SELECTIONS.
A RICH MAN’S BENEFACTIONS.
In these days of numerous contested wills it is something of a novelty to see a rich man forestall the lawyers by making his bequests before his death. George I. Seney is one of this class. His large gifts have been entirely unsolicited; they have been made simply because he himself thought that they ought to be made. These bequests make in the aggregate $1,485,000, not bestowed through sentiment or caprice, but in accordance with the trained judgment of a shrewd, far-sighted business man. When asked why he made these various bequests during his life, he answered: “First of all, because I feel that I am a trustee, responsible for the right use of the money given me. With the experience that I have, I believe that I am the person best qualified to carry out the provisions and duties of that trusteeship. What certainty have I that these provisions and duties would ever be duly carried out after my death? Absolutely none. Whereas now, by making these gifts in my lifetime, I am sure that the precise object I desire is accomplished in just the way I want. And then, too, I am more and more convinced of the truth of the words: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ The great danger of increasing riches is that it fosters a disposition to hoard money only for the sake of hoarding it. Slightly to alter a common word, it becomes money-mania with them; they gloat over their millions, just because they are millions and not because of the happiness producible from them. Now I maintain that such a spirit is unworthy not only of a true Christian but of a true man, and I have determined never to let it appear in my character.”—New York Tribune.
GIVING IS GETTING.
One of the plain paradoxes in the realm of mind, matter, nature and grace, is that true gain comes only through loss; that hoarding is impoverishing; that there is no way of keeping one’s hold on a desired good, like parting with it; that acquisition is a result of expenditure; that dividing is multiplying; that scattering is increasing; that spending is saving; that giving is getting. Bodily strength comes from its expenditure, not from its hoarding. Every wise use of a muscle adds to the power of that muscle.
It is the use, not the possession, of any material treasure that gives it its highest value. Money gathered and kept for its own sake increases the discontent and cravings of its holder: while money sought and handled for its beneficent uses gives pleasure and satisfaction to him who employs it. As a rule, men and women of ample means shrink more from the outlay of money for their personal convenience and enjoyment, or for the giving of pleasure to others, and really have less of the delights which money-using might secure, than persons of more limited income who have no desire for money as money; no wish to be rich, in comparison with the thought of living and doing richly. Straitened circumstances are quite likely to increase with growing accumulations of wealth; and unsatisfied cravings for riches are exaggerated by every effort at their satisfying. “There is”—indeed there is—“that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” And the pinch of poverty itself can never nip so sharply as the pinch of withholding avarice.
Our mental faculties gain through their using. Giving out thought in speech or writing increases one’s treasures of thought, as well as one’s ease and power of expression. In our moral nature the same principle prevails. Pres. Hopkins said: “It is of the very nature of the affections that they give; and of the desires that they receive.”
The exercise of desire is belittling, that of affection, ennobling. Desire brings unrest. Affection brings content. When a child receives gifts, or selfishly employs what has been given him, his desires are exercised, and by their very exercise they are strengthened and intensified. But when the child gives to others, it is his affections which are exercised, and which are enlarged by their exercise. As with the child, so with those of us of any age. Only as we give do we get anything that is worth getting. Only in our giving do we find the real pleasure of living. If we find that our affection, our ministry, our presence, is a source of comfort or pleasure, we recognize a blessing just there.
“For the heart grows rich in giving; all its wealth is living grain.
Seeds, which mildew in the garner, scattered, fill with gold the plain.”
—S. S. Times.