Good morning, brethren and sisters! I am very happy to meet with you.
We have the privilege of coming here occasionally and seeing you. We
would like to give every one of you a hearty shake of the hand, but we
desire to do it in a wholesale way, and we wish you to consider
yourselves heartily shaken hands with (and suiting the action to the
word); God bless you all forever. We have come here to bear testimony
of the things of the kingdom of God, and to stir you up to diligence
in performing your duties, and to perform the duties of our callings
as ministers of the Gospel of Peace. We feel a little annoyed,
necessarily, at the slow progress which is being made, yet we have a
great many things to be thankful for, and a great many reasons to
rejoice. We have very little reason to fear our enemies, provided that
we, as Latter-day Saints, do our duty, but if we fail to obey the
commandments of God, and the revelations which he has given for our salvation and guidance we have reason to fear, for unless
we take such a course as to make God our friend and protector we are
likely to fall into the hands of our enemies. King David Was
requested, once to take his choice of three years' famine, three days'
pestilence, or be driven three months before his enemies. David said
he preferred to fall into the hands of the Lord; and when the scourge
came David plead with the Lord to let the blow fall upon him and his
house, and to spare Jerusalem. God heard his prayer and turned away
the scourge, though it is written seventy thousand persons fell with
the plague between Dan and Beersheba. In all ages of the world in
which the Lord reveals himself to the children of men, he requires
obedience, and promises them great blessings on rendering the same;
but if they are not obedient he has invariably promised and poured out
curses upon them.
Since I was here last, I have visited the Land of Palestine, on which
God revealed himself to Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. He promised that
land to them and their seed forever. It was to this land that Moses
led the children of Israel, and upon which God promised them very
great blessings if they would live in obedience to his laws and
commandments. anyone who will attentively read the 27th, 28th, 29th
and 30th chapters of Deuteronomy, will see foreshadowed, in plain
language, the entire history of the children of Israel from the days
of Moses to the present time; and in Palestine he will see the
fulfillment of many of the prophecies contained in those chapters,
with a minutiae that is really astonishing. Some men say they are
infidels because that country is barren, sterile, rocky—a vast
lime stone quarry, and could never have sustained such a population as
the Bible represents it to have done. Others are infidel because they
believe that so many kingdoms that are said to have once existed on
that land could not have existed in so small a compass. But these
querists and unbelievers do not realize that the barrenness,
desolation, scanty population and condition of affairs which now exist
there is a fulfillment, to the very letter, of the prophecies of
Moses, the holy Prophets and of Jesus and the Apostles. God required
certain things of Israel. If they complied it was all right with them;
if they failed the catalogue of curses contained in the chapters I
have referred to was pronounced upon their heads. Read the Bible and
you will find that when they were obedient they were blessed, their
lands were blessed, their armies were blessed, they were a great
nation, they were able to resist the power of neighboring nations,
they were courted, they were looked up to, neighboring nations paid
them tribute. But when they refused to do that which the law of God
required at their hands they lost this power—they fell into the hands
of their enemies, they quarreled among themselves, they fell into
darkness, married the daughters of aliens, worshiped strange gods, and
they were finally broken up. Many of them were sold as slaves, some of
them were compelled to eat their own children to save them from
starvation, in the midst of the straits and sieges to which they were
forced by their enemies. They were scattered to the four winds of
heaven, they were sold in the slave market of Egypt, until they could
not be bought, that is, there was no man to buy them. All these terrible judgments fell upon the Jewish nation, yet they were
not utterly destroyed, a remnant was all the time preserved, and
today, in every nation under heaven is found a remnant of the seed of
Israel, retaining the Hebrew language, many of their ancient manners
and customs, their old law written on parchment, which is read in
their synagogues every Sabbath day. In nearly all the countries in
which they have been scattered they have been subject to the most
extreme abuse. They have been in constant fear, they have been
permitted to reside only in certain quarters, and have had imposed
upon them the most fearful exactions. You take for instance, the
persecution of the Jews in Spain, under Ferdinand and Isabella—a very
pious couple. Probably half a million of Jews were either banished
from their homes, put to death, or compelled to accept the Catholic
religion, and great numbers of their children were taken from them and
placed under the charge of the Catholics, that, as the Queen believed,
their souls might be saved. The Crusaders, while on their way to
Jerusalem, plundered and killed thousands of the Hebrew race and yet,
notwithstanding all the oppression that has been heaped upon them
continuously from generation to generation, they still maintain their
identity as the seed of Abraham.
Where are the inhabitants of Babylon and Nineveh? The city of Babylon
was fifteen miles square, sixty in circuit. According to Herodotus, it
was surrounded with a wall three hundred and fifty feet high, and
eighty-seven thick, flanked with over two hundred towers, and
contained palaces and hanging gardens that were the wonder of the
world. It is almost doubtful now, where this once famous city stood,
and the vicinity in which it is believed to have stood, is a vast
marsh, rendering it difficult of access to any who may wish to visit
it. And the Babylonians, where are they? Their descendants are so
mixed up with the rest of the world, that none of them can be
identified. You may trace other great nations of antiquity, and they
have gone in the same way. But the Jews are still a distinct race, and
they are a living record of the truth of the revelations of God.
There are a few thousand Jews in Jerusalem. They have synagogues, and
they are permitted to go to a portion of the old wall, which they
suppose to be a remnant of the outside enclosure of Solomon's temple,
and wail. A great many people who visit Jerusalem, go to witness their
wailing. These Jews are graciously accorded the privilege, by the
rulers of that country—the Turks—to wail over the desolation of
Israel, provided they do not make so much noise as to disturb the
neighborhood.
There are several other places, such as Mount Gerizim, a place in
Samaria, considered holy, where a small sect of the ancient Samaritans
meet annually. And in Tiberium, on the Lake of Galilee, two or three
thousand Jews live. It is the Tiberius of Herod the Tetrarch; they
consider that a holy place. The Jews are broken up into sects and
parties, and in almost every town in Palestine, you find a few of
them, oppressed, poor and despised, there, as elsewhere, living
monuments of the fulfillment of prophecy.
At the last General Conference of the Church, during my absence, I was
elected Trustee-in-Trust. It consequently became my duty to return home and look after the interests of the Church, directing the
means for the building of Temples and other public works. This was
certainly very unexpected to me; but the General Conference saw proper
to confer this duty upon me, and as soon as I got the Conference
minutes at Berlin, I started for home.
While I was passing through Palestine, I had some very serious
reflections as to the causes which had operated to reduce the country
to its present barren condition, and why the descendants of Jacob were
so oppressed, and, as an independent nation, blotted out. In an
interview with the venerable Chief Rabbi, Abram Askenasi, I enquired
for the ten tribes. Said he, "We have no idea where they are, but we
believe they will be found, and will return and inherit their land."
While traveling in Palestine I reflected a good deal on the fate of
Israel. I asked myself, why they were persecuted, scattered, peeled
and hidden from the face of men, and why were the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin still scattered? Some of them can go to Jerusalem
occasionally and visit, but only a very few thousand live, in a
scattered condition, in the lard of their fathers, and they are in
bondage, under tutors, governors, and rulers, and have in reality no
power of themselves. Rabbi Askenasi said they had more liberty than
heretofore. The Christian Powers have recently taken a course which
has modified the action of the Turks toward them. They were now
permitted to buy land, but they were poor and could buy but little,
and he wished the Jews of all nations to contribute to enable the Jews
of Jerusalem to extend the area of their possessions. They had
purchased a piece of land in Jerusalem, and were building on it a home
for widows and orphans.
Now I saw this degradation with which Israel are visited. Where did it
begin? It was simply because the children of Israel failed to obey the
law of God. If we search the Bible, we shall find many references by
the Prophets to this subject, which are very plain and clear. In the
third chapter of Malachi, and eighth verse, the Prophet, speaking of
the condition of Israel in his day, uses this singular language, or
rather the Lord, speaking through the Prophet, says—"Will a man rob
God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?
In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have
robbed me, even this whole nation."
Now, God required of Israel Tithes and offerings. He blessed them with
land and with abundant rains. He made their land exceedingly fertile;
he blessed them with flocks, with herds, and with everything on the
face of the earth seemingly that they could desire. He gave them
wealth in every direction; he gave them power over their
neighbors—they were the head and not the tail. In return for all
this, what did he require of them? He required them to pay Tithes and
make offerings. Tithes meant one-tenth of all their increase.
One-tenth of all this the Lord required them to place in the hands of
the Levites and those whom he had selected to look after the general
welfare. In addition to this tenth he also required certain offerings.
You may trace the history of the Jewish nation through and you will
find that when the people paid their Tithes and offerings, and thereby
acknowledged their dependence upon and allegiance to the God of
heaven, they were prospered and blessed continually. While
they did this they were not running after other gods, making golden
calves, setting up idols, or worshiping the gods of their heathen
neighbors.
What does the Lord want with Tithes and offerings? He has plenty. And
he has shown that he could do without them from that day to the
present; but he promised his people blessings on certain conditions.
Some of those conditions were that they should pay Tithes and make
offerings. The Pharisees paid Tithes of mint, anise and cumin, but
omitted their money. "Ye pay tithes of mint, anise and cumin, but omit
the weightier matters of the law—judgment, mercy and faith. These
things ye ought to have done and not left the others undone." This was
the principle.
I rode over the plains and hills of Palestine and saw their
desolation. What is the reason of it? God gave that country to Israel;
he blessed it and sent rains upon it, and made it fruitful above all
lands, and in return he required of them one-tenth of their increase
and some offerings; but they would not give him Tithes, they robbed
him of Tithes and offerings, hence he cursed the whole nation with a
curse. After seeing the condition of that country, I came home with a
determination to preach the law of Tithing, for God has required of
us, as he did of ancient Israel, obedience to that law, and he also
requires that we should pay in our offerings; and he will do with us
precisely as he did with Israel, if we fail to observe the law of
Tithing and offerings, of course remembering the principles of
judgment, mercy and faith, for these things we ought to do and not
leave the other undone. My traveling over that country was not without
its moral lesson to us at home. God has given us a good country. The
world hate us. "Marvel not," says the Savior, "if the world hate you."
The world will speak evil of us. Marvel not at that, we have nothing
to fear from men in authority. We have nothing to fear from any source
on the face of the earth, but from our own neglect. God himself is our
protector and our ruler, and if we observe faithfully and truly, with
all our hearts, the law that is required of us, we have nothing to
fear from any other source; but if we neglect, if we have the
effrontery to be baptized for the remission of our sins, and to step
forward and receive the ordinances of the house of God, and then
coolly and deliberately rob God of what is required of us, we may
expect that he, in return, will send upon us in their time and season
a long list of curses and afflictions, annoyance and distress, just as
he sent them upon the nations of antiquity to whom he revealed himself
and who refused to obey his law.
The Prophet Malachi, wished to reclaim Israel from the condition into
which their unfaithfulness had reduced them, or rather the Lord wished
to do so, and he used this exhortation—"Bring ye all the tithes into
the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your
vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of
hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a
delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."
We profess to believe a great deal, but do our acts correspond with
our belief? Are we as critical, careful, fixed and determined in
obeying this law of Tithing as we ought to be? Or do we feel that it
is a burden? God does not want our Tithes at all unless we want to pay
them, but we have no right to ask his favors, blessings and protection
and the ordinances of the Priesthood, unless we render our
acknowledgement. The conditions are before us. In every age of the
world when any people have received revelation from God, directly or
indirectly, if they did abide this law they were prospered, blessed
and protected; they were powerful and strong. God watched over them.
If they neglected it, he cursed them with a curse, even the whole
nation. We have nothing to expect but the very same justice from the
hand of God, if we, to use his expression, "rob" him. Now, I have just
that kind of faith, if a man has a sum of money come into his
possession, whether by the manufacture of lumber, or the selling of
merchandise, or by any other means, if he will pay his tenth strictly,
according to the law, he has the blessing of God upon the balance, and
if he will keep a strict, straightforward account with all his
increase, whatever it may be, and strictly observe the law of Tithing,
he will have blessings upon his head, upon his property, upon his
wives, children and posterity. If, on the other hand, he pursues the
opposite policy, the Prophet says, "Ye are cursed with a curse."
Now, brethren and sisters, think of these things. If we have the
truth—the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which a great many of you testify
you have, and I know we have, do not let a little neglect, folly and
covetousness, and a little-disposition to rob our Father of what be
has justly claimed at our hands as his Saints, place us in darkness.
It is the very stepping stone to and beginning of apostasy, it is the
foundation of wickedness and corruption. I see the results, I have
realized them. I have wandered over hills and valleys that once teemed
with their millions of inhabitants, and now they are a desert. God has
cursed them. He has for many generations made "the rain of their land
powder and dust," the sun has smitten them and the water has dried up.
Rabbi Askenasi told me in Jerusalem there really was no living water.
The time was when there was an abundance. They preserve it in the
rainy season in tanks, but we were told that in about a month from the
time we were there they would have to purchase it; and I really felt
relieved when I got from Jerusalem, for the water I drank while there
was not very good, it did not seem to be very clean.
- George A. Smith