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churches and supporting our own work, but from
them we receive as well as give; but the most
unselfish way of giving is to send your gift where
it blesses others, but does not touch your own life.
And that is the principle upon which God has
acted in every respect. It is the principle with
which He holds this world together and keeps it
suspended in space. Science says that there are
two great laws that operate in conjunction with
each other and serve to hold this globe in its po
sition —one the law of centrifugal force and the
other of centripetal force. One is a great force
that goes out from the earth, and the other a great
force that comes toward the earth, and as these
two great forces of equal strength and power come
together somewhere in space, where they meet, the
old world is held, each balancing the other.
We also see this illustrated in the history of
churches. Take, for instance, that great Boston
church, over w 7 hich Dr. A. J. Gordon for so long
a time presided as pastor; that church which passed
through so many inexplicable upheavals, but finally
settled down upon a solid basis, when it blossomed
forth into the one great missionary satellite of all;
that church which had the rule to give to the cause
of foreign missions three times the amount that it
took to run the church every year. In so doing
they have stimulated hundreds and thousands of
other churches. And what of its w T ork at home?
Did it ever suffer? No, verily. Dr. Gordon said,
when nearing the close of his life, in giving a testi
mony concerning the blessing of God upon this
process: 1 ‘Every time we increased our contribu
tions to foreign missions, God, somehow, increased
our ability at home.” And I believe his testimony
would be the testimony of every man that has ever
tried it.
You will pardon this personal reference. I was
once pastor of a church in a certain town during
a very serious panic. It was a “boom” town, and
the whole town was affected, financially. Just at
that time I became pastor of the Baptist church —
a young church, only about two or three years old
started in the “boom” days when money was
plentiful; when it thought that it had riches and
could easily command them. They projected a plant
that would be a pride to the city. When I went
to the church I found a little band of struggling
people, discouraged, almost ready to give up, with
a little building in which to meet and worship,
which was afterwards condemned by the city coun
cil as unsafe, and a hole in the ground on which
there was a debt of four thousand dollars. That
was the condition that faced me.
That church had, during its prosperous days,
been giving only twenty-five dollars per year to
foreign missions, and paying its pastor three thou
sand a year. They eased their consciences with the
thought that when they got their house built they
would give to missions. One Sunday morning I
preached a sermon on similar lines to this one. I
preached from the same text/, and tried to draw
the same lesson. I had just come from Boston,
where I had looked in upon the work of A. J. Gor
don, and had had my heart fired with enthusiasm.
I told them about it, and at the close of the ser
mon, though it was not the regular day for taking
a missionary collection, we passed the baskets, and
when we counted the collection we found that we
had two hundred and sixteen dollars for foreign
missions.
In a little while the first brick was laid upon
the new structure, and the work went straight
ahead. The next year our foreign mission collec
tion amounted to one thousand dollars. The w T ork
on the building continued slowly, but steadily and
without interruption. The next year the foreign
mission offering amounted to $1,400. The work
cn the building continued until the last brick was
laid, and the house was complete, and no man can
tell you today how it came about, or where it came
from. The one great day for that church was the
day when they took that first big foreign mission
collection.
GRATITUDE AS AN INCENTIVE.
But Took at the last argument, which is the
crowning argument of all. Look how he concludes
his letter: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeak
able gift.” It is well enough to take care of our
The Golden Age for January 23, 1908.
reputation. It is well enough to take care
of our influence. It is well enough to give in order
that we may receive a blessing in return, but oh, my
friends, the crowning argument mentioned in this
great letter is, “Thanks be unto God for His un
speakable gift.” Christ, as the gift of God, ought
to be enough to inspire every man to give to the
limit to carry the knowledge of Him throughput the
earth.
Have you thought recently of this blessed gift to
you? If you have not, may I give you a very
helpful exercise? Some time when you are quite
alone, sit quietly down and think of God’s gift
through Christ Jesus to you, and what it has meant,
and while you are thinking of that, think of the
men and the women who have never heard of this
gift, and you will get a pretty good conception
of what God’s gift to you in Christ Jesus is. I think
of Him as He came to me back yonder, when He
found me and saved me. I think of Him after
wards as He led me to friends that helped me, that
sent me to school and did their best to fit me for
life. I think of Him as He came to me and or
dained me for the gospel ministry. I think of how
I fought, but how at last his great love won me. I
think of Him as He has led me in my work. I
think of His untold blessings. Oh, where would I
have been today but for the gift of God in Jesus
Christ? Where would we all have been, but for
the gift of God through Jesus Christ? Is this not
enough to fill us with a desire to spread His gospel
over all the earth, so that all men may have a
knowledge of Him? “Thanks be unto God for His
unspeakable gift.”
A Great Man ’s Great Mistake.
Note: The following article was published as an
editorial last week, with the exception of the last
few paragraphs. The copy for these was lost in
the mails, temporarily, so the complete article is
here given in order to properly convey all the edi
tor’s meaning.—The Editor.
When a great man makes a mistake his very great
ness puts that mistake into bolder relief and makes
And It Wasn’t
Necessary
To Say It.
believe, in his general purpose to do
good. He has sense enough to be President —to do
anything and be anything within the compass of a
towering intellect and a commanding personality.
But somehow, he never has got straightened out on
the liquor question. His connection with the own
ership of a certain famous, or rather, in-famous,
barroom caused the heart of the writer and thous
ands of other hearts in Georgia m/ire sadness dur
ing the recent campaign than Mr. Smith ever knew.
For we who admired his superb ability sorrowed to
see the lustre of a great name dimmed —sorrowed
to see countless friends converted by his powerful
influence into unwilling apologists for that sophistry
of position that says a gilded liquor shop is a neces
sity at a high class hotel.
And the Editor of this paper wrestled long with
his conscience, naturally shrinking from what he
knew would be the criticism of thousands, before
writing a protest against the argument which sought
on all sides to palliate the glittering evil. Thous
ands might stop their paper, but that protest must
be w’ritten or the writer move out of the house
where conscience stayed.
When Governor Smith was inaugurated, he said
these splendid words: “My idea of liquor legis
lation is to put it where men can’t get it to drink.
I have always voted a dry ticket in local elections,
and if the Legislature brings me a State Prohibi
tion bill I will sign it.” We w’ere glad and in an
editorial as strong as we could make it we commend
ed his utterance, expressing our firm faith in our
Governor’s determination to enforce the law.
We saw him sign the bill and were happy to
grasp the hand that had made a law of the greatest
bill ever signed by a Governor of Georgia.
And now so soon we are forced to sorrow again.
The eyes of the world are on Prohibition Georgia
and it was eminently proper for the Governor of
such a state to give out the statement that the law
its influence all the sadder and more *
hurtful. Georgia has a great Gov
ernor in Hon. Hoke Smith —great in
body, great in mind, and great, we
in his state would be enforced by every power in
the hands of the chief executive. Among other
splendid things in this statement to the Associated
Press, Governor Smith says:
“Over one hundred counties in the state have
had prohibition for years. They have outgrown
counties situated similarly which permitted the sale.
There is no doubt that prohibition is wise from an
economic standpoint. The overwhelming sentiment
of the white people of Georgia is for prohibition,
and the law will be enforced.”
No friend of prohibition could ask for more than
this.
But after all his wise and timely utterances he
goes out of the way to say something which sounds
like it came from another man altogether. Here it
is:
“I do not expect the temperance movement to
produce, as a rule, laws so stringent as the Georgia
laws, but I do hope to see the American standing
bar prohibited nearly everywhere. The use of whis
ky and similar drinks might then be confined to
medicinal purposes, and the light drinks, such as
wines and beer, be used only at the table as food.”
Why, oh, why, this gratuitous prognostication
concerning the temperance movement?
And why, especially, that suggestion about wines
and beer being used only at the table as food?
Doesn’t Governor Smith know that under such
a state of “prohibition” (?) almost every restau
rant would become a drinking house and the beer
gardens of continental, Sabbath-desecrating Europe
would reign in revel everywhere?
It wasn’t necessary for our great Governor who
signed Georgia’s Prohibition Bill to say those words
and thus herald abroad to the world his tacit —
if not expressed—disapproval of the great law
which is the pride of Georgia, and the inspiration
of other states now battling against saloons.
It hurts. It was so unnecessary. We wish —we
wish a thousand times, if it would do any good—
that Georgia’s Governor had left off that last para
graph. But what he has written he has written.
One thing, however, seems certain. That “wine
and beer” paragraph must have come from the
heart and conscience of Governor Smith, for it
was certainly not necessary to complete his stal
wart and timely statement about the Georgia sit
uation. His declaration that he hopes to see the
regular barrooms closed “nearly everywhere” is
amusing unless we interpret the word “hope” to
carry the full meaning of “expectation,” for, of
course, no one really expects to see every saloon
banished from America for a good many years.
And if wines and beer were sold with food at
every eating place, everybody knows that the temp
tation to furnish something stronger would be al
most beyond control. Another thing we feel, ought
to be said: If Governor Smith really felt that that
wine and beer paragraph ought to be written for
the sake of the general good it would do in arrest
ing the tidal wave of stringent prohibition laws,
then we candidly admire the courage that is worthy
a better cause.
After such a statement from Georgia’s governor
nobody will ever dare again charge him with being
a “politician” in the unwholesome sense of that
term. We say it deliberately, but definitely, tha
the rank and file of the voters of Prohibition Geor
gia will not relish the idea of a national law-maker
with the wine halls and beer gardens of Conti
nenetal Europe running through his massive brain.
These words are written not in bitterness, but in
sorrow. We were stunned when we read for the
first time that startling statement credited to Gov
ernor Smith. The writer was absent from Atlanta
at the time, and waited to see the full text of the
Governor’s utterance. But we learned on reaching
the city that this statement was written with his
own hand and given to the Associated Press.
We must conclude, therefore, that the Governor
made it, fearless of the wide-spread disapproval
which he knew would come.
We would unwrite his words if we could, but since
he deliberately wrote them, we must be allowed to
make a likewise fearless and honest effort to coun
teract their hurtful influence.
Would to heaven our great men might be saved
from making great mistakes’
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