than in the rich man's large donation--or there may be less. The
conditions of acceptable offerings are twofold--first, readiness, glad
willingness to give, as opposed to closed hearts or grudging bestowals;
and, second, that willingness embodied in the largest gift possible. The
absence of either vitiates all. The presence of both gives trifles a
place in God's storehouse of precious things. A father is glad when his
child brings him some utterly valueless present, not because he must,
but because he loves; and many a parent has such laid away in sacred
repositories. God knows how to take gifts from His children, not less
well than we who are evil know how to do it.

But the gracious saying of our passage has a solemn side; for if only
gifts 'according as a man hath' are accepted, what becomes of the many
which fall far short of our ability, and are really given, not because
we have the willing mind, but because we could not get out of the
unwelcome necessity to part with a miserably inadequate percentage of
our possessions. Is God likely to be satisfied with the small dividends
which we offer as composition for our great debt?

RICH YET POOR

'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that, though He was rich yet for your sakes He
became poor, that ye through His poverty might be
rich.'--2 COR. viii. 9.

The Apostle has been speaking about a matter which, to us, seems very
small, but to him was very great viz., a gathering of pecuniary help
from the Gentile churches for the poor church in Jerusalem. Large
issues, in his estimation, attended that exhibition of Christian unity,
and, be it great or small, he applies the highest of all motives to this
matter. 'For ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich yet for your sakes He became poor.' The trivial things of life
are to be guided and shaped by reference to the highest of all things,
the example of Jesus Christ; and that in the whole depth of His
humiliation, and even in regard to His cross and passion. We have here
set forth, as the pattern to which the Christian life is to be
conformed, the deepest conception of what our Lord's career on earth
was.

The whole Christian Church is about to celebrate the nativity of our
Lord at this time. This text gives us the true point of view from which
to regard it. We have here the work of Christ in its deepest motive,
'The grace of our Lord Jes