Liberal Church
227
it is necessary that the people of God give cheerfully and liberally. A
solemn responsibility rests upon ministers to keep before the churches
the needs of the cause of God and to educate them to be liberal. When
this is neglected, and the churches fail to give for the necessities of
others, not only does the work of the Lord suffer, but the blessing that
should come to believers is withheld.
Even the very poor should bring their offerings to God. They are
to be sharers of the grace of Christ by denying self to help those whose
need is more pressing than their own. The poor man’s gift, the fruit
of self-denial, comes up before God as fragrant incense. And every
act of self-sacrifice strengthens the spirit of beneficence in the giver’s
heart, allying him more closely to the One who was rich, yet for our
sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.
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The act of the widow who cast two mites—all that she had—into
the treasury, is placed on record for the encouragement of those who,
struggling with poverty, still desire by their gifts to aid the cause of
God. Christ called the attention of the disciples to this woman, who
had given “all her living.”
Mark 12:44
. He esteemed her gift of more
value than the large offerings of those whose alms did not call for self-
denial. From their abundance they had given a small portion. To make
her offering, the widow had deprived herself of even the necessities
of life, trusting God to supply her needs for the morrow. Of her the
Saviour declared, “Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath
cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury.”
Verse
43
. Thus He taught that the value of the gift is estimated not by the
amount, but by the proportion that is given and the motive that actuates
the giver.
The apostle Paul in his ministry among the churches was untiring
in his efforts to inspire in the hearts of the new converts a desire to
do large things for the cause of God. Often he exhorted them to the
exercise of liberality. In speaking to the elders of Ephesus of his former
labors among them, he said, “I have showed you all things, how that
so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words
of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to
receive.” “He which soweth sparingly,” he wrote to the Corinthians,
“shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap
also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so
let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful
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