The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 343
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A LIBERAL CHURCH 337 gifts and offerings were divinely specified. Under the Jewish system, the people were taught to cherish a spirit of liberality, both in sustaining the cause of God and in supplying the wants of the needy. For special occasions there were freewill-offerings. At the harvest and the vintage, the first-fruits of the field — corn, wine, and oil — were consecrated as an offering to the Lord. The gleanings and the corners of the field were reserved for the poor. The first-fruits of the wool when the sheep were shorn, of the grain when the wheat was threshed, were set apart for God. So also were the first-born of all animals; and a redemption price was paid for the first-born son. The first-fruits were to be presented before the Lord at the sanctuary, and were then devoted to the use of the priests. By this system of benevolence the Lord sought to teach Israel that in everything He must be first. Thus they were reminded that God was the proprietor of their fields, their flocks, and their herds; that it was He who sent them the sunshine and the rain that developed and ripened the harvest. Everything that they possessed was His; they were but the stewards of His goods. It is not God's purpose that Christians, whose privileges far exceed those of the Jewish nation, shall give less freely than they gave. ''Unto whomsoever much is given," the Saviour declared, ''of him shall be much required. ' ' ' The liberality required of the Hebrews was largely to benefit their own nation; to-day the work of God extends over ' Luke 12 : 48.