The collection of funds for religious purposes : the wrong way and the right, an essay / by H. H. Tucker

THE COLLECTION OF FUNDS FOR
RELIGIOUS PURPOSES:
THE WRONG WAY AND THE RIGHT.
FnakUa ttcut Printing BOOB, AtUott,.

THE COLLECTION
OF
FUNDS
FOB
Religious Purposes:
WRONG WAT AND THE BIGHT.
,1 i
AN ESSAY, BY H. H. TUCKER.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA:
FRANKLIN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE--JAS. P. HARRISON A CO. 1874.

He who prays " Thy Kingdom come," is under the highest and most sacred obligations to do all that lies in his power to promote the coming of that Kingdom. The prayer, without the effort, is the prayer of hypocrisy, the answer to which will be curse instead of blessing. The true people of God, in all ages, have been mak ing efforts to prepare the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight. In these latter days, we on whom the responsibilities of the present generation rest, have not been wholly unmindful of our duty in this respect. It cannot be said that we have done what we could, to obey the word which requires us to preach the gospel to every creature, but we have done something. By teach ing, and by preaching, and by building houses of worship, and by the diffusion of a sanctified literature, and especially by the spread of the Bible, and by contributions for the support of men set apart for the great work of evangelizing the world, we have done something to illustrate the sincerity of our prayers for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ. Nor have our efforts been wholly without success. Enough has been done to compensate us a thousand times over for what poor sacrifices we have made, and to encourage us in the belief that, vast as the work to be accom plished is, it is nevertheless possible. God's promise to give to His Son the heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession, is a sufficient foundation for our faith; still, it strengthens that faith to see, with our natural eyes, that the means are adapted to the end, and that the work is in actual process of accomplishment But when we see that the results have been so great, from effort so little, we are mortified to think that we have done no more. What might we not have done, if we had put forth all our energy under the guidance of our wisest counsel ? Our success, while it entourages, also discourages; for while it points to the certain triumph of truth, it points, also, to the weakness of our desires and the meagreness of our efforts to promote it. Our grief, in view of these, our short-comings, is heightened when we perceive, as perceive we must, that all our

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benevolent operations are at present in a state of decline. The present course of things has only to continue, and in a very few years, all the organizations of our denomination in the Southern States will cease to exist.
Under these circumstances, it is surely our duty to review the situation; to examine carefully into the causes of decline, and en deavor to remove them; and furthermore, to devise new plans, if possible, which will carry on the work more rapidly and on a larger scale than anything we have ever yet attempted.
It is needless to argue the point that, so far as the work of mis sions is concerned, it cannot be carried on without money. With more money, we accomplish more; with less money, we accom plish less; and with no money, we accomplish nothing. The question, then, except so far as prayer and personal effort are con cerned, is a question of money. If our Domestic Board is dis charging its employes by scores, it is for want of money. If our Foreign Board is recalling its missionaries, it is for want of money, If our Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is in danger of being obliged to close its doors, it is for want of money. Supply each of these three great agencies for doing good with as- much money as they could judiciously expend, and the spread of gospel truth would far transcend anything we have ever seen or dreamed of.
The want of money, then, is the cause of all our trouble. Now, is this because we lack the money, or because we lack the neces sary liberality to give it; or is it because we lack wisdom in our plans for collecting it. I hare no hesitation in saying that it is not for want of money, nor for the want of liberality. To carry on the work on as grand a scale as duty would require, would indeed call for vast sums, and for great liberality. But to do what we have been doing, requires no liberality at all. A contribution of one cent per week would surely not be very liberal on the part of any of our members-. Even those of them who are the most pitiable objects of charity could probably manage to raise so small a sum as this. And yet, one cent per week from all the Baptists in the Southern States would amount to $520,000 in a year, which is six times as much as both our Boards and the Seminary, all put to gether, have ever cost us. To carry on all our general religiousoperations as we have been doing, requires only $80,000,* or less
*TUIs amount i determined by the reported average of contributions to the Southern Baptlit Board*, and ibealimated avenge of contribution* to the Semlnuy, for ill yeira.

than one-sixth of a cent per week from each of ns. To say that we fail to raise this sum for lack of money, is an insult to the hu man understanding, and to say that it is for want of liberality, is an insult to human nature. The failure of our present plans is, therefore, owing wholly to lack of wisdom. Surely nothing can be more dearly our duty than to apply our minds to this subject with the closest scrutiny, that we may detect our errors, and cor rect them. Whatever may be the right plan of raising money, one thing is certain, and is demonstrated by bitter experience, and that is, that our present plan is wrong.
Following the analysis which Blackstone offers to legislators, and which directs them to'consider, first, the old law, second, the mischief, and third, the remedy, let us see first what the old plan for raising money is.
I. Much of it is raised in mass meetings held at our Conventions and Associations. Stirring speeches are made, exciting songs are sung, great enthusiasm is aroused, much animal magnetism is de veloped, noble examples are quoted, personal pride and emula tion are appealed to quite as often as benevolence and sense of duty, and under strong excitement, the more impressible part of the audience contribute what may be called large sums, often too large for the means of the donors. Men sometimes have to bor row the money to pay the debt thus incurred. Sometimes they contribute their watches, and sometimes their very clothing; and women and girls often throw in their cherished pieces of jewelry. So far as such donations are the result of purely benevolent im pulse, they do honor to those who make them; but whether this is, on the whole, the best plan for raising yearly stipends or for developing habitual and life-long beneficence, is the very point hereafter to be considered.
But all our money is not raised in this way. Much of it is sent to our great religious gatherings by the hands of delegates. But how is the moaey raised which is thus sent ? To a great degree the plan is substantially the same at last; the chief difference being only this, that the enthusiastic missionary meetings are held, not at the Associations, but at the churches. The meetings are not so large, the feeling is usually not so warm, and the con tributions are not so heavy. Still, the general spirit of the pro cedure is much the same. The missionary meeting for the pur pose of raising money is held usually only once a year, though

sometimes oftener, a spasmodic effort is made, and for the rest of the year the subject is forgotten.
True, there are numerous individual cases where contributions are made with more or less of system and of regularity, and where mere impulse gives way wholly to principle. And there are churches, too, whose mode of procedure is methodical and regular. But these cases are rather exceptional. By far the greater part of our fund is raised in the manner first described, and even if it be urged that the description is somewhat too highly colored, (which, however, the writer does not concede,) it must still be ad mitted that, in the main, it is not very far from being correct. That our contributions are, for the most part, irregular, impulsive and spasmodic, is beyond question. Quite recently, the plan has been adopted, in a few localities, of distributing small contribu tion boxes among the families connected with our churches, in which small weekly sums are placed, and, at suitable intervals, the boxes are called in and opened. But as this can scarcely be called a part of the old plan, but is-rather the beginning of a new one, it will not be considered here. In speaking of this as a new plan, it is not meant that the thing itself is new, but only that its use among us is so. Another feature of the old plan was to make strong appeals through the press, and by means of circulars, es pecially in cases of great emergency; and in response to these ap peals, certain sums were doubtless sent immediately to our Secre taries ; and besides this, some of our Sunday schools were in the habit of sending up certain sums annually; but after all, our main reliance was on the mass meetings, and on the efforts made in the churches once a year, though, indeed, some of our churches con tributed almost nothing, and many of them actually nothing.
The above is as fair a statement of the facts as the writer is able to make. Perhaps others,, whose observation is wider or less wide, might state the case in somewhat different terms, but no state ment that approximates the truth could vary very materially from that which has been presented.
II. Having seen what our plan is and has been,, let us now con sider what mischiefs arose under its operation.
Let us illustrate by the State of Georgia: In this State, there are 150,000 Baptist communicants, to say nothing of their adhe rents and friends. If each of these communicants were to con tribute one quarter of a cent per week, the sum raised in a year would be $19,500, which is nearly twice as much as we actually

raise for general benevolent purposes ;* and this shows, by unerring arithmetic, that our average contribution is but little more than one-eighth of a cent a week each. Now it is known that a few of our brethren contribute several hundred dollars a year each; a large number contribute from twenty to one hundred dollars each; a still larger number contribute from five to twenty dollars each, and a very large number (comparatively) contribute from fifty cents to five dollars each.
On this showing, the correctness of which no one can doubt, two facts are brought into salient conspicuousness: First, That the whole amount raised by us is contributed by a few, indeed, by very few; Second, That the overwhelming majority contribute nothing. And this has been our mode of operation from the begin ning to this day.
The evils of a plan which in its practical working shows such results as these, are so palpable that an analysis of them would seem to be needless, for in such a case, one who would not be convinced without argument, could scarcely be convinced with it. Still, it may be well to look at the matter somewhat in detail. The plan works injury to the individual as an individual; to each church as a church; to the cause of missions and of divine truth and Christian benevolence; it gives a false view of Christianity to outside lookers-on, thus injuring both them and it; and finally it ignores the examples and precepts of the New Testament. To adhere to a plan so defective as this, would be both folly and sin. If it be said that these charges have not been shown to be true, then let us examine them one by one.
i. There is injury to the individual. The great majority of our brethren give nothing. In each one of these the grace of giving is apt to be undeveloped, and each one suffers accordingly. The illiberal soul is of necessity a lean soul and a sickly soul, and is in danger of being a lost soul. Where there is no actual giving, covetousness is apt to take possession, and covetousness is idola try. True, there are other ways of giving besides the sup port of missions. One may give to the widows and to the poor in his neighborhood. But our general experience seems to show that those who take most interest in missions, are those who give most aid to the poor, and that those who take tu> interest in mis sions, do least for the poor, and it is not uncommon for them to
"This la only approximate: it b the reported avenge of contributions from Georgia for ill yean, to the Boards of the Southern Bapttit Convention

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do nothing. In theory, home benevolence may exist without the spirit of missions, but when applied to practice, the theory, wholly or to a great extent, fails. The truth is, that home and foreign benevolence both spring largely from a spirit of philan thropy, and when this is wanting, there is not apt to be much giving of any kind. Yet the gift that goes abroad has a quality in it, which the gift that stays at home has not. The one seems to pro ceed from sight, the other from faith. The one may be only an act of sympathy, the other is an act of Christian principle. The one is purely human, the other is partly divine. The one may be the act of an unconverted man; the other, if it come from the heart, can come only from a heart sanctified by grace. The one has all the elements of a genuine benevolence, the other only a part of them. One act preaches the whole Gospel, the other, only half of it, and that the lower half. If one shows that the giver loves his neighbor as himself, the other shows that in addition to this, he obeys, partially at least, the other great and greater commandment, to love God supremely. It is impossible that he who gives only as a worldly man can give, should either possess the grace, or enjoy the blessing of him who gives as only a Christian can give. The man who gives nothing for the spread of the Gospel shows that he feels but little interest in the Gospel, and he who feels but little interest in it, is sure to enjoy but little of it, and is in danger of losing its blessings altogether, both for this world and for that which is to come. The mildest view that can be taken of the man who does nothing to give the Gospel to the world, is, that if a Christian at all, he is undevel oped; that he is not what he might be; and that he must forever fall short in Christian reward as he falls short in Christian duty. But this is not all. He who falls short in this duty, is apt to fall short in others. Neglect breeds neglect, and even worse than this; the man who neglects positive duty, is apt to violate aggressively positive commands. The sin of omission leads to the sin of commission. All sin reproduces itself, and one variety has in it the germs of all the rest. Forever to be pitied is the Christian who takes no active part in evangelizing the world. An unhappy man is he doomed to perpetual sickliness of soul, forever dwarfed in spiritual growth, and forever denied the re wards of a complete Christian life. Yet the majority of our brethren, the great majority, are in this very condition. Must not our plans be wrong which allow them to remain in this

wretched state, and is it not as much a duty to them as it is to the heathen that we should adopt some new method which, while it saves the one, will develop the graces of the other? In neglect ing our brethren, by our failure to enlist them in the good work, have we not committed a grievous wrong against them, and will not God hold us to account for not providing for the spiritual ne cessities of our own household ?
But even those who do give, and some of those who give liber ally, in answer to exciting and periodical appeals, occurring at distant intervals, are not always uninjured. Sometimes, in a mo ment of excitement, they give way to their feelings and do that which they regret when they are in cold blood. Tp yield to a generous impulse is indeed a benefit to the soul, but when the act is such as to produce a powerful reaction, the benefit may well be doubted. A moment of benevolence to be followed by a year of regret that the benevolence was exercised, must really be a mo ment of spiritual injury. If a man, in a gush of feeling, makes a donation which it sours his spirit for months afterwards to pro vide for if the young girl wants her breastpin back again, which under strong excitement she gave away, or rather threw away, so far from there being spiritual benefit in the act, just the reverse is the case; it disinclines the parties for future effort, it disgusts them with future appeals, and they shun the man of God who asks their aid in His cause the beggar, as they contemptuously call him as they would shun a sharper or a pickpocket. It is well for them if they recover from this disgust, and if at last, Christian principle triumphs, and leads them back to duty. But there are few liberal givers among us who have not often found it necessary to fortify themselves in advance, lest they should allow themselves to be overpersuaded by some eloquent or persistent pleader, to do what their sober second-thought would not sanc tion. This itself, though it seems to be necessary, is spiritual in jury. The man who stands with fixed bayonet, as it were, to receive the messenger of God, on an errand of benevolence and mercy, is in bad condition to secure the blessing of the Most High. The habit thus engendered, cannot but act harmfully on his soul.
There is also more or less of discouragement experienced by the liberal givers, when they find that they have all the burden to carry, while the multitude will not touch it even with their fingers. If all were to lend a hand, those who are liberal, would be more liberal, and in doing more, they would enjoy more, and receive

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greater blessing. As it is, they are oppressed with a sense of in justice ; they feel that they are wronged; and they are soured to ward their brethren, and so far from being incited to greater effort, when the inaction of others would seem to make it neces sary, they are actually restrained from doing what their hearts would incline them to do, and, indignant to see no contributions from others, pettishly diminish their own. Of course they ought not to indulge such feelings, but they do indulge them. They are good men, it is true, but they are men, and like others, subject to human weakness. Any plan must be wrong, the great feature of which is, that it places such a temptation in their way.
It is well, even if in some of our tempestuous meetings we do not place before our brethren the samef or a similar temptation in another way. We appeal to one to do so much, on the ground that some other has done so much. The principle is wrong. Whether others have done much or little, is not for a man to inquire. Let him answer as unto God, and not as unto man. Emulation and pride are not to be appealed to in a Christian as sembly. The appeal should be to the conscience, and to that only. Even if men incline to give merely because others do, they ought to be restrained, rather than encouraged. Let them be told to do it, because God has required it at their hand, and what they do under this impulse, they will never afterwards regret; their nature will be developed in the right direction and not the wrong, and the act will be a genuine Christian charity, and not a wretched counterfeit of it.
To sum up the whole matter, let it be said that a habit of sys tematic and liberal giving on proper principles in the cause of Christ is beneficial to the heart of every Christian, and that without this habit, leanness and disease are certain, and life is apt to be so feeble that it can scarcely be distinguished from death. The great majority of our brethren are in the latter condition; and the charge against our plans which have woiked out such results as these, that they bring evil upon the individual, is established.
2. The churches suffer injury. A church whose member ship suffers in the manner above described is in the condition of a man broken on the wheel. His legs are broken, he cannot walk; his arms are broken, he cannot do; his ribs are broken, he can scarcely breathe; his back is broken, he cannot stir. To suppose that the figure is too strong, is to suppose that the whole of a thing can be in good condition when its parts are all destroyed.

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Take away the membership of our churches and there is nothing left. Suppose all the members of a church to be under the blight of covetousness, what will the church be worth as a whole? Suppose a large part of them to be so, and that a few only are found in the way of duty, how are the efforts of these few, clog ged and made comparatively inoperative by the dead weight of the many! Hampered with a worse than useless membership, unblest-by the reflex influence of the missionary spirit, how can a church be other than languid, drooping and dying, if not dead ? Many of our churches are in this condition. There is probably not in the whole world a feebler organization than a Baptist church of this description. We have many churches in condi tion not so extreme, though their affliction is of the same kind. But according to the degree of their disease, so wretched is their internal state, and so worthless are they to the cause.
If this condition of our churches is owing to any action or in action of ours, have we not great guilt to answer for ? And is it not clear that if our missionary efforts had been guided by greater wisdom, even if with no more zeal, we should not have left the masses of our people wholly unreached ?
While those who do nothing are each and all to blame, yet in many cases, perhaps there may be something said in extenuation. Many of them are poor, some very poor. Our appeals are warm and stirring. We call for large contributions. The poor think that their feeble help will do no good. They- have never been taught the power of littles. They are ashamed to lay their wretched pence beside the dollars of their wealthy neighbors. Thousands upon thousands of our brethren would gladly give a dime, if they were not ashamed to do it. But our system looks not to the littles and to the many, it looks to the few and to the large. We forget that to many, a dollar is large that to many, a dime is large. At any rate, so it is that the poor among us are generally left out in the carrying on of our benevolent operations Whether we count them ou|, or whether they count themselves out, is immaterial. The fact is, that there are hundreds of thou sands who could contribute a cent a week without feeling it, but who actually contribute not a cent in a whole life-time. Now, the poor constitute a large proportion of our membership. Can a church as a whole, be thrifty when so large an element in its membership is for some of the most important purposes forever unutilized ? Any plan of religious enterprise which is so con-

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trived as that it fails to enlist the many, and brings into the ser vice only the few, is not worthy either of our religion or of our enlightenment. If our design had been to make war on our churches, we could scarcely have done them greater injury. Im mortal truth must preserve them, or our blind policy must have killed them long ago.
3. But in addition to the injury to individuals and to churches, the folly of our plans is harmful to the great cause of missions. True, bad as our plans are, we have accomplished much good; but we have also done much Harm; besides which, we have failed to do as much good as we might have done. The farmer who has made a series of profitable crops, but who by his mode of agriculture has ruined his farm, has during that time supported his family and has enjoyed a real or seeming prosperity, but yet he has been destroying the foundation of all prosperity; and if any one tells him that on the whole his plan is not wise, it is in vain for him to point to his past and temporary success as an evidence to the contrary.
What is now the state of all our large religious enterprises ? They are threatened with death, and at present rates and on pres ent conditions death is inevitable. Here is the grand result of twenty-nine years' operations since the Southern Baptist Conven tion was formed. We have had a certain kind of success all the time, but it is a success which has led us to the brink of ruin. With two or three years more of the same sort of success, we shall succumb to the inevitable, and see the ruin itself. What then is to be said of our success on the whole ? Instead of build ing up our cause, we have well nigh destroyed it. Plans which lead to such results must be wrong.
Our whole principle has been wrong from the beginning. We have relied 'on eloquent discourses, rather than on quiet labor; we have done the fancy work, but we have omitted the drudgery. It is drudgery that tells. We have dealt largely in generals, but have neglected particulars. Our whole dependence has been on large contributions. If this be disputed, it may be well to come to some definitions. What is large ? A dollar is large; a dime is large. Pence are small; but how much of our religious superstructure has been built on actual pence? The truth is, that the amount received in pence is so small, that whether added to, or taken from the gross amount of bur receipts, the difference would not be very great. Notwithstanding the exceptional cases

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that might be named, there is no denying that all our calculations have been based on large contributions from the few.
Now, the fact is worthy of our profoundest consideration, that in the history of the world, no great enterprise of any kind what ever, has ever been carried on for any great length of time by large contributions, whether made voluntarily or involuntarily. To do such a thing is impossible, and the impossibility lies in the nature of things. The work of missions is a great work, and it must be carried on for a great while, and we have been trying to do it by means on which God, by constituting the world as we find it, has placed His veto. The sooner we abandon our course, the better; and the sooner we fall in with plans which are consisttent with the necessities of our nature, as God has constituted us, the sooner we shall succeed in our work, and the greater will be our reward.
Our operations, though very expensive to a few, have been small, compared with what they might have been, with a tithe of the sac rifice but with more wisdom. They have been wretchedly, contempt ibly small. Our givers, all put together, constitute but a small band; there are not enough of them to do business on any extended scale. If their contributions were twice as large as they are, our operations, so long as we continue in this way, are doomed to perpetual littleness. But at the rate of one cent each per week, a sum which nobody would feel, the Baptists of the South could raise, in one year, the sum of $520,000! And yet, we may be fairly said to make no effort to reach this splendid result, while at the same time we are making agonizing efforts to do less than onesixth part as much. Was there ever such lack of wisdom ?
Another way in which the great cause is injured is, that under the present plans it is subjected to all the risks and hazards of the money market. Its support is as liable to fluctuation as the fancy stocks that are the sport of bulls and bears on Wall street. Take the admitted fact that, in the main, the contributions are what may be called large, and that they are from the few, and it is manifest that whenever a great money panic seizes the country, the contri butions will and must suddenly fall off. The givers are forced to sudden and unexpected economy, and the first place where most of them begin to retrench is, in the direction of religious benefi cence. This ought not indeed to be, but so it is. Christians are but men. While their charities begin at home, their retrench ments begin abroad; and thus, when there comes a time of mon-

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etary stringency, the far-off missionary is the first to feel it, and it may be added that he is the last to recover from it. If any one should doubt the fairness of the statements that have been made, the actual condition of all our missionary operations, at this very moment, is an effectual silencer of his doubts. The facts are their own witnesses.
Suppose, however, that our main reliance were on the pence and not on the pounds; on the many and not on the few. It is almost inconceivable that a money pressure should be so terrific as to in terfere with the donation of one cent a week. In times of greatest panic, as well as in times of greatest prosperity, this little work of benevolence would still go on; it would be too small to be af fected by changes in the money market or in the price of cotton; and thus the grand result would be always nearly the same. A million of these little perennial rills would raise a flood which no drought could affect, and our five hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year could be counted on with as much certainty as anything that is human.
As matters now stand, we are somewhat in the condition of an insurance company that takes but few risks, and they of large magnitude liable, of course, at any moment to sudden and disas trous collapse. But the children of this world are wiser in their gen eration than the children of light. A well conducted insurance company increases the number of its risks and diminishes their size, as much as possible, and so long as it pursues this policy, it can scarcely fail without miracle; its success is based on the steady operation of the laws of Providence.
Our missionary work is in perpetual jeopardy, because we ig nore these laws of Providence, and place ourselves in opposition to them. Suppose the whole work were made to depend on the life or on the financial prosperity of one man; coulfl anything be more hazardous ? If there were two men, the hazard would be less; and if three, still less; and the greater the number, the less the hazard. There are probably not twenty thousand givers in the Baptist denomination in the Southern States, and these givers measurably belong to the same class, so far, at least, as this, that they are all affected by the same causes, and hence may be almost regarded as a unit, and on this unit, with all its risks, our benevo lent operations depend.
But suppose instead of twenty thousand, there were a million, and at a cent a week, each of the million is out of the reach of

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risk; is it not manifest that our denomination would constitute a huge insurance company, based on the infallible facts of nature, and whose operations, steady as the tides, would make failure or great fluctuations in missionary interests next to impossible? Heretofore we have been taking the wildest ventures and incur ring the greatest hazards, and, as the result of it, our Boards are at this moment in a state of great peril. Have we any right to injure our Master's cause by putting it and keeping it in such jeo pardy ?
4. Our past and present plans have worked injury not only to ourselves as individuals, and to our churches as such, and to the great cause of missions itself, but also, to lookers-on in the un converted world around us. If they see our folly, they must ridi cule it; if not, which is more probable, they must think that our zeal, judging by its results, is vastly below what it ought to be, if indeed our religion is what it claims to be the rescue of the race from eternal damnation to eternal salvation. They must think either that our religion is false, or that we do not believe it. In either case they are driven from it, and thus their souls axe im perilled. Suppose our banners were unfurled in a hundred places, where they are now in one: suppose that we were doing all that could be done, not by pounds, but by pence, which are far more mighty, for the heathen ; would not the whole world stand amazed at the result ? Would not the return wave of in fluence from distant lands come back like a flood upon our own ? And if all the others of God's elect were operating in the same way, how long would it be before the whole earth would be filled with His glory ? Are we not doing injustice and wrong to our countrymen, by thus depriving them of this vast reactionary benefit of well directed missionary efforts ? Nor is it the mere negative injury of deprivation; we lead them to wrong views and to an under-estimate of the character, and value, and power of the religion of Jesus, and thus put them in position where they are not likely to receive and enjoy its blessings, while at the same time, by misrepresenting our Lord's cause we misrepresent Him, and so our offence, while it spreads over earth, reaches up to Heaven.
5. But finally, our far-apart and spasmodic efforts ignore the teachings of the New Testament. In writing to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy Ghost, says : " Now, con cerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the

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churches of Galatia, so do ye. Upon the first day of the -week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." i Cor. 16: 2.
Observe that this is not a mere matter of advice it is an order. The Apostle says: " I have given order" and thus lifts the mat ter from the plane of mere expediency, and puts it on that of duty. If the order had been addressed to the Corinthians only, it might be thought that it had some special application to them, to the exclusion of others. But it is directed, also, to the Galatians, and not to any particular church in Galatia, but to the churches that is, to all the churches there; and the Apostle ex pressly mentions this fact as if to guard against the thought that this was a specific precept addressed to a.specific church, and for a specific purpose, and to show that his precept had a wider scope and a more generic meaning; to show, in other words, that it em bodied a principle of universal application. Observe, too, that this duty is to be discharged regularly ; it is not to be done by fits and starts; it is periodic; it is not to be the result of impulse, but of principle; not to be incited by warm appeals and soulmoving songs, and magnetizing mass-meetings, but by quiet teachings.
Mark, also, the expression, " That there be no gatherings when I come." In modern times we should be likely to wait for the coming of the great Apostle, that as the result of his personal presence and powerful eloquence, there might be " a grand arousment" under the stimulus of which the people, being, as it were, drunk with excitement there might be a. gush of contributions all at once, such as would meet the emergency. But this was not the apostolic method. The sober Apostle would have none of this. He desired that all should be done beforehand; that their beneficence should be exercised on ordinary and not merely on extraordinary occasions. Would we not do well to substitute so briety for delirium, and throw aside our wild plans, which the example and precept of the Apostle so emphatically condemn ?
Notice, too, that the periods of giving are not only regular, but they are frequent; and this very frequency would bring the duty down from the high atmosphere of exciting enthusiasm to the less exhilarating but more healthy air of daily life. Not once a year, as is too often our plan, but once a week is the New Testament method. If, as the period occurs so often, the feeling can never rise so high as in our far-apart and convulsive movements, yet, on

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the other hand, it- never dies out. Before the heart has time to grow cold from one act of beneficence, another warms it up again; and thus, if the stream be small, it is nevertheless steady, and while it conveys blessing out, also brings blessing in, for it is more blessed to give than to receive. Observe, too, that the com mand (for command it is) is addressed not to the few, nor even to the many, but to all. Let " every one of you lay by him in store; " no man, woman or child is excepted. Is it said that the precept of the Apostle is not intended to be applied in its exact details to us ? The burden of proof is on those who deny that it is addressed to us. But, admitting, for the argument's sake, that change of conditions relieves us from literal compliance with the very words of the precept, surely no one will say that so far as the precept embodies principles, they are not binding on the peo ple of God to all generations. These principles are, that giving is a duty; that it is the duty of every one; that it is to be dis charged at regular intervals; and that the intervals must be short; and if Infinite Wisdom fixed the time at once a week for the Corrinthians and for all the churches in Galatia, it would seem to require a very strong argument to show that poor human wisdom is right in fixing a longer time for us, especially if the time is fiftytwo times as long. Appearances are against us; the principles involved are violated and the precept is disregarded. If left to ourselves, it might be hard to settle on proper plans. Inspiration, foreseeing our weakness and ignorance, has provided us a plan, and yet we have adopted another. Is it any wonder that our enterprises are sickly ?
And, again, we have disregarded the value of the littles. Did not Christ say that the poor widow with her mites had cast in more than they all ? We are accustomed to think that what, he meant was, that a small sum was more for her than large sums for others. But do we certainly know that this was all he meant? Perhaps he meant that her example with her mites would encour age others to throw in their mites, and thus make mite-giving gen eral, and he foresaw what we can look back over all history and see, that no very large sum can ever be raised for any purpose whatever in any other way than by mites. The few large contri butions do not amount to as much in the end as the many small ones; and if all the mites that have been contributed, for the last eighteen hundred years, in imitation of this very'woman's exam ple,, and as the result of it, could be aggregated, we-do not know.-

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But that the sum might amount to more than afl other contribu tions put together; and thus our Saviour's words may have beer* literally true, that she did actually cast in more than they all. At any rate, he was prompt to make honorable mention of the mites;. we practically ignore them almost altogether.
We seem to forget that giving is an act of worship, and that,, consequently, in the absence of giving, no worship can be com plete. There are some who seem to think that because the gos pel is free in one sense,, it is so in every senser and should cost us> nothing; and some go even further,, and imagine that to couplemoney with worship, or with the Lord's cause in any way, is to degrade it. It may be well to remind them that the very first act of worship of which we have any rec'ord, was an expensive one. There was no money in the world at the time of righteous Abel'ssacrifice, but it cost him money's worth,, and it was accepted. HasGod so changed that what was acceptable then, would be unaccept able now? Through all the patriarchal dispensation, worship wascharacterized by the same feature of expense. The Mosaic rit ual was, perhaps, the most expensive system of religion ever dewsed; and God was- the author of it. Did He not know what would be acceptable to-Himself? and as H*-was not made richer by these offerings, nor benefitted by them in any way, must He not have required them for the benefit of the worshippers ? And hashuman nature so changed that what was promotive of spiritual! welfare then should fail to promote it now ? Outward acts, in deed, may vary with circumstances; but so far as principles areinvolved, they must forever be the same. " Honor the Lord with thy substance " is a divine precept, and is it not binding on all men for all time ? If certain men and certain times are to be made exceptions, who is competent to designate the exceptions ? The precept teaches us, not only that it is possible for men to hon or God, but also that it is possible and proper to honor Him in this way / and it would be well for some to take heed, lest they dishonor God by regarding that as degrading which He regards as Honor. The prayers of Cornelius were coupled, with his alms, and not one nor the other alone, but both came up" for a memori al before God. Nor is mere alms-giving (if this be construed to mean simply aid to the poor) alone acceptable. Those who con tend, in these latter days, that all our giving should'be to the poor, are not the first who have made this plea; they foUbw a bad pre cedent set by a bad exemplar. The alabaster box, itself expen-

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sive, was fDled with costly ointment; both had been purchased with money, but the offering was graciously accepted, and as the house was 'filled with the perfume of the offering, so the whole world has been filled with the fragrance of the story; and the me morial in honor of the act will endure till the end of time. No poor were benefitted, not, in a certain sense, was there benefit of any kind, but Christ was Jumoned. Are we precluded from the privilege of honoring our Saviour in the same way ? Let some Is<cariot count up the expense, and whine about the poor, but as for us, let us weep with joy to think that we are permitted to bring the alabaster box and the precious ointment. What was worship then is worship now. And if giving be worship, then, like all other worship, it should be at stated tines, and the times should be not far apart 4 every breath should be in the spirit of beneficence. And it would seem that we ought to give without ceasing, in a sense as literal as that in which we are commanded to fray without ceasing. Certain it is, that our worship will be /orever imperfect, unless our "substance" enters into it, and if we be at a loss to know at what periods and on what occasions to make these offerings, do we not find something more than a hint in these words: " Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him ?" The first day of the week was set apart by 'men inspired by the Holy <Ghost, as the day fer stated worship. The first day of the week was also set apart as the day for stated offerings of moneyand what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
It seems to be a letting down of the dignity of the subject to Teply further to those who, following the example of him who ob jected to the alabaster box, speak disparagingly of serving the Lord with money; but it may be well to remind them that even they sometimes contribute money to build, for their own use, a house of worship, and that, in so doing, they violate their own principle, and act upon ours. If theirs is right, they should never violate it; if-ours is wrong, they should never adopt it; but if they adopt it at all, they should carry it to its results, and honor the Lord with their -substance whenever and wherever op portunity offers.
It will be remembered that in stating the mischiefs arising "under our old plan of operations, charges of the gravest possible character were brought. In the belief that every one of those (charges has been abundantly verified, they are BOW repeated.

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The plan works injury to the individual as an individual, to each church as a church, to the cause of missions and cf divine truth and Christian benevolence; it gives a false view of Christian ity to outside lookers-on, thus injuring both them and it; and finally it ignores the examples and precepts of the New Testa ment.
III. Having considered our old plan and the mischief arising under it, it now remains for us to inquire for a remedy. In the mere statement of the mischief, the remedy was naturally and necessarily suggested. The very opposite of what we have been doing, is what we ought to do; instead of appealing to the few for much, we ought to appeal to the many for little, or rather to all for some. Our ingatherings, instead of being once a year, should be once a week, or where this is impossible, once a month at the utmost. Were this plan carried into effect, more than a 'million of dollars a year could be easily raised by the Baptists of the South so easily in fact, that very few, if any, would be able to discover even by close scrutiny, that their financial condition 'had been affected by their donations. The number of those who could not contribute two cents a week without feeling it, or being able to perceive its loss, is comparatively small, and yet, two cents a week from each of us, would raise one million of dollars and more. If it be thought that there are many who could not afford so large a sum as two cents a week, then take half the amount, and at one cent a week, we should raise over half a mil lion of dollars. At even one-half a cent a week, we should raise two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which is three times as much as we actually do raise for all our religious enterprises put together. Nor need it be feared that these small contributions from each, would repress the liberality of those inclined to be lib eral. The contrary effect would be certain. It would be hazard ing little, to say that the amount raised by large subscriptions would be two or three times as great as it s now.
Surely it is to be supposed, that no one will dispute that this is the proper plan, if only it could be reduced \opractice; but how is this -to be done ? It must be admitted that this is a grave question, and one not easy to answer. Two great difficulties meet us at the threshold: First, The lack of unified organization among our churches; Second, The want of a small coin. With these two difficulties out of the way, it would perhaps be as easy for us to raise large amounts, as it is for the Papists to raise the

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Peter's pence, wherewith they build their enormously expensive cathedrals. Let us try to meet these difficulties, one at a time.
If the masses of our people are to be moved, it can be done, only through the Pastors. None others can possibly have access to them. But what can the Pastors do? Let us pause a moment and look at the facts. Tte constituency of our Convention in Georgia, consists of about seventy thousand Baptist communi cants, all of whom with but few exceptions, are under the care of Pastors. Now, is it extravagant to suppose that each Pastor can bring to bear on at least one-half of those under his care, in struction and personal influence enough, to induce them to con tribute two cents a week each, for benevolent and religious en terprises? This allows one-half of each Pastor's membership to be wholly beyond the reach of his influence, and the other half to be under his influence only to the amount of two cents a week. Surely, if we were to say to the outside world that the ministers and the religion of Jesus could not do so much as this, they would laugh both it and them to scorn. Has any one among us the face to stand up before an enlightened world, and make a confession so humiliating and so scandalous ? And yet, the amount raised by one half the constituency of this Convention, at two cents a week each, would be thirty-six thous and, four hundred dollars a year, which is three and a half times as much as we actually raise. The facts are shameful beyond expression. The fault would seem to be with the pastors, for if they did their duty, or a tithe of it, it is scarcely conceivable that they should fail of securing so small a sum as two cents a week from one half of their membership, leaving the other half unreached. Taking it for granted, then, that the terms proposed are practicable, it is only necessary for each pastor connected with this body to determine that it shall be done, and the result of the first year's operations will be thirty-six thousand four hun dred dollars, to which sum must be added the contributions of liberal brethren who pay into the treasury of the Lord annually, from five dollars to five hundred dollars each. The question then re solves itself into this: What means, shall be used to induce the pastors to make the effort ? Perhaps, there may be some of them who cannot be reached by any means whatever, but it is to be hoped, for the honor of the Christian religion, that this number is very small. Surely .the great -body,of them would be willing to co-operate. But what shall be done ? Shall they assemble them-



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selves together, and pass a resolution ? The passing of resolu tions seems to do more karm than good it accomplishes noth ing, and yet it satisfies the conscience, and thus actually prevents anything from being done. Let us have no passing of resolutions, a thing which frees the conscience; we must have something to irind the conscience. It would perhaps ot be very easy to find anything more binding than this- Let each pastor, in the pres ence of his brethren, subscribe, with his own hand, a. written pledge to the following effect:
" I hereby pledge myself, during the rest of my pastorate, to instruct my people, first, in the duty .of giving; second, that the duty is binding on every tnt, without -exception; third, that the donations should be at stated times; fourth, that the times should not be far apart. I further pledge myself, that I will use my ut most endeavors to induce my people to act on these instructions. I will also exert myself to obtain from each of my people a small contribution once a month, or once a week, if possible."
If only one-half of our ministers will take this pledge and carry it out'faithfully, and if they reach only one-half of their people, and that at the rate of only two cents a week each, the result will be eighteen thousand two hundred dollars for the first year. On this plan, agents to represent our Boards would be un necessary ; hence, their travelling expenses and salaries would be saved; and, in addition to this, their valuable time and talents could be devoted to other purposes. Thus we should not only .gain the agent's salary, but we should also gain him. But what should be done with the money collected in small sums ? It would not be well to send such small sums to the Secretaries of our Boards, for the reason that if all were to do this, the Secretaries would be overburdened with unnecessary labor. Each State could make domestic regulations for itself. In the State of Geor gia it would be well to have five centres, or places of deposit; for example, Savannah, Augusta, Atlanta, Macon and Columbus, or such other places as might be thought proper. At each one of these places, let there be some well known brother of high repute who would receive all the moneys sent to him, and dispose of then according to directions. The labor performed by each would be small, for the contributions need not be sent up by the pastors more than once in two or three months; no salary would be paid, no commissions would be charged, and no expense would be in curred, except the.small expense of postage. The amount con-

Irtbuterf by each church would be reported to the Associations, asheretofore. The plan proposed is simple, involving no complica tions, is cumbered with no machinery, costs nothing, and nothing is lacking but our will to make it efficacious. If it be urged that, on the very terms proposed, one-half of our brethren are unieachedr and that, therefore, after all, the plan fails to accomplish what is proposed, it may fairly be said, in reply, that full grown> success ought not to be expected from this, or any other plan, in a moment; indeed, absolute success is not to be expected at alL But with such partial success as may be properly counted on, if real effort is made, it is not unreasonable to hope that, in a few years, all of the mass that can be leavened, will have been leav ened.
The second difficulty to be encountered is, that we have no small coin suitable for weekly contributions. This in some respectsis really a more formidable difficulty than the first; the remedy for that lies only in our own will; a complete remedy for this iswholly beyond our reach, nor is it a small matter. Many persona would throw in two cents who would not part with a dime, and: the difference in the aggregate at the end of the year, would amount to thousands o dollars. If, as has been shown, large sums can be raised only by mites, and if we have no mites, largesums would seem to be impossible to us. Beyond question, the difficulty is a very serious one, and, in fact, it is impossible entirely to surmount it. The best that we can do, is to collect a nickel a week from those who can afford it, or a nickel a week for two persons say a man and his wife; or, as even nickels are not very abundant, our only resource is to collect a dime a month from each person. The result will be by no means so satisfactory as it would be if we had a two cent coin, still it is the best we can do.
We have; now reviewed, the old plan, we have considered the mischiefs that arose under it, and we have before us the remedythat is proposed. It it be thought that the remedy is inadequate, three things may be said; ia reply: First, It is not to be sup posed that any remedy will be at once and completely satisfac tory ; Second, It is often much easier to find fault with a scheme proposed, than it is to offer a better one; Third, When a bet ter plan is proposed, the writer of this paper will try to be the first to adopt it.
In conclusion, let it be remembered that God often chooses the weak things of thia world, to confound the mighty, and that, the

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pence of the poor may yet be the instrumentality by which He will overthrow the kingdom of darkness and establish His own. He who- made the world out of atoms, may so consolidate the ef forts of His people as to make, as it were, another world full of glory and beauty. He permits us to be his agents in. carrying out His grand designs. For this purpose He seems almost to in vest us with powers peculiarly His own. Our great efforts are of small avail \ it is our little efforts that He selects as His mighty angels. To these He gives- a glorious- power. We may call it
THE CREATIVE POWER OF' LITTLES,
The act of creation in its absolute sense,, must be the act of the Almighty; nothing less than His omnipotence can accom plish such a work. But it is scarcely too- much to say, that in a modified sense, the act may be human; at least it may with cer tainty be said, that some things may be done by men which bear a strong resemblance to creation, and some of the practical re sults of which appear to be the same as if there had been an act ual exercise of creative power. The thought expressed in the concrete, is more easily grasped than in the abstract, and there fore, let it be set forth by illustration.
Suppose one owns an acre of land completely barren and absolutely incapable, by any culture whatever, of producing a single germ of any kind of vegetation; let it be even like a bed of solid marble. Let the owner obtain from some plantation one pound of rich productive soil and lay it on his sterile acre; let him procure another pound from another plantation, and let him repeat this process, taking only one -pound of earth from each plantation, some millions of times, until his whole acre is covered over three or four feet deep with fertile soil. After the process is completed, there is really no more good soil in the world than there was before; but is it not evident that the arable surface of the earth is increased by one acre, and that for the purposes of production, the earth is one acre larger than it was before, and does not this look like creating an acre? The loss of one pound each from innumerable farms, could not be discovered by any process of which human beings are capable; the abstracted pound, though not absolutely, is yet practically nothing, but the acre produced is something, and here is something virtually out of nothing. The resembance to 'actual creation is certainly striking.
Of course, such a scheme, except as an object of though*, is

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impracticable, for the soil to be conveyed is ponderous, and not of sufficient value to pay the expense of its transportation, much less the expense of travel to collect it. But imagine this soil to be imponderable, or nearly so, and the expense of transporta tion to be very insignificant; is it not evident that the virtual creation of an acre or of many acres if a million of persons scat tered over a continent were interested in it, would be an easy thing ?
Now, money in small sums, is practically imponderable, and the expense of its transportation, even in the largest sums, by do mestic bills of exchange, is practically nothing. Suppose that the one million and more of Baptist communicants in these South ern States were to contribute two cents a week each, for religious purposes. The two cents would be, to most of them, like the pound of earth to the plantation; it would be virtually nothing ; the ex pense of transportation might also be called nothing; and yet, out of these nothings, there would spring a something, which in one year would amount to one million and forty thousand dollars. Is not this enormous value practically created? Thus, if our people only had the will, they have the power to do that which is akin to the forth-puttings of omnipotence. With such a power as this, for the conversion of the world, at our command, are we not guilty of a sin against God and man if we fail to use it? There is no earthly power that can be compared to it; it is more like the energy of the Divine than anything else that is human. Is it not blindness, is it not madness, to ignore such a tremendous energy as this, and adopt some wretched contrivance as a substi tute for it ? Such an amount of money, thus created, would represent the labors of perhaps two thousand ministers of the New Testament, sent to the dark places of the earth, and to them that sit in the region of the shadow of death to diffuse the light of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. In the beginning, God said, " Let there be light," and there was light. He permits to us, a glorious imitation of this most glorious act. Practically, we have but to say, Let there be light, and there will be light; not the light of the sun, which may fade away, but the light of the Sun of Righteousness which knows no fading to eternity.
If our brethren, from ignorance or indifference, or want of or ganization, or from any other cause, are not ready for this sublime work of creation and illumination, let us try to make them so.

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Our work may be slow, but it will be sure. The time must come when all the elect will come up to the help of the Lord. Let us be in haste to bring about the advent of that glorious day; and if our beginnings be small, we have the rapture of knowing that the end will be, that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.