(1) Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. (2) Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. (3) And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. (4) And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me.
It will not be necessary to offer much observation on what the Apostle recommends in collecting for the poor. Every Church, like Corinth, hath the poor among them, for the Lord hath said, they shall never cease out of the land. And the Lord commands the hand to be opened wide to his poor. And when the Lord gives a wide hand, and a wide heart together, there will need nothing more to enforce collections. Deuteronomy 15:11; Zephaniah 3:12. There is somewhat very sweet and seasonable in the exercise of tenderness and compassion to the Lord's poor, as the Lord's poor every day, but eminently more so on the Lord's day. On that day we give a truce to all worldly cares, and are concerned, or supposed to be concerned only for the one thing needful. Sweet day! which commemorates all in one, the Lord's rest from the works of creation, the resurrection of Jesus, and the first descent of the Holy Ghost, in the open display of his Person at the feast of Pentecost. What day so suited for the heart to be flowing with love to our poorer brethren, as when we celebrate Jehovah's love to us, in his threefold character of Person, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as manifested in creation, redemption, grace, and glory?