Journal of Discourses

Volume 18

By President Brigham Young,

His Counselors, and the Twelve Apostles.

Reported by D. W. Evans, Geo. F. Gibbs, and Others, and Respectfully Dedicated to the Latter-day Saints in All the World.

Liverpool: Printed and Published by Joseph F. Smith, 42, Islington.
London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 20, Bishop’s Grove, Ball’s Pond Road, Islington.

1877

Journal of Discourses, Volume 18. Kindle edition published December 2010 by Ben Crowder. Updated January 2012.

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Table of Contents

Original page numbers are in parentheses.

- Preface

- Man, the Offspring of God, a Dual Being—Immediate Revelation—Operate With the Priesthood, by John Taylor (1–2)

- There is Cause for Rejoicing—The Hand of Divine Providence Over the Saints—Pleased With Being a Territory—Maintain the Right—Be True to Principle, by George Q. Cannon (2–13)

- Cooperation a True Principle—Saints Must Be Self-Sustaining—Patronize Home Manufacturers—Home Industrial Institutions, by George Q. Cannon (13–16)

- Gathering of Israel—The Work of the Father Commenced—Three Nephite Apostles Never to Taste of Death—The Ten Tribes Come to Zion From the North Countries, by Orson Pratt (16–29)

- Little Children Are Innocent, and All Will Be Saved—God, a Personage of Tabernacle—The Life of the Savior, a Life of Suffering—Second Coming of Christ, by Wilford Woodruff (29–40)

- Immediate Revelation—Spiritual Gifts Necessary in the Christian Church—Apostasy—The Restoration of the Gospel—All Things to Be Gathered in One—Divine Authority—Marriage—Celestial Marriage—Baptism for the Dead, by Orson Pratt (41–57)

- Resurrection of the Saints—Second Advent of the Messiah—Preparatory Work—Return of the Jews to Jerusalem—Gathering of the Saints to Zion—Christ’s Personal Reign, by Orson Pratt (57–69)

- Present Revelation Necessary to Lead the Church—The Apostleship—Present Revelation Necessary for All—Evils of Waste, Intemperance, and Extravagance—True Reformation is to Cease from Doing Evil, by Brigham Young (70–77)

- The United Order—How Unity is to be Attained—Reform Necessary—The Order of the Kingdom of God—Stewardships, by John Taylor (78–82)

- The Pleasure of Serving God—Importance of the Gathering—Necessity of Obedience to the Priesthood, by George Q. Cannon (82–88)

- God Preserves His People—Internal Foes the More Dangerous—Redemption of the Dead—The Priesthood, by Joseph F. Smith (89–94)

- The Blessing of Life for Evermore—The Lord Commanded the United States Government to Purchase Freedom for Their Slaves—Reformation Necessary that the Saints May Progress Faster—Salvation Comes By Faithfulness and Endurance in Christ, by Daniel H. Wells (95–102)

- Self Preservation—United Order—Individual Stewardships—Home Manufactures, by George Q. Cannon (103–108)

- Parable of the Ten Virgins—Importance of the Last Dispensation—Responsibilities Resting Upon the Elders—Judgments at the Door—The Lamanites—Home Manufactures—Laying Up Wheat, by Wilford Woodruff (109–122)

- The Resurrection—Laying the Cornerstone of the Temple in Jackson County—Mission of the Twelve Apostles—Baptism of Nearly Six Hundred of the “United Brethren”—The Saints Hold the Keys of Salvation for All Israel—Judgments Await the Wicked—Folly of the Fashions, by Wilford Woodruff (122–130)

- On the Dedication of the New Tabernacle, by Orson Pratt (131–132)

- What the Lord Requires of His Saints, by Joseph F. Smith (133–135)

- The Purposes of God—Duties and Responsibilities of the Saints, by John Taylor (136–143)

- Fulfillment of Prophecy—The Desert Watered and the Wilderness Made Fruitful—Zion in the Valleys of the Mountains—Increase of Her Families Like a Flock—Her Peace, Plenty, and Prosperity, by Orson Pratt (144–155)

- Book of Mormon—Urim and Thummin—Appearance of a Holy Angel in 1829 to Four Persons—Their Testimony to the Truth of the Book of Mormon—Also Eight Other Witnesses—Isaiah’s Prophecy Relates to that Book—Ezekiel’s Prophecy, by Orson Pratt (155–168)

- Restoration of the Gospel, Probable and Spiritual—Sent First to the Gentiles, Then to Israel—This is a Gathering Dispensation, or the Fullness of Times—Destiny of all Nations, by Orson Pratt (169–186)

- Infidelity of the Christian World—Duties and Responsibilities of the Saints—Necessity of a Temple, and Works in Behalf of the Dead, by Wilford Woodruff (186–193)

- How God’s Purposes Are Fulfilled—Similarity of Ancient and Modern Church Government—Interview With Baron Rothschild—Object of Building Temples—The Perfect Organization of the Church of Christ—Works Indispensable to Salvation, by John Taylor (193–203)

- Unbelief of the Present Age—The Saints Called to Build up God’s Kingdom—Their Duties and Responsibilities, by Daniel H. Wells (203–207)

- The Gathering of the Saints is the Lord’s Work—Knowledge of the Gospel Attainable Only By Revelation—The Lord Dictated the Prophet Joseph Smith in All Things Pertaining to the Establishment of the Church of Christ Upon Earth, by John Taylor (208–211)

- Very Few Will Inherit Celestial Glory—Lust After the Things of the World Produces Apostasy—No Real Happiness Outside of Godliness—The Lord Requires the Hearts of the Children of Men, by Brigham Young (212–217)

- Simplicity and Unchangeableness of the Gospel—It Must Be Preached in All the World Before the Savior Comes—Duties and Responsibilities of the Saints, by Wilford Woodruff (217–222)

- Prophecies of Joseph Smith and Their Literal Fulfillment—The Rise of the Church and the Gathering—Martyrdom of the Saints and Flight of the Church to the Rocky Mountains—The Great United States Rebellion—The Gospel to Be Preached to the Gentiles; Then to the Jews—Plagues of the Last Days—Millennial Reign, by Orson Pratt (222–229)

- Personal Revelation the Basis of Personal Knowledge—Philosophic View of Creation—Apostacy Involves Disorganization and Return to Primitive Element—One-Man Power, by Brigham Young (230–235)

- Secret of Happiness—Self-Examination—Joseph Smith a Man of Obedience to God—Baptism for the Dead—Temporal and Spiritual One—A Dream—Order of Enoch, The Order of God—A Good Word for the Women, by Brigham Young (235–249)

- Visit to Sabbath Schools—Reflections on the Course we Pursue—Common Blessings Sometimes Undervalued—The Gospel Guarantees its own Testimony—Apostacy Rather an Evidence of Health, than a Symptom of Disease—Testimony, by George Q. Cannon (250–256)

- Philosophy of Man Upon The Earth—The Great and Grand Secret of Salvation—Are We One—Nature of Stewardship—Increase of Temples—Hear Ye, Mothers, by Brigham Young (257–264)

- Youthful Experiences—Preaching Without Purse and Scrip—Individual Testimony Abundant and Satisfactory—Joseph Smith not An Impostor—His Promises Fulfilled—Form of Church Organization Imperative—Its Restoration in Prophecy and Fact, by Orson Pratt (264–271)

- The Gospel Trumpet—Salvation More Than Baptism and the Laying on of Hands—Responsibilities of Believers—Labors and Opportunities of the Spirit World—The Office of the Holy Spirit—Knowledge of the Gospel, Certain and Sure—Its Fruits Good, and Manifest in the Lives of Those Who Receive It, by Joseph F. Smith (271–277)

- Position of the Latter-Day Saints—Protestantism Makes No Claim to Revelation—Priesthood, How Restored, Its Purpose—Persecution the Heritage of the Church—The People Must Know the Will of God, and Do It—Respect the Authorities; and Respect Our Profession—Avoiding All Evils, Cleave to the Good, by John Taylor (278–286)

- Salvation Tangible—Personality of God—Character of God—Pre-Existence of Man—Jesus Our Elder Brother—Transformation of the Earth—Creation and Organization—Its Final Destiny, the Home of the Saints—Revelations By Joseph Smith in Harmony With Scripture, by Orson Pratt (286–297)

- Apostolical Succession and Responsibility—Social Position Affords No Release From Responsibility—If the Office Does not Honor a Man, He is Called to Honor the Office—Man’s Future, Dependent on Integrity Here, by Lorenzo Snow (298–302)

- The Great Privilege of Having a Temple Completed—Past Efforts for this Purpose—Remarks on Conduct—Earth, Heaven, and Hell, Looking at the Latter-Day Saints—Running After Holes in The Ground—Arrangements for the Future, by Brigham Young (303–305)

- Respect to the Dead—Pre-Existence the Key to This—The Future Life Depends on This—The Latter-day Saints Dependent Upon Revelation for Their Knowledge of These Things—Life Persecutions As Nothing, Contrasted With the Promises Pertaining to the Future—Men’s Future Glories As Are the Laws They Abide, by John Taylor (306–313)

- Prophecies Unfulfilled—Changes in the Configuration of the Globe—Miracles the Result of Laws not Yet Perfectly Understood—The Re-Formation of the Earth—Its Character During the Millennium—Its Purification By Fire—The New Heavens and the New Earth—The Gospel the Celestial law, and Only Passport to Existence on a Celestialized Earth, by Orson Pratt (314–323)

- Burial Services, An Ancient Practice—God, the God of the Living—Keys Committed to Joseph Smith. The Last Dispensation—Jesus the Great Redeemer—An Everlasting Priesthood—The Powers of the Resurrection—Scriptural, Philosophical, and Certain—Sealing Powers Eternal, by John Taylor (324–335)

- Daniel’s Vision—Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream—Its Interpretation—The Coming of the Ancient of Days—Joseph Smith’s Prophecy—Things Yet to Be Fulfilled—The Valley of God Where Adam Dwelt—The Establishment of the Kingdom of God—The Coming Millennium and Triumph of the Saints, by Orson Pratt (335–348)

- Feelings in the Temple—Value of the Sacred Records—The Gospel Finds Testimony in Opposition—The Gospel Always the Same—Martyrs Versus Heroes—Ordinances for the Dead, by George Q. Cannon (349–353)

- The United Order—The Duty of the Priesthood—The Gospel not Communism—Teaching the People How to Live—Independence of Babylon—The Saints Will Continue to Spread—Unity of Purpose and Action, Will Bring Again Zion—Free Schools Criticized—Educational Status of Our Children, by Brigham Young (353–357)

- The Lord Rules—The Hand of God in Persecution—The Gospel Embraces All Truth—No Need of Worry, the Lord Will Deal Out Justice—Joseph Slain for the Gospel—The Dissatisfied Will Be Satisfied—Full of Blessing, by Brigham Young (358–362)

- Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods—Their Peculiarities and Jurisdiction—Building Temples—Gathering to Be Sanctified—Union and Blessing Its Results, by Orson Pratt (362–367)

- Prayer by President Daniel H. Wells, by Daniel H. Wells (368–371)

- Necessity for Effort—Regulation of Temporal Affairs—Consecration and Stewardship—Preparation for Building in Jackson County—Responsibility of Presidents—How Confidence is Created—The United Order—Desires for the Future, by Lorenzo Snow (371–376)

Preface

We now present the Eighteenth Volume of the Journal of Discourses to the Saints, and to all lovers of the Truth.

We feel confident that the important instructions on principle and doctrine therein contained, relative to the building of Temples, the salvation of the dead, the introduction of the Order of Enoch, and the general progress and development of the great Latter-day Work, will prove as interesting, gratifying and beneficial to the Saints and to posterity, as those that have been previously published through this medium.

We regret that the circulation of the is so limited. Its importance would warrant a thousand-fold greater extension of this work. We anticipate a time, not distant in the future, when a copy of the present volume will be more precious than gold. It is even now almost impossible to obtain a complete series. Copies should therefore be carefully preserved by all subscribers.

We also, with feelings of regret, chronicle here, which we think a befitting place, the death—on July 5, 1876—of Elder David W. Evans, to whom for many years we have been indebted for the reports of the discourses of the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles and others. His death being the cause of the temporary suspension of the publication of this journal.

In his demise the Saints have sustained the temporal loss of a faithful and worthy brother, and the public a devoted and able servant.

THE PUBLISHER

Man, the Offspring of God, a Dual Being, etc.

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered at the Forty-fifth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday morning, April 8, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

Continued From Page 376, Vol. 17.

We talk sometimes about the Priesthood. Who are we? Who are these Latter-day Saints before me to-day? Are they not the Priesthood? Are you not, really and truly, a kingdom of Priests? Do you not belong to the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Priests, the High Council, the Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons, or hold some office in the Church and kingdom of God? Is not this really and truly a fact? To a very great extent it is, not exclusively or entirely. Have you not received this Priesthood? Are you not responsible to God to carry out his purposes and designs, so far as they have been committed unto you, in relation to the building up and establishing of his kingdom and the introduction of righteousness upon the earth? Are you not engaged in these things? If you are not you ought to be, this is your calling and profession. What shall we do then? Humble ourselves before God, every one of us. We all need it. Humble yourselves, repent of your sins, and evils, and waywardness, of your iniquities, falsehood, covetousness, pride, haughtiness and corruptions of every kind, and lay them aside, and become men of truth, integrity, virtue, purity and honor, that your hearts and spirits and feelings may be pure before God. Say to the Lord—“Search me, oh God, and prove me, and if there is anyway of wickedness within me bid it depart, and let me live my religion, honor my God, walk in obedience to his laws, magnify my Priesthood, and prepare myself and my posterity for an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let me associate myself with those men of God who have gone before, and with God, and with Jesus, who is the Mediator of the New Covenant, that, all combined, we may roll on the work of God, and accomplish his purposes here upon the earth.

Why, some of these men you heard Elder Hyde talking about here the other day are beginning to visit the Lamanites. Somebody asked me why they did not come to some of us. Said I—“I do not know, but I think that if I was the father of these folks I should go to them first, seek after them first.” But no matter, let them operate and us operate, and God operate, and don’t let us stand in the way of God. Let us humble ourselves; let us reverence the Priesthood and honor those who are keeping the commandments of God and managing the affairs of his Church and kingdom on the earth. Let us operate also with the living Priesthood of all ages; with Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Prophets, Jesus, his Apostles, with Ether, Jared and his brother—Lehi, Alma, Moroni, Mormon, the Prophets and Apostles on this continent, and men that have held the same Priesthood that we do, and with them help our heavenly Father to establish and roll on this kingdom; to save the living and the dead and bring in everlasting righteousness, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

There is Cause for Rejoicing, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-fifth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday afternoon, April 8, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

There have been a number of items of interest touched upon by the brethren who have spoken during this Conference, and as it is a time when we meet together for the purpose of receiving general instructions, it seems to me very desirable that the time should be occupied in dwelling upon principles which immediately pertain to our condition and present circumstances. In the remarks which I shall make this afternoon, I trust I shall be led to speak upon those things which immediately concern us, and which pertain to our daily lives.

I rejoice exceedingly in this opportunity, that is, the opportunity of being present at Conference. I believe that I can appreciate it better than I could possibly have done had I been here all the time during the winter. I have, however, during my absence, enjoyed myself better than I could have expected. I have felt that the Lord has been with us as a people, that his power has been manifested in our behalf, and that, so far as the prospects of Zion in the future are concerned, we have abundant reason to be thankful and rejoice. I know that the hope is indulged in in many quarters that the Latter-day Saints are fast losing that faith for which they have been noted, and by the operation of which they have been enabled to accomplish the labors that have devolved upon them in the past in this country as pioneers, and as pioneers in the religious world. I am quite willing, myself, if it is any satisfaction to any individual to entertain this idea, that he should do so; but for myself, and I believe I speak the sentiments of the people, I never, in my life, saw greater cause for rejoicing in the cause of God than I do to-day. I am not in the least discouraged, but, on the contrary, I feel exceedingly encouraged. I know, it seems to me, better than I ever knew, that God is with this people, that he hearkens to their prayers, and that he watches over them. It is true that there are influences operating upon us at the present time that we have only recently had to contend with, they are comparatively new influences and, to a certain extent, the Latter-day Saints are unaccustomed to them, especially the rising generation. But it has been taught us from the beginning that Zion is to become a great power in the earth, and that she will triumph; but I cannot conceive how Zion can become that which we have expected, or that it will achieve the destiny predicted concerning it, unless it be by passing through ordeals such as those we already have to encounter, and others, still greater, that are yet in the future, by which Zion will show its superiority over every institution and power that exists on the face of the earth.

I have expected for years that the seclusion which we sought in coming to these mountains would be terminated. Everything in the predictions of the holy Prophets concerning the work of God in the last days conveyed this idea to my mind. I looked upon our retreat here as a temporary one, for I well knew from the character of the people and their achievements that, in a short time, we should have the world trooping to us; we should be like a city set on a hill, we could not be hid, and that the eyes of men would be attracted Zionward, therefore I have not been disappointed in witnessing that which we see around us to-day. It has come probably in some form that I had not looked for, because I could only take a general view, the details I did not understand, but that we should pass through ordeals that should test us, test our faith, test our institutions, test the character of our doctrines, test the practical value of everything connected with us, I never had a doubt; and so far as the future is concerned I look forward to an increase rather than a decrease of these things, to an increase of tests, a multiplication of ordeals that will be calculated in their very nature to test and try us and the system with which we are identified to the perfect satisfaction of every one connected with it. How else could we expect that Zion should become a power in the earth? How else could we expect that that respect should be accorded to Zion which we are led to believe will be the case? How else will the wisdom and power that God will bestow upon his people be made clear in the eyes of this nation and of the nations of the earth only by these practical tests, by these trials, by surmounting these difficulties, and by showing a capacity to meet, grapple with and overcome every emergency and contingency that may arise? Can we achieve that distinction which is inevitably in store for us as a people if the predictions of the Prophets be fulfilled short of such an experience as this? I think not. The enemies of this work may indulge in whatever anticipations of our discomfiture or downfall they please, but as for us, let us take a practical, sensible view of the work with which we are identified, and prepare ourselves accordingly, so that when the hour of trial shall come, be it severe or not, we may be prepared therefor[e], having strength and faith sufficient to endure it, and to bear witness unto all men that we have not cherished this faith in vain.

There is this peculiarity about this work, that no power that has yet arrayed itself against it has succeeded in its attempts to gain advantage over it. It is true there have been seemingly temporary successes; there have been times when mobs and violent men have achieved a temporary success and when they have flattered themselves with the idea that their designs against this work have been successful. But one peculiarity has ever marked the career of this people, that is, that events in our history which have seemed to be deadly blows against us and the work in which we are engaged, have turned out to be magnificent successes for us as a community. Trace our history from the beginning, peruse it carefully, draw the lessons from it which I believe are intended to be conveyed by it, and what do you see? The Church and Zion of God emerging from the difficulties, trouble and seeming disaster sought to be brought upon it by its enemies, brighter, stronger, more firmly planted, more united than it was when the difficulty commenced, or the trouble was first visited upon us. The loss of houses and lands, expulsion from homes that were dearly bought, had no such effect upon this people, produced no such thrill and such deathlike sorrow in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints as did the martyrdom of our beloved Prophet and Patriarch; had we lost our dearest friends; had we lost everything that we valued on earth, it seems to me it would not have compared with the poignant sorrow, the deep, heartfelt anguish that prostrated this people in the depths of humility when the news of the cruel murder of their beloved leaders reached them; yet deadly as that blow was, to all human appearance prostrating the entire people, who felt that they had lost those who stood nearest to God and nearest to them, God in his mercy, out of that great affliction brought forth a great triumph and raised up a man to take the place of the Prophet, who has been in some respects like Elisha following Elijah, possessing, as Elisha desired it might be the case with him, a double portion of the spirit that rested down on his master, Elijah. And God has led us, God has prospered us, and God gave us success that seemed to be commensurate with the depth of our anguish and sorrow, and lifted us up from the depths of humility into which we had sunk, and placed us upon the heights of gladness and joy, and caused us to rejoice as we could not have done probably under other circumstances. And so, when we were driven out of civilization so-called; when we wended our weary way through the wilderness, not knowing where we were going, it seemed as though the last blow had been struck and we had been left a prey to internal dissensions or to the violence of the savages. But God in his mercy, out of that seemingly great affliction, has brought forth great blessing and glory to us, and has honored us, has enriched us, has raised us up and endowed us with blessings that we could not have had where we lived; so that that great blow aimed at us by our enemies has been over-ruled to be the means of great and wonderful blessings to us, and as an entire people we rejoice today in the possession of a land that God has given unto us, to which he led us and which he designated by the finger of inspiration as the land which we should occupy, and which we this day possess despite all the machinations of the wicked and their efforts to strip us of all power herein. Until this day he has given unto us the supremacy in this land, from north to south, from east to west, and he has made it productive and fertile for our sakes. When we reflect upon our history since we came here; when we think of the many plots and schemes, of the many men who have lent themselves to these plots, who have done all in their power against and to entrap this people; when we reflect upon it all, so far as I am concerned, I am filled with amazement, and with thanksgiving to God our Eternal Father for his goodness and mercy unto us as a people. I know, as well as I know that I live, that no human power could have saved us time and time again as we have been rescued that there is no wisdom of man that was equal to the emergencies in which we have been placed; but God, in his infinite mercy and wisdom, in his kindness and watch-care over us as a people, has, at the very moment when salvation was needed, stretched forth his Almighty arm. He has rescued us from the grasp of the destroyer when it seemed as though destruction was inevitable and we could not escape. The last five years have been as fruitful, probably, as any period in our history in events of this character. Time and time again has it seemed as though destruction was sure to come upon us, as though there were no way possible for us to escape; but God has heard our supplications and has opened the way of deliverance in a most wonderful manner, and has rescued us from the grasp of those who would destroy us. Others may not see the hand of God in these things; they may say that these things come about from and are the results of natural causes, but those who have prayed to God, whose hearts have been drawn out in supplication to him and who have waited tremblingly for the salvation which he has promised, have seen and they cannot but acknowledge the hand of God in these deliverances, because, as I have said, they have watched, waited and prayed anxiously and earnestly in the name of Jesus for deliverance, and when it has come their faith has been strengthened and their joy increased in the Holy One of Israel; because he has heard and answered their prayers: and to-day the Latter-day Saints are the people of all people upon the face of the earth who know that God lives, because he hears and answers their prayers. And he, it seems, is determined to have a people upon the earth who will be compelled to put their trust in him and not in man, because man’s power would utterly fail to save them, and no power but his can do it. When I look at all these things it is a matter of surprise to me that men cannot see the hand of God in this work. Yet there are many whose hearts have been touched by the evidences of God’s favor unto us, and they have been surprised and have expressed their wonder that we have been so signally delivered as we have been.

Now there is a great future in store for us as a people. God has said so, and his words cannot fail in being fulfilled. There is a destiny in store for this people that few can comprehend. We have to teach the world lesson after lesson that they have entirely forgotten, or that they never knew. We have to teach them and show them by our example that there is such a thing as living faith, that there is such a thing as trusting in God, being saved by him, that there is such a power as faith in the land, and that prayer, when offered in faith, is effectual in reaching him. We have to show the nations of the earth that God with a small people can accomplish wonderful results. When I think of our numbers, how few we are—we are a great people in some respects, but in numbers we are few and feeble—yet with this few people what is God doing in the earth! What a name he is gaining for his people, his servants! You may travel throughout the earth, in every land, among every people, and let it be known that you are a Latter-day Saint, and you will find that the fame of the people has preceded you, and you will find yourselves distinguished from everybody else. It is exceedingly wonderful that a people so small, numerically so insignificant, a people not wealthy, but it may be said poor, are so noted in the earth. Yet this is the fact, that God intends to make us still more so, he intends to give us a name and a place among the nations of the earth that shall be distinguished above all other people. We are accused, you know, of being disloyal. This has been a story told of us, a charge repeated against us from the very beginning, because men have thought it would be most effective in destroying our influence. The idea prevails in many quarters that we are scarcely as true to the government as we should be. I have heard it stated that were it not for these troops at Camp Douglas, Utah Territory would rebel. By such nonsense as this do men who oppose us seek to deceive the world at large respecting us and our motives and feelings. I have had occasion frequently to talk upon this subject. I have told men that, from my early boyhood, I have been taught to believe that the constitution of the United States was revealed of God, and that the destiny in store for the Latter-day Saints was to uphold constitutional government upon this land; and, that being the case, how could it be reconcilable with the idea that we were disloyal to the Government? But there is a class of men who consider everybody disloyal who does not dance to their tunes, and who does not re-echo the sentiments which they express and seem to entertain. We have a class of men among us here who talk about the one-man power and the tyranny that exist in the Utah Territory, but at the same time if an official were to come here and associate with citizens of this Terrritory [Territory], “Mormon” citizens I mean, they would put him under a ban and brand him as disloyal and unfit to hold an official position under the Government. And why? For years here it has been considered by certain officials as one of the best recommendations to the favor of those in power to hate and abuse the “Mormon” people of Utah Territory; and if a man were to dare to associate with “Mormons,” were to speak kindly of or to associate with them, and to treat them as he would other people he would be ostracised and banished, so far as association with them is concerned a non-intercourse act would be passed immediately. And these very individuals talk about the intolerance of the Mormons.

We have these things to contend with, we have these lies to live down, and as far as we are concerned, let them always be lies; let no man have it in his power to say that the Latter-day Saints are an intolerant, proscriptive or an unjust people. Never let this be said of us with truth; but if it be said, let our enemies continue to lie about us until they are tired of it, or until the world become sickened with the falsehoods that are told concerning us. And for us, let us pursue the path that God has marked out, being liberal, truthful, upright, dealing fairly, honestly and tolerantly with every man, so that every class of men who come into our midst may learn that we have received a religion that admits of toleration in the broadest sense of the word.

It has been a matter of considerable satisfaction to me to state that in Utah Territory our pulpits, stands, tabernacles and meeting-houses have always been open to every sect and denomination to come and preach their peculiar views, creeds and doctrines, and that our people have turned out in large congregations to listen to speakers or preachers of other denominations advancing their doctrines; and that not only have congregations of adults been furnished, but the children of the Sunday schools have frequently been assembled in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, that they might purposely hear and become familiar with the ideas and views entertained by other religious denominations. This stands out in marked contrast with the practice of almost every other sect, and it gives the falsehood to the stories which have been so frequently told about us.

Now respecting all these things that we are passing through, I recognize the hand of God in them all. I think that we have learned lessons of late that have been profitable to us. For instance, we now know and, while the recollection of the past few years is vivid in our minds we shall continue to know, how to value a just man who sits as a judge, and it may be that it will be so impressed upon us, that when power shall come into our midst, and come it will, as inevitably as the sun rises in the morning over the eastern hills so sure will power come unto us; but when it does come I trust that the recollection of the past will be vivid in our minds and that we will always seek to deal justly and fairly with all who may seek justice at our hands. It has been said that when we acquire power we shall be intolerant, as other sects have been. The Puritans, who fled from England because of religious persecution became, in turn, themselves the persecutors when they had the power. Roger Williams fled from them and took refuge in what is now Rhode Island. They persecuted the Quakers and others who came within their borders with an intolerance that was quite equal to, if it did not exceed, the intolerance to which they themselves had been the victims. And it has been said concerning us, that if we had the power, we would probably tread in the same path, that persecution would only harden us and make us deal with others with a severity which we would not know anything about had we ourselves not been victims beforehand. But I think that God in his mercy will strip us if there be any vestige of this about us; I hope he will, at any rate. If we achieve the destiny that is in store for us, certainly to maintain that character and to retain that power, it will be necessary that we should be just, upright, forbearing and tolerant, and that we should be willing that every man in this broad land should worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, whether his god be the workmanship of his own hands, whether it be the sun, the moon, some animal, or the God of heaven, with Jesus his Son, that we shall be willing that every man should worship God according to his own feelings upon the subject, so long as he does not interfere with us, or with others. I think we have learned this lesson in part. I think the lessons that have been impressed upon us have had an effect in this direction, at least they have had the effect to broaden us; and every lesson of this kind will have such a result as this with us as a people, and on this account I am thankful for them.

I am thankful to-day that we are not a State. There have been times when I have wished exceedingly that we might be released from territorial vassalage and be incorporated in the Union as a sovereign state. I have desired, and labored for it; but this last winter I have been exceedingly thankful that Utah was a territory and not a state. We are told to acknowledge the hand of God in all things, and I do not see why we should not acknowledge it in being kept in this condition of tutelage and vassalage as well as in anything else. But it may be asked—“Why do you think our condition better as a territory than as a state?” When I heard of events in Louisiana, the federal troops maintaining a government there, against which I was informed, and as I believed, the mass of the people revolted, I thought to myself—Better be an insignificant territory than a state if we cannot have the right of choosing our own rulers and have them act in the offices to which they are elected. Thanks to our insignificance federal troops have not interfered with us here; but if we had been a State, with two votes in the Senate, a vote or two in the House, and electoral votes in the Presidential Election there might have been a temptation to have done with Utah as with other states. But we had no vote; our delegate in Congress had no vote; we had no senatorial representation; we had no vote at the Presidential Election, and this denial to us of our rights, by keeping us in a Territorial condition, has thus far helped to save us. With such a feeling as there has been in this city and territory, for contesting elections, when they have been overwhelmingly on one side—twenty thousand and upward against two or three thousand; when men will contest elections under such circumstances, and endeavor by unjust means to wrest the power out of the hands of the people and defeat the will of the majority; when they will do this, as has been done in this Territory, it would not need a very strong pretext to have them to go farther, to have them appeal for Federal interference, and to try and induce the government to say—“Those whom you call the minority are the majority, they have been unjustly dealt with; affidavits have come here showing that the polls have not been managed properly, the ballots have not been deposited as they should be, and we must decide against you “Mormons” and the men whom you have elected, and put your opponents into power.” I do not say that this is the case in Louisiana, I do not pretend to decide upon that question, it admits of a good deal of argument; but I have been told by members of Congress who visited there—the Committee sent by Congress to investigate matters, that if the federal troops had been withdrawn from Louisiana this winter twenty-four hours would not have elapsed until the McEnery government would have been put in power, and the whole difficulty would have been solved. But the presence of federal troops maintained a government that could not be maintained in and of itself. What is the use, then, of being a State government if the Federal government is to interfere in this manner in State affairs? And with the causes that exist in Utah Territory to make interference popular and a thing to be approved of by thousands, a State government would not be so desirable. I have, therefore, so far as my own feelings have been concerned, been very much pleased at being a territory. I have seen the hand of God and his wisdom in this thing, when if my wish or my will could have been gratified we should have been a State long ago.

The Lord, in his mercy, will preserve us from these evils; in his overruling wisdom and providence he will deliver us until the time shall come for us to be a state if that be his will, and I doubt not that we shall be surprised at it ourselves. I have come to the conclusion, as one individual, that I shall not be anxious on this subject in the future, and shall leave it to the overruling providence of God to bring about when it shall seem good unto him.

As to some of the States in the South they are in such a condition that we, if we were in the same, should think our lot dreadful. I have heard stories of usurpation and tyranny by officials in those states that have caused me to think that, notwithstanding all that we have had to endure in Utah Territory, our lot has been a fortunate one compared with that of others. They have drunk the cup of humiliation to its very dregs. You know there was a time here when it seemed as though every effort was made to bring us under military rule in this Territory, and when the provocations endured by the people here come to be read in history surprise will arise in the mind of the reader, and admiration for the people who so patiently endured the wrongs that were imposed upon them, especially when it is remembered what power we hold here. Why, think of it, a few years ago a Governor came to this Territory immediately after a long and bloody Indian war, in which our citizens were masssacred [massacred], their property stolen, their settlements robbed and their stock driven off; and immediately after that war a Governor came here who prohibited the militia, every able-bodied man in the Territory, from bearing arms—a most unheard of tyrannical exercise of power; and then a Secretary, while acting governor, afterwards repeated the same proclamation. And this people have borne it patiently and never lifted their hands against these contemptible tyrants. It was doubtless hoped that we would commit some overt act to provoke trouble, so that the federal troops could be brought in and be placed under the control of these officials, who for once in their lives happened to hold position. Not only this, but on one occasion when certain citizens met together as a company, to celebrate the fact of their band having got a new set of instruments a federal judge committed them to a military prison for violating this proclamation, as though a proclamation of the Governor was law! With as great propriety might an Executive claim that he has the power to restore the curfew, and say—“You must have your fires extinguished by eight o’clock at night, or we will put you in a military prison; and you must rise in the morning at the tap of the bell, or we will treat you as criminals.” If a Governor’s proclamation is law, and is to be respected as such, where will it end? Will it end with the imprisonment of men who act as militia men? No; if such acts of usurpation continue, no citizen will be safe, and they will end in the overthrow of liberty and constitutional right wherever permitted.

We have borne these things, and we have borne others, the recollection of which, were I to recite them to you, would make our blood boil. It is not necessary that I should do so; but in talking thus do we talk disloyally? American citizens have the right to talk about officials who trample upon their rights in this manner; we all have the right to question the acts of men in power; it is a right given to us, and the man is not worthy of the name of freeman who will not thus criticize acts of oppression and, in a proper manner, resent them and show his abhorrence of them. It is because they are violative of the fundamental principles of our government that I thus talk about them: and in any other Territory than this they would have provoked a storm of indignation that would have overwhelmed their authors. One of the lessons we have to learn is to have patience, but not to stop remonstrating, not stop talking, not stop appealing, not hold our tongues and let our children grow up with the belief that these things are right. No, proclaim against them, let it be known that they are wrong, that they are contrary to the law of the land, to the Constitution and to the principles of our government; let this be known, and let our children understand what is right, and all men recognise the fact that we understand our rights, whether they are denied to us or not.

I expect to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be the people to maintain constitutional government on this land. Men everywhere should know that we believe in constitutional principles, and that we expect that it will be our destiny to maintain them. That the prediction will be fulfilled that was made forty-four years ago the seventh of last March, wherein God said to Joseph Smith—“Ye hear of wars in foreign lands; but behold I say unto you, they are nigh, even at your doors, and not many years hence ye shall hear of wars in your own lands;” but the revelation goes on to say that the day will come among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee unto Zion for safety. A portion of that revelation has been fulfilled, the remainder will be. The causes are in operation to bring it about. We are not alone in the thought that the republic is drifting steadily in that direction; that we are leaving the old constitutional landmarks, and that the time is not far distant when there will be trouble in consequence of it, when there will be civil broils and strife; and, to escape them, we believe, men will be compelled to flee to the “Mormons,” despised as they are now. Does this seem incredible? Why, look you, to-day, throughout our Union, the Latter-day Saints are the most lightly taxed of any people upon the face of this continent. I do not know a community as free from debt as we are. There are one or two States I believe free from debt, but they have had to tax heavily to free themselves. But as a Territory we have never been in debt, and although we have had many temptations to drift in that direction, not a bond belonging to the Territory has ever been issued; not a dollar is owing that cannot be paid. Our cities are out of debt; our counties are out of debt, and I hope they will continue so. Our legislators, county courts and city officers will doubtless take special pains to keep down expenses and let us be burdened as little as possible with taxation, so that we may be a happy and a free people. Let taxes accumulate, and there is a constant temptation for officers to steal your taxes; there must be men elected to take care of your taxes, and there will be hundreds of leaks by which your means will go without benefit to the community, therefore, let us be a lightly taxed people. We are that to-day, and that is one evidence of the good government there is in this Territory. We have peace here, and we should have little or no litigation if it were not forced upon us, and our courts, so far as litigation is concerned, would have very little to do from the Latter-day Saints; we would settle our difficulties by arbitration, and prevent litigation and money being spent therein. All the tendencies of this people are towards peace, and their aim is to preserve peaceful relations with each other and with the outside world, and we have shown this all the day long.

What is the case elsewhere? Why corruption stalks through the land, and taxation and debt are increasing. It is considered a light thing for a man to get his hand into the government treasury; that is all right, and if so he steal the funds of a city, county or State, they do not call it stealing, however: O no, that is a vulgar name; it will do for the man who robs his neighbor’s hen roost, but they have more fashionable language for the acts to which I refer.

Men in public life, under the present reign of extravagance, can not meet their expenses, therefore they are exposed to temptation and are led to take advantage of their position. This is not always the case, there are many exceptions; but this is the case too frequently, and good men mourn over and regret it, and they would like to stem the tide and arrest this downward tendency.

This is a lesson that we have to profit by; our officials must be careful, and we must maintain a standard of honesty that does not exist anywhere else. It will not do for the idea to prevail that because a man has an office he has the right to enrich himself from that office. This has not been the case in this Territory thus far; and we may reasonably expect it will not be.

Now, my brethren and sisters, let us live for the destiny that is in store for us. Let us remember that God has a great future for this people, and that how soon it will be granted unto us depends upon ourselves. If we were prepared for it I know that that time would soon come, and we should have opportunities given us of doing good that we do not have to-day. But I am told that one of the effects of this ordeal through which we are passing, is that there are some young men, and possibly young women, who yield to certain temptations. Young men, who formerly would have been ashamed to be seen smoking on the streets or entering a billiard, a gambling, or a drinking saloon, are now seen in such places, and they do not scruple to use the name of God in vain, or to swear and be profane, and there are some who seem to imagine that it is an evidence of independence and smartness to indulge in these things; and it may be that they go a little further and are guilty of other acts of greater turpitude than these.

No man loses credit by being true to his principles. If he is a Latter-day Saint, let him act out his principles wherever he goes. If he does not believe in drinking intoxicating drinks, let him refrain from doing so everywhere; if he does not smoke, refrain from smoking; if he does not swear—which no man ought to do—let him refrain from it, no matter where he is, and let him be true to the principles of his religion always and under all circumstances, and he will gain influence that he would not have otherwise. Let us as a people take a course of this kind. But there is this tendency—“O, we must be like somebody else.” You, can see that tendency at the present time in many things besides men’s conduct. There are men here who would change our city and make it like places they know. They would cut down our streets until they would not be fifty feet wide, and cut down our city blocks until they were like other city blocks, and would narrow our sidewalks, cut down our shade trees, and completely change the character of everything there is about us. They would rob the city of every distinctive feature, and fill the city with nest holes of vice. You can see this tendency here to imitate and do as somebody else does, instead of ourselves being the standard; instead of recollecting that. God has chosen us and placed his name upon us, that he has called us to be his Saints, and that it is our duty to maintain our principles, and carry them out in our lives, doing that which is right, regardless of whether it may suit other people or not. It is our duty to have some mind of our own, and if we have a good thing not to be willing to part with it because other people make sport of it. I like our city, our sidewalks and the width of our streets; others may not, but that is the pattern and plan upon which the city was laid out. I would like to see everything connected with our city—and I speak of this because it is a case in point, and I merely speak of it to illustrate everything else—I would like to see us carry out that which is right ourselves. If we have ideas of our own, cling to them, and not abandon them, because they do not happen to be popular. And so with our practices. A man who does not smoke is not any worse for it; he is no less a gentleman when he goes into company because of that. He is no less a gentleman because he does not drink or because he does not swear, because he does not go into a gambling house or a house of ill-fame; and how can a man who calls himself a Latter-day Saint, think that he is any more of a gentleman or any better a man because he can do these things when he, in and of himself, knows they are wrong. God has taught us that it is not good for us to do these things; he has given us counsel, he has given us a word of wisdom, and the man who thus disregards the word of God and his counsel does not show very great respect to him, and I do not imagine that God is going to show very great respect to him.

Let us be true to our principles; men admire sincerity, truth and uprightness, and they admire a Latter-day Saint who abides by his principles much more than they admire one who is not true to that which he professes; and you will never lose anything by telling who you are and what you are in a respectful manner, and maintaining that which is right. Of course we need not be bigoted or offensive, or run to any extremes.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, fill you with the Holy Spirit, and with desires to teach your children the ways of righteousness, and enable you to bring up a generation that is healthy, pure, virtuous and full of integrity in this land which God has given unto us. That he may thus bless and preserve us is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Cooperation a True Principle, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-fifth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on Friday afternoon, April 9, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

We have abundantly proved in our experience that if we do not sustain ourselves, no other people will sustain us, and that we must be united, as was said this morning, in our temporal as well as in our spiritual affairs; and that if we would build up and strengthen ourselves in the earth, it must be by union of effort, and by concentrating our means in a way that shall produce the best results for the work with which we are identified. Co-operation, or a union of effort, has been proved in our experience, when properly carried out, to be most successful. With small means and limited incomes we can accomplish, by wisely uniting our efforts, great results, and to bring about greater union should be our continual effort. As has been said, there may be failures and mismanagement occasionally, but the principle itself is a true one, and it recommends itself to every reflecting mind. We, however, in our mercantile operations in this city and Territory, have been more than ordinarily successful. I have heard reproaches indulged in, or rather reflections cast, upon our general co-operative institution. I think it has been one of the most successful establishments and institutions that we ever have had among us, and I do not know that it has been equalled anywhere, when we reflect that in the short space of three years those who invested their means in that institution made one hundred per cent.—doubled their original stock; and when the financial crisis came in the east—the panic as it was termed, and many strong houses went down before it, our institution was able to withstand the storm, and tide over, and has met every dollar of its indebtedness promptly, or at least to the satisfaction of its creditors. We have been subjected to a great deal of expense in various ways; but the experience of the past few years enables us to see now how this expense can be curtailed; and profiting by this wisdom and experience, as a community we should take the necessary steps to establish, or rather to arrange it so that it will give the greatest satisfaction. A good deal might be said on this subject in this connection, but as we shall have a meeting very shortly in relation to our co-operative business affairs, probably that would be the proper place for remarks of this character. But I would say, as one individual, to all the Saints—Let us by every means in our power, that is, by collecting the little means that we have, seek to build up and strengthen these institutions in our midst, and they will prove profitable to us, and be a great blessing to the entire community and to Zion.

At this afternoon’s session of the Conference the authorities of the Church will be presented, and it is desirable that there should be a general attendance of the members of the Church, as far as they can possibly come.

To refer again to this subject of co-operation. We have seen its good effects in the settlements throughout the entire Territory. I consider that if it had not been for our institution regulating prices and governing and contro[l]ling the mercantile interests of this Territory, we should have lost, by having to pay high prices, thousands and thousands of dollars that we have saved. In Brigham City particularly, judging by accounts that we have heard, have the principles of co-operation been exceedingly beneficial to the people, because of the perfection to which they have been carried out. The great difficulty with us heretofore has been that, as a people, we have not had capital to achieve any very great results. No one man, until quite recently, has had sufficient means to carry on any great undertaking; but by the masses of the people uniting under a co-operative plan, and putting their funds in the hands of those who are judicious and good business men, we can establish every kind of manufacture that is necessary in this country to make us self-sustaining. The manufacture of iron into hollow-ware, and every thing of this character that is made of iron; the manufacture of rails for our railroads, of woolen goods of the best character, the establishment of sheep and cattle herds, of cheese factories and tanneries, and of every branch of manufacture that is adapted to our climate and Territory can be carried on upon this principle, and efforts should be made by us as a people to establish and make them successful. I took down with me, when I went to Washington last fall, a suit of clothes manufactured here in this Territory—the wool was grown here, the cloth was made at President Young’s factory, and the clothes were made by our tailors. There was a good deal of discussion in the early part of the session concerning the resumption of specie payments. I remarked to a good many of my friends that if I were a believer, as some of them were, in the power of the General Government to make laws respecting such matters, I should be in favor of making a law that would prevent the importation into this country of anything that we could make ourselves; and I believe that specie payments will be postponed until there is a stop to the extravagance which reigns throughout the country. The stream of gold which ought to be setting in the direction of the United States, in consequence of the multiplicity of our productions and the greatness of our trade, is constantly flowing toward Europe; and while this is the case, we may struggle in vain to get back to specie payments. That which is true concerning a nation is true concerning us as a Territory. If we would be independent, if we would keep the circulating medium in abundance in our midst, we must stop the stream that is flowing from the Territory, and every dollar that we spend here in sustaining a home institution, for making clothes, paying the cloth manufacturer for his cloth, the wool-grower for his wool, the tanner for his leather, or the shoemaker for making that leather into shoes and boots, is that much saved to the entire community. One very prominent free-trade member of the House, during a discussion on this subject last session, remarked that the suit of clothes he had on cost him but a comparative small amount, and that he had them sent from Canada. Some one replied, by way of joke, that he had probably bought a second hand suit; but there is no doubt the clothes were new. But suppose they cost less in Canada than the same suit would in the States, can not you and every body see, without lengthy reflection, that that money all went into foreign hands, and did not benefit the people of this country? The producer of the wool, the manufacturer of the cloth, and the maker of the clothes in Canada received the benefit. But supposing that thirty-five or forty dollars had been paid for that suit of clothes in the United States, or in the community where the purchaser lived, you can readily perceive that by the circulation of that money in his immediate vicinity, he, himself, if he were in any business, would receive the benefit of the expenditure, and that the extra cost would not be an entire loss to him like paying it out to a foreign community. And so it is with our own manufactures. We talk about brooms and about cheese, butter and other things which can be brought from the east at lower figures than we can produce them; but it is better for us to pay twenty-five per cent. more, and I do not know but even a larger per centage, for our home productions, than to send the money away to a distant community where it is circulated and we receive no benefit from it. If we bought home made cheese, and had to pay ten or fifteen cents a pound more for it (which, however, we are not required to do) than if it were brought from abroad, it is not an entire loss to the community, for we all derive some benefit from the means so spent, because it is circulated amongst us, and if we have anything to sell we get prices in proportion for it, and thus we sustain ourselves. Men may say that such and such things can be bought cheaper abroad than they can be bought at home, and therefore it is better to buy them; but I say that it is suicidal for any community to pursue such a policy, and we, with the experience that we have had in this country on these points for upwards of a quarter of a century, should begin to learn wisdom, and begin to foster home manufactures and home institutions. Our co-operative institutions should take into consideration the people’s good, and, if there is ink, matches, cloth, leather or anything else to sell that is manufactured in this country, they should give the preference every time to the home manufactured article so far as possible, and endeavor to stimulate and foster home production and not operate against it.

By this means we build ourselves up, and the people themselves, where they are ignorant, will soon perceive the propriety and the advantage of taking this course; whereas if we pursue the old and opposite course we shall be impoverished and stripped of our means, and, having no branches of home manufacture, we shall continue to be a poor, dependent, helpless people.

Gathering of Israel, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, April 11, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

If the congregation will give their attention I will read a few passages from the last chapter of Isaiah, commencing in the middle of the 18th verse. [The speaker read from the 18th verse, commencing—“It shall come,” &c., unto the end of the 20th verse.]

There are some very great and important events predicted in these few lines which I have read, concerning the gathering of all nations and tongues, but more especially the gathering of the house of Israel, a sign being promised—that when that period shall arrive, in the purposes of God, a sign shall be given to the children of men, that they may know when these great events are to take place. In this passage we are not told what the sign shall be, we merely have it promised; but we would naturally draw the conculsion [conclusion] that it will be something of a peculiar character, something that can be distinguished by the nations, kindred and tongues of the earth preparatory to the great gathering that is promised in the Scriptures of truth, “I will set a sign among them.” And after setting this sign he will send missionaries to Tubal, to Javan, to the isles that are afar off, to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, and to them that draw the bow.” And it is said concerning the missionaries who are thus sent forth, that “they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” Then, when the sign is set, the missionaries are sent forth and the glory of God begins to be declared among the Gentiles, the Lord will bring about the gathering of his people Israel, bringing them upon horses, in chariots, in litters, upon swift beasts and upon mules to his holy mountain in Jerusalem; and he will gather all nations and tongues when that dispensation shall come.

The Lord has set that sign; the Lord has sent forth the messengers here spoken of to the various nations, as predicted, and already the voice of these messengers is heard in the uttermost parts of the earth, declaring the word of the Lord among the Gentiles, preparing them for the great event predicted by the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet.

Do this people desire to know what the sign predicted by the mouth of Isaiah means? Do you wish to know the nature of that sign? Let me refer you to the words of the everlasting God that have been uttered from the heavens, declared in this record brought forth in the last days, the Book of Mormon. Let us refer to a prediction uttered by the mouth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he appeared personally upon this great western continent, and taught the ancient nations of America. He has told us by his own mouth what the sign should be for the gathering of all the dispersed of his people, the house of Israel. I will read the words of our Savior to the ancient inhabitants of this western continent. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, all these things”—the things which he had been speaking about to the multitude—“shall surely come, as the voice of the Father hath commanded me. Then shall this covenant which the Father hath covenanted with his people be fulfilled; and then shall Jerusalem begin to be inhabited with my people, and it shall be the land of their inheritance. And verily I say unto you, I will give you a sign that you may know the time when these things shall be about to take place, that I shall gather in from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion. And behold this is the thing which I will give unto you for a sign, for verily I say unto you that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter, of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, which shall be given unto you of the Father, shall be made known unto the Gentiles”—that is, when this book, called the Book of Mormon, should be made known unto the Gentiles—“that they may know concerning this, my people, who are a remnant of the house of Jacob, and concerning this, my people, who shall be scattered by them in the latter days. Verily I say unto you when these things shall be made known unto them of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father from them unto you.”

Now, such is the sign. First, this work will be made known to the Gentiles, and will come forth from the Gentiles unto the Indians. “For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he has covenanted with his people, O house of Israel. Therefore when these works, and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter”—that is, the works which were performed during the first three or four centuries of the Christian era on the American continent, recorded in their records called the Book of Mormon—“when these works and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter shall come forth from the Gentiles unto your seed, which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity.”

Now this dwindling in unbelief of the American Indians is very evident even to the antiquarians of our country, all of whom will admit that once a civilized nation dwelt on this continent. No learned man living disputes this. Why do they suppose any such thing? The ruins of their ancient cities, palaces and temples, proclaim in the ears of all living that once there dwelt on this hemisphere a great and powerful people, who were civilized and understood the art of constructing beautiful and substantial buildings. But now, O! how degraded, fallen and sunk into the very depths of darkness are the descendants of that once great, powerful and exalted people! “They shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity;” because they rejected the Gospel. In the fourth century of the Christian era they apostatized from the religion of their fathers; they were cursed by the Almighty, a skin of darkness came upon them; they were cursed in all that they set their hands to do, and the withering curse of the Almighty has been upon them from generation to generation, until the present day. They were to dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity.

“For thus it behooveth the Father that it should come forth from the Gentiles, that he may show forth his power to the Gentiles, for this cause, that the Gentiles, if they will not harden their hearts, that they may repent, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and know of the truth of my doctrine that they may be numbered among my people, O house of Israel.”

Such is the object of bringing this work forth to the Gentiles first. That is why God prepared the way for a great and powerful nation, free from all other nations under heaven, to be established here on this continent. The great purpose which God had in view was to set up a kingdom in the latter days in which there should be full and complete religious liberty and freedom of conscience, that the kingdom might go forth unto the ends of the earth; “and when these things shall come to pass, that thy seed”—the American Indians—“shall begin to know these things. It shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people, who are of the house of Israel.”

Now then, here is a prediction in Isaiah, that before the Lord gathers Israel he would set up a sign, showing not only to us but to all people, nations and tongues in the four quarters of the earth that he is about to gather together all the people of the house of Israel. That sign is when these American Indians shall begin to know the Gospel taught and practiced by their ancient fathers. “When that day shall come it shall come to pass that kings shall shut their mouths, for that which had not been told them shall they see, that which they had not heard shall they consider; for in that day, for my sake, shall the Father work a work which shall be a great and marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them which will not believe it, although a man shall declare it unto them. But behold, the life of my servant is in mine hand,” &c.

We will now pass on to the next page. “And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this Gospel shall be preached unto the remnant of this people”—unto the Indians—“verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem, yea the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me; that they may call upon the Father in my name, and then shall the work commence with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. And they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them saith the Father, and I will be their rearward.”

Forty-five years have passed away since God brought forth this sign, the Book of Mormon, and sent missionaries to the nations—to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, Javan, and to the islands afar off, that have not heard his name neither have seen his glory and these missionaries have declared his glory among the Gentiles. Forty-five years of proclamation to the nations of the Gentiles! Forty-five years of warning to all nations and tongues! Now after so long a period has elapsed since God brought forth this wonderful sign, he has begun to work among the remnants of the house of Israel the American Indians, upon this continent, by his own power. What is it that has stirred them up to believe in this work? Has it been your exertion? Not altogether; yet, no doubt, you, in some small degree, as far as your faith would permit, have helped on the work among these wild tribes. You have sought to recover them, you have fed and clothed them to some extent; you have told them occasionally about the records of their fathers; you have tried to bring them to repentance; but, after years of labor, you have said—“Alas! alas for them! What can be done to reclaim a people so tar fallen into the depths of ignorance and corruption?” Your hearts have been almost discouraged so far as your own labors were concerned. But how soon and how marvelously, when the time had come, has the Lord our God begun to operate upon them as nations and as tribes, bringing them in from hundreds of miles distant to inquire after the Elders of this Church. What for? What do they want with the Elders? They want to be baptized. Who told them to come and be baptized? They say that men came to them in their dreams, and spoke to them in their own language, and told them that away yonder was a people who had authority from God to baptize them; but that they must repent of their sins, cease their evil habits and lay aside the traditions of their fathers, for they were false; that they must cease to roam over the face of the land, robbing and plundering, and learn to live as the white people.

Who are these men who have been to the Indians and told them to repent of their sins, and be baptized by the “Mormons?” They are men who obtained the promise of the Lord, upwards of eighteen centuries ago, that they should be instruments in his hands of bringing about the redemption of their descendants. The Lord God promised them the privilege of working for and in behalf of their descendants in the latter days; and they have begun the work. All this was foretold in this record, the Book of Mormon.

Now I will read a little for the benefit of the Latter-day Saints, for though they have this record lying upon their shelves, I fear there are some who are careless about reading its contents, and perhaps do not understand the signs of the times, and the fulfillment of the purposes of God, which are here so clearly set forth. Jesus appeared on this American Continent soon after his resurrection, three different times that are recorded, and how many other times that are not recorded, I do not know. But he showed himself to them and brake bread with them. But the third time he came to the Twelve whom he had chosen on this land—as he was about to leave them he put a very important question to them. He said unto his twelve disciples, speaking unto them one by one—“What is it that you desire of me, after that I am gone unto the Father?” And they all spake save it were three—“We desire that, after we have lived unto the age of men, that our ministry wherein thou hast called us may have an end, and that we may speedily come to thee in thy kingdom.” And he said unto them—“Blessed are ye because ye have desired this thing of me; therefore after that ye are seventy-two years old, ye shall come unto me in my kingdom, and with me ye shall find rest.” And when he had spoken these words unto the nine, he then turns to the three and said unto them—“What will ye that I shall do unto you when I am gone to the Father?” And they sorrowed in their hearts, for they dare not speak unto him the thing which they desired. And he said unto them—“Behold I know your thoughts, and you have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry before I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me, therefore more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death.” These three men had the promise that they should never taste death; “but,” said the Savior unto them—“ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I come in my glory with the powers of heaven. Ye shall never endure the pains of death, but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father. And again ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow, save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me; for ye have desired that ye may bring the souls of men unto me while the world shall stand; and for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy, and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father, and the Father and I are one; and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men because of me.”

What a glorious promise was made to these three men! Did they receive any change? Yes, they did; not to immortality however, but a change sufficient was wrought in their bodies that death should not have power over them. But let us read a little further, it is very interesting. “And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he touched every one of them with his finger save it were the three who were to tarry;” that is, he touched the nine who were to preach until they were seventy-two years old and who were then to be taken home to God, “and then he departed, and behold the heavens were opened and they (the three) were caught up into heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard; and whether they were in the body or out of the body they could not tell, for it did seem unto them like a transfiguration of things.” That is the way that they received their partial change. “But it came to pass that they did again minister upon the face of the earth; nevertheless they did not minister of the things which they had heard and seen, because of the commandment which was given them in heaven.”

Now these men lived in the first century of the Christian era on this continent; and when that generation all passed away they also lived in the second century of the Christian era, and ministered to the ancient inhabitants on this land. And when the second century had all passed off the stage of action they also lived in the third century; and in the fourth century the Lord took these three men from the midst of the remnant of Israel on this land. Where did he take them? I do not know, it is not revealed. Why did he take them away? Because of the apostacy of the people, because the people were unworthy of the ministration of such great and holy men; because they sought to kill them; because they cast them into dens of wild beasts twice; and these men of God played with these wild beasts as a child would play with a suckling lamb, and received no harm from them. They cast them three times into a furnace of fire, and they came forth therefrom and received no hurt. They dug deep pits in the earth and cast them therein, supposing that they would perish; but by the power of the word of God that was in them, they smote the earth in the name of the Lord, and were delivered from these pits. And thus they went forth performing signs, wonders and miracles among this remnant of Israel, until their wickedness became so great that the Lord commanded them to depart out of their midst. And the remnant of Israel, from that day to the present—between fourteen and fifteen centuries—have been dwindling in unbelief, in ignorance, and in all the darkness which now surrounds them; but notwithstanding their darkness and misery, the three Nephites, for many generations, have not administered to them, because of the commandment of the Almighty to them.

But are they always to remain silent? Are there no more manifestations to come from these three men? Are they never again to remember the remnants of the House of Israel on this land? Let us read the promise. “Behold I was about to write the names of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the world; but behold I have seen them.” Mormon saw them nearly four centuries after they were caught up into heaven, and after they received their partial change. Mormon saw them and they administered unto him. He says—“Behold I have seen them and they have ministered unto me; and behold they will be among the Gentiles, and the Gentiles knoweth them not.” They will, no doubt, call them poor deluded Mormons, and say that they ought to be hooted out of society, and that they ought to be persecuted, afflicted, and hated by all people. “They will be among the Gentiles and the Gentiles knoweth them not. They will also be among the Jews, and the Jews shall know them not. And it shall come to pass when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom, that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled; and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them; and they are as the angels of God. And if they shall pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus, they can show themselves unto whatsoever man it seemeth them good; therefore great and marvelous works shall be wrought by them before the great and coming day when all people must surely stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Yea even among the Gentiles shall there be a great and a marvelous work wrought by them, before that judgment day.”

Now, having read these things, let us come back again to this spiritual movement that we hear of among the remnants of Jacob, in these western deserts, in the northwest hundreds of of miles, in the west and in the southwest. It is not confined to hundreds, but thousands testify that men have appeared individually in dreams, speaking their own language and, as Brother Hyde said last Tuesday, these men tell their descendants what their duties are, what they should do, and how they should hunt up this people, repent of their sins, be baptized, etc. And the parties who have been thus instructed time and time again, have fulfilled the commandments that they received, and some of them have come hundreds of miles to be baptized, and they are now desirous of laying aside their savage disposition, their roaming habits, and they want to learn to cultivate the earth, to lay down their weapons of war, cease stealing and to become a peaceable good people.

The work thus commenced will not stop here. The Book of Mormon says—“When thy seed shall begin to know these things, it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of his covenant which he hath made with his people who are of the House of Israel.” This remnant, the American Indians, do not comprise all Israel, they are but a small remnant of one single tribe, namely the descendants of that Joseph who was carried into Egypt. Away in yonder north countries, where I do not know, but away in those regions are ten tribes of the house of Israel. How do you know they are in the north country? Because this Bible has told us that in the latter days they should come out of the north country, and if they were not in the north country they could not come from there. Jeremiah says in his thirty-first chapter—“Behold I will bring them from the north, the blind and the lame with them, and the woman with child; they shall come, a great company out of the north countries.” Where will they go to? Will they go immediately to Palestine, where they formerly had their inheritance? No. Jeremiah tells us where they will go; he tells us there is to be a place called Zion before these tribes come out of the north countries, and when they come with a great company, the blind and the lame with them, and the Lord God leads them with supplication and with tears and with prayers, bringing them forth from those dreary, desolate, cold arctic regions: when that day shall come there shall be a Zion prepared to receive these ten tribes, before they finally go back to Palestine. Is there anything in the Scriptures about this? Yes. In the same chapter of Jeremiah we read that “they shall come and sing in the height of Zion.” Zion, then, will have to be built up before they come; Zion will have to be reared somewhere and prepared to receive them; and it will be a holy place, and it will be a holy people who will build up Zion, so much so that the Lord will bring these ten tribes in to the height of Zion, into the midst of it.

What will then take place? They shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for the wheat, the wine, the oil, for the young of the flock; their souls shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Why? Because they have got among a good people, where there is no need to sorrow; they have come up into a land that is choice above all other lands, a land that brings forth wheat, and grapes for the producing of wine, where flocks, herds, &c., are multiplied, and their souls will be like a watered garden, and all the sorrows they have experienced for twenty-five hundred years, in the cold regions of the north, will be done away; and they will not sorrow any more at all.

This same thing is predicted in the sixteenth chapter, as well as in the thirty-first of Jeremiah. The Lord says in the sixteenth chapter—“Behold the days shall come when it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;” but instead of that saying, there will be another more glorious saying, namely, that “the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the north country, and from all other countries whither he has driven them.” But will that do away the former saying—“The Lord liveth who brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt?” Yes. Some may suppose that as the Jews retain that saying to this day it never would be done away. The Jews, wherever they may be scattered, whether in Christian lands, or among the heathens where they are anxious to convert them to idolatry, say, “We worship that God who brought up our fathers out of the land of Egypt, and wrought signs, wonders and mighty deeds in bringing them forth, leading them through the waters of the mighty deep into the Promised Land, Palestine.” But notwithstanding they have retained this saying, it will be one day done away, superseded by the manifestations of God’s power in bringing Israel from the north country and all other countries whither they have been scattered, and gathering them to their own land. The Israel of the latter day has got to cross the sea dry shod, just as ancient Israel did. It is thus predicted in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. After saying that the Lord would lift up an ensign for the nations, he declares, “I will gather the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth, and I will cause them to pass through the river in its seven streams, and I will smite the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and an highway shall be cast up unto Israel that was left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.” They shall go over dry shod. They will not have to refer back three or four thousand years to the miracles wrought anciently by the God they worship, but they will tell of things wrought in their own day, which have taken place while they themselves live. “The Lord liveth that brought up Israel out of the north country; the Lord liveth who, in our day, smote the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and also the river Nile in its seven mouths; the Lord liveth who, in our day, cast up a highway in the midst of the great deep, for his chosen to come over.”

Now I will quote a parallel prophecy, delivered to Joseph Smith, one of the greatest Prophets who has lived on the earth in any generation, save it be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some forty-three years ago, in speaking of the lost ten tribes of Israel, the Lord says—“They who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord, and their Prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them, and in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence.” To show that they come with power, they come on a highway cast up for them; the ice feels the power of God and flows down, making room for them; and the barren deserts of the north, wherever they may go and need water, will yield forth pools of living water to quench their thirst. As they come to sing in the height of Zion, the everlasting hills, this great Rocky Mountain range, extending from the arctic regions south to the central portions of America, will tremble beneath the power of God at the approach of that people. Then will be fulfilled the saying of David, that the mountains shall skip like rams, and the little hills like lambs, before his people. The very trees of the field will clap like hands, as the Psalmist David has said. Then will be fulfilled the passage that was quoted yesterday by brother Woodruff—“Sing O heavens, be joyful O earth, and break forth into singing O mountains, for the Lord hath redeemed his people,” &c. And when they get to Zion they will begin to say—“The place is too strait for me, give place to me that I may dwell;” then the saying will go forth—“Behold I was a captive. Zion was a captive, moving to and fro, tossed to and fro, and not comforted. Behold I was left alone.” But where have this great company been, where has this mighty host come from? They have come from their hiding place in the north country; they have been led thence by the Prophets of the Most High God, the Lord going before their camp, talking with them out of the cloud, as he talked in ancient days with the camp of Israel, uttering his voice before his army, for his camp will be very great. So says the Prophet Joel, and his prophecy will be fulfilled. When they return to Zion to sing in the height thereof, “They will fall down there and be crowned with glory by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim.”

Now what does this mean? A people that have had such mighty power, a people before whose camp the Lord of hosts has been seen, and his glory by day and by night; a people before whom the mountains and the hills tremble and flee; shall a people of that description fall down and be crowned by another people? Who are this other people, that is, these highly favored children of Ephraim? What particular blessing has the Lord for Ephraim? He holds the birth-right. “Ephraim is my first-born,” saith the Lord in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah. The first-born in the great latter-day work, holding the keys of blessings for all the twelve tribes of Israel. God has an order in his kingdom. Certain blessings can be received in one way; other blessings are ordained to be received in another form, by certain authorities that are appointed, and who hold the keys pertaining to these blessings. God did not take away the birth-right of Reuben, the first-born of Israel, and tran[s]fer it to the heads of the sons of Joseph for a purpose that was of no particular account; but he transferred the birthright from Reuben to Joseph that they might hold it as the first-born among all the tribes of Israel, to bless them in the latter days.

How long will they who come from the north countries tarry in the heights of Zion? Sometime. They have got to raise wheat, cultivate the grape, wine and oil, raise flocks and herds, and their souls will have to become as a watered garden. They will dwell in Zion a good while, and during that time, there will be twelve thousand chosen out of each of these ten tribes, besides twelve thousand that will be chosen from Judah, Joseph, and the remaining tribes, one hundred and forty-four thousand in all. Chosen for what? To be sealed in their foreheads. For what purpose? So that the power of death and pestilence and plague that will go forth in those days sweeping over the nations of the earth will have no power over them. These parties who are sealed in their foreheads will go forth among all people, nations and tongues, and gather up and hunt out the house of Israel, wherever they are scattered, and bring as many as they possibly can into the. Church of the first-born, preparatory to the great day of the coming of the Lord. One hundred and forty-four thousand missionaries! Quite a host. All this has got to take place. There are persons in this congregation who will be in the midst of Zion, when the ten tribes come to Zion from the north countries, and will assist in bestowing the blessings promised by the Almighty upon the heads of the tribes of Israel. There are servants of God in the midst of this congregation who will lay their hands upon many of each of these twelve thousand, chosen out of the ten tribes, and set them apart as missionaries to visit the nations of the earth and hunt up the remnants of the seed of Jacob.

Having spoken concerning the gathering of the ten tribes, I will refer again to their Prophets. “Their Prophets shall hear his voice.” Do not think that we are the only people who will have Prophets. God is determined to raise up Prophets among that people, but he will not bestow upon them all the fulness of the blessings of the Priesthood. The fulness will be reserved to be given to them after they come to Zion. But Prophets will be among them while in the north, and a portion of the Priesthood will be there; and John the Revelator will be there, teaching, instructing and preparing them for this great work; for to him were given the keys for the gathering of Israel, at the time when he ate that little book while on the Isle of Patmos. At that time, John was a very old man; but the Lord told him that he must yet prophesy before many kingdoms, and nations, and peoples, and tongues, and he has got that mission to perform, and in the last days the spirit and power of Elias will attend his administrations among these ten tribes, and he will assist in preparing them to return to this land. Whether missionaries will be sent from Zion to hunt up these dispersed tribes in the north I do not know; but one thing I do know, from that which is reported by those who have tried to find a passage to the pole, that there is a warmer country off there, and that birds of passage go north to find a warmer climate. That I know from the writings of intelligent men who have been on voyages of discovery. And I know, furthermore, that they have crossed by means of dogs and sledges a certain portion of this great band of ice and have come to an open sea, which proves that there is a warmer country further north. There is a tract of country around the pole, some seven or eight hundred miles in diameter, that no man among the nations, that we are acquainted with, has ever explored. But how much of that land may be fit for habitation I am not prepared to say, for I do not know. I know it would be a very easy matter for the Lord God, by the aid of great mountain ranges encircling them around about, to produce a band of ice which would prevent other nations and people very easily reaching them. I also know that it would be a very easy matter for the Lord God to cause deep and extensive valleys, very deep in comparison with high ranges of mountains around them, where the temperature would be comparatively mild, the same as in these mountains here. We see all the rigors of an arctic winter on our eastern ranges of mountains, while at the same time here are deep valleys in which there is a comparatively warm climate, which makes me think of that which was spoken by the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet in referring to the latter-day work. He says that “when it shall hail, coming down upon the forests, the city shall be low in a low place,” where the climate is warm.

Let me say a few more words in regard to certain things that have already taken place, predicted in the Book of Mormon by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he appeared on this western hemisphere and taught this remnant of Israel. He told them of certain events which should transpire before the remnants of Joseph should be converted. He says—“Verily, verily, I say unto you that I have other sheep which are not of this land”—meaning America—“neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister. But they of whom I speak have not as yet heard my voice, neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them; but I have received a commandment of the Father that I shall go unto them and they shall be numbered among my sheep, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd, therefore I go to show myself unto them.” After leaving this continent, he went to the lost tribes and placed one measure of leaven in the meal that was in that country, having already planted a little leaven among the Jews at Jerusalem, and another little portion of leaven here in America, after which he goes to the lost tribes, and plants leaven in the third mess of meal, and left it to work. He says—“I command you that you shall write these sayings after I am gone, that if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me, and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes which they know not of, these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that, through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed who shall be scattered upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer. And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth, and I will fulfill the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel.”

Now I want you to take particular notice of the following paragraph, or a portion of it, which I will read. “But woe, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles”—having reference more particularly to the Gentiles of this great nation—“for notwithstanding they have come forth upon the face of this land, and have scattered my people who are of the house of Israel, and my people who are of the house of Israel have been cast out from among them, and have been trodden under foot by them, and because of the mercies of the Father unto the Gentiles, and the judgments of the Father upon my people who are of the house of Israel, verily, verily, I say unto you, that after all this, and I have caused my people who are of the house of Israel to be smitten, and to be afflicted, and to be slain, and to be cast out from among them”—just as our forefathers have done for two or three generations past in smiting, destroying, casting out and driving the poor American Indians—“thus commanded the Father that I should say unto you at that day, when the Gentiles shall sin against my Gospel,”—meaning sinning against this fullness of the Gospel, that is the Book of Mormon, when it shall be sent forth in the latter days)—“when the Gentiles shall sin against my Gospel, and shall be lifted up in pride above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings and deceit, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations, and if they shall do all these things, and shall reject the fulness of my Gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them.”

This prophecy has been fulfilled. It was delivered and in print before there was any Latter-day Saint Church in existence. Now how did Joseph Smith, a farmer’s boy, know naturally anything about the Lord’s taking this work—the Book of Mormon—and this people who believe in the fullness of the Gospel and the bringing of them out from this Gentile nation to these solitary regions? How did he know this so far back as the year 1830? How did he know this before the Church was organized with six members? Yet it has all come to pass. How unlikely it was for such a thing to come to pass, if there was no God in it! If the Gentiles should reject this Gospel which the Lord has brought forth by his power; “and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, deceits, mischiefs, hypocrisy, murders and whoredoms, and shall reject the fulness of my Gospel, Behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them.”

For twenty-seven years the Lord has been fulfilling this directly before the eyes of all this nation. Little did they think when they came upon us in Nauvoo, and drove us out from our homes and firesides and told us to flee away beyond this great chain of rocky mountains, that they were fulfilling this great prophecy uttered before this people had an existence. “I will bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them;” and mark the next sentence—“and then I will remember my covenant.” When? When he gets the people out from the midst of this nation. “Then I will remember my covenant which I made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my Gospel unto them.” Has it been fulfilled? Yes. It is over a quarter of a century since the Lord brought us out, and laid a foundation for us to live here; and we have been enabled by his power to erect towns villages and cities, to open up farms, and begin to live, and we have got a broad foundation laid; and now, the next thing is—“I will bring the fulness of my Gospel unto thee, O house of Israel;” that is, unto the Indians; in other words—they shall come unto a knowledge of the fulness of my Gospel. “Yet if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, the house of Israel.”

That is the only hope that we Gentiles have. No hope for us whatever, no hope for this great and powerful nation, only by being numbered with these poor, degraded, despised, outcast, dark, and benighted Indians. Are you willing to be numbered with them? In what respect? Not to come down to their customs and habits, their uncleanness, filth, wickedness, darkness and ignorance; but be numbered with them in the inheritance of this great continent, which was given to them by promise, the same as Palestine was given to Abraham and Isaac. God gave it by the mouth of Jacob, who pronounced it upon the head of his son Joseph, it was promised that he should have a separate land from that given to Abraham and Isaac. Read it in the 49th chapter of Genesis. The Lord gave North and South America to these Indians, nearly six hundred years before Christ. And he promised that the Gentiles, in the latter days, who should come upon the face of this land, if they would repent when this Gospel should come forth unto them, they should have the privilege of receiving their inheritance in common with this remnant of Israel—these Indians. But if they did not repent there is another decree. And what is that? “They shall be utterly cut off from among my people.” Thus it is predicted and you have read it for forty-five years. In another place the Lord says—“ If they will not repent, behold I will cut off the cities of their land, I will throw down all their strongholds, and I will cut off their horses out of the midst of them, and I will execute vengeance and fury upon them such as they have not heard of. In another place, which I have not time to turn to and read, it says—“And it shall come to pass that every soul that will not repent of their sins and come unto my beloved son, will I cut off from among my people, O, house of Israel, and it shall be done unto them even as Moses has said, they shall be cut off from among my people.”

Now Moses has told us of that time, and it is repeated again in the 3rd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that the Lord would raise up a Prophet, and it should come to pass that every soul that would not hear that Prophet should be cut off from among the people. We are told that that Prophet was Jesus, and we believe it. Jesus Christ was that Prophet, and the day is to come, as sure as the Lord lives in yonder heavens, when every soul that will not repent, and receive his work, will be literally cut off from among the people, just as Moses has predicted. And it shall come to pass that “kings shall shut their mouths, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall they behold,” a marvelous work and a wonder, a work that the Lord would perform in the latter-days. A strange work, a strange act, so-called by Isaiah the Prophet.

O that I had time to go into the numerous prophecies in the Book of Mormon, and point out the desolations that are to come upon this nation and this generation, if they do not repent! But every jot and every tittle that has not been fulfilled since the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, will be fulfilled to the very letter. Zion will arise, clothed with the glory of her God; the Lord will be her defence; he will be her shield and her buckler; and the power of his own right hand will protect his people. And it shall come to pass that every nation, and every kindred and tongue and people that will fight against the people of God, and against his Zion, will perish out of the earth, and all nations that “fight against Mount Zion shall become as the dream of a night vision. Like a hungry man who dreams and thinks that he eats, but he wakes and his soul has appetite;” so, in the latter-days, it shall be with not only one nation but all the nations that fight against Mount Zion. God has stretched forth his hand to exert, the powers of the heavens, and he will fulfill and accomplish his work; and there is no power beneath the heavens that can stay his almighty hand.—Amen.

Little Children Are Innocent, and All Will Be Saved, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered June 27, 1875, in the Second Ward School-House, Salt Lake City, at the Funeral Services of John Houseman, aged six years, and Willie Franklin, aged four years, Sons of William and Ann Wheeler, Burned to Death at Wanship, Summit County, U. T., June 24, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I am entirely dependent this morning upon the Spirit of the Lord to guide and direct me in what I may say upon this painful occasion. Those who have assembled here—Brother and Sister Wheeler, and their friends who mourn with them, are dependent upon the same source for comfort in their serious bereavement; and in fact we are all dependent upon the blessing and Spirit of the Lord in all the labors of life, and I hope that, in our services this morning, a large measure of that Spirit will be imparted unto us.

I feel disposed to read the first chapter of Job as a preliminary to any remarks I may make. [The speaker read the first chapter of the Book of Job.] We also see in reading the history of Job that the devil did not finish with him there, as it seems the devil had another conversation with the Lord on this subject, in which he informed the Lord that a man would give anything for his life and that if he, the devil, touched Job’s flesh, he would certainly curse God. And it seems from reading this history that the Lord put Job into the hands of the devil, to do as he pleased with him, only to spare his life. Of course the history is familiar to you all who have read the Bible, and you are aware that the devil smote Job, and he was covered with boils from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, so that he was in great distress, trouble and tribulation, yet in the midst of it all he did not sin, but acknowledged the hand of the Lord.

I may say with regard to the case which has brought us together this morning, it is a little similar to that of Job. We meet with some strange things in the history of our lives in the dispensations and dealings of God with men. In the case before us we are called to mourn the loss of two children taken from Brother and Sister Wheeler, we may say as suddenly and, in one sense of the word, as miraculously, as were the sons and daughters of Job. His affliction consisted not only in the loss of two children, but of all his children and also of all the possessions that he had, yet still, under all this he said—“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I know very well it is hard for any person to be called to pass through the scenes that we sometimes are called to pass through in this life, it is so in the case before us this morning. The loss of these little children, taken away as they were, is certainly painful, not only to the parents, but to every person who reflects; and it is a very hard matter for any of us to enter into and appreciate the depth of sorrow which parents feel on occasions like this, it is difficult to bring the matter home to our own hearts unless we have been called to pass through similar affliction and sorrow. At the same time there is no doubt that we all sympathize with our friends when called to pass through trials and bereavement. And I will here say to Brother and Sister Wheeler, and to all my friends, there are a great many worse things in this world than the case we are now called to mourn.

Our children are taken away from us in infancy and childhood, and they are taken away as Job’s were, in one sense of the word, through the dispensations of Providence, causing us severe trials. This we will acknowledge; but, as I have already said, there are many things in this world that are far more painful and afflicting than to have our children burned to death. My friends may ask—“What is Brother Woodruff driving at in this remark?” I will tell you. I have lived in these valleys twenty-seven years, since the pioneers came here. I have seen a whole generation of men and women grow up in these valleys of the mountains, and they have become parents. I have seen some, I will not say a great many, but I have seen some young men, I say nothing about maidens, who have met with untimely deaths and who have gone to the grave disgraced, and a dishonor to themselves and to their parents. Circumstances of this kind are far more painful to any parent in the world than it is for their children to meet with sudden death by accident or any other way. I do not make these remarks to apply to Brother and Sister Wheeler, for none of us know what course our children will take. We set good examples before them, and we strive to teach them righteous principles, but when they come to years of accountability they have their agency and they act for themselves.

Many things are transpiring in the earth to-day which we should regard as great calamities and as grievous to be borne if we had to pass through them. Think of these late earthquakes in South America, eight thousand people out of ten thousand in one city sunk in the earth in a few moments. And then, the tremendous floods that are sweeping over France and other parts of the earth, causing the death of hundreds and thousands of men, women and children. All these things are in fulfillment of the revelations of God, and of the judgments which he has promised should come upon the earth in the last days. One of the purposes which the Lord has in view in gathering his Saints to the valleys of the mountains is that they may not share in the sins or partake of the plagues of Babylon; therefore we have reason to rejoice before the Lord because of his mercies and blessings unto us. And with regard to a case like this before us this morning—the loss of those children—I want to say a few words for the consolation of those who are sorrowing. In the first place these children are innocent before the Lord; as to their death and the cause thereof, that is in the hands of God, and we should not complain of the Lord or his dispensations any more than Job did. These children have been taken away very suddenly, and in such a manner as to cause great sorrow and distress to their parents, but there is this consolation connected with the matter—they are innocent, they are not in transgression. They have paid the law of death which God passed on Adam and all his posterity; but when their spirits left their bodies and got into the spirit world their trouble and affliction were over. Their death was a very painful one, but their suffering is now over, and in a few years from now they will come forth out of their graves in the morning of the resurrection, not marred by fire or any element, but clothed with glory, immortality and eternal life, in eternal beauty and bloom, and they will be given into the hands of their parents, and they will receive them in the family organization of the celestial world, and their parents will have them for ever. They will live as long as their God lives. This, to Latter-day Saints, who believe in the resurrection, should be a source of comfort and consolation.

Why our children are taken from us it is not for me to say, for God never revealed it unto me. We are all burying them. I have buried one-third of the children that have been given unto me. I have had some thirty children born to me, and ten of them are buried, all of them young. The question may arise with me and with you—“Why has the Lord taken away my children?” But that is not for me to tell, because I do not know; it is in the hands of the Lord, and it has been so from the creation of the world all the way down. Children are taken away in their infancy, and they go to the spirit world. They come here and fulfill the object of their coming, that is, they tabernacle in the flesh. They come to receive a probation and an inheritance on the earth; they obtain a body or tabernacle, and that tabernacle will be preserved for them, and in the morning of the resurrection the spirits and bodies will be reunited, and as here we find children of various ages in a family, from the infant at the mother’s breast to manhood, so will it be in the family organization in the celestial world. Our children will be restored to us as they are laid down if we, their parents, keep the faith and prove ourselves worthy to obtain eternal life; and if we do not so prove ourselves our children will still be preserved, and will inherit celestial glory. This is my view in regard to all infants who die, whether they are born to Jew or Gentile, righteous or wicked. They come from their eternal Father and their eternal Mother unto whom they were born in the eternal world, and they will be restored to their eternal parentage; and all parents who have received children here according to the order of God and the holy priesthood, no matter in what age they may have lived, will claim those children in the morning of the resurrection, and they will be given unto them and they will grace their family organizations in the celestial world.

With regard to the future state of those who die in infancy I do not feel authorized to say much. There has been a great deal of theory, and many views have been expressed on this subject, but there are many things connected with it which the Lord has probably never revealed to any of the Prophets or patriarchs who ever appeared on the earth. There are some things which have not been revealed to man, but are held in the bosom of God our Father, and it may be that the condition after death of those who die in infancy is among the things which God has never revealed; but it is sufficient for me to know that our children are saved, and that if we ourselves keep the faith and do our duty before the Lord, if we keep the celestial law, we shall be preserved by that law, and our children will be given unto us there, as they have been given here in this world of sorrow, affliction, pain and distress. It has no doubt been a marvel many times, in the minds of men and women, why God ever placed men and women in such a world as this, why he causes his children to pass through sorrow and affliction here in the body. The Lord has revealed something to us concerning this matter, and we have learned enough about it to know that this thing is necessary. We know that we are created in the image of God, both male and female; and whoever goes back into the presence of God our eternal Father, will find that he is a noble man, a noble God, tabernacled in a form similar to ours, for we are created after his own image; they will also learn that he has placed us here that we may pass through a state of probation and experience, the same as he himself did in his day of mortality. And time and again it has been revealed in the revelations of God given in our day, as well as in the Bible and Book of Mormon, that these things are necessary in order to enable us to comprehend good and evil, and to be prepared for glory and blessings when we receive them. As the Apostle argues very strongly in the Book of Mormon—“If we never taste the bitter how will we know how to comprehend the sweet? If we never partake of pain how can we prize ease? And if we never pass through affliction, how can we comprehend glory, exaltation and eternal blessings?”

The Lord has said concerning Jesus, that he descended below all things that he might rise above all things, and comprehend all things. No man descended lower than the Savior of the world. Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, he traveled from there to the cross through suffering, mingled with blood, to a throne of grace; and in all his life there was nothing of an earthly nature that seemed to be worth possessing. His whole life was passed in poverty, suffering, pain, affliction, labor, prayer, mourning and sorrow, until he gave up the ghost on the cross. Still he was God’s firstborn son and the Redeemer of the world. The question might be asked why the Lord suffered his Son to come here and to live and die as he did. When we get into the spirit world, and the vail is withdrawn, we shall then perhaps understand the whys and wherefores of all these things. In the dispensations and providences of God to man it seems that we are born to suffer pain, affliction, sorrows and trials; this is what God has decreed that the human family shall pass through; and if we make a right use of this probation, the experience it brings will eventually prove a great blessing to us, and when we receive immortality and eternal life, exaltation, kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers with all the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, we shall understand and comprehend why we were called to pass through a continual warfare during the few years we spent in the flesh.

It certainly does require a good deal of the Spirit of the Lord to give comfort and consolation to a father and mother mourning for the loss of their children; and without the Gospel of Christ the separation by death is one of the most gloomy subjects it is possible to contemplate; but just as soon as we obtain the Gospel and learn the principle of the resurrection, the gloom, sorrow and suffering occasioned by death are, in a great measure, taken away. I have often thought that, to see a dead body, and to see that body laid in the grave and covered with earth, is one of the most gloomy things on earth; without the Gospel it is like taking a leap in the dark. But as quick as we obtain the Gospel, as soon as the spirit of man is enlightened by the inspiration of the Almighty, he can exclaim with one of old—“Oh grave, where is thy victory, Oh death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The resurrection of the dead presents itself before the enlightened mind of man, and he has a foundation for his spirit to rest upon. That is the position of the Latter-day Saints today. We do know for ourselves, we are not in the dark with regard to this matter; God has revealed it to us, and we do understand the principle of the resurrection of the dead, and that the Gospel brings life and immortality to light. We have received the Gospel, and if we are true to the principles of that Gospel as long as we live, we shall be made partakers of immortality, exaltation and glory.

I know very well that the loss of their children in this terrible manner is a sad affliction to brother and sister Wheeler. It was a sad affliction for Job when his children and possessions were taken from him in an hour, but yet he had sense or knowledge enough to understand and say that when he came into the world he possessed neither children, houses, lands, horses, oxen, camels nor asses, but that all his wealth had been given to him by the Lord, and that the Lord had taken them away and blessed be his holy name. I will say to our mourning friends, your children are taken away and you can not help it, we cannot any of us help it; there is no censure to be given to parents when they do the best they can. A mother should not be censured because she can not save her sick child, and we have to leave these things in the hands of God. It will be but a little time until they will be restored to us; in a little time brother and sister Wheeler will again have the children whose loss they now mourn.

With regard to the growth, glory, or exaltation of children in the life to come, God has not revealed anything on that subject to me, either about your children, mine or anybody else’s, any further than we know they are saved. And I feel that we have to put our trust in the Lord in these afflictions, we have to lean upon his arm and to look to him for comfort and consolation. We do not mourn under these afflictions as those who have no hope; we do not mourn the loss of our children as though we were never going to see them again, because we know better. The Lord has taught us better, and so has the Gospel; the revelations of Jesus Christ have shown us that they will be restored to us in the resurrection of the just. And I will here say with regard to the Gospel of Christ, that it is one of the greatest mysteries under the heavens to me why there are so few of the human family, whether in the Christian, Pagan or Jewish world, who take any interest in eternal things, in the state of man after death. If we read the Bible we learn that Noah, filled with revelation, and with the Gospel in his hand, although he labored a hundred and twenty years, could not get a solitary soul except his own family to go with him for salvation. It was similar in the days of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and if we come down to the days of Christ, we find that his testimony was rejected by the rabbis, high priests and the great mass of the people, and he chose for his Apostles twelve poor fishermen, and they and very few of the people, comparatively speaking, were all that received the teachings of Jesus and followed him through the regeneration; while the whole Jewish nation, with these few exceptions, were ready to put their Shiloh to death, and he was the person upon whom the salvation of the whole house of Israel depended. It is just so to-day. The great majority of the people reject the words of life and salvation which are proclaimed unto them. God, in these last days revealed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith by the teachings of angels out of heaven, and its principles are made known to the world, and there has never been a congregation of Gentiles, from that day to this, to whom the Elders of Israel have borne record of these things, but what the Spirit of God has also borne record of the truth of their testimony; and herein lies the condemnation of this generation, for “light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” I ask, in the name of God and humanity, why is it that intelligent beings, made in the image of God, take no interest in their condition after death? They know they are going to die, and, if they have any sense or reflection, they know they will live after the death of their mortal bodies; still men will sell their eternal interest for money, for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars they will sell all the interest they have in the eternal world; in fact, they take no interest in their eternal welfare. Their cry is—“Give me gold, silver and honors the few years I spend here, and eternal life may go where it pleases, I have no interest in that.” I ask again, why is it that the human family take no interest in these things? We have preached over forty years. I have been engaged in that work over that time, and have proclaimed the words of eternal life to millions of people, and have traveled more than a hundred thousand miles in so doing, and, as the Prophet has said, I have found one of a family and two of a city who have had eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, and they have been gathered up from the various nations of the earth into the mountains of Israel, and here to-day we have a little handful of people, out of the twelve hundred millions who dwell upon the earth, who feel an interest in building up the Zion and kingdom of God upon the earth, and who are desirous of being saved in that kingdom.

Now I would rather be poor all the days of my life, I would rather go through poverty and affliction, it matters not how severe, even to the sacrifice of my own life, than lose salvation and eternal life, because I have faith in it and always had. I always have had faith in the Bible and in the revelations of God since I was a boy like these sitting on these seats, eight or ten years old, when I went to the Presbyterian Sunday school and read about Jesus Christ. I believed then that he was the Savior of the world; I believed that the Old and New Testament was true. I believe it to-day. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? When he comes into the presence of God he can’t buy it. This is the position of the world. There is none of us going to live but a little while; we shall all pass away soon, and our eternal destiny depends upon the few days, weeks, months or years that we spend here in the flesh. Do you not think it will pay a man or a woman to keep the commandments of God? It will, and when we enjoy the Holy Spirit, when we are trying to live our religion here on the earth, we are the happiest people on God’s footstool, no matter what our circumstances may be. I do not care whether we are rich or poor, whether in happiness or affliction, if a man is living his religion and enjoys the favor and Spirit of God, it makes no difference to him what takes place on the earth. There may be earthquakes, war, fire or sword in the land, but he feels that it is all right with him. That is the way I feel to-day.

With regard to the Gospel of Christ, it is a thing that we should all labor to maintain the few years that we spend here. When I get through with this life and go into the spirit world, I do not want to miss what I have in anticipation. I have always desired to see the Savior, Father Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and those old Prophets we read about in the Bible. I desired this before I heard this Gospel, I desire it to-day; and I do not wish to miss this, for nothing in this world would pay me for such a sacrifice. But I know that it requires constant warfare, labor and faithfulness before the Lord in order for us to keep in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and to live in such a manner that we may obtain these blessings. Jesus says—“Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to eternal lives, and few there are who find it, while broad is the way that leads to death, and many there be who go in thereat.” The road to death is broad enough to catch the whole world, and they do not like to walk in the strait and narrow one, they do not like to keep the celestial law. I have met with professed ministers of the Gospel, in my travels, at whose tables I have eaten and drank, and I have given them the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and have talked to and labored with them, and I have known some of them spend days and days in this warfare, trying to decide which to do, whether to receive the Gospel of Christ and take the reproach of the world, or reject it; and I may say that in nine cases out of ten they have come to the conclusion to reject it. When I visited Fox Island the first time, I went to the house of Mr. Newton, a Baptist minister; and I stayed with him. But first I went to his church and heard him preach, and when he got through I wanted to bear record of the Gospel, for I had a message to that people, and I appointed a meeting for four o’clock in the afternoon, and I preached the Gospel to them, and Mr. Newton took me to his home and I gave him the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and for ten days that man walked about his room until midnight trying to decide what he should do. The Spirit of the Lord bore record to him that my testimony was true, and he felt that if he obeyed the Gospel which I had proclaimed unto him he would lose his good name and honor among men, but that if he did not receive it, he would be damned. Finally he rejected it, and the consequence was that he became a vagabond, and a miserable outcast. I baptized all his flock who owned any portion of the meeting-house, and if he had embraced the Gospel and been gathered with them he would have been here and saved in the kingdom of God, instead of the vagabond that he has since become. I merely mention this to show how the minds of some men are acted upon by the tidings of the Gospel. Some of them feel that it would be a great reproach to obey that Gospel and to keep the commandments of God. Bless your souls, we who obey the Gospel of Christ are all in good company. Whenever you are persecuted for righteousness sake, said Jesus, rejoice and be exceeding glad for so persecuted they the Prophets and Apostles which were before you.

I will say to all, whether in the church or in the world, it will pay you to keep the commandments of God. Here is a man who has a wife that he thinks a great deal of; they have lovely children, and the ties of affection bind them closely. Now should not such a man have respect enough for God to keep his commandments and so secure to himself his wife and his children in the celestial world after the resurrection? But you cannot get worldlings to believe in such a principle; the people, as I said before, have not interest enough in the things of the kingdom of God to be willing to keep the commandments of God.

I say to the Latter-day Saints, we should be faithful to our God. We are blessed above all the people that breathe the breath of life upon the earth, and we are blessed above all other dispensations and generations of men, for the Lord has put into our hands the power to build up his Zion upon the earth, never more to be thrown down, and this is what no other generation has ever been called to do. But although this is the mission of the Latter-day Saints, we have a continual warfare to wage—a warfare with the powers of darkness, and a warfare with ourselves. The ancients had a similar experience to pass through—they had their day of trials, troubles and tribulations. Enoch labored three hundred and sixty-five years in building up Zion, and he had the opposition of the whole world. But the Lord blessed him so that he maintained his ground for that length of time, and gathered together a few out of the nations of the earth, and they were sanctified before the Lord, and he had to take them away, and the saying went forth—“Zion is fled.” So you may trace down all the Prophets. Read the history of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others, and you will find that it was a warfare with them all the way through. And so with Jesus and the Apostles. But all those dispensations have passed and gone into the spirit world, and they have their eyes upon us, and in fact God our heavenly Father and all under him—the whole heavenly host, have their eyes turned towards the Latter-day Saints, because this is the great dispensation of which Adam, Enoch and all the ancient patriarchs and Prophets have spoken, in which shall take place the final redemption of the House of Israel, the restoration of their kingdom, the rebuilding of their city and Temple, the restoration of their oracles and Priesthood, of the Urim and Thummim, and the preparation for the final winding up scene in the last days; all these things will take place in the dispensation in which we are permitted to live.

Let us, then, try and fulfill and perform our duties as good Latter-day Saints. Let us bear with each other’s faults, and bear the yoke of Christ, live our religion and keep the commandments of God. Let us try and bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let us set them good examples and teach them good principles while they are young. They are given to us by our heavenly Father; they are our kingdom, they are the foundation of our exaltation and glory; they are plants of renown, and we should strive to bear them up before the Lord, and teach them to pray to, and to have faith in, the Lord as far as we can, that when we are passed and gone and they succeed us on this stage of action, they may bear off the great latter-day work and kingdom of God upon the earth. I do not believe that the day is very far distant when the revelations which God has given concerning the last days will have their fulfillment. I believe there are many children now living in the mountains of Israel who will never taste of death, that is, they will dwell on the earth at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will acknowledge that there is a great deal to be done, and the Lord has not revealed to man the day or the hour, but he has revealed the generation; and the fig trees are now putting forth their leaves in the eyes of all the nations, indicating the near approach of the second coming of the Son of Man. It is my faith that hundreds and thousands of the children that have been given to us will be alive in the flesh when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. The Lord will not disappoint the inhabitants of the earth in these last days in regard to his second coming, any more than he has with regard to other great events and dispensations.

We live in a very important age and generation; we live in the day and time when God has set his hand to fulfill a measure of prophecy and revelation to man, in the great dispensation of all dispensations. As an individual I do not believe that many more years will roll over the heads of the inhabitants of the earth before the resurrection will be upon them, and then these children, which we are called to bury to-day, will come forth from their graves, clothed with glory, immortality and eternal life. You may ask why I believe this. I believe it because the revelations of God say so. I read the Scriptures, and I believe that the revelations and prophecies therein contained mean what they say, and I also believe that the saying of every Prophet or Apostle spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost will have its fulfillment, and, as Paul said, no prophecy of Scripture hath any private interpretation, but holy men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. They spake the mind and word of the Lord, and none of their sayings will fail to be fulfilled, for the Lord has said—“Though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not fail, but shall be fulfilled.” That is the way I read prophecy and revelation.

The Jews will be moved upon by and by, and they will return to the land of their fathers, and they will rebuild Jerusalem. These Lamanites here will receive the Gospel of Christ in fulfillment of the revelations of God. The Prophets which have been shut up in the north country with the nine and a half tribes led away by Shalmanezer, King of Assyria, thousands of years ago, will come in remembrance before God; they will smite the rocks and mountains of ice will flow down before them, and those long lost tribes will come forth in your day and mine, if we live a few years longer, and they will be crowned under the hands of the children of Ephraim—the Elders of Israel who dwell in the land of Zion. And by and by the testimony of the Gospel will be sealed among the Gentiles, and the Gospel will turn to the whole house of Israel, and the judgments of God will back up the testimony of the Elders of this Church, and the Lord will send messengers who will go forth and reap down the earth. The unbeliever may say that what we term judgments have always prevailed more or less among the nations, and that God has nothing to do with them, they are all natural. Well, if they have always prevailed, they will prevail to a greater extent in these last days than ever before, until everything that God has spoken shall have come to pass. Judgments await the world, and they await this nation, and the day is at hand when the Lord will sweep the earth as with a besom of destruction. In the vision which the Lord gave to Enoch, he saw the heavens weeping over the earth because of the fall of man; and when Enoch asked the Lord—“When will the earth rest from under the curse of sin?” the Lord told him that in the last days the earth should rest, for then it should be redeemed from the sin, wickedness and abominations that were upon it. The earth is now pretty near ripe, and when ripened the Lord will cut them off. These things are before the Latter-day Saints, but the world do not believe in them any more than they believed in the message of Noah or Lot.

Brethren and sisters, let us read the revelations of God for ourselves, and when we read them, let us believe them, and try to live in such a way that we may be ready for whatever dispensation the Lord may have in store for us, and so that we can acknowledge his hand as Job did, and not find any fault with him because of his providences toward us. If we cannot comprehend them now, we shall be able to do so in a little while. The Lord may have purposes in view in his dealings with us that we do not understand; I presume he has. In fact, the whole of the dealings of God to man are a mystery. There is a vail over the world, and it is ordained of God that it should be so, for if it were not so, and if men could comprehend eternal things, as God comprehends them, there is no man on the earth, no matter how wicked he may be, but what would be willing to keep the commandments of God, and to pass through anything that God ordained, for therein he would see there was salvation and eternal life. But God has an order in these matters, as he revealed unto Joseph Smith. He said unto Joseph—“I will prove you whether you will abide in my covenant; if you are not willing to abide in my covenant even unto death, you are not worthy of me.” And it is so with the Saints. If they are not willing to abide in the covenants they have made with God, even unto death if necessary, they are not worthy of him. Jesus laid down his life to redeem the world, and passed through suffering and affliction all his life in order that he might fulfill the mission which was given him. So it is with us. The Lord says—“I am going to prove the children of men.” There are a few individuals in this dispensation who will inherit celestial glory, and a few in other dispensations; but before they receive their exaltation they will have to pass through and submit to whatever dispensation God may decree. But for all this they will receive their reward—they will become Gods, they will inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities and powers through the endless ages of eternity, and to their increase there will be no end, and the heart of man has never conceived of the glory that is in store for the sons and daughters of God who keep the celestial law. And yet God has a vail over all in regard to these things. The whole world will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and they will inherit kingdoms according to the laws which they have kept, every man being preserved by the law which he has observed, and all will be saved in some glory, except the sons of perdition.

Now, brethren and sisters, the Gospel of Christ is before us. We are all passing along, and it will only be a little time before a good many of us will be on the other side of the vail. Our friends are passing off every day, and we look in vain for many with whom we have been familiar in years that are past. If I go into a congregation of ten thousand and enquire for the Saints I knew in Kirtland, and request them to lift up their hands, it will be like a standard bearer on the mountains, there is only here and there one. You ask a congregation how many of them knew Joseph Smith, and it is only here and there one, they are passing away to the other side of the vail. It is so with us all, we are hastening to the end of life’s journey, and a good many of us are on the downward grade. I ask that what little time I live, I may keep the faith and have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and of the Saints of God, that when I get through I may be satisfied with life, satisfied with my acts, that I may receive a welcome into the Kingdom of God. That is all I ask and all I labor for. As for riches and wealth, I do not want them if they will damn me. I would like to have enough to clothe, shoe and feed my wives and children, and to make them comfortable, if I can get it honestly before the Lord; but I would rather myself and them all be in poverty than to have wealth and be destroyed. Riches are dangerous unless we can use them so as not to destroy us; if we cannot use them to the glory of God and for the building up of his Kingdom, we are better without them. I do not expect to live a great many years longer. The young, the middle-aged and the old are dying off. For many years of my life the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a consolation to me. I have spent a good deal more than half of my life in laboring in this Church. I labored to find this Church, I may say, from my childhood up, and many a midnight hour have I plead with the Lord, in the wilderness, in the woods, and in my mill, and under various circumstances, that the Lord would let me find a people who contended for the faith once delivered to the Saints. I desired this from reading the Bible, and from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for in the pages of that sacred book I learned that a people once lived upon the earth who had communion with God, and they had power to command the elements, and they obeyed them; they conversed with angels, and had the gifts and graces of a religion which had power and salvation in it. I could not find this on the face of the earth. I prayed to the Lord to let me live to find such a people, and he promised that I should, and I have lived to find them. I have seen the faces of Prophets and inspired men, and it has been a great consolation to me. I have my failings and imperfections, and I expect that we are all subject to them, more or less. I want to overcome them, because I desire to partake of eternal life. I also desire this for the Saints of God and for the honest and meek of the earth everywhere.

I have labored many years, and traveled without purse and scrip, preached without money and without price, for the purpose of saving my fellow-men. I labor on Mount Zion to try and save the dead; I spend a good deal of time in this. It is a consolation to me, I pray God my heavenly Father to bless you and all the Latter-day Saints, and that he will give us enough of his Holy Spirit to keep us in the path of duty and rectitude, virtue and righteousness, that we may be justified before him. I pray my heavenly Father that he will bless Brother and Sister Wheeler in their bereavement, and give them his Holy Spirit, that, when they lie down at night and rise in the morning and miss their children they may feel to commit themselves into the hands of the Lord, and realize that their separation from their little ones is not for ever, but that in a little while they will be restored to them. This applies to us all in the loss of our children. We lay them away in the grave, but they will come forth in the morning of the resurrection, and if we are faithful to the truth, we shall receive them and rejoice with them; and when we have passed through the sorrows of mortality and have the joy and glory of the celestial kingdom conferred upon us we shall then know that the afflictions of mortality have prepared us for and enabled us to appreciate the blessings which God has in store for the faithful.

May God bless us, and give us his Spirit, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Immediate Revelation, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on the Occasion of the New England and New York Editorial Excursion Party, Sunday afternoon, July 11, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I will call the attention of the congregation to a portion of the word of God contained in the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. [The speaker read the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 verses.]

I have read these passages of Scripture in order to dwell, this afternoon, if the Lord will, and his Spirit shall so direct my mind, upon the subject of marriage, and to show wherein the people called Latter-day Saints differ in their views from other Christian denominations in relation to this great and divine ordinance, and to make such other remarks, not particularly connected with the subject, as the Spirit of the Lord may direct.

First, however, before taking up this divine ordinance, it may be well to state, in brief terms, some of the views of the Latter-day Saints in regard to the doctrine which they have embraced. I shall endeavor to be very brief on every point, in order to enumerate, as far as possible, the variety of doctrines and principles which we have embraced, that are peculiar to us as a people. I will commence by saying, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not grown out of the various religious societies that now exist, or that have existed, in Christendom; neither has it grown out of any of their institutions. Our Priesthood, our doctrine, our authority, the organization of our Church, and everything connected therewith, have been something revealed directly from the heavens. Perhaps you may inquire—“Have you not been guided more or less in relation to these principles by the book which is called the Bible?” I answer that, in the organization of the kingdom of God on the earth in the nineteenth century, we have been guided by direct revelation to us from heaven. We do not profess that our doctrines and principles are entirely distinct and something entirely different from those which are recorded in the Bible, we are far from making any such profession; but we believe that the same God who organized his kingdom in ancient times, and revealed his will to the inhabitants of the earth, has revealed, in these last days, principles in accordance with those revealed in former times, and that he is a consistent Being, and that he would not communicate a Gospel for the inhabitants of the earth to observe in the 19th century that was not revealed and understood in former ages. The same Gospel, therefore, which God has revealed anew in our day, when compared with the Gospel contained in the New Testament, is found to accord in every principle, and in all its ordinances and institutions, with ancient Christianity.

This Church was organized on the 6th day of April, 1830. The very day of the month on which it should be organized was pointed out by new revelation; the officers that were placed in the Church were appointed, and the names of many of them were given by new revelation. The duties of these officers were also appointed by direct revelation from heaven. God organized the Church with Apostles in it, the same as he organized his ancient Church; he organized it with Revelators and with Prophets, inspired from on high, the same as he organized the ancient Christian Church. He commanded the people to believe in his Son Jesus Christ, as the great Redeemer who died in the meridian of time for the sins of mankind. He commanded, by new revelation, that we should believe in the same Redeemer and in the same atonement; he commanded us to repent of all our sins, forsake all unrighteousness, cease to do evil and learn to do well, and to reform our lives in every respect, the same as he commanded the people in the ancient dispensation of the Gospel. By new revelation we were commanded to be baptized by immersion in water, for the remission of our sins, the same as he commanded the people in ancient times to attend to the same divine ordinance. By new revelation, he commanded his servants the Apostles, and those to whom he gave power and authority, to lay hands on all baptized believers, and to confirm upon them the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, the same as was practiced among the Saints in ancient times. By new revelation the Lord promised that certain signs should follow the believers among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people to whom this Gospel should be sent. All that would believe, men and women, were promised certain signs, among which I will name that they should cast out devils, speak with new tongues, and if they should take up serpents, or drink any deadly thing, it should not hurt them, they should lay their hands upon the sick and they should recover. The same promise was made by our Savior under the ancient dispensation of the Gospel. He commanded his servants, in these days, to go forth and preach to the Gentile nations first; and when we had faithfully borne our testimony to them, and they were sufficiently warned, then we were to turn to the scattered and dispersed remnants of Israel in the four quarters of the earth, and preach the Gospel to them. He commanded, by new revelation, that his servants should say unto the inhabitants of all the earth that would believe, repent, be baptized, and receive the Gospel of the Son of God, that they should leave their respective nations, and gather together in one place, which the Lord, by new revelation, should appoint.

All this was given by new revelation. Does it agree or disagree with the Scriptures contained in the Bible? Judge ye for yourselves. Did the ancient Christian Church have inspired Apostles, who had power to call upon God and receive new revelation from him? So does the modern Christian Church, which God has reorganized on the earth; claim to have the same officers, Apostles, not in name merely, but inspired from heaven, to receive new revelations, as the ancient Apostles were. Is there any disagreement, then, between the former pattern and the latter-day pattern? Did the ancient Christian Church have a multitude of inspired Prophets, men and women, who could prophesy concerning future events? So the latter-day Christian Church, organized by new revelation, has an abundance of Prophets and Prophetesses to whom the future has been opened, and they foretell future events; hence there is no disagreement between the ancient pattern and the latter-day pattern. Did the Apostles lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and did the Spirit of God descend from the heavens, and fall upon the baptized believers through the laying on of hands? So in the latter days have the same blessings been given among all the nations and people and kindreds and tongues, wherever this Gospel has been preached. No difference, then, so far as this is concerned.

Did the ancient Christian Church have a great variety of members possessing a variety of spiritual gifts? So does the latter-day Christian Church believe in the same thing. Did any in the Christian Church presume, in ancient times, to take unto themselves the authority of the ministry, without being called of God by new revelation? Never, no never! All were called by new revelation to officiate in the various offices of the Church, after the same pattern that Aaron was called. “No man,” says paul, “taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.” Everybody knows, from the history given, how Aaron was called by new revelation. Have any among all the peoples and nations of the earth authority to administer baptism? Yes. Who are they? Those who are called by new revelation, and none else. Have any authority to administer the Lord’s Supper among all the Christian nations of the earth? Yes. Who are they? Those to whom the Lord has spoken, whom the Lord has called as he called Aaron. Have any Christian denominations who deny new revelation, authority to administer this sacred ordinance? Not one upon the face of the whole earth. Are ordinances, administered by those who deny new revelation, accepted by the Most High? Not one of them. Why? Because God does not sanction that which is not appointed by him.

Perhaps some may inquire, if this does not cut off the Christian Church from the face of the earth? I answer, it does, unless God has a Christian Church with revelators and Prophets in it, and whose officers are called by new revelation. Inquires one—“Do you mean to say that we have had no true Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries?” I do mean to say this, unless there have been persons authorized, according to the requirements of the holy Scriptures. If we can find a Church anywhere on the face of the earth that has Apostles in it, and revelators, and inspired men, then we have a true Christian Church; but if we can not find this, then we have no such Church. If we can find a church that has the gifts and the signs spoken of by the New Testament, we can find a true Christian Church.; but if we can’t find such, we have no reason to believe that there is such a Church on the earth. “But,” says one, “we call ourselves Christians.” That is a very easy matter; but calling yourselves Christians or Christian churches does not make you such. Inquires one—“Is it not contrary to the Scriptures to suppose that the world would be left for so many centuries without a Christian Church?” No; it is in accordance with the Scriptures, for they foretell the Apostacy, the falling away and the darkness that should reign over the nations, and show that instead of having true teachers, men would heap to themselves teachers without authority from God, uninspired men, whose ears would be turned away from the truth unto fables. This great apostacy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now. A short time after the death of the last of the Apostles, the Christian Church, what few of them remained, were persecuted from mountain to mountain, from den to den, from one cave of the earth to another, and from nation to nation until they were entirely exterminated and rooted out of the earth. Well, what was left? An apostate Christianity, a Christianity without revelators, without any voice of God, without any Prophets to unfold the future, without visions, without any communications from the heavens. Apostacy succeeded the Christian Church and has borne rule over all the nations of the earth; and these Scriptures have been fulfilled; for they say that a certain power should arise, and make war with the Saints and overcome them, and they should be given into the hands of that power.

But is our earth always to be left without the Church and kingdom of God, and without Apostles, Prophets, or a voice from the heavens? No. John saw in his vision on Patmos how the Gospel should again be preached among the nations, after great Babylon should arise, after she should persecute the Saints and destroy them from the earth, and present her golden cup full of filthiness and abominations for all nations to drink thereof.

After he had seen this, he saw how the Christian Church should again return to the earth. In the fourteenth chapter of Revelations and sixth verse, he says—“I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, unto 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 another angel followed this one that had the Gospel, saying—“Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Why? Because she hath made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Immediately after this the Son of Man was seen by John, sitting upon a white cloud, coming in his glory and power to destroy the nations of the earth. Here, then, were three great events portrayed by the ancient Apostle John, which should take place just prior to and at the time of the coming of the Son of Man. The Gospel is to be brought by an angel. For whom? For all people. Now, if there had been any people, nation, kindred, or tongue, in any part of the earth that had the Gospel, and had the authority to administer its ordinances, there would be no necessity for this angel’s coming, all we would have had to do, would be to hunt up that people, and there, among them, we should have found Apostles, Prophets, revelators, and men having power to call upon God, and get revelation; and then persons would be called by new revelation to the ministry. But no such people existed, and hence, when the angel brings the Gospel, it has to be preached to all people, nations and tongues, under the whole heavens.

Now the Latter-day Saints have happened to live in the day when the Lord has sent this angel, and when he has again established his Church, and has commanded his servants to go forth, calling them by name, to preach the Gospel to the people, without purse and scrip, to organize his people among all nations and to say unto them—“Gather out from all these nations unto one place.” “But,” says one, “what does this mean? Did the ancient Apostles and the ancient Christian Churches gather?” I answer that the same doctrines which they taught are taught in these days; yet when it comes to some of the great temporal principles of salvation God has varied in his plans in every dispensation. To Noah a command was given to build an ark; that was the way in which was to be effected the temporal salvation of all believers in his day. Abraham was commanded to leave his country, kindred and friends; that was a command of a very different character to the one given in the dispensation of Noah. In the days of Moses, another command was given quite different from that given to either Noah or Abraham, and so on down. In the days of Jesus, so far as temporal salvation was concerned, the believers were permitted to remain at Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia and in all the countries wherever the Christian Church was organized; there was no gathering in that day. But the last dispensation is to be a dispensation of gathering together of all of the people of God. It is spoken of by Paul in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, where it is said “that, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, the Lord will gather together in one all that are in Christ, whether they be in the heavens or upon the earth, that they may all be gathered in one.”

Now if this angel who brought this Gospel from the heavens, and commanded this Church to be organized, had left out this gathering together in one, we would have had reason to suppose him to be an impostor. Why? Because the great essential feature of the latter-day dispensation was a gathering together in one of all things in Christ. That is the reason why these vales are filled with inhabitants of different nations and tongues; they have heard in different parts of the earth the sound of the Gospel which God has brought to light in these latter-days by an angel; they heard the voice of the Lord calling upon them to flee from Babylon, and to gather together in one, and that is why they are here. This agrees with the testimony of John, that, after the angel came, the Gospel should be preached to all nations. He heard a great voice from heaven, saying—“Come out of her, my people, lest ye be partakers of her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” That voice, recollect, was not to be a cunningly devised fable, got up by a certain number of divines or theologians, according to their own wisdom; it was to be a voice from heaven, a new revelation, commanding the people to do this. About a hundred thousand of the Latter-day Saints, dwelling in this mountain region, building up towns and cities for some four or five hundred miles in extent, have heard the voice of the Lord from the heavens and have gathered out. You have heard the proclamation, when the latter-day kingdom was established, to take your lamps and go forth to meet the Bridegroom. Instead of staying in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, or among the islands of the sea, you have been commanded to take your lamps and gather out; this is like the fish net that was cast into the sea, and gathered all kinds, both good and bad.” “Do you mean to say,” says one, “that there are some gathered among you who are bad?” Yes; if there were not the parable of our Savior would not be fulfilled. But by and by there will be a sorting out, and the bad will be cast away unto their own place, while the good will be gathered into vessels and be saved.

This will be fulfilling the words of the Prophet Isaiah, in the 43rd chapter—“I will gather them from the east, and from the west, I will say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back. Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name.”—Says one—“Do you really think there will be no Christians left in the north, nor in the south, nor in the east, nor in the west, but that every one that is called by the name of the Lord will be gathered in one?” Yes, that is what we believe, and that is one of the peculiarities of what the world call “Mormonism,” we do not believe there will be a Christian left on the whole face of the earth, but what will be gathered together. “Well,” says one, “if that is true, if Isaiah told the truth about that, and the day is at hand for his prophecy to be fulfilled, the nations will truly be in an awful dilemma, when every Christian is gathered out.” I think they will, I think you draw a very correct conclusion.

Why does the Lord gather them out? As the Prophet Isaiah has said in another place, he gathers them out to the mountains, and they say one to another—“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob.” What for? “That he may teach us of his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.” It seems, then, that the Lord will have one people somewhere on the face of the earth, up in some mountainous region, who are going to teach the nations his ways, and how to walk in his paths.

Now, if we can find out where that mountain is where the Lord is going to have a house built, and to which the nations shall gather, it will be well for us to open our eyes and to see whether we are gathering together to learn the ways of the Lord.

Perhaps you may enquire, “What peculiarities are to be taught in the mountains different from what are taught abroad?” I answer, undoubtedly there will be a great many; and among the rest is that of marriage, and now we come to the words of our text. You may ask, “Do you not marry here in the mountains, as we do in the East?” In reply, I will say, in the first place, that marriage is a divine ordinance, as you see by the words of my text—“What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Now how does the Lord join together persons in marriage? Does he ordain a justice of the peace, who avows himself to be an infidel, and does not believe in God, or his Son Jesus Christ, or in the Gospel of life and salvation? Has such a man the authority of God to join the sexes together in marriage? Suppose that such pronounce the marriage ceremony, what has the Lord to do with it? Does the Lord inspire the infidel—one who has no faith nor confidence in him, to join together the sexes in marriage? I think not.

But suppose we pass by the infidel who holds the authority of the civil law to administer the ordinance of marriage, are there not many persons among the Christian nations, who do believe in God and his Son Jesus Christ, who are justices of the peace, and who have authority, under the civil laws of the country, to administer the ordinance of marriage? I answer—there are many who hold this authority under their respective governments; we do not dispute this. The infidel I was speaking of, who is a justice of the peace, has authority by the laws of his State or county, to administer and officiate in the ceremony of marriage. But God has nothing to do with it; it answers the ends of the civil law, and that is as far as it goes.

Now suppose you take those persons who are not infidels, but who profess to believe in God, and they hold authority, under their various governments, to pronounce a man and woman husband and wife, has the Lord anything to do with that? He has if he has appointed that minister or justice of the peace; if he has given him a revelation authorizing him to officiate in the ordinance of marriage, then he has authority to do it, according to the mind and will of God. But on the other hand, if God has said nothing to him, he has no divine authority—and if he is a sectarian he is sure to reject all revelation, unless it happens to be in the Bible, and the Bible calls no man by name in the 19th century to officiate in marriage, neither in baptism nor any of the ordinances of the Gospel—his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not give him divine authority to administer the ordinance of marriage. Nevertheless the individuals whom he marries are married according to the laws of the country, and the marriage is legal so far as the laws of the country are concerned; but if God has not spoken to those men, if he has not given them revelation authorizing them to do this, their ceremony, so far as God is concerned, would be just the same as though it was administered by a heathen priest, just the same as though it was ministered by an infidel, for God has nothing to do with it.

Who is it then, that the Lord joins together? It is those who are married by one authorized of God to officiate in that sacred and holy ordinance, and the Lord could not do this, without he gave new revelation; hence you begin to understand what our views are as Latter-day Saints in regard to the nature of marriage. Inquires one—“Do you mean to say that there have been no marriages legal in the sight of God for nearly seventeen hundred years past, among all the nations?” Yes, that is what we say. Those old and middle-aged men, who were married in the nations before they heard the sound of the Gospel, were married legally according to the laws of man, and their marriages will stand all the controversies of the law, and their children are legal heirs to their property; but they are not joined together of the Lord.

Now let us come to a marriage where the Lord officiates. It is indirectly referred to here, in this 19th chapter of Matthew—“In the beginning God made them male and female.” And who officiated in the first great marriage ceremony? It was the Lord. Probably, if there had been any man on the earth at that time who held the keys, authority and power, the Lord would not have come and officiated directly; but inasmuch as the marriage was between the first pair who dwelt upon the earth, and there was nobody else to officiate, the Lord took it in hand to officiate himself; and after he had formed the woman he brought her to the man, and the man said—“This, now, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, therefore she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.”

Now let us inquire in regard to the perpetuity of this first marriage, for all Christendom, and I do not know but all heathendom, have got the curious idea into their heads that marriage pertains only to this little speck of time called our present life, and that by and by the grim monster Death will come along and part man and wife asunder, and that is the end of the marriage union. Such is the idea of all Christendom, and that is the way they marry; it is after this form that justices of the peace, the professed ministers of the Gospel, and all the judicial authorities of the various states, territories, nations, countries and empires of the world have officiated in the marriage ceremony—“I join you together,” or, “I pronounce you husband and wife,” as the case may be, “until death shall you part.” Oh indeed! It is a very short time to be married, is it not? We might die in the course of a day or two after being married, then the contract is run out, no more claim after that, according to their ideas. But now, in relation to this first marriage between Adam and Eve, who were they? Two immortal beings. What! Does God marry immortal beings? Yes. We have no account of his coming officially to marry a couple of mortal beings; I do not know that we have any such account anywhere. But these two personages, Adam and Eve, were immortal. Says one—“I never knew before that immortal beings were to be connected as husbands and wives, I thought marriage pertained to mortality, and until death should us part, and that was the end of it.” I know that we have had a great many erroneous ideas about baptism, about the laying on of hands, about marriage, and about a great many things, all of which came in consequence of the darkness that is spread over the nations, since ancient Christianity was rooted out of the earth. Two immortal beings—Adam the bridegroom, Eve the bride, stood up together, and the Lord gave the bride to the brid[e]groom. For how long, I wonder? If he had learned the ceremony of these Protestant and Catholic denominations, he might have said—“I pronounce you husband and wife until death shall separate you.” No, I think he had never learned that; death had not then come into our world; the forbidden fruit had not been eaten then; there were no fallen beings then on the earth, no mortality yet upon the face of our fair creation, but two immortal beings who were capable of enduring to all ages of eternity were united together in marriage.

This, then, was marriage for eternity, not for a little speck of time, not for a hundred or a thousand years, not for a million years, but for all eternity, to be as durable in its nature, action and effects as the immortal beings themselves. “But,” inquires one, “are you sure that Adam and Eve were immortal?” I am; the Scriptures inform me that by transgression sin came into the world, and death by sin. If sin had not come into the world there would have been no death. “But, do you really think that Adam and Eve would have been alive to-day?” Yes. Can you reflect in your minds upon a period in the future, when they would not be immortal, when they would be overcome? Can you point out the time when they would no longer be husband and wife? Never. When did the Lord give the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, etc.? He gave it to them as immortal beings. Supposing it had been possible for Adam and Eve, before they fell, to have had children, what kind of children would they have been? Would mortal children have descended from immortality without any transgression? Would people of flesh and blood and bones come into the world from immortal parents? No. We must suppose, then, that when God said to Adam and Eve, “be fruitful and multiply” that he spoke to them as beings that were not fallen.

Perhaps you may enquire, how long would they have multiplied and fulfilled this commandment? I answer, as long as eternity endures Can you tell how long that will be? “Do you mean to say there would be no end to their increase?” None at all. If they had fulfilled that great commandment, and had multiplied their posterity, their children would have been immortal, as well as the parents, and there never would have been a period throughout all the endless ages of eternity but what they would have continued to increase their children—their own sons and daughters.

Perhaps you may say—“I really thought that mankind now, over the face of the earth, were fulfilling that great first commandment.” You have been highly mistaken; we have not one of us fulfilled it. “Do you mean to say that all these people here who have been married and have multiplied sons and daughters throughout all this Territory, have not been fulfilling the command given to Adam?” Not one pair of us, we were not in a condition to do it; we shall be by and by, however, when we get our immortal bodies, as Adam had his. But while we are here, we are permitted to multiply—what? Poor, weak, pusillanimous, fallen, sickly bodies, calculated to last at the longest, seventy, eighty, or a hundred years, and then crumble back to their mother earth. Are you going to substitute such an offspring as this to fulfill the great first commandment that was given to immortal man? Oh no, the Lord will accept no such substitution as this.

But how can we fulfil the commandment then? I will tell you how—be married for all eternity, as your first parents were, and then, when you come up in the morning of the first resurrection, and God again restores to you your bodies, male and female, you can fulfil that commandment that was given in the beginning, to the first immortal pair.

Shall we continue to multiply through all eternity? Yes; there never will be a time when those who are really married for eternity will cease to multiply their species, not children subject to pain, disease and death, but children of immortality. Millions on millions will be multiplied, worlds without end, by each pair of immortal parents, and their children will be as immortal as themselves. Then the commandment will be fulfilled.

Perhaps some of you may say—“Your remarks explain a certain passage we have often read, the 11th chapter of Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians, and 11th verse, which says—‘Neither is the man without the woman in the Lord, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord.’ We never knew what that meant before, but it seems that you Latter-day Saints have got a clue to it.” It seems then that if we wish to fulfil the object of our creation, and if we are truly in the Lord, then we must go into the eternal worlds as married, not for time; not by some justice of the peace that is an infidel; not by a man that has no right to join us together under the revelation and authority of the Most High; but we must be married for eternity by a man who has the right to speak, being commanded of the Lord, holding the keys of authority and power, who can say to the man and woman, I pronounce you husband and wife for time and all eternity. Then you will be married according to the pattern given; then you will have a claim upon each other after death. But have married people, in the nations, a claim upon each other after death? I mean those who have not been married after the pattern and authority of heaven. By no means. Their contracts are made only for a little space, some twenty, thirty, fifty or seventy years, as the case may be, then death comes along and the contract runs out; and when you come up in the resurrection who are you? Have you any wife there? Oh, no. Why not? Because you were not sealed or married, to each other by divine authority, that is the reason. What position will you occupy? If you have been pretty good people and have kept the commandments of God as far as you understood them, and have done well in many respects, you may have the opportunity of becoming angels; but there is quite a difference between angels and those who have the privilege of endless increase, and of being crowned as kings and priests in the eternal worlds. Whom do you suppose you will reign over? Will you get somebody else to multiply and spread forth their offspring, and then give that offspring to you? Will you go to your neighbors and say—“Come, you were married for eternity when you were back in yonder world and you have come forth, having a claim to your wife or wives in the morning of the resurrection. I did not attend to that matter while there, and I was not married there according to the first pattern that was given in the Bible, and inasmuch as I failed in doing this will you, neighbor, give me part of your children? I should like to be a king, and have some subjects to reign over, will you part with some of your children?” “Oh no,” says the neighbor, “if you neglected, in yonder world, the divine ordinances pertaining to the probation, you must bear the loss, I cannot spare any of my children. They belong to me; they are under my patriarchal government, they will be my kingdom and I shall reign over my own offspring for ever and ever.”

What will this poor man do then? Why he will have to be an old bachelor, if we may use the expression, and continue that way to all ages of eternity. He will do for a servant, and they will have a great many servants there. A man of God has a great kingdom, and his kingdom spreads forth, and his subjects multiply like the stars of heaven, or the sands upon the seashore, and he will naturally want some who have bodies of flesh and bones to go and minister for certain purposes; and those who have deprived themselves of the benefits of marriage for eternity, will do first-rate for that, if they have been righteous enough to get into a position where angels are.

There were some in the days of our Savior righteous enough for that, but through the apostacy that had prevailed some three centuries before he came, they had lost the authority of obtaining this higher glory, and when Jesus spake to them about the resurrection of the dead, he said—“In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.” To whom was he talking? Not to the righteous, but to some of the members of the pious denominations that happened to exist in that day, that had in some measure lost the spirit of the Lord. Such never having been married for eternity in this world could rise no higher than angels in the next world; and if they became righteous enough to become celestial angels, they would be servants for ever. Servants to whom? Those that are worthy to receive a kingdom and a glory, that have attended to their ordinances and to the commandments of God, and have been led by him in all things pertaining to marriage as well as other things.

Let us now come to another item that grows out of marriage for eternity. For instance, there are a great many in this congregation who were married by the Gentile laws, by justices of the peace and various other officers, in England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, and in the various nations of Christendom. They come up here with their wives, many of them just as good people as can be found anywhere on the earth. Were they married by divine ordinances? Did God join them together? No. Are they, therefore, to be condemned? No. Why not? Because God did not send the word to them. When the word goes forth from the Lord Almighty to a people, and light comes into a nation and among a people, then comes condemnation if that light is rejected, but not till then.

The word of the Lord told you to gather up here. What for? That you might, among other things, be married according to the law of God. I am endeavoring to tell you some of our peculiarities. We do believe that every man who gathers up with the Saints, whether married by the Gentile law or not, should be married by one holding divine authority to officiate, and thus have the ordinance, the ministration sealed on earth that it may be sealed in the heavens; then it will stand; but everything that is not done by the authority of God will not stand, but will be shaken; and when the day of the resurrection shall come, it will only be that which God has appointed that will endure the test. In that day, when they come up out of their graves, there will be no chance for people to be married, any more than there will be for them to be baptized. If people do not get baptized here in this life, they will have no chance to be baptized there. And Jesus says, that if you are not born of the water and of the spirit, you can not enter into the kingdom of heaven, that is, into the highest kingdom, the highest glory, the third heaven; you can not enter there, consequently you must not put off baptism until the resurrection day, and say you will attend to it then, for that will be too late for baptism, and also for marriage.

Here is another question. A great many of those good people abroad, who, with their ancestors, back for seventeen hundred years, while God had no authority or Church on the earth, have gone down to their graves, without knowing anything about the pattern of marriage as recorded here in the Bible, which is eternal in its nature. What are you going to do with them? I answer, it would look rather hard if there was no provision made for them, would it not? There are about seventeen centuries or generations, and if we compute a thousand million of people for every generation, coming upon and passing away from the earth, we shall have about fifty thousand million altogether, who have gone down to their graves without baptism, without the administration of the ordinances, without divine authority to administer in their marriages! Do you suppose that the Lord has made no provision for all these things? All must have a chance. There is not an individual that ever lived upon the earth, from the days of Adam down to this time, whether it was among the heathen or savages, who never heard of Jesus or of the true God, and who went down to his grave in total ignorance; there never was a man or woman on the face of the globe, but what will have an opportunity, either in this life or in the life to come, to obey and enjoy the benefits of the Gospel of Salvation.

“But did you not say that there was no opportunity for them to attend to these ordinances in the life to come?” I did. “Then why did you say, that there will be an opportunity for them?” There is quite a difference between having an opportunity, and attending to the ordinances. You can not attend to the latter in the life to come. Parties who have died in this generation or in the generations passed, without having an opportunity to be baptized by a man holding authority, will have an opportunity of hearing the Gospel in the life to come; but they can not attend personally to the ordinances thereof. Why? Because. God has ordained that men, here in the flesh, shall be baptized in this life; or, if they die without a knowledge of the Gospel and its ordinances, that their friends in the flesh, in the day of his power, when he brings forth the everlasting Gospel, shall officiate for them, and in their behalf. This is another peculiarity of the doctrine of the Latter-day Saints—baptism for the dead.

You see a Temple building here, east of this tabernacle, and a great many inquiries are made respecting the nature of this building. Some suppose that we are going to hold meetings in it, and preach to the people; but no, that pertains to the tabernacle. God has pointed out the uses of a Temple by new revelation, the same as he pointed out the object of a tabernacle in the days of Moses, and the object of the Temple of the Lord in the days of Solomon; and among those objects he has told us that in the basement of the Temple there should be a baptismal font. What for? That those who are living here on the earth may be baptized for and in behalf of those who die without a knowledge of the Gospel.

Does that reach back to all generations who have died in ignorance? Yes. To all our ancestors? Yes; it reaches back to our fathers, our grandfathers and their progenitors away back to ancient days, when the Priesthood was upon the earth. Baptism for the dead! The same thing was attended to in ancient; times, so that we have not got a new pattern, it is the old pattern renewed. Paul says, in the 15th chapter of the first of Corinthians—“Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead? if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?” Sure enough! it was a strong argument to prove the resurrection of the dead, that the people who belonged to the ancient Christian Churches had the privilege of going and being baptized for those who had died before the Gospel came among them.

Now do you not see that we are not so uncharitable as a great many would suppose? Instead of sending all the generations who lived in former ages to hell, because they did not happen to hear the Gospel, and because there was no Christian Church upon the earth; I say that, instead of sending them all to an endless hell, God has made provisions that the living may act for and in behalf of the dead. The ordinances thus attended to here on the earth in behalf of the dead, will be recorded and sealed here by proper authority; and what is thus recorded and sealed here will be recorded and sealed in the heavens in behalf of those individuals; and if those spirits who are in prison and in the eternal worlds will repent when the Gospel is taken to them, they can have the benefit of the ordinances administered for and in their behalf here, and they will have part in the first resurrection.

Then again, if baptism for the dead is true, every other divine ordinance is equally true and necessary for the dead, for one is just as consistent as the other. The laying on of hands in confirmation upon a person that is living here in the flesh, for and in behalf of those who are in their graves, is just as consistent as baptism for the dead.

Again, if our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, have died without being married by divine authority, the same authority that would cause a people to act for the dead in relation to baptism, would cause them to act for and in behalf of the dead in relation to their marriage ceremonies too. Such a plan gives them all a chance. For there are no marryings, nor baptisms, nor confirmations, in and after the resurrection. The resurrected dead can do none of these things; but if it is done here for them, and they will accept of it, it will be acknowledged in the heavens. Hence, here is another peculiarity of the Latter-day Saints pertaining to the Temple, the house of the Lord to be built in the tops of the mountains in the latter days, as Isaiah says in the second chapter—“Many people shall say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us of his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” A Temple, therefore, instead of being a place for teaching and preaching, is a place for the administration of holy ordinances.

Another question. A great many have wondered why so many people in the eastern, southern and middle States have been stirred up for a number of years past in searching out their ancestors. Now the Lord does a great many things unknown to the people, and this is one of them. The people do not know why they are interested in their ancestry, but they are wrought upon by some invisible operation, and they feel very anxious to know about their progenitors. I think that some four hundred different families have already got extended family records, tracing their ancestry back from generation to generation to the first settlements of the New England States, and then back into Old England if it is possible, to make out the connection. Do they know what they are doing this for? No; they feel wrought upon, that is all they know about it. Now I will tell you why it is, for a great many of the people in this congregation, and many who are scattered through the villages, towns and settlements in this Territory, emigrated from the New England States, and they had fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, and ancestors, now in their graves, who were just as pure, upright, virtuous and honest in their feelings as we their children are. Now we are going to act for them. We have not time to search up all these genealogies, but all we have to do is to go and get the books which the Lord has wrought upon them to get up, containing the names of hundreds and thousands of the dead, and we will receive baptism, confirmation and marriage for eternity, and all the ordinances of the Gospel for them, that they, if they will receive what is done for them, may come forth in the resurrection, and inherit all that their children will inherit. Why? Because they were worthy of it. Our pilgrim fathers were a good people, just as worthy as we are, but unfortunately they did not happen to live in the time that God has set for establishing his kingdom on the earth, and sending his angels from the heavens.

Thus you see that this Gospel reaches after the dead as well as the living. Our Savior set the example in regard to this matter, for we are told that when his body lay in the tomb, his spirit was not idle; and instead of going off into the heavens and sitting down there for three days and three nights in perfect idleness, he had something to do, and while his body lay in the tomb, his spirit went and opened the prison doors in which were confined those who were drowned in the flood. What! Were they in prison? Yes. Did Jesus truly visit them? Yes. Did he preach to them? Yes. Where have we this recorded? In Peter’s declaration. He says that, “Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, by which he also went and preached to the spirits which were in prison, which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing.” Oh indeed; He went to those old antediluvians then, that had not received their resurrection, and preached to them. What did he preach to them? The following verses tell us what he preached. What would you think he preached? Says one—“If he followed the examples of our sectarian preachers, he would go and tell them that their doom was irrevocably fixed, that they were cast down to prison, never to be recovered; that as the tree falls so it lies, and that there was no hope in their case.” Well, that was not the kind of preaching that Jesus did to the antediluvian spirits. “For, for this cause,” says Peter, “was the Gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit.” Though they were in the spirit world, without any bodies, yet they had the privilege of hearing the same Gospel that Jesus preached to those here in the flesh. They could repent, for that is an act of the mind; they could believe in Jesus, for that is also an act of the mind; but the spirits could not be baptized, for that is an act of the body, it is something that pertains to this life. Jesus could preach repentance to them, he could preach the same Gospel to those antediluvians that he had preached to men in the flesh, and they could then be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit. Men in the flesh could be baptized for them, and they could come forth and receive all the blessings of those who received the Gospel in the flesh.

There are a few more remarks which I would like to make, if time will permit, upon a subject which grows out of this eternal marriage or union between the male and the female. For instance, here is a good young man who courts up a wife in the kingdom of God. He says to her, “Let us go and be married for time and all eternity, according to the requirements of heaven.” Very well; they are agreed in it; they attend to the ordinance, and it is sealed upon their heads and recorded for their benefit. We will say that, in the course of two or three months after this marriage, some accident befal[l]s the wife and she dies. They loved each other and were married for all eternity, and he mourns over the fact that in his youth, in the very prime of his manhood, he is left alone, a widower. Now is it right for him to marry another wife after having been married to one for time and for all eternity? Is it right for him again to receive a young lady for a wife? “Oh, yes,” you answer, “it is perfectly right, because that would not be living with two on the earth at the same time.” Very well, he goes and marries again; and now the question arises, suppose that they only marry for time, or until death shall part them—we will suppose this, because the man already has a wife on the other side of the vail—what is to become of the second wife in the morning of the resurrection? Can you answer that question? If he only marries her for time, she has no husband when the resurrection comes. Perhaps she is just as good a woman as the wife the man married first for all eternity. What are you going to do with her? Shall she be left in a condition where she can have no posterity, no endless increase, no kingdom in connection with a husband, and no husband? Shall she be left throughout all the future ages of eternity without any such privilege, while the first wife, no better than she is, is married for all eternity, and inherits all the blessings arising therefrom? Would not there be partiality in this? There certainly would. How are you going to remedy this? We answer, when this widower takes this second wife, let her also be married to him for time and all eternity, the same as the first; then, by and by, when the resurrection comes, there come up the two women. What will you do then? This introduces plurality into the next life, does it not? Polygamists in the next world? It certainly does; and these two women, both having received this man as their husband for all eternity, one of them will now be in just as good a condition as the other.

Let this principle be extended. There are some cases in life where two women might die, and a man be still left in his young days without a wife, and he marries a third and perhaps a fourth; in the resurrection they are contemporaneously his wives. Plurality, therefore, would be perfectly consistent in the world to come, but, “Oh,” says a sectarian,” “how awful it is in this world!”

Thus you see that the very moment we admit the eternity of marriage, the very moment that we admit that Adam and Eve were immortal beings, when they were married, and we undertake to follow that pattern, plurality necessarily comes along; either marriage has no bearing upon eternity, and no bearing upon immortality and immortal beings, or else plurality of wives necessarily must exist in eternity.

Says one—“Turn it about the other way, then we shall have plurality of husbands.” Let me say to the congregation that the object of marriage is to fulfill the commandment which God gave to immortal beings. Could a woman multiply faster by having two husbands? Everybody knows that in this respect there is a difference between the male and the female. In this life, at any rate, if one woman had two husbands, instead of making her more fruitful, the probability is that it would prevent her raising any offspring at all; and if she did, how would the father be known? And hence, God has strictly forbidden, in this Bible, plurality of husbands, and proclaimed against it in his law.

I should be glad to touch upon a great many other points, in relation to plurality, but time will not permit. You have heard partially explained some of the peculiarities of the faith of the people called Latter-day Saints. Now what is necessary in regard to polygamists? Our enemies say, “There should be a law passed that all polygamists should be shut up in prison from five to ten years, as the case may be, and pay a heavy fine.” Very well; this is the voice of the people. But does the voice of the people rule in a manner that is inconsistent with the Constitution of our country, by taking away the rights of the minority? Is it the order of our government that the minority must have their rights wrenched from them because the majority decide against them? Let me ask, suppose the majority of the people should decide against infant sprinkling, many look upon that with the utmost horror, and it is only a small minority in our nation that believe in that awful doctrine, suppose the majority should take it into their heads that those who practise infant sprinkling should be imprisoned, they have the same right to do that as to do the other thing which I have named.

Again, there is a certain class of people, and they are far in the minority in this great nation, who believe in dancing on the Sabbath-day. I allude to the Shaking Quakers. Would it be right to pass a law against this small minority, and say they shall be imprisoned, because the voice of the people in general happens to denounce their practice of dancing as a crime? “But then,” says one, “polygamy is a crime.” Who told you so? Does the Bible tell you so? Oh no, neither the Old nor the New Testament; no Prophet, no revelator, no Apostle, no man of God, nor Jesus himself, nor any angel ever denounced it as a crime, but on the contrary they advocated it, and the Lord himself administered in this divine ordinance. He gave to Jacob his four wives and children, so Jacob tells us in Genesis.

Then we might continue and show that every Christian denomination in the United States possesses peculiarities which the majority do not believe in, and which they are convinced should be denounced by the civil law as criminal, and that those who practice such peculiarities ought to be imprisoned for doing so. But because the majority of people condemn a principle, that is no proof that it is a crime. Supposing that the great majority of the people condemned the principle of baptism by immersion, would it be right to pass laws punishing those who practice it? No, the Constitution of our country was framed to protect the people in every item of doctrine that they might glean out of this Bible, and instead of condemning these doctrines as criminal, all the States and all the Territories ought to leave Bible principles as matters of conscience; especially the great principle of marriage should be left open and free to all, either to marry one wife, or two or three, or a dozen, as the case may be, only making laws in relation to criminal abuses of the marital state, and in regard to property, how it should descend to the children, etc. But the very moment that they pass laws that are proscriptive and restrictive in their nature, condemning principles that are not condemned in the Bible, taking away the privileges of the people to believe that which is contained in the word of God, religious liberty is in danger, and there is no telling where that infringement will lead to. By and by they may have a blending of Church and State; and no one must believe anything, unless it be doctrines or creeds got up by the State, or by Congress, or by some legislative body; and everybody must bow to that, or be fined, or imprisoned, or be burned, butchered, or hung.

That our great, and free country may never be afflicted with such a species of despotism, is my most earnest prayer. Amen.

Resurrection of the Saints, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, July 25, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I will read a few verses in the latter part of the fourth and in the fore part of the fifth chapters of Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians. [The speaker read from the 13th verse of the 4th chapter, to the 6th verse of the 5th, both inclusive.]

I have read these few passages of Scripture relating to the great day of the coming of our Lord, according as it is predicted by the mouth of the ancient Apostle, and also concerning a very important event which will then happen, namely, the resurrection of the righteous dead—those who are in Christ; and also another event closely connected with the resurrection—namely, the ascension of the Saints then living upon the earth, to meet the Lord at his coming. These events are looked for by most of the Christian world, indeed we may say that all the Christian world, who do not spiritualize the Scriptures, are looking for events similar to those here described. They believe, according to the New Testament, that there is a time-fixed in the mind of the Almighty, when the heavens shall be parted as a scroll is parted when it is rolled up, and that the heavens, invisible to us now, will be unveiled before the eyes of all people; that the armies of heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect, through obedience to the law of God, will be revealed; that the angels who stand in authority in the presence of God and do his bidding, will also be numbered with that great company which will be revealed from the heavens. We also believe, and so do the inhabitants of the Christian world at large, that there will be an audible sound of a trump—the trump of the archangel—in the heavens at the time this grand scenery is opened to mankind; that at the sound of that trumpet the dead in Christ will come forth from their silent dusty tombs; that at the sound of that trump the Saints then living will be instantaneously caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This doctrine is believed in by Christians generally who do not spiritualize altogether the sense and meaning of the Scriptures.

It may be well for us, in the examination of that great event, the second coming of Christ, to refer to some of the predictions of inspired writers in regard to the time of our Savior’s revelation from the heavens. I do not mean to say the day nor the hour of his coming, for that is unknown, no man that lives on the face of the earth knows anything about the day or the hour; neither will there be any man on the earth prior to the coming of the Lord who will know the day and the hour, for it is hidden from mortal man. However, the age in which that great event will take place is very clearly revealed in both the Old and the New Testament. That age is to be characterized by certain events, predicted by the inspired writers, which are unmistakable in their nature, and which can be easily understood by all, both learned and unlearned. These events are to be so conspicuous that I presume there will not be a nation, people, kindred or tongue upon the face of the whole earth but what will know that, according to the Scriptures, some great event is about to take place, for every people in that day will be more or less enlightened in the Scriptures, for before that great day shall come, missionaries will be sent to the uttermost parts of the earth, to testify to all people concerning the Gospel of the Son of God, and they will cry in the ears of all living, saying unto them—“Prepare ye, prepare ye, for the great and coming day of the Bridegroom.” They will have a preparatory message to deliver to all nations.

When the Lord, in the meridian of time, came and took upon himself a mortal body, he saw proper to send as his forerunner one of the greatest Prophets that ever was born into our world—John the Baptist, and he went, announcing, by the inspiration of the Spirit and by the power of his holy calling, that there was one to come after him who was mightier than he, whose shoe latchet he was not worthy to unloose; and that when he should come he would thoroughly purge his floor, and that he would baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost. Said John—“I merely come to prepare the way. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. I come preaching unto you repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, but he who comes after me, holding higher authority and a greater Priesthood, shall baptize you with a baptism that is greater than that of water—the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost.”

Now, if the Lord, when he came the first time, in his humility and meekness, born in a manger, of parents of low estate, saw that it was necessary to prepare the way before him by raising up one of the greatest Prophets that ever came into the world, why should it be thought unreasonable that he should also raise up a latter-day Prophet to prepare the way before one of the mightiest and grandest events that ever has taken place, or that ever will take place on our earth in its temporal condition? If the heavens are to be revealed; if the face of the Son of God is to be unvailed; if the glory of his countenance is to outshine the sun in his strength; if he is to come in flaming fire, while the very heavens themselves shall shake by his power, and the earth reel to and fro like a drunken man the mountain themselves, feeling his power, are sunk and the valleys are raised up; if all these grand events are to attend the second advent of the Son of God, is it unreasonable that he should raise up a great Prophet in the latter days to make preparations for so great an event? Or will he let the world pass on in blindness and darkness without any signs of the times, without any warning voice, without any inspired man sent of God to wake them up from their condition, and to prepare the way for his coming? To me it looks consistent and reasonable that such a preparatory work should be sent forth among the children of men, and it looked consistent to the ancient inspired writers, hence they have left an abundance of testimony on record in this good book (the Bible) concerning this preparatory work.

One of the means which God will use to prepare the way before his second coming, is to send angels from heaven with a proclamation, not to benefit a few individuals, not for one nation alone, but to all the inhabitants of our globe, and that too before he comes. Do you want to know where this prediction is recorded? Let me refer you to the fourteenth chapter of the revelations given to St. John on Patmos. Did St. John behold, in vision, the coming of the Son of God? He did. How does he describe it in that fourteenth chapter? He said, as you will find by reading the chapter through, that he saw one sitting on a white cloud, having a sharp sickle in his hand. He had reference to the time when Jesus should come in the clouds of heaven; however, before John saw the personage sitting on the cloud, he saw a preparatory work commence, as it is declared in the sixth verse, in which the Prophet says—“I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, unto every nation and kindred and tongue and people,” declaring that the hour of God’s judgment was come.

Now if that angel does not come and bring the Gospel, then the Son of Man will not come; no trumpet will sound and call forth the nations of the righteous from their sleeping tombs; there will be no destroying the wicked as stubble from the face of the earth; no shaking of the heavens and causing the earth to tremble and to remove to and fro. None of these events will transpire if no angel comes, for one is just as certain as the other; and to show that one is to precede the other, there must be a time for this everlasting Gospel to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people after the angel appears with it. That will take some length of time, however rapidly it may go forth, for the mere preaching of the Gospel would be of no benefit, unless there were persons authorized to administer its ordinances. The angel might preach, but who could obey it? No one. It is true that we might repent if we heard the angel proclaim it by his own voice, as he flew from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom; and we might also believe in Jesus Christ, but how could we be baptized for the remission of our sins? Would the angel come down from heaven and take every believing penitent person and baptize him himself? How long would it take an angel to go over all the nations and baptize all the penitent believers? It would take ages and ages for him to do it personally. But it is very evident to every one who reflects upon these passages, that when that angel comes with the everlasting Gospel, there will be authority given to man on the earth to administer the ordinances of that Gospel, to build up the Christian Church again on the earth as it was built in ancient times, a Christian Church organized according to the pattern that God has given in the New Testament; a Christian Church having Apostles inspired from heaven; a Christian Church with Prophets called of God to prophesy future events; a Christian Church possessing the gifts and graces of the ancient Gospel in all their beauty, power and fulness, as they were possessed in ancient times. These works and these ordinances must be administered by man, and not by the angel who brings the Gospel. Will that be a preparatory work?

What other preparations are necessary to be made besides the preaching of this Gospel to all nations? Supposing that among the nations of the earth there were to be raised up a true Christian Church, is there anything particular for that Christian Church to do after having received the ordinances of the Gospel in order to more fully prepare them for the coming of the Son of God? I answer, yes. The Christian Churches built up in the four quarters of the earth after the angel comes, will be required to gather from all these nations unto one place. That is something which no Christian denomination believes in, or if they do believe in it they do not practice it, for the members of Churches called Christian remain in the respective nations where they receive the truth; it is true that individuals may emigrate, but as Churches they do not. But the Scriptures, speaking of the great day of the coming of the Lord, say there is to be a gathering from all the nations of the earth unto one place of those who have taken upon them the name of the Lord Jesus. That great gathering is referred to in the chapter I have quoted from, also in another chapter in which, referring to the downfall of spiritual Babylon, it is declared that there shall be a gathering of the people, and that too by inspiration, by the command of the Almighty; it will not be left to the wisdom of man, but it will be directed by—“Hear ye the word of the Lord,” as declared to John on the Isle of Patmos. He says—“I heard a great voice from heaven saying—‘Come out of her, my people!’” What people? “My people.” Who are God’s people? Those who obey the everlasting Gospel which the angel brings by authority. “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities;” and now, you who are Saints, you who have obeyed the Gospel restored by the angel, come out of her, for the Lord is going to punish great Babylon. How is he going to punish her? By casting her down, and causing her overthrow. After speaking of the bringing of the Gospel by an angel, the very next verse says—“There followed another angel.” What, two angels come. Yes, and mark the message of the second one. “There followed another angel, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’”

The description of this fall of Babylon is given in various places in John’s revelations. Awful and most terrible judgments will fall upon Mystery Babylon the Great. She is to be punished with plagues of various kinds; a grievous sore will fall upon her people, so much so that they will blaspheme God, but they will not repent of their sins. They are to be punished with having the fountains and rivers turned into blood, and the waters of the great ocean are to become as the blood of a dead man, and every living thing that is therein will die; and one of the last plagues and judgments that will be poured out upon her will be devouring fire, and she will sink as a millstone, and her name will be blotted from under heaven and all that are connected with her.

Before these terrible judgments are sent forth upon the nations of the earth, God will save all who receive the everlasting Gospel by gathering them to one place, where they can serve him and keep his commandments. He will not merely give them some idea, by reading the Scriptures, that he desires them to gather, but John says there will be a great voice from heaven proclaiming—“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

Then there is to be a gathering of the people of God in the latter days? Yes. Do you marvel to see this people coming forth from all the various nations, leaving the homes of their ancestry, the graves of their ancient fathers, leaving their acquaintances and friends, and gathering up here into these mountain vales? Do you see it? Do you marvel at it? Remember, O ye inhabitants of the earth, who are looking upon these things, that you are beholding the fulfillment of prophecy, prophecy spoken by the Apostle Paul, in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. Paul saw the gathering; he saw that it would be a new dispensation, a dispensation to come after his day. Let me repeat Paul’s words—“That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth.” Thus you see that all things in Christ are to be gathered together in one. What does this include? Are the inhabitants of heaven to be made one with the inhabitants of the earth that are in Christ? Yes. The dispensation of the fullness of times is to bring about one of the grandest events that our earth has ever experienced—the union of all things in Christ, both in heaven and upon earth. Are the Saints in Christ? As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, consequently if you are in Christ, if you live in the dispensation of the fullness of times, you will be required to take part in this great and grand gathering together of those who are on the earth. But how about all things in Christ in heaven, are they to come too? That is what I have been explaining. When Christ comes the inhabitants of heaven will come with him. The spirits of the righteous of all dispensations, who have not already received a resurrection, will then come forth, and when the trump of the archangel shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then those spirits which appear in the heavens will take possession of their renewed immortal bodies which will spring forth from the tomb, and they will be with those who are gathered here on the earth. Then the dispensation will be complete—all things in Christ, whether in heaven or on earth, will be gathered in one.

Enquires one—“Do you really think that we poor mortals, frail as we are with all our imperfections, that have come because of the fall, are going to associate with those high and exalted beings that dwell in the presence of God in the eternal worlds? Are we to be gathered with them?” Yes. Why not be with them? If our hearts are pure as their hearts are pure, if we have received and obeyed the truth, and have been sanctified by it, shall we not have boldness in that day? Or shall we hang down our heads, and shrink with shame, before the face of Him who sits upon his throne. If we have received the truth we shall look upon the face of our Redeemer with all the joy that we look upon the face of a kind and benevolent parent here on the earth. There will be no fear, no shrinking, but we shall feel that he is indeed our Redeemer and that we are his sons and his daughters, and that, having obeyed his doctrine, we are prepared to associate with him and to dwell in his presence. Oh, how happy the ancient Apostles were when they saw their risen Redeemer! There was no shrinking. They were out fishing on a certain time, and when they had learned that their Redeemer was on the shore, and calling to them, they could not wait for the ship to reach the shore, but they must plunge into the sea, to try and get there as soon as possible. Their Redeemer was there, and instead of shrinking they were eager to behold him once more. Then, do not, for a moment, suppose that the people of God who keep his commandments and live in the latter days, in the great and grand dispensation of gathering, will shrink when the heavens shall unvail the face of the Son of God. They will be prepared to take these resurrected beings by the hand, and they will go forth and salute Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for they are in the kingdom of God. Jesus said, although they were polygamists, that they are in the kingdom of God. We shall be very glad, in the day when the heavenly hosts are revealed to men, to take them by the hand and to sit down with them, as Jesus has said—“Many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” It will be some pleasure then to be in the company of polygamists, will it not?

Now, as I go along with item after item of the work preparatory to the coming of the Savior, I want to ask what the belief of this people is, and whether we are or are not fulfilling the word of the Lord which I have quoted? Joseph Smith brought forth the Book of Mormon—the Lord calls it the everlasting Gospel, because it is the same Gospel which Jesus himself preached to the ancient inhabitants of this continent, and to the people who dwelt anciently on the continent of Asia. It was brought forth in these latter days by his power, by an angel sent from heaven, and revealed to this generation. And have missionaries been sent forth? Yes. What for? To carry this Book of Mormon, containing the everlasting Gospel, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. And these missionaries, as far as time would permit, have fulfilled the missions that were given unto them.

We first began to preach this Gospel in the little town where this Church was organized with six members only, on the 6th day of April, 1830. A few missionaries then began to teach in the neighborhood, next in the county, next in the adjoining county, next in the adjoining States, next in the adjoining Territories, next in British America, and finally across the great ocean among the European nations. Have these missionaries visited and preached to any other people besides those living on the continent of Europe, and those of the United States and the Canadas? Yes. They have preached this same Gospel contained in the Book of Mormon on the Islands of the sea, in Australia, New Zealand, the Society Islands, Sandwich Islands—where thousands have received this Gospel and been baptized. Missionaries have also carried this everlasting Gospel to the northern portions of Europe—Norway, Denmark and Sweden; also into the German States, to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, some of the islands of the Mediterranean, to Hindostan, and in fact wherever there has been a sufficient degree of liberty to permit the proclamation of the Gospel, thither have missionaries, called of God to declare the message of life and salvation to the people, been and proclaimed it.

Wherever we have preached this Gospel, the word has so been published by command of the Almighty, saying—“Come out, my people, from the nations you now inhabit.” “Where shall we go?” “Go to the place which I have appointed by revelation, by the voice of my servants, by my own voice—to the mountains of the new world, where my kingdom shall be established as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands.” Daniel predicted that, in the last days, the kingdom of God should be established upon the earth, and that, in its commencement, it would be like a little stone cut out of the mountains without hands, but that it would gradually gain power and greatness among the people; and the reason that you have gathered to these mountains from the various nations in which you obeyed the Gospel is that you may assist in establishing and building up that kingdom spoken of by Daniel. Not a week has elapsed since some seven or eight hundred, from the northern regions of Europe, arrived in our city. A few days after their arrival we look around and we scarcely notice that there is any addition. Where are they? Friends have taken them by the hand and invited them to their homes. Any more coming? Yes, numerous hosts are coming. We have sent across the Atlantic ocean between one and two hundred ships, most of them loaded, to the fullest extent that the law would allow, with Latter-day Saints gathering together to one place in fulfillment of the predictions of the ancient Prophets.

Says one—“How long will this continue?” Until the people are thoroughly warned. At the present time there are some nations who will not permit any religion to be proclaimed within their borders except that which is established by law. When God shall cast down thrones, which he will soon do; when he shall overturn kingdoms and empires, which time is very near at hand, then other governments will be formed more favorable to religious liberty, and the missionaries of this Church will visit those nations. Already we find greater religious liberty advocated in the northern portions of Europe where formerly imprisonment was the penalty of declaring any other religious doctrine than that which was permitted by their laws. Austria, that great Roman Catholic power, containing thirty-one millions of Catholics, is increasing in religious liberty. Spain, which for centuries has persecuted everything but the established religion, where countless martyrs have been tortured and put to death by the so-called “Holy Inquisition,” is at present forming a constitution which proposes to grant a large share of religious liberty. And so we might enumerate what God is doing among these despotic powers, overturning and changing long-established usages and institutions, that His servants may go by His own command, to deliver the great and last message of the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth, preparatory to the coming of his Son.

After the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, which period is set in the mind of God, another scene will open up before the world, in the grand panorama of the last days. What is that? The downfall of the Gentile nations. Says one—“Whom do you call Gentiles?” Every nation excepting the literal descendants of Israel. We, the Latter-day Saints, are Gentiles; in other words, we have come from among the Gentile nations, though many of as may have the blood of Israel within our veins. When God has called out the righteous, when the warning voice has been sufficiently proclaimed among these Gentile nations, and the Lord says “It is enough,” he will also say to his servants—“O, ye, my servants, come home, come out from the midst of these Gentile nations, where you have labored and borne testimony for so long a period; come out from among them, for they are not worthy; they do lint receive the message that I have sent forth, they do not repent of their sins; come out from their midst, their times are fulfilled. Seal up the testimony among them and bind up the law.” What then? Then the word of the Lord will be—“O, ye, my servants, I have a new commission for you. Instead of going forth to convert the Gentile nations, go unto the remnants of the house of Israel that are scattered in the four quarters of the earth. Go and proclaim to them that the times of their dispersion are accomplished; that the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; that the time has arrived for my people Israel, who have been scattered for generations in a dark and cloudy day, to gather unto their own homes again, and to build up old Jerusalem on its former heap. And then will commence the gathering of the Jews to old Jerusalem; then the ten tribes in the northern regions, wherever they may be, after having been concealed from the nations for twenty-five hundred years, will come forth and will return, as Jeremiah has said, from the north country. A great company will come, and they will sing in the height of Zion, and “flow together for the goodness of the Lord, for wine and for oil, and for the young of the flock; and their souls shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” What a happy time for them, when they come from their cold quarters in the north! The Jews dispersed among the Gentiles will not come and sing in the height of Zion, or but very few of them, they will go to Jerusalem. Some of them will believe in the true Messiah, and thousands of the more righteous, whose fathers did not consent to the shedding of the blood of the Son of God, will receive the Gospel before they gather from among the nations. Many of them, however, will not receive the Gospel, but seeing that others are going to Jerusalem they will go also; and when they get back to Palestine, to the place where their ancient Jerusalem stood, and see a certain portion of the believing Jews endeavoring to fulfill and carry out the prophecies, they also will take hold and assist in the same work. At the same time they will have their synagogues, in which they will preach against Jesus of Nazareth, “that impostor,” as they call him, who was crucified by their fathers.

After awhile, when tens of thousands of them have gathered and rebuilt their Temple, and re-established Jerusalem upon its own heap, the Lord will send forth amongst them a tremendous scourge. What will be the nature of that scourge? The nations that live in the regions round about Jerusalem will gather up like a cloud, and cover all that land round about Jerusalem. They will come into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, east of Jerusalem, and they will lay siege to the city. What then? The Lord will raise up two great Prophets, they are called witnesses, in the Revelations of St. John. Will they have much power? Yes, during the days of their prophecying they will have power to smite those who undertake to destroy them, and until their testimonies are fulfilled they will be able to keep at bay all those nations besieging Jerusalem, so that they will not have power to take that city. How long will that be? Three and a half years, so says John the Revelator. If any man hurt them, they shall have power to bring upon that man, nation or army, the various plagues that are there written. They will have power to smite the earth with plague and famine, and to turn the rivers of water into blood. And when they have fulfilled their prophecy, then the nations that have been lying before Jerusalem so long, waiting for an opportunity to destroy the city, will succeed in killing these two Prophets, and their bodies, says John’s revelations, will lie in the streets of Jerusalem three days and a half after they are killed. What rejoicing there will be over the death of these men! Those who have been waiting so long and anxiously for this to take place, will no doubt send gifts one to another, and if the telegraph wires are not destroyed, they will telegraph to the uttermost parts of the earth that they have succeeded in killing the two men who had so long tormented them with plagues, turning the waters onto blood, etc. But by and by, right in the midst of their rejoicing, when they think the Jews will now certainly fall a prey to them, behold there is a great earthquake, and in the midst of it these two Prophets rise from the dead, and they hear a voice up in the heavens saying—“Come up hither;” and they immediately ascend in the sight of their enemies.

What next? Notwithstanding all this, those nations will be so infatuated, and so determined to persecute the people of God—as much so as Pharaoh and his army in ancient days—that they will say—“Come, now is the time to pitch into the Jews and destroy them.” And they will commence their work of destruction, and they will succeed so far as to take one half the city, and while they are in the very act of destroying Jerusalem, behold the heavens are rent, and the Son of God with all the heavenly hosts appears, and he descends and rests upon the summit of [the] Mount [of] Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And so great will be the power of God that will then be made manifest, that the mountain will divide asunder, half going towards the south, and half towards the north, producing a great valley going east and west, from the walls of Jerusalem eastward.

What next? The Jews that are not taken captive by these nations, will flee to the valleys of the mountains, says the Prophet Zechariah; and when they get into that great valley, where these personages are who have descended, they expect to find the Deliverer which their Prophets have spoken of so long. But they do not for a moment suppose that it is Jesus, oh no, Jesus was an impostor. The personage they have been looking for some eighteen hundred years is the true Messiah, and now, say they—“He has come to deliver us.” But how great will be their astonishment when, while looking at their Deliverer, they see that his hands are marred considerably! Say they, one to another—“There are large scars in his hands; and there is another large scar in his side, and behold his feet, they are scarred also!” And, as the Prophet Zechariah has said, they will begin to enquire of him—“What are these wounds with which thou art wounded?” And he replies—“These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

What then? Then they begin to believe, then the Jews are convinced, I mean that portion of them who formerly despised Jesus of Nazareth, and being convinced they begin to mourn, and they mourn every family apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart; the family of the house of David and their wives apart, and all their families that remain will mourn, they and their wives apart, and there will be such mourning in Jerusalem as that city never experienced before. What is the matter? What are they mourning about? They have looked upon him whom their fathers pierced, they behold the wounds, they are now convinced that they and their fathers have been in error some eighteen hundred years, and they repent in dust and ashes.

The next step for them will be baptism for the remission of their sins. They look upon him whom their fathers pierced and they mourn for him as one who mourns for his only son, and, as Zechariah says, they are in bitterness for him. But repentance alone would not be sufficient, they must obey the ordinances of the Gospel; hence there will be a fountain opened at that time on purpose for baptism. Where will it be opened? On the east side of the Temple. A stream will break out from under the threshold of the Temple, says the Prophet, and it will run eastward, and will probably pass directly through the deep valley made by the parting of the Mount of Olives. It will run eastward, and as you go down from the Temple a few thousand cubits it increases so rapidly that it becomes a great river that cannot be forded.

This is the fountain that Zechariah says is open to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of David for sin and uncleanness. “How is it that” says one? “Water for sin and uncleanness? Why yes, baptism for the remission of sins. Then the Jews will receive the Gospel and they will be cleansed from all their sins by being baptized in water for their remission. Then will be fulfilled the words of the Prophet Isaiah, when speaking of Jerusalem—“For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” But the name of the city from that day will be—“The Lord is there;” that is, the Lord will be personally there, there with his Apostles and with all his ancient Saints, for Zechariah says that when he comes and stands his feet on the Mount of Olives, all his Saints will come with him.

We have found out the place where Jesus will descend, and we have found out who comes with him. Now we enquire will he remain on the earth after he thus descends? Yes, he will remain on this earth as literally and personally as he went around in ancient times, and taught the people from house to house and synagogue to synagogue. And in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one. There will not be any heathen gods, for there will be no heathens; no idolatrous worship, but one Lord, and his name one.

And this water which breaks out from the threshold of the Temple, will not only run eastward but westward also, and there will be a great change in the land there, certain portions rising up, others lowered, rough places made smooth and mountains cast down; and half the waters of this spring which will burst forth, will go towards the former sea and half to the other sea; in other words half towards the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean.

From that day forward there shall be written upon the bells of the horses and upon the vessels of the house of the Lord—“Holiness to the Lord;” and thenceforth all the people who are spared from the nations round about, will have to go up to Jerusalem year by year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts.

These are some of the grand events spoken of in this Bible; these are events that the Latter-day Saints believe in, and that so far as it lies in their power, they are trying to fulfill. If we are not Jews we are not required to go to old Jerusalem but we are required to build up a Zion; that is spoken of as well as the building of Jerusalem. Zion is to be built up in the mountains in the last days, not at Jerusalem. Read the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, where he speaks of the glory of the Lord being revealed, and all flesh to see him when he comes the second time and how the mountains and hills should be lowered and the valleys be exalted; and in the same chapter the Prophet also says that, before that great and terrible day of the Lord Zion is required to get up into the high mountains. Isaiah predicts this. Says he, in his fortieth chapter—“Oh Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains.”

Thus you see that the people who organize Zion through the everlasting Gospel which the angel brings, have good tidings to declare to all the inhabitants of the earth. But these people are required, according to this prophecy, to get up into the high mountains. You Latter-day Saints are four thousand three hundred feet above the level of the ocean, scattered over four hundred miles of Territory, north and south, and you are extending your settlements continually, and are building up some two hundred towns, cities and villages in the mountains of the great American desert, fulfilling the prophecies of the holy Prophets.

By and by you will leave this country. Says one—“What, are the Mormons going to leave Utah?” Oh yes, most of us; we are going to leave, but we shall disappoint some of you. You want to know which way we are going? We are going by and by eastward. I do not say hat we shall go directly from this city eastward, but we shall, after a while, be in Jackson County, in the western borders of Missouri. Why are we going there? Because it is the great central gathering place for the Saints of latter days, for all that will be gathered from South America, Central America, Mexico, the Canadas, and from all the nations of the Gentiles—their head quarters will be in Jackson County, in the State of Missouri. We shall roll down from the mountains, and though we may be considered but a little stone cut out of the mountains without human ingenuity, without mankind undertaking to carry on this work of their own accord, the time will come when God will cause the stone of the mountains to roll, and then it will roll down and build up the central city of Zion, and that, too, long before this gathering from the distant nations shall cease. I do not know how much before the ten tribes will come from the north; but after Zion is built in Jackson County, and after the Temple is built upon that spot of ground where the corner stone was laid in 1831; after the glory of God in the form of a cloud by day shall rest upon that Temple, and by night the shining of a flaming fire will fill the whole heavens round about; after every dwelling place upon Mount Zion shall be clothed upon as with a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day, about that period of time, the ten tribes will be heard of, away in the north, a great company, as Jeremiah says, coming down from the northern regions, coming to sing in the height of the latter-day Zion. Their souls will be as a watered garden, and they will not sorrow any more at all, as they have been doing during the twenty-five hundred long years they have dwelt in the Arctic regions. They will come, and the Lord will be before their camp, he will utter his voice before that great army, and he will lead them forth as he led Israel in ancient days. This long chain of Rocky Mountains, that extends from the cold regions of the north away into South America, will feel the power of God, and will tremble before the hosts of Israel as they come to sing on the heights of Zion. In that day the trees of the field will clap like hands, says the Prophet, and in that day the Lord will open waters in the wilderness, and streams in the desert, to give drink to his chosen, his people Israel. And when they come to the height of Zion they shall be crowned with glory under the hands of the servants of God living in those days, the children of Ephraim, crowned with certain blessings that pertain to the Priesthood, that they could not receive in their own lands. In that day will be set apart twelve thousand out of each of these ten tribes—one hundred and twenty thousand persons ordained to the High Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God, to go forth to all people, nations, kindreds and tongues, for the salvation of the remnants of Israel in the four quarters of the earth, to bring as many as will come unto the Church of the firstborn. Thus God will have twelve thousand out of all the tribes of Israel to fulfill his purposes; and when they have completed his work here on the earth, they will be called home to Zion, be crowned with glory and stand upon Mount Zion and sing the song of the redeemed, the song of the hundred and forty-four thousand, and the Father’s name will be written in their foreheads.

By and by, when all things are prepared—when the Jews have received their scourging, and Jesus has descended upon the Mount of Olives, the ten tribes will leave Zion, and will go to Palestine, to inherit the land that was given to their ancient fathers, and it will be divided amongst the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. They will go there to dwell in peace in their own land from that time, until the earth shall pass away. But Zion, after their departure, will still remain upon the western hemisphere, and she will be crowned with glory as well as old Jerusalem, and, as the Psalmist David says, she will become the joy of the whole earth. “Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

Zion will be caught up when Jesus comes, to meet him. Jesus will descend not only upon the Mount of Olives, but he will descend and stand upon Mount Zion. But before he stands upon it, it will be caught up to meet him in the air. Will the buildings of Zion be caught up? Yes. And its land? Yes. And Jesus will stand upon Mount Zion, according to the prediction of John the Revelator, and he will reign over his people during a thousand years; and his associates will be the resurrected righteous of all former dispensations, those, among others, who dwelt on this continent before the flood. Says one—“Do you mean to say that America was inhabited before the flood?” Yes, Adam dwelt on this continent. I do not know that the Garden of Eden was here but we know from what God has revealed to us, that before Adam closed his days he dwelt on a certain portion of this continent with a great number of the righteous. All the righteous that lived on this continent before the flood, those who lived upon this continent who were righteous, who came from the Tower of Babel after the flood, and lived here some sixteen hundred years, before the nation was destroyed. All the Prophets, and wise, and good men of these several periods, will be permitted to reign as kings and priests upon this western hemisp[h]ere during the period of Christ’s reign on the earth. The Israelites, too, the remnants of Joseph, the forefathers of these poor degraded Indians, who are righteous, will come forth also to reign as kings and priests on this land.

We might continue this subject much further. We might portray before you the duties that will be performed by these resurrected righteous who reign as immortal beings on this continent and on the eastern continent. We might portray some of the great doings that will be accomplished by the King of kings and Lord of lords, when he shall sit upon his throne in the Temple at Jerusalem, surrounded by his Twelve Apostles, who will also sit upon twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. We might also relate to you concerning the judges and the thrones of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, who will reign on the western hemisphere as well as on the eastern; but time will not permit us to continue this subject any further.

May God bless the Latter-day Saints in the kingdom of God established here in the tops of the mountains; bless you in your residences, in your towns, in your cities, in your villages, and throughout the length and breadth of the land, and increase and multiply you as the stars of heaven that cannot be numbered, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and the Saints shall reign forever and ever. Amen.

Present Revelation Necessary to Lead the Church, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Aug. 31, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

Brethren and sisters, we have met here to talk over the principles of our faith, and if we say that we are going to be Saints, and that we are going to live our religion, we do not expect to give ourselves the lie, to eat our own words and to falsify our characters and our testimonies before God; but we expect to live our religion as well as we know how. We want you who wish to be Saints, to know, that we will do everything in our power to help you to live so, that you will be entitled to, and enjoy, the revelations of the Lord Jesus; that every man and every woman may know and understand their duty before God, pertaining to themselves and what is required of them, just as much as your humble servant who is talking to you.

It is a great privilege to know the mind and will of God, and this privilege we enjoy, and I wish that all good people of every nation, sect and party would so live that they might understand the will of the Lord for themselves; but in bestowing this upon us the Lord requires us to live accordingly, and he has placed us and all people under this obligation.

It is my duty to know the mind of the Lord concerning myself and also concerning this people; and I think I know it just as well as I know the road home. I do not know the path from that door to my own home any better than I know how to dictate this people, if they will only hearken to me. This is a great blessing and a great privilege, and if I were to reject it and take a course to deprive myself of the spirit of revelation, according to what the Lord has given to me, and to magnify the Priesthood that I received through his servant Joseph, I would be taken forthwith from this world, I would not remain here at all to darken the minds of, or to lead astray, any of the members of the kingdom of God. According to the revelations that I and others of my brethren and sisters have received, through the Prophet Joseph and others who have lived upon the earth, if I observe my duty, I shall have the privilege of living and enjoying the society of my brethren and sisters, and of instructing them; but let me neglect this and I shall be removed out of my place forthwith.

Now it is no more my duty to live so as to know the mind and will of the Lord than it is the duty of my brethren, the rest of the Twelve. I say the rest of the Twelve, because I am the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on the earth, and the only one that the Lord has ever acknowledged. It is true that Thomas B. Marsh was once President, but the Lord never acknowledged any man by revelation as President of that Quorum but myself. At the death of Joseph I stepped out from that position in the advance, according to the organization of the Church, for the sake of preserving the flock of God, but not according to my wishes, nor the desire of my heart, but it was my duty. When I heard of the Prophet’s death I said—“What will become of the people? What will the Saints do now that the Prophet has gone?” It was my whole desire to preserve the sheep of the flock of God, and it is so to-day. Brother Kimball also stepped into the first Presidency, and we called others and ordained them to take our place for the time being, that the Church might be fully organized, and we expect to ordain more when we feel like it; but because a man is ordained an Apostle it does not prove that he belongs to the Quorum of the Apostles. I just mention this that you may understand it.

Now, in regard to the Twelve Apostles, it is their imperative duty to live so that they will know the mind and will of the Lord concerning them in the discharge of their duties as a quorum, and also as individuals; and they are under just the same obligations to live so as to enjoy the spirit of revelation that I am. And so it is with the Seventies, the High Priests, the Elders and the Bishops. It is the imperative duty of a Bishop—called to preside over a ward—to live so that he will know the mind and will of God concerning his ward just as much as I do concerning this people. But when Bishops say they are willing to do as brother Brigham says, and that is the end of their researches to know the mind and will of the Lord, they will always be making mistakes, always doing something that they will regret; they will neglect their duty here and there, and when they make a move it will not be right unless brother Brigham is there to tell them the words they should say and the acts they should perform; and hence the necessity of them living day by day so that they will know the mind and will of the Lord for themselves.

And so you may follow on through every quorum there is in the Church, not only Seventies, High Priests, Elders and Bishops, but also the Priests, Teachers and Deacons, who administer to the people in going from house to house. It is their duty to live so that they know and understand the mind and will of the Lord concerning the people to whom they administer, as much as it is mine to know the mind and will of the Lord concerning the entire people. And it is the duty of every father and mother to live so that they may have the mind and will of the Lord concerning their duties to their families. If they are not called to exercise the priesthood which they hold, more than to administer to their children, it is their duty to live so as to know how to teach, lead and advise their children; and if they are disposed they may have the privilege, for it is God’s mind and will that they should know just what to do for them when they are sick. Instead of calling for a doctor you should administer to them by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil, and give them mild food, and herbs, and medicines that you understand; and if you want the mind and will of God at such a time, get it, it is just as much your privilege as of any other member of the Church and kingdom of God. It is your privilege and duty to live so that you know when the word of the Lord is spoken to you and when the mind of the Lord is revealed to you. I say it is your duty to live so as to know and understand all these things. Suppose I were to teach you a false doctrine, how are you to know it if you do not possess the Spirit of God? As it is written, “The things of God knoweth no man but by the Spirit of God.”

Now I want to say a few words to the sisters, though I will say that I do not feel the least like chastising either my brethren or my sisters this morning. I feel kind, and I do not want to say words to them that they would think harsh or unkind. But I will say, to both brethren and sisters, that whenever any of us spend means needlessly, say to the amount of one cent, dime, or dollar, we consume it upon the lusts of our flesh. Here is a man, for instance, who has an appetite for tobacco, and, during a year, he spends ten or twenty dollars in cigars and tobacco, which do him no good, but injure him; do you think that such a man will be brought to an account hereafter for that waste? Such means does not go to build temples, or to help to sustain Elders who have gone abroad to proclaim the gospel; it is not applied to assist in feeding or clothing their wives or children, to find them a little fuel in the winter, when it is cold, or to get them a cow, so that they can have milk and a little butter to make them more comfortable; but it is spent in the purchase of tobacco and is utterly wasted; and they who get rid of their means so foolishly will most surely be brought to account therefor[e]. The same may be said of money spent in the purchase of beer. It is a mild drink, and is very pleasant and agreeable to a great many; but when a man pays his fifty cents, his dollar or his ten dollars for beer it goes into the hands of the grocery keepers and they send it off, and it does no good to the community. The beer itself does no good, it injures the system of those who habitually indulge in the use of it, and, whether they think of and realize it, or not, they will be brought to account for the means they have thus wasted.

Here in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, where we can know and understand the mind and will of the Lord concerning us, many of us have not taken the pains to ask what the Lord wants us to do or what not to do; and if we are extravagant in the use of tea or coffee, which do us no good, but which injure our systems, we shall certainly be brought to account for it. Parties may say—“We did this thoughtlessly and ignorantly; we did not think there was any harm in drinking tea, coffee, beer or a little liquor, or in smoking or chewing tobacco; and having worked for our wages, we considered that we had a right to spend a portion of them in these luxuries, if we were disposed to do so.” But Justice will say, “If you had enquired you might have learned that the use of these things was not only no good to you, but was absolutely injurious, and that the means used in purchasing them was utterly wasted, and hence you who have been guilty of this folly must be brought to an account for it.”

We might follow this subject through all the varied ramifications of our practice in life, but it is not necessary on this occasion. Suffice it to say that we want to understand and do better than we have done, and to be governed by the dictates of good, solid, sound sense in the use of the wealth, privileges and talents that are given to us in our present life. Let me ask, what is real wealth? Do you know? I say that time is all the wealth we have; and to illustrate, let us suppose that all the inhabitants of the earth were, to-day, in the same position that our first parents were in when they were placed in the Garden. Here is the naked earth, without any improvements whatever; and the people, being without experience, have not the ability to raise anything to eat, to build dwellings to reside in, or to gather up or utilize the stock that is running at large. Would a people in that condition have any wealth? No; but you put them in possession of ability to work with their hands and to raise their food and clothing from the earth, also materials to build their houses, lay out their streets, make their gardens, farms, etc., and they will soon accumulate by their labor, and hence, you can easily see that all the wealth there is on the earth consists of the bone, sinew and time of the people. That is the capital stock of every individual and of every nation, and all the capital stock they have. If they have money—seeming wealth—it may go from them, they do not know how quickly. Cities may burn up; thieves may steal their gold and silver, and their greenbacks may be burned up with their banks, and then their wealth is gone, or rather that which is the representative of wealth; but they still have the ability and the bone and sinew necessary to go to work to rebuild their cities and to make new farms, to mine out gold and silver from the mountains to make vessels for convenience, for table use, or for ornaments—ear rings, nose jewels, bands for their wrists, ankles, etc. But it must all be done by labor.

The enquiry rises—Who gives the ability to labor? Who gives us the physical power to cut down trees, to saw them into lumber, and to shape the lumber for use, so that we can make improvements in building, fencing, and everything that labor can be used for? Is this ability our own individual property, independent of God and every other being? Not at all, we are dependent upon him for strength, health, life and every power and faculty we possess. Hence we may say that Time is really all the capital stock that is possessed by any people or nation, by Saint of sinner, good or bad. Time and the ability to labor are the capital stock of the whole world of mankind, and we are all indebted to God for the ability to use time to advantage, and he will require of us a strict account of the disposition we make of this ability; and he will not only require an account of our acts, but our words and thoughts will also be brought into judgment.

Now, returning to the subject of wasting means, suppose that in the providences of God, I have been able to gather means around me, and I fancy and am able to pay for a breakfast that would cost a hundred dollars, and I say to my wife—“Prepare me such and such a breakfast,” and I actually eat a breakfast that has cost a hundred dollars, the question arises—Am I justified, have I to give an account of this? I am not justified, and I certainly shall have to give an account. A fifteen or twenty cent breakfast would satisfy the demands of my nature, and would be just as good for my system as the hundred dollar breakfast, so that by indulging in such a luxury I waste ninety-nine dollars and eighty cents, it has gone to the winds, gone to the enemy. Now what is my duty? I say that after eating my fifteen or twenty cent breakfast, if I have a hundred dollars that I can afford to spend therein, my duty is to give the residue towards sustaining the poor, building Temples, school-houses, sustaining the teachers, maintaining the orphan child, so that it may have an education, sending an Elder to preach the Gospel, and sustaining his family while he is away, or something or other that will advance the kingdom of God upon the earth.

Or again, suppose I say to a tailor—“I have some grey cloth, and I want you to make me a coat just according to my own notions.” “Very well, what will you have?” “I want you to make the coat of this grey cloth, and I want you to take this piece of blue cloth and cut it into narrow strips about a third of an inch wide, and strip my coat all around, and ring it around, and put a puff here and another there, and I want home-made epaulets on, and I want you to put fifteen or twenty dollars worth of work on this coat,” most of which, after all, is of not the least use in the world. Am I justified in doing this, and shall I or shall I not, have to give an account of thus spending my means and using the time of the tailor for naught? I think I shall, and I may say, as far as I am concerned, I know I shall have to give an account. But the people do not think of this.

Now, then, leaving the useless things which the brethren use—tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, whiskey, etc., I will allude to some that the sisters use and wear, such as tea, coffee, snuff, tobacco, opium, and then the ruffles, bows, puffs, trimmings, and this, that, and the other that they wear on their dresses that are useless. What shall we do in regard to these things? My senses tell me that the children of Zion should forsake every needless fashion and custom which they now practise. My wives dress very plainly, but I sometimes ask them the utility of some of the stripes and puffs which i see on their dresses. I remember asking a lady this question once, and enquired if they kept the bed bugs and flies away. Well, if they do that they are very useful; but if they do not, what use are they? None whatever. Now, some ladies will buy a cheap dress, say a cheap calico, and they will spend from five to fifteen dollars worth of time in making it up, which is wasting so much of the substance which God has given them on the lust of the eye, and which should be devoted to a better purpose. I have had an observation made to me which I believe I will relate; I never have done it, but I believe I will now. It has been said to me—“Yes, brother Brigham, we have seen ladies go to parties in plain, home-made cloth dresses, but every man was after the girls who had on a hundred dollars worth of foll-the-roll, and they would dance with every woman and girl except the one in a plain dress, and they would let her stay by the wall the whole evening.” It may be in some cases, but should not be. It adds no beauty to a lady, in my opinion, to adorn her with fine feathers. When I look at a woman, I look at her face, which is composed of her forehead, cheeks, nose, mouth and chin, and I like to see it clean, her hair combed neat and nice, and her eyes bright and sparkling; and if they are so, what do I care what she has on her head, or how or of what material her dress is made? Not the least in the world. If a woman is clean in person, and has on a nice clean dress, she looks a great deal better when washing her dishes, making her butter or cheese, or sweeping her house, than those who, as I told them in Provo, walked the streets with their spanker jib flying. It adds no beauty to a lady or gentleman to have a great many frills on their dresses or coats; beauty must be sought in the expression of the countenance, combined with neatness and cleanliness and graceful manners. All the beauty which nature bestows is exhibited, let the dress be ever so plain, if the wearer of it be only neat and comely. Do not fine feathers look well? Yes, they are very pretty, but they look just as well on these dolls, these fixed up machines which they have in the stores, as anywhere else; they certainly add nothing to the beauty of a lady or gentleman, so far as I ever saw.

Now, then, labor is our capital, and the source and creator of all the wealth that we possess; and I feel it a duty to say to the sisters as well as the brethren, that we must stop the course that has been so generally pursued among the Latter-day Saints, of spending time and means for nothing. I will mention one article to illustrate, and that is the sewing machine. A sewing machine that costs twenty-two dollars to manufacture, we pay one hundred and twenty-five dollars for; for one that costs fourteen dollars to manufacture, we pay eighty-five dollars; and for one that costs sixteen dollars, we pay one hundred. And then, when a man gets his wife a sewing machine, she will spend from five to fifteen dollars worth of time in making a dress. This is wasting time; and we want the brethren and sisters to understand that when they waste time, they are wasting the capital stock which God has given them to improve upon here upon the earth. Says one—“I have nothing to do.” You very easily can have if you wish for it.

Now for the men. I have been into houses which have not had the least convenience for the women, not so much as a bench to set their water pails on, and they have to set them on the floor, and yet their husbands will sit there year after year, and never make so much improvement as a bench to set the pail on. Yet they have the ability, but they will not exercise it. They ought to make every hour of the day useful, and if they have nothing else to do, they should spend their time in making improvements in and around their homes. They might fix the garden fence, hoe the garden, set out trees and cultivate and attend to them, fix the yard and make it look neater, fix up the house and make it more convenient for the wives and the children. A certain portion of the time should also be spent in storing their minds with useful knowledge, reading the Bible, Book of Mormon, and other Church works, and histories, scientific works and other useful books. I have seen people live year after year in a log house, with never so much as a nail to hang a broom on, and the broom is first in one corner and then in another, on the floor or out of doors. Never had a place to put the dis[h]cloth in, or to hang it on, and it would be—“Susan, where is the dishcloth?” or—“Sally,” or “Peggy, where is the broom?” “I don’t know, there is no place for the broom;” and a man living there year after year, who never seemed to wake up the senses in him enough to drive a peg into the crack of a log to have a place to hang a broom or a dishcloth on, or to make a bench for a water or a milk pail. I have seen such men, year after year, without a chair in their houses; and if you ask them why they do not go to work and make some chairs they will say—“We don’t know how.” Then why not go to work and learn? Do as I did when I went to learn the carpenter and joiners’ trade. The first job my boss gave me was to make a bedstead out of an old log that had been on the beach of the Lake for years, water-logged and watersoaked. Said he—“There are tools, you cut that log into right lengths for a bedstead. Hew out the side rails, the end rails and the posts; get a board for a head board, and go to work and make a bedstead.” And I went to work and cut up the log, split it up to the best of my ability, and made a bedstead that, I suppose, they used for many years. I would go to work and learn to make a washboard, and make a bench to put the wash tub on, and to make a chair. This is spending time usefully; but when we spend our time for naught we waste that which God has given us as our capital stock with which to make ourselves useful in life, and to give to our fellow-beings that which belongs to them.

Now, we want the sisters, as well as the brethren, to use their capital stock to the very best advantage. And we wish them to make their own fashions in regard to dress; but if they will not do that, then copy the fashions of Babylon only so far as they are useful; then stop, go no further, and sustain and uphold trade with the outside world only so far as it is really necessary. If the sisters remain with us they will do as they are told; and if they do this we say—You are at perfect liberty to go and renew your covenants by baptism; but if you will not live according to the instructions that are given, we object to you renewing your covenants; we do not wish you to say one thing and do another. We shall require the sisters to take hold and do something for themselves. Where does our knitting come from? Everybody goes to the store to buy knitted goods; but this is not right, we ought to knit our own stockings. If the sisters want some little hoods or jackets for their children they go to the store for them, they are very cheap there. Yet we raise the best of wool here, and we are spinning it just as nice as in any factory in the world. We have knitting machines and all the material necessary, and we have also the ability to knit or weave all the hoods, jackets, drawers, undershirts, etc., that we need; and if the sisters will do their duty, they will do their own knitting and prepare this Fall to raise silk another year. I have been at thousands of dollars expense in encouraging the people here to raise silk, but they do not do it, and in this respect, as in many others, they have neglected their duty, for it is their duty to take hold of this industry. The sisters will say to their husbands—“I want so and so, and I want you to give me the money to buy it.” Instead of this, I say, let the sisters go to work and raise some silk, and this will find them and their children profitable employment. If you have not got any mulberry trees, plant out some immediately, they are here by the hundreds and thousands in nurseries, and as soon as possible raise silk, and that when raised and thoroughly cured, will bring the money. Then you can raise the money, without having to call on your husbands. Now if a man buys a sewing machine for his wife, she wants a hired girl to run it; at least, I will say that some women take this course, and they spend their time uselessly and waste the capital stock which God has given them. This is the course that some pursue instead of doing good. We want a turning point to arrive for women of this class, and for all to be guided in their conduct by the dictates of good, sound sense; and as the sisters like to be noticed by the brethren, I will say that they who keep themselves neat and clean, and whose countenances are bright and clear, are the ones that will be noticed by the good.

Now, sisters, if you will consider these things you will readily see that time is all the capital stock there is on the earth; and you should consider your time golden, it is actually wealth, and, if properly used, it brings that which will add to your comfort, convenience, and satisfaction. Let us consider this, and no longer sit with hands folded, wasting time, for it is the duty of every man and of every woman to do all that is possible to promote the kingdom of God on the earth.

Without going further into the details regarding the duties of this people we can say, in a very few words, that our Father in heaven, Jesus, our elder brother and the Savior of the world, and the whole heavens, are calling upon this people to prepare to save the nations of the earth, also the millions who have slept without the Gospel, and here we are neglecting our duty, wasting our time, running here and there as though there was nothing to do only to serve ourselves. We have glory, immortality and eternal lives to gain, and it is our duty to take a course to gain them, that we may enter into the highest state of intelligence and enjoy the society of the pure and those who dwell with God.

You have now heard some things that we want of the sisters. I will now say a word to the brethren. If any brother is found drinking with the drunkard we certainly shall look after him; and my counsel and advice are for every man and every woman to pause well before they go and renew their covenants, and know whether they are going to be Saints or not. A person may say—“If I have strength I am going to be a Saint.” The drunkard may say—“I mean to reform;” the swearer may say—“I mean to reform;” the liar says—“I mean to reform;” and the thief may say—“I mean to reform.” There is no man or woman on the earth in the habit of stealing, but what can cease the practice right square if they are disposed. And so with the liar, he can stop lying, and lie no more, and tell the truth. It only wants the will to do it, and that will brought into exercise to enable the liar to be truthful, the thief to be honest, and the swearer to stop his evil speaking. So with the ladies. If they only have the will, and will exercise it, they can cease spending their time in useless fashions, and they can turn their attention to storing their minds with all useful knowledge, then adorn themselves with all that is necessary to make themselves neat, nice, comely and commendable to the eyes of God and angels, and of the good everywhere. Then they will be right. I pray the Lord to bless you, preserve you and guide your entire lives that we may be saved in the Kingdom of our God. Amen.

The United Order, etc.

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Aug. 31, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

In relation to the rules that we have heard read over, there is nothing in them but what, as Latter-day Saints, we have always professed to believe in. Some of us have been around teaching these principles among the people; and I have sometime spoken of them as baby rules, that is, as rules which people like the Latter-day Saints, who are in possession of correct principles, ought always to be governed by; Latter-day Saints, who have been faithful from the commencement of their career in the Church, have been governed by these very principles that we are now talking about.

We profess to be governed by the laws of God, and to be associated with the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth; we profess to be related, more or less, to other parties who have held the same Priesthood, powers, light, and intelligence that we possess; those who understand themselves profess to be associated, more or less, with the Church of the first-born, with Jesus, whom Paul calls the Mediator of the New Covenant, and with God, the Father of all; and our religion and the revelations that have been given to us are for the express purpose of leading us to a union among ourselves, with those who have gone before, and with Jesus, and God the Father, who are all of them interested, as we ought to be, in seeking to carry out the designs and purposes of the Almighty upon the earth. Those parties who have lived before, lived not for themselves, but for God. When Jesus was upon the earth he said—“I came not to do my will, but the will of the Father who sent me,” and every man who is associated with the Church and kingdom of God expects and understands, if he understands things correctly, that he is part of the great household of faith, belonging to a celestial kingdom that he anticipates inheriting, and that he ought to be governed by celestial laws, by which other intelligences who have lived before have been governed. Those men of whom Paul speaks, all of whom died in faith and in hope of a better inheritance, did certain things by which they proved to the world that they desired a city whose builder and maker was God, wherefore Paul tells us that God was not ashamed to be called their God, for he had prepared a city for them. We read of the Zion that was built up by Enoch, and that this Zion and the people that were united with Enoch, who were subject to the same laws which God is seeking to introduce among us, were caught up into the heavens. We have been expecting all along to build up a similar Zion upon these mountains, and we have talked a great deal about going back to Jackson County. We can not build up a Zion unless we are in possession of the spirit of Zion, and of the light and intelligence that flow from God, and under the direction of the Priesthood, the living oracles of God, to lead us in the paths of life. We do not know them without, and we need all these helps to lead us along, that by and by we may come to such a unity in our temporal and in our spiritual affairs, and in everything that pertains to our interest and happiness in this world and in the world to come, that we may be prepared to enter a Zion here upon the earth, help to build Temples of the Lord and to administer in them, and so operate and co-operate with the Gods in the eternal worlds, and with the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and men of God, who were inspired by the spirit of revelation in generations that are passed and gone; we want to be one with them, one with God, and one with each other, for Jesus said—“Except you are one you are not mine.” Then the question arises, if we are not Jesus’, whose are we?

It is evident, in relation to the position that we have been in, that all kinds of confusion, folly, vanity, evil, pride, haughtiness, covetousness, drunkenness, and every kind of sin have existed among us, as a people. I am not surprised that the President should feel inclined to shake off many of these things. Why? Because, if they are permitted in the Church and kingdom of God, and the servant of God and his coadjutors do not lift up their voices against them, God would hold them responsible.

Does President Young want to bear the sins of the people? No. Do the Twelve and others want to bear the sins of the people? No. It is for the President to point out the way of life, and for all of us to walk in it. This is the order of God, and every man and woman should fulfill the various duties that devolve upon them.

Now then, in regard to our temporal affairs, these are the things which seem to perplex us more or less. We have been brought up in Babylon, and have inherited Babylonish ideas and systems of business; we have introduced, too, among us, all kinds of chicanery, deception and fraud. It is time that these things were stopped, and that matters assumed another shape; it is time that we commenced to place ourselves under the guidance and direction of the Almighty. You can not talk in many places about temporal matters, but everybody is on the alert at once, and the idea is—Do you want my property? No. Do you want my possessions? No, no; there is no such feeling, but we do want men and women to give God their hearts, we do want people, while they profess to fear God, not to be canting hypocrites and to depart from every principle of right. We remember the time very well, or most of us, when we first entered into this Church, if a man was found lying he would be brought before the Church and dealt with; if a man was found stealing he would be brought up before the Church and dealt with; if a man defrauded his neighbor, and it could be proved, he was brought up and dealt with; and so if a man got drunk; and for all these delinquencies if parties did not repent of them they were immediately cut off from the Church as unworthy of fellowship. And now, after so many years travail, are we to continue and fellowship all these evils? No, no, we can not do it, and God will not do it; and if we carry them along with us, we shall not enter into the celestial kingdom of God.

Now then, with regard to this union of property, what is it? Why, it is something to draw the people nearer together, to prepare them for future developments. What is the Order? Well, we, here, have thought proper, at the suggestion of President Young, to act as stewards over our own property. In some places where there is not so much property as here, it might be better to pursue another course; but as to that, no matter if our hearts are together, and we do what we do in all sincerity before God. What we are after is to give our hearts to God, to renew our covenants, and then be one in our temporal affairs; and this is to be under the direction of the living Priesthood, and not under any particular dead letter. Here is a certain form that everybody ought to submit to; every man and every woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ought to be governed by these rules, and we know it in our hearts. I mean when they refer particularly to our morals. When we come to other points, that is a matter of judgment and principle that we want to be governed by as the law of God. We have an organization here in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it is one of the most perfect that ever existed on the earth. And how is it organized? Why, we have the Presidency, with President Young at the head, as the mouthpiece of God to this people. That is the way that we Latter-day Saints profess to believe in him, whether we do so or not; and if we do not believe it then we are acting the hypocrite. Then come the Twelve, then the High Priests, Bishops, Seventies, High Councils, Bishops’ Councils, Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons, all organized by the Almighty.

Now, then, do I believe that the Lord Almighty directs President Young? I do, with all my heart. Do you believe it? That is the question. Do you believe that he and his first council have the right to dictate and manage all affairs pertaining to the temporal and spiritual interests of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth? I believe it, do you? These are questions that we want to put to ourselves fairly and frankly and honestly, without any equivocation or reservation, for this is really a part of the order of God.

Now then come the Twelve and all the other authorities. We believe that they are ordained of God, that they are part of his economy and government, all these various quorums as they exist on the earth, and that, by and by, when we get through in this world, we shall all assume our proper position and proper Priesthood, with Joseph Smith at the head of this dispensation, and that we shall be associated there with that Priesthood that we have been connected with here. Now, then, we do not want to be playing fast and loose, part God, part the world, part the devil, part the Lord’s way and part our way, and every man following the devices and desires of his own heart. We have come under the government of God, and God expects our strict, full, implicit and unequivocal obedience in all particulars. God says, “Give me thy heart.” We have covenanted long ago to do this, and this is simply a renewal of this covenant, and of many covenants that we have entered into in relation to these matters. Is it a sacrifice? Are we doubtful and fearful about this, that, and the other? What have we to sacrifice? What hold have we upon this earth? What hold have we upon any property on this earth? It may be said to us as it was to a man who said—“I have much goods laid up for many years, soul take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry;” it may be said to us as it was said to him—“Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee,” and then whose will these be? What have we that we did not get from God? I have heard President Young say that there is not one solitary thing that he has—wife, dollar, horse, carriage, or property of any kind that he did not receive from God. Have any of us got anything that we did not receive from him? Not a penny. Can we keep anything any longer than the Lord has a mind to permit us? Not one moment longer. In his hands are the issues of life and death, and the only hope we have is to be one with God, with the Priesthood upon the earth, that is connected with the Priesthood in the heavens, that we may unite in a phalanx with them, with God, with the Patriarchs and Prophets, with all good men that have ever lived, that we may form a cemented united body with them in the accomplishment of the purposes of God, for the bringing of salvation to the world in which we live, for the redemption of the living and the dead, for the spreading forth of truth, the establishing of correct principles, the building up of the kingdom of God, the building of Temples; and then when we get through here, that we may unite with them in the celestial kingdom of our Father.

These are some of the ideas that we believe in, in relation to these matters, and the thing that is now proposed is very simple and straightforward. The President has said that there are many men in this city and elsewhere who want to know whom they shall place over their affairs; they can not tell. Well, what then? Why those who cannot do that, let them unite together in a united order similar to that which is spoken of, as the Book of Doctrine and Covenants expresses it—though it varies a little from that form here—and lay it at the Apostles’ feet, and let the Bishop give them their inheritances. Here another thing is contemplated, here we are stewards over our own property; and you have heard read that the avails of that system, after supplying the families, are to be under the direction of the board of directors, to say what shall be done with them. Then again, if there is extravagance in families, in dress, eating or in living of any kind, no matter what it may be, we want that checked, we do not want the Saints to be extravagant; we do not want to do anything that God does not want us to do, and no good Saint, man or woman, wants to do what God does not want. All such feel like one of old—Oh, God, search me and try me, and prove me, and if there is any way of wickedness in me, exhibit it to me; let me see it that I may bid it adieu, and let me be a good Saint; let me live in the enjoyment of thy favor and let the light of the Holy Ghost and of revelation rest upon me; let me be in favor with God and my brethren and all good men, and then when I get through, receive the reward of the just.

May God help us to appreciate these privileges, and not think that we are making sacrifices, for we are merely seeking the guidance of the Almighty to direct us in our temporal affairs, that we may inherit thrones, principalities, powers and dominions in the eternal worlds, which we never shall inherit unless we are one.

The Pleasure of Serving God, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Wednesday afternoon, October 6, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

It is exceedingly interesting to me, as I have no doubt it is to all Latter-day Saints, to hear the Elders who have been on missions bear a faithful testimony, on their return, to the truth of the work in which they have been engaged. It is a tolerably easy matter to tell, in listening to them speaking, whether they have been faithful or not in magnifying their Priesthood and calling, for a man who does not magnify his Priesthood, and who is not faithful in the discharge of the duties entrusted to him, generally manifests it by the spirit which he possesses and with which he speaks. And so, also, when men have been faithful and have striven to magnify their calling, a spirit and influence attend them that bear testimony of their faithfulness. No man can go out, ordained by those who have the authority, in faith and in humility to preach the principles of the everlasting Gospel, however peculiar and difficult the circumstances may be that surround him, however great the trials and the persecutions that he may have to contend with, without receiving an unction from the Holy One, that will bear testimony to him that the work in which he is engaged is of God, and that he has been called of God to declare the principles of life and salvation unto the people among whom his lot may be cast. There is this peculiarity and influence about this work, there is the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, which descends with convincing and overwhelming power upon all those who place themselves in a position to receive it; and there is no labor under the sun, I care not what it may be, or how pleasant the circumstances that surround him, at all comparable with the labor of an Elder in this Church, who endeavors, in humility and meekness, to magnify his calling; there is no joy which a human soul is capable of comprehending, that approaches the delight and the satisfaction which laboring in the ministry of the Son of God confers upon him who does so in faithfulness. He may be destitute, he may be without purse and scrip, as our Elders travel, he may be in the midst of enemies, he may be ha[u]led to prison, and treated with contumely, and have all manner of evil heaped upon him; but if he is faithful to God, if he is faithful to his Priesthood, and magnifies it to the extent of his ability, there is a power, an influence, and a joy resting upon and accompanying him, and filling him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, that are incomprehensible to those who have not experienced them; and for such a man to doubt that God is with him, and that the work he is engaged in is the work of God, would be as difficult as to doubt that the sun’s rays ever beam upon him, or that there is no warmth or light connected with them; in fact, such a man could as easily doubt his own existence, and the testimony of every sense that he possesses, as to doubt the testimony of God which rests down upon him.

And these blessings are not confined to those who go forth as missionaries, but they extend themselves to all who enter into covenant with God, take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, and resolve in their hearts to repent of their sins, and to tread humbly and meekly in the path which the Savior has marked out for all to walk in. They receive also, according to the measure of their responsibilities, and the position which they occupy, the same gifts and blessings, and the same joy fills their hearts that does the hearts of the faithful Elders.

When I listen to the Elders, as we have to-day, speaking their experience, and relating that which they have met with, and the joy they have had, it has seemed to me that, if any of the Elders, or if all the Elders, could comprehend this and enter into the spirit of it, they would say that they would devote themselves with all they possess, with every feeling of their heart, with every power of their mind, with all the strength and the ability which God has given them, to the rolling forth of his work upon the face of the earth. But the difficulty with us as individuals is, that we are like the man of whom the Apostle James speaks: we look in the glass, we see ourselves, our features are distinct to us, every thing is plain to us, we see the mirrored resemblance of ourselves in the glass that we look upon, but we turn away, and we speedily forget what manner of men we are. And so it is with many who are in this Church. They have experienced joy, they have had testimonies from God, they have had the power and the gifts of God resting upon them; but after a little while, coming in contact with the world, and the spirit of the world, they forget these things, the remembrance of them fades away from their minds and other things appear more desirable to them. This is the difficulty that the servants of God have to contend with in their ministering among men. It would appear, looking at matters naturally, that if men and women had tasted the word of God, had received revelation from God, had knowledge poured into their souls concerning this being the work of God, they would always be faithful to the truth; but it is not so, and this is evidence of the great power which the adversary exercises over the hearts of the children of men. Men may behold the heavens opened and see Jesus, they may see visions, and have revelations given to them, and yet if they do not live as they should do, and cherish the Spirit of God in their hearts, all this knowledge, and these revelations and wonderful manifestations fail to keep them in the Church, to preserve them from the power of the adversary, and to deliver them from the snares that he spreads for the feet of all the children of God. And in our own experience we can comprehend very easily how the Church of God, in ancient days, fell away from the truth, wandered into darkness, and lost the knowledge of God and the ordinances which he had established in his Church for the salvation of his people. How long would it be, were it not for the teachings, warnings and reproofs of those who are set to preside over them, before many of the Latter-day Saints, and probably a majority of them would stray into by and forbidden paths, and forget the knowledge that they once had and the blessings they once enjoyed? And yet I am thankful that people cannot stay in this Church and practice unrighteousness. I am thankful that God allows those who do not keep his commandments to fall away, so that his Church may be cleansed, and, in this respect, this Church is different from any other that is upon the earth. A man may practice iniquity and do wrong in other churches, and he may cover it up for years, and nobody, or probably but a few—himself, his God, and a few others—be aware of this wrong, and he may pass along and nobody ever imagine that there is anything wrong with him. But it is not so in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—no man can stand in this Church, or retain the Spirit of God and continue in a course of hypocrisy for any length of time. God will tear away the covering of lies and expose the wrong; he will leave the transgressor to himself, and the strength that he formerly had, which enabled him to stand and maintain his associations with the people of God, will be taken away from him, and he will be left to go down to destruction unless he repents. It is true that the Lord has said that the tares shall grow with the wheat until harvest, but it is not said that tares will not be plucked up from time to time, for if it were not so they would overpower and choke out the wheat. The sifting or weeding process has been going on from the commencement of this Church until the present time; hence it is that the leaders of this Church are stirred up in their feelings from time to time to call upon the people to repent. They understand clearly that unless there is a godly life and conversation corresponding with our profession, this people would soon fall into darkness and error, and stray from the path of righteousness.

Our enemies are not mistaken in some of their ideas respecting use that is, respecting the power that can be brought to bear to destroy us. They seem to be well aware of the fact that, if we only conform to their customs, fashions, ideas and practices, we would soon fall away and cease, as a people, to preserve our identity. They understand this, and hence the efforts which have been made of late. It has seemed as though the adversary has been exerting every power and bringing every influence within his reach to destroy us; and the most lamentable feature—the one that has given me most concern connected with it—has been the apparent blindness of our people respecting these designs; it has seemed as though we could not see and understand their nature, and we have to a certain extent yielded ourselves willing captives and dupes to the plots that have been undertaken in our midst to destroy us. The fact that God predicted, through the mouth of his servant Daniel, and through others, that this kingdom should stand for ever, has seemingly lulled a great many to sleep and caused them to think that we are perfectly safe, and that no danger can overtake us; and the fact also that we have remained in these mountains, now, for twenty-eight years without mobs, and that so many of the people who have grown up and have come here and never knew anything about them, who have joined the Church since the days of mobocracy, these causes combined have had the effect to cause a great many to be very supine, and to imagine, apparently, that we could not be disturbed, or that our safety could not be endangered by anything that might be done against us. Hence, when the servant of God has called upon us, and given us counsel upon many points, we have not seemed to understand the benefit of the counsel.

We are here in these mountains, Latter-day Saints. We have made this country, notwithstanding all that may be said to the contrary, all that it is to-day. Why, the very officials of this Territory to-day may thank God that he raised up Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, because if he had not done so there would have been no governors, judges or other federal officials of Utah Territory; there would, in fact, have been no Territory of Utah if it had not been for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Men may say what they please, but, every thinking man in this country must admit that our settlement of this country has forwarded settlement in the adjacent Territories and States more than a quarter of a century. We have demonstrated one great fact—that men can live here, that fruit, corn and wheat, and all the cereals which belong to this latitude can be raised here by a judicious application of water, combined with industry and perseverance. We have demonstrated this; it is no longer a problem as to what this country can produce, hence you now hear of agriculture in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada; but it is a very great query whether this would have been the case for another generation, at least, had it not been for the Latter-day Saints. What could have induced men to come here if they had not been prompted by the feeling that started us out? We had no place to go to excepting this. We wanted the meanest and most undesirable part of the continent, so that our enemies would not rob us of it, as soon as we had improved it; and when we came here we hoped we had reached a place where we could live, at least for a time, undisturbed, until we could increase and raise a generation who would be firm in the faith, and be so numerous that they could carry on the work whose foundations their fathers had laid. We came here in that spirit and with that view. Not to exclude other men from the land that we had settled; but to create homes, and a place to which men and women of every nation could come, and where they could worship God unmolested, as we desired to worship him. We cared not what their creed might be, or whether they were Jews, Pagans, Moslems, or Christians. We asked no man who came here to believe as we believed, and we had no disposition to deny them the rights that we enjoyed because they did not believe as we believed. It was in that spirit that the foundation stones of this superstructure of government in Utah Territory were laid. It was that here, not only Latter-day Saints, but, as I have said, men of every creed and clime might come and worship God unmolested by their neighbors.

But there were others who did not feel as we felt, and they were determined to curtail us of our privileges, and now for years there has been a studied and unrelenting effort to destroy the work that we have done, and to strip us of all the advantages we have gained by coming here; to wrest from us by any means that could be used, however despicable and illegal, the power that God has given us, and to which we are entitled under the laws and constitution of our country. There has been no concealment of these designs, no attempt made to gloss them over; they have been avowed, plainly and publicly, to all the land and to all the Latter-day Saints throughout these mountains, that if they could get the power to strip us of our rights they would do it without any hesitation or compunctions of conscience.

Now, my brethren and sisters, let me ask you, this being the case, what is our plain and bounden duty? It is to preserve ourselves, not only for our own sakes, not only for the sake of our children, but for the sake of humanity everywhere, and for the sake of civil and religious liberty, upon this land which God has given to us. Many will pass away after a little, and here are children, and here are mankind, many of whom, in witnessing the bold stand we have taken, are anxious to see us preserve ourselves and to see civil and religious liberty maintained by us on this land. And we owe it to them, as well as to posterity, that, by every means in our power; we do preserve ourselves and our liberties intact. If we do not, we are recreant to our high trust, and to the high calling which we have received from our Almighty Father. In doing this, must we intrude upon others? Is there any necessity for this? No; our policy is not aggressive; the true policy of the Latter-day Saints is a preservative and defensive policy; to preserve and defend ourselves when we are attacked; not to be aggressive, not to intrude upon others’ rights, but to preserve our own rights. Every man and woman belonging to this community should therefore keep constantly in mind that this is the policy for which we should labor, and not consult individual interests; not say—“I can make one dollar or two dollars by stepping aside from the policy that has been marked out.” Many so-called Latter-day Saints have done this. We have people among us who, if we may judge by their actions, would sell every liberty that God has given unto us for a few dollars, and yet they call themselves Latter-day Saints. When counsel has been given by President Brigham Young—than whom a wiser counselor does not live upon the face of the earth—instead of accepting that counsel and looking at it in its true light, in its elevated light, there have been persons who have looked at it from their picayunish standpoint. They have asked—“How is that counsel going to affect my individual interests?” And many have said by their actions: “Now is my chance to make money; while the bulk of the people are obeying counsel, it will be to my advantage to disobey it. I can make money by so doing.” And they have actually taken advantage of the obedience of the people to make money by their disobedience, and yet have called themselves Latter-day Saints! Is not this the case? Do you not know it to be the case? And that spirit has been spreading and diffusing itself among this people, the example of one encouraging another, until too many have indulged in and given way to it, to the injury of the cause of God. And hence the leaders of this Church have been so deeply impressed, of late, to go forth and call upon this people to repent and turn from their folly and listen to God’s voice through his inspired servant, lest He should send calamities upon them; for it is plain to be seen, as brother Squires said, except we are one we are not Christ’s, we are not God’s, and that union is the only principle upon which we can be preserved. We have not strength, we have not numbers, we have not wealth, but we have union when we choose to avail ourselves of it, and with union there is strength, especially when God has promised his blessings.

Now, can you not see, you Latter-day Saints, how unwise it is for us to disobey counsel, when that counsel is given for the benefit of the whole people? This man says—“I can gain some advantage by disobeying that counsel;” this woman says—“I can gain some advantage by going contrary to that counsel,” not caring anything as to what the results may be, so that their little ends can be served to some trifling extent, and being blind to the fact that we must preserve ourselves by looking after our own interests, and taking care of the great work which God has entrusted to us. Why, it took all the eloquence of President Young for years to cause this people to see that it was not to their interest to sustain their enemies, foster their enemies, feed their enemies, take all their wealth and give it to their enemies, and those enemies plotting all the time against their liberties and their lives, and avowing it publicly and undisguisedly. Do you not remember, before co-operation was started, how long and loud the President of this Church and his counsellers, and other men, had to plead with the people to get them to see this plain matter of self-preserving policy? They could not see it, that is, a great many could not see; and when co-operation was suggested they could not see that, and there are a great many who can not see it now, and who are opposed to it in their hearts, and they are opposed to everything that will bring this people closer together, and make them more one, and they fight it, and they do not know the spirit that prompts them. It is the same to-day respecting the United Order; many seem to be blind, they can not understand what it is that blinds them; but it is miserable selfishness; they become so eager after money that their judgment is beclouded. If we were united, we could control things in this country to an extent you have no conception of, and we could become rich, if riches were the desire of our hearts, there is nothing to prevent us; if we will be guided by the counsel of God’s servants, we can have all the riches that heart can desire. But our miserable, shortsighted selfishness, that miserable, contracted, narrow policy that is not of God, blinds our eyes and darkens our understandings, and prevents us from seeing the true policy of building up the Zion of God on the earth, and preserving the liberty which God has given unto us.

God requires one thing of the people called Latter-day Saints, and if they will receive and obey that, everything else will follow, and that is—to obey the counsel of God’s servants. If you will do that, everything else will follow in the train. And why should we not do so? Have we not a leader whom God has blessed as he has no other man of whom we have any knowledge at present on the earth? Look at what has been done! See how God has prospered him and those who have received his counsel! Whenever he has told us to do anything, as a people, and we have done it, God has blessed us in its performance; and whenever the people, or a portion of them, have disobeyed his counsel, they have not been prospered. They have invariably lost the spirit and gone into darkness. Do you not know this? Has not the experience of the past thirty-one years confirmed this to us? How was it with us when we crossed the plains and when we came here? Did any of you know whither you were coming? I know the people did not know, but they followed his lead, believing that God led and inspired him, and that God would lead him to a place where we could locate. And look at what we see throughout these valleys today! Where is there anything like it on the face of the earth? A people gathered from every nation, speaking almost every tongue, brought up in the midst of every creed, and with every kind of habit, and yet homogeneous and dwelling together in union and love, without litigation and strife! Where can you see anything on the face of the earth that compares with it? Is it any wonder that we have faith in God and in his servant? I tell you that if there is any condemnation resting upon these Latter-day Saints, it is because of their unbelief and hardness of heart in not listening to his counsel.

Now let us be taught; let us profit by the experience of the past, and not allow ourselves to be deluded by the adversary, and by any, even if they should call themselves our friends. But no man who weakens or tries to weaken that counsel which has led us all the time, is a friend to this people.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, fill you with his Holy Spirit, rend the veil of darkness that beclouds our minds, darkens our eyes, and prevents our seeing the truth, and the true policy of the kingdom, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

God Preserves His People, etc.

Joseph F. Smith

Discourse by Elder Joseph F. Smith, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

It is always a source of pleasure to me to meet with my brethren and sisters in the Gospel covenant. I rejoice exceedingly in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that I have the privilege of being numbered with the Saints of latter days. I am thankful for the blessings that we enjoy as a people in these valleys. I feel grateful for the many evidences we have experienced of God’s mercy and protection. I am thankful that I have been able to see his hand in our deliverance from the powers and machinations of our enemies, from the earliest period of our existence as a people; and I am thankful that I am able to see the hand of the Lord over us at present as conspicuously and as clearly as at any former period of our history.

We read in the revelations that have come to us through the Prophets, both ancient and modern, concerning the purposes of the Lord in the latter days, and the restoration of the Gospel to the earth by a holy angel, that it is to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people under the whole heavens, that every son and daughter of Adam shall have the privilege of hearing it, embracing it, partaking of its blessings, and of being saved by its power. We read that the Lord is going to do this work, and that he is going to cut it short in righteousness; that it is his design to gather out the honest in heart—those who are willing to hearken to his counsels and obey his laws. It is his design to gather all such out from the nations of the earth, that he may make of them a people worthy of his name and his blessings, and prepare them to meet him when he shall come to make up his jewels; when he shall come to take vengeance upon the wicked and ungodly, who know not God, and who keep not his commandments upon the earth.

The hand of the Lord has been visible in the gathering together of this people for the last twenty-eight years; yes, for the last forty-five years, and no more so in that than in everything connected with the labors of his servants, their counsels unto, and their guidance of, the people by the inspiration of the Almighty that was in them from the very beginning. At no time in the history of this Church has the hand of the Lord been withdrawn from this people, his power shortened, or his eye slept, but his eye has been upon us, his hand has been over us, and his providences have been in our favor. Circumstances have been over-ruled for good, the hand of the enemy has been turned away paralyzed, the efforts of the wicked to destroy us have resulted in our good and in their own discomfiture. The greater the efforts on the part of our enemies to destroy us, the greater the growth of the Church and kingdom of God, and the closer has our union been, the better have we been able to see the hand of the Lord over us, and the inspiration of the Almighty in the counsels of his servants, and the more have we been inclined to respect and abide by the counsels given. The very fact that the spirit of bitterness in the hearts of the wicked toward us at the present time is as virulent as it ever was, and is every way similar to that manifested against the former-day Saints, against the Savior when he was upon the earth, and against his disciples, or the people of God in any former age of the world, is an unmistakable evidence that the Lord God Almighty is with us to-day as much as he ever was since the organization of the Church, or as much as he ever was with any people he ever acknowledged as his since the world began. I do not believe there ever was a people who were guided by revelation, or acknowledged of the Lord as his people, that were not hated and persecuted by the wicked and the corrupt, and perhaps no people were ever more persecuted than this People would be, if it were in the power of the enemy to-day to persecute us, as it was in the power of Nero and the Romans to persecute the Saints in their day. There never was a time when it was more fixed and determined in the heart of the wicked to fight against, and destroy the kingdom from the earth, than now, and their failure will be due only to the impossibility of the task they have undertaken. And this is an evidence to every one that possesses the least spark of the light of the Holy Spirit—and should be to all mankind—that the kingdom of God is established, that his Priesthood is here, that the Saints, or many of them, are magnifying their calling and honoring the Priesthood, and also the Lord, both with their lives and with their substance, which are his.

For my part I do not fear the influence of our enemies from without, as I fear that of those from within. An open and avowed enemy, whom we may see and meet in an open field, is far less to be feared than a lurking, deceitful, treacherous enemy hidden within us, such as are many of the weaknesses of our fallen human nature, which are too often allowed to go unchecked, beclouding our minds, leading away our affections from God and his truth, until they sap the very foundations of our faith, and debase us beyond the possibility or hope of redemption either in this world or that to come. These are the enemies that we all have to battle with, they are the greatest that we have to contend with in the world, and the most difficult to conquer. They are the fruits of ignorance, generally arising out of unrebuked sin and evil in our own hearts. The labor that is upon us, is to subdue our passions, conquer our inward foes, and see that our hearts are right in the sight of the Lord, that there is nothing calculated to grieve his Spirit and lead us away from the path of duty.

Those only who possess the light of the Spirit of God and the faith of the Gospel, which can only be possessed through faithfulness and obedience to the requirements of heaven, can discern and know the voice of the true Shepherd when they hear it. We need not expect to be able to discern the right from the wrong, the truth from error, and light from darkness, unless our eye is single, and we have declared ourselves for God and his work. If we are divided in our thoughts, affections, and interests, like the rest of the world, we need not expect to comprehend the will of the Lord when made known to us, no matter how powerfully or directly it may come. It will be all the same to us unless we are in a position to receive the light and the truth when it is offered unto us.

What shall we do if we have neglected our prayers? Let us begin to pray. If we have neglected any other duty, let us seek unto the Lord for his Spirit, that we may know wherein we have erred and lost our opportunities, or let them pass by us unimproved. Let us seek unto the Lord in humility, determined to forsake everything that would be an obstruction to our receiving the intelligence and the light that we need, and an answer to our prayers, that we may approach him confident that his ears will be open to our petitions, that his heart will be turned unto us in mercy, that our sins may be forgiven, our minds enlightened by the influence and power of God, that we may comprehend our duty and have a disposition to perform it, not to postpone it, not to set it aside, nor to say in our hearts, “We must serve the world or the devil a little longer; we are not yet prepared to serve the Lord fully, to give up our evil habits, to lay aside this and that folly, and walk straightforward in the path of duty; we must sow a few more wild oats before we can fully make up our minds and determine upon serving the Lord and doing his will upon earth as it should be done, and as we know how to do it, if we but yield obedience to the light that has come into the world.” But when we see what is necessary to be done, it becomes our duty, and we should go to with all our might and do it, no matter what our desires may be to the contrary. Whatever comes from the Priesthood by inspiration we should be willing to receive as the counsel of the Almighty, which we must of necessity obey and execute in order that we may be accepted of him.

This is a lesson that we, as God’s people, should cheerfully learn. Do you think, my brethren and sisters, that we can climb up some other way, or enter in at some other door? Do you think that we can take the things of God and bring them to our standard, or square the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by our rule? Do you think that we would ever succeed in an effort to dictate to the Almighty the terms of our salvation? If we think so we are mistaken, deceived; we cannot do it. The purposes of the Almighty are unchanged and unchangeable, his laws endure, and he is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. His purposes will ripen and be consummated, and his designs be completed. Therefore, if we do not conform to his will, obey his laws and yield to his requirements in this world, we will be consigned to “the prison house,” where we will remain until we pay the debt to the uttermost farthing. This is a Scriptural, a reasonable, and a true doctrine; for it is a doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Saints understand it, but there may be some here who do not, and for their benefit, as well as to refresh the memories of those who may not have reflected for a little season upon this principle, I will refer to it as briefly expressed in the third and fourth chapters of the first Epistle of Peter. There you will see that Jesus himself preached the Gospel to the spirits in prison, “which some time were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” This may seem strange to some, that Jesus should go to preach the Gospel unto the wicked, rebellious antediluvians; whose bodies had been destroyed in the flood because they rejected the testimony of Noah, who had been sent to rebuke their iniquities and warn them of destruction decreed against them if they did not repent, nevertheless it is true. From this Scripture we not only learn the condition of those who are cut off in their sins because of their wickedness in rebelling against the laws of God and rejecting his servants, but such of them as have not sinned against the Holy Ghost, however wicked they may have been in this world—save committing that unpardonable sin—will have the privilege of hearing the Gospel in the spirit world; “for,” as the Apostle says, “for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead.” “Yes,” says one, “dead in sin, but not dead as to the flesh.” But the Apostle does not say so, but to the contrary, for the dead here referred to had perished in the flesh and the Apostle continues—“That they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit;” that is, out of the body until the resurrection from the dead. But first they must remain in hell—the “prison house,” until they have paid the penalty of their sins in the flesh, even to the “uttermost farthing.” “But,” says one, “is this possible?” The people in Europe, where we have been preaching, were struck with wonder and astonishment when we mentioned this doctrine, and say they, “We had supposed that, ‘as the tree fell so it should lie,’ and that ‘there was no salvation in the grave.’” Neither is there any salvation in the grave, and “as the tree falls, so it lies,” but this is pertaining to the flesh. Does the spirit lie with the body? Is the spirit confined in the grave? No. As the body falls, so it will lie until the resurrection; there is no salvation in the grave, but in Christ, who is the “light of life,” and the spirit soars beyond the grave; it does not slumber in the dust, but is wafted to the place prepared for it in the spirit world, to receive its reward or punishment, having passed the first judgment of God, there to await his mercy, and the resurrection from the dead and the final judgment of the great last day.

Thus we see those wicked, unrepentant antediluvians who even had the privilege of hearing the Gospel in the flesh, as preached by Noah, and who rejected the message of that servant of God, were actually visited in the “prison house” by the Savior himself, and heard the Gospel from his own mouth after he was “put to death in the flesh.” Their prison was opened, and liberty was proclaimed unto them in their captivity, in fulfillment of the prediction of the Prophet Isaiah, as you might read in his 61st chapter, that they may come forth, when they shall have fulfilled the decree of judgment upon them in the prison, or hell, to do the first works necessary unto salvation, which they refused to do in the beginning.

Here will come in the principles of baptism for the dead, and of proxy and heirship, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that they may receive a salvation and an exaltation, I will not say a fullness of blessing and glory, but a reward according to their merits and the righteousness and mercy of God, even as it will be with you and with me. But there is this difference between us and the antediluvians—they rejected the Gospel, consequently they received not the truth nor the testimony of Jesus Christ; therefore they did not sin against a fullness of light, while we have received the fullness of the Gospel; are admitted to the testimony of Jesus Christ, and a knowledge of the living and true God, whose will it is also our privilege to know, that we may do it. Now if we sin, we sin against light and knowledge, and peradventure we may become guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ, for which sin there is no forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come. Jesus himself declares (Matt. 12, 31,) that “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” This is not a new doctrine that has just, been revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, or President Brigham Young, but it is the doctrine of Jesus, a part and portion of that Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation or unto damnation. For whosoever will believe, repent, and be baptized for the remission of sins shall be saved, and he that believes not and is not baptized shall he damned. And he that believes, is baptized and receives the light and testimony of Jesus Christ, and walks well for a season, receiving the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel in this world, and afterwards turns wholly unto sin, violating his covenants he will be among those whom the Gospel can never reach in the spirit world; all such go beyond its saving power, they will taste the second death, and be banished from the presence of God eternally.

I feel well in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is true, and I never like to have an opportunity pass me without bearing my testimony to it. I, therefore, bear my testimony to you, that God has restored the Gospel, that Joseph Smith was and is a true Prophet, and that President Young is his rightful successor.

I have been surprised before now at hearing remarks from the disaffected and apostates against the Priesthood, as if there was something terrible concealed beneath that term. What constitutes the Priesthood? A legal and direct commission from God to man. And who are clothed with its authority and power? President Young? Yes. But is he the only man who holds the Priesthood? No. Nor are his counselors and the Twelve, the only ones who hold it, but the High Priests, the Seventies, the Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, all hold a portion of the Holy Priesthood. There is scarcely a member of the Church who is not numbered in the ranks of those clothed upon by this power; certainly it is so with every man who has received blessings in the house of the Lord, inasmuch as he has continued faithful, and of such is the Church composed, for the unfaithful cut themselves off in a measure both from the Church and from the power and privileges of the Priesthood, and are not to be relied upon. Therefore, when the Priesthood—or those holding it—are ridiculed, reviled, or persecuted, the blow is aimed, and the evil is designed, against the whole Church and not individuals, although as our enemies single out individuals as targets on whom to vent their wrath and spleen. A blow openly aimed at President Young, is secretly destined against the whole people constituting the Church over which he presides; any attempt to proscribe or destroy him or his brethren as individuals, because of their influence or position among the people, is so far indirectly an attempt to proscribe and destroy the whole community of which they are but members, and every member of the community should, and so far as guided by a proper sense of justice and right, most assuredly does, consider himself or herself personally assailed and aggrieved by any such attempts. How contemptible in the eyes of this whole people, therefore, must they be who rail against the Priesthood, and at the same time make themselves so conspicuously loud in their professions of friendship to the masses. They leave the covering of their designs too thin to conceal their hypocrisy and their determined bitterness and enmity against the people and the work of God.

A deacon in the Church should exercise the authority of that calling in the Priesthood, and honor that position as sincerely and faithfully as a high Priest or an Apostle should his calling, feeling that he bears a portion of the responsibility of the kingdom of God in the world, in common with all his brethren. Every man should feel in his heart the necessity of doing his part in the great latter-day work. All should seek to be instrumental in rolling it forth. More especially is it the duty of every one who possesses any portion of the authority of the Holy Priesthood to magnify and honor that calling, and nowhere can we begin to do so to better advantage than right here, within ourselves, and when we have cleansed the inside of the platter, cleansed our own hearts, by correcting our own lives, fixed our minds upon doing our whole duty towards God, and man, we will be prepared to wield an influence for good in the family circle, in society, and in all the walks of life.

We should seek to do, and to be, good. It is true that Jesus says there is none good but one, that is God; we must accept this in the fullest sense of the word, but there are other degrees of goodness, so that we may be good, righteous, and even perfect in our spheres, as God is good, righteous, or perfect in his exalted and glorious sphere. These excellent qualities of mind and soul should govern our lives in the midst of our families and neighbors, among our brethren of the household of faith, and in all our intercourse with mankind, that we may win souls from error, ignorance, folly and crime, to God and his Christ, and help them to stand until they become strong in the faith, and thus become saviors of men upon Mount Zion, worthy of the name of our God.

May the Lord bless you and all Israel, and especially his aged servant who stands at our head, and his associates in counsel, the loved face of one of whom, on looking round, I find gone from our midst, but his life-long example still lives with us, and will live forever. Amen.

The Blessing of Life for Evermore, etc.

Daniel H. Wells

Discourse by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday morning, Oct. 7, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

It affords me pleasure to meet once more with the Saints in General Conference assembled, where we may pledge ourselves again, and bear our testimony, and raise our warning voices to the world in regard to the great work that the Lord is accomplishing in the earth through the instrumentality of his children who have enlisted under King Emanuel’s banner, and are willing to unite with him in accomplishing his purposes on the earth. His kingdom is being established here in the valleys of the mountains. Settlements are being formed, towns and villages are springing up, and people, who have made a covenant with God, are reclaiming the earth from the thral[l]dom of sin and iniquity in which it has so long been held in bondage; and instead of being in a little city or town in Illinois, where we were not permitted to dwell, we are here in the valleys of the mountains, possessing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred towns, villages and settlements. The Lord has thus strengthened the stakes, enlarged the borders, and lengthened the cords of Zion, and he has reclaimed from the dominion of the wicked the amount of the earth’s surface that is now occupied by his Saints, at least, so long as they hold it for him and his kingdom, and themselves for his work. The world belongs to the Lord, and he has the right to govern and control it, and he is going to do so. We are preparing the way for his kingdom and coming, for he certainly designs to come here just as soon as the people are prepared to receive him, and perhaps sooner than some will be willing to receive him. I have sometimes thought, that if he were now at the gate, we should feel we would rather he would wait awhile until we could fix up matters before he was introduced. The way is preparing, however, and I feel to rejoice this morning that I can bear my testimony to the increase of the numbers of the Saints of God, and to the increase of faith and good works among them.

The dominion of the Lord is extending upon the earth, a little here and a little there, sometimes, perhaps, going a little too far, and dodging back a little for a time, and then springing forward again, and so going on, on every side. The Lord has made no mistake, he understands what he is doing a great deal better than some of us do, and I apprehend that a great many people are bringing about the Lord’s purposes unwittingly. Perhaps they would not do as well in this respect as they are now doing if they understood, to the fullest extent, the result of the course they are taking. But really the Lord is at work with a great many people, some of whom see the kingdom, and some do not; and he has even said that he will cause the wrath of the wicked and ungodly to praise him, and the remainder of their wrath he will restrain. This is true, and has been illustrated in the history of this people. When they were driven from Nauvoo, the disposition of their enemies was to destroy every vestige of the authority of the holy Priesthood from the face of the earth; and that disposition still exists in the hearts of a great many people, and if they had the power they would carry it out. Well, the Lord, in the early days of the Church, suffered enough of this disposition to be gratified to cause the exodus of his people from Missouri and Illinois, and they were finally kicked right into the middle of the floor, into these valleys of the mountains; and when the purposes of the Lord were so far subserved by the wrath of the wicked, he restrained them, and his people have been blessed and prospered, and the earth has been made to bring forth its strength for their sustenance, and we see prosperity on every hand in the dwelling places of the Saints. A country has been put into their possession, where the Lord can strengthen their feet, and he is doing so, whether we understand it or not. Many will doubtless make shipwreck of their faith, and will be led away by the allurements of sin into by and forbidden paths; yet the kingdom will not be taken from this people and given to another, but a people will come forth from among us who will be zealous of good works, willing to do the bidding of the Lord, who will be taught in his ways, and who will walk in his paths. We, if we are willing, may be humble instruments in the hands of God, in bringing to pass his great and glorious kingdom.

We have a Temple pretty near ready to go into in St. George. It is progressing very favorably, and is a magnificent structure, and in a short time we shall be able to enter it, and receive blessings for time and eternity, for ourselves and our dead. Let me say to the Latter-day Saints, that the blessings of the Lord, even life for ever more, are commanded here in these valleys of the mountains. I will read a few words from the Psalmist—“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” Anciently, this blessing was commanded in the mountains of Zion on the eastern hemisphere, but in our day the Lord has revealed himself, and has spoken from the heavens to his servant on the western continent, Where the authority of the holy Priesthood is, dwells the blessing of the Lord, and there has he commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

We are united in our faith, in our works, and in our feelings and interests; and in every capacity that is possible the Latter-day Saints should stand shoulder to shoulder, presenting before the Lord and before the world an unbroken phalanx to resist the powers and insinuations of the enemy and the approaches of evil in every direction. The people here are increasing and multiplying, they are disposed, as a general thing, to do as the Lord wants them to do; but wickedness will creep in. We must purify our hearts. The Lord says—“Son, give me thy heart.” We must give our hearts to the Lord our God, then he can accept of us. Many are called but few are chosen. We are all called to be co-helpers with the Lord in establishing his purposes in the earth, in sustaining holy and righteous principles, and the institutions of high heaven which the Lord has revealed, and the organizations which he has introduced in the midst of the earth. We are called upon to sustain them, and to bear them off triumphantly, to lay a foundation for the rule of truth, peace, and righteousness in the earth, and to prepare the way for the ushering in of that great and glorious kingdom of peace that will stand for ever and ever. This is the work of the Latter-day Saints, and the Lord will perform it through the instrumentality of those who are willing and obedient in the day of his power. We can have lot and part herein if we have a mind to; so may all the children of earth; all they have to do is to render obedience to the voice of the Lord, and the whole world ought to be glad of the opportunity to do that. The Lord invites us to come, he is anxious and desirous that we should come to him and learn of him. He says—“Take upon you my yoke, for it is easy, and my burden, for it is light; come, partake of the waters of life freely.” “Turn from your evils, for why will ye die, O house of Israel.” The Lord is talking to the people, and sending forth his warning voice to the nations of the wicked and ungodly, and as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man; the righteous were saved and the wicked were destroyed then, so they will be in these latter days, for the hour of God’s judgment is come, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and they will be given to his Saints.

Who would not be a Saint? Why a great many people reject the word of the Lord and have no respect for it whatever, and too many of those who profess to be Latter-day Saints are in the same condition. It is not a great while since the word of the Lord came through Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Lord, to this nation, to free their slaves, and for the Government to pay for them out of the treasury of the United States. Would the people receive the word of the Lord through his servant? No, they would not. What was the result? Why a fratricidal civil war in which thousands of millions of dollars were spent, devastation was spread over the land and rivers of blood were shed, and all this might have been avoided and the slaves liberated by peaceful means at not more than one-tenth of the expense, if they would have hearkened to the word of the Lord. Everybody can see now that that would have been the best course to take, but nobody could see it and nobody would receive it when it was given. Do not let us be afraid of the word of the Lord. He never did and he never will reveal a principle to the children of men, but what, if it be carried out, will prove to their greatest interest and advantage. I merely mention this to illustrate a subject which is quite familiar to the Saints, but which the world do not know so much about.

Now, we are here in obedience to a great command, a command given by the Almighty to his Saints to gather out from Babylon, lest they be partakers of her sins and receive of her plagues. But if we are going to partake of her sins in Zion, and to nourish and cherish the wicked and ungodly, what better shall we be for gathering? Shall we escape her plagues by so doing? No, there is no promise to that effect, but if we practise the sins and iniquities of Babylon here in Zion, we may expect to receive of her plagues and to be destroyed. We have duties to perform here, which devolve upon us as Saints of the Most High. The Book of Doctrine and Covenants informs us that things will be revealed, in this the dispensation of the fullness of times, that have been kept hidden from before the foundation of the world. Should we be surprised, then, when a new principle is manifested among us from the Lord through the channel of the holy Priesthood? Do we realize that this is the channel through which the mind and will of God our Father is made known unto us? Here is the Bible, of what is it composed? Of a compilation of things made known to the children of men in former ages through the instrumentality of the holy Priesthood. The word of the Lord to the people has always come through that channel, and it always will. It is the same authority that exists in the heavens, by which the Gods themselves are governed, and by which they control all things; and it is among the privileges of every man and every woman to approach the Lord through this channel, and learn his mind and will concerning them. And through this same channel a Bishop may learn the mind of the Lord about his ward, the president of a quorum about his quorum, and the President of the whole Church the mind and will of the Lord concerning the people; and so through all the quorums and organizations of the Church, from first to last, all may approach the Lord through the channel of the holy Priesthood, and learn his mind and will concerning them. It is the privilege of the father and mother of a family to obtain the mind and will of the Lord, to enable them to guide their children in the ways of eternal life. This is no child’s play, or fable. The Lord has spoken from the heavens, and we bear testimony thereof to all the nations of the earth. Listen, then, to his voice! It comes to all, it comes to the Latter-day Saints through the channel of the Priesthood located here in the valleys of the mountains. Hear it, all ye nations of the earth! Come up here, and learn the mind and will of the Lord. Take warning, that you may escape his wrath when his judgments shall be poured out, because they will be just as sure as they were in the days of Noah. This is the work of the Lord, and we bear testimony of these things continually in your ears. You, of course, do as you please about receiving or believing our testimony; that makes no difference in regard to the truth of the matter. It is God’s truth, and it is extending and will continue to do so until it prevails and triumphs over every obstacle.

The Latter-day Saints have a work to do, not only in proclaiming the Gospel and warning the people, but to build up Zion right here upon the earth. Not afar off in some far distant sphere, but here, where the Lord has planted their feet, in the valleys of the mountains. And we must be united and must operate together, as far as in our power lies, to bring to pass the purposes of the Almighty, because righteousness, and peace and harmony must dwell in the kingdom. A house divided against itself can not stand. Is a reformation needed amongst the Saints? Yes, it is needed with us all. We must reform and continue to reform. We have inherited lies from, and are full of the traditions of, the fathers. We have all imbibed errors in our infant years, and the enemy is on the alert, ready to enter in and to lead into by and forbidden paths the footsteps of the young, that he may cause them to make shipwreck of their faith and go away from the truth, the eternal truth of heaven. The world is waging a warfare against this little handful of people in the valleys of the mountains. Why? Because we have got the truth, the true faith of the holy Gospel; we have the authority of the holy Priesthood that has come down from heaven. They are anxious to destroy this authority and the servants of the Lord who bear it, and they are anxious to uproot and destroy us as a people. Then, in order to defend ourselves, let us go to with our mights, unite as the heart of one man, and stand shoulder to shoulder in building up the kingdom of God upon the earth. If we have lost our faith in the work, why, of course, we can’t be expected to do anything more towards building it up; but if we are assured in our own minds that this is the truth, that “Mormonism” so-called, is the everlasting Gospel, that it has been revealed by direct revelation from the Lord in these last days, and that we are really his people, let us go to and reform our lives. There is need of it, we have been slack, negligent and dilatory, and peradventure we have done a great many things we ought not to have done; perhaps we have been guilty of sins of omission as well as sins of commission, and we need to repent, and to go down into the waters of baptism inasmuch as we have the privilege, and have our sins washed away, and have hands laid upon us for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and rise in newness of life, with a firm determination that henceforth we will divest ourselves of those evils, that we will keep the Lord’s day holy, attend to our meetings, partake of the Sacrament, and that we will be more diligent in regard to the words of the Lord that have been given to us, and that are given to us continually, for the stream flows unceasingly through the channel of the Priesthood to the people. Let us listen to the voice and the whisperings of the Spirit, and if there be an obstacle in the way let us remove it. If we have hard feelings one towards another, envyings, strifes, or anything that is calculated to mar our peace and happiness, let us go and make that right, and then come and partake of the emblems of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, through whose sufferings and death an atonement has been worked out for our salvation. Every Latter-day Saint needs the inspiring, refreshing influence of the Spirit of God to flow to him continually. Reflect a moment, and remember that when the plants in our gardens and fields are withering under the scorching sun, how carefully we go along the water sects, clear out every obstacle and turn in the water, so that it may reach and revive every plant, that they may all live and grow. So should the Latter-day Saints remove every obstacle that lies in their way to the reception and flow of the Spirit of the Lord to them. If you have aught against your neighbor or friend, go and make that right; if you have done any wicked thing, broken any of the commandments of the Lord, repent and be baptized for the remission of these sins, and turn away from them. No man can get a greater evidence of the Lord’s having forgiven him his sins, than the knowledge that he has actually turned away from them, and that he is living in obedience to the principles of the holy Gospel. Every man and every woman knows this for himself or herself, and if they have, then may they know that the Lord has forgiven them their sins, and not without. A person may commit iniquity and think he can hide it up; but let me say to such a person that you know it, and that is one too many, and the Lord knows it, and that is two too many, and out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established, and you will give this evidence against yourself sooner or later. And all who have committed sin or transgression of any kind must repent of it and be baptized for the remission thereof; and unless they repent sincerely, with a repentance that needs not to be repented of, they had better not go near the waters of baptism, for it will be a solemn mockery before high heaven. I say that if you intend to keep straight along in your own indifferent way all the time, stay away, never offer yourselves for baptism, for that would be a mockery and would only add to your condemnation, instead of being a benefit to you.

I might enumerate what evils we are guilty of, but I do not wish to confess the sins of the people, I have enough of my own. But let us examine ourselves individually, and repent of that wherein we have done amiss in the sight of the Lord. How indifferent we have been about his word from time to time when it has been given to us! The servants of the Lord have proclaimed his will unto us year after year, and I sometimes think that we are preached to too much; but yet when a principle is revealed from the Lord, the people are very reluctant to take hold of it, which shows that we need to be instructed in regard to our duties as Saints of God, that we may be so in very deed. Latter-day Saints must progress, they can not stand still; and if they do not progress in the faith of the holy Gospel, and in the things of God, they are progressing in the other direction, and they will finally come to a point when the counsel of their minds will be darkened, and they will be unable to see the kingdom.

This cause is great and glorious, and it is worthy of our utmost endeavors and attention, and all that we have and are, or can be. It is worthy of all the means we can control, and of all the talents and ability that pertain to us in this life, for in it lie our best interests, for by embracing and living according to the faith of the holy Gospel, we shall be exalted in the scale of human existence, and it is impossible to be otherwise. If we embrace principles of vice and go in the ways of wickedness and wicked men, we are on the way to death and destruction.

There are some amongst us, perhaps, who, in their feelings, have given way to a spirit of fault-finding with those who are over them, it may be with their Bishop, or with the President. If they persist in this course, it will not be long before they give expression to their feelings to some friend who is of like mind, and who sympathizes with them, and it will not be a great while, if such persons do not turn a short corner and repent, before they make shipwreck of their faith, and they will go to the devil at last. How many of us have seen those who have stood firm in the faith a great while, and through whom the Lord has made manifest his goodness and deliverances from time to time, in the laying on of hands and healing the sick, and yet they have let the devil cheat them out of their salvation at last, by causing them to commit some kind of iniquity, peradventure adultery, and you know that the Book of Doctrine and Covenants says that whosoever will do that will deny the faith anyhow, unless they repent. If any have been guilty of any of these evils, it is important, if they want salvation, that they repent, and do them no more for ever.

We read in this book, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, how people may attain to the different degrees of glory, telestial, terrestrial, and celestial, and we are told that it is by observing the laws which pertain to these several kingdoms. There is no other way that I know of. If we ever expect a celestial glory, we must observe the laws of the kingdom where that glory exists; and so with any other degree of glory. Well, then, as Latter-day Saints, we see that we have enough to do. We have to be united that we may resist the encroachments of the enemy, that we may be prospered and blessed in the earth, and work to better advantage than we have been doing heretofore, and co-operate with each other and with the Lord in building up his kingdom upon the earth. If we can see that kingdom, let us go to and man the ship Zion.

I feel to bear my testimony to this great work of the last days, and also in behalf of the people, that the predominating influence among them is, in my opinion, for God. I am gratified exceedingly to be able to make this statement, and to bear this testimony. Still we have need to repent, that we may progress faster, that we may accomplish a great work during the day, for the night cometh when no man can work. It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to do all that in our power lies, and not neglect our opportunity, for when once passed it has passed forever. It is for us then to work for the Lord and his cause and kingdom with all our might, mind, and strength, and to sustain the principles and institutions of high heaven that he has organized among his people, and so be prepared to receive that which may come; for we may expect, if we have the living oracles among us, which we have, and I bear testimony to it, that other new principles will keep coming along as fast as the people are prepared to receive them, and a great deal faster than a great many are prepared. I bear my testimony that there is a constant stream of revelation concerning us here, and that the mind and will of God is being poured out upon us continually. It has not been slackened one particle, but it is right here with us to-day. The Bible is a compilation of the revelations of God which have been given in various ages, and it is good. But the living oracles are for us. We are not called upon to build and enter into an ark, like Noah was; the ark of safety that we have to build is different from what it was in his day. But as Noah had to be guided in laying the foundation and rearing the superstructure of his ark by revelation from the God of heaven, so have we in these latter days; and by the revelations of heaven, through the channel of the holy Priesthood, we have to be continually taught in the ways of the Lord, that we may walk in his paths. It is not for every man to go after his own foolish notion, and the phantom of his own brain; the kingdom can never be built up if every one walks in the path he marks out for himself. It is God’s kingdom, and it is ours also, inasmuch as we will make our ways correspond with his, and take a course to be reckoned among his jewels when he makes up those upon whom he will confer eternal riches.

This earthly probation is a day of trial. We have to pass through tests and ordeals, and have to prove ourselves worthy to be numbered among that great company who will stand as saviors upon Mount Zion, with the very impress of Deity upon them—the name of God written upon their foreheads. “These are they,” says the Apostle, “who come up through much tribulation.” The Lord will have a tried people, those who have proven their integrity before high heaven, and none others will be counted worthy to receive and inherit the eternal riches. He that endures faithful to the end, the same will be saved; but the word endure is there, we have to endure all things. He that is faithful over a few things, will be made ruler over many; but the word faithful is there. We can’t go indifferently along all the days of our lives, and fly the track the very moment an obstacle is presented before us, or a difficulty looms up in the way; we must overcome that difficulty, and rise above that obstacle, and not swerve to the right hand or to the left. So shall we prove our integrity before heaven, and, by enduring to the end, we shall be saved in God’s kingdom; and having been faithful over a few things, we shall receive others, and be made rulers over many things. You thus see that salvation to-day is gained upon the same principle as that upon which it was gained in the days of the Savior and his Apostles.

I feel to thank the Lord for his blessings, and that I can see his handiwork in the midst of the people. I can see the increase of his power and his dominion in the earth, for rest assured it is increasing on every side, and in the hearts of the people, and we wish it to increase more rapidly there for their own sakes, for your sake, for my sake, and it is for our advantage individually. The Lord and one good man, we are told, are a great majority, so it does not matter so much to him how many there are on his side; the principal thing is for those who profess to be his followers and servants to be faithful and true in keeping the covenants they have made with him, and not be everlastingly breaking the same, and thereby forfeiting the rights and blessings they might otherwise enjoy. We can’t be blessed, we can not stand, we can not be made rulers over many things, we can not receive inheritances, kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, exaltations in the celestial kingdoms, unless we are faithful in all things, if need be unto death; and if we fail in this we shall most assuredly be clipped of our glory.

Let us, then, my brethren and sisters, live so that we may at least have a reasonable hope of attaining to these great blessings which are the gift of God. That we may do so and preserve ourselves in integrity before high heaven, and be united together as the heart and voice of one man, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Self Preservation, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday morning, October 8, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

Our Conference, thus far, has been exceedingly interesting to me, and I have no doubt it has been to every one present. We have heard a great many ideas and counsels, and have received instruction which, if treasured up by us and carried into practical effect in our lives, will have a very beneficial result in the midst of this people. There has never been any lack of instruction among the Latter-day Saints. I think it was President Wells who said the other day that he sometimes thought we had too much preaching and teaching. I have no doubt myself that the ease with which we obtain instruction, the abundance of it, and the readiness with which it is imparted have made very important counsels that would, if carried out, have a very beneficial effect upon the entire people, seem cheap and unimportant. There are some duties, however, that have been dwelt upon with considerable plainness in order that they may be kept permanently before the minds of the people. The leading points among these are those which relate to our self-preservation, because if we do not adopt and carry out in our lives principles that will preserve us, the gathering together of the people in these valleys and all the labors that have been expended in our behalf will not amount to much. God has blessed us with a good land; he has multiplied upon us many favors, that, when we came here, some of us, at least, did not expect to enjoy. He has given the land a fertility that we never dreamed of. I say that we never dreamed of, but I will speak for myself, and say that I never thought that this land could have been made so fruitful as it has been. Others, probably, who had had more experience, might have entertained different feelings. I have heard President Young say a great many times that he saw all that has been done, when we first came here he saw what the result would be. But the land was barren, and the fertility that it now possesses, could scarcely then have been expected. God has given unto us this and many other favors, and as a people we should wisely appropriate them for the extension of the principles of truth and righteousness.

I was very much pleased yesterday with the remarks which were made in relation to the principles of the United Order. This is a subject which I have thought of considerably, and it is one which I think ought to appeal very strongly to us. The efforts which are being made to unite us and bring us together, to blend our interests and to amalgamate us and make us one are of the utmost importance to us, and I suppose that a great many of the Latter-day Saints who have come to this Conference have had the desire in their hearts that something might be said in relation to the course that they should adopt in order to become more united. I think I made a statement, about a year ago, that many of the people were far more willing than many of their leaders to enter upon a system having that end in view. I still entertain that same opinion. I believe that the bulk of the Latter-day Saints are anxious to understand what they shall do, and are willing to carry out, when directed, any plan that shall he suggested to them. Several plans have been suggested, but there have been feelings of one kind and another and difficulties interposed to prevent the general carrying out of any plan. However, the President has felt of late, and has thus spoken to those who have been immediately around him and to several others, that it would be well for us to carryout the plan that was spoken of yesterday, and that has been referred to a good many times of late, namely, individual stewardships. There is something about this which appeals strongly to most men’s minds. They can see how this can be effected; they can see that under such a system what are called individual rights might be better preserved, and property not be absorbed in a way to cause loss or waste, and yet the great principle be carried out that is aimed at, namely, the uniting of the hearts of the people in one.

We have had meetings here in this city, at which these principles have been laid before a number of the Latter-day Saints, all of whom have seemed to receive the ideas with satisfaction, and have felt that they suited them exactly, and they were willing to do that which was required of them. And I believe that this feeling will be extended throughout all the Territory and throughout all these mountains; for wherever we have gone this summer, laboring among and talking to the people in relation to their economy, and the management of their temporal affairs, we have found a great willingness manifested on the part of the people to do whatever they were counselled to do, and to carry out the principles to the extent of their ability, and I believe that this will be the result.

We, as a people, must change our policy if we become the people which we aim at, and which we believe God designs that we shall be. There is nothing clearer than this to every thinking mind. We can see very plainly that we must be a self-sustaining people, that we must manufacture in our own midst, to the greatest possible extent, that which we consume, that is necessary for our comfort and convenience. Unless we take this course, it is an impossibility that we can become the people that we design to be, and that God in his revelations has predicted we shall be. No people who are dependent upon others can become a great people. A people who are constantly producing for others to manufacture, never can become a great people. If we produce wool, and hides, and grain, and other things from the earth, and send them away to be manufactured, we shall constantly pay tribute to other people, and the object of the United Order is to stop this. We have skill here, for there is probably no community on this continent, of our numbers, which has as many skilled artizans as are to be found here. Men who are familiar with every branch of industry almost that can be named are in these mountains. But we have not capital; yet by combining our means we can obtain all the capital that is necessary; and then, if there can be a public sentiment developed here which will induce the people to sustain these manufactures, the whole question is solved, and we are placed upon a pinnacle of greatness that we never can attain to unless we pursue this policy.

You take a pound of wool, and it costs what? You can buy it here in our market for twenty-five or twenty-six cents. You send that pound of wool to the Eastern States, and let the looms of the East manufacture it, the workmen of the East bestow their labor upon it, and that pound of wool comes back to us man[u]factured into cloth, and contrast the price of that wool before it is manufactured, with its cost when it is manufactured, and you can form some idea of how much we have to pay the skilled men of other communities. A case was given to us yesterday. A hide was sold to a purchaser who sent it from this Territory. It came back to Cache County, where the brand, still legible on the leather, was recognized as one of their own brands. Now the difference between the price obtained for the hide in its raw state, and the cost of it when manufactured into leather, was the amount that we paid to some manufacturer in the East for changing that raw hide into leather suitable to be worn.

What, then, ought to be our policy? It ought to be to bestow all the skill and labor possible upon everything we produce. Not one pound of wheat ought to go out of this Territory until it has received all the labor possible to be bestowed upon it, or, in other words, until it is made into the finest of flour. This is the true policy for us. To send our wheat away for other men to grind and take a toll off, and then send it back to us manufactured into flour, why it is suicidal! To send our hides away for somebody else to manufacture them into leather, and boots and shoes, when we have tanners, bark, and all the material and skill necessary to do the same lying idly here! why, it is folly in the highest sense, or in the lowest sense, whichever you please to call it, for us to pursue a course of this kind. And so with everything that we have here. We are probably sending away a million pounds of wool this season. We have not machinery enough to manufacture all our wool, but we can manufacture a great deal, but our machinery will not manufacture all we need to supply our present wants, and a million pounds of wool go east to be manufactured, and we have to pay manufacturers for the cloth made from that wool, and we are thus paying tribute to other communities. And so it is with everything that we use that is manufactured abroad. When you buy a jar of pickles, a gallon of molasses, or canned corn, tomatoes, or fruit, or anything of this kind, you are paying your money to sustain communities afar off, while your own people are suffering for want of labor.

We ought not to have an idle man, woman or child in these valleys. Says one—“But we can not afford to pay the prices that are asked for home-manufactured goods.” Let me ask, Can we afford to sit idle? Can we afford to do nothing, and to pay money to, and employ others? I say that we can not; but we are doing it all the time. We are bringing wagons and carriages into this country, when we have abundance of skill here to manufacture them. And the same is true of many other things which we might manufacture and supply our own wants.

Now what is the object of the United Order? It is to enable us to appropriate the means which God has given us to manufacture those things that are necessary for our own sustenance. Let us take the illustration that is afforded us by Brigham City, brother Lorenzo Snow’s place of residence. In that little town, numbering probably three thousand people, they have over thirty branches of manufacture. They have a circulating medium of their own—a little nation, as it were—and the workmen are paid in that medium, and with it they buy what they want of the various articles which they manufacture; and by the combination that has been effected, they are gradually growing to a degree of independence that is unknown almost everywhere else. But the great difficulty there, is, that the masses of the people do not see their own interests, but many of them are as blind there as they are elsewhere, and a few wise men have to take the lead and the responsibility, and to labor and contrive to maintain these branches of manufacture. But what will be the result if this be continued? All the surrounding country, unless the people do the same, will be paying tribute to Brigham City and its manufacturers, and every youth in Brigham City will be learning some branch of skilled handicraft, and the rawhides and everything in its raw state will be brought to Brigham City, and Brigham City will pay in manufactured articles which its artizans have made, and upon which they have a profit; and if that were to go on, Brigham City would, in a little while, own all the surrounding country.

I mention this as an illustration of what can be done, and what we ought to do. We ought not to produce more wheat than we need for our own use, that is, we should not depend upon exporting wheat, we can not get enough for it, it does not pay us. But we should turn our attention to other articles and to manufactures, There is Bear Lake country, abounding in timber, the men of which live nearly half the year housed up. If they would organize wisely, and combine their capital, skill and labor, they could manufacture everything out of wood that we need in this country, and they have the best of timber there to do it with. But instead of that their time is spent during the winter in feeding their cattle and doing such chores as are needed around their places; and during the remaining five months they are worked exceedingly hard. This is impolitic and unwise, and if persisted in would be called bad management.

These are the lessons that have been taught us all the day long. It is not a new thing, but is something as old as our residence in these mountains. I have heard such instructions as these from my boyhood, when we first came here. But we have been slow to hear and carry out these practical lessons of wisdom that have been delivered to us by the servants of God, and have been, to some extent, reluctant, fearful and suspicious that, if we did these things, somebody would be a little more benefitted than we. Now it is time for a reformation. I do not wonder at the Lord calling upon his servants to ask the people to go and be baptized, and rebaptized into a different spirit, a spirit to obey the counsel that is given. All of you have proved by your experience the wisdom of this counsel. We know that we have a man leading us who has more wisdom in managing the affairs of a community than any man on the American Continent or anywhere else that we know anything of. He has proved this; it is no boast, it is a fact that is recognized by thousands outside of this Territory. Those who are unprejudiced in other parts of the nation see the results of the policy that has been urged upon the people of this Territory; and if that policy were carried out we would soon become an independent people, we would soon be full of wealth and means, and instead of seeing men walking around with their hands in their pockets, because of not having work, there would not be an idle man in the Territory. For any portion of our people to be idle is wrong, and there is something radically wrong about a system that admits of or has a tendency to keep a portion of the community in idleness. There is no necessity for such a state of things, and we are to blame if it exists here. If every man and woman worked, and every child worked as soon as it is capable, after having received the necessary schooling, you would soon see the difference there would be in this country in our means and appliances. It is skill, and that skill well applied, that contributes to the greatness of a nation. Look at France, to-day. France was burdened by an enormous debt, laid upon her by Germany, and which Germany hoped would cripple her for years. But France, with her wonderful industrial resources, has a stream of wealth flowing into her to-day from all the nations because of her taste and skill. By these means she has paid her debt, and Germany is alarmed at the rapidity with which it has been paid. To what is it due? It is due to French skill, to their workmen of taste and ability, and when people elsewhere want fabrics of the greatest elegance they send to France for them. A lady in fashionable society in Washington, or in leading eastern cities generally, does not consider herself dressed in the leading style, unless her dresses, as well as the materials of which they are made, are manufactured in France. The highest fashion demands that her dress shall be made in Paris. And look at Geneva, it is another of the workshops of the world. You travel through Switzerland, and you will find that in her secluded valleys the people, in their little cabins, manufacture the finest kind of watches and clocks, and other articles that are valuable and rare, which are sold to all the nations round, and the skill of her people has made Switzerland a comparatively rich country.

We have skill here, and we have materials here that we should utilize, instead of letting them go to waste. I have heard parties say, and it is true, that there is more waste in Utah Territory than in any country they had ever seen in their lives. I have heard men of experience say this, and I believe it. We have got so much that we waste that which God has given unto us, instead of using it for the purpose for which it was designed.

Now, my brethren and sisters, you who have come to this Conference, do try and put into operation the teachings that you hear. It is no use talking unless we go to work. To say after Conference—“Oh, what a good Conference we have had,” “What excellent teachings we had!” and then forget all about them, and do nothing practical connected with them, would be folly in the extreme. When you get a principle try and carry it out, try and make it practical in your lives. Endeavor, in your communities to organize branches of labor. Let the Bishops and the men who have wisdom provide means of employment for every man and every woman in their settlements and wards, and let their brains be exercised, as President Young’s has been, for the good of the whole. We should use the power which God has given us in these directions in endeavoring to lift ourselves up from our abject condition, and not think—“I must have five dollars or four dollars for a day’s work;” but go to work if you cannot get as much as that. We should all be employed in doing something every day. We should train our boys and girls to work; the best education that we can give them is to give them skill and teach them habits of industry, not forgetting, of course, the principles of our religion, without which they cannot be truly great. You know the old saying—“An idle man’s brain is the devil’s workshop;” and it is so. If you want a good people, a people who can be easily managed, a temperate people and a sensible people, have an industrious people. But have an idle people and they become intemperate, and I believe that many of our young men, because they have no opportunities to develop their energies, take to drinking, chewing tobacco, and rowdyism, whereas, if labor were provided for them, and their energies were rightly directed, they would be useful members of society and be ornaments to their father’s houses and to their friends. Youth is full of energy, and wise rulers will utilize, husband and direct it for the good of the whole, and not let it be expended on foolish objects or in a wasteful manner. This is one of the difficulties with us. We have plenty of energy? Our young men are full of it, and our land is full of young men. Their energies should be rightly directed, and they be trained to be useful men in society; and the girls should be trained to be useful women in society.

That God may bless us in our Conference, and help us to treasure up the counsels that we hear, and to carry them out practically, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Parable of the Ten Virgins, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Sept. 12, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I will call the attention of the congregation to a few verses in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew. [The speaker read the first thirteen verses; also the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth paragraphs of the fourteenth section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.]

This revelation, a portion of which I have been reading, treats in a measure upon the subject of the parable that Jesus spoke, namely, the ten virgins; both refer to his second coming, and to his work in the latter days. In no age or dispensation can a man be called to a greater calling than to administer in the ordinances of the house of God, and nothing but the power of God and the inspiration of the Almighty can sustain and uphold any man, no matter what age he may live in, who is called of God to declare the words of life and salvation, and to preach repentance to an unbelieving generation. This may perhaps sound strangely in the ears of many people, but the inhabitants of the earth, both Jew and Gentile, should remember that the Lord God Almighty himself, his Son Jesus Christ, and his Gospel and work, have been very unpopular in every age of the world among the hosts of men. No more unpopular doctrine was ever presented to the human family, than the doctrine of life and salvation, I do not care in what age of the world a Prophet, Apostle or inspired man has been raised up to declare the commands of God, he has had to contend with the prejudices of the inhabitants of the earth. It is so in our day, and it was so in the days of Jesus Christ. When he came to the Jews, his own Father’s house, the house of Israel, as the great shiloh of Judah, and the Savior of the world, a more unpopular man than he never dwelt in Judea or Jerusalem, from the day of his birth to the day of his death, when he gave up the ghost on the cross, and went home to glory as a martyr for the word of God and the testimony which he bore. And this is why I say that when any man, in any age of the world, is called of God to declare the words of life, he has to contend with the traditions of ages that rest upon the minds of the inhabitants of the earth.

The parable of the ten virgins is intended to represent the second coming of the Son of man, the coming of the Bridegroom to meet the bride, the Church, the Lamb’s wife, in the last days; and I expect that the Savior was about right when he said, in reference to the members of the Church, that five of them were wise and five were foolish; for when the Lord of heaven comes in power and great glory to reward every man according to the deeds done in the body, if he finds one-half of those professing to be members of his Church prepared for salvation, it will be as many as can be expected, judging by the course that many are pursuing.

I wish, if I can get enough of the Spirit of the Lord to answer my own mind, to say a few words on the present occasion to my brethren and sisters, the Latter-day Saints, those who have taken upon them the name of Christ. We live in one of the most important dispensations that God ever gave to man, namely, the great and last dispensation of the fullness of times, the dispensation of all dispensations, and the one in which the whole flood of prophecy in the holy Bible will be fulfilled, for most all of the prophecies contained in that sacred volume, from Adam to John the Revelator, point to the great work of God in the last days, the days in which the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that should be an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion there should be no end, and the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens should be given into the hands of the Saints of the Most High God, and they are to possess it for ever and ever. I wish to have the Latter-day Saints understand their appointment, position, and responsibility before the God of heaven, and their responsibilities to both Jew and Gentile, living and dead, on this and the other side of the vail.

The Lord never has built up his kingdom in any age of the world except by calling upon his servants and laboring through the tabernacles of men on the earth; but this he has done in a great many ages and dispensations. And whenever the Lord has had an Apostle, Prophet, or inspired man on the earth, he has had power to administer in the ordinances of the house of God, and he has labored for the advancement of the kingdom of God upon the earth, whether he has had few or many followers. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. We live in the day when God has set his hand to establish that great kingdom that Daniel saw. We live in the day when the angel of God has delivered the everlasting Gospel in fulfillment of the revelations of St. John, when he says—“I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people under the whole heavens, saying with a loud voice—‘Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.’”

There never was a generation of the inhabitants of the earth in any age of the world who had greater events awaiting them than the present. As I before remarked, the fulfillment of this whole volume of revelation points to our day. The building up of the kingdom of God, the building up of the Zion of God, in the mountains of Israel, the erection of a standard for the Gentiles to flee unto, the warning of the nations of the earth to prepare them for the great judgments of our God, the building up of the Church, the sanctifying of the people, the building of Temples to the Most High God, that his servants may enter therein and become saviors on Mount, Zion, redeeming both the living and the dead, all these things are to be performed in our day. And an age fraught with greater interest to the children of men than the one in which we live never dawned since the creation of the world.

Where is the man, priest, or people, in the whole sectarian world, to-day, who believes in the literal fulfillment of the revelations of God contained in the Bible? If there is one I should like to see and converse with him. The whole Christian world profess to believe the Bible, and perhaps they do when it is shut. But open the Bible and read the declarations contained therein, concerning the last dispensation of the fullness of times, and where is the man who believes them? You can not find one, and it requires faith even among the Latter-day Saints to believe the revelations of God, and to prepare themselves for those things which await the world.

The fig trees are leafing, the summer is nigh, the signs of heaven and earth all indicate the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; but who are really looking and preparing for the coming of the great Bridegroom? I do not know that any people on the earth, except the Latter-day Saints, are looking for this great event. There may be exceptions, there may be men who believe in the second coming of Christ. The people called Millerites, believe in the second coming of the Savior, and they have set a great many days when it should take place. But he did not come; and he never will come until the revelations of God are fulfilled and a people are prepared for his coming. He will never come until the Jews are gathered home and have re-built their Temple and city, and the Gentiles have gone up there to battle against them. He will never come until his Saints have built up Zion, and have fulfilled the revelations which have been spoken concerning it. He will never come until the Gentiles throughout the whole Christian world have been warned by the inspired elders of Israel. They are called to thrust in the sickle and reap, for the harvest is ripe and the time has come, which is referred to in this revelation, when the Lord commands the Elders to go forth and warn the world for the last time, and call upon the inhabitants of the earth to repent. And what I wish to say to the Elders and to the Latter-day Saints is—Have we faith in God and in his revelations? Have we faith in our own religion? Have we faith in Jesus Christ? Have we faith in the words of the Prophets? Have we faith in Joseph Smith, who, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, translated the Book of Mormon, giving a record of the ancient inhabitants of this country, and through whom the Lord gave the revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants? If we have faith in these things, then we certainly should prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of them. I consider that as a people and as Elders of Israel we occupy one of the most important positions ever occupied on the face of the earth by those who have been called to work for the Lord. We have received our appointment for this work, and we should prepare ourselves to perform the duties devolving upon us in connection with it. Truth is one of the attributes of the Lord, and he never makes a declaration but what is certain and true. And, as one of the Apostles says, “There is no prophecy of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost;” therefore what they said is true, and their prophecies will have their fulfillment. No man can point to any of the revelations of God in the old prophets concerning events up to our day, but what have had their fulfillment. Everything that Jesus Christ spake concerning Judea and Jerusalem has had its fulfillment to the very letter. The Temple at Jerusalem was overthrown until not one stone was left upon another, and the Jews have been scattered and trodden under the feet of the Gentiles now for eighteen hundred years, and so they will remain until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, and that is pretty near. And, as the Lord has told us in these revelations, we are called upon to warn the world.

We have been laboring now for forty-five years in preaching the Gospel of Christ throughout the Gentile nations. We say Gentiles, because the Gospel goes to the Gentiles first, that the first may be last and the last first. Anciently the Jews were first in having the Gospel sent unto them, but they rejected it, and they were broken off through unbelief, and hence the Gospel turned to the Gentiles; and, as Paul says—“Ye Gentiles, take heed and fear, lest ye fall through the same example of unbelief, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed also lest he spare not ye.” The Gentiles are fallen through the same example of unbelief as did the Jews. They have put to death every Prophet, Apostle, and inspired man since the days of Jesus Christ, and the Church went into the wilderness, and the face of a Prophet, Apostle, or inspired man, called of God to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, had not been seen for some eighteen hundred years, until the Lord raised up a Prophet in the day and age in which we live. Therefore the Gospel brought forth in the last days has to go to the Gentiles first.

Sometimes our neighbors and friends think hard of us because we call them Gentiles; but, bless your souls, we are all Gentiles. The Latter-day Saints are all Gentiles in a national capacity. The Gospel came to us among the Gentiles. We are not Jews, and the Gentile nations have got to hear the Gospel first. The whole Christian world have got to hear the Gospel, and when they reject it, the law will be bound and the testimony sealed, and it will turn to the house of Israel. Up to the present day we have been called to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and we have had to do it. For the last time we have been warning the world, and we have been engaged in that work for forty-five years.

When Joseph Smith was called of God, it required faith, inspiration, and the power of the Almighty to rest upon him to enable him to organize the Church and Kingdom of God, and to preach the Gospel against the traditions of the Christian world, for they had spiritualized the Bible until there was not a remnant left in a literal point of view. Hence the inhabitants of the earth were not looking for the Church and Kingdom of God to be established in their midst. Darkness has prevailed upon the earth, and does to-day, in all the nations, and this causes silence to reign, and all eternity is pained because of the sin, wickedness, and abominations which prevail throughout the whole Christian or Gentile world, and throughout the whole Jewish world, for darkness prevails upon the face of all the earth, and the Lord is calling upon all the inhabitants thereof to repent and receive the Gospel, and when they have done so to gather out of Babylon to the place he has appointed for the dwelling place of his Saints. The Latter-day Saints heard this Gospel among the Gentiles wherever they dwelt, in almost every nation under heaven, and by this Gospel we have been gathered out unto Zion. We have been gathered here for a certain purpose, and that purpose is to fulfill the revelations of God.

When we left Missouri and Nauvoo, leaving behind the graves of our fathers and children, we were driven by our enemies into this desert, in the expectation that we should perish, and for nothing but because we believed revelation and prophecy, and in living prophets and servants of God. We thought it was hard to be driven from our homes and lands, which we had bought of our government, and paid the money for; but I will say to the Latter-day Saints that if we had not come here there certainly would have been a flood of prophecy fallen unfulfilled, prophecy in regard to the mountains of Israel, and the great company gathering up thereto, with regard to the lifting up of a standard therein, and the building of cities and the Temple of God in their midst. All these things would have fallen unfulfilled if we had not come to these mountains and fulfilled them. And so with many other prophecies. We have been called together to perform the work of the Lord, and now the Lord looks to us to fulfill our covenants and keep his commandments. If we do this he has made great promises unto us. The Lord has given the holy Priesthood unto the Elders of Israel, and he requires at our hands to fulfill all these revelations and commandments; and in regard to the parable which I have read, I, as an individual, feel that it is necessary for me, and I may say that it is necessary for the whole people, to have oil in our lamps if we expect to see and comprehend the things of the kingdom of God.

The Lord has chosen a royal Priesthood and a holy people from among the weak things of the world, in fulfillment of his revelations; and we have been commanded to go forth and bear record of these things, and we have done it. We should have been condemned and the curse of God would have rested upon us if we had not, because the full set time has come to build up and favor Zion, to build up the kingdom of God, to warn the world and prepare them for the judgments of the Almighty. The Millennium is dawning upon the world, we are at the end of the sixth thousand years, and the great day of rest, the Millennium of which the Lord has spoken, will soon dawn and the Savior will come in the clouds of heaven to reign over his people on the earth one thousand years. The Lord has a great work ahead and he is preparing a people to do it before his coming. Now the question arises here, brethren and sisters, are we prepared in our hearts? Do we realize these things? As a people do we realize our responsibilities before the Lord? The Lord has raised up a kingdom of priests here in the last days to establish his Church and kingdom, and to prepare the way for the second coming of the Son of Man, and the God of heaven has put into the hands of his servants the keys of the kingdom, and he has said—“Whatever I have decreed in these my servants shall be fulfilled, for to them is given power to bind and to seal both on the earth and in heaven, against the day of the wrath of Almighty God, which is to be poured out upon the world.”

I think, many times, that we, as Elders of Israel and as Latter-day Saints, come far short of realizing our position before the Lord. The work required at our hands is great and mighty; it is the work of Almighty God. We are held responsible for presenting the Gospel of Christ to all the nations of the earth, to warn the Gentiles, to prepare for the return of the lost ten tribes of Israel, and for carrying the Gospel to the whole tribes of Israel. We are held responsible for all this, and for building Temples to the Most High, wherein we can enter and attend to ordinances for the salvation of our dead. There are fifty thousand million spirits shut up in the spirit world who never saw the face of a Prophet, Apostle or inspired man in their lives. No man having the authority of God ever declared the words of life and salvation unto them, and without authority their ministrations are useless, for this is what the Priesthood is for. The God of heaven has ordained this from eternity to eternity. These persons in the spirit world died in the flesh without the law, without the Gospel, and they are shut up in prison. Joseph Smith is preaching to them, and so are thousands of the Elders of Israel who have died and gone to the other side of the vail. George A. Smith, who dwelt with us until within the last few days, will take part, with joy and rejoicing, with his brethren in the great work the other side of the vail. When I saw ten or twelve thousand people met in this Tabernacle to pay their last respects to the body of that man, I thought to myself—“How much larger a congregation surrounds his spirit, in the spirit world.” Yes, they number millions there, to where we have units here, and the servants of God will preach to them the same as Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. While his body lay three days and nights in the tomb he went and preached to the spirits in prison, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, that they might receive part in the resurrection, according to the testimony which they received. As I said before, the God of heaven requires this at your hands. They will not baptize anybody in the spirit world; there is no baptism there; there is no marrying or giving in marriage there; all these ordinances have to be performed on the earth. Paul says, in referring to this subject—“Why are ye baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not why then are ye baptized for the dead?” The Lord holds us responsible for going to and building Temples, that we may attend therein to the ordinances necessary for the salvation of the dead.

In every dispensation the Lord has had those who were fore-ordained to do a certain work. We all dwelt in the presence of God before we came here, and such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the ancient Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles received their appointments before the world was made. They were ordained before the foundation of the world to come and tabernacle here in the flesh and to work for the cause of God, and this because of their faith and faithfulness. You can see the great variety of spirits that have dwelt in the presence of God, from those who are in the presence of God, down to the devils. A good many of the hosts of heaven were cast out because of their wickedness. Lucifer, son of the morning, and those who followed after him were cast down to earth, and they dwell here to this day—a hundred to every man, woman and child that breathes the breath of life. They dwell here without bodies, only what tabernacles they can get into, to rule and preside over.

We are required to build Temples in which to attend to the ordinances of the house of the Lord, that the prison doors may be opened, and the prisoners go free. The world say—“We do not believe in such stuff.” We know that perfectly well; it was so in the days of Noah and Lot, but the unbelief of the people did not stop the flood and the fire, neither will the unbelief of this generation stay the hand of God one moment. The angels of God have been waiting in the Temple in heaven for forty-five years to go forth to reap down the earth. The wheat and the tares must grow together until harvest; the people must be warned, the Saints gathered out, Zion built up, Temples reared, the living warned, the dead redeemed, that the skirts of the Elders of Israel may be clean before all men.

It is by the power of God that the Elders have been sustained in days past and gone. And I want to say to my brethren—and what I say to them I take to myself—we should wake up, we should open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and we should open our hearts to understand our appointment and position before the Lord; for if, as Latter-day Saints, we are going to stop praying, lose the light of the Holy Ghost, and turn to the beggarly elements of the world, the Lord will have to say to us—“Get out of my way, my purposes can not be thwarted;” and he will raise up somebody else to perform this work. The Lord has never told any lies or made any false promises. “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I promise and do not fulfill?” “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I command and am not obeyed?” The amount of it is that the promises of the Lord are yea and amen, and though the heavens and the earth pass away, his word never will fail of its fulfillment.

In one paragraph of the revelation which I read to you this afternoon, it says—

“And again, the Lord shall utter his voice out of heaven, saying, hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and hear the words of that God who made you. O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not? How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor, and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not? Behold the day has come when the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full.”

How often has the Lord sent Prophets, as in the days of Noah, Lot, Abraham, Enoch, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young? How often have the Elders of Israel lifted up their voices to the inhabitants of the earth and been rejected? Will not these things rise in judgment against them? Yea, verily they will. The Lord has offered the fullness of the everlasting Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth to-day, and they refuse to receive it. Brother Pratt, here, myself and thousands of us have traveled ten thousand miles on foot, without purse or scrip, carrying our knapsack or valise, and we have waded swamps, swam rivers, and begged our bread from door to door to preach the Gospel to this generation. And how many have we got to believe it? Two of a city and one of a family, as the Prophet has said, and we have gathered them to Zion. Nevertheless the warning voice has gone forth to the world. But what do we see to-day? What do the Gods, the heavens and all eternity see? They see a generation of men and women making war against God and his Christ, making war against Prophets and Apostles, and laboring night and day to overpower and annihilate every principle of salvation and eternal life which God has restored to the world. And I will here say, in the ears of this congregation, that were this not the dispensation of the fullness of times, and were it not for the decrees which the Lord has made in relation to it, one of which is that he will set up a kingdom which shall stand for ever, there is not an Apostle or Latter-day Saint on the face of the earth but would have to seal his testimony with his blood, as has almost every other Apostle that ever breathed the breath of life. I say that were it not for these things, we should all have to follow our leaders, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who laid down their lives for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. But hear it ye Gentile nations and all ye nations of the earth, the Lord Almighty has set to his hand to build up his kingdom on the earth, and he will not be thwarted. The Lord is going to make a short work in the earth, and he will defend his anointed, his Prophets, his Zion and his people. This is the decree of Almighty God. The eyes of all heaven are over this people, they are over the earth, over the Gentiles, and over the Jews, and the Lord holds in his hands the destinies of all men. And we are commanded of God to rise up and warn the nations of the earth; and we call upon the Latter-day Saints, upon the Elders of Israel, upon the mothers and daughters in Zion to lay aside their fooleries and nonsense, and to no longer let their hearts be set upon the fashions of the world, but turn to and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the revelations of God given in these days, and get the Holy Spirit and walk in the light of the Lord, that your eyes may be opened, that you may see and comprehend the position you occupy on the earth, for you are held under great responsibility for the manner in which you do your duty and magnify your callings before the Lord, and he is not trifling with us, nor with this generation.

If the eyes of the Gentiles were opened one moment to see the things of eternity, and the judgments which await this generation, they would not wonder that the servants of God are moved upon to cry aloud to the nations of the earth. I tell you that the judgments of God are at the door of both Zion and great Babylon. Great Babylon has come in remembrance before God, and His sword is bathed in heaven and it will fall on Idumea and the world. Who can stand before the hand of Almighty God? No man, no nation, nor set of nations on the face of the earth.

I would to God that the eyes of the world were opened! I would to God that the eyes of the Gentile nations were opened, that they could see and understand what belongs to their peace! How much has the Lord pleaded with the nations of the earth to give them celestial glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life? He has pleaded with them for the last six thousand years, and has raised up his servants from time to time and called upon the inhabitants of the world to prepare themselves for the great day of his second advent and coming, which is at hand. He is calling upon them loudly to-day; and, as I have said to some of my brethren lately, the Lord now wants to know whether the Latter-day Saints are willing to work with him or not. It is a day of decision. I do not expect that more than half of us will have oil in our lamps and be prepared to enter into the marriage supper with the Bridegroom. That will be about as much as we can expect, unless we repent of our sins and turn from our follies, fooleries, and the fashions of Babylon—things which our hearts have been set upon instead of upon building up the kingdom of God. It seems to me that there will be but a remnant even of the Latter-day Saints who will be prepared to inherit eternal life and for the coming of the Bridegroom.

I feel, in my bones and in my Spirit, that there is a change at the door, both with Zion and Babylon. Great events await us and this generation. As I said before, judgments are at the door. The angels of God are waiting for the great command to go forth and reap down the earth. All earth and hell are stirred up against Zion. The spirit of lying is abroad in all the world, and the people will not receive the truth. In my meditations, whether in regard to the past or present, it has always seemed one of the greatest mysteries why so few have been willing to believe the revelations of God. In the days of Jesus, among all the Jewish rabbis, with their Urim and Thummim, ephod, sacrifices, giving the law, and all the blessings of Judah which they held in their hands, it has been a marvel to me that so few had an interest in their Shiloh, their Savior, who came to die to redeem the world. The whole spirit of Jerusalem and Judea was—“Crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us and our children.” It was and has been, and they have felt it. And the Gentiles have cause to take heed lest they, too, fall through unbelief.

I would tell Jew and Gentile, and all the earth if I had power, that God never had but one Gospel to deliver to the sons of men, and that Gospel is the same to-day, yesterday, and forever, it never changes. The Lord never had a Church in any age of the world that he acknowledged, but what it had a head to it, and it was organized with Prophets, Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, gifts, helps, governments, inspiration and gifts of the Holy Ghost; and God’s Church today is the same as in every other age.

This Gospel is offered to the world, and that men generally have such a desire to root it out of the earth, is the strongest proof imaginable that they are under the dominion and control of the father of lies. If any man has a truth that we have not got, we say, “Let us have it.” I am willing to exchange all the errors and false notions I have for one truth, and should consider that I had made a good bargain. We are not afraid of light and truth. Our religion embraces every truth in heaven, earth or hell; it embraces all truth, the whole Gospel and plan of salvation, and the fulfillment of the whole volume of revelation that God has ever given. We have not power, men have not language, to show forth the eternal truths of God in all their fullness and beauty; all we can do is to warn the children of men, and the Lord has chosen the Elders of Israel for that very purpose. That has been one fault that men have found with the work of the Lord. A man asked me awhile ago—“Why did the Lord choose Joseph Smith to build up his kingdom? Why did he not choose Dr. Porter, Henry Ward Beecher, or some such men?” Said I—“Such men would sell the kingdom of God and everything in it for money and popularity, and as the Lord lives he never could rule and handle them, none of them would work with him, they are too much like the Pharisees, Sadducees, High Priests and Rabbis of Judea and Jerusalem.” Did the Lord ever choose such men to perform his work? Go through the whole history of the world, and you will find that whenever God wanted a servant, an Apostle or a Prophet, he chose the very humblest man that could be found. When a king was wanted for Israel, he could not find one out of all the tall sons of Jesse; and when the Prophet asked if Jesse had not another son, he was told no, only the boy that looked after the sheep. Nobody thought anything about him he was of no consequence. “Let me see him,” said the man of God; and when he was brought, the Prophet poured oil on his head and anointed him King of Israel. So it has been all the way through. Take Moses the leader of Israel. His mother cast him in the bulrushes on the banks of the river Nile, to the crocodiles. But how carefully the Lord watched over him! Finally the daughter of pharaoh got him out, while bathing, and gave him to his mother to be trained and nursed. You could see the hand of the Lord in this. When the Lord called Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, said he—“How can I do this? I am a man of a hard language and dew of speech. He thought he could not get along, for he had not a good command of language. But the Lord told him that he would find a spokesman for him. So all the way through the Lord has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the wise, and the things that are nought, to bring to nought the things that are. Jesus Christ himself was born in a stable and cradled in a manger; and who were his Apostles? Illiterate fishermen, men of the lowest calling almost in Judea, Salt Lake City, or anywhere else; but fishermen can be just as honorable men as any others, and they are generally regarded as very humble men, and that is the kind of men God has always chosen.

The Lord called Joseph Smith because he was foreordained before the world was to build up this Church and Kingdom, and he came through the loins of ancient Joseph. He was an illiterate youth, but the Lord used him, and he lived to fulfill the measure of his appointment; he lived as long as the Lord required him to live, and until he received every key held by every Prophet and Apostle that ever lived in the flesh from the days of Adam down to his day, which belonged to this dispensation.

Joseph Smith received his first ordination under the hand of John the Baptist, who was beheaded, and who, while in the flesh, held the Aaronic Priesthood. Peter, James, and John, who were Prophets, and were crucified and put to death, at least Peter and James were, they came and ordained Joseph Smith to the Apostleship; and every ordination that he obtained, he obtained from the spirit world from men who had tabernacled here in the flesh. These are the eternal truths of the God of heaven, and eternity will reveal them to the inhabitants, of the earth. It is by this power that this Church has been planted, not of man nor by the will of man, but by the revelations of Jesus Christ. We call upon the Latter-day Saints, we look to them, and the Lord looks to them, the heavens look to them, to take hold and build up this kingdom.

Some of the outside world are finding a good deal of fault with the Indians. Who are the Indians? Read the Book of Mormon, and you will learn that they are the literal descendants of Israel; they have been cursed through the transgressions of their fathers, and a skin of darkness has come upon them. This history tells us that they were once a white and delightsome people, and had great power on this land, but that they were degraded and cast down because of their sins. When we came here, we found them living upon crickets, grasshoppers, roots, and anything they could possibly eat, poor, miserable, degraded beings, though they have immortal souls, and are of the house of Israel. What is the Lord doing for them? He is stretching forth his hand over them, in remembrance of the promises made to their fathers. President Young and his people are accused of stirring up the Indians against the general government, and against the white man. This is not true. We have preached to the Indians a good many years, as we have had opportunities, but what effect did it have? Not much. We preached to Walker, Arapene, and many other chiefs who have dwelt here, but have now passed away, but our preaching had but little effect. Now the Lord is stretching out his hand over the Lamanites, and their eyes are being opened, and they are receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the hands of the Elders of Israel. Whose work is this? Not the work of man, but it is the work of God, and if the nations of the earth try to stay it, the warfare is between them and God, and not between them and us. So with every other principle which God has revealed to us. This work is the work of the God of Israel, and not the work of man; not the work of Brigham Young, the Twelve Apostles, or anybody else. The hand of the Lord is feeling after that people, and if we, as Latter-day Saints, do not arise and magnify our callings and fulfill our missions, the Lord will take that people and build up his kingdom, and we will be cast out. It is time that we awoke and realized this truth, and that, as Elders of Israel, we realized our position before the Lord. Now there is a very general desire manifested by this people to get rich, and to labor for self rather than for the kingdom of God. But what will it profit you or me to give up praying and to go to and get rich? What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Not much. What will a man give in exchange for his soul, when he gets on the other side of the vail? I marvel very much at the little interest manifested by the inhabitants of the earth generally in their future state. There is not a person here to-day but what is going to live on the other side of the vail as long as his Creator—to the endless ages of eternity, and the eternal destiny of every individual depends upon the manner in which the few short years of the life in the flesh are spent. I ask, in the name of the Lord, what is popularity to you or me? What is gold or silver, or this world’s goods to any of us, any further than to enable us to obtain what we need to eat, drink, and wear, and to build up the kingdom of God. And for us to stop praying, and to become crazy after the riches of the world, is the very height of foolishness and folly. To see the way that some people act, you might suppose that they are going to live here eternally, and that their eternal destiny depends upon the number of dollars they have. I sometimes ask the Latter-day Saints, how much we had when we came here? How much did we bring, and where did it come from? I do not think any one of us brought a wife or a brick house; I do not think that any of us were born on horseback or in a carriage, or that we brought railroad scrip and cattle and houses with us, but we were born naked as Job, and I think that we shall leave here as naked as he did. Then with regard to this world’s goods, what do they amount to with us, that they should induce us to lose salvation for them? I say, rather than that, let me be poor all the days of my life; if riches are going to damn me, and take from me the glory I have in prospect through keeping the commandments of God, I pray God that I may never possess them.

God holds the riches of this world in his hands; the gold and silver, the cattle and the earth are his, and he gives to whom he will give. When Christ was upon the mount, Lucifer, the devil, showed him all the glory of the world and offered to give it to him if he would fall down and worship him. But do you know that that poor devil did not own a single foot of land in the whole world, and that he had not, even a body, or tabernacle? The earth is the footstool of the Lord, and if we ever have any of it for our own the Lord will give it to us; and we ought to be just as faithful to our religion if we had ten thousand million dollars, as if we had not any at all. Eternal life is what we are or ought to be after, and that, whatever our circumstances and condition in life may be, should be our first object.

I say to the brethren and sisters—you have your appointment; the Lord has raised up these Elders of Israel, and I can prove from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants that you received the Priesthood from eternity, and your lives have been hid with Christ in God, and you knew it not. You are literally and lawfully heirs of the Priesthood through the lineage of your fathers, and that Priesthood will continue throughout eternity, therefore you have received your appointment, and the Lord looks to you to build up his Zion and kingdom upon the earth.

Let us try to be faithful and to live our religion; let us try to believe in the revelations of God. I think it will be better for our daughters, for our wives, for our sons and for ourselves to lay aside the New York Ledger and yellow covered literature generally, and take hold and read the revelations of God, and comprehend them. When I read the revelations, whether in the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Book of Doctrine and Covenants, I look upon them as true, and I look for their fulfillment. Up to the present day, one jot or tittle of them has never gone unfulfilled, and, as the Lord has said—“What I have spoken I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and though the heavens and the earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of my word shall go unfulfilled, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same. Behold and lo I am God, and truth will be and abide for ever and ever, Amen.” Now let us try and live our religion and keep the commandments of God. As Latter-day Saints let us see where we are, and if we have no oil in our lamps let us stop trying to get rich, and let us pray to the Lord until we get his Spirit and oil in our lamps, and light unto the glory of God, and take hold and labor to build up his Kingdom and Zion.

Before I close I want to speak on one temporal point. I have been talking about getting riches. I do not find fault with riches. The gold and silver are the Lord’s. We want houses building and we must cultivate the earth. This is all right. I do not find fault with a man getting rich, I find fault with our selling the kingdom of God, our birthright, selling the Gospel and depriving ourselves of eternal life, for the sake of gratifying the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life and the fashions of the world; and setting our hearts upon these things, It is right to build houses, to plant vineyards and orchards, to cultivate the earth and to make the desert blossom as the rose, to adorn our dwelling places and to build Temples. This is all right. I have no objection to the ladies—our wives daughters and mothers—in Zion adorning themselves as much as they please, if they only make what they wear. Set out your mulberry trees and make your own silk; get straw and make your own bonnets; make your artificial flowers to adorn yourselves with, and let all be the workmanship of your own hands, and do not import these things at the expense of the means we have in the Territory. I have not any fault to find with your adorning yourselves, if you only make that which you require yourselves.

I want to say one word to our farmers before I close. I want to ask you if you ever heard brother Kimball tell about laying up wheat? “Yes,” say some “we have heard him, but the famine has not come yet.” No, but it will come. The Lord is not going to disappoint either Babylon or Zion, with regard to famine, pestilence, earthquakes or storms, he is not going to disappoint anybody with regard to any of these things, they are at the doors, and I want to give a word of exhortation to our farmers, and I say to them, lay up your wheat, for according to the spirit that has been in my bosom the last three or four months, and in the breasts of a good many others, the day will come when, if you do not take this counsel, you will want your wheat for bread. I feel to exhort the brethren; and to say to them—lay up bread, do not sell it for a song; let your wives and daughters go for awhile without ribbons and ornaments, let your wheat stay in your bins; let us try to get along with old coats and old hats, and keep the wheat, and in a little while you will see the reason why this counsel has been given. Lay up your wheat; and other provisions against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted, and no mistake about it. We shall want bread, and the Gentiles will want bread, and if we are wise we shall have something to feed them and ourselves when famine comes. We have fed thousands of them in days past, who would have laid their bones on these plains if it had not been for the counsel of President Young to us to cultivate the earth and have wheat on hand to feed them. And the day will come again when corn will be wanted in Zion, and it will be sought for. I hope the Latter-day Saints will take heed to these things and be wise.

I pray that God will bless you, that he will give you his spirit, that you may see and understand your position before him. And I pray that he will open the eyes, ears and hearts of the Gentiles, that they may receive the Gospel of Christ, and be numbered with the house of Israel in the last dispensation of the fullness of times, that they may stand in holy places through the nations, for they will come to both Jew and Gentile, Zion and Babylon. There is no getting away from them, for the Lord has said so, and what he has said will come to pass. Amen

The Resurrection, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday morning, October 8, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

“Oh Death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is most glorious. It is comforting, at least to my spirit, to think, that, in the morning of the resurrection, my spirit will have the privilege of dwelling in the very same body that it occupied here. As Elders of Israel we have traveled a great many thousand miles in weariness and fatigue, laboring to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the children of men. I would be very glad to have the same body in the resurrection with which I waded swamps, swam rivers and traveled and labored to build up the kingdom of God here on the earth. I like this, I rejoice in the privilege we enjoy at this Conference, of meeting with so many Latter-day Saints. I feel that we have had a good deal of the Spirit of the Lord with us, and I hope that it may continue until we get through with the Conference.

President Young referred, yesterday, in his remarks, to the experience of some of us in past days. I have reflected a good deal upon these things as well as on the future. I have long been associated with the kingdom of God, and I wish to refer for a moment to what was said yesterday on that subject. The mission then mentioned was one of much interest to the Twelve, if not to the Church. The whole of that mission to England, from the beginning to the end, placed the apostles in such a position that they had to walk by faith from first to last. The Lord gave a revelation, with date, day, month and year, when they were to go up to lay the corner-stone in Caldwell county, Far West, Missouri. When that revelation was given all was peace and quietude, comparatively, in that land. But when the time came for the Twelve Apostles to fulfill that revelation, the Saints had all been driven out by the exterminating order of Governor Boggs, and it was as much as a man’s life was worth, especially one of the Twelve, to be found in that State; and when the day came on which we were commanded by the Lord in that revelation to go up and lay the corner-stone of that Temple, and there take the parting hand with the Saints, to cross the waters to preach the gospel in England, the inhabitants of Missouri had sworn that if all the revelations of “old Joe Smith” were fulfilled, that should not be, because it had a day and date to it.

President Young asked the Twelve who were with him—“What shall we do with regard to the fulfillment of this revelation?” He wanted to know their feelings. Father Smith, the Patriarch, said the Lord would take the will for the deed; others said the Lord could not expect the Twelve Apostles to go up and sacrifice their lives to fulfill that revelation; but the Spirit of the Lord rested upon the twelve, and they said—“The Lord God has spoken, and we will fulfill that revelation and commandment;” and that was the feeling of President Young and of those who were with him. We went through that State, and we laid that cornerstone. George A. Smith and myself were ordained to the Apostleship on that corner-stone upon that day. We returned in safety, and not a dog to move his tongue, and no man shed our blood.

As soon as we got home we prepared ourselves to go on our mission to England, and, as President Young has said, the devil undertook to kill us. I have myself been in Tennessee and Kentucky for two or three years, where, in the Fall, there was not well persons enough to take care of the sick during the ague months, and yet I never had the ague in my life until called to go upon that mission to England. There was not one solitary soul in the Quorum of the Twelve but what the devil undertook to destroy; and, as was said yesterday, when Brother Taylor and myself, the two first of the Quorum ready for the trip, were on hand to start, I was shaking with the ague, and I had it every other day, and on my well day, when I did not have it, my wife had it. I got up and laid my hands upon her and blessed her, and blessed my child, having only one at the time, and I started across the river, and that man who sits behind me to-day, the President of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth, paddled me across the Missouri river in a canoe, and that is the way I landed in Nauvoo. I lay down on a side of sole leather by the old post office, and I did not know where to go, and I was not able to stand on my feet, and I lay down there. By and by the Prophet came along and said he—“Brother Woodruff, you are going on your mission?” “Yes,” I said,” but I feel more like a subject for the dissecting room than for a mission.” He reproved me for what I said and told me to get up and go. Brother Taylor, the only member of the Quorum of the Twelve who was well, and I traveled together, and on the way he fell to the ground as though he had been knocked on the head with an axe. Old Father Coulton was carrying us, and Brother Taylor fell twice in that way, taken with the bilious fever, and no man in that Quorum could boast that he went on that mission without feeling the hand of the destroyer, for it was laid upon us all. I had the shaking ague, and lay on my back in a wagon, and was rolled over stumps and stones, until it seemed as if my life would be shaken out of me. I left Brother Taylor behind, by his advice, for said he, “We are both sick, and if you stay you can’t do anything here;” so old Father Coulton carried me along in his wagon until I got to Buffalo, N. Y. From there I traveled alone to Farmington, Connecticut, my native place, and I stayed there fifteen days at my father’s house, coughing and shaking every day. My father never expected that I should leave my bed, and my step-mother did not expect that I should ever get better. A message came from an uncle of mine, who had just died, and his last words were—“I want you to send for Friend Wilford, I want him to come and preach my funeral sermon.” My father said—“You can’t go and preach that sermon, for you can’t sit up in your bed.” Said I—“Never mind, get up your horse and wagon;” and he did so and I got into it, and rode over that morning in a chilly wind, and the hour that my ague was coming on I got before a big blazing fire and preached the funeral sermon of my friend, and the ague left me from that day, and I went back and went on my way rejoicing.

In process of time Brother Taylor came along and he and I crossed the ocean together, and arrived in England, and here I want to make a little statement of my experience in those days concerning circumstances that took place with me. When Brother Brigham left home he told you that all his family had was one barrel of rotten flour. Two hundred cents would have bought every pound of provision I left with my family when I left home. But we left our wives, for we had the commandment of God upon us, and we were either going to obey it, or die trying. That was the spirit of the Elders of Israel; and I blessed my wife and child and left them in the hands of God, and to the tender mercies of our noble Bishops, and those who were acquainted with them know how it was in those days. However, I went on my way, and I want to speak of one little circumstance. I had with me an old cloak which I got in Tennessee when traveling with Brother Smoot over forty years ago. It had once been a dandy cloak, and had on keg buttons, and when new had a good deal of trimming and fancy work about it; but it was then pretty well threadbare and worn out. I wore it in Kirtland and I carried it to England with me; and when I was called by revelation to go to John Benbow’s and preach the gospel I wore that cloak. I went there and found over six hundred people, called United Brethren, and among them were eighty-three preachers, and they, as a people, were prepared for the word of the Lord, and I wanted to catch them in the gospel net. Before embracing the doctrine of the United Brethren, Sister Benbow had been what is called a “lady” in England, and she had worn her silks and satins; but after obeying the doctrine of this religious body she cut up and burned and destroyed her silks and satins and wore the plainest calicoes she could get, because she thought that was religion. When I went there to preach she looked at me with this old cloak with the keg buttons on, and the Spirit of the Lord bore testimony to me that religion, so far as she was concerned, had a good deal of tradition about it, and that her faith could be tried by the coat a man wore; and as Paul said, if eating meat offended his brethren, he would never eat any more, so I felt a good deal, and one morning I went out and cut off the buttons from my old cloak, and never had a button on it afterwards. By doing this and some other things, which some perhaps would call foolish, I, through the blessing of God and with the assistance of Brother Young, George A. Smith and Willard Richards, caught the whole flock and baptized every soul except one solitary person into the church and kingdom of God. Many of them are here in this room to-day, and some of them have passed away. I mention this just to show our position. We traveled without purse and scrip, and we preached without money and without price. Why? Because the God of heaven had called upon us to go forth and warn the world.

Now I want to say again, I have looked around within the last few years and I have thought: Where, Oh where, are the sons of the Prophets, Apostles, and fathers in Zion, preparing in these last days to rise up and bear off this kingdom when we are on the other side of the vail? Sometimes, in thinking on this subject, I have felt that they were very few and far between who had the spirit of their fathers and were prepared to bear off this kingdom. But I thank God that I find it is now something like it was in the days of Elijah. When the Prophet said, referring to the followers of Baal—“They have killed thy Prophets, and pulled down thine altars, and I alone am left,” the Lord said—“Oh no, I have seven thousand men in Israel who have not yet bowed the knee to Baal.” Well, I begin to feel, since I have heard the testimonies of our young brethren at this Conference, that some of the sons of the servants of God are becoming filled with the fire and spirit of the Prophets. We want a good many of them to rise up and bear off this kingdom.

Now I want to say a word or two on another subject. I have heard some of our brethren remark—“If the Twelve Apostles have the word of the Lord, we would like to receive, it.” I want to say a few words with regard to the word of the Lord. I think that many of this people are mistaken with regard to the word of the Lord. They sometimes wonder why President Young does not give them the word of the Lord. I have been acquainted with President Young more than forty years. It is over forty years since I traveled a thousand miles with him, Joseph Smith, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Charles C. Rich, and many others perhaps in this congregation, and I never saw a day from that day until the present, but what President Brigham Young, even before the Twelve Apostles were organized, always had the word of the Lord for the people; and instead of thinking there is no word of the Lord, my faith is that there is not an Elder in Israel who has any business to preach, unless he has the word of the Lord to the people. The Twelve Apostles should have the word of the Lord to the people; the High Priesthood should have the word of the Lord to the people; these four thousand Seventies, the messengers of Israel to the nations of the earth, should have the word of the Lord to the people; and every Elder of Israel, when he speaks, should have the word of the Lord, and the whole Church and kingdom of God, men and women, should have, each for himself and herself, the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy. This should be in the possession of every man and woman in the Church, for their own government and guidance, and this has always been the teaching to us of President Brigham Young. And this is backed up by the revelations which the Lord has given in these last days, as you will find if you read the twenty-second section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. That revelation was given over forty years ago, to Elders Orson Hyde, Luke Johnson, Lyman Johnson and William E. McLellin; and on that occasion the Lord said—“Go forth and preach the Gospel to the people. And when you go forth you are called to teach the people and not to be taught. And you must teach as you are moved upon by the Holy Ghost, by the power of God, by the Spirit of the Lord; and when you speak as you are moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord, your words are scripture, they are the word of the Lord, they are the mind of the Lord, they are the will of the Lord and the power of God unto salvation unto every one that hears.”

Yes, we have plenty of testimony with regard to these things, and I will say to my brethren that whatever the word of the Lord may be to them I know what the word of the Lord is to me. The word of the Lord to me is, that it is time for Zion to rise and let her light shine; and the testimony of the Spirit of God to me is that this whole kingdom, this great kingdom of Priests, this forty thousand men in these mountains of Israel, who have borne the Priesthood, have thoroughly fulfilled one part of the parable of the ten virgins. What is that? Why, that while the Bridegroom has tarried we have all slumbered and slept; as a Church and kingdom we have slumbered and slept, and the word of the Lord to me is that we have slept long enough; and we have the privilege now of rising and trimming our lamps and putting oil in our vessels. This is the word of the Lord to me.

The word of the Lord to me again, is, that it is time for this whole people, these forty thousand Elders of Israel who dwell in these valleys of the mountains, and I believe that it is the word of the Lord to them, that we listen to the voice of the Lord through the lawgiver, and unite ourselves in temporal things, and that we labor to build up the kingdom of God, and cease to labor to build up ourselves alone, against the interests of the kingdom of God. This is the word of the Lord to me, and I think it is to you.

It is the word of the Lord through the mouth of his servant Brigham, and has been a long time the word of the Lord to me, that as Twelve Apostles, as Seventy Apostles, as High Priests, and as Elders of Israel, it is time that we should rise up and bear the burden that rests upon the shoulders of Brigham Young, who is far advanced in life, and has had the weight and burden of this Church and kingdom upon his shoulders. It is our duty to rise up and bear off this burden, and lift it from our President, and also to cry aloud unto the people to unite themselves together. It is our duty to cease shaking in our shoes for fear the Lord Almighty should give some of his words to govern and control us in our temporal affairs. Who, to use a comparison, expects to have a forty-acre lot alone in the kingdom of God, or in heaven, when we get there? None need expect it, for in that kingdom, in heaven or upon earth, we shall find unity, and the Lord requires at our hands that we unite together, according to the principles of his celestial law.

This is what I consider to be the word of the Lord to us. It is our duty to unite ourselves together, and to sustain the institutions which have been established in these mountains by the revelations of God unto us.

There is another word of the Lord unto me, and which has been like fire shut up in my bones for the last three months; that is, to call upon all the inhabitants of these mountains, as far as I have an opportunity, to go to and lay up their grain, that they may have bread. For the last three months I have not felt as if I could answer my own feelings, unless, at every meeting I have attended, I called upon the farmers to lay up their grain. “Oh, yes,” say some, “Heber C. Kimball cried, ‘Famine, famine’ for years, and it has not come yet.” Well, bless your soul, there is more room for it to come. “Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?” The day will come when if this people do not lay up their bread they will be sorry for it. The Lord has felt after us in days past and gone by the visitations of crickets and grasshoppers time after time, and had it not been for his mercy we should have had famine upon our heads long before this. It is the duty of the farmers in these mountains not to sell their bread, or to throw it away for a song, but to lay it up, or you will find that the day is not a great way off when you will need it. That is the voice of the Lord to me, and it is the way I have felt for a good while, and I believe it is the same to my brethren.

We are living in a very important time, and the Lord has raised up this people to accomplish his purposes; and as some of these revelations convey the idea, they were chosen from before the foundation of the world. The Lord says—“I have called you by my everlasting Priesthood, and your lives have been hid with Christ in God,” and you have not known it. You have been called here and God has put into your hands his cause and kingdom, and the salvation of both Jew and Gentile. This people hold in their hands the salvation of the twelve tribes of Israel. It was not to the oldest son, but to Ephraim, the son of Joseph, that these promises were made. Joseph was the youngest but one of the Twelve Patriarchs, and through his son Ephraim God has raised you up and has put this power into your hands, and you hold the keys for the salvation of Israel. And the ten tribes of Israel in the north country will come in remembrance before God in due time, and they will smite the rocks and the mountains of ice will flow down before them, and the everlasting hills will tremble at their presence. A highway will be cast up through the midst of the great deep for them to come to Zion, and they will bow down in the midst thereof, and receive the Priesthood at the hands of the inhabitants of Zion.

Then what manner of men ought we to be, we, who have been ordained and called, and had such responsibilities placed upon us by the God of heaven? Our lives have been hid with Christ in God, and we are heirs of the eternal Priesthood, through the lineage of our fathers. Thus saith the Lord through the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who sealed his testimony with his blood, and his testimony from that hour has been in force upon all the world. Know ye, Latter-day Saints, that the Lord will not disappoint you or this generation with regard to the fulfillment of his promises. No matter whether they have been uttered by his own voice out of the heavens, by the ministration of angels, or by the voice of his servants in the flesh, it is the same; and though the earth pass away not one jot or tittle of his word will fall unfulfilled. There is no prophecy of Scripture of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and their words will be fulfilled to the very letter, and it certainly is time that we prepare ourselves for that which is to come. Great things await this generation—both Zion and Babylon. All these revelations concerning the fall of Babylon will have their fulfillment. Forty-five years ago, in speaking to the Church, the Lord said—“You are clean, but not all and I am not well pleased with any who are not clean, because all flesh is corrupted before my face, and darkness prevails among all the nations of the earth.” This causes silence to reign, and all eternity is pained. The angels of God are waiting to fulfill the great commandment given forty-five years ago, to go forth and reap down the earth because of the wickedness of men. How do you think eternity feels to-day? Why there is more wickedness, a thousand times over, in the United States now, than when that revelation was given. The whole earth is ripe in iniquity; and these inspired men, these Elders of Israel, have been commanded of the Almighty to go forth and warn the world, that their garments may be clear of the blood of all men.

I tell you that God will not disappoint Zion or Babylon, the heavens or the earth, in regard to the judgments which he has promised in these last days, but every one of them will have its fulfillment upon the heads of the children of men; and when they are fully ripened in iniquity the nations of the earth will be swept away as with the besom of destruction.

What did the Lord say to that meek and humble man, the brother of Jared, thousands of years ago, with regard to the land of America—a chosen land promised by old Father Jacob to his sons? He said that no nation should ever occupy it, unless the people thereof kept his commandments; and if they failed to do that they should be cut off when they were ripened in iniquity. The Lord has already swept away two mighty nations from this continent, because they have not fulfilled his word, spoken through that humble man. The Lord chooses the weak things of the world, things which are naught to bring to naught things which are, and he will as surely perform his work in this age of the world as he has done in any other. We need not fear man, nor the wrath of man, but fear God, who holds in his hands the destinies of all men.

Before I close my remarks, I want to say a few words to our sisters and daughters in Zion, for I feel that there are some words of the Lord to them. This is a time that the daughters of Zion should hearken to the words of the Prophet of God, who has been set to lead us. I feel that it is time, forty years after they were organized, that the Female Relief Societies should labor with all their might to carry out the object of their organization by the Prophet Joseph Smith. You may ask, “What was the object of that organization?” I will say that in organizing these societies there were several objects in view, some of which I will refer to before I get through. President Young has been calling upon you, as one branch of the land of Zion, to take hold and help to build it up. He desires that the sisters here in the land of Zion should govern and control the fashions of Zion. Instead of heaping to yourselves and imitating the fashions that have adorned Babylon, you should have independence enough to form your own; and those which are not comely and comfortable should be laid aside. I, myself, do not think it has been pleasing in the sight of God, to see the manner in which the mothers and daughters in Zion, for years past, have been ready to adorn themselves with every fashion that Babylon has contrived and invented. I need not mention all these things, but I will mention two or three. For instance, how is it with regard to the head dress of the ladies? The Lord has given to women generally a fine head of hair, which, we are told in the Scriptures, is the glory of the woman; and she should let the hair given unto her adorn her head without adding any foreign substance, as is now done, in order to imitate and follow after the fashions of the world. Again, just as quick as the daughters of Babylon extend their crinolines until they cannot move in a space less than six or eight feet wide, in a coach, assembly room, or anywhere else, why the daughters of Zion must follow the same uncomely fashion. But a fashion the reverse of this is now adopted, and at the present time the daughters of Babylon wear their elastics so tight that they have not room left for locomotion when walking in the streets; and, of course the daughters of Zion must practice the same. And now, see one of them, dressed in the height of fashion, crossing the street, and a runaway team comes thundering along. What a position she is in! Why the only way she can save her life is to lie down and roll across the street like a saw log.

All these fashions are uncomely and should be laid aside. The daughters of Zion should do better than to trail silks and satins in the mud when walking in the street. The Female Relief Societies should lay hold of and regulate these things, and introduce fashions that are comely and comfortable; it is their duty to do it. Again, you can do a good deal in regard to maintaining the independence of Zion, by going to and carrying out the counsel of President Young in raising your own silk for dresses, bonnets and trimmings, so that your adorning may be the workmanship of your own hands.

I felt as though I wanted to say so much with regard to our sisters in Zion. President Young says, and I know it is the truth, that this is the best people on the face of the earth. But however good we may be we should aim continually to improve and become better. We have obeyed a different law and Gospel to what other people have obeyed, and we have a different kingdom in view, and our aim should be correspondingly higher before the Lord our God, and we should govern and control ourselves accordingly, and I pray God my heavenly Father that his Spirit may rest upon us and enable us to do so.

Another word of the Lord to me is that, it is the duty of these young men here in the land of Zion to take the daughters of Zion to wife, and prepare tabernacles for the spirits of men, which are the children of our Father in heaven. They are waiting for tabernacles, they are ordained to come here, and they ought to be born in the land of Zion instead of Babylon. This is the duty of the young men in Zion; and when the daughters of Zion are asked by the young men to join with them in marriage, instead of asking—“Has this man a fine brick house, a span of fine horses and a fine carriage?” they should ask—“Is he a man of God? Has he the Spirit of God with him? Is he a Latter-day Saint? Does he pray? Has he got the Spirit upon him to qualify him to build up the kingdom?” If he has that, never mind the carriage and brick house, take hold and unite yourselves together according to the law of God. I rejoice to see the population increasing in the land of Zion. Why is it that ninety-nine women out of every hundred over the whole land of Zion, who are of proper age and married, are bringing forth posterity until our children swarm in our streets almost like bees? Because the God of heaven is raising up a royal Priesthood, and a generation to bear off this kingdom in the day when his judgments will come upon the earth.

Let us do our duty; let us cease setting our hearts upon the fashions and things of this world, and laboring to enrich ourselves at the sacrifice of the kingdom of God. We have a co-operative mercantile institution; and it is the duty of these Latter-day Saints to sustain and uphold it; and so with everything else that is in the kingdom, for these are the stepping stones to us to a fullness of the celestial kingdom of God.

I thank God that I live in this day and age of the world, when my ears have heard the sound of the fullness of the Gospel of Christ. I thank God that I have seen the face of Prophets, Apostles, and inspired men. I rejoice in this, and I pray God my heavenly Father that I, and my brethren and sisters, may have power to unite and take hold and build up this kingdom. When we do this it will not be in the power of earth or hell to take away our rights and privileges; for I tell you that if this people were united according to the law of God, wherein we should become fully justified before the Lord, sinners in Zion would tremble and fearfulness would surprise the hypocrite; the power of God would rest upon Zion, the angels of God would visit the earth, the judgments of God would be poured upon the wicked, the Zion of God would be redeemed, the Temples of God would be reared, the prison doors would be opened and the prisoners in the spirit world would go free, because we would feel the spirit and power of our mission and calling and should fulfill it.

I pray that God will bless this people, and that he will bless President Young, who has already outlived four of his counselors. The Lord says—I will take whom I will take, and I will preserve whom I will preserve.” All these counselors were younger men than President Young, yet he has outlived them. God has ordained President Young to live, and he has lived so long, and has had the prayers of hundreds and thousands of Saints, which have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth for his preservation; and the Lord has heard and answered these prayers.

Let us, as Elders of Israel, rise up and bear off this kingdom. Let us forsake our evils and wickedness, and repent of our sins, and renew our covenants and keep the commandments of God; that we may lighten the burdens of our President, that his spirit may be cheered, and that the power of God may attend him in his labors for the advancement of Zion upon the earth.

This is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.

On the Dedication of the New Tabernacle

Orson Pratt

Remarks by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday morning, Oct. 9, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

It is with peculiar feelings that I arise on this occasion to speak a few words to this vast assembly. While listening to the sacred words of the prayer that has been offered up this forenoon in the dedication of this large building as a place of worship, and the dedication of the ministry who administer therein, my heart has been full of joy and satisfaction, and, while listening to these glorious words, my mind was led to reflect upon dedications of houses and tabernacles of the Most High in former ages of the world, and also upon the peculiar manifestations oftentimes connected with those dedications.

The Lord our God accepts the dedication, by his servants the Priesthood, of those things which he has ordained and established; and though he may not always manifest that acceptance in a visible manner, so that all the people may see, yet there is a peculiar manifestation that we can feel if we can not see, which whispers to us that God is manifest in his works, ordinances and institutions, and in his own buildings that are built with an eye single to his glory, and in his name. It is an easy matter for the Great Jehovah to manifest himself, if he pleases so to do, upon a mountain or hill, or in the secret closet; or while we slumber upon our pillows by night, the visions of eternity may be opened to our minds, and we may receive great consolation, joy and peace, through the manifestations given us by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. But then, the Lord has oftentimes laid out a great work for his people to perform, and when that work is performed by the sons of men with all their hearts and might, and with all the strength, ability and power that God has given them, it is then that he shows forth his approbation from the heavens, and fills them with a peculiar feeling of joy and gladness that it is impossible for language to describe. How often have we felt these peculiar feelings and sensations pervading our minds, when we have assembled on occasions something similar to the present one!

I look back to the first Temple that was built in this generation by command of the Most High, some forty years ago, in the State of Ohio, in Kirtland, according to the pattern which God showed by vision. When that was completed, and the servants of God were called in from the east and west, and north, and south, and entered that sacred edifice, God was there, his angels were there, the Holy Ghost was in the midst of the people, the visions of the Almighty were opened to the minds of the servants of the living God; the vail was taken off from the minds of many; they saw the heavens opened; they beheld the angels of God; they heard the voice of the Lord; and they were filled from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet with the power and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and uttered forth prophecies in the midst of that congregation, which have been fulfilling from that day to the present time.

It was in that Temple that the visions of the Almighty were opened to our great Prophet, Seer and Revelator, Joseph Smith, wherein the future was portrayed before him, wherein keys were committed to him in relation to this great Latter-day dispensation, and the power of God was made manifest through the holy Priesthood sent down from heaven. In that Temple, set apart by the servants of God, and dedicated by a prayer that was written by inspiration, the people were blessed as they never had been blessed for generations and generations that were passed and gone. Why? Because that work was of God. God had raised up a mighty Prophet; God had brought to light great and glorious revelations; God had sent down the holy Priesthood from the heavens; the Lord our God had established his kingdom on the earth; he, therefore, gave unto his servants power, wisdom and strength that they might administer among the people and do them good.

Since that time buildings have been reared to the name of the Most High, and the Priesthood have been called together, and the councils of the Priesthood have been blessed, endowments have been made manifest, and ordinances of endowments, keys of endowments, signs and tokens of endowments, and principles that were calculated to give joy and to impart happiness, for the Lord had commanded, that in the midst of Zion, life for ever more should be poured out upon the fallen sons and daughters of his people.

Now another occasion is afforded us of dedicating a large and commodious Tabernacle, which has been built to the name of the Most High. God is here; God is with his servants, with the quorums of the everlasting Priesthood, and his Spirit is here; and the prayer that has been offered up is accepted by the heavens, and we rejoice and give praise to God who has redeemed us, who sits upon his throne, whose bowels of mercy yearn towards all of his sons and daughters; whose bosom is filled with compassion towards all his people. We praise his name, and though we have not the opportunity of giving expression to the joy and thanksgiving of our hearts, still we feel to say—“Hallelujah to the Lord God Almighty, who sits upon his throne, who reigns for ever and ever, for he will bless his Zion, he will extend forth her borders, he will pour out his Spirit upon his ministry, and he will fulfill and accomplish his work unto the uttermost. Amen.

What the Lord Requires of His Saints

Joseph F. Smith

Discourse by Elder Joseph F. Smith, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on Sunday morning, Oct. 10, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I have been very much interested and instructed during our Conference, and in rising at this time—a few moments only remaining before the close of our forenoon meeting—I feel that I can only bear my testimony to, and express my conviction of, the truths that we have had delivered unto us during our meetings from the first day of our Conference. We have had instructions here upon spiritual and upon temporal matters sufficient, if they were carried out, to make this people the best, purest, noblest, and greatest people that inhabit the world. The instructions that have been given unto us in regard to temporal matters, and in regard to bringing us to a union of faith and works, are calculated in their nature, if adopted and carried out in the practices of the Latter-day Saints, to make them the most independent people that live upon the face of the earth, depending indeed only upon the Lord our God, the giver of every good and perfect gift. I can see, as clearly as it is possible for me to see the light of the sun, that if the instructions that were given here yesterday, and the day before, in relation to uniting ourselves together in temporal affairs, were carried out by the people, we would soon no longer be beholden to the world, and it would be said of us, that we were dependent upon no power upon the earth but the power of God. It is very different, however, with us at present, for now we are very dependent, notwithstanding the vast amount of blessings that the Lord has poured out upon us—blessings of the soil, of the labors of our hands, of the elements that surround us. He has given us an abundance of everything our hearts can desire in righteousness, insomuch, as it was remarked yesterday, that we have become almost recreant to these blessings; we squander and waste them, run over them, trample them under our feet as it were, and regard them as of very little importance, or worthless. The Lord truly has blessed his people; he has poured out his Spirit upon us, opened our way, delivered us from our enemies, blessed and enriched the soil, tempered the elements, and made them favorable to us, turned away cursings, and given us blessings on every hand, and has prospered us in the earth. But we have been careless, and in a measure blind to the presence and value of the blessings that have been poured out upon us so abundantly, and have failed to recognize, as we should at all times, the hand of God therein. We have also come far short of appreciating our brethren the Prophets, who have borne the burden in the heat of the day; who have stood boldly and fearlessly, filled with wisdom and intelligence from above, to give us counsel, and to guide and direct us in the channels of prosperity, peace, and happiness.

Will we come to a knowledge of the truth? Will we learn to appreciate the blessings that we enjoy, and to realize from whence they come? Will we begin to follow more faithfully the counsels that are given to us by the servants of the Lord, and come together in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, that we may become perfect men in Christ Jesus, even to the fullness of the measure of his stature?

There is a circumstance recorded in the Scriptures, that has been brought forcibly to my mind while listening to the remarks of the Elders who have spoken to us during Conference. A young man came to Jesus and asked what good thing he should do that he might have eternal life. Jesus said unto him—“Keep the commandments.” The young man asked which of them. Then Jesus enumerated to him some of the commandments that he was to keep—he should not murder, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness, but he should honor his father and mother, and love his neighbor as himself, &c. Said the young man—“All these I have kept from my youth up, what lack I yet?” Jesus said—“If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.” And we are told that he turned away sorrowful, because he had great possessions. He would not hearken to, or obey the law of God in this matter. Not that Jesus required of the young man to go and sell all that he possessed and give it away; that is not the principle involved. The great principle involved is that which the Elders of Israel are endeavoring to enforce upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints to-day. When the young man turned away in sorrow, Jesus said to his disciples—“How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”

Is this because the rich man is rich? No. May not the rich man, who has the light of God in his heart, who possesses the principle and spirit of truth, and who understands the principle of God’s government and law in the world, enter into the kingdom of heaven as easily, and be as acceptable there as the poor man may? Precisely. God is not a respecter of persons. The rich man may enter into the kingdom of heaven as freely as the poor, if he will bring his heart and affections into subjection to the law of God and to the principle of truth; if he will place his affections upon God, his heart upon the truth, and his soul upon the accomplishment of God’s purposes, and not fix his affections and his hopes upon the things of the world. Here is the difficulty, and this was the difficulty with the young man. He had great possessions, and he preferred to rely upon his wealth rather than forsake all and follow Christ. If he had possessed the spirit of truth in his heart to have known the will of God, and to have loved the Lord with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, he would have said to the Lord—“Yea, Lord, I will do as you require, I will go and sell all that I have and give it to the poor.” If he had had it in his heart to do this, that alone might have been sufficient, and the demand would probably have stopped there, for undoubtedly the Lord did not deem it essential for him to go and give his riches away, or to sell his possessions and give the proceeds away, in order that he might be perfect, for that, in a measure, would have been improvident. Yet, if it had required all this to test him and to prove him, to see whether he loved the Lord with all his heart, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself, then he ought to have been willing to do it, and if he had been he would have lacked nothing, and would have received the gift of eternal life, which is the greatest gift of God, and which can be received on no other principle than the one mentioned by Jesus to the young man. If you will read the sixth lecture on faith in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants you will learn that no man can obtain the gift of eternal life unless he is willing to sacrifice all earthly things in order to obtain it. We cannot do this so long as our affections are fixed upon the world.

It is true that we are in a measure of the earth, earthly; we belong to the world. Our affections and our souls are here; our treasures are here, and where the treasure is there the heart is. But if we will lay up our treasures in heaven; if we will wean our affections from the things of this world, and say to the Lord our God—“Father, not my will but thine be done,” then may the will of God be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and the kingdom of God in its power and glory will be established upon the earth. Sin and Satan will be bound and banished from the earth, and not until we attain to this condition of mind and faith will this be done.

Then let the Saints unite; let them hearken to the voices of the servants of God that are sounded in their ears; let them hearken to their counsels and give heed to the truth; let them seek their own salvation, for, so far as I am concerned, I am so selfish that I am seeking after my salvation, and I know that I can find it only in obedience to the laws of God, in keeping the commandments, in performing works of righteousness, following in the footsteps of our file leader, Jesus, the exemplar and the head of all. He is the way of life, he is the light of the world, he is the door by which we must enter in order that we may have a place with him in the celestial kingdom of God.

May God grant that we may see and comprehend the whole truth, and be submissive to the requirements of the Gospel and obedient to the Priesthood of God upon the earth in all things, that we may obtain eternal life, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Purposes of God—Duties and Responsibilities of the Saints

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered at the Forty-sixth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, October 10, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

It is extremely difficult to speak to a congregation so large as this, and I therefore request that as good order as possible may be maintained, because it is almost impossible for the human voice to encompass so large a congregation as the one assembled here to-day.

We all of us have an object in assembling together as we have done on this conference occasion. I speak now to Latter-day Saints, as it is to them I purpose to address my remarks this afternoon. We do not always understand the influences by which we are operated upon; but nevertheless there are certain principles at work in this generation which move upon the minds of the human family, and which lead them to reflect and study more or less, according to the circumstances surrounding them and the positions they occupy. We, the Latter-day Saints, stand in a different relationship to the Almighty from any other people that exist on the face of the earth. The principles that we have received emanated not from man, nor from the wisdom, intelligence or philosophy of man; we believe that they proceeded from God. That is our universal belief; it is the faith of every good Latter-day Saint. None of us, previous to the Lord manifesting his will, knew anything about the laws of God. We did not know anything about God; we were not acquainted with anybody who could give us information in relation to him, and we are indebted to revelation from him for all the intelligence that we have that is true in regard to ourselves, the world in which we live, the people who have lived before us, and those who will live after us; also in regard to God the Father, and Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant. We had certain vague, indistinct ideas about these things before, but we had nothing real, tangible or reliable. Nor is it out of any consideration, particularly, to ourselves personally, that these things are made manifest. God has certain purposes to accomplish, pertaining to the world in which we live, in which the interests and happiness of the human family are concerned, to those who live in the world to-day, to those who have lived in other ages and dispensations, back to the time of Adam, and also forward, to the latest generation of time, to the last man who shall be born upon earth. The ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, men of God who basked in the light of revelation, and comprehended the mind of Jehovah, and who held the everlasting Priesthood and enjoyed the Gospel as we enjoy it; all these together with God our heavenly Father and all the angelic hosts, are interested in the work that the Father has commenced in these last days; and hence a revelation was made unto Joseph Smith. Holy angels of God appeared to him and communicated to him the mind and will of Jehovah, as a chosen messenger to introduce the dispensation of the fullness of times, wherein all heaven and all that have ever dwelt on the earth are concerned and interested. He did not reveal himself, particularly, because of Joseph Smith, individually, nor because of any other individual man, nor for the peculiar interest, emolument or aggrandisement of any set of men; but for the purpose of introducing certain principles that it was necessary that the world of mankind should be made acquainted with; in fact, it was for the purpose of introducing what we call the Church and kingdom of God on the earth, in which all who have ever lived or who ever will live upon this globe are interested.

The Gospel that we talk of, although it may be a personal thing, yet at the same time is as high as the heavens, wide as the universe and deep as hell. It permeates through all time, and extends to all people, both living and dead. We talk sometimes about the Church of God, and why? We talk about the kingdom of God, and why? Because, before there could be a kingdom of God, there must be a Church of God, and hence the first principles of the Gospel were needed to be preached to all nations, as they were formerly when the Lord Jesus Christ and others made their appearance on the earth. And why so? Because of the impossibility of introducing the law of God among a people who would not be subject to and be guided by the spirit of revelation. Hence the world have generally made great mistakes upon these points. They have started various projects to try to unite and cement the people together without God; but they could not do it. Fourierism, Communism—another branch of the same thing—and many other principles of the same kind have been introduced to try and cement the human family together. And then we have had peace societies, based upon the same principles; but all these things have failed, and they will fail, because, however philanthropic, humanitarian, benevolent, or cosmopolitan our ideas, it is impossible to produce a true and correct union without the Spirit of the living God, and that Spirit can only be imparted through the ordinances of the Gospel; and hence Jesus told his disciples to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and said he—“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end.” It was by this cementing, uniting spirit, that true sympathetic, fraternal relations could be introduced and enjoyed.

When John was on the Isle of Patmos he had a remarkable vision pertaining to many things, and said he—“I saw a mighty angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and kindred and people and tongue, crying with a loud voice—‘Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.’”

Joseph Smith had this communication made to him, together with the light of the Gospel, and had conferred upon him the keys of the holy Priesthood, with power to administer therein and to ordain others to the same ministry. And he, himself, was baptized as Jesus was baptized, and he baptized others, and they others, and they then laid their hands upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and they received it. And then, by the inspiration of the Almighty, they were directed to gather together, which they have done. And how many of you who are hearing me to-day hardly knew the reason why you gathered together? But you had a feeling, a burning desire in your hearts to mingle with the Saints of God. The Scriptures say—“I will take them one of a city and two of a family and bring them to Zion; and I will give them pastors after my own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge and with understanding.”

In accordance with these principles the Elders of Israel went forth, as you have heard here during this Conference, not in their own name, nor in their own strength, nor by their own wisdom; but in the name and strength and power of Jehovah, and as his chosen messengers to administer life and salvation to a fallen world. And God went with them, and his holy angels accompanied them; and the Spirit and power of God were with them; and the words that they spake they spake not of themselves but as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And God worked with them and the truth came to your hearts and you received it and rejoiced therein. God had a people scattered abroad among the nations of the earth, and his Priesthood were instrumental in his hands in gathering that people together; and in these days as in days of old, Jesus said—“My sheep hear my voice, and know it and follow me, and a stranger will they not follow, because they know not the voice of a stranger.”

Here then, God was desirous of introducing his kingdom upon the earth, and he had in the first place, to organize his Church, to organize the people that he had scattered among the nations and to bring them together, that there might be one fold and one shepherd, and one Lord, one faith and one baptism, and one God, who should be in all and through all, and by which all should be governed. To facilitate this object he organized his holy Priesthood as it existed in the heavens, and he gave a pattern of these things, just as much as he did in the days of Moses, only more so. God said to Moses—“See that thou make all things according to the pattern that I showed thee in the mount.” God said to Joseph—“See that thou organize this Church according to the pattern that I have showed thee.” And he placed in his Church Presidents, Apostles, Patriarchs, Seventies, High Priests, Bishops, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, Bishops’ Councils and High Councils, and other organizations which God had developed and given to his Priesthood; and hence, when the angel came which is mentioned by John on Patmos, he restored the Gospel as it existed with Adam, and with Enoch, and with Seth, and with Methuselah, and with Noah and Melchizedek, and with Abraham, with the Prophets, and with the Apostles and Jesus, whether on the Continent of Asia, on this continent, or anywhere else; and this people who possess this Priesthood and the authority from God to administer therein, when they get behind the vail they will enter again into the office of their calling and will be united with their several Priesthoods there, for the Priesthood on this and on the other side of the vail are parts of the same eternal system; and hence with a people like this in possession of the Priesthood, and enjoying the revelations of heaven, God could communicate and, through them, could reveal his will to the human family, but not to a people who would not listen to his laws and obey his precepts.

This Priesthood was held by John the revelator, by Peter, by Moroni, one of the Prophets of God on this continent. Nephi, another of the servants of God on this continent, had the Gospel with its keys and powers revealed unto him. We know that these things were so, and we do not profess to argue them, for we all know it. We read that Moses and Elias appeared to Jesus and his disciples on the mount, and Jesus was transfigured before them. Who were Moses and Elias? They were Prophets of the living God who held the Gospel and the Priesthood in former days, and they were sent to administer to Jesus and to Peter, James and John on the mount.

We also learn that when John was upon the Isle of Patmos, the visions of heaven were unfolded to his view, and a great and mighty angel stood before him and showed to him many great and important things pertaining to the future; and John fell down to worship him. But said he—“Hold! do not worship me.” “Why? Who are you?” “I am one of thy fellow-servants the Prophets, who kept the testimony of Jesus and the word of God. Do not worship me, I am one of those who held the Priesthood in time and now I am administering in eternity, and have come forth as a messenger of the Lord to thee.”

It was precisely in this way that Joseph Smith was administered unto, and by the same kind of messengers, who held the same kind of authority; and they came to introduce and usher in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that all things that are in Christ might be gathered together in one, whether they be things in the earth or things in the heavens. This was done that God’s people might be gathered in one, that God’s word might be gathered in one, that’s God’s Priesthood might be gathered in one, and that all in Christ on earth might be united by indissoluble ties with the Priesthood that exists in heaven, that they all might operate together for the accomplishment of the purposes of God on the earth. Hence it is said that “we without them can not be made perfect, and that they without us can not be made perfect;” a perfect union between heaven and earth was needed. Under such circumstances what did we do? What could we do? What intelligence were we in possession of, in and of ourselves? Who among us knew the first principles of the doctrine of Christ? Not a man living understood them correctly, and we are indebted to God for our intelligence in relation to these things. Who knew anything about the organization of the Church of God? Nobody. Was there any such thing in existence on the face of the earth? You might have searched for it, but it would have been in vain, it could not have been found. There were the systems, creeds and notions of men, but nobody to say, “Thus saith the Lord.” No prophecy, no inspiration, no manifestations of the power of God. Who knew anything about the necessity of Presidents or Apostles? Nobody. Who knew what an Apostle was? Nobody. Who knew what a High Priest or a Seventy was? Nobody. Who knew what an Elder was in the true acceptation of the term? Nobody; neither was there anybody who knew anything about the office of a Bishop, Priest, Teacher or Deacon, or about the functions of a High Council or a Bishop’s Council, or any of the ordinances of the Church of God. Who knew anything about the relation of man to man or of man to woman? Nobody. Who knew anything about the relationship that exists between man and God? Nobody. Who knew anything about the eternities that are to come? Nobody. It was God who revealed these things. Joseph Smith did not know them, neither did Brigham Young, the Apostles, nor anybody else until God revealed them, and we are indebted to him for all the light, knowledge and intelligence that we possess in regard to the heavens and the earth, in regard to the God who made us and the mode of worshiping him acceptably.

Now then, we are here; we have these various organizations. The Twelve, for instance, have various duties and responsibilities devolving upon them under the direction of the First Presidency. Then there are the Seventies, who are to be special messengers to the nations of the earth, to go forth in the name of Israel’s God, clothed upon with his power to administer life and salvation, and to teach the people the principles of truth under the direction of the Twelve, whose duty it is also to administer these principles, and see that this Gospel is sent to all peoples; and hence the necessity that is felt by them and by the First Presidency in relation to carrying these things out.

And let me say a little farther on a subject that I before referred to, that is, that God could not build up a kingdom on the earth unless he had a Church, and a people who had submitted to his law and were willing to submit to it; and with an organization of such a people, gathered from among the nations of the earth under the direction of a man inspired of God, the mouthpiece of Jehovah to his people; I say that, with such an organization, there is a chance for the Lord God to be revealed, there is an opportunity for the laws of life to be made manifest, there is a chance for God to introduce the principles of heaven upon the earth and for the will of God to be done upon earth as it is done in heaven. God could never establish his kingdom upon the earth unless he had a people who would submit themselves to his laws and government; but with such a people he could communicate, to such a people the heavens could be opened; to such a people the angels of God could administer; and among them the will of God could be done upon earth as it is done in heaven, and among no others, and that is why we are here. Says the Prophet—“I will take them one of a city and two of a family and bring them to Zion.” What will you do with them? “I will give them pastors after my own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge and understanding;” that they may be acquainted with each other and with their various duties and responsibilities; that they may be instructed in the laws of the holy priesthood, and be prepared, eventually, to join their quorums in the celestial kingdom of God, and that the people may be instructed in the laws of life. Hence our marriage ceremonies, relationships and covenants are among the principles of the Gospel, and they are eternal; they existed with God in eternity, and will exist throughout all the eternities that are to come. God has shown us, in regard to our marital relations, that our wives are to be sealed to us for time and eternity. By what authority? By the authority of that holy Priesthood that administers on the earth and in heaven, and of which Jesus said that whatever they should bind on earth should be bound in heaven, and whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven; and these relationships that exist among us here are calculated to be consummated there, and men and women who understand their true position expect to enjoy each other’s society and association there, as much as they do in their own homes here, just the same. And though they may sleep in the dust, yet, by the power of the resurrection, which you have heard of at this Conference, when the trump shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise, they will burst the barriers of the tomb and come forth, each and all claiming their proper mates—those with whom they were associated on the earth—through eternity. This is the way we regard our marriage covenants, no matter what other people say about it, this is our business, and we shall do it and keep on doing for ever and ever while God lets us live, because it is the word of God to us, and in spite of all the powers of earth and hell we shall never give way in regard to our marriage principles, for they are eternal; and so with regard to every other principle of the Gospel. This is why we have come together to help to build up the kingdom and government of God upon the earth. An earthly government if you please, and a heavenly government if you please. But no man nor set of men are capable of introducing principles of this kind unless God is with them and stands by them; and the first Elders of this Church never could have done what they did without the power of God being with them and accompanying them, and God’s mercy being extended to them. And they could not to-day.

Men have strange ideas about the Mormons. Why? Because unless they are born of water they cannot see the kingdom of God; that is what Jesus said, and that is why people fail to understand us. But we, who have been baptized and enlightened by the Spirit of God, can see his kingdom. We know it, we comprehend it in part, but only in part. What is the result of all this Priesthood—the First Presidency, the Twelve, the Seventies, the High Priests, Elders, Bishops, Priests, Teachers and Deacons? All of them profess to be under the direction of the Almighty, and if they are not, they are living hypocrites before God and holy angels; for these are the covenants they have entered into, and these are the ordinations they have received.

We see something strange in connection with us as a people—the world follows us, and too many of us follow after the world. Can the world give you the light that you have received, and the Gospel and the hopes of heaven you have received, and the Priesthood you have received? And will you barter these things for a mess of pottage, and wallow in the filth, corruption, iniquity, and evils which abound in the world? What have we come here for? To worship God and to keep his commandments. And how is it with many of us? We forget, in many instances, our high calling’s glorious hope, and we give way to follies, foibles, weakness, and iniquity, and we are governed more or less by covetousness, drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, and evils of various kinds. I sometimes see Elders of Israel bringing in loads of wood and loads of hay on the Sabbath day. Why, it is a burning shame in the eyes of God, holy angels, and all other intelligent beings. If such men had lived under the law of ancient Israel, they would have been put to death. Do you know that? Go and read it in your Bibles. What do you think about a lying Elder, a swearing High Priest, a Sabbath-breaking Seventy, and a covetous Saint? The souls of such men ought to be inspired with the light of revelation, and they ought to be living witnesses, epistles known and read of all men! Do you think you can live your religion, have the Spirit of God and obtain eternal life, and follow after these things? I tell you nay. It was said of olden time—“Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world; for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” That is as true to-day as it was eighteen hundred years ago. It is proper that we, as Elders of Israel, and as heads of families, should reflect upon these things, for in many instances we are setting examples before our children that will tend to plunge them to perdition. Is this what we are gathered here for? I tell you nay, we are gathered here to serve God and keep his commandments, and to build up his Zion upon the earth.

After praying for years that God would inspire his servant Brigham with the Spirit of revelation, that he might be able to lead forth Israel in the path in which they should go, he tells us to be one, as Jesus told his disciples; he tells us to enter into a united order, that God has revealed it, that we are to be one in spiritual things, and one in temporal things, to be united together in all principles, as the Saints of God have been wherever they have existed. But our Elders can’t see it, and many of our Bishop’s can’t see it, and many High Priests and Seventies can’t see it. Why? Because the Bridegroom has tarried, and we have all slumbered and slept, and in many instances we have sinned against God, and our lamps have gone out, that is the matter, and we have lost the light, and intelligence, and revelation, and quickening influence of the living God. If we were living our religion and keeping the commandments of God, we should feel and act differently; we should then know of the doctrine. Jesus said—“If any man does my will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.”

What is the matter, you High Priests, you Seventies, you Bishops and others? You are not doing the will of God, and you do not know of the doctrine, that is the matter; and yet we are living in the blaze of Gospel day, surrounded by Prophets, Apostles, Patriarchs, and men of God. Is it not time that we humbled ourselves? Is it not time that we repented of our sins? Is it not time that we forsook our iniquities? Is it not time that we went back to the first principles, and began to consider our ways, and to walk in the light of truth? That is the way that I understand it, and hence the necessity of the Elders of Israel, the President of the Church, of the Twelve, and of all men who are inspired by the light of truth and the light of revelation, to stir up the members of the Church generally to good works. They see Israel wandering away after strange gods, forsaking the fountain of living water, and “hewing out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water;” and hence the necessity of Apostles and Prophets for the perfecting of the Saints and the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ. How is it among many of our quorums? Perfectly dead, dumb, and lifeless, without the light, and life, and power of the living God among them; and Elders of Israel, clothed upon with the Holy Priesthood, expect when they get through, to associate with the Gods in the eternal worlds. How is it? It is time for us to reflect and to think upon our situation, and to consider our ways and be wise. What do you want to do? Do you want to get up some excitement? No, we want to bring you back to the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. Do you want us to be baptized? Not particularly, unless, as stated by President Young, you repent of your sins and your iniquities and your lying, and your deceiving and your Sabbath-breaking, and your covetousness and your hypocrisy, and repent of your speaking against the anointed of God; not unless you are willing to be governed by the Holy Priesthood in all things pertaining to this world and the next, pertaining to time and eternity. If you can’t do this, don’t be baptized; it will be better for you not to be.

Well, are all in this condition? No, no, there are more than “seven thousand who have not yet bowed the knee to Baal;” there are more than seven thousand who are seeking to do right, to live their religion, and to keep the commandments of God. I say, then, repent of your iniquities, do your first works, live your religion, keep the commandments of God; let every man do right and depart from evil. If any man has sinned against his brother, let him make it right honestly, and squarely, and truly, and not hypocritically; and let us do everything with honesty of heart, and seek to God, and humble ourselves before him, and live our religion, and God will pour blessings upon us that we shall not find room to contain. His Zion will rise and shine, and the glory of God will rest upon her, the principles of truth will spread on the right hand and on the left, and the mercy of God will be extended unto his people.

May God help us to fear him and keep his commandments, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Fulfillment of Prophecy, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Aug. 30, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I will read the latter part of the 32nd chapter of Isaiah, commencing at the 13th verse. [The speaker read from the 13th to the 20th verse inclusive.]

It is very evident from these predictions of the Prophet Isaiah, that he, by that spirit which opens the future, was able to see the calamities that would come upon the house of Israel, and not only upon the people, but also upon the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, now called Palestine. A curse was predicted upon that land, that instead of bringing forth those things that were necessary to sustain a people, it should bring forth briars and thorns. We are also told that this desolation should remain for a long period, until the Spirit should be poured out from on high, until, in the purposes of the Most High, he should pour out his Spirit, and that would produce a great change upon that land, but until that time it was to be desolate. All the houses of joy in the Jewish city were to be desolate, and, as it is recorded in other passages in Isaiah, they were to be the desolations of many generations. Not the desolation of seventy years, as happened to Israel in their Babylonish captivity, which only comprised about one generation, but the desolations were to be for many generations, during which that land was to lie uncultivated. The latter rains were to be withheld, and the land was to become dry and parched up, bringing forth thorns and briars, and this was to continue until the Lord poured out his Spirit from on high.

It seems, then, that the Lord had a particular set time in his own mind, when he would again pour out his Spirit from on high upon his people, and more especially upon the house of Israel; and when that time arrives, there will not only be a great moral reformation among the people, but we are told that the revolution will extend to the land also, for the Prophet says here, that when the Spirit is poured out from on high, the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be centered for a forest. What are we to understand by the prediction that the wilderness shall be a fruitful field when the Spirit is poured out from on high? We are to understand the same as is recorded in the thirty-fifth chapter of this prophecy, a small portion of which I will read. Speaking of the gathering of the Israelites in the latter times, he says—“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God.”

Now, to comprehend that this is to be a latter-day work, and not a work that was to take place soon after the prediction was uttered, we will read the following verses—“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong and fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.”

That has never been fulfilled; but preparatory to the time when God will come with vengeance to sweep away wickedness from the face of the earth, the house of Israel will be gathered back to their own lands, and the people of God will be permitted to dwell in the wilderness, and that wilderness will become a fruitful field. It is even said that the desert should rejoice because of those who are gathered, and should blossom as the rose.

Now that is something that has been fulfilled during the last quarter of a century, here in this wilderness, barren, desert country. The great latter-day work has commenced, the kingdom of God has been reorganized on the earth; in other words, the Christian Church in all its purity and with all its ordinances, has been reorganized upon the face of the earth, and the time has at length come when the Spirit of God has been poured out from on high. Until that period arrived, there was no hope for Israel, no hope for the land of Palestine, no hope for the redemption of the tribes scattered in the four quarters of the earth; but when the wilderness should become as a fruitful field, when the spirit should again be poured out from on high, through the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God, then the people should be gathered together by the commandment of the Lord. As is here stated, his Spirit should be the instrument in gathering them together. “My mouth, it hath commanded this great gathering.” Then we may look out, for a change upon the face of the land where this gathering takes place; we may look for the deserts to become like the garden of Eden, to blossom as the rose that blossoms in rich and fertile gardens, to blossom abundantly, and the desert to rejoice with joy and singing. We are to look also, soon after this period of time, for the great Redeemer to come. “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance; he will come and save you,” having reference to his second coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and with great glory, attended by all the angelic hosts; coming in flaming fire to consume the wicked from the face of the earth as stubble, to burn them up, both root and branch, while the Saints that are left will go forth upon the face of the earth and grow up as calves of the stall, and tread upon the ashes of the wicked.

The Prophet says that, when Jesus comes with vengeance and destroys the wicked, redeems the desert, and causes the wilderness to become a fruitful field, then the lame man shall leap as a hart, the tongue of the dumb shall speak, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.

A great many people enquire of the Latter-day Saints—“Why is it that you do not heal up all of your sick and those who are afflicted among you?” This question is often asked. Says the enquirer—“If you are the true Christian Church; if God has indeed sent his angel from heaven, as you Latter-day Saints testify that he has; if he has indeed organized his kingdom on the earth for the last time, preparatory to the day of his coming; how is it, if you have those gifts that they had in the ancient Christian Church, that all your lame and blind and dumb, and those who are afflicted are not healed up?” I answer, for the same reasons that the ancient Christians were not all healed. If they had always been healed in ancient times in the Church, they would have been living now. The time came for them to die, and they did die, notwithstanding all the faith of the ancient Christians, and notwithstanding they had power to say to the lame—“Be thou healed,” and the lame would leap as a hart; notwithstanding they had power, in the name of Jesus, to command blindness to depart from the children of men, and to command all manner of plagues and pestilences and they were subject to their command in the name of Jesus, yet, after all, the ancient Christians died. Why did they not heal them, keep them along, and not let them die? Because that was not according to the order which God had established. When a man or woman is appointed unto death you, nor I, nor Peter, nor James, nor Paul, nor John, nor any other man of God can heal them in the name of Jesus. Why? Because God has otherwise determined. But that did not do away the gift of healing in ancient times; that gift was abundantly made manifest, notwithstanding there were many who were sick who were not healed.

So in the latter-day kingdom, when the spirit is poured out again from on high, when God begins to manifest these ancient gifts again among his people, and the blind among them are made to see, and the deaf to hear, and the tongue of the dumb is made to speak, and the lame is made to walk—when all these things begin to take place among the people of God, still there will be many, very many, that will not be healed, otherwise the prophecy will not be fulfilled.

At the very time the Savior makes his appearance and comes with vengeance, there will be the sick, the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and those afflicted with all manner of diseases. The Prophet says that when he comes and finds them in this condition, “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be unstopped, the tongue of the dumb speak, and the lame man shall leap like a hart,” &c. So there will be something left for Jesus to do, when he comes in flaming fire, to heal all the sick who have not faith to be healed prior to that time. But when Jesus comes, he brings all the Saints with him; he raises the righteous dead from their graves, not as he raised Lazarus into mortality, but he raises them up, male and female, with immortal bodies, to reign here on the earth during the period that he himself shall reign, during the great Sabbath of creation, the millennial reign of one thousand years.

Now, we would naturally suppose that during that period of a thousand years everybody would have the power of faith to be healed. But no, though the Son of God is there, though the righteous dead with their immortal bodies are there, yet old men will die even then, for it is according to the design and purpose of the great Jehovah. Though there will be no one to fall asleep in infancy; though none of the youth will die in that day; though there will be no middle-aged persons upon whom death will lay his powerful grasp, yet the aged, or, as Isaiah says in his last chapter but one—“The days of my people shall be as the days of a tree, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. A child shall not die until he is a hundred years old.” We would naturally suppose that, the Lord being here, all the resurrected Saints being here, he would not let them die when they become old; but he lets them pass away according to the decree that was made when man fell and was cast out from the presence of the Lord. They must die, the penalty must come upon them.

But with regard to the wilderness that is here spoken of—“Water shall break forth in the desert, springs of living water, streams also in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water”—have you seen anything of the nature of this prediction fulfilled? Latter-day Saints, how was it with this wilderness twenty-eight years ago this summer when the pioneers entered this land, and when several thousands followed them in the autumn of that same year? What did you, who were appointed to explore the country, find? Many places parched up, looking as though there had been no water or rain from heaven for many years. You began to form your settlements on the streams that ran down from the melting snows in the mountains; and in a very short period of time you began to send forth your settlements, north and south and west. Occasionally you would find a little spring that would break out from under the threshold of the mountain, sufficient to water perhaps an acre of ground, and only one family could go there and settle. What do you find now? The same streams that would only water one acre of ground then—you know I am speaking to people who know for themselves, for they have seen it—the water in those very localities is now sufficient to water from one hundred to five hundred acres. What do you think of that? Have you realized that the hand of the Lord is with you?—that he has indeed fulfilled that which he spoke by the mouth of his ancient Prophet, when he said—“For in the wilderness waters shall break forth and streams in the desert, etc.”? He meant just what he said, and you have come hither and proved his words to be true.

I recollect traveling through this country, some three or four hundred miles, in the early days, soon after we had begun to branch out from this city to the north and the south, I found sometimes on a little stream of water from two to three families, and one or two of them would be talking about breaking up and going elsewhere, because there was not sufficient water to enable them to raise what was necessary to sustain themselves. Now we visit the same settlements and what do we find?—flourishing villages containing from thirty to fifty families. What is the matter? The Lord has fulfilled that which he spoke, causing streams in the desert.

I recollect that the pioneers, in the month of July, 1847, went over on to the north point of the west mountain to see the Great Salt Lake, to see what it looked like, what was the nature of the water, &c. We went to a place that has been called for many years “Black Rock,” a rock that is out in the lake a few rods from the shore. We concluded that we would go out to this rock to see what the depth of the water was beyond it. We did so, on dry ground, the waters of the lake being then several feet below the place where we walked to the Black Rock. What do we see now, and what have we seen for several years past? The path on which the pioneers traveled on foot to Black Rock is now covered with water ten feet deep. Showing that Salt Lake has risen some twelve or fifteen feet during the last quarter of a century. What is the meaning of this? Can you tell? Says one—“I should have thought the lake would have become lower.” That would be a very natural supposition; for our people have gone to work and made scores and scores of canals to carry on to their farms the water from the mountains that formerly ran into the lake, and hence the lake has had very little water running into it compared with what it would have had if the streams from the mountains had not been so diverted. But God has said that he would make the wilderness a fruitful field, and streams in the desert, and he has fulfilled his promise.

Pioneers, if any of you are here to-day, let me ask you a question—When you came down from the mouth of Emigration Canyon, where Camp Douglas is now situated, into this region of country, in July, 1847, what did the ground appear like? Did you dig down and make any experiments? “O yes, in many places.” How far did you dig down? “Some of us dug many feet to see if there was any appearance of moisture.” Did you find anything? What was the appearance of the soil? It looked as though there had been no rain for many generations. What do we find now? We find this same parched-up soil, for some five square miles, where Salt Lake City is located, converted into fruitful gardens, planted with apple, pear, peach, plum, and other kinds of fruit trees adapted to the climate, and in the spring season of the year, in the months of May and June, this locality is like one vast; garden full of blossoms, so much so that strangers are astonished beyond measure to see such a large extent of country so much like a garden.

Now let us see what Isaiah says about it, for he looked upon it as well as you, if he did live twenty-five hundred years ago. “The Lord shall comfort Zion, he will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” Indeed! Did you see it, Isaiah, as well as the people that live in our day? Did you see a people go into the desert and offer up thanksgiving and the voice of melody? Did you see that desert and wilderness redeemed from its sterile condition and become like the garden of Eden? “O yes,” says Isaiah, “I saw it all, and I left it on record for the benefit of the generation that should live some two or three thousand years after my day.” But Isaiah, are we to understand that the people are to be gathered together in that desert, and that the gathered people are to be instrumental in the hands of God, in redeeming that desert? Yes, Isaiah has told us all this. We will go back to what we read in his thirty-second chapter—“Until the spirit be poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.” What fruitful field? Why, the wilderness that will be converted into a fruitful field. “The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever; and my people shall dwell in peaceable habitations, and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places.”

Was that the way we dwelt in Missouri or Illinois? Did we live in quietness and with assurance continually in those States? Oh, no, we were tossed about; as Isaiah says—“tossed to and fro and not comforted.” That was the case with Zion while down in the States, and that was in accordance with a modern revelation, in which, speaking of Zion, the Lord says—“You shall be persecuted from city to city and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few shall stand to receive their inheritance.” But when the time should come for Zion to go up into the wilderness things would be changed; then my people shall dwell in peaceable habitations, in sure dwelling places, and in quietness and assurance.”

Will they have any capital city when they get up into the mountain desert? O, yes. Isaiah says here—“When it shall hail, coming down on the forest, the city shall be low in a low place.” How often have I thought of this since we laid out this great city, twenty-eight years ago! How often have this people reflected in their meditations upon the fulfillment of this prophecy! They have seen, on this eastern range of mountains and on the range of mountains to the west of this valley, snow and storms pelting down with great fury, as though winter in all its rigor and ferocity had over-taken the mountain territory, and at the same time, here, “low in a low place,” was a city, organized at the very base of these mountains, enjoying all the blessings of a spring temperature, the blessings of a temperature not sufficient to cut off our vegetation. What a contrast! “When it shall hail, coming down on the forest, the city shall be low in a low place.” That could not be Jerusalem, no such contrast in the land of Palestine round about Jerusalem! It had reference to the latter-day Zion, the Zion of the mountains.

Says one—“Is there anything in Isaiah that speaks of Zion being located in a high or elevated region in the mountains?” Oh yes, let us read and see what he says about it in his fortieth chapter: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.” Then he goes on to speak of the second coming of the Son of Man, and he says—“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The same as you have made, or assisted in making, the great highway through this desert region, and constructed highways here in the desert called the iron railroad. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Says one—“That meant his first coming, John the Baptist, etc.” Let us see. “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be laid low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places be made plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

Did that mean his first coming? Was the glory of God then revealed? Did all flesh see it together? No; it has reference to the second advent the coming of the Lord in his glory and in his power, when every eye shall see him. Then the mountains shall be laid low, then the valleys shall be raised up, then the rough places will be made smooth, then the glory of God will be made manifest to all flesh living, and every eye—the wicked and the righteous—will behold him, and they also who pierced him.

But before that day what will take place? We will read the 9th verse in the same chapter. “O Zion”—something about Zion now, before the Lord comes—“O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains.” Did you come up into these high mountains, you people of the latter-day Zion? What did you come here for? Because Isaiah predicted that this was the place you should come to, you should get up into the high mountain. He foretold it, and you have fulfilled it. “O Zion, that bringest good tidings.” What good tidings? What tidings have you been declaring the last forty-five years to the nations and kingdoms of the earth? What have you testified to, you missionaries? Your missionaries have gone from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom, proclaiming to the people that God has sent his angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel to be preached unto all people upon the face of the whole earth. This is what you have been proclaiming. Is not the everlasting Gospel glad tidings to the children of men? I think it is, and especially when it is brought by an angel to prepare the way for the great and glorious day of the coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is good tidings that people who receive this everlasting Gospel, are commanded to get up into the high mountain. You have fulfilled it, you have been at it now for twenty-eight years, coming up from the eastern slope, from the great Atlantic seaboard, and gradually rising and ascending until you have located yourselves in a place upwards of four thousand feet above the level of the sea. And here in the Zion of the mountains you have founded a great Territory, with some two hundred towns and villages, with your capital city “low in a low place,” where the temperature of spring prevails, while all the rigors of an arctic winter are beating upon the tops of the mountains in our immediate vicinity.

But lest any should suppose that this getting up into the mountains was a former-day work, let me read the next verse—“Behold the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him and his work before him.” Not coming to be smitten and spat upon, and despised, and to hang upon across, as was the case in ancient days; but the Lord God is to come with a strong hand, and his arm is to rule in that day as a king, as a lawgiver, as a mighty potentate to reign over all the kingdoms of the world, which will then become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, I mean that portion of them that are not swept off with devouring fire.

But I said that this people, called the Zion of the mountains, that were to cause the wilderness to blossom as the rose, were to be a people gathered from the four quarters of the earth. Can it be proved? Yes. I will refer you to the 107th Psalm, where it is said—“Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is God, and his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south”—a gathered people. Let us see what this people were to do. “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in.” I wish you had all been with the pioneers in the year 1847. When we started out, in the dead of the winter of 1846, upon the prairies of Iowa, after leaving the great Mississippi, and getting out about fifty miles from that river, we did not as much as find a foot track, and no signs of a human habitation. We wandered over that uninhabited territory some four hundred miles, until we reached the Pottowattamie and Omaha tribes of Indians, then located on the Missouri river. Then, early the next spring, we started forth, (one hundred and forty-three pioneers) with our faces still westward, and went up on the north side of the Platte river several hundred miles. Did we find a road most of that distance? No road at all. We found tens of thousands of buffalo and their paths; we found a great many hostile tribes of Indians, who sought very diligently to take away our horses and mules, and to cripple us in this manner. But we continued our journey, and at length came through these mountains, after having crossed at the South Pass, and come forth to a little fort called Fort Bridger. We then started into an unknown country, still bending our course southwesterly, for there was a rumor, and not only a rumor, but it had been testified, that there was a great inland sea, called the Salt Lake, in the midst of the great American desert. We had heard this rumor, and had read some of Fremont’s travels in the midst of hostile Indian tribes. We came forth into this desert, wandering in the wilderness in a solitary way. Who were they that thus wandered? People that had been gathered but from the east and the west, from the north and the south, redeemed from the hand of those who sought to destroy them. “They wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way, and they found no city to dwell in.” How different this was from the ancient Israelites when they entered the land of Palestine! They found numerous cities, built by the former inhabitants of the land. Jerusalem was a city that had been known for a long period before the Israelites went into that land, built up by its former heathen inhabitants. They found large vineyards, with grapes and fruit in great abundance, and cities, towns, and villages spread throughout the land, which the Lord God gave them for their possession. How different was that from the latter-day work, when the redeemed of the Lord should gather from the four quarters of the earth, and wander in a wilderness in a solitary way; they were to find no city to dwell in.

Did we suffer anything? Yes. Did the old Prophet speak of these sufferings? Yes. “Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them; then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, and he led them forth by the right way.” Yes, when our food gave out; when the crickets came in here by armies; when tons and tons of them poured in on the little crops first planted, ready to devour everything before them, and we were living on quarter rations, what did we do? We cried unto the Lord in our distress, in our hunger and thirst, believing that he would have compassion on us, and open some way for our relief, and he did so—he sent forth large flocks of gulls that lit down upon these crickets and devoured them up, and thus the crops of the people were saved.

“Well,” says one, “does this have reference to the same desert and wilderness that you have been reading about?” Let us see. “Let them exalt him, also, in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turns rivers into the wilderness, and water springs into dry grounds, and a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” Now notice the next prediction—“He turns the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water springs, and there he makes the hungry to dwell.” What for? “That they may prepare a city for habitation.” Though we did not find any cities already built here, we had to prepare one, and we have done so, and a very fine one indeed it is, and the wonder and astonishment of strangers who come here and see what has been done in the midst of a desert. The Lord predicted it, and you are the ones who have fulfilled it. “That they may prepare a city for habitation.”

What else? Were they to be lazy and indolent? No. That they may “sow fields and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly, and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.” Strangers, if you want to know how fast we are multiplying, just go through our settlements, and look at the numerous children in our Sabbath schools; you never heard of such an increase and multiplication, and the Lord foretold that it would be so.

There is another very curious thing concerning this people who should come into the desert wilderness. Isaiah says—“He setteth the poor on high from affliction,” Now, a great many of this people were very poor on arriving here; they had been robbed five times of all they had, and driven out. After having been thus plundered, we came here very poor; but the Lord “setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.” What a wonderful prophecy this is! A poor man to have not only a family like a flock, but even families. If you do not believe it strangers, go through our Territory, and see the large families, and in some cases you will find in the same vicinity six or eight different families, with their houses and farms, all belonging to one man, and he perhaps a poor man when he came here. “He setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice.” What! The righteous see this and have joy in it? So says the prophecy. “But,” says one, “I should have thought every one would have been disgusted with it.” To think that a man should have a family or families like a flock, while the righteous see it and rejoice! What else? “And all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” That has not yet been fulfilled. “Whosoever is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.” That is, those who observe these things are called a wise people, those who have gathered from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, that wander in the wilderness in a solitary place, finding no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, poor, stripped, robbed, plundered, forced into the desert, driven by their enemies, that very people should multiply exceedingly, the families of the poor man should become like a flock, and the people should rejoice in the midst of all their afflictions, while all the wicked should eventually stop their mouths. That will be their destiny sooner or later.

We will now return to our text, the 32nd of Isaiah—“Blessed are ye that sow by the side of all waters, and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.” Why did Isaiah say that a blessing should be given to a certain people that should happen to sow by the side of streams of water? Why did he not bless the others who lived on the hills and mountains, as they do all over our States and many other countries of the globe? Because he saw, in looking at this people, that they, in their location, were to go into a desert, and the redeemed of the Lord would be under the necessity of getting along the sides of streams; they could not go out several miles from a stream or spring and trust to the rains of heaven; no, the rains do not come here, or did not when we first located, so as to bless those who would naturally desire to reside far from a stream of water, but we were all under the necessity of getting down close to the side of some stream of water. What for? That it would be handy to build little canals to get water out to throw over the land. “Blessed are they who sow by the side of all waters and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.”

We have read these words of the ancient Prophet, in order that the Latter-day Saints may call to mind how completely the Lord is fulfilling every jot and every tittle, so far as time will permit, of that which he caused to be spoken, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through his ancient Prophets. Strangers think it very curious that this people should have such large families. If such were not the case, we would not be the people predicted about that were to be so blessed; but we are that people, and it is in vain for us to undertake to turn the hand of the Lord to the right or to the left. He has his own eternal course to pursue, and all his purposes he will fulfil, and there is no power beneath the heavens that can stay his almighty hand. He will fulfill that which he has spoken, in order that there may be no room for infidelity in the four quarters of the earth. There are a great many infidels now-a-days, and I do not wonder at it. Looking at modern Christendom, without any Prophets, inspiration, gifts, or the ancient powers of the Gospel, it is enough to make three quarters or nine-tenths of the people infidel in regard to religion. But the Lord is going to leave the people without any excuse, for every jot and tittle of that which he spoke by the mouths of his ancient Prophets he will bring to pass in its time and in its season. Zion is destined to fill the mountains in the last days; Zion will become, as Isaiah says, in his 60th chapter, a great people. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. The Lord shall bring it forth in its time, says Isaiah, and in the same chapter he speaks of the future glory of that people, and declares that while darkness should cover the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, Zion should arise and shine. These are the words of the Prophet—“Zion shall arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon her. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

Inquires one—“Is Zion going to become popular, so that Gentiles and kings and great men will come to her light?” Yes, certainly; and not only Gentiles, kings and great men, but many of all the nations of the earth have got to come to Zion, and, according to this very chapter, that nation and kingdom that will not serve Zion shall perish, and be utterly wasted away. Has there ever been such a people as this since the day Isaiah lived? There never has; but such a people and such a time are coming, and Zion will be that people. “The Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Thy gates shall be open continually, that men may bring the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.”

It will be a time of great plenty of the precious metals. In those days God will give the keys of the treasures of the earth and he will open them up to the people, Isaiah says, in this connection—“For brass I will bring gold, for iron I will bring silver, for wood brass, and for stones iron.” Gold and silver will be so plentiful that they will be used for the pavement of streets. But the covetous may say—“That will be a fine chance for us to steal; if you get pavements made with gold and silver we shall be along after them.” I think you will not. Why? Because God will be there, and I do not think you will have any chance to steal; for it is said in the fourth chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, that in that day every dwelling place in Mount Zion and all her assemblies shall have a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Do you think you would like to go into a city where every dwelling place is lighted up with a pillar of fire by night, and undertake to dig up the pavements? I think you would not have the heart to do it, you would fear that light would go forth from the presence of the Lord, and consume you, as it did many rebellious and wicked ones among the Israelites. Gold will be very good for pavements, if they are only constructed properly; and Mount Zion will be a very beautiful city, one of the most beautiful that has ever been on the face of the whole earth. It is spoken of by the Psalmist David, in the 50th psalm and also in another psalm—“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

You Christians quote the Psalmist David, and sing about this in your chapels and meeting houses, and you sing about the desert becoming like the Garden of Eden, and joy and gladness being found therein; you have it all fixed up so that it makes melody in the ears of your respective congregations. You sing about the fulfillment of these prophecies, but let a man of God be sent forth by the inspiration and power of the Almighty to warn you concerning the great day of the Lord that is coming; and concerning the fulfillment of these prophecies, and you will gnash your teeth upon him. He reads to you the same things that you sing, and brings forth the same testimony and the same Scriptures that are, every Sabbath day, repeated in your hearing, and yet you stone him and close the doors of your synagogues and chapels against him, and cry “False Prophets,” “delusions,” “false teachers,” and every evil epithet you can possibly invent to prejudice the minds of the people against him. Why? Because he comes to you with the truth; because he comes to you as a messenger from heaven; because he comes to you, testifying that the Lord God has spoken by his own voice, that he has sent his angel with the everlasting Gospel to be proclaimed to the nations as a preparatory work for the great day of bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles and the salvation and gathering of all the house of Israel. You cannot bear the truth, you will not hear it, and you cast out the servants of God, and stir up prejudice against them. Amen.

Book of Mormon—Urim and Thummin, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, July 18, 1875. Reported by David W. Evans.

I will read a few verses in the 29th chapter of Isaiah, commencing at the 18th verse. [The speaker read from the 18th verse to the end of the chapter.]

That which I wish to call to your mind, more particularly, on the present occasion, will be found in the first verse that I read—“In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book.”

The Latter-day Saints are a peculiar people among the inhabitants of the earth of the present age, peculiar in many things, peculiar in many religious notions and views. We profess to believe in this book, the Jewish record, called the Bible. We are not peculiar so far as this item of our faith is concerned; but in addition to the Bible, we believe in another book, called the Book of Mormon, which we believe to be equally sacred with the Bible. Some may, perhaps, call the Book of Mormon a bible, and in one sense of the word it may be called that, for it is a collection of sacred books, the same as the Jewish record is. The difference between the two records is merely in the history, and in some of the prophetic writings. The Bible professes to be a history of the people who lived on the eastern continent, while the Book of Mormon professes to be a history of the people who lived in ancient America. We have denominated the Jewish record the Bible, because it is a collection of books said to have been written by inspired men. I do not see any reason why we should not also, as Latter-day Saints, call the Book of Mormon a bible, it being a collection of books written by Prophets and Revelators. Perhaps, however, the world, or those who are strangers to the evidences concerning these two books, may object, and say that we have no right to call the Book of Mormon a bible, unless we can bring such evidence to substantiate its divinity as we can concerning the Jewish record. But supposing that we are in possession of similar evidences concerning this book in relation to ancient America, as you are in regard to the Bible, the history of the people of Palestine; supposing that we can bring forth as many evidences and substantial testimonies to prove the divinity of the Book of Mormon, as you can to prove the divinity of the Jewish record, then why should we not include it among the sacred books, and denominate it a bible, as well as call the Jewish record such? I will, this afternoon, by the assistance of the Spirit of God, endeavor to lay before you, Latter-day Saints, and strangers who may be present, some of the evidences that we have concerning the divinity of this book which we esteem so highly—the Book of Mormon.

In the first place, I will give you a very brief statement concerning the manner in which the Book of Mormon was found. In the year 1827, a young man, a farmer’s boy, by the name of Joseph Smith, was visited by an holy angel, as he had been for several years prior to this time. But on this occasion, in the fall of 1827, he was permitted to take into his possession the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated—the angel gave them into his hands, permitted him to take them from the place of their deposit, which was discovered to Mr. Smith by the angel of God. With this book, called the Book of Mormon, was a very curious instrument, such a one, probably, as no person had seen for many generations; it was called by the angel of God, the Urim and Thummim. We know that such an instrument existed in ancient times among the Jews, and among the Israelites in the wilderness, and that it was used to inquire of the Lord, and so sacred was that instrument in the days of Moses, that Aaron, the chief priest of the whole house of Israel, was commanded to place it within his breastplate, that when he should judge the tribes of the house of Israel, he should not judge by his own wisdom, but should inquire of the Lord by means of this instrument, and whatever decision the Lord, by aid of the Urim and Thummim, should give, all Israel should give heed to it. The same instrument was in use, many hundred years after the days of Aaron, by the Prophets of Israel. David inquired by means of an instrument of that kind, concerning his enemies, who pursued him from city to city, asking the Lord certain questions—whether his enemies would come to the city where he happened to be, and whether he would be delivered up to them by the people of that city; and the Lord gave him all necessary instruction, and by this means he was delivered out of the hands of his enemies from time to time.

But it seems that, before the coming of Christ, for some reason, probably through wickedness, the Urim and Thummim were taken away from the children of Israel, and a prophecy was uttered by one of the ancient Prophets, before Christ, that they should be many days without a Priest, without the Urim and Thummim, without the ephod, and without many things that God blessed them with in the days of their righteousness; but that in the latter days God would again restore all his blessings to the people of Israel, including their counselors and their judges as at the first.

With these plates that Joseph Smith, the Prophet, obtained through the instructions of the angel, he also obtained the Urim and Thummim, and by their aid he copied a few characters from the plates, and translated them. He was not a learned man himself, but an ignorant farmer’s boy, scarcely having the first rudiments of education. He could read and write a little, and that was about the amount of his educational acquirements. After having copied a few of the characters from these plates and translated them, he committed them into the hands of Martin Harris, a man with whom he was acquainted, who lived not far from his neighborhood; and Martin Harris took these few characters and their translation to the City of New York, to show them to the learned, and if possible to get some information in regard to their meaning. This was in the year 1827. Martin Harris was then a middle-aged man, being about forty-six years of age. On arriving in New York City, he visited the learned Dr. Mitchell, professor of languages, and obtained some information from him in relation to the manuscript which he held, and was recommended by Dr. Mitchell to see Mr. Anthon, professor of ancient and modern languages, probably one of the most learned men in ancient languages that ever lived in our nation. Mr. Harris went to see Mr. Anthon, and showed him the characters. The professor examined them and the translation, and, according to the testimony of Martin Harris, given from this stand, he gave him a certificate that, so far as he could understand the characters, the translation seemed to be correct; but he wished further time, and desired that the original plates should be brought to him. Mr. Harris then informed him how Mr. Smith came in possession of the plates—that he did not find them accidentally, but that an angel of God revealed to him the place of their deposit. This was after Martin Harris had obtained the certificate from Professor Anthon, and just before Mr. Harris took his leave of the learned gentleman; the latter having ascertained how Mr. Smith came in possession of the plates; that part of them were sealed, and that the Lord had given a strict command that they should not be shown to the public, but only to certain witnesses; I say that, the professor, having learned this, wished to see the certificate again; Mr. Harris returned it to him, and he tore it up, saying that there was no such thing as angels, or communications from the Lord in our day, and upon Mr. Harris telling him that a portion of the plates were sealed, he very sarcastically remarked, that he could not read a sealed book.

Mr. Harris left him, and returned, some two hundred and fifty miles or more, to the neighborhood where the plates were found, and informed Mr. Smith of his success with the learned, after which the Lord gave a special command to Joseph, unlearned as he was, that he should translate the record by the aid of the Urim and Thummim. Mr. Smith commenced the work of translation. Mr. Harris, acting as his scribe, wrote from his mouth one hundred and sixteen pages of the first translation, given by the Prophet.

The work was continued from time to time, until finally the unsealed portion of the Book of Mormon was all translated. In the meantime Martin Harris, Joseph Smith, the translator of the book, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, four persons, retired to a little grove in the year 1829, not far from the house of old father Whitmer, where this Church was organized. They retired to this grove for the special purpose of calling on the name of the Lord, and they all knelt down and commenced praying, one by one, and while thus engaged they saw an angel of God descend from the heavens, very bright and glorious in his appearance; and he came and stood in their midst, and he took the plates and turned over leaf after leaf of the unsealed portion, and showed to these four men the engravings upon them; and at the same time they heard a voice out of heaven saying unto them, that the plates had been translated correctly, and commanding them to bear testimony of the same to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people to whom the translation should be sent. In accordance with this command, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris have attached their testimony after the title page of the Book of Mormon, testifying to the appearance of the angel, signing their names and testifying to the correctness of the translation; testifying to having seen the plates and the engravings upon them, and to the voice of the Lord, which they heard out of the heavens.

Now let me say a few words concerning the nature of this testimony. This testimony was given prior to the publication of the book, and also previous to the organization of the Latter-day Saint Church. The book was printed early in 1830, with their testimony. Thus you perceive that this work, this marvelous work, was not presented to the inhabitants of the earth for their belief, until God had favored them with four persons who could bear witness to what their eyes had seen, what their ears had heard, and what their hands had handled, consequently there was no possibility, so far as these four men were concerned, that they themselves could be deceived. It would be impossible for four men to be together, and all of them to be deceived in seeing an angel descend from heaven, and in regard to the brightness of his countenance and the glory of his person, hearing his voice, and seeing him lay his hands upon one of them, namely David Whitmer, and speaking these words—“Blessed be the Lord and they who keep his commandments.” After seeing the plates, the engravings upon them, and the angel, and hearing the voice of the Lord out of heaven, every person will say that there was no possibility of either of these men being deceived in relation to this matter; in other words, if it were to be maintained that in their case it was a hallucination of the brain, and that they were deceived, then, with the same propriety might it be asserted that all other men, in every age, who profess to have seen angels, were also deceived; and this might be applied to the Prophets, Patriarchs, Apostles, and others who lived in ancient times, who declared they saw angels, as well as to Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. But says the objector—“No, those who testify that they saw angels anciently were not deceived, but they who come testifying about such ministrations in the latter days may be deceived.” Now let me ask, is there anything logical in such reasoning as this? If these, in the latter days, who testify to having seen angels, were deceived, all who testify to the same things in former days might have been deceived on the same grounds. And then, if these men, whose testimonies are attached to the Book of Mormon, were not deceived, it must be admitted that they were impostors of the most barefaced character, or else that the Book of Mormon is a divine record sent from heaven; one or the other must be admitted, there is no halfway in the matter. If they were not deceived—which they could not possibly have been according to the very nature of their testimony—then there are only two alternatives—they were impostors, or else the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation from heaven.

Now let us inquire what grounds there are to suppose that they were impostors? Forty-six years have passed away since this angel appeared and showed the plates to these individuals. Has anything transpired during this time that would give us any grounds to suppose that they were impostors? For instance, has either of these witnesses, or the translator of the engravings on the plates, ever, under any circumstances, denied his testimony? No. We have some accounts in the Bible of men of God, some of the greatest men that lived in ancient times, denying the things of God. We read of Peter cursing, and swearing that he never knew Jesus, and yet he was one of the foremost of the Apostles. His testimony was true so far as seeing and being acquainted with Jesus was concerned, and in regard to the divinity of Jesus. Why? Because God had revealed it to him and yet he denied it. “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah,” said Jesus, speaking to Peter, “for flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” Peter knew, just as well as he knew that he had a being, that Jesus was the son of God, it had been revealed to him from the heavens and though he afterwards, through fear, in the presence of the high priest, cursed and swore and denied it, yet the former testimony that he had given was true.

Now did either of these three men or did the translator of the Book of Mormon, ever deny the truth, as Peter did? Did they ever in any way deny the divinity of the Book of Mormon? Never, no never. Whatever the circumstances they were placed in, however much they were mobbed and ridiculed, however much they suffered by the persecution of their enemies, their testimony all the time was—“We saw the angel of God, we beheld him in his glory, we saw the plates in his hands, and the engravings thereon, and we know that the Book of Mormon is true.” Joseph Smith continued to bear this testimony until the day of his death; be sealed his testimony as a martyr in this Church, being shot down by his enemies, who were blackened up and disguised, in order that they might not be known. Oliver Cowdery did not live his faith as he should have done, and he was excommunicated from this Church during Joseph’s lifetime. Did he still continue to hold fast to his testimony? He did. Never was he known to swerve from it in the least degree; and after being out of the Church several years, he returned to Council Bluffs, where there was a Branch of the Church, and at a conference he acknowledged his sins, and humbly asked the Church to forgive him, bearing his testimony to the sacred things recorded in the Book of Mormon—that he saw the angel and the plates, just according to the testimony to which he had appended his name. He was rebaptized a member of the Church, and soon after departed this life.

Martin Harris did not follow up this people in the State of Missouri, neither did he follow us up to the State of Illinois; but we often heard of him, and whenever we did so we heard of him telling, in public and in private of the great vision that God had shown to him concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon. A few years ago he came to this Territory, an old man, between eighty and ninety years of age, and spoke from this stand, in the hearing of the people. He then located himself in Cache County, in the northern part of the Territory, where he continued to live until last Saturday, when he departed this life in his ninety-third year—a good old age. Did he continue to bear testimony all that length of time—over forty-six years of his life? Did he, at any time during that long period, waver in the least degree from his testimony? Not at all. He had a great many follies and imperfections, like all other people, like the ancient Apostles, like Elijah the Prophet, but after all, he continued to testify to the very last concerning the truth of this work. Nothing seemed to delight him so much as to tell about the angel and the plates that he had seen. It was only a short time prior to his death that one of our Bishops went in to see the old man; his pulse was apparently sluggish in its movements, and nearly gone, but the sight of the Bishop seemed to revive him, and he said to him—“I am going.” The Bishop related to him some things which he thought would be interesting, among them that the Book of Mormon was translated into the Spanish language, for the benefit of a great many of the descendants of Israel in this country, who understand the Spanish language, in Mexico and Central America. This intelligence seemed to revive the old man, and he began to talk about the Book of Mormon; new strength, apparently, was imparted to him, and he continued his conversation for some two hours, and in his last testimony he bore record concerning the divinity of the work, and was rejoiced to think that it was going forth in another language, that those who understood that language might be made acquainted with the wonderful works of God.

I will here state that Martin Harris; when he came to this Territory a few years ago, was rebaptized, the same as every member of the Church from distant parts is on arriving here. That seems to be a kind of standing ordinance for all Latter-day Saints who emigrate here, from the First Presidency down; all are rebaptized and set out anew by renewing their covenants. There are thousands of Latter-day Saints who have gone forth into the baptismal font, and been baptized for their dead kindred and friends. Martin Harris requested this privilege, and he was baptized here in Salt Lake City for many of his kindred who are dead. I mention these things in order that the Saints may understand something concerning this man who has just left us, almost a hundred years old. God favored him, highly favored him. He was among the favored few who went up from the State of Ohio in the summer of 1831, and journeyed nearly a thousand miles to the western part of Missouri, to Jackson County. The Prophet went at the same time, and that was designated as the land where the Saints should eventually be gathered, and where a great city should be eventually reared, called the city of Zion, or the New Jerusalem, and that the Saints should be located throughout all that region of country. God gave many commandments in those days concerning what might be termed the United Order; in other words, concerning the consecration of the properties of the Church. These things were given by revelation through the Prophet. Martin Harris was the first man that the Lord called by name to consecrate his money, and lay the same at the feet of the Bishop in Jackson County, Mo., according to the order of consecration. He willingly did it; he knew the work to be true; he knew that the word of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph was just as sacred as any word that ever came from the mouth of any Prophet from the foundation of the world. He consecrated his money and his substance, according to the word of the Lord. What for? As the revelation states, as an example to the rest of the Church.

As I have already mentioned, one more witness remains who saw that angel and the plates. Who is it? David Whitmer, a younger man than Martin Harris, probably some seventy years of age, I do not recollect his age exactly. Where does he live? In the western part of Missouri. Does he still hold fast to his testimony? He does. Many of the Elders of this Church, in going to and fro among the nations, have called upon him from time to time, and they all bear the same testimony—that Mr. David Whitmer still, in the most solemn manner, declares that he saw the angel and that he saw the plates in his hands. But he is not here with us; he has not gathered up with the people of God. That, however, does not prove that his testimony is not true, by no means.

Now then, let me bring forth some predictions or prophecies concerning these three witnesses. In the forepart of the Book of Mormon, we have a prediction that there should be three witnesses; it was uttered nearly six hundred years before Christ by a man, a Prophet of God, who came out of Jerusalem and came to this American continent; and in speaking of the last days, when this record should come forth to the human family, he foretells that there should be witnesses who should know of a surety concerning its truth. I will read what he says, “And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered; and behold the book shall be sealed, and in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof. Wherefore, because of the things which are sealed up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people, wherefore the book shall be kept from them. But the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust; and he shall deliver these words unto another.”

Now this man spoken of was the translator, Joseph Smith; and the delivering the words to another had reference to what I have already related—the delivery of a few of the words of the book to Martin Harris. “He shall deliver the words unto another, but the words which are sealed he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the book; for the book shall he sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book, until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold they reveal all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof. And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops, and they shall he read by the power of Christ, and all things shall be revealed unto the children of men, which ever have been among the children of men, and which ever will be, even unto the end of the earth. Wherefore at that day, when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it, save it be that three witnesses shall behold it by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered, and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein, and there are none other which shall view it save it be a few, according to the will of God, to bear testimony unto the children of men, for the Lord God has said, that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead. Wherefore the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book, and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good, will he establish his word, and woe be unto him that rejecteth the word of God.”

This was translated from the plates, and written in manuscript, before Martin Harris, David Whitmer, or Oliver Cowdery ever saw this angel, but there was a promise; it was on record; it was in the manuscript that three witnesses should behold it by the power of God. That prophecy, as I said before, was delivered nearly six hundred years before Christ. There was another prophecy delivered nearly a thousand years afterwards, which I will also read—“And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory, and I have told you the things which I have sealed up, therefore, touch them not”—speaking to the translator that should find his records—“therefore touch them not in order that you may translate, for that thing is forbidden you, except by and by it shall be wisdom in God; and behold ye may be privileged that ye may show the plates unto those who shall assist to bring forth this work, and unto three shall they be shown by the power of God, wherefore they shall know of a surety that these things are true, and in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established, and the testimony of three, and this work in the which shall be shown forth the power of God, and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost beareth record; and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day. And if it so be that they repent and come unto the Father in the name of Jesus, they shall be received into the kingdom of God. And now if I have no authority for these things judge ye, for ye shall know that I have authority, when ye shall see me and we shall stand before God at the last day.”

Here then were two prophecies delivered about a thousand years apart, translated before the three witnesses saw the angel. It was in consequence of these prophecies that these men went out to the grove to pray. You may ask me why they went there to pray? Because they had read these things, and they saw that there were to be three witnesses that should know by the power of God, being revealed to them from the heavens, concerning these matters, and they felt anxious that God might show them these things, that they might be the favored three.

Well, now, let me ask, is there anything inconsistent in a people receiving the testimony of twelve witnesses who saw and handled the original of the Book of Mormon, when they, at the same time, believe in the Bible, the original of which was never seen or handled by any man of this generation? In other words, which of the two is most consistent to believe in? The Latter-day Saints believe in both, because we know the Bible is true, for the Book of Mormon testifies of it, and we have obtained a testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon; and hence, as that book speaks of the Bible, we know that the Bible is true. When the people, mentioned in the Book of Mormon left Jerusalem, and came to the land of America, they brought the books of the Old Testament with them from the history of the creation to the prophecies of Jeremiah, and in their writings made on this land, they speak of the divinity and truthfulness of the Old Testament scriptures. Hence we, as Latter-day Saints, know one book to be true just as well as we do the other. But with the world it is different, for as they never had this testimony the truth of the Bible rests to them entirely upon secondhand testimony. But we will pass on to other testimonies.

I will now refer you again to the 29th chapter of Isaiah, from which I read concerning a book, the words of which were to be heard by the deaf—“In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book.” What book do you mean, Isaiah? He means the one that he had just been speaking of in the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th verses—“And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, ‘Read this I pray thee;’ and he says, ‘I can not, for it is sealed.’ And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying—‘Read this I pray thee,’ and he says—‘I am not learned.’ Wherefore the Lord said, ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men, therefore, behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.’”

Here we perceive the nature of the book that he mentions in the 18th verse, and we learn something about the way that it was to be brought forth; that the words of the book, not the plates themselves, not the original, but the transcript, a copy of the words, the words of the book would be delivered to the learned, requesting them to read it.

Martin Harris, who has now gone from our midst, was the honored instrument in the hands of God in fulfilling this prophecy, as I have already related, giving you the names of the learned to whom he presented these words. I have also related to you the conversation in the interview which Mr. Harris had with Professor Anthon; when he learned that an angel had appeared, and that part of the book was sealed, in a kind of sarcastic way the Professor remarked—“I can not translate a book that is sealed.”

Now notice the next sentence—“And the book is delivered to him that is not learned.” Not the words of the book, not a few sentences, but the book itself is delivered to him that is not learned, saying—“Read this I pray thee.” And what did he say? “I am not learned.” He felt his weakness. That was the exclamation of Joseph, when he was commanded to translate the engravings on the plates. He looked upon himself as too weak to engage in a work of this description, and the Lord answered him in the very words made use of by Isaiah. When Joseph said—“I am not learned,” the Lord said—“Forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men, therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” And Joseph fulfilled the commandment of the Lord, and Martin Harris wrote the first 116 pages of manuscript; and Oliver Cowdery and others also wrote from the mouth of Joseph, while he was engaged in translating. Was not this a marvelous work? What could be more marvelous? A young man, a ploughboy, a boy that had scarcely any education, only as he obtained it in a country school; a man who had never studied theology, probably had never read the Bible through in his life. A young man of this description to be called upon to translate a language that was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of this country! A marvelous work indeed, and a wonder and an astonishment to the people. Isaiah says the people would wonder about it. He says—“Stay yourselves and wonder, cry ye out and cry, they are drunken but not with wine; they stagger but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the Prophets and your rulers and the seers hath he covered.” That is the condition of the people; or as is expressed by Isaiah in another place, “Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people.” The Prophets are covered; the seers are covered, the revelations of God that were given in ancient days are covered to them. They are taught, not by inspired men, not by communications and revelations from heaven, but by the precepts of men, is the fear of the Lord taught to them.

In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” A great many people, perhaps, would want this spiritualized; but, whether it is spiritualized or not, I can bear testimony to one thing which I have seen with my own eyes, and that is that those who were deaf, so deaf that they could not hear the loudest sound, have been instantaneously restored by the administrations of the Elders of this Church, and thus the deaf, the literally deaf, have been enabled to hear the words of the book.

The eyes of the blind, not those alone who are spiritually blind, but of those who are blind physically, should see out of obscurity and out of darkness, when that book was revealed. Now I know that this, too, has been the case, and many in this congregation know it and have seen it; some have seen those who were born blind restored to their sight by the power of God since this book came forth. Thus have been fulfilled, literally, the words of our text.

“The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord.” There have been a great many meek persons among all Christian denominations, we do not dispute this; good, honest, upright persons, meek, humble, prayerful souls; but they wandered in darkness; they hardly knew which way to turn. One was crying, “Lo here,” and another, “Lo there;” another, “This is the way, walk ye in it;” and another, having an opposite doctrine—“We are the true Church, come and join us.” Thus they have been distracted and their minds crazed, comparatively speaking; yet they were anxious beyond measure to know the will of God. This book, when it came forth, was to set them in the right track. “The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord,” In what way? “Because,” says the Prophet, in the 24th verse, “they who erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they who murmured shall learn doctrine.” However much you may have erred, because you have been taught by the precepts of men; however much you may have walked in darkness and blindness, with the Prophets, seers, and revelations of God covered, and no voice of inspiration in your midst; however much you may have groped in outer darkness, yet if you have been meek before the Lord, you will come to understanding when this book makes its appearance, and not till then.

But will this take place in the latter days? Does it not refer to some former age of the world? Read what is said in the 20th and 21st verses, and you can judge of the age of the world in which this book was to come forth. “The poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” Not the rich particularly, unless they have a mind to; but the poor are to be gathered out from the nations to get homes for themselves. “For the terrible one is brought to nought, the scorner is consumed; and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, and they that make a man an offender for a word and that lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate.” All these are to be swept off. Has any such period ever arrived since Isaiah uttered this prophecy? No; but when a certain book should come forth it should bless the meek and lowly in heart, for their joy should increase in the Lord. And the poor among men be gathered out from the nations. Then, behold and lo, all that watch for iniquity shall be swept of[f] from the face of the earth; there will be a clean sweep of them. As it was in the days of Noah so will it be in the days of the work preparatory for the second coming of the Son of man—every wicked person will be destroyed from the face of the earth, showing clearly that the revelations of this book refer to a latter-day work. Also in the fourth verse, in speaking of the people who should write this book, the Prophet says they shall be brought down, shall speak out of the ground, their plates, their books, their records, their writings, should come out of the ground—“Your speech shall be low, out of the dust,” the same as the Book of Mormon was taken out of the hill, anciently called Cumorah, in the State of New York.

Again, he says that the multitude of all the nations that fight against the people of God, shall become like the dream of a night vision, shall be as a hungry man who dreams, and behold he eats, but he awakes and his soul is faint; like a thirsty man that dreams, and behold he drinks, but he awakes and his soul hath appetite. So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

Now, we do not care how many persecutors there are; if they include all the nations, kingdoms, and governments of the earth, it matters not. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will become like the dream of a night vision—be swept away. That agrees with what I have already quoted—that all who watch for iniquity, all the scorners, and all who fight against the work of God, will be consumed from the face of the earth.

Now how is this book to affect the house of Israel? Is it for their benefit particularly? They have been a long time scattered, a long time abroad among the nations; are they to be affected by this book that is spoken of by Isaiah? Yes. Read the 22nd verse, which I have already once read before you—“Therefore, thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.” Why? Because this book comes forth to bring the house of Jacob from all the nations and kingdoms of the earth; and this will commence just as soon as the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; not until then. We must be warned first; we Gentiles must hear the word first; and when we count ourselves unworthy of eternal life, and fight against the book, and against the Zion and people of God, behold the Lord will then remember the house of Jacob, and they will no longer be ashamed, as they have been for about seventeen centuries past; they will no longer wax pale, as they have done wherever they have been scattered, for the Lord says, in the 23rd verse, that Jacob, when he shall see his children, the work of his hands, in the midst of him, that is, gathered out from among the nations, they shall sanctify my name, and shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

Where will this work commence among the house of Israel? Among the remnant that we call the American Indians, who are the literal descendants of Israel. They seem to be more sunken and degraded than all the rest of Israel, but God will stretch forth his hand and will bring them to the knowledge of the truth. The descendants of Manasseh, and the descendants of Ephraim, are also mixed in with them, and they also will be brought to the knowledge of the truth, as the Lord has said by the mouth of Jeremiah, concerning the great latter-day work and the restitution of the house of Israel—“Ephraim is my firstborn.” In the great latter-day work, then, the Lord will search after the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, and will bring them also to the knowledge of the truth.

Do you wonder, then, that after forty-five years have passed away since the organization of this Church, and the voice of warning went forth to the Gentile nations, that God, in his mercy and power, should commence a work among this remnant of the house of Joseph, that wander as a multitude of nations upon the face of this continent? Recollect what Jacob said, concerning the seed of Joseph, in the 48th chapter of Genesis—they were to become a multitude of nations. They never were a multitude of nations in Palestine, neither in Asia, Europe, nor Africa, and if the prophecy is not fulfilled upon the great western continent, it will not be fulfilled at all. But it has been fulfilled on the continent of America; and we behold throughout the whole of its vast extent, from the frozen regions of the north, to Cape Horn in the south, a multitude of nations. Who are they? They are principally the remnants of one tribe, the remnants of the tribe of Joseph, and they are a multitude of nations in the midst of the earth. The Lord has commenced the gathering and restitution of the house of Israel among the very lowest specimens of humanity, and he will raise them up first, to carry on his great and marvelous work. The tens of thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh, will push the people together to the ends of the earth. Ephraim will not do the work alone, but he will be assisted by Manasseh. The Indians, the Lamanites, who will take hold in this great latter-day work, are the horns of Joseph, not to scatter the people, but to push them together. Where? To the ends of the earth, the 33rd of Deuteronomy says, and I have no doubt that when Moses saw this continent in vision, he called it “the ends of the earth.” There was to be a gathering there; they were to be pushed together; instead of being gathered from the nations of the earth back to Palestine, they were to be gathered in the latter days away in some distant country, that Moses designates by the term “ends of the earth.”

It is for this reason that God promised, by the mouth of Moses in the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy, that he would give to Joseph a land more precious than the land of all the other tribes—a land of all climates, blessed with the precious things of the earth, and a fullness thereof; with the precious things brought forth by the sun, and the precious things brought forth by the moon, with the chief things of the ancient mountains, and the precious things of the everlasting hills. All these were to be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. “Blessed of the Lord be his land”—that was the promise that God gave to this one tribe, a land far superior to the inheritance of all the rest of the tribes. Jacob, who lived a long time before Moses, pronounced a similar blessing, as recorded in the 49th chapter of Genesis. When blessing his twelve sons, and telling them what should come to pass in the latter days, he says concerning Joseph—“He is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.” That is, his branches should not stay in Jerusalem, or in Palestine, or in that land alone, but they should run over the wall to some distant country. Hence he says, in the same blessing, “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the uttermost bounds of the everlasting hills, and they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.”

I suppose that Jacob saw this land as well as Moses, and he designates it a land afar off; the utmost bounds would signify a very distant land. He said this land was over and above, what his progenitors gave to him and he would give it to Joseph. No wonder that Moses said—“Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the deep that coucheth beneath.” For if Moses had a vision of it, he would look down through the earth and see that the great Pacific ocean rolled under his feet, that it couched beneath, and he would speak of it in that light, as it was revealed to him. No wonder that the Prophet Ezekiel, in speaking of the great latter-day work and the restitution of Israel, prophesied concerning the records of Joseph, that they should come forth, and be united with the record of Judah, to bring about that great work. The precious things of heaven were to be given to Joseph on this land. Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven, more precious than the fullness of earth, more precious than the productions of the various climates of the earth, more precious than the grain, and the gold and silver of the earth. The precious things of heaven revealed to the people of Joseph on the great land given to them unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills.

Said the Lord to Ezekiel—“Son of Man, take thou one stick and write upon it, for Judah, and for the house of Israel, his companions; then take another stick and write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for the house of Israel, his companions, and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall be one in thine hand.” Then he said to Ezekiel—“When the people shall say unto thee, tell us what thou meanest, say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will take the stick of Joseph, written upon for Joseph, and I will put it with the stick of Judah, and they shall become one in mine hand. Just the same as the two sticks were one in Ezekiel’s hands, so the Lord would make these two books, of Judah and Joseph, one in his hand.” What to do, Lord? What are you going to do when these two records are joined in one? “Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone. I will gather them on every side, I will bring them into their own land, I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. They shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”

Has that ever been fulfilled? “Oh, no,” says one, “that has never yet come to pass;” and it never will until the Lord brings forth the writings of Joseph and joins them with the Jewish record. Then we may look out for the restitution of Israel; as soon as the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, we may look out for the day of the Lord’s power, when he will cause the very powers of heaven to shake for the benefit of his people. The powers of eternity will be moved to bring about the great work of the restitution of the house of Israel. Then the mountains shall tremble, and the little hills shall skip like lambs, as is prophesied by the Psalmist David. Then all things shall feel the power of God, and his arm will be made bare in the eyes of all the nations, until the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God, manifested in behalf of his covenant people Israel. It will be emphatically the day of the Lord’s power.

Restoration of the Gospel, Probable and Spiritual, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Fifteenth Ward Meeting House, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, March 26, 1876. Reported by David W. Evans.

I will read a few passages of Scripture in the fore part of the 40th chapter of Isaiah. [The speaker read the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th and 11th verses.]

The particular portion of these words which I have read, to which I wish to call the attention of the congregation this afternoon, is that relating to the preparation for the coming of the Lord, I mean the second coming, when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came into the world some eighteen centuries ago in a very humble, meek and lowly manner. He came to teach the people the principles of the Gospel, and to open the way whereby salvation might be brought about in behalf of the human family, by offering an atonement before the Lord, his heavenly Father, for the sins of the world. When he came in that humble manner, he considered it important to send a messenger before his face to make preparations for that event, so that the people might not be altogether unprepared, and taken unawares concerning the work he was then to do on our earth. Hence a great Prophet was raised, generally known by the name of John the Baptist, who went forth before the Savior, calling upon the people to repent, testifying that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, baptizing them for the remission of sins, informing them that there was one standing among them that was greater than he. Although he was a great prophet, yet he did not consider himself even worthy to unloose his shoe latches, and although he was commissioned to baptize the humble, penitent believer for the remission of his sins, yet that personage that stood among them should baptize them with fire and with the Holy Ghost. That same Jesus, after the way had been prepared, went forth preaching in the land of Palestine, and the regions around, testifying of the things pertaining to the Gospel, choosing men, sending them forth before him, without purse or scrip, to declare the glad tidings of the Gospel to the people.

After awhile, after having been persecuted and driven hither and thither, and mobbed and scorned and cast out in many places, he was at length taken by the religious people of that day, those who were considered most pious—the high priests, Pharisees, Sadducees and many others, and was brought before them in judgment, and was condemned to die upon a cross, and after having carried the judgment into execution and put him to death, Jesus rose again on the third day, and appeared, not openly to the world, but to a few chosen witnesses; and just before being taken up into heaven he said unto eleven of these men—“Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” And while he was giving them their commission and instructions and blessing them he was taken up into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And two angels stood by them on that occasion, and they said—“This same Jesus whom ye have seen taken up into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” That is, he was received into a cloud, taken up in a cloud, and when he comes the second time he will come in a cloud, personally, with his resurrected body, the same as he ascended in the cloud. This was the testimony of these two angels who stood by on that occasion. It is of this second advent, and the preparations therefor[e], that I desire to speak this afternoon.

Jesus will come in a cloud, or as is expressed here in the 40th chapter of Isaiah—“The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. It is also expressed in the revelations of St. John, that when he comes in a cloud every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him. It seems then that the second advent of the Son of God is to be something altogether of a different nature from anything that has hitherto transpired on the face of the earth, accompanied with great power and glory, something that will not be done in a small portion of the earth like Palestine, and seen only by a few; but it will be an event that will be seen by all—all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord; when he reveals himself the second time, every eye, not only those living at that time in the flesh, in mortality on the earth, but also the very dead themselves, they also who pierced him, those who lived eighteen hundred years ago, who were engaged in the cruel act of piercing his hands and his feet and his side, will also see him at that time. Now an event of so great a character as the one of which I am speaking must necessarily have a preparation. If the Lord would prepare the way for the first coming, when he came apparently as a man, like other men; if he considered it important on that occasion to send one of the greatest Prophets that ever lived among men, why not also send Prophets or inspired men before the face of his second coming, to warn the inhabitants of the earth and prepare them for so great an event? I know what the traditions of the religious world are in regard to this matter—they consider that the day of Prophets has gone by, and that no more Prophets, Apostles, Revelators, or inspired men are to appear among the children of men. But it is very evident from a vast amount of Scripture that might be quoted, that there will be many Prophets in the latter days; indeed the time will come when the spirit will be poured out upon all living—all that have not been destroyed from the earth, all flesh; and the effects of that spirit, when it is poured out, will be to make Prophets of the people. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams by the power of that spirit, and your young men shall see visions, all by the operations of the spirit that will be poured out upon all flesh. This is a prediction that must be fulfilled.

Prior to the time, however, when the spirit is poured out upon all flesh there will be an angel sent from heaven, and that angel will bring the everlasting Gospel to be preached. When I speak of the everlasting Gospel I mean the same one that was preached eighteen hundred years ago; and authority will be given to some of the children of men to preach that everlasting Gospel among the nations; and when that shall take place I have no doubt but what there will be many Prophets raised up, because the true Christian Church has always been characterized by Prophets. There never was a genuine Christian Church unless it had Prophets and Prophetesses; indeed, in ancient times Prophets were so numerous in one branch of the Christian Church, that Paul had to set them in order, and send them an epistle and tell them not to all get up and prophecy at once, but that if a thing was revealed to any one he was not to get up and declare it while another one was speaking, but he was to wait until the first got through speaking, and then he should prophesy; for, said Paul, the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets. That is, when the spirit came upon Prophets in ancient times, it did not exercise a supernatural power upon them to force them from their seats to stand up and declare their prophecies the moment they were revealed, but that the spirit that was given to them was subject to them, so that they could stay upon their seats until the first Prophets got through prophesying. That was the order of the Christian Church when God ever had one upon the earth—Prophets were very numerous in that church.

But by and by the time came when the Christian Church apostatized and turned away, and began to follow after their own wisdom, and the Prophets and Apostles ceased, so far as the affairs of the Christian Church on the earth were concerned. Revelations, and visions, and the various gifts of the spirit were also taken away, according to their unbelief and apostacy; but in the latter days God intends to again raise up a Christian Church upon the earth. Do not be startled, you who think that God will no more have a Church on the earth, for he has promised that he would again have one, and that he would set up his kingdom, and when he does you may look out for a great many Prophets and inspired men; and if you ever see a Church arise, calling itself a Christian Church, and it has not inspired Apostles like those in ancient times, you may know that it is a spurious church, and that it makes pretensions to something that it does not enjoy. If you ever find a church called a Christian Church that has no men to foretell future events, you may know, at once, that it is not a Christian Church. If you find a Christian Church that has not the ancient gifts, for instance the gift of healing, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the tongue of the dumb to speak and the lame to walk; if you ever find a people calling themselves a Christian Church and they have not these gifts among them, you may know with a perfect knowledge that they do not agree with the pattern given in the New Testament. The Christian Church is always characterized with inspired men, whose revelations are just as sacred as any contained in the Bible; and, if written and published, just as binding upon the human family. The Christian Church will always lay hands upon the sick in the name of Jesus, in order that the sick may be healed. The Christian Church will always have those among its members who have heavenly visions, the ministration of angels, and the various gifts that are promised according to the Gospel.

But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be. They say, “We have built chapels unto the name of the Lord; we call our Churches Christian Churches, they are called the Church of Christ, St. John’s Church, St. Paul’s Church, St. Peter’s Church, and after others of the ancient Apostles;” and one who had never studied the pattern which God has given of the Christian Church would almost really believe that they are Christian Churches.

But there has been a long apostacy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance, and they are represented in the revelations of St. John as a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast, having a golden cup in her hand, full of filthiness and abominations, full of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; that in her forehead there was a name written—“Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.” This kind of a church has existed in great abundance, for as John the Revelator says, she was to have her dominion upon many waters, and she was to make all nations drunken with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Now, we do not dispute but what such churches have existed and exist at the present time, and that the nations of the earth have been cursed with their filthiness and abominations, and with the pride and wickedness they have practiced before the Lord of hosts. I have no doubt but what some few honest-hearted persons have been taken in by them, because they were so numerous and so popular on the earth. But they lack all the characteristics of the ancient Christian Church, having numerous forms of godliness, but denying the power thereof. That is, they deny revelators and Prophets, deny the power to foretell future events; deny that any person, in these days, has the power to have visions or revelations from heaven, as the members of the Christian Church anciently did.

Inasmuch as there has been such a long apostacy, and the earth left without any church of God upon it, we might naturally suppose that, before the second advent of the Son of God, there would be as a preparation for his second coming a Christian Church again organized, and I will now refer you to some prophecies upon this subject in the Bible. We will first turn to the 14th chapter of the Revelations of St. John, where we find a prophecy about the second coming of the Son of God. The 14th verse says—“And I looked and beheld a white cloud, and upon the cloud sat one like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle,” &c. We have not time to read all the events connected with this personage that was sitting upon the cloud, and coming in great glory; but we will go back a few verses and see if there is any preparation to be made before he comes in this cloud. In the 6th verse he says—“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, unto 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 there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drunken with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

Here then, we perceive the nature of the preparatory work for the coming of the Son of Man sitting upon a cloud. The Gospel is to be preached to all nations, and that Gospel, when it is restored to the earth, must be restored by an angel from heaven. Now the Gospel that was introduced in the dispensation before John received this revelation, was not restored by an angel from heaven; Jesus himself came and preached the Gospel, as well as John the Baptist, and his Apostles preached it, and they were commanded in that day to preach it among all people, nations and tongues; and they fulfilled their mission, according to Paul’s testimony, for he, in speaking of the extent to which the Gospel had gone before his martyrdom, says that the Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven, “whereof I, Paul, am made a minister.” It seems then, that it was sent forth very fully in that day and age of the world. And then came the great apostacy; and after this apostacy should continue for many long centuries, then an angel should come. Just before the personage should appear in the white cloud, the angel should come and bring the Gospel, and the Gospel should be preached to them that dwell on the earth, to every people, kindred, tongue and nation. What does this indirectly prove? It proves that there was no nation, no people, no kindred, no tongue, upon the face of the whole earth that had the everlasting Gospel when the angel should come; because, if there had been any people, however obscure they might be, however distant they might be from what are termed civilized nations, if there had been any people on the earth who had the Gospel, they would have a Christian Church, with Apostles and Prophets and all the gifts of the spirit therein. But inasmuch as every nation, kindred, tongue and people on the whole earth was completely destitute of the Gospel, and of the Church as organized in ancient days, it was necessary to restore it anew from heaven, and it is predicted that that should be done by an angel.

Has any such event transpired? This is a very important question. To whom shall we go and make the inquiry in regard to the coming of the angel? Some one may perhaps say that we had better make the inquiry of some Christian people, they would be most likely to give an answer. Very well, let us go, then, to the oldest Christian Church, so called—the Roman Catholics, and ask them. Let us go to their cardinals and archbishops, or even to the head man of all that church, who sits in what is called the chair of St. Peter, and ask him, or any other of their great men—“Sir, do you believe that an angel has come from heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people since the day that John delivered that prophecy? What will be the answer? It will be—“No, we do not believe in any such thing, we claim that we are preachers of the everlasting Gospel; and we hold the regular succession of the authority that was committed in the first century of the Christian era, and that the Gospel had been preached from that day until this, and that the Christian Church has existed among all nations, and there has been no necessity for an angel coming from heaven with it.” “Very well, you do not believe that any angel has come with the everlasting Gospel?” “Oh, no, that is contrary to our faith and belief.”

Go to the next oldest Christian Church, one that broke off from the Roman Catholics, called the Greek Church. Go through all the great nation of Russia, and ask them the same question, and they will answer, like the old mother, that no angel has been sent: “We did not receive the Gospel that we preach by an angel from heaven.” Very well, we will leave you, then, and we will come down to the modern Christian Churches, that came out from the Catholic Church two or three centuries ago, and ask them the question; go to Luther and Calvin, and all the various reformers that seceded from the Church of Rome in the 16th century, and ask each one in his turn, and each will have the same answer. “Martin Luther, did you receive the Gospel which you preach from an angel sent from heaven?” “Oh, no,” says he, “we got our ordination from the church that we dissented from; we once belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, but we found out that they were very wicked and abominable, and that they were the ones John spoke of, that should have ‘Mystery, Babylon’ written in the forehead, that have been drinking of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and we have come out from that church.” “Well, Mr. Luther, did you get any ordination in that church?” “Yes, we got an ordination.” “And that is your authority, is it? No angel was sent to you from heaven to restore the authority and the Gospel?” “No, we got our authority from the mother church.” “Well, do you think the mother church is very wicked?” “Yes, the most wicked and corrupt people on the face of the earth.” “Then you got your authority from the most corrupt people on the face of the earth, did you? What is it good for? And, by the by, if they have authority to confer upon you the Priesthood, and that gives you a right to baptize and to administer the ordinances, have they not also authority to excommunicate you? Were you excommunicated from their communion?” “Oh, yes, they exercised their authority in cutting me off from their church and casting me out.” “Very well, then, they took away all the authority they pretended to give you, did they not?” “Yes, they took it away, but still we claim it through them, and that is the only way we get the chain of authority back to the Apostles.”

Some of the Protestants, however, do not argue in this way; they say that they get their authority from the Bible, independent of any church. Well, let me say to some who claim their authority in this way, “What part of the Bible called you by name, William? You have been ordained, have you, to preach the Gospel and baptize? Who ordained you? Who gave this authority to you? Who commissioned you?” Says William—“Well, I really did not get the authority from the Roman Catholics, or from any church later than the Roman Catholics, but I got it from the Bible.” “What part of the Bible?” “Why, that saying of Jesus to his eleven Apostles. Just before he was taken up in a cloud, Jesus said to them—‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature’” “Well, how do you know, William, that that meant you? If it meant you, did it not mean your neighbor also, and every male person who has lived on the earth since the days of the Apostles? How do you know that it meant you? Did God ever give you a new revelation?” “Oh, don’t mention it, we do not believe in any new revelation, or in inspired men in our day.” “Very well, then, you do not think that God has sent any angel to restore the Gospel, and authority to preach it to the children of men?” “Oh, no, none but a poor deluded sect called Mormons away up in the mountains of America believe any such thing; they profess that God has sent an angel from heaven to restore the Gospel and the authority of the Priesthood, but we do not believe that God sends angels in our day.”

This is about the way you would get answered by all the various churches that have lived during many hundreds of years past, in regard to their authority; they have no more authority than a heathen priest. Why? Because they have denied all the fundamental powers and principles of the ancient Christian Church.

Says one—“Well, if they have no authority, then all our baptisms are illegal.” Certainly they are; to be baptized by a man who has no authority, no matter how sincere I may be, would avail me nothing, I might as well go and baptize myself. “Well,” says one, “you Mormons believe, do you, that God has actually sent an angel, and has again committed to men the everlasting Gospel, and authority to preach it and admin[i]ster its ordinances?” “Yes, and we not only believe it, but many of us know with a most perfect knowledge that he has done so, having received our knowledge from God himself.” “Then the Lord, you think, has fulfilled that passage in the 14th chapter of Revelations, and that he has actually sent an angel to restore the Gospel to earth?” “Yes.” “How long since?” Some forty-six years have passed away since the angel came and committed a record of the Gospel, not merely given in a verbal manner, but caused to be translated a record that contained the everlasting Gospel in all its fullness. The ancient Israelites, who once inhabited this country, were acquainted with the Gospel. Jesus did not confine his labors altogether to Palestine; but after his crucifixion and resurrection, he came to America, and appeared among its people, and taught them the everlasting Gospel, the same as he had before taught the people of Palestine, and he commanded them to write this Gospel upon plates of metal; they did so, and they established a Christian Church according to the pattern that God gave to them, and their writings have been brought forth. How? By the administration of an angel from heaven, an angel sent to reveal this record containing the fulness of the everlasting Gospel.

Inquires one—“Did this angel give any authority to Joseph Smith, and to others to whom he revealed himself, to baptize?” Not at all. He revealed the record, and Joseph was commanded to translate it by the aid of the Urim and Thummim that was with it, and he was told that it would be sent to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people. But he did not give Joseph Smith authority to preach that Gospel, neither did he give him authority to baptize, or to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the probability is that the person who held the keys to reveal the everlasting Gospel did not have the authority himself—it is not all angels that have this authority. Peter, James, and John had the authority, and after the book was translated they were sent. What for? Not to reveal the Gospel, for that was revealed by another angel prior to that time; but they were sent to lay their hands upon individuals, and ordain them to the Apostleship. No one can say that Peter, James, and John did not hold the Apostleship, and that people could not be ordained under their hands. They ordained them to the Apostleship, and they commanded, in the name of the Lord, that they should preach the Gospel, and ordain others to the same power and authority which was conferred and restored from heaven. They were commanded to preach the Gospel to all of the nations and kindreds of the earth. That was the way that the Lord restored the everlasting Gospel.

What have we been doing since the authority was restored? Forty-six years have now passed away, and what has been done during that time towards fulfilling the prediction uttered by John the revelator? Much has been done. In the midst of the most severe persecution, the servants of God have gone forth and preached the Gospel to a great many nations. They were commanded to go to and labor with the Gentile nations first, without purse and scrip. “Go and preach the Gospel as mine ancient Apostles did, without purse and scrip; and go to the Gentiles first. Warn them thoroughly, and teach them concerning my Gospel.” They have done so, and for forty-six years they have continued their missions in the Gentile nations.

The Lord also told them that when the fullness of the Gentiles had come, when their times were fulfilled, then his servants should be sent to all the scattered remnants of the house of Israel, who should be grafted in again; but first, the fullness of the Gentiles must come in. You know that Scripture which says—“The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Now the Gospel, when it was preached in ancient times, was preached first to the Jews, the house of Israel, to those of Israelitish origin, and when they counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, and rejected that Gospel, “Lo” says Paul, “we turn unto the Gentiles.” The Gentiles, then, heard it last; they were last to embrace the Gospel of the kingdom, and the Jews first, that is, as many of them as would believe and repent. But in the last days, when the angel brings the Gospel, it is reversed, and it is preached first to the Gentiles, to bring in their fullness, and to fulfil their times, and then it will be sent to the house of Israel.

In the 21st chapter of Luke, our Savior, in speaking of the evils that should befall the Jewish nation, says, “And they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This has been fulfilled literally upon the Jewish nation, and they have been scattered, according to this prediction, among all nations. Many of them were destroyed by the edge of the sword. Jerusalem was taken some seventy years after the birth of Christ, and has been in possession of the Gentiles from that day to this. Jesus told them that such should be the fact, that Jerusalem should be in the possession of the Gentiles, and should be trodden down by them until a certain period—until their times should be fulfilled.

The great object of the angel in restoring the Gospel was, in the first place, to fulfil the times of the Gentiles. Inquires one—“What do you mean by that?” I mean that God will send this Gospel, restored by an angel, to every nation, kindred, people and tongue in the Gentile world before he will permit his servants to go to the scattered remnants of Israel; and they will labor with, preach to and declare the work of God to the Gentile nations, and seek to bring them to a knowledge of the ancient Gospel, and to organize a Church among them, so far as they will hearken to and receive their testimony. Then, when the Gentile nations shall reject this Gospel, and count themselves unworthy of eternal life, as the Jews did before them, the Lord will say—“It is enough, come away from them, my servants, I will give you a new commission, you shall go to the scattered remnants of the house of Israel. I will gather them in from the four quarters of the earth, and bring them again into their own lands. They shall build Jerusalem on its own heap; they shall rear a Temple on the appointed place in Palestine, and they shall be grafted in again.” Now that, in short, is the nature of this great latter-day preparatory work for the coming of the Son of Man.

Now let me quote another passage that corresponds with one I have already quoted. Paul, in the 11th chapter of his epistle to the Romans, speaks of the proclamation of the Gospel to the Jews first, and because of their unbelief, Paul says they were broken off as branches of the tame olive tree; “and,” says the Apostle, addressing his epistle to a Gentile church, “you have been grafted in the stead of them;” in other words, the kingdom has been transferred from Israel to you Gentiles, and it is committed into your hands, and you are beginning to bring forth the fruits of that kingdom, the gifts of the kingdom are made manifest among you, just as they were among Israel in the days of their righteousness. “But,” said Paul—“They were broken off by unbelief, and you Gentiles stand by faith. Be not highminded, but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, if he did not even spare the tame olive tree—the natural branches—take heed lest he also spare not thee, for you are only wild branches grafted in contrary to nature. Take heed lest he also spare not thee, for behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God; on the house of Israel, that fell through unbelief, severity; but towards thee, or in other words, towards you, the Gentiles, the goodness of God is extended if you continue in his goodness. It was on that condition—if you Gentiles continue in his goodness; otherwise, says Paul, you also shall be cut off, just the same as Israel were. You also shall be cut off, and they also shall be grafted in again, for God is able to graft them in again. For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee, etc. Then he tells them a mystery. He wanted those Gentiles to understand a certain mystery, and that was that blindness in part had happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written—There shall come out of Zion a deliverer who shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. “And this shall be my covenant unto them, saith the Lord, when I shall take away their sins.”

It seems then that Paul understood, by the spirit of prophecy, that if the Gentiles apostatized, if they did not continue in the place where they were grafted, if they did not continue in the goodness of God, if they became highminded, they also were to be cut off, just as they have been for many long generations that are past; cut off from all the ancient blessings of the everlasting Gospel through the apostacy of their ancient fathers.

But the Lord intends to make a change, and that change is to send forth this Gospel from heaven to be preached to the nations of the Gentiles, to give them one more chance, if they will have it, to bring in their fullness; and when that time has come, and the servants of the Lord find that the balance of them harden their hearts and reject the Gospel of life and salvation, then the Lord will graft in all Israel, and they will be saved, being restored again to the tame olive tree, and bringing forth the fruits thereof. Thus will be fulfilled the ancient covenant that God made with them pertaining to the latter-days. Have you read that covenant that Paul quotes from? One of the ancient prophets, Jeremiah, delivered the prophecy, as recorded in his 31st chapter—“Behold the day shall come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and brought them forth out of the land of Egypt. And this is the covenant I will make with them saith the Lord—I will write my law in their hearts, print it in their thoughts, and they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”

Now did all Israel and all Judah know the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest of them? Had they no more need to say, every man to his Jewish neighbor, know ye the Lord? Was that the case anciently, when the Lord offered them the covenant of the everlasting Gospel? No; instead of all Israel and all Judah knowing the Lord, from the least to the greatest, they were the very ones that were cut off and lost the privileges of that covenant. But in the latter days when the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in by the proclamation of the Gospel committed by the angel, then is the time that the Lord will renew this covenant, and the same Gospel that he offered to them eighteen hundred years ago, and which they rejected, will be offered to them again, and all Israel will be saved. As it is written—“There shall come out of Zion a deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

It seems, then, that the Lord, when he shall fulfill this prophecy, will have a Zion on the earth. Enquires one—“What do you mean by Zion? I mean the Church of God, that is what I call Zion. God will have a Church on the earth—a Zion, and out of that Church a deliverer will come for and in behalf of all Israel, not only the Jews—the two tribes and a half that were scattered after Christ, but the ten tribes that were taken away out of Palestine some seven hundred years before Christ. All Israel—the whole twelve tribes—will come to the knowledge of the truth when God sends this deliverer out of Zion, proclaiming the Gospel of the latter-days for their salvation.

Connected with this everlasting Gospel is another very marvelous event preparatory to the second advent. What is that? Every Christian upon the face of the whole earth will be gathered from all nations, and all will be assembled in one. Says one—“There are none of our Protestant denominations gathering; the Roman Catholics do not gather; the Greek Church do not gather, and I do not know any Church, except you Mormons, that gather out.” Now, let us see what is said about this gathering. I have told you that the Gospel should be committed by an angel; I have told you that it should be the hour of God’s judgment—a peculiar time of judgment, in which the nations are to be visited with sore and terrible judgments. Now let us read further—“ Another angel followed, crying, ‘Babylon is fallen, because she made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’” Who is Babylon? I have already explained that Babylon is a great power that should be in the earth under the name of a church, a woman—that generally represents a church—full of blasphemy. She had the inscription of her name upon her forehead—“Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” What is to become of her? Where does she sit? Upon many waters, says John; and to interpret this to the understanding of the people, the waters are many people, nations, kindred and tongues where the woman hath her seat. These churches are scattered over the wide face of the earth, and this is called Babylon. Another angel is to follow the one that brings the Gospel, after it has been sufficiently preached, and proclaim the downfall of this great and corrupt power in the earth. Well, will all the Christians that are there perish, or will they be gathered out? Hear what John says—“I heard a great voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, oh my people, that you partake not of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath remembered her iniquities.’” Then there is only one way to escape, is there? We can’t stay in Babylon and be spared from these judgments, can we? Not at all. Why not? Because her sins have reached to the very heavens. Look at her abominations, her whoredoms, her murders, her priestcraft, her false doctrines, her forms of godliness without any power; look at them, all the nations are following after, and consider it popular to follow and embrace these doctrines. “Come out of her, oh, my people.” What people? God had no people in Babylon until the Church was organized, he could not have; he sent his servants to organize his Church, that there might be a people called his people. But when that Church is organized among these nations, kindred, tongues and people, its members are not permitted to remain where they are. This is not an invention of a learned company of divines, saying it will be a good thing for us to gather in one; it is not something invented by human wisdom; but the Revelator John says—“I heard a voice from heaven.” What, a new revelation, John? Yes, a voice from heaven. God was again to speak, before the downfall of Babylon; and this should be the voice—“Come out of her, O my people.”

Who has been fulfilling this among all those calling themselves Christians? Have the Roman Catholics? Have the Greek church? Have the Protestants, in any of their denominations, been gathering out from all the nations of the earth? No, but you find one people doing it. Who are they? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized on the earth by divine authority. They have gone forth proclaiming these things among the inhabitants of the earth. Instead of saying to the people—“Tarry where you are,” we say to them—“Arise, make preparations, and gather out from this corruption.” This has been the proclamation to the people of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and every other country the people of which have received the Gospel, and they have been commanded not to tarry, but to obey the word of the Lord, and gather as soon as possible.

But where shall they gather to? Is there anything indicated in prophecy about where they should gather? Yes. Daniel saw a Church organized in the latter days, in a mountain or high place of the earth. Read the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the second chapter of Daniel’s prophecies? The king could not recollect his dream when he awoke, and he sent out to all the wise men, musicians and astrologers, and requested them to tell him what his dream was, and then give him an interpretation. But they could not do it. Finally a man of God, a humble man, by the name of Daniel, besought the Lord, and the Lord revealed to him the dream and the interpretation thereof. Nebuchadnezzar, it seems, had seen a very great image before him; the head of that image was gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs were of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet part of iron and part of potter’s clay. He saw it in all its terrible majesty composed of these different metals, together with potter’s clay. Then, after Daniel had described to him what he had seen in his dream, said he—“Thou sawest until that a stone was cut out of the mountain;” not out of some low country of the earth near the sea level, “but thou sawest until that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and it rolled forth, and smote the image upon the feet, that were part of potter’s clay and part of iron, and the feet were broken to pieces. Then were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away and no place was found for them.” What became of the stone? The stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth?

Well, what was the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? He told the king that the head of the image represented the kingdom then organized; that after him would come another kingdom, that of the Medes and Persians, represented by the breast and arms of silver; then a third kingdom should follow, the Macedonians; then a fourth kingdom, which should be great and terrible, compared to the iron kingdom, which every one admits was the great power of Rome, which flourished and had power and dominion over the whole earth. Out of that kingdom grew other kingdoms represented by the feet and toes of the image; these kingdoms had not all the greatness and strength of the former kingdoms represented by the image, but they were partly strong and partly weak.

Now what is the location of this great image from the days of Nebuchadnezzar until now? You go into Asia and you will find there the descendants of the old Babylonian empire still in existence. Come a little further westward, and you find still the descendants of the Medes and Persians who once flourished and exercised dominion over the earth. A little further west you find the descendants of the third, or Macedonian, empire still in existence. Come further still, into Europe, and you find the feet and toes of the image in the latter-day kingdoms of the earth, which have branched across the great deep and have planted themselves in America. Are they partly strong and partly broken? Yes. Some of them have some strength apparently, and they have among themselves all the characteristics of miry clay with the iron, for they are divided one against another, and they have to keep up their standing armies because they are afraid of one another. But where is the stone from the mountains? Where is that kingdom that is called the stone? In the interpretation the Prophet says—“Thou sawest until the kingdom of God was set up, and it smote the image upon the feet,” and so on. It does not commence its attack away in Asia, where the head of gold or its descendants live, neither in any intermediate part, but it commences at the very extremity of this great image, as it spreads out to the west, and commences upon the feet and the toes; it is there where the stone is cut out of the mountain without hands, it is there where the God of heaven should set up a kingdom, as Daniel says, that should never be destroyed, neither shall it be given into the hands of another people, but it shall stand for ever. Not like the former-day kingdom that was set up, before the Roman empire had attained to its zenith of power. The former-day kingdom of Christ was set up in the days of the Apostles; that was overcome and destroyed out of the earth. The beast made war upon them and prevailed against them, and they were banished from the earth, and the woman upon the scarlet-colored beast seems to have had dominion among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, more or less. But in the latter-days the kingdom of God was to be built up on the earth, that should never be destroyed; it was not to be like the former-day one, but it should stand for ever, while all these other kingdoms should not only be destroyed, but, like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, should be carried completely away, and no place should be found for them.

That is the destiny of all the nations. A great many wise men, and statesmen, have meditated deeply upon the past, present and future of the nations, and have no doubt inquired in their own minds with a great deal of seriousness—“What will be the end of these political powers? What will be the end, for instance, of this great republican government of ours? What will be the end of the governments organized in Europe?” These questions, no doubt, have occurred to thousands and tens of thousands of reflecting men. The Bible answers the question. No kingdom, no form of government of human invention will be permitted to stand. When God has fulfilled the saying written by the Prophet Daniel, there will be one universal kingdom, and only one, and that will be [the] kingdom of God, and Jesus himself will be the great king.

Inquires one—“What do you mean by this breaking to pieces? Do you think Daniel meant that they should go forth with physical force and subdue all the nations?” No, I do not think any such thing; but when the Lord God sends his holy angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel and then ordains his servants to the Apostleship, and sends them forth among the nations of the earth, and they proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom among the people, if the people will not hear, the Lord himself will break them in pieces. It will be the message that he sends that will ripen them for destruction.

And the location of his kingdom was to be in the mountains, so says Daniel. Now you can understand that saying in Isaiah, which I read at the commencement of my remarks. When describing the glory of the Lord to be revealed and all flesh seeing it together, preparatory to that work, Isaiah says there was a certain people that should get up into the mountains. “Oh Zion, that bringest good tidings get thee up into the high mountain.” That did not mean a city called Zion, for it is not to be supposed that a city would travel up into a high mountain; but it meant a people, a people who were bringing good tidings. What good tidings? What can be more glorious tidings to the inhabitants of the earth than the everlasting Gospel sent by an angel, to say unto the people that if they will repent of their sins and be baptized in water for the remission of their sins, they shall receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God? What can be more glorious in its nature than a proclamation of this kind to the nations of the earth? Hence when the people come out of great Babylon and gather themselves together, they will gather into the mountains to fulfill this prophecy.

Any other prophecies about their going to the mountains? Yes. Read the 18th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah, when standing in Palestine delivering his prophecy, looked off to the south-west and saw the rivers of Ethiopia, or Africa; and after having seen these rivers in vision he also sees a land shadowing with wings away beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. What kind of a land was that, away beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, from where Isaiah stood in Palestine? Why it is a land that had the appearance of wings. You have been struck doubtless, with the great resemblance that North and South America have to the two great wings of a bird. While Isaiah was thus gazing upon a land away beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, it looked so much like the wings of a bird that he says—A land shadowing with wings, away, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” Well, Isaiah, what have you to say about that land? Why, says he, there is a proclamation to be had there. How extensive, Isaiah? To all people. Hear the words of Isaiah. Says he “All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains.” Not on the low places of that land shadowing with wings, next to the seashore, but in the mountains. What is the nature of this ensign? It is characteristic of a standard, often spoken of by the Prophets, and called by the name of standard. Isaiah speaks of it as an ensign in a number of places. What would naturally be a standard? The kingdom of God is a standard to which the people rally and gather together. Does it affect all people, Isaiah? Yes. “All ye inhabitants of the world.” What could be more extensive than that? “And dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet hear ye.” What else is to take place, Isaiah? He says that a severe judgment is to take place on that land shadowing with wings. What kind of a judgment, one that is to be very severe, Isaiah? Yes, for he says—“Afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountain and to the beasts of the earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.” When will this be, Isaiah? After this proclamation, after all the nations of the world have heard it, after the people have heard the sound of the warning message; then the first among all the nations where the extremities of the image have sent forth one of its governments, there will be the commencement of a most terrible judgment, so much so that the people on that land will not have time to bury their dead, and the fowls shall summer upon them. Why is all this? Because they will not hearken when that sound goes to all people; they will not repent of their sins; they will not receive the message that God has sent by his angel, he therefore visits them first, because they are the first to hear those glad tidings. No wonder, then, that Zion, that brings good tidings, was commanded by the ancient Prophet to get up into the high mountain.

Let us go a little further, and see what immediately follows this. Isaiah says—“For behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand.” What! The coming of the Lord going to take place after Zion has gone up into the mountains? Yes, that is one of the great events that will transpire, when the people of the nations are careless and indifferent, when they are eating and drinking, buying and selling, and their minds wholly swallowed up with the various occupations of life. “Behold, the Lord comes with a strong hand, his arm will rule for him and he will reward his people; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together.”

But one of the great preparatory works in that dispensation of the gathering of Zion to the mountains, will be the construction of a great highway, which is to be cast up in the desert. Let me ask you who have been across these mountains, from Omaha for many hundred miles westward, what kind of a country is it? Is it a country of orchards, vineyards, and alluvial soil, that is calculated to flatter the agriculturist? Says one—“No, I never saw such a barren plain for hundreds and hundreds of miles. In the day time, when we had an opportunity of looking at it, it had all one appearance, and was a vast sage plain and desert.” Now Isaiah said that when his people should get up into the mountains a highway should be cast up in the desert. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” What! Is it made for the Lord? Yes. What is the Lord going to do with it? He is going to gather his people from all the nations on this highway through the desert. Do you want to know anything more about this highway? Read another chapter in Isaiah; he gives more particulars than what I have mentioned.

What I have read in the 40th chapter of Isaiah about the highway in the desert, is only one thing connected with it. In another chapter he says—“Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” Here is the same thing spoken of again, only it speaks of tunnels, or, in other words, gates—“Go through, go through the gates.” I have no idea but what Isaiah, in gazing down upon future generations, saw the time when a long train of carriages would be whirled across a continent, without any apparent animal force or power. He perhaps did not understand the modern terms for tunnel through a rock, and hence he calls them gates. “Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way of the people; cast up, cast up a highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.” Then comes in this universal proclamation—“Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed from the ends of the world.” “Now, from the ends of the world, we should naturally suppose that, Isaiah, standing in Palestine, and delivering this, would see a work that was to transpire on a very distant land. He could find no better language to describe it, than the expression “to the ends of the world.” Not a work to transpire in Palestine, in his own neighborhood, but, “Behold the Lord should proclaim from the ends of the world, to all people, Behold, your salvation cometh.” That is, the Lord was coming with a strong hand, and this proclamation coming from the Lord was to be sounded to all the inhabitants of the earth, a standard was to be raised, and a way prepared by this highway being cast up.

There are a great many in this congregation who took part in casting up this highway. We built the most difficult portions of this railroad, through these mountains, some four hundred miles in extent. Did you work with a good cheerful heart when you were engaged in gathering out the stones, and when you were making these gates that Isaiah speaks of, through which he saw a long train of carriages dart into the mountain, losing sight of them for a time, then seeing them come out again with great speed, from the mountain? How could he describe it any better than by saying—“Go through, go through the gates?”

But what kind of a people were these to be who should be gathered from the ends of the world by this proclamation? Read the next verse—“They shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.” Says one—“Well, you are called anything else but that; instead of being called a holy people, you are represented, by the priests and everybody else, as a very unrighteous people.” Very well, the Lord will, in his own due time, enable you to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. “Behold, they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord; and behold, they shall be called, sought out, a city not forsaken.” How different from old Jerusalem! Was that sought out? No; Jerusalem was built up a long time before Israel came out of Egypt, and was there ready for them to take possession of when they entered the Holy Land. Was Jerusalem ever forsaken? Yes, forsaken for many generations. But not so with Zion, that should get up into the mountains; they should seek out a location, so much so that the city should be called “Sought out;” and instead of being forsaken, as many people suppose the “Mormons” will be, the Lord God will protect them. According to the words of Daniel, the kingdom shall not be destroyed, neither shall it be given to another people, and it shall stand for ever. All these characteristics are being fulfilled.

Would you suppose that the House of Jacob, the ten tribes of Israel, can be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, and brought back to their own land, without the lifting of this ensign? No. Read the 11th chapter of Isaiah. There he says—“I will lift up an ensign for the nations, I will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and I will gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” Until the Lord God sends forth this proclamation to all the inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, in vain may we look for the redemption of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah. Israel, the ten tribes called the outcasts, will never return the scattered Jews will never be restored, until such an ensign is raised Isaiah, in the fifth chapter, speaks of that ensign—“I will lift up for the nations an ensign from afar.” Why not lift it up in Jerusalem, Isaiah? Why not lift it up in Palestine? Why not commence the work in Asia Says Isaiah—“I will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar.” How far? Away off to the ends of the earth, from where Isaiah then was.

After this ensign is raised, he speaks of how swiftly the people shall come—“They shall come with speed swiftly.” Is that the way you came, Latter-day Saints? When you crossed the ocean, how did you come? In steamships; and when you crossed through the United States to Omaha, how did you come? In steam cars. And when you crossed these desert sage plains, how did you come? With speed swiftly through most of the desert, just as Isaiah said you would in his fifth chapter.

Many people thought that when the railroad came “Mormonism” would be done away. But such a supposition shows their ignorance. Why, bless you, this people in the year 1847, when the pioneers crossed these plains without any track to guide them, were looking for this great highway then. Yes, I recollect, almost every day when I could get an observation of the sun, (for we had two sextants, and artificial horizons, and mountain barometers, and one circle of reflection,) taking the latitudes and longitudes of all the prominent places, crossing this great desert; and not satisfied with getting the latitude and longitude we had our mountain barometers and attached and detached thermometers and took the altitude above sea level of all the prominent places on the route of this great highway which was to be cast up for us in the midst of the desert. Thus this people were the first to talk about this great highway, and we never lost sight of it. We petitioned Congress for its construction twenty-five years ago; our Legislature, knowing the minds of the people, sent our memorial to the National Legislature, and requested them to cast up the highway across this country. Our memorials were, for awhile, treated with silence; but by and by, when the proper time come, the Lord stirred up Congress and the great men and capitalists of the nation to go forth and construct this highway. Did we not rejoice and thank the Lord our God for fulfilling that which we had been expecting, and praying for so diligently? We certainly did.

We might continue our remarks, as there are are many things connected with this great preparatory work which, did time permit, we would be glad to lay before the people. I will quote a passage or two more in relation to the gathering. Paul saw this gathering, and he calls it a new dispensation that should come after his day. He says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he would gather together in one all things in Christ, whether they be things in heaven or things on the earth. The dispensation of the fullness of times, then, was to be characterized by the gathering of all persons that were in Christ. All the righteous dead that are in heaven, whose bodies are asleep in the grave, together with all the Christians on the earth, will be gathered in one in that dispensation. Fulfilling another prophecy in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, where the Lord says—“I will say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name.” Will it leave a Christian behind? Not one. Go and search New York, Philadelphia, and all the eastern States, and the middle and southern States, and then all Europe, for a Christian after this prophecy is fulfilled, and you can’t find one. Why? Because they are all gathered in one. How? By new revelation. The Lord says, “I will say to the north give up.” The Lord’s going to speak, the Lord is going to utter something—“I will say to the south keep not back. I will say, Come ye, my sons and daughters, from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name.” What an awful condition the world will be in when there is not a Christian among them. Amen.

Infidelity of the Christian World, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Forty-sixth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday morning, April 6, 1876. Reported by David W. Evans.

“Who am I, saith the Lord, that I command and am not obeyed? Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?” We have again the privilege of assembling ourselves together upon another Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I hope and trust that, what time we may spend in Conference, our hearts may be lifted up unto the Lord, that his Holy Spirit may be given unto us, that we may be dictated and directed in our words, thoughts, acts, and teachings, in such a manner that we may be justified before him.

We have said, time after time, and year after year, that we live in a very peculiar age, generation and dispensation, and this is true. Time rolls on, carrying with it its events, and fulfilling the revelations of God, unto us especially. We live in a day of darkness; unbelief and infidelity are covering the whole face of the earth, until it seems as though the whole Christian world had lost all hold of faith in God and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Bible, the revelation of God to man. And this being the case, if the Lord has any people on the face of the earth, they should be increasing in faith in him. You let a Christian come here, no matter who, whether he be a minister, professor, or believer, or any one who professes to believe in the Bible, and let him ask an Elder in Israel—“Do you really believe, in your soul, sincerely before the Lord, that Mormonism is true?” When the Elder answers him “yes,” he is about as much astonished as we were yesterday when these magazines exploded. The fact of it is, as I said before, the world do not believe in God or in revelation, and they marvel very greatly to find any man who has really got independence of mind enough to stand up and say—“I believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and I believe in the revelations that were given through him; I believe in the literal fulfillment of prophecy, as written in the Bible.” To hear men say this astonishes the Latter-day Saints to see the amount of darkness and infidelity that are abroad in the earth. Hence, as Latter-day Saints, I think it requires on our part an increase of faithfulness in the practice of our religion, and in the various revelations of God contained in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

We see before our eyes, year after year, the signs of heaven and of earth, and the fulfillment of prophecy, but how much are we as a people increasing in faith in God? Do we increase in that respect in proportion to the increase of infidelity in the world? Perhaps I am not a judge, but it appears to me that we do not comprehend. The work in which we are engaged, and the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, are just as true to-day as they were twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, when we shouldered our knapsacks and valises, and traveled on foot from city to city, State to State, and from country to country, to preach the word of God without money and without price, trusting in the living God to sustain and uphold us in our mission. I say that this work is just as true now as then, and so is the saying which I quoted—“Who am I, saith the Lord, that I command and am not obeyed? Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?” I believe that the Lord will fulfill what he says; I believe that he will fulfill his promises unto the Latter-day Saints and unto the world, unto Zion and Babylon; and if he does, there is something at the door, something for us, as Latter-day Saints, to do. I believe the Lord has held every man responsible, from the day of our great progenitor, father Adam, into whose hands the Holy Priesthood and the keys of the kingdom of God have been committed; and I believe that every man, every set of men, and every people, will be held responsible, in time and eternity, for the use they have made of the gifts, blessings, and promises which have been given unto them. The amount of it is that if any people undertake to keep a celestial law, it is their privilege to enjoy the spirit and power of that law; it is also the privilege of any man or set of men, who ever received the Gospel, to enjoy the blessings of that Gospel, no matter what age of the world they may have lived in. Every person who has ever repented of his sins, and has been baptized for their remission, after the order of God, and after the similitude of Jesus Christ, who was buried in water in the likeness of his death, and came forth in the likeness of his resurrection, has a right to the Holy Ghost; it is promised, and it belongs to him; it is the right of all persons to enjoy this, and if they receive the Holy Ghost and its gifts, they have inspiration, light, and truth; they have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, and they should be in a position before the Lord that they can comprehend his work far more perfectly than the world, for they have not obeyed the Gospel of Christ, and they have no right to, or claim upon, the gifts of that Gospel. But all who, in any age of the world, obey the Gospel, have a right to the Comforter, and to inspiration and revelation, they belong to them, and the Lord never had a people on the face of the earth who did not have a right to these gifts, and it was their privilege and duty to enjoy them.

This is the difference between those who keep celestial law, the law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and those who do not. But, as I have remarked, all in every age of the world who have received a dispensation of the Gospel, are responsible before the Lord for their acts, and for the manner in which they have used their blessings and privileges. The Prophets and Apostles in every age have been held responsible for the manner in which they made use of the Gospel of Christ when committed unto them; and that is the way it is with us today. One thing is evident to everybody who reflects at all upon the things of the kingdom of God—whenever the Lord chooses a people out of the world, they are hated by the world, and are unpopular in the world. This has been the case in every age. It was so in the days of Jesus Christ. He came to his own father’s house—the Jews; he was of the lineage of Abraham, and when he came to his own brethren he was unpopular, he was rejected and opposed. They did not like him nor his course. They were looking for Shiloh to come, but not as a babe born in a stable and cradled in a manger, and traveling on from that to the cross and the grave in poverty and affliction, without military authority, and without power to govern and control, and to deliver and uphold the Jews as a nation. Christ came as the babe of Bethlehem, the lowest almost of the human family, and remained so up to the day of his death. A poorer man never lived, that I know of, in Judea and Jerusalem, than Jesus Christ. Who were his followers? They were not the great, rich, learned, noble, High Priests, or leading men of Judea; many of them were illiterate fishermen, poor men, weak things of the world; they were the class that Jesus chose for his disciples, and into their hands he gave the keys of the kingdom of God; he gave them the Apostleship, the power to bind and to seal both on earth and in heaven. Their deeds and labors reached not only through this world, but they reached into the eternal worlds, and will affect the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem from that day, I may say, into eternity. Those disciples of Christ received the Holy Priesthood, the Gospel of Christ, and the keys of the kingdom of God, and Jesus held them responsible to the day of their death for the course they pursued. However much they were despised by the world, they were held responsible for bearing a true and faithful testimony to Jew and Gentile, of Jesus Christ being the true Shepherd and the Savior of the world.

And so I will say about the Latter-day Saints and the work they are engaged in. Ezekiel says that in the last days the stick of Joseph in the hands of Ephraim should be placed with the stick of Judah, before the eyes of the nations in the hands of the Lord, for a special purpose—to gather the house of Israel in the latter days. These two records were also to be made use of in order to preach the fullness of the everlasting Gospel to both Jew and Gentile; and they will stand in judgment against the generation living on the earth when they come forth; and from the day that Moroni gave that record into the hands of Joseph Smith, the Lord held him responsible for the use which he made of it; and when he gave him the Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, and the Apostleship under the hands of Peter, James and John, the Lord Almighty held him responsible unto the day that he sealed his testimony with his blood, for the course that he pursued with these things. And he bore his testimony, left it on record, and sealed it with his blood, and laid down his life, and that testimony is in force today upon all the world, and will remain so unto the end of time. And when I say this of Joseph Smith I say it of every other man. President Young has led this Church for many years, and the Lord has held him responsible, and will hold him so unto the day of his death, for the course pursued by him while conducting the affairs of his Church and kingdom, and also for the use he makes of the holy Priesthood and the keys of the kingdom. So also with his Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and every one of us; we shall all be held accountable to the day of our death, and we shall have to give an account before the God of heaven when we go into the spirit world and meet him there; for the use of this Priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, which have been established on the earth for the last time, have been committed into the hands of this people, and God will hold the whole of us responsible for the use we make of the blessings, privileges and powers which we enjoy in connection therewith. The eyes of God and his angels, and of every man who dwells in the celestial world are watching us, and the course we pursue.

We are gathered together here as a people; we have been in these mountains a good while, and for a good many years we have been organized as a Church and kingdom, in this last age, in this dispensation of the fullness of times; and now the question with me is—Are we living up to our privileges? Are we performing the work required at our hands? Can we, as a people, claim the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, the blessings of the celestial law and of the celestial kingdom of God? Can we claim these things at the hands of our heavenly Father unless we keep his commandments? This is a question that we want to take home to ourselves. If we are not keeping the commands of the Lord can we claim his blessings? We can not; and this is matter for reflection for the Latter-day Saints.

It may be asked—What are the commandments of the Lord? Many of them are contained in these records, the Bible, Book of Mormon and Book of Doctrine and Covenants; and we have the living oracles with us, and have had from the commencement. The Lord will never leave his kingdom without a lawgiver, leader, president, or some power to direct the affairs of his Church on the earth, for the reason that it is the dispensation of the fullness of times, in which God has set up a kingdom which is to be an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion there will be no end; that kingdom will not be given into the hands of any other people, but it will be given to the Saints of the Most High, and they will possess it for ever and ever.

Now, brethren and sisters, here comes a question in my mind, this morning, which I think we ought to bring home to ourselves, and that is—Are we, as a people, doing our duty in keeping the law and commandments of God, and the covenants which we have made? If we are we are justified, and we have a claim upon the Holy Spirit and upon the blessing and approbation of God. Many things are required at the hands of the Latter-day Saints, and there is not one of us who has a lease of his life. The Elders of this Church are passing away, and almost every Conference we look around and find that somebody has left us; and it will be but a short time before many of us who are here to-day will have closed our labors in the flesh, and we shall have passed to the other side of the vail, and it is important to us all that we should do what is required of us. What we find to do to-day we should not put off till to-morrow.

The question may arise in some minds—What is required of the Latter-day Saints? I will tell you some things that are required of us. The Lord requires us to pay our Tithing; and another thing is that we go to and build the Temple in this city; whether we do it or not it is required of us, and if we fail, we, in my view, shall be under condemnation. I consider that the building of Temples is one of the important things required by the Lord of the Latter-day Saints in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that we may go into those Temples and not only redeem the living but redeem our dead. We have been a good many years here in the valleys of the mountains, and we have not yet got a Temple finished to the name of the Lord. We have one pretty well forward in St. George, and I am very glad of it; but we want one here. We have got the foundation laid; it has been standing a good many years, and I think that we should go to and finish it, and do what we can to redeem our dead. This is among the things for which I think we shall be held responsible. Very many of us in this Church and kingdom have been gathered, as the Prophet has said, one of a family and two of a city, and many of our progenitors, now in the spirit world, never saw the face of an Apostle, Prophet, or inspired man, and they are shut up in prison. Joseph Smith, Heber Kimball, George A. Smith, and thousands of the Elders of Israel may preach to those spirits, and they may receive the testimonies which the Elders bear; but the Elders will not baptize believers there; there is no baptism in the spirit world any more than there is any marrying and giving in marriage. All these things have to be done this side of the vail, in the flesh. God is no respecter of persons; he will not give privileges to one generation and withhold them from another; and the whole human family, from father Adam down to our day, have got to have the privilege, somewhere, of hearing the Gospel of Christ; and the generations that have passed and gone without hearing that Gospel in its fullness, power and glory, will never be held responsible by God for not obeying it, neither will he bring them under condemnation for rejecting a law they never saw or understood; and if they live up to the light they had they are justified so far, and they have to be preached to in the spirit world. But nobody will baptize them there, and somebody has got to administer for them by proxy here in the flesh, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh and have part in the first resurrection.

This, in my view, is the work that is required at the hands of the Latter-day Saints, and when we get through I think we will find this to be true. And if there is anything I desire to live for on the earth, or that I have desired, it has been to get a record of the genealogy of my fathers, that I might do something for them before I go hence into the spirit world. Until within a few years past it has seemed as if every avenue has been closed to obtaining such records; but the Lord has moved upon the inhabitants of this nation, and thousands of them are now laboring to trace the genealogical descent of the Puritan fathers, those who landed at Plymouth Rock, and whose descendants built up New England. Their lineages are coming to light, and we are gradually obtaining access to them, and by this means we shall be enabled to do something towards the salvation of our dead.

These are some of the things upon my mind that I wished to speak to you about. And now let me ask—Have we a right to our endowments and to the ordinances and blessings of the Church and kingdom of God, unless we fulfill the law of God. It seems to me many times, that there is a darkness and a lack of faith even among the Latter-day Saints, and that as we grow older we grow colder, and as we advance towards the winding-up scene it seems as though we have almost lost sight of our calling, of the object of our being gathered together, and the purposes which God requires at our hands. There is a good deal for us to do if we build up Zion; and if we do that and sanctify ourselves before the Lord, it has got to be done through obedience to the commandments of the Lord. The Lord has commanded us, and we have got to obey his commandments if we receive the blessings of obedience. Our numbers are not great, and compared with the whole of the inhabitants of the earth I do not expect that the number of the Latter-day Saints will ever be very great; yet the Lord has promised that the little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; and out of the house of Israel and those from among the Gentiles who obey the Gospel, God will raise up a nation, and they will have power and strength in the earth. But when we compare the Saints in this or any other age with the surrounding world, their numbers are few. I do not know why it is that so few of the inhabitants of the earth take any interest in their eternal welfare. The whole human family, heathen, pagan, Christian and Jew, know that this is not their home, and that all have got to die, they can not escape the law of death; even if translated, as some were anciently, they have to undergo a change equivalent to death. Then why is it there is so little interest throughout the world with regard to a future state and to eternal matters? The few who show they have an interest in these things, and who have gathered together to these valleys of the mountains, have need of faith; we stand in need of prayer, we stand in need of the Holy Ghost, and of the inspiration of the Almighty to dictate and direct us, and unless we possess and enjoy these things we become barren and unfruitful before the Lord.

Now, whatever the Lord requires at our hands, he does not require anything of us that we can not perform. We can obey his commandments according to the position that we occupy and the means that we have in our possession. There is no man or woman so poor but what he or she can obey the Gospel; they can go forth and be baptized for the remission of their sins, and if they keep the commandments of the Lord he will put into their hands power and means to fulfill that which is required of them.

I hope, brethren and sisters, that while we are together at this Conference, we shall have prayerful hearts, and that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured out upon us; that President Young may have strength of body, and that the Spirit of God may rest upon him to such an extent that he may be able to give the Latter-day Saints such instruction as he may desire; and that the Apostles and Elders who may be called upon to speak may be made the instruments in the hands of the Lord in conveying his word to the people, and that we may be united together.

Somebody or other has got to build up Zion; somebody has got to build Temples, and to go into them and attend to the ordinances therein. The Lord has said that he will come and visit the earth, but before he does come the people have got to be pure. The Lord Jesus has declared that he will come and reign on the earth, and if you read the Book of Doctrine and Covenants you will find numerous predictions in regard to his coming, such as—“I come quickly,” “I come at an hour ye think not,” “My coming is at the door,” “I come as a thief in the night,” “I come in an hour when you are not looking for me,” and “Blessed is he who is looking for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I say that throughout the whole of the Scriptures—the Old and New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the second coming of the Lord is frequently referred to; and has the Lord promised these things without intending to fulfill them? No, he has not, they will be fulfilled. But before Christ comes, a people have got to be prepared by being sanctified before the Lord. Temples have got to be built; Zion has got to be built up; there must be a place of safety for the people of God while his judgments are abroad in the earth, for the judgments of God will visit the earth, there is no mistake about that, the revelations are full of promises to this effect, and as the Lord has declared it, he will not fail in keeping his word.

Brethren and sisters, let us search the revelations of God; let us look to ourselves, and understand the spirit by which we are governed and controlled in our labors and callings. We are called to a great calling. The greatest calling with which any people can be called is to have placed in their hands the Gospel of Christ, and the power to build up his kingdom upon the earth. The Lord has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the world, and things that are nought to bring to nought things that are. He has done this in every age of the world, and he has done it in our day and generation; and he will hold us responsible for the use we make of the holy Priesthood, the ordinances of his house and the power that is put into our hands to accomplish the work of God, and to build Temples to his name. If we do not do these things I think that we shall be under condemnation before the Lord, and that we shall suffer for it.

I pray God, my heavenly Father, that he will pour out his Spirit upon this people, that we may see and comprehend things as they are, that we may comprehend our duties and may be inspired to labor while the day lasts, for by and by the night will come when no man can work. I pray God that we may be prepared for his coming, and that we may have power and a disposition to perform and accomplish all that is required of us, that when we go to the other side of the vail we may he satisfied with our labors here in the flesh.

This is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

How God’s Purposes Are Fulfilled, etc.

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered at the Forty-sixth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday afternoon, April 6, 1876. Reported by David W. Evans.

When we meet together on occasions like the present, it is absolutely necessary that we place ourselves under the guidance and direction of the Almighty; that is, a thing indeed, which is proper at all times, for in the Lord we live and move—from him we derive our being—and to him we are indebted for every blessing that we enjoy of a temporal and spiritual nature, for everything that pertains either to this world or that which is to come. We are met together on this occasion to attend to the duties and responsibilities that devolve upon us associated with the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth; and it is very important that we have his spirit to direct us in our speaking as well as in our hearing, and in the various purposes, plans and calculations that may be started for the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth, for we really are, or ought to be, co-laborers with the Almighty for the accomplishment of his purposes on the earth. And although we are very weak, and incompetent to do anything in and of ourselves, yet with the assistance and guidance of the Almighty we shall be enabled, by diligence and faithfulness in discharging the various responsibilities that devolve upon us, to fill up the measure of our day upon the earth with honor before God, before the holy angels and before all good men, and to lend at least a helping hand in building up the kingdom of God, upon the earth, that we so frequently talk about, and to introduce those principles which emanate from the Most High. In this regard, however, we can do nothing of ourselves, neither could any man who ever lived upon the earth do anything in and of himself. There is a great supreme, over-ruling power that shapes, manages, controls and dictates the affairs of the human family. He raises up one and puts down another; he regulates and controls the affairs of the nations at his will, and in regard to the purposes that he has designed, pertaining to the earth whereon we live, of which he has given us some slight idea, he will have to be, after all, the principal co-operator, the leading hand, the power that guides, directs and controls. He has called upon us to be his assistants in the work that he has commenced in these last days, and has called a variety of laborers into his vineyard, whom he has promised to sustain, to guide and to direct, and hence, although it may be an unspeakable privilege for us to be co-laborers with the Almighty, yet it is only through the spirit, power and intelligence that he communicates, that we shall be able to do anything acceptable in the sight of God, and, as I said before, no man living without this assistance is capable of doing anything acceptable in the sight of God. When we look at the works of God in the various ages that have passed, and in the various dispensations that have been ushered into the world, we see this manifestly pointed out. In fact, when we reflect upon the work that we are engaged in, to whom are we indebted? To any of us? I think not. To Joseph Smith? I think not. He was made use of as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty to convey certain principles that God revealed to him; that was all, and when he came, it was not his own words that he spoke, it was the revelation of God’s will to him, and it is that which we are in possession of through him, as an instrument. It is so with President Young and his council, and it is so with the Twelve, it is so with all the Bishops, High Councils, High Priests, and all the various authorities of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. It is not that there is anything inherent in us, for we know nothing only as God revealed it, we know nothing only as it was communicated. We did not understand the first principles of the doctrine of Christ even; and I have never met with anybody on the face of the earth where I have traveled who did know anything about these things. We are indebted to the Lord, therefore, for any knowledge that we have of the true doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for all the ramifications thereof. We are indebted to him for a knowledge of the Priesthood, whether that Priesthood be after the order of Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of God; or whether it be the lesser or Aaronic Priesthood. We none of us knew anything about it, and nobody ever did, until God communicated it. And the same thing holds good all the way through. Go back to the history of the world, as reported in the Bible and Book of Mormon, and you will find that every great movement ever made among men that had God to support it, originated not with men, but that God himself was the author of it. Even Jesus himself, when he came, said—“I came not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me;” and—“The words that I speak, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me. He doeth the works.” Therefore, looking at things in this point of view, we, above all people who dwell on the face of the earth, ought to acknowledge the hand of God in all things; and in fact we have a revelation directly on that point, which says—“that with none is the Lord angry but with those who do not acknowledge his hand in all things.

We are here for a certain purpose; the world was organized for a certain purpose; the world has been destroyed for a certain purpose, and judgments have overtaken it for a certain purpose; the Gospel has been introduced for a certain purpose, in the different ages of time, and among the different peoples to whom it has been revealed and communicated, and we, to-day, are in subjection to the general rule. The Lord has led us along as he once led Israel, and as he led the Nephites from the land of Jerusalem, and the ten tribes, and other peoples, who went to different places. He has led us along, and the first thing he did with us, or to the world whereon we live, or with whom we are associated, was to send his Gospel, having revealed it first to Joseph Smith, and he, being authorized by the Almighty, and having received his appointment through the holy Priesthood that exists in the heavens, and with that appointment, authority to confer it upon others, did confer it upon others, and they in turn upon others, and hence the Gospel was sent to us in the various nations where we resided. And when these men went forth to proclaim this Gospel, they went, as Jesus said, not to do their “will, but the will of the Father who sent them,” and to co-operate with the holy Priesthood here upon the earth in introducing correct principles. Hence they went among the nations, and thousands, and tens of thousands, and millions listened to their testimonies; but as it was in former days, so it has been in latter days. Says Jesus—“Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; while wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.” This has been the case in all ages and among all peoples, wherever and whenever the Gospel has been preached to them.

Now then, the Lord has been desirous, in this age, as he has in other ages, to gather to himself a people who would do his will, keep his commandments, listen to his counsel and carry out his behests. To whom could he send? To the wise and learned, to the philosopher and statesman, to the prince and potentate? Verily no. The Lord, in this age as on former occasions, sends by whom he will send; he selects his own messengers, and sends them among the people. And when the Elders of Israel went forth, he said to them in a certain revelation—“Go forth, and mine angels shall go before you, and my Spirit shall accompany you.” And they went forth, and God was true to his word, and many of you, at that time in distant nations, listened to the words of life, and when you heard them, you knew and understood them, just as Jesus said—“My sheep hear my voice and know me, and they follow me, but a stranger will they not follow, because they know not the voice of a stranger.” You heard the voice of truth accompanied by the Spirit of God, and that caused a chord to vibrate within your own bosoms, and you yielded obedience and came out here, as we find you to-day.

Now, then, we are gathered together to help, what to do? To look after our own individual interest? No. To accumulate wealth? No. To possess and wallow in the good things of this life? No; but to do the will of God, and devote ourselves, our talents and abilities, our intelligence and influence, in every possible way to carry out the designs of Jehovah, and help to establish peace and righteousness upon the earth. This, as I understand it, is what we are here for, and not to attend to our own individual affairs and let God and his kingdom do as they please. We are all interested in the great latter-day work of God, and we all ought to be co-workers therein. It is proper sometimes that we should reflect a little upon some of these things, and find out what is our true status and position before the Lord, and before one another, before the angels, and before the world that we are mixed up with, and have more or less to do with. We want sometimes to pause and reflect a little upon some of these things. Why was God so careful to preserve the plates upon which this record was found, and from which it was translated? Why was he so desirous that the old Prophets, who lived upon this continent generations ago, should sacredly guard and keep these sacred records? He told us what it was for, and the Prophets told us what it was for, and Jesus, when he was here, told us what it was for—that these things might come forth in the last days for the benefit of his people, and for the benefit of all who should believe in, and obey the word of God among the Gentiles? What for? That we might have a corroborating testimony from a people upon this continent, who had their Prophets, which should agree with the testimony which we had from the continent of Asia; and that, through the instrumentality of that truth which shall be developed, a nucleus might be formed through which God could communicate his will, and accomplish those purposes that he has designed to accomplish from before the foundation of the world. From the commencement of the organization of this world, God designed the accomplishment of the very thing that we are engaged in here to-day. We live in what the Scriptures call the dispensation of the fullness of times, in which the Lord has said that he would gather together all things in one, whether they be things on the earth or things in the heavens; in this dispensation he designed to call together his sheep that were on the face of the earth, just as much as he did in the days of Jesus. How was it then? Said Jesus—“Father, I pray for those whom thou hast given me; thine they were and thou gavest them me. I pray for them that they may be one, as I, Father, am in thee and thou in me, that the world may know that thou hast sent me.” He has done the same thing in this day. He has gathered together his sheep, he has organized his holy Priesthood in its fullness, perhaps as perfectly as it ever was organized on the face of the earth. I do not know, fully, the position of things in Enoch’s day; there may have been many things transpired on this continent that we have not had revealed unto us, for we have not all their records, only part of them were translated; some of the things contained on the plates were unlawful to be written at that time. But there were times when men had communion with God; there were times when God revealed himself unto his servants the Prophets; there were times when men came with a—“Thus saith the Lord” to the people; there were times when the people would say—“All that the Lord has bid us to observe, that will we observe and do;” there were times when the people said—“The Lord is our king, the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver, and he shall rule over us.” God is seeking to have a people like that in the present day, and that, through the Priesthood upon the earth, we shall be associated with the Priesthood in the heavens, and they with their God.

There are no people now, and there never was a people, who could accomplish anything without this, and, as I said before, without the guidance and direction of the Almighty. There are a good many things associated with these matters, and some of them are very plain and simple; in fact, it is said by a certain individual that they are so plain that a “wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein;” and it was said in former days—“God hath not chosen the wise and great of the earth, but the weak and foolish things of this world to bring to nought the things that are.” Then, he has restored the holy Priesthood, and that, as I understand it, is the rule and government of God, whether on the earth or in the heavens, the principle by which all things are governed in the heavens, and by which, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, all things will be governed here on the earth.

These, then, as I understand them, are things of very great importance to the Latter-day Saints, for it is to them that I am speaking this afternoon. We have an organization in our Church as they had in former times. We are told that in the days of Jesus on the Asiatic continent, “God placed in his Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, afterwards Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists,” etc.; and we are, moreover, told that these were placed in the Church “for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but that we may grow up into him who is our living head in all things,” that we may indeed be like him, one with him as he is one with the Father.

This is the kind of principles that they had then, and this the kind of organization. What have we? Something very similar. We have Apostles and a First Presidency. What are the members of the First Presidency? Apostles. We have an organization of the Twelve, as they had then. We have also Seventies, in all of which we have even more than they had, though I do not know what they had on this continent, that is not made manifest; we shall know these things by and by, as the purposes of God roll forth, and their revelations are made known to us pertaining to those matters. We have our Bishops, we have our High Councils, we have our Seventies, we have our Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, all of which, or the pattern for which, have been given by the Almighty, by the revelation of his will to Joseph Smith; and if we have any knowledge that differs from the rest of mankind in relation to these matters, it is through the revelations of God, and we say to God be the glory and not to us. They went forth in former times and preached the Gospel without purse and scrip. We have done the same. I can see around me scores and hundreds of men who have been abroad to the nations of the earth to preach the Gospel without purse and scrip, trusting in the living God, holding the same Priesthood and authority; in possession of the same truths, lit up, encouraged, and sustained by the same Spirit, the same light, and the same intelligence that they had.

These are some of the distinctive features of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then we have gathered ourselves together. Well, the Prophets saw it years and years ago, and prophesied about it, but it was left for us to do. The Prophet says—“I will take one of a city and two of a family and I will bring them to Zion.” What will you do with them? “I will give them pastors after my own heart, who shall feed them with knowledge and understanding.” I will introduce the Priesthood of the Son of God among them; I will give them the light, revelation and power of God to be with them, and I will stand by them and sustain them. He has revealed to us, as he did to others the nature of the relationship that subsists between men and their wives; he has shown us that there are eternal associations and connections, and has shown us how to accomplish these objects, and to secure to ourselves, our wives and our children, inasmuch as they observe the revelations of God and carry out his purposes. These are some of the principles that he has made known unto us, and he has given us commandments relative to these things, and in relation to building Temples to his name and administering therein, so as to be acceptable to him. He has pointed out to us certain principles pertaining to the everlasting covenants with us, with our fathers and with our children, and has shown us how to perform the various duties devolving upon us, according to the counsel of his will, which he has revealed through the holy Priesthood that he has here upon the earth. These are things with which we are most of us familiar, and therefore I do not propose to quote Scripture about them particularly, but just lay them briefly before your minds, that you may reflect upon them.

Before we came into this Church and kingdom, we had certain confused ideas about a future state; but what did we know about it? Very little, very little indeed. We hoped we should get to heaven when we died; we hoped that, if we were good, honest, upright and virtuous, God would accept us, which was all very good so far as it went. But what knowledge had we of the future? None at all. What knowledge has the world to-day about these things? None at all. What knowledge have they of us and of our communications with God? None at all. The world never saw the kingdom of God, they never can see it, it is out of their reach, Jesus said in his day—“Except a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” much less inherit it. They cannot help that; we could not help it when we were in their condition; generations past could not help it? What could they do about it? Nothing. What could any of the great reformers, as they are called, do about these things? Simply nothing. Did any of them ever introduce the Gospel as Jesus taught it? Not one among them; with all their virtue, zeal and philanthropy, with all their desires to do good, they could not accomplish these things. Were they all wicked men? By no means. There were many good men among them, and so there are to-day; but these good men cannot see the kingdom of God, unless by the Spirit of God, and we are told definitely that “no man knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God.” And how do they get it? We have been taught, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, by repenting of our sins, by being baptized, by those possessing the authority, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of our sins, and by having hands laid upon us by the same authority for the reception of the Holy Ghost. Then it is that the Spirit takes of the things of God and shows them unto us; then it is that we are brought into communion with our heavenly Father; then it is that we have a hope that enters within the vail, whither Christ our forerunner is gone; then it is that we have an unction from the Holy One, as they had in former times, that will teach us the principles of light, and life, and intelligence, pertaining to our present and future existence; then it is that the darkness with which the world is beclouded is removed, and the light of heaven is permitted to permeate our minds, and impart light and intelligence thereunto; then it is that we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, says the sacred writer; “but when he who is our life shall appear, then shall we appear like unto him in glory;” it is through this principle, and this life, light and intelligence, and that through obedience to the commands of God.

In looking still forward we find that there are other things ahead of us. One thing is the building of Temples, and that is a very important item, and ought to rest with force upon the minds of all good Saints. I remember, some time ago, having a conversation with Baron Rothschild, a Jew. I was showing him the Temple here, and said he—“Elder Taylor, what do you mean by this Temple? What is the object of it? Why are you building it?” Said I, “Your fathers had among them Prophets, who revealed to them the mind and will of God; we have among us Prophets who reveal to us the mind and will of God, as they did. One of your Prophets said—“The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple, but who may abide the day of his coming? For he shall sit as a refiner’s fire and a purifier of silver.” “Now,” said I, “Sir, will you point me out a place on the face of the earth where God has a Temple?” Said he, “I do not know of any.” “You remember the words of your Prophet that I have quoted?” Said he—“Yes, I know the Prophet said that, but I do not know of any Temple anywhere. Do you consider that this is that Temple?” “No, sir, it is not.” “Well, what is this Temple for?” Said I, “The Lord has told us to build this Temple so that we may administer therein baptisms for our dead (which I explained to him,) and also to perform some of the sacred matrimonial alliances and covenants that we believe in, that are rejected by the world generally, but which are among the purest, most exalting and ennobling principles that God ever revealed to man.” “Well, then, this is not our Temple?” “No, but,” said I, “You will build a Temple, for the Lord has shown us, among other things, that you Jews have quite a role to perform in the latter days, and that all the things spoken by your old prophets will be fulfilled, that you will be gathered to old Jerusalem, and that you will build a Temple there; and when you build that Temple, and the time has arrived, ‘the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his Temple.’ Do you believe in the Messiah?” “Yes.” “Do you remember reading in your old prophets something like this—‘They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. And one shall say, What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy side? And he will say—These with which I was wounded in the house of my friends?’” “Ah! Is that in our Bible?” “Yes, sir, that is in your Bible.” I spake to him then about the Nephites having left Jerusalem and told him that the Book of Mormon represents them as descendants of their people, and that Jesus came among them, and that they, because of their iniquity and departure from the word and law of God, were stricken with blackness. Said he—“What, as Cain was?” “Yes, sir, as Cain was.” Said I—“These people, the Lamanites, according to this record,” a French copy of which I gave him, he being a Frenchman; “this people are beginning to feel after these things, and they are coming by hundreds and by thousands and demanding baptism at our hands, just as you find recorded in that book that they would do, and that is given there as a sign that God’s work had commenced among all nations. Said he—“What evidence have you of this?” This conversation took place in the Townsend House, and when the Baron asked me for evidence, said I—“Sir, if you will excuse me a few minutes I will give you some evidence? and I went to Savage’s book stand, in the Townsend House, and obtained a photographic copy of David Cannon baptizing Indians, standing in the midst of a great crowd of them. Said I—“Here is the evidence.” “Well, what shall we do?” Said I—“You can do nothing unless God directs. You as a people are tied hand and foot, and have been for generations, and you can’t move a peg unless God strikes off your fetters. When he says the word the things spoken of by the Prophets will be fulfilled; then the measuring line will go forth again in Jerusalem, then your Messiah will come, and all those things spoken of by the Prophets will be fulfilled.”

I mentioned these matters to Baron Rothschild merely to exhibit some ideas pertaining to the work in which we are engaged; and in speaking of the Temple—“Well, this is not the Temple? “No, not that you are going to build, this is ours, and we expect to build hundreds of them yet, and to administer in them in carrying out the work of God.” I speak of this, that you may reflect a little, you Latter-day Saints. Has God organized a First Presidency? Yes. Has he endowed them with the Spirit and power of God? Yes. Has he organized the Twelve? Yes. Have they the spirit of their office? Yes, in part. He has organized Seventies; have they the spirit of their office? In part. He has organized a High Priests’ quorum; have they the spirit of their office? In part, and many of these things are only in part. He has organized an Elders’ quorum, and a great many Elders have been ordained; have they the spirit of their office? In part. Are they magnifying it? Only in part. Why we have got really and truly a nation of Kings and Priests, ordained, set apart and authorized to carry out the purposes of God here upon the earth, to operate with the Priesthood behind the vail in the accomplishment of these things. What are we doing? A little, but many of us, I am afraid, not very much. A great many are doing the best they know how, and are desirous, with their whole soul and spirit, with their intellect and their substance and everything they have, to dedicate themselves and all they have for God and for his cause and kingdom, and for building up Temples, and for accomplishing everything that God requires at their hands. Then there are some that feel like the boy said about his father. A Gentile came along and spoke to a little boy down street here, and said—“Boy, are you a Mormon?” “I don’t know,” said the boy. “Is your father a Mormon?” “Oh, yes,” said the boy, “but he does not potter much about it.” There are a good many who feel a good deal like that—they don’t potter much about it. When their minds are lit up by the Spirit of God they feel like dedicating themselves and all they have to God, yet, by and by they begin to weaken and falter, and quiver, and go away.

Sometime ago a great many of us renewed our covenants and were baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of our sins, and we then covenanted before God, holy angels, and one another, that we would consecrate ourselves and all that we had to God, that we would follow his counsel and the counsel of his holy Priesthood in all things, temporal and spiritual. Now let us talk a little plain on some of these things. Is not that so? Did you not do these things? You did. Well, what does it mean, or what does baptism mean, or what do any of these things mean—the ordinances, the Priesthood, the gathering, Temples, endowments and the light, intelligence and privileges that we have received from the hands of God? What do they mean? Are they a sacred reality that have emanated from God? Are they things in which our present, future and eternal happiness is concerned, or are they a mere phantasm? It seems they are very little more to many, although, perhaps, they appreciate them according to the best of their understanding, light and intelligence; still they say they are desirous of keeping God’s commandments. Let me repeat here a passage of Scripture. “It is not every one that saith Lord, Lord, that shall enter into my kingdom, but it is he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” I think that is the Scripture, if I am not very much mistaken; I think you will find it written there, and I think that Scripture is just as true to-day as it was eighteen hundred years ago, just as binding, and we shall find the results of it just as true, and when the secrets of all hearts are revealed, when the judgment is set and the books are opened, these things will be known and understood. How will it be then with Latter-day Saints? Why those who are doing right and are full of integrity, and have kept their covenants, observed the law of God and walked in obedience to his commands will hear Jesus say—“Thou hast been faithful over a few things and I will make thee ruler over many things.” And then there are some others mentioned. Who are they, and what are they? “Why, many will come to me and say, ‘Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not cast out devils in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works?’ When he will say to them—‘Depart from me, for I never knew you.’”

How will that fit on some of us do you think? That belongs a little closer to some of us than we imagine; for I do not think that Gentiles do much at prophesying in the name of God; I do not think they cast out many devils in the name of God, or do any wonderful works in his name. Jesus was speaking to a people that had done these things, the same, perhaps, as some of you have, and yet you have become careless and indifferent, and in many instances have made shipwreck of a good conscience and failed to keep the covenants you have made.

These are things for us to reflect upon, and it is well for us all to reflect upon the position that we occupy. How is it with us? Are we all engaged in the same work? Not precisely. Paul gave a very beautiful description of the church of God in his day. Said he—“The body is not one member, but many; and the eye cannot say to the ear, I have no need of thee, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of thee.” They were all engaged in the same work. It was not a work that rested simply upon the Apostles, or Prophets, or Evangelists, or some of the leading, prominent men of the Church; it was the work of God, in which they were all engaged. The body is not one member, but many, and if one of the members suffer they all suffer with it; if one member rejoice all are honored with it. The body is not all head; it would be a curious kind of a body without arms, stomach, legs, feet, &c.; it would be no body at all, it could not exist or act. You cut off any member of the body, say an arm, and the body is maimed; pluck out an eye and the body is maimed. Pluck out both eyes and you could not see. You may have ever so perfect a body and take away the legs and the feet, and what then? You can do nothing, you can’t walk, you have got to be lifted by somebody else and carried about, a helpless, inanimate being, without motion, power and activity. So it is with the body, and if one member suffer all the members suffer with it. The head may be very perfect, but if the arm is withered or any part of the body injured the powers of the body are impaired, and it can not fully answer the ends of its organization. Hence it is that in the organization of the Church of Christ every member should act in its own place—the Presidency in theirs, the Twelve in theirs, the Bishops in theirs, the Seventies in theirs, the High Priests in theirs, and the Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons who are living their religion in theirs. A Teacher who keeps the commandments of God and fulfills his duties is more honorable than the Apostle who does not. You hurt any part of the body, for instance, cut your finger, and the entire body feels it immediately. Touch the head and every part of the body senses it. And so it is with every particle of the body—it is a perfect system; and so is the Church of God, and each of the organs, members in particular, thus the organized body walks in the path that God marks out, and seeks to accomplish all things that he designs for us to do. Hence there is a mutual sympathy, affection and regard, and a brotherhood and fellowship among the Saints of God who are living their religion, all through the organization of the Priesthood, from the head to the foot.

And then we are united with the Priesthood in the eternal worlds, and the Priesthood that we have is of the same nature as that which they have. They administer in time and for all eternity; we are administering now in time, and soon shall be in eternity, all of us. The Twelve who are around me, and the First Presidency, and others will be, by and by, beyond the vail in another state of existence. And what then? Why then we go to give an account of our stewardship, and it will be well for all of us if we can say with Paul—“I have fought the good fight of faith, I have finished my course, and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day, and not to me only, but to all who love the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

May God help us to be faithful, live our religion and keep his commandments, that we may, by and by, obtain an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled and, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Unbelief of the Present Age, etc.

Daniel H. Wells

Discourse by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered at the Forty-sixth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday morning, April 6, 1876. Reported by David W. Evans.

I am gratified with another opportunity of meeting in the capacity of a General Conference. We have listened to a very stirring discourse here this morning in regard to the great work in which we are all engaged, or at least the Latter-day Saints should be all engaged in it; for they ought to feel interested in the work they have espoused, as it is designed to bring about the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord upon the earth. In the day and age in which we live, the Lord has given to his children here below the great privilege of being co-workers with him in establishing his kingdom, and the reign of truth, peace and righteousness upon the earth.

Is there any necessity for the Lord to commence such a work? If we are to believe our surroundings, and what we see, hear and learn every day, there is great necessity, for there can be little doubt in the minds of any reflecting person that we live in a very wicked, unbelieving, and perverse generation. I do not think this proposition would be denied by any one, it is so manifest to everybody that they cannot deny it. Well, the time has come when it seems as if the cup of their iniquity is about filled, and when the Lord thinks it is enough, and he has seen fit to commence his great latter-day work with a proclamation of the everlasting Gospel among the children of men, with a view of reclaiming them from the path of perdition, and of saving all who will yield obedience to his requirements.

The earth is now filled with violence and evil as it was in the days before the flood, and the Lord has said that as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. How was it in the days before the flood? Why, the wicked had filled the cup of their iniquity, and they were destroyed, only a few—the righteous—being saved. Well, if it is to be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man as it was in the days of Noah, why the wicked will again be destroyed, and the righteous saved. This is a preparatory work, and if the people reject the Gospel that the Lord has revealed from heaven, they may expect to be over-taken, sooner or later, by his judgments. They are already being poured out upon the earth. We see and hear of them occasionally, but the world is filled with unbelief. Unbelief in God is the crying sin of this generation. They do not believe in the things of God, nor in the principles which he has enunciated, and which he is endeavoring to establish through the instrumentality of those among his children who have rendered obedience to his Gospel, and who live in accordance with the principles thereof upon the earth. We have the privilege of promulgating the work of God, and of establishing his kingdom here among the children of men; and we may have the privilege of building Temples to his high and holy name, wherein we may receive the blessings of time and eternity, and administer the ordinances of salvation for the living and the dead.

It does not seem necessary, and it should not be, to enter into any argument to prove these things to the Latter-day Saints; they are already patent to them, and in this regard they know and understand their duty. Well then, what is there for us to do? Why, to take hold with renewed energy and zeal; not to falter but to go ahead, with what interest we can command, with all the ability we have been endowed with, and with the means that the Lord has bestowed upon us, in accomplishing his purposes, and in building Temples to his holy name. It is for our own benefit; it is for the benefit of the kingdom, and for the growth and spread thereof.

How can we do more than we have done? One way by paying our Tithing. Can we go to and assist in building this Temple, the foundations of which have been laid so long? I answer that we can. The next question is—Will we do it? That I do not know; each one will answer this question for himself by his acts. If we respond to this call it will require labor, means, and some attention. For one I will say that I am willing to take hold with my might, and do what I can towards it. I can do something, can you? Yes, each and every one can do something, and if the Latter-day Saints will be united in this thing we shall see the construction of this Temple go on rapidly. We are abundantly able to do it—we have plenty of mechanics and laborers, and abundance of the means necessary to sustain them. The details will be furnished, and the requirement will be made. Will it be responded to, that is the question? I think it will; I have faith to believe that the Latter-day Saints will respond with alacrity in putting the work through. I believe that it is in the hearts of the people, and that they will rejoice in it to a greater or less extent. There may be some lukewarm in this work, as in every other; but I am satisfied that the great majority will lay hold with a great deal of energy, and will persevere in it, and will rejoice in doing so. This is my faith, and I am willing to prove it, so far as I am concerned, by my works.

I do not consider it necessary to dwell upon the importance of these things. A great many of the Latter-day Saints have had many blessings bestowed upon them in the house of God, very great blessings indeed. Shall we slacken our hand because of this? By no means. There still remains a great work to be done; and it is incumbent upon us to do it, as brother Woodruff has said, while we have the opportunity in the flesh. Before we go behind the vail we should lay a foundation to progress upon after we have finished our course here. We, by our works, as well as by our faith, while in this life, should lay a foundation for exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our Father and our God.

I am rejoiced to hear the subject of building Temples agitated again.

A great deal might be said about it as to the details, but it will recommend itself to every one. What can a Bishop do in his ward? He can do something, and if he will lay the matter before the members of his ward he will find that he can get very liberal contributions in labor, and in provisions and other means necessary to pay the hands who work steadily on the Temple. There is not a ward in the city, not a ward in the county, nor in all these counties, but what can contribute considerable to this end, and that too right away. It is not going to take so much stone to go on with in proportion, as it has taken for the foundation, for the walls will not be so wide; and although the work is expensive, yet it can be done. We have mechanics who are perfectly competent to do it, and the plan will be given as fast as laborers to do the work are ready.

This is one thing that we can do, and it is required of us, and the responsibility of accomplishing this task rests upon our shoulders. Of course we have other duties to perform. Every person who lives in this Territory, here in Zion, who professes to be a Latter-day Saint, has responsibilities of various kinds resting upon him. All ought to assist in developing the resources of the soil, to draw from the elements for the support of themselves and families; to build up and make improvements, and not to tear down and destroy. We should all be united in developing, beautifying and improving this country, in which the Lord has planted our feet, that we may become a self-sustaining people, bringing forth from the elements with which the Lord has surrounded us, those things necessary for our sustenance and comfort. We should economise our time, and use it and all we have to our own best advantage, and to the glory and honor of our Father. There is plenty of labor here for all if they will do it, and if they will put themselves to work in those channels that are necessary. There are some kinds of business that are overdone. A good many of our young people, and others to, instead of turning their attention to the cultivation of the earth, or to the manufacture of things that are actually needed for the welfare and comfort of the community, seek to become clerks and to pursue some kind of a calling that is not productive. Such a course increases the consumers, but not the producers, and we have no surplus here of those things necessary to support and sustain people. If men were to go into various branches of manufacture, they would help to create a market for home products, and that would stimulate production, the production of fruits of the soil as well as other things. That would be good economy. We, at present, have no surplus of the products of the soil in these valleys of the mountains; there is no overplus even of wheat or other grain, or of butter and cheese, and other kinds of food. Even of meat we have not any but what can command a market, and at a price sufficiently high to justify the raising of it, and the taking care of, and increasing and multiplying the flocks and herds, and then using them wisely. What for? To sustain the wicked and ungodly? No; but to build up the kingdom of God, and to hold and use for God and his kingdom continually. Not just for a short time, and then pass off in some other direction; but continually, day by day, week after week, and year after year, as long as we live, contribute of what we have for the building up of the kingdom, and the building of Temples to the name of the Lord. And when that is done, there will be something else in the same direction, for it is the work of the Lord, the great work of the last days. Let us act as if we believed it, unitedly, with all our hearts, and with all the means that we possess, and not sift our ways to strangers. I tell you, brethren and sisters, this rests upon us, and the work may advance with a great deal more rapidity than what it has done, if we will be united in obeying the counsels that we receive from time to time. We must not only listen, but act upon the counsels we receive.

The Lord, a great while ago, said through his Prophet, that he would give the kingdom in its fullness to his Saints, and that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. We believe this, and we believe that we are his Saints; poor as we are, we are the best there is. We have the opportunity to grow and increase in grace and in favor with the Lord, and in faith and in good works, and becoming better than we now are, and of becoming more useful; and as we do so, why, the kingdom will grow faster, and things will prosper more with us. We shall have greater power with the Lord and in the world, and the purposes of heaven will roll on and come to pass faster than they have done. Though in this respect we have no reason to complain, for they have come along about as quick as we have been able to stand it. But the work will continue to increase in greater ratio than it has hitherto done; it is bound to, and cannot help it, any way in the world. Whether we ourselves, individually, stand firm and steadfast, makes no difference, the work of God will go forward anyhow. But we have the blessed privilege of assisting, and of being co-workers with the Lord, if we are disposed to be so. Then let us look to it, that we do not fail, for upon this depends our own salvation and exaltation in the celestial kingdom. We have now an opportunity for laying a foundation for hereafter hearing the welcome plaudit—“Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, now will I make you ruler over many things.” Shall we neglect the opportunities that we enjoy to that extent, that we shall come short hereafter? I hope and trust not.

The work we are engaged in is worthy of all our attention, for it is the work and kingdom of God, that was spoken of by the Prophets long ago; that great kingdom spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, that is to break in pieces and subdue all other kingdoms, and stand forever, is actually being built up in our day, right in the face and eyes of the whole world. Who understands it? Does the outside world? No, and it seems sometimes as if scarcely half the Saints do to the extent they should. I am satisfied that neither I nor anybody else comprehends this work to the fullest extent. A great many can see the kingdom, some do not; some of those who profess to be Saints, judging by the course they take, do not see the kingdom. But it is here all the same, whether you see it or not, and it is actually transpiring; and the course and history of the Latter-day Saints are a testimony to the world from the Lord of the building up of his kingdom, the bringing to pass of his purposes, and the fulfillment of prophecies uttered thousands of years ago. But they cannot see it.

One of the signs of the times to be given when the kingdom of God should be built up, was the heaving of the sea beyond its bounds. Has anybody heard of any such thing in these days? Everybody that reads the newspapers knows that events of this kind have been common during the past few years; but this generation pay no more regard to them than they would to the shaking of a straw in the wind, so far as being a sign of the coming of the Son of Man, or of the accomplishment of the work of the Lord in the last days. Talk to people generally, in the world, about such things, and they say—“Oh, they are accounted for upon some natural principle.” It is so with all of the signs that the Lord has given, or that he will give, that have been prophesied about—they can all be accounted for upon some natural principle. They are nevertheless coming to pass in the time that the Lord, through his Prophets, has said they would come. Many things prophesied of in ages past and gone are actually transpiring to-day, yet the people generally do not comprehend them. But the majority of the Latter-day Saints do, and they know that the time of the second coming of the Savior is approaching.

Can we realize that there is a great work to be accomplished, and that the responsibility rests upon our shoulders? I hope and trust we may; I believe we shall, and that we shall put forth renewed energy to perform what is required of us from time to time, and be earnest in accomplishing, as far as it devolves upon us, the purposes of the Almighty, in seeking the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and in developing the country in which God has planted our feet, and which he held in reserve for so many hundreds of years for his Saints, that they might have a place to come to and inherit. We know that he has given it into our hands, and he is pouring his blessings upon us from time to time, and that to use for him and his kingdom, and not, as fast as he hands them to us, to hand them out to build up the devil’s kingdom.

That we may be united in using our abilities, our means, our substance, and all that we have, in rolling forth God’s purposes, building up his kingdom, and establishing the principles of righteousness in the hearts of the people, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Gathering of the Saints is the Lord’s Work, etc.

John Taylor

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, July 30, 1876. Reported by G. C. Ferguson.

I have been pleased and interested by the remarks of brother Staines. He has been very diligent and indefatigable in looking after the interests of the Saints who have been emigrating to this place for many years. I pray that God will continue to bless him, that he yet may be made instrumental in guarding the interests and cheering the hearts of the Saints of God for years to come. This gathering is part of the work we Saints are engaged in. There are associated with this labor some ideas that are rather peculiar. There are many things in the Scriptures very strange and remarkable to men who are not inspired with the spirit by which these principles were inculcated.

The Lord in one place says by his Prophet, “Gather my Saints together, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” There is another passage of a similar kind, spoken by another Prophet, “I will take them, one of a city and two of a family, and bring them to Zion; and I will give them pastors after my own heart, that will feed them with knowledge and understanding.” There are many similar prophecies in the Scriptures, pointing out the day in which we live. But men pass lightly over them, as they do over many other things of great importance to the human family.

But there certainly is a significance in these expressions. If these events have not already transpired, they certainly will yet come to pass. If God has said he would take one of a city and two of a family and gather them to Zion and give them pastors to feed them, there must be a time when these things will be accomplished. Among other things communicated to Joseph Smith was that the people were to gather together, and there is a general impulse and feeling of this kind prevalent among this people. They scarcely know by what influence they are dictated and controlled, nevertheless this feeling is among the Saints in foreign lands as well as here. The feeling there is a strong impulse and desire to come here, while in this place there is a desire to help them to come. Hence the feeling is reciprocal and a part of the Gospel, a little of that leaven which Jesus referred to in his day, which “leaveneth the whole lump.” As regards the ideas men may entertain about; this thing it is a matter of very little importance to us. It is sufficient for us to know the principles which God has revealed. The world has no means of knowing this, and the Saints only know by obedience to the Gospel. Brother Staines referred to the time when it first became a matter of concern to him to know whether the principles of the Gospel were true or not. This same feeling has been experienced by many of the Latter-day Saints, and they solved the question by a doctrine of Christ, which the world never seem to reflect upon. Jesus said, “If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of myself:” There is something so broad and comprehensive, yet so individually personal, in the principle here involved, that though this mode of knowing is open to all, yet each individual must feel and realize for himself. There is another scripture bearing on this point, “He that believeth hath the witness in himself,” and another says, “The Spirit of God takes of the things of the Father, and shows them unto us.” Again, another says, We have a hope that enters behind the vail, where Christ, our forerunner, has gone. Another, “We know,” not we think we know, “if the earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” There is something so definite to all men who are in possession of these principles of the Gospel, that it may well be said, “Life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel.”

I might go on quoting Scripture, but this is the Gospel Jesus taught his disciples, and when he was on this continent he taught the same doctrines and principles and put the believers in possession of the same certainty. There is something very satisfying in relation to these matters. It is not with the faithful Saint a matter of any importance what man may think about him; his religion is to him a personal matter in which he is individually interested. No philosophy, no worldly wisdom can impart a knowledge of the plan of salvation. This knowledge is not to be obtained except through obedience to the principles which God has revealed. But having partaken of the light and intelligence communicated by the Almighty through obedience to the Gospel of the Son of God, the result is the same now as in former times. Such a man has the witness planted in himself, as Paul said, “Now we are sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but, when he who is our life shall appear, then we shall be like unto him, for we shall see him as he is.” We shall “be transformed to his glorious image.” This, then, is the hope and certainty of the Gospel, the reward of every true believer, and hence it is a personal thing. It is no use presenting to men of this kind the nonsense comprising the religions of the day; it is lost labor to try and turn a body of men from principles like those, such as God revealed personally to them, their souls have been lit up and fired by eternal intelligence, and it is impossible to eradicate this evidence and certainty from a body of men thus led and directed. God knew this when he commenced this work.

Men have had their varied social communities, religious and other theories; but they do not know the secret springs of the human heart. They do not know the operations of the spirit of the living God. They cannot bind a conglomerate mass of men sufficiently together, they will not where they cannot amalgamate them. Nothing less than the inspiration of the Almighty will do it. They have tried it in various nations with varied success, but they never have accomplished it and they never will. Hence we are brought back to where we started, the necessity of sending forth the Gospel. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and know me and follow me. A stranger they will not follow, for they know not the voice of a stranger.” In the commencement of this work the Lord, knowing the material required, raised up his servant Joseph Smith, inspired by his spirit, power and authority, to proclaim the Gospel of the Son of God, to administer in the ordinances thereof, and unite those that were willing to make covenant with the Lord by sacrifice, those that would lay aside their traditions and keep his commandments. This was what the Lord wished; not to gather up a promiscuous crowd, but those who would receive the Gospel. “I will take them one of a city and two of a family and bring them to Zion,” says the Lord, and give them pastors after my own heart, that will feed them with knowledge and understanding, not with false philosophy, but with knowledge emanating from God; men who will manifest the will of God and carry out his designs, teaching the people his law.

The world think they can learn the law and will of God at the theological and other schools, and seminaries; but they never did and they never will learn God or his purposes in this way. God wishes to establish his kingdom in our day, and he will establish it by his own power, in his own way.

The Prophet speaks of a stone that should be cut out of the mountain without hands, which will roll forth and smite the great image, become a mountain and fill the whole earth. This will be done by Israel’s God, and no power or government, not all the power of earth and hell combined, can stay its progress. This is the work of God, not of man. It is not by this man nor that man that this will be brought about. It is by the power of Jehovah. No other power can accomplish these things. He makes use of men to accomplish certain objects he has in view, and will bring about his purposes in his own way and when it pleases him. But we talk sometimes a good deal about Joseph Smith. Who was Joseph Smith? An unlettered youth. Could he do anything to accomplish these things? Not unless God had revealed it to him. He asked wisdom of God and received it. Till that time he knew no more about these things than you or I. It was God and God alone that did these things. “He can take the weak things of this earth, the base things and the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh may glory in his presence.” He took Joseph. Why? Because the time had come to begin a work, in which all the holy Priesthood of God that had lived in former ages were concerned. Joseph was the honored instrument chosen to take the initiative. Who knew that this time had come? No one. The religious world were as divided then as as they are to-day. All kinds of opposing doctrines and dogmas were promulgated. “When the Lord shall bring again Zion, the watchmen shall see eye to eye.” But when men are governed by their own notions, what do they see of the things of God? Nothing. Who originated the doctrines of this Latter-day work? Who organized this Church? I have read that in former time. God placed in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, afterwards Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists, for the perfecting of the Saints, the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Who knew anything of this? God told Joseph to organize a Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and he did it. He told him how to organize a First Presidency, and he did it. God told him how to organize the Aaronic and Melchizedec Priesthood, and he did it. Who knew anything of this? No one. They had a Babel of confusion everywhere, without certainty or true intelligence. We read that there were Seventies. Who knew anything what a Seventy was? Joseph was told to organize Quorums of Seventy, and he did it. He was told to organize a High Priests’ Quorum. He was told what their duties were. Did Joseph himself know anything of all this? Not till he was told. He was told to ordain Bishops. All kinds of notions were entertained about the position and duties of a Bishop. I remember talking to an English nobleman, I think it was Earl Roseberry. Said I to him, “Allow me to introduce to your lordship Edward Hunter, our presiding Bishop. You have your Bishops in England, and they are called lords spiritual; this is our lord temporal, and looks after our bread and cheese? What did any one know of the office and duties of Deacon, Teacher, Priest, or Elder? Nothing. Who knows anything about the building of Temples? No one, not even the Jews; they do not know fully what they were for. God has revealed it to his Priesthood. The relationship of man and wife—who knows anything about this? No one. The sectarian priest will get up with a solemn visage and pronounce a pair to be husband and wife till death. I say from such folly good Lord deliver me; but the Lord has delivered me through the Gospel. God raised up Joseph, and made use of him to reveal this knowledge, and we have to be directed by God alone. He placed in his Church in days of old Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, etc., for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of Christ’s body, till we all come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God. All those officers disappeared years and years ago, but God has restored the ancient organizations of his Priesthood on earth—Apostles, High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons. He has restored Bishops and their councils, and high councils, for the accomplishment of his purposes. He first institutes baptism for the remission of sins, then the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, the gathering of the people, then the building of Temples. Witness our Temple here, and the one at St. George; and many others. God must dictate. We must be willing to carry out his instructions, united as one body, with feelings of sympathetic kindness and brotherhood, associated in our family capacities, our quorum capacities, associated with the Church triumphant, with the men of God who have lived in former years, without whom we cannot be made perfect, nor they without us. If diligent and faithful in these things, it will be well with us. Eternal life is within our reach, and it is for Apostles, High Priests, Seventies, Bishops, and all that pertain to the Church of God to rise up and do their duty, perform their obligations to the Most High; and I pray that our path may be like that of the just, which shineth brighter and brighter till the perfect day.

Very Few Will Inherit Celestial Glory, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered at Logan, Cache Valley, Sunday, Aug. 15, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I think it is pretty well understood, by my brethren and sisters, that my labors, as a public speaker, are somewhat limited, compared with what they used to be.

The first season the Twelve went on a mission as the Twelve Apostles I became acquainted with the father of brother William Hyde, who has just addressed you. Brother Hyde, deceased, was then a boy. He with his father’s family gathered with the Saints; he went to Missouri and returned to Illinois, and got married. And this afternoon we have heard one of his sons speak to us. It is forty years this summer since I first knew the father of this young man. For three years previous to this I had been engaged preaching the Gospel, and the Spirit of God would rest down upon me to that degree that, if I did not open my mouth to preach to the people, it seemed as though my bones would consume within me, consequently I used to preach long and loud.

For forty-three years I have been more or less engaged preaching to the people. My talking organs are now pretty much exhausted, but my general health is good, even better than when I was a young man. I never felt better than I do at present. I have lungs enough to serve me to preach a hundred years, providing the talking organs of my stomach were correspondingly good.

I came here to rest, to get away from much talking. Since being here, I have been waited on by the Indians who are passing through, and I have had to do a good deal of talking to them, besides having to converse with the brethren.

I sometimes feel that I can hardly desist from telling the Latter-day Saints how they should live, but my talking organs will not permit me to say as much as I wish to. The Celestial Kingdom of God is worth seeking for, and there are times when I see the importance of the people living their religion that I almost feel to cry aloud and spare not, if I had the strength to do it. When I consider the greatness of the kingdom of God, and the privilege afforded us of becoming heirs to God our Father, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ our elder brother, and then sense the condition of the Latter-day Saints, I do not wonder that the question was asked of the Savior by his disciples: “Who, then, can be saved?” There are very few of the children of Father Adam and Mother Eve, who will be prepared to go into the Celestial Kingdom. Those who prepare themselves here, below, through obedience to the Gospel, receiving through their faithfulness the keys of the Priesthood, and sanctifying themselves through the truth, they are preparing themselves to become the sons of God. If we become the sons of God, we shall be joint heirs with Jesus Christ to all the inheritances that the Father hath prepared for the faithful. But there are few of all the human family that will ever attain to this highest state of glory.

We have a work to do just as important in its sphere as the Savior’s work was in its sphere. Our fathers cannot be made perfect without us; we cannot be made perfect without them. They have done their work and now sleep. We are now called upon to do ours; which is to be the greatest work man ever performed on the earth. Millions of our fellow creatures who have lived upon the earth and died without a knowledge of the Gospel must be officiated for in order that they may inherit eternal life (that is, all that would have received the Gospel). And we are called upon to enter into this work.

The Latter-day Saints who turn their attention to money-making soon become cold in their feelings toward the ordinances of the house of God. They neglect their prayers, become unwilling to pay any donations; the law of Tithing gets too great a task for them; and they finally forsake their God, and the providences of heaven seem to be shut out from them—all in consequence of this lust after the things of this world, which will certainly perish in handling, and in their use they will fade away and go from us. We, as well as the whole world of mankind, know that our time is short, our days but a span. And yet we lust after this filthy lucre, the world’s wealth. It matters not how much of this world’s goods a man may possess, his few days soon expire, and he sleeps with the fathers. To him his riches are no more; it was only seeming wealth. We cannot expect to receive real wealth until we receive the riches of eternity, which are eternal. Those riches will not be committed to us, until we shall have filled our measures here, having done all the Lord requires of us, towards perfecting ourselves, and assisting him in the work of the salvation of the human family. Not until Jesus shall present all things to the Father, saying, I have completed the work thou gavest me to do; here are the results of my labors. Then, and not until then, can we possess real riches, true riches, eternal riches.

How vain it is in man to allow himself to think that he can make himself happy with the pleasures of this world. There is no lasting pleasure here, unless it is in God. When men leave the kingdom of God, their lives are filled with bitterness, their thoughts are full of fearfulness, and they are sorrowful, day by day. They may tell you they are happy. But when you probe them, and find out the inmost recesses of the heart, it is a cup of gall; they are not happy. They may seek, to the uttermost parts of the earth, for happiness, but they find it not. Where is happiness, real happiness? Nowhere but in God. By possessing the spirit of our holy religion, we are happy, in the morning, we are happy at noon, we are happy in the evening; for the spirit of love and union is with us, and we rejoice in the spirit because, it is of God, and we rejoice in God, for he is the giver of every good thing. Each and every Latter-day Saint, who has experienced the love of God in his heart, after having received the remission of his sins, through baptism, and the laying on of hands, realizes that he is filled with joy, and happiness, and consolation. He may be in pain, in error, in poverty, or in prison, if necessity demands, still, he is joyful. This is our experience, and each and every Latter-day Saint can bear witness to it.

There has been much said with regard to our becoming a united people, living together in what is called the United Order. One man rises up here, and another there, saying “The Lord does not want my property; it is brother Brigham, or it is the Bishop,” and don’t feel disposed to enter into this organization. This, I admit, is partly true; the Lord does not care anything about his property. Who made the earth, and the riches thereof? To whom does the earth belong? “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” Do you suppose that the Lord cares anything about a man’s farm? Nothing at all, for the whole earth is his? At his command it is gone, and the man who claimed possession of any part of it, knoweth not whither it has gone. But what does the Lord want of his people? It is written in this Bible, and is said to be the words of the Lord, “Son, give me thine heart.” Without it, you are not worth anything; with it, he has your gold and silver, your houses and lands, your wives and children, your all.

I have taught from the stand in this place, and in other places, for years, the necessity of our becoming one. I can say to the Latter-day Saints, you have never heard brother Brigham make a demand for your property. All I want is to see this people devote their means and interests to the building up of the kingdom of God, erecting Temples, and in them officiate for the living and the dead, and be instruments in the hands of God of bringing up from their graves those who have slept without having had the privilege of receiving the Gospel, that they may be crowned sons and daughters of the Almighty. We do not want your property, we want you. When we all become one in faith and in spirit, we shall be one in our acts, having the kingdom of God at heart. And the inquiry will be from the brethren, “What can I do for my fellow-creatures? Can I be the means of saving a soul? Can I do anything for my friends who have slept without a knowledge of the truth, or can I do anything for those who are living in foreign lands? Yes, I can.” These should be the sentiments of our hearts, and this is required of us.

Many of us have spent considerable of our time in preaching the Gospel at home and abroad, and in otherwise assisting to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, and we are still engaged in this work. We have donated towards the deliverance of the poor from foreign lands, bringing them here, where they have the privilege of being taught further in the plan of salvation, and where they can assist more materially in the establishment of Zion in the earth.

Many of the poor, after having been brought here, relieved in many instances, from the depths of poverty, no sooner do they become the possessors of a little means, than they lift their heels against the Gospel. This is painful to the Latter-day Saints, who rendered them assistance; it is grieving to God who delivered them. Still, it is our duty to send the Gospel to all nations, and to continue to donate means to gather out the poor. The Lord will save a few, all that will accept salvation according to the design which the Lord has devised. He has made the plan, not us. It is not the conception of man. It was the Gods who sat in council together—they planned it and now offer it to us. Will we accept of it?

There are only two churches on the earth—only two parties. God leads the one, the devil the other. As soon as a man hears the Gospel preached and becomes convinced of its truth fulness, he is tempted of the devil, who, whenever there is an opportunity, suggests doubt for his reflection. If he entertain these doubting influences, it is not long before what he believed true becomes a matter of conjecture. Another may receive the Gospel, travel and preach it faithfully, feeling in his heart to exclaim, “Glory to God in the highest!” having no other motive than to do good to his fellow beings. By and by he perhaps is left to himself; he now begins to question himself, saying—“I wonder if I really was right?” This single doubt is perhaps the beginning of his apostacy from the Church. In the days of Joseph, people were inclined to turn away from the faith and go into apostacy, as much as they do now in proportion to our numbers, and I have sometimes thought more so. You allow the devil to suggest to you that I am not leading you right, and allow that thought to abide in your hearts, and I will promise you that it will lead you to apostacy. You allow yourselves to doubt anything that God has revealed, and it will not be a great while before you begin to neglect your prayers, refuse to pay your Tithing, and find fault with the authorities of the Church. You will be repeating what apostates all say, “The Tithing is not used aright,” etc. There is a feeling that sometimes prompts me to ask, “Did you ever pay any Tithing to me that I kept? If so, let us be informed about it.” God has so blessed me with regard to things pertaining to this world, that if it can be shown that I ever received the benefit of any man’s Tithing, I am able to restore it a hundred fold. This perhaps is a little levity in me, but I indulge in such things sometimes.

When brother Joseph was alive, he appointed me to appraise property in the Nauvoo Temple. On one occasion, a saddle was brought in; it was valued at two dollars, and being in need of a saddle I used it. Brother Joseph, too, once sent me the half of a pig which weighed ninety-three pounds. And while preaching in Boston, I received two and a half dollars in Tithing, which I also used and reported to brother Joseph. Otherwise not a dime of the Tithing did I ever use in the days of Joseph; and since his day the right to dictate the use of the Tithing belongs to me, and I have used what I thought was necessary, but I have no knowledge of using one dollar of Tithing money for my own purposes. Though after these statements I will say that I dictate the Tithing very little. Neither the Bishops nor my clerks ever ask me anything about it, they do what they please with it. I do not care what is done with it, if it be rightfully and properly used. They are perfectly welcome to use my Tithing in common with yours; the Lord will hold them responsible for its use. If my brethren whom I employ to take care of and raise my stock, do as I wish them to do, they pay my stock Tithing. No man in this Church pays his full Tithing. I do not pay mine, but I pay as much as anybody; and I never inquire what is done with it.

When we neglect any one of these duties, the enemy says, “I have made so much ground.” If the devil can induce an Elder to drink a little, he is not satisfied with this triumph, but says to him, “Your wife and children know it, don’t pray to-night.” The Elder says to his family, “I feel tired to-night, we won’t have prayers.” The enemy says, “I have gained another point.” You indulge still further, and you will find other excuses. Your head is not right, your heart is not right, your conscience is not right, and you retire again without praying. By and by, you begin to doubt something the Lord has revealed to us, and it is not long before such a one is led away captive of the devil.

You Elders of Israel, do you not see the necessity of an advance? Do you not see that we have traveled just as far as we can, without adopting the revelation the Lord gave at Independence, Jackson County, namely, that “the property of the Saints should be laid at the feet of the Bishops, etc., and unless this was done a curse would befall them?” They refused to do it, and the consequence was, they were driven from their homes. Unless we obey these first revelations, the people will decline in their faith, and they will leave the faith of the holy Gospel. Do the Elders sense this? Yes, a great many of them do—also a great many of the sisters. Were it not for the faith and prayers of the faithful ones, this Church would have been given into the hands of our enemies. It is the faith of the Priesthood, who cling to the commandments of the Lord, that holds the people where they are. Supposing you were in a state to say, We will do what is required of us: It would be enough for me to say, It is your duty to finish that house (the Tabernacle) without delay, and it would be done, every man doing his part cheerfully. But, instead of that being the case, we might apply to brother John for his team: says brother John, “It is very hard of you to ask for my team. I have only the one span, and I don’t see that I can let you have it.” Brother John keeps his team; but if he could have had faith sufficient to obey the request, the Lord would have blessed him with two teams. But because he keeps it, that is his all, and very probably, will remain his all. Again, say the Priesthood, “I want your house.” “Take it.” “Your garden.” “Take it.” Says one—“Do you feel so, brother Brigham?” Precisely so, I want to entertain no other feeling. I have nothing but what, if the Lord requires, it must go freely. He can take nothing more than is already his. I say, take it, I will trust in him for more. This is the only safe ground to walk upon. It is the only way by which we can secure eternal life. Jesus says, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life eternal,” but which the New Translation made, that leads to “the lives,” and few there be who find it. But wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat.

The Lord would like to see us take the course that leads unto the strait gate, that we might be crowned sons and daughters of God, for such are the only ones in the heavens who multiply and increase, and who frame and make and redeem worlds. The rest take an inferior kingdom, where this privilege is denied them. This the Lord has made known unto us through the Prophet Joseph; it is published and so plainly written, that we can read and understand for ourselves. It is for us to choose whether we will be sons and daughters, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, or whether we accept an inferior glory; or whether we sin against the Holy Ghost, which cannot be pardoned or forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come; the penalty of which is to suffer the second death. What is that we call death, compared to the agonies of the second death? If people could see it, as Joseph and Sidney saw it, they would pray that the vision be closed up; for they could not endure the sight. Neither could they endure the sight of the Father and the Son in their glory, for it would consume them.

The Lord gives us little by little, and is ever willing to give us more and more, even the fullness; when our hearts are prepared to receive all the truths of heaven. This is what the Lord desires, what he would delight in doing, for his children.

These are only a few reflections, when we take into consideration our Christian religion, for it incorporates every act of a person’s life. We never should presume to do anything unless we can say, “Father, sanction this, and crown the same with success.” If the Latter-day Saints live so, the victory is ours. There are a great many who want to live so, and I say God bless all such. Amen.

Simplicity and Unchangeableness of the Gospel, etc.

Wilford Woodruff

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Aug. 13, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

In connection with the young brother, Elder Joseph H. Parry, who has just returned from a preaching mission to England, I wish to bear my testimony, and to make a few remarks on the Scripture contained in the last chapter of St. Mark, commencing at the 14th verse, wherein an account is given of the Savior’s appearing unto the eleven disciples, and of his upbraiding them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them that had seen him after he was risen, etc. At this time the following commission he gave unto them—

“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. And 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; and they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

It may appear singular to some, why our Elders do not treat on what is termed “the mysteries of the kingdom.” I know of no greater mystery to the inhabitants of the earth, than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet the Gospel is so plain, and so easy to be understood, that the unlearned and the youth can know of it. The Apostle Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” He considered it of so much importance, that, on another occasion, in writing to the Galatians, he said—“But, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” From the fact of the Gospel being so simple, of its being adapted to the condition and circumstances of all people, and of its having gone forth by the commandment of the Savior, to all the world, in the event of its being rejected, condemnation must necessarily follow.

Notwithstanding the simplicity of the Gospel, where during the last eighteen hundred years has been the man or the sect that has presented it to the world, as taught by the Savior and his Apostles, before it was revealed from heaven, in fulfillment of ancient prophecies, to the young man Joseph Smith, and preached by him? No voice had ever been heard to proclaim it. There had never been a church or an organization upon the earth, since the days of Christ and his Apostles, directed by the revelations of heaven and owned of God.

The Gospel now being preached to all the world, by commandment of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph, is the same as taught by Adam, Enoch and the Savior. It never changes through lapse of time; its ordinances and laws are always the same, worlds without end. The first principles of the Gospel taught from the dawn of creation, are faith, repentance and baptism, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and they are the same to-day. To certain minds there might be a mystery connected with these principles. Why, say some, is this so? We can only answer, because it is the law of the great Jehovah, the plan framed in the heavens for the salvation and redemption of man. They are requirements made of the whole human family, which must be obeyed in order that the prevailing mystery may be banished, and the fruits and the blessings of the Gospel enjoyed. The Gospel is free to all; it is without money and without price. But none can officiate in its ordinances, acceptably to God, except those who have received divine authority to do so. For, says the Apostle, no man taketh this honor unto himself, except he be called of God, as was Aaron. But there are a great many Gospels, all claiming to be of Christ, and all differing, more or less, from one another, and from the one taught by the Savior, when upon the earth. When he, who has the authority, preaches the Gospel, he promises, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all that believe and obey, that the Holy Ghost will be given them. By virtue of this promise, all such can know for themselves, whether it is of God, or whether it is of man. If an unauthorized man goes forth, pretending to proclaim this same Gospel, and it matters not how able and talented he may be, his doctrine can be detected, because the promises which were to follow the believers in Christ are not realized, the Holy Ghost which imparts its gifts unto men are not received, and hence the fallacy of the doctrines of men is exposed, so that none need be deceived. Our boys are often called from the plow and the workshop, to go abroad to the nations to disseminate the principles of the everlasting Gospel. By what power are our young men sustained, who go forth, inexperienced, without much education, presenting in meekness, to a learned and intelligent world, the Gospel of Christ? God, through his angels, attends them; he strengthens their feeble knees, and gives them utterance.

I was once preaching to a large assembly in Collinsville, Connecticut; when I got through, a young clergyman came forward, and asked me if I had received any diploma from college. I answered him, “No.” “Do you know,” said he, “that a man who has not received a college diploma, has no right to preach?” “No, sir,” I said, “I do not know it.” “Well, sir,” he said,” that is the case.” I then asked him to inform me how it was that Jesus preached, without receiving a college diploma? and if such things as college diplomas were ever known or read of in the ministry of Christ and his Apostles?

The Lord chose poor, illiterate fishermen, and sent them forth to combat, and even to confound the wisdom of the wise. His Gospel is represented to-day, by the weak things of the earth, and has been now for over forty years. And what is the result of our preaching? Let facts speak for themselves. You can behold for yourselves, a people gathered here from the different nations, all prompted by the same motives, namely, to build up and establish Zion on the earth, in fulfillment of the words of God, through the mouths of his Prophets. Why have we been so successful, thus far, in accomplishing so great a work? Simply, because God has confirmed our preaching, and the testimonies we have borne, by conferring the Holy Ghost, with signs following the believers. Had not this been the case, Utah would be to day, what it was on the 24th of July, 1847, when the pioneers first set foot on its soil—a barren, desolate land, unfit for the habitation of man. The results of our preaching bespoke the fulfillment of prophecy. Zion has arisen, and some of the prophecies concerning her, recorded in the Old and New Testament, are having their fulfillment.

Angels have visited the earth and delivered the keys of salvation to the Prophet Joseph. He lived long enough to effect a complete organization of the Church, strictly according to the revelations of God to him. God has in our day given gifts to men, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The Apostle likened the Church unto a perfect body. One part cannot say to the other, I have no need of you; but all the parts are necessary to complete the organization; which is just as necessary to effect the perfection of the Saints of this generation as of any other. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance and baptism for the remission of sin, are absolute requirements, which must be complied with, before the Holy Ghost can be received. These signs, says the Apostle, shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, etc. These blessings are the right of every honest believer in Christ. They were set in the Church by the Savior, and remain with the Church, as a mighty cloud of witnesses throughout this Territory could testify to; and not only they of this Territory, but those of every land and clime wherever the Gospel has been preached and a Branch of the Church organized. Says the Apostle John, this Gospel is to be preached to all that dwell on the earth, to every nation, and kindred and tongue, and people; as a witness before the second coming of our Savior to dwell on the earth, who will come, not as a lamb to the slaughter, not riding upon a colt, the object of the people’s scorn. But he will come in power and great glory, taking vengeance upon them that love and fear him not. We, therefore, are sending glad tidings of great joy to whomsoever will receive them, that they may come up to Zion and escape the judgments that will most assuredly overtake the wicked.

I know that we are engaged in the great latter-day work, the work of the living God. And I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God chosen and set apart to usher in this last dispensation of the fullness of times. He has left a record, published, sealed by his own blood, confirming the truth of the same. This testimony is in force to all the world, and it will be in force until the end of time. This we declare is the kingdom which the Prophet Daniel saw in vision, never more to be thrown down or given to another people. In these mountains Zion is to be built up, in fulfillment of prophecy, and every jot and tittle that has been spoken of her must come to pass. The last is first, and the first will be last. The Gospel was first sent directly to the Jews; the Savior himself was of that lineage, through the loins of David. He came to his own, but they received him not. He was reproached of them, from the day of his birth until they crucified him on the cross. Consequently, the risen Redeemer commanded his Apostles to turn to the Gentiles. They received the work, and enjoyed the gifts and blessings of the Gospel, even the Comforter, the Holy Ghost; and the Priesthood continued with them until a portion of them became unworthy of it, through their falling away, while the faithful were harassed and persecuted to their death. The Gospel is now restored to us Gentiles, for we are all Gentiles in a national capacity, and it will continue with us if we are faithful, until the law is bound, and the testimony sealed, and the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, when it will again revert to the Jews, whom the Lord will have prepared to receive it. They will gather to their own land, taking with them their gold and silver, and will re-build their city and temple, according to the prediction of Moses and the Prophets. When this time arrives, which is nigh, even at our doors, let the Gentile nations who reject the Gospel which is now sent to them, prepare to meet the judgments of an offended God! For when their cup is full even to the brim, the Lord will then remember the chastisements of the Jews, his favored people, and at whose hands they will have received double for their iniquities. Offences must come, said the Savior, but woe unto them by whom they come. Woe unto the Gentiles, who have administer[e]d afflictions to the Jews for these many years! Woe unto them if they now reject this only means of salvation, for the awful calamities spoken of in these books, the Bible and Book of Mormon, will certainly befall them.

The principle of gathering has been preached for the past thirty-seven years. Before this principle was preached by the Elders, a great many of the people had received the spirit of it; and the consequence was, that no sooner had it been taught by the Presidency of the Church, than the people everywhere were ready to receive it. It had been revealed to them by the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to reveal that which is past, present, and that which is to come, and no surer, stronger testimony can be given to any one than it affords. We have gathered here for the express purpose of establishing Zion, which, according to the Scriptures, must be before the Gospel can be sent to the Jews. Passage after passage might be found in the Bible, referring to our coming here; the casting up of the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord might travel; the building of our city in a low place, which was to be called Sought out, a city not forsaken; and how the Lord would cause springs of water to spring up, and the desert to blossom like the rose, etc., all of which have had their fulfillment. But how do the inhabitants of the earth regard these things? With great indifference. In fact it would be a marvel to me were it otherwise, for according to the predictions, the people in this age were to be like unto the people of the days of Noah and Lot marrying and giving in marriage, practising all manner of wickedness and abominations, and wholly unprepared for the coming of the Son of Man. The Jews were under no condemnation for rejecting the Savior, until he appeared amongst them as the light of the world, then they had no longer a cloak for their sins; and in rejecting him, and those who were sent unto them, they stood condemned before the Lord, and, consequently, his threatened judgments overtook them. The people who heard not the Gospel preached from the days of the Apostles until its restoration in our day, are under no condemnation for rejecting the Gospel during the time it had been taken from the earth. But the light again has dawned upon the world, and the Elders of Israel are engaged proclaiming it far and wide, and as it was with the Jews, so it will be with the Gentiles who reject it, for the predictions at God’s Prophets must have their fulfillment, and neither you nor I can prevent it if we would. We are charged with being uncharitable, because we proclaim these things. We are not to blame—we are merely the creatures used by the Almighty in doing his bidding. The work is his, the plan of salvation is the creation of his superior wisdom, not ours.

Let me say to my brethren and sisters, our responsibilities are great, far greater than the outside world who reject the Gospel. We have received the light, the knowledge of God; we are under sacred covenants to stand by the truth, and by one another in righteousness. If we are found traitors to the cause, crucifying the Son of Man afresh, great will be our condemnation. Our time allotted us to tarry here below is short; but our spirits are eternal, and will live forever, and our future destiny depends on this our earthly career. The Lord has given his angels charge concerning us; they are our friends, and their eyes are over us. They stand in waiting with sharp sickles in their hands, ready to go forth and reap down the earth. Our calling is to perfect ourselves, to purify Zion, and make it a fit habitation for the Son of God when he comes; to build Temples, and in them perform the rites and ordinances for the living and the dead, and accomplish all that God designs us to do. And that we may be faithful in the performance thereof, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Prophecies of Joseph Smith and Their Literal Fulfillment, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Aug. 26, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

A little upwards of forty-six years ago, the Lord our God, through the administration of holy angels, organized his Church in the State of New York, and called men to the ministry, commanding them to go forth as missionaries, and preach to the people of the United States. They, in obedience to the command, went forth in their weakness, commencing their labors in the State of New York, and succeeded in baptizing believers, and organizing branches of the Church. From that day to the present, the Lord has been with his servants, and with the people who have embraced the message they proclaim.

In connection with the establishing of this Church, the Lord inaugurated the Gathering, which is peculiar to the dispensation in which we live. This work of gathering of the people, has continued for forty-six years, and we can behold its results—a people settled throughout these mountain valleys, numbering a hundred and fifty thousand.

I have often reflected upon the early prophecies that were given through our Prophet, Joseph Smith, whom the Lord called to organize his Church in this last dispensation, and have often marveled at their literal fulfillment. I will refer to some of them.

It is well known that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith, from certain plates which he discovered, deposited in a certain hill, anciently called Cumorah, which is situated in Ontario County, State of New York, having previously been shown the place in open vision. This book was translated, and its first edition of five thousand copies was published, before the organization of this Church. It was stated in that book, that a Church should arise, and the people who should embrace the Gospel which it contained, should be gathered together into one body. For the fulfillment of this, I have only to refer you to the people, the body of this Church, inhabiting these mountain vales. This prophecy also speaks of the extent of this future work—it should not only be preached to the people of this American Continent, but it should be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, under heaven, and the gathering should be from all these nations.

An impostor may prophesy, but he cannot fulfill his own prophecies. If Joseph Smith was an impostor, as the world say he was, how could he know beforehand of the rise of this Church, and that the Gospel would be preached in all parts of this nation? Still more, how could he know, that it would go to every land, and be proclaimed throughout every nation of the earth, and even to those inhabiting the islands of the sea? Has this been fulfilled? All you have to do is to make yourselves acquainted with the fact. You will find that the Gospel message has been carried out by our missionaries to the nations of Great Britain and Ireland, to France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the countries of Scandinavia, to Austria and Russia, to Asia and Africa, to Australia and the island of New Zealand, and the various islands of the South Pacific Ocean, as well as to the Sandwich and Society Islands. Among all these nations, this work has gone in fulfillment of prophecy, published before there was any Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith, therefore, so far as the fulfillment of his prophecies is concerned, has so much to establish the divinity of his mission.

Let us refer still further to the prophecies contained in the Book of Mormon. We read in that book, that not only a Church should arise, etc., but that the blood of the Saints who should embrace its faith, should cry from the ground to the God of heaven, against the inhabitants of this nation. How unlikely a thing to be fulfilled! Here, upon this land, is one of the most free governments given to man, bestowing upon all, civil and religious liberty. In other lands, persecution existed in consequence of men’s religious convictions; here all religious societies enjoyed the freedom of religious liberty to the fullest extent. If an impostor were going to prophesy, would he not be most likely to predict something that would suit the popular feeling of the people, something that would naturally come to pass? But for him to prophesy that the blood of the Saints, who were yet unconverted, should cry unto God for vengeance, against a people who glorified in their freedom, who could believe it? The people said such a thing never could come to pass; Joseph Smith must be an imposter. But how long was it before this met with its fulfillment? History shows that three years after the rise of this Church, the Latter-day Saints, numbering some twelve hundred persons, were settled in Jackson; one of the western counties of Missouri, where they possessed flourishing homes, which they had made out of the lands they had bought of the United States Government, and which they had paid for, and where, in consequence of their having preached the ancient Gospel, which had been restored to the earth through the ministration of angels, they met with serious opposition, insomuch that they were finally driven en masse from their possessions, their homes were torn down and destroyed, their animals were shot down as you would shoot the wild beasts of the forest, their hay stacks were burned, and their corn fields despoiled, and many of the Saints were also shot dead by the hands of their persecutors. What for? Was it because they had committed crimes that merited this treatment? No, their court records do not show a single instance of our people having broken the laws. Was it polygamy? No, for the principle of plural marriage was not known among us then. They said, “You proclaim that God is a God of revelation. We do not believe it. You say that God has re-organized his Church on the earth, according to the ancient pattern. We do not believe it. We do not wish such doctrines, we do not wish our families corrupted by believing in them, for prophets, and new revelation, and miracles are all done away with; therefore you must leave us. We have pledged ourselves, our lives, and all we possess, to drive you from our midst.” Perhaps you strangers may think I am telling you that which is false. It is written and printed by our enemies, and forms part of history; and it furnishes another testimony proving the divine calling of the boy who was inspired of the Lord to translate that book.

After we had again established ourselves in a new country, and built up a beautiful city, and when all was peaceful and prosperity attending us, this same Prophet, on assembling the Elders of this Church on a certain occasion at Nauvoo, told us that we would have to flee to the Rocky Mountains for safety. The fulfillment of this prediction is apparent to all. I might mention scores of others, and in no instance has that man uttered a single prophecy that either has not already been fulfilled, to the very letter, or will not have its fulfillment in the due time of the Lord. I will mention another prophecy, which was printed in several languages, and published among the various nations in whose languages it was printed, which was twenty-eight years reaching its fulfillment. The Lord revealed to the Prophet, Joseph Smith, that there would be a great rebellion between the Northern and Southern States, commencing in the State of South Carolina, and that it should terminate in the death and misery of many souls. This, as you all know, has been literally fulfilled. When I was a boy, I traveled extensively in the United States and the Canadas, preaching this restored Gospel. I had a manuscript copy of this revelation, which I carried in my pocket, and I was in the habit of reading it to the people among whom I traveled and preached. As a general thing the people regarded it as the height of nonsense, saying the Union was too strong to be broken; and I, they said, was led away, the victim of an impostor. I knew the prophecy was true, for the Lord had spoken to me and had given me revelation. I knew also concerning the divinity of this work. Year after year passed away, while every little while some of the acquaintances I had formerly made would say, “Well, what is going to become of that prediction? It’s never going to be fulfilled.” Said I, “Wait, the Lord has his set time.” By and by it, came along, and the first battle was fought at Charleston, South Carolina. This is another testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the Most High God; he not only foretold the coming of a great civil war at a time when statesman even never dreamed of such a thing, but he named the very place where it should commence.

I have not time now to notice any others. I wish, however, to say more particularly to the strangers present, that God informed us immediately after the organization of this Church, that this Gospel should be preached first to the nations of the Gentiles, and then the Lord would call in his servants and give them a special mission to the scattered remnants of the house of Israel, that are among the Gentile nations. You have not heard of our trying to convert the Jews. Why? Because God has decreed and determined that he will fulfill the times of the Gentiles first, in accordance with ancient prophecy. When that time arrives, the Lord will have prepared some of the Jewish nation to receive the Gospel, and then they will gather to their own land, and rebuild their city upon its former site. You doubtless will remember those words of the Saviour referring to the Jewish nation, which can be found in the 21st chapter of St. Luke—“For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” How and in what way will the Lord fulfill the times of the Gentiles? There must first be a revealed message, a Gospel message, sent to them. The preaching of this message is referred to in the 14th chapter of Revelations, by the Apostle John, who in vision saw the angel in the act of bringing it to the earth. And we are told it was to be preached to all nations which may be said to be composed of the two peoples known as the Gentiles and the Jews. But the Lord has said that “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.” Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but they rejected him, and the Apostles were moved upon to say, “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles;” and they did so, the Jews having proved themselves unworthy of eternal life, “and the kingdom of God shall be taken from you,” says the Savior, “and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” The Gentiles, to whom the Gospel was to be given, received it, and the gifts and graces of the Church, which were before enjoyed by Israel, were now manifested among the Gentiles. But behold, they corrupted themselves, after having received the kingdom, and Paul perceived the decline of their faith, which was the beginning of the great “falling away,” which he, in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, said must be before the day of the Lord came. Also in the 11th chapter of Romans, Paul speaks of the Gentiles who had received the Gospel as the wild olive tree, having been grafted into the tame olive tree, and cautions them in this language—“Because of unbelief, they (Israel), were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but {{page break|226 ] fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” This, with other prophetic warnings of a similar character, was disregarded.

I will refer you to another ancient prophecy contained in the 4th chapter of the second of Timothy—“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables;” and who, he says, in the previous chapter, shall “have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” It seems, then, that this people, whom Paul speaks of, were to have a form of godliness; they were, in other words, to be a pious people, professedly a very religious people, but were only to possess a form, lacking all power; to be destitute, therefore, of Apostles and Prophets, miracles, etc. How long was the people to continue in this state? John informs us that this state of things would continue a long time; that, instead of the Church, another great power should arise, to be called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and abominations of the earth, presenting in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications; which should be drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And this power was to prevail against the Saints and destroy them. How long was it to exist? Until another angel should fly through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to commit to the earth, with power to again administer its ordinances. To whom is the angel to bring the Gospel? The Scriptures say, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. The Gentiles were the last to receive the Gospel in ancient times, but on its restoration by the angel in the last days, they are to receive it first, and then the Jews. But before the Jews receive it, the following words of the Savior must be fulfilled—“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, when the Gospel again will revert to that people. What do you think will bring about the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles? It must be the promulgation of the Gospel, which the angel brings, which is to be sounded in the ears of the Gentile nations; all those receiving it are to gather out from this spiritual wickedness called Babylon the Great, because God has decreed her downfall. The overthrow of Babylon is spoken of in connection with the bringing of the Gospel by the angel, who declares also, “the hour of his judgment is come.” Judgment upon whom? First, upon the Gentile nations, when their times are fulfilled. In what way? By visiting upon them famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes; nation rising against nation in war, etc., until the Gentile nations are overthrown. Or, to speak in the language of John, who declared that after the angel shall bring the Gospel, another angel shall follow, crying with a loud voice, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; she is fallen like a great millstone, cast into the depths of the sea, and no more place found for her.

How long will it be before the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled? This is a question I cannot fully answer. It will be in the generation that the angel comes. Forty-six years have already transpired, since the Lord sent his Gospel message to the Gentile nations; and for upwards of forty years the Saints have been gathering out from the midst of Babylon, in fulfillment of another prophecy of John—“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Remember, strangers and all, that this gathering of the people was not to result from a cunningly devised fable, or the natural scheming of man; but it should be in consequence of new revelation—a voice from heaven, commanding the people to come out from those nations where the Mother of Harlots has her seat. For it is written in the revelation of John, that the great waters upon which the millions called Babylon sit, are nations, and multitudes, and tongues, and people. “Come out of her my people;” Why? That ye be not partakers of her sins. How great are her sins? “Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Come out from Babylon, lest you be made partakers of her plagues. Death and mourning, lamentation and distress, will be visited upon all the inhabitants of the earth. But blessed are they who come out from Babylon, for they shall stand in holy places and not be moved, having kept the commandments of the Most High.

But if you Latter-day Saints who have received the message of the everlasting Gospel, and who have, in obedience to the voice from heaven, gathered out of Babylon, if you pollute yourselves by turning again to the vanities, wickedness, and corruptions of the people from whose midst you have been delivered, then, says the Lord, “Behold, judgment shall begin at the house of God,” it shall begin with you Latter-day Saints, and then will go forth to the nations and kingdoms of the earth, weeping, wailing and lamentations among all people, which will come to pass just as literally as that foretold by the Prophet Joseph Smith, concerning what should take place between the North and the South.

These plagues named in John’s revelations, will take place literally—“The Lord God will curse the waters of the great deep, and they shall be turned into blood.” “The sea shall become as the blood of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea shall be destroyed.” And the time will come, when the seven angels having the seven last trumps will sound their trumps literally, and the sound thereof will be heard among the nations, just preparatory to the coming of the Son of man; and all the judgments foretold by John, which are to succeed the sound of each of the seven trumpets, will be fulfilled literally upon the earth in their times and seasons. And the wicked will gnaw their tongues for peace, and will curse God, wishing to die because of their pain. These are they who repented not when the gospel was preached to them, and who became hardened in their iniquities, which were overflowing, in order that God might visit them according to all that had been spoken by the mouths of his ancient Prophets.

What will become of the Latter-day Saints? When the judgments shall have ceased, which will be visited first on the house of the Lord, they who remain will spread forth, increase and multiply; and they will build upon this continent a great and magnificent city, called Zion, or the New Jerusalem. And they will build a Temple within that city, upon which a cloud will rest by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; and upon all the assemblies of the people of Zion the Lord will create this glorious appendage, and will shed forth his loving kindness. This is the destiny of Zion, as foreseen by Isaiah and David, and many of the Prophets who have predicted concerning her.

Says one, I will wait to see if God will do these things. But peradventure, while waiting, you may be cut asunder, and your portion appointed among the unbelievers, where there are weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Woe unto them who wait to see if God will really fulfill the prophecies of his servants, and who repent not of their sins! But, blessed are they who repent as soon as they hear the sound of the message, and who turn unto the Lord their God with all their hearts, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, which bears record of the Father and the Son, and they shall be prepared for the dispensation of his providences, and hail his coming with great joy. The people of the antediluvian world waited one day too long; they waited until the flood came, when it was too late, and they were swept away, eight persons only escaping. The Savior, speaking of his second coming, said—“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Did the Lord raise up a Prophet and warn the antediluvians by new revelation? He did: and he did the same in the case of the people in the days of Lot. Will he do the same prior to his second coming? He will. He is doing it by means of his Gospel; revealed for the purpose of saving all who receive it, who gather to a place of safety, as Noah and those who believed his message did; But the day will come when the Lord will not spare any who remain in Babylon; that will be, however, when this prophecy of Isaiah is completely fulfilled—“I will gather them from the east, and from the west; I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by name.” All this is to take place in the very dispensation in which the angel should bring the Gospel, which is the dispensation of the fullness of times. The Apostle Paul also refers to the same great event, in the following language: “That in the dispensation of the fullness 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.” It is the purpose of God then, not to confine the gathering to earthly Saints alone.” What,” says one, “are immortal beings coming down from heaven to live on this earth?” Certainly, and thus fulfill numerous prophecies in the Scriptures; one of which is, “They shall reign on the earth.” Who are these persons? They are they whom John heard singing in heaven about it. They said, “Thou hast redeemed us out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people, and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” What a glorious song! While we are singing about going to heaven, all heavenly beings are singing about coming back to earth to live and to reign. Why? Because this is their inheritance, they have been made worthy through the blood of the lamb, and their Redeemer will be their King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to his dominion there shall be no end. When this takes place, then will be fulfilled the saying, that all things which are in Christ, both in heaven and on earth, shall be gathered together. The wicked, too, shall be gathered, but in bundles ready for the burning.

Marvel not, therefore, Latter-day Saints, that you have been exalted out from among the Gentile nations! Marvel not that the Lord has said to the North, give up, and to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth! Marvel not at the Savior’s parable of the gathering of all kinds of fish and bringing them to the shore! By and by, angels will come among the Latter-day Saints who have been gathered from the nations, and they will pluck out one here, and another there, putting them into their place. The separation of the fish will take place; the bad will be cast away, while the good will be reserved in vessels for the Master’s use.

May the Lord who has redeemed us from among the nations bestow upon us the rich blessings of his kingdom, which he has decreed to bestow upon his people in the latter days! And may this people spread forth on the right hand and on the left; may they enlarge the place of their dwelling, and stretch forth the curtains of their habitation, until they shall become a great mountain, as the Prophet Daniel has predicted, and fill the whole earth, until the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heavens; shall be given to the Saints of the Most High God! Amen.

Personal Revelation the Basis of Personal Knowledge, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Sept. 17, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I am about to do the very thing I did not intend to do this afternoon, that is, speak to the people. I have absented myself from your meetings now for some time, feeling that if I came here my spirit would be drawn out to such a degree that I would perhaps be under the necessity of talking to you; I will venture, however, to use my lungs for a few minutes, and present a few words of counsel to the Latter-day Saints.

There is a Scripture which reads, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” This is as true a saying as there is in the Bible. And on one occasion Jesus said, “If any man will do my will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Brother Geo. Q. Cannon, who has just spoken, has testified to the word. I have made these quotations to confirm and strengthen what he has said. There are people enough here to publish to the world that there is a man who testifies that he knows that God lives, who knows that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. I also testify to the truth of these things. I have proven to my satisfaction, according to the best knowledge I can gather, that man can be deceived by the sight of the natural eye, he can be deceived by the hearing of the ear, and by the touch of the hand; that he can be deceived in all of what are called the natural senses. But there is one thing in which he cannot be deceived. What is that? It is the operations of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit and power of God upon the creature. It teaches him of heavenly things; it directs him in the way of life; it affords him the key by which he can test the devices of man, and which recommends the things of God. The sayings which I have quoted I have proven to be true, and I bear testimony to them. The Latter-day Saints have done likewise. Not only the Saints who are present, and who gathered to Zion, but those of every nation, continent, or island who live the religion taught by our Savior and his Apostles, and also by Joseph Smith; they also bear the same testimony, their eyes have been quickened by the Spirit of God, and they see alike, their hearts have been quickened, and they feel and understand alike, and there are no disputations among them with regard to the doctrines of the Savior.

Men begin to apostatize by taking to themselves strength, by hearkening to the whisperings of the enemy who leads them astray little by little, until they gather to themselves that which they call the wisdom of man; then they begin to depart from God, and their minds become confused. But all who keep the faith are of one heart and one mind, and this testimony is so confirmed to all that we cannot be mistaken. If we ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, for such and such favor, and it be granted to us, should we not acknowledge God in this? If we hearken to the whisperings of the Spirit of God, we shall feel ourselves under obligations to do so. In consequence of our obedience to the will of the Father, we know for ourselves, and our knowledge is confirmed as we continue to apply the commandments of God in our everyday life.

Brother Cannon speaks of Christians. We are Christians professedly, according to our religion. People have gathered to themselves certain ideas, and laid them down as systems, calling them religion, all professing to believe and obey the Scriptures. Their religions are peculiar to themselves—our religion is peculiar to God, to angels, and to the righteous of time and eternity. Why are we persecuted because of our religion? Why was Joseph Smith persecuted? Why was he hunted from neighborhood to neighborhood, from city to city, and from State to State, and at last suffered death? Because he received revelations from the Father, from the Son, and was ministered to by holy angels, and published to the world the direct will of the Lord concerning his children on the earth. Again, why was he persecuted? Because he revealed to all mankind a religion so plain and so easily understood, consistent with the Bible, and so true. It is now as it was in the days of the Savior; let people believe and practise these simple, Godlike traits, and it will be as it was in the old world, they will say, if this man be let alone he will come and take away our peace and nation. Why? Because—“Shall I quote Scripture? If I do not, I will make a little.” Because it takes away their bread and butter, takes away their salaries; they become no longer able to impose upon the people, and to lead them blindly along, while they themselves feast and fatten upon the labors of these whose souls they profess a watch-care over. They say, “We shall be broken up, we shall have to raise our own wheat and potatoes, make our own butter and cheese, and we cannot bear it, and we will not, we’ll drive this religion from the earth.” This is really all the reason there is. A man rises up and says, “I understand the philosophy of a good many sciences, and I cannot believe as you Latter-day Saints do.” All your philosophy, even every iota of it which is true, belongs to the religion of the Latter-day Saints; and I say to all such, if you believe the truth, you believe just as the Latter-day Saints believe. It is said in this book (the Bible) that God made the earth in six days. This is a mere term, but it matters not whether it took six days, six months, six years, or six thousand years. The creation occupied certain periods of time. We are not authorized to say what the duration of these days was, whether Moses penned these words as we have them, or whether the translators of the Bible have given the words their intended meaning. However, God created the world. If I were a sectarian I would say, according to their philosophy, as I have heard many of them say hundreds of times, “God created all things out of nothing; in six days he created the world out of nothing.” You may be assured the Latter-day Saints do not believe any such thing. They believe God brought forth material out of which he formed this little terra firma upon which we roam. How long had this material been in existence? Forever and forever, in some shape, in some condition. We need not refer at all to those who were with God, and who assisted him in this work. The elements form and develop, and continue to do so until they mature, and then they commence to decay and become disorganized. The mountains around us were formed in this way. By and by, when they shall have reached their maturity, the work of disintegration and decay will commence. It has been so from all eternity, and will continue to be so until they are made celestial.

Some of our scholars who have acquired a little smattering of knowledge rise up and say, “I am an infidel, I do not believe in God.” Well, then, as the Psalmist says, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” I make the application of the Psalmist. You do not know your right hand from your left. How do you happen to know that this (the right hand) is the right hand, and that this (the left) is the left hand? Simply because it has been handed down from parent to child until this day. Were it otherwise one might say, This (the left hand) is my right hand, and this (the right) is my left hand. Where did Professor Morse obtain his knowledge of electricity, and its application over the telegraph wire? He got it from the God of Heaven, who is the source of all intelligence; from him proceeds the knowledge of mechanism and of philosophy in all its phases.

What do men and women who turn away from the faith, as they occasionally do, turn to? To an empty sound, from a reality to a shadow. They reject a knowledge of the eternal principles by which the heavens are, were, and will be; they turn to the follies and weakness of man and yield to the influences of the devil, who, with the third part of the hosts of heaven, rebelled against the Father and was cast out of heaven. What is the ultimate result of this downward course which some are pursuing? The beautiful organization they now possess, will decrease in beauty, and continue to decrease until the elements of which it is formed dissolve and return to their original state, just like the action of these mountains, which, in their time decay, and return to mother clay. They who turn away from the Gospel of the Son of God, which we preach, turn away from the origin of all truth, from light into darkness, from wisdom to folly, until they are known no more forever; this is the end of apostacy. What has already become of those who, during our short existence as a Church, have come out against us, politically, judicially, or otherwise, those who have raised their puny arms to destroy the kingdom of God from the earth! They have become powerless, like the dew before the rising sun; they have vanished away, their names are almost forgotten; and if this is not the case with all, it will be. For Zion must be establis[h]ed on the earth, and God, in his power and might, will accomplish it, and none can stay His purposes. He will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, and we will assist him.

I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world; I have obeyed his sayings, and realized his promise, and the knowledge I have of him, the wisdom of this world cannot give, neither can it take away.

To you, my brethren and sisters, I wish to give a little counsel. And, here, let me say, that after I have revealed to you the mind and will of God concerning you, I am not held responsible for the performance of your duties. Cease your folly and wickedness, cease running after Babylon, and let your young people cease their Sunday and midnight excursions, and everything that savors of Babylon; for soon she must fall, she will pass away, the victim of her own wickedness, and it behooves you to watch and pray, lest peradventure you should be lost with her. I also say, Cease speaking evil one of another, and cease being dishonest. Masters, deal honestly and justly with those whom you hire, who are called servants. Servants, deal honestly and uprightly with those who employ you, who are called masters, that confidence and the spirit of brotherhood may be kindled, where now, in too many instances, the desire to take advantage exists.

We are making an effort, by way of petitioning the City Council, to close the drinking saloons that disgrace our city. How do the people feel about it? Are there any Latter-day Saints who would not lift up both hands against this evil and say, “God be thanked if we can stop the drunkenness in our streets?” No, not one. Are there any, whether “Mormon” or non “Mormon,” who claim to have the fear of God in their hearts, but who ought to lend us their full support in suppressing it? No, not one. A gentleman, well known to you, told me that he had occasion to wait fifty minutes on one of our streets, near a beer saloon, and during that time he counted six women come out, three or four of them had either children in arms, or walking by their sides. What do you think of that, sisters? It is a disgrace to the name of lady. Is it any more a disgrace in woman than in man? Yes, because he is by nature coarser and more prone to such wickedness than she is. Woman is altogether of a finer nature, and has stronger moral inclinations; it is not natural for her to indulge in wickedness that man takes common delight in. It is a disgrace and a burning shame in an Elder in Israel to allow himself to become intoxicated; and further, it is shameful in an Elder to frequent and help sustain these saloons, these sink-holes of vice. How would the Savior, were he to come among us, regard such men who are supposed to be engaged in the work of building up Zion? It would be fair to believe that, as he disposed of the money-changers who contaminated the Temple, by as he said, turning it into a den of thieves, so likewise the Elder, who would lend his influence to turn Zion into a den of drunkards and gamblers, should be cast out as one unworthy to be engaged in so important a work. The devil has sent his emissaries among us, some of whom come in the form of lawyers, doctors and ministers, and others as saloon keepers and gamblers, and as “gentlemen” whose politeness and affability are peculiarly striking. Their special mission seems to be directed to the young of both sexes, to decoy and lead them astray. To the young man they say, “Come, take a drink;” or, “Don’t be so unwise as to allow yourself to be governed by this one man power; be free and use your liberty, let everybody know that you are a free man and that you have a mind of your own.” And turning to our girls—“Won’t you take a ride, young lady?” She thinks him so nice, he lets her drive. “O, how lovely this is, don’t I look pretty?” “Won’t you accept an invitation to a dance, to the Lake, or to the Gardens, etc.?” Such courtesies, when accepted, are the beginning of sorrow. There are but two roads, one is the way of life, glory and excellency, and crowns, and kingdoms, immortality and eternal lives; the other is drunkenness, debauchery, beautiful manners in the light, but shameful conduct in the dark. “O!” say they, “don’t you think we are wise? Why, we are very wise, we have studied and been to college.” Yes, I know the extent of your wisdom. I know, too, the road you are traveling; it leads down, down, down, until you become as nothing, returning to native element, and losing your identity—you are lost forever and forever. These are they who have sinned away the day of grace, and denied the Lord, who bought them.

As for supporting the one-man power, as the world term it, I can say that I never asked a man to vote for me, or to use his influence in any way to further my individual interests. All I have ever asked of the Latter-day Saints is, to do the will of our Father in heaven. And in this, as in all other things, you have the perfect liberty to do as you please. I can say, as was once said from this stand, God and one man are a great majority; and God and the Latter-day Saints who are valiant for the truth, and who live according to the revealed will are an overwhelming majority, and they will live and reign upon this earth when it shall be redeemed from its fallen condition, while their opponents will sink down to perdition.

Some of our young men rise up and say, “I don’t believe as my father believes, I can’t see it, and I shall do as I please.” This is your right, to do as you please, your free agency is given to you for that purpose. But while you avail yourselves of this liberty, which is so much abused and misunderstood, be careful that you do not defeat your own desires; for these words are as true to-day as they were when the Apostle Paul uttered them: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.”

I believe in the one-man power. Who is that man? Our Father in heaven, God, the eternal Father, who is in all, knows all, and who made all that is in heaven, and who brought this world and all its living creatures into existence. He is the supreme “man.” I serve, believe in and wish to obey in all things. It is my right and privilege to thus believe, and all who choose to differ from me have the privilege to do so. I want to continue in that course that will secure to me an exalted salvation. What, to be near to the Lord? I do not know, nor do I upon this point give myself any trouble. It is pure and righteous principles I seek, and we must associate them with our every-day life until they become part and parcel of our existence; for this brings us happiness, no matter where we are. It is a pleasure for a person to drink good cold water when extremely thirsty; but when he has satisfied himself, the extent of his enjoyment is realized, and so it is with all our natural blessings or pleasures. But how different with regard to the principles of eternal life! Of them we drink and drink again, and still we thirst for more. These are the principles which alone can make us happy—without them we are miserable in time and will be through all eternity. God bless you. Amen.

Secret of Happiness, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Third Ward Meeting House, Salt Lake City, Sunday evening, June 23, 1874. Reported by David W. Evans.

I am here in this Ward, especially to talk to you, my brethren and sisters. I think I have been here only once before—at the dedication of this house. I have a few things to say to you, which I hope and expect will be received and appreciated according to their merit.

Perhaps quite a portion of this little congregation have left their homes, their friends, the lands of their nativity for the Gospel’s sake, for the sake of their own salvation and that of their families and friends who would go with them. I will appeal to the experience of my brethren and sisters who have received the Gospel, and ask them this question—Is not the Gospel dearer to us than anything else and all else on this earth? I think I can answer for all Latter-day Saints, and say, “Surely it is.” We hope for life, salvation and exaltation; we have the privilege of the Gospel and the ordinances of the house of God, while the inhabitants of the earth, with the exception of comparatively a very few, have not as yet availed themselves of this privilege. We preach the Gospel to the people, but they are so erroneously traditionated and so ignorant with regard to the facts pertaining to the revelations and will of God to the children of men, that they turn aside from it and think it no evil in so doing. They are so educated that they can neglect the Gospel, and feel measurably justified. This is an item of experience that we could bring before ourselves and others more fully than, perhaps, it would be prudent for me to spend the time to do this evening. But the Gospel to us is all in all. To know the will of God, and do it, is the happiest life that intelligent beings, the children of our Father in heaven, can live. There is no other condition in life that produces the same amount of good feeling, peace, happiness, joy, comfort, contentment and intelligence that the service of the Lord will bring. If a person is very poor and the love of God is within him, he feels rich and happy, and can measurably do without food, that is, longer and better than they can who do not have this experience of the love of God within them.

The person who enjoys the experience of the knowledge of the kingdom of God on the earth, and at the same time has the love of God within him, is the happiest of any individuals on the earth. We, who believe in and have obeyed this Gospel, look forward with the anticipation of obtaining a great amount of knowledge and wisdom. When we embraced the Gospel, the spirit opened up to our minds the fact that the wisdom, the knowledge and the power of God would increase in the midst of the Saints. This is our experience: I, knowing for myself, what the Spirit of the Lord brings to the understanding, testify what it reveals to others. The same spirit that is given to me, to enlighten my mind, is given to others; the same that is given to you I have received, consequently I speak from personal knowledge, from that which I have experienced and understand, and that I live in; and they who live in and enjoy the spirit of our holy religion can testify to this.

There is a portion of this congregation who are young, and know but little about the United States, or about the people there; and there is a large percentage of our community who know nothing by experience of the outside world. Ask them if they know anything of California? No. Anything about the States? No. Did you not come from England? No, but my parents did; consequently they have not experience. They have lived here, they have grown up with us. We have brought them up cheerfully and kindly, and instructed and taught them, and they have enjoyed the spirit of life and of wisdom and knowledge. These children who bare been born here in the New and Everlasting Covenant, do not seem to realize this. This is for the want of experience, which they will obtain in future life. But those of experience, those who have left their homes and their all for the sake of the Gospel, are capable of judging better about these matters.

Now we, as Latter-day Saints, hope for salvation; we are living in anticipation of eternal salvation. We have left our homes and everything for the sake of our religion. Many women in our community have left their husbands; many men have left their wives and children; young boys have left their parents and brothers and sisters, and young girls have come away, and left all. They had friends, homes, plenty, parents, brothers and sisters; yet when the spirit of the Gospel came upon them they were so enamored with it, and it gave such light, knowledge and intelligence, that they were willing to forsake all, and follow with the Latter-day Saints for life eternal. This is the case with quite a portion of our community. We all, then, started for life and salvation, and we still have no other object.

Now, my brethren and sisters, I wish to ask—Do we not anticipate further knowledge, wisdom and blessings, and further communications by the spirit of the Lord, further demonstrations and further witnesses revelations, knowledge, etc., in this kingdom? We do, every one of us. We ask the question again, Do we expect that we have already become perfect, and that we are prepared to be numbered with the sanctified, and that we are now prepared to be gathered with God’s elect, and that, if we were to hear the voice to-night—“Behold the bridegroom cometh”—we should be numbered with the wise? Do we anticipate this? If we do we are wrong, for we are not prepared. We have passed through a great many scenes, we may say, of tribulation, though I would have all my brethren understand that I do not take this to myself, for all that I have passed through has been joy and joyful to me; but we have seemingly sacrificed a great deal, and passed through many scenes of trial and temptations, no doubt of this. We have had to suffer temptation more or less, and we have taken the spoiling of our goods joyfully. I have, myself, five times before I came to this valley, left everything that the Lord had blessed me with pertaining to this world’s goods, which, for the country where I lived, was not a very little.

Well, we have passed these ordeals, and we are still going along. Now have we profited by all that we have, passed through and experienced, so that we really do consider that we are sanctified and prepared for the celestial kingdom of God, or do we believe that there is something more yet to be done? Why, all hearts reply—There is still understanding in this kingdom; every heart echoes—We expect to learn more, we expect to receive more, we are not yet perfect, we are not complete in our stature as men and women in Christ Jesus. Now I will just ask, right here—Shall we ever be learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth? No, I say we shall not, but we shall come to the knowledge of the truth. This is my hope and anticipation, and this is my joy. The Latter-day Saints, as a people, in many respects are shortsighted, we are but babes or suckling infants in the Church and kingdom of God, comparatively, and especially since we have been in these valleys. We have enjoyed peace and plenty here; we have been blessed in our families, and in our flocks and herds, and in our fields and crops, and we have gathered around us the comforts, and even the luxuries of life, and some, to a small extent, wealth. Now, in the enjoyment of all this is the kingdom of God first and foremost with us? I can say, taking as a people, that our hearts are too much on the things of this life. We are, perhaps, too skeptical in our feelings, with regard to the things of the kingdom. We gather, as we anticipate, mental strength, and we think we are capable of judging where we are not capable of judging, and the riches, or the good things of this life, I can not in reality say the riches, but a little of this world’s goods, sometimes blind the mind and becloud the spirit of a person. I can appeal to the experience of my brethren and sisters, aged and middle-aged and youth, and even to the children. Go to the child, and what does its joy consist in? Toys, we may call them, something that produces, as they think, pleasure; and so it is with our youth, our young boys and girls; they are thinking too much of this world; and the middle-aged are striving and struggling to obtain the good things of this life, and their hearts are too much upon them. So it is with the aged. Is not this the condition of the Latter-day Saints? It is. Well, now, take us as a people, we anticipate life eternal; we think we are the best people on the earth, and we think we have sacrificed more for our religion than anybody else, though in my belief, and in this respect I probably differ with most of the Latter-day Saints, for the simple reason that God, our Heavenly Father, in his religion, does not require men and women to suffer as false religions do. Take the religions of the heathen, and false systems of religion generally, and they require sacrifices that the Lord does not require. The Lord has offered his sacrifice in the character of his Son; but he does not require us to sacrifice our children or ourselves as the heathens sacrifice to their gods; consequently our sacrifices and our sufferings are not to be compared with those of the heathens. There are professing Christians in our midst, who are so strict in their religious notions that they would rise in the morning at five o’clock, and walk miles, if necessary, rather than miss their religious services; and they are those who are so zealous that they would measure the soil from here into old Jerusalem with their bodies if they could, to pay penance, as they call it. God does not require any such sacrifice as this; neither does he require any of these sacrifices which involve the shedding of blood or the loss of life. Such things do not belong to God’s religion, they come through sin and transgression. Perhaps they who show such manifestations of their faith strengthen it and do themselves some good. All that is required of us is to sacrifice our feelings and to overcome the adversary by subduing the lust within us for anything but the kingdom of God on the earth, the glory of God, and the salvation of our friends and families and of the human family from first to last; that our whole souls may be devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth, and for the salvation of those who sleep, who died without the Gospel. We want to sacrifice enough to do the will of God in preparing to bring up those who have not had the privilege of hearing the Gospel while in the flesh, for the simple reason that, in the spirit world, they cannot officiate in the ordinances of the House of God. They have passed the ordeals, and are beyond the possibility of personally officiating for the remission of their sins and for their exaltation, consequently they are under the necessity of trusting in their friends, their children and their children’s children to officiate for them, that they may be brought up into the celestial kingdom of God. All that the Lord requires of us is a perfect submission in our hearts to his will. The Latter-day Saints say at once—“This is correct, certainly it is right that we should have no other object and aim in our feelings and affections but to do good and to promote the kingdom of God on the earth.’ But the weakness of man is such, the humanity with which our spirits is clothed is so frail that we are liable to be overcome. These tabernacles are dull, subject to sin and temptation, and to stray from the kingdom of God and the ordinances of his house, to lust after riches, the pride of life and the vanities of the world, and these things are prone to be uppermost in the minds of all; old and young, even Latter-day Saints. The infant wants his toys, the children want nice dresses, and this is correct; and when we understand how to rightly use the things of the world, there will be the most beautiful children in Zion that ever lived on the earth. But we wish the wealth or things of the world; we think about them morning, noon and night; they are first in our minds when we awake in the morning, and the last thing before we go to sleep at night; and we dream about how we shall do this, and how we shall obtain that, and our minds are continually lusting after the things of the world. Is not this too much the case with the Latter-day Saints.

I will ask this question of the few who are here—What think ye, my brethren and sisters of experience, you that have enjoyed the light of the spirit, you that can see the travail of the Saints, do you think that this people called Latter-day Saints are traveling in the path that they should go in? Do you think that they offer their oblations and sacrifices to the Lord as they should? What do you think about it? What is the general expression through our community? It is that the Latter-day Saints are drifting as fast as they can into idolatry, drifting into the spirit of the world and into pride and vanity.

You read in the revelations given to John on the Isle of Patmos, concerning the latter days, that a voice was heard crying to the Saints in Babylon—“Come out of her, O my people, be not partakers of her sins, lest ye receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached unto heaven,” etc. Has this voice been heard? Yes, the Latter-day Saints have heard it. Has the angel flown through the midst of heaven and delivered the Gospel to the children of men? Yes, we believe all this. Do we believe that the Lord sent his messengers to Joseph Smith, and commanded him to refrain from joining any Christian church, and to refrain from the wickedness he saw in the churches, and finally delivered to him a message informing him that the Lord was about to establish his kingdom on the earth, and led him on step by step until he gave him the revelation concerning the plates? Yes, this is all correct. Did Joseph receive these revelations? He did. Did the heavenly messengers come to Joseph, and commit to him the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood? Yes, we believe all this. Did they commit to him the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood? Yes. This is all correct, we believe all this. Did the Lord speak from the heavens through Joseph, commanding his people to gather out from the wicked before the scourges—sickness, pestilence, wars, bloodshed, and the various calamities spoken of by the Prophets and Apostles, should pass over the nations? Yes, we believe the Lord has called upon the people who received the Gospel to come out of Babylon, to separate themselves from the wicked and to stand in holy places preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man. All Latter-day Saints believe all this; then I say, if we do believe it, let us act up to and be true to our faith and to the knowledge that we have of God and his kingdom. This is what is required of us.

We have passed from one thing to another, and I may say from one degree of knowledge to another. When Joseph first received the knowledge of the plates that were in the hill Cumorah, he did not then receive the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, he merely received the knowledge that the plates were there, and that the Lord would bring them forth, and that they contained the history of the aborigines of this country. He received the knowledge that they were once in possession of the Gospel, and from that time he went on, step by step, until he obtained the plates, and the Urim and Thummim, and had power to translate them. This did not make him an Apostle, it did not give to him the keys of the kingdom, nor make him an Elder in Israel. He was a Prophet, and had the spirit of prophecy, and had received all this before the Lord ordained him. And when the Lord, by revelation, told him to go to Pennsylvania, he did so, and finished the translation of the Book of Mormon; and when the Lord, in another revelation, told him to come back, into New York State, and to go to old Father Whitmer’s, who lived in a place opposite Waterloo, and there stop, he did so, and had meetings, and gathered up the few who believed in his testimony. He received the Aaronic Priesthood, and then he received the keys of the Melchisedek Priesthood, and organized the Church. He first received the power to baptise, and still did not know that he was to receive any more until the Lord told him there was more for him. Then he received the keys of the Melchisedek Priesthood, and had power to confirm after he had baptized, which he had not before. He would have stood precisely as John the Baptist stood, had not the Lord sent his other messengers, Peter, James and John, to ordain Joseph to the Melchisedek Priesthood. Then, after some of the brethren had been out preaching, he had a revelation that they should go up to the Ohio. I knew of them, though I was not acquainted with them before they went up there. They were seen by some of my family, my father saw and conversed with them. Then the way opened for a large gathering in the State of Ohio. Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Samuel Peterson, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and a few others, went up there and preached the Gospel, and they came among the members of the society called Campbellites, formerly members of the Close Communion Baptists, their leader’s name being Alexander Campbell. This man preached the doctrine that baptism was for the remission of sins, and that split the Church; but when the brethren came to these societies and taught them, not only baptism for the remission of sins, but the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, they believed it, and were baptized for the remission of their sins, and received the laying on of hands for the Holy Ghost, and then received other ordinances.

Then the Lord revealed to Joseph to go out to the Ohio, and he went up; and after he went up he then understood and was taught of the Lord to send men to the west to hunt out a place for the centre stake of Zion. They went according to the revelations that Joseph received, and finally Joseph went up to meet them, in Independence, Jackson County, Mo., on the borders of the Lamanites. You can read all this in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Then he had not received all at this time, and at the time that Zion’s Camp, as it is called, went up to Missouri, in 1834, so far as I am aware, Joseph had never received any intimation as to there being a Patriarch in the Church. On our return home from Missouri, my brother Joseph Young, while conversing with me, asked if it would be right for our father to give us a blessing. Said he—“I feel just as though I want my father to give me a patriarchal blessing.” When we reached Kirtland we talked with Joseph on the subject, and he said, “Certainly,” and finally we appointed a day, and brother Joseph, the Prophet, came to where we met and ordained my father a Patriarch, and he was the first man ordained to the office of Patriarch in the Church, and he blessed his children; and soon after this Joseph ordained his father a patriarch and his father called his children together and blessed them. Then Joseph had another revelation, that a record should be kept, and when this was revealed to him, he then had his father call his house together again, and blessed them over and a record was kept of it. This is to show you, and especially those who have no experience in the Church, how the Lord has led this people along, led them along, led them along.

We were driven from Missouri after Joseph went up there, and we came to Nauvoo, and the Twelve went to England. While we were in England, I think, the Lord manifested to me by visions and his Spirit, things that I did not then understand. I never opened my mouth to any person concerning them, until I returned to Nauvoo. Joseph had never mentioned this, there had never been a thought of it in the Church that I knew anything about at that time. But I had this for myself, and I kept it to myself, and when I returned home and Joseph revealed these things to me, I then understood the reflections that were upon my mind while in England. But this was not until after I had told him what I understood. I saw that he was after something by his conversation, leading my mind along, and others, to see how we could bear this. This was in 1841; the revelation was given in 1843, but the doctrine was revealed before this; and when I told Joseph what I understood, which was right in front of my house in the street, as he was shaking hands and leaving me, he turned round and looked me in the eyes, and says he—“Brother Brigham, are you speaking what you understand—are you in earnest?” Says I—“I speak just as the Spirit manifests to me.” Says he—“God bless you, the Lord has opened your mind,” and he turned and went off.

About this time came a revelation concerning baptism for the dead. I know that in my traveling and preaching, many a time, I have stopped by beautiful streams of clear, pure water, and have said to myself, “How delightful it would be to me to go into this, to be baptized for the remission of my sins.” When I got home Joseph told me it was my privilege. At this time came a revelation, that the Saints could be baptized and re-baptized when they chose, and then that we could be baptized for our dear friends, but at first it was not revealed that a record should be kept of those who were baptized; but when he received an additional revelation to that effect, then a record was kept. Hundreds and thousands, I suppose, were baptized before any record was kept at all, and they were baptized over, and a record kept of the baptisms and the names of the administrator, those who acted for the dead, and of the dead, and of the witnesses. You can read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the letter that Joseph wrote when he was away from home in regard to having witnesses at these baptisms. I relate this to show you that the Lord did not reveal everything at once; but I need not dwell on this any longer.

I will now say to my brethren and sisters, the Lord, in the first place, commenced to bring the people together upon the ground of union and oneness; but they could not bear this. You can read, on page 161, of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, a revelation given to the Colesville Branch. Lemon Copley had a tract of land that was to be given to the Saints, and they were to build up a stake of Zion until there was another place prepared for the centre stake; but he apostatized and the people went away. Before this the Lord revealed to Joseph, that the people would gather out from Babylon, and establish the kingdom of God upon the principles of heaven. They went up to Jackson County, Mo., with this in their faith, and with the express understanding that when they got there, everything was to be laid at the feet of the Bishop, not at the feet of the Apostles, as they did anciently. Then, you know, they sold all they had, and brought their substance and laid it at the feet of the Apostles. The revelation given through Joseph was to lay all at the feet of the Bishop, who was to distribute it among the people, according to the revelation given for that purpose, for their benefit. But they could not bear this, consequently they were driven from Jackson County, and assembled again, some in Caldwell, and some in Davies County, and finally they were driven from the State. This was in the fall of 1838. I recollect, in Far West, Joseph, talking upon these matters, said—“The people cannot bear the revelations that the Lord has for them. There were a great many revelations if the people could bear them.” I think it was the eighth day of July, 1831, Joseph had a revelation that the people should consecrate their surplus property for the building of the Temple there in Far West, for the support of the Priesthood, for the paying of the debts of the Presidency, etc., which I could give an account of, for I was present when it came. Joseph was doing business in Kirtland, and it seemed as though all creation was upon him, to hamper him in every way, and they drove him from his business, and it left him so that some of his debts had to be settled afterwards; and I am thankful to say that they were settled up; still further, we have sent East to New York, to Ohio, and to every place where I had any idea that Joseph had ever done business, and inquired if there was a man left to whom Joseph Smith, jun., the Prophet, owed a dollar, or a sixpence. If there was we would pay it. But I have not been able to find one. I have advertised this through every neighborhood and place where he formerly lived, consequently I have a right to conclude that all his debts were settled.

We will now pass on. You know the history with regard to our leaving Nauvoo. Now I have it in my mind to ask the question of the Latter-day Saints—Are they in earnest? Do they mean what they say, when they say they believe that brother Brigham Young is the legal successor of Joseph Smith, the Prophet? We believe in Joseph the Prophet; he sealed his testimony with his blood, consequently we can, with impunity, believe on him a little better than if he were living. When he was living, his testimony was not in force upon the people as it is now. But is brother Brigham the legal successor of brother Joseph? This people, called Latter-day Saints, by their acts, by their voting, say they believe he is. Well, we will admit the fact. I have a little to say, then, and shall come back to former days with regard to the duties of the individual who leads the kingdom of God on the earth.

In all ages of the world that we have any knowledge of, when there was a people on the earth whom God acknowledged as his people, he has invariably dictated them in spiritual and in temporal things. This question was agitated year after year in the days of Joseph. The first two Bishops in the Church—Edward Partridge was the first—I was well acquainted with him, and Newel K. Whitney was the second—questioned the propriety of Joseph having anything to do with temporal things. Joseph would argue the case with them a little, and tell them how things were, and bring up Scripture to show them that it could not be otherwise—that it was impossible for the Lord to dictate people unless he dictated them in temporal affairs. The very first act after believing is a temporal act. After I hear the Gospel preached and believe it, I go down into the waters of baptism, which is a temporal act: it is an act that pertains to my will and my body, I will that my body shall go down into the water and be immersed for the remission of my sins, consequently I have to go to the Elder who taught me the Gospel, the spiritual portion of the kingdom, and apply to him to administer this temporal ordinance, and he has to do it; having taught the doctrine he officiates in the act, and you will find it through life, every circumstance, in every case the man that dictates the spiritual kingdom of God, must dictate the temporal affairs, it can not be otherwise. I say this to you, because the idea in the minds of a few of the people is—“Brigham ought not to meddle with temporal affairs.” They said so to Joseph, and they said so much about it, that I went into the Temple at Kirtland, and challenged the men who were querying on this, to prove or bring up one instance where God did not manifest his will concerning temporal things whenever he made known his will to the children of men for establishing his kingdom on the earth. They always came to the floor; they had to do it, there was nothing else for them; it prostrated every person. There were William E. McLellin, John F. Boynton, and Lyman Johnson, who belonged to the Twelve, Frederic G. Williams, second counselor to Joseph, and two-thirds of the High Council all talking about this, and I went into the Temple and just challenged them to show wherein the Lord ever conferred upon any man in the world the power to dictate in spiritual affairs, that he did not in temporal affairs? They could not do it. I told them they could not draw the line between the spiritual and the temporal. All things were created first spiritual, and then temporal. Everything in the spirit world was presented as we see it now, and this temporal earth was presented there. We were in the spirit world, and we came here into this time, which is in eternity, nothing in the world only a change of time and seasons allotted to a change of being that makes it time to us. It is in eternity, and we are just as much in eternity now, as we shall be millions of years hence. But it is time measured to finite beings, and it is changeable, and we call it temporal, while the fact is it is all spiritual in the first place, then temporal, then spiritual, and made immortal, consequently you can not divide them. I say this for those to reflect upon who think that there is a difference between temporal and spiritual things. I do not say, for I do not know, that there any such here.

Now we come to our present condition. You know the past. These children who were born in this city or Territory, know what they can remember, and many of them are old enough to have many reflections and can see and understand a great many things; but the older ones know that this people have drifted just as far as they can without a reformation. Every spiritual mind knows this. I will now say to my brethren and sisters, that while we were in Winter Quarters, the Lord gave to me a revelation just as much as he ever gave one to anybody. He opened my mind, and showed me the organization of the kingdom of God in a family capacity. I talked it to my brethren; I would throw out a few words here, and a few words there, to my first counselor, to my second counselor and the Twelve Apostles, but with the exception of one or two of the Twelve, it would not touch a man. They believed it would come, O yes, but it would be by and by. Says I, “Why not now?” If I had been worth millions when we came into this valley and built what we now call the “Old Fort,” I would have given it if the people had been prepared to then receive the kingdom of God according to the pattern given to Enoch. But I could not touch them. One would say, “I am for California,” another one, “I am for gold,” and I am for this and I am for that; and some used their influence in trying to persuade others to go to California. They said—“You can’t stay here, you can’t raise anything here, it is too cold, too frosty, these mountains are not fit to live in, this is not the place for white people, let us go to California and get some gold,” etc.

Now I am going to tell a dream that I had, which I think is as applicable, to the people to-day—the 21st day of June, 1874, as when I had it. There were so many going to California, and going this way and that way, and they did not know what they wanted, and said I—“stay here, we can raise our food here, I know it is a good stock country, a good sheep country, and as good a country for raising silk as there is in the world, and we shall raise some of the best of wheat. There stands a man—Burr Frost, and there is Truman O. Angell, who were present at the time. Said I, “We can raise all we want here, do not go away, do not be discouraged.” That was when the pioneers came; the next year, it was California, California, California, California. “No,” said I, “stay here.” After much thought and reflection, and a good deal of praying and anxiety as to whether the people would be saved after all our trouble in being driven into the wilderness, I had a dream one night, the second year after we came in here. Captain Brown had gone up to the Weber, and bought a little place belonging to Miles Goodyear. Miles Goodyear had a few goats, and I had a few sheep that I had driven into the Valley, and I wanted to get a few goats to put along with the sheep. I had seen Captain Brown and spoken to him about the goats, and he said I could have them. Just at that time I had this dream, which I will now relate. I thought I had started and gone past the Hot Springs, which is about four miles north of this city. I was going after my goats. When I had gone round the point of the mountain by the Hot Springs, and had got about half a mile on the rise of ground beyond the Spring, whom should I meet but brother Joseph Smith. He had a wagon with no bed on, with bottom boards, and tents and camp equipage piled on. Somebody sat on the wagon driving the team. Behind the team I saw a great flock of sheep. I heard their bleating, and saw some goats among them. I looked at them and thought—“This is curious, brother Joseph has been up to Captain Brown’s and got my goats.” There were men driving the sheep, and some of the sheep I should think were three and a half feet high, with large, fine, beautiful white fleeces, and they looked so lovely and pure; others were of moderate size, and pure and white; and in fact there were sheep of all sizes, with fleeces clean, pure and white. Then I saw some that were dark and spotted, of all colors and sizes and kinds, and their fleeces were dirty, and they looked inferior; some of these were a pretty good size, but not as large as some of the large fine clean sheep, and altogether there was a multitude of them of all sizes and kinds, and goats of all colors, sizes and kinds mixed among them. Joseph stopped the wagon, and the sheep kept rushing up until there was an immense herd. I looked in Joseph’s eye, and laughed, just as I had many a time when he was alive, about some trifling thing or other, and said I—“Joseph, you have got the darndest flock of sheep I ever saw in my life; what are you going to do with them, what on earth are they for?” Joseph looked cunningly out of his eyes, just as he used to at times, and said he—“They are all good in their places.” When I awoke in the morning I did not find any fault with those who wanted to go to California; I said, “If they want to go let them go, and we will do all we can to save them; I have no more fault to find, the sheep and the goats will run together, but Joseph says, “they are all good in their places.”

This will apply precisely to what we are doing at the present time. We are trying to unite the people together in the order that the Lord revealed to Enoch, which will be observed and sustained in the latter days in redeeming and building up Zion; this is the very order that will do it, and nothing short of it. We are trying to organize the Latter-day Saints into this order; but I want to tell you, my brethren and sisters, that I have not come here to say that you have got to join this order or we will cut you off the Church, or you must join this order or we will consider you apostates; no such thing, oh no, the Saints are not prepared to see everything at once. They have got to learn little by little, and to receive a little here and a little there Since we commenced to organize at St. George, I have not had a feeling in my heart but to say to those who can not see this order—Try and live your religion; get the Spirit of the Lord and keep it; humble yourselves before the Lord and get his Spirit; ask the Father in the name of Jesus to open your minds and let you see things as they are, and you will delight in it. And I say to all those who wish to receive the Order, come along and we will organize you, and we will do the very best we can for you. It is true that some who are in the Order talk very foolishly to those who do not feel to come into it; they throw out some very unbecoming expressions. This is entirely wrong. It is not called for, it is not needed, and it will not do the least good in the world. We must manifest and show to our brethren a purer life than we have heretofore. I will say to you, who want to be organized in this Order, we will not take one red cent from you, but the Lord will add to you riches and honor, if you will take counsel. As we have said from the beginning, we do not want a man’s farm, we do not want his gold and his silver, and nothing in the world but just his time. We want to dictate the time of the Latter-day Saints, to show them that we can come into the Order of God, and that we will be that people that the Lord has said with regard to temporal things. Speaking of the Latter-day Saints, the Lord has said—“I will make you the richest people on the earth,” and he can do it just as well as not, if we have a mind to let him. It is the time of the people we want to dictate.

I will branch off to another thread of the subject. Here is a brother who says, “Why, yes, you may have some of my property, or even take it all; but I want to be a man for myself; I do not want to be dictated; I want to preserve my own freedom; I do not want to be a slave.” What an idea! It is from the enemy, and because a person has not the Spirit of the Lord to see how things are. There is not a man of us but what is willing to acknowledge at once that God demands strict obedience to his requirements. But in rendering that strict obedience, are we made slaves? No, it is the only way on the face of the earth for you and me to become free, and we shall become the slaves of our own passions, and of the wicked one, and servants to the devil, if we take any other course, and we shall be eventually cast into hell with the devils. Now to say that I do not enjoy the volition of my own will just as much when I pray as I would to swear, is a false principle, it is false ground to take. You take the man who swears, and he has no more freedom, and acts no more on his own will than the man who prays; and the man who yields strict obedience to the requirements of Heaven, acts upon the volition of his own will and exercises his freedom just as much as when he was a slave to passion; and I think it is much better and more honorable for us, whether children or adults, youthful, middle-aged or old, it is better to live by and better to die by, to have our hearts pure, and to yield strict obedience to the principles of life which the Lord has revealed, than be a slave to sin and wickedness. All that the Lord requires of us is strict obedience to the laws of life. All the sacrifice that the Lord asks of his people is strict obedience to our own covenants that we have made with our God, and that is to serve him with an undivided heart.

I say this because I want you to understand our position. I am the director and counselor to this people for building up the kingdom of God on the earth. I am the one who will tell what shall be done, and how it shall be done, and any man who deviates or says that there is any design in connection with the United Order other than to put the people in a condition and situation to be better and freer, and in which they will enjoy more of the blessings of heaven and earth than they can out of it, does not tell the truth. You all know that it takes intelligence to enjoy. Persons in good-health enjoy their food. Why? Because they have sensibility and nervous feeling. Take that away and they would be like that stovepipe. Cut a hole in that, and put therein a nice beef steak, plum pudding, or a sweet cake, and would the stovepipe enjoy it? No. Why? Because it, has no sensibility. We enjoy because we have sensibility. Promote this sensibility, seek to get more and more knowledge, more wisdom, and more understanding, and to know the things of God. He is the author of life and of all joy and comfort; he is the author of all intelligence and of all good to us; then become satisfied to obey him, and seek to get more and more of his nature, and learn more and more of him. This will give us greater sensibility, and we shall know how to enjoy, and how to endure. I say, if you want to enjoy exquisitely, become a Latter-day Saint, and then live the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The man or woman who will do this will enjoy and endure most; and if they will be humble and faithful they will enjoy the glory and the excellency of the power of God, and be prepared to live with Gods and with angels.

We want to build up the kingdom of God on the earth. I do not know but I am spending more time than I should, but I must say some things more. This Third Ward is not organized. I do not know when it will be. We asked your Bishop, and he did not feel exactly prepared to enter into the Order. We know the reason why. Will he be prepared? Yes. I want to prophesy that he and his Ward will be prepared by and by, and I hope my prophecy will be fulfilled. He does not see things as quickly as I do. I will tell you what my position has always been. Before I embraced the Gospel, I understood pretty well what the different sects preached, but I was called an infidel because I could not embrace their dogmas. I could not believe all of Methodism; I could not believe all of the Baptists’ doctrines; there were some things they preached I could believe, and some I could not. I could not fully agree with the Presbyterians in their doctrines, nor with the Quakers, nor the Catholics, although they all have some truth. As far as their teachings were in accordance with the Bible, I could believe them, and no further. I was acquainted with the creeds of nearly all the various sects of dissenters in America, for I had made it my business to inquire into the principles in which they believed. I was religiously inclined in my youth, but I could not believe in their dogmas, for they did not commend themselves to my understanding, though a child I had attended their camp meetings, and had seen what they called the power of God. I had seen men and women fall, and be as speechless and breathless as that stove before me. I had seen scientists hold the lightest feather they could procure at the nostrils and mouths of females to see if a particle of air passed to or from the lungs, and not a particle was discernable. When a child I saw all this, but I could not believe in their dogmas. I could not say the people were not sincere in their faith and acts, but it was all a mystery to me. I was not old enough, and did not understand enough to decide. In the days of Joseph, when the revelation came to him and Sidney Rigdon, while translating that portion of the New Testament contained in the 29th verse of the third chapter of John, in reference to the different degrees of glory, I was not prepared to say that I believed it, and I had to wait. What did I do? I handed this over to the Lord in my feelings, and said I, “I will wait until the Spirit of God manifests to me, for or against.” I did not judge the matter, I did not argue against it, not in the least. I never argued the least against anything Joseph proposed, but, if I could not see or understand it, I handed it over to the Lord. This is my counsel to you, my brethren and sisters, and if I were sure my prophecy would be fulfilled, I certainly would prophesy that all here, who profess to be Latter-day Saints, will come into the holy Order and rejoice in it. And if you do not feel to come into the Order, assist those who do, and do not say anything against them. You who come into the Order, do not lisp anything against those who do not; if you feel right you will not have the least feeling against them. Come along, for, as I have said, if I do not find more than fifty men in the kingdom of God who will go with me to organize the Church and kingdom of God more perfectly, I shall go ahead. What for? More knowledge, wisdom, and perfection in the management and control of our temporal affairs. This is what I calculate to do, and I am going to do Ask me if I am going into the Order with all that I have? Yes, as I told them in a meeting not long ago, I am going in with hat, coat, vest, pants, shirt, boots, and all I have. And if the question is asked, If your family do not go into the Order, what are you going to do with your property? I am going to seal it up to the kingdom of God, for I do not mean that the enemies of the kingdom shall have a penny if I can help it. I want it to go to the kingdom of God, I want it appropriated for the salvation of the human family, to build Temples, to sustain the families of the Elders who go abroad to preach; I want it to be used for the good of the poor and for the establishing of truth and righteousness on the earth. That is all it is for; I have no pleasure in it, I have no delight in it, it is nothing to me; I want everything that the Lord places in my possession, my time, my talents, every ability I have, every penny that he has committed to me to be used to his glory, and for the building up of his kingdom on the earth. I have nothing but what he has committed to me. What do you say to that, Jacob? Is that right? It is exactly. There is not a man here who has got his sight, hearing, taste and smell, but he is indebted to the Lord for them. The Lord gave us everything we possess, whatever ability or talents we have; our Tabernacles and all we enjoy, are the gifts of the Lord, and all should be devoted to the promotion of his kingdom on the earth, and I mean that mine shall be, the Lord being my helper.

I do not want to say to this Ward, you must come into the Order, or we shall not fellowship you, for we shall fellowship you if you do not. A short time ago, I said to those of this Ward who intended to be organized, go to the Eighth Ward and organize with them, but it was a misunderstanding, that I had dismissed Bro. Weiler from being Bishop here; and if anybody else understood so, I think they are mistaken. He is your Bishop still, and I charge him now in God’s name, not to trifle with the sacred things of the kingdom of God, or to throw cold water on them; if he does he will be left dark, and finally apostatize. I say to you Bishop and to the brethren and sisters, be faithful, live so that the Spirit of the Lord will abide within you, then you can judge for yourselves. I have often said to the Latter-day Saints—“Live so that you will know whether I teach you truth or not.” Suppose you are careless and unconcerned, and give way to the spirit of the world, and I am led, likewise, to preach the things of this world and to accept things that are not of God, how easy it would be for me to lead you astray! But I say to you, live so that you will know for yourselves whether I tell the truth or not. That is the way we want all Saints to live. Will you do it? Yes, I hope you will, every one of you. I say to the Bishop, here, go along and do not contend against the things of God. You and your counselors are disposed to argue in regard to the United Order. There should he no argument in this case; the Spirit of the Lord is the only thing that can enlighten our minds, and give us a knowledge of the things of God. No earthly argument, no earthly reasoning can open the minds of intelligent beings and show them heavenly things; that can only be done by the spirit of revelation. I testify this to the Latter-day Saints, and I feel to say God bless you, peace be with you. I have not come here to scold you, or anybody else. I am sometimes very rough in my language to the people, and I give them a rough scolding, but I do not wish any evil to the individual, it is to his wrong acts. If a person does wrong I am for exposing that, and chastening the perpetrator if he persists in it. I want wrong doers to refrain. Now, I say, brother Jacob, teach the things of God. Do not have a doubt about this any more than about baptism, nor say a word against it. How many are there in this Church who are now wavering and shaking because they have spoken against the ordinances of heaven, and especially against that ordinance which God has revealed for the exaltation of the children of men in celestial marriage? Hold that as sacred as your own soul: if you cannot see the beauty and glory of it, and feel it in your own hearts, say nothing against it. This earth was placed in the hands of Adam and his sons, and he is the Lord of the earth; the male portion of the human family are the lords of the earth, and they are full of wickedness, evil and destruction, and especially in their acts towards the female sex. But God will hold them accountable. The fact is, let the pure principles of the kingdom of God be taught to men and women, and far more of the latter than of the former will receive and obey them. What shall we do with them? They want exaltation, they want to be in the great family of heaven, they do not want to be cast off, then they must be taken into the families of those who prove themselves worthy to be exalted with the Gods. Who is it that can not see the beauty and the excellency of celestial marriage, and having our children sealed to us? What should we do without this? Were it not for what is revealed concerning the sealing ordinances, children born out of the covenant could not be sealed to their parents; children born in the covenant are entitled to the Spirit of the Lord and all the blessings of the kingdom. I know that our children, universally, have the Spirit of the Lord, and when they get old enough to judge right from wrong, if they turn from the good and promote evil in their hearts, then will be the time they sin.

Now, I say to you, brother Jacob, teach the things of God, and do not trifle with this; do not argue about this at all; if you do not see and understand, stand still and see the salvation of God. Labor and help those who wish to go forward, and the Lord will bless you in it. He will open your minds and give you light and understanding, and you will be far happier than the wicked. How blessed are you when you are for God and none else! Then you are ready for whatever he reveals. How sweet you can sleep! Your dreams are pleasant and delightful, and the days, weeks, months and years pass away easily and joyfully, you are so happy.

I pray God to bless you, Amen.

Visit to Sabbath Schools, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Discourse by George Q. Cannon, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Sept. 17, 1876. Reported by Geo F. Gibbs.

It is a great privilege that the Lord has granted to the Latter-day Saints, to assemble together in peace and quietness, as we do this day, to worship him and partake of the Sacrament in commemoration of the death and sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; it is a privilege which I, as an individual member of the Church, appreciate, and I desire always to do so.

When I reflect upon the many efforts which have been made to deprive us as a people of our liberties and our rights of worship, I cannot help feeling that, of all the people who live upon the face of the earth, we should be the most grateful, and should witness to our Father and God, by our devotion, that we appreciate the kindness and mercy he has manifested to us. It seems strange that in this time of religious toleration and freedom, there should be a call for such sentiment as this. In a land like ours, it might be thought that every one would have a right to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience; but this has not been our experience. Yet the Lord has preserved us, and has defeated the machinations of the wicked—has preserved our rights and liberties, and granted to us very many privileges. Are we, as a people, sufficiently alive to the importance of these privileges? Do we live in a manner that agrees with the revelations that the Lord has given to us, to the requirements which he has made upon us? These are important questions for us to answer.

I met with the Sunday school children this morning in one of the Wards of this city, and while speaking to them I remarked, what I may remark here (taking the Bible in his hand), There are no people of whom I know anything in Christendom who believe the Bible, and are willing that their children should be taught all of its principle[s] in their entirety, as do the Latter-day Saints. There is no principle set forth in the Scriptures that the Latter-day Saints do not incorporate in their faith and practice. I related to them a little of my experience. I remember when I was a child I read the New Testament. I inquired of my father if there were any Apostles then upon the earth, or if there were any people who had the gifts which the disciples of Jesus possessed? His reply was that he knew of the existence of no such people. I could not understand it; to my mind, as a child, there seemed to be as great a necessity for the power of God then, as there was in those earlier days. I can recall nights when I thought of the blessings which former generations enjoyed, and felt to grieve that I could not live in a generation when there were Apostles who had the power of God. I thought then I would have been willing to endure the persecution and difficulties which they had to encounter for so glorious a faith.

This is an advantage we have above every other denomination with which I am acquainted. We believe the Bible in its entirety—that God is the same to-day as he was yesterday, and as he ever was—that he is as willing now as ever to bestow his blessings upon man, if man will prepare himself to receive them. And if there be an absence of faith and power, and of heavenly gifts, God our eternal Father cannot be accused of partiality in withholding them from this generation.

Do we as a people sufficiently bear in mind that God requires us to live so as to receive and enjoy, to the fullest possible extent, the gifts and graces which he has to bestow upon his faithful children? I think, sometimes, we are like other people in this respect—we are very liable to grow careless, to become willing to allow the time to pass along without any particular effort on our part to improve ourselves, to increase in godliness and the power thereof. We have the human disposition to be at ease in the enjoyment of the earthly comforts by which we may be surrounded. In this respect human nature has been the same in all ages, and hence it has almost become proverbial that for a church to prosper it must be persecuted, and its members placed in constant jeopardy. But with the knowledge God has given to us this should not be the case. It should be a pleasure, a source of constant delight to us, as Latter-day Saints, to keep all the commandments of God, to seek and contend for that faith once delivered to the Saints, by which they accomplished such mighty works.

I have said that I greatly desired to live when Apostles were upon the earth. Are there not hundreds of this congregation who have felt, in various times in their lives, before they heard the sound of the everlasting Gospel, that they would traverse this earth, and undergo all manner of hardships, if they could only have the privilege to behold the face of a man of God, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus? What would they not have given to hear words of salvation from such a man, a man who had authority to teach and to administer the ordinances of the Gospel? Doubtless there are hundreds present who at various times in their lives have felt this, having grown up amid contending sects. I am satisfied that there are hundreds here who felt in their hearts that there was no sacrifice they were capable of making, which they would not have gladly made, to have had the privilege they now enjoy. They are now numbered with the Church of God, and have a knowledge of this through the power of the Holy Ghost, and the enjoyment of its gifts and blessings. And yet you talk to these men and women to-day, and what are their feelings? A number of them feel as zealous and warm in the work of God as they ever did. But many, doubtless, have become careless. These blessings have become common because of the ease with which they have been obtained, and indifference is the result. Yet are they not just as valuable to-day? Is it not just as desirable to-day for human beings to know that a man has authority to administer baptism, and that God will recognize the administration? Is it not a great blessing to have the reality as it was to anticipate it? Certainly it is! The authority which God has restored to the earth empowers man to go into the waters of baptism, and then baptize his fellow-man for the remission of sins, God sanctioning the act. This is as great a blessing as it ever was. The fact that there are numbers of men upon the earth thus authorized, does not make the blessing more undesirable. Because there are thousands of persons now living on the earth who have received of the blessings which were to follow those that believed and obeyed the Gospel, does that in the least lessen their value? I certainly think not; they are just as desirable to-day, and should be valued by every human being who has any appreciation whatever of the things of God. The authority to administer in the ordinances of the house of God, to say, “Thus saith the Lord,” to counsel, instruct, warn, and reprove, is peculiar to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in this respect we are different from all other people. While this is so, we do not exclude any others from partaking of these benefits. We also—to use a phrase already adopted—we also were Gentiles, in ignorance concerning this Gospel at one time, that is, the bulk of us were. Therefore, while we claim for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this power, we do not claim it as belonging to us and ours exclusively, but to be diffused from this Church to all the inhabitants of the earth so fast as they will receive the doctrines of Jesus Christ and have faith to obey them. And this is glad tidings of salvation to all people—glad tidings of salvation in this age of unbelief, which might be said to be an age of universal darkness and ignorance concerning Jesus Christ. There is scarcely a man to be found who knows anything about God, and who believes in the literal resurrection of the body. Even ministers, as well as members of the various denominations, are in this condition. It is a great blessing that at such a time as this there is a people upon the face of the earth who testify, in all solemnity and boldness, before God, before angels, and before men, that God has spoken from the heavens, that he has broken the silence that has reigned for ages over the world, and has once more communicated his mind and will to man; that in this age these “glad tidings” have been communicated from the heavens by the ministrations of holy angels and the voice of God himself.

Now this is the message of glad tidings which the Latter-day Saints have to bear, not to themselves and their children alone, but to all the inhabitants of the earth, and to every nation and kindred, tongue and people, that God lives, that Jesus lives, that the same powers exist as existed anciently, that the same Gospel is powerful to salvation to-day as it was eighteen hundred years ago, that the Holy Ghost exists, and that men can receive it by taking the course pointed out by the servants of God anciently. Who would not be gladdened by such a message, if they could believe it to be true? Would not ministers rejoice in it? Would not the people? Would not all the inhabitants of the earth rejoice and praise God, if they could beli[e]ve such tidings as these? The fact that they do not believe them does not lessen their value, their truthfulness, nor their importance. There are those who do believe them, they are found in these mountains, they are Latter-day Saints, but called “Mormons” by those who do not choose to give them their proper name; and they differ from every religious sect and denomination in Christendom. Their belief is that God has revealed himself to man in the day and age in which we live, has restored the everlasting Gospel, the Holy Ghost, and the gifts and graces thereof. I do not believe there is a man in Christendom, nor in heathendom, nor upon the whole face of the earth, however wicked he might be, who would not in his secret heart be thankful if he understood and knew these things for himself; but there is that unbelief and hardness of heart, there is that power the adversary exercises over the children of men, which blinds their eyes and beclouds their understanding, making the things of God appear unreasonable to them; until it becomes fashionable for men of education to think it necessary that they should doubt the existence of God, and of Jesus Christ, and the atonement, because, forsooth, they cannot comprehend the plan of redemption in all its details. Because the resurrection cannot be understood by them, they must deny the truth of the resurrection and doubt and deny the truth of the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ. This is fashionable in these days. Yet here is a people, and I rejoice in it, who do believe in God, who testify that they know God lives; that they know that Jesus is the Savior of the world; that they know that the Holy Ghost is poured out upon men who obey and do his will; who now testify that they know that God bestows his gifts and blessings upon man as he did in ancient days. To me it is exceedingly interesting to know that there is a people in these mountains who cherish this faith, notwithstanding their weaknesses and failings, and notwithstanding some of them turn away from the truth and become aliens to the covenants of Christ. Notwithstanding all these things, still there is a people who do have this faith; who cherish it, and who seek to teach it to their children after them.

But it is important for us that we should look well to our ways, whether we appreciate the blessings God has bestowed upon us, and put them to a proper use, or not. How can we know that Jesus is the Christ, and that he lives? How can any man know it? I have many times in my life been inquired of by intelligent men upon this point. “You say that Jesus lives, how do you know it? You say there is a resurrection of the body and that you know it. How do you know it?” It is only a few weeks ago that a gentleman of superior abilities and excellent culture, a man for whom I had formed considerable attachment, said, “I would give all the world, if I had it, to know what you say you know. You say you know God lives, you say you know that Jesus is the Savior of the world, you say there is a literal resurrection of the body. I do not know these things, I cannot find out anything about them. My reason cannot be satisfied with the principles offered to me in favor of these ideas.” And he thought I ought to be a most happy man to have such a faith. I told him that he could have it by taking the course God had pointed out. Can any of us know these things by reading the Bible, or by hearing our fathers say so? No, the information derived from such a source is only a matter of belief. The Mohammedan believes in the Koran, and that Mohammed was a true prophet, because his parents teach him so. And shall the believers in Jesus Christ, and in his atonement base his faith upon no better foundation than this? The heathen believes his doctrine and teaches it to his children. Belief alone is not sufficient. We must know, if we ever get eternal life. “To know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, is life eternal.”

What difference is there between Christians and Mohammedans upon this point? The Christians believe that Jesus is the Christ, because the Bible says so; the Mohammedans base their belief in Mohammed, because their fathers and mothers tell them he was a prophet and the Koran is true. Jesus says—“If any man will do his (the Father’s) will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” He also says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” His Apostle Peter says—“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost.” This was the promise, and through it every minister claiming to be authorized to represent the Gospel can be tested. He who is a minister of Jesus Christ has the right and authority to make certain promises to believers, and these promises heaven will fulfill and man cannot. If a man come forward professing to be a minister of Jesus Christ, promising the believers that they should receive the Holy Ghost by complying with certain conditions, and the promise fails in its fulfillment, what evidence has such a one that the minister is sent of God? None at all. But if a man come, saying, “The Lord has sent me forth; I have been called, commissioned and ordained, and have the authority to go forth and call upon the people to repent and be baptized, and if they do so they shall receive the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands;” if the people, after obeying the requirements, do receive the Holy Ghost, they then have a testimony that he is a man of God. This, when received and retained, is an ever living, ever present witness. It is in this way that the Latter-day Saints know that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; they know that Jesus is the Savior of the world because they have received the promised blessings. But will the reception of one item of knowledge alone save us? No. We must grow from faith to faith, from knowledge to knowledge, cultivating and cherishing the knowledge which our Father has given us until we arrive at power and receive gifts we do not now enjoy. This is the privilege of the Latter-day Saints. It is not a knowledge based upon some past experience, but to know to-day, to have a living faith within, by communion with God, by having our prayers answered. This latter is one of the best and surest evidences man can have. When he is in difficulty, when in danger, he can go to God, and ask him to grant him the deliverance he needs and he receives it.

Of what value is religion, unless this blessing can be enjoyed? I care not how much piety people may affect, if they do not have their prayers answered there is not much real, live faith connected with their religion. This is a good test for us. Do we live in such close communion with God, day by day—not in the remembrances and reminiscences of the past, but living in the knowledge of to-day—that we can go to him asking in the name of Jesus, and receive an answer to our prayers? That is a test of fellowship with God and of Gospel truth. This ought to be the experience of every one every day we live, not, as I say, dealing in the remembrance of past favors, not something we received when we joined the Church or during some subsequent time, but because of favors we receive and enjoy to-day. This is happiness which the world cannot give nor take away, that makes a man happy in the midst of his enemies. Like Daniel he may be cast among wild beasts, or like the three Hebrew children he may be thrown into a fiery furnace, still he is happy and can praise his God. Our religion cannot be laid aside, as we would our Sunday garments, and be forgotten until the following Sunday. It is a religion that enters into our every day dealings with man, of parents with children and children with parents, we carry it in our entire lives and we exhibit it in the fruits of our lives, dealing kindly and mercifully, justly and honorably one with another, administering the words of consolation to those who are afflicted, enjoying the spirit of it when we get up in the morning and through the day, until we retire at night. This is the way to live, and for this purpose God has revealed the Gospel. Anything short of this is not true religion. The man who does not so live, does not enjoy the blessings God is willing to bestow upon him. You have tested this, you Latter-day Saints who have been members of this Church since its early rise. Were you not happy when your enemies were persecuting you, when you were driven from your homes? Were you ever more happy than when upon the plains, trusting entirely in the providence of God, traveling like Abraham did, not knowing whither you were going? And were you not happy when you came here in the midst of privations? Certainly you were. Happiness was n your hearts, and gladdened your countenances. Why? Because the peace of God was within you, it rested upon you and you rejoiced in it. For this purpose religion, as it is called, is revealed. What is religion? Does true religion make man different from what he is naturally? Yes, it can do so if his nature is defective; if he inherit bad passions, improper appetites and wrong inclinations, it enables him to subdue them. Some suppose it is sinful to be merry, to dance or to witness amusements. Young people, especially in the world, often say, “I don’t want to be religious; I’ll put it off until I get old; I want to enjoy myself.” These ideas have their origin in false traditions. There is nothing that affords real happiness except in keeping the commandments of Jesus Christ. Our holy religion incorporates every blessing man can enjoy; there is no good thing you can desire in righteousness that is not incorporated in the religion of Jesus Christ. God, who created us, knew the wants of our being, and therefore, adapted the Gospel to our natures.

It is generally thought that “Mormonism” is going to the wall because men and women leave the Church. It has often been said, let fashion be introduced and ministers be sent here, let mines be discovered, and other agencies be brought to bear, and the problem of “Mormonism” would soon then be solved. I have no doubt that many people who are called Latter-day Saints have succumbed to drunkenness, and perhaps to other vices. But does this affect the truth? Is that any evidence that “Mormonism,” or the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is to be overthrown? Not in the least. I cannot share in the gloomy apprehensions that some are disposed to indulge in respecting the future of this people. I think there never was a time when the prospects of the future of the Church were better than they are at present. I do not anticipate disaster. I expect men will fall away; this has been the case always, and as long as the adversary has power over the children of men it will continue to be so. I thank God that certain men have a disposition to leave this Church, and so draw the line between those who are serving the Lord and those who are not. I mourn that men should be so unfortunate; but when I see the work of cleansing going on it is an evidence to me that the body of the Church is healthy. We are being brought in contact with the vices of the world, and if Latter-day Saints cannot retain their faith in the midst of these things the sooner they become disfellowshipped the better for the Church. If, however, we can endure all things for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, if we can maintain the faith valiantly, in prosperity as well as in adversity, then is our faith grounded upon the rock. It would make no difference to such people if there were five thousand liquor and gambling saloons in our city, they would be unmoved and undisturbed by such things. God will have a tried and chosen people, even as gold is seven times purified; if, therefore, there be any dross about us it will be taken away. If persecution will not do it, it is very probable the Lord will use other agencies to bring about the same purpose, so that the end will be accomplished.

I bear testimony that this is the work of God. I know, as well as I know I live, that God raised up Joseph Smith and bestowed upon him knowledge and power and enabled him to organize the Church of Christ in its primitive purity, as it exists and flourishes to-day, in these mountains. I know also that he has bestowed the same power and authority upon his servant Brigham, and I know, too, that the people who will obey his counsels will be blessed, as they always have been, and that the anger of the Lord will be enkindled against the people unless they do obey him, because the Lord has set him to guide and to lead the people. To lead the people blindly without knowing themselves whither they are going? No, certainly not. When the President of this Church gives counsel, it is the privilege of the Latter-day Saints to know, for themselves, by the testimony of Jesus within them, that such counsel is right, and no higher testimony can be given any man than this. It is the privilege of all to know whether this is the work of God or not, according to the Savior’s promise, which leaves the world without excuse. It is a matter of great importance for a man to testify before God and angels that these things are true. If he be an impostor, then the responsibility of that man is dreadful; if his testimony be true, then those who hear and reject it assume greater responsibility. That God may help us to stand pure and unspotted before him, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Philosophy of Man Upon The Earth, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Oct. 8, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I hope to be able to make myself heard by this large congregation. This moving of feet, whispering to each other, the crying of children and the noise made by those who are walking, are like the murmuring of many waters. When there is perfect quietness, I am satisfied that my voice can be heard all over this house, and no one who is blessed with good ears for hearing need miss a word. I should feel more satisfied if I could prevail on our brethren, when speaking from this stand, to speak directly in front, so that they could be heard as far as possible. Many of our experienced Elders, in their conversation to the people, turn first to the right and then to the left, and every time they turn either way, a portion of the congregation is unable to distinctly understand that which is spoken; whereas, if they were to speak directly to the front, the voice would divide and go equally to each part of the house, and all would hear. Whether I shall be able to continue my remarks to any length I do not know; I shall try, however, to use judgment in speaking, so as not to injure myself.

I will give a short text, to both Saint and sinner, and I think if we were to include ourselves among the latter and say we are all sinners, we would come nearer the fact than to class ourselves among the former, although we hope to be Saints, are trying to be Saints, and probably a great many of those who are called Latter-day Saints will yet become Saints indeed.

First, the philosophy of man upon this earth. This cannot be learned by studying the sciences of mankind, it is only understood by the revelations of God to ourselves. I will give you a part of my own visions upon this matter. Mankind is composed of two distinct elements; the first is a spiritual organization in eternity, the second is a natural organization on this earth, formed out of the material of which this earth is composed. Man is first spiritual, then temporal. As it is written in the revelations of God to man, all things were first created spiritual, and secondly temporal. That is, spirits were begotten, born and educated in the celestial world, and were brought forth by celestial bodies. By tracing this subject a little we might understand how this is brought about. The spirits before inhabiting bodies are as pure and holy as the angels or as the gods, they know no evil. This, their first estate, is the commencement of their experience.

These spirits I shall leave for the present, and refer to our first parents, Adam and Eve, who were found in the Garden of Eden, tempted and overcome by the power of evil, and consequently subject to evil and sin, which was the penalty of their transgression. They were now prepared, as we are, to form bodies or tabernacles for the reception of pure and holy spirits. When the body is prepared, at the proper time, the spirit enters the tabernacle, and all the world of mankind in their reflections and researches must come to this conclusion, for the fact is they can come to no other—that when the mother feels life there is an evidence that the spirit from heaven has entered the tabernacle. So far, this is the philosophy of our being. As has been said, in consequence of sin, the body is subject to sin, and it requires all the efforts and power that man can exert in order to resist temptation that this pure and holy spirit may bring into subjection the body, so that it may be sanctified by the Gospel or the law of Christ. The inquiring mind will ask, Why is this so? Simply that we may know good from evil; all the facts which you and I understand are by contrast, and all glory, all enjoyment, every happiness and every bliss are known by its opposite. This is the decree, this is the way the heavens are, the way they were, and the way they will continue to be, forever, and for ever. Never was there a time when evil was not in existence, but the time will, come when this evil will pass away and be no more, so far as this world is concerned, and nothing will be able to endure only that which is pure and holy, and Christ will destroy death and him that hath the power of death. This applies to this earth, and the ordeals which it passes through with those that are upon it until the winding-up scene.

But to return to this organization. We find a pure spirit inhabiting the tabernacle of the creature which is always prompting the individual to good, to virtue, to truth and holiness; all of which emanate from that source of purity from which this spirit came. And here the evil that came through transgression that is in this tabernacle, is warring with this pure spirit, it seeks to overcome it, and is striving with all its power to bring this spirit into subjection, into bondage to the law of sin. This is the warfare which Paul refers to when speaking of the “thorn in the flesh,” which is no more or less than the spirit contending against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. This pure spirit will remain in a condition to receive the operations of the spirit of God, which has gone forth into the world, and which lightens every man that comes into the world, regardless of his condition, birth or education; the spirit of Christ lightens them all, and instructs their pure spirits, which are organizations in the germ and in their growth, to become independent beings, even sons and daughters of the Almighty; and it will continue to thus operate until this body, this sinful tabernacle, has warred against the spirit and overcome it to such a degree as to entirely subject it to the man of sin. And when the flesh attains this victory over the spirit, then is the time spoken of when man has sinned to that degree that, says the Apostle, “ye shall not pray for them, for they have sinned a sin unto death.” Then the spirit of the Lord ceases to strive with them, they no longer receive light, having passed the day of grace. Until then every man and every woman is on saving ground, and they can be redeemed from sin.

How is it that the Latter-day Saints feel and understand alike, are of one heart and one mind, no matter where they may be when they receive the Gospel, whether in the north or the south, the east or the west, even to the uttermost parts of the earth? They receive that which was promised by the Savior when he was about to leave the earth, namely, the Comforter, that holy unction from on high which recognizes one God, one faith and one baptism, whose mind is the will of God the Father, in whom there dwelleth unity of faith and action, and in whom there cannot be division or confusion; when they received thus further light, it matters not whether they have seen each other or not, they at once become brothers and sisters, having been adopted into the family of Christ through the bonds of the everlasting covenant, and all can then exclaim, in the beautiful language of Ruth, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God!” And the fact that we receive this Comforter, the Holy Ghost, is proof that the spirit in warring with the flesh has overcome, and by continuing in this state of victory over our sinful bodies we become the sons and daughters of God, Christ having made us free, and whoever the Son makes free is free indeed. Having fought the good fight we then shall be prepared to lay our bodies down to rest to await the morning of the resurrection when they will come forth and be reunited with the spirits, the faithful, as it is said, receiving crowns, glory, immortality and eternal lives, even a fullness with the Father, when Jesus shall present his work to the Father, saying, “Father, here is the work thou gavest me to do.” Then will they become gods, even the sons of God; then will they become eternal fathers, eternal mothers, eternal sons and eternal daughters; being eternal in their organization, they go from glory to glory, from power to power; they will never cease to increase and to multiply world’s without end. When they receive their crowns, their dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earth’s like unto ours and to people them in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and God.

I have often remarked that if the Latter-day Saints, and all the world understood the philosophy of their own being, they would bow in humble reverence to him who is the Author of our being and the author of all wisdom and all knowledge known among the children of men. It is very little comparatively that we do know, and but very little we can really comprehend. It is believed that our scientists and philosophers are very far advanced, and that wonderful progress has been made in the nineteenth century; but notwithstanding all the knowledge and power of philosophy which so distinguishes our age, who among our most learned can create as simple a thing as a spear of grass or the leaf of a tree? No one; this can only be done through the natural process; no one can organize the simplest particle of element independent of the laws of nature. When the philosopher of the age reaches that perfection that one can waft himself to the moon or to the north star, or to any other of the fixed planets, and be there in an instant, in the same manner that Jesus did when he ascended to the Father in heaven and returned to the earth again, then we may begin to think we know a little. When we shall possess the power and knowledge to cause heavenly planets to take their position, giving them their laws and boundaries which they must obey, and which they cannot pass, then we may begin to feel that we possess a little wisdom and power.

The great and grand secret of salvation, which we should continually seek to understand through our faithfulness, is the continuation of the lives. Those of the Latter-day Saints who will continue to follow after the revelations and commandments of God to do them who are found to be obedient in all things, continually advancing little by little towards perfection and the knowledge of God, they, when they enter the spirit world and receive their bodies, will be able to advance faster in the things pertaining to the knowledge of the Gods, and will continue onward and upward until they become Gods, even the sons of God. This I say is the great secret of the hereafter, to continue in the lives forever and forever, which is the greatest of all gifts God has ever bestowed upon his children. We all have it within our reach, we can all attain to this perfected and exalted state if we will embrace its principles and practice them in our every-day life. How accommodating, how glorious and divine are the dealings of God with his fallen children! We have been called from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the living God. By obeying the whispering of this Holy Spirit, which we have received by virtue of obedience to the Gospel, which prompts us to purge from within us all sinful desires, we can say we are no more in the world, but we are in Christ, our living head. The philosophy of our coming out from the world is the putting off the old man sin, and the putting on of the new man Jesus Christ. How is this to be done? After we believed the Gospel we were baptized for the remission of our sins—and by the laying on of hands we received the Holy Spirit of Promise and felt that “we shall be one.” I felt that I should no longer have need to keep a day-book and ledger in which to keep my accounts, for we were about to consolidate and become one; that every man and every woman would assist by actually laboring with their hands in planting, building up and beautifying this earth to make it like the Garden of Eden. I should therefore have no further occasion to keep accounts, I should certainly accumulate and earn more than I needed, and had not a single doubt but what my wants would be supplied. This was my experience, and this is the feeling of every one who receives the Gospel in an honest heart and contrite spirit.

But how are we now? What is our present condition?

Are we one temporally? Just about as much as Babylon is. One says, “I am for the mines, I am engaged on my farm or my factory, I am so engaged in my mercantile business that it absorbs all my time, therefore do not trouble me, do not infringe on me.” And who are they? Generally they are men who, like myself, came here not only poor, but in debt. I was driven from my homes and possessions, five times stripped of my earthly possessions. When we arrived in this valley, we were in a destitute condition. Others came here as destitute as we were, but are now comparatively wealthy—how do they feel? They wish to do just as they please. Ask them if they believe that the law of God requires us to enter into a general copartnership in all our business relations, living and working together as one family? They will tell you, “No, I don’t believe any such thing.” Those of this class who are merchants will say, “I want to get rich, I will buy where I please, and will sell at a hundred per cent., five hundred per cent., or a thousand per cent., if I can.” You may do so if you will, but your end will be lamentable. You count the men who have broken up their homes and gone in search of gold, and then count those who have carried out my advice, and you will readily acknowledge that the latter class is by far the better off, not only financially, but morally and spiritually. You, my brethren and sisters, who were poor when you came here, but who now, through the blessing of God, ride in your carriages and live in fine houses, enjoying all the comforts of life, as well as good health, and the society of friends, how do you feel? As for myself, I have not the slightest feeling in my heart that I own a single thing. What I am in possession of, the Lord has merely made me a steward over, to see what I will do with it. Now, my brethren and sisters, do you feel the same? If you do you will each enquire what is my duty? One duty is to go to work and build this and other Temples, and the other ones can be built long before we can finish this one. Shall we do so? I say we will. If we had reached that perfect state of unity which we should have long before this, and still hope that we yet shall, do you suppose we would ask a man to pay Tithing on ten bushels of wheat, or a hundred or a thousand? No, all that would be necessary under such circumstances would be to say, brother so-and-so, from you we want so much, and from another so much. “Yes,” they would say, “Take it. I have nothing. It is all the Lord’s, let it be used to do him service in the building up of his kingdom.” “What would you do, brother Brigham, if you were required to give up all your substance?” Just what I have always been willing to do. I would continue to do my duty and trust in God for the results; that is what I have done all my life. This, doubtless, seems foolishness in the eyes of the world, they cannot understand it, neither have they any means of understanding it, for “the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.” Before I embraced this Gospel I had studied the creeds of the Christian world. When I inquired of them with regard to heavenly things, why we came here, and the nature of the relationship we sustained to God and to heavenly beings, could I get any information? No, not the least idea. I once heard one of the leading Elders in the Episcopal Methodist Church undertake to explain to his congregation one of the simplest of things, namely, “What is the soul of man?” After he had labored for two long hours, having exhausted his language, for knowledge he had none, he straightened back in the pulpit and said, “My brethren and sisters, I must come to the conclusion that the soul of man is an immaterial substance.” What a pretty thing to look at! Excuse me. As far as the spirit and feeling of many of these people are concerned with regard to morality, and their endeavors to send the Gospel to the heathen nations, it is excellent. And there are, doubtless, millions of just as honest people among the several religious denominations as are amongst the professedly Latter-day Saints. But they have not the Gospel, they are in darkness with regard to the plan of salvation, and their teachers are blind guides, totally unable to give the people the living word, the way of life. If they live up to the best light and knowledge they have and can get, they are safe, and in a saved condition. What is the sin of the ministry and people of the present Christian denominations? It is that light has come to them and they reject it. The condemnation of the Jewish nation was that light had come into the world, but they chose darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; so says the Savior. The same Gospel that Jesus taught to those who rejected him, is entrusted to us to preach to the whole world with the same consequences which must reach them at some time, in some condition.

We have been hunted and driven from place to place, and the wicked have sought our destruction, simply because we offer to them the light, the truth, the everlasting Gospel. Although we have been robbed of our homes and possessions, they have not succeeded in destroying us yet. Will they succeed? I think not. The Lord has said he would gather his people for the last time, which he is doing; he will not suffer that they shall be overcome, and the kingdom wrested from them as heretofore. Neither will he be mocked and derided when he comes this time—not because the wicked would not repeat the same treatment if they were permitted—but because he will come in judgment, taking vengeance on the wicked and on the ungodly, and with the besom of destruction the refuge of lies and all those who love and make lies will be swept from the earth, and few men will be left. If the Latter-day Saints do not desist from running after the things of this world, and begin to reform and do the work the Father has given them to do, they will be found wanting, and they, too, will be swept away and counted as unprofitable servants.

Latter-day Saints, go and take up a labor with yourselves, urge yourselves to the belief that the Lord is God, that his eyes are upon the works of his hands, that even the sparrow does not go unfed, nor a hair of our heads fall to the ground unnoticed. Labor with yourselves until you have confidence in God and in his revelations to us; become one in temporal things as well as spiritual things as fast as you can. Enter into the compact, the association we call the United Order, that we may commence to do the work we have undertaken to do.

Now, I will make a proposition, and you may have five years to do the work I am about to assign you. To the people of the Sevier Valley, Millard County, Iron County, Piute County, Beaver County, with Juab, Kane, Washington, and Sanpete Counties, I will say, Go to work and build a Temple in Sanpete. As soon as you are ready to commence, I will, provide the plan. The ground is already selected. We do not ask whether you are able to do this; but ask yourselves if you have faith sufficient to do it, for we know that you are perfectly able to do it if you are willing, and do it inside of three years from next April. Then to the people of Box Elder County, the Malad Valley, Cache Valley, Soda Springs, and Bear Lake Valley, Rich County, and the people on Bear River, I say, unite your labor and commence as soon as you can to build a Temple in Cache Valley. Again, to the people of Weber County, Davis County, Morgan and Summit Counties, Salt Lake County, Tooele and Utah Counties, with the people east and west, I will say, Go to work and finish the Temple in this city forthwith. Can you accomplish the work, you Latter-day Saints of these several counties? Yes, that is a question I can answer readily, you are perfectly able to do it, the question is, Have you the necessary faith? Have you sufficient of the Spirit of God in your hearts to enable you to say, Yes, by the help of God our Father, we will erect these buildings to his name. There will be little money comparatively needed, it is nearly all labor, such as you can perform. If the people had paid their Tithing, and paid the hands employed on the Temple in proportion as I have done, that building would have been finished before now. But I am not obliged to build Temples for the people; this is our common duty, in order that all may have the privilege to officiate for themselves and their dead. How long, Latter-day Saints, before you will believe the Gospel as it is? The Lord has declared it to be his will that his people enter into covenant, even as Enoch and his people did, which of necessity must be before we shall have the privilege of building the Centre Stake of Zion, for the power and glory of God will be there, and none but the pure in heart will be able to live and enjoy it. Go to now, with your might and with your means, and finish this Temple. Why, for what reason? The reasons are very obvious, and you understand them.

A few words to the sisters—you mothers who are trifling with the ordinances of the house of God, and the blessings that are proffered to you, I will say that the time will come, if you persist in doing so, when you will mourn, and will be willing to give worlds, if you possessed them, for the privilege of living your lives over again. Some of you are treating with contempt the oracles of the kingdom of God upon the earth, and in the commission of this sin you trifle with your own salvation, as well as the salvation of your children. Repent, and turn unto God, and teach your children the importance of doing the same, and of the sacredness of the ordinances and the laws of God. It is the mother’s influence that is most effective in moulding the mind of the child for good or for evil. If she treat lightly the things of God, it is more than likely her children will be inclined to do the same, and the Lord will not hold her guiltless when he comes to make up his jewels; he will disown all such when he comes to claim his own, and will say, Go hence, I never knew you.

The question may be asked, Are you going to discontinue to give endowments here? I think it is very probable that you will have to go where there is a Temple, or go without. In consequence of our having been driven from our homes, and because of our destitute circumstances, the Lord has permitted us to do what we have done, namely, to use this Endowment House for Temple purposes. But since, through the mercies and blessings of God, we are able to build Temples, it is the will and commandment of God that we do so.

I thank you for your attention. We will adjourn this Conference until the 6th day of April next, to meet at ten o’clock a.m., in the Temple at St. George. We intend to dedicate it then. We shall dedicate some parts this fall, and commence to work in it.

I feel to bless the people, and say, May Heaven be kind to you. Amen.

Youthful Experiences, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Aug. 20, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

We have heard, this afternoon, the testimony of one of our young brethren, Elder Mathoni Pratt, who has just returned, rejoicing in the truth, from his first preaching mission abroad.

When speaking of his late experience, my mind was carried back to the days of my youth, when, at the age of nineteen, I went forth to the world to preach the great principles embraced in the faith of the Latter-day Saints. I, too, felt my weakness, being then very timid and bashful, never having been accustomed to public speaking, But the Lord, in whom I placed my trust, gave me strength according to my faith and perseverance, to proclaim the truth to the people. The Holy Ghost, which had been given me, brought to mind the Scriptures of eternal truth, in the very moment needful to present them to the people. Passages which I had merely read, in my early school days, came as vividly to my mind as though I had committed them to memory. This was in fulfillment of a promise of God to all his faithful servants. The Lord, through new revelation, has commanded his servants, who go forth as missionaries in this last dispensation, to take no thought beforehand what they shall say, for it shall be given them in the very moment what they shall say. This has been verified in very deed in my experience. Sometimes, in consequence of my weakness, I would take forethought upon some few subjects, but after rising to express these things to the people, they would be taken from me.

There are many promises which God has made to his servants in these latter times, and in connection with these promises he has given many commandments which we are required to observe and keep. One of these commandments, given to his missionary servants in the year 1832, reads as follows: “Verily I say unto you, let no man that goes forth to preach my Gospel, from this hour, take purse or scrip.” We therefore went forth, as the ancient Apostles, taking no thought for the morrow what we should eat, or what we should drink, or wherewithal we should be clothed. For, said the Lord, consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and the kingdoms of this world, in all their glory, are not arrayed like one of these. There was another promise made in connection with these commandments: “They who go forth without purse or scrip, and are faithful in all things, shall not be weary in mind, neither in body, limb, nor joint, neither shall they go hungry or athirst.”

This is another great promise which has been verified upon me to the very letter. I have gone to foreign nations, without one farthing to either procure food or a night’s lodging, and God has opened up my way, so that I have lacked no needful thing. This is not only my experience, but the experience of thousands who have also tested, in like manner, the truth of this promise. In the early rise of this Church, I sometimes had to sleep out in the open air, the same as our Savior had to do, as he said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” And so it hath been with many of his latter-day servants. Yet we experienced no particular inconveniences by being obliged to sleep at night on the ground; neither have we suffered when calling on the people from time to time, as servants of God, to obtain food, any more than Elijah did, when he fasted forty days, or Moses when he was forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking. There was a power over and in those ancient servants of God, that satisfied the cravings of the appetite, in passing through such circumstances, and such power was not withheld from us.

After the Lord told us how to go forth to the world with this Gospel message, he said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth my Father; and he that receiveth my Father, receiveth my Father’s kingdom. He also said, He that rejecteth you, and your words and testimony, rejecteth me; go away from him and cleanse your feet with pure water, and bear testimony of it to your Father, and return not again to that man or house; and whatsoever village or city you enter do likewise. And another great promise, made in connection with this, is that every soul that believes on your words, and is baptized in water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils, heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak; and if any man administers poison to them, it shall not hurt them.

The promise, therefore, unto all who receive this Gospel, is that they shall not only receive remission of their sins, but they shall also receive the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands; a promise which God alone can fulfil. Suppose this Church was an imposition, and this Gospel message not divine, would not the people who have rendered obedience to its requirements have proved it long ago to be false? Certainly they would, and the message itself, with its advocates, would have died away and come to nought. Would they have continued, as many have done, for over forty years in this Church; and would the people, numbering in this Territory about one hundred and fifty thousand, have gathered as they have done from nearly all the civilized nations, to the great interior of this continent, if the promises made them through this Gospel had not been fulfilled. No, you might have preached and promised, but it would have been of no effect. There is a vast cloud of witnesses, not only these of this congregation, but I speak of the entire people.

Do you know, Latter-day Saints, that this work is true? You do. How do you know it? Not merely because the men who proclaimed it told you it was true. How then do you know it? You know it by virtue of your obedience to the message; you have done the will of the Father, and you have realized the fulfillment of the promise; so that it is not a matter of guesswork, of mere opinion; you know beyond a single doubt that it is the work of the living God.

Suppose an impostor was to undertake to preach this Gospel, offering the same promises to believers, which of course would not be fulfilled. Do you not therefore see that it would be impossible to gather such people together from the different nations? But, when the promises are realized, the people receiving something they never before experienced, when those effects are strictly in accordance with the words of God, then they have a testimony that cannot be denied. But says one, “We hear people belonging to the different Christian sects and denominations say that they receive the spirit of God; you say the same. How are we to judge between you and them?” I would answer in the language of the Apostle John, who, in the first verse of the fourth chapter of his General Epistle said, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The true spirit imparts signs to all believers. Do the Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, or any of the Christian sects receive a spirit of this kind? Do they lay their hands on the sick, and are the sick healed? If they do then they are true believers; but if they do not, it shows that they have been deceived. Do they even profess to have these signs? No. Why? Because they know they are not in possession of them; and in order to excuse themselves with a view of making everybody believe they are true believers, they say these signs were only to follow the servants of God in the first age of Christianity. Let us examine carefully the written word, to see whether this is so or not. Jesus, as is shown in the 16th chapter of St. Mark, commencing at the 15th verse, said to the Eleven Apostles, “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. And 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.” Were the believers here referred to confined to certain individuals? No, this Gospel message was to be preached to every creature in all the world, and the promise was to every body that believed and obeyed. Some argue that when the Gospel was first introduced, it was necessary that these signs should follow the believers, in order that all the world might be convinced of its divinity; but that when the Gospel had been fully established, by signs and wonders, they were no longer needed. This is believed in and accepted as truth by the great majority of the Christian world. This being the case, I have often wondered why there were not more infidels in the world, than we have a knowledge of. Because a man inclined to infidelity might say, “If you do not believe in one part of the Gospel, what use is there in my believing any of it? If you can take upon yourselves the right to do away with a part of the Gospel, why may not I do away with the whole of it?” The signs which the Savior promised should follow believers are just as much a part of the Gospel as salvation itself is.

But how shall we “try the spirits?” I do not know of a better and surer way than to follow the word of God. In ancient times hands were laid on the head of the baptized believer and the Holy Ghost was given, and it produced certain effects, insomuch that when the hands were taken from the heads of the individuals thus blessed, often times they would speak with other tongues, and prophesy, foretelling future events, etc. And the effects of the Holy Ghost were so miraculous and manifest that a certain sorcerer, named Simon Magnus, doubtless thinking it would be a great acquisition to his catalogue of wonders, offered the Apostles money, if they would empower him to perform the same. But Peter said unto him, “Thy money perish with thee; repent of this thy wickedness,” etc. “For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” There was a power attending the demonstration of those men of God, in ancient days, that left no doubt in the minds of those who experienced it; they knew that it was a power not from man.

After the Lord had commissioned the Elders of this Church, some forty-four years ago, to preach this Gospel to all nations, he promised that to those who would believe and obey their words, should be given power to do many wonderful works, they should open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and the tongue of the dumb should be made to speak, and the lame man should be made to walk, etc. Has this promise been fulfilled, Latter-day Saints? Yes, you know it has been literally fulfilled. You yourselves when living in a scattered condition, in places where the Gospel found you, have laid your hands upon the heads of your little children and others, who were sick, and, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by virtue of the holy Priesthood, you have rebuked the sickness, and you have seen the sick restored to health. You have also witnessed the deaf restored to their hearing, and the blind receive their sight. By these and other manifestations of the power of God, you knew that we were the servants of God, and that our message was divine. The world say that Joseph Smith was an impostor. I would ask, Can there be any more effectual means of detecting an impostor, of determining the truth or falsity of his profession, than for him to make to public promises of this kind? If he were an impostor, the signs spoken of would not follow believers, and the power to perform these wonderful works would not be given to those who obeyed his words. Do you not know, strangers, that an impostor would carefully avoid giving such unmistakable proofs of his impositions? Yes, he would be as cautious as the Methodists, and the rest of the so-called Christian denominations, for they do not even profess a belief in them, much less to declare themselves to be in possession of them. But the fact that these signs do follow believers, that this power does exist, is testimony sufficient, and it is a testimony to all the world, that this Gospel message which we preach is divine, and that God is able to do to-day the same as he did anciently; and you, Latter-day Saints, are witnesses concerning these things.

Having examined the message that these missionaries proclaim, let me speak a little upon another subject. If you now travel over the broad face of the Christian world, and ask the several Christian sects if they have inspired Apostles in their church, who receive revelation as they of old did? The answer will be positively no. Why do you not have them, are they not part of the Gospel? Hear what the Lord has said upon this subject through the Apostle Paul—“God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” And these are members of the body called the Church. Yet you say you have not the first member necessary to constitute the body. God has certainly set in his Church Apostles. Where are they, and where are their revelations? When there happens to be some difficulty on points of doctrine among you, do you go to the ministers you profess to have, requesting them to inquire of the Lord concerning the matter? Oh no, you say, the canon of Scripture is full, and there is to be no more revelation. No wonder, then, you have not the first officer of the Church; he would be to you a superfluous member, if there is to be no more revelation. But how do you know this? Has the Lord ever said that the time would come when he would have no more inspired Apostles in his Church? Says one, My minister says so. I would advise you to go to your minister and ask him where he obtains his evidence to prove that the canon of Scripture is full. You will find that he will appear dumb, because no man can put his finger upon a single passage of Scripture proving such an assertion. Perhaps some have tried to believe it, by quoting certain verses from the last chapter of the Revelation of the Lord to St. John, when on the Isle of Patmos; I have had them quote it to me. You will recollect that John, while on the Isle of Patmos, ninety-six years after the birth of Christ, received wonderful revelations, the Lord commanding him to write them. He wrote them on parchment, and upon the closing up of the scroll the Lord says, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” This is often quoted, perhaps without knowing or considering that John, after his release from Patmos, as history informs us, wrote the Gospel of St. John. Supposing that John was questioned on this point, how do you think he would have explained himself? He would have said that that caution had reference to the book written on Patmos. He would have said further, that the caution was against man’s adding, but that God has the right to give to his people line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, book after book, yea, even ten thousand revelations, or more as he may deem proper; and he never pronounced a curse against himself, but that man has not the right to add a single word. The same language may be found in the book of Deuteronomy, which of course has a direct bearing to the five books of Moses, without any reference whatever to the succeeding books of the Bible. May not the same objection be just as consistently raised against all the books of the Old and New Testament which follow the last book written by Moses, containing the same caution, as against the new revelation of to-day? Surely the people who lived in and after the days of Moses might just as consistently have objected to receiving any further revelations from the Lord, because of the caution referred to appearing in the Book of Deuteronomy, as the people of to-day have for objecting to receive any new revelation, because the same caution appears in the last chapter of the revelation on Patmos. Both have reference to particular books only, and it is absurd and folly in the extreme for men claiming to have any knowledge of God, and the great plan of salvation to interpret it otherwise. And it can be for no other reason than to attempt to cover up the state of apostacy which the whole world is in, that causes the ministers of the various sects to quote this passage as they do.

There is another passage of Scripture which I will refer to, in connection with this; it reads as follows: “When Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And he gave some Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” etc. It is acknowledged that you have not Apostles as part of your Gospel. Let us inquire further. Have you got Prophets? No, you assert there is to be no more Prophets. Have you workers of miracles or healers of the sick? No. Have you discerners of spirits, or speakers with tongues, or do angels minister to you? No, you assert that these are all done away. Do you not know that all these constitute the body of the Church of the living God, and that all these are necessary to form the whole, so that one part or member cannot say to another, “I have no need of you?” What then have you got? You reply, We have teachers and pastors. Then you consider that you have the body of Christ among you? You reply, “O yes; we are the Church of Christ.” Who authorized you to do away with these essential parts of the body or Church of Christ? Have you not been instructed of the Lord through the mouth of his Apostles, that “If all were one member, where were the body?” If pastors and teachers are the only members you have, how is it possible that the body can exist among you? The Apostle, in thus comparing the human body complete with all its members to the body or Church of Christ, said—“The head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you,” etc. By what principle of right, therefore, can the legs or feet, which may be said to represent pastors and teachers, say to the head, which represents the Apostles, “I have no need of you?” You say you have only a couple of the members of the body, and that you have received no further revelation from God, the canon of Scripture being full, authorizing you to do away with the other members. W[h]ere then is the Church organization as established by the Savior? No where, among the sects, upon the whole earth, neither has it been for many generations past. You say, we are uncharitable. We are only comparing your church organization with that of the Bible. We are told to “Try the spirits,” and I know of no better way than to do so by the Word of God. Remember that he who dwells in the heavens will judge you by his words in the great day of judgment. You pastors and teachers, you who profess to be authorized of God, how will you feel in that great day, when you shall appear before him to be judged out of the books? When you hear him declare that he placed in his Church, first Apostles, then Prophets, etc., and when he shall ask you the reason why you did away with them, how will you feel, what will you say? Your only answer can be that “we did away with them, because they were unpopular, and because we had not faith sufficient to obtain revelations ourselves, and in order to hide our apostacy we said they were no longer needed.” Remember, all ye, the testimony of the Savior—“My words shalt judge you in the last day.”

The Lord has restored his everlasting Gospel, with all its gifts and blessings, and in all its fullness, and has called men and commanded them to publish it among the inhabitants of all the earth. Judge ye whether it be the Gospel, or whether it be a man-made system. If it be false, prove it to be so; bring forth your strong reasons; otherwise lay your hands upon your mouths, and let your tongues be dumb. There may be imperfections in some of the people who represent this Gospel, for the wheat and tares are to grow together until the second coming of our Lord, when he will separate them; but there are no imperfections in the Gospel; it is perfect so far as God has seen proper to reveal himself to the human family. Will an imperfect system save the people in any part of the world? No. If the Gospel we preach is not true, there is certainly among you none true; and we, therefore, are only one among the others; for we know they are not true, because the written word testifies against them. But we present to you a system which is perfect, and which we know to be true, because the promised signs follow the believers.

This Gospel must be preached to all peoples everywhere, fulfilling the prophecy of John the Revelator, contained in the 14th chapter of Revelations. Judge ye whether that day has come or not. We declare that the angel referred to there has flown, and we bring forth the evidence of witness who saw and conversed with him. And we are commissioned of God to carry the Gospel to all nations under heaven, bearing testimony that it is the eleventh hour—the last time that God will ever send laborers into the vineyard. We testify that when this Gospel is preached faithfully to all the world, then will the end of the wicked world come; then shall the Son of Man come, sitting upon a white cloud, as predicted in the same chapter. Then woe to the nations that reject this warning message, for they shall be visited with consuming fire, and all that shall be found doing wickedly shall be burned up. This is the dispensation of the fullness of times that should come in the last days, gathering out the Lord’s elect from the four winds of heaven; a dispensation of the Lord’s judgments spoken of in connection with the flying of the angel in the midst of heaven; and these judgments are nigh even at the door. Amen.

The Gospel Trumpet, etc.

Joseph F. Smith

Discourse by Elder Joseph F. Smith, delivered at the Forty-sixth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday afternoon, April 8, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

It is with humility, desiring that the Spirit of the Lord may rest upon you, my hearers, as well as upon myself, that I arise to address you. I am requested to “blow the Gospel trumpet.” I do not know that I shall be able to make myself heard by this large congregation, unless all keep quiet and exercise that faith which it is our privilege to do when assembled in a worshiping capacity.

If we are in the line of our duty, we are engaged in a great and glorious cause. It is very essential to our individual welfare that every man and every woman who has entered into the covenant of the Gospel, through repentance and baptism, should feel that as individuals it is their bounden duty to use their intelligence, and the agency which the Lord has given them, for the promotion of the interests of Zion and the establishment of her cause, in the earth. Those who are not faithful in the discharge of these duties cannot be wholly acceptable to God; for they are more or less in the condition of the Church which was complained of by the angel to the Apostle John, as being neither hot nor cold, but luke-warm, and therefore only fit to be “spewed out,” or to be disowned of God. Manifoldly more deserving of this rebuke and chastisement are those who are not only indifferent to the interests of the cause of God and its growth in the earth, but who murmur and find fault and who, instead of putting their shoulders to the wheel, actually try to retard its progress by using what little influence and means they possess to obstruct the onward march of the kingdom.

It was said by the Son of God, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This was said to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who evidently believed that Jesus was sent of God, but who went to him by night, being ashamed to be seen seeking so humble a person in the day time, having, no doubt, that feeling of worldly pride which animates the bosoms of many of the present generation, he dared not identify himself with the Savior of the world, because his reputation and standing in society would be sacrificed. But he marvelled at the saying of Christ, and upon further inquiry the Savior explained by declaring that, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And I may say still further, that being born of the water and the Spirit alone, will not enable a man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. There is something still beyond, which is just as necessary as this, the first ordinance of the Gospel, which must be observed and honored by those of this new birth in order that they may obtain the full salvation which is sought after.

On this particular occasion the Savior was speaking of Baptism, and in order to impress it upon Nicodemus, that it might be understood then, as well as to be in force in all future time, so that people need not be deceived, he spoke thus emphatically on this point of doctrine. It therefore matters not how devout, honest, or sincere we might be in the profession of our faith in God, or in the system of religion we might have adopted, and which we believe to be the everlasting Gospel, without this ordinance of baptism we cannot be saved—but first having repented of our sins with that repentance which needeth not to be repented of, in other words, putting away from us every evil, and shunning even the appearance of sin, then to be baptized by one authorized of God for the remission of those sins, and for the reception of the Holy Ghost, we thus becoming heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; true branches, having been grafted into the true vine, bearing fruit of the good seed, bringing forth an hundred fold to the honor and glory of God. I repeat, it matters not how honest we may be or profess to be in our convictions, without this repentance and baptism and reception of the Holy Ghost, which constitute the new birth, we are not of the family of Christ, but are aliens, estranged from God and his laws, and in this fallen condition we shall remain, whether in the body or in the spirit, for time and for eternity, unless we render obedience to the plan devised in the heavens for the redemption and salvation of the human family,

The Latter-day Saints may say, We were taught this doctrine by the Elders in our native lands, and we believed it and repented of our sins, and were baptized, and we received the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was a testimony to us that we had done the will of the Father, and since then our testimonies have often been confirmed through the manifestations of the power of God, and the renewal of His spirit in our hearts. Why, therefore, say they, is it necessary to refer to these things now? Perhaps a reason may be found for so doing in the fact, that, judging from the actions of many who profess to be Latter-day Saints, it would seem that they had come to the conclusion that they had completed their work, that the requirements of the Gospel were all complied with, and nothing now remained but for them to enter upon the inheritances promised to the faithful. We perhaps forget, in consequence of the things of time, which so tempt our fallen nature, that, having been born anew, which is the putting away of the old man sin, and putting on of the new man Christ Jesus, we have become soldiers of the cross, having enlisted under the banner of Jehovah for time and for eternity, and that we have entered into the most solemn covenants to serve God and to contend earnestly for the establishment of the principles of truth and righteousness on this earth continually while we live. And having been “bought with a price,” that is, having been redeemed from the power of sin through the atoning blood of the Savior, as the Apostle says, “We are not our own;” we are his, and we are dependent on him, not only for the light and knowledge which we have received by virtue of the Gospel restored in this dispensation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, but for all temporal blessings, and even for our very earthly being. Therefore, it is not consistent with our high and holy calling to allow ourselves to become careless and indifferent to the interests of the cause we have espoused, lest we fail through our inconsistency, and return “like the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire,” and peradventure be found traitors to the sacred cause in which we have enlisted, and forfeit the gift of eternal life to which we have been made heirs. There is a course marked out for us to walk in—it is that strait and narrow path which leads back to the presence of God; the lamp to light our onward march is the Holy Ghost, which we received on or after our new birth. If we falter and turn aside, our lamp will burn dim and finally go out, when lo, the Comforter, the source of revelation, will leave us, and darkness will take its place; then how great will be that darkness! In proportion to the light we possessed will darkness overpower us, and unless a speedy repentance is made the darkness will increase within us, until we lose sight of our calling and forget Him who redeemed us and claimed us for his own. The Apostle Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, says: “Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the Temple of God is holy, which Temple ye are.” His language is applicable to us as Latter-day Saints, and destruction must overtake us, which is as certain as it is that God is a just being, if we render ourselves unworthy of the calling and name we bear by failing to perform the duties devolving upon us.

In referring to the subject of baptism as essential to salvation, it may be asked by some, What would become of those who heard not the Gospel, and who therefore had not the opportunity of being baptized, claiming as we do that the Gospel was taken from the earth in consequence of its being rejected when proclaimed by Jesus and his Apostles. I would say to such that God has made ample provision for all his children, both the ignorant and the learned; those who have not had the Gospel preached to them in the flesh, will hear it in the spirit, for all must have the plan of salvation presented to them for their acceptance or rejection before they can become amenable to the law. “For,” says Paul, “where there is no law there is no transgression.” To those who have not heard the Gospel in the flesh, if they have not already heard it preached in the spirit, they most assuredly will, and that, too, by men who have previously preached it on the earth, who have died faithful servants, they will continue their labors in the spirit world, and those who receive the Gospel from them will “live according to God in the spirit,” and all who hear it will “be judged according to men in the flesh,” “for,” says the Apostle Peter, “for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead.” (1 Peter, 4, 6.) When, therefore, the law is revealed to them and they become instructed in it, then will they be held responsible. If they receive it, their kindred or friends who remain upon the earth perhaps, during the Millennium, will act for them, that is, they will be baptized for and in their behalf, for the remission of sins, and be confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ, in the same manner as that work is being done now; there being only one faith, one Lord, and one baptism, which law is eternal and unchangeable, and therefore it is applicable to the dead as well as the living in all ages and climes; and further, no living creature who has become subject to sin and the power of death in consequence of mortality, can evade this law and be redeemed, for it is the door to the fold of Christ, which fold cannot be entered, only through the door. So great and important is this labor, and so necessary for the salvation of the human family, both the living and the dead, that, as the Prophet Joseph said, it will occupy the whole period of the Millennium to consummate it.

In connection with this work is that spoken of concerning Elijah the Prophet, namely, “the turning of the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children,” which if not done the whole earth will be smitten with a curse.

The kingdom of God must be erected upon the principles which Christ has revealed, upon the foundation of eternal truth, Jesus himself being the chief corner-stone. These holy and sublime principles must be observed and honored in our lives, in order that we may obtain an exaltation with the sanctified in the kingdom of God.

The beauty of these principles is they are true, and the satisfaction derived from their adoption is the knowledge which we receive convincing us of this fact. We have not believed a fable, neither are we cherishing a cunningly devised scheme, but we have been inducted into the truth, having Christ for our head, who is our forerunner, our great High Priest and King. It is true, there are few comparatively who acknowledge allegiance to him, and there are many of these who do not apparently comprehend the importance and binding character of their covenants, or allegiance. This is greatly to be reverted, not that the loyal and faithful subject will lose anything in consequence; but because they who refrain from exercising themselves in his cause will sustain the loss, a loss, too, which they cannot now estimate. It is indeed sorrowful that any should be indifferent to this all-important matter. Who is there of those that have been, or now are, associated with this Church, who have not felt the power of the Holy Ghost, and realized in some measure the benefits of that Spirit through the knowledge which it imparts? This question will meet all of us, those who turn away from the truth, and those who are and will remain indifferent to the cause of Zion, as well as the faithful, when we shall appear before the bar of God, to render an account of our deeds done in the flesh.

The Holy Ghost is a personage who acts in Christ’s stead. Just before the risen Redeemer left the earth he commanded his disciples to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high. They did so, and agreeable to promise the Comforter came whilst they were met together, filling their hearts with unspeakable joy, insomuch that they spake in tongues and prophesied; and the inspiring influence of this holy being accompanied them in all their ministerial duties, enabling them to perform the great mission to which they had been called by the Savior. We are informed that, on a certain occasion, whilst engaged preaching the Gospel, many who heard them were convinced of the divinity of their mission, and they cried out, saying, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” They were not told to come to the anxious seat to be prayed for, or to believe in Jesus, for they already believed and were convinced; but “Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” The office of the Holy Spirit is to enlighten the minds of the people with regard to the things of God, to convince them at the time of their conversion of their having done the will of the Father, and to be in them an abiding testimony as a companion through life, acting as the sure and safe guide into all truth and filling them day by day with joy and gladness, with a disposition to do good to all men, to suffer wrong rather than to do wrong, to be kind and merciful, long suffering and charitable. All who possess this inestimable gift, this pearl of great price, have a continual thirst after righteousness. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit no mortal can walk in the straight and narrow way, being unable to discern right from wrong, the genuine from the counterfeit, so nearly alike can they be made to appear. Therefore it behooves the Latter-day Saints to live pure and upright, in order that this Spirit may abide in them; for it is only possessed on the principle of righteousness. I cannot receive it for you, nor you for me; every one must stand for him or her self, whether of high or humble birth, learned or unlearned, and it is the privilege of all alike to be made partakers of it.

I know that God lives, and that he has revealed himself. I know that the Holy Ghost has been conferred upon the children of men, and that the Gospel has been restored to the inhabitants of the earth in its fullness. I know that the Holy Priesthood, which is the power of God delegated to man, has been restored to the earth. I do know that God has delivered his people and that he will continue to deliver us and lead us on in his own peculiar way from conquering to conquer, from victory to victory, until truth and righteousness gain the ascendency in this His earth, inasmuch as we remain true to him and to one another.

The question may arise in the minds of some, How do you know these things?

Perhaps I can, in part at least, answer the question by asking another—How does the child, or youth, immediately know when he performs the first wicked act of his life? Is there not within him a consciousness of right and wrong? This is a portion of divinity which lights every one who is born into the world, which acts as a monitor to the heart and soul, and never fails to impress the mind with an unmistakable sense of right and wrong.

This same spark of divinity, this monitor which speaks unmistakably to the understanding of the child, disapprovingly of his wrong, will speak, in just as unmistakable language, approvingly of good and righteous deeds. Therefore I know what I declare to be true, because my conscience approves of my obeying the requirements of the Gospel; this inward monitor testifies to my spirit that in rendering this obedience I do right, and gives me the self-same assurance when I am in the discharge of any other duties, whether officiating in the capacity of an Elder or in the performance of those duties which, as an individual, I owe to society.

Is this the only way? No, I know it by the sight of the eye, by the hearing of the ear, and by the feeling of the heart. I know that “Mormonism” is true, because the fruits of it are pure and good. The fruits of our religion can be seen and heard, and their influence can be felt. For instance, here is a brother who does not take the name of the Lord in vain; he does not steal, nor lie, nor commit adultery, neither would he bear false witness against his neighbor; he honors his parents and seeks to do to others as he would wish to be done by; he bears the full fruit of the Spirit which he has received by virtue of his obedience to the Gospel, which is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;” his influence is good, and you know that he has drunk at the pure fountain, that he has gathered his figs from the fig tree, for were it otherwise his actions, the fruits of his life, would be of an opposite nature. Further, this unmistakable assurance, which is derived through yielding obedience to and practising the principles of eternal life, is continually being confirmed, as it were, by “line upon line and precept upon precept,” through the revelations of the Holy Spirit, which is a continuous and unfailing source of intelligence, of joy and happiness, drawing him who possesses it nearer unto God, and will eventually cause him to appear like unto his Maker.

It is the feel who has said in his heart, “There is no God,” and it would indeed be a weak and foolish mind that would rest satisfied without out knowing beyond a doubt the Author and Source of his religion when the opportunity of ascertaining the fact is extended to him.

I know the fruits of my religion are good, they are flavored with the sweets of heaven, and they impart health and life to the soul, and I know that God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is its author. No man need wonder whether this be really true or not, for all may know for themselves, all may partake of the fruit of the vine and eat and live, all may drink of the eternal spring, and drink and thirst for more. These things I declare to you to be true and faithful. I have been acquainted with them from my youth, and I have felt their influence from my childhood. I have seen the effect of their opposite, and I know whereof I speak. I cannot deny these things, neither can any man who has ever known them, although he may apostatize from them, except he deny himself and his God.

The man who embraces what is called “Mormonism,” but which is really the Gospel of the Son of God, and lives according to its precepts, will never lie nor steal; he will not dishonor his parents nor despise his poorer brethren; he will never, no never, speak against the Lord’s anointed, nor be ashamed to own his God, to whom he owes homage and gratitude now and forever; he will never do a dishonorable act, nor fail to acknowledge God in all things, neither will he refuse to render implicit obedience to the revelations of God which are applicable to him. It is true, man may err in judgment, he may be wanting in many things because of his fallen nature, but the system of salvation is perfect. Jesus, the Only Begotten of the Father, in whom there was no blemish, is its author; he is the Standard to all the world, and will be forever. He had power to lay down his life and take it up again, and if we keep inviolate the covenants of the Gospel, remaining faithful and true to the end, we too, in his name and through his redeeming blood, will have power in due time to resurrect these our bodies after they shall have been committed to the earth.

Let us, then, my brethren and sisters, be valiant for the truth, maintaining our integrity to God and our brethren in all meekness, that we may at last come to the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, whom to know is life eternal; this is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Position of the Latter-Day Saints, etc.

John Taylor

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Nov. 5, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

In meeting together on Sabbath days we assemble generally for the purpose of renewing our spiritual strength by partaking of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, communing with our own hearts and reflecting upon things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and of speaking and listening to those things that have a tendency to enlighten our minds and establish us in the faith, to increase and confirm our hopes, and to enable us to press onward with avidity, confidence, and renewed determination in the path which the Lord has marked out for us to travel in.

As Latter-day Saints, we occupy a singular position in the world. Our views and ideas, theories and faith, doctrines and ordinances are in many respects different from those which exist abroad, and from those which many of us have been educated in. We have become Latter-day Saints in obedience to strong convictions, which have been forced upon us by the Spirit of the living God, and through the teaching, testimony, and evidence that have been brought to bear upon our minds by those who visited us and imparted to us the principles of the Gospel. In this respect we differ from a great many of the religious sects.

When Protestantism started, it did not come with a revelation from God, nor did it profess any direct authority from him nor any communication with or from him. It protested simply against certain errors which existed in what was then called the Catholic Church. The Reformers did not propose to introduce any direct communication from God, but simply to correct certain prominent abuses that they considered had crept into the church; and those men were considered heretics by the church they had left.

Since that time a spirit and feeling of a similar nature have existed more or less among other peoples. If we examine the ideas and acts of Luther, Melancthon, and some prominent reformers, we find that a great many sects and parties have since then taken the same liberty with their creeds and formulas, which they took with their mother church; and they have generally used the same kind of argument, namely, if it was right and proper for the first reformers to protest against the doings, acts, ordinances, and proceedings of the church which had by them been considered heretofore as the only Christian Church, and to protest against the acts of its Priesthood, and the doings of the people, it was proper also for other reformers to arise and correct those first reformers on many doctrines, views and principles that they may have entertained. This kind of spirit having been inaugurated and adopted, like leaven, it has worked, increased and spread, until great numbers of sects and parties have appeared through Christendom, all claiming the same rights that the first reformers exercised, in correcting what they believed to be wrong and unscriptural.

With us, Latter-day Saints, it is very different. We have never claimed any affinity or connection with, or professed to derive any power or authority from, any of the parties, no matter what name they may bear, nor to any of the Dissenters who have separated themselves from them. We have never professed an adherence to any of those principles that have been promulgated by others. The origin of our faith is that God has spoken, that, in the midst of conflicting opinions which prevailed with regard to him, he has thought proper to settle that question once and for all by the revelation of his will to the human family. Hence, we as Latter-day Saints have based our faith upon these revelations, given originally to Joseph Smith, and taught by those who have been ordained and set apart by him, and who have gone forth as messengers to the nations of the earth to proclaim not what somebody else said in former times only, not to make known what other men have done in other dispensations alone; but to reveal to the human family what the will of God is concerning them. This is the position we occupy as Latter-day Saints. If we have any ideas of a God, we have obtained them through these revelations, if we have a worship which is accepted of God, it is because the Lord has dictated as to its form and manner; if we have a Priesthood, it is because some of the ancient Priesthood who existed heretofore on the earth and now administer in the heavens, have come and conferred, upon man on the earth, this authority; if we have ordinances of any kind, it is not because other people have received these ordinances through whom we have obtained them, but because God has revealed them to us direct; and if we have various officers in the Church, it is not because we have copied after any other church or people, but, because God has told us what his order is, what his law is in relation to these matters, and the proper manner of government to conduct and direct the affairs of God upon the earth. It is in short the revelation of the will of God to man in these the last days.

Now without any kind of circumlocution, these are some leading prominent features of our faith. Predicated upon these the quorums of Priesthood associated with our Church have been established, which are the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Bishops, Priests, Teachers, Deacons and Patriarchs, with all the various organizations that exist in the Church and kingdom of God. All these were given not by the wisdom or intelligence of man, nor were they instituted according to any pattern that elsewhere exists upon the earth at the present time, nor based upon any faith promulgated by any body of divines, by any scientific or literary associations, by any system of theology or philosophy, on any plan of any kind introduced by man’s wisdom; but they were introduced by the Almighty according to the revelations of God to us, for our guidance and direction in all of our affairs in life, to prepare us to accomplish not our own will, but the will of our Father in Heaven; not to carry out any ideas of our own but the ideas, intentions, commands and directions of the Almighty, that we might gather together from the nations of the earth those who are willing to listen to the principles of eternal truth, and form a grand nucleus in the valleys of the mountains, which should grow, increase, and spread under the guidance and direction of the Almighty, until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. This is really the thing we have engaged in, and we are indebted to him for his direction and instruction from its first inception to the present time, and we shall be thus indebted, from this time henceforth and forever, for the guidance, instruction, teaching and protection of the Almighty to enable us to consummate the work which he originated and organized.

It matters not to us what the opinions of men may be pertaining to these matters. God has given us a mission to perform, and in the name of Israel’s God, and with his assistance, we will try to do it. The ways of God, the plans and designs of the Almighty, have never been very congenial to the feelings of human nature, or to the waywardness of the human family. Whenever God has made known his will to man in any age of the world’s history, there has always been a spirit of antagonism which has prevailed more or less against it. This same opposition exists to-day, and has done from the first organization of this Church; and I will say it will continue to go on and increase and become more intensified in proportion to the growth and spread of the principles of truth. We sometimes think we have had a great deal to contend with. It is true, we have had a little, but we might have had more. Those who have made themselves acquainted with the sayings of the holy Prophets contained in the word of God, as made known on the continent of Asia, as well as on this continent, and the prophecies which have been given through the medium of Joseph Smith, in relation to this same subject, are very well aware that the Church is comparatively in its infancy, and so also are the persecutions of those who are opposed to it. We have been in the habit of reflecting on the position of the nations, for instance, and upon the calamities which must overtake them, overlooking perhaps the various powers which are to be brought against God’s people. These have assumed at various times different shapes; at first, organizations merely operated against Joseph Smith, then persecutions arose in small towns and villages against those who believed in this modern Prophet; then it followed us into States, then we had to endure exile from different counties in Missouri, and afterwards from one place to another, until finally we had to evacuate the State. We then found ourselves assuming a little more importance in Illinois, and we learned too, that as we increased there in strength and importance, so proportionately increased opposition to us and to the principles we advocated until we had to pledge ourselves to leave a large and beautiful city and an extensive district of country, and then we came here to these valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Since then antagonism has presented itself in a variety of forms, through United States officers, military and civil, until it culminated in the United States sending out an army against us. Since then they have adopted every kind of method that man’s ingenuity could invent to harass and annoy us and to interfere with our civil, social and religious rights, and with our interests, peace, and prosperity.

Is this the end? No, for if the Scriptures be true we have not got through yet. We have not yet built up the kingdom, and consequently the struggle is not over; nay, it has hardly commenced.

Nor are we alone in the dealings of God with the people in this dispensation. The Jews will have to perform quite a role in these last times. They also will have to endure a large amount of trials, persecutions, and difficulties, which have yet to come upon them. They will in due time be gathered together to their own lands like we are gathered here; and nations will go up against them, and then too will certain nations come against us; but we have not yet got through with the United States. In relation to events that will yet take place, and the kind of trials, troubles, and sufferings which we shall have to cope with, it is to me a matter of very little moment; these things are in the hands of God, he dictates the affairs of the human family, and directs and controls our affairs; and the great thing that we, as a people, have to do is to seek after and cleave unto our God, to be in close affinity with him, and to seek for his guidance, and his blessing and Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in the right path. Then it matters not what it is nor who it is that we have to contend with, God will give us strength according to our day. There is no question in the hearts of all good Latter-day Saints about the future destiny of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth; that with them is a settled fact. Neither does it concern them what this man or the other man may do, it makes no particular difference. God has a certain object to accomplish, and he will do it in his own way and in his own time. He holds the nations as dust in the balances; he will manipulate them and their affairs as he pleases, and they cannot help themselves; he will also manipulate the affairs of the Latter-day Saints, having his watchcare over them, as he ever has had over all his people. If we are found to be willing and obedient, and on the Lord’s side for right, for truth, and integrity, for virtue and purity and holiness, adhering to the principles of truth and the laws of life, then God will be with us, and he will sustain all those who adhere to these principles; for be it remembered that these are the principles we profess to believe in, and those who are not governed by them he will move out of the way; they will drop down on the right hand and on the left as many have done before, and the pure and virtuous, the honorable and upright, will go forth from conquering to conquer until they shall accomplish all that God designs them to do on this earth; and when they get through he will supply their places with others, who will also take hold and roll forth the kingdom in all its majesty, until the things spoken of by all the holy Prophets be fulfilled; and hence in relation to these matters we cannot change the fiat of Jehovah, which has gone forth, nor alter his decrees.

He has designed to gather together his people into one, and his spirit into one, and his power into one. The Scriptures say that God will gather together all things, whether they are things in the heavens or things on the earth; he will gather them all into one, and his people will be gathered into one, and his word will be gathered into one, and hence, “The Nephites shall have the words of the Jews, and the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the Ten Tribes, and the Ten Tribes shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.” And he will go on and accomplish his purposes in his own way, and no man can stay his hand. We may think we can, we may think we can do this thing and that thing according to our own caprice, and theories and judgment; but God will frustrate and entirely overthrow all that is based upon the principles of truth, and carry Israel through triumphant.

We are starting in on some things for the accomplishment of this object. The spirit of God has been operating upon President Young, to try to get us united in temporal affairs. We make sorry blunders about it sometimes. I have sometimes thought we are slow to understand, and very slow to perform; but still we are doing a little, and progressing a little here and there in these things, and our feelings begin to be drawn out a little, as the Indians say [pointing to a small piece of his finger] about so much. We begin to think there is some meaning in it, and that it is binding upon us, and those who do not do much keep up a thinking; if we only continue to keep up thinking and praying as well as doing, we will get at it by and by, and get into a better position than we now occupy.

It is a good deal with some of us in relation to some of these matters as with the man who cried out, “Good Lord and good Devil,” for we don’t know whose hands we are going to fall into, and would, perhaps, like to make friends with both; we manifest a little of our own way, a little of the way of the Gentiles, and a very little of the way of the Lord.

Now, if I understand my religion aright, if I understand the Scriptures and the operations of the Spirit of God, we have got, as a people, to come to this—let us know the will of God, and we will do it, no matter where it strikes, what interest it may come in contact with, or whose views it may overturn. That is my idea of “Mormonism,” as I have learned it. I consider that God is at the helm. We have not dictated or found out any thing belonging to the problem we are working, not a man among us; all we have received comes from God. If I understand anything concerning these things, it is that the word of God is law and must be obeyed. If we want to be good, faithful Latter-day Saints, we have got to be willing to submit to the will of God in all things. We must feel as was once exclaimed on a certain occasion by the ancient Israelites, “The Lord shall be our Judge, the Lord shall be our King, the Lord shall be our Ruler, and he shall rule over us.” That is the way I figure up these things; and if this was not so I would not give anything for our religion, or our religious ideas. I do not think that any of us can regulate, manage or conduct any of these matters, unless God be with us. And I will tell you another thing, God will not be with us unless we are one. Says Jesus, “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” And the oneness will not consist in each one of us seeking his own interest, his own emolument, and to extend his own ideas and influence; but in his seeking the interest and welfare of another, the establishment of Zion, that the welfare of all may be cared for and reached, both among the living and the dead in all time and eternity. This is the way I have been taught to regard these things. God is not setting up a kingdom for you, or for me, or for any individual person.

There are a good many points connected with these things when we come to reflect upon them, which are of a good deal of importance to us. How shall we arrive at them? Firstly, by getting right ourselves; in our spirits and feelings one towards another; in upholding and sustaining correct principles and correct authority, and as a community in being governed by the Lord our God. How can I expect to be blessed of God if I do not conduct myself as a Saint of God? Can I expect his Spirit? No. Can I expect to have the sweet whisperings thereof to lead me in the path of life, if I trample under foot his precepts? No. What then? There are a great many other things. I will tell you of one which I have noticed lately that prevails to quite an extent among us. I find a great many among the Latter-day Saints who are a good deal like those spoken of by Peter, “they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.” Jude the Apostle, referring to the same thing, says, “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

Now, as good Latter-day Saints, let us look at some of these things calmly. Have we got Bishops in our Church? Yes; but I was going to say, who the devil cares about Bishops? You do not say it exactly like that, but you think it sometimes, don’t you? Then we have the Twelve Apostles. Well, who cares about the Twelve? Then, we have the First Presidency. Well, who cares about them? If we go a little farther, it will be, Who the devil cares about God? It will certainly lead to that, if we continue to pursue that course. Are our Bishops all perfect? No. Are the Twelve? No; I wish they were. Are the First Presidency? I hope they are. Are the Saints perfect? I wish you were. We are all surrounded by weaknesses and infirmities. I acknowledge I am, and I think I could so speak for some of my brethren, but I do not propose to confess their weaknesses. Notwithstanding all the blessings conferred upon us through the Gospel we have received, we, all of us, have “the treasures in earthen vessels.” I suppose that God has given us these infirmities that no flesh might glory in his presence, but that we might all feel our littleness and weakness, realizing every day that we need to pray just as the Lord taught His disciples to pray, saying, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;” let me reverence thee and thy name! “Thy kingdom come.” O God, let these principles, that dwell with thee in the heavens, grow in my heart, and let them spread and expand until the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, and until the kingdom of God shall prevail. “Let thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on the earth as it is done in heaven;” that there may be a people who will listen to thy law, and be governed by thy behests. “Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in the heavens.” O Father, I am a poor, helpless, frail creature, “lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil,” for I need thy help. “Give me this day my daily bread, etc., and deliver me from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Do not we all need to offer up this prayer every day? I do not think it would hurt us to do so.

Then there is another principle connected with it—“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Do you constantly think of that? We get down upon our knees, and many of us think we are pretty decent fellows; but there is brother So-and-so, he does not do exactly right, and I do not like him very well, and I have been talking about him a little, for he has done me an injury, and I would like to have full retribution; but, O God, won’t you forgive my sins? I will, says the Lord, on condition that you forgive your brother and only on that condition. “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee: leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” When this law is complied with, then we can say, forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. In our present condition, if the Lord were to answer our prayers, many of us would not be forgiven. If we want the entire people to be good Saints, let us be good Saints ourselves. Let him that says to another, “You must not steal,” steal not himself. You that teach your brother not to speak evil of his neighbor, do you refrain from doing it yourself? One of the Apostles says that each one should prefer his neighbor to himself. We surely have not got that far yet, at least I do not think we have. Some, who think themselves pretty good people, would like to get another man’s money or property, but they would not like to be operated upon in the same manner, and then they allow themselves to think they have the favor of God in such things This is a grievous mistake, for we are required to love our neighbors as ourselves. Because one man is more talented than another, he should not use that talent to take advantage of his brother, and then expect that God will approve of his actions, for he will not do it; he never did, nor ever will. We should operate for one another’s interest, having sympathetic feelings for each other. We are supposed to be brethren in the Church and kingdom of God, knit together by the indissoluble ties of the everlasting Gospel, not for time only, but for eternity. Hence all our operations should be for that end, founded on the principles of righteousness and friendship.

We send our missionaries to almost every country for the purpose of preaching the Gospel and bringing their converts to Zion, and then we go to work and cheat one another. Is this right? No! Then let us repent of our wrong doing, and do right, and let the spirit of right find room in our hearts, and let it be diffused through our families. Let husbands love their wives, and be full of kindness towards them. Let wives study their husbands, and with kindness seek to make a heaven for them, that love and happiness may reign in our habitations. Let parents teach their children both by precept and example, the virtues of Gospel truths, that they may grow up in the love and fear of God, and that you may be the blessed of the Lord, and your offspring with you.

Let us then begin to treat our Bishops with consideration, and then they ought to treat us in the same manner. Saith Jesus to Peter, on a certain occasion, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.” Do not every time they come near you, throw rocks at them; but feed the flock, over which you have the watch care, with the bread of life, with the bread of intelligence and eternal truth; be unto them fathers, full of mercy, kindness and benevolence, and then they will love you, they will draw near you and sustain you, that is, those who are good will, and the others will naturally drop off on the right hand and on the left.

Again, we have our ideas of the rule of the Priesthood. Supposing you may think your Bishop does not do right; you are not always his judge about those matters; there are others who can judge him. Some of us are too much inclined to look upon these men as enemies, when really they are our friends. Should we feel that we are better than our neighbors? Rather let us try to do them good than injury. Some of us think that our Teachers are of very little importance. I will tell you how I regard them. If the Teachers do not come to visit me as often as I think they should, I do not like it very well. When they do come, I acquaint my family with it, call them together, and then tell our visitors that we are all under their jurisdiction, ready and anxious to hear from them the words of eternal life. That is how I feel towards the Teachers, and in the same manner I respect all the Priesthood in the various positions they occupy. Shall I assume to dictate to those who are above me? No, never. Will you? That is for you to say, not for me. It is well that we reflect upon these things, to pray for our brethren in the Priesthood, pray that the spirit and power of their office and calling may rest upon them and that they may be led, and be able to lead others, in the paths of life.

These are some of our duties, Latter-day Saints, and these are some of my feelings on these subjects. Let us then seek to do right, and take a correct and proper course in all things; and, if all things do not work always according to our ideas and notions, never mind, leave these things in the hands of God, he will direct and overrule everything for the welfare of those who do right. “No man can harm you, if you be followers of that which is good.” It is for us all to take a course that we may secure the favor and approbation of the Almighty, that we individually may be led by him, having his spirit always with us. Then if the Presidency be under the guidance of the Almighty, and God direct the Priesthood through them in all its ramifications, carrying out his will in the building up of Zion on the earth, then we shall be one with them and one with God. This is what we are after, and may God help us to carry out his purposes and designs.

In relation to the events to come, they will be developed just as fast as we are prepared for them, and I fear faster. Will God operate upon the Lamanites, and fulfill his word to the Jews? Yes. Will he gather the ten tribes? Yes. Will he establish his name and kingdom in the earth? Yes. Will he overthrow the wicked nations that fight against him? Yes, and he will continue to extend his principles and power “until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.” God will have his laws honored, and in his time his decrees must be consummated, until every tongue confess and every knee bow to him who is the Lord of all. These are things which will most assuredly be accomplished.

God has given us our little labor to perform, which is associated with these matters. Let us go forth as men, in the humility and strength of our Father, and do the work he has given us to do, seeking continually in all earnestness for his blessing to guide us, and he will direct us in the path of righteousness, and by and by we shall overcome and triumph, and with the celestial spirits who have gone before, we shall join in singing, “Glory, honor, might, majesty and dominion be ascribed unto him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb, forever.” Amen.

Salvation Tangible, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Nov. 12, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I am pleased to see so large a company assembled together, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather; it shows to me that there is an interest in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to their future salvation. We, as a people, have passed through many scenes trying and afflicting to our natures, which we have endured because of the anxiety of our hearts to obtain salvation. People who are sincere will manifest their sincerity in undergoing great tribulation, if necessary, for the sake of being saved. This mortal life is of small consideration, compared with eternal salvation in the kingdom of the Father. There is nothing pertaining to the things of this present life that is worthy of being named, in contrast with the riches of eternal life. Jesus, in speaking upon this subject when he was on the earth, asks this question: “For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” There is nothing so precious, nothing of so great importance, as that of securing, in this life, the salvation of our souls in the world to come. Far better is it if we can gain salvation by passing through various scenes of affliction and persecution in this world, than to give way to its pleasures and vanities, which can only be enjoyed for a season, and afterwards lose that eternal reward which God has in store for the righteous.

It is true we look upon our future reward in quite a different light from the religious world generally. We look for something tangible, something we can form some degree of rational conception of, having a resemblance in some measure to the present life. But how very imaginary are the ideas of the religious world! I do not now refer to the heathen world, but to the enlightened Christian nations, the two hundred million of Christians now existing on the earth. If you ask these people about the future state of man, some will give you one idea and some another, all more or less, perhaps, differing from each other, but in the main they all agree, namely, that it is a state entirely spiritual, that is, unconnected with anything tangible like this present life, an existence which cannot be conceived of by mortals.

You may think I am misrepresenting our Christian friends. I will therefore say that for many years now I have been engaged, more or less, in the study of religion, and have therefore read quite extensively the ideas of the religious world. I have not accepted the ideas of a few individuals belonging to the various sects, but I have appealed to their standard writings, their articles of faith, which are adopted by the various religious bodies and known as their creeds. For instance, in the articles of faith of a great many of the religious sects, an idea like this is set forth—that there is a Being who is entirely spiritual, called God, and that Being is described as consisting of three persons, and these three persons are without body, without parts and without passions. Such is the God that is worshiped by the Methodists—a people whom I highly respect, and whose meetings I attended in my early youth more than those of any other religious denomination. The three persons that compose this one God are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, all of whom are said to be without bodies or passions; and in connection with this, one of the cardinal doctrines of their faith, they tell us that one of this holy Trinity, namely Jesus, was crucified, dead and buried, and that on the third day he arose again from the dead and ascended into heaven.

When I was a boy, attending the Methodist meetings, I, as many now do who are of maturer years, accepted sincerity for truth. But when I grew to manhood my attention was called to this article of faith; I tried in all earnestness to comprehend it, but could not, and cannot to this day. It is one of those incomprehensible things which cannot be grasped by the human mind. You, my hearers, try now with me for a few moments to comprehend, if you can, a being consisting of three persons, and these three persons without any body, parts or passions. I had been taught, when studying the exact sciences, that everything that existed was composed of parts, that there could not exist anything as a whole unless it existed as parts. I could not, therefore, understand how it was that one of these three persons could be crucified if he had no body; how it was possible and be consistent, with reason, for him to lay down his body—something he never possessed—and arise again from the tomb, taking up that same body. This is indeed a mystery!

Now it so happens that the Scriptures do not teach anything so absurd, so irreconcilable and so contrary to our senses. This is a man-made doctrine, the creation of uninspired men. The Methodists did not originate this doctrine—it existed and was widely believed in before the days of the good man, John Wesley.

The Latter-day Saints believe that there is a true and living God, that this true and living God consists of three separate, distinct persons, which have bodies, parts, and passions, which belief is in direct opposition to this man-made doctrine. We believe that God, the Eternal Father, who reigns in yonder heavens, is a distinct personage from Jesus Christ, as much so as an earthly father is distinct in his existence from his son. That is something I can comprehend, which I conceive to be the doctrine of revelation. We read about Jesus having been seen, after he arose from the dead. Stephen the Martyr, just before he was stoned to death, testified to the Jewish people that were standing before him at the time, saying, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Here, then, the Father and Jesus, two distinct personages, were seen, and both had bodies. We find numerous other authorities bearing out this same idea. I do not intend to dwell upon this subject, because the greater portion of this congregation understand the scriptural view of this subject; hence it is not necessary to speak lengthily on it. We may, however, say a few things with regard to the passions of these personages.

It is declared, as part of the belief of the Methodists, that God is without passions. Love is one of the great passions of God. Love is everywhere declared a passion, one of the noblest passions of the human heart. This principle of love is one of the attributes of God. “God is love,” says the Apostle John,” and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” If, then, this is one of the great attributes of Jehovah, if he is filled with love and compassion towards the children of men, if his son Jesus Christ so loved the world that he gave his life to redeem mankind from the effects of the fall, then, certainly, God the Eternal Father must be in possession of this passion. Again, he possesses the attribute of Justice, which is sometimes called Anger, but the real name of this attribute is Justice. “He executeth justice,” says the Psalmist; also, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.” Justice is one of the noble characteristics of our heavenly Father; hence another of his passions.

We have it recorded too in this sacred Bible, that God was seen by ancient men of God. Jacob testifies as follows: “for I have seen God face to face.” I know that there are other passages of Scripture, which would seem to militate against this declaration. For instance, there is one passage which reads, “No man hath seen God at any time.” This is in direct contradiction to the testimony of Jacob. The way I reconcile this is that no natural man can see the face of God the Father and live, it would overpower him; but one quickened by the spirit, as old father Jacob was, could look upon God, and converse with him face to face, as he says he did, he must have seen a personage, a being, in his general outlines like unto himself; man, as Moses informs us, having been created in the image of God.

We might refer to many other passages of Scripture, bearing on this subject. The Prophet Isaiah saw God; he saw not only the Lord, but a great congregation in connection with him, so that his train filled the Temple. He is always represented by those who have seen him as a personage in the form of man.

Having cited a very few evidences, let, us inquire into the character and being of God, the Eternal Father. We are the offspring of the Lord, but the rest of animated nature is not; we are just as much the sons and daughters of God as the children in this congregation are the sons and daughters of their parents. We were begotten by him. When? Before we were born in the flesh; this limited state of existence is not our origin, it is merely the origin of the tabernacle in which we dwelt. The mind we are possessed of, the being that is capable of thinking and reflecting, that is capable of acting according to the motives presented to, it, that being which is immortal, which dwells within us, which is capable of reasoning from cause to effect, and which can comprehend, in some measure, the laws of its Creator, as well as trace them out as exhibited in universal nature, that being, which we call the Mind, existed before the tabernacle.

But says one, “That does not look reasonable.” Why not? Do you not believe that the Spirit will endure forever? O, yes. You may ask, what becomes of the spirit, separated from the body of flesh and bones, when this body lies in the grave? Has it life and intelligence and power to think and reflect?” Let us hear what was said by those who sat under the altar, who were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, as seen and heard by John while on Patmos. “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost time not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? The Lord tells them that they should “rest yet for a little season.” These faithful servants of God are anxiously awaiting the time when the Lord will avenge their blood? Why? Because that will be the time when their bodies will be redeemed, they look forward with great anxiety to the time when they shall be again identified with the fleshly tabernacle with which they were known and distinguished while on the earth—hence this prayer.

Here we find another and further existence for the spirits of men who exist in heaven, who are capable of thinking, of using language, of understanding the future, and of anticipating that which was to come. Now, if they could exist after they leave this tabernacle, while the tabernacle lies mouldering in the dust, why not exist before the tabernacle had any existence? Was it not just as easy for an existence to be given to spiritual personages before they took possession of bodies as it is for them to exist after the body decays? Yes, and these are our views, founded upon new revelation; not the views of uninspired men, but founded upon direct revelation from God.

Where did we exist before we came here? With God. Where does he exist? In the place John denominated heaven. What do we understand heaven to be? Not the place described by our Christian friends, beyond the bounds of time and space, for there is no such place, there never was, nor ever will be; but I mean a tangible world, a heaven that is perfect, a heaven with materials that have been organized and put together, sanctified and glorified as the residence and world where God resides. Born there? Yes, we were born there. Even our great Redeemer, whose death and sufferings we are this afternoon celebrating, was born up in yonder world before he was born of the Virgin Mary. Have you not read, in the New Testament, that Jesus Christ was the first-born of every creature? From this reading it would seem that he was the oldest of the whole human family, that is, so far as his birth in the spirit world is concerned. How long ago since that birth took place is not revealed; it might have been unnumbered millions of years for aught we know. But we do know that he was born and was the oldest of the family of spirits. Have you not also read in the New Testament that he is called our elder brother? Does this refer to the birth of the body of flesh and bones? By no means, for there were hundreds of millions who were born upon our earth before the body of flesh and bones was born whom we call Jesus. How is it, then, that he is our elder brother? We must go back to the previous birth, before the foundation of this earth; we have to go back to past ages, to the period when he was begotten of the Father among the great family of spirits. He became, by his birthright, the great Creator. God, through him, created not only this little world, this speck of creation, but by him the worlds were made and created. How many we know not, for it has not been revealed. Suffice it to say, a great many worlds were created by him. Why by him? Because he had the birthright, he being the oldest of his father’s family, and this birthright entitles him, not only to create worlds, but to become the redeemer of those worlds, not only the redeemer of the inhabitants of this our earth, but of all the others whom he created by the will and power of his Father.

But says one, “By that expression one would infer that other worlds have fallen as well as our own, having doubtless been placed in a state of temptation, and if so it would be fair to presume that there was a Garden of Eden to each of these worlds, containing all kinds of fruit, among which was the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and that they became fallen precisely in the same manner as ours did, and consequently they would need a redeemer; and, therefore, the people of these worlds would be redeemed and saved according to their diligence and faithfulness in keeping the commandments of God?” Have you not read in the first chapter of Genesis of two persons appearing on this earth before man was made, when one who was God, said to the other, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness?” Does not that bespeak a pre-existence of another personage besides the Almighty? And have you not read too in the same chapter that “God created man in his own image; male and female created he them?” When? It is said to have been on the sixth period, or, according to King James’ translation, “on the sixth day? Do you mean to say, we were all in existence on the sixth day? Yes. But on the seventh day, we are told in the following chapter, “there was not a man to till the ground. Is it not very singular that all should have an existence on the sixth day, and on the following day there was not a man in existence to till the ground? Why not? Because man was not yet placed in this temporal creation, but he had an existence then in heaven, where we were begotten. You and I were present when this world was created and made—you and I then understood the nature of its creation, and I have no doubt that we rejoiced and sang about it. Indeed, the Lord put a very curious question to the Patriarch Job, apropos of this. He said to him, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Where wast thou, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Supposing Job to be living now, and this same question put to him, and supposing too, that, instead of answering it himself, he were to seek to the learned Christian world for enlightenment on the subject, what do you think would be the nature of the answer he would receive? It would be, in effect, “Why, Job, when the Lord laid the foundation of the earth, you had no existence, for you were not born.” Why did not Job so answer the Lord? It was because he understood something about man’s previous estate. He was wise in making no reply to the Lord, for doubtless he felt himself unable to do so. But we find that Moses understood the subject, for at the time the children of Israel transgressed he and his brother Aaron fell upon their faces before the Lord, and Moses, pleading with great power and faith in behalf of the children of Israel, used these words, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh,” etc. He understood that God was the Father of our spirits, and he addressed him as such. I think too that the Apostles in ancient days must have had an idea of the pre-existence of man, judging from a certain question which they put to the Savior. It is said that “as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Let us now consider this question in connection with present modern ideas, and we shall at once perceive how utterly foolish it will appear. To state the question fairly in other words we might say, Master, was this man born blind because he had sinned? The very nature of this question would indicate, to those even who do not believe in the principle, that this blind man had an existence before he was born into this world, and that he was capable, too, of committing sin. To show yet more clearly that the principle of man’s pre-existence is founded on biblical authority, I will quote you part of the Savior’s prayer to the Father, just prior to his crucifixion—“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Here we find Jesus actually referring to the time he dwelt with his Father before he took upon himself a body of flesh and bones. He also says, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but, the will of him that sent me.” He came down from the presence and abode of his Father. On another occasion, while addressing the Jews, he says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” He was, in fine, the first-born of every creature, and consequently the eldest of our Father’s family.

If, therefore, it be now admitted that our elder brother had a previous existence with the Father, why should it be thought unreasonable that the rest of the family should have a pre-existence as well as the First Born? He was born according to man in the flesh, and why not his younger brethren have a similar birth with him in the spirit?

But now this carries us back still further, and invites us to ascertain a little in relation to his Father. A great many have supposed that God the Eternal Father, whom we worship in connection with his Son, Jesus Christ, was always a self-existing, eternal being from all eternity, that he had no beginning as a personage. But in order to illustrate this, let us inquire, What is our destiny? If we are now the sons and daughters of God, what will be our future destiny? The Apostle Paul, in speaking of man as a resurrected being, says, “Who (Jesus) shall change our vile body, that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” which harmonizes with what John says, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him.” Our bodies will be glorified in the same manner as his body is; then we shall be truly in his image and likeness, for as he is immortal, having a body of flesh and bone, so we will be immortal, possessing bodies of flesh and bones. Will we ever become Gods? Let me refer you to the answer of the Savior to the Jews when accused of blasphemy because he called himself the Son of God. Says be, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If ye called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scriptures cannot be broken.” This clearly proves to all Bible believers that in this world, in our imperfect state, being the children of God, we are destined, if we keep his commandments, to grow in intelligence until we finally become like God our Father. By living according to every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, we shall attain to his likeness, the same as our children grow up and become like their parents; and, as children through diligence attain to the wisdom and knowledge of their parents, so may we attain to the knowledge of our Heavenly Parents, and if they be obedient to this commandment they will not only be called the sons of God, but be gods.

In the 1st verse of the 14th chapter of Revelations, we are told that John saw one hundred and forty-four thousand persons standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, and they had a peculiar name written in their foreheads—even their Father’s name, him whom we call, in our language, God. Then there will be written upon the foreheads of these hundred and forty-four thousand this insignia, the Father’s name and they will be gods; and they will associate with him as do the Father and his Only Begotten, that is, the only son begotten in the flesh.

From this we can draw the conclusion that God, Our eternal Father, who is a spiritual being, has a body of flesh and bones, the same as his children will have after the resurrection.

Says one, to carry it out still further, “if we become gods and are glorified like unto him, our bodies fashioned like unto his most glorious body, may not he have passed through a mortal ordeal as we mortals are now doing? Why not? If it is necessary for us to obtain experience through the things that are presented before us in this life, why not those beings, who are already exalted and become gods, obtain their experience in the same way? We would find, were we to carry this subject from world to world, from our world to another, even to the endless ages of eternity, that there never was a time but what there was a Father and Son. In other words, when you entertain that which is endless, you exclude the idea of a first being, a first world; the moment you admit of a first, you limit the idea of endless The chain itself is endless, but each link had its beginning.

Says one, “This is incomprehensible.” It may be so in some respects. We can admit, though, that duration is endless, for it is impossible for man to conceive of a limit to it. If duration is endless, there can never be a first minute, a first hour, or first period; endless duration in the past is made up of a continuation of endless successive moments—it had no beginning. Precisely so with regard to this endless succession of personages; there never will be a time when fathers, and sons, and worlds will not exist; neither was there ever a period through all the past ages of duration, but what there was a world, and a Father and Son, a redemption and exaltation to the fullness and power of the Godhead. This is what Jesus prayed for, and he did not limit his prayer to his Apostles, but he said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”

But says one, “Does not that oneness mean one person?” No; Jesus meant that those who believed in him through his servants, might be able to come up to that fullness and glory and power and exaltation which he inherited, even to the fullness of the celestial glory, to be crowned with God the Eternal Father, and with his Only Begotten, to be made equal, as it were, with them, in power and dominion; agreeing with some modern revelations God has given through the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said all they that receive this Priesthood, that is, those who receive the testimony of the servants of God, they receive me; and whosoever receives my Father, receives my Father’s kingdom; whereupon all that my Father hath shall be given to him. This is a glorious promise, to be joint heirs with the Son of God in the inheritance of all things, even the fullness and glory of the Celestial world, their bodies eventually to become glorified, spiritual bodies of flesh and bones, the same as God the Father.

Before the earth was rolled into existence we were his sons and daughters. Those of his children who prove themselves during this probation worthy of exaltation in his presence, will beget other children, and, precisely according to the same principle, they too will become fathers of spirits, as he is the Father of our spirits; and thus the works of God are one eternal round—creation, glorification, and exaltation in the celestial kingdom.

How many transformations this earth had before it received its present form of creation, I do not know Geologists pretend to say that this earth must have existed many millions of years, and this assertion is generally made by men who do not believe in God or the Bible, to disprove the history of the creation of the world, as given by the Prophet Moses. We will go further than geologists dare to go, and say that the materials of which the earth is composed are eternal, they will never have an end.

What is meant by creation? Merely organization. In six days, we are told, God created this world, also every living thing that then existed. Did he create any of these things out of nothing? Did the materials then originate? No, there is no Scripture to be found within the lids of the Old and New Testament, or Book of Mormon, or Doctrine and Covenants, or in any of the revelations of God, ancient or modern, that even intimates such a thing, for such was not the case; but go to the creeds of men and you will find these things taught. I was taught them in my youth; they were instilled into my young mind, and of course I believed them. But as I matured in years and thought, especially after I began to study the Hebrew language, I learned that the material of which this earth was made, always did exist, and that it was only an organization or formation which took place, during the time spoken of by Moses.

How many transformations this earth passed through before the one spoken of by Moses, I do not know, neither do I particularly care. If it had gone through millions on millions of transformations, it is nothing to us. We are willing, for the sake of argument, to admit that the materials themselves are as old as geologists dare to say they are; but then, that does not destroy the idea of a God, that does not destroy the idea of a great Creator, who, according to certain fixed and unalterable laws, brought these materials, from time to time, into a certain organization, and then by his power completed the worlds that were thus made, by placing thereon intelligent and animated beings, capable of thinking and having an existence; and then again, for various reasons, he destroys their earthly existence, until finally he exalts them from their former condition, and makes them celestial in their nature.

This is the destiny of this globe of ours; it will eventually attain a state of organization that will no more be destroyed. When? After God has fulfilled and accomplished his purposes, after it has rested from wickedness one thousand years, during which time Satan will not have power to tempt the children of men, during which time the faithful will reign, as kings and priests on the earth in their resurrected bodies, when, too, the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven will be in possession of the Saints of the Most High; not only in the possession of those who are mortal Saints, but also in the possession of those who are immortal Saints, appearing as they will in their resurrected bodies, rising up as rulers, as kings and priests, upon the face of our globe.

A government administered by such men will be one that can be depended on; in that respect it will be very different from the political nations of mortal man. Then there will not be the contention we now have, for all things pertaining to the government of God’s kingdom will be conducted in order and on the eternal principles of righteousness.

The Twelve Apostles who were called by Jesus, and who ministered in his name while they tarried on the earth, will sit upon twelve thrones hereafter, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. There will be nothing intangible or etherial about these thrones, they will be just as real as any kingly throne of the earth. And the Twelve Apostles will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel for the space of a thousand years, having, as they will have, their celestial bodies, and they will eat and drink at the table of the Lord. He will be here also, he will be King of kings, before whom all must bow, all must acknowledge his power—and that will be for the space of a thousand years.

By and by, when the time comes for this earth to die—for there has been a great deal of wickedness here—Satan will be loosed to go forth again to deceive, for there will still be some of the Saints mortal, who will be subject to temptation, and even Satan will not only try to deceive the mortal Saints, but he will gather together his armies around the camp of the Saints.

Then another time comes, when a great white throne will appear, and he who sits thereon will be glorious in his majesty and power, from before whose face the earth will flee away and no place be found for it. Will he annihilate it? No, not a particle of the earth will be annihilated, not a particle of the earth was ever originated, consequently not a particle of it will go out of existence; but it will flee away to its original element, in the same manner as the human body would were it burned at the stake. The elements would be diffused among original matter, so with the elements of our earth when it undergoes its change. John was not satisfied with only seeing the earth pass away, but he saw still further, even until he beheld a new heaven and a new earth, for, said he, the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. Again, he testifies further, saying, “And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

This creation, when made new, will be inhabited by immortal beings, who will no more be subject to death, consequently there will be no more pain or sorrow, nothing to mar their peace or to prevent them from entering into the fullness of happiness and joy.

This, I say, is the destiny of this earth, and the Lord has told us that the time is nigh at hand. In other words, this is the last dispensation, and we are preparing for the work of the Millennium. When the thousand years are passed, the earth will be made new—it will then become a heaven, the habitation of the former and Latter-day Saints, as well as all they who prove themselves faithful who will be born during the Millennium. How long will they inhabit it? For ever.

When I was a boy, nineteen years old, I first saw Joseph Smith; I attended a Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the 2nd January, 1831. At that Conference the people desired him to inquire of the Lord for them—they were anxious to know his mind and will. They were at that time comparatively few in number, not being more than two hundred. Joseph Smith sat down at a table, and received a great revelation, which is now contained in this Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Part of it, in relation to a land of promise, reads as follows—“And I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts: and this shall be my covenant with you, ye shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children for ever, while the earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away.

When I sat and heard that revelation, as it was uttered by the Prophet Joseph, and written by his scribe, I thought to myself, that is a very curious doctrine for I had not then learned that this earth was to become our future home and heaven, and I did not think Joseph Smith knew it. But it seemed so curious to me to bring myself to believe that the Lord was going to give us part of this earth, to possess it, and our children after us, while time should last, and to retain it through all eternity, never more to pass away. This was so different from anything I had been taught—I was utterly confounded—to think that my Father in heaven would come and live here on this earth! But when I came to read the Bible on this subject and found how numerous the passages were promising that the Saints should inherit the earth forever, I was perfectly astonished that I had never thought of it before. “Blessed are the meek,” says the Savior, “for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek have been driven into the dens and mountains of the earth, having had to hide themselves up from their persecutors, while the wicked, the proud and the haughty have inherited the earth. Yet here is a promise that the meek shall inherit this earth, which all of course would readily admit has never had its fulfillment. Then again I was still more confirmed of the truth of this doctrine when finding other corroborative passages. David, for instance, in his 37th Psalm, says, “the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell thereon for ever.” I go back to the Books of Moses, and there ascertain that the earth is promised to the Saints forever. I came to the Acts of the Apostles, wherein the martyr Stephen, in answering the charge of blasphemy, tells of Abraham, how he came to leave his own country, and how that the Lord had promised him a land for an inheritance which “he would give to him for a possession, and to his seed after him,” and yet he never possessed any of it, “no, not so much as to set his foot on,” and this same promise was confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. And when I read in the Revelations of John about the new song that he heard them sing in heaven about their coming back to the earth (Rev. v, 9, 10), I was fully confirmed that the new revelation was from God. One portion of the song which John heard the angels sing was, “For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.”

How very plain it is when we once learn about our future heaven. We do not have to pray, according to the Methodists, for the Lord to take us to a land beyond time and space, the Saints secure abode. How inconsistent to look for a heaven beyond space! The heaven of the Saints is something we can look forward to in the confident hope of realizing our inheritances and enjoying them forever, when the earth becomes sanctified and made new. And there, as here, we will spread forth and multiply our children. How long? For eternity. What, resurrected Saints have children? Yes, the same as our God, who is the Father of our spirits; so you, if you are faithful to the end, will become fathers to your sons and daughters, which will be as innumerable as the sands upon the sea shore; they will be your children, and you will be their heavenly fathers, the same as our heavenly Father is Father to us, and they will belong to your kingdoms through all the vast ages of eternity, the same as we will belong to our Father’s kingdom.

He that receiveth my Father, says the Savior, receiveth my Father’s kingdom, wherefore all that my Father hath shall be given to him. It is a kind of joint stock inheritance, we are to become joint heirs with Jesus Christ to all the inheritances and to all the worlds that are made. We shall have the power of locomotion; and like Jesus, after his resurrection, we shall be able to mount up and pass from one world to another. We shall not be confined to our native earth. There are many worlds inhabited by people who are glorified, for heaven is not one place, but many; heaven is not one world but many. “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” In other words—In my Father’s house there are many worlds, which in their turn will be made glorified heavens, the inheritances of the redeemed from all the worlds who, having been prepared through similar experience to our own, will inhabit them; and each one in its turn will be exalted through the revelations and laws of the Most High God, and they will continue to multiply their offspring through all eternity, and new worlds will be made for their progeny. Amen.

Apostolical Succession and Responsibility, etc.

Lorenzo Snow

Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday afternoon, Oct. 6, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

We, the Latter-day Saints, profess to have received from God the fullness of the everlasting Gospel; we profess to be in possession of the holy Priesthood—the delegated authority of God to man, by virtue of which we administer in its ordinances acceptably to him; and we testify, to the whole world that we know, by divine revelation, even through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that he revealed himself to Joseph Smith as personally as he did to his Apostles, anciently, after he arose from the tomb, and that he made known unto him those heavenly truths by which alone mankind can be saved. This, as was remarked by President Wells this morning, is assuming a very important and responsible position, knowing, as we do, that God will hold us accountable for the disposition we make of this sacred trust which he has committed to us. As the Apostles appeared before the world, after they had received their commission from the risen Redeemer, to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations, promising all who believed on their word, the Gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, so we appear. As they by virtue of their commission, declared with all assurance, amidst persecution and opposition, the Gospel to be the power of God unto salvation to all those who believed and obeyed, so declare we. As they preached faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands, by those duly authorized, for the reception of the Holy Ghost, as being essential to salvation, so preach we. As they by the power of the Holy Ghost became witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the faithful bearers of his Gospel message to the whole Gentile world, so, by and through the same Holy Spirit, we have become witnesses of him, and, having been called by the same divine and holy calling, we therefore assume the same position.

Then, having assumed this position, we assume all the responsibilities of ambassadors of Christ, we become answerable for our individual acts, and for the manner in which we use the talents and ability the Lord has given us. Now the question is, do we sense our position, do we comprehend fully the nature of the work we have undertaken to consummate? I am sometimes led to believe that some of our brethren, Elders in Israel, are too ready and willing to shirk the obligations they are under by reason of their covenants, the faith they once possessed seems to be almost exhausted, and they appear to settle down into the quiet satisfaction of a mere nominal membership in the Church. There are others who think because their names are not very widely known, because they are perhaps only employees, occupying narrow spheres, that it does not matter much what habits they contract, or what kind of examples they set before their brethren. But then, if they held responsible positions, such as the Presidency of the Church, or a counsellorship, or if they belonged to the Quorum of the Twelve, or were they President of the High Council, or of the High Priests or Seventies, then they would consider it important how they conducted them selves. Herein they manifest great weakness or gross ignorance, their lamp is either growing dim or they never sensed the position they assumed in taking upon themselves the responsibilities of the Gospel.

We are told in the parable of the Savior that the kingdom of heaven is as a householder who delivered his goods to his servants as he was about to travel into a far country. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. The one that received the five talents went and traded, and made other five talents, doubling the portion that had been entrusted to him, and he also that received two talents went and gained other two. But he that received the one talent, went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. He doubtless considered that his responsibility was so small that he could not do much, and consequently he would not exercise a talent so inferior. Does not this apply directly to the condition of some of our Elders? Says one, “I am only a carpenter, or a tailor, or, peradventure, only a hod-carrier, therefore it cannot matter much how I deport myself, whether I do or do not honestly discharge my duties in my humble sphere. But it would be very different if I were acting in some more responsible and prominent position.”

Stop, my brother; do not allow yourself to be deceived by such alluring sentiments. It is true you may only be a hod-carrier, but remember you are an Elder in Israel, you are an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you are in the line of your duty you are in possession of that which the world cannot give nor take away; and you are held accountable to God for the honest use of the talent over which he has made you steward, whether it be large or small.

Again, you exert a certain degree of influence, and be it ever so small, it affects some person or persons, and for the results of the influence you exert you are held more or less accountable. You, therefore, whether you acknowledge it or not, have assumed an importance before God and man that cannot be overlooked, and from which you cannot be released if you wish to sustain the name you bear.

And what of the prospects of that individual? I say that if he honors his calling, and is found faithful to the trust reposed in him, his prospects for salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of God are just as good as any other man’s. If he comprehends his position and lives accordingly, his prospects are equally good with any man that ever lived since the days of father Adam to the present moment; and it is just as important that he deport himself properly according to the sphere in which he walks, as it is that any other individual should, who may be called to act in a higher position; or, in other words, who may have been made steward over a larger number of talents. If the man of limited influence and small talents be not trustworthy and faithful in that which belongs to another, which may be committed to his charge, how can he expect ever to come in possession of the true riches, or even receive that which he calls his own? For mark well the language of the Savior bearing directly on this—“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”

Therefore, let it be understood and always remembered by those who may be called to follow the humbler occupations in life, that it is absolutely necessary, for their growth and progress in the kingdom of God, that while acting therein they master the situation, that they establish and form a character and a living name, by which they may be known and distinguished hereafter among the sons of God. I respect the man occupying the humblest position, if he is faithful in the sphere in which he acts, and is truly an honest man; I deem him just as honorable as any person who may act in a higher position. The Lord does not require so much of the man who possesses but one talent, as of him who possesses more than one; but, according to that which he hath, so shall it be required of him. Let all, therefore, be encouraged, and seek to improve the talents they severally possess; and let him who may have the one talent use it and not hide it in the earth; that is, let him who may be endowed with little ability improve himself, and not complain because nature may not have been so propitious to him as to his more fortunate brother. Let us all be satisfied with our lot in life, and should it not be so desirable as we could wish, we should seek with becoming diligence to improve it, ever feeling grateful for our earthly being, and more especially for the Spirit of God we have received through obedience to the Gospel.

President Young has said from this stand, that the poor are often harder to govern than the rich. There are, doubtless, many brethren present to-day, who preside in our various settlements, that can readily corroborate the statement. This should not be so, for one of the important objects of the Gospel is to benefit the poor temporally as well as spiritually; and, therefore, of all other classes of people, the poor should be the most willing to be directed and governed. The Lord has ever been mindful of his poor; to them, while in their adverse circumstances, he has granted privileges which are withheld from the rich. The fact that the poor had the Gospel preached to them was one of the evidences of Jesus being the Christ, which he himself gave to the disciples of John in answer to the question, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” The poor have always been an especial charge of the servants of God, in all ages; and strikingly has this charge been sustained in this dispensation by President Young and his brethren. The Presidency of this Church have always been mindful of the poor, in donating themselves and using their influence upon others to assist in the gathering of the poor Saints from the various nations to this land; and upon their arrival here have caused homes and food to be provided for them until such times as they could provide for themselves; and they have constantly manifested a disposition to elevate the poor, and to protect them against that arbitrary power which peradventure might be used against them by their richer brethren.

The Gospel binds together the hearts of all its adherents, it makes no difference, it knows no difference between the rich and the poor; we are all bound as one individual to perform the duties which devolve upon us. “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Now let me ask the question, Who do possess anything, who can really and truly call any of this world’s goods his own? I do not presume to, I am merely a steward over a very little, and unto God I am held accountable for its use and disposition. The Latter-day Saints have received the law of the Gospel through the revelations of God, and it is so plainly written that all can understand it. And if we understood and comprehended the position we assumed in subscribing to it when we entered into its covenant through baptism for the remission of sins, we must still be conscious of the fact that that law requires us to seek first the kingdom of God, and that our time, talent and ability must be held subservient to its interest. If this were not so, how could we expect hereafter, when this earth shall have been made the dwelling-place of God and his Son, to inherit eternal lives and to live and reign with him? Who shall say that the rich, or those that possess many talents, have any better hope or prospect to inherit these blessings than the poor, or those who have but one talent? As I understand it, the man who works in the shop, whether as tailor, carpenter, shoemaker, or in any other industrial department, and who lives according to the law of the Gospel, and is honest and faithful in his calling, that man is just as eligible to the receiving of these and all the blessings of the New and Everlasting Covenant as any other man; through his faithfulness he shall possess thrones, principalities and powers, his children becoming as numerous as the stars in the firmament, or the sands on the sea shore. Who, I ask, has any greater prospect than this?

I remember reading an anecdote when a boy, of a man who, through his wisdom and patriotism, had gained great renown, but who, through envy, was assigned to a position which was considered very degrading. On entering upon its duties, it was said that he made this significant remark: “If the office does not honor me, I will honor the office. Much difficulty would be avoided, and our condition and situation would be much more encouraging, if we all honored the office in which we are called to act. We are told that the Lord himself made clothes for our first parents, or, in other words, on that occasion, acted as tailor, also that Jesus Christ, was a carpenter. Now, the Savior must have been an honorable and honest carpenter, or he never could have merited the position he afterwards occupied. If we could get the brethren and sisters to see the importance of acting honestly and faithfully in their respective callings, much of the annoyances and troubles we now experience would be averted, and the work of God would roll on with re-doubled rapidity, and all his purposes would be more rapidly and speedily accomplished; and besides, as a people, we would be better prepared than we now are for the dispensation of his will. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Again we are told, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him.” This spirit should influence us in all our dealings. If we all acted in keeping with its sacred whisperings, there would be little difficulty in the establishment and working of the United Order, for all would then be faithful in the performance of their several duties. But if, whether as tailors or carpenters, clerks or merchants, we prove unfaithful, “who,” says the Savior, “shall give you that which is your own?” On the same principle, if we as Elders fail to keep the covenants we have made, namely, to use our time, talent, and ability for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God upon the earth, how can we reasonably expect to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, identified with the great work of redemption? If we, in our manner, habits, and dealings, imitate the Gentile world, thereby identifying ourselves with the world, do you think, my brethren, that God will bestow upon us the blessings we desire to inherit? I tell you no, he will not! In all our business occupations we must prove ourselves better than any other people, or we forfeit all. We must build ourselves up in the righteousness of heaven, and plant in our hearts the righteousness of God. Said the Lord, through the Prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This is what the Lord is endeavoring to do, and this he will accomplish in us if we conform to his will.

Then let us practice honesty and diligence in our various callings, seeking unity, and to cultivate the spirit of brotherhood financially as well as spiritually, that we may be in readiness, upon call, to go forth and build up the Centre Stake of Zion, and prepare a house in which to meet the Lord our Savior and Redeemer.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and enable you to act always as wise stewards over that with which you have been entrusted.

The Great Privilege of Having a Temple Completed, etc.

Brigham Young

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered at the Temple, St. George, Jan. 1, 1877. Deseret News.

“I cannot consent in my feelings to retire from this house without exercising my strength, the strength of my lungs, stomach and speaking organs, in speaking to this people. I hardly dare say what is in my heart to say to this people. Perhaps it would not be prudent, but I will say a few encouraging things to the Latter-day Saints, that is, they ought to be encouraging. We that are here are enjoying a privilege that we have no knowledge of any other people enjoying since the days of Adam that is, to have a Temple completed, wherein all the ordinance of the house of God can be bestowed upon his people. Brethren and sisters, do you understand this? It seems that a great many of the people know nothing about it. It is true that Solomon built a Temple for the purpose of giving endowments, but from what we can learn of the history of that time they gave very few if any endowments, and one of the high priests was murdered by wicked and corrupt men, who had already begun to apostatize, because he would not reveal those things appertaining to the Priesthood that were forbidden him to reveal until he came to the proper place. I will not say but what Enoch had Temples and officiated therein, but we have no account of it. We know that he raised up a people so pure and holy that they were not permitted to remain with the wicked inhabitants of the earth, but were taken to another place. We as Latter-day Saints have been laboring for over forty years, and the revelations given us in the first were to establish the kingdom by gathering the Saints, building Temples, and organizing the people as the family of heaven here on the earth. We reared up a Temple in Kirtland, but we had no basement in it, nor a font, nor preparations to give endowments for the living or the dead. It was left by the Saints before it was completed, they going to Missouri. Joseph located the site for the Temple Block in Jackson County, Missouri, and pointed out the south-east corner of the Temple in the year 1831—also laid the corner stone for a Temple in Far West, Caldwell County, Mo. These Temples were not built. We built one in Nauvoo. I could pick out several before me now that were there when it, was built, and know just how much was finished and what was done. It is true we left brethren there with instructions to finish it, and they got it nearly completed before it was burned, but the Saints did not enjoy it. Now we have a Temple which will all be finished in a few days, and of which there is enough completed to commence work therein which has not been done since the days of Adam, that we have any knowledge of. Now those that can see the spiritual atmosphere can see that many of the Saints are still glued to this earth and lusting and longing after the things of this world, in which there is no profit. It is true, we should look after the things of this world and devote all to the building up of the kingdom of God. According to the present feelings of many of our brethren, they would arrogate to themselves this world and all that pertains to it, and cease not day nor night to see that it was devoted to the building up of the kingdom of the devil, and if they had the power they would build a railroad to carry it, to hell and establish themselves there. Where are the eyes and the hearts of this people? Where is their interest for their own salvation and that of their forefathers? We enjoy privileges that are enjoyed by no one else on the face of the earth. Suppose we were awake to this thing, namely, the salvation of the human family, this house would be crowded, as we hope it will be, from Monday morning until Saturday night. This house was built here in this place purposely, where it is warm and pleasant in the winter time, and comfortable to work, also for the Lamanites, and also those coming from the south, and other places to receive their endowments, and other blessings. What do you suppose the fathers would say if they could speak from the dead? Would they not say, ‘We have lain here thousands of years, here in this prison house, waiting for this dispensation to come? Here we are, bound and fettered, in the association of those who are filthy?” What would they whisper in our ears? Why, if they had the power the very thunders of heaven would be in our ears, if we could but realize the importance of the work we are engaged in. All the angels in heaven are looking at this little handfull of people, and stimulating them to the salvation of the human family. So also are the devils in hell looking at this people, too, and trying to overthrow us, and the people are still shaking hands with the servants of the devil, instead of sanctifying themselves and calling upon the Lord and doing the work which he has commanded us and put into our hands to do. When I think upon this subject, I want the tongues of seven thunders to wake up the people. Can the fathers be saved without us? No. Can we be saved without them? No, and if we do not wake up and cease to long after the things of this earth, we will find that we as individuals will go down to hell, although the Lord will preserve a people unto himself. Now we are ready to give endowments, do you have any feelings for those who have died without having the Gospel? The spirit was awakened in the people in the north when we gave the word that we should do no more work in the Endowment House—they came to us crying and pleading to be baptized for their dead. What else could they do? They can come here and do the work for their dead, and put these poor prisoners on the ground where they will be free. Do we realize this? As long as we tarry here, we are subject to the world. But now go to, like men and women, and say, we will embrace the truth and enter into the covenants of God and carry them out. Then the bonds are broken, and the hearts of the people are united in the Father. Perhaps, brethren and sisters, you will not get my meaning, but now go to work and let these holes in the ground alone, and let the Gentiles alone, who would destroy us if they had the power. You are running after them, and some of our brethren are putting their wives and daughters into their society, and will go to the devil with them too, if they do not look out. I would not have a dollar on the earth if I had to get it there. It has been the kingdom of God with me. What I have, I have got in this kingdom. Well, now, some of the Elders are running after these holes in the ground, and I see men before me, in this house that have no right to be here. They are as corrupt in their hearts as they can be, and we take them by the hand and call them brother. You will go to hell, lots of you, unless you repent. You may think this is plain talk, it is not as plain as you will find by and by. If you should ever go to the gates of heaven, Jesus will say he never knew you. While you have been saying your prayers and going to your meetings and are as corrupt in your hearts as men can be. You had better stop now and repent of your sins and sin no more, while there is yet time, and before the doors are closed against you. I want to wake you up, and if I had the power to lift the veil from your eyes and let you see things as they are, you would be astonished. Not but what there are a great majority of the people as good as they know how to be. Now I will say, bless the people, that they may do better, but show some of the Elders of Israel according to their present conduct a dollar on one side and eternal life on the other, and I fear they would choose the dollar.

“We are now prepared to attend to baptizing and giving endowments, and shall appoint Tuesdays and Wednesdays for baptisms, and Thursdays and Fridays for endowments and sealings, as a standing appointment for the present.

“God bless you. Amen.

Respect to the Dead, etc.

John Taylor

A Funeral Sermon, preached by Elder John Taylor, at the 14th Ward Assembly Rooms, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Dec. 31, 1876, over the Remains of Sister Mary Ann, the Beloved Wife of Elder George E. Bourne. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

We are met together on this occasion, as we frequently are called upon to do, to pay our last respects to the departed dead. This is one of the incidents connected with humanity, and one that always commands our serious attention. There has an immutable decree gone forth from the Almighty, that man must die; and it matters not what our standing in society or station in life may be, all alike must submit to the divine behest.

When we look back to the generations that have passed, letting our minds wander through the various ages that have transpired since the commencement of the human family upon the earth, we see, as it were, multitudes of human beings who have had their entrance into and exit from this world, a great rolling wave of human life coming and going. They have existed simply for a short time, mingling with and operating among their fellow beings, and then they have faded away, their bodies have decayed and returned to mother earth, while they themselves have left this world and gone into another state of existence.

We might bring this reflection a little nearer home, by inquiring. How many are there yet living of my acquaintances who were in existence when I was born? But few comparatively; and so it is with a great many others. We come into the world, we think and reflect, we act and operate, we carry out certain ideas, plans and calculations, we live but a short time and then die, leaving all things with which we were connected pretty much as they were when we came here.

We frequently talk of the advancements made in society and the progression of the world generally in intelligence, in science, in literature, etc. But what is all that to the man when he is about to leave his earthly tenement, to go hence? Of what moment is it to him how bright his genius, or how expansive and varied his learning may be? It makes no difference, he is gone, and is apparently helpless and inanimate, at least so far as the body is concerned. We struggle sometimes while we are occupants of these mortal bodies, for riches and position, for fame and honor. We jostle one against another, entertaining various conflicting sentiments, ideas and theories, but they are all leveled with the balance in the grave. Such has been and such is the position of the human family.

There is a scripture which reads, “And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.” If we are only to be associated with this world, if, when this vital spark expires, we end our entire existence, it would be scarcely worth while to pay that attention to its affairs that we do, merely for so short a time. But when we reflect, we are reminded that man is a dual being, possessing a body and a spirit, and that he is associated with this world and the next, that he is connected with time and eternity. It then becomes a matter of more grave and serious importance. These are things which we cannot ignore, even if we would. According to our ideas of things as they have been revealed to us, we had an existence before we came here. We came here to accomplish a certain purpose which was decreed by the Almighty before the world was. We came to receive bodies or tabernacles, and in them to pass through a certain amount of trial in what is termed a probationary state of existence, preparatory to a something to be developed hereafter. Hence this world is the state of our probation, and we look forward to the future as something with which we are as much connected as we are with anything pertaining to time. We look forward to another state of existence with that degree of certainty and confidence that we do when we go to bed in the evening expecting to see the light of the sun in the morning, or that we do with anything else that is associated with any of the affairs of this world upon which we place any degree of certainty. Were it not so, it would be, as I have already stated, of very little importance what our struggles were, or what we had to do with in this world. We would feel, as Paul philosophically describes it, namely, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” And then he further says, “If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” Or, in other words, if in this world only we have hope, let us seize upon any and every opportunity presented to us and enjoy life, mingle with and join in the giddy strife of the world, and glide along with the stream, for our days are but a span, as a shadow they pass away and we are no more.

But it so happens that we regard these things in a very different point of view, it having been revealed to us from heaven what the position of man was, what it now is, and what it will be. In relation to this, no matter what our religious sentiments may be, or what the views of men are pertaining to these matters, there is a kind of inexorable fiat that comes down the stream of time, that sweeps away the human family one after another—the good and the bad, the righteous and the unrighteous, the rich and the poor, all classes, all grades and all conditions must submit to it. It is true, we read of some very few individuals who have avoided it. For instance, Enoch and his city were caught up without seeing death. We read that when Moses departed this life, his body could not be found. Elijah, too, ascended up to heaven without dying. Also John, the revelator, was permitted to live upon the earth until the Savior should come, and the Book of Mormon gives an account of three Nephites, who lived on this American Continent, who asked for the same privilege and it was granted to them.

I am not now talking to the dead; she is gone, she has left us, her ear is not sensitive to our voice, her faculties are dormant; but I am speaking to the living. In reflecting upon these matters we must see that in a short time we shall be in the condition that our sister is, whose remains now lie before us. The question that necessarily arises, and it is one that engages the attention of all people of every age and country, is, What of the future? Men have had their various theories in relation to these matters, which have differed more or less according to the day and age in which they lived, according to the intelligence they possessed, and according to the circumstances with which they were surrounded, over which, perhaps, they had very little control. All men, more or less, however, have had a desire to aim at exaltation in the hereafter, or happiness of some kind. They have had feelings in their bosoms that would naturally lead them to this. I do not remember reading of any people, no matter how low and degraded they were, but what had some kind of ideas, more or less distinct, in relation to the future, though they were and now are very much confused in some particulars, worshiping, for instance, gods made of gold, silver, brass, etc., and in some ages they had thousands of gods. But why did they worship them? Because they believed they had something to do with their destiny, and they wanted to secure their favor and approbation. There are a great many of these feelings existing at the present time among the heathen nations. There are some who believe that when they die they go into the bodies of beasts and various animals and occupy them; and others, that there is some kind of happiness provided for them. They used to talk in early days about the Elysian Fields, after having passed the river “Styx;” where they anticipated some kind of pleasant enjoyment, the nature of which they knew not. There is a very large body of men at the present time who are what is called Mohammedans, and they have their peculiar ideas of heaven. Then we have Christianity in all its phases, with all its ideas, theories, opinions, plans and calculations, which are as much diversified perhaps as anything in existence upon the face of the earth to-day. There is, too, a lack of certainty and intelligence generally in relation to these matters. Some of the Indians believe that when they die they go to some pleasant hunting grounds, where there is plenty of buffalo, elk and deer, and where they can revel in the enjoyment of the chase, and where they can possess everything necessary to make them comfortable.

As Latter-day Saints we differ from all of them. We are dependent upon the revelations which God has given unto us pertaining to the future, and which are in strict accordance with revelations which he gave at different times to his ancient Saints. Our faith and opinion are that being dual, immortal beings, possessing a body and a spirit, associated with time and eternity, it is proper for us to know and comprehend something pertaining to the future; and not, as is generally done by mankind, take a leap, as it were, in the dark; or as I have frequently heard people say, and Christians at that, “We do not know anything about the future, we have got to leave ourselves entirely in the hands of God.” Of course we have all got to do that, and that too is proper in one sense of the word. But there were men in former times that had very different ideas from this; they lived back, away back, in what they now call the “dark ages.” For instance, I will name Job and quote you language expressing his mind on this point. “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 for another.” There is something expressed in that very different from the vague, indefinite idea that many Christians seem to entertain in relation to these things. There is something definite and certain about it. I know, said Job. How did he know? A man could know nothing pertaining to the future so far off, could know nothing about the vitalizing, quickening influence of certain powers, that could so operate upon the remnants of humanity that had been buried in the grave, as to bring them forth to life, causing them to see, to hear, and to understand. How and by what principle could he see these things develop, unless by some super-human influence which had been manifested to him? He could only know it upon this principle—that “the things of God knoweth no man, but by the spirit of God,” and being, too, in possession of that spirit and possessed of life and light and intelligence that flow from God, he looked through the dark vista of future ages and comprehended the purposes of God in regard to the human family and in regard to himself. John the revelator, too, “saw the dead, small and great, stand before God;” he saw the sea give up the dead which were in it. Others saw, by the same spirit, the grave open and the power of God rest upon the people therein, and then burst the barriers of the tomb, coming forth again with health and vitality. There is no human reason, no human intelligence, with all its boasted enlightenment and scientific research, that could unravel a mystery of this kind. Yet, away back in the dark ages, a man inspired by the spirit of God is heard to say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;” and he knew too that in his flesh he would see God. Such language has a tendency to bring certain ideas, thoughts and reflections to our minds. An intelligence of this kind is not a phantom, it is a reality.

If we follow out the Scriptures in relation to these things, we find the same principles developed and the same ideas entertained wherever they had the Gospel of the Son of God, wherever they had the light and intelligence that flow from him. Amongst all peoples wherever the Gospel existed this intelligence prevailed, and it was that which buoyed them up and sustained them amidst all the vicissitudes and changes which they had to battle with in passing through time. Men of such persuasion were generally considered visionary. They were scouted at by others who were considered more practical, but whom I should call fools. They had to endure all kinds of ignominy and reproach; in fact it was and is so ordered that it becomes necessary, in this probationary state, that they should pass through certain ordeals in order to prepare and qualify them for something that was to come. They had these things to pass through and they could not avoid it. Job was upbraided by his friends and persecuted by his enemies; he was robbed and stripped of everything he owned in the world, even bereft of his children, and his wife, his bosom companion, turned upon him, saying to him at last, “Curse God and die!” But said Job, “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Why was it that he had to be thus tried? That he might, as stated elsewhere, be made perfect through suffering. (1 Peter, 5, 10.)

We read again of a certain man who, while enrapped [enwrapped] in vision, saw many of the purposes of God roll forth; and among other things he saw a number that were clothed in white raiment, and who were engaged in singing a new song. Upon inquiring who those persons were, he was told that they had come “up through much tribulation.” What men having to endure tribulation for fearing God and keeping his commandments? Yes; and it was necessary, in the wisdom of God, that they should. Those were they that came up through much tribulation having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And therefore are they next the throne and serve their Maker day and night.

There are some peculiar lessons and important instructions developed in many of these things, as we see them portrayed. I speak now to the Latter-day Saints. We, a few of us, have had our share of these things. I have seen people, in the early days, who had to pass through a good deal—stripped, robbed, pillaged, beaten, killed, murdered for their religion’s sake. They were driven from their homes, they wandered about as exiles. They could truly say as Jesus once said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” They had not where to rest themselves except on the bare earth, whereon I have seen hundreds and thousands of Latter-day Saints find their shelter, when they were fleeing from the hands of merciless, ignorant Christian people. Did they know what they were doing? No. Did the Saints know what they were doing, and the object of their suffering? Yes, and they do to this day. They had implanted in them a hope, which comes through obedience to the Gospel of the Son of God, that blooms with immortality and eternal life. It was in view of these things, like it was with some that Paul speaks of—they “were tempted, they were tried, they were persecuted, they were whipped and sawed asunder; they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, finding their homes in dens and caves of the earth, of whom the world was not worthy.” These very people that endured these things the world was not worthy of; and they declared plainly that “they sought a better country, even a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. For he hath prepared for them a city, a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” The very thing that Jesus said they should have when he spoke to his disciples and said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. 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 ye may be also.

There is something about these ideas animating and cheering, that gives life and vigor to the human mind while traveling through the world, and having to meet with the various conflicts and difficulties that frequently obstruct our path.

Looking upon ourselves as eternal beings, connected with heaven as well as earth, with eternity as well as time, what difference is it to us what our lot may be, whether we abound in wealth, or whether we have to struggle with grim poverty; whether we possess the good things of this world, or have to crawl around like Lazarus did, and be glad to eat of the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table? It will soon be with the rich as if they were not rich, and with the poor as if they had not to struggle—all will find a level in the grave.

What are our views pertaining to the future? What claim have we on the Almighty? Can we say as one did, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens?” If we can say that, it is all right; no difference what our position, no difference what our circumstances, if our hearts are pure before God, and our spirits are upright, and we conscientiously feel that we are in the line of our duty, living in the fear of God and are enabled to cleave to him and keep his commandments, and walk in accordance with his precepts, all is right. No matter whether we live long or short, it makes no difference, God takes care of his people, and all is well.

Do we have trials? Yes, and it is necessary that we should; but whatever you do, let not your trials interfere with your duties and responsibilities to God. If troubles do come along, and we find it hard to battle with the things of life, never mind, let us cleave to God, to truth, to virtue, to righteousness, and maintain our integrity, and we will always feel that God is our friend, and that all is well. We will feel like saying, let the winds blow, and the rain descend, and the storms come, no matter what position we occupy, if God gives us power to breast the conflict, if we keep the commandments of God, and have our faith and hopes centered in the Lord beyond the vail, we shall feel that God is our Father and friend, and we are his children, and that he will own us and take care of us in time as well as in the eternities to come.

Well, what about others? Are you not very proscriptive in your feelings? No, not at all. I am willing, as an individual, to endure any thing that God may be pleased to place upon me, inasmuch as I have his grace to sustain me. I can do nothing of myself, neither can you, without the divine assistance. Have I my weaknesses? Yes. Have you weaknesses? Yes. Are any of us perfect? No. We are placed in this world to prove us. What shall we do? Why, fear the Lord and do the best we can, trusting in him. If we do that, all is right pertaining to the future. But what are we all aiming at? I am looking for a celestial glory. I want to be associated with the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in the heavens, and with Prophets and Apostles, and with all the holy men of God who were inspired with the same hopes, who lived generations ago, as well as with such men who now live. If I can only fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold of eternal life, then all is right. What of others? They are in the hands of God, and so are we. But are we all going to get into the celestial kingdom? I am afraid not. Not all the Latter-day Saints? I am afraid not. We read that many are called, but few are chosen. We read also that there were five wise and five foolish virgins. The wise virgins, we are told, had oil in their lamps, and their lamps were trimmed and burning. They were prepared to meet the bridegroom whom they expected. The others had no oil in their lamps at the time the cry was raised for all to go forth and meet their Lord. They had become careless and indifferent, and while the foolish virgins were away trying to procure oil for their lamps, the brid[e]groom came, and only those who were prepared to meet him went in with him, when the door was shut. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” That is the way I read these things.

Now, then, we have these principles before us, and it is for us to do right, and act honorably and virtuously, uprightly and consistently, and all will be well. If we do not, it will not be well, for every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. And in regard to others who receive not the Gospel, they too will be judged according to their works. Did God make any of his children for the purpose of destroying them? I think not. I think he will do the very best he can with all of us. But will he take the disobedient and the careless and indifferent ones into the celestial kingdom, to dwell with him and with the just who are made perfect? I think not. There are bodies celestial, bodies terrestrial, and bodies telestial. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.” To judge from these facts, does it look to you reasonable that all the Latter-day Saints will get into the celestial kingdom of our God? To me it does not. But the Lord has revealed to the children of men many great things, and has taught them many great principles; if they do not receive those principles, and adhere to them, and keep his commandments, are they to be damned and buried in hell forever? I think not.

Some of our sectarian friends think that we have curious ideas about them. I tell you what it arises from. We are aiming at what we term a celestial glory. They do not understand this. Will they get a glory? Yes, they will get all that they are looking for, just as much as they can abide, as much as it is possible for God to center upon them under the circumstances. And will the heathen be saved? Yes, all the children of God, no matter by what name they are called, will be saved, receiving as high a glory and salvation as they are capable of receiving. But are all going to inherit a celestial glory? No, but the degree of their glory will altogether be ahead of their ideas with regard to it. It may doubtless be said of them, as it was said of others, that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” These are facts which we all Latter-day Saints entertain, and God does, and who would raise an objection?

Because we have been persecuted and maltreated, should we entertain feelings of hatred and animosity for the human family? No! All good Latter-day Saints who possess the light and life of Christ, who have thus suffered, feel as Jesus did during his moments of bitterest pain, when he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” God is the God and Father of all the spirits of all flesh that now live, that have lived through all the ages of time, and he is interested in the welfare and salvation of all; but he, as well as we, is governed by law, and hence he is no respecter of persons, but gives unto all according to their works. I have set my mark high, and if God will give me grace sufficient to overcome every evil and to surmount every trial, I intend to continue to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold of eternal life.

With regard to sister Bourne, to whose remains we now pay our last respects and which lie before us, it is all right, a[ll] right! I too have had my friends leave me. Do I feel sorry? No. They have gone and they rest from earthly trouble, and I expect to follow after them. I well remember the conversation I had with my father when he was about to depart this life. I said, “Father, you are going?” He said, “Yes.” I then said, “That is right, father you came into the world a little before me, and you are leaving a little before. I will not try to disgrace you, and by and by I will come too.” It is true, we do not like to lose a good, kind companion, a wife, a husband, a child, a brother, a sister, or any of our near and dear friends or relatives; but we have to do it, and it is right and proper that we should. They go a little before us; when we get there they will receive and welcome us, and say, “God bless you, you have come at last.” That is the way I look at it. I expect to strike hands and embrace my friends who have gone before, who have proved themselves faithful and true. Why should I mourn when they leave? Of course, I like their company and association, but it was not designed that I should always have it here. We came here to live, and to die that we may live; and we are all moving, moving, passing off this stage of time. It is for us to prepare for the eternities to come.

I pray God to comfort the hearts of the husband, children, relatives and friends of this our departed sister, and say, May the peace and blessings of God be and abide with you, and may he lead us in the paths of life, and enable us to struggle for the glory and exaltation that are within our reach, until we shall have overcome, and be prepared to enter into the celestial kingdom of the Father, which may God grant for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Prophecies Unfulfilled, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Twentieth Ward Meeting House, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Dec. 3, 1876. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

The following passages of scripture were read—The 24th chapter of Isaiah, from the 1st to the 6th verses, and from the 17th to the 23rd verses; the 6th chapter of Revelations, from the 12th to the 17th verses; the 34th chapter of Isaiah, from the 1st to the 4th verses; and the 13th chapter of Isaiah, from the 6th to the 13th verses.

Elder Pratt then said—I have read these passages, not with the idea of selecting from them any one passage, but more particularly to impress upon the congregation the fact that something must take place which never has been fulfilled.

Since the day that Isaiah lived and prophesied among the people, you will admit, with me, that there never has been a universal destruction of all the wicked and the transgressors from off the face of the earth. There have been scores of millions of sinners upon the earth since the utterance of this prophecy to the present time, but the wholesale destruction spoken of has never taken place. You will all admit with me also that the signs which are to appear in the heavens, about the time of this universal destruction of the wicked, have not yet taken place. We are told not only that the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, but the stars shall refuse their shining. If only the sun were to be darkened, the heathen nations, that could not account for it, might say it had reference to some great eclipse, such as has occurred in different ages; but when they find that all the stars of heaven withhold their light, and there is not even so much as a glimmer of light, and the sun too becomes as black as sackcloth, they cannot impute it to an eclipse, for an eclipse would not destroy the light of the stars that are scattered over the concave of heaven. We are also told, in connection with this, that the earth is to be afflicted as well as the heavenly bodies; it is to roll to and fro like a drunken man, the mountains are to be broken down, and the whole earth is to be dissolved. No such thing has ever taken place since the day this prophecy was uttered; it is therefore yet to be fulfilled.

Again Isaiah in the 40th chapter has said that “every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Such an event as that has never occurred, for we have many mountains in all parts of the earth, and the valleys are not yet exalted, neither are the rough places made smooth. We are told that not only are the mountains to be broken down, and the valleys exalted, and the rough places made smooth, but the earth itself is to be dissolved. This agrees with the prophecies of the Psalmist David. He was permitted to see the great day of the coming of the Lord, and has described it, in many of his psalms; among other things which he says shall take place, is that the hills should melt like wax at the presence of the Lord. They of course will fall down by the force of gravity, and fill up the valleys; such an event has never taken place since the day the prophecy was uttered.

We are told also in another place by the Prophet Isaiah, how that the servants of God in those notable days should call upon the name of the Lord, saying, “Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations might tremble at thy presence,” which prayer shall be answered.

Another thing is spoken of, besides all these changes that I have named. There will be a great removal of certain portions of the earth. “The earth is moved exceedingly,” as contained in the 19th verse of the 24th chapter of Isaiah, and in the following verse, still referring to the changes that this earth is to undergo, it reads, “And shall be removed like a cottage.” We are still further told in the same chapter that “the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down,” etc.; that is, many portions of the earth which now lie buried will be thrown to the surface, and many portions which now are the upper crust of the earth will be turned under.

The earth is now divided into continents and islands. We may ask, are these to change their location? The answer is, yes. The Apostle and revelator John, in the 6th chapter of Revelations, tells us that, he saw, in vision, after the opening of the sixth seal, among other remarkable things, that “every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” Such islands as Great Britain will change their location, as well as those of the Pacific Ocean and all others in like manner; and I have no doubt there will be a vast change between the location of continents and the location of the great oceans and seas at that time. The earth will doubtless be rolled back to the position it formerly occupied. We read that there is to be a restitution of all things spoken of by the mouth of all the holy Prophets. If the earth is to be restored to its former condition, as it once existed soon after the creation, then, so far as continents and oceans are concerned, there will be a restitution of those portions of the globe, as well as many things not mentioned in prophecy.

These passages which I have read occurred to my mind principally after I came to this house. I had nothing particular to present to the congregation, nothing studied or prepared. I prefer to depend upon the spirit of the Lord to direct me when engaged in preaching the Gospel, and my mind seems to be directed to the great events that are to transpire in the overthrow and destruction of the wicked nations—the great events to transpire in which the sun will become black as sackcloth, and every star withhold its light and cast themselves down as the falling of figs from the fig-tree, all of which will be very remarkable in their nature.

The Prophet Joel says, “it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:” “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come,” etc. Do you suppose, my brethren, that the Lord would have inspired such men as the Psalmist David, the Prophets Isaiah, Joel, John the Revelator, as well as many others, to speak of events of this description, which were to take place in the latter times, if no such thing would transpire? No, certainly not. These things too are so frequently alluded to that we cannot have any dubiety upon our minds in regard to the design of the Lord.

I have no doubt a great many changes have taken place upon our globe since that great change wrought upon it at the time of the creation. There certainly was a great change wrought upon it then, for we are told that when the Lord organized the earth it was enveloped in a great ocean of water, there being no dry land in sight. But the Lord, by his power and word, or, in other words, by his immutable laws, caused that the waters should be gathered together into one place, and hence the dry land appeared. I do not suppose that this change was effected in the twinkling of an eye; I believe the Lord has certain established laws by which he accomplishes his wonderful works pertaining to all his creations. How long this submerged earth had an existence before the Lord commanded the great deep, that enveloped the whole surface of the same, to be removed, is not for me to say; no one can tell how many years, or thousands of years, or how many millions of years, this earth may have existed in the form of partial or imperfect organizations before this great event happened, of which Moses gives an account. The periods mentioned in the history, as recorded in the 1st chapter of Genesis, are represented as beginning with the evening and ending with the morning. Seven such periods are mentioned. How long these periods, called days, were, I cannot tell; it is very evident they were not governed by the rotation of the earth on its axis, because the sun did not give light during the first three days or periods. It was on the fourth day that the Lord caused the light of the sun to shine upon this little speck of creation. But there were three days prior to that, when the sun did not shine upon the earth. What then was to distinguish between the light and darkness we of course cannot say. There was an eternity of past duration, before the period, called “the first day.” The materials we, as Latter-day Saints, believe existed from all eternity, the materials had no beginning; they were not created.

There is one particular to which I wish to call your attention. The ocean seems to have been gathered by itself, when the dry land appeared, and whether or not there were any islands at that period of our globe’s history, we are not informed. You might inquire—What has occasioned two great continents and two great oceans intervening between them, and how are we to account for the appearance of islands and seas as they now exist? These are the results of other changes since the days of the organization of this earth, as proclaimed by Moses. The flood, no doubt, produced some changes on the surface of our globe, but still I do not believe, for a moment, that it could have produced the changes we now see. So far as the location of the different islands and continents is concerned, we descend to a period since the flood. In the days of Peleg, we are told, the earth was divided. This is a very short historical notice of a very marvelous event. If we had the whole account of this occurrence precisely as it transpired, it would certainly be extremely wonderful. Supposing that the one great ante-deluvian continent, which must have existed prior to that time, were to be divided by several thousand miles of water, would not that be a most wonderful event?

It may be enquired, what natural laws could have performed such an event? I do not pretend to say that any regular, uniform laws exist by which it was accomplished; but there are laws, perhaps, that finite man does not comprehend and fully understand, which might occasion the division of the earth. The Lord has under his control all the laws of nature, whether uniform or not. It is just as easy for the Lord to cause water to stand up as perpendicular walls, instanced in the case of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, as it is to cause these waters to settle to their common level. What causes water to find its level? It is the power of God, and nothing else. We give it the name of gravitation; but the power of gravitation is nothing more nor less than the power God exercises upon the elements, producing uniform laws.

Has the Lord no other laws in operation but the law of gravity? Yes, he can cause the law of gravity to be in subjection to other laws. For instance, a certain man was cutting down wood with the Prophet Elisha when his axe fell into deep water, to all appearance lost; and the man was somewhat exercised about it, because the axe was borrowed. The Prophet, understanding the nature of certain laws higher than that of gravitation, exercised the power of the Priesthood with which he was endowed, commanding the iron to swim, and it did so.

Again, on another occasion, the Prophet Elisha, knowing that he must succeed the Prophet Elijah in the ministry, and that Elijah was about to be translated and taken to heaven, asked of him a certain favor before he ascended, namely, that a double portion of his (Elijah’s) spirit might rest upon him. Elijah said in response, “Thou hast asked a hard thing; nevertheless, if thou seest me, when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.” It pleased the Lord to grant unto Elisha his desire, for he beheld the Prophet ascend to heaven in a chariot of fire, drawn by horses having the appearance of fire. He then took the mantle of Elijah, that fell from him, and with it he smote the waters of the Jordan, saying, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” And they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over on dry ground. Here, then, we perceive a power greater than gravitation.

As we have already observed, when the children of Israel had passed over the Red Sea, the waters were thrown up like walls on either side of them; the Lord caused the same waters to flow down upon their enemies, totally destroying them.

Again, while Israel was journeying in the wilderness we are informed that they came to the river Jordan, and that as the Priests who bore the ark of the Covenant touched the water with the soles of their feet, the waters rose up in a heap, and all Israel passed over on dry ground.

From these simple testimonies we have shown that God controls the laws of nature. Again, the fact of the Prophet Elijah being taken up to heaven, records another instance of the laws of gravitation being overcome by a more powerful one. Again, the ascension of Jesus, after he had commissioned his disciples to preach the Gospel to all the world, was another instance of the law of gravitation being overcome by the power of God. Then let no person suppose that all the great events that will hereafter transpire upon the surface of land and sea, have got to take place by reason of some slow progressive changes, occupying hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of years, according to the ideas of modern geologists. Can they show the way the Lord can govern and control these things, bringing about events, in the course of a very short time, that perhaps would take millions of years to accomplish by the mere progressive changes, such as are recognized by geologists? How easy it would be for that same power to be made manifest, in commanding the great ocean to leave its present bed and to gather together in the polar regions in our globe. One may ask, What would hold them there? They now occupy the common level surface as near the centre of gravity as they can, and sustain the centrifugal force exercised by the rotation of the earth on its axis. If they should be rolled back, whence they came; if a great equatorial continent, in one continuous belt, encircled the globe, and the two polar regions were covered with oceans, what would hold them in their position? It might be done without infringing particularly on the laws of gravitation. How easy it would be for the Lord to compress the polar regions of our globe, and cause the equatorial regions to rise higher, so as to balance the polar waters, and retain them in the arctic and antarctic regions.

It may be objected, that should such a condition exist, even though we should admit the power of God in thus dividing the waters, and giving us an equatorial continent, yet this would not protect the inhabitants of the equator from the burning heat of the sun, and it would be utterly impossible for the inhabitants of the earth to inhabit the equatorial region, if this should be the case How easy it would be for the Lord to alter the position of the earth’s axis, giving it a greater inclination to the plane of the ecliptic, so that the two tropics should extend thirty-five or forty degrees north and south of the equator. What effect would this have? It would have the effect of giving greater heat to the poles, and also of giving less heat to the equator.

The earth will be shaped into the form best adapted to the occupation of a higher order of beings. Now, children of mortality occupy this globe. In some portions of the earth we suffer extremes of heat and cold. The Laplander has guarded against this in his snow house, while the people of the torrid regions have to guard against intense heat. And there is much suffering by the inhabitants of the earth, in their present state of mortality, from the extremes of heat and cold. But in relation to the great event I have named, I have no doubt but what every motion and arrangement that the Lord will cause to take place upon the surface of our globe, will have a tendency to prepare it for the habitation of beings of a higher order of intelligence than those who now occupy it. In testimony of this, we will refer you to some few passages of Scripture. The inhabitants of the heavens, who now reside in the presence of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, do not always expect to reside there; they have anticipations as well as we. And they expect to receive another place or location than where they now reside. Have you not read that peculiar passage contained in the 5th chapter of the Revelations, in relation to the inhabitants of heaven? The Revelator, John, heard them sing a new and beautiful song, about the unsealing of a certain book—“Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth,” etc.

What! the inhabitants of heaven coming to reign on this earth? Yes. Some of you may say, “I should not think that heavenly people would want to leave the presence of God and the Lamb, where all is peace and happiness, where there is no sin to mar the peace of that blessed abode. I should not suppose that they could anticipate joy in coming back to this earth.” But the earth is to undergo a change in which it will be sanctified and made glorious when the sinners are destroyed. When the Lord performs what I have read to you, namely, that the inhabitants of the earth are to be burned up, and few men left; and all the armies of the wicked slaughtered. And when the prediction of Isaiah is fulfilled, that the slain will be from one end of the earth to the other, and the earth changed in its position, and a beautiful climate introduced, and all the dry ground made habitable, and the rough places made smooth, the valleys raised, and the mountains levelled down, I think they will then delight to come here. Because this is their old home, where they once lived. “Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”

How will they reign? Will they come here as spiritual personages without bodies of flesh and bones? No. There will be a resurrection, and when these great events take place on the earth, which are so clearly predicted by so many of the ancient worthies, who held communion with God, the graves will give up the righteous dead. The Saints who were heard singing that new and beautiful song, even the spirit of the just, will come from the celestial paradise to claim their resurrected bodies, no more to be subject to death—they will be immortal and eternal. They will have intelligence in proportion to that exalted condition of their spirits and bodies, and the earth will be adapted to them as a dwelling-place. This is the reason why these changes are to take place.

Geologists say it would take some millions of years to effect any changes of the earth in regard to the location of its continents and islands, and a great number of intelligent readers are inclined to this belief. But there is a God who will disappoint them all, who will show forth his power, causing the earth to rock to and fro like a drunken man; a God whose power is able to cause the mountains to be cast down, and the valleys to come up. When it rains upon the exalted valleys, it will wash down the rich soil upon the rocky mountains which have sunk beneath, making them fertile; and thus the whole surface of the earth will become a fit abode for man in his improved and perfected state, whether immortal or mortal.

“Do you think,” one may say, “there will be mortal beings living on the earth, when these heavenly hosts come?” Yes, and they will dwell together. What, people not subject to sickness, or to sorrow, or punishment, people whose bodies are celestial and immortal, who will endure in their bodies to all eternity! Will they mingle with mortal beings? Yes. Have we any Scripture to sustain us in this? Yes. Our Savior was immortal when he arose from the tomb, his body of flesh and bones was no longer sensitive to pain; it was a glorified, immortal, and eternal body. Could he mingle with the children of mortality? Yes, for on a certain occasion the Apostles, doubtless thinking the Savior to be dead, went to their nets, their former pursuit. But Jesus knowing their hearts, went to the sea-shore and there made a fire. By and by he called them to land, and they came. He took a fish and broiled it on the coals, and gave it to them to eat, and he ate with them. He was immortal, they were mortal. Was there any perceptible difference between the appearance of the Savior on this occasion, and his disciples? No; he did not permit his glory to shine forth, as he did on the Isle of Patmos, when John received his heavenly manifestations. His glory was withheld, and they had no difficulty in looking upon his person.

I have no doubt there will be a certain degree of the glory of the immortal beings withheld from the children of mortality, during the whole period of the millennium. Kings and priests will come here to reign, and will mingle freely among their children of whom they are ancestors. And those who are mortal can receive instruction from those who are immortal, that will prepare them for the time when the earth is to undergo a still greater change The children of mortality will need this preparation in order to live when this earth is burning up, which is to be its final destiny.

When Jesus comes, the events that I have named will take place. The earth is destined to pass away; after these immortal beings have dwelt upon it for one thousand years, after Jesus has been here reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords, and people have become familiar with him and all the ancients, by and by the earth will be burned up. You may inquire, “What is the use of burning it up?” I tell you my reason why I suppose the earth will be burnt up. It has been cursed by reason of the fall. In the early ages God said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life,” etc. That curse has not been fully removed to this day, the earth has groaned under wickedness. Its inhabitants have had to suffer all the inclemencies of a rigid climate or the intensities of heat and cold. Millions have thus suffered for many thousands of years, all in consequence of the curse that came upon this creation. This curse is not all to be removed, at once, it will be removed, in part, during the Millen[n]ium. The curse will not occupy the whole face of the earth to the same extent during that time as it has during the days of wickedness. But so great has been the curse that God decreed that it should suffer death like unto man; it cannot escape it, the change must come, the final change, which is equivalent to death itself. The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the earth dying: “And they that dwell therein shall die in like manner.” As it shall die, so shall all who dwell upon it. When shall it see death? Not until after the Millennium, after the reign of righteousness for the space of one thousand years; after, too, “the little season,” during which period of time Satan will be loosed out of his prison. It will continue in its temporal state with a portion of the curse upon its face, until the devil shall gather together his armies at the end of the thousand years, when he will marshal them, bringing them up on the breadth of the earth, and compassing the camp of the Saints and the beloved city. Then the Lord will make the final change; then the last trump will sound, which will bring forth all the sleeping nations; they will come forth with immortal bodies no more to be subject to temporal death. They will come forth from their sleeping tombs, and the sea will give up the dead which is in it. The graves of the wicked will be opened, and they will come forth; and a great white throne will appear, as recorded in the 20th chapter of Revelations, and the personage who sits on it is described. Jesus comes then in his glory and power, in a manner far greater than has ever been manifested on this earth before; so great will be the glory of him who sits upon the throne, that from before his face the earth and the heaven will flee away, and no place shall be found for them.

Will not that be a greater change than casting down the mountains, etc., which is to take place at the beginning of the Millennium? The earth is to be burnt by fire, returning to its original elements. It does not say there shall be no place found for the elements, but there shall be no place found for the organized world. Like ourselves, the organization of the mortal body will cease, it will be finally dissolved, and the elements of which it is composed will be scattered in space; but that same God that controls the laws by which it exists now will in due time, and when he sees proper, speak to these elements, and by his Almighty power they will again come together, and be formed into a new earth, as is clearly portrayed in the 21st chapter of St. John’s Revelations. The Apostle not only saw the heaven and the earth pass away, but he saw “a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.”

How do you suppose this new earth will be made? Do you suppose the Lord will go away into the immensity of space, and gather together new materials and command them to be organized? No, he will take the same materials, the elements which will have been dissolved by fire, and he will command them again to be reorganized, adapting the resurrected creation to the condition of the inhabitants that will occupy it. It will then be far more glorious than it will appear, during the thousand years of rest; it will then be reorganized by Almighty God in the most perfect form, so that it shall be capable of eternal and everlasting endurance, no more to be dissolved, no more to suffer from the action of the elements one upon the other, as has been the case with this earth, during its temporal existence. But it will continue to all eternity, and who are to inhabit it? The Saints who have before lived upon it, during the seven thousand years of its temporal existence.

Have we any account to sustain us in this? Yes, for after John saw the new heaven and new earth, the next thing he tells us of is the population of the new earth. “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

The earth then will be made new, immortal, eternal in its nature; and holy beings that John saw come down in this holy city will be its inhabitants. No more death, no more sorrow, etc.; in other words, this earth, this creation, will become a heaven. The heavens that exist now are innumerable to man. God has from all eternity been organizing, redeeming and perfecting creations in the immensity of space; all of which, when they are sanctified by celestial law, and made new and eternal, become the abode of the faithful former inhabitants, who also become immortal, through and by celestial law. They are the mansions referred to by the Savior—“In my Father’s house are many mansions.” In other words, we may say, In our Father’s dominions are many mansions. They are not like mansions built by men, they are worlds of greater and lesser magnitude. The first grade are exalted, celestial bodies, from which celestial light will radiate through the immensity of space.

We are anxiously praying to dwell in the presence of God the Father, when we depart this life. Where will it be? He will dwell with man upon the earth. Will this confine him to this earth? No, not any more than the kings of the earth are confined to their palaces, or the city in which they may dwell. They have the right to visit the different portions of their dominions and even any parts of the earth. So will God our Eternal Father, when he selects this earth as a habitation, make it as one of his dwelling places, but he will have power to go from one celestial world to another, to visit the myriads of creations, as may seem to him good.

In thus referring to the changes that the earth must undergo we might ask, Are we living now so as to be prepared for all the dispensations of God’s providence? Are we prepared to receive our inheritance upon this earth, when it shall be made eternal? If we keep the celestial law which God shall give to us; or in other words, if we are born first of the water by baptism, and then of the spirit by the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, and if we continue to walk in this spirit in newness of life, being new creatures before the Lord our God, and becoming sanctified by the celestial law, even the law of the Gospel, we will then be prepared to inherit this creation, when it shall be made new, and sanctified, and become immortal.

If we are not thus prepared, where shall we go? God is the author of many creations besides those that are celestial. He will prepare a creation just adapted to the condition of such people—those who are not sanctified by the Gospel in all its fullness, and who do not endure faithful to the end, will find themselves located upon one of the lower creations, where the glory of God will not be made manifest to the same extent. There they will be governed by laws adapted to their inferior capacity and to the condition which they will have plunged themselves in. They will not only suffer after this life, but will fail to receive glory and power and exaltation in the presence of God the Eternal Father; they will fail to receive an everlasting inheritance upon this earth, in its glorified and immortal state. Therefore how careful the Latter-day Saints should be in order to merit the association of the happy throng whom John heard singing that new song. We desire our inheritance on this earth as well as they. If they could rejoice in anticipation of receiving an inheritance on the earth, how much more can we who know compare[a]tively nothing of the joys of heaven, when our globe will be glorified, a fit habitation for immortal, glorified beings.

Let us keep the commandments of the Most High; let us so order our lives that we can have a claim upon the Father, looking forward to that period of time when these mortal bodies, which must slumber in the dust, will come forth from the grave, fashioned after the likeness of his most glorious body, to inherit the same glory with him. Amen.

Burial Services, an Ancient Practice, etc.

John Taylor

A Funeral Sermon, preached by Elder John Taylor, at the 7th Ward Meeting House, Salt Lake City, on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 31, 1876, over the Remains of Ann Tenora, the Wife of Isaac Waddell; and also over the Remains of George W., Son of Edward Callister. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

After the reading of the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, commencing at the 20th verse, by Elder David McKenzie, Elder Taylor said:

It is a sad thing to meet together as we have done on the present occasion, and to find here two of our friends from different families who have been smitten by the hand of the destroyer, thus having to attend to a double funeral ceremony. It seems to be my lot to-day to be mixed up with these matters, for I have just come from attending to one funeral in the 14th Ward; and now I meet again with you to join in praying [paying] our last sad respects to the departed dead. There is something about these things that touches the most sympathetic feelings of human nature. God having planted these things in our bosoms, I presume it is right and proper that they should be exercised and cherished.

In reading the history of some of the ancient men of God, such, for instance, as Jacob, Joseph, Abraham and others, there was great reverence and respect evinced towards them, not only by their friends and relatives, but by strangers. On the death of Jacob there was a very large concourse of people assembled from the land of Egypt, including “The servants of Pharoah, the Elders of his house, and all the Elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph and his brethren and his father’s house And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company, and they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation.” The Egyptians joined with the relatives in mourning his death. The same feeling was manifested when Joseph and others died. Then were feelings of sympathy manifested towards the bereaved and also towards the dead. These feelings exist more or less among us. We, like them, have ideas pertaining to the future, that are pregnant with importance and that are full of interest to every reflective mind.

When Abraham died, Isaac knew that he was a man of God; he had unquestionably heard his father talk over communications he had had with God, and he doubtless knew very well, when he was taken by his father to be offered up as a sacrifice, that it was in obedience to a commandment of God; he knew very well that his father had communications with the Lord and received revelations from him, and that he had distinct and correct ideas also in regard to the future. Jesus, you will remember, in speaking of Abraham, said, “Abraham saw my day and was glad.” Abraham had promises made to him pertaining to the land of Palestine, that were not really fulfilled in his time; and Stephen, soon after the Savior of the world died, in talking about Abraham, said that God had promised it to his seed; and yet, says Stephen, the Lord “gave him none inheritance in it; no not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” There are men now living among the descendants of Abraham, who expect to see that promise fulfilled, when his descendants will again inherit that land of promise, and when all things spoken of by the mouth of the Prophets will be accomplished. The measuring line will yet go forth again in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem will yet be inhabited on its own place, even in Jerusalem. Abraham will yet realize the fulfillment of the promises made to him and will stand in his proper place and position as their father and the proper representative of his seed in the grand jubilee in this earth, when the purposes of God shall be accomplished pertaining thereunto.

In connection with this it was said on a certain occasion, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” We also find a statement in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, referring to father Joseph Smith and others, who it is said “sitteth with Abraham at his right hand.” Consequently Abraham lives, and not only Abraham, but father Joseph Smith, as well as many others of our brethren with whom we have been acquainted, who have died true and faithful to the cause. From another revelation, pertaining to one of the High Councils that was organized, we learn that God had taken them to himself and that they retained their Priesthood, that it belonged to them, and no man could take it from them, and that they were with the Lord.

In relation to these things there is something very interesting to all right-minded persons who are good and faithful Latter-day Saints. We believe that these men of whom we have spoken, as well as Adam, Seth, Noah, Enoch, Methuselah and all “the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven” have their proper position there, as well as the Apostles who lived co[n]temporary with the Savior. Of these worthies it is said that when Jesus shall come they will come with him, clothed with power and glory. In another place we are told that they, the Apostles, will “sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Again, there are other things associated with these matters, all bearing more or less upon the same points. When God selected Joseph Smith to open up the last dispensation, which is called the dispensation of the fullness of times, the Father and the Son appeared to him, arrayed in glory, and the Father, addressing himself to Joseph, at the same time pointing to the Son, said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” As there were great and important events to be introduced into the world associated with the interests of humanity, not only with the people that now are, but with all people that have ever lived upon the face of the earth, and as what is termed the dispensation of the fullness of times was about to be ushered in, Moroni, who held the keys of the unfolding of the Book of Mormon, which is a record of the people who lived upon this American continent, came to Joseph Smith and revealed to him certain things pertaining to the peoples who had lived here and the dealings of God with them, and also in regard to events that are to transpire on this continent.

Then comes another personage, whose name is John the Baptist. He ordained the Prophet Joseph to that portion of the Priesthood of which he held the keys, namely, the Aaronic, or lesser Priesthood. Afterwards came Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, and of the dispensation of the fullness of times, they being the last in their day to whom it was committed, and therefore they came to him and revealed to him the principles pertaining to the Gospel, and the events to be fulfilled. Then we read again of Elias or Elijah, who was to act as a restorer, and who committed to him the powers and authority associated with his position. Then Abraham, who had the Gospel, the Priesthood and Patriarchal powers, in his day; and Moses, who stood at the head of the gathering dispensation in his day, and had these powers conferred upon him. We are informed that Noah, who was a Patriarch, and all in the line of the Priesthood, in every generation back to Adam, who was the first man, possessed the same. Why was it that all these people should be associated with all these dispensations, and all could communicate with Joseph Smith? Because he stood at the head of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which comprehends all the various dispensations that have existed upon the earth, and that as the Gods in the eternal worlds and the Priesthood that officiated in time and eternity had declared that it was time for the issuing forth of all these things, they all combined together to impart to him the keys of their several missions, that he might be fully competent, through the intelligence and aid afforded him through these several parties, to introduce the Gospel in all its fullness, namely, the dispensation of the fullness of times, when, says the Apostle Paul, “He might gather all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in him.” Consequently he stood in that position, and hence his familiarity with all these various dispensations and the men who administered in them. If you were to ask Joseph what sort of a looking man Adam was, he would tell you at once; he would tell you his size and appearance and all about him. You might have asked him what sort of men Peter, James and John were, and he could have told you. Why? Because he had seen them.

We are living in this dispensation, which is pregnant with greater events than any other dispensation that has ever existed on the earth, because in it is embraced all that ever existed any where among any people of the earth. Hence why we look upon Joseph Smith as so great and important a character in the world’s history. I think he was one of the greatest Prophets that ever lived, Jesus himself excepted. Enoch was a great man, a mighty Prophet, he had a great many sacred and heavenly things committed to him. He performed a great work in his day—he walked and talked with God, he preached the Gospel and gathered the people as we do, and then he and his city were caught up to heaven, to return to earth in the latter days. He performed his work and afterwards God took him. How Joseph Smith will compare with him will be better understood when Zion is built up and redeemed, and Enoch’s Zion comes down to meet it. They both held important positions and both will stand in their lot as decreed by Jehovah.

Enoch received many revelations and obtained great power from God, and unquestionably the influence of that power was felt by the surrounding peoples. For when certain peoples gathered themselves together against him and his people in a belligerent attitude, Enoch stood forth and prophesied, and the earth shook and trembled, and the people stood afar off and fled from his presence. Of the power he possessed, and the heavenly manifestations he had, we have very little account.

When speaking of these various dispensations, ideas altogether different present themselves to our minds. My mind has been always more or less engaged contemplating the wonderful works of God. Even at an early age, before I became acquainted with the principles of our revealed religion, I frequently used to ask myself, “Who am I? What am I? What am I doing here? What is the object of my earthly being? Where did I come from, and where am I going to?” I have since had the same reflections; but now I have a better method of arriving at conclusions, the Gospel having enlightened me in regard to a great many of these principles. When we entertain and speak of the things of God and his dealings with humanity, we do not deal with things small and insignificant in their character, but with things great and stupendous, things that are worthy the care and supervision of the great God. When the Gods created the earth, they did it for certain purposes. Having organized it according to the eternal purposes of God, they separated the waters from the dry land, so that the land appeared. They next caused light to shine upon it before the sun appeared in the firmament; for God is light, and in him there is no darkness. He is the light of the sun and the power thereof by which it was made; he is also the light of the moon and the power by which it was made; he is the light of the stars and the power by which they were made. He says it is the same light that enlightens the understanding of men. What, have we a mental light and a visual light, all proceeding from the same source? Yes, so says the scripture, and so says science when rightly comprehended. All these things were organized according to the eternal purposes of God in relation to the earth on which we live, and then man was placed upon it; and afterwards the beasts, birds and fishes and seeds of every kind, everything bearing seed after its kind, having power to propagate its own species and perpetuate itself on the earth. I do not wish now to deal with details, for that would lead us from the subject.

What next? Man is placed upon the earth. For what? The very first command given to him was to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. Or in other words, “I have put you in possession of certain faculties for a certain purpose. I have prepared the earth for you. I have my spirits living with me in the eternal heavens, and in the proper time it is my will that they shall come forth to inhabit tabernacles.” He organizes every thing according to these principles. Then man appears in a certain condition, and there is but a shadow between him and the heavens that nothing but the light of the Gospel can remove; a forgetfulness, as if we were puzzled over an uncertain dream; a curtain is spread over the whole human family, and they are thrown upon the world to struggle along as best they can, having to contend against great powers and unseen influences that exist and whose object is to war against humanity. For Satan had already been struggling in the heavens among the sons of God, from whom he dissented, and thus he became the devil, and they that took sides with him became his angels. We are told they numbered a third of the hosts of heaven, and whilst they fought and struggled with the Gods for the power and supremacy, they were cast out from heaven and they came here, where Satan became the prince and power of the air. What to do? To tempt and try fallen man. They wander up and down the earth for this purpose, thus man is placed in a position to be tried, combatting as he has to do with all manner of influences which seek his overthrow.

While in this condition it was necessary that man should receive additional power and intelligence to enable him to combat successfully these evil influences; hence the Gospel was revealed to him. If after receiving this light and knowledge he should fall a prey to the enemy of his soul, he would become more or less subject to the rule of this evil power, and thus suffer according to the extent of his fall. But if he should contend against these powers and spirits and against every weakness his flesh might be heir to and come off victorious, he is promised celestial glory in the eternal worlds and eventually to become as a God.

What next? We find the powers of darkness beginning to prevail in the hearts of fallen man. For instance, the first two living sons, one of them killed the other and was a murderer. What a prospect; how the devil would laugh, saying, “Since Cain has slain his brother Abel, there is no son remaining but a murderer, so what becomes of your kingdom? But God gave unto Adam another son named Seth, who represented the interests of his father and the interests of God. And in order that they should not be led down to the gates of death, Jesus was provided as a Savior, as a lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth. And hence Job said, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.” God made this provision in the beginning; he knew that man would fall and would pass through these ordeals, for known to God are all things from the commencement of the world. It is written here in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that the planet on which he lives is a great Urim and Thummim, which reveals everything pertaining to this lower world and its inhabitants. And the holy beings who reside there can gaze upon us mortals whenever they please, looking also into the future or the past; hence they know it as it is.

But he provided a Savior, and in the early ages of time they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, as we now look back to it. Of the multitudes on the continent of Asia who comprehended these things, we have very little knowledge, the accounts of what transpired among them are very meagre. On this continent they spoke very plainly about the Gospel and the coming of the Redeemer, and although very plain are quite limited. Then a great many plain and precious parts have been taken away from these Scriptures.

Do you think the Jews to-day would want to publish things pertaining to Jesus, describing the manner in which he would come? I should think not. In a conversation I once had with Baron Rothschild he asked me if I believed in the Christ? I answered him, “Yes, God has revealed to us that he is the true Messiah, and we believe in him.” I further remarked, “Your Prophets have said, ‘They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born,’ ‘And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thy hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’” Do you think the Jewish Rabbies [Rabbis] would refer you to such scripture as that? Said Mr. Rothschild, “Is that in our Bible?” “That is in your Bible, sir.”

The Book of Mormon and the Bible refer to many other similar passages referring to the same event, as well as passages referring to the Savior’s birth. “Behold,” says Isaiah, “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Again the Savior says, “Abraham saw my day and was glad. Ancient people of God, in whose hearts was enkindled the flame of inspiration, looked forward to that memorable event when the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world would offer himself as a sacrifice, whilst we look back to the same thing. We break bread and eat, and we drink water in the presence of each other every Sabbath day, and we do it in remembrance of the broken body and shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and this we will continue to do until he comes again. When he does come, the Latter-day Saints expect to be among that favored number that will eat and drink with him at his own table in our Father’s kingdom. I expect this just as much as I expect to eat my supper tonight.

There is something truly grand in the reflection of the Savior’s return to the earth, and man and his fall and redemption. We read of certain men that lived at various times, who, by virtue of the Priesthood they held, identified themselves with the cause of God, and interested themselves in the redemption of the world• The Priesthood they had is everlasting, it administers in time and eternity; and the men who held it live forever, and they continue to operate in their several positions and Priesthoods. Just as the angel who appeared to John on the island of Patmos. The Apostle fell at the feet of this heavenly messenger to worship him. But the angel said unto him, “See thou do it not; I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God.” And as Moses and Elias who appeared to Jesus and to Peter, James and John on the Mount; and as Moroni, John the Baptist, Peter, James and John and others appeared to Joseph Smith.

In speaking with the Prophet Joseph once on this subject, he traced it from the first down to the last, until he got to the Ancient of Days. He wished me to write something for him on this subject, but I found it a very difficult thing to do. He had to correct me several times. We are told that the “judgment shall sit and the books be opened.” He spoke of the various dispensations and of those holding the keys thereof, and said there would then be a general giving up or accounting for. I wrote that each one holding the keys of the several dispensations would deliver them up to his predecessor, from one to another, until the whole kingdom should be delivered up to the Father, and then God would be “all in all.” Said he, “That is not right.” I wrote it again, and again he said it was not right. It is very difficult to find language suitable to convey the meaning of spiritual things. The idea was that they should deliver up or give an account of their administrations, in their several dispensations, but that they would all retain their several positions and Priesthood. The Bible and Doctrine and Covenants speaks about certain books which should be opened; and another book would be opened, called the Book of Life, and out of the things written in these books would men be judged at the last day.

To continue. We find Satan getting great power. Enoch there appears, who is commissioned to go forth and preach the Gospel, as we are doing in this our age. He succeeded in converting people, and they gathered together and built up a city, and they were three hundred and sixty-five years in becoming fully established in the truth. By the time we shall have had a little more experience we perhaps shall have become a little more prudent, realizing the position we occupy to the authority of the Priesthood and power of God, and our dependence upon Jehovah, realizing too our own failings and weaknesses, and learning to lean upon God and go forth as his servants in his holy fear, and developing within us those nobler attributes that exalt man to the presence and image of his Creator. This the Gospel will do for us if we will only let it. It will bring us into communication with God, and through it we shall know and understand him and his laws, and the principles of eternal truth.

What next? God had to destroy the world. People then were like the corrupt of our age; they are crumbling to pieces, and they will continue to decay, for the seeds of dissolution are rooted in them, and they in their present condition can no more be united than you can make a rope out of sand—the materials are not cohesive and this nation will go down. Not only our nation but other nations will crumble. Thrones will be cast down and empires will be no more. The whole earth will be shaken and men’s hearts will fail them, in consequence of the things that are coming upon the earth. Why? Because of all their sins and iniquities, and further because they reject God in rejecting the Gospel of the Son of God, which is being preached among them, loving darkness rather than light.

Did God punish the people anciently who thus rejected him and his servants? Yes, he cut them off from the face of the earth, and planted another seed. Why? Because it was just and proper and right that he should do so. What, just to destroy a whole people? Certainly, it was the very best thing that he could do for them. If I were going at it, I do not know that I could do things any better. What, kill so many millions of people? Yes. How do you make this out? If I were one of those spirits—and I expect I was there, and perhaps we had a hand in it for aught I know—if, I say, I were one of those spirits in the eternal world and saw the corruptions of their hearts when the Gospel had been preached to them, and the spirit of God was withdrawn from them, and they left to themselves to indulge their wicked desires and acts, preparing themselves for perdition and teaching their children iniquity, I should have felt like saying, “O Lord, have we got to go to the earth and receive bodies through such corrupt men? Is it right and just that we should endure the evils that they would entail on us in consequence of their sinful acts with which we have had nothing to do?” “No,” says the Lord, “I will cut them off and raise up a better seed.” He did so, and by doing so he prevented these wicked people from propagating their species. They were all cast into prison, where they remained until the Savior appeared among them, after His crucifixion. He opened their prison doors and preached to them the same Gospel that they had rejected and which the Jews rejected. If these spirits in prison receive the glad tidings of great joy and live accordingly, they will, as we are informed by the Lord in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants inherit a terrestrial glory, because they were found not worthy of propagating their species, they were not worthy to become fathers and mothers of lives.

The Lord then commenced the race again with Noah, but according to the history we have of his family, the Lord had to bear a great deal with them. There was nothing very remarkable about them, they got into trouble often enough, and the prospect even then, judging after the manner of men, was not very flattering for poor humanity.

Since then there has been a continual struggle between the powers of darkness and the power of God for the mastery. In the days of Peleg the Lord divided the earth, hence the eastern and western hemisphere, doubtless thinking by doing so he would have a better opportunity to preserve some of the human family from going down to perdition. But still the devil found ready access to the hearts of the people generally, and many became so corrupt that God had to destroy them. But before allowing his justice to overtake them, he saved unto himself certain good seed and planted it in different parts of his vineyard. He took away the ten tribes. We do not hear anything about them now, but we shall by and by. He brought the Jaredites here, and afterwards the Nephites and Lamanites, and placed others in in other places.

Next comes the dispensation of the fullness of times, when God is to gather together all things in one, for the Gods have decreed, and the ancient Prophets and Apostles have witnessed to it, that in the last days these things shall be accomplished. It is for this purpose the Gospel is restored, and man placed again in communication with God, and hence we have received the Book of Mormon as one of the events which were to transpire in our day, as it is written, “The Jews shall hear the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall hear the words of the Jews, and the Nephites and the Jews shall hear the words of the ten tribes.” He will gather his word in one, and will gather his people in one, even all things he will gather together in one, whether they be things that are in heaven or things on the earth; and the powers and priesthood of heaven will unite with the priesthood on the earth for the accomplishment of this purpose. This accounts for our coming to this western land. We have been influenced to gather here for a purpose which is known to God, but hidden from the world. It is said, “I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

What next? When the people shall have been gathered in fulfillment of this prophecy, judgments will again be visited upon the wicked, as a necessary consequence. Will such visitations really take place? Yes, I know that this part, too, of the Lord’s designs will be fulfilled, for God revealed it to me long, long ago. We need not be too anxious for the destruction of the wicked, for it will be indeed terrible when it comes, it will make every feeling man weep for sorrow over the trouble and affliction that will come.

What next? Then we commence to talk about the future, something in which we are all interested, and to which our minds are more immediately drawn on such solemn occasions as this. Says Job, “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.” All these people who have lived have died, and live again; they have passed away, forgotten as a dream, or as night at the approach of the opening day. That is so in one sense, according to human ken; yet there is a reality associated with this matter, pregnant with importance to the human family. We have read here some remarks in relation to these matters, and the Gospel unfolds these things to our view. We are told that there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. The natural body is sown in corruption, and it is raised in incorruption, etc. We shall all pass away by and by, as these our friends have; they have gone to sleep for a little while, to rise again, and to bear their part among the sons and daughters of God in the eternal worlds, and we shall have to follow and pass through the same ordeal. “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.” We, as Latter-day Saints, comprehend in part these things, as relating to the designs of God pertaining to the human family. We get a glimpse at some of them, but we only see in part, and know in part; this imperfect state of things will remain until that which is perfect shall come, when that which is in part will be done away. But it is our privilege now, through obedience to the principles of the Gospel, to be full of light and life and intelligence, and the power of God, to comprehend correct principles, to walk in the light as he is in the light, and to have fellowship with God the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, realizing and knowing that the atoning blood of Christ cleanses from sin, and that we are his sons and daughters, and have a right to the eternal glories that God has prepared for those who love him and keep his commandments.

The Apostle Paul in answer to the question, “How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? said, “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or some other grain.” I remember reading a remark made by Tom Payne. He said, “Thou fool, Paul, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die not.” Both of these perhaps are true. The Savior said, “The maid is not dead, but sleepeth;” also, “He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Have these our friends gone to sleep? Yes; but when he who says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” shall speak, the bodies we now see lying lifeless and inanimate, will be quickened, bone shall come to its bone, and sinews and flesh will cover them, until the whole being will be resuscitated, and the dead, as has been said, will stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army. So all mankind, the righteous and the unrighteous, shall stand before God, having been quickened in the flesh. “As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

What, will every body be resurrected? Yes, every living being; “but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end.” That is, the Saints shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years. One of the Apostles says, “But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are expired.” But all must come forth from the grave, some time or other, in the self-same tabernacles that they possessed while living on the earth. It will be just as Ezekiel has described it—bone will come to its bone, and flesh and sinew will cover the skeleton, and at the Lord’s bidding breath will enter the body, and we shall appear, many of us, a marvel to ourselves.

I heard Joseph Smith say, at the time he was making a tomb at Nauvoo, that he expected, when the time came when the grave would be rent asunder, that he would arise and embrace his father and mother, and strike hands with his friends. It was his written request that when he died, some kind friends would see that he was buried near his bosom friends, so that when he and they arose in the morning of the first resurrection, he could embrace them, saying, “My father! my mother,” etc.

How consoling it is to those who are called upon to mourn the loss of dear friends in death, to know that we will again be associated with them! How encouraging to all who live according to the revealed principles of truth, perhaps more especially to those whose lives are pretty well spent, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, to know that ere long we shall burst the barriers of the tomb, and come forth living and immortal souls, to enjoy the society of our tried and trusted friends, no more to be afflicted with the seeds of death, and to finish the work the Father has given us to do!

I know that some people of very limited comprehension will say that all the parts of body cannot be brought together, for, say they, the fish probably have eaten them up, or the whole may have been blown to the four winds of heaven, etc. It is true the body, or the organization, may be destroyed in various ways, but it is not true that the particles out of which it was created can be destroyed. They are eternal; they never were created. This is not only a principle associated with our religion, or in other words, with the great science of life, but it is in accordance with acknowledged science. You may take, for instance, a handful of fine gold, and scatter it in the street among the dust; again, gather together the materials among which you have thrown the gold, and you can separate one from the other so thoroughly, that your handful of gold can be returned to you; yes, every grain of it. You may take particles of silver, iron, copper, lead, etc., and mix them together with any other ingredients, and there are certain principles connected with them by which these different materials can be eliminated, every particle cleaving to that of its own element.

Our text says, “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” As the gold and the silver and other minerals can be mixed together and again separated, so the different kinds or particles of flesh may be united, one going into the other through natural processes, but the same God by whose wisdom the laws were made which so govern the mineral bodies, separating them one from another, has also framed and made laws by which the various particles of the different kinds of flesh can be separated, each returning and cleaving to its respective element. The component parts of man can no more become the flesh of beasts or fishes than gold can become silver, lead turn to iron, or copper to gold. Each is separate and distinct from the other.

These things are strictly scriptural, they are strictly scientific and philosophical, and are in accordance with the laws God has revealed to us, and who can refute them?

What about our deceased friends? Our kingdom and Priesthood are organized according to the order God has given us, and we expect, every one of us, to stand in our proper place in the eternal worlds, according to the order of the Priesthood which we represent.

We then come to the sealing power. Here, say, is a man and woman who have been sealed together for time and eternity. Does it mean anything? If it means anything, which it certainly does, it means just what it says. If the husband of this our departed sister continues faithful to the end, maintains his integrity to God, and fights the good fight of faith, he will claim her in eternity, and they twain will be one flesh. This young man, some one will have to act for him over the marriage altar in having some one sealed to him. He and his wife, through their faithfulness, will by and by become the father and mother of lives, and in this way the eternal purposes of God will be consummated, and his work be perpetuated.

The first command of Jehovah was for man to multiply and replenish the earth. Now the command is to build Temples. For what purpose? That they over whom Satan has had power may be administered for, reaching back, back to the beginning of time, that they may be brought forth and inherit the blessings and privileges of the kingdom of God, and that we, ourselves, may be prepared to live and reign with him for ever. Let us continue to live in humility and meekness before God, seeking in faith and good works to get an increased portion of His Holy Spirit, that we may comprehend the laws of God and live according to the principles of eternal truth.

I would say to the friends of the departed dead, be comforted, all is right, all is well, and all will continue to be well with us, if we will only fear God and keep his commandments. It is far better to die in the fear of God, than to live without God. When I see people die who are prepared, having a claim on eternal life, do I feel sorry? No, I do not. I would a thousand times rather have my children to be laid in the silent tomb, as thousands of our youth are, than I would see them depart from God and his ways. My earnest desire is that I and my children may live to serve God, and that he will take us hence before we should be permitted to violate his commands or forsake his law. Let me live the life of righteousness and may my last days be spent in doing good to my fellow man and honor to my God.

May the Lord bless and sustain these our friends who are called upon to mourn for a short season, and may the Lord bless the Saints in Zion, and his servant Brigham, and those who stand shoulder to shoulder with him, and all good men, now and forever, is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Daniel’s Vision, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Eighteenth Ward Meeting House, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Feb. 25, 1877. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I will read a few passages from the book of the Prophet Daniel, which he received from the Lord through vision, and which relate to the latter days—a prophecy which has not yet been fulfilled. It will be found in the 7th chapter commencing with the 9th verse—

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

“A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

“I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

“As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.

“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.

“And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

This prophecy relates to a period of time in the history of our race, when thrones are to be cast down, when kingdoms and the various governments which exist upon the face of the earth are to be overthrown; to a period when only one kingdom or one government shall have dominion, and its dominion will extend to the ends of the earth; a kingdom too which we are told, in the second chapter of Daniel’s prophecy, is to be everlasting in its nature, and not like those other kingdoms which Daniel says are to be overthrown. This divine kingdom is to have a universal dominion, so far as this world is concerned. It is represented, in its beginning, as being very small, compared to a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, but which rolls forth gathering strength as it rolled, until all other kingdoms, of human invention and human authority, should cease to exist, should be broken to pieces and become, as is plainly declared, like the chaff of a summer’s threshing floor, which the wind carried away and no place was found for it.

I presume there is no person in this congregation, but what will, with me, admit, that no such period has ever arrived, since that prophecy was uttered. But such a period will arrive in the history of our earth. The Prophet Daniel clearly saw that the stone, which was to be cut out of the mountain without hands, which should smite upon the toes of the image—the great image which represented the kingdoms of this world—should be a divine work, a work that the Lord himself would accomplish among men. In other words, the Lord condescended to give to one of the most powerful kings who has ever dwelt upon the earth, so far as human power is concerned, a dream which represented to him all the kingdoms of this world; but when he awoke he could not even remember the dream. It however made a deep impression on his mind, and he knew there was something very important attached to the dream. So exercised was he, that he issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of the city of great Babylon, requesting all the wise men to tell him the dream, and then to give him the interpretation thereof. If they could tell him the dream, he, of course, would have confidence in the truth of the interpretation; but if he himself were to tell the dream, if it were possible to remember it, he would not know whether the interpretation would be correct or not. Being a monarch of absolute power, he threatened death to the wise men, if they failed to tell him the dream, and also to give him the interpretation. Daniel, with his three friends who were Jews, besought the Lord in the matter, and the Lord revealed to Daniel the dream and the interpretation thereof. The dream as Daniel related it to king Nebuchadnezzar was as follows—

“Thou, O King, sawest, and beheld a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”

The Prophet then interprets the dream, naming every particular of its meaning. “Thou art this head of gold.” That is, his dominion, the Babylonish empire, and the kingdoms and nations round about, over which the Lord had made him ruler, represented this head of gold. “And after thee,” continued the Prophet, “shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee,” represented by the breast and the arms of silver. A third kingdom was to arise after that, represented by the brass. Then a fourth kingdom was to follow, representing the iron kingdom, or a kingdom of great strength. But it divided, represented by the two legs of iron. This iron kingdom represents very closely the Roman empire, in all its strength and greatness. That empire was divided and it was known as the eastern and western empire, represented by the two legs of iron, one having its seat at Rome, the other at Constantinople. But the feet and toes were governments more modern to grow out of the iron kingdom, after it should lose its strength. These are represented by the ten toes or ten kingdoms which should be partly strong and partly broken. They should not have the strength of the legs of iron, but they should be mixed with miry clay, indicating both strength and weakness. These last kingdoms and governments (such as have existed during the last few centuries, on the eastern and western hemispheres) complete the great image.

The head or gold kingdom, having lost its universal dominion, is still represented by its descendants, under various forms of governments in Asia.

The descendants of the silver kingdom are still existing in Persia, and in the western parts of Asia.

The brass kingdom has its present representatives in the east of Europe, extending into Asia.

The descendants of the once great iron kingdom are found mostly in Europe, extending in some measure into Asia, and in still greater measure into America.

The present existing nations represent two things—first, in a governmental capacity, they represent the feet and toes of the great image; second, in the capacity of lineal descent, they represent all the former kingdoms of this terrible image.

The image being now completed, another government of divine origin is to be set up, forming no part of this great image. Being entirely separate from and unconnected with this great image, it should not even represent a toe or finger of the image, nor any other part or portion thereof.

“Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands,” etc. In other words, all these other governments have been formed by human wisdom and ingenuity; but, by and by, a separate and distinct government, represented by a little stone, should be cut out without hands. What I understand by this is something that man should have nothing to do with, so far as the divinity of its formation was concerned. For it is interpreted thus—“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.” It is God, then, who organizes it; he confers the power and authority upon those who shall minister in its government; human wisdom does not enter as a constituent, either in the founding or government of the same.

The fifth kingdom is, therefore, to be peculiar from all the others in its organization. It is further said, that “it shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people.” The four kingdoms which preceded it were transferred, first to one nation, and then to another, until the image was complete, until human governments had nearly fulfilled their destiny; then a kingdom or government should be set up on the earth that should never be destroyed. It should not be taken from one people and given to another, as Babylon was taken from the Babylonians and given to the Medes and Persians; and as the Medes and Persians had their kingdom transferred and given to the Greeks and Macedonians; and as the latter had their kingdom transferred from them and given to the Romans; and as the Romans, in turn, lost their universal dominion and great power, and were broken up into little petty kingdoms, such as now exist. But this latter kingdom was not to be thus transferred; it was to be permanent, it was to increase in greatness and strength, until it, or the little stone which represented it, became as a great mountain, filling the whole earth. Or, as the Prophet Daniel says, that “the Saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and shall possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.” “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” This portion of the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, only so far as the setting up of God’s kingdom is concerned.

The four beasts, described in the first part of the 7th chapter, are those four kingdoms represented by the great metallic image of gold, silver, brass, etc. In this 7th chapter, the Lord does not say anything about the stone to be cut out of the mountain without hands, and the rolling of that stone, and the breaking in pieces of the various kingdoms and governments; but he does represent in this chapter one great and important event that will transpire at a certain time in the history of our race, namely—“I beheld till the thrones were cast down,” etc. He beheld, too, how this work of destruction should be done, for that is described in the 2nd chapter.

After the earthly thrones were cast down, Daniel says, “And the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before unto him.

How much is ten thousand times ten thousand? Only a hundred millions, but that would make quite a large congregation. All the inhabitants of the United States only number about forty millions, counting men, women and children. If they were assembled in one place, it would present a grand spectacle; but suppose we double that number, making it eighty millions, what a vast congregation that number of people would make, we can hardly grasp in our comprehension its extent; and still we will add to it another twenty millions so as to equal the size of the congregation which the Prophet Daniel saw standing before the Ancient of Days. Such a body of people must extend over a great many miles of country, however closely they may be collected together. I doubt whether the extremes of such a congregation could be seen by the natural eyes of mortals; they would be lost in the distance.

Why will this vast assemblage of people stand there? What will be the object of the Ancient of Days, in coming with this vast multitude, and what is to be accomplished? We read that the four beasts, representing the powers of the earth, will exist at the time of the coming of the Ancient of Days. And that the fourth beast, represented by the Roman Empire and the kingdoms that have grown out of it, will be “slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.” Here then we can read the destiny of that portion of the inhabitants of the earth constituting the fourth beast; or, in other words, the destiny of the kingdoms of Europe, who were to arise and grow out of that fourth power. We can read the final destiny of the kingdoms of Europe, namely, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, and the great northern power, Russia, Austria and Prussia, and all those various nations, that more particularly pertain to this great iron power that once so cruelly oppressed the people; its “body shall be destroyed and given to the burning flame,” which signifies the nature of the judgment that will befall them. According to other prophecies, contained in Daniel, a succession of judgments, great and terrible in their nature, will overtake them, before the fire spoken of comes. Nation will rise against nation in war, kingdom against kingdom: or in the language of Isaiah, “Behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many.”

It seems then that the body of the fourth power is to be given to the burning flame, that signifies the utter extinction of that power from the face of the earth. The heathen nations representing the other three beasts, will not then be destroyed: but their lives are to be prolonged, and their dominion is to be taken away. Though their lives will be prolonged, yet they will not have power to rule and govern, only as they are permitted. If you will read from the beginning of the 36th to the end of the 39th chapters of Ezekiel, you find much said, in regard to the heathen nations. “And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord,” etc. But the fourth power represents the nations of modern Christendom. They have not the privilege of the heathen, in having their lives prolonged. Why? Does the speaker mean to say that modern Christendom is more wicked than the heathen? Yes; the people of Christendom possess more light and knowledge than the heathen, and therefore, they are under the greater condemnation; for according to the light and knowledge they severally have, will they be judged. The more enlightened nations, so called, are rejecting the Gospel message which is being sent to them by divine authority; and for that reason their utter destruction is inevitable, and, as had been decreed, they must pass away. Their lives will not be prolonged. Not only the kingdoms and governments of Europe, and the western portion of Asia are to be thus visited, but also those who have grown out of these kingdoms, that have emigrated to this western hemisphere, and elsewhere. For instance, this great republic must pass away in the manner indicated unless the people repent. There is only one condition by which they can be preserved as a nation, and the Lord himself has decreed it. We can read it in the various revelations which God has given, respecting this land. The Book of Mormon, for instance, speaks in many places, of the overthrow of the government that should exist on this land if they should reject the divine message contained therein. Inasmuch as they repent not, the Lord has said that he would visit them in his anger, and that he would throw down all their strong-holds. And he further says, that he will cut off their horses out of their midst. This will doubtless be done through some great calamity or disease. He also says that he will cut off the cities of our land, that all manner of lying, deceits, hypocrisy, murders, priestcrafts, whoredoms and secret abominations shall be done away, having reference particularly to this nation. He says, too, “I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.” We are told, too, that the nature of these judgments is to be swift and terrible, coming upon them like a fierce wind, when they expect it not; when they are crying peace and safety, behold sudden destruction is at their doors.

I might dwell still longer on the judgments to come upon this American nation, according to modern revelation. In 1832 the Lord foretold to the Prophet Joseph Smith that there should be a great war between the Northern and Southern States. This revelation is published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, a standard work of the Church, and also in many languages, many years before the war commenced. At that early period we were told that the Southern States would rise against the Northern States, and the Northern against the Southern States in war, terminating in the deaths and misery of many souls. We were told also that this war would begin with the rebellion of South Carolina.

When I was a boy, a little over 20 years of age, I had the privilege of taking a copy of that revelation, and I carried it around with me, oftentimes reading it to the congregations that I preached to. Its subject matter formed a text from which I many times preached, as well as a topic of conversation with strangers, whose acquaintance I would happen to make in traveling from place to place.

How do you think such information was received by the people to whom it was imparted? They would not believe it; they had no idea of its being a revelation from God to them; they considered it one of the impositions that the “Mormons” had gotten up to delude the people. To tell them that this great government would be divided and go to war with each other, was something entirely foreign to their minds; it was something to which they paid heedless regard, ofttimes treating it with ridicule and laughter. I preached in the New England States, and in various portions of the Union, and such was the way these things were received. The shedding of blood was then one of the remotest feelings of the American people; yet it came to pass precisely as predicted, and we all know the results of that dreadful war. That war, we must remember, was only one solitary judgment, compared with what will come, and that, too, in the near future. It has been revealed that the time will come in the history of our nation, that one State will rise against another, one city against another, even every man’s hand shall be against his neighbor, until the whole Republic will be in general commotion and warfare. How and when this will take place, the Lord, in his wisdom, has not told us; but it is sufficient for us to say, that he has told us of the facts that such and such will be the case.

For aught we know, the fulfillment of this prophecy may grow out of politics. If the people are very nearly equally divided in politics, this feeling may run so high, in years to come, as to be the direct cause of war. And if this should be the case, it would very naturally spread to every neighborhood in the Union. One class of political opponents would rise up against the other class in the same city and country, and thus would arise a war of mobocracy.

If a war of this description should take place, who could carry on his business in safety? Who would feel safe to put his crops in the ground, or to carry on any enterprise? There would be fleeing from one State to another, and general confusion would exist throughout the whole Republic. Such eventually is to be the condition of this whole nation, if the people do not repent of their wickedness; and such a state of affairs means no more or less than the complete overthrow of the nation, and not only of this nation, but the nations of Europe, which form the feet and toes of that great image. They are the powers to be first broken; it is not the nation representing the head of gold, the remnant of the Babylonish Empire that still exists in Asia, that will be attacked first, neither is it the Persians and Medes, whose descendants still live; but the Lord will first break up those kingdoms which represent the feet and toes of the image, of which I have been speaking. After that, he will proceed to break in pieces the kingdoms that represent the brass, the silver, and the gold. Some are to be spared for a little season. The kingdom of God is to roll forth, and a certain person is to come, accompanied by a great host; the name of this person is the Ancient of Days. And who are they that compose the mighty host? Are they immortal beings? Doubtless most of them will be immortal Saints, but there may be some mortals among them. The being called the Ancient of Days will not be a mortal person, his glory is too great, he has passed through his mortality, and he will have the oversight of this numerous host, at least a hundred million of people.

Who would be the most likely person to fill this important position? He is called the Ancient of Days. Can you tell me, who the most ancient person is that lived on the earth, during the most ancient days? All, all will acknowledge that it is Adam. Inasmuch as he has proven himself a righteous man, it is right and proper that he should by divine appointment, have dominion over the righteous of his posterity, who should exist from his day, down to that period, when he comes in his glory; and this ten thousand times ten thousand spoken of will be the faithful of his own posterity. They shall stand before him, and certain books are then to be opened. If we understand the nature of those records, we should doubtless find much written concerning kingdoms, nations and individuals. They are the records which are kept in heaven, in which all things pertaining to the peoples of the earth are recorded. Or, as the Book of Mormon expresses it, giving the language of the Savior when on this American continent, that “all things are written by the Father;” that is, by his authority, by his direction are all things written. The records of the nations—their rise and decadence, with everything pertaining to them, in a national capacity, will be written. Then there will be the records of families and of individuals, even of all people and tongues of the earth. The books will be opened, and the judgment will sit. What judgment? Not the final judgment, because that is to take place more than a thousand years after this. This judgment refers to the nations that will then exist, and it is out of these records and by this judgment will they be judged. The calamities spoken of will take place in fulfillment of the Scriptures, and of the great purposes of Jehovah.

It may be asked, Do you think this vast congregation will actually come, and, if so, to what place will they come? I will read a new revelation upon the subject given May 18, 1838, almost thirty-nine years ago. It was given when the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Latter-day Saints, had gathered themselves together in Missouri, about forty or fifty miles north of Jackson County. They had assembled at a place that they called Spring Hill, and the Lord revealed to Joseph, on that occasion, things concerning this great event. This place, Spring Hill, is alluded to by the Lord, in this revelation, as being anciently called Adam-ondi-Ahman, because it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his children, or the place where the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. Here, then, we have a key to the important personage, called the Ancient of Days, that he is our father Adam, and that he is to sit in judgment, among certain numbers of his children, in that certain region of country.

You may inquire why he should come to that particular place, on this western continent? The reason is, because he once dwelt there. You may say, I really thought that Adam lived in Asia, and if he did, we have no account of his leaving there. I will read another revelation, contained in this Book of Doctrine and Covenants, given on the 8th day of July, 1838, wherein it is represented that Adam occupied that region of country. The revelation was given in Far West, Missouri. I will only read a few verses—

“For have I not the fowls of heaven, and also the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the mountains? Have I not made the earth? Do I not hold the destinies of all the armies of the nations of the earth? Therefore will I not make solitary places to bud and to blossom, and to bring forth in abundance, saith the Lord. Is there not room enough upon the mountains of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and upon the plains of Olaha Shinehah, or the land where Adam dwelt, that you should covet that which is but the drop, and neglect the more weighty matters? Therefore come up hither unto the land of my people, even Zion.”

We have then an understanding that it was the place where Adam dwelt. Perhaps you may be anxious to know what “Ondi-Ahman” means. It means the place where Adam dwelt. “Ahman” signifies God. The whole term means Valley of God, where Adam dwelt. It is in the original language spoken by Adam, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph.

Next, let us turn to another passage, referring to the same subject, contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, on page 355, verse 53, being part of a revelation given on the 28th of March, 1835—

“Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainaan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch and Methusaleh, 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 Archangel. And the Lord administered comfort to 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 for ever. And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation, and notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation These things were all written in the Book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time.”

Here then we perceive that the way Adam obtained these promises was in this Conference held by the great Patriarch, wherein he called his children and his children’s children together for eight generations, all of whom were righteous men hence their names are particularly mentioned, while millions of his children, descendants that were wicked, have not their names mentioned. The righteous of all his posterity were assembled with him, in that place, in the valley called Adam-ondi-Ahman. What a glorious Conference that would be, a Conference wherein the Lord himself appeared? I think if the Latter-day Saints thought they could behold the face of the Lord, they would gather together at our Conferences, and let nothing hinder; there would not many righteous stop back, but they would generally come together from all parts of the Territory. I do not know that those holy men who assembled in Conference with Adam had any promise beforehand that they should behold the face of the Lord; but they went in faith, in obedience to the call of their aged father; they no doubt exercised much earnestness of spirit, in order to obtain a blessing from the hands of the Lord. The Lord answered their prayers, and he appeared to them, and gave them much consolation, and he set Adam to be at their head, to be a prince over them and over all his posterity for ever. And I have no doubt, if we had the Book of Enoch referred to in the revelation, in which book all the prophecies predicted by this aged man are written, we would find something predicted about his posterity now living. I think he would tell about his coming as the Ancient of Days, the great Prince, to his posterity. He told his children in that grand Conference all about it, and they understood it, and it was all written in the Book of Enoch, to be testified to in due time. These perhaps are some of the books that are to be opened on that grand occasion.

You may ask, Why the necessity of this vast multitude from the heavens to assemble here on the earth? It is to fulfill many prophecies besides that of Daniel; it is to fulfill prophecies that have been predicted by all holy men that understood the great events of the latter days, that the Saints who are in heaven are to come down here on the earth, and are to be organized here on the earth, and are to be united with the Saints on the earth, as one grand company, each one understanding his place. I do not think there will be any contentions or jealousies, as for instance, whether the high Priests are greater than the Seventies, but all will understand their proper place and position, because their positions will be pointed out to them by the Ancient of Days, the father and prince of all, even down to those last ordained to the Priesthood. Perhaps these records will recall the positions we are all to occupy; for I believe, to the Lord was known the end from the beginning.

But why all this? Why should it be given to all to know their proper places? Why should the books be opened, and why should the fourth beast be destroyed and the body given to the burning flame? It is explained in the same connection—“I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven.”

To whom does this glorious personage come? He comes to the Ancient of Days. What, that personage coming in glory, majesty and dominion, with the clouds of heaven, to the Ancient of Days! What for? In order that he might receive from him the kingdom, in its order, every person standing in his proper position, everything organized after the most perfect order. The Ancient of Days delivers up the kingdom, thus completed, to the Son of Man, whose dominion becomes so great that all peoples, nations and languages serve him; and his dominion is everlasting and shall have no end.

I do not know how there could be anything more perfect for the coming of Christ than what is here recorded. It is certainly a great and grand work; and without such a work everything would be in confusion at his coming. How great and glorious will be that period when Jesus will come in the clouds of heaven! He makes this preparation beforehand, so that there may be a people ready to receive him. People of mortality, as well as immortal beings, all knowing their positions, will form the grand Council, and they will be organized ready to receive Jesus when he comes to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords upon this earth.

Do you think there will then be any quarrelling about political or other matters pertaining to the government? I do not think there will then exist, in that grand Council, the condition of affairs which we see presented here in our own nation. There will be no quarrelling about a president or any other position. All things then will be regulated by the law of God. That will be recognized in those days. A feeling of perfect unanimity will exist among the people, and division and dissension will be unknown. We have had so much division in our country, and among the nations, for so many generations that it has become a common thing among the people. In order to be enlightened and independent and liberal, it is thought that every man must be against his neighbor, and every man must set up his judgment in relation to matters, though it may be in contradistinction to that of his neighbor’s. All this, in a government like our republic, is acknowledged as legitimate. Let a man now be brought forward as a candidate for the presidency of the United States, against whose private character not a syllable has been uttered and you will soon see even the most respectable of our newspapers turn with slander against him; everything they can imagine having a tendency to injure him, in the estimation of the public, will be said of him; and if the people generally believed it, he would be considered one of the wickedest of men, and his character would be blackened from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This cannot be a system of true republicanism; it must be the result of the imperfections of fallen man, and consequently it must pass away and be forgotten. But when the kingdom of heaven shall be fully established, I do not think there will be the least division; everything will be conducted perfectly; and hence peace and union will exist. Those who will dictate the affairs of that kingdom will be one, even the same as the Father and the Son are one. Do you suppose the Father quarrels with the Son about matters of government? Not in the least; they are perfectly united. Why are they thus united? Because each one understands that the other is in possession of knowledge, and wisdom, and purity, and holiness, and both being intelligent and pure, comprehending the end from the beginning, therefore both are in perfect accord with each other in all things. You will remember the prayer of the Savior, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” He prayed that all they who should believe might become one, even as he and the Father are one. But was he not mistaken? Would he not do away with our liberty and independence, if all who believed should become one? Such a condition would not give us the opportunity of quarrelling with each other. Unity is the greatest and most heavenly principle of government. If we can find out what is right, would it not promote the peace and welfare of all to carry out in unity every principle of right, and discourage that which is wrong?

Another prayer, one that is generally used, and which Jesus gave to his disciples, was, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” etc. His government must be established here, and his will must be done in perfection, as it is in heavenly worlds. It is folly in the extreme for man to argue that our liberty would be curtailed were this prayer to be answered on our heads to-day. On the contrary our independence would be enhanced; for we would then, as a matter of course, be more like unto the great Captain of our salvation. If the will of God were really done on earth as in heaven, a state of peace and happiness would exist, there would be little complaining or murmuring, and the people would have entire confidence in each other. On going to their beds at night they would have no need to go to the trouble of locking their doors and seeing that everything was secure from theft, for there would be no thieving, no one to wrong his neighbor, in any way whatever. If you had anything you wished left in the open air during the day or night, it would not matter how valuable it might be, you could do so without entertaining the least fear of anybody taking it from you.

This will be the order of things to exist here on the earth, and which will be recognized by all nations that will then exist, and it will continue for a thousand years. And at the expiration of that time this kind of government will not even then be done away, although as many as can be influenced by Satan to apostatize will do so, at that time, and there will be a great division of the people, at the end of the thousand years. The Saints then, will have become very numerous, probably more numerous than ever before; and they will be obliged to gather together in one place, as we now do from the four quarters of the earth. They will have to pitch their camps round about, for the “beloved city” will not be large enough for them. It is called by John the Revelator, the camp of the Saints, a beloved city, where the Saints gather to, from the nations of the earth. Satan will gather his army, consisting of all those angels that fell and left the courts of heaven, when he did, besides all those that will apostatize from the truth, at the end of the thousand years: they too will mingle with the immortal ones of Satan’s army, all being of the same spirit and mind. He with his army will come against the Saints, and the beloved city, and encompass them round about. His army will be so great that it will be able to come upon the Saints on all sides: he is to encompass their camp. Because of the favorable position he is to hold, in that great last battle, and because of the vast number of his army, he doubtless believes that he will get the mastery and subdue the earth and possess it. I do not think he fully understands all about the designs of God: for John tells us when this great army shall be gathered in position, around the camp of the Saints, that “fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them?” Devoured whom? Not those who are fallen angels, for they have no bodies to be devoured; but this fire from heaven will devour the wicked apostate race who will have listened to them and who will have joined Satan’s army; they will be consumed, consequently the kingdom of Christ will not be overcome by Satan or taken away from the Saints. Remember the words of Daniel—“The kingdom shall not be destroyed, neither shall it be given to another people.” Though they apostatize at the end of the thousand years, though they seek every possible plan to overthrow the kingdom, though they may gather up their strength and have Satan and his fallen angels to fight with them, yet that kingdom that was organized at the beginning of the thousand years will still exist. Fire is the great agency that will devour the wicked, after which this camp and beloved city and all the inhabitants belonging to it will be caught up to heaven.

Then comes the period and time when the earth must undergo its final change, far exceeding any former changes. For at the beginning of the Millennium, the mountains will melt, and flow down like wax at the presence of the Lord; then the earth is to be moved exceedingly and tossed to and fro. Though the ocean is to roll back to its former position; although these and many other wonderful changes will take place when Christ comes, they are nothing compared to the changes that are to take place after the thousand years, after Satan’s army is destroyed. Then the great white throne appears. There, after the holy city and the New Jerusalem are taken up to heaven, the earth will flee away from before the presence of him who sits upon the throne. The earth itself is to pass through a similar change to that which we have to pass through. As our bodies return again to mother dust, forming constituent portions thereof, and no place is found for them as organized bodies; so it will be with this earth. Not only will the elements melt with fervent heat, but the great globe itself will pass away. It will cease to exist as an organized world. It will cease to exist as one of the worlds that are capable of being inhabited. Fire devours all things, converting the earth into its original elements; it passes away into space.

But not one particle of the elements which compose the earth will be destroyed or annihilated. They will all exist and be brought together again by a greater organizing power than is known to man. The earth must be resurrected again, as well as our bodies; its elements will be re-united, and they will be brought together by the power of God’s word. He will then so organize these elements now constituted upon this earth, that there will be no curse attached to any of its compound thus made. Now death is connected with them, but then everything will be organized in the most perfect order, just the same as it was when the Lord first formed it. He then pronounced everything as “very good.” It could not be otherwise; a being that is infinite in wisdom and knowledge, and a being that had power in proportion to it, could organize an earth into a most perfect form; and he did so and pronounced the same very good. But man brought a curse on the earth. Man brought a change, not only on man, but upon the animal creation, and not only upon the animal creation, but upon all the elements of which the earth was formed. This curse was, as it were, transfused throughout every particle of the creation, so that wherever you turn your eyes death, and destruction, and sorrow exist. But the same Being that organized it, and pronounced it very good, will organize it again. It will come forth again from its condition of chaos, by the power of his word, a celestial body, prepared for the abode of a higher order of beings, those who have kept the celestial law, those who, through obedience to the laws of God, become exalted. They are the ones who will have the privilege of inheriting the earth for ever and ever. When he gets it all prepared, he will bring down the inhabitants thereof, the holy city, the New Jerusalem.

I propose making a few remarks in relation to that city, for the benefit of strangers, should there be any present. We look upon the New Jerusalem, separate from the old Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem will be re-built by the Jews upon its former site, and during the Millennium it will become a very glorious city, and its inhabitants will be a blessed and honored people. We are told by the Prophet Ether, that the Lord will build a city on this American continent, which will be called the New Jerusalem. The reason it will be called new is because it never before existed here. Both of these cities will be caught up, when the earth undergoes its final dissolution, and when made new, they will come back again, the New Jerusalem first, followed by the old Jerusalem.

A great many have supposed that the description of the glory and beauty of the city that comes down from heaven was the New Jerusalem, but it is not so. That description given by John in relation to the second city, was a holy city—old Jerusalem. We have an account of its walls and the height of them, we have, too, an account of its twelve gates, its houses and its inhabitants, and also of the glory of God that shall be in the city. But have we any enlarged description of the New Jerusalem? No. I have no doubt, however, that the city of the New Jerusalem will be equally glorious with the one that John saw and described.

John saw the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven and speaks of its inhabitants. Then one of the angels took him away to a high mountain, and showed him the second city, when descending to the earth.

The Book of Mormon speaks very plainly upon this subject. The Prophet Ether, as recorded in the latter part of the book, speaking of these two cities, says, that both are built by man, under the direction of the Almighty; and that the Lord has decreed that when they are built, they shall not waste away nor be destroyed. There are a great many of our houses that are wasting. You may build them of granite, and half a thousand of years will begin to waste them away. Thus it is with whatever material, used in building our cities; while man is under the curse there will a constant wasting away of his habitations. But not so, with regard to the old Jerusalem, which is to be re-built; and not so with regard to the New Jerusalem, which is to be built on this Continent. Why not? Because God is all-powerful, and when he makes a decree in relation to anything, it must be fulfilled. If he said to the ancient Nephites, Record your prophecies and writings upon plates of gold, and I will preserve them, that they shall not wax dim, that time shall not have power to waste them; but the records shall be preserved, he was abundantly able to preserve them by his power, and fulfill his promise. The same Being, who is able to preserve the sacred records, has power to preserve sacred and holy habitations.

Therefore, Latter-day Saints, when you return to build up the waste places of Zion, and when you build up the New Jerusalem upon the place that he has appointed, whatever materials shall be used, by the blessing of the Priesthood, which God has ordained, these materials will endure forever: they will continue during the thousand years, without waste, and when they shall be caught up to heaven, when the earth flees away, they will still endure in all their perfection and beauty. When these cities shall descend again upon the new earth, in its immortal and eternal state, they will still be as endurable as the earth itself, no more to be subject to the curse, and therefore, will no more waste; death is gone—everything that is corruptible in its nature has ceased, so far as this habitable globe is concerned, and all sorrow and mourning are done away.

May God bless the Latter-day Saints, and may our minds be kept steadfast upon the nature and glory of the promises to the righteous, and the great events that must be fulfilled, looking for the coming of the Church of the First Born, looking for the day of peace, the day of rest, when Jesus shall reign king of kings as he now reigns in heaven.

May the Lord stir up the minds of his people that they may seek for those things in the future, and may we put away from our minds everything calculated in its nature to shut out the spirit of the living God from our hearts, is my earnest prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Feelings in the Temple, etc.

George Q. Cannon

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Temple, at St. George, on Wednesday morning, April 4, 1877, at the First of the Two Days’ Meetings Held by the St. George Stake of Zion. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

It is with peculiar feelings I arise to speak to you, my brethren and sisters, for the short time remaining, in this holy Temple. If I were to describe my feelings on entering and worshiping in this house, I would occupy more time than remains to be used, and I do not know if I were to attempt to do so I could succeed. Each one present can the better estimate the feelings of his brother from those entertained by himself.

I was here last fall, and then my emotions upon entering this room were of the most peculiar character. I felt overpowered, and I have felt so each time I have entered the building. It is a holy place, and all those who come here should be holy; they should examine themselves, and finding themselves guilty of wrong, they should make up their minds in the strength and power of God to put it away. I do not think that any person who has any of the love of the truth, the love of righteousness, or the fear of God abiding in his heart, can enter this building without being impressed with the sacredness of the spirit which reigns here, and that seems to pervade even the atmosphere we breathe. My fervent prayer to God is that this building will be kept clean and pure, free from every act and spirit antagonistic to the holy influences that God has promised to bestow upon the pure in heart who enter herein; and that this building will stand as long as it shall be necessary to fulfil the purposes of God.

The remarks we have heard from President Wells are very true, and are so in keeping with the Scriptures, that every Latter-day Saint who has heard them, must be satisfied of their truth. It is always a cause of joy to me that, in the providences of God our heavenly Father, the sacred records we have, which have come down through so many ages, and which are recognized by Christendom to be the words of God (at least acknowledged by all Christians to be so, whether they believe it or not); I say that in the providence of God these records have come down to us in as pure condition as we find them. Because it is a comfort to a people like we are, whose names are cast out as evil, and who are derided and visited with every kind of contumely, accused of every conceivable crime, to know that the doctrine and ordinances that we believe in have a similarity to, and are in strict accordance with, those of the recognized word of God. We need not go to the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants alone, for the proofs of the truth of the work we are engaged in; for in appealing to those books we only appeal to a corroborative testimony showing that God’s words and dealings with the children of men are the same in all ages of the world. While he gave his revealed word to the ancients on the Eastern Continent, he also gave to the inhabitants of the Western Continent his word, and they both agree. He has also given to us, his people in the last days, his word. By these three witnesses, or these three divine records, his word is corroborated and maintained. Having received the word of God from these various sources, we can rejoice this day in the great truth that the doctrines we teach, the ordinances we have submitted to, and that have been and are being administered to us, and that our lives when we live as we should, are in strict accordance with these three records, which we know to be the word of God, but particularly in accordance with the Bible, which the Christian world acknowledge to be true. This has always been a great cause of joy to me, and I have been greatly strengthened in knowing that no reference could be made to any part, or to any doctrine or principle of the Bible, which was not believed in and practised by the Latter-day Saints to the extent of their ability, that is, so far as the doctrine or requirement was applicable to them. Of course, where distinct revelations were given to people under peculiar conditions and of a peculiar character, as for instance, Noah or Abraham, or the disciples when they were commanded to flee from Jerusalem, the common sense of all men would suggest that such requirements were not applicable to us. It is not necessary for us to build an ark, or to do any of these things, especially commanded to others; but where general revelations, doctrines, ordinances, or commandments are revealed or communicated to the people of God, we as a people have received all such, and they form part of our faith and belief, and we, to some extent at least, are engaged in carrying them out. In conjunction with these glorious facts, precisely the same consequences or results flow from the teachings of the servants of God in these days as in the days of old. God confirmed the word by signs following. The adversary in the same spirit of hatred that characterized his attacks upon the work of God in all ages, is in these last days as bitter and as determined to cause the same results to follow the preaching of the servants of God, and the administration of the ordinances of life and salvation, as at any previous time in the world’s history, thus showing that the old antagonism that existed between God and Belial, the old animosity that actuated the mind of those whom he inflamed to crucify the Son of Man, and to destroy his Apostles, had not died out, but was as determined in this our day to effect the ruin of those who believe in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have submitted to its ordinances, as at any previous time in the history of the world.

If we had believed all that is taught in the Scriptures, and had not received the promised blessings; or if we had believed in all written in the Scriptures, and had received the promised blessings, and had not received the hatred and animosity of the wicked, there might have been cause for doubt as to our having obeyed the Gospel. We might have been assailed with a fear that some thing was lacking in the system, and that, therefore, we could not be the people of God after all. But when, in addition to the doctrine that God has revealed, and the ordinances of life and salvation that he has restored and commanded us to obey, that is, to believe in Jesus Christ, to repent truly and sincerely of all our sins, to be baptized for remission of them, by one holding the authority, and then receive the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, and its gifts and blessings and its powers, for our names to be cast out as evil, to have our names heralded through the earth as the most ungodly and wicked and abominable people that live upon the earth, to have men think that in destroying us they would be doing God’s service; I say that when these characteristics attend the administration and ordinances of the House of God, we can rejoice even as the ancients did in the knowledge that there is no peculiarity of feature pertaining to the ancient Gospel from the days of Adam to John the Revelator, or from the days of Jared and his brother to Moroni, or from the days of Joseph and Hyrum to this our day, that does not attend the Gospel now. Not only is there no feature, characteristic or peculiarity absent, but there is no sign or evidence lacking of its being the same work of God. Precisely the same signs follow now, and precisely the same external evidences follow the preaching of the Gospel now, as anciently. Having these signs and evidences and blessings, should we not, as a people, rejoice exceedingly? Should not our hearts be full of thanksgiving to Almighty God, that, however humble and obscure and illiterate, however contemptible in the minds of the children of men, our doctrines, lives and characters may be, our names are numbered with the holiest, the best and the greatest that have ever trod the footstool of God, that our names are numbered with Jesus the first-born, the Son of God, and with Enoch, Abraham, the friend of God (distinguished above all the sons of men by that glorious evidence of God’s nearness to him, being called his friend), and with all the holy Prophets whose lives are living testimonies to the divinity of their calling? If we would enjoy the society and glory of such personages we must be willing to suffer as they did; and if not so, we can not reasonably expect to be numbered among the happy throng who are to live and reign with Jesus. When we shall have done all they have done, passed through and experienced the same blessings that they have, drunk the same cup, and been baptized with the same baptism, and, when necessary, laid down our lives as they have in testimony of the truth, then we can reign with them.

It is easy to die in the heat of battle, or when men are selected for some heroic duty, and the eyes of the world are upon them; but this is not the manner in which the servants and people of God have lost their lives. Jesus was crucified between two thieves, the most ignominious death to which any one could be subjected, and those who crucified him believed him to be worthy of such a fate. They disseminated among the people such slanders and misrepresentations of his works and actions that many felt justified in taking the responsibility of shedding his blood upon themselves and their posterity.

Thus it always has been with the servants and Saints of God. They do not die when their lives are taken by violence in a manner which the world calls heroic or glorious; but as malefactors, the ignominious death administered to those who are slain for the testimony of Jesus, and thus it always has been with God’s children, the brightest, the best and noblest, that ever lived. They have had to lay down their lives as Joseph did, slain in the prison where he was confined. The same self-sacrifice, the same godlike self-sacrifice is required at the hands of the servants and Saints of God in this our day, as was required of those in ancient days, when they were cast into dens of wild beasts, into the fiery furnace, or when sawn asunder and subjected to every kind of violent death because of their supposed wickedness.

I thank God this day for the restoration of this truth. I thank God that I was ever counted worthy to live in the day when the revelations of Jesus are restored. I thank God, with all my heart, that I am a member of this Church; I think it the most glorious honor and dignity that could be conferred upon me, and more so in the goodness of God in permitting me to officiate in the holy Priesthood. I thank him too that he has inspired his servants to lead forth his people and bring us here, and that through the kind providences of God and the wise counsels and administrations of his servants, we are blessed with those glorious privileges in being permitted to rear a habitation to the name of the Most High in which we worship this day; this chaste, this grand, this magnificent house of God.

When I reflect upon what God has done for us, in addition to that which I have alluded to, it gives me deeper gratitude still in knowing that in all the revelations given us concerning ourselves and our future glory, there has been no concealment concerning the destiny of our dead who have passed away without a knowledge of the Gospel. There would have been something lacking in our joy had this revelation not been made, for we could not have contemplated our own happiness in the eternal worlds with any degree of satisfaction, if we had been disturbed by the thought that our ancestors could not partake of the same blessings we had received. But God in his mercy has revealed his purposes to us, so that there are none that understand the Gospel who cannot enter into this house and glorify God in his heart because of the fullness of these blessings; and because we know the Lord possesses all the glorious attributes we have ascribed to him.

You enquire of the enlightened men of Christendom respecting their dead, and they readily acknowledge it to be a subject they know nothing about. A great many think that the heathen nations who have died in ignorance are consigned to the miseries of a never-ending hell. Who with such feelings and belief can glorify God in their hearts and ascribe to him the glorious attributes of mercy and justice, and recognize him as a just and merciful being?

But when we received the Gospel, there came with it a distinct message of mercy, a message of glad tidings of great joy, that not only the living should receive the testimony of Jesus, not only should the living rejoice in the glorious principles of life and salvation, but the dead themselves should hear the voice of the servants of God, and the glad tidings of salvation should be proclaimed in their hearing, and through the exercising of their agency in receiving these truths, their prison doors could be unlocked and they come forth and receive, as though in the flesh, the same blessings, exaltation and glory, according to their good wishes and good deeds. Thus has been swept from our minds every cause of doubt respecting our dead, and our hearts warmed towards them with joy unspeakable, and consequently we combine our efforts to erect such a building, such a holy house as this is. Thus we, in our hearts, witness to God the Eternal Father, that we have received indeed of a truth the testimony that he has given to us, that we believe the same to be true, and that we will, with the aid and power which he bestows upon us, devote our entire lives to the interests of his kingdom, bequeathing the same spirit and energy to our children after us, that they too may labor, with all their might, mind and strength and the ability with which God shall endow them, to carry on and extend the great work of redemption and salvation until every son and daughter of Adam shall receive the glad tidings of salvation, and shall be administered for in the holy temples which shall be prepared for that express purpose.

That God may help us to do this with all our might and strength is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The United Order—The Duty of the Priesthood, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference, held in the Temple, at St. George, Friday morning, April 6, 1877. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I would like to say a great deal during this Conference to the Latter-day Saints, but I shall be able to talk but little, and therefore when I do speak I wish you to listen, and this I believe all of you will do.

I think that, as a people, we are nearer alike in the sentiments and feelings of our hearts, than in our words. From the most excellent discourse which we have heard this morning from brother Cannon, I believe that the people might gather the idea that we shall be expected to divide our property equally one with another, and that this will constitute the United Order. I will give you my view, in as few words as possible with regard to this subject, which I will promise you are correct.

The Lord wishes and requires us to develop the ability within us, and to utilize the ability of these men, women and children called Latter-day Saints.

The most of the inhabitants of the earth are incapable of dictating and devising for themselves. In many instances there is reason for this, for they are opposed to that degree that for the lack of opportunity they are not able to develop the talents and ability that are within them. This is the condition of the people of most of the nations of the earth. All those who come out from the world, espousing the Gospel of Jesus, place themselves in a condition to be taught of him, but instead of teaching them personally, he has raised up his authorized teachers to do this work, and what does he expect of us to do? He requires, absolutely requires, of us to take these people who have named his name through baptism, and teach them how to live, and how to become healthy, wealthy and wise. This is our duty.

Supposing that the property of the whole community were divided to-day equally amongst all, what might we expect? Why a year from to-day we should need another division, for some would waste and squander it away, while others would add, to their portion. The skill of building up and establishing the Zion of our God on the earth is to take the people and teach them how to take care of themselves and that which the Lord has entrusted to their care, and to use all that we command to glorify his holy name. This is the work of regenerating, of elevating mankind to the higher plane of the Gospel; in other words, of simply teaching them their duty.

With regard to our property, as I have told you many times, the property which we inherit from our Heavenly Father is our time, and the power to choose in the disposition of the same. This is the real capital that is bequeathed unto us by our Heavenly Father; all the rest is what he may be pleased to add unto us. To direct, to counsel and to advise in the disposition of our time, pertains to our calling as God’s servants, according to the wisdom which he has given and will continue to give unto us as we seek it

Now, if we could take this people, in their present condition, and teach them how to sustain and maintain themselves and a little more, we would add to that which we already have; but to take what we have and divide amongst or give to people, without teaching them how to earn and produce, would be no more nor less than to introduce the means of reducing them to a state of poverty.

I do not wish for one moment to recognize the idea that in order to establish the United Order our property has to be divided equally among the people, to let them do what they please with it. But the idea is to get the people into the same state of unity in all things temporal, that we find ourselves in with regard to things spiritual. Then let those who possess the ability and wisdom direct the labors of those not so endowed, until they too develop the talents within them and in time acquire the same degree of ability.

What do you say to this doctrine? Is it right or wrong? [The congregation answered, “It is right.”]

We want to get at a correct understanding respecting all these matters which so materially concern us. What would be the first lesson necess[a]ry to teach the people, were we to commence to direct their labors to the great end of becoming of one heart and one mind in the Lord, of establishing Zion and being filled with the power of God? It would be to stop expending and lavishing upon our dear selves all needless adornments and to stop purchasing the importations of Babylon. We can ourselves produce every thing necessary for our consumption, our wear, our convenience and comfort, right here at home. We can produce and manufacture the material necessary to beautify our lands, gardens and orchards; to beautify and furnish our houses, and to adorn the beautiful bodies which we inhabit without sending our means to France, to England and other countries for things which can a little better be made at home among ourselves. The material of which these cushions were made, which adorn the pulpits, were produced here. After it was taken from the sheep, it was manufactured at our Provo factory into the cloth you now see; and the material of which the silk trimmings were made, was raised, spun, and made up by some of our sisters in this Territory. We might exhibit to you handkerchiefs, dress patterns, and shawls, all of silk, made by our sisters out of the raw material produced here through the enterprise and industry of a few. These are only simple specimens of what can be done. Suppose I were to say, “Ladies, how do you like them?” Do you not think they would say, “Pretty well?” We can improve on what has been done, and we want you to do so. Plant out the mulberry tree, and raise the silk, and let your dresses, your shawls, your bonnets and your ribbons, and everything you use to clothe and adorn your bodies, be the workmanship of your own hands. Let the brethren take hold and carry out in every department the same principle of home manufacture until we shall be able to produce the materials, and make up every article necessary to clothe and adorn the body, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. Then we shall become a self-sustaining and growing people, and we shall have to do it. All this is in the elements in which we live, and we need the skill to utilize the elements to our growth and wealth, and this is true financiering.

We can now see the growth of the Latter-day Saints, and it is marvelous to us to see the multitude of little towns springing up here and there, and we are under the necessity of saying, Give us more room, for the older settlements are thickening up, and the people are spreading out and filling up new valleys continually. You can see the shoots putting forth and taking root; still the old stock is good, is alive and rapidly increasing.

It has been asked if we intend to settle more valleys. Why certainly we expect to fill the next valley and then the next, and the next, and so on. It has been the cry of late, through the columns of the newspapers, that the “Mormons” are going into Mexico! That is quite right, we calculate to go there. Are we going back to Jackson County? Yes. When? As soon as the way opens up. Are we all going? O no! Of course not. The country is not large enough to hold our present numbers. When we do return there, will there be any less remaining in these mountains than we number today? No, there may be a hundred then for every single one that there is now. It is folly in men to suppose that we are going to break up these our hard earned homes to make others in a new country. We intend to hold our own here, and also penetrate the north and the south, the east and the west, there to make others and to raise the ensign of truth. This is the work of God, that marvelous work and a wonder referred to by ancient men of God, who saw it in its incipiency, as a stone cut out of the mountains without hands, but which rolled and gathered strength and magnitude until it filled the whole earth. We will continue to grow, to increase and spread abroad, and the powers of earth and hell combined cannot hinder it. All who are found opposing God and his people will be swept away and their names be forgotten in the earth. As the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum were murdered, and as they massacred our brethren and sisters in Missouri, so they would have served us years and years ago, if they had had the power to do so. But the Lord Almighty has said, Thus far thou shalt go and no farther, and hence we are spared to carry on his work. We are in his hands, the nations of the earth are in his hands; he rules in the midst of the armies of heaven and executes his pleasure on the earth. The hearts of all living are in his hands and he turns them as the rivers of water are turned.

We have no business here other than to build up and establish the Zion of God. It must be done according to the will and law of God after that pattern and order by which Enoch built up and perfected the former-day Zion, which was taken away to heaven, hence the saying went abroad that Zion had fled. By and by it will come back again, and as Enoch prepared his people to be worthy of translation, so we through our faithfulness must prepare ourselves to meet Zion from above when it shall return to earth, and to abide the brightness and glory of its coming.

My brethren and sisters, I do really delight in hearing our brethren speak on this holy order of heaven. Unity of purpose and action, in carrying out the will of our Father, has been my theme all the day long; but I have continually plead with the Saints not to waste their substance upon the lust of the eye and the flesh, for that is contrary to the will and commandments of God. I wish to say that whoever have faith enough to inherit the celestial kingdom will find that their inheritances will be upon this earth. This earth is our home; by and by it will be sanctified and glorified, and become a fit dwelling place for the sanctified, and they will dwell upon it for ever and ever. I will further say I labor for the earth, I never mean to be satisfied until the whole earth is yielded to Christ and his people. When brother George Q. tells us we should not labor for the earth and the things of this world, he means we should not labor with sinful motives, and to gratify the lusts of the flesh. But if we possessed the treasure of the Gentile world, could we not send our Elders to the ends of the earth, bearing the precious Gospel to all living? Could we not sustain their families during their absence? Could we not build Temple after Temple and otherwise hasten on the work of redemption? Yes. But keep the people in poverty and how are we to accomplish this great work? I say, let us gather and accumulate the things of the earth in the manner indicated by the Lord, and then devote it to God and the building up of his kingdom. What do you say to this doctrine, is it right or wrong? [The congregation said, “It is right.”] What little property I have I wish it to be devoted to the building up of Zion, and I suppose I have as much as any other man in the Church. I am always ready to receive and take care of the blessings that God showers upon me, and am always ready and willing to devote the same to the building up of his kingdom.

Many of you may have heard what certain journalists have had to say about Brigham Young being opposed to free schools. I am opposed to free education as much as I am opposed to taking away property from one man and giving it to another who knows not how to take care of it. But when you come to the fact, I will venture to say that I school ten children to every one that those do who complain so much of me. I now pay the school fees of a number of children who are either orphans or sons and daughters of poor people. But in aiding and blessing the poor I do not believe in allowing my charities to go through the hands of a set of robbers who pocket nine-tenths themselves, and give one-tenth to the poor. Therein is the difference between us; I am for the real act of doing and not saying. Would I encourage free schools by taxation? No! That is not in keeping with the nature of our work; we should be as one family, our hearts and hands united in the bonds of the everlasting covenant; our interests alike, our children receiving equal opportunities in the school-room and the college.

We have to-day, more children between the ages of 5 and 20 years, who can read and write, than any State or Territory of the Union of a corresponding number of inhabitants. This is not exactly sustained by the statistics published of a few of the States, but from what we know of them we believe it to be the fact.

On the whole we have as good school-houses as can be found, and it is our right to have better ones, and to excel in everything that is good.

As to my health I feel many times that I could not live an hour longer, but I mean to live just as long as I can. I know not how soon the messenger will call for me, but I calculate to die in the harness. Amen.

The Lord Rules—The Hand of God in Persecution, etc.

Brigham Young

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, May 6, 1877, After Addresses by Elders Orson Pratt and George Q. Cannon. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I take the liberty of saying a few words on this occasion to both Saints and sinners. That expression brings to my mind at once—Where are the Saints? and who are they? And who are the sinners? We are all sinners; but there is quite a portion of the congregation who are trying to be Saints. For those who profess to be Saints I have a few texts of Scripture. With regard to those who believe the truth and desire to do it; to all who wish to live and preserve yourselves in the truth, in the love of God, I wish to say, they whom God loves he chastens. This is so, whether we believe it or not. If we have not received chastisement, we receive not that witness, that assurance, to testify to us that we love him. Another text of Scripture: The wicked are a rod in the hand of God to chasten his people. If the Lord loves us and we love him, we may expect to be chastened; and it is not joyous at the time of receiving the chastisement; it is grievous; but if we are exercised by grace and the spirit of truth, it will yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

I wish to whisper in the ears of the Latter-day Saints, I mean those who profess to be Saints, Know ye that the Lord reigns, and that the hearts of all living are in his hands. He turns the hearts of the children of men as the rivers of waters are turned. He rules in the armies of heaven, and does his pleasure upon the earth. When he wills, no man can hinder it; when he is disposed to open the door, it is not in the power of man to shut it; and when he closes the door it is not in the power of man to open it. Remember this, Latter-day Saints, and all the Christian world, the Pagan, Infidel and Jewish world, and everybody in the world; and hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and know ye that God lives, that he has spoken from the heavens, and has sent forth his everlasting Gospel to the children of men, that through obedience to the same they may be saved; and if they reject this message they will be damned. We cannot help it, it is not our business, it is not our doctrine, it is the doctrine of him whom we serve, of him whom we obey, of him who holds us in existence, who gives us breath and being, and we have a right to believe in Him, to love and serve him and to build up and establish his kingdom; and we are doing it.

If I were to tell you one half of the things that I know in many particulars it would astonish the half hearted who have but little or no faith, and who do not understand the workings of the providences of God among the children of men. But as to the persecution, it is nothing at all, neither one way nor another, only to purify the Saints and prepare the nations for the good or evil, for the Lord Almighty to send forth his judgments to cleanse the earth, to sanctify it, and to justify the righteous and condemn the guilty, and to prepare the way for the coming of the Son of Man. I wish to say to you, to those who are in the truth, as well as to those who are out of the truth, if we did not have to bear the iron hand of persecution, the principles we believe in, which attract the attention of the good and the evil upon the earth and which occupy so many tongues and circumscribe their philosophy, would be embraced by thousands who are now indifferent to them. The evildoer would crowd upon our borders; and we have plenty of them now without receiving any more. They would crowd into this Church. And this is the reason why brother George Q. Cannon says, he is pleased and rejoiced because of this persecution. We should be satisfied with it, we should acknowledge the hand of God in it, and say: The will of the Lord be done and not ours. By closely watching the Latter-day Saints, and seeing that they are kept in the line of their duty by using this kind of a rod, it prevents others from coming that would affect us more than they can who are outside of this Church. There is not one man in this city nor in the Territory who hates the truth and the Latter-day Saints, whose influence I dread, no, not even the hundre[d]th part, as I do a smooth, slick hypocrite who professes to be a Latter-day Saint. The former cannot sow the seeds of infidelity and unbelief in the hearts of the people; but the latter can.

I wish to say to all the people, The principles of the Gospel that God has revealed from the heavens to the children of men upon the earth are worthy the acceptation of the wise, the pure and the just. There is no true philosophy in existence which is not embraced in the Gospel, it belongs to the Gospel, it is a part of the Gospel. The philosophy of the heavens and the earth, of the worlds that are, that were, and that are yet to come into existence, is all in the Gospel that we have embraced. Every true philosopher, so far as he understands the principles of truth, has so much of the Gospel, and so far he is a Latter-day Saint, whether he knows it or not. Our Father, the great God, is the author of the sciences, he is the great mechanic, he is the systematizer of all things, he plans and devises all things, and every particle of knowledge which man has in his possession is the gift of God, whether they consider it divine, or whether it is the wisdom of man; it belongs to God, and he has bestowed it upon us, his children dwelling here upon the earth.

We take up the principles or ordinances of the house of God, and when we set them before the people, who would like to believe them? Ask the world of mankind, the heathen world, if there is one doctrine or principle in all these which is not good for man to receive. If we could find such a place as an angelic world, we might ask its inhabitants if we had embraced in our faith a single principle not good for them. Even they would not find an idea, a doctrine or a principle but what every person would say, respecting it: “It is just as good as we could ask for.” For the principles of the Gospel are calculated to purify the heart, the hands, the mouth, the brain, and every act of the children of men, and to prepare them to live with perfect and holy beings. These are principles worth seeking for, they are worth living for, they are worth dying for. As to the struggle that is going on between the Latter-day Saints and the world, have we any struggle with them? No. Have we any contention? No, not in the least. Have we any battle to fight? No, none at all. Are we to marshal our armies to contend against them? No. Here are the words of truth; we go forth and declare them to the ends of the earth; it is our mission and all we have to do. They may war against us, they may marshal their forces and their armies. God rules, I fear them not. If I preserve myself in the truth, I am all right. With the principles that these Latter-day Saints believe in, if we had our own way, and were not followed up by these blessed scoundrels, would we have any grog shops? No! Would we permit men to take the name of the Lord in vain? No. If we could use that moral influence we would stop all drinking, swearing, stealing, and Sabbath breaking, and speaking evil one of another; and we would have no dishonest men; we would have all men do that which is right before the Lord. But no, we must be followed up. That is all right, perfectly right. Every step we take and every move we make must be scanned by the devil to see if it is right. You will excuse the expression. He is watching closely to see if we live our religion. And he says: “Now, Latter-day Saints, are you not ashamed whenever you do anything that is naughty?” and tries to discourage them, that they may turn away from the truth. What should this do for us? Should it not cause us to refrain from all wrong, and teach us to do better, even this the chastisement of the devil?

We need not worry about this, that or the other, not in the least; it is for us to serve the Lord, and see that we do his will. And so far as persecution and the killing of the Prophets are concerned, whether of ancient or of modern times, even Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and others of the Saints, men, women and children, as they have done, we do not expect that the perpetrators of these deeds will be brought to justice; not in the least, until the Lord sits upon the case and deals out justice to them. The cry has been against the Prophets of every age, against the Apostles and against Jesus himself, and against all those who have ever preached the truth, and why? Because the systems of the world are errors; while the Gospel is true, it stands alone, it is as firm as the everlasting mountains; the storms may beat upon it, and it is there. But how is it with those who are jealous of us and who oppose us? We hear some of them who profess Christianity crying, “Come to Jesus,” “Come to Jesus,” etc. What is there of it? It, is so much nonsense. If Jesus were in their midst to-day, they would kick him out; for they did so to his servants. Suppose the Apostle Paul, or Peter, in fact any of the Apostles were to get into their chapels, and were to preach from their pulpits their doctrine which they preached when upon the earth, what do you think they would do to them? They would take them and lead them out of doors, saying, “We will not have any such hypocrites and false Prophets as you are in our midst.”

There is once in a while a good honest man who professes to preach the truth, and when he does preach, it amounts to this: “My brethren, we think we are Christians, we are believers in the word of God; but I tell you if the Apostles were here to-day we would not receive them.” That is what these good, honest preachers would say, and a few do say it to their congregations.

A false principle, a false theory, whether in mechanism or philosophy, requires much argument and superior talent to sustain it, but when the truth is presented it commends itself to the understanding of the people so readily that it requires no great amount of learning to substantiate it, nor much skill to declare it to the honest who want truth, and it remains firm and sound.

Forty-five years ago they were determined to kill the Prophet Joseph. I have lain upon the floor scores and scores of nights ready to receive the mob who sought his life. This persecution commenced with a little neighborhood, then a town, then a county, then a State, and then the people of the United States; and by and by other nations will be just as bitter towards us, and the doctrines we preach as many of the people of our own nation now are. They will struggle and strive, and plan and devise, saying, Let us take this course, and that course; and they will struggle until they will come to a stop as though they were against a mountain of solid rock. They will do all they can to break us up, and even destroy us; this has been the case now for the last forty-five years. Joseph Smith had forty-seven law suits, and I was with him through the most of them, and never was the first thing proved against him; he was never guilty of the first violation of the law or of good order. And when Governor Ford asked him to go to prison, as the mob were so enraged that he could not insure his life, that he might be safe until he returned from Nauvoo, he said: “I will pledge you the faith of the State of Illinois for your safety.” But as soon as he was gone, the mob murdered both Joseph and his brother Hyrum, in the jail. That was to be so. I heard Joseph say many a time, “I should not live until I am forty years of age.” The spring before he was killed—his death occurred the 27th of June, 1844—he hurried off the first Elders of the Church. All right, I thought then, and I think so now. It is all in the hands of God. They killed Joseph, and what for? For the Gospel’s sake. It was for no evil, for I was well acquainted with him. He testified to the truth, he sealed his testimony with his blood. Whether we believe in blood atonement or not, the Lord so ordered it, that Joseph, as well as others of the Prophets, sealed their testimony with their blood.

I said here last Sabbath, that, if the people of this government are not satisfied with what they have already passed through this side of twenty years past, “Wait a little longer, and they will be perfectly satisfied with blood.” They shed the blood of the innocent; if they are not satisfied with the blood they have shed of each other, wait a little while and they will shed each other’s blood to their full satisfaction. The Lord has spoken it, and we have nothing to do with it. If we could, we would hide ourselves away from the scenes that will take place; but this we cannot do. But wait a little longer, and the people of this nation, as well as others, will have blood till they are satisfied with shedding the blood of each other. This is the prediction of the ancient Prophets, and has been confirmed unto us through his servant Joseph. The people are in the hands of God, he will rule all things and deal justly with all mankind; but he will not suffer this wickedness to dwell on the earth; it must be cleansed. All that we need to concern ourselves about is to serve the Lord, to trust in him, so that we may be ready to receive his dealings upon the just and the unjust, in all his chastisements. Let us live up to the principles of the just, and God will continue to bless us and deliver us with the just.

If I had power, I certainly would bless the people with everything their hearts could wish if they would not sin. I would do, as I heard the mothers of some of my children say, that went with me to St. George this winter, that I indulged them in everything they wanted. Why? Because they never manifested a desire for anything wrong. And if it were in my power I would bless all the inhabitants of the earth, with everything in which they could glorify God, and purify their own hearts.

May God bless you. Amen.

Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods, etc.

Orson Pratt

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, May 13, 1877. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

I will read a few passages contained in a modern revelation, given through the prophet Joseph Smith, on the 22nd and the 23rd days of September, 1832—

And the Lord confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed, throughout all their generations—which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with the priesthood which is after the holiest order of God.

And this greater priesthood administereth the Gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God;

Therefore, in the ordinance thereof, the power of godliness is manifested;

And without the ordinance thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto man in the flesh;

For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.

Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God;

But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore the Lord in his wrath (for his anger was kindled against them) swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory.

Therefore he took Moses out of their midst, and the holy priesthood;

And the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory Gospel.

It is not my design this morning to speak very lengthily, but it is my great desire, during the time I may speak, that I may have the faith and prayers of all the Latter-day Saints present, and of every person who desires to be edified and instructed. It is also my desire that I may have a portion of the Holy Spirit to rest upon me, that the words which I may speak may be instructive and edifying to those who hear. That is the object of speaking, the object of hearing—to be edified.

From the passages I have read, we learn that God, in all ages of the world, has had a Priesthood on the earth, that is, a Priesthood after the order of his Son, sometimes called the Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec; and that connected with this Priesthood, in all dispensations, there is a lesser Priesthood, called sometimes the Priesthood after the order of Aaron, or the Aaronic Priesthood, which is merely an appendage to the higher Priesthood of Melchisedec; in other words, it is included in the Priesthood of Melchisedec. It is more especially called the lesser Priesthood, because those holding it, and being in possession of no higher authority, can only obtain a certain portion, or measure of the blessings that the Lord has in store for his people; it can proceed so far and no farther; it is limited in its nature, its power, its ordinances and its ministry. But when combined with the higher Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec, it then can receive all the blessings that are ordained of the Almighty to be bestowed upon his people in any dispensation. Like unto the Melchisedec Priesthood, it is everlasting in its nature, not given for time alone, to be exercised here for a few years upon the earth and then cease, but it continues forever, with the Priesthood which is after the holiest order of God.

The higher Priesthood after the order of the Son of God, we are told, in a modern revelation, holds the power to commune with the Church of the First-born that are in heaven, and that too not in a spiritual sense alone; or, as some would infer, to commune with them without receiving any revelation, to commune with them without beholding their personages; but in the literal sense, even the same as one man communes with another. It holds not only the power of the ministration of holy angels to be seen personally, but also the power of beholding the face of God the Father, that through the power and manifestations of the spirit of God and of his angels we may be prepared to enter into the presence of God the Father in the world to come, and enjoy continual communion with him, and be crowned with the glory of the celestial kingdom, to stand in our place and calling to all eternity, in connection with all those who hold the Priesthood in the eternal worlds.

The Priesthood of Aaron, being an appendage to the higher Priesthood, has power to administer in temporal ordinances, such as that of baptism for remission of sins, the administration of the Lord’s Supper, and in attending to temporal things for the benefit of the people of God. Among the privileges that are granted to this lesser Priesthood is to hold communion with holy angels that may be sent down from heaven.

In the early days of this Church the Lord, through a revelation, set forth the various appendages of the higher Priesthood, the duties of its several offices and their callings; also how they should officiate, and what ordinances they were permitted to administer, and what was not permitted to be administered by those holding it.

It seems that since these revelations were given, the Church, during its history, has passed through a variety of circumstances, wherein a perfect organization according to the rules and laws, as laid down by modern revelation, has not been entered into. Circumstances always did more or less to alter the condition of the people. Some, by virtue of their Priesthood have officiated, without being set apart, in certain callings that pertain to those who should be selected and set apart for that purpose. Let me here say, for the benefit of those who have not studied the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church, that if we have literal descendants of Aaron, they have the birthright, through their obedience to the Gospel of the Son of God, to the bishoprick, which pertains to the lesser Priesthood. It is the presiding authority over the lesser Priesthood; they have the right to claim it, and to all the keys and powers pertaining to it, they have the right to be ordained and set apart to that calling and to officiate therein, and that too without the aid of two counsellors. That is what we are taught in modern revelation. But as we have none at present, to our knowledge, that belong to the seed of Aaron, that has the right to this by lineage, the Lord has pointed out that those who are ordained to the higher Priesthood have the right, by virtue of this higher authority, to administer, when set apart by the First Presidency, or under their direction and according to their instruction, as Bishops to officiate in the Presidency of the lower Priesthood. This order has been followed ever since the Lord revealed these things to this Church. A Bishop must be ordained to the high Priesthood, and by authority of that Priesthood he may be set apart as a Bishop to preside over the lesser Priesthood, to exercise the functions thereof, with the exception of one condition, that is, he must have two counsellors ordained from among the high Priests of the Church. These three persons must officiate in relation to all the ordinances that pertain to the lesser Priesthood, and to administer in temporal things, having a knowledge of them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as we are taught in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

Now what I wish to say in relation to this matter is this—In some portions of our Territory, instead of this organization having been carried out in all its perfection, we have acted, in some few instances, for the time being, by appointing a person to take that position, when he had not been previously set apart to that special calling. We might refer to persons in some few of our settlements, both north and south, who have acted as Bishops by virtue of appointment only, and not ordination.

I understand now that the Spirit of the Lord has manifested unto the President of the Church, who is the proper authority, for the Twelve to go forth and set in order and organize more perfectly the various Branches that are located throughout all the Territory, and in the adjoining Territories. And no doubt those few who are acting in the Bishoprick without being ordained will receive their ordination, and there may be many changes, in order to introduce, in all its perfection, as far as we have knowledge and understanding, a more perfect organization throughout the Church in these mountains.

The object of this perfect organization is that we may be entitled to greater blessings therefrom; that we may be entitled to a greater fullness of the Holy Spirit; that everything may be dictated according to the mind and will of God, not only in spiritual things, but also in regard to our temporal matters; and also that every person may know his place, that his duties may be assigned to him, and by knowing what is required, that all may the more diligently seek after the Holy Ghost to direct them in their positions and callings, and have more faith, more assurance before God, to obtain confidence before the heavens, and before the brethren, in order that their ministry may benefit the people. You are well aware that we have been taught, for these many years, the great necessity of establishing a union in the midst of this people. Although we are the most united people upon the face of the earth, of which we have any knowledge, yet we are far from that perfection of unity which should characterize the Saints of the Most High God.

I can see, in this order which the President has laid before us, a beauty, a consistency, a plan which the Lord has revealed that will entitle the Latter-day Saints to greater blessings and privileges through which that union will be brought about which we have so long desired in our hearts.

We preach and declare to all people that God has raised up a kingdom to prepare the way before the coming of Christ. We declare to all men, wherever our missionaries go, that this is the grand prepar[a]tion for the coming of our Lord and Savior to regin [reign] on the earth. When he does come, that part of the prayer which he taught us to utter will be fulfilled, namely, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” Were we permitted to have the veil removed, according to the hymn just sung, namely that “the veil should be rent in twain,” and were we to behold the order that exists in yonder heavens in the midst of celestial hosts, we should there see a perfect union—no dissensions, no bitterness of feeling, no difference of ideas or opinion in regard to their duties, but all understanding as one, and all moving as one body to fulfill and accomplish the purposes of Jehovah.

Now, his will must be done on the earth as it [is] done in heaven, in order that that prayer which has been offered up by his people ever since it was revealed, may be fulfilled to the very letter. Hence the great necessity of the Latter-day Saints preparing themselves by being united, even as the hosts of heaven are. For remember that the Apostle Paul says, “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 the earth; even in him.” If then the General Assembly and Church of the First-born are to come down out of heaven to dwell on the earth, how important it is that the Latter-day Saints should be prepared to join this grand company, being united as they are, having no feeling of dissension, no division in their midst, no evil or corruption of any nature; no covetousness, no feeling of individuality in regard to wealth, but having all upon the altar ready to subserve the purposes of the Most high in building up his kingdom upon the earth.

This, therefore, is the purpose of this more perfect organization which is being introduced among the Branches throughout the Territory of Utah; it is to entitle us to these great blessings promised in the word of God. It is not only to build a Temple, but many Temples, as the case may require. This is not the only duty of the Latter-day Saints, although this duty is one of great importance. But then is it not of still greater importance that we, as a people, when these Temples are built, and finished, and dedicated, should be prepared to enter into the courts of the same, to go in there with a perfect oneness and union of feeling? Can we expect in these holy Temples, which are to be dedicated and set apart to the name of the Lord, to receive the blessings promised in Temples, unless we are a people of one heart and one mind? I think not. I read, in one of the revelations contained in this book of Doctrine and Covenants, that when God commanded a Temple to be built in Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, he made this promise—“Wherefore,” said the Lord, “I commanded the people of that county, and the people around about in the settlements, to build a Temple unto my name, and inasmuch as my people build a Temple unto my name, and suffer no unclean thing to enter into it, that it be not defiled, behold I will come into it; I will be there, and my glory shall be there. And it shall come to pass, that every soul that shall come into that Temple, who is pure in heart, shall see my face.” This is one of the promises and privileges pertaining to the High Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God. This is one of the blessings, ordained for all dispensations from the earliest period to the closing up of the last dispensation of the fullness of times; that is, in all those dispensations the righteous were to be blessed with the powers, and keys, and blessings of the High Priesthood. For this purpose, they were to build Temples to his name. In these Temples, if they were pure in heart, they would have this priviledge of beholding the face of God and without this Priesthood and the ordinances thereof, no man in the flesh could behold the face of God the Father and live.

We have accomplished a great work thus far. I feel, in connection with my brethren, to rejoice exceedingly in the work that the Lord our God has performed in the earth, through us his people. Truly he hath fulfilled that prophecy given in 1830—“The decree hath gone forth from the Father, that mine elect shall be gathered in from the four quarters of the earth to one place upon the face of the land.” This revelation was given before there was any gathering of the Latter-day Saints. You are my witnesses, and you are also witnesses to yourselves that the Lord has fulfilled this to the very letter. His elect from the four winds have come by thousands, and by tens of thousands, and have gathered to one place upon the face of this land. What has been the object of this gathering? It is to learn more perfectly of the ways of God, which we could not have learned in a scattered condition; in our native countries, while mixed up with the wicked and self-righteous. We are now partly isolated; and we have come from the ends of the earth, that by our united faith we may accomplish that which we could not have done by our own individual faith alone.

By and by, when this people shall have sanctified themselves before the Lord, and organized according to the laws and commandments of God, having been taught by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and by his servants that minister in their midst, carrying out the counsels and teachings they receive, they will become like unto one body, as it is written in the parable contained in the Book of Mormon, that the Lord will prune the vineyard, or take some of the branches away and graft them into another branch, etc.; he will make a change of the branches; he will prune the trees and dig about them, that the roots and the tops thereof may be kept equal. Understand that the roots and the tops thereof shall be made equal, so that the tops and branches may not overcome the roots by taking strength unto themselves. Why? That the tree may bring forth that fruit which is the most precious unto the Lord.

Therefore he is gathering us here, that we may become like unto one body, being sanctified, and become, as another revelation says, “as fair as the sun, as clear as the moon, that the banners of my people may be terrible unto all the nations of the earth.” Why terrible? Because of the power of the Lord which will be in the midst of his people, because of the manifestations of heaven unto his people, because the nations will hear that God is indeed in the midst of Zion. They will hear all these things, and the wicked will fear and tremble. They will fear because of their iniquity; fear and tremble, because of their wickedness; fear and tremble, because they have supported all manner of wickedness and corruption, division and strife, and abominations of every kind in their midst. Therefore restfulness will seize upon them, and they will know of a surety that the Lord God is in the midst of the people of Zion, that his power is there, that his spirit is there, and that he manifests himself there in great glory. Amen.

Prayer by President Daniel H. Wells

Daniel H. Wells

By President Daniel H. Wells, delivered at the Temple of the Lord at St. George, on the Sixth Day of April, 1877, at 10 o’clock a.m. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

Almighty and Everlasting God, our heavenly Father, thou who art the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of Moses, of David, of Solomon; the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; the God of Joseph and of Brigham, even the God of Israel; thou who art the Father of our spirits; it is to thee we approach this morning to worship and to offer up our dedicatory prayer in thanksgiving and praise for this offering, even a Temple which thou hast enabled thy people to rear unto thy most holy name.

We realize, our Father, that we are dependent upon thee, and that although we are shut out from thy presence, inheriting many weaknesses, and made subject to many temptations and sins, we are thy children, and as such we come before thee in the depths of humility, with broken hearts and contrite spirits, praying that thine indulgence, thy tender mercy and compassion may be extended toward us, and that thou wilt forgive everything that thine all-seeing and searching eye hath beheld amiss in us.

We thank thee, O Lord, that thy people, whom thou hast led to this distant land and whom thou hast preserved by thine own right arm, have been permitted to establish themselves in the homes which thou hast given them, and that, through thy continued blessings, they have been enabled to gather together the materials of which this building is composed, to put together and erect the same, even a Temple, which we dedicate and now consecrate to thee, that it may be holy unto thee, the Lord our God, for sacred and holy purposes, and that “the blessing, even life forevermore,” may be commanded here, from heaven, even from thy presence, and may flow through the ordinance which appertain unto thy holy place, unto us thy children. We pray that the blessings pertaining to our eternal salvation and to the establishing of thy kingdom upon this thine earth may be poured out upon thy holy Priesthood and thy people, who shall worship and officiate in this thy holy House.

We dedicate and consecrate the foundation of this building upon which it stands. Cause, O Lord, that it may not give way nor yield in consequence of any destructive elements that may be in the soil, or may the nature of those elements be changed so as to become strengthening instead of weakening, that the same may always remain firm and sound.

We dedicate and consecrate the lower and upper walls of the building and the buttresses which support the same, and all the material—the stone, the lime and the sand, which compose the mortar, and all that pertains thereunto, together with the flagging, the timbers, the joists, the floors, and the foundations upon which they rest, that the same may be protected and preserved, that none of the elements, either through storms, fire or earthquakes, may have power to destroy, disturb or injure this thy holy House. We also dedicate and consecrate unto thee all the openings, entrances, doors and windows, and their fastenings, of the basement story. We also present to thee the Baptismal Font, in which is performed the ordinance of baptism for the living and the dead; with the steps, the railing around, and the oxen upon which it rests, the foundations, together with the connections and apparatus for furnishing, conveying, holding and heating the water, with all that pertains to it, dedicating and consecrating all unto thee, the Lord, our Father and God, that they may be holy unto thy name. We pray that thy blessing may attend those of thy servants who administer and who may officiate in the ordinances that may be performed therein, in behalf of thy people, and in behalf of those, our progenitors, our relatives and friends, who have gone before us to the spirit world, so far as we may be enabled and permitted to officiate for them.

We dedicate to thee also the rooms of this building in the first, second and third stories, with the pillars and supports thereof, including the side rooms, with the partition walls, for the purposes for which they may be used by the Priesthood, for prayer, for worship, for councils or meetings, or for administering the holy ordinances of thy House, that they may be holy unto thee, the Lord our God. We also dedicate the roof and the tower, with its dome, its covering and walls, and the walls and the battlements around and above the roof, with the timbers and frames and supports upon which the roof and tower rest, and are made permanent, and the fastenings and all that appertains thereunto, and the materials of which they are composed. We dedicate also the entrances, the steps and the circular stairs, with the railings and bannisters thereunto attached. Grant, O Lord, that the roof which covers all may shield and protect this building from the storms which may come upon it. We dedicate the pipes which convey the water from the roof, with their fastenings and the materials of which they are composed. We also dedicate the chimneys, flues, conduits, and sewers, and openings for ventilation; also all the doors, windows, and glass, the hinges and nails and screws, the door locks and handles, the window weights and cords and fastenings of every kind; and all the paint, putty, plaster, whitewash and all the ornamental work within and without, everything used in the construction and completion of the entire building, from the foundation unto the top thereof, that all may be holy unto the Lord our God.

Holy Father, we dedicate unto thee the furniture and utensils used in the holy washings, anointings and ceremonies of this thy holy House; also the curtains and frames for partitions; together with the altars and their cushions, and the tables and the chairs, stools and desks, that all may be sanctified for the use and purposes intended. We dedicate also the tower on the outside, containing the fountain, also the aqueduct and pipes conveying the water thereunto. We dedicate the block of land upon which this Temple is situated, and the fence which encloses it, with its openings and gates, the hinges, hangings and fastenings, and the materials of which they are composed; also the roads and walks leading thereto and through the same.

We dedicate and consecrate the pulpits, with the cushions thereon and the ornamental fringe around, together with the steps, railing and bannisters, and the seats, with the cushions on them; and the floors and the foundations upon which they stand. May nothing unholy or impure ever enter here, but may the same be holy unto the Lord our God. Especially do we pray that thy power may rest upon thy servants who may occupy these pulpits when they shall minister by virtue of their holy calling, either in preaching, in counseling, or in transacting business pertaining to the welfare of thy Church and kingdom here upon the earth.

We implore thy blessings upon the various congregations of thy people who may assemble in this House from time to time, both in their incomings and outgoings, and may thy blessing and thy spirit dwell herein and rest upon them, for their comfort and edification, and abide richly in their hearts, that they may learn further of thy ways and walk in thy paths.

We desire also to commend these thy servants and people to thy kind care and keeping, that they may be preserved unto thee from the powers of the wicked and ungodly, and from the powers of all evil and opposing influences, from whose grasp thou hast heretofore delivered us in bringing us here to these valleys and the fastnesses of these mountains. We acknowledge thee and the great deliverance thou hast wrought out for us, and we pray thee, O God, in the name of Jesus, to accept of these thy servants and people, and preserve and keep us in thy most holy keeping. Let the ministering angels from thy presence attend us, and let thy grace and power be upon us, that we may walk in the paths of purity and holiness, and be enabled to bring forth thy purposes and establish thy kingdom in all its fullness, administering in all the ordinances pertaining to thy House, and also send forth salvation to all the children of men, scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, for their redemption from sin and bondage, even from gross darkness.

We now ask, our Father, that we thy servants and people may be acceptable unto thee, praying thee to grant that thy Holy Spirit may pervade each heart before thee, that our worship may be such as thou delightest to behold, and that the revelations of thy mind and will may continue to be made manifest through thy servant Brigham and all of thy servants upon whom thou hast conferred the authority of the holy Priesthood.

We feel not to multiply words before thee, for language is inadequate to express the fullness of the feelings and emotions of our souls in being thus privileged to meet before thee in this sacred, this holy place.

Accept, O God, of this tribute of our hearts, and let thy peace and blessing dwell and abide here in this holy Temple, which we now with uplifted hearts and hands present and consecrate and dedicats [dedicate] entire[ly] as a sacred offering unto thee, for thy divine acceptance. May it stand as a monument of purity and holiness as long as the earth shall remain, commemorative of thy great goodness towards us thy people, and thy name shall have the honor, the praise and glory, for we ask all in Jesus’ name. And unto thee and our blessed Lord and Savior and to the Holy Spirit be all power, might and dominion, worlds without end. Amen.

Necessity for Effort, etc.

Lorenzo Snow

Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered at a Two Days’ Meeting Held by the St. George Stake of Zion, in the Temple, at St. George, Thursday morning, April 5, 1877. Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.

In occupying the time this morning, I wish in the first place to call your attention to the fact that we are Latter-day Saints, or at least ought to be, and that as such we are dependent upon the Lord for our instruction; this is in accordance with our faith that we have to look to him for assistance under all circumstances, in all places, in all our affairs of life, and in all matters pertaining to furthering us on in the principles of godliness.

Assembled together as we are this morning, it is very necessary that we ask the Lord for his spirit, the spirit of inspiration, to rest upon us as speakers and as hearers, that we may be enabled to comprehend things that may be spoken, and that they may be adapted to our individual needs.

It is impossible to advance in the principles of truth, to increase in heavenly knowledge, except we exercise our reasoning faculties and exert ourselves in a proper manner. We have an instance recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants of a misunderstanding on the part of Oliver Cowdery, touching this principle. The Lord promised him the gift to translate ancient records. Like many of us to-day, he had misconceptions in regard to the exercise of the gift. He thought all that was necessary for him to do, inasmuch as this gift had been promised him of God, was to allow his mind to wait in idleness without effort, until it should operate spontaneously. But when those records were placed before him, there was no knowledge communicated, they still remained sealed, as it were, for no power to translate came upon him.

Although the gift to translate had been conferred, he could not prosecute the work, simply because he failed to exert himself before God with the view of developing the gift within him; and he became greatly disappointed, and the Lord, in his goodness and mercy, informed him of his mistake, using the following language—

“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you when you took no thought, save it was to ask me; but, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you,” etc.

So in regard to us, respecting the things which we are undertaking. If we expect to improve, to advance in the work immediately before us, and finally to obtain possession of those gifts and glories, coming up to that condition of exaltation we anticipate, we must take thought and reflect, we must exert ourselves, and that too to the utmost of our ability.

The text given us by President Young yesterday, and to which we, in our prayer this morning, asked God to direct our remarks, was the work with which we are now immediately concerned, pertaining to our present wants and necessities. The question here arises, How shall we regulate our temporal affairs so as to qualify us to perform the duties and obligations devolving upon us to-day, and secure to ourselves the blessings of eternal life?

To this subject, so far as the Lord will give me his Holy Spirit, through the exercise of your faith, I wish to speak this morning. I desire, however, to confine myself more particularly to the subject relating to our financial union, uniting ourselves together as brethren who have entered into the everlasting covenant of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, expecting to dwell together in the presence of God in the celestial world.

We have been told, through the revelations of God, and to which our attention has often been called, that unless we became one in temporal as well as spiritual things, it were [was] useless anticipating the fullness of celestial glory, or a state of oneness in the spiritual things of God. But what course we are to take in order to arrive at this most desirable condition seems to remain a difficult, unsolved problem. Doubtless many have asked themselves, what can we do, and how shall we do it?

Well, let our minds revert for a few minutes to the time when we received the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, in the countries where it first reached us. As soon as we became convinced of the truth and that the Elders who preached the Gospel were the servants of God, we offered ourselves as candidates for baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the Holy Ghost through the laying on of their hands, and then felt determined to do whatever the Lord should require through his servants and continue to follow their counsels in all things, even to the sacrifice of all we possessed, if necessary, whether pertaining to the world’s wealth or that which we held in higher and dearer esteem.

We learned an important and significant fact, that we were his offspring, inheriting, though only in infantile form, the same attributes he himself possessed, and that, through probationary experience, by passing the ordeals of earth, rejecting the evil and accepting the good, these attributes could be developed until eventually we might receive a fullness of the godhead, and dwell in the presence of the Father. We became acquainted with this fact, and were convinced in our hearts that the object which now appeared before us, was well worthy of all that we could bestow upon it. Hence we resolved that we would accomplish the undertaking, though at the sacrifice of our all. We well understood that in order to attain to that position that would entitle us to this exaltation, it would be necessary to submit ourselves wholly to the mind and will of God. We felt in our hearts to consecrate our wives, our children and our property, if we had any, and our time and abilities, to the service of God. Had this law of consecration been presented at that time it no doubt would have been hailed with joy, as it was in exact accordance with the spirit of our covenants.

According to the order of the celestial world, as revealed to the Latter-day Saints, respecting the property we might possess, we were required to consecrate all to the Lord, and then to be made stewards, as pointed out by revelation in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and were to continue to devote that which might be entrusted to us to the service of God; and so far as we increased the property of our stewardship we were to devote the same to the benefit of the kingdom of God, which would be used for the building of Temples, emigrating and sustaining the poor, and for carrying on the great work of redeeming Israel. This feeling, which we entertained at the beginning, was to continue to burn in our bosoms, and we were to be faithful and honest in our professions.

I know that many of us when we came to the valleys, conformed to this law of consecration, which is now published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. We deeded our property, and many were willing, perhaps not all, that, if necessary, every part and portion of it should have been used as the servants of God should have directed. This was the kind of feeling that we then entertained, and just as long as we maintained this condition of mind, of willing obedience, it was all that was required. But I fear that this feeling, which gave us so much joy, which tended to increase our faith and confidence in God and in one another, has not continued to grow correspondingly with our general prosperity, experience and knowledge of the Gospel. My testimony to you is that, so far as this is the case, we stand this day not wholly approved of God, although we have the privilege of worshipping in this Temple, reared to his holy name. But just, so far as this willingness exists in our hearts to appropriate our means that we have accumulated for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God on the earth, and that too without grudging, even as the former-day Saints laid down theirs at the feet of the Apostles, so far are we approved and accepted of God. Who, among the Latter-day Saints within the hearing of my voice this day, could fail to comprehend this?

In much of our business relations one with another, there does not exist that spirit of union and brotherly interest that should be maintained. We need to take such a course as will enable us to acquire it, and this spirit should prevail throughout all our settlements.

Who cannot perceive the hand of God in bringing us away from the turmoil and strife of the business world to these mountain vales, where we have the opportunity and the privilege of building up villages and cities upon the principle of unity which has been revealed to us, thus affording that necessary discipline which we could not have obtained among the cities of the Gentiles? This training cannot be acquired in one year, nor in five years, but its acquisition is enhanced in proportion to our willingness to make sacrifices in order to obtain it. By and by the Lord will have prepared the way for some to return to Jackson County, there to build up the Centre Stake of Zion. How easy this work can be accomplished, after we have learned to build up cities and Temples here to his divine acceptance! Our present experience is a very needful one. Without it, we should be totally unfitted for the performance of such a work. We read that the Temple which Solomon built was erected without the sound of a hammer being heard. There had been a previous preparation and an experience gained in some distant locality, and a proper training. The materials were accurately prepared elsewhere, and when brought together were ready for setting, each piece to its proper place. As knowledge and efficiency are obtained gradually, we may expect that the experience that we are getting now in learning how to build up cities in our present condition, conforming as near as possible to the holy order of God, is, in order to prepare us by and by to return to Missouri, whence we were driven, and there build up cities and Temples to the name of the Most High, upon which his glory will descend. A condition of willingness to conform our will to the divine will is what we need. It might not be deemed policy to enter into covenants by deed, in our property matters, though it may be hereafter. But so long as the emotions of our souls prompt us to exclaim, in the language of Joshua, that “I and my household will serve the Lord,” so long as this willingness dwells in our hearts, to give ourselves up entirely to the service of God, we are then in the condition to ask the Father to hasten the day when his will shall be done on earth as in heaven; and further, when the proper time comes to require the use of our property in the interests of the great work we are engaged in, the bare mention of it will be sufficient. But, we ask, should not the Bishop who operates in our temporal matters be a very wise and good man? Certainly he should, and a man of honor and integrity, full of the Holy Ghost, loving his neighbor as himself, and loving the Lord our God with all his might, mind and strength. On this, we are told, “hang the law and the Prophets.” Blessed is he in whom these two principles are developed, for such a one is without condemnation; he stands the peer of him referred to in the Scriptures by the Savior as one “without guile.” The people will soon learn to confide in such a man, as he can establish unmistakable proof before God and before his brethren that he obeys these commandments in which are involved all that the Prophets ever lived for.

We will suppose, further, that such an individual as I have described, who really had obeyed these commandments, were placed to preside over a city of a thousand people, all of whom too were living in the advanced condition referred to. He must bear in mind his important position, high responsibilities, and who appointed him to this position, he or they in whom God had vested the authority. Why is such a man called to act as president over a people? Is it in order to acquire an influence and then to use that influence directly for his own aggrandizement? No, but on the contrary, he is called to act in such a position on the same principle as the Priesthood was given to the Son of God, that he should make sacrifice. For himself? No, but in the interests of the people over whom he preside. Would he be required to offer himself up on the cross as did the Savior? No, but to become the servant of his brethren, not their master, and to work in their interest and welfare. Not to exercise the influence thus obtained to benefit himself, his family and relatives and personal friends, but esteeming all as his brethren having rights in common with himself and, therefore, seeking to bless and benefit all equally according to the talents and worthiness they may possess, and thus by so doing develop in himself that fatherly feeling which always exists in the bosom of the Father.

At the present time it is too often the case that the men who are called to act in such positions, instead of thus acting according to their holy calling, use their influence, their Priesthood, the sacred powers referred upon them, for their own benefit and that of their children and personal friends. This is highly improper, it is wrong and displeasing in the sight of God; and of this sin we are called upon to repent, by putting it away from us, and beginning to live the lives of Latter-day Saints, according to the sacred covenants we have entered into.

When you find a man who takes the same interest in those over whom he presides as he does in himself and family, you will naturally begin to have confidence in that individual. But as soon as you find that his feelings, by day and by night, and the course of his conduct are such as to tend directly to benefit himself and his family, you will say, “What interest has he for us. We must look out for ourselves.” But where a man works for the interest of the community, he becomes truly a father to that people, working for them with the same feeling, desire and interest as he would for himself. It might be said of him, as it should be said of all men, that he loves his brethren, or in other words, “his neighbor,” as himself. Now let the man who acts as the presiding Elder of his ward, manifest by word and action these fatherly feelings towards those he presides over, and how soon we would begin to perceive perfect confidence restored!

Possibly such a man might not always possess financiering abilities, and possibly the people themselves might not have confidence in his abilities to manage or direct temporal affairs. This is quite supposable, for good sound principled men are not always endowed with great financiering abilities. Yet from the fact of his having established himself in the hearts of the people, and his being known by them for his integrity and honesty, and his disposition to work for the interests of God and the people, willing to make any sacrifice that might be required of him, he possesses their confidence, and when once in possession of so sacred a trust, what then might he do in order to satisfy the minds of the people, which are, more or less, inclined to be progressive? Let such a man call to his aid those of his brethren who are the most capable, letting them share his responsibilities. Because you will find, as a general thing, that talent is diffused through the many and rarely combined in single individuals; and it only needs opportunity in order to be developed. He might say to one, “Here Brother So and so, you are better adapted to fill this or that position than I am;” or, to another, “You are the man best fitted for this department;” and so on until he gets the talents of all brought out, and instead of diminishing the public confidence in himself, such a course would add to it. Further, he would be doing for his brethren that which the United Order designs to do for all, namely to afford opportunity to develop the gift that Nature has endowed us with. Therefore, I say that all these matters can be got along with, provided we have the sure and safe foundation, which should be based on honesty and integrity to God and the true interests of his kingdom and people. With a people of one heart and mind, possessed of the same feelings and aspirations as we were when we first embraced the Gospel, in connection with our present knowledge and experience in the practical workings of building up the kingdom, how easy it would be to establish our home industries or mercantile institutions and carry them on successfully! Every one would be on hand, like Israel when, in the desert, and journeying to the land of Canaan, they were required to build a movable tabernacle for certain sacred purposes, and the people brought their offerings etc., even more than were sufficient, and Moses had to cry out to the people to stop. So it would be with us, as far as willingness on the part of the people was concerned to take an active part in any general movement that might be projected. Whatever means or property or time might be devoted by the community for the establishing of any certain enterprise, would be done in good faith, for every heart would be inspired with confidence, everyone considering his interest identified with that of the whole.

But it takes time to get the people into this condition. Here, in this southern country, we understand that the people have been endeavoring to work together in the United Order, meeting with more or less disappointment. Because of reverses or failures in our attempts to successfully operate our temporal affairs, we should not allow such disappointment to detract from the principle itself; but rather let us attribute our misfortunes to human weaknesses, regarding the principle as divine, revealed for our special benefit and blessing, and in every instance of apparent failure let us ever be resolved to “try again.” The principles of Plural Marriage were revealed for the benefit and exaltation of the children of men, but how much unhappiness has arisen through failure, on the part of some who have contracted this order of marriage, to conform to the laws that govern it! But does it arise through any defect in the order of the marriage system? O no; but from ignorance and the folly and wickedness of those individuals who enter into it, who abuse, rather than righteously obey, it. So in regard to the principles of the United Order. Its principles too are sacred, and I assure you we will never go back to Jackson County, Missouri, there to build up the new Jerusalem of the latter days, until there is a perfect willingness on our part to conform to its rules and principles. Many years have transpired since we received the revelation of the United Order, and in one sense that long period of time bespeaks negligence on our part in not more fully obeying it. The very principles of that order, in my estimation, were given for our temporal and spiritual salvation. In order to derive the benefit that God designed should flow from them, they must be established and systematized on the principle of righteousness, each person learning to love his neighbor as himself. For us to undertake to deal with them on any other principle would virtually open the way to bitter disappointment.

Then allow me to repeat, let me find a community that is willing to conform to this, bringing to mind the covenants made in the beginning when we received the fullness of the Gospel, willing to bring to mind when they dedicated all they possessed—their property, their talents, their mental and physical powers, to the building up of his kingdom; remembering the time when we did this, the blessings of God were upon us, and his Spirit burned within us. Then let those who preach in the midst of that community of Saints, realize what the Priesthood was placed upon them for; let them know and fully sense why they were appointed to fill such and such an office, viz., that they should act in the spirit of our Master, a servant of all, that they learn to consider and esteem in the same affectionate interest, the welfare of all, as they do that of themselves, and be in very deed fathers to the people. Then will they enter into the spirit of the two great commands upon which, said the Savior, “hang the law and the Prophets,” namely, loving the Lord with all our might, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. This, in my opinion, is the foundation of our future success, temporally and spiritually, in this United Order. Until we come down to the bedrock of honesty and sincerity in this matter, dealing with temporal as with spiritual things, whole-heartedly, holding all and ourselves sacred to the service of God, we may expect more or less failure.

Let me say to the brethren who are and who contemplate connecting themselves actively and entirely with this holy Order, that the Priesthood was bestowed upon you, as upon the Son of God himself, for no other purpose than that, through sacrifice, you might be proven, that, peradventure, at the last day, you might stand approved before God, and before perfect and holy beings and that, in order to merit this divine approval, it may be necessary to forget self and individual aggrandisement and seek the interest of your brethren. If you are ready and willing to do this, and if your everyday life and conduct, and the spirit within you testify the fact, you will establish confidence in the hearts of those who know you and with whom you are more immediately associated in temporal matters.

Confidence is ofttimes referred to by our brethren, especially when speaking on the subject of the United Order. It is spoken of and written on by the religious, the political, and the financial world; and the present condition of the whole is such as to force itself upon our serious attention. We may confidently apprehend that, as history shall chronicle the developments of this our progressive world, we shall witness more and more the necessity of it. For as palpable and, what may be termed, legitimate fraud increases, and the whole world ripens in iniquity generally, confidence will lessen and become more priceless and precious. This is quite obvious to all men in whose hearts dwell a spark of that Spirit by which the Prophets foretold the destiny of the nations. Confidence can be acquired only on the principle of righteousness, whether it be applied to the monarch or the peasant, the religionist or the non-religionist; merit alone commands it.

Then let us live the lives of Latter-day Saints, that we may first beget confidence in ourselves; then we shall begin to have confidence in each other, in God, and in his promises. A people in this condition of progress would know no failures, everything would prosper that they put their hands to, they would grow in faith and in good works. I tell you, in the name of the Lord God, that the time is coming when there will be no safety only in the principles of union, for therein lies the secret of our temporal and spiritual salvation. We have been enabled to establish settlements, towns, and villages, and we have been abundantly blessed with the necessaries and conveniences of life, notwithstanding we have been slow to hearken to and obey the commands of Jehovah. I would to God that every Bishop and presiding officer would this day, in this holy Temple, covenant and swear before him, the Lord our God, that they would turn and serve him with all their might, mind and strength, and work in the interest of the people as they would for themselves. For my greatest desire is to see Zion established according to the revelations of God, to see her inhabitants industrious and self-sustaining, filled with wisdom and the power of God, that around us may be built a wall of defence, a protection against the mighty powers of Babylon; and while the disobedient of our Father’s family are contending, and filling up their cup of iniquity, even to the brim, and thus preparing themselves for the burning, we, who are the acknowledged children of the kingdom, being filled with the righteousness and knowledge of God, may be like the wise virgins, clothed in our wedding garments, and properly prepared for the coming of our Lord and Savior.