Walk by Faith | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 14, 1886

Walk by Faith.

HOW HARD it is for a Christian to realize that walking by faith is not walking by sight. All of us are willing to trust God as far as we can see; but only now and then are we ready to trust God against all appearances. In no one matter is our proneness to distrust the promises of God more likely to show itself than in our treatment of the duty of Christian giving. A struggle at this point perplexes a reader from Northern New York, who writes: "In regard to the privilege of giving, I feel deeply; yet through circumstances too numerous to trouble you with, I cannot decide on it satisfactorily. I hope you can help me. It seems to me that the Bible rule of 'one-tenth' is a safe and sure one; but I have been a little staggered by the remark of a friend, who said, that rule applied to one's income, and not to the wages of a mechanic or to the salary of a teacher. For instance, if a man with a family of two or three persons earns thirteen dollars a week, is it justice to his family to give one-tenth to charity or church work? Should a teacher on three hundred a year, with others besides herself to think of, give thirty dollars away? Suppose, besides this, she has neither time nor strength to do any Christian work except what comes to her in connection with her daily duty, and a Sunday-school class; is it her duty to deny herself the pleasure of systematic giving? Or, do you think that, out of the scanty amount, she should give one-tenth?"

What are wages and a salary, if they are not income? But perhaps that objector who has puzzled our correspondent meant to say, that one-tenth is to be given to the Lord only when it can be spared without feeling it. There is a good deal of that sort of reading the requirements of duty, among Christian people. There are those who honestly do not consider the obligation of the tithe of one's income as binding under the Christian law. But as we read the Scriptures, this obligation, like that of the Sabbath, preceded the Mosaic law, and is recognized also under the Christian dispensation. This being the case, we look upon one-tenth of the believer's income, like one-seventh of his time, as belonging, of right, to the Lord.

It is therefore not a question whether the believer thinks he can afford it or not. He has no more right to keep that one-tenth for his own benefit, than he has to steal a like amount from one of his fellows. And because this is his duty, he will find, as a practical matter, that he can more easily live within nine-tenths of his income than within ten-tenths. Not until a believer has paid to the Lord the one-tenth that belongs absolutely to the Lord, can he begin to give, of his choice, to the Lord. As a practical matter, it is a more common thing for a poor Christian to give one-tenth of his income to the Lord, than for a rich Christian to do it. It didn't look to the widow of Zarephath as if she could really afford to give so large a share of her scanty pittance to the Lord as the Lord's prophet asked for; but she had faith enough to do as she was directed by the Lord to do; and she found that a part was greater than the whole, when the part was used wisely. Whoever, in any part of the world, has a faith like that widow's, will be most likely to have an experience like hers.—S. S. Times.