--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Lyman, Albert R. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 6 published: 1928-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Albert R. Lyman, “The Charm of Tithing,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 6 (April 1928): 491–491." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3106unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3106unse start_page: 491 end_page: 491 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3106unse publication_year: 1928 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1928, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Charm of Tithing The Charm of Tithing By Albert R. Lyman THE full tithe is a pleasure, not a burden. If future destinies should be unveiled, showing the glorious place and privilege to which some men will attain, every man seeing it would aspire with all his heart to reach that uppermost place. Into the most searching test of his fitness he would enter without reservation of strength or comfort. Oh the wonder of an examination offering eternal values to every man proving himself fit! This is the great examination, the great test of the ages. The elements around us and the very materials of which our bodies are made are organized primarily to prove our worthiness or unworthi- ness of promotion. Answering our immortal and implacable am- bition to progress, our eternal Father said, "We will take of these materials and make an earth whereon these may dwell, and we will prove them herewith to see if they will do all things the Lord shall command them. * * * And they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever." The "materials" were to glitter before our eager grasp, we were to hold them in our hands, to prove ourselves by contact with them. Cherishing his purpose of proving men, the Lord has said plainly what he requires while they are in contact with these proving elements. In one of his commandments, referring directly to the materials he places within the individual grasp of men, the Lord says, "I require one-tenth of their interest annually." That is the law of tithing. It seems simple and easy enough, and many find keen charm in carrying it out to the very letter. Others, of seemingly equal intelligence, cheat it, stumble over it and call it difficult or unfair. All that we hold has been placed in our hands for this proving. "A man hath nothing except it be given him of God." Soon it will slip from our grasp, even though we succeed in clutching it till our fingers are palsied in death. Think of it, brother, and get the true spirit of the contest. Pay tithing in answer to the immortal ambition which brought you on this pilgrimage to the "materials of earth," and the labor will be supremely sweet, as renewed promises of "glory added on your head forever and ever." Blanding, Utah