Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 2, 1905

Editorial

By Editor

“Corban”

UNREGENERATED human nature is the same in all ages. A hypocritical profession of devotion to form or tradition in order to escape present duty is not a modern invention. How brazenly did selfishness cloak itself under the covering of liberality to God’s cause in the time of Christ! “Ye say,” said Jesus, “If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother.” Thus the priests “taught the people that the devotion of their property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of their parents; and that however great the necessity, it was sacrilege to impart to father or mother any part of what had been thus consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce the word ‘Corban’ over his property, thus devoting it to God, and he could retain it for his own use during his lifetime, and after his death it was to be appropriated to the temple service.” God calls upon his people to make offerings for the support of his work in the earth, but this call is not satisfied by relinquishing at death what has been rigidly held as long as the possessor could possibly keep it. It is then simply a choice between letting it go into the Lord’s treasury or into the hands of some one else—it must go somewhere. We do not object to bequeathing property for the benefit of God’s work, but this can not take the place of the right use of the property while the owner lives. Liberal giving during the lifetime is much better than a forced giving at death. Furthermore, “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” The commandment of God is not to be made void by human inventions, and this is just as true of one commandment as of another.