is also true the.t e. niggardly soul will fall out of fellowship. In fact, fellowship with God will seem so precious as to bo worth infinitely more than all our possessions, and any proportion of these required by God for the maintenance of fellowship will se"m a small price. Our conviction will be that of the psalmist, "The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold e.nd silver." Now, while God's favour is given freely, there must evidently be something about which he e.nd we can he.ve fellowship. In other words, fellowship requires a. medium. Fellowship mee.ns having something in common. When we analyze all we have, we find that it is all "the· gift of God." Jesus is his gift; the Holy Spirit is his gift; money is his gift; every good thing is his gift (Jas. i. 17). He has surely every right, then, to say to his people, "You must dedicate a proportion of my gifts to you, for the purposes of fellowship; let us have a tithe in common ; let us rejoice mutually over it as ours." 'l'his was the principle underlying Jewish tithing-it is the principle underlying all genuine beneficence. We are only returning to God such a proportion of what he gives as shall be the medium of fellowship. A peace offering at the tabernacle was a most precious commodity. It was an animal regarding which the worshipper and God agreed to say, "It is ours," and each to feast upon H. It was the organ and means of fellowship. It was a delight to God and to man. Who would not pay anything required for such a privilege? Man is honoured most highly in being allowed such a partnership with God. III. THE BENSE OF FELLOWSHIP WITH Gon IN THE FEAST IS THE REAL PRESERVATIO~ OF MAN FROM UNDUE INDULGENCE. It is noticeable that "wine" and "strong drink" (~I?.) might be included in the feast before God. T!:ie safety of the partaker lay in the sense of fellowship and its consequent consecration. Just as Paul afterwards maintained that "every creatufe of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. iv. 4, 5). It is the unhallowed use of God's gifts which is the danger. The tempera.nee reform[l.- tion will do well to keep in vieTI this Divine side of the question, where in the last resort the stress must be laid. IV. THE FELLOWSHIP WITH GoD IMPLIES THE INVITATION OF OTHERS TO SHARE THE BLESSING WITH us. Our households and the Levite are to be partakers with us of our sacred feasts. For God does not encourage lonely satisfactions; but as he calls us into his fellowship, it is on the understanding that we shall invite others, and make the fellowship a family thing. Now, the support of the Levites was to be a matter of cheer- fulness and religious privilege. It was to be a joy em braced rather than a mere debt moodily discharged. It is surely here that " ministerial support " must be pleaded and advanced. It is not to be something doled out, but a feast of fellowship, the call of God's minister to share in our good fortune and success. V. THE CARE OF THE POOR MUST ALSO BE PUT UPON THE BASIS OF FELLOWSHIP. It has been made a matter of law. And doubtless there is a noble element in the fact that a nation, passing beyond what old moralists called duti·es of debt, has entered upon duties of merit. Still, the national obligation embodied in the "poor rates" is apt to sap a certain amount of individual sympathy. The care of the poor is not the feast of joy and fellowship God meant it to be. 1 The three years' system brought nuder our notice in this passage was an effort, apparently, to bring the lonely and needy classes up to the standard of fellowship and of joy that the religious Jew himself had attained. It was the systematic effort to make the needy ones glad before God. And it is here that we find the goal of our exertions, whether to support a minister, to comfort a stranger, or a fatherless child, or a widow. Let all be guests of our love, and liftecl, if possible, into our light and fellowship with God. For this we should strh·e evermore. VI. 'l'nosE WHO THUS HONOUR GoD WILL BE BLESSED AND HONOURED BY HIM. Kot, of course, that systematic beneficence should bo in any sense a speculation. It is nnt beneficence if it is a selfish investment. But at the same time, God blesses the system which recognizes obligation to him and tries to discharge it. The accurate survey of circumstances which systematic giving implies tends to financial success. 'l'here is no reason why religious men should not be "successful merchants." ,vere systcrnatic 1 Of. 'The Philosophy of the Poor Laws,' in Miss Cobbe'11 'Studi8tl Ethical and Social.' 250 TB:E BOOK or DEUTERONOMY. [ou. nv. 1-29.
beneficence more general, there would be less failure and heart-burning in the walks of bu~iness.-R. M. E.