So, also, in the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, the law of tithing is a sacred commandment with a promise and a penalty. "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].[X] Moreover, in the revelation on tithing itself, the Lord declares that if His people "observe not this law to keep it holy, and by this law sanctify the land of Zion. * * * it shall not be a land of Zion" unto them. 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. Faithful tithe-paying makes the humble wage earner and the drawer of large dividends, equal on the Lord's ledger. Each has fulfilled the law; neither has done more. While tithe paying alone is not sufficient to keep a man in the Church, yet he cannot retain his standing to the end without it."[Y]
[Footnote X: Doc. and Cov. 64:23.]
[Footnote Y: George H. Brimhall, "Tithing," p. 3.]
The paying honestly, then, into the storehouse of the Lord of one-tenth of one's interest annually, is a sacred duty not to be considered lightly. Until we shall have reached a stage sufficiently near perfection to enable us to live the higher law of the United Order, we are under divine command to observe the lesser law of tithing. It, too, is a means of establishing the eternal brotherhood of man.
XVIII.
A NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT.
It is a remarkable feature of the message of the Prophet Joseph Smith, that, it is broad and comprehensive in its purpose of saving the human race, yet it is applicable to the struggling life of the poorest of God's children. Indeed, therein lies in part at least the superiority of the restored Gospel over every other creed or system of philosophy known to man. It does not center its efforts toward reform in the community at large, though its principles of reform comprehend the community; but it strikes at the individual and sets him right, knowing that with the individual right the community cannot be wrong. This, I take it, is the basic principle of the Gospel Brotherhood of the United Order of God. To collect a number of unrepentant sinners and convicts; to organize them into an ideal brotherhood; to hope that they will learn as a community to know the ways of God—is indeed Utopian. The hope cannot be realized. But to convert the individual; to gather the converted individuals, to organize them in a United Order; to hope then that there will develop an ideal community—is anything but Utopian. When the individual is right, the community must be right. If the community fails, the fault lies with the individual.
It becomes of first importance, then, in the Church of Christ, to inspire every member of it with ideals of purity, honor, and integrity. For that reason, the new revelation taught faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ; a sincere repentance, or turning away from evil; baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, in token of one's humility and integrity of purpose; the imposition of hands by those holding divine authority, to confirm the candidate a member of the Church and to entitle him to the presence and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and, ever afterwards, a careful observance of the great commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. * * * Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."[A] Thus the proper spiritual condition of the individual was well provided for. It is only because the love of self remains stronger than the love of God and the love of neighbor, that the perfect law of the Order of Enoch fails in its operation.
[Footnote A: Matt. 22:37-39.]
But the individual seldom, if ever, lives alone. While it is true that the individual must be right if the community is to be right, yet the individual is after all not the center of influence in community life. That center is to be found rather in the home. There, two are bound together by sacred ties of love and worship; and others, by endearing bands of kinship. In the home, the spiritual conditions of the father and the mother—the directing individuals of a community in miniature—determine in large measure the lives of the children. As these children are trained in the home—nay, as the father and mother hold sacred the marriage relation—so will the family wield an influence for good or evil in the whole community life. This truth was recognized by the prophets of old. And when the Gospel came to be restored, we should expect to find revealed wonderful, sublime truths concerning the sanctity of the family relationship.
It is not to be wondered at if Joseph Smith began early to consider the question of family life and marriage. In the years 1830 and 1831, very soon after the Church was organized, he began the inspired "translation" of the Scriptures. He met there the histories of the ancient patriarchs and prophets. He observed in these histories—as in that of Jacob and his twelve sons, for example—how the family life was held sacred, and the family relationship in honor. Naturally, in this case as in so many others in the story of the Restoration, questions were aroused in the mind of the Prophet. What is the nature of the marriage relationship in the sight of God? What will be the condition of men and women in the future life? Of what importance is the family relationship either here or hereafter?