MRS. HOWELL TOLD THEM.

"Mamma," cried Edith, "I've been trying to tell Marty about tenths and
offerings, and why I give my money that way, but I can't do it so that
she can understand. Wont you tell her, and show her some of the verses
you showed me?"

"Good-morning, Marty," said Mrs. Howell pleasantly to the little girl
who ran to kiss her. "What is it you don't understand?"

"I don't quite understand why the Jews gave tenths, nor why Edith has to
do what the Jews did."

"Well, bring your Bible, Edith, and give Marty mine, and I will show you
some of the passages about giving. The first mention in the Bible of
giving tithes to the Lord is when Jacob was at Bethel."

"Wasn't that when he slept on a stone pillow, and had the beautiful
dream of angels going up and down a ladder that reached to heaven?"
Edith asked.

"Yes; and you remember the Lord appeared to him in the dream, and
promised to be with him wherever he went. And Jacob made a vow to the
Lord, in which he said, 'And of all that thou shalt give me, I will
surely give the tenth unto thee.' You will find it all in the
twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis."

"Yes," said Marty, after turning the leaves a few minutes. "Here it is:
I never noticed it before."

"Then," Mrs. Howell went on, "you know when God brought the children of
Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, he gave them a great many
laws, for they were just like children, and had to be told exactly what
to do on every occasion. Among other things he told them how to give.
Edith, find the eighteenth chapter of Numbers and the twenty-first
verse."

Edith found the place and read, "And behold, I have given the children
of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for the service
which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the
congregation."

"Why should the children of Levi have it?" asked Marty.

"Because the tribe of Levi was set apart for the service of God in the
tabernacle, and afterward the temple, and had no 'inheritance' of land
to till and pasture flocks upon like the other tribes; so the rest of
the nation was instructed to provide for them. So you see these tithes
were for what we should call the support of the gospel; and Levi was the
ministering tribe."

Then Mrs. Howell showed the children passages in Second Chronicles and
Nehemiah where bringing tithes is spoken of, and in Malachi where the
people are rebuked for not bringing them. Then she bade them turn