Tithing: The Latest Change in the World’s Religious Thought

TITHING The Latest Change in the World's Religious Thoughi By Joseph A. West There have been many changes in the world's religious thought during the past hundred years, or since the restored gospel was first preached by Joseph Smith, in which the Father and the Son were revealed as distinct and separate personalities, but one in purpose. The advocacy and practice of the payment of tithing is, perhaps, the latest attempted allignment of the religious world upon a principle long since revealed to and preached and practiced by the Latter-day Saints. I have before me an eight-page, closely printed pamphlet, a con- densation of one double the size, crowded with scriptural quotations proving the divinity of this law which is headed as follows: God's Loving Money Rule for Your Financial Prosperity This is followed by the inquiry: "Do you wish to succeed and retain financial success? God promises you prosperity and blessing, if you faithfully carry out his loving command to tithe." * The author then gives many scriptural quotations, to prove that blessings and benefits come from an observance of this law. The Lat- ter-day Saints, however, rely upon the modern revealed word rather than upon the instructions given to another age and people, though they are strict believers in the holy scriptures: In answer to the question: "How shall I tithe?" the author says: "Set apart systematically and regularly one tenth of your income, if a farmer or merchant, before taking out your living expenses, or one tenth of your wages or income, if a wage earner or professional man, and devote it to the work of the Lord." As to what shall be done with the tithing, he says: "Distribute it yourself in the name of the Lord for the upbuilding of his kingdom, using your best judgment as you would your own money, giving to the poor, to foreign missions, or, if you prefer, turn it over to your Church, or any religious denomination you may choose, and have it distributed by their officials in the channels you may choose." He then gives a number of examples of how wonderfully men who have obeyed this law have been financially blessed. The Literary Digest of August 2 and October 4, 1924, also con- tains references to this subject and names a number of very remarkable instances where financial blessings have followed the observance of tithing. Briefly told some of these are as follows:

TITHING 335 A gentleman in Kansas who had failed in business to the extent of $100,000 learned of the law of tithing and immediately began to observe it. Soon financial success attended him, and it was not long before he recovered his losses — all of which he attributed to his ob- servance of this law. A certain lawyer, whose annual income amounted to $3,900, became converted to tithing and put it in practice. The next year his income increased to $5,300; the following year to $21,451.44 and last year to $75,862.34. The Digest also contained an article entitled, "Farming for the Lord", in which the experiences of seven Georgia farmers who agreed to dedicate one acre each of their farms to the Lord, are given. The movement grew until more than 500 acres were set apart this year. One of them says: "The acre I planted for the Lord produced a bale of fine cotton, while farmers in my neighborhood lost virtually all their cotton crop from the boll-weavil." Newspaper men, and they are usually very incredulous about such matters, also admitted that the corn crop planted on the Lord's acre was much better than elsewhere in that section. It is true they affected to believe that it must be due to the better care given the Lord's acre, but this does not account for the absence of the boll-weavil. Another farmer said: "It did me good to plant that acre for the Lord. I felt that all my place had been blessed by that one acre." Darius King said that they had been prospered above the aver- age of the community, and J. E. Shaw said that his Lord's acre, that he planted, also escaped the boll-weavil. The August 2 number in an article entitled, "The Reward for Tithing," relates the following: "A well known and very prosperous furniture dealer, when making his second start in business, knelt in an empty room in his new factory and told the Lord that he wanted to take him in partnership, that one tenth of all he earned should go to him; ,and that he would use the money in all his business ventures as if it were the Lord's money." Charles Page was in the real estate business with J. Ham Lewis who, twenty-five years later, became United States Senator, and they failed in business leaving him worse than broke. One day he found himself with but $1.15 in his pocket when a Salvation Army lassie asked him for his tithing. He immediately gave her the fifteen cents and the thought occurred to him to start anew and begin by observ- ing the law of tithing. Immediately the tide of misfortune turned, and he soon became very wealthy, prospering in everything he under- took to do. For years he was in the oil business, and he thinks he knows why he became rich. He gave his reasons to a friend one day: "I missed striking oil only twice in my lifetime. You know I divide with the Big Fellow and he made geology." He is said to have built and maintained a home for orphans and performed many other acts of charity.

336 IMPROVEMENT ERA Another gentleman said: "I have got something more than money out of tithing. It has given me happiness and contentment that I could never have bought." Another eminently successful man said: "Tithing is the mini- mum your Partner expects from you. That's only good interest. I've been trying to use half my income in his affairs lately. That's full partnership." Were the remarkable experiences of the Latter-day Saints, in tithe-paying related, a volume of the Era could be filled. Since these experiences are for the individual encouragement of the Saints they are seldom found in print. Besides the tithing accounts are held sacred and only the persons paying and the Church officials have a right of access thereto. As an illustration, I will, however, relate the following imper- sonal incident: About twenty-five years ago the Church was heavily in debt as a result of the Government's escheatment of its property and of the bitter persecutions or prosecutions to which it had been so long subjected, and the authorities were at their wits ends, to meet financial requirements, on short time loans and at heavy rates of in- terest. It was when President Snow was laboring under the per- plexities of this situation that he was directed of the Lord to go to St. George and hold a special conference. He went by train from Salt Lake not knowing the specific purpose of his going, but taking a number of the general authorities of the Church with him. I was then engineer and superintendent of construction of what now constitutes a hundred miles of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, between Milford and Uvada. His train left Salt Lake in the evening, reaching Milford the next morning. Here I met the train with an engine and crew to bring the company to Modena, then the nearest railroad point to St. George, and from whence a number of teams had come during the night for the party. This was before automobiles were in evidence in that sec- tion of the country. I accepted an invitation to accompany the party and was present at the meeting appointed for the following day. President Snow as stated was apparently not aware of the object of his journey to St. George, before his departure, nor before the hour of the meetings, but when he arose to speak he was divinely inspired to preach a most powerful discourse upon the subject of tithing. That furnished the keynote to all the meetings he held among the southern settlements, upon the company's return and throughout the Church for years afterwards. The Church was not only heavily in debt, at this time, but many of its members were deeply involved through the distressing financial conditions which at that time prevailed through- out Utah. As President Snow emphasized the necessity of a stricter observ- ance of the law of tithing on the part of the Latter-day Saints, the Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon him, and some wonderful

TITHING 33/ promises were made to the Church as a whole, and to the individual members thereof. More especially to the people of Dixie, was this true, because for several years they had suffered from drought and con- sequent failure of their crops. He promised the members of the Church that if they would honestly pay their tithing, the Lord would so abundantly bless them that they would soon get out of debt, and that it would not be long before the Church would also be out of debt. Also, that the rains would descend upon the parched lands of Dixie and the people there would begin again to have bounteous har- vests. The last promise was the first to be fulfilled, for the rains did begin to come, somewhat late in the season, it is true, but early enough to mature the crops and fulfil the promise. An era of unusual prosperity began again to dawn upon the Saints, as they gave heed to this requirement of the prophet, until it was not long before the Church bonds, issued a little time before this, were paid off and the membership of the Church were largely free from debt. This was the case with those who obeyed the counsel to get out of debt, but those who put their earnings into luxuries they could not afford, continued in bondage, many of them even to this day. The following from an old, tried and true veteran in our Re- deemer's cause, at the date of writing in his eighty-second year, if I remember rightly, but recently deceased, and for years president of the St. George temple, is self-explanatory: St. George, Utah, December 8, 1924. Elder Joseph A. West, 1919 Hopkins Street, Berkeley, California. Dear Brother: Yours of the 27th ult. is received and contents noted. In answer to your question as to the effect of President Snow's prediction, at the time that he visited us many years ago, when President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: As my memory serves me, it was to the effect that if the Latter-day Saints would pay their tithes and their offerings, and put their confidence in the Lord, he would not forsake them, but that they should be blest with the early and the latter rains, and that the earth would yield of its strength for their sustenance. His words have certainly been fulfilled, up to about the middle of the year, 1923, when an apparent drought set in and was not broken until within the last few days. As a result we didn't realize more than 33 1-3% of our usual crops. The ranges have been dried up and our horned stock are in a state of starvation today; sbrep men faring slightly better, as it requires less moisture to slack the thiist of tha wool-bearing animal. How far we have carried out our part of the agreement, as a people, the Lord knows, and his servants have an idea. While they may not be able to judge the condition accurately, to ascertain the condition of each individual, still they know that there are many who have fulfilled the obligation, to the very best of their ability and spent much time in calling the negligent to repentance. With kind regards and prayer for your welfare, your co-laborer in the Master's cause, (Signed) DAVID H. CANNON. That tithing is a scriptural doctrine none will deny who are acquainted with the Bible. The Lord spoke to Israel upon this subject, through the prophet

338 IMPROVEMENT ERA Malachi, nearly 3,000 years ago. After telling them how they had robbed him by withholding their tithing, he says: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts." The law of the Lord upon this subject to modern Israel, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, reads as follows: "Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the bishop of my Church in Zion, for the building of mine house, and for the laying of the foundation of Zion and for the priesthood, and for the debts of the Presidency of my Church. And this shall be the beginning of the tithing of my people. And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one tenth of their interest annually ; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord." Doc. & Cov. 119:1-4, also 120, as to how it is to be disposed of. It will therefore be seen both from ancient and modern scrip- tures, that the Lord not only requires the payment of tithing, but has designated the purposes for which it shall be used; hence, it is not the province of the tithepayer, according to my reading of the revelations upon this subject, to direct otherwise. Neither is he, under any cir- cumstances, to distribute it personally, as I understand some few have assumed to do. I have thought how greatly the Latter-day Saints are blessed in having such a splendid organization through which their tithing can be disbursed, for back of it all, they have the wisdom of the best men on earth, and the inspiration of the Lord as well. Therefore we are fully assured that every dollar, thus contributed, will be properly used and that, too, without expense. Charitable institutions in the world are known in some cases to consume in expenses fifty percent of the sums given them. The Saints have a wider field of divinely in- spired purposes for which their tithing can be used, as shown by the statement thereof, read at each annual conference of the Church, for their work is of broader scope than that of all other religious organ- izations combined, embracing not only the salvation of the living but also that of the dead. Therefore, we should be infinitely more zealous in the observance of this law. None of our Christian friends have any plan to offer whereby the vast host who lived when the gospel was not upon the earth, may be saved, and yet the gospel, and its saving ordinances, are as necessary for them as for us, Christ's atonement and plan of re- demption being for all our Father's children. They who pay tithing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints contribute to all of its most worthy purposes, and they will not only receive their reward, in spiritual and temporal blessings in

TITHING 339 this life, but infinitely greater blessings in the life to come. Thereby, if equally worthy in other respects, they are promised immunity from those terrible judgments that the wickedness of men and nations will bring upon the inhabitants of the earth in this dispensation. The Lord said unto Malachi: "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 for the tithing of my people; for he that is tithed shall not be burned at his coming, for after today cometh the burning." Doc. « Cov. 64:23-24. Not that he who pays his tithing and does nothing else will escape the punishments to come, or that money alone will purchase immunity, but because its payment has a tendency to rid us of those evil traits of character that the acquisition of money so often implant in the human heart, chief of which is selfishness and lack of sympathy for the unfortunate; also because he who tithes with a sincere desire to promote the many worthy activities of the Church, has his mind so set upon the worth-while and beautiful things of the kingdom, that he is very likely, by a rigorous self-discipline, to conform his life thereto. Money is, in one sense, as much the god of this world today as were the images of wood and stone, the gods of the ancients, against which were hurled the thunders of Mt. Sinai, because men will jeopard- ize their very souls to obtain it. Its wrong use is truly "the root of all evil," but its good use is a benefit to any cause. Being the main-spring of our industrial and commercial activity, whatever of it we possess, usually measures the volume of our industry and frugal- ity. When, therefore, by paying tithing, we contribute any portion of it to the work of the Lord we contribute a portion of our very existence. The Savior said: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." The amount a man has invested in any business measures his personal interest therein; and likewise, the more we do for the Church in a monetary way, the more our personal attention and inter- est is centered therein and in its exalted mission. Being an institution where God is at the head, it cannot fail to pay substantial dividends upon all our investments, not only in material things, but in the puri- fication of the soul which is infinitely greater. If you do not believe it, try it, for the Savior of the world has said: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." John 7:17. Berkeley, California