I have always told the people to do just as
they pleased about paying Tithing, and to do as they please about calling upon
the name of the Lord in prayer, and to do just as they please about being
baptized, or about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; there is no compulsion
whatever in these matters. The Lord does not compel any person to embrace the
Gospel, and I do not think He will compel them to live it after they have
embraced it; but all who do not keep their covenants and the commandments of
the Lord our Father are then fit to be cut off from the Church.
We are in the habit of holding in full
fellowship men that pay no Tithing, also persons who take the name of God in
vain; we permit liars, thieves, etc., to retain a standing in the Church. Does
not this hurt the body of Christ? It does, and the whole body is more or less
sick and faint through our extreme kindness, which some call charity; it pleads
for those unrighteous persons, and we spare them. Should we do this to the
extent we do? I think we have lived long enough and have passed through enough
experience to teach us to know and do the will of Heaven, and to disfellowship
those who refuse to do it.
We have said to the brethren, pay your
Tithing, and with those who refuse to do this it will be made a matter of
fellowship. Now, brethren and sisters, the next time you write to your friends,
in England, Scotland, Wales, France, or any other country, do not write that we
have directed the Presidents in foreign lands to cut off members who do not pay
their Tithing, when this becomes necessary we will attend to it. It is right
for us here to pay our Tithing. Not paying Tithing has once been made a matter
of fellowship in the British Islands, and some have been cut off from the
Church there for not paying their Tithing; that was not by our directions.
In regard to Tithing, I am now speaking to
the Latter-day Saints in this land, who have health to labor, who can surround
themselves with an abundance of the comforts and blessings of life, who can
build houses and open up farms at their pleasure. Shall we pay Tithing or shall
we not? We have said pay your Tithing. And we have said to the Bishops that if
any man refuses to pay his Tithing, try him for his fellowship; and if he still
refuses, cut him off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and
so we say now. We have not required this of the people, but the Lord has
required it, and that is enough for us and for all the Latter-day Saints upon
the earth. If we live our religion we will be willing to pay Tithing.
We feel sometimes as though the people did
not live as near to the Lord as they should, and we have a right to feel so.
And then again we say that this is a good people, that they are a very
excellent people, that they are the best people that we bare any knowledge of,
but they are so far from being what they have got to be that we see there is a
great improvement to be made by us. We talk about heaven, about the Lord, about
angels, about celestial glory, and about enjoying the celestial kingdom of our
God, while at the same time we do not believe for one moment that we could live
in heaven one day or one hour, and live in disobedience to the laws and
commandments of heaven. (JOD 10:282-83, November 6, 1863)
I will ask the whole human family is there
any harm in teaching people how to be mechanics and artists, and what their
life is for? Is there any harm in teaching them the laws of life and how to
live, so that when they go down to the grave they can say, "There is my
life, and it has been one of honor; look at it and do as much better than I
have as God will give you ability to do. This is the duty of the human family,
instead of wasting their lives and the lives of their fellow-beings, and the
precious time God has given us to improve our minds and bodies by observing the
laws of life, so that the longevity of the human family may begin to return. By
and by, according to the Scriptures, the days of a man shall be like the days
of a tree. But in those days people will not eat and drink as they do now; if
they do their days will not be like a tree, unless it be a very short-lived
tree. This is our business.
Then pay your tithing, just because you like
to, not unless you want to. They say we cut people off the Church for not
paying tithing; we never have yet, but they ought to be. God does not
fellowship them. The law of tithing is an eternal law. The Lord Almighty never
had his kingdom on the earth without the law of tithing being in the midst of
his people, and he never will. It is an eternal law that God has instituted for
the benefit of the human family, for their salvation and exaltation. This law
is in the Priesthood, but we do not want any to observe it unless they are
willing to do so. If I ask my brethren, "Are you willing to pay
tithing?" Many of them would say, "Yes, we are not only willing to
pay tithing, but all that we have, for we are the Lord's, and all that he has
given us is his." (JOD 14:89, April 9, 1871)