corpses of the horse and his rider? Nay--not so. There was but one
reason, and that an eternal one; that as the covenant that He made with
men was accompanied with some external sign of its continuance, and of
His remembrance of it, so the acceptance of that covenant might be
marked and signified by use, in some external sign of their love and
obedience, and surrender of themselves and theirs to His will; and that
their gratitude to Him, and continual remembrance of Him, might have at
once their expression and their enduring testimony in the presentation
to Him, not only of the firstlings of the herd and fold, not only of the
fruits of the earth and the tithe of time, but of all treasures of
wisdom and beauty; of the thought that invents, and the hand that
labors; of wealth of wood, and weight of stone; of the strength of iron,
and of the light of gold.
[D] Lam. ii. 11. 2 Kings xvii. 25.
And let us not now lose sight of this broad and unabrogated principle--I
might say, incapable of being abrogated, so long as men shall receive
earthly gifts from God. Of all that they have His tithe must be rendered
to Him, or in so far and in so much He is forgotten: of the skill and of
the treasure, of the strength and of the mind, of the time and of the
toil, offering must be made reverently; and if there be any difference
between the Levitical and the Christian offering, it is that the latter
may be just so much the wider in its range as it is less typical in its
meaning, as it is thankful instead of sacrificial. There can be no
excuse accepted because the Deity does not now visibly dwell in His
temple; if He is invisible it is only through our failing faith: nor any
excuse because other calls are more immediate or more sacred; this
ought to be done, and not the other left undone. Yet this objection, as
frequent as feeble, must be more specifically answered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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