LESSONS IN GIVING

MALACHI 1: 6-11; 3: 8-12

"A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master." man rob God?"

"Will a

Between Amos and Malachi almost three hundred years had passed. Great civil and moral changes had come to the nation during that time. When Amos prophesied, the kingdom of Israel was enjoying remarkable prosperity, and all the social and physical conditions seemed to indicate the presence of Jehovah; but the shepherd prophet saw what the people did not: namely, signs of coming wrath and the total dismemberment of the state. The people observed the outward form of religion; the sabbaths and feast days were scrupulously kept, but the heart of the people had become cold and, as Amos predicted, the captivity came and the people endured their punishment. Then they returned to their native land, built the temple, and began again a national career.

But a change had come over the spirit of the nation, and Malachi appeared, calling the people back to the first principle of true religion which had been learned in the early days of their national life. Amos had declared the uselessness of forms upon which the people depended but out of which all sincerity and heartiness had been lost, while Malachi, who had a different condition to face, urged the people to restore the forms of worship so long neglected. The fundamental conception of God's love for them as a nation had been lost. The idea that they were an elect race, and had a covenant to keep, had departed. Even the pious had

come to question the value of serving God, and the notion had spread that the wicked were better off than the righteous.

Malachi plead with the people to come back to the old order and do the first works. Begin again the religious customs of former years. Stand again on the old principles. In the opening words of the book, Malachi proclaimed the grand old truth that God loved Israel. "I have loved you, saith the Lord." That was the first thing to be believed. The acceptance of that would be the starting point of a new national career. But they were skeptical. "Wherein hast thou loved us?" said they. The proof of Jehovah's love was not to be found in an appeal to the history of the children of Israel, as might have been given, but their minds were directed to a comparison nearer home -namely, the history of Edom. The desolation of this nation was proof of God's rejection of it. At this point in the prophet's message, God is represented as making complaint at the way Israel had treated his love, and here our lesson begins.

"A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts." Amos would have swept away the ritual as an abomination to God because the people were more devoted to the temple and its sacrifice than to righteousness and deeds of mercy. But Malachi would restore the ritual itself, as a step towards reformation. The old ritual had been ordained by Jehovah, and it was the people's duty to reestablish it. They had been mean and stingy, offering to Jehovah polluted bread and imperfect animals, blind and sick, for sacrifices, all of which showed the contempt they felt for the temple worship. It would be better to close the temple altogether than to profane it with such ignoble offerings.

Men judge a city by the condition of its streets and public buildings. Jehovah judged Israel by the slovenly way in which their worship was conducted. "Israel would not have dared present such sacrifice to the Persian governor." Israel's sin at this time was irreverence, indifference to the things that had long been considered sacred. Accompanying this was a general skepticism as to all things relating to God. Such irreverence may be noticed to-day. There is very little veneration for age or authority or the day of rest or the house of God. The spirit of our time is sadly materialistic. Many have felt that such a degeneration is due to a lack of a clear presentation of God's law. But does not the case of Israel at this period show that Malachi did not expect a reformation by preaching the law? The first truth he brought forward was that God loved them. He presented the love of God. A more permanent, a truer reverence would be born in men's hearts when they realized God's love for them. It would awaken their love to him. Malachi, although he plainly told of their sinfulness, preached in a hopeful strain, for he showed the way of repentance.

There were two things they could give to Jehovah, a purified worship and a tenth of their income. When they began to give to God what he asked of them they would find their hearts beating with love for, and trust in him. "Return unto me, and I will return unto you," were Jehovah's words to the skeptical people, and in reply to their question, "Wherein shall we return?" he suggests that they had been robbing him by not paying their tithes. "Bring ve the whole tithe into the storehouse,. . . and prove me now herewith . . . if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." It was a comparatively simple test by which to prove God's love for them. But after a long disuse of systematic giving on their part it came

hard to resume the sacrifice involved in it. The nonpayment of tithes was due not alone to their selfishness but to their unbelief in Jehovah.

The Christian Church in breaking away from the legalism of Judaism must not renounce the principle involved in the tithe, which is that giving must be systematic. The gospel leaves us free to decide the amount of our gifts but insists upon benevolence and that it shall be systematic. If believers in Judaism needed such training, much more do Christians, because the activities of the Church now are world-wide. The gospel is aggressive, while Judaism was passive. The gospel seeks to save the world, inspiring its disciples to most self-sacrificing labors to win the heathen and the ignorant to the knowledge of God. The gospel seeks also the physical regeneration of the race and the amelioration of all human ill. Hence the demand is incessant, and constantly increasing, for larger gifts of money to carry on the great work of alleviation of distress and the enlightenment and salvation of mankind. To meet this demand there must be a constant outpouring of money from Christian coffers. Spasmodic giving will not meet the exigencies of the case. Unless there is systematic giving the readiest advocate of a cause will win the largest contributions by his eloquence, while far worthier causes may be left to suffer.

There is no need of any missionary organization being to-day in debt, for there is money enough in the possession of God's people to carry all benevolent and missionary societies upon a flood-tide of success. But the reason of retrenchment is in the haphazard, negligent giving of Christians. We have lost the principle which Jehovah insisted on for Israel, namely, that of systematic giving, and in so doing we rob God of what properly belongs to him. All we have is his, but he does not rob us of what he has intrusted to us in order to carry forward his great

designs. He waits till we give him the means. Missions, churches and schools are being closed. Volunteers are kept at home simply because the money is not at hand. It is often urged in objection that hard times or debts prevent regular benevolence. But while hard times may diminish the amount one may give they do not affect the principle. The Christian should be more careful to see that Christ's cause does not suffer when general prosperity is absent. As to the objection that one is excused from giving when in debt, it may be urged that our debt to God should be recognized above and before all others.

Jehovah distinctly told the Jews that their hard times were due to the withholding of the tithes, and urged upon them the necessity of bringing all the tithes into the storehouse, and he would rebuke the devourer. Prosperity would return when they obeyed the law of benevolence. There is a divine law of reciprocity. God is generous to those who are generous to him. The experience of individuals and nations proves the truth of this. "Give, and it shall be given unto you." "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." The richest nations are to-day the most benevolent nations. God has blessed the people who obey him in order that they in turn may become a blessing to the unenlightened. The gospel when accepted by heathen peoples immediately creates new physical needs. A demand is made for clothes, household comforts, farming implements, books, manufactures, and the nation that has entered a heathen land with Christian truth may follow it up with trade. A new avenue is thus opened for com

merce.

But the chief benefit is not temporal prosperity, but the spiritual quickening of the giver. "The liberal soul shall be made fat." He who gives to God becomes inter