Rev. A. J. Gordon, whose church increased its offerings so largely under the tithing system, inquires: "Ought the proportion to be any less under the Gospel than under the Law?" Surely not when we remember that we have as our example One Who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be rich." We have the precept of this Exemplar, which no ingenuity can explain away. "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be My disciple." In the light of such high standards, who can say that we ought not to give at least one-tenth of our income to the Lord?!
Note also, carefully, how the Jews, when backslidden and away from God, found it impracticable to pay the tithe, but every difficulty vanished with their return to the fellowship and love of Jehovah. The only valid ground upon which one may refuse to pay one-tenth, at least, is an honest confession of a lack of faith in the promises of the Almighty.
We would commend the example of John MacNeil of Melbourne, who kept a ledger in which page after page of figures was headed by these words: "John MacNeil in account with the Lord Jesus Christ."
"Occupy till I come" means "Do business for Me," and we should, do it in a business way, not in the modern, slipshod, haphazard, careless way -- giving Him the dregs -- but according to His business plan, giving Him the FIRST fruits, the first tenth. Then how blessed, to be so grateful that we feel deep down in our hearts impelled, the love of Christ constraining us, to GIVE a thank offering unto Him who gave Himself for us -- no coaxing, no begging, then, but cheerful giving that makes Heaven glad.
The average idea of giving is expressed by a New England deacon who asked: "Why do they always play the organ when they take, the collection?"
His hearer replied, "I do not know.
He said, "I have thought of it a good deal. I think it is to soothe the feelings of the people."
Think of that! Must people have music to soothe them when giving to God what God first gave them? Think of it -- money in the pocket, stored potentiality, something that I may use for God to send men and the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, something that will make car-wheels turn, and vessels speed their way across the seas, carrying loving hearts filled with a passion for souls to the heathen who are dying with no knowledge of the Christ who came to save.
It is one thing to sing, "Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel," and it is another thing to help it fly. "I am my brother's keeper" should be written on the vaults, the business, the wages, and the pocketbook, of every child of God, until all should realize the fullness of the Scripture which declares, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Dr. Schoofer says, in his pamphlet on "Money, Its Nature and Power": "Money in the pocket is not merely silver and gold, it is something that is instinct with power. Like electricity, it is stored power, and it is only a question of where that power is to be loosed. There is potency in a five-dollar bill with God's blessing upon it, and when we realize that we are stewards for God, holding money at His command, then the Church, uniting its gifts and prayers, can do miracles on miracles for the salvation of the world. When we understand this, then we begin to say, 'O Lord, what a blessed thing is money.' I will not call it trash; I will not call it sordid or filthy lucre. I will call it the gold and silver that belong to Almighty God, which, with the blessing of Almighty God upon it, can work the works of righteousness. And I tremble when I think of this matter of money -without God's blessing upon it; I should work ruin with it though I gave every last penny of it away, because I have not wisdom enough to direct the channels into which it should go. This stored potentiality is such a power that I may direct unwisely, that I need God's Holy Spirit to guide me in the use of that which is committed unto me."
Now when I went into the ministry, as soon as I had any money of my own, I said, "O Lord, one-tenth shall be Thine;" and I thought I was doing all that I ought to do -- I preached that, and I have practiced that all my life, but that is a small thing. One-tenth is what Jacob gave, and are we not better than Jacob? Do we ever stop to think that in this age, nineteen centuries after Calvary and Pentecost, we should be living up to the light and privileges of today? There is enough money in the possession of the members of the Church today, if consecrated, and held for God, to meet all the demands made by the crying needs of a lost world. The time will surely come when appeals will not be made to the world for money for the cause of Christ.*
Ada Melville wrote in the Northwestern Christian Advocate: "There is but one kind of a gift that God will accept, the gift that comes from a hand moving only and always 'at the impulse of His love,' from a purse that is all His, and filled by endeavors wholly consecrated unto Him." A dollar thus given may in His hands accomplish ends that unholy millions must forever fail to reach.
The saintly Andrew Murray says: "Christ has immortalized the poor widow's farthing. With His approval, it shines through the ages brighter than the brightest gold. It has been a blessing to the tens of thousands in the lessons it has taught: It tells you that your farthing, if it be your all, that your gift if it be honestly given (as you all ought to give to the Lord), has His approval, His stamp, His eternal blessing. If we did but take more time for quiet, thoughtfulness, for the Holy Spirit to show us our Lord Jesus in charge of the Heavenly Mint, stamping every true gift, and then using it for the Kingdom, surely our money would begin to shine with a new luster, and we should begin to say, 'The less I spend on myself, and the more on my Lord, the richer I am,' -- and we shall see how, as the widow was richer in her gift and her grace than the many rich, so he is richest who truly gives all he can." This is so today.
A widow in the late Dr. Gordon's church in Boston, living in one room of a tenement house, gave eight hundred dollars in the Foreign Missions collection. When the Doctor called and asked her how she could give so much, she said; "Here I am, comfortable, and have enough living upon two hundred dollars a year. But I should be ashamed to meet my Lord if I lived upon eight hundred, and only gave Him the two hundred."
Lady Huntingdon gave away for the cause of Christ five hundred thousand dollars during her life time. There were servants in Dr. Gordon's church who gave fifty dollars a year for missions, and shop girls who gave a hundred. The Methodist Church alone would give ninety million dollars a year for the spread of the kingdom of Jesus, if they practiced Malachi 3:8-10, and the energies now spent by preachers and members in raising money could be spent in winning souls.
There is victory for the people who obey God. Men may prove this in their own lives. God challenges us to prove Him. This is His message about tithing, "Prove me herewith, AND SEE," know for yourselves. We can command mountains to remove if we believe God, and are conscious that we have complied with conditions. The devourer will be rebuked for our sakes and he will not destroy the fruits of the ground, neither shall the vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, when we have the tithes in the storehouse.
I know a little woman, a holiness preacher, who was at the homestead and saw the caterpillars destroying the foliage on the fruit trees. Her unsaved brother-in-law was present, and she said, "God said He would rebuke the devourer if our tithes were all in, and mine are all in and I am going to prove Him true." She went to her closet, got down upon her knees, claimed the promise, and her brother-in-law stood in the doorway and watched the caterpillars get down from the trees.
At another time this same sister found all the water gone from the well and her neighbors were in the like fix. There was no water for the washday, and barely enough for culinary purposes. She said, "Why, Jesus healed the waters once and He can do it again," and she went to her closet and got down on her knees, and told Jesus the clothes needed to be washed, and the well had given out, there was no water, wouldn't He please heal the well, and then she went down, went to the pump, began pumping, and sure enough, she got all the water she needed, pumped several tubs full, and began her washing. Some neighbors came in and said, "Why, Cora, where did you get the water?" and she was bold in confessing, "Jesus healed the well when I asked Him to."
Sammy Hicks needed some corn ground, and the windmills were all idle. There had been no wind for days sufficient to turn the mill, but Sammy wanted meal, his family needed it, so he loaded up his corn, went over to the mill and told the miller he must have meal. The miller said, "I can't grind until a wind arises," and Sammy said, "You take my corn, put it in your mill, and I will go and pray for wind." The miller had confidence in Sammy's prayers and did as he was told while Sammy went to prayer. Sure enough, the wind came, blew long enough to grind Sammy's corn, and give him all the meal he needed, and then it was as calm as it had been for weeks. The surrounding farmers, seeing the mill in operation, came with their grain, but the miller said, "'If you want meal, you must get Sammy Hicks to pray for wind."
Why not? The promise is, "Thy bread shall be given," and when the tithes are all in, you can accept God's challenge to the saints and command the skies. "See that ye abound in this grace also," and prove for yourselves that tithing is helpful to spiritual life.
I have known instances of where a generous offering has been followed by an outpouring of the Spirit, and souls have been won for God. The Church tithing today would solve all financial burdens, and render giving a pleasure. In one church twenty-seven tithers gave one-fourth of the total amount of all the contributions. Another church had a circle of forty-seven tithers. In the year before they began to tithe they gave $415.00. In the first six months of their tithing they gave $843.00. In another church, forty-seven tithers gave in one year $2,587.91, a per capita of $61.62; 158 non-tithers gave $1,851.71, a per capita of $11.71.
If men after conversion would give as much to the cause of Christ as they formerly spent for needless gratification, they would surpass what many of them are doing today. Take the one item of tobacco. Dr. Strong, in his book, "The Challenge of the City," says there are twenty million Protestant church-members in the United States. About one-third of them are males. Assuming that only one-half of them are smokers, there are about 3,333,000 in this class. On the supposition that they each smoke only three five-cent cigars a day, they together spend $500,000 daily for tobacco, and this would amount to $182,500,000 in a year. If one-half of this amount were given to the cause of Christ, the world would be evangelized in a single generation.
When Chester W. Kingsley was a young man, his prayer was, "Lord, give me a hand to get and a heart to give." He brought his business into right relations to the kingdom. Upon hearing a sermon by his pastor, in which the question was asked, "Why should not a Christian business man open an account with the Lord on his ledger, and treat it with all the sanctity and promptness that he would his account with any business firm?" Mr. Kingsley said, "I will do that." Years afterward, he testified to the pastor who asked the question, that over a half million dollars had passed through his personal account with the Lord. This man saw in his business an opportunity for large service for his Lord and became indeed His steward.
Alpheus Hardy, the New England philanthropist, is a splendid illustration of faithful stewardship in business. He wanted to go to college and become a minister. He went to Phillips Academy, his health gave way, and in spite of his determination, he was forced to admit that he must desist. It seemed as if the one purpose and hope of his life was defeated. "I cannot be God's minister," was the sentence that kept running through his mind. At last one day so great was his distress that he threw himself upon the floor. The voiceless cry of his soul was, "O God, I cannot be Thy minister." Then there came to him a new vision, a new hope, a perception that he could serve God in business with the same devotion as in preaching, and that to make money for God might be his sacred calling. The vision of this service, and its nature as a sacred ministry was so clear and joyous that he arose to his feet, with new hope in his heart, and exclaimed, "O God, I can be Thy minister. I will go back to Boston. I will make money for God, and that shall be my ministry." From that time he felt himself as much appointed and ordained to make money for God as if he had been permitted to preach the Gospel. He was God's man, and the ministry to which God had called him was to make and administer money for Him.
