In 1939, under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve, the church published Priesthood and Church Welfare: A Study Course of the Quorums of the Melchizedek Priesthood for the Year 1939, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1939). Written by George Stewart, Dilworth Walker, and E. Cecil McGavin, this 300-page book describes the then-new church welfare plan. More than that, it discusses principles of cooperation, debt, investment, labor, home production, the Law of Consecration, the United Order, the management of natural resources (including those useful for recreation), charitable contributions, health, thrift, and home repairs – virtually everything that could possibly be grouped under that old Mormon rubric, “temporal salvation.”

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