Part 9

Beginning, then, with the act of giving itself, I find that it is spoken of as a part of self consecration to God, for when at the close of his reign David brought out in the sight of all the people the treasures which he had amassed for the building of the Temple and sought to incite them to make an offering for the same purpose, he said, “Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?” It is regarded as an act of worship, for God commanded his people to “come into his courts and bring an offering with them.” It is described by Paul as a “grace.” When writing to the Corinthians he said, “Therefore as ye abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge, and in all diligence and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.” Only think of it—“as ye abound in utterance, so abound in this grace also.” What a blessed thing it would be in this America of ours, on which the gift of tongues seems to have been so lavishly bestowed, if Christians generally were as fluent in giving as they are in speech! It is referred to again and again as a “communion” in such passages as these: “Let him that is taught in the word communicate to”—that is, have communion with Him, that teacheth in all good things, “to do good and to communicate forget not,” or, as it might be given more literally, “Of well doing and of communion be not forgetful, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” In the same sense Paul, who had just received a gift from the Philippians, thanks God for their “fellowship,” that is, “communion” in the gospel from the first day until now; and praises them for having done well in communicating, or rather, for the word is the same, in having communion with his affliction; while he records it to their credit that no church communicated with him; or, for the word is still the same, “had communion with him in the matter of giving and receiving but they only.” To the same effect he says to the Corinthians that the churches of Macedonia had begged him to take upon him the “fellowship,”—that is, “communion”—of ministering to the saints in carrying to Jerusalem their gifts to the poor of that city, and he urges his readers to accept a part in the same service that God might be glorified for “their liberal distribution”—that is, for the liberality of the communion, for so the word still is, “unto them and unto all men.” And to mention only one other passage, the same apostle in his Epistle to the Romans bids his readers “distribute to the necessities of the saints,”—that is, for the word is still the same, “hold communion with the necessities of the saints.” Thus the making of contributions for benevolence in every form of it in which the Church is engaged is as really a communion service as is the observance of the Lord’s Supper. The same word is used in reference to both, and both alike are manifestations of the oneness of all the people of Christ in their common Lord. If this were more generally understood and felt by us I am sure that we should all have greater enjoyment in that part of the service on which so many look with disfavor, the making of a contribution; for that, as Paul gives us to understand, is only the manifestation by us in another form of the fellowship which we show forth when the bread and wine of the supper are passed from hand to hand among us. In this view of the case it is to be feared that there are far more “_close_” communionists in the Church than those who are commonly so denominated, and it may be well for us to take the beam out of our own eyes before we seek to become oculists to others.

Further, this giving is distinctly spoken of in the New Testament as a privilege. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said “It is more blessed,” that is, it is a greater happiness “to give than to receive.” In many enterprises in which men engage the cost is more than the profit, “the play” as the French proverb has it, “is not worth the candle,” but here there is always blessing; blessing in the consciousness that we have the means of doing good; blessing in entering into fellowship with God, whose happiness is all that of giving out; and blessing in the fact that the joy of the recipient comes back to us and redoubles our delight.

But passing now from the act itself to the reward promised to it, we find that set before us in three different ways. It is first, temporal. “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” It is, second, spiritual, for Paul in connection with his exhortation to the Corinthians says: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work being enriched in everything to all bountifullness.” Was there ever such a piling of universal terms one above the other as we have here? It seems as if the apostle could not say enough to strengthen his assertion, and it is all said in connection with cheerful giving. Nor is this all. He goes on to say that the gifts of the Corinthians by evoking prayers on their behalf from the hearts of the receivers, would return in blessings into their own bosoms. You know how the process of irrigation goes on in nature. All the rivers run into the ocean, out of that the sun continually evaporates clouds, which the wind blows back over the land, where they fall out in rain on the mountains, and go to feed the rivers. Thus evermore the circle is kept up and the lands are fertilized. Now in the same way the gifts we make to God all run into the furtherance of his cause, and are by him lifted up into the celestial region of his grace and power, whence they descend again with new blessing into our hearts, making both ourselves individually and the Church at large joyous and productive. Then there is a third reward which is eternal; for Jesus in the close of the parable of the prudent steward says: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Money will not purchase our entrance into heaven. Nothing can do that but the work of Christ; but the money which out of love to Christ we give to his people and his cause will secure that we shall be received in heaven by those whom we have been the means of benefiting. As we enter they will take us by the hand and lead us up to Him that sitteth on the throne, saying: This is he whose efforts and whose gifts were, under thee, the means of our being here; let it be done unto him as unto the man whom the King delighteth to honor. And he will reply: Well done! “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me.”

Then as to the manner of the giving. We are told that it should be cheerful, for God loveth a cheerful giver. It should be no stereotyped and immutable thing, the same through life, but “as God has prospered us.” It should be systematic, as the result of careful thought and weekly planning on the Lord’s day, under the influence of the memory of His resurrection. For it was after his great argument on the resurrection that Paul said “now concerning the collection,” and it was because of its connection with that resurrection that he specified “the first day of the week” as that on which every one should “lay by him in store as God hath prospered him.” Weekly storing in the Lord’s box at home on the Lord’s day, that is what Paul recommends, and then when the Lord makes his appeal to us we can cheerfully give Him of His own. In the neglect of this plan, and the making of gatherings for this and that cause as each comes along, we have the explanation of the disfavor with which, in the public service, too many hear the announcement that a contribution will be made.

But now, finally, as to the motive. Here it is: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich.” The bringing of such a motive to bear on so simple a thing as the making of a contribution for the poor saints of Jerusalem seems like cracking a nut with a Nasmyth steam hammer. But Paul knew what he was doing when he dictated these words. He wanted to exalt and consecrate all Christian beneficence by having it done from the most powerful Christian motive. And after the presentation of such a motive there is no more to be said. For when men know the grace of Christ, they will never feel that they have given Him enough, and till they know it they will never give _Him_ anything. They may contribute to keep up appearances so as to be like other people, or to gain a reputation, but they will never give to _Him_ until they know His grace. This is the very pith and marrow of the matter. Before men give to Christ they must receive from him, and when they have received Christ Himself into their hearts they will be impelled to give. _Im_pelled, not _com_pelled; for the delight and the duty will coincide, or rather the duty will be merged in the delight. So we come round to the point at which we set out. A revived church will become a giving church, and a giving church is the fore-herald of a converted world.

How much owest thou thy Lord? That is the question which the giver has to face. Sometimes in commercial circles a man will assign a debt that is owing him to some one else, out of friendship, that he may take it when he has collected it and use it for himself. Much in the same way, I think, the Lord Jesus has assigned a large portion of the debt which we owe to him to those who are around us—to the unconverted at our doors, to those races among whom you labor, to the pagans far away. This was what Paul felt when he said, “I am debtor, both to the wise and to the unwise, both to the Greek and to the Barbarian”; and it was the constant feeling of that sense of obligation that gave his life its nobleness and its usefulness. So let it be with us; and let us see in those for whom appeal is made to us through this Association, the representatives of Christ.

There is a beautiful story told in Stevenson’s “Praying and Working.” I am very fond of repeating it—I may have told it to some of you before, but no matter—about a little child in the orphanage of John Falk at Weimar. They were having supper in the dining-hall, and the teacher gave thanks in the ordinary way before the children began their meals, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, and be our guest to-night, and bless the mercies which Thou has provided.” One little boy looked up and said, “Teacher, you always ask the Lord Jesus to come, but he never comes. Will he ever come?” “Oh, yes; if you will only hold on in faith, he will be sure to come.” “Very well,” said the little boy, “I will set a chair for him beside me here to-night to be ready when he comes.” And so the meal proceeded. By-and-by there came a rap at the door, and there was ushered in a poor half-frozen apprentice. He was taken to the fire and his hands warmed. Then he was asked to partake of the meal, and where should he go but to the chair which the little boy had provided? and as he sat down there the little boy looked up with a light in his eye, and said, “Teacher, I see it now! The Lord Jesus was not able to come himself, and he sent this poor man in his place. Isn’t that it?”

Aye, that is just it. And so, brethren, the Lord Jesus isn’t able, according to His plans for this world, to come personally yet among us, but He has sent those colored people, Chinese, Indians and heathen to make appeal in His behalf to us, and who among us will set a chair for Him? There are many friends with whom I hardly agree who are very anxiously waiting for the appearance of the personal Christ among us, and they are wondering what they shall do to welcome Him. Would that the eyes of these brethren and our own too were opened to the perception of the Christ that is already here, in the persons of those needing to be helped and educated and elevated, and that their ears could hear His words, “Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these His brethren ye do it unto Christ.”

That is the Christian philosophy of giving, and if a man does not feel the force of these considerations I should be disposed to say he has not yet begun to be a Christian.

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ADDRESS OF REV. DR. DENNEN.

The topic of this closing service is not only of prime importance, but comes in its logical place. When your machinery is all educational, industrial and church-wise, the final and vital question is one of power to move it. The supreme motive power in your work is _spiritual life_.

Life is force, something capable of originating or resisting power or motion. Physical life is that mysterious something no analysis can detect, no alembic reveal, no power resist; which swells the bud, opens the flower, sprouts the seed, ripens the harvest.

Spiritual life, through another plane, is also a force, capable of originating or resisting power or motion. Its realm is the human soul, and draws nutriment from the soil, which that cunning chemist we call life builds up into strength and beauty.

Spiritual vitality performs a similar structural function. Once made alive in Christ Jesus, the disciple seeks for spiritual aliment.

1. Now, spiritual life, like natural life, possesses _structural power_. It is a master builder. One main function of the vital principle in nature is to lay hold of inert matter and convert it into living organisms. The growing tree absorbs tons of carbon from the air. The local church, if a live one, takes up into her membership more or less of the outlying population, and from aliens converts them into fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of faith.

The ability, then, of this noble Association, second to none in the land, to advance the kingdom of Christ in the several fields where it operates, will assuredly be conditioned upon the spirit and vigor of the churches and individuals behind it, will be determined, not so much by the amount of money it receives or the number of workers it puts into the field, as by the prayers and spiritual enthusiasm of its constituency.

Carlyle once said: “The American Republic is going straight to the devil. No government can long exist that receives the refuse of all the rest of the world into its midst and makes citizens of them.” Our free institutions are to undergo a strain in the near future, I am sure, that has never yet been put upon them. Our American churches are also to be put to a similar strain. Nay, the pressure is already upon them. Are they equal to it? I believe so. We must, however, leaven the multitudes of the ignorant and unsaved with our Christianity, or they will leaven us with their illiteracy. Our ability to meet the emergency already upon us will depend, under God, upon our spiritual vitality.

2. Another function of life is its expulsive power. What it cannot use and assimilate it expels. It gathers the good and casts the bad away. Strong, vigorous life depends as much upon the one function as the other. The religious world is full of the germs and larvæ of skepticism, theistic and atheistic assaults and criticisms. A robust person can walk in the midst of pestilence unscathed, while disease springs upon one whose vitality is depressed. Precisely the same condition obtains in respect to the individual disciple, or the church, or our missionary boards.

The one effective answer to skepticism, then, of every grade and degree of virulence; the one sovereign remedy for worldliness, apathy and avarice of God’s people, is a new enduement of spiritual power. Our lips must be touched with celestial fire and our hearts bathed in Christ’s great love.

3. Another quality of life is its expansive power. The mightiest force in this world is life. It mocks at gravity; it defies cohesion; bursts every band. The same expansive property inheres in spiritual life.

You might as well shut up a growing chicken in its shell as to shut up a live Christianity in the shell of the fathers. No. Where there is life there must be expansion. She breaks through old traditions and prejudices, and steps out into new departures and broader methods, and pushes on into new regions of thought and conquest beyond. She lays her hand on the colored man of the South, saves, educates him, equips him for the life that now is, as well as for that which is to come. She stands on the shores of the great Pacific, where the shining waves lave her feet and chant their mighty anthems of freedom, and, with open, arms and a catholic heart, free of all race prejudices, welcomes the Chinaman. She uncovers the cross in the wigwam of the red man and bids the dusky sons of the forest look and live.

4. Once more spiritual life is the only complete bond of union. Says President Hopkins, “It is on this that the whole method of God in the restoration of man is based, and it is for the recognition of this by men, and their adoption of God’s method of vitality and unity, the tardy, laboring and discordant times wait. No partial reform will do; no coming man. Everywhere men are divergent, repellant. The bond of common humanity is but a string of tow to bind the Samson of human selfishness and passions. There must be a divine life, a divine centre. This center is Christ. He is the life. The nexus which is to bind this selfish world in one, and unite all races and nationalities in one common fellowship and forward movement to disciple the world, is Christ in the souls of all men. Amid every diversity of polity and people, He is the one vivifying and unifying spirit.

5. The principal question, however, is one of means. How is this life to be secured? To get fresh water we go to the spring. To get information we go to the sources of knowledge. To get spiritual vitality we go to Christ. Life in nature is the product of living organisms in contact. The strength and continuance of that life depends upon the closeness of the contact. The steel must touch the magnet to receive and retain magnetism.

So spiritual life and zeal comes from contact with a living Christ. The strength and fervor of that life is forever conditioned upon the closeness of our contact with our living Head.

No one thing so lowers spiritual heat and light as distance from Christ. Neptune has not a thousandth part of our light and warmth. He is too far away from the central orb. We are just now too far away from Christ; hence our comparative barrenness. We must sit where the fire and inspiration of His eye kindle in ours; where his glowing enthusiasm passes over into us; where the greatness and grandeur of the work He has given us to do shall thrill us and grow upon us. Then we shall mount to its accomplishment on the wings of eagles, and run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

Never had this Association more call for enthusiasm, never for greater hopefulness. What did we see here last night—the black man and red man, men from Asia and Africa and America, strangers and proselytes, speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God.

I cheer you on to the labor of another year. As we go down from this mount let us go to our upper chambers and, whether for eight days or as many weeks, let us tarry and pray until we are endued from on high and receive the tongues of flame and the utterance of the Spirit. Then let us, in our various fields, gird up our loins and go forth to achieve for the Lord of Hosts, resolved that before another anniversary of this Association comes round we will, God helping us, see thousands housed and happy in Christ’s dear love all over our beloved land of very race and color.

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ADDRESS OF PROF. W. M. BARBOUR, D.D.

The topic assigned me is in the line of the theme just discussed by Dr. Dennen. My friend and classmate Dr. Pike insisted upon my coming over here and taking part in this evening meeting; and he said, “Your theme will be: Spiritual Vitality the Crowning Necessity in Missionary Work.”

I shall take it for granted that other means have been set before you and insisted upon—the one nearest always, money. That is a great necessity in missionary work. You have heard, I have no doubt, a good deal about that, and I merely wish to honor it as a means under God of the most pressing necessity. We can do nothing to send the blessings that God has put into our hearts abroad among our fellow men without means; and the first means is money. But all the money in the world will not serve our end. What is the next? We must have men. But all the men in the world won’t do missionary work, although we had them all enlisted in that work. Suppose we had all the money we could use and all the men that offered themselves and that we could procure; we would only have gone so far. What else is needed? We need fitness in the men as another great means. This is as necessary as money and men, this culture. But after we have the men, and after we have them qualified, there is still room for what in my theme to-night is called “the crowning necessity.” You may take Yale College as it stands, with all its culture, and you may turn out all our hundreds of young men down into the South this blessed night; what could they do in missionary work to-morrow morning? So you see that it is not the money, or the men, or the culture that alone is needed; something more is needed, and that is “spiritual vitality.”

And now, beloved, to take the first step and to say the first thing that must be said, in my judgment (since I am called here to give my opinion), the first position that we must assume and which this Association has assumed from its very start—although it is one of the old things that Christ says a well-instructed scribe must take out of his treasury—we must begin with God. We are to stand in his presence, we are to summon him as our witness, we are to avow ourselves openly and frankly, every day we live, as doing this for him.

I should like to know where our modern unbelief is that is such a distress to us in all our efforts and in our inward life, when you reverently, and in the deep meaning of thought say, “As the Lord liveth”? Look at it. There are two schemes of the universe: one, the Christian scheme, with a belief in the living God as the original of all things—a personal being who is personally interested in his creatures, and who is desiring, since he has made him in his own image, to have man hold communion with himself, and who desires to have all men reconciled to himself from their sin and their misery and their unhappy life. There is another scheme where there is no God, or, what is the same thing to us, we do not know whether there is or not. And what is the idea of the universe that follows from that? Why, that it must move along as the blind force behind it shall urge it. Where is it going to land? The day is coming, brethren, when we will cry, “Oh for the doctrine of a predestinating God”—God with his eye on an end, and with an end to which he is turning all things and which shall be satisfactory to all the creatures that he has made in his image.

Let us take a frank position here as a missionary society, and let it be known that we openly and avowedly, by word and deed, take the stand that we believe in God, and that we believe he is a living God, and in his name and for his sake and to effect his purpose we are going to the South, to the North, to the East, to the West, to gain trophies that shall be to the glory of his redeeming grace, since he has revealed to us, as we believe, the fact that he will complete these ends through our agency.

RECEIPTS FOR OCTOBER, 1883.

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MAINE, $391.80.