that I use in my other affairs, and they have not disappointed
me."

"Even the check that you put in the plate when you take the
offertory
up the aisle on Sunday morning?"

"Certainly; though there the influence is less direct; and I must
confess
that I have my doubts in regard to the collection for Foreign
Missions.
That always seems to me romantic and wasteful. You never hear
from it in
any definite way. They say the missionaries have done a good
deal
to open the way for trade; perhaps--but they have also gotten us
into
commercial and political difficulties. Yet I give to them--a
little--it is
a matter of conscience with me to identify myself with all the
enterprises
of the Church; it is the mainstay of social order and a
prosperous civilization. But the best forms of benevolence are
the well-established, organized ones here at home, where people
can
see them and know what they are doing."

"You mean the ones that have a local habitation and a name."

"Yes; they offer by far the safest return, though of course there