p. 11 | An Important Question by S. N. Carnahan

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1903

An Important Question

By S. N. Carnahan

S. N. CARNAHAN.

How should we reckon the tithe in order that every church member may have due credit for doing his duty, and not be judged as guilty of robbing God? Perhaps one reason there is not a better showing as to the number of church members paying tithe is due to the fact that many of the members, being minors and having no personal income, are left out of the count, even when their fathers have paid tithe. May this not, too often, be the case with the man's wife also? She may sometimes have some eggs or butter to sell, or may take in some cash for sewing or washing, and pay her tithe out of that, and thus be counted as paying tithe. Some of the boys or girls in the family may pay their tenth out of occasional earnings, and be reported as tithe payers. Or it may be that the younger members, and perhaps their mother also, have had no earnings they could really call their own, and the husband and father paid the tithe, and he only is recorded as doing so. But should not his wife and children, if they are in harmony with the system of tithe paying, be regarded also as tithe payers; for did not they help in the general work about the house and garden, and in caring for the stock, and raising the crops, etc.?

Again: some sister, in full harmony with this duty, may have a husband who is out of the truth, and bitterly opposed to her using for this purpose any of the money he furnishes her. She may seldom have an opportunity to earn any means, and can pay tithe only on this small pittance. Should not she be recognized as a tithe payer?

Now as to what constitutes a true tithe. This puzzles many. The Bible clearly states that the tithe should be one tenth of the increase. Lev. 27:30. So if a person puts in a crop of wheat himself and markets it himself, the only expense he ought to count out is the cost of seed, and the reaping and threshing if he had to hire them done. The gain, or increase, would be the remainder. Or if a family plants two bushels of potatoes, and raises twenty bushels, they would have eighteen bushels to pay tithe on, even if they kept them all for their own use; for if the Lord gives us our food and raiment, we should pay him one tenth. This is surely his plan (see Gen. 28:20, 22), and it would be well for us to be faithful in carrying it out in the spirit and to the letter (Matt. 23:23; Mal. 3:8-11); and let every member of the family, especially those who are church members, have an interest and be counted in it.