A Cheerful Giver is Beloved of God
A Sermon
(No. 835)
Delivered on thursday evening, august 27, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [44]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"God loves a cheerful giver."
2 Corinthians 9:7.
I AM most anxious, dear Friends, to make full proof of my ministry, and
in this one respect, especially, that I may address you upon all parts
of God's Word and not be found guilty of confining myself to one set of
topics, for certainly this, although it might be pleasant, would not be
profitable to you. I would rather, if I had my choice, constantly
preach upon the doctrine of God's everlasting and unchanging love. I
should delight to dilate each Sunday and, indeed, in every sermon, upon
the simple doctrine of the justification of the sinner in the sight of
God by faith in Jesus Christ.
But there are other things in Scripture beside these. All things in
Scripture are not placed there for our comfort. All are not promises.
All are not words of cheer for feeble minds and disconsolate spirits.
There are other words beside those of consolation–words of direction,
words of precept. If we should shun these–if these never entered into
the course of our ministry at all–some solemn disease might break out
among the Church because a part of the "food convenient" for them had
been withheld.
Therefore I think it is meet to speak to you upon this subject tonight,
and all the more so because there is no collection. You are not asked
to give anything, and I shall therefore feel myself the more at liberty
to press upon you the instruction of this text. You will see that my
simple object is to bring out the teaching of the Word of God to you,
not with any ulterior purpose, but purely to promote that result which
God Himself may intend to work by the Words before us! Words, remember,
of undoubted Inspiration and therefore as worthy of all acceptation as
any other sentence from the Divine mouth.
Brothers and Sisters, in the Church of God there are various forms of
service. There are some to whom the gift is given of edifying
others–these are bound with diligence to instruct their hearers and
expound the Scriptures. To others it is given to evangelize–to break
up fresh ground, to win the unconverted. These are bound never to stay
their hand, but to sow the Seed both at morning and evening. Many in
the Lord's family are not enabled either to be the teachers of the
Church, or the winners of souls, but they are called by the duties of a
humble, quiet life, to adorn the doctrine of God their Savior in all
things. Such as these should see to it that their conversation is
always such as becomes the Gospel of Christ and befits the household of
faith. And it should be their earnest prayer that what is preached by
some may be illustrated by themselves in their daily walk and
conversation.
A considerable portion of the Church of God is called to yet harder
service, namely, that of suffering. God gets glory, still, out of the
fire of affliction when His people sing His high praises upon their
beds. He receives as much honor from the sickbed as from the pulpit!
And those of His servants who are called to lie in a hospital are as
acceptable soldiers as those whom He commands to the front of the fray.
We must all expect to take our turn in tribulation according to the
purpose of God. When we are commanded to do so, we must take up our
cross cheerfully and follow our Lord.
To all the Church, also, it is given, and to each member in his
measure, to serve God by giving. Some are enabled, being made stewards
of wealth, to give largely of their substance. They are bound to do so,
but they should not give it merely as being bound, but feeling it to be
their privilege to give whatever they can to Him who gave them their
all, and who is their All. The poorest Christian is not exempted from
this privilege. If he has but little, God accepts according to that
which a man has, and not according to that which he has not.
And if he is so poor that he cannot even give the two mites which make
a farthing, still he may give to God of his time. He may give to God of
such ability as he has in the teaching of the young, in the
distribution of the printed Word, or in some other form of service
which shall come conveniently within his reach. But none must escape
from being givers to God in some way, for we are all receivers and
should be all dispensers. Give Him our prayers. Give Him our praises.
Give Him such efforts as we can, but let us all be givers–and let us
take heed to the text–and be cheerful givers, too.
You will notice that the Apostle Paul had been speaking about giving
all through the chapter, but he now comes to speak of giving as it
appears in the sight of God. And the great argument which he uses, the
master-gun, is, "God loves a cheerful giver," from which I learn that
when we are speaking of Christian service, we ought always to view it
in its aspect towards God. He had spoken of what the men at Achaia had
thought of benevolence, and of what the members of other Churches might
think of the Corinthians, since he had before boasted of them. But he
recollects himself, and says that the true judgment of a good work is
not what may be thought of it by the Church or by the world, but in
what esteem God may hold it. "God," he says, "loves a cheerful giver."
That is the point.
Beloved Hearer, you are a professed Christian. Do you serve in the
Church after this model? You may ask what I mean. It is this. In coming
up to the House of God do you come there that you may worship God? When
you teach in the Sunday school, is it merely that you may take your
share with your fellow Christians, or do you teach as unto God? You
speak, my Brother, in God's name–do you not sometimes find yourself
preaching otherwise than as unto God? You engage in prayer in the
Prayer Meeting, my dear Friend–do you ever raise the question in your
mind, "I wonder whether my prayer is liked by those who listen to it?"
You forget that prayer is to be viewed as unto God, and that all the
service of the Christian is not towards man, nor towards the Church,
though it has its bearings in both of these directions–but its main
bent and bearing is towards God, and to do everything as for the Most
High is the most important of duties. To live in this world–
"Careless, myself a dying man,
Of dying men's esteem."
To ask myself never what Mr. So-and-So thinks of me, "Shall I be
commended, or shall I meet with censure?" but to say, "As I serve my
God and not my fellow men, what will the great Master say to me? What
will He say of this, my service? How will it appear in His sight? Will
it be gold, silver, precious stones, or will it, like wood, hay and
stubble, be consumed in the fire?"
This is the true way in which to work and live! Note, then, before I
come to the text to enter fully into its teaching, that whether it is
service, or teaching, or suffering, or giving–the main point is to
perform it as unto the Lord–and if the Church would see to this she
would find her strength. She would serve God after a nobler and more
acceptable manner, for He is a Spirit, and they that serve Him, serving
Him in spirit and in truth, would serve Him more boldly, more
abundantly, and more acceptably through Jesus Christ.
This is, then, upon the outside of the text. "God loves a cheerful
giver." We learn that as giving is a part of Christian service, the
right way to do it is the way which God will, Himself, accept, and that
that way is the giving cheerfully. "God loves a cheerful giver." I do
not mean to be very long upon any one point, but first shall notice
very briefly what a cheerful giver is. Secondly, why the Lord loves
such. And then, thirdly, will it be necessary to say even a word or two
upon why we who are His people should be such?
I. First, WHAT IS MEANT BY A CHEERFUL GIVER? The rest of the verse
tells us what is not meant, and so helps us to see what is intended.
"Not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver." "Not
grudgingly," not giving as though you wished you could avoid it and
therefore giving as little as possible. Not counting the pennies and
reckoning them to be as precious as drops of blood–but giving with
ease, spontaneity, freeness, pleasure–this is a cheerful giver.
To be this, one must give proportionately, for cheerful givers reckon
how much they should give–how much as good stewards they may be
expected at their hands. He who has a large income gives grudgingly if
he gives no more than one who has but a tenth as much. He who has but
few expenses and lives at a small cost–if he gives no more than
another man who has a large family and large expenses, cannot be said
to give cheerfully. He evidently gives grudgingly if he does not give
proportionately. Much has been said about giving a tenth of one's
income to the Lord. I think that is a Christian duty which none should,
for a moment, question.
If it were a duty under the Jewish law, much more is it so, now, under
the Christian dispensation. But it is a great mistake to suppose that
the Jew only gave a tenth. He gave very, very, very much more than
that! The tenth was the payment which he must make, but after that came
all the free-will offerings, all the various gifts at different seasons
of the year, so that, perhaps he gave a third–much more near that,
certainly, than a tenth! And at this present day it is a strange thing
that the followers of idols, such as the Hindus, give very nearly that
proportion of their substance, and thus utterly shame the illiberality
of many who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ!
I do not, however, like to lay down any rules for God's people, for the
Lord's New Testament is not a great book of rules. It is not a book of
the letter, for that kills. It is the book of the Spirit, which teaches
us, rather, the soul of liberality than the body of it. And instead of
writing laws upon stones or paper, it writes laws upon the heart. Give,
dear Friends, as you have purposed in your heart. And give
proportionately as the Lord has prospered you–and do not make your
estimate of what you ought to give by what will appear respectable–or
by what is expected from you by other people. Give as in the sight of
the Lord, as He loves a cheerful giver. And as a cheerful giver is a
proportionate giver, take care that you, like a good steward, keep just
accounts towards the great King.
But I have said that a cheerful giver is also a willing giver, one who
does not need to be "bled," as we sometimes say. He does not need that
the knife should be constantly used upon him. He is not like the young
grape which must be pressed and squeezed to get the wine out because it
is not ripe–but a cluster bursting with invigorating juice! We ought
to be like the honeycomb, dropping spontaneously with virgin honey, all
too glad if we may but be accepted in our gifts through Him who is the
Altar and who renders both the offerer and the offering acceptable unto
God! We ought not to need to be preached at, to be exhorted and to be
pressed by public appeals and private solicitations! It should be said
of us as of the Church at Corinth, "Touching the ministering to the
saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you." Be a proportionate
giver, then, and a willing giver.
A man who gives to God cheerfully has got beyond the serf-like, slavish
spirit. The slave brings his pittance, which he is obliged to pay, and
puts it down at the task-master's feet and goes his way in misery. But
the dear child, so pleased to give its Father what it can, places its
little offering into the Father's treasury, as much as possible
unobserved of men, beholds the Father smile and goes its way rejoicing.
You are not under the Law but under Grace! You are not, therefore, to
give or to do anything to God as of compulsion, as though you heard the
old Mosaic whip cracking in your ears. You are not to crouch before the
Lord as the child of Hagar the bondwoman, fresh from Arabia and from
the trembling of Sinai!
You are to advance cheerfully as one who has come to Mount Zion, as the
child of promise–as Isaac, whose name is laughter–rejoicing that you
are enabled, and favored, and privileged to do anything for Him who
loved you to the death. The cheerful giver is one who gives very
earnestly, and there is a way of giving earnestly, especially when the
gift is that of your time or of your service. Some give God their time
on the Lord's Day–but they are half asleep. Some give Him their
efforts in the school, or the classes, or street-preaching–but they
never seem to throw their souls into their engagements. What the Church
needs, nowadays, is more of cheerful, whole-hearted service.
Does it not make the flesh crawl on your bones to hear some men preach?
A word today and another word tomorrow–the chilly discourse is spoken
so softly, (when they might speak loudly enough, if they would), that
you can see they have not stirred their souls with the theme that they
wish to put into your souls. Under such preachers, congregations become
"small by degrees and beautifully less," because they are under the
conviction that the preacher cannot have anything to say that he thinks
worth saying, or, otherwise, he would speak out in clear, earnest
tones. Oh, if all the ministers of Christ, and all the deacons, and
elders, and Sunday school teachers, and street-preachers, and city
missionaries were all on fire–what different men they would be!
If the service were all cheerful service in the sense of being intense,
full of force–the man's whole manhood being thrown into it–what
bright and happy seasons of revival we might expect–for in this sense,
"God loves a cheerful giver" who comes not to worship service to do
duty, or because it is a matter of routine or the clock has struck and
the people need him–but comes because he loves to tell of Jesus' love!
He comes because he loves to try to win souls! He comes because he
loves to declare the whole counsel of God! He comes because he loves to
look those dear children in the face and pray with them! He comes
because he loves to take those lads alone and teach them of the Savior
who bled for sinners!
Where there is living soul-service there must be a blessing! But if we
do not serve our Master cheerfully, and consequently do not do it
earnestly, God will not love the service, and nothing will come of it.
One thing I know, that a cheerful giver always wishes that he could
give 10 times as much. A cheerful doer always wants to have more
capacity for doing. A cheerful preacher always wishes that he had a
thousand tongues, for not one should be silent. Beloved, do you ever
remember wishing that for once you could get out of this dull common
life and climb into the higher spiritual life? Did you ever of read
Henry Martyn's life? He was a polished scholar, a man of learning and
repute and he gave up all for Christ to go to Persia and there to die
without having seen a convert, perhaps, and yet content to
live–content to die in far-off lands for his Master's sake!
Did you ever read of Brainerd, far away among the Indians, toiling
on–and in his old age teaching a poor black child its letters, and
thanking God that when he could not preach, he could yet teach the
child its letters, and so do something for his dear Lord who had done
so much for him? Yes, did you ever read and think of even St. Francis
Xavier, papist as he was? Yet what a man! How consecrated, how zealous!
With all his errors, and all his mistakes, and all his faults, yet
passing over sea and land–penetrating forests and daring death a
thousand times that he might spread abroad the poor misguided doctrines
which he believed. As much as I hate his teaching, I admire his all but
miraculous zeal!
When I think of some such men–when I would gladly censure their
mistakes, I can only censure myself that I cannot even so much as
think, or cannot do more than think of living such a life as they
lived! O that we could learn the secret of entire consecration! O that
we could receive a vehement panting and longing after the perfect
dedication of ourselves unto our Lord and Master! Then we should make
our everyday toil to be lustrous with the glory of holiness! Then we
should burn like seraphs while we toiled here below as common men!
Then we should teach, and preach, and pray, and work, and give with
such a spirit and such a Divine unction that the world would wonder
from where we came, and where we had learned these sacred arts! It is
this cheerfulness, this heartiness, this whole-heartedness, this
intenseness, this fire of the soul which God loves! O that we may have
it! O may we get it, for such doers and such givers God loves!
II. Secondly, WHY DOES GOD LOVE A CHEERFUL GIVER? This is not a
sentence spoken to all sorts of men, remember. This was addressed to
the members of a Christian Church. God loves them all, but He has
special complacency in those whom, by His Grace, He has taught to be
cheerful givers. A cheerful giver who was not a Christian would not at
all come under the statement here made. He would still be one with whom
God is angry every day. It is of saved men, Christian men–men joined
to the Christian Church–that it is said, "God loves a cheerful giver."
Now observe, first, God loves a cheerful giver for He made the world on
the plan of cheerful giving, and a great artist loves all that is
consistent with his plan. I say God has made the whole world on this
plan. I will show you. Look at the sun. What an orb of splendor! What a
glorious creation of God! Why is it bright? Because it is giving away
its light. Why is it glorious? Because it is scattering its beams on
all sides. Imagine that it should say, "I will give no more
light"–where would be its brightness? If it should say, "I will no
more scatter my beams"–where would be its luster? It is in the
magnificent generosity of that great father of the day that his glory
consists! It is the grandest of orbs to us because it gives us so much
of that vitalizing force which is heat, and light, and life.
Behold the moon, the fair queen of the night. Why do we rejoice in her?
Because what light she receives from the sun she gives again to us! If
she were not to give her light, who would speak of her? If she were a
selfish orb, absorbing into herself all the sun's rays. If she were an
ungenerous circle bounding up and storing within herself every sunbeam,
what would she be? We should not even know of her existence, probably,
except when, as a black speck, she passed between us and some bright
luminary. But it is because she scatters her beams over the poverty of
midnight that we rejoice and thank God for her wealth of beauty! Even
yonder twinkling stars which seem so small to us–do not their
brightness and their radiance consist in their giving? "One star
differs from another star in glory," because one star differs from
another star in what it is able to yield to us. So it is with the
heavenly bodies.
Now let us turn, then, to terrestrial bodies. Look at this earth
beneath our feet. What is its excellence but in that which it gives?
There are parts of the earth sublimely solitary, such as the Great
Sahara–such tracts of land give nothing, and what are they? Deserts.
Who commends them? Go over that land once so blessed, Palestine, and
tread the soil which yields so little–is it not thought to be
accursed? And why? Because all the elements of fertility that are
within it are unused and not brought forth for the good of man.
But where are the happy countries? Where are the countries where men
rejoice to praise the fatherland? Are they not those fertile hills and
plains which laugh with superabundant harvests given forth from earth's
stores that men may make merry and be glad? Which is the land most
chosen of our race–the Beulah of the nations? Not the hoarding land!
Not the thirsty land that will take in everything and give out nothing!
Not the hungry soil which the farmer tills but which refuses the wheat
sheaf and the barley mow!
Walk abroad in this world and think for a minute. Thousands of years
ago, before our race was on this planet, it is probable that there were
vast forests waving in the sunbeams–and what were they doing? Giving
up themselves to fall and die, and why? Why, to form the vast stores
which Mother Earth held in her cellars, till, at last, when man came he
broke the lock and entered into possession of vast stores of coal which
aid our arts and sciences! Coal makes us warm and happy in the depths
of winter so that we rejoice to see how that which was stored by
generous Nature one day is given up tomorrow freely for our use!
Why, there is not a tree that grows but is giving forth perpetually!
There is not a flower that blooms but its very sweetness lies in its
shedding its fragrance in the air! All the rivers run into the sea, the
sea feeds the clouds, the clouds empty out their treasures, the earth
gives back the rain in fertility and so it is an endless chain of
giving generosity! Generosity reigns supreme in Nature! There is
nothing in this world but lives by giving except a covetous man, and
such a man is a piece of grit in the machinery. He is out of gear with
the universe. Man is a wheel running in the opposite direction to the
wheels of God's great engine. He is a jibbing horse in the team. He is
one that will not do what all the forces of the world are doing.
He is a monster! He is not fit for this world at all! He has not
realized the motion of the spheres. He keeps not step with the march of
the ages. He is out of date. He is out of place. He is out of God's
order altogether. But the cheerful giver is marching to the music of
the spheres. He is in order with God's great natural laws and God,
therefore, loves him, since He sees His own work in him.
Observe, secondly, that God loves a cheerful giver because Divine Grace
has placed such a man in order with the laws of redemption, as well as
the laws of nature. And what are these? We who are called,
"Calvinists," delight in asserting that the whole economy of the Gospel
is that of Divine Grace. It is all of free Grace from first to last,
and not in any measure or degree a matter of debt and reward. Salvation
is not a thing to be earned and to be won by men, but is the result and
exercise of the free Grace of God. If there is election, it is free
election springing never from any goodness in us. If there is
redemption, "thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." If there is
calling, if there is justification, if there is
sanctification–everywhere we see the freeness of the work of the great
Giver. Never is anything in God stinted, never churlish, never
grudging. He gives liberally and withholds not in any good thing. God
stands in the work of Grace as a wondrous Giver.
Now the Christian man, or the professed Christian man, who is no giver,
or being a giver is not a cheerful giver, is out of order with the
system which revolves around the Covenant of Grace and the Cross of
Christ. He is out of tune with the blood and wounds of Jesus. He is out
of order with the eternal purposes of the Most High. He is not running
in the current of Divine Grace at all. He ought to be under the Law,
though there, indeed, he comes not up to its letter–and as the spirit
of the Gospel is all freeness, and Grace, and love, and bounty–the man
is out of harmony with it and does not understand it at all. Because,
then, the cheerful giver, made so by Divine Grace, keeps tune with
redemption and nature after his own measure and calling, he is
commended of the Lord.
Again, God loves a cheerful giver because He loves anything that makes
His people happy. And well He understands that the spirit of
self-denial–the spirit of love to others–is the surest source of
happiness that can be found in the human breast! He who lives for
himself must be wretched. He who can only rejoice in what he, himself,
enjoys, has but narrow channels for his happiness. But he who delights
to make others blessed, and who delights to glorify God–and who can
deny his own flesh and his own wishes if he may but honor his Master
and bless the world–he it is who is the happy man! And as God delights
in the happiness which is the result, so He delights in the cheerful
giving which is the cause.
God delights in a cheerful giver, again, because in such a Believer he
sees the work of His Spirit. It takes a great deal of Grace to make
some men cheerful givers. With some the last part of their nature that
ever gets sanctified is their pockets! The Grace of God works its way
into the morality of their trade, and into the actions of the house,
but they do not appear to recognize that their substance is to be as
much consecrated as their hearts.
Beloved, I know there are some of the Lord's people who look upon all
they have most sacredly as being not their own, and who, not as a
theory, but as a matter of daily practice, make money for Christ and
give money to Christ, and are never so happy as when they can do a
little more than they were accustomed to do to advance His kingdom
according to their ability. But, on the other hand, there are same of
quite another temperament, in whom the Grace of God has to knock hard
before it gets an answer! They know what they ought to do very well,
but yet find the purse strings grow tight, and the fingers that are
used for giving nearly paralyzed! And really, when they do give a
shilling, it appears to be as great an effort of self-denial as when
others, according to their proportion, have given pounds.
But the Lord loves not to see His people hugging this world so. He
loves to see that they have outgrown the beggarly elements. That they
are getting to love the spiritual above the carnal, to love Him above
themselves, and to seek the treasures that are above and not the
treasures which are on the earth. I am sure it grieves the Spirit of
God when He sees the blood-bought as money-grasping as those who are of
the world! It grieves the Spirit and He often withdraws His comforting
influence when He sees His servants falling down to the dull, dead,
brutish level of men of the world whose cry is, "What shall we eat, and
what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?"
He would have His people seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness! He would have them delight themselves in the Lord, and
not in the creatures which flesh and blood pine after. He would have
them drink from purer streams than the muddy rivers of earth. He would
have them covet after better riches than these Egyptian treasures which
must perish in the using, and from which we must so soon be taken away.
But there is one reason why God loves a cheerful giver which I must
dwell on at some length, namely, because He is a cheerful giver
Himself. Man generally loves that which is like himself. We gratify
ourselves in that way. Generally our affections go after an object that
is somewhat congruous to our own character. Now the Lord is the most
cheerful of all givers! I want you to think of that for a minute. "Who
spared not His own Son"? Oh, what a Gift was that! Mothers, could you
give your sons? Fathers, could you spare your children? Well, yes,
perhaps you might for your country, but you could not for your enemies.
But God, the cheerful Giver, spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all, as says the Word.
And since then, what a cheerful Giver He has been! He has given without
our asking. We did not ask Him to make the Covenant of Grace. We did
not ask Him to elect us. We did not ask Him to redeem us. These things
were done before we were born! We did not ask Him to call us by His
Grace, for, alas, we did not know the value of that call, and we were
dead in trespasses and sins! But He gave to us freely of His unsought
but boundless love. Preeminent Grace came to us, outrunning all our
desires, and all our wills, and all our prayers. He first made us pray.
He gave us the spirit of supplication, or else we had never prayed! He
gave us the will to come to Him, or else we should have remained afar
off.
He was a cheerful Giver to us, then. And when we went to Him with
broken hearts, how cheerfully did He give us pardon! How did He run and
have compassion upon us, and fall upon our neck and kiss us! How
cheerfully did He bring us to the banquet with music and with dancing,
because His son that was dead was alive again, and He that was lost was
found!–
"Many days have passed since then,
Many changes have we seen,"
but there has been no change in Him! He has been a cheerful Giver
still! We have needed Grace every day, and He gives liberally and
upbraids not. When we have been to Him and have asked for an egg, He
has never given us a scorpion. We have asked for bread and He has never
given us a stone, but He has given His Holy Spirit to us. Oh, the
generosity of God in Providence to some of us! It is not long ago since
we were poor enough, but He has been pleased to give us all we can
desire.
There are some of you here who were on the bed of sickness and were
wondering what would become of that little family of yours for which
you were the only breadwinner. But God, the cheerful Giver, provided
for you. He set you up again, and sent you once again in health and
strength to your work. Others of you have passed through great straits,
but still the everlasting arms have been underneath you. And though the
young lions do lack and suffer hunger, yet you, having sought the Lord,
have not needed any good thing. He is a cheerful Giver!
Ah, poor Sinners, you who are not saved, I wish you knew how glad God
is to give His mercy! He is the most cheerful Giver in the universe!
You must not think He will grudge you. If you come to Him for pardon of
sin, God is ready abundantly to pardon you. If you seek His face you
shall not have to clamor after Him as though He were deaf or unwilling
to hear you. He will listen to the cries of the penitent! He will
hearken to the desires of those who would forsake their sins and find
Christ. If you will but trust the Lord Jesus, you shall find Him the
most cheerful Giver and the kindest Friend that you have ever dreamed
of.
Brothers and Sisters, we shall very soon find God to be a cheerful
Giver. Some of our friends, this week, have found Him so. They asked,
for they were very sick, that He would sustain them–and He made their
bed in their sickness, and put underneath them His kind arms. And then
they asked that He would give them an abundant entrance into the
kingdom of His dear Son, and He did it. He helped them to bear their
witness to His faithfulness. He set open before them the gates of
pearl. He did not deny them the harps of gold, nor the Throne of
Christ, Himself, but as a cheerful Giver He welcomed His poor weary
people to His own eternal banquet, and He made them sit at His own
right hand!
So will He do with us, for He is a cheerful Giver–and so He likes His
people to be–for in those who are like He, He sees Himself in
miniature–as the sun sees itself in every drop of dew–as the skies
are mirrored in every pool. O that God would grant us Grace to be more
cheerful givers in the future than we have been in the past!
III. I shall close with only a sentence or two as to WHY WE WHO LOVE
THE LORD, IN THIS HOUSE ESPECIALLY, SHOULD SEEK TO BE CHEERFUL GIVERS
WHOM GOD LOVES. There are many reasons, but tonight we need not urge
them all. One is that all we have we owe to Him. I have heard of one
who failed in business, who, in his better times had helped some of his
workmen into business and they had prospered.
It was said, "Oh, they will help him. He did them such good turns in
his day of prosperity, they will help him." I know not whether they did
or not, but this I do know–that He who took us up when we were naked,
for so we came into this world–He who took us up when we were more
than naked–filthy and defiled–for so we became through our sin and
through our original depravity–He who took us from off the dunghill,
yes, from out of the fire itself–and made us what we are and wrapped
us about with His righteousness and gave us of His mercy–He deserves
all and more than all that we can give Him.
Oh, what shall we do for our Savior to praise Him? What shall we not
do? Lord, as everything is due to You, take everything and let us make
no reserve. Remember, dear Brothers and Sisters, continually, that you
are saved–you, when you might have been damned–you, when you had no
will at anytime to be saved! You are saved! Your sins are blotted out!
The righteousness of Christ is your royal apparel. You are not only
saved–the Holy Spirit dwells in you! You are a priest, you are a king
unto God! You are an heir of Heaven! The blood imperial runs in your
veins! You are one of the peerage of the skies, a prince of the blood!
Oh, will you not live above the lives of others? Will you not seek by
these high dignities, these priceless gifts and these astounding
favors, to consecrate yourselves–spirit, soul, and body–to Him who is
your Father, your Heaven, your God?
Brethren, you may well be anxious to be cheerful givers when you
remember that the time for giving will soon be over. There is no giving
in yonder skies. At least, God's choice treasury, which is the poor
man's pocket, will not be held out for you to fill. There will be none
of the sons of need there–no little feet cold for need of shoes–no
little hands weak for need of bread. There will be no starving women
and no hungry men. No meeting houses that need building. No
missionaries that need sending forth. No ships that need to be
chartered to bear them beyond the seas. No ministers of Christ standing
in need of your aid. You will be beyond all such calls, then, and if
there could be a regret in Heaven it would be that in Heaven these
duties must forever cease. O give, then, while you still can as
cheerful givers!
And, last of all, we have need of a giving God, and therefore let us be
cheerful givers. Remember that story which Mrs. Stowe has so well
written? I am afraid I cannot tell it again, certainly not in her
words, but it is something to this effect. There was a merchant, says
she, who had prospered a great deal in business. He had built a house
in the country, and he had enlarged it and had laid out his grounds at
great expense. When he went to his office he was called upon by a
collector for some society and he replied to his requests, "I really
cannot afford to give anything. I have so many calls, I cannot do it."
Well, he was a man who had usually been very generous, and it touched
his conscience a little afterwards to think that he should begin to
stint in what he gave to his Lord. At night, when the wife and family
had retired to rest, he sat by the fireside meditating, and he said to
himself, "I really do not know whether I was wise to build this house.
It has brought a deal of expense. New furniture is needed. I have been
introduced into a new rank of society. Expenses have increased, the
girls need more for clothes–everything is on a more lavish scale, and
yet I have been stinting the Lord. I fear I have done amiss. I do not
feel easy about it at all."
As he was so thinking it is supposed that he fell asleep, but if so it
was well for him that he did so, for suddenly the door opened and there
came into the room a very meek and lowly stranger. He advanced to him
and said, "Sir, I have called upon you to ask your help for a society
which sends the Gospel to the heathen. They are perishing, perishing
for lack of knowledge. You are wealthy, will you give me help to send
them the Word of Life?" He said, "You must excuse me, really. My
expenses are so great and I must curtail. I am quite unable to give you
anything. I must decline."
The stranger looked at him with a mournful glance and said, "Perhaps
you think that the work is too far away, and you do not give because
the money is to be sent beyond the seas. I will then tell you that
there is a ragged school down a part of the city, near your house of
business, and it is about to be shut up for lack of funds. And there
are the poor little ragged children, the Arabs of your streets,
ignorant of the right way–will you give me a subscription to that
object?" The merchant was a little vexed to be asked again, and he
said, "Forbear to trouble me. I cannot afford it. I cannot give you
anything."
The stranger brushed a tear from his eyes, and he said, "Well, then, I
must ask you at least for something for the Bible Society. That, you
see, lies at the root of everything. It gives away the Word of God, and
surely, if you cannot afford to give to the Missionary Society, or the
Ragged School, you will give for the Word of God itself." "No," he
said, "I have told you I cannot do it," and then–and then the aspect
of the Stranger seemed to change, and though He still was meek and
lowly, yet His Countenance became majestic! There was a glory in His
face, and yet there were lines of grief, and He said, softly and very
sternly, "Five years ago that little daughter of yours, with the fair
ringlets, lay sick of the fever and you prayed in the bitterness of
your soul that the darling of your heart might not be taken from you,
but that you might be spared that heavy stroke. Who heard that prayer,
and gave you back your child?"
The merchant covered his face with his hands, and felt ashamed. "Ten
years ago," said the same voice, "you were in great difficulties. Bills
were returned upon you. You were on the verge of bankruptcy. Your hair
seemed as if it would turn gray with care. To whom did you apply in the
hour of trouble, and who heard you, and who found you friends who tided
you over your difficulties when other houses were crashing, and
wealthier men than you were failing on every side? Who did that for
you?"
"Once more," said the stranger, "fifteen years ago you felt the burden
of your sins. You went up and down the world wringing your hands with
fear, and crying, 'God have mercy upon me!' Your heart was overwhelmed
within you. Who, in that hour, spoke the forgiving words which
cancelled all your sins? Who took all your iniquities upon Himself?"
The merchant sobbed aloud and trembled much when the voice said, "If
you will never ask anything of Me again, I will never ask anything of
you." The man fell on his face before the august Visitor, and said,
"Take all!"
Whether it were a dream or not, it is certain that that merchant became
one of the Christian princes of America and gave to the cause of Christ
as few had ever done before. "God loves a cheerful giver," and you see
His claims upon you! Go your way, merchants, and give largely as God
gives to you. Go your way, you trades people, and scatter as you can,
for God first gives you the means. Go your way, you working men and
toiling women, and give according to your ability. Give, you rich,
because you are rich, and give, you poor, because you cannot afford to
get poorer, and you are likely to do so unless you offer God His
portion.
But have you first given Him your heart? Have you put your trust in
Jesus? If not, this sermon is not for you. But if your heart belongs to
my Lord, and has been washed in His precious blood, let my text sink
deep into your ears, and deeper, still, into your hearts–"God loves a
cheerful giver!"
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Sown Light
A Sermon