The visit of President Lorenzo Snow to St. George in southern Utah 100 years ago this month was a momentous event. The message he delivered on May 8, 1899, applied not only to members of the Church in that place at that time but also to Latter-day Saints everywhere ever since.

His address pronounced a revelation pertaining to tithing. It was repeated in different words but with the same force and meaning when President Snow later returned to Salt Lake City. It was approved as revelation by unanimous vote of the Mutual Improvement Association conference in Salt Lake City on May 30, 1899. In the Salt Lake Temple on July 2, 1899, it was accepted as revelation by all the General Authorities of the Church, representatives of all its 40 stakes and 478 wards, and the auxiliary organizations.

President Snow went to southern Utah at a time when members there were in dire straits. Crops had failed in severe droughts. Streams and wells had run dry. Starvation loomed as an ominous possibility.

A cloud of debt darkened daily existence and future prospects. The Church as a whole and members individually had endured financially difficult times in preceding years. Those difficulties were spawned, primarily, by the depression of the 1890s and, secondarily, by the federal government's confiscating Church funds. Many members ceased paying tithing.

In taking his concerns for the Church's financial matters to the Lord in prayer, President Snow was inspired to go to St. George. Lorenzo Snow, the man, might have consoled the people in such impoverished circumstances but Lorenzo Snow, the prophet, pronounced the Lord's displeasure with the members for failing to pay their tithing. In the opening session of the conference, President Snow said that the purpose of his visit to St. George was not clearly known to him, but it would be made known "during our sojourn with you."

President Snow's son, LeRoi, wrote in the Church News of Jan. 20, 1934: "It was during one of these meetings that my father received the renewed revelation on tithing. I was sitting at a table reporting the proceedings, when all at once father paused in his discourse, complete stillness filled the room. When he commenced to speak again his voice strengthened and the inspiration of God seemed suddenly to come over him, as well as over the entire assembly.

"Then he revealed to the Latter-day Saints the vision that was before him. God manifested to him there and then the purpose of the call to visit the Saints in (southern Utah). He told them that he could see, as he had never realized before, how the law of tithing had been neglected by the people, also that the Saints, themselves, were heavily in debt, as well as the Church, and now through strict obedience to this law — the paying of a full and honest tithing — not only would the Church be relieved of its great indebetedness, but through the blessings of the Lord this would also be the means of freeing the Latter-day Saints from their individual obligations and they would become a prosperous people." The message President Snow delivered is one we must heed. As he pointed out in his discourse, it was "the word of the Lord." The Lord has always required the payment of tithes, which is one-tenth of all one's interest annually, or profit, compensation or increase. (See D&C 119.)

President Brigham Young taught: "The Lord Almighty never had His kingdom on the earth without the law of tithing being in the midst of His people, and He never will. It is an eternal law that God has instituted for the benefit of the human family, for their salvation and exaltation." (Journal of Discourses 14:89.)

President Joseph F. Smith said: "There is a great deal of importance connected with this principle, for by it ye shall know whether we are faithful or unfaithful...." (Gospel Doctrine, 1970 edition, p. 225.)

The Lord said: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me...." (John 14:21.)

The payment of tithing not only is a way that we can demonstrate our love of the Lord, but also — in this day and age when so much emphasis is placed on materialism — a way to help us set our hearts upon the things of the Lord.