Samuel Marsden: An Anglican missionary whose generosity was dealt out with no sparing hand

“He was not foolishly indifferent to the value of money, as those who had business transactions with him were well aware; but its chief value in his eyes consisted in the opportunities it gave him to promote the happiness of others. Hundreds of instances of his extraordinary liberality might be mentioned, and it is probable that many more are quite unknown. The following [anecdote], furnished by his personal friends, will show that his bounty was dealt out with no sparing hand.

A gentleman, at whose house he was a visitor, happened to express a wish that he had three hundred pounds to pay off a debt. The next morning Mr. Marsden came down and presented him with the money, taking no acknowledgment. The circumstance would have remained unknown had not the obliged person, after Mr. Marsden’s decease, honourably sent an acknowledgment to his executors.”

Samuel Marsden (1764-1838) Anglican Missionary to New Zealand in Memoirs of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Samuel Marsden ed. by John Buxton Marsden (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1866) 290.

“They [Ananias and Sapphira] brought the apostles only a portion of the sale of their property, while pretending to bring it all. They wanted the credit for generosity without the inconvenience.” (cf. Acts 5:1-11)

John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) in Through the Bible, Through the Year (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006) 318.

“If we have really taken the message [of Christianity] in, we shall live lives of selfless generosity, always asking how the gifts given us – material or imaginative or spiritual or whatever – can be shared in a way that brings other people more fully alive.” (John 10:10)

Archbishop Rowan Williams in “Christianity” 2012 post at
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/pages/christianity.html

“Although we live in the richest society in the history of the world, we still assume that there is not enough. Not enough life, not enough food, not enough entertainment, not enough happiness. This keeps our economy going. The truth is the opposite. There is too much…there is also the temptation to steal, because we fear that there will not be “enough.” We are generous when we trust that we’ll have enough; we are covetous and anxious because we have lost this trust.”

Samuel Wells in “More than Enough” in Christian Century 121 (2004): 19.

“Live in faith, knowing that far more rewarding and longer enduring than monuments, fame, or fortune, are the acts of love, kindness, and consideration The Almighty privileges each of us to perform every day of our lives.”

Robert E.B. Fielder quote posted at LeTourneau University in honor of R.G. LeTourneau (1888-1969).

Although he has made and spent millions, he is remarkably detached from money as such; he is only concerned about what it can accomplish. He [R.G.] often says, “The question is not how much of my money I give to God, but rather how much of God’s money I keep for myself.”

R.G. LeTourneau (1888-1969) in Mover of Men and Mountains (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972) 280.

“Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead…We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present.”

Quote from Screwtape, the senior demon, from his letter letter to junior temptor, Wormwood, in C.S. Lewis’ epistolary masterpiece, The Screwtape Letters (New York: HarperCollins, 1996) 76, 78.

“If only one little unhappy child is made happy with the love of Jesus….will it not be worth…giving all for that?” (cf. James 1:27)

Mother Teresa in Come Be My Light, ed. Brian Kolodiejchuk (New York: Doubleday, 2007) 54.

“Money is like a powerful magnet that draws our hearts to wherever it is located. Jesus knew–and still knows–that our natural inclination is to trust money for our security and not Him, which means we will store up our treasure here, rather than invest it in the kingdom the way God desires. That’s why Jesus has to directly challenge us to place our treasure in the stuff of heaven rather than the stuff of earth.” (cf. Matthew 6:19-21).

Rick Dunham in “It’s Time to Give Up!” Christian Leadership Alliance “Outcomes” Magazine, Fall 2012: 25.

“It is quite true that my heart was affected by the deplorable physical condition in which I saw destitute Orphans before I began to care for them; but a higher motive by far actuated me than merely seeking to benefit their health…It is further true, that I had a desire to benefit the Orphans by seeking to educate them; but I aimed at far more than this…Further, when I began the orphan work, I aimed at the salvation of the children…Yet even this was not the primary object I had in view; but in carrying on this work, simply through the instrumentality of prayer and faith, without applying to any human being for help, my great desire was that it might be seen now, in the nineteenth century, God is still the living God, and that now, as well as thousands of years ago, He listens to the prayers of His children and helps those who trust in Him.”

George Mueller in Ten Years After: A Sequel to the Autobiography of George Mueller comp. G. Fred. Bergin (London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1909) 11, as quoted in Money for Ministry, ed. Wesley K. Willmer (SP Publications, 1989) 224.