The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-09-07


admitted rs a member of the Federal
Union, will be Slave State?
B. Y.-No; she will be Free State.
Slavery here would prove useless and I'M
profitable. l regard it generally as a
curse to the masters. myself hire many
laborers and pay them fair wages: [
could not afford to own them. l can do
better than subject myself to an obliga-
ton to feed and clothe their families, to
provide and care for them in sickness and
health. Utah is net adapted to Slave
labor.
II. G.-Let me now be enlightened
with regard more especially to your
Church pohty; understand that you re-
qrire each member to pay over one tenth
of all he produces or earns to the Church.
B. Y.-That is the requirement Of our
faith. There is no compulsion as to tho
payment. Each member acts in the
premises according to his pleasure,
under the dictates OF his own conscience.
Ii. G.-What is done with the pro-
ceeds of this tithing'
B. Y.-Part of it is devoted to build
ing of temples and other places of wor-
ship; part to help the poor and needy
converts on their way to this country !;
and the largest portion to the support OF
the poor among the Saints.
Ii. G.-Is none of it paid to Bishops
aud other dignltares OF the Church:
b. Y.-Not one penney. No Bishop,
no Elder, no Deacon or other Church
officer, received any compensation for
his official services. Il Bishop Is often
required to put his hand III his own
pocket and provide therefrom tor the
poor Of bis charge; but he never receives
anything for his services.
Ill. G.-How, then, do your ministers
live!
b. Y.-By the labor of their own
hands, like the first Apostles. Every
Bishop, every Elder, may be daily seen
at work III the held or the shop, ike his
neighbors; every minister of the Church
has Als proper calling by which he earns
the bread oil his family; he who cannot or
will not do the Churchs work for nothing
is not wanted in his service; even our
lawyers (polntlng to Gen. Ferguson and
another present, Who arc the regular law
yers OF the Church) are pad nothing tor
their survives; am the only person i'll
the Church who has not regular call
ing apart froEl the Church's service; and
never received one tarthing from her
treasury; if | obtain anything from the
tithing-hous AIN charged with and pay
for it, just as any one else would; the
clerks III the tithlng store are paid like
any other clerks, but no one is ever paid
for any service pertaining to the ministry.
We think man who cannot make his
living aside from the ministry of Christ
unsulted to the office. am called rich,
and consider myself worth $250,O0O; but
no dollar OF it was ever paid me by the
Church or for any service as minister Of
the Everlasting Gospel. | lost nearly all
[ had when we were broken up in Mis-
souri, and driven from that State; | was
nearly stripped again when Joseph Smith
was murdered and we were driven from
Illinois; but nothing was ever made up
to me by the Church, nor by any one.
| believe know how to acquire property
and how to take care of it.
II. G.-Can you give me any rational
explanation of the aversion and hatred
with which your people are generally re-
garded by those among whom they have
lived and with whom they have been
brought directly in contact.
b. Y.-No other explanation than is
afforded by the crucifixion of Christ and
the kindred treatment of Gods ministers,
prophets and saints in all ages.
Ii. CT know that new sect is al
ways decried and traduced-that it is
hardly ever deemed respectable to belong
to one-that the Baptists, Quakers, Meth
odists, Universalists, Unitarians, de-, have
each in their turn been regarded, in the
infancy OF their sect as the of-scouring
of the earth; yet cannot remember that
| either of them were ever generally rep
resented and regarded by the older sects
of their early days as thieves, robbers,
murderers. SIS
B. Y.-If you will consult the cotenl-
| porary Jewish accounts of the life and
acts of Jesus Christ, you will find that he
and his deciples were accused of every
abominable deed and purpose-robbery
and murder included. Such work is