y, I would
have recommended them to give _one-tenth,_ or perhaps a little more, of
the sums they had been earning, to their Saviour, and to keep the rest
to buy their books. The giving of not less than one-tenth of all you
earn, for charitable purposes, is the principle which I wish to have
impressed fully on your minds, and I hope you will grow up under the
influence of this principle, and _never, never_ depart from it. But
while I thus speak, you must not suppose that I wish you to confine
yourselves to the giving of one-tenth, when you can give more; I hope
you will not give merely this, but one-half, or more, if you can afford
it. Indeed, if you do not go as missionaries to the heathen, I want you
to make it your great object _to make money for Christ, and to spend it
for Christ_. O, if the generation which is grown, were as anxious to
make money for Christ, and to spend it for Christ, as they are to make
it for themselves, and to spend it for themselves, or to hoard it up--it
may be for the everlasting destruction of the souls of their
heirs--there would be no complaints that money could not be had to send
the Gospel to the destitute, both at home and abroad.

In my twelfth chapter, I spoke of the liberal donations which the
heathen of India make for the support of their religion. In the city of
Calcutta alone, it is supposed that two millions of dollars are spent
every year on the festival of a single goddess--a festival which lasts
only a few days. A single native has been known to give, as I before
said, more than one hundred thousand dollars at one time to this
festival, and afterwards thirty thousand dollars yearly. How vast, then,
must be the sums which are spent upon all the different festivals of
their gods. Would that we could see such liberality among Christians.
Would that we could see the generality of them willing to give even
one-tenth of their annual income to the Lord. Alas, what would the
heathen say, if they were to learn how much greater are the sums of
money which they give to their idols, than Christians give to honor
their Saviour? Would they not exclaim, It is because Christianity is
false, and heathenism is true, that Christians give so little for
Christ, while we give so much for our gods? My dear children, I hope
that you will never allow the heathen to say that the Christian religion
is false, because you do not give your money for the spread of the
Gospel. Will you not resolve now, that