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PAY THY VOWS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 11, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 15.

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PAY THY VOWS.

By I. Sanborn

“WHEN thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.” Eccl. 5:4.
Some of us remember that last winter we faithfully promised the Lord that we would give him one-tenth of all that he would give us as increase for the year 1877. The official report of the wheat crop of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, shows fifty-six million bushels more than last year, besides the large crops of corn and oats. Who of us can help feeling grateful to God for all this? He has rebuked the devourer in a most wonderful manner, will we now be as faithful on our part, to give the Lord all his tithes, and thus keep our vows? He will watch, and see whether we will or not. If we do not, he calls it stealing from him. See Mal. 3:8. But how can we do that, and not be cursed by the Lord?
It is the first-fruits of all our increase that we are to give to the Lord. By this means we are made to remember that the God of Heaven has sent us sunshine, and rain, and harvest; and that everything we possess is the Lord’s.
Dear brethren and sisters, if we keep our covenant vow with God and each other, he promises to open the windows of Heaven, and pour out blessings. Oh, for a living faith in God, made perfect by faithful obedience. We can none of us be excused from our responsibilities, and in no case can we stand clear before God unless we do the work that the Master has left us to do.
God has made us stewards of his goods. Will we be truthful, honest, faithful, and render to him all his own? If we do, he will bless us and our means; but if we withhold from him his just due, we shall be cursed with a curse; so we shall all find ourselves better off with nine-tenths than with all the increase. And at last he will say to all such as have been truly faithful, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
I. SANBORN.