A magazine editor offered a prize for the best account by a reader of
the adjustment of income and expenditure made necessary by the vaulting
prices of recent years. The prize was awarded to one whose revised
budget showed the revision downward of many items, and the elimination
of two or three other items. The comparison of the budgets was
interesting and helpful; most readers would be apt to approve heartily
all but one of the changes and eliminations. This was the exception:
the earlier budget allowed five dollars per month for "church and
charity," while the revised budget made no mention of the claims of
others, no provision for the privilege of giving.
If you had been a judge in that contest, would you have felt like giving
the prize to a paper that suggested such an omission? Suppose you had
the task of cutting your budget, would you feel like revising downward
the provision for giving? What do you think of the statement of a famous
business man who, having insisted in time of financial reverses on
making gifts as usual, said to objecting friends, "Economy should not
begin at the house of God." Why not let economy begin there?
What answer would have been given to such a query by the poor tenement
dweller in New York City who, though compelled to earn the support of
her family by scrubbing floors in a great office building, set aside a
dollar and a half per week for the care of four orphans in India who but
for her gifts would have starved?
What answer would have been made by the Polish Jew, long resident in
America, who directed in his will that regular gifts be made at
Christmas and Easter to the Christians as well as to the Jews of his
home town in Europe? That bequest was made in memory of days and nights
of terror when, as a boy, he hid in the house from the fiendish
persecutions of so-called Christians who thought Easter and Christmas
favorable times for the intimidation of the Jews. What would he have
said to the idea of economy that forgets the needs of others and makes
no provision for satisfying the hungry, to help the suffering?
What would have been the comment of Him who told the parable of the rich
man who built great barns to hold the surplus product of his lands,
thinking that there was nothing better in life than to eat, drink, and
be merry; who compared the gifts of the rich man and the poor widow; who
commended the love of the woman who poured out the costly ointment upon
His head; who promises glorious recognition to those who give, in His
name, to any who are in need?
A successful manufacturer, whose eyes have been opened to the folly of
attempting to save by cutting off gifts, has written a series of essays
on "The Business Man and His Overflow," his purpose being to show that
happiness is dependent on helpfulness. "Who is the most successful
business man?" he asks. "The man who has the largest bank account? Not
necessarily.... The most successful business man is he who renders the
greatest service to mankind and whose life is most useful."
Two paths are open to us: we can give, and we can give more, or we can
economize in giving until we give nothing.
Which is the path of courage?