I am a Josephite, or, in other words, I am a full believer in the
mission and calling of Joseph Smith, Jun., as a Prophet of God to
this world in this generation, and I wish the people everywhere to
distinctly understand this fact.
In the early existence of this Church, the people frequently
questioned Joseph the Prophet, relative to the law of Tithing, wishing
to know the meaning of it as it was taught in the Bible and the
revelations. Joseph enquired of the Lord and, in answer, received the
revelation which you can find on the 324th page of the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants, European edition. The Lord has thus revealed
his will upon that subject, and it ought to satisfy his people in all
time to come.
I have always told the people to do just as they pleased about paying
Tithing, and to do as they please about calling upon the name of the
Lord in prayer, and to do just as they please about being baptized, or
about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; there is no compulsion
whatever in these matters. The Lord does not compel any person to
embrace the Gospel, and I do not think He will compel them to live it
after they have embraced it; but all who do not keep their covenants
and the commandments of the Lord our Father are then fit to be cut off
from the Church.
We are in the habit of holding in full fellowship men that pay no
Tithing, also persons who take the name of God in vain; we permit
liars, thieves, etc., to retain a standing in the Church. Does not
this hurt the body of Christ? It does, and the whole body is more or
less sick and faint through our extreme kindness, which some call
charity; it pleads for those unrighteous persons, and we spare them.
Should we do this to the extent we do? I think we have lived long
enough and have passed through enough experience to teach us to know
and do the will of Heaven, and to disfellowship those who refuse to do
it.
We have said to the brethren, pay your Tithing, and with those who
refuse to do this it will be made a matter of fellowship. Now,
brethren and sisters, the next time you write to your friends, in
England, Scotland, Wales, France, or any other country, do not write
that we have directed the Presidents in foreign lands to cut off
members who do not pay their Tithing, when this becomes necessary we
will attend to it. It is right for us here to pay our Tithing. Not
paying Tithing has once been made a matter of fellowship in the
British Islands, and some have been cut off from the Church
there for not paying their Tithing; that was not by our directions.
In regard to Tithing, I am now speaking to the Latter-day Saints in
this land, who have health to labor, who can surround themselves with
an abundance of the comforts and blessings of life, who can build
houses and open up farms at their pleasure. Shall we pay Tithing or
shall we not? We have said pay your Tithing. And we have said to the
Bishops that if any man refuses to pay his Tithing, try him for his
fellowship; and if he still refuses, cut him off from the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and so we say now. We have not
required this of the people, but the Lord has required it, and that is
enough for us and for all the Latter-day Saints upon the earth. If we
live our religion we will be willing to pay Tithing.
We feel sometimes as though the people did not live as near to the
Lord as they should, and we have a right to feel so. And then again we
say that this is a good people, that they are a very excellent people,
that they are the best people that we have any knowledge of, but they
are so far from being what they have got to be that we see there is a
great improvement to be made by us. We talk about heaven, about the
Lord, about angels, about celestial glory, and about enjoying the
celestial kingdom of our God, while at the same time we do not believe
for one moment that we could live in heaven one day or one hour, and
live in disobedience to the laws and commandments of heaven.
We have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have had faith enough
to go and be baptized for the remission of sins, and to receive the
laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and to gather
ourselves together, and still we try to shirk an ordinance of the
House of God, and to make ourselves believe that it is not necessary
to strictly obey all the injunctions laid upon us as followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is written—"Wherefore, I give unto them a
commandment, saying thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength; and in the name of Jesus
Christ thou shalt serve him. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do
anything like unto it. Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all
things. Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in
righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And
that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world,
thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up sacraments upon my
holy day; For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from
your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; Nevertheless
thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all
times; But remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine
oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins
unto thy brethren, and before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do
none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of
heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy
joy may be full. Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other
words, rejoicing and prayer." [Book of Doc. and Cov., page 149,
par's. 2 and 3.
Here we are commanded to assemble ourselves together on the first day
of the week, as the ancient disciples did and to offer up our
sacraments before the Lord, confessing our faults one to another. How
many of the inhabitants of this city do you sup pose are in the
canyons today, or off hunting ducks, or geese, or rabbits, or cattle,
instead of observing this the word of the Lord? Are they doing as they
should do? They are not. Persons professing to be Saints should
assemble themselves together on the Lord's day, except those who may
be necessarily detained at home to keep the house, take care of the
children, or to perform some work of necessity and mercy; the rest
should assemble in the place appointed for worship and the offering up
of our sacraments.
Could we now see the canyons of these mountains all over the
Territory, we should see teams by the score returning with wood. They
went out yesterday to come home today. Is this keeping the Sabbath
holy? It is written—"And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe
the Sabbath day to keep it holy." There is not one requirement of the
Lord that is nonessential; every requirement that He has made of us
is essential to our perfection and sanctification, to prepare us to
enjoy celestial glory.
You may ask me if I always keep the Sabbath holy. When I am out
traveling and happen to be where there is not a convenient place to
observe the Sabbath, I sometimes travel on that day, and content
myself with making a Sabbath of the second, third, fourth, fifth or
sixth day of the week. But generally, when I am traveling, it is all
the time Sabbath to me, for it is a constant succession of meetings.
But do I send my teams to the canyons on the Sabbath day? No, that is
if I have the control over that which should be under my control. I
keep the Sabbath, and I wish to keep all the laws of God, and there
are a great many of this people that do so; but many of them go astray
in failing to observe these things—in not paying their Tithing
faithfully, in not keeping the Sabbath day holy, in not saying their
prayers constantly, in not feeding the poor and clothing the naked,
and in not administering to the Priesthood. As a people we do as well
as we can do, but some do not do as well as they might do.
Thrifty and intelligent gardeners are very particular in trimming off
dead limbs from their fruit trees and covering the wounds to preserve
the trees in health and soundness. When we hold unrighteous, ungodly
persons in fellowship, it injures the whole body of Christ; but we do
it because we have compassion for them. Brethren and sisters I exhort
you to keep your covenants, to serve the Lord with all your hearts,
and to endeavor to observe every requirement the Lord makes of you.
You know that this is your duty.
His Church and kingdom is complete, it has a living head "from which
all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and
knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." "For by one
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink
into one Spirit." "Now are ye the body of Christ, and members in
particular." The head possesses all the qualifications necessary to
fill its functions in the body; it has eyes to see, ears to hear, a
palate to taste, organs of speech to speak, etc., etc. Every
qualification that is natural to the body of a man has its counterpart
incorporated in the body of Christ upon the earth.
On reading carefully the Old and New Testaments we can discover that
the majority of the revelations given to mankind anciently were in
regard to their daily duties; we follow in the same path. The
revelations contained in the Bible and the Book of Mormon are
ensamples to us, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants contains
direct revelation to this Church; they are a guide to us, and we do
not wish to do them away; we do not wish them to become obsolete and
to set them aside. We wish to continue in the revelations of the Lord
Jesus Christ day by day, and to have His Spirit with us continually.
If we can do this, we shall no more walk in darkness, but we shall
walk in the light of life.
We have, through the mercy of our heavenly Father, been gathered
together, and we now have the privilege of purifying ourselves and
preparing for the coming of the Son of Man. Shall we do this? Or shall
we be found wanting when he makes his appearance?
In regard to the Law of Tithing, the Lord has given the revelation I
have already referred to, and made it a law unto us, and let all who
have gathered here and refuse to obey it, be disfellowshipped; and if
a man will persist in breaking the Sabbath day, let him be severed
from the Church; and the man that will persist in swearing, cut him
off from the Church, with the thief, the liar, the adulterer, and
every other person who will not live according to the law of Christ,
that we may not have the tree encumbered with rotten limbs, to spread
decay and rottenness through the whole tree.
We have had good talk from the brethren this afternoon; I have heard
nothing but what is strictly correct. I can say of this people that,
as a people, they are a very good people, but we do fellowship a few
in our midst that we should not fellowship.
Brother Samuel W. Richards had a good deal to say, this afternoon,
about grain. We have talked about it for a long time, and we have
tried to get the people to build store houses to save it. When grain
could not be sold for money the Tithing Office was full of it; but now
we have none to hand out to the poor who depend upon us for bread,
only as we send out and gather in a little, though, probably the
brethren will soon be at leisure to haul in their Tithing. We have but
little to deal out to the families of our brethren who are preaching,
and to our workmen. Our granaries are empty, and scarcely grain enough
in the Territory to bread our own population until another harvest,
yet some will sell their grain to go out of the country. What a
lamentable fact. Suppose the Lord should suffer a drought to come over
the land next year and blast our corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats,
potatoes, etc., with mildew, what would be the situation of this
people? Yet a few are selling grain all the time.
I will mention a circumstance that occurred lately, to illustrate the
character of some whom we fellowship. One of our newcomers wanted to
buy some wheat and went down to the public square where our friends
from the East were preparing to prosecute their journey to California.
This newcomer bought a load of wheat at four or five bits a bushel;
he bought at that price all he wanted. After the bargain was closed,
the man who sold the wheat found out that the purchaser was a
"Mormon," and said to him, "Had I known you was one of the brethren I
would have made you paid a higher price for that wheat." What a
depraved disposition! He would have sold it to the passing stranger
for fifty cents a bushel, and very likely would have made his brother
"Mormon" pay a dollar and a half. How can men love God when they hate
their brethren.
A certain sister went to one of the stores with butter to sell, "What
do you ask a pound for your butter?" "My Bishop says I must ask so much. I would sell it for less, but I must mind my Bishop. I
would sell it for thirty cents, but my Bishop says I must have
thirty-five for it." That woman would see the whole house of Israel
massacred—their blood spilled—and smile at it. I attribute all this to
ignorance and pass it along without notice, as much as possible, and I
hope our Father in heaven does. He is merciful and we should be.
If the people were all truly Latter-day Saints, we should see a state
of society different from what we now see. A man who professes to be a
a good Latter-day Saint has a son who is a thief; says the father, "I
think he will be a good boy yet, and preach the Gospel to the nations
and do much good." "Whose horse is this, my boy?" "O, no matter about
that dad; here is a friend of mine, wants to stay all night." They are
lodged and fed, and away they go next morning after some more stolen
horses. "Brother, did you not know that that was a stolen horse?" "O,
I suppose it was." "Then why did you keep such a man about you?" "Why,
I could not turn my son and his friends out of doors." There are
pretty good men and good families who are harborers of thieves and do
it all the time, in some of their connections.
I remember that a lot of colts were once driven into my yard, and they
were stolen property. How came this about? Why somebody heard aunt
Sarah say that cousin Bill told aunt Peggy that he had heard Sister
Nancy say that her cousin Betty had worked in the President's kitchen,
and so the connection was formed, and of course all her friends and
connections must make themselves at home in the President's houses,
his barns, stables, yards, and provisions for man and animals. I
suspicioned them, and had them turned out forthwith.
If we are not sanctified, if we do not sanctify the Lord in our hearts
and purify ourselves in our lives and in all our dealings before God
and man, we shall fail of attaining to an inheritance in the celestial
kingdom, and shall be found in some other kingdom. When the holy
Priesthood is upon the earth, and the fulness of the kingdom of God
has come to the people, it requires a strict obedience to every point
of law and doctrine and to every ordinance which the Lord reveals: in
short, it requires a strict observance of every requirement of Heaven,
to fully prepare a people for the possession and enjoyment of the
celestial kingdom.
Where the Priesthood is not, the people are expected to live according
to the best knowledge they have; but even then they cannot with
impunity commit many heinous faults. The Lord more readily overlooks
them in consequence of their unenlightened condition, and there is a
kingdom prepared for them, while the celestial kingdom will be
inhabited only by those who are specially prepared to inherit it. It
will be inherited by those who live faithfully the religion of Jesus
Christ, and are worthy of being ranked upon among the pure in heart.
Tomorrow morning I expect to start on a short tour South, and I say
to my brethren and sisters keep your armor bright, and be on the
watchtower all the time, for the enemy feels as much opposition
today, and I may safely say more than he ever did towards the kingdom
of God that is now established upon the earth; and just in proportion
to its strength and increase, so will the power of Satan be exerted to
overcome it. Christ and Baal are not yet friends. An Elder of Israel who can drink with the drunkard and swear with the swearer, is
not a friend of Christ and his kingdom.
The wicked still wish to destroy every vestige of truth and
righteousness on the earth; and they will still go on fighting
against God and right, and who can help it? And they will continue to
go on in this course, until the wicked are destroyed and the earth is
cleansed from the rule of sin and Satan.
Read the Book of Mormon and learn what it says in regard to the
ancient Nephites. The whole nation of the Nephites were slain, because
they departed from the Lord their God and did wickedly. In the last
great and tremendous battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites,
over two millions of the Nephites were slain and the residue were
hunted and slain until not a single person, except Moroni was left of
a high and mighty nation. Mormon says, after this great battle, "And
my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I
cried: O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of
the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could you have rejected that Jesus, who
stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this,
ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your
loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye
husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!
But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return." "O
that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you.
But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of
heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his
justice and mercy." Blood answered to blood until the land was
cleansed, and few men were left. And so will it be with this nation
who have slain the Prophets and have sought continually to destroy
the people of God.
If we live our religion we may escape; and if we are required to give
our lives for our religion, we are still in the hands of God. But we
cannot find in any history that the people of God have ever suffered
more keenly than have the wicked. Certain ones have "had trial of
cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain
with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins;
being destitute, afflicted, tormented;" etc. But look at the hundreds
of thousands of wicked men who have met destruction through such
unutterable anguish and suffering as the faithful followers of the
Lord Jesus have never felt. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast
in the fiery furnace, the fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was
a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor had
the smell of fire passed upon them.
The Saints in all ages have been protected, sustained, and upheld by an
Almighty Power, in their sufferings, and the power of the religion of
Jesus Christ has ever sustained them. The Jews anciently said let His
blood be upon us and upon our children, and God took them at their
word.
This nation, by their works said, "Let the blood of Joseph the Prophet
and of his brethren be upon us and our children," and it will be so.
If they had known Joseph Smith in his true character, and acknowledged
him, he would have led this nation long before now, and this dreadful
war would not have prevailed throughout the land; but now it will be death upon death, and blood upon blood until the land is
cleansed. I pray God to save the innocent, the righteous, and the
honest poor, and to let those who desire to shed the blood of each
other fall first in this deadly strife.
We have become heirs to all things, through the Gospel which we have
obeyed, but if we neglect that Gospel and our duties to God and to one
another and become servants to sin, we may expect to suffer the
penalty of sin, which is death and damnation, and to be deprived of
the right of ruling over a single person, and possess no territory,
not even six feet by three. Those who violate their claims to the
blessings of the Gospel never will have the privilege of ruling over
their families; they will not have a dollar of money. They may get all
the gold there is in the mountains now, but when they die and go to
their own place they will not find gold, nor bread to eat, nor water
to drink, nor the sweet strains of music to cheer their hearts; but
they will be made servants to drudge out their weary existence as long
as the Lord shall please to let them. This is a little of what the
wicked will suffer in their place in the next existence.
Instead of the righteous being bound tighter and tighter, they will
continue to have more and more liberty, as we are more and more
faithful, and obtain more power with the heavens and more of the power
of God upon us. Let us seek diligently unto the Lord, until we obtain
the faith of Jesus in its fullness, for those who possess this are
free indeed.
When it is necessary that we should possess gold in great abundance,
the Lord will show it to us in vision, and we shall not have to
prospect and dig to find it, as the wicked have to do. The liberty of
the Saints is to possess power with God to open gold mines, when we
want gold; to plant and reap in abundance; to heal the sick of our
families, and to heal our animals that serve us; to elude every snare
of the enemy; to save our boys from danger when they are in the
canyons, or when they are following any other pursuit where there is
danger of their losing their lives, or of being hurt in any way. This
the wicked call tyranny and despotism. We call upon the people to so
live that their sick may be healed by the virtue and power of their
holy religion, and this is called oppression. The "Mormons" all listen
to the advice of one man, and this is called despotism. We teach our
females to be virtuous and industrious, and this is called bondage. A
young woman went to a neighboring camp, stayed there three or four
days, and came home and died; this is the liberty some would give to
us, "such protection as vultures give to lambs."
It is the privilege of this people to have faith to command the
elements, that we may have plentiful crops from year to year; and to
enjoy the wealth of health, joy and peace instead of sorrow, turmoil,
war, and bloodshed. Here are the two extremes; may the Lord help us to
choose the good and refuse the evil. Amen.