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 Canadian Inttltuta for Historloal MIororaproduotlons 
 
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 illustrant la mAthoda. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
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 
 
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 i ; ■ ; 1 . 
 
 '4 
 
 
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 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 
 
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 whii 
 
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 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- 
 
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 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/ 
 
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 th( 
 
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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. 
 
■■■ 
 
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 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 
 
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 4'i 
 
 i-i 
 
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 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. 
 
 '''' ! 
 
 
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 II 
 
 ill 
 
 i , 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 "ii 
 
 • i 
 
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 t 
 
 (i 
 
 [■ 
 
 ■i' 
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 ■ 
 
 
 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 
 
 ,1 ^i' 
 
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92 
 
 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 
 
 ■ ( 
 
 yj;; il 
 
 :ii 
 
 '& 
 
 'ilil 
 
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 ; 
 
 
 I i 
 
 i 1 
 
 Ii6 
 
 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 
 
 I'-'ii 
 
 j! ':'■ 
 
 ill 
 
 1' 
 
li! I 
 
 ii8 
 
 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 
 
 
 m 
 
I20 
 
 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 
 
 m 
 
 4 
 
 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| 
 
 '^ 
 
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. 
 
\ I 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 ^,-'+1 
 
 m 
 
 
 ;i 
 
 130 
 
 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^ 
 
132 
 
 Systematic Giving. 
 
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 fl 
 
 1 
 
 ti - 
 
 ■ - til I 
 
 
 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 
 
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 ii ;li . i 
 
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 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.