The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-03-24
UNHAPPY GivERS.

why fhey Fall to Get the Good Of Their
6iving-The Apostolic Plan Of Devising
Liberal Things Commended.
It's strange that SO few men have
learned that our Lord spoke plain,
practical truth when He said: ut is
more blessed to give than to receive"
There is a great host not one of whom
has yet learned that it is pleasure to
give, much less that it is q higher
blessing than to receive. There is
something still worse, and that is the
state of the man to whom every act of
giving is made a positive pain by his
habitual righteousness. He was wise
man who said: II have made up my
mind to get the good of my giving"
1t is just this which the unhappy Civ
ers throw away. Now, this article
is not a complaint against those who
give nothing or give too little. We do
not write to find fault or to reprOve.
Our purpose is to call the attention of
a class of readers to the fact that they
get or seem to get no blessing along
with their giving. They are unhappy
givers-and this thing is wrong. No
one ought to be made unhappy in this
way. Giving in Christian sense is the
short cut to happiness. There is no
mysticism in the matter; it does good
man good to give. He is the man who
gets the most from the operation; the
lions share of the spoils Of benevolence
is his. Why do not all givers take
their share, the double blessing of be-
nevolencep Perhaps it is because they
are afraid to give too much; perhaps It
is because they overdo it and actually
give tooImuch; possibly because they
underdpft and actuallE giya1tos,lh is}iN
It is not impossible that the amount
has something to do with it; bat it is
more probably the truth that the un-
happy givers do not know how to en-
jov this kind Of blessing: Once COL
lection was being taken, and poor
clerk put down a dollar for his rich
employer, saying: Don't 60 to him
with your paper. He would give only
a dollar, and giving it would make
him miserable for q week"
We are so constituted that habits may
change the proper nature of our duties
and privileges. A man may have a
habit of making no distinction between
losing dollar and giving one. He
fixed his attention OH the vacuum, and
man as well as nature abhors vac.om.
80 much less'-that view can nd e.
be pleasant Ii one haI q habit of Zee.
ing only the vacant place left in his
purse or his bin by the act of giving, it
must be said. whenever he spends a
dollar in any form, that benevolence is
under hardship at this point; il one
buys, there is the thing bought; II one
gives, what shall take its place? There
y IN equivalent, but the man who alb
hors vacuum does not see the equiva-
lent Of course no man can enjoy Civ
ing until he acquires habit of noticing
Whist he gets in return. Looking into
. hole is not means of enjoyment
when the hole is in ones purse. The
thing accomplished by making the hole
must be appreciated, or the sense Of
loss will dominate US. And how can
one get any thing by benevolenceP If it
Be- pure benevolence, he can get it only
BY taking positive and personal inter-
est in other mems welfare. II it is
nothing to him to be fleet to the lame
and "eyes to the blind" whatever he
pays to the lame or blind will be a
dead loss. If it is nothing to him to
'preach the Gospel to the poor" he
will aid in building churches, or sup
porting the ministry, or maintaining
missions with sense of loss and the in
evitable unhappiness of the man who
loses.
There is, however, an easier explana-
ton of the unhappiness of many givers.
We ask special attention to it because,
90 far as we know, the cause has never
been stated with perfect clearness and
distinctness; and it is very Important.
Here is the key to much unhappiness
arising from 'benevolence-it is that
calls for benevolence are unprovided
for, come Unexpectedly and interfere
with other claims. For debts, so much
for clothing, SO much; for food, SO
much; for benevolence, O0OO-is not
that the ordinary programmed How
can man help being miserable who
,, has every week, perhaps oftener. to
meet an unexpected demandP There
is only one way Of preventing this col
lision of benevolence with other claims,
and that is to give benevolence q fair
place of its own in ones estimates and
plans. St. Paul prescribed good rule
for this; he said lay by on the first day
of the week as the Lord hath prospered
you. In short, every Christian man
ought to have a benevolence fund as
regularly as he has one for table expen-
ses. The precise mode of creating and
handling it may properly be left to the
circumstances of the individuals; but
no man who cares for his peace
Of mind will leave his belevo.
lence to exist on tfespass, leave him.
self to be surprised and panied and
cheated out of the blessing of giving,
BY the collision of claims. Giving be-
comes easy to man who reckols il