So many inquiries have recently been made upon the subject of tithing, and so much confusion appears to exist in people’s minds concerning it, that it seems that a few notes on the matter will be generally useful at the present time.

The practice of tithing has been a life-long habit with many Truth students. So much has it become a regular part of the scheme of things for them that they naturally think of their own money as amounting to 90 percent of whatever their net income happens to be. Automatically they set aside the 10 percent that belongs to God, nor ever dream of breaking into it. This they do intelligently, that is to say, on principle, and for the sole reason that they have perceived it to be the right and proper course. The unfailing result of this is that such people are always free from financial difficulties. Though they may have other problems, they are never in want, or lacking in material prosperity. They fulfill the law, and so they inevitably demonstrate the result.

This fact is becoming widely known at the present day, but what seems not to be so generally understood is the true Spiritual Principle underlying it. One receives all sorts of questions about how tithing should be done—in what circumstances it should or should not be practiced; what money should and should not be tithed; in what manner the tithe should be apportioned; whether the practice of tithing really is an infallible recipe for getting rich; and so on.

The truth about tithing is that those who set aside 10 percent of their net incomes to the service of God—not with the primary motive of getting, but simply because they feel that it is right to do it—do find that their prosperity increases by leaps and bounds, until all fear of poverty disappears; whereas those who tithe because in their hearts they look upon it as a good investment, expecting or hoping to get back much more than they give, are certain to be disappointed, and are, from their point of view, wasting their money.

The practice of tithing is definitely prescribed in numerous places in the Bible, and in all ages there have been many believers in the true God who have made this habit the cornerstone of their lives—and have built upon that cornerstone an edifice of prosperity which insured them that freedom from material cares that is so essential to the development of the soul.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, 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” (Malachi 3:10).

It is common knowledge that many of the most successful business men of the present day, great industrialists, Captains of Industry, as they are called, attribute their success, and rightly, to having formed this habit in youth and maintained it. Thousands of Truth students have grown out of longstanding, and what looked like hopeless poverty, into security and comfort by the practice of tithing, and thousands more are doing so at the present time.

“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed or the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30).

“Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9, 10).

Jacob, after he had received the vision which told him that there is a mystical ladder reaching from earth to heaven—the ladder of Scientific Prayer and righteous activity—decided there and then to adopt the practice of tithing, realizing that—

“God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace.”

The secret of demonstrating prosperity in the spiritual way—and on no other basis can your prosperity ever be secure—is to understand, that is, to know to the point of realization, that the one and only source of your supply is God, and that your business or employment, your investments, your clients or customers, are but the particular channel through which that supply is at the moment coming to you from God. Now the practice of tithing with the right, that is to say the spiritual, motive, is really the concrete proof that you have accepted this position, and the invariable consequence of that acceptance is prosperity. It is quite easy now to see the difference between this, the spiritual practice, and the material and useless practice of putting aside the tenth part, often grudgingly, in the hope of making a good investment. As an expression of what is felt to be spiritual justice, tithing is an inevitable success; as a selfish investment, it is doomed to failure.

The principle of tithing having been accepted, the question arises as to what should be done with it. As tithing is understood in Divine Science, it does not include general charity or material giving. It is devoted to the spreading abroad of the knowledge of Truth in some form or other, usually in support of those institutions or activities which are thus employed. Anyone who understands the Spiritual Idea, knows that the one and only thing that the world needs to deliver it from its difficulties is knowledge of Spiritual Truth; that until a man comes to this knowledge, no other thing will really benefit him; that until this knowledge becomes general, no amount of secular learning, no scientific discoveries, no schemes of social reform, no amount of political reconstruction, can do any real good; and that once this knowledge does become general, all political and social problems will adjust themselves automatically, and all forms of charity and patronage become unnecessary. We know that by virtue of possessing the knowledge of the Truth of Being, we are nothing less than trustees for humanity. Those who are without this knowledge will continue to donate their money to the promotion of general good works, but we know that our first duty is the dissemination of Truth—

“Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.”

The fixing of the amount of the tithe is a very simple matter. It does not, as one student supposed, mean a tenth of the amount which he found himself able to save out of his income each month. It means a tenth of the whole income. A merchant will naturally deduct the expenses of his business before writing his net profit, but it is upon the whole of the net profit before any personal or living expenses are subtracted, that he would assess his tithe. People working for a salary receive their net income direct in that form, but they would naturally add to it any dividends that they might get from investments, and so on.

Needless to say, there is not the least obligation upon anyone to tithe at all until he reaches the state of consciousness when he will prefer to do so. In fact, it is better that he should not attempt to do so until he is ready. To give grudgingly or with misgivings from a supposed sense of duty, is really to give from a sense of fear, and no prosperity ever came out of fear.

On the other hand, the payment of a tithe is an extremely efficient act of Faith. It often happens that the student of Divine Science wholeheartedly desires to put his trust really in God, to possess scientific faith. Now, to desire this wholeheartedly is to have it. Yet he cannot always at first secure a sense of stabilized conviction, and because he cannot experience this feeling, he is apt to think himself lacking in faith when in reality he is not. But if he practices tithing as a result of an honest conviction that it is the right thing to do, that will be the proof of his faith, irrespective of what his feelings may tell him at the moment.

Some think that because they are in pressing difficulties it is impossible for them to tithe at the present time, but they propose to do so as soon as circumstances improve. This is to miss the whole point—the greater the present necessity, the greater the need for tithing, for we know that the present difficulties can only be due to one’s mental attitude (probably subconscious) and that circumstances cannot improve until there is a change in the mental attitude. True spiritual tithing will be an indication that this attitude is changing, and will be followed by the desired demonstration. Tithing being on the percentage basis, the less one has, the less he gives, and so that problem adjusts itself.

The answer to the question of how often a tithe should be paid is quite simple. The correct time to pay it is upon the receipt of the income, whether that be monthly, weekly, half-yearly, and so on. In a general way, it is better to pay small sums frequently than larger sums more rarely, but here no definite rule can be given.

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).

Many Truth teachers have testified to the unfailing benefits of tithing. John Murray wrote:

According to Hebrew Law, tithes means tenths, and refers to a form of taxation, which, under the Levitical Law, required the Hebrews to render a certain proportion (one-tenth) of the produce of the earth, herds, etc., to the service of God. And it is noteworthy, that as long as this system prevailed, the Hebrew Nation prospered, collectively and individually, and wherever it has been tried honestly and faithfully, it has never failed. If the farmer should refuse to give back to the soil a certain percentage of the corn and potatoes which the soil has given to him, he would have no crops. Why, then, should we expect to receive Abundance from God, and give back so niggardly to His Holy cause.… Those who tithe are always certain that they have God for a partner.1

The connection between tithing and prosperity is, after all, but a particular expression of the general law that what we are to the universe, that will the universe be to us; that what we give out, whether it be generosity or parsimony, that we shall receive back; that like attracts like; that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; and that no man escapes the Law.

1. The Gleaner, November, 1922.

EMMET FOX