2 THE CANADA LUTHERAN. SERMONETTE. Rev. H. A. Kunkle, M.A. Malachi 3: 10-- "Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now, herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." By the time this issue reaches our dear readers, Holy Lent is nigh at our door. We look forward with a special sacredness and a self-denial privilege and feeling. "If any man will come after Me let him deny himself" (Matt. 16: 24) says our Saviour. To deny oneself is to renounce self--love; self-love hinders the love of God in the soul. Love is the highest good of the soul; it must therefore be rendered as a grateful tribute to the Highest Good, that is, to God. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." True love involves true and liberal giving. "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son."--What will we give? How does it appeal to us? Shall we wait until the solicitor comes around or the pastor appeals, and then debate and hesitate and finally become annoyed because God has invited us to take part in the work? The text says, "Bring ye the whole tithe." Our well arranged scriptural and business-like duplex envelope system provides for all the needs of the Church. "Study to make thyself a workman, approved unto God."--study your Church. Study her financial system. Study the needs of the Church and then carefully, earnestly and prayerfully, "bring" your offerings to God, to the House of God. You may be poor, but you have impoverished yourselves by your false means of providing for yourselves. Now try God's plan; obey His laws; prove yourselves devoted to His service: bring what devolves upon you. The "storehouse" was that part of the temple-rooms in its corridors where the people's offerings were placed for the use of the priests and the Levites. "Meat in Mine House." Provision there for the temporal needs of my appointed ministers, so that they need not engage in secular business. Enough to meet the demands for the regular Church operations, our schools, seminaries, our orphans' homes and missionaries. "Prove Me now herewith." Make a test of My faithfulness, whether I will perform My word that they who wait on the Lord as He has appointed, shall not want any good. This was a fair challenge, certainly. So we may safely say to any one, Try God's plan; fall in with His conditions and promise; verify His word. Do not neglect, or condemn without trial! "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." The Bible is very reasonable in its demands, and is ready to satisfy a fair trial. "The God of Hosts" is speaking and makes this rich and gracious promise and "His hand is not slack." He taught that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." We make Him no richer and no poorer by our withholding, but we rob ourselves and heap a curse upon man. His Providence is over all His works. "Open you the windows of heaven." What a magnanimous and bountiful way of doing good! "Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above." We look to the "Creator of Heaven and Earth" for the supply of earth and heaven. We know He will not disappoint us. "Ask and it shall be given unto you." He asks of us, hence let us be honest and willing. No offerings are acceptable to God save those that proceed from a righteous heart. All that expresses true love and obedience is sweet as incense to the Lord. The offerings of Abel, Noah, Abraham and Samuel were "pleasing unto the Lord." Giving is a part of worship. Close alongside the altar where the type of the Lamb of God was offered up, was the money chest, God's storehouse. Honor it, support it, pray for it. Make a sacrifice for it. God grant us a spirit of self-denial.--Amen. "ALIVE UNTO HIM." Rev. W. E. Fischer, D.D., in "Lutheran Church Work and Observer." God says that He is the God of the living, not of the dead. He always had a being, for His name is "I am.' That means that He is the present, self-existent, eternal God. He declares, "I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob." That means, that those patriarchs are still alive and that the life of the believer is as secure as the life of God. God is God forever. The soul is God's vital breath, and so it is deathless. Man made in the image and likeness of God has God's fadeless quali- [ qualities ]