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 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
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 Copyright, 19", by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 
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«^i^ 
 
 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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