There will be, there can be no permanent change for the better while our religious teachers are taught to teach us a lot of generalities which do not have even the merit of being glittering on this, of all subjects connected with the Christian life of laymen and lay-women, the most important.
There will be slow progress so long as such a large proportion of students for the ministry are taught that we laymen and lay-women owe everything to God in general but nothing in particular, nothing definite; that the time of payment, manner of payment, and even the amount of payment of whatever we owe, or think we owe, or somebody else tells us we owe, is left entirely to our natural disposition to benevolence or stinginess or to our moods and caprices. That payment to God of any definite proportion of our income does not enter into the Christian system; that all our benevolences are to be classed under the general term of “Giving,” thus placing our Heavenly Father and the street beggar to whom we may give a few pennies, in the same category. That it is right and not an insult to the Almighty to teach us that we can give money to God; that the basis and foundation of the Christian system of providing means for carrying on the Master’s work in discipling all Nations is founded on a few sentences from a letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, urging them to make a generous free-will offering in aid of some suffering fellow Christians down at Jerusalem. For obvious reasons, the reason he gives for urgency in the matter is very rarely quoted: “That there be no collections when I come.” Paul evidently had his share of human nature, and special collections which most Ministers so much dread was probably also his pet aversion.
During the past year I have had a very striking confirmation of this opinion. On September 29th, 1902, I sent a copy of the following letter to the President or leading official in each of the Evangelical Theological Seminaries in the United States and Canada, 152 in all:—
Dear Sir—By this mail I send you a sample package of such literature as I publish on the subject of “Honoring God with our Substance.” I will take pleasure in sending gratis, express prepaid, a sufficient number of similar packages to supply one for each theological student under your care if you or some one in your institution will state how many will be required and agree that they shall be placed in the hands of the students. Hoping to hear from you, I am
Yours very truly,
Just twenty-seven accepted the offer, thus showing that nearly five-sixths of those to whom the letters were addressed were not willing or indifferent as to whether the students under their care should be taught that the debt we owe to God means anything definite.
In November of the same year I sent a similar letter addressed to the “Professor of Practical Theology” in the 125 institutions where the first offer was not accepted. A total of 22 responded and expressed a willingness some of them an earnest desire to distribute literature on Tithing among the students. Next I tried to reach the students direct, as I had failed to reach them by the first two methods in more than two-thirds of the Seminaries of our country and Canada. Once more I had written and personally signed 103 letters, the envelope being addressed “To That Student Most Interested in the Subject of ‘Honoring God with our Substance.’” The letter enclosed was as follows:—
To the student receiving this letter:—
Dear Sir—By this mail I send you samples of such literature as I publish on the subject of “Honoring God with our Substance.” I will take pleasure in sending gratis, express prepaid, a sufficient number of similar packages to supply one for each Theological student in your Seminary, if you will state how many will be required and agree that they shall be placed in the hands of the students.
When you engage in your life work you will find no subject of such vital interest to laymen, and a thorough understanding of it, and ability to explain it, will greatly aid you in Church and Missionary support.