I am very much gratified for the privilege of coming to this place to
see the faces of the Saints, to speak to them and to greet them as a
brother and a friend. If we could see and understand things as they
are, if we could have the veil withdrawn from our eyes and behold the
things of eternity, and the connection and relationship that we
sustain to the eternal worlds, and to heavenly things, our minds would
be very much inspired to speak, sing, pray, listen attentively,
meditate upon and contemplate the wonderful things of God. A great
deal is said to the Latter-day Saints concerning our religion, which
does in reality incorporate and circumscribe the whole life of man. We
need teaching. We are like children with regard to learning. If we
could understand the effects of the fall or of sin upon intelligence,
we would see that its tendency is downward, that it is retrograde in
its nature. The things pertaining to life are of the opposite
character—they are exalting, increasing, multiplying, gaining,
receiving a little here and a little there—our minds and
under standings expanding by that which we learn by reading, by the
seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear.
The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the revelations which the Lord has
given to his people in the latter days, contain a great deal about the
kingdom of God on the earth. We have also histories of the kingdoms
established by the children of men. From these we learn that a great
many changes have taken place owing to the revolutions that have
occurred in the past and which are still in progress. From our own
conclusions on these matters there is one fact of which we are
sensible, and understand to a certainty—namely, that purity preserves,
sustains and increases, while sin and ignorance, in all their horrid
forms, have just the opposite effect. We need only look at the
nations of the earth for confirmation of these ideas. We need not go
far; we may look at the aborigines of our own country. Why are they in
their present condition? There are reasons for this. They, just as
much as we, belong to the human family—the highest class of
intelligence there is upon the face of the earth. Why are they in
their present degradation? We see them as they are, we see the nations
as they are. Take the Jewish nation, why are they as they are? Is
there a cause for it? There certainly is. We have had a short account
from brother George A. Smith about the land of their fathers; we can
draw our own conclusions as to the causes which have brought about the
present condition of that land and of the descendants of the ancient
worthies to whom it was given. In the nations of the earth at the
present day we see imbecility, slothfulness, and I will say ignorance
with all its attendant crimes and debauchery, prevailing among the
masses of the people. There is a reason for all this. The time was
when nations, now unknown, which once flourished upon the eastern
continent, were intelligent and full of the spirit of thrift and
industry. Who can tell us why they have passed away and are forgotten.
Brother George A. told us this morning, that the place where the great
city of Babylon stood, or where it is supposed to have stood, is now
an inaccessible swamp and a desert. Where is the Babylonish nation? We
know nothing about it. Where are the nations of Israel? We hardly know
anything about them, with the exception of the tribe of Judah and the
half tribe of Benjamin, which remain scattered among the nations of
the earth, desolate and forlorn. They have been hunted down with dogs,
and the time has been when it was perfectly lawful in some nations for
every Christian child who was disposed to do so to, stone a Jew while
passing through the streets; and it is not long since they were not
permitted to own a foot of land in any of the Gentile nations. This is
not so now. But what was the cause of all this? Their history is not
lost, neither are they, and the simple reason they are not is because
they were the chosen of the Lord, they were to be held in remembrance
by our heavenly Father. A remnant of the people of Israel are to be
saved, and they will yet be gathered together. But other nations that
existed before the flood, and many before the days of Jesus, where are
they? Who knows anything about them? They are lost as far as history
is concerned; and many people since the days of the Savior have been
blotted from the remembrance of man.
Here are a people dwelling in these mountains who profess to be the
Saints of the Most High, the beloved of the Lord. They have received
his Priesthood and its keys, the keys of Government, and the plan of
the government of the heavenly hosts, as far as man is capable of
receiving this divine, celestial and holy law. When we contemplate the
course of the Latter-day Saints, we are almost led to inquire what
will be their future history. It is true that we have hopes different
from those who have lived before us, but let this people, called
Latter-day Saints, be blessed for twenty years to come as they have
been for twenty years past, and the Lord not take them in hand, but
let them take their own course as they have done, and as they are now
doing, although we consider ourselves quite obedient and willing, and
we like to know the mind and will of the Lord, but let us, I say, go
on for twenty years to come, in the same ratio as for twenty years
past, and who among us would hearken to the counsel of God? Let the
old stock—those who have lived in Babylon and who have had
their trials in the wicked world, pass away, let them he taken out of
the midst of the Latter-day Saints, and the young growth that know
nothing of the world be left to themselves, to follow the promptings
of their own wills, and what would be their condition? Would we not
see Babylon to perfection? Would we not have all that the wicked world
could desire in our midst, and we delighting therein? Think of this,
and draw your own conclusions. Still we say, without boasting a bit,
that we are the best people there is. This is my decision. I say that
we are the best people there is upon the earth, and we have nothing to
boast of, not the least in the world. Who is there that hearkens to
the will of God, or heeds his voice? Who is there, on the face of the
whole earth, outside of this people, who know the mind and will of
God, or that seek to do his will? It may be said that the whole
Christian world are trying to serve the Lord. It is true that many of
them confess him with their mouths, and draw near to him with their
lips, but what is their true condition? Are their hearts bent on doing
the will of the Lord, or are they far from him? Suppose that Peter,
whom the Christian world think so much of, and whose history is
contained in the Bible; or James, or John, or either one of the eight
who have written and testified to the New Testament, or either one of
the twelve Apostles chosen by the Savior, or Jesus himself, were to
come to the Christian world, and were to go into their synagogues, or
into the places of worship they have erected, and which they call
after St. James, St. Mark, St. Paul or St. Peter, do you think that
any of these personages would be permitted to proclaim their doctrines
in those buildings? No, not one, and if there were a priest or divine
who, after hearing the doctrine of Jesus proclaimed, should say, "I
see no harm in this doctrine, it is Bible doctrine," the majority of
the people would say, "We do not want you for our public servant if
you permit this man to enter the pulpit and proclaim his doctrine."
This is all the proof necessary that they would not receive Jesus and
his Apostles in this day, with all their boasted professions of love
for his name and doctrine. If they would receive Jesus they would
receive an Elder of this Church when sent to preach the Gospel to
them; if they had been willing to receive an apostle of Jesus Christ,
they would have received your humble servant. But this we need not
talk about.
What will be the history of the nations of the earth now existing?
Just as fast as time and circumstances will permit they will be
blotted out of existence, and will be forgotten and known no more on
the face of the earth. This would be the fate of the Latter-day
Saints if they were to persist in following the inclinations of their
own hearts, for according to that which they now make manifest, pride,
arrogance and covetousness are increasing in their midst; and any
people or nation that gives way to these evils curtails the measure of
its existence, and will soon be blotted out, and will be known no more
forever. Can we believe all this? Read the history of the world and
you will find that when God has blessed a people and placed his name
upon them, and they afterwards became disobedient, the whole catalogue
of curses pronounced by him upon his unworthy children, have come upon them and they have been blotted out. Those who do not
profess to know anything of the Lord are far better off than we are,
unless we live our religion, for we who know our Master's will and do
it not, will be beaten with many stripes; while they who do not know
the Master's will and do it not will be beaten with few stripes. This
is perfectly reasonable. We cannot chastise a child for doing that
which is contrary to our wills, if he knows no better; but when our
children are taught better and know what is required of them, if they
then rebel, of course, they expect to be chastised, and it is
perfectly right that they should be.
Brother George A. gave us a little this morning with regard to the law
of Tithing. What was the cause of the first, or one of the first,
curses that came upon Israel? I will tell you. One of the first
transgressions of the family called Israel, was their going to other
families or other nations to select partners. This was one of the
great mistakes made by the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for
they would go and marry with other families, although the Lord had
forbidden them to do so, and had given them a very strict and
stringent law on the subject. He commanded them not to marry among the
Gentiles, but they did and would do it. Inasmuch as they would not do
what be required of them, then he gave them what I call a portion of
the law of carnal commandments. This law told them whom they might and
whom they might not marry. It was referred to by the Savior and his
Apostles, and it was a grievous yoke to place on the necks of any
people; but as the children of this family would run after Babylon,
and after the pride and the vanity and evils of the world, and seek to
introduce them into Israel, the Lord saw fit to place this burden upon
them. And another great neglect and infringement of the law of God by
the children of Israel was in relation to their Tithes and offerings.
The law of Tithing was revealed in very early times to the people of
God; but they failed to observe it, and the Prophets whom God sent to
Israel declared that they had transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant. Covenants were made
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but their descendants broke them. They
would not observe but they would transgress the laws which God gave
unto them, and they continued to do so down to the days of Malachi.
The Lord, through this Prophet, declared—"This whole nation have
robbed me." I also declare that this whole people, called the
Latter-day Saints, are guilty of the same sin—they have robbed the
Lord in their Tithes and in their offerings. What would the people
like? Do they want to know what is done with the Tithing. If the Lord
requires one-tenth of my ability to be devoted to building temples,
meetinghouses, schoolhouses, to schooling our children, gathering
the poor from the nations of the earth, bringing home the aged, lame,
halt and blind, and building houses for them to live in, that they may
be comfortable when they reach Zion, and to sustaining the Priesthood,
it is not my prerogative to question the authority of the Almighty in
this, nor of his servants who have charge of it. If I am required to
pay my Tithing, it is my duty to pay it. If the question is
asked—"Brother Brigham, do you pay your Tithing?" I can answer with
all propriety in the negative. I have never paid my Tithing, and if I
turn to the right, left, front and rear, I shall seek in vain
for a man in this Church who has paid his Tithing strictly. There is
no man who has paid his Tithing. I have watched the thing closely, and
according to my understanding of the literal meaning, spirit and
intent of the term, I am compelled to come to the conclusion that
there is not a man or woman in this Church who has paid his or her
Tithing; and I do not know of an individual in this Church who has
means enough to pay his back Tithing if it were required of him. I
have not; it would require more means than I have now in my possession
for me to do it. Perhaps I may be asked what is my excuse. I do not
know that I have any. I can say, that in the days of Joseph, when my
circumstances were very straitened, I never had $500, $100, one
dollar, fifty cents or twenty-five cents, but what, if it were wanted,
it went, as free as a cup of water from a well—Joseph was welcome to
it. Was I tried in this? Yes, for many and many has been the time in
my poverty, when if I had a dollar or fifty cents in my possession I
have thought, "I can buy a pint or a half pint of molasses for my
children to sop their bread in," but it was called for, and it went as
free as the water of the river here would be to a thirsty person. And
as for my time, from the day that I entered this Church until now, I
have paid no attention to any business except that of building up this
kingdom. The question may be asked, "Do you not attend to your own
private affairs and business?" Yes, when I can, but I do not know that
I have ever spent one minute in attending to business belonging to
Brigham Young, when the business of the Church and kingdom of God on
the earth required his attention. Yet I would not say that this is any
excuse for not strictly paying my Tithing. I have paid a great deal of
Tithing, more perhaps than any other man, or any other ten men who
were ever in the Church, and yet my Tithing is not paid. But I pay
Tithing, and when the grain upon my Farm is ripened, or the cattle
upon it are matured, I say to my men, "Be sure and pay the Tithing on
whatever we have raised." But in some instances I have found that it
was neglected.
Suppose we were to say to this people, "Will you pay a little
Tithing?" "Yes, we will pay a little Tithing." How much would you be
willing to pay? Will you pay one dollar to a thousand that you owe of
back Tithing? If you will, we shall almost have more than we know what
to do with. If you pay up a little of this back Tithing, I am going to
make a proposition. Take the people of this one valley, and they are
far better able to build a Temple than the whole of the Saints were
when they lived in the Eastern States. The Saints did not begin to be
as able to build a Temple then as the people of this single valley are
now. My proposition is, if you will go to work and pay up some of your
back Tithing, we will build a Temple up here on the hill; we can
select a beautiful site for one there. We calculate to build many
Temples, and we will have one here if you agree to my proposition.
If we had a few score thousands of dollars now, we should like to send
for the poor. I am sent to from this town, Mendon, Hyrum, Wellsville,
and from almost every settlement in these mountains, by parties who
have friends in the old country, saying, "Brother Brigham, can you
send for my friends? I will send a hundred dollars; will you put four
hundred to that and send for my friends, there are only five
of them?" This may appear strange, but people dwelling in almost every
town in this Territory, are beseeching me continually to send for
their friends. I tell them I will send for all I can. My general
practice has been to pay two thousand dollars a year to help the poor.
I gave only one thousand this year; but if the people, every year,
will give in proportion to what I give, we can bring the scattered
Saints here by scores of thousands. I do not ask the Latter-day Saints
to do that which I do not do, I never did, and as old as I am now, I
expect that if I should see a wagon in the mud, my shoulder would be
first to the wheel to lift it out. When money, goods or time has been
wanted to help to roll forth the work, I have taken the lead all the
time and said, "Come, brethren, do as I do."
But with regard to Tithing, this people will be cursed unless they
stop their nonsense, unless they cease running after the fashions and
folly of Babylon, and put as Tithing that means which is uselessly
spent. How long would it take the Lord to cause the waters of every
stream that runs into this valley to sink down into the earth, and to
make the valley as dry as the Holy Land is today. It would take him
but a very short time. He could open up the veins of the earth—the
earth is full of them, and it would want only a little change to open
them, and cause the water of every stream in this valley to sink deep
into the bowels of the earth. How long would it take him to pass is
word, and for his angels to come here and say to the clouds—"Gather no
more moisture to shed forth the dews and the rains on the face of the
earth?" All he would have to do would be to send an angel to perform a
little meteorological and chemical change, and the clouds would gather
no more moisture, and no more rain would fall on the earth. Where
would your trees be then? What would become of your gardens? What
would become of the forage on the mountains that our cattle and sheep
feed upon? It would be dried up, become dust, and be blown into some
other country, and the rocks would be left bare, as they are in some
of the eastern lands. All this could be done very easily. Now we are
in plenty, in the very heart of the luxuries of the world. There is no
place in the world where they are enjoyed in greater profusion than
they are here. Go into boasted France, with its forty millions of
people, and out of this large number not more than eight millions
enjoy the luxury of eating meat; thirty-two millions out of the forty,
it is said, never taste it from year's end to year's end. Go into
Italy, and the proportion of those who never taste meat is far greater
than it is in France. Compare the condition of the people in some of
the German States, and in any nation on the face of the earth that we
know anything about, with that of the people in this Territory, and I
will say that the people of these mountains wallow and revel in
luxury, wealth and independence more than any other people on the face
of the earth, and yet we have not a dollar to pay Tithing! We have to
pay the public hands now a certain proportion of money, and store pay,
which is money, but ask the people to pay us a little money Tithing,
and they tell us, "We haven't got any." The cry from Cache Valley is,
"We have no money." It is not so. I will venture to say that if a fine
circus were to come into this town, and stay four nights, they would
take away from five to ten thousand dollars in cash, and go to the
next town it would be the same. I am now telling the hard side
of the question, painting the evil side of the Latter-day Saints. I
recollect, a few years ago, there was a fine circus came to Salt Lake
City. I took it into my head, a few days before it arrived, to say to
some of the Bishops—"Can you raise us so much money on Tithing? Can
not you pay something, Bishop?" Said one, "I have not a dollar in the
world." I would meet another, and ask him the same question, and I
asked them in a way that they would not mistrust me, but they could
not raise a dollar, and I suppose that they would have been willing to
have laid their hands on the Bible and sworn that they had not a
dollar in the world. On the day when the circus came on to the Eighth
Ward square, I took the liberty of going there, and I watched who
came, and I found that some of these very men who said that they had
not a dollar in the world, paid out ten, fifteen, twenty, and
twenty-five dollars to let their families into that circus. They lied
before God, holy angels and the whole heavens, before the servants of
God, and unless they repent they will have their portion in hell. You
need not wonder to see men apostatizing who have been in the Church
thirty or thirty-five years. They have been in the habit of lying to
God, to angels, to themselves, and to their holy religion. Ask them
for a little Tithing, and their answer is" No, we have not anything."
What do you suppose the Lord thinks about such men? He thinks they
will have their portion with the disobedient. This is the unfavorable
side of the picture. Not but what there is a great many, and in fact,
the greater portion of this people, if they can know the mind and will
of God, will do it. They are told it from day to day and from time to
time on a great many subjects. Both here and throughout all the
settlements of the Saints we have preached the Word of Wisdom, and the
necessity of letting the fashions of the world alone. We give you the
truth of heaven on the subject—we give it to you just as it is in
heaven, or as it is written there concerning the Saints on earth. With
regard to Tithing, we give you the truth just as it is written in
heaven, and just as you will find it by and by. What object have I in
saying to the Latter-day Saints, do this, that or the other? It is for
my own benefit, it is for your benefit; it is for my own wealth and
happiness, and for your wealth and happiness that we pay Tithing and
render obedience to any requirement of Heaven. We cannot add anything
to the Lord by doing these things. Tell about making sacrifices for
the kingdom of heaven. There is no man who ever made a sacrifice on
this earth for the kingdom of heaven, that I know anything about,
except the Savior. He drank the bitter cup to the dregs, and tasted
for every man and for every woman, and redeemed the earth and all
things upon it. But he was God in the flesh, or he could not have
endured it. "But we suffer, we sacrifice, we give something, we have
preached so long." What for? "Why, for the Lord." I would not give the
ashes of a rye straw for the man who feels that he is making
sacrifices for God. We are doing this for our own happiness, welfare
and exaltation, and for nobody else's. This is the fact, and what we
do we do for the salvation of the inhabitants of the earth, not for
the salvation of the heavens, the angels, or the Gods.
These are a few of my thoughts, and a few items for the people to
receive and hearken to. We have come here to talk to and instruct you, and to put our faith and our work with yours. Our united
purpose is to labor to build up the kingdom of heaven on the earth,
and to overcome every sin, all wickedness, and the power of Satan,
until the earth is renovated, purified, sanctified and glorified.
Amen.