p. 437 | Truth in a Nutshell by Sel.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 24, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 28.

Truth in a Nutshell.

By Sel.

THE obligation of the tithe, like the obligation of the Sabbath, did not have its origin in the Mosaic law. The truth that one-tenth of one's property and one-seventh of one's time belongs peculiarly to God, and is to be counted as devoted to God, is a truth of all ages and of all lands. It was before Abraham. It is also after Christ. Abraham did not institute the tithe; he simply recognized its binding force, when he gave to Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, the tithe of those spoils which he would not count as his own. An illustration of the prevalence of this custom in the unchanging East is given by Arminius Vambery, in the story of his Oriental travels. He was with a party of darweeshes and in their guise. While between Persia and Tartary, bound eastward, he was the guest of a Turkoman host, of whom he says:—

“This man, all by himself, and being on foot, took three Persians prisoners, and drove them eight miles into slavery. He gave us, as our share, a tenth part of the plunder, being the tithe belonging to the priests, and amounting to two krans for each of us.” Sel.

It would be a pity if the law of love, which is the limit of Christian liberty, would prompt to less than the one-tenth of one's increase as a first payment into the Lord's treasury, which has been recognized as a religious obligation from before the days of Abraham down to the present day in the primitive East.—S. S. Times.