44 The Fundamentals gave out of a superfluity she gave out of a deficiency—they of their abundance, she of her poverty. She who cast her two mites into the sacred treasury, by so doing became rich in good works and in the praise of God. Had she kept them she had been still only the same poor widow. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And the two mites “make a farthing.” He who, as the Superin tending Providence of nature, watches the fall of a sparrow, so that “one of them is not forgotten before God,” also, as the Overseer of the treasury, invisibly sits and watches the gifts that are dropped into the chest, and even the widow’s mite is not forgotten. He tells us here how He estimates money gifts—not by what we give, but by what we keep —not by the amount of our contributions, but by their cost in self-denial. This widow’s whole offering counted financially for but a farth ing ( KoSpovTYfi) a quadrant, equal to four mills, or two fifths of a cent, as three-fourths of an English farthing). What could be much more insignificant? But the two mites con stituted her whole means of subsistence. The others reserved what they needed or wanted for themselves, and then gave out of their superabundance (irtpuroeoovros). The contrast is emphatic; she “out of her deficiency,” they “out of their supersufficiency” Not all giving —so-called—has rich reward. In many cases the keeping hides the giving, in the sight of God. Self-indul gent hoarding and spending spread a banquet; the crumbs fall from the table, to be gathered up and labeled charity. But when the one possession that is dearest, the last trusted re source, is surrendered to God, then comes the vision of the treasure laid up in heaven. VII. UNSELFISHNESS IN GIVING We ascend still higher to the law of unselfishness in giving. “Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again (Luke 6; 35).
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