El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-12-07
Scriptural Giving

At the Baptist church yesterday
morning, Rev. w. o. Millican preach
ed from proverbs 1II:9; "Honor the
/ ord with thy substance, and with the
first fruits of thine increase" The
speaker said that in view of the special
test about to be made of the love of
God and bis church in the next seven
months with that congregation, the
a ten ton of the latter WAS especially
called to special features relative to
Christian giving. Christianity itself
is the off spring of beuevolance. Gods
great. 'triune heart had caused him to
not only give to man the treasure of
the earth, but to give also from heaven
his most p' eclOus son. the center of
heavens attraction, that through the
death of the son we might live, and
through his poverty become rich. The
speaker deprecated the facs that there
was SO little attention given to the ne
cessity .Of giving part Of what God
has given US to him. The worlds mem
tership of the evangelical church is
375, coo, 900 people: and we consider the
immense msm bershi and the compa-
ratively small amount of money con-
tributed to the cause Of evangelization
we areSappalled. Why this great
neglect? It is worthy of your deepest
consideration. 1t is the result of mau IS
controve sy with God about the real
ownership of our possessions. Men
seem to think these possessions no
longer bel ng to God. But you can't
Gods primary ownership in the same.
God gives US everything we get, and,we
should honor him enough to give back
to him reasonable amount of what he
has bestowr ed upon us. Posse ssions do
not profit us if We do not live for the
Lord Jesus Christ. Much praise has
been bestowed upon, giving to the
needy and the suffering as being hui
mauitarian and as one of
do; and all classes of men are asked to
give that the classes in want may be
cared for. And why should we not ask
the urs.ved and every body else to
contribute to the salvation OF the
human souls which are of such in
flpitely greater value than the body?
God says it is our duty to honor hin
with the first frui 8 of our incre Sc;
and the fact that we may not be all
paid up in the matter of worldly debt,
does not sbsolve US from the command
to homer God with the first fruits OF
our increase. We must acknowledge
that God is the great landlord, and all
we have is only iutrusted to US IS
stewards. The Jews clear up to the
end of the old dispensstion, gave one
tenth of their first fruits to Gods
church. and the property ow ners in ad
ditiou gave 9 per cent more, while ev.
cry third year an additional tax was re
quired for the supper of the poor. Mr.
Millican said he had often urged in
dividuals to adopt TIE scriptural p,ar
of giving to the Lord the first fruit.
of their increase, and not q few ha6
come to him afterwards and thanked
him for persuading them to give &C
cordipg to Gods word. And when 6
church adopts this plan, there is al
end to all financial difficulties.
AT the morning service Mr.. McClin
took favored tie congregation will
an alto saxaphone solo during TIE of
fertory, ard played the flute during
the singing of the hymns. The pastor
announced that owing to throa
troub es, Miss Windsor, who has bea1
singing soprano 10 the choir, would b,
urahle to continue, except at rare in
tervals; a ne hoped the churct
would come to TIE help of the organis
ard choir in furnishing vocal materia
for the choir.