686 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters. 
(as stated above) was the first who received power from God 
over all creatures. And it is proper that as Adam dealt 
toward his children, all succeeding generations should be 
treated. However, God created all things to be held in com¬ 
mon in the sense that everyone, (whom God has given tem¬ 
poral possessions) is bound by law of God and nature 
to divide his property with the poor and needy who have 
nothing; for man is only a dispenser of his possessions and 
he is ordained by God to rule over them and not to let them 
rule over him. 
There is another question in this connection: If one has 
bought a tithe and paid cash for it, must he give it back to 
the church, from which he bought it, and thus be deprived 
of his principal (Hauptsumme)? 
ANSWER IN A FEW WORDS. 
If the tithe is a product of the soil, and belongs to God, to 
be used to sustain His ministers and the poor, no man has 
the power to sell it, for in reality it is not his (as will be seen 
later). No man shall sell that which does not belong to him, 
nor shall anyone wittingly buy it. But in case one should 
have used it for some years, so that it would have become 
the equivalent of the principal 1 or more, he is bound both by 
divine and natural law to give it back without any recom¬ 
pense; 2 
in case, however, it should be less than the principal (the 
amount first tithed) the difference must be given to him and 
he must give up his tithe. All this is to be done in the spirit 
of honesty and truth. How the magitracy acts in this mat¬ 
ter with its indulgences, contracts and agreements, is of little 
concern to me. I intend to be troubled by temporal pos¬ 
sessions, only in so far as the tithes are wrongfully used and 
the buyers are deprived of what belongs to them. In case a 
servant of the church sells the tithe, which belongs to him 
for his life-time only, for a longer period than he should 
have use of it, he is a spiritual thief, for he has sold something 
which does not belong to him, but to God, to be used to 
1 Principal in this connection—the amount (first) tithed. 
2 Explanation. A bushel of corn, the original tithe of ten bushels 
would in a short time equal the ten bushels, the amount first tithed. It 
must then be given back. The example chosen, is not very happy, be¬ 
cause of the reproductive ability of corn. 
