THE SUPPORT OF GOSPEL MINISTERS ACCORDING TO GOD’S PLAN.
By D. T. Bourdeau
And following the testimony of the Lord on tithes and offerings, are these words, which we have uniformly believed to be applicable to God’s faithful children who fear and obey Him at the very time He speaks on tithes and offerings, and when God is about to make up His jewels and spare and save them at the opening of the terrible day of the Lord:— “Then [when the subject of tithes and offerings is being agitated] they that feared the Lord [and consequently obeyed Him] spake often one to another [their hearts are filled with good things, and they bear a free testimony, because they obey the Lord on tithes and offerings, etc.]: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven. . . . Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Mal. 3:16–18; 4:1–5. Here Elijah represents, typically, John the Baptist, and antitypically, emphatically, those who will engage in a reformatory, converting work answering to that of Elijah and that of John the Baptist. Read Mal. 4:5, 6; Luke 1:13–17; Matt. 17:11, 12; James 5:7, 8, 17–20; Isa. 56:1–7; 58:12, 13; 1 Kings 17–19. Does not the Lord, by thus placing what He here says on tithes and offerings, between prophetic utterances bringing us not only to the first advent, but also between that event and the second advent, and when the terrible day of the Lord is about to come, say to us: What I say on tithes and offerings I say especially to you who are living near the second coming of my Son? It is palpably evident that such is the case. Therefore it is a sad fact that there has been in this time of great light and temporal and spiritual blessings, a robbing of God in tithes and offerings, and God has been displeased, and brings out the fact that a curse rests upon those who pursue such a course. Such must reap the fruit of their covetousness and selfishness—barrenness of soul and destitution of spiritual blessings, and, not infrequently, a blasting of temporal prospects. How can such enjoy largely of spiritual blessings while robbing God of that which He justly claims as His own to give to His ministers, that they may do the work He has assigned them for the salvation of their fellow beings? And how can those who are unwilling to furnish the means God would have them to help carry on such a glorious work, be said to have a missionary spirit? How can they take the interest they should in a work for the furtherance of which they are unwilling to give the means that God requires at their hands? How can persons, narrowed down, perverted and enslaved by covetousness and selfishness, expect to receive a large measure of God’s Spirit and divine help whereby they can render to God that service and obedience that He requires,—the service and obedience from the heart, with all the powers of body and mind, prompted by supreme love to God and equal love to man? Does the one gospel, the one plan of salvation that God has provided for every age of human probation, require, on the point of giving, a smaller measure of love and gratitude under the present dispensation than it did under former ones? Does it require less means to support the ministry when time is short, and there is much for ministers to do in a short time, than it did in ages before the first advent of our Saviour? GREAT BLESSINGS AWAITING THOSE WHO PAY TITHES AND OFFERINGS.
Great blessings await those who heed what God says on tithes and offerings. God thus speaks on this point: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Mal. 3:10. Opening the windows of heaven and pouring out a blessing in a literal sense, would be causing it to rain. Doing this in a spiritual sense would be sending to and bestowing upon the believing and obedient ones the Holy Spirit. Rain and dew are emblematical of the Holy Spirit. “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive . . .]” John 7:38, 39. “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” Isa. 44:3. And the Lord, speaking through David on “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (the very thing that early Christians did when they received the bountiful effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1), says, “It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments [anciently the Spirit of God rested upon priests and kings when oil was poured upon them in setting them apart to their respective offices. 1 Samuel 10, etc. And David continues]; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing [which must include the Spirit of God], even life for evermore.” Psalm 133. How plain it is that the pouring out of a blessing, “that there shall not be room enough to receive,” which the Lord in Mal. 3:10 holds out as an inducement to bring in the tithes and offerings, means a special effusion of the Holy Spirit. This is nothing else than the sending of the latter rain to those who ask for it “in the time of the latter rain,” just before the final “harvest,” the end of the world. Zech. 10:1;438Matt. 13:39. Those who receive the refreshing showers of this bountiful rain, or refreshing, shall have grass in their fields, plenty of new and old truths to feast upon; “they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as corners of the altar;” they shall have plenty of spiritual “corn” and “new wine to make them cheerful.” They “shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord;” and speedily shall they do the work assigned them; for it is written: “For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” Of course, God’s people will be the visible agents through whom this work shall be done. Zech. 10:1; 9:15–17; 10:7; Rom. 9:28, etc. But to receive the latter rain, we must “ask” for it; but to receive what we ask for we must not only believe that we shall have what we ask for, we must also exercise a living faith, a faith that is seen in good works (James 2), in the keeping of the commandments of God and in the doing of those things that are pleasing in God’s sight. Therefore the beloved apostle says, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:22. And surely bringing in the tithes and offerings is pleasing in the sight of God. It is therefore clearly evident that those who pay their tithes and offerings, as God would have them, actuated by right motives, will keep God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus; in fine, they will do all those things that God enjoins upon them in His word. They will place a proper estimate on life and health, and will live healthfully. They will be neat and tasty, yet plain, in their attire, will aim to live economically, and will cheerfully deny themselves of those beverages and articles of diet that are injurious to health, dispose of them, and put their equivalent in cash into the Lord’s treasury. It is not therefore strange that God should open the windows of heaven unto those who bring their tithes and offerings into His treasury, with right motives, and pour them out such a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. He well knows (and we should also know) that He makes so much depend upon the proper fulfillment of this duty because those who do properly fulfill it will regard all the duties enjoined upon them in Holy Writ. And this is not all that God will do for those who render unto Him their tithes and offerings: He also promises them temporal blessings. He says: “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed.” Mal. 3:11, 12. And this prophecy has more than once been fulfilled in our own day, as have also these other scriptures:— “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Prov. 11:24, 25. “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Prov. 3:9, 10. “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (as it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; He hath given to the poor: His righteousness remaineth forever. Now He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness); being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.” 2 Cor. 9:6, 8–11.