Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday Morning, April 8th, 1872.

I am gratified in the enjoyment of the privilege of continuing our Conference, and rejoice in the instructions and testimonies of the Elders which have been given during the two days past. There are a few subjects I feel anxious to lay before the brethren and sisters. I should be glad, had I strength and opportunity, to explain many things more minutely. I feel that God is with us, but that a great and fearful responsibility rests upon our heads. In order that we may be prepared to enjoy the blessings of our high and holy calling we should be diligent, humble, faithful, and constantly unite our powers of mind to magnify our Priesthood. One great responsibility which rests upon us is the education of our children—the proper forming of their minds and understandings, not only in the ordinary branches of education, but in the principles of our holy religion.

I understand from the reports of Mr. Robert L. Campbell, Superintendent of common schools for the Territory, that there are about thirty thousand school children in the Territory, between the ages of four and sixteen.

Our golden browed neighbors here in Nevada, who have for several years enjoyed all the benefits and blessings accruing to common schools from a State government, have about four thousand, if I am rightly informed, and no doubt, with the means which they possess, they are enabled to get up excellent schools.

It appears to be a portion of the policy of the national government never to do anything for schools in a Territory. When a Territory becomes a State, the policy of Congress, in years past, and it will probably continue to be so in years to come, has been to extend liberal privileges and immunities, in the donation of lands and of the percents from the sales of public lands within the State for educational purposes—the support of common schools and universities. This parsimonious policy towards Territories may be an enlightened one, and it may not; having lived in a Territory most of my life I may not be considered a proper judge. Suffice it to say, however, that so far as legislation for education is concerned, or any encouragement or assistance extended from the United States to the people of the Territories, their children must be raised in absolute ignorance. The result is, that whatever progress is made or improvement attained in these directions in the Territories is due entirely to the energy, enterprise and enlightenment of the inhabitants—the hardy pioneers who break the ground, make the roads, fight the Indians and create the State.

The report of the Superintendent of Common Schools for this Territory goes to show, not only that there are about thirty thousand school children, but that they have attended school a greater portion of the time than is sometimes reported in the new States, and in some of the older ones, where they have all the advantages granted by the general government. This speaks well for the pioneers of Utah; it is a proud record, and one of which the Latter-day Saints may justly boast. It is true that most of our schools are simply primary schools; but, from what I have seen while visiting a good many of them, I know they are vastly superior to schools which I attended, more or less, in my earlier years in other States and Territories. I am proud of these facts; but at the same time there is a great deal in our system that is not by any means up to the mark. All that has been done has been done voluntarily. The school laws of Utah Territory authorize districts to establish free schools, if they choose to do so, by a two-thirds vote of the inhabitants of the district, and a number of districts have adopted this system with satisfactory results. Otherwise the schools are sustained by the tuition fees of the pupils, with the exception that taxes are generally levied on the property in the school districts to assist to build schoolhouses and to supply a portion of the expenses and extend some little aid to the more indigent, that all may have the privilege of going to school. A general free school system has not been inaugurated, and any man who will coolly, deliberately and wisely consider the condition, associations and changeable nature of the government of our Territory, will see the wisdom of not entering upon such a system until it can be done under the regulations and privileges which a State government would bring. At least, that is my judgment on the subject, though we have advocates for the establishment of a general free school system now. I want to say in relation to this, that perhaps there are counties where such a system might be adopted with advantage; but if it were adopted generally throughout the Territory, it would have to contend with difficulties and dangers which I would wish to avoid. As I am not here to deliver a political speech I shall not, of course, undertake to explain what these are. I will simply refer you to certain little difficulties that have occurred in neighboring States in relation to the handling of school funds, and other important items, which show the delicacy of these matters unless they are in the hands of the most reliable men, who are absolutely responsible to the people by whom they are appointed and elected.

I feel satisfied, notwithstanding this good record, that there is a very great necessity for the minds of many people to be stirred up in relation to the education of their children, the building of good, healthy, well-ventilated schoolhouses, and the sending of the children to school, providing suitable books and seats. I remember once, in a new country, going into a schoolhouse, and finding the children packed almost like herrings in a box, some on the floor, some on seats, little fellows with short legs sitting on high benches, and all breathing air that, perhaps, might not inaptly be compared to that of the black hole of Calcutta. A couple of men, ignorant even of the most simple principles of ventilation, were laboring to teach these children, and I have sometimes taken the liberty to carry a carpenter’s saw into a school to saw off the legs of the benches to make them a proper height to correspond with the length of the children’s legs, for I do despise the idea of putting small children upon a high bench and large children upon a low one. I am very fond of seeing straight, erect, well-formed boys and girls, and in three months a little inattention on the part of teachers, trustees, and school superintendents in matters of this kind, will crook the necks, crook the backs, weaken the stomachs, produce deformity, lay a foundation for consumption, and shorten the children’s lives ten years. I suggest to the brethren from all parts of the Territory—go into your schoolrooms, measure the children’s legs, if you please, and the benches, and see how they correspond. See whether the little fellows sit up straight, or humped up as if they were trying to imitate the back of a camel or dromedary, and give particular attention to the manner in which the schoolrooms are ventilated. Do not deprive the little fellows of the most necessary and the cheapest of all elements—atmospheric air, in its purity, and thereby sow in their systems the seeds of premature death.

There are many persons come into the Territory who do not speak the English language. I think more institutions should be got up in all the neighborhoods to encourage the learning of our tongue. I know young people generally learn it pretty quickly; but as the laws and most of the public speeches are made in the English language, it is important even in Welsh, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German and French settlements, that the language in which law and justice are administered, and in which public meetings are generally conducted, should be well and properly understood.

It occurs not only with some of the foreign emigration, but with some other persons, that they fail to appreciate the necessity of education, and of sending their children to school. Good and wholesome influences, exercised through teachers, Elders and Bishops, should be brought to bear on all this class of people, to show them the importance of educating their children. There are Elders who seem willing and ready to take missions to the most distant foreign countries, but when they are invited to go into a schoolroom to teach a school, they will say, “Well, I can make more money at something else, I would rather be land speculating, go a lumbering, or set up merchandising.” Let me say to you, brethren, that there is no calling in which a missionary can do more good, either man or woman, than to teach a common school, if he or she is qualified to do so.

We are very well aware that it is but little use to whip “Mormon” children. You undertake to thrash anything into them, and you will most surely thrash it out of them. It was never any use to undertake to drive or coerce Latter-day Saints, they never could be coerced in their religious faith or practice. It is not their nature, and the mountain air our children breathe inspires them with the idea that they are not to be whipped like dogs to make them learn. The manner in which it must be done is by moral suasion, superior intellect, wisdom, prudence and good straightforward management in forming the judgment of the pupil by cultivating his manly qualities. This principle should be carried out in all our schools. In my boyhood discipline was enforced by the application of the blue beech switch. The blue beech does not grow in this country, but many schoolmasters in former times in New York and New England were provided with these tough limber switches, and I have seen them used among the scholars with fearful effect, and in cases where I am satisfied the pupil was less at fault than the preceptor. I know they say Solomon declared if you spare the rod you will spoil the child. My opinion is that the use of the rod is very frequently the result of a want of understanding on the part of a spoiled parent or teacher in guiding, direct– ing and controlling the feelings and affections of children, though of course the use of the rod in some cases might be necessary; but I have seen children abused when they ought not to have been, because King Solomon is believed to have made that remark, which, if he did, in nine cases out of ten referred to mental rather than physical correction. I will, however, allow other men who have taught school, as a profession, to offer their suggestions on these subjects; but I will say that I have known Professor Dusenberry teach a hundred scholars—the wildest, roughest boys we had in a frontier town, and never lay a stick on one of them. He has done it term after term, and the children liked and respected him and would mind him, and there was nothing on the face of the earth that seemed to hurt their feelings more than to feel that they had lost the confidence of their preceptor. This was simply the result of cultivating reasoning powers in the minds of the children, and I am happy to say there are many such teachers now in Utah.

I will say a few words in relation to normal schools. As I said before, we have had nothing to encourage primary schools but what we ourselves with our bone, sinew, energy and enterprise have done. So it is with the more advanced branches. The Deseret University has made efforts to establish graded schools for the education of teachers. This has been done by small appropriations from the Legislative Assembly and Salt Lake City and County; but the great mass of the work has been done by individual enterprise. There are many at the present time in Utah who have been thus educated, who devote the winter season, and many of them the summer, to teaching schools. The energy of Superintendent Campbell in introducing suitable books and apparatus, and to improve the condition of our schools has been commendable; and the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret, at Provo, one at St. George and several others established in the Territory for the education of teachers have had their good effects. But their effects are limited, compared with what they might be, and I am sorry to say that several of our young men have been under the necessity of going to universities in other parts of the world to obtain an education, which it is desirable we should have the facilities to give them here. Brethren and sisters, take this matter to your hearts, for it is one of the great missions of the Latter-day Saints to do all in their power to educate the rising generation and to teach them the principles of eternal truth.

I have had the pleasure of visiting a good many Sunday schools, from time to time, from a very early period after they were established in this Territory, and I can speak highly of their influence and the benefits they have produced. I visited a Bible class while at St. George, composed of young gentlemen and ladies, and I found that they were as well instructed in relation to the principles of the Gospel, as laid down in the Bible and in the revelations of the Lord, as a very large portion of the Elders. I was very glad to see it. I visited Sunday schools when I could in the course of my travels, and I was gratified to see the progress that has been made. I want to stir up parents to the necessity of fitting up and encouraging their children to attend Sunday school. I also want to encourage them to attend themselves and act as teachers; and for the young men and young women, whenever they can, or those whose family arrangements are such that they can attend to it, to volunteer and contribute their exertions in carrying on Sunday schools. A great many Elders have devoted much time to this useful and important subject, and have labored to teach, encourage and strengthen Sunday schools. Last summer, two weeks previous to the celebrated Methodist camp meeting that was held in this city, Dr. Vincent, a Methodist minister, and two others connected with Sunday schools, by their own request, addressed in this Tabernacle about four thousand Sunday school children. They told me they had visited the Sunday school in the 13th Ward, and had addressed the scholars there, and they said that that Sunday school was highly creditable. But although they gave us so much credit, they went away feeling very bitter towards us. I asked them if they had not been treated as well here as we would be in their society. “O, yes,” said they, “We were invited to attend Sunday schools and we did so. We were allowed to address the children, and at our request four or five thousand were brought together for us to talk to.” And they went on and told how well they were treated; but notwithstanding that, they said they had been told from the most reliable sources that a great many men had been killed in this country for not being “Mormons.” Said I, “You have been most foully gulled by somebody.” Dr. Vincent replied, “The authority is most reliable, for it came from our officers.” I said to him, “The officers change so often that they can have no personal knowledge on these subjects. Some of them are interested in promoting difficulty with the people of Utah. No man was ever killed in Utah for his religion; and if the few cases of murder that have occurred here were thoroughly investigated they would be found to be the result of private quarrels; and there have been five hundred percent less of such cases here than in any other new State or Territory with which I have been acquainted; and the country cannot be found on the face of the earth where the population is scattered over such a large area which has maintained such perfect police regulations, and these statements are simply scandal.”

I name this circumstance from the fact that a man who had been so liberally treated by the Latter-day Saints, who had had the privilege of speaking to the largest collection of school children that he probably ever saw in his life, would believe lies told him by renegades, and carry them away and publish them rather than the real facts which he had the privilege of seeing, hearing and learning from reliable authority while here.

I wish to stir up our brethren to continue their labor in Sunday schools, and, in doing so, to continue to sustain liberally the Juvenile Instructor. Place it in the hands of your children, it contains some of the best reading matter for them I know of, and its circulation should be widely extended. I notice from pieces published by Protestant ministers who have established churches in this city, that their principal hope of converting the “Mormons” is by leading, (I call it misleading) away their children. They despair of converting the old ones who are perfectly established in their religious faith; and their hope appears to be in misleading their children by getting them into their schools. By so doing they can probably draw them away from the Latter-day faith, and through the children they may also succeed in gaining over some of their parents. The enemy of all righteousness is sagacious, and so are his servants, and I think it quite honest, but not very creditable to Christian ministers to frankly acknowledge that their business here is to try and entice children from their parents. But so far as this is concerned our brethren and sisters should learn a lesson by it, and see that the persons who educate their children do not plant in their hearts falsehood, deception, wickedness and corruption. They should place them under the tuition of those who will teach them the principles they are employed to teach, and not instil into their minds those things that will lead them to destruction. The catechism for children, exhibiting the prominent doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, should be in every family, school and Bible class.

I think measures should be taken to increase the circulation among the people of the Deseret News, and the standard works of the Church. A great many read them, and many do not; and if in the various neighborhoods, a little more pains were taken, the information they contain could be more widely disseminated. I know the enemies of Zion are willing take any pains in the world almost to circulate lies; why should we not take a little pains to circulate truth, and to spread and to disseminate abroad pure and holy principles? I call the attention of Elders of the various stakes to these subjects.

Peace to the faithful. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 8, 1872.

We have had a very good Conference; we have heard a great deal of testimony from the servants of the Lord, and that testimony has been true. The building up of the Zion of God in these latter days includes, I may say of a truth, every branch of business, both temporal and spiritual, in which we are engaged. We cannot touch upon any subject which is lawful in the sight of God and man, that is not embraced in our religion. The Gospel of Jesus Christ which we have embraced, and which we preach, includes all truth, and every lawful calling and occupation of man. One subject that we are deeply interested in I wish to say a few words upon. In the first place I wish to give notice in this stage of my remarks to the members of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, that they are requested to meet, at the close of this meeting, at the Historian’s Office, to appoint their president and board of directors for the coming season, for the times demand that we should hold a State fair in this city this fall.

Strangers may think this a very strange subject to present in a religious meeting, but we are building up the literal kingdom of God on the earth, and we have temporal duties to perform. We inhabit temporal bodies, we eat temporal food, we build temporal houses, we raise temporal cattle and temporal wheat; we contend with temporal weeds, and with temporal enemies in our soil, and these things naturally give rise to the necessity of attending to and performing many duties of a temporal and arduous nature, and they, of course, are embraced in our religion. In building up the Zion and kingdom of God in these latter days, our agricultural and manufacturing interests are of the most vital importance; in fact manufacturing and agricultural pursuits are of vital importance to any nation under heaven. Show me a nation whose people cultivate the earth, and manufacture what they need, and I will show you a rich and independent nation. Show me a nation that lives entirely by mining and I will show you a poor nation—one that is ready to run out and become obsolete. You see this manifest in the history of all nations under heaven. What gives England her wealth today? Her coal, iron, and the products of her soil, in connection with her prodigious manufactures; and it is so with all the nations of the earth. What makes the United States what she is today? Her products and the cultivation of her soil, and the constant efforts she has made to supply the wants of her people. Not but what mining is all right, there is no fault with the development of the resources of the earth under favorable circumstances. When we came here our position demanded that the very first thing we did was to plant our potatoes and sow our wheat, or we had starvation before us; and I will here say that the Saints and the Elders of Israel have gone before the Lord day after day and week after week, and prayed the Almighty to hide up the treasures of these mountains, lest even the Latter-day Saints, with all the faith they had, should be tempted to turn away from the cultivation of the earth and the manufacture of what they needed; and the Lord heard our prayers, and we dwelt here many years and filled these valleys for six hundred miles with cities, towns, villages, gardens, orchards, fields, vineyards, hundreds of schoolhouses, and places of worship, until we made the desert blossom as the rose, and had a supply of wheat, bread and clothing upon our hands. Then, I do not know but the Elders ceased praying for the Lord to hide up the treasures of the earth—I guess they did, for very soon after mines began to be opened, and now silver mines are being worked in many parts of the Territory. A few years ago General Connor and others, who dwelt here, with soldiers under them, spent very many days in prospecting these mountains from one end to the other for gold and silver, but they could find none; today you may go over the same places, and if you dig into the earth you may find plenty of silver, and you may find it almost anywhere in these mountains. I suppose this is all right, I have no fault to find with it; but I still say that the interest of the Latter-day Saints in these mountains is to cultivate the soil and to manufacture what they use.

Through the influence of President Young we have many manufactories for wool and cotton already established in this Territory. He has done more than any man living in these last days, according to the means he has had at his command, to establish these branches of business in the midst of these mountains. We have now many large factories in this Territory that have to stand still for want of wool. I want to say a few words on this subject to the wool growers of Deseret. Instead of sending our wool out of the Territory, to eastern States to be manufactured into cloth, and purchasing it and paying eastern manufacturers a large percentage for it when brought here by railroad, I feel that it is our duty, and it would be far wiser for us, to sell our wool to those who own factories in this Territory, and to sustain ourselves by sustaining home manufactures.

One of the first commands given to Adam, after being placed in Eden, was to dress the garden; and he was permitted to eat of the fruit of every tree except one. After a while Adam and his wife, Eve, partook of the fruit of this tree, and the history of the Fall is before us and the world. After Adam was cast out of the garden the Lord told him that there should be a curse on the earth, and instead of bringing forth beautiful flowers, fruit and grain spontaneously, as before the Fall, it should bring forth thorns, briers, thistles and noxious weeds, and that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow; and from that time to the present mankind has had this curse to contend with in the cultivation of the earth. In consequence of this the inhabitants of Utah, in their agricultural operations have to fight against the cockle burr, the black seed and sunflower, as well as thorns and thistles and many other noxious weeds, which, if not eradicated, speedily take advantage of us, and to a great extent, mar the result of our labors. It will pay us to pay attention to these things; it will pay us to dress the earth, to till it, to take care of and spend time and means in manuring and feeding it; it will pay us to gather out these noxious weeds, for the earth will then have a chance to bring forth in its strength. This, with the blessing of God upon our labors, has made the soil of Utah as productive as it is today. I wish to see this interest increase in our midst; and I hope, in addition to this, that those who are raising sheep—our wool growers—will pay attention to and carry on that branch of business systematically, and that we will sell our wool to those who manufacture it at home, instead of sending it out of the Territory to be manufactured. I feel that this is our duty, and the course which will promote our best interests, and it is a principle which is true, independent of religion, in any community or nation; it is a self-sustaining principle.

God has blessed us, he has blessed the earth, and our labors in the tilling of the soil have been greatly prospered. As has been said by some of our brethren in their remarks, when the pioneers came here, no mark of civilization or of the white man, was found. If those who are now so anxious to obtain the homes we have made, had seen Utah as we saw it, they would never have desired a habitation here, but they would have got out of it as soon as they could. It was barren, desolate, abounding with grasshoppers, crickets and coyote wolves, and these things seemed to be the only natural productions of the soil. We went to work by faith, not much by sight, to cultivate the earth. We broke almost all the plows we had the first day. We had to let streams of water out to moisten the earth, and by experience we had to learn to raise anything. The stranger comes into Salt Lake City and sees our orchards, and the trees in our streets, and he thinks, what a fruitful and delightful place it is. He does not think that, for twenty or twenty-four years, almost every tree he beholds, according to its age, has had to be watered twice a week through the whole summer season, or they would all have been dead long since. We have had to unite upon these things, the Lord has blessed our labors, and his mercies have been over this people.

If we had not cultivated the earth, but had turned our attention to mining, we should not only have starved to death ourselves, but thousands of strangers, who have passed through, would have shared the same fate. Utah Territory has been the great highway to California, Nevada, and all the western States and Territories, and they have all looked, in a measure, to Utah for their bread. Nobody but Latter-day Saints would have lived here, and endured the trials and afflictions that we endured in the beginning; none others would have stayed and fought the crickets one year, as we had to do year after year. Any people but the Latter-day Saints would have left this country long ago. Not only so, on account of the things I have already named, but I will here say that no other people could have lived here—no, they would have knocked each others brains out on account of the little water they would have had in their irrigating operations. When men saw their crops and trees withering and perishing for the want of water, the selfishness so general in the world would have worked up to such an extent, that they would have killed one another, and hence I say that none but Latter-day Saints would have stood it; but they, by the training and experience they had before received, were prepared for the hardships and trials they had to encounter in this country.

Brethren and sisters, let us continue our efforts in cultivating the earth, and in manufacturing what we want. And I still urge upon our Female Relief Societies, in this city and throughout the Territory, to carry out the counsel President Young gave us years and years ago, and try, as far as possible, within ourselves, to make our own bonnets, hats and clothing, and to let the beauty of what we wear be the workmanship of our own hands. It is true that our religion is not in our coat or bonnet, or it should not be. If a man’s religion is there it is not generally very deep anywhere else. But God has blessed us with the products of earth and the blessings of heaven, and his Spirit has been with us; we have been preserved, and the Lord has turned away the edge of the sword, and he has protected us during many years past and gone, and we all have to acknowledge his hand in these things.

I do not wish to detain this Conference. I felt as though I wanted to make a few remarks on these subjects. I hope, brethren, that we will not slacken our hands with regard to the cultivation of the earth. In the prosecution of our labors in that respect we have everything to contend with that man has been cursed with for five thousand years. We should clean our fields, as far as we can, of the noxious weeds, and our streets of sunflowers. These things encumber the earth. We have one difficulty to contend with, unknown save in those portions of the earth where irrigation is practiced. It is true that a man may clean his fields of sunflowers, cockle burrs, blackseed and every other noxious weed that grows, and the very first time he waters his land here will come a peck or a bushel of foul seed from the mountains, and fill every field through which the stream flows. These difficulties we have to fight against, but we must do the best we can. As farmers, we should clean our seed, and not sow the foul along with the good. One man, in a few hours, with a good wire sieve, can sift enough seed for ten acres of land, and perhaps for twenty; while, to pull that bad seed out when grown will cost from one to five hundred dollars, for it will take a score of men days to do it. We should use our time, judgment and the wisdom God has given us to the best advantage in all these things.

I want the brethren to come together this afternoon and elect their officers, for we desire to hold a fair this fall, in which the agricultural and manufacturing interests of the Territory may be represented and interested. Let us not be weary in well doing; let us not slacken our hands, either in cultivating the earth or in the manufacturing of what we need. Cooperate in agricultural and mercantile matters, also in our tanneries, and in the making of butter and cheese. One man may engage in these branches of business with advantage if he have skill and experience to guide him; but in cooperation the wisdom of all is combined for the general good. This plan has been adopted with advantage in other communities, cities, States, Territories and countries, and it can be in this more extensively than it has been hitherto.

I pray that God will bless us, and bless this whole people; and I pray that the testimony which we have received here during this Conference, which is true, may not be forgotten by us. I can bear the same testimony. I know this work is of God. I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. I have heard two or three of the brethren testify about brother Young in Nauvoo. Every man and every woman in that assembly, which perhaps might number thousands, could bear the same testimony. I was there, the Twelve were there, and a good many others, and all can bear the same testimony. The question might be asked, why was the appearance of Joseph Smith given to Brigham Young? Because here was Sidney Rigdon and other men rising up and claiming to be the leaders of the Church, and men stood, as it were, on a pivot, not knowing which way to turn. But just as quick as Brigham Young rose in that assembly, his face was that of Joseph Smith—the mantle of Joseph had fallen upon him, the power of God that was upon Joseph Smith was upon him, he had the voice of Joseph, and it was the voice of the shepherd. There was not a person in that assembly, Rigdon, himself, not excepted, but was satisfied in his own mind that Brigham was the proper leader of the people, for he would not have his name presented, by his own consent, after that sermon was delivered. There was a reason for this in the mind of God; it convinced the people. They saw and heard for themselves, and it was by the power of God.

May God bless you. May he give us wisdom to direct us in all things, and promote all the interests of Zion for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, April 7, 1872.

We are again assembled this morning to continue the duties and services of our Conference, and I am requested by President Young to state that he is in the enjoyment of comfortable health and in excellent spirits. He regrets very much the circumstances which render it inexpedient for him to meet with you this morning, and hopes the time may soon come when he will again enjoy that privilege, also the privilege of bearing testimony to the glorious work of the last days, in the public congregation. He desires and appreciates the prayers and faith of the Saints; he thinks that it is quite proper that any man before he is thoroughly qualified to rule shall learn to be ruled—that he shall learn to obey before he learns to command. All these lessons in their time and in their season are proper for us to learn.

When we realize the malignity of the spirit of persecution which is aimed at the Latter-day Saints in these valleys, we need not wonder that we have to contend with vexatious lawsuits and with illegal and unjustifiable prosecutions, for the influence of the pulpit and the press when controlled by the spirit of lying is very great for evil, but God is greater—his power is more omnipotent; and although thousands of prophets, priests and wise men in the earth have been compelled to lay down their lives for the cause of Zion, and for the sake of the principles of the gospel of peace, and in doing so they have acquired honors that could not be attained in any other way; their reward is certain, eternal and sure.

I wish to call the attention of the elders who have been in years past, on missions, to one important item of duty. It is well known that our emigration annually brings some thousands of persons among whom our missionaries have labored and with whom they are acquainted, and among whom are many who still look to them for fatherly advice and encouragement, but many of the elders who return immediately forget that they have been missionaries. When they reach home they perhaps find their affairs a little deranged, business having stopped in their absence, money making or procuring the means of living having gone rather behind hand, they drop right into a groove as it were to catch up, and they forget their duties, and the people whom they have been acquainted with and who have treated them with kindness and generosity are also frequently forgotten and neglected. The emigrants come into these valleys and fall perhaps under influences that are wrong and wicked, for men inspired with a spirit of hostility to the work of God will take more pains to poison their minds than those who feel all right do to give them correct information. I wish to say to all such elders and to all the brethren, that when they get home their mission is not consummated, and that when newcomers arrive we should take pains to look after their welfare, give them counsel and instruction, aid and comfort, and realize that we are missionaries all our lives, and that it is our duty to instruct such in the things of the kingdom, to encourage them and set before them principles of intelligence, such as will be for their benefit.

I wish further to say to the Elders and to the brethren who have emigrated, that they should remember their friends they visited before they came here, or when they were on missions in the old world. Remember the poor family that went without their provision, perhaps, to give you a feast, or the family that to make you warm and comfortable gave up their beds to you, themselves enduring cold, discomfort and inconvenience to do so; or the family that opened their doors to shelter you from the storm when their neighbors hooted and scouted them, as it were, for entertaining a stranger. You missionaries in your experience have all met with such families, and many of them are there yet without the means to get here. Perhaps they have said to you, “Will you help me when you get home?” and you may have given them a look of encouragement, a half promise, or expressed a hope that you might be able to do so. Have you forgotten it? Perhaps a little effort on your part and on the part of your neighbors might bring these families to this country and place them in a position to acquire lots, farms, and homes of their own, redeem them from thralldom and bondage worse than slavery, and place them in a position of independence on their own soil, enjoy the fruits of their own labors and help to build up and develop the rising, spreading glory of Zion.

I have heard there is an Elder who, when on a mission borrowed some money of a widow that had not means enough to get away, but had a little she could spare until she could acquire enough to bring her family here; and that Elder, peradventure, has forgotten to pay it. I have heard there is such an Elder in Utah. Shame on him if there is! Under such circumstances we should not only pay punctually and faithfully what we owe, with good and reasonable interest, but all of us European missionaries should be prepared to do something handsome annually to help those from the bondage and thralldom in which we found them, and where they must remain until means are obtained to deliver them. I am calling now for the donation to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. A hundred thousand Latter-day Saints in Utah, and can we not help a few thousand that yet remain in the old missions, and bring them here? “Well,” some may say, “they will apostatize if they come.” That is all right, they must have the privilege. I understand that we have brought some men here with the Fund that have apostatized, betrayed the Saints and done all in their power to stain their garments in the blood of the prophets; but that is not our fault, it is theirs. We should gather the Saints and they themselves are responsible for the use they make of the blessings which God bestows upon them, even if they come through our hands and exertions. Look at the tens of thousands of families now in Utah in comfortable circumstances with houses, farms, wagons, cattle and horses of their own, many of them with carriages, and these families taken by the contributions of the Latter-day Saints from the most abject servitude and poverty from the bowels of the earth, from within the walls of factories, where but for this fund they must have remained for their lives; but now they are in comparative independence and enjoying the blessings of freemen.

After President Young returned from St. George for the purpose of voluntarily placing himself in the custody of United States Officers, as is well known, I received a letter from an eminent gentleman in the State of Massachusetts, who said that the prosecution against him could be nothing more nor less than a put-up job, and that the people of the country understood it as such; “and the fact is,” said he, “Brigham Young has done more for the benefit of large bodies of people than any other living man on the earth.” That is true. By the inspiration of Almighty God through his servant Brigham Young, this Fund was organized, and he has been the President of it, and through his energy and enterprise and the aid of the Latter-day Saints—his friends—he has gathered tens of thousands that could never have owned a rod of ground or a house as long as they lived, but would have been at the mercy of employers who looked upon them only as a portion of their property, and the question with them has been how much of this man’s labor can I get for the smallest pittance; but through the exertions and counsels of President Young and his brethren they have been delivered from this bondage and placed in comparative independence. I say God bless such a man, (Congregation said Amen) and God bless every man and every woman who will contribute to carry out this glorious purpose.

I am very anxious to wake up the Elders to labor at home, to keep alive in the hearts of the Saints the spirit of truth. While all those who so desire are free to apostatize, it should not be for the want of proper information, care and instruction, or in consequence of the neglect of the Elders to do their duty. I exhort the Latter-day Saints to unite in carrying on the work of gathering. A few years ago we thought that we would gather them all. When we had raised what means we could, and had expended it, we found the Elders were baptizing about as fast as we were bringing the Saints away. That is all right. Let us get the old and faithful Latter-day Saints away, and keep baptizing all that desire to be baptized. In the Scandinavian Mission the number of baptisms keep up, and some years a little more than keep up, with the emigration. There are families from year to year that can be brought away by a little assistance; they have part means, and only need a little more to emigrate. I do think that the history of the Perpetual Emigration Fund is a wonderful one. The Latter-day Saints in Utah sent from here two hundred wagons one year, three hundred another year, four hundred the next, and for two years five hundred wagons each year, each wagon having four yoke of oxen, or their equivalent in mules and horses, and bore all the expenses consequent upon bringing people across the Plains, bringing from one to four thousand persons a season. This is certainly creditable, and it has been done through the influence of Brigham Young and the united efforts of a free-hearted and noble people. We have got a railroad now and do not have to send the wagons; the business assumes another shape. The emigration is brought here with less labor and in less time, but with more outlay.

I have now laid before you my views on the emigration of the poor Saints from abroad. Consider upon and think about them. Make your calculations, and feel in your pockets and contribute to help on the work, and carry with you to all the settlements of the Saints a spirit that shall bring home to Zion the brethren and sisters from abroad. In that way the work can continue. May God bless all who aid in this glorious work is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, April 7, 1872.

We are again met, in our Annual Conference, for the purpose of hearing the words of life, and of being instructed in the various duties and responsibilities that rest upon us, and that we, as Latter-day Saints, may be taught principles pertaining to our holy faith, and be instructed in the duties devolving upon us in the various positions that we occupy; that by a unity of faith, purpose and action, we may be able to accomplish something that will promote truth, advance the interests of Zion and the establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth.

We are told that it is not in man to direct his steps, and we stand here in a peculiar position under the guidance and direction of the Almighty. The Lord has seen fit to reveal unto us the everlasting Gospel, and we have been enabled, by the grace of God, to appreciate that message of life which he has communicated unto us, and we have been gathered from the nations of the earth under the influences and auspices of that Gospel. We are gathered here for the accomplishment of certain objects relative both to ourselves and others, the great leading principle of which is—to help to fulfil the designs that existed in the mind of the Almighty before the world was, relative to the earth and humanity; and I presume that that exhortation which was made eighteen hundred years ago to certain Saints, would be just as applicable to us today as it was to them. They were exhorted to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints.” That, no doubt, sounded very strange to them in that day and age of the world; they had had Jesus among them, he had preached his Gospel unto them; the light of eternal truth had been made manifest, and they had participated in the blessings of the Gospel; and yet, under these peculiar circumstances, blessed, as it were, with the light of revelation, with Apostles in their midst, with a complete Church organization, with everything that was calculated to enlighten, instruct and lead them on in the path of righteousness, they were told to contend earnestly for that faith once delivered to the Saints.

It seems that in the different ages of the world in the past, there has existed, as there does today, a species of self-righteousness, self-complacence, a reliance upon the wisdom, intelligence and virtue of man. In that day the Scribes and Pharisees, the lawyers and doctors, the great Sanhedrin, the pious men, thought they were the peculiar elect of God, and that wisdom would die with them. Jesus came among them and told them very many unpalatable truths; among others, that they were “whited walls and painted sepulchres; that they appeared fair on the outside, but inwardly there was nothing but rottenness and dead men’s bones.” He told them that for a pretence they made long prayers; not that they had any reference to God at all, for God had very little to do with them. They did it, he told them, in order that “they might be heard of men.” They made broad their phylacteries (that is a species of writing which they bound on all their garments), with certain passages of Scripture. They made them very broad, that they might be considered extra pure, virtuous and holy. Jesus called these very pure, holy, virtuous people, painted sepulchres.

But there is something else associated with these matters very peculiar. Jesus taught the principles of life and salvation—the everlasting Gospel. He introduced men into the kingdom of God; he organized a pure Church, based upon correct principles, according to the order of God. Men were baptized into that Church; they had hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and they received it. They had among them Apostles and Prophets, Pastors and Teachers, Evangelists and inspired men. The Church enjoyed among themselves the gift of tongues, visions, prophecy; the sick were healed, the blind received their sight, the deaf heard, and the lame leaped for joy; the visions of heaven were unfolded to their view, and they had a knowledge of many things pertaining to eternity; and yet, with all their light, intelligence and blessings, with all their Apostles, with the fulness of the Gospel in their midst, they were advised to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints. The Lord has revealed to us many blessings, and I sometimes think that we hardly appreciate the light of truth which has been developed, the glory that is connected with the Gospel which has been restored, the light of revelation which has been communicated, the position that we occupy in relation to God, angels, our posterity and our progenitors, the hope that the Gospel has implanted in the bosom of every faithful Latter-day Saint, which blooms with immortality and eternal life; and sometimes, when exposed to the various trials with which we are encompassed, to the opprobrium and reproach frequently heaped upon us by ignorant and evil disposed persons, some of us, perhaps, think that our religion is something like that with which we are surrounded. We sometimes forget our prayers, responsibilities, duties and covenants, and we give way in many instances to things which have a tendency to darken the mind, becloud the understanding, weaken our faith, and deprive us of the Spirit of God. We forget the pit whence we were dug, and the rock from which we were hewn, and it is necessary that we should reflect on the position that we occupy, upon the relationship we sustain to God, to each other and to our families, that our minds may be drawn back again to the God who made us—our Father in the heavens, who hears our prayers, and who is ready at all times to supply the wants of his faithful Saints. And it is sometimes necessary that we should reflect upon the position we hold in relation to the earth on which we live, to the existence that we had before we came here, and to the eternities to come. We should not be sluggish and dull and careless and indifferent; but as the ancient Saints were exhorted, so let us exhort you today—contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints.

The religion of the everlasting gospel did not originate with any man or any set of men. It is wide as the world and originated with the Great Eloheim. It is a plan ordained by him before the world was for the salvation and redemption of the human family. It is a thing that men, in various dispensations, under the influence and inspiration of the Almighty, have possessed more or less; and it is to that that we are indebted for all the knowledge, and the light, and all the intelligence in relation to eternity. The gospel which you have received you received not of man, neither by man, but on the same principle as they received it in former days—by the revelation of Jesus Christ, by the communication of God to man, and any religion that has not this for its foundation amounts to nothing, and any superstructure built upon any other foundation will fade and vanish away like the baseless fabric of a vision, and leave not a wreck behind.

One of old in speaking of these things said: If any man build with wood, or hay, or stubble, or anything perishable, the day would come when it would be burned up and there would be left neither root nor branch. But we, as eternal beings, associated with an eternal God, having a religion that leads to that God, are desirous, as the ancients were, to know something about him, to be brought into communication with him, to fulfil the measure of our creation and our destiny on the earth, and to help the Lord to bring to pass those things that he designed from before the foundation of the world, in regard to the human family. God has designed to redeem the earth whereon we live. Mankind were placed on this earth for a certain purpose, and however erratic, foolish and visionary the course of man may have been, the Almighty has never altered his purpose, never changed his designs nor abrogated his laws; but with one steady, undeviating course from the time the morning stars first sang together for joy, until the earth shall be redeemed from under the curse and every creature in heaven and on the earth shall be heard to say: “Blessing and glory, honor and power, might, majesty and dominion be ascribed unto Him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb forever;” and throughout all the successive ages that have been and that will be, his course is one eternal round. He has had one object in view, and that object will be accomplished in regard to man and the earth whereon he lives. The only question with us is whether we will cooperate with God, or whether we will individually work out our own salvation or not; whether we will individually fulfil the various responsibilities that devolve upon us or not; whether we will attend to the ordinances that God has introduced or not; for ourselves to begin with, for our families, for the living and for the dead. Whether we will cooperate in building temples and administering in them; whether we will unite with the Almighty, under the direction of his holy priesthood, in bringing to pass things that have been spoken of by the holy prophets since the world was; whether we will contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints. These things rest with us to a certain extent. God has communicated to the Latter-day Saints principles that the world are ignorant of, and being ignorant of them they know not how to appreciate our feelings. They call good evil, light darkness, error truth, and truth error, because they have not the means of seeing the difference between one and the other. “But you are a chosen people, a royal generation, a holy priesthood,” separate and set apart by the Almighty for the accomplishment of his purposes. God has ordained among you presidents, apostles, prophets, high priests, seventies, bishops and other authorities; they are of his appointment, empowered and directed by him, under his influence, teaching his law, unfolding the principles of life, and are organized and ordained expressly to lead the people in the path of exaltation and eternal glory. The world know nothing about these things—we are not talking to them today, they cannot comprehend them. Their religion teaches them nothing about any such things—they are simply a phantasm to them. They have not any revelation, they do not profess it. All that they have is their Bible given by ancient men of God, who spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. They repudiate the Holy Ghost, not in name, but in reality. Many of them are very sincere; we give them credit for that. That is all right, but they do not understand our principles, views, or ideas. They could not do as we have done; they could not trust in God as our Elders do. Their ideas are more material. Ask any of them to go to the ends of the earth, as these Elders have done, without purse or scrip, trusting in God, would they do it? No, they would not, they would see the gospel damned first, and then they would not. They do not understand the principle by which we are actuated, we have done it and we will do it again, and we will keep doing it; we believe in a living God, in a living religion, in the living, vital, eternal principles which God has communicated; this is the reason why we act as we do, why we talk and believe as we do. Men are not supposed to understand our principles. The Scripture says that no man knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God. And how are they to get that? Just as you got it. And how was that? By repenting of your sins, being baptized in the name of Jesus for their remission; by having hands laid upon you by those having authority for the reception of the Holy Ghost. This is the way God appointed in former days, this is the way he has appointed in our day.

And what brought you here? Why the light of revelation—the light of truth, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the power of God. That is what brought you here. The Gospel you received you received not of men, but by the revelations of Jesus Christ; and consequently how can men outside comprehend these things? They cannot do it, it is beyond their reach. They can reason on natural principles; they have their own peculiar ideas, but they cannot comprehend the Latter-day Saints. “Mormonism” is an enigma to the world. Why, the United States have been trying to solve the problem of “Mormonism” for years and years; but with all their sagacity and intelligence they have not made it out yet; and they never will. Philosophy cannot comprehend it; it is beyond the reach of natural philosophy. It is the philosophy of heaven, it is the revelation of God to man. It is philosophical, but it is heavenly philosophy, and beyond the ken of human judgment, beyond the reach of human intelligence. They cannot grasp it, it is as high as heaven, what can they know about it? It is deeper than hell, they cannot fathom it. It is as wide as the universe, it extends over all creation. It goes back into eternity and forward into eternity. It associates with the past, present and future; it is connected with time and eternity, with men, angels, and Gods, with beings that were, that are and that are to come.

The Saints of God in all ages had the kind of faith that we have today. You Latter-day Saints know it, but other men do not. They will talk about their nonsense, their ideas and theories, and call it the religion of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, I am quite willing they should enjoy their notions. It is all right; we would not interfere with them if we could. Our feelings in regard to that are just the same as the Lord’s. And what are his? His ideas are not bound in a nutshell, there is nothing contracted about the Almighty. He makes his sun shine on the evil and on the good; he sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. He is liberal, free, generous, philanthropic, full of benevolence and kindness to the human family, and he hopes and desires that all men may be saved, and he will save them all as far as they are capable of being saved. But he desires that his people shall contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints, that as immortal beings they may act in unison with the Almighty, that they may be inspired by the principle of revelation; that they should comprehend something of their dignity and manhood; of their relationship to eternity, to the world that we live in as it is and as it will be, and to the worlds that are to come. The Lord has no such idea as some of these narrow, contracted sectarian people have that we read of. They remind me of a prayer of a man I once heard of, who in his prayer said: “Lord bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more, amen.” I do not believe in any such thing as that. I think the world on which we live was organized for a certain purpose. I think that man was made for a certain purpose, and so do you as Latter-day Saints. We think that the spirit of man, possessing a body, will through the medium of the everlasting Gospel, be exalted; and that man, inasmuch as he is faithful, will, by and by, be associated with the Gods in the eternal worlds; and while we plant and sow and reap, and pursue the common avocations of life, as other men do, our main object is eternal lives and exaltations; our main object is to prepare ourselves, our posterity and our progenitors for thrones, principalities and powers in the eternal worlds.

This is what we are after, and what the ancient Saints were after. This is what Adam, Noah, Enoch, Abraham and the Prophets were after, that they might fulfil their destiny on the earth, and, as one of the old Prophets said, “stand in their lot in the end of days,” when the books should be opened, when the great white throne should appear and he who sits upon it, before whose face the heavens and the earth fled away; that we and they, and they and we might be prepared, having fulfilled the measure of our creation on the earth, to associate with the intelligences that exist in the eternal worlds; be admitted again to the presence of our Father, whence we came, and participate in those eternal realities which mankind, without revelation, know nothing about. We are here for that purpose; we left our homes for that purpose; we came here for that purpose; we are building temples for that purpose; we are receiving endowments for that purpose; we are making covenants for that purpose; we are administering for the living and the dead for that purpose, and all our objects, and all our aims, like the object and aim of inspired men in former days, are altogether with reference to eternal realities as well as to time. We have a Zion to build up, and we shall build it. We shall build it. WE SHALL BUILD IT. No power can stop it. God has established his kingdom, it is in his hands, and no influence, no power, no combination of whatever kind it may be can stop the progress of the work of God. You Latter-day Saints know very well that you have not received a cunningly devised fable, concocted by the wisdom, ingenuity, talent or caprice of man. All of you who comprehend the Gospel comprehend this; you all, male and female, if you are living your religion, know this. Men of old knew it as well as you; and by and by we expect to live and associate with them, with Patriarchs, Prophets and men of God, who had faith in him, the accomplishment of his purposes in former times, and we are contending for the faith which they possessed. For instance old Moses and Elias, you know, came to Peter, James, John and Jesus while they were on the mount. They did not think they were very old fogies that it was not worth while to listen to; but said they, “Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elias. It is good to be here, why here is old Moses, and old Elias.” Who was Moses? A man who had the ancient Gospel in former times. Who was Elias? A man who had the ancient Gospel in former times. They came and administered unto Jesus, and his Apostles would have liked to stay with them forever. But they could not do it at that time.

Then again we read of John on the Isle of Patmos. You know he was in vision, and the Lord revealed unto him many great things, and there was a personage appeared, one of the old Prophets that used to be led around probably by a marshal. John thought he was an angel, and he was about to fall down and worship him after he had unfolded to him the glories of eternity. “But,” says he, “do not do it.” “Why?” “Because I am one of thy fellowservants, the Prophets; I am one of those old fellows that used to have to wander about in my day in sheepskins and goatskins. The priests, hypocrites, &c., of that day persecuted me; but now I am exalted, and have come to minister unto you John.”

While the world was wrapped in superstition, ignorance and darkness, the angels of God came and ministered to Joseph Smith, and unfolded to him the purposes of God and made known his designs. Joseph told it to the people, and through this means you are gathered together as you are today. What did men, the best of them, know about the Gospel, or about Apostles or Prophets, when the Prophet Joseph made his appearance? Nothing at all, and yet there have been good men. Old John Wesley, for instance, in his day, was very anxious to see something of this kind, but he could not see it. Says he—

“From chosen Abraham’s seed, The old apostles choose, O’er isles and continents to spread The dead reviving news.”

He would have been glad to see something of that kind, but he could not. It was reserved for Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints; it was reserved for our day. Well, then, what will we do? Fulfil the measure of our creation; go to work and redeem those men who had not the Gospel, be baptized for them, as the Scriptures tell us, and bring them up, for they without us cannot be made perfect, neither can we be made perfect without them. And we will fulfil and accomplish the purposes of God, and bring to pass the things which were spoken of by the Prophets.

This is what we are after, and we shall accomplish it, and no man can stop it, no organization, no power, no authority, for God is at the helm, and his kingdom is onward, onward, onward, and it will continue, and grow and increase until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.

May God help us to be faithful, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1872.

When I look over this vast congregation, assembled in the body of this house as well as in the gallery, it seems to be an impossibility to make all hear; and to give all an opportunity to do so it will be necessary that the closest attention be given and that shuffling of feet and whispering cease. I suppose there must be congregated here something in the neighborhood of twelve thousand persons, and there are but very few voices or lungs that are able to reach such a multitude, and edify and instruct them. I know from former experience in speaking from this stand, that it requires a great exertion of the lungs and body to speak so as to be understood, and this great exertion of the physical system is calculated in a very short time to weary also the mind, therefore I may not be able to address you for any great length of time.

It is now forty-two years since the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. Forty-two years ago, on the 6th day of April, the Prophet Joseph Smith was commanded by the Lord Almighty to organize the Kingdom of God on the earth for the last time—to set up and make a beginning—to form the nucleus of a Government that never should be destroyed from the earth, or, in other words, that should stand forever. The founding of governments, of whatsoever nature they may be, may be considered in the estimation of some, very honorable; but there is no special honor attached to a man who is called upon by the Almighty to found a Government on the earth, for it is the Lord who works by him as an instrument, using him for that purpose. That, of course, is honorable. Perhaps there never was a work accomplished among men of so great and important a nature as that of the foundation of a kingdom that never is to be destroyed. About six thousand years have passed away since the Government established by the Patriarchs, or by the first man, was commenced here on the earth. From that time until the present vast numbers and descriptions of Governments, some Patriarchal in their nature, others taking the form of kingdoms, others of empires and so forth, have been organized here on the earth. During that long interval of time whenever a man has founded a Government he has been greatly honored, not only by the generation among whom he lived, and in which he formed the Government, but he has been honored generally by after generations. But nearly all the Governments that have been established have been thrown down—they have been only temporary in their nature—existing for a few centuries perhaps, and then overthrown. It is not my intention this afternoon to examine the nature and forms of these various human Governments, but to state in a few words that there is now organized on the earth a Government which never will be broken as former Governments have been. This will stand forever. It began very small—only six members were organized in this Government on Tuesday the 6th day of April, 1830, that is according to the vulgar era; according to the true era it was some two or three years longer. The Christian era, that is in common use now among the human family is called the vulgar era, because it is incorrect. Jesus, it is acknowledged by the most learned men at the present day, was born two or three years before the period that is now commonly called the vulgar Christian era. It is also acknowledged by the greater portion of the learned men of the day, who have carefully examined the subject, that Jesus was crucified on the 6th day of April; and according to the true Christian era it was precisely eighteen hundred years from the day of his crucifixion until the day that this Church was organized. Why the Lord chose this particular period—the anniversary of the day of his crucifixion for the organization of his kingdom on the earth I do not know. I do know that he has a set time in his own mind for accomplishing his great purposes; but why he should purpose in his own mind that precisely eighteen hundred years should elapse from the day of the crucifixion until the day of the organization of his church, we do not know. Suffice it to say that this is the interval that elapsed. The Book of Mormon gives the exact interval from the day of his birth to the day of the crucifixion, and by putting these two periods together we can ascertain the true Christian era. There is a great dispute, however, among chronologists in regard to this matter; many of them say Jesus was born one year before the vulgar era, others that he was born two years before that. Four different chronologists, mentioned by name in Smith’s Bible Dictionary, place the period three years before the vulgar era; others place it at four years before, some five, and some have placed it seven years before the present vulgar era. If we take a medium between these combined with the testimony of a great many who have written upon the subject, we find, as I said before, that it makes precisely eighteen hundred years between the two great events that took place, namely the crucifixion and the building up of his kingdom in these latter days.

God has seen proper in the progress of this kingdom to restore to his servants holding the priesthood every key and power pertaining to the restitution of all things spoken of by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets since the world began. One of the first things that he condescended to restore was the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, just according to the prediction of the ancient Prophets—by the coming of an angel from heaven. Mr. Smith fulfilled that prediction, or rather it was fulfilled to him. He declares, in language most plain and positive, that God did send an angel from heaven and committed to him the everlasting Gospel on plates of gold; or in other words, he had it revealed to him by this angel, where the plates of gold were deposited containing the everlasting Gospel, as it was preached to the ancient inhabitants of this American continent, by the personal ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was the restoration predicted by John in the 14th chapter of Revelation, where it is declared that such an event should take place. John says that he saw, in vision, an angel come from heaven to earth, to restore the everlasting Gospel. No people on earth, prior to the advent of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ever testified to the fulfilment of John’s prediction. If you make the inquiry of the various Christian denominations, whether Catholic, Greek or Dissenters, they will tell you unitedly that no such event characterized the rise of their churches; we have therefore their testimony, proving that God never fulfilled this portion of his word through them; but on the contrary the united voice and testimony of all these Christians, from one end of the earth to the other is that the Bible contains the Gospel, “And we have preached the Gospel,” say they, “as we found it recorded in the Bible,” and no angel to restore the authority to preach the Gospel, to baptize, to confirm by the laying on of hands, to administer the Lord’s Supper, or to restore or give authority to organize the kingdom of God on the earth, was necessary.” To this we reply, the history of the Gospel is one thing, and the authority to preach it and administer its ordinances is another. We can read its history in the New Testament; and we can also read there how the ancient servants of God organized the Church in their day; we can read what ordinances they performed or administered among the children of men; we can read what was needful for the organization of the Christian Church eighteen hundred years ago. We have the history of all these things in the Scriptures, but for some seventeen centuries past prior to the coming of this angel, there has been no authority to preach it; no Apostles, no Prophets, no Revelators, no visions from heaven, no inspiration from heaven; no voice of the Lord has been heard among the nations during the long interval that has elapsed since the putting to death of the ancient servants of God, and the destruction of the ancient Christian Church. Joseph Smith came to this generation testifying to the fulfillment of that which God predicted in the Revelation of Saint John—the restoration of the Gospel. But says John the Revelator, “when it is restored it shall be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.”

Is there any prospect of this Gospel being thus extensively preached among the inhabitants of the earth in this generation? We need not refer you to the missions that have been taken by the Elders of this Church. Their works speak for themselves. Behold this vast congregation of people assembled here, and nearly all who inhabit this Territory. Why are they here? Because the angel has brought the everlasting Gospel, and because the servants of God have been commissioned and sent forth with the sound of the Gospel among the various nations and kingdoms of the earth; and because they have succeeded in preaching it among vast numbers of people, and gathering them out from the midst of the nations. But it has not yet gone to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people; but wait a little longer, it will shortly go, for just as sure as it has already been preached to nearly all the nations of Christendom, so will it go to every other people—heathen, Mahomedan, and every class, whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or the uttermost parts of South America, the frozen regions in the north, or the numerous islands in the great western and eastern oceans. Every people must be warned that the great day of the Lord is close at hand; every people must know that the Lord God has spoken in these latter times; every people must know something concerning the purposes of the Great Jehovah in fulfilling and accomplishing the great preparatory work for the second advent of the Son of God from the heavens. Here then is the fufilment of one prophecy. Let us now come to another.

John, who saw this angel restore the everlasting Gospel to be preached to all the nations, declares that another proclamation was closely connected with the preaching of the Gospel. What was it? “The hour of his judgment has come”—the eleventh hour, the last time that God will warn the nations of the earth. “The hour of God’s judgment has come,” and that is the reason why the Gospel is to be so extensively preached among all people, nations and tongues, because the Lord intends through this warning to prepare them, if they will, to escape the hour of his judgment, which must come upon all people who will refuse to receive the divine message of the everlasting Gospel.

We will now pass on to another prophecy. Another angel followed. What was his proclamation? Another angel followed, and he cried with a loud voice, saying: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen. She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” &c. Spiritual Babylon the Great, “the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” “Mystery Babylon”—that great power that has held sway over the nations of the earth—that great ecclesiastical power which has ruled over the consciences of the children of men, she is to fall and is to be destroyed from the face of the earth. Will the righteous fall with her? No. Why not? Because there is a way for their escape.

Now mark another prophecy. “I heard a great voice,” says John, “from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, O my people!’” Out of where? “Mystery Babylon, the Great”—out of this great confusion that exists throughout all the nations and multitudes of Christendom. “Come out of her, O my people, that ye partake not of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath remembered her iniquities!” Is this being fulfilled? Do you see any indications of the people of God coming out from “Mystery Babylon the Great?” Yes, for forty-two years, and upwards, God has commanded his people, not by something devised by a congregation of divines, or by human ingenuity, but by a voice from heaven which has been published and printed, requiring all who receive the everlasting Gospel to come out from the midst of great Babylon. One hundred thousand Latter-day Saints, approximately speaking, now inherit these mountain regions. They are here because of this prediction of John, because of its being fulfilled, because of the voice that has come from heaven—the proclamation of the Almighty for his people to flee from amongst the nations of the earth. I need not say any more in regard to this prophecy; it is in the Bible, and is being fulfilled before the eyes of all people.

Let me refer now to another prophecy. Daniel the Prophet has told us that in the latter days after the great image that was seen in dream by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, representing the various kingdoms of the world, should be destroyed, and those nations should pass away and become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, the Lord would establish an everlasting Government here upon the earth. The Lord God saw proper to reveal to his servant Daniel the nature of this Government. He represented it as having a very small beginning—as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which stone should fall upon the feet of the image, and they should be broken in pieces. After the destruction of the feet all the image should fall—the legs of iron, the belly and thighs of brass, the breast and arms of silver, the head of gold—representing the remnants of all those ancient nations—the Babylonians, Medes and Persians, and the Greeks; also the remnants of those that once constituted the great Roman empire—those now in Europe and those of European origin which have come across the great ocean and established themselves here on the vast continent of the west, all, all were to be destroyed by the force of this little kingdom to be established by the power of truth, and by the authority that should characterize the nature of the stone cut out of the mountains. “In the days of these kings,” says the Prophet, “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, neither shall it be left to any other people, but it shall stand forever,” etc. The Prophet Daniel uttered the prophecy; Joseph Smith, by authority of the Almighty, fulfilled it, so far as the organization or setting up of the kingdom was concerned.

Let me refer now to some other prophecies. I do not want to dwell long upon any of them. We are told in the prophecies of Isaiah that before the time of the second advent, when the glory of the Lord should be revealed and all flesh should see it together, there should be a Zion built up on the earth. The Prophet gives the following exhortation to that Zion—“O Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.” Here then is a prophecy that, in the latter days, God would have a Zion on the earth before he should reveal himself from heaven and manifest his glory to all people; and the people called Zion are exhorted, in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, to get up into the high mountain. Here we are in this great mountain region, in a Territory called the mountain Territory. Here we are on the great backbone, as it were, of the western hemisphere, located among the valleys of this great ridge of mountains, which extends for thousands of miles—from the frozen regions in the north, almost to the southern extremity of South America. Here are the people called Zion, gone up into the high mountain, according to the prediction of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah uttered the prophecy; Joseph Smith also prophesied the same thing, but died without seeing it fulfilled. His successor, Brigham Young, lived to be the favored instrument in the hands of God, of taking the people from those countries down in the States, those countries upon the low elevations of our globe, and bringing them up here into this vast mountain region. Thus the prophecy was uttered—thus it has been fulfilled.

We will pass on to some other prophecies. In the eighteenth chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah we have a prediction about a time when the Lord should make a great destruction upon a certain portion of the earth. The Prophet begins the chapter by saying, “woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is be– yond the rivers of Ethiopia. Recollect where the Prophet dwelt when he uttered this prophecy—in Palestine, east of the Mediterranean Sea. Where was Ethiopia? Southwest from Palestine. Where was there a land located beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Every person acquainted with the geography of our globe knows that this American continent was beyond the rivers of Ethiopia from the land of Palestine, where the prophecy was uttered. A woe was pronounced upon that land, and that woe is this: “For 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 pruninghooks, and take away and cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, 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.” But first, before this destruction, there is a remarkable prophecy. Says the Prophet: “All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.” From this we learn that, before this great destruction, there is to be an ensign lifted up on the mountains, and this, too, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, from Palestine. This is the reason why Zion in the latter days goes up into the mountains, in order that an ensign might be lifted up on the mountains. This prophecy was uttered some twenty-five hundred years ago, and has been fulfilled before the eyes of the people in our day.

But more in regard to this ensign; we find that it was not an ensign to be lifted up in Palestine, for in the fifth chapter of his prophecies, Isaiah, speaking of it says—“The Lord shall lift up an ensign for the nations from afar.” What does this mean? It means a land far distant from where the Prophet Isaiah lived—the land of Palestine. Now there is no land of magnitude or greatness that is far off from Palestine that would answer the description of this prophecy any better than this great western hemisphere; it is located almost on the opposite side of the globe from Palestine. The Lord, then, was to lift the ensign on a land that was far off from where the Prophet lived; and that ensign, we are told, should be set up on the mountains, and that, too, on a land shadowing with wings. When looking on the map of North and South America it has oftentimes suggested to my own mind the two wings of a great bird. No doubt the Prophet Isaiah saw this great western continent in vision, and recognized the resemblance to the wings of a bird in the general outline of the two branches of the continent. On such a land, on the mountains afar off from Palestine, an ensign was to be raised. But remember another thing in connection with this ensign—See how extensive the proclamation was to be—“All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains.” It was to be a work that was to attract the attention of all people, unto the ends of the world.

“But,” enquires one, “what do you call an ensign?” Webster gives the definition of an ensign or standard—“Something to which the people gather; a notice for the people to assemble.” In other words it is the great standard of the Almighty—the great ensign that he is lifting up in the shape of his Church and kingdom, on the mountains in the latter days, with all the order and form of his ancient system of church government, with its inspired Apos– tles and Prophets and with all the gifts, powers and blessings characterizing the Christian Church in ancient days. That is an ensign that should attract the people unto the very ends of the world.

With the establishment of this ensign God has not only restored the Gospel, but the keys of gathering the people together and building up Zion, and he has also restored other keys and blessings that were to characterize the great and last dispensation of the fullness of times. What are they? The same as predicted in the last chapter of the prophecy of Malachi. That Prophet, speaking of the great day of burning says, “Behold the day shall come that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud and they that do wickedly shall become as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” This is something that has never been fulfilled yet. But mark! Before the Lord burns all the proud and those who do wickedly, he has told us be would send Elijah the Prophet. He says, “Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the Prophet, he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Recollect, this is to be just before the day of burning, before the great and notable day of the Lord should come.

Elijah, the Prophet, then, must come from heaven—that same man who was translated in a chariot of fire, and who had such power while on the earth that he could fight, as it were, all the enemies of Israel that came against him; he could call down fire from heaven and consume the fifties as they came by companies to take him. That same man was to be sent in the last days, before the great and notable day of the Lord. What for? To restore a very important principle—a principle which will turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children. Has that Prophet been sent to the earth, according to the prediction? Yes. When did he come, and to whom did he come? He came to that despised young man, Joseph Smith. According to the testimony of Joseph Smith, the Prophet Elijah stood before him, in the presence of Oliver Cowdery, and gave them these keys. What is included in this turning of the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children? There is included in it a principle for the salvation of the fathers that are dead, as well as for the children who are living. You have heard, Latter-day Saints, for years and years, that God has given keys, by which the living in this Church might do, not only the works necessary for their own salvation, but also certain works necessary to the salvation of their ancestors as far back as they could obtain their genealogies. What can be done by us for our fathers who have lived and died during the last seventeen hundred years, without hearing the Gospel in its fullness and power? Hundreds and thousands, and millions of them were sincere and honest, and served the Lord the best they knew; but they lived in the midst of apostate Christendom, and never heard the Gospel preached by inspired men, neither had they the chance of having its ordinances administered to them by men having authority from God. Must they be shut out from the kingdom of God, and be deprived of the glory, joys and blessings of celestial life because of this? No, God is an impartial being, and when he sent Elijah the Prophet to confer the keys I have referred to upon Joseph Smith, he intended that this people should work for the generations of the dead, as well as for the generations of the living; that these ordinances which pertain to men here in the flesh might be administered in their behalf by those of their kindred living in this day and generation. In this way the Latter-day Saints will be baptized and receive the various ordinances of the Gospel of the Son of God for their forefathers, as far as they can trace them; and when we have traced them as far back as we can possibly go, the Lord God has promised that he will reveal our ancestry back until it shall connect with the ancient priesthood, so that there will be no link wanting in the great chain of redemption.

Here then was a restoration in fulfillment of the prediction of Malachi, and for this reason Temples are being built. The Temple, of which the foundation is laid on this block, is intended for that purpose among others. It is not intended for the assembling of vast congregations of the Saints, but it is intended to be for the administration of sacred and holy ordinances. There will be a font for baptism, in its proper place, built according to the pattern that God shall give unto his servants. It is intended that, in these sacred and holy places, appointed, set apart and dedicated by the command of the Almighty, genealogies shall be revealed, and that the living shall officiate for the dead, that those who have not had the opportunity while in the flesh in past generations to obey the Gospel, might have their friends now living, officiate for them. This does not destroy their agency, for although they laid down their bodies and went to their graves in a day of darkness, and they are now mingled with the hosts of spirits in the eternal worlds, their agency still continues, and that agency gives them power to believe in Jesus Christ there, just as well as we can who are here. Those spirits on the other side of the veil can repent just the same as we, in the flesh, can repent. Faith in God and in his son Jesus Christ, and repentance are acts of the mind—mental operations—but when it comes to baptism for the remission of sins they cannot perform that, we act for them, that having been ordained to be performed in the flesh. They can receive the benefit of whatever is done for them here, and whatever the Lord God commands his people here in the flesh to do for them will be published to them there by those holding the everlasting Priesthood of the Son of God. If, when the Gospel is preached to them there, they will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will receive the benefits of the ordinances performed on their behalf here, and they will be partakers, with their kindred, of all the blessings of the fullness of the Gospel of the Son of God; but if they will not do this they will be bound over in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day, when they will be judged according to men in the flesh. We are here in the flesh, and the same Gospel that condemns the disobedient and the sinner here, will, by the same law, condemn those who are on the other side of the veil.

We have an account of baptism for the dead, as it was administered among the ancient Saints. Paul refers to it in his epistle to the Corinthians, to prove to them that the resurrection was a reality, “Else,” says he, “what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why then are they baptized for the dead?” It was a strong argument that Paul brought forward, and one that the Corinthians well understood. It was a practice among them to be baptized for their dead, and Paul, knowing that they understood this principle, uses an argument to show that the dead would have a resurrection, and that baptism or immersion in water, a being buried in and the coming forth out of the water, was a simile of the resurrection from the dead. The same doctrine is taught in one of Peter’s epistles. About preaching to those who are dead, Peter says that “Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing.” Indeed! Jesus himself go to the dead and preach to them? Yes. Go to the old antediluvian spirits, and preach to them? Yes, preach to spirits who had lain in prison over two thousand years, shut up and deprived of entering into the fulness of the kingdom of God because of their disobedience. Jesus went and preached to them. “What did he preach?” He did not preach eternal damnation, for that would have been no use. He did not go and say to them, “You antediluvian spirits, I have come here to torment you.” He did not declare that “I have opened your prison doors to tell you there is no hope for you, your case is past recovery, you must be damned to everlasting despair.” This was not his preaching. He went there to declare glad tidings. When he entered the prison of those antediluvians, Peter says he preached the Gospel. “For for this cause 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.” Yes, the inhabitants of the spirit world—far more numerous than those in the flesh—must hear the glad tidings of the Gospel of the Son of God, that all may be judged by the same Gospel and the same law; and if they will receive it be blessed, exalted from their prison house, and brought into the presence of the Father and the Son, and inherit celestial glory.

This, therefore, is among the greatest of all the keys that God has revealed in the last dispensation—the saving of the generations of the dead, as well as the generations of the living, inasmuch as they will repent. Shall we stop here? Perhaps I have spoken sufficiently long. There are other principles, just as important in their nature, that must be restored in the latter days, but I have not time to dwell upon them. I have reference now to the restoration of that eternal principle—the marriage covenant, which once was on the earth in the days of our first parents, the eternal union of husband and wife, according to the law of God, in the first pattern of marriage that is given to the children of men. That must also be restored, and everything in its time and in its season must be restored, in order that all things spoken of by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began may be fulfilled. But we will leave this subject for some future time. There must, however, be a restoration of the eternal covenant of marriage, and also of that order of marriage which existed among the old Patriarchs, before the prophecies can be fulfilled, wherein seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “we will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.” That must be restored, or the prophecies of Isaiah never can be fulfilled. A great many other things might be named which must be restored in the dispensation of the fulness of times. It is a dispensation to restore all things, it is the dispensation of the spirit and power of Elias or Elijah, “to seal all things unto the end of all things” preparatory to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The wicked as well as the righteous will feel the power of these keys. The wicked as well as the righteous must be sealed to that end for which they have lived. The wicked, who have disobeyed the law of God, must be sealed over unto darkness, until they have been punished and beaten with many stripes, until the last resurrection, until the last trump shall sound. But the righteous, in the flesh and behind the veil, will come forth in the first resurrection, but prior to that great event they will cooperate in their labors for the consummation of the purposes of the Almighty so far as necessary to prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign here, personally, on the earth for the space of one thousand years. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1872.

Through the mercy and loving kindness of our Father in the heavens we are again permitted to meet in a general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Forty-two years ago this day this church was organized with six members, by a prophet of the living God, raised up in these last days by the administration of angels from God, and ordained unto all the keys and powers of the Melchizedek Priesthood and apostleship, and of the kingdom of God on the earth. According to the best knowledge we have, 1842 years ago today, the Lord Jesus was crucified on Mount Calvary for the sins of the world. The 6th day of April is a very important day in many respects. It has certainly been very interesting to the Latter-day Saints to watch the history and progress of this Church and kingdom during the last forty-two years. This is one of the most important generations that men, or God, or angels have ever seen on the earth: it is a dispensation and generation when the whole flood of prophecy and revelation and vision given through inspired men for the last six thousand years is to have its fulfillment, and especially in relation to the establishment of the great kingdom and Zion of God on the earth. Joseph Smith was one of the greatest prophets God ever raised up on the earth, and the Lord has had his eye upon him from the foundation of the world. Any man who has ever read the book of Isaiah, which we frequently have quoted to us, can see that he, with other prophets, had his eye upon the latter-day Zion of God. He says in one place, “Sing O heavens, rejoice O earth, break forth into singing, O ye mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, he will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me;” “Ah,” says the Lord, “Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

The Lord never created this world at random; he has never done any of his work at random. The earth was created for certain purposes; and one of these purposes was its final redemption, and the establishment of his government and kingdom upon it in the latter days, to prepare it for the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose right it is to reign. That set time has come, that dispensation is before us, we are living in the midst of it. It is before the Latter-day Saints, it is before the world; whether or not the people have more faith in the promises of God now than they had in the days of Noah makes no difference, the unbelief of men will not make the truth of God without effect. The great and mighty events that the Lord Almighty has decreed from before the foundation of the world, to be performed in the latter days are resting upon us, and they will follow each other in quick succession, whether men believe or not, for no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and what they said will come to pass; though the heaven and the earth pass away not one jot or tittle of the word of the Lord will go unfulfilled.

Some of us have lived in and been intimately acquainted with this church for the last forty years, a very few more than that, and some less; but where is the Latter-day Saint or any other person who has ever seen this church or kingdom go backward? No matter what position we were in, whether exterminated by the order of Governor Boggs of Missouri, or whether we lay, sick and afflicted, on the muddy banks of the Missouri River; whether it was Zion’s Camp going up for her redemption; whether it was the pioneers coming to these mountains, making the roads, building the bridges, killing the snakes and opening the way for the gathering of the people, no matter what our circumstances may have been, this kingdom has been onward and upward all the day long until the present hour. Will it ever go backward? No, it will not. This Zion of the Lord, in all its beauty, power and glory is engraven upon the hands of Almighty God, and it is before his face continually; his decrees are set and no man can turn them aside.

There never was a dispensation on the earth when prophets and apostles, the inspiration, revelation and power of God, the holy priesthood and the keys of the kingdom were needed more than they are in this generation. There never has been a dispensation when the friends of God and righteousness among the children of men needed more faith in the promises and prophecies than they do today; and there certainly never has been a generation of people on the earth that has had a greater work to perform than the inhabitants of the earth in the latter days. That is one reason why this church and kingdom has progressed from its commencement until today, in the midst of all the opposition, oppression and warfare which have been waged against it by men inspired by the evil one. If this had not been the dispensation of the fulness of times—the dispen– sation in which God has declared that he will establish his kingdom on the earth never more to be thrown down, the inhabitants of the earth would have been enabled to overcome the kingdom and Zion of God in this as well as in any former dispensation. But the set time has come to favor Zion, and the Lord Almighty has decreed in the heavens that every weapon formed against her shall be broken. And if we take the history of any man, from the days Joseph Smith received the plates from the hill Cumorah, and translated the Book of Mormon by the Urim and Thummim, until today, whoever has raised his hand against this work has felt the chastening hand of Almighty God upon him; and I am at the defiance of the world to show me a president, governor, judge, ruler, priest or anybody else on the earth who has taken a stand against this kingdom who is an exception, and you may search their whole history. We have outlived several generations of our persecutors. Where are the men who tarred and feathered Joseph Smith in Portage County, Ohio? Where are the men who drove this people from Kirtland? Where are the men who drove the Church and kingdom from Jackson County, Missouri? Where are the men who undertook to kidnap the prophet while in Illinois? Where are they who drove the Latter-day Saints from Illinois into these mountains? Trace their whole history and see for yourselves. The fact is many of them are in their graves, awaiting their final judgment. And in the whole history of this people and their remarkable preservation, the invisible hand of God is as plainly to be seen as it has been in the history of the Jews from the days of Christ until now; and it will continue until this scene is wound up.

We are led by men who are filled with inspiration. Joseph Smith was a man of God, through the loins of the ancient Joseph who, through the wisdom which God gave him, redeemed his father’s house after having been sold by his brethren into Egypt. All the blessings that old father Jacob pronounced upon Joseph and upon the sons of Ephraim, his son and grandsons have rested upon them until this day. Joseph Smith was through that lineage. In his youth he was inspired of God, and was administered to by angels. Under their guidance and counsel he laid the foundation of this work, and lived long enough to receive all the keys necessary for bearing off this dispensation. He lived long enough to have these individuals administer unto him—John the Baptist, Peter, James and John the Apostles, Elisha and Elijah, who held the keys of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers; and Moroni, who held the keys of the stick of Joseph in the hands of Ephraim to come forth in the latter day, administered in person to Joseph Smith, and gave him these records and instructed him in the things of God from time to time until he was qualified and prepared to lay the foundation of this work. The Prophet Joseph lived to see the Church organized with apostles and prophets, patriarchs, pastors, teachers, helps, governments, and all the gifts and graces of the spirit of God; to give the Twelve Apostles their endowments and to seal upon their heads all the authority and power that were necessary to enable them to fulfil their missions. Why did the Lord take him away? He laid down his life, and sealed his testimony with his blood that it might be in force upon the heads of this generation, and that he might be crowned with crowns of glory, immortality and eternal life; that he might go to the other side of the veil, and there organize the Church and kingdom in this last dispensation. He and his two brothers were taken away into the spirit world, and they are at work there, while Brigham Young and the quorum of the Twelve were preserved on the earth for a special purpose in the hands of God. These things are true, and the hand of the Lord has been over Brigham Young, although now he is under bonds and a prisoner, and has his privileges curtailed for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Yet in the midst of all this he is calm and composed before the Lord, and has his mind open to the things of God. He still lives in the midst of this people and will live as long as the Lord wishes him to remain in the flesh to guide the affairs of Zion.

I will say to the Latter-day Saints that we have been more blessed in this land than has any other dispensation or generation of men. The Lord has been at work for the last three hundred years preparing this land, with a government and constitution which would guarantee equal rights and privileges to the inhabitants thereof, in the midst of which he could establish his kingdom. The kingdom is established, the work of God is manifest in the earth, the Saints have come up here into the valleys of the mountains, and they are erecting the house of God in the tops thereof, for the nations to flow unto. A standard of truth has been lifted up to the people, and from the commencement of this work the Latter-day Saints have been fulfilling that flood of revelation and prophecy which was given formerly concerning this great work in the last days. I rejoice in this, and also because we have every reason to expect a continuation of these blessings unto Zion. We have always had a veil over us, we have had to walk by faith all the day long until the present time: this is the decree of God. When we were driven from Jackson County, Clay County, Caldwell County, Kirtland, and finally from Nauvoo into these mountains, we did not see and understand what lay before us: there was a veil over our faces, in a measure. It has been the same with the people of God in all ages. At that time we could not see this tabernacle, and the five hundred miles of villages, towns, cities, gardens, orchards, fields, or the desert blossoming as the rose as we see them today. We came here and found a barren desert: we were led hither by inspiration, by a lawgiver, by a man of God; the Lord was with him, he was with the pioneers. If we had not come here we could not have fulfilled the prophecies which the prophets have left on record in the stick of Judah as well as in the stick of Ephraim—the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We have done that, and we can look back twenty-four years and see the change that has been effected since our arrival; but who can see the change that will be effected in the next twenty-four years? No man can see it unless the vision of his mind is opened by the power of God. The Lord told Joseph Smith to lay the foundation of this work; he told him that the day had come when the harvest was ready, and to thrust in the sickle and reap; and every man who would do so was called of God and had this privilege.

The Lord has sent forth the Gospel, and it is offered to the children of men as it was in ancient days; men are required to have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of their sins, and to be baptized for the remission of them, and the promise is that they shall receive the Holy Ghost, which shall teach them the things of God, bring things past to their remembrance, and show them things to come.

What principle has sustained the Elders of Israel for the last forty years in their travels? They have gone forth without purse or scrip, preached without money or price; they have swam rivers, waded swamps, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles on foot to bear record of this work to the nations of the earth. What has sustained them? It has been this power of God, this Holy Ghost, the spirit of inspiration from the God of Israel that has been given to his friends on the earth in these latter days. The blood of Israel has flowed in the veins of the children of men, mixed among the Gentile nations, and when they have heard the sound of the Gospel of Christ it has been like vivid lightning to them; it has opened their understandings, enlarged their minds, and enabled them to see the things of God. They have been born of the Spirit, and then they could behold the kingdom of God; they have been baptized in water and had hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and they have received that Holy Ghost among every Gentile nation under heaven wherever the Gospel has been permitted to be preached; and here they are today, from all those nations, gathered in the valleys of the mountains. And this is but the beginning; it is like a mustard seed, it is very small; but the little one is to become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. The Lord will hasten it in his own time. Zion shall be called a “City sought out.” The Lord is watching over us.

I wish to say to the Latter-day Saints, we must not forget our position, nor the blessings that we hope for. All that we expect, we have got to inquire of the Lord for. Some of our brethren, as has been said here, have suffered a little through the spirit of bigotry and persecution that is in the world. I wonder many times there is not a great deal more of it. The Lord Almighty is going to make a short work in the earth; lest no flesh should be saved he will cut his work short in righteousness. The Lord is putting his hook into the jaws of the nations. He holds Great Babylon in his hands as well as Zion. He will control the children of men; and, as the Lord God lives, if the Latter-day Saints do their duty—live their religion and keep their covenants, Zion will arise, put on her beautiful garments, be clothed with the glory of God, have power in the earth, and the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Then let our prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabbaoth, for he will hear them, that the wisdom of the wise may perish and the understanding of the prudent be hid. Our weapons are faith, prayer, and confidence in God, for he is our friend if we have any, and we are his if he has any on the face of the earth. The Lord will work with us, and we should work with him; therefore, brethren, let us live by faith, walk by faith, overcome by faith, so that we may enjoy the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us. All the institutions pertaining to the work of God in these latter days are going to progress, Zion is bound to arise, and to arrive at that position in our great future that the Prophets have seen by prophecy and revelation.

I want to say a few words to the sisters, who have been referred to this morning—the Female Relief Societies. Our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters occupy a very important position in this generation, far more so than they realize or understand. You are raising up your sons and daughters as plants of renown in the house of Israel in these latter days. Upon the shoulders of you mothers rests, in a great measure, the responsibility of correctly developing the mental and moral powers of the rising generation, whether in infancy, childhood, or still riper years. Your husbands—the fathers of your children, are messengers to the nations of the earth, or they are engaged in business, and cannot be at home to attend to the children. No mother in Israel should let a day pass over her head without teaching her children to pray. You should pray yourselves, and teach your children to do the same, and you should bring them up in this way, that when you have passed away and they take your places in bearing off the great work of God, they may have principles instilled into their minds that will sustain them in time and in eternity. I have often said it is the mother who forms the mind of the child. Take men anywhere, at sea, sinking with their ship, dying in battle, lying down in death almost under any circumstances, and the last thing they think of, the last word they say, is “mother.” Such is the influence of woman. Our children should not be neglected; they should receive a proper education in both spiritual and temporal things. That is the best legacy any parents can leave to their children. We should teach them to pray, and instil into their minds while young every correct principle. Ninety-nine out of every hundred children who are taught by their parents the principles of honesty and integrity, truth and virtue, will observe them through life. Such principles will exalt any people or nation who make them the rule of their conduct. Show me a mother who prays, who has passed through the trials of life by prayer, who has trusted in the Lord God of Israel in her trials and difficulties, and her children will follow in the same path. These things will not forsake them when they come to act in the kingdom of God.

I want to say to our mothers in Israel, your children are approaching a very important day and age of the world. In a few more years their parents will pass away. We will go where our brethren have gone—to the other side of the veil. Our children will remain and will possess this kingdom when God’s judgments await the nations of the earth, when war, calamity, sword, fire, famine, pestilence and earthquake will stalk abroad and distress the people. Our children should be prepared to build up the kingdom of God. Then qualify them in the days of childhood for the great duties they will be called upon to perform; and that God may enable us to do so is my prayer for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, April 6th, 1872.

Owing to a spirit of persecution and religious bigotry, alike disgraceful to the age, the enlightenment of the present generation and the nation in which we live, our First President is not permitted to be with us. While we regret such a state of affairs, we rejoice in the many liberties, privileges, blessings and powers which are extended unto us. It is not by any means strange that, while the world has been plunged in ignorance upon matters of religion and morality, and broken up into factions, on the appearance in the midst of the whole, of a small body of men, illiterate in their character, proclaiming to the world that they are inspired of the Lord, and undertake to introduce system and principles calculated to elevate mankind from degradation and destruction, and exalt them to eternal glory and endless increase, they should be misunderstood; it has been so in all ages of the world. When our Savior visited the earth bringing the simple principles of salvation, he was misunderstood, misapprehended, persecuted, imprisoned, crowned with thorns, tortured, as a man who was opposed to the religion of the age, and dangerous to the State. He was accused of a great variety of crimes, of being a pestilent fellow, and was finally put to death by a class of men a great number of whom were zealous professors of religion—elders, high priests, rabbis, doctors of the law and others claiming to be exceedingly holy. Jesus, in referring to the history of the past, said that the fathers of those who persecuted him had slain the prophets, and such was the case; and we find that, in every age, when God inspired a man to proclaim the Gospel of salvation, all, or a large portion of mankind, were ready to denounce him and put him to death, to whip, imprison, annoy, lie about him, proclaim all manner of evil against him, and so on, until his influence should be annihilated from the earth. The same principle still exists, and the Latter-day Saints have had to contend with it. When Joseph Smith, in 1830, organized the Church with six members, the war as it were commenced; a few hours only had passed away when he was arrested, taken before a magistrate and accused of prophesying. He was discharged, arrested again, taken before another magistrate, and finally a declaration was made that if the law could not reach him, tar and feathers and mob power should. This is a very poor argument and shows the weakness of those who have recourse to it.

We live in an age of science, in an age when intelligence is being developed in a great many directions, and when the learning of man is vastly extended. The Apostle Paul cautioned the Saints in his day to beware lest any spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit; yet the religion of Jesus Christ embraces every true and perfect principle, every correct science, every principle of philosophy—that is every true principle, and is calculated to benefit mankind in every way; and yet the laws of life as revealed, explained and developed in the organization of the human family are trampled under foot and very little understood. God has commenced a work in these last days to elevate mankind, to save them, to increase them, to place them on a footing of independence; to cause them to love one another and to lay a foundation for peace and harmony, that bloodshed and war, contention and devastation shall cease; that the power of the oppressor shall be broken and that the honest in heart may have the privilege of dwelling together and building up Zion in all the earth, and of continuing the blessings and ordinances of exaltation for time and throughout all eternity.

There is no doubt but Satan stirs up the hearts of the children of man to disobedience and to war against the principles of righteousness; but they are true. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, he was a minister of the Most High; he brought forth pure and holy principles, principles which are calculated to save and exalt mankind. He was slain, and those who received his testimony were robbed of all they possessed and driven into the wilderness under the influence of religious fanaticism and bigotry, which apprehended nothing but their utter destruction. God preserved them, blessed them, and they spread abroad in the midst of these valleys; they converted the desert into fruitful fields, and laid a foundation for the redemption of the human race, and thank God for these privileges.

We want while we are here at Conference, to have our brethren collect in their minds—that is, leave their business out of doors. It is a good time to come to Conference, a splendid time to do business and all that; but while the hours of Conference are on, let us come to meeting, give strict attention to what is said and done, and call upon God in mighty prayer, that he will deliver Zion from her oppressors; that he will bless the efforts of his servants for the advancement of his work; that he will bless the Missionaries that are sent abroad, and those who are abroad among the nations, and the missions of the native elders in the various counties; that he will open the way that the poor may be gathered. And, by the way, while we are doing this, let us reflect how much we can do to aid the Perpetual Emigration Fund, in bringing home the Poor. Many of them have been scattered among the nations half a generation and more, and they are unable to gather home. Think of these things. Pray the Lord to give his servants wisdom; pray the Lord to strengthen the President of the Church—Brigham Young, heal his body, make him strong, sound and healthy, deliver him from the power of the oppressor and those who seek to destroy him, that he may have wisdom, intelligence and power to preach to and teach the Saints, and to counsel and guide the affairs of the great work which God has entrusted to him. Let us devote a few days, as the case may be, to counsel, to instruction, to bearing testimony, to acquiring a knowledge of the things of God, speaking of those things that are for the welfare of Zion; taking counsel together as to the best course to pursue on the various subjects that are before us—forwarding the building of Temples, &c.

After last Conference President Young and myself made a journey to St. George. His health was very poor and he was quite feeble when he left here. When he reached that mild climate, or rather, that even, dry climate, he seemed immediately to commence to recruit, and while we remained there—we were absent about ten weeks—he improved very much; but in consequence of the persecution which was inaugurated against the Latter-day Saints, aiming at him directly, it became necessary for him to return in the midst of a very cold and stormy season, and very muddy roads. While at St. George he selected a spot, laid out the foundation and dedicated the ground and made a commencement, to build a temple, which is being continued under the direction of President Erastus Snow, that the ordinances of the holy priesthood, which should be administered only in a Temple, may be attended to in that part of the Territory, in the neighborhood and vicinity of those settlements.

Our brethren can observe that a very handsome addition has been made to the foundation of the Temple here since the last Annual Conference, and they can now begin to form some idea of how the work is going to look. When you realize that all the granite that is in that immense foundation has been hauled some seventeen miles with oxen, mules and horses, you must realize that a very great job has been accomplished. But at the present time we have a railroad almost into the quarry, and the result is that the labor has been greatly lessened, and the rock and the sand and other building material can be brought here at vastly less expense than formerly, and consequently we will be able to push the work forward more rapidly. We want the brethren and sisters—all of them, to feel an interest in the tithes and offerings for the Temple, and in the labor upon it.

All must be aware that considerable expense and a great deal of time and disarrangement of business has been caused by the persecutions and prosecutions of the last year. But we are very glad that Cooperative Associations for mercantile, manufacturing, agricultural, grazing and other purposes that have been forming in this City and throughout this Territory for several years past, have proved in an eminent degree successful, manifesting what wonderful results can be accomplished by the Latter-day Saints when united in the exercise of their several duties and in the performance of their labors. The want of unity and organization causes the loss of a good deal of time, and hence the necessity of organization and united efforts.

The ladies relief societies in all the several settlements wherever they have existed have also been in many respects highly successful, and great blessings to the community—looking after the poor and introducing improvements, encouraging and enabling women to take charge of branches of business that are suited to their strength, knowledge and condition. It always did seem to me ridiculous to see a man six feet two and weighing two hundred and twenty measuring tape or ribbons in a store; and I shall be very thankful when I can see changes effected to such an extent that nimble fingers, suited to handle light goods will be permitted to follow that kind of employment, and so on throughout the whole organization of society. Let those great big men go and dig the rock, handle the saw log, or do something that their strength was made for, and not let their giant power wilt away in the shadow of a store. However these are things yet to come. It is not my design to offer many remarks, but merely as an introduction to the conference, to express my faith. I know that this is the work of God, and that all the efforts of wicked men to trample it under foot will be vain. I know the Lord has commenced his great work of the latter days, and that Zion will triumph. This is my testimony. I am not talking what I guess at, what I imagine or what I think, but what I verily know—God has revealed it unto me. Brethren, if you have not this knowledge within yourselves, seek it of the Lord by obedience to his laws, by observing his counsel, by walking in his ordinances, by laboring for the upbuilding of Zion, and you will obtain it, and it will be like a well of water springing up in your hearts unto everlasting life.

May the blessing of Israel’s God be and abide upon you forever and ever. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, March 17, 1872.

In rising to address the congregation this afternoon, I do so, as I always do, with very great pleasure. It always affords me gratification to contemplate the things pertaining to the Church and kingdom of God, and to the interests of humanity on the earth. I love to speak of these things, I am always pleased to hear of them, and I am as willing to listen to the truth when emanating from some person else as I am to communicate it to others, as it may be made manifest to me. I feel as our Elders generally do—that we are seeking to communicate—not our own special ideas, or any peculiar theory that we may have entertained; but, under the guidance of the Almighty, that we may instruct and teach as we may be led and guided by the Spirit of the living God. I feel, as it is expressed in the Scriptures, “That it is not in man to direct his steps,” and it is not especially in man to teach things pertaining to eternity, or to the everlasting welfare of the human family, unless he be under the guidance and direction of the Almighty, and feels that he is simply an instrument in His hands to unfold and develop certain principles that are made manifest unto him. I feel always willing to hear, to teach, to receive instruction, or to communicate unto others those principles that are calculated to promote their happiness and well-being in time and in eternity. These things lie at the foundation of the happiness of the human family; they emanate from God, our Father, in whom, we are told, “we live and move and have our being,” and upon whom we are dependent for all the blessings we enjoy, whether they pertain to this world or the world to come. Ignorant of all true principles without inspiration from him, we feel at all times that it is necessary for us to be under his guidance and direction, and to seek for the aid of his Holy Spirit, that we may be led and taught, instructed and directed in all of our acts and associations in life, that we may be prepared for any events that may transpire, associated with the affairs of this world or relative to the world to come. We look upon ourselves as eternal beings, and that God is our Father. We are told in the sacred record of truth that he is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh—of all flesh that has lived, that now lives or that will live; and it is proper that we should have just conceptions of our relationship to him, to each other, to the world wherein we live, to those who have existed before us, or to those who shall come after us, that as wise, intelligent beings, under the inspiration of the Almighty, we may be able to conduct our steps so that our pathway in life may be such as to secure the approval of a good conscience and of God, angels and good men; and that whilst we live upon the earth we may fulfil in an honorable manner the measure of our creation, and, obeying our Creator, feel that he is indeed what the Scriptures represent him to be, and what we believe him to be—“the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh.”

There is a feeling generally extant in the world that God is a great and august personage who is elevated so high above the world, and is so far separated from humanity that it is impossible to approach him, and although the Christian religion, under whatever form it may be practiced, teaches mankind to pray unto God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet it is very few who suppose that their prayers amount to anything, that God will listen to their supplications, or that they will prove of any special benefit. A feeling of this kind tends more or less to unbelief instead of faith in God, and hence we find very few men in our day who act as men of God did in former days, that is, seek unto him for guidance and direction in the affairs of life. If we examine what is termed the sacred history of the Bible, we shall find that in the various ages of the world, until soon after Christianity was introduced, there was a feeling among men to call upon God and to have their prayers answered—a feeling that if they would approach the Most High and call upon his name in faith, he would answer their supplications and give unto them wisdom, intelligence and revelation for the guidance of their feet in the pathway of life; and it was not based as it is now, generally, upon some old theories, or upon communications made unto others; but if we trace the records of Scripture through, we shall find that men generally sought for themselves guidance and direction and revelation adapted to the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed.

If we go back to the time when Adam first made his appearance on the earth, the Lord God we are told communicated with him, gave him certain commandments, told him what he should do and what he should not do; and when he transgressed the law, we are told that he heard the footsteps of the Lord in the garden, and he heard his voice speaking unto him, and when, at the dictum of the Almighty, he was expelled from the paradise in which he lived, an angel was placed there as a guardian to prevent his return.

From the accounts that we have in our possession of events that took place soon after that time, we learn that the Lord communicated his will unto others, and there was a man called Enoch, a very remarkable personage, whose history is very brief indeed, considering the important events that transpired during his day. We are told that he walked with God, had communication with him, and that “He was not, for God took him.” Our recent revelations give us information pertaining to this same man—that he gathered together a people, that he taught them the principles of the Gospel, that he gathered together all who would listen to the principles of truth previous to the flood, and that he and his city were translated, or as the account of the Bible says—“He was not, for God took him.”

By and by another event transpired. The people became excessively wicked and corrupt, so much so, that, as the Scriptures informs us, “Their thoughts were only evil, and that continually;” and in consequence of this the Lord decreed that he would destroy the people from the face of the earth. But before he did it he gave revelation unto Noah, telling him that the destruction of all flesh upon the earth had been decreed by the Almighty in consequence of the wickedness of the people; and Noah had special revelation given to him adapted to the circumstances which surrounded him, and the age in which he lived. He was not told to build a city, to preach the Gospel and gather the people as Enoch had done; but he was told that the wickedness of all flesh had come up before the Almighty and that he had determined to destroy them with a flood; and Noah, believing in God and in the revelation which he gave unto him, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, built an ark, and gathered into that ark himself and wife, his sons and their wives, and two—male and fe– male—of the various kinds of beasts, birds and creeping things that dwelt on the face of the earth. History records the coming of the flood, the destruction of the world by it, and the preservation in the ark of those who had listened to the word of God and to whom he communicated his will.

Subsequent to this time a variety of singular circumstances transpired and there existed many prominent characters both good and bad, worshipers of God and worshipers of idols. We find that after the re-peopling of the earth after the flood men set to work to build a tower, and the Lord confused their languages and scattered them from hence, throughout all the earth. About this time a singular kind of personage appeared on the stage of action, named Abraham. He had been taught by his father to worship idols; but the Lord had manifested himself to him on certain occasions and instructed him in the true religion. He did not teach him as he taught Enoch, or as he had taught Noah; the circumstances of Abraham were different from those of Enoch and Noah, and if Abraham had the history of their times, as he unquestionably had, for Abraham was contemporary with Noah and Noah with Adam, and must have been acquainted with the events which had transpired, from the days of Adam at least from information given by Adam to Noah and by Noah to himself, he would know that the revelations they received were not applicable to his case, but he needed revelation from God for his own guidance and direction, that he might be led aright, and that he might be able to instruct his children after him in the path they should tread, in the principles, doctrines and ordinances that should be according to the mind and will of God.

There is something humorous in a history that we have in relation to this personage. The priests of those days offered sacrifices to their gods, and, like the priests of these days, they were generally opposed to new revelation from God. Abraham’s father had instructed him in the doctrines of these idols, and had sought to induce him to have faith in them and in their power, authority, and dominion, telling him what great personages they were. But Abraham, inspired by the Lord, went on a certain occasion into the temple of these gods and smote them right and left, upsetting and breaking them in pieces. His father came in and asked what he had been doing, what great sin this was that he had committed, why he was so sacrilegious in his feelings and so wicked as to seek to destroy these gods? Said he, “Father, I did not do anything to them, they quarreled among themselves and went to work fighting and knocked one another down, broke one another’s heads and knocked off one another’s arms and legs.” “Oh,” said his father, “my son do not tell me anything of that kind, for they are made of wood and they could not move or stir from their place nor knock one another down; it has been some other agency that has done it.” “Why, father,” said he, “would you worship a being that could not stir or move, that had hands and could not handle, that had legs and could not walk, a mouth that could not speak, and a head and it was of no use? Would you worship a being like that?” But nevertheless our history informs us that the priests were angry and stirred up his father against him. But the Lord inspired Abraham to leave there. The Bible tells us the Lord said to him: “Get thee up from thy father’s house, from the land wherein thou wast born, and go up to a land I will show unto thee, and which I will afterwards give unto thee for an inheritance.” And we are told that “he went up, not knowing whither he went.”

There is something very peculiar about this little history, so far as we have it in the Bible. I think I see this man of God rising up, after he had incurred the displeasure of the priests and his father, and had slain these gods, making preparations to leave his native country. I fancy I see some of his neighbors coming to him, and saying: “Abraham, where are you going?” “Oh,” says he, “I do not know.” “You don’t know.” “No.” “Well, who told you to go?” “The Lord.” “And you do not know where you are going?” “Oh, no,” says he, “I am going to a land that he will show me, and that he has promised to give me and my seed after me for an inheritance; and I believe in God, and therefore I am starting.” There was something very peculiar about it, almost as bad as us when we started to come off from Nauvoo: we hardly knew where we were going, but we could not have rest, peace or safety among the Christians, consequently we left them and started off to the Rocky Mountains, under the direction of God, hardly knowing whither we went, just as Abraham did, and I do not think we were any bigger fools than he, for he went just about as we did, not knowing whither he went.

Afterwards the Lord gave him a son, for when He was an old man, and his wife Sarah was seventy years old, they were childless, and at this advanced age the Lord gave them a son. There had been no event of that kind ever transpired before in the history of the Bible, and if it were the Bible they had to look at, it would have been of no use to them, for they could not get any instruc– tions there how they were to act; but he feared God and put his trust in him, and the Lord gave him revelation. The angel of the Lord, we are told, visited Abraham and his wife, and told her she should have a son. Sarah was a good deal amused at it, and laughed over the matter, for she was about seventy years old and thought it rather strange that she should have a son at that age, and she laughed at the idea, as many of our old sisters would unquestionably do now if they were told such a thing. It seems all very natural when you look at it just about as it is. And when the angel asked her why she laughed, she lied and said: “I did not laugh,” she did not want to have it known that she laughed at what the Lord said. “Nay, but,” said he, “thou didst laugh.” And as the time came round, lo and behold she had a son and called his name Isaac. And after this the Lord seemed determined to try Abraham and see whether or not he would be faithful to him and obey him in all things. He had obeyed him in breaking up those Gods, and in leaving his father’s house and going up to a land that he had shown unto him, and the Lord was determined to try him to the uttermost, and see whether he would obey him yet further. “Now,” said he, “Abraham, take thy son, thine only son Isaac, and go to a place that I will indicate, and offer him up as a burnt offering before me.” That was a curiosity, it had something odd and strange about it. It was not really what you would call philosophical; it was not in accordance with any principles that we could understand anything about, in our day; and it would have been difficult for Abraham to have reasoned it out why he should be called to offer up his son as a sacrifice. Nothing of the kind had ever transpired before as a precedent; no such thing written in the Bible that had taken place among men before. In offering up his only son there was something very peculiar, not especially as a sacrifice, but it came in contact with every parental feeling which he must necessarily have felt for his only child. This, in and of itself, rendered it one of the most severe and painful trials that could be placed upon man; but there was something else connected with this which was explained by the Prophet Joseph Smith, who, when speaking of these things, said God was determined in these days to have a tried people as He had in former times, and that he would feel after their heartstrings and try them in every way possible for them to be tried; and if he could have invented anything that would have been more keen, acute, and trying than that which he required of Abraham he would have done it. But that, no doubt, was one of the greatest trials that could have been inflicted on any human being. Notice the old gentleman tottering along with his son, brooding over the promises of God and the peculiar demand now made upon him. Says he: “Isaac, let us go up into the mountain here, and offer a sacrifice to the Lord.” And he took him along; they ascend the mountain, they gather together some rocks and together build an altar; they gather the fuel and place it on that altar; and when everything is prepared Isaac says: “Father, here is the altar and here is the wood, but where is the sacrifice.” What would the feelings of a father be under such circumstances? Says he, with a heart gushing with sorrowful emotions, “My son, God will prepare himself a sacrifice,” and finally the old man gave his son to understand that he was the sacrifice, and he bound him and placed him on the wood upon the altar, and lifted the knife to strike the fatal blow, and while his arm was outstretched the Lord spake, saying: “Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the lad, for the Lord shall provide thee a sacrifice,” and he looked round and found a ram in a thicket, and he placed it on the altar and offered a burnt offering before the Lord. The Lord then took him aside and said: “Lift up thine eyes eastward, westward, northward and southward, for to thee and to thy seed after thee will I give this land; and thy seed shall be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and like the sand on the sea shore so shall they be innumerable; and in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” The Lord proved him and found him faithful in all things. That was a severe test to human nature; but there were other ideas crowding on his mind that were ten thousand times more formidable than these paternal feelings which gushed and welled up in his bosom when told to offer up his son as a sacrifice. What was it? Why the Lord had told him that he would make of him a nation and a multitude of nations, and that he should be the father of many nations, and yet he told him to go and offer up his only son. And he was an old man and his wife an old woman; and it was not only the idea of taking the life of his son that was crowding upon his mind, but the cutting him off in regard to posterity and the promises that God had made to him in regard to the magnitude of the peoples that should arise from him, or from his loins, and leaving him, as it were, a dry root, helpless, hopeless, tottering on the grave without any heir. Paul very justly remarks that in the midst of all these things, “he staggered not through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God; believing that he from whom he had received him, as it were from the dead, would be able, if he had even slaughtered his son, to raise him from the dead.” He was strong in faith, says Paul, “giving glory to God.” He had had the visions of his mind unfolded in regard to the future; he had looked through the dark vista of future ages. Inspired by the spirit of revelation he contemplated the purposes of God as they rolled forth in all their majesty and glory and power, and considered that He was to be one of the great actors in this great world drama that should be exhibited in the after ages or time, and in the eternities that were to come. Jesus said of him, “Abraham saw my day and was glad.” But he saw in this, apparently, all his hopes blasted; but notwithstanding he had faith and confidence in God, and he stood there like the beaten anvil to the stroke, or the sturdy oak defying all storms and blasts and influences. He was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Nothing but the spirit of revelation could have given him this confidence, and it was that which sustained him under these peculiar circumstances.

He then told him that, by and by, his seed should go down into bondage in Egypt, and should remain there four hundred years, and that then they would be delivered. He also made promises concerning his posterity, telling him they should inherit that land; and yet, singular to say, notwithstanding these revelations and promises from the Lord, several thousand years after, when Stephen was referring to these promises, he said, “he gave him none inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot;” but he told him that he would “give it to him, and to his seed after him, for an everlasting inheri– tance.” And as we have to do with a truthful God, and with eternal things, we expect that these promises will be literally fulfilled, and that God will accomplish all things that he spoke to him pertaining to his seed. But there was one peculiarity about this that I wish to notice in connection with others—that when God gave revelations to the human family in the different ages of the world it was particularly adapted to the circumstances in which they were placed. They were not dependent, as Christians are now, simply on the Bible or upon some old revelation, from which they could learn many great things, but they could not learn what was necessary, what plan it was proper for them to adopt under the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed.

We find, in continuing the history of these things, that after the children of Israel had been in Egypt for a length of time, God sent them a deliverer—he raised up Moses and inspired him with the principle of revelation, told him he had a work for him to do, that he was to deliver Israel from the bondage that had been placed upon them by the Egyptian kings. Moses shrank from the responsibility, and told the Lord that he was a “man of stammering tongue and of slow speech,” and that he was not competent to perform a work of such magnitude. The Lord told him never to mind, it would be all right, that he would provide a spokesman for him in Aaron his brother, and Aaron should be a mouthpiece to the people, and Moses should be as a god to Aaron and dictate him in the course that He should take. And this very Moses gives us an account of all the histories that we have in relation to the dealings of God with the human family from Adam’s day until the time in which he lived. There was something peculiar about the mission that he had. He was sent on several occasions to present himself before the Egyptian king with a message from the Lord that he should let his people Israel go, and in these various messages you will find, just as I stated before, the revelations that he had were adapted to the particular circumstances he was placed in. He was not told to build a city as Enoch had been, and to gather a people together to be translated; he was not told to build an ark, as Noah did; he was not told to leave his father’s house and go to a strange land, as Abraham was; he was placed in other circumstances—he was going to be the deliverer of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and to lead them to that land which God had promised Abraham, and consequently he had to have direct communication with the Lord—revelation to guide him in the course that he should pursue in the work that he had to perform. The result was that after many revelations he took Israel out of Egypt, he brought them into the wilderness, he passed them through the Red Sea, and he went upon the mountain, conversed with God and received from him tables of stone written by his own hand for the guidance of the people, and was under the direction of the Almighty in all his moves. He built an ark, not according to his own judgment or wisdom, not according to anything that he read of in the Bible, nor according to any previous revelation or communication; but the Lord told him to see “that he made all things according to the pattern that he had shown him in the mount,” and he did so. And the people traveled on through that wilderness, and were there for forty years, a pillar of fire leading them by night and a cloud by day; and when that pillar of fire or cloud rested they rested, when it lifted up they moved, and followed its guidance. And Aaron went and ministered in the Tabernacle and approached before the Holy of Holies, and all these sayings, doings and events that then transpired were under the immediate revelation, dictation and guidance of the Almighty. The Lord at that time desired to make of Israel a great nation, a kingdom of priests. They had the Gospel preached unto them in the wilderness, so Paul tells us, but they were rebellious, wayward and stiffnecked. It was the design of the Almighty to lead them into the presence of God, that they might see him as Moses did, and as the seventy Elders of Israel did, that they might converse with him and obtain intelligence from him, and be under his special guidance and direction; but they could not endure the Gospel, and therefore we are told “the law was added because of transgression.” What was it added to? Why, to the Gospel. What was the Gospel? A principle of revelation; it always was. It was the same Gospel that Jesus had that was revealed to them. The Scriptures tell us that it “brings life and immortality to light;” and whenever in any age of the world men had a knowledge of life and immortality, of the purposes of God and his future designs, and of the future estate of mankind, it came through the Gospel, for it is the Gospel that brings life and immortality to light; and wherever the Gospel exists, there exists a knowledge of life and immortality; and wherever a knowledge of life and immortality does not exist the Gospel does not exist. The children of Israel, then, were placed under the law—a schoolmaster, we are told, “a yoke that neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.” This Peter tells us.

Then there were other Prophets after Moses who appeared on the stage, such as Job, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and many others, who had communication with God and received a knowledge of his will and purposes, and prophesied under the inspiration of the Almighty and testified of events that should afterwards transpire. To these men we are indebted for the Bible, that is, for the Old and New Testaments; to them and their revelations, to the communications that they had, the ministering of angels and the opening visions, and the unfolding of the purposes of God, and the various histories and dealings of God with the people; to them are we indebted for the Bible that we Christians of the present day talk so much about. To these men who made this Bible we are indebted for any knowledge that they had about God; and that Gospel, we are told, brings life and immortality to light.

We are now sometimes told by people here, at this present day, that we have the Bible to go by. Indeed? We have the Bible, have we? Yes. Who made that Bible? Did the Christians? No, they did not. The early Christians had something to do with making the New Testament Scriptures, but not the Old Testament; and then, as I have told you heretofore, these men always had revelation given them adapted to the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed. But you read the Bible through, and you will find that the Scriptures that are given to us are simply an account of revelations, communications, prophecies and the ministering of angels, and the power of God made manifest to the ancient people of God who had the Gospel. What! Do you mean to say, then, that all these men had the Gospel? I most assuredly do, for without that they could not have had a knowledge of life and immortality. Did Abraham have it? Yes, if Paul told the truth, he did. What does he mean when he says, “God, foreseeing that he would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham?” What does he mean when he tells us about Moses and the children of Israel? Says he: “We have the Gospel preached unto us as well as they; but the word preached unto them did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it; wherefore the law was added because of transgression.” What was it added to? Why, to the Gospel, for they had the Gospel before, and the law was added not as a peculiar kind of a blessing that some people speak of, but as a peculiar kind of a curse—the law of carnal commandments—“a yoke that we nor our fathers were able to bear.” And when Jesus came, what did he bring? Why, the Gospel, and with that Gospel light and revelation and communication with God, and ministering of angels and the gifts of tongues and healing and prophecy, and the power of God made manifest among the people as it was in former times. Life and immortality were again brought to light, the heavens were again unveiled, angels ministered to man, and they had a knowledge of things to come. The law was added because of transgression, and when the Gospel came, it came not to do away with the law or the Prophets, but to fulfil them. It was not a law of carnal commandments and ordinances, but “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from the law of sin and death;” the law of the Gospel whereby men were adopted into the family of God, and became “heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ,” that “if we suffer with him,” as he once said, “we shall also reign with him, that both may be glorified together.” It was a thing that adopted them into the family of God, and made them heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ his Son, and one of the principles of eternal life, and like all other revelations, was adapted peculiarly to the position that they then occupied. It was called the Gospel, and there was a Priesthood connected with it, and what was that called? Why, the Melchizedek Priesthood. What did the Melchizedek Priesthood do? It held the keys of the mysteries of the revelations of God. And who was Christ? He was a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And what did he introduce? The Gospel. And who was Melchizedek? A man that blessed Abraham we are told, and to whom Abraham paid tithes of all that he possessed; and Paul tells us that, “Verily the less is blessed of the greater,” and this Melchizedek was greater than Abraham was, although Abraham was the father of the faithful. What kind of a thing did Jesus introduce when he came? He introduced the Gospel; he had the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. What did Melchizedek have? Why, the Priesthood after the order of the Son of God, if you please. If Christ’s Priesthood was after his order, the Melchizedek Priesthood must be after the order of the Son of God. And if Christ introduced the Gospel, Melchizedek had the Gospel, and Melchizedek blessed Abraham, and he had the Gospel preached to him, so says the Bible that the Christians profess to believe in.

Well, then, if this has been the way of God’s dealing with the human family in all ages, it would seem that he would continue to deal with men on the same principle now.

John the Revelator speaks of a time when “an angel should fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the face of the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, crying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.” Who was it that saw this? Why John, on the Isle of Patmos. But didn’t he have the Gospel? Yes. But he saw that a certain power would arise that would make war against the Saints and overcome them, that they should be given into the hands of this power to a certain time. Then he tells us afterwards that, after all these events should have transpired, and all the apostasy and the rising of “Mystery, Babylon,” the “Mother of Harlots,” and the abominations that should exist on the face of the earth, says he, “I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the face of the earth.” What do you mean by the everlasting Gospel? Why, the same Gospel that Jesus taught, the same Gospel that Abraham, Moses, Enoch and Adam had—that everlasting, eternal, unchangeable principle that brings men into relationship with their God, unveils the heavens and the purposes of God to the human family, and leads them in the paths of life. “I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto those who dwell on earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, crying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made the heaven, the earth, the seas, and the fountains of waters.” This was the declaration of John.

Now, then, an event like this was to transpire; the everlasting Gospel was again to be introduced to man upon the earth. Joseph Smith came forward telling us that an angel had administered to him, and had revealed unto him the principles of the Gospel as they existed in former days, and that God was going to set his hand to work in these last days to accomplish his purposes and build up his kingdom, to introduce correct principles, to overturn error, evil, and corruption, and to establish his Church and kingdom upon the earth. I have heard him talk about these things myself. I have heard him tell over and over again, to myself and others, the circumstances pertaining to these visions and the various ministrations of angels, and the development of the purposes of God towards the human family. And what does he do? Bring us something different? Yes, in many respects, but not different in regard to our connection with God. Different as regards the age in which we live and the circumstances with which he was surrounded, but not different as it regards bringing men to a knowledge of God. He taught precisely the same principles and doctrine and ordinances that were taught by Jesus and his disciples in their day. He organized Apostles; he had Prophets in his Church. He told them that inasmuch as they would do right and keep his commandments, they should have the gift of the Holy Ghost. He led them forth and baptized them, just as John and the disciples of Jesus did. He baptized them in the name of Jesus for the remission of their sins, and told them they should receive the Holy Ghost. He organized his Church precisely upon those principles; but it was a different dispensation—“the dispensation of the fulness of times, when God would gather together all things in one,” prophesied of by Paul; when his people should be gathered, as the Scriptures say, from the east, the west, the north and the south; when he would take “one of a city and two of a family and bring them to Zion and give them pastors after his own heart, that could feed them with knowledge and understanding.” It was a dispensation to prepare the people for the events that should transpire on the face of the earth, that they might no longer be led astray by the cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but be led by the spirit of revelation and brought into communication with God. Hence the people that I see before me today—the major part of this congregation and the people that inhabit this Territory, have been brought together under these auspices, by the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, by being baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, having hands laid on them for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and they have received of that Spirit, and they know for themselves of the truth that they have received, and consequently they cannot be twisted about by every wind of doctrine. They know and appreciate the truths they have received, and they have faith in God, for the Gospel they have obeyed leads them to a knowledge of God, whom to know is life everlasting.

Now this is the position; it is just the same as they had in former days. The Gospel that they had in any age of the world was to lead men to God; the Gospel that we have, and that we have taught to you, is to lead you to God, to righteousness, to virtue, purity, integrity, to honor, to revelation, to a knowledge of the ways of God, and of his purposes pertaining to you and your families, to your progenitors and your posterity; pertaining to this world and that which is to come. It is a revelation adapted peculiarly to the position that we occupy in these last days. How very remarkable many Scriptures are on these points, “I will take one of a city and two of a family.” And what will you do with them? “I will bring them to Zion.” And what will you do with them there? “I will give them pastors after my own heart that shall feed them with knowledge and understanding.” Not with theories, ideas and uncertainties; not with the dogmas of men, but with the knowledge of God, with revelation, with an understanding of the principles of eternal truth. And this is why we are assembled here as we are on the present occasion. What shall we do then? We will live our religion and keep the commandments of God. Cultivate the spirit of revelation that you have then, as the Scriptures said formerly, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” Another passage, in speaking of certain individuals, tells them that they have received an unction from the Holy One, and they know all things, being instructed and taught by the Spirit of eternal truth. This is what the Bible speaks of in former times. “And ye need not,” says he, “that any man should teach you, save the Anointing that is within you, which is true and no lie.” Let men feel the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord and that Spirit will lead them into all truth, will bring things past to their remembrance and it will show them things to come, as it did in former times.

I remember Joseph Smith speaking to me upwards of thirty years ago. Says he: “Brother Taylor, you have received the Holy Ghost. Now follow its teachings and instructions. Sometimes it may lead you in a manner that may be contrary al– most to your judgment; never mind, follow its teachings, and if you do so, by and by it will become in you a principle of revelation, so that you will know all things as they transpire.”

How does that agree with the other—“You have received an unction from the Holy One and know all things, and need not that any man should teach you, save the Anointing which is within you, which is true and no lie?”

We have been taught and instructed in many principles that the world know nothing about, and that we know nothing about, and that Brother Young knew nothing about, nor Brother Joseph, nor the Twelve, that nobody knew anything about until God communicated it; and you, under the influence of that Spirit, know of a truth and rejoice in the truth, and the truth has made you free; and when you hear men talking about how bad they feel for you because of your fanaticism, what do you feel like? Say you; “Poor things, you do not know what you are doing.” Preserve your pity for yourselves and your children; keep your high, exalted notions, if you have any, for we are satisfied with ourselves and our principles. We know in whom we have believed, and no power can overturn us. We have been baptized into one baptism, we have partaken of the same spirit; we are all built up together in the faith of the everlasting Gospel, and our progress is onward, onward, onward, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and he will reign with universal empire, until error and folly, and vanity and corruption, and wickedness of every kind will fail and dissolve before the rays of eternal truth which God has revealed, and in which he will continue to reveal, until the Kingdom of God shall prevail and extend throughout the wide world. We are happy we live, and we rejoice in the blessings that we have received, and we pray our Heavenly Father to keep us faithful.

I will tell you the only thing I am afraid of about the Saints is that they will forget their God and that they will not live their religion; then again I have not that fear, because I know the generality of them will. I know this kingdom will not be given into the hands of another people. I know that it will continue to progress and continue to increase in spite of all the powers of the adversary, in spite of every influence that exists now, or that ever will exist on the face of this wide earth. God is our God, and he will bring off Israel triumphant.

May God help us to be faithful and to keep his commandments, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 10, 1872.

The speaker who addressed you this forenoon, referred to another book, that is called the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. I will select a few words from that book this afternoon—a part of the 8th paragraph, of the 21st section, being a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, in September, 183l. The word of the Lord to the Prophet reads thus: “For, behold, I say unto you that Zion shall flourish, and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her; And she shall be an ensign unto the people, and there shall come unto her out of every nation under heaven. And the day shall come when the nations of the earth shall tremble because of her, and shall fear because of her terrible ones. The Lord hath spoken it. Amen.”

Much has been said since the rise of this Church in regard to the Zion of the latter days, and much more might be said, for after we have said all that we can say, as far as God has revealed, I presume that we shall not be able to portray scarcely anything compared with the glory and greatness and the excellency and the beauty of that people and of that city that are called Zion, to be built up on the earth in the latter times.

The first question that naturally presents itself to the mind in regard to Zion is this: What is Zion? What are we to understand by its term? Is it a city? Is it a people? Is it a good people or a bad people? What may we understand by the term as used in the Scriptures? There are a great many ideas among the children of men in reference to this term, especially among all Christian denominations. I presume there is not a people on the whole face of the earth who profess to be Christian but what have their definition of the term Zion. If we go to the Catholics they tell us that they are Zion—that they are the only people whom the Lord acknowledges as Zion. If we go to the Greek Church, that has existed contemporary with the Catholics for many centuries, and inquire of them what their understanding is concerning Zion, they will tell us that it is the Greek Church. You go to all the Protestant denominations that have dissented from the Catholics and from the Greek Church and inquire of them what Zion is, and the answer of the greater portion of them will be, it is the various Christian denominations, such as the Lutherans, the Church of England, the Methodists, the various order of Baptists, and the various Christian denominations that have arisen during the last three or four centuries. Go to the Latter-day Saints and inquire of them what Zion is, and they will tell you it is the Church of the living God wherever it can be found. Consequently in order to ascertain what Zion is it is necessary for us to understand what the Church of the living God is, and try to distinguish between that Church and all other Churches. I shall endeavor, in a very few words, to mark out some of the distinguishing features between the true Church of the living God and Churches built up by human wisdom; and when we have ascertained what the true Church is we shall then have learned what the true Zion is.

I will begin with some of the first principles which God has revealed, and which it is necessary for mankind to obey before they can constitute a part and portion of Zion. Before Zion, or the Church of the living God, can have any existence on the earth it is very important and necessary that there should be divine administrators. What I mean by this is, men having a divine mission, a divine call—being called of the Lord by the spirit of revelation to build up Zion on the earth. And when I speak of men having a divine call I do not mean those who have merely an impression, as a great many ministers among all religious denominations say that they are called of God because they have an impression that God has sent them, and they go forth and preach their peculiar doctrines, as a mission which they have to deliver to the people. One man who says he is sent of God preaches baptism by sprinkling; another man sent by the same God, or who professes to be, teaches baptism by pouring water on people. A third man, who says he is sent of God, and has an impression to preach, preaches that baptism by immersion is the only true mode, and is to be administered to those who have experienced religion, and have obtained forgiveness of sins. A fourth man comes forth and says he is called of God, and has a divine mission, and the way that God has taught him is to be baptized by immersion for the remission of sins.

Now we must not undertake to suppose that God is the author of all these different methods, and that he sent all these different ministers. If he sent any one man to baptize by sprinkling, then those who baptize by immersion are false teachers, running of their own accord. If he sent any one man to pour water on those who are candidates to be baptized, he has never sent any persons to sprinkle, neither to baptize by immersion; and if we can ascertain who it is that is sent, and what the form of ordinances is that are to be administered, then we shall understand something towards the first principles of the building up of Zion on the earth, or, to come more directly to the point, concerning these divinely authorized messengers. How should true messengers of heaven be sent? In what way has God always sent them? By divine revelation. Now there never was a dispensation since God made man on the earth wherein a message was sent forth to the human family unless there was revelation connected with that message, unless the ministers who bore that message forth to the human family were divinely called by revelation, new revelation I mean. I need not go back and trace the callings and the gifts of God unto the patriarchs before the flood, nor those who lived immediately after the flood, nor in the days of Moses, nor in the days of the prophets who followed Moses; nor in the days of Jesus, nor in the days of the Apostles. All these are before the people, the callings and the gifts that were manifested in those days among the various dispensations which God has introduced among the human family. In all these various dispensations God has directly spoken from the heavens; he has communicated his will to the human family. He has raised up revelators and inspired them, he has filled his servants with the spirit of prophecy, that they should foretell the future. He has inspired them to write revelations, and hence in all these different dispensations the God of heaven has thus authorized the children of men to build up his Zion on the earth, and without these no such thing as Zion can be built up among the children of men.

Those persons were not only called by revelation, but they also were guided after they were called by the spirit of revelation in all their travels. Sometimes when they, of their own accord, would have a disposition to visit a certain city, town, neighborhood or nation, the Spirit would speak unto them and say: “Not so, that is not the place for you;” and they would be constrained by the Holy Ghost not to travel in that direction, but to go to some other city that that same Spirit should designate and point out to them. Thus they were guided and directed where they should go, what they should preach, what form of doctrine to deliver to the people, what kind of ordinance to administer to them; every particular was given by revelation from the Most High.

Let us stop right here and enquire. Have there been any Christian denominations for the last seventeen centuries that have enjoyed this spirit of divine revelation? If there have been, then Zion existed on the earth during the period this spirit of revelation was enjoyed. When this spirit of revelation ceased Zion ceased; when people ceased to be called by direct revelation, and the Scriptures ceased to receive any additional books, then Zion ceased among the children of men. When mankind came to the conclusion that their own wisdom was all-sufficient, independent of any more revelation, Zion ceased from off the earth.

How long is it since Zion ceased? For everybody will admit, among all Christian denominations, that there has been no revelation for some seventeen hundred years—among all the Protestants of the present day, among all the Catholics that lived before them and that now live, and among all the different peoples and nations and tongues that have received the doctrines of the Catholics, or of the Greek Church. They all admit that, they all testify and acknowledge that God has had no inspired men on the earth since the days of the Apostles, consequently he has had no Church on the earth, for whenever the Church of God exists there exists prophets and men who are capable of writing Scripture; there exists men who have communion and fellowship with God; there exists men to whom the Lord communicates his will by the ministration of holy angels and by his own voice. Therefore when these things ceased, and men ceased to be inspired to write Scripture, and the Scripture was pronounced full and complete, sealed up as it were, that moment the people called Zion are banished from the face of the earth; or in other words the Church of the living God has no existence thereon.

There was a Zion on the earth in the first century of the Christian era. They were Christians; they believed in Christ; they worshiped Christ, they received his ordinances, they were filled with the spirit of revelation, they had their inspired prophets and revelators; they had their heavenly visions; they had the ministration of angels; they could hear the voice of God; they could behold in heavenly vision the face of the Lord Jesus Christ after he had ascended to his Father and was glorified at his right hand. They bore testimony that they had seen him, that he had conversed with them and that he had communicated his will unto them. These were Christians; that was the Christian Church; that may be pronounced Zion.

What existed after this? The Apostles were put to death; they were hunted from nation to nation; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins in the dens and caves of the earth, of whom the world was unworthy. Their followers were put to death by hundreds, by thousands, by tens of thousands; and after a while there sprang up a people that pretended to be Christians—followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, having no apostles, no inspired men, no revelation, no ministration of angels, none of the characteristics, except a few forms, of the Christian Church as it existed in the first century of the Christian era. This class of men, calling themselves Christian, uniting with the various forms of the pagan religion, adopting many of their cere– monies and institutions, became very popular, and finally some of the pagans embraced Christianity and were placed, as it were, upon the throne, and what they termed Christianity became very popular indeed. How long has this order of things existed, this dreadful apostasy, this class of people that pronounced themselves Zion, or Christians, without any of the characteristics of Zion? It has existed for some sixteen or seventeen centuries. It has spread itself and grown and gone into the four quarters of the earth. It is the great ecclesiastical power that is spoken of by the revelator John, and called by him the most corrupt and most wicked of all the powers of the earth, under the name of spiritual Babylon, or in other words Babel, which signifies confusion. This great and corrupt power is also represented by John as presenting a golden cup to the nations, full of all manner of filthiness and abominations.

She is termed, in other places, by the same prophet, “The whore of all the earth,” making the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Some three centuries ago there came out some excellent men, named Martin Luther, John Calvin and many others that might be mentioned, who protested against the wickedness and abominations of the Church wherein they had been educated, and of which they had been members. Because of their protestations against the mother Church they were called Protestants. They pronounced her the whore of all the earth; they declared that she had no authority, that she had none of the blessings and gifts which characterized the ancient Christians. They came out and established other Churches. The Lutheran Church prevailed in Germany and various portions of northern Europe. The Calvinist Church or Presbyterian Church was also established. Henry the Eighth established and became head of the English Church. Wesley, at a later period, established a Church which has grown to great numbers at the present day. But among all these Churches where are the characteristics of Zion? We hunt for them in vain. Go to all these 666 different Protestant denominations that have come out from the mother Church, and inquire of them, Have you inspired men among you? And their united voice is that God speaks no more in our day; no other message is given from heaven; no voice is heard from the eternal worlds; no angels are sent in these days; no inspired apostles are raised up to establish the Church and the Kingdom of God; no men are filled with the spirit of prophecy to portray the events of the future, or to accomplish and perform the work of God in our day. We enquire, “What have you?” “Oh we have 666 different denominations and we have surnamed ourselves Christians. We are Bible Christians.” How mistaken they are! Bible Christians were those who believed in having apostles and inspired prophets among them. Bible Christians could receive more revelation and add more books to the Bible; Bible Christians could converse with the Lord, and oftentimes beheld the face of Jesus; they could commune with holy angels; they had authority from God to lay hands upon those whom they baptized, for the reception or baptism of the Holy Ghost. This was what constituted ancient Zion; but inquire for these characteristics among these 666 different Christian denominations and they will tell you they are all gone, they have not any of them amongst them. Now suppose we take their word for it! I do, I really believe them. I think they tell the truth when they say they have no inspired men. I believe them when they say they have neither prophets nor apostles among them. Why do I believe them? Because they have received no new books in addition to the Bible, and whenever God had a people on the earth they were constantly giving new books, inspired from on high, and when that ceases we draw the conclusion that inspiration has ceased.

Under these circumstances what is to be done? If the world has thus apostatized, and there has been no Church of the living God, no Zion among the nations for the long period I have named, what are we to expect? Is the world always to remain in this condition? Has God spoken for the last time? Were the few favored Christians who lived in the first century of our era the last ones who were to be favored with a message from heaven? I think not, the Bible tells us a different story altogether. That book tells us that there is to be one of the greatest dispensations ushered in upon the face of the earth that ever has been since the creation of man, and I profess to believe the Bible. When I read the words of the Apostle Paul about the new dispensation that should take place after his day, I believe it. You will find in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he shall gather together in one all things that are in Christ, whether they be in heaven, or here on the earth. A dispensation of gathering, a dispensation called the dispensation of the fulness of times, a dispensation in which the very heavens, and all the spirits of men that are behind the veil are to be gathered in one; all things that are in Christ to be gathered in one, preparatory to the great resurrection that will take place in that dispensation.

The dispensation that was introduced in the days of the apostles was not a dispensation of gathering. When the apostles went forth to build up the Church of Christ at Corinth or at Ephesus, in Galatia or any other part of the earth, the Christians all remained where they received the Gospel except those who were driven into the mountains by the persecutions of their enemies. But in the last dispensation there is to be one feature characterizing it that did not characterize the dispensation established by the ancient apostles, namely the gathering together of the people—all that are in Christ from the ends of the earth. When that dispensation is introduced Zion will be introduced again, the Lord will bring again Zion.

Many of you who are Bible believers have read a great many prophecies about the Zion of the latter days and how the Lord should bring again Zion, which seems to intimate that Zion was once on the earth, that it was lost from the earth for a certain period of time, and that the Lord was going to restore it once more. Let us hear what Isaiah has said on this subject: “Thy watchmen shall lift up their voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they will see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” But perhaps strangers may inquire, How are we to know the period or age of the world when the Lord shall bring again Zion, or in other words restore his Church to the earth? What are the signs of that day, that we may discern the signs of the times? I will tell you how you may know that period. If you will go to the 102nd Psalm of David you will find a clue to that period. I think I will read a little of that psalm for the benefit of strangers. “When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory.” I think this gives a clue to the period, for everyone will admit that the Lord has not yet appeared in his glory. We are looking for him. The Christians of all denominations expect that he will appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The Latter-day Saints expect this in common with all other Christians. But before he appears in his glory he is going to build up Zion, that is, Zion must again be built up on the earth: and if there is not a Zion built up on the earth before he comes, or in other words, if there never is to be another Zion built up on the earth, then he never will come. But when we see the day arrive that the Lord begins to establish his Church on the earth once more, characterized by apostles and prophets, and introduces a dispensation of gathering, wherein all in Christ shall be gathered together in one; when the period of time shall come that the watchmen in that Zion shall see eye to eye and with the voice together sing, we may know that the Lord is coming in his glory, and is near at hand.

We will read a few other passages in the same psalm. “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.” The Lord has a set time for a great many of his purposes. A set time for the scattering of Israel; a set time for Jerusalem to be trodden down by the Gentiles until their times are fulfilled; a set time for the stone out of the mountain to be cut without hands and the kingdom of God to be organized on the earth; a set time for the coming of the angel with the everlasting Gospel to be preached to all people, nations, kindreds and tongues; a set time for the Lord to favor Zion, as is here declared. “For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.”

Now do not mistake, any of you strangers, and think that this was fulfilled in the days of David. It was written for a period long after his day. This shall be written for the generations to come. “And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” That is, future generations of the earth—those who live at that peculiar period of time when the Lord should again build up Zion on the earth. For “he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those who were appointed to death; To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem.” But, says one, “That means the first time he came.” Let us read the next verse and see if it really means that period. “When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.” Now, were the people gathered together in the days of the first coming of Jesus? No. Were the kingdoms then assembled to serve the Lord? No. Recollect that Paul predicted that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, all things in Christ are to be gathered together in one. Then the heathen nations and the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered. What for? To be taught in his ways, and instructed to walk in his paths.

We will now quote another passage that has reference to the same great event. It is contained in the 2nd chapter of Isaiah the prophet. “And it shall come to pass in the last days”—recollect now it is a work of the latter time—“It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” When was this fulfilled? Every person with any reflection whatever, that has the least particle of faith in this prophecy, knows that it never has been fulfilled. The Zion that was built up in the days of David and that he dwelt in, the Zion that was in existence at Jerusalem 1,800 years ago was thrown down. Zion was plowed like a field, as the Prophet Micah predicted it would be. The houses, palaces and mansions in Jerusalem that were called Zion were all thrown down, and the beautiful Temple was also torn down and not one stone left upon another. But in the last days “The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the tops of the mountains, shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” This shows that it will be a work that will attract the attention of the nations. It will not be a work like that which is performed by erring humanity, by men without inspiration; but a work of the Lord our God. When he shall build up Zion he will appear in his glory; when he builds up Zion he will bless the inhabitants, the habitations, the palaces, the gates and everything round about that Zion, and the towers within that Zion, all will be blessed according to the testimony of the prophets.

But let us read a little further to show more fully that this was a work of the latter days. “And all nations shall flow unto it and many people shall go and say ‘Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’” Two separate and distinct places. The whole of the twelve tribes of Israel are to return back to Palestine in Asia and rebuild their city of Jerusalem and a temple within that city before, and preparatory to the coming of the Lord. Ezekiel, in describing the latter-day building of Jerusalem, says, “And the name of the city from that day forward shall be ‘The Lord is there.’” After the rebuilding of that city it will never be forsaken, or plucked up. As Jeremiah says in his 31st chapter, “It shall never be plucked up or thrown down henceforth and forever.” It will stand while all the generations of the earth shall stand when the house of Israel shall return and rebuild it under the direction of the Almighty.

But Zion is also to be built up. Another city, not old Jerusalem, but a new Jerusalem, called Zion, upon the great western hemisphere, preparatory to the coming of the Lord. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law,” says the prophet. What law? A law to regulate the nations, a law teaching them how to be saved, a law informing the kings and emperors and the nobles of the earth how they can save themselves, and how they can save their dead. When the mountain of the house of the Lord is established on the tops of the mountains they will gather from all those nations to this house of the Lord, to be instructed in his ways, that is to learn how to save themselves, and how to save their ancestors from generation to generation. How to be baptized for the dead, according to the custom practiced by the ancient apostles; how to administer for and in behalf of the dead. The temple of the Lord, the house of God, that we heard of this morning, is built for that express purpose. See what follows: “And he shall judge among the nations, and rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Now every person will acknowledge with me that such an order of things has not yet been fulfilled. It is the Millennium, it is that glorious period of rest when Jesus, personally, will reign on this earth, when his throne will be built in the temple at Jerusalem, when he will descend on the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem accompanied by all his Saints, as you will read in the last chapter of the Prophet Zechariah: “The Lord thy God shall come,” says Zechariah, “and all his Saints with him, and he shall stand his feet in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem to the east; and the Mount of Olives shall divide asunder, half of the mountain moving towards the north, and half towards the south, and there shall be a very great valley,” and so on. And when he descends with all his Saints on that mountain, and this great convulsion of the earth takes place, then will Jesus proceed down to the new gate that will be built on the east side of the temple—the east gate of the temple, and he will enter into that temple and will seat himself on the throne that will be built in that temple. Ezekiel when describing this, in the 43rd chapter of his prophecy, says, or rather the Lord through Ezekiel says, “Son of man behold the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. And they shall no more defile my name,” and so forth. Here is a prediction that, in that temple will be a certain apartment dedicated and set apart for the throne of the Lord, where he will sit, as the Prophet Zechariah and many of the Apostles have predicted, on the throne of his father David, and judge the whole house of Israel. Dwell with them personally, be in their midst. Where will be the twelve Apostles that wandered about with him, when Jesus comes and sits upon that throne? They will also be sitting upon thrones. Where? In Palestine. “Ye who have followed me in the regeneration shall sit upon twelve thrones, and shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and you shall eat and drink at my table at the time you shall do this.” What? Immortal beings sitting upon thrones, having a table set for them and eating and drinking at the table of Jesus in Jerusalem? Yes, this is what is promised, and what we are looking for; this is the order of things that will come when Zion is fully established on the earth preparatory to that order of things. No wonder that nations will no longer lift up sword against nation! No wonder that kings will no longer fight against kings, and emperors against emperors! No wonder that they will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks, for it will be a day of peace and rest, of which our present Sabbath is typical. As there is one day out of seven set apart, sanctified and ordained as a day of rest, so there is one thousand years set apart as a day of rest out of the seven thousand which will constitute the temporal existence of our earth. That will be the time when the Lord Jesus will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. That will be the time when the kings and nations will come up to Zion and also to Jerusalem. The kingdoms will be gathered together to serve the Lord.

Supposing some of them should happen to refuse, those that live off a great distance should conclude to refuse, and not go up to worship the Lord of hosts, let us see what will be– come of them. After having spoken of the Lord coming with all the Saints with him, and standing his feet on the Mount of Olives, the prophet says: “And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear or dark, but it shall be one day, which shall be known to the Lord; not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out of Jerusalem, half towards the former sea, and half towards the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.” Again he says, speaking of Jerusalem, “Men shall dwell in it. There shall be no more utter destruction, Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet; their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouths.” Again he says: “And it shall be that whosoever will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them there shall be no rain; and if the family of Egypt go not up that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses ‘holiness unto the Lord.’” We see then that the nations of the earth around about Jerusalem will be under the necessity, by the law which God has ordained, to fulfil these prophecies, to go up once a year for the purpose of beholding Jesus sitting upon his throne in the midst of Jerusalem, and of beholding the twelve Apostles as they sit upon their thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. From year to year they will have to go up for the purpose of worshiping him. By and by some of them, perhaps, will get it into their hearts that there is no use in their going up. “What is the use of our taking this long journey to Jerusalem?” and they will begin to say within their hearts—“We can serve God here in our own land just as well as going up to Jerusalem.” Just as soon as they begin to apostatize in this way the Lord will send a plague, a famine, that is, withhold the rains of heaven, so that their lands will be parched up, and if the family of Egypt, that have no rain, refuse to go up, there will be a peculiar plague set apart for them, namely, the same kind of a plague that will come upon the various nations that gather up against Jerusalem to battle just before the Lord comes and stands his feet upon the Mount of Olives. It will be no judgment, no calamity whatever for no rain to be given to the land of Egypt, because they depend on the waters of the Nile, by irrigation they overflow the land, hence it is no particular consequence to the people of Lower Egypt to have no rain.

I mention all these things in order that the Latter-day Saints may be re-refreshed in regard to the great events that must take place in the latter times, and that strangers who are in our midst may have a more full understanding of the views of the Latter-day Saints in regard to the ancient prophecies. You see we are looking for the building up of Zion on the earth, for the lifting up of the standard of the Lord, an ensign for the nations; or in other words, as I read at the commencement of my remarks: “For behold Zion shall go forth and become the joy of the whole earth, and the glory of God shall be upon her and the day shall come when the nations of the earth shall fear and tremble because of her, and shall fear because of her terrible ones.” Why? Because the Lord himself will be in the midst of Zion, before he comes on the Mount of Olives.

Now here is the difference between Zion and old Jerusalem. The Jews, or many of them, will gather back to Jerusalem in a state of unbelief in the true Messiah, believing in the prophets but rejecting the New Testament, and looking for the Messiah to come, honest-hearted no doubt, many of them. And they will rebuild Jerusalem after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. While in that state of unbelief Gog and Magog, the inhabitants of Russia and all those nations in northern Europe and northern Asia, a great multitude, will gather against the Jews before Jesus comes, and they will fill up the great valley of Armageddon, the great valley of Jehosaphat and all the surrounding valleys; they will be like a cloud covering the land. Horses and chariots and horsemen, a very great army, will gather up there to take a spoil. For you know when the Rothschilds and the great bankers among the Jewish nation shall return back to their own land to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, carrying their capital with them it will almost ruin some of the nations, and the latter will go up against Jerusalem to take a spoil. And they will succeed in taking half the city captive; and when they are in the act of destroying that city, behold the Lord will come with all his Saints, and he shall stand his feet on the Mount of Olives, “And in that day” says the Prophet Zechariah “shall the Lord go forth and fight against all those nations that have fought against Jerusalem, and their flesh shall consume away upon their bones, their eyes in their sockets. This great calamity comes upon the Jewish nation in consequence of their unbelief in the true Messiah.

Not so with Zion, she will be built upon the great western hemisphere in North America, and become a righteous people long before the Jews will gather home. Zion will be built up by the gathering of the Saints from all the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Zion will be built up, her habitations will be reared, her Temple will be built and the glory of God will rest upon them long before these great events in connection with the house of Israel will be fulfilled. Hence there is a difference between Zion and Jerusalem in the latter days.

We will now read something more about this Zion. Isaiah, as I have already quoted in the second chapter, has told us about the house of the Lord, and the great peace that should come, the beating of swords into ploughshares, &c., and then he goes on to portray the blessings that are to come upon Zion. He says, “In that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.” Thus we see that Zion is to become glorious. The branch of the Lord, the branch of his own planting, established by his own power, the building up of a people and city by his own instructions and administration by the inspiration of his servants, the establishing of Zion no more to be thrown down. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and shining, flaming fire by night; and upon all the glory shall be a defense and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain. How often I have quoted this passage! I am not tired of quoting it yet. It is among the great events of the latter days; it is among those marvels and wonders that are just at hand. A Zion to be built up; a city of Zion having habitations, and upon these habitations a supernatural light by night, and a supernatural cloud by day. No such event has happened since this prophecy was uttered by the Prophet Isaiah, it remains to be fulfilled in the latter days. No wonder then that the Lord said to Joseph Smith in the year 1831, that is, before we were a great people, while we were only a few hundreds, well did the Lord inspire him to say that Zion should become great and glorious and the day should come that the nations of the earth should tremble because of her, and should fear because of her terrible ones; for the glory of God shall be there, and the power of the Lord shall be there when the day comes that the city of Zion is clothed upon with the glorious appendage that is herein predicted; when the branch of the Lord becomes beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely, when that day shall come that seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach,” when that day shall come that the Lord God shall show forth his power in Zion—upon her Tabernacle, upon her Temple, her meeting places, her residences, palaces, towers, walls and gates, when that day shall come it will astonish the nations even unto the ends of the earth. Thus you see the reason why the kings of the earth will go up to Zion. They would not go if there was not something very extraordinary happened. Do you suppose the kings would forsake their thrones and their earthly glory and go up to the mountain of the Lord to be taught in his ways and instructed in his paths, and that many nations would say, “Come let us go up to the house of the Lord,” if there was not something very extraordinary manifested in the midst of Zion? You might go and preach to them, as the sectarians preach, until you were greyheaded, and you could scarcely get near the throne of a king, much less would you be able to persuade him to leave his kingdom and throne and go up to Zion. But when the Lord begins to move, and show forth his power, when he begins to light up the habitations of Zion, when he comes to Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, then I think the nations will begin to wake up.

Let us read a little more about the glory of Zion in the 59th and 60th chapters of Isaiah. I told you a little while ago that Jesus would come to Zion and would show forth his glory there, while the Jews would be reserved for a great chastisement and would be afflicted by the nations gathering against them, fighting against them and taking half the city captive, and so on. Now let me read a prophecy in the latter part of the 59th chapter of Isaiah. “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words that I put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth even forever. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” You notice here, then, that the Redeemer is to come to Zion, at the time when every habitation is lighted up with his light, and to all that turn from transgression in Jacob.

Now let me here remark that this remnant of the house of Israel or Jacob, which we term the American Indians, are eventually to become a righteous branch of the house of Israel; when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, they will be numbered among the people of the covenant made with ancient Israel, they will be a branch of the Lord, beautiful and glorious, excellent and comely, and the power of the Lord will be upon them. In that day Jesus will come to them, they being a remnant of the tribe of Joseph. Then will be fulfilled that which was predicted by the Patriarch Jacob upon the descendants of Joseph. Speaking of Joseph he says, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel.)”

When Jesus comes to Zion as is here predicted, in the 59th chapter of Isaiah, he will come in the character of a great shepherd. Not in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; but appearing in the midst of Zion and administering to the remnants of Joseph in the character of a shepherd. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Now we all know that Jesus sprang from Judah; but here is a declaration that from Joseph is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. That is, he will come the second time as a shepherd. He will gather his flock, or as the Psalmist David has said, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, stir up thy strength and come and save us.” He will come as a shepherd, he will stir up his strength and show forth his power and the remnant of Joseph will be led by their shepherd, long before the Jews are redeemed. “Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

What condition do you suppose the wicked will be in in those days, even all the inhabitants of the earth except Zion? “For behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” What a difference between Zion and the rest of mankind! Darkness covering the whole four quarters of the globe. Why darkness? Because the salt of the earth is gathered out; the children of light are gathered together to Zion, and those who are left behind are in darkness, that is, a great many of them. No doubt there will be honest ones, and vast numbers who will come to Zion, notwithstanding the darkness that covers the earth.

We will read the next verse: “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” “Thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.“ What! No people or nation left that will not serve Zion? Not one. What will become of this great republic with its forty millions of people, and which is spreading forth continually? If they will comply with the ordinances of Zion, repent of their sins and be prepared for this great and glorious day, God will save them; but if they will not they will be utterly wasted away. Thus have the prophets declared. “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Now here is a little comfort to you miners: “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.”

Wars will cease in those days. “The sun shall no more be thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” Zion will not need the sun when the Lord is there, and all the city is lighted up by the glory of his presence. When the whole heavens above are illuminated by the presence of his glory we shall not need those bright luminaries of heaven to give light, so far as the city of Zion is concerned. But there will be a great people round about, dwelling in other cities that will still have need of the light of the sun and the moon; but the great capital city where the Lord will establish one of his thrones—for his throne is not to be in Jerusalem alone, it will also be in Zion, as you will find in numerous places in this Bible. When therefore, he shall establish his throne in Zion and shall light up the habitations thereof with the glory of his presence, they will not need this light which comes from the bright luminaries that shine forth in yonder heavens, but they will be clothed upon with the glory of their God. When the people meet together in assemblies like this, in their Tabernacles, the Lord will meet with them, his glory will be upon them; a cloud will overshadow them by day and if they happen to have an evening meeting they will not need gas light or lights of an artificial nature, for the Lord will be there and his glory will be upon all their assemblies. So says Isaiah the Prophet, and I believe it. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 3, 1872.

We meet together from time to time to speak, to hear, and to reflect upon things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and the interests and happiness of humanity; to strengthen, cheer and instruct, to teach and be taught on things that pertain to our happiness and well-being, in time and in eternity. As a people we differ in very many respects from the world with which we are associated. Our ideas, reflections and belief with regard to Deity are different to those of the world; our ordinances also vary from those which are in existence among the Christian world. We have our reasons for this difference; they, perhaps, have theirs. We place God, his service and his worship as among the first things that ought to attract our attention. Considering ourselves immortal as well as mortal beings, and having to do with time and eternity; with things future, as well as present, it has been our study for years to try to form correct opinions and ideas in relation to those things which pertain to our everlasting welfare. In doing this we have not been desirous, generally, to court the good feelings or approbation of men. We know that mankind vary very much in their ideas in relation to these matters, and if desirous we could not follow them because they do not agree; but we have been desirous, as far as lay in our power, to seek the approbation of the Almighty and of an approving conscience, for in religious matters it is with these we have to do. We consider that we are engaged in a work that will affect us and our posterity after us for innumerable generations; in a work in which both the living and the dead are interested. And acting in the fear of God, and with a reference to eternal realities, we try to square our conduct and regulate our actions, in such a manner, that we may stand approved of all good men, and of the holy angels; that we may be approved of the virtuous and good who have lived on the earth, and of the virtuous and good who may hereafter live upon it; for we consider, as we are eternal beings, that things pertaining to eternity are of a great deal more importance than the evanescent transitory things pertaining to time and sense, which speedily pass away. We find one thing literally true, as spoken of by the scriptures—that “It is appointed for men once to die,” and that the teeming millions who now inhabit this earth have only existed upon it for a very short time, and will only continue to exist for a short time to come; and as we have supplanted the millions who have gone before us, so also shall we be supplanted by millions who will follow after us; and as we believe in an eternity and in future rewards and future punishments, and in future exaltations and future degradations; as we believe that this life is simply a probationary state we feel desirous to act as wise, prudent, intelligent beings, squaring our lives and actions according to the high position that we occupy before God and before the holy angels. We are not satisfied, as many men are, with simple theories, because this, that or the other man or bodies of men have told us they are true, we are governed by no man’s ipse dixit. We have not any particular dogmas to sustain, or any special theory to establish. Living in the world of mankind, surrounded by the works of nature, walking, as it were, in the presence of the Great Eloheim, we wish to comprehend and embrace all truth and seek for and obtain everything that is calculated to exalt, ennoble and dignify the human family; and wherever we find truth, no matter where, or from what source it may come, it becomes part and parcel of our religious creed, if you please, or our political creed, or our moral creed, or our philosophy, as the case may be, or whatever you may please to term it.

We are open for the reception of all truth, of whatever nature it may be, and are desirous to obtain and possess it, to search after it as we would for hidden treasures; and to use all the knowledge God gives to us to possess ourselves of all the intelligence that he has given to others; and to ask at his hands to reveal unto us his will, in regard to things that are the best calculated to promote the happiness and well-being of human society. If there are any good principles, any moral philosophy that we have not yet attained to we are desirous to learn them. If there is anything in the scientific world that we do not yet comprehend we desire to become acquainted with it. If there is any branch of philosophy calculated to promote the well-being of humanity, that we have not yet grasped, we wish to possess ourselves of it. If there is anything pertaining to the rule and government of nations, or politics, if you please, that we are not acquainted with, we desire to possess it. If there are any religious ideas, any theological truths, any principles pertaining to God, that we have not learned, we ask mankind, and we pray God, our heavenly Father, to enlighten our minds that we may comprehend, realize, embrace and live up to them as part of our religious faith. Thus our ideas and thoughts would extend as far as the wide world spreads, embracing everything pertaining to light, life, or existence pertaining to this world or the world that is to come. They would dig into the bowels of the earth, or go to the depth of hell, if you please; they would soar after the intelligence of the Gods that dwell in the eternal worlds; they would grasp everything that is good and noble and excellent and happifying and calculated to promote the well-being of the human family.

There is no man nor set of men who have pointed out the pathway for our feet to travel in, in relation to these matters. There are no dogmas nor theories extant in the world that we profess to listen to, unless they can be verified by the principles of eternal truth. We carefully scan, investigate, criticize and examine everything that presents itself to our view, and so far as we are enabled to comprehend any truths in existence, we gladly hail them as part and portion of the system with which we are associated. We are quite willing that others should be governed by the dogmas, theories and notions of men just as much as they please: we do not have confidence in them. They may worship God as they please, it is none of our business, it is a matter between them and their God. We may think, in many instances, their acts are foolish; but if they have a mind to be foolish that is not our business. They perhaps entertain the same opinion in relation to us. But we do feel, in regard to moral and religious ideas, that we are engaged in a sacred cause, and that while men, with all their combined wisdom and intelligence, have been unable to introduce and establish systems that are good, happifying, elevating and ennobling; we think there is a being who lives in the heavens superintending the affairs of the human family, who is worshiped by the great mass of humanity in one form or another—a great power that is capable of instructing, guiding, directing and regulating the affairs of men, as by eternal laws he governs all nature and regulates the planetary system. While on the one hand we are willing that others should worship him in what manner they please, we have a right to the same privileges, rights and immunities, and possessing ourselves of this idea we take the liberty to do so.

There are two things I have always said I would do, and I calculate to carry them out, living or dying. One is to vote for whom I please and the other to worship God as I please. There is a principle of freedom planted in the human mind that has always existed there, and no man, nor any power has yet been able to obliterate it. Believing as we do we take the liberty to believe the Bible, which our fellow Christians, generally throughout the world, profess to believe in, whether they do so or not. We read in that sacred volume that, “Holy men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost.” This, to many, seems perhaps singular phraseology, but it is nevertheless true; and if they did not, whence came this sacred volume? How do men at the present day learn anything pertaining to God? Who puts them in possession of any information relative to the holy angels, to a heaven, to the plans and purposes of God pertaining to the earth whereon we live, and its inhabitants? Who revealed anything pertaining to future rewards and punishments, and how did the theologians of the day become acquainted with these principles? Where did they get their knowledge from? They tell you from the Bible. That Bible would never have been in existence if holy men of old had not spoken as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. If men in former times had not had revelation from the Most High; if angels had not ministered to them; if they had not had revelations and the dark curtain of futurity had not been withdrawn from their minds and they had not been enabled to gaze upon the purposes of God as they should roll forth in future generations: if such “old fogies,” as some call them, had not lived, we should have had no Bible, no Christian religion, nothing to guide our feet, that is, so far as records are concerned. If the heavens had always been, as many would have us believe they are now—as brass over our heads, and God had been deaf to the entreaties of humanity, we should have had no Christian or Mosaic religion, or any religion giving any knowledge of God or his purposes.

We profess, forsooth, in this generation of enlightenment, with all its latitudinarianism, with all its diver– sities of opinions, ideas, theories and dogmas; with a thousand different professedly religious parties to be wiser than that man who said there was “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God who is above all, through all and in you all.” People now-a-days think the religion they had in those days might do for a barbarous age, but we are so enlightened, so intelligent, so philosophical, that we are altogether ahead of those “old fogies” who lived some time ago and conversed with God and had angels minister to them. Now I have frequently said, and say today, “The Lord God deliver me from the enlightenment, the corruption and evil throughout the world at the present time,” and give me some of that religion that ancient men of God had who spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. I would like to associate with men whom God would talk with, and that angels would communicate intelligence to, and that the heavens could be opened to, that could have the purposes of God unfolded to them, that could comprehend the object of the creation of the world whereon we live; the object of the existence of man, and his future destiny, as an eternal intelligent being. I want to know whence I came, I want to know what I am doing here, what is the object of my existence. I want to know something about the world whereon I live, the object of this beautiful creation with which I am surrounded, and its destiny; and if there is a God who rules in the heavens and superintends the affairs of the universe I want to know something about him, whom to know I am told is “life everlasting.” If there is a religion that will teach me that, that is the religion I want, and anything short of that I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for. People may take their philosophy, and their Christianity, and their morality, and their intelligence, and chuckle over their supposed superiority for what I care if I can only get acquainted with God and know something of his law, of the principles of eternal truth, if I can learn to save myself and my posterity; be placed in a position that I can obtain promises from God as Abraham did, that should reach down through every subsequent period of time until the final winding up scene, and then stretch forward into the eternity that is to come. As an eternal intelligent being these are some of the thoughts, reflections and ideas that come through my mind, and I cannot be satisfied with anything less. Others may be glad to “Sit and sing themselves away,” as they ignorantly sing sometimes, “to everlasting bliss.” They may worship a God without body, parts and passions, or go to a heaven somewhere “beyond the bounds of time and space.” I would like to be associated with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, the prophets and those honorable men who had communication with God and that he was not ashamed of, and as one of the apostles says, “God was not ashamed to be called their God, for he had provided for them a city.” I want to search for a tangible reality, “a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” as the scriptures speak of a city that one of those ancient men of God, when under the inspiration of the Almighty, had a vision of, and contemplated its glory.

We are seeking, in the first place, to regenerate ourselves, and then, under the guidance and direction of the Almighty, to regulate the world in which we live. We know that this is not very popular; but that makes no difference to us. So far as we, ourselves, are concerned we know precisely where we stand; so far as the world is concerned, as to the reception of our ideas by them, that is their business, and God’s business. They have to do with him and we have to do with him. We are in his hands, and all the world of mankind are in his hands, and he will manage and control them and dictate and regulate them according to the dictates of his will, and not according to my theories or yours or any other person’s, and, “The judge of all the earth will do right.” This people know what they are doing, and they know precisely their position whether others do or not.

What has called you out from among the nations, you who are here before me? I speak now to Latter-day Saints, you who heard the sound of the Gospel in the various lands that you came from. When the Elders came and preached unto you it was something like the position of Paul of old—“Their words came to you with power and demonstration and with the Holy Ghost,” and their words and testimony and spirit responded to that spirit which was in your bosoms, and you hailed their testimony as a message of light, and you obeyed it: you went forth into the waters of baptism amid the scorn, contumely, reproach and contempt of the world, religious, philosophical and moral. Inspired by the fire of truth you braved the whole of it. By the same spirit and influence you have been gathered together here, as you are today in this city and in these valleys of the mountains, throughout the length and breadth of this Territory. Your ideas were based on the revelations of God, the message that you heard was that God had spoken, that the heavens had been opened, that angels had appeared as they had formerly, that the everlasting Gospel had been restored in all its richness, fulness, power and glory, that it was your privilege to know for yourselves the truth of the principles you believed in. You believed those principles, you went forth into the waters of baptism and obeyed them, you have all been baptized into one baptism, have all partaken of one spirit, and are here under the same influence, guidance and direction; and hence we are here assembled, as on this occasion today, not by our own wisdom and intelligence, not by the intelligence of the world, not by the intelligence of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, any of the Apostles, or anybody else, but by the intelligence and inspiration of the Lord of Hosts to them and to you, and by the Spirit of God attending the administration of his Elders, and you have known and comprehended and realized for yourselves the truths which you believed in.

Standing in this capacity there is a work which we have to perform—to save ourselves, our progenitors, our posterity, and to act as saviors upon Mount Zion, to build the temples of the Lord and to administer in them, and as eternal beings to watch after the eternal interests of humanity. This is the position that we occupy.

We find men come along among us sometimes who think we are fools, and that they could improve matters considerably. They have had plenty of opportunity in the world to do that, why haven’t they accomplished it? There is room enough for all the philosophers, and all the theologians, and all the wise men and philanthropists to benefit mankind outside of us. Anywhere, everywhere, go where you will, and what do you find? Corruption, evil, iniquity, hypocrisy of every grade and form, and under all circumstances, moral, religious, political and social, and everything else you please to name. Societies convulsed, rending apart, vili– fying and abusing one another; full of corruption and rottenness, evil and iniquity of every kind, socially, morally and religiously. Plenty of room for all philanthropists and for all men who desire to benefit the human family. Go and regulate them. Put the United States right, regulate England and France, put Germany straight. Regulate the affairs of the nations, and then come and talk to us. But until we see something better than the kind of civilization that we are having introduced here, we beg to be excused from it. We saw enough of that before we came here; and the examples that are exhibited in our midst are too revolting, too degrading and humiliating for decent men and women to have anything to do with. Is this indeed the vaunted civilization so much talked of? We do not want it. “My soul, enter not thou into their secrets; my honor, with them be not thou united!” We are after more honorable aims, more exalted feelings and principles and views than those that are imported into our midst here. I used to believe in that scripture, and I have a good deal of faith in it yet, that “an impure fountain cannot send forth pure streams;” that “a bad tree will not bring forth good fruit;” and that trees are “known by their fruits.” I am a believer of that kind of thing yet, and in speaking of these affairs I feel a good deal as one of the servants of God felt when he was engaged in building the walls of old Jerusalem. There was some man came up and wanted to interfere with his operations, but said he, “I am doing a great work, hinder me not.” We feel about the same. We are engaged in a great work, we are seeking after our own salvation and the salvation of our friends, the salvation of our forefathers, the salvation of our children and posterity who shall come after us, the salvation of the world wherein we live and its everlasting happiness and exaltation, “hinder us not.” Pursue your own course, worship as you please, do as you please, follow your own inclinations in any other way, only do not interfere with the rights of men nor violate the laws of the land. That is all we ask, and you have full liberty to carry out any views and feelings you please. I remember reading a few lines of some very zealous Protestant who wrote over some public building: “In this place may enter Greek, Jew or Atheist, anything but a Papist.” Now I say let the Papist come in too, the Muslim, the Greek, the Jew, the Pagan believer and unbeliever, and the whole world. If God sends his rain on the good and evil and makes his sun shine on the just and unjust, I certainly shall not object. Let them worship as they please, and have full freedom and equal rights and privileges with us, and all men. These are our feelings, and, as I said before, we are desirous, so far as we can, to be instructed in everything that is calculated to exalt and ennoble the human family. Others, of course, can do as they please about it. And in speaking of the Saints let me tell you that the religion you embraced five, ten, twenty, thirty or forty years ago is just the same now as it was then; it is like its author, “The same yesterday, today and forever.” We have not “changed our base,” as they talk about sometimes in their wars; we have no “new departures,” as others talk about. We are after the truth. We commenced searching for it, and we are constantly in search of it, and so fast as we find any true principle revealed by any man, by God or by holy angels, we embrace it and make it part of our religious creed.

Nobody need be concerned at all by the events that have been transpiring here, or that may transpire. There is nothing new in relation to these matters. It is only a little piece of the same material that we have experienced in years gone by, and that the Saints of God have always had to cope with. They talk sometimes about our morality here, and the action of this people and so forth. In conversation lately, with a judge from Montana, I forget his name, I told him I had been judge of the probate court in Utah County, one of the largest counties in Utah, perhaps the largest with the exception of Salt Lake, and that during two years, while acting in that capacity, I had one criminal case—petty larceny—come before me, and three civil cases, two of which were decided by arbitration. I asked him how he got along in Montana. Said he, “in the same time while I was judge there, probate judge, I had to act as probate on upwards of eighty cases, most of whom came to their death by violent means.” Why didn’t they blame the Governor or the Mayors of cities for killing these men? Could so many murders be committed and the Mayors and Governors not do it? It is astonishing! Now I would rather be the friend and associate of these men whom they call murderers here than of their most honorable men, and so would this people, and all who believe it say aye. (The crowded congregation gave one unanimous “aye.”) They cannot show such a record in any part of the world as we can exhibit in this Territory in relation to these matters; and they cannot find another Territory that has been so well managed in its financial matters. Our city here is out of debt; our cities throughout the Territory are out of debt; our counties are out of debt and our Territory is out of debt. Where can you point to the same thing anywhere else? Well, they have got such good, smart, intelligent men in other places that they manage to keep things right, and we are fools here! A good many people think that Mayor Wells is not half smart enough, and that if they were in his place they could manage the municipal finances a great deal better. I presume the same as they were manipulated in New York. (Laughter.) But we don’t want such Mayors, nor such Governors, nor such institutions in our midst. We want righteousness and truth and equity and honor and integrity, and men to be governed by correct principles, and to seek the well-being of the people they live among and rule over. And who are these men they are now prosecuting and persecuting? Why, here is Brigham Young, for instance, I have traveled with him thousands of miles, preaching the Gospel without purse or scrip. What has he done to anybody? Whom has he injured? Can anybody put their finger on it? Not and tell the truth. I know before God they lie. I have been with him in private and public under all circumstances and I know his feelings. I know they are liars when they make these statements, and this people believe it too.

Well, what shall we do then? Why, do right. It is all right, who cares? The wrath of man shall praise the Lord. He holds them and us in his hands, and he will control, guide, manage and direct all things according to the counsel of his will, and no power in this city nor in these United States I say, and I will prophesy it in the name of Israel’s God, shall harm you (Congregation said “Amen”). God will control, direct and manage all the affairs pertaining to his people, and Israel will rejoice and be triumphant, and the kingdom of God will be established, and the power of God will be manifested, and the work of God will progress, and the kingdom of God will roll forth, from conquering unto conquer, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and he shall reign with universal empire.

May God help us all to be faithful, in the name of Jesus, Amen.