By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells
“WILL a man rob God? yet ye rob me.” Mal. 3: 7, American Revised Version. This is a serious statement. It should alarm us. Will a man rob God? Will a poor, helpless human being who depends upon his Maker for every breath he draws, for every ray of sunshine, drop of water, and morsel of food, turn around and rob the Giver?—It would seem impossible. And yet that Giver says: “Ye rob me.” “But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” This charge is plain, direct, and specific. We do not have to draw conclusions from inferences. We are not left to search for the way the robbery is committed. It is in withholding from God tithes and offerings that belong to him in a special sense. “Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation [people].” This is the result of our sin of robbing God. We may not realize that we are cursed. Only the true Christian knows what a sinner, who is in rebellion against God, is missing. None but God, and a church that is faithful in returning a full tithe to the Lord, can know what is being lost by robbing God of his tithe. But the awful statement to an unfaithful church is, “Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me.” “Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” This is the only remedy. Nothing can take the place of returning to God his tithe. Much praying, either in public or in private, will not atone for robbing God of tithes and offerings. Sabbath-keeping can not take the place of tithe paying. Christian philanthropy will not pass for obedience in tithing. These deeds are all good. They are necessary. But one can not take the place of the other, nor can all of them together take the place of faithfulness in returning to God his own in tithes and offerings. “Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” A whole tithe is called for. Nothing less than one dollar is a whole tithe of ten dollars. Fifty cents is not a tenth of ten dollars. There is a positive statement that the payment of the whole tithe by the church will make a full treasury; or, as stated in another way, there would be “no want of means with which to carry forward the last warning message to the world.” At present there is a great want of means. Our treasury is empty, while many wide-open doors are unentered, and many Macedonian calls are unanswered. What is the matter?—All are not paying the full tithe. What is the remedy?—“Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse.” The entire tithe paid by Seventh-day Adventists during the year 1903, as reported by the church treasurers, was, $684,030.54. This amounts to an average of $9.04 for each Sabbath-keeper. Nine dollars and four cents, as all can readily see, is a tithe of $90.40. This indicates that the average annual income of Seventh-day Adventists is $90.40. That is an income of $1.93 a week for each Sabbath-keeper. Now, we all know that this is not a correct representation of the income of our people. There are different ways of demonstrating this. In the first place, the majority of our people enjoy good health. Nearly all are able to work. And in these prosperous times work brings good returns. Wages in every department of labor are high. Prices for commodities of every kind are high. Demands for the products of labor are good and steady. The scale of reward for every kind of service is far above what is received by our people as indicated by the tithe they pay. The office clerk, the teacher, the mechanic of every sort, the farm hand, the cook, the kitchen girl, the janitor, gets more than this for the service rendered. And surely the business man and the farmer who owns his business, land and stock, gets as good wages as the common laborer. Furthermore, the cost of living, especially in the United States, requires an income of more than $1.93 a week. This may house, board, and clothe a child, or a very aged person, but it is not enough for the average person. This will be seen when applied to families. Take a family of four. The father and mother belong to the church. The children, eight and ten years of age, do not. According to the figures given above, the income of that family is $3.86 a week. This is the amount on which the father and mother pay tithe. Does that family pay house rent, purchase fuel, food, and clothes, and school the children on $3.86 a week? That is what the amount of tithe we pay indicates. O, may God, who knows the facts, alarm and arouse his people! Brethren, this is court week, and each one has a case pending. One of the charges preferred against us is that we are robbing God in tithes and offerings. How can we expect to be acquitted unless we make this right? And more, how can we expect the showers of the latter rain to fall upon the church while this sin is being committed? The prophet Jeremiah says: “But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.” Jer. 5: 23-25. These statements clearly show that for the church to harbor sin of any kind will be to prevent the gift of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. We have been in the time of the latter rain many years, yet we do not see the showers falling on the church as they should. Who will dare to say that the sin of withholding the tithe from the Lord is not one of the reasons why the showers do not fall? May the Spirit of the living God speak effectually to every heart regarding this important duty. A. G. DANIELLS.