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Review and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 14.

ANOTHER NEW TRACT—NOW READY
Earlier text: ANOTHER NEW TRACT—NOW READY

MRS. E. G. WHITE

By Ellen G. White

Rephidim

MRS. E. G. WHITE

“And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, . . . and there was no water for the people to drink. . . . And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”
It was by the express command of God that the children of Israel encamped at Rephidim. He knew of its lack of water, and he brought his people hither to test their faith. But how poorly they proved themselves to be a people whom he could trust! Again and again he had manifested himself to them. With a high hand he had brought them out of the land of their captivity, slaying the first-born of all the families of Egypt to accomplish the deliverance of his people. He had fed them with angels’ food, and had covenanted to bring them into the promised land. Now, when brought into difficulty, they broke into rebellion, distrusted God, and complained that Moses had brought them and their children out of Egypt only that they might die of thirst in the wilderness.
The lesson is for us. Many think that in the Christian life they will find freedom from all difficulty. But every one who takes up the cross to follow Jesus comes to a Rephidim in his experience. Life is not all made up of pleasant pastures and cooling streams. Trial and disappointment overtake us; privation comes; we are brought into trying places. Conscience-stricken, we reason that we must have walked far away from God, that if we had walked with him, we should not have suffered so. Doubt and despondency crowd into our hearts, and we say, The Lord has failed us, and we are ill-used. Why does he permit us to suffer thus? He can not love us; if he did, he would remove the difficulties from our path. Is the Lord with us, or not?
But of old the Lord led his people to Rephidim, and he may choose to lead us there also, to test our loyalty. He does not always bring us to pleasant places. If he did, in our self-sufficiency we should forget that he is our helper. He longs to manifest himself to us, and to reveal the abundant supplies at our disposal, and he permits trial and disappointment to come to us that we may realize our helplessness, and learn to call upon him for aid. He can cause cooling streams to flow from the flinty rock. We shall never know, until we are face to face with God, when we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known, how many burdens he has borne for us, and how many burdens he would have been glad to bear, if, with childlike faith, we had brought them to him.
The experience of the children of Israel is to help us in our work. The Word of God declares, “These things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” The Lord brought the children of Israel into trying places to test their faith. He had promised to lead them into the promised land, and if they had waited patiently for him, reviving their faith by recounting his great goodness and wonderful works in their behalf, he would have shortened their test. But they forgot their Leader. Murmuring and complaining, they vented their wrath upon Moses, forgetting that their emergency was God’s opportunity.
To-day God says to his people, Do not imitate the conduct of the children of Israel at Rephidim by showing unbelief when brought into difficulties. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
God is declared in all his dealings with his people; and with clear, unclouded eyes, in adversity, in sickness, in disappointment, and in trial, we are to behold the light of his glory in the face of Christ, and trust to his guiding hand. But too often we grieve his heart by our unbelief. Our faith is short-sighted, and we allow trial to strengthen our natural tendency to distrust. Brought into strait places, we dishonor God by murmuring and complaining. Instead, we should help those in need of assistance, those who are seeking for light, but know not how to find it. Such have a special claim on our sympathy, but how often, instead of trying to help them, we pass by on the other side, intent on our own troubles.
God loves his children, and he longs to see them overcoming the discouragement with which Satan would overpower them. Do not give way to unbelief. Do not magnify your difficulties. Remember the love and power that God has shown in times past. He “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Christ has proved himself to be an all-powerful helper. He knows all about our trials, and in the hour of need can we not believe that he is as willing to help as in times past? No amount of tribulation can separate us from him. If he leads us to Rephidim, it is because he sees that it is for our good. If we look to him in trusting faith, he will turn the bitterness of Marah into sweetness. His word to us is, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
The way may be rough, but we have no time to spend in thinking about our difficulties. When we bemoan the hardness of the way, we turn from the path of faith. God is leading us, and he can make us fully able to go up and possess the promised land. He declares, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Our path will not always be plain or easy, but let us look to God in faith, saying, The Lord has separated us from the world, and has chosen us as his peculiar people, and he will work for us. Let us go forward in the strength of the Lord God Almighty. So shall we be witnesses for him. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, . . . I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses,” “that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me.”

Reminiscences of the Life of Uriah Smith

By John Norton Loughborough

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
The hearts of thousands, familiar with the writings from the gifted pen of Brother Uriah Smith, were pained to read of his sudden death. From his obituary we learn that when the final summons came, he was in the discharge of official duties connected with the cause which during almost his entire life was so near to his heart. Of him it can be said, unqualifiedly,—
“He fell like a warrior, He died at his post.”
The precious benediction for those falling asleep under the third angel’s message is truly his, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” His work is not to be measured by that seen in his immediate presence while living. It is safe to say that hundreds who are rejoicing in the light of “present truth” first saw it while perusing “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” or some of his other books. Though he rests from his labors, these books, as they are circulated in the future, will multiply the fruits of his labors, and add stars to his crown of rejoicing in the great day when the final reward is given to the faithful.
My own personal acquaintance and intimate association with Brother Smith in labor for spreading the light of the third angel’s message, cover a period only a few weeks short of fifty years. His warm, genial spirit, and courteous, unassuming manner won for him a very large place in my heart, and our association has ever been of a most pleasant character. I first met him in the fall of 1853. He was then in his first year of office work on the REVIEW AND HERALD, in Stone’s Block, South Saint Paul Street, Rochester, N. Y. I had just returned from a five months’ trip among the scattered Sabbath-keepers in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and northern Indiana.
The laborers in the office of publication in those “pioneer days” had a very different prospect before them than the workers have at this time. No tithing system had as yet come to us. There was no fund from which salaries could be assured for services rendered. The facilities with which the work was to be performed, including hand-press, type, etc., had been purchased (new) for less than seven hundred dollars. Well do I remember when the first pamphlet was printed in the Rochester office, in the winter of 1853-4. It was a book of about eighty pages, on the sanctuary and twenty-three hundred days, written by Elder J. N. Andrews. The sheets were printed on the hand-press. A number of the believers in the Rochester company united with the office workers in folding, stitching, covering, and trimming these books. The office had no folding machine, no stabbing machine, no stitching machine, no paper-cutter. The sisters folded and gathered the signatures, the writer stabbed the books with a shoemaker’s pegging awl. After they were stitched with needle and thread, Sister Mary Patten (afterward Mead-Sawyer) pasted on the covers, and Brother Uriah Smith trimmed the edges with his pocket-knife, while Brother and Sister James White wrapped and directed advance copies to our people in other places. It was a happy day indeed, and why should it not have been? “The office of the Seventh-day Adventists was issuing its first pamphlet, printed on its own press.”
It will give our readers some idea of the sacrifices made by the workers in those early days to give a little of the experience of Brother Smith and his sister Annie in connecting with the Review Office. When they accepted the Sabbath truth, they had a standing offer to teach, in a new academy which was to be opened at Mt. Vernon, N. H., for three years at one thousand dollars a year, besides room and board. Seeing the need of such help as they could render in the office, they gave up the academy proposition, and came to Rochester, where they spent that three years in labor to advance the cause of present truth. For this labor they received their board and clothes. During this time all the laborers in the Review Office lived in the family of Brother White, and all practiced the closest economy, thus saving all that could be saved to meet the expense of publishing the paper and tracts.
These workers were happy, and even esteemed it a privilege to sacrifice. The feelings of Brother and Sister Smith are well expressed in words penned by Sister Annie herself respecting her feelings at that time: “Earth has entirely lost its attractions. My hopes, joys, affections, are now all centered in things above and divine. I want no other place than to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of him, — no other occupation than to be in the service of my Heavenly Father,—no other delight than the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” From association with Brother Smith in those early times, I know it was this same spirit of consecration that gladdened his heart.
This item of self-denial on the part of Brother Smith in connecting with the cause of present truth may enable our people better to understand the following stanza in hymn No. 667 of our church hymn book, written by Sister Annie R. Smith:—
“And there was one who left behind The cherished friends of early years, And honor, pleasure, wealth resigned, To tread the path bedewed with tears. Through trials deep and conflicts sore, Yet still a smile of joy he wore: I asked what buoyed his spirits up, ‘O this!’ said he, ‘the blessed hope.’”
Coming to the year 1858, when a stipulated wage was paid to the workers in the Review Office, we read in the paper issued April 15 these words from the pen of Brother White: “All our printers are at work at five dollars a week, when they can earn seven dollars a week at the usual prices.” For about this same wage Brother Smith, in addition to his editorial work, was acting as secretary and treasurer of the office. He kept also the lists of the subscribers of the REVIEW, and directed by hand the wraps for the list of nearly three thousand papers weekly. This secretary work he continued until the year 1862, when a hand mailing machine was introduced into the office. After that, for several years, it was Brother Smith who used this machine in mailing the weekly issues of the paper.
It may be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW to notice at this point one item in the experience of Brother Smith illustrating how the Lord, even in this life, sometimes regards those who forsake the world and worldly interests to follow and serve him. It may also illustrate how even some of our misfortunes may be turned to blessings. In early life Brother Smith lost one leg, and wore, in the times already mentioned, a “cork leg,” the foot of which had no joint. Well do I remember one day when he said to me, “How awkward it is to have a foot with no joint for the toes! It is hard to kneel and rise with such a straight foot. I believe a foot can be made with joints for the toes.” He began to study the matter, and at no distant day produced what he desired, and made a leg for himself that worked satisfactorily. He got it patented, and sold the patent to a manufacturer of cork legs for a sum sufficient to enable him to purchase a modest home, next door to the office of the REVIEW AND HERALD, and to have something left to aid in enterprises calling for the liberalities of believers.
As his family increased, and it became needful to provide a larger house, his inventive genius was again developed, in the construction of a desk with folding seat for use in schools. This he also patented, and sold his patent to school-seat manufacturers for a good sum. This enabled him to build the house in which he was residing at the time of his death.
One evening in the summer of 1866, after the close of the day’s labor in the Review Office, Brother Smith and I were sitting in the back room of the first brick office building, viewing a glorious sunset, and talking of the glory of the coming kingdom. Elder John Matteson had begun to labor and write in the Danish-Norwegian language, and was desirous to have books printed in that language, our literature being at that time only in the English. The question, “How is the message to reach the people of other nations?” was considered by us. We did not see how, with our limited facilities, it could be done, “unless the Lord should send over to America, in the great emigration to this ‘land of liberty,’ the honest in heart who would accept the truth.” Great has been the joy of Brother Smith since that day, to see the message going in those countries, and happy was he in consecrating the royalties on his books translated into other tongues, to the upbuilding of the work in foreign lands.
The labors of Brother Smith in the office up to 1867 had been constant, and at the same time he was preparing manuscript for “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation.” In fact, this whole book was written between the hours of 9 P. M. and 2 A. M. Other books were also written in the small hours of the night, after his day’s labor. This constant labor, and his lameness preventing much physical exercise, called forth this caution (“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, page 520), addressed to the initial C. After the statement of what he should do to improve the conditions for preserving his health, we read: “Unless he works a change for himself, nature will take the work into her own hands. She will make a grand attempt to relieve the system by expelling the impurities from the blood. She will summon all the vital powers to work, and the whole organism will be deranged, and all this may end in paralysis or apoplexy.”
Thank the Lord that after fourteen years of almost constant confinement in the office, he heeded the testimony in going from State to State, attending general meetings, so that the cause has had much of his personal labors in various States, and even in lands across the sea, as well as the continued productions of his pen. As the infirmities of age came on, and difficulties in securing exercise increased, we see his life terminating in the manner it has. We thank the Lord that the brittle cord of life was not broken prematurely, as was intimated in 1867, but his years of usefulness have been prolonged, and he passed away at a ripe age.
Thus the Lord lays aside the laborers, one by one, but his work goes on. And, as expressed by Brother Smith in his article in the REVIEW of February 24: “God has weapons to match all those of the powers of darkness. All he has to do is to cause the earth to open her mouth (Rev. 12:15, 16) and swallow up the flood, as the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, as they rose up against the work of Moses. Thus all opposition to the work of the Lord easily comes to naught. . . . It may come from princes and men of renown; but the Lord is no respecter of persons. The people must stand true to their colors.”
Our brother sleeps. And to him the moment in which “the silver cord” of life was “loosed,” and that moment when the voice of God shall call him forth, will be as one. Blessed sleep! “Asleep in Jesus, soon to rise!” May the Lord enable us who still remain in the battle of life to “press together,” filling up the gaps made by the laying away of the workers. May the spirit of faith, sacrifice, and labor that characterized the half century in the life of our beloved brother be emulated more and more in us. Then indeed we may be prepared to share with him in that glad day the plaudit, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Friday Night in the World's History

By L. D. Santee

L. D. SANTEE
MANY, in reading the account of the seven days of the creation week, have concluded that it was a type of the seven thousand years allotted to this earth. It is all the time that is reckoned. Before it, eternity, in its awful vastness, existed; and after the seven millenniums of time, eternity again begins with its years uncounted and uncalendared, brooding over an earth that is sinless, and whose inhabitants never grow old. It is easy to come to this conclusion, for “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” 2 Peter 3:8. Every week brings us six days of labor, or, as Ezekiel calls them, “the six working days” (Eze. 46:1), followed by one of rest.
In the antitype there are six thousand years of probation, of work and trial, followed by the seventh thousand years, a grand sabbath of rest. When that day comes, labor for ourselves or others will have ceased. Human destiny will be forever decided.
Where are we living in this grand week of ages? Prophecy and the signs of the times tell us with myriad voices that it is late, Friday night, in this world's history. Daniel, the beloved, foretold four earthly kingdoms. The last has long been on the stage of action, and now we are waiting for the fifth. It will come with the close of the sixth day, when the purple hills, hidden by the darkness, tell us that night is here.
The other kingdoms became strong by revolution and conquest. I read, in Rev. 11:15: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” Reverently, and with awe, we note the revolutions that usher in the fifth kingdom. “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.” Isa. 9:5.
It is a solemn thought that with the setting sun of the sixth day will close the great week of earth's probation; that with the close of the “working days” will close the door of hope for the unsaved of the human family. The changes that shall usher in the coming kingdom are startling and unparalleled. Near us, so very near that our eyes may see the events, are the coming of the Lord, the resurrection of the just, the change to immortality of the righteous living, and the total destruction of the ungodly, by the agency of the plagues, and the glory that shall be revealed from heaven.
These are the changes that shall usher in the great seventh day of God's calendar. O that wondrous sabbath that follows the closing of probation! What wonder that God wanted us to keep it in mind! Then God shall reign supreme, for “the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20:5. There is only one enemy, and he is chained in the darkness and horror of a depopulated earth. The saints spend the sabbath in the New Jerusalem. They are immortal, and beyond the reach of evil. It is a foretaste of the unnumbered Sabbaths that they shall spend in the city, later on, when it is the metropolis of the new earth. When at the close of the six days of creation, the Lord rested, blessed, and sanctified the Sabbath, he set there a light that should shine across the centuries, through the darkness of the earth, until the grand sabbath, at the close of earth's troubled history, should be celebrated in the heavens.
Solemnly the Jew offered his sacrifice, knowing that it was a type of the Lamb of God. Reverently we observe the Sabbath, knowing that it is a type of “the rest that remaineth.” With this view, how impossible to transfer the Sabbath to the beginning of the week. In the bosom of his holy law is the “Remember,” connecting the first and second Edens. Is it any wonder that we should call the Sabbath “a delight” (Isa. 58:13), or that it is a “sign” between him and those who are to enjoy the antitype? Eze. 20:12. What wonder either that Satan should try to obscure the light that shines into the New Jerusalem, and beyond that into the second eternity! What wonder that Jesus said, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28), as his coming will bring the millennial rest.
Will my place in the holy city be vacant and another take my crown because I have refused to observe the type, and so have failed to enjoy the antitype? or shall I be a Sabbath-keeper in the city of God and in the new earth? Isa. 66:23. It is Friday night in the world's history. Are we ready for the sabbath?

Keep Out of Sight

By J. S. WASHBURN

J. S. WASHBURN
One summer evening I stood in the topmost gallery of Royal Albert Hall, the finest concert hall in England, and looked down upon the many thousands that filled every seat in the vast auditorium. What rare attraction had so filled the great hall that late comers found only standing room? I will tell you.
Madame Adalina Patti, the most noted living singer, and in some respects the most wonderful singer of modern times, is singing here to-night. She has sung before all the royal families of Europe, and after nearly half a century of public singing, still draws as no other singer in the world. What can be the secret of her marvelous success in her chosen life-work? It is a simple yet wonderful secret.
The singers are so far from me that without a glass I can not distinguish the features of Madame Patti from the other singers in her concert company. Now she sings difficult Italian music, and her voice is wonderfully flexible and bird-like, clear and marvelously penetrating. But this is not the secret. I have heard other voices greater and equally good in many respects—but wait a minute.
I hear the opening bars of “Home, Sweet Home”—the piano is faint, so far is it away, but a deathlike silence has fallen upon the vast throng. I fear I shall not hear the singer; I strain my ears, intently listening. Ah, yes, I can hear, so slow and soft, like a spirit voice—
“’Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam, Be it ever so humble ——”
The hall fades from sight, the brilliant lights have vanished. I see no more the great fashionable crowd. I have forgotten that I am listening to the greatest singer in the world. Only a dream whisper, silvery clear, yet faint, sweet, and far away: “Home, home, sweet, sweet home.” I am borne swiftly across the wide sea. The years have vanished. I see my old home again,—the old brown farmhouse in Iowa. The old orchard is here. I am swinging, careless and free, with my dear little brother under the old oak tree. I hear the sweet voices of my sisters; I see my father, so true and good, and O, I see my mother’s dear face, full of tenderest, sweetest love. She is singing, and her voice comes to me as an angel’s voice. Scarcely had I dared hope to see my home again. Yet now truly I see it all so clearly,—the blessed innocence of childhood, the sweet, free country air; ah, I hear the sweet music of gentle breezes whispering through the trees and o’er the waving grain—the dreamy hum of nature. Ah! too sweet to last! Almost with a shock I awake. I hear the last echoes of the piano notes; the singer is retiring, and the crowd is beginning to applaud.
The vision was mine, yet not mine alone. There are tears in the eyes of many whose faces were weary and hardened. They, too, have seen the dear old home, and lived over again the dear, dear days of childhood, and to many has come a longing for the Heavenly Father’s home.
Truly Madame Patti is a great singer. I have the secret of her magic power. What is it? She went out of sight and hearing, behind her great art, her subject. Not the singer, but the song. Not Madame Patti, but home, dear, sweet HOME. This is true art, this is inspiration. Keep self out of sight. Let your glorious work, your calling, however humble, appear. Be unconscious of self and of selfish desire to be seen, to be applauded, to grasp, to seize for self, and you will succeed. Die to self. Let God be seen in you. Live to love, for the good you may do, the blessing you may be, and you shall have a home, a “sweet” and everlasting home in the Father’s house of many mansions.

Gospel Finance

By William Covert

WILLIAM COVERT
As robbery in offerings as well as in tithes is the charge made in Mal. 3: 7-11, and the question of tithes has been studied, we will proceed to give some thought to the subject of Bible offerings. It will also be necessary to consider the uses to which these should be applied.
The offerings prescribed in the books of Moses were sin offerings, burnt offerings, trespass offerings, thank offerings, wave offerings, meat offerings, peace offerings, offerings of first-fruits, and a number of other gifts and sacrifices not herein named. All slaying of animals and offering of their blood typical of the one great offering made by Christ, and pertaining to the subject of the atonement through him, are superseded by him, and of these offerings we do not wish to speak in this study. We design here to deal only with those offerings which pertain to the matter of gospel finance.
All agree in the main question as to the responsibility of Christians to support the Lord’s cause with their means. We know that the church of Christ should now give the gospel to all the world, and that large funds are required to do this. All know that Jesus gave this gospel work to his disciples when he ascended to heaven, and that they should go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. When any one accepts salvation from sin through Jesus, he thereby accepts the responsibility of helping to the extent of his ability in the work of saving others.
The tithe in all cases was meant to be a tenth of the income. The offerings were not so specific as to amount. There is quite definite instruction relative to first-fruits, and yet the specific amount to be offered seems usually to have been left for the individual to determine.
Three times in the year ingathering meetings were to be held, and every family was to be represented on these occasions. Of these the Lord said, “None shall appear before me empty.” Every one in attendance was to bring an offering of first-fruits according to the product of the land. The meetings were held “in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. . . . The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 23: 16, 19.
Probably these thrice yearly meetings, in which the first-fruits were presented at the Lord’s house, corresponded in a practical way to early, middle, and late harvests. The farmer harvests fruits, grain, and vegetables, and if the Bible idea were observed, there would be offerings of first-fruits made from every harvest. There were special services held when the first-fruits were gathered in. “In the day of the first-fruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the Lord, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation.” Num. 28: 26.
A special account of an ingathering service says, “The children of Israel brought in abundance the first-fruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field, and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.” 2 Chron. 31: 5.
According to the suggestion of Nehemiah, the people arranged to bring the first-fruits of the ground, and the first-fruits of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord. The first-born of their sons were given, but were to be redeemed according to a stipulated price. The firstlings of the herds and the flocks were bestowed as offerings. The people vowed to “bring the first-fruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and the oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God.” Neh. 10: 35-37.

The Significance

The first ripe fruit from any plant indicates what the whole of every crop from that one plant is to be. In many Scriptures the first-fruits are cited as a type of Christ. “If the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy,” are the words of Rom. 11: 16. “Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming,” is the language in 1 Cor. 15: 23. This writer refers to the subject of first-fruits in such a manner as to show that Christians should be acquainted with them. As the Lord has given to man the “first-fruits,” so he asks man to give to him the first and best of all the fruit he receives. He says, “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase.” Prov. 3: 9.
The first of everything that ripened in the land of Israel was promised to Aaron and his sons for the service they would perform in the sacred work of the Lord. “And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute forever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it. All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first-fruits of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it. Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine.” Num. 18: 11-14.
The offering of the first-fruits was in ancient times very closely connected with the bringing in of the tithe, and it would seem, when the Lord says he is being robbed “in tithes and offerings,” that the withholding of the first-fruits must be included in the offerings which are kept back.

Free-will Offerings

A free-will offering is an offering which the giver bestows of his own free will. Lev. 22: 18, 19. The gift is prompted by the impulse of an earnest heart. Such offerings, more than all others, are designed to supply the many needs of the Lord’s cause not provided for by the tithes and the first-fruits. The gifts bestowed by Israel for the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness, were all free-will offerings. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. . . . And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Ex. 25: 1, 2, 8. The people responded with readiness to this call for means; so it is said, “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.” Ex. 35: 21.
This willingness on the part of the people proved a very great blessing to the cause, so that the leaders came and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make.” And again, “The people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.” Ex. 36: 5-7. If such willingness were always manifested on the part of the people, it would bring with it great joy of heart, and much material as well as spiritual prosperity.
The appropriations made for building the temple at Jerusalem were free-will offerings. At one time when vast treasures had been presented, the record says, “Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy. Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine: thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.” 1 Chron. 29: 9-14.
The gold and silver alone in the offerings on this particular occasion, if coined by the United States mints, would amount to $16,750,000. Yet this was but a small part of the great sum of offerings made for the wonderful building. David had previously spoken to Solomon of how he had “prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.” 1 Chron. 22: 14. A talent of gold is estimated to be worth $1,200; a hundred thousand talents of gold would therefore be worth $120,000,000. A talent of silver is probably worth about seventy-five dollars. But as the offering described by David had in it a million talents of silver, it would be equivalent to $75,000,000. The other material, with the whole cost of labor and transportation in building the temple, added to these sums, would, at present values, probably amount to $500,000,000. Where are the people today who give as liberally as did the Hebrews? Even the vast gifts of modern millionaires for charitable and educational purposes are small when compared to the gifts of the Israelites to their institutions.
Concerning the liberality of Christians, Paul said, “Let each man do according as he hath purposed in his heart; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. 9: 7, R. V. An offering not cheerfully bestowed can not be acceptable to God.
When Paul was instructing the Ephesian elders, he said of his own work, “In all things I gave you an example, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20: 35, R. V.
Jesus, who, having all things, freely gave all for us, has learned most fully the sweetness which comes from giving. We should ever imitate the example of the great Giver. In this great offering, Christ teaches man how to offer in the fullness of love. This one offering perfects the sum of all acceptable offerings, filling them with the sweetness of this love.
(To be continued)
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