Untitled article by Jenks

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, December 31, 1867

Scripture Notes.

By Jenks

THE SPIRIT IN WHICH WE SHOULD GIVE.

2 Cor. ix, 7. God loveth a cheerful giver.

A beautiful specimen of unsophisticated Christianity is exhibited in Tyerman and Bennett’s Journal. Speaking of Huahine island, they say: “When a missionary association was first established here, and contributions were solicited, the people were explicitly informed, that they should not be compelled to give anything; whatever they did, therefore, must be of their own free will. One day a native brought a hog to Hautia, who was the treasurer, and, throwing the animal down at his feet, said, in an angry tone, ‘Here’s a pig for your society.’ ‘Take it back again,’ replied Hautia, calmly; ‘God does not accept angry pigs.’ He then explained to the man the objects of missionary institutions, and the necessity that those who supported them should do so from right motives, especially enforcing the scripture words, ‘The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.’ The man was obliged to take his hog home again; for, though exceedingly chagrined to have it rejected—refusal being considered a great affront when a present is offered—Hautia was too sternly conscientious to accept it. In Tahiti, on a similar occasion, a person brought a quantity of cocoa-nut oil to Pomare, in a like bad spirit, exclaiming, ‘Here are five bamboos of oil; take them for the society.’ ‘No,’ said the king, ‘I will not mix your angry bamboos with the missionary oil; take them away.’ And he dismissed the reluctant contributor from his presence, with his gifts in his hands, bitterly mortified at having betrayed his meanness, and exposed himself to such a rebuke before his neighbors. He would afterward have been glad to redeem his character with twice the number of bamboos, but the reproach clave to him.’—Jenks.

COST OF THE EARTHLY TABERNACLE.

Ex. xxxviii, 24. All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

Dr. A. Clarke, (see his calculation, and Prideaux,) makes the total value of the gold employed in the tabernacle to be “£198,347 12s. 6d. Of the silver, 608,550 Israelites gave 18d. each, equal to £45,266 5s. The value of the brass at 1s. per lb. will be £513 17s. The gold of the holy place weighed 4245 lbs. The silver of the tabernacle, 14,602 lbs. The brass, 10,277 lbs. troy weight. Total value of all, £244,127 14s. 6d. [over 1,000,000 dollars]. Total weight, 14 tons, 266 lbs. avoirdupois. By thus applying their riches, God’s worship was rendered august and respectable—incitements to sin and low desires (as vanity, covetousness, &c.) removed, (for the Israelites needed not this wealth in the wilderness,) and the people instructed to consider nothing valuable, but so far as it might be employed to the glory and in the service of God.—Jenks.