Tithing and Self-Examination

Thus far in the conference the brethren who have spoken have received a most liberal portion of the Holy Spirit, and some absorbing thought has been expressed by each one, which has afforded food for reflection. The witness of the Spirit has followed their utterances. The manifest strength of President Snow in the opening of the conference, the clearness of his voice, the fulness of his words, gave to every person present an assurance that the head of this great organization, (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), was receiving help from the proper source. As each one of the brethren has taken his place upon this platform and given utterance to the words suggested by the Spirit of the Lord, there has been a renewal of that Spirit which rested upon our chief as he placed before us his thoughts, and congratulated the people upon the measure of improvement that had been exhibited in their efforts to apply in a practical way the principles of the Gospel. ¶

The words of truth as they have fallen from the lips of our brethren have pointed out very clearly to our minds the fact that our Father was not afraid to tell us the truth, to give us credit for the efforts we have legitimately made, and to clearly expose to our own view our lack of fidelity and faithfulness in the performance of our part. The Spirit has portrayed before our minds the necessity that exists for testing each one of us. We have been informed that there are many who have been registered with the Latter-day Saints through the waters of baptism, and in many instances have been ordained to the Priesthood and been made partakers of the various callings and obligations that attach thereto, have been unmindful of their sacred covenants. ¶

It has not been the weakness of the flesh alone that has stood in the way of their development. All of us are possessed of many weaknesses: we have received an assurance that they would be forgiven us if our fidelity to the Gospel should be fixed and established. It cannot be charged as a weakness that men and women to whom the truth has come are not tithepayers in the Church of Christ. It may be through a weakness that a man may sometimes tell that which is untrue It may be weakness that exhibits itself in our lives when sometimes we drink ardent spirits and by that means lose our judgment, and possibly are drawn away from our moorings But the continued and persistent neglect of a requirement such as is placed upon those that have been made partakers of the Gospel in its fulness, to pay their tithing, ceases to be a weakness. It becomes in its nature a direct revolt against an absolute commandment of God, designed to establish us in the generous and considerate fulfillment of providing for the development of the work of God and our own well-being, and registering ourselves as willing to utilize that which Providence shall place in our hands as worldly means for the betterment of our fellow creatures and the dispensing of the word of God among the children of men, in the building up and beautifying of Zion, in the extending of her borders, and in carrying forward that work of His in the way designed by Him, as well as in an exhibition on our part that we hold no worldly goods above His work. While we may fall down under the temptation of the moment, passion may govern us briefly, and we may make this error, yet when the years come and go, and Elders of the Church, holding the Priesthood of the Son of God, are not enrolled upon His records -- upon the record of the Lamb's book of life, if you please-- it is an evidence, not of a weakness, but of revolt against an absolute requirement of heaven. ¶

President Snow, in his efforts to maintain the dignity and honor of the work of the Lord in the world, when he came to the forefront as the chosen leader of the Saints, under the direct revelations of our heavenly Father, pointed out to us as a people that there had been upon our part a fearful lack of earnestness and devotion, as written in the books. He pointed the way of freedom from the trammels that were holding us down. He pointed to us the way, not alone of the avoidance of dishonor and disgrace by unpaid bills on the part of the Church itself, but the way of freedom also for the Elders of the Church who had gone beyond the proper limits in their own business concerns. He said that their liberty, their hope lay in turning to the Lord, and seeking by earnestness and devotion to utilize their powers, by paying their just dues and being placed upon that record from which every member of this Church is to be judged. By fixing in their own souls the thought that this is the test law which the Almighty has established, and if you will fulfill that obligation rightly, your own trammels will be relieved, your own burdens will be lightened, the sunlight of the Spirit shall descend in richness upon you. The efforts of those who would retard your progress and bar the advancement of the cause of Christ will be futile. The hands of your enemies will be weakened, the light and inspiration of truth will mark the way for you to indeed become that conquering host which our Father in heaven has decreed you shall. This is not to be done in the spirit of hate, nor in malice directed against any of our fellow creatures, but in the spirit of independence and love, tempered by that legitimate humility that would lead every man and woman conversant with the principles of the Gospel and the spirit of this work to sense fully the nature of the great mission that is theirs. We should not fail to sense that this world is before us, with the design of God who sent us here; that it is our world, if you please; not a world to be conquered by the sword, not a world to be conquered by the spirit of hate, not a world to be subdued simply to satisfy the ambitions of men and give them place in connection with it and its development, but a world to be brought into subjection to Almighty God through the cross of Christ and through the principles of love enunciated by Him and revealed anew in the day and age in which we live; that no matter what may come, our own hearts purged by the requirements of our God, we would indeed utilize the worldly means that that Father gave us to provide for the accomplishment of His purpose, as far as we had the power; that the hand which He chose to hold within its grasp the elements of power should not be paralyzed by our failure to place within that hand, so far as we possess the capability, the sinews of war that should enable him in any and every field where His purposes required a work to be done, to accomplish that work. He congratulated you upon the wonders that have been accomplished, and yet there are wonders still to be accomplished. ¶

You have been flattered that you were the best people in the world. I hope, my brethren and sisters, that each man and each woman will look into the inmost recesses of their own hearts, weigh the conditions of the duty imposed by the Almighty upon them, and ask themselves the question, as the cold investigation is made, Is this statement of our brethren correct, so far as we are concerned Words of flattery, it is true, sometimes drop sweeter upon our ears than words of reproof. We bear illy sometimes the words of reproof, and especially if we have been in violation of some requirement or law of God. But when we look into the recesses of our own hearts, or examine the record of our own deeds, are the words of commendation that are spoken to us as a body merited by each one of us As I have sat in the presence of my associates and listened to their good words of counsel and commendation, their words of censure, I have sought to put myself on the rack, to examine myself. I wish that I could feel that I had fulfilled as thoroughly the work the Almighty has given me to do in connection with you as I should have done But while I was examining myself I wondered if all of us were undergoing the same examination, and if so, we had determined that with the help of God under the inspiration of His Spirit as it came from the lips of His servant, we would be tithepayers, we would be exemplars in every walk of life, so far as we had the power. While some little weakness might overtake us, we would not register ourselves as in revolt against any proposition that Almighty God had laid upon us as a duty that we should discharge. We might miss for a brief season the payment of tithes, but the years should not come and go and our names not be found on the records of the judge of the house of Israel; that the days and the months should not pass by and we utilize our means with which Providence blesses us without being mindful of that aid that we should give for the furtherance of the purposes of that Father who had given us the right to the receipt of His Priesthood, or who had permitted us, if we had not attained this, to enter the sacred door of the waters of baptism and receive the baptism of water and of fire and the Holy Ghost, while hundreds and thousands around us as good as we, so far as their lives are concerned, as earnest as we in that which they deem right, and in many instances much more liberal than we, and yet by some condition that can scarcely be explained remain aloof from the consoling and convincing influence of that Spirit that comes from on high. ¶

But yesterday in passing from this building to my own home, I met a gentleman whose friendship I appreciate very highly, not a member of our Church; a man that I believe to be in the business world a man of perfect honor and integrity, a moral man. I met him upon the sidewalk. I put my arm around his shoulders, and said to him, "My friend, I believe I have the prize of prizes, that has been given of God to our Father's children. You and I have met in the business world for years and years; your treatment of me has been the treatment of a gentleman; I have respected and do respect you as a man of honor." "He says, "I have been a moral man, Mr. Smith, but I have not been a religious man, in the sense in which you religious men sometimes speak." Said I, "Look here, by and by this race will be run, and you and I will be on the other side. I do not want you to say to me on the other side, 'Mr. Smith, in that sphere yonder, you had the prize of prizes, and you never offered me an understanding of it.' I want to ask you as a matter of friendship -- for I believe that I have the truth-- that you will make it in your way to visit the religious services of the Latter-day Saints. Seek to receive of their spirit and to comprehend that which they are engaged in." He promised me that he would, and I believe he will. As to the impressions that the Almighty may make upon his mind as he shall listen to the words that may be spoken by the Elders of the Church, it is not for me to determine. His spirit must be in that condition that the spirits of some of you were in in times past when you drank in of the truth; but if his spirit does drink in of the truth, I believe him to be of that mould that means and abilities would be utilized by him for the accomplishment of that which in his honor he believed was true. I think that many of the Latter-day Saints are discrediting themselves in their neglect of that which the Master has placed within their reach by a failure to meet these obligations and to have their names registered by the common judge upon the records designated by the Almighty for preserving the evidence of the goodness of their hearts and their conversion to His truth. ¶

I see, my brethren and sisters, that my proportion of the time is gone, but standing before you with the full knowledge of the responsibility that attaches to my chief as well as to my associates in connection with this work, I say to you, write your names in the Lamb's book of life; for it is the Lamb's book of life when you register yourself as a bestower of that which Providence places in your hands and give it into the hands of the parties designated by the Almighty to utilize that means for the extension and upbuilding of the Zion of our God. There is no requirement resting upon you to pay tithes upon somebody else's property or earnings; but the law of God to His people is that that which is yours, which comes into your hands each year, shall be tithed. He requires of His people that that witness for His truth shall be registered by the payment of tithes and offerings; and no man or woman that fails and continues to fail in this duty can be in any other condition in connection with the work of God except in open revolt. The missing for a season may be a lack of judgment, maybe a fault, but when it continues without limit, that man or that woman has rejected in his or her soul the law that God has given. Their names will disappear in connection with our Father's work. ¶

Brethren and sisters, let us obey the commandments of our Father in heaven, register our names in His book, register our name in words of comfort and advice, guiding, as far as we may have the power, our fellow man to an understanding of the truth. Let us ever remember that these sons and daughters of His, scattered throughout the world or mingling with us in our own homes, though not of our own faith, are His children, created in His likeness and in His image; and that while the truth has come to us, the responsibility in the receipt of that truth upon us is indeed great. Every word that can be spoken, every deed that shall turn the hearts of our fellows to our Maker, should be performed by us. That which we have embraced is indeed the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are indeed in the Church of Jesus Christ. Our mission is the purifying of God's children in all the world. He who fails to perform his part in this ministry, after having been made a partaker of the heavenly gifts, will find himself outside of the holy communion, and the blessings in store for our Father's children. I pray for our country and its good; for the development of that truth which our Father has given us; for the spirit of hate to be banished; for the spirit of love to reign supreme among this people; and that in their love of mankind they shall be enabled to turn indeed "the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers," extending not alone unto that future time, but encompassing all the good that will be saved upon this earth in the flesh in the day and time we are acting among them. I know that the Gospel is true; that His Priesthood and power is among the children of men; that it has been given to man, "never again to be taken from the earth nor given to another people," but to be established, carried from land to land, from clime to clime, to be preached to every nation, to every kindred, to every tongue, and to every people, that they to whom the message comes through the ministrations of God the Father and His Holy Son may fulfill their destiny and be crowned with His approval, because they obeyed His laws. Amen. ¶