Author Unknown
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We were not expecting anything unusual that day, but we got it just the same. It was a
warm Sunday in June, and the annual foreign missionary sermon was to be preached and
the collection taken. That didn't excite us any, for we had slept, I may say, through both
sermon and collection many a time before.
It wasn't the sermon either, for that didn't seem so different from usual, but somehow it
just happened to come home to the deacon. So far as I remember, the preacher took for
his text that verse about "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,"
only he dwelt considerably upon the "Go ye." He said it didn't say anything about taking
up a collection, but it did say to go, and the Lord would never be satisfied until we went.
Our collections, anyway, he told us, didn't amount to much and always reminded him
of the story he had heard of about a little boy. It seems the little fellow was saving some of
the best meat on his plate for his dog. The mother noticed and told him to eat that himself,
and after dinner he could take what was left on his plate and give it to the dog. So after
dinner he picked up the bits of fat, bone, and gristle that were left and took them out to the
dog, and someone heard him say sadly, "I meant to bring you an offering, Fido, but I've
only got a collection."
Well, it did kind of hit home, for most of us hadn't been giving much of a collection,
and just enough to look respectable when the plate was passed.
But the preacher went on until he showed us that the command, "Go ye," meant just
what it said, that we had to go. He told us that everybody had to go. Now, I had always
thought that there was some special kind of call that comes to one here and another there;
and when they felt that they had to be a missionary. But he said that was not in the Bible,
that everybody was commanded to go unless they had a call to stay at home. And even if
they had a call to stay at home, they were bound to do their best to find a substitute to go
for them, and help everybody to go that could.
Then he just asked us how we would feel if we had no Jesus to go to for forgiveness of
our sins, for help in our trials, for strength against temptation, comfort in sorrow, for
guidance in perplexity; no Jesus to tell us how to live here, and especially no Jesus to tell us
about the love of God and where our loved ones are when the darkness of death shuts
down upon them. This was what made life so dark for the heathen, and in our gifts we
were to remember the Lord's command to us and the heathen's need for us to go.
Then he prayed a bit, and the choir didn't sing any that day, but the organ played a soft
voluntary while the collection was being taken. Old Deacon Bright go up to pass the plate.
The old deacon was as fine a man as you could meet in a day's journey, as good a neighbor
and as honest a man as ever lived - nice 200 acre farm and a fine family, all members of
the church. Jim the oldest, ran the farm; Jack, the second boy, was just ready to go to
college; and Mary had her diploma as a teacher and was studying to be a nurse in the
Toronto hospital. The mother, too, was just as nice a woman as you could find anywhere.
The old deacon had been getting considerably deaf of late years, and he sat alone in the
front pew. I guess he got to kind of dreaming over the sermon, for as he arose to get the
collection plate he began to talk to himself, and to do it out loud. But, bless you, he
couldn't hear himself, for you had to shout to make him understand anything.
So, as I said, he took the plate and began to talk. As near as I remember, this is what
he said: "So that 'Go ye' means me and every one of us, and this is the Lord's plate, and
what we put in is our substitute and shows how much we love Him and how much we'd
have been worth to Him, seeing we don't go ourselves." Then he got to the back seat and
passed the plate. Now, our back seats are always full of young men; and as they put their
money on the plate, the old man went on: "Twenty-five cents from Sam Jones. My boy,
you'd have been worth more than that to the Lord. Ten cents from David Brown, 5 cents
from Tom Stone, and nothing from Steve Jackson. Forty cents for four boys, and every
one of them could go, too. They're worth $600 a year to their fathers and only 40cents to
the Lord."
In the next pew Mr. Allen and his family sat. Mr. Allen put in a dollar for the family.
"The price of one of your dinners downtown, half of that pair of gloves you wear, almost
as much as you spent for ice cream last week, a box of candy," were the deacon's
comments as the coin fell.
Then John Robb put in a bill rolled up, Mrs. Robb put in another, Johnny Robb a
little envelope bulging with pennies, and Maggie helped the baby to put in another little
bag, and the old deacon said, "God bless them!"
You may be sure we were all listening by this time, though we didn't dare turn around.
Some were mighty glad the deacon wasn't taking up the collection in their aisle.
John McClay's pew came. "Worth a dollar a year to the Lord and $2,000 a year to
himself," the deacon said. "Seventy-five dollars for a bicycle and 25 cents for the Lord,
don't match, Tommy McClay.
"Ah, Miss Eden, it looks strange for a hand with a $50 ring to drop 5 cents in the plate.
A new house for yourself and an old quarter for your Lord, Alex Bovey?
"You take in washing and can give 45 to the Lord! God bless you, Mrs. Dean. What?
Minnie has some, too, and also wee Robbie?
"Ah 50, 70, 85, 90. Ah, your dinner will cost more than you have given, Mr. Steele.
"A bright, new dollar bill, and spread out too. Mr. Perkins, I am afraid 95 cents was
for show. A check from Mr. Hay. It will be a good one, too, for he gives a tenth to the
Lord.
"Two dollars from you, Harry Atkins, is a small gift to the Lord who healed your dear
wife.
"Ah, Miss Kitty Hughes, that 50 cents never cost you a thought; and you, Miss Marion,
only a quarter, when both of you could go and support yourselves.
"Ah, Mrs. McRunion, that means a good deal to you. The Lord keep you until you
join the good man that's gone.
"Charlie Baker, and you too, Effie - I doubt if the Lord will take any substitutes for
you.
"Nothing from Mr. Cantile? Heathen at home? Perhaps you are one of them.
"Five cents, Mr. Donald. I doubt if you'd want to put that in the Lord's hand."
Then the old man came to his own pew and his wife put in an envelope. "Ah, Mary,
my dear, I am afraid we have been robbing the Lord all these years. I doubt we'd have put
Jack in the plate, Wife. Jim my boy, you'd be worth far more than that to the Lord." Jack
and Mary sat in the choir.
So it went from pew to pew till the old man came to the front again, and there he stood
a moment, the plate in his left hand. After fumbling in his vest pocket awhile he said:
"No, that isn't enough, Lord. You ought to get more than that. You've been very good to
me." So he put the plate down, and taking out an old leather wallet, counted some bills on
the plate, and said: "I'm sorry, Lord. I didn't know You wanted me to go. Jim will keep
mother and me on the farm, now we're getting old; but I won't keep Jack any longer. And
Mary's been wanting to go too, only I wouldn't let her. Take both, Lord."
After the old man sat down and buried his face in his hands, Deacon Wise jumped up
and said: "Dear pastor, we haven't done our duty. Let's take up the collection again next
Sunday." And a chorus of "Amens" came from all over the church.
But the pastor got up, with tears in his eyes, and said, "My friends, I haven't done all I
could either. I want to give more next Sunday, and I'll give my boy."
Then we sang a hymn as we closed. It was different, somehow:
"Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
The organist said she believed it went through the roof, and I guess the Lord thought
so.
I think that old deacon felt pretty bad when he found that his daydreaming had been out
loud. And one or two felt pretty hard at first, but they knew it was true. So that was what
started our missionary church, and we've kept on ever since. In the last 5 years, 14
members of our young people's group have gone as missionaries to different countries
around the world - 6 of our best young men and 8 of our brightest girls besides.
Jack Bright? He married the organist, and they are on the border of Tibet, where his
zeal is winning a way for Christ. Mary Bright married the minister's son, and they went to
Africa.
The old deacon has gone to rest now. I wish we had more like him. Jim keeps his
mother on the farm yet, but she's getting pretty feeble.
You're much obliged. Oh, that's nothing. I'm glad to tell you. You see, I have two of
my own boys that are in the work, one in India and the other in China, and another getting
ready to go my name? John Donald. You're laughing? Yes, I was the one who gave only
5 cents that day. What the old man said about putting it in the Lord's hand struck me. But
I hope to give the Lord a boy or girl for every one of those 5 cents. Even my two youngest
are talking about going already. You see, the Lord said, "Go ye," so we're going.
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