Stewardship 
 Among 
 Baptists 
 
 A. L. VAIL 
 
 iiiiiiiiliii ii 
 
!9'A 
 
 
 BX 6346.5 .V3 1913 
 
 Vail, Albert L. 1844-1935. 
 
 Stewartship among baptists 
 
STEWARDSHIP 
 AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
STEWARDSHIP 
 AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT E'VAIL 
 
 Author 
 
 ' The Morning Hour of American Baptist Missions ' 
 
 "Baptists Mobilized for Missions," etc. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
 
 19 13 
 
Copyright 1913 by 
 A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 
 
 Published Xoveraber, 1913 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THREE KEYWORDS 
 
 Three words are used frequently in this book, 
 partly under protest in the mind of the author and 
 possibly under protest from the reader. To satisfy 
 both a few explanations may be profitable. This is 
 the more appropriate because these are keywords 
 to the whole presentation, and writer and reader 
 may understand each other better with the aid of 
 this explanatory introduction. 
 
 STEWARDSHIP 
 
 The present time is liable to place excessive em- 
 phasis on this word in its property applications in 
 consequence of the current emphasis on the use 
 of property and the involved prominence of the 
 word in that connection. In fact, the use now almost 
 exclusive is not that which is primary in the Bible 
 or the Christian Hfe. This will appear more or less 
 in the following pages, but attention needs to be 
 kept on it all the way. But more pertinent perhaps 
 to the present consideration is the fact that the term 
 
 V 
 
VI INTRODUCTORY 
 
 in all applications of it is defective for expressing 
 the relation between Christ and his people. While 
 this is true generally, it is especially true here be- 
 cause a kind of emphasis is laid, and a kind of 
 application made, on this point in this work which 
 are not laid and made in the thinking of many peo- 
 ple. A steward, or agent, ordinarily is a separate 
 personality, with separate interests from those of 
 his principal, fie handles the property of his 
 employer for pay, and the pay he receives is his 
 own, independent of his employer. He may be a 
 good steward, with no love for his employer and 
 no care for his interests beyond that stipulated in 
 his contract as steward for a temporary and partial 
 service; aside from which he has no relations, and 
 in which he has no vital relations, with him for 
 whom he works. But any one sees easily that a 
 steward in this sense is far removed from the 
 steward in the Christian sense. The latter is re- 
 deemed in such a way that he is under the most 
 exacting obligations to yield himself entirely to the 
 will of his Lord. And this abandonment in service 
 is not by law, but by love ; finds its impulse not in 
 a lash, but a fellowship most intimate, vital, im- 
 perishable, and sacred. Therefore the word steward- 
 ship carries in it a possible peril and poison for the 
 
INTRODUCTORY VU 
 
 Christian life, and needs to be used in spiritual 
 relations, particularly in connection with materia! 
 things, with a clear and constant appreciation of 
 its inadequacy. It is used now because for the 
 present time it seems to be the best term available. 
 
 GIVING 
 
 One may give to another only what belongs to 
 himself. The redeemed person does not own any- 
 thing in his relations with his Redeemer, the price 
 paid in the redemption being so transcendent that 
 it carries with it everything pertaining to the re- 
 deemed. It is therefore improper to say that we 
 give to the Lord. We have nothing to give ; all 
 that we handle belongs to another, who is the 
 Lord himself. Shall we then say that we pay a 
 debt when we contribute to the cause of God? 
 Certainly not, because we do not owe any debt 
 in that direction capable of being discharged with 
 material things even if we owned them. Besides, 
 God comes to us in such a spirit and with such a 
 proposal that debt is abolished at the outset. To 
 bring it in after the Lord has put it out, is on our 
 part a colossal blunder and a glaring impertinence. 
 Our attempt to pay ofifends the grace that paid it 
 all. Our thought to pay infringes, if it does not 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTORY 
 
 abrogate, the fellowship. When we say that we owe 
 the Redeemer a debt that we must first pay, after 
 which we are at liberty, possibly under obligation, 
 to give him something, we use two terms that cannot 
 stand in the presence of his cross. But these words, 
 give and pay, are very prominent in discussions of 
 " stewardship." A third word, avoiding the errors 
 of these two and expressing only truth in relation 
 to the subject in hand, is not in sight. We therefore 
 take that word which is least abhorrent to the one 
 who has laid hold on the grace of God in Christ, 
 with the meaning we have tried to explain, whenever 
 we consider stewardship in its relations to the owner. 
 
 BAPTIST 
 
 The following pages have much to say about Bap- 
 tists, as the title of the book indicates. Does not 
 this title voice sectarianism, or at least does it not 
 assume something distinctive in stewardship among 
 Baptists which does not exist? No. But one can- 
 not read with clear apprehension all the things 
 that follow unless he recognizes those distinctive ele- 
 ments which do differentiate the Baptists from 
 other " evangelical " bodies. This remark may fall on 
 some unwilling ears among Baptists. The virus of 
 compromise may have so far infected the denomina- 
 
INTRODUCTORY IX 
 
 tional consciousness that it may seem unnecessary, 
 if not uncharitable or un fraternal, to intimate that 
 the Baptist mind has any different point of view or 
 course of procedure from those of others in a con- 
 sideration of stewardship. But our separate existence 
 finds its justification only in differences that touch 
 bottom in certain important elements of the Chris- 
 tian life, of which stewardship is one. The fuller 
 meaning of this may appear to him who reads on. 
 
 THE PLAN AND A REASON 
 
 This book is constructed on substantially the same 
 plan as the author's " Baptists Mobilized for IMis- 
 sions.'' It begins with a historic review to be used 
 as a setting for the discussion of its theme in appli- 
 cation to the present time. The reason for this is 
 that a people cannot deal in the best way with their 
 present or their future independent of their past. 
 They can change their processes or their principles 
 without regard to their past, but they cannot do 
 either wisely on that plan. Whenever they raise a 
 question of change or advance, they will, if they are 
 wise, first inquire what their predecessors did and 
 why they did it. Therefore our consideration of 
 stewardship among Baptists is introduced by an at- 
 tempt to get in brief an understanding of the course 
 
X INTRODUCTORY 
 
 of the same, in its principles and practices in earlier 
 times, when those foundations, on which necessarily 
 we must build, were laid by people of piety and wis- 
 dom equal to our own. This preliminary part re- 
 quires but little space because the records are 
 meager and the outlines, which alone are necessary 
 to our purpose, are quickly determined. 
 
 The notes, to which reference is made by small 
 superior numerals, will be found at the close of the 
 book. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Pagb 
 
 I. Historical i 
 
 II. Tithing 47 
 
 III. New Testament Principles "jj 
 
HISTORICAL 
 
 A BIRD S-EYE VIEW 
 
 Turning our attention toward the earlier Baptists 
 in America we are impressed by their exceeding sim- 
 plicity. All life in the New World then was simple, 
 and the Baptists were behind none in this element. 
 This resulted from their poverty and their prin- 
 ciples. With but small exception they were humble 
 both in social standing and financial resources. 
 Their solicitations to the wider outlooks were very 
 few and their ability to look out was equally limited, 
 even when they were disposed to enlarge their pros- 
 pect. For a hundred years from the first glimmer- 
 ing of their little lights in the wilderness, literally 
 in the wilderness for the most part and substantially 
 so everywhere, they stood in marked isolation and 
 embarrassment of outlook. And their principles 
 acted harmoniously. They were a spiritual de- 
 mocracy, averse, in their conceptions of the Chris- 
 tian and church life, to every element and aspect of 
 the spectacular. They preferred, as well as in- 
 herited, the humblest attitudes and the simplest 
 methods. Their first churches were family circles, 
 and their first missions were neighborhood affairs. 
 
2 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 For the former their indoctrination and discipline 
 centered in the spiritual life and the brotherly love; 
 in the latter they were embarrassed by an aversion 
 to any organization with a hint of oppression, as 
 well as by the lack of the natural conditions neces- 
 sary to large operations. 
 
 First among their formulations of their faith 
 came the " Philadelphia Confession." What did it 
 say about the use of property for the kingdom of 
 heaven ? Nothing, except " in relieving each other 
 in outward things, according to their several abilities 
 and necessities," as in families and churches, and 
 " to all the household of faith, even all those who 
 in every place call upon the name of the Lord 
 Jesus." But they did not make that Confession. 
 They borrowed it. As the Congregationalists had 
 done before them, they adopted the Westminster 
 Confession, with such modifications on a few points 
 as were necessary to their consciences ; and what we 
 call stewardship, beyond benefactions to the saints 
 in need, was not one of those points. In this, as in 
 almost all else, they went the whole length of the 
 Westminster, being content to stop there; and it 
 stopped short of any specific declaration on the 
 duty to devote possessions to wider service, though 
 its conception of the Christian life was that of 
 obedience to the Scriptures, which opened the way 
 to the working out of the teaching of the New 
 Testament on this point. Slow as the Baptists, as 
 well as all other Christian people, then were, in com- 
 
HISTORICAL 3 
 
 parison with us, they were abreast of tlie best of 
 their time. 
 
 And tliey were more than that, so far as ex- 
 pressed in the Philadelphia Confession. Their first 
 reason for adopting the Westminster was that they 
 thus might express their fellowship with other Chris- 
 tians in the fundamentals of the faith. But when 
 they had returned from this excursion into comity 
 they had something more to say among themselves. 
 This they put into their Church Discipline. In it 
 they defined a church as a company of people come 
 together, " willing in the fear of God to take the 
 laws of Christ upon them, and do by one mutual 
 consent give themselves up to the Lord, and to one 
 another in the Lord, solemnly submitting to the 
 government of Christ in his church." Treating of 
 the " Duties of Church-members," they said in the 
 Discipline, that " all church-members are under the 
 strictest obligations to do and observe whatever 
 Christ enjoineth on them, as mutual duties toward 
 one another." This last clause reveals their limita- 
 tion. 
 
 They were not looking outward from the church, 
 but inward on it. Mutual helpfulness among them- 
 selves takes care of itself under this declaration. 
 Large place is given in the same connection to 
 the duty of members to pastors in several particu- 
 lars, of which the sixth and last is : " contributing 
 toward their maintenance, that they may attend 
 wholly on teaching, and give themselves to the 
 
4 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 ministry of the word and to prayer." This is 
 enforced by three considerations, the last one being 
 that " the gospel enjoins and requires the same.'' 
 Here they cite passages of Scripture, and insist that 
 the support of the ministry is " a duty required of 
 God himself, and that not in a way of alms, as to 
 the poor, which is another standing ordinance of 
 Christ, but is to be performed in love to Christ, and 
 obedience to his laws, in order to support and carry 
 the interest of the gospel." Further on they partly 
 answer the question of how that other standing law 
 of Christ, provision for the needy, is to be executed, 
 in this statement: "The liberality of the people (if 
 they be able) should surmount the necessity of the 
 minister, so as that he may exercise those acts of 
 love and hospitality, as is required of such, that 
 therein he may be exemplary in good works, etc. 
 Moreover, it is a duty on all those that attend on 
 their ministry, to assist herein." That is to say, it 
 is the duty of every member to contribute to the 
 support of the minister sufficiently to relieve him of 
 financial anxiety, and also to supply him a surplus 
 beyond his own needs which he may use in charity 
 and hospitality as the representative of the church. 
 That was their duplex system according to the style 
 of the time and to the limit of their outlook for 
 church expenditure. 
 
 This exhibition of the primal position of the Bap- 
 tists touching the duty to use property for the 
 furtherance of the kingdom of Christ is so fuUv set 
 
HISTORICAL 5 
 
 out because it is basal, and because it is liable to 
 be forgotten or ignored. The understanding seems 
 to be quite widely extended that they had no clear 
 or adequate conception of this obligation, but their 
 conception was as clear and as adequate for the 
 whole field of church life, as then open to them 
 by their conditions and interpretations, as it is now 
 among their successors. History reveals some things 
 incompatible with the fixed foundation laid by them, 
 as well as other things seemingly incompatible but 
 not so, or so only in a modified way. Their slow- 
 ness and clumsiness in working out their principle 
 into more elaborate applications was true of all their 
 life. They were restrained by a conservatism that 
 was largely linked to fundamental convictions ; they 
 paused often and looked around carefully in these 
 things because that was their way in all things ; they 
 were particular, and sometimes possibly perverted, 
 in their expansions of organization and endeavor, 
 by a sensitiveness for freedom and a suspicion of 
 centralization, which was justified by their experi- 
 ences, the forces confronting them and certain perils 
 and possible disasters fairly within the range of 
 their two eyes, common sense, and doctrinal sound- 
 ness. But they never repudiated the original prin- 
 ciple of stewardship in material things, for the ade- 
 quate support of the ministry as the agent of the 
 church in the pulpit and beyond, for the promulga- 
 tion of sound doctrine, and the distribution of 
 sweet charity. 
 
 B 
 
O STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 But we must recognize that the Baptists, through- 
 out the eighteenth century and well into the nine- 
 teenth, to say nothing of later times, fell short in the 
 application of their standing principle of steward- 
 ship in money. With eminent exceptions, increasing 
 through the years, they were comparatively de- 
 ficient not only in the maintenance of the ministry 
 of the word, but in the housing of the churches and 
 otherwise. So do they seem to have stood in con- 
 trast with their brethren of later times in this par- 
 ticular that we may be excusable for being ashamed 
 of them. They were a virile host, spreading over 
 the land, with all the opportunities that others had 
 for the accumulation of property, and as they in- 
 creased in numbers they increased in resources. 
 Still the conviction cannot be escaped that in this 
 particular they were perhaps the most backward 
 among the Christian bodies. But they were not 
 stingy or stupid. They were at the front in all 
 frontier hospitalities and enterprises, warm-hearted 
 and open-handed in their homes toward their 
 preachers, and earnestly devoted to their churches 
 socially and doctrinally. We may criticize and 
 condemn them, but cautiously. From our advanced 
 altitude, which may not be so far advanced as the 
 optimistic think, we cannot safely hand out offhand 
 fulminations or indulge in hasty quips of sarcasm. 
 It may be safer for us to listen to the statements 
 of those who stood nearer to them, and who, while 
 disapproving their recognized deficiency, could dis- 
 
HISTORICAL 7 
 
 CUSS them more intelligently and sympathetically 
 than we are able to do. 
 
 Dr. David Benedict in the earlier part of the 
 nineteenth century seems to have been more widely 
 and intimately acquainted with the Baptists of the 
 whole country than any other person. In i860 he 
 published his " Fifty Years Among the Baptists," in 
 which he doubtless gave a very just description of 
 them as they were up to and through the period of 
 missionary inspiration and enlargement that came 
 to them when he was young. Having spoken of the 
 self-supporting character of the ministers, chiefly 
 as farmers, and their success in often becoming 
 wealthy, for the times, while planting churches in 
 the wilderness, he says : " It is a well-known fact 
 that a half-century since most of our ministers, 
 everywhere, were under the necessity of laboring 
 and planning for their own support, and that the 
 Baptists generally were more parsimonious in their 
 doings in this line than almost any other party in 
 the country. . . The great mass of our ministers 
 then had no settled income for their services, and 
 where moderate sums were pledged, in too many 
 cases they were slowly paid, if paid at all." 
 
 The first comprehensive discussion of denomina- 
 tional finances in the Philadelphia Association, and 
 probably anywhere, was in 1814. This was a few 
 months after the founding of the General Conven- 
 tion for Foreign Missions, amid the stirring of 
 missionary interest throughout the country. This 
 
8 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 discussion occupied the circular letter, written by 
 William White, pastor of the Second Church, Phila- 
 delphia. It evidently expressed the careful judg- 
 ment not only of the author, but also of other able 
 leaders, if not of all the people. It says, " No 
 preachers perhaps in the Union are so poorly pro- 
 vided for as our own," and our houses are burdened 
 with debts. Some extenuation is in the fact that 
 we cannot use some financial methods open to others, 
 in consequence of our sentiments on liberty and 
 spirituality. " The charge of penuriousness against 
 the Baptists is partly true and partly false." Some 
 give beyond their means ; others, individuals and 
 churches, shirk. " The remedy is that our brethren 
 be frequently admonished of their duty in this par- 
 ticular, and methods the most equal and least 
 oppressive be adopted." 
 
 Accepting as highly trustworthy these testimonies 
 of Benedict and White, we yet may be justified in 
 seeking both verification and modification of them. 
 To do this extensively would be burdensome and 
 perhaps superfluous. But briefly we may run our 
 eye along a single line of records that are consider- 
 ably illuminating and equally representative. The 
 Philadelphia Association, throughout the first cen- 
 tury of its existence, was the formative center of the 
 denomination. For forty-four years it stood alone 
 as a general organization, including approximately 
 all the churches ; and when other associations arose, 
 they sprang quite intimately from it and were much 
 
HISTORICAL 9 
 
 molded in principles and practices by it. Neces- 
 sarily, then, if we get a reasonably full and fair 
 view of financial stewardship in it, from 1707 to 
 1814, we get a like view of the whole Baptist fellow- 
 ship. To its records we now turn. 
 
 THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE 
 
 Opening up the records concerning the general 
 duty to regard property as a trust fund for service 
 we find only a little. But the meagerness of tTie 
 material may mislead us as to the prevalence of the 
 principle. Several things may be recalled. One 
 is that the Discipline, which taught as we have 
 already observed, was in general use. Another is 
 that the broad line of indoctrination by the Asso- 
 ciation, in the circular letters from 1774 to 1798, 
 followed the topics of the Confession, in which no 
 mention is made of this subject. Another is that 
 the Association was slow to express its views except 
 as called out by queries from the churches, and 
 queries of this character did not multiply. Another 
 is that the churches did not have much money avail- 
 able for any kind of consideration. These facts 
 combine to notify us not to expect extended discus- 
 sion of this principle, even if the people had been 
 more responsive tban they were to the calls in their 
 Discipline and in their own convictions. They were 
 conscious of more need of advice on various other 
 problems, and the Association, having nothing but 
 advice, directed that to the inquiries of the people. 
 
10 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 The " Pastoral Address," or circular letter, of 
 1762 was the first to lead out in this way. These 
 letters, brief as they are, reiterate almost to tedious- 
 ness, the duties of daily life in the home and the 
 community, private and family prayer, religious in- 
 struction of children, integrity and kindness gener- 
 ally, and faithfulness to the church in attendance 
 and fellowship. To these they often add appeals 
 to the churches to encourage and support their min- 
 isters in going out to the needy with the gospel. 
 Possibly this was understood more or less to in- 
 clude financial aid in that kind of work, but for a 
 long time it was not so recorded. But this year, 
 although the letter is not long, it reaches out against 
 covetousness, as follows : " Strengthen the hands of 
 your ministers, and be liberal of your ministerial 
 gifts to vacant places. Banish everything low, and 
 sordid conduct, the native product of groveling 
 minds, as being unworthy of the noble character 
 of a Christian. Let a public spirit of benevolence 
 and liberality be diffused among you. Be more am- 
 bitious of advancing the interests of the church of 
 Christ than of adding field to field, and becoming 
 rich at the expense of religion." 
 
 In 1790 the letter discussed " Good Works." It 
 reached the use of property by way of the duties 
 of the ministers, from a statement of which it pro- 
 ceeded to say : " But in return you must consider 
 it as your incumbent duty to strengthen their hands 
 for this good work, by affording them a competent 
 
HISTORICAL II 
 
 supply of the necessaries and conveniences of life. 
 For if they have sown unto you spiritual things, is 
 it a great thing if they should reap your carnal 
 things ? And can it be said that you have diligently 
 followed every good work if you suffer your minis- 
 ters to live in indigence, and their minds be per- 
 plexed for the want of those enjoyments of which 
 God has granted you a rich supply? Provide 
 houses decent and convenient for the public worship 
 of God. Is it fit for the servants of the Most High 
 to dwell in their ceiled houses, and to let the house 
 where his Honor dwells, and where his adorable 
 Majesty is addressed, to lie waste? Pay proper 
 attention to the poor, but especially endeavor to re- 
 lieve the wants of your needy brethren and sisters. 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive ; for they 
 who give to the poor lend to the Lord.'' 
 
 In 1 80 1 came the impressive letter opening the 
 century with the first world-wide view of the Asso- 
 ciation expressed in its records. On the theme of 
 most comprehensive missions, these sentences 
 marshal : " We hope better things of you than to 
 suppose that you are negligent in prayer for the 
 coming of Christ's kingdom ; yet we cannot but con- 
 clude, from solid grounds, that together with im- 
 portunity at the throne of grace, pecuniary exertions 
 for the diffusion of the gospel are particularly neces- 
 sary. , . Let each one act conscientiously, according 
 to the magnitude of the object and the ability God 
 has given. . . We are in danger of becoming worldly- 
 
12 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 minded, and by eagerly pursuing the accumulation 
 of wealth, giving the lie to our profession of love to 
 Christ, his people, and his laws." 
 
 During the three years preceding the appearance 
 of Luther Rice in this country for the promotion of 
 the Eastern mission, several actions of the Asso- 
 ciation throw significant sidelights on the broaden- 
 ing of the pressure of the stewardship conception 
 in practical applications. In 1810 the Second 
 Church in Philadelphia called the Association's at- 
 tention to the great lack of ministers and houses of 
 worship, submitting to its " serious investigation " 
 two queries : ( i ) "Is there nothing in the practice 
 of other societies [denominations], or of our breth- 
 ren abroad [English in India] worthy of our imita- 
 tion?" (2) "If not, is there no other expedient 
 which, consistent with the gospel, can be devised to 
 afiford the necessary aid? " In 181 1 it was proposed, 
 in view of the need of ministers, that the churches 
 " use the most liberal endeavors to obtain " pastors. 
 This seems to mean better pay. Touching the sup- 
 port of the ministry and the erection of houses of 
 worship, it was believed that " small regular and 
 annual subscriptions from all the members, in all 
 the churches, and from such members of the con- 
 gregation as may incline to assist, will meet exist- 
 ing exigencies." The great letter of 18 14, analyzing 
 this subject into ten divisions and all abreast of the 
 better sentiment of to-day, when writing " on feel- 
 ing the doing of this a duty," said : " Let us labor to 
 
HISTORICAL 13 
 
 impress this thought on our minds, that we are under 
 solemn obhgations to impart a suitable portion of 
 our goods to religious and charitable uses. Let us 
 try to feel that we are performing an act of worship 
 to God in so doing, that we may in no wise leave 
 undone, and that if so left God will require it of us." 
 
 The first attempt of the Association to secure 
 funds from the churches was in 1750. This is the 
 record : " The Association, taking into consideration 
 the advantages and benefits that will arise to the 
 interests of religion and the cause we profess, from 
 a public fund or stock in bank, well regulated, has 
 concluded to acquaint the several congregations we 
 belong to with the proposal, that if it seem meet to 
 them to further so good a purpose, by sending in 
 yearly such sums as the Lord shall bless them with, 
 and incline their hearts to contribute, that a begin- 
 ning be made against next year." For the date at 
 which it appeared this was an extraordinary proposal. 
 The Association then had no use for money so far as 
 its records show any activity needing financial sup- 
 port. It lacked five years of its first simple mis- 
 sionary movement and six years of its inauguration 
 of educational endeavor. It had not even begun to 
 print its brief records. It was so far barely, or but 
 little more than, a committee or council to express 
 the fellowship of the independent churches and give 
 them such advice as they asked. Hitherto everything 
 
14 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 beyond that had been left to the churches acting 
 individually. 
 
 But in its small company there were some great 
 men, who had already begun to move out per- 
 sonally along lines of expansion — Abel Morgan, 
 Benjamin Miller, Peter Van Horn, John Thomas, 
 Benjamin Griffith, Jenkin Jones, and others, men 
 of vision, whose souls were stirred with the sense 
 of coming events and sober enthusiasm for achieve- 
 ment in them. Their proposal no doubt had been 
 under consideration among them previously, and 
 now they thought the time ripe to send it on to 
 the churches. The natural way for them to have 
 started financial cooperation may seem to have been 
 by proposing some small enterprise and testing the 
 people through a call for aid in it. But tlieir pro- 
 posal was to begin an accumulation for undefined 
 need in an indefinite future. And they got nothing, 
 so far as the records show. People who have never 
 made up a common purse and who have exceedingly 
 little with which to make it, are not apt to be eager 
 to contribute without any definite proposal in sight. 
 The leaders may not have shown very marked 
 common sense in this move, but they did show clear 
 prescience of a future that would require resources 
 in reserve. 
 
 In 1755 the Association passed beyond asking the 
 churches to send their pastors into destitute regions, 
 and appointed two preachers to visit North Carolina 
 as missionaries. These men had been southward on 
 
HISTORICAL 15 
 
 their own account previously, doing what the Asso- 
 ciation had long been urging the churches to sup- 
 port the pastors in doing. The appointment is 
 followed by this clause, " the several churches to 
 contribute to bear their expense." The result is not 
 reported. Probably a report was not expected, but 
 the funds were to go directly to the missionaries. 
 The first attempt to found a fund may have de- 
 veloped opposition on the ground of propriety. 
 Whatever looked like setting up a central authority 
 was a red flag to Baptists then. The leaders per- 
 haps were not so much afraid of it, since they were 
 to manage the fund, but some of the people may 
 have been shy, and not much protest was necessary 
 to call a halt. 
 
 The silence ensuing after the effort of 1750 con- 
 tinued unbroken until 1766. In the meantime sev- 
 eral things had occurred : Morgan Edwards had 
 come; tables of church statistics in membership 
 had begun to appear; the Minutes of the Associa- 
 tion had reached the printer; thirty churches had 
 been enrolled, with over two thousand, two hundred 
 members ; enlargement and advancement were stir- 
 ring thought in many ways ; contributions for charity 
 and education had been secured; and all things 
 were ready for the renewal of the proposal of 
 fifteen years before. It was agreed that the 
 churches take quarterly collections for a fund to be 
 invested by trustees, " the interest whereof only to be 
 laid out every year in support of ministers traveling 
 
l6 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 on the errand of the churches, or otherwise, as the 
 necessities of said churches shall require." Thir- 
 teen churches responded with two hundred and ten 
 dollars, and it was resolved " to continue a collec- 
 tion every quarter for the said fund." How far 
 this proposal, sometimes repeated, was effectuated in 
 detail is not known. But for the nine years next 
 succeeding, contributions by the churches for the 
 associational fund were reported, the annual 
 amounts running from twenty to ninety-five dollars. 
 
 The tenth year was 1776, in which the prominent 
 item of the records is that touching " the awful im- 
 pending calamities of these times," and the recom- 
 mendation of quarterly days of humiliation, prayer, 
 and fasting, with nothing about the fund. The 
 presence of the British in Philadelphia prevented 
 the meeting of the Association in 1777. From this 
 time on this fund does not appear, unless in 1778 
 and 1779, r.nder the title of " Continental Fund." 
 In these years settlement was made with the retiring 
 treasurer, who turned over two funds, one of which 
 was a " balance," not otherwise designated, which 
 was slightly more than the Association fund so far 
 as reported, and for the existence of which no other 
 explanation seems to be suggested than that it' was 
 the same.^ 
 
 An action of 1778, midway of the war, reveals 
 the missionary spirit in financial garb. It is this: 
 " A motion being made for raising a fund, the 
 interest of which to be appropriated to the par- 
 
HISTORICAL 17 
 
 ticular and express purpose of preaching the gospel 
 in destitute places, among the back settlements, at 
 the direction of the Association; agreed to recom- 
 mend the same to the churches, and that the in- 
 terest of whatever may be raised for that purpose 
 shall be strictly appropriated to that purpose only." 
 This action seems to show dissatisfaction with the 
 use that had been partly made of the income from 
 the Association fund. From the beginning it had 
 been used for missionary purposes mainly, if not 
 entirely. But the men who had been sent out 
 by its aid, especially the more conspicuous, the " con- 
 tinental " evangelists, had not given themselves ex- 
 clusively, possibly not chiefly, to the destitute places 
 and back settlements. This new movement was, if 
 not a protest against the preceding use of the Asso- 
 ciation fund, at least a provision for something more 
 helpful for the most destitute. The results of this 
 effort are not known. The conditions were excep- 
 tionally unfavorable. 
 
 Throughout the remainder of the war and after- 
 ward till 1792, no record of any financial action in 
 relation to missions was made. In this last year the 
 recommendation was that the churches immediately 
 raise a sum sufficient to meet the expenses of three 
 preachers who proposed a campaign in the interior 
 of Pennsylvania; result not stated. Two years 
 later the foreign mission enterprise of the Baptists 
 of England was recognized and provision made for 
 receiving and forwarding money for that cause. 
 
l8 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 With little exception, this interest was kept before 
 the people in succeeding years, but the home work 
 dropped out of sight or, rather remained out of 
 sight, as it had been almost totally for fifteen years, 
 so far as gifts of money are concerned, though aid 
 in simple ways by supplies continued. In 1800, how- 
 ever, the plan for a fund to assist preachers who 
 should help weak churches and evangelize the desti- 
 tute was revived, and the next year four churches 
 responded with forty-six dollars. The record seems 
 to show that this contribution was to be used at 
 once, not invested. In 1802 it was recommended 
 that each church appoint a day for having a mis- 
 sionary sermon preached and taking a collection for 
 that cause. In 1803 a committee was appointed to 
 inquire into the expenses of ministers who had 
 " visited churches for two years past," and the 
 plan of a missionary society was commended. This 
 was organized in 1804, and took over the home mis- 
 sion operations from the Association, which, how- 
 ever, published the society's reports and advocated 
 its claims, resulting in the accumulation of $1,388 
 by 1814, so far as reported in the Association. In 
 1810 the annual sermon of the society was incor- 
 porated in the program of the Association, pre- 
 sumably with a collection; and in 181 1 " The Asso- 
 ciation recommends that the collections raised at 
 the several churches in the city, on Wednesday eve- 
 ning of Association Week, be appropriated to the 
 Missionary Society." 
 
HISTORICAL 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 In 1722 the Association instituted inquiry, through 
 the churches, for " any young persons hopeful for 
 the ministry, and incHnable to learning." The pur- 
 pose, however, seems not to have been to contribute 
 aid to such persons, but to commend them for assist- 
 ance to ]\Ir. Hollis, the generous Baptist of England, 
 whose benefactions to education in America linked 
 his name with several lines of educational activity 
 here. Evidence is not found that the Philadelphia, 
 or other American, Baptists gave anything in that 
 connection. 
 
 In 1756, with seeming abruptness, but doubtless 
 as the product of careful consideration through pre- 
 ceding years, an action appears in the record. It 
 reveals the purpose " to raise a sum of money to- 
 ward the encouragement of a Latin grammar school 
 for the promotion of learning among us." It was to 
 be " under the care of Isaac Eaton," a pastor who 
 founded the school and became its principal. It 
 was also under " the inspection " of four eminent 
 ministers in the Association. This guaranteed it to 
 the churches as worthy and safe for investment. 
 Among the pupils who soon sought its privileges were 
 some who became valuable leaders. The next year 
 and the year following the churches were called " to 
 contribute their mites toward its support." In 1761 
 a letter to Baptists in England reported this academy 
 as promising, and further prefaced a call for Eastern 
 
20 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 aid by the statement that it had " no more than 
 twenty-four pounds a year toward its support." This 
 sum, about one hundred and twenty dollars, prob- 
 ably represented the contributions in the preceding 
 five years toward its endowment. Here the academy 
 drops out of sight until 1797, when the trustees 
 of this fund asked that they might be discharged 
 and the fund turned over to the trustees of the As- 
 sociation, who, having the management of other 
 funds for the same purpose, could handle the whole 
 as one to better advantage than the two bodies of 
 trustees could separately. This adjustment was 
 made, but no information appears of the amount 
 transferred. Whence came this other fund? Some 
 of it may have come from living contributors, 
 though we have no evidence of this, the Minutes 
 showing nothing of the transactions of the trustees 
 of the Association. 
 
 But they run quite clear and full concerning an- 
 other fund arising from a legacy left in 1767, or 
 earlier, to the Association for ministerial education 
 by Mrs. Hubbs, of Hopewell, N. J.; for this year 
 income from it was disposed of by the Association. 
 The property was partly, and perhaps wholly, real 
 estate. Whenever Mrs. Hubbs may have passed 
 away, her benefaction had been made to yield, 
 in 1767, at least seventy dollars, for this amount 
 was appropriated to Charles Thompson, a student in 
 Rhode Island College. For about ten years fol- 
 lowing, with an occasional omission, this income. 
 
HISTORICAL 21 
 
 being at first seventy, and later ninety dollars, was 
 appropriated to various students for the ministry, 
 either in Hopewell Academy or Rhode Island Col- 
 lege. This brings us into the midst of the war, 
 when depression and disorder became conspicuous 
 in nearly all things. And in 1779 " the money of 
 Mrs. Hubbs' donation," $1,145, was placed in the 
 " Continental Fund." 
 
 In 1764 Rhode Island College, then contemplated, 
 appeared in the records, and the opinion was ex- 
 pressed that " the churches should be liberal in con- 
 tributing toward carrying the same into execution." 
 Two years later this sentiment' was repeated, and 
 the next succeeding year the churches were " to 
 forward the subscriptions for Rhode Island Col- 
 lege," implying that such was known to be in hand 
 or in sight. In 1769 it was resolved that moneys 
 raised in the Middle Provinces should be invested in 
 these Provinces, the interest to be taken out only on 
 order of the college " to pay the president's salary." 
 In 1774 a plan originally adopted by the Charleston 
 Association was commended, the funds to be sent to 
 Rhode Island; two contributions, each of less than 
 five dollars, were reported, and the statement was 
 made that '' the church at New York raised above 
 what was proposed by the plan adopted," but the 
 amount was not recorded. In 1782 a call went forth 
 for participation in the general movement to get 
 the college into operation after the war, during 
 which its operations had been suspended. 
 
22 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 The legacy of Mrs. Hubbs did not remain alone. 
 During that century three others came before the 
 Association. The first of these appeared in 1782, 
 having originated three years earlier. At that date 
 John Honeywell, of Knowlton, N. J., left " the whole 
 of his estate for the education of poor children in 
 that neighborhood." His original design probably 
 was to place this gift in the Association fund, but 
 it finally took the other course, three prominent 
 Baptist ministers being made trustees in addition 
 to two local executors. Both the will and the his- 
 tory of the plant are somewhat mixed, but the school 
 has continued till the present under the direction 
 of the Association. At its Centennial, 1898, the 
 fund amounted to more than six thousand, five hun- 
 dred dollars, in addition to school buildings. 
 
 The other two legacies have not' come to so good 
 a showing. One of them was a devise in 1787 by 
 Reese Jones, of Delaware, " to the ministers of this 
 Association for the education of young men," pre- 
 sumably for the ministry. In that year the Associa- 
 tion appointed representatives for the " recovery " 
 of that estate, pledging itself to bear the expense. 
 The next year this pledge was repeated, but no 
 progress reported in " attempting t'o recover the 
 estate," beyond which no reference to it appears. 
 The other attempt, seemingly unsuccessful, to secure 
 demised property, is brought to light in 1792, in these 
 words : " Whereas there is or ought to be a con- 
 siderable sum of money in the hands of heirs, 
 
HISTORICAL 23 
 
 executors, or administrators of the late Isaac Jones, 
 Esq., belonging to the funds of the grammar school 
 under the direction of this Association, the amount 
 of which is at present uncertain," a committee was 
 appointed to use all necessary means to secure the 
 same. After this silence reigns. The fair infer- 
 ence is that all of these two legacies was lost, as 
 part of the Honeywell was. 
 
 It is thus made clear that prior to 1795 four 
 legacies were left to the Philadelphia Association 
 for education, in three kinds — ^general, ministerial, 
 and poor children. It is also evident that the Asso- 
 ciation and its churches were actively interested, to 
 an extent now undefinable, in behalf of all these 
 kinds of education within its own borders, as well 
 as for the Rhode Island College, in connection with 
 general movements in that interest. 
 
 Going back a few years we find the inception of 
 another movement in the Association toward min- 
 isterial education. In 1789, conference on "the 
 necessity and importance of raising a fund for the 
 education of pious and promising young men for. 
 the ministry " led to the starting of subscriptions in 
 the churches for that purpose, the persons present 
 agreeing to promote the effort and bring the results 
 to the next annual meeting for the disposal of the 
 body. At the same time they became responsible 
 for one hundred and twenty-five dollars in aid of 
 Silas Walton, who was to be taught by Dr. Samuel 
 Jones ; the student giving bonds to return the money 
 
24 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 within seven years " if he should not become a 
 minister of our order within that time, and con- 
 tinue therein." This Walton program was con- 
 tinued the following year, with the encouragement 
 of one hundred and eighty dollars from ten churches. 
 The next year showed a falling off in contributions 
 to fifty dollars and the taking on of another bene- 
 ficiary, for whom the surplus of the preceding year 
 was appropriated. Here information of this kind 
 ceases till 1800, when another youth is recognized, 
 and a call sent out to meet his needs, resulting in 
 sixty dollars from five churches. The next year 
 sixty-five dollars came from six churches, and the 
 Association proposed that an annual sermon be 
 preached in the churches in connection with effort 
 to secure funds for ministerial education. For the 
 four years next following, 1803-1806, contributions 
 to this cause are reported, ranging from fifty-three 
 to eighty-four dollars annually. Then follows a 
 blank for several years except' 1809, when seven 
 dollars is in sight. 
 
 THE ASSOCIATION LIBRARY 
 
 For more than fifty years the Association owned 
 a library to which it contributed a small amount for 
 care and repairs. No record remains of any other 
 investment in it. This library was for the use of 
 ministers destitute of books or but poorly supplied 
 witli them. It was probably the first circulating 
 library among Baptists in America. Appropriated 
 
HISTORICAL 25 
 
 to the use of ministers only, it may be listed under 
 ministerial education. It originated in a gift of 
 books by Mr. Hollis, of England. The first refer- 
 ence to it in the Minutes of the Association was 
 in 1761, when two brethren were appointed libra- 
 rians to receive and circulate " the books that were 
 sometime since sent to us by Mr. Thomas Hollis." 
 In a communication of the same date to " The Board 
 of Ministers in London," the Association, after ap- 
 pealing for aid for the academy, wrote, " We have 
 also of late endeavored to form a library at Phila- 
 delphia," for which it was intimated that assist- 
 ance would be welcome. This suggests that possibly 
 the Americans had contributed something to the 
 Hollis foundation. 
 
 For the next nineteen years nothing on this sub- 
 ject appears, when a librarian was named to collect 
 and distribute the books. He, William Van Horn, 
 made a written report, which was filed, and a com- 
 mittee was instructed to examine the books with 
 reference to repairs, and report. This report ap- 
 peared a year later, 1784, stating that the bindings 
 had been repaired and that eighteen dollars re- 
 mained of the money previously provided for this 
 purpose. This surplus was appropriated partly to 
 Van Horn " for his superintendence of said busi- 
 ness " and partly to postage. Excepting the claim 
 of the First Church in Philadelphia that some books 
 belonging to it had been absorbed by the Associa- 
 tion's library, nothing is heard on this subject until 
 
26 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 1807, when a proposal was approved to distribute 
 the books among the churches as soon as they could 
 be collected in order to relieve the Association of 
 the care of them. 
 
 The last entry on this subject was in 1812: " x\s 
 the books of the Philadelphia Association were 
 originally given by our English brethren with a 
 view of affording help to our churches in this 
 country when themselves and the country were in 
 a state of infancy, now that the Lord has greatly 
 increased us, and books and information are gen- 
 erally within our reach, we submit to the churches 
 of this Association, and to those recently formed 
 out of us into an Association in New Jersey, whether 
 it would not answer fully the pious designs of the 
 donors, and be on our part a service as grateful 
 to ourselves as profitable to our brethren in the 
 new settlements in the back countries where books 
 are exceedingly scarce, were we to distribute the 
 library among them for their edification." No 
 record of response to this nor anything else about 
 the library has been preserved. The presumption is 
 that it went West when about fifty-five years of age 
 and renewed its youth on the frontier of that date. 
 
 CHARITY 
 
 Contributions of money for the benefit of the 
 needy in ways beyond those reached by the funds 
 for missions and education also began early. Help- 
 fulness in these fields can never be fully tabulated. 
 
HISTORICAL 27 
 
 But especially in earlier times it followed the private 
 ways, along family, church, and neighborhood con- 
 nections. In many instances it was supplemental 
 to the more effective gifts of the helpful hand and 
 the sympathetic heart. In personal contacts the 
 great volume of finest ministries of this class has 
 always been rendered. With the complexities of 
 more modern civilization this becomes less so, to 
 the great injury of heart culture. But in those 
 simpler times, when no charity organizations and 
 machines existed, on which the individuals could lay 
 these burdens or through which they could shirk 
 them, these charities were compelled to go by hand 
 and from house to house. Recall that the Church 
 Discipline laid it down as the duty of every mem- 
 ber not only to be neighborly toward the destitute, 
 but to furnish to the minister beyond his necessities 
 for this very purpose. This kind of practical Chris- 
 tianity is well in evidence throughout the earlier 
 records of the Philadelphia Association and others. 
 A few instances, however, come into view of com- 
 bined responses to more distant calls, involving ap- 
 peals to the churches. 
 
 In 1756 it was " concluded to advise our several 
 congregations to make some charitable contributions 
 toward the relief of the present necessity of our 
 brother, Mr. Samuel Heaton, who was driven from 
 his possessions by the Indians." 
 
 In 1770 an appeal came from the Warren Asso- 
 ciation to help in defraying the expenses of an agent 
 
28 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 to go to England and lay before " our gracious 
 sovereign " the distresses of some brethren perse- 
 cuted by the government of Massachusetts for their 
 religion, it seeming impossible to get relief from the 
 authorities in that colony. The record nms that: 
 " The request was attended to with much sympathy ; 
 collections to be made in all the churches imme- 
 diately." Three years later money that had been 
 sent for this purpose was returned to such of the 
 churches as so desired, the proposed mission to the 
 throne not having been consummated. But the 
 next year, 1774, another appeal went out for the 
 same sufferers, " to contribute to their necessities, 
 agreeable to the pattern of the primitive churches," 
 which brought in over fifty dollars, nearly all from 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1774 also, James Sutton, an esteemed minister 
 in the West, having asked an appropriation from the 
 Association fund, on account of " the loss of his 
 papers and effects by fire," was certified to the 
 churches, who were asked " to contribute to his 
 necessities," and forty-five dollars came in from 
 six churches. 
 
 So are glimpses given of the stewardship in money 
 during the Colonial period for losses by the elements, 
 the savages, and the persecutors in Massachusetts. 
 
 SPECIAL AID TO CHURCHES 
 
 Special appeals for assistance in specific needs of 
 churches began early. Doubtless a considerable 
 
HISTORICAL 29 
 
 business of this nature was disposed of informally 
 in the Association or outside of it by those com- 
 posing it in connection with its meetings and other- 
 wise. But three enterprises took such form in the 
 meetings that they secured lodgment in the pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 The first of these was in 1776. " A petition from 
 the church in Konoloway " led the Association to 
 request the churches to send money for investment 
 for the permanent benefit of that church. How the 
 investment was made and for what use in particular 
 is not known, but seven churches responded with 
 sixt)' dollars. 
 
 The second was in 1795, when "' an application for 
 assistance to build a meeting-house in Savannah, 
 Ga.," providing privileges in the gallery for Negroes, 
 secured seventy-two dollars. 
 
 The third was in 1796, when five churches pro- 
 vided sixty dollars to aid the church in Shamokin, 
 Pa., in building a house of worship. 
 
 HISTORICAL CORRESPONDENCE AND PUBLICATION 
 
 In 1802 the Association set in motion a con- 
 tinental plan for gathering historical materials and 
 publishing pamphlets growing out of the same. 
 Those present pledged for themselves and the 
 churches they represented two dollars for each 
 church. Under the guidance of Dr. William Rogers 
 this work was prosecuted for several years success- 
 fully. When the papers of his estate were lost at 
 
30 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 sea on the way to Rhode Island College, this mate- 
 rial may have been among- them. If it was, also 
 his extensive correspondence On other lines, the loss 
 was presumably the most serious up to that time in 
 Baptist historical material in America. 
 
 THE BAPTIST MAP 
 
 In 1779 a committee was appointed " to prepare 
 a map of the situation of the churches in this Asso- 
 ciation, and to inform themselves of the probable 
 expense attending its engraving." On the presenta- 
 tion of the map the next year and the statement 
 that its cost would be about one hundred dollars, 
 each church was " recommended " to send four 
 dollars " to complete the designs " at the next meet- 
 ing. Responses were made by churches and indi- 
 viduals. The amount being insufficient and assur- 
 ances being given that more might be secured, the 
 appeal was continued, with the understanding that 
 the plates were to be the property of the Asso- 
 ciation and the maps sold " at the lowest rate pos- 
 sible." Succeeding minutes fail to exhibit the map. 
 This may be accounted for, in part at least, by the 
 appearance of an unusual array of other enter- 
 prises, original and revived, calling for money and 
 absorbing attention, in consequence of which the 
 map may have been hung on the wall of oblivion. - 
 
 If one gathers out of the preceding all the items 
 and analyzes them into their elements, he may find 
 that he has on hand a larger variety than he 
 
HISTORICAL 31 
 
 expected. Circumscribed as those lives were and re- 
 stricted in many ways, they yet managed to push 
 out with money over a range of service hardly less 
 than what we have attained. They had recognized 
 the same general principles, and had applied them 
 substantially as we do now. Quantitatively, of 
 course, their showing shrivels in the comparison ; but 
 relatively, in the light of resources and conditions, 
 our discretion will not be eager to press the com- 
 parison. 
 
 THE LARGER PROSPECT 
 
 I. Prosperity and Proportion. Looking now 
 beyond the Philadelphia Association, though not 
 excluding it, and extending the time limit a few 
 decades, we proceed. The general proposition that 
 material possessions must be tributary to the serv- 
 ice of God stood for considerable time almost with- 
 out amplification beyond what we have already seen. 
 The principles on which this proposition rested, or 
 into which it expanded in application, were not 
 brought forward clearly or fully. But with the 
 opening of the nineteenth century, and responsive 
 to the various expansions of opportunities calling 
 for increase of financial resources, this larger dis- 
 cussion came out and stood forth. Perhaps more 
 than any other year of that period, 1814 may be 
 taken as the flowering year in this particular. We 
 get the substance of the whole from two distin- 
 guished documents. 
 
32 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 First comes, in May, the sermon of Doctor Fur- 
 man in connection with the founding of the Tri- 
 ennial Convention. That event was in a conspicu- 
 ous way the culmination of a long rising tide of 
 missionary outlook, and the sermon that voiced the 
 situation naturally bore on its crest the pressing 
 problem of means for the forward movement at 
 hand. Among its closing words are these : " Let 
 therefore all the considerations we have urged from 
 the word of God on this sublime subject be duly 
 regarded that they may concentrate their whole 
 force on the heart and give an impulse to action, 
 which, through the grace of the Redeemer, no diffi- 
 culties can retard, no opposition withstand. Let 
 the wise and good employ their counsels; the 
 minister of Christ, who is qualified for the sacred 
 office, offer himself for the work; the man of 
 wealth and generosity, who values the glory of 
 Emmanuel and the salvation of souls more than 
 gold, bring of his treasures in proportion as God 
 has bestowed on him; yea, let all, even the pious 
 widow, bring the mite that can be spared." 
 
 The other of these two utterances was the Cir- 
 cular Letter of the Philadelphia Association in Octo- 
 ber, devoted exclusively to the problem, of money 
 for religious uses. It appealed for retrenchment 
 of expenses, especially luxuries, in the interest of 
 benevolence ; and concerning luxuries it said : " At 
 any rate, if indulgence in such things is lawful, it 
 is so only when a sum proportionate to our wealth 
 
HISTORICAL 33 
 
 remains for charitable uses." Under " proportions 
 of distribution," which " ought always to depend 
 on what we possess," it said that the deficiencies of 
 the rich often overburden the poor, and, " it cer- 
 tainly is not our duty to give when our families 
 will suffer by our generosity, nor when the property 
 we have is not our own ; yet to keep up a sense of 
 duty, and to show our good will, we should oblige 
 ourselves to bestow a trifle at least that will not 
 injure us." In another place, where the comparative 
 backwardness of Baptists is explained, the letter 
 says : " Let a Baptist seriously ask himself this 
 question, what proportion of my wealth do I now 
 give to the support of the cause I have espoused and 
 pronounced truth, of what I used to give while my 
 heart was a stranger to Godliness, or while I re- 
 mained in a different communion? . . We may 
 thank the corruptions of Christianity for this 
 evil. The members of our churches had been borne 
 down by religious tyranny. They had groaned under 
 heavy religious imposts, they had seen an order of 
 men raised up above them in religion, a kind of 
 nobility unapproachable, with little religion, less 
 zeal, and no spirituality, a few excepted; hence, 
 without tracing those evils to their true sources, 
 they went to the other extreme, and starved a spirit- 
 ual clergy and did but little to render religious 
 worship comfortable." The effort here is to correct 
 the error of this recoil, with reference first to home 
 interests. 
 
34 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 In 1833 an editorial in the " American Baptist 
 Magazine," presenting the cause of the Baptist 
 Building Fund, said : " The present may be desig- 
 nated, more than any former period, as the age of 
 liberality and benevolence. Although we would not 
 prescribe efforts to make men feel the pressing 
 claims of immediate duty by setting forth the wants 
 of societies, individuals, and churches in the most 
 touching manner, yet we would deem it a blessing 
 to see men give regularly to stated objects a stated 
 sum, and whatever else they would, in voluntary 
 contribution. Every Christian, we think, should 
 deem himself in debt to the cause of the Redeemer 
 for a certain annual amount; and should be as 
 uneasy if that be not paid as if he were long in 
 debt to his merchant." Having referred to the 
 debt of tithes and offerings in the Old Testament, 
 under the conception of Christian liberty, it con- 
 tinued : " There is good reason to suppose that the 
 fact to be learned from the history of God's requi- 
 sitions for the Jewish tabernacle is that we should 
 set apart a definite and worthy portion of our 
 wealth for the cause of Christ, as his ancient peo- 
 ple were bound to do for the tabernacle." 
 
 The Philadelphia Association in 1840 earnestly 
 recommended to the churches to adopt " system- 
 atic measures for contributing " to Bible trans- 
 lation. The next year it approved of a " one-cent- 
 a-week plan " for State missions, which was 
 repeated in 1842 and later. 
 
HISTORICAL 35 
 
 The " Magazine '' in 1846 published, with strong 
 commendation, a long discussion of " The Divine 
 Method of Raising Charitable Contributions," bor- 
 rowed from a publication of the American Board. 
 This urges contributions frequently, statedly, and 
 proportionately on the basis of prosperity, saying: 
 " As certainly as every member of the church is an 
 individual being, just so certainly is every one 
 ordered to lay by in store as God has prospered 
 him." In the same year the Philadelphia Associa- 
 tion, in view of the pressing needs of missions and 
 the duty of every one to respond, said : " It is 
 highly important that in every church systematic 
 effort should be made to communicate intelligence 
 to each member, and to secure the cooperation of 
 each member in sending the gospel to the heathen." 
 And next year the Missionary Union, disclaiming 
 any design to dictate methods to the churches, de- 
 clared that " the plan whose object is to induce 
 every member of every church to contribute cheer- 
 fully, regularly, and according to his ability, is the 
 only plan which promises to the missionary enter- 
 prise a reliable and abundant increase and the 
 largest prosperity to the churches. No person 
 is to be passed by whom Christ has made a 
 missionary laborer. The whole work of the enter- 
 prise cannot be done without his help. Nor can he 
 withhold it and do his whole duty to Christ." 
 
 In 1847 the West Kensington Church, Philadel- 
 phia, reported to the Association that it had " exer- 
 
36 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 cised a rigid discipline, and excluded several mem- 
 bers for the sin of covetousness." In 1850 the 
 Association feared that "many are fettered hand 
 and foot by covetousness." This was in the report 
 of the Committee on Domestic Missions, and in the 
 same year the Committee on Foreign Missions, 
 speaking of those in sympathy with this and all 
 good works, said : " The grand lack as to these is 
 system. Not only should their contributions be 
 gathered and remitted by a regular system, but each 
 should adopt in his entire system of almsgiving a 
 fixed rule of proportion. If every Christian would 
 on his knees dedicate to God so many cents on every 
 dollar he earns, and divide the amount between the 
 different calls of benevolence, paying it over to the 
 proper collectors at stated periods, without solicita- 
 tion, what a revolution would we see in the sublime 
 work of the church of God! And why should not 
 every Christian examine what ought to be his rule 
 of proportion? There is and must be a right meas- 
 ure for every degree of wealth or poverty. We may 
 settle it at one, twenty, or fifty per cent, but we 
 should settle it. We are either right or wrong in 
 the amount we contribute, and no man knows that 
 he is right in anything unless he has a standard. 
 The Holy Spirit says we are to give ' as God has 
 prospered us.' We are thus furnished as we are in 
 other cases with a general rule, and left to decide its 
 application to specific cases." 
 
 These views now and before now had become 
 
HISTORICAL 37 
 
 generally diffused and were frequently pressed. 
 The universal duty to contribute systematically 
 according to ability had become commonplace 
 among missionary Baptists, theoretically at least. 
 
 2. Various Percentage Plans. Leaving the 
 ground principle of stewardship according to 
 ability on some basis of proportion, we come now 
 to the problem of percentage in more definite detail. 
 What part of one's possessions, whether in the 
 aggregate or the income, ought he to set apart? 
 The earlier methods, missionary and others, did 
 not attempt to solve this problem. They left the 
 individual free and unadvised on this point. Their 
 organizations usually provided for a uniform pay- 
 ment for beginning and for continuing, without 
 regard to differing abilities among the members. 
 The admittance fee was usually one dollar or half 
 of it, and where members were taxed for continu- 
 ous payments, the amount was oftener one cent a 
 week than otherwise. This scheme appeared chiefly 
 in the women's societies. In the later and larger 
 movement of the women, two cents weekly became 
 the ruling standard. These bases, however, related 
 solely to the support of the one society without 
 reference to the aggregate obligation of the individ- 
 ual to the cause. 
 
 Early in the nineteenth century glints of more 
 definite methods begin to come into view. They 
 probably are only glints, though not representing 
 much of a total. The century had opened before the 
 
38 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 Baptists had any periodical literature through which 
 to express themselves, and still later the opportu- 
 nities for individual expressions were very meager. 
 It is not safe, therefore, to think that a complete 
 report, or even a majority report, of all those who 
 made some adjustment of their whole material pos- 
 sessions to the needs of the divine cause, ever ap- 
 peared, or that it would show much. Still there 
 was enough to invite attention to it. 
 
 The Circular Letter of the Philadelphia Associa- 
 tion in 1814 says: "One gentleman in Philadelphia 
 has set an example worthy of imitation, it being his 
 unalterable practice to appropriate a certain part 
 of his clear gains to constitute a fund applicable 
 only to the doing of good." We have no means of 
 identifying this person or of learning what portion 
 he set aside. The writer of that letter was in close 
 association with the centers of missionary and other 
 benevolent life in the city, and his language seems 
 to involve that he knew of only one such giver. 
 This one may or may not have been a Baptist. 
 
 A letter from " A Georgia Planter " appeared 
 in the " Baptist Magazine," May, 1823, enclosing 
 ten dollars, which, while it does not prove a definite 
 percentage, suggests it, and is so suggestive in other 
 particulars that we may do well to see it in full : 
 " Here is a mite enclosed for your society. It is 
 part of the proceeds of a cotton-field, for benevolent 
 purposes. I helped to plow the ground, plant, hoe, 
 pick, gin, and pack the cotton with my own hands. 
 
HISTORICAL 39 
 
 A part of the proceeds is for the Colonization So- 
 ciety. My servants would show their large white 
 teeth when, to encourage them to do their work 
 well, I informed them that this cotton was designed 
 to be a means of enlightening their brethren in 
 Africa. Don't you think that Christians, by and 
 by, will act more like stewards with the property 
 God has given them? I think it better to give now 
 and then a mite, which the Lord may have bestowed 
 upon me, to advance his cause, than to lavish it on 
 profligate and dissipated sons. Will not God at a 
 future day require the property he has loaned us? 
 We see you Northern folks seem conscious of this 
 by the exertions you are using to advance the Re- 
 deemer's cause. This has become a fortunate lega- 
 tee in comparison with what it was fifty years ago. 
 We down here, so near the equator, think we can 
 discover the upper limb of the millennium sun al- 
 ready. Will he not get clear above the horizon by 
 1866?" 
 
 The Historical Discourse at the fiftieth anniver- 
 sary of the Vermont State Convention, 1875, reports 
 the receipts in 1825 as two hundred and fifty-one 
 dollars, " and nearly one-half of that in goods " ; 
 that sixteen auxiliary societies were represented, 
 and that one of these was " a flock society," which is 
 explained as follows : " These latter societies, the 
 members of which kept one or more sheep, the 
 profits of which were sacred to mission work, were 
 quite common in the earlier years of the Conven- 
 
40 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 tion." Such societies existed in other States in 
 those days. 
 
 The " Magazine " of January, 1830, contains a 
 communication from " K," transmitting a contri- 
 bution from " An Unknown Friend," who had asked 
 him to find a place for its usefulness. This friend 
 wrote : " About three years since I was impressed 
 with the duty of contributing to missions and other 
 religious purposes, and concluded to appropriate a 
 certain per cent of my income to that purpose. That 
 year I was enabled to give five dollars. The next 
 year I was enabled, by divine Providence, to double 
 the small sum. At the commencement of this year 
 I was induced to put by twice my former percent- 
 age, and in consequence am enabled to remit to 
 your care twenty dollars." 
 
 In 1845, Nathan Brown, then a missionary in 
 Assam, published in the " Magazine " a strenuous 
 appeal for increase of missionary contributions. In- 
 timations had reached him that that field might be 
 abandoned because of deficient funds. He declared 
 that he would not abandon it, that he would send his 
 family home and stay there anyway; and on this 
 basis he urged the supporters to do better. His 
 specific recommendation was that each one " devote 
 the proceeds of one day's labor every month to the 
 cause of missions." He assured the brethren that 
 that was not all they ought to give to the Lord, but 
 if enough of them would do that much for foreign 
 missions the impending disaster would be averted. 
 
HISTORICAL 41 
 
 The " Missionary Magazine '• for December, 
 1846. gave a table of contributions from the north- 
 ern States to foreign missions in the preceding fiscal 
 year, and added this : " The average per member 
 was greatest in the State of Rhode Island, where 
 it was one dollar and seventeen cents. Of one 
 church in that State we have recently heard it said, 
 that during the last year every member contributed 
 to the cause of foreign missions. The largest do- 
 nation w^as five hundred dollars, the smallest three 
 cents. As the church is numerous, the amount for- 
 warded to the treasury was large, exceeding, with 
 perhaps one exception, that of any other Baptist 
 church in the United States. She is by no means 
 the wealthiest church; but, we have reason to be- 
 lieve, she has succeeded in diffusing quite thor- 
 oughly among her members the missionary spirit." 
 
 The early action of the American missionaries in 
 Burma seems to be pertinent here. From the begin- 
 ning Judson held that his time belonged to the mis- 
 sionary cause on the basis of the living it provided 
 for him. He therefore retained nothing of any 
 funds coming to him from any other source during 
 his life in the East, from the British Government 
 for services rendered it or from any other source, 
 with slight exception. In 1828 he went farther than 
 this in renunciation of possessions that are com- 
 monly regarded as the right of every one. In that 
 year he wrote to the secretary of the Triennial Con- 
 vention : '■' When I left America I brought with 
 
42 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 me a considerable sum of money, the avails of my 
 own earnings and the gifts of my relatives and 
 personal friends. This money has been accumula- 
 ting at interest for many years under the manage- 
 ment of a kind friend to the mission, and occasion- 
 ally receiving accessions from other quarters, par- 
 ticularly at the close of the late war, until it 
 amounts to twelve thousand rupees [six thousand 
 dollars]. I now beg leave to present it to the 
 Board, or rather to Him who loved us and washed 
 us from our sins in his own blood." Four months 
 later he and his colleague, Jonathan Wade, sent to 
 the same official a communication in which they pro- 
 posed, in view of the pressing needs of the mission, 
 to relinquish one-twentieth of their allowance from 
 the Board, to which they added : " We respectfully 
 suggest that a similar proposal be made to the Bap- 
 tist ministers in the United States ; and we engage 
 that, as soon as it shall appear that one hundred 
 ministers, including ourselves, have resolved to 
 transmit to the treasurer of the American Baptist 
 Board of Foreign Missions one-twentieth of all their 
 regular income, whether derived from their salaries 
 or estates, we will relinquish a second twentieth of 
 our allowance, that is, one-tenth of the whole." 
 This proposal was made when they were able to say 
 also : " We receive less than any English mission- 
 aries of any denomination in any part of the East, 
 and as little as any American missionaries in these 
 parts, notwithstanding the expense of living on this 
 
HISTORICAL 43 
 
 coast is probably greater than at a majority of other 
 stations." Less than a year later, that is, June, 
 1829, Judson proposed to reduce his allowance by 
 one-quarter, his " mode of living " enabling him to 
 do so ; " this arrangement not to interfere with pro- 
 posals made under date of September last." Thus 
 in 1830 these American Baptists in Burma seem to 
 have risen to the highest places in stewardship of 
 material possessions among all the disciples of the 
 Cross in all the world. This was published in 
 America, as had been earlier the justly distinguished 
 consecration of Carey and his associates in like kind 
 and degree, which doubtless had nourished the de- 
 votion of the Americans at home and abroad. 
 
 But perhaps the greatest single influence of 
 this period was that of Nathanael Ripley Cobb. The 
 reports that came from Serampore and Rangoon 
 were impressive. Christians felt the strong impact 
 and the strenuous appeal of those great souls who 
 went abroad and did exploits of devotion ; but they 
 were far away, on the high places peculiarly in all 
 things, and were more or less viewed as in a class 
 by themselves. What they did was excellent, sub- 
 lime, and highly commendable in them; let them 
 be applauded, but the people at home probably did 
 not take their standards as practicable generally. It 
 would be well, possibly, if the " ministers " here 
 could touch their standard, but for business men 
 and domestic women — why that was another thing. 
 And there was a lack of leadership that way. Even 
 
44 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 Judson and Wade, in their proposal to enlist their 
 brethren at home in advance contributions, ad- 
 dressed only ministers. They did not intimate that 
 they expected others to do as they were doing and 
 as they were calling the pastors to do. Now in this 
 situation, with all allowance for the practice and 
 example of other Baptist brethren, in Mr. Cobb 
 a new star arose in the field of stewardship among 
 business men. 
 
 At sixteen years of age Nathanael Cobb became 
 a clerk in Boston, the same year that the Baptist 
 Convention for Foreign Missions was born; at 
 twenty he became a Baptist, at twenty-one estab- 
 lished his own business, and at thirty-six passed to 
 his reward, in 1834. Yet in this brief life, the later 
 years of which were in declining health, he made a 
 profound impression on those near him as a steward 
 of a comparatively new order ; and the story of his 
 life went abroad as the story of no other Baptist 
 business man had ever done, challenging those of 
 his own class especially to see finance in a new 
 light. An extended biographical account of him 
 appeared in the " American Baptist Magazine," 
 August, 1834. The same was issued complete as a 
 tract by the Publication Society, and in reduced 
 form by the American Tract Society. From these 
 sources, directly and indirectly, the story of this 
 life went widely abroad among Baptists and others, 
 everywhere an argument and appeal to all Chris- 
 tians, and to those of business ability and success 
 
HISTORICAL 45 
 
 particularly, to do business regularly, constantly, 
 systematically, and earnestly for the good of the 
 world in the name of Christ. Selections from this 
 " Memoir " are now reproduced. 
 
 " Mr. Cobb resolved, at the commencement of his 
 religious life, that he would serve the Saviour with 
 all his power, in that sphere which seemed to be 
 particularly assigned to him. He had not an oppor- 
 tunity to acquire extensive learning, and he could 
 not serve the church to any considerable extent by 
 his voice or his pen. But God endowed him with 
 very unusual talents for business. He had great 
 activity, acute penetration into the characters of 
 men and the signs of times, rapid decision, and un- 
 conquerable perseverance. He displayed in the 
 counting-room some of the mental qualities which 
 made Napoleon the irresistible victor on a hundred 
 battlefields. As a natural consequence, Mr. Cobb 
 accumulated property with great rapidity; and if 
 he had chosen to devote himself to the narrow work 
 of amassing wealth, he might, perhaps, if he had 
 lived, become a rival of Girard. But he justly 
 regarded his talent for business as an instrument 
 which he ought to employ for the glory of his Sa- 
 viour. He felt it to be his duty to use it in earning 
 money for the cause of God on precisely the same 
 principle that it is the duty of the minister to devote 
 his talents for preaching to the service of the Lord 
 Jesus. He accordingly, in November, 1821, drew 
 up and subscribed the following very remarkable 
 
46 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 document : ' By the grace of God, I will never be 
 worth more than $50,000. By the grace of God, I 
 will give one-fourth of the net profits of my business 
 to charitable and religious uses. If I am ever 
 worth $20,000, I will give one-half of my net 
 profits ; and if I am ever worth $30,000, I will give 
 three-fourths; and the whole after $50,000. So 
 help me God, or give to a more faithful steward, 
 and set me aside.' " 
 
 Mr. Cobb, adhering faithfully to this pledge, dis- 
 tributed his accumulations over a wide field of 
 needs, centering in the preparation of men to 
 spread the gospel. His benefactions aggregated 
 $40,000, and his acute business wisdom saved va- 
 rious benevolent organizations from losses, for he 
 was a manager and adviser of many good causes. 
 Forty thousand dollars is small now to " big busi- 
 ness," but it was not then, and there was no 
 " water " in his stock. If he should now, in the 
 same spirit and on the same plan, enter business, 
 he might and probably would extend his limitations. 
 But for his time his achievement was extraordinary, 
 both in business and benevolence, the memorial from 
 which we have quoted was utilized skilfully to reach 
 business men, and his example probably shaped the 
 course of stewardship among Baptists more effect- 
 ively than any other. 
 
II 
 
 TITHING 
 
 Hitherto we have said nothing about tithing. It 
 has been extensively a method of contributing to 
 reHgion among pagans. Jews, and Christians. But 
 only recently has it been accorded much recognition 
 by Baptists, and all recognition of it by them waited 
 till a late date comparatively. Its claims on our 
 allegiance have been steadily opposed, but in the 
 more immediate past it has come into larger favor 
 than ever before. The issue it raises is perhaps the 
 most divisive among us now in the whole field of 
 stewardship, whether its claim be regarded as au- 
 thoritative or only advisable. Therefore such a 
 discussion as we are now attempting cannot be car- 
 ried to its conclusion properly without a recognition 
 of this claim. For this reason tithing is now taken 
 up separately, having been eliminated so far from 
 the historic exploration, partly because of its moder- 
 nity among Baptists, and partly in consequence of 
 the division concerning it. With much condensa- 
 tion necessarily, but with equal candor intentionally, 
 we proceed with it. Two views present them- 
 selves, the historical and the doctrinal. The his- 
 torical is brought over from the preceding chapter, 
 
 47 
 
48 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 the doctrinal is placed in advance of its natural 
 position under " Principles Applied Critically," and 
 the two are combined here because, in an adequate 
 treatment to meet the present situation, they require 
 more space than could well be given them in a sub- 
 ordinate relation. 
 
 HISTORICAL 
 
 The writer does not claim to have explored com- 
 pletely the whole field in which some light on this 
 subject might be found, but he does claim to have 
 examined carefully the two lines of record in which 
 it is highly probable that every element appearing 
 among us until recently has found expression — the 
 Minutes of the Philadelphia Association and the 
 " Missionary Magazine " from 1803 onward under 
 its several names. Moreover, the need of brevity 
 restricts us to these two. 
 
 The first time that the question of the obligation 
 of the tenth in Christian giving seems to have ap- 
 peared in Baptist literature in America was in the 
 " Magazine " of March, 1833. Then two articles 
 stood side by side and, so standing, set forth the 
 Pedobaptist and the Baptist views in that field. 
 The first was a selection from the writings of Cot- 
 ton Mather, a Congregationalist, under the caption 
 " Christian Liberality," touching " the proportion 
 of a man's income to be devoted to pious uses." 
 The position taken is that one-tenth is the least 
 allowable. He argues for it " in the light of 
 
TITHING 49 
 
 nature," as is evident in the practices of ancient 
 peoples and in Abraham's offering to Melchizedek. 
 Mather says : " The tenths are the rights of Mel- 
 chizedek; therefore the tenths belong to our Jesus." 
 But, in an editorial immediately following, the 
 " Magazine " fails to accept this basis of authority. 
 On the contrary, it holds, " it is true that the liberty 
 of the present dispensation leaves men free to give 
 what they will ; while in the former the amount was 
 fixed," and adds : " But because God leaves us now 
 at liberty, relying, in a manner, on the generosity of 
 our hearts, is it noble to give him less than he 
 required, when he was at the head of the Jewish 
 hierarchy?" The editorial concludes that the les- 
 son from the past for us is that we set apart " a 
 definite and worthy portion." The tithe is not 
 recognized by the " Magazine " at all under law, 
 and under liberty, only as suggesting a general 
 principle. 
 
 Recalling the letter of Nathan Brown, 1845, i" 
 which we have already found his proposal to his 
 brethren in America to devote the earnings of one 
 day in the month to foreign missions, we observe 
 that he says : " One day in the month for missions 
 wall still leave the greater portion of your tithe for 
 the support of the gospel at home." Though pos- 
 sibly he here uses " tithe " in the sense of tenth, the 
 probability is that by it he means the whole benevo- 
 lent fund of whatever amount. The reason for this 
 view is that in the sense of the " tenth " Baptists were 
 
50 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 not then using it among themselves, though they 
 might so have used it in discussing some other sys- 
 tem ; they never had so used it ; and he himself was 
 proposing a different basis, that is, the whole income 
 for one-thirtieth of the time, not one-tenth of the 
 income for all the time. If he had intended this 
 latter meaning he would presumably have suggested 
 a fraction of the tenth instead of the month. Nine- 
 teen years earlier the " Magazine " had used the 
 word in the meaning here attributed to Doctor 
 Brown when, referring to the contributions of their 
 handiwork by the women's societies, it had said, 
 " Many of the sisters are bringing their tithes into 
 the storehouse," an instance entirely excluding all 
 fractions from consideration. It is therefore morally 
 certain that Doctor Brown did not use tithe in the 
 specific sense, long common among Pedobaptists but 
 not till later coming into vogue among Baptists. 
 
 So far as I know, the first utterance by a Bap- 
 tist of the probability or possibility that the tithe 
 of the Old Testament had any obligatory relation 
 to a Christian, appeared in the " Magazine " of 
 February, 1859. It is in an editorial discussion at 
 some length of the " Duty of Giving for Religious 
 Purposes." Searching for the teachings of the 
 Scriptures, the writer outlines the system and his- 
 tory of stewardship in the Old Testament, closing 
 with the statement that to the people of that time,. 
 in relation to the law then in force, " To withhold 
 was to rob God." His next paragraph opens in this 
 
TITHING 51 
 
 way : " However much we may be disposed to evade 
 the force of the Old Testament Scriptures upon the 
 subject of giving, no such evasion is admissible in 
 the New Testament. And it is here submitted to 
 the candid reader, if the teachings of the old dis- 
 pensation on this particular subject do not form a 
 part of the moral features of that [New] Testa- 
 ment. It is evident that Christ and his apostles 
 frequently quoted from the Old, and incorporated 
 its precepts in the New." But he nowhere affirms 
 the obligation of the tenth or any other fixed sum. 
 On the contrary, all his quite full and earnest con- 
 clusions are confined to the general duty of stew- 
 ardship ; and the final one among his " legitimate 
 inferences " is " that if any specific amount of our 
 increase is required, we cannot refuse it without 
 violating our obligation to God, and withholding 
 good from whom it is due, and thus injuring our 
 own souls. We are not authorized to plead any 
 excuse in the premises." Evidently this writer was 
 doing his best to get the grip of some element of 
 the former law on his brethren, by way of sugges- 
 tion at least, but he seems to have realized that he 
 was going against the grain of his readers, that they 
 held to the New Testament as excluding such ; there- 
 fore he halted under an " if " as ample as the whole 
 intimation which he had submitted to the " candid 
 reader." 
 
 The foregoing has been presented as throwing 
 some light on the Baptist mind touching Old Testa- 
 
52 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 ment requirements, including the tithe, until past 
 the middle of the nineteenth century. The leaders 
 were intensely and increasingly earnest during the 
 first half of that century in rousing the people to 
 a practical recognition of duty in the use of property. 
 They saw the need of calling their brethren a long 
 way forward in this field, but all their earnestness 
 seems never to have led one of them to go where 
 many of their successors now go and confidently 
 stand — to the claim that the tithe in some interpre- 
 tation of it is a Christian duty; this claim by these 
 successors having appeared in much literature, in- 
 cluding that of both the Northern Convention and 
 the Southern Convention. 
 
 If the question be raised, why were Baptists so 
 reluctant, so silent on this point so long, several 
 things may be said with confidence. The first is that 
 it was not because they were indifferent to steward- 
 ship and its development in details. We have col- 
 lated enough to establish that they gave this sub- 
 ject much thought and expression on the lines of 
 prosperity, equality, and the adjustment of details 
 on other bases, the fields, the flocks, the expenses, 
 the luxuries, etc. The next thing to be said is that 
 the tithe stood centrally in those oppressive eccle- 
 siastical systems under which they suffered and 
 against which they protested. " The tithing man " 
 was peculiarly the embodiment of the financial sys- 
 tem of the State Church and the lash it laid on 
 them. They were excusable for some sensitive- 
 
TITHING 53 
 
 ness against the word in any interpretation of it. 
 But the chief thing to be said is that they left it 
 out because they did not regard it as having any 
 place in the Christian system. They stood in their 
 liberty of the gospel and aside from the law. It 
 would not be true to say that all Baptists ever have 
 been thoroughly consistent in their understanding of 
 their liberty in relation to Old Testament law ; but 
 they have approximated it, and they were clear 
 enough all along the line in earlier times to enable 
 them to ignore the whole tithing scheme as applica- 
 ble to themselves. 
 
 DOCTRINAL 
 
 This opens the tithing issue as it stands among 
 us to-day. The historical section has revealed the 
 attitude of Baptists throughout all their past in this 
 country, which is suggestive but not conclusive for 
 the present. Our duty and our privilege are to 
 modify or reject any view or practice held by our 
 predecessors as soon as we become convinced that 
 something else is more in accord with the Scrip- 
 tures, or more available for the present time when 
 the issue lies outside of the deliverances of the New 
 Testament. How does the problem of the tithe 
 come to us? 
 
 I. Law. Any presentation, in order to be effective 
 in such a field as this, must have authority behind it. 
 Without that, the best we can present is only opinion, 
 which may or may not appeal to our audience. If 
 
54 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 we are to say anything practically conclusive, our 
 saying must have the impulse and the impact of 
 some law or principle or practice voicing a recog- 
 nized authority. The Baptist advocates of tithing 
 show this understanding constantly. They indeed 
 discuss it to a limited extent, as we also will, as a 
 method separate from Scriptural authority or ap- 
 proval, but in the main they call these to their aid. 
 In this they are wise, because to Baptists they can- 
 not say much until they enfold their claim in that 
 atmosphere. More or less they avow Biblical au- 
 thority, laying down a divine demand, direct or in- 
 direct, in terms or implications, indifference to 
 which they hold to be incompatible with good Chris- 
 tian character. And I venture to add, without de- 
 signing to reflect on their sincerity, that they have 
 a habit quite in evidence of contradicting themselves 
 in this particular, innocently, no doubt, but actually, 
 beyond doubt. Observation of them through a 
 series of years has discovered a considerable num- 
 ber who begin with a disavowal of any Scriptural 
 authority; but before they finish they assume, if 
 they do not affirm, what they at first denied. They 
 get to the point of application or exhortation, and 
 there they speak of " duty " and " robbing God " 
 and similar things, all of which are empty except 
 on the affirmation or assumption of divine au- 
 thority.3 Why do they do this? Only, so far as 
 I can see, because they are conscious that without 
 it their contention is beating the air. Their eager- 
 
TITHING 55 
 
 ness to reach the conscience sometimes pushes them 
 into a self-contradiction of which they seem to be 
 unconscious. I have observed much of this as the 
 tithing propaganda has become more and more 
 eager among us; and it is mentioned here not to 
 disparage those whom the stricture touches, but to 
 illustrate and impress the propriety of grounding 
 our discussion in authority. With this introduction 
 we proceed into more detail. 
 
 (i) The Old Testament Law. If one should ac- 
 cumulate all the instances of advocacy of tithing by 
 Baptists which avow the continuance of that law 
 over the Christian life and view them collectively, 
 he might well be startled at the revelation of the 
 legalism still latent among us. This remark un- 
 folds into two specifications. 
 
 a. The Adamic Law. I do not remember to have 
 seen it so titled, but the title seems proper. It 
 stands for the contention that the setting apart of 
 one-tenth for God is, in the nature of things, in- 
 volved in the order of life of which man is a part, 
 and so comes down from Adam and is therefore 
 inalienable; or it affirms that God originally com- 
 manded the tithe, as evidenced by its wide preva- 
 lence among the nations at an early date. This 
 theory seems to be enveloped in such a flood of 
 mist that its intangibility is its safety. It is some- 
 times likened to the Sabbath law, but the likeness 
 is fallacious; for the law of the Sabbath has a 
 recognizable basis in the physical constitution of 
 
56 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 man, which cannot be said of the other. But to pur- 
 sue this topic here would prove wasteful of space, 
 because we shall soon reach ground where it will 
 Stand aside as irrelevant. 
 
 When, however, the assumption is pressed that 
 the Creator commanded the tithe originally, it may 
 not be presumptuous to ask for the proof. The 
 usual appeal to the practice of all nations, more or 
 less, as they come into historic light, seems to en- 
 tangle us ; for they brought out of the past other 
 things quite unanimously which we reject with equal 
 unanimity. Referring to the Scriptures in which, 
 if they are from God, reason proposes that that 
 original divine decree should be recorded, we fail to 
 find it in them. Beginning at the creation of man 
 and tracing the text through, we find him given 
 dominion over all creatures and removed from Eden 
 on account of sin ; we see offerings brought by Cain 
 and Abel with specifications; we observe Noah 
 leading all creatures by twos and sevens into the 
 ark for preservation, with possible reference to 
 sacrifice as well as service, and Noah offering sac- 
 rifices on his disembarkation; we hear God making 
 a covenant with him, his sons, and " every living 
 creature " for all time ; we meet Abram led out by 
 God for the preservation of right views of the Most 
 High, which were imperiled by the falling away of 
 the best of humanity, and established with promises 
 in the land to which he was led ; we see him coming 
 to great wealth and fame, setting up altars to Jehovah, 
 
TITHING 57 
 
 prepared to sacrifice his sacred son on demand, and 
 receiving world-wide promises from God, including 
 his posterity ; and so on and on. But we do not find 
 anything about the tithe offered by Abraham or 
 required by God, except in the instance of Melchize- 
 dek, and there we find no evidence that he acted by 
 divine direction or had divine approval. It was a 
 transaction with a person so mysterious that neither 
 the one nor the other has ever been explained to 
 the satisfaction of anybody, except possibly the ex- 
 plainer in rare instances. (We will return to Mel- 
 chizedek later.) If we should pursue our explora- 
 tion along the way trod by Abraham's descendants 
 until Moses led them out of Egypt, the result would 
 be the same. And even if something more of the 
 nature of that for which we search should come to 
 light, it would be of no practical value to a Baptist 
 for reasons to appear later. 
 
 b. The Mosaic Law. This is the common anchor- 
 age of those who appeal to the Old Testament. This 
 appeal takes two forms, (a) The Direct. It affirms 
 that the tithing law of the Mosaic order has not 
 been abrogated, that it is brought over and incor- 
 porated into the Christian system. Among the 
 various financial obligations of the Hebrews to 
 Jehovah, as King of the nation, the tithists select the 
 tenth of increase applicable to the support of the 
 temple service, and, ignoring the others, hold to this 
 as transferred to the new dispensation, applicable to 
 religious and charitable uses. This conception is 
 
58 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 manipulated into several details, the discussion of 
 which seems to be important to those who maintain 
 it. But essentially these variations are one. Their 
 significance is in their underlying principle, that 
 whatever of the Old Testament has not been re- 
 pealed specifically in the New, is thereby incorpo- 
 rated in the latter. This is affirmed fundamentally 
 more or less, but when it is pressed and its implica- 
 tions set forth, its advocates quite commonly evade 
 its logic. To point out some other things not spe- 
 cifically repealed spoils their argument. For if this 
 is true of tithing, by parity of reasoning it is true 
 of other things of the former time, because they all 
 stand on the same footing; but the tithist, when 
 confronted with the others which he repudiates, 
 loses necessarily his confidence in the contention for 
 tithing, or he fails in consistency. He falls into in- 
 consistency through his eagerness to saddle the 
 tithing obligation on another, but when he is shown 
 that, by the same token, numerous ancient obliga- 
 tions can be saddled on to him and strapped down 
 as tightly as he straps the tithe on his brother, he 
 has occasion for reflection. But this view has been 
 pushing to the front in various quarters for two 
 or three decades. The Southern Baptist Conven- 
 tion adopted a report on tithing in 1895, page 22 
 of the " Proceedings," that carried it clearly. In 
 1909 the Northern Baptist Convention, in the report 
 of its "Stewardship Committee," page 118, while 
 declining to advocate any theory of tithing, did 
 
TITHING 59 
 
 advocate the giving of at least one-tenth as a Chris- 
 tian duty, to the doing of which pastors and 
 churches were " urged to lead the largest possible 
 number of their members," which seems to be the 
 same thing for most people. Up to the time of this 
 writing the obligation of the tithe is advocated in 
 influential literature, official and unofficial, more or 
 less, and on a variegated basis, throughout the 
 country. Let those who are interested in the history 
 and argument of tithing in paganism and Judaism 
 gratify their interest ; but for consistent Baptists that 
 discussion is wasted practically, because their doc- 
 trine of New Testament authority cuts the whole 
 scheme up and out entirely. 
 
 What is the basis of New Testament authority? 
 It is not the Old Testament. Christianity comes 
 from Judaism historically but not authoritatively. 
 The New Testament is neither a supplement to the 
 Old nor a reconstruction of it. Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is not a lieutenant of Moses or of Adam. In 
 the Old Testament God spoke to his people of a pre- 
 liminary dispensation with authority for them, on 
 the basis of creation primarily and of redemption 
 foretold by types and shadows. In the New he 
 speaks to his people on the basis of redemption ac- 
 complished, and this alone is authoritative for them. 
 Moses did not send the Christ into the world, and 
 no law of God through Moses comes to Christians. 
 What God has to say now to his children on earth, 
 he says through Jesus the Christ, who is Lord 
 
6o STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 because he is Redeemer, His authority is as funda- 
 mental and as complete as is the redemption on 
 which it is based. So he bore himself always in his 
 relations to the kingdom of God as he established it 
 among men. In " the Sermon on the Mount " he 
 quoted the three prior sources of authority in Israel 
 — the Ten Commandments, the divine statutes, and 
 the commentaries of the rabbis — and so far as con- 
 cerns authority, he treated them all alike, affirming 
 his own authority aside from them, above them, and 
 against them, answering each and every one of them 
 equally, " But I say unto you." Throughout his 
 earthly life he maintained this position toward his 
 disciples, taking up all authority into himself and 
 projecting it from himself, without amendment, 
 qualification, or restraint from any source what- 
 ever, except directly and independently from the 
 Father. He called men to himself as if Moses had 
 never existed, taught them that all the issues of life 
 for them were gathered up in their relations to him- 
 self, and that they would stand or fall on that basis. 
 This self-assertion in authority drew from heaven 
 the Father's approval at the transfiguration in a 
 manner similar to the Father's response to the Son's 
 consecration in humiliation at the baptism. There 
 the voice from the excellent glory said, " This is 
 my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." At 
 the transfiguration the same voice said, " This is 
 my beloved Son; hear him." These two utterances 
 are the same in the first element, and in the second 
 
6i 
 
 their divergence carries the doctrine here main- 
 tained. Of these two heavenly haiHngs on earth, 
 the first gave him approval in his own service, and 
 the second authority over all service. At the trans- 
 figuration, IMoses and Elijah — lawgiver and prophet 
 — disappeared from earth in all law relations never 
 to return. They laid and left all authority on earth 
 at the feet of Jesus the Christ, as they three talked 
 together about the departure he was soon to accom- 
 plish at Jerusalem as the consummation of his sa- 
 ving service in earthly relations. The only consistent 
 course then for a Baptist in relation to the tithe is 
 to reject its authority, however strenuously or 
 mildly advanced, in every application to a Christian. 
 Some others who call Jesus Lord, nearly all of 
 them, can more consistently practise and propagate 
 it because they have a different understanding of the 
 authority of the Old Testament. In it they find 
 infant membership, State Church, hierarchal or- 
 ganization, and so on. The Baptist declines all of 
 these on his understanding of the sole authority of 
 the New Testament. On the same understanding 
 and by the same process he should do the same with 
 the tithe. And he accepts it, if at all, by the same 
 process as the others accept those other things ; he 
 takes it on Old Testament authorization and trims 
 it to fit. 
 
 (b) Indirect. Frequently those who agree with the 
 preceding and guard themselves from the incon- 
 sistency indicated above, attempt approximately the 
 
62 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 same indirectly. They assume that on honor or for 
 love a Christian ought to do as well as a Jew. He 
 paid the tenth to the temple, and the Christian who 
 does not appropriate that much to specific uses 
 (agreement on this point not having been arranged 
 among the tithists) therein deserves great censure 
 or pity. Now the appeal from the duty of a Jew 
 to the course of a Christian is admissible when 
 made legitimately ; but when it comes in any garb 
 of authority, however modified and inferential, it 
 is not legitimate. No requisition formerly made on 
 an Israelite sets any standard of duty, whether 
 founded in law or honor, directly or indirectly, for 
 a Christian, because the two are not in the same 
 system or on the same plane. So, then, when we are 
 told that our consecration is not at par because it 
 is below or above the divine standard set for the 
 Jew, we decline to be tested on that plan. " We are 
 not under law but under grace." and the latter 
 carries its own law and duty, from which we are 
 not to be diverted, and in the use of which we are 
 not to be influenced by any extraneous consideration. 
 The New Testament as a whole supplants and abro- 
 gates the Old Testament as a whole in the entire 
 realm of duty, and answers independently and com- 
 pletely every question of conscience for every soul 
 in Christ, so far as the Bible answers it at all. 
 
 (2) The New Testament Law. The tithe is 
 sometimes advocated on the ground of New Testa- 
 ment authority, in law or its equivalent, by those 
 
TITHING 63 
 
 who make no legal or authoritative claim for the 
 Old Testament. They sustain their advocacy on 
 one or more of three bases — the sayings of Jesus, 
 the New Testament subsequent to the Gospels, and 
 the practice of the early churches. Let us meet 
 them on these grounds. 
 
 a. The Sayings of Jesus. He said to certain Jews 
 that they did vv^ell vi^hen they paid tithes and per- 
 formed other duties under the Islw of Moses; and 
 the opinion is held, more or less, that in doing so 
 he laid down a law for literal application by his dis- 
 ciples, or an implication which should be effectual 
 with them. But consider that if this application 
 of his saying concerning the tithe holds good for 
 his disciples, then or now, it holds equally good for 
 all the other things which he commended in the 
 Jews. We need not spend space on details here ; 
 the response would be essentially the same as that 
 to the Adamic and Mosaic claims. Interpretation 
 on that plan is a wilderness or a jungle. How are 
 we to avoid this jungle of Judaism into which it 
 leads us when applied to some things that Jesus 
 said? We avoid by using a better principle of in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 Jesus came into the world and went through it a 
 Jew. We do not know how far he understood in 
 his youth the significance of his life and death. But 
 we do know other things pertinent here because 
 they are clearly in the record of his actions and 
 utterances. One of these is that his teaching gradu- 
 
64 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 ally led away from Judai-sm, in harmony with that 
 originality of his unique authority to which we have 
 already adverted. More and more he unfolded his 
 designs to those around him, but all the way he told 
 the most advanced of his disciples that he was not 
 telling them all that they would need to know after 
 he had gone. In this situation he met Jews on 
 Jewish ground when as such they came to him with 
 questions of duty. That was perfectly consistent. 
 Nothing else would have been. In the nature of 
 the case he must do that. But side by side with 
 that, another thing is equally clear. Jesus never 
 mingled such counsels as those just mentioned with 
 his counsels to his disciples, Jews though they were. 
 From the beginnings of his teaching of disciples he 
 seems to have refrained carefully from every utter- 
 ance that might subsequently suggest to them to 
 mix Judaism with Christianity. This seems to be 
 one of the most wonderful things in his association 
 with them, that he could, as he did, avoid rupture 
 with them as Jews while teaching them all the way 
 as if they were Christians, holding them all the 
 time, in spite of their prejudices and blindness that 
 seem to us extraordinary, holding them to that 
 upward path and higher outlook that would usher 
 them through Pentecost on to a plane of thought 
 where Judaism would fall away from them and 
 they would soon move out into Christianity effect- 
 ively differentiated from the religion in which they 
 had been bred. 
 
TITHING 65 
 
 Ponder, then, this significant fact that whatever 
 Jesus may have said to Jews, as such, concerning 
 the claims of the laws of Moses, he never said one 
 word of that character to his disciples.* He talked 
 to the men around him in two worlds. In the 
 Jewish world he approved and advised or com- 
 manded conformity to the regulations of the national 
 religion, even where his own healing grace had 
 opened the way to make a choice. (See Luke 5 : 14.) 
 But in the discipleship world, which he knew to be 
 the preliminary Christian world, he did nothing of 
 that kind ; he ignored all such obligation as com- 
 pletely as if Moses had never existed. Under the 
 principle of interpretation which w-e have laid down, 
 the only one that saves us from confusing entangle- 
 ments, these facts come out clearly, and come to 
 warn us that he who lays the tithe, or any other 
 Judaic obligation, on a disciple of Christ, misap- 
 plies the Scriptures. It also exposes the folly en- 
 folded in that fine phrase, when it is taken without 
 qualification, " What Christ commends is my com- 
 mand." 
 
 b. The New Testament Subsequent to the Gos- 
 pels. Appeal is made to this with sufficient fre- 
 quency and confidence to warrant us in pausing with 
 it long enough to consider the claim that the letters 
 and other portions of this Testament after the Gos- 
 pels have a tithing outlook. What do we learn from 
 Melchizedek, Paul, Peter, and James? 
 
 Melchizedek is a mystery that I do not attempt to 
 
66 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 solve; but he is so charming a mystery for those 
 who seek to find something in the New Testament 
 by which to bring us into obedience to the tithe, 
 that the need appears to indicate the error under 
 which they labor. In the seventh chapter of He- 
 brews, addressed distinctively to the Hebrew peo- 
 ple, the statement occurs that Abraham paid tithes 
 to Melchizedek, and the conclusion is assumed that 
 this establishes the tithing obligation for God's peo- 
 ple in all times and under all systems. I say this is 
 assumed because no hint of it appears in the book 
 itself. The assumption arises from an erroneous in- 
 terpretation, springing presumably from a mistaken 
 understanding of the purpose of the book. That 
 purpose is to exalt Christ above the preceding rep- 
 resentatives of divine authority and the priesthood 
 on which their authority rested. As priest and 
 king he is of another order. Melchizedek is brought 
 in to illustrate the difiFerentiated order, not to es- 
 tablish it. The purpose is not in any way to discuss 
 details of offerings, especially to transfer a particu- 
 lar from one system to another. The purpose is 
 to deliver Jewish Christians from a feeling of obli- 
 gation to their national ritual, and the point made is 
 that Father Abraham himself, in his first recorded 
 offering of a tenth, went to a representative of " the 
 Most High God " entirely separate from the chosen 
 people, and that thus the Hebrew priesthood in a 
 sense had been subordinated to an order not recog- 
 nized by Judaism. The result is not to establish any 
 
TITHING 67 
 
 feature of any former system, but to disestablish 
 Judaism. This tithing by Abraham, then, comes 
 in only incidentally, and has no essential significance. 
 The only way to give it any force for our present 
 purpose is by giving Melchizedek coordinate au- 
 thority with Christ or greater. 
 
 Paul is different ; not much mystery about him. 
 His distinctive service, both as a missionary evan- 
 gelist and a differentiating teacher, was in leading 
 Christianity out of Judaism into the breadth of the 
 world. With every fiber of his being loyal to Juda- 
 ism, both in doctrine and sympathy, his breaking 
 with it was as the breaking of his bones. Why has 
 not some one written a book on Paul the conserva- 
 tive? He was radically conservative toward Juda- 
 ism. He held instinctively to every shred of it 
 until his hold was broken by the new life poured 
 into him, the new law laid on him, and the new glory 
 that filled him, by Christ. What did Paul say about 
 tithing as conserved by Judaism and continued 
 from it, or in any other way? Nothing, absolutely 
 nothing, and he had first-class opportunities to say 
 something. He was the leader in the first general 
 contribution and distribution by Christians, in con- 
 nection with which he appears as an adroit and en- 
 thusiastic collecting agent. He laid on the Gentile 
 churches their obligation to answer the spiritual 
 contribution from Judea by a material contribution 
 to Judea in distress. He pressed that claim home. 
 He instructed the contributors how to proceed in 
 
68 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 the business in order to make it successful. He 
 aroused emulation between churches. In several 
 ways he put pressure on them toward a large offer- 
 ing in right spirit and through proper processes. 
 
 Many of those to whom he appealed had come out 
 of Judaism, and some of them perhaps had not yet 
 come all the way out. In some things he made the 
 old order his channel of approach to them after they 
 were Christians. Why did he not utilize the tithe 
 to aid his call for contributions? Or, to be more 
 consistent, why did he not lead the churches to de- 
 vote a tenth to sustaining their own worship, and 
 afterward to contribute other portions to other ob- 
 jects, including the relief of Judea? Or, in another 
 connection, when urging the duty to support preach- 
 ers, why did he not refer to the tithe, specifically 
 applicable here if anywhere, and where he did refer 
 to the ox treading out the grain? Why all this 
 silence of Paul in his various discussions of property 
 stewardship? I know of no other answer so rea- 
 sonable as that he had come out of Judaism and was 
 leading others out of it so completely that he could 
 not appeal to it as authority in relation to Christian 
 duty. 
 
 Turning to Peter and James we find no new light, 
 though with more reason we might expect it. Paul 
 at least once openly and strenuously opposed and 
 rebuked Peter for his compromises with Judaism, 
 leading Barnabas and others astray. (Gal. 2 : ii- 
 21.) But in Peter's two letters no trace of a claim 
 
TITHING 69 
 
 for Judaic law or ritual appears ; though in the 
 first (3 : 5, 6) he cites the holy women of the past 
 as examples for emulation by Christian women ; and 
 he urges hospitality on all " as good stewards of 
 the manifold grace of God" (4 : 10), but on the 
 basis of " ability." James led Peter into the conduct 
 for which Paul rebuked him, and was of the Jeru- 
 salem type ; but his letter to the twelve tribes scat- 
 tered abroad sounds no legalistic note, although it 
 runs to some points at which connection with tith- 
 ing would have been easy if desired. 
 
 c. The Practice of the Early Churches. The 
 claim is advanced that the early churches, under 
 apostolic leadership, practised tithing, which they 
 had brought over from Judaism, with no evidence 
 of disapproval by the leaders. It might be sufficient 
 to deny this and wait for proof. But a more con- 
 siderate course is to point out that those churches 
 were much entangled in Judaism for a while, as 
 were the apostles with them. They did not at first 
 regard themselves as wholly separated from Juda- 
 ism by their Christian faith. They frequented the 
 temple, and it may be — indeed it is almost certain — 
 that they paid temple tithe, but they did it as Jews 
 and as a part of Judaism. Paul's prime problem 
 with them sometimes was to work this kind of Juda- 
 ism out of them. It was the same problem sub- 
 stantially as that of Jesus earlier, and the process 
 took the same general course. 
 
 The assertion also is made that the immediately 
 
 F 
 
70 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 succeeding generations of disciples were tithers. 
 This, if true, would be of no weight to a clear- 
 headed Baptist, because he recognizes nothing au- 
 thoritative in that field. In relation to it he sepa- 
 rates from the Pedobaptist as he does in relation to 
 the Old Testament. But it might have weight as 
 supporting the claim that the apostolic churches 
 tithed on a Christian basis. Therefore inquiry on 
 this point was made of Dr. Henry C. Vedder, and 
 he replied : " I can find no mention of tithing, as a 
 Christian practice, earlier than the so-called ' Con- 
 stitution of the Holy Apostles,' a compilation that 
 cannot be earlier than the Council of Nice (325), 
 and the seventh book, in which this occurs, is 
 thought by scholars to be somewhat older than the 
 first six books. Chapter XXIX of book VII says, 
 among other things, ' Thou shalt give the tenth of 
 thy increase to the orphan, and to the widow, and 
 to the poor, and to the stranger.' But the patristic 
 literature is almost silent on the subject, and no 
 authority on early church history that I am familiar 
 with, holds that any serious attempt was ever made 
 to introduce the tithing system during the first three 
 centuries; and no attempt to make the system a 
 general one even later." The reader may see that 
 the tithe mentioned above was entirely for charities, 
 not for the purpose to which it was devoted under 
 Moses. 
 
 Returning now to the " Acts of the x\postles " 
 prior to Paul's prominence, we carry our study of 
 
TITHING 71 
 
 tithing to its conclusion. The conclusion is placed 
 here because here is the climax logically of the evi- 
 dence. In this section of Acts the Christian life 
 appears in its primitive freshness, in the Jerusalem 
 atmosphere and with its Jewish connection relatively 
 unbroken. What appears here sends its light for- 
 ward and backward and all around on the problem 
 before us. What light shines here? The first item 
 in evidence is in 2 : 44, 45. The believers had all 
 things in common, " and sold their possessions and 
 goods, and parted them to all, as every man had 
 need." The only reference to Moses is in 3 : 22, 
 23, where he is quoted as predicting the coming of a 
 prophet, Christ, who is to be heard in all things 
 under penalty of destruction. Next comes the pas- 
 sage 4 : 31 to 5 : II. Pentecost, impelling to the 
 common fund for the common need and so leading 
 to the sale of property for this purpose, opened the 
 way to the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira. 
 Peter said to them that their title to their posses- 
 sions was intact with no external pressure on them 
 to part with it, or any fraction of it, this freedom 
 setting the edge on their guilt in lying. Turning 
 next to II : 29 we reach Antioch, where every one 
 gave according to ability, with no hint of anything 
 but free will. And, finally, the issue raised by the 
 Judaizers was disposed of deliberately by Jerusa- 
 lem, in a communication to the Gentiles. This com- 
 munication proposed only abstinence from fornica- 
 tion, idolatry, and eating blood in two particulars; 
 
J2 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 and declined totally the imposition of Jewish au- 
 thority on Gentile Christians. (15 : 1-33.) 
 
 2. Method. Many advocates of tithing disavow 
 the legal basis. They favor it as a method because 
 it seems to be workable and to promise that increase 
 of contributions desired by all friends of good causes. 
 They hold that the part of wisdom in the present 
 situation is to accept it as a working basis, try to 
 bring every one up to it without making it a maxi- 
 mum for those who are able or disposed to go 
 higher. Without prejudice and appreciative of any 
 proposal looking toward gain to the treasury of 
 the Lord, we may briefly consider the two compre- 
 hensive advantages claimed for it. 
 
 (i) Financial Efificiency. It gets the money. A 
 relatively large number of witnesses testifies that 
 since adopting tithing they have contributed more 
 liberally than before. That is undoubtedly true, and 
 is good as far as it goes. But it starts several ques- 
 tions and suggestions. 
 
 The question arises, Has this improvement come 
 from the tithe or from the systematic giving which 
 the adoption of any definite basis would bring up to 
 the limit of that basis? Law being now excluded, 
 and tithing viewed merely as a method, the sug- 
 gestion is ventured that if the tenth gets more 
 money without injustice to the giver, that proves 
 that he was not doing his whole duty before ; but it 
 does not prove that he is doing his whole duty now, 
 and if it fails to bring him up to doing his whole 
 
TITHING 73 
 
 duty now, it is a failure at the top as a money- 
 getter. The suggestion is also offered that, as peo- 
 ple are constituted usually, a strong temptation is 
 involved to make the proposed minimum the actual 
 maximum. This is a point difficult or impossible 
 to prove on any large scale, but it is doubtful 
 whether any one will deny its forceful pertinence.^ 
 The man who took the tenth honestly as a minimum 
 from which he ascended with the increase of ability 
 or consecration, brings a cheering report, to be sure, 
 but how many report who have not gone higher? 
 They are the silent partners in this connection, and 
 they may have reasons for their silence of which 
 they are not proud. Their side of the balance-sheet 
 is ignored, but it may be the larger side. 
 
 Probably it is impossible to show by tangible data 
 that any given hundred persons adopting tithing will 
 produce a larger aggregate income than the same 
 persons would have produced if they had all adopted 
 systematic giving on the basis of a flexible percent- 
 age and been called by the highest motives to go as 
 high as they could, each for himself in the fear and 
 love of God. No sane person will dogmatize here, 
 but the proposition is confiHently advanced that 
 some claims for tithing as a money-getter, based on 
 occasional favorable reports and disregarding the 
 many unfavorable or non-committal, are more 
 optimistic than reliable. My judgment is that the 
 strong probability at this point favors the New 
 Testament plan, to be considered later, as better 
 
74 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 even for immediate financial results than the tithing 
 plan. When the tenth is proposed flat, with no alter- 
 native, it is inevitable that some, presumably many, 
 will evade because it seems to them exorbitant. The 
 result is, no matter how erroneous their view may 
 be, that they adopt no system at all, possibly make 
 no response. But if liberty had been encouraged, 
 or even recognized, some or many might have been 
 started on a lower level and by the inspiration of 
 the results of system, however humble the starting- 
 place, might have been induced to the tenth and be- 
 yond. It is not conceded, therefore, that fixing the 
 tenth or any other fraction, as a minimum, is the 
 best means of getting money. The determining 
 elements may be elsewhere, possibly out of sight. 
 To say " at least one-tenth " is an evasion rather 
 than an addition, and makes no essential difference. 
 For so far as any one is authorized to fix a mini- 
 mum, he is authorized to fix a maximum, or any 
 compromise between these. We may discover later, 
 if we have not already, that no one has such author- 
 ity, in law or logic, for another; and not for him- 
 self when his fixing does not fit those New Testa- 
 ment principles soon to appear. 
 
 (2) Spiritual Benefits. All agree that the use of 
 money has spiritual value, but few perhaps realize 
 the great spiritual possibilities in such use when 
 carried into the high places of sacrifice on right 
 principles. This brings us to the question, What is 
 there about one-tenth that sets it above other frac- 
 
TITHING 75 
 
 tions for spiritual value? On legalistic grounds we 
 can account for these effects, but we have abandoned 
 those grounds. Practically, how are we to account 
 for the spiritual effects claimed by tithists for tith- 
 ing? While not necessarily accepting all of this 
 claim at its face value, still we would be unreason- 
 able as well as ungracious to deny it entirely. We 
 readily grant that very appreciable consciousness of 
 spiritual strength and joy comes to some tithists 
 which they ascribe to this source. What is to be 
 said to that? 
 
 First of all, we say that probably some of it. 
 possibly much of it, results from the system and not 
 the tithing. An appreciable amount of the tithing 
 literature confuses these two, assuming that system 
 and tithing are synonymous, and this assumption, 
 impossible to candid reason, captivates and misleads 
 some sincere but not critical readers. It may con- 
 vince more of them than a legitimate argument 
 would. But it is not admitted here. It is not true. 
 The only rational ground on which more spiritual 
 value may be claimed pro rata for one fraction than 
 another is that the giver believes that the larger 
 fraction has a divine authorization, and, conse- 
 quently, a divine blessing not possessed by the lesser 
 one. A strain of this legalism, shading into spiritual 
 pride, may run through that experience. This does 
 not invalidate the experience in itself, either as sin- 
 cere in the recipient or even as divine in its source. 
 God graciously accommodates himself to our defects 
 
76 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 in many ways. He permits us to get spiritual good, 
 or what seems to us to be such, through our misun- 
 derstanding, responding to the good intention in us. 
 The legalistic tithist may get the benefit of the divine 
 condescension in his tithing on this principle as we 
 all may in some things. But where that is not true 
 the spiritual advance may be attributable to conse- 
 cration coming into a clearer showing or into an 
 actual advance on its previous achievements. How- 
 ever that may be, the question is pressed, If one- 
 tenth makes advance on one-eleventh or less, why 
 will not one-ninth make a corresponding advance on 
 one-tenth in the same elements? I see no evidence 
 that it will not, either in reason or the New Testa- 
 ment. Finally, these experiences are not limited to 
 any one fraction. Offerings of other grades, higher 
 and lower, have been followed by the same experi- 
 ences; which also have come where all system has 
 been ignored and offerings made impulsively and 
 perchance, in the opinion of some wise observers, 
 foolishly or unjustly. 
 
Ill 
 
 NEW TESTAAIENT PRINCIPLES 
 
 The authority of the New Testament is deposited 
 largely in principles. Its ground principle is loyalty 
 or fidelity or obedience to God in Christ. The whole 
 structure of Christian character rests invariably and 
 completely on this foundation. Above it certain less 
 fundamental, but not less essential principles rise, 
 which in their varied applications constitute the 
 superstructure of the character. Every specific com- 
 mand is based on a principle of life, is never arbi- 
 trary; and, with little exception, principles are 
 declared, fidelity to them required, and their appli- 
 cation left adjustable by affectionate consecration 
 and practical common sense. 
 
 In relation to stewardship the whole authority 
 of the New Testament resides in principles. It pro- 
 mulgates no invariable law, no inflexible rule, 
 whether brought over from a preceding dispensa- 
 tion or originally issued by itself. This being true, 
 a very important question, to which we now come, 
 is this : What are the New Testament principles of 
 stewardship in property, and how are they to be 
 applied? In answering this question we solve the 
 problem of stewardship. 
 
 77 
 
78 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 I. THE PRINCIPLES DEFINED 
 
 (i) Totality. This means that the Christian is 
 responsible to God for the whole of himself and 
 all that is at his disposal. The totality of his per- 
 sonality, his powers, and his possessions he holds in 
 trust for his Creator, Redeemer, and Benefactor. 
 His physical strength, his mental resources, his so- 
 cial influence, his time, his money, from the core 
 of his consciousness and his conscience, outward 
 through every segment of all that he is and has, 
 to the outermost limit of actuality and possibility, 
 through the best culture and the best consecration 
 possible in him — all these come under this principle. 
 They make a large demand. It is a large demand 
 for the smallest human being. Any one, large or 
 small, who claims that he is meeting it completely 
 throughout its whole course, or that he ever will do 
 so in this Hfe, takes a great risk. To touch it under 
 law is to be struck by lightning. Nevertheless, the 
 highest privilege for all is to accept it, magnify it, 
 operate it, and glorify it under grace. 
 
 Matthew lo : 38. He that takes not his cross and 
 follows after me is not worthy of me. 
 
 Mark 8 : 34. Whoever will come after me, let him 
 deny himself, and take up his cross [daily. Luke 9 : 
 23] and follow me. 
 
 Luke 9 : 24. For whoever will save his life shall lose 
 it; but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same 
 shall save it. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 79 
 
 Romans 6 : 18. Being then made free from sin. ye 
 became the servants of righteousness. 
 
 I Corinthians 6 : 19, 20. Know ye not that your 
 body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which ye have 
 trom God? And ye are not your own, for ye were 
 bought with a price [the precious blood of Christ, a 
 lamb without blemish and without spot, i Peter i : 
 19] glorify God therefore in your body. 
 
 1 Corinthians 10 : 31. Whether then ye eat or drink, 
 or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 
 
 2 Corinthians 5 : 14, 15. For the love of Christ con- 
 strains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for 
 all. then all were dead. And he died for all that they 
 who live should not henceforth live to themselves, but 
 unto him who died for them and rose again. 
 
 Colossians 3 : 17. Whatever ye do in word or deed, 
 do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to 
 God and the Father through him. 
 
 Acts 4 : 34, 35. Neither was there any among them 
 that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or 
 houses, sold them and brought the prices of the things 
 that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet; 
 and distribution was made unto every man as he had 
 need. (Read the connection, 4 : 29 to 5 : 16.) 
 
 (2) Personality. Focalize now this principle of 
 totality of consecration on money and its equiva- 
 lents. This is not to put the material possessions 
 into a water-tight compartment and try to sail it 
 separately from the rest of the ship of life. That is 
 forbidden by the fact that property is intimately as- 
 socia^^ed with personality and personality is primar>'. 
 This brings us to the starting-place in the applica- 
 
8o STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 tion of Stewardship in property. The money with- 
 out the man is negligible if not despicable. The 
 general proposition is safe for wide application that 
 what one is, is more important than what he has. 
 We are frequently told that the man is more than 
 his money, and therefore he should not permit him- 
 self to become enslaved to property or to the acqui- 
 sition of it. But the application to the distribution 
 is not so common though equally true, pertinent, and 
 important. 
 
 One of the great perils of the Christian life is 
 getting its giving tied up in a money-bag. This 
 peril seems to increase as one becomes wealthy and 
 systematic. When one does this, when he settles 
 into seeing his duty and privilege of benevolence 
 solely or chiefly in his check-book, he is on the way 
 to great disaster of character. God is not money 
 and man is not made in the image of money. God 
 is spirit and man is made in his image. Giving 
 money can never take the place of giving self to 
 men for God any more than in giving self to God 
 for men. The New Testament sets this out con- 
 spicuously both by its utterance and its silence. It 
 most impressively exalts the individual as primary, 
 and assumes, wherever it does not afifirm, the reg- 
 nancy of personality in the whole scope and scheme 
 of Christianity. Correspondingly it is impressively 
 silent on details of finance, how to accumulate and 
 how to distribute property. It leaves this field so 
 bare of attention, on the low plane on which the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 8l 
 
 exaltation of the personal character, the spiritual 
 life, places the supreme meaning of salvation, that 
 the spiritually minded may be in danger of despi- 
 sing instead of utilizing the dollar in relation to the 
 Christian experience. So true is this that to bring 
 together all parts of the New Testament which 
 magnify the man in his character, his spiritual life, 
 and in the personal service flowing from this, ex- 
 clusive of the use of money, would be to reproduce 
 a large part of the book. Only a few salient pas- 
 sages are presented. 
 
 Romans 14 : 12. So then every one of us shall give 
 account of himself to God. 
 
 2 Corinthians 8 : 5. They first gave their own selves 
 to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. 
 
 Colossians 3:1. If ye then be risen with Christ, 
 seek those things which are above, where Christ sits 
 on the right hand of God. 
 
 2 Corinthians 4 : 17, 18. A far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things 
 which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. 
 
 I John 3 : 2, 3. When he shall appear, we shall be 
 like him. . . And every one who has this hope in him 
 purifies himself, even as he is pure. 
 
 (3) Respectability. The application of this princi- 
 ple falls on the individual in himself and in those 
 for whose conditions he is financially responsible. 
 In himself respectability means that he should use 
 money for his personal equipment for the Lord's 
 
82 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 work with reference to proper human standards, in 
 harmony with those divine standards which are al- 
 ways supreme. Christian usefulness must consider 
 the preferences and even the prejudices of those 
 in relation with whom it finds its field. A fine ex- 
 ample of sane and sensitive self-immolation has left 
 this word, " All things to all men that I may save 
 some." Paul did not mean that he would be any- 
 thing essentially wrong, or in any way conflicting 
 with any divine standard of conduct, in order to 
 save any or many. He used this extreme state- 
 ment conservatively, assuming those limitations in 
 its application appearing on the divine side. And 
 the One higher than Paul exhibited in his life the 
 same thing. He traveled afoot on the dusty road 
 with the people who went afoot and he dined with a 
 ruler in the style of the ruler, and in either case 
 he was doing the will of the Father as much as in 
 the other. Here is the principle defined for self. 
 The same is to be applied in relation to those for 
 whom the steward is responsible financially, viz., his 
 family. The same Paul who would be all things to 
 all for their good, at the same time plainly held that a 
 Christian, who failed to provide for his own family, 
 denied the faith and was worse than a heathen. It 
 is a primary point of Christian stewardship that 
 the head of a family keep his family respectable 
 according to Christian standards of respectability. 
 And this applies not alone to physical provision, but 
 also, so far as conditions and resources permit, to 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 83 
 
 the fullest equipment of every cbilcl for the service 
 of God in whatever field he may be called. 
 
 Matthew 17 : 26, 27. Then the children are free. 
 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them — go — take 
 up the fish — find a piece of money; that take and give 
 to them for me and thee. 
 
 Acts 6 : 3. Look out among you seven men of honest 
 report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we 
 may appoint over this business. 
 
 2 Corinthians 8 : 20, 21. Avoiding this, that no man 
 should blame us in this abundance which is adminis- 
 tered by us; providing for honest things, not only in 
 the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men. 
 
 Colossians 4 : 5. Walk in wisdom toward those who 
 are without, redeeming the time. 
 
 I Thessalonians 4:11, 12. Study to be quiet and to 
 do your own business and to work with your own 
 hands, that ye may walk becomingly toward those who 
 are without. 
 
 I Timothy 3:7. [A bishop] must have a good re- 
 port from those who are without, lest he fall into re- 
 proach and the snare of the devil. (See the whole 
 connection; also Titus entire and i Peter 2 : 9-20.) 
 
 (4) Prosperity. The Lord's hand is in all the 
 affairs of his people. He regards all their needs and 
 manipulates all their interests. He works through 
 laws that he has made, and he works through mira- 
 cles whenever he chooses. He lets those who trust 
 him go on sometimes as if he were not, and at other 
 times he shows himself in ways such that they are 
 
84 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 sure they see him. God is just as really in the 
 physical and financial life of his people as he ever 
 was. But Christianity is on a different and a 
 higher plane, with another and a better plan, than 
 former systems were. In Judaism the divine revela- 
 tion and providence hovered the ground and laid 
 down rules of adjustment akin to those of the 
 world. In Christianity the divine revelation and 
 providence hover the heavens, set everything to the 
 standard of the spiritual, and adjust the problem of 
 prosperity above the material level. God now offers 
 no material premium on consecration of material 
 things. The eye that looks for property return on 
 the basis of property consecration will not see any 
 divine light; the soul that offers any bargain of 
 this for that in financial exchange, under the name 
 of stewardship, will get no response from God. He 
 does not trade with his people. Redemption 
 abolishes trading. 
 
 It is to be feared that some bearing the Christian 
 name have not fully grasped this truth, but are 
 trying to " keep tab " on providence with their 
 own balance-sheets. They are mistaken. Whoever 
 teaches that this or that fraction of income, or 
 anything else, given to God, under whatever form, 
 will get back something or other in the same 
 kind, is teaching an obsolete system which is 
 treason against the cross of Christ. But at the 
 same time Christianity provides for material pros- 
 perity as a basis for stewardship. This would 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 85 
 
 stand approved as a necessary consequence of its 
 principles and spirit, its equity and benevolence. To 
 forge a cast-iron collar for all to wear, regardless 
 of differing conditions and surroundings, would re- 
 pudiate the life and teachings of Jesus and his 
 authorized exponents, as well as invoke their indig- 
 nant rejection. But the New Testament, although 
 it mentions money in relation to Christians almost 
 exclusively to disparage it or to condemn the spirit 
 to which it is a powerful temptation, yet does de- 
 clare the care of God in relation to it, and does ex- 
 plicitly teach the adjustment of the distribution of 
 possessions to prosperity in them. 
 
 Matthew 6 : 25-34. Therefore, take no thought . . . 
 for your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of 
 all these things. 
 
 Hebrews 13 : 5. Let your conversation be without 
 covetousness; content with such things as ye have; for 
 he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. 
 
 1 Corinthians 16 : 2. Let every one of you lay by in 
 store as God has prospered him. 
 
 2 Corinthians 8:11, 12. So there may be the finish- 
 ing according to what ye have. For if there be first 
 the willing mind, it is accepted according to what one 
 has, not according to what he has not. 
 
 (5) System. Much stress has been laid on " sys- 
 tematic giving," and with justice. But it may be 
 questioned whether system in specific application to 
 finance finds any expression in the New Testament. 
 
86 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 The general principle of orderly or systematic living 
 is laid down there, and the application of it to this 
 field is admissible, even if it were provable that the 
 Testament itself makes no such application, for sys- 
 tem is essential in applying the principles already 
 enumerated, as well as others that are to follow. 
 Paul's direction to lay by in store on the first day 
 of the week is not forgotten, but one may fairly 
 question whether that expresses a principle, or only 
 a method under the principle just now recognized. 
 We have found in it an expression of the principle 
 of prosperity, for on this word the emphasis of the 
 sentence falls and the significance of the storing on 
 the Lord's Day depends. This last is a minor ele- 
 ment, and if any one should claim that it is not prop- 
 erly understood as expressing a principle, his claim 
 would seem to be well advanced ; and this would be 
 true if it touched only the question of its perma- 
 nency or invariability ; still it may be safe to accept 
 the quite evidently prevalent view that this minor 
 member of the sentence carries a principle. But so 
 taken, its application should be confined to the in- 
 dividual, not as supporting the plan of a public 
 gathering of offerings. The use sometimes made 
 of it as imposing gatherings or collections in church 
 meetings, goes beyond, or rather against, Paul's 
 meaning and purpose; in fact, his purpose was to 
 prevent such gatherings, not to impose them, or 
 propose them, or even suggest them. If we keep 
 this proposal as it was first made, as more a method 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 87 
 
 than a principle, and applicable to private use for 
 systematic accumulation, we are not in danger of 
 laying too much stress on it. Remembering, then, 
 that ^' system " is always liable to merge into 
 " machine," let its value in right use and under- 
 standing be magnified ; let not *' system " supplant 
 " spirit," nor " machine " replace " man." 
 
 1 Corinthians 16 : 2. Upon the first day of the week, 
 let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has 
 prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I 
 come. 
 
 2 Corinthians 9 : 3. That, as I said, ye may be ready. 
 
 (6) Simplicity. This is the principle of the sin- 
 gle eye. The single eye is the opposite of the evil 
 eye. The eye stands for the way of looking at 
 things, for the standards of living. The single eye 
 looks straight and straight through, through prob- 
 lems, confusions, and subterfuges. The soul of the 
 single eye, clarified by singleness of standard, is the 
 repository of the divine wisdom. God answers it 
 and guides it because it does not trifle with his 
 monitions and pervert itself by trifling. This, then, 
 means sincerity and a straight walk with God. All 
 these elements concentrate into simplicity. Fellow- 
 ship with God eliminates the pomposity and crooked- 
 ness of selfishness. To say that one's left hand does 
 not know what his right hand does may seem the 
 next thing to calling him an idiot ; but that is what 
 our Lord sets in the first place. He so places and 
 
»» STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 magnifies it in contrast with the hypocrite who blows 
 a trumpet in order that he may have glory of men. 
 
 Matthew 6 : 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy 
 left hand know what thy right hand does: that thy alms 
 may be in secret. 
 
 I Timothy 6 : 8. And having food and raiment, let 
 us be therewith content. 
 
 Acts 5 : 3, 4. Ananias. . . Why hast thou conceived 
 this thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied to men, but 
 to God. 
 
 (7) Spontaneity. We might call it free will, or 
 cheerfulness, or even hilarity, but spontaneity seems 
 best to express the whole thought intended. All 
 that has been set forth in preceding principles may 
 be safely repeated and emphasized in due propor- 
 tion at any time; but never in any way or to any 
 extent that contradicts or embarrasses free will in 
 giving. " God loves a cheerful giver," enthusiastic 
 in the giving until possibly the enthusiasm becomes 
 hilarious. The story of the shouting brother who 
 was silenced by the contribution basket is probably 
 true to life in some cases ; but its extreme reverse is 
 true of the Christian life at its best. In that life the 
 call for contributions of possessions sets one shout- 
 ing. It solicits him to his highest enjoyment. It 
 stirs his risibilities of benevolence. It makes him 
 glad with a gladness too pervasive to be concealed, 
 and in his esteem so honorable and delightful that 
 he does not wish to conceal it. Thus filled with the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 89 
 
 divine gracionsness he becomes so free-hearted in 
 giving that he cannot give grudgingly. He is so 
 thoroughly in sympathy with all the principles of 
 right giving that he adopts and operates them with 
 resolute readiness and bounding promptness. He 
 '' jumps at the chance." His giving is like the sing- 
 ing of a joyous soul that has mastered the principles 
 of music and tuned all its musical faculties to spon- 
 taneous harmony. 
 
 Colossians 3 : 23. And whatever ye do, do heartily 
 as to the Lord and not to men. 
 
 Acts 20 : 35. It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive. 
 
 Acts 4 : 33, 34. Great grace was on them all. Neither 
 was any among them that lacked, for as many as were 
 possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought 
 the prices of the things that were sold. 
 
 2 Corinthians 8 : 1-4. The grace of God bestowed on 
 the churches of Macedonia: in a great trial of affliction, 
 the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty 
 abounded unto the riches of their liberality . . . beyond 
 their power, willing of themselves; praying us with 
 much entreaty that we would receive the gift. 
 
 Luke 21 : 3, 4. This poor widow has cast in more 
 than they all . . . all the living that she had. 
 
 Mark 14 : 9. Wherever this gospel shall be preached 
 throughout the whole world, this also that she has done 
 shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. 
 
 2 Corinthians 8 : 7. Therefore, as ye abound in every 
 thing, . . see that ye abound in this grace also. 
 
90 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 (8) Symmetry. The chief design of the divine 
 plan of stewardship for Christians is the spiritual 
 growth and symmetry of the steward. God is not 
 dependent on his people for money with which to 
 execute his purposes. He always says to them sub- 
 stantially what he said to seer and singer : " The 
 cattle on a thousand hills are mine, all the gold 
 and silver are mine; if I were hungry I would not 
 tell you." He is not dependent on any creature for 
 any supplies anywhere, except as he voluntarily and 
 benevolently makes himself dependent for the good 
 of those to whom he appeals for support. But he 
 has so ordered that the attainment of Christian 
 progress and perfection is involved in material stew- 
 ardship. He calls on us to give in order that there- 
 by we may be developed into a capacity to receive, 
 which seems to be impossible on any other plan. 
 Our receiving, as really as our giving, glorifies him. 
 We cannot fail of either without failing in that 
 praise to God for which we exist and to which we 
 are called. We glorify him by receiving his grace 
 for our need and by imparting his grace to the need 
 of others. This duplex flow of divine grace through 
 us works in us as it passes both ways. The stew- 
 ard himself is the central field of the stewardship. 
 We are in this business because our heavenly Father 
 seeks through it to make us what he wishes us to 
 be. His prevailing and permanent purpose is our 
 perfection in spiritual symmetry. The fuller mean- 
 ing of this will appear in the constructive section. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 91 
 
 Ephesians 6 : lo, ii. Be strong in the Lord and the 
 power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, 
 that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the 
 devil. 
 
 Colossians i : 9-28. We do not cease to pray for 
 you and to desire that ye might be filled with the 
 knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual un- 
 derstanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord 
 unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and 
 increasing in the knowledge of God(ver. 22), to present 
 you holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight 
 (ver. 28), every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Luke 16 : 11. If ye have not been faithful in the 
 unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you the true 
 riches? 
 
 Matthew 6 : 21. For where your treasure is. there 
 will your heart be also. 
 
 Colossians 3 : 5- Put to death, therefore, your mem- 
 bers, . . and covetousness, which is idolatry. 
 
 Hebrews 13 : 20, 21. Now the God of peace . . . 
 make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 
 working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 (9) Equality. The eight principles already de- 
 fined relate to the individual. They reveal the way 
 in which he should go in dealing with stewardship 
 for himself. They are the substance of a sound and 
 symmetrical doctrine of stewardship in the aggre- 
 gate for the individual alone. They do not touch 
 the problem of the distribution in detail save a? 
 symmetry clearly involves a broad view of needs 
 
92 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 and a careful analysis of personal responsibility in 
 response. But now the principle of equality comes 
 in to equalize burdens on associated stewards, so 
 that one shall not be eased and another burdened, so 
 that by this adjustment in detail of the ability given 
 by prosperity, each soul shall be free to build itself 
 symmetrically by means of its wide-spreading bene- 
 factions, large or small, as prosperity may make 
 possible. 
 
 Galatians 6 : 2. Bear one another's burdens and so 
 fulfil the law of Christ. 
 
 2 Corinthians 8 : 13, 14. Not that others be eased and 
 ye burdened. But by an equality, at this time your 
 abundance for their need, that their abundance may be 
 also for your need. 
 
 2. THE PRINCIPLES APPLIED CRITICALLY 
 
 If the preceding principles are taken in a large 
 view of them, they will provide a quite complete 
 test for current methods of giving. These methods 
 are reduced to a few when grouped on the basis of 
 their general or dominant qualities. On this plan 
 we now classify them and seek to judge them in the 
 light of what has gone before. 
 
 (i) Haphazard. This has been the prevalent 
 method among Baptists. It comes from earlier than 
 the first efforts to systematize stewardship. It has 
 stood out against system all along the way. Prob- 
 ably it is still the prevalent style among us, at least 
 when we are viewed LHmerically; more individuals 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 93 
 
 among us employ it than use all the systems com- 
 bined. It arises from two sources chiefly. One of 
 these is thoughtlessness. People do not think provi- 
 dently. They live from hand to mouth in many 
 things or in all things ; and this state of mind so 
 flows into their religion, that if the support of the 
 kingdom of heaven depends on them it must live 
 on the same plan. Their sympathies may be as- 
 sumed to be right and their enthusiasm may reach a 
 high pitch at a given moment ; but with their sym- 
 pathies right and their zeal aflaine, they cannot 
 contribute much because they have not thought to 
 have it in hand for this moment. They may pledge, 
 indeed, but then the same constitutional deficiency 
 induces or compels them to fail to pay the pledge, 
 even when reminded of it. Another source of hap- 
 hazard is indifference. The delinquency arises from 
 lack of real interest. Unless church books are 
 going to have great controversy with heavenly 
 records, many church-members seem to have little 
 or no real, or at least earnest, interest in their re- 
 ligion, except as they think that it can be brought 
 into the service of their selfishness. They pass for 
 " missionary Baptists " because that is " the thing," 
 not because they have the missionary mind. Con- 
 sequently, when they are brought face to face with 
 the call of the Lord's cause, they contribute a little, 
 cheerfully, or more, grudgingly. 
 
 From these two sources most of the tides flow 
 against systematic stewardship in property. The 
 
94 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 shiftless in methods or the indifferent in spirit are 
 still a large company among those to whom the cause 
 of Christ looks for aid. They are the first argument 
 for the " collection box." It gets something from 
 those who otherwise would furnish nothing; that 
 is, it does if it is carried to them, but if it is located 
 in the vestibule and their attention directed to it, 
 they fail to interview it because they do not think, 
 or they purposely evade. When a congregation 
 reaches that culture which leads all its members to 
 adjust these affairs at home, the offering in the 
 meeting will not be needed except, perhaps, as a con- 
 venience for concentration or as an expression of 
 worship. It is always a possible temptation to 
 penuriousness and hypocrisy, as well as shiftless - 
 ness, among the enrolled supporters.® And it may 
 be an offense to some to whom a church should 
 never apply for money, but whom the church should 
 seek to bring within the sound of its message. 
 
 (2) Competitive. Emulation, in the higher mean- 
 ing of the word, is legitimate. Paul used it for stir- 
 ring up the brethren to contributions. When what 
 others have done or are doing rouses us to doing 
 better than we would otherwise, and from right 
 motives, emulation is good as a means to this good 
 end. But its peril lies in its tendency to run into 
 competition in the lower meaning of the word. This 
 has been a common evil and sometimes it is a great 
 evil. So soon as A gives more than B, because he 
 wishes to appear to be more generous than B, or 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 95 
 
 even in the spirit of triumph over the other, the 
 glory and the grace go out of his giving, because it 
 loses the best motive and substitutes a bad motive. 
 This mischief had large play in the old-style sub- 
 scription paper. It was presented first to the rich 
 man, more or less in obeisance to him on account of 
 his money, with the understanding that he enjoyed 
 the flattery, as well as the opportunity, to pose as 
 the largest giver and by implication the most liberal. 
 The truly Christian subscription paper would reverse 
 this order, for it would go to the poor first that 
 they might give freely, and that their deficiency 
 might be made up by the rich without display. The 
 evil in the subscription paper continues in the public 
 call and announcement of contributions. This ap- 
 peals to the same vanity in essentially the same way, 
 discourages the same fidelity, provokes the same 
 jealousy, and works the same injury. Either of 
 these methods has its advantages, but both are out 
 of harmony with that self-hiding in simplicity on 
 which our Lord laid high honor. 
 
 (3) Self-denial. Somewhat extensively a method 
 of increasing contributions has come into use under 
 this title. Churches and other companies of people 
 agree that, for a stipulated period, usually brief, a 
 day or a week, each one will deny to himself some 
 privilege usually enjoyed in order that his gifts may 
 be increased by the amount thus saved. One will 
 cease the use of sugar in his cofifee, or both coffee 
 and sugar, or other articles of food. Another will 
 
96 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 walk and save carfare, and so on. Each chooses the 
 field and the extent of his own abstinence. If so 
 disposed, he can deny to self what self usually has 
 but does not value much. This may go so far that 
 the " denial " part becomes a joke. On the other 
 hand, no doubt this plan is seriously operated, with 
 as good motives as more dignified methods; and in 
 some instances funds surprising in amount, as well 
 as gratifying, have been accumulated. Where this 
 has occurred among the poor in this world's goods, 
 the result argues the seriousness of its prosecution 
 and some real sacrifice. So far it is worthy of sym- 
 pathetic treatment, and is more respectable than the 
 meager provisions of the rich that cost the givers 
 nothing of self-denial. But evidently this method 
 carries always two temptations, to hypocrisy and to 
 trifling, the one in the evasion of any real self-denial 
 by easy ways that meet the letter of the agreement, 
 and the other in the spirit of sportiveness and the 
 travesty of serious things to which the plan may 
 lead. 
 
 Taken seriously, the " self-denial " scheme fails 
 between the principles of totality and personality, 
 to mention no others. The course of reasoning 
 against it is this : If one can dispense with sugar or 
 coffee, or both, for one week without injury to him- 
 self, why may he not do so for two weeks or fifty- 
 two? If another can walk to his work for one day 
 without injury to himself as God's instrument, why 
 can he not often or always do so? And if this 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 97 
 
 is no injury to him, may it not be a benefit? The 
 proposition is soberly submitted that if many per- 
 sons would test themselves systematically after this 
 fashion, they would find themselves both benefited in 
 health and enabled to become larger givers auto- 
 matically by proceeding on the principles we have 
 laid down. It is believed that this proposal applies 
 very pertinently to thousands of Christians of 
 moderate means and to a greater proportion of 
 those of larger means. When Nathan Bishop, as a 
 wealthy man, was doing as well as giving on a 
 large scale for good causes, he was hailed on the 
 street by another wealthy man, riding by as Bishop 
 walked, with the question, " Why don't you ride. 
 Doctor Bishop?" The reply was, '' By walking I 
 have more money to give away." He probably 
 might have added truthfully, " And have better 
 health." After one has answered Christ's demand 
 for denial of self and has gotten hold of our principle 
 of totality practically, this so-called self-denial may 
 take on great dignity and efficiency as one expres- 
 sion of the deeper denial ; but otherwise the " de- 
 nial " is in great danger of falling into hypocrisy or 
 frivolity or both. 
 
 (4) Thank-offering. This brings us to that 
 which deserves to be treated with sympathetic cour- 
 tesy. Thank-offerings have expressed much of 
 grateful love, some of which seems to have been 
 genuine toward God. One's property in peril ap- 
 pears to the owner to be saved by the divine interpo- 
 
96 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 sition, therefore an offering is made. A child lies 
 beyond the skill of physicians at the point of death 
 and an unseen Hand turns back the tide of life; 
 therefore the parent takes his thank-offering to the 
 Lord. A heart alert for such calls as these can hear 
 them often. Now let it be repeated that contribu- 
 tions under such impulses present much to solicit 
 sympathy and evoke admiration. Then let it be said 
 softly, but plainly, that this kind of giving is de- 
 fective. The defect is fundamental. The difficulty 
 with it is that, more or less, it originates in selfish- 
 ness. The owner loves himself in his property ; the 
 parent loves himself in the child ; the saving of the 
 property or child of another would get no response 
 of this nature from him. Without doubt frequently, 
 possibly always, these offerings express self-love and 
 without this element in them would not have been 
 made. Protest against this style of giving arises 
 readily out of the first principle, under which the 
 whole life is a perpetual offering of thanksgiving 
 and more. The basal conception in this method in- 
 volves a separation between God's and mine in- 
 compatible with perfect stewardship. On one side 
 it looks toward those propitiatory offerings abound- 
 ing in paganism and in a paganized Christianity. In 
 the better class of Christians also, it is always in 
 peril of the " bargain-counter " spirit, which makes 
 true giving or serving impossible everywhere. 
 
 (5) Fixed Percentage. This brings us to system., 
 which is good so far. For the present use the tenth 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 99 
 
 takes its place with other fractions without any 
 special rights on any basis of law or method. The 
 field of the application of this percentage is usually 
 that of the gross income ; the steward sets apart a 
 fixed fraction first of all that he receives, as the 
 Lord's part in this view of it, before he applies any 
 of it to his personal purposes, whether of luxury or 
 necessity. This is his debt to God which he will 
 pay before he pays any other debts or provides for 
 himself. Differences on this last detail and others 
 appear among the advocates of this scheme, but they 
 are of minor import, and the proposal to tax only 
 income covers the field substantially. 
 
 The point of issue now is that of the fixity or 
 invariableness of the portion set apart. Is that 
 element consistent with New Testament principles? 
 It is not. Our first three great principles — total- 
 ity, personality, and prosperity — array themselves 
 against it. Combined, they constitute an assault on 
 the fixed fraction that sweeps it routed from the 
 field. It cannot maintain itself even for the indi- 
 vidual alone unless his conditions and his posses- 
 sions remain unchanged. Whenever either of these 
 changes appreciably, he cannot meet the New Tes- 
 tament successfully, cannot continue a consistent 
 steward, without changing his percentage to meet 
 the change in the element or elements in his case. 
 And in cooperation with others the difficulty may 
 be further increased. We may illustrate by the 
 national tariff. Statesmen never make " horizontal " 
 
100 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 changes in the whole group of tariff schedules ; 
 but they consider comprehensively and seek to ad- 
 just equitably, in consequence of which their prob- 
 lem always operates a sliding scale. So the states- 
 manship of Christian stewardship always operates a 
 sliding scale. The regnant principles of the New 
 Testament compel it to do so. Harmony with them 
 by means of an unchanging proportion is impossi- 
 ble. This involves perplexities of judgment and 
 tests of conscience, but these we are not consider- 
 ing just now ; they find place under the constructive 
 application of the principles. We are now challen- 
 ging the fixed fraction with the fixed principles, and 
 the fraction will have to manage the jolts it gets as 
 best it can. It stands in this particular with hap- 
 hazard, and is called to improvement. The princi- 
 ples must not and will not yield. 
 
 3. THE PRINCIPLES APPLIED CONSTRUCTIVELY 
 
 Our search is for the ideal stewardship in prop- 
 erty. In the New Testament certain principles ap- 
 pear which, combined, make clear the outlines of 
 that for which we seek. Bringing some present 
 methods of making effectual the spirit of giving to 
 God, or of operating as his stewards, to the test of 
 these principles, we have found none of them filling 
 the outline, but all of them, so tested, appear se- 
 riously defective. Are we able to locate or define 
 the central or germinal element in these methods in 
 which their deficiency originates? Trying to get 
 
NEW TESTAMExVT PRINCIPLES lOI 
 
 the primary point of view where they agree, more 
 or less, with each other and at the same time differ 
 from the divine ideal, we venture to express it thus : 
 They begin at the wrong end and work the wrong 
 way. This leads to a series of entanglements. 
 These entanglements can be disentangled most 
 briefly and clearly not by following them in detail 
 and ferreting them out in fragments, of which we 
 have done enough in previous connections, but by 
 handling our Scriptural principles constructively, 
 taking them in their vital and logical order and 
 applying them in their harmonious aggregate posi- 
 tively, leaving the tangles to look out for them- 
 selves and disappear by necessary consequence. Our 
 positive definitions and negative applications of these 
 principles have sought to clear the way for this 
 constructive use of them. 
 
 (i) Totality. We conceive ourselves as new- 
 bom into the kingdom of God. The stirring of 
 the new life stirs this primary question : How much 
 of us and ours, as things are ours under human 
 laws, belongs to God? The spontaneous answer of 
 gratitude for redemption and equitable response to 
 its claims must be, " All and absolutely." We pro- 
 pose to take this for all it is worth in the estimate 
 of our highest conception of equity and our tender- 
 est affection of gratitude. We cut all strings of 
 naturalism, eliminate all equivocations of selfishness, 
 and accept this proposal in the full light of the 
 Cross forever and for everything. If we fail to do 
 
 H 
 
I02 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 this, and so far as we fail, we will be misled by 
 sophistries, deceived by delusions, and wrecked in 
 the consequences of both of them. We have already 
 challenged those legalistic surveyors who propose 
 to run lines of demarcation through the redemption 
 and the consecration which it originates and appro- 
 priates. We are not going to permit any one on 
 any plan to beguile us into any infraction of this 
 holy unity. All of our holdings are held for God 
 on the same basis and to the same extent. We are 
 under precisely the same degree and the same kind 
 of responsibility to him for every element in them. 
 To take out any part and set it aside as under a 
 separate law or love, is an impertinence. To all 
 this our primary principle of totality holds us fast 
 inflexibly and invariably. 
 
 (2) Personality. We first find ourselves re- 
 deemed completely and consecrated completely. 
 From this initiative of our own personality we look 
 ahead and start on our age-long service of our Lord. 
 We are humbled by his estimate of us, expressed in 
 redemption, and amazed at the vista of our possi- 
 bilities as he unfolds them to us. And by the 
 same we are exalted in spirit by the apprehension 
 that all God gives us of material things is but a 
 bagatelle when compared with what he gives us in 
 ourselves, our possibilities in conformity to divine 
 standards and our achievements in divine service. 
 Humbly but confidently we are assured that the most 
 profitable field in which we can invest for him, and 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES IO3 
 
 for ourselves as one with him, is ourselves until we 
 are equipped for his service. If we get hold of this 
 properly it will save us from a common error of 
 starting at the wrong end and working the wrong 
 way in the necessary divisions and adjustments with 
 which we must deal. Now we should perceive that 
 we may not set apart any portion of what we con- 
 trol, may not institute any division that places serv- 
 ice separate from our personality in the first place, 
 and adjust the remainder to it. That would put 
 the circumference before the center and turn the 
 whole process topsyturvy. God has not redeemed 
 our things; he has redeemed us; and that puts us 
 first and keeps us there in every consideration of 
 the whole problem of our stewardship. This in- 
 volves that we are not to think of any service or 
 gift as separated from ourselves; because we are 
 Christ's and Christ is God's, and thus the redeemed 
 are lifted into a unity with the divine such that it 
 makes the recognition of a fractional division be- 
 tween the two in stewardship of things internal or 
 external, a disruption of the sacred unity which is 
 treason against both. 
 
 These considerations prepare us, as no others can, 
 to specialize on the use of money for the perfection 
 of personality as the instrument of the divine will. 
 How can I make the most of myself personally for 
 God? No person, especially young person, can an- 
 swer this question without taking his money into 
 the reckoning; his money for expenditure on him- 
 
104 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 self first of all. God cuts with the sharp edges of 
 his instruments, and in order that they may cut well 
 they must be well sharpened. Therefore a duty, in 
 some sense the first duty, of every one is to secure 
 and preserve the physical conditions necessary to 
 doing the will of God, and to appropriate to this use 
 all the money necessary to this end. Here is a stew- 
 ardship of property with reference to food, clothing, 
 recreation, vacational or other, and every other ele- 
 ment of the physical life. The same principle ap- 
 plies in the same way to the mental equipment. If 
 one is called to preach, his obligation is to make 
 himself the best preacher possible, which involves 
 education costing him or some one else considerable 
 money. If he is going into any profession, the same 
 remark applies to qualification for superiority in 
 that profession. If his duty is to enter the market 
 and trade for God, then he should seek the best 
 business education. Apply the principle wherever it 
 fits, and it fits every one somewhere. Personal 
 equipment to do personal work is the first call on 
 stewardship in money because personality is primary 
 as well as persistent everywhere. 
 
 (3) Respectability. Every human being desires 
 to be respectable according to certain standards 
 more or less clearly defined in his own mind. These 
 standards come to him from various sources, singly 
 or combined, recognized or unrecognized ; standards 
 constitutional, associational, legal, moral, etc. The 
 standards of respectability for the Christian are all 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES IO5 
 
 combined and unified in Christ. In him we are to 
 be conformed to the divine image. Whatever har- 
 monizes with him commands us. All else has no 
 legitimate influence over us. So far as we tinge our 
 conceptions of respectability with the shadows or 
 the lights of the world, we are untrue to our high 
 birth and calling. This enfolds and unfolds a multi- 
 tude of strenuous calls to none of which may we 
 be deaf, with none of which may we play hide-and- 
 seek, with all of which we must deal faithfully and 
 freely as stewards of the grace of God through our 
 material possessions. In every one of the calls for 
 our money we must stand fast where we find the 
 best available answer to the question, " Will this 
 expenditure be respectable according to God's 
 standard, will it be a good investment for him, will 
 it please him? Manifestly here we are in danger 
 of getting ourselves into numerous entanglements of 
 judgment, natural sympathy, and selfish solicitation ; 
 but if we are to grow up into the stature of men in 
 Christ, we must not run away from these entangle- 
 ments or cast them aside. To do the first is to show 
 a cowardice discreditable in those who are com- 
 manded to quit themselves like men. To do the 
 second is to belittle the redemption which glorifies 
 every trifle of our life, pouring into it the dignity 
 and sanctity of the supreme Steward, our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. No matter what perplexities or per- 
 secutions, what inconveniences or losses may be in- 
 volved, our inflexible rule must be to test every use 
 
I06 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 of our property as much as our speech, thought, 
 and feeHng by this one test of respectabiHty accord- 
 ing to Christ, giving him the benefit of the doubt 
 wherever a doubt exists. We are not to deny or 
 modify our obHgation to be respectable in this way 
 by hiding behind any apportionment, whether made 
 by a convention, a church, a committee, or a crowd. 
 Our course may please or displease the world or the 
 brethren, but that is a negligible consideration in 
 the eye of respectable stewardship. 
 
 In all of this we are assuming, not denying, the 
 position taken in our definition of respectability as 
 recognizing human standards. So far as we do this 
 as our Lord did, we are conforming to the divine 
 standard. This opens a large field for discrimina- 
 tion and raises many fine points of distinction. 
 Whatever problem is thus set before us we must 
 grapple and handle with the firm hand of a loyal 
 heart. The demon of selfishness and his ally, sub- 
 terfuge, lurk along this line, to be met here as every- 
 where else. It behooves us to be on our guard 
 equally against worldly conformity and unwise dis- 
 crimination. The opportunity often arises to para- 
 lyze our message to the world by fanatical or other- 
 wise foolish antagonism to the tastes of the world. 
 For instance, a preacher can save money for charity 
 by preaching shabbily clad ; but often that would be 
 poor stewardship, because this economy loses more 
 in the message than it gains in the charity. More 
 harm is done in the higher interest through the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES lO/ 
 
 repulsion of the decently clad, than the improvement 
 in the beggar's wardrobe does good in the lower. 
 
 (4) Prosperity. It is important that we set a 
 right value on this word. Only by so doing will we 
 get a firm grasp on its principle. Having in mind 
 what has been said under " definition," we raise the 
 question. What is it to be prosperous in business, 
 or in the widest view of material possessions in their 
 ownership and uses? We cannot frame a proper 
 answer on the basis of the four rules of arithmetic 
 alone. We must use them, must add, subtract, mul- 
 tiply, and divide. But any worldling does that. 
 He estimates the value of what he has as expressed 
 in figures by what he can get out of it ; what he can 
 get with it that best meets his most urgent needs as 
 he understands needs. To accumulate a million dol- 
 lars and live in a desert isolated, both during and 
 after the accumulation, may be regarded as pros- 
 perity; but to get the same or less and live in a 
 city associated, is more to almost every one. And 
 the value of the money grows as the uses multiply in 
 which the owner can gratify himself, if he is one 
 kind of a man, or promote those principles and en- 
 terprises to which he is devoted, if he is another 
 kind of man. A wide range of meaning in the word 
 prosperity opens, even to the worldly mind, around 
 the wealth that is managed in the application of the 
 four rules. The conclusion of this line of reflection 
 is obvious and its application to the Christian life 
 pertinent. Such people as we are taking ourselves 
 
I08 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 to be cannot define prosperity in finance lower than 
 the level of the new life in Christ. When we see it 
 all in the fellowship of Christ, his cross and cause, 
 we must elevate and refine our definition of pros- 
 perity, must put into it the recognition of the spirit- 
 ual, that which we get and that which we give. 
 
 As a simple illustration take this: One pays 
 toward the support of a church and gets a varied 
 spiritual prosperity from the church, in the preach- 
 ing, the prayer meeting, the fellowship. If he views 
 this fact and its implications with a worldly wise 
 eye, he may say : " Well, I get my money's worth 
 out of that, a good investment for me ; but it takes 
 all I think I ought to give until I have purchased 
 another farm, for farm values are rising, there- 
 fore I will postpone all gifts beyond this." But 
 when he views it with the spiritually wise eye, the 
 argument runs the other way, thus : " If this invest- 
 ment in my church brings me so much and such 
 superior prosperity, therefore I must invest in 
 missions in order that I may share in giving the 
 higher good to others, more destitute than I. Per- 
 haps I own enough farm land." Now he lifts his 
 money up into heavenly connections, which makes 
 it mean more of prosperity to him than it could be- 
 low. Moreover, if he brings it down his whole life 
 will come down with it. And further, let him note 
 with trembling, if he brings his life down, he brings 
 down the life of Him who lives in him and in whom 
 he lives. In thinking of it in this way we do not 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES IO9 
 
 slip our discussion off its base, but we do elevate 
 the base. 
 
 Let us guard against confusing prosperity with 
 proportion. Aluch is said about " proportionate 
 giving,*' but not much to the point sometimes. It 
 means about this: Of course, when I have more I 
 will give more. I will extend my partition between 
 God's and mine farther as the field opens, setting 
 off more to myself as well as to him. I may con- 
 tinue the same proportion, unless the prosperity 
 should become great, when I may grow discreet, or 
 stingy, and cut his part down, avoiding fanaticism. 
 Here is a danger-point in prosperity when confused 
 with a scheme of proportion based on a scale of 
 fractional division. Let us bring our principle of 
 totality and set it in view here as a safeguard. It 
 is the only adequate safeguard. As our teachers in 
 stewardship reach this point they separate into two 
 parties, each taking that fork in the road to which its 
 principles, so far as it has come, lead it. One party 
 makes, as we have seen and declined to accept, a 
 division between God's part and ours, beginning at 
 God's end of the line and cutting off his share ac- 
 cording to program. But the party to which we 
 belong, knowing no such line, lays another between 
 the equipment and maintenance of self as the in- 
 strument of God and what lies beyond self, view- 
 ing the whole as a unit in him. To these two parties 
 increase of prosperity means two quite different 
 things. To the first, on the basis, for instance, of a 
 
no STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 tenth as God's part of a dollar, a doubling of pros- 
 perity means ninety cents of surplus for self and ten 
 cents more for God; but to the second it means no 
 surplus for self and a dollar more for God. The 
 word proportion never occurs in the New Testament 
 in application to property, and the idea commonly 
 carried in it is equally absent from that book. This 
 discussion, therefore, does not recognize proportion 
 as a principle in Christian stewardship, but only as 
 a method subordinately. 
 
 The point now reached raises two questions : How 
 much of our holdings do we need to apply to our- 
 selves ; and, this need being met, how much is left 
 for distribution beyond ourselves, and how shall we 
 distribute it ? The answer to the last of these ques- 
 tions, in its second element, comes more fitly under 
 the next division. But the first question is now at 
 our door demanding no stinted attention. The 
 problem of the dividing line between what should 
 be invested in self and what should pass on to 
 others, is very serious, not mathematically so much 
 as dynamically. It runs through the roots and car- 
 ries the issues of life wherever it runs, profoundly, 
 variously, and very seriously. The estimate we 
 place on ourselves determines the estimate we put 
 on others, on the whole field beyond that part, com- 
 paratively small in some legitimate views of it, 
 which we directly plant, till, and harvest. Every 
 fraction applied to ourselves cuts ofif proportionately 
 elsewhere. The dullest eye must see that this lays 
 
NEW TESTAMEXT PRINCIPLES III 
 
 a snare for our feet, the snare of selfishness. As 
 soon as we begin to appropriate to self, we stand 
 face to face with the " old man," are tempted to en- 
 large this side of the distribution in response to our 
 own gratification rather than to our Lord's glorifi- 
 cation. The difficulty and danger here are much 
 enhanced frequently by our honest ignorance of 
 what we do really need and, equally or more, of what 
 we are liable to need in the future for which we are 
 planning. We shall miss the mark unless God guides 
 our arrow. As we miss the mark the kingdom will 
 lose, and its loss will be our loss, because we are 
 vitally and totally of it. Its interests are involved 
 in the use the Lord makes of us. and our interests 
 are involved in the use he makes of what we provide 
 to be applied beyond us through other instrumen- 
 talities. If we are wise we will not dogmatize in 
 the presence of this problem. But we may reflect 
 and suggest. 
 
 Our first reflection relates to the liberty of the 
 individual. We agree not to be afraid of liberty in 
 Christ. Here it comes to view in the foreground. 
 It is robed in the principle of personality. Our time 
 has peculiarly and happily exalted the sanctity of 
 the person, both in his real self and the physical 
 form which he inhabits. This exaltation is the prod- 
 uct of Christianity. It follows in the train of those 
 great teachings that our spirits and our bodies are 
 the temples of the Holy Spirit, and that the ofifer- 
 ing of our bodies as a sacrifice to God is a spiritual 
 
112 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 service. The highest appHcation of the sanctity of 
 the human person is in the Christian, and specifically 
 in his stewardship. Here, then, we are on the 
 highest ground for the recognition of individual 
 liberty in personal sanctity. Every steward of God 
 has a supreme right to take his own measure and 
 manage his own stewardship. Ample field lies open 
 for advice and argument, but determinations are the 
 prerogative of every soul for itself, a prerogative 
 that it must defend against all intruders and 
 cherish for its Lord. How one distributes his 
 material prosperity is his own business just because 
 it is God's business. 
 
 Another reflection is that all stewards occupy a 
 common level and have a common obligation of 
 fidelity to the finest fraction of prosperity. A mil- 
 lionaire has no more right to waste a dollar of 
 God's money than a washerwoman has. Practically, 
 this is an absurdity to the world and to many 
 church-members. It is usually assumed that be- 
 cause one is rich he has latitude that his poor 
 brother does not have in considering his expendi- 
 tures in the light of his preferences selfishly. But in 
 the presence of the Cross of Christ the difference 
 between a thousand million dollars and ten cents 
 is negligible, for the present purpose. The same 
 divine ownership covers the one as the other, and 
 stewardship and selfishness meet for the same strug- 
 gle in the one life as in the other. Has a rich man 
 a right to put his money into an automobile or a 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES II3 
 
 cigar? Yes, if it is essential to the purpose of 
 God in him. Aside from that consideration the 
 amount of money he controls has no bearing on the 
 question. The work of the Lord in the churches, 
 through them, and beyond them, can never reach its 
 highest attainment until the Lord's people cease 
 conceding to the rich a latitude of selfishness which 
 is not granted to the poor, cease crouching to the 
 owner of much, and apply estimates and discipline 
 impartially everywhere. 
 
 But we hasten this line of observation to its con- 
 clusion. After a Christian has provided for the 
 equipment of himself for doing in the most perfect 
 way what God gives him to do, how much of what 
 remains may he appropriate to himself? Nothing! 
 But does not this mean that we are not to spend 
 any money for our own aggrandizement or gratifi- 
 cation? Yes, that is what it means, and that is the 
 only way to live a Christian life. This is so plain in 
 the New Testament that our astonishment at the 
 statement of it starts our astonishment at the blind- 
 ness with which we have read that book. 
 
 Let it be understood that what has been said ap- 
 plies only as it has been said. It does not so apply 
 as to prohibit thinking about to-morrow and arran- 
 ging for it to-day. It does not prevent proper fore- 
 casts, concerning the demands of business by the 
 business man, or family expenses by the head of 
 a family, or personal expenses by the individual, or 
 judicious provisions for possibilities or probabilities 
 
114 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 of decline in one's resources, financial or physical. 
 These things are admissible and necessary in multi- 
 tudes of applications on a scale reasonably commen- 
 surate with the whole scope of each life. But the 
 principle must stand. If we are not able to take it 
 in its entirety for reasonable use, that is our great 
 misfortune. If any one says that this cuts off a 
 great many calculations and gratifications, the reply 
 is, Well, let it cut ! Selfishness can devise many 
 more of both after this principle is in operation. 
 The principle itself is as fixed as the redemption in 
 which it roots. More light may shine along this 
 line when we turn on the current of spontaneity. 
 
 (5) System. We have already observed that sys- 
 tem in stewardship is necessary, whether listed as 
 principle or method. We cannot get far success- 
 fully without it, either in acquiring or in distribu- 
 ting; and, other things equal, our stewardship will 
 be wise in proportion as it is systematic. The need 
 seems to appear at this point to apply the princi- 
 ple to distribution. System recently has been con- 
 sidered mostly in relation to proportion, and the 
 discussion has clung quite closely to the item of the 
 division, on the basis of percentages between the 
 Lord and the steward in his selfishness. For that 
 we no longer have any place ; but for distribution 
 unselfishly to a throng of eager and more or less 
 worthy applicants we do have a place. The multi- 
 plication of fields and ways for doing good with 
 money, and the increase of facilities for communica- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES II 5 
 
 tion with all parts of the world, lays on the stew- 
 ard of the present time additional responsibility in 
 this element. Carelessness or incompetency here 
 may be more disastrous for us than it would have 
 been for our predecessors. The duty to discrimi- 
 nate, therefore, becomes more insistent, generally 
 and particularly. 
 
 Generally, discrimination is necessary between dif 
 ferent kinds of good. A simple analysis is possible 
 for every one and seems to be sufficient for our 
 present purpose. It recognizes contributions to four 
 kinds of needs — the physical, the intellectual, the 
 moral, and the spiritual. This is an ascending 
 gradation in the understanding of the Christian. At 
 the lowest point he stands in fellowship with all 
 normal humanity; one who refuses all response to 
 the physical needs of humanity having forfeited the 
 right to be regarded as human. The appeal of in- 
 tellectual need, and aid to education in response to 
 it, approximates the preceding in its universality as 
 people are civilized ; one disregarding this claim not 
 being counted as civilized. The third step still 
 carries along with the Christian a large number of 
 those who are no more than humanitarians at their 
 best ; the Christian influence everywhere diffusing 
 throughout the community a sentiment more or less 
 in sympathy with good order, sobriety, honesty, 
 honor. But in the fourth and highest field Chris- 
 tians must bear substantially the whole burden. 
 
 Others, indeed, see indistinctly the significance of 
 
Il6 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 the gospel in itself and are sometimes willing to con- 
 tribute to its dissemination for its own sake, others 
 are so disposed for the sake of its value in lower 
 relations ; but the natural man cannot understand 
 the spiritual life in itself or appreciate it in any 
 way enough to induce him to contribute much to its 
 propagation. How does this bear on the distribution 
 of the Christian's funds among the four kinds of 
 good? It seems to compel the consistent saint to 
 push his contributions strongly into the spiritual. 
 While he is authorized and required by his Chris- 
 tian belief to consider sympathetically and practi- 
 cally the lower kinds of philanthropy, he is as 
 certainly required, as a general proposition, to subor- 
 dinate any of the other three, or all of them together, 
 to the one that abides by the cross and the crown 
 of his salvation. If he fails to do this he therein 
 writes an interrogation against his whole Christian 
 profession. This may seem to be a too strenuous 
 statement, but it must stand. If one has not a suffi- 
 ciently clear apprehension of the grace of God in 
 sending his Son into the world to save sinners, and 
 appreciation of it for himself and his fellow men. 
 to lead him to take this view of these relative values 
 and claims, he should not be oflFended if those who 
 do understand and appreciate doubt whether he has 
 any divine life at all. It is too late to compromise 
 with a so-called Christian steward who is more 
 generous to a soup house than he is to foreign mis- 
 sions. Errors of this kind are too common, result- 
 
NEW TESTAMEXT PRINCIPLES II/ 
 
 ing from thoughtlessness, impulsive natural sym- 
 pathy, or unfortunate training in this field, but when 
 all admissible allowance has been made on these 
 grounds, our declaration remains as just now stated. 
 If great need in the lower fields should get no re- 
 sponse except from Christians, this conclusion might 
 perhaps be modified; but the reverse situation is 
 conspicuously in evidence. That the wealth of the 
 worldly, as well as of many claiming to be Christian, 
 is going largely, as it is, to the relief of physical and 
 intellectual destitution, is a legitimate and power- 
 ful appeal to the redeemed to expend themselves 
 for the highest ends, both at home and abroad. The 
 spiritual will respond to this, and their aid to the 
 lower kinds of helpfulness will seek those organiza- 
 tions and institutions in which the spiritual life and 
 purpose are most pervasive and efifective. 
 
 In detail, but little needs to be said. It relates 
 to the choice of fields and the distribution of one's 
 means to them. At home it seems clear that a 
 church-member should support his own church 
 where it provides facilities to meet his desires ; 
 and where conditions may call him to cooperation 
 in undenominational or interdenominational enter- 
 prises, supreme regard should be had to the doc- 
 trinal soundness and spiritual power of the agencies 
 chosen. With very little exception, if any, denomi- 
 national facilities will be found sufficient and as so- 
 licitous as they are sufficient. The danger is on the 
 other side, that the opportunities provided are so 
 I 
 
Il8 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 numerous, so urgent, and so excellent that the con- 
 tributor will be confused in choosing, and will be- 
 come indifferent to the knowledge of details that he 
 ought to seek. Individualism and personality are 
 now tested at this point. The difficulty is in sustain- 
 ing enthusiasm in studying particulars of need and 
 promise without becoming divisive. More or less all 
 the way throughout our mission history we have been 
 permitted, if not encouraged, to appropriate spe- 
 cifically, as individuals and churches and fragments 
 of churches or sometimes detached squads hardly 
 within speaking distance of the church. The right 
 of large givers has been recognized to designate the 
 details of the application of their funds, involving 
 sometimes a sort of kingdom within a kingdom, with 
 direct communications, seeming to waste the work- 
 er's time in correspondence of doubtful value. Valid 
 reasons exist for this method. More valid objec- 
 tions, perhaps, are equally easy to find; it tends to 
 minister to local and personal pride and vanity; it 
 brings self in where only the Lord should enter. 
 The ideal is the blending of the greatest intelligence 
 and enthusiasm individually, on the one side, with 
 the combination of the greatest number of contri- 
 butions to common channels with the least em- 
 barrassment for the immediate managers of the 
 great work. 
 
 (6) Simplicity. When our Lord said that un- 
 worldly thing about not letting the left hand know 
 what the right hand was doing in almsgiving, he 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 1 19 
 
 put to a sharp test the faith of men, including Chris- 
 tian men. His appHcation of the same principle to 
 worship seems to be more palatable to the majority. 
 For most people praying alone and unrecognized is 
 easier than to give alone and unrecognized. The 
 wisdom of the better side of the world probably has 
 quite accurately put itself into this smart saying: 
 " The greatest pleasure is to do good on the sly 
 and be caught at it." But why do it on the sly if 
 the greatest pleasure in it is the failure of the sly- 
 ness? Can this question be answered honestly with- 
 out formulating a criticism on humanity at its natu- 
 ral best, a searching fundamental criticism? The 
 confession, conscious or unconscious, seeming to be 
 involved in the smart saying is this: The person 
 who does good on the sly is not sincere in the sly- 
 ness, for his deepest desire is to be caught at it if 
 his greatest pleasure is in that element of it. May 
 not anonymous giving be the highest form of ego- 
 tism? When one conceals himself with the knowl- 
 edge or expectation or hope that sooner or later 
 he will be disclosed, may he not harbor more self- 
 seeking than if he had given openly at the outset? 
 May not the secret and dominating feeling be that 
 in the delayed disclosure he will secure more atten- 
 tion, discussion, applause, than could have come to 
 him in any other way? 
 
 If these are searching questions, let them search ! 
 We need much of this kind of searching. The need 
 of it is blazoned on manv windows in houses of 
 
I20 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 worship, on many buildings for good uses, on many 
 funds for highest purposes, on which the names of 
 their donors are displayed openly, as well as in the 
 less frequent instances of more secret giving in 
 which self may have been expressed less evidently 
 though with equal certainty. The genuine Christian 
 spirit shrinks from all that kind of thing. When 
 one proposes to give to a good cause on the condi- 
 tion that his name, sometimes enfolded in another 
 name from which it cannot be disconnected while 
 time endures, shall be attached forever to the gift ; 
 the gift in itself may be good, and the giver may 
 be estimable, but the condition is so far removed 
 from that simplicity which Christ commended in the 
 saying of the two hands, that the term " Christian " 
 seems to be very incongruously associated with it. 
 If we cannot see this, let us consult the oculist. 
 
 This is not to say that we do wrong when we let 
 others know that we give and what we give, even 
 when we give much, perchance disproportionately 
 much. Counterbalancing considerations are legiti- 
 mate. Sometimes one can greatly augment the gifts 
 of others, thus advancing the Lord's cause, by con- 
 ditional giving and other processes. But, after all 
 the modifying concessions have been recorded, the 
 ground floor in this discussion remains right where 
 Jesus placed it in the saying that seems so extrava- 
 gant to most people. Suppose that all the members 
 of a large church should simultaneously cast out 
 the whole visible and orderly program of apportion- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 121 
 
 nients, and envelopes, and pledges, and everything 
 tinctured with publicity; and then secretly, steadily, 
 and joyously give much more than they had given 
 before! Suppose it if you can, and then tell your- 
 self what you would think of it. Would you not 
 think it rather " queer," have a little suspicion that 
 they had all become daft, or at least gone over to 
 that red flag of the devil, " fanaticism " ; and would 
 you not be quite sure that they would not continue it 
 long? But if words mean what they say, taking 
 these words of Jesus conservatively, unless he him- 
 self was either disconcerted or insincere, he meant 
 to be understood that that is the normal spirit of the 
 giving acceptable to him. This does not mean that 
 the Lord delights in dunces or oddities. But it does 
 mean that he delights in that simplicity which does 
 not proclaim itself, that conceals in order to avoid 
 the applause of men, which applause may carry in it 
 the disfavor of God. In another sphere, another 
 atmosphere, another life, competitions, triumphs, ap- 
 plause may be safe for the saints, but not now and 
 here. He who eliminates these methods cultivates 
 safety; and he who finds his duty in publicity, and 
 must therefore encounter the clapping of hands and 
 the waving of banners in honor of himself, as some 
 must, needs an extra measure of grace lest these 
 things wither the flower of his service and dissipate 
 its aroma. The wise Lord, who " knew what is in 
 man," saw the deep and wide meaning of this and 
 more like it; therefore he set in the center of our 
 
122 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 eye this wide and deep saying that we might never 
 cease to see it, because the ceasing to see it is the 
 blurring and the scrimping of the divine landscape, 
 and it is too fine to be blurred or scrimped. 
 
 (7) Spontaneity. The only giver whom God 
 loves on account of a quality in his giving is the 
 " cheerful giver." This at least is true as far as 
 the New Testament states. This fact is significant 
 practically to the seekers after the divine ideal in 
 this service. It is significant both as warning and 
 encouragement. It warns us that our reluctance 
 may kill our contributions much more than we 
 think. The lack of this lovable quality in them may 
 cut the love of God out of them. Praying for bless- 
 ing on gifts that were not given freely, cheerfully, 
 may be wasted. But the fact that God loves a 
 cheerful giver peculiarly is the supreme incentive 
 to ungrudging giving, because it calls with specific 
 power into the fellowship of God as a giver. In 
 proportion as we give as he does, his life penetrates 
 and vitalizes our gift. This cannot be said in the 
 same way of any other element in giving, no matter 
 how correct it may be. Even self-sacrifice may not 
 attain to this blessing. Much self-sacrifice, going 
 to the extreme of perpetual poverty and constant 
 torture, may be not only unacceptable to God, but 
 repulsive to him, because it is done in the spirit of 
 bargain, legalism, self-righteousness, and what not, 
 that is incompatible with the love of God. One 
 need not observe or reflect very far in order to be 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES I23 
 
 impressed by the fact that much of what is called 
 giving is so defective in this element that we cannot 
 well see how God can love it. 
 
 Does it not then follow that he was wise who, when 
 convinced of his duty to give a large sum to a good 
 cause, declined to do so on the ground that he could 
 not do it freely and would not do it grudgingly ; 
 but who added that he would do it as soon as he 
 could cheerfully, explaining that he had not been 
 educated to such a point, but would try to reach 
 it as soon as possible, and then would give the 
 amount that at first seemed to him excessive? I 
 think that he was wise with the higher wisdom, that 
 his aspiration after the right spirit in the giving 
 was worth more to God than his money would have 
 been without it. We may safely assume that all the 
 divine help needed, to bring him to feel as his judg- 
 ment taught him he ought, would be given to him. 
 When a person is in that state of mind, no risk is 
 taken by leaving him and God alone. They will 
 work it out. A vision rushes before us of a host 
 of God's people who flounder along in hobbles, fuss- 
 ing with apportionments as excuses, with percent- 
 ages as delusions, with little calculations and eva- 
 sions, with sophistries in reasoning and tricks of 
 conscience, and really giving nothing with that free 
 will, that exhilaration of cheerfulness, that exuber- 
 ance of spontaneity which God loves. As a balloon, 
 when its earth fastenings are cut, springs to the 
 
124 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 bind us down were cut, would spring upward into 
 a joy of the sense of God which can never come to 
 us SO long as we cling to the toggles lest we might 
 do a little more than the law requires or than we 
 conceive to be our share. But all argument and in- 
 vective fail here. Nothing but the joy of the Cross 
 can cure us ! 
 
 Do we realize that just here we meet the supreme 
 solution of the problems of proportion? We may 
 have seemed to ourselves to trifle with those prob- 
 lems, to accord a liberty that puts contempt on them 
 or leaves confusion concerning them. If this effect 
 has been produced, this is the place to correct it. 
 Under the guidance of our principles we have reached 
 the position that after we have equipped and provided 
 ourselves for personal service, the remainder of our 
 material prosperity must go beyond ourselves for 
 the service through others of the same Lord whom 
 we serve directly. The problem thence arising is 
 that of the proper place to draw the line between 
 these two claimants ; and we have recognized the 
 great danger that selfishness will lead us to place an 
 undue part of the whole, all belonging equally to 
 God, on the side of self-equipment, so called, slip- 
 ping, consciously or unconsciously, into self-grati- 
 fication or glorification. Spontaneity will save us 
 when based where we have based it. It alone can 
 save us. It will save us abundantly if only we have 
 it abundantly. This may sound so simple that we 
 will fail to hear the fulness of its voice and the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES I25 
 
 whole of its message. Therefore consider the phi- 
 losophy of it. 
 
 If we can adequately heed the exhortation to have 
 in us the same mind that was in Christ when, being 
 rich, he became poor for our sakes, we will follow 
 him in the same way. The poorer disciple, with the 
 cheerfulness of spontaneity in imparting, will econ- 
 omize in the whole field of self-gratification in order 
 that he may have something in reserve with which 
 to express and satisfy his own love of giving. He 
 will not expect a miracle to relieve him of the bur- 
 den, but will joyfully accept and increase it, within 
 righteous limits, just because his free will feels that 
 it must find something to give. He will not cease 
 curtailing his own selfishness while he criticizes the 
 selfishness of the rich. He may pity the other and 
 possibly condemn him, but he will not compete with 
 him in the same bad way, knowing that the narrow- 
 ness of the way (when measured by resources) 
 does not touch the essence of the way in its selfish- 
 ness which is the same in both of them. And what 
 will the richer disciple do? Precisely the same thing 
 and for precisely the same reason. His larger means 
 will be his opportunity to gratify the mind of Christ 
 in himself more largely, as measured in dollars and 
 cents, than his poorer brother does, but not more 
 largely in the celestial estimates. Standing on the 
 same basis of totality they will reach the same height 
 of efficiency. That is why God loves a cheerful 
 giver, because his cheerful giving is the same as that 
 
126 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 which moved God himself when he gave his Son 
 for the saving of the world. This spontaneous giv- 
 ing, joyous when it is most costly, cheerful always, 
 is the highest and finest expression of fellowship 
 with God. God is love, and when a man is love as 
 God is, with the love of God he will exercise God's 
 love in him as it was manifested by God in the most 
 perfect manifestation of it known to us. 
 
 Lest some may think that the demands of system 
 and calculation militate against freedom and joy in 
 giving, let this be added. Cheerfulness in giving, 
 as elsewhere, is entirely harmonious with serious- 
 ness, calculating seriousness. Spontaneity is not 
 spasm. It is the self-sourced and self-sustained ex- 
 pression of God in us, as equitable and balanced as 
 it is energetic and bounding. The higher the quality 
 of a mind, the more it finds its pleasure in thought- 
 fulness and most in the most strenuous. Cheerful- 
 ness and calculation may walk hand in hand along a 
 continuous highway of rational holiness. The deep- 
 est joy is on the high places of intelligence and re- 
 flection. The soul that has come into tune with 
 God by incorporating into its sympathies and will 
 those truths which Christ brought from heaven, is 
 thereby roused, inspired, and elevated into thinking 
 like God's thinking, and in that kind of thinking the 
 joy of the Lord abounds as it does not in any other. 
 
 (8) Symmetry. Let us not forget that we are 
 thinking of the ideal in stewardship. This ideal, 
 while never dissociated from the practical, is still 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES 12/ 
 
 supremely spiritual. It lifts all its elements into the 
 realm of spiritual character. We are operating- 
 above mathematics and morals, though not denying 
 either nor ignoring it for necessary uses. If some 
 things that we have said seem to have been left 
 unfinished or to be impracticable, the explanation is 
 that we are not on the plane of rules but of princi- 
 ples, and the application of these principles is natu- 
 rally and necessarily flexible. Those who get a law, 
 from Adam or Moses or themselves, cannot quite 
 go at the problem in our way. This way terminates 
 in bringing our principles together, in their flexi- 
 bility of application and in the combination of them, 
 as our definitions have outlined them, to produce at 
 last a symmetrical spiritual character as far as that 
 character is dependent on stewardship in material 
 Ix)ssessions, rooted in the New Testament principles, 
 and operated consistently with them. Now we come 
 to the climax in consideration of the individual at the 
 goal of symmetry. We may conceive of it as the 
 roofing of a building, or the unfolding of a flower, 
 or as any other event embodying a climax reached 
 through an orderly process. 
 
 We are dealing, then, with the problem of the 
 divine quality in the disciple, and such symmetrical 
 development as qualifies and equips him to do the 
 will of God. In this sense perfection is the goal of 
 every redeemed life and it is sure to reach the goal. 
 God did not give himself in his Son for any patch- 
 work of human character. Heaven has no crutches. 
 
128 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 because it needs none. The work of the Holy Spirit 
 turns out no defectives. God's design is to perfect 
 all of his people, and his success in this is inevitable 
 as his invincibility is resistless. He who has begun 
 a good work in us will finish it. The defects, de- 
 linquencies, degradations of the most hopeless soul 
 are opportunities for the divine workmanship. The 
 essential nucleus is established in every one at his 
 heavenly birth, and the structure proceeds through 
 time certainly, and through eternity for all I know 
 to the contrary. Manifestly, if these things are true, 
 the perfect stewardship works perfection in symme- 
 try of character for the steward, and as far as the 
 process fails the result fails. Therefore the match- 
 less importance of grounding stewardship in the 
 New Testament principles and applying those prin- 
 ciples consistently to the limit, to every limit, of the 
 whole orbit of Christian devotion, which is as wide 
 as the whole design of God on earth. 
 
 The principles are authoritative and changeless. 
 The adjustment and combination of them are at the 
 disposal of the individual in the exercise of his 
 liberty and the recognition of his responsibility. 
 How they are to be fitted into each other and builded 
 all together into the best effects, both in the spiritual 
 character and the promotion of the Lord's cause 
 throughout the whole world, is the problem with 
 which each steward must deal for himself. It does 
 not, therefore, follow that two equally faithful 
 stewards, in the same church, and with the same 
 
NEW TESTAxMENT PRINCIPLES 1 29 
 
 resources, will make the same distribution in detail 
 of their contributions, still less, perhaps, that two 
 with differing resources will do so. One may be 
 led by the Spirit to give precedence to home mis- 
 sions and the other to foreign. One may be induced 
 by peculiar considerations, constitutional or other, 
 to turn his attention more to a hospital and the 
 other to a school. Circumstances may lead one to 
 help a suffering neighbor with funds which the other 
 would be led by a different set of circumstances to 
 put into Bibles. Wisdom in general and some of 
 our principles in particular seem to make it obli- 
 gatory, other things being equal, for each to keep 
 in view the world sweep of enterprise, no matter 
 how limited his means may be. For thus only can 
 he attend to symmetry in his own character. 
 
 If one says that this gives the disciples great 
 liberty, the reply is : So it does, and well, for in the 
 use of this liberty is found the finest edification of 
 self in Christ. We can secure an inferior self-de- 
 velopment by subjecting ourselves to fixed rules, 
 brought in from anywhere or manufactured at home, 
 can do this as the papist gets something out of his 
 subjection to the rules of his hierarchy ; but if we are 
 to make the most of ourselves as the children and 
 servants of God, we must take our liberty for all 
 it is worth, under the New Testament principles, and 
 use it loyally, intelligently, and constantly. The 
 same is equally true for the best distribution of the 
 means to the other ends in view for the kingdom of 
 
130 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 Christ. If we are to hold in the best way, and finally 
 in any way at all, to our doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 
 we must hold to it as including the sovereign liberty 
 of the Spirit. If we drift into that naturalism which 
 subordinates Him to the priest, the pastor, the 
 church, the committee, or any other, we shall all 
 together reach the place where we shall make a botch 
 of it. But if we honor the Spirit in every disciple, 
 and if every disciple uses his liberty to honor the 
 Spirit in himself, then will flow into the church and 
 the kingdom that unanimity in variety which can 
 come in no other way. The stewards and their 
 stewardship will be developed constantly, under the 
 divine hand and in the joy of Gk)d, into a symmetry, 
 simultaneous and spontaneous, and mutually re- 
 sponsive and constructive. 
 
 (9) Equality. Equality opens the field of co- 
 operation. This field has always presented itself, 
 more or less, according to circumstances and condi- 
 tions. But in the present it has expanded greatly in 
 contrast with former times. Stewardship now prop- 
 erly discharged calls for a great vision of the world 
 and the methods of applying the gospel to it, and 
 therein giving oneself to it. Organization tempts 
 to lumping resources and dumping responsibilities, 
 but equally it opens opportunities for analyzing re- 
 sources, in the light of varying necessities, and pro- 
 jecting oneself through a multitude of channels 
 throughout the world, legitimately enlarging and 
 sharpening the sense of responsibility. Many Chris- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES I3I 
 
 tians, it may reasonably be feared, lose spiritually 
 by a restriction of their practical interest to a few 
 fields of cooperation or a single one. Especially in 
 small churches, with abnormally large demands rela- 
 tive to resources, the members with not much to 
 give at best, and hearing so many plaintive calls at 
 home, are discouraged into seeing little or nothing 
 beyond home. Great guilt may rest on many of 
 those more able, because they blind the eyes and blur 
 the outlook of the willing-hearted by failing to do 
 more equitably their own part at home. The rich 
 man does not miss his hundred dollars, but the ten 
 poor men do miss their ten dollars, and their great- 
 est loss is in the bondage of their souls to the nar- 
 row view. If the rich man would act worthy of his 
 prosperity in local expenses, the poor would be re- 
 leased from the bondage laid on them by his shirking 
 and be freed to send gladly their streams of helpful- 
 ness outward. This illustration of the principle of 
 equality reversed can be found in real life almost 
 anywhere. 
 
 How can burdens be fairly distributed among those 
 working together for the Lord? This is a perplex- 
 ing question under our principles as well as else- 
 where. Perhaps it will never be answered with 
 entire satisfaction to all in any combination. In- 
 equalities seem to be inevitable always. No system 
 of taxation escapes them and free will fails to secure 
 a perfect result. Sometimes this latter produces a 
 very imperfect result. It certainly does so wher- 
 
132 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 ever some of the participants are deficient in knowl- 
 edge or spirit, which means substantially every- 
 where. 
 
 All schemes that set up a uniform amount, or 
 scale of percentages, are hostile to equality. The 
 rich person glibly proposes, when a hundred dollars 
 is needed at the Association, for instance, that one 
 hundred give a dollar apiece. How easy ! Yes, for 
 him, but another may have to walk home if he does 
 it, although he does not like to seem so small as to 
 refuse or confess himself so destitute. Such pro- 
 posals may be admissible within limits, provided 
 that they do not make the willingness or the sub- 
 serviency or the pride of the less able a hiding-place 
 for the covetousness of the more able, or a source 
 of discontent or jealousy in the less able. No doubt 
 in some such situations the more prosperous may not 
 be so covetous as others think him. Their thought 
 may spring from the same fault in themselves for 
 which they criticize their brethren, for covetous- 
 ness is not confined to the wealthy. The better 
 kind of wealthy steward has always been active, and 
 the signs indicate that in the future he will be possi- 
 bly more prominent and perfect than ever before. 
 A great opportunity offers to him to show the mind 
 of Christ. It now beckons and exhorts him to pro- 
 mote the cause of the Lord by using his greater re- 
 sources to encourage his humbler brethren finan- 
 cially, by making good stewardship attractive to 
 them. This he can do by setting a good example 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES I33 
 
 modestly and by helping them over hard places with 
 indirect assistance. A rich man may not be a van- 
 dal. He may be an angel of light and leading in 
 paths of righteousness and pleasantness through the 
 fields of stewardship. 
 
 Apportionment may work out approximately the 
 right result, but no more at its best, like taxation. 
 This is the second most serious objection to it, the 
 first being its legalizing tendency, involving an as- 
 sault on totality and spontaneity. The harmonious 
 operation of equality and spontaneity, in the nature 
 of the case, has a hard time in the present condi- 
 tions. Possibly in church life the nearest approach 
 to perfection was in a method employed by some 
 Baptist churches in the country fifty or a hundred 
 years ago. The officers of the church, intimate with 
 the finances of all the members, were authorized to 
 submit an annual budget for church support. This 
 being presented in church meeting, each member had 
 liberty to protest his assignment. One church pur- 
 sued this plan year after year without a single pro- 
 test. At last, however, a brother who had been as- 
 signed ten dollars, said that the officers were not 
 fully acquainted with his situation and he thought 
 that five dollars was as much as he ought to pay. 
 Immediately a deacon rose and said, " I will give 
 five dollars more." That was easy. Sometimes the 
 solution is not so easy. It may depend on the 
 deacon. The apportionment idea is no modern in- 
 vention among Baptists, but it has never made much 
 
 K 
 
134 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 progress until recently, and how far it will go this 
 time waits to be seen. The conditions were never 
 so favorable for it as now, both in securing money 
 and — in suppressing spontaneity. 
 
 We can hardly leave this principle without a 
 glance at the problem of church methods in secur- 
 ing money, with special relation to impression on 
 the world and its reaction on the church as an 
 evangelizing power. The difficulties in getting 
 necessary means for church support and enterprises 
 beyond develop strong pressure, ripening into se- 
 rious temptation to lapse from principle in the finan- 
 cial field. But if the principles we have recognized 
 for the individual are sound, they apply with equal 
 force to the church, or any other association of 
 Christians for the same purposes. Much has been 
 said on this problem, some of it very earnest, strenu- 
 ous, severe. Our churches have probably heeded 
 these criticisms and admonitions, with the result of 
 some improvement. But the sky is not yet clear. 
 What light do the principles cast on this field ? 
 
 Group our principles around Respectability. 
 Churches should behave themselves respectably in 
 the sight of the world and of God in their finances. 
 What is the proper relation of a church of Christ 
 to the world in respect to giving and receiving? 
 Consult the Example. What did our Lord Jesus 
 Christ give to the world? He gave the gospel of 
 redemption and life eternal ; he gave an adequate 
 revelation of God's will for men up to the whole 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES I35 
 
 measure of need in the present time; he gave a sin- 
 less life in which the will of the Father was central 
 and supreme, so that no fault was found in him; 
 he gave a service, incidental to his main mission on 
 earth and tributary to it, of helpfulness in the tem- 
 poral and minor needs of humanity. Just this, no 
 more and no less, should his people do, collectively 
 as well as individually. What did he receive from 
 the world? What it gave to him voluntarily, what- 
 ever did not divert him from his mission or en- 
 tangle him in the execution of it. Just that, no more 
 and no less, should his church receive. He did not 
 ask the world, the rulers, or the people, to give him 
 anything. His church has no right to ask the 
 world for anything applicable to its ease, aggrandize- 
 ment, glorification. When it does so in the slightest 
 degree it is no longer respectable. It may be ex- 
 ceedingly poor in this world's goods, environed with 
 difficulties and overwhelmed with adversities, and 
 yet be respectable. But when it asks anything of 
 the world as a benefactor, it is in disgrace, deep 
 disgrace. What it cannot secure through its own 
 consecration on Christian principles, without seeking 
 a cent from the world, it should omit from its plan. 
 Too strong language here is impossible. The whole 
 history of Christianity, in general and particular, 
 brings a voluminous and uncompromising testimony. 
 And when a church stoops a fraction of a barleycorn 
 to get a favor from the world, whether in the in- 
 dividual, the society, or State, it stoops to its own 
 
136 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 undoing as a spiritual power and an untarnished 
 life. It should cut the pattern of its program to the 
 cloth of its resources and take the consequences. It 
 may not get an organ or a carpet or a cushion or 
 any one of a hundred things that please the natural 
 man, but it will get the indwelling of the Holy Spirit 
 and life divine for itself and others. Through these 
 it will get all else that it needs. Nowhere under the 
 sun is the saying that the love of money is a root 
 of all kinds of evil more true than in the financing 
 of a church or any other Christian organization or 
 enterprise. 
 
 This writing would become disproportionate here 
 if it should go into details touching fairs, feeds, 
 fantastics, and frivolity, devised to coddle or drub 
 the worldly into trading with it on extortionate 
 terms, and despising it then and thereafter, or what 
 may be worse, strengthening themselves in self- 
 righteousness with the assurance that they have pla- 
 cated God by condescending to flip a farthing into 
 his treasury. The claim is sometimes made that 
 these methods can be so used as to promote the 
 spiritual life and win men to Christ. That is not 
 denied as an abstract proposition or an occasional 
 possibility, for some of them. It is conceivably true. 
 But it is demonstrably true that in any large view 
 it never has worked that way. Proof has been mar- 
 shaled again and again that such methods usually 
 cost more than they come to financially, and lose 
 more spiritually than any financial gain could justify. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES I37 
 
 When socially respectable people sell to the poor 
 their old clothes, which they would be ashamed 
 to sell to any one for their own income, and in the 
 interest of the income of Him whose are the cattle 
 on a thousand hills, they proclaim themselves to be 
 more respectable than the Most High. Every church 
 is under the most strenuous responsibility to avoid 
 every method of securing funds which may seem to 
 reputable people beneath the highest standards of 
 integrity and dignity ; and equally to use only those 
 methods that are respectable according to Christ as 
 indicated in those principles which he has announced 
 in the New Testament. The only way of life for a 
 church is to give the gospel to the world, and other 
 things in strict subserviency to this service ; and to 
 ask nothing from the world but repentance toward 
 God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and obedience to 
 him. When it goes beyond that it goes into the mist 
 and the mire. 
 
NOTES 
 
 1 For explanation of the change from " Association " to " Conti- 
 nental " in the title of this fund we go back to 177 1. In that year, 
 after the associational fund had been accumulating for several years, 
 with a consequently augmenting income for missionary uses, the 
 experiment was inaugurated of a general missionary or evangelist, 
 with a rather roving commission, who actually went on extended 
 tours. This action lifted the missionary operations to a wider out- 
 look. The probability seems to be that this more distinguished mis- 
 sionary came to be called " Continental," in contrast with the more 
 local missionaries, and the fund was thought of and talked of under 
 that title; so that in 1778 Continental supplanted Association with- 
 out explanation, being understood by all those interested in it. 
 Prior to this date the records show no fund in the Association except 
 this one and the " Hubbs," which was educational. These two in this 
 year were kept separate, as thty always had been. If, then, " Conti- 
 nental " referred to a third fund, amount about six hundred dollars, 
 it now appeared in the records for the iirst time, with no indication 
 of where it came from; and the "Association" fund disappeared 
 from the records, where it had been annually appearing, without 
 explanation at this time or any other. Therefore the statement that 
 it was put in the Continental Fund seems to make it almost neces- 
 sary to understand that Continental and Associational were two 
 names for the same thing. What should have been said was that 
 " Continental " was substituted for " Association " as the name of 
 this fund. If this explanation is not satisfactory to the critic, he 
 is at liberty to find a better. 
 
 - In our run through the Philadelphia Association a few marks 
 of progress have been picked up which may be set down here to 
 entertain our curiosity, if not to instruct our understanding and 
 illuminate our outlook. Possibly some of these may not be strictly 
 accurate as first things, but they are presumably so and certainly not 
 much in error. 
 
 The word "money" appeared first in the records in 1765- Pro- 
 vision was made for printing an edition of the Confession of Faith, 
 " the churches to send money for the number they want before the 
 first of December." 
 
 The first collection at the Association was in 1772. A deficit ap- 
 peared in the fund for Morgan Edwards on his " continental "^ 
 tour, thirty dollars, which was " made up by the brethren present. 
 Whether the " hat was passed " in the meeting is not certain, but 
 by some method those present provided the money. 
 
 The first formal financial tables came in 1767- Statements of 
 items had been made earlier, but in this year two tables, one for 
 the Association fund and the other for the Konoloway, appeared. 
 Such tables wholly disappeared from 177S to 1790, the first of these 
 years having four and the last one. Thence on throughout the cen- 
 tury their showing is very defective, and not till after the opennig 
 of the nineteenth century did they get fairly well back toward the 
 respectability which characterized them prior to the war for inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 1,38 
 
NOTES 139 
 
 Apportionment was tried in 1774 in the effort for Rhode Island 
 College. What success was attained is not stated except in the case 
 of New York, which is credited with having " raised above what was 
 proposed." The statement has been made, and may be correct, that 
 every member was asi<ecl for " six pence sterling." 
 
 The word "stewardship" tirst presents itself in 1776, but its 
 application was to reading the Scriptures, prayer, attending worship, 
 and maintaining discipline, not at all to property. Its use in finance 
 did not come till 1800, when the churches were urged, "as stewards 
 of God," " to maintain a fund for the assistance of such ministers 
 as may be called to supply destitute churches, or otherwise publish 
 the gospel in their connection " — local home missions. 
 
 In 1784 is noted the first instance of compensation for service. 
 The brother who had attended to the rebinding of the .Association's 
 books was allowed part of a small surplus from the funds raised for 
 that purpose. Possibly something of this nature occurred for the 
 benefit of the numerous preachers who traversed the wilderness, but 
 no clear case of it appears, and it is certain that usually such mes- 
 sengers received only their expenses, happy if they got that much. 
 The various funds for missionaries were only expense funds; they 
 carried no compensation for the work. 
 
 The Association was ninety years old when, in 1797, it was in- 
 corporated, and thus legally authorized to manage property. 
 
 In 1800 was first " recommended to our churches " that money be 
 gathered in connection with their preaching meetings, after the 
 sermon in the interest of ministerial education. 
 
 In 1802 is the first instance of the practice long in debate among 
 us and still alive. The delegates engaged for themselves and their 
 churches to pay two dollars for each church. The beneficiary of 
 this fund was the enterprise then operating for the collection and 
 preservation of historical materials. The form of this action, " on 
 the part of themselves and the churches they represent," seems to 
 indicate their understanding that the churches were pledged con- 
 ditionally, subject to their own consent, and the individuals absolutely. 
 
 In 1809 it first appears that the Association collected money for 
 the printing of the Minutes. Presumably the habit still generally 
 prevalent had been so from the first, to let the documents pay 
 their own way by sales to the churches, informally understood and 
 operated. 
 
 ^ Since the statement in the text which this note refers to was 
 written, an editorial in one of our best Baptist papers appeared. It 
 presented systematic giving effectively, but closed with these words, 
 " And this means tithing." The prevalence and persistence of this 
 assumption and confusion is extraordinary, and suggests questions 
 touching the reason or sincerity of their authors which will not be 
 expressed here. 
 
 * The one seeming exception to this is in Matthew 23 : 1-12. But 
 it is only seeming. Consider it closely. Jesus addressed " the multi- 
 tude and the disciples." Under this introduction only two things 
 are said. The first of these (2-7) was appropriate to the multitude 
 as Jews; the second (8-12) was appropriate only to the disciples as 
 such. The introduction, in the light of what follows it, connects 
 the first thing said with the multitude, and the second with his 
 disciples. If this distinction is not intended in the introduction s 
 separation of the hearers into two classes, I see no reason for it. 
 in fact a reason against it, for then it is not only superfluous, but 
 confusing and misleading. Following the two things forecast by the 
 introduction, is a third addressed to " scribes and Pharisees, ' as 
 
140 STEWARDSHIP AMONG BAPTISTS 
 
 clearly specific to them as the two preceding features are to the two 
 classes indicated. If the analysis of the application in the introduc- 
 tion had covered the three, then " scribes and Pharisees " would 
 have followed " disciples " immediately. Or, more clearly, the multi- 
 tude would have been placed where it is, the disciples immediately 
 before verse 8, and the scribes and Pharisees where they are. 
 
 "A rich man once said, "Tithing makes me stingy." His mean- 
 ing as explained by the reporter of his remark. Dr. A. S. Hobart, 
 was this: " His idea was that if he made a sort of agreement to 
 pay ten per cent, he would be doing business and pay all he agreed. 
 And when a good cause came to him he would be subtly influenced 
 by the thought, ' I have used up my tenth,' and say No." 
 
 In the same vein is an instance observed by myself. A pastor 
 of a good Baptist church in one of our largest cities — a compara- 
 tively young man, without very heavy expenses, and receiving an 
 income of more than two thousand five hundred dollars annually, with 
 excellent prospects of continued financial sufficiency, who was then, 
 as he has continued to be, highly esteemed as a spiritual leader — 
 spoke in my hearing to two assemblies within a few weeks of each 
 other. His first address was to a congregation of young people, 
 largely wage-earners in factories. Emphatically and uncompromi- 
 singly he pressed on them the duty under God"s law of giving at 
 least one-tenth of their earnings. A few weeks later, in a mission 
 meeting, where a fund to meet an emergency was being raised by 
 small contributions, he rose and said quite complacently, in manner 
 at least, " I am in full sympathy with this effort and would like 
 to contribute, but my tithe is all appropriated." If these things are 
 done in the green tree, what should we expect in the dry? 
 
 And the attention of the tithists, who hold that the tithe is a 
 debt that must be paid before one can give at all, is respectfully 
 called to the fact that that reputable minister, with money in his 
 pocket, was deliberately debarring himself from the blessing of the 
 giver, being content with paying his debt. And as to those factory 
 girls, after they had paid the debt, what would they have left with 
 which to bless themselves in the experience of giving if, indeed, 
 they could pay the debt without wronging themselves? The writer 
 restrains himself from writing some things that he thinks just here 
 lest he might seem to be too severe. 
 
 « The "Missionary Magazine" of December, 1846, presents three 
 " Important Considerations," applicable to missionary collections, 
 the third of which is vigorous enough to pass along: " Systematic 
 effort to obtain from every member an annual contribution. This 
 should be done, not by presenting the contribution box, where covet- 
 ousness can hide its four pence, but by the personal applicatioa of 
 suitable collectors, who shall call upon the members individually. . . 
 The author of mischief must have invented the contribution box. 
 It is an instrument of self-deception, a snare to weak consciences, a 
 lurking-place of baptized penuriousness, and has been the occasion 
 of immense damage to the churches. Why should it be used for the 
 collection of funds for the support of Christ's kingdom any more 
 than for the support of the republic? . . In other relations we 
 recognize indebtedness and pay accordingly; but Him who loved us 
 and gave himself for us we put off with a handful of the smallest 
 coins in our currency, secretly deposited by those who have con- 
 trived to give as little as possible." The " contribution box " m- 
 tended in these words is much different from that which gathers 
 the duplex envelopes of systematic contributors, but that ancient 
 kind is still among us. 
 
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