MOJs^EY AXD THE KINGDOM. 251 



sand, ten thousand per cent. — yet how few and small the 

 investments ! 



Seventy business men of New York subscribed $1,400,- 

 000, or 120,000 each, towards the Metropolitan Opera 

 House in that city, which Avas completed a few years 

 ago ; and this without receiving or expecting pecuniary 

 return. Where are the seventy men who will give one- 

 half that amount to home missions? Is the love of 

 Italian opera a more powerful motive than love of coun- 

 try, love of souls, and love of Christ? 



It is estimated i that in 1889 the liquor bill of the na- 

 tion was $1,000,000,000. As comparatively few women 

 and children use intoxicating drinks, and many men do 

 not, it is safe to say that this bill was paid bj^ one quar- 

 ter or one fifth of the population. That is, in 1890, 

 about 13,000,000 people paid 81,000,000,000 for liquors, 

 and a like number of professed Christians gave $10,695,- 

 000 for missions. Any one that did not know better 

 might naturally infer that the one class loves beer and 

 whiskey better than the other loves souls. 



A while ago a brutal prize-fighter got a purse of $12,- 

 000 for pounding an opponent into pulp. Money can be 

 had in abundance for illegitimate uses, but a thousand 

 interests, dear to the Master as the apple of his eye, 

 must languish for the lack of funds. We have seen that 

 there is no lack of wealth ; there is money enough in the 

 hands of church-members to sow every acre of the earth 

 with the seed of truth ; but the average Christian deems 

 himself a despot over his purse. God has intrusted to 

 his children power enough to give the gospel to every 

 creature by the close of this century; but it is being 

 misapplied. Indeed, the world would have been evan- 

 gelized long ago, if Christians had perceived the relations 

 of money to the Kingdom, and had accepted their 

 stewardship. There has been too much of the spirit of 

 an Ohio church treasurer (a professed Christian), who, 

 when his pastor brought his annual contribution to the 



1 Cyclopedia of Temperance and Prohibition, Funk and Wagnalis, 1891. 



