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Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 14 Page: 299 (~1862)

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299 alone are the promises. We beseech you, therefore, brethren, give no heed to the subtle influences of those seducing spirits which were to characterize the departing from the faith in the latter times, but proving them by the plain word of God, resist them, with all those new, fanciful, and strange doctrines, convenient, truly, for such as have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. But ye have not so learned Christ; having begun in the Spirit, are ye to be perfected through the flesh? Be it known unto all saints that in this the reorganization of the latter-day work, we point only to the old paths from which so many have turned aside in the dark and cloudy day.

"To further this object, faithful elders will be sent as speedily as possible to all quarters, including California, Utah, England, Scotland, and Wales; and to enable us to do this, and to carry on the work of building up the kingdom of God, and to redeem the scattered saints from thraldom [thralldom] through false guides, we appeal to all saints whom the Lord hath made stewards, to aid the same by tithing themselves according to the law of God, and place it in the hands of the Bishop of the Church for these purposes. The most convenient method for doing this at present appears to us to be as follows: Let all presidents of branches act as agents of the Bishop, and receive all means set apart under the law of tithing, keeping a faithful record of all receipts and from whom received, holding the same subject to the order of the Bishop. If paid over in person, a receipt should be taken. All orders from the Bishop, and such receipts should be preserved, and an exhibit thereof, and all means on hand made to each General Conference, that no ground of suspicion as to the application of such means may exist. We are aware that this law has been appealed to as a warrant for acts manifestly oppressive, and that the means obtained by such oppression have been and are as a weapon of power to still further oppress the zealous and devoted. But the perversion, not the law, have been the instruments of this wrong. 'My ways are equal and your ways are unequal, applies to the execution of this law. Obeying it in its spirit, is equal; submitting to its perversion, is unequal and

(page 299)

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