THE SUPPORT OF GOSPEL MINISTERS ACCORDING TO GOD’S PLAN.
By D. T. Bourdeau
HOW SACRED FUNDS ARE GUARDED AND DISTRIBUTED BY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.
As for the tithes, each church has its tithe-treasury, of which a God-fearing man has charge as treasurer. This officer sends the tithes of his church to the treasurer of his local Conference, which is composed of churches in a certain territory. Nine tenths of the amount deposited in the central treasury is retained to sustain the worthy ministers in the local Conference, and the remaining tenth is sent to the treasurer of the General Conference, which is composed of the delegates of the different local Conferences and the proper officers chosen by these delegates. The tenth thus sent to the General Conference treasurer is used to support ministers who engage in general work, and missionaries who are sent to start the work in fields in which no local Conference has yet been organized. The distribution of the funds thus raised, and of those raised by donations for the support of the ministry, is made by faithful, God-fearing men appointed by the Conferences,—men who have had experience in temporal and spiritual things, have contributed to the raising of sacred funds, and who conscientiously regard the principles of equity and equality, not only as applied in giving, but also in appropriating the means received. Read Neh. 13:12–14; 2 Cor. 8:13, 14. No large salary is promised to any minister who enters upon his sacred work, nor to any minister of experience when beginning his year’s work; but faithful, devoted ministers are looked after, as to their temporal wants between the sessions of the Conference; and at the end of the year they are settled with according to their real needs and according to the funds in the treasury. And similar prudence is used in the appropriations of funds for other religious objects. No one church is expected to support one minister with its funds; for in many cases it would be too heavy a burden for the church, and sometimes the minister and his family would suffer from lack of even a moderate support; while in other cases the church would furnish more means than the minister really needs, and ease, covetousness, and selfishness would be encouraged in him, as is, alas! too often the case. The throwing of all the funds of the churches into a common treasury equalizes matters, and encourages a missionary spirit that is not narrowed down to one locality, but is broad, and reaches “regions beyond.” Such a system must commend itself to every reasonable mind; and many persons of other denominations who, not fully understanding it, were at first prejudiced against it, have become predisposed in its favor; and even entire churches have adopted the tithing plan for the support of their ministers, regarding it as far preferable to such unholy means as the holding of church lotteries, the playing on the love of display and show and worldly pleasure, and on the appetite of sinners as well as of professed followers of Christ, at church festivals. Let us be true to the light God has given us, and let the work of reform go on. When the religious movement based on the proximity of Christ’s second coming and the needful preparation to meet it was started, its friends were few, and knew what it was to sacrifice. Like the early Christians at the time of the first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they did immensely more than to pay tithes. They sold their possessions and put the avails in the cause, that God’s messengers might not be retarded in their work of proclaiming the judgment and second-advent message. And we have watched these sacrificing souls, and can certify that none of them ever came to want: on the contrary, they were greatly blessed and prospered, temporally as well as spiritually; and in their experience the truthfulness of these words of the Saviour appeared in bold relief: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men [in this case God and men] give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Luke 6:38. And when the tithing system was presented to these noble pioneers of the second-advent cause, they wept, desiring to give more. But they were told for their encouragement, “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.” Luke 12:33. Let others now come in to participate in the work of giving, that they, too, may at last realize the fulfillment of these precious prophetic words: “Make to yourselves friends [angels are intended] of [or with] the mammon of unrighteousness [property]; that, when ye fail, they [the angels] may receive you into everlasting habitations [the mansions in the New Jerusalem above].” Luke 16:9–11. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. . . . [Then the Lord sends angels after His saints. He says to them:] Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Ps. 50:3–5. See also Matt. 24:30, 31, etc. As might be expected, through the proclamation of the threefold second-advent message of a world-wide application (Rev. 14:6–14; Joel 2:1, etc.), true believers have been added to the pioneers of this glorious religious movement, who have been willing cheerfully to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, and give of their means to sustain an ever-increasing army of gospel laborers, and to build and operate publishing houses, sanitariums, colleges, church schools, etc. And may the believers and supporters of this the best of causes under the sun, and the heaven-ordained agencies to advance it, still increase; for the greater the number of believers and agencies for the prosecution of the work, the sooner the gospel of the kingdom shall have answered its purpose, and the sooner the Redeemer shall come to put an end to sickness, pain, sorrow, perplexities, hatred, persecutions, dissensions, murders, war, and wickedness of every kind, and reward the sacrificing saints of every age. Dear reader, where do you stand as a steward of the talents of means that the Master has intrusted to your care? Are you passing them over to the exchangers, that they may increase by an addition of souls rescued from the dominion and power of sin and Satan and made heirs of the glorious coming kingdom, and that the Lord may receive them with usury at His coming, and say unto you in that great day, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”? Matt. 25:23. Or do you, when the subject of giving is brought before you, complain and murmur against the Lord, calling Him a “hard master”? Do you cling more tenaciously to your property, be it much or little, and hide in the earth the talents of means the Lord has given you? In the day of final reckoning the Lord will pronounce against such this awful sentence: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. . . . And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Verses 26–30. That day is near and hasteth greatly. The duty of giving is far more urgent now than in ages past, or even at the beginning of the present proclamation. Destruction is coming, and but little time is left in which to dispose of earthly possessions and lay up treasures in heaven. When a devastating and conquering army is passing through a country, wise persons transfer their treasures to another country, where they can be preserved for them, and enjoyed by them thereafter. To what better country can our earthly treasures and means be sent than to the heavenly? There we shall, if faithful, surely find them and enjoy them with an increase that we cannot now estimate by figures, during an eternity of endless and incomparable felicity. Where will you stand when probation closes? The plagues of God’s wrath will then be felt by those who have turned a deaf ear to the calls of mercy, and the wicked will suffer hunger. The saints, having perfect faith, will depend wholly upon God for food to maintain their existence, and God will miraculously supply them with bread and water. Read Rev. 14:9; 15:1; 16; 18:14; Isa. 8:21, 22; 33:13–17, etc. Can you expect to live by faith and be miraculously supplied with food then, as was Elijah, if you cannot trust God enough now to respond to His calls for means to help advance His cause on earth? Who went through from Egypt into the promised land? Those who were constantly murmuring and fearing that they and their children would starve by the way, if they went forward? or those who, like Caleb and Joshua, cultivated faith, hope, and courage, and hastened to advance, ready to meet any and every obstacle by the way, and possess the goodly land? When the seventh and last plague shall have been reached, and the voice of God shall shake the heavens and the earth, cause hills and mountains, the cities of the nations, and all human habitations to fall, the islands to be moved out of their places, and the earth’s surface to be all marred and broken up, and the wicked shall cast their gold and their silver to the moles and the bats, and shall, in anguish inconceivable, cry to be hidden from the face of the King of glory, where will you stand? Will you then be among those who have devoted all their energies to accumulating wealth, and have refused to put their means into circulation, that they might bless humanity and help advance the cause of salvation? Such shall see all their property and hoarded wealth destroyed and scattered under the heavy strokes and terrible wrath of retributive justice. Or will you then be able to say, I have sent my property ahead, have laid up a treasure on high, and hail with joy my departure from this sin-cursed earth, to be escorted by Christ and His angels to my enduring home and riches in the kingdom of God? Read Rev. 16:17–21; 6:14–17; Isa. 2:19–22; Jer. 4:23–26; 25:30, 31; Joel 3:16; Zeph. 1:14–18; 2:1, etc.; also Heb. 10:32–34; Revelation 21; 22; Isa. 25:9; Matt. 24:31; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Rev. 19:1; John 14:1–3, etc.