General Conference Proceedings by W. T. Knox; H. E. Osborne

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1903

General Conference Proceedings

By W. T. Knox; H. E. Osborne

Twenty-second Meeting

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2 P. M.

THE first part of the meeting was occupied with the discussion of resolutions relating to the work in the Southern field, which were adopted. These resolutions were printed in the REVIEW of April 21.

The sixteenth recommendation of the Committee on Plans was then taken up.

16. We recommend, That all conferences and mission fields recognize the tithe as the inheritance of God's ministers, and that an allowance be granted from the tithe to properly support sick or aged laborers, also the dependent widows and orphans of those removed by death.

R. A. Underwood: I know of some cases — I could mention them — of our brethren who have died, fallen at their post, leaving widows and children. These widows and orphans have struggled for years, some of them under most trying circumstances, with sickness and death in their families; and they have received no help. Sometimes ministers have been moved about over the world until they break down in a field where they have labored but a little while, perhaps in some poor conference that does not see why it should assume support for the little time it has received service. It seems to me that the General Conference itself has some responsibility under this resolution.

A. G. Haughey: I do not want to be understood as not favoring the support of the ministry, but I must confess that I believe that, if a minister is no longer able to do ministerial work, he should be supported, but not from the tithe. I believe a special fund should be created for that purpose. I believe this according to the last chapter of Volume VII of the Testimonies.

D. E. Lindsey: I am heartily in favor of this recommendation. Some provision of this kind should have been made years ago. I can not see why a man should cease to be a priest when he gets old, or why he should cease to be a minister of the gospel when he gets old. I believe the tithe is the proper fund to care for the Lord's ministry.

A. G. Daniels: I have felt very keenly that as a denomination we ought to take a stand on this question, and have a general understanding, so that there will be no question anywhere in the world regarding what shall be done in such cases. We started in two years ago, with a committee, to study out some plan. I was on that committee, and I tried to study out a plan for a fund. I studied and studied what kind of a tax we could put on the preachers, or on the people, or on institutions, to create a fund. I finally fell back on the tithe as the inheritance of God's ambassadors. [Voices: “Amen.”] So I abandoned the idea of creating a fund. I am quite aware of what Brother Haughey has referred to. But that does not preclude this idea of the tithe being that fund. Before this Conference opened, I presented the matter to the General Conference Committee when Sister White was present; and I said that, after studying the subject the best I knew how during the two years, this was the only plan that I could see that would be workable, and Sister White gave her unqualified approval and assent to that idea. Now I feel anxious that we shall take this up in our union conferences all over the world, and have it well understood by all the Seventh-day Adventists in the world that the tithe is the inheritance of the ambassadors of God, and that they can throw their lives into this work, and can devote their donations to this work, and can wear themselves out, and have an inheritance laid up with God's people. I do not want to lay up money in a bank or possess a foot of land until I get a share of Abraham's inheritance. And there are many who share that feeling. I am looking to see God's work finished before I get too old to labor. But I want to see this understanding prevail as to broken workers who have thrown their all into service.

And further: when a minister dies, what about his widow and his children who have not a competency left? I say that the conference to whose service his life has been devoted should see that that dependent widow and those children are cared for just as though that ambassador of God was living and working. He has put all his means and his life into that work, and he has an inheritance laid up there for his wife and children. Just as far as consistent, we should assist the widow and the children to earn a living; and if this is made possible in a reasonable and proper way, let the assistance drop.

And when we do it, our brethren and sisters will be pleased. They love our ministers; they are loyal; they will do it. I believe, brethren, that when our people hear that we take this action to care for our ministers, and that we plan to send our tithes as far as possible into new fields, leaving them to carry on the work in their immediate vicinities, we shall appeal to them to pay a full tithe in stronger language than we can in any other way.

Another thought: I believe it should be taught all the time that every minister should be an earnest, zealous, wide-awake minister, to receive the tithe; that a minister must throw his life into the work; he must aspire to something; he must study; he must be a strenuous worker in this cause. And if he is careless, if he does not take hold and work, and devote himself, he is not worthy to receive the tithe; but the true minister who is deserving of the tithe while he is well, is the man who is deserving of it when he is sick, and whose wife and children deserve it when he is dead.

H. Shultz: The priest's wife and children ate of the same things that he did, and obtained it from the tithe. The families of our ministers should live of that which the ministers live of. That is God's plan. We see many of them falling around us, and at our General Conferences we pass resolutions expressing our sympathy for those who remain. I have heard it said time and again, Sympathy does not amount to anything without something in your hands to help. That is the way to sympathize with those who are in need.

The series of recommendations was then voted upon, as amended, and carried.

Meeting adjourned to 7 P. M., April 11.

W. T. KNOX, Chairman.

H. E. OSBORNE, Secretary.