OUR BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH GOD.
By Daniel T. Bourdeau
Text: “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Matt. 22:21. These words of the Saviour teach us that God has claims upon our property, as well as Cæsar; that while it is right to render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, it is equally our duty to render unto God the things that are God’s. Indeed, God has the first claims upon us. We pay our taxes to earthly governments in consideration of the fact that they throw their protection around our persons, our lives, our property, etc. We give of our means to sustain God’s cause in consideration of the fact that God is the author of our existence, and that we owe our property and all our blessings to him. God is the author of our property, and it is God who hath given us power to get wealth. Deut. 8:18. Though “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof,” yet we are placed stewards over the property that we have, and are amenable to God for the manner in which we use it. We are not our own, but have been bought with a price, and the ransom that has been paid for our redemption calls upon us to dedicate ourselves and all that we have to God, to advance the interests of his cause on earth. Paul uses the example of Christ as a motive for Christians to sacrifice in his cause: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” 2 Cor. 8:9. How small our greatest sacrifices appear in view of the sacrifice Christ made for us! Yet we should show an appreciation of what Christ has done by sacrificing of our means for the salvation of our fellow-men. All that we possess cannot pay the debt that we owe to God; and should he require all of our means to advance his cause, in the light of the debt we owe to divine justice, we should have no reason to complain; for “to obey is better than sacrifice,” and all our sacrifices cannot cancel our acts of disobedience in the past. But God is merciful as well as just; therefore he does not require us to give all our property directly in his cause. Anciently he required of his people one-tenth of their increase, and this did not deprive them of the privilege of making other voluntary offerings. And are not our blessings under the gospel as great as those enjoyed by God’s ancient people? Does it require less to sustain the gospel in its closing work, when time is so short, and there is so much to be accomplished in warning the world and preparing a people for translation, than it did to sustain the cause among the Jews? So reasonable is the tithing system that sinners have been known to make it a rule to give one-tenth of their increase for religious purposes. Christ indorsed the tithing system in saying, “These [paying tithes] ought ye to have done,” Matt. 23:23; and the prophet Malachi, speaking of the duty of the church before “the day cometh that shall burn as an oven,” etc., says: “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.” Mal. 3:10. The principles of the tithing system are embraced in the system that Paul recommends in the following words: “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” 1 Cor. 16:1, 2. If this plan were carried out by all who profess Christianity, we would not hear of donation parties, pious lotteries, grab bags, and other nefarious means for the support of the gospel, by which the cause of Christ is made a common and unholy thing. If it is right to pay various taxes to support earthly governments, which are temporal and imperfect, it is doubly so to give of our income to support the cause of Christ and the immortal principles of the government of Heaven. How shameful, then, and what an insult to the great God, and what a manifestation of base ingratitude, to refuse to contribute of our means for the support of the gospel. But God does not compel men to give in his cause, any more than he compels them to be Christians. He sets forth their duty in his word. He tells them the result of obedience, and the consequences of disobedience. He tells them to love him with all their heart, and strength, etc., and how much of our strength has gone into property, while the cause has been neglected! Can we, therefore, be justified without giving God of our property to redeem the past? He is very reasonable in requiring us to give as he has prospered us, and says, “If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened; but by an equality,” etc. 2 Cor. 8:12–14. “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” Chapter 9:6, 7. It takes means to advance the cause of truth; to publish books, preach, travel, meet the wants of the worthy poor, carry on missionary enterprises in distant lands, and to mercifully present the question of health to suffering humanity, and give the people a chance to avail themselves of its benefits; and God calls for cheerful and voluntary offerings. The cause of truth is too sacred and exalted to depend upon begging for support. The duty of giving to God is presented to us, not as a cross, but as a great privilege. By performing this duty, we prove the sincerity of our love for God, for the truth, and for our fellow-man, develop holy characters, and lay up treasure in Heaven. Some object to raising means to sustain the cause, because Christ, on a certain occasion, told his apostles to “provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes,” etc. But such overlook the fact that this prohibition was local; for their journey (singular number); that Judas was treasurer; that the disciples could not get along without shoes or two coats in winter when there sometimes falls a foot of snow in Palestine; that just before his crucifixion, Christ told his disciples: “Now he that hath a purse, let him take it.” Luke 22:35. The Lord evidently designed to teach his disciples a lesson of faith and sacrifice as they started out to preach the gospel, that they might be an example to those who would be called to the ministry. But when Christ gives the general commission to preach the gospel, not simply in Palestine, but in all the world, he does not forbid the disciples to take purses with them. God has intrusted means to his people, and the cause should not be cramped in any of its branches for want of money to sustain it. In order to render unto God the things that are his, we must realize the claims that he has upon us, and that it is with God we have to do; that those who set forth the duty of giving in the light of Scripture simply present the mind of God in the matter; for, not realizing this, many do not look up higher than the minister, and act as though they simply dealt with man, and make the duty of giving to the cause a commonplace thing. In this frame of mind men will manifest the same defects in dealing with God that they do in dealing with man. They will be tempted to think that the minister is after their money, while he may not want a dime to appropriate to his own use, but simply wants those for whom he labors to manifest an appreciation of the truth that it has cost so much to bring to them, by giving of their means to help extend the truth to perishing souls for whom Christ died. They will perhaps be tempted to think that the minister is trying to make himself rich at their expense, while he only wants them to give fruit that may redound to their account—to lay up treasure in Heaven, that where their treasure is there their hearts may be also. This was the sin of ancient Israel in the wilderness. Doubtless they thought that Moses had brought them into the wilderness to kill them that he might have their property. Hence their murmurings against him. But in murmuring against Moses, they murmured against God. Those who view the subject of giving in this light, of course consider that the less they give the better, and they give as little as they can. They do not look at the recompense of reward, and view that what they give in the cause is as good as lost. God pity such, and open their eyes that they may see things as God sees them; that it is with the great God they are dealing; that in withholding means from his cause, they are guilty of robbing God. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” Mal. 3:8. The greater the being against whom we sin, the greater the sin that we commit. Therefore, it is more sinful to steal from God than it is to steal from man. But because God is not seen, many make it a light thing to withhold from him the things that are his. But all things are naked to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. What a horrible thing it is to rob God! Yet this is done in various ways: 1. In being slack and indolent in business. Slackness and indolence God hates. Next to the sin of running all of one’s strength in acquisitiveness, is the sin of slothfulness in business. We are responsible to God for the faculty of acquiring wealth. Not that we should hoard up wealth and worship it, but use it as the traveler uses his staff, to bless others with, and advance the cause of God. How shameful and censurable, therefore, is the course of those who, having health and strength, content themselves in simply meeting their own wants, and, aside from this, lead almost useless lives. Such rob God of the use of the strength he has given them. In one sense they are as guilty as those who, having acquired wealth, appropriate it all to their own selfish purposes. Indeed, I have sometimes thought there was more hope of some who have been industrious and had an object in life—to acquire wealth—and have gained that object, than for some who have led indolent and aimless lives. If the former direct their energies in overcoming sin, they will be more likely to succeed than the latter. 2. God is robbed when Christians, either carelessly or through an anxiety to get rich fast, engage in business that will not pay. How often this is done by investing large sums in patent rights, &c.; and thus when calls are made to help pecuniarily in pushing forward the cause of truth, many have no means at their command. If men would take time to calmly consider and pray over their temporal matters, many blunders would be avoided. 3. God is robbed when we appropriate to our own selfish interests, and sometimes in things that could be easily dispensed with, means which should go in the cause. The man who, to amass wealth, contracts debts so fast, by adding farm to farm, house to house, etc., that every nerve and muscle must be taxed to the uttermost to meet the demands against him, while the cause of God is neglected, is fearfully guilty in this direction. Men have no right to take debts upon themselves that will keep them from paying the debts they owe to God. Here many are blinded by the god of this world. And some act as though they contracted debts on purpose to excuse themselves for not giving in the cause. Let such remember that while they delight themselves in large additions to their property, in Heaven it is recorded against them, “Stolen from God! Robbery in the first degree!” Some steal from God by adorning their bodies with costly ornaments, as gold, etc., and with unnecessary and immodest apparel; while others rob God through intemperate and injurious habits, as in the use of spirituous liquors, tobacco, etc. Thank God that our people generally have laid aside these injurious articles, and that many put what they used to pay for them into the Lord’s treasury. If we are so disposed, we can find ways to spend all our means for our own selfish purposes; or we can give God our best affections, serve him first, and give of our means in his cause. 4. Aged parents, who have by years of industry and hard labor gathered a handsome property and helped their children pecuniarily, are in danger, through sympathy for their children, of robbing God unawares in nearly, if not quite, forgetting his cause in the final disposition of their property. God has claims upon such, as well as their children. Perhaps their early life may have been spent in the service of sin, and they may have embraced the truth in old age, and feel that now they are feeble they cannot do much for the cause. This is a mistaken idea. They can redeem the past by putting a great share of their past vigor that has been transferred to property, in the bank of Heaven, that they may find it there with interest at last. What a satisfaction for such to meet souls in the kingdom who have been saved through a proper use of means that they left behind! While they were resting in the grave, their means were preaching among the living, in whose memories they were still living. And what responsibility rests upon children to whom kind parents66have left means that belonged to the Lord. They may not have realized that this property belonged to another when they took it. And now should they not do as the man that has a piece of lost property when the owner is found? Their parents through kindness gave them more property than was their due; now they can as it were return it to the owner, that they and their parents may have a full reward in Heaven. We should be even more prompt in paying the debts we owe to God than we are in paying those we owe to man. In our business deal with man, just debts never become outlawed; so in our business deal with God. It is wrong to misrepresent in dealing with man; it is a thousand times worse to do so in our deal with God. If it was wrong to lay up treasure on earth in our Saviour’s time, when unborn generations might make a good use of at least some hoarded-up property, it is doubly so to lay up treasures in the last generation to be consumed by the fires of the burning day. Noah was wise in transferring his property into the ark; and those manifest similar wisdom who use their property in preparing an ark for the saving of themselves and others. I have no idea that the primitive church at Jerusalem left much property behind them when they fled into the mountains; so it will be with the last church when they flee from their persecutors in the time of trouble that is just before us. If an invading army were passing through the land, and we were compelled to leave, we should send our property ahead; in like manner we should lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Matt. 6:20. Those who see us pursue this course will at least acknowledge that we live up to our profession, that we believe what we preach. Some may call us insane; but the scales will be turned, and the judgment of the whole world will be in our favor, when God ariseth to shake terribly the earth, and when men will cast their idols of gold and their idols of silver to the moles and to the bats for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, and when all things of an earthly nature shall pass away. Men aim to invest their money where it will bring the greatest income. Brethren and sisters, let us remember that we are strangers on earth, and whatever we do not really need to meet our present wants, let us invest in the bank of Heaven, knowing that it will bring the richest conceivable returns, and help in securing eternal life and a right to the immortal inheritance.