Tithing

“ But tithing according to God’s plan and in the spirit which He has laid down in His word must and will bring great blessing.
One of our missionaries in India tells of a native who was an earnest Christian and a believer in tithing. He had a friend who was converted and he was anxious to have him tithe also. After some effort to persuade him and seemingly without avail, he gave his friend a sound thrashing and enforced the tithe by brawn and not by persuasion of conscience. This was zeal without knowledge. You can no more make a man give than you can make him pray. ”

“ While tithing was not so directly pointing to the atonement, nor was it designed for that purpose, it is yet an offering to the Lord required by Him, to be used for righteous purposes and to prepare the heart of the tithe-payer to give his all to God, to consecrate all in the interest of human redemption. The Lord, in tithing, does not demand the best nor justify His people in offering that of the least value in any substance tithed. ”

“ The law of tithing, as embodied in the revelations referred to, is an immutable decree of Jehovah to his people, and admits of no evasion by those who would enjoy the blessings of the faithful on the land of Zion, or be classed among the righteous, and avoid the burning at the coming of our Lord. ”

“ The institution of Tithing is one which is emphatically binding upon us, and is as essential to our salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of God, so far as temporal things are concerned, as the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost are in the spiritual part of the Gospel. ”

“ We send forth Elders to the nations of the earth, as messengers of salvation to the people; and while we sustain those who go to proclaim the gospel, let us also sustain the printed word.
Enough has been said on this subject, and I do not wish to recapitulate. Let us pay our tithing, and do all we can to sustain the servants of God. And in paying our tithing we should not forget our money tithing. We hear considerable about hard times, so far as money is concerned; they who are endeavouring to sustain the work of God feel the pressure as much as anybody else. ”

“ I had expected to find a miscellaneous confusion of articles of all kinds, but on inquiry discovered that the popular theory of Mormon tithing, "a tenth of everything,"—"even to the tenth of every egg that is laid," as a Gentile lady plaintively assured me, is not carried out in practice, the majority of Mormons allowing their tithings to run into arrears, and then paying them up in a lump in some one staple article, vegetable or animal, that happens to be easiest for them. ”

“ Tithing is a law of God which we are required to obey, and it is binding upon all the Latter-day Saints, the poor as well as the rich. In some places the widow, who depends upon the Church for support, pays one-tenth of her income as Tithing. ”

“ This line of argument is almost unanimously accepted among Christian scholars as an adequate basis for the belief that sacrifice was a divine institution. Why is it not fully as applicable to tithing? It is not stated in Scripture, prior to the giving of the Mosaic law, that either is a divine institution. But if “divine acceptance is a demonstration of a divine institution,” the tithe has as clear a demonstration of its origin as has sacrifice. [38] Now and then in Scripture the whole business of sacrifice is spoken of in a deprecating way. ”

“ Has the Lord required of us to pay Tithing? He has—namely, one-tenth of our increase. Now, if we withhold our Tithing, and the Temple, nevertheless, is completed and ready for the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood to be performed therein, can those who have withheld their Tithing enter that Temple to pass through the ordinances of salvation for their dead, and be just before God? ”

“ Tithing is an institution which has prevailed from the beginning, and it looks to me as though it was the consideration required by the Lord—the Creator of the earth, from men who dwell upon it, as a material something by which they may acknowledge to him, in deed and in truth, that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and by means of which they can restore to him, in the order of his appointment that which is his. ”

“ In paying our tithing, in obeying every law that is given to exalt us and to do us good, it is all for our individual benefit and the benefit of our children, and it is not of any particular benefit to the Lord, only as He is pleased in the faithfulness of His children and desires to see them walk in the path which leads to salvation and eternal life. ”

“ We are told by some of the unbelievers that we pay tithing and we are dupes to fanaticism, that we are priest-ridden, and bound down with galling chains of oppression. That same class of persons will boast that they pay no tithing. ”

“ Some of the Bishops and Elders become so contracted that it is too hard for them to pay their tithing when it pertains to them as individuals, for it is an individual salvation. Let us be one in these things, and be up and doing while it is time; and it is time all the time, and it is time in eternity all the time, and always will be; and when we get into the next stage of action it will be time while we are there, and it will be eternity around us. Let us go to work and purify our hearts—our tabernacles—and purify and cleanse our houses, and let us rise up as a people. ”

“ Those who have prospered most are they who paid their tithing honestly. And I have noticed it, as an individual, that when men close up their hearts in this direction, and neglect their tithing, and their offerings on fast days for the benefit of the poor, they lose their faith. ”

“ If you do not pay one dime of tithing it will not impoverish the Almighty, but I will tell you where the effect will be, it will affect yourselves, your own salvation. If you neglect these things, I tell you the Lord will neglect to bless you; it comes on yourselves individually, and it stands you in hand, every soul of you, men and women, to arise and prove the Lord, and see if He does not watch your faithfulness, and is not ready to pour you out a blessing that you have not room to receive. ”

“ But there is this peculiarity about the work in these days—not only do the people pay their tithing, but the ministers of life and salvation pay theirs—if they do not they should do, and I believe they do—as punctually as the humblest member of the Church, from President Young down—his Counsellors, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Bishops of the Church, every faithful man pays his tithing, the highest in the Church as well as he whose name is scarcely known beyond the narrow circle in which he moves ”

“ Do they want to know what is done with the Tithing. If the Lord requires one-tenth of my ability to be devoted to building temples, meeting-houses, school-houses, to schooling our children, gathering the poor from the nations of the earth, bringing home the aged, lame, halt and blind, and building houses for them to live in, that they may be comfortable when they reach Zion, and to sustaining the Priesthood, it is not my prerogative to question the authority of the Almighty in this, nor of his servants who have charge of it. If I am required to pay my Tithing, it is my duty to pay it. ”

“ And thou shalt set it down before Jehovah thy God, and worship before Jehovah thy God:
11 and thou shalt rejoice in all the good which Jehovah thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thy house, thou, and the Levite, and the sojourner that is in the midst of thee.
12 When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithe of thine increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then thou shalt give it unto the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled. ”

“ Obedience to the law of tithing is therefore required of every member of the Church. A man cannot be in full fellowship with his God and with his fellow-worshipers if he neglects to observe the law. "While the living of any one law of the gospel adds to one's power to live and enjoy every other law, the living of no one law will secure salvation. ”

“ The people are not compelled to pay their tithing, they do as they please about it, it is urged upon them only as a matter of duty between them and their God. This little moiety that is now paid on tithing is used to bring the poor here, to find them houses to live in, bread to eat, and wood to burn, when we can get the brethren to bring it in on tithing, but that is an article pretty hard to get. Now, suppose we had a little more of this surplus on hand, could we not help the brethren on their way to preach the gospel to the nations? ”

“ If we act, for instance, in regard to the law of tithing as I have mentioned, we shall be judged accordingly, and receive according to our works. If we forgive them that trespass against us, it shall be measured back unto us in mercy, etc. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." ”

“ If we have witthheld [withheld] and kept back any portion of our Tithing, then have we robbed God, for that full tenth is not ours in any sense of the word, it is the Lord's, and if we keep it from him we rob him of that which is his. We should keep correctly in our minds and understandings that which is ours and that which is the Lord's. ”

“ Again, we find that some of our people when Christmas comes round will begin to make excuses in regard to their tithing. Now, tithing is one of the eternal principles which pertains to the order of God. ”

“ There is no such thing as an organization of men for any purpose of importance, without provisions for carrying out its designs. The law of tithing is the law of revenue for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ”

“ One thing I do know, that when our tithing is paid in the north and in the south it costs almost as much to get it here as it is worth. What is paid here is clear profit, and is useful and beneficial for us to work upon. If the brethren pay their tithing, and pay it willingly, we are satisfied; that is all that is required of them. If my brethren who live near here, whom the Lord is blessing, have a mind to put in some teams extra for drawing rock, I give them the privilege. ”

“ Tithing—the taxes you pay to the kingdom of God. The little child's mother is provided for, if her Bishop looks after her, and the presumption is that he does. These little children are cared for. Is there any real poverty in our land? There may be, but really the cases are few and far between. All are well fed, all comfortably clad, and wherein they are unable to do it themselves, the tithing department pays. ”

“ When the Bishop or his clerk goes round to settle up Tithing, he finds a class of persons who act as though they felt it their bounden duty to get the figure of their Tithing down to the lowest possible scratch ”