Could grasp creation in my span;
I’d still be measured by my soul—
The mind’s the standard of the man.”
I delight to record that we are attaining to humility as a Christian grace. This is the crowning grace. Some years ago the writer called at the home of Dr. J. M. Pendleton, in Upland, Pa. The doctor was upstairs. A servant answered the door bell, and the visitor was conducted to the parlor to await the famous man’s entrance. As the visitor was in every way a very little man, and as he thought of Dr. P. as being in every way a very large person, he feared the sound of every footstep. He expected to be over-awed by the majesty and dignity of the great man. As the door knob turned he was almost annihilated. But how different the sight! There stood the noted writer in the spirit of a child. How mighty, yet, how meek and lowly! How charming, how winning was this child-like simplicity and hospitality! With the bewitching smiles and musical tones of childish innocence, he repeated, “Brother Boothe, from Alabama, I suppose.”
Rev. C. J. Hardy, Pastor First Baptist Church, Selma, Ala.
Toward this end we, too, are coming. The time has been when the best man among us would air his big words, hang out his learning (?), strut because of a fine suit, boast of his school advantages, laud his superior graces, gloat in his empty titles. Not so now. To be meek and lowly in heart, to be full of prayer and watchfulness, to be charitable and self-abasing, to be pure and pious—these things are before us now.
The old plan of collecting money for church work regardless of system and regardless of the duty associated with Christian giving, must also soon retire to the past; for forces are now appearing which will work as the leaven in the dough.
Dr. Pettiford has recently brought out a book titled, “God’s Revenue System,” wherein the author labors to bring before the people the Bible methods of giving. Arguments are presented and proof texts are given in their support. This work is being widely circulated among the churches and ministers. And the writer served a church where the following plan prevailed: At the end of each year the church appointed a committee to figure on the expenses of the ensuing year, and to help the members and friends apportion the burden among themselves according to their several abilities. Each person took upon himself what he thought he might be able to pay, and dividing his share as the church might have need, he paid it in installments. Usually the money was collected in the conference meetings. Another church came under my notice that had in it “the tithe band,” which gave a tenth of their income to the house of God. In a session of the Sea Coast Association I witnessed the following, it was what they called “Women’s Day:”
One woman, holding her money in her hand, said: “I am president of a mission band which meets once a month to learn of our duty to missions. We tax ourselves one nickle a month, and this is our donation to the work.”