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Ministerial Support

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 8, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 40.

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Ministerial Support

By H. W. Cottrell

H. W. COTTRELL
The tithe of the land—seed, herb, and fruit—is the Lord’s. The heavens are retained by him as his; but the earth he has given for possession unto the children of men, reserving unto himself the tithe of its increase.
The tithe of the income of the property of saint and sinner is equally the Lord’s. This he retained from the beginning. That person who does not reverence the Lord by returning to him his portion of that over which he has been made steward, is very ungrateful.
From nothing the Lord created and formed the earth, and supplied herb, seed, and fruit. He then formed man. He gave him life, strength, and ability to reason. He placed life in herb, seed, and fruit, and to them man can add nothing.
He placed the gold, silver, and all the valuable metals in the earth, and gave man the ability to gather them, retaining as his portion the small pittance of one tenth. God is the head of the firm. He has furnished all. He supplies the material for saw, hammer, machine, and telephone. He also contributes wood, coal, shade, and sunshine, also the rain. He supplies rest to weary mind and physical frame. The steward furnishes nothing. The Lord supplies all, and awakens man every morning.
The tithe is the Lord’s. Have we given him who never errs in judgment, and whose eyes never slumber nor sleep, his own? “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. . . . 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.”
The soul that accepts Christ and walks in the counsel of his word, is not sufficiently large to receive the spiritual blessing poured upon him from heaven’s windows. The Lord further promised to “rebuke the devourer” for the sake of his children. Heaven’s bank of both spiritual and temporal blessings is unlocked in the interest of his faithful and trusting child.
Will man, who furnishes nothing, and receives nine tenths, “rob God,” who furnishes all, of the one tenth? It is a sad thing for a man to deal unfairly with his fellow men, but how much greater the wrong for him to deal thus with God.
The tithe should be placed in the storehouse. All understand what it is to deposit wheat, barley, and other grains in a storehouse, or to place household effects in a storehouse. An individual can not apply the tithe at will to this interest or that, and take credit to himself as being a donor to a good cause. One can not justly give away that which was never his own. The tithe is sacred to the support of the ministry,and should be placed in the treasury of the church. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.”
The man who places in the treasury less than his tithe, does not pay tithe. He who places in the “storehouse” a larger sum, robs not the Lord in either tithes or offerings. The Lord made the seventh-day Sabbath, and the tithe, holy unto himself.