The principles which we have presented before us in the plan of
salvation require of us an effort, for we are told that if we would
have the blessings of exaltation, we must continue unto the end; and,
in the Lectures on Faith, contained in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants, we are informed that if we would attain to the blessings of
eternal life, we do it at a sacrifice of all things. The principles
connected with this law call upon us to study our acts, designs and
intentions in life.
We came into the Church in different parts of the world, under the
influence of the Spirit of the Almighty, and we gathered here by the aid of our brethren, or by our own efforts. We came to this
land to learn the ways of the Lord and to walk in his paths; but we
fail to understand or appreciate, altogether, the importance of a
strict attention to our faith, and we become negligent and
thoughtless, we are anxious to obtain wealth, and there arises among
us a scramble, a kind of emulation one with the other, to obtain a
greater amount of this world's goods than our neighbors. On this
account many of us neglect to pay our Tithing, notwithstanding we are
very anxious to receive the ordinances which are administered in a
Temple. The real time to pay Tithing is when we have the means. When
we receive money, merchandise or property, if we, in the first
instance, go to Bishop Hunter and pay the tenth, making our record
square with our faith, we can then use the remainder with a conscience
void of offense, and we shall be blessed therein.
Men may commence reasoning on this subject, and say, "We will figure
all the year, and if at the end of it we find that we have saved
anything, we will pay some Tithing; but if we do not save anything, we
think the Bishops ought to pay us something." The spirit which prompts
this feeling is entirely wrong, and those who come to this conclusion
will, in the end, feel that if they lose a crop any year they ought to
keep back their Tithing for several years after to make up that loss;
but the fact is that a Tithing of what we receive from the Lord is due
to him, and the residue we are entitled to use according to our best
wisdom. The Prophet Malachi 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. 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." Jesus said, he that gives a cup of cold water, in the name of a
disciple, to one of these little ones, shall in no wise lose his
reward; but in order to have the blessing of faith connected with the
payment of Tithing, it is necessary to realize the importance of the
commandment of God concerning it, for no man can attain to the faith
necessary to salvation and eternal life without a sacrifice of all
things. Now, if we prefer the things of this world and the pleasures
of life to the things of the kingdom of God, we can have our own
choice, but, so far as the comparison is concerned, "eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, nor yet hath it entered into the heart of man to
conceive," the glory that is in store for those who keep the
commandments of God, and live in accordance with his requirements. If
we are to adopt the order of Zion now, it should become in our hearts
a cherished desire, an earnest and determined purpose that, in all our
actions, we will seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, that we will
labor for the good of Zion, and put away selfishness, corruption and
false principles.
We have been instructed upon the necessity of economy, of living
within ourselves, and of sustaining ourselves by the production of our
own hands, yet we carelessly drift in another direction. How often we
have been counseled to avoid getting into debt. When the Order of
Enoch was organized in Kirtland the brethren were commanded, in the
laws, not to get into debt to their enemies, and on a certain
occasion it was commanded that we should make it our object to pay all
our debts and liabilities, and that we should take measures to avoid
the necessity of incurring more. One of the earliest things I can
remember in my boyhood was an answer to the question—How to get rich?
The answer was—"Live on half your income, and live a great while." We
know how easy it is to live beyond our income, and to go on the credit
system. Credit is a shadow, and debt is bondage, and I advise the
brethren to realize that the balloon system of credit so general in
our country and among ourselves is dangerous in its nature, and it is
our duty, at the earliest time in our power, to close up all our
liabilities, pay all our debts, and commence living as we go. I would
rather walk the streets in a pair of wooden soles that I own and owe
no man for, than in the finest morocco that some merchant was
presenting a bill to me to pay for; I should, in my estimation, be
more of a gentleman and more of an independent man with the wooden
soles than with the fine boots, and I would advise our brethren, if
necessity requires, to adopt the wooden sole leather in preference to
being in debt.
I visited the land where my ancestors lived in America, the graves of
three or four generations of them, and I saw on the old farm, still
occupied by some distant kinsmen, a shoe shop. Said I—"What are you
doing here?" Said they—"Here is where we make our money, we work
the
farm in the summer, and in the winter we sit down here and earn three
or four hundred dollars making shoes." "Where do you sell them?"
"We
make them for some houses in Salem and Lynn, that send them to
California and the western Territories and sell them there." Now,
brethren, think of this, a man can learn to make a shoe very quick if
he has any ingenuity, and many of us spend our time in partial
idleness through the winter, and we buy our shoes from manufacturers
in the East, when we could just as well make them ourselves. Another
bad feature connected with imported shoes is, that when we put them on
and walk into the streets, if the weather is wet, our feet are damp
very quick, and I believe, as a matter of health as well as economy,
that if, in wet weather, we were to adopt the wooden sole, it would
save our children from much sickness, and a great many of us from
rheumatism, sore throats and coughs, for much of the imported sole
leather is spongy, and that holds the water and makes the feet damp
and cold, producing sickness; and I am inclined to believe the
statement made by the agricultural societies of Europe, that the use
of wooden soles for shoes has a tendency to prevent a great many
diseases which are incident to the use of leather. But if we are
determined to wear leather, if we set ourselves to the work with a
will, we can produce as fine leather of every variety, and as fine
shoes and almost every other necessary within ourselves as we import,
and a great deal better. But we must stop sending away our hides by
the car load and must tan them ourselves. We have plenty of workmen
who understand the business, and more can be trained, and we shall
then not be compelled to ship carloads of hair from the States for
the use of our plasterers, in mixing the lime to finish our walls.
This is true political economy.
When I went to St. George last fall, I had a very good pair of boots,
made of nice States sole leather, under my feet. The soil of St.
George has a cold mineral in it, and although it may be dry and
pleasant to walk about, a man wants a thick sole under his feet. I
have bled a great many years from a rupture of the left lung which I
got while preaching in the streets of London in 1840, and I have
suffered a great deal from it, and the moment I would go out to walk
on the streets of St. George, a shock, almost like electricity, would
strike, through the spongy leather of my boot, from the hollow of my
foot to this lung and cause a pain there. I went and got an extra sole
put on and a thickness of wax cloth put between the soles, and in this
way I wore, all winter, a boot just as stiff in the sole as a clog,
and had no rheumatism and escaped cold. This set me to reflecting why
I should pay two dollars for those soles, brought from the States,
when a piece of cottonwood was just as good, and would answer my
purpose just as well. Says one—"Why not wear overshoes?" Who wants
the
air kept from their feet by wearing a coat of india-rubber, which
sweats them and makes them tender? They keep the feet dry, it is true,
but for my own part it is not convenient to wear overshoes, and never
has been, and on this account I have been compelled to go without. I
also observe that some of those who do wear them, if they are not very
careful, or if they should happen to forget and step out into the wet
without them are almost sure to take cold, and have an attack of
rheumatism, especially if they have delicate health. But with us
throughout the Territory, I believe it has become almost a financial
necessity that we economize our shoe bills. Think of these things and
remember that it is within our power to manufacture just as good
leather and as much of it, and as good and handsome shoes here as
anywhere else, only let us take the time neces sary to do it.
The same thing may be said in relation to hats and clothing, and in
fact about nine out of every ten articles that we import. One carload
of black walnut brought here from the States, and paid for as a lower
class of freight, will probably make half a dozen car loads of
furniture, and we have the mechanics who know how to make it up; and
if we lack the necessary machinery we can procure it. If we please we
can also bring lumber for every variety of furniture that we want,
that our mountain lumber will not make. The same rule will also apply
to wagons, carriages and agricultural implements. This course will be
much better than wasting ourselves by being slaves to others, and
paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars for furniture of a not
very durable quality, and other articles that we can manufacture
ourselves.
With me this is a very important item of religion, and it is time for
us to cease importing shoes, clothing, wagons and so many other
things, and that we manufacture them at home. This will reduce instead
of increasing our expenses. When a man buys imported articles for the
use of his family he helps to create difficulties for himself, for by
and by the bills begin to come, and bonds and mortgages and all this
sort of thing have to be met, and then he begins to worry and stew;
but if he used homemade products the means is kept in the Territory,
and he has a chance of working at some branch of trade which will in a
short time bring it back to him again; whereas if it is sent out of
the Territory it helps to impoverish all. Why not retrench? Says
one—"I want to wear as good clothes and as fine shoes as anybody else,
and I think I should be laughed at if I were to put clogs on."
Well, if they did laugh they could not do a more foolish thing. Why
not feel proud and independent of our own high character, that what we
have is our own, and we are slaves to nobody? That is my feeling about
it. By continually importing we run into debt and cast our ways to
strangers, when it is perfectly in our power, if we will do it, to be
independent, comfortable and happy, and owe no man anything.
- George A. Smith