MOXEY AND THE KIJ^GDOM. 231 



had belonged absolutely to God. "Behold, the heaven 

 and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, thj God, and 

 the earth also, with all that therein is" (Deut. x, 14). 

 "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the 

 world, and they that dwell therein" (Ps. xxiv, 1). "The 

 silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord" 

 (Hag. ii, 8). "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul 

 of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine" 

 (Ezek. xviii, 4). When the priest was consecrated, the 

 bipod of the ram was put upon the right ear, the thumb 

 of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, to 

 indicate that he should come and go, use his hands and 

 powers of mind, in short, his entire self, in the service 

 of God. These parts of the body Avere selected as repre- 

 sentative of the whole man. The tithe was likewise 

 representative. ' ' For, if the first fruit be holy, the lump 

 is also holy" (Rom. xi, 16). Tithes were devoted to cer- 

 tain uses, specified by God, in recognition of the fact that 

 all belonged to him. 



THE PRINCIPLE STATED. 



God's claim to the whole rests on exactly the same 

 ground as his claim to a part. As the Creator, he must 

 have an absolute ownership in all his creatures ; and if 

 an absolute claim could be strengthened, it would be by 

 the fact that he who gave us life sustains it, and with 

 his own life redeemed it. "Ye are not your own ; for ye 

 are bought with a price" (I Cor. vi, 19, 20). Manifestly, 

 if God has absolute ownership in us, we can have abso- 

 lute ownership in nothing whatever. If we cannot lav 

 claim to our own selves, how much less to that which 

 we find in our hands. When we say that no man is the 

 absolute owner of property to the value of one penny, 

 we do not take the sociali^^tic position that private prop- 

 erty is theft. Because of our individual trusts, for 

 which we are held personally responsible, we have indi- 

 vidual rights touching property, and mav have claims 

 one against another; but, between God and the soul, the 

 distinction of thinp and mine is a snare. Does one-tenth 



