Article February 20, 1926 Issue

"All the tithes"

DONALD OWEN JAMES MESSENGER

In the matter of tithing, time should be considered as much as anything else. Christian Scientists, by setting apart a portion of their income to further the purposes of the church, do not thereby confuse material riches with spiritual substance. The act is rather part of the process described by Paul as not to "be unclothed, but clothed upon;" for by so doing, the sense of real substance is given a channel to fill the thought to the exclusion of any lesser concept. Similarly with time, by laying aside any period for the particular object of communion with God, the actual sense of finite time itself is swallowed up in infinity.

Christian Scientists endeavor to live their lives truly in the pure expression of divine Principle. In this sense it is helpful to accent the word "all" in the familiar quotation from Malachi, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse"—not merely one tenth part, a tithe, but "all."

There is a difference, however, between the application of divine Principle to the affairs of the day, and the particular endeavor to obtain a better realization of absolute Principle itself. Thus, though we may live every moment in the expression of divinely inspired activity, we may very properly set aside certain periods for quiet drinking in of a sense of God's presence. In reading the Bible Lesson daily from the Christian Science Quarterly we do this; although even here the passage are often considered in their particular application to some problem then uppermost in our thoughts.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Message of the Brook