The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-02
| PASTOR BREACHES
 0N FAMILIAR TEXT
It is More Blessed to Give
 Than Receive" Discussed
WE GAIN BY EXTENDING
The Rev. pr. J. A. Duncan Breaches Interesting Sermon on Text That, In Practice, Is
 Not Believed.

The Rev. Dr. J. A. Duncan. pastor of the First Methodist church, preached at that church yesterday on the texta Tt is more blessed to give than receive"
 The speaker was of the opinion that the text, according to practice at least, was almost universally disbeieved. He emphasized his point by several practical examples.
 To receive, 1t was first necessary, he said, to give. This was true spiritually, physically and morally. If man eats he should work for it, if he reads, in order to remember what he has read he should discuss 1t with others; and to receive divine blessing, he should give his soul to Christ.
 Dr. Duncan took as his text:
 'It is more blessed to give than to re- ceive."-Acts 20:35.
 Dr. Duncan said in part:
 Some things in the Bible are universally believed When the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that there is time to mourn and a time to dance; time to live and a time to die; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to love and a time to hate, no one be he saint or sinner, heather or Christian, hesitates to accept the statement. Then there are pas sages that individuals accept irrespective of their moral character. The miser is ever ready to quote that he who provides not for those of his own household is worse than an infdel, while the spend- thrift is equally ready with: "The Lord loveth cheerful gives"
 An UnbeIieved Passage.
 l have chosen passage today in refer ence to which if men have any uniform opinion it is that the statement is not a true one. In practice, at least. it is most heartily, by many, disbelieved If I should publish in the papers that I would go Into one of the parks on a given day and give s5 to every one who came, and could make people believe that I really meant what l said people would literally fight to get in.
 If on the other hand I should say that I would like to have those meet me at a given point who wished to contribute to a worthy object there would be no fighting for place. People would go block out of the way to avoid passing that spot. What does this mean if it is not that peo- pie really believe that it is more blessed to receive than 1t Is to give.
 Are these words true? Is 1t more blessed to receive than 1t is to give. I do not think that we are called upon to take any statement as true without applying some test. The test of such a statement as this Is life itself. In life then is there a blessing In giving superior to that of receiving?
 There Is one great law that God has ordained for man; the law of labor. La- bor is not a curse but blessing. The results of labor are blessings to the la borers and to the world generally. No man ever has, simply of his own volition. the right to cease from laboring. It does not matter how rich he may become, he must still do something, eiss he is un- worthy of place in the world. It may be a different form of labor from that which he has pursued, but he must do some thing if he Is to be anything that 1t Is really worth while for a man to be. Ruskin says that no man has any right to his dinner unless he has done work which Is equivalent to the price of a dinner. St. Paul says. "If any will not labor neither should he eat" Now, God, in His province, sometimes stops man from laboring. He lays His hand upon one. and paralysis perhaps results. Then He permits many who are incapacitated for work, either mentally or physically, to be in the world. There must be some provision for them. They cannot labor, some one must labor for them, and produce for them They thus, in the very providence of God, naturally becomes receivers
 This gives us the two classes mentioned in the text, and surely there is no one who will not go far enough to say that 1t Is better to be In the class of giver than in that of receiver It is certainly better to be where one can restore to health, than to be i'll; 1t Is better to have loaf of bread to give than to go hun gry; 1t is better to be strong and well | than to be a paralytic; 1t Is better to be a fountain giving out life and health, than a cistern into which water must be con- tinually poured.
 But we can take the next step. We | are willing tO autIilt tndt ll IS DetteT u be in the giving class than in the re- ceiving class, but is it actually better tc give than to receive?
 We Gain By Expendlng. l Life is so constituted that we gain by expending. This is true In merely mater 1 tal things Money is made by putting out money, or as we say, investing money. We must give the grain to the soil be- fore the soil will give us back crop. In moral matters it Is still more striking ly true. Character cannot be developed without giving out efforts for the good of others.
 Mental development Is dependant upon giving. Read a book and say nothing about 1t to any one, and write nothing about 1t, and In six months 1t is forgot ten. Read book and then tell the story to friends, tell it to another, and to an- other until you have told 1t a dozen or more times, and then 1t Is yours.
 It has become yours by giving 1t to oth- CTS. No thief can ever steal 1t from you. We get by giving. So that 1t is surely blessed to give. and inasmuch as there is nothing really permanent in our character that we do not get through this