God’s rich promises of blessing to those who give money for His work. The maximum claim is the one of which the Fathers so often speak. Matt. 19:21. “Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.” Between these two claims love finds its field of operation and its measure of perfectness. This is our view and the view which I think prevailed in the early Church. Clement’s Letter to the Corinthians, the nearest writing to the inspired books of the New Testament, says: “Those who present their offerings at the appointed times are blessed; for inasmuch as they follow the laws of the Lord they sin not.” (See page 14.) The context clearly shows that he has in mind the laws governing the offerings to the priests and Levites. The Teaching speaks of “giving according to the commandment,” which must mean the Levitical commandment, or one similar to it. Justin Martyr first says that they put what they “have into a common stock” and later says “they who are well-to-do and willing, give what each thinks fit,” and in both cases seems to intimate that what is contributed is given to the dependent. (See page 16.) His last instance of giving as each one thinks fit, may be a description applicable to those who sought to follow the law of the free-will offering which is laid down in Deut. 16:10, 17, and reaffirmed by the Apostle in I Cor. 16:2. A special contribution to the poor would be made now on the same basis in any of our churches and does not touch the subject of the regular support of the Church. Yet many ministers who ought to know better, insist on saying that this is the New Testament law of giving. It is most decidedly not a New Testament, but an Old Testament law, confirmed by the New Testament, and by common sense apart from any question of Scripture authority.