(Extracts from an address by William Arthur, M.A., delivered about the year 1850 in Belfast, with the Bishop of Down in the chair, and reprinted in full in the Free Presbyterian Magazine, Vol. IX)
(Continued from page 233)
Objections Met
“In urging upon us to give away a tenth, you are reviving the Levitical law, and that is abolished.” Indeed, the difference between those who hold that it stands and those who hold that it is abolished lies perhaps more in word than reality. Those who hold that it stands would hardly contend that the latter is in force; for that was, that the tenth should be given to the tribe of Levi, which, to the letter, we cannot fulfil. And those who hold that it is abolished surely do not mean that its spirit is abolished. The spirit of that law is, “Of Thine own have we given unto Thee.” This is not abolished, and blessed be God, never will be! And surely you do not mean that this spirit, a spirit so right and good, in passing from Judaism to Christianity, forsook a more sensitive body for one grosser and heavier than earth! We need not pause to show that quite independently of the Levitical tenth, the other requirements of the Mosaic law demand more than a second tenth; and that the patriarchs gave their tenth before ever Levi was.
“But if you teach men ought to give a tenth they will give that and be content, though they ought to be giving much more.” This is an objection of real gravity. Doubtless did we succeed in producing generally in the Churches the state of feeling that all were bound to give at least a tenth, many would think themselves generous in giving that, when perhaps a third would be only their just proportion. But how do matters stand at present? Multitudes of sincere Christians are royally content though they give nothing like a tenth, and could we succeed in bringing up the Church generally to that proportion (though far below what we hold to be due of many), the state of things then would present a wonderful improvement on that existing now.
But I question whether adopting the principle of proportion would tend to make content with the minimum proportion after they were abundantly prospered. So far as my knowledge of its practical working goes my impression is the reverse. It is my pleasure to know many men who, at the outset of life, or early in life, adopted Jacob’s resolution to give a tenth. These have all been prosperous men. I do not know one of them but shows that the effect of his early adopting the principle of a tenth has been to prepare him for a higher proportion when years of plenty set in.
It is not probable, that year after year, one will carefully set apart a fixed proportion for the service of his God without becoming habituated to feel that he is neither author nor owner of any fraction of property, but merely steward; and that He at whose feet he lays the first-fruits is the Lord, the Giver of all. Such stated setting apart is a practical keeping of the precept, “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth.” And whoever thus begins life by keeping a law of proportion is the most likely of all men to advance his proportion as the Benefactor augments his blessing.
Practical Attention to the Duty
“By practical attention to” it, I mean that everyone here, without exception, especially the young—for you whose hairs are white had need of thinking of much more than a tenth—that all the young, in solemn gratitude to their God, and under a humble sense that He is owner and they are stewards, should now, here and irrevocably resolve, that by the help of divine grace, henceforth, to the day when money ceases to be treasure, “OF ALL THAT THOU SHALT GIVE ME I WILL SURELY GIVE THE TENTH TO THEE.”
This resolve once come to, it only remains that at stated times the consecrated portion of what the Lord gives you be set apart for His service; and that it be cheerfully given away. Those stated times may be either weekly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly, according as you can ascertain your income. There are points of detail of the utmost importance, which anyone who is really resolved will soon adjust for himself. But my point is to obtain the firm resolution of steady and habitual liberality for all that remains of life. Doing this, it will soon be seen that they who acknowledge Providence bloom in its sunshine, and that seldom indeed is one of their number struck with a blight.
I plead for the Lord’s sake, that His claims may be vindicated. I have already said that many who are willing to look upon Him as God of the world to come feel as if this world’s property was not so directly His and under His hand. For the Creator’s glory, and the creature’s rest, it is needful that all be taught that the gold and silver, the harvest’s yield, flocks, herds, and fisheries, are all His property; that whatsoever man has in his hand is there only in trust and stewardship, not created nor yet retained by His power; that a Hand unseen can at any moment empty his hand, and a Mind unseen blight the fruit of a life’s prudence by the mistake of a day. Go, then, and assert the Lord’s claims; go and teach man’s stewardship, not in word, but in deed. Steadily devote the first-fruits of all wherewith you may be entrusted to holy uses. Let your daily actions say in your neighbour’s ears, “Freely ye have received, freely give!”
I plead for the Lord’s sake, that His due praise may be rendered.
In speaking of the effect of Christian liberality, St. Paul tells us that it does not stop at those who are benefited, but passes on in a certain sense, to the Lord Himself—”abounds by many thanksgivings to God.”
I PLEAD FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, that you may prosper.
The habit of stedfastly giving first-fruits of all you receive, tends to prosperity, by the double means of a natural means and a Divine blessing. As a natural means it works by promoting order and economy. One reason why many tradesmen fail is that they do not, in due time and with sufficient frequency, ascertain precisely where they are. He who is determined that all his increase shall pay its first-fruits to the glory of his Saviour must ascertain what that increase is. Again: one reason why many persons of fixed income are miserably before their means, is because they have never carefully apportioned to each branch of their expenditure its due share of their income. Were one portion held sacred, on which no claim whatever should touch, an efficient check would be set up against random living.
The habits of order and economy thus acquired would work together with the blessing which is assured to him who honours the Lord with the first-fruits of all his increase. That a man living steadily up to this principle will prosper I have no manner of doubt. The very night before I left London, I asked a valued friend of mine who had adopted the principle of giving away a tenth in early life, and whom the prospering hand of God had raised from humble beginnings to a position of great and valuable influence, if he ever knew a case in which a man had set out on that principle, and persevered in it and then failed in life. He answered, “Not one.”
Worldly men are often led to doubt whether a blessing does attend the labour of a pious man; for they see men who profess religion suddenly brought down. But they must ask whether these men have been faithful to their religion. It often happens that one who begins life well, and is liberal while he has little, yields to that fatal tendency, which is strong in all, to love money in proportion as it increases. As they become richer in hand they become poorer in heart. As they acquire more they give less. These men were false to their religion, and it is fitting that a blight should overtake them—indeed that blight may be their salvation. But he who steadfastly sets apart for the Lord the first portion of all his gains, checks his love of money on the threshold; and by increasing the proportion as his gains increase, he checks the terrible bent to a progressive love of it; so that it is safe for himself and good for the Church, that he should prosper. But how can he prosper who gives a tenth of little, but, when Providence make it much, thinks his tenth too much to give? Even to that depths of baseness can our poor nature go. Such men, not only in substance, but in very form, “rob God,” and may be met by Him with that stark and frightful charge. And if it may be said of other wrongful modes of getting wealth, surely it may of this: “As a partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.”
I plead for your own sake, that you may escape the curse of a carnal mind.
It is possible for a man so to drown his spiritual powers in sordid passion that the soul within him ceases to have any action but for concerns of the market. Of its high faculties he cannot rob it; it is, and it will be a soul, with the inherent lights and forces of a soul. But all these he presses into the ignoble service of pelf-gathering. It still has its judgment, capable of deep and holy themes; but this is kept ever poring upon problems lying within the three columns—pounds, shillings and pence. It has its imagination; but this, instead of taking flights to a better country, only dwells on more gold, more houses, more land, more state. It has its fear; but this, forgetting all things really fearful, shudders at nothing except losses. And even its hope, though unquenchable, aspiring only after property, does not wing the soul for heaven, but earths it deeper in pelf. Thus the poor soul is totally shut out from its native air, and the whole man sinks into a machine—a most wonderful and elaborate machine, worked by spirit-power, for the use of scraping, scraping, scraping gold!
I plead for your own sake, that you may increase in purity and heavenliness of mind.
It was our Redeemer who first showed the way to make money a means of inclining our affections towards the inheritance of the saints in light. He said, “Sell that ye have and give alms; provide yourself bags which wax not old” (is not this what you would covet? “bags which wax not OLD?”), “a treasure in the heavens, where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth.” Now, mark the philosophy of this: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” So that by gradually laying up your treasure in heaven, your heart will gradually follow it there; and thus money, which some treat as capable only of being a bond and a burden, may become to you a connecting wire with the Throne of retributions, and a stimulant to hope for “the resurrection of the just.” A farmer who loves to see a full barn, and also to receive in market the price of his crops, yet forgoes the market and reduces the store in his barn, casts away his precious grain out of his hand, out of his sight, and leaves it buried, lost as to immediate return, trusting it wholly to the bosom of earth and the eye of Heaven. What effect does this portion of his treasure produce upon him? It turns his thoughts away from the barn, from the market—from the pride of the one and the gold of the other. It leads his eye often up to the heavens, and his thoughts forward to the coming harvest-day.
Go, then, and sow, not sparingly, but bountifully. Foregoing the proud store, foregoing the present recompense, cast your treasure out of your grasp, out of your sight, cast it with a broad hand and a glad heart; leave it there unseen, in the soil of eternity, and under the suns of heaven. Even here the fruit will be that, by degree, your mind will set itself more strongly on the joys that never wane; and when the harvest-day sets in, how many will be who would wish that they had sown as you!
“Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses with new wine” (Proverbs iii: 9, 10).
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (II Corinthians ix: 6).