238 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 



caricatures the Christian rehgion. It differs from the 

 self-sacrifice which Christ taught and exemphfied as 

 widely as the suicide of Cato differed from the heroic 

 death of Arnold von Winkelried. Christ did not die for 

 the sake of dying, but to save a world ; and he does not 

 inculcate self-denial for the sake of self-denial, but for 

 the sake of others. 



Many practice self-denial, if not for its own sake, only 

 for the sake of saving, and with little or no reference to 

 giving. Let a Japanese heathen show us a more excel- 

 lent way. I take the following account from The 

 Missionary Herald, (Sept., 1885). In a certain place, and 

 generation by generation, the owner and relatives of a 

 certain house prospered greatly. Year by year, those 

 persons, on the second day of the New Year, assembled 

 and worshiped the god Kannin Daimiyo-jin-san. The 

 meaning of the name in English is "the great, bright god 

 of self-restraint. " After engaging in worship, the head 

 of the house ojjened the Kannin-bako (self-restraint box), 

 and distributed to the needy mone}^ enough to enable 

 them to live in comfort for a time. The money in the box 

 was the annual accumulation of his offering to his god. 



Outsiders, learning of the prosperity, worship, and 

 large giving to the needy, which characterized this 

 family, were astonished, and presented themselves to 

 inquire into the matter. The master of the house, in 

 reply, gave the following account of the practice of his 

 household : 



"From ancient times, my family has believed in and 

 worshiped ' the great, bright god of self-restraint. ' We 

 have also made a box, and called it, ' the self-restraint 

 box,' for the reception of the first-fruits and other per- 

 centages, all of Avhich are offered to our god. 



''As to percentages, this is our mode of proceeding : 

 If I would buy a dollar garment, I manage by self- 

 restraint and economy to get it for eighty cents, and the 

 remaining twenty cents I drop into ' the self-restraint 

 box' ; or if I would give a five-dollar feast tft my friends, 

 I exercise self-restraint and economy, and give it for 



