The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-26

When Money Talks.
Terse Comments Upon the Christian
Endeavor Topic for June 81, Mis-
sionary Pocketbooks." IL Cor. 8:
els.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
common saying has it that mon
ey talks" True; but it speaks only the
language which it has been taught.
The speech of money may be low,
coarse. sordid and selfish; or else it
may be lofty. fine, noble and loving.
A mans money will express the sem
timents which he has impaired to it.
He may make it eloquent with words
of love and service, SO that wherever
1t goes bowed heads will be uplifted,
discouraged hearts made to hope and
needs lives enriched. 1t is part OF
a persons proper work in life to
teach his money to talk wisely and
helpfully.
We speak of long pocketbooks;
but of a different and better sort are
the pocketbooks that reach far. Even
the shortest purse may reach to the
uttermost bounds of the earth.
Money is a missionary. Wherever
it is sent it is messenger of light or
darkness. 1t goes to the help or the
hurt of mankind. The sad truth is
that SO much money is sent on fool
ish, needless or wicked errands. For
money may bear the most precious
truths of brotherhood, of love and of
hope. A man who has no gift of
speech, no erudition, no appetite for
may yet fulfill all these offices through
the right disposal of his money.
Baptized pocketbooks are those ov-
er which tears of sympathy for
worlds need have been shed. Such
Yn 70 hNn i%a1a 10 &,4o los
of the Lord; because out of them he
satisfies the wants of those whom he
has declared to be his representa-
tives; for "Inasmuch as we did it unto
one of the least of these, We did it I'M
to me-
So long as a man has money he is
free; but as soon as money has the
man he is slave.
Money is only "means:" it is not an
end. A man may possess millions,
and still fail to have secured all the
most desirable things of life. 1t is
not the possession of money, but its
use, that makes a person rich. The
office of money is merely as a me-
dunn of exchange. Certain abilities
or opportunities are changed into
money; then the money is changed
into houses and clothes and food and
health and service and pleasure. The
manner in which this medium is en-
pIoyed determines ones wealth: so
a hundred dollars than another buys
with a thousand.
A popular notion that missions are
simply something to which money must
be given widely prevails. Probably most
persons think of missions only in con-
nection with money. Among Christians
the idea is common that their supreme
obligation is met by money.
A certain type of missionary address,
with which all attendants upon religi-
Gus gatherings are familiar, has greatly
fcstered this Misrepresentation. Really
the money side of missions is only sec
If this enterprise is to be con-
Quoted as a mere financial propaganda,
1t cannot widely succeed. Missions need
fore they need money: 1.-THE gift with
out the giver is bare 1t is more
important that a Christian bear upon
his spirit the burden of the unevange-
lized world than that he make large
gifts of money to the missionary treas
ury. This cause needs his intelligent
interest, his best counsel. his sense of
responsibility, and his earnest prayers,
more than it needs his dollars. A god
less millionaire might give a fortune to
foreign missions, but 1t would not
count for as much in ultimate results
who has no earthly store to give.
Everybody at some time or. other feels
the desire to travel: comparatively few
may travel far in person, but every
body may journey to distant realms
Ones money may go
to scenes tropical and Oriental: and thus
ones own power and personality may
be projected into the uttermost parts
of the earth. In this fashion, even a
H..
nue. of deliverance from a petty. trivial
and self-centered existence.
There is a familiar Bible verse which
saws that 1.-THE Lord 1oveth cheerful
giver." That word cheerful" says a
iginal hilarious" The picture called
I'D by the word is so contrary to our
accepted notions as to be almost
grotesQue. The idea of giving with
unresIrained and over
flowing joyfuness-is foreign to preva-
lent ideas and practices. Yet that is
the kind Of giver the Lord loves. The
calculating. grudging and painfully
self-conscious giver, who has figured
out a due return for his bounty, may
get full credit upon the books Of ben
evolent societies; but the Lord doesn't
love him. Only they who so enter into
the secret of the Christ-spirit, which has
forth-giving, self-abasing, vicarious
love for it's essence. can know the joy
which comes from service. surrender
and sacrifice.
Some folk reckon religion in terms
of pennies, They are like the heather
who have temple money''-coins too
small to pass current in the ordinary
transactions of business, and SO re-
served especially for gifts to the tenn
pie and to beggars. The effort to buy
the gold of religion with the copper of
seIfishness is cheap transaction.
Every child should learn that while
candy may be bought by the penny's
worth, nothing less than a nickel
should be put into the contribution
box.
God asks for our money only be-