The Lord everywhere present by His Spirit

Brethren and sisters, is the Lord in yonder tabernacle at this moment? Yes, the Lord is there. Is the Lord in this building today and now? Yes, the Lord is here. Is He in the stakes of Zion? Yes, God is in the stakes of Zion, and you cannot climb so high into the heavens but that you will find the Lord is there, and you cannot descend so deep into the earth but what you will find the Lord is there. He is everywhere upon the face of the earth, and above the earth, and in the earth, and under the earth, and more particularly is He with His people, by the power and influence of His divine Spirit. They have a special claim upon Him, that comes by reason of the Gospel and the sacred ordinances and covenants that they have entered into, and therefore I again affirm, very strongly, that the Lord is here, and that we are entitled to, and are receiving His blessing. ¶

I am holding in my hand, one of the most wonderful books of this or any other age. It is the Doctrine and Covenants. Now I do not say it is better than the Bible. I do not say it is better than the Book of Mormon or the Pearl of Great Price ; but I do say it is one of the most wonderful books ever published, remarkable in many respects above and beyond all other books. As stated by President Smith in the conference yesterday, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants contains things that will not be found in any other book. This book embodies the revelations which were given by the Lord to Joseph Smith, the prophet, and there is one thing about this book that we can appreciate and that we can rely upon, and that is that it contains the truth, that what it contains is the truth, and that there is no error, no false doctrine in this record. It is the pure word of God by revelations to His prophet. It is a book that is to be appreciated, but it is a book which has not been read, I presume, by very many of the Latter-day Saints — not read and studied as it should be. ¶

If you will bear with me a moment, I am going to read a few words from one of the revelations in this book. It is a very remarkable revelation, but then it is not different to any of the others. This revelation was given to Joseph the Seer in the presence of six elders, in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, September, 1830. You know the prophet used to receive revelations, did upon many occasions, I presume, when he was by himself. But in this instance, there were six elders present, and that would be quite a testimony to the truth of the revelation, at least that there were ¶

six witnesses who knew and understood that the revelation was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. I do not propose to read it all. There is too much substance and body to the whole revelation. It would not do to read it all. These words are to be studied ; they are to be reflected upon, and there is certainly sufficient in the text or in the words that I shall read to you to supply the text for a very powerful sermon if I was able to preach it. I am not. I will read a few words in advance, which will lead up to what I wanted to say. The Lord said : ¶

"But remember that all my judgments are not given unto man : and as the words have gone forth out of my mouth, even so shall they be fulfilled, that the first shall be last and that the last shall be first in all things whatsoever I have created by the word of my power, which is the power of my spirit." ¶

Now there is a great text for a sermon in these words, brethren and sisters, and a very great sermon it would be if it was preached under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord. ¶

"For by the power of my Spirit created I them; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal; firstly spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, firstly temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work. Speaking unto you that you may naturally understand, but unto myself my works have no end, neither beginning; but it is given unto you that ye may understand, because ye have asked it of me and are agreed." ¶

Of course we get the impression from these words that God's work is everlasting, and with Him it is one eternal round. He uses the words "firstly" and "lastly," in order that we by our finite minds may be able to understand ; but to Him ¶

there is no beginning of his works ; there is no end to them. It is a beautiful thought, isn't it? It gives you the idea at once of eternal life, something that continues and never ends. It is a tremendous thought, and quite beyond our comprehension. There is no man in this room, there is no woman in this assembly, that can comprehend, can begin to grasp the idea of eternal life. We can feel it. We just feel it in our very bones. We feel that we are destined to live forever. We feel that, but we cannot explain it. But that is not what I am aiming at. ¶

"Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created. Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself; and I gave unto him commandments, but no temporal commandment gave I unto him, for my commandments are spiritual ; they are not natural nor temporal, neither carnal not sensual." ¶

Now mark these words ; they are very remarkable, very. It seems strange that the Lord should make use of this language, and that He should make the definite statement to His Church that not at any time had He ever given a temporal commandment. And I think you will agree with me, my brethren and sisters, when we come to sit down and reflect upon the subject and go into it, that so far as we know these words are verily true. ¶

I would like to give you an example or two to emphasize the statement which I have read in your hearing. It may seem almost contradictory, but it is not. I will take for an illustration the law of tithing. You know that the law of tithing is the great revenue law of the Church ¶

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ; that it is by and through this law that means are accumulated for the benefit and blessing of the Church. It is a very wonderful law. and I am wondering right now, as I speak, whether there is any one in this congregation who will say, "Yes, O yes, we have heard of that law before ; we have heard about tithing, and it is a dry subject." Is it a dry subject, brethren and sisters? Is it uninteresting? I tell you we will decide it is one of the grandest, most beautiful, and most practical laws that God ever gave to man, if we will reflect upon it and consider what it is. accomplishing. There was a time in the Church, not many years in the past, when this law was considerably neglected. As a result, the Church became weakened. There was a time, we all remember it, when the Church was brought face to face, as it were, with bankruptcy. It almost came to that. The financial credit of the Church was very low. It was in those days of money stringency, when the country was passing through a sort of a financial panic that the Church's credit, as I said, was low. The assets of the Church were very little in excess of the liabilities ; and whenever the assets of the Church or any institution, sink below the liabilities, then it is bankrupt. It must be so. But when the members of the Church were wakened up to the importance of this great law, prosperity returned again ; and to the extent, that the Latter-day Saints will observe this law and keep it, the Church will be blessed, and the people will be prospered, not only temporally but spiritually. ¶

There are a great many people in the world who find fault with the Latter-day Saints, because of the law of tithing. They entertain all sorts of notions about it, and when they say that this law is intended to enrich the few at the expense of the many, they at once cast a reflection upon the Lord, God. Did you ever realize that. Any man in the Church, or out of the Church, who takes that stand, and says that the intention and purpose of the law, is to enrich the few at the expense of the many, casts a stigma upon the law of heaven; because, let me tell you, the law of tithing did not originate with any man. Joseph Smith the Prophet was not responsible for it, nor any of his successors. The present leader of the Church, is not in the least responsible for it. It is a commandment of God which came by revelation, and is binding upon the Church and every member thereof. I was going to add "strange to say," but I will not do so, because it is not strange. —This law is just as binding upon the prophet of God, our president, as upon the least and last member in the Church ; and it is just as binding upon the Twelve Apostles as anybody else, also upon the Seven Presidents of Seventies and the Presiding Bishopric. Yes, there are the Presiding Bishopric, who are appointed to look after and account for the tithing, and yet they must pay tithing themselves. They must be honest with the Lord, just as much so as those who pay tithing into their hands. They must of necessity put their hands into their pockets and pay tithing, in common with us all. And this requirement simply exemplifies the justice of God. The Lord is no respecter of persons. What He requires of one of the least of His servants He requires of the greatest. ¶

A beautiful lesson is it not? Men are respecters of persons very often, in their families, in their lives and in many ways. God is not a respecter of persons. He is absolutely just in these matters, and He will not receive unnecessary excuses. He makes no allowance for neglect of duty, or for sin. Those who sin must repent and do better. ¶

Men in the world who find fault with this great law of revenue which has been given to the Church of Christ, run up against a stone wall, as it were, because they run up against the Bible. The Bible is full of it There is no law, no commandment ever given to the children of men that is emphasized, more strongly in the Bible than tithing. Why, there is Abraham, a tithepayer; — Abraham, the friend of God and the Father of the Faithful, of whom the Lord said that in him, in his seed, and in his priesthood, all the families of the earth should be blessed. How great a man was he that the Lord designated him as His friend. It is a great thing to be the friend of God. Abraham was such, and yet the Lord required and demanded of him that he should pay tithes, and he did so. Specific instances are given. He paid tithes to the great High Priest Melchizedek, who was king of Salem, the prince of peace. Now Melchizedek must have been an important character if Abraham was required to go to him and pay tithes and offerings. And again, there was Jacob, whose name was afterwards changed to Israel. When we say that we are the children of Israel it simply means that we are the children of Jacob, nothing more. He was a great patriarch, and the promises of the Father were sealed upon his head. But, mark you, brethren and sisters and take notice of what Jacob did. One of the first things he did, and one of the great things he did, was to make a solemn vow unto the Lord that if God would bless him and multiply him and bring him back to his father's house, and establish him in the land, he would pay a tenth of all to the Lord. And no doubt he kept this sacred vow, because Jacob was remarkably blessed, so that ■everything he touched was blessed, and everything that the Lord gave him was multiplied, over and over again, wherever he went- If he went to work for a man, the man was blessed, and the man's family was blessed, and everything round about him was blessed. Jacob was multiplied to such an extent that he had to move out; he could not remain in any one place- His father in law was blessed, and Jacob was blessed, and his flocks and herds increased so rapidly that Jacob had to move away. And so it was in those days, that when the people paid their tithes and offerings, they were prospered. This law was taught to the children of Israel. Upon one occasion the Lord complained against the children of Israel, and asked them how it was that they had robbed Him. That was an awful charge to bring against a people, brought by the Lord against His own chosen people. The children of Israel were robbing Him. but they were perfectly astonished, and said ; "Wherein have we robbed thee?" And the Lord answered; "In your tithes and your offerings." Possibly some one might be disposed to say, "Well, I don't owe the Lord anything, because I have worked for that which I possess. I have wrung it out of the soil by the sweat of my brow ¶

and by the strength of my body, with this brawny arm and horny hand. I have arisen in the morning at four o'clock, have worked all day into the night, and I have simply wrung my wealth from the soil, and it belongs to me, and I do not owe the Lord anything." Thou fool ! hast thou forgotten what the Apostle Paul said: "I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase ; so that he that planted is nothing, neither is he that watered, but God who giveth the increase." That is the philosophy df it. What man is there who by planting a grain of corn into the earth can multiply that kernel of corn, and make twenty or thirty more grains of corn to grow? What man is there who, by planting a potato in the earth, can make it grow and multiply itself, so that where he put in one potato twenty to forty potatoes came out of the ground ? What man can do that ? Here comes a man, who says, "I can do it." How will you do it? "Why, I will put it in the earth and water it, and that is just what it will do." Well, can you do it? All you did was to plant it in the earth and water it ; you did not cause it to grow. God caused it to grow, and He multiplied it. And He will multiply you in that way. The Lord has made you rich, and now when He comes to you and says, "Give Me what belongs to Me ; I have bestowed upon you all these good things, return to Me a portion, onetenth ; give it back to me " Then the man says : "I want it, I will not give it back nor any part of it." Do you think that man will prosper? One may say, yes, he is prospering, and getting lots of grain and potatoes ; he is building barns, and so on, and he is widening out, and he is multiplying in his stock, and property and all. Do you say he is blessed ? Go into his home, and you will find out what kind of a spirit is there. See if. there is a spirit of love, a spirit of knowledge, a spirit of faith? That is what you should look for and see if the man is blessed or not? Why, these very riches that he has obtained may be a curse to him, may canker his soul and destroy it. ¶

Now somebody will say: "Brother Clawson, is it not a fact that the law of tithing is absolutely and purely and simply a temporal law?" I would answer and say that the law of tithing, it is true, has to do with temporal things ; but in a far deeper sense, the law of tithing is spiritual, and that is the thing I want to come to, to show that it is spiritual. Everything that we do connected with this law of tithing points to spiritual things. What is tithing for? It is for the building up of Zion. It is to build temples to God. You take material substances, the material things of the earth ; and out them into the form of a temple. It takes money to build a temple. Money comes from the earth, it belongs to the earth. But what does that temple represent ; what does it amount to in and of itself? It is simply a building of wood and stone. That is all it is, nothing more. It is not the temple ; it is what the temple represents to us that gives it importance and value. It is what we get in the temple, and we there obtain great and glorious spiritual blessings. That is the important thing. We get our washings and our annointings, and our sealings and do work for the living and the dead. That is spiritual, very spiritual. Beautiful ! We have built a number of temples. We are building one in Canada now. I would ¶

not be surprised if you will yet see temples all over the land of Zion, all over America. Take the tabernacle here. That is a material thing, isn't it? Very material. It is built of wood and stone. It is nothing but a house ; that is all. It is what the tabernacle represents to us ; it is what is being done in the tabernacle. It is what is being done right now in the tabernacle that gives importance and value to it. In and of itself it amounts to but little ; many people come and look at it, and say it is a wonderful building. I do not care about that. Its size and appearance is the least part of it. There is a wonderful organ in the tabernacle. This is a small consideration. It is what is said there ; it is the valuable instructions that are given, counsels of the priesthood, admonitions, warnings, reproof, all intended to build up and strengthen the soul- That is spiritual, and it grows out of the law of tithing, because that great tabernacle was built from the tithes and the offerings of the people. And so we might go on. There is a vast amount of the funds that comes from the tithing that is used for our Church schools. This is a great movement in Zion. We do not know, we do not appreciate what the Church schools are doing. But I will tell you who will appreciate it. The father that has his sons going to the Church schools, the parents that have daughters going there ; and when they see that these children are imbibing Gospel principles, that faith is springing up in their hearts, that they are getting testimonies and being prepared to carry on the work of their fathers, they then begin to know what the Church schools mean to Zion. And let me tell you, brethren and sisters, in a wide sense, and ¶

in a very deep and important sense that is spiritual. I do not care anything about the great school buildings any more than to appreciate them, and to know that we have them. But they are only stone and wood and so on, with a little ornamentation. It is what is taking place in them, it is what is coming to your children and my children, what is being done for them. You know what it means, brethren and sisters, if you send your children to gentile schools. Now I do not speak of them in a spirit of disrespect. I mean to send children to schools where they never hear, and where it is even against the law for them to hear, instruction concerning the Gospel, or concerning the Lord. They may get some moral teachings, but they do not get any religious teaching, no theological instruction. You know what that means. I tell you it is very disastrous to your children, very, and would be to mine- The great educators of the earth, the President of the Chicago University and others are crying out today, right now today, for some religious instruction in the schools of our country. That is what is lacking in our schools, they say ; we ought to have some religious training, some religious instruction. They are not getting it in those schools, but we are bringing it into our Church schools, and we are trying to bring it as near to the district schools as we can without getting into them, by the religion classes. Every now and then some bigot will rise up and make an awful cry, and condemn the religion class movement, yet it is recognized, by those who are in positions to know, that if we do not get some religious training in our universities and colleges, it means disaster to the ¶

nation. That is spiritual. The means that are expended in bringing our missionaries home from the missions, and in maintaining missionary expenses, and so on — that is spiritual too. The great amounts that are expended in building meeting houses, and in building up the stakes of Zion, come out of the tithes, and these things constitute a marvelously spiritual work in the Church. But that is not all. ¶

Let me tell you something else connected with this law of tithing. I have just about time to tell it too, and that is all. This is what the Lord said. You can judge for yourselves whether it is spiritual or temporal. You will find it in the sixth paragraph in the law of tithing : ¶

"I say unto you if my people observe not this law to keep it holy, and by this law sanctify the land of Zion unto me, that my statutes and my judgments may be kept thereon, that it may be most holy, behold, verily I say unto you it shall not be a land of Zion unto you." ¶

Now, do you know what that means, brethren and sisters? That simply means that if this is not the land of Zion unto you, then this land is cursed, because either the land must be sanctified or it must be under curse, and the only way that we can sanctify it and really make it the land of Zion is to pay our tithes, and thus sanctify and make it holy. Is that spiritual, or temporal? If the land is under a curse, then we cannot build up Zion, and all our labors and all our doings will come to naught. So we must remove the curse from the land, and we can do it by the observance of this law. Will anybody tell me that the law of tithing can be ignored, can be treated with indifference; I tell you, my brethren and sisters, it is a most serious question. It is the test of every man's faith, and it is the test of every woman's faith who earns means and should be a tithe payer. That is, the test, if a man is an honest tithe payer, he will be pretty honest in everything else. I declare to you, if a man pays tithing, he will pray, he will go to his quorum meetings, he will go to his sacrament meetings, and he will do a great many other things. I do not know that you could apply a greater or a stronger test. ¶

I am going to make just one other allusion, just one' brief reference to the law of tithing. It is important in a way, I think. Now listen to these words that occur in another revelation, which was given September 11, 1831: ¶

"Behold, now it is called today (until the coming of the Son of Man), and verily it is a day of sacrifice and a day of the tithing of my people, for he that is tithed shall not be burned at His coming." Very remarkable words ! "For after today cometh the burning. This is speaking after the manner of the Lord ;for verily I say, tomorrow all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble ,and I will burn them up. for I am the Lord of hosts, and I will not spare any that remain in Babylon." ¶

What does that mean? Does it mean that if a man will not pay his tithing, that the Lord is going to send a ball of fire down from heaven and burn him up ? No ; the Lord does not do that way. The Lord works on natural principles. This is what it means, if I read correctly : a man who ignores the express command of the Lord, by failing to pay his tithing, it means that the Spirit of the Lord will withdraw from him ; it means that the power of the priesthood will withdraw from that man, if he continues in ¶

the spirit of neglect to do his duty. He will drift away into darkness, gradually but surely, until finally (mark you) he will lift up his eyes among the wicked. That is where he will finally land ; and then when the destruction comes and when the burning comes, he will be among the wicked, and will be destroyed; while those who observe the law will be found among the righteous, and they will be preserved. There is a God in heaven, and He has promised to shield and protect them. I tell you there is a day of burning, a day of destruction coming upon the wicked. And where will we be ? Will we be with the wicked, or with the righteous? I hope among the righteous, and not among the wicked ; which is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶