Journal of Discourses

Volume 10

Delivered by President Brigham Young,

His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others.

Reported by G. D. Watt and J. V. Long, and Humbly Dedicated to the Latter-day Saints in All the World.

Liverpool: Printed and Published by Daniel H. Wells, 42, Islington.
London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 30, Florence Street, Islington.

1865

Journal of Discourses, Volume 10. Kindle edition published September 2010 by Ben Crowder. Updated January 2012.

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Table of Contents

Original page numbers are in parentheses.

- Preface

- Eternal Existence of Man—Foreknowledge and Predestination, by Brigham Young (1–6)

- Enjoyment of Liberty Under the Kingdom of God, by Daniel H. Wells (7–9)

- Fulfilment of Prophecy—Power of the Gospel—Consistency of its Principles, by Wilford Woodruff (9–17)

- Never Ending Character of a Saints’ Mission. Organization of the Kingdom of God, by Brigham Young (17–23)

- Future State of Existence, by Brigham Young (24–25)

- Design of the Lord in Gathering Together his People. Wisdom and Economy in Domestic Affairs, by Brigham Young (25–31)

- Bishops and Presidents, by Orson Hyde (31–32)

- Forming a State Constitution—Raising Agricultural Products—True Riches, by Brigham Young (32–36)

- Power Accompanying the Faithful Elders, by John Taylor (36–37)

- Constitutional Powers of the Congress of the United States—Growth of the Kingdom of God, by Brigham Young (38–42)

- Practical Religion—Instruction to Elders Going on Missions, by Heber C. Kimball (43–47)

- Trusting in the Almighty, by Orson Hyde (47–49)

- Vastness of the Wisdom and Intelligence of God. Impotency of Man to Govern Righteously, by John Taylor (49–58)

- Necessity of Understanding the First Principles of the Gospel—Of Union among the Priesthood, and Attention to Temporal Duties, by George A. Smith (59–64)

- Gratitude for the Blessings of the Gospel, by Ezra T. Benson (65–66)

- The Privilege of the Saints to Enjoy the Spirit of Prophecy, by George A. Smith (66–69)

- How to Obtain a Part in the Kingdom of God—Assisting the Poor to Emigrate—Classifying Labor—The Times we Live in, by Orson Hyde (70–75)

- Our Duties to God Paramount to All Other Obligations—Danger of Speculation, by Heber C. Kimball (75–78)

- God Alone Bestows the Evidences of his Divine Interpositions—Opposition to the Kingdom of God. Coming Events, by Orson Hyde (79–83)

- The Object of Gathering—The Happy Effects of Obedience to the Gospel—The Means by which the Kingdom of God is to be Established on the Earth, by Amasa M. Lyman (83–90)

- Present Opportunities of Obtaining a Knowledge of the Principles of Truth—Importance of Improving Them, by Charles C. Rich (90–95)

- Authority of Bishops—Branch Organizations—Assisting the Mail and Telegraph Companies, by Brigham Young (96–98)

- Obedience to Counsel—The Beautifying and Building up of Zion, by Ezra T. Benson (99–100)

- How to Gain Eternal Life—The Gathering of the Saints and the Agency by which it is to be Accomplished—Angels—Who and What are They, by Heber C. Kimball (100–104)

- The Persecutions of the Saints—Their Loyalty to the Constitution—The Mormon Battalion—The Laws of God Relative to the African Race, by Brigham Young (104–111)

- All Nationalities Merged in the Kingdom of God—The Unity and Happiness of the Saints, by Orson Hyde (112–113)

- Reflections on the Sacrament, the Atonement and the Second Coming of Jesus, by John Taylor (113–120)

- The Importance of the Mission to the Cotton Country, by George A. Smith (121–122)

- The Discord and Wars among Christian Nations Contrasted with the Unity of the Saints, by John Taylor (123–133)

- The Great Blessings Enjoyed by the People in Deseret—The Gathering of the Saints—Proper Training of Children, by Daniel H. Wells (133–139)

- Building the Temple and a New Tabernacle—Labor Tithing—Call for Faithful Laborers, by Daniel H. Wells (139–143)

- Missionary Fund—Support of the Families of Elders who are on Missions, by George A. Smith (143–145)

- The Blessings the Saints will Enjoy—How the Kingdom of God is to be Established—Building Temples, Tabernacles and Houses—Gathering the Poor, by John Taylor (145–151)

- Practical Duties of the Saints—Blessings Resulting From Their Performance, by Ezra T. Benson (151–154)

- Destruction of Babylon—How the Saints Are to Become Saviors of the World, by Orson Hyde (155–159)

- Building the Temple—General Duties of the Saints, by Charles C. Rich (160–163)

- Building the Temple—Endowments—Counsel to Missionaries, Etc., by Heber C. Kimball (163–169)

- How and By Whom Zion is to Be Built—Sanctification—General Duties of the Saints, by Brigham Young (170–178)

- Advice to Missionaries—Preaching the Gospel—Gathering the Poor, Etc., by Amasa M. Lyman (178–187)

- Knowledge, Correctly Applied, the True Source of Wealth and Power—Unity of Jesus and His Father—Miracles—Slavery—True Charity, Etc., by Brigham Young (187–195)

- Universal Salvation—the Blessings Enjoyed By the Saints in Zion, Etc., by Daniel H. Wells (195–200)

- Home Manufactures—the Necessity of Greater Attention to Them—Tithing, by Brigham Young (200–208)

- Domestic Economy—the Kingdom of God—Building the Temple—Tithing, Etc., by Brigham Young (208–214)

- Inspiration Necessary for the Preaching of the Gospel—Value of Our Present Life, Etc., by Wilford Woodruff (214–220)

- Instruction to the Latter-Day Saints, in the Settlements South of Great Salt Lake City, by Brigham Young (221–229)

- Advice to California Emigrants—the Principles of the Gospel, Etc., by Brigham Young (229–232)

- Advancement of the Saints—Unity of the Temporal and Spiritual Interests of the People—Faith and Works Inseperably Connected, Etc., by Heber C. Kimball (233–238)

- The Young Missionaries—Increasing Unbelief of the People of the World—Teachings of Jesus and His Disciples, Etc., by Heber C. Kimball (239–247)

- Necessity for Watchfulness—the Proper Course to Pursue Towards Strangers—Selling Flour and Grain—the War and Its Effects Upon Slavery, by Brigham Young (248–250)

- Tithing—Building Temples—Gold, Its Production and Uses—Gover[n]mental Policy Towards Utah—Providing Bread for the Poor, by Brigham Young (251–256)

- The Confidence of the Saints in the Ultimate Triumph of the Kingdom of God—the Condition of the Nations, by John Taylor (257–261)

- The Wisdom of God Through His Servants—Missionaries’ Families to Be Sustained—How to Be Prospered, by Orson Hyde (261–264)

- Our Relationship and Duty to God and His Kingdom—the True Source of the Prosperity and Wealth of Individuals and Nations, and How to Obtain Them—Counsel to the Saints, by Brigham Young (265–274)

- Temporal and Spiritual Affairs—God the Source of All Intelligence—the Governments of the Earth—the Hand of God to Be Acknowledged in All Things, Etc., by John Taylor (274–281)

- Paying Tithing—Fasting and Prayer—Keeping the Sabbath Holy—Selling Grain—the Judgments of God, Etc., by Brigham Young (282–288)

- The Intended Trip North—the Causes of the Scarcity of Breadstuff—the Sufferings of the Ungodly in the United States—the Popularity of the Gospel Undesirable, by Brigham Young (289–298)

- The Earth the Home of Man—the Work to Be Accomplished By Man Towards Redeeming the World—the Restoration of the Gospel, and the Acknowledgment By God of His Servants, Etc., by Brigham Young (299–306)

- Turning Out the Water of the Weber—the Sufferings of the Saints—the Desires of the Servants of God to Bless the People—the Blessings of the Lord to Israel—Endowments, Etc., by Brigham Young (307–314)

- Necessity of Teaching—Overruling Power of God—the Lack of Wisdom Manifested By the World—Necessity of Teaching the Saints Upon Temporal Affairs, Etc., by Brigham Young (314–317)

- Difference of Ideas Entertained Respecting God—the Foundation of Our Religion Based Upon New Revelation—Man Made in the Image of God—We Are the Offspring of God, Etc., by Brigham Young (318–327)

- Love for the Things of God—the Temporal Nature of the Kingdom—the Proper Use of Grain—the Love of God Should Rule in Every Heart, Etc., by Brigham Young (328–338)

- Necessity of a Living Testimony of the Holy Ghost—How We Are to Be United, Etc., by Brigham Young (339–340)

- The Increase of Faith Among the Saints—More Implicit in Their Obedience Now Than in the Days of Joseph—Comparisons Made By Men Between the Past and the Present—the Magnitude of the Work of God, Etc., by George Q. Cannon (340–348)

- Attending Meetings—Testifying to the Gospel—Preaching and Practice—All Blessings to Be Obtained Through Obedience to the Gospel, Etc., by Brigham Young (349–352)

- Necessity of Continued and Faithful Labor—Kingly Nature of the Priesthood—Power Attainable Through It—Condition of the Nations Contrasted With that of the Saints—Future Glory and Greatness of the Kingdom of God, by Brigham Young (353–357)

- Temporal and Spiritual Duties of the Saints—Benefits Resulting From Proper Parental Authority—Connection Betwixt Temporal and Spiritual Things—Character of Joseph the Prophet—All Blessings From the Lord, by Brigham Young (358–365)

- Knowledge of the Saints a Cause of Consolation Under Affliction—Children Heirs to the Kingdom of God—Power of the Gospel to Unite Parents and Children—Blessings of Obedience, Etc., by Brigham Young (365–372)

- Importance of the Present Age to the Saints—Analogy Betwixt the History of Joseph in Egypt, and the Persecutions of the Church—Future Greatness of the People of God, by Orson Hyde (373–376)

Preface

We have the satisfaction of again presenting to the Saints and the public another Volume of the Journal of Discourses.

The present Number completes the tenth Volume, and we expect it will prove as interesting and instructive as the former have done. It would be a work of supererogation to pen a preface upon the writings or sermons of the First Presidency or the Twelve Apostles, they speak for themselves; but, we can only say that as every day seems to increase the prosperity of Zion, and crown with success the labors of the Servants of God, the present Volume, containing as it does many discourses on Temporal and Spiritual improvements, the development of the Work, &c., ought to prove a valuable acquisition to all those who love the truth, and long for the redemption of scattered Israel.

THE PUBLISHER

Eternal Existence of Man—Foreknowledge and Predestination

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 28, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

We have had a very interesting journey to the southern settlements. In twenty-five days we have travelled nearly eight hundred miles, held thirty meetings, and spoken to thousands and thousands of Saints. I am somewhat fatigued, and would like to be excused from speaking long to-day.

My heart is full of blessings for the people; I feel to bear them continually in my prayers before my Father in heaven.

I trust we shall be benefited by the discourse we have just heard from Elder Amasa M. Lyman. We should seek to understand and know the principles he has advanced, striving continually to know the things of God for ourselves. All the works of mankind amount to but little, unless they are performed in the name of the Lord and under the direction of his Spirit. Let every man seek to learn the things of God by the revelations of Jesus Christ to himself. The Gospel we have been hearing this morning I am seeking continually to understand. I reduce the Gospel to the present time, circumstances and condition of the people, and I can say truly, that the longer I live, and the more experience I gain, the more I see the weakness of humanity. We are but children, and are far from being capable of beholding the great things of eternity.

As far as we can compare eternal things with earthly things that lie within the scope of our understanding, so far we can understand them. We can think of the greatest earthly wealth, grandeur, magnificence and power that it is possible for mortals to attain, and somewhat understand how great a blessing it would be to be entitled to the possession of all this throughout eternity; but, to be told that there never was a time when there did not exist an earth like this, peopled with men and women as this is, is a declaration that reaches far beyond the limits of our comprehension. No man can comprehend that there never was a time when there did not exist an enemy to God, that there never was a beginning to the order of creation in which we find ourselves situated. Who can comprehend the duration of time? To return to our friends after an absence of some time and greet them with a glad heart, to mingle our mutual joy, happiness and congratulations, is one of the sweetest phases of human bliss, and were we told that there never would be a time when this heaven of happiness cannot be enjoyed, we could partially understand it; we only understand it so far as we are capable of appreciating the co-mingling of kindred joys at the reunion of parted friends. The present is that portion of time that more particularly concerns us, and the greatest and most important labour we have to perform is to cultivate ourselves. That man may know his fellow creatures, it is necessary that he should first know himself. When he thoroughly knows himself, he measureably knows God, whom to know is eternal life.

We have been hearing that Jesus Christ is our elder Brother. Yes, he is one of us, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, and became a partaker with us of all that is earthly. He also inherited a greater portion of the divine nature than we can possess in this life. He was the Son of our heavenly Father, as we are the sons of our earthly fathers. God is the Father of our spirits, which are clothed upon by fleshly bodies, begotten for us by our earthly fathers. Jesus is our elder Brother spirit clothed upon with an earthly body begotten by the Father of our spirits.

Our heavenly Father delights in his good children, he delights continually to bless them, yea, “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” All are equally his children. We are all the children of our common Father, who has placed us on the earth to prove ourselves, to govern, control, educate and sanctify ourselves, body and spirit, unto him, according to his will and pleasure. When all that class of spirits designed to take bodies upon this earth have done so, then will come the winding-up scene of this particular department of the works of God on this earth. It is his will that we should prepare ourselves to build up his kingdom, gather the house of Israel, redeem and build up Zion and Jerusalem, revolutionize the world, and bring back that which has been lost through the fall.

The inhabitants of the earth are ignorant of the way to secure their present and future happiness, but, if we are faithful, we shall see the time when we can speak to the understandings of the people. It is now very difficult to do that. Their minds are closed against every conviction that would lead to their present and eternal welfare. They take the downward road. This is very lamentable. Let all who call themselves Latter-day Saints walk in the path that points to eternal life. I mourn and lament when any of my brethren come to me and confess that they have been guilty of this or that crime, especially when I learn that they have been in the Church for years. We are yet subject to sin, and more or less give way to it; and in so doing we more or less disgrace the Priesthood and the high vocation to which we are called. Latter-day Saints should live their religion, as they would that their neighbors should live it. If I delight to see my brother walk in the path of obedience, let me pursue the same path, saying come, brethren and sisters, walk as I walk, and follow Christ as I follow him. Were this the case, but few could be found who would raise their voices against the kingdom of God upon the earth.

To say that sin is necessary is an unusual saying. Sin is in the world, but it is not necessary that we should sin, because sin is in the world; but, to the contrary, it is necessary that we should resist sin, and for this purpose is sin necessary. Sin exists in all the eternities. Sin is co-eternal with righteousness, for it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things.

I exhort the Latter-day Saints to live their religion and learn to take care of themselves. The elements with which we are surrounded are as eternal as we are, and are loaded with supplies of every kind for the comfort and happiness of the human race. It is designed by the Great Architect of the universe that our bodily wants shall be supplied from the elements, and by judicious and well-directed labour and a reasonable amount of industry, the wealth of food, clothing and shelter can be obtained by all.

It has been supposed that wealth gives power. In a depraved state of society, in a certain sense it does, if opening a wide field for unrighteous monopolies, by which the poor are robbed and oppressed and the wealthy are more enriched, is power. In a depraved state of society money can buy positions and titles, can cover up a multitude of incapabilities, can open wide the gates of fashionable society to the lowest and most depraved of human beings; it divides society into castes without any reference to goodness, virtue or truth. It is made to pander to the most brutal passions of the human soul; it is made to subvert every wholesome law of God and man, and to trample down every sacred bond that should tie society together in a national, municipal, domestic and every other relationship. Wealth thus used is used out of its legitimate channel. If a man wishes to stamp an honorable fame upon the tablets of eternity, he can do so only by living a holy and virtuous life. While stations, emoluments, sceptres, thrones, or any honor this world can give, do not in the sight of God raise the possessor above the standing of the poor, humble, hungry supplicant for bread at his gate. God is cognizant of the acts of all men, and dictates the results thereof to his glory, to the salvation of his people, and to the interests of his kingdom on the face of all the earth. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father’s notice; but the very hairs on your head are numbered.”

There cannot be a more truthful saying than that this people do not yet fully know how to take care of themselves, and hence they expose themselves to many unnecessary sufferings and inconveniences. After we have smoothed the path through this life all in our power, by accumulating around us all the common creature comforts, and done all in our power to make those who depend upon us happy and comfortable, still, there is enough of trial to sufficiently prove to God and the faithful ones, whether we will be true to him and to our holy religion, or false to him and to our best interests. Let God be first in our thoughts when we awake in the morning, and let our actions through each day reflect honor on ourselves, credit on the cause of God, and secure to us the confidence and good-will of all good and holy beings. While we should be diligent and industrious, filling every moment of our time to some advantage and profit to ourselves and others, we should not suffer a covetous and grasping spirit to take possession of us. It is lamentable to see the ignorance manifested by many of this people in that respect, for no man who possesses the wealth of wisdom would worship the wealth of mammon. Let the people build good houses, plant good vineyards and orchards, make good roads, build beautiful cities in which may be found magnificent edifices for the convenience of the public, handsome streets skirted with shade trees, fountains of water, crystal streams, and every tree, shrub and flower that will flourish in this climate, to make our mountain home a paradise and our hearts wells of gratitude to the God of Joseph, enjoying it all with thankful hearts, saying constantly, “not mine but thy will be done, O Father.”

The earth must be redeemed, and it and all that have dwelt upon it be brought back into the presence of God, for all have suffered more or less by the sin that has entered into the world. This is indeed a great work, and our God has given us the privilege of taking part in it; then let us prepare ourselves for this stupendous undertaking by seeking above all things to understand the things of God, by seeking studiously to understand ourselves, remembering that no man can know himself without so far knowing God. There is no mystery in the Gospel of salvation for those who are heirs of salvation, and they can readily comprehend the truth in many places of the Bible where the language does not do justice to the principles designed to be set forth.

Brother Amasa M. Lyman, this morning, quoted the following passage, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, he also called, and whom he called them he also justified: and whom he justified them he also glorified.” The Apostle understood full well the principles here advanced, but it would have filled volumes to have written them out in full as they were revealed from God by the power and gift of the Holy Spirit. God foreknows all, and has predestinated all who believe the truth to the possession of eternal life, and this in short is all there is of it. He foreknew Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and placed him upon the throne of Egypt for the express purpose of showing forth his power to Israel, and to the wicked nations of the Gentiles. The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the same way that he hardeneth the hearts of his enemies at the present day, after they have rejected the testimony of his servants and oppressed his elect.

The Lord has led this people out of bondage with a high hand and an outstretched arm. No man acquainted with the history of this people is ignorant of the almighty power of God that has been manifested in the organization, growth and present condition of the Church, though they may be unable naturally to account for it. And the more we grow and prosper, the more our enemies are angry with us. They are angry with us because we told them, thirty years ago, that calamity would come upon this nation. Their anger still increases, while they are drinking of the bitter cup; and at the same time the Saints are increasing in numbers, in faith, in hope, in wealth and in power. I have talked with men who professed to be gentlemen and dispensers of life and salvation to the people, who, Pharoah-like, declared that they would rather be damned than believe that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God. I promised them they should have their choice. Who is to blame for this? Moses was not to blame because Pharaoh’s heart became more and more hard. He was not to blame because an overwhelming destruction came upon that devoted army. Neither is God, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, myself, or the Apostles and Prophets of this last dispensation to blame for the unbelief of this nation, and for the dark and lowering tempest that now threatens to overthrow them with a terrible destruction. Still, as Pharaoh’s heart became harder and harder, so will it be with the persecutors of God’s people and purposes in the latter times, until they are utterly destroyed.

Not only did God foreknow the wicked and predestinate them, but he also foreknew the righteous and predestinated them; he knew that they would be conformed to the image of his Son and live according to the words of Christ, while he knew that the wicked would not fulfil the terms requisite to be conformed to the image of his Son, but would do the works of the Devil whom they would list to serve. It is written that God knows all things and has all power. He has the rule and command of this earth, and is the Father of all the human beings that have lived, do live and will live upon it. If any of his children become heirs to all things, they in their turn can say, by-and-bye, that they know all things, and they will be called Supreme, Almighty, King of kings, and Lord of lords. All this and more that cannot enter into our hearts to conceive is promised to the faithful, and are but so many stages in that ceaseless progression of eternal lives. This will not detract anything from the glory and might of our heavenly Father, for he will still remain our Father, and we shall still be subject to him, and as we progress, in glory and power it the more enhances the glory and power of our heavenly Father. This principle holds good in either state, whether mortal or immortal; “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.” There will be no end to the increase of the faithful. What a pleasing thought! We shall enjoy each other’s society in purity, in holiness and in the power of God, and no time will ever come when we may not enjoy this. Such great happiness is beyond the comprehension of mortals.

There never was a time when man did not exist, and there never will be a time when he will cease to exist. Eternity is without confines, and all things animate and inanimate have their existence in it. The Priesthood of God, that was given to the ancients and is given to men in the latter-days, as co-equal in duration with eternity—is without beginning of days or end of life. It is unchangeable in its system of government and its Gospel of salvation. It gives to Gods and angels their supremacy and power, and offers wealth, influence, posterity, exaltations, power, glory, kingdoms and thrones, ceaseless in their duration, to all who will accept them on the terms upon which they are offered.

It is very pleasing to dwell upon the glory to be revealed in the future, but while our thoughts are thus occupied we should not fail to give our attention to our present wants and necessities. Do we know how to procure the means for our present subsistence? Have we learned how to handle the things of this life in the name of Israel’s God to his glory, for the building up of his kingdom, for the bringing forth of his Zion, for the redemption of the earth, for the establishment of everlasting righteousness, and for the endless happiness of those who will thus be made happy? I am satisfied that there are hundreds of people in this community who would starve to death, if they were not continually told how to obtain the means of subsistence. Do they know how to cultivate the earth and draw from its bosom beauty and embellishment? No; they would do no more towards this than the Indians do, unless some person not only tells them how, but also shows them by his own works. How many of the ladies present have made the ribbons they wear? How many of them have made the bonnets and hats they wear? The time is at hand when you must make them or do without them.

I love to see the human form and the human face adorned, but let our adorning be the workmanship of our hands, from the elements with which we are constantly surrounded. I love beauty whether adorned or unadorned. I love chaste and refined manners, especially when they are founded upon virtue. The etiquette that is of the world is not after God and godliness. It bears upon it a false gloss; it has not for its purpose the happiness of mankind. The etiquette which is after God is to make my brother or my sister as happy as I am, if they will accept of it. It is to teach men how to rise from a state of degradation to an honourable standing in the society of the just.

In the days of the Apostles it was written, “And all that believed were together and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, &c.” This was all right in the Apostles, to show a certain principle that was hereafter to be acted upon. It does not require more than common enlightenment to discover that such an order of things, if persisted in, would result in poverty, hunger, nakedness and destitution. I say to my brethren and sisters, come let us learn how to gather around us from the elements an abundance of every comfort of life, and convert them to our wants and happiness, filling our storehouses with wheat, wine and oil, filling our wardrobes with woollen cloth and fine linen, with silks and satins of the finest quality and patterns from the looms of Deseret, going onward and upward until the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. Let us not remain ignorant with the ignorant, but let us show the ignorant how to be wise.

I am constantly trying to teach the people how to extract from the elements the means for their present comfort and independence, and how to first become perfectly obedient to the Gospel of Christ, and then children will be obedient to their parents, and in the Church and kingdom of God every person will learn to act in his order and station, and wisdom will take up her abode with us. Let fathers be willing to be taught by the Holy Priesthood, then let them in all mildness, by example and precept, teach their families; and let wives be one with their husbands in this labor of salvation, that the rising generation may be a better class of people than is the present.

I have promised the people South, that if they will cultivate the ground and ask the blessings of God upon it, the desert shall blossom as a rose, pools of living water shall spring up on the parched ground, and the wilderness shall become glad. The Lord has planted the feet of the Saints in the most forbidding portion of the earth, apparently, that he may see what they will do with it. I may confidently, say that no other people on the earth could live here and make themselves comfortable. If we settle on these desert and parched plains, upon the sides of these rugged and sterile mountains, and cultivate the earth, praying the blessing of God upon our labors, he will make this country as fruitful as any other portion of the earth. May the Lord bless the people. Amen.

Enjoyment of Liberty Under the Kingdom of God

Daniel H. Wells

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 26, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

The Gospel of salvation is interesting to me, to you, and should be to all the world, for by it we are to be judged. This test will be put to all. The principles of life and salvation the Gospel offers to us, which if we neglect will be brought up against us in a day to come. The light of truth has been revealed by the Savior, and through the mercy of the Lord he has sent forth his servants to proclaim this Gospel to all nations. What for? To injure them? No; but to bless them. The time has come in this age of the world when God has set himself to take the rule and the power of the earth into his own hands. He has sent forth Joseph, and Hyrum, and Brigham, and Heber, and Jedediah, and Willard, and Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles and the other authorities of the Holy Priesthood which is established upon the earth. The communication has been opened up between the heavens and the earth. He has sent forth a message to all nations, saying, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.” It has been proclaimed to the world by faithful men for many years—it has been sounded in the by-ways and highways, in city and hamlet, and in the nooks and corners of the earth; and, in a coming day the people will be judged by it, because it has been sent forth by the direct counsel of Heaven.

It is our duty to sustain the principles of truth, virtue and integrity, and every principle that has been revealed from the Almighty to his children on the earth. If it is the duty of one man to do this, it is the duty of every man to do the same; and every man will be found wanting unless he obeys this Heavenly message. How shall we do it when we are compassed about by all the powers of earth and hell to overcome, overthrow and destroy us? By cleaving to the Lord of hosts, who is mighty to save, and by cleaving to those holy principles of life and power which he has revealed. The more the floods of iniquity surge up against us, the closer let us cling to those principles, for they will bear us off victoriously to exaltation and glory in this world and in the worlds to come. The same principles have, exalted our Father and our God to his present state of glory and power, and they will exalt you and me and all who will abide them in the scale of human existence and eternal progression. They are the same principles which have been revealed in the latter days for the salvation of mankind, and for their exaltation to the presence of God the Father in heaven. They have always existed, and always will continue to exist. They will abide after the refuge of lies has been swept away. It is not now as it has been in days and years gone by. The kingdom is now established; it is upon the earth never again to be prevailed against or to be overcome by sin and iniquity.

All men have their volition, and are responsible to God alone for it. As the kingdom of God grows and becomes mighty upon the earth, laws will be given suited to the condition of the children of men, in their respective governments and nationalities, according to their views and principles. The supreme law of the world will be the law of God, and all people will choose to obey or disobey as they list. All will be governed according to their circumstances and the principles which will be revealed from time to time for their best good. This is not the work of a day, but of eternity—it is without beginning of days or end of years.

I feel gratified that I live in this day and age of the world; I am thankful for this privilege. “Would you not have preferred to live in the days of Jesus?” says one. No, nor in the days of Moses, nor in the days of Noah. Had I lived in Noah’s days I might have been drowned in the great flood. I prefer to live now—to-day—in the days of Brigham and Heber, and in the days of the great Prophet Joseph and Hyrum, although they did not stay long with us. They are not far away from us, neither is the Lord. Brigham is here, Heber and Daniel are here, and the Twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ are here, and the organization of the Church and kingdom of God is here, with the Holy Priesthood which is after the order of the Son of God; and this is the great chain which opens up a communication between the heavens and the earth, and in it there is safety; and through it truth will prevail over the face of the whole earth, and by its power the kingdom of God will be established upon the earth no more to be prevailed against. What matters it to us who speaks in anger against it? The truth is all the same, no matter who walks it under their feet. The eternal principles of salvation and exaltation are the same, no matter who does despite to them.

In trying to injure the truth, and impede it in its progress, they only injure themselves, and will bring upon themselves swift destruction and a righteous judgment according as it shall be ordered by our Father in heaven. God is merciful and forbearing. Can we forbear as well as he can? We can, although we are far from being as good as he is. If he can forbear many years with a man who will not say grace over his meat, or bend his knee to his God in acknowledgment of his mercy, we surely can bear a little with the infirmities of our brethren, and the ignorance of the ungodly world.

As a people and community we have borne much; and all we have ever asked of any people or government has been our rights in common with the rest of mankind; but these they seek to withhold from us, which they have no right to do, hence they are under condemnation, and we shall go free. We believe and worship as we choose, and live under a Government that guarantees unto us that right. Inasmuch as they do not give us those rights, they violate one of the holiest and most sacred provisions of the Constitution of our country, and destruction will be the consequence. The fathers of the revolution fought and bled to secure this holy right to their children so long as the world should last or the Government continue. We are therefore bold in declaring our principles, and in defending our rights. There are countries in the world where imprisonment would be the penalty of the free expression of principles and rights; but they do not live under and enjoy the blessings of the Constitution which we live under. Yet even in this free country some have sought to deprive us of the free enjoyment of the privileges granted unto us in the Constitution of our country, and they will have to pay the penalty for so doing, for they trample under foot the Constitution that grants to them their own liberties, and thus subvert their own liberties, which it becomes them as well as us to preserve inviolate. It becomes us to cleave to God and our holy religion, trusting in him because in him there is power—in him there is strength; and if we remain faithful, we shall come off victorious, and walk under our feet every principle that is calculated to destroy, and rear the standard of truth and righteousness in the world in spite of hell and all the hosts thereof. Let us be encouraged, and go steadily on in the performance of our duties, cultivating the earth, and bringing from the elements all we need for our sustenance that we may be free and independent, so far as we can, by depending on our own resources with which the Lord has abundantly blessed us. We are greatly blessed in that the Lord has planted our feet in these quiet valleys from those who sought our destruction; while he has brought an overwhelming destruction on them, he has brought safety to us. We can see his wisdom, and his mighty hand manifested in this. Let us henceforth put our trust in that arm which has been so prominently made bare in saving the righteous. May God add his blessing. Amen.

Fulfilment of Prophecy, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 27, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brother Taylor gave us a very interesting discourse this morning upon the first principles of the Gospel, contrasting them with the religion of the Christian world, showing the authority by which they administered in different ages the ordinances of religion according to the traditions of their fathers. He remarked that the Elders of this Church went forth as the Apostles did in the days of the Savior, promising to the people, on conditions of obedience, the gift of the Holy Ghost; and he remarked that no other people would do that, because they do not possess the authority to do it.

I do not know that I can spend the few moments that I may speak here, better than to read a little on the authority that we have for pursuing this course. This portion that I am going to read, is the word of the Lord to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as to the whole world:—

“Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of Him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men; yea, verily I say, hearken ye people from afar, and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together; for verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape, and there is no eye that shall not see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart that shall not be penetrated: and the rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow, for their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their secret acts shall be revealed; and the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days, and they shall go forth and none shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded them.

“Behold, this is mine authority, and the authority of my servants, and my preface unto the book of my commandments, which I have given them to publish unto you, O inhabitants of the earth: wherefore, fear and tremble, O ye people, for what I the Lord have decreed in them shall be fulfilled. And verily, I say unto you, that they who go forth, bearing these tidings unto the inhabitants of the earth, to them is power given to seal both on earth and in heaven, the unbelieving and rebellious; yea, verily, to seal them up unto the day when the wrath of God shall be poured out upon the wicked without measure; unto the day when the Lord shall come to recompense unto every man according to his work, and measure to every man according to the measure which he has measured to his fellow-man.

“Wherefore the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the earth, that all that will hear may hear: prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh; and the anger of the Lord is kindled, and his sword is bathed in heaven, and it shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth; and the arm of the Lord shall be revealed. And the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the Prophets and Apostles, shall be cut off from among the people; for they have strayed from mine ordinances, and they have broken mine everlasting covenant; they seek not the Lord, to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.

“Wherefore I, the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments; and also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be fulfilled, which was written by the Prophets; the weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones; that man should not counsel his fellow-man, neither trust in the arm of flesh, but that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world; that faith also might increase in the earth; that mine everlasting covenant might be established; that the fulness of my Gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.

“Behold, I am God and have spoken it: these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding, and inasmuch as they erred it might be made known: and inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed; and inasmuch as they sinned they might be chastened, that they might repent: and inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time: and after having received the record of the Nephites, yea, even my servant Joseph Smith, jun., might have power to translate through the mercy of God, by the power of God, the Book of Mormon; and also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually, for I, the Lord, cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven; and he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received, for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts.

“And again, verily I say unto you, O inhabitants of the earth, I the Lord am willing to make these things known unto all flesh, for I am no respecter of persons, and will that all men shall know that the day speedily cometh; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion, and also the Lord shall have power over his Saints, and shall reign in their midst, and shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world.

“Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.

“What I, the Lord, have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself: and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but all shall be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same; for behold and lo, the Lord is God, and the Spirit beareth record, and the record is true, and the truth abideth forever and ever. Amen.”—[See Doc. & Cov., pages 65-68.]

What do you think of that revelation, brethren? Does this look like a Yankee scheme, or something made up to cheat somebody? No, this is the word of the Lord; it is a sermon of itself. The Lord has sustained that revelation from that day to the present, and that is the reason why brother Taylor and the Elders of this Church go forth declaring the words of life, and they know that they have not taken this honor upon themselves, but that they were called of God as was Aaron. I do not care how illiterate an Elder in this Church is, if he has been faithful to his calling; it is a matter I care but little about if a man can neither read nor write, if he has been called and ordained to the Priesthood in this Church and kingdom by Joseph Smith, or any of those ordained by him to that Priesthood which was given unto the Prophet by Peter, James and John, who by commandment came and ordained him to the Melchisedec Priesthood. John the Baptist held the Aaronic Priesthood, and the authority commenced there, and by those men that held the keys of the kingdom of God in former dispensations. It is that authority that has inspired this; it is this that has inspired the Elders of Israel from the commencement to the present day.

Why should the Elders and people now think it strange that those messengers who have gone forth, shouldering their knapsacks and travelling thousands of miles to preach the Gospel, should be the especial objects of his favor? The Almighty has proven them all the day long, and he has been with them, and in fact there has never been any portion of the Priesthood officiating in sacred ordinances but God has been with them. In this revelation the Lord calls upon his servants, and says, “I, the Lord, am willing to make this known to the children of men, that I have called my servant Joseph, that the world may be left without excuse.”

Joseph Smith knew just as well as the Lord knew that he was called of God, and that he was called to perform a work for the redemption of man. Has he ever disappointed anybody when he has made a promise to them? Has he ever disappointed a Prophet or lawgiver in any age of the world? No, never. But he has declared that the heavens and the earth shall pass away, but his word shall never pass away, but that it shall all be fulfilled. It is just so in our day. All the words which the Lord has spoken through his servants will be fulfilled to the very letter, whether those words are in reference to the salvation of the righteous or the condemnation of the wicked. Christ had his mind upon this point when he said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”—Matthew xxiv, 35. Again, it is written, “For I will hasten my word to perform it;” and when the Lord spake through Isaiah upon this subject he said. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” The Elders go forth to preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth, knowing that the Lord will back up their word by the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost.

There is but one Gospel, neither will there be any other for the salvation of this, nor of any other world that we know of; but this we do know that this Gospel preached in any age of the world will produce the same effect. We also know that any man who receives this Priesthood, and is faithful thereunto, will receive the same blessings and power in any and every age of the world. On this account and for this reason, Utah—the valleys of Deseret are being filled with the children of men. The Almighty has sent his servants to preach the Gospel; they have not gone upon their own authority: had they done so, they might have called upon the inhabitants of the earth till doomsday, and they would not have been successful, but this land would still have been a desert, occupied only by Indians and wild beasts. But the hand of God was with us, and hence we had no fear of telling the people our message, and now there are tens of thousands who know the truth as well as we do, for they have embraced the Gospel and received this testimony for themselves. There never was a man that embraced this Gospel, but has received this testimony of the truth, if he has done so in sincerity and in truth. The Lord has always been ready to redeem his promise, and in giving that testimony which was necessary for the establishing of them in the most holy faith.

The Lord has sustained us as a people in all places and under all circumstances. We have gone forth as sheep among wolves; among a people full of tradition and superstition, and we have had all these things to cope with in our administrations among the people, but the Lord was with us wherever we went, backing up our words by the testimony and power of the Holy Ghost, and the people to whom we administered received the same testimony as had been given unto us.

We are beginning to realize that the things which the Lord has promised unto us thirty years ago are now being fulfilled to the very letter. Is there much peace in the world of mankind? No, there is not: peace is fast being taken from the children of men. We are at peace in Utah, but let me tell you that the Lord has foretold by the revelations of Jesus Christ all these things that are now fulfilling before our eyes.

I copied a revelation more than twenty-five years ago, in which it is stated that war should be in the south and in the north, and that nation after nation would become embroiled in the tumult and excitement, until war should be poured out upon the whole earth, and that this war would commence at the rebellion of South Carolina, and that times should be such that every man who did not flee to Zion would have to take up the sword against his neighbor or against his brother. These things are beginning to be made manifest, but the end is not yet; but it will come, and that too much sooner than the world of mankind anticipate, and all those things spoken by the mouths of his Prophets will be fulfilled.

We are gathering together here for certain purposes understood and in the mind of the Lord, one of which is that we may be sanctified and prepared for the great work of the future. We have carried this work to the various nations of the earth, and the people to whom we have preached have thought of us saying that there was no other Gospel than that which we had to proclaim, as was clearly and demonstratively set forth to-day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect in all its parts. The words of the Psalmist David will apply to our religion, where he says:—“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”

According to the vision of John the Revelator, there are to be “six hundred, threescore and six” false sects of religion: how many of these already exist is a matter of dispute among theologists, but I suppose that the number is nearly complete. Let me now ask if you think things look or indicate that these contending creeds are all of God. It is certainly not like the order carried out in the days of Christ and his Apostles. It is much more like the confusion of the Pharisees, Essenes, Herodians, Sadducees and Stoics, for they had different creeds, principles and notions by which they were governed, and it is just so now with the sectarian world. It is composed of every sect and party that profess religion upon the face of the earth. But the honest in heart will be gathered out of all these creeds and systems and be brought home to Zion.

There have been thousands of men and women who have listened to the preaching of the Elders of this Church, who have not embraced it for fear of their good name; and there have been many clergymen who have listened attentively to the Elders of Israel, and they have spent days and nights in meditating upon the things of God, and studying what to do, realizing within themselves that if they received this testimony they would be dishonored in the eyes of the world. They fear becoming a hiss and a by-word among the children of men in this generation. Hence the majority of them have rejected it.

Many celebrated men have investigated this subject, and far more of them have had fears that it was true than that it was false. I visited folks in Long Island in 1837; I talked with one minister named Newton, in fact I stayed with him some twelve days and preached the Gospel to him. He attended meetings, and finally became so that he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep, he was so troubled about the Gospel; but instead of embracing it, sent after a minister who lived on the south side of the island for the purpose of having me put down or silenced. I persevered and soon baptized most of the members of Mr. Newton’s church. Mr. Douglass, a Methodist minister of the south side of the island came, stayed a short time and then returned. I followed him home and succeeded in baptizing most of his church; and instead of these men getting any honor by opposing me they were both brought into disgrace. They lost their religion, their church and members, and were really disgraced. When I was there last, one of them was in the Penitentiary for one of the worst crimes that a man can be guilty of, except murder, and the other was travelling the streets peddling small articles for his bread. The chastening hand of the Lord will always follow those that oppose the truth of Heaven as revealed through the Prophet of God. This is in accordance with the experience of all our Elders. The Holy Ghost has been with them to back up their words, and I can say for all that, we have not done a thing but it has been backed up by the power of the Almighty, so far as we have labored for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God.

In regard to holding office in the Priesthood, I can truly say that I never asked any man for any office in this Church, and I believe I never asked the Lord but once, and my asking the Lord came about in this way. I went up to Missouri in Zion’s camp; I saw the Prophet every day, and I knew he was a Prophet of God. About this time I had a great anxiety to preach the Gospel; this desire increased upon me, and I finally resolved to ask the Lord to open my way, so I went down into a hickory grove and prayed, during which I asked him to give me the privilege to preach the Gospel. I prayed fervently to the Almighty to give me the privilege of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and when I got through praying I started for the place from whence I came, and I had not walked more than about forty rods before I met a High Priest, and the first thing he said to me was, “It is the will of the Lord that you go and preach the Gospel.” I told him I was ready and willing to do anything the Lord required of me; I was therefore ordained a Priest and sent to labor in Arkansas.

I will now name a circumstance which I have never named in public before. I went into Arkansas, travelled a hundred miles out of my way to see a man that had embraced the Gospel some time before I went there. He was full of wrath and indignation when I went in; he railed against Joseph Smith, Bishop Partridge and Father Morley. The Lord showed me the night before that I had enemies in that town. I talked over my feelings with the brother who accompanied me, and he wanted to leave the town, but I said no, I would not go away, for I wanted to see what the Lord wanted of me. All the people were mad with rage, and we could not get anybody to preach to; in fact they were all full of rage till they were mad with it. For some time I could not see my way clearly, but we finally called upon an old man named Hubbard, and engaged to go and clear timber. During the short time that we were employed at that the Lord sent me three times to visit that old apostate, and each time when I went there I could only bear testimony to him of the truth of the Gospel. When I went the third time he followed me out of the house as full of wrath as the Devil, and he had not followed me more than about eight rods when he fell dead at my feet. This is a short story and a very singular one.

At that time I had not power to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, only holding the Aaronic Priesthood, but the Lord sustained me and his work just as well as if I had been an Apostle. We baptized father Hubbard and his wife, after which we went on our way rejoicing. The Lord has fed and sustained his servants, and manifested his power according to circumstances, and so he will continue to do through life to all that are faithful and true to their covenants.

When the United States sent an army to this land for our destruction, the Lord had his eye upon us for good and he delivered us from all our enemies. The wicked have designed our destruction from the first organization of this Church and kingdom, but our leaders have been inspired by the gift and power of God. Who frustrated that army in their design? The Lord our God; and now the judgments that have come upon the nation in consequence of their treatment to this people, are a sore vexation to them, but it is the hand-dealing of the Almighty and we cannot help it. Every Elder in this Church who lives his religion knows that this which is now transpiring is according to the mind and forshadowings of the Holy Spirit, and those out of the Church may know if they will. If persons will believe the Bible, the Book of Doctrines and Covenants, and the Book of Mormon, they can therein learn the fate of the world, for it is there pointed out in great plainness. Who can stay this war that is devastating the whole nation both North and South? No human hand; it is out of the power of man, excepting by the repentance of the whole nation, for they have shed the blood of the Prophets, driven this Church and people from their midst, yes, the very people that hold the keys of salvation for the world they have banished from their midst, they have turned those keys that will seal their condemnation, and for this the Lord our God has taken peace out of their midst. Will there ever be any more peace among them? No, not until the earth is drenched with the blood of the inhabitants thereof. When the spirit of the Gospel leaves any people it leaves them in a worse condition than it found them, the spirit of ferocity, darkness and war will take hold of that people, and the time will come when every man that does not take his sword against his neighbor will have to go to Zion for safety.

These things sound strange in the ears of our neighbors of the nation with which we are connected, but let me tell you they are strictly true. Remember Christ’s words in regard to the temple, viz., “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”—Matthew xxiv., 2. The Lord Jesus Christ is as truthful now as he was then, and no power can stay his hand. Have we any fears of the consequences of what will transpire? No, we have not, for we know that God is at the helm.

When this kingdom commenced it was like a mustard seed, very small, but the Lord has sustained it and he will continue to control it to the end of time. Although peace is being taken from the earth yet this kingdom will thrive and prosper until every kingdom and government shall be broken to pieces, and every power shall be subject to the God of heaven.

Here are Elders who are faithful and true who have preached the Gospel from Maine to Texas, and from the Atlantic to California, and the warning voice has been lifted in Europe and in the Islands of the Sea, and thousands have embraced it and been made to rejoice in the truth.

We know that this work is of God, and that it will roll forth and prosper though all the world oppose. War is only one of the troubles that the United States are going to receive; and I can further testify, that there is no nation that will escape the judgments of the Almighty. There is no ear but what has to be penetrated with the sound of the Gospel of Christ; and by-and-by the Elders of Israel will be taken from those nations where they are now preaching, and there will be another set of Missionaries sent amongst the people; there will be the voice of lightning, the noise of war, and of all those judgments which have been enumerated and prophesied of since the beginning of time, and they will go forth among the nations until the land is cleansed from the abominations that now reign upon the face of the earth.

When this Gospel was first proclaimed to the world, darkness covered the earth; and wherever this doctrine is preached by those having authority and it is rejected, that people become more dark than they were before, and go blindly along like the ox to the slaughter, and they will sooner or later be overtaken by the judgments of the Almighty.

This is the nature of our testimony, brethren and sisters, we know that this work is true; we also know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and the Bible could not have been fulfilled unless the Lord had raised up Prophets to declare the everlasting Gospel unto the children of men; he never could have brought his judgments upon the nations until he had raised up those Prophets who were ordained to come and warn the world. The Lord is now doing this work of warning, first by his servants and then by his judgments. In speaking of the kingdom of God I will here remark, that it is always alike, or in other words it is always governed by the same laws, by Apostles and Prophets, and you cannot have a Church of Christ without these officers; there never was such a church since the beginning of the world. If any person will show me a people that were acknowledged of God, who did not have Prophets to lead them, I will confess that to be something which I have not found.

Paul says, speaking of the Church of Christ, “And he gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers.” Then, in another part of the writings of the same Apostle, he shows that with such an organization one part cannot say to the other “I have no need of thee,” but that all are necessary in the Church of Christ. It is just so with the gifts and graces of the Gospel. A great many of you have seen men without some of their limbs, and just as quick as I come to a man who has lost an arm I see it. I remember once seeing a man in London without any legs, dragging along as best he could, and of course it was very inconvenient for him to travel: but I will tell you one thing which I never did see, I never saw any man going around without any head. A man can live without arms or without legs, but he cannot without a head, and it is precisely so with the Church of Christ; one is just as impossible as the other. No other order has been manifested in this our day. We have a Prophet to lead and govern this people; we also have pastors and teachers, the Holy Ghost and the revelations of Jesus Christ right from heaven unto us, and we are realizing every day the fulfilment of these things that are promised to the faithful.

Brethren and sisters, we ought to be truly thankful to our Father and God, for he has been merciful to us, he has bestowed upon us his Spirit so that our ears have been opened to hear and our hearts to understand and to rejoice in the good things of the kingdom of God. And how lamentable it is that so few in the present generation have embraced the fulness of the Gospel, perhaps not one in ten thousand have received the truth. The Jews have suffered long and grievously for their rebellion, and they will continue to suffer for some time yet, but woe unto the Gentiles when they reject the light that is offered, for when that stone, which is spoken of in Scripture, falls upon them they cannot escape the crushing power thereof, it will grind them to powder.

Let us be faithful, serve our God and trust in him, and then, through the influence of his Spirit we shall know the signs of the times, and be prepared and made meet for our Master’s use.

I ask that this may be our portion, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Never Ending Character of a Saints’ Mission, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

We have opened our Conference to present before the congregation such principles and doctrines and to transact such business as may be necessary for the instruction and edification of the Saints and the advancement of the cause of truth.

It has been remarked by some of the Missionaries who have lately returned, that though they had arrived at home, they did not consider their missions at an end. When persons become subjects of the kingdom of God they enter upon a mission that will never end. They may turn away from the holy commandments, and forsake the kingdom, but so long as they remain faithful so long will their missions as advocates for God and his righteousness be continued. There may be intervals of rest, of relaxation from the more arduous duties of their missions, but in such times they are not by any means to consider their missions ended. Christ will not cease his labors pertaining to this earth until it is redeemed and sanctified ready to be presented spotless to the Father.

Luke records the words of Christ as follows:—“But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew records the saying still fuller:—“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jesus Christ did not exhort his followers to seek something they could not find, something that was not within their reach. He did not exhort them to ascend up to heaven to bring the kingdom down, nor to descend into the deep to bring it up, but he came to establish that kingdom, and it was nigh unto them. I would say to the Latter-day Saints, seek to know that the kingdom of God has been organized in our own time. When this kingdom is organized in any age, the Spirit of it dwells in the hearts of the faithful, while its visible department exists among the people, with laws, ordinances, helps, governments, officers, administrators, and every other appendage necessary for its complete operation to the attainment of the end in view. Seek to know that the kingdom of God is organized upon the earth, and be sure to know that you have an interest, in that kingdom, and enjoy the Spirit of it day by day, for this is, or ought to be, nearer to our hearts than all earthly considerations. This privilege is within the reach of all, when the Gospel is proclaimed to them. When men truly and heartily repent, and make manifest to the heavens that their repentance is genuine by obedience to the requirements made known to them through the laws of the Gospel, then are they entitled to the administration of salvation, and no power can withhold the good Spirit from them. Cornelius is an instance of this. The Holy Ghost fell on him and his household, through their faith and earnest repentance, before they were baptized.

That we may understand things as they are, and thereby learn to sanctify ourselves before the Lord our God, it is essentially necessary that we practically live our religion. Every true believer of this Gospel is anxious to gather to the home of the Saints. I think I am safe in saying, that if there was a highway cast up flora England to the shores of the continent of America, there are men who would be willing to measure the ground with their bodies to reach this place. Even this does not tell their anxiety to be here; it must be seen in the spirit, to know it as it really is. We are agreed in gathering the Saints, as well as in the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel of peace.

It may be said that the tug of trials has commenced when the Saints begin to cross the plains to this place. This temporal duty puts all their spiritual attainments to the test. There are but few persons who thoroughly understand how to organize and lead a company across the plains, and in this alone arises many inconveniences and trials to the immigrants. How many hearts are prepared to meet the difficulties, privations, trials and labors to be encountered on the plains, without murmuring and complaining? I should think but few. To believe the Gospel and embrace it, to believe all that is written in the Bible, Book of Mormon and Book of Doctrine and Covenants, is but a small matter compared with giving up comfortable homes, friends and relatives, being tossed upon the boisterous ocean, confined in narrow limits, and being jostled in railway cars, exposed to the insults and ridicule of rude and wicked persons that always assemble on the public highways, and suffering the hardships and privations incident to travelling over the plains.

I wish the people not to lose sight of one thing: that every day’s labor, every moment’s toil, every prayer and exertion which they make points to the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth. Let us seek daily to know that the kingdom of God is established among us, according to the pattern in the heavens. Under this knowledge our actions will constantly point in the right direction, and every move we make will enhance the interests of the general cause. When this kingdom is established in its two-fold capacity—spiritually and temporally—then it is given unto us to know how to secure everything else that is necessary to enjoy on the earth. But it is our duty first to seek to know that the kingdom of God is established and organized upon the earth, that we have an interest in it, that that interest above all others is the nearest and dearest to our hearts, as our present and eternal welfare is embraced in it, and that we possess the Spirit of this kingdom and enjoy it day by day.

Remarks have been made relating to the Saints travelling in independent companies. When an independent company undertakes to travel across the plains, they are generally too independent for their own safety and good. There never was and never will be a people in heaven nor on earth, in time nor in eternity, that can be considered truly and entirely independent of counsel and direction. Our independent companies entertain the same mistaken views of independence as people generally do of the independence of a Republican Government. Man in his ignorance is impatient of control, and when he finds himself from under its influence he supposes that he is then independent, or, in other words, that he is a free man. Independence so viewed and so employed, either individually or collectively, religiously or politically must open a wide arena of action for all the evil, selfish and malignant qualities of depraved men, introducing distraction into every ramification of society, destroying confidence, checking the onward progress of industry and universal prosperity, and bringing in famine, pestilence and destruction everywhere. An independent company of immigrants can appoint their own captain to guide them across the plains, and they can also dispute every act of his for their good. They can find fault with him for camping too soon or too late; for camping in this, that or the other place; and if he offers them good advice, reject it because they are independent and free, as they suppose. Individual self-government lies at the root of all true and effective government, whether in heaven or on earth. Those who govern should be wiser and better than the governed, that the lesser may be blessed of the greater. Were this so, then the people would willingly repose their dearest interests to the trusts of their rulers or leaders, and with a feeling of pleasure bow to and carry out to the letter their instructions and conclusions on all matters that pertained to the general good. This will apply to great kingdoms and mighty nations, to small companies of immigrants crossing the plains, or to the home circle. A Republican Government in the hands of a wicked people must terminate in woe to that people, but in the hands of the righteous it is everlasting, while its power reaches to heaven.

I had the pleasure of leading the first company of Saints to these valleys, assisted by a few of my brethren. In this business we have had a good experience.

I will here take the liberty of relating a little of my first career in “Mormonism.” In 1834, brother Joseph Smith the Prophet, started with a company from the State of Ohio, picking up others as he passed through various States on his route until he arrived in Missouri. We had grumblers in that camp. We had to be troubled with uneasy, unruly and discontented spirits. This was the first time we had ever travelled in the capacity of a large company, and it was my first experience in that mode of travelling. Brother Joseph led, counselled and guided the company, and contended against those unruly, evil disposed persons. When we arrived in Missouri, the Lord spoke to his servant Joseph and said, “I have accepted your offering,” and we had the privilege to return again. On my return many friends asked me what profit there was in calling men from their labor to go up to Missouri and then return, without apparently accomplishing anything. “Who has it benefited?” asked they. “If the Lord did command it to be done, what object had he in view in doing so? I was then comparatively ignorant, to what I am now, in regard to the spirits and actions of mankind But I then learned that those persons who asked me such questions were weak in the faith and, like a faulty column in an edifice, could not bear up under the burden designed to rest upon them. This has since proved to be the case. I wish this fact to sink into your hearts, that when men or women have doubts, they also have fear; and when they have fear they are in danger of what? Of themselves. Want of confidence is the parent of moral imbecility and intellectual weakness. Hear it, ye Saints, that man or woman that is crowned with crowns of glory, immortality and eternal lives will never be heard to grumble or complain. I told those brethren that I was well paid—paid with heavy interest—yea that my measure was filled to overflowing with the knowledge that I had received by travelling with the Prophet. When companies are led across the plains by inexperienced persons, especially independent companies, they are very apt to break into pieces, to divide up into fragments, become weakened, and thus expose themselves to the influences of death and destruction.

I sometimes think that I would be willing to give anything, to do almost anything in reason, to see one fully organized Branch of this kingdom—one fully organized Ward. “But,” says one, “I had supposed that the kingdom of God was organized long ago.” So it it is, in one sense; and again, in another sense it, is not. Wheresoever this Gospel has been preached and people have received it, the spiritual kingdom is set up and organized, but is Zion organized? No. Is there even in this Territory a fully organized Ward? Not one. It may be asked, “Why do you not fully organize the Church?” Because the people are incapable of being organized. I could organize a large Ward who would be subject to a full organization, by selecting famil[i]es from the different Wards, but at present such a Branch of the Church is not in existence.

I am satisfied that the mechanical ability of the people of this Territory will rank with that of any other people, but there is not one in five hundred that knows how to husband his ability and economize his labor when he first comes to this new country. They are for a time like a feather in the wind, until some circumstance occurs to settle them in some position where they can begin to do something to provide for themselves. It is not easy to find a Bishop that knows how to settle, in a proper way, the smallest difficulty that may occur in his Ward. There are but few men that can guide themselves, and gather around them the comforts and wealth of this life. In the settlements I passed through during my late visit south, I saw comparatively little wisdom manifested in the style and extent of their improvements. Men who have been in this Church ten, fifteen, and twenty years, and in this country from the first settlement of it, possessing flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and horses running upon the plains, what kind of houses have they? Log hovels and mud huts. What have they in their houses? Two tin plates, a broken knife, and a fork with one prong. If a person calls for lodgings, “O yes, you can stay and welcome. Come wife, bake some potatoes and squash, and roast some meat, bake some biscuit, and stew a little of that fruit I bought at the store,” and all this the poor woman has to do in one little bake kettle. A good natured man enough, an easy going sort of person, and his hair looks as though it had not been cut or combed for years. After supper you retire to bed, and before morning you are made fully satisfied that you are a man of feeling. Is such enterprise worthy of Saints? Is this the way to build up cities and make the earth like the garden of Eden? Do such people know that the kingdom of God is set up on the earth? “O yes, I have it in me.” You have the spiritual kingdom within you but there is a literal kingdom to build up.

There are scores of Elders in this Church who can preach, baptize and lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, that do not know how to produce a livelihood for themselves, a wife, and one child. It requires but little experience to do this, and much less do they know how to build a good house, how to lay out and build up a city, how to lay the foundations of Zion, &c., &c. Can they lead a company of Saints cross the plains? They can try, and very likely the company will break to pieces, unless the power of God is among them. This gives us a striking proof of the necessity of the people’s having faith and power with the heavens, that if their Bishop does not know what he ought, their faith will keep him in the right path and the Spirit of the Lord will open to the vision of his mind the things that he should do. That is the duty of the people.

We have a kingdom to organize, and I say, Seek to know that you have the kingdom within you and that you are in it. Seek to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, for that will give you wisdom to add to yourselves everything necessary. The Lord will not himself plough our grounds, sow our grain, and reap it when it is ripe. The man that understands the kingdom of God will seek to understand the elements in which he lives, and to know something of his own organization, the design of it, and the designs of Heaven in it. Is the kingdom of God in its perfection on the earth? It is not. True, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe in his ordinances. We believe that the Lord called Joseph Smith and ordained him an Apostle and Prophet to this generation, giving him the keys and power of the Holy Priesthood. We believe in the gathering of the house of Israel in the latter days, in the redemption of Zion, in the building up and establishment of Jerusalem, and in the gathering of the Jews from their long dispersion; in short, we believe all that the ancient Prophets have spoken, but where is the people that is willing to build up the visible kingdom of God and that is capable of dictating this great work.

The Lord will make the people willing in the day of his power. This cannot refer to making the people willing to acknowledge Jesus to be the Christ; it must refer to something else. Shall we wait until we are whipped from among the wicked before we are willing to gather out from among them and flee to Zion? This has been the case with some, and what are such persons good for when they get to Zion? I do not, however, wish to disturb anybody’s feelings; I am glad to see them come to a place of safety when they are obliged to; but I would rather have seen them come in the beginning, when they could have helped to kill the snakes, build the bridges, make the roads, and manifest their faith that we could raise fruit, grain and every staple necessary of life in this country, help to open the kanyons, build the mills, bring out the lumber and build towns and cities. But we are glad to see them as they are, and we will do the best we can with them. There are more coming.

Which will be best eventually, to go to with our might, to build up the Zion of God on the earth, or wait until we are whipped to it? I can only broach the subject of building up the kingdom of God as it must be built up in the latter days; I will leave it for others to talk upon during the Conference, or not, as they please. I know what I have to do, and that is to teach this people to appreciate their own present lives. There is no life more precious than the present life which we enjoy; there is no life that is worth any more to us than this life is. It may be said that an eternal life is worth more. We are in eternity, and all that we have to do is to take the road that leads into the eternal lives. Eternal life is an inherent quality of the creature, and nothing but sin can put a termination to it. The elements in their nature are as eternal as are the Gods. Let us learn, under the guidance and direction of Heaven how to use these eternal elements for the building up, establishment and sending forth of the kingdom of God, gathering up the poor in heart to begin with, and the further things we will learn as we progress.

Some of you may ask why the Lord did not perfectly organize at least one Branch of the Church? When a great blessing is bestowed upon a people, and that blessing is not strictly honored and lived to, in proportion to the greatness of that blessing, over and above what has been previously enjoyed, it will be a curse to them. I recollect that Joseph once said to me, when he was talking upon the principle of the Lord’s raising up seed to himself upon the earth—a royal Priesthood, a holy nation that can offer sacrifices acceptable to God”Brother Brigham, it will damn many of the Elders of Israel.” There are but few men in this kingdom that are now worthy of that blessing, yet all who are in full fellowship must enjoy it.

We will wait patiently until we can get the people to know how to secure to themselves the comforts of life, good houses, for instance, and know how to raise fruit as well as bread. The best fruit I ever saw in any country I saw exhibited in our recent fair. It has been told the people, from the first of our coating into this country, there existed in these elements as good material for fruit as can be found anywhere. Then let us go forth in faith and plant seed in the ground, and cultivate mother earth and pray over the earth and over our crops and over all we possess, and the curse will be removed, and God will restore genialty to the atmosphere and fertility to the soil.

I wish to teach the Elders of this Church how to lead a company across the plains, as well as how to preach the Gospel; to learn them how to be a Bishop, a father to the people, as well as how to kneel down and pray, or to rise up and preach. I wish to learn them how to reconcile the people one to another, how to build cities, how to beautify and redeem the earth, how to lead and guide this people to life eternal, how to preside over their families, and how to conduct themselves in the common avocations of life. I have, all this and more constantly before me.

Brethren is your Mission ended? No, it is as much upon you here as when you are out in the distant parts of the earth preaching the Gospel. Jesus Christ made water into wine by calling together from the elements the properties of wine. He fed thousands of people with five loaves and two small fishes by calling the elements together to compose bread and fish; and he says, “Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father.” It is our privilege and our duty to continue to learn, until we shall have wisdom enough to command the elements as he did, and until the earth is brought back to its paradisaical state. But we must first redeem ourselves from every root of bitterness that may be in our nature, striving daily to overcome the evil that is in the world and in ourselves, sanctifying our hearts and affections until there shall be nothing abiding in us contrary to the Holy Ghost in its perfect and full fruition of enjoyment to the creature.

I think it likely that after a while I may be able to so humble myself and become like a little child, as to be taught more fully by the Heavens. Perhaps, when I am eighty years of age, I may be able to talk with some Being of a higher sphere than this. Moses saw the glory of God at that age, and held converse with better beings than he had formerly conversed with. I hope and trust that by the time I am that age I shall also be counted worthy to enjoy the same privilege.

I pray you not to forget what I have said to you this morning, but lay it up in your hearts, and pray that it may bring forth fruit for the more perfect establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth. Amen.

Future State of Existence

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I will offer a few remarks in relation to the difference between this and the next state of existence. The next state of existence is a spiritual one. The spirit which is now clothed with mortal flesh will be set free from that encumbrance, and the spirits of Saints will be free from the power of sin and Satan.

This state is a state of trial, wherein the spirit clothed upon with flesh labors to sanctify, redeem and save the flesh, that in the resurrection the spirit and the body may be made eternally one, through the power of the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The next state of existence is the paradisaical state of the spirit, a state of waiting until the body shall pass through the purification and refinement given to it by passing through death and the grave; then cometh the resurrection which bringeth to pass the reunion of the body and the spirit. “O, how great the plan of our God. For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirit of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body are restored to each other again, and all men become incorruptible and immortal, and they are living souls,” &c.

From the state of embryo to the time of birth, and from infancy to ripe old age, unseen dangers lurk in our path to mar our bodies or to render our senses inefficient; hence we see the lame, the maimed, the blind, the deaf, dumb, weak, sickly and so on.

I think it has been taught by some that as we lay our bodies down, they will so rise again in the resurrection with all the impediments and imperfections that they had here; and that if a wife does not love her husband in this state she cannot love him in the next. This is not so. Those who attain to the blessing of the first or celestial resurrection will be pure and holy, and perfect in body. Every man and woman that reaches to this unspeakable attainment will be as beautiful as the angels that surround the throne of God. If you can, by faithfulness in this life, obtain the right to come up in the morning of the resurrection, you need entertain no fears that the wife will be dissatisfied with her husband, or the husband with the wife; for those of the first resurrection will be free from sin and from the consequences and power of sin. This body “is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” “And, as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

God has done his part towards putting us in possession of celestial glory and happiness, by providing the means whereby we may attain to it; and if ever we possess it, we must do so by conforming to the means provided. God has given the children of men dominion over the earth and over all things that pertain to it, and has commanded them to subdue it, and to sanctify themselves before him, and also to sanctify and beautify the earth by their industry, and by their wisdom and skill which cometh from God. Learn, for instance, how to yoke together a pair of oxen, how to manage and drive them across the plains, how to get timber from the kanyons, how to make brick, and how to hew stone and bring them into shape and position to please the eye and create comfort and happiness for the Saints. These are some of the mysteries of the kingdom. To receive the Gospel and believe and enjoy it in the spirit, is the simplest part of the work the Latter-day Saints have to learn and perform.

God has made man lord of all things here below, and it is the labor of man to bring all things unto subjection to God, by first subjecting himself to the will of God, and then subjecting all things over which he has control, in their time and order. The will of God is eternal life to his people and to all they control.

May God bless you. Amen.

Design of the Lord in Gathering Together his People, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 8, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

The miracles wrought in the days of Moses for the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, as they are recorded in the Old Testament, appear to be wonderful displays of the power of God. I need not here rehearse the history of the children of Israel, with which the majority of this congregation are well acquainted, but I wish to say that if all instances where the power of God has been displayed through the Elders of this Church were written, we should find that as great and wonderful, miracles have been wrought among this people as have been wrought among any people in any age of the world, and yet this Church is only in its infancy. The children of Israel, it is written, were brought out of Egypt with an high hand and an outstretched arm, to inherit a land flowing with milk and honey; we have assembled in these distant valleys for the trial of our faith. They were delivered out of a dreadful bondage, leaving none behind; we have willingly sold and otherwise left our possessions, at the same time leaving friends, parents, companions, &c., behind. The distance to their land of promise was but a few miles from the country of their bondage, while a great many of this people have traversed over one-half of the globe to reach the valleys of Utah.

Brother Goddard spoke this morning in relation to the words of the Lord pertaining to the saving of paper rags. His remarks were amusing, and had he coupled some of the ancient revelations and sayings, recorded as the Lord’s, with his remarks concerning paper rags, those remarks would have been still more amusing; such for instance, as “If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young; but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.” Again, “Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.” Again, “Thou shall make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself,” &c., &c. Seeing many such instances as these in the Bible, we cannot marvel at a man’s talking about paper rags in a religious meeting, and saying that it is the word of the Lord or at least the word of wisdom that we should save our rags.

Let us realize one fact in addition to the great miracles that have ever been exhibited among God’s people. From the beginning of the world to this time, when the Lord has gathered together a people to be a chosen people to him, he has always begun to educate them by instructing them in the little things pertaining to life, which he never does when his people remain mixed with the wicked. Before the Lord, through Moses, called upon the children of Israel to leave Egypt, he had no such instructions for them as we have quoted; he had nothing to say to them about governing themselves, nor about driving out their enemies before them, nor taking a course to sustain themselves: in fact, they were far below this people in the scale of independence and civilized life. In righteousness this people far excel the ancient Israelites; indeed, I would not wish to compare the righteousness of the children of Israel with the righteousness of the Latter-day Saints, for multitudes of the Latter-day Saints will enter into the rest of the Lord, but only two persons out of the hosts of Israel were permitted to do so.

While the meek of the earth remain scattered among the wicked, the Elders of this Church can go forth with the Old and New Testament in their hands, and show what the Lord is going to do in the latter days, the great miracles he will perform, the gathering of his people, the saving of his Saints, the building up of Zion, the redeeming of the house of Israel, the establishing of the ]New Jerusalem, the bringing back of the ten tribes, and the consuming of their enemies before them, overthrowing kingdoms, &c., &c., and this is proclaimed to both Saint and sinner. But when the people of God are gathered out to one place, they are then taught the so-called little things that pertain to every day life, which they cannot be taught while they are in a scattered condition. Many come here under a mistaken impression; they think they are gathered to this place to be told how people live in heaven, to receive a minute description of the inhabitants of heaven, to be told how they associate together, whether they live in cities, of what the houses are built, what kind of architecture prevails there, how the cities are laid out, and how the heaven of heavens is built, who dwells there, where the inhabitants came from, their stature and complexion, whether God is a personage of tabernacle or not, what means for locomotion he uses when he visits his friends, what he eats for breakfast, how often he changes his clothes, what style of clothing he wears, of what kind of material it is made, whether they have winter and summer in heaven, seed time and harvest, &c., &c. But no, my brethren, this is not what you have come here for; the Lord has called the people together expressly to teach them the things which pertain to this world and to this life, that they may know how to honor the life he has given them here.

The inhabitants of the earth are ignorant with regard to the design of their being; they are as ignorant in this respect as the wild animals that roam over the plains. They may be very religious, but the religion that is popular in the world now is entirely another thing from the ways of the Lord. Many of their traditions are good, and many of the people possess much good moral religion; I may say, so far as morality goes, that they are just as good as people can be, but they are not taught how to govern and control themselves, they are not taught the worth of their present life. The whole drift, labor, and exertions of the priests of the day among the people are to prepare them to die. I never had such a mission given to me, nor received such a calling from the heavens; I have been called to preach life, and not death. It is my business to teach mankind how to live, how to honor their present existence, how to treat their bodies so as to live to a good old age on the earth, and have power to do good and not evil all their days, and be ready to enter into the rest prepared for the Saints.

Almost any Elder in this Church can preach the Gospel, if he is humble before God; he can tell all that the wicked would need to hear from the Old and New Testament. Many of the Elders are scholars, and when they preach we expect to hear almost a Bible and a half preached before they get through; they can carry you through the historical portions, repeat the sayings of the old prophets, dilate largely upon the doctrinal portions of the New Testament, guage [gauge] the morality of the present age by repeating verbatim the moral lessons of the Savior, are at home among the beasts of the Apocalypse and the prophetical heads and horns of Daniel, are thoroughly posted in the time, times, and half-a-time, know the contents of all the vials, when they will be poured out, can deliniate [delineate] to a nicety the different parts of Daniel’s metal image—in a word, they are paragons in Bible lore, but if you ask them whether they know how to raise potatoes to feed their wives and children, their answer is “No.” Do you know how to raise grain for your bread? “No.” Do you know how to raise watermelons? “No.” Do you know how to raise pigs for your meat? “No.” Do you know how to raise chickens? “No.” Do you love to eat them? “Yes.” Do you know how to raise calves? “No.” You may give them a cow and calf, and two years will not pass before they have neither cow nor calf. Do you know how to improve your fruit? “No.” and thus they live without trying to produce for themselves these necessaries and comforts of life. Finally, what do you know? “Why, we know that we must prepare to die.” There are people who have been in this city twelve years, and have not planted in their gardens a single fruit tree. The Lord wishes us to know how to provide for ourselves all things necessary for our comfort in bread, fruit, and clothing.

Sisters, do you know how to make woollen cloth, linen cloth, or cotton cloth? Probably a few of you do. Almost any female can, knit a stocking, for this seems to be their employment when they sit down to rest. Children are taught to knit, but the majority never progress any further than this in the art of manufacturing. In addition to this, needlework is generally understood by the female portion of the community, but as a general thing what do they know about making cloth? Very little. They need to be taught; yet they know as much about these matters as the children of Israel did. They also need to be taught, when their husbands bring into the house a hundred weight of flour, not to throw it out of the door; and when they make bread of it to make it light, palatable, and healthy, instead of making cakes as indigestible as a whetstone, that when your husbands come from work and your children from school they may have bread to eat that will sit easy on their stomachs. Many husbands are made sick and many children are sent to an untimely grave through eating badly prepared food, the result of ignorance or carelessness.

This is the place to become acquainted with this knowledge. It is for the husband to learn how to gather around his family the comforts of life, how to control his passions and temper, and how to command the respect, not only of his family but of all his brethren, sisters and friends. It is the calling of the wife and mother to know what to do with everything that is brought into the house, laboring to make her home desirable to her husband and children, making herself an Eve in the midst of a little paradise of her own creating, securing her husband’s love and confidence, and tying her offspring to herself, with a love that is stronger than death, for an everlasting inheritance. There is a saying that a wife so disposed can throw out of the window with a teaspoon more than her husband can throw into the door with a shovel. I am sorry to say that this is too much the case. A good housewife disposes of her cooking utensils, dusters, towels, floorcloths, barrels, buckets, &c:, in a neat, cleanly, and labor-saving manner. A good mechanic has a place for every tool, and when he has done using a tool it is returned to its place as by magic, without any apparent effort. I have watched our mechanics here, and, take them first and last, their ways, if not strewed to strangers, are strewed to nonsense. A good farmer takes care of his implements of husbandry. Instead of leaving them scattered all over the farm, they are carefully gathered together, properly cleaned and greased to defend them from rust, and put in a safe place until they are wanted.

There are very few of our farmers that know how to prepare the ground and plant the seed in a way to secure a ready germination and quick growth. I told my farmers this spring how to prepare the ground for sugar-cane, and to plant the seed three-fourths of an inch deep. I waited ten days for the plants to show themselves, when I found the seed was put away six inches below the surface, and I thought well laid away from the frost of the winter of 1862-3. It is now beginning to show itself, five weeks since it was planted.

I would that people knew more than they do about these important matters, but we are where we can be taught. Will the people be taught? Will they cheerfully receive instruction and profit by it? I hire the best gardeners I can find, and they are ignorant of their business; they scarcely know one apple from another or one fruit tree from another. If I spend five hundred dollars to have a strawberry-bed made, I may perhaps get a quart or two of the fruit; I may safely say that I shall not receive enough fruit to half cover the outlay. I can instruct any man how to improve seedling fruit, and have it as good as the imported kinds. The best fruit that ever grew will deteriorate under bad management and neglect. I advise farmers and gardeners to understand their business and make it profitable; also to mechanics would I give the same advice. And I would advise the sisters not only to save their paper rags, but to learn how to properly and profitably dispose of new cloth when they get it.

Cleanliness and neatness of person are desirable and good to see, but this may be carried to an extreme that is both tiresome and expensive; there is a class that is more nice than wise. Nothing less than linen pocket-handkerchiefs by the dozen will answer for some of our ladies. “Husband, don’t get me less than three dozen handkerchiefs, for I must have from three to half-a-dozen a-day, it is so nice to be clean.” When they have used a handkerchief twice or three times, it is thrown into the wash-tub to be rubbed to pieces and wasted away. In this way you get no good of your money; the article is not worn out in service, but it is washed out. Then, when you hang and pin your clothes on the clothesline, they are left to be whipped to pieces in a high wind, and are more used up in one operation of this kind than if they had been worn three months. It is useless for husbands to suggest to them the expediency of taking the clothes in, for they will let them remain notwithstanding, and be worn out. Go into the kitchens of these very nice, neat wives who can nurse a pocket-handkerchief to a charm and apply it to their nasal protuberances with such refined grace, and you hear Sally asking Sue for the dishcloth. “Where is the dishcloth?” It is found stuffed into a mouse-hole, or Jim has just come in from the kanyon and is washing his feet with it. Then there is an outcry for the knife they cut meat with. “Where is the butcher knife?” Billy has had it out of doors, and has left it in a neighboring ditch. They may have bread and meat, a bread knife and a meat knife, but neither of these articles has a recognized home in the house, and you are just as likely to find them in one place as another. “Where is the bag of flour?” “I don’t know; I think I saw it under the stairs this morning when I was rummaging about.” It is at last found stuck in a dirty corner, with dirty clothes thrown over it, and perforated with mouse-holes. The bread pan is lost; the rolling-pin and board cannot be found, and when the board is found it has been converted into a checker-board, and then used in the chicken-coop; and when the broom is wanted little Jack is astride of it in the street, deliberately walking through a mud hole. Instead of their houses being houses where order and economy reign, confusion, disorder, and waste prevail.

Some of our professed good housekeepers, in my opinion, come far short of really deserving that character, at least I should think so, were I permitted to see them cook breakfast. There are potatoes to boil, bread to bake, meat to cook, and fruit in stew. Perhaps the first thing that is done is to put the tea to steeping, then fry the meat, then prepare the potatoes for boiling, and about the time the potatoes are done the bread must be mixed; while the bread is baking the tea is spoiling, the meat and potatoes are getting cold and unfit to eat; when the bread is ready, as likely as not the fruit is forgotten, and a great effort has to be made to prepare the fruit; much bustle, confusion, labor, and time have been expended to get the food ready, and when it is served up the tea is not worth drinking, the potatoes are tough, watery, and cold, the meat is dry, hard, and unpalatable, the biscuits are baked too much on the outside and not enough in the inside, while the fruit is only half cooked; and taking it altogether, it would be better for the stomach to reject such a meal of victuals, if there existed a prospect of dining upon a more wholesome and better prepared meal at noon.

We have been gathered together in these valleys to be taught. We must first learn to control ourselves before we can think to control our fellow creatures. The Lord has given extensive lines of operation to both Saint and sinner, but when he gathers his family he expects them to first master these so-called little things; he wishes us to learn to live with each other, and to surround ourselves with all the common necessaries and comforts of life. Until this is done we are unprepared to receive the greater blessings, for if we had them now we should not know what to do with them. It is our business to live, to learn how to preserve our lives, and labor to make the earth into a Garden of Eden; unless we do this, we are unworthy to possess eternal life. “And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” He that is not faithful in the things of this world, who will commit unto him the things which pertain to eternity?

All things belong to the Lord, and we belong to the Lord, and if we are faithful until we have passed the ordeal and proved ourselves worthy before the heavens to receive our crowns, then we shall receive a deed of that which the Lord gives to us. Until then, that which we hold we hold only as stewards for the Lord. It is our privilege to grow and increase continually, to receive knowledge upon knowledge, and prepare to enter upon the higher duties of eternal life. We thus proceed from one step to another until we merge into immortality. We do not become another kind of beings in passing through the resurrection, but we are more refined through the application of the laws of the Gospel to our lives and passing through the grave. The grave will take away every deformity from the mortal organisms of the faithful, and they will be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

We have now space to prove ourselves worthy to receive the glory that God has in store for the faithful, but we have to learn the little things first. We are brought here expressly, in the first place, to raise potatoes, grain, fruit, wool, flax, and every other necessary and mortal comfort we can produce in this climate. Some of our Elders will preach until they preach the people blind, and will die in their ignorance and go to hell, unless they learn what their lives are worth and how to preserve them. I am speaking to the Saints. If we do not learn what God has brought us here for, and the nature of the mission he has given us, we may preach the Bible until we are blind and old as Methusela, and die and be damned at last. It is our duty to learn how to govern ourselves, and how to conduct ourselves pleasingly in the sight of heaven towards our friends, families, and neighbors, building up cities and towns, opening farms, planting vineyards and orchards, and improving our country, until finally, we shall be ready to rule.

May God bless the faithful, and overthrow the wicked and ungodly, and establish his kingdom no more to be thrown down is my daily prayer. Amen.

Bishops and Presidents

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brethren and sisters, I have been highly edified this morning, as I presume you all have, and I doubt not but the seed has fallen upon good ground, and when we return to our homes we shall feel sensibly that the seed sown has done good.

It has been in my mind to remark that the office of both President and Bishop are in our President, and therefore he has the undoubted right to place those two offices on one man, or to ordain two separate men as he may see proper. There may possibly arise circumstances that may appear to cause the authority of the two to conflict, and thus to be incompatible one with the other, but this is only on account of the ignorance of the people. We ought so to live as all to be capable of being Presidents and Bishops, for there is certainly ample room for us all to do all the good we can; but I have thought in the present state of our limited knowledge it would be better to dispense with the office of President in the country settlements. I am happy to inform you that I have never heard of any feeling of difficulty between the President and Bishop at Spanish Fork. Brother Young did not know of a single exception to the rule, but I am informed by all parties that these brethren have never conflicted. [President B. Young: I wish I had never heard anything to the contrary.] My reason for desiring to have this matter brought here was to have the duties of Bishops and Presidents defined, thinking that probably the result of the investigation would be the abolishing of the office of President for the present in the country Branches, and I can truly say that I feel thankful, brethren and sisters, for what I have heard, and I can say with regard to the people in the region where I have labored there is a good degree of union there among the people. In fact, I rejoice to say that there is no schism in that region; we have no difficulty there with our High Priests, none with our Seventies, only what we have been enabled to arrange. A good feeling exists there, and I am glad and happy to know that there is an increase of good feeling with the people of Sanpete. I feel thankful that when the people from all quarters meet here the spirit and the atmosphere seem to bear witness to what I have said.

Well, brethren and sisters, I have spoken before, and I do not wish to occupy much time at the present, but the spirit that is here is good, and all things that have been done feel like a balm to my soul.

God bless you all. Amen.

Forming a State Constitution, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I wish to inform all the inhabitants of the Territory of Utah, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, black and white, red, copper-colored and yellow, that, in organizing a State Government, we shall not infringe in the least upon the Constitution of our country, upon any principle contained in the Declaration of Independence, nor upon any constitutional law that has been enacted by the Congress of the United States. Will this step bring upon us the disapprobation of the Government of the United States? That is not for me to say; it will be as God may direct.

As the kingdom of God rises and advances upon the earth, so will the power of Satan increase to impede its progress until God shall purge that power from the earth, and so give the Saints the victory, that they can bear off his kingdom triumphantly in spite of the powers of Satan and wicked men. But so far as the power of Satan extends, just so far will be seen his operations to overthrow all righteousness. There is nothing that would so soon weaken my hope and discourage me as to see this people in full fellowship with the world, and receive no more persecution from them because they are one with them. In such an event, we might bid farewell to the Holy Priesthood with all its blessings, privileges and aids to exaltations, principalities and powers in the eternities of the Gods.

I can say with confidence, if we will live so as to enjoy the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ to ourselves day by day, overcoming every passion, feeling and desire that has been sown in our nature through the fall, overcoming all that is contrary to the law of Heaven and the principles of salvation that is purchased by Jesus. Christ for us, which is the plan of God has devised to exalt the human family to immortality and eternal lives, if we will let that Spirit and power of God reign within us; we shall never be afflicted more than we can bear, and that is as far as I can promise.

We have seen the power and wisdom that have been displayed by our enemies since we have been in these mountains, which has all amounted to but little toward accomplishing what they desired. No more will be accomplished than has been.

Brother Orson Pratt’s remarks on the powers of the Congress of the United States are strictly correct. It is well known that the Congress of the United States has no power granted in the Constitution to organize a Territorial Government, and every power that is not named in the Constitution for Congress to act upon is reserved to the people. But Congress assumes powers that does not belong to it, and if it continues to do so, soon the last vestige of the free, independent, Republican and Democratic Government we have enjoyed will be merged in a military despotism, if there is anything left.

Our Government is at present engaged in an expensive war. It has been supposed that the South would soon be subjugated, that they would yield the point and submit. They will not, and the war has scarcely commenced.

The slave States do not as yet appear to be whipped or conquered. Both North and South are in the hands of the Lord, and so are we.

Let us from this time strive more diligently to overcome our own evil passions. We may talk about Priesthood, about power and authority, about blessings and exaltations, about the kingdom of God upon the earth, about gathering the house of Israel, about redeeming Zion and enjoying its fulness, about preparing for the coming of the Son of Man and enjoying celestial glory with him, but all this is vain if we do not sanctify ourselves before God, and sanctify the Lord our God in our hearts. We wish you fully to comprehend this; and when you go from this Conference, we do not wish to hear of contentions. And as soon as Elders have wisdom sufficient to magnify their calling and Priesthood, we will give to every Branch, no matter how small the Ward, both a Bishop and a President.

It is our privilege and duty to sanctify our own hearts. Perhaps I have as much acknowledgment to make as anybody for sometimes suffering my feelings to be a little ruffled. I cannot say that I felt entirely free from vexations at remarks made, by one of the speakers this morning, upon the impurity of seeds in our Territory. Notwithstanding so much has been said upon that subject, there does not seem to be care enough in the heads of Israel to provide even for themselves, to say nothing about setting a proper example to the people. If it were left to such men, there never would be a grain of pure sugar cane seed in the country. Where is your care for Israel? You will preach the spiritual things of the kingdom, and let your bodies and the bodies of the people go into the grave. Before you preach to a starving man to arise and be baptized, first carry him some bread and wine; first unlock his prison house and let him go free. Is there a Bishop in this Territory that knows whether there is a particle of pure cabbage seed in the Territory, or in his Ward? whether there is a bushel of pure buck-wheat, or California barley? whether there is a peck of clean, pure flaxseed, &c. Bishops, how much flaxseed is going to be sown in your respective Wards this season? “Don’t know.” How much wheat, oats and barley? “Don’t know. I have a little speculation on hand, and I wish to provide for my own family, for the convenience and comfort of my own household, for this I esteem to be my first duty.”

There was a Bishop in Far West, who, as Trustee-in-trust, held the property of the Church; no other man had the means he had to help the poor Saints. I tried to get my voice to his ears for days, and could not. At last I accosted him and said:—“Bishop, what are you going to do toward helping the poor Saints out of the State of Missouri, as we agreed?” He was irritated in a moment. I supposed that he thought it was none of my business, but I knew that it, was, and calculated to attend to it. He did not speak good naturedly, although naturally a mild-tempered man. At last he said, “I am going to take my family and leave the State, and the people may take care of themselves.” Many of our Bishops feel like that; they will plant their potatoes, take care of their calves and themselves, and the people may go to the devil for ought they care.

I, perhaps, ought not to find fault about such things; but why not my brethren of the Twelve take an interest in such matters, and not leave everything of that kind for me and my Counsellors to attend to?

I ask the Agricultural and Manufacturing Society of this Territory, if they have one ounce of pure cabbage seed on hand, or know who has. It is doubtful whether an affirmative answer could be given to this question. But if you have a few excellent peaches, or a basket of choice apples to give them to eat, they will be as proud as a little boy with a new top, and boast long and loud about what nice things we have in this Territory. I cannot complain of the vigilance of the tasting committee, but what do they do for the benefit of the people? To eat the people’s fruit and praise them for raising it, calling them “beloved brethren, and won’t you bring us in a little more next fall?” &c., may be well enough, but what does this Society do? What do the Twelve and the First Presidency do in teaching this people to sustain themselves? We all take care of ourselves, do we not? Is that all? No. There is not a thing my eye is not upon, that will enhance the welfare of this people. Who imported the first carding-machine to this country, and the only good ones that have been brought here? Who imported the nail-machines, the paper-machine, steam-engines land other valuable machinery? I use everything I can rake and scrape together for the interest of this people. I only need a little food and a small amount of clothing, and as for the rest the people are welcome to it.

I wish the other brethren to look after the welfare of the people, as well as myself. I do not wish to again hear any of the leaders of Israel complain that there is not any pure sugarcane seed, flaxseed, cotton seed, &c., in the country, but I wish them to be fully informed as to where pure seeds of all kinds can be had, and as to what is going on among the people in every part of each Ward or district; and then I want to inform the Bishops, and direct their tongues to speak and their hands to act. I wish this particular[l]y to apply to those who preside where the First Presidency do not go.

The Agricultural Society ought to make arrangements to have and keep on hand the best varieties of all kinds of garden seeds, the best varieties of fruits, of grain, and every useful product of the soil, that all may be able to procure the purest and best seeds, scions, fruit and shade trees, shrubbery, &c. Brother T. W. Ellerbeck and a few others have done considerable in introducing several valuable varieties of fruits and seeds.

Brother Lorenzo Snow says, that the Lord will bless my brethren and sisters. He says that all the mules in the Territory can not haul away the gold that is concealed in these mountains. Riches do not consist of gold and silver. It may be said that with them we can buy all the comforts we need for the body. That may be so under certain circumstances; still gold and silver are merely a convenient means of exchange. Earthly riches are concealed in the elements God has given to man, and the essence of wealth is power to organize from these elements every comfort and convenience of life for our sustenance here, and for eternal existence hereafter. The possession of all the gold and silver in the world would not satisfy the cravings of the immortal soul of man. The gift of the Holy Spirit of the Lord alone can produce a good, wholesome, contented mind. Instead of looking for gold and silver, look to the heavens and try to learn wisdom until you can organize the native elements for your benefit; then, and not until then, will you begin to possess the true riches. All the riches, wealth, glory and happiness that we shall ever possess in heaven will be possessed on and around this earth when it is brought up into the presence of God in a sanctified and glorified state; and the sanctified ones who enter through the gate and pass the sentinel into the New Jerusalem, and into the presence of the Father and the Son, are the ones who will inherit the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of God, for here is the eternity, the glory and the power. When we possess all things, it will be when we possess power to organize the native elements that fill the immensity of space, bringing forth and organizing, bringing forth and organizing, again and again, dealing out the providence of God, dictating, guiding and directing the kingdoms that will be made for ever and for ever. This is eternal riches—it is eternal life.

“What, did Jesus mean, when he said, Lay up treasures in heaven, &c. What mortal ever went there to lay up treasures? Is there an apartment, a business house there, a Dr. and Cr. account, &c.?” Ask the Lord yourselves, what he meant by that expression, and if you have the Spirit of Christ, you will find out the truth. I think that the Savior referred particularly to laying up in pure and sanctified bodies, holy principles that belong to the heavens, until we are brought back into the presence of the Father, and we, with the earth upon which we stand, are cleansed and sanctified beyond the power of Satan.

I will now say that we wish to go on with the Temple this year; we shall also send out teams to bring home the poor, send Missionaries to the nations, &c., &c. If the hearts of this people are right, if they are filled with faith in God; if they act with an eye single to his glory and the building up of his kingdom on the earth, they will lock up their teams, secure their seed grain and farming utensils, will look and live for rain, for water in abundance to irrigate their lands, for sunshine, for day and night and everything, that will give us a fruitful season this coming summer. What will you do with the increase of your fields? Will you strew it to strangers? Some complain at the hand of Jehovah for giving them wheat. I have heard it said, “It is a curse to us; it annoys me to see so much wheat.” There never has been a land, from the days of Adam until now, that has been blessed more than this land has been blessed by our Father in heaven; and it will still be blessed more and more, if we are faithful and humble, and thankful to God for the wheat and the corn, the oats, the fruit, the vegetables, the cattle and everything he bestows upon us, and try to use them for the building up of his kingdom on the earth.

There will be no lack of teams for doing our work, if we will go to with our mights to bring the poor Saints here and to build this Temple. There will be teams to bring us the rock from the quarries; and let the young men come and learn to cut stone. I wish to hurry the building of the Temple, for I would like to have it completed before we are called to more important duties.

God bless the righteous. Amen.

Power Accompanying the Faithful Elders

John Taylor

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 27, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

I have felt very much interested, as doubtless you all have, in the remarks which we have heard from those brethren who have addressed us this morning, and who are going abroad to proclaim the everlasting Gospel of peace. I never see the Elders go forth on missions to preach the Gospel, but I consider that they are going forth to take part in one of the greatest works ever committed to the human family.

Whatever their feelings may be, they go forth as the angels of mercy bearing the precious seeds of the Gospel, and they shall be the means of bringing many from darkness to light, from error and superstition to life, light, truth and intelligence, and finally, to exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our God.

When these brethren go forth, it may be a new work to them, but they will have to combat the errors of ages, to contend with the prejudices which they themselves stated to you held such a powerful influence over them; they will also have to preach to and reason with men who have no regard for truth, much less for the religion which we have embraced, yet these Elders go forth as the sent messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They go to proclaim that God has established his work upon the earth, that he has spoken from the heavens, and that the visions of the Almighty have been opened to our view; the light of ages is being revealed to the servants of the Most High, the darkness which has enshrouded the world for ages is being dispersed, and these chosen Elders of Israel are sent forth to proclaim these glad tidings of salvation to the dark and benighted nations of the earth. I consider it a great privilege for any man to be set apart to so honorable, so praiseworthy and so important a mission; and I am glad to find that these brethren who have spoken to us this morning feel the importance of the mission in which they are soon to be engaged. They go forth and they shall come back rejoicing, bearing precious sheaves with them, and they will bless the name of the God of Israel, that they have had the privilege of taking a part in warning this generation.

As regards the circumstances of their families, it is proper and correct that men should have some feelings for those they have left at home. It is true there ought to be sympathy and some care for those with whom they have been immediately associated; yet their families as well as our families, and all of us and our affairs, are in the hands of God, and, inasmuch as they go forth putting their trust in the living God all will be peace, and they will find peace and contentment from this time forth until they return, inasmuch as they will magnify their callings and lean upon their God. In this is their safety, in order that they may be enabled to bear a faithful testimony to the world among whom they may travel to deliver their message of warning and of glad tidings of great joy to the honest in heart.

There was one remark made by brother Shearman that would be a lesson to any man going on a mission. If they possess the principles of intelligence and truth, there will be a power and an influence manifested in and accompanying all their words, and it will be just as he felt when he went to brother Spencer’s, he was convinced that brother Spencer was sincere, and believed him to be a man of God. If you go forth with the same sincerity it will manifest itself to others. Just so with brother Richard Attwood, he first heard the Gospel preached in an unknown language, a tongue that he did not understand, and yet he knew there was a power accompanying the man who was preaching, and that power accorded with his own feelings and spirit, and if we live as we should there will be a halo around us continually, and wherever we go, if there is a spark of sincerity in men’s bosoms they will know that whether “this man is a sinner or not, the power of God is with him?” They will know, whether they know that the doctrine is true or not, that the influence is good, and that whether they have much language or little they have the Spirit of God with them, and it will accompany every faithful Elder of Israel. And if there are sheep they will hear, because, says Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, but a stranger they will not follow.”

I feel to bless these brethren in the name of the Lord, and I would say to them, brethren, be faithful and true to your missions, to God and to his work, preserve inviolate your integrity and not a hair of your heads shall perish; your families shall be comfortable and happy during your absence.

Brethren, God bless you all, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Constitutional Powers of the Congress of the United States, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 9, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I am very much gratified with what I have heard from our brethren today. I think they have spoken well. I have been interested and instructed.

As I have often told you, I am unable to draw the dividing line between the spiritual and the temporal. We set apart one day in the week for the purpose of meeting together to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and to speak upon things which pertain to building up the kingdom of God on the earth. This is our business—this labor is upon us—and I do not know that we have anything else to do, for it comprehends the whole existence of man. Thus far we have been successful in this great work; in it we have been blessed, and in it we delight to be blessed.

Every person is seeking after happiness, and all persons pursue a course that seems to them to lead to the possession of happiness; when they pursue an opposite course to that they are fully aware of it. The most profligate and wicked person is always ready to acknowledge, when willing to tell the truth, that he knows that he does wrong and is not happy in doing so; and that, if he ever enjoys happiness, he must cease to do evil and learn to do well. We wish to obtain happiness; we wish to obtain our rights.

In regard to our political rights, I will ask, have we ever seen a day, since Joseph found the plates from which was taken the Book of Mormon until this day, in which the Christian, the moral and the political world, or any other portion of the inhabitants of the earth, ever gave to Joseph Smith and his brethren one blessing that they could possibly keep from them? They have withheld every favor, every blessing, every accommodation that was possible for them to hold from the Latter-day Saints. Yet every move they have made has actually tended to sustain, build up, strengthen and increase the very power they were trying to destroy. They have tried to destroy the truth, to hinder the increase of the Latter-day Saints, to lessen their numbers, rob them of their location and homes, and last of all drive them from what is called civilization. But the results of all these acts, instead of accomplishing what they desired, have given the Latter-day Saints territory and comparative independence. All the evil they have sought to bring upon us the Lord, through his inscrutable providence, has converted into blessings for his people.

We are infinitely more blessed by the persecutions and injustice we have suffered, than we could have been if we had remained in our habitations from which we have been driven—than if we had been suffered to occupy our farms, gardens, stores, mills, machinery and everything we had in our former possessions. Had we not been persecuted, we would now be in the midst of the wars and bloodshed that are desolating the nation, instead of where we are, comfortably located in our peaceful dwellings in these silent, far off mountains and valleys. Instead of seeing my brethren comfortably seated around me to-day, many of them would be found in the front ranks on the battle field. I realize the blessings of God in our present safety. We are greatly blessed, greatly favored and greatly exalted, while our enemies, who sought to destroy us, are being humbled.

We want our political rights, and they are here within our reach; we need not go to California, Oregon, Washington Territory, Nebraska, Missouri, nor New York to obtain them. The people are here, and they possess rights. We have a right to labor, to accumulate food and clothing, to gather the various products of the earth to cut the timber and saw it into boards, to make adobies and quarry rock and build habitations, and then we have a right to inhabit them. We have a right to drink of the water that flows from the mountains, and we have a right to get up in the morning when we are sufficiently rested. We have a right to go to the kanyons after wood, or to harness our teams and go on a visit to Davis, Utah, or any other county. We have also a right to assemble, as we did a short time ago, in the capacity of a mass meeting, and we have a right to say that we will have laws, rules and regulations for the public good, and officers and adjudicators of the laws. It is our right to frame our own laws, and to elect our own officers to administer them.

We were told this morning, that some brethren prayed but did not believe they would receive an answer. I do not find fault with them for this, but I say, pray on until you can make yourselves believe that your prayers will be fully answered according to that which is best for you to receive. Self-argument is the most effectual argument that can be used. Let each person argue himself into the belief that God will grant to him his request in righteousness. Some people are naturally of a doubtful mind, and have to contend continually against unbelief.

The enemies of God and truth do not love us any better this year than they did last year, nor will their love for us increase in the year that is to come. They would dethrone the Almighty, and would have destroyed Joseph Smith, when he had not three men to stand by him, had they the power to do so; and they would blot out every vestige of this kingdom if they could. The body may be destroyed, but the spirit still lives.

According to the Constitution of our Government, we have rights in common with our fellow-countrymen. We have a right to settle in any unoccupied and unclaimed part of the public domain owned by our Government, where the machinery of the Government has not extended, and there govern and control ourselves according to republican principles; and the Congress of the United States is not authorized in the least, by the Constitution that governs it, to make laws for that new settlement, and appoint adjudicators and administrators of the law for it, any more than we have a right to make laws and appoint administrators of the law for California, Ohio, Illinois, or Missouri. This, however, is done by the Congress of the United States; but it is an assumption of power not within the Constitution of the American Republic. When Congress, or the President of the United States, appoints a governor for a territory, that appointment is not according to the Constitution, though it is according to laws enacted by Congress. In “Amendments to the Constitution of the United States,” articles nine and ten, it is definitely stated that “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

We were told this morning that we shall not always be driven. Were we driven in 1857 and 1858? No. And they might have travelled up and down Ham’s Fork to this day, and we still would have remained here enjoying our safe retreat. They had no power, and did not exercise any.

I say to the enemies of truth that I can tell them the words that are spoken in their private counsels. The very thoughts of their hearts are made known to me. They lay their plans to accomplish such and such a work in so long a time, and then plan a movement to destroy the “Mormons.” That is what they talk about and what is in their hearts, but they will be disappointed in it all. Every time they make a movement against this kingdom they will sink still lower in the scale of national power, while the kingdom of God will rise more and more in influence and importance in the eyes of all people.

If any of you are afraid, think not that you can escape danger by fleeing to the States east, or west to California, “For it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare.” Again, “the fear of man bringeth a snare; but whose putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

The valleys of Utah are the safest places in the world. There is not another place upon this globe where a people can with more safety assert their rights before the heavens and in the face of all men. Look at those ranges of rocky peaks with which we are surrounded, for “He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly—he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him: his waters shall be sure.” “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” “The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.” Therefore, O Israel, fear not. If any are afraid, search out among the caves of the impregnable rocks safe places to store up grain and other nutritious substances, and when trouble comes you can retire and crawl into your hiding places, while the more courageous of your brethren shall fight your battles, and we will whip your enemies soundly, God being our helper.

When I think of the weakness and littleness of men, and the folly of their trying to thwart the purposes of the Almighty, it makes me feel like the Prophet Elijah:—“For it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked.” I laugh at their folly; God laughs at their folly. So long as the Latter-day Saints will live their religion, they shall never be confounded, worlds without end. Never be afraid; your hearts are brave, your arms are strong, and God is our defence. There are those among us who are timid, and are apt to flee from under the protecting care of our heavenly Father, and be caught weak and unprotected by the very enemy they are trying to escape from.

We will cling to the Constitution of our country, and to the Government that reveres that sacred charter of freemen’s rights; and, if necessary, pour out our best blood for the defence of every good and righteous principle.

I heard a gentleman say, not long ago, that he was going to stick to the Union. When the Southern revolt transpired, it was asked of him, “Where is the Union now? There are now two Governments, instead of one.” His reply was, that he should stick to the Government that protected him in the possession of freemen’s rights. The spirit and letter of our Constitution and laws will always give us our rights, and under them we could have served God in Missouri and Illinois as well as in the courts of high heaven, But the administrators of the law trampled it under their feet, and wilfully and openly desecrated the holy principles held forth in the Constitution of our country.

The kingdom of God has sustained me a good while, and I mean to stick to it. We shall form a State Government, and you need not fear any consequences that may arise from such a course. You may tell your neighbors that in this step we do not violate any law, nor in the least transcend the bounds of our rights. If we do not do this, we are living beneath those rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the privileges granted to us in the Constitution of the United States which our fathers bought so dearly for us. Let us unfurl the Stars and stripes—the flag of our country; let us sustain the Constitution that our fathers have bequeathed to us in letters of blood; and those who violate it will have to meet the crushing and damning penalties that will bury them in the mire of everlasting disgrace. If we sustain it, it will be sustained; otherwise it will not.

Let us so live that the spirits and power of our religion will be constantly with us; that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion, opening for us an unobstructed intercourse with our heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ, and all is right—there is no danger then. Our own evils make for us danger; and if chastisement comes upon us, it is the result of our own unrighteous acts. But if we live our religion, honor our God and his Priesthood, then we shall honor every wholesome government and law there is upon the earth, and become aliens to all unrighteous, unjust and unlawful administrators, wherever they may be found. In the various nations, kingdoms and governments of the world are to be found laws, ordinances and statutes as good as can be made for mortal man.

We have forsaken the kingdom of darkness, have come out in open rebellion to the power of the Devil on this earth, and I for one will fight him, so help me God, as long as there is breath in my body, and do all in my power to overthrow his government and rule. And if he complains that I am infringing upon his ground, I shall very politely ask him to go to his own place, where he belongs. If any among this community want to sustain the Government of the Devil, in preference to the kingdom of God, I wish them to go where they belong. I want to sustain the government of Heaven, and shall stick fast to it, by the help of God. If we sustain it, it will build us up and crown us with victory and eternal life.

There is not a man upon the earth who can magnify even an earthly office, without the power and wisdom of God to aid him. When Mr. Fillmore appointed me Governor of Utah, I proclaimed openly that my Priesthood should govern and control that office. I am of the same mind today. We have not yet received our election returns; but, should I be elected Governor of the State of Deseret, that office shall be sustained and controlled by the power of the eternal Priesthood of the Son of God, or I will walk the office under my feet. Hear it, both Saint and sinner, and send it to the uttermost parts of the earth, that whatever office I hold from any Government on this earth shall honor the Government of heaven, or I will not hold it.

There was a notice read to-day for the High Council to meet next Thursday: I would like to see the High Council and Bishops and all Judges filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, that when a person comes before them they can read and understand that person, and be able to decide a case quickly and justly. When men have a just appreciation of right and wrong, their decision can be made as well the first minute after hearing a statement of the case, as to waste hours and days to make it. I would like the Bishops and other officers to have sufficient power and wisdom from God to make them fully aware of the true nature of every case that may come before them. But there are some of our great men who are so ignorant that a personal favor will so bias their minds that they will twist the truth and sustain a person in evil. This principle is to be found, more or less, in the old, middle-aged and youth. Some, with a trifling consideration, can so prejudice the mind of a High Councillor, a High Priest, a Bishop, or an Apostle, that he will lean to the individual instead of the truth. I despise a man that would offer me money to buy me to his favor. Goodness will always find stout supporters in the good, and need not to buy favor. The man who tries to buy the influence of another to cover up his iniquity, will go to hell.

The kingdom of God is indebted to no man; though a man should give to it all he possesses, he has only given that which the Lord put in his possession, and is not excusable in sin on that account, for in giving his all to the kingdom of God he has done no more than his duty. I hate to see a man bought. I hate to see High Councillors bought. It is good to hold on to an old friend; and, no matter how many new friends I have, I always hold fast to the old ones and never let them go, unless their wicked conduct breaks the thread of fellowship between us. But with all the friends I have, I hope in God never to see the day, while I live, that I cannot decide a case as the Almighty would, whether it goes against friend or foe. What my friends have done for me, and the deep affection I bear them, are not taken into account in the consideration of right and wrong. Let me judge in righteousness before God, if it cuts off every friend I have.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

Practical Religion, etc.

Heber C. Kimball

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 4, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I feel continually in my heart desirous to do good. Our religion is a practical religion. We administer the sacrament, for instance, in remembrance of Jesus Christ, which ordinance he has established to imitate the things he has suffered. We break bread as an imitation of his body, which has been broken; and we pour out wine (which should be of our own make) and drink of it in imitation of his blood, which was poured out that our sins might be remitted. Our sins are forgiven, on condition that we observe these ordinances before all people, before the Father, before the Son, before the Holy Ghost and before all the holy angels that God sends to take charge of us. To repent is to forsake our sins and sin no more. When we thus repent, it is a repentance that needeth not to be repented of. True repentance requires restitution to the injured, and such satisfaction as the wrong demands. For by this you may know that a man truly repents of his sins, and that the Father has forgiven them in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. There are people out of the Church and in it, who are stubborn and will not make satisfaction to those they have injured, disobeyed or neglected, and will welter under it for weeks and months before they will make an humble acknowledgement to give satisfaction to the injured party. Remission of sins is given by going down into the water with an authorized servant of God, who, after saying, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in water for the remission of your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” immerses him in the water. After this ordinance has been administered, remission of sins is as sure as that repentance and restitution have been truly made. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth and practiseth it; which will be in them and round about them, until they are full of the living oracles and attributes of the Father and the Son. Paul says that baptism is not the washing away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience before God.

How can a man’s conscience be good, if, after the truth is made known to him, he shall willfully neglect to comply with it? Then, after baptism, the servant of God, having authority given to him through the holy Priesthood, lays his hand on the baptized persons for the gift of the Holy Ghost. When an authorized servant of God lays his hands on a person, he receives the gift and power of the Holy Ghost as surely as though God had administered the ordinance himself. This authority the Father has given us, and we should honor it. It is impossible to honor God and his authority except we honor his ordinances; neither can you honor him, and, at the same time, dishonor his delegates and authorities he has sent.

In all these ordinances of the Gospel, we imitate Christ—we go forth in his authority, and administer as he administered. He received his authority from his Father and gave it to his Apostles, they gave it to Joseph Smith, Joseph gave it to us and we place it upon you Elders of Israel. The authority is one—the same as the roots and branches of a tree are one; and the power of the Holy Ghost will dwell with you the same as it does with us, showing us things to come and bringing things to our remembrance that we may have a foreknowledge of future things, and all this in proportion to our faith, confidence and integrity in God and in his authority.

Baptism is an imitation—the candidate is buried in water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, in likeness of the death of Christ, and then he is raised up out of the water in likeness of his resurrection. The Holy Ghost descended on the Savior in the form of a dove after he was baptized; in imitation of this, we receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. Even in the endowments, there is not a solitary thing but what is an imitation of the Son or the Father in some way or other; and all this is done to keep us in remembrance of him. When we sit down to eat food, we ask God to bless it and sanctify it to our benefit, that we may partake of it in remembrance of his kindness, generosity and blessings unto us. We ask the Father to bless our wheat, to bless all the seeds we sow in the ground, to bless the earth and to give us power and wisdom to nurse and take care of the tender plants, which are an imitation of his bountiful goodness to us. Our religion is not artificial—it is a reality; it is natural. It teaches us how to keep ourselves pure, that we may not become tainted with the world, the flesh and the Devil, but hold ourselves sacred and pure as the children of God.

Let my brethren who are going on foreign missions remember these things, holding them in view; all of which are comprehended in the imitation of Christ and the sufferings he passed through; and I will promise them, in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ that is in me and my brethren, they shall be blessed as they never were blessed; they shall win souls unto Christ, and when they come home they shall bring some of them with them. I do not know how I could get along upon any other principle, as a preacher of righteousness among nations, than by the dictation of the Holy Ghost and doing as we have been told, which is to teach nothing but repentance to this generation and baptism for the remission of sins, administering the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to believers, that they may have Jesus in remembrance. It is the business of the Elders of this Church, when they go abroad, to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel, carrying the salt with them, or the power and the authority of the holy Priesthood; let them go with their hearts full of the power of God and their mouths full of the good words of life, suffering themselves to be used by the Almighty as a musician would use an instrument of music, letting God speak through them as the trumpeter would speak through a trumpet.

Let the sheep lick a little salt through your fingers; do not give them a handful at once, or it may blind them, but give them a mere trifle, and that will make them hungry for more. If you wish, in the soonest and most effectual manner, to destroy a flock of sheep, over-feed them. Under such a circumstance, you may call “Nan, nan, nan,” until you are tired, and they will not take any heed to the voice of the shepherd, for they are surfeited with too much food. Let the Elders gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel, bring them home, and put them into the fold, then go to the Good Shepherd and ask him if you may have one, and if you receive one upon the principles of honor and righteousness you will be blessed in the gift.

Preach the Gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost, and it will melt the people into humility, and God will be with you to bless your labors to that degree that they have never been blessed. You receive light and knowledge here, and your minds begin to expand; yet some imagine that they had more religion when they were first baptized than now. This, however, is not so; your experience now is much greater than then, according to your age in the Church and your integrity and submission to the will of God and his authority. Your information is increasing, and your power to ask of God, in the name of Jesus, and receive, is greater now than when you first received the Gospel: “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Learning is good, but learning does not give the power of God to man. An unlearned man with the power of God upon him, can build up churches and gather the sheep of Israel into the fold; and it has been the case that learned men—men who trusted in their learning and not in the power of the Holy Ghost—have stepped forward and taken charge of the sheep that the unlearned man had gathered, trying to supersede him in their affections by preaching some great and learned sermon, seeking to destroy the influence of the true shepherd. Such men were not after the sheep, but the fleece; and they have gone over the dam. Instead of commencing at the root, where that poor, unlearned man commenced, they go to the top of the tree he has planted, and jump from limb to limb, knocking off the precious fruit. I have had an experience in the vineyard labor, having travelled and preached near twenty years of my life not only in America but in England, and I know the nature of men and things pretty well. When I was on my mission abroad I lived humbly before God. I did not know much—I know but little now—but I knew that God worked and spake mightily through weak instruments. A poor speaker may suppose his language is nothing, that it is very small, yet God can make it pierce, like a javelin to the hearts of Saints and sinners, and the honest will conceive the truth and bring forth fruit, while others will hear and will not receive the truth—they will see but do not perceive.

The same cause will produce the same effect now as thirty years ago. God is the same, the Gospel is the same, baptism is the same, repentance is the same; none of these principles have changed in the least. Then why should we leave the doctrine of Christ to go on to perfection? For no man can become perfect in God without a constant faith in, and observance of, those first principles of the doctrine of Christ, any more than we can progress in learning and leave out of the question the alphabet of our language and the first rudiments of education. After people are baptized and confirmed into the Church, the first ordinance that is attended to is the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, that they may think of Jesus and what he suffered to bring to pass the remission of sin; that they may think of his Father and our Father and God, who has organized this earth and placed everything in it that is in it. And when he came into the world we came with him; the earth is his and the fulness thereof, and he has handed over to his Son the work of redeeming it, of making it perfect, when he will deliver it up to the Father. Not a single soul of us will be lost if we will do as well as we know how, keeping these things in view and practising them. When we practise them we honor them; and we honor the Father by honoring his words and the words of his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost takes up his abode with us to comfort and cheer our hearts. There are thousands of good and wholesome principles that people do not see, because they have no spirit of comprehension nor understanding of the works of God. The South and the North are at war with each other—are slaying each other—and if they were not doing that they would be trying to slay us; this they do already in their hearts, and the sin is the same upon the nation as though they did, it in reality. I am a martyr in the sight of God, and so is brother Brigham and other men of God whose lives they have hunted. God will chastise them and all those who had a hand in seeking our destruction. There is great blessing to be placed upon faithful men in the latter days—they are to be sealed up unto eternal life, and against all sins and blasphemies, except the shedding of innocent blood, or consenting thereunto, which is the same in the eyes of God. The wicked are slaying the wicked, and the North calculates to use up the South in a few days; in this they will be mistaken. They will whip each other, first one and then the other. Let the Saints acknowledge the hand of God in it all. War and bloodshed will follow the Gospel of the Son of God, until it has spread over every nation, tongue and people who reject the Gospel after it is proffered to them, and have spilled innocent blood or consented to it. If you see these principles as I do, you will see them clearly, though, in my weakness, I may not have been able to make them plain to your understandings.

Ye Elders of Israel, never try to circumscribe each other, but build each other up. God does not look with the same eyes that we do, He looks at the hearts and intentions of men, and he will honor those he can work with. When I worked at my business, and the clay was rebellious and stiff, I would throw a little water upon it, and soften and mol[l]ify it, and then put it into the mill where it is ground up. When it is passive, it is again brought upon the wheel after it has been well cleared of all foreign matter, and it is turned into pitchers, into jugs, into churns, milk-pans, bowls and cups, and every kind of vessel to adorn the kitchen and the palace, and to make the Church and kingdom of God interesting, and more magnificent than all the glory of the kingdom of the world. All these vessels are made at the dictation of the master potter.

When the brethren arrive at their fields of labor, brothers Brigham, Heber and Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles will not be there to dictate you. When I was sent to England twenty-five years ago, I felt myself one of the very weakest of God’s servants. I asked Joseph what I should say when I got there; he told me to go to the Lord and he would guide me, and speak through me by the same Spirit that dictated him. He also told brother Brigham when he got there he would know all about it. My experience is, the more I preach upon the first principles of the Gospel, the more I discovered limbs and branches of the subject I had never seen, leading to the fountain of life. The Holy Ghost led me all the time, and God spake through me when I would let him. I have related a little of my experience for the benefit of my brethren who are going out on missions. When you get to England, the Saints will rejoice to see you, expecting you will tell them all about it. Here is brother John Smith, the Patriarch, at the head of the Church, he knows everything they will say, and he will tell us all about wives we had in heaven or earth or in hell. Now, brethren, go in the name of Jesus Christ and preach the first principles of the Gospel, and tell the brethren and sisters to gather to the fold of Christ, where all things shall be told them. Amen.

Trusting in the Almighty

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brethren and sisters, I am called upon and requested to make a few remarks to you this afternoon, in which privilege I feel thankful to my heavenly Father, and also for the privilege of meeting with the Saints in general Conference.

The representatives of every part of the Territory are here, and to be privileged to speak, though perhaps but a few minutes, still it is a gratification; and to look upon you and your countenances is a privilege that I prize. If we were prepared to enter into heaven, to do according to Our ideas of heaven, or as we have been used to believe, and should get up there in the presence of God, or in the presence of the spirits that are greater than we are, and undertake to teach and instruct them it would not seem exactly in place, and yet perhaps it might be in place, for those spirits might wish to know what was in us. It is in this manner that I do it at this time; it is not with a wish to instruct those that bear rule in the kingdom of God, but I suppose that they would like to know from us who have been at a distance, to know what kind of spirit we possess. Therefore as liberty is given to speak upon whatever subject is desired by the person addressing you, it may be supposed that every speaker will speak upon some favorite theme, that our spirits may be weighed in the balances and compared with the principles of the Gospel. I feel when I contemplate the principles of our holy religion very much as I do when I go into a very nice orchard and get hold of a good ripe peach, I naturally exclaim, this is excellent! I taste another, and say that is very good; of another I say it is luscious. Then I meet with some apples; I get hold of a Rhode Island Grening in the season thereof, and of course I say this is the finest going; then I get hold of a golden pippin and I think this is the finest of all. So I think with the spirits of great and good men in the Gospel; they are all best, and I do not know which to select of the principles of life and salvation. President Young gave us a key some time ago, to certain principles, and I thought I would make a few remarks upon a principle that seems to present itself to my mind. Suppose that there is in this town a man of honor, a man who fulfils his contracts, who never was known to cheat the laborer or cut him down in his price. His character is known; you enlist in his employment, and you have no doubt but you will be rewarded, and you know he is abundantly able and qualified to fulfil his word and promise, and you have no doubt or hesitancy in regard to receiving pay for your labor. You go on working and laboring, and you are confident that you will get your pay; not the least doubt in the world. Well, really, that is no more than we should do; it is no very high compliment to us, if while trusting in that individual and believing that we will get our pay and get justly rewarded unless we turn the tables and ask the question to ourselves, “Has that individual who has employed us got confidence in us, that we will execute and perform according to his wishes?” It is good to trust in the Lord, to repose confidence in what he has said to us, but it is better to secure and be sure that we have the confidence of the Almighty. When a man that you have employed in this service has proven that he is worthy, that he is faithful, wise, discreet and understands what belongs to his duties in every branch of his profession, and who understands well how to keep all things in order, then he can be trusted and promoted according to his master’s pleasure.

Your employer has looked down upon you and seen your wisdom and the interest that you have taken in his affairs, till by-and-bye it comes to something that is wanted to be done, then the employer goes to his master and says, “Sir, how shall I execute this piece of work? In what manner shall I perform this branch of business?” “Why,” says the master, “you understand my policy, and you understand that I have full confidence in you, therefore go and do it in a manner that will suit yourself.” Now, an employer won’t say that to every individual, but he might say it to one in whom he had the most unlimited confidence. May we not arrive at a point where we can secure the confidence of the Almighty, so that he will say, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven You know my policy; I have full confidence in you, indeed the light of Heaven shines in your hearts, and with this go and do as seemeth good unto you?” Arriving at this point may we not get the entire confidence of our heavenly Father in regard to all the duties that lie before us.

Now, it would not be a very high compliment for us to trust in that wealthy man who has plenty of means and who never violated his word, still it is good to trust in him; it shows that we consider him abundantly able and willing to fulfil his contracts. It is good to trust in the Lord, but what fool would not? There are some men who would not, especially if that trust touched their pockets. The gold, the silver, and everything that we own belongs to him, and we cannot trust too much in him. It is no very high compliment for us to say that we trust in the Lord; still it is good, it shows that we appreciate his policy and goodness; but when we can take a course of life to cause the Almighty to trust in us, and whenever he can find us to be a people in whom he can trust, then all those blessings referred by the President this morning will be poured out upon us. What will he put upon us when we show our obedience to his laws? He will take from the world their sovereignty and leave only desolation and confusion, and he will take the power which they claim to have and will transfer it to his chosen and anointed ones, just so soon as he can feel safe in doing so.

Well, brethren and sisters, I just wanted to impress this idea upon our minds. I say our, because I take it to myself, and it is my determination to pursue that course in all my teachings and in all my operations that will secure to me the confidence of our heavenly Father, the Lord being my helper. My heart is fully set to secure the confidence of the Almighty, and also of all the just ones.

May this be the desire and determination of every heart, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Vastness of the Wisdom and Intelligence of God, etc.

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 18, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

We have just heard that

“Angels from heaven, and truth from earth, Have met, and both have record borne.”

We have also been hearing of things pertaining to the kingdom, of the events that are about to transpire, and that are transpiring in these last days.

Jesus said in his day, when speaking of a certain class of individuals, “Because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand.”—Matt. xiii, 13. It has been so in almost every age, and it is so at the present time in the world, and to a certain extent among the Saints of the Most High God. It is difficult for us, sometimes, to see and comprehend, and to appreciate our privileges. Mankind have labored under this difficulty in every age of the world. We come into existence; we find ourselves surrounded with blessings; we entertain ideas in relation to the Great God who rules and overrules in the affairs of the universe, but we are more or less beclouded in our minds in relation to the great principles of eternal truth. It is so among the people in the world, and also among this people, although we see things more clearly and with a different vision, and understand things more correctly than the rest of the human family, yet we do not comprehend our true position and relationship to each other. If we do, we do not walk according to the light which is given unto us by the Spirit of eternal truth. What is more pleasant, naturally, for the mind of man to reflect upon than the things of the kingdom of God? The power, the wisdom and intelligence of the Great Eloheim in his works and designs, and our relationship to him, to the world, and to each other? How deep and sublime and incomprehensible to us, at present, is that wisdom and intelligence that governs this world and all others, that, regulates the planetary system, that produces seed time and harvest, summer and winter, that causes all the vivifying influences that operate to supply the necessities of animal life in the myriads of the creatures of God, that spreads throughout the universe and fills all worlds as well as ours with life, being and existence. What could be more joyous and pleasing than for this and every other world to be under the control of that intelligence and wisdom that governs all animate or inanimate matter. In relation to this world, it has been a thing that the Prophets have delighted to dwell upon in days that are past and gone; it is a theme that the poets have sung about; they rejoiced in the prospect of the new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; they have also delighted to dwell upon that which shall exist in the animal creation, where the stronger shall no longer press upon the weaker. They have also deplored the fallen condition of mankind generally; they have lamented over the evil passions and feelings that prevail among the human family. They have deplored the crime, the war, the bloodshed and strife, and in their songs they have rejoiced in the prospect of the time coming when these things shall be done away, when the Lord shall take the government into his own hands, when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and the leopard become docile and harmless, and when there shall be nothing to hurt nor destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord. But the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Among the,” Red Republicans” of France, as they are called, a great many of the leading and prominent infidels think that by their influence they will be enabled to bring about the millennial glory. They deprecate all those influences that lead to evil, and they would like another state of things to be introduced among the human family. In fact, as the President stated here not long ago, it is not natural for men to be evil. All men admire that which is good; all men admire virtue and truth, whether they possess them themselves or not, they still admire that which is good in others. You may go to the most wicked man that exists and talk to him upon this subject, and he will say at once, “I am not an example, but, such a man is and there are certain principles that I admire, and if I could see them carried out I should be glad.” Who does not admire the truth? and if men carry out good principles in their lives, all others admire both them and the principles. Who is there that does not admire virtue, no matter how lascivious they may be themselves? However dishonest the man may be himself, there is a feeling of admiration of honesty in others. This feeling prevails among the children of men. The only thing with them, and that which puzzles is, how shall the world be redeemed? How shall mankind be purified and correct principles be introduced among the human family? Men know that their hearts are evil, and they are ever ready to charge this upon others. The question now is, how shall good and godlike principles predominate among the human family? and how shall fraud and unrighteousness be put down and correct principles rise to the rescue of a fallen world? This is the problem that philosophers have tried to introduce, and that, wise men in all ages have endeavored to solve. Great men in every age have tried to introduce something good—something that was calculated to do away with the evils that have existed; and to this end they have introduced something which they thought was more noble, more dignified, pure and philanthropic, principles more holy than those that have prevailed. This subject has attracted the attention of all men, and the design of many of these philanthropists has been to lead mankind in the way of life; to introduce correct principles amongst a fallen world, to bring people to a state of truth, light, life, happiness and exaltation in this world or in the kingdom of God.

What is it that missionary institutions are put on foot for? To convert the heathen, that they may introduce among them correct principles, supposing that, they have got them themselves, and that all the world may be brought under this Divine influence which they suppose they possess, and be civilized and evangelized and obtain an exaltation in the kingdom of our God. All kinds of societies have been organized in the world, which have had for their object the amelioration of the condition of the human family. For instance, almost all have seen that drunkenness was an evil, and hence men have introduced temperance societies, which are very good; but that does not constitute the kingdom of God, but it shows what feelings have inspired the human bosom, striking at the foundation of evil.

Another large class of men have supposed that war was a great evil, and so it is; and they have striven to introduce peace; and some of the most influential men in Europe have united together to form peace societies, but what do their efforts in this respect amount to? What have they accomplished? Nothing; there is nothing done; iniquity abounds just as much as it did before they tried to prevent it. Temperance societies have tried to make people sober, but people are as much given to intemperance as they were before the temperance societies were introduced. There does not seem to be any difference. Their agents have been sent forth, and their missionaries for years and years have been laboring to ameliorate the condition of mankind and to lead them to the knowledge of God, and what have they done? Let the world answer. What have they done among the heathen nations? What have they done among what are called Christians? The Peace Society—what has it done? Let the United States answer; let the present powers of Europe answer; let the world answer. Notwithstanding, human exertions may have been very necessary in many of these moves to try to better the condition of the world, it must be acknowledged that they have signally failed, and that unless something more be done, a more powerful and a better kind of religion introduced, and a better kind of temperance, of philosophy, a better kind of morality, a more wise and liberal kind of government, and a better code of laws instituted, the world has got to go on as it has done, without any amendment; in fact it is getting worse and worse, instead of better and better. The great problem, it is presumed, will have to rest with us and the Almighty in relation to this matter. It requires something more potent, intelligent, powerful and wise than anything that has existed heretofore among men to introduce that change which is so desirable. Man by searching cannot find it out. Man with the utmost stretch of his intelligence, is unable to comprehend or introduce the kingdom of God upon the earth, and all the earth, and all the various societies separate and combined have failed to introduce any principle commensurate with the wants of humanity, and in all respects calculated to ameliorate the condition of the human family, and to place them in the condition in which the Prophets have beheld them when wrapped in prophetic vision they beheld the opening glories of the kingdom of God. Who doubts the sincerity of many of the reformers, whether religious, social, moral or philosophical? No man. Many of these men have been sincere, noble, brave and ingenious, and have tried to stop the torrent of iniquity; but their means have not been commensurate to the end designed; iniquity, like the mountain snow when the sun shines upon it and the south wind blows, is loosed from its resting-place and comes down like a mighty avalanche breaking down all barriers, bursting all, bonds and deluging and destroying all before it, leaving morality and religion aghast, destroying social order, deluging philosophy and proving that man alone may as well attempt to blow out the sun or stop the wheels of time, as in his pigmy efforts to regulate the world. How shall these things be accomplished?

I think we shall have to say as John Wesley said:—

“Except the Lord conduct the plan, The best concerted scheme is vain, And never can succeed.”

I think that unless there is a more comprehensive philosophy than that which has entered into the brains of our learned men, that there can be none of that intelligence that dwells in the bosom of the Great God, to control and guide a man’s feelings and desires and to bring them into subjection to some law, by which all can be managed orderly and systematically. There is something in the designs of God and in all his operations that so far outstrip the operations of man in his most mighty efforts, for they are all puny, weak and childlike. Look, for instance, at the embarrassments which the United States at present labor under in providing for their armies; at the difficulties they are placing themselves under. In a very short time, unless some change takes place, they will be bankrupts, and doubtless obliged to dishonour their contracts; and yet the United States are a wealthy and powerful nation. What is it they are running in debt for? To feed their armies and their navy. There is upwards of 30,000,000 of people in the United States, and about one million of them are engaged fighting each other, and the others are busy supplying their friends’ wants. It would really seem as if they were all bankrupts, notwithstanding all their financiering, their resources and their wealth; and not only is that the case with them, but look at Great Britain and what they have tried to accomplish; with all their professed wisdom they have depended upon obtaining cotton from this land and now cannot do it. It is supposed that they can never get from under their indebtedness, which places a great part of the nation in a state of vassalage and poverty. What is the case with other nations? They are just the same or worse. They are maintaining their large standing armies to preserve their dignity and their pride in the midst of the proud spirited aristocrats of the old world. What does their present condition show? It shows there is a weakness and a want of union and of confidence one in another.

Let us look at the acts of the Almighty and compare them with the acts of men. Look at the human family: there is from 800,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 that inhabit the face of this earth, on the right-hand and on the left, in the north and in the south; and who is it that provides their dinner, supper and all their supplies? Why, it is the Great God—Him who hears the young ravens when they cry, whose wisdom is infinite and who is capable of taking care of the human family. Then look at the hills and valleys and the animal creation; the fish in the sea, the beasts of the forest, all teeming with life; and yet this intelligence which is in the Almighty, and the knowledge by which he controls all things, and which enables him to take care of and provide for all creation, the myriads and myriads of beings that fill the air and sea, and yet, notwithstanding they exist in countless numbers, his wisdom provides for all of them, and he is not bankrupt, but is still abundantly able to meet his engagements for fifty years to come just as well as he is to-day. Now contrast the difference between one thing and the other.

Well, it is not necessary to dwell long upon these things; enough perhaps may have been said to show the wisdom, the knowledge and the forethought of the Almighty. Now, what is it that we want? If we could have it and know how to obtain it, and if there was any way of accomplishing it, we want to get that wisdom which dwells in the bosom of God; that intelligence which governs the universe, that produces seed-time and harvest, and causes everything to progress in regular order, under the sanction of that care, forethought and comprehension and power that enables the Lord our God to provide for all of his creatures, to supply our wants; and this shows something of that beneficence that dwells in his bosom, that enables him to feel for the wants of his neighbors as for his own, and to seek after common welfare and interest. If we cannot get God to be interested in our cause, if he won’t put his hand to the wheel, we may despair of ever bringing about that thing that the Prophets have spoken about, just as much as Moses did in former days when Israel had sinned against God. After that the Lord led them by the pillar of fire by night and a cloudy pillar by day. If they had been faithful the Lord would have allowed them to accomplish their journey through the wilderness in a short time, but in consequence of their hard-heartedness and their rebellion against the servants of God and the principles that he introduced, the Lord got angry, as he had a right to do, at the corruption and the prevarication and rebellion that prevailed among that people. For their hard-heartedness he got angry with them and said, “I won’t go any longer with this people, you can go, Moses, but they won’t be governed by my advice, therefore you can take them along.” Moses knew very well that he could not do it, and therefore, he said, “Oh Lord, if thou go not up with us, let us not go. There are difficulties to contend with and the Philistines will be against us; we have got to depend upon thee to feed us with manna from heaven. We have had to depend upon thy wisdom thus far; we shall be swept from off the land if thou go not up with us, therefore carry us not up hence.”

This was the feeling of Moses when he stood in the midst of the rebellious children of Israel. Well, what is it that we are engaged to do now? Why, we are engaged in just the very thing that we have been singing about, viz.:—

“Angels from heaven, and truth from earth, Have met and both have record borne.”

God has sent his angels, and he has declared that he would introduce his kingdom and his government, and establish his dominion and authority according to the saying of one of the old Prophets, “The Lord is our king, the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, and he shall reign over us.” That was the kind of feeling the people had in those days when they felt right, and this is the kind of feeling the people have in these days when they have the right Spirit; and this is the feeling that we profess to carry in our bosoms, and which we profess to carry out in our lives. We have generally been able to see through the fallacy and weakness of all human institutions. We believe that the Lord has revealed himself from the heavens, and that the manifestations of the power of the heavens have been revealed, and the intelligence that dwells in the bosom of the Almighty and the records that have been hid up for ages we have found; they have been developed and made known to us in connection with the revelations of the Spirit of the Most High God, for the purpose of establishing the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the earth, and bringing in a reign of righteousness, freedom and peace. These things have been introduced for the very purpose of developing and accomplishing those things that have been hid up in the bosom of Jehovah from before the commencement of this earth. He well understood his designs ere the morning stars sang together for joy; he knew what he was to accomplish years and years ago, before any of our fathers had an existence upon the earth; and for this reason the earth was organised and framed, and for this purpose we came here. God had designs generations ago to accomplish his purposes, and hose purposes which he designed from the beginning will be accomplished in spite of all the combined influences of earth and hell. What was the object of our formation and the formation of the earth and of all intelligent beings upon it? God in his own due time, after the folly, strength, weakness and vanity of the human family have exhausted themselves, and after trying all their experiments, and all their wisdom being exerted to find out God, then the Almighty will show them that he can accomplish his purposes. It is our business to lean on the Lord and seek unto him for wisdom and intelligence. The Lord has opened up this work by opening the heavens, by communicating his will and unveiling his purposes and designs to the children, of men, by the introduction of the Holy Priesthood and by the manifestation of his power, and by the marvellous deliverance which has been wrought for us, for our guidance; in this way he has given proof upon proof, and intelligence upon intelligence, and testimony upon testimony; and evidence upon evidence have been given to convince us of the position that we occupy and of the will of God that has been communicated unto us. The Spirit of inspiration has been given unto us, and we have had our testimony made as firm and sure as the Rock of Ages, upon the principles of eternal truth, and all this that our steps might not waver and that we might yield obedience to the laws of heaven and continue in the observation of the statutes. But, notwithstanding all our privileges and blessings, a great many of us seem to have ears to hear but hear not, hearts but we understand not, and although we are made partakers of the munificence and goodness of God, and notwithstanding his intelligence continues to be poured out upon us from day to day and from year to year, we seem to treat lightly the blessings he has showered out upon us. This is not the case with all; I believe the great majority of this people feel it in their hearts to do right, to keep the commandments of God and to yield obedience to his laws, and to magnify their high callings and help to build up his kingdom on the earth. This is the feeling and desire of the great majority of this people; and probably as others learn more and comprehend more, they will feel a stronger desire to walk in accordance with the commandments of God and fulfil all his behests.

If we could see and feel our position we should feel, when men surround us with their temptations, and tell us of privileges—we should feel something like a man that was building the Temple in former days, he said “I am doing a great work, hinder me not: why should I come down?” If we as Elders, as Saints of the Most High, could comprehend the responsibilities that rest upon us, and the obligations that rest upon us, we should feel when these little things come in our way, and we should say, “Get thee behind me Satan.” We should feel as this man said, “I am doing a great work, and I, myself, and my family and all my interests, and in fact everything that I have are bound up in the kingdom of God. I am a servant of the Great Jehovah; God is my father, he has established his kingdom upon the earth. I am one of his servants, one of his Elders, and I am trying to help to build up his kingdom, and to introduce a reign of righteousness, to roll back the dark cloud that has overspread the world, and to do something that will tend to roll forth the Redeemer’s kingdom, and therefore I cannot condescend to the worldly vanity that I see around me.” This would be the feeling of all the Elders and of all Saints, if they felt right and realized their true positions and responsibilities, and they would feel, moreover, a good deal as all goodmen feel who know themselves and feel correctly their calling. They would likewise feel, that if men for generations past have been erring and going astray for want of the knowledge of the laws of God, and that if God called out men to carry the message of life and salvation to this generation, that they would go and try, if they died while trying, and thus enable mankind to approach God and to conduct themselves aright; and also teach their families the first principles of true government, that, peradventure, with the united efforts and co-operations of the Priesthood and the members of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth, they might be able to introduce a reign of righteousness into the world. This would be the feeling that would exist. It is just as some men are over a picayune. Don’t you know how men will twist and pick and cringe to get hold of a dollar or two? If men would be as valiant in trying to pray to God to give them wisdom and power to control themselves and their thoughts and passions, then in all their business transactions, they would feel that they know themselves to be accepted of the Almighty. They would feel and know that they had ears to hear and hearts to understand and comprehend the mind and will of God; they would then feel ten thousand times more interest in the kingdom and to work for the spread, of true and holy principles, and in all things pertaining to the great work in which they are engaged, than in those little temporal matters. Yet, notwithstanding all our experience, how anxious we are about the one and how careless about the other; yet our father is merciful and remembers that we are but poor, weak, erring creatures. He knows the things float are transpiring, and he comprehends all our faults and infirmities, and hence he is merciful unto us, and really we ought sometimes to be ashamed of our own acts.

Many of you have doubtless heard people talk, and say, Why I thought I could get a living better, get more money and clothes and everything I needed. Yes, this is the way many felt, and they came here to the gathering-place of the Saints with a view to get rich, that they might eat and drink, get plenty of beer, spirits and wine, such as was made in the old countries and in the Eastern States, whereas men should come with a feeling to build up the kingdom of God. Not that you need be united with the Temperance Society, for our religion comprehends all that is good in that society. Is there a temperance society or principle necessary? We have it. Is there any good principle in the Peace Society? We have it with us; it is all comprehended in our holy religion.

Now, Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” In another place he says, when speaking to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Peace is the gift of God. Do you want peace? Go to God. Do you want peace in your families? Go to God. Do you want peace to brood over your families? If you do, live your religion, and the very peace of God will dwell and abide with you, for that is where peace comes from, and it don’t dwell anywhere else. We had peace societies in the world, it is true, for many years, but what have they done? Simply nothing; but peace is good, and I say seek for it, cherish it in your bosoms, in your neighborhoods, and wherever you go among your friends and associates, for they are good principles and dwell in the bosom of God, and if we only get that peace that dwells in the bosom of God all will be right.

Remember that it is a great deal better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. We have enlisted in this kingdom for the purpose of working righteousness, growing up in righteousness, and in purity that we might have a heaven in our families, in our city and neighborhoods, a Zion right in our midst, live in it ourselves and persuade every body else to abide its holy laws. Philosophers have been seeking after and searching into philosophy. The Lord has revealed unto the great family of heaven and of earth, and he is continually communicating his will and giving us good principles. Others have been trying to understand the things of God by their various creeds and systems, but we have got all the truth combined, instead of having a multitude of systems. There is not a religion upon the face of the earth but has truth in it that is embraced in our religion, for it embraces all truth that has or will exist, so far as we can comprehend it. Consequently, our religion is something like the religion of Moses. You remember that Moses had a rod, and the magicians had rods; the magicians cast down their rods, and through some power and influence they became serpents. When Moses cast down his, through some power and influence superior to that of the magicians, it swallowed up theirs. We have cast down our rod, we have set up our standard, and it will swallow up all the rest.

Is there a true principle of science in the world? It is ours. Are there true principles of music, of mechanism, or of philosophy? If there are, they are all ours. Is there a true principle of government that exists in the world anywhere? It is ours, it is God’s; for every good and perfect gift that does exist in the world among men proceeds from the “Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” It is God that has given every good gift that the world ever did possess. He is the giver of all good principles, principles of law, of government and of everything else, and he is now gathering them together into one place, and withdrawing them from the world, and hence the misery and darkness that begin to prevail among the nations; and hence the light, life and intelligence that begin to manifest themselves among us.

But, again, in relation to government, who can govern the human family? The world have tried it, with all their great spirits, with all their power and authority, and what have they done among the nations of the earth? They have had misery pressed down, shaken together and running over. At the same time there have been many good principles among the nations of the earth; many good and equitable laws; and among the rest religion and politics have had a liberal share, and everything else that has had some good in it; but mankind have not been able to introduce the millennial reign, and who knows how the Lord and those to whom he will give wisdom, will govern mankind? It cannot be known; man never could and never will be able to govern his fellows, except the power, the wisdom and the authority be given from heaven.

We have had a great deal of talk about Republican Governments, and look what a specimen we have before us. Look at the desolation and destruction that prevail through this once happy land. I ask the question, can man govern himself? No, he cannot; and unless the Lord takes the government and introduces correct principles, it cannot be done; the intelligence we have will never do it, and in fact nothing but the light and intelligence of the Most High will enable us to progress in the things of the kingdom of God; and how few there are that can govern themselves. What will enable you, brethren and sisters, to govern yourselves? the Spirit of God; and you cannot do it without the Spirit of the living God dwelling in you—you must have the light of revelation, or else you cannot do it. If you get the gift of the Holy Ghost and walk in the light of the countenance of the Lord you can govern yourselves and families, that is, if you retain it by your good works. You may govern people in a certain kind of way, as they have done in former days, but you will need the Spirit of the living God to dwell in your bosoms. What would be the effect of such a government? If carried out, it would be as we sing sometimes, that

“Every man in every place Will meet a brother and a friend.”

When you get the Spirit of God, you feel full of kindness, charity, long-suffering, and you are willing all the day long to accord to every man that which you want yourself. You feel disposed all the day long to do unto all men as you would wish them to do unto you. What is it that will enable one man to govern his fellows aright? It is just as Joseph Smith said to a certain man who asked him, “How do you govern such a vast people as this?” “Oh,” says Joseph, “it is very easy.” “Why,” says the man, “but we find it very difficult.” “But,” said Joseph, “it is very easy, for I teach the people correct principles and they govern themselves;” and if correct principles will do this in one family they will in ten, in a hundred and in ten hundred thousand. How easy it is to govern the people in this way! It is just like the streams from City Creek; they spread through the valleys and through every lot and piece of lot. So it is with the government of God; the streams of life flow from the Great Fountain through the various channels which the Almighty has opened up, and they spread not only throughout this city but throughout the world, wherever there are any Saints that have yielded obedience to the commandments of God. The fountain is inexhaustible, and the rivers of life flow from the fountain unto the people.

The Lord said that his people should be willing in the day of his power, and this principle commands the influence of his good Spirit, connects with the fountain, with the intelligence that dwells in the bosom of God, it is that which lights and fills every bosom, and enters into every house, and every family and heart; all are made glad with the joys of the Spirit of God; under its benigning influence they are made to feel that the yoke of Christ is easy and his burden is light. This is the feeling that governs the Saints and controls them in all their acts, and this spirit has commenced to spread abroad and will continue to spread until the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the great deep.

Some in speaking of war and troubles, will say are you not afraid? No, I am a servant of God, and this is enough, for Father is at the helm. It is for me to be as clay in the hands of the potter, to be pliable and walk in the light of the countenance of the Spirit of the Lord, and then no matter what comes. Let the lightnings flash and the earthquakes bellow, God is at the helm, and I feel like saying but little, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth and will continue his work until he has put all enemies under his feet, and his kingdom extends from the rivers to the ends of the earth.

Brethren, God bless you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Necessity of Understanding the First Principles of the Gospel, etc.

George A. Smith

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk, is unskil[l]ful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”—Hebrews v. 12, 13 and 14 verses.

It may seem to my brethren and sisters a little surprising, that I should introduce the remarks which I have the privilege of addressing to you this morning, by reading the sentiment which is conveyed in this text. For when for the time we ought to be teachers, we have need that one teach us again the first principles of the oracles of God. But how often is it necessary, and has it been necessary, for those who are inspired of the Lord to complain of the brethren making such slow progress in the things of the kingdom of God? How often do we hear our Presidency lament the ig[n]orance, folly and vanity that are exhibited by many of those who are called upon to be and who should be teachers indeed. I have thought that in some circumstances there was a neglect in the Branches of preaching to and rehearsing in the ears of the rising generation, those first principles of the Gospel which were taught to us when we received the Work of the last days, and especially the principle of faith. We grow up in this community and the principles of the Gospel become, to a great extent, natural to us. But many of the young are untried and without experience, and they lack the power to contrast the principles of truth with those of error, and hence it is regarded as important by the Elders that they should have the opportunity, at some period, of going abroad to preach the Gospel and have a chance to test, by actual experience, the power of the principles of truth when brought in contact with the wild fanaticisms which the world has dignified with the title of religion.

It was remarked yesterday, that the progress of the people was so slow, that the Presidency could not develope those principles which were for the benefit of the people, for their glory and exaltation, only at a very slow rate, powerful as we may think the “Mormon” mill to be. The President tells us that he has to regulate the feed very moderately, or injure the weak minded. Some of the brethren, for want of a more perfect understanding perhaps, give way to temptation and turn away, and become to a considerable extent like a man who comes out of the dark into a well lighted room, he is blinded with the light, his eyes are unprepared to meet such brilliancy. This is illustrated very clearly in the organization of the several Branches, settlements, and stakes of Zion throughout Deseret. To use a figure, in almost all the Branches containing from one hundred to three hundred families, it has been found necessary to combine all the authority of Presidency in one man, at least I will say this has been the case in many instances; there are a few exceptions to this rule, but not many. A Bishop while he presides at the meetings looks after the spiritual welfare of the settlements; he preaches on the Sabbath day, gives counsel to the people, spiritual and temporal; he gives counsel in relation to the donations, public buildings, the erection of school-houses; and almost everything is made to devolve upon the head of the Bishop.

In the first instance many of these places were organized with a President and Bishop who were expected to act in concert, and, with their counsellors, work and exert themselves for the general good of the people, and with a strong hand all pull together and strive to strengthen each other. And when for the time these men ought to have been teachers they have proven that they required to be taught, for the very first question that would arise, was “which of us is the biggest man, for it is important that we should know the precise line between our authority, to know where the jurisdiction of the one ends and the other begins.” A man of this disposition and feeling would want a rule and tape-line to draw his line of jurisdiction on the ground and stake it out. Then it would be, Bishop you must toe this line, and President you must keep your side of it. No familiarity. You must not tread on my toes, remember that.

Now, I have had experience in these matters to some little extent, by visiting and attempting to regulate, explain and set in order these difficulties. At one place, containing about three hundred families, the President held the doctrine that the Bishop was a mere temporal officer, and therefore he had no right or business to talk on the Sabbath day on temporal matters. If he wished to talk about donations, emigration, teams, building meeting-houses, or of Tithing, he was told that that was temporal business and that he must call a meeting on a week day. Elder E. T. Benson and myself went to that place after they had been contending upon this subject, and it had become well understood that no man must talk there on temporal subjects on the Sabbath day. But we occupied the whole day in telling how to make bread, build cities, make farms, fences, and in fact we told them how to do every useful thing that we could think of. We asserted that a certain amount of temporal preparation was necessary in order that a man might enjoy his religion. We also asserted, that if a man made no preparations for the future he was constantly subjected to annoyances. For instance, a man lives in one of our agricultural villages, and he makes little or no preparation for taking care of what he has around him; he neglects to fence his field and stack-yard. Now, I have thought that a man could not enjoy his religion as he should do unless he had a good fence around his field and stack-yard; for if he has no fence, or only a poor one, when he gets ready for praying there is perhaps a rap at the door, and when the door is opened, the message delivered is, “there are twenty head of cattle destroying your wheat in your stack-yard.” “The Devil there is,” says the man, “and whose are they?” He puts them in the astray pound, and he puts an exorbitant tax upon them, and charges the pound-keeper not to let them go until he gets this pay, say, damages to the amount of $50. The next thing is, another neighbor who is religious also, but perhaps a little later in his devotions, is aroused by the report, “your cattle are all in the astray pound and there is $50 damage against them.” “The Devil they are, who put them there?” Why brother—; his feelings of reverence and devotion having been badly shaken by this report, he rises from his prayerful mood in a rage and uses very violent language; and, suffice it to say, that much trouble is caused by men not having a good fence, and it is exceedingly doubtful whether many men can preserve an even temper of mind under such circumstances. Now, all this was the result of ignorance. If that Presidency had known their duties they would never have closed a meeting without asking the Bishop if he had anything to say, or any business to attend to; it was a matter of courtesy and of duty also; and instead of pulling against each other they should have united and all pulled together for the accomplishment of the same object. For this reason we have had to organize several Branches with a Bishop and his counsellors only, and, as I express it sometimes in the settlements where I visit, we have had to use a wheel-barrow instead of a six horse coach. The Bishop must do this, that and the other, in fact everything. He must preach, collect the Tithing; for if we set another man to assist him, men are so ignorant, they have learned so little that they will immediately start up and strive for the mastery, and hence contentions have risen among the brethren acting in the capacity of Bishops and Presidents.

In most of the settlements there have been quorums of High Priests organized, and they call meetings and watch over each other, blow the coal and keep the fire alive within each other’s bosoms, and see if they can keep one another wide awake. The same thing has occurred in reference to the Seventies, and the organizations are very numerous. Well, the question arises have these Quorums a right to call meetings at the same time the President has called a public meeting of the whole Branch? Here comes a question of jurisdiction. For instance, when half of the males in a Branch are Seventies, the President of the Mass Quorum notifies that they are to have a meeting at 10 or 11 o’clock, the very hour that the President of the Branch has his meeting. Has the President of the Seventies a right to do this? No, he has not; it is a discourtesy. Every Quorum should so arrange its appointments that there will be no difficulty, no necessity for any law to regulate the matter, but that of common decency and common manhood, and it does seem that a man with less than half a share of discernment could see that while the meeting called by the President is going on all the Branch ought to be there, and therefore that there should be no other meeting holden [held] at the same time.

Brethren, we should so arrange our appointments when our High Priests and whatever other Quorums meet, as not to conflict, and in this way have and show our respect to the President of the Branch. Have our meetings of course, but submit to the President of the Branch, as the first to be attended to, and then have our other meetings subordinate in point of time.

Well, now, almost any man in the world would say that a man is a fool that would raise such a question, but men that have been ordained Elders, High Priests and Seventies are just such teachers, for when, for the time that they should be teachers, they have need to be taught, for they seem to operate like children and pull against each other; they labor to define each others duties, to mark out the whereabouts of the line of demarcation, whereas they should each and every one strive to build up the kingdom of God, and so live as to enjoy the Holy Spirit; each man should strive to be humble instead of exalting himself; instead of drawing the line and saying I belong just, here and nobody must interfere with my rights, he should feel to sustain the hands of his brethren. I will here say that there have been places where these two organizations have existed for years without any difficulty, and there are other places where the two have existed at the same time, and the matter has been taken up by the people and worked at until it has been found necessary to reduce the organization by uniting the Presidency and Bishopric in one person, or, as I term it, the wheelbarrow arrangement, or if you please, a three wheeled coach.

There was one settlement where the people got so very wise that the Bishop had to have two sets of counsellors, and they had to be selected according to the wishes of the parties that took sides with the President, or rather that were in favor of having one, and then those who were willing to be contented with a Bishop had to have their choice, and thus was formed what I call an unlimited democracy.

The fact is that as soon as the brethren can realize that they are to be servants of God, and that it is their individual duty, to sustain each other and put away that jealousy which in many cases, exists at the present time, and which in fact is the chief cause of all this trouble; and so soon as they find that they are not to be as large as they desire to be, and as they think they ought to be, it will be found that these organizations will be increased in numbers; they will also increase in faith, in good works and in power and influence with the heavens, and if they will be faithful the idea will be fairly illustrated that a man with a wheelbarrow cannot travel as fast nor accomplish as much as the man who drives a four horse coach. Still, I know, that owing to the ignorance and short-sightedness of the people, a case of this kind will occasionally occur. There seems to be a disposition to put everything in a nut shell. For instance, a few years ago, there were some Bishops sent out of Salt Lake City to explain to the country Bishops their duties. These brethren would go into a settlement where there were both a Bishop and a President, and they would go on and tell the Bishops what their duties were, and in doing so, embrace the whole circle of duties required of both Bishop and President, and never think that in that Branch of the Church those duties were not united or cent[e]red in one man but divided between two. And in some instances, there would be a sort of half sharp-looking fellow get up and ask what the President was to do, if all those explained and fully defined duties were cent[e]red in the Bishop. “O,” they would say, “we were not sent to instruct anybody but the Bishops;” and as might be expected, the result was a contention, if not among the authorities, among the people, and I had some of these difficulties to settle, and I found that the best way to do it was to dispense with one of the officers.

There are several stakes of Zion in the country, where High Councils have been organized, composed of twelve Councillors and a President of the Stake and his two Counsellors, in settlements where, in the commencement, the inhabitants were very small in numbers, and it was natural that some member of the Council should represent or be personally interested in each and every party in the town that might be litigant before that body. In some such instances it has become necessary to dissolve the High Council altogether. The fact is, that every High Council should have enough of the Spirit of the Lord with them to investigate every case, so that when the decision is given, it will be the decision of Heaven. Instead of this, little petty disputes arise among the brethren, and two or three members of the Council, perhaps, would have their minds made up beforehand what they would do. There is one thing I have noticed in regard to High Councils; the organization is well understood. One portion of the Council takes the side of justice and investigates the facts in the case, presenting them as they should be presented by an honest attorney; then the other portion of the Council brings up the defence and shows what the side of mercy is, in an unprejudiced manner. After the Council have investigated the subject before them thoroughly, the case is submitted by both complainant and defendant. There have been cases where men have tried to drag in attorneys to plead their cause before these councils, and in some instances, it has been permitted. If this kind of practice were allowed, and petty-fogging, contriving lawyers allowed to practice before the High Councils, the organization of heaven would soon be superseded altogether. I wish to see all High Councillors magnify their own callings. I do not know that I would carry out this rule strictly myself, but I believe that, if I were a judge, and a lawyer were to come before me and assert an absolute lie, and I should find it out, I never would allow him to plead in my presence again; I should set him down as a lawyer not of good moral character, and not legally entitled to be a member of the bar. It appears that I have got off from religion to law, still I believe that however a man may try to pour on the oil and soft soap, the decision of the High Council will be according to the principles of equity. If there is to be an investigation before a council of this kind, it is the duty of that body of men to strive to learn the truth for the sake of doing justice to both parties; and if a man for the sake of a fee, for the sake of gain, if bound and will come into court or council, and state a lie, he has no business there, and I am sorry to believe, if this principle was tried, it would pinch some of our brethren who have dabbled in the law. (President B. Young: I wish it would pinch them to death.)

I believe that there never was a more correct organization of a court on earth than our High Councils, for these men go to work and investigate a case, hear the testimony pro and con, the Councillors for each party litigant present the case, it is submitted to the President who sums up, gives his decision and calls on the Council to sanction it by their vote, and if they are not united, they have to go to work and try the case over again in order that they may ascertain more perfectly the facts in the case and be united in their decision. Why, all the courts in the world are boobies compared to it. It is an organization that shows its own authenticity and divine origin.

Perhaps it is not well for me to further describe the operation of the High Council, but I will take the liberty of saying that men occupying this high position in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should constantly cultivate the principle of justice and study to know what is right and what is wrong, always keeping within them the Spirit of the Almighty. If they have got prejudices against anybody, they should do as the President said yesterday. And so long as a man acts upon this principle upon which President Young gave us instruction, he has me for a friend, and just so sure as a man comes up without envy or prejudice, simply to learn what is right, and I understand my position and my duty, and so long as I can vindicate myself, I will put that man in the path of right and in the way of salvation.

What has caused the corruption and wickedness that exist in the world at the present day? It is the feeling that exists among the people that one man cannot tell another his faults, because he tells them to everybody else to the injury and prejudice of the guilty party. The Prophet Joseph in his day would tell a man of his faults to save him from error and destruction, but he offended many because he told them of their faults; they thought he wished to injure them, because they were unwilling to forsake their follies, but his purpose in thus reproving was to redeem, to bless and to save. It frequently happens that men who commit faults are not aware of it. The man who can and will show you your faults, your follies and blindness, and make you fully aware of your position, can awaken up in your mind those reflective powers that will cause you to square yourselves up with correct principles and cause you to prepare yourselves to inherit life, light and glory. But the very moment that a “Mormon” Elder can be instructed by the wicked, and allow those acts of folly and vice to creep in in all their hideous deformity, that man is on the road to destruction. The Elder, Priest, Teacher or any man in this kingdom that will suffer position to cause him to compromise principle for wealth, is blind and cannot see afar off, and is bound to destruction.

We have got to turn right round from that track, if we have been walking in it; if we have coveted other men’s goods, if we have suffered or caused our hearts to fall in love with property that is not our own, we are laying the foundation for destruction.

I can look over the history of this Church, the great apostacy there has been from it at different periods, and I can see that the apostacy of many has been the result of dishonesty, adultery, selfishness and wickedness in general, and this has been the key to the whole trouble.

These are my sentiments, the honest convictions of my heart, drawn from long experience and attentive observation; and I know that the man who would stand upon the holy hill of Zion, his hands must not be filled with bribes.

Brethren, I know these principles to be true, and it is my desire to walk so that I may be prepared to stand upon the holy hill of Zion. This is what I labor and strive for. I can tell you, if you encourage a spirit of fault-finding and complaining, you will suffer the canker worm to gnaw at your vitals, to cause you to distrust everybody, and you will begin to say that you have not been respected, put in office and encouraged as you ought to have been. Suffer these feelings to come into your bosoms, and they will speedily gain possession and control of the whole passion.

What a glorious thing it is for men to meet the Elders of this Church, as some met me in the States in 1856! They would say, we should have been with you still if we had been treated right! What a glorious consolation it will be when a man lifts up his eyes in hell and says, I should have been up there in heaven if I had been treated right!

Brethren and sisters, let us ever remember that it is our business to tread ourselves right.

May the Lord enable us to do right, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Gratitude for the Blessings of the Gospel

Ezra T. Benson

Remarks by Elder Ezra T. Benson, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

I have the privilege of making a few remarks to my brethren and sisters, upon the condition that I stop speaking or pumping when the pond is out. This may seem a singular introduction, but I feel perfectly free and at home when I meet with you in general Conference.

I have enjoyed myself very much during this Conference, and I really feel that we have been well instructed on the great principles of our holy religion. I am fully satisfied that our brethren who have spoken from this stand have laid before us the things that we need, and especially for the benefit of those that are laboring in the different portions of Utah, or, as I was about to say, in different portions of Deseret.

I am proud of the name of being a Saint of God, for there is something that is sweet—there is something that is glorious about it.

I rejoice that we have the privilege here in Deseret of naming our own children when they are born; it is not so in the nations of the earth, but here we have organized a State Government; the child is born and we have given it a name, and it is one of our own choosing. We are a blessed people. How are we blessed this morning? We are blessed by being taught of the Lord; we are instructed in those things that pertain to our peace; we are in possession of those heavenly principles that have been so plainly laid before us; they are things that immediately concern us as Saints of the Most High. If we have been gathered here to these valleys of the mountains to be taught of the Lord, if we do not have the spirit of humility, how can we be taught? and if we are taught, what good will it do us? We require to be in that state of mind that will render us susceptible of instruction; then, at the close of this Conference we shall all have it to say that we have been well paid for coming together to worship the Lord, and we shall also feel that the teachings and instructions have been applicable to our organizations and circumstances in the different departments of the Holy Priesthood, which the Almighty has conferred upon his servants in these last days.

I feel that it is indeed good to be here; it is good to listen—to dwell and rejoice in the midst of this people, for this is the work of the Lord; and we are the only people upon the face of the earth that are so highly favored at the present time. We can meet together in peace, as we are doing to-day, and worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences; yes, here we can do this, where the true liberty guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States is fully carried out, and extended to all people who wish to reside in our community.

I feel to take up the admonitions and treasure them up in my mind and carry them home in my bosom. Every time that I come to a Conference, I can see where I can do a little better, and discover where I have been a little slothful in regard to the duties of my calling.

You are aware that I hail from the northern part of our flourishing Territory, (Cache Valley,) and I am really proud of the county and of the people who live there, and of the desire they have to aid and assist in building up this kingdom.

With reference to the Quorums of High Priests and Seventies, I have to say that we have them with us, and we try to make them a blessing to the people. We have the piety, the principles and order of the Gospel among us, and I feel that such doctrine as was taught yesterday is a blessing to the people who hear, and I know it. But where people are trying to get all the honor, influence and power to themselves it is then a detriment instead of a blessing. Well, then, it beho[o]veth us as Elders, Presidents and Bishops to lay these principles to heart and have them riveted to our minds; to lie down and sleep and wake up again with them fresh in our minds in the morning, and go forth attending to the duties required of us by our callings in the Priesthood; and then we will profit by these instructions. Do not let us allow these wholesome teachings to go in at one ear and out of the other.

I do not wish to make many remarks this morning, but I feel truly thankful to God and my brethren that I hold a standing in this kingdom, and I intend to labor and do all I can for the spread of truth, and strive to the best of my ability to endure unto the end. And may this be our happy position and desire is the sincere prayer of your brother in the New Covenant, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Privilege of the Saints to Enjoy the Spirit of Prophecy

George A. Smith

A discourse delivered by Elder George A. Smith, September 4, 1859. Reported by G. D. Watt.

At the request of my brethren, I arise to offer a few remarks. And in order to give them to some extent the character of a sermon, I will read the seventh verse of the third chapter of the Prophet Amos:—“Surely the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

It is my design merely to draw the attention of our friends to the subject presented in this text. When God has a people upon the face of the earth he can own and bless as his, he always has Prophets among them. “Surely,” says the Prophet Amos, “the Lord will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Now, it is not certain that the Prophet always reveals those secrets unto the people. It may happen in many instances, that the Lord will reveal unto his servants the Prophets many things that are to come, and yet leave those who are not enlightened by the Spirit of Prophecy to wait until those things transpire before they are apprised of them.

There appears to be in the midst of the Saints a very great stress laid upon the word prophet, and the words of Amos seem to be definitely pointed at in the minds of a great many individuals, to show, as it were, there was but one. But when the Spirit of the Lord was poured out in the camp of Israel, and Eldad and Medad began to prophesy, persons whose minds were contracted went to Moses and complained that Eldad and Medad were prophesying. “Would to God,” said Moses “that all the Lord’s people were Prophets?’ There are in the Church a variety of gifts, and these gifts are all combined together, and are necessary for the development of the principles we understand, the diffusion of knowledge, and the complete organization of the whole body. There are Apostles, Prophets and Teachers, and all these officers bring about the great and complete organization of the whole. In tracing through the history of the sacred writings, we find that the Lord in some instances chose men that were ignorant. I presume he did this in many instances from necessity, for those who had been learned in the world were seldom found to possess humility enough to humble themselves before the Lord to get the Spirit of Prophecy, and to be a Prophet is to have the Spirit of Prophecy, and to have the testimony of Jesus, “for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy,” nothing more nor nothing less. The man who can testify that Jesus is the Christ has this testimony, and as he improves upon his gift he becomes a Prophet. It is not one individual it is not three, it is not twelve individuals, but it is for all the Saints who have the testimony of Jesus and live in the exercise of that testimony. A man that does not foresee by the Spirit of God, who does not learn things to come by it, is not living up to his privilege and profession, is not living in the enjoyment of that testimony which he has received; he is blinded by the mists of darkness and is liable to fall into a snare. The Apostle Peter in exhorting his brethren tells them that it was necessary they should add to their faith, virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, that you will be made partakers of the Divine mind, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you will know for yourselves of the principles and the doctrines which you have received. The storms of adversity which surround us amount to nothing with the man who has this knowledge planted in his breast, he cares not for slanders, for abuse, for sacrifices or losses of earthly goods. He who does not possess this testimony, and is not made a partaker of the Divine nature, and does not struggle to attain to exaltation, is turning away and falling into darkness. It is strange to me that persons who have been many years in this Church, who have borne their testimony of the truth of the work of God in the last days many times, should finally come to the conclusion that they have gone astray, and must go in some other direction. Why is this? It is simply because they have suffered the mists of darkness to overcome them; they have not lived up to the principles they have professed, and instead of advancing to be made partakers of the divine nature and overcome the wiles that are in the world through lust, they suffer them to have dominion over them, and they fall back into darkness. When the storm of persecution surrounds us, then, of course, we are apt to be zealous, but when we are as it were left to ourselves we are tried in another way; and when the Lord commenced giving revelations to this people he said to them, through his servant Joseph, that they should be tried in all things. If there is any one thing that is calculated to try us more than another, that thing we may expect to encounter. I know this people will bear poverty and affliction, they will bear persecution, they will suffer their houses to be burned, their property to be destroyed, and sacrifice what the Lord has given them of earthly goods, expose themselves to suffering and hardship for the sake of the principles they have received, joyfully; but how many of these, when the smiles of Providence have beamed upon them, when prosperity has surrounded them, and they have been blessed and are in affluent circumstances, have forgotten the Lord, like the Prophet said of Jeshurun, “They waxed fat and kicked, and forgot the Lord.” Such is the fact with hundreds of Latter-day Saints. Now a man that expects to be exalted to thrones and dominions must be just as good a Saint when he is surrounded with wealth, with the comforts and blessings of life in abundance, as he is, when he is in poverty—when being robbed of his possessions, and deprived of the means of subsistence; and the one condition is just as necessary to try some individuals as the other condition is to try any other.

From the time that I first became acquainted with the principles of this Church, I have watched the progress of the development of the Spirit of Prophecy among the Saints. I have never made pretensions to prophecy, though many things have been made manifest to me before they were fulfilled. I have foreseen many results which have been astonishing, in many instances, to others. The man that wishes to know the future let him study well the present, let him be careful that the present is all right; that the principles which he professes are not abused; that he lives up to the doctrines which he has received, and that he maintains his integrity towards his fellow-beings as God requires at his hands; let him do this, and the future will be unfolded to him, and he will be prepared for it just as fast as necessary.

As Elder Middlemas said, he knew some things that were manifested to him, and knew how it would be beforehand. There are hundreds that can foresee by the Spirit of the Almighty, the Spirit of Prophecy, things that are to come to pass, without being able to know the precise manner how it will be effected. But I can tell you from the day of Joseph Smith’s first commencement to testify of the things of God unto the present, that the very results that have been predicted have come to pass, but the manner has seldom been understood until it came. When the Saints were in Jackson County, surrounded by our enemies who were determined to destroy us, and had no other idea but what the steps that were being taken would put an utter end to our organisation as a religious society, the future was as plainly laid open to thousands, and the present time was as plainly understood by hundreds of the Saints as it is now. The future is before us and many can look into it and know its results. This is the work of the Almighty. God has set his hand in the last days to establish a people on the earth, he has not only commenced to do it, but is now accomplishing it—all the efforts of our enemies to hinder it to the contrary; and all efforts to stay its progress will be futile. They may cast men into prison, cause men to make great sacrifices, cause them to be brought into trying circumstances and endure much suffering, but the result is a fixed fact, no man can help it, no power can interfere with it, even the folly and corruptions of men that profess to be associated with the Saints cannot stay its progress. The work has commenced and onward it will roll, and no power can stay it. I know it is so. They may destroy my life, they may destroy yours, they may cause us to see much sorrow and trouble, place us in a hundred unpleasant positions; the corruptions of our own brethren may cause our hearts to bleed; our blood may be spilled, our enemies may beset us on every side, but we are engaged in the work of the Almighty God who says in the Doctrine and Covenants, “I will save those who fall in the defence of Zion.” Brethren, let us then be faithful, and diligently observe and do all things that are required at our hands by our heavenly Father, that the light of his countenance may constantly shine upon us, for we are engaged in the great and glorious work he has commenced in the last days. His hand steadies the ark, his arm guides and sustains it, his Divine mind, will and power control it, and all that has been done by those who have interfered with it, simply shows the weakness and vanity of men that think to stay the hand of the Almighty. And this testimony I bear continually. It is a day for us to act, to act upon principle, to conquer ourselves by doing right, and while we conquer ourselves by doing right we are enabled to control others. What we do, we should do because it is right, and refuse to do wrong.

And the great questions that should reign in our breast are What is right? What is wrong? And when we are not certain, wait until we understand, until we know we are right, and then go ahead. May the blessing of Israel’s God rest upon us, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

How to Obtain a Part in the Kingdom of God, etc.

Orson Hyde

Discourse by Elder Orson Hyde, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brethren and sisters, being invited to address you, I cheerfully arise to make a few remarks, for I truly feel thankful for the privilege I enjoy of speaking to you this morning. Be patient, my friends, I will start on as high a key as I can so as not to break down. I feel thankful for the opportunity of meeting with the Saints in General Conference, and of mingling my testimony with this vast number of Saints in endeavoring to advance the interests of the kingdom of God, according to the intelligence I possess; and I feel truly thankful to the Lord for the experience I have had. I do not know that I can feel thankful for all the experience I have had, but suffice it to say that I am spared by our heavenly Father.

I do not at present know what I shall select for the foundation of my remarks. Sometimes I take my text from the spelling book, sometimes from the Bible, also from the Book of Mormon and from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, besides another Book which seems to be above all other books—the Book of Nature; one page above and the other beneath. There we behold the finger of God; it is plain and legible to every heart that is inspired of the Almighty, that is filled with the love of God, and burning with the light of truth.

On this occasion there is a scripture that occurs to my mind, where our Savior in his parables puts forth a sentiment like this, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”—Matt. xiii., 44. The Savior taught a great deal in parables, and the servants of God in these days teach by parables and comparisons in order that we may understand the more clearly, and that we may take a larger view of things than we should or could from the plain, simple statement of facts in common language.

Now, brethren and sisters, we are all seeking the kingdom of our God, we are seeking to become heirs of that kingdom, to be lawful and loyal subjects of the same. With this a question arises, whether we shall attain to a place in that kingdom at any less cost than did those I have quoted the Scripture about in your hearing. The man purchased the field and hid his treasure there. He went silently, lest, if he made a great bluster, some other individual might go and steal the march upon him and purchase the field of treasure, then the bargain would have been complete; but no, he was wide awake, and sold all that he had and purchased that field, for he was determined to have that treasure. It took all that he had to purchase it, but the treasure concealed there was far beyond the cost of purchase in value, and in purchasing it he knew that it would increase in time and throughout all eternity, for that treasure was the kingdom of God, and salvation to that man’s soul.

A question comes up in the minds of some; I have frequently heard persons say, “What becomes of our Tithing? and what is the propriety of paying so much? The calls come from this quarter and calls from that; and what are we doing when we are buying that field in which the treasure lies concealed?” Did we ever think, when responding to the calls on the right and on the left, that we were purchasing that field, and that having gone to the extent of our power and ability in that transaction, that there is our deed and title to the kingdom of God, signed, sealed and delivered?

Look back upon our privations that we have undergone, and there is joy and gladness, there is hope which is full of immortality. The kingdom is ours. We have purchased it, and by it our salvation is secured, by faithfulness in the kingdom. Now do we expect to get something for nothing? If we do, the transaction is not suspended upon an even balance. To expect something for nothing is just what many in our community want to do in their trading and trafficking, and putting on prices that are far above the standard. You naturally call such persons dishonest, and such they truly are. If you expect to gain the kingdom of our God without purchasing it by your labors, with me the question is, Will you not be mistaken in your calculation?

This parable to which I have invited your attention is a good lesson for all of us, and we should endeavor to so conduct ourselves as to show that with us the kingdom of God is all in all. This parable is an ensample for us to copy and adopt. A word to the wise is sufficient on this subject. You have considered this matter having read about it, and by reciting it over it may be of service to you. It is no matter what that man did, or what the other said, so far as the field spoken of is concerned, for I do not suppose the purchaser gave him any trouble whether he paid out his money for this, that or the other. It was the field that he paid it for; he wished to have the field containing the treasure. It is not the price we pay for the kingdom, it is the kingdom of God we are bound to purchase at any price.

Enough upon that subject. As short sermons seem to be the order of the day, I may be allowed to touch upon that which will benefit myself, that which will increase our faith and tend to our education and good, that we may go to our homes rejoicing in the truth and in the privileges of the new and everlasting covenant.

Now with regard to the poor, I have a few words to say. I have a text about sending to the Missouri river to bring home the poor. The Lord says, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.”—Psalm xli., 1, 2. Such an one will be blessed of the Lord for sending out his beasts, and for taking the poor, even the stranger to his house; his light shall shine in darkness, and shall appear as at the noon-day. Now then we have considered the poor, we have sent our teams, our oxen and all that was necessary to bring them to our houses. And I will here observe that I wish, that inasmuch as they have come to our mountain home, to the thresh-hold of Zion, that every man would so conduct himself as to meet with the approving smile of Heaven, then their light would break forth and shine in the darkness as resplendently as the noon-day sun. We all want our brethren and sisters at home; then let us lend a helping hand. Now just go down there to the public square and see what you can do. Take the poor home to your houses, and God Almighty bless you from this time henceforth and for ever. It is our imperative duty to walk in the light, to see that our pathway is clear and plain before us, and let us so live that it may be clear.

Bishops, allow me to say a word to you. In the vicinity where I have been laboring for the last two years and-a-half, I have seen the evil of spreading out so far. We are and have seemed to be anxious to take up all the land that we could find, and then keep putting in seed until the first we put in is ripe and ready for harvesting. This has been the case with all of us, more or less, in fact it has been so much so that neither man nor woman has had time to clean out the filth and bedbugs, so much so that they have got the upper hand of us. We talk of subduing nations, of becoming kings and priests unto God, but amidst all our great talk we have not subdued the vermin with which we are pestered in our newly created homes. We sometimes talk about messengers coming from heaven to visit us, but I doubt whether the angels will come to commune with us until we are in a different situation.

I will now go back to the wheat field, and speak a little of that. The brethren in our section thought they would not plant so much grain but let the ground rest. In process of time the wheat came up in large quantities; we had water plenty, and we had such immense crops that we had not men enough to reap the grain that was raised, and hence we had all the work to do ourselves. We did all we could, but much of the grain has gone back into the earth because we had not help enough to gather it. Our wives and sisters volunteered to assist their husbands and fathers, and they did all they could. We hear a great deal of talk about women’s rights at times, but if you will come down to Sanpete you will see women’s rights conventions, and they take especial pleasure in doing as they like.

To return to the subject of grain, I can truly say that we can sustain our present population and all the emigration that is coming this year. We have this to say of our blessings in return for sending all our teams to gather the poor; no we did not send them quite all, there was one yoke of oxen left to five farms, after filling up the bill for the Missouri river. In addition to these we had a few first-class horse teams, and thus we managed to put in a little grain, but a great deal of it grew without our doing anything to it ourselves, and thus the Lord blessed us with the desires of our hearts, and with a rich reward for what we had done towards the gathering of his people.

We are now showing that we can raise fruit down there, and by-and-bye I may have the satisfaction of eating the fruit of my own raising in Sanpete, for I have no doubt but our apple trees will produce good fruit in due time.

Our teams are now returning; I met some of them as I was coming to Conference, and I felt to say the Lord be praised, you have performed a good mission, and the Lord has blessed our labors and also the labors of those who have been out on the plains. I feel that the crops that have been raised in such great abundance with so little labor have been by the goodness of the Almighty, and I feel that we have worked ourselves almost into life everlasting.

You may think that I am going into a great many things, but I do not expect to hit them all, but I shall touch a few of them as they come up before me. I want to say to the Bishops, that it is their business to direct the energies of the Saints, and where they see a man who is inclined to spread out and sow some forty or fifty acres of wheat, I want them to tell such men to go to work and build good houses. Tell the blacksmiths to go to blacksmithing, the carpenter to his trade, and every other mechanic to his business, and do not let us be as we have been heretofore. When a man has wanted anything doing by a mechanic it has been almost impossible to get it done. For instance, I would go to a blacksmith’s shop and say I want a horse shod, “Oh,” says the smith, “I can’t, I must go and cut my grain, or I must go and irrigate it;” and there are perhaps half-a-dozen men that are in this manner cut short of their labor, by one man refusing to work at his trade, and all men being determined to be farmers. Then I say let the blacksmith attend to his blacksmithing and let him charge a reasonable price for his labor, and not, as has been the custom, charge three or four prices. Let the joiner do likewise, working constantly at that which will most conduce to the building up of Zion, and let the farmer raise the grain. Where you find a man who has plenty of grain to serve him from three to five years, and plenty of teams and wagons too, tell him to go to work and build for his family a comfortable dwelling house, and point out to him that he is in this way finding employment for the mechanics, making his family comfortable and building up Zion. Teach each man to work at his trade and calling, and let the farmer take hold with his might of that which is his profession, but have a little time to breathe and rest. As it is now, we go into the garden and we work like Sam Hill, leaving no time for rest. “By-the-bye that means me,” but I must hew to the line, no matter who is hit. (A voice: Never mind yourself, just go ahead.)

Now then for the flax. Have we got it on hand that we can make our own ropes? No, only a very little in comparison to the demand. We have a rope factory, and we have hemp growing in our county, and we have made many attempts to raise flax, and we do raise a little but we never use it. It is either left in the sun till the coat is burnt off, or we allow it to be trampled down in the yard by the cattle. In this country we cannot rot the flax in the dews, we must put it into water, a shallow pond is the most suitable, so far as I understand the matter. Now, it is better for each of us to raise about ten acres of wheat, and then devote the rest of our time to the flax and hemp. I was raised to wear a tow frock, but the tow would wear off in a short time. If we would raise some and devote a little time to the proper culture of it, attend to each department in its season, the rotting, the hetcheling and the spinning and weaving we should be much better off than we now are. But no, it takes us the whole time, and it seems that we must devote the entire season to raise and take care of our grain, and especially the wheat. The time has now come for us to classify our labor and change our policy. I believe I have said as much as is necessary on these subjects, as I wish to say a few things concerning the times and seasons.

Now concerning the times and seasons in which we live. The Lord says by the mouth of Isaiah “Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.”—Isaiah li. 22 and 23. What are you going to do with this text, my friends? I will put it into the hands of them that have afflicted thee. What was that army up here for? They were sent as agents of the Almighty to take away this cup of trembling, which had afflicted us for so many years, and they carried it away with them down yonder, and they then began to drink of it and have been drinking of it ever since. Do you know that there was a kind of tremor with some of us at that time? But I tell you what it is, the nerves have become settled, and those who sought to make us drink the dregs are drinking them now, and they will continue to do so until the dregs are all drunk out. I have no feeling against any one, and I regret exceedingly that these of whom I speak should have brought upon themselves these terrible calamities which now afflict our once happy country.

If I understand the spirit that I am of, those that do the will of God will not hereafter feel that pitta-pat of trembling which they have been accustomed to feel, for the Lord says, “I will take it away from them,” and he has done it, and we feel it. If they have not got the cup full yet, and do not get it in 1863, all I can say is I will wait till they do, for the Almighty will make them that have afflicted his people drink the dregs of that bitter cup of trembling. And this is not all, I can look very far into the future, but as far as I can see it is a dark and gloomy picture. I could not but be forcibly struck with the remarks of brother Young in relation to the nation growing more guilty and more corrupt, therefore are they being scourged so severely. The Prophet and Revelator John says, “And I heard a great voice out of the temple say to the seven angels. Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters: and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink: for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”—Rev. xvi. 1—7.

Did not the enemies of the Lord attempt to feed the martyrs Joseph and Hyrum Smith with the flesh of their brethren? Look at the testimony of Hyrum Smith. Now they have set the example of war, of cruelty, and it will come double upon their own heads; but, says the Lord, upon my house shall it begin. And now these afflictions have been rolled off from our shoulders on to them, and they will be sorely punished for their iniquity. These things will come to pass. I need not predict anything about these calamities, greater men than I am have predicted in reference to these things, therefore I only need to bear my testimony to the truth of that which has been predicted. In the fierceness of the battle the fainting soldier will bow down to slake his parched thirst with the blood of his fellow. If this has not transpired it may in the future, for the horrors of war will be terrible to contemplate. Many curious things lie hid in the future which will astonish the world.

It is now a great time for digging gold; and this reminds me that I had a dream, in which I learned how to dig gold. I saw the gold where-ever I went, lying about on the ground; I could pick it up in the night, but in the day time it could not be seen by anybody. While contemplating this, the Spirit said unto me, “Don’t you know that light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not?” Now here it is, in the form or shape of a reward that cometh to the faithful, and with our purified gold we are called upon to buy that field, even the kingdom of God. Never ask yourselves what the seller of that field does with the price of it; this is nothing to you or me. And if there are liabilities upon the President of this Church let us raise them from his shoulder, and let the servants of God go as free as the lark of the morning.

Brethren and sisters, I do not wish to occupy more than my share of the time, therefore my remarks I bequeath to you with the best feelings of my soul, and I feel that if the services of such an humble individual as myself can be of use, I shall feel ever ready to render this service.

God bless you for ever. Amen.

Our Duties to God Paramount to All Other Obligations, etc.

Heber C. Kimball

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

I wonder if there is a person in this vast congregation to-day but what feels that all those instructions given apply to himself. I feel disposed for one to take what has been said to myself, and I do not think there is a man here who is so righteous that he cannot apply the greater portion of what brother Brigham has said to himself. I know it is very common for us to make observations like this when any of the brethren have been chastised: Well, I guess some of the brethren have received a pretty good chastisement to-day, but it don’t touch me. Don’t you know that this is very common? That jacket does not suit me, says one. Why did it not suit you? Because you did not put it on. If you had put it on, it would have been like a piece of raw hide or a piece of India-rubber, then it would have pinched when it became dry. Now I do not believe that there is a person here who might not be benefited by these lessons of correction and instructions, for we can all make improvement in ourselves, in our daily walk and conversation. I know that I can cultivate myself and improve in many ways, and I feel that I am improving and advancing in the things of God.

Some will say, are you not too old to learn? I say no, for I consider if I am too old to improve, I am too old to live. When a man has done learning, he had better leave and go hence.

I think I understand correctly what President Young has been talking about, and he wishes every one of us to accept of it and put it in practice.

In regard to those independent companies alluded to, I really do not know whether I would lead them or not. I know that the first company that I was gathered with, of which President Young has spoken to-day, and which embraced nearly all the male members there were in the Church, brother Joseph said, come brethren, bring your money with you and bring all you have. We gathered brethren from Nova Scotia and from all the States where we had any, and then we travelled forty miles in an independent condition, that is, every man had his money in his pocket and was calculating to have, but when we got to Portage, Joseph called upon that independent company and organized it with captains of hundreds, of fifties and tens, with officers to lead and control them. Then he nominated and we accepted a pay-master and treasurer, and every officer necessary to a permanent organization. Then he said, Brethren, I want you to come together, and bring your money with you. I do not want any donations, but I want every one to bring every cent he has got. Some had not any, some had a hundred dollars; some had a shilling, and the brethren handed over what they had to the pay-master. We were then taught that we should be subject to the law and government of God.

It is an important thing for a man to lead the people of God, and unless they will subject themselves to him and to the officers of the Church a Prophet cannot lead them; it is an impossibility. This course of obedience is the one we have to take. Talk about building up the kingdom of God on the earth, how can you do it except you go to work with your might to practice as well as preach, and labor and toil with all your might by day and by night, and by this means every man in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will become independent. I was reflecting upon these things when brother Joseph brought things to terms. Then if we are ready to do as we are told, to follow the counsel of the servants of God, won’t our offerings be accepted? I say they will.

When we went on that journey, Joseph told us there was an endowment laid up for us; for what? Because we had done just as we were told; and I can bear testimony that we received that endowment. Have we got through with our endowments? No, we have not; we have only just commenced, merely received the initiative ordinances, and we are only children in these things yet, but if we are faithful, we shall receive all that our hearts can desire, for the Almighty will withhold no good thing from them that love him and keep his commandments.

You will doubtless recollect reading of a certain woman in the Scriptures who was rather ambitious, and therefore wished to have her sons occupy a conspicuous place about the Savior’s person. The account of the circumstance is related by St. Matthew in the following language:—“Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children, with her sons worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, what wilt thou? She saith unto him, grant these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but, to sit on my right hand, and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”—Matt. xx 20—23.

Here we find set forth by the Savior the doctrine that it belongs to the Father to give each one his place in that kingdom, hereafter to be inherited by the faithful Saints. Now let me ask, can we walk with Jesus in the regeneration that is spoken of? But before I proceed further, let me ask, what is the regeneration? I should call it an improvement, or an advancement in the things of God. By some it is said to be the change and renovation of the soul by the Spirit and grace of God. Then again, it is called the new birth. Titus is somewhat more explicit upon the subject. He says, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” And our Savior speaking to Nicodemus, says, “Verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In another place Jesus says:—“Verily I say unto you, that ye which followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”—Matt. xix. 28.

Many other passages might be quoted to show how the doctrine of regeneration was taught by Christ and his Apostles, but these will be sufficient for my purpose at the present. I know that we, the Elders of Israel, are walking with Jesus in the regeneration, and we are becoming regenerated in Christ Jesus, and the blessings of the kingdom are being multiplied unto us day by day, and we shall continue to be enriched for ever and for ever. What! in property? Yes, and in every thing that is good. If it were not so, how could you possess all things, which are certainly promised through progression and faithfulness.

I suppose I felt as the Apostles did anciently, when I went with the Elders into the State of Ohio, and through the New England States to the State of Maine. We called the people together and organized them into Conferences, and we went to work and selected wise men to receive and take the moneys of the brethren and purchase lands in Missouri. We performed our duties and were faithful unto the Lord, and if all the people had been as faithful as we were we should have gained an advantage; but as it is, I know that the day will come when we shall possess that land, and I can tell you that I expect to have and possess all that I merit, in the own due time of the Lord. When the kingdom triumphs, every man will be rewarded according to his works, and will receive that which is designed for him, and in all things be blessed according to his merits. By merit I mean that which a man earns, and you will see the day when you will get nothing but what you earn by your works and your integrity to God and your brethren.

I recollect when we returned from our mission to Missouri, Joseph said, “Now, brethren, it is a good time to get property; now is the time for you to get rich.” Well, it was one of the most trying times the Church ever saw. Most of the Twelve went into speculation, and half of them turned away. I went to Joseph and asked what I had best do, and he replied that it was a good time to get an education, or, said he, you may go a preaching, just as you please, and God will bless you in either. I went out preaching, and also some others and some went to speculating, and we have never seen them since, excepting one or two of them. It was so with the ancient Apostles. When Jesus was crucified his disciples said, “Come, brethren, let us go a fishing,” and off they went fishing. But they did not make much till Jesus came along by the sea side, made a fire and broiled some fish, and when he asked them if they had any meat, they answered him, No. Then he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.

In regard to this work, I know that it will roll on, and the kingdom will be built up, the elect gathered, and the chosen ones go back to the centre stake of Zion. There are a great many that are remaining in the States till we go back, but I can tell them they will have to come here, for this is the only way there is for the true Saints to get to Jackson County, and they will find it out to be so in due time. Let us serve God, brethren and sisters, with all our hearts, minds, might, souls and strength, and all will go well and we shall triumph. As it was anciently, so it is in this age, the Saints must come to the mountains, the depot of the kingdom of God to get their blessings and, prepare them for the future glory of Zion.

Let us take that course which will make us independent of all other people upon the earth; I know that this is the course for us to take all the time. Then we should put our minds together, and our mites also, to build up the kingdom of God; and if we will do this, being of one spirit, we shall prosper in all things. I know of no other way for us to become of one heart and one mind in regard to the things of the kingdom of God. By pursuing this course we shall increase in the knowledge of the truth, and ere long the angels will come to visit us, and Father will talk to us in relation to his purposes and the introduction of his government. Let us endeavor to attain these blessings, for they are ours through faithfulness and diligence in well-doing.

No good man wishes to force anybody into heaven, but it is for every one of us to strive and labor in righteousness to secure an interest there for ourselves. The righteous have no reason to fear, though all the combined powers of the wicked, visible and invisible, be arrayed against them; faithfulness will preserve them.

Brethren and sisters, we should all be like clay in the hands of the potter, and I want the people to learn that we shall all be rewarded according to the amount of our works, just as the potter is paid for his labors, in proportion to what he does.

God bless this people for ever. Amen.

God Alone Bestows the Evidences of his Divine Interpositions, etc.

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 25, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

Notwithstanding the inclement and uncomfortable state of the weather, the wheels of time do not cease to roll and bring a few of us together on the morning of the first day of the week, to worship the King and Lord of Hosts.

I am grateful for this opportunity of addressing you, my brethren and sisters, for a short time. It is not the weather, it is not the might and power of nations that can stay the progress of Jehovah’s designs. We are living, as you all know, I trust, in a momentous period of the world. I will here remark that in the course of some conversations I have recently had with certain individuals, we have had occasion to enquire somewhat into the purposes and designs of the great Creator in these days in which we live. It would be impossible to point out all his purposes and designs; suffice it to say that it is highly satisfactory to the just and to the upright that we can know somewhat concerning them; and the fact of our being called as co-workers with him to labor in the carrying out of his purposes and designs is an honor to us that few can appreciate. We are permitted to assemble here and in other places also from time to time to be instructed in the ways of the Lord, for the express purpose of making us acquainted with his purposes designed in the bosom of eternity, to be brought about and accomplished in this dispensation, called the Fulness of Times; and this, that we may be the better prepared to co-operate with our Lord and Master in the bringing of them about, and also be better prepared to meet those events when they shall transpire.

A short time ago a gentleman asked me if I really knew this to be the work of God, for, said he, “If I did, most cordially would I embrace the doctrines which are taught by your people as emanating from the Most High; yes, I would willingly resign all worldly honor and my position in life also, and bow with humble submission to the requirements of your faith.” I observed something like this, We are not to be the judges of the amount of evidence required to bring mankind under condemnation before God for rejecting the truth. We may fancy to ourselves that we would like to see the dead raised from their sleeping tombs; we may fancy that we would like to see the mountains broken down, the valleys exalted or the floods in their course stayed at the behest of the servants of God; we may indulge in ideas and desires similar to these, yet said I, if there be an amount of evidence addressed to your understanding, which seals conviction upon your heart with regard to the truth, how will you meet that conviction in a coming day, when we come to stand before God and the spirits of just men made perfect? Do you think you can then open your mouth and say, “I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I had not strewed? thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”—Matthew xxv. 24—30. Or will you be like the man who was found in the assembly without the wedding garments, and unto whom it was said “Friend how camest thou here?” What argument did he make, and what had he to say for himself? He was dumb. Remember then, I say, that it is the Judge of all the earth that parcels out the evidences of his divine interposition unto man, not according to man’s traditions but according to that wisdom which is in the bosom of the Eternal, knowing just the calibre of men and what it will require to turn the scale of reason and to penetrate the soul of every individual. It is for High Heaven to do this, and the Lord Almighty will not judge according to our desires, but he will judge according to the amount of evidence that he himself is pleased to give to each person.

A few remarks upon this subject, brethren and sisters, may not be amiss at the present time. I have noticed the providences that have attended this people from their origin in the year 1830, and I have noticed this, that a prejudice has been indulged in, by those who did not choose to embrace the Gospel, against the people of the Saints. There has ever been a kind of feeling indulged in by the world that the Saints were going to do something very bad, something dreadful; but what have they done up to the present time? The reply is, Why really nothing that we can establish against them. This is the view that has been taken of the Saints by those who knew us not, but the very course that we are now taking has been the course that has thwarted the wicked in their every design. The way their sails are new set indicates that they design some evil, some mischief, and they have said within themselves, Let us forestall the pending difficulty and remove the danger before we encounter it. This has been the feeling of the world, so far as my acquaintance extends in connection with the progress of events and advancement of this people. Storms have been drawn around us repeatedly, and caused us to be broken up and expelled from the land where we had made our homes; not that we had done anything, but because the wicked foolishly believed that we were going to do something that was dangerous and desperate.

Now all the world is against us, and the learning of this world has ever been opposed to the righteousness of God. In the beginning of this work those that were sent to advocate the Gospel were unlearned; as a general thing they were unskilled in the ways of the world. Uncultivated and untutored boys were sent forth to proclaim the words of life, and what was the simple message they were sent to bear? Repent, for the hour of the visitation of Jehovah is at hand, repent and embrace the Gospel. It did not require much learning to make this announcement; it was a plain simple message. If, for instance, your house was on fire, and the news went to the sources of help, the most illiterate could declare the fact as well as the most learned man in the world. He would simply have to say, such a man’s house is on fire, and every one could understand that. The simple proclamation of the Gospel was just as easy to be understood. Now, if it were some difficult diplomatic negotiation which required to be entered into, it would require all the embellishments of art to secure it a passage through, but the simple message of the Gospel required no such learning, it was simply to call upon the people to repent and to inform them that the chastising arm of Jehovah was about to fall upon the nations. We went forth, we made this announcement throughout the length and breadth of the United States, not only once but twice and thrice, and in fact all the day long until we created such a storm around us as to drive us beyond the confines of civilized man, and how cruel was the ordeal! It was no less cruel on the part of those that inflicted the wrong, although on the part of Jehovah it was an act of mercy to allow the wicked to drive us, or to cause us to be placed in these valleys of the mountains. The Heavens foresaw the danger, but we knew it not; but our Father knew it and that was enough. Was there not a Providence over us? Did he not deal kindly with his people? And has he not done so from the beginning?

When the Saints escaped from Missouri and subsequently from Illinois; when we wandered over the prairies and found a resting place for a season in an Indian country, and when we furnished five hundred of our best men, leaving our women and children unprotected in an Indian country, while they went to fight their country’s battles, and to secure to the country that had permitted us to be driven from our homes the very land upon which we now dwell was there not, I ask, a kindly Providence over them that went and also over them that remained? Yes, there was. We came into these valleys under the protecting care of our heavenly Father. We came with a few old crazy wagons, and many of us but very poor teams, for be it known unto you that the people who took our homes put them at their own prices, and paid out their own commodities; and if they had an old wagon which they thought would bear up till we got beyond the confines of civilization they would turn it out, considering that would be long enough for it to last us.

In this way we came to these valleys, and had to so live till we got something from an untried soil, not knowing whether a peck of wheat, corn or potatoes could be raised from it, but Heaven blest our labors, Providence smiled upon our exertions and we made out to continue along until the land became abundantly blessed, and now our granaries are filled with plenty If the wrath of God had been against this people to the same extent that the wrath of man was against us, where would we have been to-day? Annihilated! Nothing would have been left of us, and our career would have been highly colored on the pages of history, and sent down to posterity with the sting of the Anathemist upon it. But the wrath of Heaven was not upon us; it was only the wrath of man. Do you not see the difference between the wrath of Heaven and the wrath of man? If our enemies had been one with the Almighty, or if he had been one with them, we should have been obliterated long before this. But here, in us, is the evidence that the world and the Almighty do not exactly agree. They never did, and they never will agree, and hence I say the Saints will live when the ungodly shall wither and die; when the wicked are in ruin and disgrace, this people will flourish under the blessing of our Father and God.

These things, although silent, are upon the pages of history, they are still in the memories of men, but though silent they speak in language too powerful for the world to conceive their strength and weight in the balances which shall determine their future destiny. Like the other portions of Jehovah’s creation, the great family of planets revolve around their centre, they move in their majesty, although in silence; you can see them but not hear them; they cease not to move; the course of their speed and their velocity is the same continually, and yet, though they move in silence, they speak in language too powerful to be misunderstood, and in thunder tones declare the voice of the Almighty. Well might an individual, say, who does not consider these shining works of the Creator, O, that I had some evidence that these are the works of the Almighty, I would adore him for ever! Bless you, these are better evidences that the Almighty exists and rules in the heavens above than any that recital can adduce, showing hourly, daily and nightly, that they are governed by law, and proclaiming to all nations that the Lord is God, that by him they are made, by him they are controlled, and that he views all the works of his hands with an impartial eye.

Whoever will look upon the history of the Saints and see the providences of the Almighty that have attended them, must see that these Divine interpositions speak in evidence too powerful to be resisted. I confess that these are arguments more potent than I am capable of adducing at the present time, Now he that will look at these things and run them over in his mind, will readily see that these are evidences of divinity in our religion. Where is there another people over whom Heaven has exercised these peculiar providences? Why is the world at war with us? It is because we are not like them. If we would go to work and establish about forty tipling shops, as many gambling houses, and as many houses of ill-fame, bless you we could get into the Union without any trouble; the track would be clear, the wheels greased, and we would go right in; but, because we are not so inclined there is a good deal of friction about it, they fear that we are going to do something dreadful. Now, I can tell you that we are not going to do anything very wonderful nor very shocking, but if we are faithful and keep ourselves unspotted from the world, our God is going to astonish the nations; he is going to do something both wonderful and mighty, and it will be dreadful to the wicked; he will show this and every other nation that lift their hands against his anointed that they will henceforth cease to be a nation. He has commenced his work already, but he is only giving the alphabet now, we shall be getting into the pictures by-and-bye. When I was a boy and went to school we studied Webster’s spelling book, and when we got along a piece with our lessons, we used to say I have got over to the pictures now, and the time is near at hand when we shall see such pictures exhibited by the hand of the Almighty as were never before witnessed by mortal eye; that will be a trying time.

The field of learning is boundless, and I venture to say that the most learned man in the world is far more studious when he gets into higher branches than when he first commenced his studies, for he can discover fields of learning which before he could not conceive of, and so it is with the works of Jehovah; there is always a field in which the Almighty can display his power and his goodness, and it is enlarging all the time.

Brethren and sisters, I do not feel disposed on this cold morning to detain you any great length of time, but suffice it to say that I am glad of the opportunity of meeting with you, and I feel in my heart to say God bless the Saints—Heaven’s blessing be with them. This is my desire, it is my earnest prayer, and if we can so live as to be without spot, and blameless in the day of the coming of the Lord Jesus it will amply compensate for all our toils, all our privations, and for all our labors of love in the kingdom of God.

That this may be the case, with us, is my earnest and sincere prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Object of Gathering, etc.

Amasa Lyman

Discourse by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I do not know that it is necessary for me to tell you that I am glad to be here. If you have but a little of the feeling that influences me, you know very well that I am glad to be here. I am not glad to be here because my mission is ended, for such I do not consider to be the case at all. We often say we have been on a mission, and have fulfilled a mission, and have returned as though that something had been completed and accomplished. I have been on a mission, but I have not come from a mission, or from that mission. I have been on a mission; I have come home on a mission; I am still on a mission. The obligations of that mission, I feel, are not ceasing, not becoming less, but they increase from day to day and from year to year with the increase of knowledge and understanding and the apprehension of the principles of truth. I am here to-day for the same purpose, for the prosecution of the same labor that I have been in, in every place that I have occupied as a minister of the truth since I first became acquainted with its principles, and by such acquaintance I became connected with the Work of God.

My text is furnished me in the people that are before me to-day. Who could look upon this assembly and be so dull, so stupid that the inquiry would not arise in his mind, What are we here for? Why all this gathering together of this mixed multitude of people; people from so many nations; people of different tongues, of different customs, different traditions and notions, yet having one and the same feeling in reference to a few of the details that make up the great aggregate of life’s actions? For what purpose have we been gathered together from distant nations? Some may have thought that our gathering here was only for the sake of being together, for the sake of creating a multitudinous community. The multitude we see assembled here to-day are here because the kingdom of God is to be built up; for if the kingdom of God is to be built up, there must be people to constitute it; there must be a people to be ruled, or the rulers would have nothing over which to rule. If the mere assembling of the people together constitutes the kingdom of God now, why has it not constituted the kingdom of God at other times? People have assembled together before; communities have existed before, yet the existence of such communities has not and does not now constitute them the kingdom of God. One reason why the gathering together of the people does not constitute the kingdom of God is, that the mere gathering of the people is not particularly an intellectual operation, it does not of itself particularly inform the judgment or enlighten the mind in reference to God, and man’s relationship to God and his purposes.

We commenced our labors with you in lands far distant from this we preached the Gospel to you; listening to that, and receiving the testimony of the servants of God and following the course that was indicated by them, you have become changed in your circumstances and locality. You were located in other parts of the globe and were citizens of other nations, but now you are here located in the peaceful vales of Utah. It is now time for the gathered Saints to begin to learn still more, if they have not already begun to do so; and if they have begun to learn, to continue to learn something of the reason why they are gathered together, that they may be able to discover the true relationship between the actions they perform, the labors, duties and services that are required of them, and the development, increase and growth into strength and power of the kingdom of God on the earth. When we talk about the kingdom of God our thoughts are apt to travel away from scenes of earth, as though it were a matter of the ideas alone and not connected with our earthly operations, labors, duties and services.

There is no action in life, no labor that we perform, no relationship that we sustain to God and one another, but what should be connected directly with the development of the kingdom of God. Says one—“We must become perfect and holy; we must become God-like; we must become like the angels or like the spirits of the just who dwell with God.” This is true; but where is that transformation, that change in our condition, feelings and circumstances to be wrought out—in heaven or on earth, at home or abroad? Where is the school in which we are to be taught the plain, simple, unvarnished administrations of truth in a way to bring it within the range of our feeble comprehension of truth that we may understand it? Are we to learn it in any one place to the exclusion of all others? No. Are we to learn God and truth where we live? Yes. If not, where in Heaven’s name do you expect to learn of him? Do you live in heaven with God and his angels? No; you live here on the earth, here in Utah among the rugged mountains that are around us. All you know you know here, and all you can learn you must learn here while you are here. To acquire a knowledge of God is eternal life. That appears to many to be a great something. I say something, because people know nothing of God. Where are you going to obtain a knowledge of God.

People talk about going to heaven, but when we find ourselves in heaven we shall find that we have reached it, without going to it. Heaven is a development of internal powers and external changes. We learn to know God now as human beings, influenced by the effects of sin and folly, degraded and surrounded with darkness, misery and wretchedness. Shall we wait until these are put off before we can learn of God and get to know that which will constitute in us that knowledge which is eternal life? No. We came here to the valleys of Utah in obedience to the requirements of the Gospel, simply that we might here continue to be taught. We came to this distant region to learn of God. How? By, in the first place, learning ourselves. Can we know God in this way? Yes; we can know him in no other way. We cannot go to where he is, to be taught of him personally and to associate with him. What have we in this world that gives a truthful indication of his character to the mind that is open to the light of truth? We have ourselves been made in the image of God. Then it is essentially necessary that we should learn ourselves as an all-important step to the knowledge of God. We must learn to correct our lives and our actions; we must learn to govern ourselves and sanctify our affections, that we may be prepared to hold communion with heavenly intelligences.

The kingdom of God is established now for the development and increase of its principles within us, to reflect light on the darkness that surrounds us and reveal to our understanding the true relationship we sustain to God, and the reason why the requirements of the Gospel are laid upon us and why we can be saved by listening to them, and why we are not saved if we refuse to listen to them.

When the sound of the Gospel first reached me, I used to have this childish idea, that if I ever knew the truth it must be because the heavens would be opened for me to gaze upon the glory that is within the vail, and this would be the only assurance I could receive that the Gospel is true. I lived under the influence of this idea until I passed measurably from the condition of childhood, of hearing as a child and understanding as a child. When I began to approximate towards a riper condition of mind, I became satisfied that it was not by merely looking at something that the mind became enlightened; that it was not by merely guessing at something that is incomprehensible that knowledge is developed in the soul. I learned that the Gospel was true in a very simple way. The Gospel required me to pursue an upright, just, virtuous, honest course of life with all the world around me and to live at peace with all men. I commenced living in the world without quarreling with anybody; I followed the dictation of the Gospel and its requirements, and it has saved me from war, contention and strife with my fellowman, from quarreling with my family, with my brethren, with my friends and with my neighbors. In this way I found out that so much of the Gospel was true, and I did not have to go to heaven to find this out neither. This is the way I want you to begin to learn God, and the consequences will be peace and the joy that springs from peace. Then heaven will be in the home where you dwell, in the land and country where you live, in your associations with your friends and neighbors and kindred in all life’s varied relations. Another consequence will be a constant in-dwelling of the Spirit of God; that Spirit that brings life and light, and knowledge and understanding to the soul of man, that quickens the intellect of man and sanctifies every power to hold communion with still higher and holier principles.

We say we want the Holy Spirit; then let us so live our religion that we may have the Holy Spirit, which will improve our condition continually, making us better and better citizens of the kingdom of God with every degree of gain over ourselves. In this way we may cultivate and develop in us individually the principle of immortality that will constitute, when applied to the great body of the people of God, the immortality of his kingdom, the basis of its eternal and deathless perpetuity. Then the development of the kingdom of God in power on earth, temporally, depends upon the self-culture of its members, upon the culture of the feelings that rule the soul and that give character to the action of the creature. When we consider that purity of life is necessary and requisite to qualify a man to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, we shall cultivate that quality and labor for its development and increase. To how many of the infinitesimal details of life’s actions does this principle extend? It should extend to them all. We cannot do any wrong that will render us acceptable to God and make us better. That is right which improves and gives life. There is a right way and a wrong one to all we do.

If we cultivate the ground there is a way which, if pursued, will be fruitful of consequences the most disastrous, while an opposite way will produce profit and reward us for our labors. There is a way that is fruitful of noxious weeds where something better should grow, and this is as truthfully the result of the conduct of the farmer as is the rich harvest of healthy grain that affords him bread and sustenance. Some people think they can pray the weeds out of their fields and gardens, but their prayers can only be effectual when accompanied with a reasonable amount of honest labor rightly and wisely applied. I am in favor of praying. I love to pray myself, and I love to have the Saints pray. But when you have a great many weeds growing on your land, pray for your land, and do not forget to go out on to that land and pull up, remove and destroy by your diligent labor the weed-plants that so much annoy you.

We have been told that the Lord will not plant our grain for us and cultivate our fields. We are here to learn how to do that for ourselves, if we do not know. This part of our education we have to gain, if we have not already gained it; and this will enable us to aid in the building up and development in its greatness and power of the kingdom of God. Let our labor be so applied, that when we bow down before our heavenly Father to ask him to bless anything we have or do, that we can do so consistently. Let us hoe up the weeds and enrich our fields, and ask God to give us a bountiful crop to reward our toils. We will do all we can do, and then ask God to bless that labor and leave the result with him. If your wagon has been fixed in the mud get hold of the wheel yourself and lift all you can, and then ask somebody else to help you if you need help.

There is another field that is equally taxed with the support of a noxious growth: I refer to ourselves at home. We carry about with us our notions, our habits of thought; and our habits of thought give character to our actions. When, for instance, the storm of passion is aroused in our bosom, we yield ourselves up to it without an effort and unresistingly allow ourselves to be carried away by its influence from a course of propriety and right, and we do wrong and say wrong things. Let rising anger be suppressed; let the place where it had its incipient being become its grave. Never let the mouth utter the word that should not be spoken. This counsel is just as applicable to myself as it is to you. I have learned long since that I was not called to preach the Gospel because I had no improvement to make on myself, or because I could not become any better. I have come to the conclusion that the more I talk about the right and the less I talk about the wrong, and the more I become occupied with the right the less danger I shall be in of becoming occupied by the wrong. This is good for me, and, being good for me, I recommend it to the Saints. I want them to live peaceably and quietly with one another and learn to do the little things in life’s duty right. That we may learn to do this, it is necessary that we should control our passions, for if we do not control them they will control us, and under such control we do wrong. When we control ourselves, the result is equanimity of feeling such as is necessary to the exercise of an enlightened judgment, if such judgment exists within us. Cannot God help us? It altogether depends upon whether we are disposed to help ourselves or not. God will help and bless us when we pursue the course that is acceptable to him. If we strive to subdue stormy passions within us, he will assist us in the good work until the Spirit of God is not merely a casual visitor, but a constant dweller within us to increase our store of knowledge, extend our views and make our conceptions of God and truth more as they should be. Let us live in this way and we shall speak kindly of one another and be more charitable to all men.

The result of our education is differences of feeling and differences in our way of life; we have brought these differences with us from our distant homes. We have brought with us to Utah more or less of the old notions that have grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength; throughout our lives their influence has been upon us. So far as these are in opposition to the truth and the right, they must be overcome, for as we learn the truth we must exchange our incorrect notions for notions that are correct in reference to living with one another and in reference to our general conduct in life. It is not some service we have to perform at some remote place from where we are now living that will benefit us, but it is how we deport ourselves here towards one another and towards God; how we shall make our farms, cultivate our grounds, and how to use that which we have been blessed with as faithful stewards of the manifold mercies of God. We have much yet to learn; the improvements we have not yet made are all to be made, whether they relate to the cultivation of our fields and gardens or to the cultivation of our minds; it is our duty to garnish and embellish them and make them beautiful and lovely as the residence and heritage of intellectual men and women. This will bring into existence God’s temporal kingdom on the earth; then the sanctified and holy and acceptable of his children will dwell in palaces, will be surrounded with wealth, and there will be no desire of their hearts but what may be satisfied. There will be a fountain opened to them where they may satisfy their thirst, however intense it may be for ought that is good, great and ennobling.

Learn, sisters, when you teach the truth to your children who prattle around your knee, and are trying to cultivate a love of it in them, that you are determining their destiny and your own, and their relationship un-changeably with the increase, perpetual and eternal growth of God’s kingdom. Think of this, and do not for a moment pass by those labors of love to your children as matters of comparatively little value, for in them are your hopes of glory, heaven, happiness, bliss and joy in that great future of glory we are looking for. How can a mother teach her children the right if she is reckless of it herself? How can a father do that if he neglects to set before his household the example of propriety that should constitute the constant and ceaseless labor of a father? Then, let us remember that all this work is upon us; it is to redeem the earth, to be learning how to cultivate and improve its condition; it is to bring into existence a holy nation of men and women before God.

Who are they which constitute the bright hosts that worship around the throne of God? They are men and women and children, such as we see here to-day; intellectual beings like ourselves, who have been educated, taught, trained, led onward and upward from a condition of ignorance to the possession of that infinitude of knowledge that makes so incomprehensible a difference between us. As we are, so were they; and as they are in all their brightness and glory around the throne of God, so may we be with our wives and children, friends and associates in the kingdom of God on earth, when we have travelled along to that state of exaltation to which they have attained, when we have learned to vanquish the monster of sin and death, rising above him to live in the elements of truth and holiness in a state free from corruption and sin. This has had its beginning here, in all our life’s labor, care and relationship to one another; the existence beyond this is only the finished constellation of the glory which is commenced here, an advanced stage of its development. We are not so blind and dumb that we cannot comprehend the difference between the household where the words of righteousness are uttered, where examples of purity are set, and that household where such noble examples are not seen. Would you see your children around the throne of God? Would you see them clad in glory and crowned with immortality and eternal lives? Then teach them truth while they prattle around your knee; learn them to lisp the truth, teach them to love it ere they can fully know its worth, and as they grow in capacity to reason and understand they will then, bless the father and mother that taught them truth and purity, and to hate and despise the wrong and choose the good. Truth will regulate all life’s details; I care not how numerous they may be, all will yield to the saving, sanctifying, hallowed influence and supreme love of truth. When we teach the truth to our children, it is one of the best proofs that we love the truth ourselves with all our minds, might and strength. If we take this course we shall see the kingdom of God growing; its outward embellishments will appear, its wealth will increase and its power will spread abroad on the right hand and on the left until untold millions of earth’s children will repose in security, safety and happiness, and be blessed beneath its banner. Then, its temples will rise in beauty, grandeur and glory, and the home of every Saint will become a temple where God will delight to reveal the richness of his blessings to his faithful children. If our God shines as the perfection of beauty out of Zion, Zion must reflect that beauty; it must have an existence in Zion reflecting its beauty outwardly upon the world around. The glory of Zion must be created by the children of Zion. We cannot attain to this all in a moment. We first begin to make our homes tidy and to subdue every enemy to our peace, that we may have more comfort. If we wish our children to have an exalted taste for the lovely and beautiful, create something lovely for them to look upon, let them behold a practical example and exhibition of the beautiful and lovely when they are at home; when they go into the garden let them see the development of beauty, and when they come to maturity and remove far away they will think of the paternal home with delight and pleasure as the place where peace reigns, where joy is developed, where the odor of sweet flowers are inhaled by the visitors, greeting our early rising or cheering us when we retire to our rest. This is the picture of the home of a Saint, of him who loves to beautify Zion and exalt the children of Zion above all other people on the earth.

It does not follow of necessity that the poor man must possess broad acres. If your garden is no larger than this stand, cultivate it properly, plant fruit trees and other useful plants, and rivet the attention of your growing family to the contemplation of their duty; let them see an example in you from day to day and from year to year which will exercise a salutary influence upon the minds of your children throughout their future lives. If I have not myself been able hitherto to make such a home, it is the home that lives in my mind. I show you the ladder over which you may travel from any condition of degradation and ignorance to all that is noble, exalted and Godlike. We must start from where we are, and we shall soon see better houses, more fruitful and lovely gardens; the residences of the Saints will grow into beauty and the cities of the Saints into magnificence.

The Prophet Joseph once took me by the arm in the street, and said, “I have so many blessings, and there is nothing but what you can enjoy in your time and place the same as I do, and so can every man.” But I have prayed this prayer, “If the bestowal of wealth upon thy servant, O Lord, will make him a fool and cause him to forsake the truth, may I remain poor until I can bear it.” We might as well complain that we were not all born at the same time as to complain of any disparity that may exist between us in pecuniary matters. Let the Saints who have just come to these valleys from their fatherland learn to be contented in whatsoever position they are placed in, that is, when you are in circumstances that neither you nor your friends can change for the better. To complain of circumstances that cannot at the present be improved would simply be a waste of your time, and your time is precious, for we are not going to live many years according to the common course of things to improve ourselves here. It will be to our advantage to live in this world as long as we can improve, and the longer we live here and improve, the stronger grow the ties that bind us to this existence. I want to see the kingdom of God grow from this small beginning that is right around us, until the whole earth is filled and blessed with its glory as it now blesses and fills the valleys of Deseret in a degree. We are connected with an enterprise that is great, noble and honorable, with an enterprise that is not satisfied with a limited acquisition, with a small victory over sin, but it is an enterprise that grasps the world’s emancipation from sin, darkness and death; it looks at no smaller object than the world’s freedom from sin and its consequences.

Being connected with so great an enterprise, I do not feel any more that I am a worm of the earth, but that I am associated with the Gods of eternity, and that angels are my kindred and of my family. This is the way I want the Saints to feel If they feel this way they will shun all wickedness, and seek for right and try to do it all the time. I for one am engaged in the great work of building up the kingdom of God upon the earth, and I want to get the Saints to see the value of that practical purity of life that will utterly destroy the power of sin, purge out the transgressor from our assemblies and render us more and more acceptable to God all the time, because better calculated to bless the world.

God bless you: Amen.

Present Opportunities of Obtaining a Knowledge of the Principles of Truth, etc.

Charles C. Rich

Remarks by Elder Charles C. Rich, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

I feel great pleasure in meeting with the brethren and sisters, having just returned from a mission. I do not speak of this because of a feeling that I am now relieved from a mission, for I feel that I have been on a mission all the time, and I expect to remain a Missionary from this time henceforth and for ever. This is the height of my ambition, that I may have the pleasure of laboring to build up the kingdom of God on the earth.

The instructions we have had today have been joyful to my heart, for they are those principles that are calculated to save, to exalt and to prepare us to dwell with the Gods in the eternal worlds. I have often said that of all the people upon the face of the earth the Saints of the Most High God have the greatest reason to be thankful. This is my feeling and has been ever since I embraced the Gospel; and the longer I live, the more I see and experience, the more I feel and know that we are the favored people of the Lord. If we can appreciate this as it is, it will lead us continually to take that course that will be right and proper in the sight of Heaven.

While I have been absent from this Territory I have been laboring wherever my lot has been cast to convince the inhabitants of the earth of the truth of the principles of our holy religion, and to point out to them the path of life, and how far I have been successful I shall leave for a higher power to judge.

I find that we are all like children, so far as knowledge is concerned: that is, we know nothing, excepting what we have learned from others or by observation, and inasmuch as we do not now know anything but that which we have learned, the prospect is that what we may know in the future we shall have to learn. We are in a school, one which our Father has prepared for us, and in which he designs to instruct us, to give us counsel and point out the course that we should take day by day, in order that we may be saved. If we adopt the principles that have been revealed they will bring to us happiness and an abiding joy, and that, too, at the time and in the place where we are in need.

One reason why I consider that we are so much more highly favored than other people is simply this, that in generations that are past and gone there was no man capable of rising up and pointing out the way of life and salvation—there was no man to dispense the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them that were willing to embrace the truth. But it is not so now, for the kingdom of God has been established upon the earth, a knowledge of the ordinances of the kingdom has also been committed to man upon the earth, and the keys of that kingdom have been given, and the principles which pertain to that kingdom can now be taught to us. We have now the power to embrace the principles of life, because they are presented to us by those having the authority to teach. The principles of our religion have emanated from our Father and God, with whom there is no variableness, nor the least shadow of turning; and these principles have been revealed for the express purpose that we might embrace and practice them and thereby bring about our own salvation and secure that happiness which is promised to the faithful sons and daughters of God.

When we are in the world and hear the sectarians teaching their peculiar dogmas about heaven, hell and many other topics, their discourses sound empty, foolish and incomprehensible. Their subjects are generally very distant; in fact altogether beyond this world. When we hear individuals talking about having a father and a mother we do not then understand them to be talking about anything that is very remote, but it is something that is right here with us, and so it is with the kingdom of God. When the servants of the Lord commence to teach the human family principles pertaining to that kingdom, it is brought right home to us, so that we can understand it in this present life. This is the way the Gospel came to us when it was first sounded in our ears; it was brought home to us, no matter what kind of place we were in, and it set before us salvation, not after this life particularly, but it offered salvation to us at the time we heard it. The kingdom of God being established on the earth, the salvation of that kingdom was announced in our ears, and we had the offer of its benefits. If we saw proper to embrace the doctrines presented, we had the privilege of doing so; and inasmuch as we adopted and do now adopt the principles of that kingdom it brings to us a present salvation; and if we do not have a present salvation it is for want of adopting the principles that have been revealed. This is a matter that we should inquire about, and see and know for ourselves whether we have adopted those principles which the Almighty has made known for our salvation. If we have adopted them in our lives, then we are in the path of life and truth, which gives us salvation all the time; but if we have not, then we do not partake of that present salvation which is offered.

When the Savior was upon the earth he told his disciples to pray that his kingdom might come and that his will might be done upon the earth as it is done in the heavens. We might with the same propriety ask in our prayers, that the will of God might be done upon the earth in our day as angels do it in heaven. Is there anything upon this earth that will prevent the establishment of the same principles and the imparting of the same blessings that are enjoyed in the eternal worlds? If there is, the prayer of the Savior which he taught his disciples could not be fulfilled, and we know that our Father in heaven would not set us to do that which could not be accomplished. We can adopt the principles of that kingdom and practice them in our lives, and this will make us precisely what we are praying for.

Happiness is what we are striving for in this life, and this is what we want in the life which is to come. That happiness is obtainable upon the principles of truth and right that have been and that will be revealed from heaven. As I before remarked, we are in a school, and it is our business to be industrious in that school. It is our business to work diligently to learn that which is taught in the school of Christ, to make ourselves acquainted with the principles of salvation as far as revealed unto us. I can say truly and bear testimony that the people have never had to wait for the knowledge of God; the time never has been when it has not been poured out faster than the people were ready to receive. Principles of light and truth have all the time been taught faster than the people were ready to adopt and practice them. It has always been the good pleasure of the Lord, and it is still his wish to enlighten our minds and enlarge our understandings in reference to the things of his kingdom, that we may have just conceptions of his ways, and understand correctly the principles that pertain to the development of all that wisdom and knowledge necessary for our present and future advancement in the principles of eternal life.We should endeavor to appreciate and continually feel thankful for the blessings bestowed upon us, and strive to improve upon all the gifts of God that are bestowed.

There are a great many people, and I have met with some of them, who are very anxious to know all about heaven, the other worlds, and all about the people that dwell in eternity; but I will tell you how I feel, it is that I want to discharge the duties that devolve upon me, and strive to comprehend the object and design of everything that is required of me. We should all seek for a knowledge of those duties that pertain to us at the present time, and we should practice principles that will bring present salvation, and we should labor to learn that which will be both for our present and future good.

What we have been told to-day is good and strictly true, and we ought to understand that we are as much in the midst of eternity as we ever shall be, and our chances and opportunities for gaining knowledge and salvation here are as good as they will ever be. We have all the opportunities of learning the principles of heaven just as good as we shall ever have. Then if we do not improve upon these opportunities we are certainly to blame, and we are injuring ourselves more than anybody else, and the time will come when, if we are deprived of any blessing, we shall blame ourselves only. We will have it to say that the blessings and salvation pertaining to the kingdom of God were presented and we despised them. Then we will find that the scripture is true which says, “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.” in view of this, then, it is for us to be awake to that which we have presented to us, to those principles which God has revealed from the heavens, for he has revealed them for the express purpose of having us practice them upon this earth. Those principles were not revealed with the intention that we should wait till we got to heaven, but everything is for us to practice in this life. Now, if we do not adopt the truth in this life, what is there to make us believe that we will adopt it in the life to come? I look upon our opportunities as being as good to know things in this life as they will be to know them in the life to come, for light and truth are before us, and they will only be before us there. We have no time to spare; all our opportunities should be laid hold of. If we have not adopted the principles of salvation in this life, there is no assurance that we shall adopt them in the life to come. What is there to make you and I think that we shall have power to apply them to ourselves hereafter? We ought to think of this, in order that we may be ready day by day for the performance of any duty required of us; we ought to know the principles so perfectly that we can apply them to the performance of every duty and feel and know that we are right—understand them for ourselves that we may be capable of applying them both in this life and in that which is to come. If we could do this, it would be a very good sign that we could apply these doctrines in the future life; but if we are to be told every day what we have to do, the probability is that we should be in the same situation in eternity.

We have the privilege of working out our salvation before God, and we have the opportunity of testing the practical workings of these principles, and in doing this our minds would expand to see the necessity of our words and our actions being right. Supposing the actions of every man and woman were right and in strict accordance with the doctrines of our religion, where would be the evil? If everybody always said and did right, the evils that we now find in the world would no more afflict the human family.

The evils that we do find grow out of two causes, and mostly out of one, and that one is ignorance. But there are some who are fast to do wrong; others do it ignorantly There must be means adopted for teaching such persons the way of life, that where they do not know how to do right they may be taught; and then, when they are taught the right and embrace it with full purpose of heart, they can act upon the principles that are right and proper for them in this great school, in which we are being taught by the servants of God those duties that are required of us day by day, even those principles that will produce happiness, contentment and salvation. These things are being pointed out to us from week to week and from time to time, just as they have been this forenoon. How rich these instructions! They will be worth nothing unless we practice them in our lives. We read of a time when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep; and we live in a time when that knowledge is being taught by the Prophets of God, and when it is the privilege of all mankind to be exalted upon principles of obedience to the laws of heaven.

Why are we not divided and distracted as the world are? And especially the country round about us? The reason is, we are and have been taught correct principles. How easy it would be to put the world of mankind right, if they would be set right and if they would hearken to the voice of God. In this age, as in all others, the inhabitants of the earth have been told what would come upon them, but they heed not the warnings of the servants of God. When we view the kingdom of God in the heavens we view it as an eternal kingdom. This is its condition, because truth and nothing but the truth exists with the inhabitants; they are governed by it in all their actions. Let the same principles be with us, and we shall find that the effect produced will be a oneness of purpose; our labors will be to promote happiness upon the earth and our lives will be peaceful ones. It is a good sign for us to adopt those principles that we can test and prove to be good or bad. I am perfectly willing to trust all in this kingdom, and to look to the world to come for an exaltation with the sanctified, and I know that all will be right if I continue faithful.

I can bear testimony that the Saints of the Most High God have not been waiting for labor; there has always been sufficient laid out to occupy their attention, and if they have attended to their duties they have no time to complain of anybody else. There is nothing very difficult for us to do, but there is enough to keep us busy all the time. And there are a great many safe-guards which our Father has placed in his Church for the purpose of taking care of the sheep and pointing out to us those individual duties which are daily required at our hands. We find Presidents, Bishops and counselors in every direction, ever ready to impart to us a word of comfort and consolation; and if we are not taught we are to blame ourselves and nobody else. God has always spoken through his anointed servants, through those holding his Priesthood and authority, and he will be obeyed; and it is our duty and the duty of all men to give heed to those instructions and to receive knowledge from God by his servants as well as by his Spirit, for unless we do enjoy that Spirit and be guided by its influences we shall lack the perfection we are destined to arrive at.

We have a great labor to perform, and we have a great enemy to meet and overcome, and therefore it will be well for us to take a safe course and do a few things right, for should we attempt to do many things and fail we shall be sorry for it. I feel to rejoice in the plan of salvation, and I rejoice to have the privilege of laboring to establish these principles upon the earth. The more we do the better we feel. While we see mankind going to ruin because of their wickedness, I rejoice in the prospect of seeing the kingdom of God rising in splendor and greatness, and I do feel that we have abundant reason to be thankful, for we have been led by the hand of the Almighty from the first organization of this Church.

It is our business as Saints to put away from us everything that is wrong, that tends to corrupt the people of God. We are called upon to honor our callings and to labor to perform what the Bishops and Authorities of the Church require of us. Evil will produce evil, and good will produce good, and a bitter fountain will produce bitter water, and so it is throughout all the ramifications of the kingdom to which we belong. I trust that we shall all so live as to secure happiness and obtain peace with ourselves, so that we may live in peace at home. I do not want to see any of us neglect our own welfare, but I wish to see every Saint live as a man of God, as one who is striving to secure eternal life in the kingdom of our heavenly Father.

If I understand the principles of life and salvation, and with this understanding should lay down this body, I should then continue the good work which I have commenced here. All that wisdom and knowledge which we have obtained we will carry with us to the spirit world, and this, you can readily perceive, would make just about such a heaven on the other side of the vail as we have made on this side. I do not think we would make it much different. Of course we will have to learn beyond the vail as much so as we have need of learning while here. Then, let us endeavor to feed upon those principles of life and salvation day by day, and labor to put them in practice while in this life, then we shall have joy, happiness, peace and a present salvation right where we are. We have the power to prove these principles all the time, and we can bear testimony to their truth, for we experience their benefits and blessings in our everyday life.

Let us be faithful and love the truth more than we love anything else, for there is a fulness of it offered to us; and we ought to know that there are no other principles or system that has a fulness of truth to offer to us. Now, there is not any of us that would be satisfied with anything short of a fulness of all that knowledge and wisdom which are hid up in the eternal worlds. But we need not think of attaining that position upon any other principles than those offered to us by our heavenly Father, for if we do, we deceive ourselves and are preparing for ourselves disappointment, and at the great day of reckoning we shall find ourselves disappointed, simply because we have not adapted the principles that alone will secure what we want in time and in eternity.

I do not feel to occupy more than my share of the time, but I feel exceedingly well, and, as some of the brethren have remarked, I always intend to feel well, for I intend to do the best I can all the time. When I first embraced the Gospel, I had a testimony of its truth and I have had evidence increasing with me all the day long. I have often remarked to individuals that I would pursue the course that I was pursuing if there was no other life than this; I would do this because it brings the most good, the most happiness, more than anything else I know anything about. Let us be humble and faithful in keeping the commandments of God and in performing the labors that are allotted to us; and sanctify ourselves before God that we may constantly have within us the light of the Holy Spirit; be guided by his Priesthood, that when we come to lay down these bodies we may be prepared for that which is to be enjoyed on the other side of the vail, having been faithful and diligent on this side, which I pray may be the case, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Authority of Bishops, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

This is the place to give items of instruction to the people. I am satisfied that it is my duty to improve this opportunity, and should be very happy if I could speak with ease; if I could do so I should talk a great deal more than I do.

Ask a Bishop by what authority he is acting as a Bishop; “I suppose I am a Bishop according to the Priesthood.” By what Priesthood do you act as a Bishop? “I really cannot answer that question.” Are you a High Priest? “Yes.” Why do you so officiate? “Because I have been ordained to so officiate; the First Presidency ordained Bishop Hunter to ordain me a High Priest, and set me apart to be a Bishop in this district.” After a person is ordained a High Priest he then has authority to act in all the duties of the lesser Priesthood, when called upon by the proper authority so to do. Some of the Bishops understand their true position and some do not, for which reason a few remarks in addition to those I made this forenoon will, perhaps, not be amiss.

There is no retrograde movement in ordaining a High Priest to the office of a Bishop, for, properly speaking, he is set apart to act in that office. When we ordain a man to officiate in a branch of the Church as a Bishop, he does so according to the best of his knowledge; and now and then one believes that he has a right, when ordained as a Bishop, to officiate and preside over every temporal and spiritual interest in his district by virtue of his Bishopric; he believes that he ought to go into a Seventies’ Council in his Ward and preside because he is a Bishop: and under this impression he dictates, guides and directs all things in his district; he baptizes, confirms and administers the sacrament as a Bishop, performing, under this impression, every spiritual and temporal duty. Were we to inquire of the Bishops of this Church what duties, are assigned to the Aaronic Priesthood they hold, and what are assigned to the Melchisedek, those who could answer correctly are in the minority. I am satisfied of this, for I have been placed in positions that made it necessary to propound questions to some of our most intelligent Bishops relating to misunderstandings and difficulties that have occurred in their districts touching their authority, when their answers convinced me that they knew little about it; perhaps from not having an opportunity of finding out, or, in a word, they have not so lived that the heavens have been opened to them to teach them so fully and effectually their duties that they need no man to teach them. The duties and powers of a Bishop cease the very moment he steps over the Aaronic Priesthood, which is to officiate in temporal things; when he passes this he immediately begins to officiate by the authority and power of the Melchisedek Priesthood, though he may not know it.

We have scores of branches of this Church in different parts of this country, and had we better now place officers, helps and governments in these branches, or wait till the people come to understanding, and learn to appreciate and honor such appointments? It is chiefly because of the ignorance of the people that we often concentrate in one man these different offices and callings, but when the people are sufficiently informed and have advanced further in the knowledge of the truth, it will not be so, but every branch will have its full quota of officers—a Patriarch, President, Bishop, High Council, and all officers that are necessary for the work of the Ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ. Until the people can receive and honor these helps and governments, and be benefited by them, the different offices will be concentrated in as few men as possible, for men will contend for power, and as to which shall be the greatest, until they are better informed.

If the people fully understood and would observe the relationship these offices have to each other, there would never be a word of altercation. In this city we have no altercation about authorities. We but seldom get up a trouble for a High Council case. When the people come to sufficient understanding, we shall not put the onerous task upon one man to act both as President and Bishop, but we will give you a full organization of helps, governments, &c.; but at present we shall take a course to confine the offices of the Church in such a manner as to give the least cause for contention and trouble. There are men who have a contentious disposition; they will contend against a Bishop, a Magistrate, a Judge, or any man holding an office; in short, they wish to destroy every power in Heaven and on earth that they do not hold themselves. This is the spirit of Satan that was made so visibly manifest in Heaven and which proved his overthrow, and he now afflicts this people with it; he wants to dictate and rule every principle and power that leads to exaltation and eternal life, and those whom he influences wish to walk underfoot every person who stands in authority over them.

I now wish to say a few words about assisting the mail and telegraph companies. It has been asked, “Shall we assist these companies? Shall they be supplied with grain and that help which is necessary to facilitate the expeditious and safe carrying of the mail?” I say, yes. Shall the telegraph company receive favors at our hands? Yes. I do not know of two greater temporal blessings of the kind that can be bestowed upon this people. If we happen to lay in bed a little later than usual, by the aid of the telegraph wires we can read the news of the morning from Washington and New York; and by-and-by we may be favored with the news of yesterday from London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, and all the principal cities in the old world. We are among the people of this world; our bodies are of the earth, and our spirits are like the spirits of other people and from the same source, only we are trying to establish the kingdom of God on earth, to introduce righteousness, and prepare the people for the reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. One man says, “I have agreed to do thus and so.” Then go and do it. Fulfill your contracts and sacredly keep your word.

What should be the course of this people in these matters? Let them act by the counsel of the men who understand such things better than I they do. When I say supply so much labor, or so much grain, or do so much hauling, you will be justified, otherwise you will not. If I might dictate this matter and get my pay for it, I would fill this whole mail route with “Mormon” boys who would labor faithfully, conduct honorably, and see that the mails were carried safely and promptly. If it were left to me, I would fill this whole route, as we would have done a few years ago if the contract had not been unjustly taken from us, with a line of conveyances, wherein men might sleep by day or by night in perfect safety as to their persons and property; and if a pocket book dropped out of a pocket it would be as safe as though it were under lock and key, so far as its being stolen is concerned. How is it now?

If A, B and C say they will begin to sell whisky, then if it is right for them to sell whisky in the streets of this city, it is right for me. Whisky is useful in making vinegar, and we need it for cutting camphor gum, for medicine, washings, &c., but is it necessary to keep a whisky shop? No. And if it is right for one man to keep a whisky shop, it is right for another, until all become whisky peddlers and whisky drinkers, and all go to the devil together. It does not require much illumination of mind to comprehend that unless the selling of spirituous liquors is managed by proper persons, it will result in the ruination of many of the community. So with the selling and disposing of our produce to outside interests; for those who expend their means and labor in a way that does not enrich and build up Zion will apostatize and go out of this kingdom, sooner or later. When you are appointed to haul grain here or there, you will feel justified. Or, if you wish to drive a train, or to go as a guard on the mail route, or to attend to this or that, and the counsel is yes, go, and be honest and upright before God and man and deal justly with everybody, and if you do not so conduct, you will be brought home and dealt with, then, if you go in this way, you will be justified. Whatever is done let it be done by counsel and common consent; then we can be paid for our labor and our produce; wealth will increase around us, which we can put to use in gathering home the poor Saints from all nations by hundreds and by thousands. In the course the people have taken they will make themselves poor, while we might be rich. I feel very friendly towards Mr. Street and many others connected with the telegraph line. They have treated this community as gentlemen will. I have rendered them some assistance, and am ready to render them more; and they have been very accommodating to us. The Overland Mail company brings our letters, books, magazines, &c., and is as great an accommodation as can well be until we have a railroad through here, which I hope we shall have ere long, if it is right. They should be assisted, and that by the Counsel of the Kingdom of God in these mountains; and let it be done by common consent, or no longer say that we are one with the interests of this kingdom. If you are one with the vine, you are one with the main branch; if you are not thus one, you will be severed from the vine and will wither and die.

May the Lord bless the Latter-day Saints, is my prayer all the time. Amen.

Obedience to Counsel, etc.

Ezra T. Benson

Remarks by Elder Ezra T. Benson, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

I do not arise with any desire to interfere with the call of brother George A. Smith for brethren to go to the cotton district of our Territory, for I am very much in favor of brethren going to locate in the different settlements of Washington county to raise cotton and such other staple articles as are necessary for the welfare and prosperity of the Saints, and for the building up of Zion in the last days.

I live in the north part of the Territory, in Cache Valley, as most of you are aware, and I wish to say to those who are not wanted to go south, that if any of you feel like moving into the country, we would like to strengthen the settlements in our valley, and especially in the northern part of the County. By way of inducement we can promise you plenty of bread, if you will go there and help to till the earth and put in the seed in the season thereof, paying proper attention to your crops in the season when irrigation is required. It is a new country, possessing good facilities for stock raising, and in fact every facility for making home and friends comfortable and happy.

So far as I am individually concerned, it matters not to me what part of the Territory I go to labor or to reside in, if I can know and feel that I am doing the will of Heaven and carrying out the counsel and instruction of my brethren who preside in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the experience I have had in travelling with the President on his last mission south, I am able to say in all sincerity before God and my brethren, that all my prejudices are removed, and I feel perfectly willing to labor in any part of the Lord’s vineyard wherever my services are required.

Now we want about a hundred good sturdy fellows that feel themselves able to go to work to raise wheat and cattle, and to do all that is necessary for the beautifying and building up of Zion. It is a good place to raise flax, hemp, and vegetables. To be sure the altitude is considerably greater than it is in many other parts of the Territory, but this should not prevent us from performing our duties. If we are called to labor there that is the place for us to exert ourselves. It is sometimes argued that there is too much water there, and others will urge that there are too many Indians there; but, my feeling and the feeling of the bret[h]ren up there is to follow the counsel of our President and leader, and to labor in concert with all those who are set to guide our footsteps in the building up of Zion. We feel perfectly satisfied in doing this, for we know that while we pursue this course we are performing the duties that devolve upon us as Saints of God. We feel satisfied with our lot and place, and rejoice in the blessings that are bestowed upon us in that portion of our mountain home, and we feel to pray that we may ever be so in whatever position we may be called to labor for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Almighty.

May the Lord our God bless us and enable us to carry out the instructions that have been given us this day. This conference has been a happy time, and I can truly say that I have never felt better in our holy religion than I do to-day, and I know that the counsel that has been given to us is for our salvation.

You all know when you feel well, and you all know the Gospel of the Son of God, and there is nothing will give you satisfaction but the doctrines taught by the servants of God.

I bear my testimony to the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed by the Prophet Joseph, and to the correctness of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; also to the revelations given through the prophets of God both ancient and modern.

May God Almighty preserve us in the faith, enable us to round up our shoulders, and assist in bearing the burden of the kingdom. When we have anything to say to our families let it be according to the counsel of the Spirit of God, that union may prevail. We all know that there is plenty for the Saints to feast upon, but some are too apt to look upon the dark side of the picture, instead of remembering the blessings promised to us by the Prophets of God. Why should we shrink from our position for one moment, when we have so many glorious blessings promised unto us?

Let us strive to be of one heart and one mind and all will be well with us. God bless you, my brethren and sisters, is my sincere prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

How to Gain Eternal Life, etc.

Heber C. Kimball

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 6, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt.

The spirit and the body are the soul of man, and one is not perfect without the other, any more than we can be perfect in the immortal state without those who have gone before us, or they without us. There will be a restitution of all things in heaven and on earth to make things perfect. That which we call this present life, in reality, has no end; that which we call time is in reality eternity. We say the dead have departed this life as though they had departed to some other life. This, however, is not so; dying is like going from one room to another, or from one part of the earth to another, the life still exists though the body decays, but the life which dwelt in it is indestructible.

We read of men who have been translated, but they must pass through a change which is equal to death, for it is appointed that all men shall die, and after that cometh the judgment. These things are not new to you, but it is well to speak of them that we may constantly be reminded that we shall live for ever in some state. If this were not so, then immortality would be as an idle tale, and utter annihilation must follow the dissolution of this body. By observing strictly the precepts of the Gospel, we can learn how to live forever, and how to receive our tabernacles again in the morning of the first resurrection, to dwell on this earth for ever. To attain the possession of these blessings, we must live worthy of them.

There is no sin more heinous in the sight of God than the sin of ingratitude. All beings that pertain to this earth, whether visible or invisible, draw their sustenance from it. The heavens and the earth associate together and minister one to the other. If the earthly is separated from the heavenly, or the temporal from the spiritual, then is the earthly or the temporal dead; the one is necessary to the other for a fulness of joy and an endless duration. The earth abideth the law by which it was made; if it could break that law it would have to receive damnation. If we violate the law by which we were made, then we forfeit our title to exaltation and eternal lives. The earth is the mother of us all, and from its bosom we are fed, and receive our growth and strength as an infant receives its nourishment from the maternal breast. I want us to obtain power to dedicate and consecrate the earth unto God, that his Spirit may continue upon it for ever; that by this means the earthly may partake of the attributes of the heavenly, and become sanctified and prepared to enter the presence of God.

It is often said here that this people are blessed above all other people; this is truly so. We are in the mountains; we did not come here of our own accord, but we came by the will of the Father. We are in the tops of the mountains where the prophet said the people of God would be in the last days.—“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.” The ancient prophets have joy in seeing the fulfilment of the words they spoke when they were upon the earth. Jesus spake a parable to the Pharisees and Scribes, saying—“What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? and when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.” We are here at home in the tops of the mountains; and there was joy in heaven when we embraced the truth and were gathered into this safe fold. The sheep that are still scattered need our aid and pity. Those that are at home, many of them, think they ought to be pitied now more than anybody else, when there are thousands still wandering from the true fold. We shall be the saviors of men sooner or later if we are faithful, and shall have power to redeem and save mankind through the atonement made by Jesus Christ.

Why should those who are in the house, well fed and clad, be jealous and envious of a poor sheep I may seek and save? If we cannot save a person temporally, it is a very hard case to save him spiritually, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” That is, let every man save himself as far as he can The Saints that are yet scattered among the nations are as good people as we are but they cannot get away from their present bondage; they have not the means necessary to work out their temporal deliverance. This year we will probably give you a chance to help to gather in the sheep that are still wandering in the desert, seeking the friendly shelter of this fold which we so happily enjoy. I understand President Young intends to call for five hundred teams this season to send to the frontiers for the Saints. Some have supposed that so many teams could not be loaded. The teams we sent down last year were loaded to the brim, and those this year will be to their utmost capacity. It is a true saying, that “God helps them that help themselves;” and the Savior says, “Draw near unto me, and I will draw near unto you.” If we send down teams and say to the poor Saints among all nations, Come—shall we be frustrated in our noble design? We shall not, for that would not be in keeping with the character of God, nor with the character of his angels.

Who are his angels? They are men who stood fast through tribulation; they are prophets and apostles and patriarchs who once lived upon the earth, and bore testimony of the truth of the Gospel of the Son of God, the same Gospel that we preach. If we try to gather the poor, the Lord and his angels will help us and open the way before us, and as we return with the poor Saints to this land he will shut up the way behind i us. It is our privilege to step forth and show ourselves approved, and if it is not the mind of the Lord we should prosper in the way and at the time we wish, let us be contented, knowing that we have shown our good will. If the Lord tells us to do anything and our enemies hinder us, the Lord will require it at their hands and they must pay that debt, and fully satisfy the demands of justice. One half of the people we gather may not be true Saints, but that makes no difference, for if there is not more than one Saint to ten who profess to be Saints, the Almighty will preserve the ten unworthy persons for the sake of the one good Saint. For the sake of a few true-hearted Saints travelling in a large company, the Lord will preserve their ships, the cars they travel on, and their teams; this I know from actual experience from the first day I entered into this Church to this day. God is the same to-day as he was in the days of the great flood, he loves and respects his friends, and so should we love and respect the faithful and true, and nourish and cherish them. We have not proved the Saints that are scattered abroad, nor they us; they may have proved themselves with their brethren in their own country and kept the commandments; but out of a thousand persons whom we emigrate, if we get only one hundred Saints how great will be our joy with them in the kingdom of our Father.

Let the brethren be ready when the call is made upon them to supply teams, and if the call is not made, then they are prepared to go to plowing and cultivating the ground and filling the earth with seed.

We are now partaking of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper; when we partake of the bread, let us pray the Father that strength may be given to our bodies that they may not wither, but be strengthened to reach a good old age; when we partake of the wine—or water, which is emblematic of his blood, let us ask the Father that our blood may never be spilled unless it is necessary for the advancement of his Kingdom and the glory of God. We are in the true fold and are fed with the bread of life, the Word of God, which, if we receive faithfully and truly, will create within us that which will be as a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, and we shall never be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of God, for we shall partake of the attributes of our Heavenly Father. My prayer is that our hearts may become pregnant with the word of God and with the power of God, showing our connection with God, with Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Ghost, with the angels, and with the prophets and apostles that dwell in heaven.

I will make another remark regarding angels. God sent an angel to John on the Isle of Patmos, and John says, concerning it, “and I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, see thou do it not; I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus—worship God.” Men are made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, but when men are clothed with the holy priesthood and sent forth to minister the word of life, the comparison between them and the angels is somewhat different. “And of his angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” While in the act of ministering the Gospel, the servants of God may be considered angels. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unawares.” The servants of God are angels in one sense, sent forth to gather the house of Israel from the four corners of the earth; and the Elders of this Church in their labors have fulfilled, partly, the sayings of the Savior, when they have found two working in the field, one has received the Gospel and been gathered, and the other left; two working in a mill, one has been taken and the other left; two lying in a bed, the one has been taken and the other left. But no doubt these sayings will have their final and complete fulfilment about the time of the second coming of the Savior. “For as in the days of Noah that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Again, there are hundreds who profess to receive the Gospel from our hands, and the sacrament, but they do not receive the power of God, and do not gather with the true sheep into the sheepfold. There are scores of people in England that I baptized twenty-six years ago, who are there yet, firm and steadfast, so I hear—they will be gathered to the fold in due time. The angels of this Church travel without purse and scrip, they are destitute of the means necessary to bring them along; but we are watching for an opportunity to deliver them, before universal destruction shall come upon the wicked nations.

The Lord sent three angels to watch over Abraham and Lot anciently. They stayed with Abraham, and Sarah baked a cake a-piece for them; Abraham killed a calf, and supplied butter and milk to refresh them, after they had washed their feet. Jacob, on one occasion, wrestled with an angel all night long, but could not throw him. Jacob had hold of a being full of spring and power like unto a man, and he did not know the difference; he was a man and an angel. We are exhorted daily to conduct ourselves like the angels of God, to try and be like them: we are exhorted to be godlike; and to be godlike is to do as God wishes us to do. God feeds the wicked and the good, clothes the righteous and the unrighteous, and is merciful to all the workmanship of his hands. I see the necessity of being more pure, more merciful, more faithful, and more true. If we pursue this course, my brethren and sisters, how great will be our blessings. No blessing will be withheld from the truly faithful. When a man is placed to preside over us, let us nourish and sustain that man as though he were an angel direct from the presence of God. I wish you to understand and appreciate what I say, and treasure it up.

A man who raises up his puny arm against the priesthood of God on the earth, is measuring arms with the Almighty. If an unfaithful wife shall raise the standard of war against her husband who is faithful to God, she is making war against the Almighty, and she will be wasted away, and she will ultimately curse God and die.

May God bless his people from the rivers to the ends of the earth, in all their settlements and abiding places. Amen.

The Persecutions of the Saints, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I do not wish to confine myself to any particular subject this afternoon.

The rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its history up to this day are vividly portrayed in my memory. I referred to that subject this morning, and to the persecution we, as a people, have received, and the persecuting the Prophet Joseph Smith unto death. I have also in my mind the condition of the Christian world, as well as the revealed religion of the Savior; also the Jewish as the forerunner of the Christian religion.

This morning I referred to the intelligence we have, and the position of the world. The people want to know a great deal—they want to know all, but it cannot all be learned in one day nor in a short period of time. We expect to learn to all eternity.

This people are an object of derision and astonishment to our Christian neighbors, and to the whole world an object of reflection and serious thought. Almost every man occupying a public position in the political, religious or heathen world wishes to possess great influence and to extend his power. There is only one way to obtain power and influence in the kingdom of God, and only one way to obtain foreknowledge, and that is to so live that that influence will come from our Creator, enlightening the mind and revealing things that are past, present and future pertaining to the earth and its inhabitants, and to the dealings of God with the children of men; in short, there is no source of true information outside of the Spirit of revelation; it maketh manifest all things, and revealeth the dispositions of communities and of individuals. By possessing this Spirit, mankind can obtain power that is durable, benefic[i]al, and that will result in a higher state of knowledge, of honor and of glory. This can be obtained only by strictly marking the path of truth, and walking faithfully therein.

We are objectionable to our neighbors. We have a warfare. As the Apostle says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This warfare commences within us.

The spirits that live in these tabernacles were as pure as the heavens, when they entered them. They came to tabernacles that are contaminated, pertaining to the flesh, by the fall of man. The Psalmist says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This Scripture has established in the minds of some the doctrine of total depravity—that it is impossible for them to have one good thought, that they are altogether sinful, that there is no good, no soundness, and no spiritual health in them. This is not correct, yet we have a warfare within us. We have to contend against evil passions, or the seeds of iniquity that are sown in the flesh through the fall. The pure spirits that occupy these tabernacles are operated upon, and it is the right of Him that sent them into these tabernacles to hold the preeminence, and to always give the Spirit of truth to influence the spirits of men, that it may triumph and reign predominently in our tabernacles the God and Lord of every motion. We not only have this warfare continually, day by day, within ourselves, but we also have an outside influence or pressure to resist. Both the religious and the political world have influences to contend against that very much resemble each other; they are more or less exercised, governed and controlled by surrounding influences. We Latter-day Saints have an influence of this kind to contend against.

The inquiry has often been made of us in the course of our history, why we do not, contradict such and such statements, “Why do you not confute this or that?” “Why do you not enlighten the people in regard to certain statements which are urged against you, and disabuse the public mind?” Our position at the present day is far superior to what it was sixteen, twenty and thirty years ago. Sixteen years ago we were on the inhospitable prairies, and in an Indian country. Five hundred of our able-bodied men had been taken from us by the call of the Government, and went to fight the battles of their country. There are women and children sitting here to-day, whose husbands, sons and fathers went on that campaign to prove to our Government that we were loyal, who became widows and orphans in consequence of that requisition. Those noble men left their wives and children and their aged fathers and mothers houseless and without protection upon the wild prairies and surrounded by savages, exposed to all the rigors and changes of the weather, to heat and cold, to rains and storms without protectors, until many sank under it and left their lifeless remains to be laid beneath the prairie sod. When this call was made upon us, to put to the test our loyalty, we had travelled from Nauvoo and were resting in the western part of Pottowattamie county, Iowa. Had we boots and shoes to our feet? No. A few had, but the majority of the people had not. Had our wives clothing to last them five years? No. Had our children clothing to last them that length of time? No. The great majority of the people had not clothing nor shoes to make them comfortable a single day. We were obliged to leave our property behind us, with the lame and blind and feeble who were pounced upon while we were absent to find them a safe abiding place.

This is the outside pressure. It forced us from Ohio to Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois into the wilderness. We were accused of disloyalty, alienation, and apostacy from the Constitution of our country. We were accused of being secessionists. I am, so help me God, and ever expect to be a secessionist from their wickedness, unrighteousness, dishonesty and unhallowed principles in a religious point of view; but am I or this people secessionists with regard to the glorious Constitution of our country? No. Were we secessionists when we so promptly responded to the call of the General Government, when we were houseless and friendless on the wild prairies of Pottawattamie? I think not. We there told the brethren to enlist, and they obeyed without a murmur.

With regard to our going into the wilderness, and our there being called upon to turn out five hundred able-bodied men to go to Mexico, we had then seen every religious and political right trampled under foot by mobocrats; there were none left to defend our rights; we were driven from every right which freemen ought to possess. In forming that battalion of five hundred men, brother Kimball and myself rode day and night, until we had raised the full number of men the Government called for. Captain Allen said to me, using his own words, “I have fallen in love with your people. I love them as I never loved a people before.” He was a friend to the uttermost. When he had marched that Mormon battalion as far as Fort Leavenworth, he was thrown upon a sick bed where I then believed, and do now, he was nursed, taken care of, and doctored to the silent tomb, and the battalion went on with God for their Friend.

That battalion took up their line of march from Fort Leavenworth by way of Santa Fe, and over a desert and dreary route, and planted themselves in the lower part of California, to the joy of all the officers and men that were loyal. At the time of their arrival, General Kearney was in a straitened position, and Colonel P. St. George Cooke promptly marched the battalion to his relief, and said to him, “We have the boys here now that can put all things right.” The boys in that battalion performed their duty faithfully. I never think of that little company of men without the next thoughts being, “God bless them for ever and for ever.” All this we did to prove to the Government that we were loyal. Previous to this, when we left Nauvoo, we knew that they were going to call upon us, and we were prepared for it in our faith and in our feelings. I knew then as well as I do now that the Government would call for a battalion of men out of that part of Israel, to test our loyalty to the Government. Thomas H. Benton, if I have been rightly informed, obtained the requisition to call for that battalion, and, in case of non-compliance with that requisition, to call on the militia of Missouri and Iowa, and other States, if necessary, and to call volunteers from Illinois, from which State we had been driven, to destroy the camp of Israel. This same Mr. Benton said to the President of the United States, in the presence of some other persons, “Sir, they are a pestilential race, and ought to become extinct.”

I will again urge upon this people to so live that they will have the knowledge they desire, as we have knowledge not of all, but only of that which is necessary. Have we not shown to the world that we love the Constitution of our country and its institutions better than do those who have been and are now distracting the nation? You cannot find a community, placed under the circumstances that we were, that would have done as we did on the occasion of furnishing the Mormon Battalion, after our leading men had been slain and we had been compelled to leave our farms, gardens, homes and firesides, while, at the same time, the general Government was called upon in vain to put a stop to such a series of abuses against an innocent people.

The people said, “Give us redress for our wrongs?”

Government: “Did you say anything? Hard of hearing; can’t hear a single word you say.”

“Mr. President, Mr. Senator, Messrs, everybody else, can you hear the cries of the widow and fatherless?”

Government: “Did you speak? Can’t hear you gentlemen; mark what I say, I can’t hear you.”

After all this, to prove our loyalty to the Constitution and not to their infernal meanness, we went to fight the battles of a free country to give it power and influence, and to extend our happy institutions in other parts of this widely extended republic. In this way we have proved our loyalty. We have done everything that has been required of us. Can there anything reasonable and constitutional be asked that we would not perform? No. But if the Government of the United States should now ask for a battalion of men to fight in the present battle-fields of the nation, while there is a camp of soldiers from abroad located within the corporate limits of this city, I would not ask one man to go; I would see them in hell first. What was the result a year ago, when our then Governor, and I thank God for such a Governor as we had a year ago, called for men to go and guard the mail route? Were they promptly on hand? Yes, and when President Lincoln wrote to me requesting me to fit out one hundred men to guard the mail route, we at once enlisted the one hundred men for ninety days. On Monday evening I received the instruction, and on Wednesday afternoon that hundred men were mustered into service and encamped ready for moving. But all this does not prove any loyalty to political tyrants.

We guarded the mail route; but they do not know what we know with regard to guarding this route, and they will find that out by and by. We do not need any soldiers here from any other States or Territories to perform that service, neither does the Government, as they would know if they were wise. I will, comparatively speaking, take one plug of tobacco, a shirt and three cents’ worth of paint, and save more life and hinder more Indian depredations than they can by expending millions of dollars vested in an army to fight and kill the Indians. Feed and clothe them a little and you will save life; fight them, and you pave the way for the destruction of the innocent. This will be found out after a while, but now it is not known except by comparatively a few.

We complain of the barbarity of the red men for killing innocent men, women, and children, especially for killing women and children. They are to blame for this. But remember that they are savages, and that it is an usage among them to kill the innocent for acts of the guilty.

I will ask every person who is acquainted with the history of the colonization of the Continent of North and South America, if they ever knew any colony of whites to get along any better with their savage neighbors than the inhabitants of Utah have done. Talk about making treaties with the Indians! Has there been any one treaty with the Indians fulfilled in good faith by the Government? If there is one, I wish you would let me know. But we call them savages, while at the same time the whites too often do as badly as they have done, and worse, when difference of intelligence and training are taken into account. This has been so in almost every case of difficulty with the red skins. When soldiers have pounced upon these poor, ignorant, low, degraded, miserable creatures, mention a time, if you can, when they have spared their women and children. They have indiscriminately massacred the helpless, the blind, the old, the infant, and the mother.

I am a human being, and I have the care of human beings. I wish to save life, and have no desire to destroy life. If I had my wish, I should entirely stop the shedding of human blood. The people abroad do not generally understand this, but they will. Like Paul, they do that they would not do, and leave undone that they would do because of the sin that reigns in their members. The nations of the world may apply this same text to their own case. They want to do something, but what to do rightly they do not find.

We have not only the man of sin to contend with, but also the outside pressure. Now then, what should we say concerning this people? I will answer. There has never been a time or circumstance since this Territory was organized, but what the civil law has reigned triumphantly in the hearts and acts of this people. The outside pressure now is that this people, called the Latter-day Saints, are secessionists in their feelings, and alien to the Constitution and institutions of our country. This is entirely false. There is not another people upon the face of the earth that could have borne what we have, and still remain as loyal to our brethren as we have been and are. They might be displeased with some of the acts of the administrators of the law, but not with the Constitutional laws and institutions of the Government.

This people are filled with patience and long suffering, clinging to the institutions bequeathed to us by our fathers as closely and as tenaciously as ever babe clung to the Maternal breast, and we would that the Government had always been so wisely administered as to bind the best feelings of the people together, and to create and still continue to create a union instead of alienation. The affections of the masses of American citizens—both of the people in the North and in the South, are alienated from each other, and they are divided. We would it could be otherwise, but this is the result of the acts of leading politicians of our nation. When the people’s affections are interwoven with a Republican government administered in all its purity, if the administrators act not in virtue and truth it is but natural that the people become disaffected with mal-administration, and divide and sub-divide into parties, until the body politic is shivered to pieces. There is no other platform that any government can stand upon and endure, but the platform of truth and virtue.

What can we do? We can serve God, and mind our own business; keep our power dry, and be prepared for every emergency to which we may be exposed, and sustain the civil law to which we are subject. We have an adjudicator of the law in this Judicial District who has been here some eight or ten years. Has he found any difficulty or trouble in the performance of his official acts in this district, which we may say is the brain, the lungs, the vitals of the whole Territory? Has he met with any difficulty in administering the civil law here? He has not, except in the case where tyrants have sought to interrupt the even course and administration of it. Those who aim to soar to power and fame by taking such a course, pluck out the pinions of their own wings, and rob themselves of the glory and power which they so earnestly seek.

We have our own difficulties to encounter as a people, arising from influences that cannot be fully comprehended by those who are not of us and are not living with us. As for offering refutations to charges made against us, it would be impossible to keep pace with the thousands of freshly invented falsehoods that the powers spiritual and the powers temporal would produce to feed the credulity of the ignorant masses. Bunyan says that it requires a legion of devils to watch one Christian; it would require a legion of refutations to keep pace with one infernal liar, therefore we say, “lie on, falsify every thing you want to falsify, and say what you please; there is a God in Israel, and if you have not yet learned it, you will learn it.”

Some of my friends and brethren have lately thought that there is an influence being got up against us. I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for any influence that our officials here, who are operating against this people, have in Washington. If their true characters were only known there, their influence would be devoid of weight in the mind of any right thinking man. I am in no way concerned about what they can do against us. I wish one course to be pursued by this people, and all the rest will be right. If they will walk faithfully in the path of their duty, in uprightness before God, clinging to right, and so conducting themselves that no being in the Heavens, on the earth, under the earth, or in hell, can say in truth that they are guilty of any unjust or wicked action committed knowingly, all will be right. God rules in the Heavens, and he does his pleasure among the inhabitants of the earth, he causes victory to perch here, and defeat and disgrace there, as he will, and contending armies know not the cause of their victory or their defeat. It is God who rules.

We are in the midst of these mountains, and we have good and salutary laws to govern us. We have our Constitutional laws and our Territorial laws; we are subject to these laws, and always expect to be, for we love to be. If there is any man among us who has violated any constitutional law, try the law upon him, and let us see whether there is any virtue in it, before we try the strong arm of despotism and tyranny. I stand for Constitutional law, and if any transgress, let them be tried by it, and, if guilty, suffer its penalty.

In 1857 it is estimated that eleven thousand troops were ordered here; some seven thousand started for this place, with several thousand hangers on. They came into this Territory when a company of emigrants were traveling on the south route to California. Nearly all of that company were destroyed by the Indians. That unfortunate affair has been laid to the charge of the whites. A certain judge that was then in this Territory wanted the whole army to accompany him to Iron county to try the whites for the murder of that company of emigrants I told Governor Cumming that if he would take an unprejudiced judge into the district where that horrid affair occurred, I would pledge myself that every man in the regions round about should be forthcoming when called for, to be condemned or acquitted as an impartial, unprejudiced judge and jury should decide; and I pledged him that the court should be protected from any violence or hindrance in the prosecution of the laws; and if any were guilty of the blood of those who suffered in the Mountain Meadow massacre, let them suffer the penalty of the law; but to this day they have not touched the matter, for fear the Mormons would be acquitted from the charge of having any hand in it, and our enemies would thus be deprived of a favorite topic to talk about, when urging hostility against us. “The Mountain Meadow massacre! Only think of the Mountain Meadow massacre!!” is their cry from one end of the land to the other.

“Come, let us make war on the Mormons, for they burnt government property.” and what was the government doing there with their property? They were coming to destroy the Mormons, in violation of every right principle of law and justice. A little of their property was destroyed, and they were left to gnaw, not a file, but dead cattle’s bones. I was informed that one man brought five blood hounds to hunt the Mormons in the mountains, and that the poor devil had to kill them and eat them before spring to save himself from starving to death, and that he was fool enough to acknowledge it afterwards in this city. This is the kind of outside pressure we have to meet with. Who wanted the army of 1857 here? Who sent for them? Liars, thieves, murderers, gamblers, whoremasters, and speculators in the rights and blood of the Mormon people cried to government, and government opened its ears, long and broad, saying, “I hear you, my children, lie on, my faithful sons Brocchus, Drummond and Co.,” and so they did lie on until the parent sent an army to use up the Mormons. Now I say, for the consolation of all my brethren and sisters, they cannot do it; and that is worse to them than all the rest; they cannot do it.

The rank, rabid abolitionists, whom I call black-hearted Republicans, have set the whole national fabric on fire. Do you know this, Democrats? They have kindled the fire that is raging now from the north to the south, and from the south to the north. I am no abolitionist, neither am I a proslavery man; I hate some of their principles and especially some of their conduct, as I do the gates of hell. The Southerners make the negroes, and the Northerners worship them; this is all the difference between slaveholders and abolitionists. I would like the President of the United States and all the world to hear this.

Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. The nations of the earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and he awaketh and behold he is empty.

The following saying of the prophet is fulfilled: “Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel; for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thrash O daughter of Zion, &c.” God rules in the armies of Heaven and does his pleasure upon the earth, and no man can help it. Who can stay the hand of Jehovah, or turn aside the providences of the Almighty? I say to all men and all women, submit to God, to his ordinances and to His rule; serve Him, and cease your quarrelling, and stay the shedding of each other’s blood.

If the Government of the United States, in Congress assembled, had the right to pass an anti-polygamy bill, they had also the right to pass a law that slaves should not be abused as they have been; they had also a right to make a law that negroes should be used like human beings, and not worse than dumb brutes. For their abuse of that race, the whites will be cursed, unless they repent.

I am neither an abolitionist nor a pro-slavery man. If I could have been influenced by private injury to choose one side in preference to the other, I should certainly be against the pro-slavery side of the question, for it was pro-slavery men that pointed the bayonet at me and my brethren in Missouri, and said, “Damn you we will kill you.” I have not much love for them, only in the Gospel. I would cause them to repent, if I could, and make them good men and a good community. I have no fellowship for their avarice, blindness, and ungodly actions. To be great, is to be good before the Heavens and before all good men. I will not fellowship the wicked in their sins, so help me God.

Joseph Smith, in forty-seven prosecutions was never proven guilty of one violation of the laws of his country. They accused him of treason, because he would not fellowship their wickedness. Suppose the land should be cleansed from its filthiness and the law of God should predominate, if a man or woman should be found who had corrupted themselves and thereby become diseased, that man or woman would be placed by themselves, as the lepers were anciently, never more to commune with the human family. Purify your flesh and blood, your spirits, your habitations and your country, and then you will be pure before God. This change has got to be before this earth will be taken back into a celestial atmosphere.

Find fault with me because I have wives! They would corrupt every wife I have, if they had the power; and then they cry to the government, “You had better do something with the Mormons; they are deceitful and disloyal!!” I am disloyal to their sins and filthiness. Cleanse your hearts and the whole person, and make yourselves as pure as the angels, and then I will fellowship you.

I say to every man and woman in this community, suffer not your affections to wander after that which is unholy; do not lust after gold, nor the things of this world. Sanctify yourselves before your God and before one another, until you are pure outside and in and all around you, and see that you faithfully perform every duty.

Now, as we are accused of secession, my counsel to this congregation is to secede, what from? From the Constitution of the United States? No. From the institutions of our country? No. Well then, what from? From sin and the practice thereof. That is my counsel to this congregation and to the whole world.

May God bless everybody that wishes well to his kingdom on the earth. Amen.

All Nationalities Merged in the Kingdom of God—The Unity and Happiness of the Saints

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

I do not wish to monopolize the time to the exclusion of my brethren, and I do not design to detain you long, still a few remarks, perhaps may not be unacceptable. I thank my Heavenly Father for the privilege and blessing of meeting with the Saints, and for allowing my spirit to mingle with yours, to increase each other’s joy.

The words of edification and instruction we have had from our brethren are truly cheering to all of us, and I trust that the spirit of the living God may continue to abide with us, that wherein we have received an increase of light and truth we may carry it to our homes, and revive the work of the Lord in our towns and villages, and in short carry this feeling and influence to every quarter and part of the kingdom of God. Truly the remarks made this morning were cheering and good. The spirit of the Lord is calculated to remove everything that may be in the heart which is opposed to that which is good, to Godliness and peace.

Much is said about the tribes of Israel from which most of us are supposed to have descended. With some there is quite a feeling of choice in regard to the tribe from which they sprang, but let me say that whether we sprang from Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh or from a family of gentile origin, that of all these tribes and classes, whoever receive the Gospel and are moulded and fashioned by the spirit of the living God, will be entitled to a place in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Hence it is written “For by him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: All things were created by him, and for him.” And again it is written, “and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all.”—Col. i. 16 and iii. 10, 11.

I feel that in these two particulars we are distinguished from the world, while we are made one by being baptized into one spirit and all embracing the one faith, becoming members of one body, having one common father, even the King of Heaven. And by submitting to be guided by his spirit, and obeying the precepts that are given by him in our daily deportment we are transported into the image of that lovely being of whom it is said, that at his name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

Brethren, I feel happy and childlike in your presence to-day, and I intend to continue in well doing that I may ever have the Spirit of the Lord to guide me aright. If, by my labors, I can make others feel as well as I feel myself, it is the joy of my heart, it is that for which I labor and toil. I feel at many times that I would rather sit down and muse in silence than to speak.

When I think of our friends in the east I feel sorrowful; their condition is deplorable. I have no enmity towards any one, but my general feeling is, Heaven bless the Saints and may Heaven destroy every influence that is arraigned against Zion. And the Lord will do this; and I will prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Hosts that if we continue to walk in the light of truth, to labor to build up Zion, that cup of trembling spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah shall never return to your lips nor to our habitations, but we will float along increasing in power and strength from day to day, continually rejoicing in the truths of our holy religion.

God bless you all for ever: Amen.

Reflections on the Sacrament, the Atonement and the Second Coming of Jesus

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 22, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament of my blood, which is shed for you.” There is nothing very peculiar in this ordinance, though it is rather a strange institution when we reflect upon it. This ceremony has been attended to throughout generations that are past, and still it is attended to. Jesus said also, “Do this until I come again.” Notwithstanding the great falling off—the great apostacy since the days of Christ and his Apostles, this ordinance has generally been adopted by the Christian churches, so called, however they may err in many other principles of faith and doctrine. This ordinance has been renewed to us, and is part and parcel of the new covenant God has made with his people in the latter days. It was practised among the ancient Saints who resided upon this Continent, long before it was discovered by Columbus, as well as upon the Continent of Asia among the Saints that lived there. When we attend to this ordinance we do it upon the same principle that they did anciently, whether among the Saints of God on the Asiatic Continent or among the Saints on the American Continent.

I was a little struck with the hymn that was sung:—

“Behold the Savior of mankind.”

My mind was led to reflect back to the time when he was upon the earth and to the time previous to his sojourn here, and to the way and manner in which he came upon the earth, and the designs of his heavenly Father in his coming here, also the designs of God relating to the world and to his Saints in particular. As we find ourselves upon this stage of action, it is very natural that we should inquire something about the position that we occupy here and our relationship to God, and something about the plan of salvation and about those who have acted and operated in this plan. It would seem from all that we can gather, both from old and new revelations, that God has had a design to accomplish in relation to the world whereon we dwell, and also in relation to the inhabitants that have dwelt and will dwell thereon, and also in regard to the heavens; in relation, also, to those spirits that have not yet come into existence, as well as those that have; in relation to those who have lived and died without the Gospel, as well as those who have had the privilege of the Gospel—to bring to pass things that he has contemplated before the world was. We, as a portion of the human family, are interested in these events, and ought to understand our position in relation to them and also to God, and, at the same time, we ought to comprehend in some measure our relationship to each other. We ought to know what course to pursue to secure the approbation of our heavenly Father, and fulfil our destiny upon the earth in the best possible manner, and aid with all our might to accomplish those things God has designed before the world was.

It would seem that the coming of the Savior to the world, his suffering, death, resurrection and ascension to the position he occupies in the eternal world before his heavenly Father, has a great deal to do with our interests and happiness; and hence this continued memorial that we partake of every Sabbath. This sacrament is the fulfillment of the last request of Jesus Christ to his disciples. “For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show forth the Lord’s death till he comes.” Faith in this ordinance would necessarily imply that we have faith in Jesus Christ, that he is the only begotten of the Father, that he came from the heavens to the earth to accomplish a certain purpose which God had designed—even to secure the salvation and exaltation of the human family. All this has a great deal to do with our welfare and happiness here and hereafter. The death of Jesus Christ would not have taken place had it not been necessary. That this ceremony should be instituted to keep that circumstance before the minds of his people, bespeaks its importance as embracing certain unexplained purposes and mysterious designs of God; they are explained in part, but they are not fully comprehended. It is not fully comprehended why it was necessary that Jesus Christ should leave the heavens, his Father’s abode and presence, and come upon the earth to offer himself up a sacrifice; that he should, according to the Scripture saying, “Take away sin by the sacrifice of himself;” why this should be, why it was necessary that his blood should be shed is an apparent mystery. It is true that we are told that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins; but why this? Why should such a law exist? It is left with us as a matter of faith, that it was necessary he should come and, being necessary, he shrank not from the task, but came to take away sin by offering up himself.

Jesus Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures as “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” What sins of the world did he take away? We are told that it is the sin which Adam committed. We do not know much about Adam nor what he did; but we know that this sacrifice took place and that we are in the position we now occupy, and we are ready to believe from the testimonies we have received in relation to this sacrifice that it was the will of God he should thus offer himself up and that he came here for that purpose. He was “The first begotten of the Father full of grace and truth;” and suffered his body to be broken and his blood to be spilled, doing “Not his own will but the will of him that sent him,” not to accomplish his own purpose particularly but the purpose of him that sent him, and hence we are told to observe this rite until he comes again.

There is something also to be looked to in the future. The Son of God has again to figure in the grand drama of the world. He has been here once and “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” It would seem that his ancient disciples upon this Continent or upon the Continent of Asia actually looked forward to the time when Jesus would come again and hence he is frequently spoken of in the Scriptures having a reference to his second advent, that to these who look for him “He would appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Again, Isaiah, in speaking of him, says, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of my people was he stricken,” &c. Again, the same Prophet spoke of him as coming in power, glory and dominion, and as having his wrath and indignation kindled against the nations of the earth. “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat? I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed is come.” Jesus accomplished what he was sent to do, and, feeling satisfied of this, when he was about to leave the earth he said he had finished the work his Father gave him to do. But there was another work, another event that was to transpire in the latter days, when he should not be led as a lamb to the slaughter or be like a sheep before the shearers; when he would not act in that state of humiliation and quiescence, but when he will go forth as a man of war and tread down the people in his anger and trample them in his fury, when blood should be on his garments and the day of vengeance in his heart, when he would rule the nations with an iron rod and break them to pieces like a potter’s vessel. There must be some reason why he was allowed to suffer and endure; why it was necessary that he should give up his life a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and there must be a reason why he should come forth in judgment to execute vengeance, indignation and wrath upon the ungodly. In these reasons we and all the world are intimately concerned; there is something of great importance in all this to us. The whys and wherefores of these great events are pregnant with importance to us all. When he comes again he comes to take vengeance on the ungodly and to bring deliverance unto his Saints; “For the day of vengeance,” it is said, “is in my heart and the year of my redeemed is come.” It beho[o]ves us to be made well aware which class we belong to, that if we are not already among the redeemed we may immediately join that society, that when the Son of God shall come the second time with all the holy angels with him, arrayed in power and great glory to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel, or when he shall come in flaming fire, we shall be among that number who shall be ready to meet him with gladness in our hearts and hail him as our great deliverer and friend. In relation to all events that have transpired and to the designs of God connected with the earth and all grades of men upon it, and to the events that transpired before we came into this existence, if there is anything we cannot clearly comprehend we can leave it for the future to reveal. True it is the privilege of a certain class of people to have the Holy Ghost that Jesus said should bring things past, present and to come to their remembrance and lead them into all truth. We can have a portion of that Spirit by which we can draw back the vail of eternity and comprehend the designs of God that have been hidden up for generations past and gone; we can go back to our former existence and contemplate the designs of God in the formation of this earth and all things that pertain to it; unravel its destiny and the designs of God in relation to our past, present and future existence. If we can comprehend all these things so much the better. If we do not understand everything in relation to every event of the past and the future, it is necessary we should know something about the things that now exist, something about the position of the world we live in, and something about our relationship to that God who still lives and will continue to live, and something about our interests in that redemption wrought out for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose death and sufferings we are now commemorating. We should know enough about this to save ourselves and to know how to save the generation with which we are associated; enough to know how to save our families and to teach them the laws of life and the way that leads to God and exaltation; enough to know how to live and enjoy life and how to avoid the calamities that are coming upon the earth and how to prepare ourselves for celestial glory in the eternal worlds. How shall we know the laws of life? How shall we know anything about God? How shall we know anything of futurity? I know of no other way than that which has been communicated to man formerly; I know of no other way than the way that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Enoch, Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles obtained their knowledge, and that was by revelation. Jesus said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” No matter what ability and talent a man may possess, all must come under this rule if they wish to know the Father and the Son. If knowledge of them is not obtained through revelation it cannot be obtained at all. Hence we are told, “This is the stone which was set at naught by you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,” and unto him every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, and hence he is called the Mediator of the New Covenant, and hence we are told to ask for blessings in the name of Jesus Christ and to approach the Father in his name. We are told that to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent is eternal life. This knowledge cannot be obtained independently of revelation. We cannot come to God except through Jesus Christ; he is the only medium through which we can approach the Father. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias or one of the Prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonas; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What rock? The kind of evidence he had that Jesus was the Christ—the principle of revelation; flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him, but his Father in heaven, and upon this rock Jesus built his church. Upon the same principle that we know that Jesus is the Christ and that God is his Father is the church of Christ built in this and has been in all ages. This principle alone can give the knowledge of God which is life eternal and the only power by which a man can stand unscathed in the trying hour. Those who possess this principle are one with Jesus Christ and one with the Father, as says Jesus, “I in them and thou in me, that they all may be one even as I and the Father are one, that they may be one in us.” They are baptized with the same baptism, they are baptized with the same Spirit, they are in possession of the same knowledge and they know God, whom to know is life everlasting. When built upon this rock the storms may blow, the rains may descend and beat upon the house, but it cannot fall because it is founded upon a rock. These are some of my reflections in relation to this ordinance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. As to the whys and wherefores of this, there are a great many of them; the world is full of them, and eternity is full of them; all comprehensive, just, true, reasonable, all scientific and according to the strictest principles of philosophy, if we could only understand the philosophy. The philosophers in the world understand something of the rules of natural philosophy; but those rules will never lead a man to the knowledge of God; if he ever obtains this knowledge it must be by the principle of revelation. All the works of God, whether on the earth or in the heavens, are constructed on strictly philosophical principles. We understand in part the things of earth; when we see things as God sees them, we shall then understand the philosophy of the heavens: the mysteries of eternity will be unfolded and the operations of mind, matter, spirit, purposes and designs, causes and effects and all the stupendous operations of God will be developed, and they will be found to accord with the strictest principles of philosophy, even the philosophy of the heavens. In regard to the events that will transpire on the earth, we have had a thousand ideas and many of them probably correct. We have believed that God had an object to accomplish in relation to this world; we believe we came here for this purpose and that the myriads of human beings that have inhabited this earth since its organization have come and gone for a certain purpose. We have believed that there have been conflicting elements and conflicting spirits and powers, and we have believed that God has designed ultimately to root out and remove from the earth everything that is contrary to his will, designs and purposes in relation to the earth. As a people we believe that God has commenced in these last days to build up his kingdom and root out the ungodly from the earth and establish correct principles. We believe there is an antagonism in the world to God and to his laws and to the principles of truth, not only with the bodies of men but with the spirits of men who have left the earth and the spirits who are in opposition to God. There are various influences at work to oppose God and his laws and the establishment of his kingdom upon the earth. We believe, moreover, that he will ultimately accomplish his own purposes, establish his own government, root out the wicked, take the reins of government into his own hands and possess the kingdom himself. We are not singular in this belief. The same things have been believed by every man that has known God in all ages of the world; all who have ever been inspired by him have had the same views in relation to these matters that we have, hence Paul says, “That the times of restitution have been spoken of by all the holy Prophets since the world began.” So all men who are inspired of God know him and can look into futurity; and all who ever have lived who were thus inspired looked through the vista of future ages to the time we are speaking of, and which we commemorate when we partake of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. They looked forward to the time when he would come again and when a reign of righteousness would be introduced on the earth. The next time he comes he will see that right bears the sway and the meek of the earth increase their joy in the Lord and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel; when trouble and sorrow shall have an end and the scorner shall be consumed and those who watch for iniquity shall be cut off Righteousness will take the place of error, wrong give place to right, falsehood and guile to truth and sincerity and every principle that has demoralized, corrupted and enthralled the inhabitants of the earth will be destroyed; when not only one people, one individual, or an isolated few will participate in this blessed state of things, but every knee shall bow to him and every tongue confess to him that he is the Christ to the glory of God the Father, whose authority will be acknowledged throughout the world. The earth no more will groan under corruption and sin, and its inhabitants will no more suffer from the powers of darkness, but will be fully and thoroughly redeemed from the thraldom thereof, and truth, righteousness, judgment and equity will reign with universal empire. We believe the commencement of these great changes has come in our day. We believe that God has revealed to the human family, through Joseph Smith, the great principles upon which the latter-day kingdom is founded. We believe that God has begun now to gather together his elect, as the Scriptures have foretold he would do. We believe the Lord is beginning to put forth his law as fast as the people will listen to it and feel willing to obey his precepts. Says John the Revelator, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, saying with a loud voice: Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made the heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This Gospel, it appears, was again to be sounded in the ears of all people, all the world was to be made acquainted with the revelations God had communicated, and they were to be told to fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come. We believe that God has commenced this operation, and that we are gathered for this purpose that we may learn the way of life and be instructed in the things of God, to be prepared for all that is about to transpire. In the old world and in the new world I have mixed up with philosophers, divines and politicians, and with all grades of men, but I never found anybody that knew anything about these important matters. Years ago I found a man by the name of Miller, who took up certain Scriptural numbers and began to calculate when Jesus would come; he found himself, however, under a great mistake, for Jesus did not come at the time he had set for him to come. He might have known that, for no man can know the things of God but by the Spirit of God. This people have obeyed the Gospel and felt the effects of it, notwithstanding all our infirmities and weaknesses. This people know something of God; and if they do not there is not anybody under the heavens that does. But do we know how to regulate, manage, control and dictate the affairs of the Church and kingdom of God? No—if we are destitute of the principle of revelation; and if we have it, only then according to our Priesthood and calling. God has organized his kingdom and set in order his Priesthood, setting every Quorum in its place and position, and it is for all the Saints to bow and yield obedience to it and be governed by it; if they do not, what better are we than the world? It would be with us as with some of the ancient Saints, who were told they had commenced in the spirit and sought to be made perfect in the flesh; they commenced with the wisdom of God and sought to perfect themselves by worldly wisdom and human judgment. To know God and the ways of life is infinitely more important than any worldly consideration. “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” We ought to know something about God and the laws of life and the laws of his kingdom, and seek to be made acquainted with the events that will transpire in the latter days, events with which we are intimately associated at the present time. Things take place that we cannot always reconcile to our judgment. I do not know why Jesus should leave his Father’s throne and be offered up a sacrifice for the sin of the world, and why mankind have to be put through such an ordeal as they have to pass through on this earth; we reason upon this, and the Scriptures say that it is because man cannot be made perfect only through suffering. We might ask why could not mankind be saved in another way? Why could not salvation be wrought out without suffering? I receive it in my faith that this is the only way, and I rejoice that we have a Savior who had the goodness to come forth and redeem us, and I rejoice that we have a Savior who yet looks forward to the redemption of the world. I rejoice that we are watched over for good by invisible agencies of God who are determined ultimately to put an end to sin, darkness, confusion and misery with which the world has been enveloped, and deliver us and not only us but the spirits of the dead. O what a glorious principle this is when we reflect upon it; our progenitors will not be lost. When I first read the revelation which was given to Joseph Smith upon this subject, I thought it was one of the most sublime revelations I had ever read. God will bring order out of all the confusion that has existed, measure out mercy to all Adam’s posterity and give to all a fair opportunity of being saved. What a glorious thought. If it is a delusion, it is a pleasant one. I have thought over these things and rejoiced over them, as I do this day If I cannot understand all the whys and wherefores about the purposes of God if he brings to pass all that is spoken in the revelation I have referred to, with the many glories mentioned, and we discover that God has extended mercy so far as he possibly could to the veriest wretch that ever crawled on the earth, and has brought forth and redeemed all the human family, as far as possible, and exalted them as far as they are capacitated to receive exaltation, we can afford to excuse a great many things we cannot now comprehend in relation to God and in relation to his laws and dealings with the human family• It might look curious to some for God to talk of treading the people in his anger; but as we have to do with eternity as well as with time, and as it is necessary the earth should be purged and righteousness should take the place of corruption, which will some time have an end here, we can then conclude that the Judge of all the earth will do right. We should seek to magnify our calling and honor our God, being co-workers with God in the things he has engaged to do. The Lord has begun to vex the nations, beginning with our own nation; he is vexing it and will vex other nations, and his judgments will go forth and all the wicked nations of the world will feel the avenging hand of God, and he will continue to overthrow nation after nation until He whose right it is will take the government into his own hand, and he will continue to increase and progress until every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them shall be heard to say, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Shall we be found among that number who will thus magnify the name of God, crying, “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth?

I pray God this may be the case, that we may not be compelled to call for rocks to fall upon us and mountains to hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. May God bless us and guide us in the way of peace, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

The Importance of the Mission to the Cotton Country

George A. Smith

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 8, 1862. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brethren, there is a subject which has been spoken of during this Conference in regard to the mission to the cotton-growing district of our Territory, to which I desire to again call your attention.

We have been instructed in the principles of the kingdom to a wonderful extent during this Conference. The instructions which we have received have been of a character that they may be reduced to practice by every person whose feelings are so disposed.

The President remarked that he desired to strengthen the missions to the cotton country by sending down two hundred more families. It will be recollected that a request was made last year for the brethren to volunteer to go on that important mission. There were a few who came up and gave in their names, but the great mass of the brethren did not feel to do so. They were aware that it was the wish of the Presidency that certain things should be done, but they seemed as though they needed taking by the ears and shaking to make them sensible of the great importance that ought to be attached to this mission. It appeared as if some of the brethren (to use a figurative expression) had become fastened to the earth with tremendous roots, so that it was with considerable difficulty that they could be got up, but they had to be taken up root and branch.

We, as a Conference, voted that the President should call, but none of us felt like volunteering. [President B. Young: I volunteered, on the condition that the people would consent to it.] Yes, the President volunteered, but it is well known that the Presidency are required here; most of the time they must be present to superintend the building of the Temple and direct the affairs of the Church in all the world, but the Elders are set apart to go into all the earth and labor as directed by the Presidency. It is also well known that the master builder has influence and power here and that he understands how the foundation, the walls, the timbers, the roof and all connected with the Temple of our God should be put together. It is likewise well known that the Presidency never ask men to do a service except that their labors are required in that new position. One particular remark which I wish to make is, that notwithstanding the unprecedented high water in Washington county and the damage and disappointment consequent upon the flood, the settlements made by the last year’s mission have proved a decided success. That mission has proven the nature of the climate more perfectly than it had before, it has tested the soil, and accomplished many other things of immense advantage and worth. It was stated by many that the mission would prove a failure, that there was no country there, but the truth is, that the elements, including the water, the soil and all that surround them are actually aching for the brethren to combine them together and make them into good cotton and other choice productions of a mild climate; all these elements are ready to render aid to build up Zion.

I consider that we should feel ready and willing to do anything that may be required of us, to lend our exertions to establish the kingdom of God permanently upon the earth.

When the people first settled in San Pete Valley some were discouraged, they never thought that wheat could be produced in such a country as that; they did not believe that anything would grow there; the white-colored soil alarmed them, but it is now the granary of the mountains. Now, there has recently been just such a feeling in regard to Washington county, but the past year’s experience has demonstrated more fully that most excellent cotton, sugar cane, grapes, peaches and many other commodities of life can be successfully raised there in that desert-looking country.

There are quite a number of men who have remarked to me that they would willingly go if they were called on. I wish to say to such brethren that they are called on now, and I sincerely wish that two hundred brethren would volunteer to-day by giving in their names to me at the Historian’s office. By going this fall you have all winter to prepare, and the advantage can be taken of the early spring season, thus giving the brethren an excellent opportunity to raise a crop of cotton the first year. By sowing wheat in October tolerable crops can be raised, and by planting corn early in March two crops can be raised in one year, or one good crop of cotton. The fact, in brief, is, that so far as the country has been tried it has proven a success, and many of the brethren have said that the country is a great deal better than they expected to find it.

I hope all that has been said by the brethren in reference to the culture of hemp, flax, indigo, and in fact all that will tend to build up Zion will be attended to, for let it be remembered that it is coming to this necessity of producing for ourselves or to go without, and the question resolves itself into the simple proposition, “Clothes or no clothes.” We must make our own woollen, flax, hemp and cotton goods or we must go naked. We cannot get these articles much longer from the States, according to the present prospect. The vengeance of the Almighty is sweeping the land with the besom of destruction; millions of men are forsaking their industrial pursuits for the purpose of destroying each other. Let us each and all attend to this, that the beauty of our garments may be the beauty of the workmanship of our own hands, or we shall find ourselves without many of the necessaries of life altogether.

May God bless the people, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

The Discord and Wars among Christian Nations Contrasted with the Unity of the Saints

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perhaps one of the most comprehensive subjects that mankind can reflect upon. It not only embraces things as they now exist, associated with the human family, but it takes us back to days that are past and gone, to the organizations of this world and of other worlds, and by the principle of revelation it develops, unfolds and makes manifest unto the human family the great purposes of God as they shall transpire throughout every succeeding age. There are thousands of details or minutiae mixed up with these great projects, purposes and designs, some of them we comprehend correctly, or think we do; others are not so clear and comprehensible to our minds.

There are some things we, as a people, have to do with perhaps more than any other people that exist, though they have to do with all people, if the people would have to do with them. But, in relation more particularly to the position that we occupy before God, before the world and before each other; and the faith we have in God, in his Work, in his ordinances, in his laws and in his kingdoms—and the reasons of that faith are to me and to all Latter-day Saints matters of very great importance—we are led to inquire upon what is our faith based, why are we Latter-day Saints? why do we believe, as we do, in the doctrines of this Church? and whence do we obtain our faith or our knowledge, as the case may be, in relation to these matters? Why is it that there has been so singular a religious movement as that which has taken place within the last thirty years, introducing views that are contrary to the commonly established views of the whole religious world? Why is it that this people, say in this Territory, embracing a scope of country of some five hundred miles in extent, with a population that, comparatively speaking, may be called dense for a country like this, has assumed the proportions of a body politic, if you please, that have organized themselves into a Territory and have asked for admission as a State into the great American Confederation? Why is it that a thing so singular as this has taken place? Is it because there has been a desire among the originators of this Work, or any part of them, to establish a political power? I am not aware that this is the case. If there has been any such feeling and desire apart from other leading principles it is something I am not acquainted with. We have commenced to gather ourselves together under certain influences, certain principles and under a certain faith. We have gathered ourselves together from various parts, and although there has been a strong influence used to separate us, to scatter us abroad, to produce disunion, to sever us one from another; yet no influence, no power, no reasoning, nor anything whatever that has been brought to bear on this people to accomplish that object has succeeded; there is some cause, some reason for this. There are mighty motives underlying, overruling and overreaching all motives of a political character. The first thing that, ever was proclaimed by the Elders of this Church was the Gospel of peace on the earth, and good-will towards men has continued to be preached, and among other influences there has been a certain influence that has gathered the people to together. There has been no influence that could be brought to bear upon this people that could sever or separate them.

There must be, therefore, some reason for movements of this kind. Such movements are not very common in the world. It is common for various religious societies to arise in the world; but, generally, they are very narrow and contracted in their notions. They are not adhesive or cohesive, they do not unite or combine. You may take the Methodist society, the Presbyterian society, the Baptist society, the Episcopalian Church, the Roman Catholic Church or any other you please, and you will find that motives of a political character will separate them and make them enemies to one another and make them take up arms against one another, fight one another and shed each others blood. They not only seek to destroy each other, but they all pray to the same God to help them to do so. There is nothing strange or singular in this; for there is no motive, principle or power to cement or unite them together further than a sort of fancied religion which does not possess the principles of union; for instance, in some of the great wars that took place in Europe some years ago; one of the last with which we are the most familiarly acquainted, was between Russia, England and France. Who took up sides in the struggle? There was the Greek Church under the Russians, Protestant England, Catholic France and the Mohammedan or Turk fighting against each other. The Catholics were Christians, the Protestants were Christians, the Russians were of the Greek or Christian Church, the Turks were Mohammedans; all worshippers of the same God, under different forms. These were arrayed against each other in deadly strife all praying to the same God to give them power over their enemies, and their enemies were also Christians; then they went to slaying and destroying each other. Let us notice the difficulties between France and Italy against Austria. In this case there were two Catholic powers engaged against, another power which was also Catholic. Religious considerations do not confine or control them in the least. They fought just as hard to kill their fellow-Christians, as the Mohammedans or any other people would fight to kill their enemies. They were all in the same church, all partaking of the same sacrament, all believing in the same doctrines and worshipping the same God.

How has it been in the United States? Precisely the same. Who were the first to separate? It was the religious communities of the country that separated first, Baptist from Baptist, Methodist from Methodist, Universalist from Universalist, &c. The churches made a division long before the States divided, showing that there was less virtue or unity in churches than in the state of the body politic. The Northern and Southern armies are composed of members of these different sects that exist in the Federal and Confederate States.

I mention these things to show you that there is no adhesive principle sufficiently powerful to unite the people of any portion of the earth, similar to the one that has sprung forth in our day and right among this people; if there is anything of that sort abroad in the world I am not acquainted with it. Then it follows, as a natural consequence, that if there is nothing to unite the people together they are deficient in some principle, doctrine, faith or practice. Philosophy has not united the people together; politics has never done it; no social principles have ever accomplished it.

Freemasonry is one of the strongest binding contracts that exists between man and man, yet Freemasons are mixed up in those different armies, trying to kill each other, and so they have contended against each other for generations past. There must be something, then, to control this people different from that which seems to control other people socially, religiously, politically or any other way. There is some kind of a cohesive power, some kind of an attractive principle, something that unites and concentrates this people together in a manner altogether different from that of any other people under the face of the heavens; and so singular is it, that it attracts the attention of philosophers, of statesmen, of politicians and of leading men of every grade—they wonder at it, as they wondered at Jesus when he was upon the earth; they wonder what this state of things will grow to; they are fearful of the consequences and results of this union. We are naturally led to inquire how these things originated; from whence springs this principle, this influence this power, for it is a very important one. It has dragged us from our homes; it has sent hundreds of Elders wandering up and down the earth for these ten, twenty and thirty years past; it has made us, in the estimation of our friends we used to associate with, laughing-stocks and fools, and it has finally brought us together in this place; it has also assumed a political power as a natural consequence or result, simply because there was no other course for us to pursue. Whenever a body of people are thrown together, the inevitable consequence is a political power. It cannot be otherwise. They must have organizations, representation, laws and administrators of law; there must be a body politic formed whenever a body of people are gathered together as we are; and the very fact of our organization, religiously and politically, the very fact of that oneness that so universally prevails among this people produces a terror to evil-doers and to those who are opposed to us. Why is it that a principle of this kind should exist among this people? for we can readily discover, in looking abroad in the world, that it does not exist anywhere else. Is it because we are more learned than they are? Is it because we are more intellectual and refined? because we are greater philosophers, better statesmen, more acquainted with cause and effect, have studied more extensively the position of the world generally and its government and laws? I do not so understand it. There is something besides this; naturally, we are no smarter than other men and no more intelligent than they are; but there is a kind of principle of some sort that infuses itself into our very nature, is a great principle in our body politic and is mixed up with our religion and with our morals; it is a sort of secret spring of some kind that governs, actuates, controls, unites and cements us together in a manner that no other people under the face of the heavens are united. I would like to try to make it plain to others, if the Lord will help me, why it is that these things have taken place. To begin, we will go back to the time when this movement first commenced. It would seem that a record had been hid up upon this continent for generations past. It would seem that a people had lived upon this continent who were full of the Holy Ghost, who had a knowledge of God, who possessed revelation, who had Prophets inspired by the Spirit of God, as they were on the Asiatic continent or in any other part of the world. It would seem that these Prophets, in common with the Prophets on the Asiatic continent and with the men of God in former ages, had looked forward to a time that we read of in the Bible, called the “Dispensation of the fulness of times; when God would gather together all things in one, whether they be things in the heavens or things upon the earth.”

It would seem that these Prophets had recorded these things in this record, that in the time of the dispensation of the fulness of time, when God should commence his great Latter-day Work, that among other things men should be taught the laws of life and the knowledge of God, and that the coming forth of this Work was to be the starting point of a great event; one of sufficient magnitude to have attracted the attention of all the ancient Prophets that ever did live; one of sufficient magnitude to influence the attention of the Gods in the eternal worlds; one of sufficient magnitude to cause that a medium of communication should be opened between the heavens and the earth, that light should again burst forth from the heavenly world, that the spirit of prophecy and revelation should again be unfolded, that an era should be inaugurated pregnant with life, light, and intelligence unto those that then lived, that they might have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, of knowing his laws, purposes and designs, his Gospel, the principles of eternal truth, the laws of life, that men should again be acquainted with things that had been, with things that were and with things that were to come.

The ancient Prophets of the two continents foresaw that the issuing forth of that record was to be the commencement of the Latter-day Work; one said, “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” “The meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” It is one of those sticks that Ezekiel saw should be written upon, even the stick of Joseph which should be written for Ephraim, and be united with the stick of Judah, and become one stick—one in prophecy, one in revelation, one in doctrine, one in ordinances, one in unfolding the purposes and designs of God, and in leading mankind to a knowledge of the truth, as it was to be introduced in “the times of the restitution of all things spoken of by all the holy Prophets since the world began.”

The revealing of these records was to be one of the starting points in relation to this matter. Then it needed some instrument, some individual, some messenger, some communication, because it would be impossible without something of this kind that these things could transpire. There needed some authorized messenger, some communion from the Lord to reveal, unfold and make these things manifest. To talk about the world as it is, and the authority they have to preach the Gospel and administer the ordinances and dictate the affairs of the kingdom of God, is foolishness to reason upon; but we will merely give it a passing notice. Where did the different religious sects get their authority from? who ordained them to administer in the name of God? who gave them that authority? The Church of England gave authority to all the seceding sects that have sprung out of her, and they left her because she was corrupt. Where did the Church of England obtain her authority? From the Church of Rome, which they say is the mother of harlots and the abomination of all things. Where does the Church of Rome obtain her authority? They tell you that they get it down in an unbroken chain of descent from the Apostles’ times. Their statement is the most reasonable, rational and consistent of them all. The Greek Church professes to be governed by the same authority. When we apply a test to them we find that they do not stand upon a very good foundation. When, and wherein, and how have they departed from the true authority of God? I will quote a certain Scripture by one of the old Apostles, “He that transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.” Do they abide in the doctrine of Christ? I think not.

Who taught them to sprinkle little children? Did the Gospel of Jesus Christ teach them this? No. But they rely on an unbroken descent for their authority. In answer to this, the Protestants tell them that the chain of their Popedom has been broken at different times. I do not care whether it has or not. If the Pope transgressed, it is not to say that the bishops and priests and the whole community did; this would not be a sufficient argument to satisfy me that the Roman Catholics had departed from the faith of Christ; but when they gathered together the authorities of the church from all the world in a solemn conclave, as they did at the Councils of Nice and Trent, and passed resolutions which admitted of doctrines and principles in direct violation of the laws of God and of the Church of God, then as a church, with the voice of their representatives they forsook God and introduced the doctrines of men. “He that transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God;” and if they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ they do not retain their priesthood and authority to administer in the ordinances of God. Then we are left without authority on the earth.

Shall we go to the Greek Church for the true authority? It is based pretty much upon the same principle as the Roman Catholic Church is, and all the sectarian bodies of Christendom are as destitute of the true authority of God as the mother church is.

Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom. There is no people that have held communion with God, no true church, priesthood or authority, no medium of communication between God and man for church government, to dictate, regulate, manage and control the affairs of his kingdom upon the earth.

How did this state of things called Mormonism originate? We read that an angel came down and revealed himself to Joseph Smith and manifested unto him in vision the true position of the world in a religious point of view. He was surrounded with light and glory while the heavenly messenger communicated these things unto him, after a series of visitations and communications from the Apostle Peter and others who held the authority of the holy Priesthood, not only on the earth formerly but in the heavens afterwards. That they hold it in the heavens we know from the Scriptures. In them there are certain principles revealed in relation to that matter that nobody could reveal unless they were acquainted with the principle of revelation. Moses and Elias were seen with Jesus on the mount, when Peter and his brethren saw them, who said, “Master, it is good for us to be here, let us build three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elias.” Who was this Moses? He was a man who had officiated before on the earth, had held the holy Priesthood, had been a teacher of righteousness, and who, with the Elders of Israel, had talked with God, and had received revelations from him, holding the Priesthood that administered in time and and eternity. When he got through with this world his official duties were not ended, for he appeared to Jesus, Peter, James and John upon the mount, to confer on them certain principles, authorities and Priesthood, that they might also be enabled to administer in the ordinances of salvation, and officiate as the representatives of God upon the earth. And hence, when Joseph Smith came, those who had held the keys before came to him, so he told me and others, and revealed unto him certain things pertaining to the kingdom of God upon the earth, and ordained him and set him apart to the ministry and Apostleship unto which he was called. He presented himself before the world and informed the people that God had spoken, and that he had spoken to him. He told them that the heavens had been opened and that angels clothed in light and glory had appeared to him and revealed unto him certain things. Then we have Oliver Cowdery, who tells us something about these things, and gives his testimony as a living witness. Again, there were eleven witnesses in relation to the Book of Mormon, who testify that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation from God. And some of these witnesses tell us that an angel of God came and laid before them the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and they knew that their testimony was true and faithful. Others tell us that they saw and handled the plates from which the record was taken. I have conversed with several of those men who say they have seen the plates that Joseph Smith took out of the hill Cumorah; I have also conversed with Joseph Smith, who has told me of these things and many more that it would be unnecessary on the present occasion to relate. Here, then, is an abundance of testimony that assumes a supernatural agency—an interposition of the Almighty—an opening and an unfolding of something to the human family with which they have been unacquainted. These things are left for the human family to reason upon; they are presented unto us in that capacity, just as things were presented formerly to others. We were told formerly that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and how can they hear without a preacher, and how can he preach unless he be sent.” Here, then, was a medium introduced by the Almighty to excite the faith or unbelief of the people. Here are certain records unfolded, and here is a man presenting himself before the people, declaring that God was about to usher in the dispensation of the fulness of times; and for this purpose he had introduced an ancient record that had belonged to the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent, together with that, he tells them that the so-called Christian churches had gone astray, and all mankind were laboring under gross darkness, and that darkness had covered the whole earth. He furthermore tells them that God had it in his mind to reveal unto them his will, and draw back the dark vail that overspreads the minds of the people—to introduce the principles of eternal truth, and that he came as a messenger from God, having been set apart by holy angels sent by the Almighty for that purpose, that, in the first place, he might be acquainted with correct principles, and then be able to teach them to others. This is the phase which this thing assumed at that time; and the people felt about it as the old Jews did when Jesus told them that they were deceivers, whited walls and painted sepulchres; they said, Away with such a fellow from the earth. When Joseph Smith told the priests, the good Methodists, the righteous Presbyterians and the holy Roman Catholics that they were all wrong, how could they endure it. But you must endure it, for God has spoken and the word has gone forth. The Lord, in the first place, commanded all men everywhere to repent and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins giving them a promise that they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost This is different to anything that has been before in the world. That which was before, assumed no shape and came with no authority from God. The various sects of the world imagined that they had the Holy Ghost, but they forgot that it was to lead men into all truth. That spirit which they have mistaken for the Holy Ghost has led them into confusion, contention and strife, and consequently it is not the Holy Ghost spoken of in the Scripture. Joseph Smith, having found and made manifest these things, and having turned the key that unlocks the destinies of the human family, having had committed unto him the key of this dispensation, he began to unfold and make manifest the things of God to the world, to all who were desirous to listen and yield obedience thereunto. A good many felt as the people felt when Jesus came, that “This man speaks with authority and not as the Scribes;” there were other principles and another spirit introduced developing other precepts, laws, ordinances) manifestations and doctrines, and a greater power was associated with it than had been with any previous manifestations. What then? Why, the Lord was reasonable—he always has been; he is a good and gracious God, a benefactor and friend) suiting his doctrines and principles to the capacities of the human family. What was the consequence when men heard those principles? Many of them had a portion of the Spirit of the Lord among them, and as light cleaves to light, truth to truth, and intelligence to intelligence, wherever there was the light of the Spirit of God in the mind of man it discovered, comprehended and embraced the truth. What is it? God has spoken; a record has been revealed, making manifest the events that have transpired on this Continent, and prophecy, and revelations, and visions, and the purposes of God, &c. This agrees with the Old Record; there is no need to bring argument here on that question, for it has been argued and investigated throughout the world. What then? Did I know because Joseph Smith knew? Not exactly. Joseph Smith had certain things revealed to him, and he was commanded to communicate those things unto others. What then? He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and shall know for himself of the things which he has believed in. This was the principle upon which my faith was based at the commencement. For instance, an Elder came to me and preached the Gospel and told me all these things. I was struck at once with them. I was well acquainted with the Bible, yet I had never heard such teachings before; had never seen such principles developed; had never listened to such words as came from his mouth, illustrating, making manifest and explaining the Scriptures, the Book of Mormon and the revelations of God, and opening the heavens as it were to my view. It was to me one of the greatest things I had ever heard. He said to me, “If you will be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as you go in faith and humility and obedience to the law of God and forsake your sins,” &c. This was precisely the same thing that Peter told the people in his day. Said he, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” What will it do for us, Peter? “It will cause your old men to dream dreams, and your young men to see visions, and your servants and handmaids shall prophecy; it will bring things past to your remembrance, lead you into all truth, and show you things to come.” Here was quite a chance for a man to detect whether Peter was an impostor or not; and there was a favorable opportunity to detect whether the Mormon Elder was an impostor or not, for he promised the same things that Peter promised to believers, and all the Elders do the same. Can you find a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Roman Catholic that dare tell you what Paul said anciently, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ?” Why? Have you not been persecuted and afflicted and been let down in a basket over a wall, been driven from place to place and considered a deceiver? Yes. “But I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, and therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” I have obeyed the same Gospel. What then? Did the signs follow? Yes; I believed before I obeyed, and after I had been baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, that Holy Ghost took of the things of God and showed them unto me, so that I then knew for myself. But did I believe particularly because I heard tongues and prophesyings and saw healings? No; but these made me glad, for in them I saw the ancient order of things brought back again. It made me rejoice to see the sick healed, the lame to leap for joy and the blind receive their sight, the deaf to hear and the dumb speak. This was a certain amount of testimony for the doctrines that had been advanced. But, besides this, there was an inward evidence—an invisible manifestation of the Spirit of the living God, bearing witness with mine that this was the work of God that he had established in the last days, and I knew it for myself and not because anybody said so. At first I believed it on the testimony of others, and then obtained a knowledge for myself. If there is no other man under the heavens that knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God I do, and I bear testimony of it to God, angels and men. How did it operate upon others? In the same way, inasmuch as they were sincere and faithful, and diligent in observing the laws of God, and hence, as the Scriptures say, “You are all baptized into one baptism, and have all partaken of the same Spirit,” and that is the Spirit that first commenced to be revealed through Joseph Smith, and the administration of holy angels, and the development and restoration of the holy Priesthood. If you do not know in the same way that I know this is the Work of God, I would not give a straw for your religion.

Having received this knowledge, it operates the same upon all and hence the union that exists among us. It is the same in Canada, the same in the Northern States, the same in the Eastern States, the same in the Western States and the same in the Southern States; the same in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Denmark, Germany, the islands of the sea and the different parts of the earth wherever this seed has been sown and the Elders have gone forth in the name of Jesus Christ bearing the precious seeds of eternal life. Wherever that has rested in good hearts it has produced the, same results, giving the same signs, if not the same degree of evidence, and this has cemented and united us together; it is the little leaven that begins to leaven the whole lump; it is a part of the Spirit of God—a living spark that is struck from the fire of his eternal blaze that has made itself manifest on the earth; it is the still small voice that whispers peace to the soul—the thing that Jesus spoke of when he said—

“My peace I give unto you; my peace I leave with you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.”

They feel the peace that passeth all human understanding. They possess the Spirit of God, though they cannot always tell the whys and wherefores. It is not because a man is learned and polished after the learning of this world that he knows, but because he comprehends and listens to the whisperings of the Spirit of God speaking peace to his bosom and giving him understanding that he is accepted of his Heavenly Father—“I in thee and thou in me,” &c. It is this which has drawn us together—this that has cemented and united us, that has led us from our homes to the position we now occupy in these mountains.

An Elder whose mind was darkened once came to me to tell me that something was seriously wrong in the Church. How am I to believe you? said I. I was told by you one year ago that if I were to obey the Gospel I should know of the doctrines whether they were of God. I have obeyed and I know for myself, and am no longer dependent upon your testimony, and you cannot make me now unknow it. No matter what your ideas and notions are, now I know for myself. God is our teacher; he has organized his Priesthood and government upon the earth, which is the cementing influence that unites this people together, and as the Lord said formerly, “If you are not one you are not of me.” I remember on a certain occasion in Liverpool we were told not to say anything about the gathering. A lady came to me and said she had had a singular dream. “I dreamed,” she said, “that the whole Church was going off to America, and that you was there; we were going on board of a ship and leaving for America.” What was the reason of this singular dreaming? She had embraced the Gospel, and it revealed certain things to her that she could not know in any other way. “Your old men shall dream dreams,” &c. Can you keep people in the dark in relation to these things? No. And when a people live their religion, and all the Quorums of the Church are walking up to their privileges, then a certain ancient aphorism would be correct, “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” and the voice of God is the voice of the people—it would suit either way. It is upon this principle that we are united; and hence, no matter where this people come from nor what their former views and prejudices, they may have been different in regard to many things and opposed each other previously in politics, governments, rights, morals, religion and theories, yet they will all agree now that they know this to be the Work of God.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ produces the same results among all people and in all generations, and if they cannot fully understand the whys and wherefores about it, they feel a good deal as the man did about Jesus and the child that had been healed. When Jesus had healed the child, some of the righteous people said, “Come, now, give God the glory, for we know this man is a sinner.” The man replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not I cannot say, but I do know that this child was blind, and now he sees.” So with the people of this Church, they know that, whereas they were once blind, now they see. Having partaken of this, what can separate us? “Shall life, or death or principalities, or powers, or things present, or things to come, or anything on earth, in heaven or hell, separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Hence the secret of the union of this people.

One of the most irrefragable proofs of the Divinity of this Work is found in one thing—that everything that has been spoken by Joseph Smith in relation to these things has thus far been literally fulfilled, and you are his witnesses, as also is the Holy Ghost that bears witness of him. What next? Why, it is as it was in former times, “All are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s,” we are one with him, and one with the Father. “I in thee, and thou in me, that they all might be one, as I and the Father are one.” This is the reason we are found together in a religious capacity, and why we are not disunited like the rest of the world. This is the reason why we are united politically, because this is bound to follow. You get some thousands of people together and they are obliged to be governed by law, and form themselves into a body politic. We have been kicked and cuffed and abused almost all the day long, yet we are not much hurt, so far. We are here, and all is right, all is well, and we are bound to grow and increase.

Do you think the Lord, and the holy Prophets that have existed on this and on the other Continent, and the Gods in the eternal worlds have started this thing to end here? No. It is simply a nucleus of light, of intelligence, of truth, of virtue, of correct principles, of the holy Priesthood, of the revelations of God, and of something that has got to spread and to grow, increase and expand until it becomes a great nation and fills the whole earth; until all that has been spoken of by the holy Prophets shall be fulfilled in relation to these matters; until error shall give place to truth, wrong to right; until corruption and tyranny shall give place to justice and equity: instead of man bearing rule and having his own way, “God shall be king over the whole earth, and his name one;” “and unto him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ to the glory of God the Father.” We are only just commencing in this Work, which will grow, and spread, and increase, and no power on this side of hell shall stop its onward progress; it is onward, onward, onward, until the purposes of God and all he has designed shall be fulfilled and accomplished.

This is truly a great Work—a Work with which God and angels and Saints that have lived before us, and the souls that are beneath the altar praying unto God for the accomplishment of these things, are engaged in. The heavens and the earth, at the present time, are in communication, and God is our judge, our ruler, our law-giver, our guide and director to lead us on in the ways of life, and no matter about events that may transpire; no matter whether our path is very rough and rugged or smooth, it makes little difference: it is for us to do right, maintain our integrity, honor our calling and magnify it and honor our God and one another, obeying faithfully those who are placed over us. Do I know that Brigham Young is called of God to lead this people? I do, upon the same principle that I knew Joseph Smith was. What can any of us do without God, without his law and without the principles of eternal truth?

I pray that we may be enabled to work righteousness and be exalted into heavenly places in Jesus Christ! that we may fear God in our hearts, do the thing that is acceptable to the Most High, prepare ourselves for a celestial inheritance and an exaltation in his kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

The Great Blessings Enjoyed by the People in Deseret, etc.

Daniel H. Wells

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 29, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I feel thankful for a part and lot in the great Work of the last days. It is a calling that ought to engage all our interests and welfare, being inculcated in the maintenance of those principles which alone can bring salvation to the human family. My soul delights in them. They must be sustained, though all the world should rise in opposition.

We live in that age of the world which the ancient Prophets have foreseen, when the wicked would “make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.” I have often thought that the world does not know what righteousness towards God consists in; they place great stress upon this, that and the other doctrine or principle as being necessary to salvation, which has not been thought of by any person who has been sent of God to lay before the children of men the true way They have made laws and rules of faith, and set up church governments that cannot be drawn from anything to be found in the holy Scriptures or in any revelation I know anything about.

Obedience towards God is righteousness towards God. “Jesus answered and said unto them, If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him,” &c. In order to become a holy and righteous people, it is necessary to listen to and obey every word that proceeds from the mouth of God through his servants whom he has placed to guide his kingdom, on the earth. This is righteousness towards God. It is said we can do nothing for the Lord, that if he was an hungered, he would not ask us for bread, &c.; but we can perform the duties we owe to him by the performance of the duties we owe to each other; in this way we can show ourselves approved before our Father who is in heaven. “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Who has a greater opportunity of doing good to the brethren than the Latter-day Saints? Who has a finer chance of showing their faith by their works?

The gathering of Israel I will mention as one of the many opportunities that this people have of showing their good works to their brethren in distant nations, who are now suffering for want of the common necessaries of life; who are pleading day by day with their brethren and with the Lord continually for temporal deliverance. In these Valleys the people are well provided for, are wealthy and exceedingly prosperous, and can well afford to prove their loyalty to the heavens in expending a portion of their means to gather Israel. A great many are doing what they think they can do, but I think we might do more, as a people, in aiding to gather Israel, which is one portion of the great Work of the last days. This is a part of our religion, to do all the good we can in aiding and assisting our brethren in distress who are of the household of faith, and in placing them in a condition like unto ourselves in these quiet vales of the mountains, where they can be freed from the thraldom of sin and oppression in which they have lived to the present time. We have so far effected our deliverance, and in this the Lord has been extremely kind to us, in planting our feet in these goodly valleys where we have been blessed and prospered. No person here need go without the common necessaries of life. How much will we devote to the deliverance of our brethren, who are as anxious as we are to identify their interests with the kingdom of God at head-quarters, where they, like us, can be benefited in the instructions we receive here from time to time? I have often thought that we do not fairly comprehend the great mercies and blessings the Almighty has conferred upon us; if we did, we should show our appreciation of them by our actions in aiding those who are so anxious to be delivered from Babylon to be planted in these valleys and participate in the blessings we enjoy.

As I said in the beginning, the world is opposed to us, but we have nothing to do with them in one sense, but to do our duty and sustain righteous principles with an eye single to the glory of God; in this he will sustain us and bring us off victorious at last. We have great reason to be thankful this morning for the great peace and prosperity which attends us as a people; we have great cause to rejoice before the Lord of Hosts, who has been a kind Father unto us from our early infancy to this time. What has he not done for us? Do we not live in an age of the world in which he has revealed his holy Gospel and sent his messengers with the light of the Gospel, and have we not become the happy participants of this knowledge? Are not our feet planted upon the rock of salvation? Has he not delivered us from the power of wicked, ungodly and designing men, and given us an inheritance far from their power, where we can worship him, none daring to make us afraid? Has he not blessed this land in a miraculous manner to bring forth for the sustenance of his people? He has shielded us from the savage foe, and given us influence over them, whereby we can travel to and fro among them and from place to place in comparative safety. How can we render unto him sufficient homage, thanksgiving and praise to prove unto him that we do appreciate his great and manifold mercies? I know of no better way than to be obedient to the calls made upon us from time to time, to respond to them in that free way that shall prove to God that all we have and all we can do is held and devoted to the promotion of the cause we have espoused, regardless of the consequences.

We should not hesitate when anything is proposed to be done for the promotion of the cause of God on the earth, but should say, Make way, prejudices; go by the board, whatever traditions would rise up. When the Lord speaks, let everything else give way; as the masses of the people would fall back on the approach of the king, so let our own ideas and prepossessed notions give place to the word of the Lord and to the wisdom that emanates from him; let everything else become subservient to those principles, doctrines and truths. This is the way I have always felt since I became acquainted with this Gospel and with this people.

This Work is not done in a corner, but it has been sent to the whole world, and all men have the privilege of adopting the same principles of truth which we have embraced, if they shall choose to do so; but because they do not choose to do so, it should not become a rock of offence and a stumbling block to them nor to us. We have undertaken to sustain these holy principles which have been revealed in the last days. Shall we now falter? or shall we, because others point the finger of scorn at us, be ashamed of this holy cause and back out from it? Does it make any difference as to what other people think of it? No. It is for us to cling together and go onward continually in the path we have chosen to walk in.

There are few, probably, in this Church and kingdom but what have in their possession some kind of a testimony which proves to their satisfaction that this is the Work of Heaven; it has touched their hearts. Thousands who do not belong to the Church have evidence of its truth, but will not admit it. The mind is bound to receive and to believe the truth according to the amount of testimony given and the evidence produced, but through pride the majority of the human family will not admit the truth openly, although they may do so secretly and believe in the same doctrines we do. Let them do as they please, that is no reason why we should falter, change our course in the least, or alter our views; but let us press onward continually and prove to the Lord that we are true and faithful to him.

We live in a land of liberty, where the power and the control rests with the people, or should do so; to a great extent it does so. We have great liberty, we have great freedom, notwithstanding the efforts of some to abridge our liberties and our freedom; still the Lord is not unmindful of us, for he directs and governs the affairs of the children of men, more especially now since he has commenced his Work in the last days: I think I might qualify this a little, by saying more especially to our understanding. I have no doubt but what he has always done so; but the heavens, in a manner, have been shut up to the vision and view of mankind for a long time, but now his dealings with them have become more manifest than in ages gone by; we can now see his foot-prints more clearly and can realize more sensibly the Work in which he is moving, bringing to pass his purposes for the redemption of the world, for the overthrow of sin and iniquity and for the establishment of his kingdom, which Prophets, long ages past and gone, have seen would be set up in the last days. We have undertaken to do our part towards establishing his kingdom, which will eventually reign over the whole earth, where all nations, kingdoms, tongues and people will acknowledge Emanuel’s sway and the earth be lit up with the glory of God and be prepared for his kingdom and coming.

In these valleys of the mountains a nucleus is finally formed of a people who have been gathered out from all the nations of the earth, for the express purpose of sustaining holy and righteous principles which the Almighty has revealed from the heavens and to form a community that shall be self-sustaining. Latter-day Saints associate together in a community to prove to the Lord and to the world that they can sustain themselves; that the doctrines and principles God has revealed to them are self-sustaining in their nature—so much so, that a whole community may be sustained by practicing and living faithfully up to them. Hence it is that the shafts of the enemy are directed against us for the overthrow and destruction of those holy principles.

We know of a verity that the Work in which we are engaged is of God; we know we have the knowledge of God our Father and of his Son Jesus Christ, whom to know is life everlasting; we know in whom we have put our trust; we know the principles which we have espoused are based upon a solid and sure foundation; we know they are true, and truth is eternal and will lead to exaltation in the kingdom of God if we are true to each other and to the principles which have been revealed. We are not guessing at these things, nor groping our way in the dark in relation to them. Should not our course be to turn aside every shaft of the enemy aimed at our brother as well as at ourselves? When we see danger, should we not warn our brother against it and use every exertion to assist each other to walk faithfully in the right way, shielding each other from the power of the enemy and endeavoring to pick up those who are wandering into bye and forbidden paths, pointing out to them the right way and exhorting them to walk in it? We should guide the footsteps of the young and ignorant, and teach them the principles which have a tendency to bring them into the path of life and glory. We should try to overcome all weaknesses and eradicate from our bosoms every unholy desire and remove from our footsteps every evil way. We too often see carelessness and indifference in the midst of this people with regard to these small matters; I call them small, because they are so often passed by and neglected.

We ought to instil into our children a nice sense of honor and truthfulness in their words, that when they come to act in real life they may receive and reverence principles of holiness that will lead them ultimately to the possession of eternal life and salvation. People often speak jestingly of the holy things which we hold, or should hold sacred. I have heard people do it, and always tell them they would satisfy my feelings much better if they would not make a jest of things I hold sacred. I remember a man in Nauvoo, who was conspicuous in this Church, once at a party saying to the fiddler, “Let me lay hands on that old fiddle, and then perhaps you will not have so much trouble with the strings.” I was then a Gentile, as they called them, and he, no doubt, thought that such jesting with holy things would please me, but I always despised him afterwards for making use of such an expression and making light of one of the holy ordinances of God which he professed to believe in. Jesting on sacred matters grates on my ears. I do not suppose people mean any harm when they do it, but it has a deleterious influence upon our children, whom we ought to teach to reverence sacred things. I would like their sense of honor to be such that they will do right because they love to do right, and not refrain from doing wrong merely because they are afraid somebody will see them do wrong. Let the love of right be bred in them, that feeling of honest consciousness of doing right, and not evil, that shall preserve them in the hour of temptation. Let the love of right be instilled in their young and tender minds, that it may grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength, learning to love the truth for its beauty and the things of God because they are worthy of being loved. Often people are deterred from doing right because of what the world will say and for fear of the pointing of the finger of scorn. That is not what we should care about; we should care to please God and do the things that are right before him, and then let the world wag as it will. This ought to be our motto, and we ought constantly to seek to instil this feeling into the bosoms of our children, that they may act upon the principles of right because they love them and prefer them because they are good before the Lord, and eschewing evil because it is hateful to them. The child is naturally inclined to this way. It is their associations with the wickedness that is in the world that teaches them hypocrisy and evil of every description, and the fear of the world’s scorn, their laugh and ribald jest have their influence upon the mind of the child. Hence it becomes necessary that more pains should be taken in instructing them and showing them the propriety of truthfulness and honest uprightness of conduct to strengthen and protect them in the hour of temptation.

This great work in regard to training our children should not be neglected, because it is while they are young that we can have the greatest and most lasting influence over them. It is the privilege of the Latter-day Saints in these valleys of the mountains more especially to attend to this sacred duty, because when we mingled with the outside world we could not there enjoy the rights, the liberty and the freedom we enjoy in these mountains. No child is laughed and scoffed at here because his father and mother are Mormons. Then let us attend to these matters and govern ourselves by the holy principles that have been revealed to our understandings, live our holy religion faithfully and bring forth the blessings of peace, the blessings of the Almighty which are ready to drop from the heavens upon us as fast as we are able to receive and use them profitably to ourselves and to the Work in which we are engaged. The child needs first to ripen in judgment and good understanding before the father can commit any great trust to his charge. So it is in the dealings of our Heavenly Father with his people; he knows better than we do when to bestow great blessings upon us and what is for our best good. We should improve upon the blessings he has already given us to the fullest extent of the light and information we can get, and not trouble ourselves as to what is in the future, because that is just beyond our reach. If we travel in the path I have been trying to mark out, we shall attain everything we can ask for in due time. By improving upon what we have, by keeping ourselves unspotted from this untoward generation, by walking in faith and obedience before our God, we can attain to more than we have now any knowledge of. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that are in store for the faithful,” when they shall attain to that stature in Christ that will entitle them to receive them.

I do not, however, wish to throw the mind of the community upon something great in the future to the neglect of present blessings and present duties. Let us count over the blessings we this day enjoy; let us look into the past and mark the constant flow of blessings with which the history of this people has been attended from the beginning. Neither do I wish us to stop here and say that we have all we need; but while we are desiring blessings that are still future to us, let us not neglect the things which are now within our reach day by day, but live constantly our holy religion, being faithful and diligent in all things that are for us today, cleaving closely to the Lord, knowing that we are in his hands and that we are his children, having all confidence in him and in his constituted authorities on the earth, then will our knowledge and intelligence increase and our blessings will continue in a steady flow. This is all the business we have on hand to attend to, to serve our God and make ourselves comfortable and happy, securing from the elements everything we need for our sustenance and support, building houses, making roads, opening farms, planting orchards and vineyards, bringing from the mountains timber and lumber and all things else we need. All this labor is necessary to sustain us, and that the Lord may have a people who are zealous of good works and who will do his bidding, and through whom his kingdom may be established upon the earth and become a self-sustaining community, being governed and controlled in every particular by the revelations of the Most High, and by the principles which he has revealed. We are now the best governed people in the world, and for the best of all reasons—we have the best Government and the best Governor; our Heavenly Father is at the helm, from whom emanates all wisdom, truth and righteousness. No matter what the difficulties are which we are called upon to overcome, still we have everything to encourage us; we can go to the great fountain of all good; nothing can compare with this. Should we not feel encouraged and rejoice, and give praise and thanksgiving to God, who is so good a Father to us, who has watched over us to this day, to say nothing of the glorious future which is opening up before us continually.

This people have a future which the world little dreams of. They will see the time when those who seek to destroy them from under heaven will come bowing and scraping to them obsequiously and sycophantic enough, no doubt. That, however, does not affect us one way or the other; it is for us to do right and please our God with full purpose of heart, that his will may be done on the earth as it is done in heaven. The Lord will not slacken his hand nor look backward, but will progress onward with his people who will abide faithful and true to him. Righteousness must predominate in the midst of this people, and iniquity will have no part or lot with them, but if any among them wish to work iniquity and do not delight in holy principles, this is not the place for them; they had better go where there are influences more congenial, where they will not be abridged of their desires to do evil. No man has liberty to do evil, though he may have the power, nor has he any right to do evil. There is no law against doing right, but the law is against doing wrong. Man has power to do right or wrong as he pleases, but he is held responsible for that power and the exercise of it.

May God bless us and help us to do right, to keep his laws and commandments and statutes holy, and be obedient to him in all things, is my prayer in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Building the Temple and a New Tabernacle, etc.

Daniel H. Wells

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

Right here we want to build a Tabernacle, to accommodate the Saints at our General Conferences and religious worship, that will comfortably seat some ten thousand people; and over there we want to build a Temple. These two items I wish to call your attention to to-day.

We have organized the different districts throughout the Territory so that fifty teams can be at work for the Temple, hauling granite rock from Big and Little Cottonwoods. There has been some hauling done, but I wish to suggest a little amendment on our present operations and plans touching this part of the work. We shall want the same number of teams this season. We have never had as many as was designed in the first place, which was fifty, at any one time. If we could have even twenty-five or thirty teams constantly at work, they would keep the stonecutters employed. There was a difficulty last season about feed for the animals engaged on this work, but we are prepared to feed hay this year, but grain must be furnished by the Wards.

I wish to say a word in regard to the teamsters. Send men to drive the teams and not boys; men who will have some interest in the work they are sent to do; men who will not sell the grain sent to feed the teams to buy whisky with; men who will not take their teams to haul wood with instead of rock for the Temple. Let the teamsters be fitted out with at least one spare shirt, that they may not be placed under the necessity of wearing one shirt five or six weeks, and then leave the work to go home if they are not supplied with more; this same remark will apply to shoes also. Either send men that do not use tobacco, or send them with a supply, that they may not come to me and tell me they will have to leave the work if they are not supplied with tobacco. Some of the Bishops sent word if I would find the men from the Wards tobacco they would pay for it, which they have not done, and you may expect that in the future we shall not find them in this article. We expect these things to be found them and men sent who will take care of their teams and wagons. It is a heavy tax upon us to repair unavoidable breakages; this we expect to do. We have a pretty good road to the rock, and if men will be careful in the management of their teams they need not break wagons as much as they have.

On the heel of the teams going down to the States for the poor, we want the teams ready for the hauling of rock. I will make a suggestion here, that the city be divided into ten working Wards, each Ward to pay its tithing labor punctually every tenth day, that we may have all the common labor we need on labor tithing and not be placed under the necessity of hiring labor with available means. This tithing labor can be done by the people in this city; but, you say, the hauling of rock and sending teams to the States takes up all the tithing labor we owe. If this be so, you may call the hauling of the rock and teams going to the States a free-will offering if you please. I care not how you fix it. I know there is a great portion of the community who care not much which way it applies. Those who have teams are the ones who supply both the hauling of rock for the Temple and going to the States. A great mass of the people do not do any labor of this kind. Let the Bishops in each Ward look to it and find out who in their Wards do not pay labor tithing in sending teams to the States. We want the common labor on the block, this season, to excavate, to attend masons and do a variety of work that is necessary to be accomplished for the building of our contemplated Tabernacle. Let there be an organization of the people in order to bring a portion of that labor on this block.

The labor tithing of mechanics cannot be settled by sending a person to work at a dollar and a-half a day if the Bishop understands his business. All our tradesmen make more than a dollar and a-half a day; they should pay what their tenth day’s labor is worth. The shoemakers can furnish boots and shoes, which can be used to a good advantage. If there is an objection raised to paying the material on labor tithing, it can be credited on their property tithing. We would not wish our tradesmen to leave their shops to work out their labor tithing in common labor with the shovel, the pick, &c., for they would not earn as much as a common laborer would who daily follows this kind of labor. We want them to pay their tithing in the kind of labor they are constantly employed at, and the products of this we can place to an excellent use. Common labor is more plentiful than mechanical labor.

I have been particular in noticing this matter. Great abuses are springing up among us for want of proper attention to the business of tithing labor upon the public works.

Sometimes men are found fault with because they spoil the work; they do not, for instance, cut the stone to line and do not improve in their work as much as they should. If anything is said to those persons they feel gouty and as though they did not care whether they continued to work or not on the public works; “For,” say they, “my work is as good as the pay.” Perhaps you do not know what kind of pay you get. What does the Tithing-office pay to the hands on the public works? it pays money, it pays clothing, it pays good flour and plenty of it, all that the hands need; it pays vegetables of every kind that is raised in these mountains, it pays molasses, chickens, eggs, butter, beef and pork, some hay and wood. I wish to ask if this is not good pay, and especially when you consider that the public hands get all their wages and more too; for in many instances they are behind on the books. They get all they earn and more, unless they are more diligent than some generally are, because we pay high wages. These are facts that cannot be truthfully denied. Men who work on the public works should be satisfied and contented, and give their best services, and try to improve and do the best they can; a good many do this. There is no place in the Territory that pays better pay and better wages than is paid to the hands that work on the public works, upon an average. If they can better themselves, why do they not do it? Some would quickly leave the public works in the best season of the year for a few dollars in money, and in the winter, when employment is scarce elsewhere, return to the public works; this is not righteous before God; men who do this do not do their duty as Saints If any person can do better than to be a Latter-day Saint and abide the counsels given to them, why do they not do it? If there is more peace and comfort and salvation in the world than among the Saints, why did they not stay in the world? and if, after they come here, they think they can enjoy themselves better somewhere else, why do they not go there instead of staying here as grumblers in the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is as independent of all such men as the Lord himself and it will be built up whether they assist in the Work or not.

I speak thus plainly that you may know how we feel about such things, and that you may realize that you are equally interested in the building up of the kingdom of God as I am or as anybody else is. It is as much your duty to come here and spend your time as it is mine, whether you get anything for it or not. I am no more interested in building up the Temple than any other Latter-day Saint is. I am no more interested in building a new tabernacle than you are; it is no more the business of the First Presidency or Twelve Apostles than it is yours. This, however, may need qualification; some feel a slothful interest in it that we do not have. It is as much your duty as ours, and I expect we can do as well without it as you can. We, however, expect to accomplish this work whether you aid us or not; but we call upon the people in this sense, it is your privilege to aid us if you feel willing to do so. We expect you to do as you shall be directed and abide the law you have enlisted to obey; this is your privilege. We expect you will guide your labors according to the rule laid down for you to follow. We wish to proceed with this labor immediately upon the close of this Conference. Let the men who seek labor, seek it not so particularly for individual aggrandizement as for the interest of the kingdom of God. This work will be an equal benefit to all, if we will be diligent and contented. There is no job men can be engaged in that will pay half as well. Those who will cling to the faith and work on faithfully, diligently and humbly, will be the best off in the end. I do not care what inducement is offered to them, there is no enterprize so remunerative as the great enterprize in which we are engaged, or half so profitable, though we may not realize all things we desire or need at the present moment as fully as we would like. Look at the faithful laborer who is putting forth his hand in building up the kingdom of God, even if it is connected with the bringing of rocks from the quarry, lumber and timber from the mountains, &c.; that soul has peace and quiet within, though in temporal matters comparatively destitute. But in this country no person need suffer for the common necessaries of life. It is not so in distant nations where many of us came from. Remember the appeals that are made to us for assistance, for starvation has entered their dwellings; it is not, so here. Do we realize the blessings we enjoy in contrast with those of our brethren in distant countries? While we are doing all we can to aid them, let us remember not to slacken our hands in endeavoring to build up the kingdom of God, in answering to the calls made upon us here.

No person can release us from the duties that devolve upon us as individuals. We each of us should shoulder our responsibilities and rejoice to embrace the privilege of performing the duties devolving upon us to do good in the Church and kingdom of God in the last days. This is an inestimable privilege which, once neglected, may never again return. No person should lose the opportunity of doing good, if they do they will be sorry afterwards. Look back upon your own history and experience in the Church and kingdom of God, and point out a single duty that has been manfully and righteously performed that does not to this day bring to you a feeling of great satisfaction and gratitude to the Almighty that you were called upon to perform that duty, and you are glad that you did perform it faithfully before your God and your brethren. I do not believe there is a single individual who has ever performed a single duty in the Church and kingdom of God, but what is grateful to the Almighty that they had strength and power and ability to perform that duty. Then so let it be in the future; whenever we are called upon to perform a duty let us hasten to perform it with a free and glad heart and with a ready hand, doing it as it should be done with all the wisdom, ability and power that we can bring to bear on it, feeling grateful to the Almighty for the privilege, and we shall have joy and rejoicing before the heavens. This is the true light in which we ought to look at this matter. There is a great labor before this people, it is a life-time work, and then it will be taken up by those who will follow after us, who will continue to develop the things which the Almighty is trying to establish upon the earth—the work of the salvation of our dead and the great millennium. The work we are now doing is preparatory to that work, and that work is preparatory to another that shall follow after.

We will build a new Tabernacle of sufficient dimensions to accommodate the people much better than they can be at present, and the time probably is not far distant when we may commence to administer for our dead. But the duties of to-day and all the work and labor we are called upon to perform is preparatory to something else; if we perform this work faithfully it will tell in its place in the due season and time of the Lord. Then let us be faithful and never neglect the opportunity of doing good when presented to us, be it ever so small in our estimation. There is nothing so small but what is necessary, when we are told to do it by those who preside over us. Small things reach to great things. We cannot baptize for the dead without a font, and we cannot get a stone to build it of without going to the stone quarries to get it. It looks a small thing to quarry rock and to pick up the pebbles and cobble rock or to take the spade and go and labor a single day’s work, but those small matters form together a grand whole in bringing to pass the great purposes we are anticipating will come to pass in the Lord’s due time. Then let us listen to and respond to the calls made upon us by our Bishops, by our Presidents, by those who are appointed to direct and govern and control and shape our labor. It is the business of this people to build up this kingdom in any channel and direction in which they are called to labor. Let us abide these teachings and calls, for in this we can attain an exaltation in the presence of our Father in heaven. Let us seek to be exalted therein and enjoy eternal lives in the mansions of the blessed. This is my sermon for to-day.

May God help us to do these things is my prayer in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Missionary Fund, etc.

George A. Smith

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I have been a witness for many years, to a considerable extent, of the labors, toils and exertions of the Elders of this Church. I have rejoiced in the result of their labors and the blessings which God hath bestowed upon them. Though many, as has been observed, have fallen out by the way, yet a large majority of the Elders of Israel who went in early days to proclaim the Gospel are still in our midst, or have died in the honorable discharge of their duty, with promises of salvation and eternal life upon their heads.

Circumstances have changed. When Presidents Young, Kimball and others left Nauvoo to go to England without purse or scrip, they left a few houseless, homeless people, a great proportion of them sick, lying out of doors, with no covering only the broad canopy of heaven, on the banks of the Mississippi, robbed of everything they possessed by the benevolent Christians of the State of Missouri, and driven away into Illinois, and from exposure and over-exertion and suffering reduced by disease and sickness to the last extremity of human endurance. It was under such circumstances as these that the brethren started forth on their mission to England. When they had gone a few miles they were met by an old friend, who, on seeing their sick and wan condition, inquired who had been robbing the burying-ground. These are circumstances which have passed into history.

What is our condition now? We can hear occasionally from our brethren in England; many of them who have been long years in the Church, saying to their children, “I will give you a little bit to eat, but when you get to Zion you can have as much as you want, but now you must make this little do.” In the cotton-spinning districts of Great Britain there are thousands of such cases among persons belonging to this Church; they are reduced to the last extremity of want in consequence of the great revolution in America.

We should not send Elders there to beg of them a division of their scanty pittance, or to solicit aid in paying their passage back again to America, or to give them something to carry home to their families; not at all God has given us possession of this goodly land; the labors of the brethren and the blessings of God have caused it to bud and blossom as the rose. Where desolation dwelt, now is the abode of plenty. We are under no necessity of sending forth the Elders of Israel in the condition that we have hitherto had to do; in fact, it would not be safe for a man to shoulder his valise and tramp through the States as the Elders used to do. Bloodshed, robbery, murder, jay-hawking (a polite name for robbery,) stalks abroad throughout the land, and the only chance for safety is for every man to pass along about his business and be silent; this is the case in many parts of the country.

The fact that Joseph Smith predicted the present trouble and state of affairs—prophesied the result of mobbing the Saints in Missouri and elsewhere, enrages them; instead of the fulfilment of that prophecy making the people of the country friendly to us, it makes them bloodthirsty, more filled with hell, more eager to waste and destroy and crush out the last remaining particle of truth that may exist on the face of the land.

Again, the places of our missionary labor are a long distance away, and it is important, when an Elder leaves here, that he should commence the exercise of his calling at the place he is destined to labor at the earliest practical moment. A few dollars contributed to this purpose will pass the Elders directly to the fields of labor to which they are appointed. Perhaps when a missionary gets to Italy, as my brother tells me, he would be cordially received and treated to a few honeysuckle leaves put into some water, boiled, seasoned with salt and dished up for a meal. A man could make a meal of this with a loaf of bread by the side of it and a shank of good Tithing-office beef to season it. Some of the Elders have had cause to rejoice at receiving from the hands of the poor and needy a small pittance of this kind; and, perhaps, when the cold weather comes, these poor persons may be found crawling among the sheep to keep from freezing. We do not want to take any donations at the hands of such people, and where men are working for ten cents per day and paying eight dollars per cord for wood, we do not expect them to contribute much to the Elders. Such is the condition of a great number of Saints in Switzerland.

In relation to the families of the Elders at home, there is plenty in the land. If we have listened readily to the call made upon us to-day to donate to the support of the missionary interest, there will be no difficulty whatever. The suggestion of placing in the hands of the families of our missionaries cotton, flax and wool, and the means for them to work it up, is very important; I recommend it especially to our wool and flax growers in this country. Remember this in your donations: let the wives and daughters of our Elders, some of whom have been absent six out of eight years in foreign lands, have an opportunity of making some homespun clothing and of fixing up something that is comfortable to wear.

Let us be diligent in these matters and thoughtful, and remember that when we do these things we participate in the blessings of sustaining the Elders who are preaching the Gospel to the nations of the earth—a great duty which Joseph, the Prophet of God, has laid upon this people.

May God bless us to accomplish this work is my prayer: Amen.

The Blessings the Saints will Enjoy, etc.

John Taylor

Remarks by Elder john Taylor, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

This morning we have heard a number of things, in which we are individually and collectively interested as a people. It is difficult, however, for us to comprehend our true interests and the things that that would be for our best good; this arises frequently from want of a correct understanding of matters that are laid before us, from which cause we arrive at wrong conclusions. I do not know of any way whereby we can be taught, instructed and be made to comprehend our true position, only by being under the influence of the Spirit of the living God. A man may speak by the Spirit of God, but it requires a portion of that Spirit also in those who hear, to enable them to comprehend correctly the importance of the things that are delivered to them and hence the difficulty the Lord and his Saints have always had in making the people comprehend the things that are especially for their interests. We all consider that if we could be taught of God it would be very well; I suppose the world generally would consider it to be a great blessing. Then the question arises in their minds, whether the teachings they receive come from God or not. How are they to know that? I know of no other way than that which is spoken in the Scriptures, “There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding.” And, again, we are told in the New Testament, that, “No man knoweth the things of God but by the Spirit of God.” Hence all the wisdom, all the intelligence, all the reasoning, all the philosophy and all the arguments that could be brought to bear on the human mind would be of no avail unless the mind of man is prepared to receive this teaching—prepared by the Spirit of the Lord, the same Spirit which conveys the intelligence. Hence we frequently make a very great mistake in relation to our duties, in relation to our responsibilities, in relation to the obligations that rest upon us, in relation to the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth and its government, its laws, its influence and the bearing of those laws and their influence upon us, and what part we have to act in relation to these matters. But if we had the Spirit of God, and walked in the light of revelation, and were guided by the principles of truth, and were in possession ourselves of the same Spirit by which the truths of God are communicated, then it would be plain and comprehensive to our understanding, and everything we try to accomplish would be easy, pleasant, comfortable and joyous, and we should all of us feel that; we are the children of the living God, that we are basking, as it were, in the sunbeams of heaven, that God is our friend, that we are his friends and are ready to unite with him in the accomplishment of his Work under any and all circumstances whatever; and I frequently consider that it is in consequence of the ignorance and darkness and short-sightedness of the Saints of God, that we do not walk up more readily to enjoy our privileges and fulfil the various obligations that devolve on us to attain to.

Now, ask yourselves, when you have been living up to your privileges, and the Spirit of God has beamed upon your minds, and your souls have been enlightened with the candle of the Lord, with the intelligence of heaven, and you have walked according to the light of eternal truth, if in these moments you have not always felt ready to fulfil any obligations that were required of you, and whether you have not always performed your duties with pleasantness and satisfaction to yourselves. But when our minds are carried away with the things of this world, when we lose sight of the kingdom of God and its interests, its glory, the happiness and well-being of the human family, and the events that we are expecting to transpire on the earth, and the part that we are to take in them; when we lose sight of our various duties as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives and children, and get carried away with our own notions, ideas and selfishness, and we become involved in evil, it is then that it is difficult for us to comprehend the things of God. We say that we are the Saints of God, so we are. We have repented of our sins, we have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, we have received the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost: we have become a part and parcel of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. We have believed that we were forsaking the world and its devices, evils, corruptions, frauds and vanity; and we have possessed and do possess the principles of eternal life. We have believed and do believe that God has spoken, that angels have appeared and that God has opened a communication between the heavens and the earth. This is a part of our faith and creed. We believe that God is going to revolutionize the earth, to purge it from iniquity of every kind and to introduce righteousness of every kind, until the great millennium is fully introduced. We believe, moreover, that God, having commenced his Work, will continue to reveal and make manifest his will to his Priesthood, to his Church and kingdom on the earth, and that among this people there will be an embodiment of virtue, of truth, of holiness, of integrity, of fidelity, of wisdom and of the knowledge of God. We believe that there will be a temporal kingdom of God organized that will be under the direction and auspices of the Lord of Hosts, and that in all our affairs, whether they relate to things temporal or things spiritual, as we have been in the habit of calling them, we shall be under the direction of the Lord, as the Scriptures say, “It shall come to pass that all the people shall be taught of the Lord.” This is part and parcel of our creed. We believe that we shall rear splendid edifices, magnificent temples and beautiful cities that shall become the pride, praise and glory of the whole earth. We believe that this people will excel in literature, in science and the arts and in manufactures. In fact, there will be a concentration of wisdom, not only of the combined wisdom of the world as it now exists, but men will be inspired in regard to all these matters in a manner and to an extent that they never have been before, and we shall have eventually, when the Lord’s purposes are carried out, the most magnificent buildings, the most pleasant and beautiful gardens, the richest and most costly clothing, and be the most healthy and the most intellectual people that will reside upon the earth. This is part and parcel of our faith; in fact, Zion will become the praise of the whole earth; and as the Queen of Sheba said anciently, touching the glory of Solomon, the half of it had not been told her, so it will be in regard to Israel in their dwelling places. In fact, if there is anything great, noble, dignified, exalted, anything pure, or holy, or virtuous, or lovely, anything that is calculated to exalt or ennoble the human mind, to dignify and elevate the people, it will be found among the people of the Saints of the Most High God. This is only a faint outline of some of our views in relation to these things, and hence we talk of returning to Jackson county to build the most magnificent temple that ever was formed on the earth and the most splendid city that was ever erected; yea, cities, if you please. The architectural designs of those splendid edifices, cities, walls, gardens, bowers, streets, &c., will be under the direction of the Lord, who will control and manage all these matters; and the people, from the President down, will all be under the guidance and direction of the Lord in all the pursuits of human life, until eventually they will be enabled to erect cities that will be fit to be caught up—that when Zion descends from above, Zion will also ascend from beneath, and be prepared to associate with those from above. The people will be so perfected and purified, ennobled, exalted, and dignified in their feelings and so truly humble and most worthy, virtuous and intelligent that they will be fit, when caught up, to associate with that Zion that shall come down from God out of heaven. This is the idea, in brief, that we have entertained in relation to many of these things. If we could keep our eyes upon this a little while, and then look back to where we came from, examine our present position and see the depravity, ignorance and corruption that exists where we have come from and that yet exists among us, it is evident that some great revolution, some mighty change has got to transpire to revolutionize our minds, our feelings and judgment, our pursuits and action, and, in fact, to control and influence us throughout, before anything of this kind can take place, and hence it is when the light of heaven comes to reflect upon the human mind, when we can see ourselves as God sees us and comprehend ourselves as he comprehends us, and understand our position as he understands it, we should have different views of ourselves than we have when unenlightened by the Spirit. No wonder that Joseph Smith should say that he felt himself shut up in a nutshell, there was no power of expansion, it was difficult for him to reveal and communicate the things of God, because there was no place to receive them. What he had to communicate was so much more comprehensive, enlightened and dignified than that which the people generally knew and comprehended, it was difficult for him to speak; he felt fettered and bound, so to speak, in every move he made, and so it is to the present time. Yet this being a fact and these being part of the things we expect to accomplish, there must be a beginning somewhere; and if the chips do fly once in a while when the hewer begins to hew, and if we do squirm once in a while it is not strange, because it is so difficult for the people to comprehend the things which are for their benefit. We have been brought up so ignorantly and our ideas and views are so contracted it is scarcely possible to receive the things of God as they exist in his bosom.

It is easy for us to talk about heaven, and about going to Jackson county, and about building up the kingdom of God, &c.; it is easy to sing about it and pray about it, but it is another thing to do it; and hence the difficulty the servants of God labor under all the day long is in consequence of the ignorance, weakness and infirmities of those they have to do with, and yet we are more enlightened in regard to these things than any other people and have made more progress; yet how far we come short. What does it necessarily resolve itself into? We are Saints of the Most High, and we actually, all of us, believe in those doctrines embraced in our creed. I question whether I could find a dozen here but what believe in those things I have spoken of. Who does it affect? The kingdom of God has to be built up, and a revolution must necessarily take place, not only here but throughout the world. We expect we are going to accomplish the things of which I have spoken, for they are a part and parcel of our religious faith. How shall we do it? Who will do it? Do we expect the folks in the States will do it, or do we expect the Government of England to establish the kingdom of God, or the people and nations of any other part of the world? I could not get five men in this congregation that would believe this. We suppose that the honest-in-heart from different nations will be gathered together for the accomplishment of these purposes, but we do not believe the other nations will do it. In fact, it is as much as a bargain to get them to believe some of the first principles of the doctrines of Christ; then, when they have made out to do that and have arrived here, it is a little more than a bargain to get them to believe other things as they are revealed, not withstanding we all believe somebody has got to do this Work, that it has to be done somehow and somewhere. Then, if they won’t do it in any other nation, who has to do it? We are the only people under the heavens that are making an attempt at it, and a blundering one it is, no doubt. The majority of this people really do feel in their hearts a strong desire to keep the commandment of God and help to establish his kingdom when they can comprehend correctly. How shall these things be accomplished? The nations of the world will not do it, for they are opposed to God and his kingdom. If ever the latter-day glory, which we have so often spoken of, sang of, prayed about, and about which the ancient Prophets have prophesied, is brought about, it will be done by this people, for there is not another people under the heavens that will listen to it. Then it is a matter that attaches itself to every one of us, from the President down. We are bound to the Lord by a covenant to help to build up his kingdom upon the earth. How shall we do it? Shall we do it by every one of us having our own way? No; we had that where we came from as much as they would let us. We hear people say sometimes that things are not done here exactly as they are done in England and in the United States; of course they are not; we do not expect it—we do not look for it.

We are associated with the Church and kingdom of God, we are individual members of that Church and kingdom, and individually we are under responsibilities in that kingdom. Taking this view of the matter, have we joined this great interest and come to this country to build up ourselves, to seek our own will and pursue our own plans, and let our children grow up in the same way we have grown up, in the same ignorance and darkness, folly, weakness and imbecility, or shall we try to lead out in another path, seek the guidance and direction of the Most High God, lead out in the paths of righteousness ourselves, and let our wives and children follow our example and learn to be better and more intelligent and wise than we are. If it is only to live that we have embraced this Gospel, we could have lived somewhere else—if it is barely to exist, that we could have done in another place; but if it is to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth, then there is a great work devolving upon us to attend to individually and collectively, and that is whatever the Lord reveals to us. For instance, there are ordinances to attend to of what has been termed of a spiritual nature; we are required to build a Temple, this labor we have got to perform. It has always been a maxim with the Lord that “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Here, then, is a Temple to be built, the foundation of which is laid, and considerable rock has been hauled for the walls, and large amounts of hewing done. This work must be consummated, and in doing that, we are learning to listen to the word of the Lord to us and becoming used to the harness. It is a nice thing to get our endowments, and there is something yet to be got which we have not yet received. The Scripture says, “First temporal and then spiritual,” and the temporal things are mixed up with spiritual tidings; but before we are worthy of the one we must take hold of the other.

One plain matter of fact connected with that Temple is, somebody will have to go to quarrying rock, to breaking up rock, others have got to take Buck and Bright and hitch them on to a wagon, and feed and take care of the cattle, and drive them, and bring the rock safely, without breaking things, where it can be prepared for the wall. It does not show a man smart because he can break a wagon, for any fool can do that. It is generally fools that break wagons. And suppose you do not get everything you want while you are building this Temple. You would like to have better clothing and better food; do the best you can and let everybody do the same, and when you have done that thank God for it, and thank God that you have the privilege to help to build up a Temple unto the Most High. By and bye you will go into that Temple, and when you have received your endowments in it and the spiritual blessings that you can get, you will learn more about building another Temple, and then will come temporal things again. The Temple we are now building, in comparison, is no more than a little plaything, but in doing it we shall learn better how to perform temporal things and spiritual things.

Then the Saints have to be gathered; it is the Lord’s work and it is our work. The Lord will influence his people to help him to gather his poor from the four quarters of the globe, and the Lord puts it into the hearts of his servants to call for five hundred teams to help in this work. This is the greatest honor that could be conferred on us—to build a Temple to the name of the Most High God, and your children after you will be proud that their fathers were engaged in such a work, in building a Temple wherein thousands can receive their endowments. The adverse circumstances in which this work was done will not be thought of. The young man takes his ox goad in his hand, and becomes a Missionary to redeem the poor from bondage and bring them here to participate with us in the blessings of Zion; he goes with his heart vibrating with the love of God, and he brings the poor Saints over the Plains, who look upon their temporal deliverers as saviors; in after time, when the kingdom of God has become powerful and mighty on the earth, as it will be, these young men will say with pride, “I participated in the labor of laying the foundation of this great Work, and my fathers and brothers all helped.” I do not say that this people are not forward in doing these things; from what I have heard I believe they are. There is a general desire to turn out teams, and they are not backward in going themselves or in sending. I think this is much to the praise of the Saints of God in the mountains. There may be a few who will not aid in this Work; those who do will receive the blessing, and there are plenty who have the means and the disposition.

Then, here is a Tabernacle to be built; we want a building of this kind to convene the people, to protect the people from the wind, sun and rain while they are worshiping God. Then, the President is continually preaching to us to make good improvements, good buildings, good gardens, and make ourselves more comfortable, to elevate ourselves in the scale of existence, that our children after us may become more elevated also in their sentiments and ideas, and learn to comprehend their position in the land of Zion and magnify it. If we understand ourselves and our position, it ought to be with us, The kingdom of God first and ourselves afterwards. If we can learn to accomplish a little thing the Lord will probably tell us to do a greater, because we are prepared to do it. If we were to build a very nice house nobody would be troubled about it, or if we were to make a pretty garden and cultivate good taste; or if we could educate ourselves and our children in the arts and sciences and in everything that is calculated to extend our search after intelligence. In this manner we can do ourselves and children great good, and aid much in building up the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. If we are the people of God, and he is trusting to us to accomplish these great purposes, we have got to do a little more than we have done, and we have got to be willing and obedient to the dictation of the Spirit of the Lord and his servants whom he has placed over us. If we do this, every labor we engage in will be joyous and pleasant to us, peace will reign in our bosoms and the peace of God will abide in our habitations, the Spirit of the Lord will brood over us, and we shall be full of joy and rejoicing all the day long, and so it will be to the end of the chapter. I know of no other way to accomplish all this Work only to be taught of the Lord, and for that purpose he has organized his holy Priesthood. We all pray for President Young continually, that God would inspire his heart and the hearts of his counsel, that he may be able to lead Israel in the path they should go. Let us add another prayer to that, that the Lord our God would inspire our hearts to receive their teachings when they come through them from the Lord of Hosts; then all things will move on well and no power under the heavens will be enabled to injure the Saints, but they will go on increasing from strength to strength, until the kingdom of God shall be established and all nations bow to its scepter.

God bless you, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Practical Duties of the Saints—Blessings Resulting From Their Performance

Ezra T. Benson

Remarks by Elder Ezra T. Benson, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

I feel thankful for the opportunity of meeting in Conference, for I feel that thereby I may be posted and instructed in those principles that are necessary to qualify us in the building up of the kingdom. I need not say that we are a blessed people, for we all know it, and to some extent we realize it. At least I can say for one, or, in other words, I can speak for myself. So far as I am concerned, I can realize, and I fully believe more than ever since I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that God our Heavenly Father is with this people, and that his hand is over us to preserve us all the day long, and as Saints of the Most High we ought to be grateful to the Giver of all good for the many tokens of his beneficent care.

If we inquire after the welfare of the Latter-day Saints, we are told that all is peace and quietness. How did we come by these glorious principles of life and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost? Where did they emanate from? They came from God our Heavenly Father, by embracing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in faith and in sincerity. And our testimony to this effect has been felt from the rivers to the ends of the earth. And by carrying out these principles the Gospel has brought thousands into these valleys.

There is no necessity for the Work of the Lord to stop in its present condition and circumstances. Why so? Simply because the kingdom of God, as an organized body, is just like the introduction of the doctrine of plurality of wives, it has got a first-rate good start, and I know that the Devil and all the emissaries from the infernal regions cannot stop it. The Devil don’t like it, but he cannot help himself, for the Work of God will roll on as long as there is an opposing power upon the earth, and then it will continue to spread after every species of opposition is banished from the earth.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been organized thirty-three years to-day, and according to the success and spread of the Gospel of the Son of God at the time when it was first presented to the human family, if we may judge comparatively, it will not take thirty-three years more to redeem Zion and to usher in that reign of righteousness and peace which we all anticipate and for which we all pray most devoutly.

In the days of Jesus there was just as much opposition as there is today; then the Work had but just commenced—it was in its infancy, and did not God our Heavenly Father bear off his kingdom then? He certainly maintained it till he saw that the Priesthood could no longer remain upon the earth. He did then and he bears it off to-day and will so continue until his kingdom triumphs and those who get under the wheel will be crushed to powder.

My testimony is, that this is the Work of God, that it emanated from the Father of light, and I know that it will roll forth and prosper until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. I know that God is able to make the wrath of man praise him just the same now as he was in the days of the Prophets of old. Who can frustrate the Work of God? It is written, “The wisdom of the wise shall perish and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid.” It is verily so in this age and generation, for we see the Elders of Israel going forth without purse and without scrip, preaching by the power of God the peaceable things of the kingdom to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and they confound the gainsayer and put to silence the fault-finder. Then, when I see the wisdom that is displayed through the ministers of this Church, I ask myself the question, Are we doing our duty as Saints? Because if we are not, it is time we were waking up to a sense of our obligations to the Almighty and to his cause.

I am fully satisfied that we are thehappiest people upon the face of the earth, and it has been brought about by our union and by our faith in God; but have we been doing the best we could to live our religion according to the best; light and knowledge we have possessed? If we have, we have within us the satisfaction of having done our duty.

Now, the order is to call a number of Missionaries to go to the European nations, and we are selecting our young men, the sons of the Apostles and Elders of Israel, so as to give them an experience in preaching the words of life, and that they may feel their dependence upon God our Heavenly Father. These young men going to gather the people home to Zion that they may enjoy the society of their brethren and friends here in the valleys of Ephraim, and participate in the blessings of that counsel that is so liberally imparted unto us by our leaders.

We have come here to build temples and tabernacles for the purpose of worshiping our God therein, and if we do not do these things we shall fall short of accomplishing that great Work that is laid upon us to perform. Then, I say, let us build temples, let us gather up our teams and send for the poor and thereby accomplish the Work that God has set on foot in this our day. Notwithstanding we are weak creatures, yet we can do something in the rolling forth of the kingdom of God. I wish a great many times that I could do a great deal better than I do, but, at any rate, I can say that I am trying with all my soul to combat the powers of darkness, and I intend to out-general the common adversary of our souls. Supposing we are united as the heart of one man, then what have we to do with the world? A great many think that we want to fight the world, but I tell you it is all nonsense, excepting so far as that spiritual warfare is concerned, in which we are all engaged more or less. Our enemies imgaine [imagine] that we want to wage war with them, but they are greatly mistaken, for we are only at war with their corruption, meanness and degraded conduct. We are upward, and we have taken steps forward in the kingdom of God, advancing from one degree of light to another, and the world are mad about it, but we cannot help that, our business is to serve God and keep his commandments, and therefore we should endeavor to walk uprightly, remembering that the promise is, “I will not withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly.”

Do we expect to realize a fulness of these blessings to-day. No, but we expect to realize some of them—a little to-day and a little more tomorrow, and thus go on from step to step and from grace to grace until we find ourselves safely landed back in the presence of our Father in heaven. As regards preaching to this people and gathering up the poor from other lands, I can truly say that I have never seen a time in my experience when there was such a willing spirit in Israel as there is at the present time. I can truly say that we have raised the fifty-three teams this year just as easy as we did the thirty last year, and there is quite a difference between thirty and fifty-three. And I feel that this people will be more blessed in their fields, in their teams, in all their stock and in their labor of every kind than they were last year. Did we miss our teams last year? We might miss them from our sight, but the Lord so abundantly blessed us that we scarcely ever heard them mentioned: everything moved on harmoniously during the entire season. The Lord blessed the seed that we put into the ground; he watered the earth from the heavens, and the Saints of God felt amply rewarded for their labors to help to build up the kingdom of God.

Though many may have felt a little faint-hearted because of the war-cloud that has hung over us, but which has now burst without doing anybody any harm, yet I feel to say that if we go to war it will be in self-defence, but at present there is no danger of any serious trouble. We delight not in the shedding of blood, and my testimony before High Heaven, before this people and before the nations of the earth is, that we are for peace, and we intend to have it, if we have to fight for it. You know it may be possible that a man may have to fight for his religion. This may seem strange, but if a man has got wives, children, flocks, herds, and Priesthood and gifts from God, and would not fight for them, I would not give much for him. I say we will fight like the angels of heaven, and we will call upon our Father in the heavens, upon Jesus Christ, upon the Prophets and upon the Spirits of just men that have perfected themselves in the Gospel of the Son of God, and then by their help we will win every time, and the Devil knows it. Is this boasting? No, not one particle; but if we do boast we boast in our God, and in those liberal principles which our Father has revealed unto us.

Brethren, let us attend to our duties, and let it ever be uppermost in our hearts to build up the kingdom of God. The promises have and are still being fulfilled. I have seen the wonder-working hand of the Almighty ever since I have been in this Church, and I have realized, to some extent, when preaching the Gospel, that the power of God has accompanied my words. The Lord has sustained his Work wherever the Elders have gone forth preaching the Gospel, and he will continue to do so; he will feed them and clothe them, and his Work will roll forth under the administration of these young men; the blessings of God will go with them. This is my testimony to you young men who are called upon to go on missions.

Jesus said to his disciples, “If I go away I will send you another Comforter, and when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.” This Spirit will go with these, our young brethren, and it will back up their words when they stand up and bear testimony to the truth. Then let us all try to keep this Spirit within us; let us also labor to build temples, tabernacles, and all necessary public buildings; let us labor to gather the poor and then the Lord will bless us in all things; prosperity and peace will attend our every effort to build up God’s kingdom on the earth.

May God bless you, brethren and sisters, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Destruction of Babylon, etc.

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brethren and sisters, I feel thankful for this opportunity of speaking to you for a short time. I feel under obligation for this privilege of speaking a second time before an assembly like this, and I will try not to infringe upon the time of the brethren who have not yet spoken to you, but who I know are anxious to do so. To this end, I will endeavor to confine myself to matters that are directly before us and to present them as they appear to me.

I may refer to some things that are a little foreign to the texts we have had given to us, but I hope I shall not be tedious.

We discover that the nation and people from whom we have come are engaged to the utmost of their ability in waging war upon each other. In consequence of this, there is tax upon tax, or rather I should say one tax levied after another to pay the enormous cost of this fratricidal war. One draft after another is being made to bring into the field as many men as possible, the best and those that will be the most efficient to fight the battles of the nation. It is also perceivable, by reading the late dispatches, that there are apprehensions of a serious war with the Indians and a partial squinting at a foreign war with England and possibly with some other power. How this may be and how it may turn out, it is not necessary for me to predict, but as the life springs to these deliberations and to these transactions that are now going on, I refer you to the predictions and revelations given of the Lord through Joseph Smith. Brethren and sisters, the nation of them that afflicted Israel have now found a way to use all their muscular power, and have they not use for all their beef cattle, for all their horses and for all the mules and wagons that they can muster into service? The nation go to war for the purpose of saving themselves, for the purpose of protecting themselves in their nationality, and they intend to make the banner of the nation universal, swayed without let or hindrance. Well, now the question is, How will these things result? What will be the result of them? They saw fit to decline the offer that Heaven made to them when it presented to them the sceptre of peace through the everlasting Gospel. The means used was by many considered to be too insignificant to bring down the high and lofty, to bring them to consider the diminutive things of Mormonism. No, the Gospel came under a name that was too insignificant and too degrading; but I have seen a something before now wrapped up in a very ordinary style that has presented a somewhat rough exterior, but inside the cover there has been contained true, genuine wealth, and when it became visible it astonished its beholders, and it is and will be so with “Mormonism.” It was wrapped up by circumstances in the beginning, and, in fact, it is still out of sight in the estimation of the world. It was wrapped up—in what shall I say? In swaddling clothes, arrayed in a very unseemly garb; but those that have unrolled it have discovered the valuable treasure, and some few of them can appreciate it, for they have learned that it is the gift of heaven, given to the earth, born upon the earth and cradled there. Much too low a region to secure the privilege of the society and consideration of the great and noble. Those few that have looked to the healing balm, to the merits of the thing itself, instead of to the misrepresentation of its enemies, have not only been healed, but healed and saved by it, and some of them are now basking in heavenly realms of light; for despite of all the disadvantageous circumstances by which they were surrounded in this life, there were a host of friends ready to hail them in that blessed world, where they are beyond the reach of mortal foe and all the powers of darkness.

The nation of which I was speaking is employing all these means to which I alluded with a view to safety; but the question is, whether infinite wisdom and the economy of God will not cause these means to prove their ruin and to produce ends and results the very opposite to what they anticipate. My opinion is, that the results will show that the wisdom of the wise shall perish and the understanding of the prudent be hid. Now, if the nation employ all these means to make their own breastworks and bulwarks, secure themselves against an outward enemy and against a day of famine, they would do well. In their own estimation and feeling they are displaying superlative wisdom, but in the estimation of the Almighty they are destroying all their vitality and power. If this be the design as a chastisement from the Almighty for the transgressions of the people, then they will weaken and waste away each other until retributive justice is satisfied. While they will make such efforts and exertions for their kingdom and government, which is but one of time, what should we do and what exertions should we make to build up a kingdom in which there is life, exaltation and glory for evermore? Should we not labor to clear away and to demolish the great Babylon of corruption that has afflicted the human race with increasing strength from the fall of man? This great fabric will be destroyed in this generation. And I ask, How much exertion should we make towards building up the kingdom of God, which is destined to fill the whole earth?

I can tell you that this nation is going to be furnished with all the business they can attend to, and I expect when they have issued their last dollar in specie they will then issue, their scrip by tens and by hundreds of millions. While this is going on, we shall have all the business that we can attend to, and we shall see more than ever the necessity of faithfulness and fidelity to the kingdom of God.

We have heard some good remarks about this Tabernacle; we have also had some good instruction relative to the building of the Temple, the emigration of the poor, the sending out of missionaries to preach the Gospel of life to the nations, and to this end we have been called upon to provide a fund for their assistance, and also for the assistance of their families during their absence from home, that is, such of them as have families who will be dependent upon the fund. This is an important call, and one that should be attended to as far as we have the means to comply with the requisition. Not only has this matter been laid before us, but we must remember George A.’s sermon, in which he was so emphatic in regard to raising hemp and making ourselves hemp coats to prevent our being placed in as bad, if not a worse condition than our natives are at the present time in these mountains.

With all these matters before us, it really seems as if there would be plenty of business for us all, that is, if we are attentive to the requirements of the Priesthood. Let me say further, that if we task our energies to the utmost of our capacity, there will then be no troubles from without. It does seem that every nerve has got to be stretched and every possible means within our power used for the building up of the kingdom of God. We shall be required to employ ourselves indefatigably for the promotion of truth, for the strengthening of the stakes of Zion; and then if there be no more strength remaining for us to defend ourselves against the pitiless foe, then, I say, if all our means, ability and powers are exerted to build up the kingdom which the Almighty has established, he will say, “Let them alone, they have enough to bear; their sacrifices and labors are accepted.” If we do not do this and neglect to comply with the requirements made of us, perhaps the surplus strength which we possess may be called into requisition by an enemy from without. This is an item worth remembering by all Saints.

Now, here is a Tabernacle to be built, and what argument shall I need to urge in its favor. Here are to-day I do not know how many thousands of people exposed to the wind and dust under this Bowery, and at this early season of the year we are very liable to have rain or snow. Not only so, but the winter, although only just passed, may be said to be again approaching, and in that season of the year we have representatives coming from all parts of the Territory to legislate for the good of the community, and to have their feelings cemented together by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be instructed themselves in the important duties of their callings, then to return to their several and respective localities and labor to edify the Saints and to keep them posted up with regard to the things required of them.

It is important that we have a comfortable place to meet in, and I hope the brethren will bear in mind the necessity there is for having this building erected. Now, here with us there is everything to be considered that is requisite to make life comfortable; and while upon this point let me ask you one thing, or, in other words, present a figure to you. I will suppose that we are standing by a large dock, and while there we see a ship out at sea, and she has sprung a-leak, and the pumps are playing to endeavor to keep her afloat., but she is going down, and there are lots of women and children, and they are crying out, “For Heaven’s sake, save us, we are going down.” Now, if those on shore would not fly to the rescue, but would allow that ship, with her passengers and crew, to go down, their cries unheard, what would all the world say of such inhumanity? They would say, “You are a set of unfeeling wretches.” Well, now, on the other hand, supposing that we should employ every means in our power and get all the help we could, and thereby save those unfortunate creatures and bring them safely to shore, what would they say? Why, they would say, “You have done well, you have done nobly in rescuing falling and sinking humanity and bringing them to land.” What is that sinking ship of which I figuratively speak? Why, it is old Babylon, and she is fast sinking through the leak, and the parties interested may rig all the pumps and employ all the hands they can to work them, but she is sinking, sinking; and who are those that are crying for deliverance, who are chained by afflictions, bound by poverty and confined to the sinking ship, and whose cries are ascending up to God for their deliverance? Well, it says in the old Prophets, “There shall be saviors come up upon Mount Zion;” and if this be so, we have to save the world, for we have the character and reputation of professing to be those saviors spoken of.

Babylon the Great is that ship of distress of which I have been speaking, and many of the passengers thereon are crying, “For God’[s] sake, deliver us.” and if we can supply the place of boats with wagons and teams, the passengers can be brought home in security. Then, instead of applying the oar, let the teamsters be in readiness with the necessary fit-out; let the wagons be in order, and, to the best of our ability, let us supply those who are going on this mission with the necessary comforts of life. If we cannot do this as well as we would, let us do the best we can. Our business is to build up the kingdom of God, and we should each do what we can for its accomplishment. I have been on board of ships a great deal, and probably I feel the weight of this figure more than those who have not had this experience.

I will suppose an individual case; for instance, here is a man, his wife and three children on board a vessel that has sprung a leak. This man has a good deal of money and other property on board, and he discovers that the vessel is fast letting in water, and the man says, “O, my wife; O, my children: my wife and children and my money will all go down together;” with such a family, under such circumstances, such an ordeal is terrible. Now, in such a case as this, a man loses all that he has got; his money, his wife, his children and his all.

Now, we will try this case on the other hand. Supposing the ship to be in a dangerous condition, and the man, with thought as quick as lightning, says, “Money, take care of thyself; wife and children, let us do the best we can to save ourselves.” With this he pulls off his coat and stuffs it into the hole where the leakage is, and by this and other means does all he can to stop the ship from sinking. By taking this course he manifests an independence of character, a fortitude and a determination to live, and thereby saves the ship and many of its passengers. The ship is hauled into port, and the man says, “I have lost all, but I have saved all.”

In regard to building up and embellishing the kingdom of God and preparing the way for the coming of the Son of Man, let me ask is there anything we will not be willing to sacrifice for its accomplishment? I believe not, for those that make the sacrifice will be crowned with laurels of honor, they will be sanctified among the angels, and be pointed at as the ones that have held out the hand of deliverance to the poor and oppressed Saints. But says one, “I withheld my cattle and my means when called upon; they dwindled, they pined away, others were stolen, and thus I lost them all. I wish I had them now; I wish I could have done something that would have been spoken of as honorable by the sanctified ones; but now, poor, penurious, wretched soul that I am, I have wasted my substance; I have wasted it and lavished it upon the pleasures of life, and, alas! I have no inheritance in the kingdom of God.”

Brethren and sisters, let us build a Temple, let us build the Tabernacle, and then we shall feel as comfortable as I anticipated we should when I heard George A. speaking of it.

I feel thankful for the privilege and honor of standing before you. I know that our religion is true; I know that it came from heaven, and I know that in these days it is as it was spoken by the Prophets of old, “Touch not mine anointed, neither do my Prophets any harm.” Why not? it may be asked. Simply because they will have the management of your affairs by and bye, and they will bring the blush upon your face, should any of you interfere with them now. Be wise, therefore, and be instructed, ye judges of the earth; “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry with thee and thou perish on the way.”

I would merely add that we have the mouth-piece of the Almighty with us, and it speaks to the nations and to the people of the whole world. Go where you will to find the word of God, circumscribe the universe, and where will you find a man that can stand up and say, “Thus saith the Lord God Almighty?” You may search the world over, and you will not find one; but here are men having responsibility pertaining to the kingdom of God. In the world you may find men of eloquence, strength and refinement; but can you find that peculiar leaven of righteousness that is here? No, gentlemen; corruption stalks abroad in the land, and the tempter stands forth presenting to the unwary all the allurements which lead to the abominations of Great Babylon. Could I speak with the voice of an angel, I would say that God has spoken from the heavens through his servants in the last days, and that here is the mouthpiece of the Most High, ready to instruct, to correct and to impart the principles of eternal life to every inquiring soul. Inquire, then, for it is not too late yet; to obey is life everlasting; in this Church is peace and happiness, and out of it misery and woe.

God bless the Saints for ever, and God bless all that bless them and all that feel to sustain the servants of the living God. Let the blessings of everlasting peace be with them, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Building the Temple—General Duties of the Saints

Charles C. Rich

Remarks by Elder Charles C. Rich, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

I can say truly that I have been very much interested in the remarks made by the brethren who have addressed us during this Conference thus far, for the speakers have all treated upon subjects that are calculated to interest us as a people. All people that I have been acquainted with interest themselves in something, and so it is with us, we interest ourselves in such subjects as are most congenial to our feelings and dispositions, and the subjects that have been brought up before us for our consideration are subjects that we cannot pass by with indifference and do ourselves justice. If we look at these improvements that are before us in a point of light that would be selfish as the world generally do, and think that we will benefit others more than we do ourselves, and that we must have an eye single to the almighty dollar and work for own glory, we shall make ourselves the most miserable beings upon this earth, and we shall have nobody to blame but our own dear selves But if we do that which is pointed out for us to do, having an eye single to the welfare and advancement of the kingdom of God upon the earth, we shall all the time be doing that which is and will hereafter be for our best good in this life and in that which is to come.

If we desire to obtain the blessings of the Almighty in a Temple prepared for that purpose; if we esteem these blessings to be of any importance, and if we do not feel to do without them, what should be our policy and course in such a matter? Why, I should say, let us build the Temple, in which we may receive our blessings from the Almighty. We have no interest with other people; we have a separate community, and our interests are our own; then let us build the Temple.

What shall I say in regard to the Tabernacle? We can see at once that we can enjoy the comforts of a new Tabernacle; we need the blessings of such a house at the present time. If we put it off, when will it be built? When that house is built we can then enjoy the benefits and blessings which it will afford. The same principle may be applied to everything we take in hand and with which we have to do, whether it be to build a Temple, a Tabernacle, to send teams to the frontiers to gather the poor, or to do any other work that is required of us. Nothing that is required will be performed until we go to work and do something ourselves. We have no other people to lean upon, and, therefore, it remains for us to go to work and perform well our part.

In one respect we are highly favored; that is, we can have pointed out to us the work that should be performed and that will be acceptable in the sight of our heavenly Father. All the works that he requires us to perform are for our benefit and salvation. Then, seeing that this is the case, cannot we perform cheerfully that which is laid upon us? I think we should take courage and do all we do with a cheerful heart. The Work in which we are engaged is to prepare us and to exalt us to enjoy the blessings that are promised to the righteous in this world and in that which is to come.

This is the view that I take of these matters, and I believe that it is the view generally entertained by all good brethren and sisters. Then let us go on cheerfully and harmoniously, remembering that we are free to do good, but that when one party moves in one way and another in a different one, that produces division.

We are a people that profess to be the people of God; and, if we are, we cannot be divided, for his people are always one, and if we are one, of course we will act upon the principle of oneness, and in all things do as we are directed, working for that which will be for our best good both for the present time and for the future. I know very well that there are a great many people who speculate in regard to the future and calculate what is to take place; but, so far as we are concerned, it should satisfy us to understand the duties of the present. We cannot reasonably, without assuming new responsibilities, know the truth any faster than we are ready to believe and willing to perfrom [perform] it. If we knew and understood the labors required of us to-day, that is sufficient for us to know; then, if we are ready and willing on our part to perform, that is all that is requisite and all that will be required. Then, I will say to one and all, let us be awake to our own interests and welfare, and ever be ready to perform the work that is necessary to be done for the building up of the kingdom of God, and we shall never be sorry for having taken the industrious part, but if we have any fault to find, it will be for not having done more in the work of righteousness. In order that we may have no regret of this kind, let us be awake to the labors and duties of to-day. I know very well that there are some people that never get it into their minds, they do not seem to comprehend that they can perform as much as they really can. When we look at the history of men in ages that are past and gone, we can see that there were men called at many times to perform important works that had but little ability; but we also see that if they put that little ability into exercise and labored as faithfully as they could, they were enabled to bring about much righteousness. We want the same feeling and influence with us, then we can perform the works that are required of us, and do what we do cheerfully and with a good heart and in that manner which will be acceptable in the sight of High Heaven, and in this way we shall prosper in all our laudable undertakings, and we shall receive the blessing of our heavenly Father and the approbation of all good men.

From the time this Church and kingdom was established upon the earth to the present day, we have never been at a loss to know what to do; but we have, at all times and under all circumstances, had the path of duty made plain unto us and our individual line of duty marked out unto us; and whenever we have taken the counsel given, we have been prospered and made happy, while those that have taken a contrary course have met with disappointment and been thereby rendered very unhappy. We are all probationers, passing through a state of trial; but still there is a labor that we can perform in this probationary existence that will aid in the rolling forth and building up of the kingdom of God, and we can thereby obtain the blessings that pertain to that kingdom.

We are all looking forward to a time when we shall receive in that Temple that is to be built, but which we do not expect to see finished for a short time to come, all the blessings of endowments and Priesthood that have been promised unto the faithful. We are called upon to engage in this all-important work; and while we are laboring at this, let us consider well the endowments that we have so much need of between this and the time the Temple of our God is finished and made ready for the additional outpouring of the Spirit of the Most High. If we do not gain experience and obtain the necessary endowments as we pass along, we shall find ourselves very poorly prepared for the great and glorious endowments that are to be received in that Temple. If we do not prepare ourselves, those endowments, if we are permitted to receive them at all, will be no better for us than the endowments given to some men in Nauvoo—that is, they will prove a curse instead of a blessing.

For one, I feel to rejoice in the blessings of peace that we enjoy and in the union and fellowship of the Holy Spirit which prevails in the midst of this people, and I know that these good fruits which are amongst us grow out of those glorious principles we have embraced. We are united in the truth, and it is by the truth that we are kept together and that this oneness is made to abide with us continually; and it is this truth and the Spirit thereof that leads us in the right direction. By this Spirit we are led in the way of peace, of salvation and of happiness, while principles that are adopted by the world do not bring with them salvation.

I have noticed in my experience with this people that the principles of our faith, revealed through the Prophet Joseph, produce joy and peace such as the world cannot give, for our principles bring with them present salvation, and all the principles of the Gospel that have been and that are to be revealed do and will continue to bring a present salvation.

This is the way to be saved, and if we continue to act upon this principle all the time we shall obtain salvation in this world and in that which is to come. It makes very little difference to the faithful Saint whether he be called to labor in this world or in the world of spirits, so that he embrace and live by those principles that will bring a present deliverance from bondage and sin and produce within our own bosoms peace and happiness.

We are blessed with the power to know the right way, for we have around us and in our midst those men that can point out to us the course to be pursued in order to secure life and light, and to obtain the blessings promised by the practice of the truth. We wish to be freed from the error and from the evils of the world, in order that we may be happy in this life and prepare ourselves for glory and exaltation in the life which is to come.

There is one thing that is positive and certain, and that is, that it will require some labor and exertion on our part in order to secure the great blessings that pertain to the kingdom of our God. We must, therefore, reflect and apply our minds and our energies to the acquirement of knowledge, or we shall not receive the promised treasures. I repeat, we must apply our minds to the principles of life if we ever expect to obtain their benefits and blessings.

I have often thought that there were a great many people who thought too much of other matters; their minds seem to be upon gold and silver and worldly riches, instead of devoting their time to the obtaining of that eternal store of knowledge which is necessary for every man and woman to enjoy who are preparing for the society of the sanctified. The principles of life that we are being taught are better than the gold that can be found in the mines, for they will teach us the way of salvation, and by observing them we shall be made to partake of the benefits and blessings that flow from them.

If our minds are led to look at matters in this light, our thoughts and feelings will be to obtain the richest treasure there is within our reach, and when we obtain that treasure it will be the means of doing away with the evil that is in the world. If there was no evil amongst mankind there would be no corruption to encounter; therefore, let us practice the principles of truth and thereby do away with the influence and power of evil. Let us learn and thoroughly digest the principles of truth, and then we shall be blessed with all those choice and desirable blessings which flow from obedience to the pure and holy principles we practice.

Now, that each one of us who profess to be Saints may be ready to do these things in faith and full assurance of having a part in the first resurrection, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Building the Temple, etc.

Heber C. Kimball

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

Brethren and sisters, I perceive that the wind is blowing so very strong that it will be very difficult for the loudest speakers to make you all hear, and, therefore, I shall have to depend upon the stillness of the congregation. Then, again, I must have faith and we must all have faith together, and, therefore, let that faith come up before the Lord our God as the faith of one man, and if that faith is concentrated we shall obtain what we desire. Jesus says, “Ask what ye will and it shall be given unto you.” My prayer is that the winds may cease for a little while that I may be able to speak so that you can all hear.

I remember, when I was crossing the ocean in company with President Young, it seemed as if all creation had combined to bring together the most boisterous elements, for the wind blew most furiously and brother Parley actually thought the ship was going down before we got out of the Irish Channel. The wind drove us away from our proper course towards the north of Ireland, and we were really afraid that the bulwarks would be blown and beaten off.

Brother Wells has been laying before you, in much plainness (and you know I delight in plainness,) the practical items of business which are necessary to be attended to. When a man speaks plainly of his views and sentiments and the items of business that he has to lay before this people, it pleases me. Brother Wells is the Superintendent of Public Works, and I can truly say that what he has laid before the congregation is true. I see these things of which he has been speaking; I understand them, and am sorry a great many times because of the things I see and hear. I am aware that a great many of this people do not realize their responsibilities; many of them do not seem to know that they have anything to do, any further than to take care of themselves, and in many instances that is done very poorly. The people are too careless, and, consequently, never think that there is anything for them to do; but it is just as much the duty of each one of you, whether Elders or members, to put forth your hands, to use your means and your influence for the building up of the kingdom of God, as it is mine or President Young’s, or any other member there is in the Church.

In your prayers, you say, “O God the Eternal Father, bless President Young, bless his counsellors and the Twelve Apostles; give them power to bear off this kingdom in triumph over all its enemies.” This is the nature, if not the precise form of the prayers that most of you offer up to our Heavenly Father. But, notwithstanding this, there are those who act as if they thought the First Presidency could do all the work and bear all the responsibility; but this is not the fact, for we can all do something towards the accomplishment of so great a work. How far can the Presidency of this Church bear off this kingdom? Why, they can only do that which devolves upon them; they can only do their share the same as any other persons.

If you will reflect for a moment, brethren and sisters, you will see it is one of the easiest things in the world for us to build that Temple. Here are the men who understand quarrying and cutting the rock, and laying them up; then, what do we want else? Why, says one, we want the means; what will the Temple cost? Never mind what the entire cost will be; what is required of us now, is to lay up the walls, and we can do this by our own labor. Men are wanted to go and quarry the rock; others to haul it to the Temple block; then others to cut the stone according to order; then it is the duty of others to raise the grain, the beef, the pork, to make the clothing, and, in fact, supply everything that is necessary to sustain those men that are called to work upon the Temple.

I have sometimes taken the liberty of speaking about men that work on the Public Works, and I have said that they did not earn more than about one-half of what was paid to them. They say, in reply, if we do not do right, why not call us up before the Bishops of our Wards? We have known and now know men that have been grumbling ever since they were upon the Public Works, and with them there never is anything right, and it would be but little use to bring such men before their Bishops. We have a Presiding Bishop, and President Young and myself are his Counsellors, and in due time he will deal with such men as I am speaking of. It is not right for a man to neglect his duty, whether that duty consists in mechanical work or common labor, for it is the business of every man and woman to do all they can to advance this great Work. It is for the advantage of the people individually as well as collectively. Then let us go to work and build up this kingdom to the utmost of our ability; let us build a Temple wherein to receive our further blessings.

There are but few here who received the endowment that was given in the Temple at Kirtland; many of those who did receive it are dead, quite a number are turned away, for the apostacy was very great in those days considering the number of the people, hence there are but few now with us who partook of that endowment. There are still other endowments that were given to a very few in Nauvoo, and which we do not give here at present, but which will be given to the faithful when that Temple is finished, if not before.

How do you think we went to work when we were building the Temple in Kirtland? I could enter into the particulars, but let it suffice for me to say that the Lord gave a revelation, calling upon all the strength of his house to go up to Missouri to redeem Zion and reinstate our brethren upon their own lands. To use a plain expression, we raked the United States from one end to the other wherever there was a man that belonged to the Church, and we gathered up all the strength of the Lord’s house, and every one of us went, except perhaps a dozen old gentlemen who were not able to travel, and there were a few went up that were over sixty, and I do not know but a few that were over seventy. [President B. Young: I think there was one or two of the brethren seventy years of age.] While we were absent on that Mission, the sisters went to work and made stockings, pantaloons and jackets, and when we came back they put in those various articles of clothing for the benefit of the men that went to work on the Temple, and this was a universal thing with the sisters. Now, what have you done that you should be released from care and from putting forth your dollars, your pairs of socks, your shirts, or any other kinds of wearing apparel or bedding that are required for those men who are called to work upon the Temple? Are you excused from these things, ladies and gentlemen? No, you are not; we went forth and did our duty, both male and female, and the same is required of you.

We went and performed that journey, travelled two thousand miles in a little over three months. We walked forty miles per day when we were not hindered, we walked the entire journey there and back. Such as were designated by the Lord were permitted to return home to their families, but the single men were told by the Prophet to go and preach the Gospel in the country round about. When we arrived in Kirtland, Joseph said, “Come, brethren, let us go into the stone-quarry and work for the Lord.” and the Prophet went himself, in his tow frock and tow breeches, and worked at quarrying stone like the rest of us. Then, every Saturday we brought out every team to draw stone to the Temple, and so we continued until that house was finished; and our wives were all the time knitting, spinning and sewing, and, in fact, I may say doing all kinds of work; they were just as busy as any of us, and I say that those women have borne the heat and burden of those early and trying days and God will bless them for evermore. And besides all this, they have stepped forward and done the works of Sarah, and the first men of this Church have done the works of Abraham, and they will inherit the earth with them when it is redeemed and cleansed from sin. I feel to bless all such men and women, and pray my Heavenly Father to bless them in all things that will be for their good and for the honor and glory of his holy name.

I feel that the Spirit of the Lord is here and that we shall have a good Conference and a happy and joyous time together.

Brethren, do not forget to come on with your teams to haul the rock for the Temple as well as your teams to gather the poor.

Then, in regard to this new Tabernacle that we contemplate building, if you will take hold with us we design that you shall have the privilege of meeting in it next winter. According to the plan which is already designed, it will be larger than this concern which is polled over our heads here, and when completed it will have the advantage of both comfort and convenience for a large congregation, neither of which are afforded by this Bowery in stormy weather. Then let us step forward and do our duty as men of God. And if a sister says, “Can I do anything to help to roll on the Work of God,” I say, yes you can assist if you choose; you can pull off your jewels, take your ornaments out of your hair, your earrings; you can knit some stockings and get some cotton and make some shirts or anything of the kind. Will such works as these advance the kingdom? Yes, they will help considerably. To another sister who asks if she can assist in the good work, I will say, yes, take some of the children of those that labor on the Temple and teach them how to read and write and how to sew. Then let another sister say, “I will wash for the men on the Temple.”

I make these remarks to rouse up your minds in relation to the Temple. Have you not had your endowments, sisters, and been sealed to your husbands? Yes, many of you have, and now let me ask if there is anything more than what you have received, any further ordinances to be received? Yes, lots of them. There were but a hundred and thirty who received a part in advance of the ordinances of endowment that were revealed by the Prophet Joseph. Bless you, it will be one endowment after another till we pass through the vail into the other world, and until we have passed all the ordeals requisite to prepare us to enter into celestial glory and exaltation.

If the Lord should come to visit his people, where has he got a place to stay and rest himself while he communicates his will to his sons and daughters? That man that has engaged and is working for the accomplishment of such a great design as this is, to prepare a place that will be fit and suitable for the Almighty to dwell in for a short time when he comes to visit his servants, ought to feel highly honored and favored of the Almighty.

When remarking upon the building of the Temple, brother Wells said they who had worked upon the Temple had received their pay, and I can say more than this, I know of quite a number that are in debt and they are the ones, generally, that find so much fault. The brethren should think of these things, and for the future strive to be Saints in very deed. Let us all honor our calling, keep sacred and holy our covenants before the Lord.

To refer again to what I know, what I have seen and experienced in my travels and my associations with the Prophet of the living God, I will remark that you have here with you a few of us that have travelled with him from the beginning, and we know his trials and sufferings, and we know that the greatest torment he had and the greatest mental suffering was because this people would not live up to their privileges. There were many things he desired to reveal that we have not learned yet, but he could not do it. He said sometimes that he felt pressed upon and as though he were pent up in an acorn shell, and all because the people did not and would not prepare themselves to receive the rich treasures of wisdom and knowledge that he had to impart. He could have revealed a great many things to us if we had been ready; but he said there were many things that we could not receive because we lacked that diligence and faithfulness that were necessary to entitle us to those choice things of the kingdom. He revealed the doctrine of celestial marriage, and the abuse of this holy principle caused many to stumble and fall away from the Church of the living God, but that was their own fault and they have nobody else to blame.

Now, I will turn my remarks to the brethren whose names will be called to go on missions. We want them to get ready as quick as possible, and to go direct to their missions as fast as the teams, railroad cars and steamships will take them, so that they can do some good. And we want brethren who remain here to hand over your “greenbacks” to help the Missionary Fund, and we have no objection to taking those merchants’ “shinplasters,” I suppose they are worth fifty cents on the dollar, and we will also take your gold and silver if we can get any. I do not want of your money, but the Missionaries do and the families of those that are already on missions need help from that fund, and we want to clothe them decently and make them feel happy during the absence of their husbands and fathers. We are going to call upon young men that have no families this time, and we want them to go and preach by the power of God. We want them to learn to be men, to put away their boyish actions and trust in the living God whom we serve. They will not do this while they stay here to that extent that they will if we send them abroad. We want to send them out into the world among strangers—to place them, as it were, in the midst of a strange ocean where there is no bottom, and you all know there is little danger of a ship that is out at sea when it gets beyond the rocks, but when in the channels and near to the shore there is great danger, and so it is with our sons; and, therefore, in order to depend upon the Lord and upon the guidance of his Spirit, we send them into the world to preach the Gospel. Is it not better for your sons to be placed in circumstances where they will have to call upon the Almighty, than it is to allow them to remain here where they are under the droppings of the sanctuary and are continually receiving the counsel of their earthly fathers? You could not confer a greater blessing upon them than to send them into the vineyard of the Lord. It would delight my soul to see my sons and the sons of my brethren following in the footsteps of their fathers. I will also say that it is the greatest blessing that can be conferred upon the mothers in Israel to have their daughters connected to men of this kind. Such mothers will bring forth sons and daughters that will be a crown of glory to their parents for ever. Some of you would ask, “Would you go, brother Heber?” Just try it Remember I have been there twenty-six years ago, and then I went again a second time, and I can truly say that those were the happiest days of my life. Here are hundreds in this Territory who have seen me in England as happy as an angel, preaching and baptizing for the remission of sins all those who believed and repented before God, and they saw me laying hands on the people for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and every good man will bear me witness that the Spirit of the Lord was with me. Let me say to those young men and to all Israel, live so as to respect yourselves just as your leaders have done, and then you are just as sure of salvation as we are that we are here to-day.

My remarks upon this subject are intended for the Elders. Brethren, do not yield to temptation, but live pure and holy before the Lord. Now, all the Elders who are in favor of carrying out the counsel that is given, let them say yes. (Loud response of “Yes.”)

We want to feed the wives and children of those that are gone on missions, as well as to assist those that are now going. We want pork, beef, eggs and butter and all kinds of clothing, and do not forget to bring on your wood and everything that is necessary to make families comfortable. Now, do you not see, by complying with this instruction, you are helping to preach the Gospel as well as those that go abroad for that express purpose? and how blessed are the women that step forth to help to build the Temple of our God! I can see women in this congregation to-day that would have sold all they had to help to build the Temple in Kirtland, and for this they are and will be blest, for the Lord loves a willing heart and an obedient spirit.

Brethren and sisters, do you know this to be the Church of Jesus Christ? Do you know this positively for yourselves? If you do, remember your duties, be faithful before God and your brethren, and prosperity and peace will attend you.

We want the families of those who are on missions to be supplied with the necessaries and comforts of life, and we do not want the Elders to beg from the poor that are scattered among the nations. We who first went did not have this done for us, but the circumstances are different now. We went to preach without purse or scrip, and there were men around who were ever ready to strip our families of what little they did possess; some of them are now dead. We went forth almost sick unto death to preach the Gospel, and when we called on the brethren in Kirtland they would not give us a cent, because we were sick and looked pale and they said it was because the curse of God was upon us. They will have to reap the reward of that some day, while those who were kind to us will be rewarded of the Lord and be blessed with an exaltation in the kingdom of our God if they continue faithful. It was designed once in Nauvoo to raise a subscription for us, but Joseph said, “You shall not have a cent of it; you must go and make your own way;” but now the time is come when the Gospel is to be preached to all nations, and that, too, more quickly than it has ever been before, and it is the word of the Lord that we shall sustain the ministry at home.

We went and preached the Gospel in London—that is, President Young and myself; we established the Work there, and we never asked the people for a penny. We paid off debts amounting to some two hundred pounds and we emigrated hundreds of people out of our own funds, circulating the Book of Mormon among the people and did many other things that were necessary for the advancement of the kingdom of God.

We travelled with the Prophet Joseph when we were poor and penniless many times, and when we were sick, and we wept like children; but we called upon our Father and our God to strengthen us, and he did so by the power of his Spirit. Some men laid down and died on the way, and brother Taylor almost died once or twice in the ordeals through which he had to pass. I might also refer to the trials consequent upon the introduction of the doctrine of plurality of wives, but the time is about expired, and, therefore, I will defer it till some other time. When we have passed through trials and privations of this life, we shall be exalted to enjoy that happiness which is promised to the people of God; and when that time comes many of you that have had such easy times will be sorry that you have not passed through more.

Brethren, I want to tell you that my blessing and the blessing of the God of Israel are upon this land, and these blessings shall continue unto this people for ever. This land shall prove a blessing unto them but a curse unto the wicked, and the evil-doers shall not have pleasure here at all but the curse of God shall be upon them, and I will further say, in regard to the man that was sent here to rule over us, let the curse of God be upon him from this day forth and for ever, unless he repents.

Now, brethren, be prepared when the call is made to hand over your money, your shoes and whatever is called for that will be useful to put into the hands of those women and children whose husbands and fathers are preaching the Gospel to a dark and benighted world. Let us subscribe and put into this fund all that is necessary and we shall all be blessed together.

I feel to bless all Israel, wherever they may be in the remotest parts of the earth, and I say, let us continue to increase in everything that is good and heavenly from this time henceforth and for ever. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

How and By Whom Zion is to Be Built, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 24, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I am thankful for the privilege of meeting with you here this morning, and I pray that we may all be able to properly appreciate the blessings we enjoy in the many opportunities we have of worshiping the Lord our God in peace and quietude.

Two weeks ago this day, we met with the people in the city of St. George, situated in what is called “Mormon Dixie.” Our congregations there were nearly as large as the congregations that commonly meet in this Tabernacle. We met a great many familiar faces, and for a moment we could have almost imagined ourselves in Great Salt Lake City.

Our southern journey has been one of great satisfaction to me, more so, I think, than any journey I have formerly taken to visit the Saints in this Territory.

Until this year brother Kimball has not been further south with me than Harmony. He could not refrain from speaking in fervent terms of the good spirit that was manifested through the thousands of cheerful countenances that were uplifted in the settlements to greet us as we passed along. This, and numerous other indications and manifestations in their cordial greetings, bespeak a great improvement in the moral and physical condition of the people. We cannot be deceived in coming to this conclusion, for whoever enjoys the light of truth and has so lived as to increase the Spirit of truth within himself can testify to the workings of that Spirit upon the hearts, the understanding and works of the Saints generally. I speak for myself; I am sensible of the increase of the knowledge and Spirit of God within myself. This being the case with myself, I can easily realize the increase of the same Spirit in my brethren. This is a matter of great joy and rejoicing to me and my brethren. I do not think that brother Kimball attended one meeting where he did not express his thankfulness because of the improvement visible among the Latter-day Saints.

It would take some time to give you a detailed account of our journey. The Deseret News correspondent has, through that paper, given you a pretty fair account of our travels, and what of interest has not already been laid before the public will appear in due time. I do not deem it necessary to make lengthy statements touching our journey south. Suffice it to say that in the short space of thirty days we travelled some eight hundred and fifty miles and held thirty-nine meetings. I spoke in all the meetings except one, speaking comforting and encouraging words to the people. I believe that brother Kimball spoke in nearly all the meetings we held during our journey.

It would be a source of great joy to me if I could speak of all the Latter-day Saints in the same terms of commendation that I can of a few. As people increase in the knowledge of God and godliness their joy will increase, though some seem to think that knowledge does not produce joy, peace and glory. So far as my experience has taught me, the knowledge of God possessed by persons of good understanding gives great satisfaction and joy, not only under ordinary circumstances but far more in the midst of deepest affliction. Where the spirit of happy submission to the providences of God is not to be found, I conclude at; once that there is a lack of the knowledge of God, pertaining to his purposes and designs regarding his people individually and collectively. As a people advance in the knowledge of God, joy will increase with them, and, whether in bonds or free, they can behold the goodness, the mercy and the long-suffering of God to the workmanship of his hands. If we could understand ourselves, our own organization, the great plan of the heavens, and the attributes with which we are endowed, exercising them to accomplish the purpose for which they were placed within us, we could be constantly happy in every circumstance and under every providence of God in which we may be placed. Let our minds once be opened to behold only in part the handiworks of God, the stupendous machinery of the heavens and the earth, the power by which all things are sustained, the harmony that pervades all the works of God’s hands, distributing his favors to all impartially, causing his sun to shine on the just and unjust, then can we be happy, indeed, in every changing scene and shifting circumstance of life. We are made to enjoy all that God enjoys, to inherit all he inherits, to possess all the power that he possesses, all the excellency with which he is endowed—all things are to be brought into subjection to him by his faithful children, that they may enjoy all things with him; these considerations bring peace to the heart that is opened to understanding.

Our teachings to the brethren and sisters south have been such as would meet their circumstances and wants, as our teachings are to the people here. You can readily understand, without any particular explanation, that the teachings of the Heavens to men on earth have, I may say, a certain amount of sameness, varying as the providences of God vary. He instructs people according to their circumstances, locations, wants and the dispensations in which they live. We have not preached faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost with the gifts and powers of the Gospel, &c.; but we have taught them how to build up a literal kingdom of God here upon earth. The first principles of the Gospel have been taught this people in the countries from whence they have been gathered, the ordinances of the Gospel have been administered to them, and in this they have experienced great joy, but they were, at the same time, taught to gather to Zion where they might be instructed how to live one with another without sinning, how to overcome every evil propensity in their nature, how to rise in the morning, how to take care of and sustain their bodies through the day, how to go to rest at night, how to feel one towards another and towards their God; not to bring heaven down, not to unvail the beauties and glories of the upper world, not to unvail the face of Him who sits upon the throne, whose face we could not behold in our present state and live, but to make heaven here by teaching the husband how to live and deal with his wife or wives, with his sons and with his daughters; by teaching the wife how to live with and treat her husband and her children, and the husband, wife and children how to live with their neighbors, that all anger and malice and all sin may be overcome by the people and never again gain mastery over them. These are the mysteries that belong to the kingdom of God upon the earth; as to the mysteries pertaining to the Father and the Son, to angels, and to the powers of the heavens and the fulness of the glory of Zion, we shall learn in good time.

Tradition has taught us that the great purpose of religion is to prepare people to die; that when they have passed through a change of heart, become converted, then they are ready for glory at any moment and to dwell with the Father and the Son in the heavens to all eternity. This is a mistake; for they have to improve, become substantially changed from bad to good, from sin to holiness, here or somewhere else, before they are prepared for the society they anticipate enjoying. They would not be nearly so well prepared for the society of the sanctified in heaven as a person brought up in the lowest classes of society would be prepared to properly present and conduct himself among the highest and most polished grades of mankind. Those who are counted worthy to dwell with the Father and the Son have previously received an education fitting them for that society; they have been made fully acquainted with every pass-word, token and sign which have enabled them to pass by the porters through the doors into the celestial kingdom. We have been traditioned to think that to rise up and speak in a meeting is to bear the cross of Christ. How often we have been exhorted to take up our cross by telling our experience before our brethren? This is but a small part of the experience and labor of the faithful Saint. I will prove you and try you, saith the Lord, by placing you in the most abject circumstances you can be placed in; I will surround you with your enemies, expose you to their derisive laugh, to the finger of scorn and to the hatred of the wicked, then will I see whether you will acknowledge me and bear your cross manfully. All this and more has to be taught the people in Zion. They must learn there how to sanctify themselves and become steadfast in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have taught the brethren, during our southern trip, what pertains to their every-day life, just as we teach you. We want all the Latter-day Saints to understand how to build up Zion. The City of Zion, in beauty and magnificence, will outstrip anything that is now known upon the earth. The curse will be taken from the earth and sin and corruption will be swept from its face. Who will do this great work? Is the Lord coming here to convert the people, and then drown the whole of them as the Catholic priest served the Jew? No. Is he going to convince the people that he will redeem the centre stake of Zion, beautify it and then place them there without any exertion on their part? No. He will not come here to build a Temple, a Tabernacle, a Bowery, or to set out fruit trees, make aprons of fig leaves or coats of skins, or work in brass and iron, for we already know how to do these things. He will not come here to teach us how to raise and manufacture cotton, how to make hand cards, how to card, how to make spinning machines, looms, &c., &c. We have to build up Zion, if we do our duty.

In the first place, we have to become sanctified; and I may here say that our views of sanctification differ very much from the views held by some of the popular sects of the day, for they think that sanctification consists in shutting the door and securely bolting it against fulfilling the first commandment that God gave to our first parents. I will put my own definition to the term sanctification, and say it consists in overcoming every sin and bringing all into subjection to the law of Christ. God has placed in us a pure spirit; when this reigns predominant, without let or hindrance, and triumphs over the flesh and rules and governs and controls as the Lord controls the heavens and the earth, this I call the blessing of sanctification. Will sin be perfectly destroyed? No, it will not, for it is not so designed in the economy of Heaven.

All the Lord has called us to do is to renovate our own hearts, then our families, extending the principles to neighborhoods, to the earth we occupy, and so continue until we drive the power of Satan from the earth and Satan to his own place. That is the work Jesus is engaged in, and we will be co-workers with him. Do not suppose that we shall ever in the flesh be free from temptations to sin. Some suppose that they can in the flesh be sanctified body and spirit and become so pure that they will never again feel the effects of the power of the adversary of truth. Were it possible for a person to attain to this degree of perfection in the flesh, he could not die neither remain in a world where sin predominates. Sin has entered into the world, and death by sin. I think we shall more or less feel the effects of sin so long as we live, and finally have to pass the ordeals of death. Do not understand that in the flesh we shall ever overcome the power of sin to such a degree that we shall never taste death. I do not look for any such thing, though what we call death, or laying down this body, is only the door to a higher state of life for the faithful. If we live our religion it will enable us to so overcome sin that it will not reign in our mortal bodies but will become subject to us, and the world and its fulness will become our servant instead of our master. Those who list to obey sin are the servants of sin. We should never list to obey that which corrupts, for in so doing we become servants to corruption. We should so live as to make the world and all its natural blessings subservient to our reasonable wants and holy desires.

The Latter-day Saints are improving, and I am rejoiced; my heart is filled with joy on this account. Do they improve in building? Not as much as they should. Do they improve by manufacturing the things they need to wear? Not as much as they should. Do they improve in educating their children? Not as much as they should. But they improve in their faith and in their love one to another; they improve in the light of the holy Gospel. The people are generally improving in these respects, and we are glad of it.

Great Salt Lake City is the first established city in the mountains, and we look for more improvement in the spirit of the people here than in any other settlement. The Lord expects this place to advance faster than any other place among all the settlements of the Latter-day Saints. Do we know how to rise in the morning? Do we leave our couches in the morning with anger in our hearts? Do we feel disconsolate, afflicted and oppressed by the Adversary? We can get rid of all this by going down upon our knees and praying until we overcome that feeling of discontent and misery and become kind to our companions and offspring, to the inmates of our habitation, to our flocks and herds, to our neighbors and to every creature God has made. We may say that our work drives us and that we have not time to pray, hardly time to eat our breakfasts. Then let the breakfasts go, and pray; get down upon our knees and pray until we are filled with the Spirit of peace. I may say, my wife is hurrying me and I feel out of sorts; perhaps I have not had very pleasant dreams, have thought somebody was abusing me or got angry with somebody in my sleep, and I rise in the morning tired and feeling unpleasant with myself and everybody around me: while the Elder who has dreamed of preaching the Gospel to the nations, of building up Zion and laboring for the Gospel all night in his mind and feelings, being filled with the Holy Ghost, rejoices in his sleep; his slumbers are sweet to him and he rises in the morning filled with the good Spirit, and with him it is, “God bless you wife, God bless you my children.” He feels to bless his house and his gardens, his orchards, his flocks and his herds, and everything looks pleasant to him and he rejoices exceedingly in the works of God’s hands. He cherishes no malice, no anger; the spirit of the enemy has no place in him. How happy is such a person when compared with the man who is constantly laboring to amass gold and property, making this his only end and aim. How the Devil will play with a man who so worships gain.

Let me say to the brethren and sisters, when you are chastened by any of your leaders, never consider that the enemy does it, but receive it always as a kindness from the hand of a friend and not as from an enemy. If your Presidents were your enemies they would let you alone in your faults. If you are beloved of the Lord you will be chastened; receive it with joy.

We are in one of the strongholds of Zion; let us, therefore, so live that our days and nights will be pleasant; unto us, and never spend an hour without the light of truth beaming upon our understandings. I ask my friends who are with me daily, I ask my family, “When do you see me out of sorts?” You say, “We do not expect to see you angry, brother Brigham; we do not expect to see you anything but just right.” If you expect to see me just right, why do you not try with a little more determination to become just right yourselves? How is it, my brethren and sisters? If I am expected of our Heavenly Father to live just right, is not the same expected of you? If I am are you not also in duty bound to so live as to enjoy the Spirit of truth, light and intelligence? Are you not under the same obligation to purify your hearts as I am? If any of the First Presidency or the Twelve should speak an angry word, you consider it to be very much out of character, but are you any more privileged to speak angry words or to indulge in scolding at and quarreling with one-another? The First Presidency have no such privilege, and if they have no such privilege why should you have? Let each of us begin at home and train ourselves until we become masters of ourselves, gaining the victory over every passion, if we have to pray one-half of each day until the Spirit of truth reigns within our hearts.

Some think that they should not, if they feel evil in their hearts, at the same time appear to feel good—that they should not dissemble in the least. The Devil can quote Scripture in abundance against hypocrisy. If I did not show anger towards a brother when I felt it, I should be considered a hypocrite. The Devil says, do not dissemble, do not carry two faces, do not show a pleasant countenance when you at the same time feel angry in your heart. I say, suffer not anger to rise in your countenance, to speak through your eyes, nor through your organs of speech, and in this way keep it down until you are free from it, as you would any other evil. To say that inward evil must outwardly be made manifest in order to escape the opprobrium of hypocrisy is a trick of the Devil to cheat men out of the blessings that are in store for them. By the word hypocrisy I do not here mean a counterfeiting of religion or goodliness to gain sordid ends, but to appear good and practise goodness contrary to the promptings of the evil one or the un-regenerated impulses of the human heart. If the Devil says you cannot pray when you are angry, tell him it is none of his business, and pray until that species of insanity is dispelled and serenity is restored to the mind.

We are inhabitants of a world of sin and sorrow; pain and anguish, every ill that can be heaped upon intelligent beings in a probation we are heirs to. I suppose that God never organized an earth and peopled it that was ever reduced to a lower state of darkness, sin and ignorance than this. I suppose this is one of the lowest kingdoms that ever the Lord Almighty created, and on that account is capable of becoming exalted to be one of the highest kingdoms that has ever had an exaltation in all the eternities. In proportion as it has been reduced so it will be exalted, with that portion of its inhabitants who in their humiliation have cleaved to righteousness and acknowledged God in all things. In proportion to our fall through sin, so shall we be exalted in the presence of our Father and God, through Jesus Christ and by living the righteousness of his Gospel. All this the people will understand in due time through their faithfulness and learn to rejoice even in the midst of afflictions.

We have taught the brethren south to raise flax and cotton and to put up machinery for manufacturing cloth. We have also taught them to live so as to ever be at peace and on the best of terms with each other. Two cases of difficulty, I think, were the only ones we were called upon to examine. As to High Council and Bishops’ Courts, we have almost forgotten that any such courts exist. Why is this? Because we are continually importuning the brethren to faithfully live their religion and not let a few dimes and dollars or a little mistake infringe upon the fellowship of one with another. Perhaps a neighbor’s cow is in his garden, and he is angry with his neighbor, when, at the same time, that neighbor is as innocent as an angel. Nine hundred and ninety-nine cases of difficulty out of a thousand arise from circumstances not worthy of notice. There are but few persons who really design to injure each other. I do not believe there is one man or woman in a thousand, in this community, who designs to do wrong, though there are hundreds that do wrong, and some who do a great many wrongs, but they do not design to do wrong. They can truly say, with the Apostle Paul, “When I would do good evil is present with me.” Paul had been a very wicked man; he had done all he could to destroy the Church of God, and, consequently, was given over to the buffetings of Satan, so that when he would do good the Devil had such power over him that he had to keep up a continual warfare. Let us endeavor to do the good and leave undone the evil.

Some desire to do good all the time, still it seems that almost every act they perform results in evil; look upon such persons as they are, through eyes of mercy, and not measure them with your measure. If you are endowed with wisdom and understanding, if you escape the evil and do the good, thank God that you have knowledge, and do not condemn your brethren and sisters who are weaker than you are for falling into evil when they know no better. This is the teaching of the Spirit of the Lord all the day long.

When the books are opened, out of which the human family are to be judged, how disappointed the professedly sanctified, long-faced hypocrites and smooth-toned pharisees will be, when the publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before them; people that appeared to be full of evil, but the Lord says they never designed to do wrong; the Devil had power over them, and they suffered in their mortal state a thousand times more than you poor, miserable, canting, cheating, snivelling, hypocritical pharisees; you were dressed in purple and fine linen, and bound burdens upon your weaker brethren that you would not so much as help to lift with your little fingers. Did you ever go without food, suffer with tooth-ache, sore eyes, rheumatism, or the chills and fever? You have fared sumptuously all your days and you condemned to an everlasting hell these poor harlots and publicans who never designed an evil. Are you not guilty of committing an evil with that poor harlot? Yes, and you will be damned while she will be saved.

Let us look at our neighbors as they are, and not as we want them to be; let us learn enough to know what we are ourselves and what our brethren and sisters are, and learn the true designs of their hearts, and then judge them as God judges them and not according to outward appearance; then every contention will cease, every heart will beat high to build up Zion, and the follies and weaknesses of our neighbors we shall not think of.

We all know that we need material for clothing; then let us look out for it and not neglect the matter until we are found in a state of nudity, without the power to clothe ourselves. These are the mysteries of the kingdom of God upon the earth, to know how to purify and sanctify our affections, the earth upon which we stand, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the houses in which we dwell and the cities which we build, that when strangers come into our country they may feel a hallowed influence and acknowledge a power to which they are strangers, “For all is dedicated to the Lord and consecrated to him, and the Spirit and power of God reigns there and the power of the enemy can find no place.” When the people of the Saints have attained to this happy state, then will they say, “Give us more room to dwell,” and they will never be driven from such ground. All hell may then give up the chase, for they never can drive the Saints from a spot that is hallowed by the faith of the Saints, through the medium of Jesus Christ by the power of the Father, for that place is dedicated and sanctified to him.

We are in possession of the valleys in the mountains, and the Lord has led us here. We have tried to be admitted into the family of States, but we are scarcely permitted to be a Territory. We are here, and they can do nothing against us. They are not capable of afflicting this people, if we live our religion. Let every man and woman sanctify themselves and their possessions, dedicating all unto the Lord, then will we be driven? No, neither will our possessions be given to the kingdom of the Devil; they belong to God, and he will hold them for himself, and they will remain uncontaminated and we with them, until we go back to build up the centre stake of Zion.

This season we called for five hundred teams to send for the poor; some of those teams came some four hundred miles and then started on the journey over the plains to bring in the poor. Suppose we should call for five thousand teams to go and build up the centre stake of Zion and establish it that it shall never be thrown down, would they be forthcoming? They would, and when that time comes we shall leave a great many more in the mountains than are now here, and we shall see Zion rolling forth on the right and on the left, like the waves of the sea, which no earthly power can stem.

I will here mention the incident of two of our Elders, while on their way to the Sandwich Islands, being blown up and killed on a steamboat. It is all right. If you wish to know how I feel about them, I will say that the Lord took them while they were in the humor of trying to do good. I would not have given a red cent for all the good they would have done in the vineyard. It made me think of an anecdote I have already alluded to, concerning the Jew whom the Roman Catholic priest pushed under the ice while he professed belief in the Christian religion. God dictates all these matters, and will work out his designs in his own way. He will deal with the Latter-day Saints for their good and with our enemies for our good; and when a nation kills his Prophets he will deal with them accordingly: he will chasten them, as he is doing at this time.

I am for the kingdom of God. I like a good government, and then I like to have it wisely and justly administered. The government of heaven, if wickedly administered would become one of the worst governments upon the face of the earth. No matter how good a government is, unless it is administered by righteous men, an evil government will be made of it. The Lord has his eye upon all the kingdoms and nations of men, with their kings, governors and rulers, and he will sink the wicked to misery and woe, and we cannot help it.

Let us be just, merciful, faithful and true, and let us live our religion, and we shall be taught all things pertaining to the building up of Zion. Let us train our minds until we delight in that which is good, lovely and holy, seeking continually after that intelligence which will enable us effectually to build up Zion, which consists in building houses, tabernacles, temples, streets and every convenience necessary to embellish and beautify, seeking to do the will of the Lord all the days of our lives, improving our minds in all scientific and mechanical knowledge, seeking diligently to understand the great design and plan of all created things, that we may know what to do with our lives and how to improve upon the facilities placed within our reach.

This is as good an earth as need be, if we will make it so. The Lord has redeemed it, and it is his wish that his Saints should beautify and sanctify it and bring it back to the presence of the Father and Son yet more pure, more holy and more excellent than it was in its original state, with ourselves upon it.

It pleased me very much, when I returned home, to see a good many little boys learning to cut rock, thus doing good to their parents, themselves and the kingdom of God. Send on some more boys and put them in the joiner shops, or learn them to make shoes, harness and everything that will be useful and profitable. Every Elder should have at least one trade, and if possible more than one, and still continue to learn and improve in a knowledge of the world and all things pertaining to it, learning how to better the condition of everything that exists—in particular of ourselves and those around us. Let the husband make an improvement upon his kitchen and pantry and upon his bedrooms for the benefit of his family, and improve his gardens, walks, &c., beautifying your habitations and their surroundings, making pavements and planting shade trees.

Cease lying, cease taking the name of God in vain, cease being dishonest with your employers, with one another and with your God, and the Lord will love and bless us. Let us learn our duties one toward another, the husband to the wife, the parents to their children and the children to their parents, and let us all learn and practice our duties to God and his kingdom. God bless you: Amen.

Advice to Missionaries, etc.

Amasa M. Lyman

Remarks by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

I am glad to have the opportunity of making some remarks in relation to some matters that interest us as Saints. I do not feel disposed at the present time to seek either to please myself or you by undertaking to discourse in a very methodical manner but I wish simply to talk of such things as may be suggested to my mind and of such matters as will interest us and as affect our interests as a community. The character of our meetings are such as seem to render short sermons the order of the day; they are texts from which the people may preach their own sermons, and this will, doubtless, be most appropriate.

I have been much interested in the instruction that has been addressed to the Conference since its commencement; and the topics that have been talked upon are of all-importance to us who are engaged in the building up of the kingdom of God. I have listened with pleasure to them myself, and my thoughts and reflections have been pleasing, especially so because of the belief which I entertained that those instructions were directly connected with the working out of that salvation that we are seeking for.

I was much pleased and gratified with the allusions that were made and the instructions imparted this morning to that portion of our community who are called to preach the Gospel and minister for the salvation of mankind, by acting in the capacity of teamsters to drive teams from various parts of Utah to Florence and then back again to this point with their freight of Saints.

I have been led, from what I have observed, to entertain some serious reflections with regard to these our brethren, believing in my own mind that they are too apt, as a general thing, to dismiss from their feelings, if the sentiment was ever entertained by them—they are too apt, I say, to forget that they are actually preachers of the Gospel and ministers of salvation to the people, in their capacity as teamsters. I fear that they have thought themselves less honorable than others, because they had not to go abroad and simply tell the people of principles by which they might be benefited and saved; and because of their entertaining this feeling a small degree of recklessness and carelessness in relation to their conduct have been allowed to gain the mastery over them. While we are acting as a lot of teamsters we do not arrogate to ourselves the dignity of being missionaries; we are apt to think that there is nothing in that kind of business that is calculated to ennoble and enlighten mankind. In the most honorable acceptation of the term, we are only going to drive a team to the States and back again, and, consequently, there is little or no responsibility resting upon us, beyond that which may be placed upon those who are appointed to regulate our actions, to take care of the teams and to act in the capacity of Captains. If we do this duty, as we consider it to be one, in that way that will be considered well done, and so that it will be accepted by our brethren, then all is done that was embraced in the nature and character of our calling. I want to say to our brethren who are called to act in this capacity, that they are in every sense of the word ministers of salvation, and as such they should be men of pure feeling, they should be men honest in bearing forth pure and holy principles and men that should honor God in every feeling of the heart, with every thought and every action, men who should be mindful of God and of their relationship to him.

If this feeling could be cherished within those men, it would save them continually from recklessness; it would save them from the commission of many wrongs, from many evils that are done by those who are so unfortunate as to be destitute of the knowledge of the truth which has been daily imparted to our brethren. By this means we can not only be delivered from sin, but we shall never suffer the evil consequences, and we shall know better than to say or do anything that will cast a darkening shadow over the otherwise bright fame of other individuals. I would really love to see men that would go to drive teams act as though, to a certain extent, the responsibility of God’s Church and kingdom devolved upon them; I would like to see them act as men, as Saints and servants of God, and I would like to see them make themselves men of purity, the examples of the rectitude and propriety of their own conduct, so that their actions would be altogether commendable to God and such examples as would be acceptable to all good men. The man who simply goes to preach the Gospel is no more doing the will of Heaven than the man who drives an ox team for the salvation of his poor brethren. The man who has horses to drive and carry him along over the country to aid him in forwarding the purposes of Heaven, should feel that the position is an honorable and responsible one. No matter what a man’s sphere of action be, if he be devoted to his calling, his labor will be acceptable. The man who has no oxen or horses to drive, but who has to pass over the country preaching the Gospel, is very fortunate if he can get horses to draw him along through the district of country in which he is called to travel. Amidst all the difficulties which he may encounter he should feel that his position is both an honorable and responsible one. If men have this feeling what will they do? Why, they will pursue about the same course that those brethren will who have been called by this Conference to go on a foreign mission. These young men are going out into the vineyard to become praying and preaching men, to become examples of propriety and to let their actions evince that decorum and rectitude of feeling that will prove them to be all they profess—Saints and servants of the living God. This is a just and a proper feeling for them to entertain and their conduct should be in strict accordance with their high and holy profession.

What are these brethren expected to do while upon this mission? What would naturally be expected of men called to act in this capacity? We would expect that they would remember God; but how should they remember him? They should not merely remember him at stated times, when they might, by specific regulations instituted, be bound to offer their supplications to him in prayer, but they should attend to this in its time and season, they should remember him in secret that he might not forget them in public, and in this way they will not only remember God but they will have reason to think of his goodness and they will always have him in their thoughts. Let them adopt this plan, and then when you meet them on their journey or see them collected around their camp fire, their time will not be wasted in useless and foolish conversation, but their time will be occupied in the adjudication of such questions as will lead their minds to the understanding of the truth and to the comprehension of the character of that God whose representatives they are called to be.

This is what we would expect of missionaries; we would naturally expect they should be praying men, that they should be God-fearing and God-loving men continually. And what we should expect from that class of missionaries we should expect and we ought to see with and among every other class of missionaries, the teamster as well as the preacher. The teamster labors to build up the same kingdom that the preacher does, depending for its development upon the influence and power that the truth gains among the children of men. How is this to be accomplished? By laboring and gradually gaining strength and by obtaining a still stronger hold in the affections of the people.

Then I hope that the teamsters, and I suppose they are all present at Conference—but if there should be some of them at home they will doubtless find the instruction good for them before they start upon their journey, and even when they are performing their return journey they can do much by favoring the improvement which there ought to be in this class of the ministry—I hope that they will study to be sober, both spiritually and morally, and when they get to Florence I do not want them to harrow up the good, kind feelings of their brethren the returning missionaries, by becoming slightly inebriated, and accept of my assurance that you can be credited with performing the whole journey if you never get drunk once. It seemed to me when I was there last season that there was a portion of that same reckless spirit among our brethren that was manifested by the gentile emigration that I saw passing over the road. They seemed to feel that they had never performed the journey before, and they appeared to feel and act as though they thought that although they might never have been drunk all their lives, still they must celebrate such an important event as the performance of a journey from here to Florence by getting drunk! I was sick when I was there, but the nights were made hideous and horrid by that mistaken class of missionaries who were sent out with wagons and teams to bring in the poor. There were some of them who did not see the nature of their business, the purity of its character and its holiness, but they would give way to recklessness and to acts of immorality. I allude to it here because I saw it then as a thing to be corrected, and it is one that I have no doubt will be corrected.

There are a great many things connected with the accomplishment and performance of the duties of this class of missionaries to which is attached by some a great degree of importance, while by others perhaps these things will be regarded with indifference. Now, I have long entertained this feeling of attaching importance to this kind of missionary labor: perhaps I am wrong; but it does not change the fact that I have entertained and cherished it as a correct and true principle, and as such I have taught it before the Saints, which shows that I feel interested in the proper management of our emigration and solicitous that a good example should be set before the in-gathering Saints.

In our going abroad to proclaim the Gospel, we go to preach its principles to the people, and there is nothing else that I know of laid upon us to perform but to preach the Gospel and proclaim that righteousness to the people that has been made known in these last days, that those who believe may continue from their introduction into the Church and kingdom of God to travel onward and upward in the principles of salvation. Well, then, if this is all that devolves upon us as missionaries abroad, then we have nothing else to preach or practice, or in which to engage ourselves, but the performance of that duty. And permit me here to remark, that I am exceedingly glad to see the change that has been and is transpiring in regard to the manner in which our brethren go abroad, and the kind of treatment extended to those who are dependent upon them while they are absent. I believe I can appreciate these blessings. The appointed missionary has no excuse, there is now no reason why his affections should not be entirely devoted to the ministry; but there is no reason why his energies should be wasted in a useless anxiety about things which are entirely beyond his reach. We might as well try to change the condition of the dead as to think of turning all men in favor of our Gospel, this will never be, but we expect to make many converts. In going forth to do our duty in warning mankind we should not have our minds troubled and perplexed on account of our families being destitute of johnny cake at home, and when we have the assurance that our families are provided for, then there is but one labor, but one branch of business in which may be enlisted every feeling of the soul. But if a man has no cause of trouble, he can engage heart and soul in the work of the ministry and think of nothing else but the Work in which he is engaged. “But,” says one, “I cannot forget my wife and child that are at home.” You are not required to forget them. I could always remember my wife and my child, but did I sorrow over them and fear that they were starving to death? No; I did not. Why? One reason was that they had never starved to death before when I left them; and I knew that we had travelled together and appeared to walk hand in hand with the meagre hag, and that she had met us at every corner of life’s path, but I also knew that our poverty had never produced starvation. Under these circumstances then, when absent on missions, we kneel down and pray, “God bless the distant ones at home,” and then go on about our business.

I hope for the blessing and prosperity of the Work of God, for its continued increase, and that the Elders who go abroad may feel to the extent they should the importance of the position they occupy and the true nature of the Work of God. Brethren, do not think of anything but to increase the Work in which we are engaged, for if it succeeds we should be sustained. There is always an increase of our individual work in the increase of the aggregate of God’s kingdom upon the earth. “But,” says one, “I do not know when I shall get that other wife or those dollars I am after.” Now wait a little; never mind those things at present, but attend to your duties in the Church and kingdom of God. “Why,” says one, “have you got rich?” No, I have not in one way, but in another I have. Some would imagine that I had according to the Mountain Boys’ manner of speech, but I have not got rich in this way; I have got rich in learning to wait my time for everything, and to be patient until the proper time comes. I do not say that I have got rich, but I have gained. I wont say that I have gained as much as I might have done but I am going to keep on gaining and adding more and more to my already acquired stock of patience, and I want to see all the brethren going on in this way. “But,” says the young brother that has no wife, “would there be any harm in me taking a wife?” I presume that under certain circumstances there would not, and I presume equally that under other circumstances it would be wrong. Then, when you are sent abroad to preach the Gospel, do not take a wife, but attend to your duties in that calling. I have been abroad for almost thirty years, performed numerous missions, and I have never been commanded to go abroad to take a wife. I want to see the brethren who go on missions give their minds and talents to the preaching of the Gospel, that by their honest treatment of the people the Saints may be honestly gathered, be taught and led onward and upward in the pathway of exaltation and happiness.

When men labor in this way, the prayers of the just will bless them; they will become rich—in what? In the faith and confidence of the souls that have become enlisted in the truth through their philanthropy. This will make a store for holy reflection that will last perpetually and eternally. But if we would secure this in its fullest extent while here, remembering others as we think of ourselves, we must extend and manifest to them the same honest, truthful and proper conduct that we wish to have extended to us. There is none of us who would desire any wrong to be extended to us; we would not crave it; we would not ask for it unless we asked it in ignorance, but never while in the exercise of good judgment. If you would never have evil at your door, never carry evil and lay it at the door of your brother or sister, but be honest, pure and just. You can do this, if you cannot do everything; and Elders in Israel who act in this way are always blessed. You never saw such men engaged in any labor but what they were blessed. You never see them go abroad but what they are blessed; and when the fruits of their labors flow in the homeward tide to Zion, that blesses them; it tells of their integrity, of the truth of their teachings, of their conduct, of their example and of their actions, as well when abroad as at home. Those persons who were thus gathered tell of their teachings, of their counsels, and of the advice which was given to them by those Elders, which was productive of salvation under all circumstances, at all times and in all places. This is the time when we might afford to weep, as the President said in reference to the young brethren that are going abroad; when they come back, having magnified their calling before God and the Saints, then he said he could weep, and who could not? It would be no tears of grief, no effusion of sorrow, but it would be simply the overflowing of the feelings of joy and gratitude. This is worth all that has to be endured while absent from our friends. Does this privilege and blessing of holding the priesthood belong to these young missionaries alone? No, there are hosts of them. Why, the whole land is filled with Elders holding the Priesthood of God; they are to be found numbered with the Elders’ Quorum, with the High Priests and with the Seventies, and, in fact, all through the land you can hardly see a man who does not hold the Priesthood of the living God. And the purity of life that should characterize the man who is a minister of Jesus Christ should be above the mediocrity of ordinary men. The man who administers the words of life and salvation continually to the people, should set forth that which he seeks to develop in himself and he should seek to put away that careless indifference of character which characterizes many others; he should have a sacred and holy regard for the truth; he should make life subservient to the truth always, and should never do violence to the principles of purity for any reason that could be urged nor for any cause that could be plead, but he should be among the people an example of righteousness in whatever capacity he might be called to act as a revelator and a minister of God. By doing this, do you not think there would be a reformation? Yes, there would be a reformation and an increase of intelligence and of purity of life. “Well,” says one, “do you not think there is an increase already?” Yes, I do; but who does not know what has been the claim and character of some men in times past; for instance, a man that has done one thing great and good has satisfied himself with that, hence he has made no further exertions to do anything in any of those quorums by which to raise and gather around him the ornaments of society.

Now, let us not be satisfied with these good feelings and influences of the heart; but let us be faithful and stand for God, let us say we have received much that has been good and precious, but still, good Lord, we want more. For that let us pray on, let us preach on and practice purity of life, and still seek to be the ministers of righteousness that we may gain that which we have not yet acquired, and get that which we do not yet possess.

Now, this Conference should be the means of carrying to the people suggestions and instructions of this kind by means of the Bishops and their Counsellors. Supposing that these men holding the Priesthood, instead of holding it as ministers of God and of the truth, should waste their time in idleness, and should make their office the means of their own aggrandizement, and, instead of improving the opportunities afforded them to facilitate the advancement and improvement of the people, should neglect that which is really necessary to be done and turn the labor upon work that would be unprofitable and that would involve the people in debt and difficulty, of what benefit is such a minister? The result would be that the people would feel burdened throughout the land and there would be discontent among the citizens. But supposing the presiding officer should take the lead and say, Here is a new interest, let us be awakened, and let us one and all unite to benefit the community—Would not this produce a good feeling? Then let the Bishop, the Priest and the preacher, instead of introducing follies and nonsense among the people, spread out before them the principles of equity, and create within them a lively interest in the Work of God. Let the subjects of their thought and the topics of their conversation be such as will lead them to the acquirement of that intelligence that comes from God. But if the head gets sick and dull through age and the absence of the spirit of life, the heart becomes sick also. “What do you mean?” says one. I mean that the Elders can, by their faith, their energy and their life, instil into the minds of the people a perseverance and a determination to press forward such as is not likely to be, unless an influence is used for that purpose. By taking this course, they will secure the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the confidence of their brethren.

Let me advise all men to be wise, and especially those who are not any older than I am; and if I am not considered to be old, I would say that I mean all men who are of my age, and also those who are younger as well as those who are older; I would advise all such to be sober, to be sociable and to do as much good as they possibly can, by setting a good example before their children, by being an example of propriety of action and by striving to keep far from them faults of an evil character. Now, it does seem to me that my example will have its effect among my friends. For instance, if a man indulges in drunkenness, and if I refrain from this habit, when I meet that man he will endeavor to be completely guarded and not be cursed by the evil consequences of his slavish habit. We want to be perfect in everything we do and in all life’s vicissitudes to realize that we do speak the truth, and let us be sure to remember one thing, that the intimacy of our relationship with celestial beings is such that we should be strict examples to others in the keeping of our word. We should never lie; if we tell a falsehood to a brother, however friendly and kind he may be, he could not change that lie into a truth; therefore cease from lying. We are all guilty, more or less, in this respect; when I go and make a promise to a brother, or if a brother make a promise to me, I hold that promise to be sacred, although the man was under the necessity of promising something because his business required him to do so, hence it is important that we be careful about making promises. O do not consider that we honor God or worship him any more by making so many promises. Let us especially be careful to abstain from all that is impure, unjust and unholy; for if we are going to be like God our justice must be just, and it must have its exercise in the narrowest and smallest as well as in the broadest avenues that are in life’s relations, and we must be scrupulously honest in its administration.

Remember, my brethren, that honesty is the safeguard to our actions, and remember that every good gift comes from our Father and God. It is our duty to honor our Maker and God in all our ways; and I can tell you this one truth, that until we can love each other and regard each other’s interests, we shall fail to enjoy the blessings of celestial glory; and if you think of enjoying celestial glory without this element as well as the many others that are required of us, let me request you to stop and pause, for you cannot do it; you cannot enjoy this at my house when I and mine are glorified; but we do not want anything that is dishonest about us. Let us be faithful and just in our dealings and try to elevate ourselves in the scale of intelligence, and prepare ourselves for the benefits and blessings of Heaven’s common education. This is the point that we have been striving, studying and struggling to attain. We want to be educated in God’s way, that we may submit ourselves to God and be willing to be governed by his laws in all things.

We have got a little of the Lord’s property in our possession, and we call it ours. Now, if you undertake to persuade some persons to go with you, the question immediately arises, What are you going to give us to pay us for going with you to Zion? This is about the feeling, but the property which we own and are stewards over is just what the Lord has placed in our hands. He has stored away property for the benefit of his penniless children, and he will bestow it upon them in due time. It is hard to tell what the anticipations of the people are; but if they will acknowledge the hand of God in all things and live by the truth as it is revealed unto them, they will increase in influence and power with God and all good men. When they have enjoyed all that they can enjoy of life and life’s blessings, as they are gratuitously bestowed by God their Father, who do you suppose will be the most accommodated with the Temple that is to be built? If the Lord comes down to visit that Temple, he will come down to bless his people and not to benefit himself. Suppose he should come now, who are prepared to receive him? and who would share the greatest good and be the most accommodated by the building of this Temple? Why the blessings would be the people’s; the happiness and the benefits thereof would be for the people, and the glory that it would afford to the Almighty would only be that which the blessing would afford him of seeing his children happy in the enjoyment of the benefits of his mercy. This would be his blessing, and he would also enjoy the shelter that was made for him in the Temple of our God. Now, let us go to work with this feeling, remembering that we have a great deal of responsibility and care upon us; let us not cease to be active, for we have always plenty to do; we have always enough responsibility to keep us busy and to keep the great stone of the kingdom of God rolling onward. It is a common saying that a rolling stone gathers no moss, but I do not care for this saying, for I know to the soul that lives in the Gospel and enjoys its life-imparting influences, there is a stream of imperishable wealth flowing unto such a soul. A man cannot perform a good action without its bringing its corresponding reward, neither can he perform an evil one without its corresponding effects upon his life and character.

My invitation is, especially to the Elders, let us go abroad as men of God to build up the kingdom of our Lord and Master. Let us know nothing while upon our missions but that which tends to the interests of that kingdom to which we belong, and let all we do be done for the interest and upbuilding of the kingdom of God. Let us carry its interests with us in our hearts; let us speak of it in the private circle; do not let it be spoken of in the pulpit alone, but let it be spoken of between man and man, husband and wife, father and son, parents and their children, and in all life’s associations; yes, let the light of eternal truth be kindled in every heart, let the fire that will consume the dross of our errors be lighted up in every soul, in every household, until every household becomes a sanctuary of the Most High, and until every family becomes a worshiping assembly such as will be acceptable to God—a people whom he will delight to own, to honor and to bless, and then, whether a man have one wife or two, or a dozen, his home will be a happy one, it will be a little heaven below. It will be a happy one, because it will be a peaceful one and because that home will simply be one sacrifice upon the altar devoted to God, to truth, to principles of purity and to heaven. “But,” says one man, “can a brother obtain celestial glory if he has only one wife?” Yes, he can have great glory with one wife. “And,” says this brother, “would you not advise some men not to have but one wife?” Yes, I certainly would. “And who would you advise?” I would give this advice, because I know that there are a great many more men getting more than one wife than are capable of treating them decently; I am sensible of this. But then I have no advice to give about getting wives at all, but I have some advice that I always have to give to those that have wives, and that is to treat them kindly. “Well, but,” says one, “I would like to have my wives obey me.” Well, then, I will tell you how you should act. You be obedient to those who are placed to counsel and guide you in the principles of life; and if you follow their counsel, your wives will not be likely to rebel against you. This is what I have to say upon this subject, and the reason I say it is because I want to have that portion of intellectual humanity that is subservient to me understand their position and relationship to each other and to God. If I make myself before them a continual, perpetual and unceasing example of obedience, and then ask them to obey me, I shall have no fear about their compliance. I seldom, if ever, ask them to obey me. If they do not know that and do not feel that I have honored them, they have not as much sense as I have given them credit for.

I would like my family to love God and keep his commandments, to abide by the principles of purity, to love to impart them to their children by practice, by teaching and by example and by every means by which children can be influenced by their parents. Then, if this were carried out in every family, there would be something in the tendency of our lives that would have a regenerating influence upon the rising generation, physically and mentally. Then let us try to be Saints as husbands and fathers, Saints as children and friends, and in all life’s relationships let us act truthfully and consistently. And if we who minister in the ordinances of the house of God were to do this, and were all to open our mouths in favor of the truth, where the truth is dropping and distilling upon the people like the dews of heaven, this would make everything green, fresh and lively throughout the land of Zion, and then Zion will increase and grow and its never-ceasing embellishments will be seen in the conduct of the people, for Zion will be sanctified by the conduct of the Saints.

Now, my brethren and sisters, in conclusion, let me say, may God bless you and me in doing all the good we can, in practicing righteousness, in doing that which we know to be right and in living that which we do not know but are taught by faith to observe, and thus fill up our lives in usefulness, then when we get to know the truth more perfectly we shall rejoice therein. If we only do this, we will bring our application of the truth home and there allow it to do its work, for the fruits of the truth are here and we shall realize the blessings of them for ever. And that this may be your happy condition and mine is my prayer, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Knowledge, Correctly Applied, the True Source of Wealth and Power, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

We have met to commemorate the first day of the week, and we hope that every heart will be concentrated upon the business before us. We do not hold that the first day of the week is the only day upon which to worship God, for we ought also to worship him on the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. It was the custom of Christ’s disciples to meet together on the first day of the week to break bread in remembrance of his death and resurrection; we follow the same custom. The Lord knows the wants of his mortal children, and has appointed unto them one-seventh part of the time for rest, though we cannot say, in every sense of the word, that this is a day of rest to the Latter-day Saints or to the professing Christians, some of whom are in the habit of rising at sunrise to hold prayer-meetings; they then eat breakfast and hurry away to the morning service until noon; in the afternoon they again have meetings, and class meetings, prayer meetings, confessing meetings, &c., and so continue until nine in the evening. To such persons I cannot consider it really a day of rest. According to the revelations given to us, it is a day upon which we are commanded to meet to break bread, to confess our faults to God and to one another, being determined to lay aside every evil and prepare ourselves for the duties of the coming week; so we meet together to worship the Lord and to speak of his goodness, to wait before him, to be instructed and have our minds guided and directed in the ways of life and to remember the Lord’s death until he comes again. I am happy that we have the privilege this morning of meeting in this capacity, under the quiet shade of this comfortable Bowery.

Our hearts have been made to feel the divine influence that comes from heaven to prepare us to build up the Zion of our God upon the earth in the latter days. That we may enjoy our meeting this morning, let us strive to concentrate our thoughts upon the object of our assembling, for there is a proneness in the mind to wander, and it often requires considerable effort to stay it upon any one purpose. The cares and wants of this life occupy our minds deeply, but when we come to understanding we shall learn that our Father in heaven takes cognizance of all these matters. “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.” “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” “He giveth to the beast his food and to the young ravens which cry.” If we are faithful we shall learn in due time that all things are sustained and endured by his all-wise providences. We are too apt to trust entirely to our own ability for procuring the desirable necessaries of life. We are too apt to suppose that we alone guide, govern and control our doings and their results. We are too apt to aspire to the power to control the whole world and to make all bend to our wishes and dictation.

Man is the lord of the earth, but with his knowledge and power he is not able to tell how a blade of grass grows. All men must come to this very rational conclusion, that “Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but it is God who gives the increase.” It was not our choice that we came into the midst of this desert region, but through the providence of Him who governs and controls all things we are planted in the midst of these deserts. There are reasons for this, and causes produce their effects; in short, we are here for the express purpose of preparing for the coming of the Son of Man, to bear off his kingdom to the nations and gather up the house of Israel, according to the words of the ancient prophets and the revelations given to us in our day.

We are now gathering the children of Abraham who have come through the loins of Joseph and his sons, more especially through Ephraim, whose children are mixed among all the nations of the earth. The sons of Ephraim are wild and uncultivated, unruly, ungovernable. The spirit in them is turbulent and resolute; they are the Anglo-Saxon race, and they are upon the face of the whole earth, bearing the spirit of rule and dictation, to go forth from conquering to conquer. They search wide creation and scan every nook and corner of this earth to find out what is upon and within it. I see a congregation of them before me to-day. No hardship will discourage these men; they will penetrate the deepest wilds and overcome almost insurmountable difficulties to develop the treasures of the earth, to further their indomitable spirit for adventure.

We are not in this region by choice, and there is no hardship that this people would not face and overcome. If there is a corner of the earth that can possibly be inhabited by mortals, the Latter-day Saints would venture there if they conceived it to be their duty, and overcome every obstacle and soon make the desert waste blossom as a rose. Such an undertaking is as easy to them, comparatively speaking, as it is to go from one town to another. It is marvelous to the world that the poor, ignorant, deluded “Mormons,” as they call them, can make so much real improvement. Is there another people on the earth, with the same facilities, that can do what the Latter-day Saints can? There is not. Is there another people on this earth that are as united as they are? There is not. Is there another people on this earth that can be controlled as easily as they can? There is not. There is a good reason for all this. There is a certain portion of divinity within mankind. This prompts man to seek in every possible way after that which will sustain him.

It is true mankind have wandered and have fallen from that which they might have attained through the redemption made by Jesus Christ; but there is one point in connection with this statement on which I differ from the orthodox divines of the day. They say that man is naturally prone to evil. In some respects this is true, where by the force of example and wrong tradition has become ingrained, but if man had always been permitted to follow the instincts of his nature, had he always followed the great and holy principles of his organism, they would have led him into the path of life everlasting, which the whole human family are constantly trying to find.

Every person is, to a greater or less degree, seeking to sustain himself, to obtain influence, power, wealth, wisdom and knowledge, all to further his individual aims. It is somewhat remarkable that wealth is considered the root and foundation of all earthly influence and power, when the truth is that gold is not power. A man may possess all the gold, silver, and precious stones in the world, which are called wealth, and yet starve to death. Wealth does not give true greatness. It will purchase medical aid in case of sickness; it will purchase food, clothing and shelter; but true wealth consists in the skill to produce those conveniences and comforts from the elements. All the power and dignity that wealth can bestow is a mere shadow, the substance is found in the bone and sinew of the toiling millions. Well directed labor is the true power that supplies our wants. It gives regal grandeur to potentates, education and supplies to religious and political ministers, and supplies the wants of the thousands of millions of earth’s sons and daughters. There are conditions and panics in society that all the power of earthly wealth cannot avert.

How happy, how secure that nation or people would be who knew how to sustain themselves for ever and for ever. Had the rulers of our nation known how to sustain the Union to an everlasting continuance, this knowledge would have been beyond all price. Had they possessed wisdom to have maintained the nation in its true character, in all its liberal institutions built upon the Constitution and Declaration of Rights, the Government would have continued inviolate in truth and purity and power, and would have continued to increase in power, importance and extent. True knowledge would have enabled them easily to accomplish all this. True knowledge is true power, and power adds to power—influence to influence. If this had continued in our nation, it would not merely have annexed Texas to our flag, but would have added the whole continent of North and South America. What would the nation have given for the knowledge to accomplish all this? What would the present rulers give for knowledge and power to so control the minds of that portion of the people who are still in the Union as to continue themselves in office—the leading spirits of the nation—to dictate the condition, future life and prosperity of this great and magnanimous people?

When the pioneers came into these valleys we knew nearly all the families which composed the settlements in Upper and Lower California. Is there a man that has ever been elected to represent that people in Congress that has not bought his election with money? Men are willing to spend all they have to attain the accomplishment of their purposes in a political point of view. All this power can be obtained by political aspirants without money, if they possessed true knowledge. I could be sent as a delegate to Congress without giving one farthing for the office, because I have true knowledge. Teach the people true knowledge, and they will govern themselves.

Men marvel that I possess the influence I do over this people, no matter where on the earth they are located. If we had fifty thousand members of the Church in China, though they never saw me, they would obey my counsel, because I send true knowledge to them and teach them the principles that tend to their own good and happiness. Their eyes are open to see this, and they willingly obey my counsel. Men think the power and influence I possess are obtained by necromancy or some other evil power. The power of the Devil is great upon the earth, but it is fast playing out, and the inhabitants of the earth must have true knowledge.

It has been told me from my youth up that opposition is the life of business, especially in the political arena. It is opposition that has ruined our nation, and has been, is and will be the ruin of all nations. In our nation slavery is the great bone of contention. Do we oppose the principle of servitude? I oppose it not in my judgment. If I have a man-servant or a maid-servant, they are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone—they are the children of God as much as I am. In the providences of God their ability is such that they cannot rise above the position of a servant, and they are willing to serve me and have me dictate their labor. Then let them do service to me, and it is my duty to treat them kindly and reward them accordingly. All the nations of the earth are composed of one flesh and blood, and God will bring into judgment the nation that abuses the liberties it possesses. If he has given me power to rule this people, or to own a hundred slaves, he requires at my hands how I use this influence and power over his creatures, and he will punish me if I abuse it. If I were the dictator of the nation in which I live, I should be held responsible to Him for that power and influence. He would expect me to rule in righteousness.

This people is an astonishment to all the world. We pick up the beggar in the street in England—and we have baptized hundreds of them—we bring him here and put him in a situation to earn his living. They never owned anything before, but after they come here they soon begin to own a pig, a cow, a few chickens, and by-and-bye a team; then open farms and soon become men of wealth. It is our business to elevate the beggar and not keep him in ignorance.

If you wish to gain power in the minds of any people, give them the same opportunity that you possess to become independent and self-sustaining, and endow them with all the wisdom and knowledge that they are capable of receiving, and let them increase with you and unitedly grow and become strong. Through their oneness, the Latter-day Saints have become a terror to the enemies of truth. We do not buy the people with money, but we have striven in every way that is lawful and right to get a little money to bring the poor and destitute of other nations here and put them in a position to take care of themselves. I am sorry to say that some few have requited this kindness by joining hands with our foes against us and have become our most deadly enemies. They, however, have no power to injure us, for God rules in the heavens; and if we pursue our course and the even tenor of our lives, the Lord will spread truth in the world and all nations will possess it and be influenced by it; then they will know how to govern and control themselves, but now they do not. With all the power I possess, I cannot prevent a man from cursing and swearing if he is disposed to do so; the Lord himself has not influence enough to do it, what then is to be done with him? Guide his mind and affections into a better channel until he sees the folly of his course and understands the benefit of a more righteous way and a more manly life, then will he pursue the path to truth, peace and the fellowship of the Saints of God on earth and in the heavens; then will he increase in love, joy, wisdom, knowledge and power. Are not these things so? Judge ye, my friends.

I am accused of a thousand evils, but I have never feared but one thing with regard to myself—and that is, that I should be left to do an evil that people may truly blame me; while they cannot speak evil of me and tell the truth, it never harms me. I care nothing what false statements are made about me when I faithfully follow the counsels of Heaven; they are no more to me than the croaking of the crane that flies over my head. If a High Priest, an Elder, or any other man that comes within the purview of my influence does wrong, I would as soon tell him of it as not and show him how to do right; if he is offended at me for so doing, it proves that he is destitute of knowledge. If the angel of darkness reproves you for your evil deeds, thank him for it, but tell him to keep at a respectable distance and that you will try not to need any more of his kind offices.

The nation that is angry at the reproof and rebuke of the righteous proves that it is on the high way to ruin. We do not coerce nor drive people. I am very much of the opinion that it would be useless for anybody to undertake to drive me to heaven or to hell. My independence is sacred to me—it is a portion of that same Deity that rules in the heavens. There is not a being upon the face of the earth who is made in the image of God, who stands erect and is organized as God is, that should be deprived of the free exercise of his agency so far as he does not infringe upon others’ rights, save by good advice and a good example.

It is written in the Scriptures, “If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long a time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then show us the Father?” The Father is a perfect man in every part, a person of tabernacle endowed with all the features and attributes of a perfect being.

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” How vain it is for us to think that we are going to grasp all things independently of God. Monarchs on their thrones have taken unto themselves power to hold and control the destinies of the people over whom they reign, when suddenly death in some way has seized them and their thrones have been left vacant for other aspirants to power and rule. When misuse of power has reached a certain stage, the divinity that is within the people asserts its right and they free themselves from the power of despotism. The nation that lifts itself up against God and rules in unrighteousness he will call to an account in his own way.

Elevation, exaltation and glory are the objects of the Father in peopling this earth with his progeny. Do not be afraid that I say too much when I call his earthly children his progeny. It is supposed by many modern Christians that the Old Testament has become obsolete; they regard it more as a book of history relating more particularly to past ages than to us; but we will quote from if in support of God’s being our Father and our being his progeny. Moses gives us to understand that Adam was created precisely after the image and likeness of his God. And in the New Testament Jesus Christ says, “and call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ.” Again, Paul says, “Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” He is the Father of every spirit that has ever taken an earthly tabernacle. Again, Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, says, “Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,” &c.; and “I and my Father are one,” says Jesus; what, one body? No, it never entered the Savior’s mind that such a rendering of this saying would ever enter into the minds of persons holding the least claim to good sense. They are no more one person than I and one of my sons are one person. If my son receives my teaching, will walk in the path I mark out for him to walk in, if his faith is the same as mine, his purpose is the same, and he does the work of his father as Jesus did the work of his Father, then is my son one with me in the Scriptural sense. “Then said Jesus unto them, when ye have lifted up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” Jesus was the express image of his Father, and he was so much like the rest of the people in his day that he passed and repassed among them as another man, without creating any special remark. “Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was?”

Christ and his Father are one in their faith, in their views, in their ministry, in their purpose and in their operations to accomplish their Godlike designs. Jesus came from the heavens to the earth to subdue all things and bring all into subjection to the will of the Father, “That they all may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one.” No one can suppose that Jesus wished to be understood that he and his Father and his disciples were all one person.

We believe in one God, one Mediator and one Holy Ghost. We cannot believe for a moment that God is destitute of body, parts, passions or attributes. Attributes can be made manifest only through an organized personage. All attributes are couched in and are the results of organized existence. True knowledge will teach the people who they are and the design of their creation. We are the sons and daughters of celestial beings, and the germ of the Deity dwells within us. When our spirits took possession of these tabernacles, they were as pure as the angels of God, wherefore total depravity cannot be a true doctrine. “You must be a freethinker, Mr. Young.” Yes, and also a free-doer. I am not afraid to rebuke any person when necessary, nor to tell the truth anywhere when it is proper and I am called upon to do so.

Do you wish to possess enlarged influence in a political point of view? Gather around you the poor and honest of mankind and bestow your charity on them, not by giving them in the way that charity is almost universally understood, but supply them labor that will pay an interest on the outlay of means and, at the same time, afford food, raiment and shelter to the laborer; in this way the man of means becomes a benefactor to his race. Let him instruct those who know not how to cultivate the soil, who know not how to plant gardens and orchards and vineyards, in all these useful and profitable employments. Let him teach them the use of animals and how to profit by their labors and products. After he has taught them how to raise the wool and the flax, let him teach them how to-make clothing of various kinds. Now they have their bread, meat, clothing, vegetables, fruit and dwellings which they have produced by their labor under the direction of the rich, good man whose capital and wisdom have elevated those poor persons from a state of destitution and want to a state of comfort and comparative independence. Now, I ask, has he not gained great influence over that people? and as they increase will not his influence become more extensive? Then let him teach them the truth, and not divide them up into Whigs, Tories, Democrats, &c.

Who is the most suitable judge between man and man? The man who is the most capable of judging between right and wrong; let him sit upon the judgment seat, and do not ask him whether he is a Democrat, a Whig, a Tory, or a Republican. Is he a just man, and will he render in impartial judgment? If so, I care not to what political party he belongs; I am content that he should adjudicate between me and my neighbor.

We teach the whole human family the way of life and salvation. The Latter-day Saints have the advantage of the same power that revealed to Peter of old that Jesus was the Christ; “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

The Latter-day Saints and every other person who is entitled to salvation, and all except those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost, may know that Jesus is the Christ in the same way that Peter knew it. Miracles do not give this knowledge to mankind, though they may serve as collateral evidence to strengthen the believer. The miracles of Jesus were known to the Jews, yet they suffered him to be put to death as a deceiver of mankind and one possessed of a devil.

If miracles prove a person to be divinely sent, then we are safe in declaring the Witch of Endor, who raised up Samuel, and the magicians of Egypt to be divinely sent. I will have it printed and sent to the world that no miracle is any proof of a man’s being sent of God to perform a mission in his name. Though Jesus Christ wrought miracles before the eyes of the Jews, they clamored for his blood and said “Crucify him, crucify him, and let his blood be upon us and our children.” This has certainly come upon them. Jesus Christ told what would befall the nation of the Jews, and it has been literally fulfilled. Were I to bring a proof in favor of our religion I would quote the sayings, relating to this nation, of that man whom God has sent in the latter-days with eternal life to them. There is more solid proof in favor of a Prophet’s being divinely sent when his words are fulfilled than all the miracles he can work.

The nineteenth century is not destitute of miracles; we have spirit-rapping, spirit-writing, spirit-muttering, table-moving and the curing of diseases of long standing by the same influence and power. “and when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter, should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?”

If all men understood the great work of the last days brought forth by the Prophet Joseph and its ultimate results, they would invest all their capital stock in this great speculation. We are for self, for power, for knowledge, for thrones, for dominions, for eternal life. We are for the kingdoms that God has promised to the righteous; and they have received great and precious promises. Paul says, “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours,” &c. Again, “and every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life.” He has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, and he will give them all things. We are serving a good master, and he will give us all he has promised. Will you all enlist and serve this great Captain of our salvation to the end of the war? Then shall you obtain all the influence and power you can wish for. In the government of God there is all the security offered to its subjects they can desire; in it their individual rights and property are perfectly safe. Were I worth millions of money I should wish to invest it under a government that offered to me the greatest protection and security. God rules in the heavens and on the earth; he sendeth seed time and harvest; winter and summer; he controls the good and the evil, and stays the evil and the plague when it has answered his pleasure; when the contending armies of our nation have served his purpose, he will say peace be still and the civil strife will cease.

My brethren and sisters are anxious for my safety, and will warn me of danger. I know better than they do when there is danger, and when it lies harmless like a lifeless tiger at the feet of the hunter. There have been times when I could travel abroad with impunity, and within twenty-four hours afterwards the assassin would be on my path. There are times when I could go to California and they would hail me as one friend hails another, and the spirit of the times would soon be reversed. Joseph Smith knew this, and when he went to Carthage he said, “I go to death; I go like a lamb to the slaughter; I go to my fate.” Those who understand the spirit that rules in the atmosphere and in the hearts of the children of men are aware that they do not feel to-day as yesterday, to-morrow as to-day. Many men have greeted me and my brethren with all the cordiality with which one man can greet another, and in a short time their feelings have changed to the most deadly hatred. Confidence has left the human family; there is but little substantial principle or virtue left in which confidence can be placed. We have to restore confidence to the world by being just and true to ourselves, to one another and to our God from this time henceforth and for ever.

I suppose that more than half a million of the brave sons of our country now sleep in the dust in consequence of what I consider an unnecessary war, and the end is not yet. They have left their wives and daughters unprotected in a land rent asunder with a fratricidal war, and what are to become of them? You remember the scripture which reads, “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.” He may say in the latter times, Now, my sons, take unto yourselves wives of the daughters of men and raise up a posterity unto me, and teach them the way of life and salvation and the arts of peace, that they may war no more for ever.

And they will gather up the old cannon and weapons of war that are now making such devastation, and convert them into implements of husbandry and useful machinery. By and bye it will be said to the servants of God, “Go down and see if there is anything worth saving,” for it is written, “Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.”

Let us faithfully live our religion and learn what our present lives are worth.

May God bless everybody that can be blessed is my prayer all the time: Amen.

Universal Salvation—the Blessings Enjoyed By the Saints in Zion, Etc.

Daniel H. Wells

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I feel grateful for the privilege of bearing my testimony to the truths of our holy religion, in which I hope to live all the days of my life. It has taught me things that are of importance to my soul’s welfare here and hereafter. It has placed me upon a basis of improvement and knowledge that leads to understanding, wisdom and power in the counsels of heaven.

What true conception had we of God until our minds were lit up with the truths which the Almighty has revealed in these last days? We did not know in what capacity he was our Father; we had no rightful conception or knowledge of God or of his Son Jesus Christ, of whom it is said, to know is life eternal. The learned divines of the day could not inform us anything about him, or give us any information in regard to our own origin. All this we have learned by embracing “Mormonism,” or the truths which the Almighty has revealed in these latter times. Now we know he did reveal himself in former days. We can now see and understand what these things mean that have been written by former Prophets and servants of God who were inspired by the revelations of Jesus Christ; but these things we could not understand until he revealed himself again and we have received this knowledge through his servants in our own day.

The orthodox churches have taught us that those who are of the orthodox may possibly be saved, but for the heterodox there is no chance of salvation at all—they must go down to, and be damned in an endless hell, must be doomed to the bottomless pit. They, however, had no just conception of the design of the Almighty with regard to our being and could give us no knowledge with regard to our origin or destiny. Another class of religionists would save all in the kingdom of God—bring all into his presence indiscriminately, no matter whether they are in their sins or not; the plan of salvation, they say, is sufficient to save them all.

There is a plan whereby all who have not sinned the sin unto death may attain to a certain glory and salvation. There is a principle revealed in the great economy of Heaven by which we can act for another; whereby the generations which have died in ignorance of the Gospel may be administered for by the living, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh. This principle has been revealed in these last days, and it is a great and glorious principle; one that gives great joy and satisfaction to the believer. It throws a mantle of charity over the whole human family; our heavenly Father does not consign to an endless misery his children who have not been informed in the plan of life and salvation and who have not lifted up their hands knowingly against him; it provides a way in which they may participate in the blessings of our common Father which he dispenses to his faithful children. Our holy religion teaches us to extend charity, knowledge and power to all mankind. Are they not our brethren and sisters? Have we not a common origin? Have we not a common Father who is the Father of our spirits? Then are we not of one family, brethren and sisters indeed, and should we not so act towards each other?

How great should be our satisfaction, joy and thankfulness to our Father in heaven that we have become the recipients of this knowledge, that we can place our feet upon the rock of salvation and become messengers of salvation to all people; to take them from their low and degraded condition and elevate them to the knowledge of God. Is there no reward in this? Is there no glory, no blessing in this? Time will disclose whether there is a blessing or not in reaching forth the helping hand to the honest poor and needy among the nations to deliver them from the thraldom of sin and from the poverty that presses heavily upon them; by these have they been chained down hand and foot and could not help themselves. We break their chains asunder and bring them into the liberty of the Gospel; we not only unbind their spirits but their hands and their feet, and we place them in a condition to take care of themselves. This is true charity. You may give a piece of bread to a hungry person, and when the cravings of hunger return some one else must administer to his wants again; to put that person in a position to earn his own subsistence is true charity; in this way you direct his feet in the path of true independence, he is then only dependent on his own exertions and on the blessings of his God.

When people are taken from the pernicious influences that are too prevalent in the world and directed in the paths of sobriety, truth and heavenly intelligence, what is there to hinder them in the midst of the Saints from walking in those paths? The effort to do right continually under such circumstances is nothing in comparison to what it is when they are continually surrounded with evil influences and evil examples. In this they are benefited and blessed, and here again is the mantle of charity and love thrown over the poor and destitute who hunger and thirst after righteousness as well as for those means necessary for their temporal subsistence.

These are a few of the opportunities and privileges which are conferred upon this people of doing good. They have the greatest opportunity of doing real substantial good to themselves and their fellow creatures of any people on the face of the earth. Those who come up here and assist in the great Work will also participate in the great blessings which will be their reward. Let these precious opportunities which are thrown in our way be eagerly improved, for it is a great and glorious Work in which we are engaged, and one which is full of benefit to the human race at large.

Why then should the world seek to subvert, overthrow, persecute, destroy and make waste those who are engaged in so great and beneficial an undertaking. There is no reason why men should tread upon the oil and the wine. There is no reason why men should not sustain holy and righteous principles that will elevate and exalt mankind if they will let them. There is no reason whatever why people should oppose the Latter-day Saints or seek their destruction and overthrow; when they do it they do it without reason—they do it because they hate righteous principles, to satisfy their own wicked intentions and desires; they love to lie rather than to speak the truth, and they do it at the instigation of the Devil without any rational feeling or reason whatever. They will be condemned because they love darkness rather than light. They have the power to do evil, and inasmuch as they list to obey the powers of evil they will be damned. They have the same privilege that we have of obeying the truth and of receiving light, knowledge and intelligence from heaven, and may participate in the same blessings we enjoy. When they choose the path of evil they do it on their own responsibility. A great portion of the world will reject the good and cleave to the evil; this has been so from the beginning. As astonishing as it may appear, a vast majority of mankind will not receive the truth, but they will reject it and trample under their feet the oil and the wine, crucify the Redeemer afresh, slay the Prophets and overthrow truth and righteousness as long as they have power to do so.

But the day has now come when those principles will be sustained on the earth. They have already obtained a foot-hold in these valleys; the Almighty has set his hand to work to establish his kingdom on the earth never again to be thrown down or to be prevailed against.

We are here in the mountains, thank God for that; and we hold the principles of life and salvation for all the world; we send forth the heralds of life to proclaim them, and they are taking deep root in the earth. The power to bind and to loose is here, even the power of Heaven, and it cannot be eradicated again and overcome. That day is past. We live in a day fruitful of big events. The Lord Almighty is walking about and we have heard his footsteps. He is at work in the midst of the nations; this is very manifest to us who dwell here four thousand feet above the level of the sea; from this elevation we can see clearly and have a better understanding of the movements of God among the nations beneath us. The Lord has anointed our eyes and we see through a purer atmosphere.

I believe we appreciate as well as we can these great mercies and blessings. There is one of them which we certainly can appreciate very sensibly, and that is the blessing of peace and quiet in these sequestered vales. The Lord has greatly blessed this land and caused it to bring forth in its strength nourishment for our sustenance; he has planted our feet by the still waters and given to us health, wealth, peace and quietude. We can appreciate these blessings now if we never could before, when we see the desolation and misery which have been foretold coming upon the wicked and ungodly nations. A river of light and intelligence flows to this people from the heavens through the holy Priesthood. The fountains of life eternal are opened for all to go to and drink. Can we think of this without being melted in thankfulness to our Father and our God? Should we not put forth our best endeavors in the channel of our duty? Should we not be honest, faithful and true with that which is committed to our trust, and diligent in the performance of every duty?

Can we pursue unerringly the course marked out for us by him who is the choice of Israel to lead and guide Israel in the great interests of life. He instructs us to draw from the elements that which we consume and become independent and self-sustaining. We have enlisted to walk in this channel—a great many have done so. Can we continue to improve still more and produce still greater results by a still greater perseverance?

I was pleased and gratified beyond utterance at the report brought back from the south by the President, when he said there was a decided improvement in this people; thank God for that; but it is a great thing to improve. Let us continue to improve, inasmuch as we have fallen short heretofore, and let us seek to remove every obstacle out of our path and bring about the temporal improvements we are told to perform with greater celerity. I allude to these things because they give us comfort, pointing, as they do, to greater freedom and greater independence; at the same time, we will not forget to improve our minds and progress in the knowledge of God and in the things which pertain to eternal life and glory hereafter. We will not forget to instill into the young minds of our children principles of honor, of truth and of righteousness towards God, and obedience to him, to his servants and to his laws, for it is this that will make them honorable and great in his eyes and will exalt them in his presence.

If any of us have been guilty of dishonest practices, let us eschew evil and seek to do good instead, let us eradicate the poison of sin from our own bosoms, and let the Spirit and power of the Almighty reign there and have free course to run and be glorified in us, and let this influence spread abroad through every ramification of society. These are my desires and most sincere wishes. Let us be united in our love for God and truth, for in unity there is strength, and in unity of this kind is made manifest the almighty power of God. If we do this everything is for us; nothing shall be withheld from those who love God and keep his commandments; all things that are worth having will he give to them. These are blessings and mercies which are enjoyed by no people besides this people.

The self-styled orthodoxy of the day will do no person any good, so far as giving them a title to an inheritance in the presence of God is concerned; there is no balm of Gilead in all they can do, say or bestow on mankind, for the fountain of life and intelligence is not with them. So far as they inculcate morality, it has a salutary influence in restraining mankind from sinking back into the worst phases of barbarism, but it receives no impetus, no progression from their teachings, for those who make no profession of religion at all are generally more strictly moral, more strenuously honest and more faithful in the duties of life than those who profess the religions of Christendom.

The religion we profess is the fountain of intelligence; it inculcates morality, truth, virtue and every principle of true knowledge, and this leads to true power and true excellence; it has with it the vigor of life and leads to exaltation and to the presence of our Father and God. Let us appreciate our blessings and be careful not to hurt the oil and the wine; let us be careful that we do not trample upon the principles which our Father has revealed for our guidance, but let us be constantly actuated by the influence of the Spirit of the Almighty which is within us and let us never grieve it away; if we do this, we shall not wander into forbidden paths, into darkness nor into error, nor be left to believe a lie that we may be damned. If we will follow out the principles of our holy religion, we will become the greatest and the mightiest people upon the earth, and we shall have power given to us to go forth in the mighty power of Israel’s God and redeem the earth from the thraldom of sin and its consequences and raise high the banner of freedom, the banner of salvation to the human race. There is a nucleus formed where all the honest-in-heart may rally—where they will find safety for themselves and their means; here their rights will be respected and their means protected. All people can rally to this standard because it is firm and steadfast, and the individual rights of all will be respected; and it is the only place on the face of the earth where this assurance can be given, all else will crumble and go to pieces and be wasted away. This kingdom embraces all that is permanent and lasting; it will endure throughout time and throughout all eternity, and we with it. We do know that the Lord has commenced his great and marvelous Work and he will continue it and break in pieces the wicked and ungodly nations until they shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and his kingdom which is now being set up will continue for ever and ever. This is our testimony to all men; our cry is, Come out of her, my people, lest you partake of her abominations and of her plagues which have been decreed upon her.

May the Lord help us to take a course that shall lead us onward and upward, that we may receive and hold the dominion for God, and that it may continue to increase and spread until the earth is redeemed and Christ shall possess the kingdoms under the whole heavens, which is my prayer, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Home Manufactures—the Necessity of Greater Attention to Them—Tithing

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 7, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I have a few things to say to the Latter-day Saints with regard to ourselves. From the first of our coming into these valleys we have instructed the people concerning the facts that are now so visible and manifest in the nation to which we are attached. It was then understood by us and was as plainly before our minds as are the facts that are now in their progress.

We also have a warfare to engage in, and, as the Apostle says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”

The warfare that I wish particularly to speak of to-day is that which wars against all opposition to economy and to the obtaining of the knowledge of God and that wisdom which comes from him pertaining to self-preservation. My warfare is, and has been for years, to get the people to understand that if they do not take care of themselves they will not be taken care of; that if we do not lay the foundation to feed and clothe and shelter ourselves we shall perish with hunger and with cold; we might also suffer in the summer season from the direct rays of the sun upon our naked and unprotected bodies. We have striven for years to convince the Latter-day Saints that rags and ruffles will cease being brought to us from a foreign market, though a struggle is still made to bring them here. We have warred against the principle of promoting and making wealthy those who wish us no good, and we have found it hard to convince our brethren and sisters that the saying of the Savior is really as true when applied to us as it was when applied to his followers in his day, “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad.” Thousands of this people this day will not believe that saying. We have this to war against, and the warfare should be engaged in by every Latter-day Saint. The same responsibility, the same influence, the same power and the same objects to be attained should rest upon every person who is a member of the Church, as much as upon me and my brethren who are contending with me constantly for the permanent good of Israel. We have contended long to convince this people that they must become self-sustaining.

I can, notwithstanding this, endorse all that brother George A. Smith said this morning concerning the great improvement of this people and the good feeling they manifested to us on our southern trip. The people who have settled in that country are certainly contented. Many of them said to me; “We love to live in Great Salt Lake City, love to go to meeting there, but we should very much dislike now to be counseled to return there again to make our permanent abode. We like the country and climate here, we like our calling and situation, and we are happy and contented.” I am ready to endorse all the goodness and good-feeling that were manifested, and I can truly say that love, union, faith, fervency of spirit and faithfulness to our religion are greatly on the increase among the Latter-day Saints, or I am much mistaken; still the warfare is not ended in regard to our being self-sustaining.

We have evidence now before us which sufficiently proves that the ruffles and the rags will not continue to come here for a great length of time, and we shall have to do without them or make them ourselves. Sixteen years ago, when we were camped upon this temple block, I told the people that there existed, in the elements around us in these mountain regions, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp, silk and every element for producing the necessary articles used by man for food, raiment and shelter. We breathe it in the atmosphere, drink it in the water, dig it when we dig in the earth, and walk over it when we walk. Here are the elements for every cereal, vegetable and fruit, and for every textile material that grows in the same latitude and altitude in any part of the world. No country in the world will yield more and a greater variety of the products of life than will portions of this mountain country. We have proven all this to be true. There is not a better wheat country than this, and we can raise as good rye and corn as can be produced in any part of the earth; we can also raise as good vegetables as I ever saw, and in as great a variety as need be asked for. We have raised hemp, flax, cotton and silk, all of the best quality. We can make ropes and sacking, and cotton, silk and woollen goods in abundance; we have the elements and skill to combine them.

There is no better sheep country than this. Some farmers suppose that their failure to raise wool is owing to ill luck; this is a mistake. I have expended more, in the early settlement of this country, to produce wool than any one man. I have bought sheep by hundreds, but I never saw the time that I could go out and herd them myself, consequently had to depend upon others. The treatment that sheep receive from most of those having them in care is by no means conducive to their thrift. The lambs are too often left for the wolves and dogs to herd or to the care of an inexperienced boy or girl. Large numbers of sheep are often huddled into little, filthy pens and kept sixteen hours out of the twenty-four in their own filth and stench. For this you will be called to judgment, and if there is no one else to charge you with the wrongs I will. There is not a better country in the world to produce wool than this mountain country, if the sheep are properly taken care of.

Now, then, I ask, how many of my Brethren and sisters will enlist with me in this warfare, not to contend with and against carnal weapons, but against the foolish traditions, pride and vain imaginations of the people called Latter-day Saints? Will my wives and children enlist with me in this work? I have striven with all my might to set a good example before this people; I have striven with all the power I possessed to introduce every good into their midst. I do not know of an evil practice that I am not willing to part with this hour to do good to this people. If there is a wrong in my practice, religiously, morally, politically or financially, I wish some of you would let me know it. If I strive to do right and to take a course to save myself and this people, should not the people do the same? Myself and my brethren who are with me heart and hand are always ready and willing to do everything in our power to promote the kingdom of God upon the earth and to save the people who profess to be Saints, and all the inhabitants of the earth that can be saved, then why should not all the Saints do and feel the same? Are we not all under obligation to be Saints, to build up the kingdom of God, to bring forth righteousness and deliverance to the honest-in-heart, to gather up the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to send the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, giving all a privilege to hear and believe it and to build up the Zion of our God upon the earth? Is not this obligatory upon every member of this Church and kingdom, upon one as well as upon another in their calling and capacity? You all answer in the affirmative. Then why not begin from this day to sustain ourselves and cease feeding and clothing those who wish us no good and giving them our money for that which is comparatively worthless?

Is brother Heber C. Kimball willing to enlist with me in this work? I can say yes for him. Are his wives and children willing to enlist with him and then with me? Is brother Daniel H. Wells willing to enlist with us? I can answer favorably for him and for a great many others. Why not every man and woman go to with their mights and try to do something towards sustaining themselves?

The feelings of many are, “How are we going to get gold to buy what we want—to procure what we consider the necessaries of life?”

You have read that piece of excellent advice called the “Word of Wisdom.” I shall not say you must obey it; you can read it over again and refresh your memories, and I give the privilege to the Elders of Israel to cease using tobacco, and if they will not cease using it, then raise it; and then, also, to cease using spirituous liquors to excess. At the time Mr. Holladay kept store opposite the south gate of this block, he annually received not less than $29,000 for the article, tobacco. His books will now show this. Into Livingston’s store I presume this people annually paid for the article, tobacco, not less than $35,000, and that, too, when we were but few; what must our bills be at the present time? I think I am safe in saying that we have paid, for tobacco alone, at least $100,000 a year during the last thirteen years. Now, especially you Elders and leading men of Israel, will you do yourselves a favor by letting it alone from this time? Brother George A. Smith says that the twopenny institution of Jackson and Stewart, in Provo, took over $15,000 a year for tobacco alone. If you will let this article alone you will benefit both yourselves and the community. If you will cease drinking spirituous liquors you will thereby be benefited individually and benefit the community. A man who indulges in any habit that is pernicious to the general good in its example and influence, is not only an enemy to himself but to the community so far as the influence of that habit goes. A man who would not sacrifice a pernicious habit for the good it would do the community is, to say the least of it, lukewarm in his desires and wishes for public and general improvement. Tobacco is not good for man; spirituous liquor is not good for a beverage, but in many cases it is good for washing the body.

Dare I venture to invite the sisters to favor themselves by letting alone the article called tea? Some of that which is imported to this country from California, and for which you pay from three to four dollars a pound, is not much better than hay. I merely wish to say that you now have the privilege and invitation tendered to you to cease drinking the filthy stuff. Again, I kindly tender you the privilege of making your own bonnets from straw or grass. There are no handsomer bonnets nor trimmings for them than are and can be made from straw. I have raised rye year after year for the express purpose of having the straw manufactured into hats and bonnets, and have invited my sisters to gather and use it and welcome. Some thirty years ago, at a State fair held in the State of Ohio, a young lady took the premium on Leghorn bonnets, and her sample of Leghorn was made of the common red-top grass of which we grow an abundance in this valley. You can have the privilege of gathering the red-top grass and preparing it to make Leghorn bonnets and hats for yourselves and your children. I will invite my brethren to procure and plant the multicaulus or mulberry tree; let your wives and daughters feed silk-worms with the leaves, and thus produce silk for ribbons, for dresses, for bonnets, for scarfs, shawls, neckties, gentlemen’s vests, &c. We have skilful artizans among us who can dye and weave the silk into every possible design for beauty and utility. Let us be active in procuring machinery that will manufacture our cotton and flax into fine yarns for thread of every number and fabric of every quality; then our sisters can knit and manufacture in different ways their frills, ruffles and laces to suit their tastes.

I am perfectly able to send to the east and buy what I and my family need, but there is a mighty influence in a good example, and what would my precept be worth without my example, besides the conscious gratification of having performed my duty to my God, to myself, to my family and to this people?

I have engaged in this warfare and I have tried to teach my family, my neighbors and their families the necessity of our leading out in these matters, and thus set the example for the whole Church to follow. This hat was made of straw which grew on my farm near this city. It has been my handsome hat for twelve years, and does it not look well yet? It is all home-made excepting the ribbon. Trimmings made of straw are the nearest and richest for straw bonnets and straw hats.

Shall we make our light clothing of the cotton which we can raise here in abundance? They will raise more cotton in our southern settlements than we can possibly use before another crop comes off. Shall we buy their cotton from them and manufacture it into clothing, or pay the stores seventy-five cents a yard for cotton cloth? We have power to perform this useful labor, or to neglect it and tease husbands and fathers to buy at, the stores the articles which we think we need.

Who will enter with me and my brethren into this warfare with their whole souls? I call it warfare, because it has been so with me for years; it has continually been a heavy weight upon my shoulders. I have for years been pleading with the people to take a course to sustain themselves. Some few are trying to do so but it would be a great relief to me if I could in truth say that we, as a people, are trying to do so. I could sound the feelings of the whole community upon this subject by organizing clubs and societies for this, that and the other, all pointing to and having in view the great self-sustaining principle, but such clubs, societies or firms are apt to clash more or less and run into sectional differences and sectional feelings. This I do not want. When we say we will do a good thing, I want the whole community to be of one heart and of one mind in that matter. If we say we will sustain ourselves and be independent of foreign productions and a foreign market, let the whole community at once become a unit on this point by forthwith beginning to supply themselves with the necessaries of life produced in their mountain home.

Some will argue that they could not wear in warm weather a garment made of the cotton yarn spun in our little factory in Parowan; I do not think the argument a good one. It has been strenuously argued by our ladies that hoops are a cool and comfortable fashion, but I cannot understand how they derive the benefit that is claimed for crinoline when the accustomed quantity of clothing is still worn. This argument is something like the one often used in favor of drinking spirituous liquors, “We drink liquor in summer to cool us and in winter to warm us.” “We put on crinoline and the accustomed number of garments in summer to keep us comfortably cool and in winter to keep us comfortably warm.” I argue that a dress made of Utah yarn, worn over a reasonable quantity of underclothing, would be more light, comfortable and healthy than the style of dress now used by our ladies.

What do you say? Shall we make ourselves clothing from Utah cotton, from Utah flax, from Utah silk, from Utah wool, and wear cloth from Utah looms, or go without? And you, my sisters, my wives and my daughters, come here to meeting clothed and adorned with the workmanship of your own hands and rejoice therein; and do the same if you have occasion to go to a party, and tell your neighbors what you have done.

The wicked and selfish portion of mankind are constantly engaged in pandering to their own selfish and avaricious desires, regarding not the wants and sufferings of their fellow-beings. Were the biographies of all the really great and good of mankind known to us, we should know that they lived to do good to their fellow-beings, to benefit and bless their families, neighbors, friends and the human family at large; such men have proved themselves worthy of their existence. Let us all seek diligently to know what we can do to benefit our fellow-beings. We must try with all our power to overcome every injurious tradition and custom we have learned from our fathers and teachers.

We must learn to think for ourselves, and know for ourselves, and provide for ourselves. We can here produce any amount of the raw material, and we are importing machinery, and shall continue to do so until we shall be victorious over the traditions and customs which oppose themselves to our becoming self-sustaining and independent. I never mean to give up the conflict; I never mean to yield one point until I see this accomplished; while every obstacle surmounted, every object gained, every purpose accomplished and every aim in view is to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth, save and redeem the house of Jacob, and save all the inhabitants of the earth that can be saved.

I shall not worry while I am struggling to gain this great conquest, but I intend to live and feel well about it. The man who fights with coolness and calculation in moral and domestic reform will win every time. Let us apply our minds to know what our life is worth and what we can do to sustain it and the lives of those who are connected with us, instead of continually whining for something to satisfy “great, big self,” instead of wanting this and that, instead of being miserable because we do not do this or because we do not do that, instead of being unhappy because this is so or because that is not so, all of which we cannot help with all of our complaining. Let us see what we can do to do good to our children, to our neighbors, to our husbands, to our wives, to our brethren and sisters, and then to the inhabitants of the whole earth. Let us make ourselves capable of doing at least a little good, and this will occupy our minds upon something that is indeed profitable to others, and will somewhat divert our attention from worshiping ourselves and blaming everybody that does not do the same.

I will now address the Bishops and the people through their Bishops and Teachers. Why are we not as willing to pattern after good as after evil? Since we again commenced labor on the Temple we have been much troubled and perplexed with regard to getting Tithing labor. I immediately put on the work two good mule teams with a good man to manage each, then I put on two good common laborers to work on this block; I feed, clothe and pay the men, sustain the teams and keep the wagons in repair. I shall receive credit for this on labor Tithing. Besides this, I have kept two and sometimes three teams with drivers traveling to and from the country settlements to gather and bring in butter, cheese, eggs, &c., for the hands who work on the public works. For this team work I ask nothing but labor Tithing. I have given other men the privilege of doing the same. Have they done it? No, not one, with the exception of brother Daniel H. Wells’ having one yoke of oxen and a wagon on the public works.

Since I have been in these valleys, when I have received fifty cents, fifty dollars, or ten thousand dollars, I have invariably put it into the general fund; not every dollar, because I have my family to support. Who has followed that practice? Very few, if any. They may not have had the means nor the advantages for getting them that I have had. Do those who have the means do this? They do not. From the beginning I have striven with my might to get men to bring machinery into the country, to get them to raise sheep and wool, have the wool made into cloth and then wear it. Who has followed my example in this? Instead of bringing in machinery and in every way within my power encouraging home production, suppose I had brought large quantities of goods from abroad, encouraged gold mining, trading, trafficking, speculating, erecting whisky palaces and gambling saloons, I should have been hailed as a great Prophet, a wise leader and a great financier by those who love to swim in such waters, and hundreds would have been with me heart and hand.

When there was no whisky to be had here, and we needed it for rational purposes, I built a house to make it in. When the distillery was almost completed and in good working order, an army was heard of in our vicinity and I shut up the works I did not make a gallon of whisky at my works, because it came here in great quantities, more than was needed. I could have made thousands of dollars from my still, which has ever since been as dead property. Have others followed my example in this? They have not, but there was a whisky shop established here and another there. Some have even told me that they would starve if they did not make whisky. I said to them, make it then, and be damned, for they will be damned anyhow. Am not I able to make whisky? Yes; there stands the still and the still-house to this day, which I have never used and from which I might make thousands of dollars. Have I made whisky and sold it in what some call whisky street? No. Had I done so how many would have hailed me with, “You are a good man, brother Brigham, and you are the right man to lead Israel; thank God for such a man: he keeps a whiskey shop, drinks liquor, trades with our enemies and hugs them to his heart as long as there is any money in their pockets, and takes them to his house and introduces them to his wives and daughters; what a blessed man brother Brigham is.”

I will now confine a few of my remarks directly to the people who live within easy reach of this Temple Block. They say they pay labor Tithing. If the farmer, merchant, and mechanic are asked to pay a little labor Tithing, “O yes, and we mean to be credited for it in full.” “When will you pay it?” “When it is too cold, wet and stormy to go a fishing and hunting. While we can work in the field, go after wood, or go to shoot ducks with pleasure, we will not pay you one day of labor Tithing.” They come in the winter to pay it when labor is not wanted. Who pays labor Tithing? “Everybody.” Who pays their grain Tithing, their stock Tithing and their money Tithing. “Everybody.”

We feed and clothe some two thousand persons on these public works. Let me ask the Bishops of this city, and there are twenty Wards, how much money have you paid into the Public Treasury these five years past? Then ask the Bishops of the different Wards throughout the Territory the same question, and I think, if they answer the question fairly, it will be found that they have not paid one dollar to where we have had to pay out five hundred in cash or its equivalent. Our public hands have hats, coats, vests, shirts, garments, pantaloons, shoes, &c.; who buys these articles of clothing? They have to be bought and the money paid for them. The wives and children of our work-hands are well and comfortably clothed; who buys and pays for this clothing? Brother Wells could tell you a story about this, if he had a mind to do so. I say to the public hands, henceforth, if we have not the articles on hand that you want we shall not go to the store and buy them, neither will I permit brother Wells to do so; if he does he must pay the debt, for I will not.

I will now say to the Latter-day Saints, though this belongs to a General Conference, Will you do me the kindness to cease paying Tithing from this time forth, unless you pay it in a different manner than heretofore? They pile up wheat in Cache county, in Utah county, in Sanpete and in every other county distant from this city, in bins and houses where much of it becomes musty and good for nothing. Will they draw it to us here, where it can be put to use? Not much of it. They will let it spoil, unless they can have the privilege of using it themselves, and in many instances they have had the use of it. If wheat in the distant counties could be sold for a dollar-and-a-half a bushel in cash, we should get a comparatively small quantity of wheat in this Tithing-office. If they would give us fifty cents for every bushel of grain they pretend to pay in on Tithing in some kind of property that we can make use of, we would be much obliged to them. We cannot even get this; too many manage through their Bishops to pay their Tithing in a way to do us but little good.

If the people will cease paying Tithing, and let us understand it, we can build up the Temple ourselves, for I can put forty more teams to work on the public works, if I say the word. Presidents Kimball and Wells can do the same.

I am going to give the people the privilege to build the Temple by donations; as to saying that it is being built by Tithing, it is not so.

Some hundred thousand dollars a year are paid out by the community for tobacco, and the cash Tithing paid on this money expenditure probably does not amount to a thousand cents. How can the people be justified while committing such errors only upon the score of ignorance? We are trying to instruct you in the knowledge of the truth, that you may learn better. I do not condemn the Latter-day Saints for all this.

It is almost useless to ask any man possessing means to pay a little labor Tithing; if any is paid in the season when it is wanted, the poorest portions of the community pay it. The Second Ward is one of the poorest Wards in the city, and I have observed, when I have been at the Bishop’s meeting, that that Ward has responded to the calls of the Bishop better than any other Ward in the city.

I will now give the privilege to Bishop Hunter to put a good mule team to work on this Temple Block, and there sustain it and let it work until we say it is enough. I give brother Kimball the same privilege. And there are Bishops Raleigh, Cunningham, J. C. Little and Leonard W. Hardy, to whom I give the same privilege, and they need not ask one farthing, only to be credited on labor Tithing. Then there are Bishops Sheets, Pugmire and Edwin D. Woolley and John M. Woolley, and all the rest of the Bishops, with the members of the Wards who are able, I will give them the same privilege, that we may have what team work we want. I wish you all to bring your free donations to this work, and not seek to put your property in a shape that it cannot do the good we wish, and then say you owe no Tithing.

If the people have a mind to pay Tithing, pay it as it ought to be paid. I would rather have fifty cents a bushel in good available property, than to have all the grain that is paid in where it is not available, for it would do more good. The argument generally used is, “I pay my Tithing, and that is all that is required of me.” But have you no care, no responsibility beyond this? Do you not feel that the interest of this kingdom is your interest? and should you not feel anxious that the kingdom of God should be built up, become mighty, able to protect itself and independent of all other kingdoms? Should you be entirely indifferent; as to how the financial affairs of God’s kingdom on earth are managed? If this kingdom suffers, will you not suffer with it? If it prospers, becomes wealthy and powerful, will you not prosper and become wealthy and powerful with it?

I am willing to give you an account of my stewardship. Let every man have a care for the public property which is devoted for the public good. If a man knowingly puts a hundred bushels of good Tithing wheat into a bin of smutty, unsound wheat, but thinks that it is none of his business, he does an evil and his offering is not acceptable to the Lord; it is his duty to see that his good Tithing wheat, or anything else, is deposited where it will be taken care of and properly appropriated. We will either stop the paying of Tithing, or have it paid in a way that will do us good.

If we want a job done, we will tell you about it; then we want you to do it in the proper time and place, but we do not want labor Tithing paid in the winter. The Lord requires obedience of his people, which is better than sacrifice.

There is a warfare in which we are all engaged, and there is a victory which we have to win to become self-sustaining and independent, preparing ourselves for the days that are fast approaching.

May the Lord bless you: Amen.

Domestic Economy, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 14, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I am very fond of hearing my brethren speak to the congregations of the Saints; it affords a pleasing variety of the talent and ability that exists in the Elders of Israel. The object of our meeting together is to learn and to increase in the knowledge of the truth. Truth cleaves to truth and light to light? No man possessing the spirit of his religion can arise to speak to the Saints without imparting something that is beneficial. We are blessed with a great privilege in meeting here to worship the Lord our God and to speak comforting words to each other.

It would be very gratifying to me if I had the ability to so speak to the Saints as to divest them of every error they possess and give them eternal truth without in the least ruffling their feelings. Our weaknesses are known to ourselves, and in many instances to each other, but we have the privilege of learning and of increasing in faith and in the knowledge of God and godliness. We have the privilege of learning more and more of the earth which we inhabit, of the object of its creation, of the people that dwell upon it and of all things pertaining to ourselves.

The Lord has revealed a great many precious principles to this people, and knowledge which cannot be obtained by the study of the learned of the world, “who are ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth.” One of the greatest blessings that can be bestowed upon the children of men is to have true knowledge concerning themselves, concerning the human family and the designs of Heaven concerning them. It is also a great blessing to have wisdom to use this knowledge in a way to produce the greatest good to ourselves and all men. All the power of earthly wealth cannot give this knowledge and this wisdom.

If mankind could know the object God has in their creation, and what they might obtain by doing right and by applying to the source and fountain of wisdom for information, how quickly they would turn away from every ungodly action and custom. But as the Prophet says, “Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.” “Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.” Instead of seeking unto the Lord for wisdom, they seek unto vain philosophy and the deceit and traditions of men, which are after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. They are led by their own imaginations and by the dictates of their selfish will, which will lead them in the end to miss the object of their pursuit. Were you to inquire of the leading men of the world—of kings, rulers, philosophers and wise men—the end or result of their pursuits, they cannot tell you. This I believe; and I think it is quite evident, according to what I have witnessed.

What object was there, we might ask, for inaugurating the present war that is spreading dismay through our once happy land? Is it to kill off the African race? No; but ostensibly to give freedom to millions that are bound, and in doing this they did not know that they would lay the foundation for their own destruction as well as that of the object of their pursuit. Those whose minds are opened to see and understand the purposes of the Most High are made happy in a timely deliverance from approaching evil. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.” We have the priceless privilege of applying our hearts to wisdom, and of learning the things of God while the wisdom of the wise men of the world perishes and the understanding of their prudent is hid.

I can say, for the satisfaction of my brethren who have spoken to-day, that I do not know that I have heard them say anything but truth; they have advanced good doctrine, good ideas, even to having our clothing last us for years; I should be quite willing to have mine last for a great length of time. The coat I am now wearing I have had six or eight years, and I would like to have it last me six or eight years longer, and use any money I might have for buying another coat to deliver some honest, poor, starving soul who is deprived of liberty and the common comforts of life. I would like to take the price of this coat and send it abroad to gather the poor and place them in like circumstances we are now enjoying, that they might have the privilege of going to the same fountain that we do for food, raiment and intelligence. The old adage has it, “The back will trust, but the belly will not.” Hundreds of our brethren and sisters in foreign lands are now in a dying condition through want of food. If my hat, coat, boots, shoes, &c., would last half a century or a whole one, and I had the means every year to buy myself a fresh supply, I would thank God to put it into my heart to send that means to gather the poor.

The doctrine is correct, the advice is good for this people to be prudent with what they have around them and not to waste their substance. When brother G. D. Watt was speaking this morning I could not entirely free this people from the imputation of shamefully and disgracefully wasting a portion of the substance which God has so kindly and so abundantly given to them. We were exhorted by brother Watt to be prudent, saving, frugal and economical; to learn to gather the good things of life around us in abundance, to extend our possessions on the right and on the left and hold them all for God. If we are permitted to gather around us gold and silver and all the treasures that the Gentiles seek, instead of hoarding them up in iron chests or burying them in the ground for use in a future day, let us use them to send the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, to gather the poor Saints from every land, and to gather from the rocks and caves and dens of the earth the house of Israel. It is the duty of every person to thus put their money and other means to usury. We should all learn to use the blessings God has bestowed upon us with the greatest possible economy, doing good with the means he puts into our hands, and he will enlarge our means and our capacity to do more good. We do not possess a great deal at the most. I am blessed with plenty of food and raiment, with good houses for my family to live in, &c. I wish some good man, that is worth his millions, would give me half what my property is worth, I would be thankful, and give every dollar of it to preaching the Gospel, gathering the poor Saints, building the Temple and Tabernacle or anything else to do good and build up the kingdom of God, and I would commence afresh to make more property.

There are a great many things with regard to the providences of God which this people do not yet understand. The Jews did not understand that God, in his kind providence, was building up his Church among them in the days of the Apostles. The same ignorance blinded the world in the days of Noah, and so it is in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

My brethren who spoke this morning will excuse me for referring to their remarks. Brother Little exhorted the brethren, this morning, to take from their little piles, as he called them, and add to brother Brigham’s big pile. Brigham’s individual pile is already large enough, though, in reality, we should have only one mess chest, one place of deposit, one store-house, one “pile,” and that is the kingdom of God upon the earth; it is the only store-house there is for Saints, it is the only “pile,” the only safe place of deposit, the only place to invest our capital. This is rational to me; and all who contend for an individual interest, a personal “pile,” independent of the kingdom of God, will be destroyed. I, apparently, own horses, carriages, houses, lands, flocks, herds, &c. The Lord has intrusted to me all this property, in his providence; I have not run after it or sought it, it is the Lord’s; if, under this consideration, you agree to add to Brigham’s “pile,” I am willing you should do so.

I would not have an individual interest for all the gold and silver upon the earth or in it. What I possess, whether wives and children, goods and chattels, will not be mine, in the strict sense of the word, until I have passed all the ordeals that God has ordained that his children shall pass; until I have overcome every sin and every obstacle to my being crowned in the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. If I am unfaithful with that which God has put in my possession, it will be taken from me and be given to another. I have no individual “pile,” no individual storehouse. I do not think a man or woman can be found who can truly testify that they ever knew Brigham, for an individual interest, to neglect one moment any public duty that devolved upon him in the kingdom of God. That is my only business; it is all the business I have on hand. I take the Lord at his word, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.” I do not know but that he will take away every particle of property I seem to have and let me become a beggar; and if that is his wish, I would as soon beg my bread from door to door, if it is the mind of God and will add glory and honor to his kingdom, as to possess my thousands and live in luxury. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;” if the Lord adds “all other things,” all right; and if he does not, it is all right.

Scores of my brethren cleave to the gold and silver and wealth of this world; if their minds were right before the Heavens, as they should be, the Lord would pour into their laps an abundance of gold and silver until they were satisfied, but to give it to them now would damn them. He withholds it from them, and I am thankful that he does. I pray him to withhold from me and this people everything that will do us an injury. As fast as we prepare ourselves for the blessings the Lord has in store for us, so fast will the Lord pour them upon us.

Thirty years ago, when I first began to tell the people about the Gospel of life and salvation, I told them just as I do now, that the kingdom of God will extend, increase, grow and spread abroad on the right and on the left until, by-and-bye, the inhabitants of the world will know that the Lord is God, and that he has set to his hand again to gather Israel and establish for ever the kingdom that is spoken of in the prophecy of Daniel, which is now set up, and it will go forth until it rules all things upon the face of the earth. When I first bore this testimony it was to those who heard it like an empty sound; only a few obeyed, but now the mere sound, the mere report of this Work heard from afar, penetrates their ears and sinks into their hearts, bringing fear and dread to the wicked. But let me say to all the inhabitants of the earth, “Fear not, borrow no trouble; but to those who are afraid of truth and justice, fear on.” There is no question but what many fear justice and truth and the attributes of God more than they dread and fear anything else.

To all who love truth, mercy and justice, I will say, that when God rules on the earth he will rule in righteousness, dealing out mercy to all such persons, and they will be perfectly satisfied with the reign of Christ. But they who have sinned so great a sin that they cannot be forgiven will dread the day when Jesus Christ shall reign. Multitudes now read about that time, and it will come and the kingdom of God will go forth to the east, to the west, to the south and to the north, and none will be found who dare lift up their voices against the rule and reign of the Son of God. “To him every knee will bow and every tongue confess,” and we cannot help it. I look forth to that day with a great deal of real pleasure and satisfaction, when the righteous will reign upon all the face of the earth.

We are all liable to err; are subject, more or less, to the errors incident to the human family. We would be pleased to get along without these errors, and many may think that a man in my standing ought to be perfect; no such thing. If you would only think of it for a moment you would not have me perfect, for if I were perfect the Lord would take me to Paradise quicker than you would be willing to have me go there. I want to stay with you; and I expect to be just perfect enough to lead you on—to still know a little more than you know; you may increase as fast as you can, and I will keep just a little ahead of you; if you do not believe it, try it, and you will learn whether the Lord is not capable of still leading you through as weak an instrument as your humble servant.

We have a great labor before us. The building of this Temple is not a drop to a bucket-full when compared with the labor we have to do. Let this people say that they will not build the Temple by Tithing, and then let the Lord say to a few of us, “My servants, will you build that Temple?” Our reply would be, “Yes.” I could build it alone, if required, as well as I could build any other building, and the Lord would throw every means into my hands that I needed for the work. It is God who gives the increase; he throws into our path the blessings we enjoy. Every man and woman ought to know that they can do all that he wishes them to perform; but there is an abundance of Tithing, and more than we need, if it could be had in a shape that we could use it to advantage. It now costs us nearly as much as it is worth to take care of the Tithing, because the people throw on to a few the responsibility of caring for the Tithing property. Is it not public property? and should not a mutual interest be felt for its preservation and proper disbursement?

When the brethren come to work out their labor Tithing, they do not expect us to board them and find them tools to work with. I accidentally learned one thing when I was south, and might have known it before if I had only thought of it. I went into a little bit of a Tithing-room where there was a few hundred pounds of bacon; I said, “You have some meat here.” “Yes,” was the reply, “but the most of it is gone, for we have sent a great deal with the teams which have gone for the poor, and we expect the rest of it to be wanted for our teamsters who are hauling rock for the Temple.” Try the experiment with one who comes here to pay labor Tithing, get up a boarding-house and board him, a clothing store and clothe him, and the labor that is done will not cover half the expense of feeding and clothing them. What did we expect you to do when we said, in the circular, take a little of this and a little of that? We expected the people to bear this expense and not take it out of the Tithing-office. But it seems that what should have come to this Tithing-office has been sent for the poor. I did not ask the Tithing-office for meat and clothing to fit out what teams I have sent, and never thought of it. When we first called for teams to go to Florence, we called for thirty; twenty-seven went, and I furnished more than half of them and did not ask the Church to find me meat, but others have, and they can have all of this, that and the other they want out of the Tithing-office; and if a Bishop gets ten dollars in money or other good pay he is sure to manage to send a load of wood or brush to some person in his Ward, charge the Church with ten dollars, and put the money in his pocket. Can we build a Temple on such terms?

Where are the bacon and eggs that should come to feed the workmen? I had my teams ready to go out for such articles, but they are away towards the States with the teamsters; the meat, the lard, the eggs, the butter, the cheese and everything is gone to the States. We have said to the teamsters who have gone east, We will give you credit on labor Tithing; and we have to board them, too, have we? I expect we shall have to find wagons for them by-and-bye, and then oxen and everything else. You can see how men can think and contrive how to use up this and that—to use up all the butter, all the eggs, all the meat, all the cheese and all the money—“and when we cannot sell wheat at any price, then you poor slaves who work on the public works may take it and build up the kingdom with it.” This is a little harder than I spoke last Sunday, and you may judge of it as you please. “Do you know all this to be true, brother Brigham?” I do.

I do not wish any of my remarks applied where they do not belong. If there is a presiding officer in this kingdom who is not equally with myself under obligation to see the kingdom of God built up, I would like to see him. Some may be careless, unconcerned, drink whisky and loiter away their time, or try to accumulate for themselves, but I will promise such that they will sink to rise no more; they will dwindle away to nothing, and their names will be forgotten among men.

We had better build up the kingdom of God, and consider ourselves under obligations to do it, and see that we actually magnify our high and holy calling before the heavens. We have the privilege of preparing ourselves to inherit the celestial kingdom. Is there another people on the earth that has the same reason for rejoicing that we have? Those who have power to overcome temptation, to subdue their own passions and inclinations to evil, have more reason to be thankful than those who have not thus overcome. Let us have compassion upon each other, and let the strong tenderly nurse the weak into strength, and let those who can see guide the blind until they can see the way for themselves.

I exhort the Bishops and the people to do better. Do not charge to my account hundreds and thousands of dollars when it is where I cannot handle it and do good with it. I could have made this whole people rich long ago if I had possessed their confidence, as I should, but if I had made them rich, through the blessings of the Lord, I expect it would have destroyed them. I do not, however, ask your confidence any further than you can be made subject to the law of Christ and not love the world and the things of the world. I do not wish an influence that would be to my injury and to the injury of this people, but I really fancy to myself that if this people called Latter-day Saints were devoted perfectly to the building up of the kingdom of God, I should have a great deal more influence with them than I now possess, and I should be able to control their purses as well as their souls.

Many, when they come here, are in the depths of poverty, but when they find that they can stand alone and become a little independent, how quickly they forsake their God and their religion for that which is of no profit. Let us desire and pray for these things which will do us good, trusting in the Lord, seeking to know and do his will, and we shall come off conquerors and be crowned with crowns of glory, immortality and eternal lives in the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. I hope this will be the case with most of us, and should like it to be the case with all. I would delight in seeing the inhabitants of Zion prepared to enjoy all the glory there is for the faithful.

May the Lord help us: Amen.

Inspiration Necessary for the Preaching of the Gospel, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 12, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

Jesus said to those whom he had appointed to go forth and preach his Gospel, “Go your way: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.” Again, “And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.”

This is one of the blessings that belong to the Church and kingdom of God in this and in every other age of the world when God has had a Church upon the earth. When people attempt to preach the Gospel without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they are under the necessity of studying or of writing their sermons, thus presenting the cogitations of their own hearts in support of the doctrines and tenets of their particular sects. When the Lord sets to his hand to perform a work and to build up his kingdom on the earth, his servants whom he calls to do this work are obliged to trust in the Lord their God and to lean upon his arm for strength, for no man can tell what the will of God is unless it is revealed to him by the revelations of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost.

This is the principle that has sustained the Elders of Israel, in our own day, in all their labors among the nations to build up this kingdom for the last time and to preach the Gospel in the ears of all people and nations. The servants of God in Zion, in all their counsels and deliberations for the promotion of holy and righteous principles, have to be constantly governed by it. Had it not been for this principle, this congregation, gathered from almost every nation under heaven, would not have been found here to-day; we might have preached to them until doom’s-day, and we, of ourselves, by our own wisdom and ability, could never have convinced them of the truth of the Gospel the Lord has revealed in our day for the gathering and salvation of the honest-in-heart and for the establishment of righteousness over the whole earth.

Not only the men who bare record of these things had the testimony of Jesus Christ, but it also reached those who heard their words, bearing record of the truth to every honest-hearted person throughout all the world for the last thirty years. We cannot know the hearts of men, nor the will of God concerning nations, kingdoms and people only as it is revealed to us by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. President Young reproves, corrects, gives revelation and teaches doctrine and principle, for the benefit of this people and mankind in general by the revelations which God gives to him. This principle inspired the hearts of ancient Prophets and servants of God and sustained them in every trying scene; it has also been the comfort and sustaining power of the servants of God in this last dispensation from the foundation of this kingdom to the present time. As the ancient Apostles were called, so have the modern Apostles and servants of God been called to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and the gift and power of the Holy Ghost has sustained them when they were brought before kings and rulers. The Savior preached and travelled and suffered until he gave up the ghost on Calvary; that same power sustained him under every circumstance, and made known unto him the will of his Father. This is one among the many blessings which the Latter-day Saints enjoy. God reveals unto us light and truth and brings to our remembrance things which are according to the will of God which we should teach. This is a great consolation to us, and to realize our position in the mountains. We have been led here by the gentle hand of God. No man could have foreseen what would happen to the nation of the United States had it not been revealed to us in the revelations which God gave to his Prophet Joseph Smith. The revelations concerning what shall transpire in the last days can be read in the Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in the Bible. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the Prophets.” When we were called upon to leave our homes and our holy Temple in Nauvoo, it was a great trial to many. When we came to this country as pioneers, we built the bridges, killed the snakes and opened the way for the emigration of Saint and sinner, saying, it is all right; but we did not know how soon the calamities that are now upon the nation would break forth, yet we knew they would come soon. By what power did we influence these men and women before me to leave their homes and their country to dwell in these distant wilds? They were influenced by the inspiration of the Almighty which always attends the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all ages. There was a spirit in them, and the inspiration of the Almighty gave it understanding, and they were moved upon to listen to the advice that the servants of God gave them to gather to the place the Lord had appointed to locate his people. This is the hand of God, and we should be thankful for this good land and for our homes. We here dwell in peace and stand in holy places in a land which has been dedicated to God; and the power of righteousness prevails here, and hence we have power to remain here in peace. We remain here in peace because righteousness and the power of God dwell here. It is true the enemy of God and all the righteous, the Devil, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, has sought our destruction from the beginning and has stirred up the wicked to seek our overthrow; yet the Lord has preserved us. We should be thankful for this, and we should honor God and worship him with undivided hearts, doing our duty constantly and pursuing that course wherein we shall be justified before the Lord.

No man can value sufficiently the life he now holds and the place he now occupies in this world, unless he is moved upon by the Spirit and power of God to enlighten his understanding. What is the chief end of man? it, seemingly, is to get gold and fame and the honor that man bestows, to gratify their sensual propensities and desires. Do the great mass of mankind seek to honor and glorify God, seeking by every lawful means to bring their bodies into subjection to the law of Christ? Do they understand that they are the offspring of God and are made after his image and likeness, and placed in this world to pass through a short probation to prepare them to dwell eternally in the presence of the Father and the Son? Are not nine-tenths of the human family more ready to blaspheme the name of God than to honor it? Would they do this if they were in possession of the Spirit of God to magnify their calling and fulfill the object and end of their creation? No. Everything that God has made keeps the law of its creation and honors it except man. I have always marveled at this. Mankind, who are made after the image of God to answer high and noble purposes, are the only beings in creation that will blaspheme his name and set at naught his authority. They have an agency, and the Spirit of God is offered to them as freely as the light of the sun, which shines on the just and on the unjust, if they would receive it. All the light and intelligence man ever did or will have, has come through that principle and power; and in company with this, the Lord has raised up men in our own generation, to whom he has sent the administration of angels and laid on them the responsibility of bearing record to the Gospel, with a promise to all nations, both Jew and Gentile, that, if they will receive the testimony of his servants, they shall receive the Holy Ghost, who shall bear record unto them of the truth. Have the nations received the Gospel? Yes, one of a family and two of a city, here and there one, and they are gathered together to stand in holy places and to build up the Church and kingdom of God in the last days, to prepare the way for the coming of the Son of Man. The mass of this generation have rejected the Gospel; they have shed the blood of the Lord’s Prophets and consented thereto, and have driven from their midst those who bear the words of eternal life. One of the most liberal and free Governments under the heavens has driven out from them the only people under the heavens that God acknowledges as his Church, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus which they bear. We have been driven to the valleys of these mountains for our good; the hand of God has led us here. Great affliction awaits the nation from which we have been driven out and the wicked nations of the Gentiles on this land and in foreign lands.

We live in a momentous age, and our responsibilities are great before the Lord and to this generation. We have borne record of the calamities that should be poured out in the last days and they are coming to pass. For thus saith the Lord, “And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people; for after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall on the ground and not be able to stand; and also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds, and all things shall be in commotion; and surely men’s hearts shall fail them, for fear shall come upon all people; and angels shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, sounding the trump of God, saying, Prepare ye, prepare ye, oh inhabitants of the earth, for the judgment of our God is come: behold, and lo! the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.” Again, “I the Lord am angry with the wicked; I am holding my Spirit from the inhabitants of the earth. I have sworn in my wrath and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked,” &c.

If a thousand Prophets had proclaimed to this nation what has come to pass since 1860 to the present time, who would have believed them? Not a man, unless they possessed the spirit of revelation. What the Prophet Joseph Smith foretold thirty years ago is now come to pass; and who can help it? Have the Latter-day Saints been the cause of this dreadful war? No. While Joseph Smith was living, every public and private calamity that happened in the land was laid to his account. It is not Joseph Smith or his brethren that do these things, but the Lord has laid his hand on the nation. It is a consolation to the Saints when they contemplate upon what God has spoken through his servants which is now being fulfilled before their eyes. All that has been spoken by ancient and modern Prophets have had their fulfilment until now, and will have until the scene is wound up.

No man ever did or ever will obtain salvation only through the ordinances of the Gospel and through the name of Jesus. There can be no change in the Gospel; all men that are saved from Adam to infinitum are saved by the one system of salvation. The Lord may give many laws and many commandments to suit the varied circumstances and conditions of his children throughout the world, such as giving a law of carnal commandments to Israel, but the laws and principles of the Gospel do not change. If any portion of this generation be saved, it will be because they receive the Gospel which Jesus Christ and his Apostles preached. When the Lord inspires men and sends them to any generation, he holds that generation responsible for the manner in which they receive the testimony of his servants. He called upon us, and we left our occupation to go forth in our weakness to preach his Gospel; we had no power in and of ourselves to do this, only as the Lord gave us strength by his Spirit; and we have so far built up his kingdom upon this principle; we have been governed by this principle of revelation in all our public and private works which we have done for God. We shall build our Temple upon this principle, and carry out all the purposes of the Lord our God in the latter days upon the same principle and upon no other.

The very moment that men undertake to move for God in their own way and upon principles of their own coining, they will fail to accomplish that which they design. The world has tried this for generations. It is now almost universally acknowledged throughout Christendom that no man is properly qualified to preach the Gospel unless he has passed through a college or some other institution of learning to study theology and get a knowledge of Greek, Latin and Hebrew—of languages dead and living. Does this system of learning, alone, give power to administer salvation to mankind? Does it give evidence and bear witness to the hearts of men by the power of the Holy Ghost and the revelations of Jesus Christ? It does not. The disciples of Christ, anciently, were illiterate men, yet they bore record to the learned that God had sent them with a message of salvation. Jesus Christ, whose life was a scene of affliction and sorrow, who apparently had arose from the lower grades of society, was eminently endowed with the spirit and power of revelation from his Father and bore record of his works to Jew and Gentile under its influence and power.

The servants of God in every age have always been governed by the same power; and we must build up the kingdom of God by it or not at all. We look to him for guidance in what we shall do from day to day; we have been guided in this way hitherto and shall be so guided unto the end.

I thank God that we have embraced a Gospel that has power in it; that we have the true organization of the Church and kingdom of God, with its Apostles, Prophets, Pastors and Teachers, gifts, graces and blessings for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ. The moment any of the helps, governments, gifts and powers are done away from the Church militant, schism is created in the body and it no longer can co-operate with the Church triumphant in heaven against the power of the Devil and wicked men. We cannot build up the kingdom of God in our day and overcome the powers of evil which prevail over the world, without inspired Prophets and Apostles, gifts, powers and blessings, any more than they could in the days of Jesus and his Apostles. We have this Church organization and the power which attended it in ancient days, and we seek constantly the welfare of the children of men.

We have a great Work laid upon us, and we are responsible to God for the manner in which we make use of these blessings. The Lord requires of us to build up Zion, to gather the honest-in-heart, restore Israel to their blessings, redeem the earth from the power of the Devil, establish universal peace and prepare a kingdom and a people for the coming and reign of the Messiah. When we do all we can to forward and accomplish this Work then are we justified. This is the work of our lives, and it makes life of some consequence to us. When men are destitute of the Spirit of God they do not prize life, unless to indulge the cravings of unenlightened and perverted human nature; they cross each other’s interests, become filled with the spirit of wrath and indignation and thirst for and shed the blood of each other. Would they do this if they were inspired by the Spirit and power of God? No. That which is good is of God and that which is evil emanates from the Devil.

The Lord permits judgments to come upon the wicked, but he never sends a great calamity upon the world without first sending Prophets and inspired men to warn the wicked of approaching chastisement, giving them, at the same time, space for repentance and means of escape, as witness the time of Noah, Lot, &c. and, “As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” When the messengers of God have given a faithful warning to the wicked of their approaching overthrow, and the testimony is sealed, then will the Lord come out of his hiding-place and vex them with a sore vexation. All that the Savior said should come upon the wicked Jews was literally fulfilled, and his blood is now upon them and their children. The hand of God has been zealous in holding the Jews under the rod until this day. Why? Because they rejected the testimony of the Son of God and his Gospel. That is the cause of the great trouble to-day that is vexing this nation and other nations in the old world. You may put all the judgments of God together that have befallen the nations and tribes of men from the beginning, and the afflictions they suffered are no greater than are now ready to be poured out upon the Gentile world.

John the Revelator saw this day. He saw, also, “An angel of God fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” That angel has delivered his message and thousands of Elders of this Church have been called to this ministry; it has been laid upon our shoulders. I have travelled more than a hundred thousand miles in the last thirty years to preach this Gospel, and many thousands of it with my knapsack upon my back and without purse or scrip, begging my bread from door to door to preach the Gospel to my own nation. Thirty years ago it was said unto us, You hear of wars in foreign countries, but you do not know the hearts of men in your own land, for you shall soon have greater wars in your own land, &c.

How is it, my friends, is there trouble in the eastern countries? What means this crowding of our streets with emigrants to the west? The Lord God has spoken through his Prophet; his words have been recorded, and he is backing up the testimony of his servants in fulfillment of his word; and the end is not yet. War and distress of nations has only just commenced, and famine and pestilence will follow on the heels of war, and there will be great mourning, and weeping, and lamentations in the land, and no power can stay the work of desolation and utter overthrow of the wicked.

More than twenty-five years ago I wrote a revelation which Joseph Smith gave, wherein he said that the rebellion should commence in South Carolina, and from that, war should spread through this nation and continue to spread until war should be poured out upon all nations and great calamity and distraction should await them.

I published the Book of Doctrine and Covenants in England in 1845, and since that time it has been published in many different languages, and thus we are sending the revelations which Jesus Christ has given to his people in the last days to the different nations and tongues, that they may be left without an excuse. We know these things are coming, and because of them we are here in Utah, and the Devil and the wicked do not like it. Every evil principle and power is opposed to us and our testimony. Do we not desire to do all men good? We do; and in proof of this I only need say that we have labored for many years in poverty and hardships to carry salvation to the nations. Some of the European nations have closed their doors against us, and in some of those nations we have preached the Gospel and gathered out many souls, and thousands more will yet come like clouds and like doves to the windows to join with us in the enjoyment of the great blessings which the kingdom of God offers to all people.

The highest object of man in this life should be to prepare himself to dwell with his Father and God in his presence. It is for this reason that the millions of spirits that tabernacle here are sent from the eternal worlds to pass a short probation in mortal bodies, and they are all the children of one Father. If we receive the Gospel and live its precepts we shall receive celestial glory; if we reject it we shall be punished, though we may have a redemption and a glory, but it will be in a diminished degree. We should lay these things to heart; we should endeavor to understand our true position and we should do all in our power to benefit our fellow-man and to bring salvation to the nations.

I rejoice that the Lord still holds the door open, that we still have the privilege of sending the Elders to the nations; while this door remains open we shall continue to preach the Gospel to the Gentile world. When they reject it it will be taken from them and then we go to the Jews, and the ten tribes will come from the north to Zion to be crowned under the hands of the children of Ephraim. And the remnant of the Lamanites who are cursed below all humanity that we are acquainted with—who have been filled with the spirit of bloodshed which they have inherited from their fathers—they will embrace the Gospel in the due time of the Lord. They are of the house of Israel, and this spirit of war will be taken from them and they will become the children of God, but not until the Gentiles have entirely rejected the Gospel. Anciently it was preached to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles; in the latter times it will be first preached to the Gentiles and then to the Jews—the first shall be last and the last first. This is the great work which is laid upon us to-day. We should be true and faithful to-day, and then we ought to follow this practice until death, and then shall we be entitled to have a crown of life. Is it not more honorable to do good than to do evil; to try to honor and serve God who is our Father and who has given us every blessing, than sin against him? Would not such a course bring more happiness and pleasure to us than to blaspheme the name of God and dishonor ourselves, bringing darkness and condemnation to our spirits?

I pray that God may bless us and save us in his kingdom, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Instruction to the Latter-Day Saints, in the Settlements South of Great Salt Lake City

Brigham Young

Given by President Brigham Young, in April and May, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

On the 20th of April, 1863, the President and company left Great Salt Lake City and arrived at American Fork, when the following instructions commenced:—

We shall never see the time when we shall not need to be taught, nor when there will not be an object to be gained. I never expect to see the time that there will not be a superior power and a superior knowledge, and, consequently, incitements to further progress and further improvement.

To look for salvation fifty years hence and do nothing for salvation at the present time is preposterous. God has placed the means of salvation within our reach, and the volition of the creature is at his own disposal. When his sons and daughters avail themselves of the means he has supplied for their salvation, doing good for themselves, it is gratifying to him.

We may rejoice greatly in the possession of the spirit of truth and in the power of God, which elevates the soul to the contemplation of heavenly things, but it does not teach men how to raise corn. The Lord could impart this information in a special revelation, the same as he instructed Adam and Eve how to cover their nakedness. He showed them how to make aprons of leaves and then coats of skins, and instructed Adam in extracting the metals from their ores, the same as one man instructs another. People often wish they had the power of God upon them. This is a good wish, and the power of God is a power that would aid men to accomplish much more than they now do, if they possessed along with it a liberal supply of sound information and good sense. The power of God and true knowledge are component parts of godliness, and all the providences of God dealt out to us are for the furtherance of his kingdom upon the earth. We should be willing to acknowledge his hand in all things and be his faithful sons and daughters, always ready and willing to do what he bids us.

“Mormonism” is as dear as ever to me. In all the prophecies delivered by Joseph Smith, I do not think there has been one failure; and all that has been foretold by ancient Prophets concerning the last days has been fulfilled so far; not one jot or tittle has failed or will fail. The Lord is kind to this people, and if we could understand things as they really are and be as willing to help ourselves as the Lord is to help us, we should advance much more rapidly in the knowledge of God than we do. Every providence and dispensation of God to his earthly children tends directly to life and salvation, while the influences and powers exerted by the enemy upon mankind and every suggestion of our corrupt natures tends to death. If there exists within us one feeling, one desire that is not devoted to the Gospel of the Son of God and to the building up of his kingdom on the earth, that feeling or desire so far tends to death.

Knowledge increases among this people; they know more of the things of the kingdom of God to-day than they did in the days of Joseph Smith. There was confidence due from his brethren to Joseph which he did not receive. In his death they learned a profitable lesson, and afterwards felt that if he could only be restored to them how obedient they would be to his counsels. The influence and confidence that were denied to him have since, to a great degree, been centered where they see it belongs. Still the old leaven more or less reigns within us; our traditions lead us to reflect upon death as we formerly did, and to suppose that this life is only designed to prepare us to meet the last moments of the dissolution of the body. This life is now the only life to us; and if we do not appreciate it properly it is impossible to prepare for a higher and more exalted life. We live to-day to prepare for life tomorrow; and if we are prepared to live, death is divested of its terrors, for we die only to live in another condition. In fact, if we only appreciate this life, we will never die. Our bodies may sleep in the grave for a short time—the earthly particles of this tabernacle will return to their mother earth—but that ever-living power within us will never sleep, and we shall receive our bodies again.

The purpose of our life should be to build up the Zion of our God, to gather the house of Israel, bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, restore and bless the earth with our ability and make it as the Garden of Eden, store up treasures of knowledge and wisdom in our own understandings, purify our own hearts and prepare a people to meet the Lord when he comes.

The world is wrong and we have to right it under the direction of Heaven. For this purpose are we located upon the land of Zion, and the land of Zion is North and South America—the land where our heavenly Father made his appearance and planted the Garden of Eden. This land is choice above all other lands upon the face of the earth. We occupy these mountains as a safe retreat from the power of our enemies. When we first came here we did not know that we could raise grain of any kind. Probably some parts of South America are as good for raising wheat as this is; and in no part of North America can they raise better wheat than is raised here. God has blessed the soil for our sakes, and we live and prosper contrary to the expectations of our persecutors. Those who are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel may try to live here, but without our aid they cannot raise a subsistence.

The country where Joseph Smith, jun., found the plates was then as good a country for grain and fruit as could be found upon the whole land, but when the Latter-day Saints were obliged to leave that region the ground began to cease yielding the accustomed amount, and the yield of wheat decreased probably one half. The Lord blesses the land, the air and the water where the Saints are permitted to live.

The blessings of the Lord are great upon this people. They are increasing in flocks and herds and are gathering around them property in abundance on the right hand and on the left; let them be careful that they do not place their affections upon the things of this world and forget the Lord their God. The earthly means which we have been enabled to gather around us is not ours, it is the Lord’s, and he has placed it in our hands for the building up of his kingdom and to extend our ability and resources for reaching after the poor in other lands.

We are here personages of tabernacle, designed to be prepared to dwell with the Gods; but we are far from that knowledge we might have possessed had our fore-fathers enjoyed the Priesthood we have and had we been brought up in it from our youth. Seeing that we possess the holy Priesthood, we should introduce a code of traditions among our children which they will not need to unlearn, as we have had to do. We have received the spirit of life, light and intelligence that comes from God out of heaven, and thus we have become his Saints; and we have gathered to these mountains to learn how to live and what the Lord designs to do with us. We came to these mountains because we had no other place to go to. We had to leave our homes and possessions on the fertile lands of Illinois to make our dwelling places in these desert wilds, on barren, sterile plains, amid lofty, rugged mountains. None dare come here to live until we came here, and we now find it to be one of the best countries in the world for us.

The world of mankind have taken a course to alienate the feelings of each other; they have destroyed the little fellowship and confidence that were formerly placed in man towards his fellow-man. I now allude, in particular, to the Christian world. They have taken a course to break up and rend to pieces every trait of friendship. With few exceptions, none dare trust his neighbor, and we have to restore that confidence which has been lost; we have to restore wholesome government and administer wholesome laws to bind the feelings of the people together. The Lord has instituted laws sufficient for the government of his people and has given us rulers and judges that are of ourselves, and it is our business to accomplish this work of reformation, beginning with ourselves.

I try to better my life, and I believe that my brethren do. I can see a visible improvement in those with whom I am most intimately acquainted. Though we are in the world, yet we should be as perfect as mortals are required to be. We are not required in our sphere to be as perfect as Gods and angels are in their spheres, yet man is the king of kings and lord of lords in embryo. Could I in the flesh become as perfect as God in the spirit, I could not stay on the earth with my friends to hold close communion with them and speak with them face to face as men speak to each other. Earth, home, family and friends have endearments which tie us here until we have accomplished our work in this probation and become ripe for that great change which awaits us all. I would like to stay on this earth in the flesh and fight the Devils until the last one is subdued; and when the earth and its fulness are wholly devoted to the Savior of mankind I will be perfectly satisfied and willing to go into my grave or be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as the Lord will.

As weak and frail as we are, the Latter-day Saints are my delight; their society is sweet to me; I crave no other; they are the only people I wish to see and associate with. Unless in the line of my duty, I do not wish ever to associate with any people who do not believe in the Gospel of the Son of God. I have no desire to again behold the face of an unbeliever; especially of those who have had the privilege of receiving the Gospel and have rejected it. I hope I shall live to see this people serve the Lord with an undivided heart and affection all their days, devoting every day to God and his Work. They have assembled from different parts of the earth to these valleys expressly to serve God and live their religion. The nations of the earth, without exception, have wandered far from the fountain of knowledge and the intelligence the Lord gives to his covenant people. It seems as though it might take the age of an earth like this to bring back the children of God to where they may know their Father and understand that they are his offspring.

In consideration of these things, is it not strange that we should lust after the gay, foolish, vain things of this world? that we should be proud, haughty, arrogant, selfish, covetous and contentious? Should not every person professing to be a Saint so live that the Spirit of God will dwell within them like a burning fire? and when chastisement is necessary, let it always be administered in the spirit of meekness, whether to a wife, a child, a brother or a sister, &c. God wishes every one of his sons and daughters to purify their hearts to be prepared to dwell with him. We should never permit ourselves, in the beginning of a new day, to converse with a wife, a child, or a neighbor, unless the Spirit of God is with us, retaining it for our companion through the labors and business of the day until we retire to rest at night. Jesus says, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you,” &c. Because we are commanded to love our enemies, shall we forsake the society of the Saints and leave for California and other places to mingle with them, and swear, curse, gamble and do all manner of iniquity with them? No; this is not the way to love your enemies. I would not exhort you to hate your enemies, but I do wish that you would let them alone severely. If we do anything we will pray for them, instead of giving them for naught our time, our energies, our gold and silver, our grain and the good things the Lord has given us for our individual and mutual benefit. Pray for them; but let them alone, unless they are willing to hear the truth.

I wish this people to pay particular attention to the education of their children. If we can do no more, we should give them the facilities of a common education, that when our sons are sent into the world as ministers of salvation and as representatives of the kingdom of God in the mountains, they can mingle with the best society and intelligibly and sensibly present the principles of truth to mankind, for all truth is the offspring of heaven and is incorporated in the religion which we have embraced. We are progressing in this branch of mental improvement. Some of our brethren have been indomitable in their perseverance to divert the minds of our youth from an excess of frivolous and light amusements to the more useful and profitable habits of study and learning. I might here mention Elder David O. Calder, who has successfully been teaching, in Great Salt Lake City, the “Tonic Sol Fa” method of singing. He teaches three distinct classes, altogether numbering five hundred scholars, twice a week. Every accomplishment, every polished grace, every useful attainment in mathematics, music, and in all science and art belong to the Saints, and they should avail themselves as expeditiously as possible of the wealth of knowledge the sciences offer to every diligent and persevering scholar.

I am very much opposed to the practice of sending our boys out on the range to herd stock. In doing this they pass the greater portion of their time from under the influence of their parents and teachers, and are kept in ignorance of the rudiments of learning and of the principles of moral rectitude, and are exposed to the pestilential influences of evil, and to the temptations of those who are older and more experienced in the nefarious practice of stealing and running off horses and cattle. They learn to gamble, to steal, to blaspheme the name of God, to lie, to chew and smoke tobacco, and drink whisky, while they are in the bush herding our stock. Some of the sons of our citizens have come to a premature grave because they would steal, and, if the truth were known, this fatal practice can, in almost every case, be traced to have found its origin in them when they were herd-boys. They then learned to skil[l]fully throw the lasso, they became helps to older thieves for a trifling bribe, until finally they by degrees became lost to all self-respect, refused to labor for an honest livelihood, having imbibed the idea that they could live easier by stealing, became a pest to society, and prematurely met a felon’s fate. We are the guardians of our children; their training and education are committed to our care, and if we do not ourselves pursue a course which will save them from the influence of evil, when we are weighed in the balance we shall be found wanting, and the sin will be laid at our doors.

Let good schools be established throughout all the settlements of the Saints in Utah. Let good teachers who are Latter-day Saints in principle and at heart, be employed to educate our children. A good school teacher is one of the most essential members in society; he relieves parents, in part, of a great responsibility and labor; we should, therefore, make the business of school teaching a permanent institution, and the remuneration should be in amount and in kind equal to the receipts of our best mechanics; it should also be promptly and willingly paid, and school commissioners and trustees should see to it that teachers are properly qualified and do earn their pay. Could I have my wish, I would introduce into our system of education every real improvement, for all the great discoveries and appliances in the arts and sciences are expressly designed by the Lord for the benefit of Zion in the last days, and would be for the benefit of all mankind it they would cease to be wicked, and learn to acknowledge the hand of God in all things.

The Saints of God should be self-sustaining. While they are laboring to gain the mastery over themselves, to subdue every passion and feeling of their nature to the law of Christ; while they are striving to possess the Holy Ghost to guide them every moment of their lives, they should not lose sight of their temporal deliverance from the thral[l]dom which has been thrown around them by the traditions of their fathers and the false education they have received in the nations where they were born and reared. In Utah territory they are well located for variety of climate suitable to the production of materials necessary to gratify every reasonable want. So far as we have learned the resources of the country, we are satisfied that we need not depend upon our neighbors abroad for any single necessity of life, for in the elements around us exists every ingredient of food and raiment; we can be fed with the daintiest luxuries, and can be clothed almost equal to the lilies of the field. Cotton and fruits of tropical climes can be grown to perfection and in abundance in the southern portions of Utah, while cereal crops, flax, wool, silk, and a great variety of fruit can be produced in perfection in the northern. Our object is not to find and possess great stores of the precious metals. Iron and coal would be far more valuable to us than mines of silver and gold.

To increase clothing in the ratio of the growth of our community and its wants makes it very necessary that we import and make machinery to work up the raw material in great quantities. In the meantime let our wives and daughters employ themselves industriously at their wheels at home, that our wants may be partially supplied until more machinery shall be made and set up in different districts of our territory. Anciently garments were made of linen and of wool, and the Israelites were forbidden to mix wool and linen together; and we read in the book of Genesis that Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in “vestures of silk.” It is of more modern date that cotton has become so extensively used throughout the world as an article of clothing and adorning the body. This southern country is well adapted to the production of cotton; we should raise it and manufacture it in sufficient quantities to meet the wants of our increasing population.

This community has not yet concluded to entirely dispense with the use of tobacco, and great quantities have been imported into our territory. The silver and gold which we have paid out for this article alone, since we first came into Utah, would have built several extensive cotton and woollen factories, and filled them with machinery. I know of no better climate and soil than are here for the successful culture of tobacco. Instead of buying it in a foreign market and importing it over a thousand miles, why not raise it in our own country or do without it? True principles of domestic and political economy would suggest the production at home of every article of home consumption, for herein lies the basis of wealth and independence for any people.

Importing sugar has been a great drain upon our floating currency. I am satisfied that it is altogether unnecessary to purchase sugar in a foreign market. The sorghum is a profitable crop, in Great Salt Lake and the adjoining counties, for the manufacture of molasses; in this section it can be profitably raised for the manufacture of sugar. I have tasted samples of sugar produced from the sorghum raised in the south of Utah, and a better quality of raw sugar I never saw. Let some enterprizing persons prosecute this branch of home-production, and thus effectually stop another outlet for our money. Sugar ranks high among the staples of life, and should be produced in great abundance.

Tea is in great demand in Utah, and anything under that name sells readily at an extravagant price. This article opens a wide drain for the escape of much of our circulating medium. The tea of commerce is extensively adulterated, not only by the Chinese, but also by numerous others through whose hands it passes before it reaches the consumer. Tea can be produced in this territory in sufficient quantities for home consumption, and if we raise it ourselves we know that we have the pure article. If we do not raise it, I would suggest that we do without it.

Dye-stuffs have opened another drain through which considerable of our money has passed off. Wherever Indian corn will flourish madder can be produced in great quantities, yet we have been paying out our money to strangers for this article. Indigo can be successfully and profitably raised in this region. An article in the Deseret News on the culture of indigo, and manufacturing it for coloring, would be interesting, especially to the people of our southern settlements.

Whatsoever administers to the sustenance, comfort and health of mankind forms the basis of the commerce of the world. Gold and silver in coin are only valuable as mediums in trade to facilitate exchange. They can be made useful to us and add to our comfort when made into cups, plates, &c., in our household economy.

Let groves of olive trees be planted, and vineyards of the most approved varieties of grapes, that there may be wine and oil in the land; and let sweet potatoes be raised in abundance, and all trees and roots that bear fruit in the ground and above the ground that can be used as food for man and beast, that plenty may flow in the land like a river, and contentment be enthroned in every household, while industry, frugality, and peace prevail everywhere.

I will offer a few more reflections upon cotton. The first cotton that was raised in this country cost the company that made the experiment $3.65 a pound. The year following it cost them $1.82 a pound. We became satisfied that cotton could be raised here in sufficient quantities to supply our wants and to pay the cultivator. Thousands of the Saints have since then settled in this region, and are engaged in developing its resources. Much has been said with regard to raising and saving cotton. There is no use in raising wheat to let it be destroyed, nor in raising cotton to let it be wasted. When we visited the southern settlements last year the question was asked, “what can we do with our cotton when we have raised it? We have no cards to card it, no machinery to spin and weave it into cloth,” and the belief seemed to be gaining ground that there was no use or profit in raising it. We told the brethren that if they would save their cotton it would in a short time become useful to them. How much they saved or how much they permitted to be wasted I know not. I supposed, by the appearance of the cotton crop in the different settlements, that a great many tons would be ready for market this spring, and be transported to our northern settlements. While conversing upon the subject with a few of the brethren in Great Salt Lake City, brother Wm. S. Godbe said he would buy cotton of the brethren in the south if they would sell. He had some goods passing through this section en route for Great Salt Lake City, and he exchanged a portion of them for cotton. You remember that last summer and fall there was no want of cotton in the eastern country. In the month of January or February according to our despatches, raw cotton was sold in New York as high as $1.05 a pound. We thought that was a high price for cotton. On the first of March raw cotton was sold in the same city for $00.93 a pound. At this price we thought it would be a safe investment to buy your cotton and send it to the States, and expected you would have some fifty or a hundred tons to throw into the market. Brother Godbe could only get some fifteen thousand pounds. Since that time the price of cotton in the east is reduced to $00.45 a pound, and that is a pretty good price.

Can we make anything by raising cotton and transporting it to the States to be sold at forty-five cents a pound? I think we can. Let some of the brethren try the experiment by raising thirty-five hundred pounds of cotton this season, putting it into a light wagon, hitching on three yoke of cattle, and hauling it to the States, and having it there worked up on shares. If they would manufacture it on halves that would give—making a rough estimate—seventeen hundred and fifty pounds of yarn, which is worth a dollar and twenty-five cents a pound in St. Louis: this would give a handsome profit to the producer. I should think the factories in the east would willingly work up cotton from Utah in this way, as cotton is scarce with them: and they might find it to their advantage to work it up for a less share than one-half. If you have it made into cloth, I would not be surprised if the manufacturer should give you three and take one; but suppose we say that you get one-half in cloth, that would give you some fifty-one hundred yards, which, as it is now selling in Great Salt Lake City, would be equal to about the same number of bushels of oats. By importing one load of cotton to the east a man can make cloth enough to clothe his family many years.

This system of exporting cotton may do very well, until we have multiplied machinery sufficient to work up our cotton at home. The little machinery we have working at Parowan is now making an improved quality of yarn; and they are improving the machinery so fast that I am encouraged, and I believe that we shall be successful in making good cloth. Brother Hanks, who is now superintending that little factory, left some yarn with me, and my family have begun to color and weave it. The yarn is better than we can get from the east, taking one bunch with another.

Brother Horace S. Eldredge expects this season to import machinery for a small cotton factory, and to bring with him a man of experience to set it up. This will create a market in this territory for our cotton.

I wish the brethren of the cotton country to import machinery and make their cotton into cloth, and we will put up machinery in Great Salt Lake City, buy our cotton from you, and haul it to the city. In the meantime, let every appliance for home spinning and weaving be improved upon; let hand cards be used, and spinning-wheels, and let each family make the cloth they wear, for if they do not, they will have to go without it. Is it not apparent to all since the commencement of the war, that we must become self-sustaining? This we have told the people for years.

Let us apply our hearts to our God and our religion, that we may soon be prepared to be more fully organized as the children of God our Father; that we may be qualified to go back to Jackson County, instead of calling for five hundred teams to go to the Missouri River for the poor. Were we to call for teams to go back to Jackson County, five thousand would be on hand. This, however, cannot be until the people are better organized in a temporal point of view, that all their temporal actions may point to the building up of the kingdom of God, when no man will say that ought he possesses is his own, but hold it only for the interest and good of the whole community of the Saints.

With regard to the country southeast of us, let no man move there until he gets word from me. The First Presidency will give you the word to move when it is time. We want the brethren to enlarge their borders here, and extend their settlements up the rivers Rio Virgin and Santa Clara; and by-and-by they will reach the Severe, from which point we have a good route through Sanpete to Great Salt Lake City.

Let me now say to my brethren, the Elders of Israel, it is always proper to kindly and affectionately ask the people to perform what you wish performed, instead of ordering them to do it. This principle is always good for parents and teachers to observe.

Build good commodious dwelling-houses, plant good gardens, and surround yourselves with every comfort, and learn to beautify the earth, and prepare it for the coming of the Son of Man. May God bless you: Amen.

Advice to California Emigrants—the Principles of the Gospel, Etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made on the Public Square, Great Salt Lake City, July 8, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

In compliance with your polite invitation, I am here for the purpose of speaking to you a short time.

I can readily understand that you wish to see the notorious Brigham Young; well, you can now look at him, and in so doing you will not see a very marvellous sight, though my name is had for good and for evil the world over.

Some of you may have passed through this city before, though I presume the majority of you are strangers here, and, like other people, you want to see all there is to be seen and know all there is to be known.

In regard to the position of the people called Latter-day Saints in Utah, we occupy the half-way house between the settlements on the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. Here the travelling public can renew their supplies, and prepare to meet the toils and hardships of the remainder of their journey.

The short time you stay in this city, or vicinity, you will have to judge for yourselves as to the character of the people here. We can represent all classes—the good, bad and indifferent; but if you wish to truly know the people who are now living in these mountains, you will have to tarry long enough among them to gain the desired information. If you wish to know why we are here, it is simply because we had nowhere else to go; we were obliged to go somewhere, and, as a wise Providence designed, we lodged here. If any of you wish to be more fully informed upon this point, you can, at your leisure, search the history of this people, for it is before the world.

We had anticipated, when we came into these distant valleys, that we should be entirely secluded from the world—that we should trouble no person and that no person would trouble us. The “Mormon” Battalion had been disbanded in California, and some of that body first discovered gold there; the news of that discovery quickly reached the eastern States, and thousands were soon upon our track. Instead of being secluded, we find ourselves in the great national highway. We must be known, and we could not be in a better situation to be known than where we are.

I think I am not mistaken in the conclusion that you wanted to see the notorious Brigham Young more than to hear his politics or his religion, though I can give you a short political speech, if it would be gratifying to you.

The spirit of our politics is peace. If we could have our choice, it would be to continually walk in the path of peace; and had we the power, we would direct the feet of all men to walk in the same path. We wish to live in peace with our God, with our neighbors and with all men. I am not aware that we have ever been guilty of inaugurating any difficulty whatever.

We claim the privilege of freedom of speech—of giving our views on national affairs and on religion—and this privilege we claim wherever we are in our free country. Is there any particular sin in this? Is there anything in this that is contrary to the constitution of our country, or to the institutions of freedom established by our revolutionary fathers? Freedom of speech is a right which we hold most dear, considering, at the same time, that every person availing himself of this right is accountable to his fellows for the manner in which he uses it.

Touching the present trouble that exists in our nation, I can say that we consider it very lamentable and disastrous. Mankind do not understand themselves nor the design of their Creator in giving them an existence in the world. It was never designed by him that his children, who claim to be intelligent beings, should slay each other; such conduct is anti-Christian and repugnant to every lofty aspiration and Godlike principle in the better portion of man’s nature. War is instigated by wickedness—it is the consequence of a nation’s sin. We have, however, but little to say upon the war which is now piercing the heart of the nation with many sorrows, for we are far from its scenes of blood and deadly strife. We receive contradictory statements over the wires, and are left to form our own conclusions.

As to religion, we believe in the Old and New Testament, and consider it unnecessary to hire learned divines to interpret the Scriptures; we receive them as they are, “Knowing that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.” We are aware that many mistakes have been introduced into the Scriptures through the ignorance, carelessness, or design of translators, yet they are good enough for us and well answer the purpose designed of God in their compilation, viz., to lead all men, who will be guided by them, to the fountain of light from whence all holy Scriptures emanate.

Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity. How shall we believe the Scriptures, if we do not believe them as we find them? We consider that we are more safe to follow the plain letter of the Word of God, than to venture so great a risk as to depend upon a private interpretation given by man who claims no inspiration from God and who altogether discards the idea that he gives immediate revelation now as anciently.

We believe in God the Father and in Jesus Christ our elder brother. We believe that God is a person of tabernacle, possessing in an infinitely higher degree all the perfections and qualifications of his mortal children. We believe that he made Adam after his own image and likeness, as Moses testifies; and in this belief we differ from the professedly Christian world, who declare that “His center is everywhere, but his circumference is nowhere.” Their God has no body nor parts; our God possesses a body and parts, and was heard by Adam and Eve “Walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” They say that their God has no passions; our God loves his good children and is “Angry with the wicked every day,” “And him that loveth violence his soul hateth;” and he reveals his will as familiarly to his servants in all ages as I reveal my thoughts to you this evening.

We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, and try to keep his sayings. He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” One commandment to his disciples was to preach his Gospel in all the world, and baptize believers for the remission of sins, and then lay hands upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost, that they might possess the gifts and graces promised in the Gospel to all believers.

We worship a God who can hear us when we call upon him, and who can answer our reasonable petitions, and who gives guidance and direction to the affairs of his kingdom which, he has established on the earth in our own day. We believe in making his statutes our delight, in observing his ordinances and keeping all his commandments. You may inquire whether all professed Latter-day Saints do these things. My answer is, They should do them. Are they all truly Saints who profess to be Saints? They should be. Are all this people, in the Scriptural sense, Christians? They should be. Do they all serve God with an undivided heart? They should. Many of them do, seeking daily to do his will. You do not find many of this class of Saints wandering idly over your camp ground, wanting and desiring this, that and the other from the passing stranger. Those who visit you in this way wish to see how you look, as you want to see how the “Mormons” look. The great mass of this people tarry at home, they are in their houses, their gardens, their fields and shops, paying attention to their own business, and not running after strangers for gain; and in attending to their own business many get rich. While some of our community wish to see how their former Christian brethren look, they, at the same time, wish to trade with you, and a stranger might suppose that they are first-class Latter-day Saints. Do not be deceived, for all first-class Latter-day Saints, both men and women, may be found minding their own business at their homes or where their business requires their presence. To know them and how they live is the only means by which you can form a true conception of the “Mormon” people.

We are trying to improve ourselves in every particular, for God has given us mental and physical powers to be improved, and these are most precious gifts; more precious are they to us than fine gold. God is our Father, and he wishes his children to become like him by improving upon the means he has supplied for this purpose.

I do not know that you have hitherto met with any difficulty from the Indians on your journey. You have heard of Indian hostilities against the whites on the western route, but you will have no trouble with them if you will do right. I have always told the travelling public that it is much cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them. Give them a little bread and meat, a little sugar, a little tobacco, or a little of anything you have which will conciliate their feelings and make them your friends. It is better to do this than to make them your enemies. By pursuing this policy you may escape all trouble from that quarter, while you are journeying on the Pacific slope.

I am satisfied that among the red men of the mountains and the forest you can find as many good, honest persons as among the Anglo-Saxon race. The Indian faithfully follows the traditions and customs of his race. He has been taught to steal and to shed the blood of his enemies, and the most expert in these inhuman practices is considered a great chief or a great brave. The Anglo-Saxon race has been taught not to steal, not to lie, not to shed the blood of mankind. If the Indian steals or sheds the blood of those he considers his enemies, he is doing what he considers to be right, and is not so much to blame as the white man who commits such crimes, for the white man knows them to be wrong and contrary to the laws of God and man. We have men among us, whose fathers and mothers belong to the Church of Latter-day Saints, that will steal our horses and run them off to sell in California, and then Steal horses there and sell them to us in Utah.

Travel in kindness and peace with one another, and cultivate a friendship on this journey that will be lasting after you have reached your destination. You are now essential to each other for mutual safety; let not this be lost sight of, and approach each other as becomes intelligent beings who are brothers. Judge not each other rashly, for you will find that ninety-nine wrongs out of a hundred committed by men are done more in ignorance than from a design to do wrong.

My friends, you have seen me—Brigham Young—the leader of the people called “Mormons.” You see a mere mortal like yourselves, but the Lord Almighty is with me and his people. He has led us by the right hand of his power, and he gives me wisdom to lay before his people good, wholesome doctrines, and to set good examples before them. By pursuing this policy we expect to restore the confidence which has been lost among men and the integrity that belongs to the heart of man.

Try to do right and God will bless you. I heartily bid you God speed on your journey. Farewell.

Advancement of the Saints, etc.

Heber C. Kimball

Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in Provo City, June 27, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

I discover that we shall have to speak very loud in this Bowery in order to make this large congregation hear. I perceived this when I came into the meeting; at the further end I could scarcely hear the singing.

This is quite a large congregation, and I am happy to see it. It is very gratifying to see the inhabitants of this county come together to a Conference, and I suppose it is pleasing to you; it gives you a good opportunity of seeing each other and renewing your acquaintance. I think I am safe in saying that this is the largest gathering there has been in Provo since our move south in 1858. Here is an audience of from four to five thousand Latter-day Saints, come together for the purpose of being instructed in the principles of eternal life, and I sincerely hope you are all of one heart and one mind to do good and build up the kingdom of God.

I do not feel very well in body this morning; probably this is because of travelling yesterday. I left home at half-past ten o’clock in the morning and came through in good season last evening. I got a good place to rest over night, but as the people here appear to be very diligent, more so than those in Salt Lake City, I had to get up at six this morning to get my breakfast. I feel well in spirit but feeble in body. I feel very anxious in relation to the welfare of this people, not only in Provo but throughout these mountains, yes, I feel interested in every man, woman and child that belongs to this Church. I wish to see them prosper in all that is good and holy.

During the short time that I may address you, I wish you to be as still as possible; do not let your minds and eyes go out after the vain things of this world, but concentrate them upon the things of God; be still, calm, composed and full of faith, prayer and good desires, then, if such a spirit prevails, I am perfectly satisfied that before this Conference closes you will feel yourselves very much blessed of the Lord. I will also remark that I am sensible that no man can speak to a congregation of people upon any subject, only according to the intelligence that is in the people. There are quite a number of this congregation who knew Joseph Smith the Prophet, and he used to say in Nauvoo that when he came before the people he felt as though he were enclosed in an iron case, his mind was closed by the influences that were thrown around him; he was curtailed in his wishes and desires to do good; there was no room for him to expand, hence he could not make use of the revelations of God as he would have done; there was no room in the hearts of the people to receive the glorious truths of the Gospel that God revealed to him. I refer to these things to show that this feeling has been experienced by others as well as myself, and if as great and good a man as the Prophet Joseph felt like this, no wonder that I should be effected and be wrought upon by surrounding influences. But, notwithstanding all this, I rejoice in the blessings of peace and truth that flow through obedience to the Gospel to every honest soul.

When I look back to the days of Joseph and then compare the people now to what they were in those early times, I discover that we have made a very great advancement, and I rejoice in it. We all can see this and are willing to admit of it, but does this tell the whole of the story? No; I say that if we look at the opportunities the Saints have had since the days of Joseph, the long season of peace and freedom from mobs, we are compelled to say that the Latter-day Saints have not advanced more than half as rapidly as they might have done.

Perhaps you will not agree with me in what I am now going to state, but be this as it may, I am satisfied that it is true. This people will never improve in their minds or advance in spiritual intelligence until they improve and advance their temporal interests. Public and individual improvements always advance and help forward the intellectual. Now, property here in Provo is not worth any more to-day than it was ten years ago; the reason of this is, that everything is at a stand, very few improvements are being made; there is no spirit of enterprise except of a private character. I speak particularly of Provo at this time, because of our being here and because it was the second settlement made in these valleys. This city and Ogden were the next places established after Great Salt Lake City, and you may now look around you and see if the improvements made are, and have been, according to the facilities afforded. Are your habitations, your gardens, your fields and vineyards in that state of cultivation that you have had the opportunity and power of putting them?

In conversing with a man last night upon the subject of property in this city, and its present value, he wanted to know what I considered such a field worth, pointing to a certain place near by. I replied that it ought to be worth about a thousand dollars, but of course it is not worth that amount now, because there is no improvement about it or in the neighborhood. Now, I can tell you all candidly that unless you advance in these temporal improvements you never will increase in spiritual knowledge; the one cannot thrive without the other. You may think it strange that you cannot enjoy religion and the Spirit of God in a little, miserable log cabin, but you must remember that the temporal and spiritual go hand in hand, they are inseparably connected, and you may rest assured that the one cannot advance far along the path of progression without the other. This has been one of my principles ever since I came to a knowledge of the truth.

Public improvements always have a tendency to make a town or a city flourish. To the people of Provo I will say, in the first place build, or rather complete your meeting-house, and then go forward with such other public improvements as will rouse up your spirits, elevate your minds to action and make you energetic in the Work of God, and the blessings of the Almighty will rest upon you and you will increase in the knowledge of the principles of eternal life. This I know by experience and by practice.

Some may ask why I talk so much about these temporal matters. I do this because I feel it to be my duty to do it, and not particularly on account of any desire that I have to speak of them. Our immediate and daily connection with temporal things renders it important that we should be reminded of our duties in relation to these matters.

We have been taught that our Father and God, from whom we sprang, called and appointed his servants to go and organize an earth, and, among the rest, he said to Adam, “You go along also and help all you can; you are going to inhabit it when it is organized, therefore go and assist in the good work.” It reads in the Scriptures that the Lord did it, but the true rendering is, that the Almighty sent Jehovah and Michael to do the work. They were also instructed to plant every kind of vegetable, likewise the forest and the fruit trees, and they actually brought from heaven every variety of fruit, of the seeds of vegetables, the seeds of flowers, and planted them in this earth on which we dwell. And I will say more, the spot chosen for the garden of Eden was Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, where Independence now stands; it was occupied in the morn of creation by Adam and his associates who came with him for the express purpose of peopling this earth.

Father Adam was instructed to multiply and replenish the earth, to make it beautiful and glorious, to make it, in short, like unto the garden from which the seeds were brought to plant the garden of Eden. I might say much more upon this subject, but I will ask, has it not been imitated before you in your holy endowments so that you might understand how things were in the beginning of creation and cultivation of this earth? God the Father made Adam the Lord of this creation in the beginning, and if we are the Lords of this creation under Adam, ought we not to take a course to imitate our Father in heaven? Is not all this exhibited to us in our endowments? the earth made glorious and beautiful to look upon, representing everything which the Lord caused to be prepared and placed to adorn the earth. The Prophet Joseph frequently spoke of these things in the revelations which he gave, but the people generally did not understand them, but to those who did they were cheering, they had a tendency to gladden the heart and enlighten the mind. By faith and works we shall subdue the earth and make it glorious. We can plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof; we possess this power within ourselves. I would not give a fig for faith without works, for it is dead, even as the body without the spirit is dead. If you wish salvation, go to work with your might and strength to do what the Lord requires at your hands through his servants whom he has appointed. You need not expect him to come to you, especially as you are not prepared to see him. As members of the body of Christ we are called upon to labor and to do our part towards building up his kingdom, and should all have equal interest in that kingdom. We manifest our attachment to the principles of progress and improvement, both of which are intimately connected with the building up of Zion, when we plant orchards and vineyards, and when we make good gardens, good farms, and when we build good houses; in doing all of which we get a liberal reward as we go along. Then let us stretch forth our hands and build up the towns and cities of Zion.

Supposing we had the facilities for water power in Salt Lake City that you have here, it would have been much farther advanced than it is; we should have occupied every eligible site with machinery before this time. Look at brother Taylor’s mill race that crosses the main thoroughfare below here; why, there is more water running down there than runs in President Young’s mill race and any other three streams that we have in the neighborhood of Salt Lake City. You might have factories here, spinning and weaving by machinery, and in fact every kind of machinery that you need. We can make many kinds of machinery right here. We are certainly blessed above all other people on the earth, although there are but a few that realize it as they ought to; but such as have been driven from their homes and stripped of all they possessed from two to six times, as I have, they can appreciate the blessings of peace and prosperity that attend the Saints in these valleys. I have seen the Latter-day Saints scattered by the ruthless hand of mobocracy to the four winds; driven from Missouri and from Illinois by their enemies in the dead of winter and exposed to the severity of the season. For what? All because they believed in God and acknowledged Joseph Smith to be his Prophet.

The Scriptures say, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again;” and again the injunction is given in another place, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again?” What is now taking place with our enemies? They are suffering far more than we did, right in those very places from which we were expelled by mob force. Brother Henry Lawrence was telling me that quite a number of those counties and places formerly occupied by the Saints, are now left destitute; and in some of the settlements the people are left in a state of comparative nudity. These are the effects of this horrible war, and what kind of a condition do you think we shall be in if we continue to depend upon the world for supplies? At present we are dependant upon them for our cloth, and we buy large quantities of prints that when brought here are very little better than rags. I can tell you that if you depend upon our enemies you will be sadly mistaken, for they will not long be able to supply themselves.

I am told that St. Louis is now one of the worst places to live in in America, and the inhabitants profess to be loyal to the Government, but I presume the truth is, that half of them are traitors. They are constantly hearing of riots and troubles of one kind or another. By-and-by it, will be just as bad in Ohio, New York and Massachusetts. To secure ourselves against these troublesome times, we must make the articles of clothing that we need to wear and we must produce the food that we need and require to sustain these our decaying bodies. Then we should remember that the articles we make from the cotton we raise down in our cotton country will last four times as long as those we purchase in the stores of Salt Lake City, especially if the ladies wont try to wash them to pieces. And we can take the flax and spin it into table-cloths and we shall see it become whiter and whiter every time it is washed, until we shall be delighted with our home-manufactured articles; besides, it will be almost impossible to scrub such cloth to pieces.

Some of you may ask if I am doing any of these things. Yes, I am doing all I possibly can, realizing, as I most assuredly do, that hard times are coming upon this nation. I calculate to have my garments of fine wool next fall. I am aware that some of you have got it into your heads that wool won’t do to make into garments. Will those of you who entertain that idea have the kindness to look at the condition the Savior was in at the time of his crucifixion. We read that when they had crucified him “They parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.” The Savior’s under garment was knitted, and Joseph Smith always wore that kind, and therefore I think we have no occasion to be ashamed of homemade garments. Wool is designed especially for winter use. In regard to the cotton goods, I will here say, you can go into the cotton district of our Territory and take your wheat and flour and exchange any quantity with the brethren who reside there. They have gone into cotton raising there on an extensive scale, and I can truly say that of all the good feelings and influences I ever felt that I never felt better than I did while visiting the Saints in Washington county. It is a country where the Devil cannot get a foot-hold. He delights in robbing, killing and destroying the righteous man and all who will not submit to the influence that comes from the lower regions. Why do we take a course to leave our wives and children comparatively destitute of the comforts of life? We have the privilege of becoming an independent people, and there is no necessity of living poor.

If the Latter-day Saints in the city of Provo and in all other cities and towns of this Territory would put up good, substantial fences around their gardens and fields, then our sisters could go into the gardens and supply their tables with fruit of every desirable kind and all in the season thereof, and this would be a blessing to all. But as it is now, the trees are planted and eaten down year after year by the cattle, and thus the men’s labor is lost and the trees destroyed. In Salt Lake City there are a few who have been waked up to diligence, and the result is that they have got a nice variety of apricots, peaches, plums, apples, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, and some have got cherries and pears. Now I want to see you do these things here that you may make yourselves happy and comfortable, and also that you may place yourselves in a situation that our Father and God can send his angels to visit and to bless you. Don’t you think that angels would like to see a garden around your houses if they were to come and visit you? Who are angels? They are sanctified men who once lived upon this earth and held the Priesthood just as we do now, and who are co-workers with us. Were there angels along with us on our southern trip? Yes, and I felt as if every hair of my head was filled and quickened with the life-giving power of God. That power was upon brother Brigham, and we were filled with it.

Whenever this people are improving in good works, then is the time that we feel the goodly and heavenly influence. I never felt it more in my life than when I was on that journey; I never before experienced that freedom of speech that accompanied me on that mission. Every man, in fact, who went with us on that southern trip felt to praise God for the blessings that rested upon us all.

We travelled eight hundred and fifty miles in thirty days, and President Young and myself preached fifty times each. When we would get through a day’s journey it seemed that we were so tired that we could not preach, but the life-giving power of God was upon us, and by that we were enabled to endure the labors and fatigues of that journey. It seemed that we had one eternal blessing for the people; we were full of the blessings of the Priesthood, and, in fact, we could not speak without blessing the inhabitants of that county, for the faith of the people drew the blessings from us. We also felt to bless the earth that it might bring forth abundantly everything that is placed therein by the industrious hands of the Saints of God; we blessed the cattle, the fruit trees, the waters, and, in fact, everything that is for the use and benefit of man.

I have now expressed some of my feelings upon a number of subjects, and I feel well in doing this, for I know that the Saints of God ought to be wide awake to their duties. You all believe in “Mormonism,” I have no doubt; you have been baptized into the Church for the remission of sins, had hands laid upon your heads by those having authority, and you doubtless know that “Mormonism” is true, but yet you are not fully converted to the necessity of having the power of God with you always. I know that that power does not dwell with us as it ought. I put myself in, for I am here with you and I am one of your brethren. We who preside over you have to stick to you, although there are a great many dead limbs among you, but we shall stick to you until you learn to live your religion. We want to see you bow before the throne of grace in humility and let your faith and works go hand in hand. Paul said to the Church at Corinth, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” Then apply this to yourselves and awake to a full sense of your duties to God and to each other. “Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you,” says the Lord through his Prophet, and this declaration you will find to be as true in our day as it was in the day that it was spoken. I will tell you what I am afraid of, brethren, if you do not wake up to a sense of your true position, the Lord will send a flood and wash you out of those bottoms, and thus make you come on to this bench and build up a respectable city.

My feeling and my faith is all the time, God bless this people, and may he accept of the labors and offerings of the righteous, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

The Young Missionaries, etc.

Heber C. Kimball

Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 19, 1863. Reported by J. V. Long.

I have no doubt that the people in general suppose it is a very easy thing for me to arise and speak to them, but I realize my weakness as well as other men, and probably I feel as diffident as most other men. When I first went forth to preach to the world I suffered a great deal in my feelings, probably as much as any man that ever attempted to preach. When I reflected upon my own inexperience I felt like a child, and I do to-day. For this reason I think much about those young men who have gone forth to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will feel the need of being assisted by the Almighty when they are travelling through the European countries. Part of them are under twenty years of age, and they will realize their dependence upon God more than ever they have done before. I was over thirty years old when I commenced preaching the Gospel, but they are all young and well adapted for learning, hence they have many advantages. In those early times we did not know one hundredth part of the principles of the Gospel that we now know; in fact, there was but very little revealed, and we had not learned to understand the Scriptures except to a very limited extent. We had a little understanding of what was already revealed and written in the revelations given through Joseph the Prophet. I look over these things when I am thinking of those boys, and that is not all, I pray for them continually. I never bow before God without asking him in the name of his Son to remember those young men, and I know he will bless them with the power of his Spirit to guide them in the way of life. They do not know scarcely at present whether they understand much about the principles of the Gospel or not, and they will not really know until they have had some experience more than they had here at home. They are brought into a position where they will feel the necessity of calling upon God, and when they get home again they will find that they have had quite an experience, such an experience, too, as will be of lasting benefit to them. I used to think that anybody knew as much as I did, for I had very little confidence in myself, but I had confidence in God or I could not have preached at all. They will have just such feelings, and if they have any confidence at all it will be in God. Well, this is the case with most of us, and it is right; our confidence should be in him and not in ourselves, for without his assistance we are nothing and can do nothing towards the salvation of the human family. To be sure, the world are as ignorant as we were in relation to the Gospel of Christ, but we are the chosen of the Lord and he will support us in all our under takings in righteousness. In those early times we were made to realize the truth of the Scriptures which Paul addressed to the Corinthians:—

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.”—1 Corinthians, i chap., 26-29 verses.

The world are in the same or a more ignorant condition than we were before the Gospel found us. We live in a very peculiar time; it is a day of warning and not of many words. The Elders now have to labor a great deal harder to bring people into the Church than they did in the first rise of it. There is not now one man brought to the knowledge of the truth by receiving the Gospel to where there was a hundred thirty years ago. It seems as though the people are blinder now than they were thirty years ago, and ignorance prevails to a greater extent than it did at that time. Jesus says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light:”—Matt. xi., 28-30.

Now, brethren and sisters, reflect upon these things, and remember that those who have embraced the Gospel and do not make it their study to promote the interests of the kingdom of God, neglect their duty to that kingdom of which they are subjects. It is the duty of every one to labor day by day to promote each other’s happiness, and also to study the well-being of mankind. When we take a course opposite to this, we become uneasy, unhappy and discontented; we are not satisfied with anything that is around us; our food, our raiment, our habitations and all that we possess becomes an annoyance to us; now what is the cause of this? It certainly does not originate with the Spirit of God, for that will never render any one unhappy. You all understand, when you are in the right, that it is the spirit of the world, or that spirit which controls the world, which causes people to feel in this way; and unless they drive it far from them it will lead them down to sorrow, misery and death. It is a spirit that inclines to kill and destroy, and that inclines the wicked to waste away everything there is upon the earth. The Saints should be particularly careful to avoid the influence of this spirit of destruction, for it is not of God, and we can all see now it leads mankind to destroy each other.

Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is very easy to understand that a man can see very little of a kingdom unless he goes into it, and a man to see and understand the kingdom of God must first become a member of the Church of Christ, and then he progresses until he has an opportunity of looking into the kingdom, of becoming acquainted with its officers and laws, and hence it is that Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” When the kingdom of God is organized upon the earth, it is done to protect the Church of Christ in its rights and privileges, so that you see the Church makes a government to protect itself, but who knows what that government is? All those to whom it has been revealed, and no others. Let the Saints reflect upon these matters which I am laying before them. Think of your holy endowments and what you have been anointed to become, and reflect upon the blessings which have been placed upon you, for they are the same in part that were placed upon Jesus; he was the one that inducted his Apostles into these ordinances; it was he who set up the kingdom of which we are subjects. This is the kingdom of which all the Prophets spake, and to which Daniel alluded when he said, “and in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” It is a blessing to have the privilege of entering into the kingdom of God and partaking of the privileges and blessings that are bestowed upon its members.

The testimony has gone forth that whosoever will repent and be baptized for the remission of sins shall receive the Holy Ghost. This is the only way whereby mankind can be saved. Still mankind will devise systems of their own, in preference to walking in the way which God has marked out: and it appears that every man has his own way and wishes to walk in the path which he himself marks out, and it is a good deal with mankind as the writer of the Proverbs describes it, “There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

When people embrace the Gospel they are then called upon to do all things which Jesus has commanded them, to live by the instructions of the Apostles and Elders of the Church. If they have been guilty of stealing, they must steal no more; for if they are found guilty they will be cast out as the law of God prescribes. They must not bear false witness, nor do anything that is forbidden in the ten commandments, which you know we were all taught to reverence when we went to the Sunday-school in our childhood. Is that all that is required of us? No, those ten commandments do not constitute one hundredth part of the commandments that God gave to Adam in the beginning. Just let us look at these commandments, and then compare them with some of those given in our own day. In the 20th chap. of Exodus we find the Lord introducing the subject by reassuring the Israelites that he was the Lord their God; who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage, and then he proceeds to speak and to command them what to do and what not to do; and in these commandments, which I will read to you, the Almighty shows that he is very jealous of his honor, and that he requires the undivided service and worship of his people. It will not do us any harm to look over those commandments, but it may do some of us a great deal of good, and, therefore, I will call your attention to them. We find them written in the following language:—

“Thou shalt have no other gods ‘before me.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:

“And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

“Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.

“Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:

“But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

“Thou shalt not kill.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.

“Thou shalt not steal.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”—Exodus, 20 chap., 3-17.

These items contained in the above commandments are things that we ought all to consider and have a more lively interest in. We should read them occasionally, as well as other parts of the word of God, and we should endeavor to cultivate that which we see to be good.

We have the Priesthood of the living God in our midst, that Priesthood which is after the order of Melchisedec; it is the authority which God instituted in the beginning, and there is no salvation nor exaltation without it. If the present generation wish an exaltation in the kingdom of God, and desire the benefits and blessings of the Priesthood of the Most High, they must bow in obedience to the mandates of Heaven. Through this Priesthood the law of God has been revealed to man in this generation, to let mankind know that he still lives, and that he still has a care for his children and watches over them with paternal affection. Among the revelations which we find in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants there is one which was given in Feb., 1831, in which is contained the general outlines of the law which is to govern the Latter-day Saints. You may read the whole of that revelation when you have time; I will only call your attention now to the 6th and 7th paragraphs, which read as follows:—

“And now, behold, I speak unto the Church: Thou shalt not kill; and he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come.

“And again, I say, thou shalt not kill: but he that killeth shall die. Thou shalt not steal; and he that stealeth and will not repent, shall be cast out. Thou shalt not lie; he that lieth and will not repent, shall be cast out. Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else; and he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her, shall deny the faith, and shall not have the Spirit, and if he repents not he shall be cast out. Thou shalt not commit adultery; and he that committeth adultery and repenteth not, shall be cast out; but he that has committed adultery and repents with all his heart, and forsaketh it, and doeth it no more, thou shalt forgive; but if he doeth it again, he shall not be forgiven, but shall be cast out. Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor, nor do him any harm. Thou knowest my laws concerning these things are given in my scriptures: he that sinneth and repenteth not, shall be cast out.”

Thus you see that the Lord was very particular in giving commandments through Joseph Smith at the commencement of this Church, and these commandments apply to all who embrace the Gospel, and without obedience to these, in connection with the rest of the revelations and commandments that have been given to this Church, there is no promise of salvation in the celestial kingdom. It is true there are many moralists and men who in many respects are very good, who do not embrace the Gospel; all such will be rewarded according to their works. If their works are good, good will be restored unto them; and if their works are evil they will be punished for their sins. And remember, the Lord says that those who lie shall be cast out of the Church, and this applies to every man and woman, and they can read it for themselves in the Book of Covenants. We are also commanded there not to speak evil of our neighbors, for if we do and do not immediately repent, the penalty is that we shall be cast out of the Church. Now, how important it is that we should observe these commandments and do them, especially as the Bible says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all.”—James 2, 10. You know if a man lies he offends in that particular and breaks one, of the commandments, and he that said, Thou shalt not bear false witness, said also, Thou shalt not kill, therefore, by breaking one part of the law of God a man becomes a transgressor, and the law given to us in our day says that all such shall be cast out of the Church if they do not repent.

Now I touch upon these little things, knowing that if you do not hear and obey these, you will not pay any attention to the greater things. If I disregard any of the little things that pertain to my duty, I am guilty in the sight of God, and it is just so in regard to the law of the land. It is precisely so here with our laws in Utah; they are good, and well adapted to our circumstances and condition; but yet there are some persons who are not willing to observe them.

I feel that I am a weak, frail mortal; I realize that we are all frail beings, but those that suppose we cannot observe the laws to which I have referred, are mistaken. I know that I can refrain from evil, and I also know that any other person can who tries. It is quite a common thing with the world to commit sins, and then to argue that they cannot do any better, but this is a misunderstanding; any person who tries can refrain from evil.

What effect does this gospel produce among the inhabitants of the earth? Does it unite them together in one, and make them all of one heart and one mind; No, but it would produce this effect if the people would receive it, and universally adopt it as their rule of action, instead of which a great majority of mankind reject it, and hence it produces the effect which Jesus said his mission would. He remarked: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”—Matt. 10. 30. 36. This has truly been one of the results of the preaching of the gospel. The Elders have converted one here and another there; they have fulfilled the scripture which says: “I will take two of a family and one of a city, and bring them to Zion.”

We now see a similar condition of things politically, to what has long existed religiously. Our own country is now suffering in consequence of this spirit of opposition, and it is causing many hearts to mourn because of losing their friends, and when the trouble will be at an end, is not for me to say. Now the Presbyterians of the North are preaching and praying against their Presbyterian brethren in the South; and this is precisely the condition of the Baptists, Methodists, Quakers and Shakers, and I am really sorry that such is the case. There are many honorable and peaceable citizens who are moving West in consequence of the lamentable state of our once happy and peaceful country.

When I think of these things I always reflect upon the travels of this Church; I call to mind our trials and privations in leaving Kirtland, Ohio. I call to mind our blessings and our troubles in the State of Missouri; I think of what we passed through and endured in the State of Illinois, and I shall not soon forget our wearisome and toilsome journey from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters, and then from the Frontiers of Iowa to these peaceful valleys. I rejoice many times in my reflections when I consider the goodness of the Almighty unto us, in bringing us to this goodly land. Here we can enjoy ourselves in the liberty of the gospel; we can make ourselves comfortable, and surround ourselves with the comforts and blessings of this life. In this respect we are privileged and blessed above many of our fellow creatures, and our blessings ought to cause us to look with compassion upon, and have charity for those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. It is our duty to consider what we were before we heard the gospel; we were quite as ignorant of God, Angels and heaven as the children of disobedience now are, but through the medium of Joseph Smith we were brought to an understanding of the principles of eternal life, and many of us have since been to the nations to teach them repentance and baptism for the remission of sins. Jesus set the example, and although he was without sin he submitted to the ordinance that he might fulfil all righteousness. John objected to perform the ordinance, but after Jesus had informed him it was requisite that he should honor the law of heaven, John then consented to officiate. As a proof that that was acceptable, the heavens were opened, and a voice heard to say—“This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Now this conduct of our Savior was an example to all mankind, and every person who desires salvation must pass through this ordeal. By being baptized and keeping all the commandments, we become the beloved sons and daughters of God, the Holy Ghost descends upon us, and we are continually enlightened by its benign influences. After becoming members of this Church it becomes our duty to set a good example before all men, to pursue a course that will be acceptable in the sight of God and worthy of imitation, and let me encourage every one to be faithful to their covenants, and live pure and holy lives before God.

The members of this Church are all blessed with the privilege we enjoy this day, of partaking of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. When Christ instituted this supper he enjoined its continuance upon his disciples, and we have been instructed to observe it in this generation. Jesus remarked at his last supper: “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God, and he took the cup and gave thanks, and said, take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks and break it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.”—Luke 22. 15, 20.

To some it may be a curiosity that we partake of water instead of wine. [Prest. B. Young: Tell them that the Lord told Joseph that he would accept of water]. Yes, the Lord has warned us against taking impure wine, and in a revelation given to Joseph Smith as early as September, 1830, he revealed his will on this subject in the following language:—Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Lord, your God and your Redeemer, whose word is quick and powerful. For behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory; remembering unto the Father my blood which was shed for the remission of sins; wherefore, a commandment I give unto you that you shall not purchase wine, neither strong drink of your enemies; wherefore, you shall partake of none except it is made new among you; yea, in this my Father’s kingdom which shall be built up on the earth. Behold this is wisdom in me; wherefore, marvel not, for the hour cometh that I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth.”—Doc. Cov., Sec. L., Par. 1 & 2. This is what we are doing this afternoon, and, brethren and sisters, let us be faithful and remember in partaking of this ordinance, we renew our covenants, and we have a promise that we shall receive a renewal of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to be humble and to perform the duties that are enjoined upon us as Saints.

Whatever transpires, if we are faithful in this kingdom, will all tend to the happiness, pleasure and exaltation of this people. We ought to be the happiest people on the face of the earth, for we are blessed with a knowledge of the gospel, with an understanding of the ordinances which pertain to eternal life, and we are blessed with peace while our neighbors are afflicted with a desolating war.

Brethren and sisters, I exhort you above all things to hold fast to your integrity, seek for righteousness and cleave unto it, and if you see anything that is contrary to these holy principles among this people, you may know that it is not good. There is no person in this Church who can increase in the knowledge of God, in the spirit of revelation, in the gift of prophecy, in visions or in dreams, unless they cleave unto God with full purpose of heart, but by being faithful these gifts will be multiplied unto the Saints.

Now when I went to England the first time I did not say anything about the gathering. About ten days after I had baptized brother George D. Watt, he came to me, his face shining like that of an angel, and, said he, just as sure as the Lord lives the Saints will gather to America. I told him to prophecy on, for I knew it was of God. I name this circumstance to show that the Spirit makes manifest to individuals many things of which they have never before heard. Now what is there to prevent the Latter-day Saints enjoying those gifts and graces of the gospel which they used to enjoy when they first joined the Church? What can prevent us from obtaining a knowledge of things past and things to come? There is nothing to prevent even our little boys and little girls having these gifts and blessings, except it be a slackness on our part in our duties towards God. I know there is a slackness with many of this people; there is a spirit of division, of contention and strife creeping in among the Latter-day Saints, but still I am happy to know that with the majority there is a great improvement. I know also that those brethren that are engaged in assisting to gather the poor, their blessings will be great indeed; they will have a reward in the present and in the future. On the other hand it is a matter of regret that there are others who do not feel interested enough to make up their butter and carry a tenth of it into the Tithing office. Some of them think it is too small a matter, others are indifferent and don’t care anything about it, and thus a great many of the people neglect their tithes, and do not put them into the Lord’s storehouse; hence the poor, the laborer upon the public works, and the families of our missionaries lack many of the comforts of life, which the people who are laboring exclusively for themselves constantly enjoy. I presume you all remember what Christ said in regard to the poor widow who gave her small donation at the treasury of the synagogue, but lest some of you should have forgotten it, I will remind you of it: “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, ‘Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury, for all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.’”—Mark 12. 41, 44.

Let me now say to the Latter-day Saints, if you will cast in your tithes and your offerings you will be blessed with greater abundance; the Lord will open the windows of heaven and bestow upon you a greater blessing. It will be with you as the Lord spoke through Malachi to the Israel of his day; after rebuking them the Lord promised them a great blessing. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you cut such a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the destroyer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of Hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts.—Malachi 3. 8, 12.

This will be our blessing if we are faithful; then let us awake to righteousness and we shall be abundantly blest. Let us all volunteer to help President Young in every endeavor that he makes to push forward this great work, and then we shall never again want for bread, for the Lord will shed forth rain upon the earth to water our crops, and we shall raise all the bread we need, and have some to spare for our friends. I have seen the time when our brethren have had to eat beef-hides, wolves, dogs and skunks. You may smile, but I can tell you that it was no laughing matter at that time, for there were many who could not get even dogs to eat. Many of the brethren in those trying times were clothed in skins of wild animals. I felt impressed to prophesy to them, and I said, “Never mind, boys, in less than one year there will be plenty of clothes and everything that we shall want sold at less than St. Louis prices;” and I thought when I came to reflect upon it that it was a very improbable thing, and brother Rich told me that he thought I had done up the job at prophesying that time, but the sequel showed the prediction to be of the Lord. In less than six months, the emigration to California came through here laden down with good clothing, bacon, flour, groceries and everything we wanted. The opening of the gold mines had caused them to rush for the scene of excitement; they came with their trunks full of the best of clothing, and they opened them and turned out a great deal of the clothing, and the brethren and sisters bought good coats, vests, shawls and dresses at a mere nominal price, and in this way the Lord supplied our wants, and he will do so again if the circumstances ever require it. This is the God that I believe in, and in him I put my trust. I know also that he will fight our battles from this time henceforth if we will only do right. He will turn our enemies aside and cause all things to work together for our good. Therefore, let us trust in him, and he will send his angels to watch over us, and he will preserve us as in the hollow of his hand.

May the Lord multiply his blessings upon you, brethren and sisters, and upon all the faithful ministers and Saints throughout the world, and may He bless all those who do good, who love righteousness and desire the welfare and building up of Zion; I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Necessity for Watchfulness, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I do not expect you will hear much from me during this Conference. If I had faith, or you had faith for me, sufficient to heal me up and make me strong, so that I could speak as I would like to speak, and as often and whenever the Spirit of God would delight to speak through me, I should still talk a great deal to the people.

I have always been satisfied, and am still, that they need a great deal of teaching, for everything is to learn, and everything is to be obtained. We can receive only a little at a time, and it is only the faithful that can receive anything pertaining to the revealed will of God, and they can only receive it “line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little,” and blessed is the man or woman that treasures up the words of life. Much has yet to be taught the Latter-day Saints to perfect them and prepare them for the coming of the Son of Man.

We have heard a good deal to-day, and we shall hear a good deal more to-morrow and next day, or so long as our Conference shall last; how long it will continue is not now for me to say.

In the remarks that have been made to-day, a great many things have been suggested to my mind. One thing I will take time to mention, and that is in regard to the stranger that passes through our country in search for gold, or in search for safety, as the case may be. I wish the Latter-day Saints, who live in these mountains, to understand that we are here through necessity, and that hundreds and thousands of Latter-day Saints are coming here now, and hundreds and thousands who are not Latter-day Saints are also passing through from the east to the regions north and west of us, or to other regions where they may hope to make their homes, and all through necessity; they are fleeing from trouble and sorrow. I wish you to realize this. Multitudes of good and honorable men become enrolled in the contending armies of the present American war, some to gratify a martial pride, and others through a conscientious love of their country; indeed, various are the motives and inducements that impel men to expose themselves upon the field of battle; but a portion of those who are peaceably disposed, and wish not to witness the shedding of the blood of their countrymen, make good their escape from the vicinity of trouble. It is chiefly this class of men who are now passing through this Territory to other parts, and I think they are probably as good a class of men as has ever passed through this country; they are persons who wish to live in peace, and to be far removed from contending factions. As far as I am concerned I have no fault to find with them.

But I will say to the Latter-day Saints, when they come to you with well-filled sacks of gold dust to buy your produce, do not be afraid to ask six dollars a hundred for your flour, or more if it is worth it. The love of mankind is an exalted sentiment, and patriotism for home and country is worthy of a place in the bosoms of the greatest and best of mankind, but I cannot see that we do homage to these holy principles by selling our produce to the passing stranger for less than its actual cost to us; and he is as well satisfied to pay a reasonable and fair price for what he buys from us, as to receive it, at half its value. Every intelligent farmer must be aware that flour costs him all of six dollars a hundred. If I oppress you when I teach you to take care of yourselves, then shall I continue to oppress you. Have I ever taught you, by example or precept, to oppress the hireling in his wages? Never. Can you justly accuse me of depriving the poor, or the stranger that is cast among us, of the means of obtaining the necessary comforts of life? You can not. But I may be justly accused of making men, as far as possible, earn their living; of teaching them to supply their own wants, and to accumulate and gather around them wealth and independence by a persevering industry and a constant frugality and care of the temporal blessings God bestows upon them.

Some would tell you that you are deprived of the free exercise of your rights by “Mormon” interference, while, every day you live, you live in the enjoyment of the rights and privileges of freemen, and staunch upholders of the priceless boon bequeathed to us by our fathers in the Constitution of our suffering country. They would tell you that it is the right of every man and woman to suffer themselves to be prostituted and defiled by the filth and scum that floats among the surging masses of mankind, that are at present lashed into rage and madness by the demon of war. This is not, in strictness, a right which belongs to any human being, but on the contrary, it is the right of every person and of every community to resist pollution and to contend for the privilege of living a virtuous, holy, upright and godly life, so as to be justified before the heavens and before all the good that dwell upon the earth. They consider that they are curtailed in the free exercise of their rights, because they cannot enter into our houses and pollute our wives and daughters, and because they cannot change our domestic and social system to the lowest standard of this depraved age. It is their right to attend to their own business, and we feel quite capable of attending to ours.

I mean to watch them with a sleepless eye. Understand it, ye Elders of Israel. Whether you do as you are told or not, I shall tell every man to take care that he is ready for every emergency—to sleep with one eye open, and, if he has a mind to, with his boots on and one leg out of bed. I shall not be found off my watch; and if they commence intruding, woe unto them, for they will then know who are the old settlers.

Treat the passing strangers with kindness and respect; treat all kindly and respectfully who respect you and your rights as American citizens. “Peace on earth and good will towards men,” is the design and spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; but when men are harnessed up by hundreds of thousands, and driven to the slaughter, it bespeaks a departure from God and from the popular institutions of freedom; and if Angels can weep, they weep over this human ignorance, blindness, depravity and cruelty.

What is the cause of all this waste of life and treasure? To tell it in a plain, truthful way, one portion of the country wish to raise their negroes or black slaves and the other portion wish to free them, and, apparently, to almost worship them. Well, raise and worship them, who cares? I should never fight one moment about it, for the cause of human improvement is not in the least advanced by the dreadful war which now convulses our unhappy country.

Ham will continue to be the servant of servants, as the Lord has decreed, until the curse is removed. Will the present struggle free the slave? No; but they are now wasting away the black race by thousands. Many of the blacks are treated worse than we treat our dumb brutes; and men will be called to judgment for the way they have treated the negro, and they will receive the condemnation of a guilty conscience, by the just Judge whose attributes are justice and truth.

Treat the slaves kindly and let them live, for Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think that they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham. They cannot do that, though they may kill them by thousands and tens of thousands.

According to accounts, in all probability not less than one million men, from twenty to forty years of age, have gone to the silent grave in this useless war, in a little over two years, and all to gratify the caprice of a few—I do not think I have a suitable name for them, shall we call them abolitionists; slaveholders, religious bigots, or political aspirants? Call them what you will, they are wasting away each other, and it seems as though they will not be satisfied until they have brought universal destruction and desolation upon the whole country. It appears as though they would destroy every person; perhaps they will, but I think they will not.

God rules. Do you know it? It is the kingdom of God or nothing for the Latter-day Saints.

Do you know that it is the eleventh hour of the reign of Satan on the earth? Jesus is coming to reign, and all you who fear and tremble because of your enemies, cease to fear them, and learn to fear to offend God, fear to tran[s]gress his laws, fear to do any evil to your brother, or to any being upon the earth, and do not fear Satan and his power, nor those who have only power to slay the body, for God will preserve his people.

We are constantly gathering new clay into the mill. How many of the new comers I have heard say, “Oh that I had been with you when you had your trials.” We have promised them all the trials that are necessary, if they would be patient.

Are you going to be patient and trust in God, and receive every trial with thanksgiving, acknowledging the hand of the Lord in it? You will have all the trial you can bear. The least thing tries some people. Brother Heber and myself going to the island in Great Salt Lake, a week ago last Friday, created numerous surmisings and misgivings with some. I have thought that it might, perhaps, be well to notify you regularly, through the Deseret News, of my outgoings and in-comings; and I may as well now notify you that it is my intention to visit Sanpete, and, perhaps, our southern settlements this fall. If I should do so, I hope that my brethren and sisters will feel satisfied, for I shall go, come, stay and act as I feel dictated by the Spirit of God. God being my helper, asking no odds of any person.—Amen.

Tithing—Building Temples, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I have in my mind a few texts which I wish to introduce and speak from, to, or upon.

I have only to say in relation to what brother John Taylor, in his remarks, has referred to, that I wish the honest-in-heart to continue to be honest—to say their prayers, and especially to keep the law of God; and I would like you to observe the law of Tithing, if you wish to do so, and if you do not, proclaim that you do not wish to observe it, that we may shape our course accordingly, for no person is compelled to pay Tithing, but it is entirely a voluntary act of our own. If we pay it freely it is well; if we are not willing to pay it freely and feel a pleasure in doing so, let us say so and be consistent with ourselves.

We talk a great deal about our religion. It is not now my intention to deliver a discourse on this subject, enumerating facts and producing evidences in my possession which are unanswerable, but I will merely give a text, or make a declaration, that our religion is simply the truth. It is all said in this one expression—it embraces all truth, wherever found, in all the works of God and man that are visible or invisible to mortal eye. It is the only system of religion known in heaven or on earth that can exalt a man to the Godhead, and this it will do to all those who embrace its laws and faithfully observe its precepts. This thought gives joy and delight to the reflecting mind, for, as has been observed, man possesses the germ of all the attributes and power that are possessed by God his heavenly Father.

I wish you to understand that sin is not an attribute in the nature of man, but it is an inversion of the attributes God has placed in him. Righteousness tends to an eternal duration of organized intelligence, while sin bringeth to pass their dissolution. Were it our purpose, at this time, we might produce extensive, instructive and interesting arguments of a Scriptural and philosophical character, in support of these views. I will merely say that God possesses in perfection all the attributes of his physical and mental nature, while as yet we only possess them in our weakness and imperfection, tainted by sin and all the consequences of the fall. God has perfect control over sin and over death; we are subject to both, which have passed upon all things that pertain to this earth. God has control over all these things; he is exalted and lives in obedience to the laws of truth. He controls the acts of all men, setting up a nation here and overthrowing a nation there, at his pleasure, to subserve his great purposes.

We see man suddenly raised to power and influence, clothed in all the paraphernalia of royalty, endowed with prestige and equipage, and as quickly stripped of all his pomp and show, and laid prostrate in the dust of death.

This is God’s work, and the result of a power that is not possessed by us mortals, though we are seeking for it. When we talk of building a temple, let us not forget that we can add nothing to Him. “But Solomon built Him an house. Howbeit, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the Prophet, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool; what house will ye build me? saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these?” “If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fulness thereof.” He does not ask us for bread and fruit, for he has better fruit than we can raise, and His bread is of a much finer quality than ours; He does not want our bread and meat and clothing, but he has organized all these substances for an exaltation.

The earth, the Lord says, abides its creation; it has been baptized with water, and will, in the future, be baptized with fire and the Holy Ghost, to be prepared to go back into the celestial presence of God, with all things that dwell upon it which have like the earth, abided the law of their creation. Taking this view of the matter, it may be asked why we build temples. We build temples because there is not a house on the face of the whole earth that has been reared to God’s name, which will in anywise compare with his character, and that he can consistently call his house. There are places on the earth where the Lord can come and dwell, if he pleases. They may be found on the tops of high mountains, or in some cavern or places where sinful man has never marked the soil with his polluted feet.

He requires his servants to build Him a house that He can come to, and where He can make known His will. This opens to my mind a field that I shall not undertake to survey to-day. I will just say, when I see men at work on that Temple who nurse cursings in their hearts, I wish they would walk out of the Temple-block, and never again enter within its walls, until their hearts are sanctified to God and his Work. This will also apply to men who are dishonest. But we have to put up and bear patiently with many things that we cannot help under present circumstances, and in our present imperfect state. We would like to build a substantial house, suitably arranged and embellished—a permanent house—that shall be renowned for its beauty and excellency, to present to the Lord our God, and then lock and bar it up, unless he shall say, “Enter ye into this my house, and there officiate in the ordinances of my Holy Priesthood, as I shall direct.” We have already built two Temples: one in Kirtland, Ohio, and one in Nauvoo, Illinois. We commenced the foundation of one in Far West, Missouri. You know the history of the one we built in Nauvoo. It was burnt, all the materials that would burn, and the walls have since been almost entirely demolished and used for building private dwellings, &c. I would rather it should thus be destroyed than remain in the hands of the wicked. If the Saints cannot so live as to inherit a Temple when it is built, I would rather never see a Temple built. God commanded us to build the Nauvoo Temple, and we built it, and performed our duty pretty well. There are Elders here to-day who labored on that house with not a shoe to their feet, or pantaloons that would cover their limbs or a shirt to cover their arms.

We performed the work, and performed it within the time which the Lord gave us to do it in. Apostates said that we never could perform that work; but, through the blessing of God, it was completed and accepted of him. Apostates never build Temples unto God, but the Saints are called to do this work.

Do we want to build this Temple, or do we not? It shall be as we please. I am just as ready to dismiss every workman that is now laboring on the Public Works, as you are. I know the people would say, Build the Temple. Should I ask all the workmen whether they are willing to labor on that work, their reply would be, “Yes, the Lord wants our labor, and we are willing that he should have it, although we could get better pay for our labor elsewhere—pay that we cannot get on the Public Works.”

Do you require me as Trustee-in-Trust, to pay you better pay than is paid into my hands by the people to sustain the Public Works? Are you just in your requirements, or are you unjust? Look at it in whatever light you please, no person can justly require more of me than I receive. Whether it is right to do so, judge ye.

Has the Lord required of us to pay Tithing? He has—namely, one-tenth of our increase. Now, if we withhold our Tithing, and the Temple, nevertheless, is completed and ready for the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood to be performed therein, can those who have withheld their Tithing enter that Temple to pass through the ordinances of salvation for their dead, and be just before God? If they can, I must confess that I do not understand the nature of God’s requirements, nor his justice, nor his truth, nor his mercy.

That Temple is to be built; but God forbid that it should ever be built for the hypocrite, the ungodly, the apostate, or any other miserably corrupted creature that bears the image of our Creator, to enter into it to pollute it; I would rather never see it built than this should transpire. We intend to build and finish it.

If the Lord permits gold-mines to be opened here, he will overrule it for the good of his Saints and the building-up of his kingdom. We have a great many friends who are out of this Church—who have not embraced the Gospel. We have a great many political friends, moral friends and financial friends; there are thousands of men who are our friends for advantage’s sake, for the sake of peace, for the enjoyment of life, for silver and gold, goods and chattels, houses and lands, and other possessions on the earth, for they love to live on the earth and enjoy its blessings. There are thousands who see that this people inculcate and live by wholesome moral principles—principles that will sustain their natural lives, to say nothing about principles that take hold of God and eternity. There are multitudes who desire to live out their days without coming to their end by violence—without being murdered or kidnapped by marauding mobs; they think that the earth is a pretty good place, and they would like to live upon it in peace as long as they can, with their friends and connections. We have a great many friends, and if the Lord suffers gold to be discovered here, I shall be satisfied that it is for the purpose of embellishing and adorning this Temple which we contemplate building, and we may use some of it as a circulating medium.

The Lord will not dwell in our hearts unless they are pure and holy, neither will he enter into a Temple that we may build to his name, unless it is sanctified and prepared for his presence. If we could overlay the aisles of the Temple with pure gold, for the Lord to walk upon, it would please me, and not suffer them ever to be corrupted by mortal feet. Gold is one of the purest of elements, and will not be so much changed as some other’s, though every element that we are acquainted with will pass through a change. Gold is a pure and precious metal, and the wicked love it through selfishness or an unholy lust, while God and his true people love to pave the streets of Zion with it, to overlay altars and pulpits of Temples with it, and to make utensils of it for the use of the Priests of the Lord in offering sacrifice to him, and also for household purposes.

There are some of the sealing ordinances that cannot be administered in the house that we are now using; we can only administer in it some of the first ordinances of the Priesthood pertaining to the endowment. There are more advanced ordinances that cannot be administered there; we would, therefore, like a Temple, but I am willing to wait a few years for it. I want to see the Temple built in a manner that it will endure through the Millennium. This is not the only Temple we shall build; There will be hundreds of them built and dedicated to the Lord. This Temple will be known as the first Temple built in the mountains by the Latter-day Saints. And when the Millennium is over, and all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, down to the last of their posterity, who come within the reach of the clemency of the Gospel, have been redeemed in hundreds of Temples through the administration of their children as proxies for them, I want that Temple still to stand as a proud monument of the faith, perseverance and industry of the Saints of God in the mountains, in the nineteenth century.

I told you thirteen years ago, that every time we took up our tools to progress with that Temple, we should see opposition. Our enemies do not love to see it progress, because we are building it for God, and they do not love him. If it is necessary I am willing to drop the work on the Temple; but if you require at our hands that the Temple be built, you should be as willing to pay your Tithing as you are to have us build the Temple. Some of us are not dependent on the Temple for our endowment blessings, for we have received them under the hands of Joseph the Prophet, and know where to go to bestow the same on others. You may ask me whether the leaders of this Church have received all their endowment blessings. I think that we have got all that you can get in your probation, if you live to be the age of Methuselah; and we can give what we possess to others who are worthy. We want to build that temple as it should be built, that when we present it to the Lord we may not have to cover our faces in shame.

I now wish to present a few questions to the congregation, for I think there is no harm in asking questions to elicit information. Do the Government officials in Utah, civil and military, give aid and comfort to and foster persons whose design is to interrupt and disturb the peace of this people? and are they protected and encouraged in this ruinous design by the strong arm of military power, to do what they will, if they will only annoy and try to break up the “Mormon” community? Does the general Government, or does it not, sustain this wicked plan? Is there in existence a corruption-fund, out of which Government jobbers live and pay their travelling expenses while they are engaged in trying to get men and women to apostatize from the truth, to swell their ranks for damnation? Is this so, or is it not so? Those who understand the political trickeries and the political windings of the nation, can see at once that these are political questions. Who feeds and clothes and defrays the expenses of hundreds of men who are engaged patrol[l]ing the mountains and kanyons [canyons] all around us in search of gold? Who finds supplies for those who are sent here to protect the two great interests—the mail and telegraph lines across the continent—while they are employed ranging over these mountains in search of gold? And who has paid for the multitude of picks, shovels, spades and other mining tools that they have brought with them? Were they really sent here to protect the mail and telegraph lines, or to discover, if possible, rich diggings in our immediate vicinity, with a view to flood the country with just such a population as they desire, to destroy, if possible, the identity of the “Mormon” community, and every truth and virtue that remains? Who is it that calls us apostates from our Government, deserters, traitors, rebels, secessionists? And who have expressed themselves as being unwilling that the “Mormons” should have in their possession a little powder and lead? I am merely presenting a few plain questions to the Latter-day Saints, which they or anybody else may answer, or not, just as they please. Who have said that “Mormons” should not be permitted to hold in their possession fire-arms and ammunition? Did a Government officer say this, one who was sent here to watch over and protect the interest of the community, without meddling or interfering with the domestic affairs of the people? I can tell you what they have in their hearts, and I know what passes in their secret councils. Blood and murder are in their hearts, and they wish to extend the work of destruction over the whole face of the land, until there cannot be found a single spot where the Angel of peace can repose.

The waste of life in the ruinous war now raging is truly lamentable Joseph the Prophet said that the report of it would sicken the heart; and what is all this for? It is a visitation from heaven, because they have killed the Prophet of God, Joseph Smith, jun, Has not the nation consented to his death, and to the utter destruction of the Latter-day Saints, if it could be accomplished? But they found that they could not accomplish that.

Before we left Nauvoo, members of Congress made a treaty with the Latter-day Saints, and we agreed to leave the United States entirely. We did so, and came to these mountains, which were then Mexican territory. When we were ready to start on our pilgrimage west, a certain gentleman, who signed himself “Backwoodsman,” wished to know on what conditions we would overcome and settle California. He gave us to understand that he had his authority from headquarters, to treat with us on this matter. I thought that President Polk was our friend at that time; we have thought so since, and we think so now. We agreed to survey and settle California—we drawing the odd numbers, and the Government the even numbers; but I think the President was precipitated into the Mexican War, and our prospective calculations fell through, otherwise we should have gone into California and settled it. Many of you were not aware of this.

Joseph said that if they succeeded in taking his life, which they did, war and confusion would come upon the nation, and they would destroy each other, and there would be mob upon mob from one end of the country to the other. Have they got through? No, they have only just commenced the work of wasting life and property. They will burn up every steamboat, every village, every town, every house of their enemies that comes within their reach; they will waste and destroy food and clothing that should feed and comfort women and children and leave them destitute and beggars, without homes and without protectors, to perish upon the face of all the land, and all to satiate their unhallowed and hellish appetite for blood; and this awful tornado of suffering, destruction, woe and lamentation, they would hurl upon us, if they could, but they cannot, and I say, in the name of Israel’s God, they never shall do it. We will have peace if we have to fight for it. They have not power to destroy Israel, neither will they have. The time will come when he who will not take up his sword against his neighbor must flee to Zion.

We have been preached to a great deal during this Conference, and how do we appear before God, as Latter-day Saints, when there are among us confusion, covetousness, bickering, slothfulness, unthankfulness? May God help us to search our own hearts to find out whether we are obedient or disobedient, and whether we love the things of God better than any earthly consideration. Will we, from this time henceforth, listen to and pay attention to the whisperings of the good Spirit, and devote every hour of our time to the welfare of the kingdom of God upon the earth, and let the enemies of this kingdom do what they please? for God will overrule all things for the special benefit of his people. May the Lord help us to be Saints.

I will now make a requirement at the hands of the Bishops, both those who are here, and those who are not here and which every individual must see is necessary and just; and that is, for them to see that there is sufficient breadstuff in their respective Wards to last the members of their Wards until another harvest; and if you have not sufficient, on hand, we shall require you to secure it and hold it in such a way that the poor can obtain it by paying for it. There are persons who would part with every mouthful of breadstuff they have for that which does not profit them, and bring starvation upon the community. I wish the Bishops to have an eye to this, and to devise employment, that the new comers and strangers that may be among us may have a chance to earn their bread. Let sufficient wheat be held in reserve by those who have it, or are able to buy it, for this purpose, that none may suffer.

Again I request of the Bishops to be certain that the members of their Wards have their supply of breadstuffs in reserve to last them until another harvest, and we will trust in God for the coming year. Be not so unwise as to sell the bread that you and your children need. Preserve enough to sustain your own lives, and we are willing you should sell all the rest of it as you please; and remember that you cannot buy any from me, unless you pay a fair price for it. Last week a man wanted to buy some flour of me and I partly consented to let him have some at six dollars a hundred in gold dust; he thought he could buy it cheaper, and went away. I was very willing not to sell it him, for when women and children are suffering for bread, I do not want it said that I sold flour. I shall feel much better, and I even say in truth, that I have not sold flour when a prospect of scarcity could be seen in the future. I am willing to pay flour to my workmen, and am willing to hire more workmen, and I will sell them flour for six dollars a hundred; but I am not willing to sell it to go out of the country, and to strangers, if it is needed to sustain those who make their homes with us.

I will conclude my remarks and pray God to bless his people everywhere. Amen.

The Confidence of the Saints in the Ultimate Triumph of the Kingdom of God, etc.

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 10, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

One thing has been made very obvious to my mind during this Conference and that is the assurance and confidence expressed by every speaker, in God and his work, which nothing of an earthly nature could impart; although simple to the believer, this may be a mystery to those who do not comprehend the Gospel of Jesus. A certain truth in Scripture has been fully exemplified in the experience and teachings of those who have addressed us, namely: “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not, God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” This is as true to-day as it was eighteen hundred years ago. Hence our young men, who have embraced and have gone forth to preach the principles of eternal truth contained in the Gospel, seek unto the Lord their God for wisdom, guidance and instruction, as you have heard them relate during this Conference; and the spirit of revelation has rested upon them so that they not only understood their own position and relationship to God and the holy Priesthood as Elders in Israel, but they understood also, to a certain degree, the position of the people of the world among whom they travelled, the position of the Church and Kingdom of God which they represented, their own relationship to it, and the fulfilment of all the promises of God relating to his people. This unbounded, fearless confidence is not created in men by what are called natural causes, for the confidence which exists and is common among men ebbs and flows, as prosperity or adversity affects their varied interests.

Here are comparatively a few people in the valleys of Utah who are talking of seeing a kingdom set up, not only in these mountains but which shall rule over the whole earth, that like a little stone hewn out of the mountains without hands, shall become a great nation and fill the whole earth. They look for this with an unwavering, unshaken confidence. They had confidence in this when they were driven from Kirtland, in Ohio; when they were driven from Jackson county, in Missouri; and from Nauvoo, in Illinois and they had as much confidence in it when they were struggling here for a very existence, and did not know where the next mouthful of bread should come from. Their confidence did not fail them when armies came up against them to destroy them, and the power and influence of the United States were arrayed against them. There is a certain unchanging, fixed principle in the bosoms of the Elders of Israel that God is at the helm, and that no power, no reverses, no influence that can be brought to bear against the kingdom of God will withstand its onward progress, but its course is onward until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and he shall reign with universal empire, and the kingdoms, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavens will be given to the Saints of the Most High God. It is impossible to make the Saints swerve in the least from this feeling. It is in them a principle of life, vitality and revelation. The Hon Ben. McCullough, one of the Peace Commissioners, on being told by President Young “that we were in the hands of the Lord and he would take care of us,” replied “that he believed in powder and ball more than in the interference of God.” President Young informed him “that there was a God in Israel, who would take care of this His people,” and said, “we ask no odds of your power, your powder and ball, or your armies.” What has become of the men that composed that army? The majority of them have gone to their own place, and those that have not are on their way there.

How different it is among the nations; look at the position of Poland and Russia, and then notice the critical state of the political affairs of other nations—France, England, Austria, Prussia, to say nothing of the smaller European nations, of Japan and China, or of the United States, of Mexico and of the various powers of North and South America. The whole world seems to be in throes, and either actually at war or involved in complicated difficulties that threaten their disruption or overthrow. What is the matter? Politicians, rulers and statesmen, are afraid that some calamity is going to overspread their respective nations; and kings and emperors do not know how soon their thrones will be toppled over, how soon their kingdoms will be shaken to their very foundations, they do not know how soon they will be denationalized—how soon universal terror, war, bloodshed and devastation will spread their appalling consequences among them. The light of the Spirit of God is withdrawn from them and they cannot see their way. They are tremulous because of the present political complications; they know not God, but “their hearts fear because of those things that are coming on the earth.” Without revelation they can only look upon things upon natural principles and dread the result. We know what will be the final ultimatum of the work in which we are engaged, and also what will be the fate of those who make war against it, and of the nations who reject the Gospel when it is sent to them.

God is managing the affairs of all nations, and He has made known his will and pleasure to his servants the Prophets; He has given unto them the Everlasting Gospel, which they have received by the principle of revelation, and can by that means draw aside the curtain of futurity, and contemplate events as they are rolling forth, and understand the designs of Jehovah in relation to them; and these men have been sent forth to tell the people of all nations the things that are coming on them.

The Elders of this Church, my brethren here all around me, have been bearing testimony of these things for over thirty years; we have visited the people in their houses, in their villages and cities, have preached to them in their halls, in their streets and market places, and combatted their various notions and traditions which were not of God, presenting unto them the principles of eternal truth which God has imparted unto us by revelation. We have also told them that their kingdoms would be overthrown, and their nations would be destroyed, and that God would speedily arise and shake terribly the earth. This has been proclaimed to the people throughout the length and breadth of the United States, Great Britain and her dependencies, to France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Islands of the Sea; the world has had to listen to it, and the nations have looked upon it as an idle song. Now when these things which we have predicted are beginning to come to pass among the nations their knees wax feeble; they are troubled and dismayed because of the complexities and difficulties which are everywhere closing in around them.

Who would have thought a little while ago, that these United States—one of the best Governments under the heavens if properly administered—could have been reduced to their present critical position; who would have thought a little while ago that all the ingenuity, skill, talent, power and wealth that exist in the North and South would be brought to bear against, each other for their mutual destruction? Yet it is so. We hear statement after statement, testimony after testimony, of their sanguinary contests; of rapine, murders, burnings, desolation, bloodshed, starvation, weeping, mourning and lamentation, until the recital has become sickening to hear, as the Prophet said, “It should become a vexation to hear the report.” All this is confirmatory to us of that spirit of revelation which the Lord has planted in our bosoms; and we now begin to understand why we feel as we do. We are selected out from among the nations that the Lord may place his name among us. He has called upon us and we have listened to his voice and obeyed the testimony of his servants. Jesus says: “But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers.”

Like some of old a few of us had been waiting to see the salvation of Israel, and our eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord. It is true we are but a handful compared with the great mass of mankind, for we have been gathered out from among the nations, “One of a city and two of a family.” A few of those who have obeyed the voice of the servants of God have remained faithful and many have not. “When the net is thrown into the sea it gathers in of every kind,” good and bad; and hence we find a continual hewing and scoring, and admonition from the servants of God, who are striving with all their might to lead the people in the paths of righteousness, that they may learn to fear the Lord always. When we are under the operation and influence of the Spirit of God we feel good and happy and joyous, and desirous to do right; but when that Spirit is withdrawn from us and we are left to ourselves, then we are apt to waver, and quiver, and fear lest all is not right, that is a few do this, but the great majority of this people have the word of life abiding in them, and it is daily growing in them, and spreading and increasing like a well of water springing up to everlasting life, and their souls are like a well-tuned harp, when they are touched by the spirit of inspiration there is a kindred chord in their bosoms, they vibrate to the touch, and they are filled with sacred melody. And then there are some among us who do not care a great deal about the things of God; like some of the ancient Israelites they have learned the language of strangers, and have become blinded by the God of this world, and go to the mines to worship a golden calf, and sell themselves to the devil. We are told that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. I think that is true, the children of light act very foolishly in some things. Although we can seemingly grasp eternity, and revel in divine things, yet it appears that we cannot understand how to take care of some of the first and plainest interests of life, rendering it necessary for the President to place guardians over us in the persons of Bishops to take care that we do not throw our bread away and have to starve a great part of the year, to watch us lest we wantonly trample under foot the common necessaries of life when we have them around us and destroy them the same as the beasts of the field would. The Latter-day Saints ought to be able to take care of themselves; men that are talking of possessing thrones, principalities and powers, of becoming kings and priests unto God ought to know how to take care of enough wheat to supply the wants of themselves and their families.

While we are trying to sustain ourselves let us do right to everybody else, and as you have been told, treat the stranger with kindness and liberality, and let us not make fools of ourselves, and rob ourselves and families, but let us take a proper, wise and judicious course, for this kingdom will be built up temporally as well as spiritually. We talk of becoming like God. What does he do? He governs this and other worlds, regulates all the systems and gives them their nations and revolutions; He preserves them in their various orbits, and governs them by unerring, unchangeable laws, as they traverse the immensity of space. In our world he gives day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; He adapts man, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, to their various climates and elements. He takes care of and provides for, not only the hundreds of millions of the human family, but the myriads of beasts, fowls and fishes; He feeds and provides for them day by day, giving them their breakfast, dinner and supper; He takes care of the reptiles and other creeping things, and feeds the myriads of animalculae, which crowd earth, air and water. His hand is over all and His providence sustains all. “The hairs of our head are numbered, and a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our heavenly Father’s notice; He clothes the lilies of the valleys and feeds the ravens when they cry.”

“His wisdom’s vast and knows no bound, A deep where all our thoughts are drowned.”

We would be like him! Be kings and priests unto God and rule with him, and yet we are obliged to have guardians placed over us to teach us how to take care of a bushel of wheat. We are far behind, but we have time for improvement; and I think we shall have to make some important changes for the better in our proceedings, before we become like our Father who dwells in the heavens.

There has been something said about men turning away from the Church of Chirst [Christ]. If a man has not the witness in himself, he is not governed by the principles of eternal truth, and the sooner such people leave this Church the better.

There is one thing I pray for as much as anything else, perhaps I do not do it understandingly, that is, that those who will not be subject to the law of God and observe his commandments, but will rebel against God and against his truth and Priesthood may be removed from our midst and have no place with us. For such persons can never build up the Kingdom of God, nor aid in accomplishing his purposes upon the earth, and the sooner we are rid of them the better; and it matters little what draws them away. If we have drank of that water which the Savior spoke of to the woman of Samaria; if we have laid hold of the rod of iron, and continue to cling to it; if we adhere to the principles of righteousness, and pray unto God and keep his commandments continually, we shall have His Spirit at all times to discern between good and evil, and we shall always know the voice of the good shepherd, and cleave to the principles of righteousness.

May God help us to keep his commandments, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Wisdom of God Through His Servants, etc.

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 8, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I have listened with peculiar interest to the remarks made by our missionaries. Their remarks are truly cheering, and are a faithful index to the feelings and spirit which have influenced them during their absence from us.

I was more particularly struck with the remarks of some who said that they hardly knew what doctrines to preach when they first arrived at the fields of their labor, and others hardly knew that baptism was necessary for the remission of sins. These young men were untaught, untutored, yet the spirit of the Gospel dwelt in them; it was born in them, and they have been reared under its influence to a greater or less degree, yet apparently they knew it not. How unlike the missionaries of other churches is this? They must be educated classically and theologically, and then they go forth to preach to a credulous world systematically a mass of inconsistent and contradictory doctrines—which they call the Gospel.

These missionaries of ours felt very much as I did on one occasion when I first landed in Germany. I was dropped from the coach on the side walk; I could not tell them where I wanted to stop, for I did not know myself, and, thought I, I may as well stop in one place as another. I could not tell anybody what I wanted for I did not know what I wanted. I did not remain in that situation long until I found a way to get to an hotel, where I was soon forced, by the pressure of circumstances around me and the cravings of my appetite, to make known my wants, designs and purposes in the language of the people among whom I was cast. In like manner our young men go out to preach the Gospel; and although they have lived under the influence of the Spirit of the Gospel all their days, yet they find themselves unable at first to delineate only the principles and laws of salvation; but the spirit that is in them soon bursts asunder the fetters that seem to bind them, and they launch forth into a field of intelligence hitherto unexplored by them, and are enabled, in a short time, not only to be filled with a flood of light and truth, but to attain unto a power of utterance that astonishes themselves and their friends. God is in all this; He laid the foundation of this Church and he dwells in the hearts of his servants, and He, by the power of his spirit, originates and gives power to utter the thoughts He wishes to communicate to mankind through His servants. When we trust in Him every obstacle is removed from our path.

When listening to these young brethren, my heart has burned within me with gratitude and joy; I was reminded forcibly of the days of my youth, when I went forth with others to proclaim the same Gospel and was brought into many narrow and tight places. The Lord will always open our way if we are faithful, and allow us a field of operation that will be adequate to all our wants, conditions and circumstances.

Those missionaries who go abroad to labor for the building up of Zion leave their families behind them, and they were particularly charged not to beg of the poor on their missions means to send home to feed their families, and that whatever they might gain by the voluntary contributions of the people among whom they might labor, over and above that which would be necessary for their immediate wants, should be dedicated to the immigration of the poor—to bring home the sheaves they had been enabled to reap. Their families are here, and have not harvested in abundance of the temporal comforts of the earth, but they have managed to live along from hand to mouth. There were contributions and subscriptions made last year to aid the families of our absent missionaries, but how many of them have been faithfully and frankly paid in and how many remain yet unpaid, I am not prepared to say, but, it has been suggested to me that there are still many delinquents who did really feel liberal, but have not since found a convenient time to honor that liberal feeling by paying in what they have subscribed.

It is not too late yet, and the wants of the families of our missionaries have not abated. If we subscribe and promise to pay a certain amount to the Missionary Fund, we are under the strongest obligations to pay that amount, as much so as if we had contracted a debt with the merchants and had promised to pay it at a certain time. When we put our names to a document to sustain the servants of God and promise a certain amount to this end, I consider that we are under a greater obligation than we would be by any common business of life, because here is a promise made to the servants of God and virtually to heaven that we will do so and so to sustain heaven’s cause. I would not thank anybody for a loaf of bread after I am dead and gone; I want it while I am living to sustain me and brace me up that I may have strength to do good. Benefits and favors that are deferred amount to little more than a vexation—they can hardly be said to be a blessing; then do not turn your intended benefits into a vexation to vex those whose hearts and whole time are employed in travelling abroad to preach the Gospel, and to gather the poor Saints up to Zion.

I will not confine my remarks to delinquents, but I will say the door is open still, for we have men in the field in foreign countries, who are pouring out their souls in testimony, and they are engaged day and night in this Work, while their families are dependent upon the bounties of the Latter-day Saints at home. Every man and woman who is disposed to contribute with a heart willing to build up the Kingdom of God, there will be an opportunity for you to do so before this Conference shall come to a close; and let us remember that inasmuch as we do it to one of the least of God’s people we do it unto our Father who is in heaven. From the Scriptures it appears that the Lord is disposed to receive any favor shown to His servants as though it had been done to himself, and he will so acknowledge it in a future day when the faithful ones would seem to have forgotten all about it, for they will say, “When saw we Thee an hungered,” etc., and He will answer them, saying, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my servants ye did it unto me. Ye have sustained my cause yet it is your own cause, for all things are yours,” etc.

Now some persons may begin to narrow up their feelings, and to cherish in their hearts murmurings because God in his providence and in his mercy and kindness, may begin to pour upon this man and upon that man blessings by which he accumulates wealth, and by which he is made comfortable and happy; they are envious and jealous; now, if all things are ours, is there not a time when some of God’s people will begin to inherit some of them? Yes. There must be a beginning to inherit all things. If we envy those that are really beginning to participate a little in the inheritance of all things, is not this a strong presumptive evidence within ourselves that we are not heirs to all things, neither are we willing that our brethren should be.

When a man of God is blessed from on high and shall begin to gather around him means sufficient to place him beyond the reach of immediate want, God hath done it—God hath blessed that person—and every Saint will feel thankful to see his brethren so prospered and blessed of the Lord, feeling encouraged that his time will come sometime if he continues faithful. Instead of being jealous of the prosperity of those whom the Lord delights to bless and murmur in our hearts against our brethren and against the Lord, let us learn to be contented with that which is assigned to us, and wait patiently until the Lord shall in his mercy and kindness bless us more abundantly. I do not know any better way to hasten on our day of great blessings than to be liberal in our feelings and labor with all our might to lift up and encourage those who are bowed down, and to sustain the Priesthood of God.

The Lord sees us all and knows what our feelings are—the very thoughts and intents of our hearts are laid bare before Him, and when He sees that we are prepared to endure great earthly blessings, do you think that any trifling circumstance will cause him to delay and wait and put us off and make us wait for his blessings, the same as we make some of the missionaries wait, until their families suffer before we hand out to them what we have promised to give? God knows the time when to bless and the individual to bless; and when the time comes for His blessings to descend copiously upon this or that individual, they will come. Do you want your day to come when you can be comfortable and have about all you can desire, just hand out to this Missionary Fund liberally, and consider that one evidence more that your time is, drawing nigh when you also shall be greatly blessed.

I will not occupy a great deal of time. I bear my testimony, brethren and sisters, that this is the Kingdom of God, and I have labored according to what little ability the Lord has given me to sustain it and to regulate and keep in order, as far as my wisdom, knowledge and understanding would allow me, the things pertaining to this kingdom and to the Saints of God where I have been called to labor. I love this Cause, I love my brethren and fellow laborers in it; I love to speak upon the principles of the Gospel—in short, I love everything that is connected with the welfare of the Saints. Brethren and sisters you have my best wishes, and my prayers by day and night are that God may shield his chosen ones as the apple of his eye.

If there is any confidence to be placed in dreams, I do not know, but I will tell one. [Voice in the stand: “Is there any fun in it?”] There is a little fun in it. I thought I saw a mighty car coming down from the mountains in the East, and it appeared as big as this Tabernacle. I thought it was going to run over and crush everything to pieces; it appeared to be coming in contact with a house up there, and it appeared as though it would roll right over it and grind it into powder, but it just happened to miss it, and it came on towards the City, and by the time it reached the City it had dwindled down to a common-sized wagon; when I examined it more closely, I discovered that it was nothing but a load of firewood coming into the City.

May God bless his people. Amen.

Our Relationship and Duty to God and His Kingdom, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt City, October 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

We have duties which will occupy all of our time while we live upon the earth, if they are properly performed, and they consist in duties which we owe to ourselves, to our fellow beings, and to our God. We acknowledge that we owe duties to God, and we feel that we are under certain obligations to him; indeed we owe our very existence to him, for we are his offspring, and without, him we can do nothing; we cannot even make “one hair white or black” without our Father. We cannot, independent of God, make a single blade of grass to grow, nor produce one kernel of wheat or any other grain; in short we cannot perform anything to profit ourselves or our fellow creatures, without the Spirit of our Father and God, and without his smile and blessing. “When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:” We possess no ability only that which is given us of God. He has endowed us with glorious faculties, with Godlike attributes like those which are incorporated in his own nature, and he has placed us upon this earth to honor them, and to sanctify ourselves and the earth preparatory to enjoying it in its celestial state. We are not, in anything, independent of God. We inherit what we possess from Him, and he inherits his faculties, attributes and powers from his Father. Yet it is so ordained, in the fathomless wisdom of God, that we should be agents to ourselves to choose the good or the evil, and thereby save and exalt our existence, or lose it.

It appears to be very hard for us to learn the attributes and powers which are incorporated in our own existence, and the principles and powers which are in universal nature around us; we seem slow of heart to believe, and are sluggish in our understandings. The religion of God embraces every fact that exists in all the wide arena of nature, while the religions of men consist of theory devoid of fact, or of any true principle of guidance; hence the professing Christian world are like a ship upon a boisterous ocean without rudder, compass, or pilot, and are tossed hither and thither by every wind of doctrine. Those who have embraced the doctrine of salvation have the witness within themselves of its truth. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” But we often find persons among us who have borne testimony of the truth of their religion by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, who again fall backwards into darkness by beginning to express doubts whether their religion be true or false; they begin to exchange the substance for the shadow—the reality for a phantom. “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

We understand but a very few of the simplest and most self-evident truths and principles which govern and sustain us in existence as human beings, and all the rest which we have to learn is as great a mystery to us as the most intricate and delicate piece of mechanism is to the infant child. We need constant instruction, and our great heavenly Teacher requires of us to be diligent pupils in His school, that we may in time reach His glorified presence. If we will not lay to heart the rules of education which our Teacher gives us to study, and continue to advance from one branch of learning to another, we never can be scholars of the first class and become endowed with the science, power, excellency, brightness and glory of the heavenly hosts; and unless we are educated as they are, we cannot associate with them.

Brethren and sisters, are we preparing for the highest seat of knowledge and literature known to men on earth, and then to go on in advance of them by the means of that Spirit bestowed upon us in the ordinances of our holy religion, which reveals all things, and thus become ourselves teachers and expounders of the mysteries of the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven? Would not this be much better than to remain fixed with a very limited amount of knowledge, and, like a door upon its hinges, move to and fro from one year to another without any visible advancement or improvement, lusting after the grovelling things of this life which perish with the handling? Let each one of us bring these matters home to ourselves.

It was said this morning that if we will do our duty God will make us rich. How? By opening gold mines? No. If he makes us rich, he will make us rich in the same way that he became rich, by faithful labor, ceaseless perseverance and constant exertion and industry. He labored faithfully for all he possesses, and he is willing that we should inherit all things with him, if we will pursue the same course to obtain them that he pursued.

Our lexicographers define riches to be opulence, the possession of landed estates, of gold and silver, etc., and the man that possesses the most of this kind of wealth is rich in comparison with his neighbor. The riches of a kingdom or nation does not consist so much in the fulness of its treasury as in the fertility of its soil and the industry of its people. The common definition may be termed the riches of this world, but are they the true riches? I say they are not, and you will probably agree with me in this. I need not advance reasons to show you the worthlessness of such kinds of riches in the absence of the common necessaries and comforts of life—of those substances which satisfy the cravings of nature and prolong our existence here. Unless earthly riches are held for God and used to advance righteousness, they are held only by a slender tenure.

Brother John Taylor in his remarks referred to Nebuchadnezzar. It is said of him, “And the king spake, and said, is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee.” “The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagle’s feathers, and his nails like bird’s claws.” And there the great king of Babylon remained until he learned that, “all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?” This great king became satisfied that he could not possess power, wealth, majesty and earthly glory only as the King of kings gave it to him.

When God bestows upon us power to command the elements—to speak, and the soil is formed and filled with fertility—to speak, and the rain descends upon it to moisten and germinate the seed that we have planted and to nourish it until it ripens its golden fruit, then shall we possess true riches, and not until then. When we possess this power by the irrevocable decree of heaven, we possess wealth that cannot take the wings of the morning and leave us poor indeed. Can we live to learn some of these things?

We have in our mortal state the trial of our faith, and we are gathered together from the nations expressly to learn the character of our religion and its worth. We have come here to learn God and ourselves. Man is made in the image of God, but what do we know of him or of ourselves, when we suffer ourselves to love and worship the god of this world—riches? Suppose all the people in these mountains in possession of all the riches they want, would it not becloud their minds and unfit them for usefulness in the great work of restitution in the last days? I heard a man say not long since, while preaching, that if he knew where he could get a hat-full of gold, he thought he would try a hat-full, and did not expect it would hurt him in the least. Let him get one hat-full and he would want another, and another, and another, until he would become so attached to it, and it would occupy so large a portion of his affections that he would prefer it to all he has ever learned of the kingdom of God. I would keep it from him and from any other man, and I do not want it myself, though I think I know where I could go and get a hat-full, and have known this ever since I have been in these valleys.

I want neither gold nor silver, but I want to build the Temple and finish the new Tabernacle, send the Gospel to the nations, and gather home the poor. “Do we not need gold for this?” Yes. “Then would it not benefit us to dig some out of the ground for this purpose?” The world is full of gold, and we would do better to get some of that in a lawful way, which is already made into coin, for it is easier handled than the gold dust, and better cleansed from particles of sand and other foreign substances. If we possessed true knowledge and power with God, we should know how to get gold in great abundance. The world is full of it, and they do not need but a little of it. We want riches but we do not want them in the shape of gold. Many of us know exactly what we do want, and a great many do not know. I want to build that Temple; I want to supply the wants of the poor, and I try my best according to what judgment and influence I possess, to put every poor person in a way to make their own living.

We all wish to pos[s]ess true riches; how shall we possess them? God has given to us our present existence, and endowed us with vast variety of tastes, sensations and passions for pleasure and for pain, according to the manner in which we use and apply them; he also gives us houses and lands, gold and silver, and an abundance of the comforts and necessaries of life. Are we seeking to honor God with all these precious gifts, or are we trying to establish interests separate and apart from God and His Kingdom, and thus waste the ability and substance the Lord has given us with riotous living and wanton prodigality? But few rich men have come into this Church who have not sought diligently to put their means into the hands of the devil. There are persons with us now who might have given their scores of thousands of pounds to this Church to spread the Gospel, build the Temple, and gather the poor Saints, but no, they have sought and do and will seek diligently to place their means into the hands of the wicked, or situate it so that they may get it. I wish you to understand, however, that a man giving his means to build up the kingdom of God is no proof to me that he is true in heart. I have long since learned, that a person may give a gift with an impure design.

The Lord gives us possessions, and he requires of us one-tenth of the increase which we make by the putting to good use the means He has placed in our hands. I am sorry to see a disposition manifested in some to go to distant parts to trade and build up themselves and make money, while the ability which God has given them is not concentrated in building up His kingdom, in gathering the house of Israel, in redeeming and building up Zion, in renovating the earth to make it like the garden of Eden, in overcoming sin in themselves, and in spreading righteousness throughout the land. We find what we have always found and shall continue to find, until the Lord Almighty separates the sheep from the goats, and when that will be I do not know.

As far as I am concerned I would like to see the people possess great wealth in this present state—what is now called riches—gold and silver, houses and lands, etc. I would like to see men, women and children live only to do good. Shall we now seek to make ourselves wealthy in gold and silver and the possessions which the wicked love and worship, or shall we, with all of our might, mind and strength, seek diligently first to build up the Kingdom of God? Let us decide on this, and do one thing or the other.

I have talked much, on previous occasions, on the law of Tithing. I do not wish to say much about it now, and I would rather not say anything, but I will give you a few facts. It is true that we are continually gathering in new materials—men and women with no experience; these are mixed with those who have been with us for years, and many of them have, apparently, little or no capacity for improvement or advancement; they seem incapable of understanding things as they are; they are as they were, and I fear will remain so. They are first-rate Methodists, and you know they are always the biggest when they are first born. In all their after experience they refer to the time of their religious birth as the happiest moment they ever saw, and are constantly afterwards, as long as they live, praying for and seeking with groans and tears their first love. Instead of this, if they were truly born of God, their path would shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. We do not expect our newly arrived brethren and sisters to understand the ways of God and of his faithful people in Zion, equally with those who have been here for years, until they have had a sufficient opportunity to practically learn what there is to be learned religiously, morally, politically and every other way.

I think it was yesterday I saw a man from Weber who said a merchant came into that region and wanted to buy up all the grain at his own price. When he found he could not buy it at his own price, he became disgusted, and said the people were a set of damned Brighamites. I took particular pains to give him to understand that it was one of the greatest wishes of my heart that the people throughout the Territory would be Brighamites enough to know how to keep a little bread to feed themselves and their children.

We have been in these valleys fifteen years. Some thirteen years ago we built a Tithing Store and the adjoining buildings; from that day until this, with few exceptions, the grain bins in that Tithing Office have been full of wheat, and we could feed the poor; when the immigration came in, in the fall of the year, we could supply them with bread, and we had something to supply the families of the Elders that are abroad preaching, until now. I have more than once told the people publicly that if they ever saw the time when wheat would bring money in this Territory, the Tithing Office would be found empty; but you never heard me say that God was going to shut up the heavens and bring a famine upon us, though it has been reported that I said so. There will be a famine, and one that will pinch us harder than we have ever been pinched yet, if we do not do right and try to avert it. The Tithing Office is empty, and my office is thronged with hungry people asking for bread, and we have it not to give them. Where is it? It has been grown; God has given it to us; it is in the hands of the professed people of God throughout this Territory, but it brings money, and there seems to exist an unwillingness to pay the Lord his due.

Hear it, O ye people of God, the Lord’s house is empty, and the Lord’s poor are pining for bread; and when their cries come up before Him he will come out of his hiding-place with a just rebuke and a sharp chastisement, to be poured out upon the heads of the slothful and unfaithful of his people. If you bring in your Tithes and your offerings to the Store, house of the Lord, he will preserve you from being overrun and afflicted by your enemies; but if you refuse to do this, prepare for a gloomy and a dark day. We want something to feed the women and children whose husbands and fathers are in the silent grave. If we hold in fellowship persons who will not render up that which belongs to the poor, we must receive the chastenings of the Almighty with them; they must either be cast out as salt that has lost its savor, or they must render up to God that which belongs to him, and aid in sustaining the Priesthood of God upon the earth. In a “Revelation” given at Far West, Missouri, July 8, 1838, in answer to the question, O Lord, show unto thy servants how much thou requirest of the properties of thy people for a Tithing?

“Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the Bishop of my Church of Zion, for the building of mine house, and for the laying the foundation of Zion and for the Priesthood and for the debts of the Presidency of my Church; and this shall be the beginning of the Tithing of my people, and after that, those who have thus been Tithed, shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually and this shall be a standing law unto them for ever, for my holy Priesthood, saith the Lord.”

Again, “Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my Gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.”

It may be supposed by some that the Tithing is used to sustain and feed the First Presidency and the Twelve; this is a false impression. I can say, without boasting, that there is not another man in this kingdom has done more in dollars and cents to build it up than I have, and yet I have not done a farthing’s worth of myself, for the means I have handled God has given me; it is not mine and if it ever is mine it will be when I have overcome and gained my exaltation and received it from Him who rightfully owns all things. If we have men in the First Presidency who are not capable of supporting themselves and their families, we shall help them to do so out of the Tithing Office. If any of the Twelve are not capable of supporting themselves, we shall help them; and it is our duty to do so, and it is the duty of the people to have it on hand to be applied in this and in every other way suggested in the law of God for the building up of Zion in the last days.

Men laboring as missionaries, as teachers and preachers of the Gospel, in gathering the poor Saints, or in any other way to benefit the general good of the Saints upon the face of the earth and to do good to mankind, must be sustained, and we wish the Saints everywhere to impart of their substance, that the Priesthood may be sustained in fulfilling the law of the Lord, which reads as follows:—“The word of the Lord, in addition to the law which has been given, making known the duty of the Bishop which has been ordained unto the Church in this part of the vineyard, which is verily this: to keep the Lord’s Store-house; to receive the funds of the Church in this part of the vineyard; to take an account of the Elders as before has been commanded; and to administer to their wants, who shall pay for that which they receive, inasmuch as they have wherewith to pay; that this also may he consecrated to the good of the Church, to the poor and needy; and he who hath not wherewith to pay, an account shall be taken and handed over to the Bishop of Zion, who shall pay the debt out of that which the Lord shall put into his hands; and the labors of the faithful who labor in spiritual things, in administering the Gospel and things of the kingdom unto the Church, and unto the world, shall answer the debt unto the Bishop of Zion,” etc.

I am anxious for the people to understand these things, and act faithfully in their callings. We cannot excuse ourselves from our duty, which is to build up the kingdom of God, for all of our time, all of our ability and all of our means belong to Him. It is not the privilege of any person to spend his time in a way that does no good to himself nor to his neighbors. Let mechanics and every man who has capital create business and give employment and means into the hands of laborers; build good and commodious houses, magnificent Temples, spacious Tabernacles, lofty Halls, and every other kind of structure that will give character and grandeur to our cities and create respect for our people. Let us make mechanics of our boys, and educate them in every useful branch of science and in the history and laws of kingdoms and nations, that they may be fitted to fill any station in life, from a ploughman to a philosopher. Is the general mind of this people bent upon supplying themselves with what they need in life, and thus become self-sustaining, or are they satisfied to be supplied from a distant market, and contented to spend their strength and their means in buying ribbons and gewgaws which satisfy for the moment, but in the end bring poverty and pinching want?

It is a fearful deception which all the world labors under, and many of this people too, who profess to be not of the world, that gold is wealth. On the bare report that gold was discovered over in these West Mountains, men left their thrashing machines, and their horses at large to eat up and trample down and destroy the precious bounties of the earth. They at once sacrificed all at the glittering shrine of this popular idol, declaring they were now going to be rich, and would raise wheat no more. Should this feeling become universal on the discovery of gold mines in our immediate vicinity, nakedness, starvation, utter destitution and annihilation would be the inevitable lot of this people. Instead of its bringing to us wealth and independence, it would weld upon our necks chains of slavery, groveling dependence and utter overthrow.

Can you not see that gold and silver rank among the things that we are the least in want of? We want an abundance of wheat and fine flour, of wine and oil, and of every choice fruit that will grow in our climate; we want silk, wool, cotton, flax and other textile substances of which cloth can be made; we want vegetables of various kinds to suit our constitutions and tastes, and the products of flocks and herds; we want the coal and the iron that are concealed in these ancient mountains, the lumber from our saw mills, and the rock from our quarries; these are some of the great staples to which kingdoms owe their existence, continuance, wealth, magnificence, splendor, glory and power, in which gold and silver serve as mere tinsel to give the finishing touch to all this greatness. The colossal wealth of the world is founded upon and sustained by the common staples of life. We are the founders of one of the mightiest kingdoms that ever existed upon this earth, and what we do now should be done with reference to the future, and to those who shall follow after us.

In China the father lays up clay to be worked into pottery-ware by his grandchildren. Who of us are planting out choice trees that will serve for wagon and carriage timber and furniture for our children’s children?

If we had all the gold in these mountains run into ingots and piled up in one huge heap, what good would it do us now? None, and we cannot form any calculation as to the amount of harm it would do us.

It beho[o]ves us, brethren and sisters, to live near to God and honor our profession, rather than to become insane after gold and paper money; and to obtain faith to stop the ravages of the epidemic that is carrying our children off by scores. You may, perhaps, think I ought to rebuke it. If I can keep it out of my own house altogether, or partially so, I shall thank God and give Him the glory. Behold the heavy hand of the Lord is upon us in this thing; let us repent, that the plague may be stayed in its desolating progress.

We sustain the Priesthood in one very important way, inasmuch as we feed the widows and the fatherless—for by aiding this or that poor widow to raise her sons to manhood, they may, very likely, go out into the ministry and bring home their tens of thousands to Zion.

Let us reflect and ascertain, if we can, in what channel our thoughts are directed, and what effect our doings produces for the advancement of the latter-day work. Last April Conference I gave some of the brethren a privilege to furnish teams to work on this Temple; how this privilege has been appropriated by them they know best; this I will say, however, we have advanced the work pretty well with the help we have had, which has been rather meagre.

The people have acted magnanimously in the way they have sent for the poor this season, and the Lord is not ignorant of their generous endeavors, which will meet with a rich reward, where they have been made willingly and with a good heart. But where money, teams, labor or any other kind of means is supplied grudgingly, it will meet with no reward.

Our hearts should constantly be engaged in the work of God, and our greatest treasures should be our interest in His kingdom. After you have obtained a sufficiency of bread, etc., to sustain your own lives, then may you with propriety let the rest go to your neighbors; I care not what their pretensions are, let them have it, and let them pay a fair price for it.

The Lord has blessed the people with bread, and many of them, instead of giving back to him a portion of it to be dealt out to the laboring poor and others who depend upon it for their subsistence, are selling it to make themselves rich as they suppose. “Woe unto you rich men, that will not give of your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation—the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved. Woe unto you poor men whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, who will not labor with your own hands. But blessed are the poor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite, for they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance; for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs.”

There live but few men who care for our Father and his kingdom on earth or in heaven, in preference to earthly riches—For example, I heard that a man did say, not long since, while he was examining a small piece of rock richly filled with gold, after a conversation relating to the present war, “If I had one rod square of such rock as this, the North and South might all go to hell for aught I would care.” This single case illustrates the feeling that is almost universal. I care for the North and the South and if I had sufficient power with the Lord, I would save every innocent man, woman and child from being slaughtered in this unnatural and almost universal destruction of life and property. I pray that the Lord Almighty will so order it that all those who thirst for the blood of their fellow-men may be found in the front ranks that they may be cut off speedily and the war come to an end, that the innocent may escape. I care for the North and the South more than I do for gold, and I would do a great deal, if I had the power, to ameliorate the condition of suffering thousands. I care enough for them to pray that righteous men may hold the reins of government, and that wicked, tyrannical despotism may be wiped away from the land; that the Lord would raise up men to rule who have hearts in them, who care for the comfort and happiness of mankind, and let there be a reign of righteousness. I pray for the Latter-day Saints, for the prosperity of the Holy Priesthood in the land, and I pray that the minds of the people may be opened to see and understand things as they are; that we may be able to discern truth and righteousness from the vain and delusive troubles of this world.

Now, if flour should rise to twenty dollars a hundred, which it is very likely to do before next harvest, do not run crazy with speculation, but first quietly see that you have enough to feed your wives and children until you can raise more. Do not sell it for money, but take care of it for those who depend upon you for bread. Should any of us retire to rest with an empty stomach, with no prospect of bread on the morrow, and a cord of United States’ notes piled up in our room our sleep would not be very sweet to us; we would be willing to give every one of those notes for one barrel of flour, for a few potatoes, a little meat, or a cow to give us a little milk morning and evening and that we might have a little butter on the table; then under such circumstances of plenty, we can retire to bed in peace, and our sleep will be sweet to us, and we can hail the morning light with a joyful heart and buoyant spirits, ready to prosecute the duties of the new day with a willing and ready heart.

If we will follow the advice we have heard this afternoon, we have heard enough to last us sometime.

I will conclude my remarks by inquiring of the people whether they want to build a Temple, to feed the poor, to send for the poor Saints that are among the nations, and to send the Gospel into all the world. If we to we shall do right, we shall love and serve the Lord with all our hearts; and let us not forget that all we hold of this world’s goods is the Lord’s, and should be used to promote the cause of righteousness and those principles which will exalt the people to thrones, kingdoms, principalities and powers in the world to come, with power to control and govern the elements and every wicked influence.

Which do we choose, the vain and transitory things of this life, or eternal life? Let us maintain confidence in one another, and seek with all our might to increase it. Confidence is one of the most precious jewels man or woman can possess. Should a person have unbounded confidence in me, gold and silver and precious jewels are not to be compared with it; and have I a right to do anything in thought, word, or deed to destroy that confidence, or shake it in the least? The heavens, the Gods, and all the heavenly hosts require me to live so as to preserve the confidence my brethren have reposed in me. Let us endeavor to restore the confidence that has been lost.

I am willing that we should be forgiving. I do not know that I have one single feeling against any man or woman upon earth; I do not love wickedness, and I mean to hate it in myself and in everybody else, and wherever I see it, from this time henceforth and for ever. When we see the time that, we can willingly strike hands and have full fellowship with those who despise the Kingdom of God, know ye then that the Priesthood of the Son of God is out of your possession. Let us be careful how we make friends with and fellowship unrighteousness, lest the curse of God descends heavily upon us. I do not say that I see anything of this kind, and I do not want to; and I hope there is no such disposition in any person professing to be a Saint, for as sure as the Lord lives they will be brought into circumstances that will show them in their true colors, and reveal the goats that are among the sheep.

Our Heavenly Father will preserve his own, and build up his kingdom, and it will go forth from this time until the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord.

That we may be found faithful and worthy to enjoy the fulness of the glory of his celestial kingdom is my prayer. Amen.

Temporal and Spiritual Affairs, etc.

John Taylor

A discourse delivered by John Taylor, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 25, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

The remarks of brother Groo this morning have really been interesting. He have [has] clearly exemplified some of those things that pertain to our temporal interests and associations with each other, and to the every day duties, etc., which devolve upon us. It is generally the case, as he has remarked, that we love to reflect upon the glories and exaltation of the Saints in a world to come, upon things that are spiritual, as we term them, to the frequent neglect of those things which are of a temporal nature and with which we are more intimately acquainted.

It is customary for men in the world from which we have gathered out, to talk on Sunday about spiritual things, when they are dressed in their Sunday coats and at meeting, and then on Monday to pack up their religion with their Sunday clothes in their trunks, to have nothing more to do with it until next Sunday. This practice prevails more or less in the religious world, where men are classified into different orders; where a lawyer must be a lawyer and nothing else; a doctor must attend to that business exclusively, and the lawyer and the doctor must not meddle with the duties of the minister of religion; for it is considered to be the exclusive privilege of the minister of religion to teach religion, and his functions are generally performed on the Sabbath day in the pulpit where he talks about things which he supposes exist some where beyond the bounds of time and space about which the people he is trying to instruct are as ignorant as himself. It is not supposed that a politician should necessarily know anything about God or religion; it would be rather a draw back upon the influence of a Senator of the United States, a member of the House of Commons, or of the House of Lords in England, or a member of the Chamber of Deputies in France to be a praying, religious man. For it is supposed that religion has nothing to do with the regulations of national affairs, but that they are regulated by the intelligence that men possess of a temporal nature, by their knowledge of the position of the nation with which they are associated, and their acqu[a]intance with other nations and their policy.

It is good for men to be taught in the history and laws of nations, to become acquainted with the principles of justice and equity, with the nature of disease and the medical properties of plants, etc., but there is no need of their being without the knowledge of God, for in fact every branch of true knowledge known to man has originated in God, and men have come in possessions of it from His word or from His works. O, the folly of men in not acknowledging God in all things, in laying aside God and his religion, and trusting in their own judgment, and intelligence. All the intelligence which men possess on the earth, whether religious, scientific or political—proceeds from God—every good and perfect gift proceeds from Him, the fountain of light and truth, wherein there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. The knowledge of the human system has proceeded from the human system itself, which God has organized. Again. If you trace the old English laws and the laws of ancient nations it will be seen that the principles of justice, which are the foundation of them, are gathered from the Bible, the revealed will of God to the children of Israel, for their government and guidancy, to a certain extent, in some of the principles of law, justice and equity. Did knowledge of any kind that is in the world originate in man? No. Franklin possessed great information relating to natural laws, he drew the lightning from the clouds, but he could not have done that, if there had not been lightning in the clouds. He merely discovered a certain principle, and developed the action of a certain law that existed co-equal with the earth. Then how foolish it is for men under these circumstances, to lay aside God, and think that they can progress, and be smart and intelligent without Him.

This feeling savors much of the feelings manifested by the old Babylonish king. He had built a beautiful city, and had organized a very powerful kingdom. In looking at the city which he had built he began to think that he had done it by his own power, intelligence, wisdom, talent, and capability, and forgot God, and exclaimed “Is not this great, Babylon which I have built.” He felt himself a great man, and believed that the city and empire over which he reigned owed their existence to this power of his mind, to his intelligence, to the soundness of his judgment, and to the action of his intellectual facilities. But the Lord gave him to see that he was like other men, for He started him off to feed among the beasts of the field, and he ate grass like an ox, and his reason and judgment, and intelligence and boasting were brought down. This great king learned that there was a God in heaven who could reveal secrets, and unravel to his servant Daniel hidden mysteries, and develop his great purposes. This was the kind of religion Daniel had, this is the kind we ought to have; it is the religion which enters into all nature; and is mixed up with all the affairs of life; it is connected with all the welfare and happiness of us as individuals, of our children and of the world, if they could comprehend it. For the nearer we can approach to our Heavenly Father, the more we can obtain of that intelligence which dwells in His bosom, and the more we are like our God the more we shall succeed in accomplishing our own well-being and happiness in relation to this world, and also in relation to that world which is to come.

The divines, as they are called, of this world are ignorant of this kind of religion. They go to their acadamies and learn theology, or the science of divinity. What does it teach them? Does it teach them anything in relation to God simply than what is reveiled [revealed] in this old book the Bible? Nothing more. They will not even accept the Book of Mormon, or any other revelation that God has communicated for the last eighteen hundred years. Then what do they know in regard to God? They know nothing about him; and hence the discord, contention, strife and divisions that continually exist. One man learns one thing from the Bible, another man another thing, and there is confusion, strife, animosity, bickering, secession and polemical essay upon polemical essay, and every kind of dissatisfaction and disunion that can exist in the world among those that are termed the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. What is the matter? Why, they are not in the possession of the spirit of truth, but like the politician, doctor, lawyer, indeed like all other men who are unwilling that Jesus Christ shall reign, they are seeking to get to heaven without God. It is very singular, yet it is a fact. The lawyer pleads law without God, the doctor administers medicine without God, and the parson wants to lead the people to heaven without God. They are all sailing in the same boat, and they are all groping in darkness and confusion, they are all ignorant of the great laws of life, of the principles which govern the Gods in the eternal worlds, and of the principles that are calculated to benefit and exalt the human family in time or in eternity, one is ignorant just the same as another in relation to these things. I would just as soon take the views of the infidel for my guidance to heaven as I would those of the divine, for one is as near the truth as the other. In fact, the cause of the great amount of infidelity that is in the world is the folly and nonsense of the so-called Christians. The Christian minister tells the people to get prepared for death. Who that understands himself cares for death? He who is in possession of the principles of life, who has in him the word of life, the spirit of life, the spirit of intelligence that flows from God; the Spirit of God has commenced to live for ever, he is not groping in the dark, he is not preparing to lay his body down but to take it up again, he is not preparing to lay in the silent tomb, but to live among the Gods, and to obtain an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. He is seeking to be put in possession of eternal life, and he knows when He who is our life shall appear, we shall appear like unto Him in glory; he can say “O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He feels as Job did. “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” We might say much more on this strain but we will pass on.

The political world have organized their governments without God, and those wise men of which we have spoken, have been making laws without God to regulate the affairs of the human family, and they have sown the seeds of death, and the principles of dissolution, in their body politic; hence God has said by the mouths of His holy Prophets, long ago, that their nations should be destroyed, that their thrones should be cast down, that empires should be overthrown, and that the powers of earth should be shaken. Why so? Because there is a worm gnawing at the vitals of this great human structure of law and government, and the great political tree, whose branches overshadow the earth will fall, and great will be the fall of it. As the religious ministers are trying to lead the people to heaven without God, so kings, governors, presidents and rulers, are making laws and governing the people without God, or without the spirit of wisdom and intelligence that flows from Him, and hence they are preparing themselves for their own destruction and overthrow. Some people are astonished that the difficulties that are now transpiring in the United States, and that are threatening other nations should exist. It is not astonishing to those who understand the wickedness and corruption, misrule, tyranny, oppression, and departure from right that exist, and who knows there is a just God in heaven that governs, and controls and manages the affairs of all nations; they understand that there are certain principles of law, of justice, of equity, truth, righteousness, and retribution in relation to those events that must transpire. What difficulty would there be in these United States, supposing the Lord should rule and dictate—supposing His words should be listened to, all He would have to do would be to whisper a few words into the ears of some of the leading men North and South, and they would at once beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, etc., and would say why should we kill, massacre, and lay waste? Why should we desecrate and desolate so fair a country as this is? Why should we make so many widows and orphans? Why should there be so many groans and tears, and misery and desolation? Now let us take another course, let us retrace our steps, and mete out justice, and humble ourselves before God and ask for His blessing, guidance and direction; if they would do this would there be much more trouble? I think not.

I think the Lord manages such things in every age just about as He did in the days of Niniveh. We think they were a barbarous people at that time, yet they repented at the warning of the Prophet Jonah. The Lord sent Jonah to tell them in thirty days Niniveh should be destroyed. Jonah thought they would not believe him and he wanted not to go with the warning, but finally he did warn them, and they repented in sack cloth and ashes, and the Lord turned away from them the fierceness of his anger and preserved the nation and the people for a long time after that in consequence of their repentance, an acknowledgment of God and of His word.

The fact of the matter is the people universally, almost, have departed from God, have violated His law, have trampled upon His precepts, and have turned away from the pure principles of righteousness, and consequently they have incurred the wrath of God and He is beginning to pour out the vials of His wrath upon them, and they feel it keenly, but they do not know that it comes from Him; when they loose [lose] a battle they blame the General commanding and remove him to put in another General, and so one after another is removed because they cannot conquer their enemies, and because their armies are driven before them. They do not know that God is behind the scene governing, and regulating, controlling and managing the affairs of the nation according to the counsel of His will; they do not know that they themselves and the nation with which they are associated is steeped in iniquity, that they have departed from the living God; have forsaken Him the fountain of living waters; and have hewn out cisterns that hold no water. They do not know that the judgments of God are passing through the land, and that nothing but the hand of God can stay them. “And it shall be, as with the people so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.” This applies to all nations. Why? Because they are managing and controlling and conducting all things without God.

These things ought to be a warning to us. We comfort our souls some times on the fulfillment of the prophesies of God. We say “Mormonism” must be true because Joseph Smith prophesied thus and so concerning a division, of this nation, and that the calamities which are now causing it to mourn should commence in South Carolina. That is true, he did prophecy that, and did foretell the events that have since transpired, and did tell where the commencement of those difficulties should originate. Well, if this is true, are not other things true. If it is true that the Lord has revealed a certain amount of truth in relation to these matters, is it not as true that He has revealed other truths in which we are as individuals interested; and if it is true that God has commenced to deal with other nations as He is doing with this until war and desolation shall spread through the earth, it is just as true that we ought to be very careful what we are doing to secure the favor of God and to fulfill our destiny upon the earth in a manner which will meet his designs. The Lord has commenced to accomplish His purposes, and to build up His kingdom, and He will do it, for His designs cannot be thwarted; will perform His great decrees whether all of us, or part of us, or none of us engage in the work—or are faithful in it or not; that to Him is a matter of very little consequence; He has a certain work to accomplish, and that work will be accomplished.

A great amount of the work the Lord is going to accomplish is what is generally called temporal because it belongs to the earth; that is, the government, laws, and general direction of affairs among the nations that are not now fallen under the control of the Almighty, will have to be so changed and altered as to come under His entire control, government and dictation in every respect. He has shown to his Prophets and people long ago, to a certain extent, what kind of a rule and government He would have in the last days. He showed them that a time would come when every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess unto the Lord, no matter whether they were priests or people, rulers or ruled, lawyers or doctors, no matter what position they held in the world, to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that He is the Lord of all to the glory of God the Father. Then he spoke of certain events that should transpire before that—when I say He, I mean the Lord speaking through all His Prophets that have prophesied in relation to these events. What do they say? “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.” “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” It is so said of him that overcometh, “(and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers:) even as I received of my father.” All this must take place previous to those events we speak of that will glorify, happify and exalt, when the Lord shall rule, and his dominions shall be from the rivers to the ends of the earth.

It seems to be very difficult for us to acknowledge the Lord in all things, and yet we are the only people who profess to do this; I do not know of any other community that has begun to acknowledge God in their every day affairs or in the management of governments and nations; for the world generally do not admit of the interposition of the Almighty, but consider themselves perfectly competent to regulate their own affairs by their own wisdom and intelligence. We are the only people that make any approach to this: and yet how feeble that approach is, how difficult it is for us to bring our minds to yield obedience to the Lord our God, we can hardly think of it. We like to talk about the glory and the exaltation, and the happiness and the blessings that shall result from a certain course, but we do not like to pursue that course, we like our own way, and we like to gratify our own feelings and desires. And then we are in possession of a great amount of ignorance and folly; it seems difficult for the best of us to contemplate God and his designs, and the majesty of his law and government, and the principles by which we ought to be governed in all our earthly affairs in consequence of this ignorance. If in religious matters it is the best way to build up a good house for those who are living in a bad one, and invite them out of the bad house to take possession of the better one, how much more is this course necessary in relation to temporal things, that we do not consider to belong to religion; I speak after the manner of men, and according to their phraseology with regard to temporal things. We talk of establishing a government, a kingdom, a rule and law, that will be according to the principle of justice, equity and righteousness and then we calculate in some sort of having a government that shall be self-sustaining, that shall move pleasantly and harmoniously along, like the stars that move in the firmament without clashing or conflict, confusion or disorder. We talk of having among ourselves, through the inspiration of the Almighty, principles of law, justice and equity that will govern and regulate and manage and control all affairs according to the wisdom and dictation of the spirit that is in the bosom of God, and according to the light and the intelligence that governs all creation.

We are looking for something of this kind, yet we make but slow progress towards accomplishing it. We can only obtain correct knowledge in relation to any of these things from the Almighty. We cannot know how to govern ourselves only by a portion of the wisdom that dwells in the bosom of God; if we do not possess that wisdom we may dispair [despair] of ever accomplishing any thing in relation to building up his kingdom. I feel as Moses did when the Lord said “for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff necked people, lest I consume thee in the way.” “And he (Moses) said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” So say I, if the Lord does not dictate us we can do nothing of ourselves, we cannot accomplish the purposes of God or build up his kingdom on the earth. These are important items, and there are many other small matters associated with them that we are trying to aim at, and one is to become self-sustaining. We need in the first place to begin to know some of the common and most essential affairs of human life. We need to know how to raise cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, etc. And then when we have raised them we need to know how to take care of them in the best possible manner; and then again we want to raise families, and need to know how to teach our children in the laws of life that they may truly be the representatives of God on earth, and be enabled to take an active part in the formation and organization of his kingdom. Before we can do this we have got to learn the lesson ourselves and try to understand some of the commonest affairs of life. We need to know how to raise wheat, and corn and potatoes and other vegetables that are necessary and convenient, and fruits of various kinds, and we need to know how to take care of them when we have produced them, and not squander them, and when difficulties are gathering thick and dark around the nations we need to know how to deliver ourselves from impending dangers; we need to know how to come to God who is over all, and whose eye penetrates into the deepest recesses of the hearts of men, whose Spirit is going too and fro in the earth and penetrates all things; then we need to have faith to ask of Him the things we need to sustain us as his people, and to build up his kingdom, and to deliver us from the power of the Adversary and lead us on in the paths of life. If the kings and princes of the earth have got to come and gaze upon the glory of Zion we must have some of that principle in ourselves that will attract the attention and admiration of surrounding nations. If we do not put ourselves in a way to get in possession of these principles how can we ever arrive at them? It is impossible.

Speaking of Tithing, we as a people acknowledge that the Law of Tithing emanates from the Lord, then how is it that we need talking to so much in relation to it. If we are not honest with ourselves, and honest with our God, of what good to us are all our professions of being representatives of God, of being Elders in Israel, of being clothed with the Holy Priesthood, of being Teachers of the ways of life. The ancient Jews, the old Pharisees with all their wickedness and corruption could boast of paying tithes of all they possessed. We profess to be better than the old Pharisees, and yet it seems that it is very difficult for men among us to be honest with themselves and with their God in relation to so simple a principle as this is. What is the matter? We have been dug out of the mire, been born in sin and shapen in iniquity, as it were, we have been clothed in corruption and mixed up in the abominations of the world, we have come out from a people that did not acknowledge God, and are dishonest in their acts, and it seems almost impossible for us to lay aside our dishonesty and wickedness. If we cannot attend to these little things how is it possible that we can rise in the political horizon and be as a beacon for all nations to gaze upon. The Lord does not care a straw whether we pay our Tithing or not, it does not make Him one particle richer or poorer, the gold and silver are his and the cattle upon a thousand hills, the world and all its fulness belong to him for he organized and framed it; but as it is of what benefit is it to him. He wants in the first place to get men to acknowledge God, I was going to say in one little carnal principle, one little earthly principle, he wants to get them to acknowledge him, by giving him a certain little part, or one-tenth of what he gives to them to see whether they will be honest in this trifle, to see whether they will act as honorable high-minded men or not, or whether they will, try to cheat him out of it. If we do this honestly and conscientiously until we have fulfilled our duty, we are then prepared for anything else. It is the principle and not the Tithing we pay that is esteemed of the Lord, he cares not for our Tithing but he cares about our doing right. If we cannot be faithful in a few things, we cannot expect to be made rulers over many things.

There seems to be a prospect that some will suffer before next harvest for bread, for all men are not competent to provide and manage for themselves, hence it is made necessary that a certain kind of counsel should be given to us, that we should manage these matters according to a certain law and provide and retain enough food for ourselves. And if gold dig[g]ing goes on anywhere in our vicinity and the mails have to be carried, etc., let them do the best way they can, for that is their business and not ours; our business is to provide for ourselves, and thereby show that we are wise stewards and capable of managing the things that are put under our control. These are a part of the duties that devolve upon us to perform, and these simple little temporal affairs we call our duties towards God, ourselves and our families.

I pray God that he may enable us to do right, and pursue that course that will procure to us the approbation of heaven, that we may be saved in his kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Paying Tithing—Fasting and Prayer, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, November 6, 1863. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I am a Josephite, or, in other words, I am a full believer in the mission and calling of Joseph Smith, Junr., as a Prophet of God to this world in this generation, and I wish the people everywhere to distinctly understand this fact.

In the early existence of this Church, the people frequently questioned Joseph the Prophet, relative to the law of Tithing, wishing to know the meaning of it as it was taught in the Bible and the revelations. Joseph enquired of the Lord and, in answer, received the revelation which you can find on the 324th page of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, European edition. The Lord has thus revealed his will upon that subject, and it ought to satisfy his people in all time to come.

I have always told the people to do just as they pleased about paying Tithing, and to do as they please about calling upon the name of the Lord in prayer, and to do just as they please about being baptized, or about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; there is no compulsion whatever in these matters. The Lord does not compel any person to embrace the Gospel, and I do not think He will compel them to live it after they have embraced it; but all who do not keep their covenants and the commandments of the Lord our Father are then fit to be cut off from the Church.

We are in the habit of holding in full fellowship men that pay no Tithing, also persons who take the name of God in vain; we permit liars, thieves, etc., to retain a standing in the Church. Does not this hurt the body of Christ? It does, and the whole body is more or less sick and faint through our extreme kindness, which some call charity; it pleads for those unrighteous persons, and we spare them. Should we do this to the extent we do? I think we have lived long enough and have passed through enough experience to teach us to know and do the will of Heaven, and to disfellowship those who refuse to do it.

We have said to the brethren, pay your Tithing, and with those who refuse to do this it will be made a matter of fellowship. Now, brethren and sisters, the next time you write to your friends, in England, Scotland, Wales, France, or any other country, do not write that we have directed the Presidents in foreign lands to cut off members who do not pay their Tithing, when this becomes necessary we will attend to it. It is right for us here to pay our Tithing. Not paying Tithing has once been made a matter of fellowship in the British Islands, and some have been cut off from the Church there for not paying their Tithing; that was not by our directions.

In regard to Tithing, I am now speaking to the Latter-day Saints in this land, who have health to labor, who can surround themselves with an abundance of the comforts and blessings of life, who can build houses and open up farms at their pleasure. Shall we pay Tithing or shall we not? We have said pay your Tithing. And we have said to the Bishops that if any man refuses to pay his Tithing, try him for his fellowship; and if he still refuses, cut him off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and so we say now. We have not required this of the people, but the Lord has required it, and that is enough for us and for all the Latter-day Saints upon the earth. If we live our religion we will be willing to pay Tithing.

We feel sometimes as though the people did not live as near to the Lord as they should, and we have a right to feel so. And then again we say that this is a good people, that they are a very excellent people, that they are the best people that we have any knowledge of, but they are so far from being what they have got to be that we see there is a great improvement to be made by us. We talk about heaven, about the Lord, about angels, about celestial glory, and about enjoying the celestial kingdom of our God, while at the same time we do not believe for one moment that we could live in heaven one day or one hour, and live in disobedience to the laws and commandments of heaven.

We have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have had faith enough to go and be baptized for the remission of sins, and to receive the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and to gather ourselves together, and still we try to shirk an ordinance of the House of God, and to make ourselves believe that it is not necessary to strictly obey all the injunctions laid upon us as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is written;—“Wherefore I give unto them a commandment saying thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve Him. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it. Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things. Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And, that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up sacraments upon my holy day; for verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days, and at all times; but remember on this the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart, that thy fasting may be perfect; or, in other words, that thy joy may be full. Verily, this is fasting and prayer; or, in other words, rejoicing and prayer.” [Book of Doc. and Cov’nts., page 149, par’s. 2 and 3.]

Here we are commanded to assemble ourselves together on the first day of the week, as the ancient desciples [disciples] did and to offer up our sacraments before the Lord, confessing our faults one to another. How many of the inhabitants of this city do you suppose are in the kanyons to-day, or off hunting ducks, or geese, or rabbits, or cattle, instead of observing this the word of the Lord? Are they doing as they should do? They are not. Persons professing to be Saints should assemble themselves together on the Lord’s day, except those who may be necessarily detained at home to keep the house, take care of the children, or to perform some work of necessity and mercy; the rest should assemble in the place appointed for worship and the offering up of our sacraments.

Could we now see the kanyons of these mountains all over the Territory, we should see teams by the score returning with wood. They went out yesterday to come home to-day. Is this keeping the Sabbath holy? It is written—“And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” There is not one requirement of the Lord that is non-essential; every requirement that He has made of us is essential to our perfection and sanctification, to prepare us to enjoy celestial glory.

You may ask me if I always keep the Sabbath holy. When I am out travelling and happen to be where there is not a convenient place to observe the Sabbath, I sometimes travel on that day, and content myself with making a Sabbath of the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth day of the week. But generally, when I am travelling, it is all the time Sabbath to me, for it is a constant succession of meetings. But do I send my teams to the kanyons on the Sabbath day? No, that is if I have the control over that which should be under my control. I keep the Sabbath, and I wish to keep all the laws of God, and there are a great many of this people that do so; but many of them go astray in failing to observe these things—in not paying their Tithing faithfully, in not keeping the Sabbath day holy, in not saying their prayers constantly, in not feeding the poor and clothing the naked, and in not administering to the Priesthood. As a people we do as well as we can do, but some do not do as well as they might do.

Thrifty and intelligent gardeners are very particular in trimming off dead limbs from their fruit trees and covering the wounds to preserve the trees in health and soundness. When we hold unrighteous, ungodly persons in fellowship, it injures the whole body of Christ; but we do it because we have compassion for them. Brethren and sisters I exhort you to keep your covenants, to serve the Lord with all your hearts, and to endeavor to observe every requirement the Lord makes of you. You know that this is your duty.

His Church and kingdom is complete, it has a living head “from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one spirit.” “Now are ye the body of Christ, and members in particular.” The head possesses all the qualifications necessary to fill its functions in the body; it has eyes to see, ears to hear, a palate to taste, organs of speech to speak, etc., etc. Every qualification that is natural to the body of a man has its counterpart incorporated in the body of Christ upon the earth.

On reading carefully the Old and New Testaments we can discover that the majority of the revelations given to mankind anciently were in regard to their daily duties; we follow in the same path. The revelations contained in the Bible and the Book of Mormon are ensamples to us, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants contains direct revelation to this Church; they are a guide to us, and we do not wish to do them away; we do not wish them to become obsolete and to set them aside. We wish to continue in the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ day by day, and to have His Spirit with us continually. If we can do this, we shall no more walk in darkness, but we shall walk in the light of life.

We have, through the mercy of our heavenly Father, been gathered together, and we now have the privilege of purifying ourselves and preparing for the coming of the Son of Man. Shall we do this? Or shall we be found wanting when he makes his appearance?

In regard to the Law of Tithing, the Lord has given the revelation I have already referred to, and made it a law unto us, and let all who have gathered here and refuse to obey it, be disfellowshipped; and if a man will persist in breaking the Sabbath day, let him be severed from the Church; and the man that will persist in swearing, cut him off from the Church, with the thief, the liar, the adulterer, and every other person who will not live according to the law of Christ, that we may not have the tree encumbered with rotten limbs, to spread decay and rottenness through the whole tree.

We have had good talk from the brethren this afternoon; I have heard nothing but what is strictly correct. I can say of this people that, as a people, they are a very good people, but we do fellowship a few in our midst that we should not fellowship.

Brother Samuel W. Richards had a good deal to say, this afternoon, about grain. We have talked about it for a long time, and we have tried to get the people to build store houses to save it. When grain could not be sold for money the Tithing Office was full of it; but now we have none to hand out to the poor who depend upon us for bread, only as we send out and gather in a little, though, probably the brethren will soon be at leisure to haul in their Tithing. We have but little to deal out to the families of our brethren who are preaching, and to our workmen. Our graneries are empty, and scarcely grain enough in the Territory to bread our own population until another harvest, yet some will sell their grain to go out of the country. What a lamentable fact. Suppose the Lord should suffer a drought to come over the land next year and blast our corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, etc., with mildew, what would be the situation of this people? Yet a few are selling grain all the time.

I will mention a circumstance that occurred lately, to illustrate the character of some whom we fellowship. One of our new comers wanted to buy some wheat and went down to the public square where our friends from the East were preparing to prosecute their journey to California. This new comer bought a load of wheat at four or five bits a bushel; he bought at that price all he wanted. After the bargain was closed, the man who sold the wheat found out that the purchaser was a “Mormon,” and said to him, “had I known you was one of the brethren I would have made you paid a higher price for that wheat.” What a depraved disposition! he would have sold it to the passing stranger for fifty cents a bushel, and very likely would have made his brother “Mormon” pay a dollar and a half. How can men love God when they hate their brethren.

A certain sister went to one of the stores with butter to sell, “What do you ask a pound for your butter?” “My Bishop says I must ask so much. I would sell it for less, but I must mind my Bishop. I would sell it for thirty cents, but my Bishop says I must have thirty-five for it.” That woman would see the whole house of Israel massacred—their blood spilled—and smile at it. I attribute all this to ignorance and pass it along without notice, as much as possible, and I hope our Father in heaven does. He is merciful and we should be.

If the people were all truly Latter-day Saints, we should see a state of society different from what we now see. A man who professes to be a a good Latter-day Saint has a son who is a thief; says the father, “I think he will be a good boy yet, and preach the Gospel to the nations and do much good.” “Whose horse is this, my boy?” “O, no matter about that dad; here is a friend of mine, wants to stay all night.” They are lodged and fed, and away they go next morning after some more stolen horses. “Brother, did you not know that that was a stolen horse?” “O, I suppose it was.” “Then why did you keep such a man about you?” “Why, I could not turn my son and his friends out of doors.” There are pretty good men and good families who are harborers of thieves and do it all the time, in some of their connections.

I remember that a lot of colts were once driven into my yard, and they were stolen property. How came this about? Why somebody heard aunt Sarah say that cousin Bill told aunt Peggy that he had heard Sister Nancy say that her cousin Betty had worked in the President’s kitchen, and so the connection was formed, and of course all her friends and connections must make themselves at home in the President’s houses, his barns, stables, yards and provisions for man and animals. I suspicioned them, a[n]d had them turned out forthwith.

If we are not sanctified, if we do not sanctify the Lord in our hearts and purify ourselves in our lives and in all our dealings before God and man, we shall fail of attaining to an inheritence in the celestial kingdom, and shall be found in some other kingdom. When the holy Priesthood is upon the earth, and the fulness of the kingdom of God has come to the people, it requires a strict obedience to every point of law and doctrine and to every ordinance which the Lord reveals: in short, it requires a strict observance of every requirement of Heaven, to fully prepare a people for the possession and enjoyment of the celestial kingdom.

Where the Priesthood is not, the people are expected to live according to the best knowledge they have; but even then they cannot with impunity commit many heinous faults. The Lord more readily overlooks them in consequence of their unenlightened condition, and there is a kingdom prepared for them, while the celestial kingdom will be inhabited only by those who are specially prepared to inherit it. It will be inherited by those who live faithfully the religion of Jesus Christ, and are worthy of being ranked upon among the pure-in-heart.

To-morrow morning I expect to start on a short tour South, and I say to my brethren and sisters keep your armor bright, and be on the watch-tower all the time, for the enemy feels as much opposition today, and I may safely say more than he ever did towards the kingdom of God that is now established upon the earth; and just in proportion to its strength and increase, so will the power of Satan be exerted to overcome it. Christ and Baal are not yet friends. An Elder of Israel who can drink with the drunkard and swear with the swearer, is not a friend of Christ and his kingdom.

The wicked still wish to destroy every vestage of truth and righteousness on the the earth; and they will still go on fighting against God and right, and who can help it? and they will continue to go on in this course, until the wicked are destroyed and the earth is cleansed from the rule of sin and Satan.

Read the Book of Mormon and learn what it says in regard to the ancient Nephites. The whole nation of the Nephites were slain, because they departed from the Lord their God and did wickedly. In the last great and tremendous battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites, over two millions of the Nephites were slain and the residue were hunted and slain until not a single person, except Moroni was left of a high and mighty nation. Mormon, says after this great battle, “And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people and I cried, O, ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O, ye fair ones, how could you have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen! But, behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss. O, ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives ye fair ones, how is it that, ye could have fallen! But behold ye are gone and my sorrows cannot bring your return.” “O, that ye had repented, before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea the Eternal, Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.” Blood answered to blood until the land was cleansed, and few men were left. And so will it be with this nation who have slain the Prophets and have sought, continually to destroy the people of God.

If we live our religion we may escape; and if we are required to give our lives for our religion, we are still in the hands of God. But we cannot find in any history that the people of God have ever suffered more keenly than have the wicked. Certain ones have “had trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings; yea, moreover, bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn assunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep skins, and goat skins: being destitute, afflicted, tormented,” etc. But look at the hundreds of thousands of wicked men who have met destruction through such unutterable anguish and suffering as the faithful followers of the Lord Jesus have never felt. When Shadrach, Meshach [and] Abednego were cast in the fiery furnace, the fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor had the smell of fire passed upon them.

The Saints in all ages have been protected, sustained and upheld by an Almighty Power, in their sufferings, and the power of the religion of Jesus Christ has ever sustained them. The Jews anciently said let His blood be upon us and upon our children, and God took them at their word.

This nation, by their works said “let the blood of Joseph the Prophet and of his brethren be upon us and our children,” and it will be so. If they had known Joseph Smith in his true character, and acknowledged him, he would have lead [led] this nation long before now, and this dreadful war would not have prevailed throughout the land; but now it will be death upon death, and blood upon blood until the land is cleansed. I pray God to save the innocent, the righteous, and the honest poor, and to let those who desire to shed the blood of each other fall first in this deadly strife.

We have become heirs to all things, through the Gospel which we have obeyed, but if we neglect that Gospel and our duties to God and to one another and become servants to sin, we may expect to suffer the penalty of sin, which is death and damnation, and to be deprived of the right of ruling over a single person, and possess no territory, not even six feet by three. Those who violate their claims to the blessings of the Gospel never will have the privilege of ruling over their families; they will not have a dollar of money. They may get all the gold there is in the mountains now, but when they die and go to their own place they will not find gold, nor bread to eat, nor water to drink, nor the sweet strains of music to cheer their hearts; but they will be made servants to drudge out their weary existence as long as the Lord shall please to let them. This is a little of what the wicked will suffer in their place in the next existence.

Instead of the righteous being bound tighter and tighter, they will continue to have more and more liberty, as we are more and more faithful, and obtain more power with the heavens and more of the power of God upon us. Let us seek diligently unto the Lord, until we obtain the faith of Jesus in its fullness, for those who possess this are free indeed.

When it is necessary that we should possess gold in great abundance, the Lord will show it to us in vision, and we shall not have to prospect and dig to find it, as the wicked have to do. The liberty of the Saints is to possess power with God to open gold mines, when we want gold; to plant and reap in abundance; to heal the sick of our families, and to heal our animals that serve us; to elude every snare of the enemy: to save our boys from danger when they are in the kanyons, or when they are following any other pursuit where there is danger of their loosing [losing] their lives, or of being hurt in any way. This the wicked call tyranny and despotism. We call upon the people to so live that their sick may be healed by the virtue and power of their holy religion, and this is called oppression. The “Mormons” all listen to the advice of one man, and this is called despotism. We teach our females to be virtuous and industrious, and this is called bondage. A young woman went to a neighboring camp, staid [stayed] there three or four days, and came home and died; this is the liberty some would give to us, “such protection as vultures give to lambs.”

It is the privilege of this people to have faith to command the elements, that we may have plentiful crops from year to year; and to enjoy the wealth of health, joy and peace instead of sorrow, turmoil, war and bloodshed. Here are the two extremes; may the Lord help us to choose the good and refuse the evil. Amen.

The Intended Trip North, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle. Reported by E. L. Sloan.

I will say to you, and wish you to inform your neighbors, that on the morrow I expect to start with some of my brethren on a short trip north. I do this lest some might suppose that we are going to leave you. If we would live according to our acknowledgments in the holy Gospel, according to the faith we have embraced, and according to the teachings we receive from time to time, we never would be in the dark with regard to any matters we should understand.

Much is taught the Saints by the Elders of Israel concerning their religion, the way we should live, how we should deal with each other, how we should live before God, what our feelings should be and the spirit we should possess. If we live according to our covenants we will always enjoy the light of truth, and if we live faithful enough we shall enjoy the blessing of the Holy Ghost to be our constant companion. In such case no person would turn either to the right hand or the left, in consequence of the motives, the sayings, or the doings of this one or that one; but they would march straightforward in the path that leads to eternal life; and if others stepped out of the way, they would walk straight along. Without the power of the Holy Ghost a person is liable to go to the right or the left from the straight path of duty; they are liable to do things they are sorry for; they are liable to make mistakes; and when they try to do their best, behold they do that which they dislike.

I mention my intended trip because I do not want to hear, when I return, that brother Brigham, or brother Heber, or somebody else, “has slipped away”—that “there is something the matter”—“something that is not right”—somebody saying “there is an evil of some kind, and we want to know it;” “why don’t you come right out with it?” “If you do not come back so and so, we will leave.”

It was said here to-day, that very few have embraced the truth, considering the great number of the inhabitants of the earth. It can hardly be discovered where those few are. It is astonishing to relate facts as they are. The Elders go forth and preach the Gospel to the nations; they baptize the people—hunt them up from place to place, yet if you take the names of those who have been baptized, have the one-fourth ever been gathered? No. Is not this strange? Do they keep the faith, and stay in the midst of the wicked? No, they do not. The kingdom of God is living and full of spirit; it is on the move; it is not like what we call sectarianism, religion to-day, and the world tomorrow; next Sabbath a little more religion, and then the world again; “and as we were so we are, and as we are so we shall be, evermore, amen.” It is not so with our religion. Ours is a religion of improvement; it is not contracted and confined, but is calculated to expand the minds of the children of men and lead them up into that state of intelligence that will be an honor to our being.

Look at the people who are here—the few that have gathered—and then look back at the Branches you came from. How many have gathered? Where are the rest of those who composed those Branches? It is true that occasionally one will remain and keep the faith for many years, but circumstances are such in the world that they eventually fall away from it, if they remain there.

It was truly said here to-day that the spirit we have embraced is one, and that we will flow together as surely as drops of water flow together. One drop will unite with another drop, others will unite with them until, drop added to drop, they form a pond, a sea, or a mighty ocean. So with those who receive the Gospel. There never was a person who embraced the Gospel but desired to gather with the Saints, yet not one-fourth ever have gathered; and we expect that a good many of those who have gathered will go the downward road that leads to destruction It seems hardly possible to believe that people, after receiving the truth and the love of it, will turn away from it, but they do.

Now, brethren and sisters, proclaim that brothers Heber and Brigham and some others will be gone for a few days; though I do not promise to preach to you when I come back; I do not intend to preach while I am away, but I expect to attend meeting when I return, so that you can see that I am with you in readiness to meet the requirements of my calling. This should satisfy you about my being absent for a few days.

I expect to be absent, some time from now, for quite a while. I do not say I will be absent, but I expect to be. I expect to take the back track from here. When we came back from the south I told the brethren this. When we shall go is not for me to say. If the people neglect their duty, turn away from the holy commandments which God has given us, seek their own individual wealth, and neglect the interests of the Kingdom of God, we may expect to be here quite a time—perhaps a period that will be far longer than we anticipate. Perhaps some do not understand these remarks. You are like me, and I am like you. I cannot see that which is out of sight; you cannot see that which is out of sight. If you bring objects within the range of vision—within the power of sight—you can see them. These sayings may be somewhat mysterious to some.

Some may ask why we did not tarry at the centre stake of Zion, when the Lord planted our feet there? We had eyes, but we did not see; we had ears, but we did not hear; we had hearts that were devoid of what the Lord required of his people; consequently we could not abide what the Lord revealed to us. We had to go from there to gain an experience. Can you understand this? I think there are some here who can. If we could have received the words of life and lived according to them, when we were first gathered to the centre stake of Zion, we never would have been removed from that place. But we did not abide the law the Lord gave to us. We are here to gain an experience, and we cannot increase in that any faster than our capacities will admit. Our capacities are limited, though sometimes we could receive more than we do, but we will not. Preach the riches of eternal life to a congregation, and when the eyes and affections of that congregation are like the fool’s eyes, to the ends of the earth, it is like throwing pearls before swine. If I can actually reach your understandings, you will know just what I know, and see just what I see in regard to what I may say.

Take the history of this Church from the commencement, and we have proven that we cannot receive all the Lord has for us. We have proven to the heavens and to one another that we are not yet capacitated to receive all the Lord has for us, and that we have not yet a disposition to receive all He has for us. Can you understand that there is a time you can receive, and there is a time you cannot receive, a time when there is no place in the heart to receive? The heart of man will be closed up, the will will be set against this and that, that we have opportunity to receive. There is an abundance the Lord has for the people, if they would receive it.

I will now lead your minds directly to our own situation here, leaving the first organization of the people, their gathering, etc., and come to our being now here. Some have been here six months, some one year, some two, some five, some six, some ten, and some seventeen years this summer. Now I will take the liberty of bringing up some circumstances and sayings to connect with the ideas I wish to present in regard to our wills, dispositions, opportunities, etc.

It was said here to-day, by brother William Carmichael, that he had proved a great many of the sayings and prophesies of Joseph to be true and also the prophesies of Heber and others. Now you, my brethren and sisters, who have been in the habit of coming here for the last ten, twelve, or fifteen years, have you not been told all the time, at least as often as once a month, that the time would come when you would see the necessity of taking counsel and laying up grain? It has been said that brother Brigham has prophesied that there would be a famine here. I would like to have any one show me the man or woman who heard brother Brigham make that statement. I have not made that statement, but I have said you will see the time that we will need grain—that we will need bread. We have seen that time. Brother Heber said the same thing. But you never heard me saying the Lord would withdraw his blessings from this land while we live here, unless we forfeit our rights to the Priesthood; then we might expect that the earth would not bring forth.

We have had a cricket war, a grasshopper war, and a dry season, and now we have a time of need. Many of the inhabitants of this very city, I presume, have not breadstuffs enough to last them two days; and I would not be surprised if there are not seven-eighths of the inhabitants who have not breadstuffs sufficient to last them two weeks. Has the Lord stayed the heavens? No. Has He withdrawn His hand? No, He is full of mercy and compassion; He has provided for the Saints. No matter what scarcity there is at present, he gave them bread. If they go without bread, they cannot say the Lord has withheld His hand, for He has been abundantly rich in bestowing the good things of the earth upon this people. Then why are we destitute of the staff of life? Comparing the people with their substance, we might say we have sold ourselves for nought. We have peddled off the grain which God has given us so freely, until we have made ourselves destitute. Has this been told us before? Yes, year after year.

How will it be? Listen, all who are in this house, is this the last season we are going to have a scarcity? I will say I hope it is, but I cannot say that it is, if the people are not wise. Some sow their wheat, and after the Lord has given one hundredfold of an increase, they sell that at one-fourth of its value, and leave themselves wanting. The last time I spoke upon this subject I tried to stir up the minds of the people regarding it; I want them to reflect upon it.

At our Semi-Annual Conference last fall the Bishops were instructed to go to each house and see what breadstuffs were on hand. Why? “Because the time is coming when they will want breadstuffs.” It comes to my ears every day that this one and that one is in want “Such a one has had no bread for three days.”

What was told you last harvest? “sister, you had better get a chest, or a little box, for there is plenty of wheat to be had—it is not worth a dollar a bushel—and you had better fill your box with it.” “Oh, there is plenty of it; there is no necessity for my emptying the paper rags out of my box, or my clothes out of the large chest where I have them packed away; my husband can go and get what he wants at the Tithing Store.” They would not get the wheat and the flour that was then easy to be obtained, and now they are destitute. Why could they not believe what they were told? They ought to have believed, for it is true; and in all these matters the truth has been timely told to the people. And here let me say to you that instead of our having plenty here, with nobody to come to buy our substance—to purchase our surplus grain—the demand for what we can raise here will increase year by year.

Are we going to live our religion—to be the servants and handmaids of the Almighty? Are we going to continue in the faith, and try to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth? If we are, the prophesies will be fulfilled on us. We shall have the privilege of seeing the blest, and will be blest.

I look at things as a man looking philosophically; I look at things before us in the future as a politician, as a statesman, as a thinking person. What is going to be the condition of this people and their surrounding neighbors? Do we not see the storm gathering? It will come from the north-east and the south-east, from the east and from the west, and from the north-west. The clouds are gathering; the distant thunders can be heard; the grumblings and mutterings in the distance are audible, and tell of destruction, want and famine. But mark it well, if we live according to the Holy Priesthood bestowed upon us, while God bears rule in the midst of these mountains, I promise you, in the name of Israel’s God, that he will give us seed-time and harvest. We must forfeit our right to the Priesthood, before the blessings of the Heavens cease to come upon us. Let us live our religion, and hearken to the counsel given to us.

And here let me say to you, buy what flour you need, and do not let it be hauled away. Have you a horse, or an ox, or a wagon, or anything else, if it takes the coat off your back, or the shoes off your feet, and you have to wear moccasins, sell them and go to the merchants who have it to sell and buy the flour before it is hauled away. Why did you not buy it when it was cheap? There is a saying that wit dearly bought is remembered. Now buy your wit, buy your wisdom, buy your counsel and judgment, buy them dearly, so that you will remember. You were last fall counselled to supply yourselves with breadstuffs, when flour could have been bought for whistling a tune, and the seller would have whistled one half of it to induce you to buy. Why have the children of this world been wiser in this day than the children of light? Have not there been Saints enough before us for us to learn by their experience, and revelations enough given for the Saints now not to be in the back ground? It is mortifying that the children of this world should know more about these things than the children of light. We know more about the kingdom of God. Take these young men, sixteen or eighteen years old, or these old men, or some who have just come into the Church, and let them go into the world, and, with regard to the kingdom of God, they can teach kings and queens, statesmen and philosophers, for they are ignorant of these things, but in things pertaining to this life the lack of knowledge manifested by us as a people is disgraceful. Your knowledge should be as much more than that of the children of the world, with regard to the things of the world, as it is with regard to the things of the kingdom of God.

Take your money or your property, brethren and sisters, and buy flour; or shall I hear to-morrow morning, “I am out of bread?” Why not go down street and sell your bonnets, and your shawls, sisters, and not wait? “Why, some good brother will feed us.” But that good brother has not got the flour. “I am not going to buy any; I will trust in the Lord; He will send the ravens to feed me.” Perhaps the faith of some people is such that they think the Lord will send down an angel with a loaf of bread under one arm and a leg of bacon under the other—that an angel will be sent from some other world with bread ready buttered for them to eat, or that it will be as was said of the pigs in Ohio when it was first settled; it was said the soil was so rich that if you hung up one pound of the earth two pounds of fat would run out of it; and that pigs were running through the woods ready roasted, with knives and forks in their backs. My faith is not like that.

A brother told me, when speaking of the rotation of the planets, that he could never believe that the earth did rotate. Said I, do you believe that the sun which shone to-day shone yesterday? “Yes.” He had not faith to believe that the earth turns round, but he believed that the sun moved round the earth. Now, said I, take your measuring instruments. If the earth rotates upon its axis each given point upon it moves 24,000 miles in twenty-four hours, while if the sun goes round the earth it must travel over a circle, in the same time, of which 95,000,000 is about the semi-diameter. He had not faith to believe that the earth could turn on its axis in twenty-four hours, but I showed him that he had to have millions and millions more faith than I had, when he believed the sun went round the earth.

My faith does not lead me to think the Lord will provide us with roast pigs, bread already buttered, &c. He will give us the ability to raise the grain, to obtain the fruits of the earth, to make habitations, to procure a few boards to make a box, and when harvest comes, giving us the grain, it is for us to preserve it—to save the wheat until we have one, two, five, or seven years’ provisions on hand, until there is enough of the staff of life saved by the people to bread themselves and those who will come here seeking for safety.

Will you do this? “Aye, maybe I will,” says one, and maybe I wont,” says another; “the kingdom that cannot support me I don’t think of much account; the Lord has said it is His business to provide for His Saints, and I guess He will do it.” I have no doubt but He will provide for His Saints, but, if you do not take this counsel and be industrious and prudent, you will not long continue to be one of His Saints; then continue to do right that ye may be His Saints; sow, plant, buy half a bushel of wheat here, and a bushel there, and store it up till you get your five or seven years’ provisions on hand.

The war now raging in our nation is in the providence of God, and was told us years and years ago by the Prophet Joseph; and what we are now coming to was foreseen by him, and no power can hinder. Can the inhabitants of our once beautiful, delightful and happy country avert the horrors and evils that are now upon them? Only by turning from their wickedness, and calling upon the Lord. If they will turn unto the Lord and seek after Him, they will avert this terrible calamity, otherwise it cannot be averted. There is no power on the earth, nor under it, but the power of God, that can avert the evils that are now upon and are coming upon the nation.

What is the prospect? What does the statesman declare to us? What does he point us to? Peace and prosperity? brotherly-kindness and love? union and happiness? No! no! calamity upon calamity; misery upon misery.

Do you see any necessity, Latter-day Saints, for providing for the thousands coming here? Suppose some of your brothers, uncles, children, grand-children, or your old neighbors, fleeing here from the bloodshed and misery in the world, were to come to you. “Well, I am glad to see you, come to my house; come uncle, come grandson, come aunt, I must take you home.” But what have you to give them? Not a morsel! “The country was full of food; I could have obtained it for sewing, for knitting, for almost every kind of work; I could have procured it a year ago, but it grated on my feelings to have it offered me for my work. I am sorry to say I have nothing in the house, but I think I can borrow it,” when you ought to have your bins full, to feed your friends when they come here.

It is not our open enemies who will come here. I told the people last year that the flood and tide of emigration were conservative people, who wished in peace to raise the necessaries of life, to trade, etc.—peaceful citizens. What do they come here for? To live in peace. Were they those who robbed us in Missouri and Illinois? No.

The time is coming when your friends are going to write to you about coming here, for this is the only place where there will be peace. There will be war, famine, pestilence, and misery through the nations of the earth, and there will be no safety in any place but Zion, as has been foretold by the Prophets of the Lord, both anciently and in our day.

This is the place of peace and safety. We would see how it would be if the wicked had power here, but they have not the power, and they never will have, if we live as the Lord requires us to. (Amen, by the congregation.)

Buy flour, you who can; and you, sisters, and children too, when harvest comes, glean the wheat fields. I would as soon see my wives and children gleaning wheat, as anybody’s. And then, when the people come here by thousands, you will be able to feed them. What will be your feelings, when the women and children begin to cry in your ears, with not a man to protect them? You can believe it or not, but the time is coming when a good man will be more precious than fine gold.

It is distressing to see the condition our nation is in, but I cannot help it. Who can? The people en masse, by turning to God, and ceasing to do wickedly, ceasing to persecute the honest and the truth-lover. If they had done that thirty years ago, it would have been better for them to-day. When we appealed to the government of our nation for justice, the answer was:—“Your cause is just, but we have no power.” Did not Joseph Smith tell them in Washington and Philadelphia, that the time would come when their State rights would be trampled upon?

Joseph said, many and many a time, to us—“Never be anxious for the Lord to pour out his judgments upon the nation; many of you will see the distress and evils poured out upon this nation till you will weep like children.” Many of us have felt to do so already, and it seems to be coming upon us more and more; it seems as though the fangs of destruction were piercing the very vitals of the nation.

We inquire of our friends who come here, the emigration, how it is back where they came from. They say you can ride all day in some places but recently inhabited, and not see any inhabitants, any plowing, any sowing, any planting; you may ride through large districts of country, and see one vast desolation. A gentlemen said here, the other day, that one hundred families were burned alive in their own houses, in the county of Jackson, Missouri; whether this is true is not for me to say, but the thought of it is painful. Have you, Latter-day Saints, ever experienced anything like that? No! You were driven out of your houses, I forget the number, but you were not burned in them. I have said it to the Saints, and would proclaim it to the latest of Adam’s generation, that the wicked suffer more than the righteous.

Why do people apostatize? You know we are on the “Old Ship Zion.” We are in the midst of the ocean. A storm comes on, and, as sailors say, she labors very hard. “I am not going to stay here,” says one; “I don’t believe this is the the ‘Ship Zion.’” “But we are in the midst of the ocean.” “I don’t care, I am not going to stay here.” Off goes the coat, and he jumps overboard. Will he not be drowned? Yes. So with those who leave this Church. It is the “Old Ship Zion,” let us stay in it. Is there any wisdom in all doing as we are all told? Yes.

While brother Woodruff was talking about the notable text given by brother Hardy to a gentleman in England, when speaking of the Mormon creed, I thought I could incorporate a very large discourse in the application of that creed. “To mind your own business” incorporates the whole duty of man. What is the duty of a Latter-day Saint? To do all the good he can upon the earth, living in the discharge of every duty obligatory upon him. If you see anybody angry, tell them never to be angry again. If you see anybody chewing tobacco, ask them to stop it, and spend the money for something to eat. Will you stop drinking whiskey? Let me plead with you to do so. And if the sisters would not think it oppressive, I would ask them to not drink quite so much strong tea. And if I make an application of these remarks in my own person, it is my business to point out these things and to ask you to refrain from them. It is the business of a Latter-day Saint, in passing through the street, if he sees a fence pole down, to put it up; if he sees an animal in the mud, to stop and help get it out. I make such acts my business. When I am travelling, I stop my whole train and say—“boys, let us drive those cattle out of that grain, and put up the fence.” If I can do any good in administering among the people, in trying to have them comprehend what is right and do it, that is my business, and it is also your business.

Let us preach righteousness, and practice it. I do not wish to preach what I do not practice. If I wish to preach to others wholesome doctrine, let me practice it myself—show that example to others I wish them to imitate. If we do this, we will be preserved in the truth. We wish to increase; we do not wish to become aliens in the kingdom of God.

When people’s eyes are opened, and they see and understand how henious [heinous] it is to turn away from the truth, were they to reflect, and ask, “shall I ever leave the faith? ever turn away from the kingdom of God?” it would make them shudder; there would be chill over them from their heads to their feet; they would feel to say, “No, God forbid!”

It was said here this morning that no person ever apostatized, without actual transgression. Omission of duty leads to commission. We want to live so as to have the Spirit every day, every hour of the day, every minute of the day; and every Latter-day Saint is entitled to the Spirit of God, to the power of the Holy Ghost, to lead him in his individual duties. Is nobody else entitled to it? No. But this wants explanation.

Here, perhaps, is a good Presbyterian brother, a good Baptist brother, or, perhaps, a good Catholic one. Are they entitled to that degree of the Spirit of God that we are? No, but they are entitled to light. And there is one saying I heard here today, that I will repeat; whenever any one lifts his voice or hand to persecute this people, there is a chill passes through him, unless he is lost to truth and the Spirit of God has entirely left him. He feels it day and night; he feels the Spirit working with him. And the Spirit of the Lord will strive, and strive, and strive with the people, till they have sinned away the day of grace. Until then, all are entitled to the light of Christ, for he is the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. But they are not entitled to receive the Holy Ghost. Why not, as well as Cornelius? That bestowal of the Holy Ghost was to convince the superstitious Jews that the Lord designed to send the Gospel to the Gentiles. Peter said, well, now, brethren, can you forbid water to baptize these, seeing the Lord has been so merciful to them as to give them the Holy Ghost? And he baptized them; and that was the opening of the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles.

I pray to the Lord for you; I pray for you to get wisdom—worldly wisdom; not to love the things of the world, but to take care of what you raise. Try to raise a little silk here; you know we are raising cotton. Try to raise some flax, and take care of it. Try and make a little sugar here next fall; I understand that article is now fifty cents a pound in New York. As war is wasting the productive strength of the nation, do you not think it becomes us to raise sugar, corn, wheat, sheep, &c., for the consumption of the old, the blind, the lame, and the helpless who will be left, that we may be able to feed and clothe them when they come here? We will feed and care for them, for there are thousands of them who are good people, who have lived according to the best light and truth they knew. And by and bye the prejudices that exist against us will be wiped away, so that the honest can embrace the truth.

I do not want “Mormonism” to become popular; I would not, if I could, make it as popular as the Roman Catholic Church is in Italy, or as the Church of England is in England, because the wicked and ungodly would crowd into it in their sins. There are enough of such characters in it now. There are quite a number here who will apostatize. It needs this and that to occur to make some leave. If “Mormonism” were to become popular, it would be much as it was in the days of the early Christians, when no one could get a good position unless he was baptized for the remission of sins; he could not get an office, without he was baptized into the church.

Suppose this Church were so popular that a man could not be elected President of the United States, unless he was a Latter-day Saint, we would be overrun by the wicked. I would rather pass through all the misery and sorrow, the troubles and trials of the Saints, than to have the religion of Christ become popular with the world. It would in such case go as the ancient Church went. I care not what the world thinks, nor what it says, so they leave us unmolested in the exercise of our inherent rights. Take a straightforward course, and meet the jeers and frowns of the wicked.

Unpopular. “Oh dear, how they are despised and hated, those ‘Mormons!’” Did not Jesus say that His disciples should be hated and despised? Said he, “They hate me, and they will hate you also.” Has it ever been otherwise? He said, emphatically, “In the world ye shall have persecution, but in me ye shall have peace.”

What is proved by people’s leaving us, before the heavens, before the angels, and all the Prophets and holy men who ever lived upon the earth? You will see every man and woman, when they once consent to leave here, I don’t care what name they are known by, whether Morrisites, Gladden Bishopites, Josephites, or any other ite, they make friends with the wicked—with those who blaspheme the holy name we have been commemorating here this afternoon, and they are full of malice and evil. Whenever any person wants to leave here, the thread is broken that bound him to the truth, and he seeks the society of the wicked; and it proves to everybody who has the light of truth within them, that this is the kingdom of God, and that those who leave are of Anti-Christ

Be steadfast, always abiding in the truth. Never encourage malice or hatred in your hearts; that does not belong to a Saint. I can say in truth, that with all the abuse I have ever met, driven from my home, robbed of my substance, I do not know that a spirit of malice has ever rested in my heart. I have asked the Lord to mete out justice to those who have oppressed us, and the Lord will take his own time and way for doing this. It is in His hands, and not in mine, and I am glad of it, for I could not deal with the wicked as they should be dealt with.

My name is had for good and evil upon the whole earth, as promised to me. Thirty years ago brother Joseph, in a lecture to the Twelve, said to me, “your name shall be known for good and evil throughout the world,” and it is so. The good love me, weak and humble as I am, and the wicked hate me; but there is no individual on the earth but what I would lead to salvation, if he would let me; I would take him by the hand, like a child, and lead him like a father in the way that would bring him to salvation.

Would we not rather live as we are living, than to become one with the spirit of the world? Yes. Do not be anxious to have this people become rich, and possess the affection of the world. I have been fearful lest we come to fellowship the world. Whatever you have, it is the Lord’s. You own nothing, I own nothing. I seem to have a great abundance around me, but I own nothing. The Lord has placed what I have in my hands, to see what I will do with it, and I am perfectly willing for Him to dispose of it otherwise whenever he pleases. I have neither wife nor child, no wives and children; they are only committed to me, to see how I will treat them. If I am faithful, the time will come when they will be given to me.

The Lord has placed it in our power to obtain the greatest gift He can bestow—the gift of eternal life; He has bestowed upon us gifts to be developed and used throughout all eternity—the gifts of seeing, of hearing, of speech, &c.—and we are endowed with every gift and qualification, though in weakness, that are the angels; and the germ of the attributes that are developed in Him who controls is in us to develop. We can see each other, hear each other, converse with each other, and, if we keep the faith, all things will be ours. The Saints do not own anything now. The world do not own anything. They are hunting for gold—it is the Lord’s. If my safe had millions of gold in it, it would be the Lord’s, to be used as he dictates. The time will come when those who are now dissatisfied will not be satisfied with anything, but the Saints who live their religion are and will be satisfied with everything. They know the Lord controls, and that He will control and save the righteous.

May the Lord help us to be righteous and to live our religion, that we may live forever. Amen.

The Earth the Home of Man, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 4, 1864. Reported by G. D. Watt.

“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” Again, “Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?” Again, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” A few words upon the subject in these texts will answer any purpose and feelings. Jesus had no other meaning than simply, blessed are they who have the light of revelation to understand the providences of God, and to know Him and themselves.

The rich that he and other writers have referred to, and that we often refer to, are those who trust in the riches of this world, and forget their God. I do not know how rich the children of Israel were when they forsook the Lord, but I suppose it was with them as it is with mankind at the present day, there were rich and poor; and they did forget their God who brought them from the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage with a strong and mighty and outstretched arm; they forgot Him so far that they transgressed all the laws He had delivered unto them; they considered those laws but of trifling importance, and esteemed their own laws and their own ways to be far better than the laws the Lord had instituted, and they broke the covenant they had made with the Lord their God; they deemed his laws non-essential to salvation, and instituted laws and ordinances of their own, which the Lord did not recognize, and forsook his instructions and His ordinances; they became wicked, and would not seek after God; God was not in all their thoughts. Whether they were rich or poor as to the things of this world made but little difference with regard to their faithfulness, and their life and practice in the ordinances of the house of God, and the knowledge of His providences.

I have not learned that the possession of goods and chattels, tenements, houses, lands, gold, silver, wheat, or fine flour, wine or oil, makes any difference with the faithful servant of God. The Lord loves those who trust in Him, who feel their dependence upon Him, and feel and understand their own weakness and inability, who are thankful for their organization, and have full confidence in the providences of the Lord, trusting in His mercy and goodness to bring them off conquerors, whether they be rich or poor. The Lord loves all those who love Him and keep His commandments.

We say to the brethren, at this time, seek not after gold, nor after silver, nor after any of the precious metals that are hid up in the earth, for as yet they would do you no good if you possessed them. But suppose we had a few thousand millions of gold and silver, would it follow that we should be destroyed, because we possessed this wealth? Not in the least; if we are destroyed through the possession of wealth, it will be because we destroy ourselves. If we possessed hundreds of millions of coin, and devoted that means to building up the kingdom of God and doing good to His creatures, with an eye single to His glory, we would be as much blessed and as much entitled to salvation as the poor beggar that begs from door to door; the faithful rich man is as much entitled to the revelations of Jesus Christ as is the faithful poor man.

Whether we are poor or rich, if we neglect our prayers and our sacrament meetings, we neglect the spirit of the Lord, and a spirit of darkness comes over us. If we lust for gold, for the riches of the world, and spare no pains to obtain and retain them, and feel “these are mine,” then the spirit of anti-Christ comes upon us. This is the danger the Latter-day Saints are in, consequently it is better for us to live in the absence of what is called the riches of this world, than to possess them and with them inherit the spirit of anti-Christ and be lost.

We had better labor to produce and treasure up the golden wheat, the fine flour, the pure wine, the oil of the olive, and every product for food and clothing that is adapted to our climate.

I anticipate the day when we can have the privilege of using, at our sacraments pure wine, produced within our borders. I do not know that it would injure us to drink wine of our own make, although we would be better without it than to drink it to excess. And it would be better for us to do without gold and silver, than to ruin ourselves with them. If we had plenty of gold and silver we could neither eat nor wear them, as we do food and clothing. We could not with any comfort wear shoes or slippers made of the precious metals, and hats, bonnets, caps, &c., made of them would be equally uncomfortable and unprofitable. The whole world seems to be intoxicated in the lust of their hearts after gold, silver, and precious stones—they seem to be frantic to obtain them. To me this is as vain and nonsensical as the changing fashions in swelling and diminishing the proportions of their clothing. When death overtakes the votaries of the god of this world they will be willing to give all they possess of earthly wealth for knowledge and power to rebuke death and be restored to life. “And Satan answered the Lord, and said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” Then, shall we obtain riches for the sake of being rich? No.

The human family are formed after the image of our Father and God. After the earth was organized the Lord placed His children upon it, gave them possession of it, and told them that it was their home—the place of their habitation from henceforth; He told them to till the ground and subdue it; He gave it to them for their inheritance, and to do their will upon it. Then Satan steps in and overcomes them through the weakness there was in the children of the Father when they were sent to the earth, and sin was brought in, and thus we are subjected to sin. The earth is pure in and of itself, having kept the law of its creation; and mankind have actually brought on themselves all the sin, all the distress, all the anguish, pain, sickness, and death that are upon the earth.

Since man has brought this upon himself, who but man can effect a restoration from sin to purity? From death to life? If I injure my neighbor in any way, I am the only person that can make restitution and obtain the forgiveness of my injured friend, neighbor, or brother. When a child revolts from under a good parents’ control, it is the place of that child to return to his father, like the prodigal of old, and reinstate himself in the friendship and good feelings of his injured parent.

Mankind have forfeited the right they once possessed to the friendship of their Heavenly Father, and through sin have exposed themselves to misery and wretchedness. Who is to bring back to the sin-stained millions of earth that which they have lost through disobedience? Who is to plant smiling peace and plenty where war and desolation reign? Who is to remove the curse and its consequences from earth—the homestead of mankind? Who shall say to the raging and contending elements, “peace, be still?” and extract the poison from the reptile’s tooth, and the savage and destructive nature from beast and creeping thing?

Who placed the dark stain of sin upon this fair creation? Man. Who but man shall remove the foul blot, and restore all things to their primeval purity and innocence? But can he do this independent of heavenly aid? He can not. To aid him in this work heavenly grace is here; heavenly wisdom, power, and help are here, and God’s laws and ordinances are here; the angels and spirits of just men made perfect are here; Jesus Christ our Great High Priest, with Prophets, Apostles, and Saints, ancient and modern, are here to help man in the great work of sanctifying himself and the earth for final glorification in its paradisiacal state. All this will be accomplished through the law of the Holy Priesthood.

If we bring back all things through the help of our Heavenly Father, then shall we possess all things—the earth and its fulness, and all things pertaining to time and eternity, even all things that man was made lord over. Then blessed are the poor, or, in other words, blessed are they who know for themselves that every blessing which they receive, whether spiritual or temporal, is the gift of God. Blessed are they who are poor in spirit, or blessed are they who feel their own weakness, and know their own inability and the power of God, and enjoy the Holy Ghost. Blessed are they who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who know that he is their Savior, and that in him they can find mercy, and grace to help in time of need. These are the blessed ones, no matter if they possess all the riches of this world; what has that to do with the humble and faithful heart? Such a person is not affected in faith, as a follower of the Lord Jesus, by riches or by poverty.

If we ever attain to faith enough to obtain the kingdom of God, as we anticipate, we shall obtain all the wealth there is for this kingdom in time and eternity. We shall not rob other kingdoms, but we shall possess the eternity of matter that lies in the path of the onward progress of this kingdom, and still eternity and its fulness will continue to stretch out before us. The great powers of eternal wisdom will be exercised to enhance the wealth, beauty, excellency and glory of this kingdom, previous to its being introduced into the presence of the Father and the Son. This work we have to help perform.

A great many think that the kingdom of God is going to bless them and exalt them, without any efforts on their part. This is not so. Every man and woman is expected to aid the work with all the ability God has given them. Each person belonging to the human family has a portion of labor to perform in removing the curse from the earth and from every living thing upon it. When this work is performed, then will they possess all things.

President Kimball remarked that he had been told that some did not believe all that he said, or all that I say. I care not one groat whether they believe all that I say or not, or whether they love me or not; I have no concern about that. If I can see the people serving God with all their hearts, building up His kingdom on the earth, and bringing forth righteousness, I do not care whether they ever think of brother Brigham, or of brother Heber C. Kimball, or whether they believe what we say or not; if they believe what the Almighty says, that will content me; then will they realize what the power of faith will do for a people.

Will the Latter-day Saints observe the law of the Lord? If they will, it is all I ask of them. You can read the law of the Lord for yourselves in the Old and New Testaments, in the Book of Mormon, and in the Book of Revelations given for this Church through Joseph the Prophet. If this people will believe the testimony contained in these four books concerning the kingdom of God upon the earth, and the hand dealing of the providence of God to his children, and do His will, I promise them eternal life, for such a belief and such a practice will lead them to the fountain where they can know for themselves, as Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, the Apostles and Ancient Saints, Joseph Smith and others of modern times knew; where like them we can receive the Spirit of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, by which we may know the voice of the Good Shepherd, whenever and wherever we hear it. And as we know the voice of the Good Shepherd, so shall we learn to distinguish it from the voice of a stranger—the voice of the evil one. We can then clearly understand the things that are of God, and the things that are not of Him, and be able to see and judge all things as they are, for, “He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” This will lead us to the glory and the excellency of the knowledge of God, which will be given unto us by the manifestations of His Spirit, and by the living oracles of the Lord, which are always in the midst of His people.

Brother Kimball said there are more than ten commandments. Yes, there are commandments sufficient to direct every person upon the earth, and in every place and at every time, wherever they may be, all through life, and that would incorporate the whole life of man. Shall we neglect the law of the Lord, which is perfect, converting the soul, and turn away from the testimony of the Lord, which is sure, making wise the simple? “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”

Mankind have departed from the commandments of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord is not before their eyes. We have been trying, for many years, to show them the difference between the laws of the Lord and the laws of men; between the ordinances of the churches of men, and the ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Let me inform all the Latter-day Saints and all the inhabitants of the earth, that the Lord will not be trifled with. We have often been told that, when the Lord set up his kingdom on this earth, and sent forth his servants to administer in it, He would defend that kingdom himself, and exert the powers of heaven to bear it off.

You remember reading in the parable of the wicked husbandmen, to whom the Lord let out his vineyard, that when He sent servants to receive fruits of his vineyard, they stoned them and cast them out. But last of all He sent unto them His Son, saying, “They will reverence my Son;” but they said among themselves, “This is the heir; come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.” They slew Him. “When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will He do unto these husbandmen? They say unto Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen, which will render Him the fruits in their seasons.” Were not the Jews destroyed—scattered and broken up as a nation? They were, because they made war against God, and against His servents [servants] whom He had called and sent to them with a message of salvation. Had a pretender arisen and professed to prophecy in the name of the Lord, when the Lord did not speak through him, and they had slain him as they did Jesus and His Apostles, would the Lord have noticed it? I think not.

The Puritans supposed they were sent of God, and hated the Quakers and persecuted them even unto death. Did the Lord notice that conduct in any signal manner? No. But suppose the Quakers had been the Saints of the Lord, and that He had said to William Penn and others, “You are my authorized agents to build up my kingdom on the earth,” would the Lord have held the Puritans guiltless for the persecution of his chosen people? He would not, but would in a signal manner have called their persecutors to an account. But the Puritans were not sent of the Lord, neither were the Quakers.

The Lord had not spoken to the inhabitants of this earth for a long time, until He spoke to Joseph Smith, committed to him the plates on, which the Book of Mormon was engraved, and gave him a Urim and Thummim to translate a portion of them, and told him to print the Book of Mormon, which he did, and sent it to the world, according to the word of the Lord. The Lord said to him, “revive my statutes and bring forth my law which has been set aside by those who professed to be my Saints, and establish the ordinances that were once in my house, and tell the people they must observe them. Now go and see if anybody will believe your testimony.” He went and preached to his father’s house, and to his neighbors, and it was four or five years before he got the six members that composed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when it was first organized on the 6th of April, 1830. This was a slow business, but at last he organized the Church, for the Lord had revealed to him the Aaronic priesthood upon which the Church was first organized; after that he received the Melchisedic priesthood, when the Church was more fully organized, and a few more believed, and then a few more and a few more. Now and then a person would believe and feel inclined to go and tell his friends what the Lord had revealed to him. The Lord sent them out and promised to take care of them, and thus the knowledge of this work has extended throughout the world, from so small a beginning.

I have often thought of the foolishness of the devil, notwithstanding all his cunning; yet he is much of a gentleman, when compared with many that serve him. He did not manifest much wisdom in seeking to accomplish the death of the Savior. In that he undertook to destroy the kingdom Jesus had come to establish; but through the mode he took to destroy it, he only succeeded in establishing it. So in the case of Joseph Smith. The devil and his emissaries thought, if they could only destroy Joseph Smith, that the system he had laid the foundation to build upon would crumble and fall to rise no more; but it is evident to all, that since the death of Joseph, the system has flourished with greater vigor than before, for where there is a testament in full force, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator, for a testament is of force after men are dead.

At last a man did come who was actually sent of God. Will He defend the doctrine which He has sent into the world by that prophet? is he not defending it now? He is. The sayings of Joseph Smith are being literally fulfilled, and also the sayings of the Prophets and Apostles who lived previous to this generation. Joseph Smith told the nations of the earth what would be their doom, unless they stopped rebelling against the kingdom of God, and forsook their own systems, or, in, other words, the cisterns they had hewn out for themselves, which hold no water, and began to trust in the Lord. We see that the kingdom of God is established, will the Lord defend it?

Suppose the nation of the United States should send delegates into Mexico, to negotiate and transact business with that government, and the authorities there should look upon them as impostors, and scourge them and cast them out, what course would the government of the United States take? They would declare war against Mexico, to vindicate the honor of the nation. Do you not think the Lord will chasten the nation which has killed his prophets, set at naught his message, and scourged and cast out his servants? Is He now chastening them? He is, and will continue to chasten them until He is satisfied, and they cease to rebel against him and against his government on the earth.

Shall we treat His laws as a thing of naught? We had better observe all the laws, precepts, commandments and ordinances of the house of the Lord. We had better so live that no fault can be found with us. This is my advice to the Latter-day Saints.

Much can be said upon what our duty is, but we can comprise the whole in saying, live so that the spirit of revelation will be in every man and woman, and it will lead them to truth and holiness. Then there would be no bickering, no contention, no lawsuits against each other, and there would be less business in the High Councils than there is now. Those who live for truth and holiness have a right to enjoy the revelations of Jesus Christ. We know the oracles of God which He has placed in the midst of this people, and we know that we should observe the counsel which is given to us.

It has been observed that we have made covenants to do thus and so, and that we ought not to speak against the Lord and his anointed. Do we observe this? We do, in a great measure, I say, with all their foibles and weaknesses, there is no people on the earth like this people. Is there a king or any ruler on the earth that could, by his mental power, gather a people from almost every nation under heaven, and bind them together by one spirit and one religion—to be of one heart and of one mind—in as great a degree as are this people? This is proof sufficient that we are the people of God—the chosen ones. And who are the Saints? All those who believe in Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. And who may be Saints? All the inhabitants of the earth, for Jesus said, “come unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.”

Those who have embraced the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is portrayed in the New Testament and Book of Mormon, who believe in the mission of Joseph the Prophet, and have received the spirit of this latter-day work, feel like saying “good bye to former associations, and I do not wish to keep any back accounts or notes against my brethren in the same Church, for we are all Saints.” But they soon learn that there are still weaknesses and foibles among those who are called Saints. Men and women are tried, and get out of patience and speak evil one against another; but as a general thing they are sorry for their sins.

What earthly power can gather a people as this people have been gathered, and hold them together as this people have been held together? It was not Joseph, it is not Brigham, nor Heber, nor any of the rest of the Twelve, nor any of the Seventies and High Priests that does this, but it is the Lord God Almighty that holds this people together, and no other power.

Once in a while a man will go to hunt for gold and silver, and run off here and there. Of all such I can say that, if you will canvas their private characters and lives, you will invariably find that they neglected their prayers, neglected to go to meeting, to pay their Tithing, etc., until they forsook the commandments of the Lord, until God was not in all their thoughts night or day, and they went away from us. When they forsake the spirit of this people they then want to leave the community. This proves that they are not of us, and that they have lost the spirit which holds this people together, which is the spirit of the Gospel The Lord so manages that there are always influences in our vicinity to draw away such persons, and I am glad of it. I have a man employed to carry to my hogs the scraps that fall from my table; he is as necessary in his place as anybody else, and so are those who carry off the scum and filth from our society, and I do not wish to restrict them in the performance of their duties, not in the least. While these swill carriers are removing the slops from the kitchen, shall we allow them to come into the parlor and gather the food from the table to put into the swill tub? When the Lord has done with the trash, then he will suffer it to be carded off by the Devil or his servants, but they cannot enter the dining room; we will turn out the offal of the table, when it is ready, and then the Devil and his servants are welcome to it. This is all in the providence of God. So long as a man observes the law of God, he never need fear that he will be culpable.

Those who follow modern Christianity say that we have revived the customs of ancient heathenism—the practices of dark ages. Our Christian friends are mistaken, for those were enlightened ages. Abraham lived in one of the most enlightened ages of the world, and so did Noah, and Enoch the seventh from Adam. We are following the customs of Enoch and the holy fathers, and for this we are looked upon as not being fit for society. We are not adapted to the society of the wicked, and do not wish to mingle with them.

A gentleman said to me “I would like to establish a billiard table and a drinking saloon in your city; you must have such places here by and bye anyhow.” May be we will, and may be we will not; we shall see whether God Almighty will reign among this people, or whether the Devil will. I shall keep such Christian institutions out of this city as long as I can.

Some want to destroy “the twin relics—slavery and polygamy”—and establish monogamy, with a brothel on every corner of each block in this city. This reminds me of what I was told the President of the United States said to a gentleman who is a preacher and a member of Congress. He took our President to task for not destroying both “the twins” together, that is, polygamy as well as slavery. After he had laid the whole matter before the President in an elaborate manner, showing him the necessity of destroying this people who believed in polygamy, the President said “It makes me think of a little circumstance that happened with me in my younger days. I was ploughing a piece of newly cleared land, by and bye I came to a big log; I could not plow over it, for it was too high, and it was so heavy I could not move it out of the way, and so wet I could not burn it; I stood and looked at it and studied it, and finally concluded to plow around it.” It looks as if they were trying to plow around Mormonism. They and the Lord for it.

I wish the Latter-day Saints understood, as fully as I do, the things of God; then we should soon see the kingdom in its glory and power; and every influence and power that is opposed to it would stand aside and give way before its onward march; and the Lord would send His angels here to bless you, and would soon come to reign among his people. Amen.

Turning Out the Water of the Weber, etc.

Brigham Young

Instructions by President Brigham Young, during his visit to Davis and Weber counties, June 10, 11, 12, and 13, 1864. Reported by J. V. Long.

At Kaysville

Before dismissing our meeting I want to return you our thanks for your kindness to us. When on a visit to the northern settlements, this is our stopping place. There is great credit due the people here—this ward is improving in many respects.

In behalf of the people that live here, and of more that would like to come here, had you more water, I will state that I am fully satisfied that a portion of Weber river can be brought above this place, and thousands of acres of good land rendered susceptible of cultivation.

Davis county is the best county I know of for fruits and grain. Perhaps some who live in Salt Lake county may think differently, but in my opinion this is one of the best counties in the Territory for raising grain, and I would like to see the brethren bringing out the waters of Weber river. It will require a good deal of labor, but it does not require money. And if you do not get the water around the sand ridge the first year, you need not be discouraged, but continue the labor as you may be able, until the ditch is made wide enough and long enough, and sufficiently tight by a deposit of sediment or by puddling, to convey all the water that may be required, I think it can be brought around the sand ridge without a great deal of extra labor or expense.

You have the finest climate there is anywhere in these mountains, therefore be encouraged, and take the advice so often given, to prepare for the day of want. If we will be faithful to our covenants, we may be sure that the Lord will give us seed time and harvest; and we will not suffer famine, unless we forsake the Priesthood of the Lord our God.

Remarks are frequently made in regard to the sufferings of the Saints; we do not suffer so much as do the world. They are constantly in torment. It is very unwise to turn away from the Lord, to get rid of sorrow, for such persons cannot so fully enjoy the blessings of life; they will have many bickerings, which do not bring happiness or peace. We want to enjoy the fruits of life, and we are organized capable of enjoying them. Let us be faithful to our God to our religion and to each other; and let us see to our prayers, walking humbly before the Lord, then we shall have joy. The spirit of the world is mourning, it is darkness; it has no hope, no intelligence to compare with the intelligence which the Lord bestows upon His people. It is wisdom in us to live our religion then, when we retire to our beds and when we arise in the morning, the Spirit of the Lord will be present with us week by week and year by year, and we shall enjoy the light of that Spirit continually. Let us live so as to enjoy life, and prepare for the things that await us in this generation.

My brethren of the Presidency and the Twelve are with me in my desires to benefit and bless the people gathered into these valleys in the mountains. We want to lead the people to obtain and enjoy all the blessings that earth can afford, and to serve the Lord with all their hearts. If we will stick to the old ship Zion, it is sure to land us in the promised haven of rest, and to crown us with crowns of glory, immortality and eternal life. If we are faithful to our religion, we have nothing to discourage us.

God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and receive our thanks for your kindness to us.

Ogden City Tabernacle, a.m. of June 11

I think we are happy this morning in the privilege of meeting with you brethren and sisters; I am, for one. As we have now began visiting the settlements, this being the first of a number of appointments of the Twelve to visit with the Saints and speak to them, to cheer and comfort them, I trust that our coming together, seeing, hearing and associating one with the other will be profitable to us all.

This meeting was given out for the Twelve, and I expect that they will take charge of it and conduct it. Brother Kimball and myself have come here; and expect to go to other places with the Twelve, to speak the things that are in our hearts. First of all it is the kingdom of God in our hearts; it is the kingdom of God or nothing. The Almighty has commenced His work of sending forth His angels from the heavens, and revealing his will. He gave us Joseph and others, and bestowed the Holy Priesthood upon his servants. We are sharers in the gifts and graces that God has bestowed upon His people. This is a day of days, and a time of times; this is the fulness of times, in which all things that are in Christ are to be gathered in one. This is a momentous period, and we feel an earnestness to lead the minds of those who profess to believe in Jesus, in Joseph, and in the Latter-day Work, to comprehend the great duties of life by the Spirit of the Lord, that they may be one in heart, one in sentiment, and thereby be made one in action, that we may behold the glory of God, which is my desire, and the desire of my brethren.

At the Priesthood meeting in the evening, after hearing the reports from the several districts of Weber county, the President said:—

I can say that I am glad that I am here, for this meeting gives me a little understanding of the organization of this county. I am satisfied with this method of doing business; as far as the Bishopric is concerned it relieves us from a great deal of business at the General Tithing Office. We have adopted the same plan in other places, in Cache Valley, for instance, and shall probably do so in some others. In this county the brethren who preside over the various districts report to brother West, and he transacts business for this county with the General Tithing Office.

I think the report given in this evening, relating to the present situation of the people here is a very good one, and that the people as a general thing are doing very well. I should feel still more gratified, if we were further advanced. I feel that the people should keep up with the spirit of the times, so that the Lord will not pass by them. I desire that we may be faithful, and be prepared for the things that are coming upon the earth; I desire that we be prepared for the blessings which the Lord has to bestow upon us. He is blessing His people, and we shall all soon see Zion redeemed, and Israel gathered from among all nations. I would like the Latter-day Saints to be ready; and to make themselves ready, they must live their religion, that they may enjoy the spirit of the Holy One of Israel.

If any of you feel that there is no life in your meetings, as I occasionally hear some of the brethren say, then it becomes your duty to go and instil life into that meeting, and do your part to produce an increase of the Spirit and power of God in the meetings in your locality. If there is a fast meeting, or prayer meeting, why not somebody in that district go filled with the spirit and power of God, and assist to encourage, instruct, comfort and edify the Saints? I have been an Elder in this Church for years, and I have been accustomed to to teach every man and woman the duties enjoined upon them by the law of Christ; and when there was not a good spirit in a meeting, I have endeavored to instil one, and did not ask for any permission to do so. I want the Elders to be filled with the spirit of teaching, and I want each and every one of us to so live as to obtain our share of it, and to have the influence of the Spirit of the Lord to dictate to us. If these my brethren will live and act according to the Priesthood that is upon them, the Lord will be satisfied, and so will his servants.

Most of you, my brethren, are Elders, Seventies, or High Priests: perhaps there is not a Priest or Teacher present. The reason of this is that when we give the brethren their endowments, we are obliged to confer upon them the Melchisedec Priesthood; but I expect to see the day when we shall be so situated that we can say to a company of brethren you can go and receive the ordinances pertaining to the Aaronic order of Priesthood, and then you can go into the world and preach the Gospel, or do something that will prove whether you will honor that Priesthood before you receive more. Now we pass them through the ordinances of both Priesthoods in one day, but this is not as it should be and would if we had a Temple wherein to administer these ordinances. But this is all right at present; we should not be satisfied in any other way, and consequently we do according to the circumstances we are placed in. The brethren receive their endowments, and you know there are some persons who will not apostatize till they arrive at a certain point. Some apostatize at the Missouri river, and although they may be ever, so angry, they will come here to get prepared to leave us; and others will live here a score of years, and then apostatize, and it does appear as if some men were determined to prove that they are fools.

We have had trouble with men who refused to pay their Tithing, but the time has now come when a man that will not pay his Tithing is not fit to be in the Church. The time has come when those who profess to he Saints must live according to the laws of the Holy Priesthood, or they cannot enjoy its benefits.

May the Lord bless you all, and help you to be faithful is my prayer. Amen.

On Sunday afternoon the President instructed the congregation as follows:—

I cannot talk as loud now as I have been accustomed to speak without it hurting me. A great many of the Saints know that I have preached long and loud for over thirty-two years, and that I have labored incessantly to spread the truth, and have urged mankind to receive the principles of eternal life which we have embraced, and to obey them in their lives. In the early part of my ministry my preaching was loud; quite a portion of my labors have seemed to require me to speak, with a loud voice. I have had large congregations before me most of the time since I began to preach, and I have labored in this way until my lungs and stomach will not endure it. I could preach myself sick, but the question is had I better do it? I think I would rather tarry in the midst of the Saints, to minister to and teach them, and strive to tarry here just as long as I can, in preference to lying down to rest from my labors. I am self-determined (I suppose many would call it self-willed and perhaps this is correct,) but will say my disposition is to tarry here; dark as this world is and wicked as the inhabitants of the earth are, my disposition is never to cease fighting until the Devil is bound, and there is a complete end of wickedness on this earth; until the Saints can worship God without interruption, and therefore I would rather stay in the flesh.

We have had good instructions during this meeting, from all who have addressed us. Brother Kimball was full of life and blessings for the Saints; and this afternoon brother Taylor has given you an excellent discourse, full of wisdom and intelligence, and I hope that all will profit by what has been said to them. Brother Kimball, and myself are travelling with the Twelve; we are holding two days’ meetings in the different counties, north and south, and we expect to be absent from Great Salt Lake City every other Sunday for the next eight or ten weeks.

I can tell you the spirit of the Twelve, which will be a consolation to you, and also to the Twelve. If I could see every one of the Elders with their wives and children as obedient to every requirement made of them—the children to the parents, the wives to the husbands, and the husbands to the Priesthood—as the Twelve are—my soul would be happy. I will say further; those of the Twelve that travel the most and serve God, are the most obedient. Some of the Elders get up and tell you that you must be obedient to the counsel that is given you, which is all right, but I wish the people could know my feelings in regard to this. I have never asked but one thing of the Latter-day Saints, and that is for them to serve the Lord our God with an undivided heart. One says, “I knew brother Joseph, but I do not know much about brother Brigham.” I do not care for this; the question with me is this, do you know Jesus and the Holy Spirit? I do not care if you never hear any more about brother Brigham, so far as my personal feelings are concerned, if you will only live under the influence of that Spirit which comes from God. When the brethren are travelling and preaching they have the spirit of obedience and while we are here preaching to you the Spirit of the Lord broods over the congregation, your countenances are lit up with heavenly intelligence, your hearts are one, and you are ready to observe every word of counsel that is given to you, and each and every one feels to say “It is my delight to do the will of God.”

When we were children in this Church—had just received the spirit of the holy Gospel—how did we feel? We felt and we were as submissive as little children, ready to do the will and bidding of the Elders, just as fast as we learned it. We were as obedient to those who were set to counsel us as the child is to its mother; we had no disposition to rebel, but our feeling was, “let me know the will of God, and I will do it.” Was money in the way? No. The Latter-day Saints have pretty well proven that money and property do not stand in their way, neither parents, houses, or lands, husbands, wives, or children; and I presume that I could find a number of sisters here to-day who have left their husbands and children for the Gospel’s sake, and I could select men who have left wife, children and all for the Gospel’s sake. The people called Latter-day Saints are, generally speaking, obedient; and if they continue to strive to live their religion they will become of one heart and one mind. We have the kingdom of God here spiritually, and by and bye we will be prepared to receive it temporally; the Lord designs that we shall have that; we do not want it now, for we are not prepared; we could not bear it, but in the Lord’s own time we shall have these things.

We are exhorted to gather around us the comforts of life, to build good houses, make good gardens, and strive to attain to every comfort there is on the earth, but at present we are poor, and destitute of many of the comforts of life. If we were to become suddenly wealthy, we should be apt to rise up in our pride and say “this is mine.” We want to increase in all that is good, and to receive the blessings the Lord has in store for us. There is no way for us to live, but to live to glorify our Father in heaven. We must honor our Priesthood and be obedient to the counsel that is given to us, or we cannot obtain that glory which is promised to the faithful Saints.

The Latter-day Saints understand that we must be taught, and many of them are anxious to receive and obey the teachings given. No man was to be found who could teach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, with authority to administer in the ordinances, until God commissioned Joseph Smith, and sent him forth with this commandment to the people. Previous to that time, I searched everything pertaining to the churches; I searched high and low to find whether there was any such thing as pure religion upon the earth; I searched for a man that could tell me something of God, of heaven, of angels and of eternal life. I believed in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, but I could not believe that the Church of Christ was upon the earth. The question was frequently asked, “Is the Methodist Church, the Quakers, or the mother Church right?” No, I would reply, there is not a Bible church upon the earth. I might have continued to study the Bible and all the books that have been written, and without revelation from God I would have been like the sounding brass or tinkling cymbal, having no knowledge of God, of true religion, of the redemption of the living or of the dead; I would have lived and died in ignorance; and this was the condition of all the inhabitants of the earth.

We say we are willing to take counsel, and so we are, in a great measure, and with this knowledge I do not feel to forsake the Latter-day Saints, but I feel like pleading with them to live for God and His kingdom. Let us all continue steadfast and remember that we must obey the counsel of our Father and God.

The Lord instructs us in a revelation, to let our clothing be plain: “Let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands.” He never said to us, “do not make a silk or satin ribbon, or fine broadcloth,” but He has said to us, “make the articles of clothing that you wear;” if we do not, we shall find by and bye that we shall not be able to get them. I would say to the brethren set out some mulberry trees, procure silk worms, and produce silk, and strive to be self-sustaining in everything that is useful or desirable.

Some may regret that our first parents sinned. This is nonsense. If we had been there, and they had not sinned, we should have sinned. I will not blame Adam or Eve, why? Because it was necessary that sin should enter into the world; no man could ever understand the principle of exaltation without its opposite; no one could ever receive an exaltation without being acquainted with its opposite. How did Adam and Eve sin? Did they come out in direct opposition to God and to His government? No. But they transgressed a command of the Lord, and through that transgression sin came into the world. The Lord knew they would do this, and He had designed that they should. Then came the curse upon the fruit, upon the vegetables, and upon our mother earth; and it came upon the creeping things, upon the grain in the field, the fish in the sea, and upon all things pertaining to this earth, through man’s transgression. This was not through an angel. Now then what have we to do? We have to labor to remove the curse from the earth, from the vegetation, from every creeping thing, and from ourselves, by the help of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is not this a great work? Yes, and it is something we have to take an active part in. If it had been left for us, we should have brought sin into the world just as mother Eve did; and inasmuch as this is done, we have to go to work, by the power of God, and restore all things according to the revelations that have been given in former and in modern times. We have to remove the curse; but remember, we shall never be able to save ourselves without help, but with that help which the Almighty has promised we can accomplish all things. We cannot receive the things of God, except through the order that he has ordained.

When the Twelve come here full of wisdom and full of the power of God, I want you to receive their counsel in your hearts, for they will not teach you anything that will injure you; they will never counsel you to transgress the law of God, to live in the dirt and in the ashes; neither will they counsel you to live in these old bed-bug caves, but they will counsel you to be industrious, to be cleanly in your persons and in your habitations; they will counsel you to set out fruit trees, to gather around you the comforts and blessings of life. Then, as soon as you have gathered sufficient for yourselves, lay up for the stranger. And you may get rich, have your carriages and horses, but in all things you must remember the Lord our God, and never suffer yourselves to live one day, one hour, nor a minute without having a prayer upon your tongue or in your heart that God will preserve you from sin.

Brethren and sisters, there are a great many good counsels for us to receive, but especially let us receive and practice what we have heard at this meeting, and treasure up all these good things in our hearts.

I want to hear, by and bye, that every family has a bin of good wheat laid up for a time of scarcity. Now do not any of you contract to sell your wheat before it is ready to cut in the field. You can get freighting enough to buy your little articles from the store, though, if you will manufacture your wool, you will find that you have not much need to go to the stores. We shall see a current of trade open up by and bye so that we shall begin to trade with the Indies. We can do much now towards manufacturing our own clothing, and if we want to dress a little better, let us make our cloth better.

Serve the Lord with all your hearts, and may His blessings attend you. Amen.

In Farmington p.m. of the 13th

Brethren and sisters, we enjoy music, singing, good society, the ordinances of the House of God, and everything that the earth produces; and all the blessings that God has given we can enjoy, and not sin. The world do not know how to do this. Were they to meet together to dance and have a social party, they would sin. I have heard many a minister say that there were no fiddles in heaven. At that time I did not understand as I do now, for I now know that there are no fiddles in hell. There may be many fiddlers there, but no fiddles; they are all burned that go there.

In regard to your situation here, I can say there is no other people upon this earth that is favored as we are; there is no other people that enjoy the freedom that we do; there is not a spot in the United States—our once happy country—that now has the freedom and peace that we have in these valleys. And let me say to you, when your Bishop calls upon you, or advises you to do anything that will be for your good, do not call that oppression. All the instruction he gives will be calculated to do you good, to raise you in that scale of intelligence that will make of you wise men and wise women. When we are recommended to do that which will lead to good, that cannot very well be construed into oppression. We want to prepare the streets for easy travelling, so that you will not break your wagons when you go home at night; and you are called upon to build your garden and field-fences, but some are so short-sighted as to call this oppression. I say that the desire of the authorities here is to teach you to preserve your gardens, to save your vegetables and your grain. When you are told to do anything that is for your own good, never think that you are imposed upon, but rather thank your friends for teaching you that which will make you happy in time and in eternity.

Brother George A. Smith has said, very truly, that we are not told in the revelations that we shall not wear good and handsome clothes; no, we are not; we are authorized to make them as beautiful as we please, and also to make the earth as beautiful as the Garden of Eden, to gather around us every variety of the comforts of life, to endeavor to produce joy, peace, life and health, and to strive to make everything around us, if possible, as glorious as the paradise of our first parents.

Brother Kimball has remarked that a prayer once, twice, or even thrice a day does not satisfy him. I do not know any other way for the Latter-day Saints than for every breath to be virtually a prayer for God to guide and direct his people, and that he will never suffer us to possess anything that will be an injury to us. I am satisfied that this should be the feeling of every Latter-day Saint in the world. If you are making a bargain, if you are talking in the house, visiting in the social party, going forth in the dance, every breath should virtually be a prayer that God will preserve us from sin and from the effects of sin.

I know that in the world we have tribulation, sorrow and mourning, but in Christ we have joy; and when we have the Spirit of Christ we feel to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks to God our heavenly Father. I am so thankful that tongue cannot express what I feel, that I have the privilege of associating with the Saints, and of being a member in the kingdom of God, and that I have friends in the Church of the living God. I have no desire to see the laws or the name of God blasphemed; I have no desire to see or hear a quarrel between men and women, or with any souls upon the face of the earth.

Every time we put forth an idea, or make an effort, let it be that which will tend to joy, happiness and exaltation; and may God help us to so live. Amen.

Necessity of Teaching, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday p.m., July 17, 1864. Reported by E. L. Sloan.

It is some time since I have spoken to the people in this place. The congregations are very large, and when I have met such congregations as we have here, in former years, and they were a little noisy, with babies crying, I have said “cry on, I can talk louder than you can cry,” but I cannot do so now. I wish to favor myself, for there are many things to be said to the Latter-day Saints, as well as to those who do not believe the Gospel, and I desire to live to be able to speak to the people.

I have learned that I can receive and treasure up but little knowledge at a time, and I have learned that this is the case with others. If the people had the whole catalogue of the law to govern them spiritually and temporally repeated to them today, they would need it repeated to them again next week. It is necessary to constantly teach the people.

We are among the happy number of those who have the privilege of having their names cast out as evil by the wicked. We have the privilege of purifying and sanctifying ourselves, and preparing ourselves for the day of the coming of the Son of Man. Others might enjoy the same privilege, if they were so disposed, but they are not.

Our situation is peculiar at the present time. Has it not been peculiar ever since Joseph found the plates? The circumstances that surrounded him when he found the plates were singular and strange. He passed a short life of sorrow and trouble, surrounded by enemies who sought day and night to destroy him. If a thousand hounds were on this Temple Block, let loose on one rabbit, it would not be a bad illustration of the situation at times of the Prophet Joseph. He was hunted unremittingly. We have the privilege of believing the same Gospel that Joseph taught, and with him, of being numbered with those whose names are cast out as evil.

The Lord has brought us here, and sustains us. Some people think that the cunning of man has made the characteristics that mark the history of this people. It is not so, the Lord has done it. He suffered our enemies to drive us from our homes. He knew the reason why he permitted it, though at the time we did not. As brother George A. Smith said, we came here willingly because we were obliged to; and were it possible for our enemies to gain power to drive us from these mountains, which I trust they will never do, there is no other place on the earth, that we know of, where we can enjoy the safety and security we do here. We are here, and the Lord has sustained us.

In reflecting upon the conduct of the world, it appears that the wisdom of the wise has perished and the understanding of the prudent is hid. You will see that the wisdom of the wise among the nations will perish and be taken from them. They will fall into difficulties, and they will not be able to tell the reason, nor point a way to avert them any more than they can now in this land. They can fight, quarrel, contend and destroy each other, but they do not know how to make peace. So it will be with the inhabitants of the earth.

We see men laboring and toiling to gather around them the luxuries of life, to become possessed of fine houses, orchards, gardens and that which adorns and makes beautiful, and in many instances we see such property left to those who have not wisdom to take care of it—left to fools. How quickly the house becomes old, dilapidated and unfit for a home for any person; the garden and orchard become a desolation, because the occupants have not wisdom to keep them in order. We can see boys, foolish, wicked boys, gathering around them a few associates and going into a man’s garden, stealing the fruit, cutting down the trees, destroying, perhaps, the labor of years, and they think this makes men of them.

Look at the world. The feeling among mankind is, “we will rule or ruin.” An architect may build a a splendid habitation, and in so doing do a good work; but a poor fool can come along and with the touch of a torch destroy it. Which does the better work? We see that people can build beautiful cities, make fine roads and walks, and raise lofty buildings, but an idiot can burn and destroy them. Let a few incendiaries go through a city and put the torch here and there, and the city is destroyed—the labor of years, perhaps of centuries, is wasted. Does this make great men of them? Perhaps they think so. If they can destroy a city or a nation they think they will get a great name. They will not. It takes a wise man to build a city, to found a nation, though a fool can destroy either, and thinks he is a great man. How mistaken he is!

I wish you to hearken to the counsel given you on the temporal affairs that have been spoken of, for I realize its importance, as also does brother Kimball and the Twelve. We realize that we gather together a class of men with little or no judgment in taking care of themselves. A great many of them have no knowledge of agriculture, or how to acquire and preserve property of any kind, and it is necessary that we should teach them constantly, till they can learn to take care of themselves. They that hearken to the counsel of the Elders soon begin to gather around them the necessaries of life, make fields and gardens, build good houses, etc. Fools will come along and say “You are wrong, don’t you see that you are slaves?” Is not this said to this very community? Who are you slaves to? Not to sin, I hope. But unless the world can see us slaves to sin, they will call us slaves. We are servants to God, to whom we are indebted for every blessing we enjoy, to whom we look for succor and from whom we have received it, and we are indebted to nobody else, for the wicked have done us no good. They have had the pleasure of driving me five times from my comfortable home; that is nothing. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” But what glory and honor is there in having and using power to destroy? This is the work of the Devil, not of Jesus. His labor is to build up, not to destroy; to gather together, not to scatter abroad; to take the ignorant and lead them to wisdom; to pick up the poor and bring them to comfortable circumstances. This is our labor—what we have to do.

We are wiser than we were, and can see that we have received a little, and we are able to teach this to others; and instead of taking those who are ignorant and making slaves of them, we wish to make them honorable, to give them the knowledge and wisdom revealed to man from the heavens, as fast as they are capacitated to receive them, and bring them up to our standard. This is our labor. We are here, and it is our duty to sustain ourselves, and then prepare for the strangers that will come here, and with them many of our connections who are not now with us. Where are they? In peace? No. Were we to relate to you the facts, as reported to us, with regard to many of the towns, villages, farms, and country seats in many parts of our native land, the picture would cause your hearts to mourn. We understand that in many of our Eastern neighborhoods, where there were plenty of young men, and the young ladies had nothing to do but sit at the piano, go visiting, or amuse themselves as they pleased, many young ladies are now compelled to go into the fields and labor. This is true of young girls and their mothers who never before did such work. Where is the brother? Where is the husband and the father? Slain, or before the enemy. What is the situation of our once happy country? It is written here, almost daily—“You know not the state of the inhabitants of this country, and the circumstances in which they are placed.”

What are our circumstances? We have no poorer people in this Territory than there are now in this Bowery. Are any of you suffering? Since we came into this Territory, nearly seventeen years ago, it is true we have fared hard. A little wolf meat once tasted good, but since we began to gather the poor from foreign nations was there ever a man or woman in our community that had to ask the second time for bread, if the family where they asked had it? Not one I believe. Is this the case in other cities in other parts of the nation? In New York, in Philadelphia—the city of brotherly love and so on? No. True there are a few societies that sustain their own poor, but take a community picked up as this one is, and have you ever seen or read of such a community, except one or two named in the Scriptures? The very passage of Scripture that Brother George A. Smith quoted, concerning the reapers leaving a little grain in the corners of the field, and, if they should pass by a bundle, not to go back for it, but leave it for the benefit of the gleaners, shows that, though Moses and the Elders of Israel talked with the people day by day, there was not the same amount of charity manifested by them that there is by this people.

I say to you, as I have always said, the Kingdom of God or nothing. We are in the Kingdom of God, and we will trust in the Lord Almighty to bear us off conquerors, no matter who is against us. All are in the hands of the Almighty; He has preserved us.

Now, Latter-day Saints, mingle not with the wicked. Preserve yourselves in the faith of the Gospel and trust in the Lord, and He will bear us off conquerors. Love your religion. We are agreed in the matter of our religion, and we must be agreed in temporal matters. If we cannot become of one mind in all things, we shall not be that people called the people of the Lord. Let us treasure up wisdom in our hearts. The Lord gave Joseph a revelation thirty years ago, in which he said “You know not the hearts of your neighbors;” we did not then know what was in the minds of the people, but now we begin to understand.

Brethren and sisters, hearken to the words of the Lord. We are laboring for your preservation and salvation, will you consider us tyrannical? If so, your hearts are not right before God, and those who do so will sooner or later apostatize and go down to hell. Let each of us be careful that we will not be of those who take a wicked course. Let us so live that we can save ourselves. I cannot save you. I can tell you how to save yourselves but you must do the will of God. I have enjoyed the privilege of preaching to the people at times when a stream of revelation has been poured out that would furnish knowledge to save every son and daughter of Adam if they, had believed. But when they began to manifest a spirit of opposition and have rejected the teachings of the Spirit, I have said I am not compelled to make you believe the truth.

I have spoken this afternoon that you may see that I am living and in good health; and I intend to live, if I can, until the Zion of our God is established upon the earth, and until all wickedness is swept from the land.

God bless you. Amen.

Difference of Ideas Entertained Respecting God, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 31, 1864. Reported by G. D. Watt.

In my remarks this afternoon I wish to address strangers, as well as the Saints; and I desire, with all my heart, that I may have the words of truth to give them, to each one as he may need, that all may be profited.

I present myself before this congregation as a teacher of the way of life and salvation, and I seek unto the Lord day by day for strength and wisdom to enable me to magnify my high and holy calling, to the end that those who believe my testimony may be saved in the presence of the Father and the Son; and that those who cannot abide the law which prepares mankind to enter into the celestial kingdom, may be prepared for just as high a kingdom and glory as they can abide.

There exist in the minds of men throughout the world a great variety of ideas and notions in regard to the character of the Supreme Being, yet all believe in a Supreme ruling power which is invisible to them, which does not speak to them, whose dwelling place, as some suppose, is beyond the most distant stars, and, as others suppose, is everywhere; having, as some suppose, a corporeal form, and, as others suppose, being without form.

All people have their national and individual capacities, desires, faith, pursuits, habits, manners, customs, etc. We, like others, think that our religion is the best religion upon the earth. All have the privilege of worshipping the sun, moon, or stars, if they please; to imagine to themselves a Supreme Being existing in any form their imaginations may create, or in no form at all. Others are as enthusiastic in their faith and religious doctrine, as we are. I doubt not that those we call heathen are as sincere in their heathenish worship as we are in ours. The Christian world of the 19th century acknowledge the Old and New Testaments as the standard of their religion, yet it would be difficult to imagine a greater variety of views, notions and beliefs, in regard to the Supreme Being, than exist among the Christians of the present day.

The foundation of the religion we have embraced, and are trying to practice, is based upon new revelation. To learn the true religion is to learn and understand its Author.

The Latter-day Saints differ from their Christian brethren who do not belong to the Latter-day Church, and we have, we consider, as good a right to differ from them as they have to differ from us. They say that our religion is not orthodox, is of short standing, and unpopular; that makes no difference with us. We are one in our belief of a Supreme Being, while they widely differ upon this vital point; and after ages of controversy upon it, still making more uncertain the possibility of their becoming united, they are content to say “great is the mystery of Godliness, God made manifest in the flesh,” and there they leave it.

Moses represents God as saying “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Are we willing, in our faith to subscribe to those statements? Are we willing to let the truth of heaven speak in plainness, and have its full influence over our minds? A few more quotations of Scripture upon this point will answer my present purpose. “Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long a time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, shew us the Father?” “In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” “Who being the brightness of the glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” From these Scriptures you can at once understand there is a strong resemblance between the Father and the Son in the person of the Savior, who possessed all the qualifications of a perfect man.

We Latter-day Saints believe that God is our Father, according to the declaration of the Prophets and Apostles; and we are his offspring and that He has made of one flesh and blood all the inhabitants of the earth, no matter whether they be white, black, red, yellow, or copper-colored. We believe in a God who has eyes to see, ears to hear, indeed every member and sense of his body well developed as a perfect man. Is there any harm in believing this? If we do not take this view of the Great Author of our existence, what view shall we take of him? Shall we try to view Him as a shapeless, passionless, measureless entity? Shall we consider the Being in whose image we were made, an unorganized element of some kind, floating in the immensity of space, without mind, plan, or purpose?

God is considered to be everywhere present at the same moment; and the Psalmist says “whither shall I flee from thy presence?” He is present with all his creations through his influence, through his government, spirit and power, but he himself is a personage of tabernacle, and we are made after his likeness.

It was said here this morning that the Gospel maketh those who receive it of one heart and of one mind; they become of one heart and of one mind as to the principles of the Gospel so far as they are revealed, but when men speculate upon principles or doctrines, and undertake to develop what they have no knowledge of, then they may differ widely, the Latter-day Saints as well as others. The principles which have been revealed to us from the heavens bring this people to the standard of truth; it is that which makes them one. The proof of this is before us—Latter-day Saints, you are my witnesses.

In regard to the character of the Deity, our faith is different from that of our former religious associates; but we leave the world to judge, every man for himself, whether we are right or whether they are right, at the same time pleading with them to lay aside their prejudices, and weigh matters in the scale of justice, that they may correctly judge of right and wrong and know the difference between truth and error.

Our religion is founded upon the Priesthood of the Son of God—it is incorporated within this Priesthood. We frequently hear people inquire what the Priesthood is; it is a pure and holy system of government. It is the law that governs and controls all things, and will eventually govern and control the earth and the inhabitants that dwell upon it and all things pertaining to it. The enemy and opposer of Jesus—the accuser of the brethren—called Satan, never owned the earth; he never made a particle of it; his labor is not to create, but to destroy; while, on the other hand, the labor of the Son of God is to create, preserve, purify, build up and exalt all things—the earth and its fulness—to his standard of greatness and perfection; to restore all things to their paradisiacal state and make them glorious. The work of the one is to preserve and sanctify, the work of the other is to waste away, deface and destroy; and the time will come when it will be manifest to all that the Evil One is an usurper, also that all governments, nations, kingdoms and people upon the face of this earth, that are opposed to the Government of the Son of God, are usurpations and usurpers of the rights and possessions of Him whose right it is to reign.

Thinking men, inquiring minds, ask whether it is really necessary for the Government of God to be on the earth at the present day; I answer, most assuredly; there never was a time when it was more needed than it is now. Why? Because men do not know how to govern themselves without it. Would it be considered traeson [treason] of any Christian government in our day to profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the efficacy of his death and resurrection for the salvation of man, and to profess and declare that it is his inalienable, indisputable right and prerogative to reign over men, the earth, and all things upon it?

In November, 1838, Joseph Smith and others were arraigned before Judge Austin A. King, in Ray county, Missouri. In course of the examination our Church organization was converted into a temporal kingdom, which was to fill the whole earth and subdue all other kingdoms. Much was inquired by the Judge (who by the way, was a Methodist), concerning the prophecy of Daniel:—“In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall break in pieces all other kingdoms and stand forever,” etc. “And the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens shall be given to the Saints of the Most High,” etc., when lawyer Doniphan said:—“Judge, you had better make the Bible treason.” The Lord has suffered the earth to lie under sin for thousands of years:—“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

The system of Church government that we have differs from others, but we take the Bible for our standard, which you can all read at your leisure. Jesus said to his disciples: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.” Do we believe this important saying, or do we not? Is this true, or is it not true? I am answered:—“It was so in the days of Christ and the Apostles, but it is not exactly so now, for God is merciful to all, is no respecter of persons, but giveth to all men liberally that asketh, whether they are baptized or not. We believe in the light of the Spirit, but we do not believe that baptism is either here or there to effect salvation.” Another one says: “You can be baptized, if you wish to be, for it is right for every person to answer his own conscience, for if you can only answer a good conscience before God, it is enough.” Then another one feels that his conscience is answered without being baptized. Another one’s conscience is answered by kneeling down in the water, and having water poured upon him. Another’s conscience is not answered, without being buried with Christ in baptism. Another one, to answer his conscience, must be buried in the water face downward, that he may come up back first to the spectators. And another, to answer his conscience, must be sprinkled from a bowl of water on the forehead, making the sign of the cross, and he sees no reason why all his household should not he baptized in the same way, and so he has them all baptized by sprinkling, even the infant in its mother’s arms; and the consciences of the parents are answered by choosing sponsors, or godfathers and godmothers. But tell me how the conscience of the unconscious infant can be answered? “O, as to that its conscience is all right, it is made by the mother and the priest.” Now, I ask, should the consciences of the people regulate the ordinances of the Gospel of the Son of God, or should those ordinances regulate and direct the consciences of the people? I decide that the Gospel of life and salvation should form, direct, guide and dictate the consciences of all. In this light the Latter-day Saints take the Scriptures, the ordinances of the Gospel and the Holy Priesthood, and act accordingly.

When it was said to Peter and his brethren, anciently, “men and brethren what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Jesus Christ taught his disciples to lay their hands upon baptized believers, for the gift of the Holy Ghost. “Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John; who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost; Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.” The gift of the Holy Ghost was so visibly manifest that a certain man called Simon, a sorcerer, who bewitched the people of Samaria, when he “saw that through the laying on of the Apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying give me this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.” Again we read of certain ones, who had been baptized to John’s baptism, who were baptized again by Paul, “and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied.” This is the Gospel we believe in and practice, now judge ye for yourselves whether we have the Bible to sustain us in this practice of the ordinances of the Gospel. I say let God be true, if it makes every man a liar.

Now the inquirer asks, “is not the Holy Ghost given to others, as well as to members of your Church?” I would answer yes, in some instances; but in such cases they receive it through grace, not through obedience to the ordinances. We have a striking example of this in the case of Cornelius and his household. Cornelius was a Gentile, and Gentiles were supposed by the ancient disciples of Christ unfit vessels for the reception of that holy influence; but the house of Israel had proved themselves unworthy of the words of life, and the time had come that they should be offered to the Gentiles. It appears that Cornelius was a devout man, one that feared God, gave much alms, and prayed to God always. He saw a vision—an angel of God coming to him—who told him that his prayers were heard, and his alms, were come up before God for a memorial. Then the angel told Cornelius to send men to Joppa to call for one Simon, whose surname was Peter telling Cornelius where he lodged in a house by the sea side, and saying “he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.” In the meantime the prejudices of Peter had to be overcome, so, when he went up to the house-top to pray, he became very hungry, and fell into a trance while they were making food ready for him. While in the trance he saw as it were, a great sheet, knit at the four corners, let down from heaven to the earth, filled with all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him saying rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter refused, saying, I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice said, what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, behold three men seek thee.” Peter went to the house of Cornelius, and while he spake to those who were assembled “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” “And they of the circumcission [circumcision] which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

“Then answered Peter, can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” Now it may be asked, “What more did Cornelius want?” He needed to be baptized.

Again it is asked:—“Is the Holy Ghost given in this age of the world?” Yes, but they could not send men to Joppa for Peter, for behold there was no Peter, or men possessing the Holy Priesthood, to send for, neither has there been since the Church lost the Holy Priesthood, until it was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Cornelius did not belong to the house of Israel, yet he received the Holy Ghost. Continue this history, and what does it give to us? It gives to us the key of knowledge with regard to receiving the Holy Ghost through the ordinances of the Gospel, that it is free to all, Jew and Gentile, as Peter exclaimed when Cornelius had related to him how he was instructed to send men to Joppa. “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.”

Our friends of the Christian world have labored from the pulpit and through the press, for ages, to make it appear that baptism by immersion is non-essential, and that the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost is done away and no longer needed. Suppose Cornelius had refused to be baptized, on the grounds that he had received the Holy Ghost as well as the Apostles, the result would have been that the Holy Ghost would have left him, and the light that was in him would have become darkness, and then it could have been exclaimed, how great is that darkness! Those who work righteousness, do as they are commanded by the Holy Priesthood; and those who do not according to the commands and requirements of the Holy Priesthood of the Son of God, never did and never can work righteousness; they may do thousands of good acts, for which they will have their reward, but as the followers of Jesus—as his disciples—as light shining in darkness—as way marks to the Kingdom of heaven—as the oracles of truth to the children of men—they do not and cannot work righteousness to be saved in the celestial Kingdom, independent of the holy Priesthood. Is the Holy Ghost given? Yes, it may be given to members of the various churches, who are sincere enough to receive the revelation and power of God.

Here and there the Holy Ghost is and has been given to a few. Is it given to all? No. Have they any right to it? No. It is the system of government God has revealed to the children of men that gives people a right to the ordinances, blessings and privileges of the Gospel of Christ, and without that they have not any legal right to them, and cannot claim them. When men have the privilege of hearing the plan of salvation from the mouth of an inspired servant of God, and they reject it, I will promise them that if they have ever possessed any portion of the Holy Spirit, it will depart from them and sevenfold more darkness will ensue to the mind of that person than is the lot of all to suffer in a state of nature, unenlightened by the inspiring rays of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus Christ, while on the earth, sent his servants to preach he instructed them to promise all baptized believers that, “these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” “But Mr. speaker, were not these signs done away?” Yes, but how were they done away? They were done away by the wickedness and unbelief of the people. “Were they done away by the Lord Almighty, because they were no longer needed?” They were not.

“But if a man should, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, in these days prophesy and write it, would it not be adding to what is already written, and is not that strictly forbidden?” This is a very popular query, and I am disposed to notice it a few moments. In Deuteronomy it is written:—“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commands of the Lord your God which I command you.” Again, in the Book of Proverbs it is written:—“Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Again in the last chap., of Revelations it is written:—“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophesy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophesy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book? Where is it intimated in these passages that God would cease or had ceased to give revelation to his children? Those passages were written to guard against the mutilation of the revelations already given, which then existed in manuscript form, and very likely there existed not more than one copy when these words were written. It cannot reasonably be supposed for a moment that the Almighty has sealed his own mouth in silence by the Scriptures quoted, yet they are used in that light, by modern Christians.

We are safe in saying that from the day that Adam was created and placed in the Garden of Eden to this day, the plan of salvation and the revelations of the will of God to man are unchanged, although mankind have not for many ages been favored therewith, in consequence of apostacy and wickedness. There is no evidence to be found in the Bible that the Gospel should be one thing in the days of the Israelites, another in the days of Christ and his Apostles, and another in the 19th Century, but, on the contrary, we are instructed that God is the same in every age, and that his plan of saving his children is the same. He has redeemed the world by offering up His Only Begotten Son, and that Son is the heir of the earth and to all things which pertain to it. He has not changed his laws, ordinances and covenants pertaining to Himself and the salvation of mankind. The plan of salvation is one, from the beginning of the world to the end thereof.

The gifts of the Gospel are given to strengthen the faith of the believer;—“They shall speak with new tongues,” saith Jesus. The stranger who is ignorant of our history inquires:—“Have you the gift of tongues in your Church?” Yes, and were I to permit it now, hundreds of the Elders and the sisters would rise up in this congregation and speak in new tongues, and interpret as well as the learned of the age; but I do not permit it. Does the gift of prophesy exist with us? This fact is so evident and plain that it appears to us almost a loss of time to talk about it. The present state of affairs and the present unhappy state of our once happy country, I have preached and prophesied of for the last thirty years; and so have thousands of others prophesied before the people of this land that the Almighty would come out in his wrath and vex the nation for persecuting the Priesthood of the Son of God; the fulfilment is too evident to attempt to prove.

I will here say that it is a mistaken idea, as entertained by the Calvinists, that God has decreed all things whatsoever that come to pass, for the volition of the creature is as free as air. You may inquire whether we believe in foreordination; we do, as strongly as any people in the world. We believe that Jesus was foreordained before the foundations of the world were built, and his mission was appointed him in eternity to be the Savior of the world, yet when he came in the flesh he was left free to choose or refuse to obey his Father. Had he refused to obey his Father, he would have become a son of perdition. We also are free to choose or refuse the principles of eternal life. God has decreed and foreordained many things that have come to pass, and he will continue to do so; but when he decrees great blessings upon a nation or upon an individual they are decreed upon certain conditions. When he decrees great plagues and overwhelming destructions upon nations or people, those decrees come to pass because those nations and people will not forsake their wickedness and turn unto the Lord. It was decreed that Nineveh should be destroyed in forty days, but the decree was stayed on the repentance of the inhabitants of Nineveh. My time is too limited to enter into this subject at length; I will content myself by saying that God rules and reigns, and has made all his children as free as himself, to choose the right or the wrong, and we shall then be judged according to our works.

Man appoints, but God disappoints, man’s ways are not like God’s ways; men can search out and perform many things as individuals, as families, neighborhoods, cities and nations, but God holds the results of their doings and acts in his own hands.

If mankind honestly believe the Bible, with all their hearts, they are bound to become Latter-day Saints, for they will then do as we have done, be baptized for the remission of sins, and receive the promise of the Holy Ghost, and “When He, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” He will reveal unto you the goodness of the Lord, and the law of the Lord and his ways, and enlighten your minds to discern his goings forth among the nations and his footsteps among the people, and deliver you from sin and the effects of it, according to your faith and obedience. Will it deliver you from all the consequences of the fall? No, we shall continue to live, suffer pain, and die, until the power of the Holy Priesthood so takes effect on the earth as to cleanse and purify it and all things upon it; until then we shall have to contend with the effects of the fall, while the Holy Spirit, through obedience to its precepts, will purify and sanctify the human heart.

We can produce an abundance of evidence; in the experience of this Church showing the power of God manifested through believers, who, after being buried with Christ in baptism and receiving the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, have straightway prophesied in the name of the Lord. Here is our reporter, brother George D. Watt, the first man baptized in England by President Heber C. Kimball during his first mission to that land, is a witness that the gift of prophesy is enjoyed by this people. Soon after his baptism in England he prophesied that God would build up a Zion in the last days; that it would be located in the land of America, and that the Saints in England and in other countries would be gathered to it. Brother Watt is one witness of the Power of God manifested in the gift of prophesy, and there are hundreds and thousands of other like witnesses in this Church; indeed we are all witnesses to these well known facts, and it is this power which makes this people of one heart and of one mind. And not only have we numerous witnesses in this land, but they are scattered all over the world wherever the Gospel has found believers. When people embrace this Gospel, no matter in what country, nation, or clime, and have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, it prompts them to gather up to Zion; from this cause alone the Church of Latter-day Saints in the mountains is composed of people from almost every nation in the world.

The world suppose that Brigham Young possesses this influence, in and of himself, thus to draw together from the ends of the earth a great people of different customs, habits, nationalities and languages; this is a mistake. Brigham Young does nothing more than preach the truth, the people believe and love it, and that makes them of one heart and of one mind; and they love brother Brigham, brother Heber and all other Elders who are full of the truth. I make this remark that all the world may know, that no man can have influence over this people, unless he is a righteous man: and the more of the power of God he can have upon him, and the more of the revelations of Jesus he can give to the people, the closer they will cling to him and the more they will love him. When fools cry aloud and say I am making slaves of the people, every man and woman that possesses the Spirit of truth looks upon them as poor ignorant creatures, and pities them. They do not want them in their houses, nor to hold converse with them in the streets, because they know that their desire and business are to try and take away from the faithful that which will exalt them and make them equal with the Saints in heaven.

When people embrace this Gospel in far off countries, about the first inquiry they make is:—“Where is your Zion? We want to gather with the Saints, for we know the time is come, for the Spirit has manifested to us that the prophesies must be fulfilled that God will gather his people together.” All that Joseph Smith did was to preach the truth—the Gospel as the Lord revealed it to him—and tell the people how to be saved, and the honest-in-heart ran together and gathered around him and loved him as they did their own lives. He could do no more than to preach true principles, and that will gather the Saints in the last days, even the honest-in-heart. All who believe and obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ are his witnesses to the truth of these statements.

I have heard a good deal said, in my day, about disinterested witnesses. The Priest, school master, father and mother taught us, that the Bible is true, and we believed it. How many witnesses are there to the New Testament? Only eight, and those witnesses were the disciples or followers of the Lord Jesus. There cannot be a disinterested witness to the New Testament, yet we believe it. In courts of justice they are very particular to have disinterested witnesses, but how can there be a disinterested witness of Jesus and his mission? there cannot one be found; there was not one to be found in his day nor in the days of the Apostles. How many witnesses has the Book of Mormon? Hundreds and thousands are now living upon the earth, who testify to its truth. How many witnesses has the Book of Doctrine and Covenants? There are hundreds and thousands of living witnesses who know that this Book is from God.

It may be urged that Joseph Smith did not escape death from the hands of his enemies, while the ancient Apostles and servants of God escaped the edge of the sword, etc. Neither did Jesus Christ escape from the hands of his enemies, but died an ignominious death upon the cross. Why was this? Because God so ordained it, for no testiment [testament] is in force, until after the death of the testator; he sealed his testimony with his blood, and so he has permitted many of the Prophets to do. When we reflect upon the path in which the faithful children of God have walked, from the days of Adam to this day, we find that the path of the transgresser [transgressor] is much the hardest—that the righteous have always fared better than the wicked, in every age and nation.

I know in some degree what is in man, by what I have had to grapple with in myself all my days, and that is a self determined will of my own, which should be governed and control[l]ed by the Holy Priesthood. If we would bend our stubborn wills, dismiss every prejudice, and doubt the correctness of our consciences until they are formed by the revelations of Jesus Christ, the chances in favor of our coming to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus would be far more than when we hug to our traditions, and cling with pertinacity to our prepossessed feelings and notions. This is my advice to all men, but you wonder what your dear friends would think of you, were you to do so: and:—“O dear, I should lose my good name, my property,” etc. There are many before me today who have suffered the loss of houses, lands, flocks, herds, and all the comforts of life and former friends and relatives for the Gospel’s sake and to gather home to Zion.

Who can make a people of one heart and mind, like unto this people, without the aid of the power of God? Is not this a standing evidence before all the world that God is the moving power in this work? Societies have been organized and immense wealth expended to form an united community, but all their endeavors have more or less failed to accomplish the purpose they sought; but God has gathered a people from all nations and brought them home to Zion, through the preaching of the Gospel and his power. Our Doctrine is right—there is no deception in it. It requires no argument, for it is a self-evident fact. Still, when we meddle with that which we know nothing about, we are apt to fall into error and differ; but we have so much which we do know, and think about and talk about, that we have no time to speculate about that which we do not know. We know that God lives. Now, my brethren, does your religion witness to you the truth of this, day by day? I will answer the question for you, it does. Is it to you who live your religion from day to day a self-evident fact? It is, and you know that the Gospel God has revealed in our day through Joseph the Prophet is the only plan of life and salvation that ever was or ever will be revealed. Another question I will answer briefly. Are the Latter-day Saints going to be saved while everybody else will be damned? This notion has created in the minds of those who are not of the Latter-day Saints’ Church a great antipathy and hatred against us. We do not condemn any person. God is the judge of all. There is no occasion for alarm on this point, for all men will be judged according to the deeds done in the body; and all will receive a salvation according to their capacities, except the sons of perdition. Jesus will save all, except the sons of perdition. “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that ye shall pray for it.” Those who come under the influence of that sin are those who shed innocent blood, or consent to it; also those who deny the Holy Ghost, after having received it; they are sons of perdition, and will be damned. All the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, except those, will inherit a kingdom of glory, and will receive glory, power and greatness according to their capacities, knowledge, desires and works. Can they dwell in the presence of God? None can enjoy his celestial presence, except those who keep a celestial law. God bless you: Amen.

Love for the Things of God, etc.

Brigham Young

Synopsis of instructions by President Brigham Young, during his visit to Davis, Box Elder, and Cache counties, June 22–29, 1864. Reported by E. L. Sloan.

Kaysville

It is not quite two weeks since we were here and shared largely in your hospitality, for which I thank you in behalf of those with me. Should we continue to pass here as we have recently done, you might begin to think we were taking pleasure trips. Well, so we are, in one sense, for it is a pleasure to us to travel and preach among the brethren. I used to take my carriage rides on foot, travelling and preaching from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from people to people, but we are now in the midst of the Saints. Many times in my travels, I have anticipated the time when we could travel from place to place and see none but Saints, though I did not contemplate seeing that time so soon. I have never felt, since I began to preach the Gospel, as though I could throw off my Gospel armor and say to myself, “Go to the world and get your living.” My feeling is that I have still a mission. When I began preaching I took the universal text—truth; and my subject has been eternal salvation. I took the world for my circuit, and it did not much matter to me where I went. Now we are in the midst of the Saints.

All who are with me have plenty [t]o do at home. Were they to stop [t]here and attend to their business, [t]hey would not have a moment to spend in visiting the Saints. This is the case with me; but when I go out I have nothing but what I take with me—the rest I leave in the hands of God. If I was to be so covetous as to stay at home and attend to my private business, do you think others would leave their private affairs and come to visit with and preach to you? Would brother Taylor? No, for he has two mills, and is full of business. How would it be with George A. Smith, brother Woodruff, and the rest of the brethren? They also are full of business. I am setting an example. I trust in God, who gave me what I have. When we come together and devote a little time to meeting, it will not make us a particle poorer.

Brother Taylor has just given us a good exhortation, and I will not longer occupy your time.

May the Lord bless you, and may you realize our blessing; you do realize it every time we pass your place, for we are filled with blessing. We have in our hearts love to God and his children on the earth. Let us not love the things of this world above the things of God, but strip for the race and harness for the battle of the Gospel plan of salvation. God bless you.

Brigham City

The Kingdom we are talking about, preaching about and trying to build up is the Kingdom of God on the earth, not in the starry heavens, nor in the sun. We are trying to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth to which really and properly everything that pertains to men—their feelings, their faith, their affections, their desires, and every act of their lives—belong, that they may be ruled by it spiritually and temporally.

The brethren have been talking about temporal things. We cannot talk about spiritual things without connecting with them temporal things, neither can we talk about temporal things without connecting spiritual things with them. They are inseparably connected.

The spiritual portions of the Gospel have been, with few exceptions, preached to many of us in foreign lands. The Elders go forth and set before the people the Spiritual Kingdom of God upon the earth; the people hear and believe. Many of them receive the truth in honest hearts, and gather here to the valleys of the mountains. The providences of God have planted our feet here, and we want to do the will of our Father in heaven.

I do not know of a sect of Christians on the face of the earth whose religion does not, more or less, embrace temporal things, and the temporal acts and conduct of its members. We, as Latter-day Saints, really expect, look for and we will not be satisfied with anything short of being governed and controlled by the word of the Lord in all of our acts, both spiritual and temporal. If we do not live for this, we do not live to be one with Christ. We wish to be one, as Jesus prayed, while here in the flesh, that his disciples might be one. We wish to be one in the Lord, and we can agree with regard to faith, repentance, baptism, laying on of hands, and the sacraments and ordinances of the House of God, and yet if we contend about land, the water, our cattle, etc., we never can be one, if we live to the age of Methuselah. We must become one in all of our moral and social associations in life.

When we talk of politics we are one. The world complain of us with regard to our politics, and enquire “are there any Democrats here? Are there any Rebublicans [Republicans] here?” We do not care who rules; we are satisfied with God, who setteth up one man, and casteth down another.

All people have to live in this temporal world; they eat temporal food, wear temporal clothing, live in temporal houses, have temporal horses, oxen, farms, etc., and if they have families they are temporal ones. If we are going to live to secure life everlasting, we require to live so that we can be judged according to the deeds done in these temporal bodies, and be found worthy to live in heaven, and that we cannot do unless we live here according to the word of God.

We want this people to become wealthy, but there is an “if” in the case. If this people can at the same time possess riches and glorify God, then we want them to be rich; but, I would rather see this people half clothed and living in the dens and caves of the earth, than that through riches they should forsake their God. When the people can endure wealth and live and glorify their Father in heaven, it will be pleasing to him to have us wield enough of the wealth of the world to send forth our Elders by thousands, and then gather home the faithful by thousands and millions, who are just as honest as we are. There are thousands of good men and women on the earth, who are praying and seeking unto the Lord to open up the way to bring to them the words of life that they may be saved.

If we will cling closely to the Lord, be more humble, and be filled with the spirit of life, the Lord is willing that we should have the good things of this world. In the first place, will we be of one heart and mind financially? You will at once say “yes, we are of one heart and mind, and desire to be one in every good thing.”

It has been said here, time and time again, and been prophesied for years and years—Joseph said it when alive—that the time would come when men would be glad to take a bundle under their arms and flee to the mountains, when they will seek unto this people for succor. Already is this coming to pass. People are coming by thousands and scores of thousands into these mountains. Are we willing they should have succor? Yes, and some of us are a little too willing. It is written, “love your enemies,” but when I hear of what I have heard, and what I am a witness is true, of a poor woman taking a sack of flour and selling it sack and all for a dollar, to a man who, perhaps, helped to kill the Prophet Joseph, while her children are left without bread, I do not think that is right—that is loving our enemies a little too well. It is said self-preservation is the first law of nature, then let us preserve ourselves well enough to save our lives.

Will we sell our grain? Yes, but I will say to the inhabitants of these mountains, who have been here for years and are raising grain, it is their privilege to be paid for their labor. We will sell flour at a fair labor price, and reserve the bran and shorts to feed the cows and fatten the pigs.

Do not say there are men in the midst of this people who cannot get work, for it is not so. And you, sisters, who lack work, if you cannot get washing, sewing or house work to do, go to your neighbor and tell him, you will go into the field and pick, rake and glean, if he will pay you in wheat. You, brother, go to your brother and say, “You will want your place fenced; I will cut the poles and make you a fence. I will make adobies, get the timber to saw into lumber, and make you a house; will you pay me in wheat?” There is plenty of work for everybody in this Territory, and the reason many are so poor now is, that in years gone by if a carpenter, a tailor, a blacksmith, etc., was offered wheat in payment, he would say, “I won’t take wheat; I have so much now it is a curse.” This is the way things have gone; and when they sold wheat, they sold it at one third its value. This has brought evil upon the people.

You are a good people here; and I say to you, one and all, receive my thanks for your attention to us as a company to day. I thought we had got right into the middle of the 4th of July—that Indipendence [Independence] Day had come—when I saw those little ornamentings, the little ones with their flags and rosettes, and the signs of gladness around. I do not think you did this because brother Taylor, or brother Kimball, or anybody else was coming, but to show your respect for your brethren, and I bless you for it. But if you do not do what I counsel you I will tell you of it. I do not care though all the world bowed to me, it would not make me one particle proud. I feel prouder to be a son of God and a member of the Kingdom of God, than anything else. Still you are disposed to pay us respect in this manner, and I hope you will be blessed for ever and ever, which you will be through faithfulness in good works.

The Kingdom of heaven is first and foremost with us. When the people do right, I am satisfied; but when they do wrong, I will tell them of it, for that is my business. It is also my business to bless, and I bless you in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Wellsville

I shall only detain you a few minutes. The counsel you have received here from my brethren is just as good as can be given, if you will but heed it. There are a great many things that are said, and a great many have not yet been said, which people will hear and learn when they receive truth and practice righteousness sufficiently to be worthy of them. One thing we understand perfectly, that we are to become one in Christ Jesus. Our faith is one, our hope is one, our belief is one with regard to our future and God and his Holy Gospel; but we are not of one heart and mind until we are one in all temporal things as well as in spiritual things.

The Lord has many blessings for us. He is now blessing us. Soon we will behold the golden harvest. Our fields are rich, and it fills the hearts of the people with joy and satisfaction to see the luxuriant grain that now stands upon our mother earth, and bids so fair for an abundant harvest. Do not forget the source from whence these blessings came. It is written, speaking of the Church and Branches of the Church, that “Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but it is God who giveth the increase.” You may go and plant your grain here and water it, if you bring out the streams, but you cannot produce one kernel of grain. And when the grain is maturing how easy it would be for the Lord to send crickets, though we can war with them easier than we can with grasshoppers, that would destroy the fruits of your toil. The increase is in the hands of the Lord, just as the people are in his hands in regard to the results of their acts.

The inhabitants of the earth have the pleasure of performing the labors they list to do, but they have never enjoyed the privilege of control[l]ing the results of their labors, and never will until they are crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives. We have the privilege of going to the gold mines, or staying at home; of serving God, or not serving him; but the result of our acts is not in our hands, it is in the hands of our Father and God. So it is with individuals, with neighborhoods, with communities, and with the nations of the earth.

Did you not think brethren, you who were in Missouri and Illinois, that the inhabitants of those places did just as they pleased with regard to driving the Saints? “Yes.” and also in regard to killing Joseph? “Yes.” They had power to kill him, and now they are reaping the results of their acts. The war now raging in the nation is the consequence of their choosing to do evil instead of good, and the Lord is rewarding them according to their works. So it will be with us.

There are a few things we should constantly have before our minds, day by day and hour by hour. Becoming of one heart and mind is one of these things; becoming one in spiritual things, one in our labors and in all our actions here on the earth, that our united labor may accomplish the design for which we are here in building up the kingdom of God Let all our thoughts, feelings, and actions point to this end.

Some of the brethren think the Saints ought not to be rich, and they have their various feelings. A great many brethren who have been in the States do not want to build fine houses or make many improvements here, for they are going back to their inheritances. You know there is a certain class who are fearful of getting the good things of this life, saying, “the Lord has chosen the poor in wealth and rich in faith,” etc. My feelings lead out to obtain every good thing we can obtain as a people—the gold, the silver, the flocks and herds, and to building beautiful cities; to having good gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and to making the earth like the garden of Eden. “To gather all we can, honestly or dishonestly?” “No, but through laboring faithfully and honestly, and treasuring up these things and thanking the Lord for them. And if we have substance given us from the Lord, it should be devoted to building up His kingdom upon the earth. But let us not forget the spiritual fellowship we should enjoy. I never forget that. It is first of all, and if we can have only the one, let it be the good Spirit of God, to make us one in the spiritual things of the kingdom.

The Lord designs to build up a kingdom that will be both a spiritual and, temporal kingdom upon the earth. The earth and the kingdoms thereof will be given unto the Saints of the Most High God. Will they be rich then? Do you not think they will possess the gold mines and the treasures of the earth? Yes. But some cry out, “that is not yet.” That is right. How long will it be until then? As soon as we are prepared to receive them.

Let us try to improve, until we can say, “my peace is like a river, and my righteousness like the waves of the sea.” We have come here to encourage you to do this, and may God help us to accomplish it. Amen.

Logan, 25th, afternoon

The remarks of brother Kimball this morning, and of brother George A. Smith this afternoon, are worthy our attention.

As I learn the kingdom of God in the latter days, I understand more of the present duties of myself and my brethren. We are called to establish the kingdom of God literally, just as much as we are spiritually. If we do not build it up in a temporal point of view, we will not accomplish what we are called to do; we will come short of our duty, and be removed out of the way, and others will be called to succeed us who will perform the labor we are called to do.

The question arises, will we as a people consider ourselves what we proclaim to each other and believe day by day? And will we by our good acts prove to the heavens, to the inhabitants of the earth, to each other, and to all who know us, that we actually believe what we say we believe? Every heart responds in the affirmative; every voice would declare that we will strive to perform the duties devolving upon us.

Another question arises here, what is our duty? What are we called to do at the present time? We are called to various duties. Many of our brethren are called to go and preach the Gospel, and a great many have been called to go with their teams to the Frontiers after the poor. We are called to our various duties in a home capacity—to plow, sow, plant, build, improve, pray with our families, teach them righteousness, set them and all others a goodly example, in all things striving to do all the good in our power, and no evil. We expect to continue to be called to preach the Gospel and gather the poor Saints; and we expect to be called upon to make provision for them when they gather here, which we have done year after year. There are Bishops here who are ready to receive a hundred families; let the brethren take them and set them to work; they are ready and willing to perform this duty.

The question has been touched upon here with regard to our liberties and rights. A man has a right to preach the Gospel—to declare the truth so far as he knows it. The people who hear him have the right to believe, if they want to, and they also have the right to reject him. The nation, as a people, objected to the Lord’s calling upon his servant Joseph, and sending him as a teacher to this generation. The nation called the United States of America has a right to reject the revelations given through Joseph, to reject the servants of the Lord, and then the Lord has the right to come out from his hiding place and vex the nation. He too has rights. They had a right to kill Joseph, and the Lord has the right to destroy the nation.

We all have rights, and I would not abridge the rights of anybody. But have I not the right to do right, as well as wrong? Yes. The foolishness and weaknesses of people lead them many times to do wrong, to show to the heavens and the earth that they have a right to do as they please. You know people sometimes say they will do as they please. Well, do so. We have a right to help the people gather here and to feed them, and they have the right to go to the gold mines, or to the devil by any road they please, and we have a right to cut them off from all fellowship with the Church, in the heavens and on the earth. Men may come here professedly Latter-day Saints, and when they have accumulated a little property they have the right to apostatize, and we have the right to cut them off from the Church.

Does it follow that a man is deprived of his rights, because he lists in his heart to do the will of God? Must a man swear to prove that he has an agency? I contend there is no necessity for that, nor for stealing, nor for doing any wrong. I can manifest to the heavens and to the inhabitants of the earth that I am free-born, and have my liberty before God, angels and men, when I kneel down to pray, certainly as much as if I were to go out and swear. I have the right to call my family together at certain hours for prayer, and I believe that this course proves that I am a free agent, as much as if I were to steal, swear, lie, and get drunk.

We have tried to teach ourselves to lead and guide ourselves, to be dictated and controlled by the direction of the Holy Spirit, and then to teach and counsel the people under the dictates of that Spirit. Is it our duty to preach to this people and plead with them, until we can govern and control them in all temporal affairs as much as in spiritual affairs. I answer, it is the absolute and imperative duty of the Elders of Israel to try and control themselves and their families and their brethren, until they can hold control over all things in righteousness.

I know very well the feelings of the people. “In spiritual things you are my leader; I take you for my counsel in spiritual affairs; but if you dictate me in my temporal concerns, you touch a string that does not belong to you, to brother Heber, brother George A. Smith, nor anybody else.” If this is the case, ye Elders of Israel, we have been mistaken all the day long in telling you that we are in a kingdom that in such case we are not in, in preaching a Gospel that in such case we have not in our possession. We have declared that God has spoken from the heavens, when in such case He has not spoken. Our faith and labor are vain, and we are still in our sins, or else it is our duty to lead this people in every act of their lives, as much in their temporal as in their spiritual affairs, so far as pertains to building up the kingdom of God on the earth. Now, to this extent we want to control you for your good in regard to your grain. We want you to sell it at a fair remunerative price for your labor, so that you can build good houses, employ your brethren, send for the poor, provide for a few families when they arrive, and be ready to act in your positions.

I have been accused of being one of Joseph Smith’s followers, and that he was a speculator; I have never denied it. We are in one of the greatest speculations in the world, to honor God, and so live before him that we shall be crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives, to be numbered with those to whom God will give the gold and silver and precious things and all the riches of this earth and of eternity.

The fluctuations of the money market are such that you cannot tell to-day what to ask for an article tomorrow. Cotton fabrics, cloth of every kind, and merchandize generally are rating at very high prices in the East, and the prices are still rising. Let us do as brother George A. Smith has said—“raise flax,” such as I saw at brother Maughan’s. He had none to sell; and I was glad of it. Raise flax and sheep, take care of your lambs, and in winter take care of your sheep.

The first cotton we raised in the region we call our “Dixie” cost us about $3.65 a pound; we proved that cotton could be raised there. The next season it cost $1.84, and the next season about 70 cents, and that is the way we proved to the people that we could raise cotton. The experiment cost us thousands of dollars, but now we have cotton. They have shipped cotton to California. We sent some to the States to show that we could raise cotton here, and it sold for some 70 cents a pound, not so much as it would have brought if it had arrived a few days earlier. We now have some cotton factories in operation. I have cotton machinery set up and being run by Mr. Wilmarth, a gentleman from Massachusetts, who says the cotton will spin up to about number 40; that will make a good thread. Our cotton cloth is made from about 20’s, and our ginghams from 24’s. I now have machinery sufficient to keep thirty-five power looms going, and I wish I had them; but this will not supply the Territory. One of our merchants said to me, last fall, “When you get your machinery going we need not send for any more such material as you will produce.” I told him he had not counted it up. When he reflected and made up the figures he found he had sold more cloth himself than my machinery could make with thirty-five looms. If we go to work and manufacture for ourselves, we can stop the continual drain upon us through purchasing the articles of clothing which we require.

It has been said “Cotton is king.” Everybody who knows anything of mankind knows they had to live a great many years without cotton. The first cotton factories were started in America within my remembrance. What would the Indians here, who are all but naked, say if they were told cotton is king? They would say, “No, biscuit, biscuit,” that which will sustain life. They can kill rabbits, and make clothing of the skins. Bread is king. God bless you. Amen.

At a meeting of the Priesthood, convened at half-past six in the evening, he said:—

I presume the arrangement of the settlements in this county in a church capacity is as good as the brethren can make it at present. I suppose the Bishops represent their various wards and report here at their monthly meetings, that the minutes of their previous meetings are read for approval or disapproval, and then their other business is attended to in due course.

I will ask whether the Bishops have led out sufficiently to have the people follow them in building, adorning, and making the earth as it should be? Have they apple-seeds to start a nursery, or plum pits to plant, that they can say to the brethren, if you want any trees we will soon be able to supply you? I have never purchased a peach or apple tree without paying from fifty cents to a dollar each for them, yet in one season I gave away 14,000 peach-trees, and if I had received the same price I gave they would have brought me some $7,000. I did this to encourage the people. In the early period of our raising apples and peaches I never suffered a peach-pit to be thrown away, nor ate an apple without saving the seeds to plant. It is true you have not been long in this valley, but you have been here long enough to have nursery upon nursery, with trees two and three years old. There are a few trees here. Raise orchards, if only for the welfare of your children, as brother George A. Smith has said, that they may be preserved from growing up thieves. The temptation is strong for the children, and if they can get fruit in no other way they are sorely tempted to steal it. Do not lay a foundation to make your children thieves. The man who sends his little son or hired boy on to the prairie to herd sheep or oxen, lays a foundation for making that boy a thief; and he who will do this will have the curse of God resting upon him in proportion. Trace it back, and you will find it is so. Will you hearken to this counsel? If so, stop sending boys to herd.

Why not quarry rock and build stone houses, and make stone fences? Stone makes a good fence, and it will not winter kill. Build fences, have good gardens, and make yourselves comfortable and happy, serving God; let that be first continually, so that you may have consciences void of offence towards God and man. Build meeting houses, put up the one you have in contemplation, and finish it nicely. Get lumber and make bins in which to put up your wheat so that it can be safe for fifty years, if needed. If you are compelled to stack your wheat, stack it right, for you may have storms. You have English and Danish brethren here who can stack it so that it will stand for fifty years. But, as far as you can, get lumber and build granaries and preserve your grain.

I want to say a word or two with regard to brethren here taking goods from merchants to sell. Watch and learn the spirit of the man who does this, and in nine cases out of ten his faith, feelings, and affections are wholly to benefit his employer, to get all he can from the people, and really commit the riches of the Saints to his employer, no matter whether he be Jew or Gentile. Such a man will, sooner or later, apostatize. Those who will do this, and will shave the Saints to do a good business for the merchant who employs them, I curse in the name of Jesus Christ, and they shall be cursed.

Sunday Morning, 26th

There is one principle I would like to have the Latter-day Saints perfectly understand—that is, of blessings and cursings. For instance, we read that war, pestilence, plagues, famine, etc., will be visited upon the inhabitants of the earth; but if distress through the judgments of God comes upon this people, it will be because the majority have turned away from the Lord. Let the majority of the people turn away from the Holy Commandments which the Lord has delivered to us, and cease to hold the balance of power in the Church, and we may expect the judgments of God to come upon us; but while six-tenths or three-fourths of this people will keep the commandments of God, the curse and judgments of the Almighty will never come upon them, though we will have trials of various kinds, and the elements to contend with—natural and spiritual elements. While this people will strive to serve God according to the best of their abilities, they will fare better, have more to eat and to wear, have better houses to live in, better associations, and enjoy themselves better than the wicked ever do or ever will do.

I say to you, and would like to hear the brethren speak upon this subject, that the righteous have never suffered in temporal things like the ungodly. Search history and you will find it is so, whether with nations, neighborhoods, or individuals, from the day that Adam eat [ate] the forbidden fruit down to the present time. If you do not wish to go any farther back, look at the history of the Saints who have settled these valleys, and see it exemplified. History does not show that a colony was ever settled, either in North or South America, that had so little difficulty with the Indians as we have had. This is encouraging; and so it has been in our entire history. The wicked do not know how to enjoy life, but the closer we live to God the better we know and understand how to enjoy it. Live so that you can enjoy the spirit of the Lord continually. I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Afternoon

I have been thinking that if the sisters had all worn bonnets of their own make, they would know how to do them up, after the brief storm we have had, and they would have been little or none the worse. That is an advantage home-made bonnets have over the fancy ones bought in the stores. A severe storm this afternoon would rather injure the latter kind, and the nice collars, caps, and handkerchiefs that many of the sisters wear. It looked as though a heavy rain storm was coming, which would have done an incalculable amount of good in the present condition of the crops.

I was sorry that we were interrupted in hearing brother Taylor through, as his mind seemed to be so clear on the subject of the life of the Christian and the life of the anti-Christian.

The sufferings recorded of those who were called the people of God were endured by a people who had transgressed the laws of God, changed the ordinances, and substituted other laws and other ordinances, and had broken every covenant made to their fathers. They killed the Prophets, and stoned those sent to them. Their Prophets were the ones who suffered first in the midst of those whom the Lord had selected to be his people, and then the wrath of God was poured out upon them, their enemies were let loose to inflict suffering upon them.

How is it with us? When the whole Church could meet in a little school-house 16 feet by 24, there were more difficulties, contentions and quarrels, to be settled before the High Council and Bishop’s Courts in one month, than there are now in all the settlements in this county in a year. This is encouraging, when we reflect that every year we have to take new comers and lead them along, people who have lived under such different circumstances. It is encouraging for us to continue our labors, and we do not mean to stop pleading with the Latter-day Saints to send the Gospel to the nations, gather the poor and purify themselves, until we can say in our hearts that, when the voice is heard, “Behold the Bridegroom cometh” we are actually ready to go out to meet him.

Brigham City, 27th

Brother Weinal asked brother Kimball this question, “You have preached so many years to us about saving our grain, will the people save it now?” They will do just as they please. It is our duty to preach the truth, it is theirs to believe and obey it. Some of the Saints are very full of faith. I remember the case of an old gentleman, who started from Manti for G. S. L. City, during the Indian difficulty, with some three or four companions, though he was counseled to delay his trip for a short time till a company was ready to start; but no, he had faith the Indians would not touch him. He was tomahawked right by the Uinta Springs, with his companions, where they had lain down to sleep in the afternoon. If they had obeyed counsel, they might have been saved.

The Lord has blessed the people with abundance in the past, and while we have been preaching to them to save their grain, they have gone and sold it and squandered it away, they had so much faith, when at the same time it was the power of God and the faith of the few who were consistent in their faith that saved them. My faith must be consistent, and go with my works. It is not my duty to make you build granaries. My duty is done when I tell you what you ought to do. I have no right to stand over you with a rod and make you pray, for you ought to pray of your own choice. And when I have done my duty, and brother Kimball has done his, and the Twelve have done theirs, the rest is with you.

Try to improve your minds; enrich them with every kind of true knowledge known on the earth; by faith so live as to enjoy the Holy Ghost; learn the object of the creation of man, of the formation of the earth, of what it is composed, and what it is for. Why is gold made? For us to worship it? No, it was made to be useful for domestic and other purposes. May God bless you: Amen.

Willard City, 28th

We say we believe we are the Kingdom of God on the earth—this is our profession. Let us, by our every act, prove this profession to be true. It has been told you before, time and again, and we want to keep sounding it in your ears, take the course to save yourselves both spiritually and temporally.

The world have lost confidence in each other through transgression, and we must take a course to restore it among each other first, then it will extend to our friends, and finally, when Jesus rules, you will find the friendship and confidence which once existed among men will be restored to them again.

I feel to bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hearken to the counsel given to you, and we will do everything in our power to bring power and glory and honor to the Latter-day Saints.

Ogden, 28th

I expect there will never be a law made in this Kingdom that will prevent us from doing good and assisting the poor. If I were to sell my flour to my enemy, and he were to pay me seventy-five dollars a hundred in gold for it, it would not prevent me from giving a poor sister fifteen or twenty pounds of flour in her need. You may think that an extravagant price, but I have been offered $75, for flour, yet I have never sold any at that price.

We have quite a number of people here who never had a farm in their lives. They know nothing about trading. They have been accustomed to work, and, when Saturday came, to receiving their ten or fifteen shillings, and then spending it. We will have to arrange for them to live until they can learn to take care of themselves.

When we moved south there were 20,000 bushels of wheat in the Tithing Office, which we offered to the people, but they would not take five bushels of it. We had to take some of the people, and feed them too! Of what use will they be, either in this world or in the next?

Some people imagine they can obtain possession of knowledge very easily; if they were to have a vision of eternity, they would conclude they knew everything about it. Suppose a being on another planet were to have a vision of this congregation, would he understand all about the earth and its inhabitants? If I were to have the vision of my mind opened to obtain a glimpse of the spirit world, would I possess the knowledge of beings who are exalted in the eternal world?

We must increase in knowledge and understanding, to prove ourselves worthy of the blessings of the Lord. Obtain wisdom that you may so order your lives before the heavens and each other that you may be able to accept the power God has for you, and wield it to his power and glory. God bless you: Amen.

Centerville, 29th

I will detain the people but a very short time. The matters which have been laid before you this afternoon are inseperably [inseparably] connected with our spiritual well-being. There is no man on this earth who can receive the Kingdom of God in his heart and be governed according to the laws of that Kingdom, without being governed and control[l]ed in all temporal matters. If you are not of one heart and mind in these things, never think of Jackson county, for you will not be wanted there. No man is going to inherit a celestial glory, who trifles with the principles thereof. The man who does not labor from day to day and from hour to hour for building up this Kingdom and bringing forth the fulness of the Kingdom of God on the earth, and the establishment of Zion, will sooner or latter [later], fall and go out of the Church.

If you love brother Brigham, brother Heber and the Twelve, do as they tell you. As fast as possible, secure a year’s supply of breadstuff, and then try to sustain yourselves without using any of that supply; and take the same course in the harvests of 1865-6-7, and so on, until you have a supply for seven years, then you are prepared either for a famine of that duration, or to feed the thousands who will come here hungry.

We are the descendants of Abraham. Here are the Lamanites—descendants of Joseph, and the seed of Israel is scattered through the nations; and as Joseph was a savior to his father’s house, let us live in obedience to the counsel given us, that we can become saviors to his whole father’s house in the latter days.

I exhort you to obtain the Spirit of the Lord, and to so live as to enjoy it continually. God bless you: Amen.

Necessity of a Living Testimony of the Holy Ghost, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1864. Reported by G. D. Watt.

The brethren who have spoken have been disposed to speak concerning the testimony they have within themselves of the truth of this Work. It made me think of a circumstance in the history of Joseph Smith, in which I was an actor, relating to a few men in Nauvoo who sought to make it appear that the printed word was all in all, and immensely superior to the living testimony of the Holy Ghost in the believer, and to the power of the living Priesthood. I attended one of their meetings, which was held in Joseph’s house, arose to speak, and took for my text, “ye Saints of Latter days, I would not give you the ashes of a rye straw for every word that is contained in the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, so far as their efficacy is concerned to save any man, independent of the living Priesthood of the Son of God, and the testimony of the Holy Ghost in the heart of the believer.”

I have never particularly desired any man to testify publicly that I am a Prophet; nevertheless, if any man feels joy, in doing this, he shall be blest in it. I have never said that I am not a Prophet; but, if I am not, one thing is certain, I have been very profitable to this people. In the providence of God he has placed me to take charge of his flock, and they have been abundantly blessed under my administration. I did not desire to be their shepherd; but the great Shepherd of all the sheep placed me in this position, and there is no man on earth can truthfully say aught against the dealings of the leaders of this people with the Latter-day Saints. We have blessed them with the blessings of life and salvation—the blessings of this life, and of that life which is to come, for the Kingdom and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heavens must, sooner or later pass into the hands of God’s people. We are trying to prepare the minds of the Saints for the reception of this great power, that they may prove themselves competent and worthy to hold it. There is not a faithful Elder who does not daily pray earnestly for the redemption of the centre stake of Zion; but how seldom we inquire of ourselves if we are prepared to enter upon that work. The Lord is very merciful to us, and more willing to bestow his bounties upon us than we are to receive them, or prepared to appreciate them; for if we were now prepared to receive the fulness of his Kingdom, we would be far advanced in the knowledge of God to what we are. I have often remarked that in spiritual things we are one; and we have also got to become one in temporal things as we are one in spiritual things. Brother Kimball has told you that the Lord does not mean that we shall be one in property, in the height of our persons, color of our hair and eyes, in the size and expression of our features, or in the acuteness and vigor of our senses. Being thus physically one would not make us one as the Lord wishes us to be one. He wishes us to be one in our efforts to advance his Kingdom. He wishes every man, every woman, and every child that has attained to years of discretion to be one in putting forth their hands, their means and their influence to bring about this desired object. I could give you, thus saith the Lord; but the faith we have embraced is so reasonable, rational and consistent, and so easily proved, that I am not under the necessity of saying, thus saith the Lord. If I wanted you to believe a mass of folly and nonsense, such as others wish you to believe, then it would be necessary to say, thus saith the Lord, to operate upon the fears of the more ignorant and superstitious of mankind. The truth always stands upon its own foundation, and speaks for itself; for, at this time, every Elder and Saint should so live, that the Spirit of the Lord will witness unto them the truth of my words, and the words of the Apostles, without my being under the necessity of saying, thus saith the Lord to enforce it. I now say to the brethren and sisters, be ye blessed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: Amen.

The Increase of Faith Among the Saints, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 23. 1864. Reported by G. D. Watt.

In standing up to address you this morning, I trust I shall have the assistance of your faith and prayers, that my mind may be led to dwell upon those points of doctrine that may be interesting and strengthening to us under the present circumstances. It is with very peculiar feelings that I stand before my brethren and sisters at home. While I was abroad, preaching the Gospel, and mingling with my brother missionaries from this land, and among the Saints in other countries, I felt a degree of freedom and ease in trying to instruct them, in consequence, no doubt, of knowing that it was my calling, which had been laid upon me by the servants of God, to impart to the people such instructions as I might be led to give by the Spirit of God. I have a different feeling when I am at home among my brethren and sisters in Zion. I feel as though there was some need of my sitting still to listen; still I do not feel to shrink in the least degree from the duties and responsibilities God has seen fit to place upon me.

I rejoice exceedingly in the knowledge God has given to me that this is his Work—that he has established it never more to be thrown down, and that it is his mind and will it should roll forth and increase until it fills the whole earth. I know there are a great many views entertained upon this point by the people abroad, and they indulge in a great variety of opinion respecting the Latter-day Saints in the valleys of Utah. A great many opinions have been hazarded in by-gone days respecting our future fate. Some have imagined that it needed but a short time to elapse, and a few changes to take place, and all that would remain of this work would be found on the records of the historian: that is, it would fall to pieces, and pass away forever, and there would not be even a remnant left of it. Many of the Saints doubtless recollect what views that were entertained relating to the Prophet Joseph. It was supposed that the whole Kingdom and the stability of it depended upon his life, and that if he could be removed, and his influence destroyed, or his life taken from him, that the system called “Mormonism,” “that gross delusion” as they termed it, would tumble to pieces, and the adherents of the system would scatter abroad throughout the nations no more to trouble them. Acting upon this view they sought his life for years, and at last they were successful in destroying his mortal tabernacle; but they were disappointed, for they soon discovered that it did not accomplish the end they designed; still, the spirit that prompted them to seek his life stirred them up to endeavor to seek the lives of those who had stepped forward and taken his place, and who were seeking with the same diligence which he had manifested to establish the Work of which he had laid the foundation. You know with what perseverence [perseverance] they have striven from the beginning to the present time to do this. It is unnecessary for me to reiterate in your hearing this morning the various attempts that have been made from the days of the Prophet Joseph until now—how unceasingly they have endeavored, and with what ingenuity and craft they have sought to bring their wicked plans and bitter malice to bear against the work of God to sap its foundation that it might cease to increase in the earth. Not only have we had these things to contend with from those who never were associated with us and who knew nothing about our principles, only as they could gain a knowledge of them from casual observation, but we have had to contend with apostates—those who have been numbered with us, who professed to have received a knowledge of the truth as we have received it, who had received and officiated in the Holy Priesthood, who had borne testimony hundreds of times to the great Work which our Father and God has established in the earth. Yes, added to the efforts of those who have never been numbered with us, we have had the efforts of apostates to contend with, we have had their malice to encounter, we have had their deep laid schemes to counteract; and, if there has been anything that has been disagreeable connected with our history from the beginning to the present, it has been more especially found in the opposition that we have had to meet from the hands, mouths and pens of those who have been once numbered with us. This has been bitter, and most disagreeable to our feelings; at least, I can speak individually for myself in this matter; it has been something that has been exceedingly painful to me to see those who formerly called themselves our brethren opposing the Work of God with all the envenomed hatred that you could imagine an evil spirit to be possessed of, seeking the lives of those men whom they formerly called brethren and associated with on terms of friendship. Every species of slander has been circulated by them, and they not only have sought to lay plans for the overthrow of the Work of God, but they have sought to disseminate erroneous views to destroy in the minds of the people confidence in the authority of those whom God has called to stand at the head of his Church. This list of enemies is a very long one, and they have not been idle; they have arisen one by one, time after time, and have sought with all the ability they possessed to destroy the Work of God. But there is an assurance which those who are living their religion have, and which they ever have had from the beginning until the present time—an assurance of which men cannot deprive us, that God our heavenly Father has decreed that his Work shall stand, and that those who have received his Holy Priesthood, and are endeavoring to magnify the same shall be borne off triumphantly over every opposing obstacle. This is a glorious consolation for those who are living faithfully in Christ Jesus; it is something that is calculated to cheer the feelings of the Saints, and make them feel happy in the midst of the various afflictions and trials and adversities they may have, from time to time, to pass through.

It is interesting for us to contemplate the history of the people of God in the days in which we live. To my mind this subject is full of matter; it is fruitful with suggestions, and with happy thoughts. I love to look back upon the history of our people; I love to contemplate the path that we have trod; I love to reflect upon the many difficulties and the many trials that we have overcome in the past, through the power of our God. I see on every hand a disposition manifested by the enemies of the Kingdom of God to lay snares for the feet of his servants; but it will be as it has been, their efforts will be overthrown. The recollection of the history of the past and the many scenes and trials and difficulties we have had to pass through as a people, and from which we have been delivered by the Almighty arm of our Father and God inspires us with confidence on this point, and encourages us to look forward with renewed assurance to that day, which God has promised, when we shall be delivered entirely from the power of our enemies, when they shall not trouble us; when the glory of the Lord, and the terror also of the Lord, shall be manifested in Zion, insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it. The contemplation of these things causes me to look forward with renewed assurance to this glorious day that I know, as well as I know that I stand here, will dawn upon us as a people, and that too before very long.

I have heard, at various times, a great many talk about the difference between the Church now and the days of the Prophet Joseph. There is a class of people who seem to delight continually in dwelling upon the glory and happiness of the past. While I love to dwell upon the past, to reflect upon past scenes and associations and past teachings, and draw lessons therefrom, there is, nevertheless, to my mind, as much happiness to be enjoyed now in the contemplation of the Kingdom of God, in the contemplation of the glorious principles, that are taught unto us from time to time, as there is in the contemplation of the past teachings that we have received from the Servants of God in the days of Joseph. I can see that this people have progressed, and that the Autho[ri]ties of this Church have progressed from that time until the present: I can see that there has been no stand still with them, nor with the Work of God with which they are identified. Every time I have returned from missions I have seen this growth in my brethren, in President Young, President Kimball and other brethren who have been associated with them; I have seen it as visible as I have seen the growth of my children when I have been absent and returned. There has been a mental and spiritual growth that has given me an assurance that they are continually advancing in the direction of the celestial Kingdom of God our Father, and I know there is a greater degree of faith in the midst of this people to-day than in the days of Joseph. I can see it when I visit the Wards. I see a spirit of obedience manifested by the people to the Bishops that was not manifested in the days of Joseph even to him, himself, as the Prophet of God. These things cause my heart to rejoice, because I know that, notwithstanding our numerous frailties and weaknesses, and, notwithstanding our disobedience and hardness of heart, there is nevertheless a growth and development going on in the midst of this people; there is a portion of the people, at any rate, who are diligently striving to keep the commandments of God, and are successfully overcoming the weaknesses of their nature and that want of confidence and faith which exists in consequence of the traditions that have been instilled into our minds by our early education. I recollect upon one occasion, previous to the death of the Prophet Joseph, hearing him make a remark from the stand which made a deep impression upon my mind at the time. He said that if he were to reveal unto the people the principles and the doctrines which God had revealed unto him, there were men upon the stand that would go around the streets of the city seeking to shed his blood. I do not give his exact words; but the idea. I was young at the time, and I immediately began investigating my own feelings to know what doctrines brother Joseph could possibly teach that would have that effect upon my mind. Although I did not fully comprehend his remark, I believed it; for I believed every thing he said. Yet not many months elapsed before I comprehended his words; for, soon afterwards one of the men who sat on the stand and heard that declaration, and whose name he mentioned, went about the city plotting to shed his blood. I do not believe it would be neccessary [necessary] for President Young today to be so cautious in advancing doctrines to this people as brother Joseph was at that time; not but what there are principles and doctrines to-day which he has to be as careful in advancing to this people, in consequence of our unbelief and hardness of heart, as brother Joseph was; but the same doctrines that brother Joseph asserted that if he advanced would lead to the spilling of his blood, can be advanced to-day, with the most perfect freedom, by the servants of God. The people have advanced sufficiently in faith and in the knowledge of God to be prepared to receive such things from the servants of God; but there is still a necessity for us to exert and arouse ourselves that we may have that faith with God which is necessary to prepare us for the things yet to be revealed to us.

My brethren and sisters, the Lord has not yet revealed to us all that is to be revealed. There are many great and glorious principles and truths pertaining to exaltation in the celestial Kingdom of God which we are not yet prepared to receive. We need only reflect for a few moments upon the doctrine which President Young has advanced already to assure us that there is a necessity for us to arouse on this point, and be diligent and faithful, in order that our faith may increase with God, that the veil of darkness may be rent asunder and that the light of truth in its purity and brilliancy, as it exists in the presence of God, may shine upon us, that we may be prepared to receive the truths God has in store for us. From the day that God established this Church to the present the stream of revelation has continued to flow uninterruptedly. It flows pure for us to drink at until we are filled to repletion; and if we do not drink, it is our own fault. The servants of God are not to blame, for they have been laboring by day and by night, from the beginning, with us, as a people, to prepare us for the great things that are at our very doors, and that God intends to perform in this generation. I feel the importance of this, probably not as much as I ought, and wish to do; nevertheless, when I see the great events that are taking place at this time among the nations—when I view the destiny that awaits us as a people, and the great things God has in store for us, I almost feel as though I was a laggard on the path, and too slow entirely for the great events that are coming upon the earth. The day is near when a Temple shall be reared in the Center Stake of Zion, and the Lord has said his glory shall rest on that House in this generation, that is in the generation in which the revelation was given, which is upwards of thirty years ago. How much are we prepared for this? We talk about it, sing about it, and delight to dwell upon it; but are we prepared for this great manifestation of glory in our midst? I doubt it very much, and it seems to me that we will have to become more diligent, more zealous and more faithful, humble and prayerful, than we ever have been to be fully prepared for these great events. I have said that the servants of God are not to blame; they will not be to blame, if we are not prepared for these events. It is not because we have not been taught; it is not because we have not been plead with—not because we have not had good examples set before us by our leaders; the contrary has been the case. The voice of God, through his servants, has been pleading with us from the beginning until now. It still pleads with us; the servants of God still intreat [entreat] us; their bowels of compassion yearn over us as does those of the Lord; they are filled with great desire to see this people walk up and obey all the laws of God, and nothing grieves them so much as to see the people negligent, careless and indifferent in the performance of their duties, disobedient to counsel, and disregarding the duties and requirements of their holy religion. Men talk about revelation—I said a few moments ago that men compared the present day with the past, and compare it unfavorably. When I look at what God has done for us up to the present, instead of there being room for unfavorable comparisons between the past and the present, I am pleasingly astonished at what has been and is being done. It has been one constant stream of revelation from that day to this. Read the discourses of the first Presidency and the Twelve, and you will see that they are filled with revelation, with light, with knowledge, with wisdom, and with good counsel unto this people. Have this people ever seen the day when the counsel of God’s servants has not been sufficient to guide them in the midst of difficulties; No; we never have. There has not been a single minute that this people has been left without the voice of God; there has not been a single minute since this Church was founded to this time that the power of God has not been plainly manifested in our midst. I rejoice in this—I rejoice in it exceedingly; because I know that God is still laboring with his people, and that his power has been manifested in the earth for the accomplishment of his great and glorious purposes.

When I look back, and think upon the condition we were in at the time we left Nauvoo and were driven into the wilderness, at the point almost of our enemies’ bayonets, and then notice the path we have trod from that day to this my wonder and astonishment are great, and as I grow older these feelings increase. When I contemplate how we have been led, how the revelations of God have rested upon his servant Brigham, and how he has been enabled to guide this people safely through the difficulties which laid in their path up to this time, I am filled with gratitude to God our Father for raising up Prophets in this our day. Posterity will look with wonder upon the Work which has been accomplished in this day—they will be lost in astonishment in contemplating the mighty Work of God, and will be exceedingly surprised that it could be possible for this generation to witness such mighty works and not have respect to the testimony of the servants of God who led this people. We wonder now how it was possible for the Egyptians to reject the testimony of Moses and Aaron. But, to my mind, the great Work in which we are engaged is far greater than the work that was performed by Moses. I reverence the work Moses performed, I look upon it as a great work. But this Work of the last days is a far greater work—the gathering of the Saints together from the various nations, is a far more stupendous work, to my mind, than the gathering of Israel from Egypt to the land of Canaan. I would not be guilty of undervaluing the work Moses performed, or of attaching to it a light importance, for I value it highly; but with Moses it was different to what it has been with the leaders of Israel in these days. The children of Israel had been taught by their fathers that God would raise up a Prophet that should lead them from the land of bondage, and Joseph left a charge with his descendants that when God visited them they should take his bones with them to bury in the land of his fathers. They had been looking for this for some time; and when Moses came, he came in direct fulfilment of their traditions and the predictions of their fathers. He found the people almost in the condition of a single family—strangers in a strange land, looking upon their place of sojourn as a place of bondage, from which they would be gladly delivered. He had, therefore, only to raise the standard and declare that God had called him to be the deliverer—the messenger of which their fathers had spoken. This is all he had to do, and he led them forth. It was a great Work. But how has it been with the Work of God in the days in which we live? What traditions have we had handed down to prepare us for this Work? What traditions have the people of America, England, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy or France had to prepare them for this great gathering which is being accomplished? All their traditions have tended to fasten them to the homes of their fathers, have bound them to the graves of their ancestors; and the Gospel, which has been preached to them by the servants of God, has come in contact with all their prepossessed notions. Yet God has wrought mightily in the midst of the nations; he has poured out his Spirit upon the American, Englishman, Scotchman, Frenchman, German, Scandinavian, Italian and Swiss, and they have been led by that Spirit to leave the land of their fathers to gather with the people of God to the place God has appointed. Is it not, therefore, a greater work than that performed in the days of Moses? Does it not appear so? As I have said, it appears a far greater work than has ever been performed upon the face of the earth since the beginning until now. We may think light of it; we may think that we are an insignificant and small people, yet this movement of ours is one of the greatest events that has ever occur[r]ed, since our race had a being on the earth. This is my view, and I do not begin to grasp its importance; I can only see glimpses of it as my mind is opened by the spirit of faith. Then I can see it, as it will be developed, grow and increase until it regenerates the earth and its inhabitants, and makes it a fit place for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful, then, we ought to be that God has again restored His Holy Priesthood, and sent Prophets again upon the earth, and has given them unto us, as a people, to lead and guide us.

I look upon this present time as one of the most critical days that has ever dawned upon us, and hope that in the midst of the temptations which now surround us we will keep our eye upon the mark, that we will continually have before us the object God designed we should accomplish, that we will not allow ourselves to be diverted to the right or to the left, but that we, will continually go forth, putting our trust in God, being determined with all the strength and knowledge of God to serve him to the end of our lives. Our Prophets have predicted, that when the time should arrive for this people to be tried with prosperity, than they would be in great danger. I have heard this prediction uttered hundreds of times, until it has almost become like an old story with us. I heard the Prophet Joseph say, when he was living, that the time would come that this people would be tried with abundance; but he warned them to be careful of these things. The Lord has told us, through the revelations which he gave to Joseph, that it must needs be that the riches of the earth were his to give to his people; “but,” he said, “beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.” This was the warning God gave to us years ago, and it has been repeated in our ears from that time until the present, and still there is a great necessity that we should treasure it up in our hearts, and often reflect upon it. Now that the day of prosperity has dawned upon us, and that we are increasing in material wealth, we should be more and more faithful to our covenants, remembering the promises of the Lord to his people, and keeping humble and meek before him. We have been tried by difficulties; we have been tried by mobs; we have seen the day when we have been compelled to leave our homes; but that banded the Saints together and caused them to be united, and their hearts to be strongly set to serve the Lord. How different it is to-day! Here we are, and the world are seeking to mingle with us, and they are becoming uncommonly gracious unto us, as a people; they can smile upon us and be kind unto us. They would have us believe that they welcome us warmly to their smiles and friendship. There is danger in this; this is the danger that the Prophets have dreaded. It is an insidious danger that comes creeping like a snake through the grass, and pounces upon us before we are aware of its proximity. But stir us up, as a people, by persecution and abuse, and there is no power on earth we would not unitedly stand against. Through the help of God we have successfully resisted every power that has been arrayed against us. Let the enemy come out against us as an open antagonist, and he finds us an impenetrable phalanx that cannot be moved. Our danger is not in this; but it lies in our being found asleep, and off our watch tower, unsuspecting and unprepared for the enemies’ most subtle attacks. It is in scenes like these that we are required to be the more watchful, and in times like these that we are required the more to have the power of God upon us and the revelations of Jesus Christ in our hearts, or we are sure to be overcome. Probably the danger of which I speak is more apparent to me, through being absent for some time; but there is danger, and there is a necessity for us to be up and have our eyes open to the signs of the times and the danger that menaces us to-day, and that threaten to ensnare our feet. I have no fears if we will only obey the counsel of God’s servants, if we will only listen diligently to those things which they impart unto us, and honor their teachings and be attentive to our duties. But when I see Saints indifferent about their meetings, passing their Sundays without caring whether they hear instructions or not, and their religion becomes a secondary consideration with them, then I am afraid of such individuals; because they are not in a position to resist the attacks of that tempter, who is continually watching to destroy us and the Work of God from off the face of the earth. The Lord our God is working with us; he is trying us, probably with trials of a new sort that he may approve of us in every respect. If we have set out to obtain Celestial glory, the precious and inestimable gift of eternal lives, there is no trial necessary for our purification and perfection as Saints of God that we will not have to meet, contend with and overcome. Such trials will come in various shapes, on the right hand and on the left, whether they be in having everything move on prosperously, or in adversity, hardship and the laying down of our lives for the truth, until the design is fully accomplished and the dross of our natures is purified and these earthly tabernacles are redeemed from everything that is grovelling and low and brought into entire subjection to the mind and will of God.

The Lord has sent us here for a wise purpose. He has given us these glorious tabernacles, complete in all their parts, and given unto us laws which are necessary that we should obey to redeem these bodies and pass safely into his presence, to dwell there in the midst of eternal burnings. This is the mission he has given unto us to perform on the earth, and a more glorious mission could not be given to the sons and daughters of God. The possession of prosperity, boundless wealth in gold and silver, fine raiment, magnificent dwellings, horses and carriages, and all these things attainable on the earth, are but secondary matters compared with it. They are merely auxiliaries to aid us in accomplishing our destiny and are not given unto us to set our hearts upon, or for us to consider our time well spent in looking after them and nothing else. We ought to value riches no more than we do the earth on which we tread, the air we breathe, or the water we drink. The man who seeks after the perishable things of this life and allows his mind to dwell upon them, to the exclusion of the things of God which pertain to his eternal salvation, has failed to comprehend the mission God has assigned him. Let us be taught on these points, and be wise in our day, seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, having our eyes on the mark, being determined that we will build up the Kingdom of God and serve him in spite of hell and every opposing obstacle. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the happiness men and women enjoy in doing the will of God. This the Saints understand. There was no happier people lived than the Saints when in the midst of poverty and destitution and persecution by their enemies; because they knew they were doing the will of God, and their songs of praise and thanksgiving ascended continually to God and the Lamb for the kindness God had manifested to them. My prayer is that we as a people may be obedient to the servants of God, honor and uphold the Priesthood under all circumstances, and cling to the rod of iron which leadeth to the tree of life, that, finally, we may be found at the right hand of our Father and God, and be counted worthy to sit down with Jesus, the holy Prophets and Apostles, having fought the good fight of faith and overcome. This is my prayer for you this morning and for all the people of God throughout the earth, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Attending Meetings, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Oct. 30, 1864. Reported by E. L. Sloan.

It is so uncomfortable outside today that there are but few here, with us, in the Tabernacle. We have reflections with regard to the faith of the people, and the fervency of the Saints in their faith in the Gospel when our meetings are thinly attended, as they are to-day. Some may think the brethren and sisters are backsliding and growing cold, when they do not attend meeting. It may sometimes be just as good and profitable to stay at home as to come to meeting.

One thing is certain, that where people make a practice of attending meetings frequently, it creates an increased desire to do so. And many who do not attend to the worship of God here may be just as fervent, and humble in their spirits, and trying to live as uprightly before God at home as those who attend religious meetings. I do not think the people are forgetful of God and of their obligations to him because they tarry at home.

I like to come to meeting; I am in the habit of doing so. I was fond of going to meeting when I cared but little about religion, for I was anxious to learn; having a thirst for knowledge I was always gratified in attending meetings to listen to public addresses, to gain instruction and add to my stock of information. The Lord has instructed us to meet together often and hold our sacraments and offer up our oblations before him, confess our faults, and speak words of comfort to each other. Viewing it in this light, we regard it is a duty, and it should be a pleasing one; it is to me. It gives me great pleasure to see the faces of those who delight to serve God assembled together to worship him, and often my feelings have been such that I could have enjoyed a meeting after the Quaker style, without a single word being spoken, or even the ceremony of shaking hands; for I delight to look upon the Saints who keep the commandments of our Father and God. I do not believe that those who stay at home are, in many instances, any worse than those who come to meeting, nor that those who come to meeting are particularly better than those who stay at home; but it is a consolation to me to meet with the Saints, to see them and talk to them, in a way to comfort and instruct them. This is always my object in speaking to the Saints; yet, I consider the best preaching is example; for, as I have often said, it is not my privilege to preach and not practice what I preach. If I preach a truth for others to observe, I am under obligation to observe that truth myself. I do not believe that it is the privilege of any man to preach and not practice. Still, we see it done by many. They preach more than they practice; but this does not diminish the obligations they are under to practice all they preach and live the religion they profess.

I hear my brethren, Sabbath after Sabbath, testify of what they believe, what joy they have in the Gospel, how firm they are in it, and that they desire never to turn away from it, and then they will pray the Lord to let them be faithful! Who hinders them from being faithful? There is nothing that is good, not a truth in heaven, nor in hell, in the earth nor under the earth, but what is in our religion. What can you get outside of the Kingdom of God? Death and destruction, pain, anguish and sorrow, misery and woe, and grief of every description. Some say, “I hope I will be faithful; Lord, let me be faithful!” Who will interfere with you? The Devil will interfere, as far as he has power; but his power is limited, while the Lord possesses unlimited power; and, to use a common phrase, we would like to be on the strongest side; we would like to fight on the side of right, for that will win. We would not, knowingly invest capital in an insolvent firm. Then, let us invest in the firm whose stock consists in the riches of eternity; for all the light there is in heaven and on the earth is incorporated in our religion. Is there joy in heaven? that is incorporated in our religion. Is these joy on earth? that, also, is in our religion. Is there intelligence? yes, an eternity of it, and it is in our religion. Is there glory? yes, and that is in our religion. Is there immortality? yes; and that is in our religion. Everlasting lives? that is ours. Friends? they are ours. Wealth? that is ours. Peace? yes; and that is ours. Every blessing, and infinitely more than we can imagine, is in our religion and for us to enjoy, while, outside of it, there is nothing but death and hell.

We can understand a few of the first principles of our religion, and enjoy a few of its blessings; but can we understand the whole of it? no; not yet. We can understand some of the ordinances of the House of God; but do we understand them all? We shall, if we are faithful. We have had revealed to us some of the ordinances and laws pertaining to the celestial Kingdom of God, but are they all revealed? No. Could we understand them, if they were revealed? We could not. There is a little given, as we can receive it, as the Prophet of old said, the Lord gives a little here and a little there, “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” Why did he not give more to his people in past times? because they could not understand it. Why does he not give more to this people now? Because they are incapable of under, standing it. But, in the sequel, we will find there is nothing that can be desired by us in righteousness, that is not incorporated in our religion. We see glory and honor and wealth in the world. They belong to the Kingdom of God. But, it may be asked, why does the Lord permit the world to have them? He gives every blessing to both Saint and sinner, just as far as they can receive his blessings. He is bountiful of His mercies and kind to all his children, bestowing blessings upon them abundantly; but they often abuse his bounties. The Lord has given to all men every power and blessing they possess; and he would give them more, if they could receive it. It is a pleasure to me to meet with the Saints, to worship God and to offer up my oblations to him; and it is a pleasure to the Saints generally.

We preach a good deal to the Latter-day Saints, yet they know but little; they can receive but little. We teach them the little things, the first principles of the Gospel, and we talk to them of the goodness of God and of his kind providences, and so on; but, if we could understand the truth with regard to the fulness of the Kingdom of God, our hearts would be full of joy unutterable. These words are as idle tales to the Christian portions of the world, and to those who do not believe in God and in his Son Jesus Christ, and also to many of the Saints. But I know the darkness that is among the people. Go to the Christian world—to say nothing about those who do not believe in God, in Jesus, nor in revealed religion—go to those who make long prayers and attend meetings—to those who pay the priests and wear long faces, and these words are idle tales to them; and so they are almost to the Latter-day Saints. Yet there is a degree of light and intelligence that has come to us and has caused us to do what we have done and be what we are. The proof of the virtue of a people is in the life they lead.

We talk of the oneness of the people, yet we lack much of that oneness we must yet arrive at. If we could see things as they are, we need never preach this sermon again so long as we live. But we have to talk to the people, and keep talking to them; we have to bear with them, and teach them. We can tell them but little, for we know but little, and they are not prepared to receive more than they get. When any man lifts himself up in his philosophy, and wonders why we do not talk about this, and that, and the other thing that we do not wish to talk about, what does he know of the results that would follow from communicating principles to this people which they are not prepared to receive? I do not know that it would not be as Joseph once remarked:—Said he, “If I were to tell the people what I knew of the kingdom of God, there is not a man nor woman that would stay with me.” Said I, “Do not reveal anything to me then, I do not wish to apostatize.” If the Lord were to reveal many things to this people now, which will be made known in the future, they could not abide them—they have not capacity at the present to receive them. Many people look at the wisdom and intelligence there is in the world, concerning many things, and marvel—“What great knowledge! What wonderful skill!” Is there wisdom and mechanism in the world? Yes, and some people will say “it is wonderful, almost beyond the knowledge of an angel.” They will talk of steam-power, the power of the air, of electricity, and other things, and say it is almost beyond the knowledge of an angel. An angel from heaven knows more about the sciences and arts, of which you and I have a little smattering, than all the men on the earth. When they have gone to the extent of their knowledge and ability and understanding in science and art, they are far behind an angel. Does a knowledge of the sciences belong to our religion, too? Yes. There is nothing, only death and hell, but what belongs to it. We are not sanctified yet to receive many things that the Lord will reveal by-and-bye. We are not prepared to receive the fulness of the Kingdom of God. If we were, we would stop preaching a great many sermons we now have to preach. But we are here living and improving; and many of the people really love and delight in their religion.

You hear the brethren say, at times, that they never saw the time they were ashamed of their religion. That is true. Who is there on the face of the earth, that knows God or his Son Jesus Christ, that is not proud of it? Not vain, understand me—not proud, like a frivolous young person vain of some fancied superiority, but really thankful to God for the knowledge, and, if the term may be used, proud of it. Who would not be proud to know our elder Brother and Redeemer! Who would not be proud to understand the plan revealed by our Father and God to bestow upon us eternal life! To live, not merely next day and next year, but to live for ever and ever, basking in the smiles of God and of angels, and enjoying the happiness and blessings of eternal life! Go to the great men of the earth, and talk to them about Joseph Smith, and many of them would spurn you from them. Go to members of the religious sects, to a Presbyterian, a Methodist or a Baptist, and speak to them about Joseph and the Kingdom of God established on the earth, and most likely they would order you out of their houses. This causes feelings that are unpleasant. Yet why should it do so? What is there in such actions that should prevent us from rejoicing and feeling thankful that we know God and Jesus Christ. If I had all the young Elders and missionaries here, I might say to them, when strangers reject your testimony, you have no cause to fail of heart and be downcast in your spirits. If all the kings of the earth were in one man, and all their grandeur and excellency were comprehended in his person, and he were to reject your testimony, instead of feeling ashamed you should be full of pity for him. Your feelings should be like those of a father to a child; “my son, I am sorry for you, and my heart is moved with pity; you have no knowledge of your true position; you are in possession of a certain greatness and knowledge, but your true greatness, knowledge and power you know nothing of. Poor child, I pity you.” These should be the feelings of every Elder that goes forth to preach the Gospel to the nations.

Put it down in your memories, let it be written on the tablets of your hearts that, outside of the religion we have embraced, there is nothing but death, hell and the grave. Every excellency, blessing, comfort, happiness and light, and everything that can be enjoyed by an intelligent being, is for us, if we live for it.

May the Lord help us to do so. Amen.

Necessity of Continued and Faithful Labor, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Nov. 6, 1864. Reported by G. D. Watt.

I do not wish to draw away the minds of the people in the least, from the excellent instruction and testimonies they have heard to-day; but I arise to say a few comforting words to the Latter-day Saints, and to strengthen the faith of those, who desire to believe, and obey the truth, all the days of their lives.

You have heard the testimonies of some of our returned missionaries today, from which you can judge that their hearts are greatly comforted. Some of them have expressed their delight, at having the privilege of beholding this congregation of Saints in Zion. It is a great satisfaction, to look upon those who love the Lord with an undivided affection; it is a great satisfaction to speak to them, and to hear them speak; and, were I to have my choice, I would rather hear men testify to the truth by the spirit of truth, than to speak myself. In my reflections I foresee a time, when we shall be able to communicate with each other easier and with much more pleasure and satisfaction than we now do; but we will then use a different language. Although the language we now speak is as good as any language that has yet come to our knowledge, still it is very meagre, and limited in its range and power, and though it is a good medium at ordinary times, yet, it comes very far short of being such a medium, as man needs to convey thoughts, when he is inspired by the power of God, through the gift of the Holy Ghost, and is full of the revelations of Jesus. It is written “Therefore, wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy for then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” When a man rises up to speak in the name of the Lord, and is filled with the light, and the intelligence and power which cometh from God, his countenance alone will convey more, to those who are inspired by the same spirit, than can possibly be conveyed, by the words of any language now used by mankind.

The brethren have testified to-day to what they believe, and to what they know. They have travelled, preached, and labored diligently to do good, and have returned home again to their families and friends; and now they wish to hear, to see, and to learn, and enjoy the society of the Saints here at the gathering place; and, as a general thing, they have no desire to say a great deal, while a few like to preach among the Saints at home.

There is one thing I wish to say to the Elders, who have returned from their fields of labor, do not for your own sakes, lay aside the garments of the Priesthood, and think your missions at an end; for have we not enlisted, to build up the Kingdom of God on the earth, and establish truth and righteousness, and is not this the work of a life-time? It is little matter how successful the Elders are, in bringing the spirit and understanding of the people, to the knowledge of the truth, or how successful they are, in gathering the people of God from the nations, for, there is not one man in all the ranks of Israel, that will ever be able to justly boast, of having done one deed more than his duty. When we have labored faithfully and diligently all our lives, until we have accomplished the full measure of our labor on the earth, not one will be found that has done one act to build up the Kingdom of God, more than his duty required of him; while on the other hand, it will very likely be found in the end, that thousands have come short of performing all their duty; and I think I am safe in saying that there will be but few, if any, who have performed all their duty. I do not know of a man, within the circle of my acquaintance, who has performed every good he has had power, ability and opportunity to perform. If he has not been guilty of sins of commission, he has committed wrongs, through the omission of duties. Then, let not my brethren consider their mission is at an end, if they wish to continue to increase in influence, power, judgment and truth, in righteousness, and in the knowledge of God, which he may please to constantly reveal unto them through their faithfulness; but let every man be faithful in spirit, striving continually to conquer every passion, and to subdue every wrong feeling, and bring into subjection every unholy aspiration of his being, and be willing for the spirit of truth—the spirit of the Gospel—to lead and guide him from day to day, from hour to hour, and from moment to moment. If we all do this, we shall constantly have in our possession, words of comfort for each other, and be in readiness to act at all times, in the performance of every duty: but let a man neglect his duty in his earthly tabernacle, and he will find, in the end, that he has committed many a wrong, through the sin of omission. Good, and opportunity to do good, is presented to man; but, because of his ignorance, he neglects to do the good he might, and is, in consequence, full of darkness.

There is a peculiar trait in the character of the Kingdom of God, that is diverse from all other kingdoms that have, do, or will exist; and the king we have enlisted to serve is different from all other kings; for he wishes all those over whom he reigns, to share with him the glory of his Kingdom. He is our elder brother, and we are children of the same Great Father. “And, if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together,” when “he hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father.” The king whom we serve, has promised to make all who overcome the world, the flesh and the devil, kings like unto himself. What king, besides the Lord of glory, has made such a promise to his subjects? Not only will the faithful and worthy subjects of the Kingdom of God, become kings: but more; each one will become a king of kings, and lord of lords.

A few words in explanation of this may not be amiss. When the Holy Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God, is upon the earth, and its organizations, ordinances, gospel, powers, authorities and blessings, are enjoyed by the children of men; then by means of sealing powers and keys, and an everlasting covenant, the sons of men become the sons of God by regeneration, and are entitled, every man in his order, to the privileges, exaltations, principalities and powers, kingdoms and thrones, which are held and enjoyed, by the Great Father of our race; and all these are obtained through the law of natural increase, and the saving of that which the Father puts in our power.

“Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all High Priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the Prince, the Arch-angel. And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam and said unto him; I have set thee to be at the head—a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever.” So, in like manner, every faithful son of God, becomes, as it were, Adam to the race that springs from his loins, when they are embraced in the covenants and blessings of the Holy Priesthood; and in the lapse of eternity, and in the progress of eternal lives, every true son of God becomes a king of kings, and a lord of lords, and it may also be said of him as it was written of Jesus Christ, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.”

When death ends the reign of an earthly King, he is stripped of his regal power, which gives place to the habiliments of the tomb; and another wears the crown he wore, sits upon the throne he occupied, and rules over the kingdom he ruled. Not so with the sons of God, when they are crowned and receive their kingdoms; for they have embraced the everlasting Gospel, and have been regenerated, and sanctified through its institutions, purified through the grave, and raised again by the power of the resurrection, to newness of life, as it is written, “but is now made manifest, by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality, to light through the Gospel.” We have not yet received our kingdoms, neither will we, until we have finished our work on the earth, passed through the ordeals, are brought up by the power of the resurrection, and are crowned with glory and eternal lives. Then he that has overcome and is found worthy, will be made a king of kings, and lord of lords over his own posterity, or in other words: A father of fathers. This latter rendering, is more strictly in accordance with the original text.

While brother Halliday was speaking, in regard to testifying to the truth, I thought of a circumstance that transpired with me in Canada, some thirty-two years ago. Five brothers had embraced the Gospel. Soon one of them lost the spirit, and came to our meetings, to oppose the truth. We always gave him an opportunity to speak in our meetings. When he arose to speak, I would pray that the Lord would give him His Spirit. The result was, that instead of his proclaiming against the truth, he would bear testimony to it, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the Lord, and that the Book of Mormon was an inspired record. It is no trouble for any man to bear testimony to the truth, when he is inspired by the spirit of truth. As has been stated here to day, the bands are being made stronger around the lower classes, in the nations of Europe, and there is no doubt a great many honest people would embrace the Gospel, were it not for fear of losing their situations, and their means of getting bread, for themselves and their families. Were it in our power to offer gold and silver to such, to sustain them when they are thrown out of employment, I have no doubt that thousands would join the Church, that now are bound to their old traditions and institutions, for fear of losing their means of subsistence. We cannot do this, and it is perfectly right that we have not power to do it.

Some of the brethren are fearful, that we shall be tried by riches. I speak for myself, when I say, that it is too degrading and too low for men, who are made in the image of God, who understand God and Godliness, to descend to the spirit of the world so far, as to ever become entangled by it. I say to all the Elders of Israel, that we shall possess the riches of the world, for the Kingdom of God will be ours, and the earth, and all things which pertain to it, or else we are not the people of God. I do not say, but what some few individuals will go out of the Church, and others will come into this Kingdom, which the Lord Almighty has established in the latter-day. It is established expressly to glorify man, that he may possess all things—all the gold and silver, and every precious metal, and every precious stone, and to own the earth and its fulness, and establish everlasting righteousness and peace, and gather up the House of Israel, and all that will believe the Gospel among the Gentiles, and save and redeem the world of mankind, and redeem the earth and prepare it to return into the presence of God; or else we are not the kingdom of God. We have already explored the very depths of poverty; and you, who have not had poverty enough, hand over what you have, and send it down to the Cotton country, and go to days’ work for a living. We have had poverty enough. I know of brethren and sisters in this community who have not got a wagon, an ox, or a cow, a house, or suitable clothing, to cover them in the cold winter, and they have no stock of provisions and fuel on hand; are not these poor enough? How poor would you have us to be? I do not know but that the people are poor enough now.

The world is before us, Jesus Christ has redeemed it, and it is our business to purify, and remove the curse therefrom, that it may be brought back into his presence. As for riches, I have told these gold-seekers here, that I know where there is plenty of gold in these mountains, and they have run over it, and stubbed their toes against it, fallen down among it, and run their noses into it for aught that I know, and yet could not see it, and I am not going to tell them where it is, and they may help themselves. Our business is not to hunt gold, but to build up the Kingdom of God. If I had the power, and I do not know but that I have, I would have cities without whiskey and gambling saloons. I would not have them in any of the cities of the Saints. But we have wise men and statesmen among us, who believe that it is policy to allow such institutions in our cities; and the Lord yields to such inconsistencies, because of our ignorance and weakness. I do not delight in beholding an intoxicated person, nor do I delight to hear the name of the God I serve blasphemed; although I have not heard an oath for years from the mouth of any man; for, if they know that I am present, I believe they respect me enough, to refrain from so low and vile a habit in my presence. It may be policy to have drinking saloons in our cities; but I have failed to see any good in it. Our returned missionaries say they do not like to see such institutions. You like to see them, no less than the Saints here do. We submit to this, some say through policy. When men come with ropes in their hands ready to noose our necks, we give them rope enough to hang themselves. I wish the returned Elders to understand, that they cannot hate wickedness anymore than the Saints at home do. Hear it, ye Elders of Israel, and ye mothers in Israel, and ye daughters of Israel, there is nothing but death, and hell, and the grave, outside of this Kingdom; but, inside the Kingdom of God, all things are for the faithful to inherit and enjoy, and for this purpose has he organized his Kingdom in the latter-days, “that, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him.”

Men will continue to seek for, find, and dig gold and silver. I thank them for these services. They are getting out the ore in abundance, and casting it into cannon and missiles of death, and their fine steel into weapons of destruction. This is all right. For, the Lord will have use for all this metal by and bye; as the Prophet hath said, “and he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” That time is not yet; but now, when looking to the East, the religionists on the right hand are praying: “O Lord God, we pray thee to direct the bullets, and the arrows, and the spears, and bayonets to the hearts of those infernal Yankees.” Those on the left hand, while looking in the same direction, are praying: “O Lord, direct the lead, and cast iron, and steel, and every missile of death, direct to the hearts of those infernal slave owners.” I know that we are but a handful of people—Jacob is small, but who can contend with the God of Jacob? He is “a man of war,” and “the prince of peace,” “I am that I am,” no matter who, “I am fully able, to handle the nations of men just as I please.” The Lord whom we serve, exalts and debases men and nations at his pleasure, making one great, and another small, bringing some into note, and burying others in the oblivion of forgetfulness, to subserve his purposes, and consummate his great designs.

May the Lord bless you, Amen.

Temporal and Spiritual Duties of the Saints, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Nov. 6, 1864.

It is the business of the Latter-day Saints to build up the Kingdom of God upon the earth, and by doing this they will be built up, as individuals and as a community. It is good to love and serve our God with an undivided heart and with a pure affection, making it the business of our lives to work righteousness, and to introduce everywhere in all the earth the Gospel of glad tidings and everlasting peace, to prepare the way for the coming of the Son of man to receive his bride. To hold communion with our Father and God, and to carry out his great designs in this last dispensation, ought to be sought after through every transaction of our lives, for no man, or community of men, can possibly serve God acceptably a portion of their time only, and themselves the remainder. If we are the servants and handmaidens of the Almighty at all, we are so every moment of our lives. It should be our constant desire and wish to know how to build up the Kingdom of God, and of necessity this Work calls forth an almost endless variety of talent, skill and labor.

In building the great and notable cities of the world, it required the genius of the architect, and the skill and labor of the artizan, in all their variety. In building up the cities of Zion, and an earthly kingdom unto God, it will require all the wisdom and skill and cunning workmanship that are displayed in the arts and sciences now known to man, and revelation from heaven for still further advancement in the knowledge of every handicraft and means of adornment, to beautify the cities and temples that will be built by the people of God in these last days. We expect to see the time when we shall not be at all inferior to any of the nations of the earth, in the production of works of art and in scientific skill and knowledge; even now there is incorporated within the pale of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, mechanical ingenuity that is equal to any to be found among the civilized nations of the world; and as our community grows in wealth and importance, and raw material sufficient is accumulated, and our necessities and wants increase, all this artistic skill and genius, which at present lies dormant, will be called into active use, for the bone, sinew and knowledge are here. Our first great object in life is to build up the Kingdom of God. If it is to sow wheat to sustain the people, be it so; our families want bread, as do also the families of the Elders who have gone abroad to preach the Gospel, and our mechanics; we are also under the necessity of producing many other articles of food, besides bread, to supply that variety of diet, which, in a great measure through our traditions, our nature craves. If it is to build cities and temples or to do the other labors which belong to the building up of the Kingdom of God, be it so; all this is right, everything in its time and season.

Brother Taylor has given us a very correct history and statement, with regard to the line of demarcation between the savage and the civilized. Civilization is simply the spirit of improvement, in learning and civil manners. The world may be said to have advanced in this so far as the arts and sciences are concerned; but, with these, they have mingled wicked ideas and practices, of which the heathen and barbarian would be ashamed, and of which they are entirely ignorant. We now live in the midst of the latter; they do not believe in making any improvements, that will better their condition in the least. Their forefathers were once enlightened, and their knowledge was in advance of the knowledge of the present age. These natives belong to the house of Israel, and are embraced in the promises and covenants made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; but through their forefathers transgressing the law of God, and breaking their covenants made with God, he hid his face from them, and they were left alone to follow the devices of their own evil hearts, until the whole race has sunk deep into barbarism. It is written in the Book of Mormon: “And because of their cursing which was upon them, they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.” The Lord has taken from this race any disposition for improvement even to this day; the best of them consider it a disgrace to work. Whatever drudgery is performed is done by their squaws, or by slaves captured from neighboring, tribes or bands. Ask any of them to work; the reply is, “me big Indian, me no work.” This is their idea touching greatness. But their ancient Prophets have spoken good concerning them. It is prophesied by Nephi as follows: “For after the book [Book of Mormon] of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed [the present American Indians.] And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore they shall be restored to the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers. And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hands of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes, and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people.” The laboring man, the ingenious, industrious and prudent man, the man who lays himself out to advance the human family in every saving principle for happiness, for beauty and excellency, for wisdom, power, greatness and glory is the true benefactor of his race; he is the gentleman, the honorable, high-minded citizen of the world, and is worthy the society and admiration of the great and wise among all nations, though he may be destitute of wealth and title; he is a civilized man.

I wish to say a few words to our young men. My friends, it would give me great pleasure if you would mark my words well. As quick as you are old enough, learn to think for yourselves, and to look life’s stern realities fairly in the face, and learn to know yourselves, and your power and opportunities for doing good. When I was sixteen years of age, my father said to me, “You can now have your time; go and provide for yourself;” and a year had not passed away before I stopped running, jumping, wrestling and the laying out of my strength for naught; but when I was seventeen years of age, I laid out my strength in planing a board, or in cultivating the ground to raise something from it to benefit myself. I applied myself to those studies and persuits [pursuits] of life that would commend me to every good person who should become acquainted with me although, like other young men, I was full of weakness, sin, darkness and ignorance, and labored under disadvantages which the young men of this community have not to meet. I sought to use language on all occasions, that would be commendable, and to carry myself in society, in a way to gain for myself the respect of the moral and good among my neighbors. When I was invited to drink liquor, I said, as I would now say, “I am much obliged to you, but I do not use ardent spirits.” When young men pursue this course, they beget for themselves unbounded confidence in their friends and acquaintances; they can be trusted when money or property is commit[t]ed to their care, because they are honest, economical, and prudent, and will do right; where-ever or whenever you meet them, you will find them bearing the deportment of gentlemen, towards every person with whom they come in contact, whether old or young. We, of all people upon the earth, should know, as a community, the best how to regulate our morals, feelings and passions. We should know how to train up our children in the ways of the Lord, that they may be a credit to us, as parents, and as citizens of the Kingdom of God.

It is a shame to a man, who is made after the image of God, not to have control over his tongue, in the moments of passion or rage; let him first overcome and govern his passion, and then trust himself to speak, whether he be in the presence of his family or alone. “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” When we speak, let us speak good words; when we think, think good thoughts; and when we act, perform good acts; until it shall become the delight of every man and woman to do good instead of evil, and to teach righteousness by example, and precept rather than unrighteousness. The men and women who pursue this course are entitled to all the blessings of heaven, both temporal and spiritual, and such blessings will be bestowed upon them as fast as they are prepared to properly apply, use, and enjoy them.

I will here say to parents, that kind words and loving actions towards children, will subdue their uneducated natures a great deal better than the rod, or, in other words, than physical punishment. Although it is written that, “The rod and reproof give wisdom; but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame,” and, “he that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes;” these quotations refer to wise and prudent corrections. Children who have lived in the sunbeams of parental kindness and affection, when made aware of a parent’s displeasure, and receive a kind reproof from parental lips, are more thoroughly chastened, than by any physical punishment that could be applied to their persons. It is written, that the Lord “shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth.” And again it is written, “a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back.” The rod of a parent’s mouth, when used in correction of a beloved child, is more potent in its effects, than the rod which is used on the fool’s back. When children are reared under the rod, which is for the fool’s back, it not unfrequently occurs, that they become so stupified and lost to every high-toned feeling and sentiment, that though you bray them in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not their foolishness depart from them. Kind looks, kind actions, kind words, and a lovely, holy deportment towards them, will bind our children to us with bands that cannot easily be broken; while abuse and unkindness will drive them from us, and break assunder every holy tie, that should bind them to us, and to the everlasting covenant in which we are all embraced. If my family; and my brethren and sisters, will not be obedient to me on the basis of kindness, and a commendable life before all men, and before the heavens, then farewell to all influence. Earthly kings and potentates obtain influence and power by terrorism, and maintain it by the same means. Had I to obtain power and influence in that way, I should never possess it in this world nor in the next.

Fathers who send their little boys and girls on the plains and ranges, to herd their cattle and sheep, and drag them out of bed very early in the morning, to go out in the cold and wet, perhaps without shoes and but scantily clad otherwise, are cruel to their offspring, and when their children arrive at years of maturity, they will leave the roof under which they have received such oppression, and free themselves from the control of parents, who have acted towards them, more like task-masters than natural protectors. It is in this unnatural school that our thieves have their origin, and where they receive their first lessons in dishonesty and wild recklessness. Mark the path in which a number of our boys have travelled, from the time they were eight or ten years of age, to sixteen, eighteen and twenty. Have they been caressed and kindly treated by their parents, sent to school, and when at home taught to read good books, taught to pray themselves, and to hear their parents pray? Have they been accustomed to live and breathe in a peaceful, quiet, heavenly influence when at home? No. Then can you wonder that your children are wild, reckless and ungovernable? They care not for a name, or standing in society, Every noble aspiration is blunted; for they are made to go here or there, like mere machines, at the beck and call of tyrant parents, and are uncultivated and uncivilized. This picture will apply to a few of our young men. Let parents treat their children as they themselves would wish to be treated, and set an example before them that is worthy of you as Saints of God. Parents are responsible before the Lord, for the way in which they educate and train their children, for “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”

We are here chiefly for the purpose of encouraging the people of this Ward, to take out a portion of the waters of Weber, to irrigate the thousands of acres of excellent land, that is now lying waste around them. Counting the cost was a practice among the Jews, for, says Jesus, “which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, ‘this man began to build, and was not able to finish.” But, counting the cost may possibly be done in such a way, that a man would not allow himself to perform the least duty of a public character, without first stopping to enquire whether it will pay, or how much it will cost him; and if he fails to see an immediate return of an immense interest for present outlays, he clutches his money or his property, and covets that which belongs to the Lord, and over which he is only a steward. It seldom happens, however, that the very excellent practice of counting the cost—excellent when employed at the proper time and on proper occasions—is called into requisition when human pride has to be pampered and satisfied, and thousands, in consequence of not foreseeing the result of present unwise expenditures, have found themselves in a state of insolvency, and while in this state they are robbed of their peace, and have bitterness and gall in the stead thereof. I would not have the Saints count the cost in the way the wicked, avaricious world do; for true Saints always have a fund of faith, to join with their labor and means, which should be taken into account, and no true Saint will be contented to be curtailed, within the limited boundaries which dollars and cents give. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” It is also written, that, “by faith Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” That, “through faith,” the ancients, “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,” etc.

Should the brethren say that they cannot bring out the waters of Weber, I cannot believe them, until they have applied their faith, their means, and their labor, and then fail in the accomplishment of the work. I might inquire how much it will cost me and my company, to make the present visit to Kaysville and Ogden City. No body will think of this expenditure; I shall not think of it; my brethren, who accompany me, will not think of it; it never comes into our minds what it costs us, but how much good we can do our brethren and sisters, in encouraging them to faithfully perform every duty of a public and private character; so, when the Saints are required to embark in any public enterprise, the word should not be, “can I do it,” or “am I able to do it? What will it cost, and will it pay, etc?” but, “it is a work for the public good, and we can do it, by going at it with a will and determination, that will make every obstacle, imaginary and real, vanish away.”

When we say we cannot do a work, which is embraced within the limits of possibility, it will generally be found that we cannot do it, because we are unwilling to do it. If you bring out the Weber, at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, (I think however, that the work will not cost that,) and you do not cultivate one acre more than is now under cultivation, and have all the water you need, you will probably get back the amount of your outlay in two years, and it may be in the first year. I have not made estimates on this; however, I am safe in saying, that the increase of wealth to this ward will be immense. You can open a ditch large enough to supply your present wants, and afterwards you can enlarge it to carry sufficient water, to give water privileges to new land, on the route of the canal, that will more than pay for it three times over. We have the choice of two things: either to supply our farms and city lots with more water, by bringing out the large streams, or to contract our cultivated land. I say to the people of this neighborhood, and every other neighborhood in the Territory, that we cannot keep the grass on our ranges; it is eaten off; and the roots are died out, and weeds spring up in stead; let us bring out the waters of our large streams, and fence in our meadows and ranges, and produce abundance of rich and nutritious grasses, by watering the land, and judiciously grazing it, and keep our cattle within our own fields; and in this way people will gain wealth faster, than by having their cattle running wild, in the valleys and on the hills; we will also become richer in grain, fruit and vegetables, and we can better handle that which we have got; but, at present much of our wealth is out of our reach. I have hundreds of head of cattle, which I have raised in my barn yard, and cannot use this means to benefit myself, because it is out of my reach; then we have between twelve and fifteen hundred head of horses, worth over a hundred thousand dollars, and yet that property is in such a condition, that we could not realize one thousand dollars of available means from that whole band, and we are continually losing animals.

The Lord puts wealth into our hands, and we suffer it to waste, instead of laying it out to usury, and I have often said to the Latter-day Saints: let us see to it, how we use the mercies of the Lord, lest he should give us cursings, instead of blessings. God bless you Amen.

Sunday, Nov. 13, 1864

This people, the Latter-day Saints, are of one heart and mind respecting the spiritual things of the Kingdom of God; in temporal things they have not yet become so well united. Brother George Q. Cannon this morning referred to affairs, that took place in Kirtland. Some of the leading men in Kirtland were much opposed to Joseph the Prophet, meddling with temporal affairs, they did not believe that he was capable of dictating to the people upon temporal matters, thinking that his duty embraced spiritual things alone, and that the people should be left to attend to their temporal affairs, without any interference whatever from Prophets or Apostles. Men in authority there would contend with Joseph on this point, not openly, but in their little Councils. After a while the matter culminated into a public question; it became so public that it was in the mouth of almost every one. In a public meeting of the Saints, I said “Ye Elders of Israel, Father Smith is present, the Prophet is present, and here are his counsellors, here are also High Priests and Elders of Israel, now, will some of you draw the line of demarcation, between the spiritual and the temporal in the Kingdom of God, so that I may understand it?” Not one of them could do it. When I saw a man stand in the path before the Prophet to dictate him, I felt like hurling him out of the way, and branding him as a fool. I finally requested them, either to draw the line of demarcation, between spiritual and temporal things, or [f]or ever afterwards hold their peace on that subject.

I do not believe it is my prerogative to preach a doctrine I do not practice myself; neither is it the privilege of any other Elder of this Church; still we do it. I have frequently requested Legislators, Councillors, and other public men, never to oppose a principle or measure, they cannot improve. This is a general rule; but there may be exceptions.

I defy any man on earth to point out the path a Prophet of God should walk in, or point out his duty, and just how far he must go, in dictating temporal or spiritual things. Temporal and spiritual things are inseperably connected, and ever will be. The first act that Joseph Smith was called to do by the angel of God, was, to get the plates from the hill Cumorah, and then translate them, and he got Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery to write for him. He would read the plates, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, and they would write. They had to either raise their bread from the ground, or buy it, and they had to eat and drink, and sleep, and toil, and rest, while they were engaged in bringing forth the great Work of the last days. All these were temporal acts, directed by the spirit of revelation.

With regard to Joseph the Prophet being a financier, I will say this for his credit: if the Saints had gone forth with their whole heart, mind and strength, as individuals and as a community, to perform the labor and the duties Joseph dictated, God would have blessed such to the people, they having done the best they could. I believe that, as much as I know that the sun shines. Joseph Smith never tolerated in the least, indolence, idleness, slothfulness, drunkenness, or anything of the kind wherein exists sin. There are brethren here who were personally acquainted with Joseph, and who have known him probably as long as I have. If ever Joseph got wrong, it was before the public, in the face and eyes of the people; but he never did a wrong in private that I ever knew of. In his private instructions to the Saints, the Angel Gabriel could not have given better instructions than he gave, and which he continued to do until his death. He gave as good counsel as the Savior did according to his knowledge; but as to his being as exemplary as Jesus was, I cannot say, for we know but little of the life of the Savior. When he entered on the ministry, he was thirty years of age, and he labored three years. We have only a few items of the life of the Savior, and of the Apostles; and we have but very little of the doings and sayings, which transpired in the lives of the ancient Prophets. As to the character of the Savior, I have nothing to say, only that he is the Savior of the world, and was the best man that ever lived on this earth, and my firm conviction is, that Joseph Smith was as good a man, as any Prophet or Apostle that ever lived upon this earth, the Savior excepted. I wanted to say so much for brother Joseph.

I care not who plants and who waters, who trades here, or goes to that city, to trade and do business, who buys goods in the States, or sells them in these valleys, it is the Lord who gives to every man, that which he possesses on the earth; it is the free gift of God, whether we be Saints or sinners. “I returned, and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” “Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.” Men are successful when the Lord blesses them, and strews their path with success to make them wealthy, this cometh to pass, not by the wisdom of man, but through the providences of the Almighty.

Knowledge of the Saints a Cause of Consolation Under Affliction, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks made on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 1864, at the funeral of J. S. Kimball, son of President H. C. Kimball, who departed this life on 27 Nov. 1864.

After singing, prayer was offered up by Elder G. Q. CANNON, when President B. YOUNG arose and said:

When we are called upon, to pay our last respects to the remains of our friends, and to consign to the tomb that which belongs to it, and to condole with the relations of the departed loved ones, we are brought face to face with one of the stern realities of our existence, and the moans and sorrows of the bereaved, lacerate our feelings with anguish. To part with our children is very grievous; it overwhelms us with pain and sorrow; but we have this ordeal to meet and pass through. It might appear that we should become passive and unconcerned, when so common an occurrence as death overtakes our children and friends; that it would cease to excite gloomy and mo[u]rnful feelings within us; this, however, is not the case, although the Saints are more moderate in their lamentations for the dead than the rest of the world. This moderation in their grief, arises from their superior knowledge of principles, which pertain to the inner life, and the immortality of the soul. “Now, what do we hear in the Gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy; how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things; and that say unto Zion thy God reigneth. As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them.” Again, it is written. “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch as thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those, that have not hope of a glorious resurrection [resurrection]. And it shall come to pass that those who die in me, shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them; and they that die not in me, we unto them, for their death is bitter.”

While the sympathies of our hearts, are drawn out for those who mourn the loss of dear ones, at the same time it gives us comfort, and happiness and rejoicing to see that the departed have made themselves so loved and respected as to call from their friends, such manifestations of love and respect. These displays of tenderness are more marked, in those who live the nearest to the Lord, not so much by wild, ungovernable bursts of anguish[e]s in cries and tears, as by a grief that is chaste and subdued, by the knowledge of the future state of the spirits of the departed, and the hope of the resurrection from the dead. We are not ignorant concerning them which are asleep, nor sorrow as others which have no hope: “For, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” If we mortals, are so sensitive at the loss of our friends, what must be the sensations of those who have passed from mortality to immortality—who are made holy, and drink at the fountain of all intelligence, and are filled with the glory and power of God in the heavens—who are sanctified and glorified—and who can see and understand the awful consequences of sin, and disobedience to the commandments of God—when their friends wander from the path of truth, until they are forever separated, both in this world and in the next? Their grief must be very intense, yet they no doubt possess corresponding intelligence, power, and ability to over come their sensations, and to submit patiently to all the dispensations that affect this and that existence with which they and we are so intimately connected. What must be the feelings of our Father in heaven, at the disobedience of his children! And what must be the feelings of our fathers, who are behind the veil, when their children despise the counsels of the Lord, and neglect their duties to themselves, and to the Kingdom of God upon the earth, for such a course will lead to their everlasting separation! The Lord says of Israel of old, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” What love and sorrow is conveyed in this quotation!

We have hope, that when we are called to separate with our friends here, it is only for a short season, for we shall soon go to them. This hope, which is blooming with immortality and eternal life, is not enjoyed by the wicked world; hence, we do not mourn as they do, at the loss of our friends. It is very grievous to be robbed of our children by death; still it is right, and such afflictions are pregnant with good to the faithful. When we, as the people of God, perform our duties according to the best of our abilities, and are united therein, there is no circumstance that can transpire in this life, that will not be overruled for our best possible good. This we shall see by-and-bye. When the Lord suffers children of all ages to be taken from us, it is for our good, and for theirs. Let us learn to receive the providences of God cheerfully, and with a kind submission, relying upon him, for our confidence, our hope and our all is in him, and all things shall work together for our good. I am well satisfied of this.

Questions are often asked, why our children die, why they are not permitted to live, to fill their earthly destiny, and become fathers and mothers of their race. Many are the physical causes, which lead to the death of our children and friends, before they have lived out the days allotted to them, that, in consequence of our ignorance of the laws of life and health, we are not yet able to overcome; neither have we yet attained to faith sufficient to overcome disease and death entirely in our families. But the Lord has not left us without consoling words for our comfort, when we lose our children, for it is written: “but, behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten: wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me, for it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers.”

It is hard for the mother of the deceased boy before us, to part with her son. It wrings from her heart bitter anguish, to see him committed to an untimely grave; but we ought not to allow any great sorrow, to wear upon our mortal tabernacles so as to waste them away, and cut us off from performing that good, which we otherwise might live to perform. Though we cannot altogether avoid grief under sore trials, yet we can overcome excessive sorrow, through faith in the Lord Jesus, and by calling upon the Father in his name—and that is all we can do. I can sympathize with brother Heber C. Kimball and his wives, in their bereavements, for they have lost many children, as well as others of our brethren and sisters. But, it is consoling to think, that when our children are taken from the earth in their infancy, they are safe, for they are redeemed, and of such is the Kingdom of heaven: they have the promise of a glorious resurrection [resurrection], to share in glory with those, who are brought forth, to enjoy the blessings of the sanctified. This is a matter of rejoicing to us; and the reflection ought to comfort the mourners, on the present occasion. It gives me no less joy to think, that the inhabitants of the earth, will not have to suffer and endure, the wrath of an angry God to all eternity. It gives me exceedingly great joy to understand, that every child that has been taken from this mortality to the spiritual world, from the day that mother Eve bore her first child to this time, is an heir to the celestial Kingdom and glory of God; and to understand also that the inhabitants of the earth who have been deprived of the fullness of the Gospel—who have been deprived of the privileges which we enioy—will be judged, in equity and truth, according to the deeds done in the body, and that every person will receive, according to his merits or demerits. But when members of the Kingdom of God—we who have received an unction from the Holy One—are froward in our ways, and will not abide the laws He has given unto us, but will violate our covenants with our Heavenly Father, and with one another, we are the ones that will suffer in the next existence, if we do not repent, and retrace our steps before it is too late; it is not those who have lived and died without law.

As a general thing, yea, almost without exception, the children of parents who are members of this Church, are good, true and faithful, and full of integrity. It is true, that, when they grow up to manhood, some of them turn away, and wander away from their parents; but, I do not think an instance can be pointed out, where a child has left his parents or parent, who has been trained according to the laws of the Gospel, with proper parental indulgence and restriction. If parents understood how to conduct themselves properly, towards their children, they would bind the affections of their children to them as firmly, speaking comparatively according to the intelligence they enjoy, as the affections of angels are bound to the Gods of eternity. The children of this people are good children. They have the same temptations to endure as others have, yet, almost without an exception, I can assure you that they are good, faithful and true. How important it is, that we should teach our children, the way of life and salvation, preserve them in the truth and in their integrity! These noble, God-like principles should be instilled in them in their youthful days, that when they grow up, they may never feel a disposition to deceive, or to commit iniquity, or turn away from the holy commandments of the Lord, but have power to control and govern themselves, subduing every inclination to evil, and every ungovernable temper, that they may secure to themselves eternal life. It is right to mourn over our dead. It is pleasing to the heavens when strong parental affection is manifested; it is justifiable before the heavens, for they are full of the affections and love that we only have in part, for ours is mixed with sin and impurity.

I can say to brother Heber C. Kimball and to his family, no matter whether your children exist in this life, or in the spirit world, they that put their trust in the Lord will never be destroyed; for the Lord will preserve his own, and the Psalmist has written, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” The seed of the righteous will never be found begging bread; for the Lord will provide for his people in the latter days. He has defended us so far, and has fought our battles, has led us to victory, and blessed us with houses and lands, with friends, and with an abundance of the comforts of life. We are filled with peace, joy and consolation. We mingle with those who love the truth; and this is one of the greatest boons, that can be enjoyed by those who love the truth, and delight in it. We are not under the necessity of mingling with the ungodly; we may see them in our streets, and in our houses occasionally; but we are not obliged to fellowship their wickedness; we can keep ourselves perfectly aloof, from their wicked influences. We are not under the necessity, of hearing the name of the God we love and serve blasphemed, or of hearing good men spoken evil of and reviled; for, if we try to avoid witnessing such evils, we can do so for ourselves and for our children, and lead the latter forth in the knowledge of God. I say to this family, and to the brethren and sisters, who have met here to condole with them, may God bless you all. Do not be cast down, sister Ellen; but bear up as well as you can under this bereavement. To part with our children wrings our hearts; Then let us never conduct ourselves in that way towards them, that will cause us mourning when they are laid upon the bier; but let our treatment of our children be such, that, if they should be laid a lifeless corpse before us, we may feel happy and satisfied on that account.

Elder George Q. Cannon was then invited to speak, who said:—

I do not know that I can add anything that will be any more consolatory to the mourners, than what has already been spoken. While listening to brother Brigham’s remarks there were some reflections that passed through my mind, which to me were consolatory and edifying. We are in reality, while in this mortality, aliens and strangers. We are far distant from our father’s house, living in a cold world far removed from those affections which we doubtless have experienced in the spirit world, and which we will again enjoy, if we are faithful to the trust reposed in us on the earth. In one of the revelations given to Enoch it is said: “And the Lord said unto Enoch, then shall you and all your city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us, and we shall fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other; and there shall be my abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made, and for the space of a thousand years shall the earth rest.” This quotation describes how happy will be the meeting of the faithful with their Father in heaven. Our old affections, of which we know but little at this time, will be revived, and we shall enjoy ourselves, with a joy that to us is inexpressible now. It is right that the ties should be strengthened between us and the spirit world. Every one who departs from this mortal state of existence only adds another link to the chain of connection—another tie to draw us nearer to our Father and God, and to those intelligences which dwell in his presence. I have seen this illustrated by the Saints in foreign countries, sending their friends and relatives from Babylon to Zion. When they have sent their friends to Zion, they feel a greater interest in Zion than they ever did; for they have somebody there to meet, probably a son, a daughter, a father, a mother, or some friend who has preceded them to Zion, and it is astonishing the effect the departure of such a relative or friend has had on them; they feel more stimulated and encouraged, and look forward to going to Zion with feelings they did not have before. It is somewhat similar with us in this mortal condition. Those of us who have lost children, brothers and sisters and parents, feel an increased interest in the spirit world; the ties between such and the spirit world, have become binding, and we can contemplate, if not with delight, at least with no great sorrow, our removal from this state of existence to the next. In the providence of God it is right that these earthly ties should be weakened, to convince us that we are not in the condition the Lord wishes us to remain in. We are here in a state of temptation, sin and sorrow, and he desires us to look forward to a better world—to a state of happiness far beyond that which we at present enjoy. As our friends continue to pass from this state to that better world, we who remain, feel an increased interest therein, and feel stimulated to look forward with increased joy to the time when we shall be united. I recollect that when I lost my mother in boyhood, I could contemplate death with pleasure. I reflected upon the idea of leaving this existence with feelings that were the opposite of dread; but, since I have grown up to manhood, and have taken upon me its duties and cares, and am surrounded with other ties and associations, those feelings of indifference to life are considerably weakened; yet, when I reflect upon my children, which I have yielded up to death, and my many friends who have gone behind the vail, I can think of death with different feelings than if I had no friends gone to that land, where the wicked cease to trouble. The Latter-day Saints have hopes and anticipations, which none besides them can indulge in; because we have a knowledge of the Gospel which buoys us up under these earthly afflictions, and assures us that we shall be united with our friends again. It is not a matter of doubt or speculation with us; but it is with us a matter of knowledge. God has given us the testimony of his Spirit, which bears witness to our spirits that we shall again be united with our departed friends after death. Our mortal tabernacles may sleep, but our spirits are eternal, and, if faithful here, we shall enjoy an immortality in the presence of God, that will amply reward us for all that we may suffer on earth. May God bless and comfort brother Heber and sister Ellen, and his whole family, and all that pertains unto him, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

President Heber C. Kimball made the following remarks:

I will try to say a few words which I can do to-day better than I could yesterday, so intense was my sorrow for the loss of Joseph. This is the nineteenth child which I have buried, and if I continue to be faithful, as I have been thus far, I shall as sure be their eternal father as I am now their natural father.

It might be supposed that I should become used to the presence of the grim messenger, death, in my family, and not heed it so much; but the contrary is the case. My heart becomes more tender, the oftener it is wrung with sorrow and grief, for the loss of my children; and if I am getting used to it at all, it is in that way. Every child that I bury seems to be the best child I have got; but, when I think of it, I have concluded that, if it had been any other child but the one that is taken, I should have thought the same of that one. We are very apt not to appreciate the good in the living, and to magnify their faults; but, when dead, we forget their faults, and their virtue and goodness alone stand prominent. I should think this is more particularly so in the case of parents and children. I find that the older the child when taken away by death, the harder it is to part; for like the severing of a large limb from the trunk of a tree, the wound is larger, and mutilates the tree more than the severing of a smaller limb.

The longer our children live with us, the stronger grow the ties which bind us together. And I find that the more light and intelligence I get from heaven the more sensitive are my feelings; because light is sensitive, and if there were no light, there could be no sense. And the more I become like my Father in heaven, and like his son Jesus Christ, the more I love my children. I tried with all the power I had, to withstand the destroyer, which took possession of that boy; but I could not, and it had nearly overcome me with sorrow and affliction, until this morning, when I felt better. It does appear that when I place any reliance on a child, that child is taken from me. Sister Ellen’s hope was in that boy, to be a stay to her in her declining years, or perhaps when I was gone.

Joseph was a kind-hearted, obedient, good boy. He was fourteen years of age the third day of last April, and was an excellent scholar; I took pride in having him carefully educated. When our boys have been educated, and go to foreign parts to preach the Gospel, they are then exceedingly happy that they had improved themselves and gained useful information. It is so when persons leave this state of existence to go into the spirit world; for it is the spirit that becomes informed; it is the spirit that receives the truth, and the teachings of the Holy Ghost which showeth it things to come. It is not this house which I am now instructing, but it is the persons who dwell in it; so it is not the earthly house of this tabernacle that is instructed, so much as it is the spirit that dwells within it. When we are instructed by the gifts and power of the Holy Ghost, that knowledge is conveyed to us from heaven, and we are being informed in this world by knowledge which pertains to the next existence, that we may become exalted and glorified, the same as a man rises from one degree of knowledge and learning to another in an earthly seminary of education. Then the education and training we give our children in this world are not lost; but they are so far fitted and prepared for advancement in the next. Some of my children are good scholars; I keep them at school, and I try to lead them in the path of truth; and I also instruct their mothers to teach their children to come unto God. If any of my wives place their reliance and hope upon a child, that child is sure to be taken away from them. The Lord designs that I shall be the head and leader of my family, to guide them into His presence; and he will take away every prop in order to place everything where it should be. That remark is just as good for every other family as it is for mine. The Lord will take away every prop that I put my trust in outside of himself. When I was baptized into Him I put Him on, and should live in him, and should not rely upon any other but him; I should cleave unto him, and my family should cleave unto me, that we may be all one in Him.

I have no love for this world, and if it were not for the cause of God which I have espoused, and my family, and the Church and Kingdom of God, I would not turn my hand over whether I lived or died. The beareavements [bereavements] I have suffered affect me in this way; nevertheless, Thy will be done, O Lord. Ellen has now lost three children; they are in heaven, and when she goes there, she will find them there, as sure as we shall find the Prophets and Apostles and Patriarchs of this Church, who have gone there, and are seated with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There is a little army of my children gone before me, and will be there to welcome me when I go hence; and then look at the train that will follow after me! I believe that children behind the vail, have more sympathy, care and interest in the welfare of their friends in mortality than when they are here; and do they pray for father? Yes; just as much as I do. Can they approach the Lord more near than I can? Yes, and they no doubt pray, “O Lord God, I ask thee in the name of Jesus, to remember my good father, and my good brothers and sisters, who are still in mortality.”

Nineteen of my children are in the spirit world, and the parting with them has not given me as much sorrow, nor brought as many white hairs on my head, as those have done who now live. I have experienced this; others have experienced it, and will experience it in time to come; for they must have an experience in this as well as brother Heber. Am I an offcast because I am thus called to suffer? No; “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” I know this day that I have favor with God; and I would not do anything that would deprive me of this for the world and all that is in it. I would rather leave the world this moment, than live to sin against God. I say to my family take care of your children. Ellen, take care of the two you have living, and be satisfied with them. Be contented, and never complain against the providences of God. So I say unto all my family. Never be cross with one another. Joseph was never cross, he was always pleasant to all persons. Eight years ago he came near dying; I was impressed to ordain him a High Priest. I ordained him, and I do know that that had a saving effect upon the boy, and God has had respect to him. He now lives in the spirit; and I have joy in all these things. I stood near him until he breathed his last; but I could not prevail. This proved to me that I was a poor, weak, frail creature, that I was nothing more than the grass, or as a flower of the field; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. I have not one particle of power on this earth, only as God gives it to me. It is the power of Almighty God. I cannot stay his hand, and I am in his hand. I never was more sensible of this in my life than I now am. And I never saw my weakness to the extent that I do now. And I never saw the day when I felt the necessity of living faithful to God more than I do now—that my eyes should be opened and I be filled with the Almighty power of God.

I can see before and behind, and all around. It is my privilege to see the head, the feet, and every member there is in the Church of God, and feel as they feel; if we all could do this what a heavenly people we should be. God would defend us. He will do it now, for the sake of the righteous that dwell in our midst. The Church of God will triumph, while those who are rebellious and disobedient will see sorrow. This is my testimony. Brother Brigham, I say with all my heart, God bless you and yours, that you may live, and that the great power of God may be in you and increase upon you; and so I say unto all the Elders of Israel, that we may be one. And may the peace of God be upon this congregation that has come to condole with us. I am comforted. Death is swallowed up in life.

May God bless you all for evermore. Amen.

Importance of the Present Age to the Saints, etc.

Orson Hyde

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle in Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday, Dec. 18, 1864. Reported by E. L. Sloan.

I feel thankful, my brethren and sisters, for the privilege of once more meeting with you in this tabernacle. I feel thankful that so many of us are spared to meet together.

I need not reiterate in your hearing, that we are living in a most important day and age of the world—equally important to the Saints of the Most High as to the rest of mankind; for the present is fraught with events that should admonish us to live near to the Lord and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We have been tried in adversity. Many of us know what it is to be in the very depths of poverty and privation; and we now seem to have advanced into a measurable prosperity, in order that we may be proven and tried in another manner, and let it be known in the heavens and to the just on the earth whether we are able to abide prosperity as well as adversity.

There are so many things before me and in my mind that I hardly know what to speak upon and call your attention to. I do not know that it matters much, for the Saints are interested in everything that is good, comforting and cheering to the heart. I will say, however, that what was written beforetime was written for our profit and instruction, that we, through an understanding thereof, might have patience and hope. A great enterprise was determined upon by our Heavenly Father, and for this purpose he seemed to have inspired a certain individual with the manifestations of his will in dreams, and visions of the day, perhaps, also, of the night, and that individual was Joseph of old. It appears that in this son of the Patriarch Jacob the germs of greatness and power were manifest, not only to himself in his own reflections and thoughts, and by reason of the manifestations he received of the Divine will, but, also, to the satisfaction of his brethren that he was likely to aspire to, or be elevated to, dominion and government over them. This roused their envy and jealousy until they could not endure his presence. They sought to rid themselves of him, and contrived various plans and means to accomplish it, especially after he had told them his dream, that their sheaves had made obeisance to his sheaf as they were binding in the harvest-field. And then, to cap the climax, he told them he had had another dream, in which the sun and the moon and the eleven stars had made obeisance to him. Not only was he to have dominion and power over his brethren, but his father and mother, as well, were to recognize his power.

This created a jealousy that was satisfied only in his separation from them, and they sold him to certain Ishmaelitish merchants, who bore him away, a slave, into Egypt. Little did they think, as they saw him take his departure, with the camels of those merchants, that he was but a pioneer to open a way before them, and that they would actually have to follow on his track and seek succor at his hands. But in process of time it proved to be true, for the country from which he had been expelled, sold as a bondman and thrust away by force, was visited by famine, and he; by the interposition of Providence, was elevated to power in the land to which he had been banished. He had become a prince in that land; and its revenue and riches were under his control. His brethren were forced by famine to go down there; so were his father and their little ones. When they came to him and found him occupying a princely state it was overwhelming to them. They bowed down to him. He was a prince! The Almighty had blessed him and made him strong in the land to which they had banished him. Their very jealousy and envy had placed him on the road to greatness and power, and they were, themselves, compelled to seek succor from the brother they had hated and banished.

I have adverted to but few circumstances connected with the history of these individuals, for it would consume too much time to enter further into them. But enough has been said to show you the analogy that follows: We have been expelled from a certain country because our enemies discovered in us germs of power and greatness which aroused their jealousy and hatred, and they were determined to be rid of us. When they saw us leaving, to cross the vast plains that stretched before us, as we turned our backs upon the homes we had made with much labor and toil, they flattered themselves that they were rid of any dominion of ours, either real or imaginary. But little did they think, when they were doing so, that they were forcing us on a track they would have eventually to travel themselves. This was hid from their eyes.

The Saints did cross the plains to leave that country, and here we are; and who better than ourselves can appreciate the circumstances that now attend us. The Almighty has blessed us in this country; he has poured his blessings bounteously upon us, for which every heart here should beat with gratitude to the Most High. While war is desolating the country from which we came, we are here in peace, for which we should be thankful now that we are here. That element, that drove us away, not, perhaps, the first, but that very element is beginning to follow in our track. What is its policy? The policy no doubt, is to cease to invade as by force of arms. But another is adopted, more easily accomplished. What is it? Why, “We will oil our lips, and smooth our tongues, and ingratiate ourselves into your favor; we will mingle and co-mingle with you as brothers, and lead you away; we will contaminate you, and by pouring wealth into your laps, we will make you indifferent to your God, your faith and your covenants.” The object is to destroy those germs of greatness which Heaven has planted in our souls, at which they feel alarmed—germs of greatness which, if cultivated, will lead us to wield a power to which the nations will have to bow, as the nations had to bow to that Joseph who was sold into Egypt.

Another circumstance I will call your attention to. In the first place, every great enterprise is attended with its difficulties, its hardships and oppositions, for there must needs be opposition in all things. We are told that in the year 1492 this American continent was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Look at the exertions made by him to obtain the necessary means to effect the discovery. It required ships, means and men to enable him to make his way across the trackless deep to find a country which, to him, seemed necessary to balance the earth. The Spirit of God came upon him, and he had no rest day nor night until he accomplished what the Spirit wrought upon him to do. He went first to one place and then to another to procure help. He applied to different crowned heads, and received rebuffs and discouragements. He was poor; the plans of Jehovah are mostly carried out by humble and poor individuals. So it was with Columbus; he was poor, but daring and persevering, and with a soul formed within his bosom to undertake and prosecute the great enterprise that was to bring to light a vast continent reserved in the providence of God as the theatre of great events in a period that was then in the future. By the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, he obtained three small vessels, old and almost rotten, poorly manned and badly provisioned. It was not because they believed he would be successful, but like the unjust judge with the poor widow, they desired to get rid of his importunities. The unjust judge had no very strong feelings in favor of the widow, but that he might be rid of her importunings he hearkened to her prayer. So did they serve Columbus. They said they would fit him out and send him away, and he might go on his explorations for the imaginary country he fancied lay towards the west. If they had had any faith that he would be successful they would have fitted him out with the best ships that any navies of the time could have afforded, manned with sufficient men and supplied with all the necessary equipments; and then they would have said, Go and prosper and the God of the seas pioneer your course. But they had no faith in the enterprise; they wanted to stop his importunings and get rid of him.

When we look back at our history, we find a certain analogy in it to that of this man. Our enemies wanted to get rid of us. We applied to the powers that be, for aid and succor. What did we receive in response to our applications? Silence in some cases; contempt in others. And when we had to sell out, it was not with old rotten ships that they paid us, but with old rotten wagons, old spavined horses, and other things equally worthless. Then they said—Go and do the best you can. They thought they had given us an outfit that would last us until our destruction would be consummated: they imagined it would last us until we got beyond what they pleased to call civilization; but thinking that, perhaps, we might live through all, they demanded five hundred of our best men, while in camp in the wilderness, leaving our camp to the care of cripples and old men and women, in the midst of an Indian country. But we lived.

Little did Ferdinand and Isabella think that Columbus was leading the way that all Europe would have to follow. If they had so thought, they would have given him better ships, and a better outfit. But when they found he had opened a new country, rich and bountifully productive, behold the surface of the ocean was whitened with the sails of vessels, bearing their living freights crowding to seek fortune in the new continent that spread itself invitingly before them. All Europe, figuratively speaking, followed in his track, and spread themselves over the face of the land. But see what these adventures have come to. This country discovered by him, is enveloped in war; and if you live a few years longer you will see much of the land that has been blessed with unequalled prosperity from the east to the west, a wilderness and a desolation; and this will be in consequence of the abuse of the blessings bestowed upon it by, those who enjoyed them. If I mistake not, a certain Senator said to a Senator from Louisiana, “What are you going to do with Louisiana?” “Why,” was the reply, “Louisiana was a wilderness when we bought her from France, and if she secede we will make her a wilderness again.” If the land does not become a wilderness and a desolation, we do not see correctly—we do not understand correctly the revelations which the Almighty has given us. The scripture says, that in the last days His people will go forth and build up the waste places of Zion. But they must first be made desolate, before they can be called “the waste places of Zion.” Then the hands of the Saints will be required to build them up.

Compare the coming of the Saints here, with the banishment of Joseph into Egypt, and the manner in which Columbus was sent off on his perilous exploration, and note the conclusion that follows. The world dreaded the germs of greatness which they saw in the Saints. They dreaded the power that seemed to attend them. They were almost at war with us because we were united. They disliked the idea of our being politically one, they wanted us to be of different parties. But when they saw we were united, they said, “There is a power that is destined to make them great, to exalt them.” And let me say here to the Saints, be you united and be one with your leader and you will as surely ascend to power and elevation in the earth as Joseph of old did in the land of Egypt. We are here, and in unity. We are not destroyed when I look at our condition at the present time, I cannot but feel that we should be thankful to the Lord, every day of our lives.

I was once in business, in the East, in the mercantile line, and we used to sell our common unbleached factory at 16 2/3 cents a yard. A yard of factory brought a bushel of oats. When I see that the Saints can now get three yards of factory for a bushel of oats—three times as much for their produce, “in this God-forsaken country,” so called by some, as we could get when we were in the east, I have said, what but the hand of God could have done it. I feel that the hand of God is over this people. Then why, in the day of prosperity, should we permit our hearts to run after the things of this world, and not permit our feelings and affections to be cent[e]red in this Kingdom, and use the riches of this world as we use the waters of the ocean—not enter into them to be engulphed [engulfed] by them, but glide over them to power and greatness as the ship moves onward to her destined port.

Brethren and sisters, be faithful—be true to the Lord our God. Though you should not get so much of this world’s goods, be sure your hearts are in unison with the God of heaven. May the peace of Israel be and abide with you, and with those who guide the destinies of Israel from this time henceforth and for ever: Amen.