And there are truth and instruction in the inscription on the Italian tombstone, “What I gave away, I saved; what I spent, I used; what I kept, I lost.”  “Giving to the Lord,” says another, “is but transporting our goods to a higher floor.”  And, says Dr. Barrow, “In defiance of all the torture and malice and might of the world, the liberal man will ever be rich; for God’s providence is his estate; God’s wisdom and power, his defense; God’s love and favor, his reward; and God’s word, his security.”

Richard Baxter says, “I never prospered more in my small estate than when I gave most.  My rule has been, first, to contrive to need, myself, as little as may be, to lay out none on need-nots, but to live frugally on a little; second, to serve God in any place, upon that competency which he allowed me:  to myself, that what I had myself might be as good a work for common good, as that which I gave to others; and third, to do all the good I could with all the rest, preferring the:  most public and durable object, and the nearest.  And the more I have practiced this, the more I have had to do it with; and when I gave almost all, more came in, I scarce knew how, at least unexpected.  But when by improvidence I have cast myself into necessities of using more upon myself or upon things in themselves of less importance, I have prospered much less than when I did otherwise.  And when I had contented myself to devote a stock I had gotten to charitable uses after my death, instead of laying it out at present, in all probability, that is like to be lost; whereas, when I took the present opportunity, and trusted God for the time to come, I wanted nothing and lost nothing.”

These are a few of many evidences, that where we give from right motives, we are never the poorer, but the richer for doing it.  “The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also, himself.”

LENDING TO THE LORD.

As a series of religious meetings was held in a Baptist church in ——­, and the hearts of God’s people were greatly encouraged, the church was consumed by fire.  It was proposed to continue the meetings in the Congregational church, but the workmen were coming the next morning to demolish and rebuild it.  It was then proposed to hire the workmen to delay, that the people might assemble for three days more, but nothing was done; when the Congregational pastor walking his study, and thinking that some souls might be gathered in, went to the workmen, and handed them $10 from his own pocket, which he could ill afford; the meetings were continued, and a number of souls hopefully converted to God.  The day following, as he passed the house, the man to whom he paid the $10 called to him, and constrained him to receive back the whole amount, saying it was of no value compared with the saving of a soul.

THE LIBERAL FARMER.