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    Responsibility Concerning the Tithe Confused With Personal Responsibility in the Matter of Freewill Offerings

    In several instances in privately-issued publications reproducing the letter written by Mrs. White to the conference president in 1905, other exhibits are presented which would seem to lend support to the idea that in the matter of the tithe each individual is alone responsible to God and is to seek the counsel of no man. Short quotations removed from their setting and placed in proximity to statements relating to the tithe would seem to countermand the clear counsels which appear in the E. G. White books.EGWT 33.7

    It should be noted that the principal exhibit is taken from a document not generally accessible today. Here is the quotation as it has been privately published in several tracts:EGWT 33.8

    “The Lord has made us individually His stewards. We each hold a solemn responsibility to invest our means ourselves. God does not lay upon you the burden of asking the conference, or any council of men, whether you shall use your means as you see fit to advance the work of God.”—Special Instruction Relating to the Review and Herald Office, and The Work in Battle Creek, 41, 42.

    In these two sentences—actually quite widely separated in the original tract—no mention is made of the tithe. In these sentences Mrs. White is not writing about the tithe. Nor is she writing about our regular offerings. The statements concern the responsibility of the author of literary productions in the stewardship of his royalties from his published work. The setting is the same as that of the article entitled “The Author,” found in Testimonies for the Church 7:176-180.EGWT 33.9

    Perhaps we should review briefly the historical backgrounds. Most authors receive remuneration for their literary work from a royalty—a certain percentage of the sale price of each book. When a publisher accepts a manuscript for publication he usually does so on this basis. This plan has been followed in our denomination from its beginning days. There came a time in the mid-1890s when some of our publishing houses reasoned that the organization was in a much better position to know the needs of the cause than the author of a book, and they urged authors to either give their manuscripts to the publishing house or to accept a very modest lump sum payment. Then whatever success might come to the book would in turn benefit the publishing house and not the author.EGWT 34.1

    Ellen White pointed out that this was unjust, and that the author should receive his due royalties. At the same time, she pointed out to the author that his royalty income was not his to use as he might please, but that he was a steward for God. The Lord had given him special talents, and if the Lord in blessing those talents brought financial benefit to the author, the author was to recognize his stewardship in the use of such funds. Sister White addressed several communications to the brethren on this point, and it is from one of these communications, which appeared in Special Instruction Relating to the Review and Herald Office and the Work in Battle Creek, that the parts of three sentences in question are extracted.EGWT 34.2

    On page 38 of this pamphlet, Mrs. White wrote as an introduction:EGWT 34.3

    “I have borne abundant testimony, setting forth the fact that the ability to write a book, is, like every other talent, a gift from God, for which the possessor is accountable to Him. This talent no man can buy or sell without incurring great and dangerous responsibility.”

    Then from page 40 and onward we quote in their fuller setting the sentences in question, placing them in italics to identify them. Because the tract is not generally accessible, we quote quite fully:EGWT 34.4

    “It is not our property that is entrusted to us for investment. If it had been, we might claim discretionary power; we might shift the responsibility upon others, and leave our stewardship with others. But this we cannot do, because the Lord is testing us individually. If we act wisely in trading upon our Lord’s goods and multiplying the talents given us, we shall invest this gain for the Master, praying for wisdom that we may be divested of all selfishness, and laboring most earnestly to advance the precious truth in our world.

    “Some men or councils may say, That is just what we wish you to do. The Conference Committee will take your capital and will appropriate it for this very object. The Lord has made us individually His stewards. We each hold a solemn responsibility to invest this means ourselves. A portion it is right to place in the treasury to advance the general interests of the work, but the steward of means will not be guiltless before God, unless, so far as he is able to do this, he shall use that means as circumstances shall reveal the necessity. We should be ready to help the suffering, and to set in operation plans to advance the truth in various ways. It is not in the providence of the Conference or any other organization to relieve us of this stewardship. If you lack wisdom, go to God; ask Him for yourself, and then work with an eye single to His glory.

    “By exercising your judgment, by giving where you see there is need in any line of the work, you are putting out your money to the exchangers. If you see in any locality that the truth is gaining a foothold, and there is no place of worship, then do something to meet the necessity. By your own action encourage others to act in building a humble house for the worship of God. Have an interest in the work in all parts of the field.

    “While it is not your own property that you are handling, yet you are made responsible for its wise investment, for its use or abuse. God does not lay upon you the burden of asking the conference or any council of men whether you shall use your means as you see fit to advance the work of God in destitute towns and cities, and impoverished localities. If the right plan had been followed, so much means would not have been used in some localities, and so little in other places where the banner of truth has not been raised. We are not to merge our individuality of judgment into any institution in our world. We are to look to God for wisdom, as did Daniel.

    “Age after age Jesus has been delivering His goods to His church. At the time of the first advent of Christ to our world, the men who composed the Sanhedrin exercised their authority in controlling men according to their will. If men’s wills were always submerged into God’s will, this would be safe, but when men are separated from God, and their own wisdom is made a controlling power, the souls for whom Christ has given His life to free from the bondage of Satan, are brought under bondage to him in another form.

    “Do we individually realize our true position, that as God’s hired servants we are not to bargain away our stewardship, but that before the heavenly universe we are to administer the truth committed to us by God? Our own hearts are to be sanctified, our hands are to have something to impart as occasion demands, of the income that God entrusts to us. The humblest of us have been entrusted with talents, and made agents for God, using our gifts for His name’s glory. It is the duty of everyone to realize his own responsibility, and to see that his talents are turned to advantage as a gift that he must return, having done his best to improve it. He who improves his talents to the best of his ability may present his offering to God as a consecrated gift that will be as fragrant incense before Him, a savor of life unto life.”—Special Instruction Relating to the Review and Herald Office, and The Work in Battle Creek, 40-43.

    The merchant carries a responsibility as a steward for the Lord. He is responsible for the way in which he uses his profits from his business after he has paid a faithful tithe. The farmer is responsible to God for his use of the means the Lord entrusts to him. These were not to transfer to someone else the responsibility of the use of the means which God gave to them, and this was so with the author. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the tithe, but it was dealing with the principle of stewardship in general, and it is a gross misuse of the parts of three sentences to put them together as has been done in several privately published tracts.EGWT 35.1

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