Chapter 3—The E. G. White Letter Concerning the Tithe
On January 22, 1905, Mrs. White wrote a letter to the president of a local conference in which she sounded certain cautions and referred to the experience just recounted. It has been quite widely published by those who would make inroads on the sacredness of the handling of the tithe. Some set it forth as an exhibit to give seeming justification to their course of action. Before we present the letter we will give the historical background.HUT 30.1
The work of the denomination began relatively late and grew slowly in the southern part of the United States. This was particularly so among the blacks. The South of a century ago was backward, and in general on a low economic level. Even when the church did make a beginning, it was scattered and small, and it was with great difficulty that it was maintained financially. Long before the Southern Union Conference was organized, a work was begun among the blacks by several workers who went at their own expense into the South. This was recognized by the church and when the Southern Missionary Society was formed to foster this endeavor in the South, it was fully recognized and is found listed in the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook as one of the organizations of the denomination.HUT 30.2
The greater part of the work of the Southern Missionary Society was the starting and maintenance of mission schools, but it was also carrying forward other lines of evangelism and was supporting several ordained ministers. For a time the Society received a small appropriation from the conference, but this amount, though greatly appreciated by the officers of the Society, was a very small gift compared with the magnitude of the work. They felt distressed over the fact that a neglected people, in a destitute field, were being deprived of the gospel message because their need and their helplessness were not understood.HUT 30.3
While visiting in the State of Colorado in the latter part of 1904, an agent of the Southern Missionary Society received from one church a gift of about $400 to assist in the work of the Society. These funds came in response to his appeal for help in evangelizing the South. Some of the money was tithe. Elder W. C. White, who was familiar with the details of this circumstance, writes of this:HUT 30.4
“When the agent of the Southern Missionary Society asked the members of this Colorado church for a donation, they manifested a willingness to give, and some of them said that they were paying a large tithe, and some were not wholly pleased with the way in which it was used. Compared with the population of the State, the conference was strong and it had a good income. Therefore, some said, let us send some of our tithe to be used in the good work for the neglected colored people in the Southern States.
“Then the officers of the church and the agent of the Society did in an irregular way what has since become very popular as a wise and unselfish policy when done in an orderly and regular way. They transferred a portion of the tithe of a well-to-do conference to a very destitute and needy mission field.
“The officers of the Southern Missionary Society did not use this money to pay their own wages. They did not use it in any way for their personal benefit. Neither did they pay it to the support of men whom the conferences in the South thought to be unfitted or unworthy. Neither was it paid to men who were carrying on an unauthorized work of their own devising.
“The money was placed in the treasury of the Southern Missionary Society and was paid out in a regular and economical way to approved laborers who were engaged in regular denominational work.
“But the action was irregular on the part of the agent who received the money, and the church that paid it to him. By the officers of the Colorado Conference this action was considered to be not only irregular but wrong and censurable. They thought that they needed the money for home use, and they felt that the action of the officers of the Southern Missionary Society was worthy of public condemnation and censure and that the money should be returned.
“The officers of the Society were in trouble. They had used the money quickly in paying the wages of preachers, and their income was greatly below their needs. Moreover, they felt that a public denouncement would tend to diminish the small income that they were then receiving. Their trouble became known to Sister White, and from Mountain View she wrote a letter to the conference president, dated January 22, 1905.”
Here is her letter. Note carefully its wording:HUT 31.1
“My brother, I wish to say to you, Be careful how you move. You are not moving wisely. The least you have to speak about the tithe that has been appropriated to the most needy and the most discouraging field in the world, the more sensible you will be.
“It has been presented to me for years that my tithe was to be appropriated by myself to aid the white and colored ministers who were neglected and did not receive sufficient properly to support their families. When my attention was called to aged ministers, white or black, it was my special duty to investigate into their necessities and supply their needs. This was to be my special work, and I have done this in a number of cases. No man should give notoriety to the fact that in special cases the tithe is used in that way.
“In regard to the colored work in the South, that field has been and is still being robbed of the means that should come to the workers in that field. If there have been cases where our sisters have appropriated their tithe to the support of the ministers working for the colored people in the South, let every man, if he is wise, hold his peace.
“I have myself appropriated my tithe to the most needy cases brought to my notice. I have been instructed to do this; and as the money is not withheld from the Lord’s treasury, it is not a matter that should be commented upon, for it will necessitate my making known these matters, which I do not desire to do, because it is not best.
“Some cases have been kept before me for years, and I have supplied their needs from the tithe, as God has instructed me to do. And if any person shall say to me, Sister White, will you appropriate my tithe where you know it is most needed, I shall say Yes, I will; and I have done so. I commend those sisters who have placed their tithe where it is most needed to help to do a work that is being left undone. If this matter is given publicity, it will create a knowledge which would better be left as it is. I do not care to give publicity to this work which the Lord has appointed me to do, and others to do.
“I send this matter to you so that you shall not make a mistake. Circumstances alter cases. I would not advise that anyone should make a practice of gathering up tithe money. But for years there have now and then been persons who have lost confidence in the appropriation of the tithe, who have placed their tithe in my hands and said that if I did not take it they would themselves appropriate it to the families of the most needy ministers they could find. I have taken the money, given a receipt for it, and told them how it was appropriated.
“I write this to you so that you shall keep cool and not become stirred up and give publicity to this matter, lest many more shall follow their example.”—Letter 267, 1905.
As Mrs. White speaks of the use of the tithe in this particular case, and in other cases, it is always in the setting of money which was to be used for the support of our ministers. Any tithe money she handled was used as tithe money should be used.HUT 32.1
In the letter under discussion she says, “I would not advise that anyone should make a practice of gathering up tithe money.”HUT 32.2
She also says, “As the money is not withheld from the Lord’s treasury, it is not a matter that should be commented upon.”HUT 32.3
And regarding the field to which it was transferred, she says, “That field has been and is still being robbed of the means that should come to the workers in that field.”HUT 32.4
Sister White, then, at a time when there was inadequate provision for these ordained ministers, was authorized to meet these necessities even to the use of her tithe. But this does not in any degree open the way for church members or ministers to bestow their tithe wherever they see fit. It is very clear that this extraordinary experience does not authorize any laborer to gather up tithe money and appropriate it to his own use or to the use of his associates. Neither does it give license for anyone to invite our people to give their tithe to them for some very needy missionary enterprise.HUT 32.5
There is not one phrase or sentence in this letter which would neutralize or countermand the clear and full instruction concerning paying tithe or its use. When all the facts are before us it can easily be seen that any such use of the letter is a misuse.HUT 32.6