-- Jul 2, 1899; Sunday
Pres[ident]. Lorenzo Snow in opening remarks: The Lord has shown me most clearly and distinctly that this is what I should say to you to-day. The Lord testified to me while we were in St. George [Utah], before the conference there, that this is what we should talk to the people. We did not know what we went to St. George for, only we felt it was our duty to go there; but when we got there the Lord showed to me most plainly what we were in St. George for, and we told the people just what they were to do, and
we tell it to you now. All through "Dixie" we found everything dying out. The stock were dying by hundreds; we could see them as we travelled along, many of them being nothing but skin and bones, and many lying down never, I suppose, to get up again. Well, I do not pretend to say why this was so. Then there is a great deal of trouble in other directions. Our enemies calculate to get the next Congress to make a change in the Constitution and wipe us out, so far as voting is concerned, that we may have nothing to do with putting in officers to govern and control us. And the whole nation is aroused against us. Well, we have found in our experience that when we kept the commandments of God we could rely upon His promises. He has said that He will preserve us, and this shall be a land of Zion unto us, if we will observe this law.
Elder Rudg[e]r Clawson: Now, the debts of the Church and the embarrassments that have come upon it through the situation we have been in and the Government taking our property, I think are of secondary importance. This law of tithing was never revealed and made binding upon the Church, merely because of the debts of the Church or of anybody else. It is a law of God, given to this people, and we are required to observe it in order that this may be the land of Zion unto us (1)
This being the regular fast day of the Church, and the day set apart by the First Presidency for a Solemn Assembly of the Holy Priesthood at the Salt Lake Temple, meetings were held there accordingly, beginning at 10 a.m., and extending through the day. There were present: The First Presidency, the Apostles, the First Council of the Seventies, the Patriarch, the Presiding Bishopric, Stake Presidencies, Ward Bishops, and some other brethren, specially invited. President Lorenzo Snow presided, and various speakers addressed the assembly, all dwelling upon the subject of the law of tithing, the presentation of which to the Priesthood, and the insistence of a stricter observance of the same by the Latter-day Saints, were the purposes of the gathering. A full report of the proceedings, taken by Church reporter Arthur Winter, will be found as an appendix to the Journal of the President's Office, kept by Secretary George F. Gibbs; and a duplicate copy of the same will be found among the records of the Temple. (1)
Endnotes:
1 - First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes
LDS History Chronology: Lorenzo Snow
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Lorenzo Snow
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
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