Systematic Benevolence

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 10, 1871

Systematic Benevolence.

We have only words of the highest commendation to write relative to our system of raising means for the support of the cause of God among us. Once Systematic Benevolence was an experiment with us; now it is a demonstration. Twelve years of practical evidences have done more to settle the question with our people, than fifty years of discussion could have done. This system has worked so well with our people that not a few of the younger and smaller denomination are admiring it, and express wishes that it could be introduced with them. We might speak of its equity and efficiency thus:

1. It draws upon the poor man very lightly. As arranged upon our S. B. blank books, the amount of property is set down at the value at which the owner estimates it, and then each brother or sister generally assesses himself or herself two cents per week for each one hundred dollars. This amounts annually to $1.04 on each one hundred dollars, or $10.40 on one thousand dollars. The poor man who owns less than one thousand dollars, by this plan pays less than ten dollars a year.

2. The aged, and the feeble, and widows in humble circumstances, pay one cent a week on each one hundred dollars, if they choose to depart from the general custom. And if they feel clear before God to excuse themselves fully, they are not asked to enter into the arrangement at all, unless the more wealthy and liberal pay into the treasury for them, to be put to their account on the Systematic Benevolence book. This is often done to show respect to the unfortunate, and to cultivate a spirit of tenderness and love among brethren.

3. But while these are excused, the deficiency is made up tenfold by the young who possess real worth in their strength and ability to acquire means. These who have but little, if any, property around them, and yet have real wealth in their physical and mental powers, both male and female, pay from five to fifty cents per week, as a personal, free-will offering, into the treasury of the Lord.

4. The wealthy are the very last class to object to this system. While it does not touch the principal of the rich, neither does it touch nine-tenths of his increase; it calls for only one-tenth of his large increase for the cause of God. We know of no plan to raise means so well calculated to test the covetousness of the wealthy, and leave such without a shadow of an excuse, as the one adopted by Seventh-day Adventists.

5. The moral influence of the system has an important bearing upon the subject. The very name Systematic Benevolence, conveys the idea that what is put into the treasury is a free-will offering. It is not, like legal taxation, a compulsory system. It really is, or should be in every case, systematic benevolence. Those who introduce the subject into a new place, should first, by patiently teaching the people, and appealing to their consciences, bring them up to the point where they will cheerfully enter upon it from choice. What they may give under these circumstances will then be free-will offerings.

The system, properly introduced, and taken hold of in the right spirit, and faithfully carried out, is a perpetual appeal to the consciences of the people of God. It is calculated, not only to encourage true benevolence, but also to secure to the church the spirit of unity, and the simplicity of the pure religion of Jesus Christ.

In contrast with this, we notice the corrupting influence of church festivals to raise means to advance the interests of the church. The unsanctified crowd is generally attracted to these festivals, either to gratify morbid taste, in the use of those things which are a violation of the laws of life, or to gratify a still more corrupted moral taste for the fun and frolic of such occasions. And all this physical and moral wrong to advance the cause of Jesus Christ!

The two leading passions of the people of the present age are appetite, and an uncontrollable delight in the pleasure of sport and fun. These two strong passions are seized upon by the popular church, and are carried to almost any length to advance the popular interests. And the results, the terrible results, are so apparent, that many leading men among the popular ministry, are becoming frightened.

The baneful influence of these things upon the piety, and even the morals of the youthful members of the church, no pen can portray. Christian liberality for the benefit of the Lord’s poor in particular, and suffering humanity in general, and hearty and conscientious free-will offerings cast into the treasury to advance the cause of Jesus Christ, are matters of grave importance. They are designed, not only for the benefit that may arise from such liberalities themselves, but for the sanctifying influence these very gifts may have upon the consciences and hearts and lives of the givers.

But in the popular festivals, all this is lost upon the donors. These gatherings, prompted by the gratifications of appetite, or from love of the entertaining sports of religious dissipation, are calculated to blunt all moral sense of duty to the needy, or to support the cause of Christianity. And if these things are continued, it will be seen that the larger portion of the members of the churches will give only when led to do so by unsanctified love for morbid appetite, and unholy delights.

It is evident that these abominations have been carried on in the several churches to that extent, that some are becoming frightened, and the tide is beginning to turn. Should any succeed, however, in getting back to old positions and practices, they will find themselves morally weakened, and then will see what they have lost in departing from the simplicity of the gospel. The National Baptist says:—

“A Baptist church in Massachusetts has recently erected a new house of worship, and in accordance with a custom somewhat prevalent in that section, at least, has held a three-days’ fair, to aid in paying the bills. Among other attractions of the fair, the published programme presents the following:

“On the afternoon of Wednesday there will be an EXHIBITION OF BABIES in one of the anterooms of the vestry. Admission 15c.

“Babies utilized for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom, and the salvation of the world! Verily, this is an age of progress! Perhaps we should rather say it is a return to the primitive things. ‘Children crying in the temple!’ ‘Praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings!’ It is foretold that ‘the gold of Sheba,’ the wealth of the heathen, shall be given to Christ. To accomplish this, to secure the riches of the unbelieving, is the great object of all church fairs. It is foretold, moreover, that the church ‘shall suck the milk of the Gentiles.’ How appropriate that babies should be employed for this! Is there not, moreover, in this incident, an important doctrinal bearing? Is it not in part, at least, answering that question which Dr. Robinson, at the recent anniversaries in Boston, declared is now agitating all Pedo-Baptists—‘What shall we do with the baby?’ Will not Pedo-Baptists be indebted to us for solving their perplexing problem, What is the position of the children of church-members in the church? Nay, if new-born infants can do so much for the church and the cause of the gospel, ought we not, as Baptists, to review our position on original sin, and perhaps look with more favor upon infant baptism?

“How these fairs are developing the resources of the church! Our fathers, poor, simple souls, little dreamed that so many means might be devised for the extension of the truth and the regeneration of men. Auctions, ring-cakes, post-offices, grab-bags, fishing-ponds, lotteries, and who knows what beside, are now part of the machinery of the gospel. At a church fair, not long since, a prize was offered for the best shot with bow and arrow. The pastor of the church hit the bull’s-eye and took the prize. A daily paper chronicled the event, adding the pious wish that ‘his arrows of truth may always go as straight to the hearts of his hearers.’ Several times we have known a church at its fair to offer a silver service, or some other valuable prize, to the most popular clergyman of the city—popularity being decided by vote. Hundreds of dollars were thus brought into the Lord’s treasury.

“Not long since, at a church fair in a rural city, where there were rival manufacturing corporations, employing several thousand hands, a prize was offered to the most popular employer. Intense excitement was aroused. Fresh bulletins at the door of the hall each half hour announced how the vote stood. Almost at the last moment, one corporation took a hundred dollars’ worth of votes, and thus carried the day. And now, as the latest improvement, we have a baby-show for the advancement of the cause of Christ! How beautifully we are learning to obey the apostle’s command, ‘Let all things be done unto edifying’—edifying, that is, in the literal sense of house-building.

“Perhaps, however, we have not yet done all that might be done in this line with advantage. At a recent fair in Lubec, Germany, it is said that placards announced that the young ladies in charge of the tables would sell kisses at so much a piece. Gentlemen who proposed to invest were offered sheets of tinted paper, on each of which the damsel to whom they applied informed them that she had left a kiss. Why may not the plan be adopted in the church fairs of this country, the kisses being received, not at second hand, but directly? Perhaps our young ladies would not object to it, or, if they should, might readily overcome their scruples with the thought that it would be a sacrifice in the cause of the gospel. Might not ‘lip service’ thus become real devotion? At another fair, not long since, there were tableaux, in which it is said that some of the female figures seemed to be crawling out of their dresses, outstripping even the fashionable evening costume. Might not this be more extensively introduced with profit? We have heard what success has attended such exhibitions in the White Fawn, and the Black Crook. Of course, there it was immoral—so are lotteries, as a general thing—but in a church fair, we all know it is different. It would be a display of female grace; and for a church to exhibit grace must be always appropriate. Other similar plans for raising money to spread the gospel might be, and doubtless will be, discovered.

“But perhaps we have jested too much already. In truth, this is a matter not so much for jesting as for serious thoughts and words. In such schemes to raise money for the cause of Christ, we may have shown the wisdom of the serpent, but have we shown the harmlessness of the dove? Is it harmless that a church of Christ should support his cause, in part, by the tricks of auctioneers, showmen, and by shrewd business speculation, saying practically that Christ’s kingdom is of this world? Is it harmless that she should pander to the abuse of the appetite, inviting men to late suppers, over-eating, unlimited indulgence in turkey, oysters, ice creams, and every luxury, for Christ’s sake? Is it harmless that, having taught the children not to spend their pennies for candy, but save them for the missionaries, she should then open a candy shop and urge them to gorge themselves with sweetmeats, for the good of the church of Christ? Is it harmless that she should spread the gospel by rivaling Barnum in his baby-shows? Is it harmless that she should call by the sacred names of charity and benevolence that which is extorted from men by artifice or expended by them in self-gratification? Is it harmless that she should raise money for the cause of religion by lotteries and similar operations, which have all the essentials of gambling, and in many sections, at least, are so recognized by civil law? Is it harmless that she should act upon the Jesuitical principle that the end justifies the means, and give men occasion to say, not slanderously, as in Paul’s time, but truly, that Christians ‘do evil that good may come’? Is it harmless that she should set a trap and catch the devil, and persuade him to lend a hand in drawing forward the ark of God? We have been told that a confirmed and well-known gambler has often said that he took his first lesson in gambling at a Church fair. We can well believe it.

“Let the church of Christ be sustained by the free-will offerings of his people, given from love to him. All else will do more harm than good. Better that a church worship under the open sky, than in a house built or furnished by means which the gospel condemns. If a church cannot live without resort to artifice, chicanery, and speculation, let it glorify God by dying as soon as possible. ‘Thou shalt not bring the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God.’

The Detroit Tribune gives the proceedings of a convention held in the First Baptist church in East Saginaw, Mich., Jan., 1871, in which this subject was warmly treated by Mr. Bangs and others as reported under the following captions:—

THE EFFECT UPON CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE OF THE MODERN EXPEDIENTS FOR RAISING MONEY.

“I cannot better present the subject, said Mr. Bangs, than by a contrast of the scriptural plan with the modern church expedients. Man is God’s steward; he can claim nothing as his right. Tithes and sacrifices were rendered to God in the patriarchal age. The firstlings of the flocks and the first fruit of the field, with one-tenth of all the increase belonged to the service of God, and his approval is recorded for our instruction. Traces of this divine arrangement have been found among all heathen nations in every period of the world’s history. Perverted by their mythology, they still continue their tithing. According to the Mosaic law the least asked was one-tenth, while the wealthy were required to give according to the wants and necessities of the church. The tendency of the plan is to secure an honest calculation of the amount, an important consideration when we remember the power of human selfishness to pervert the judgment. Next, the apostolic rule requires that every one give something; the rich from their abundance, the poor, their mites. The example of the church at Macedonia, sanctioned as it was, amounts to a command. It shows what can be done, and how it can be done, as well as what ought to be done.

“Other expedients assume multitudinous forms, such as festivals, oyster suppers, ice cream, strawberry, and neck-tie socials, etc., ad infinitum. I do not object to the rich feeding the poor, but this modern plan makes the whole thing irregular: some are compelled to pay too much, while many others pay nothing. These plans ignore the idea of rendering to God what is his due. Every one expects a compensation for what he gives, and grumbles if he does not get it. A few do the work and pay the expenses. This creates more selfishness than benevolence. Another effect of these affairs is to cut off the aged members from contributing. The infirmities of age, and loss of love for such gatherings, produce the result that they do nothing. We plead against them another and more fearful charge. Each does not give as God has prospered him. The poor must give as much as the rich, or be excluded from the privilege of giving at all, or from the enjoyment of the gathering. There can be no difference in the prices of suppers or neck-ties. No one gives, each expects an equivalent. This renders the money supply of the church scanty and uncertain. Is it wise to continue a system which produces such poor results? What can be done to remedy the evil? The answer is, to educate the people according to the Scriptures on the subject of benevolence. Distinguish properly between self-interest, personal or community profit, and pure benevolence. Thus, and thus only, shall we give a right direction to legitimate efforts.

DISCUSSION OF THE TOPIC.

“Rev. Geo. Jachan, of Washtenaw county, thought that all grab-bag socials, etc., were no better than gambling.

“Rev. J. H. McCarty, of Adrian, thought that it was doubtful whether the State could be brought up to that high standard. He presented for the edification and instruction of the convention, some figures. Fifty members giving 50 cents a week, and 100 members giving 25 cents a week, and 50 members giving 10 cents a week for a year, would make $3,120 from a church of 200 members. A church of 300 members giving 50 cents a week, would raise 7,800, in a year. He said that the experience of church socials had, in East Saginaw, been the almost total destruction of theatrical and minstrel shows. The young would rather go to these socials than to the public halls. He was not sure it would be good policy to give up these socials.

“Rev. Geo. Duffield, of Saginaw city, said that they should ask twice; first of God and second of man, in Christ’s name. While we have church socials, how is it with the social prayer-meeting? When the church social empties the theater by taking its place, he must protest against it in God’s name. The stumbling-block in the way of many sinners is the fact that professing Christians are not willing to use their money for God.”