he habit, and, the practice
having annually cost about twenty-six shillings, the full amount was
sent to cover the period during which the solemn covenant had not been
kept, with the promise of further gifts in redemption of the same
promise to the Lord. This instance conveys more than one lesson. It
reminds us of the costliness of much of our self-indulgence. Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach, in submitting the Budget for 1897, remarked that what is
annually wasted in the unsmoked remnants of cigars and cigarettes in
Britain is estimated at a million and a quarter pounds--the equivalent
of all that is annually spent on foreign missions by British Christians.
And many forms of self-gratification, in no way contributing to either
health or profit, would, if what they cost were dedicated to the Lord,
make His treasuries overflow. Again, this incident reminds us of the
many vows, made in time of trouble, which have no payment in time of
relief. Many sorrows come back, like clouds that return after the rain,
to remind of broken pledges and unfulfilled obligations, whereby we have
grieved the Holy Spirit of God. "Pay that which thou hast vowed; for God
hath no pleasure in fools." And again we are here taught how a sensitive
and enlightened conscience will make restitution to God as well as to
man; and that past unfaithfulness to a solemn covenant cannot be made
good merely by keeping to its terms _for the future._ No honest man
dishonours a past debt, or compromises with his integrity by simply
beginning anew and paying as he goes. Reformation takes a retrospective
glance and begins in restitution and reparation for all previous wrongs
and unfaithfulness. It is one of the worst evils of our day that even
disciples are so ready to bury the financial and moral debts of their
past life in the grave of a too-easy oblivion.

One donor, formerly living in Tunbridge Wells, followed a principle of
giving, the reverse of the worldly way. As his own family increased,
instead of decreasing his gifts, he gave, for each child given to him of
God, the average cost of maintaining one orphan, until, having seven
children, he was supporting seven orphans.

An anonymous giver wrote: "It was my idea that when a man had sufficient
for his own wants, he ought then to supply the wants of others, and
consequently I never had sufficient. I now clearly see that God expects
us to give of what we have and not of what we have not, and to leave the
rest to Him.