THAT IS WELL SAID by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 22, 1877

“THAT IS WELL SAID.”

By Dudley Marvin Canright

So said a man after reading the following article. I have read it twice, and that is my mind. So I ask the editor to put it in the REVIEW; and now I ask all our people to read it, then talk it over with wife and family, and ask God to help you to put it into practice immediately.

“SYSTEMATIC GIVING.”

“It is becoming more and more evident that the setting apart of a definite amount, as a sacred portion, ever ready for the Master’s use, is the starting point of a mighty revolution in the church—an antidote against extravagance on the one hand, and greedy hoarding on the other. The Jew called the tithe the hedge around the rest. Can any one doubt the wholesome effect upon the individual of thus having all his earnings pass under the eye of God. It is asked, How much shall each disciple give? We would answer, a definite portion, determined beforehand, with much thought and prayer. With this decision there will need to be, in exercise, a large faith in the promise of God—a conviction that no man has given or can give his earnings, on the ground that ‘the Master hath need,’ who shall not in some way ‘receive an hundred-fold in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.’ In determining the amount to be given, we must remember that where much is given much will be required. We are to remember the land we possess, our means for developing wealth, the ‘unspeakable gift’ we have received, and all the great demands of God upon his church in the movements of human history. In view of the greater light, the greater opportunities, the greater exhibitions of the divine goodness and love bestowed now freely on us all, few will set apart a less sum than one-tenth; while many, with the grateful Zaccheus, will give one-half, or, in emergencies like those of the early church, will lay everything at the apostles’ feet.

“OBJECTIONS.”

“It may be objected that this is binding us down to the rigidity of law—of strict rules and arithmetical calculation. Says one, ‘The gospel demands all, and after deducting the necessary expenses of my family, I intend to give God the rest.’ Well, these intentions are good, but many who plead them may be robbing God. The sin which the Bible inveighs against with terrible denunciations is the sin of covetousness, represented by it as idolatry. Amid the multiplying wants of our times is there not absolute danger that God will be cheated out of his rightful dues, and be left to get a mere pittance, in those cases where all the rest are first served? Have we not occasion to think that the only way to secure him against this wrong is to bestow upon him the first fruits of our substance? We follow strict rules and arithmetical calculation in the observance of the Sabbath, giving to God a definite portion of time: why not apply the same rule to our means? What Christian would dare say, ‘I will not be bound beforehand by any definite rules as to holy time, but, when I have taken what I need for myself and family, God shall have the rest?’ Amid the multiplying demands upon our time, who would trust himself?

“But again it is said, ‘It is too much trouble to keep this bank account with God.’ Yes, to him who has no heart in this service, to whom religion consists in certain churchly forms by which he expects to gain Heaven, it may seem trouble; but to those with whom religion is a life, a daily walk with God, this continual recognition of stewardship will be a constant source of unceasing delight. Prayer without ceasing is trouble to him who has no heart in it; the daily watchfulness over our besetting sins is trouble, but to him who makes the service of God more than his meat and drink, all these duties become the most exalted privileges.

“ADVANTAGES.”

“Of the advantages attending systematic giving we name but a very few.

“1. Nothing else will so clearly give the idea of stewardship as this daily reckoning with God. Ministers will not waste strength and patience in continual pumping to keep the channels of liberality full, but the streams of charity will flow from an interior river of living water. Our giving will not depend upon the pungency of sudden appeal, or the tact or shrewdness of the operator upon our sensibilities, but upon our well-considered obligations to God and to the spread of his kingdom. Conscience and principle will take the place of irregular impulse, and inconstant or fitful sensibility.

“2. All the difficulties in the way of weekly offerings will be obviated; and, in that sacred portion consecrated to God, every one will have a joyous gift to bring on each recurring Sabbath for the treasury of his Lord. The difficulty of securing the consent of the will to give to God what has already been appropriated to the multifarious uses to which property is now applied, has been the mountain barrier in the way of all systematic giving. Assign unto the Lord first what is his due, the fixed portion, and all these difficulties vanish.

“3. We shall then study with peculiar interest and deep pleasure the great Christian enterprises of the age. It will be an object to select the channels in which our benefactions may flow so as best to honor God and bless mankind. The missionary sermon will no longer be regarded as a tiresome device to extort our hoarded gains, but a source of much coveted knowledge, aiding us to determine where we may send forth our gifts to make the desert blossom as the rose.

“4. We shall then be enabled to use the world as not abusing it, and as not being abused and destroyed by it. The thought that all our work and all our gains are passing in review before God will be a powerful restraint upon those unworthy practices and doubtful methods which now so deaden the conscience and paralyze the Christian life.”—Home Missionary.

Who can object to this? No reasonable Bible Christian. D. M. CANRIGHT.