more of such. The reward for work is more work, and the punishment for
sloth is compulsory idleness.

III. We are next shown the glad givers. Probably suspicion had been
excited in others than the king, and had checked liberality. People
will not give freely if the expenses of the collectors' support
swallow up the funds. It is hard to get help for a vague scheme, which
unites two objects, and only gives the balance, after the first is
provided for, to the second and more important. So the whole nation,
both high and low, was glad when the new arrangement brought a clear
issue, and secured the right appropriation of the money.

No doubt, too, Joash's earnestness kindled others. Chronicles speaks
only of the 'tax,'--that is, the half-shekel,--but Kings mentions two
other sources, one of which is purely spontaneous gifts, and these are
implied by the tone of verse 10, which lays stress on the gladness of
the offerers. That is the incense which adds fragrance to our gifts.
Grudging service is no service, and money given for ever so religious
a purpose, without gladness because of the opportunity of giving, is
not, in the deepest sense, given at all. Love is a longing to give to
the beloved, and whoever truly loves God will know no keener delight
than surrender for His dear sake. Pecuniary contributions for
religious purposes afford a rough but real test of the depth of a
man's religion; but it is one available only for himself, since the
motive, and not the amount, is the determining element. We all need to
bring our hearts more under the Influence of God's love to us, that
our love to Him may be increased, and then to administer possessions,
under the impulse to glad giving which enkindled love will always
excite. Super-heated steam has most expansive power and driving force.
These glad givers may remind us not only of the one condition of