The Law of the Tithe
As Set Forth in the Old Testament
Illustrated^ explained and
enforced from Biblical and
from extra- Biblical Sources
By
ARTHUR V. BABBS, A. B.
Introduction by
BISHOP JAMES WHITFORD BASHFORD
SECOND EDITION
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To
Rev. C. L. Baxter
District Superintendent,
Council Bluffs, Iowa
whose interest in this book was
steadily maintained from the moment
of its inceptio7i to the time of comple-
tion, this treatise is dedicated as an
affectionate token of personal regard
for one
whose name
is now a tender m^emory
342227
One-tenth of ripened grain
One-tenth of tree and vine,
One-tenth of all the yield
From ten-tenths' rain or shine.
One-tenth of lowing herds
That browse on hill and plain,
One-tenth of bleating flocks
For ten-tenths' shine and rain.
One-tenth of all increase
From counting room and mart,
One-tenth that science yields,
One-tenth of every art.
One-tenth of loom and press,
One-tenth of mill and mine.
One-tenth of every craft
Wrought out by gifts of Thine.
One-tenth of glowing words
That glowing dollars hold.
One-tenth of written thoughts
That turn to shining gold.
One-tenth ! and dost Thou, Lord,
But ask this meagre loan,
When all the earth is Thine,
And all we have Thine own ?
— The Churchman.
Introduction
By Bishop James Whitford Bashford
FEOM 1889 to 1904 I was president of the
Ohio Wesleyan University. Writing from
memory and out of reach of all catalogues,
I judge that some three hundred students entered
the university each school year, and that the
attendance ranged from nine to twelve hundred
annually. It was difficult, if not impossible, to
keep so many students in mind. Moreover, I was
obliged during these years to travel widely in order
to keep in contact with high schools and thus help
secure fresh material for the college ; and also in
order to keep in contact with the churches and
friends of the university and thus help secure funds
for its maintenance and upbuilding. I gave much
time and thought to the selection of the proper
men for the gradual upbuilding of the teaching
corps and to developing a spirit of cooperation in
the faculty, and between the faculty and students.
I also worked earnestly during the earlier years in
preparation for some class-room teaching, and
throughout the entire period in preparation for
the chapel services and the monthly lectures. It is
not surprising, therefore, that I was never able to
call every student in the university by name, and
that I now meet former students whose careers at
the university are very dim in memory. I am
3
4 I^TTRODUCTION
astonished rather at the great number of former
students whose faces and names and characters are
indelibly stamped upon my memory.
Most distinct among these students is Arthur Y.
Babbs, of the class of 1894. As a student he was
alert, open minded, and conscientious and gave
promise of future usefulness. Nevertheless, he
grew even more rapidly than we anticipated after
graduation else he would not have been able to
produce a volume of the breadth and scholarship
of " The Law of the Tithe." From the words used
by Mr. Babbs on pages 230-231, and from a study
of the volume as a whole, it will be seen that he
uses the word " law " in the title, not in its legal
and technical sense, and not even in the sense of
the Jewish law, but rather in its far more spiritual
and spiritually binding sense. My own conception
of the tithe is admirably stated by Irenaeus, quoted
on pages 110-112. Indeed, one of the great values
of Mr. Babbs' volume is the wealth of learning
upon the tithe which he gathers for his treatise
from ancient and modern sources : Beginning with
pagan history, discussing with remarkable ability
the teachings of the Bible, following the history of
the tithe from the earliest generations of the
Christian Church, summoning us to listen to the
phrases of the fathers, and finally presenting the
place of the tithe in the modern economy of
the Church. The volume is strong in its practical
application of the subject and this application is
characterized by common sense and spiritual in-
INTRODUCTION 6
sight. Hence, in responding to Mr. Babbs' invita-
tion for an introduction, what more can I do than
to urge the reader to pass through my fragmentary
discussion of the subject to the ampler fields opened
up by this noble volume.
In speaking of tithing, mint, anise, and cummin,
and neglecting the weightier matters of judgment
and faith, Jesus says : " These ought ye to have
done, and not to have left the other undone."
Commentators generally hold that Jesus in this
passage does not exempt Christians from tithing
even their smallest product; for, as Bengel well
says, " Eminent virtue may show itself in minutest
matters." Paul embodies the spirit of the Master's
teaching in his exhortation that every one give as
God has prospered him. This command enjoins
sympathetic and proportionate giving, as tithing
does ; but one's prosperity depends upon his ex-
penses as well as his receipts. If two brothers in
the church earn similar salaries, and one has a
large family and much sickness, and the other has
a small family and good health, the command of
Jesus as interpreted by Paul would not exact an
equal amount from each ; but rather each would be
expected to give according to his ability as God has
prospered him. In this case, however, we are sure
that even the poorer brother is not relieved from
systematic and proportionate giving ; and we believe
that nine-tenths used thoughtfully and conscien-
tiously in partnership with God will go farther than
ten-tenths used with no regard to the claims of God.
6 INTRODUCTION
Hence, while we are sure that the teachings of the
'New Testament enjoin offerings of more than one-
tenth for many of us, we hold that even the widow
will find to-day, as in the days of Elijah, her dole
multiplying when it is being shared with God.
In a word, the New Testament seems to me to
deal with tithing as with the Lord's day, and with
joining the Church, giving as the principles which
lead to general observance of each, but not entering
into details or prescribing mechanical rules.
Philosophy of Tithing. — Close examination of
tithing will show that, like the Sabbath injunction
and every other command of the Bible given for
man's good, the very act of tithing demands a
knowledge of one's business, promptness in meeting
one's obligations, and Christian self-denial. These
are the underlying principles of all business success.
The instances are very rare in which Christians
under the influence of temporary enthusiasm or
pressure from others have made subscriptions
which later embarrassed them. Such instances
are rare, because Christian giving implies self-
denial, and self-denial is the foundation of business
success. But such rare instances of embarrassment
through Christian generosity are impossible under
the tithing system ; for in the latter case as the man
systematically sets aside one-tenth of his income for
the Lord, he gives what he already has put into the
Lord's treasury, and he knows exactly what he has
left for his own expenditure and investment. The
financial failures of self-denying Christians are ex-
INTRODUCTION 7
tremely rare, and in these rare instances the failure
is due to the Christian's lack of knowledge of his
real financial condition — he has no clear conception
of his income or his expenses. But tithing demands
that a business man know what he is doing finan-
cially from week to week, or from month to month ;
hence he need never fail for any large amount.
We repeat, therefore, that the knowledge of one's
financial affairs, systematic and prompt payments,
and the Christian self-denial which tithing demands,
are the foundations of financial success. One might
safely predict on philosophic grounds that individ-
uals or communities which adopt systematic, pro-
portionate, and prompt giving will enjoy financial
prosperity.
Divine Providence. — But more than human
philosophy underlies the financial success of sys-
tematic, proportionate givers. The divine provi-
dence is the key to history. Christ has prophesied
the spiritual conquest of the world. The divine
energies are pledged and consecrated to the ac-
complishment of this conquest. But sacrifices of
money are as essential to the conquest of the
world for Christ as gifts of time and talents. God
therefore is seeking financial partners as really as
He is seeking mental and spiritual coworkers.
When God finds a man whom He can fully trust
financially the divine providence guards that man
and guides him in his business career. This is the
real secret of the financial success of systematic,
proportionate givers.
8 INTRODUCTION
History. — Tithing is not an untried principle.
Thousands upon thousands of Christians have
adopted it in recent years, and have thus taken
Christ in some measure into partnership with them-
selves in their business. The testimony of a multi-
tude of these had been gathered in Mr. Duncan's
" Stewardship," and it is substantially unanimous, as
to the spiritual and financial benefits of tithing to
those who practice it. On the other hand, out of
the thousands who have made the experiment, we
have yet to learn of the first instance in which a
man's business has been wrecked or his family
brought to suffering by such prompt and pro-
portionate giving as tithing enjoins. The system
has been tried not only by individuals, but by
churches, and in some measure by an entire people.
The Jews have in some measure observed tithing
as a proof of their faith in Jehovali ; and despite
the wide-spread and long-continued oppression to
which this people has been subject, no other people
has enjoyed such financial prosperity. We some-
times think that the financial success of the Jews is
a constant miracle — a proof that obedience along
one line of righteous living brings its consequent
prosperity.
It may be objected that tithing prevailed in some
measure from the seventh century, a. d., to the
Keformation, and that it led to vast corruption in
the Roman Catholic fold. But the very riches of
the mediasval Church show that tithing at least
secured income ; and had the priests and bishops
INTRODUCTION 9
been as faithful in holding themselves and their
people to obedience in keeping the other com-
mands of the Bible as they were faithful in exact-
ing tithes, there would have been no corruption
and no need of a Keformation.^ We do not claim
that tithing is of such supreme value that it can
serve as a substitute for all other faithful and
unselfish service. Moreover tithing as practiced
by the Koman Catholic Church during the Dark
Ages was exacted by law, and was enforced by
legal and spiritual penalties. Such a system of en-
forced Christian virtues degrades the people upon
whom it is imposed, and corrupts those who practice
it. The imposition and collection of tithes as legal
tax, and the entire control of them after collection
by ecclesiastics, would again lead to oppression and
corruption. But for a Christian voluntarily to keep
an account of his income, and consecrate a portion
of it to the Lord, and administer it himself during
his lifetime, does not expose him to any oppression
of the Church or any danger of corruption.
Possibilities. — We have entered the twentieth
century. Every earnest Christian feels instinct-
ively that the Church is not prepared for the great
responsibilities which are resting upon her. Some
prophesy a period of spiritual declension; others
prophesy a coming revival ; all feel the necessity
of marked advance in the Christian Church. The
four reforms which every Christian ought to seek
upon his knees are : (1) A revival of personal relig-
ion ; (2) the consecration of wealth ; (3) the sane-
10 INTRODUCTION
tification of secular life ; (4) the evangelization of
the world. The four reforms hang together. Any
one of them fully inaugurated, and the others will
surely follow. Any one of them neglected, and
the other three will suffer. A revival will furnish
the motive ; consecration will furnish the means ;
and the sanctification of our secular life will lead
to the evangelization of the world. No prophet
can foresee how much the taking of God into
partnership by our laity, and the laying of at least
one-tenth of our incomes upon the altar of humanity,
would lead to the cleansing and consecration of the
secular life of Christian nations, and furnish the
means for the conversion of the world. We sug-
gest as the program for the century which is upon
us: The consecration of our lives to Christ, the
Christianization of our business and art and politics,
the devotion of at least a tenth of our income to
the advancement of the kingdom and the evangel-
ization of the world.
Contents
I. The Universality of the Tithing Idea . 13
II. The Tithing Law Stated . . • . 26
III. The Material and Social Application of the
Tithing Law 32
IV. The Problem of Ministerial Support
(b. c. 1500) 64.
V. The Voices of the Hebrew Fathers (Proph-
ets AND TaLMUDISTS) . . . .82
VI. The Voices of the Fathers of the Christian
Church ...... 104.
VII. The Voices of Men Eminent in the Modern
Church . . . . . ,123
VIII. The History of the Tithe in the Church
Through THE Ages . . . .130
IX. Rome or Jerusalem, Which ? . . • 159
X. An Instance of Bible Giving . . • ' 7 >
XI. Tithing Versus Church Fairs, Dinners, and
Suppers 183
XII. Tithing in Concrete Modern Instances . 196
XIII. Answers to Objections to the Tithing Sys-
tem, AND Summary of Arguments for it 201
11
12 CONTENTS
XIV. How TO Organize a Tithing Church
XV. A Vision of the Church to Be
Appendix ....
Bibliography
Etymological Note .
Allusions to Tithing in the
Writers
Biblical References to Tithing
Classical
Index of Passages in Old Testament and New
Testament Referring to Tithing
220
227
241
249
251
252
253
254
THE UOTYEESAUTY OF THE TITHIKG IDEA
OKE of the very striking proofs of the
spread of the law of the tithe all over
the ancient world is found in this, that
it has struck into the very roots of the languages
of mankind. If the Latin is taken as an instance,
we find in it at once the word " decumanus," " of or
belonging to the tenth part " ; meaning also " the
tax consisting of one-tenth " ; then it means also
" a farmer of tithes " ; and in the feminine form of
the word, "decumana," signifies "the wife of a
tithe farmer." ' We read moreover that one of the
gates of a Roman military camp was called the
" Decuman," or Tithe Gate. If we carry our in-
quiry over into the Greek, we at once meet the
verb " dekato-o," " to take a tenth of a person " ;
" dekate," " the tenth part," " the tithe " ; likewise
we find the word " dekateuo," " to exact the tenths,
the tithe, take tithe of a person ; to take the tenth
of booty, especially as an offering to the gods ; also,
to take the tenth as a tax on all imports." Further,
we encounter the Greek word " dekateuterion," " the
tenths office, custom-house " ; and " dekateutes,"
which "means as in Latin, " a farmer of tithes, tithe
^See aoj unabridged Latin lezioon,
18
14 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
collector." ^ The Hebrew language contributed to
the common stock of the nations the word " 'ashar,"
" a tithe " ; and the verb " 'ashar " is thus treated
by Fuerst in his Hebrew Lexicon : " Pihel " " 'iser,"
future " y'ser," " to give the tenth part," with
accusative of the object, Deuteronomy xiv. 22, and
"1" of the person, Genesis xxviii. 22; absolute,
Nehemiah x. 38. Hifil. " he 'shir," infinitive con-
struct with " 1 " or " b," excluding the " h," ^ etc.
So much for a few words from three old world
languages. It is not too much to say that so deeply
was the notion of the sacred tenth ingrained in the
ancient way of thinking that the law of the tithe
has left its traces on all the great languages. In-
deed, so far as the Greeks and Eomans are con-
cerned, the custom of tithing had become, even in
remote classical times, so deep-seated, that there
was a distinctive vocabulary for the different proc-
esses belonging to the business of tithing; and
this recalls Max Mueller's famous argument about
the transactions common to the ancient world
which received root names so strongly resembling
each other that their common parentage could
easily be traced out. If this test be applied to the
tithing law, then certainly resemblances and proofs
of great antiquity can at once be discovered ; and
the crudest examination of the above lexical exhibit
for Greeks and Komans will at once show that in
Hellas and in Italy the system of tithing had be-
come so firmly fixed and so widely extended in its
> Liddell & Soott'a Gr.-Eng. Lex. ^ Fuerst's Heb. Lex.
UNIVERSALITY OP THE TITHING IDEA 15
practice that quite a little family of words had
grown up, both in Greek and in Latin, to describe
all the operations that had become so common that
they were in fact somewhat complex ; and it
proves, too, that there was floating in the minds of
these ancient people the same notion which some
modern poet has expressed :
" That man may last but never lives
Who much receives and nothing gives,
Whom none can love, whom none can thank, —
Creation^ s blot, creation' s blank. ' '
If what we find in the dictionaries is suggestive
and even startling, it is true that greater surprise
awaits us when we commence to search history.
Pausanias in his " Description of Greece," written
about A. D. 200, and when read seeming as fresh
as Baedeker's modern " Guide-book," in describing
the splendid temple which contained the Phidian
statue of Jupiter Olympus, gives an inscription
which he saw there on a golden shield which said,
" This temple's golden shield is a votive offering
from the Lacedaemonians at Tanagra and their
allies, a gift from the Argives, the Athenians and
the lonians, a tithe offering for success in war." *
In another ancient writer, Justin's " History of
the World," Book XYIII, Chapter r, I find this :
" At this time (the time of the siege of Carthage)
Cartalo, the son of Malchus the exiled general,
returning by his father's camp from Tyre (whither
* Pausanias, ** Description of Greece," Book V, Chap. 10.
16 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
he had been sent by the Carthaginians, to cany
the tenth of the plunder of Sicily, which his father
had taken, to Hercules) and being desired by his
father to wait on him, replied that he * would dis-
charge his religious duties to the public, before
those of merely private obligation.' " We may
pause in our reading of Justin to wonder how a
regard for the tithe and a feeling that it was owed
to the god outweighed in the mind of this heathen
son even his natural affection for an exiled father ;
and the answer to our wondering can only be found
in this, that among primitive peoples the nearness
to Eden and to the Dispersion had left in the
minds of the Carthaginians a deep sense of obliga-
tion to the true God, which had now become
covered up and obscured in the notion of paying
tribute to Hercules ; a heathen notion that had not
been corrupted with paganism so far that the feel-
ing " I ought," " I owe " tithes to God, had lost its
force in the human conscience. Not only this, but
we find a son, whose heart was bursting with
anxiety to see a homesick and exiled father, able
to restrain even that most natural desire, and to
postpone a happy meeting, because carried away
with the intensity and the force of a higher obli-
gation.
Hear the sequel of Justin's story. " His father,
though he was indignant at his conduct, was
nevertheless afraid to obstruct him in the per-
formance of his religious offices." Wonderful
that a father had so deep a sense of the " ought-
UNIVERSALITY OF THE TITHING IDEA 17
ness " of the tithes, that he was willing to overlook
and to condone what otherwise would have been
deemed to be gross filial neglect. In his notice of
a war between the Crotonians and the Locrians, in
which the Locrians, hoping for divine favor, had
sent tithes to the Oracle at Delphi, Justin further
says : " This affair becoming known, the Crotonians
themselves also sent deputies to the Oracle at
Delphi, asking the way to victory and the pros-
perous termination of the war. The answer given
was that the enemies must be conquered by vows,
before they could be conquered by arms. They
accordingly vowed the tenth part of the spoil to
Apollo, but the Locrians, getting information of
this vow, and the god's answer, vowed a ninth
part, keeping the matter, however, secret, that
they might not be outdone in vows." Why the
idea in the minds of these two peoples, that Apollo
would favor the side of the tithers, and give them
victory? The one-ninth contributed by the Loc-
rians, as an offset to the tenth of the Crotonians, is
perhaps the shrewdest transaction in tithing arith-
metic in all profane history ; and yet there is a
sacred notion underlying the history of this trans-
action, which ought to prevent us from idly smiling
over it, but rather wondering and praising God,
that His truth had lodged so deeply in the mind
even of a beclouded and in a large sense a deluded
apostate from the morning-time orthodoxy of the
ancient world. The outcome of this bidding in
vows for the favor of Apollo was that 15,000
18 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Locrians, unable longer to bid their wealth, gave
all that was left, — themselves — vowing to die in
battle ; and so desperate was their onset upon
120,000 Crotonians, eight to one, that the latter
were hopelessly defeated.* Would God that more
defeats of the enemies of righteousness in the
modern world were caused by the giving of the
tithe, — first, and last, — by giving of ourselves — to
die to carnality, to sin and to Satan. Then would
the Cross of Christ with a pace accelerated tenfold
sweep victoriously on.
Selden, in his work on " Tithes " mentioned in
the preface, of which the author of this chapter has
a copy from the original edition, which James the
First tried to have the common hangman secure
and burn,^ but which escaped the clutches of that
monarch, to enrich a private library in southwest-
ern Iowa, says that the Arabians by law required
every merchant to offer a tenth of his frankincense
to the priest for their God ; that the Phoenicians,
following the example of Abraham, devoted a tenth
of the spoils of war to holy uses. He says, further-
more, that " the Carthaginians brought this custom
from Tyre, to which city they sent their tithes
regularly by one clothed in purple." In purple,
the royal color, the color donned by princes and by
kings and by their lords ; the color which gave
Tyre and Sidon their fame, and which even the
> Justin's ''History of the World," Book XVIII, Chap. 7.
' Euoyolopeedia Britanuioa, artioles "Tithes," ''Selden."
UNIVERSALITY OF THE TITHING IDEA 19
kings of Babylon rejoiced to put on ; and yet we
have here so high a regard among heathen for the
saoredness of the tithing law that they clothed one
of their number in the robes of a king, as though
to tithe were one of the most princely actions of
which man is capable, and as though the tithe
being transported with such honor were too sacred
to be handled except by royal hands. Shall hea-
thenism, then, rise up to rebuke the princes of the
modern mart, who, with unholy and irreverent
hands, divert the tithe which belongs to God, "holy
unto " Him, into the polluted channels of modem-
day business ? Not only was this ambassador
clothed as royalty was, but his robes were also
priestly. Whence it is to be seen that the notion
of the sacredness of the tithe had developed so far
in the ancient world that its payment was thought
only to be properly made when surrounded with
the dignity and the glory of devout worship. It is
further said of the Carthaginians that when for a
time, owing to the neglect of the tithe, they felt the
sting of continued misfortune, they remitted the
tenth and were given deliverance and prosperity.
This seems like a heathen echo of the prophet's
words in Holy Writ : " Bring ye all the tithes into
the storehouse and prove Me now therewith, saith
God, and I will open unto you the windows of
heaven and will pour you out a blessing that
there shall not be room enough to receive it." *
Heathenism knew, as did the Hebrew, that the way
iMal. iii. 10.
20 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
to have the horn of plenty poured out was to tithe
to God.
Didymus, an Alexandrian grammarian, says that
it was the custom of the Greeks to consecrate the
tithe of their gains to the gods. Xenophon, after
the Eetreat of the Ten Thousand from Asia Minor,
together with his captains, consecrated the tithe of
his gains to Apollo and to Diana, and built a temple
supported by tithes.' The money for this temple-
building was derived from the sale of captives, and
is closely allied to the Hebrew law as to living
booty, mentioned in Chapter lY (q. v.).
Clement of Alexandria says that before the mak-
ing of images was invented, there were at Delphi
holy pillars on which the tithes offered by worship-
pers were hung.
Croesus induced Cyrus to proclaim to his soldiers
that when they should capture Sardis, the tithe of
the spoils of the city must be given to Jupiter.
The passage in Pliny noted above is as follows :
" The incense, after being collected, is carried on
camels' backs to Sabota, at which place a single
gate is left open for its admission. To deviate
from the high road while conveying it, the laws
have made a capital offense." Yes, even the king's
business required haste among the Arabians. " At
this place the priests take by measure, and not by
weight, a tenth part in honor of their god, whom
they call Sabis ; indeed, it is not allowable to dis-
pose of it before this has been done: out of this
» ** Anabaaifl," Book V, Chap. 3.
UNIVERSALITY OF THE TITHING IDEA 21
tenth, the public expenses are defrayed, for the
divinity generously entertains all those strangers
who have made a certain number of days' journeys
in coming thither." *
Cimon, the Athenian general, five hundred years
before Christ, when he had defeated the Persians
in battle, took out the tenth of the spoils and dedi-
cated them to his god.
Herodotus says that after the Phocians defeated
the Thessalians, they set apart a tenth of the booty
to the Delphian god.
Demosthenes, the great and the eloquent, the
victorious opposer of ^schines, in his public ad-
dress on one occasion used all the power of the
silver tongue of a world orator of the ages to de-
nounce as sacrilege the withholding from the gods
of the tithes due them.
It is said of the Pelasgians, that bemg punished
with a barren year for the neglect of the tithe, they
removed the judgment by vowing the tenth of their
profits to the gods.
LucuUus, the richest Eoman of history, taking
account of his large estate, vowed all the tithes to
the gods. Hear this, ye modern captains of in-
dustry, ye men of princely fortunes !
Hercules is the god most frequently mentioned
as the receiver of Eoman tithes. Lucius Mummius,
B. c. 146, captured Corinth, and devoted the spoils
to Hercules.
Mythical story relates that when Hercules had
ipUny's ''Natural History," Book XII, Chap. 32.
22 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
found the oxen which Cacus had stolen, he dedi-
cated an altar at Rome, and requested the people
to consecrate their tithes there.
In Eg3rpt, there were special safeguards thrown
around the tithe. The duty of tithing is frequently
mentioned in the Egyptian documents. Maspero
says that a tenth part of the cattle, slaves and
precious metals was set apart for the service of the
gods ; and, in that work of his, " The Dawn of
Civilization," speaking of ancient Egypt, says:
" The gods of the side which was victorious shared
with it in the triumph and received a tithe of the
spoil as the price of their help." * Of the king he
says : " As soon as he had triumphed by their com-
mand, he sought before all else to reward them
amply for the assistance they had given. He
poured a tithe of the spoils into the coffers of their
treasury, he made over a part of the conquered
country to their domain, he granted them a tale of
the prisoners to cultivate their lands or to work
at their buildings. . . ."^ This is said of a
period at least fifteen hundred years before Moses.
China accepted the law of the tithe very early,
for in the book " Li Ki " it is said : ^* A tenth of
the year's expenditures was for sacrifices." ^
Sayce says that the " Esra " or tithe was paid by
the Babylonians to the temples, on the produce of
Babylonian land.
Hilprecht says : (The tablets from Sippara)
> "The Dawn of Civilization," p. 302. * Ibid., p. 706.
» "Li Ki," Book lU, Chap. 2, sec. 27.
UNIVERSALITY OF THE TITHING IDEA 23
" make us acquainted with the duties and daily oc-
cupations of the different classes of temple officers
and their large body of servants, with the ordinary
tithes paid by the faithful, and with many other
revenues accruing to the sanctuary from all kinds
of gifts, from the lease of real estate, slaves and
animals, and from the sale of the products of the
fields and stables. As tithes were frequently paid
in kind, it became necessary to establish regular
depots along the principal canals, where scribes
stored and registered everything that came in.
Among the goods thus received we notice vege-
tables, meat, and other perishable objects which the
temples alone could not consume, and which, there-
fore, had to be sold or exchanged before they
decayed or decreased in value. Ko wonder that
apart from its distinet religious sphere the great
temple of Shamash at Sippara in many respects
resembled one of the great business firms of Babel
or Mppur." He says in regard to some Mppur
tablets : " They consisted of business documents re-
ferring to the registry of tithes, and to the admin-
istration of the temple property." ' Some of these
documents date back to Sargon's time, or to b. c.
3800.
The same may be said of India that has been said
of Egypt and Italy and Greece and China, that
anciently, very early in fact, the notion of the tithe
took deep root there. Dutt, in his well-known
work on " Ancient India," says : " Those who have
» ''Explorations," pp. 275, 311.
24 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
charge of the city are divided into six bodies of
five each. The sixth and last class consists of those
who collect the tenth of the prices of the articles
sold." * This also dates back to near the period of
the Babylonian Sargon, or to near the time of
Enoch.
So general, therefore, is this testimony on the
antiquity of tithing that we are constrained to adopt
the statement of Monacutius : " Instances are men-
tioned in history of some nations who did not offer
sacrifices ; but in the annals of all times none are
found who did not pay tithes."
TO SUM UP, WHAT HAVE WE FOUND ?
1. We have discovered that the idea of the tithe
covered all of the ancient world, from the extremes
of Western Europe to the limits of the Farther
East.
2. The ancients, even those not Hebrew by
birth, had the idea that to neglect the tithe would
bring disaster from God.
3. The universality of the practice of tithing
argues that there was and is deep in the conscience
and in the consciousness of man a sense of obliga-
tion. The soul cried out, and continues yet to cry,
" I ought," " I owe it."
4. Since this feeling of deep obligation to God
was so wide-spread and at the same time so ancient,
it follows that in the morning time of the world,
God, by a revelation of His will, had promulgated
1 " Ancient India," Vol. II, p. 38.
UNIVERSALITY OF THE TITHING IDEA 25
and enforced the law of the tithe for all the sons of
men ; and that to come back to it, as we are doing
to-day, is to return to one of the most ancient as
well as to one of the most sacred laws ever given
to the race. Where then shall we look in order to
find that promulgation ? It is to the record given
in Genesis, where it is said that two men called
Cain and Abel offered sacrifices at altars they had
builded in Jehovah's honor. Well may I close with
a quotation from TertuUian written by that learned
Father of the Church in the third century, in which
he says that Cain's sacrifice was unacceptable be-
cause untithed ; or to quote accurately :
" God had respect unto Abel, and unto his gifts ;
but unto Cain and unto his gifts He had not
respect. And God said unto Cain, Why is thy
coimtenance fallen ? hast thou not — if thou offerest
indeed aright, but dost not divide aright — sinned ?
Hold thy peace. For unto thee (shall) thy conver-
sion (be) and he shall lord it over thee." *
Paul says, " By faith Abel offered unto God a
more excellent (abundant) sacrifice than Cain." ^
And I am of the opinion that the Abels to-day who
are abundant and acceptable givers are few, and the
Cains " who do not rightly divide," " whose coun-
tenances are fallen" and who have therefore
" sinned," are a great legion.
* Tertnllian, " Answer to the Jews," Chap. 5.
' Hebrews xi. 4.
II
THE TITHING LAW STATED
IT is interesting to note the growth of the germ
idea of the tithe from the days of Cain and
Abel down to the period in which Jesus re-
buked the Pharisees for not keeping the moral as
Well as the legal requirements of the Law of the
Tithe. He did not find fault with their tithing.
" These ought ye to have done " ; but the criticism
was on the fact that they had neglected the
" weightier matters " of the law, and that they
" ought not to have left the other undone."
The children of the most primitive of the
patriarchs offered :
Clean beasts, Drink offerings,
Birds,- Oa.
Fruits,
And additions were made to these things from
time to time until, in the latter days of the Mosaic
economy, the offerings became multitudinous in
variety, and countless in multitude.
Jacob appears in the long distant past, as the
digger of a yet existing and famous well, and as
the earliest recorded vower of tithes. He is not
the first mentioned tither, but the earliest spoken
of as having made a specific promise to God that if
26
THE TITHING LAW STATED 2Y
He would do thus and so, Jacob would honor Him
with a tenth of his possessions. This vow followed
a vision of the night and it is not for us to forget
that the ladder from the skies, with angels ascend-
ing and descending its rounds, was closely con-
nected with an instance of patriarchal giving.
These primitive fathers saw great visions and gave.
They won great victories in battle and — gave.
They desired God to do special things for them
and — gave. When material means were exhausted
they gave themselves.
Leviticus xxvii. 30 states the first great part of
the law of the tithe. Caesar, commencing his
" Commentaries," divides the Gaul which he subju-
gated into "three parts." God has divided the
"Law of the Tithe" into three great tracts of
divine direction, each of them important, each of
them in its own particular sphere, and with its own
particular significance. Within the limits of each
of these continents of divine Providence, there
were minutiae to be worked out by the devout Jew,
which still further reflect the goodness and the
watch-care of a merciful God. The language in
Leviticus which refers to the first tithe (for there
were three) is as follows : " And all the tithe of
the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the
fruit of the tree, is the Lord's : it is holy unto the
Lord. And if a man will at all redeem aught of
his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part
thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd or
of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the
28 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He
shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither
shall he change it ; and if he change it at all, then
both it and the change thereof shall be holy : it
shall not be redeemed."
Let me take the word of God and hold the field
against all champions on this thesis : That the tithe is
holy unto the Lord^ and has never ceased to he that.
Holiness is not a something that flits from one thing
to another / hut the thing holy unto God is holy for
aye. There has heen no abrogation, no passing
away of this law respecting the holiness of the tithe,
hut Christ has fulfilled it, that is, filled it full to
repletion with suggestions that ought to impel us to
outclass the Jew in his giving under the law / hut
alas for us, he has outranked and outclassed his
Gentile hrother / and when we compare the Mosaic
Church through the ages with the Christian Church
through the ages, it must he confessed that there is a
large margin of obedience on the side of the Jew.
The law as to the second tithe is found in Deu-
teronomy xiv. 22-29 : " Thou shalt truly tithe
all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth
forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the
Lord thy God, in the place which He shall choose
to place His name there, the tithe of thy corn, of
thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy
herds and of thy flocks ; that thou mayest learn to
fear the Lord thy God always. And if the way
be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to
carry it; or if the place be too far from thee,
THE TITHING LAW STATED 29
which the [Lord thy God shall choose to set His
name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed
thee ; then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind
up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the
place which the Lord thy God shall choose : and
thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy
soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for
wine or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy
soul desireth : and thou shalt eat there before the
Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thy
household, and the Levite that is within thy gates ;
thou shalt not forsake him ; for he hath no part
nor inheritance with thee. At the end of three
years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine
increase the same year, and shalt lay it up withiu
thy gates: and the Levite (because he hath no
part nor inheritance with thee), and the stranger,
and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within
thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be satis-
fied ; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all
the work of thine hand which thou doest."
The above is a larger unfolding of the law than
in the first passage quoted and makes it clear that
in all probability there were two separate tithes
thus far required by Moses. In fact the Talmudists
accept without question the existence of this second
tithe. ^ The first tithe went to the tabernacle, and
in the later days, to the temple, for use there;
the second was a festival tithe for use by the whole
nation ; and we shall now see that there was a
* This is shown in their very plain directions in regard to it.
so THE LAW OF THE TITHE
third tithe, devoted to other uses and required
every third year. This is clear from the language
of Deuteronomy xiv. 28, which reads thus : " At
the end of the three years thou shalt bring forth
all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and
shalt lay it up within thy gates : and the Levite
(because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee),
and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the
widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and
shall eat, and be satisfied ; that the Lord thy God
may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which
thou doest."
Josephus, in " Antiquities," Book lY, Chapter 8,
section 8, bears witness to the operation of these
laws as follows : " Let there be taken out of your
fruits a tenth, hesidea that which you have allotted
to give to the priests and Levites. This you may
indeed sell in the country, but it is to be used in
those feasts and sacrifices that are to be celebrated
in the holy city, for it is fit that you should enjoy
those fruits of the earth which God gives you to
possess, so as may be to the honor of the donor.
" Let those that live as remote as the bounds of
the land which the Hebrews shall possess come to
that city where the temple shall be, and this three
times in a year, that they may give thanks to God
for His former benefits, and may entreat Him for
those they shall want hereafter ; and let them, by
this means, maintain a friendly correspondence
with one another by such meetings and feastings
together — ^for it is a good thing for those that are
THE TITHING LAW STATED 31
of the same stock, and under the same institution
of laws, not to be unacquainted with each other ;
which acquaintance will be maintained bj thus
conversing together, and by seeing and talking
with one another, and so renewing the memorials
of this union ; for if they do not thus converse
together continually, they will appear like mere
strangers to one another."
The above brief statements cover the great
divisions of the Law of the Tithe ; but of course
we are not to forget that there were minutiae in
the working out of each law, which subdivide the
more general provisions as stated above, and these
particulars will be discussed in the chapter follow^
ing ; but meanwhile, let us remember that we have
now entered the gateways of the Law of the
Tithe, and have passed the three great golden
pillars on which rests the whole superstructure of
the Mosaic economy which relates to the support
of the ministry of God.
m
THE MATEEIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION
OF THE TITHING LAW
THAT treasure of antiquity, that source of
much that is precious in the lore of the
Bible, Josephus, in the Fourth Book of
his " Antiquities," has this to say in regard to the'
Levites, the priesthood, and the means provided for
their maintenance : " And now Moses, because the
tribe of Levi was made free from war and warlike
expeditions, and was set apart for the divine wor-
ship, lest they should want and seek after the
necessaries of life, and so neglect the temple, com-
manded the Hebrews, according to the will of God,
that when they should gain the possession of the
land of Canaan, they should assign forty-eight good
and fair cities to the Levites ; and permit them to
enjoy their suburbs, as far as the limit of two
thousand cubits would extend from the walls of the
city. And besides this, he appointed that the peo-
ple should pay the tithe of their annual fruits of the
earth, both to the Levites and to the priests. And
this is what that tribe receives of the multitude ; but
I think it is necessary to set down what is paid by
all, peculiarly to the priests.
"Accordingly he commanded the Levites to
32
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 33
yield up to the priests thirteen of their forty-eight
cities, and to set apart for them the tenth part of the
tithes which they every year receive of the people ;
as also that it was just to offer to God the first
fruits of the entire product of the ground ; and that
they should offer the first born of those four-footed
beasts that are appointed for sacrifices, if it be a male,
to the priests to be slain, that they and their entire
families may eat them in the holy city ; but that the
owners of those first born which are not appointed
for sacrifices in the laws of our country should
bring a shekel and a half in their stead ; but for the
first born of a man, five shekels : that they should
also have the first fruits out of the shearing of the
sheep ; and that when any baked bread-corn, and
made loaves of it, they should give somewhat of
what they had asked to them. Moreover when
they had made a sacred vow, I mean those that are
called ISTazarites, that suffer their hair to grow long,
and use no wine, when they consecrate their hair
and offer it for a sacrifice, they are to allot the hair
for the priests (to be thrown into the fire). Such
also as dedicate themselves to God, as a Corban,
which denotes what the Greeks call a gift, when
they are desirous of being freed from that ministra-
tion, are to lay down money for the priests ; thirty
shekels if it be a woman, and fifty if it be a man ;
but if any be too poor to pay tne appointed sum, it
shall be lawful for the priests to determine that sum
as they think fit. And if any slay beasts at home
for a private festival, but not for a religious one,
34 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
they are obliged to bring the maw and the cheek
(or breast) and the right shoulder of the sacrifice to
the priests. With these, Moses contrived that the
priests should be plentifully maintained, besides
what they had out of those offerings for sins, which
the people gave them, as I have set down in the
foregoing book. He also ordered that, out of every-
thing allotted for the priests, their servants (their
sons), their daughters, and their wives, should par-
take, as well as themselves, excepting what came to
them out of the sacrifices that were offered for
sins ; for of those none but the males of the family
of the priests might eat, and this in the temple also,
and that the-same day they were offered." *
Tithes were taken from what remained after of-
ferings and first fruits were paid. First of all, the
proprietors of the land sent one-tenth to the
Levites ; then one-tenth more to Jerusalem ; or if
this city was too remote, then the equivalent of the
tithe was paid in money, and this was used to
celebrate the festivals in the holy city ; and these
feasts resembled the agapaB of the early Christians,
and the love-feast of some of our modern Protestant
churches. Tobit says that every three years he
paid tithes to the strangers and proselytes ; because
neither priests nor Levites were in the city where
he dwelt. Properly speaking there were only two
sorts of tithes : (1) To priests and Levites. (2) The
tithe applied to feasts of charity at the temple in
the metropolis, or in the cities.
» "Antiquities of the Jews," Book IV, Chap. 4,'sections 3-4.
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 35
In the payment of tithes there were offerings that
accompanied them, such as :
Grain, Fruits,
Meal, Wine,
Bread, Salt,
Cakes, Oil.
These things were all common in the temple.
They were sometimes alone, and sometimes ac-
companied with sacrifices. Honey was sometimes
offered as first fruits. The Pharisees of our Lord's
day paid not only tithes of grain and fruits, but also
of pulse, herbs, in gardens, which the law did not
require.
NOW LET us GATHER THE FACTS AND SEE
WHAT MOSES TAUGHT
1. The tithe of the land and the fruit of the
tree is the Lord's.* Farmer, horticulturist, apple
man : This takes in your cereals, your fruits, that
is to say, your wheat, barley, rye, corn, small fruits.
Bursting granaries, cribs, fruit-bins, etc., are full
of the Lord's unpaid portion.
2. If a tithe was redeemed, one-fifth had to be
added to the value,^ to make up the redemption
price. What a largess of redemption money would
be required of the American nation to make things
right with God, not only for the robberies of recent
years, but of all the unrighteous withholding since
* liev, xxvii. 30, » Lev. xxvii. 31,
36 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the Mayflower keel ground upon New England
shores.
3. The tithe of the herd or flock passing under
the rod is holy unto ' the Lord. *' Pass under, pass
under the rod." Ah, here in the notion of a thing
" devoted " is the origin of that well-known h3nnn.
4. If one juggled his tithe, substituting good for
bad or bad for good passing under the rod, both
were confiscate.^
6. Tithes as heave offerings were given to the
Levites ^ who tithed to the priests.
6. The tithed tithe was to be tithed again by
the priests, and this portion given to the high
priest.''
7. The tithe had to be brought to the tabernacle
during the existence of that institution, or to
Jerusalem as in the days of the settled occupance
of that city by the Hebrews,^ the idea being to
have a great, central rallying point.
8. One could not eat at home the festival tithe
of corn, wine, oil, firstlings of flocks or herds, things
vowed, free will offerings, heave offerings, etc., but
these had to be eaten at the grand central place of
meeting and by the ones appointed to consume
them, during the time of national assembly and
worship.^
9. If the distance was too great for the trans-
portation of offerings and the driving of cattle,
* Lev. xxvii. 32. ' Lev. xxvii. 33.
' Num. xviii. 24. * Nnm. xviii. 28.
» Pent. xii. 6, • Pent. xii. 17-18,
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 37
both produce and cattle were to be turned into
money and the money spent in feasting and rejoic-
ing after arrival at Jerusalem.'
10. The object of this assembling and rejoicing
was to teach men the love of God and the brother-
hood of man.* As noticed above in the passage
quoted from Josephus, these assemblies were to pre-
vent the Israelites from growing apart, and from
getting out of sympathy with each other ; and that
the result should fall out that they should be bound
together by cords of sympathy and love.
11. Every third year, the whole tithe was to be
laid up within the gates for the use of Levites,
strangers, fatherless, Avidows.^ This was probably
the third tithe, which was paid every third and
sixth year in every cycle of seven,^ and the second
tithe was paid each first, second, fourth and fifth
year, in the same cycle. This was necessary, be-
cause every seventh was a Sabbatic year, in which
there was no traffic of any kind, and no raising of
crops.
12. It is expressly declared that the faithful
performance of one's full duty in reference to the
tithe was in order to bring down the blessing of
God on the land, and to ensure the success of the
labor of one's hands.*^
13. And mark this well: In the third year of
the cycle, after all the tithes have been faithfully
paid, and solemn declaration has been made of the
» Dent. xiv. 25. 'Deut. xiv. 23. ' Deut. xiv. 29.
* " Jewish Encyclopsedia," Art. "Tithes." * Deut. xiv. 29.
38 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
fact, and the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless,
the widow have had their full portion, then, and
only then, could the devout Israelite dare to ask
the blessing of God on the land and upon his per-
sonal labors.'
SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE TEACHINGS REGARDING
THE TITHE
" The tithe is the Lord's." This is the founda-
tion principle. " The tithe of the land." Farmer,
this takes in your wheat, barley, rye, flax, sugar
beets, pumpkins, squashes, watermelons, canta-
loupes, and so on, through all the well-nigh in-
finite variety scattered through the different arable
regions of the country. Out of the millions of
bushels of wheat and corn which are in the store-
houses of our country to-day, how many millions
there are that have never paid the tithe and are
therefore like smuggled goods ; monuments of
greed, and of the willful and neglectful robbery of
God, through unbelief. " The fruit of the tree is
the Lord's," " holy unto Him." This takes in the
cherries, peaches, apricots, plums, apples, quinces,
etc., that load down the American markets with
full crates, nearly every one of them containing
stolen goods, tithes that are " holy unto the Lord,"
and have never been, nor when in the market under
such circumstances will they ever be, paid unto
Him, because consumed or about to be consumed
by human beings not authorized to partake of them.
1 Dent. xxvi. 12-15.
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 39
They are unredeemed tithes, and could not, under
the Hebrew law, be retained for the gains of the
open market, without adding twenty per cent, to
their value, as making up a full redemption price.
But remember ; One-fifth, or twenty per cent, of
ten per cent, is only two per cent. ; so that in the
case of redeemed tithes, the Lord only required
twelve per cent, instead of ten ; the reason being,
that if the ancient tithes were sent to the tem-
ple, they could be sold again for gain by the ones
receiving them there. The miserable moiety, the
niggardly dole which the whole Protestant world
pays to missions, would be doubled, redoubled and
multiplied to greater than a thousandfold, if only
Protestantism would pay its tithes rigorously, hon-
estly, systematically, and fearlessly; for it takes
courage to face down the mighty greeds of the past.
" The tithe of the herd." Take the exports and
shipments of beef cattle, take the valuation of the
shipments, the number of head in the shipments,
and divide the head by ten, and multiply the quo-
tient by the average value per head, and you will
approximate the annual robbery, in America, of
the treasuries of God. As an illustration, take
the valuation of live stock for the entire United
States, from the volume of Census Reports entitled
" Wealth, Debt and Taxation," p. 27, and this is
what we find :
Live stock for the year 1904,
valuation $4,073,791,736.00
The tithe 407,379,173.60
4:0 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
With this many millions at command, the evan-
gelization of the world might be accomplished in
ten .years, with only the revenue from the tithe of
America's beef cattle to pay the bills. If the
millions now stolen from God were conscientiously
paid to Him each year, there would be carried on
in the world sorely in need of the Gospel, and in
quarters where it is as yet unheard, the most stu-
pendous religious campaign in all the history of the
ages ; and now that the governments of the world
are getting ready to disarm, and to arbitrate, would
it be too much to hope that some time in the distant
future they will be sending out peace flags and
peace ships full of the men and the money and the
Bibles that will gospelize the whole globe in less
than a generation ? In fact, if all the depredations
that are now being shamelessly committed on the
treasuries of heaven, if this modern robbery of
temples were stopped, there would not be a mis-
sionary bishop, nor a field secretary of any society
soever, nor a preacher of the Gospel anywhere, who
would be compelled to beg, often in humiliation,
for the money theirs by right, or their society's by
right ; and they would be so well supported that
they would not be falling out of the ranks, as manjr
of them do now, broken in body and in brain be-
cause of needless and harassing anxiety about
money. It is the cupidity and greed of the Church,
and not old age that is superannuating annually
thousands of brilliant men, men who, in other lines
pf business, could have made princely fortunes bj
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION ^1
a few strokes of their pens or a few manipulations
of money in a legitimate market. The stingy
policy, which makes it impossible for the average
minister to replenish his library to the extent of
one hundred dollars' worth of new and fresh books
every year, compels him early in life to become
intellectually a waning star, and to " pass the dead
line at fifty." There would be no dead line in the
ministry if that ministry were supported, as God
meant it should be, by the only financial system
He has ever given to His Church. The miserable
pittance offered to the average minister by a
wealthy church insults and degrades his manhood,
and our young men do perfectly right in these days
who shut their ears to such offers.
"The tithe of the flock." That takes in the
sheep. Every one of them on the world's broad
acres ought to pass under the rod and every tenth
one ought to be devoted to God. Every tenth pig
in the world ought to follow ; for if the tithe is
" holy unto the Lord," every tenth sheep, every
tenth bullock, every tenth pig, every tenth colt,
is " holy unto the Lord." The fact that the prices
of these animals, devoted by the sacred law, is
going to selfish and secular uses, emphasizes the
enormity of the robbery of God that is constantly
going on.
JUGGLING THE TITHE
That was an evil practice among the Jews that
is severely rebuked in the law; and it is still a
43 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
common practice among Gentiles. Our Presby-
terian brother at one of the assemblies recently
held in southwestern Iowa, which met in session
at Council Bluffs, said that nearly all of the
preachers run loan offices and loan to their laymen,
because the preachers charge no interest, and the
banks charge six and eight per cent. It is true in
many cases that when a layman finds himself in a
close corner, and mentally runs over the places
where a " save " can be had, he very early thinks
of his Church as an institution from which his
support is or can be held back, thus forcing the
minister in the case to make his lay member a
loan without interest. This practice is going on,
mainly for the reason that a minister of God is
looked upon in some, if not in many quarters, as an
easily plundered and generally unprotesting in-
dividual.
The effort that is now being made, by those
who are awake on this question, to organize the
preachers, so as to prevent any impositions of this
kind and the injustice and hardship resulting, is
commendable, and to say, " E"one of us shall serve
unless he gets a living salary," is right ; and an
other plank needs to be added to this platform,
namely, " ]N"one of the charges which habitually
treat their ministers with criminal financial neglect
shall have pastors ; and said pastors will continue
to be withheld until said churches * awake to right-
eousness and sin not' along these lines." The con-
gregation which habitually neglects the financial
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 43
claims of a worthy man and his needy family, when
able to do better, deserves no better fate than I
have suggested. This is the platform on which
the Gospel ought to be allowed to stand or fall.
The Church is able to »pay its way. It is not in-
tended that the Church shall be a big sponge, nor
is it to be served by a band of barefoot friars,
saying, " Pax vobiscum. In the Name of Mary
the Mother of God, give us an alms." The Gospel
deserves the abundant, overflowing, divinely legal,
cornucopia sort of support, which is laid down and
demanded of the people of God in " His Financial
Plan," as will be fully pointed out in the next
chapter. We need to be forever done with the
trickery which thinks that if it owes a church it
owes nothing. The criticism made by business
men, too often with too much truth in the remark,
is that the Church is without honor in paying its
bills ; and if the Church in some communities be
without honor, it is equivalent to a plain declara-
tion of financial, moral and spiritual bankruptcy.
Such churches cannot have, nor need they expect to
have, revivals. To add members to such a church
is to spread brigandage in the kingdom of heaven.
We also need to be done with that other piece
of charlatanism invented by the devil, which refuses
to apply common-sense business methods to the
affairs of the Church, as though material interests
were up in the clouds instead of here on the earth.
Aspiration may " hitch its wagon to a star," but let
us remember that while the motive power to pull
44 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
may be in the stars, or above the stars, nevertheless
the wheels cut tracks in plain, every-day dirt. It is
a fact that if grocery establishments or banks were
run as some churches run their business, said
groceries and banks would break up in less than six
months. We need to get over the idea that there
is a necessary connection between religion and
slackness ; and that a pastor's consecration can only
be complete or can take place when he has ceased
to watch the collection basket. "When he has done
that, and also has ceased to inquire into the giving
or the non-giving of every member of his flock, he
has ceased to be a sensible man of business and is
courting bankruptcy for himself and for his church.
One of the great reasons for disgust that sensible
laymen feel for the Church is this very laxness of
the management of church affairs, a laxness which
they know to be wrong in principle, and in such
painful contrast with their own methods that they
feel ashamed every time their eyes are turned that
way. God meant, in giving His tithing system to
the Church, that religious things should be managed
systematically, decently, and in order. Paul means
just that or he means nothing ; and when God gave
the Church of the Theocracy (Democracy) a tithing
law. He provided the hest system of church finance
that has heen d&vised in the whole history of man.
Spell it all the way through with big letters if you
want to ; they would not begin to be as big as the
truth they express.
Ministerial support. Study it under the old
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 45
Hebrew law if you please. The primary and funda-
mental support of all the ministry of Judea was
on one-tenth of all the land, flock and tree produc-
tions of Palestine ; the tithe of this tithe went to
the priests ; and the tithe of the tithe of the tithe,
or the one-thousandth part of such income, went to
the high priest for his support. If all of Protestant-
ism were under one archbishop, his income would
be the thousandth part of the tithe of all Protes-
tantism's income. Taking the Methodist Episcopal
Church as an illustration, the income of its member-
ship has been estimated at five hundred millions ;
and the thousandth part of this would be five
hundred thousand dollars; which would be his
support if put on a parity with the ancient Jewish
high priest. Take all the bishops of Protestantism
to-day, and it can be seen how far even their sup-
port falls short of the Mosaic standard ; although
they are for the most part fairly well supported.
In the denomination noted above, it has been as-
certained that for all financial undertakings, includ-
ing ministerial support and the benevolences, it is
Contributing annually twenty-five million dollars,
or five per cent, of its income, which is just one-
half of its tithe ; and the constant appeal heard for
money, from the leaders in that Church, which is
as well supported as the best of the others, is the
answer to the statement we have made, which is
that one-half of this great Church's tithe is, for the
present, withheld.
As we look at all the facts in our survey of Prot-
46 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
testantism, we are inevitably led to the conclusion
that her ministry receive about half the salary
they should. How shall the man on starvation
wages be helped ? If his salary, say, is five hundred
dollars a year, then let him have a supplement of
another five hundred dollars gathered or drawn
from the tithe of the whole Church of which he is
a part. Let us come to the divine order, which is
Priestly Support in Flenteousness. On the Levitical
basis, every minister to-day would tithe his income,
and if he have bishops, the tithe thus created
would support them ; and if the analogy were
carried out to its logical outcome, and if there
were recognized among this body of bishops a
senior bishop, then his support would be made
up from the tithes of the incomes of his episcopal
colleagues. This would be a much more practi-
cable scheme for the support of bishops than some
that have been proposed.
The tremendous import of the Law of the Tithe
comes out again in its social application as that
obtained under the Mosaic economy. This is a
side of the tithing law which is almost unnoticed
by all writers who have attempted the setting forth
of the divine scheme. That is to say the second
tithe, or feast-tithe, could not, as we have seen
above, be spent at home, but had to be brought to a
central place of which the tabernacle at first was the
centre, and later on the metropolis itself, Jerusalem,
" beautiful for situation," ^ became the central rally-
' Psalm xlviii. 2.
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 4:1
ing point. The conditions which made the tab-
ernacle a movable institution, peregrinating with
the Israelites, gave way at last to fixed conditions,
when the nomad life of the Jews was done away,
and they had settled down into the comfortable
seats of their inheritance. The administration of
the tithe was in priestly hands, and was carried on
within the temple precincts. It was the business
of the people to bring, and the business of the
priests to divide, the tithes ; and they were rendered
every assistance in the disbursement by the Levites
themselves, who were always looked upon as a
lower order of priests ; in fact the whole priesthood
was accounted Levitical, with gradations of rank
up to the high priest.
It is apparent, therefore, that the tabernacle
and later on the temple became great disbursing,
banking, food-supplying institutions, whose business
it was to feed the poor, distribute alms, and look
after the general charitable business of the whole
nation. We follow the analogy somewhat in taking
our benevolent moneys to church, turning them
over to the shepherds of the flock, in carrying them
to sessions and synods and conferences and assem-
blies as we do, putting them into the hands of a
treasurer, who disburses them, both here and be-
yond the seas, through the higher general office to
which he is responsible. This centralization enabled
the priesthood of Israel to inculcate among the
people, in a tremendous way, the necessity and the
blessing of giving. In fact, we have strong reason
48 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
for believing that the lesser Levites, scattered
through the forty-eight cities which they owned,
were in the habit of forming schools of instruction
for the people ; and these schools became seminaries
of instruction in giving and in righteousness ; the
Levites always insisting that "the tithe is the
Lord's," a sacred, holy, devoted thing, not to be
meddled with for any selfish, secular purpose what-
soever. " It was also a provision in the law," says
Geikie, " that there should be no poor in the nation ; "
and Moses set forth in his law a science of political
economy, which should attend to taxation, forbid
the taking of interest on loans,, and relieve all dis-
tress out of the joyfully given, the shoutingly given,
tithes.
It was doubtless designed of the Lord that this
colossal system of henevoUnce should first of all he
established on a granite foundation in the Holy
Land, and then^ because of the abundant resources
provided by the tithing system^ commence the evan-
gelization of the whole world with the good news of
a Messiah to come. If the Jews had been loyal to
this message, just that very result would have fol-
lowed. They had a theocracy (democracy) — a de-
mocracy backed up by the Word of God, they had
the great campaign idea of the unity of God, which,
once grasped, leads to that other idea, the unity of
the race ; believing in one God as opposed to many
gods ; and in their campaign with the Presence
before them and the Scriptures in them, with the
divine Spirit invigorating and making powerful the
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 49
Word, so that in the hand of that Spirit it became
a sword ; and with a financial system to provide the
sinews of war that nothing could break down, the
Jews, with all their talent for organization, their
swiftness to acquire new tongues, their enthusiasm
that nothing daunts even yet, could have started on
their victorious march for the spiritual conquest of
the whole world. They had the slogan of their
race, " In Abraham shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed."
But alas for the defection of Israeli Alas for
their awful blindness ! This magnificent program
of world-conquest was spoiled by idolatry and by
covetousness ; and the spoiling is still going on;
but thank God the Church of the living Christ is
waking from her defection ; and Jew and Gentile
together are now pressing back to the oracles of
God. Woe to Protestantism; woe to the Greek
Church, woe to the Church of Eome, if any or all
of them fail to provide even now, ages after it was
meant to be accomplished, the money that is the
sinews of war to God, to carry on this program
of world-conquest in world evangelization. Better
than " a cycle of Cathay," better than " a hundred
years of Europe," better than an indemnity-bought
group of Philippines, better than the carving out
of " spheres of influence in China," better than the
conquest of the Antilles, better than the awakening
of China from her age-long sleep, better than the
political awakening of the whole world and the dis-
armament so long contemplated and accomplished
50 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
with the dilatoriness of suspicion ; better far than
all of this will be the awakening of the Church
herself, putting on her beautiful garments of right-
eousness, and putting her hand, fairer than the be-
jewelled hand of an empress, into the purse she has
been filling for ages, forgetting always before that
the hand must be withdrawn again, and withdrawn
many times, and each withdrawal bringing forth a
handful of gifts until God " opens the windows of
heaven and pours her out a blessing such as there
shall not be room enough to receive " ; for the
Church from Christ till now has never given freely
enough to claim the fullness of the promises of God ;
but when the day of fully opened treasuries comes,
which means the day of fully opened heavenly
windows, the Church, transfigured and over-
whelmed with the glory she shall receive, will
pray, " O God, stay Thy hand."
HOW TITHING WAS IlSf TENDED TO BRING OUT
THE BROTHEEHOOD OF MAN
The observations of Josephus, which the reader
will now be able to review more appreciatively,
standing as they do at the head of this chapter,
need more elaboration in order to set forth in clear
light the full force of what he says and what the
Scripture implies. Under the provisions of the
Hebrew law, we have seen that the worshipper
could not in his own home consume the feast-
tithe; for it was understood fundamentally and
primarily that every one paying the feast tithe
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 61
must go to Jerusalem to share it with the others.
This was, as we have seen, to establish bonds of
acquaintanceship and kindliness and brotherhood
among the children of Abraham. Josephus says
that any other practice would have permitted them
to grow apart; and the social life of the nation
therefore was conserved by the tithing law in a
wonderful and striking way.
The law served as a corrector of enmities and
jealousies and petty spites, and cured the disease
of unfriendliness, caused often by lack of acquaint-
ance ; for acquaintanceship tears away the shroud
from a dying brotherly spirit, makes it live and
move and have its being. There were never
meant to be any social wallflowers among the
Hebrews. Even the captives from the wars, and
the slaves brought in or purchased by the Jews,
might become proselytes of the faith ; and indeed,
every three years, did share in the social and friendly
joys of the Tithing Feast. We can only imagine
what rare friendships were contracted, with such
opportunities as were furnished by the pilgrimages
to Jerusalem. Communion, lexically, the " sharing
of another's bread," national communion, received
from the feast-custom, for which the feast-tithe
provided, a tremendous impetus. The great gather-
ings at Jerusalem taught, as nothing else has ever
done in the memory of man, the common brother-
hood of humanity and the humanity of brother-
hood; and the holy sacrament, instituted by our
Saviour, grew out of, and was fully explained by,
62 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the great Jerusalem feast. The love-feasts or
agapae, instituted by the apostles for the early
Christians, were simply the tithe-feast at Jerusa-
lem, modified for transportation over the whole
world. Woe worth the day which witnessed in
many places the dying out of these old love-feasts.
Every third year the tithe was to be used in ex-
tending the feast, not only to Hebrews but also to
the widows and orphans, to the strangers, and to
the needy ; and this third tithe, as indicated, a feast-
tithe also, was laid up in the Levitical cities through-
out Canaan. Some have disputed the necessity and
the existence of this third tithe, but a little reflec-
tion will show its reasonableness and its absolute
necessity. The second, or Hebrew feast-tithe, was
all absorbed in providing for the annual national
festivals at Jerusalem ; and if it sufficed only for
that, how could it be expected that it would supply
also all the multitude of widows and distressed and
orphaned and strange people in the Holy Land,
who were a constantly increasing multitude. An-
other and third levy was plainly unavoidable ; and
Josephus says it was levied every third year, in ad-
dition to the other two tithes which were consumed
in the manner we have seen above. Thus we s#e
how reluctant men have been, and still are, to be-
lieve in the kind of generosity God expects of His
children.
Think of all that these things mean, ye tired
business men, ye weary mothers with sick babies
that might be cured with an outing. Not only
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 53
was there the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, kept up
from year to year, but every third year there was
a national romping time, a season of jollity, to
be spent, not in hard toil and in getting money
and buying houses and lands, but in feasting, merry-
making, visiting and rejoicing. This happy privi-
lege was to extend to every nook and corner of
Palestine, and was to reach, absolutely, every one
within the confines of the Holy Land. JSTone might
hide from it, none might be denied it. TVhat an
undoing of heavy burdens, what an unbending of
backs growing bent with heavy labor, what a check-
ing of rapacity. To no other people as to the Jews
was a way provided to break the chains of business
and taste the pure joys of an annual vacation. Each
Feast of Tabernacles was a camp-meeting with relig-
ious exercises, and every third year came such a
Chautauqua and outing as reached everybody, even
the toiling slaves. If captives ever prayed for con-
tinuance of slavery in olden time I think it must have
been that they prayed to be taken as captives to
Palestine to enjoy some of the good times there.
Avaunt, ye people who say that God takes away all
the pleasures of life when He removes our sins. Sin
is all that He takes away. Upon no page of history
anywhere is it written that any nation had such
gigantic diversion provided for it as God contrived
for His people under the Hebrew law. The twenti-
eth century was anticipated and was outrun ; and
regulations were made three thousand years ago that
were much in advance of the times, and matched
54: THE LAW OF THE TITHE
up with our own age and actually outclass it. "We
shall have to run far to catch up with it, — into
century twenty-two, I am afraid. Thomas More
did not dream half so successfully about a wonder-
ful new " Utopia " as did Moses ; and the difference
is, that Moses lived on the edge of the fulfillment
of his dream: and the memory of Thomas More
still waits for the realization in full of his dream of
England as a political and social Paradise. Jerusa-
lem the Holy was to the Jew his Geneva Lake,
his Atlantic City with that city's wickedness left
out, his Ocean Grove, his Bay Yiew, his Lake
Chautauqua ; and if he desired to taste the breezes
of the ocean they were always within hail ; and if
he wished to see one of the most beautiful lakes in
all the world, he only had to take a little journey
from Jerusalem to " Galilee, sweet Galilee," to
realize all his longing to come in touch with the
bosom of Lake Gennesaret. What would have
grown up at Jerusalem under the operation of this
law, continued until now, only a kind heavenly
Father knows.
What if the third year tithe were an institution
of the Church to-day throughout the world ; what
if every widowed one, every orphan, every stranger,
were sought out periodically after the manner of
the ancient Jews, and the world-tithe of the
Church used in relieving the distresses of them all ?
Such a shout would come from heaven and earth
together that the noise of the rejoicing from the
skies might commingle itself with that here below.
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 55
My Lord delayeth His coming because the tithes
have not been brought in. There were in those
ancient days no wailing notes, no minor strains in
the praises heard at Jerusalem and throughout
Canaan. It was to be a symphony of rejoicing to
Avhich there should be none to contribute the sound
of weeping to mar the strains. It was meant to be
a sweet, full, rich free tide of rejoicing, a proclama-
tion of liberty to the captives ; and no footsteps of
oppression were to echo along the corridors of the
temple of God, which temple all the land be-
came.
HOW THE TITHE WAS INTENDED TO DESTROY
HYPOCRISY AND TO DOWN COVETOUSNESS
It is expressly declared in the Scripture law of
giving that the faithful performance of all the duty
connected with the tithe had for its ultimate aim
the calling down upon the land of the blessing of
God ; and that blessing is promised in the same
connection on the labor of the faithful tither's
hands. Here we moderns will find the secret of
many of our failures. We have not taken God into
partnership with us, as did the faithful Jew. Man
of business, heavy of heart, with failures behind
you and threatened failures in front of you, ha/ve
youjpaid God His tithe f " The tithe is the Lord's.
It is holy unto the Lord." Perhaps your robbery
of this sacred fund, if you have robbed it, is the
cause of your present lack of success in business. If
the Jew had no right to expect the favor of God
56 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
on the planning of his brain, and the effort of his
hands, how can you ? It was provided in the law
that at the end of each third year the Jew should
sit down to self-examination and ask himself whether
all his tithes had been duly and truly and con-
scientiously paid ; and if he could say, " Yes," and
only when he could say, " Yes," could he dare to
go into devout prayer to God for His blessing on the
land. Failure to pay the tithe was a barrier to
pra^'er, and left brazen skies above the head of the
Jew who was covetous and unfaithful. Ah, how
about the modern day collection basket ? God
despises stinginess and punishes it the same way
He did of old, by making prayers unanswerable
that do not spring out of a life that pays the tithe.
Do you think God has any more patience with
meanness of this kind of robbery to-day than then ?
Some of your prayers, dear reader, do not go above
your head because they are weighted with covet-
ousness and disobedience ; and they will never go
towards heaven at all until they get wings made of
greenbacks. The millstone of robbery sinks a
prayer to the depths of the sea of oblivion ; but the
utterance of a prayer backed with faithful giving
freights it with the incense of true worship sweeter
than the spices of " Araby the blest."
In this connection and as introductory to what I
have to say in Chapter lY, let me say that in my
opinion the discussion of several questions is full of
profit, all of them appropriate to be introduced
here ; such as : " Should preachers own property ?
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 57
Should they have moderate, large, very large
salaries ? Should they have comfortable homes ?
Should they have a plot of ground for a parsonage
garden, owned, either by the church they serve or
by themselves ? Should they have an income be-
yond what the church affords ? " All these ques-
tions are answered fully and satisfactorily in the
Word of God itself and in His legal setting forth of
His Financial Plan. Introductory, therefore, to the
next chapter, and preparing the mind of the reader
for what he will find there, let me say that a min-
ister of the Gospel is supposed or required to give
up all things that are of an unholy or entangling
nature, in stripping himself for the ministry. Let
it be remembered, however, that if this stripping is
not wisely done, he will handicap himself with an-
other entanglement fully as mischievous in its re-
sults as financial profit-burdens may be, namely,
grinding poverty. This is sometimes the very
handicap which dwarfs the development of the
family mind, compels the family wardrobe to shab-
biness, forces the father into retirement while still
in the plenitude of his powers and leaves him,
morally and intellectually speaking, as juiceless and
insipid as the orange one presses and then throws
away.
There are more handicaps in extreme poverty
than in comfortable competency ; and the man
who makes no provision for the proper clothing
and educating and bringing up of his children is
as criminally negligent as the church which fails
68 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
of its own accord, even when able, to cheerfully
make all ministerial duties possible for its preachers ;
men who ought to be the best paid men of the com-
munity and are usually the poorest paid. The
reason of this neglect in part is that the Shadow
of Korae has been athwart our path in the past, and
that shadow has never wholly retreated from about
us. The minister with a big family and a small
salary is often in the greatest entanglement of all,
his debts, which are like a millstone about his neck
and all but crush his heart ; and a pastor in debt,
who is the unfortunate curate of a church that, to
use the common phrase, is " always behind " on his
salary, has a weight on his heart, that of a debt
that is not his, but another's, and the tithe thus
withheld kills the life of the Church and still further
burdens and discourages the pastor. This is the
day of high salaries, excepting the preacher's ; of
high priced provisions, to the very man who, by
reason of his circumstances, ought to find them the
lowest. A man cannot live on the salary of ten
years ago ; for prices have advanced, and are still
soaring beyond the prices of yore ; and the minis-
terial wage, like a bird of flight with its wings
cropped, refuses to rise, and clumsily tumbles about
on the earth, slippery, like a fresh caught trout, it
is true, but, like the trout, held down by sitting on
it if need be ; for there is always at hand some self-
constituted " watch dog of the treasury." While
labor salaries have been going up with the stand-
ard of living, an iron hand of mistaken theology^
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL AtJPLlCATlON 59
blundering finance and wicked covetousness has
refused to let the preacher's compensation keep
pace with the salaries of other men, or with the
risen standard of living ; and the consequence is,
that men are every day being forced out of the
ministry, who, given the proper conditions of com-
fort and independence, would be good for ten,
twenty, even thirty years of mental and spiritual
activity. Most superannuations at forty-five or
fifty years of age are due to the Church's cupidity,
and to her blindness in not recognizing changed
conditions.
" But a minister ought to expect certain hard-
ness. " Yes, but not hard-heartedness in the Church.
Yes, but not when hardness is unnecessary or when
hardness shown to him would be criminal. Some
have the idea, as I have noted elsewhere and
criticized in Chapter lY, that a minister is a sort of
genteel beggar ; a mendicant going over the coun-
try with a shaven poll, barefoot, with a rope tied
around his loins, haircloth next his skin, and a
wooden cup tied to his girdle in which he is to re-
ceive alms. That conception of a priesthood be-
longs to India, whence, I believe, it was imported
to Eome ; and such a conception has more of
fakirism in it than anything else. Whence came
this false notion of penance and asceticism ? IN'ot
from the teachings of Jesus ; for a faithful band of
holy women came to His rescue and out of full
purses paid the bills of His holy campaigns. The
New Testament, it is true, does not justify James
60 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
and John for desiring to call down fire from heaven
on the heads of the Shechemites who would give
neither bread nor water, nor sell bread, to the
hungry Jesus at the well; but remember that
neither does the ]^ew Testament justify that depri-
vation which in this instance brought hot anger to
the soul of the faithful John. "But they went
without purse or scrip." Yes, but they went among
Jews who had been taught for generations to tithe
their incomes to the ministers of God. Hear Philip
Schaff on this point : " After the Exile the Mosaic
prescripts were enforced with great regularity." *
He says moreover : " The apostles never mention
tithes because that in their time the voluntary of-
ferings of the members still sufficed for the want of
the Church;"^ so that from the Keturn from
Babylon, and during the period of five hundred
years and beyond, there had been a constantly
cumulative and cumulating compliance with the
tithing law ; and in the days of Jesus the Pharisees
went beyond the requirements of Moses and of
Ezra and tithed even garden produce, exempt under
the old law, as the Eabbins themselves have con-
fessed. It was after the Apostolic Church was
established long after, that it became necessary, on
account of the growing laxity, to mention and to
enforce the old law of the tithe.^
The idea of priestly mendicancy came in the time
of laxity when the corruption of the world and the
* " New Religious Encyolopsedia," Art. ** Tithes."
» Ibid, « Ibid.
MATERIAL AKD SOCIAL APPLICATION 61
general closing of purses amounted to an awful
sacrilege. ISTow that the Church is awakened and
immorality in vast communities no longer drives
men into the solitide of the desert, we still have
those who keep up the old apostasy, which was
itself the child of apostasy, and insist that the
minister of God is a mendicant, and ought to go in
shiny Prince Albert coat and in frayed out ill-
fitting dress coats that have been thrown away by
other people. Out upon such impious misinterpre-
tations or, rather, such willful ignorance of Scrip-
ture, which makes it plain that God's man both
needs and deserves, and ought to receive the very
best ; and receive it, too, in all abundance and
plenteousness. Wesley felt the influence of Eome
when he used to go into the orchard, lie upon the
ground, and wake in the morning with his hair
frozen to the soil. Luther had the ascetic notion,
a perverted one, when he fasted to excess and at
last, in a paroxysm of hallucination, threw his ink-
bottle at the devil who was tormenting him. The
same thing could be repeated by ourselves, ink-
bottle and all, if we would fast to excess of bodily
weakness as did Luther. The same may be said
of St. Anthony. I have no doubt that the
peculiar psychological condition, in which he saw
wild and alluring forms about him, was the result
of excessive fasting, excessive wakefulness, and the
resulting bodily weakness; and it was the first
stage of dangerous lunacy, due to muscular col-
lapse and unnecessary nervous overstrain. This
e^ THE LAW OF THE TlTHU
physiological phase of the subject, joined to the
psychological, will also probably explain the
incident in which St. Dunstan is said to have
wrung the nose of the devil with a red hot pincers,
until his Satanic Majesty roared for mercy. The
better understanding of the Gospel and of the
laws of health, and especially of the teachings of
modem day psychology, make it clear what a mass
of gammon and of sanctified tommyrot passed
unaer the name of the miraculous during the
Middle Ages and on down to the Lutheran Eef or-
mation. Men are led to wisdom nowadays in
seeing that God is best pleased by taking good
care of, clothing well and feeding well, the bodies
He has given us ; that these bodies are the temples
of the Holy Ghost and, like temples, must be kept
in shining repair. Humility is not a flower to
bloom on a bruised and bleeding stem ; but, as you
would raise roses from well tended and well
watered stocks, so you will get the best service
out of men when their minds are free from the
crazy hallucinations of overfasting, who are in
health, every nerve throbbing from well fed
vitality, and who have no unnecessary financial
worries to make them serve tables and which
harass them into premature superannuation and de-
crepitude.
I hear it said that a minister should not own
property because such ownership might engender
temptation ; yet I see the layman who makes the
criticism willing to stand any amount of tempta-
MATERIAL AND SOCIAL APPLICATION 63
tion of that kind, and pluming himself to think
that, unaided of God even, he can successfully with-
stand it. Then again I see some preachers im-
providently throwing their money to the birds in
unwise spending upon themselves, a spending that
sometimes is misnamed benevolence ; and as they
come to their death beds saying, " the Lord will
provide," forgetting that His provision was during
their own lifetime, when they were receiving
salaries to take care of and husband ; forget-
ting also that God nowadays often provides for
His ministers with cheap Dakota land, with cheap
life insurance, with cheap land in Wyoming or in
Alberta, and has given them brains to carefully
plan such investments, as well as other legitimate
ones that I need not name. And I think when I
hear of all this how badly we are in need of the
operation and careful observance of the system
God has provided. "What that system is, how it
operated, has been shown in part ; and inf erentially,
how it would operate now, if put into full force,
and what were the problems in Moses' day to be
met and overcome, it will be the province of the
next chapter to show.
rv
THE PEOBLEM OF MINISTEEIAL
SUPPOET (B. 0. 1500)
CONTEAKY to much modern teaching, and
utterly subverting the idea that God's
ministers are to live in genteel or semi-
genteel, or subgenteel poverty, is the story of the
priesthood and of priestly support, found in the
Pentateuch, illustrated in the historical books,
enforced with warnings and threatenings in the
books of the prophets, endorsed by Christ, illus-
trated again by St. Paul, who points out the grand,
ever-gladdening truth, that Christ, to-dcmj, vn the
hea/vens, as priest for the race, is the receiver of
tithes from all His Church, the Church that He
has redeemed with His own ^precious hlood, the
Church which needs the tithes to-day to ca/rry on
His worh victoriously, and to roh it of them, is
directly to roh Jesus and lea/ve Him emj>ty handed
in the shies.
The whole discussion of tithes and offerings
pivots itself about the idea of ministerial support ;
and I say again, as I did in the preface to this
book, that the problems of B. c. 1500 are the
problems of the twentieth century. The Hebrew
conception is that God is honored by honoring His
64
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT 65
ministers. I present herewith some studies in the
books of Leviticus, Joshua and JS'umbers, with
exegesis and commentary derived from many-
sources, including my own thought ; for some
facts were so plainly inferable from other facts
that it has needed only a little common sense to
point out the necessary connection. Philo Judseus,
Josephus, the Talmud and the Jewish Encyclopasdia
are especially valuable in elucidating the parts of
the above mentioned Scriptures that deal with the
question of priestly support. To Philo first of all
we will direct our attention, since what he has to
say may well serve as introduction to what other
writers have said.
His remarks as to " the kinds of animals fit for
sacrifice " are significant. Of birds, he says that
only the turtle dove, gentle and loving solitude,
and the pigeon, gentle and gregarious, could be
used. Animals such as oxen, sheep, goats, gentle,
herbivorous, could be offered, but had to be scruti-
nized most carefully for blemishes. Some of the
victims were offered every day, others at the new
moon, others still at the full moon, and some on
days of fasting. Every seventh day a double
number was sacrificed. Incense was offered twice
every day, at sunrise and at sunset. Loaves of
bread were a symbol of temperance, frankincense
stood for economy and temperance, salt denoted
the duration of all things. There were three
classes of victims :
(1) Whole Burnt Offerings.
e^ THE LAW OF THE TITHE
(2) Offerings for Preservation.
(3) Sin Offerings.
The whole victim denoted " many things instead
of one, one instead of many." The male victim
denoted domination ; the female, passiveness. The
hands were placed on the victim's head, to denote
action without reproach. The blood was poured
round the altar in a circle, because a circle is the
Laost perfect of all symbols. The belly and feet
of the victim were washed to denote purification
from appetite.
Offerings of Preservation :
These were fat, the lobe of the liver, the kid-
neys, and were for the altar. All other parts were
for a feast for the sacrificer. The fat was offered
because it was the richest part ; the kidneys, be-
cause adjacent to the source of the life-principle.
The priests were to partake of all the fat, like-
wise of all dough-offerings. First fruits were very
plentiful, and sacred to priestly and not to Levitical
uses. Wine was brought from every wine-press ;
and there were thousands of them in Judea.
Wheat and barley came from every threshing floor ;
oil from all olive trees. Eatable fruit from all
trees. Every orchard paid its tribute. All first
bom males of all clean land animals were the
Lord's. Thus, the first born calves, the first born
lambs, the first bom kids, were the Lord's. There
was a money ransom for all
Young horses, Youn^ camels.
Young asses, And similar beasts.
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT 67
Philo says that the Jews bred these animals in
numbers so vast that ia the rearing of them they
outclassed every other nation; and may we not
say that this outclassing resulted from the special
blessing of God, on the labors and sacrifices of
those who were faithful in dividing with Him ?
The first born of children were redeemed at a
fixed price in money, an equal sum for poor and
rich, a sum in the power of every one to give, and,
I may add, teaching that in the divme theocracy
which God established, which is only another name
for democracy, the redemption of the first born
shadowed for this great truth that, before the law
and before God, "all men are created free and
equal." Then Philo adds :
" But the men of this nation contribute their
payments to the priest with joy and cheerfulness,
anticipating the collectors, and cutting short the
time allowed for making the contributions, and
thinking that they are themselves receiving rather
than giving; and so with words of blessing and
thankfulness, they all, both men and women, bring
their offerings at each of the seasons of the year,
with a spontaneous cheerfulness, readiness and zeal,
beyond all description." *
Alongside of the above particulars given by
Philo Judaeus, let me subjoin some facts collected
by Ewald, in his " Antiquities of Israel," pp. 298-
306, as follows :
The priests were not to devote themselves to the
^ philo Judaeus, "On the Rewards ot the Priests,"
68 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
cultivation of the soil, nor to external acquisitions,
but were to live upon tithes, offerings and perqui-
sites of their office. The inferior Levites were
scattered through the whole country, and on them
devolved the duty of collecting tithes, which were
paid at will at the local towns, and every third
year all tithes that might have remained unpaid
were paid in full. The first fruits were too holy
for man's use, and belonged to God. All the
products of the soil, including oil and must, were
to be brought. The com just threshed at the barn-
floor, a cake of the first dough, all first born males
of sacrificial animals had to be brought. The first
fruits were given to the priests, and not to the
Levites inferior. Deuteronomy adds to the other
tithes the fleece of the first shorn sheep. All the
booty of the wars was subject to subtraction of the
five hundredth part for the Lord, to be taken from
the warrior's share ; and one part in fifty from
the booty of the rest of the nation, given to the
inferior Levites. This applied to living booty.
All that was metallic passed direct to the priests,
not for their support, but for the endowment of
the sanctuary.
Poll tax was paid by all above twenty years old
and amounted to a half -shekel of silver.
All first fruits, as noted elsewhere, and iterated
here, came to the priests, and not to the ordinary
Levites.
Other perquisites of the ministerial office were
shares in the sacrifices, which, as Philo Judgeus
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT 69
notes, in the case of the Offering for Preservation,
all belonged to the sacrificer at the altar, except the
fat, lobe of the liver, and the kidneys ; and this
would provide a rich feast for those allowed to
partake of it.
Another perquisite of the priests was the skins
of the animals for the burnt offerings. These, says
PhiLo, were "an incredible multitude." The
leather industry in Palestine, an industry which
reached out all over the world of the Komans, was
helped by the sale of these skins, to be manu-
factured into the common leathers of commerce.
Ewald remarks that the skins from all other animal
sacrifices were also, probably enough, the perqui-
sites of the priests. Again, from all animal offer-
ings, from animal guilt offerings and from all ex-
piatory offerings except of the two highest grades,
the priests received all the flesh except small altar
pieces. All the corn and flesh portions of the
thank offerings might be eaten at home. All
of the foregoing eatable things, except the last
named, had to be consumed in the forecourt of the
Holy Place. Kone of their lodgers could partake
of these things.
Forty-eight small towns with their open spaces
where their cattle might be pastured, and where
they might raise a surplus of cattle to sell
for sacrificial purposes, were a part also of the
gracious gifts of the theocracy to the ministry that
served it. In other words, at the direct command
of God given to Moses, and fulfilled by Joshua
70 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
after the Israelites were settled in Canaan, forty,
eight cities, six of them cities of refuge, were
given to God's ministry, cities which were theirs by
inalienable right, and in case any Levite fell into
misfortune, and had to mortgage or sell his home,
it came back to him or to his heirs in the " Day of
Jubilee." Ewald remarks that the common extend-
ing out from these priestly towns stretched from
it a distance of two thousand ells. Finally the
Levites, in the days of the kings, when the theoc-
racy (democracy) was broken up, were dispossessed
of their God-given possessions, the Levitical cities,
and were crowded into the small kingdom of
Judah, where estates were assigned to them. It
must be noted, also, that so long as the Levites re-
mained in their towns, in their palmy days, they
had the privilege, if they desired, of keeping
roomers or lodgers in their homes, to enjoy the
revenue therefrom.
NAMES OF THE CITIES OWNED BY
THE LEVITES'
1. Hebron. 10. Gibeon.
2. Libnah. 11. Geba.
3. Jattir. 12. Anathoth.
4. Eshtemoa. 13. Almon.
5. Holon. 14. Shechem (Mt.
6. Debir. Ephraim).
7. Ain. 16. Gezer.
8. Juttah. 16. Kibzaim.
9. Bethshemesh. 17. Beth Horon.
^ See the Book of Joshua, chap. xxi.
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT Yl
18. Eltekeh. 34. Hammothdor.
19. Gibbethon. 35. Kartan.
20. Aijalon. 36. City of the Ger-
21. Gathrimmon. shonites.
22. Tanach. 37. Jokneam.
23. Golan. 38. Kartah.
24. Beeshterah (Ashta- 39. Dimnah.
roth). 40. Nahalal.
25. Kishon. 41. Bezer.
26. Dabareh. 42. Jahazah.
27. Jarmuth. 43. Kedemoth.
28. Engannim. 44. Mephaath.
29. Mishal. 45. Kamoth in Gilead.
30. Abdon. 46. Mahanaim.
31. Helkath. 47. Heshbon.
32. Eehob. 48. Jazer.
33. Kedesh in Galilee.
The Bagster Bible in a marginal note on this list
of cities ' asserts, I know not on what authority, that
the suburbs or environs of these forty-eight towns
were divided, for the first 608 yards from the
walls, into spaces for barns, gardens, etc., circling the
cities, and the next 1,208 yards, to the outermost
part of the circle enclosing the first, were for pas-
tures and vineyards.
It is amusing to see what hard work some of the
commentators and scholiasts have made of a very
simple matter. Kosenmueller, in his " Scholia in
Yetus Testamentum,"^ which he wrote in very
concise and for the most part in rather elegant
Latin, has the following to say in regard to
* See the Book of Joshua, chap. xxi.
' See his Latin notes on Numbers xxxv.
72 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the Levitical suburbs, which I translate for the
benefit of the lay reader who may have neglected
or forgotten his Eoman classics ;
"For it is the empty space, ^Migrash,' which
surrounds the city, the suburban ground, from
* Garash,' which does not occur in the Old Testament,
unless with the sense of expelling, throwing out, and
indeed has obtained the cognate idea of leaving
empty ; whence it is to be reckoned that * gurash '
means empty, bare (Ezek. xlv. 2). * Migrash ' refers
to the void space in the neighborhood of the
temple. That space, outside the cities, is given
to the Levites for this end, that the tithes of the
flocks and herds granted them by law should be
able to feed in the pasture land every day until the
time of slaughter (verse 3).
"3. *y 'Lirkusham,' 'and their possessions.'
* K 'Kush,' on the whole, although it generally de-
notes property or possessions, specifically, as here, de-
notes any flocks and herds soever, in which the riches
of the wealthiest ancients consisted. (Compare Gen.
xiv. 11, 21 ; 1 Chron. xxvii. 31.) The particle 4'
prefixed to the words in the latter clause must be
translated * for.'
" 4, 5. And whatever reaches to the void spaces
of the towns, which you owe the Levites, this
should extend outside the wall of the town
(mikirhiov — from the wall of the city) a thousand
cubits. Forsooth, you shall measure outside the
town on the east side two thousand cubits, just as
many on the south, west and north. Moreover, let
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT 73
the town itself be in the midst. Thus, let be the
open space surrounding all cities * alpayim bamah,'
Hwo thousand cubits,' that is, twice a thousand
cubits. (Compare Ex. xxvi. 8.) *Zeh,' sc. 'mad,'
* this shall be the measure.' This passage especially
has troubled the commentators. For in verse 4
the suburban measurement is put at a thousand
cubits and verse 5 puts the same measurement at
two thousand cubits. The Talmudists are ac-
customed so to reconcile these two verses that they
are wont to say, * Migrashim,' * the places nearest
the cities,' which serve only for a place for walks,
for washing, and for human recreation, and this to
have been to the extent of one thousand cubits.
But beyond this, to have been other spaces, contigu-
ous, extending another thousand cubits, and in these,
the Levites could plow, sow and plant vineyards ;
and, therefore, those spaces joined to the former,
truly to have been two thousand cubits in the whole
extent of ground. But this comment of the Rab-
bins the commentators for the most part have justly
disproved since only ground for pasturage was
given to the Levites. Others think, in verse 4,
only sacred cubits are to be understood (1 Kings vi.
2 ; vii. 15).
" Yerse 5. Moreover, the common cubits are less
than these by half ; from which standard can it be
gathered, Moses speaks, now of the sacred, and now
of the common cubit ? Then the sacred cubits are
made use of at all events for the measurement of
gacred structures and edifices, not, surely, for the
74
THE LAW OF THE TITHE
measurement of vacant plots of ground ; so that we
here pass by other explanations less probable.
The simplest method of reconciling verses 4
and 5 seems to be this, — to define the distance
from the walls of a city as extending a thousand
cubits, and twice a thousand in the circuit on
every side, that is, in all, 8,000, as this diagram
shows :
2000
tH
1000
Town
1000
g
«
vi
2000
"Whence it appears that any one side of the
suburbs is twice as long as a line drawn straight
out from the city, which is 1,000 cubits (verse 4),
and there are left on the several sides exactly 2,000
cubits ; and so there is no need, as when the LXX,
in verse 4, instead of * eleph,' say we should read
*alpayim,' as verse 6 has it. For because that
translator rendered diff^dtoui rc:jx£t?, scarcely can
it be doubted that it was made thus for the sake
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT Y5
of removing a difficulty. But truly, all ancient
commentators, and the Samaritan text, agree with
our Hebrew text. To it, however, Josephus seems
to be opposed who says {' Antiquities,' Book lY,
Chap. 4, sec. 3), concerning the cities of the
Levites, * These things God enjoined upon the
(Hebrews) that they should assign to the Levites
forty-eight good and choice cities, and the ground
round about they should assign to them to the extent
of 2,000 cubits.' Similarly Philo (*De Proemiis
Sacerdotum,' Yol. II, p. 236, edition of Mangey)
said : * The Levites received forty-eight towns, and
in the suburbs, empty fields for an extent of two
thousand cubits, for the pasturage of their flocks,
and for the uses necessary for the towns.' But
Philo, at whatever place, evidently follows the
LXX, and Josephus, in this passage as in very many
others, has followed the same LXX " (Eosenmuel-
ler, " Scholia in Yetus Testamentum," on Numbers
XXXV.). ^
In order to get the full force of all the discussion
that goes before in this chapter, it will be necessary
to recapitulate a little ; and I shall do this by ask-
ing the reader to take a look at
THE LARDER OF A MINISTER OF GOD, B. C. 1500
If he wanted it, he could have every day fresh
beef, mutton, in all the abundance that the heart
could desire. His lard jar was full all the time of
* This shows a tinge of the unbelief men have felt as to the
boTintif ul provision God made for His ministers.
76 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the choicest fat, shared by him with the Lord in
certain kinds of sacrifice. His lard was not lard,
since that was forbidden to Jews, but consisted of
the choicest beef suet, or else of choicest olive oil.
As to bread, his was the first dough of bread when
about to be baked. As to drink, there was never a
wine-press but what it sent its first fruits to the
priests and Levites, and since there were thousands
of wine-presses, the quantity was enormous. It
consisted of the unfermented juice of the grape,
since it was a first fruit, brought in at once after
pressing. Moreover, every minister had a wheat
bin and barley bin, into which he put the first fruits
of the grain fields. This was also in enormous
quantity. There were thousands of olive groves in
Palestine, and the first fruits of these were brought
in, and there were jars and jars of olive oil and of
olives, in the minister's larder. Not only this, but
there were eatable fruits from all the trees, and the
first fruits of apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots,
cherries, and so on, in great variety and abundance
poured into the minister's larder. It was always
full, and abundance of all these things rolled in like
the waves of the. ocean, overwhelming the ministry
so that special storehouses had to be built to accom-
modate it.
THE minister's PERQUISITES
All first born males of all clean land animals
were the Lord's. Philo says ' that young horses,
* " On the Rewards of the Priests."
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT Y7
young asses, young camels, and multitudes of
similar beasts, not named in the Bible, were bred
and brought in incredible multitudes to the tithing
cities, and if redeemed by their owners, one-fifth
was added to the redemption price. Your minister
of B. c. 1500 was never unprovided with plenty of
money, or with the means to be converted into
money. The first born children were redeemed
from the Lord " at a fixed price ... an equal
sum for poor and rich, a sum in the power of every
one to give," and as the first born in this prolific
nation were very many, an immense sum went to
the ministry from this source. Moreover, the later
law in Deuteronomy gave to the ministry the
fleece of every first shorn sheep, and every flock in
all the Palestinian world contributed this fleece,
easily converted into money. All the booty of the
wars was subject to the subtraction of the 500th
share, to be taken from the warrior's part. This
applied to living booty, and the fiftieth part of all the
rest of the nation went to the inferior Levites.
All that was metallic passed direct to the priests,
not for their support, but for the endowment of
the sanctuary. Hence it is that here we have
strong Biblical argument in favor of endowment
for churches. Poll tax, mentioned above, amounted
to a half-shekel of silver, and was paid without
exception by all above twenty years old. First
fruits, it must be remembered, were the special
perquisite of the priest, and not of the ordinary
Levites.
78 THE LAW OF THE TITHE '
OTHEE PEBQUISITES OF THE MINIS-
TERIAL OFFICE
These were : Shares in the sacrifices, which, in
the case of the Offering for Preservation, consisted
in the entire victim, except the fat, the lobe of the
liver, and the kidneys. The skins of all animals
which were burnt offerings belonged to the min-
istry, and could be sold to the leather trade for
whatever price was offered, just as skins are sold
to-day. If we add to these the skins of all other
sacrifices, which in all probability also belonged to
the priests, and to the Levites, an enormous sum of
money is indicated, money, too, which had ten
times the purchasing power then that it has now.
THE PARSONAGE OR MANSE OF B. C. 1500
Forty -eight towns belonged to the Levites, in
fee simple ; and could not be coerced from them at
all. If misfortune compelled a Levite to sell his
home, it reverted to him and to his heirs in the
Year of Jubilee. One could imagine even now the
burst of rejoicing among the sons and daughters of
unfortunate Levites when the Trumpet of Jubilee
gave them back their ancient patrimony, and home
was home and theirs again, perhaps after the lapse
of forty-nine years. Should preachers to-day own
property ? This is pretty well answered, I think,
in the divine directions in regard to his ministry
of B. 0. 1500. The towns in these Levitical cities
were to be goodly towns ; and if we reckon each
one of them as being a half mile in average di-
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT Y9
ameter, and circular, then the acreage lying outside
of the walls for the first 1,000 cubits would comprise
563 acres in the circle which embraced the town ;
and if the area of the town itself be deducted, the
net acres outside for walks and groves and barns
and gardens in the forty-eight towns would be
27,024. In the outer thousand cubits, the acreage
would be 900 acres, suburban to each city, net ; and
the grand total of pasturage acres would be for all
the forty-eight cities 43,200 acres ; the grand total
acres for gardens, groves and barns, walks, bowers,
etc., would be 69,224. This settles effectually the
question as to whether it is allowable for a minister
to own a house and a little farm.
I have a few words of criticism to offer on the
view of Eosenmueller that the shape of these
Levitical towns was necessarily square, in order to
account for the measurements of 1,000 and 2,000
cubits without contradiction in verses 4 and
5 of the passage quoted above. Who of all
writers, let me ask, have been more competent to
the settlement of questions like this than the Eab-
bins ? The Talmud is an invaluable treasure house
of Hebrew lore, — tradition, exegesis, commentary,
history, biography, psychology, higher criticism,
poetry, pure literature, all in one great conglomer-
ation ; and some time when some one shall have the
courage to edit the Talmudical library, without
doing so as a traditionalist, and shall separate the
wheat from the chaff, the gold from the dross, —
and the wheat and the gold would fill many gran-
80 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
aries and many treasure houses, — then and not till
then will we be able to come to a just appreciation
of the value of the Talmud. Meanwhile, what we
know of it now is found to be reliable in many-
particulars in unfolding obscure portions of the
Word of God ; and I venture to say that when the
day of scientific and really critical editing comes,
much light will be thrown on the whole question
of the administration of the tithe, both in Mosaic
and in later rabbinical times, and that some things
in the tithing system that are now difficult of ex-
planation will have much light thrown upon them
by what the Talmud, even the Babylonian edition,
reveals. Why Eosenmueller's contradiction ?
Moreover, while we notice the abundance of all
tithes and offerings, let us not forget the spirit in
which they were offered; not with the spirit of
niggardliness, not with a feeling of doubt, not with
a dejection which says of a dollar with a sigh, the
best of friends must part, but a spirit which was
truly "hilarious" (Psalms), and which shouted,
"Hallelujah," " Praise ye the Lord," when the tithes
were brought in. Imagine the scene, then, when
the tithe of the herds was brought to the tithing
cities, or was converted into money to send to
Jerusalem, or after being fed on the rich pasturage
of the Levitical city suburbs was driven towards
Jerusalem for slaughter. Gladness inexpressible
filled the hearts of the devout shepherd pilgrims.
Hill answered to hill with their praises and their
shouting. They were going to Jerusalem, " beau-
THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPORT 81
tiful for situation," to Zion, the city set on a hill, to
Zion out of the perfection of whose beauty God
had shined. " Hallelujah " echoed towards the
city from miles away. " Hallelujah," " hallelujah,"
was shouted in a chain of chorusing answers that
chased one another towards Jerusalem from group
to group of pilgrims. " Hallelujah," they shouted
over and over again ; and until the modern Church
has caught the full meaning of that shout, and
catches it up and revives it, our modern Zion will
languish and droop like a flower when the rains
delay to fall ; but when the Church does at last
catch the full meaning of divine injunctions, of the
high privilege it is to give, of the fact that giving
enriches the heart, and pays full toll into the
treasuries of the skies, where it is ours to lay up
treasures ; then again, not through Palestine alone,
but among all the hills and valleys of this round
earth, the prospect of the world's near redemption,
hastened on by the hundredfold multiplying of
our gifts when all the Church goes to tithe, wiU
break forth into raptures such as only the redeemed
and blood- washed can understand ; and " hallelujah,
hallelujah," through the earth shall ring ; and
answering to that divine music will suddenly
appear again the Christ, in whom all sacrifices and
ransoms are completed, and in whose honor ring
all church bells, and on whose redemption for men
the wondering angels look and rejoice.
THE VOICES OF THE HEBEEW FATHEES
(Prophets and Talmudists)
AFTER the return from Babylon, an earnest
effort was made by Nehemiah to secure
fidelity and obedience to the law of the
tithe, and in the tenth chapter of his prophecy we
find his deliverance as follows :
" And also we made ordinances for us, to charge
ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for
the service of the house of our God ; for the shew-
bread, and for the continual meat offering, and for
the continual burnt offering, of the Sabbaths, of
the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy
things, and for the sin offerings, to make an atone-
ment for Israel, and for all the work of the house
of our God. And we cast lots among the priests,
the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to
bring it into the house of our God, after the houses
of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to
burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is
written in the law; and to bring the first fruits
of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of all
trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord :
also the first born of our sons, and of our cattle, as
it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our
herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of
82
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 83
our God, unto the priests that minister in the house
of our God: and that we should bring the first
fruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit
of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the
priests, to the chambers of the house of our God ;
and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that
the same Levites might have the tithes in all the
cities of our tillage. And the priest, the son of
Aaron, shall be with the Levites, when the Levites
take tithes : and the Levites shall bring up the tithe
of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the cham-
bers, into the treasure house. For the children of
Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the of-
fering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil,
unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the
sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the
porters, and the singers ; and we will not forsake
the house of our God." *
The above passage shows that there was a thor-
ough reform and a restoration from the laxity
which grew up at Babylon, and which had obtained
among the Israelites that remained in Canaan dur-
ing the Captivity. In the thirteenth chapter we
have the sequel to all that goes before in this :
" And I perceived that the portions of the Levites
had not been given them : for the Levites and the
singers that did the work were fled every one to
his field. Then contended I with the rulers, and
said, Why is the house of God forsaken ? And I
gathered them together, and set them in their
» Neh. X. 32-39.
84 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
place. Then brought all Judah the tithe of the
corn, and the new wine, and the oil, unto the treas-
uries. And I made treasurers over the treasuries
. . . for they were accounted faithful; and
their office was to distribute unto their brethren." *
At the rebuilding of the city gates when a pro-
gram of rejoicing and song was arranged by Nehe-
miah, it is said : " Also that day they offered great
sacrifices, and rejoiced ; for God had made them
rejoice with great joy : the wives also and the chil-
dren rejoiced; so that the joy of Jerusalem was
heard even afar off. And at that time were some
appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for
the offerings, for the first fruits, and for the tithes,
to gather into them, out of the fields of the cities,
the portions of the law for the priests and Levites :
for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Le-
vites that waited. And both the singers and the
porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward
of the purification, according to the commandment
of David, and Solomon his son. For in the days of
David and Asaph, of old, there were chief of the
singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto
God. And all Israel, in the days of Zerubbabel,
and in the days of N^ehemiah, gave the portions of
the singers and the porters every day his portion ;
and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites,
and the Levites sanctified them unto the children
of Aaron." ^
The smiting that God imposed on Israel ^or
» Neh. xiii. 10-13. » Neh. xii. 43-47.
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 85
idolatry and for neglect of the tithe is described
in terms so denunciatory and terrific, in the fourth
chapter of Amos, verses 4-13, which I quote:
"Come to Bethel and transgress; at Gilgal
multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices
every morning, and your tithes after three years ;
and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving Avith leaven,
and proclaim and publish the free offerings; for
this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the
Lord God. And I also have given you cleanness of
teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all
your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me,
saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the
rain from you, when there were yet three months
to the harvest : and I caused it to rain upon one
city, and caused it not to rain upon another city :
one piece was rained upon, and the piece where-
upon it rained not withered. So two or three cities
wandered unto one city, to drink water ; but they
were not satisfied : yet have ye not returned unto
Me, saith the Lord. I have smitten you with blast-
ing and mildew : when your gardens and your
vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees
increased, the palmer worm devoured them: yet
have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. I
have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand
plucked out of the burning : yet have ye not re-
turned unto Me, saith the Lord. Therefore thus
will I do unto thee, O Israel : and because I will do
this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."
S6 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Malachi is equally fierce and denunciatory in his
words, but has coupled with them a promise that
God has made to the Church for all age to come ;
and that promise ought to be written in golden
letters over ^the doors of every church in the
world. The words of Malachi are these :
" Return unto Me, and I will return unto you,
saith the Lord of hosts. But ye say. Wherein shall
we return ? Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have
robbed Me. But ye say. Wherein have we robbed
Thee ? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with
a curse : for ye have robbed Me, even this whole
nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove
Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough
to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for
your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground ; neither shall your vine cast her fruit
before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
And all nations shall call you blessed." '
Now what do we gather from these prophetical
passages ? Summing up the results of our findings,
we find them to be :
1. After the Return from Babylon, there was
an anxious and scrupulous keeping of the law.
2. During the Captivity, there had come to be a
great laxity in the administration of tithes and of-
ferings, but this laxity was done away by the
»Mal.iii. 10-12.
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 87
efforts of Ezra and l^ehemiah and their co-
adjutors.
3. There was great joy over the privileges and
the exercise of duty under the tithing law thus re-
stored.
4. A great defection preceded this time of
restoration, as is noticed in the passage quoted from
Amos. In this quotation it appears that tithes
were being offered to idols, as they had once been
offered unto God.
5. In consequence of this impiety and of this
withholding of the tithes from God, the crops were
smitten with drouth, blasting, mildew, the palmer
worm, and other equally destructive agencies.
6. In Malachi, the withholding of the tithes
and offerings is expressly declared to be robbery ;
hence it is called that in this book you have in your
hand, dear reader, and the epithet is used through-
out the whole work where any reference is made
to the unpaid and withholden tithe.
7. It is expressly promised of the Lord that if
the tithes and offerings shall be brought in and
paid to Him, that He will throw wide the windows
of heaven and give to the Church a blessing that shall
overflow all human treasuries. That is God's way.
It will appear from a thorough examination of
the Old Testament that Moses, Nehemiah, Amos,
and Malachi have given us in concrete form, not
only the law of the tithe, but that the three last
named have given us what to-day we would call a
laboratory demonstration of the value of the prac-
88 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
tice of the tithe when coupled with obedience to
God. The silver trumpet of the law was blown
first, that men might hear and know the will of
God in this matter ; and then three of the proph-
ets, putting their golden bugles to their lips, blew
notes in unison, having commingled in them strains
of warning, of denunciation, of blessing, and of
blessing promised. The sound of that music, with
its rich chords of grace and its minor strains of
warning and denunciation, is echoing yet through
the earth.
It is now a matter of interesting inquiry to note
what was both said and done by the Kabbins, after
the closing of the Old Testament canon, and to
what a stage of development their exegesis and
their teaching of the law was brought, just preced-
ing the time of Christ, and after the opening of the
Christian Era, on down to the days when, like the
Old Testament, even the Talmud voiced the teach-
ings of its last page, and then refrained from
further deliverances. In order to get anything
like a connected view in this matter, it will be
necessary to give a brief sketch of the development
and history of the Talmud, that great storehouse
of the wisdom of the Hebrew Kabbinical Fathers.
It must be understood first of all that the Phari-
sees, the " hedgers of the law," grew up in Baby-
lon and on the Keturn became a very large and in-
fluential class in the Holy Land. The mass of their
teachings and the notes accumulated orally by the
scribes was transmitted by word of mouth by
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 89
prodigious efforts of the human memory, through
all the period after the close of the Old Testament
canon, and down to the coming of Christ ; and
what writings there were of a Talmudical charac-
ter were in a confused and chaotic state. Judah,
the descendent of Hillel and of Gamaliel, collected
and classified these writings at the end of the
second century after Christ, embodymg in his work
all traditions, so as to distribute them uniformly
among all the Talmudical schools. Thus was
formed, first of all, the " Mishna," or " diligent
teaching" (from "shanan"). The Mishna gives an
account of how the laws of the Pentateuch were le-
gally interpreted. It is comprised under six heads ;
1. Agricultural Products (" Zerayim ").
2. Festivals and Kegulations (" Mivar ").
3. Marriage and Divorce (" K'shim ").
4. The Doctrine of Mine and Thine (" N'zikin ").
5. The Sanctity of Sacrifices (" Kidshiah ").
6. The Pure and the Impure in Eitual Matters
("Tu*uph").
Kabbi Judah did not complete the Mishna, which
in the part called " Aboth " takes historical form.
It became, however, even in its fragmentary state,
the text-book in all the Palestinian schools.
The " Midrash," the word meaning " extension,"
" inquiry," which enlarges and continues the Mishna,
in fact contains three commentaries, is exegetical,
and was developed down to the eighth and ninth
centuries A. D., and is a "homiletic thesaurus,"
written in Hebrew, with rarely a touch of Aramaic ;
90 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
but in it are new forms of construction, covering
science, commerce, trades, jurisprudence, domestic
economy, in a manner of composition unknown in
Biblical Hebrew.
This " in extenso " work of the Talmudists was
completed in the " Gemara," which means " com-
pletion." Eab and Samuel, two of the pupils of
Judah, gave the Mishna to the schools in Babylonia ;
so that there are two Talmuds, that imperfectly
developed in Palestine by Judah, and the Babylo-
nian Talmud, developed in that far-off region after
the collapse of the Palestinian schools; and also
after the last surviving institution of learning, the
School at Tiberias, was practically demolished, and
the work brought to a standstill, which event hap-
pened after the death of Julian. Neither Talmud,
much as the fact may surprise us, contains or com-
prehends all six orders or heads of the " Mishna."
Prof. E. Gans, himself an able jurist, says that no
" Corpus Juris " known to him gives evidence of so
much labor of a critical kind, and shows as much
penetration, as does the Talmud on the law of In-
heritance and Succession. In criminal cases, the
spirit of humanity appears, far in advance of the
time of composition. "A court that passes sen-
tence of death once in a week of years (seven years)
is indeed a pernicious tribunal." Kabbi Eleazar
added : " I hold it to be such, if it does so once in
seventy years." *
* '* Essays and Addresses of the Owens College," Manchester,
Essay by T. Theodores, " The Talmud," London, 1874.
VOICES OP THE HEBREW FATHERS 91
" Turn it and turn it again," says the Talmud in
speaking of the Old Testament, " for everything is
in it." * " Search the Scriptures," said Jesus, " for
in them ye think ye have eternal life." ^ The word
" Midrash " occurs in the Hebrew of the Book of
Chronicles, and there means " story." ^
1. We had the scribes.^
2. Then came the " Learners " or " Kepeat-
ers." «
Eighty years B. c. schools flourished throughout
the length and breadth of the Holy Land.® Educa-
tion had at that time been made compulsory.^
Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, all flourished there.'
The Jews, then as now, were great linguists.^
Science, astrology, magic, were required as priestly
accomplishments.^^ The following Eabbinical say-
ings prove the high regard that both the priestly
and the lower classes had for higher education :
"Jerusalem was destroyed because the instruc-
tion of the young was neglected."
" The world is saved by the breath of the school
children."
" Even from the rebuilding of the temple, the
schools must not be interrupted."
" Study is more meritorious than sacrifice."
" A scholar is greater than a prophet."
" You should revere your teacher even more than
* "The Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch," Essay on "The
Talmud." « John v. 39. ' Deutsch.
*Ihid. ^Ihid. ^ Ibid. ''Ibid.
*Md. ^ Ibid. ^^Ibid.
92 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
your fathers. The latter only brought you into this
world, the former indicates the way into the next.
But blessed is the son who has learned from his
father : he shall revere him both as his father and
his master ; and blessed is the father who has in-
structed his son." *
I know of nothing in the realm of modern
pedagogy stronger than the foregoing.
The " High Schools " or " Kallahs " met during
some months of the year. Teaching was nearly
purely Socratic, that is to say, by questions and an-
swers.^ Jesus exemplified it.^
While Yespasian was besieging Jerusalem, Rabbi
Jochanan Ben Zakkai, in order to reach the Eoman
camp unmolested, was carried out of the city in a
coffin accompanied by a funeral procession ; and
when he got safely out of the casket, and was
brought before Yespasian, being told that he might
ask for anything he desired, did not ask for a safe
conduct, or to be made rich, or to be allowed to
settle down to seclusion somewhere, but said, " Per-
mit me to open a school at Jabneh." He did this,
and prophesied that Israel's highest mission would
be, not to offer sacrifices, but to bring blessing to
the whole world.^
The Babylonian Talmud is about four times as
large as the Jerusalem, consisting of thirty-six
* Deutsch.
* " The Literary Remains of Emanuel Dentach," Essay, " The
Talmnd." ' JMd. See Luke ii. 46.
* " Jewish Literature and Other Essays," Karpeles,
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 93
treatises, 3,000 folio pages, twelve huge volumes.
A Haggada passage says : " Six hundred and thir-
teen injunctions were given by Moses to the people
of Israel. David reduced them to eleven ; the
prophet Isaiah classified these under six heads ;
Micah enumerated only three. *What doth the
Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? ' An-
other prophet limited them to two : * Keep ye
judgment and do righteousness.' Amos put all the
commandments under one : ' Seek ye Me, and ye
shall live.' And Habakkuk said : ' The just shall
live by faith.' This is the ethics of the Talmud." »
With these quotations and observations before
him, the reader will be the better able to understand
what a treasury of Biblical lore the Talmud is ; and
not the least interesting is that part of this great
work which refers to " The Law of the Tithe."
The section of the Talmud under which we find the
following quotation is, " YII. Maaseroth, or Tithes " ;
and Bernard Pick, in his work on the Talmud, con-
denses the above section into running statements as
follows: " Tithes, due to the Levites, in five chapters;
{a) of the kinds of fruits subject to tithes, and from
what time on they are due (8 sections) ; (b) of ex-
ceptions (8 sections) ; {c) where fruits become titha-
ble (10 sections) ; {d) of preserving, picking out, and
other cases exempted from tithes (6 sections) ; {e) of
removing plants, of buying and selling; of wine
and seed that cannot be tithed (8 sections).
* "Jewish Literature and Other Essays," Karpeles.
94 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
" YIII. Maaser Sheni, or Second Tithe, which the
Levites had to pay out of their tenth to the priests,
in five chapters; {a) that this tenth cannot be
disposed of in any way (7 sections) ; (b) only things
necessary for eating, drinking, and anointing can
be bought for the money of the tenth ; what to do
when tenth money is to be exchanged (10 sections) ;
((?) fruits of the second tenth, while once in Jeru-
salem, cannot be taken out again (13 sections) ; {d)
what must be observed at the price of the tenth,
and how money and that which is found must be
regarded (12 sections ) ; {e) of a vineyard in its
fourth year, the fruits of which are equally regarded
as the fruits of the second tenth ; and how the hiur,
or taking away of the tenth, is performed in a
solemn manner according to Deut. xxvi. 13 seq. (15
sections)." Other observations by Pick might be
given, but the above will suffice to show the
exceedingly important and valuable character of
the Talmud as throwing light, bright light, on " The
Law of the Tithe " ; and only emphasizes the need
of a popular edition of the Babylonian Talmud
which shall be serviceable for reference both by
ministers and by teachers of the Bible. Many
writers on Tithing have confessed the subject to be
very difficult and obscure to them; the rcEison
plainly appearing that they were not acquainted
with the best commentary on the Pentateuch from
the standpoint of the Jew that has ever appeared,
namely the Babylonian Talmud itself. Eenan said
with truth : " In the history of the origins of Chris-
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 95
tianity, the Talmud has hitherto been far too much
neglected."
Not to protract this chapter to too great a length,
I subjoin here the teachings of the Talmud on
" Benevolence," as they are condensed by H. Polano
in that excellent work of his entitled, " The Talmud :
Selections from that Ancient Book, Its Commen-
taries, Teachings, Poetry, and Legends."
" II. Teachings of the Kabbis : Benevolence.
" According to a proverb of the fathers, benevo-
lence is one of the pillars upon which the world
rests. *The world,' said they, *is sustained by
virtue ^of three things, — the law, divine worship,
and active benevolence.' The Pentateuch com-
mences and ends with an act of benevolence, as it
is written, * And the Lord God made unto Adam
coats of skin and clothed them ' (Gen. iii. 20) ;
and also, * And He (God) buried him ' (Deut. xxxiv.
6). To do a person a favor is to act beneficently
towards him mthout any hope or desire of return,
and may be practiced in two cases, — to oblige a
person to whom we are not under obligf ^^on, and
to accommodate or oblige a person, w;tii more
trouble to ourselves and more gain to hini than he
deserves. The mercy which is mentioned in the
Bible is that which is given freely and without
desert upon the part of one to whom it is granted ;
for instance, the benevolence of God is called mercy,
because we are in debt to God, and He owes us noth-
ing. Charity is also a species of benevolence, but
it can only be applied to the poor and needy ; while
96 THE LAW OF THE TITHE >'
benevolence itself is both for poor and rich, high and
lowly. We may even act benevolently towards the
dead, attending to the last rites ; this is called mercy
and truth. If we oblige a fellow man it is possible
that he may, in the course of time, repay the same ;
but benevolence to the dead is the very truth of
mercy ; it cannot be returned. In three instances
is benevolence superior to charity. Charity may be
practiced by means of money ; benevolence, with or
without money. Charity is for the poor alone ;
benevolence, either for the poor or for the rich.
Charity we can display but to the living ; benevo-
lence, to the living or the dead.
" * After the Lord your God ye shall walk.' How
is it possible for us to walk after God ? By follow-
ing His attributes and examples. The Lord clothed
the naked, as it is written, ' The Lord made to Adam
and his wife coats of skin and clothed them.' So
we must do the same. The Lord visited the sick.
^ The Lord appeared to him in the grove of Mamre '
(which was immediately after the circumcision).
So we must do the same. The Lord buried the
dead, as it is written, ' He (God) buried him.' So
must we do the same. To attend to the dead,
follow to its last resting place the dust of our
fellows, is an act of benevolence both to the
living and the dead ; the spirit departed and the
mourners.
" Kabbi Judah said, ' If a person weeps and
mourns excessively for a lost relative, his grief be-
comes a murmur against the will of God, and he
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 97
may soon be obliged to weep for another death.'
We should justify the decree of God, and exclaim
with Job, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken ; blessed be the name of the Lord.'
'* Hospitality is another attribute of benevolence.
It is said of Abraham, * and he planted an orchard.'
This was not an orchard as we understand the
word, but an inn. Abraham opened his house to
passing travellers, and entertained them in a hospi-
table manner. When his guests thanked him for
his attention, Abraham replied, ' Do not thank me,
for I am not the owner of this place ; thank God,
who created heaven and earth.' In this manner
he made the name of God known among the
heathens. Therefore he gave us an example of
hospitality which we should follow, as it is written
in the proverbs of the fathers, * Let thy house be
open wide as a refuge, and let the poor be cordially
received within thy walls.' When they enter thy
house, receive them with a friendly glance, and set
immediately before them thy bread and salt. Per-
haps the poor man may be hungry, and yet hesitate
to ask for food. Even though there may be much
to trouble thee, thou must hide thy feelings from
thy guests ; comfort them, if they need kindly
words, but lay not thine own troubles before them.
Eemember how kindly Abraham acted towards
the three angels whom he thought were men ; how
hospitably he treated them, saying, ' My lords, if
I have found grace in your eyes, do not pass away
from your servant,' etc. (Gen. xviii. 3). Be always
98 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
friendly to thy guests, then when thou shalt call
upon the Lord He will answer thee.
" God knows whether the hearts which seek Him
offer Him all of which they are capable. During
the existence of the temple, the Lord received with
equal favor the meat offering of a handful of flour,
and the sacrifice of a bull. So now, the offering
of the poor is just as acceptable as the utmost
which the rich man can afford, if their hearts are
equally with the Lord.
" It was said of Rabbi Tarphon, that though a
very wealthy man, he was not charitable according
to his means. One time Eabbi Akiba said to him,
* Shall I invest some money for thee in real estate,
in a manner which will be very profitable ? ' Rabbi
Tarphon answered in the affirmative, and brought
to Rabbi Akiba four thousand denars in gold, to be
so applied. Rabbi Akiba immediately distributed
the same among the poor. Some time after this,
Rabbi Tarphon met Rabbi Akiba, and asked him
where the real estate which he had bought for him
was situated. Akiba led his friend to the college,
and showed him a little boy, who recited for them
the 112th Psalm. When he reached the ninth
verse, *He distributeth, he giveth to the needy.
His righteousness endureth forever ' :
" * There,' said Akiba, * thy property is with
David, the king of Israel, who said, " He distributeth,
he giveth to the needy." '
" ' And wherefore hast thou done this ? * asked
Tarphon.
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 99
" * Knowest thou not,' answered Kabbi Akiba,
* how IN^akdimon, the son of Guryon, was punished
because he gave not according to his means ? '
" * Well,' returned the other, * why didst thou
not tell me this ? Could I not have distributed my
means without thy aid ? '
** ' Kay,' said Akiba, 'it is a greater virtue to
cause another to give than to give one's self.'
" From this we may learn that he who is not
charitable according to his means will be pun-
ished.
" Kabbi Jochanan, the son of Lakkai, was once
riding outside of Jerusalem, and his pupils had fol-
lowed him. They saw a poor woman collecting
the grain which dropped from the mouths and
troughs of some feeding cattle, belonging to Arabs.
When she saw the Kabbi, she addressed him in
these brief words, ' Oh, Kabbi, assist me.' He re-
plied, * My daughter, whose daughter art thou ? '
" * I am the daughter of Nakdimon, the son of
Guryon,' she answered.
" * Why, what has become of thy father's money ? '
asked the Kabbi; *the amount which thou didst
receive as a dowry on thy wedding day ? '
" * Ah,' she replied, * is there not a saying in
Jerusalem, The salt was wanting to the money ? '
(Salt is used to preserve meat ; without salt the
meat rots. Charity is to money even as salt is to
meat.)
" * And thy husband's money,' continued the
Babbi; * what of that ? '
loo THE LAW Ot THE TITHE '
"^That followed the other,' she answered; *I
have lost them both.' t> v ,;
" The Rabbi turned to his scholars and said :
" ' I remember, when I signed her marriage con-
tract, her father gave her as a dowry one million
golden denars, and her husband was wealthy in
addition thereto.'
" The Rabbi sympathized with the woman, helped
her, and wept for her.
" ' Happy are ye, oh sons of Israel,' he said ; ' as
long as ye perform the will of God naught can
conquer ye ; but if ye fail to fulfill His wishes,
even the cattle are superior to ye.'
"He who does not practice charity commits a
sin. This is proven in the life of Nachum.
" IS'achum, whatever occurred to him, was in the
habit of saying, * This too is for the best.' In his
old age he became blind; both of his hands and
both of his legs were amputated, and the trunk of
his body was covered with a sore inflammation.
His scholars said to him, ' If thou art a righteous
man, why art thou so sorely afflicted ? '
" * All this,' he answered, ' I brought upon my-
self. Once I was travelling to the house of my
father-in-law, and I had with me thirty asses laden
with provisions and all manner of precious articles.
A man by the wayside called to me, " Oh, Rabbi,
assist me." I told him to wait until I unloaded my
asses. When that time arrived, and I had removed
their burdens from my beasts, I found to my sorrow
that the poor man had fallen and expired. I threw
VOICES OF THE HE-BlRWo' Ji'AXHER&; ; ' lOt •
myself upon his body, and wept bitterly. "Let
these eyes which had no pity on thee be blind," I
said ; " these hands that delayed to assist thee, let
them be cut off, and also these feet, which did not
run to aid thee." And yet I was not satisfied until
I prayed that my whele body might be stricken
with a sore inflammation. Rabbi Akiba said to me,
" Woe to me that I find thee in this state." But
I replied, " Happy to thee that thou meetest me in
this state, for through this I hope that my iniquity
may be forgiven, and all my righteous deeds still
remain recorded to gain me a reward of life eternal
in the future world." '
" Rabbi Janay, upon seeing a man bestowing alms
in a public place, said, * Thou hadst better not have
given at all, than to have bestowed alms so openly
and put the poor man to shame.'
" One should rather be thrown into a fiery fur-
nace than be the means of bringing another to
public shame.
"The Rabbis particularly insist that we are not
to confine the exercise of charity to our own people,
for the law of Moses inculcates kindness and hospi-
tality towards the stranger within our gates. Even
the animals are especially remembered in his most
merciful code.
" Rabbi Judah said, * N'o one should sit down to
his own meals, until seeing that all the animals de-
pendent upon his care are provided for.'
" Rabbi Jochanan has said that it is as pleasing
in God's sight if we are kind and hospitable to
ld2*?.J^Vl3IE.J/AW.JDF THE TITHE
strangers, as if we rise up early to study His law ;
because the former is in fact putting His law into
practice. He also said, * He who is active in kind-
ness towards His fellows is forgiven his sins.'
" Both this Eabbi and Abba say it is better to
lend to the poor than to give to them, for it pre-
vents them from feeling ashamed of their poverty,
and is really a more charitable manner of aiding
them. The Rabbis have always taught that kind-
ness is more than the mere almsgiving of charity,
for it includes pleasant words with the more sub-
stantial help."
The above quotations from the Talmud show :
1. The high valuation put upon education by
the Jews, even before the days of Christ.
2. The ethics and peculiar genius of the Hebrew
mind ; yet it would take a volume to set forth even
a tithe of the pearls of thought that are found in
the Talmud.
3. There is shown also what concerns most di-
rectly the question before us, in that one whole
section of the voluminous Babylonian Talmud is
required to treat of the minutiae in regard to The
Law of the Tithe. If there were time and space to
command, large and copious extracts might be
given from this portion of a book that is at the
same time the wonder of learned jurists, able his-
torians, able psychologists, and book-making littera-
teurSf as well as those who are skilled in the sci-
ences. This " omnium gatherum " of the Hebrew
ages, this " thesaurus " of productions from the
VOICES OF THE HEBREW FATHERS 103
minds of generations of profound thinkers, will yet
be explored, and explored thoroughly, for the light
it will throw, not only on The Law of the Tithe,
but upon all else that God in His Word has revealed,
to provoke the astonishment and the love towards
Him of mortal men.
YI
THE VOICES OP THE FATHERS OP THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
IHAYE thought that all that the great " Apos-
tle to the Gentiles " has to say upon the sub-
ject of giving may be made more interesting
by weaving it into one continuous tissue of dis-
course, which in the present instance I have been
pleased to entitle :
PAUL THE apostle's DISCOUESE ON GIVING
" Now concerning the collection for the saints, as
I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even
so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every
one of you lay by him in store, as God hath pros-
pered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve
by your letters, them will I send to bring your
liberality unto Jerusalem." *
"For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and
Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor
saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased
them verily ; and their debtors they are. For if
the Gentiles have been made partakers of their
spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to
them in carnal things." ^
" And when James, Cephas and John, who seemed
> 1 Cor. xvi, 1-3. » Rom. xv. 26-27.
104
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 105
to be pillars, perceived the grace which was given
unto me, they gave me the right hand of fellow-
ship ; that we should go unto the heathen, and they
unto the circumcision. Only they would that we
should remember the poor ; the same which I also
was forward to do." *
" For as touching the ministering to the saints, it
is superfluous for me to write to you : for I know
the forwardness of your mind for which I boast of
you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready
a year ago ; and your zeal hath provoked very
many. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boast-
ing of you should be in vain in this behalf ; that,
as I said, ye may be ready : lest haply if they of
Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared,
we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this
same confident boasting. Therefore I thought it
necessary to exhort the brethren that they should
go before unto you, and make up beforehand your
bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that some
might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not as
of covetousness. But this I say. He that soweth
sparingly shall reap also sparingly ; and he which
soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Every man accordingly as he purposeth in his
heart, so let him give ; not grudgingly or of ne-
cessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And
God is able to make all grace abound towards you ;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work." ^
» Gal. ii, 9-10, » 2 Qor, ix. 1-8.
106 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
" But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at
last your care of me hath flourished again ;
wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked oppor-
tunity. Not that I speak in respect of want : for
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith
to be content. I know both how to be abased, and
how to abound : everywhere, and in all things, I
am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
!N'otwithstanding, ye have well done that ye did
communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philip-
pians know also, that in the beginning of the
Gospel, when I departed for Macedonia, no church
communicated with me as concerning giving and
receiving but ye only. For even in Thessalonica
ye sent once and again unto my necessities. Not
because I desire a gift ; but I desire fruit that ye
may abound to your account. But I have all and
abound ; for I am full, having received of Epaph-
roditus the things which were sent from you, an
odor of sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well
pleasing to God." *
"Now consider how great this man was, unto
whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth
of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons
of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood,
have a commandment to take tithes of the people
according to the law, that is, of their brethren,
though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
» PhU, iv, 10-18,
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 101
but he whose descent is not counted from them,
received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that
had the promises. And without all contradiction
the less is blessed of the better. And here men
that die receive tithes ; but there he receiveth them
of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I
may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid
tithes in Abraham." *
We have above, in language that cannot be mis-
understood, the deliverances of the Apostle to the
Gentiles, regarding the matter of the payment of
tithes, and declaring also as we have noticed in an-
other chapter that Christ, as fulfilling in Himself
all of the priesthood and all of the priestly office,
declares, admitting that the Aaronic priesthood has
passed away, that Jesus in the skies, as our High
Priest, receiveth tithes and so continues in Himself
the priestly order. This great thought must be
more fully recognized by the Church of to-day, in
order to lead the laity to a higher conception of
duty than has obtained hitherto. If, now, we com-
mence to search for the views of men who entered
the pale of the Church after the close of PauPs
life and ministry, the men who caught the mantle
of service, like Elisha from the shoulders of the
Elijah who passed to the skies in martyrdom at
Kome, we shall find among them a singular unanim-
ity of opinion regarding The Law of the Tithe.
Clement, a. d. 30-100, mentioned in Philip-
pians iv. 3, wrote a letter to the Corinthians, some-
1 Heb. vii. 4-9.
108 THE LAW OF THE, TITHE
where between the years 68 and 97 A. D., in which
he says : " These things therefore being manifest
to us, and since we look into the depths of the
diyine knowledge, it behooves us to do all things
in order, which the Lord has commanded us to per-
form at stated times. He has enjoined offerings
and service to be performed, and that not thought-
lessly or irregularly, but at the appointed times and
hours. Where and by whom He desires these
things to be done. He Himself has fixed by His own
supreme will, in order that all things, being piously
done according to His good pleasure, may be ac-
ceptable unto Him. Those, therefore, who present
their offerings at the appointed times, are accepted
and blessed ; for inasmuch as they follow the laws of
the Lord, they sin not. For ffis own peculiar services
are assigned to the high priest, and their own proper
place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special
ministrations devolve on the Levites. The layman
is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen.
" Let every one of you, brethren, give thanks to
God in his own order, living in all good con-
science, with becoming gravity, and not going
beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him.
Not in every place, brethren, are the daily sacri-
fi.ces offered, or the peace offerings, or the sin offer-
ings, or the trespass offerings, but in Jerusalem
only. And even there, they are not offered in any
place, but only at the altar before the temple, that
which is offered being first carefully examined by
the high priest and'the ministers already mentioned.
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 109
Those, therefore, who do anything beyond what is
agreeable to His will, are punished with death.
Ye see, brethren, that the greater the knowledge
that has been vouchsafed to us, the greater also is
the danger to which we are exposed." *
From " The Teaching of the Apostles " I have
excerpted a passage, translated from the original
Greek printed text of the Bryennios Manuscript of
Constantinople. The evidence dates back to about
120 A. D., since the document in question is con-
ceded to be of that age :
"But every true prophet that willeth to abide
among you is worthy of his support. So also a true
teacher is himself worthy, as the workman, of his
support. Every first fruit, therefore, of the products
of the wine-press and threshing floor, of oxen and
of sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophets,
for they are your high priests. But if ye have not
a prophet, give it to the poor. If thou makest a
batch of dough, take the first fruit and give ac-
cording to the commandment. So also, when thou
openest a jar of wine or oil, take the first fruit and
give it to the prophets ; and of money (silver) and
clothing, and every possession, take the first fruits,
as it may seem good to thee, and give according to
the commandment." ^
JUSTIN MARTYR, A. D. 110-165
" We, who valued above all things the acquisition
* "The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nioene Fathers," Vol,
I, p. 16. Vide also Stewart's " The Tithe."
•i&id., Vol. Vn, p. 381.
110 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have
into a common stock, and communicate to every-
one in need." . . . " And they who are well to
do, and willing, give what each thinks fit ; and
what is collected is deposited with the president,
who succors the orphans and widows, and those
who, through sickness or any other cause, are
in want, and those who are in bonds, and the
strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes
care of all who are in need." *
lEEN^US, A. D. 120-202
His life opened about the time of the composition
of " The Teaching of the Apostles " ; and he
describes and points out the relations of the law
and the Gospels in these words : " As in the law,
therefore, and in the Gospel, the first and greatest
commandment is, to love the Lord God with the
whole heart, and then there follows a command-
ment like to it, to love one's neighbor as one's self ;
the author of the law and the Gospel is shown to
be one and the same. For the precepts of an
absolutely open, perfect life, since they are the same
in each Testament, have pointed out the same God,
who certainly has promulgated particular laws
adapted for each ; but the more prominent and the
greatest, without which salvation cannot be at-
tained. He has exhorted us to observe the same in
both. And that the Lord did not abrogate the
* '*The Ante-Nicene, Nioene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Vol. I,
p. 167.
VOICES OF THE I'ATHERS 0^ THE CHURCH 111
natural (precepts) of the law, by which man is jus-
tified, which also those who are justified by faith,
and who pleased God, did observe previous to the
giving of the law, but that He extended and filled
them is shown from His words." '
" And for this reason did the Lord, instead of
that Hhou shalt not commit adultery,' forbid even
concupiscence ; and instead of that which runs thus,
* Thou shalt not kill,' He prohibited anger ; and in-
stead of the law enjoining the giving of tithes, to
share all our possessions with the poor ; and not to
love our neighbors only, but even our enemies ; and
not merely to be liberal givers and bestowers but
even that we should present a gratuitous gift to
those who take away our goods." ..." JS; ow
all these, as I have already observed, were not the
injunctions of one doing away with the law, but of
one fulfilling, extending and widening it among us ;
just as if one should say that the more extensive
operation of liberty implies that a more complete
subjection and affection towards our liberator has
been implanted within us." . . . "And the
class of oblations in general has not been set aside ;
for there were both oblations there (among the
Jews) and there are oblations here (among the
Christians). Sacrifices there were among the peo-
ple ; sacrifices there are, too, in the Church ; but the
species alone has been changed, inasmuch as the
offering is now made, not by slaves, but by freemen.
* " The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, " Vol,
I, pp. 476-478.
112 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
For the Lord is one and the same ; but the character
of a servile oblation is peculiar, as also that of free-
men, in order that, by the very oblations, the indica-
tion of liberty may be set forth. For with Him
there is nothing purposeless, nor without significa-
tion, nor without design. And for this reason they
(the Jews) had indeed the tithes of their goods
consecrated to Him, but those who have received
liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord's
purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely not the less
valuable portions of their property, since they have
the hope of better things ; as that poor widow
acted who cast all her living into the treasury of
God." '
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDEIA, A. D. 153-217
" Besides, the tithes of the fruits and of the
flocks taught both piety towards the deity, and not
covetously to grasp everything, but to communicate
gifts of kindness to one's neighbors. For it was
from these, I reckon, and from the first fruits that
the priests were maintained. We now therefore
understand that we are instructed in piety, and in
liberality, and in justice, and in humanity, by the
law."^
TEBTULLIAN, A. D. 145-220
"Though we have our treasure chest, it is not
^"The Ante-Nioene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Vol.
I, pp. 484-485.
» im,t Vol. n, p. 366.
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 113
made up of purchase money, as of a religion that
has its price. On the monthly day as he likes each
puts in a small donation ; but only if it be his
pleasure, and only if he be able : for there is no
compulsion ; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as
it were, piety's deposit fund. For they are not
taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking
bouts, and eating houses, but to support and bury
poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls
destitute of means and parents, and of old persons
confined now to the house; such, too, as have
suffered shipwreck ; and if there happen to be any
in the mines, or banished to the islands,^ or shut
up in prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the
cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings
of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds
of a love so noble that leads many to put a brand
upon us. See, they say, how they love one another,
for themselves are animated by mutual hatred ;
how they are ready even to die for one another." *
To the charge of wickedness and extravagance
this reply is made : " The Salii cannot have their
feasts without going into debt ; you must get the
accountants to tell you what the tenths of Hercules
and the sacrificial banquets cost." *
ORiGEisr, A. D. 185-254
" Celsus would also have us to offer first fruits
to demons. But we would offer them to Him
* ''The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Vol.
HI, pp. 46-47.
114 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Who said, * Let the earth bring forth grass, the
herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit
after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the
earth.' And to Him to Whom we offer first
fruits we also send up our prayers." ..." How
then is our righteousness abounding more than that
of the scribes and Pharisees, if they dare not taste
the fruits of their land before they offer first fruits
to the priests, and tithes are separated for the
Levites ; whilst I, doing none of these things, so
misuse the fruit of the earth that the priest knows
nothing of them, the Levite is ignorant of them,
the divine altar does not perceive them." *
CYPEIAN, A. D. 200-258
"But with us unanimity is diminished in pro-
portion as liberality of working is decayed. Then
they used to give for sale houses and estates ; and
that they might lay up for themselves treasures in
heaven, presented to the apostles the price of them,
to be distributed for the use of the poor. But now
we do not even give the tenths from our patrimony ;
and while our Lord bids us sell we rather buy and
increase our store. Thus has the vigor of faith
dwindled away among us ; thus has the strength
of believers grown weak."''
THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS, A. D. 300
{Excerpted from the first six hooks)
" Of the first fruits and tithes, and after what
***The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers," Vol.
IV, p. 652. « Ibid., Vol. V, p. 429.
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 115
manner the Bishop is himself to partake of them,
or distribute them to others.
" Let him use those tenths and first fruits, which
are given according to the command of God, as a
man of God ; as also let him dispense in a right
manner the free will offerings, which are brought
in on account of the poor, to the orphans, the
widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as
having that God for the examiner of his accounts,
who has committed the disposition to him. . . .
The Levites who attended upon the tabernacle
partook of those things that were offered to God
by all the people. . . . You, therefore, O bish-
ops, are to your people priests and Levites, min-
istering to the holy tabernacle, the Holy Catholic
Church. . . . As, therefore, you bear the
weight, so have you a right to partake of the
fruits before others, and to impart to those who
are in want. . . . For those who attend upon
the Church ought to be maintained by the Church,
as being priests, Levites, presidents, and ministers
of God." '
"Now you ought to know, that although the
Lord has delivered you from the additional bonds,
and has brought you out of them to your refresh-
ment, and does not permit you to sacrifice irrational
creatures for sin-offerings, and purifications, and
scapegoats, and continual washings and sprinklings,
yet He has nowhere freed you from those oblations
* "The Ante-Nicene, Nioene and Post-Nicene Fathers," VoL
Vn, p. 408.
116 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
which you owe to the priests, nor from doing good
to the poor." *
JEROME, A. D. 345-420
{See his Letter to JSfepotian)
" I, if I am the portion of the Lord, and the line
of His heritage, receive no portion among the re-
maining tribes ; but, like the priest and the Levite,
I live on the tithe, and serving the altar, am sup-
ported by its offerings. Having food and raiment,
I shall be content with these, and as a disciple of
the Cross, shall share its poverty."^
"What we have said of tithes and first fruits
which of old used to be given by the people to the
priests and Levites, understand also in the case of
the people of the Church, to whom it has been
commanded to sell all that they have and give to
the poor and follow the Lord and Saviour. . . .
If we are unwilling to do this, at least let us
imitate the rudimentary teachings of the Jews so
as to give a part of the whole to the poor and pay
the priests and Levites due honor. If any one
shall not do this he is convicted of defrauding and
cheating God." '
AMBROSE OF MILAN, A. D. 340-397
"God has reserved the tenth part to Himself,
and therefore it is not lawful for a man to retain
^ "The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Vol.
VII, p. 413.
' Ihid., Letter to Nepotian, Vol. VI, Second Seriea.
•Smith and Cheatham's Diet., quoting Jerome on Mai. iii. 10.
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 117
what God had reserved for Himself. To thee
He has given nine parts, for Himself He has re-
served the tenth part, and if thou shalt not give to
God the tenth part, God will take from thee the
nine parts." *
" A good Christian pays tithes yearly to be given
to the poor." ^
AUGUSTINE, A. D. 340-397
" Our ancestors used to abound in wealth of every
kind for this very reason that they used to give
tithes, and pay the tax to Caesar. Now on the con-
trary, because devotion to God has ceased, the drain
of the treasury has increased. We have been un-
willing to share the tithes with God, now the whole
is taken away." ^
" Let us give a certain portion of it. What por-
tion ? A tenth ? The scribes and Pharisees give
tithes for whom Christ had not yet shed His blood.
The scribes and Pharisees give tithes ; lest haply
thou shouldst think thou art doing any great thing
in breaking thy bread to the poor, and this is
scarcely a thousandth part of thy means. And yet
I am not finding fault with this ; do even this. So
hungry and thirsty am I, that I am glad even of
these crumbs. But yet I cannot keep back what
He who died for us said whilst He was alive, ' Ex-
* Smith and Cheatham's Diet., qnoting Ambrose, Sermon 34.
' Sermon on Ascension Day.
• Hom. 48. Smith and Cheatham.
118 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
cept your righteousness shall exceed the righteous-
ness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
enter into the kingdom of heaven.' The scribes
and Pharisees gave the tenth. How is it with you ?
Ask yourselves. Consider what you spend on
mercy, what you reserve for luxury." *
On Luke xi. 41, he says : " * Give alms, and behold
all things are clean unto you.' When He had
spoken thus, doubtless they thought that they did
give alms. And how did they give them ? They
tithed all that they had, they took away a tenth of
all their produce, and gave it. It is no easy mat-
ter to find a Christian who doth as much. . . .
Christ said unto them, ' I know that ye do this, ye
tithe mint and anise, cummin and rue, but I am
speaking of other alms : ye despise judgment and
charity.' What ' is in judgment ' ? Look back
and discover thyself. And what is charity ? * Love
the Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind ; love thy neighbor as thy-
self : ' and thou hast done alms first to thine own
soul, tithing thy conscience. Whereas, if thou
neglect this alms, give what thou wilt ; reserve of
thy goods not a tenth, but a half ; give nine parts,
and leave but one for thine own self : thou doest
nothing, when thou dost not alms to thine own
soul and art poor thyself." ^
" Cut off some of thy income ; a tenth, if thou
choosest, though that is little. For it is said that
1 "The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nioene Fathers," VoL
VI, First Series as above, p. 367. *Ibid„ pp. 435-436.
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 119
the Pharisees gave a tenth. ... He whose
righteousness thou oughtest to exceed giveth a
tenth : thou givest not even a thousandth. How
wilt thou surpass him'whom thou matchest not ? " *
CHRYSOSTOM, A. D. 347-407
"They gave tithes, and tithes upon tithes for
orphans, widows and strangers ; whereas some one
was saying to me in astonishment at another, * Why,
such a one gives tithes.' What a load of disgrace
does this expression imply, since what was not a
matter of wonder with the Jews has come to be so
in the case of the Christians ? If there was danger
then in omitting tithes, think how great it must be
now." ^
The following is his comment on Matthew v. 20 :
" So that, though thou give alms, but not more
than they, thou shalt not enter in. And how much
did they bestow in alms ? one may ask. For this
very thing, I am minded to say now, that they who
do not give may be roused to give, and they that
give may not pride themselves, but may make in-
crease of their gifts. What then did they give ?
A tenth of all their possessions, and again another
tenth, and after this a third ; so that they almost
gave away the third part, for three-tenths put to-
gether make up this. And together with these,
first fruits and first born, and other things besides,
^"The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nioene Fathers," Vol.
VIII, p. 668.
» Ibid., Vol. Xni, p. 69.
120 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
as, for instance, the offerings for sins, those for
purification, those at feasts, those in the jubilee,
those by the cancelling of debts, and the dismissal
of servants, and the lendings that were clear of
usury. But if he who gave the third part of his
goods, or rather the half (for those being put to-
gether with these are the half), if he who is giving
the half, achieves no great thing, he who does not
bestow so much as the tenth, of what shall he be
worthy ? With reason He said, * There are few
that be saved.' For nothing else do I hear you
saying everywhere, but such words as these : *^'Such
a one has bought so many acres of land ; such a one
is rich, he is building.' Why dost thou stare, O
man, at what is without ? Why dost thou look to
others ? If thou art minded to look to others, look
to them that do their duty, to them that approve
themselves, to them that carefully fulfill the law,
not to those that have become offenders and are in
dishonor." '
CASSIAN, A. D. . . . DIED CIECA 432
His remark is that certain of the young men
were " eager to offer tithes and first fruits of their
substance " to Abbott John. This is said to be the
first instance on record of payment of tithes to a
monastery.* Abbott John thanks them for their
gifts, points out the reward promised in Proverbs
*"The Ante-Nioene, Nioene and Post-Nioene Fathers, '^Vol.
X, pp. 395-396.
• Stewart,
VOICES OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 121
iii. 9-10, speaks of tithes and offerings as given by
the Lord's commands, and gives Abraham, David,
and other saints as examples of those who surpassed
the law's requirements, arguing that we who are
under the Gospel should sell all and give to the
poor. " If even those who, faithfully offering tithes
of their fruits, are obedient to the more ancient
precepts of the Lord, cannot yet climb the heights
of the Gospel, you can see very clearly how far
short of it those fall who do not even do this."
While he holds that the law is no longer exacted,
he says, " But when the multitude of believers
began day by day to decline from that apostolic
fervor, and to look after their own wealth, and not
to portion it out for the good of all the faithful in
accordance with the arrangement of the apostles,
but having their eye to their own private expenses,
tried not only to keep it, but actually to increase it,
not content with following the example of Ananias
and Sapphira, then it seems good to all the priests
that men who were hampered by world care, and
almost ignorant, if I may say so, of abstinence and
contrition, should be recalled to the pious duty by a
fast canonically enjoined, and be constrained by the
necessity of paying legal tithes, as this certainly
would be good for the weak brethren and could
not do any harm to the perfect who were living
under the grace of the Gospel and by their volun-
tary devotion going beyond the law." *
* "The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Vol,
XI, Second Series, pp. 503, 515.
122 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Thus we see what singular unanimity of opinion
there was among the ancient Fathers of the Chris-
tian Church whose era is an extent of time from the
middle of the first to the middle of the fifth century,
A. D. ; and their testimony is valuable as establish-
ing the apostolic practice of the earliest Christian
centuries, as well as the fact that there were in
operation under The Law of the Tithe three recog-
nized tenths, — not one; and leave us in wonder
that the justice of the claim of the divine com-
mandment regarding the tithe, unquestioned by
these great men, should ever have come to be ques-
tioned at all, in any subsequent period of ecclesi-
astical history.
VII
THE VOICES OP MEN EMINENT IN THE
MODEEN CHUKCH
WE may take first of all the opinion of that
warrior of the Kef ormation, Luther him-
self, who stood as stoutly for tithes as
he did for his " Theses."
Alongside of the picture called up by the words
of the redoubtable Luther put the stern, uncompro-
mising image of John Knox, the erstwhile court
preacher of Mary Queen of Scots, and then hear
him say, " Our Lord in the Gospel, speaking of
payment of tithes to the Pharisees, saith ; * These
ought ye to have done and not to leave the others
undone.'
" It behooveth them to be paid. Now a great
many, to outface conscience and delude all reproofs,
maintain that lands, tithes, yea, whatever belonged
to the Church in former ages, may be lawfully
alienated.
" There is no impiety against which it is more
requisite you set yourselves in this time. Kepent,
therefore, and amend your own neglect in this
behalf and call upon others for amendment.",!
A little later, among the brilliant men who
raised their voices for the preservation of tithing,
we find Dr. Chalmers, who said : " There might be
123
124 THE LAW OP THE TITHE
drawn important lessons from the largeness of the
proportion which God here commands. The first
born bear a ratio to the whole approach — to the
tithe which He also claimed of the fruits of the
earth, or even to the seventh, which He specified
as His share of your time — not a large proportion,
certainly, when measured by His absolute right,
but large when measured by the natural inclination
of man to consecrate what he has to God."
Calvin, likewise, in those troublous times of the
French Reformation, had freely lifted his voice
also, declaring, "We see how God complaineth
that He was defrauded both of His first fruits and
also of His offerings and of all the residue which
He had applied to Himself in His law. But if
we inquire how the heathen behaved themselves
towards their idols, we should find that they are
willing to spend the most part of their substance
on their superstitions."
Prof. Max Mueller, of Oxford, the renowned
orientalist and translator of " The Sacred Books of
the East," once wrote as follows to a man of the
ministerial cloth : " It is surprising that when there
is so much profession of religious sincerity, a spe-
cial society should be organized to impress upon
the people the duty of giving to benevolence a
tenth part of their income. Can there be a lower
and simpler test of that sincerity ? And yet, when
one thinks what this world of ours would be if at
least this minimum of Christianity were a reality,
one feels that you are right in preaching this simple
VOICES OF MEN EMINENT IN THE CHURCH 125
duty in season and out of season, until people see
that, without fulfilling it, every other profession of
religion is a mere sham. I can hardly trust myself
to think what the result would be if it were con-
sidered as not respectable to give less than one-
tenth. This proportion of the total income would
amount in England alone to $180,000,000 a year.
You will not rest till people begin to see that to
give openly is less selfish than to give secretly ; nay,
till the giving of one-tenth of one's income becomes
the general fashion, so that a young man of Oxford
would as soon think of walking High Street with-
out his hat as profess to be a Christian and not ful-
fill so humble a part of his duty."
That other towering oak of sturdy English
integrity and broad statesmanship, William E.
Gladstone, speaking to the same end, uttered these
memorable words :
" To constitute a moral obligation, it is not neces-
sary that we have a positive command. Probable
evidence is binding as well as demonstrative evi-
dence ; nay, it constitutes the greatest portion of the
subject matter of duty. And, therefore, a dim
view of religious truth entails an obligation to
follow it as real and valid as that which results
from a clear and full comprehension."
Dr. Miller of Charlotte, North Carolina, has, upon
this subject of tithing, words equally weighty
with his illustrious compeers of other years whose
utterances have been quoted in this chapter. He
says : " The law of the tithe is binding upon the
126 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Christian Church according to the judgment of the
Fathers and the voice of the Church uncontradicted
for more than a thousand years. It is a sad thought
that the faith of the Jews and the heathen should
exceed ours. It was a proverb among the Jews —
pay tithes and be rich. The heathen made the same
observation that he who paid most to his gods did
receive most from them. They saw God's judg-
ments upon them for not paying Him His tenth ;
they repented, restored the tithe and were delivered.
But we Christians remain the only incurable infidels,
and we refuse to pay God that which by a universal
decree He has from the beginning reserved for
Himself."
Among the weighty things that have been said
in these modern days regarding the practice of pro-
portionate giving, it seems to me nothing exceeds
in interest and importance the following utter-
ances of Bishop James W. Bashford, in his book,
" God's Missionary Plan for the World," in which
he says : " No enduring increase in our resources
can be secured without systematic giving. The
Church can never capture the world for Christ so
long as our gifts rest upon spasmodic emotions
rather than upon conscience. Again, our giving
must be in proportion to our income. The whole
history of the Christian Church does not show a
single mission established or a single church main-
tained by appeals for each member to give one
dollar. The cry for an equal gift from each mem-
ber of the church at once lowers the standard of
VOICES OF MEN EMINENT IN THE CHURCH 127
the wealthiest members to a pittance ; and forces
upon' the poor members the conviction that Christ
does not demand of them the same amount as of
the richest member. It is entirely proper to com-
pare our average contribution of fifty-four cents per
member with the average contribution of nearly
one dollar per member by the members of some
other churches, and to ask for an average of one
doUar from Methodists ; this has been done by our
leaders in missionary enterprise and with good
results.
" But an assessment of one dollar per member
is false in principle and disappointing in practice.
All business men are agreed that system and
proportion are as essential to success in church
work as in business life. Hence all business men
are prepared to unite with the minister in insisting
upon the apostolic injunction of systematic and
proportional giving. ^ Now concerning the collec-
tion for the saints, as I gave order to the churches
of Galatia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of
the week let each one of you lay by him in store,
as he may prosper.' A study of the passage shows
that it is not simply a suggestion; that it is a
general order, one which Paul had given to other
churches as well as to the church at Corinth ; that it
enjoins systematic giving at regular intervals estab-
lished in advance ; that it demands proportional
giving according to the income of each. The two
principles of system and proportion clearly laid
down by the apostle Paul are essential to success in
128 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
every business enterprise ; and business men recog-
nize them as essential to the successful management
of every church enterprise.
" As I have worked and prayed over this chapter
the conviction has grown upon me that, in not
urging any proportion in giving, the Church has
made the same mistake that she would have made
had she not fixed upon one-seventh of every Chris-
tian's time for worship, but had left every member
free to set aside so much or so little of his time from
business as might seem good to his own eyes. It is
plain to all that, had not the early Christians set
aside one day in seven for the service of God,
and resolutely abstained from their ordinary work
on that day, Christianity would never have become
one of the great world religions. It grows equally
clear to me that were the Christians, along with
the devotion of one-seventh of their time to the
Lord, to set aside also one-tenth of their income for
His service, the world would be speedily evan-
gelized:" '
And so we might go on multiplying quotations,
and showing how the whole current of modern
religious thought is turning towards The Law of
the Tithe; but this will suffice to illustrate the
sentiment among world leaders in the Church of
to-day regarding the " sinews of war " by which
the spiritual conquest of the globe is to be brought
about. The call of Moses that was echoed by the
prophets in thunder tones, caught up and echoed
* "God's Missionary Plan for the "World," p, 112,
VOICES OF MEN EMINENT IN THE CHURCH 129
again in notes equally loud by the early Fathers,
repeated by the leaders of the great Eef ormation
upon their trumpets which gave no uncertain sound,
is now being bugled around the globe by other
leaders equally devout and equally great, and soon
the Church of the living God will echo it in full
chorus so loud that it will reach the place of His
feet made glorious in the eternal seats upon high.
VIII
THE HISTOEY OF THE TITHE IN THE
CHUEOH THBOUGH THE AGES
SAYCE says that there are tablets in the Brit-
ish Museum which are receipts for tithes
paid to the sun god. "Would that some-
where on the earth some example might be found,
buried in some sepulchral mound or amid the ruins
of some ancient library, consisting of receipts on
ancient parchments, or written cuneiform on sun
dried bricks of clay, — receipts given to Christians
for tithes paid to the Church ; but alas ! Examples
of that kind survive only from the past of the
ancient heathen, and the ancient heathen worship.
But while we may lack cuneiform bricks and papy-
rus pictographs, we do not lack some account of
the origin of the system of tithing, an origin, too,
among the people of God. Kemote antiquity
gives us in the Book of Genesis the story of Cain
and Abel * and their offering of first fruits and
from the flock, an act which was in obedience to
some law laid upon their hearts by the Almighty.
The germ idea of the tithe is found in their sacri-
fice. Later on, one glorious night, we find Jacob ^
offering to pay tithes to God, provided that the
> Gen. iv. 3-13. * Gen. xxviii. 20-22.
130
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 131
divine Father will bring him back again into his
native land. He baptized the stone set up for a
pillar with oil ; and anticipated the offering of oil
in later ages, oil which was so abundantly brought
to the tabernacle and to the temple. We find
Abraham/ also, the grandfather of Jacob, and at
a time not so many years remote from Jacob's vow
at Bethel, giving tithe to Melchizedek, priest of
the most high God, a priest without a recorded
and preserved genealogy, hence said by Paul to
be "without father and without mother."
The second great stage in the history of tithes in
the Church came with the giving of the Levitical
law. " The Mosaic law was not an innovation,"
says Philip Schaff, "but a confirmation of the
patriarchal practice." ^ Moses ordained tithes to be
given in the manner described in Chapters III and
ly of this book. The law given in Leviticus was
still further enlarged in the Book of Deuteronomy ;
and at once the question arose among the Rabbins
and prophets as to whether tithes should be given
by Jews everywhere thoughout the world, or only
in Palestine. The earliest Rabbins held that the
Law of the Tithe should apply also to Egypt,^ and
also to Moab and Ammon.^ The scribes enlarged
the scope of the law so as to make it apply to all
Jews in Syria ; * and the prophets required that it
* Gen. xiv. 18-20.
« " New Religious Encyclopaedia," Art. "Tithes."
'" Jewish Encyclopaedia," Art. "Tithes."
132 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
should also be in full force in Babylonia,* a land
which supported its heathen temples and gods with
tithes, and built great tithing houses along its
canals ; ^ so that while the Jews were tithing in
honor of the " one " God, their heathen neighbors
were making offerings to " many " gods, and mono-
theism and polytheism were each developing and
elaborating tithing systems, both inspired by a
living principle in the breasts of their devotees.
Among the Jews, the tithe of the cattle was to go
to the priests and Levites, ^ and the old patriarchal
custom or law, which sent the firstlings and first
fruits to the same destination, was finally enlarged
in its scope, so as to include a tithe of corn, wine
and oil, in addition to that of the flock and the
herd. The tithe for the poor came to be applied
in tithing one's earnings * and so abundant became
the offerings that at last great special chambers and
storehouses had to be built for them. * The
" Mishna," the composition of which dates from
about one hundred years after the destruction of
Herod's temple,^ laid down this rule: "Every-
thing which may be used as food, and is cultivated
and grows out of the earth, is liable to tithe." ^
"After the Exile, the Mosaic prescripts were en-
forced with great regularity." *
1 ** Jewish Encyclopaedia," Art. "Tithes."
» Hilprecht. » Philo, "On the Rewards of the Priests."
* " Jewish Encyclopsedia," Art." Tithes."
» 2 Chron. xxxi. 11. « T, Theodores, " The Talmud."
^ The Mishna on " Maaseroth," Vol. I, Chapter I.
8 Sohaff, '* New Religious Enoyolopsedia," Art. "Tithes."
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 133
" It was also a provision of the Hebrew law that
there should be no poor in the nation. The kin-
dred of an impoverished man were required to
restore him to a simple independence. All debt
was cancelled at the end of each seven years, and
if a patrimony had been alienated and not re-
deemed, it reverted to the original owner or his
family in the fiftieth year. An Israelite who had
sold himself to pay his obligations was free in the
seventh year. The Levites depended on tithes
which Solomon appears to have strictly exacted in
their behalf, though Hezekiah is first mentioned as
having formally assigned them their right. The
Levites who were not on duty at the temple lived
in the Levitical towns throughout the various
tribes, and perhaps engaged in the instruction of
the people. Poor by birth, and without the pros-
pect of a share in the wealth open to all others,
they were yet well cared for during Solomon's
reign." ' As to the Levitical cities mentioned in
this passage from Geikie, the reader is referred to
Chapter TV for a list of them, and for a review of
the legal enactments and the customs connected
therewith.
It is probable that never in all the history of
Israel was the support of the priesthood so well
kept up as in the days of King David. Certain it is
that in no period was there a more elaborate or-
ganization of Levites, priests, singers, helpers, as
during his reign. The greatest orchestra the world
» Geikie, " Hours with the Bible," Vol. Ill, p. 493,
134 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
has ever seen was organized by the command of
God.' The arithmetic of the situation at this time
almost stuns us with its vastness. There were
twenty-four divisions of the Levites, each division
consisting of 2,000, or 48,000 in all, whose duty it
was to assist the priests in the sacrifices, and to
render other services in public worship. Of this
army of Levites, 4,000 were musicians, divided into
twenty-four courses, all being under singers and
music masters ; while another 4,000 were watchers
of the gates and doors of the sanctuary, while
6,000 others exercised the office and honors of
police magistrates to see that all the requirements
of the law were observed ; and to this end they
were scattered far and wide among the people,
with their homes in the forty-eight Levitical cities.
Of these cities, thirteen were the possession of the
priests, who were, after all, only greater Levites.
Yast numbers of this army of Levites were con-
stantly resorting to Jerusalem. The priests came
to the Levitical cities to assist in checking up the
tithes, one Levite being detailed with one priest to
see that everything was properly arranged, and the
true tale of the accounts rendered. Those writers
who have investigated the subject so carelessly as
to say that the tithe was not generally enforced
throughout Judea, or that the Levites never were
put fully in possession of the forty-eight cities which
were allotted them, show a painful ignorance ^ of the
1 Geikie, '* Hours with the Bible," Vol. VI, pp. 521-622.
■ As for instance, the "Expositor's Bible."
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 135
subject, especially the allotment made by Joshua at
the command of Moses, as given in Numbers xxxv.
An amusing ignorance crops out sometimes,
even among commentators, as to the measure-
ments in extending the boundaries of the cities so
as to provide the Levitical allotments of pasture
ground and space for barns, gardens, etc. Here
the Talmud is invaluable. It is a great misfortune
to Christendom that it has been suffered to remain
so long untranslated in its entirety. Kumberless
fragments and translations of rather large portions
have been before the scholars in Latin ; Germany
has possessed a reasonably good version of a large
part of the Babylonian Talmud ; but it is only in
recent years that a translation of the whole work
has been undertaken, so vast has been the labor
necessary to systematize the version, and correct the
text for corruptions.^ There is no "Textus Ke-
ceptus " of the Talmud. It is now in process of
formation; and be it said to the shame of the
Gentile world, not a little of the emendation neces-
sary arises from the fact that all kinds of liberties
have been taken with the text by Gentile hands.
Hate for the Jew, narrow bigotry, intolerance, and
the Inquisitorial Office, have all done their work ;
and it will take some time yet to restore the text
accessible to scholars to a state of purity even ap-
proaching that of the Greek text of the jN"ew
Testament.
While all the above is true, yet it may be said to
* There are now two German translations.
136 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the satisfaction of students of the Bible that in re-
cent years a new translation of a very large section
of the Babylonian Talmud has appeared in English.
The writer has been unable, much to his regret, to
get access to the section dealing with " Maaseroth "
or " Tithes " ; but has been compelled to take his
knowledge second hand from the works of He-
braists who were familiar with the original text of
the Babylonian Talmud.
In relation, however, to the question of the
boundaries of the Levitical cities, the author has
had access to the translated portion of the Talmud
which deals somewhat with that matter. " How
are the boundaries of a town extended ? A town
that is oblong remains as it is. A town in the form
of a circle is provided with corners. One that is in
the form of a square need not be made equiangular.
If it was narrow on one side and wide on another,
it must be made even all around (through the
formation of a parallelogram). If a house or row
of buildings protruded from one of the walls of the
town, a straight line is drawn from the extreme
end of such protruding buildings, parallel to the
wall, and thence two thousand ells are measured.
If the town was in the form of an arch or a right
angle, it should be considered as if the entire space
enclosed by the arch or right angle were filled with
houses, and 2,000 ells should be measured from the
extreme ends." So says the Babylonian Talmud,
in the tract dealing with such matters. But, reader,
look not for an index to the Talmud, Conserva-
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 137
tism and difficulty together have left it unprovided
with the semblance of an index. Search, as did the
writer, until some good fortune brings you to your
destination. It is astonishing and dehghtful, too,
to read the minute directions given by the Kabbins
as to the why, the when and the how of carrying
the surveyor's chain, and to be informed as to the
engineering difficulties in the way of the measure-
ment of gullies and so forth, in the measurement of
the Levitical glebe. One can see in this plotting of
ground the origin of the English parish glebe.
Priests, people and Levites took turns in bring-
ing in the produce of the soil and trees (first fruits)
as being too sacred to be diverted to secular uses ^, it
being understood that God must have the first, and
hence the holy, yield of the trees bearing for the
first time, as likewise the first products of the
growing crops. First born sons, first born cattle
for redemption, the firstlings of sheep and goats
and the fat for the altar, all these things were
regularly, plenteously and conscientiously brought
in. Conscience, as we have seen above, was assisted
in its operations by 6,000 police magistrates (Levites)
who suffered no laxity.' First fruits of coarse
meal, heave offerings of barley and of other fruits
and products, including, at the last, wine and oil,
were brought in in magnificent abundance. There is
no hint in this of the modern parsimoniousness of
much of Protestantism.
In the same way the tithes were brought for the
» Geikie's ** Hours with the Bible," Vol. Ill, p. 263.
138 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
sustenance of the Levites at Jerusalem, a somewhat
different arrangement being made for the lesser
Levites in their cities, which was that they had
gardens, field and pastures where they might get
produce of their own, and pasture the Levitical
herds. A priest attended with a Levite to see that
exactness was secured when these tithe-payments
were made, and that the tenth of the tithe was
paid to the priests. The people, accompanied by
the Levites, were to deliver at the temple all heave
offerings of grain, wine, oil, for the sacred store-
houses; since the temple guards and singers for
whose sustenance these provisions were to serve
were to be employed in the holy bounds, and the
sacred vessels in which part of the offerings
were to be given to God were also kept in the
temple.
Later on, when the theocracy (democracy) was
nearly destroyed by monarchy, there began what
the moderns call " impropriation," that is, the
appropriation of tithing revenues and glebes by the.
Jewish kings.' The Law of the Tithe was broken,
and great sacrilege committed by crowding the
Levites into the little kingdom of Judah, where
they were given small allotments of land. Still
further was there intrusion of Levitical rights when
John Hyrcanus, about b. c. 130, diverted the tithes
to the priests. After the Keturn from Babylon, the
Pharisee party which had taken root there, on re-
turning to the Holy Land, so hedged the law, that
^Geikie's " Hours with the Bible," Vol. Ill, p. 493.
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 139
tithes were taken, not only of grains and fruits,
but also of pulse, herbs in the gardens, and so on,
a tithe which the law did not require. Jesus, in
His discourses to the Pharisees later on, endorsed
their tithing, but reproved them for neglecting
morality and sanctity of the heart and life.
The history of tithing in the Jewish Church
practically ceases with the destruction of the
temple at the siege of Jerusalem, A. D. YO; and
with that event, the chronicle is taken up by the
historians and annalists of the Christian Church ;
for although the apostles and the gospel writers
are practically silent on the tithing question, it is
because the tithing law was so well understood
and so well observed, and the habit of sharing with
the Lord so deeply rooted that nothing was neces-
sary by way of direction or admonition.^ " The
apostles never mention tithing, because that in
their time the voluntary offerings of the members
still suf&ced for the wants of the Church." ^ In
fact, so zealous did the Jerusalem Christians be-
come that they in some instances sold all their
possessions, and laid the price thereof at the
apostles' feet.^ The hideous defection of Ananias
and Sapphira was one of the incidents of this com-
munistic life at Jerusalem, a defection which was
rebuked in so terrible a manner by the death of
the perpetrators, that great fear fell on the Church,*
and no similar instance of cupidity and lying is re-
^Schaff, "New Religions Encyclopaedia," Art. "Tithes."
» Jbid, * Acts iv. 37. * Acta v. 11.
140 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
corded in the history of the infant Christian body.
So free and so abundant were the offerings by the
Church in different parts of the Roman world, that
Paul had no difficulty afterwards in taking up an
abundant offering for "the poor saints at Jeru-
salem," whose communism had impoverished them ;
and he specially thanked and commended some of
the disciples for a collection gathered by them for
his support ' which was so generously extended to
him not only from this, but from other quarters,
that he " lived in his own hired house " while a
prisoner, and so escaped the rigors of a Roman
incarceration.^
After a century or two, zeal in the observation
of the tithing law commenced to grow lukewarm.
This is specially mentioned by Cyprian, "De
Unitate Ecclesiae," p. 23. In the East, all soon
united in demanding tithes in accordance with the
Old Testament prescripts.^ Tithes were recom-
mended by the Second Council of Tours, a. d.
567;^ and excommunication was added to the
command to observe the tithing law, by the
Council of Macon which met in 585. Even the
confessional was used to enforce the decree ^ and
the matter was finally clinched by Charlemagne,
who firmly established tithing in his empire. " In
779 he ordained that every one should pay tithes,
and that the proceeds should be disposed of by the
*Phn. iv. 10. 'Aotaxxviii. 16, 30.
'SohafiE, '* New Religious Enoyolopaedia," Art. "Tithes."
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 141
bishop ; and a. d. 787, it was made imperative by
the legatine councils held in England." ^
" Thence onward it was enforced by infrequent
legislation. Almost all laws after the death of
Alfred contain some mention of it. Edgar's legis-
lation was somewhat minute, directing the tithe of
the young to be paid at Whitsuntide, the fruits of
the earth at the autumnal equinox, to be paid at
* eald mynster ' or mother church to which the
district belongs. The thegn, having a burying
ground on his bookland, was bound to give one-
third of the tithe to the church owning the ceme-
tery ; otherwise he might give the priest what he
pleased. Free townships gave them to parish,
priests, while lords of franchises often made friends
in high places by giving them to monasteries. This
was frequent after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The Council of the year 1200 decided that the
parochial clergy have the first claim to the tithe of
the cultivated land. Besides, there was the cyric-
sceat, or church-scot, a sort of commutation of
first fruits paid by every householder ; sawl-sceat
or soul-scot or mortuary dues ; with other occasional
offerings." ^
In his great work, "The Spirit of the Laws,"
Montesquieu has the following observations on
*' The Establishment of the Tithe," that are so im-
portant, both for the character of the information
they contain, and for the source from which they
>Stubbs, "Const. Hist. Eng.," Chap. 8, Sec. 86.
*I1nd,, Vol. I, pp. 227-229.
142 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
spring, that I' give them here. He says: "The
regulations made under King Pepin had given the
Church rather hopes of relief than effectually re-
lieved her; and as Charles Martel found all the
landed estates of the kingdom in the hands of the
clergy, Charlemagne found all the church lands in
the hands of the soldiery. The latter could not be
compelled to restore a voluntary donation ; and the
circumstances of that time rendered the thing still
more impracticable than it seemed to be of its own
nature. On the other hand, Christianity ought not
to have been lost for want of ministers, churches
and instruction.
" This was the reason of Charlemagne's establish-
ing the tithes, a new kind of property which had
this advantage in favor of the clergy, that as they
were given particularly to the Church, it was easier
in process of time to know when they were usurped.
" Some have attempted to make this institution
of a still remoter date, but the authorities they
produce seem rather, I think, to prove the contrary.
The Constitution of Cloth arius says only that they
shall not raise certain tithes on church lands; so
far then was the Church from exacting at that
time, that its whole pretension was to be exempted
from paying them. The Second Council of Macon,
which was held in 585, and ordains the payment
of tithes, says, indeed, that they were paid in
ancient times, but it says also that the custom of
paying them was then abolished.
"No one questions but that the clergy opened
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 143
the Bible before Charlemagne's time, and preached
the gifts and offerings of Leviticus. But I say, that
before the prince's reign, though the tithes might
have been preached, they were never established.
"• I noticed that the regulations made under King
Pepin had subjected those who were seized of
church lands in fief to the payment of tithes, and
to the repairing of churches. It was a great deal
to induce by a law, whose equity could not be dis-
puted, the principal men of the nation to set the
example.
"Charlemagne did more; and we find by the
Capitulary de Yilis that he obliged his own de-
mesnes to the payment of the tithes ; this was a
still more striking example.
" But the commonalty are rarely influenced by
example to sacrifice their interests. The Synod of
Frankf ord furnished them with a more cogent mo-
tive to pay the tithes. A capitulary was made in
that Synod, wherein it is said that in the last fam-
ine the spikes of corn were found to contain no
seed, the infernal spirits having devoured it all,
and that those spirits had been heard to reproach
them with not having paid the tithes ; in conse-
quence of which it was ordained that all those who
were seized of church lands should pay the tithes ;
and the next consequence was that the obligation
extended to all.
" Charlemagne's project did not succeed at first,
for it seemed too heavy a burden. The payment
of the tithes among the Jews was connected with
144: THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the plan of the foundation of their republic; but
here it was a burden quite independent of the other
charges of the establishment of the monarchy. We
find by the regulations added to the law of the
Lombard the difficulty there was in causing the
tithes to be accepted by the civil laws ; and as for
the opposition they met with before they were
admitted to the ecclesiastic laws, we may easily
judge of it from the different canons of the
councils.
"The people consented at length to pay the
tithes, upon condition that they might have the
power of redeeming them. This the constitution of
Louis the Debonnaire, and that of the Emperor
Lotharius, his son, would not allow.
" The laws of Charlemagne, in regard to the
establishment of tithes, were a work of necessity,
not of superstition — a work, in short, in which re-
ligion only was concerned.
"His famous division of the tithes into four
parts, for the repairing of the churches, for the
poor, for the bishop, and for the clergy, manifestly
proves that he wished to give the Church that fixed
and permanent status which she had lost.
" His will shows that he was desirous of repair-
ing the mischief done by his grandfather, Charles
Martel. He made three equal shares of his mov-
able goods ; two of these he would have divided
each into one and twenty parts, for the one-and-
twenty metropolitan sees of his empire ; each part
was to be subdivided between the metropolitan and
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 145
the dependent bishoprics. The remaining third he
distributed into four parts; one he gave to his
children and grandchildren, another was added to
the two-thirds already bequeathed, and the other
two were assigned to charitable uses. It seems as
if he looked upon the immense donation he was
making to the Church less as a religious act than a
political distribution." ^
It will be interesting at this point to introduce
Hallam's view of the same period of tithing history,
as found in his "Middle Ages," Volume I, p. 618.
I have condensed somewhat his learned statements,
and the result is as follows : After the fall of the
Roman Empire, so eloquently and graphically por-
trayed by the great Gibbon, " the Synod of Tours,
A. D. 567, through four of its bishops, issued a let-
ter to the laity asserting that the tithe should be
paid. The Second Synod of Macon (a. d. 585) put
excommunication as a penalty for refusing to observe
it. This is said to be the first authentic enactment.
From this time on its enforcement became more
and more nearly universal. The first Christian
emperors assigned land and property for the sup-
port of ministers, but did not enforce the tithe.
Finally, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, 768-800,
Roman Emperor, 800-814, made the first enactment
in his Capitularies. The parochial divisions did
not first exist until several centuries after the
establishment of Christianity. The bishops received
* Montesquieu's **The Spirit of the Laws," Vol. II, pp.
237-240.
146 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the tithes, and apportioned them as they saw fit.
Charlemagne divided tithes into three parts, one
for the bishop and his clergy, one for the poor, and
a third for the support of the fabric of the Church.
" The rural churches were for a long time adjuncts
of the cathedrals, but finally, by degrees, were re-
quired to be self-supporting. The first injunction in
regard to tithes was by a provincial council of France
near the end of the sixth century. From the ninth to
the end of the twelfth, or later, it is similarly en-
forced. Most of the sermons preached in the eighth
century inculcated tithing as a duty. About the year
1200, the tithes which had been called predial or per-
taining to the fruits of the earth were extended to
include, at least theoretically, every species of profit,
and to wages derived from every kind of labor.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, many clerical
tithes fell into the hands of laymen, through the
practice of extortion through farming them out to
cheap curates, the surplus above their salary going
to the pockets of their employers. However, in
England, such was the power of the Church that
about one-half of all the land of the country,
through successive grants, came into control of the
Church ; and in some countries of Europe the pro-
portion was even greater."
I may add to the above that the great struggle
between lords and commons, which is now convuls-
ing England, is over the possession and taxation of
vast tracts of land, many of them shooting preserves,
owned by English nobles, land which anciently be-
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 147
longed to the Church as noted in the preceding
paragraph, but escheated from the Church to Henry
YIII, or to his favorites, as we shall see a little
farther on in this chapter.
The tithe had been introduced into England about
the close of the eighth century by Offa, King of
Mercia, and by Ethelwulf in the ninth century, or,
as another authority writes, by Atelstan (Athel-
stane), A. D. 927, who made it a law for the whole
English realm. Innocent III directed the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury to require that tithes should
be paid to the payee's own clergyman, but this law
was a dead letter until the General Council of
Lateran, 1215, gave the parson the parochial right
to the tithes.^
" The name of * tithing,' which in some parts of
England still replaces that of the township as the unit
of local administration, and which occurs as early
as the time of Edgar, must be understood as a sub-
division of the * hundred.'"^ "In England, in
Anglo-Saxon times, a tithe was a district containing
ten householders who were sureties to the king for
the good behavior of each other." ^ " The Anglo-
Saxon version of Genesis xiv. 20 says : * He sealde
him the teothunge of eallum tham thingum' — he
gave him the tithe of all the possessions." * " The
Anglo-Saxon *teotha' stands for Heontha' formed
»E. B. Stewart's " The Tithe," pp. 30-31.
'Stubbs, "Const. Hist.," Vol. I, p. 85.
'Stormonth, " English Dictionary, " Art. "Tithe."
*IUd,
148 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
with suffix — tha from 'teon, ten.' The loss of *n'
before ' th ' occurs again in ' tooth,' ' other,' etc.
We also have ' ten-th ' in which ' n ' is retained ;
hence ' tenth ' and ' tithe ' are doublets." ^ " The
true English word is ^ tithe.' " ^
The introduction of the tithe into England at the
above date was followed by its being introduced
also into Portugal and Denmark in the eleventh
century, and into Sweden in the thirteenth century.'
In Germany, the court treasury has been allowed
to suffer, but not God's, says one writer.
With the coming of the Keformation, both on
the Continent and in England, there was no dis-
position on the part of any of the great leaders of
the movement except Henry YIII to interfere in
any way with the operation of the Levitical law,
backed by the laws civil and the laws ecclesiastical.
In Scotland, under Knox, the First Book of Dis-
cipline has this passage : " The sums able to sustain
the forenamed persons, and to furnish all things
appertaining to the preservation of good order and
policy within the Kirk, must be lifted of tenths, the
tenth sheaf of all sorts of corn, hay, hemp and lint :
tenth fish, tenth calf, tenth lamb, tenth wool, tenth
foal, tenth cheese. And because we know that the
tenth was reasonably taken, as is before expressed,
will not suffice to discharge the former necessity,"
it directs other gifts and rents. In fact, it is true
» Stormonth, "English Dictionary," Art. "Tithe."
'Skeat, "Etymological Dictionary," Art. "Tithe."
•Sohaff, "New Religious Enoyolopsedia, " Art. "Tithes."
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 149
of all countries where the tithe had been rec-
ognized by law and custom, which sometimes ac-
quires the force of law, tithes were retained ; and
the inbreaking of the new light of the Reformation
did not tend in any way to diminish the force of
the obligation resting upon the consciences of the
leading spirits who guided the destinies of this
spiritual Renaissance, but rather it deepened,
quickened, and gave it fresh power. None had
supposed, up to this time, that tithes rested their
claim upon anything else than the Mosaic law ; in
fact, down to the seventeenth century this had been
the conclusion, both of churchmen and princes,
seconded by their lawmakers ; but now came the
great challenge of learning and patient investiga-
tion, to the doctrine of " The divine right of
Icings^'^ as emphasized in the struggles of Charles I,
James I, Charles II, and in large measure between
the English Commons and the monarchs who
succeeded the ones I have named ; and The Law of
the Tithe very early in this struggle of the giants
came to be involved in the points at issue. Selden,
Grotius, et al., showed that tithes were known to
the Roman law ; * and the bitter discussion which
arose, in which churchmen at first were loth to ad-
mit any other foundation than the Mosaic pre-
scripts, resulted at last in the breaking down, in
large measure, of the rights of the Church, and
in their impropriation by the crown, as in the case
of Henry YIII, as I shall show in a later paragraph.
» Schaff, " New Religious Encyclopaedia." Art. " Tithe."
150 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Kings who had preceded Henry had done all
they could, apparently, to confirm the rights of the
Church. When King John, the night before
Kunnymede, rolled over and over in his tent, biting
the sticks and grass as he vrallowed on the ground,
foaming at the mouth in his rage, because Magna
Charta was about to be signed by his unwilling
hand, and wrested from his fingers to become the
bulwark of the British Constitution, and the Charter
of British liberties, not a little of his fury may have
been occasioned by the fact that he knew to-morrow
would witness his written concession in these words,
the words of Magna Charta : " We have granted
unto God, and by this our present charter have con-
firmed, for us and our heirs forevermore, that the
Church of England shall be free and have all rights
inviolable." Thus we see that the very founda-
tions of the British commonweal guarantee the
binding force of The Law of the Tithe, which
previous monarchs, recognizing the claims of the
Mosaic prescript on the human conscience and will,
had drafted into forceful regulations for the bene-
fit of the Church. This right to the tithe, there-
fore, is fundamental in British law ; and its claim
by the fundamentals of American law must also be
conceded ; since our ideas of constitutional govern-
ment were transmitted to us through our British
ancestors, and guaranteed to us under a Constitu-
tion which is the resounding echo of the Magna
Charta.
To demonstrate this fact, we only need to remind
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 151
ourselves that the Levitical law of the tithe was
engrafted bodily into the early laws of New
England by the Plymouth and other Pilgrims. It
was not felt to be a hardship that the laws of
Moses suggested the giving of a tenth to God.
The Compact of the Mayflower, signed up in its
tiny cabin by the Pilgrim fathers, recognized the
Bible as containing the laws of God, of binding
force upon the people and upon their lawmakers
alike ; and as loyal and patriotic Americans, who
believe in the foundations of true Christian liberty,
it is our duty, in view of the empty treasuries of the
American Church, to hark back to the political
ideas of the 'New England fathers, and to revive the
God-given obligation and privilege of The Law of
the Tithe.
Indignant, not at the tithing system, but that it
had been arbitrarily imposed on the British people,
not as dues to the Almighty, but as tribute to kings
due by "divine right," John Selden dared the
anger of James I in writing his " History of
Tythes," in which he challenged the doctrine of
" the divine right of kings " with a fiery zeal,
and with a learning and acumen that demolished
all counter arguments ; and which left James I help-
less in his wrath, save as he might put Selden in the
Tower of London, or bring him before the inquisi-
tors of the Star Chamber. In fact proceedings in
this historic Chamber sought to discredit Selden,*
to demolish his logic by suppressing it,^ and by
1 * * Encyclopaedia Brit. , " Art. " Selden. ' ' * Ibid,
152 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
measures of unjustifiable severity terrify all other
writers so that they would not dare to take up their
pens in Selden's defense. James I, who posed be-
fore his subjects as the great, the liberal, the good,
the tolerant, so far gave the lie to all these epithets
that he caused all of Selden's books that could be
seized to be gathered together and burned by
the common hangman,* but thanks to the over-
sight of a Providence, " a divinity that shapes our
ends, rough hew them as we may," James was de-
feated in this, so that some of the copies escaped the
hangman's hand and torch, and repose in museums,
private libraries and book-shops where rare and
curious volumes are dispensed ; and are imported
into the United States even yet, as this writer can
testify, at an expense of about four dollars per
copy ; which shows that the volume has not yet be-
come extremely rare, but that even somewhat
numerously it can be picked up from the book-stalls.
The discussion opened by Grotius and Selden
was taken up by such hands as " Sixtinus amana
Com. de Decimis Mos.," 1618, by Spencer in his
"De Legibus Hebrseorum," 1727, by Scaliger, in
" Diat. de Decimis, app. ad Deut. 26," and later on
by Carpzov,^ ISTowack,^ Wellhausen,* Driver,'' W. K.
Smith, and by Schiirer.
» " Enoyo. Brit.," Art. " Selden "; w<fo also Art. " Tithe. »»
' App. pp. 135, sq. 619.
»" Heb. Arohaol.," Vol. II, pp. 257-259.
*Wellhausen, *'Proleg.," pp. 156-168.
» " Deuteronomy," pp.166-173.
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 153
The struggle between Henry YIII and the Lords
and Commons and the Church deserves and must
receive a treatment all its own, since it is largely
due to the sacrilege committed by this monarch
that all of modern Protestantism is involved in the
dearth of the neglected tithe, and the consequent
empty treasury ; and I may add that his royal acts
were and are still in large measure responsible for
the fact that in England in the twentieth century
we are witnessing a struggle between the Crown
and the People to reclaim for the latter the ecclesi-
astical lands escheated to the lords and nobles and
the veterans of royal wars, and to the intriguing
favorites of the royal court, by the hand and man-
dates of Henry YIII. His was a battle royal with
the People, the Parliament and the Church, over
the possession of the church lands ; which, as we
know, comprised before this about one-half of all of
England. Henry forced the Church to relinquish
its claims upon vast tracts of these lands and in-
stead of restoring them to the people, who might
then have farmed them in their own interest, and
then given the tithes therefrom in the Church's
interest, impropriated them to his own benefit,
enjoyed all the revenues from them, with which
he recouped the royal treasury ; or, if kingly greed
did not extend so far as his own person, bestowed
what his gorged desire did not want upon the sol-
diers of his wars, or upon the nobles whose fawning,
cringing flattery and servile obedience he courted
and received.
154 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Here commenced, then, the royal plundering of
the English Church, and the impoverishment of the
Commons. So far was this wicked sacrilege ex-
tended, that it is recorded of the acts of Henry
VIII that he boldly said to Parliament : " I hear
that my bill (the bill to give the English monas-
teries to him) will not pass, but I will have it pass
or I will have some of your heads." It passed.
The body that passed it was the Commons of
England; and the Commons under George Y, in
the twentieth century, are standing at the door of
the House of Lords, that now in spirit wears the
mantle of Henry YIII, but, thank God, without
his power ; and spite of the House of Lords, these
lands will go back to the Commons ; and the op-
pressed poor of England, of whom Lady Somerset
has said that " for the last forty years I have seen
nothing done for them," will be able at last to
homestead, by a new kind of *' squatter sover-
eignty," the fox range and the shooting preserves
where for centuries nobility and royalty have
amused themselves while the Commons, many of
them, starved.
The royal mistake in the earliest instance was
the granting of unlimited tracts of land to the
Church instead of to the people. Henry's mistake
was in escheating these lands to the nobles instead
of to the people ; and the mission of George Y, a
monarch of enlightenment and of unblemished
Christian honor, will be to escheat to the people
what has not been theirs since the earlier English
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 155
kings escheated or granted them to the Church.
Thus does democracy move in its victorious march
around the world; and thus are kings removing
their diadems in the presence of the nobility of the
Commons, crowned the honors conferred upon them
by the enlightened Christian statesmanship of the
twentieth century.
To show how far the ancient arbitrariness of
Henry extended, I will append from Dr. Duncan's
excellent little treatise this table; showing the
ecclesiastical properties confiscated by the iron
hand and the capricious and all too powerful will
of that monarch :
" In 1536,^ all monasteries with revenue less than
$1,000 a year.
" In 1539, all the rest of the monasteries through-
out the kingdom.
" In 1540, the hospitals and churches of St. John
in Jerusalem, in England, and Ireland.
" In 1545, aU colleges, chapels, chanteries, hos-
pitals." '
The above ecclesiastical properties carried with
them all the land attached.
In order to show in its real colors the glaring
sacrilege of Henry let it be remembered that his
predecessors had confirmed to the Church the
rights secured and defended in Magna Charta. In
the reign of Edward I, special statutes confirmed
this charter ; and excommunication was denounced
upon those who violated the spirit of the statute ;
* J. W._Dunc5an, " Our Christian Stewardship," p. 71.
156 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
and in the reign of Edward II, tithes were declared
a part of the divine reserve, kept by the Ahnighty
in token of His sovereignty in universal dominion/
William the Conqueror continued this policy and
the coronation oath of succeeding kings confirmed
the statute of Edward II, solemnly implicating
posterity, should this oath be broken. This con-
firmation by the newly crowned continued until
the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell ; and
even Henry YIII hypocritically took similar
oath; but angered because the clergy opposed
his numerous divorces and marriages, and because
of the poverty of the royal treasury, he revenged
himself and recouped his exchequer at one stroke,
by confiscations of ecclesiastical establishments, or
rather, selling the tithes that were intended for the
support of these establishments ; and this sacri-
lege^ commenced in the reign of Henry YIII^
has continued in the appropriation of ecclesias-
tical income throughout Protestantism^ even until
now ; hence the empty treasuries of the Church, a
Zion that languishes, fields that are white unto the
harvest, with none to enter hecause the revenues there-
for are diverted in other and secular directions.
Church of the living God, awake ! Princes of
the earth, restore what ye have taken from the
treasuries of God ; and ye lesser princes, ye com-
mons, give back to God His tenth ; and then let
the chariot wheels of progress roll on forever.
After the assault made on the ancient rights of
* J, W. Duncan, ** Oar Christian Stewardship," p. 68.
HISTORY OF THE TITHE IN THE CHURCH 157
the Church by Henry YIII, who sold 2,388 sacred
properties ' or rather the tithes that supported
them, the tithing system steadily declined in Eng-
land. The Commutation Act of 1836 makes the
tithe in England of historical interest, chiefly, since
at that time all lands were discharged from tithe,
and a rent-charge substituted. This ultimately fell
upon the landlord. One-third of all the tithes of
England passed in recent times into the hands of lay-
men. Tithes are now payable by aU, in the Church
of England or out of it. There are special enact-
ments for Catholics and Quakers.
In France, the National Assembly in 1789
destroyed all legal claims the Church may have
had upon the tithe, except those which the Bible
contains, by rescinding all French statutes relating
thereto.
And so the general sacrilege goes steadily on,
while the most heart-breaking appeals come from
the fields, as witness this fresh deliverance from the
lips of Bishop W. F. McDowell :
" Another dominant impression is that the field
is undermanned, that our present force is inade-
quate, that our missionaries are compelled to spend
too much time and strength obtaining money to
carry on their work that this constant strain upon
them in large part takes them out of, and unfits
them for, their own highest and best, most direct
missionary service, and that the kingdom of God
in India would be made glad if all ^ special givers '
* Duncan, ' * Our Christian Stewardship," p. 72.
168 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
at home should send word to all missionaries that
they need not write any more appeals for ten
years, and that all ' special gifts ' would be con-
tinued for ten years and increased ten per cent, each
year, so that the missionaries would be missionaries
instead of part missionary and part agonized and
burdened solicitors of funds. More than one con-
fessed to me that he gave half his strength to the
task of raising special gifts. And yet these are
the men most competent to lead India's hosts and
to guide the young Church aright. And the need
of missionary leadership was never so great and its
opportunity never so promising. More than once
as these men told me of their hundreds of letters
and their anxieties I said in my heart, * Loose them
and let them go.' "
1 From a recent communication to the religious press.
IX
EOME OE JEEUSALEM, WHICH!
IT is plain to see that, speaking from the
financial standpoint, the status of a Protes-
tant minister is not what it ought to be. The
reason therefore is in part to be found in the present-
day conception of his office, a conception which is
tinctured somewhat with mediaevalism. In fact,
mediaevalism characterizes to a certain extent all
our views of a modern day ministry. The spirit
of to-day condemns the preacher, as it were, to a
penitential cell, and leaves him there to his fate.
His proper habitat is still thought by many to be
one of severe asceticism. We have demanded of
the preacher of the twentieth century that he wear
no haircloth next his skin, but, metaphorically
speaking, we expect him to wear it upon his heart,
his prospects in life ; and the shadow of the cell
still lies over the minister's library, his clothes, his
larder, his spending of money, or rather, over the
money which ought to be his to spend.
In the Independent^ that well-known religious
journal published in New York City, it was noticed
editorially not long ago that, in response to a letter
of inquiry sent out from that office, forty per cent.
of the preachers consulted, on being asked if they
169
160 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
would enter the ministry, if they had it to do over
again, answered, " JSTo." When men will chorus a
negative in this manner, forty out of a hundred,
there is something radically wrong in the conditions
with which they have had to contend; and the
wrong in the case is the monasticism, the spirit
of the cloister, that still obtains in Protestantism,
making the rewards and emoluments of the minis-
terial office in the majority of cases mean and
contemptible, and which insult the manhood issu-
ing from the colleges and theological seminaries
by offering them a meagre stipend instead of
comfortable support, — a so-called " salary " which
would be looked upon with supreme disgust by a
"New York hod carrier. The recent returns of
the United States Census enumerators make it
clear that the average salary of a minister of the
Gospel in the United states is only the miserable
pittance of $665 per annum. Taking the Method-
ists as an example, the average wage of a man
in the ministerial ranks is about $800 per annum ;
and in this average is included the wage of the
highest paid pulpits throughout the connection.
The average graded school janitors in the city
get more at least by $200 than does the average
preacher ; and what is worse, the preacher, unlike
the janitor, in many instances does not get his pay
by the month and promptly, coming by fits and
starts, and in bulk, if at all, at the end of the year.
Cases of this kind are more common than is
generally supposed. Perhaps ten or eleven months
ROME OR JERUSALEM, WHICH? 161
of privation have preceded a feeble effort to secure
the preacher's pay at the end of the year, and
then, by reason of the unbusinesslike character of
the whole proceeding, and the " wait " in the case,
the salary so badly needed is not gathered at all.
When the Church with a full purse, a purse in
fact that is bursting with wealth that is yet in the
pockets of its laity, oifers the average wage of
$665 per annum, she stultifies her opportunity, and
insults beyond recall the manhood of the men who
have a right to expect her support ; and be it re-
membered that the average $665 of salary in
1910 has only half the purchasing power it had in
1900. The rise in the price of leathers, woollens
and foodstuffs in that period of time makes it
impossible for a man to live upon the income of
the decade preceding the last. Any one can satisfy
himself . of the truth of the above figures by
examining " Bradstreet's." The young men com-
ing out of the colleges and seminaries and univer-
sities, seeing the high cost of living, seeing also the
miserable pittance that is offered them, do perfectly
right in refusing entrance into the ranks of men
under a taskmistress who insists that they make
bricks without straw ; for certainly the brick of
good ministerial service cannot be made without
the straw of comfortable clerical support.
Again : With an insufficient salary, the minister's
life is perilous to reputation, to health, and to the
future of his growing family, if a family he is
destined to have. He must maintain it on a wago
162 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
which will not cover the cost of living, — a cost
that in these days of food-trusts and combines is
going all the time higher and higher. Bradstreet
shows that the prices of cloth and leather in the
last ten years have gone up fifty per cent., and the
observations of everybody show plainly enough
that the salaries of the ministry for the last ten
years have remained practically stationary ; in
other words, that the purchasing power of a dollar
has lessened one-half, which means that so far as
economic results go, clergymen's salaries are just
half what they were a decade since. These are
facts that provoke anxious thought, and which
cry loudly for the righting of the great wrong in-
volved.
The minister who works at inadequate salary
takes a grave risk to himself, through very possible
inability to avoid debt, or to pay debt when it is
contracted : in other words, he is putting his neck
into the halter of peril to his good name. One
young man of our acquaintance in a certain re-
ligious denomination, driven into a financial corner
through the neglect of his people who were abun-
dantly able to make it otherwise, said; "I was
honest until I became a preacher." The
blank does not represent a profane word, but
stands for the name of the denomination in the
ranks of the ministry of which this young man
was serving.
The minister who works with inadequate
wage deprives his children of God-given oppor-
ROME OR JERUSALEM, WHICH? 163
tunities and privileges, and thus makes certain the
perpetration of a crime against childhood. Their
life, instead of being full-orbed and care-free, is
one that at best reminds us of the tragic stories one
hears from the factories where overtime and
meagre wage have deprived children, grown pre-
maturely old, of the health, the vivacity of spirits,
and the outlook which God meant that they should
have.
I have said above that the spirit of mediaeval-
ism is upon our thinking with regard to the min-
istry. Let us prove it further. The notion which
I do not find to be altogether uncommon is that a
preacher must necessarily take upon himself the
greatest hardships in taking up his work. Why
hardships ? You cannot find that kind of a scheme
provided for the Levitical ministry. It is not in
the Bible. Hardships in a pioneer country, far
from the railways and from the refinements of
civilization, as a matter of course, are to be ex-
pected and endured.
But such hardships would be criminal in a part
of the country which has for the laity all the
comforts which they would deny their pastors.
These hardships are especially culpable if they
occur as the result of the indifference or the
neglect of parishioners. The writer knows of one
instance in Illinois where a minister and his wife,
living in a ramshackle parsonage, in a neighbor-
hood where wealth ran up into millions, and where
the parishioners steadily neglected the Just claims
164: THE LAW OF THE TITHE
of their pastor, sat up one bitterly cold day, in
their kitchen, with heavy winter wraps on, by the
side of a red hot stove, unable to keep warm in
spite of wraps and in spite of stove ; and the wife
was, in a week or two, dead from pneumonia. It
is not for some one to say, " This wife and her
husband faced all this in entering the ministry."
]N"ot so ; but the criminal neglect which occasioned
this death is as reprehensible as the kind of neglect
which in sickness, with the madness of a Christian
Scientist, neglects or refuses to call a doctor ; and
lets the patient die in the midst of what I would
call " the incantations of a cult." Man after man
in the ministry breaks down before his time, and
why not? He superannuates, retires, dies an
object of pity, and, too often, an object of charity
from a poverty so abject that it is debasing. Tam-
erlane, building his pyramid of skulls of the men he
had slain, is not historically more reprehensible
than that Church which steadily and hard-heart-
edly walks without repentance in sackcloth and
ashes over the graves of the men she has underpaid
unto death. Whence came this spirit of neglect ?
Largely from the false belief that such is the divine
order, and such the divine plan. It is as far from
God's order, as revealed in His word, as hell is
from heaven. A seedy coat and an empty larder
are not the necessary and God-directed perquisites
of the ministry. By all that is good and holy, out
upon such a travesty of divine teaching. As
Whittier said of the old grinding law which could
ROME OR JERUSALEM, WHICH ? 166
make a Kevolutionary patriot "The Prisoner for
Debt," we may say of this inadequately supported
" man with the hoe " that we call " an overworked
and underpaid minister,"
" Down with the law that binds him thus,
unworthy freemen,
Let it find no refuge from the witheriog
curse, of God and humankind.'^
Down with the unholy custom which neglects
the holy men of God. He who reads the fourth
chapter in this volume and then diligently com-
pares this teaching drawn direct from the Word of
God with the miserable caricature of it which
obtains in many parts of a country as rich as the
United States of America, will soon be convinced
that a far different state of things from the one
that now exists is the divine order. Whence came
this old belief, — the old idea that the man of God
must live in a penitential cell, on scanty fare, with
a wooden ladle swung to his gu-dle into which pity-
ing passers-by, in response to the dictates of a swell-
ing heart at the poor fellow's condition, dropped
the dole of charity ? The preacher of to-day may
be, but he ought not to be, an almoner. Circum-
stances, hard, hideous, unyielding conditions, may
impose the almoner life upon him. Mediasvalism
made a man fast until he saw devils, as Luther did ;
or wild, alluring human forms, as did St. Anthony ;
or a devil who interfered with his blacksmithing,
as was the case with the saint we call Dunstan.
166 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Modern psychology, wiser than the psychology of
old, plainly declares and proves that many of the
so-called " visions " of the mediaeval " saints " were
only the phantasms of an overstrained and over-
wrought nervous system in a body, which, instead
of being well fed, has been wickedly and inhu-
manly starved.
Flagellation of this sort is not to be inflicted
on the body, because the Scriptures declare it
to be the " temple of the Holy Ghost " ; and the
more blessed and saner gospel of the twentieth
century, which is simply a better interpretation of
the Gospel which has been in the Bible all the
while, insists that the body shall be well taken care
of ; and this cannot be done on a paltry and insig-
nificant salary, which the Church is able, but up to
now has been too covetous or too neglectful, to pay.
The Church has cheapened her ministry, broken
their spirit, cudgelled them prematurely out of the
ranks under the operation of stern economic laws
which they could not strive against, and inhumanly
superannuated them, for the most part, without
salary; and done this "in all good conscience,"
just as the Inquisitors of the Holy Office burned,
pinched, racked, stretched, and impaled their vic-
tims, all in the name of the same " good con-
science " which made Paul a terrible persecutor of
the Church ; and all in the name of " the Crucified "
has this happened. Christianity must procure some
other form of cross on which her ministry is to be
crucified. It is not the good, pure, intellectual,
ROME OR JERUSALEM, WHICH? 16Y
holy man in men that is to be crucified. It is
"the old man." Not a cheerful, happy spirit, but
lust is to be crucified ; and along with it, avarice,
false pride, and the whole lot.
The idea that a preacher must he put upon short
allowance^ starved^ neglected until he is an almoner,
came hy the way of Borne, and not from Jerusalem.
This Komish idea must be combated, driven
back, to hide its dragon head under the shadows of
the Vatican where it belongs ; and never let it be
preached in the name of "the Man of Galilee,"
Who " became poor that He might make many
rich." He fed the hungry multitudes to repletion ;
Rome would have thrashed them with whips and
left them in the desert to fast and await the
" visions of starvation."
The Saviour recognized the great physiological
fact that the body is to be fed, groomed, clothed,
rested. The feeding of the five thousand, and of
the seven thousand, proves nothing if it does not
prove this ; and the suggestion in the incident of
the man wandering among the tombs proves it;
His " come ye aside and rest a while " spoken in
quiet to His disciples. His own periods of relaxation
in the mountains and in quiet places, all prove that
His was not a preaching of a severe and painful
asceticism. John Wesley was tinctured with that
false belief and with the old monastic idea, when
he used to go with his brother Charles to sleep in
an orchard, waking in the morning with their hair
frozen to the ground and the rime all about them.
168 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
We never again hear of those nonsensical ideas
after he enters into the blessing of regeneration,
still less after he went on into the walks of " the
higher life " of the soul. He passed utterly away
from the formalism which made trouble for him in
Georgia, and had permitted him to have his name
upon the rolls of the Church without being a truly
regenerated man.
The Gospel of the ever-blessed Jesus is a gospel
of liberty ; it is a gospel of love and peace and joy
and mercy, not of penitential whipping and of flesh
irritated by haircloth. It is a gospel of hammocks,
and rest cures, and Chautauquas, and of nestlings
down in quiet, cool places, when the body, like the
heart, is hot and weary ; a gospel of tennis-courts
and of innocent recreations ; a gospel of wholesome
food and plenty of it ; a gospel which provides its
preachers money to pay the butcher and the grocer,
and anything which does not do this is not gospel ;
a gospel of comfortable firesides, and of full coal-
scuttles, and books and friends and rollicking, inno-
cent fun and music, and communion and fellowship.
The dismal cell, the penitential scourge and whip,
the cruel nails, the lacerations, shavings, bare-
footedness, hair shirts, nervous rackings, starvings
for food and sleep, all have no place in the scheme
of Jesus of Nazareth ; they never had any place
except in the scheme of a conscious or an uncon-
scious inquisition. Self-denial ? Yes ; but not of
a kind which violates the laws of health and neg-
lects the wholesome care of the body. Oross-bear-
ROME OR JERUSALEM, WHICH? 169
ing? Yes; but not of the kind that tears one's
flesh with the ignorant abandon of an Indian in a
sun-dance. Walking in the footsteps of Christ?
Yes, not forgetting that the footsteps of Christ
lead us to the rest and quiet of the mountains, the
recreation of the fishing-boat and the fish-hook and
net, out among the lilies^ of the fields, out where
run the foxes, where fly the birds, and where the
glorious heaven, and not a patch through a cell
wall, can be seen ; remembering, too, that the foot-
steps of Jesus lead us into the quiet, peaceful and
happy household at Bethany and into the midst of
the rollicking and the merrymaking, of the fast and
furious Oriental fun always customary in Jewish
and Arabian weddings of His day, and which He
found rollicksome and merry enough in the wed-
ding in Cana of Galilee.
When the Church comes to the full realization of
the truth of what has just been said, she will pen-
sion with honors emeritus all her retired ministry,
after they have been kept on comfortable salaries
through the years of their activity ; salaries that
have placed and will continue to place them above
anxiety during the evening time, which shall be
light. She will not only pension them, but increase
their salaries many fold, fill their larders with the
repletion of the olden days at Jerusalem and in the
Levitical cities ; provide them with farms in old
age, like unto the Levitical glebe ; salary them until
their libraries will be enriched by yearly expendi-
tures for books ^oing up beyond the hundred
170 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
dollars every year, thus keeping the mind fresh
until scores of them, superannuated twenty years
later than fifty, will preserve, like Theodore Cuyler,
their intellectual acumen and freshness down to the
very last weeks of a more than threescore years
and ten.
But this cannot be until " God's Financial Plan "
is adhered to, and until there is recognized the wis-
dom and the ever binding force of
'' The Law of the Tithe:'
AN INSTANCE OF BIBLE GIVING
IN painful contrast with the poverty of the ex-
chequer in the case of so many churches, and
having in mind the straits to which so many
of them have been reduced in bringing things to
pass, let me place several instances of Bible giving,
to show the spontaneousness, the easy liberality,
and the cornucopia abundance of the latter. One
of the most remarkable of these cases is found in
Exodus XXXV. 21-29, in response to the call sent
out by Moses for materials to build the tabernacle.
The call is found in the fifth verse of the chapter
named and is as follows : " Take ye from among you
an offering unto the Lord : whosoever is of a will-
ing heart, let him bring it, an offering unto the
Lord." To show how general was the call and how
the very materials to be given were of the most
varying description and the greatest variety, I sub-
join the names of the things desired, putting them
into columnar setting, so that the extent of the
call, and the response thereto may be the better
grasped and realized.
The articles called for :
Gold,
Silver,
Brass,
171
172 ' THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Blue,
Purple,
Scarlet,
Fine linens.
Goats' hair,
Earns' skins dyed red,
Badgers' skins,
Shittim (acacia) wood,
Oil for the light,
Spices for anointing oil,
And for sweet incense,
Onyx stones,
Stones for the ephod.
And for the breastplate.
Labor in making the following articles was
called for, as follows :
The tabernacle,
Its tent,
Its covering,
Taches,
Boards,
Bars,
Pillars,
Sockets,
The ark and its staves.
The mercy seat,
The vail of the covering.
Table and its staves.
Vessels,
Shewbread table,
Candlestick and its lamps,
Incense altar and staves,
Oil for light and anointing,
Sweet incense,
AN INSTANCE OF BIBLE GIVING 173
Hanging for the tabernacle door,
Altar of burnt offering,
Vessels thereof,
Laver,
Hangings of the court,
Pillars,
Their sockets,
Hangings for the door of the court,
Pins of the tabernacle.
Pins of the court.
Their cords,
The cloths of the service.
The holy garments of Aaron the priest,
The garments of his sons.
Here, then, we have carpenters, workers in brass,
silversmiths, goldsmiths, dyers, tailors, an army.
It will be seen from the most casual examination of
the above that the tabernacle was to be a complete
free will offering. When perfect in every detail,
finished beyond criticism, and ready for the invasion
of the divine glory, the tabernacle was designed
to stand as a gift in all its parts and in all the
labors connected with its building. It was de-
signed to be a spontaneous and bountiful free will
offering, and none of the workmen connected with
the enterprise were to be paid. It was to be
solely and entirely a labor of love, l^ow mark the
sequel :
This is graphically told in verse 21. The note of
ringing invitation in the call provoked a response
as the \dbration of a golden wire in the harp of a
princely player, when he strikes his instrument
174 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
with skilled and willing fingers. " And they came."
The response was instantaneous, as shown by the
simple and straightforward language of the story.
It was not necessary to hold preliminary official
board meetings, nor to send out canvassing com-
mittees. The uprising was an inundation. It is
said of Sherman's army in the March to the Sea,
that there were in that body of men those
who were from all ranks and callings in life ;
and whether it was to operate a printing-press,
get a learned decision in law, set up a college
faculty, or run a daily paper, all Sherman had to
do was to announce that there was a certain task
to be accomplished, call for volunteers, and in-
stantly any number of men desired would step
forth from the ranks, fully equipped for the work
in hand, and burning with the desire to demonstrate
their fitness for the task. It would have been easy
for him at any time to have set a body of men
translating the Bible from the ancient languages of
its composition, performing chemical experiments,
rendering law decisions, refining silver or gold,
building bridges, observing the stars, making
astronomical calculations, or doing anything else
that belongs to American, or any other civilization.
His army was our republic on foot, on horseback
and on wheels. So with the army of Moses. He
could call for any kind of labor, skilled or un-
skilled, or for the performance of any kind of work
requiring, for instance, the delicate touch and the
artistic fancy of goldsmiths and jewellers, and the
AK INSTANCE OF BIBLE GIVING lY5
work would soon be done, just to his liking. " And
they came every one whose heart stirred him up,
and every one whom his spirit made willing, and
they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the
tabernacle of the congregation, and for all His serv-
ice, and for the holy garments. And they came,
both men and women, as many as were willing
hearted and brought
. " Bracelets, Tablets,
Earrings, Jewels of gold.
Rings,
And every man that offered offered an offering of
gold unto the LordP
The spontaneous uprising of Germany to provide
gifts for the expense of the war against Napoleon,
and the manner in which the sons and daughters of
the Fatherland brought out their heirlooms, keep-
sakes and hoarded money to provide means to
checkmate the invader, is a modern instance
strongly resembling the gift-bringing of the Israel-
ites in response to Moses' call. The best, the most
precious, even the whole store of hoarded wealth,
was not too much for them to offer to the Lord, in
response to a call that had never before been heard,
but which suggested and implied to them a new
manifestation of the glory of God, which must be
met with a giving such as the world up to that time
had never witnessed.
But the matter did not end with the giving of
jewels and gold, for it is said :
176 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
" And every man with whom was found
" Blue, Goats' hair,
Purple, Red skins of rams,
Scarlet, Badgers' skins,
Fine linen,
hr ought iheTnP
All of the last named things were not common,
but were rarities, many of them difficult to procure,
and the purple and scarlet and fine linen were
materials such as royalty then used, and, in many
instances, could not be found except among princes,
or at least among the wealthy and the noble. But
these gifts were not too precious to be offered in
the magnificent enterprise that had so strongly
gripped the sympathies of the whole Hebrew host.
"And every one that did offer an offering of
silver and brass brought the Lord's offering : and
every man with whom was found
" Shittim (acacia) wood
for any work of the service brought it."
The most precious things seem to have been
thought of first; and things of secondary .value
were brought in as an afterthought. The wood
spoken of was of the rarest that could be found in
the regions through which they were passing ; and
pieces of it were doubtless brought as a part of the
spoil from Egypt ; or what is more probable, cer-
tain articles of furniture had been fetched from
that country in the original Exodus passage over
the Red Sea. And the skilled workmen in the
AN INSTANCE OF BIBLE GIVING 177
host would not fail to bring with them materials
unwrought.
All that goes before in this chapter is but the
story of a movement among the Hebrew men;
but the excitement and enthusiasm of the hour
succeeding Moses' caU extended itself no less
devoutly and willingly among the Hebrew women,
for we read :
" And all the women that were wise hearted did
spin with their hand and brought that which they
had spun ;
"Blue, Scarlet,
Purple, Fine linen."
The wisdom of which the distaff is supposed to
be the symbol had its examples among these
daughters of Jacob. One can hear the music of
the spinning-wheels of those olden times, fifteen
hundred years before Christ, among those old
world housewives who dwelt in tents. The life of
the wilderness journey to Canaan hummed with
the industry of the busy bees of enthusiastic hu-
man faith. They took the black goats' hair and
used it for the materials of their spinning. In the
days of St. Paul, the same goats' hair was used
in the desert as well as in the refined seats of the
civilization that he knew ; for he made tent cover-
ings out of it with his own hands.' Goats' hair
was real wealth to the Israelite in all that it afforded
him.
»Geikie's *' Hours with the Bible," Vol. VII, pp. 316-317.
178 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
The movement among the Hebrew men and
women was the counterpart of a similar one among
the rulers ; only with this distinction, that the
offerings brought by the latter were of a splendor
commensurate with their rank and with their
wealth ; for they brought
Onyx stones,
Stones to be set in ephod and breastplate,
Spices,
Oil for the light.
Anointing oil.
And oil for the sweet incense.
Among the great host that journeyed up from
Egypt were a multitude of Jews that showed the
same thrift that they show to-day ; secretive, per-
haps from necessity, on account of the need for
secrecy due to persecution ; but the shrewd Hebrew
mind that delights in traffic and gain, and happily
for itself had the faculty of simulating outward
poverty while possessing hidden wealth ; and out
of the treasures acquired in Egypt, and brought
out of their hiding place after the commencement
of the Exodus, were these " onyx stones, stones to
be set in ephod and breastplate," and among them
were probably diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies,
and all the galaxy of gems known to ancient com-
merce and to ancient art. But these treasures
came up in the offering of the rulers as spontane-
ously and abundantly as the waves of the sea.
In general, as a final stroke of description, it
is said that " the children of Israel brought a will-
AN INSTANCE OF BIBLE GIVING 179
ing offering unto the Lord, every man and every
woman, whose heart made them willing to bring,
for all manner of work which the Lord had com-
manded by Moses to be made." In fact, some of
the finest and quaintest touches in all human
literature are to be found in this old Book of
Exodus, written a millennium and a half before
Christ, and a thousand years before the time of
Socrates, thirteen hundred years before Alexander
the Great, fourteen hundred years before Julius
Caesar, and fifteen hundred years before Augustus
attained the zenith of his fame and the glory of
his empire. Talk, if we will, about the mono-
syllabic nervousness of the Anglo-Saxon ; yet the
quaint Hebrew monosyllables and dissyllables,
which describe the doings of Moses and of this
company of enthusiastic bringers of gifts to God,
outclass the best compositions of the Anglo-Saxon
period, and in interest and simple beauty rival,
if they do not surpass, the pure English of quaint
John Bunyan.
The gifts continued to pile up in the treasury
from day to day, for it is said :
" And they brought yet unto him free offerings
every morning.
"And all the wise men that wrought all the
work of the sanctuary came every man from his
work which they made ; and they spake unto
Moses saying, ' The people bring much more than
enoicgh for the service of the worh^ which the Lord
comtruinded to make.'' " Contrast this if you please
180 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
with the niggardly giving which compels the min-
ister of God in building any of the modern churches
to beg and work and pray and pray and work,
often under such circumstances as to lessen his
self-respect, prolonging this process quite often
through a series of years which carry with them
interest-bearing notes, iron-clad bonds, threatened or
actual foreclosures, misunderstandings, heartaches,
mourning among the covetous, separated from
their money and bereaved of a part of their bank
account, removals of pastors to other charges as
the result. Whisper it not in Gath, tell it not in
the streets of Askelon, but it is an open secret
among ministers that he who builds a church or a
parsonage, as a rule to which there are some ex-
ceptions, loses his job ; and why ? Because of the
colossal covetousness which disgraces the Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The preacher goes on
through all the gamut of human grudging and
stinginess with many bright examples of the reverse
to cheer him ; and then at last, perhaps heart-broken
and prematurely gray, the servant of God, too
faithful in the performance of his thankless task,
like an overburdened and weary pack animal, lies
down in a premature grave. IS'ot so is this noble
instance of Hebrew giving that we have been con-
sidering. " They brought yet unto him free offer-
ings every morning." "The people," was the com-
plaint, " bring more than enough for the service
of the work^^ ; and this, before the labor of the
actual construction of the tabernacle was very far
AN INSTANCE OF BIBLE GIVING 181
advanced, perhaps even before all the materials
were actually assembled on the ground. And it
had to be cried to the spontaneous givers, " Stop,
stop, you overwhelm us. Stop, there is more than
enough. Stop, we cannot possibly use all you are
bringing us. Stop," or, to use the parlance of the
homely English Scriptures: "And Moses gave
commandment and they caused it to be proclaimed
throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor
woman make any more work for the offering of
the sanctuary. So the ^people were restramed^^
(spare the mark), restrained, caught and held
back, forcibly detained from any more offering,
stopped by interference of the bailiff, as it werej
served with injunction from the Court of High
Heaven. Even with this interference from Moses it
is said :
"So the people were restrained from bringing.
For the stuff they had was suffi^cient for all the
worh to malce it^ and too muchP '
As a fitting finale for all this giving of so over-
whelming a description, we are told that at the
dedication of the tabernacle the princes offered
twelve chargers of silver (120 shekels, $600.00),=*
twelve silver bowls (2,400 shekels, $12,000.00),'
twelve bullocks, twelve rams, twelve lambs, twelve
kids, twenty-four bullocks, for a peace offering,
sixty rams for the same purpose, likewise sixty
lambs. The whole series closes with bursts of
*Ex. xxxvi. 4-7.
" Modern purchasing power, approximately. ^Ihi^.
182 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
rejoicing from the people, the joy of whom had
resounded continually through the camp during the
process of the uprearing of the tabernacle ; and
in a climax of Oriental enthusiasm, they watched
for the appearing of the glory which was to be
a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by
night ; and there was to be, and there came over the
mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, another
glory on which only Moses' own eyes could look,
and which he could not behold except through
a cloud of incense, after sprinkling between the
door of the Holy of Holies and the Ark seven
times with the blood of a bullock ; and all this
divine manifestation came, not as the climax of a
series of meetings or revivals as modern day par-
lance would describe them, but as the climax of a
series of givings, — givings so spontaneous that there
is nothing just like them to be discovered in the
pages of all history ; and no book except Holy Writ
has, either in the incidents or the language, such
things as obtain in the annals of Hebrew giving.
Mayhap they shall be parallelled again, after the
annals of human generosity have been completed
for this earth, in the light of a better understood
and better unfolded gospel.
This will be the day when men have been re-
stored to their obedience to The Law of the
Tithe.
XI
TITHING VEESUS CHUECH FAIES, DINNEES,
AND SUPPEES
THEEE is a growing feeling nowadays
that the modern church has need of a
deal of teaching on the subject of free
and voluntary giving. Some churches have de-
generated into mere lunch counters, with ice-cream
dessert, and oysters for variety when the weather
verges towards the coldest. Amusing it is to hear
the weather prognostications, and the Weather
Bureau of Uncle Sam never had more zealous
observers of meteorological conditions (for a little
while) than are the zealous advocates of oysters or
ice-cream when the supper or festival is on. What
an anxious scansion of the sky, what a peering from
up-stair windows to view the heavens, what a test-
ing of the temperature, and the " feel " of the air
to decide whether it will be hot enough to dispose
of just the right number of gallons of frozen milk
euphemistically called " cream " ; or, if there is an
excess of good fortune, of real cream, disposed of at
" ten cents per dish, straight." Then the cake, after
some days of work by a committee, and many
earnest whispered or audible conferences as to what
will tickle the largest number of palates, stands ia
183
184 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
all its glory of icing or chocolate decoration, meant
to add to the contents of the exchequer of the
church, provided it is not gobbled up or down by
some bumpkin or other who does not understand
that seven or eight pieces of cake, devoured by one
customer, diminishes shamefully the profits of the
undertaking.
We were told at the late convention of laymen
at Omaha that in one church in Pennsylvania, where
church fairs and suppers were common, an old
goose figured in the assets as a possible source of
revenue ; for the full history of this most impor-
tant and much vexed old goose is instructive.
Suffice it to say that they made money from certain
transactions with this old goose, doubtless an ill-
tempered old creature, that, if endowed with all the
wisdom of goosedom, could never guess why it had
been tied up by the leg in such an unchristian
manner. Shame on the church which is obliged, or
imagines it is obliged, to support itself in this
manner. It will hobble along through the years,
lame in its religious life, lame in its misconception
of a church's mission which such an episode always
creates, and lowered from that high plane of giving
for the love and glory of God to the plane of the
baldest and merest theological shoddy ism. Who can
form real Scriptural ideas of giving with such a
nonsensical object lesson before him ? An example
like that burlesques Christianity, and puts a buffoon
in place of a real giver, at the same time displacing
the offering which comes " of free will."
TITHING VERSUS CHURCH FAIRS, DINNERS 185
There is an idea in the modern church, which
grows apace, and will not down with the lapse of
years, but on the contrary gains strength from
their flight, which is, that all methods of raising
money, except by proportionate giving, are un-
scriptural and unholy. Grab-bags, ice-cream fes-
tivals, soup-suppers and the like are nonsensical
and unnecessary, a sort of giving which loads a
cannon to shoot a fly, and which, in proportion to
the amount of time and trouble consumed, give
inadequate and vexatiously small returns. If half
the energy now expended on trouble-making
suppers were spent in vigorously canvassing for
God and for His work, it would so far surpass the
lunch-counter method in material results and in
spiritual blessings received, that the lunch-counter
method would never be heard of again, save as it
was dug up as a relic from the ecclesiastical scrap-
heap by some old person jokingly reminiscent of
other days.
The strongest argument, it seems to the writer,
that can be brought against socials and suppers
used in place of voluntary giving, is that the sub-
stitute destroys the spirit of real liberality, and
takes away the joy fulness of the happy, hilarious
giver of which the Scripture speaks. The argument
is going abroad and is gaining force that the Bible
tithe ought to be established throughout the
Church, and that these secondary means of raising
money ought to be forever destroyed and discarded
and forgotten.
186 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Think of ancient Israel gathering around two
or three thousand grab-bags to start a fund for
building the tabernacle, of King Solomon, in
all the glory of royal robes and golden crown,
waving his sceptre jubilantly over a thousand
tables where ice-cream is being dispensed for the
glory of God ; or of the Prophet Isaiah running a
booth where all kinds of collapsible nothings made
by sewing-bees are being sold by him at ten cents
per piece ; or of Jonah, returned from Nineveh, to
sit all evening at a candy table, selling " marsh-
mallows," delectable " marshmallows," inevitable
" marshmallows," at one penny apiece. If he
should have done this in ancient times, it would
have been almost enough to have caused another
adventure with a whale. No, no. The solemn
business of serving God, which was what these
. kings and prophets had before them, could not
even in our thought be connected with anything so
cheaply contemptible as these imaginary employ-
ments for such as they. The belittling and the
absurdity of the very thought precludes its fitness
in a sacred scene. Its incongruity, and the laugh-
ableness of it, separate it far from the joyfulness,
the inspiration, the greatness of those triumphant
moments when the people shouted with a great
shout, knowing that their gifts had made possible a
shrine ; and that their completed acts of giving had
brought to pass all the glory of a Solomonic
temple, and then again had caused that shrine to
renew itself in the lesser splendors of the temple of
TITHING VERSUS CHURCH FAIRS, DINNERS 18Y
Zerubbabel. The more I study the subject of tith-
ing, or, if you will have it so, the subject of
voluntary giving as it is unfolded in the Scriptures,
the clearer it becomes to my mind that the Hebrew
tithing law is a sacred law, the force of which is not
abated, and disobedience to which has been the cause
of so much spiritual decline in these modern days.
I take it that all are equally interested in the
development of any theory or principle of finance
which will be an improvement on the present one.
The most of our churches, unless they are among
the extreme wealthy, all have the same complaint
to make as to the neglect the members show
towards the benevolences, towards pastoral sup-
port, towards building and improving, towards any-
thing which looks to the spending of money for the
glory of God. I have known churches to deliber-
ately hold back part of their pastor's pay at the
end of the year, on the ground that " If we pay up
in full and promptly, they will put a little more on
us next year." As if some farmer should say to his
" help," or some merchant to his clerk, " I will hold
back a part of your month's wages at the end of
the year, lest by paying you all you will get bold
enough to demand an increase in your salary."
The farm hand has recourse in law, so does the
merchant's clerk ; and nothing of this kind would
happen to the preacher if he had, or rather would
take, the same recourse. It is an open secret that
the only member of the community that can be
robbed in this fashion is a minister of the Gospel.
188 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
I know also of towns where churches have no
credit ; where bricklayers, stone masons, carpenters,
coal sellers, openly say that with them the Church
has no credit, because it has so little honor ; and
where bills accumulate with no prospect that they
will be paid, or until a time has been reached in
carrying them so remote from the original trans-
action that future payment is as uncertain to gaze
at as a distant nebula. I have known of churches
unable ^to get themselves trusted for coal bills
because it was a notorious fact that their credit,
like their spirituality, had departed. And may we
not say that the one was the consequence of the
other ?
Deep spirituality spells a fine sense of churchly
honor, the feeling of churchly obligation, the
stirrings of a lively faith that is lively because it
does not neglect its " works " ; and which scorns
to incur financial obligations of long standing, be-
cause, like Bishop Taylor, they are " prayed (and
paid) up to date." Churches as well as individ-
uals must be honest if they would have credit.
One church which came under my observation
could scarcely get itself trusted for a ton of coal,
for the very sufiicient reason that it had other bills
which had been running several years, and for that
reason had found itself, as a jesting pastor hsts said,
" of much account. '''^ In a charge which was
served by one preacher of my acquaintance, he un-
dertook to pay all bills as soon as he could get hold
of the ecclesiastical reins ; and to his surprise, and
TITHING VERSUS CHURCH FAIRS, DINNERS 189
somewhat also to his chagrin, just as soon as the
fact became known that he was paying bills new
and bills old, stacks of old bills, whose existence the
official board had forgotten, cropped up, to the
absorption of much of the cash revenue gathered
by the patient, plodding care of a tired but zealous
pastor ; and after a campaign lasting eight months,
these obligations were cancelled, and the church
ceased to be "of much account." While this
liquidation of a sort of national debt was going on,
people with bills recent and bills ancient, bills large
and bills small, bills fresh and bills nearly or quite
outlawed, almost literally camped on his door-step,
each eager to make his claim a preferred one if
such were possible. The church that has neither the
disposition nor the religious spirit impelling it to
be honest, and to keep square with the world had
better take advantage of a bankrupt law on earth ;
for such it has already done in heaven. I may
whisper to the reader aside that those bills, after
being paid by the aforesaid pastor, brought great
good to the church, a thing they could not do
before ; for the cancellation of all these causes of
annoyance was celebrated with a big banquet ; and
speeches of gratulation, congratulation, and self-
congratulation were the order of the day; and
when the tide of jubilation reached a certain
height, then there commenced to happen two
things : One of them, that the church caught a
glimpse of things undreamed of, and the other,
that in response to this keeping of the commands
190 THE LAW OP THE TITHE
of God, He opened the windows of heaven and
poured out a blessing of the cornucopia kind ; as
always happens when the church lives alongside
of, nay, verily, when it lives on and by, the prom-
ises of God. Incidentally, too, let me say that the
Young People's Union in that church, and the
prayer-meeting, too, both felt the uplift and the
touch of that " bringing in of the tithes."
Now, let me say this, that the churches which to
my knowledge have shown the greatest decay of
the giving spirit, and the greatest laxity as to their
debts and financial obligations of all kinds, have
been the churches in which suppers and oysters
and ice-cream have been the most common resort ;
which fact I think is enough to condemn the sub-
stitute for free will giving.
I want to give it as one of the fundamentals of
my Christian faith that preachers have been too
modest, or rather, prudish, in regard to their sala-
ries ; and this is out of the divine order ; for under
the old Levitical system of tithing, both priests
and Levites, as we have seen,^ were expected, nay
commanded^ to look after their support and per-
quisites, and to be active, personally, in collecting
them. They went out to the Levitical towns for
the purpose and had the power conferred upon them
by law to police the whole country from their own
ranks, and in their magisterial capacity see that all
tithes were paid.^ We have utterly departed, at
least in the majority of instances, from the ancient
» See Chap. IV. « See Chap. VIII.
TITHING VERSUS CHURCH FAIRS, DINNERS 191
principle of collections of tithes by God's ministers
in person ; and we need to return to that principle,
fully *accepting the idea that tithes are owed to
God and are therefore to be paid — not given — paid,
just as one would pay any other bill ; and after
the bills are paid, then give, give until it pinches,
until it hurts. A man needs a pinch of that kind
often, to cure himself of personal carelessness and
extravagance ; of which more anon in the chapter
which deals with " the summation of the arguments
for tithing." ' Prudery and modesty are two dif-
ferent things and there is a modest, businesslike
way to speak of the salary of a minister in the
pulpit, even though the speaker be the minister
himself. There is also a foolish, prudish, unwise
way some preachers have, never to mention
finances in the pulpit. They seem to feel that the
salary question, or if you will put it so, the money
question, is a sort of Jack-in-the-box, or a monkey-
on-two-sticks, or a sawdust-stuffed Teddy bear that
might come to life and produce sensations and dis-
turbances in the congregation, or growl at the
children ; a something to be kept out of sight, and
if possible assassinated like the wives of Bluebeard ;
a something like Banquo's ghost that ought to
down, but will not ; an ugly face that insists on
peering through the window and scaring the folks
inside. For has it not been one of the time-honored
and hoary traditions of some of the " elect " that
necessarily the preacher was the most pious and
» See Chap. XIII.
192 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
sanctified who said " nothing about money " in the
pulpit ? As if silence and sanctity were a kind of
synonymous terms. No, the " money question " is
none of these things ; and in mentioning them, I
am reminded that " hypocrisy is a kind of tribute
that vice pays to virtue." The meanness which
insists that money ought never to be mentioned in
the pulpit has the Judas spirit in it. It is hypoc-
risy that dictates the sentiment, because the wish is
father to the thought, and the thought a covetous
one. ISTo man who is himself a cheerful and liberal
giver and not a hypocrite at this point ever thinks
of silencing his pastor on the money question. It
is a part of the plan of salvation that Christians should
give ; and the mention of money ought no more to
be suppressed than the mention of the Cross ; and
giving is no more to be made a thing of shame than
is the Saviour Himself for Whose sake we give.
Fancy, if you please, somebody trying to stop
Moses when he was giving forth the law, before
a vast congregation assembled at Mounts Ebal
and Gerizim,' and saying, " Now Brother Moses, in
the reading of your Deuteronomy and of your
Leviticus, please keep the money question out of
sight. If you do mention it, people will stay
away from church ; and then, you know, Deacon
Methuselah, and Deacon Abimelek are very sensi-
tive about hearing money matters mentioned from
the pulpit. And there is Deacon Melchizedek, who
says that he never wants to have a service spoiled
1 Dent, zxvii, 12-13.
TITHING VERSUS CHURCH FAIRS, DINNERS 193
for him by hearing money mentioned just before
the congregation breaks up. And Deacon Shad-
rack felt insulted the last time he was to meetin'
and said he never could go to church without hav-
ing somebody stick the collection basket under his
nose." " Keep the money question out of sight ? "
ISTo, a thousand times no. It was meant that
every regenerated soul should give, nay, that the
unregenerate themselves should feel the force of
the obligation. Giving is not something to be
hidden away as though it were a thing of which to
be ashamed. ^N^othing is to be ashamed of in regard
to giving except not giving. On the contrary^ the
opportunity to give is to be brought out and
paraded in becoming fear of God as reverently as
at each session of the synagogue the Jew, even
yet, fetches forth, displays and kisses the parch-
ments of his law. It is a divine, an exalted, a
God-endorsed, a God-commanded, glorious privi-
lege to give. It is one of God's most highly honored
means of grace ; for the most splendid promise in
the whole Bible in regard to a downpour of bless-
ing is connected with the command regulating an
outpour of giving.
Let me say again that the subject of giving
must be thoroughly and courageously exploited
from the pulpit, and our people must be made to
feel that singing, praying, Bible reading, and
giving go together. Songs often need to be quali-
fied with a silver dollar, and prayers need to be
bolstered with a five dollar bill. In fact, let me
194 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
say that there are some prayers that will never
go to heaven except as they have the help of
greenback wings; and some songs will never be
reechoed and repeated in heaven along the golden
streets by the people who have been so jubilant
with them here, unless said songs are given clear-
ance papers and passport from earth by means of
the money paid that is owed to God.
I may say again, in concluding this chapter,
that I hold the " supper-dinner-soup-cream " habit
largely responsible in some modern churches for
not only a great deal of the carelessness and in-
difference of members in giving, and their conse-
quent loss of spirituality, but to my mind it is also
the guilty culprit that has brought in much of the
irreverence now shown towards the house of God,
and much of the levity which occurs there, to the
scandalizing of the sober fathers and mothers who
can still remember the reverent hush which always
fell upon a congregation waiting in the earlier
days for the service to begin. The church that is
desecrated in its auditorium by lightness induced
by festival arrangements, or which even has its
lecture room invaded by the scarcely seemly semi-
vaudeville performance, now becoming all too
scandalously common as a means of raising money,
can scarcely complain if sooner or later a blue-
coated officer of the law must ostentatiously show
himself in the neighborhood of that church, sum-
monsed hither because of a threatened or actual
visitation of desecrating invaders.
TITHING VERSUS CHURCH FAIRS, DINNERS 195
As a remedy for these and for other evils that
might be named, let me plead that the^Bible system
of tithing, the only plan God ever devised, should
be reestablished everywhere throughout the Church;
and that all pernicious secondary methods be rele-
gated to the ecclesiastical scrap-pile. As has been
well said by the former chaplain, and latterly,
Bishop McCabe, " Give the people the facts, and
they will give their money ; " and one of the
great facts that cries to heaven from the Bible for
frequent and earnest telling is the value, the suc-
cess, the divineness of " The Law of the Tithe,"
once it is brought into operation.
XII »
TITHING IN CONOEETE MODEEN INSTANCES
" "m i|r ONEY," says Dr. Duncan, " is stored
\ /I power." How important, then, that
X T JL when this power is released, it be re-
leased on the right objects, and set the proper
wheels a-going. William Colgate and Thomas
Kane are examples of tithers whose beneficence
has become a matter of good report throughout
the world, and they show in their own lives what
the tithing law, applied and obeyed, will do for the
individual experience. Witness is borne by Dr.
Duncan in support of the idea that money is
stored power when he tells us that in his congre-
gation he has had a man who worked at the bench
for ten dollars a week, who now has a handsome
business, which, according to the same authority,
yields him a princely income, all as the result of
the fact that this man became a tither when he
worked for ten dollars a week.
A Chicago layman who holds or has held the
distinguished honor of being president of the Wi-
nona Assembly, has corresponded with thousands
of people in the five leading religious denomina-
* In this chapter I have made free use of Dr. Dnncan's "Our
Christian Stewardship." I commend it to the reader as a most
helpful volume, v^rritten in terse, yet polished English style.
196
TITHING IN CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 197
tions and not an exception has been found —
prosperity follows the giving of the tithe. We are
to remember that in Malachi's prophecy it is
promised that God will open the " windows," not
the " window," of heaven to the one who brings in
all the tithes. It is true of The Law of the Tithe,
as it is of all other good laws, that prosperity fol-
lows the keeping of it, and that sorrow and
anguish of spirit, as well as lack of temporal suc-
cess, follow the failure to keep it. It is further
related by the authority above named that a mem-
ber of the Indiana Conference in the Methodist
Episcopal Church had been a tither and prosperous,
but backslid and gave up the habit. His prosperity
at once left him ; hence, he confessed his wrong, and
his property and his prosperity together commenced
to come back.
A fellow pastor of the author's acquaintance
contributes the following personal reminiscences :
" I was sent to a little town of less than four
hundred people as pastor, and in addition to the
town point we had a country work about seven
miles from town. During our second year there
my wife took sick and it was necessary to have a
minor surgical operation performed. The doctor
said that it would be necessary for her, if she ever
regained good health, to merely lie down most of
the time and do no work, and have no worry.
This necessitated keeping help to do the house
work. "We hired a girl at three dollars a week for
seven months. This cut largely into a very limited
198 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
salary, but necessity compelled it. During the
month of May the next year, I started out calling,
expecting to be gone from home for two days. I
planned the calling trip so as to get home the
second day at three o'clock. I was worrying about
a bill that I owed for horse feed and fuel of the
winter, and could see no way that I might pay it,
as I expected to move that fall and figured that it
would take all my salary to pay the help, and the
necessary bills until Conference. Finally I said,
' Lord, this sickness and expense is nothing that we
are responsible for and I will quit worrying and let
you figure it out.'
" I had planned that the second day at ten o'clock
I would get to a certain country home. In this
home there lived two brothers and two sisters all
unmarried and well along past middle age. They
were supporters of our church, and paid liberally to
the salary. They were really Scotch Presbyterians,
and good, religious people. I arrived at their
home as planned at ten o'clock, and expected to
spend an hour there, going a little farther at twelve,
to dinner. They would not listen to this. The
ladies said that the brothers were at the barn and
for me to drive there and they would put the horse
in the barn. This I did. We all went to dinner.
After dinner the two brothers and myself went to
the barn. We got the horse out of the barn and
one of the brothers took it a little distance to the
watering trough. While he was gone, the other
brother said, * You will need a suit of clothes, or
TITHING IN CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 199
possibly a harness for your horse. Here is some
money ; take it with my love. I have had it ever
since Christmas for you, and this is the first time I
have seen you since then.' He put a sum of money
in my vest pocket. Soon the other brother came
back with the horse and we hitched it to the buggy
and I got in to start away. This other brother
said, * I will go and open the gate for you.' I
said, * I can do that all right.' However, he in-
sisted on it. He walked by the buggy, and before
opening the gate he said, ' Here is something that
I have had for you ever since the holidays. I got
it just before that time and it was a new one and I
said, " I will give that to the preacher." ' He handed
me a new twenty dollar bill. Of course I thanked
him. After driving a little distance I was anxious
to see how much the first brother had given me. I
stopped the horse and took the money from my
pocket where he had placed it and found that he
had given me fifty dollars, this, with what the other
brother had given me, making seventy dollars. I
said, ^ Thank you. Lord ; that will pay that bill I
was worrying about.' On arriving at home I told
my wife what the Lord had done for me. I went
to pay the bill, and it had not been figured up, and
the bookkeeper figured it up, and it amounted to
just sixty -nine dollars cmd fifty cents.
"]S"o one knew just how much that bill was.
But He who knoweth all things was able to give me
through His people just the amount that was due.
" For my second charge after entering the minis*
200 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
try I was sent to a town of about three thousand
to live and had three country points near the town
as a work. During the winter I held special meet-
ings at the three points. At one place there was a
young man and his wife in whom we were all
especially interested. They seemed during the
meetings as though they would make the start, but
the meetings came near the close without them.
One evening they were both converted and came
into the church. The father and mother of the man
had been tithers for a long time.
" During the late fall of that year my wife and I
were calling at the home. The people were renters
and lived in a little house on the place rented. We
went into the house and after a short visit the wife
brought to me a small pasteboard box and asked
me to look into it. I did so, and there were about
twelve dollars in it. Her eyes were full of tears
and I knew that a story was connected with it. I
said, * Tell me the story.' She said, ' That is God's
box,' and the following was the story she told :
" ^ You undoubtedly noticed that my husband and
I held back in the revival meetings until about their
close. Well, we believed that if we were to start
in the Christian life that God would want us to pay
ten per cent, of our income as a tithe. We had
figured that our income would be about four hun-
dred dollars for the year, and thought forty dollars
out of that for God and the church would be more
than we could afford. Finally we said, " Lord, we
will do it," and we did.'
TITHING IN CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 201
" She said, * Mr. Blank, I wish that you would
take your pencil and do a little figuring for me.' I
did so. She said : * We had in, as a crop of oats we
had on the place, thirty acres, and we got forty
bushels of oats to the acre, which was eight bushels
more than any one else got in our neighborhood.
We got 18^ cents per bushel for the crop, and sold
it from the machine. Kow,' she said, ' see what
that would come to.' I figured the surplus that
they had more than their neighbors, and found it,
of course, 240 bushels, and at ISJ cents per bushel
figured out just $44.40. I said to her, ' That is just
like God. Not only has He given you back the
$40, but He has added ten per cent, to it, and also
ten per cent, to the ten per cent.' That was twelve
years ago, and so far as I know they are still pay-
ing ten per cent, of their income to God and are
prospering." '
While the reader is digesting the above facts, let
us remember that the first instance given in the
above narrative settles for us the principle under-
lying true prayer. That we are to set our wishes
before Him, tell Him our troubles, and then go on
in the fullest confidence that He will take care of
the matter and bring forth the issue that will re-
move the difficulty in the case.
Wesley Chapel, Cincinnati, a down-town church,
found itself " plapng out." No other phrase seems
expressive enough to describe its condition. In
1 The writer knows personally the narrator of the above inci-
dents and can vouch for their truth.
202. THE LAW OF THE TITHE
1896, they were so discouraged and unprosper-
ous that the pastor advised, and the Board had
about decided, to nail up the doors and windows
and leave the edifice to be tenanted by mice and
bats. Eather than stop without at least one more
effort, seventy persons signed a tithe covenant dur-
ing the first year, with the result that with a shock
of surprise to themselves that was self-inflicted, all
bills throughout the year were promptly met. When
the results came to be published to the congregation,
there was a time of tenderness and rejoicing,
reminding us of the old time story of the rejoicings
of the Hebrews when the tithes and offerings were
brought up to Jerusalem. The members of this
church speedily increased from 360 to 650, and the
Sunday-school attendance mounted from 250 to 540.
Prayer and class meetings were quadrupled in mem-
bership. The doors of the church were wide open
every night in the week. All dissensions of every
kind have ceased, and brotherly love plays upon all
hearts its music, which is like part of some swelling
anthem. The pastor's check comes in full every week
and every obligation is joyfully met. This church,
in its evangelism, leads all others in the Conference.
"Last year," says the pastor, "she paid into the
Missionary Society as much as all the other ten
down-town churches and $13 over, or a total of
$1,060. . . . The tithe book shows that last
year, out of 769 members and probationers only 1 62
were tithing ; and of these, twelve were children,
105 women, and 45 men. It is interesting to note
TITHING IN CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 203
here that the average income of every man, woman,
and child in the United States is estimated at $300 ;
the average tithe therefore would be $30. The
treasurer's book at Wesley Chapel shows that the
average amount paid by each tither there in 1901
was $31.29. If all the 769 members had been
tithing at the same rate, the total income would
have been $24,062 ; or enough to pay their present
current expenses, and support the entire associated
charities of Cincinnati, and to keep an army of 180
Bible readers in the field in India, China and
Japan." ^
" When Bishop Thoburn came to Wesley Chapel
in 1896 to preach a missionary sermon it seemed to
be a new sensation to him not to have a collection
to take. The fact is, this system transforms all
these men and means into missionary educational
institutions instead of peripatetic collecting agen-
cies." ^
In speaking of the First Presbyterian Church of
Wichita, Kansas, of which he is pastor, Eev. Charles
Edwin Bradt has the following to say : " Several
years ago, conditions prevailed in Wichita, Kansas,
which made the continued existence of any institu-
tion, however free from internal embarrassment,
more or less precarious. But the First Presbyterian
Church was burdened with many thousands of
dollars of debt, with no assets that had any market-
* Duncan's "Stewardship."
' See also Dr. Magrnder's pamphlet account of Walnut Hill's
prosperity.
204 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
able value. The members, though heroic and
generous, had personal obligations and responsibili-
ties which taxed them almost beyond the limits of
endurance. These conditions made. the problem of
a bare existence as a church organization and the
maintenance of the stated services of the church a
great question. The fact is, such an existence had
not been financially sustained for some time pre-
vious, and in consequence a floating indebtedness,
rising higher and higher each year, was threat-
ening to submerge the church . . . (and)
they looked . . . upon ... a large bonded
debt of $18,000. . . . In the face of these facts
the doctrine was preached that Christ had con-
ditioned His presence and His almighty power, the
Holy Spirit, upon practical willingness, on the part
of His people, to obey the great commission. One
cold bleak January morning the pastor crossed the
threshold of the church with this conviction on his
heart, prepared with a message. . . . Where-
upon this church was not disobedient unto the heav-
enly vision, but undertook to show unto them of
China, as well as at Wichita and of our own land, that
they should repent and turn to God and do works
meet for repentance. That very day the church
took for support a missionary pastor on the foreign
field. Dr. Hunter Corbett, of Chefoo, China. And
that very year, too, the church closed its books
without a deficit in its current expenses, and with
its floating debt removed, — a condition that it had
not enjoyed for ten years previous, according to the
TITHING m CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 205
showing of the treasurer. The next year the church
more than doubled the amount contributed to
foreign missions the previous year, and added to its
pay roll a home missionary ; and that year it re-
moved its bonded debt, closing the year with money
in the treasury and all ifs financial obligations met." *
Speaking of the same class of facts, the Rev.
Frank Otis Ballard, of Indianapolis, says: "A
great District Conference near the centre of
population gave for all purposes during the year
$410,000. We do not know what her tithe would
have been. There are 52,000 members in that
Conference. Carroll D. Wright, statistician of
labor for the United States, informs us woman's
average earnings are $298 a year in this country.
That would be a ridiculously low estimate for the
earnings of the members of a great and prosperous
Church in one of the more thriving and populous
portions of the country, yet even at that absurdly
low estimate of $298 a year each they would earn
in a year $15,000,000 and the tithe of it was
$1,500,000. They brought in $410,000, leaving
them m debt to God on the operations of that year
alone in that one District Conference $1,090,000.
Now recollect that over this same territory is the
Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the
Episcopalian Church, all derelict in the same or a
corresponding measure. Is it any wonder that
Christ is not seeing of the travail of His soul ? " *
* See Bradt's " The Experience of One Church." (Pamphlefc.)
'See ** Straight Lines in Church Finauoe," F. 0. Ballard.
206 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
At Redkey, Indiana, with 2,000 inhabitants, a
band of tithers eleven strong was formed in 1901,
which grew to a membership of sixty, including
both the wealthiest and the poorest. At the last
report available to me, they, together with the rest
of the church, gave to benevolences $3,211, of which
the tithers contributed $2,700. There were there-
fore 317 people who gave $511, while sixty tithers
gave $2,700. The average for the non-tither is
$1.60 per member ; for the tithers, $45 per mem-
ber; which means that each tither gave on the
average twenty-eight times as much as the non-
tither. Of this church. Bishop Warren has said that
none other in all of its world-wide denomination has
shown a similar report.*
The Fn-st M. E. Church in Eiverside, California,
has in it seventy-four members who are tithers,
who have persuaded others to join their band until
they numbered, at last report, 172 ; and in eight
months they paid $6,260, or $36.40 each. The
others, 850 strong, paid $6.02 each. If all were
tithers, says Dr. Duncan, they could —
Support one hundred native preachers in India.
One hundred native preachers in Africa.
One hundred in Japan.
One hundred in China.
One hundred in Korea.
One hundred day-schools in China, leaving unap-
propriated a surplus of $27,060. The pastor has
informed those who have inquired that the giving
*See Duncan's "Stewardship," p. 117.
TITHING IN CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 207
of the tithe has caused 200 conversions and a great
revival.
In the last six months of 1909 fifty-two churches
in Indiana have organized tithing bands/
S. S. Hough, a minister of the United Brethren
Church, said recently in the great Laymen's Mis-
sionary Convention in Omaha (1910) :
" The trustees of one of my former churches were
greatly discouraged because of the heavy debt on
the church. They had been doing their best to
raise money through chicken and waffle suppers
and the like. When I became their pastor I had
the conviction that their financial difficulties would
be solved if the members of the church would enter
into partnership with God and give at least one-
tenth of their income to the work of the kingdom.
" I sought first to lead the trustees to adopt this
principle, then the official board considered and ap-
proved it, and later, after much prayer and thought,
I presented the matter to the public congregation
in a red-hot sermon. The church had many empty
pews that morning and it seemed that little demons
were sitting on each one defying the preacher. But
I encouraged myself in the Lord and urged the con-
gregation to prove God according to Malachi iii. 10.
A heart-searching time followed. The windows of
heaven were soon open. The empty pews began
to fill up. A revival followed when one hundred
and twenty were converted and over one hundred
united with the church. Within a year all the cur-
* See Duncan's '* Stewardship," pp. 119-121.
208 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
rent expenses were met promptly and over four
thousand dollars in cash were secured to apply on
the burdensome debt.
" The people became enthusiastic and full of hope
and joy. "Within six weeks after the church be-
came self-supporting, it definitely undertook to
support a missionary in the foreign field, and the
offerings for missions leaped from $250 to over
$800 that year. Thereafter all the current ex-
penses were met promptly and a thousand dollar
new heating plant was installed and paid for, and
$40 a month were put aside for the erection of a
parsonage.
" The first home missionary to be supported by a
local church in the Allegheny Conference was taken
up by this congregation, in addition to their regular
gifts for missions, and other benevolences. The
interest increased. New members were added on
confession of faith month by month. The mem-
bership grew from two hundred to four hundred,
and then to five hundred and six hundred, and the
church decided to establish a home mission of their
own in an adjacent needy section of the city. They
erected a church building at a cost of four thousand
dollars which was entirely free of debt before the
day of dedication." " There is that scattereth and
yet increaseth." "Bring ye the whole tithe into
the storehouse, . . . and prove me now here-
with saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you
the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing
that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
TITHING IN CONCRETE MODERN INSTANCES 209
So might we multiply Concrete Modern In-
stances ; but enough has already been adduced to
show that the adoption of the tithing plan in a
church is followed —
1. By the extinction of all debts.
2. By the creation of comfortable support for
the pastor.
3. By aggressive local missionary work, includ-
ing the building of chapels.
4. By the support of pastors in the foreign field,
the local church in the case furnishing through its
tithes all the necessary funds.
5. By the building of parsonages where the
tithing church has none.
6. By the outbreak of revival in the tithing
church.
T. By great additions to the membership of the
church and the Sunday-school.
8. By great interest aroused among outsiders,
causing them to come in much greater numbers to
the regular services of the church.
9. By the dying out of bickerings and jealousy.
10. By a spirit of rejoicing and by demonstra-
tions of the Holy Ghost with power.
Could anything more clearly prove, than do the
above particulars, that God's blessing rests upon
"The Law of the Tithe"?
xm
AISrSWERS TO OBJECTIONS TO THE TITH-
ING SYSTEM, AND SUMMARY
OF ARGUMENTS FOR IT
1. "r* I "^HE Church, if the tithing system
I were in force everywhere, would
JL have too much money." Yery well.
Would the mass of the laymen who have nine
times as much as the Church confess that they had
too much money? Or is the work of the laity
relatively more important than the work of God ?
" Too much " ? Impossible. There cannot be too
much money provided. It is true of the endowed
colleges that almost without exception the demands
upon their funds are always in excess of the amount
thereof, because new and unthought-of needs and
necessities are constantly arising, for which provi-
sion may be made, and it is not impossible for a
college to have too much money, any more than it
is possible to write a complete system of psychology,
for the system would have to include the very state
of mind in which the system was conceived and
executed. IS'o more can God have too much money,
for each fresh supply only opens scores and thou-
sands of fresh necessities, which will always march
a little in advance of the spending. There is always
210
ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 211
in the work of God a margin which only " the
whole tithe " will provide for.
2. "Tithing is bribing God." Can God be
bribed to receive what He has already promised to
accept ? If tithing bribes Him, then do all gifts
likewise ; for all of them in themselves are designed
to merit His favor. When God has set the condi-
tions, and those conditions are met, then His will can-
not be affected in the matter ; for by the terms of
His promises He has agreed in advance of the gift
to do what He does do, bless the giver ; and there
could be no making up of the divine mind, for that
was made up before, when the promise was given.
3. "Tithing ended with the Old Testament
economy." It did not end then, because it did not
commence then, but long before ; and was universal
and not restricted to one people, nor to the Land
of Promise.
4. " We are to give according to our love to God. "
Some one calls this " anarchy, pure and simple."
Should there be no love, there would be no giving.
This argument logically would release all from ob-
serving the Sabbath, provided they did not love
God. Obedience to Him does not rest on senti-
ment, but is demanded by the law itself, without
reference to the existence or to the non-existence of
love. There are no gradations in moral obligation.
One man is not twice as much bound not to steal as
another; nor is any one half bound by the law
against murder.
5. Dr. John Owen's argument: "Abraham
212 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
gave tithes for all posterity." Then why did tithes
continue after the days of Abraham ? And why
did Hezekiah and JSTehemiah labor so earnestly to
preserve an obligation that had passed? Why
then did Ctrist commend the Pharisees for giving
tithes, if there was still no obligation to pay them ?
Owen's argument nullifies the whole Mosaic code
so far as it relates to tithes, and makes it improper
and unreasonable that Moses should have called upon
Israel to tithe at all.
6. All arguments against the tithe may be
aimed with equal force against the Sabbath.
7. " Tithing is not adapted to a complex age."
This means that some would have us believe that it
is impossible, in the complexities of modern busi-
ness, for a man to find out how much he is really
worth, or what his income really is. If this is true,
then the successful taxation of a man of affairs is
impossible, and the law requiring it is both un-
reasonable and unjust ; but reverse the terms : sup-
pose a man were expecting from God a ten per
cent, return on what the man in question is worth.
Would that man or any man be long in doubt as to
the valuation on which the ten per cent, would be
paid ? Complexity is no barrier to estimates where
one's personal interest is concerned.
8. " Tithing is oppressive to the poor." Why
so ? He who has but little has only one-tenth of
it to give to God ; and his giving is exactly in pro-
portion to his income. If the household, in any
given week, has but one dollar, I hold that the
ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 213
ninety cents, after that dollar is tithed, will be better
administered and will go farther than the 100
cents untithed would have gone ; with this in
addition, that God will bless the ninety cents;
otherwise, we have no warrant for supposing that
He will bless the dollar unshared by Him. " When
God and man get together with the same ten cent
piece, they are not and cannot be very far apart ; "
but, united in interest, all the forces of the universe,
winds, tides, sunshine, evaporation, warmth, cold,
electricity, water, rain, everything, are pledged of
God to help and to bless the ninety cents. Better
the ninety cents with God and the universe linked
fast to it by divine promise, than 1 00 cents, and no
God and no universe behind the transaction.
9. " Tithing was not commanded by Christ and
the apostles." IN'o ; for the very good reason that
the system was so firmly established already that it
needed no further enacting, and did not need it for
three hundred years.
SUMMATION OF AEGUMENTS
1. Chemistry demands, in masses of elements, a
base. Tithing was incorporated into the Mosaic sys-
tem as a base. It is in fact pivotal, and the whole
plan of Judaism revolves around it. God in touch
with His people through a ministry made a scheme
of financing this body of His servants necessary.
To deny the validity of the tithe is to destroy the
basis of all churchly life in all the ages. The
Church of Judea could not and would not exist
214 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
without the solid basis of sound, divinely contrived
finance. 'No more can the Church of to-day exist
without it. Successful getting of money in any
other way than that of proportionate giving is im-
possible. We must demand a return from the sacri-
lege of Henry YIII to the devout attitude of Chris-
tendom before Henry's time; for Protestantism
must not longer be guilty of the hideous sacrilege
which his guilty action, more than that of any
other monarch of his times, helped to precipitate.
The great break, the abyss between the ancient
generosity of the people of God, and their modern
drouth of covetousness, dates from Henry YIII
and his times; and the fierce discussion of tithes
which arose with Grotius and Selden was con-
tinued in 1698 by Henry Spellman in his " History
of Sacrilege,*" ' was continued by J. H. Hottlinger
in " De Decimis Judseorum," 1723, by Spencer in
" De Legibus HebraBorum," 1727, and by Joseph
Scaliger in " Diat. de Decimis, app. ad Deut. xxvi.,"
about the same date, and by others in continuous
sequence until now.
2. Being universal, the tithing system did not
end with the Mosaic economy. It was a system
promulgated to the rax3e ages before Moses gave
Leviticus and Deuteronomy to Judaism and to the
consciences of men throughout the world ; for it
was observed, as we have seen in Chapter I,
throughout all the ancient inhabited earth, in one
instance, as shown before, being observed in the
* Duncan's *' Stewardship," p. 69.
ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 216
reign of Sargon I, 3,800 years before Christ, and
2,300 years before Moses lifted his pen, or drew
from divine inspiration a single breath. There-
fore, since tithing as a system existed before
Moses, it could not be affected by the death of his
economy. The greater may include the less, but
the less may be destroyed sometimes without
affecting the greater. The burning of Chicago did
not destroy the inhabitants of that city, nor affect
the homes or the domestic life of the people in
Illinois outside of that city. The farming system
of the state flourished on with the heart of Chicago
in ruins ; so the tithing system continued to flourish
after Hebrew national unity, the temple, and the
Mosaic economy were destroyed ; and the life of
the tithing system is unbroken from the beginning
of time until now ; for never in the world has
there been a time when, in the course of the ages,
devout and thankful souls somewhere have not
offered tithes to God. The history of tithing is
coetaneous with the history of the human race.
3. Sacrifice of the rites of Hebrew ceremonial-
ism does not imply the end of moral obligation,
which commenced with the promulgation of the
tithing law to the primitive peoples of the earth.
Hebrew rites and ceremonies were an after growth,
superadded to what had been in vogue in the
family of Adam, and carried everywhere by the
Dispersion at Babel. These rites and ceremonies
grew up, flourished, died, just as any child lives
and disappears during the life of a grown man.
216 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
His own existence may be prolonged a generation
or two after the child has departed. Moral obli-
gation, " oughtness," is the grown man that still
lives : Hebrew ritual is the infant departed.
4. ITot being abrogated with the death of the
Judaic ritual, and being universal in its application
to the tender side of the human conscience, The
Law of the Tithe is still in force under the New
Testament Dispensation which is still with us.
6. Paul was satisfied in making an appeal to
the law, and to recognize its binding force, for he
says, justifying his plea for the ministry by his
appeal, " Saith not the law the same also ? " Of
what avail to appeal to the law, if that law be
dead? The law to which he appealed was The
Law of the Tithe.
6. The teaching of the Gospel is that the
covetous, sinful as they are, cannot enter into the
fellowship of the just here below, nor will they be
able to enter the fellowship of the Church trium-
phant in glory. "What is better adapted to destroy
covetousness and to prepare one for earthly and
for heavenly fellowship than is the tithing law ?
Like a glittering axe, with edge that cannot be
dulled, and driven by the hand of a strong axe-
man, is the tithing law, when it is accepted as
binding in its claim upon the heart, with that heart
full of love to God, and when the conscience by
that love is made alive to its obligations to its
fellow men and to its Maker.
7. Communism, which is a sort of reckless giv-
ANSWEKS TO OBJECTIONS 217
ing up of all, was never a success in Jerusalem or
anywhere else. Instance the Brook Farm experi-
ment, the Oneida Community in E'ew York, the
Labor Exchange in operation in Cincinnati, Ohio, in
the 'TO's, all of them the vagaries of zeal without
knowledge. The safer plan is to give up the tenth
and retain in unselfishness the nine-tenths.
8. If Paul is wrong, and Christ is not now re-
ceiver of tithes in heaven, then the great doctrinal
teachings of the Apostle to the Gentiles is of none
effect ; and further :
(1) Paul's declaration, and consequently his life,
is a lie.
(2) Christ is less than Melchizedek.
9. John Calvin's argument, I believe, has never
been successfully answered, viz. : " A priesthood
has a perpetual right to the tithe." Admit the
soundness of Calvin's position, then the ministry of
to-day is entitled to the tithes, and Christ has a
perpetual claim upon them, which no lapse of time,
jio logic, no covetousness, can successfully deny, or
successfully withhold.
10. " In Jacob's time, when there was no priest-
hood to support, and when each head of a house-
hold was obliged to perform the functions of a
priest, tithing was nevertheless obligatory." Argu-
ment of Eev. Henry Constable.
11. " Let every one of you lay by him in store
as God hath prospered him " ^ is an apostolic in-
junction, not a suggestion. Hence it argues ;
* 1 Cor. xvi. 2.
218 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
(1) Systematic giving, with the tithe as a mini-
mum.
(2) Proportionate giving, which is the essence of
Moses' law.
12. If the tithe is not now in force, then the
kingdom of heaven is without any recognized or
provided financial foundation. God has spoken,
not twice, but once^ but if this be true, which some
say, that the system of tithing is done away, then
His voice, when He spoke tithing into being, was
only intended to echo for a little while, to die away
in the caverns of forgetful and forgetting oblivion.
" My word shall . . . accomplish that which I
please," * saith God. " There hath not failed one
word of all His good promise." ^
13. "If it is lawful to spend more than nine-
tenths on one's self, then a Christian has a. right to
be more selfish than a Jew, and Christianity has
lowered a virtue." Argument of F. O. Ballard,
Presbyterian divine.
14. Justice and obligation demand the tithe.
The Bible is one system, not two. There is a triune
God, and the Bible is an expression from out the
triune nature, but " God is One." God's Word is
one. The later prophets are the very ones who
demand in the strongest language, and with the
fiercest imprecations, the observance of The Law
of the Tithe. This could not be, if the law
carried with it a lessening and dying obligation.
The " oughtness " of the tithe is just as great at
» laa. Iv. 11. » 1 Kings viii. 56.
ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 219
the last, when the Old Testament canon is being
closed, as it is at the first, when the lamp of divine
revelation had but just commenced to bum.
" The tithe was to set the cross in the rrw/rket-
jplace. , . . The tithe would yield $78fi00fi00
ommAially for the swpport of the Oosj^elP
XIY
HOW TO ORGANIZE A TITHING CHURCH
PREACHING is preparatory to the practice
of the tithe, just as it is apt to be to the
practice of any other divine principle. The
minister who is himself a tither, and whose mind
is saturated with all that the Bible has to say upon
this subject, and who can throw upon its pages all
the illumination of wide reading and a knowledge
of the original Biblical tongues, and who preaches
in demonstration of the Spirit and of power * can
have or need have no fear that his hearers will be
false to the principle of the tithe. Especially
should the minister be careful to set forth proof
texts by thorough and well-wrought-out expository
preaching. The Bible itself becomes its own best
commentary on this subject, as it does on a host of
other subjects not related to tithing. The Scrip-
tures, left to themselves, will often accomplish work
that preaching will fail to do, through the making
alive of the Word by the Spirit. Those who hear
the strong deliverances of the law and the proph-
ets in regard to the tithe, and then realize in addi-
tion that the tithe existed before, and has continued
after, the giving of the Mosaic economy, with no
diminution or abatement of moral obligation to
» 1 Cor. ii. 4.
220
HOW TO ORGANIZE A TITHING CHURCH 221
pay tithes after that economy perished, will soon
produce in his hearer convictions that it will be
impossible to down; convictions that will either
make him become a tithe payer, or leave him con-
scious that somehow he is not in the divine order ;
a state of soul which always occasions backsliding
and unhappiness.
Again: Conviction along this line is secured
sometimes just as conviction comes for salvation —
through prayer ; and indeed, an awakening on the
subject of fidelity with one's tithe is a kind of
salvation, in fact it is salvation from the sin of rob-
bing God. Earnest prayer on the part of the
tithing pastor and such of his people as are tithers,
is sure to lead to action on the part of others —
action that lines up the life alongside the promises
of God, and encourages it to march up on those
promises as a platform for new activity and com-
plete trust in God ; and which leads the believer so
doing to expect that each act of obedience in giv-
ing will open for him the windows of heaven/
Then again, we are hearing rumors nowadays of
the springing up of a new type of gospel preacher
and teacher, namely, The Tithing Evangelist. He
is in a class all by himself ; he is unique on account
of his absolute newness in modern church life. His
name is not yet " Legion," but perhaps it soon will
be. This type of preacher has studied the promises,
tested them for himself by actual tithe-giving, hats
saturated himself with all that the Word has to say
»Mal. iii.lO.
222 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
upon the subject of sharing with God one's gains,
knows that niggardliness is not contemplated in the
divine scheme and, by the contagion of his own
enthusiasm, makes popular and acceptable his
teaching, with the result that he leaves in his wake,
everywhere he goes, tithing bands, and even whole
churches of tithers. Many of the pastors who have
become imbued with the tithing idea have evan-
gelized their own churches and a tithing band and
tithing practice have sprung up as if by magic.
All this labor is preparatory to the organization of
The Tithing Church, and the work must consist at
first of deep seed sowing, if the best and most far-
reaching results are to be secured. Special revivals,
in which nothing is presented but the various Bible
phases of giving, may be found very profitable as
preparatory to the ultimate design of a final tithing
organization.
Another agency which must be worked with
vigor when it is contemplated to lead the church
into tithing activity is the distribution of tithing
literature. To assist in the getting of such infor-
mation, the reader will find prefixed to this work
a full bibliography, consistiug of lists of books,
pamphlets, periodicals and leaflets, a list which has
been carefully sifted, only the valuable items re-
tained, and the publisher, in each instance, given.
The tracts that are sent out by the Winona Publish-
ing Company, by Mr. Thomas Kane, by Eev. Henry
Lansdell of England, by the publishing houses of
the various religious denominations, will be found
HOW TO ORGANIZE A TITHING CHURCH 223
ample for ordinary purposes; and the present
volume is intended to demonstrate the fact that a
work on tithing can be made profitable to the gen-
eral reader, to the scholar, and as a literary work
to be perused with interest, just as one reads any
other literary work. Tracts that are condensed so
as to give the very cream of the whole discussion
can be bought and sown knee-deep in every con-
gregation whose pastor feels anxious for an awaken-
ing along these lines ; and the reaction will come in
a tidal wave of popular and earnest conviction.
These documents ought to be distributed, not all at
once, but only as fast as the people can read, dis-
cuss and digest them, say at intervals of one or two
months, or even "once a quarter." Four or five
distributions of this kind should be followed by
fresh calls to the altar, of people who may be con-
science stricken, or who may desire to pay into the
treasury what the government of the United States
caDs "Conscience Money." One pastor of my
acquaintance took this plan, and one brother, whose
conscience was troubled with the memory of many
robberies committed upon the "Lord's Pocket-
book," made a restitution gift of one thousand dol-
lars ; and then told of it in the next annual gather-
ing of his fellow pastors, exciting their wondering
comment, and their loud " amens," as the narrative
proceeded. " Go thou and do likewise ; " for it was
an apposite story that is told by Dr. J. W, Mahood
of a motor car conductor sitting beside a man at
church service, a man who refused to put anything
224: THE LAW OF THE TITHE
in the collection basket, which provoked the indus-
trious harvester of nickels to reach up and pull an
imaginary bell cord, unconsciously wishing to put
the sponger " off the car."
The literary campaign which I have just been
describing cannot fail to result in something else,
namely,
THE ORGANIZATION OF TITHING BANDS
These need not be new organizations, but may
simply be Sunday-school classes that have taken
up and digested the matter of tithing and have
caught the tithing spirit and religiously devoted
their all to the service and glory of Almighty
God. Again, they may be classes of people who
have been formed for religious instruction, with the
gospel of giving as the climax of their spiritual
education; again, it may be the so-called "class
meeting " or " class," as it is denominated in some
quarters, that becomes a tithing band ; or, lastly, it
may be a band organized outright for the specific
purpose of making tithing popular and of securing
speakers and the distribution of literature, of
evangelistic services and Bible reading, altar serv-
ices and such like, to spread the glory of the king-
dom of God.
To secure the organization of such a band, there
should be a member-to-member canvass, with the
understanding that no one is to be a " conscience
for the others," but that all are to be left free to
follow their convictions, and the dictates of their
HOW TO ORGANIZE A TITHING CHURCH 225
own reason. This will secure harmony and will
provoke no antagonisms. Let it be understood in
the canvass that all who will consent to bring in
their undivided tithes to the treasury of the church
will not be assessed, or asked to name any definite
amount they will give to God, farther than the
simple tithe ; and, further, let it be understood
that this undivided tithe will be administered by
the ofiicers of the church in accordance with sound
ideas and rules of business, the Word of God, and
the dictates of sanctified common sense. The people
will then have but one concern, — to bring in the
full tithe every week, giving themselves no further
thought in the matter, except to elect those to
office whom they can trust for a fair and impartial
distribution of the fund to current expenses, and
to all benevolent objects which the official board,
after a full canvass of the subject, has agreed that
it will be wise to support. In general, this will
have to suffice for the year to which such action
applies, for to include anything else in the scheme
of benevolence wiU be to rob the agencies which
the church, at the opening of its fiscal year,
agreed to support.
As soon as the tithing scheme is fully installed,
let nothing be said further, except as may be
necessary in demonstrating the success of the
matter from the standpoint and in the light of the
Word of God. Lead all to see that now, as never
before, they have a right to put God and His Word
to the test ; that they have a right to expect as a
THE LAW OF THE TITHE
consequence the " opening of the windows of
heaven" in rich blessing, inspiration, new ideals,
victory in the soul, joy of the Lord unspeakable,
harmony among members, sudden and overwhelm-
ing access of interest among those outside the
Church, — all this follows as the day follows the
night. The result has come to popular knowledge
in the experience of such churches as Walnut Hill
(Methodist), Cincinnati ; the First Presbyterian
Church of Wichita, Kansas ; the congregation
served by that eminent preacher of tithing, F. O.
Ballard, Indianapolis (Presbyterian) ; the church of
which S. S. Hough is pastor (United Brethren) ; for
information regarding which the reader is referred
to Chapter XII, which deals with " Concrete Modern
Instances."
As soon as demonstration comes of divine bless-
ing on the tithing law when observed, there will
result revivals of religion which will bring con-
stant growth in the number of those who are
tithers ; and it is not too much to hope in any given
instance that the using of the plans outlined above
will result, in two or three years, in the whole body
of the Church becoming one great tithing band,
whose inspiration, hope, courage, aggressiveness,
evangelism, and spirituality will be a joy to the
Saviour, and to all the angels of God.
XV
A VISION OP THE CHURCH TO BE
HE who cultivates the "Vision" contem-
plated under this caption will be obliged
to look away from the fact that one-half
of Christendom makes no offering to foreign mis-
sions. While we cannot bring within the range of
our sight the beatific vision of John in the Isle of
Patmos, still there are omens of hope in the sky
which proclaim the rising dawn of a better day ;
and one of the facts that is ominous is that the
English language is crossing all continents, all
seas and the isles in them with such a tremendous
stride that sixty-eight per cent, of the news of the
world is told in that language, thirty-two per cent,
is narrated by all other languages, while eighty-five
per cent, of all the world's religious and missionary
work is carried on in English, with every indication
that the per centages in English will go higher
and higher yet, until it shall make still heavier
encroachment upon the other tongues of the world.
Diocletian struck his coin, inscribed "This was
coined by Diocletian who destroyed Christianity " ;
yet the false belief which this inscription declared
is nullified by the fact that to-day one-third of the
world's population is Christian, and that since the
227
THE LAW OF THE TITHE
formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society
and of the American Bible Society, the joint output
of Bibles has been something like 500,000,000
copies, and 20,000,000 of these have been dis-
tributed in China within the period since our own
Civil War, and up to 190T ; and the distribution
since that time amounts to millions more.
This day is the day of opportunity for the man
of wealth, as it is also the day of opportunity of
the man of moderate means. As to the former,
the man who has held the sceptre of the United
States Steel Corporation, the man of whom it has
been said that the power which was his as the head
of this great concern outmatched the power of
most modern kings, this man has had this to say,
and it is worth quoting for the lesson it conveys :
'* This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of
wealth : to set an example of modest, unostenta-
tious living, shunning display or extravagance ; to
provide moderately for the legitimate wants of
those dependent upon him ; and, after doing so, to
consider all surplus revenues which come to him
simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to
administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty
to administer, in the manner which, in his judg-
ment, is best calculated to produce the most benefi-
cial results for the community — the man of wealth
thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his
poorer brethren, bringing to their service his supe-
rior wisdom, experience and ability to administer,
doing for them better than they would or could do
A VISION OF THE CHURCH TO BE 229
for themselves." This homily on giving is from
the pen of one of the greatest magnates of wealth
in the whole world. It is probable that, in all the
annals of modern days, we have never before wit-
nessed, as we are doing now, the stirring of the
hearts of men of wealth with a deep desire to
benefit and to bless humanity. Until recent times,
it has never been the idea of men in the mass that
wealth is to be used for any purpose but to bless
one's self and one's own ; but it is swiftly becoming
true that men in the mass, including the mass of
the men of wealth, are coming to see that after a
certain point reached in acquisition, family claims
cease to be paramount, and the claims of humanity
at large then loom up, great and overshadowing.
In fact, the income tax has been proposed, and the
inheritance tax is an extension of the idea, making it
clear that the underl3dng principle of discussion is
that a man owes a duty of acquisition to the state ;
and after a certain height to which his riches have
been piled, all above belongs to the state abso-
lutely; so that each man of wealth is money
maker, not to his family alone, but to the common
weal.
With this new conception of things in the minds
of the masses, the Church has entered into the
twentieth century ; and the leaven of a large and
nobler gospel of wealth is extending through the
whole mass of the meal of human social sentiment,
" until the whole shall be leavened " ; and the day
of that leavening, methinks, is not so far off after
230 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
all. If it should be asked why Providence allows
the billionaire who becomes benevolent, let me say
that I think it is because God took the mass of the
world's money out of the hands of the mass who
were not benevolent to any pronounced degree,
and put it into the hands of the billionaire, await-
ing the time when benevolence should strike the
minds and hearts of the masses, in obedience to the
demands of The Law of the Tithe. The Church
has neglected real giving, so God has raised up
men of princely financial genius, with possessions
that would make Croesus look like a beggar, to
stand for the mass, and to give for the mass, until
the mass awakes to its obligations, and gives for
itself. The mighty millions of Eockefeller, in the
opinion of their founder, have yielded their reve-
nues for family interest, and now must pay their
full tribute of toll to the world-family. Mr. Car-
negie's " Gospel of Wealth " will some day be the
mind-controlling and heart-controlling gospel of
Croesuses everywhere.
That such is to be the case is evidenced, not only
by the more liberal secular view, but it is guar-
anteed and foreshadowed by the fact that through
all Christendom just now is a rising wave of senti-
ment, looking to the restoration, into its full force,
of The Law of the Tithe ; and this restoration will
not be bolstered and iron-bound by legal exactions,
as though humanity is to be scourged into alle-
giance and compliance and partnership with God,
but it is an agitation which will result in sponta-
A VISION OF THE CHURCH TO BE 231
neous and joyful acceptance of a principle, and a
still more joyful compliance with it. Where
democracy exists, the path is open for such a
liberal and enlightened obedience to the laws of
God ; but where monarchy is in control, the mere
desire to protect its own revenues will lead in-
evitably to encroachments upon the rights, privi-
leges and prerogative of the Church. This has
been the history of the case everywhere and in all
ages. It was a profound truth which Jehovah ex-
pressed to Samuel, after Israel clamored for a king,
when He said, " They have not rejected thee, but
they have rejected Me." The injection of mon-
archy into the political scheme always means the
lessening of the revenues, which are let flow into
the Church for the enlargement of the kingdom of
heaven ; and when a man turns monarch of him-
self, and refuses to recognize the exalted kingship
of Christ, and the lofty nature of that kingdom of
which it is meant that individual man should be a
part, there is decay of that interest which other-
wise might be led by its beneficence to bless
millions by giving millions.
Several considerations now appear, as we find
our thought led up to that master idea, " A Vision
of the Church to Be," one of which is that, as said
in a former paragraph, one-half of Christendom
now makes no offering for missions ; no offering for
the spread of righteousness in the earth. The part
of Christendom, which is guilty of this negligence
towards this scheme in God's program for saving
THE LAW OF THE TITHE
the world, is self-centred, and is like some unhappy
lighthouse, the beams of whose lamp are all turned
inward, to chase each other around the interior of a
light-filled, light-saturated dome, without being
allowed to escape to make safe the landing of the
ships in the harbor yonder, and failing to light up
the rocks and shoals on which many a hapless sailor
has already been dashed to his own death. Such a
spirit in Christendom is an anachronism ; and fails
of the enlightenment of the Gospel ; it argues a Chris-
tianity that either has lost its savor, or else has
never been salted ; and as an anachronism it must be
done away by turning forward the hands of the
clock of time that are moved by the beating pendu-
lum of human progress that responded to the main-
spring of the Holy Ghost. Let the pendulum swing
in a civilization nominally Christian, but unsalted of
true righteousness, and it can never move to the
uttermost limit of the arc. Its movements in conse-
quence will be irregular and uncertain, and its
powers will always be circumscribed by the limits
of human selfishness.
Yet there is no room here for any spirit of
pessimism. There is no place where one can sit
down with Schopenhauer and indulge in a philoso-
phy of pessimism, and devote a large share of one's
thinking and a good part of one's writings to it as
Schopenhauer has done. No, no. The Sun of
Kighteousness, which rose nineteen centuries ago
upon a broken spirited and benighted world, brought
such blessed healing in His wings that it will
A VISION OF THE CHURCH TO BE 233
never, never depart ; and the work of curing the
crooked and deformed opinions and impulses of a
sin-cursed humanity will go steadily onward, spite
of the raging demons in a hell defeated, spite of
all the erring of which man has been guilty, and to
which, without the Gospel, he would have been
forever prone. Grant this view of the case, and by
a logic that is irresistible several conclusions are
bound to follow, as we contemplate our " Yision of
the Church to Be."
The key of the world's treasuries is going
presently to be turned in the lock towards the
side which opens the lock, and the date is not far
distant when this shall be. Some one has said that
** the time locks of God are set for the twentieth
century." John K. Mott has pointed out, and
proved by irresistible logic, that the " evangelization
of the world is possible in this generation." The
only thing that hinders is the slowness of the
cooperation of man with God in turning the key in
the lock of the treasury. Once the obligation that
one-tenth as a minimum is owed to God gets hold
of the human heart, the gold of human beneiicence
will pile up in the Church's treasure-houses, if the
Church's impulse to use it for the kingdom of
heaven will let it lie there an hour. When that
day comes the gold in the vaults of the Church will
rival the gold which ISiature still has in her lap and
concealed in her bosom. The gold below ground
will then be rivalled in preciousness and in abun-
dance by the gold in the treasuries of beneficence
234 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
throughout the globe. God never impels to nig-
gardly giving but inspires the giver, if Divinity
prevails, to turn the cornucopia downward, and let
its treasures run out bountifully and munificently ;
and then repeats the miracle of Elijah's barrel of
meal and his cruse of oil, and keeps filling the
cornucopia faster than its contents can exhaust
themselves ; always that God has other " horns of
plenty," for those who honor Him, in greater
number than any single generation of men will be
able to discover ; and that the way to discover them
is to keep giving out of the horn one has in his hand,
paying God His dividends ; and then, by a stroke
of His divine beneficence. He will bless, and will
charge with unheard-of potentialities the nine-tenths
that are left.
Such giving as this, actuated by such a spirit as
this, will send more men into the field, and will turn
in also all the necessary means to support them.
Some one has said that Midas and Croesus, if they
were alive to-day, and should be compared to some
men of wealth of our own generation, would
scarcely be able to keep out of the poorhouse. So
far as heaven is concerned, multitudes of Christians
have been in the poorhouse with a bankruptcy
without remedy because their covetousness was wil-
fully incurable. As says Bishop Bashford : " There
are millionaires who through eternity will be poorer
than the children of the almshouses." The cure for
self-indulgence and extravagance and poverty on the
one side, and for spiritual poverty on the other
A VISION OF THE CHURCH TO BE 235
side, is proportionate giving. "Nine-tenths plus
God are more than ten-tenths without Him."
In this " Vision of the Church to Be," another
thought comes, which to my mind has in it the
elements of a truth that is great and overwhelming
in its importance, namely, that one of the causes of
national sorrow in America, the heart-breaking
panics that sweep over the country periodically,
will receive a powerful check, if the tithing system
should come into vogue in the Church throughout
the republic. This check may some time assume
the importance of an absolute preventative. The
great cause for Black Death in the Orient is filth
unremoved, and lack of sanitation and the great
cause of American panics is a failure to provide the
proper moral sanitation against unreasonable
speculation and wild extravagance. " The margin
is the key to fortunes," says Bishop Bashford.
Hence, the margin is not to be frittered away by
yielding to the temptation to live beyond one's
means. Nothing can be devised that operates more
powerfully to protect this margin than the giving of
the tithe. He who is careful of his tenth will be
careful of his nine-tenths ; hence, I say, that if the
tithing system is restored to Protestant America, it
will become a powerful antidote against the spirit
of extravagance, and a tremendous check to disas-
trous panics, if it does not become for them an ab-
solute preventative. Inflated values and high rates
of loans always follow in the wake of overanxious
speculation and overindulgent living. Therefore,
236 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
should millions of our church population become
tithers, the finances of the nation will be conserved,
and the Church grow better and better entrenched
with the millions that she needs. She will become
more and more the partaker of stability, and hence
of the loftiest principles of churchly honor ; she will
never discount her bills, and in consequence be dis-
counted. The world in fact will realize as it has
never yet done that the Church is the soul of un-
blemished credit and of virtuous honor the coTnjplete
emhodiment and personification.
Another result of this rising strength in financial
resource, of this multiplying of material aids in
spiritual progress, will be that the Church's minis-
try will be maintained, not in afiiuence, which is
unnecessary, but in the affluence of comfort, and the
double affluence of freedom from worry and from
care. The psychological shock and interruption of
unnecessary but none the less grinding poverty has
interfered with the intellectual progress of the
world, how much only God knows and can reveal.
The Church has always led in the march of inven-
tion, of scientific discovery, fond as skeptical
writers are of alleging the contrary ; she has always
pioneered the way through the mazes of the forest
of intellectual darkness to the light that has always
been shining beyond ; but let it be remembered
that through all the ages since she started on this
glorious march towards the Millennium, her serv-
ants have been hampered in their researches,
checked and bewildered in their thinking, by the
A VISION OF THE CHURCH TO BE 237
lack of money which has made books to many men
an impossibility, and a library an impossibility ;
and if perchance he has gathered about him a few
books, the failure to support him as he should be
supported has sent him into premature mental dry-
ness for lack of the stimulating thought which
books would afford him in feeding the powers of
the mind, and rejuvenating its processes. Hence
has arisen the wide prevalence of the idea that
" man passes the dead line at forty-five or fifty."
It is a miserable financial system or rather the lack
of any system in the Church that is at fault. It is
the niggardly support the Church has given to her
ministry which has brought to light and imposed
" the dead line," and a comfortable and easy sup-
port, easily brought about by the tithing system,
will enable any minister to add a hundred dollars'
worth of books each year to his library, and add
twenty years to the time for the imposition upon
his life of the dead line, and remove the thought
that perhaps the large and growing library,
handled by the man of large and growing intellec-
tual powers, will need to be moved very often.
Again, my " Vision " reveals to me a Church so
well financed that she never halts by the wayside
waiting for reenforcements as she does now. Her
means in the day of the reestablished tithe will be
so abundant that she will never halt in her vic-
torious march, but like part of an army moving to
its assigned station at review, each department of
the great Church will swing into the battle line,
238 THE LAW OF THE TITHE
and without a single halt will move into each new
field of conquest. There will then be no plaintive
calls for money and for men, for both will be on
the march in such overwhelming force that they
will be available for all the rapid and successful
gospel manoeuvre. The Captain of our salvation
for the first time in history will have at ready
command all the cohorts He needs.
In that glorious day of the realization of proph-
ecy, " the morning drum-beat of the Church will
encircle the earth with one continuous and un-
broken strain of the martial airs " of King Jesus.
Each tap of the resounding drum shall summons
new hosts of His conquering clans.
Thus far the tithe. But now I will announce
the greatest discovery I have made in the in-
vestigation of this subject, that the tithe itself is
only a part of the Hebrew, and hence divine,
system of giving. All tithes were obligatory, as
well as the sin-offering ; but aside from these two
great offerings, the others in the main were of
free will. In other words, a Hebrew did not con-
sider that he had given at all until he had got
beyond his tithe in what was offered. He paid
his tithes, the rest he gave ; and, therefore, when
we have disposed of the Law of the Tithe, we
have traversed only half the field. The realm of
the Free "Will Offering is a vast one, and cannot
be entered now. We are like Sir Isaac Newton,
who on his dying bed, looking back over a life
A VISION OF THE CHURCH TO BE 230
whose whole extent sparkled with his achievements
like stars in a clear sky, said as he gazed, " I seem
to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore,
amusing myself with a smoother pebble or a
prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean
of truth lay undiscovered before me."
A great ocean of theocratic direction and practice
lies in the land of the Free Will Oifering and
the Principality of the Tithe is not in it. Each
of these is a hallowed, heavenly country. Trav-
eller, when you have exhausted the beauties and
the joys of the one, explore the other ; for they
are both provinces in the kingdom of heaven.
The Church is exploring them. Pluck garlands
of victory in anticipation ; garlands of hope and
faith and praise and prayer ; and throw palm
branches before the triumphal progress of my King
who rode on a mule into Jerusalem, but now
comes in the conquering chariot of the King of
Peace. Hark. Listen. You can hear the thunder
of the rushing wheels. God of heaven, speed the
day of the victorious Law of the Tithe.
Appendix
Note A on Chapter lY
IN the list of fruits given in ttds chapter, as be-
longing to the larder of a minister of God,
B. 0. 1500, as, " apples, pears, peaches," etc., it
is not meant that these words are to be understood
too literally ; but that I have translated oriental
into occidental concepts, so that the essence of the
matter might be brought more vividly home to the
mind of the reader.
Wote B on Chwpter V
It is plain to any one reading it that the chapter
entitled, " Voices of the Hebrew Fathers (Prophets
and Talmudists)," is incomplete. The spirit of the
Talmud in regard to the matter of benevolence is
shown, but the specific interpretations of the Rab-
bins in regard to the tithe are for the most part
omitted. The author had the vexatious experience
of not being able to secure either a German or a
Latin translation of " Zerayim," the part of the
Talmud which deals specifically with " Tithes," nor
was there accessible a copy of " Zerayim " in the
original Hebrew. However, he has secured access
to a partial translation from the Latin by Henry
Lansdell ; and the substance thereof appears below.
241
242 APPENDIX
Tradition says that Moses received on Sinai oral
explanations of the law, transmitted by him through
Joshua and the seventy elders to later generations.
In the days of the Maccabees, these and other oral
precepts commenced to be gathered and about the
opening of the second century, A. D., some four
thousand decisions, precepts and interpretations
were codified into Mishna and Gemara. Mishna
contains " Zerayim " (Seeds). Surenhusius trans-
lated the Mishna into Latin, Schwab into French,
Goldschmidt and Sammter into German. The gen-
eral rule of the Talmud is, That whatever serves
for food, is worth keeping, and grows out of the
ground, is subject to tithe, as weU as what is eat-
able before and at maturity.*
WJien Products Are cmd Are Not Tithable
Figs, when they commence to ripen, are tithable ;
grapes, when transparent ; mulberries, when turn-
ing red ; and the same holds of black fruit, in re-
gard to changing color. Gourds and cucumbers,
when the down, or bloom, has gone off, or when
these products are collected in heaps. Vegetables
in bundles must be tithed when packed and cov-
ered. Dried pomegranates, when heaped up ; also,
raisins ; onions, when they peel ; corn, when gath-
ered ; wine, when the froth of fermentation has
risen. Untithed figs offered in market may be
eaten there untithed, but brought home, must be
tithed. Hawkers on the road may eat of their figs,
but on arriving at the towns or at Jerusalem, must
APPENDIX 243
tithe them, when they spend the night at the town
of sale. Five figs boughten must be tithed ; but if
the consumer is allowed to select ten figs, he may
eat them, one by one, untithed. Workmen in the
field may eat without tithing, if the law allows
eating. Figs in the owner's yard are untithed if
eaten while drying, unless given as wages, in which
case the receiver must tithe them. Olives may be
eaten singly in the grove, but must be tithed if in
quantity ; green leaves of onions, If in bundle, must
be tithed by the workmen in the fields who get
them for wages. Products on watch-towers, sheds,
and summer houses are exempted. If one gather
figs one by one in the courtyard, they are untithed ;
but if in quantity, tithed. Courtyard trees leaning
towards the garden, do not tithe ; garden trees
leaning towards the courtyard, tithe. Towns on
the borders of Palestine have their trees tithed or
untithed, according to the leaning of the trunk.
(In the cities of refuge, or in Jerusalem, this de-
pended on the leanings of the branches.) One pre-
serving, cooking, or salting fruits must tithe them ;
but if underground, they are untithable. Olives
from a basket, one by one, if to be salted, are un-
tithable, but ready salted, are tithable. Buds or
sprays of fennel, mustard, white beans, are tithable.
Turnips and radishes pulled to transplant in the
same field, or to gather seed therefrom, are tithable.
Products for the market may not be sold to one
suspected of not paying tithe, nor to one suspected
of not keeping the Sabbatic year, l^or could straw,
244 APPENDIX
with grains of com in it, nor dregs of oil, nor grape-
skins for extracting juice therefrom, be sold to such
suspects. Holes of ants containing tithable prod-
ucts must tithe their stolen store. Garlic that
makes the eyes water, the onion of Eikhta, peas of
Cilicia, lentils of Egypt, seeds of the slender leek,
of watercress, of onions, of beets, and of radishes
— seeds that are not eaten as such, are not to be
tithed. The above note refers simply to the First
Tithe.
Directions as to tJie Second Tithe
This tithe consists of the yearly increase of the
land, to be eaten, as are also the firstlings of the
herds and flocks, at the metropolis ; or if too far
off to be taken thither, convertible into money.
The Second Tithe could not be sold, but out of it
reciprocal presents might be exchanged. It was
not permissible to sell the tithe of living cattle, nor
to betroth a wife with the price thereof, nor to
change it for defaced or obsolete money, nor for
money not yet in possession. Nor could the price
of the second tithe be used to buy slaves, servants,
lands, or unclean animals. Everything taken from
the tithe in any way, shape or form, had to be re-
stored by the worshipper on reaching Jerusalem.
Most Kabbins held that food, drink, and anointing
expense, while at Jerusalem, might be taken by
the devout, from the second tithe. If one dropped
his tithe with other coins, the tithe was first to be
restored. Small coins of the second tithe, if changed
APPENDIX 245
in part, should all be converted into shekels. If at
Jerusalem, shekels changed into small money should
be into copper. Fruits offered to neighbors to
take to Jerusalem should always be understood as
furnishing a mutual feast. Fruit brought to Jeru-
salem as second tithe unused might not be taken
away, but the money therefor might be. Fruits
brought from a dear to a cheap market yield all
the extra margin as tithe, if originally second tithe.
This tithe redeemed must be at shopkeeper's rate.
Souring wine, damaged fruit, imperfect coins, must
have their value estimated by three persons. Money
found in company with a fragment on which the
word " tithe " was written was all sacred. Yases
inscribed in Hebrew, " D. M. K.," and containing
money, were not sacred. All legal dues had to be
paid to Grod in full by the eve of the Feast of the
Passover. On the last day of the feast, towards
the hour of the evening sacrifice, the devout He-
brew declared, " I have brought away the hallowed
things out of mine house."
Inferior grapes, artichokes, service berries, shriv-
elled dates, late grapes, wild grapes, buds of capers,
of corianders, etc., were exempted from the tithe.
Green vegetables bought, then returned, had to be
tithed before their return. A renter who farmed
under an Israelite had to levy the priestly portion
before dividing the crop with his landlord.
" The Talmud clearly recognizes the first or
Levitical tithe ; the second, or festival tithe ; the
third, or poor man's tith^; and also appears to add
246 APPENDIX
a fourth or supplementary tithe of a tithe— that is,
a levy of one per cent., for the priests, in certain
cases which the Pentateuch left open to doubt." *
Note G — Editions and Translations of the Talmud
In regard to this matter, I received from Prof.
Emil G. Hirsch, of Chicago University, the follow-
ing valuable information, which is worthy to be
printed, as giving clues to inquiring students of
tithing and of other Bible themes. The letter is as
follows :
" Dear Sir : — The Babylonian Talmud has never
been rendered in its entirety into English, and among
those parts which have been translated, as far as my
knowledge goes, the Mishnah Zerayim is not in-
cluded. You know that there is not a Gemara to
the Mishnah Zerayim (with the exception of the
" Benedictions ") in the Babylonian Talmud. The
Mishnah has been translated into Latin by Suren-
huysen, into German by Eabe. These are perhaps
not easily found in our libraries since the former
was published at Amsterdam in 1698-1703, and the
latter at Onolzbach in 1760-1763. But other Ger-
man translations are extant published in recent
years. I mention that of the whole Talmud, your
tractate therefore included, by Goldschmidt.
Zerayim appeared as Volume I in 1897. But for
your purpose I recommend you the following publi-
cation : Mishnayoth, Hebrew text with pointing,
German translation and commentary by D. Hoff-
man, Berlin, First Volume, Berlin, 1888, Zerayim
by Sammter. I regret that I have no copy of this
» Vide Lausdell's *' The Sacred Teuth, " pp. 119-136.
APPENDIX 247
work in my possession. But Goldschmidt is in my
own library. The Hebrew of Zerayim is like that
of the Mishnah, not very difficult to master. Still
the dictionary will not be sufficient to render the
content clear. Like other psirts of the Tabnud this
requires considerable knowledge of Jewish life
in remote days, and this knowledge is supplied in
the Kabbinical commentaries which are printed in
the margin of the Kabbinical editions and these are
printed in the Rabbinical alphabet and are not
easily understood. I shall be happy to be of service
to you in any way you may see fit. Perhaps we
could arrange for reading the tractate together.
It will not take many hours.
" Yours to command,
" Emil G. Hiesch."
The above letter answers many questions that
might be asked by those interested in the Rab-
binical view of tithes, and of sources of material for
criticism and commentary on the Jewish practice.
Note D on Chapter XI
The writer would not have any one understand
that he has any words of criticism for the Ladies'
Aids and Exchanges doing a noble work as they do
among the various religious denominations. Every
pastor knows that they are a right arm of power
and help to himself in his pastorate. The author
is pleading for a change of conditions to be brought
about by the adoption of the tithing system, such
as wiU enable all women's organizations to labor
to better advantage, untrammelled by the customs
248 APPENDIX
of the past. The writer can command no language
strong enough to express his high regard for these
organizations and the work they do for the churches
throughout the world.
Bibliography
" The Sacred Tenth," Henry Lansdell.
« Alienated Tithes," Henry Grove, published about 1896.
" The History of Sacrilege," Henry Spellman, 1698.
" De Legibus Hebrseorum," Spencer, p. 729, 1727.
" Jewish Antiquities," Jennings, p. 183.
" De Jur. Pauperura," Book VI, Chapter 4, Maimonides.
« The Laws of Moses," Michaelis, Sec. 192, Vol. Ill, p. 143.
t* Antiquities of the Hebrews," Reland, p. 359.
" Jahn's Antiquities," Sec. 389.
" Moses and Aaron," Godwyn, p. 136.
Smith's « Bible Dictionary."
The Book of Tobit.
The Book of Maccabees.
«* Antiquities," Josephus, Book IV, Chapter 8.
" The Antiquities of Israel," Ewald.
« De Proemiis Sacerdotum," Philo Judaeus.
" The Law of the Tithe," Miller.
" Prolegomena," Wellhausen.
Robinson's " Biblical Encyclopaedia," article, " Tithes."
SchafF Herzog " Encyclopaedia."
Liddell and^Scott's " Greek Lexicon Unabridged."
Gesenius' " Hebrew Lexicon."
Fuerst's " Hebrew Lexicon."
«• The Jewish Encyclopaedia."
Thayer's " Greek Lexicon'to the New Testament."
" International Encyclopaedia."
St. Jerome, " In Ezek. 1:3."
" History of Tithes," Selden.
" Christian Stewardship," Duncan.
" The Tithe," E. B. Stewart.
" De Decimis Judaeorum," J. H. Hottlinger, 1618.
249
250 BIBLIOGRAPHY
** Sixtinus amana, Com. de Decimis Mos.," i6r8.
" Diat. de Decimis, app. ad Deut. 26." Scaliger, app., pp. 135 sq.,
619 sq.
" Hebrew Archaeology," Nowack, Vol. II, pp. 257-359.
Driver's " Deuteronomy," pp. 166-173.
See also the footnotes throughout this work.
Etymological Note
A. S. : Teodian— To levy a tenth, a tenth part.
O. E. : Tithe— Tethe.
A. S. : Teotha.
Ger. : Zehnte.
Icel.: Tiund.
Goth.: Taihunda.
Tenth and tithe are doubtlets. The true English word is tithe.
Anglo-Saxon numerals :
Threotyne — thirteen.
Feower-tyne — fourteen.
Fiftyne — fifteen.
Sixtyne — sixteen.
Seofontyne — seventeen.
Eahtatyne — eighteen.
Nigontyne — nineteen.
Twentig — twenty.
The above table illustrates the use of tyne, or ten, modified into
teen in modern English.
A. S. : Teothung-ceap — Tithe-stock, stock paid as tithe.
Teothung-land — Probably land subject to tithe, although
Bosworth speaks doubtfully on this point.
Teothung-sceatt — A tax of a tenth, a tithe.
See the « Century Dictionary," article, " Tithe " ; Kemble's
" Saxons in England," Vol. II, p. lo ; Bosworth's «• Anglo-Saxon
Dictionary," article, «' Teothung," etc. ; Stormonth's " English Dic-
tionary," article, " Tithe " ; Skeat's «« Etymological Dictionary," ar-
ticle, « Tithe."
251
Allusions to Tithing in the Classical
Writers
I Maccabees, 1 1 : 35.
Herodotus, i : 89.
4:152.
5:77.
7 : 132.
9:81.
Diodorus Siculus, 5 ; 42.
"••33-
20 : 14.
Pausanias, 5 : 10, sec. 2.
10 : 10, sec. I.
Dionysius Halicarnassus, I : 19, 23.
Justin, 18:7.
Arist. CEcon., 2 : 2.
Livy, 5 : 21.
Polybius, 9 : 39.
Cic. Verr., 2 : 3, 6, 7.
Pro. leg. Mar., 6.
Plutarch, Agesilaus, Chap. 19, p. 389.
Pliny, Natural History, 14 : 14.
Macrobius, Sat., 3 : 6.
Xenophon, Hell., i : 7, 10.
4:3.21.
Inscr. Gr. (Rose), p. 215.
Xenophon, Anab, 5 : 3-9.
252
Biblical References to Tithing
As given by Strong's ** Exhaustive Con-
cordance "
Tithe, to give, have, pay, receive, take tithes, to
I. Give a tenth, 'W^^asar.
Deut. 4:22.
Neh. 10:37.
2. To give a tenth, "Ili^JJ.
Neh. 10 : 38.
3. To give away a tenth, d-itO'
dekaroio.
Matt. 23 : 23.
Luke 1 1 : 42.
Luke 18: 12.
Heb. 7 : 5.
4. To give a tenth, dsKardut.
Heb. 7 : 6.
Heb. 7:9.
TitAe
Lev. 27 : 30.
Lev. 27 : 32.
Num. 18:26.
Deut. 12:17.
Deut. 14 : 22.
Deut. 14:23.
Deut. 14 : 28.
2 Chron. 31:5.
Neh. 10:38.
Neh. 13: 12.
Matt. 23 : 23.
Luke 1 1 : 42.
Tithes
Gen. 14 : 20.
Lev. 27:31.
Num. 18:24.
Num. 18:26.
Num. 18 : 28.
Deut. 12; 6.
Deut. 12: II.
Deut. 26:12.
2 Chron. 31 : I2.
Neh. 10:37.
Neh. 10:38.
Neh. 1 2 : 44.
Neh. 13:5.
Amos 4 : 4.
Mai. 3 : 8.
Mai. 3 : 10.
Luke 18:22.
Heb. 7 : 5.
Heb. 7:6.
Heb. 7 : 8.
Heb. 7 : 9.
Tithing
Deut. 26:12.
253
Index of Passages in Old Testament and New
Testament Referring to Tithing
As given by Young's " Concordance "
2 Chron. 31:6.
I. A tenth, '^'W)jn=^fnaaser, 2 Chron. 31:12.
~~ Neh. 10:37.
Gen. 14:20. S^u-'° = 3^-
Lev. 27: 30. S^^'^•44•
Lev. 27:31. Neh. 13:5,12.
Lev. 27: 32. t^^^'^'J^'
Num. 18:24. JJ^-3:8.
Num. 18:26; Mai. 3:10.
Num. 18 : 28. rry ' 1 !.:...•»
Deut. 12:6. *• To give a tenth, "^^V^^^^asar.
Deut. 12: II.
Deut. 12:17. •^®"*- 26:12.
Deut. 14 : 23. 3. A tenth part, dsfcdrrj^dekatl
Deut. 14:28. Heb. 7:8.
Deut. 26 : 12. Heb. 7 : 9.
2 Chron. 31:5.
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