The Faithful Steward | Page 9

gifts in specific instances when the heart is right. The following are such.
The great truth that God has a supreme and inalienable right in us and in all that we possess. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts." "For every beast of the field is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine."--The injunction to dedicate ourselves to God. "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."--The requirement to love God and his cause and interest more devotedly than the dearest worldly possession. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple."--The command to love our neighbor as ourselves; that we are to supply his necessities, and relieve his sufferings, so far as lies in our power, with the same willingness that we do our own.--The intimation that our gifts should be such as to call into exercise our faith and self-denial. The poor widow cast into the treasury of the Lord "all that she had, even all her living;" with which generous sacrifice Christ was well pleased; and Paul commends the Macedonian Christians, because they gave not only according to their power, but beyond their power.-- The promises to the benevolent. "The liberal soul shall be made fat." "He that watereth shall be watered himself." "It is more blessed to give than to receive."--The duty of imitating Christ, who "suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps;" that we should "walk even as he also walked."
Also, the very large amount of their income, (which has been estimated at not less than one fifth) required of the Jews to be given for the support of religion, and in charity, was intended to convey to us similar instruction. For though the law of tithes or double tithes is not binding upon us, the great sacrifices which they were required to make, are designed to have a moral influence on succeeding generations. It is not the idle record of a bygone race, or of a dispensation that has vanished away; it utters a voice to us; it is the living exemplification of a principle which we are bound to adopt. If even the poor among the Jews could give so much, the poor can still give bountifully in proportion to their means,--and, were they disposed, how profusely might the rich lavish their munificence. With the fact before us of the great sacrifices the Jews were commanded to make for the support of religion in their own narrow bounds; when we consider the breadth of the field we are called to cultivate,--the spiritual necessities of the perishing millions of our race, the opportunities to reach them, the worth of the undying soul, the revenue of glory its salvation will yield the Saviour, what sacrifices ought the poor, at the present day, to make in their penury, and the rich in their abundance, to promote the glory of Christ in the salvation of souls; and how terrible the doom of those who refuse.
These principles, requisitions, promises, and examples, show us that our sacrifices should be great, and the amount of our contributions large, when either the worldly or spiritual necessities of others demand our aid; while they leave the treasuries of benevolence to be filled by the spontaneous flow of each individual soul.
The desire, therefore, to fasten on the consciences of men the obligation to contribute periodically a certain portion of their income or property, as universally binding, is not to be gratified by arguments drawn either from reason or revelation. We may resort to no artificial means. We may trust in no machinery which does not work and glow with the living fires of the heart. Love, conscience, and reason, must be the originating and guiding forces. We must fall back upon, and confide in, these vital principles of holy conduct. First the heart, and then the act, is the Gospel scheme, and we may not reverse the process. To attempt it, and to say, "What we seek in a system of beneficence, is not a benevolent heart, but benevolent actions;" is to come in open collision with the spirit of the Gospel. It is apparently a lurking disposition to induce men to discharge the duties of beneficence, without laying their hearts on the altar of God, and keeping them perpetually burning there;