THE FINANCIAL BASIS 
 
 -OF- 
 
 EVANGELIZATION. 
 
 A Paper Read at the Missionary Convention op 
 Synod of Michigan, 1879, 
 
 By the REV. JNO. C. HILL. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP THE SYNOD. 
 
 TYY evangelization I mean every scheme of Gospel 
 Work, not merely the heralding of the Gospel at 
 home and abroad, but every collateral scheme; the 
 training of the ministry, the erection of buildings for 
 churches and schools, the translation and printing of the 
 Bible and a religious literature. It includes everything 
 that is necessary to fulfil our Lord’s command: “ Preach 
 the Gospel to every creature.” This work is of such a 
 nature that it must have a financial basis. The Gospel 
 cannot preach itself. Religion cannot be perpetuated by 
 innoculation. It requires money to do it. The Gospel is 
 not free. It never was; somebody has always had to 
 pay for it. 
 
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 The very first religious actions of which wc have 
 record involved a financial question. The first sacrifices 
 were beyond all doubt offered in accordance with Divine 
 instruction, and in such offerings there is essentially a 
 financial element. The blessings of salvation are free, 
 but the Gospel is not salvation. It is the news of salva¬ 
 tion. News costs .money. We obtain in our morning 
 paper, for five cents, news that often costs many thou¬ 
 sand dollars. Now the Gospel is the way by which the 
 blessings are brought to us, but it costs money to do it. 
 The Gospel cost from the very first, and it will until the 
 Lord comes. 
 
 When religion was universal, the father was the 
 priest of the household; under such conditions we might 
 think that religion did not require money to keep it 
 alive, but it did. There is no priest without an altar, and 
 a priest and an altar are nothing without a sacrifice, 
 and a sacrifice costs something. We find Noah, Job and 
 Melchisedeck performing the functions of priests, making- 
 offerings—and these involved expense. After the cere¬ 
 monies of religion were systematized by Moses, and a 
 more elaborate ritual established, religion becomes more 
 expensive, and the amount that each one was to give, 
 was fixed by divine law. One tenth was the minimum t 
 In addition to the tithe however there were offerings; 
 these came from the people of their own free will, and it 
 has been computed that the amount from this source 
 exceeded the total of the tithes. 
 
 The tithe however was not first used under the 
 Mosaic economy. We find references to the custom in 
 the days of Abraham, Job and Melchisedeck, and in 
 addition to this we have a score of references in the 
 
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 classics of Rome and Greece to a similar custom, the 
 devoting of a tenth of one’s increase to the gods, or a 
 tenth of the spoil of war as a thanksgiving for victory. 
 It is clear that the devoting of the tenth was from the 
 very first a divine institution, as much so as the institu¬ 
 ting of sacrifice. We would not find people in widely 
 different circumstances doing the same thing unless the 
 custom had a common origin. The tithe we believe was 
 an essential part of religion. No one takes it for granted 
 that everything that was written in Moses’ laws was 
 then known for the first time. This is very evident, as 
 already shown, on comparing previous scripture refer¬ 
 ences with well known heathen customs. We must 
 therefore see that a great part of these laws were simply 
 the crystalization of the well known and at one time uni¬ 
 versal religious customs of mankind. Moses’ laws were 
 designed to save religion, what there was left, for the 
 world and secure a basis for future growth. 
 
 This tenth was required by God, and if it was not 
 paid he considered it robbery. “ Will a man rob God ? 
 Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we 
 robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” Religion has 
 been essentially the same always, money is an essential; 
 hence we must emphasize the necessity of money under 
 the Gospel. 
 
 If in a primitive dispensation, one tenth was given 
 and this was continued, and added to in the provision 
 for free will offerings, under the Mosaic, we must certain¬ 
 ly have something under the present dispensation that 
 will secure the same end. If not a tithe—a tenth, there 
 must be something to correspond to it. 
 
 When our Lord was training his disciples for the 
 
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 future work of organization, he knew all the circumstan¬ 
 ces under which they would be required to act. He 
 must have looked at the financial basis of evangelization. 
 But we do not find the record of definite instructions 
 given to his disciples as to all the minute details of 
 organization and financial support, but there was instead 
 of this, the promise of the Spirit to guide them and assist 
 their memories. We are fully persuaded that the apos¬ 
 tles w r ere infallibly guided in all they did in the reorgan¬ 
 izing of the Church of God. The synagogue was the 
 basis, the officers of the synagogue were retained in the 
 particular church. The synagogue required money, so 
 would the future church and her particular churches. 
 And so we find, that no sooner does the Christian form 
 of the church become a fact, than we have a statement 
 made as to financial matters. “ They that believed were 
 together and had all things in common; and sold their 
 possessions and goods and parted with them to all men, 
 as every man had need.” Again, a little further on in 
 the history, we read that those who had “ lands or 
 houses, sold them and brought the price of the things 
 that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet; 
 and distribution was made to every man according as he 
 had need.” Then we find men appointed specially for 
 this work,—the superintendence of the financial affairs 
 of the church. In the Epistles we have frequent refer¬ 
 ences to collections, directions for the gathering of them 
 and references to the support of preachers. Now, as we 
 have seen that the Gospel needs money, we cannot be¬ 
 lieve that these directions and exhortations were given 
 at hap-hazard, but that in every word referring to finan¬ 
 cial as fully as to doctrinal matters, these scriptures are 
 
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 “ inspired-of-God.” We believe that these things are 
 the divinely established precedents for the guidance of 
 the church in all ages. Why did not inspiration extend 
 over from the first century on into the second and third? 
 Simply because there was no need of it. The first gives 
 enough of principle, precept and precedent to guide the 
 church in the conduct of all her affairs, financial and 
 spiritual, until the Lord himself comes again. We have 
 in the New Testament our precedents for organization, 
 for officers, for courts, for discipline for immorality and 
 heresy, and for the conduct of finances as well. 
 
 We have no special word from Christ, nor reference 
 by an apostle to the fact that the law of the tithe was 
 continued, but we must not, we cannot reason therefrom 
 that the law is not to be at least a guide in the financial 
 affairs of the reorganized church. Have we then any 
 definite principle that can be put into actual practice by 
 us to-day ? We have. The basis of the whole matter is 
 the truth that: “ The earth is the Lord's and the fullness 
 thereof! The Lord allowed the Hebrews to use nine- 
 tenths of what he gave them, the other tenth he reserved 
 for himself, it was all His however. All we have is God’s, 
 and the proper spirit in this matter that we call “giving” 
 is not: how much can I spare for the Lord, but, how 
 much of this that he has given me does the Lord allow 
 me to use for myself. I repeat: All things belong to 
 God. We cannot “give” him anything in the strict 
 sense. We are simply permitted to use a little and our 
 aim should be to see how little we can get along with for 
 ourselves and accept it as God’s gift and use all the rest 
 as he demands. 
 
 This is the financial basis of the Gospel. It is 
 
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 stated in very sweeping terms, but we do not believe 
 it can be stated too strongly at such a time as this. The 
 Church of Christ to-day does not seem to know what her 
 Lord requires of her. Financial matters have for the past 
 half century been a continual drag, and while the Lord 
 is preparing the way for the use of what is his own, his 
 people hold it tenaciously, as though the Lord had no 
 right to it. Every scheme of evangelization languishes. 
 There is a continual cry—a strong cry, for money; not 
 only from those having charge of the great agencies of 
 our churches, but in our individual churches for home 
 necessities. Is this normal ? Do you believe that the 
 Lord looks with favor on such a condition of things ? 
 How can we expect his blessing when we rob him ? It 
 is robbery to refuse to refund his own. It is robbery 
 to build such gorgeous churches that we cannot pay for, 
 or to hamper ourselves in any way in aiding various 
 schemes of evangelization! Why is it that our churches 
 in foreign fields add more to the Lord than our church¬ 
 es at home in proportion to their members ? I believe it 
 it is because most of them are organized on an apostolic 
 financial basis. Why is it that our great Presbyterian 
 Church is almost standing still ? Five years ago our net 
 increase in membership was about 29,000, the next year 
 it dropped to 22,000, the next to 10,000 and last year our 
 net gain was only about 7,000. Read our financial re¬ 
 cord and you will find that while the church is increas¬ 
 ing in the aggregate, yet the amount set apart to God is 
 steadily decreasing. I believe we are cursed with a 
 curse, even this whole nation—“ Bring, ye, then, all the 
 tithes” -a tithe to the Jew, but it is a tithe and a great 
 deal more for the Christian — li Bring ye, then, all the 
 
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 tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, 
 saith the Lord of Hosts; if I will not open you the win¬ 
 dows of heaven and pour you out a blessing.” Do not 
 say, this is in the Old Testament and that it referred 
 to the Jews. It is in God’s word and is addressed to 
 God’s people and if he found occasion to rebuke them so, 
 he by this word also rebukes us, and that promise and 
 its conditions are for us as though we only received them 
 as a revelation from the Lord to-day. 
 
 Why is it that evangelization is hampered for want 
 of money ? It is clearly because the Lord’s people 
 have not been instructed properly on this subject. 
 Many ministers are afraid to preach about money; peo¬ 
 ple will call them beggars. The people sometimes ask : 
 When is this continual begging to stop ? I would say, 
 stop it at once, if it is begging. It is not begging, it 
 is simply asking for the Lord what is his own, and this 
 is never to stop, I say, until the Lord himself conies 
 again. Every minister and elder would acknowledge 
 that there ought to be a better state of things financially 
 all along the line. Well, then, if there ought to be, there 
 may be. How are we to bring it about ? Preach the 
 Word. Be of good courage. Fear not. It is in the 
 Word, it is enjoined. You cannot go astray in it. I 
 find it all through. It is a part of the Gospel of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and we fail in preaching the Gospel 
 unless we make plain to the people that there must be 
 a substantial financial basis for our work of evangeliza¬ 
 tion. 
 
 People may not like it at first. They will not. It is 
 quite natural. The natural heart receiveth not the things 
 of the Spirit. And this financial basis of evangelization 
 
is one of the things of the Spirit, and clearly revealed by 
 the Spirit in the Word of God to be the law of the 
 church, and the natural heart, of course, does not like to 
 believe in it any more than it takes pleasure in being 
 told that it is under the condemnation of God’s law. 
 But if we preach the whole Gospel with its financial 
 basis in faithfulness, God will take care of the results.