[Brigham Young Sermon] Its important for bishops to meet once a week - if the bishops present will meet - I'll drop by business matters and go to meet with them - I want to see them act in their office like men - until the bishops have confidence in God and themselves they will grovel in darkness - some of these bishops are new and it is a new thing to them - we want to have light and confidence round us - and ought to live so that when they get up they may impart instruction all the time - the law of tithing has been is this church from the beginning but few can tell what it is - and is the law of tithing in their hearts? if it is not, farewell to building up this kingdom - until the elders of Israel rise up and shake themselves they will never grow - but live and die with every little knowledge and wisdom - I want all to know the law of tithing - and see the bishops rise up like men of honor and authority - and if have confidence in themselves they would have confidence in them - until all have confidence in themselves this kingdom will never rise and if men are unwilling to do their duty - just quit off - the Lord can do it himself. I would like to have a decision of the bishops whether we had better quit off working for the Lord and then have a hell of our own for we have devils to carry it on... If I pay my tithing into the hands of Bishop Whitney or Brother B. they will not do right with it - that is the pinch - the pinch is in their own hearts - any man who is afraid of bro. B doing not doing right - has not the principles of the eternal Gods - and so long as that lasts we shall be groveling in midnight darkness - and in death he will find it out - there is a fear to send money to Joseph Smith or Bishop Partridge - the only man that was satisfied was Samuel Bent - Bishop Everett perfectly understands it - it is for our own dear selves - the Lord has won his crowns and glory and is independent of us - but he says I am willing to save your children - you must act as I have acted, upon your own agency. it is the duty of bishops to see this law carried out. the more teams we send back to help the poor - and the more teams we shall have here - and if you take the other course we shall be whittled into the little end of nothing... We are going to hire men to build the Council House and store house and pay the men for it - and it is an accommodation to the people. -- Salt Lake City [Thomas Bullock Minutes, LJA; Thomas Bullock—LDS Church Reporter, 1844-56.C, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.; GCM, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah..; Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan.. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.) 9-13-3, 82-83; General Church Minutes. Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints DVD 1 (2002)]
[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
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