RLDS Church History Search

Chapter Context

RLDS History Context Results


Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 36 Page: 715

Read Previous Page / Next Page
715 trust for the church. While the Bishop remains a faithful man to his office, he remains the trustee; but when he becomes unworthy of trust, the church should impeach him and appoint another.

"We must learn that our duty to the well-being of the whole body demands of us a hearty, unreserved approval and sustaining of each other; but that sustaining must only be in good and correct acts; if our public servants prove to be weak, inefficient, or unworthy, we should suffer no false delicacy to prevent us from abasing them if guilty of wrong, or of choosing more earnest, stronger, and more efficient men to occupy their places. Right minded, unselfish, true men will not object nor be offended if others are thought to be more efficient; those who love self more than the good of all, or who love office for office name, will as a usual thing be partially unfit for great trusts, and will be wounded if others are preferred to themselves for those trusts.

"Now that the church is in a condition to begin to carry on its temporal affairs with legal safety to the people's moneys, we hope that those who are able and have the disposition to help the storehouse and treasure chest, will do so.

"The history of the early Christians, as handed down to us by well-accredited tradition, shows that hundreds gave their earthly substance that the work of the church might be carried on, and those really needing aid could know where to apply, with reasonable certainty of receiving it. Men of other faiths are giving their labor, their time, and their means in liberal supply, that the work of those faiths may not be crippled for want of the sinews of war.

"The saints have long wanted (so they have said) to become one; and roods of paper have been written over; and thousands of cubic feet of breath have been expended to lay before the saints the beauties, and glories, and grandeur of this condition of oneness when it should be arrived at; but the number who have really schooled themselves into the condition of temper to become one is, impracticably small. The usual understanding with the majority of those loudest in their professed desire to become one is, that others shall

(page 715)

Read Previous Page / Next Page