There are many of the Bishops here today, and my advice to them is for them to be honest with me, to be honest with their God, to keep their covenants sacred, and to make a clean breast of all their business transactions that their consciences may be void of offense towards God and man. 8:316.
When your Bishop calls upon you, or advises you to do anything that will be for your good, do not call that oppression. All the instruction he gives will be calculated to do you good, to raise you in that scale of intelligence that will make of you wise men and wise women. When we are recommended to do that which will lead to good, that cannot very well be construed into oppression. 10:313.
If the people of a Ward are living in the faithful performance of their several duties, their faith and their prayers will be concentrated before the Lord, in the name of Jesus, for and in behalf of their Bishop, that he may know his business and be made fully capable to fulfil the duties of his calling to the honor of God and the salvation of the people. 11:135.
You have often heard me and my brethren say that if the people in the capacity of a Ward, for instance, would let their faith be perfectly united, and their whole desires rise to the Father, through the name of Jesus Christ, and hold their Bishop in his calling between God and them, it would hardly be possible for that Bishop to do wrong, for he would be filled with wisdom. 6:98-99.
Do our Bishops labor for pay? No, if they are not capable of getting a living and sustaining themselves and families, and of filling the office of Bishop without pay, they are hardly worthy of the Bishopric. If a High Priest is called to be a president or to travel and preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth, he must do it without pay; and we think that any man who is not able to keep himself and family and travel and preach one-half or two-thirds of his time without being paid, is not so good a financier as he ought to be. 14:108.
I say to the Bishop who has just addressed us, won't you do as I have formerly directed you, and appoint good, wise, judicious men to go through your Ward, to find out what is in that Ward, and the situation of every family, whether they have money, flour, or costly clothing or whether they are destitute and suffering? This is your business and calling. Do not let there be one place, in the habitations of the Saints in your Wards, about which you are uninformed. Brother Woolley has reported the circumstance of a Bishop finding a woman who had been living upon the charity of her neighbors, and who, at the same time, had valuable property, and money hid up. I can refer you to scores of like circumstances, and what is more, to some of the Elders, those who are supposed to be among the best of our Elders. 3:244.
Bishops' Counselors should be examples to the Church; they should be like fathers to the Church. If they are really the Counselors of the Bishop, they should practice everything that is good that he practices; and if the Bishop himself should neglect any duty, they should perform their duty as counselors, and should teach, guide, direct, and counsel the Bishop to improve in his life. 13:275.
The Wards will be organized hereafter; Bishops will be placed over them, with their two Counselors, all of whom will be ordained High Priests, if not already so ordained, and then be set apart to act in their several offices. They then will form a court; and all the other quorums of Priesthood will be set in order. 19:43.
Church Organization and Government—The living oracles of the Lord, * * * are always in the midst of his people. 10:302.
Teach the people true knowledge, and they will govern themselves. 10:190.