The Offertory

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Excerpt from The Offertory: An Essay Demonstrating the Superiority of Weekly Offerings at Every Service to Pew Rents as a System of Church Finance The only passage in which our Saviour seems to dis countenance such gifts is S. Mark vii. 11 Ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father and his mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition. It is here, however, evident that it is not against the use but against the abuse of the institution that our Saviour spoke. The Pharisees taught that Temple offerings take precedence of all gifts in behalf of parents, and, therefore, it was a common excuse, by which children evaded the duty of providing for the neces sities of parents, to say that the gifts for which they were asked were already in intention devoted to the treasury. In many cases, no doubt, the vow was not performed, but even when it was, it was not an acceptable gift, because the positive commandment was neglected for the sake of that which was, after all, a free-will offering. It was as if a man should spend much in charity while he was in debt to his creditors. The conduct of such an one would be worthy of blame because be neglected the commandment, Owe no man anything, but the condemnation of such conduct would be no re¿ection on the value of acts of charity when they are rightly performed. Our Saviour's warning, there fore, whilst it witnesses to the prevalence of the custom of making offerings, cannot be interpreted as any condemna nation of the Corban. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.