DIVIDING WITH GOD.

A merchant, in answer to inquiries, refers back to a period when, he says, “In consecrating my life anew to God, aware of the ensnaring influences of riches, and the necessity of deciding on a plan of charity before wealth should bias my judgment, I adopted the following system: 

“I decided to balance my accounts as nearly as I could, every month; and reserving such a portion of profits as might appear adequate to cover probable losses, to lay aside, by entry on a benevolent account, one-tenth of the remaining profits, great or small, as a fund for benevolent expenditure, supporting myself and family on the remaining nine-tenths.  I further determined, that when at any time my net profits, that is, profits from which clerk-hire and store expenses had been deducted, should exceed $500 in a month, I would give twelve and a half per cent.; if over $700, fifteen per cent.; if over $900, seventeen and a half per cent.; if over $1,100, twenty per cent.; if over $1,300, twenty-two and a half per cent.; thus increasing the proportion of the whole as God should prosper, until at $1,500, I should give twenty-five per cent., or $375 a month.  As capital was of the utmost importance to my success in business, I decided not to increase the foregoing scale until I had acquired a certain capital, after which I would give one-quarter of all net profits, great or small; and on the acquisition of another certain amount of capital, I decided to give half; and on acquiring what I determined would be a full sufficiency of capital, then to give the whole of my net profits.

“It is now several years since I adopted this plan, and under it I have acquired a handsome capital, and have been prospered beyond my most sanguine expectations.  Although constantly giving, I have never yet touched the bottom of my fund, and have been repeatedly astonished to find what large drafts it would bear.  True, during some months I have encountered a salutary trial of faith, when this rule has led me to lay by the tenth, while the remainder proved inadequate to my support; but the tide has soon turned, and with gratitude I have recognized a heavenly hand more than making good all past deficiencies.”

PROSPERITY AND LIBERALITY.

A London correspondent of the Western Christian Advocate, writing some years ago of raising a fund for the extinction of debts on chapels, gives the following incident: 

“A gentleman named Wilkes, who was promised a subscription of one thousand guineas to this fund, has a history so remarkable as to be worth relating across the Atlantic.  Seven years ago he was a journeyman mechanic.  Having invented and patented some kind of a crank or spindle used in the cotton manufacture, and needing capital to start himself in the business of making them, he made it a matter of earnest prayer that he might be directed to some one