the very lowest
and simplest it could possibly be, as we have already
remarked.
J
■ ' 1 ' li
94
Systematic Giving.
And upon this basis, who is there in all God's fair
earth who can plead inability to give? Not many^ we
are sure — ir leed, not any.
We can conceive here a danger of some dear little
one who has early exp(;;rienced her " Happy Day/' as
Miss Havergal expresses it in her sweet story, " Annie,
or the Four Happy Days." We say it might be possible
for a little child, who has decided early for Christ, and
who is anxious to follow out His laws as she reads
them in God's word, to be led to overdo this kind of
self-denial. Taking care not to let the "left hand"
know what the " right " was doing, the parents might
be excluded from the knowledge of the undue amount
of abstemiousness habitually carried out in their
dear child's life, and in this way injury be done to
health. It would be well for parents in Christian
homes to guard against this in these days of earnest
addresses to " Mission Bands " and at '* Children's
Meetings," and, when we are glad to say, many thous-
ands of dear children are everywhere giving their
hearts to Jesus, and entering with all the energy of
their child nature into His service.
fair
K, we
little
r," as
^nnie,
ssible
:, and
reads
ind of
hand"
might
.mount
their
one to
ristian
arnest
Idren's
thous-
thcir
rgy of
CHAPTER VII.
S we said at the commencement of these
pages, money is the easiest, and in our esti-
mation, the least important factor in
systematic giving. The Christian giver
should not be satisfied unless he gives labour;
he must work for the Lord as well as give
of his money. ,
And we think this should also be done with well
considered system.
The writer met a little girl a few days ago wearing
an exceedingly woe-begone expression of face. She
had been accomplishing wonders in mission band
interests, and had seemed very happy in her work for
the Master.
What was the matter ? *' She would have to stay
at home to practice her music and learn her lessons/'
and could not do any more work at present.
This lifted the curtain a little.
It was evident that lack of system, and proper ap-
portioning of her time, had led this little earnest worker
for Christ into a painful experience ; there had been
trouble about the practicing of her music, and the
learning of her lessons.
■BBHl^BHffiW"
V
I !
I I
96
SysUmalic Giving.
All might have been avoided, no doubt, by a little
attention to order and system.
The first thing thrust into our hands by the Bounti-
ful Giver of all good as we open our eyes in the morn-
ing to the light of a new day, is time. .
Wind up your watch or clock !
Not the family one standing on the dining-room
mantle-piece, or on your dressing-table. The general
winding that shall be done by the head of the
house a little later in the day, with the household
gathered around the family altar ? No I no ! nc — there
is a more precious, personal consecration or giving
back of our time to its Giver even than this.
A young girl said to the writer when using the above
term, " Oh ! but papa winds up our clock himself
every night before going to bed." "Yes, dear," we
replied ; " we know, but the watch and clock we
mean can only be wound up by the 0WMer, and each
boy and girl, each man and woman, whoever they may
be, has one in his or her own possession."
A mother cannot wind up her child's, though she
love that child with all the strength of her heart's
affection, nor can the child perform that office for the
dear busy mother. Eack must wind up his own
watch.
That is, faithfully, earnestly, truly hold personal
communion with his God and Saviour in prayer, read-
ing thoughtfully, and invoking the aid of the Holy
Spirit on a portion of the word of God before engaging
in any of the duties of the day. Ten minutes, half an
4 •'
Systematic Giving.
97
I little
Jounti-
; morn-
ig-room
general
of the
msehold
L— there
ir giving
he above
himself
car," we
lock we
nd each
hey may
)Ugh she
^r heart's
for the
Ihis own
personal
rer, rcad-
le Holy
engaging
half an
hour, an hour, or two hours, according to the demands
of other members of the family or community on his
time may permit.
Let us find out, each of us, exactly the proportion
of time we are at liberty to give, and then systemati-
cally, cheerfully, and conscientiously render it without
fail to God.
We will never regret it.
It sets the machinery of soul and body a-going for the
day.
Sometimes we speak of losing a few minutes in the
morning and vainly chasing them all day, but such is
never the case concerning the precious regulating time
spent at our respective Bethels before the day's duties
are entered upon.
Here we come to a sudden pause, wondering if that
which is merely selfish feeding of one's own hungry,
thirsty soul, mingled with a few thoughts of adoring
thanks to God for His gracious goodness, can be
literally set down as giving at all.
Are we doing aught else than satiating our craving
appetites — thank God if they are " craving " — on the
" feast of fat things " and " the wines on the lees."
Taking of the riches of His Grace, without which we
are "poor and blind and naked" — taking of His
strength, without which we are weak, — taking of
Himself, because we know ourselves to be " Nothing,
nothing, nothing." Taking of Him because we
actually cannot do without Him, the All Wise, All
Powerful, Never Failing Friend that " sticketh closer
•^ziTT^^r.
98
Systematic Giving.
\- 1
than a brother." We come again at the family altar
for fresh supplies, and with a meagre offering of
acknowledgment of His divine care. In speaking of
work for Christ, therefore, we cannot refer to the
exercises we engage in to obtain food for our own souls,
for these are only for our own soul's welfare. We
have our secret or family devotions to which we allot
more or less precious time, according to the ardour of
our affection, or the degree of " hunger " or " thirst " to
be appeased.
Then should begin the business of the day. We
must carefully guard against encroaching on the time
rightly demanded of us by others. We cannot and
must not give away that which is really not ours to
give.
Of course there is a sense in which every act we do
can be done as for the Master by consecrated Chris-
tians, but we understan 1 ourselves to be literally writing
of special allotments of time and our other items of
income to God*s service.
So the first thing to be done is to estimate exactly
the amount of time daily or weekly at our disposal.
Then equipped from God's own armoury with His
immeasurable gifts of strength^ lave and wisdom
prepare a written systematic plan of work.
And now we would speak of realworky some labour
of love on which wc must spend time, thought and
active energy — " Lord what wilt Thou have me to do."
No one asks this question in real earnest, in prayer,
without getting an answer.
on'y a sfck one fo readt t V° "''='' "^"^ ^«-
Para^on in o„r own studles^TfifrsX"'^ ^""^ P^^"
/or iWiw— some writine> Ir„,»;- "^ *"'"« work
of an invalid. singi„gTo% "n^'"«' '''*'"^' "«= ""rsing
It matters not th- « i?*^ '"' P""™''-
« time goes oT'"' '^" '^■■" "--"e more defined
«='ose of each session oTwoi " '"'''^««""='"^ « the
Our God in whom we trust will f.i,
-^/•responsibility goes no ^1 ! """^ °'" ''"""».
J«hf„,. systematiS:;^ ".'^J- «^^^ the cheerfnl.
of His own gift of /,W '° """ a daily portion ■
Jqu^: VES^d^ ^^^^^^ open ^"at from
humblest of her subjects Z^ °"^' '^°^" ^ the
-e spot to .. occu^l ° «: S ^ ^' '^ '- ^"
. Set apart out of each A,
portion of your time, and fiJi'irw"^!! °' '''*' ^^^ek. a
"-hich you have thought and 1 V""' '""''^ <>ver
Each one knows h.Cdf ^''^"ed, and prayed.
time it is possible toS ""^ '"'' ''"^ -"uch
As in the case of
matter between the sS God" ""'' " '""^' "« *
Havmg decided how much ?.
consecrate each moment of It '° S'''^. strive to
i
i I
R m I
'I
:!3 h'
100
Sysiematic Giving,
Whatever work is done for God sho >ld be done to
the very best of the worker's ability.
Our Saviour's work for us was •* Finished."
How?
Perfectly.
There was nothing to rectify, nothing to regret,
nothing unsatisfactory in the great work of Redemption
which He completed so fully /<?r us.
And will we grudge taking extra pains, and the use
of the best and most suitable materials, for the work
we design to do for His sake ?
"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His
benefits to me ? "
If the Psalmist thought thus in his day, and eagerly
sought to build a " House for the Lord," and when
not permitted to express his gratitude in this way,
proceeded to gather together materials for his son
Solomon to use in its construction, laboriously bring-
ing all to Jerusalem by the rude traffic, and difficult
and clumsy navigation of his day, surely an intenser cry
should come from Christians of the nineteenth century.
"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His
benefits to me ? "
Work and time specially suggest themselves. We
seem to owe large debts to God in these lines.
David took years and years to make his accumula-
tions of materials ; and no wonder.
Think of the sluggish labour required, and the
innumerable messengers employed, to convey his
orders from place to place.
Systematic Giving,
lOI
nc to
regret,
nption
he use
e work
all His
eagerly
d when
is way,
his son
bring-
difficult
nser cry
century.
all His
5S. We
[cumula-
ind the
kyey h**
A flash of electricity along the telegraph wires did
not carry his commands. The telephone did not bear
his voice, or the voices of his emissaries, to the cedar
cutters at Lebanon ; nor did rushing railway cars, and
swift, graceful steam barges, convey the lumber to the
site of the future temple. Circular saws and turning
lathes and steam mills did not simplify and lessen
labour and time for the large number of workmen
employed by Solomon.
Think of it, you contractors and builders, you
mechanics with your ingenious tools, you overseers of
factories and mills for the momentary production of
what then took hours or days to manufacture. Just
think of Solomon's ten thousand monthly hands in
Lebanon, in all, eighty thousand hewers in the
mountains, besides his seventy thousand bearers of
burdens, and his three thousand artizans — all for the
erection of one edifice !
Laborious work, which used to consume the time
and strength of men, and women, and children, has
been taken out of their hands and given to senseless
machinery, knowing neither fatigue nor pain.
The coal mines are worked by it, the fields are
ploughed and sowed and reaped by it, and machinery
grinds the grain when reaped.
Instantaneous communication round and round the
globe.
Swift and easy transport by land and water.
Free interchange of thought through the medium of
our printing presses, which are now brought to such a
(8)
102
ByUematic Giving.
I! i
State of perfection that they can turn out 25,000
sheets of newspaper, cut and folded, per hour — news-
papers in which we can read the telegraphic daily
history of the world.
Printing presses which are capable of giving forth
in a single year, to the world at large, upwards oifaur
million one hundred and twenty-three thousand nine
hundred and four Bibles and portions, printed in three
hundred and eighty languages and dialects.
If God has put time and work so completely under
our control, surely we are bound by the strongest ties
of gratitude to render time and work for His service.
We have mislaid a beautiful little poem, by Miss
Geldard, called " Spinning for the Lord," which we
had intended to insert here. Perhaps our readers may
have already noticed it several years ago in some of
our periodicals. " Spinning for the Lord," has for its
subject the text taken from Exodus xxxv., verses 25-
26 : " And all the women that were wise-hearted did
spin with their hands, and brought that which they
had spun both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet,
and of fine linen : and all the women whose heart
stirred them up in wisdom, spun goat's hair."
These women spun laboriously with their hands
and the old-fashioned, clumsy distaff, and we are sure
they turned out beautiful work — those rich hangings
for the temple ; and we read how very fine were the
materials they used.
They had no steam-power looms. Their work must
haveb een hard, wearisome, monotonous and very slow.
Systematic Giving,
103
25.000
-news-
c daily
ig forth
%nd nine
\ in three
jly under
rtgest ties
I service.
, by Miss
which we
>ders may
L some of
[has for its
j verses 25-
[earted did
rhich they
of scarlet,
lose heart
»»
^eir hands
^e are sure
hangings
were the
[work must
very slow.
By reference to a reliable authority we are able to
state that when our century entered its last quarter,
Britain alone was exporting cotton, woollen, and silk
fabrics, amounting in value to one hundred and twenty
million pounds sterling, manufactured in seven thousand
two hundred and ninety-four factories. The home
market, with its enormous needs, was fully supplied,
as well.
Improved light, too, has superseded the dim candle
of past centuries. To spend an evening over some
intricate work is no longer an unnatural strain on a
woman's eyes. The needle-woman can now sit com-
fortably at a sewing-machine — executing three thou-
sand stitches per minute — in a room lighted with
coal oil lamps, or gas, or electric light, and run her
seams with ease. Many pages could be written on
the relief this invention has brought to thousands, and
yet the tale would only skim over the surface. So,
with these facilities for work, and for economizing
time, scattered through the length and breadth of the
world, it would indeed be a shame to the Christian
man, woman, or child, who did not eagerly look round,
saying : " Lord, what work can I do for Thee > "
Nl
ii:
J I
CHAPTER VIII.
" CORN FLOWERS."
LONG the swelling of the upland leas,
Where, loved of summer suns, the country
spreads,
The ripen'd blades are swaying in the breeze
That soon will sigh above their shaved heads ;
And fair as ever early reapers found them,
The twining weeds 'and poppies cling around
them.
Oh, Lord, when from this reaping ground I pass.
And bear my scanty sheaf to offer Thee,
Of gaudy weeds and clinging blades of grass.
Too many, mid the grain will twindd be ;
But Thou — wilt Thou not say, with smile divine,
" Poor flowers— poor wecdlings ; they were also M ine.
— Arthur L. Salmon, in " Good Words."*
" Mission Field ! " This is a nineteenth century
term, and is not the very word suggestive of work for
all Christendom?
Was it the disciples only of our Lord's time that got
the command, " Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you ?" Or • ^
her patches, or pasS ""^ needles, or sewing
applying the .e'ed or'Shre^-'r- '^'"' => ^^ "°
boring child, or it mL £ ^'"^ "'^ "f^ °f a neigh-
'.ons." or for a litte Indian h" °"' °' " ^'"•"'''' «'l-
Northwest Reserves s Just,^''' °'J"' °'"' °"^ "^ 'he
'Ws commands as i sC " "r °'"-"^'"^ °"' «-
a McKay. ''^^'^^ » ^arey, a Gordon, or
hanTi„trrX%:S:?''r '"^^''^ ^'- at
W.to«,^theGo?pXralTnI:- '"'"^ ">' °-
"en and women. „o„e a ^Lc lid""''. ^°^'' «'"»•
dude themselves excluded unless they e^
J;t:dr'^^~""^»'''"Voucando.orc.„
Systematize this Icnowledee or t, I . u
and. asking God's blessinHn yo r end'"" '' "*
and do with it thez,.«,L//n ",K ''°"'"' ""'=
can. ^ '"'' and the i-^/y ,„<,^/ y^^
The name of a M r« <;,.„»» i
borhoodof old IdUn :2e':'t''""^ '" ' "'''■^''-
Manitoba. not long sincr Sh ""^ '° "' ^""^
«"'ci" by teaching the'e of. ""'' "'^•■'' '^''«' "be
'alent of knitting, and „ow 'rar;'"'".,'" °"" '■•«•«=
now yarn and needles can hardly
f"i''l3
Mi
' ti !
I i
I
h , 1 i
I 'I •
Ifiiltli^
w
1 06
Systematic Giving,
be sent in sufficient quantities to keep the widening
circle ofnndustrious squaws going.
It^s likely that Mrs. Scott had certain days, and cer-
tain hours, which she thus, in this simple manner con-
secrated to the Master's work.
We know also of another dear young girl among our
own associates, one who led a busy life from Monday
morning till Saturday night, but who consecrated three
evenings each week, of her own much needed recrea-
tion time, to labouring in a free night school for boys,
which she was instrumental in starting. With the
secular lessons imparted, we, her friends, knew she
would be unable to suppress those sacred truths which
were ever uppermost in her thoughts.
If the child of God follows out the suggestions of
the Holy Spirit, fields of suitable labor will open up
that were never dreamed of, as in the case of the weak
little instrument, who was the means under God, of the
organization of that most fruitful work for Ireland,
called " The Bruey Branch."
But we have, in our minds, a plan of systematic work
for the Lord for boys and girls, too, which we think is
new; at least we have never seen it suggested.
Poor boys ! We have read of some people who were
always finding the poor fellows in the way ; they were
sure to wear holes with their heavy boots in the carpet,
or they crushed the new afghan, or soiled the latest
fine art cushion. They whistled when you wanted to
be quiet, and disturbed the peace generally, and as
for aiding in mission work, no one seemed to think
Systematic Giving.
107
lening
id cer-
;r con-
mg our
londay
id three
recrea-
ar boys,
/ith the
lew she
lis which
[stions of
open up
:he weak
>d, of the
Ireland,
Ltic work
think is
[who were
|they were
le carpet,
the latest
/anted to
and as
to think
such an application of their talents appropriate at
all.
Well, we humbly beg to differ from this view of
things, and <^ put forth a plan for the boys, and a fresh
one for the girls.
Boys ! Christian boys ! — who have imbibed some-
what of the Christ-life from the lessons in your Sab-
bath schools and Bible classes, and who know and
understand all about this oft-told tale of our Saviour's
Command — you who would willingly work for the ob-
ject of sending the Gospel into all nations, we would
like half a dozen, or a dozen of you to form a club, ar-
ranging things as methodically as you please, and as
boys always know ko7v.
Then with full consideration as to quality of what
you select, and the amount of rental to be paid yearly,
rent a piece of land for a market garden.
A missionary market garden.
Think, boys, of all the possibilities involved in the
possession of even half an acre of land for a mission-
ary garden.
Why, one young Turk, for the college already
referred to, will not be half enough for you.
We can already see that you will get delightfully
greedy for young Turks, and for whole schools full of
Indian boys, and for Formosa Chapels ; and, in fact,
you will not know where to stop, nor will you be willing
to stop anywhere.
But, dear me, here wc are flying off like a kite
soaring up, up, up to results, before we have half done
with means.
i
m
io8
Systematic Giving,
rf^-:ii!
! 1,!"
Plough the land, or get it thoroughly ploughed, do
every stage of the work the vety best and neatest it
can be done. If you perform all yourself, we venture
to say your '* Joy" will be all the more " Full."
Plan your ground so that it will yield the utmost
cash possible.
Be careful to select the very best seed.
Keep all well weeded and in perfect order, hire
plenty of help from among the ranks from which
your club was first formed, thoroughly systematize the
hours of work, and the turns of the different work-
boys, so that no one's missionary-garden labours will
interfere with his ordinary school and house duties ;
remember there are " duties and duties," and it would
be inferior system that caused them to clash.
It is quite beyond the writer's power to advise what
had better be raised.
Study the markets ; try to command a reasonable
market price for what you raise by the excellent
quality of your commodities.
Secure a round of regular customers, deduct your
expenses for boy hire^ and for rent and seed, and invest
the balance at a proper rate of interest. This wfll be
the commencement of your fund for missionary
purposes.
Enclose more ground as your income increases, and
as your committee advise.
Begin with vegetables ; but in imagination we
already see sample wheats, and other grains, new
varieties to be recommended to the farmers, and
Systematic Giving,
109
ed, do
test it
enture
utmost
er, hire
I which
itizethe
II work-
jurs will
; duties ;
it would
rise
what
asonable
sxcellent
ict your
id invest
Is wfll be
issionary
, and
Lses
Ltion we
fens, new
lers, and
bought by them for seed, waving in the consecrated
ground of our dear missionary boys.
Wheat and grain that has had the very best chance to
bear the " sixty fold " or the " hundred fold," because of
the care and vigilance of the dear missionary hands that
ploughed and harrowed the land, and sowed the seed.
When the funds have accumulated to some extent,
an additional enterprise might be entered into of
nailing together a rude frame hut for rainy days, and
which could be rented to a second club of mechanical
boys who would turn out, for purchasers, useful and
ornamental articles, with their tools ; and underneath
which a good root house for potatoes, turnips, etc.,
could be located.
Try it, boys ; and if we can by any means discover
the address of the " Boss " of the first missionary
market garden, we promise him a donation of five
dollars worth of the best seeds, and slips of small fruit
trees that can be procured.
Now, girls, for a missionary flower garden on the
same principles ; your brothers will help you to get it
in order at first.
Flowers for cutting, flowers for potting, everything
rare and beautiful you can think of.
Purchase rustic baskets, and fancy urns, and fern
stands, and flower stands, from those boy missionary
mechanics, and fill them with vines, and trailing
plants, and bright geraniums, and fairy ferns from the
woods, and you will just be surprised at how fa.st your
customers will send in their orders.
%^-A
no
Systematic Giving.
But be exceedingly systematic.
Study the soil, study the seasons, hire your girl
weeders, and your girl waterers. Perhaps the boy
missionaries will allow you to dabble in strawberries ;
they are very prolific, and require little care.
A small conservatory constructed by the juvenile
carpenters would be a great source of profit and
pleasure.
Then the seeds could be gathered before winter
put up in neal packets, and sold to the trade as well
as to private purchasers. One thing we would beg of
you, that you plan your time and work so well that
home and school duties are not interfered with, and
that you grow the very best varieties of whatever you
attempt to cultivate.
Have lots of roses of all the best kinds ; you can
always command five cents for a rose or a bud, for a
button-hole, or for a lady^ throat.
Decide on a specific object on which to spend your
missionary money. It would be charming to be in
correspondence with one or two, or, we believe, three
Hindu school girls who were being educated with
the money raised by your missionary flower garden.
You could tell them all about the garden, and you
could press some of your prettiest flowers and enclose
them in your letters.
Do, dear girls, who may read these pages, try this
new and pleasant plan, and just see how happy you
will be, and how healthy you will grow under your
toil.
Systematic Giving.
Ill
girl
boy
•ies ;
enile
and
inter
s well
aeg of
I that
h, and
er you
)U can
for a
your
be in
, three
with
fden.
»d you
inclose
|ry this
)y you
\x your
Be quite sure, though, that it is all for Jesus' sake.
There is always a danger when we get excited and
interested in any work of this kind, of losing sight of
purity of motive, but prayer keeps us right.
" Awake my soul and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run,
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
Thy precious time mis-spent redeem,
Each present day thy last esteem ;
Improve thy talent with due care —
For the great day thyself prepare.
Lord, I my vows to Thee renew,
Disperse my sins as morning dew,
Guard my first springs of thought and will.
And with Thyself my spirit fill.
Direct^ control^ suggest^ this day,
All I design to do or say.
That all my powers with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite."
It is a great safeguard to be filled with such
thoughts as these, as we arise in the morning. It is a
sort of clock-winding operation for the day.
The subject o^ work -giving to the Lord, is by no means
exhausted ; indeed it is only touched upon, but time
and space will not permit us to enlarge further. The
fields are wide and innumerable, and we cannot but
if
111
112
Systematic Giving.
expect to see all true Christians, of whatever age or
station, — and by whatever denominational name they
may be known — we cannot but expect to see them
zealous workers for Christ.
It is grand, though humiliating to many of us, to
hear of the Christianized South Sea Islanders raising
by annual subscriptions at their last meeting on Savage
Island, the sum of $1,531 for the purchase of a new
yacht to be employed in the mission work in New
Guinea.
The converts on the Island of Erromanga recognize
their giving and working duties as Christians, by rais-
ing and exporting arrow-root, 3,300 pounds being sent
out as the contributiou for one year, while in Fiji,
in China, in Formosa, in Turkey, India, and in the
North- West Territories, and all our mission fields,
there are daily in this our last quarter of the nine-
teenth century, Christianized converts, men and wo-
men, giving themselves to the work, consecrating their
lives to their new Master's service.
We ourselves know of three old ladies with small
means who made many dollars for missionary purposes,
by exercising a talent they possessed for making ex-
cellent home-made bread and buns, which they sold to
their acquaintances, and also at small monthly sales
of useful articles in the lecture-room of the church
with which they were connected. And we know of dear
little children who dust and sweep, or gather fruit, etc.^
etc., to earn from their Christian mothers, the sixpences
to put into their mite boxes. It seems to us unneces-
it I 1.
Systematic Giving,
"3
or
kiey
lem
, to
sing
/age
new
New
rnize
rais-
sent
Fiji,
n the
ields,
nine-
d wo-
their
sary and superfluous, in 1 889 of the nineteenth centuiy
to touch upon the sinking of missionary money in
lotteries of any kind — fish-ponds, grab-bags and
bazaars in general, all of which belong to a past and
less enlightened cycle of time in the world's history.
In a certain hospital for *' Incurables " there lies in a
bed in one of the female wards, a poor old woman quite
crippled with rheumatism. This afflicted Christian
acknowledges frequently her gratitude to God for
"all His benefits" to her by handing over sums of
forty and fifty dollars either for the hospital fund, or for
missionary purposes ; she earns the money fierself by
laboriously working at the construction of a particular
kind of mat, which she sells to visitors.
She is only able to work with one hand at a time, as
she must always lie either on the left or right side, so
when the right hand takes its rest, the left goes on with
the work.
And we know of several among our own friends who
devote an apportioned part of their time regularly to
reading the Bible, and religious literature to those who
are unable to read for themselves.
Then there are always in every community, children
to be gathered together into " Children's Meetings " for
studying the geography and historical parts of the
Bible, and tc be interested in working for Christ.
A missionary trade for men or women, youths or
maidens, with limited means, would be an ideal thought
for the followers of the " Carpenter of Nazareth, " the
" meek and lowly Jesus."
I
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:ii
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114
Systematic Giving,
W
I
n
i
On this subject of work-giving, we go back to the
point from which we started, namely, that the "sons of
God, joint heirs with Christ," should naturally be
co-workers with the Father, and the Son, in advancing
the kingdom which is to be their own future " inheri-
tance." Joy, and great and abounding happiness must
flow from all work done in this spirit, and God's
blessing will assuredly go with it, for has not our
Saviour Himself said, in connection with workers for
Him, " And lo, I am with you alway, even to the end
of the world."
m
i!
CHAPTER IX.
UT now we go on to speak of that which is
not only by far the most important species
of giving^ but also that which is infinitely
more difficult to give.
The term " systematic " cannot be applied
to it at all, inasmuch as it ought never to
be divided, but be given entirely to the cause of our
beloved Lord and Master.
This is the last division of our theme, and we feel
that we have reserved a space all too limited for so
momentous a subject.
We " are not our own," but " are bought with a price."
We know it to be true. But alas ! the most devoted
servants of God remember this only by fits and starts.
There are none who can truthfully say, when they
retire to rest at night, that they have thought, ^Xi^ spoken ^
and actedy in the conscious remembrance of it, through-
out the hours of the day that has closed.
Indeed, how many are there who could with pain
acknowledge that their thoughts, words, and actions
daily are such as to give strong evidence of constant
or «/;/i^j/ constant forgetfulness of being a " purchased
possession," "bought" with the "precious blood of
V-'
iili,
I ;
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Systematic Giving,
Christ/' and not ^t liberty to walk but according to
the will of their Master.
Influence is an invisible power so subtle, and yet so
illimitable in its effects, that we tremble to think of our
responsibilities in its possession, for there are none
without it. The little infant of a few hours who
passes in a day out of its short earthly existence, has
nevertheless exerted all unconsciously an untold and
immeasurable amount of influence, from which circles
and circles are to spring, widening out to the very
edge of- time, and away on, on rnXo eternity.
Shall we estimate or limit the subtle windings of
the influence that wrung from broken and bruised
hearts the thoughts so beautifully expressed by
Aldrich in his well-known poem, " Baby BelL"
" Have you not heard the poets tell
How came the dainty Baby Bell
Into this world of ours ?
The gates of heaven were left ajar :
♦ *♦♦♦♦♦
" It came upon us by degrees,
We saw its shadow ere it fell —
The knowledge that our God had seni
His messenger for Baby Bell.
We shuddered with unlanguaged pain,
And all our hopes were changed to fears,
And all our thoughts ran into tears
Like sunshine into rain.
We cried aloud in our belief, >
" ' O, smite us gently, gently, God,
Systematic Giving,
117
ig to
ret so
of our
none
s who
:e, has
id and
circles
e very
ings of
bruised
;sed by
Teach us to bend and kiss the rod,
And perfect grow through grief. '*
Ah ! how we loved her, God can tell ;
Her heart was folded deep in ours,
Our hearts are broken. Baby Bell !
At last he came, the messenger.
The messenger from unseen lands ;
And what did dainty Baby Bell ?
She only crossed her little hands.
She only looked more meek and fair ;
We parted back her silken hair.
We wove the roses round her brow —
White buds, the summer's drifted snow,
Wrapt her from head to foot in flowers.
And thus went dainty Baby Bell
Out of this world of ours."
Yes, dear little Baby Bell, but you have per-
formed your mission to father and sisters and brother,
and many souls besides — a mission that could
not have been accomplished so well though hundreds
of eloquent sermons had been preached, or many
volumes read — a mission that none but your own
" dainty " little self could execute.
We have spoken a good deal on money-giving^ and
upon work and time-giving, but what would all that
we could give of these amount to in the end, if our
daily personal itifluence on all with whom we come in
contact, as we pass through the world, were not care-
fully guarded and consecrated to God ? It is a
difficult thing — a very difficult thing to manage
9
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Systematic Giving.
influence aright ; indeed we know from our own know-
ledge of self and recollections of our own utter
weakness, that only by leaning on Him who is our
" Strength," can we do anything the least satisfactory
with this immense unwieldy possession.
As we said before, this talent is a. genera/ one, for there
is not one human being in all God's universe without it.
Each action is saturated with it, even an expression
of the face is filled with it, and each word we utter is
fraught with it.
Our minds go back intuitively to a Mordecai, an
Esther, a Joseph, a Moses; to the little captive maiden
who was indirectly the means of the cure of Naaman,
the Syrian captain ; to the lad who carried Jonathan's
arrows ; to Jonah and to "Paul's sister's sonl^ and many
others whose influence, sometimes quite unconsciously
exerted, led to great and never ending results.
It is as impossible to follow out the minute and ex-
tensive ramifications of influence, as to discover the re-
cesses to which light and heat penetrate in the solar
system.
A number of American gentlemen, speculators, were
travelling together in a railway carriage. They were
all on their way to buy up land, on speculation, in the
Colorado mining regions.
As they had vc .de large additions to their wealth
by former speculations of a similar nature, they were
excitedly eager to try the same royal road to riches
again.
" Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
Systematic Giving.
speaketh." So these men in fh.- . "
several hours, talked of "; hint ;^^"^^°'"'"^y '»««"?
earnestly did they convey thaf '':"'' ^° '""^ -"^
other occupants of the clrw^ '"tercourse among
They compared notes ,h ""' ""^^Pted. ^
'° the comparative mTn^^g'^lr J^^'' °'""'-°- «
of 'he country, they told of 1. ''^"' '"^^'ons
Peared to be in excelle" Lt^ ^T' '^'^ ="' ^P-
go.ng veo. prosperous!; X l'/: " ''^ "-'<! -^s
away accordingly, not always part cul' ' ""^^ Joked
latory expressions that escaped th" '"' '° "'^ ejacu-
"ot fail to grate painfully orth.*"' '"' ^'"'''^ <^ouId
more serious frame of mind ^"' °^ """^e of a
The voices had been goine at , f
'"'had the cars. SuddenlyLl „""""''°"^ '^'^~
gether. as the train drew L ol '° " P^"^e to-
Passing of the express from th " '"'""'' '° ^"^ait the
There was not a sound to I °PP°'''e direction,
nationalists were eaTno doubt b= "^ '^'^ ~"-
speculative trains of thought... "'^ "^''y"? out
talk that had just ceased a„d^^"'^^ "^ ">e animated
the speculative money!!;^! "'"'=!' ^^ '"creased
s.nce the journey commenced^ ^ '' °^ ^"^'^ 'enfold
railway carriage, uttered ties" wl?"""' '°™" "^ '"e
consisteth not in the abundance oflhX'^ ■"^"'•' ^'-
sesseth." """"ance of the things he pos-
Nothing more, not a remark fMi ^
'^ord. It was as if the ext t '"' "° °"e said a
text, so appropriately wedged
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Systematic Giving,
in at that most opportune moment, were left standing
alone to shoot out threads of influence, and of subject
for meditation in each soul present.
The very silence showed that solemn thought was
busy. We remember God's own promise, " My word
shall not return unto me void." It was having a fair
chance in this instance, and where to into eternity the
influence would flow none could tell.
Ruskin, in his " King's Treasuries" of "Sesame
and Lilies, " dwells emphatically on the weight and in-
fluence of such small trifles as accent, and that most
general English habit of using " masked words'^
Both these apparently insignificant, but in reality
tremendous weapons for influence, we carelessly use
at the suggestions of our own sweet wills, forgetting
that we may be making them, disseminate falsehoods
and erroneous impressions with appalling rapidity, and
from which will grow other ever-widening circles of
the same nature.
Manner YidiS a wonderful influence also ; it may be a
proud manner, or one in which the opposite quality
predominates.
Pride of dress, of wealth, of position, of talent, of
popularity, or of culture, can not be hid by " masked
words," or by " accent," for the manner is certain to
betray it, and scatter its influence on the immediate
circle and subjoined circles, just as much as will the
manner of the humble Christian, empty of self, and
thinking least favourably of his own attainments, and
most favourably of those of his neighbour.
Systematic Giving.
121
°f the public, S wS h : rif '^ r '''-"'-<^- c-rde
of the family, and therfi ^1 '""'^''nailer circle,
retreat, so sa^ed aid exLo^f ''"^^^ *"=" *»-- »/
We-the inner life-the Te"^ vT '""■""■°"- '" «"«■•/
have " l,id with Chrit in r "[«",^ ^^ '"°"''' '^''^h to
■difficult to controrrril? i'fl *'^""^'- '' " """^ -
of no way to do so, no rl to ""'r",: ""'' "^ "^"O"
^^ care., , J---^, -^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^i:-^ -".-poor
things. " °^ very small outside
^^zt:,::^::^-^ '"--^ "-""-^ thought.
weight of his influence's \T' f^' '°' °' '"^-^he
And in woman's world the i "fl '"'^ "'"•
fet to a much grea^r extent "''"''"" '' ">-'■-
She IS above her dress " is
heard connected with the LZ ^T^^^'""^ "= ^ave
careless in dress, was admired and T 1^°' "'""^h
engaging qualities, but Th ' • t T""^ ^°' ""^"^
lesser degree to take too Ht L ^l^^^' ^ ''a^'t of
to make it a matter of su "'if'"' '''°"' ''^^^^ than
as to devote undue attentSn TT""' ™"-''e--ation
woman desiring to cons^^.f ,, ' *^^ "'^ """e that a
-•" find it absolutelyneeera: tT"";""""" '" ^°''.
of her body " with modest cao w " ""^ " '^""Ple
-trouble spent thus i;lr:asSr-he?;ur
!
I' i
!
i
4
Iv
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122
Systematic Giving.
There are very few minds above being influenced by
the becoming, or the unbecoming shade of ribbon,
the pretty, neatly made dress, or the ill made ugly
one.
Women must come in contact with a great many
little minds in the course of each day, and even " great
minds condescend to things of low estate," so we con-
tend that her dress will increase or diminish her influ-
ence among her fellow beings, according as she neglects
it, or pays proper attention to it.
" When Luther first saw Catherine Von Bora,
She was cutting bread and butter."
His great mind took in at a glance this matter of
fact action. We wonder if she had a dainty mob
sweeping cap, and a prettily made calico gown, for the
Leader of the Reformation would probably take that
in too.
To refer to Ruskin's thoughts again, on the point of
woman's influence, which he thinks exceeds all others,
we give a quotation once more from " Queen's Gar-
dens^' " Sesame and Lilies," He says :
" I am now going to ask you to consider with me
what special portion or kind of royal authority, arising
out of nobH education, may rightly be possessed by
women ; and how far they are called to a true queenly
power, not in their households merely, but over all
within their sphere. And in what sense, if they rightly
understood and exercised this royal or gracious influ-
ence^ the order and beauty induced by such benignant
systematic Giving.
123
)int of
)thers,
Gar-
h me
rising
ed by
cenly
er all
ightly
influ-
ignant
power would justify us in speaking of the territories
over which each of them reigned 2^ * Queen's Gardens' "
After pointing out the fact that Shakespeare, Spencer,
Scott, and other renowned writers, have no heroes, and
that it is by the influence of the heroines, and by their
wisdom and virtue always, that redemption comes, if it
comes at all, and showing that these authors invariably
represent women as infallibly faithful and wise coun-
sellors — incorruptibly just and pure examples — strong
always to sanctify even if they cannot save, and with
endless varieties of grace, tenderness, and intellectual
power — " we find in all a quite infallible and inevitable
sense of dignity and justice, a fearless, instant, and un-
tiring self-sacrifice to even the appearance of duty,
much more to its real claims ; and finally a patient
wisdom of deeply restrained affection, which does infi-
nitely more than protect its objects from a momentary
error ; for it gradually forms, animates, and exalts the
characters of unworthy men." That " it is the woman
who watches over, teaches, and guides the youth, never
the reverse." He then goes on to address women on
the subject of the gardens over which they are
Queens.
" You would think it a pleasant magic if you could
flush your flowers into brighter bloom by a kind look
upon them ; nay, more, if your look had the power
not only to cheer but to guard them, if you could bid
the black blight turn away, and the knotted caterpillar
spare — if you could bid the dew fall upon them in the
drought, and say to the south wind in frost — ' Come
124
Systematic Giving.
thou south wind, breathe upon my garden that the
spices of it may flow out'
This you would think a great thing. And do you
think it not a greater thing that all this (and how much
more than this) you can do for fairer flowers than these
— flowers that could bless you for having blessed them,
and will love you for having loved them ; — flowers
that have eyes like yours, and thoughts like yours, and
lives like yours ; which once saved, you saive forever ?
Is this only a little Power ?
Far among the moorlands and the rocks, far in the
darkness of the terrible streets — these feeble flowrets are
lying, with all their fresh leaves torn, and their stems
broken — will you never go down to them ? nor set
them in order in their little fragrant beds, nor fence
them in their shuddering from the fierce wind ? Shall
morning follow morning for you but not for them ?
No dawn to breathe upon those living banks of wild
violet and woodbine and rose ; nor call to you through
your casement — call saying :
• Come into the garden Maud,
For the black bat night has flown ;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad.
And the musk of the roses blown.'
" 'yill you not go down among ^hcm ? Among those
".V <.n "ving things whose new courage, sprung from
tne :arlh, vvith the deep color of earth upon it, is start-
\t.\i i^; n strength of goodly spire ; and whose purity,
washed from the dust, is opening bud by bud into the
Systematic Giving.
125
the
you
ouch
these
;hem,
Dwers
3, and
zver ?
in the
ets are
stems
lor set
fence
Shall
them?
if wild
TOUgh
those
from
Is start-
I purity,
ito the
flower of promise, and still they turn to yoii, and for
you * The Larkspur listens — I hear ! I hear ! and the
Lily whispers — I wait ! *
Did you notice that I missed two lines when I read
the first stanza, and think I had forgotten them ?
Hear them now.
' Come into the garden Maud,
For the black bat night has flown ;
Come into the garden Maud,
/ am here at the gate alone.^
" Who is it think you who stands at the gate of this
sweeter garden alone, waiting for you ?
Did you ever hear, not of a Maud, but of a Madeleine,
who went into her garden in the dawn, and found One
waiting at the gate whom she supposed to be the
gardener ?
Have you not sought Him often — sought Him in
vain at the gate of that old garden where the fiery
sword is set ?
He is never there ; but at the gate of this garden He
is waiting always — waiting to take your hand, ready to
go down to see the fruits of the valley, to see whether
the vine hath flourished, and the pomegranate budded.
There you shall see with Him the little tendrils of the
vines that His hand is guiding ; there you shall see the
pomegranate springing where His hand cast the san-
guine seed ; more, you shall see the troops of the angel
keepers^ that with their wings wave away the birds
from the path sides where He has sown, and call to
126
Systematic Giving,
1
each other between the vineyard rows, " Take us the
foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines
have tender grapes."
Oh, you queens ! you queens 1 among the hills and
happy green wood of this land of yours shall the
" foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,"
and in your cities shall the stones cry out against you
that they are the only pillows where the Son of Man
can lay his head ? "
We claim for women, aye, and for very young girls,
that they have, each one in her exalted or humble
sphere, power to make the conversation, and train of
thought what they choose in a mixed company.
A tired, chilled little newspaper vender crossed our
path to-day with a bundle of papers under his arm.
He was a very diminutive specimen of the trade, and
new to his business, nevertheless he ran about through
the crowds on the market square, jostling this one, and
shouting boldly in the ear of another, the name and
price of his sheet of literature.
But people did not want newspapers just then —
they wanted butter, and eggs, and potatoes, and legs of
mutton, so the poor little man had no success. We
ourselves were impatient over the little human im-
pediment in the way of our hurrying footsteps.
But an hour later in a more retired street we caught
sight of the same boy, or was he the same boy ? Non-
success had done its usual work ; his energy was all
gone ; they seemed very childish little legs as they
lagged along, evidently homeward bound, to get per-
Systematic Giving.
127
the
ines
^ and
I the
ests,
tyou
"Man
girls,
umble
ain of
ed our
,rm.
e, and
rough
le, and
,e and
Ithen —
I legs of
We
in im-
I caught
Non-
^as all
IS they
tet per-
haps a mother's sympathy, and turning in disgust from
a world of self-absorbed business, where he and his
bundle of papers were " nothing to nobody." As vye
watched from a street»on the cliff the figure of the boy
moving slowly along, wet and cold, on the avenue be-
low, a sudden feeling of pity and commiseration for
the lad entered our soul, and filled it with remorse that
we had not taken one of his papers.
If we could have hailed him he would have got a
customer now.
So much for the infltience of the movement of the
lad's legs.
Unconsciously they, the lad's legs, were interesting
one member at least of the public more than all his bold
shouts had done, therefore we recognize ^xaXgait has an
influence of its own.
The pompous gait, the active gait, the languid gait,
the slouching gait, the tottering gait of age, and the
playful gait of innocent childhood ; there is the gait of
the frivolous, and the gait of the sedate, the modest,
the humble — the gait of the self-conscious and self-
important, and the gait of the one who is thinking of
the interests of his neighbor as well as his own.
Stand at the window of the dentist's parlor d.-^dxt-
va^ your turn^ and while you are looking out of the
window trying to forget the coming tooth extracting
operation in prospect, you will see all these characters
go by on the street below, and the gait will be your in-
dex to the different dispositions.
CHAPTER X.
r !■•.;
EFORE leaving the subject of Influence and
drawing this little volume to a close, we
would like to give the names of two or
three out of the many, who might de-
servedly be remembered as having exerted
their influence in the cause of the general
good of mankind.
Again we would refer to Howard ; the work he did
was great and laborious, and, as we have said before,
he spent his money freely, but his influence was his
best gift, and in the prisons and hospitals and peniten-
tiaries of the present day, though his work and his
money have been left far behind, his influence is still
yielding great harvests of fruit.
What shall we say of the glorious harvest of freed
humanity which has been the result of the patient, elo-
quent influence of Wilberforce, who brought up his
bill in Parliament, at each session from 1789 to 1807,
for the abolition of the slave trade.
Nearly twenty years of systematic discharge of
bursts of influential eloquence, besides all the influence
that issued from the point of his consecrated pen, in
defence of the same object. He just went steadily on
It! !; i|
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Systematic Giving.
129
ice and
ose, we
two or
^ht de-
exerted
general
he did
before,
was his
peniten-
and his
pe is still
I of freed
lient, elo-
It up his
]to 1807,
large of
Influence
pen, in
^adily on
without flinching, till the victory was gained, and Eng-
land induced through time to give ^20,000,000 sterling
for the liberation of slaves.
Wilberforce used his influence in other directions also
with the aim invariably of the moral improvement of
England.
Duelling received repeated blows from his lips and
his pen.
Sabbath observance was another of his aims ; and a
great deal of the interesting missionary enterprise
going on to-day in India and the colonies, and which
is now drawing the attention, and exercising the giving
disposition of the entire world, is due to the earnest in-
fluential speeches and writings of Wilberforce for Chris-
tian ization.
His influence was expended largely, too, for the
object of Bible circulation, and we know by our annual
statistics, to what numbers the results have reached.
Lord Brougham's is a name we would not pass over.
He advocated brilliantly, national education, and pop-
ular institutions, and the effects of his influence will
go on while the world lasts.
These men all paved the way for future Philanthro-
pists, by their influence and example.
Agnes Jones is still another whom we would wish
to speak of, as one who consecrated her influence to
Christ. Anxious to do the most possible with her life
in the Master's service, she pleaded with her friends
to be permitted to study systematically the art of
nursing, at the Nightingale training-school for nurses
at Kaiserworth.
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Systematic Giving.
She went there in the year i860. She wished to
say with her whole heart, " Lord here am I, send me."
Miss Nightingale was determined that Agnes Jones
should have full opportunity for counting the cost of
her voluntary vocation, and for one year she was made
to serve as a common nurse at St. Thomas. But she
had looked all that was involved calmly in the face,
aud had taken to herself the motto, " I will go in the
strength of the Lord."
\ scrap from a letter to a friend, gives us a glimpse
of this heroic girl at her duties at St. Thomas.
She tells her friend that daily she gives medicine
"- \.o forty-two m^v\l' popping pills into their mouths,
which they sometimes stopped to thank her for, before
proceeding to swallow them. She was very happy in
her work, and the title, " Happy Agnes," which her
friends applied to her after visiting her in the hospital,
was a most appropriate one.
In 1864 she was offered the position of superintend-
ent of the Liverpool training school for nurses.
Here she had double duty to do, and most arduous
and difficult ones.
She had the general charge of the whole institute of
six hundred pauper patients, and the training of the
nurses and probationers, from half-past five till mid-
night. She was delighted with her work, and threw
her whole soul into it. She had classes for religious
instruction, and for scripture reading.
Her " individual " influence is said to have been very
great, and her influence upon each individual. Her
Systematic Giving.
131
:d to
me."
ones
)St of
made
It she
: face,
in the
iimpse
sdicine
louths,
, before
ippy in
tch her
spital,
tend-
m
Irduous
itute of
of the
ill mid-
threw
jligious
jn very
Her
constant union and communion with a living Christ
upheld her through all she undertook. We must
remember that she left her home of her own accord, to
associate, Christ-like, with the poorest and lowest of
mankind.
Many wondered how she managed to accomplish all
the duties of her position. It was just by a well-or-
dered, trained system, of doing her " Father's business,"
and by the unbounded influence she exerted judiciously
over the nurses, and indeed every one. Miss Nightin-
gale says of her : " She had greater power of carrying
her followers with her than any man or woman I ever
saw, and she seemed not to know she was doing any-
thing remarkable." She died after a lingering illness
brought on by exhaustion and overwork, in 1868, but
the influence of her beautifully consecrated life has not
yet ceased. Trained nurses for the missionary fields
and for the hospitals for " sick children," and for " In-
curables," and for the aged and infirm, are swelling the
ranks daily, and many of them voluntarily leave happy
and luxuriant homes to consecrate themselves to the
noble work, led on by the influence of this truly
noble life. Just one more record and we have
done.
Elizabeth Gurney, afterwards the celebrated Mrs.
Fry, was a woman whose influence has still its effects,
and will have far beyond time's limits.
When a mere girl she began to instruct a little
school consisting of one little boy, but which soon in-
creased to seventy. No woman ever did mere for th^
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Systematic Giving.
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temporal benefit of her race than did Mrs. Fry. Not
by gifts of money, for she had not much at her com-
mand,but by her earnest labours and her wide extended
influence.
She simply converted Newgate prison to a scene of
comfort and order, and made it the gate of Heaven to
many, instead of " a hell above ground." In the year
when she was thirty-three years o^ age, she began to
interest herself more particularly in the moral reforma-
tion of criminals, in their conversion and sanctification.
She organized a regular "Association for the improve-
ment of the prisoners at Newgate," its objects being to
provide clothing, instruction, and employment for
them.
She established a school for this purpose amongst
them. Her active and systematic habits enabled her
to accomplish a vvontlerful amount of benevolent work,
although she was the mother of eleven children, and
latterly had to contend with the restrictions and diffi-
culties of very limited means. She instituted, by her
influence among the Quakers, the order of " Nursing
Sisters," which continued to do great good long after
the source of the influence had passed away from earth.
Mrs. Fry's warm, motherly heart became greatly in-
terested also in the homeless wanderers in London,
and she used her ever growing influence to have provided
for them *' a nightly shelter for the homeless." Think
of the thousands of fresh circles of Heaven-born influ-
ence that would spring up in each soul of those who
were benefited by this most benign influence.
Systematic Giving.
^11
Not
com-
:ended
:ene of
iven to
le year
;gan to
forma-
cation.
iprove-
)eing to
jnt for
imongst
)led her
it work,
ren,and
nd diflfi-
, by her
ursing
g after
earth,
atly in-
ondon,
rovided
Think
n influ-
»se who
Soup and bread were provided, as well as a bed to
poor neglected and wretched creatures, who would
otherwise have had to exist without either. This most
irriuential woman formed a committee of ladies to in-
struct the helpless poor in work, so that they might be
enabled and encouraged to procure comforts and in-
dependence for themselves.
We know how invaluable as an influence for good
is District Visiting, and this organization we primarily
owe to Mrs. Fry. Even foreign countries benefited
largely from the wholly consecrated influence of Mrs,
Fry. Crabbe in his merited eulogium upon her life
says she " made a prison a religious place."
Her great simplicity, almost childlike, which she
retained to the last, showed her single mindedness, and
how entirely she did all to the Lord. She died at
Ramsgate, in 1845.
And now we have done, regretting deeply that time
and space will not admit of many further remarks
which we would exceedingly have desired to make,
and which it requires a strong effort to withhold, on
the very wide and important subject of " Systematic
Giving."
Under our last division in particular, we have left
much ground untouched — child influence, school girl
and school boy influence, of which many instances
could be told from our own life and experience, and
that most powerful of all influences, mother influence,
the dim recollection of which even many a time inter-
venes in many lives that have sunk to the lowest
(10
:,!!■
,i^
If
in
'.i,ii|/.l
!)■■'!:
- 1 ■' 1
*».
M
ii '■'
ii ;li . i
!:':'
134
Systematic Giving.
depths of sin and degradation, and, under God, pre-
vents the total destruction of precious souls.
Influence ! silently and stealthily it glides hand in
hand with time — that wonderful power — unconscious
and conscious influence. All creation, animate and in-
animate, is richly endowed with the subtle g'ft, and of
all creation, man is the most fickle, irregular, unsys-
tematic, and inactive, in rendering even a small pro-
portion of his influence to God. It is an immense re-
sponsibility, for we cannot measure the circle enclosed
bv each individual action of our lives, nor of each
word spoken or written, nor can we estimate the vistas
of time, down through future generations, to which
these influences are to extend.
But we close with an earnest, prayerful desire that
God will bless what has been written in His strength
alone, and that our readers will be induced by the
perusal of this little volume to give more, and to do so
more systemacically than they have ever yet done. We
would then feel indeed that the Lord Himself had
owned the effort of His humble instrument, and our
heart would be filled with thanksgiving.
And should any of God's dear children be led on from
this, to take that highest and noblest step of all, namely,
entire consecration of money, time, ivork, influence, life
and talent, and in this way to bring into their own lives
here on earth a very heaven of peace and joy, then
would we rejoice in the Lord's great goodness.
There can be no happiness to equal this — when we
literally acknowlege by our every action that "we are
Systematic Giving.
135
on from
lamely,
nce^ life
vn lives
y, then
/hen we
'we are
pre-
nd in
scions
nd in-
mdof
Linsys-
il pro-
ise re-
iclosed
if each
I vistas
which
not our own." When we acquire the habit of merely
taking out of our means that which is necessary to
worthily clothe and sufficiently support the temple of
our body, in order that we as " joint heirs with Christ "
and " sons of God " may accomplish for our Father
the very utmost that our capabilities render possible.
ire that
rength
3y the
do so
We
elf had
ind our
THE END.