Responsibility of Parents and Church Officers

Notes

1. The responsibility of the parent can never be lightly turned over to others. God uses the teacher in the Sabbath-school, church school, in our academies and colleges, in helping to train the youth; but the most important school, and the one that has the most to do in deciding the destiny of our children, is the home school. The greatest responsibility of child-training God has placed upon the parent.

2. We are to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways. We are to teach our children to acknowledge Christ as the One that has bought us with His own precious life. To Him we should render a tithe of all our income as a confession of His ownership and our loyalty to Him. The children should be taught at an early age to be helpful in the home, and an opportunity should be given to the child, by some means, to earn something. He should be taught to lay aside the tithe unto Christ, and, by practicing self-denial, to make offerings to the cause. The amounts may be small, but the results of this training will be great. The children should be represented in the quarterly and annual report of the tithe received by the treasurer of the church.

"Not only does the Lord claim the tithe as His own, but He tells us how it should be reserved for Him. He says: 'Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of thine increase.' This does not teach that we are to spend our means on ourselves and bring to the Lord the remnant even though it should be otherwise an honest tithe. Let God's portion be first set apart. The directions given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, in regard to gifts, present a principle that applies also to tithing. 'On the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him.' Parents and children are here included. Not only the rich, but the poor are addressed. 'Every man according as he purposeth in his heart [through the candid consideration of God's prescribed plan], so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity; for the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.' The gifts are to be made in consideration of the great goodness of God to us."—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald, Nov. 10, 1896.

3. "As the children sang in the temple courts, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,' so in these last days children's voices will be raised to give the last message of warning to a perishing world. When heavenly intelligences see that men are no longer permitted to present the truth, the Spirit of God will come upon the children, and they will do a work in the proclamation of the truth which the older workers can not do, because their way will be hedged up."—Testimony Vol. VI, pages 202, 203.

4. Were our children taught to be as self-sacrificing and loyal to the kingdom of Christ as many of the children of this world are to earthly rulers, the church would soon accomplish her warfare in triumphant victory.

5. "The Lord has not left the disposal of the tithe to you, to be given or withheld as your inclination may dictate. He has placed the matter beyond all question, and there has been great neglect on the part of many of God's professed people to fulfil the requirements of His Word in regard to tithing. . . . It is the duty of the elders and officers of the church to instruct the people on this important matter, and to set things in order. As laborers together with God, the officers of the church should be sound upon this plainly-revealed question. The ministers themselves should be strict to carry out to the letter the injunctions of God's Word. Those who hold positions of trust in the church should not be negligent, but they should see that the members are faithful in performing this duty."—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald, Dec. 17, 1889.

The church treasurer holds one of the most responsible positions in the church. Each member should be visited, or written to, by the treasurer at least once each quarter. To the distant members, a kindly reminder of the sacred and blessed privileges of co-operating in the work of God in the faithful payment of the tithes and offerings, with other words of cheer, will accomplish great results. The treasurer should never feel it too much trouble to write a receipt for a child, or any one for the smallest amount. Great results come from faithful labor done by church treasurers. They need to pray much over their work. The church should uphold the hands of the officers in doing faithful work.

6. Moses, having been raised from the dead (Jude 9), is chosen to represent the character of all that will come out of the grave to receive immortality at the first resurrection. Elias is the chosen example of all those who will be translated. These two characters are types of all that will ever enter heaven. We should study their lives, for they are set forth as examples.