personal dealing with us, you will know also how we love and bless
Him for it.

There is always a danger that just because we say 'all,' we may
practically fall shorter than if we had only said 'some,' but said it
very definitely. God recognises this, and provides against it in many
departments. For instance, though our time is to be 'all' for Him, yet He
solemnly sets apart the one day in seven which is to be specially for
Him. Those who think they know better than God, and profess that every
day is a Sabbath, little know what floodgates of temptation they are
opening by being so very wise above what is written. God knows best, and
that should be quite enough for every loyal heart. So, as to money,
though we place it all at our Lord's disposal, and rejoice to spend it
all for Him directly or indirectly, yet I am quite certain it is a great
help and safeguard, and, what is more, a matter of simple obedience to
the spirit of His commands, to set aside a definite and regular
proportion of our income or receipts for His direct service. It is a
great mistake to suppose that the law of giving the tenth to God is
merely Levitical. 'Search and look' for yourselves, and you will find
that it is, like the Sabbath, a far older rule, running all through the
Bible,[footnote: See Gen. xiv. 20, xxviii. 22; Lev. xxvii. 30, 32; Num.
xviii. 21; Deut. xiv. 22; 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, 6, 12; Neh. x. 37, xii. 44,
xiii. 12; Mal. iii. 8, 10; Matt. xxiii. 23; Luke xi. 42; 1 Cor xvi. 2;
Heb. vii. 8.] and endorsed, not abrogated, by Christ Himself. For,
speaking of tithes, He said, 'These _ought_ ye to have done, and not to
leave the other undone.' To dedicate the tenth of whatever we have is
mere duty; charity begins beyond it; free-will offerings and
thank-offerings beyond that again.

First-fruits, also, should be thus specially set apart. This, too, we
find running all through the Bible. There is a tacit appeal to our
gratitude in the suggestion of them,--the very word implies bounty
received and bounty in prospect. Bringing 'the first of the first-fruits
into the house of the Lord thy God,' was like 'saying grace' for all the
plenty He was going to bestow on the faithful Israelite. Something of
gladness, too, seems always implied. 'The day of the first-fruits' was to
be a day of rejoicing (compare Num. xxviii. 26 with Deut. xvi. 10, 11).
There is also an appeal to loyalty: we are commanded to _honour_ the Lord
with the first-fruits of all ou