But passing now from the act itself to the reward promised to it, we find that set before us in three different ways. It is first, temporal. “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” It is, second, spiritual, for Paul in connection with his exhortation to the Corinthians says: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work being enriched in everything to all bountifullness.” Was there ever such a piling of universal terms one above the other as we have here? It seems as if the apostle could not say enough to strengthen his assertion, and it is all said in connection with cheerful giving. Nor is this all. He goes on to say that the gifts of the Corinthians by evoking prayers on their behalf from the hearts of the receivers, would return in blessings into their own bosoms. You know how the process of irrigation goes on in nature. All the rivers run into the ocean, out of that the sun continually evaporates clouds, which the wind blows back over the land, where they fall out in rain on the mountains, and go to feed the rivers. Thus evermore the circle is kept up and the lands are fertilized. Now in the same way the gifts we make to God all run into the furtherance of his cause, and are by him lifted up into the celestial region of his grace and power, whence they descend again with new blessing into our hearts, making both ourselves individually and the Church at large joyous and productive. Then there is a third reward which is eternal; for Jesus in the close of the parable of the prudent steward says: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Money will not purchase our entrance into heaven. Nothing can do that but the work of Christ; but the money which out of love to Christ we give to his people and his cause will secure that we shall be received in heaven by those whom we have been the means of benefiting. As we enter they will take us by the hand and lead us up to Him that sitteth on the throne, saying: This is he whose efforts and whose gifts were, under thee, the means of our being here; let it be done unto him as unto the man whom the King delighteth to honor. And he will reply: Well done! “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me.”