Camp-Meeting Sabbath-School Review on Tithe Paying
By J. E. Froom
At some of our camp-meeting Sabbath-schools this year the experiment was tried of having the general review consist of the voluntary recounting of personal experiences both in the paying and in the non-paying of tithe. This radical departure from the beaten path followed in conducting reviews was not intended as a criticism of the regular method, but was rather taking advantage of the opportunity to impress vividly the lesson subject. The results were most satisfactory. It so happened that without prearrangement the most thrilling accounts were corroborated by persons present in the school who were eye-witnesses of the facts. One case reported was that of a minister, who, upon coming to a knowledge of this truth, decided to tithe his present property, but his purpose was severely tested by a series of events which greatly reduced the value and hindered the sale of a piece of property, so that it required months of persevering effort and sacrifice to get his tithe paid. Since then he had noticed nothing remarkable in his business affairs, but said that he could report the merciful care and protection of God, and that all his children—though small at the time referred to, and at home with their mother, who at that time was not a Sabbath-keeper—have been led to connect with God’s remnant people. One of them is a devoted minister, and the others are in positions of responsibility. An experience in pioneer life was related by a successful canvasser. While burning the heavy growth of grass about the farm buildings, a change in the wind carried the flames rapidly toward the barn and haystacks. When the mad flames were within eight feet of the barn, the father gave up in despair, but the son, a believer and tithe payer, raised his eyes toward heaven, and cried to God to rebuke the devourer. Instantly the wind changed to an opposite direction, carrying the flames toward a place where the grass was already consumed, and the remaining blaze was stamped out by a brother who was present. Other members of the school were in Nebraska at the time of the great grasshopper scourge which is vividly remembered by many who experienced its blasting ravages. One told how the grasshoppers came in flocks like clouds, which upon lighting left nothing but desolation where beautiful fields had but a few hours before waved before the wind. They were everywhere, relentlessly progressing like a consuming plague. When they reached the wheat-field of a tithe payer, he prayed earnestly to the God who made the grain and the insects, the God who at the word of Moses sent locusts over the land of Egypt. The grasshoppers came up to the fence of his wheat-field, and piled up like a windrow, but they did not touch that wheat, which stood alone in that neighborhood as a monument to the keeping power of God. Another farmer said that in his field the insects had progressed about one rod, and he had brought his team, intending to plow a furrow in front of them, but instead of that he knelt down and pleaded the promise of the Lord to “rebuke the devourer” for our sakes. In a very short time a flock of blackbirds had cleared the wheat-field of every grasshopper in it. The result of neglecting to pay tithe and to fulfil vows might have been witnessed by some who remained silent, while others drew detailed comparisons between working in partnership with God and the very unsatisfactory plan of undertaking to live by one’s own exertions. A brother in business gave a ringing report of the Lord’s blessing upon him and his tithe paying. Recently he had lost everything he possessed by fire, but friends volunteered assistance, and he immediately engaged in business, which has prospered until now his tithe amounts to his former wages. The choice seems very clear between a life of faith and obedience, proving the Lord and receiving his blessing from the open windows of heaven, and the life of personal exertion without faith, which is obliged to learn lessons of faith by having blessings removed. The Lord says through his prophet Haggai, that by such efforts we sow much and bring in little; we earn wages to put it into a bag with holes. “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little.” “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.”