Chapter 45—Calls for Means
I was shown that there have been unhappy results from making
urgent calls for means at our camp meetings. This matter has been
pressed too hard. Many men of means would not have done anything
had not their hearts been softened and melted under the influence of
the testimonies borne to them. But the poor have been deeply affected
and, in the sincerity of their souls, have pledged means which they had
a heart to give, but which they were unable to pay. In most instances
urgent calls for means have left a wrong impression upon some minds.
Some have thought that money was the burden of our message. Many
have gone to their homes blessed because they had donated to the cause
of God. But there are better methods of raising means, by freewill
offerings, than by urgent calls at our large gatherings. If all come up
to the plan of systematic benevolence, and if our tract and missionary
workers are faithful in their department of the work, the treasury will
be well supplied without these urgent calls at our large gatherings.
But there has been a great neglect of duty. Many have withheld
means which God claims as His, and in so doing they have committed
robbery toward God. Their selfish hearts have not given the tenth of
all their increase, which God claims. Neither have they come up to the
yearly gatherings with their freewill offerings, their thank offerings,
and their trespass offerings. Many have come before the Lord empty-
handed. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed
with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring
ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine
house, and prove Me now here with, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Sin will rest upon us as a people if we do not make most earnest
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efforts to ascertain those who have donated to the different enterprises
who are too poor to give anything. All that they, in the liberality of
their souls, have given should be returned to them with an additional
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