sts of bread last week and knows not where
her crusts are coming from this week. No, my friends, we can give when
we are interested.

In this connection I have been thinking a little of a dear friend, who
when asked if she could not increase her contribution to five dollars
for the work this coming year, said: "Possibly I can another year, but
this year I cannot, for I am going abroad and I have to economize."
"Economy!" Is not that just the place it always begins? Can we look
back over the last two years, those of us who have been affected by
the hard times, and truthfully say that we did not begin at the giving
end to economize? It seems to me that this is just where we all make
our mistakes. Is not this just the reason why our church work is so
cold and lifeless? We are trying to do Christ's work in man's way and
we can no more do it than the Indian we are told about, who tried to
run the machine controlled by electricity in his own way rather than
in the way the inventor intended it to be run. God has given us a plan
for doing this work and saving souls, and we are trying man's way
rather than God's way. What is man's way? It is to do church work, go
to missionary societies, and give--when we have time and money. What
is God's way? "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove
me now herewith, saith your God, and see if I will not open the
windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." Have we done it? Have
we brought the tithes all in?

We use much more wisdom in material things often than we do in
spiritual things. Can we not learn a lesson from the farmer? What does
God say to the farmer! "Sow, and ye shall also reap." But the farmer
says, "I cannot; I haven't enough. If I had plenty I would sow, but I
haven't. My family could not live as well as my neighbor; we could not
set a good enough table; we might even have to go hungry." But the
command comes again: "Sow, and ye shall also reap," and I venture to
say that there is not a farmer in this country of ours but who would
go hungry, yea, he and his children would go bare-footed, but he would
take some portion of the grain that he had and throw it broadcast over
his field, knowing that it would lie there and decay, but trusting in
the Lord that it would come back to him after many days. Why cannot we
use the same wisdom in spiritual matters?

But there is something that is of more value even than money. It seems
to me that the one thing we need is m