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Time as an Offering

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 51.

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Time as an Offering

By Max Hill

MAX HILL
“FROM the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you.”
“Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God?”
“Yet ye rob me.”
“Wherein have we robbed thee?”
“In tithes and offerings.”
We quote the passage in Malachi to show that, of the means entrusted to us, God desires and demands more than the bare tenth; but he calls for “tithes and offerings.” The history of the past has demonstrated that the giving of offerings has resulted in great blessing to the givers, both spiritual and financial. By giving, God’s people have tested the promises he has made, that he will open the storehouse of heaven and shower down blessings in abundance.
But God demands more than a portion of our means. He demands a certain portion of our time; “the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” And is this all? Does he expect only this one portion of time to be devoted to him and his service? This much belongs to him; it is not a gift from us. Shall there be no “offering” of time as well as of means? There was anciently. The application of this argument is evident when we speak of the yearly gatherings of the people of God at camp-meetings, conferences, and conventions.
But there is another “offering” of time which is sadly neglected, to the detriment of the individuals as well. This is the weekly prayer-meeting. We meet on the Sabbath, and we think our duty performed; but that is only our duty according to the letter of the law. The spirit of the law demands an offering.
If the prayer-meeting is dull, do we sense the responsibility resting upon us to make it bright and helpful? If a few faithful sisters are the only ones who love their Master enough to make him an offering of their own time, they are the only ones who may hope for the spiritual blessings he has promised. And it may be that they are the only ones of whom it is said: “They shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Their records are in heaven, for “they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah harkened and heard; and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.” Then will they see and receive the reward for their faithfulness in rendering unto God his own Sabbath and tithe “and offerings.”
Mountain View, Cal.