And there is another thing, and that is that, somehow or other, if not in the individual gifts, at all events in their aggregate, there must be present the fact of sacrifice.  ’I will not offer unto the Lord burnt offerings of that which doth cost me nothing,’ said the old king.  And we do not give as we ought, unless our gifts involve some measure of sacrifice.  From many a subscription list some of the biggest donations would disappear, like the top-writing in one of those old manuscripts where the Gospel has been half-erased and written over with some foolish legend, which vanishes when the detergent liquid is applied to the parchment, if that thought were brought to bear upon it.  God asks how much is kept, not how much is given.

Now, dear friends, these are all threadbare, elementary, ‘A.B.C.’ truths.  Are they the alphabet of our stewardship and administration of our possessions?

III.  One last suggestion I would make on this text is that it brings before us the possible blessing and possible grave results of right or wrong Christian giving.

‘Will he be pleased with it?  Or will he accept thy person?’ Will the governor think the hobbling creature, blind of an eye, and infected with some sickness, to be a beautiful addition to his flock?  Will it help your suit with him?  No!

It is New Testament teaching that our faithfulness in the administration of earthly possessions of all sorts has a bearing on our spiritual life.  Remember our Lord’s triple illustration of this principle, when He speaks about faithfulness ‘in that which is least,’ leading on to the possession of that which is the greatest; when He speaks of faithfulness in regard to ‘the unrighteous Mammon’ leading on to being intrusted with the true riches; when He speaks of faithfulness in our administration of that which is another’s—­alien to ourselves, and which may pass into the possession of a thousand more—­leading on to our firmer hold, and our deeper and fuller possession of the riches which, in the deepest sense of the word, are our own.  One very important element in the development and advance of the religious life is our right use of these earthly things.  I have seen many a case in which a man was far better when he was a poor man than he was when a rich one, in which slowly, stealthily, certainly, the love of wealth has closed round a man like an iron band round a sapling, and has hindered the growth of his Christian character, and robbed him of the best things.  And, God be thanked! one has seen cases, too, in which, by their Christian use of outward possessions, men have weakened the dominion of self upon themselves, have learned the subordinate value of the wealth that can be counted and detached from its possessor, and have grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Dear friends, God has given all of us something in charge, the faithful use of which is a potent factor in the growth of our Christian characters.