3562—Keeping It from Her Husband
By Editor
A sister sends in $1.00 as tithe, and says: "You need not send in a receipt, as my husband is not a believer. Is it wrong to do anything like this? Answer in 'Signs' weekly, please, as I take it." W. V. This is one among the questions to which it is difficult to reply. It might be wrong, and it might not. It would depend upon what the sister was tithing. There ought to be a perfect understanding between husband and wife regarding all things, financially and otherwise. But in the very nature of the case, when one is a Christian and another is not, this understanding can not be perfect. It is impossible for one who is not a Christian to understand the motives of one who is. And yet, in common justice, the man who is not a Christian ought to recognize that his wife has a part in his earnings. The earnings may not be in her name, she may not be one who goes out into the field and works for wages; still, by every legal right, she is a partner with her husband, and is entitled to a proper share of the money which is received as income. It belongs to her by right. If she wishes to make a gift for some religious or benevolent purpose, she has a right to do that; and that ought to be recognized by the husband without calling upon him. There are certain principles and rights which women have, utterly regardless of religious matters. It is a pitiable thing, the course pursued by some husbands toward their wives. Money is doled out to them as it would be to a beggar or a slave. If there is not perfect freedom between husband and wife without definite arrangement, there ought to be definite arrangement by which a wife should receive a certain proportion, which should be her own, and out of that she has the privilege of donating to religious purposes, or benevolent purposes, or any other purposes in which she may legitimately engage. Consequently, if this wife is tithing that which belongs to her, which is her own by right, she has the right to send it without letting her husband know it, if he is averse to it. The best way to do would be to have a perfect understanding of these matters between husband and wife, and let him know just what was done with money; but if this can not be, we would not say that the wife has not the right to donate without his consent. It is a matter which lies not between her and some man, or men, but between her and God. If all husbands were just and equitable in their dealings with their wives, woman suffrage would find far less favor with many.