The Life of Sir William Hartley

The Primitive Methodists, by the very conditions in which the denomination came into being, were for many years absorbed in the evangelization of England. This had the somewhat unfortunate result that they were late in undertaking work in the foreign field. Their slender financial resources and their heavy commitments at home were largely responsible for the slowness of their development and the restricted areas in which they worked. In the early eighties the Missionary Society had contracted a debt of about £5,000, which appeared extremely formidable. In 1884 Mr. Hartley, who was then at Bootle, made the challenge offer which lifted him at once from local into denominational fame. He offered to give £1,000 towards the liquidation of the debt on condition that £4,000 was raised. In the light of later achievements the debt appears trifling; but very competent judges believed that the required sum would not be reached. The challenge, however, struck the imagination of the people and appealed to their generosity, so that when the missionary meeting was held in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in May, 1885, it was possible to make the announcement that £4, 542 had been raised, and that the debt had been removed. It was fitting that Mr. Hartley, who was still on the youthful side of forty, should be the chairman of this meeting. His address was on lines he was again and again to follow in the course of his career. After a brief reference to the gratitude with which he thought of the connexion of his family for three generations with Primitive Methodism, he turned to the financial question. He thanked the members of the denomination for the thorough and hearty manner in which his challenge offer had been met; but he called attention to the slackness shown by many circuits in remitting the money, thereby losing a considerable sum in commission and interest. He added that this was all too characteristic of the general practice in remitting missionary revenue to the treasurer, saying that it was high time that the circuits should begin to send it without the loss of a single day after the accounts had been made up. He then turned to the principle and practice which had made his own gift possible, and enforced the duty and privilege of systematic giving. Later utterances on this congenial theme are quoted elsewhere, but it is appropriate at this point to record his first plea, addressed to the denomination as a whole, for this cherished conviction.

-"A great many years ago I was led to see that there is only one Scriptural mode of benevolence; indeed, to take much lower ground, I think there is only one business-like mode, that is to set aside, to lay by, a definite portion of our _gross_ income for Christian purposes; and since I have been acting upon this principle the distribution of the money so set apart has been one of the greatest joys of my life.What a pleasure there is in being able to conquer selfishness and go in for some degree of self-sacrifice! You will agree with me that it is comparatively easy to swim with the stream of ordinary outward Christian duties; but we are told on high authority that unless we have the spirit of Christ we are none of His, and I appeal to you to exhibit such a measure of the spirit of Christ as will enable you regularly and cheerfully to set apart a definite portion of your gross income for Christ-like purposes. The money is then no longer your own, to use for self, but simply held in trust; and this applies to each of us, not only to the man with ten talents, but also to the man who only possesses one. This is the ideal I set before you, that I urge upon you, and I do it for your own sake; if you want to feel the luxury of doing good have a separate fund wherewith to do it, then the thing is easy and certain of accomplishment. I also urge it upon you for Christ's sake, He who gave His life as a pattern, who died for you and for me, who by His life and death calls upon us by acts of self-sacrifice to show to the world that the Christian religion is a reality. When we have crucified the natural selfishness which we all have more or less, and made the grand resolve to regularly lay by in store as God hath prospered us, then it is simply a stewardship, and as faithful stewards we have only to consider the various claims that come before us, and give much or little as the cases deserve and our funds will allow. It is not for me to say what proportion you ought to set apart. Five per cent. of the gross income of a working man would be a greater self-sacrifice than 20 per cent. from a man with a large income. What I plead is, that each of us interpret our obligations in a liberal and not a niggardly spirit. It is very easy to sing.