in order to be on good terms with the people who had been friends to them,
the Saints again left their homes and traveled north-east, away out into
the country where there were hardly any settlers. Here they began to build
a city which they called Far West, and after a time they had a county laid
off which was named Caldwell.

This movement began in September, 1836, and by the next summer nearly all
the Saints had left Clay county.

You will call to mind that the Prophet Joseph, with the brethren in Zion's
Camp had visited the Saints while in Clay county. In the spring of 1838
Joseph arrived at Far West from Kirtland, and from that time on the Prophet
remained with the main body of the Saints in Missouri and Illinois.

The Saints now had peace again for a season. They gathered to Far West and
surrounding places from Kirtland and other eastern localities. Farms were
made, houses built, towns laid out, and it seemed as if the Saints could at
last live and enjoy their rights as Americans.

Joseph was busy setting the Church in order and in receiving the word of
the Lord for the guidance of the Saints.

One of the most important revelations given at this time was regarding the
law of tithing. This law says that the Saints should first put all their
surplus property into the hands of the bishop to be used for the benefit of
the Church, and then after that, they should pay one tenth of all they
made, as a tithing to the Lord; and the Lord further said that if the
Saints did not keep this law, the land whereon they dwelt should not be a
land of Zion unto them.