was under discussion, the leader
of the conference asked how many of the men had ever read a book on
Christian stewardship. Not more than one half of the men raised their
hands. When asked how many had read a book on tithing not more than
one fifth responded in the affirmative. If such a representative group
of picked leaders is uninformed or uninterested in so vital a matter,
the rank and file of the Church must surely need their attention
powerfully called to the subject.

The Bible gives a much larger place to the matter of giving than is
generally supposed. Some one who claims to have counted the Scripture
references says that giving is mentioned 1,565 times in the Bible. One
of the significant things about the parables of Jesus is that thirteen
of the twenty-nine have some reference to property.

A group of men recently worked out a statement of the principles of
stewardship and the methods of applying these principles to life.
These principles are worthy of careful study and wide adoption. In
May, 1912, they were adopted by the governing body of one of the
denominations as the guiding principles and methods for that church.

=Principles of Stewardship.=--_God is the Giver and is the Absolute
Owner of All things._--This invincible conviction lies at the base of
all correct thinking about stewardship. To commit oneself to the
inspiring idea that God is the owner of all things is to take all
bitterness and drudgery out of stewardship. When a man realizes what
kind of a God he has, that he purposes his best for every man and
wants him to know how rich and powerful and loving his Father is, the
practise of stewardship becomes one of the enriching joys of life. The
base-line of all geographical measurements is the level of the sea;
prairies or mountains or canyons are all measured from this same
base-line. It is a unit of measure. Likewise the ownership of God is
the base-line for all measurements of truth about property. Having
laid down and accepted this fundamental proposition that God is the
owner of all there follows another truth or corollary, namely,

_Under grace man is a steward, and the steward holds and administers
that which he has as a sacred trust._ Life is a trust, not a
possession. We are stewards of money, not creators. Receiving a trust
and rendering an account are inseparable. Responsibility and
accountability are twin brothers.

_God's ownership and man's stewardship are best evidenced by the