Lorenzo Snow on Tithing
The Saint George Tabernacle, where Lorenzo Snow delivered his sermon on Tithing
Brethren, sisters and friends, I wish to read to you this afternoon what occurred in the Temple of the Lord at Kirtland about sixty-three years ago. I was intimately acquainted with the parties concerned. It is a vision manifested to Joseph, the Seer, and Oliver Cowdery, in the Kirtland Temple, April 3, 1836:
“The vail was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened.
“We saw the Lord standing upon the breast work of the pulpit, before 18. and under His feet was a paved work of pure — in color like amber.
‘His eyes were as a flame of fire, the hair of His head was white like the pure snow, His countenance shone above the brightness of the sun, and His voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying—
“I am the first and the last, I am He who liveth, I am He who was slain, I am your advocate with the Father.
“Behold your sins are forgiven you, you are clean before me, therefore lift up your heads and rejoice,
“Let the hearts of your brethren rejoice, and let the hearts of all My people rejoice, who have, with their might, built this house to My name.
“For behold I have accepted this house, for My name shall be here, and I will manifest Myself to My self to My people in mercy in this house,
“Yea, I will appear unto My servants, and speak unto them with My own voice, if My people will keep My commandments, and do not pollute this holy house
"Yea the hearts of thousands and tens of thousands shall greatly rejoice in consequence of the blessings which shall be poured out, and the endowment with which My servants have been endowed in this house.
“And the fame of this house shall spread to foreign lands, and this is the beginning of the blessing which shall be poured out upon the heads of My people. Sven so. Amen.”
I might well say that I am fully satisfied and delighted with the visit that I have had with the Saints in this Stake of Zion, having enjoyed the privilege of shaking hands with your beautiful boys and girls and of kissing your babies. One might suppose that I could go home perfectly satisfied, and | might think so myself; but there are some things that I feel under the most sacred obligation to say to you.
It is a wonderful pleasure to speak upon the great things that God proposes to bestow upon His sons and daughters, and that we shall attain to if we are faithful. The ultimatum of our travel in this path of exaltation will bring to us the fullness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to stand in the presence of our Father, to receive of His fullness, to have the pleasure of increasing in our posterity worlds without end, to enjoy those pleasant associations that we have had in this life, to have our sons and our daughters, our husbands and our wives, surrounded with all the enjoyment that heaven can bestow, our bodies glorified like unto the Savior’s, free from disease and all the ills of life, and free from the disappointments and vexations and the unpleasant sacrifices that we are making here. We portray in our minds the glories that are before us, and we know that if we are faithful there will be no disappointment in the securing of these blessings. The power to prevent us from receiving these things is not in the hands of any man; it lies within ourselves. What I have read to you shows that Jesus, the Son of the living God, has been among the children of men. He has talked with them, and they have seen His glory. I am ten times more sure of this than I am in reference to what we read about that which transpired in the land of Judea when the Son of God was there. I knew Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. I know that they were men of honor, honest, full of philanthropy, and served the Lord. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum served the Lord faithfully through all their lives, and died as martyrs to the principles we now believe in. We have established our faith upon a sure foundation, and there is no power beneath the celestial worlds that can take it from us. Everyone has the right to secure, and I hope has secured, this principle of revelation upon which we are founded, each for himself or herself. We have made a discovery in regard to the path that leads to this honor and glory, and we feel as the Savior expressed it on one occasion when He was with the people in Judea. He said:
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."
So with ourselves; we have found the treasure in the field, we have found the pearl of great price, and now we have got to give all that we have for it, at one time or another. The Lord has said that He will prove us even unto death, to see whether we will stand by the covenants we have made with Him. Some Latter-day Saints have things in their possession which are so valuable to them that they would prefer death to the loss of those things. We have to deal with facts, not a mere ideal. In one sense, it is a hard thing for us to sell all that we have that we may secure these glories that have been opened to our view; but it will pay us in the end. Jesus, the Son of God, was sent into the world to make it possible for you and me to receive these extraordinary blessings. He had to make a great sacrifice. It required all the power that He had and all the faith that He could summon for Him to accomplish that which the Father required of Him. Had He fallen in the moment of temptation, what do you suppose would have become us? Doubtless at some future period the plan would have been carried out by another person. But He did not fail, though the trial was so severe that He sweat great drops of blood. When He knelt there in the garden of Gethsemane, what agony He must have experienced in contemplating His sufferings on the cross! His feelings must have been inexpressible. He tells us Himself, as you will find recorded in section 19 of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that His suffering was so great that it caused even Him “to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit: and would that He might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.” But He bad in His heart continually to say, “Father, not my will, but Thine be done.“ It was a dark hour for Him: and every man and woman who serves the Lord, no matter how faithful they may be, have their dark hours; but if they have lived faithfully, light will burst upon them and relief will be furnished.
For a portion of our lives we do about as we please and move along in a way that is rather gratifying to ourselves, no particular call being made upon us; but there are times when the Almighty requires certain things at our hands, and we cannot dodge them. At such times we receive the advantages of a past pure life, having kept the commandments of God and prepared ourselves for such calls. To illustrate: We call, say twenty young men from here, ten from another place, thirty from another, to go upon missions abroad; and in more instances than one these calls are made without giving time to make proper preparation; but, it is gratifying to say, there is scarcely a single instance, out of the thousands that ars called, where an unfavorable response is wade. The party says, “Yes, I will respond to the call. There are difficulties in the way, but I will try to remove them, and will be on hand at the time specified.” It is glorious to think that among the thousands of calls that are made upon our young men to go upon missions, I do not remember of a single instance where the call has not been responded to favorably. Here is an instance right before us. When the people were called by President Young to establish themselves in this locality, it was a very great trial to them; but those who accepted the call, you see how they have been blessed and how God has honored them. He has honored them in giving them sons, grandsons and daughters, and in various ways the blessings of God havé come upon them. What is greater than all, they have so conducted themselves that these wonderful prospects have been kept bright before them. When they view the course that they have taken in the past and the glorious prospects of the future, they derive great consolation therefrom.
The Latter-day Saints have done wonders; but they cannot cease from doing wonders in the future. There will be greater things demanded of the Latter-day Saints than has ever been demanded since the organization of the Church. The Lord has determined in His heart that He will try us until He knows what He can do with us. He tried His Son Jesus. Thousands of years before He came upon earth the Father had watched His course and knew that He could depend upon Him when the salvation of worlds should be at stake; and He was not disappointed. So in regard to ourselves. He will try us, and continue to try us, in order that He may place us in the highest positions in life and put upon us the most sacred responsibilities. When we were placed in certain circumstances with our wives and children, and the nation was pursuing us with the intention of | destroying us, the Lord opened our way in a manner that we never expected. Very few indeed thought our deliverance would come in the way which the Lord saw proper to bring it. A sacrifice had to be made—a greater one than had ever been made before. The Church itself depended upon the Saints acting in a wise and prudent manner, and making the sacrifice that was required at that time. The word of the Lord came to President Woodruff. When that Manifesto was issued, you knew what it meant. Some were alarmed. They thought the Church would go to pieces; thought they were breaking their covenants; thought the Lord had withdrawn from them. But that Manifesto was issued by the command of the Lord; and the Saints humbled-themselves before the Lord and bowed to the requirement. The heavens rejoiced and God smiled upon us. He blessed His people, and delivered us from our enemies, and they were brought to shame and disgrace. They thought to destroy the Latter-day Sainte, but they failed in their attempt. Nevertheless, we had to make the sacrifice, and it was right that we should. The Lord could have delivered us in some other way, had He so wished; but He knew best, and that was the course He required us to pursue and the sacrifice He desired us to make. We made it, and He has blessed us wonderfully from that time to the present. He has given us power among the nations, and in various ways the people have been raised in the estimation of the world. Men of great wisdom have looked upon us, though they may have been silent, and they have honored the course we have taken. The Lord required that of us.
I come here now with my brethren that you may understand what is required of you as a people under the peculiar conditions in which the Church is now placed. It is the word of the Lord to you, my brethren and sisters, that you should conform to that which is required of you as a people who have these glorious, prospects of exaltation and glory before you. What is it? Why, it is something that has been drummed into your ears from time to time until you perhaps have got tired of hearing it. I need the faith and the prayers of every Latter-day Saint; no man needs them any more than I do; and it is unpleasant for me to say things that would in any way diminish the exercise of your faith and prayers in my behalf. But the Lord requires me to say something to you, and since I commenced to labor in His interest, I have never failed, thank the Lord, to do that which He has required at my hands; and I shall not do it today, nor any other day, the Lord being my helper. The word of the Lord to you is not anything new; it is simply this: THE TIME HAS NOW COME FOR EVERY LATTER DAY SAINT, WHO CALCULATES TO BE PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE AND TO HOLD HIS FEET STRONG UPON A PROPER FOUNDATION, TO DO THE WILL OF THE LORD AND TO PAY HIS TITHING IN FULL. That is the word of the Lord to you, and it will be the word of the Lord to every settlement throughout the land of Zion. After I leave you and you get to thinking about this, you will see yourselves that the time has come when every man should stand up and pay his tithing in full. The Lord has blessed us and has had mercy upon us in the past; but there are times coming when the Lord requires us to stand up and do that which He has commanded and not leave it any longer. What I say to you in this Stake of Zion I will say to every Stake of Zion that has been organized. There is no man or woman that now hears what I am saying who will feel satisfied if he or she fails to pay a full tithing.
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