An Arithmetic Lesson by T. H. Jeys

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1916

An Arithmetic Lesson

By T. H. Jeys

T. H. JEYS

Do you remember the old school days? Can you recall the explanations and analyses? And do you think the exercises of the mathematics class have no reference to life's great problems? Let us consider an arithmetic lesson which touches one of the vital problems of Christian life:—

TEACHER: Class in decimal fractions, take your places. T. PAYER, you may recite first. Please solve this problem, and announce your result: A man has a farm of forty acres, on which he raises wheat, 15 bushels to the acre, which he sells at $1 a bushel. He pays $60 for fertilizer and $40 for hired help; what should his tithe be?

T. PAYER: Forty acres of land yielding 15 bushels of wheat an acre would make a total yield of 600 bushels. This, at one dollar a bushel, would give $600. His income is $600, less the expense and hired help. This equals $100. Six hundred dollars less $100 equals $500. The tithe of $500 equals $50. Therefore he should pay $50 tithe.

TEACHER: Your reasoning and answer are correct. T. DODGER, you may recite. What should be the tithe of a man who runs a grocery store, and does a $4,000 business during the year?

T. DODGER: A man who thus deals, loses much by bad debts and accounts, his money is tied up in his business, and he can't tell what he should pay. He should simply pay tithe on what he can spare, or not at all.

TEACHER: Dodger, your reasoning and answer are both wrong. They show that you have not yet got hold of the real principle of tithe paying. You may go to your seat and study your lesson, I. N. DIFFERENT may now recite. What would be your answer to the question?

I. N. DIFFERENT: Why, I don't think it will make any great amount of difference. If a man does the best he can, that is all he can do.

TEACHER: I see that you, too, have wasted your time. You and Dodger have doubtless been sitting together, and you have been studying how to avoid the necessity of tithe paying, rather than seeking the truth with reference to it. You, too, may pass to your seat. B. F. AITHFUL, you may answer the question.

B. F. AITHFUL: The man should average his per cent of profit. If he sells on an average of twenty-per-cent gain, he has gained 20 per cent of $4,000, or $800. Therefore he should pay one tenth of $800, or $80.

TEACHER: You are right. That student who says he doesn't know what the tithe should be, shows that he has not got his lesson. X. P. DITIOUS, you may quickly tell what is a man's income who pays $2.50 tithe a year.

X. P. DITIOUS: If he pays an honest tithe, $2.50 will be one tenth of his whole income. If $2.50 is one tenth, ten tenths will be ten times $2.50, or $25.

TEACHER: Correctly answered. I see that Q. U. EARY'S hand is up. Did you wish to ask a question?

Q. U. EARY: Yes; how can it be possible for a man to live and support a family on $25? Is there not room for supposing that the man has failed to pay a full tithe?

TEACHER: A very just observation. But you will notice that the answer was, “If he pays an honest tithe.”

I. N. DIFFERENT: [Aside in a whisper to Dodger] I wish the teacher would pass over this subject. I'm in a hurry to get to interest, or taxes, or profit and loss. I don't see any use in spending so much time on this.

DODGER: [Also in a whisper] Yes, I'm sick of hearing all this long talk and analysis. I don't see what good will come of it anyway.

TEACHER: [Noticing the dark looks and disorderly conduct] If you would each spend more time in diligent study of the lesson, you would soon be more proficient in your recitations. [To the entire class] This is a subject of the greatest importance. Upon its proper understanding depends a proper doing; and thereupon hangs either the enjoyment or the loss of the greatest blessings. See that you diligently prepare your minds to know the truth, for thus only can you make real advancement. If you neglect this matter, you run a very great risk of a dismal failure in the final examination.

I will now give you a problem in profit and loss to study over until the next recitation: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”