Mormon History, Sep 23, 1849 (Morning)

[Brigham Young Sermon] We wish the brethren to pay their tithing - or a portion of it '- many are able who do not pay anything we want the elders to be prepared to go and preach the gospel - many withhold their means and still cry for all the blessings of the saints when we have a place prepared. I am willing to teach you the principle of tithing - they do not know the utility nor what it consists of and the final result is if we had the tenth of the time of the past year we should have plenty to go on with this Council House - the bishops mean to do it when everything is done - we want to pay those men who have been working for us - we have the means of accomplishing a great work - if we neglect it it saps the foundation of our health and prosperity - if you have spent all your money in things that are not of no use - just hand it over to us - if any of you know of a man who whines about that paper currency - I want it to stick to them till they apostatize - and when they meet the devils - they may tell a good story - help yourselves if you can - do you want to sue me - just do it. I like the plan first rate whether you do or not - any man who does not believe in the principle of paying tithing or believe it unjust, just come and tell us and we don't want you to pay any, we don't compel - nor ask any - but we will know when a man comes with a lie in his mouth - who believe it an unjust requirement - we just will us - we will make you spew your secrets out of your hearts - Oh fools and slow of heart - you never saw the Lord - you are much duller to understand anything. It is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, not the Lord but your own flesh and blood - is it to give the Lord gold and silver for chariots and horses - he is independent of you - it is to try your faith - in the days of Joseph many men and women were willing to pay tithing - but were afraid of him doing wrong with it - now remember I am on your track - if you had done the best you could more is required - if you hide your talent the Lord turns away from him - suppose I had hid the talent the Lord had given me - the Lord would not have had anything to do with me this day - all the Lord designs is to cause all to lean on the Lord - if you build a small house this year for the Lord - he will require a larger house next year. I lived for myself until I come to be a man. I joined the Methodists to get rid of them and all the sects - same as the girl married the man to get rid of him - when Mormonism came along I found it my master and clung to it - it was all a novel thing and a mystery to all the sects - to see a Savior one day fighting in a temple - next day praying - it was a marvel to them - just as Mormonism now is. I don't ask you for any tithing - we can just build the houses ourselves - again here are our mechanics of every description carpenters, adobie layers, etc. must you have 3 or 5 00 a day - Farmers must you have 500 a wheat - if you charge 500 a day well make you pay 500 for every tithing day - well give you just what you want - if you want 5.00 a day you must pay it - and you must pay 5.00 a bushel for wheat - Why the Lord will never eat any of your wheat or corn meal - if you undertake the cheat the Lord you cheat your own stomachs - you are making food for your own stomachs - if it pukes you to death - die you must - if you go to hell through ignorance - it is because you would not build a temple. Just as you charge, so shall we take from the people - and you blacksmiths and shoemakers, who enter into combination - just go it - you'll find your feet in fetters or my name is not Brigham Young. Take your own course to make you happy - don't say somebody else fixed that mess for you - if you make a bed of thorns to lie on - just lay there and grunt it out - don't give me council, its an insult to me - don't come with your foolery to me - I know just as well as God knows - that when you are told to do a thing, do it. Any man who takes a course independent of me - its a stink to me - I cannot bear it - When they do the best they can, no whinings about it - If I tell you to go yonder, and you are afraid your family will suffer - who cares - go to hell and be damned - if there is so much whining continued in three years you could not get a man to go a mission you would have to be put up in band boxes - laid away in cotton - with a sugar titty in your mouth - I say what I please because I know how to say it. If I did not feel so strenuous? I should not use such language - I understand the gospel and the gifts and callings are without repentance - if the Lord Almighty said to me leave this valley - go into the east and preach, I'd go. If every one of my wives had to die in 24 hours, they don't understand - their God is not in all their thoughts - you and I have got to do as the Lord will - I am here because the Lord pleases to have me here. timber mechanics when you are in trouble and want, don't come to me to get out of trouble - stick to your 3.00 a day. Farmers don't pay any corn tithing, its too high, go ahead gentlemen by and by the Lord will reject you - if a mob was to come in two years oh how every man would pay his tithing and too up to the line - now when you are in peace, will you build a Council House and do all you can or gauge cheat and speculate a little more - the prosperity is the danger of this people, than being mobbed even to death. It would be better to be driven till they parish, than to live in prosperity and go to hell. Who cares about the credit of the people - I'll laugh when their fear cometh - for the U.S. will go to hell and the hottest place for they killed the prophets - and I will mock when their fear cometh - A good name among the Gentiles is a stink before the Almighty and in my nose. I would not give a meal of victuals for all the great names they could give. I am at their defiance. We have preached the gospel to them and will do it - and they may kill us but there will be enough left to send them all to hell - I have a better name and home in heaven than the whole put together. I could put all the knowledge of the whole world in my jacket pocket and it would take me half an hour to find it. I advise every man and woman to repent of their sins - and if they have none then be baptized for your religion - and if you are so very religious be baptized to fulfill all righteousness - for without faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and have the Holy Ghost you cant get into the celestial kingdom - and gentlemen you will see the time that your are ignorant and know nothing. I have a curiousness today - its for me to say what I have to say. About 200 miles south we are going to make another settlement in Sandpitch Valley - and send Father Isaac Morley, Charles Shumway and Seth Taft to go there and build it up and go forthwith to prepare for winter - we shall want a blacksmith and some other mechanics. On 6 October is our conference and we shall want the several bishops to take their several portions of this Bowery and fix it up. May the Lord God of Israel bless you and I bless you in the name of the Lord, even so. Amen. -- SLC Bowery [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.) 9-12-5, 41-44]

[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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