Tithing Garden and Home Industries
By William Covert
THE garden and home industries of the Christian world are items of some magnitude which should be considered in connection with the question of tithing. The Jews of Christ's time were careful to tithe the small herbs of the garden, yet omitted some things of great importance; but Christ says that while they ought to have given attention to the things they omitted, they should also attend to the matter of tithing their garden products. Matt. 23: 23. If the small things that grow in the garden should be tithed, then certainly the fruits and vegetables which constitute a considerable part of the food that many families eat should be tithed. The kitchen- and market-gardens furnish people of agricultural pursuits with much of what comes upon their tables, and it is the very best food in all the world. Concerning it God advises his people saying, "Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings." Lev. 23: 14. This scripture probably refers to offerings in addition to the tithe, but both are intended to recognize God's ownership and also to furnish needed funds to meet the expense of carrying on the Lord's work on earth. But many persons use the products of the garden for home consumption without reference to either tithes or offerings. Their tables are furnished nearly the whole year from the garden, the field, and the orchard with the very best that God's bounties afford, saving to them hundreds of dollars, and yet with many but little account is taken of these things when the tithe is to be paid. Then comes the milk, the butter, the cream, the eggs, the fire-wood, the fence-posts, and many other money-saving commodities which escape the mark of the tithing-rod. The home-keeping work should also be considered. The wife who presides, superintends, and usually does a large part of this work is performing a service that entitles her to an honorable and financial consideration in the tithe and offering account of the family. In many instances her work is a fair balance with her husband's part. She may not receive and disburse the funds, but she is his helpmate and partner in business. If he hands out all the tithe to the church treasurer, her name should appear jointly with his, but if he should not be a tithe-payer on his own account, and his wife should desire to render unto the Lord's cause the part designated in the Bible, then by every consideration of love and justice he should, as a fair-minded man, arrange for his wife to do her part for the Lord's cause. Generally for the sake of quietness in the home the wife says but little about the matter, yet her silence is only evidence of submission, not of satisfaction. But, suppose that husband and wife should differ in sentiment on this subject, could not a kindly compromise be effected, and each hold the other in higher esteem or more sacred in love than would be possible under a rule of arbitrary conduct? A forced submission never bears happiness for either side, because no sum of money can be large enough to pay for soul-smothered heartaches and tears of sadness which are shed in secret. We are happiest when we make our friends and those dear to us happy, and we are richer, when we get the greatest amount of real enjoyment out of the things which we possess or use. No arbitrary nor compulsory course with any person or thing can possibly pay any one; and no amount of funds gained by withholding from the Giver of all good can possibly gladden the heart of one who keeps what God's cause justly claims. Withholding from God's cause will4bring poverty either of soul or purse sooner or later to any one who does it. Therefore, bring into the Lord's storehouse anything which you may have in possession which belongs to his cause.