p. 9 | A Personal Experience by W. H. SAXBY

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1908

A Personal Experience

By W. H. SAXBY

W. H. SAXBY

WHEN starting out in this precious work, I used to read over some of the “exceeding great and precious promises” of God’s Word, and they seemed far above and beyond me, or as if they were only for the great and good of Bible times. The question would often present itself to me, “How can I verify these promises in my own individual experience?” My mind finally settled on testing this promise: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Mal. 3: 10. Here the Lord throws out a definite challenge in finance. He says, in other words, Be faithful in paying your tithe and in making offerings, and prove me; put me to the test, and see what I will do for you; watch my prospering hand in all your temporal affairs. I felt confident that I could pay a tithe. I could make offerings and pledges, and I would by his assisting grace.

At the General Conference at Battle Creek, Mich., in the fall of 1885, it was decided that Mrs. Saxby and I should go to Washington, D. C., to open the work there. We were in Kentucky at the time. Now was my opportunity to carry out more fully the cherished desire. After talking the matter over with my wife, I then and there made the following vow (no credit to me, it was all the grace of God): that if the Lord would open the way before us, and would bless and prosper us in our work in Washington, at the close of the first year he should have one fifth of every dollar received. If we should remain there the second year, he should receive one fourth, in the same way. If the third year, one third; and if the fourth year, one half. We were there a little over three years and a half.

Immediately after we arrived at Washington, Jan. 13, 1886, a new, precious, larger experience opened before us than ever before. I wish to say right here, and to emphasize it, that when we take, by the grace of God, a large, liberal course toward his work, we shall not be alone in it. “The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.” Isa. 32: 8. We are informed in Mal. 3: 10 what God will do for us, and in Luke 6: 38 what man will do. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete

withal it shall be measured to you again.” We found these great promises, and some others, inseparably linked together in our blessed experience.

We were very kindly met at the depot by Brother Reuben Wright, and were entertained at a hotel several days until we could find a suitable building for a mission home. Brother Wright soon made the following very liberal proposition to us: “I expect to help in the finances of this enterprise, and am willing to do so in this way: I will pay the publishing house for all our periodicals, books, etc., that you may sell.” The workers would receive not only what profit there was, if any, but the full amount of all their sales. If we needed means, and we certainly did, all we had to do was to get out and work. A prominent Methodist Episcopal minister of another city said, incidentally, in a sermon on finances, when speaking of the tithe and the result of its adoption among Seventh-day Adventists: “They have all the money they want.” This was truly our experience from the very first. The last fall I sent, at one time, to two of our publishing houses seven hundred dollars, over and above our expenses. Brother Wright seemed to have the fullest confidence in us, for he gave us the largest freedom in the use of all money received. When more fully acquainted with him, he related to us minutely one of the brightest experiences in tithing, while a Baptist, that I ever heard.

Truly there was a breaking “forth on the right hand and on the left” (Isa. 54: 3), especially in our finances. Liberality begat liberality in many ways. As we met our obligation promptly at the close of the first year, we were conscious of a definite blessing. The pledges made for the second and third years we cheerfully met. The Lord not only worked within us to will, but also to do his good pleasure. We were there a little over one half of the fourth year, and then were invited to attend a five-months’ ministerial institute at the close of a General Conference at Battle Creek. Being short of funds, I was sorely tempted to use a part of the Lord’s half. I reasoned, as many another student has, doubtless,—I was simply preparing to do better work for the Lord, and would, therefore, be justified in using a part of his under the circumstances. The right prevailed, however, and the last forty dollars was paid.

Shortly after the institute we went to Ohio, our new field of labor, and in a few days a detective called to see us from Wilmington, Del. He came by the way of Battle Creek. We had moved to Wilmington just a few weeks before going to the General Conference, and while there, a matter came under our observation that made us, in time, important witnesses in a lawsuit. This party promised to pay us liberally if we would go in a few days. The short of the matter is this, we were gone three days, and had left, above all our expenses, a little more than eighty dollars. Thus we see that it is a very easy matter for the Lord to place money in our hands, and in very unexpected ways.

We left Washington in August, and the April before, Elder Dan. T. Jones, who was at that time secretary of the General Conference Committee, wrote us as follows: “You have done well in the financial management of your mission at Washington. It has been less expensive than any other city mission operated by the General Conference.” At the time I made the vow, I was over two hundred dollars in debt. Perhaps some will say it was reckless, but how many of us might be considered reckless indeed, in spending means in worldly enterprises. In conclusion, I would say that I have never for a moment entertained a regret for taking the step. The vow naturally led to greater consecration; and praise the Lord, the results are not confined to this short life, but I trust will be far-reaching in the world to come. The testing of this promise has greatly strengthened my faith in other promises in all the intervening years.

Boise, Idaho.