Receiving Versus Giving by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 28, 1907

Receiving Versus Giving

By I. H. Evans

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS are a temperance people. They stand for temperance in its highest form. They do not simply decry the sale of liquor one day in seven and call that temperance, but they both preach and practise total abstinence from all intoxicating beverages all the time.

No temperance society ever held aloft a temperance banner of such high principles as do Seventh-day Adventists. No church organization ever required of its members such strict conformity to total abstinence as do this people.

Not only do our people abstain from all intoxicating drinks, of every nature whatsoever, but we also discard the use of tobacco in every form. Our people also discard the use of patent medicines and drugs. The world to-day is spending millions of dollars for patent medicines, in one form or another, most of which contain a large per cent of alcohol.

Seventh-day Adventists do not use tea or coffee. While the use of these articles has not been made a test of fellowship, yet it is probable that one can hardly find a Seventh-day Adventist who uses tea or coffee as a beverage.

The discarding of these harmful articles above mentioned, places Seventh-day Adventists in the front rank of those who believe and practise real temperance.

Let us consider for a moment the tremendous financial saving these temperance principles bring to our denomination. Suppose every Seventh-day Adventist in the United States averaged spending as much money annually on these harmful beverages and narcotics as the average citizen of the United States is spending, can we conceive of the enormous item of expense that would be entailed upon us as a people?

Statistical reports show that the people of the United States are annually spending for intoxicating drinks, $1,744,447,672; for tobacco, $949,500,000; confectionery, $178,000,000; soft drinks, $107,536,000; tea and coffee, $98,229,310; patent medicines, $75,476,032; ornamental jewelry, $60,500,000; drugs, $27,500,000

or a total of $3,241,189,014, making an average per capita for the inhabitants of the United States, at an estimate of 85,000,000, of $38.14. That is, an average of $38.14 for every man, woman, and child living within the United States is spent annually for intoxicating drinks, tobacco, confectionery, soft drinks, tea and coffee, patent medicines, ornamental jewelry, and drugs.

All these items are discarded by Seventh-day Adventists. Were we not Seventh-day Adventists, we doubtless would spend as much as our fellow beings average in these various ways. Besides the direct expenditure for these harmful things, there is a great loss of time, and a great expense on the part of the average citizen in the matter of attending shows, horse-races, fairs, and other places of amusement and pleasure, making his annual item of expense run to considerably more than $40 per capita.

Let us say that every Seventh-day Adventist man, woman, and child saves, by belonging to this people, on the average, $40 a year. Now with a church-membership in the United States of 65,000, reckoning at the rate of $40 per capita, there would be saved annually to our people in the United States, the large sum of $2,600,000.

What proportion of this large sum is being directed to the cause of God? It certainly far surpasses the tithes of the denomination in all the world. Add to the tithe, the contributions from all the world to foreign missions, and you have a sum in tithes and offerings of about $1,300,000. This is but half the amount that annually is saved to the people professing the third angel's message, who live in the United States alone. If we should reckon that the same amount of money is raised by our people in all the world, and estimate our membership to be 100,000, we would have about $4,000,000 saved annually to this people because of the principles this message teaches the people in the lines of temperance and proper dress.

But our people in all the world are giving only about $1,300,000 for the work of the gospel in every part of the world. Thus we are saving, by the truth which comes to us, above that which our fellows save annually, about $2,700,000, after paying our tithes and making all the offerings that the people make in behalf of foreign missions and church work.

With this tremendous saving in favor of those who profess this truth, is it any wonder that even those who are not friendly to the principles which we believe and advocate, charge us with being a thrifty, economical, and prosperous people?

Are we giving as much to the gospel work from the savings which come to us through the principles taught us through the third angel's message, as we ought? The United States citizens spend an average of forty dollars per capita a year for the things mentioned above. Seventh-day Adventists in the United States average giving to the cause of God in tithes and offerings about three eighths of the means which the third angel's message has taught them to save. This certainly is not a gospel which makes the people poor. It is not a gospel which lays a tax upon those who profess its principles. It comes to us with great fundamental character-building principles, and requires of us strict adherence to right principles, to total abstinence from the use of all intoxicating liquors, narcotics, and harmful drugs and beverages of every nature whatsoever; it teaches us from the Bible, plainness in dress, and simplicity in the food we eat. Thus it brings to us great physical blessings, which our fellows are losing daily, while at the same time it multiplies unto us financial prosperity. It teaches us the economical use of our means; it gives us knowledge to choose wisely the best things for our table and wearing apparel; it educates our tastes so that we do not even desire the extravagant decoration in jewelry and outward adornment that the world strives for. Herein is also a great saving to most of those who believe this message.

Would it be a possibility for us as a people to make our tithes and gifts which we put into the cause of God equal the amount of money which we save through the influence and teachings of the third angel's message? This would nearly triple the amount we are now giving the cause of God. If it were possible for us to rise to this great privilege, what a tremendous impetus it would give to the third angel's message in all parts of the world? It would mean $4,000,000 a year for the cause of God, nearly three times as large a sum as we now give, and all of it, money saved through the blessings which this message brings to us.

I. H. EVANS.