whenever you feel like giving?"

Now, though Marcia expected no such challenge, she was game. "I'm not
the one to prove all that, but I believe what I said, and I'll try to
make good, as you put it. But please don't say 'give' when you talk
about tithing, or even about any sort of financial plan for Christians.
The first word is 'pay,' Giving comes afterward. Well, then; tithing is
the easiest way, because when you are a tither you always have tithing
money. You begin by setting the tenth apart for these uses, and it is no
more hardship to pay it out than to pay out any other money that you
have been given with instructions for its use."

"Not bad, at all," said Joe. "Now tell us why it is the surest way of
using a Christian's money."

By this time Marcia was beginning to enjoy herself. "It is the surest
because it almost collects itself. No begging; no schemes. You have
tithing money on hand--and you have, almost always--therefore you don't
need to be coaxed into thinking you can spare it. If the cause is a real
claim, that's all you need to find out. And when you begin to put money
into any cause you're going to get interested in that cause. Besides,
when all Christians tithe there will be more than enough money for every
good work."

J.W. had not thought much of the tithe except as being one of those
religious fads, and he knew that every church had a few religious
faddists. But he had long cherished a vast respect for Marcia's good
sense, and what she was saying seemed reasonable enough. He wondered if
it could be backed up by evidence.

Joe smilingly took up the next excellence of the tithe which Marcia had
named. "Let me see; did you say that the tithe is the fairest of all
Christian financial schemes?"

"Not that, exactly," Marcia corrected. "I said it was the fairest way of
acknowledging God's ownership and of working with him in partnership.
And it is. It puts definiteness in the place of whim. It is proportional
to our circumstances. It is not difficult. Mr. Drury says that forty
years' search has failed to find a tither who has suffered hardship
because of paying the tithe."

"Well, Joe," J.W. put in, "if Marcia can produce the evidence on these
three points, you may as well take the fourth for granted. If tithing is
the easiest, surest and fairest plan of Christian Stewardship, seems to
me it's just got to be cheerful. I'm going to look into it, and if she's
right, as I shouldn't wonder, it's up to