a wrong basis when Christian people are asked to save a nickel or a dime from their cigars or from their chewing gum or some other luxury. The Lord's work is, or should be, our first concern, and it should be provided for first. After we have done that we can minister to our own needs. Our Lord did not give that which did not cost Him anything. Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich. He gave Himself. The servant is not greater than his Lord; the pupil is not above his Teacher. Plain living and high thinking and large giving should characterize the followers of Him who said, "The foxes have their dens, and the birds of the air have their nests; but the Son of Man has not whereon to lay His head." If we believe this we can easily see that luxury and magnificence and elegance, while the world is perishing, in its need and God's work languishes, are out of place. In a public address a speaker intended to speak of the "embellishments of human life." By a slip of the tongue he called them " embezzlements. He spoke more wisely than he intended. Our Lord says, "Seek first the interests of the kingdom"; "Make Me a little cake first." He does not ask for the broken fragments that remain after we have eaten to satiety; He does not ask for our cheese parings and pork rinds. We have no authority for putting that last which He puts first, or treating that as least which in His estimation is greatest.

The evangelization of the world is delayed because Christian people put the emphasis in the wrong place. We spread a banquet for ourselves. We fill ourselves up to the throat with all that we desire. We gratify every appetite and every taste and give to carry on the Lord's work what we never miss and never feel. All the believers in the United States give eight millions a year for world-wide missions. This is a paltry amount for the richest body of people on the globe to give for the greatest work on earth. There are single individuals who could give the whole amount and not know it. Because the primacy of

God's claims is not recognized, we do not honour Him with our substance and with the first-fruits of all our increase.

The widow of Zarephath did as she was told, and she never lacked. Is not this the teaching of the Word of God everywhere? If we will honour Him, He will honour us. When a little band puts God's claims first and meets in an upper room or in a parlour or in a shop, its success is relatively greater and its joy completer than when it has every comfort and every convenience, and lacks the consecration and selfsacrifice of the earlier times and the simpler equipment. In many a cathedral with all its appliances, there are few conver-sions and little spiritual joy. The worshippers attend on Sunday morning, and suffer an artistic performance. But the hunger of the soul is unfed and its thirst is unslaked. earlier days, when the claims of Christ were given their rightful place, they said, "This is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven."

In

more while so

An illustrious

There are those who make the Lord's cake first. One of the greatest religious leaders of modern times was asked to make a return of his plate to the government. He said he had four silver spoons, and that he would buy no many around him were in need of bread. Christian soldier gave his fortune and melted down his medals and gave the gold. A man with an income of $10,000 lived on $1,000, and gave the remainder. A teacher lives on half her salary and supports a substitute with the other half. Suppose all did so, the kingdom of God would come in a day.

When Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven, Elisha took up the mantle that fell from him, and, standing by the bank of the Jordan, smote its waters, and said, "Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah?" He wanted the God that protected and provided for and honoured Elijah to do as much for him as his successor. We do not need to ask that question. We know that God is not far from every one of us. We know that He is able and willing to increase our meal in

the jar and our oil in the cruse. He has been doing that ever since. But it has been for those who acknowledged His claim first. It would be easy to multiply instances. One typical illustration will suffice. The bishop of Llandaff gives a chapter from his own experience as follows: "I do feel very strongly that we cannot afford to do without missionary work for the good of our own souls. I believe that our own spiritual good is bound up in it, and if we neglect our duty to this, we are neglecting the first duty to the Christian Church and lowering our own ideal of the Christian life. I would just mention one little incident which happened in my former parish. We had a great many districts springing up. In one of these districts we were very anxious to build a church. There were no rich people living in the place, and the difficulty was to raise the money. We had been struggling and planning some way or other of doing this. I went to that district and proposed that we should have a missionary meeting there. I was met with the objection, 'We cannot possibly; we need all the money we can get for our new church.' It was not very encouraging; however we decided to try it. I quoted the text, 'Make me a little cake first, and then make for thyself and thy son.' The experiment was tried and we had a very successful and inspiring meeting. Strange to say, within a few weeks I got a letter from a gentleman saying he would be delighted to give us a thousand pounds towards the new church. A short time after he sent us five hundred pounds, and before long the church was built, and there is a flourishing church congregation in that very place. I do believe that this instance illustrates a great and true principle that,' He that watereth others shall be watered also himself."" The promise of God is this, "Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down; shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom." The promise holds if we give first.

XIX

"A GOD THAT LOVES US"

I JOHN 4: 8; JOHN 3: 16; JER. 31: 3; Is. 60: 19

T

HE story is told of a Hindu who had never heard of a loving God, or of Jesus the Saviour, and had never met a missionary, that in some way he got a copy of the Gospel by John. He said, "I liked the book when I read it, and my wife liked it when I read it to her. I read it to my family, and the more I read it the more I liked it. I soon saw that it was about a God who loved us, and that was a surprise to me. During all this time we continued worshipping the family idols; but one day I said to my wife, 'This Book tells us about another God different from our idols; I think we ought to pray to Him.' The result was that they began to pray in secret, because they were afraid of their neighbours. As they continued reading and praying the idols were gradually put out of the house. Some time after this secret disciple heard singing and preaching in the market, and soon made the joyful discovery that the speaker was telling the people about the God of whom he had read in the Book. This man gave himself to the Lord and led his sons and daughters to do the same. He ceased giving money to the priests, and now gives regularly to assist the Lord's work. His light shines in the darkness around him.

"A God that loves us!" No stranger or more joyful truth was ever heard in the lands of darkness. They have ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of gods; but in all that countless host there is not one that loves or cares for human beings. Tacitus declared that the gods in

terfered with human affairs only to punish. De Quincy tells us that there was an ancient and secret enmity between the gods and the human race. There was a sort of truce between the parties; temples and their religious services recorded this truce. But below all appearances there lay deadly enmity. The gods were mere odious facts, like scorpions or rattlesnakes, having no moral aspects whatever; public nuisances; and having no relation to men but that of capricious tyrants. All antiquity contains no hint of love on the part of the gods towards men or on the part of men towards the gods. The worshippers would gladly have exterminated the gods if they could have done so. They poured out rivers of blood and rivers of oil; they gave their first-born for their transgression, and the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul; but fear and not love was the impelling motive. They aimed at no distant prize ahead; they fled from a danger immediately behind. Pope spoke of the deities of Homer as

"Gods changeful, partial, passionate, unjust,

Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust."

Dr. March saw a shrine in India in which was a figure of a female on which were carved and painted the most horrible expressions of ferocity and cruelty. The front teeth protruded like the tusks of a wild boar. Between the teeth was the body of an infant with the head sticking out on one side and the feet on the other. The monster was biting the child in two. In the left hand of the same figure was another infant, and the right arm was uplifted with a dagger in the hand in the act of plunging the weapon into the heart of the child. Offerings were made to the goddess, and children were brought by their mothers to worship her. Kali is the embodiment of murder and cruelty. Around her waist is a girdle of bloody human hands; around her neck is a necklace of human skulls; human bodies hang by the hair from her ears; a bloody