THE SUPPORT OF GOSPEL MINISTERS ACCORDING TO GOD'S PLAN.
By D. T. Bourdeau
RELATION OF INTERESTING CASES.
The relation of a few cases in fulfillment of these scriptures may not be out of place:— In one of the Western States of the American Union, a brother had become so worldly minded that he ignored the financial claims the Lord had upon him, and devoted scarcely any time to reading the Bible and attending to private and family devotions. In his extra exertions to perform his work and make money, he became nervous, and did not take time to notice what was happening around him. One day he was riding on a reaper which buzzed in passing through the grain, and the scythe cut off the leg of a young horse worth three hundred dollars. The next Sabbath he confessed in tears, and turned a new leaf. There was a brother in one of the north-western States who was faithful in paying his dues to God, and lived a consistent Christian life. The grasshopper plague ruined the crops of all his neighbors who were established around him. Their farms were adjoining his, and no natural object intervened between those farms and his to obstruct the passage of grasshoppers, yet these insects went around his farm and crops, causing devastation in every direction. This wonderful circumstance was published far and near. About one century ago, Pastor Oberlin, of the French National or Presbyterian persuasion, was doing a good work in evangelizing the inhabitants of Le Ban-De-Laroche, Alsace, France (now Germany). He discerned and taught that the tithing system should be regarded, and some of his converts adopted it. Twenty-six years ago I was laboring among the French in Illinois, and two Frenchmen, who descended from converts of Father Oberlin, were among my hearers, and were soundly converted by present truth. Retaining the convictions they had received through the instruction of their parents and others, they began to pay their tithes, returning to the Lord an exact tenth of all their income. At that time both of these brethren were heavily in debt. Four years after their conversion, I visited them at the time of corn-picking. One of them took me to his cornfield, and said, with tears of gratitude: “See those tall corn-stalks, making one think of hemlock trees! See the big ears they bear! My corn brings me seventy-five bushels to the acre. That of my neighbor’s, on the other side of the fence, has grown on as good black soil as mine, has received as good attention as mine has, but it brings only twenty-five bushels to the acre. He has not paid his tithes. I have given every tenth bushel to the Lord. I am out of debt, and have money ahead.” The other brother, who also faithfully paid tithes, had as interesting a narrative to relate. He had been greatly blessed in temporal things, and had freely contributed of his means for the support of the cause in his own Conference, in France, etc. Such cases might be greatly multiplied. WHAT THE TITHING SYSTEM ASKS; ITS ANTIQUITY AND POSSIBILITIES.
The tithing system requires that we give to the Lord a tenth part of our increase—of all that God gives us. Jacob understood this when he said to the Lord, “Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” Gen. 28:22. And the amount he was to give was not decided upon accidentally in a haphazard way. No; he had learned God’s plan through his father, Isaac, who had been taught it by his father, Abraham. And Abraham did not invent it. Nor did it originate in his day. In paying his tithes to Melchisedec, the true type and representative of Christ, Abraham did not carry out a new order from the Lord. Nothing of the kind is stated, or even intimated, by the inspired record. Moses is very explicit in showing that circumcision was instituted at a certain epoch in the days of Abraham. Not so of the tithing system, whose origin antedates the practice of Abraham in paying tithes. The word of God informs us of the fact that the gospel was preached to and received by Abraham; but it does not state that it originated in the days of Abraham. We all know it did not. The same is true of the tithing system, which was needed and existed for the support of gospel ministers before Abraham’s day, as it has been needed and has existed for the same purpose since Abraham was a pilgrim on the earth. Therefore, the following words, written by an author of several eminently practical religious works, are most truthful:— “The tithing system did not originate with the Hebrews. From the earliest times the Lord claimed a tithe as His, and this claim was recognized and honored. Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec, the priest of the most high God. Jacob, when at Bethel, an exile and wanderer, promised the Lord, ‘Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.’ As the Israelites were about to be established as a nation, the law of tithing was reaffirmed, as one of the divinely ordained statutes upon obedience to which their prosperity depended.” See article of Mrs. E. G. White, in REVIEW AND HERALD of Sept. 10, 1889. God ordained the paying of tithes for the support of the ministry, and for nothing else. Anciently those who had appropriated their tithes for another purpose were required of God to “add thereunto the fifth part thereof,”—twenty per cent,—thus returning to the Lord His own, with interest sufficiently high to serve as a safeguard against robbing God and His ministers. In harmony with the principles couched in this requirement of the Lord, the writer of the words quoted above says: “The Lord has not left the disposal of the tithe to you, to be given or withheld as your inclination may dictate.”—Review and Herald, Dec. 17, 1889. It is not right to use the tithe even for454defraying the incidental expenses of the church. In a “Special Testimony,” written in August, 1896, the same writer, speaking on this point, says:— “I was shown that it is wrong to use the tithe for defraying the incidental expenses of the church. In this there has been a departure from correct methods. It would be far better to dress less expensively, cut down your indulgences, practice self-denial, and meet these outgoings. By so doing you will have a clear conscience. But you are robbing God every time you put your hand into the treasury for funds to meet the running expenses of the church. Ministers who could do a most precious work are out of the field because there is no money to sustain them. Those who dare to reduce the means to be used for supporting the ministry, may see the sure result in the warnings given by Malachi.”