THE "GRACE" OF CHRISTIAN GIVING.

17

"as the Lord hath prospered," inasmuch as the others, although perhaps occasionally inconspicuous in practise, will assuredly be conceded by us all in theory.

It is evident that ability and prosperity must refer to accumulations even if they be ever so small. If a man can realize only just enough to support himself and his family, while he has every reason for thankfulness, there is no room for charity to others. His first duty must be to those of his own house. If the poor widow whose generous gift was noticed by our Lord had had two hungry children at home, the best Lord's treasury into which she could have dropped her two mites would have been their two little mouths. It is, however, well known to those who have the management of church finance that it is not the poor widow or the poor Christian generally whose gifts are few or small compared with the means possessed, but that, with some bright exceptions, the men of substance give proportionately the least to the service of the Lord. Some years ago the writer heard the late Rev. Samuel Martin say, "The great reason why there is so little church extension at home, why the cries of the heathen abroad for the gospel are so neglected, and why the Master's command to preach His salvation to every creature still remains unfulfilled, is that we have not got the property of the church for the church. If a man has £50,000 a year he thinks he has done a great deal for God if he gives away two or three thousand of it, and spends some, and lays up more for his sons to make fools of themselves with, and enable them to violate the apostolic injunction, that if a man will not work neither shall he eat. We want a condition of things where men would spend and lay by the two or three thousand, and give the £47,000 for the Lord's work in the world."

No doubt the rev. gentleman put such an amount as the above in order that he might not be accused of making personal allusions, as probably none of his hearers could count upon much over a tithe of the sum named; but his remarks contained a true and sound principle. When our Father gives us wealth, it is for us to use for Him. We have no right to heap it up and leave it to a future generation to spend. The responsibility of its use rests on him to whom it is given. With what horror will some Christian fathers find in the great day of account that this talent which God gave them, and they turned over unused to others, has, in some cases, been laid up in a napkin by an avaricious son, or squandered in riotous living by a dissolute one, all because they did not properly realize that they themselves, and not their children, were the stewards of the good things with which their Lord had entrusted them. The Christian church will never accomplish all that is possible of good to others until it realizes that its wealth is to be used in helping and blessing the nations which Jesus bids them go forth to disciple in His name.

But short of this highest manifestation of the Christian principle of giving to the Lord, are there not other ways in which church members who are not wealthy can give much more than they do. Dr. James Hamilton once said in his church, with reference to the support of missions, "If the Christian people of Regent Square only acted on this principle when contemplating the purchase of articles of ornament, I can do without it,' how much additional help might they render to the

enlightenment of the world." Is it not painful to know that many of the dark places of the earth are still filled with the habitations of cruelty because kind gentle Christians thoughtlessly spend their substance on things of simple self-indulgence, rather than on Bibles and missionaries for the heathen? How many foreign stations could be occupied in twelve months time, in all parts of the globe, were the Christian churches in America and England universally to act on Dr. Hamilton's suggestion.

Is not the want of system in our giving one cause of our giving so little? One friend said to the writer, not long ago, "Before I gave a certain proportion of my yearly income for the special work of the Mas-* ter I fancied I gave a great deal; but when I took the trouble to put down each item, I was surprised, at the end of the year, to find it so ridiculously small. Now I give a fixed portion; and not only give much more, but have always a stock in hand from which it is a pleasure to supply pressing cases as they arise." And if all of us devoted a fixed proportion of our weekly or annual income to the purpose of helping others in things spiritual and temporal, would not the same joy be ours. No one ought to lay down a rule as to the proportion. The Master did not do this because He knew a command to give, say one-tenth, would starve some of His children, and allow others of them to part with comparatively nothing. A Christian with a large family and eighteen shillings a week in London, or thirteen shillings in the country, giving one-tenth of his income, would be cruelty to those dependent on him; while another with £3,000 a year to give one-tenth would be, in God's sight, probably no acceptable gift at all. Each could, according to his income, graduate his gifts so as to render valuable contribution, because it would represent real sacrifice to the Master's cause. It has been stated the late Mr. Gurney used to spend one-third of his income, save one-third for his family, and give the remaining third to the work of helping his fellows. But, probably, the best system is that which gives a fixed proportion out of fixed incomes; but in business, where profits vary, offers for the Lord's service not only proportionately, but absolutely more as profits increase. For instance, any one wishing to be of service to the great Master could better afford, after supplying the wants of his family on the most generous scale, to give Him one half of £1,500 a year, than one-fifth of £500 a year. One Christian brother, when he went into business, made out a graduated scale on which to base his gifts for the promotion of men's spiritual and temporal welfare as follows:

· --

And it should be added, that when he formed the above resolution he had a large family dependent on him, and that the above proportions were to represent the minimum sums he would give. Without insisting on the above, or any other figures, there can be no doubt that, all other things being equal, the man who gives on a regular system gives most, and has always ready to hand most that he can give.

It is really time that our Christian churches woke up to their responsibility in this great matter-chapel debts, Christian missions barely

THE "GRACE" OF CHRISTIAN GIVING.

19

maintained, dark places of the earth without missions at all, ministers at home working bravely on with insufficient support for their dearest ones, to say nothing of the orphanages and training schools which ought to be established, whereby the children of criminal or idle parents may be saved from their parents vices-all appeal, in eloquent tones, to Christian men and women to "deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus" in that self-sacrifice which was so manifest an expression of the divine love and life which possessed Him; and which, in their case, should not only tend to consecrate tongue and hand and brain, but also the wealth He gives them, to win men to be His servants and His friends. And those who have tried to carry out this great principle can witness to the fact that, as with everything else surrendered for the good Master, the joy He bestows is infinitely precious, and utterly overwhelms any idea of sacrifice which they expected to experience in giving up some indulgence for His sake.

And there is one more consideration which ought to influence us. We often forget what King David found out nearly three thousand years gone by that we can give nothing to God which is not His already. Many years ago a little girl went, one bright morning, into the garden, and seeing the first spring flower just bursting into bloom, she eagerly plucked it, and running back into the house gave it to her father. "Father," she said, her face beaming with joy at the thought of making him so pretty a present, "haven't I brought you a beautiful flower?" "Dear little thing," said her father, as he mentioned the incident to a friend, "I didn't like to tell her it was my own."

Whatever we bring as an offering to the Lord Jesus Christ, He gladly accepts; and He doesn't care to tell us it is all His own. He rather beseeches us by our love to others as well as to Him; and adds further an appeal to the good which will thereby accrue to ourselves, that we should lay out our money in His cause, "Sell that ye have, and give alms; lay up," by this means, "a treasure in the heavens that fadeth not, where no thief approacheth, and no moth corrupteth."

May He who has stimulated His people in these days to more strenuous and earnest efforts to save the souls of old and young by teaching and preaching and evangelizing, pour out on us more and more abundantly this grace also-the grace of Christian giving-so that men may know our hold on the treasures of heaven is infinitely stronger than our grasp on the treasures of earth; and thus seeing our good works, may glorify our Father in heaven by acknowledging the claims on their love and obedience of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

S. D. RICKARDS.

WANTED-AN EASY PLACE.

HENRY WARD BEECHER some time since received a letter from a young man, who recommended himself very highly as being honest, and closed with the request: "Get me an easy situation, that honesty may be rewarded." To which Mr. Beecher replied: "Don't be an editor, if you would be easy.' Do not try the law. Avoid school-keeping. Keep out of the pulpit. Let alone all ships, stores, shops, and merchandise. Abhor politics. Keep away from lawyers. Don't practise medicine. Be not a farmer or a mechanic; neither a soldier nor a sailor. Don't study. Don't think. Don't work. None of these are easy. Oh, my honest friend, you are in a very hard world! I know of but one real easy place in it. That is the grave!"

No. I.-ITS SIZE, INDUSTRIES, RECENT GROWTH, AND PUBLIC SPIRIT. THE boundaries of this rapidly increasing and increasingly important county town were enlarged by the passing of the Nottingham Borough Extension Act, which came into operation in November, 1877. The townlets and hamlets of Lenton, Hyson Green, Radford, Basford (New and Old), Bulwell, Carrington, Sherwood, Brewhouse Yard, and parts of Wilford and Gedling, were then incorporated. The area of the old borough was about 2,000 acres; to which were added 7,690 acres, making the dimensions of the municipality nearly five times as large as formerly -viz., 9,960 acres, or about fifteen and a half square miles. The average breadth of the borough verges upon three miles; the greatest length is about six and a half miles, and its circumference about twentyfive miles.

Lace making, in nearly all its varieties, forms its staple industry, and has notably flourished throughout the period of depression that has passed over the nation. The home and export business done in this fair and fragile fabric has of late been unprecedentedly large. It has found highly remunerative employment for multitudes of men and women, boys and girls. And still it thrives, and will do till Mademoiselle Fashion shall prefer flowers, fruit, feathers, or some other form of finery in which to deck her votaries-and then? To-day, however, the lacelords are acting as if there were no then in the future. Old factories are being enlarged, and new ones of immense size and improved design are being put up on all sides. Machines cannot be made fast enough to meet the demands. Through all the night the glare of gas and the whirl of machinery proclaim that the gossamer threads are being deftly woven into beautiful curtains to adorn the mansion and the cottage, or fascinating collarettes and ruffs to encircle the belle of the party.

It is one of the sights of the town to loiter in the vicinity of Stoney Street and watch the crowds of showily-dressed dames and damsels as they swarm from their colossal hives and trip lightly homeward for their mid-day meal-a very different bevy from their wooden-clogged, bare-armed, fluffy-aproned, dust-covered, and shawl-shrouded sisters who at the same hour emerge from the Lancashire cotton mills.

Hosiery holds the next place to lace as a staple trade. Then follow bleaching, dyeing, tanning, malting, brewing, coal getting, and-more ostentatiously than any other just now-building. All around, the intervening spaces between the old borough and the newly added parts are being rapidly filled up with substantial and ornate residences, shops, factories, and-alas, that it should be so!-an unusual proportion of pretentious "publics" which affect the style and title of "hotels." The refusal of the mayor and magistrates to grant any new licences at the late Brewster Sessions may check the enterprise of Boniface which anticipates the wants of a neighbourhood rather overmuch. The result of this building activity is, that from centre to circumference it will soon be here as the Gloucestershire Hodge said of London "there's housen all th' way."

In 1871 the census returns for the whole area now incorporated

showed a population of 143,250 persons, occupying 26,900 housesgiving somewhat more than five persons to each house. This year's census returns for the same district give a population of 186,648 persons, occupying 38,550 houses-giving somewhat less than five persons to each house. The people appear from this to be a little better lodged, as regards house accommodation, than formerly. The total increase of population during the decade has been 43,398, and of houses 12,650. This means that during the past ten years a population equal to the present inhabitants of Grantham, Loughborough, Newark, Retford, and Ripley, has been added to Nottingham; a fact that speaks much for its general prosperity, and calls aloud for every wise effort to meet the manifest moral and spiritual needs of such ever-increasing

masses.

Nottingham may be said to be Liberal, to the point of latitudinarism, alike in religion and politics. Every 'ism and 'ology-every system and superstition every sect and party, finds a local habitation and a name in Laceopolis. The plan of working in "shifts" of a few hours each gives men more leisure in the day-time than in other towns; and very many lace hands spend most of their spare time, after the style of the old Athenians, in going about to tell or to hear some new thing; hence anyone who has a crotchet to air is sure of a hearing, and anyone who has any capacity for leadership will never lack a following.

Notwithstanding such superficiality and hankering after sensationalism, more than the average measure of public spirit animates the burgesses. For many years past the members of the Town Council (forty-eight councillors and sixteen aldermen) have pursued a most enlightened policy, and instead of remitting a three-farthing rate now and again, for which no one would be a farthing better off, they have devoted large sums, which have come into the borough chest from the sale of public and common lands and profits from the gas and water undertakings, to town improvements, recreation and educational purposes. Herce there is no correspondingly large centre in the kingdom that has such large and accessible open spaces and such splendid public premises. In this connection may be mentioned the Arboretum, with its seventeen acres of undulatory land, varied trees and plants (labelled so as to assist the student and inform the casual stroller), beautifully kept flower beds, and artificial lake well supplied with fish and water-fowl; the Forest-formerly a bare ridge crowned with a score of windmills-now fringed with variegated trees, gently sloping banks, intersected with asphalted walks, at the bottom of which are spacious public cricket grounds, around which runs the race-course, the Rotten Row, and carriage drive; the Waterloo Crescent and Promenade-tastefully laid out grounds, flanked by charming villa and semi-detached residences; the Queen's Walk-a similar promenade, a full half mile long, leading from Arkwright Street to Wilford Bridge over the silvery Trent.

Then, apart from the numerous ecclesiastical edifices, monetary mansions, public halls, palatial residences, and benevolent institutions. of which the town can boast, there are two unique institutions, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the country-the Castle Museum and University Buildings only recently opened,-upon each of which a brief paper may follow, if this should escape from our editor's waste paper basket. ROBERT SILBY.