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Testimonies for the Church Volume 9
there may be no haphazard work and no error, He has made our duty
on these points very plain. The portion that God has reserved for
Himself is not to be diverted to any other purpose than that which
He has specified. Let none feel at liberty to retain their tithe, to
use according to their own judgment. They are not to use it for
themselves in an emergency, nor to apply it as they see fit, even in
what they may regard as the Lord’s work.
The minister should, by precept and example, teach the people
to regard the tithe as sacred. He should not feel that he can retain
and apply it according to his own judgment because he is a minister.
It is not his. He is not at liberty to devote to himself whatever he
thinks is his due. He should not give his influence to any plans for
diverting from their legitimate use the tithes and offerings dedicated
to God. They are to be placed in His treasury and held sacred for
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His service as He has appointed.
God desires all His stewards to be exact in following divine
arrangements. They are not to offset the Lord’s plans by performing
some deed of charity or giving some gift or some offering when or
how they, the human agents, shall see fit. It is a very poor policy
for men to seek to improve on God’s plan, and invent a makeshift,
averaging up their good impulses on this and that occasion, and
offsetting them against God’s requirements. God calls upon all to
give their influence to His own arrangement. He has made His plan
known, and all who would co-operate with Him must carry out this
plan instead of daring to attempt an improvement on it.
The Lord instructed Moses, for Israel: “Thou shalt command
the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for
the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.”
Exodus 27:20
. This
was to be a continual offering, that the house of God might be
properly supplied with that which was necessary for His service.
His people today are to remember that the house of worship is the
Lord’s property and that it is to be scrupulously cared for. But the
funds for this work are not to come from the tithe.
A very plain, definite message has been given to me for our
people. I am bidden to tell them that they are making a mistake in
applying the tithe to various objects which, though good in them-
selves, are not the object to which the Lord has said that the tithe