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I. THERE IS MORE REAL PLEASURE IN GIVING THAN IN RECEIVING.

1. There is always a pleasure in receiving, and this pleasure is sometimes greatly heightened by the circumstances of the receiver, or the disposition of the giver.

(1) A seasonable gift is acceptable, because it is immediately beneficial.

(2) A necessary gift is still more acceptable, because it comes in a time of want.

(3) A great gift excites greater joy, because it not only gratifies the natural desire of property, but throws the mind into a state of pleasing surprise and admiration.

(4) Any gift never fails to afford a sensible pleasure to the receiver, when it comes as a mark of affection and esteem from the giver. But in these and all other cases the giver is more blessed than the receiver.

2. There is a higher and purer happiness in rejoicing in the good of others than in rejoicing in our own good.

(1) The receiver rejoices in his own happiness; and let his joy rise ever so high, it still terminates in himself. But the giver, instead of rejoicing in his own good, rejoices in the good of others.

(2) In receiving gratefully, there is a mixture of submission to our state of dependence; but in giving freely, there is a mixture of joy in being able to give. The receiver is laid under obligation to the giver; but the giver is laid under no obligation to the receiver. And who can doubt whether it be not more blessed to give than to receive an obligation?

II. MORE VIRTUE; and therefore the giver is more happy than the receiver.

1. The receiver may, indeed, exercise virtue by evincing gratitude. But the virtue of the receiver principally consists in a suitable regard to himself; the virtue of the giver, however, altogether consists in a proper regard to others.

2. There are many circumstances which augment the virtue of giving that do not enhance the virtue of receiving.

(1) The poverty, the distress, and even the unworthiness of the receiver, augment the virtue of the giver. It is truly Godlike to bestow favours upon the evil and unthankful.

(2) The virtue of the giver is always equal to his design in giving. A man may give a Bible to a poor and vicious person, with a sincere design to promote his spiritual and eternal benefit; but he may have a mean or wicked design in receiving it.

(3) And it is generally true that the giver has much more noble and extensive views than the receiver. This our Saviour intimated in His observation upon the conduct of the poor widow.

(4) There is self-denial in giving, which is wholly absent from receiving.

III. GOD PROMISES TO REWARD THE GIVER, BUT NOT THE RECEIVER. This distinction plainly intimates that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

1. There are but few things which God has promised to reward men for in this life; but He promises to reward acts of munificence with special tokens of His favour now. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered." The alms as well as the prayers of Cornelius were had in Divine remembrance, and he was rewarded in his lifetime with peculiar tokens of the Divine favour.

2. But this is not all; He means to reward them more openly and fully at the great day of retribution. Hence our Saviour told the almsgiver to give secretly, "and thy Father, who seeth in secret, Himself shall reward thee openly." He declared that the smallest act of charity to one of His followers should meet with a future recompense (Matthew 25) Conclusion: If it be more blessed to give than to receive, then —

1. We ought to entertain the most exalted ideas of the blessedness of the Supreme Being.

2. We may see why charity or beneficence holds the highest rank among all the moral and Christian virtues.

3. It is a great and peculiar favour to be made rich. Poverty is a real calamity in itself, and draws after it a long train of natural evils. It not only deprives men of the power and pleasure of giving, but subjects them to the disagreeable necessity of receiving alms.

4. We may learn what ought to be the supreme and governing motive of men, in pursuing their secular concerns, and seeking to increase their worldly interest.

5. None have any reason to think that they are real Christians who have never experienced this peculiar blessedness.

6. The covetous and parsimonious defeat their own design, and take the direct method to diminish rather than to increase their temporal interest.

7. Those who are able to give should esteem it a favour when Providence presents them with opportunities of giving.

(N. Emmons, D. D.)

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KJV: I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

WEB: In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"