Pay What Thou Owest by Bishop Potter

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 23, 1882

Pay What Thou Owest.

By Bishop Potter

UNTIL the tenth part is separated and set apart for a sacred use, we have no right to touch any part of our substance for our own private use. I do not say that the benefactions of a Christian are to be absolutely limited to one-tenth part of his income. That was the measure prescribed by the Mosaic law. The children of Israel had not seen what we have seen—the eternal Son of God becoming man, and suffering on the cross for our redemption; “He who was rich making himself poor, that we might be eternally rich.” No wonder that that ever blessed Saviour said to his hearers before he went forth to suffer for us, “If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon [the perishable riches], who will commit to your trust the true riches?” I do not pretend—I do not dare to suggest what ought to be the extent of a Christian's benefactions; but this I do say, under all the responsibilities of my sacred office, that we have no purely personal rights over the substance which God's gracious providence has cast into our lap until we have first separated and set apart at least one-tenth part for sacred uses. Surely it is not a hard or severe apportionment: one-tenth for God the Giver, his poor, and his church; nine-tenths for our own personal use!—Bishop Potter.