Systematic Beneficence in the Presbyterian Church [pp. 351-370]

1872.~ PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 361
they ahead of the demands, a working capital would soon be
at command to meet il~e diminished receipts in the summer
months, and these on any principle or plan selected, wonU
fall off during this season of the year.
Put the great objection to this scheme is that it has no due
regard to a man's individualism. If successfully carried out,
so far as we can see, he has no power over his gifts. All
proper choice is taken from him. All the contributions of
the body are to be poured into one great reservoir, drawn off
periodically and apportioned according to the sums allotted
to the different departments of work. It says, men have no
right to discriminate or give a greater relative importance to
one cause than to another. Their duty is to bestow, that of
others to divide. To set up and endeavor to exercise any
such authority is tyranny. But it is said men's preferences
are observed-that he who gives $20,000 to foreign missions
or $10,000 to home missions is recognized and his wishes carried out-but how? Not to enlarge and strengthen the cause
whose interest he has so much at heart, but to enable the
distributors to appropriate so much more to other objects.
Unless this is done the monthly division of the funds,~ro rata,,
from the Central Treasury would have no meaning and
force.
If the Church imposed a tax like the State upon its mcmbers, then a common fund would be sufficient out of which to
pay the ever-recurring demands; but no such burdens can belaid. The -gifts of those connected with her are voluntaryiiot prescribed by law but by lovc,-from principle within and
not by legislative enactments. Duty must be seen in the ohjects presented, and loyalty to Christ appear in the efforts
made to advance his kingdom. Intelligence shapes and directs obligation, and, constituted as men are, their interest
znust be excited, their sympail~y aroused, their minds affected
by a comprehensive view of the condition and nece ssities of
a perishing world. Men must know in order to feel and afford relief. Chicago in ruins became a living reality to the
people of the world, and this awakened their pity a nd their
love, and the fruits of these were seen in the prompt and