The Voice of God by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 2, 1875

The Voice of God.

By James White

IT CALLS FOR MISSIONARY WORK AND MEANS.

We have said a hundred times during the last thirty years that it was not a sin to have a liberal competency in this life, or even to be rich, if means were obtained honorably, and not withheld from the cause of God when calls were made based upon real need. There is no virtue in disposing of wealth simply to get rid of it. But for Christian men and women, who are compelled by force of evidence to acknowledge that Christ is soon coming, and that the world is even now having the last message of warning, to be followed by the unmingled wrath of God in the seven last plagues, to close their ears to reasonable calls for means, and their eyes from the wants of the cause, is taking upon themselves fearful responsibilities.

After God’s Spirit moves upon minds that the growing cause demands some new enterprise and more extensive efforts; and after the most earnest prayer for guidance; and after matters have been considered in the most careful manner, then all is laid before our General Conference which is the highest earthly authority of the church acknowledged by our people. Then that body, without one dissenting vote, endorses the proposed enterprise and more extensive operations, and calls for the liberalities of those of our people who are able to give of their substance to sustain the growing cause. Such calls should be regarded by them as the voice of God. If they are not, then how can we ever expect to hear the voice of God in the church, unless it be by direct revelation. God is speaking to us, not only through the united judgment of his people, but directly from Heaven, through dreams and visions. “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.” Num. 12 : 6. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Joel 2 : 17. And as a people we profess to believe that God is thus speaking to us. All our Conferences say by resolutions at each annual session that they recognize the voice of God in the testimony of Jesus, or the spirit of prophecy, which is already being manifested in the remnant church of Rev. 12 : 17.

The voice of God is appealing to our people by the hand of Providence in opening up interesting fields of labor without our agency as is seen in the European field; in the united judgment of the highest religious authority on earth recognized by our people; and in the remnant church through the spirit of prophecy, that now is the time for activity; the very time to sacrifice means to send the light of truth to the ends of this dark world. And yet our people, with very few exceptions, are so busy with the things of this world that they do not hear the voice of God which speaks to them. Many of them are eagerly engaged in laying up treasures on the earth, and are doing but very little for the cause of God. Unless the attention of these can be arrested, and they hear and understand the voice of God that appeals to them, they will soon be borne by the spirit of the world beyond the reach of truth and the Spirit of God, and they will be lost in the whirlpool of the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.

While we say that it is no sin to have wealth if it be obtained honorably, and if not withheld when the voice of God calls for it, we feel it our duty to say plainly that there can be not a ray of reasonable hope for the salvation of that man who claims a part with the waiting brotherhood, and shuts his eyes to the wants of the cause, and closes his ears to the voice of the Lord that calls for a portion of his means. The epistle of James is addressed to the waiting brotherhood. That practical epistle enters into the duties and dangers of the waiting remnant. It comforts, warns, entreats, and threatens. That epistle evidently addressed to all who are truly waiting for Christ, includes those also who put on the profession of the brotherhood as a cloak. In most fearful words it looks forward to the time when the wealthy, who now turn away from the voice of God that appeals to them, shall find it too late to use their means in the cause of God. Then, instead of calling for their means, the voice of God to them will be:— “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.” James 5 : 1–5.

Just such persons are now connected with the waiting brotherhood whom James addresses. Some of them are so eager for the world, that they are fast earning the reputation of sharpers. They are disgracing themselves, and the cause of God, and sinking their own souls in perdition through the deceitfulness of riches. Others who have a double or triple competency are making their wills, in order to secure a small part to the cause after they are dead. Probably one dollar would be worth more to the cause now, than ten after they are dead. But it is a fact in the history of legacies to our cause that not a tithe named in these wills ever reaches the treasury. It may be proper under some circumstances to make wills; but we have become so disgusted with this whole matter that we have appointed the writer administrator of his own means in advance. We think the writer better capable of attending to this matter than any other man, and choose that he should attend to these matters while the cause needs money.

Twenty years ago, the friends of the cause were very few, and most of these were poor. To start the work then, under such circumstances, demanded great exertion and sacrifice. A few noble men felt called upon to sell their only earthly homes, and use a considerable portion of their value to advance the infant cause. Then, one dollar was worth as much to the cause, and told as much on the final result of its advancement and growth, and will tell as much in the reward in Heaven, as ten dollars put into the treasury ten years later, at the time the Battle Creek Publishing Association was incorporated.

All sensible men and women who have real faith in the cause they profess, will approve the liberal course of those who sacrificed so much for the cause twenty years ago. In fact, it was absolutely necessary that somebody should do as these men did, or the cause could not have been started by those instrumentalities, such as God has ever seen fit to employ. God showed himself able to set a table for the Israelites in the wilderness, and he may do the same for his people under like circumstances, but it has ever been his plan to draw upon the means in the hands of his servants when it was needed to advance his cause.

Others in our feeble ranks, twenty years since, might have done as these trusting ones did, and could have received the same reward in this, and in the world to come. But they drew back, and most of them are not with us. Had they used a portion of their means when it was so much needed, much more could have been done during the past twenty years to spread the truth, the influence of which would have increased in far greater proportion than compound interest, adding to their joy here as they see the cause advance, and increasing their reward in Heaven. But the golden opportunity for them is forever past.

We come down to the time when our Publishing Association was formed, in 1861. Then, friends were comparatively few, yet fifteen thousand dollars were raised for the Office building, printing material, and stock, besides sustaining the cause in other departments. One hundred dollars appropriated to the cause then would tell as much upon the cause in its final results as one thousand dollars in 1875.

And in this proportion will the free-will offerings of God’s people decrease in real value, until there shall be no room for them in the treasury, and they will be disposed of by those who withheld them until that time, as expressed by the prophet, “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed. [Margin, for a separation, or uncleanness.] Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.” Eze. 7 : 19. That will be a fearful day for those who have let the cause of God languish for want of the very means they might have given without experiencing the least want.

In view of the foregoing facts, we appeal to the friends of the Lord and his cause to do their duty, and to do present duty now. Whether you make your will, or do not make a will, in either case it is your duty to open your hands wide to the wants of the cause now, when your means can accomplish good. Hundreds of our people, who have had an indistinct idea that at some future time the words of Christ, “Sell that ye have, and give alms,” would be obeyed by all believers, have withheld from the treasury needed means, which they have used in making improvements, that their property might bring more money in the “selling time,” as it has been termed. This has been simply a delusion of Satan imposed upon them in harmony with their feelings of covetousness.

That those who profess the truth will sell, and many of them rashly, and for small considerations, and that the rapid increase and wide extension of the work will call for much means, we doubt not. But no one who will candidly consider the foregoing will fail to see that it is simply preposterous to neglect present duty in view of some future selling and giving time, when the cause cannot be advanced by their hoarded means. Then he who professes to believe that the last message of mercy is being given, and has a double or triple competency, or even more, and withholds his hand from the cause, while he exerts himself to obtain still more for the fires of the last day, is simply insane. He is going directly from and not in the way of eternal life. And what makes the case appear most painful is the fact that blindness and stupor, resulting from neglect of present duty, come over these so that in all probability they will be aroused to the terrible mistake they are making only when it will be too late to make acceptable offerings to the Lord.

We cannot see that it is necessary for our people to sell their only homes at the present time, as some did twenty years ago. Should those in our ranks, who have more than a liberal competency, bring their surplus means to the treasury, a fiftieth part of it could not be used. Or, should all our people put into the treasury a tithe of their yearly increase, there would be abundance. Instead of a tenth of their increase, the Seventh-day Adventists do not put into the treasury more than a fortieth part of their yearly increase.

But let us look still more faithfully into this important subject. A tithe of our increase is a tenth part of the annual increase of our entire property. This is not reached by the man who puts down his property at $10,000, and pays only $100 during the year that his property increases to $12,000. His actual increase was 2,000. A tithe of this increase is $200. He paid only $100, and robbed the Lord of just $100. “Will a man rob God?” “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 : 8–10.

We cannot expect the blessing of God upon our people, and that the cause of his downtrodden truth in our hands will prosper gloriously until we obey his voice in reference to tithes and offerings. And right here is one of the most important departments of the work of the officers of our Tract and Missionary Societies. It becomes their duty, according to the constitution, “to bring about, as far as possible, equality among our people in the payment of Systematic Benevolence, in accordance with the plan adopted.” We solemnly believe that the S. B. of the Seventh-day Adventists scattered throughout the United States, is not one-fortieth of the actual annual increase of their property, or, on the whole, one-fourth of what it should be. Here is work to be done. To bring our people up to their own adopted figures will require patience, brotherly kindness, love, and energy.

The power of moral suasion is the only earthly force that can be employed in harmony with the name, Systematic Benevolence. But men who have not the moral courage, and the faithfulness to investigate, and leave no proper means untried to bring all our people up to the figures, are not worthy of offices in our Tract and Missionary Societies, or to go about from church to church as teachers of the people. We suggest that the duty of God’s people relative to securing to the cause what God requires of them in point of means at this time may be summed up in the following order:—

1. That they all come up to the figures on Systematic Benevolence adopted by our people. Let every man and woman assess his or her property at the figures they would ask for it in case they wished to sell. Then, acting upon the adopted plan, that the increase of property is equal to ten per cent interest, a tithe of our increase would be one per cent annually on all our property. Hence the man whose property is worth only one thousand dollars pays annually only the small sum of ten dollars, or about twenty cents each week, while the man who has ten thousand pays one hundred dollars annually, or about two dollars each week. And while the aged, and infirm, and widows, who are in limited circumstances, may be excused from coming up to the adopted plan, if they choose, the deficiency on their account should be made up tenfold by those young members of our churches whose wealth still remains in their strength to labor, and their ability to accumulate.

2. That those who know that their actual increase is more than one per cent annually on their property, pay into the treasury cheerfully a tithe of all their increase, whatever it may be. With many it would be from two to five or more per cent of all they possessed at the end of the year.

3. That those who have robbed God in tithes and in offerings in past time immediately bring to the treasury their trespass offerings. The amount is stated in Lev. 5 : 15, 16.

4. That those who have received at the hand of the Lord great spiritual blessings on themselves, or on their families, or have been especially blest in the good things of this life, bring unto the Lord thank-offerings liberally, in the spirit of rejoicing and gladness of heart.

5. That all those who have more than a competency, whether they make a will or not, use their surplus means liberally, as the rapidly increasing cause, with its corresponding wants, demands. He who withholds his surplus means from the cause, and puts it into his will for the benefit of the cause by-and-by, after his decease, when perhaps it will not be worth to the cause of God a tithe what it is in 1875, and then to be handled by an administrator whom he would now hardly trust to transact business for him to the amount of twenty-five dollars, is, to say the least, making a great mistake. Why not appropriate your surplus means now, when it will tell the most for the cause of God, and while you live, and can see to its appropriation yourself? Why not? Oh, why not? J. W.