And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the
people cast money into the treasury. And many that were rich
cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw
in two mites, which make a farthing. And He called unto Him His
disciples and saith unto them, Verily, I say unto you, That
this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast
into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance;
but she of her want did cast in all she had, even all her
living.--_Mark 12, 41-44._
The words just read from sacred story are the simple record of a
pious deed performed more than a thousand years ago in the city
of Jerusalem. It speaks of a poor woman modestly putting in her
contribution into the treasury of the Temple. At the time to
which the text refers the Savior had just silenced the cavils and
objections of the scribes and Sadducees, as we heard in the Gospel
of to-day, and was remaining in the temple a few moments longer and
taking His seat near the place where the people were wont to deposit
their offerings. As He watched the multitudes surging to and fro
and with His all-seeing eye scanned the various depositors placing
their gifts into the receptacle, He had nothing to say. But when
a poor widow came along, unnoticed and overlooked, as the artists
generally picture her, with a little one at her side and an infant
upon her breast, and drops in her insignificant coin of two paltry
mites, there was something that broke the current of His thoughts,
and calling His disciples, He directed their attention to the humble
gift and the unpretentious offerer.
Though that gorgeous Temple has long passed away, and the
magnificent city is in ruins, that simple act of piety lives on,
as fresh and beautiful as the moment of its performance. This
Sunday has been set aside in the course of the church-year for the
consideration of Christian beneficence. It is an eminently proper
and legitimate topic, and one on which instruction and stirring
up is needed the same as on any other. Some think such sermons
aside from the Gospel, but that only shows how imperfect is their
knowledge, and how important it is to bring the matter forth from
the obscurity to which some would consign it. Paul frequently
introduces it into his doctrinal epistles. The Savior Himself
embraced in it many of His discourses, and it is difficult to see
how any Christian minister is discharging his duty of faithfully
and fully declaring the counsel of God to his people who fails
betimes to give it a prominent place in his pulpit ministrations.
Let us regard as our theme this morning: _The widow's mite, an
encouraging model of Christian beneficence, observing_, _I, the
motive why we should give_; _II. the measure and proportion in which
we should give_; _III. the method how we should give_. May God bless
the presentation of His Word!
First, the motive of giving. What prompted this poor widow to give?
She had been worshiping in the Temple, had witnessed the beautiful
and inspiring services, had been edified by the instruction of
God's Word, her heart was warmed and stirred with appreciation for
these spiritual blessings, and as she passes out with the throng
and views the receptacle at the entrance, well knowing what it had
been placed there for, she cannot resist, but under a sense of
obligation, a strong feeling to reciprocate, and do something toward
the maintenance of God's house, she draws forth two little coins and
drops them in, then, more destitute of means, but richer in heart,
proceeds on her way.
And the like motives ought to prevail with us. We confess in the
Creed: "I believe that God has made me and all creatures, that
He richly and daily provides me, that He defends me against all
danger"; that Jesus Christ, our Lord, has redeemed us lost and
condemned creatures; that the Holy Ghost has called us by the
Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps us in
the true faith; and for all that, what shall we render for God's
gifts? His blessings are indeed always freely bestowed, without
any merit or worthiness on our part; nevertheless, they call for
gratitude, recognition, appreciation. And in consideration of gifts
so unspeakable is any offering of gold, or frankincense, or myrrh
too large? what ointment of spikenard too costly? The spirit of
showing gratitude, as in the case of this widow, is one motive, and
a most beautiful and God-honoring one, why we ought to give to Him:
the honor of His name and the spread and prosperity of His cause--in
His temple.
The other is this,--the sense of our obligation. He desires and
commands us to do so. Everywhere in the Scripture of God do we find
the matter of giving, especially for religious purposes, spoken of
with commendation and inculcated as part of the very essence and
life of true godliness, whether we look to the Old Testament or
to the New Testament, to prophets, apostles, or Christ Himself,
the language is the same. "Honor the Lord with thy substance,
and with the first fruits of all thine increase." "To do good and
to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased." In to-day's Gospel the Lord plainly enough says: "Render
unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that
are God's." In a certain sense it is all His, of course. "The earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." The silver and the gold
are His. But it belongs to His wisdom and providence to make us His
stewards in the disposition of His, and in that disposition He lays
down very emphatically the law: "Render unto me the things that are
mine." Every penny that we possess is stamped with the divine image
and superscription. He still sits over against the treasury, and
observes what we are putting into the receptacle, whether we are
giving unto Him what it is our duty to give. These are, then, the
motives,--gratefulness and dutifulness.
And now as to the _measure_, the amount of Christian giving--the
how much. As we turn to the record, two parties are distinguished.
The one wealthy.--"Many," it says, "that were rich cast in much."
That the rich should give and gave largely, and that this was the
case not with a few, but with numbers of them, was to their honor,
especially since the practice has never been common, experience
showing that "many that are rich do not cast in much." And the
other, indigent, the poor, selected by way of a specific example--a
widow.
The idea sometimes is that poor people ought not be asked to give.
This is a mistake. Poor people can give, and ought to give, out of
their poverty, as well as rich people ought to give out of their
riches. Poor people can hurt themselves, and injure their souls,
and prove themselves niggardly and illiberal by not giving just as
well as rich people can. True, they cannot give as much as the more
favored, in the actual amount of their gifts, but they _can_ give as
much in proportion to their means.
We often hear people say, if they were only rich, willingly
would they contribute to every good cause, and munificent things
would they do with their money. But all such charitable words
and sentiments are just nothing. The thing is to give the gift
of poverty, if poor, without being ashamed of it, and not to
sentimentalize about the great things we would do if we were rich.
The fact is that few people ever get rich, and if wealth increases,
desires, styles of living, and general expenses increase with it,
and the wealthy man has so many expenditures, so many demands to
meet, so many drains upon him, that he is just about as poor in
his riches as he was without them. This is the plain fact in the
vast majority of cases. Indeed, exceptions are very rare. It is,
therefore, a mere matter of self-deception for people to talk how
liberal they would be if they were rich. Moreover, what are we
coming to if we regard only the rich as under obligation to give?
No! Christian liberality is a thing for the poor as well as the
rich, and for the most part facts prove that the poor are more
liberal than the rich.
To come back to our text: Such were the donors our Savior
recognized, both poor and rich. Let us note, furthermore, their
contribution. While the rich gave much, the widow "threw in" only
"two mites," which make a farthing, with us half a cent. It is
easy to conceive what the givers themselves would think of their
donations. The rich would be satisfied, imagining that they had done
their duty, if not more than was required of them, while the poor
widow would deem what she had done unworthy of notice, and, perhaps,
felt ashamed to cast into the treasury such a mean trifle.
Others, too, who were lookers-on, had they known what the parties
gave, would have extolled the one as prodigies of liberality, while
they would have treated the other with neglect, or reproached her
for giving what she could not afford. But how were those two mites
viewed by Him whose eyes were as a flame of fire, and who searcheth
the reins and the hearts?
"And He called unto Him His disciples, and saith unto them, Verily,
I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in than all they
which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their
abundance; but she of her want did cast in all she had, even all her
living." At first this seems strange, and our Lord could not mean
that she had given more than all the others as to quantity, but more
as to motive, more as to principle, more, relatively, as to their
condition and her circumstances; more comparatively.
These men had given much; they had done it of their abundance and
superfluity, and could go home to houses filled with plenty, and
to tables spread with delicacies, while she went home to a lonely
apartment, and opening her cupboard, found little, and that the
earning of her hard toil.
What an encouragement this! And the less favored in this world's
goods require it. We have known persons remaining away from the
house of God--this house of God--because they could only appear in
workday clothing, and others who have been prevented from meeting
with the congregation because they felt that they could not do what
was expected of them. Let none such, however humble their condition,
or limited their means, for a moment suppose that they are less
regarded; let them beware of making the sad mistake that because
they cannot do much, they are justified in doing nothing. The
commendation of Mary was: "She hath done what she could," whereas
the condemnation of the unprofitable servant was that because he
did not have ten talents, or five, he failed to trade with the one
he did have. It's not the inability that God judges you by, but by
the indisposition to do what you have. In the light of these two
mites let us take heart, and do what dutifulness and gratitude would
prompt us to do toward His temple, knowing that it is a small thing
that we should be judged by any man's judgment, but that He that
judges us is the Lord.
And, again, our Lord's decision teaches us, in fact, seems to be
the main inference to be drawn from the subject, that the rule
with regard to liberality is proportion. These men gave "much"
(much when the amount was considered, much according to their own
opinion and their admirers); yet, was it much relatively? much
compared with what others gave whose means were unspeakably less?
What self-denial was there connected with it? "Charity," an old
commentator remarks to these words of our text, "is to be judged of,
not by what is given, but by what is left." These men gave of their
abundance. They never felt it. True benevolence feels it. The widow
did feel it; and many, I take it, among us feel it in the sacrifice
of self-decoration, self-gratification, when they put their
contribution into the plate in regular service, and occasionally a
special donation, as on the Day of Humiliation and Prayer and Church
Anniversary. That is the right kind of benevolence that feels it;
those are the coins that count in God's treasury which have, as they
ring in the basket, a piece of ourselves attached to them, stand for
self-denial; that gives them their highest value,--not merely the 1,
5, or 10 stamped upon them.
Let each of the assembly here worshiping examine himself
accordingly. There is no law in the case. Christianity does not
tax, coerce, dictate how much in exact proportion to your income
and means you ought to give. It is not for you to tell me how much
I am to do for God and Church, nor for me to tell you. That is my
business and yours, left to us individually. Only this are we to
observe: All are expected to give, and all who are really touched
with the Spirit of Christ and true religion give and will give, and
it is for them to give in proportion as God has blessed them.
Giving is a thing of character, which, like every other, must grow
little by little, more by more, until through diligent practice
and repeated acts it becomes a habit. To give once in a while,
impulsively, as one is moved by this or that plea, is good enough,
but far more fruitful and blessed is systematic giving, however
small the amount be at a time. The plan which has God's authority,
and which has borne the most encouraging results, is the one which
St. Paul has laid down in 1 Cor. 16: "On the first day of the week,"
on Sunday, when men's thoughts are turned from earth to heaven, from
the things of this world to the next, when God's unspeakable gift is
brought to our mind and our duties to the good Lord, then "let every
one of you lay by him in store as the Lord hath prospered him."
To aid you in doing that, the system of envelopes has been
introduced. The idea has never been to burden any one, to tax any
one, or to prescribe to any one, but to present an easy and secure
method for collecting what each one, in conscience and calmness,
might consider his or her proper gift to the Lord and His treasury.
The very boxes bear that name, "The Lord's Treasury," and I hope
that each time as you scan the words you will think of the "widow's
mites."
Nor do we have any reason to be dissatisfied with results. The
waters that flow down the great Niagara with such rush and roar,
and then sweep onward in deep majesty to the ocean are formed by
countless brooks and rills and trickling streamlets and melting
snows and little raindrops, and so the results that have all wrought
for our congregation, and the amount upon which it is still largely
dependent, comes from the small contributions of our members,
regularly and systematically given. In view of the fact that a large
indebtedness rests upon us, I feel warranted to bring this matter
before you in the pulpit, asking for a faithful continuation of the
plan.
"The widow's two mites"--what grand services they have accomplished,
what an immense harvest of good they have brought forth to the whole
world. Remembering how His all-seeing eye still scans the church
receptacle, let us not allow selfishness, avarice, and a carnal
greed to hinder what conscience dictates; rather let us strive to
secure this commendation which this poor widow received, and be
blessed in our deeds. Amen.