to be compared with theirs? Wherein consists the difference between the two? Herod had given lavishly, but with the selfish purpose of enhancing his own popularity. The poor apostles had given apparently nothing; the power from their Christian hearts of love had given a gift which the gold of all the world could not buy. Their action exemplifies giving in its most Christian sense.

True Christ Giving. This contrast between giving as the world gives and giving as Christ gives shows the desire to be of service as the potent factor in true giving. It is hard to realize at times the full truth of this statement as a universal law. Money means so much in our life that we straightway think that the pouring out of riches in large sums, or the doling out of them in small, makes of us true givers. But mature consideration shows that the mere fact of giving is in itself a small virtue. Politicians deal out their patronage, seeking their own preferment. Such men are Herods making a temple show in hopes that their prestige will ultimately be greater. Often we put ourselves in such a class when we least suspect it. We do things for policy's sake, as we say; we give expecting to be given to in return. We give because it's the proper thing; because it will be known of and appreciated among men. We expect a sure return. In so doing we are like the fruit blossoms which give out honey to the passing bee, only that they may receive pollen in return; or we are like the bee which carries pollen from flower to flower, only

because in its flying hither and yon, sucking here and sucking there, some of the life-giving dust has clung to its legs and is brushed off in the continual mad chase for honey. Such is the method of give and take that Nature has established for carrying out her purposes. It is a worthy system of reciprocity and an admirable one. It is what we might call a good sound business arrangement,-no higher name does it deserve; and yet we who are infinitely above the flower and the insect would fain call ourselves generous givers when we are but following out the same idea of exchange.

So we may see that the intrinsic value of the gift does not constitute giving in its noblest sense. Money as a gift can do great things and never should we underestimate the duty and necessity of giving it. Yet its money value does not make its real worth. Money as a gift may build a hospital, but it cannot create physicians; it may endow a college, but it cannot make scholars; it may establish libraries in every town and hamlet from the Atlantic to the Pacific, yet it cannot of itself make readers of the people. When we call a physician to minister to our necessity we do not care whether he has riches or not, the gift we want from him is not of monetary value but of life. When Thomas Aquinas visited Innocent IV, the Pope displayed the great treasures of the church and boasted: "The time has gone by when the church must say silver and gold have I none." "Yes," replied the saintly doctor," and the time has gone by when the

church can say to the lame man, rise up and walk." Reflection forces us to concede that the value of the gift is not to be measured by its cost in money.

If, as we have seen, neither the mere act of giving nor yet the cost price of what is given, is of highest import, in determining the real worth of beneficence, can the prime factor for discerning noble giving be found elsewhere than in the purpose which underlies the gift? That purpose is most golden where it desires to be of service.

The desire to be of service which we found so clearly exemplified in Christ that it was the main feature of His giving, and His existence is then the primary characteristic of true giving in whatever aspect we look at the matter. It was this which animated the lives of pagan philosophers when they knew not the light which came through Christ. It was this which led Socrates to endure hardship in his domestic affairs and calumny at the hand of his fellow-citizens. He sought to give himself in service that he might teach men his philosophy. Christ gave Himself in service that He might teach men not a philosophy, but the way of life. He gave Himself in service that religion might be to every man not merely a creed but an experience, not a restraint but an inspiration, not an insurance for the next world, but a program for this world.

As the giving of self in service was the watchword of its Founder so has it ever been the life of

Christianity. This has given Christianity life primarily because it marks it off as a call to do something rather than to believe certain hard and fast dogmas. When dealing with religion as a doctrine or as an institution the assailant often enough has a task quite to his mind but when he meets it as the sheer enthusiasm of goodness, as the organized effort for the world's betterment, there is simply nothing for him to say. By this has religion been transformed from an austere superstition, demanding a fearing obedience, into a winsome aid to the living of a true life. What opponents of the gospel have been continually forgetting is that while its histories and thought forms lie easily open to attack, its actual life from age to age has done nothing of the kind. What really has mattered through all has been the desire to give self in service, which has continued ever since the first true life. This has been the means of the presence of an unseen energy derived from the spiritual world, exhibiting itself in human characters and compelling them to action upon themselves and upon others for a higher life.

GIVING OF SELF IN SERVICE THE GENIUS OF

CHRISTIANITY

The evidence for the power derived from this giving of self in service lies all along the line in the history of Christianity. In the primitive Christian age the supreme significance is not in the theory of creation or of the final end of things held by

those first believers, but in the love for Christ, in the passion for holiness, and in the longing to take up the same life of service which the Master had lived. How clearly we may see this life-giving principle shows itself in a record which a pagan writer of the third century has left to us. He says, "Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind, either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language, nor practise an extraordinary kind of life. Nor again do they possess any invention discovered by any intelligence of ingenious man, nor are they masters of any human dogma as some are. But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians as the lot of each is cast and follow the native customs in dress and food and other arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship is marvellous and confessedly surpasses expectation. They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them and every fatherland is foreign. Their existence is on earth but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws and they surpass the laws in their own life. They love all men and they are persecuted by all. They are ignored and yet they are condemned. They are put to death and yet they are imbued with life. They are in beggary and yet they make many rich. They are in want