--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Shepherd, William G. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 8 published: 1928-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "William G. Shepherd, “Men Who Tithe,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 8 (June 1928): 633–645." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3108unse 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: improvementera3108unse start_page: 633 end_page: 645 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3108unse 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. --- # Men Who Tithe Improvement Era* Vol. XXXI JUNE, 1928 No. 8 Men Who Tithe* By William G. Shepherd The names of the men who tithe, whose experiences are described in this article, have pur¬ posely been omitted, because the subject we wish to stress is tithing and not mere material success. Tithing is a spiritual exercise, or a psychological experiment, or a religious duty, as you will. The material rewards, extraordinary as they are, nevertheless are accounted only as secondary benefits by the men who practice tithing. Any reader who is sufficiently interested to ask us for the name and address of any or all of the men mentioned, can get them from us upon applica¬ tion, provided he assures us he makes the request in search of further light on the subject and not out of idle curiosity. — Editors The World's Work. Me walked slowly through the empty rooms of the little factory. He was alone in the building. As yet the machin¬ ery was not in place. He was starting over in life; his first attempt at business had not been a success. The tiny string of credit which he had to depend upon in his new venture was made up of the faith of a few close friends rather than the calculated, mathematical confidence of banks. When he came to a remote corner of one of the upper floors he knelt and closed his eyes and prayed. Then he got up and went out into the world again and began his hard business fight. The machinery came, at last, and he started to make furniture. He borrowed and borrowed; his improving business records strengthened his credit. But there was a mystery about him in the fields of credit. Al¬ though he began to look more and more safe to the credit men, he seemed to insist on giving money away. While he was borrowing, he gave. Sometimes he said “no” to those who asked for financial aid for religious or philanthropic purposes. But when he did say “yes,” he said it with an alacrity that astonished the recipient. He did not give money to foolish ventures or to unsound enterprises, but it was a puzzling thing to the bankers to have him borrow from them while he was giving money freely to help others who were finding the world a hard place to live in. But his business grew; within a few years it became well- established; his furniture became known to the trade for its honest ♦From The World's Work of July, 1924. Copyright by The World's Work, Doubleday, Doran 8 Co., Inc. 634 IMPROVEMENT ERA quality. At last, there came a time when borrowing was no longer necessary. His tiny string of credit had become a thousand-stranded cable; he was one of the marked successes in the furniture world. When he died, after a well-rounded life, the mystery of his gifts was explained. It seemed that, during all his business career, he had considered that the money which he borrowed, the money which he earned, and the money which he gave away was not his own money at all; it was God's money. Over his casket, that day of the funeral, the clergyman of the church which he had attended told the story. “I have carried a secret about our friend,” ran the gist of the clergyman’s story, “which I have never been able to reveal until now. He asked me never to tell it while he was alive. “When he was making his second start in life, so he told me, he knelt in an empty room in his new factory, and he told God that he wanted to take Him into partnership; that one-tenth of all the earnings should go to Him; and that he would use the money in all his business ventures as if it were God’s money. “That was the secret of his life,” said the clergyman. Then, at last, the bankers and the other furniture manufac¬ turers and his friends and associates knew why this man had given away money even while he was borrowing it. One of the great furniture manufacturers of Grand Rapids recently told me this story; every other manufacturer in that great furniture center knows about the good furniture that was made with God’s money. It would be a posthumous violation of this furniture manu¬ facturer’s secret to give his name in this widely read magazine. “It’s a silent partnership, you know,” he told his clergyman- confessor. But there’s many a home in the United States today that is graced with the honest furniture that was made by this man with what he considered God’s funds. A Seattle Girl, Thirty Years Ago I don’t suppose that any one knows where that Salvation Army girl is now. "CHARLIE” PAGE, of Tulsa and Sands Springs, Oklahoma, paid his first tithe when he was down to his last dollar and fifteen cents. He did a little better than a tenth, as he gave the fifteen cents. Since then he has been working with God’s money and it has come in millions through the discovery of oil. Everything Page has touched since he paid that first fifteen cents has coined money for him. It is as much God’s money as his, he says. MEN WHO TITHE 1535 If you were to hunt for her, you would have to seek among white-haired women and find one who had been a Salvation Army girl in the city of Seattle about thirty years ago. And then you would have to refresh her memory, for the incident was a passing one — very small and easily forgotten. She was standing on the sidewalk, so the story goes, when a young man came out of a saloon. She smiled and shook her tambou¬ rine at him. She didn’t know that this young man had been a partner of “Dude” Lewis in the real estate business, and that the firm was busted; she didn’t know that “Dude” Lewis was, a quarter of a century or more later, to be known as United States Senator J. Ham Lewis. Neither did she know that this young man was to become, in a strange way, one of the rich oil-finders of the United States — Charles Page, of Tulsa and Sand Springs, Oklahoma. So she only smiled and shook her tambourine. “I’m broke,” said the young man. “I’m down to my last dollar.” “Well, why don’t you tithe?” she asked, still smiling. “Tithe? What does that mean?” asked the young fellow. “Why, the Bible says that we ought to give one-tenth of what we have to the Lord,” she explained. “All right!” said the youth. “I’ve got a dollar and fifteen cents. I’ll do better than one-tenth. I’ll give fifteen cents.” He tossed the fifteen cents into the tambourine and went his way. You’d have to ask this white-haired woman, if you found her. whether she remembered this passing incident; and she would prob¬ ably be unable to recall it. It was only a case of youth meeting a girl in a poke bonnet, a farmer boy away from home in rather shabby clothes on the sidewalk of an uncouth town, and chatting and smiling together for a moment and then going their separate ways. But, if you could find her, you could show her an amazing thing; you could show her that her laughing Bible lesson was per¬ haps the most important thing she ever did in her life. From that day, so they tell you in Tulsa, Charles Page “tithed,” and more than “tithed.” “Charlie” Page has been working with “God’s money” ever since. His luck at striking oil has been phenomenal; there is a tradi¬ tion in the oil fields of the country that “Charlie” Page never misses a “hole.” Where he drills oil comes, they say. You cannot get Page to talk about his “partnership”; it is his own private affair. But once he told a friend, in speaking of his success at drilling; “I think I’ve missed only two boles in my life. You see, I 636* IMPROVEMENT ERA couldn’t miss, because I was in partnership with the Big Fellow and He made geology.” A Children’s Ideal Community If there is a finer sight in this country than Sand Springs, Oklahoma, I haven’t encountered it. It is a town built entirely around children who have been unfortunate in life. “Charlie” Page’s tithes did not go into the church; they went into helping children who were unlucky. He built himself a home in the country, outside of Tulsa, some years ago; then he built an¬ other home near by for children. There wasn’t room in his own house for all the children in trouble. That was twenty or more years ago. Today, if you will walk up toward the brick building which houses “Charlie” Page’s children, you will be met with an onrush of boys and girls that may sweep you off your feet. That Salvation Army girl would like to see it. They all called him “Daddy” the day I went there with him. At least fifty of them tried to reach him and maul him. There were great grounds, grassy and shaded with trees, and the children seemed to be running toward us from all directions. Upstairs in the nursery we saw little children playing who were too young to run, but they laughed when big “Charlie” Page came into the room. In other rooms we saw at least half a dozen tiny babies, too young to crawl, with nurses caring for them. When God’s money takes care of babies it asks no questions. Everything that “Charlie” Page has done to help these chil¬ dren has developed into a successful business enterprise; they’d tell you all about this tradition in Tulsa. He built a street car line to Tulsa from Sand Springs, and that paid. Land values went up out there and many people built homes in Sand Springs. He established a small bottling plant to bottle the spring water for use in the children’s house, and the public began to buy it for table use. He wanted the children to have fresh vegetables, and his gardens have grown until they show on the right side of the ledger. He started a small plant to can vegetables and fruit for the children; now his canning business is an important industry. Once “Charlie” Page went to New York. At Coney Island he saw the famous merry-go-round, said to be the largest ever made. There never was anything too good for the Sand Springs children; wherefore Page instructed the manufacturer of this merry-go-round to make another and to ship it, music and all, to Sand Springs. Around that merry-go-round has grown up one of the finest amusement parks in the country; it is where Tulsa goes to play. Every concession is held by a mother of one of the children in the MEN WHO TITHE 637 home, I was told. Page wanted his children to learn to swim — and he showed me a huge pool, almost a little lake, where not only his children, but all the children and all the adults of the city of Tulsa and the entire countryside come to cool off during the hot Oklahoma days. The bath houses pay; everything pays. Out of the big zoo, at Christmas time, “Charlie” Page takes a Christmas dinner for his children that cannot be equalled in the United States; there is bear meat and rabbit and venison and wild bird meat and fish of all kinds. Tell it to the Bees The folks laugh pleasantly, at Tulsa, when they tell you about how “Charlie” Page’s enterprises always succeed. They have this story about him: He made up his mind that it would be interesting to have a hobby — something that wouldn’t turn into a profitable business on his hands. A friend suggested bees. Page sent East for a bee expert. The expert brought samples of bees. “You’ll have to plant alfalfa for this one and clover for this one,” explained the expert, describing the peculiarities of each variety of bee. Page listened patiently until the expert was through. Then he said: “Blankety blank! Those aren’t the kinds of bees I want. I want a bee that you can turn loose to play, not work. I want one that you can tell: ‘Here, bee! Here’s the whole great state of Okla¬ homa. Go out and have a good time and find some honey. If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere.’ ” That the man who takes God into honest, square partnership cannot get into financial trouble, or any other very deep trouble, is “Charlie” Page’s belief. A Bishop went to see him one time, they tell you in Tulsa; the church needed money. Not much of “Char¬ lie” Page’s money goes into churches, I am told; they say he is a little impatient with churches that arc in financial need; he cannot understand it. The Bishop seated himself, at Page’s invitation, but before the Bishop could say a word Page looked him square in the eyes and said, simply: “Bishop, do you tithe?” The will of ALLEN F. BERLIN, state operator, who died at Slatington, Pa., last week, was probated today. Part of the estate, valued at $250,000, was left to charity under the following provisions: “One-tenth of my estate I recognize as belonging to the Lord, to be given to the most deserving charities, to be selected by the executors’ jury the first year after my death.” — News Item. 638 IMPROVEMENT ERA “Why, I give my entire time to the church,’’ was the answer. “Yes, I know,’’ answered Page. “I understand that. But do you tithe?’’ The Bishop admitted that he did not. The story in Tulsa goes that the Bishop’s effort was not a success. Mysticism or Superstition? There are many men in business in America today who are consistent tithers; you find them among both Jews and Gentiles. You may call it mysticism, if you please, or even superstition, but these men will tell you unashamedly that it pays to tithe. “If it paid only in a financial way,’’ one of these men explained to me, “tithing might not be so important. Almost any one can make money who makes up his mind to do it, and is willing to sacrifice for it. But it pays in a hundred other ways, in the feeling you get, for instance, that you’re doing right, and that you’ve got right on your side.’’ American business life is dotted with the romantic successes of men who believe in tithing. Twenty-five years ago a business man in a town in Kansas failed in business, with debts of more than $100,000. Today he might be many times a millionaire, if he de¬ sired. He is the manufacturer of a lotion which is universally used. He does not tell the story of his experiences in such a way that it can be connected in the public mind with his famous product; where¬ fore, so far as this article is concerned, Americans will go on using this lotion without knowing about this manufacturer’s partnership with God. Close friends know his story, and it runs like this; When he was worse than bankrupt, he “opened his Bible at Genesis 28:22 and, drawing a pencil mark around this twenty- second verse, he said: ‘From this moment on as long as I live, of all that God gives me I will give Him one-tenth.’ ’’ Not long after this he called on an old friend, a physician. The physician had a recipe for a lotion which he presented to his visitor. He suggested that it was so soothing a lotion and so bene¬ ficial that it ought to be put on the market. Here is a statement from this man, the president of one of America’s most successful manufacturing companies, written pur¬ posely for this article: JAY COOKE (1821-1905), who founded the banking firm of Jay Cooke Company in 1861, and was substantially the financier of the Union cause during the Civil War, tithed in hard times and good, for he held firm to the mystical belief that what he achieved was due to sharing his profits with God. MEN WHO TITHE 639 “ ‘Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth,’ etc., and the interview with the rich young ruler — these teachings gave me the conviction some years ago that all of my income, except what the family needs, was to be given for building up the kingdom of God. 1 have had more joy, I am sure, than I would have received from becoming a millionaire.” In these days when believers in odd doctrines obtain ready hearing in the United States, it is not irrational to entertain the statements of believers in the tithing system. Unlike believers in most mystic doctrines, your convinced tither will show you mathe¬ matically that he has prospered financially as well as in other directions. A noted Southern lawyer recently announced to friends and associates that some years before he had adopted the principle of tithing. His motto was a verse from the Old Testament; ‘‘Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing the Lord, thy God, shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.” He announced his yearly earnings to show his experience. In a certain year he made $3,900; the next year he made $5,303. 1 7 ; the next year his earnings were $21 ,45 1.44; they more than doubled (he ensuing year, when he earned $55,455.30. During the year that be made his unusual announcement he earned $75,862.34. In the Southwest there is a string of twenty-eight stores which form a great monument to a business man who, through his busi¬ ness career, followed the practice of tithing. He explained once, to friends, why he tithed. ‘‘Why, you and I tithe each other,” he said. ‘‘We would not lend a neighbor money with which to run his business without inter¬ est. Neither would we expect him to lend us money without paying interest. I found I was using God’s money and the business talents He had given me without paying Him interest. That’s all I’ve done in tithing — just met my interest obligations.” There is a string of 500 chain stores, operated in almost as many towns and cities in the United States, that is headed by a business man who has tithed consistently. The founder of the busi¬ ness was a tither, and the president of the company who followed him continued the practice. Ten years ago the sales of this com¬ pany were $2,500,000 a year. Last year they amounted to more than $60,000,000. Experience has taught me,” the president of this company told me, ‘‘that the man prospers best who gives most freely of the bounty that comes to him. The man who founded our company was an example to all of us who grew up in the business with him. We all 640 IMPROVEMENT ERA believe that free giving is worth while in more ways than one. In its turn it promotes prosperity which makes giving possible.” Many American men and women wear gloves of a well-known brand that are manufactured by a man who tithes. Ask him why more and more of us wear his gloves every year, and this manufacturer will smilingly tell you that he has reason to believe that it is because, five years ago, he began to tithe. ‘‘The pastor of my church advocated tithing for its spiritual benefits,” this manufacturer told me. ‘‘He also insisted that busi¬ ness men would find it a good investment. I tried it and I discovered that he was right in both respects. ‘‘Giving away one-tenth of my income has never reduced my net personal income below that of the previous year. And, what’s more, our business is increasing steadily.” In the glove trade it was estimated that the sales of this com¬ pany had increased almost 50 per cent in one year; its improvement in business was one of the notable events of the trade in 1923. One Man Out of Eight Eight brothers, within recent years, have established a firm which manufactures a certain food on most American tables. The firm has become the largest of its kind in the world. Its sales last year were made not only through the United States but also in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the product is now reaching a world market. To many business men conversant with this particular line of business the progress of this firm has been a mystery. Its pro¬ ducts seemed suddenly to become a household necessity. I should violate a confidence if I were to name this firm and its products: but one of the eight brothers, a vice-president of the company, told me; ‘‘Up to the start of 1923 I had been making fairly liberal con¬ tributions to religious and charitable causes, but the amounts varied so much every year that I wasn’t sure I was giving my share. So I began to tithe in January, 1923. One of my brothers, who is president of the company, has been a tither for many years. When I saw him a few months ago, he told me that he had quit tithing and was giving away 25 per cent of his income instead of 1 0 per cent. ‘‘If there’s any good luck in tithing — though I’m sure that neither my brothers nor myself are thinking of luck, when we try to do a little good with our money — our president and the rest of my brothers haven’t any reason to dispute the statement. There are eight of us brothers in the business, and we have seen it climb from a small beginning to our present concern, which sold $40,000,000 worth of products throughout the entire world last year. MEN WHO TITHE 641 “At a recent convention of our salesmen there was scarcely one who did not report an increase in sales of at least 75 per cent for 1923, and most of them told us they were expecting a jump of 100 per cent in 1924. “My one year’s trial, as a tither, in 1923, has convinced me, first, that I did not give away enough money in previous years; and, second, that even one-tenth may be too little.’’ It was a pleasant experience to meet this young business man. He was smiling, happy, and extremely affable. In the great ware¬ house in New York — which is only one of the company’s branches — he was surrounded by a large staff of office employees. It is his particular job, according to arrangements among the eight brothers, to ship products to the outside world. His firm today is exporting to the world a product which, until within the last few years, was imported into the United States; a product which, it was believed, could be successfully manufactured only in foreign countries. There was nothing that I could find in this atmosphere of assured success and smoothly running progress to contradict the statement that tith¬ ing, among other things, brings prosperity and good fortune. If this young man could not “dispute’’ that fact, neither could 1. Indeed, I must admit that contact and conversation with men who believe in tithing is bound to have an impressive effect upon one. Some time ago Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to explain to a group of my friends in New York his interest in spiritism. Among other things, he described a conversation which took place, in his presence, between two men; he gathered from their conversation, he told us, that they had both been aloft in their astral bodies and had looked down upon the earth. “And thus you see,’’ he concluded, “it is possible to believe that there are groups of persons in this world who have discovered the secret of spiritism.’’ In the same way I can say that I have discovered in American business life — and any other person may make further discoveries in this direction — groups of individuals who are firmly convinced of the spiritual and material benefits of giving away one-tenth of their incomes — if not more. Those who have this belief do not hesitate to show you definite The rigid precept of MATTHIAS BALDWIN, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, was to set apart one-tenth of all the earnings of his company for the use of the Lord. In dark days, when his firm was struggling against terrible financial difficulties, he continued to do so, pointing out to his associates that this was their one safe investment. 642 IMPROVEMENT ERA proof of its efficacy. This proof, as I have said, is usually very material and soundly mathematical. Tithing a Sound Business Investment In New York City there is a merchant tailor with a large shop in one of the high-rent buildings which hundreds of thousands of persons pass daily; it is along one of the very congested pathways of the city. To this man his own success in business has only one explana¬ tion — his tithing. He spoke to me as frankly about it as he might about any other business practice. “Any man who plays fair with God,’’ he said, “is sure to prosper. I started tithing when I got the idea some years ago that all I had belonged to God, and that He was permitting me to use it. I expected, of course, when I began to tithe, that my net income would be reduced by 10 per cent. But this has never happened to me. Each year’s net income has been larger in spite of tithing. “When the lease on these quarters ran out a few years ago, a great increase in rent was demanded. We have a very choice cor¬ ner in a very superior location, but it was hard to see how we could make the payments. I talked the matter over with my wife, and we both decided that, even if it became necessary to move, we would not stop tithing. We signed the new lease, and at the end of the next twelve months our net profits showed a fine increase.’’ “Talent loaned by God, time loaned by God, and money loaned by God,’’ has been the working motto of one of the most noted furnace manufacturers of the country. He has a life of business achievement behind him, and he at¬ tributes it all to the fact that he has considered himself a steward of divinely lent elements of success. “I had to leave school when I was fourteen,’’ he explained to me, “because of ill-health. I was the oldest of seven children. When I was a boy the pastor of our church convinced me that everything I had, or would have, in life would belong to God. As soon as I understood this I began putting aside one-tenth of everything I earned, every day, no matter how small it was. I went out into life with empty pockets and willing hands and a firm belief in my responsibility to God. God has more than kept His promise to me financially and spiritually.’’ Ask this man for a formula for success in life and he will give it readily: “Everything you have, even your time, is divinely lent to you. If you accept it as a divine loan, you cannot fail.’’ Tithing During the Civil War One of the greatest romances of tithing was called to my atten¬ tion by James L. Sayler, of Chicago. MEN WHO TITHE 643 The financier for the Union cause in the Civil War was Jay Cooke. There were times when it seemed almost impossible to secure funds for the Union cause; Cooke, a financial genius, never failed to find money in some way. He was the head of a manufacturing lirm. He set aside one-tenth of his own earnings for religious and charitable purposes, and, in addition to this, he insisted that one- tenth of all the earnings of his firm should be set aside for the same causes. He was firm in the mystical belief that his success in all the efforts of his life, personal and patriotic, was due to his tithing. There is a famous story about Matthias Baldwin, founder of the great locomotive works. It was his practice to have one-tenth of the earnings of the company set aside as tithes, to be used for religious and educational purposes. A great deal of this money went tor the education of Negroes. There came a time when his firm encountered tremendous financial difficulties. He insisted on continuing the tithing, in spite of the lack of funds. ‘Why, that is our one safe investment,” he explained to his associates. His next payment of tithes was in the form of notes signed by himself! And they were all paid. Two large manufacturing concerns in the West are headed by Thomas Kane, one of the most notable tithers in the United States. He has spent, during the last forty years, many thousands of dollars in trying to prove to his fellows the moral and material benefits of tithing. His inquiry, sent out in the form of a pamphlet, has be¬ come famous wherever it has gone. It runs: ‘‘My personal belief is that God honors, both temporally and spiritually, those who devote one-tenth of their income to his cause. I have never known an ex¬ ception. Have you?” It is said that in forty years Mr. Kane, who uses the nom de plume “Layman,” has never received an affirmative answer to his query. The Gospel of Tithing The tithers are busy groups; they are not so difficult to dis¬ cover, working away in American life, as were Sir Arthur’s spiritists. They have a mystic belief and they abide by it earnestly. They press it. too, most earnestly upon those they encounter, for they seem to feel that they have solved the mystery of the value of life and work, and that all the world ought to know it. In the world of tithers, where ‘‘Charlie” Page, the oil man, and the rest of them live and work and succeed, the outsider can only stand silent and wonder. People believe many strange things these days. The world is full of creeds and doctrines and mysteries. 644 IMPROVEMENT ERA Who can take away the self-proved belief of the tithers? They have the soundest arguments of all. If you endeavor to explain their belief on the ground of psy¬ chology alone you run up against a stone wall. “It is faith,’’ one eminent psychologist explained. “Faith gives confidence.’’ Another said, “I will not attempt to explain the belief of the tithers on materialistic grounds. No one can say that there is not something mystic about their success. I am a Christian myself and I believe that God takes care of his children.’’ The Psychologist’s Comment Prof. Robert Sessions Woodworth, head of the department of psychology at Columbia University, put the cold yardstick of the science of psychology up against the belief — and the successes — of the tithers. He said; “The belief that their money was a loan from God, that they were in partnership with him, would give these men who tithe more confidence and self-reliance, would minimize all difficulties in their eyes, and would, no doubt, go far toward bringing them success. “On the other hand, they were evidently by nature men of unusual energy and self-reliance. In the first place, had they not pos¬ sessed these qualities they would not have felt that they would dare to begin tithing at a time when their resources were so limited. Men of less natural energy, weak men, could have been influenced through their reliance on such partnership with Omnipotence to relax their own efforts and trust so far to divine aid that their business could have failed instead of prospering. “The fact that these men did have so much self-confidence and energy raises the question whether their success was due to these qualities mainly and whether they could not have succeeded eventu¬ ally without tithing. “But, still, their belief, considered by itself, does present an element of mysticism, and this belief was doubtless strengthened by their putting it into action; had they merely entertained it as an abstract conviction it would never have impressed them so deeply. “In the case of the Oklahoma oil man, however, we must recog¬ nize a distinction. Finding profitable oil wells, so far as I know, is largely a matter of chance. If that is the case, granted to the finder a certain knowledge of geology, the finder’s natural energy and self- reliance would be of relatively little importance. “There are missing factors, of course, the absence of which prevents our reaching an accurate conclusion. We should hear from those oil men who did not tithe and did not share the tither’s belief MEN WHO TITHE 645 as to divine partnership and who, nevertheless, were remarkably suc¬ cessful in striking oil; also, we should hear from sincere tithers, if any, who sought for oil and usually missed it. And, as to business men generally, we lack the testimony of the honest tithers who have not prospered in a material way. In New England, where I was reared, the ministers habitually advocated tithing as a duty. I have no doubt that many persons of slender means were there induced to adopt the practice and that not all of these persons attained ma¬ terial prosperity. “But men are not inclined to talk about their failures. It is practically impossible to supply these absent factors and hence any precise solution of the problem — the effect of tithing on the tither — can hardly be expected.’’ That’s the nearest I could come to securing from science an explanation of the stories of success which smiling-faced business men have laid before me within recent weeks. I presented this explanation to a business man who tithes. “Yes,” he said, “that sounds all right. But you know there are other successes than money ones. I’ve got something more than money out of tithing: it’s given me happiness and contentment that I never could have bought. Suppose some of the New England families who tithed did not succeed financially. Could science measure the contentment which these families might have through knowing that God was a partner in home affairs?” Tithing means giving one-tenth of income. Most of the business men mentioned in this article ceased “tith¬ ing” some time ago. Now they give far more than one-tenth. “Tithing is the minimum that your Partner expects from you,” said one eminently successful man. “That’s only good interest. I’ve been trying to use half of my income in His affairs lately. That’s full partnership.” Foolish Things When I think of all the foolish things That happen in a day of mine. — The blunders and mistakes I make, The worries and the petty hurts A tired heart can conjure up, Like screeching devils from the fired sea, — Beneath the jagged mass of them I stagger, crushed and beaten. Yet, when from all these foolish things I take just one That’s made an hour black. Hold it before the golden sun And watch the light Make rainbows on its circled edge, I see only A thin-spun bubble, that will burst Before it rises far. SHIRLEY RE! GUDMUNDSEN