Should Every Church-Member Pay Tithe?
By G. F. WATSON
WHAT God says to one, he says to all. “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” These words of our God can not be narrowed down to mean simply baptism and the keeping of the seventh day; but they embrace all the requirements of the gospel, even the payment of an honest tithe, the gospel embracing the tithing system; and as the gospel reaches individuals only, how can an individual accept a complete gospel without accepting the command of God to bring “all the tithes into the storehouse”?” The unchangeableness of our God is the only reason that we can give for our being permitted to live; and he uses this expression in connection with his instruction to us regarding the paying of our tithe: “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” Mal. 3:6-8. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house.” In Lev. 27: 30, 32, God calls the tithe holy, and in Ex. 20: 8 the same One calls the Sabbath holy, and in Neh. 13: 10-32 we find that when the people left off paying the holy tithe, they kept not God’s holy Sabbath; and when they obeyed the command to bring in the tithe, the Sabbath was restored. God himself declaring that the Sabbath is holy, and the tithe holy, who among the sons of men would dare to say that the one is more holy than the other? These are two grand principles by which the loyalty of man to his God is tested. Will a man who is an impenitent robber ever meet his God in peace, whether he be a robber of holy time or of holy money? The Sabbath and the tithe both being holy, and made so by the same power, who among us would presume to say that a man can be a robber of holy money, and yet be saved, while another man, being a robber of holy time, would be lost? Again: the tithing system being a part of the gospel,—that part which supports the giving, or the promulgation, of every other part,—could the gospel be complete without this support? Then can it be said that I am a promulgator of the gospel if I do not pay tithe? This being true of one man, it is also true of every other man who knows the truth. The commandment is to bring all the tithes into the storehouse. But where is this storehouse? it may be asked; in Washington, South Africa, India, or some individual? God, by his people, in planning for their best good and for the good of his cause, has established storehouses throughout the great field, in every church; so the storehouse for the members of the church is right in the church to which they belong; and the storehouse of that church is the conference to which the church belongs, and the storehouse of that conference is the union conference to which it belongs, and the storehouse of that union conference is the General Conference.
A perfect system for carrying forward God’s great work is thus established; but the enemy does not want this work11to go forward, so he gets all he can to pay no tithe at all, and some to give their tithe to the poor, and others to send their tithe to some far-off land, and still others to send their tithe to Washington, and so on, hoping to cripple the work in some part of the field. I believe that God meant what he said when he gave the command to bring all the tithe into the storehouse; and my storehouse is the church where my membership is. But a command unheeded by a people brings death; and a commandment unheeded by an individual brings the same result. Therefore every church-member should pay tithe, to answer the command of God, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.”