Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1916 — ONE'S GIFTS TO GOD [ARTICLE]

ONE'S GIFTS TO GOD

Only Those Which Are Most Precious Are Acceptable to Our Heavenly Father. One of the qualities which makes an offering acceptable to God is that it shall cost the worshiper something. Offerings are not acceptable merely because they are expensive; they must meet other conditions as well, but he who contemplates rendering any worship or service to God may well count the cost. Before the temple was erected on Mount Moriah that mountain was the probable scene of two sacrifices made to God. On that summit Abraham is supposed to have built the altar on which Isaac was about to be offered when God Interposed and accepted a substitute. The father of the faithful as good as offered God that which was most precious to him, and was accepted as if that offering had been made. Long after, David had occasion to offer a burnt offering upon that same mountain, and he uttered this resolution, "I will not offer unto the Lord that which costs me nothing.” Two persons were publicly commended by the Lord for their gifts, and both of them were women. One had cast into the treasury of the temple a very small sum, two mites, which make a farthing. The other had given a box of ointment which was very precious. Both of them seem to have given all they possessed. The offerings were appreciated because of their expensiveness, but their expensiveness was not to be estimated only by their intrinsic value. Lack Proper Spirit In Qivlng. The tendency of the present day seems to be to offer to God that which is costly. Members of the church, in determining the amount of money they shall devote to religious purposes, generally fix Upon a sum that will not deprive them of a single thing they care to have. They contribute what they can give without feeling it. They expect God to be satisfied, and even gratified with an offering which costs them nothing. That tendency is not confined to financial offerings. Some have been known to excuse themselves for frequent absence from the morning church service by the fact that they have occasion to be up late the night before, and it is hard to rise early cn the Sabbath morning when that is the only morning of the week they can sleep late. Some of them add as an additional reason that it is not easy to sit through a long service when the sermon is not very interesting. They are absent from the evening service and from the midweek prayer service because in the press of business and social engagements they want an evening to spend with their families or for quiet reading. Their excuses can be boiled down into one simple statement: Because it would cost them something, they will not give these things to God. They forget that the thing which costs nothing is not worth giving. The reason why more of the memoers of the church are not willing to be active in the Sabbath school is that it would cost them something in time and effort and personal .ease. The reason why more are not willing to seek out those who are careless and try to win them back to the church and a place in its service is because it costs too much. The fact must be faced that the thing given to God at small cost to the worshiper is held cheaply by him who receives such worship. The gift which he appreciates is the gift which means a real sacrifice and expense to the giver.— The United Presbyterian.