Five Kinds of Pennies

At a certain Sunday School the missionary box was passed round the scholars assembled. In one of the classes there were five boys. When the box reached this particular class the first boy, who had a pocket-full of pennies, without a single thought for the heathen, carelessly tossed one penny into the box—that was a "tin" penny. The second boy said to himself: "I suppose I must put one in because others are doing so, and not thinking at all about Jesus, or the needs of children in pagan lands, he put his penny in the box. That was an iron penny.

The third boy looked round to see if anyone was watching, and, noticing that the others were doing so, he very reluctantly dropped a penny in the box passed to him. That was a brass penny.

Now the box reached the fourth boy. He was a little more generous hearted than the others, and said: "I am sorry for the poor heathen in their ignorance and misery, and the fourth penny fell into the waiting box. That was a silver penny.

It was now the turn of the fifth boy, who kindly and very seriously said: "Jesus gave His life for us; we ought to give Him all that we can. I want to give for His sake, and hope that soon all the heathen will hear all about Him and His love." The penny that he put in the box was a golden one.

What kind of penny was it that you last put into the missionary box? We may think that it does not matter what motive we have when we give our gifts, but God reads our hearts and knows what kind of penny ours is.

Christ considered that the mite of the widow was a golden one, but the abundant riches of the others were only tin. Let us remember all that Jesus Christ has done for us, and give what we can out of love for Him.