"No, my friends," said the pastor, "I need but four, but four female friends. Four of my sisters will be my 'B's,' my busy bees; each 'B' will select four 'C's,' from each of whom she will obtain a shilling. She will register their names and addresses, and request them to do as she herself has done, and each four 'D's' to contribute a similar amount; and so on, my friends, through all the letters of the alphabet. "The human heart is hard. There are many of us who would look twice at that shilling if we were asked for it as a simple contribution. But it is not a simple contribution, for it carries with it a privilege--it enables the person who has paid his or her shilling to exact a similar amount from four personal friends; and though the original giver has contributed but a single shilling, that giver has the pleasure of handing in an amount which is practically incalculable. I know the world, my brethren, and I know that as a rule the world is very glad indeed to get off for a shilling. Alas, many of the most active contributors to the numerous Missionary Societies of this country never put a single penny into the missionary boxes with which they are always glad to be provided; for the missionary box is an outward and visible sign of respectability, and a perpetual rod in pickle for friends, relatives, and rebellious children. "Already, my friends, in my mind's eye I see Gilgal standing proudly upon its own freehold, I see it provided with the roof it so much needs, and mentally I already dwell in the comfortable residence allotted to its pastor. I even hear the sweet strains of the much-desired American organ. And all this is no dream; in a few short weeks, my friends, it will be a delightful reality. And what will be our chief incentive to the work? Why the fact that all this money has been obtained, not from the little congregation of Gilgal, but from the Egyptian, from haughty Pharaoh and his countless host." Then he gave out the hymn. Rev. Boanerges Smiter was right. The thing came off. The money poured in, and the Reverend Smiter's original shilling was turned, as by the touch of the enchanter's wand, into fifteen hundred pounds. Thirty thousand victims had been indirectly teased and pestered by Smiter, at the least possible amount of trouble to himself; but all had had their revenge, save the last batch, in finding four other shilling victims, and each of them had obtained for a ridiculously small sum a character for active benevolence. Who is there in this wicked world who would not consider a character for active benevolence cheap at a shilling?