ve been unusually prospered, we contribute something more.
The weekly amount is deposited every Sunday morning in a box kept for
that purpose, and reserved for future use. Thus, by these small
earnings, we have learned that it is more blessed to give than to
receive. The yearly amount saved in this way is about _twenty-five
dollars_; and I distribute this among the various benevolent societies,
according to the best of my judgment."

THE HISTORY AND BUSINESS SUCCESSES OF LIBERAL GIVERS.

Mr. Nathaniel R. Cobb, a merchant connected with the Baptist church in
Boston, in 1821, at the age of twenty-three, drew up and subscribed the
following covenant, to which he faithfully adhered till on his death-bed
he praised God that by acting according to it he had given in charity
more than $40,000.

"By the grace of God, I will never be worth more than $50,000.

"By the grace of God, I will give one fourth of the net profits of my
business to charitable and religious uses.

"If I am ever worth $20,000, I will give one-half of my net profits; and
if I am ever worth $30,000, I will give three-fourths; and the whole,
after $50,000. So help me God, or give to a more faithful steward, and
set me aside.

"N.R. COBB."

FAITH IN GOD'S LIBERALITY.

A clergyman, himself an exponent of God's bountiful dealings with men,
was called upon in test of his own principles of giving to the Lord.

Preaching, in the morning, a sermon on Foreign Missions, an unusually
large contribution was taken up. In the afternoon, he listened to
another sermon, by a brother, on Home Missions, and the subject became
so important that he was led closely to agitate the question how much he
should himself give to the cause. "I was, indeed, in a great strait
between charity and necessity. I felt desirous to contribute; but, there
I was, on a journey, and I had given so much in the morning that I
really feared I had no more money than would bear my expenses.

"The collection was taken; I gave my last dollar, and trusted in the
Lord to provide. I proceeded on my journey, stopping to see a friend for
whom I had collected forty dollars. I was now one hundred and forty
miles from home, and how my expenses were to be met, I could not
imagine. But, judge my surprise, when, on presenting the money to my
friend, he took a hundred dollars, and, adding it to the forty, placed
the whole of it in my hand, sa