Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, January 8, 1871.

In rising to address you this afternoon, brethren and sisters, I crave an interest in your faith and prayers, that I may be led to speak upon those subjects and to advance those ideas that shall be instructive to you and adapted to your circumstances and condition.

I have acted in the ministry since my boyhood, but whenever I am called upon to speak I do so with great diffidence and fear. I do not know that the feeling can ever be conquered entirely, in fact, I do not know that I wish that it could; for if a man could arise and feel perfectly capable, in and of himself, to speak to the edification of the people, judging by my own experience in the matter, I imagine that he would have but very little aid from the Lord. But if he rise depending upon the Lord, and not upon his own strength, the Lord has promised to render that aid unto his servants that is necessary to enable them to testify to the truth, and to cleanse their garments of the blood of this generation.

There is no lack of topics or subject matter in dwelling upon the work we are engaged in; the range is an extensive one; but it needs the Spirit of God to select, out of the variety of subjects which it presents, those points, doctrines, and counsels that should be touched upon to edify the people in the circumstances which surround them. The older I grow, the more convinced I am that we as a people and as individuals need practical instructions in what may be termed our everyday duties. It is delightful to reflect and speak upon, and to sit and have held up before our minds the course pursued by those who were our predecessors in the Gospel. It is also equally delightful, when inspired by the Spirit of God, to contemplate the future with its great events, which the prophets foresaw, and concerning which they have written so much.

As a generation, we live in a busy, stirring time—a time that is full of important events, one treading upon the heels of another so rapidly that we have scarcely time to contemplate the past—even the past of our own history; and we have but little time to look forward to the future, only as it is necessary to comfort and to cheer us. The work of God is rushing forward with extraordinary speed, and the Lord is operating in a most signal manner to bring to pass his great and marvelous designs and purposes; and to no eyes are these things clearer than to those of the Latter-day Saints, especially those whose minds are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and who seek for the inspiration thereof to guide them in their everyday affairs.

It has been frequently remarked that we as a people are entirely too egotistical; that we imagine that God, in his operations and dealings with the children of men, has selected us and made us the peculiar recipients of his blessings to the exclusion of the rest of the human family. I have heard it very frequently remarked, when conversing with persons respecting our views and doctrines, that we confine our attention entirely too much to ourselves and the little work with which we are identified, forgetting that we are but a small handful of the great human family. I have also heard it remarked that it was entirely too much to expect that a people, so insignificant as we are numerically, should anticipate the great results that we speak about very frequently, and which, from the writings of ancient prophets and of those who have lived contemporaneously with us, we are led to anticipate will be fulfilled in our case. Men say, in speaking of us: “Do you Latter-day Saints, who in Utah and the adjoining Territories number probably one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand, and it may be a few hundred thousand elsewhere, recollect; or do you ever consider, that the nation of which you form an integral part, numbers forty millions, and that there are hundreds of millions of human beings scattered over the face of the earth who are not of your creed? Do you recollect that you are very contemptible in point of numbers, influence and wealth and everything that constitutes greatness in the earth?” If we were disposed to forget these things there are those around us with whom we are brought into frequent contact, who take great and especial pains to remind us of our insignificance, so that I think there is no real danger of our entirely forgetting it. But though we are few in numbers, we declare that the oracles of God are with us, and that he has chosen the Latter-day Saints to be his peculiar people and has placed upon them his name, or the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and has called us to be ministers of life and salvation, to be the thunders of a new order of things on the earth, and to be the means in his hands, as we firmly believe and testify, of effecting a wonderful revolution in affairs. Yet, while believing this, the Latter-day Saints are not so uncharitable as to imagine that they are the only ones with whom God is dealing, or that they are the only people over and towards whom his providences are being exercised. Such a thought has never entered into the hearts of those who are intelligent and reflecting in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is true that we believe and testify that we have been called to proclaim the everlasting Gospel in its ancient purity and simplicity, with the plenitude of its gifts and graces as enjoyed in ancient days; and that we have been called to lay the foundation of that work which is destined to grow, increase and spread until it fills the whole earth from north to south, from east to west. Yet we do not on this account arrogate to ourselves all the kindness, mercy, care, and goodness which God dispenses to his creatures on the earth; but we firmly believe that in every nation, and among every kindred, tongue and people, and, in fact, in every creed on the face of the wide earth of ours there are those over whom God watches with peculiar care and to whom his blessings are extended; and we believe that his providences are over all the works of his hands, and that none are so remote, friendless and isolated that they are not the objects of his care, mercy and kindness. This is our belief; and when we see the events which are taking place at the present time in Europe, when we hear of revolutions and wars, of nation rising against nation, of the various judgments and calamities as well as the various kindnesses and mercies that are bestowed upon and extended to the inhabitants of the earth, and to the various nationalities into which they are divided, we see in all these things the hand of our kind and beneficent Creator; we see his providences, we behold his going forth, and we acknowledge his goodness; and we also think that we can discern his overruling care and providence for the bringing to pass the great events of which he has spoken, which will eventually result in the emancipation of our race from the thralldom of evil under which it groans.

It is true, as I have already re– marked, that God has called us out of the nations to be his peculiar people; but we are not the only ones who will be so called. The message which came to us and which we received and were made glad thereby, is sent to every kindred, tongue and people on the face of the whole earth. It has gathered us out to be the pioneers in this great work; but the call is not ended nor the period arrived when it shall no longer be proclaimed by our being gathered together. It is still in force, and has to be carried throughout earth’s wide domain, until the reverberation thereof shall be heard in every land, and men of every nationality, tongue and creed shall have heard and had a chance to receive or reject the glad tidings of salvation which have been committed unto us.

The dealings of God with our own nation, the singular events which are transpiring at the present time on the continent of Europe, the revolutions that are taking place in Asia, and the wars and commotions that seem to convulse most of the nations of the earth, have all for their object, as we believe, the preparation of the way by which this great message can be carried more freely, and its principles declared more thoroughly to all the inhabitants of the earth. The Prophets looked down to the days of the future and they saw in vision that God would perform a great and mighty work in the midst of the inhabitants of the earth. They wrote about it, and some of the finest writing in the Bible contains glorious allusions to the last days, when God should stretch forth his arm in mighty power in the midst of his people and accomplish a great and marvelous work—a work that should be a wonder in the eyes of all people. The religious sects of Christendom, for hundreds of years, have looked forward to the accomplishment of these predictions, and the hope of this has cheered them in their operations, labors, expenditures, and in every effort they have made for the redemption of the race and its enlightenment in the principles of Christianity. To accomplish the fulfillment of the predictions contained in the Bible they have used every means in their power; but they have not met with the success which they desired. Still, so firm has been their faith in these predictions, that they have persevered, although the result of their labors, take it as a rule, has not been of a cheering character. Tract societies, Bible societies, missionary societies, and societies of almost every kind and description have been organized with the best of motives, and with vast expenditures of means, for the purpose of fulfilling the predictions of the prophets concerning the inhabitants of the earth. But there has been a power lacking, there has been an influence wanting; there has not been that union, blessing of heaven and that providential combination of circumstances necessary to bring to pass the results desired. Man may toil, labor and expend his means and forces, and may bring to his aid all the wisdom of which he is the possessor to bring about divine results; but unless God give the increase, as the Scriptures say, his labors will be fruitless. This has been signally fulfilled in the results which we see around us at the present time in Christendom, for their efforts have not been crowned with success. Travel through the most Christian nations today, and there is no disguising the fact that they are the most deeply steeped in wretchedness and wickedness. It is true that men live in the midst of these things until they become so accustomed to them as to accept them as a necessary condition of affairs. They may say it has been so from the beginning and will be so to the end, and to attempt to change this and to introduce a state of society without evil is utopian, it never can be effected. They accept the wretchedness, degradation, poverty, prostitution, and all the numerous evils that abound in the nations of which they are members, as something that cannot be removed—as the necessary consequence of our existence here on the earth. But the prophets have predicted that a time shall come when our race shall be emancipated from these evils, and when there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord; when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruninghooks; when nation shall no longer rise against nation, and war shall be learned no more. The prophets have predicted that the time shall come when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep; and when man need no longer say to his neighbor, “Know ye the Lord,” but when all shall know him, from the least unto the greatest. There is no doubt that, if anything in the Scriptures is true, these predictions are, and that they will be verified to the letter. But man, in his efforts to bring about this time, has labored without the concurrence of heaven, without the divine blessing resting upon his labors. He has run before he was sent; in his zeal he has undertaken measures for which he had no warrant. What, then, shall cure or bring the means of cure to our race? What shall ameliorate the condition of the human family? What scheme shall be adopted to bring to the earth the blessings which we are told it is our privilege to enjoy, at some period or other? Shall man seek to bring this about without divine aid? Shall he undertake to effect these great changes and bring to pass this great deliverance without seeking the aid of the Supreme Being, who created the earth and the inhabitants thereof? Or shall he in humility bow himself in the dust, and await the dispensation of truth from heaven, await the bestowal of the light and knowledge necessary to enable him to accomplish these mighty works; and then, in faith, plant and water and wait upon God to give the increase?

I think that the course that we as a people have taken, is the course which all should take; I think it is the only proper and legitimate course for any individual and people to take. Men may say that we are deluded and that we deceive ourselves; they may say that our system is one of imposture. Whether this be so or not matters but little to the point in question; the course that we have taken, whether our system be divine or not, is the course which all should take. What we have done we have claimed to do under the inspiration and direct guidance of heaven. Every move that we have taken since our Church was organized, on the 6th of April, 1830, we claim has been by inspiration and under the guidance of the Almighty. On the day I have named our Church was organized by revelation. On that day the Church was organized and ministers chosen; Elders were endowed with, or ordained to, the Priesthood. They were sent forth by revelation, and commanded to go to this place and the other place, to this and to that land by revelation from the Lord. A message was given unto them, not from the Bible, or Book of Mormon; not from any written record, not a copy or transcript of some message carried by some previous generation of men; but an original message, direct to them, to be conveyed by them to their fellow creatures; a perfectly original message, so far as this generation was concerned, delivered to them by the Almighty; and they were sent forth to proclaim it to the inhabitants of the earth.

They were commanded by revelation to gather together. A place was designated as a place of gathering. Circumstances favored the procuring of that place; but they were not allowed to remain in it. They were driven forth, and again they were guided by revelation to another place, and again they were driven forth and compelled to abandon their homes; and again another place was designated to which they should go; again they were driven forth, and again they were directed what to do, and they came to this land, guided by revelation, inspired by the Almighty, not knowing where they were going. Thousands started out on the plains without having the least idea where they would stop; they launched forth on the trackless prairies without any location ahead of which they knew anything; and when they reached here they settled by revelation; and since then, in our movements, in our settlements of various localities, in all our labors at home, going to the nations of the earth or returning therefrom; in our migrations, in sending out colonies, and in every variety of labor which we have performed we claim to have been guided by the spirit of revelation; and mark, my brethren and sisters, the wonderful results.

Have we had wealth? Have we had societies organized to aid us? Have we had popularity with or popular support from the nation? No, we have had nothing of the kind. We have stood alone, with none to aid, sustain, or comfort but God. Instead of aid from our fellow creatures we have had persecution; instead of comfort we have had reviling; instead of words of encouragement, we have, as it were, had deep damnation poured out upon our heads. We have had adverse circumstances to contend with, but we have also had that which is better than all the world can bestow—the aid of heaven, divine concurrence; we have had a combination of circumstances to aid us in accomplishing the objects for which we started out. The result is, we are in these valleys today—a people of varied nationality, of varied creeds and modes of education, and a people as utterly diverse in their original traditions and habits as men and women of our color could be. And yet, what do we see? Why, throughout all this range of valleys a people homogeneous, dwelling together in peace, love and union, and enjoying all the blessings promised to the people of God in the last days. I say all the blessings, but not in their fullness. We are but imperfect yet; we are not prepared for these blessings in their fullness; but so far as we are progressed and are prepared, they have been bestowed upon us; and today we present to the eyes of the world one of the most remarkable spectacles that can be seen.

Men may say, “Pooh, pooh, you Latter-day Saints are nothing! You are too contemptible for notice!” But our acts show that there is a power and an influence with us that the inhabitants of the earth elsewhere do not possess. We are looked upon as a social phenomenon in the earth; we are diverse from every other people; and our community is the object of attention and I may say of respect that its numbers do not entitle it to. Men from afar cannot cross the continent without coming to visit the Latter-day Saints. Why is this? It is because there is a feel– ing throughout the earth that there is something remarkable connected with us, that we are not as other people are. What is it that distinguishes us from our fellows? What is it that distinguishes us from the average American, Englishman, Scandinavian, German, Swiss, Italian, or Frenchman, or from the average Asiatic? There is something; they feel it and we feel it; and that distinction is, we believe in revelation, we profess to be guided by revelation. We are peculiar when compared with the rest of the world, because all our movements are under divine guidance. We claim this, and we act upon it; we seek for it, and God bestows it upon us. It is our testimony, at least, that he bestows it upon us, for we see the results. We see what is not witnessed anywhere else on the earth.

As I have already said, tract, Bible and missionary societies have been formed, and the wealth of the nations has been poured into the hands of religious people, and spent lavishly and without stint, for the salvation of the human family; but where on the face of the earth can you find the fruits to be witnessed before me today, and that can be seen throughout the Territory of Utah. Why is this? Because, as I have said, they have labored without the concurrence of heaven; they have run before they were sent. But unto us, scattered, isolated individuals, this message from God came, and there being a spark of divinity within us, we received it and embraced it, and have endeavored to live up to it, and God has blessed us and our labors. But after all, what we have done is very little.

I have told you what has been remarked here, time and time again, probably you have heard it, respecting our insignificance. I feel most sensibly that, so far as numbers are concerned, we are a very insignificant people. But I will tell you a remark, which I believe is credited alike to the late Mr. Stephen Girard and to Commodore Vanderbilt, both great financiers, that the hardest money they ever earned was the first five hundred dollars they saved. Now the hardest thing in building up a people is to gain a foothold. We have gained this; we have gained and organized the first hundred thousand people. We have achieved a position that will render our future progress more rapid than in years past and gone. I fully expect to see the progress of this work in the future much more rapid than it has been in the past. I see the providence of God laboring to bring this about. Not to build up a people distinct from all the rest of the earth; not to build up some little, narrow sect or denomination; but this work and Gospel is to embrace within its fold all Earth’s children, every son and daughter of God on the earth. That is its mission, and it will accomplish it. But it will spread with increased rapidity from this time forth. The foundation and cornerstones have been laid in tears, blood, and in much sorrow, but they are laid firmly, cemented by the sufferings, toils, faith and endurance of this people for the past forty years; and I trust that they are laid so deep that they will never be torn up, shaken or disturbed; and that upon them will a superstructure be reared of such strength, beauty and symmetry that it will be the joy and pride of the whole earth.

The labors of the Elders of this Church have not been confined to this land, but they have extended to England, Scandinavia, some little in France, a very little in Prussia, some in Switzerland; but vast fields yet lie before us that we have not touched, and to which this message must go. The throes of revolution which Europe is now undergoing I look upon as the premonitory signs of that freedom that shall soon dawn on that continent. Then the Elders of this Church will go through Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and through every land in Europe; for the “sick man” will yet open his doors to hear the Elders of Israel, and Russia will unfold her gates and give them free entrance, and they will go forth declaring the glad tidings which God has given unto us to the oppressed of all nations, proclaiming unto them that God has established a government which will be the means of restoring to the earth the blessings for which mankind have sighed, panted and labored for ages in vain.

When the mind, inspired by the Spirit of God, contemplates the future, and sees the immense field which is widening before the Elders of this Church, I, for one, feel that it ought to stir up every one of us to the most energetic and resolute preparation for the great labor that is fast devolving upon us, and that we live to discharge. Our own land will yet be convulsed with revolution, for it contains within itself the seeds of dire misfortunes, which will yet come upon the unhappy Republic. We may deplore, mourn over and regret that such things do exist; but they do nevertheless, and we should be blind indeed did we shut our eyes to the fact, and fail to prepare ourselves for their accomplishment. There is before this people, connected with our own country, a destiny that is so glorious when we contemplate it in the future, that it is enough to dazzle and oppress the mind of man at the immensity of the labor that lies before us.

It may be said that this is all very foolish to think of or to talk about; but it is no more foolish than it would have been, when driven, peeled and scattered, we were coming out of Illinois, to have said we should yet lay the foundation of a great State, such as we now behold in these mountains. I tell you, my brethren and sisters, that God has given to this people qualities which, in the contest of races, must tell. There are qualities connected with the Latter-day Saints, and principles connected with their system that, persecute and crush them out as you may, as long as the men live who bear the authority, and so long as the principles have a believer and practicer in the world, must live, survive, and have influence in the midst of the earth and upon the populations thereof. There is no disguising this fact! Little plotters, such, for instance, as the “ring” in this city, may fix snares and nets, and arrange toils, and think they are going to stop the work of God, ensnare the feet of the servants of God, and do wonderful things! Puny drivellers! They would raise their impious hands and tear down the throne of Jehovah, and attempt to impede the progress of his work; but, like others who have preceded them, they will be covered with shame and confusion and go down to dishonored graves, while the people whom they seek to oppress will continue to rise and increase in strength and power by the practice of those qualities which God has given unto us through revelation, until their influence will be felt, not only in Utah Territory, but from sea to sea, and give them time enough, and it will be felt throughout the length and breadth of the earth, and thus will the sayings of the prophets be fulfilled.

How else could they be fulfilled? Can you imagine any better plan than this that you begin to see unfold before us? Can you think of any other way by which these predictions will be fulfilled? I cannot. It is simple, natural and scriptural, and perfectly Godlike in my sight, and according to my limited ideas.

But as a people, we should endeavor, in the midst of all our troubles, difficulties, trials and temptations, to remember that we are God’s people; that he has called us to be his, and we should put our firm faith and trust in him and leave him to work out the results. And, my brethren and sisters, if we are faithful to the truth which he has revealed to us, he will bring to us greater salvation than we ever conceived of, and will work out ways of deliverance of which we have never dreamed; for his word, which cannot be recalled, has gone forth through his ancient servants; and he is pledged to his servants in the days in which we live; and he is pledged to us, to sustain this work and to give it power and influence, and a foothold in the earth. And there never was a people who prayed with greater unanimity for any one thing, than do the Latter-day Saints that God will deliver his people from the hands of their enemies and give them the victory. These prayers will be heard and answered upon our heads, and, as I have said, we will see deliverance and salvation such as we never dreamed of.

I recollect very well the feelings that were manifested here, I think it was last summer but one, by a scientific gentleman, who came into our city, and for the first time was brought into contact with us. He had known up when he was a boy in Illinois; now himself a professor in one of the Illinois colleges, and a man of some note in the scientific world. He had seen or heard something of our persecutions, and while in conversation with me he remarked, “Mr. Cannon, when I looked upon this beautiful valley and saw these pleasant homes, and your people dwelling in contentment and peace, my heart was filled with inexpressible sadness; I could not repress my emotions, my eyes suffused with tears, and I wished from the bottom of my heart that you were somewhere else rather than within the confines of the United States, somewhere where you would not be subject to persecution; for I know the intense bigotry and hatred of feeling that are entertained towards you, and I know that it only awaits a fitting opportunity to reenact the scenes that you have endured in the past.” I appreciated the kindness of feeling which prompted the remarks, but told him that I viewed things differently from him. I was fully aware of the feeling of which he spoke, and knew that it existed in certain quarters; but I was also aware of one thing, which he (being an infidel) probably did not understand, and that was—there was a God in heaven who ruled, overruled and controlled all circumstances for the accomplishment of his own designs. I further remarked, “Suppose we were away from here, outside the confines of the United States, do you think we could live in any spot on the earth without attracting attention? Do you think that a people such as we are could go to any land, or into the greatest desert on the earth, and live there any length of time without attracting the attention of the world as much as we do now? Why, the thing is impossible. When we came to this region it was as much out of the way as any place on the earth could be. But after coming here we demonstrated that the soil of these valleys, by being watered artificially, would produce crops; and the result of our experiment, for experiment it may be called, is that all this interior basin, formerly looked upon as an irreclaimable desert, is a choice land. The world once convinced of this, and population came to us, and the railroad came across the continent, and we find ourselves right in the center of the great transcontinental highway. If we were to go into any other land it would be the same—we should attract population and wealth, and the eyes of mankind would be directed towards us; and were we to leave here we could not find a place where we should be more secluded than we have been here; “but,” said I, “we don’t calculate to leave here; we think we have got to the right spot, and we calculate to remain, and the Lord will deal with those who seek to deal with us.” He felt that there might be some destiny about it, but, being an unbeliever in God, he did not know anything about it, and did not allow himself to have any faith concerning it. Still he saw that we were a remarkable people, and said there might be a great future in store for us, some destiny, of which he and others, who merely looked on, might be very ignorant.

It is a truth, my brethren and sisters, there is a great destiny in store for the Latter-day Saints. Men may fight this work and persecute the people who sustain it; they killed Joseph, and thought they had destroyed the cornerstones, as it were, of the fabric; and like the men mentioned in the parable, having killed the heir, they thought they could possess the vineyard, but they soon found out their mistake; and so it will be with every move that is made against the work of God—those with whom they originate will find they have made a great mistake. They will be disappointed in the results of their labors and operations, for God has spoken and his word will be fulfilled and this work will increase and progress. And the day will come, though, as I have said, we may regret and deplore it, yet the day will come, and I would like the thought to be fastened, if possible, so deeply in every heart that when persecution and annoyance come upon us, you will not forget it—when the Latter-day Saints will be the only well-governed people on this continent, and in their midst will be found the only place where constitutional government will be preserved in its old purity and integrity. I know that this sounds strange, because the idea is that the “Mormons” are the most despotically governed people on the face of the land. But I know that there is not another people today under the light of the sun, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadas, who are so free in every sense of the word, men and women, as the Latter-day Saints, and who have greater liberty to do that which is right in their own eyes.

I see the clock, and I am reminded that it is time to quit. May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and let his peace and preserving care be over you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, January 1, 1871.

I wish you all a happy new year, and I hope that we may live to see a good many, and that we may keep the commandments of God, obey his laws, and have his approbation and blessing upon us as a people. We have assembled here on this, the first day of the week, and the first day of the year 1871; and this leads my mind to reflect upon the age and generation in which we live, and the great events of the latter days—events which involve the interests and destiny of all the inhabitants of the earth—both Zion and Babylon, Jew and Gentile, Jerusalem, America, and the whole world. All nations are interested in the events which are approaching us, and which await this generation; for, whether the world believe it or not, they are of vast interest to them all. There have been certain times looked forward to in the world’s history, in which it was believed that something remarkable would occur, and there have been several of these periods during the last fifty years. I do not know that anything was predicted at an early day with regard to 1830; but I recollect, when a boy at school, of reading a certain verse about a great eclipse of the sun—

In eighteen hundred and thirty-one Will be a great eclipse upon the sun.

I heard about this fifteen years before it took place, it having been foretold by the astronomers, by the principles and laws of the science of astronomy. On that day I was passing through a forest of pinewood, at Farmington, Connecticut, going to see my father, whom I had not seen for some time. It was nearly as dark as night, and when I got through, into the open fields, there was what is termed a poor house, the only house erected within several miles in that region of country. A poor man had died there and they were drawing his body on an ox sled and were going to bury him. I noticed this as I passed along, and thought of what I had read; but nothing of any particular interest occurred that year except the eclipse of the sun. But in 1830 something occurred of great interest to all the inhabitants of the earth: that was the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Many persons have looked forward to the year 1860 with great interest and this has been the case with many of the Latter-day Saints. What took place in that year? The dissolution of the American Union; for in that year the South took a stand against the North, and the North against the South, in fulfillment of a certain revelation given by Joseph Smith thirty years before it took place. Joseph Smith predicted that there would be a great rebellion in the United States—the South and the North warring against each other and that this rebellion would commence in South Carolina, and would end in the death and misery of many souls; and that in process of time—after many days, the slaves would rise against their masters, and that one nation would call for aid upon another, for war would be poured upon the whole earth. I wrote this revelation twenty-five years before the rebellion took place; others also wrote it, and it was published to the world before there was any prospect of the fearful events it predicted coming to pass.

Joseph Smith once said in a speech at Nauvoo, to a company, that whosoever lived to see the two sixes come together in ’66 would see the American continent deluged in blood. That was many years before there was any prospect of a rebellion. The history of ’60 and of ’66 is before the world, and I do not wish to spend time in referring to it.

We have got by ’30, ’60, ’66, and ’70, and we are now living at a period when every year is big with events of interest to the inhabitants of the earth; and they will continue from this time until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many men have set times for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, among whom, living in our own day, we may mention Mr. Miller. He set times and days for the appearing of the Messiah, and has said that he would surely come on such a day. Now if Mr. Miller had been acquainted with the prophecies contained in the Bible, and with the Spirit by which the Scriptures were written, he would have known very clearly that Christ would not come until certain events had taken place. He would have been aware that the Messiah would not make his appearance until an angel of God had delivered the everlasting Gospel from the heavens to be preached to the nations of the earth; until the honest and meek of the earth are gathered out from every sect, party and denomination under the whole heavens; until the Zion of God had gone up into the mountains of Israel and there established Zion, and lifted up a standard to the people. Mr. Miller and all who have believed like him, had they understood the Scriptures and possessed the Spirit of truth, would have known that Christ would not come until the Jews had returned to their own land and had rebuilt the City of Jerusalem and the temple there; they would have known that all these and many other prophecies must have been fulfilled as a preparatory work for the coming of the Messiah.

These things are before us; we are here in these valleys of the mountains, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, established by the hand of God—by revelation from heaven. This Church has been established by raising up prophets, unto whom have been given the keys of the kingdom of God—the keys of the holy Priesthood and Apostleship of the Son of God, with power to organize the Church and kingdom of God on the earth, with all its gifts, graces, ordinances, and orders, as proclaimed by all the Apostles and prophets who have lived since the world began. It is because of this that we are here today. In fulfillment of prophecy and revelation we have established a kingdom, as it were, a state, a nation, a people here in the deserts of North America. We have planted six hundred miles of cities, towns, villages, gardens, orchards, tabernacles and temples by the command of God, for the hand of God is in all these things, and they are in fulfillment of revelations given in the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, in our day and in ancient days. This is the work of the Lord, and all the Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation point to this day as one of great interest to all the human family; although as one said of old, “As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” In those days they were marrying and giving in marriage, and when Noah went into the Ark, and when Lot fled out of Sodom, the inhabitants of the earth through their unbelief were ignorant of the destruction awaiting them.

At the present day darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people; nevertheless they are living in an age of the world more fraught with interest to the human family than any preceding age or generation since the creation. There is no hundred years, no thousand years, no two thousand years since God made this world and placed Adam in the Garden of Eden when there was as much prophecy, revelation, vision, and word of the Lord and promises of God to be fulfilled as there is in the generation in which you and I live. This is the great dispensation of all dispensations. This is the time to which all the prophets of God have pointed, and in which they have declared the great latter-day work of God should be established. And I will here say that, many times, while a boy, when reading the testimony of John, given on the isle of Patmos, whither he had been banished for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the word of God; while reading the account he gives of the pouring out of plagues and judgments on the inhabitants of the earth, I have marveled that the Lord should do such a work. But I do not wonder at it today: the scenes have changed. When I was a boy, fifty years ago, the kingdom of God had not been established among men; the angels of God had not visited the earth; the Lord Almighty had not clothed his servants with the Priesthood and commanded them to go and warn the nations of the earth of the judgments which awaited them. There was not the wickedness then that there is today. The wickedness committed today in the Christian world in twenty-four hours is greater than would have been committed in a hundred years at the ratio of fifty years ago. And the spirit of wickedness is increasing, so that I no longer wonder that God Almighty will turn rivers into blood; I do not wonder that he will open the seals and pour out the plagues and sink great Babylon, as the angel saw, like a millstone cast into the sea, to rise no more forever. I can see that it requires just such plagues and judgments to cleanse the earth, that it may cease to groan under the wickedness and abomination in which the Christian world welters today. I can see the necessity for the Lord stretching forth his hand, establishing his kingdom, warning the nations, and gathering out the honest and meek of the earth from among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, sects and parties under the whole heaven, and preparing them to stand as the bride, the Lamb’s wife, as the Church of Jesus Christ, as the kingdom of God, adorned with goodly apparel, adorned with the light of Zion, with the principles of eternal life, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, preserving within themselves the virtues and attributes which have made God what he is, established him on his throne, and given him the power which he now possesses. I can say this—the Lord will never come to visit an earth like this; he will never come to visit a generation of the inhabitants of the earth until they are prepared for his coming and are willing to receive him.

This is the foundation of Mormonism; this is the foundation of the Church and kingdom of God, which was laid in 1830. The Church was established on the 6th of April in that year. Its history and the history of this people are before the world. We ourselves have learned it by shoe leather. Many of the Elders of Israel have traveled a hundred thousand miles to preach the Gospel during the last forty years without purse or scrip; we have labored day and night, and traveled as no other generation of men since the world was made have traveled. Our garments are clear of the blood of this generation, at least many of us, and I hope many more will be. We have been true and faithful in our testimony to the inhabitants of the earth; and as the world generally has rejected our testimony the Lord has withdrawn his spirit from the people in a great measure, and the religion they once enjoyed is as nothing to many of them. Infidelity prevails throughout the world; very few, either priests or people, believe in a literal fulfillment of the Bible. They have a theory, but as to believing in a real fulfillment of prophecy, or that the Lord meant what he said and said what he meant, that is out of the question—very few believe it.

I want to ask a question—Will the unbelief of this generation make the truth of God without effect in our day any more than it has in any other age of the world? I tell you nay, and think not, as Paul says, that I am your enemy because I tell you the truth. These things are true before God; this is the Zion of God, and these are the people of God; and we, as Latter-day Saints, should live our religion better than we do; and as we are now entering on another year I hope we shall try to live our religion through this year, and do our duty and keep the commandments of God and walk uprightly before him, that we may become united as the heart of one man.

There are great events, as I have already said, before us. The fact is, the Lord has laid down a great many promises concerning the latter days, and they are going to be fulfilled; for though the heavens and the earth pass away not one jot or tittle of the word of the Lord will fall unfulfilled; and when our nation and the nations of the earth have filled their cup and are ripened in iniquity the Lord will cut them off. The greater the battle the sooner it will end; the greater the warfare the greater the victory, if the Saints do their duty. These things are before my mind, in the vision of it, and the Lord will not fail in anything he has promised concerning the work of the latter days. Whatever opposition this Church and kingdom may have, it is the work of God. The Lord has planted and sustained it. Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, the least of all seeds, but by and by when it grows it becomes a large tree, so the fowls of the air can lodge in its branches. So it has been with the kingdom of God; but we are told that the little one will become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation, and the Lord will hasten it in his own time. The Lord says, “I will break every weapon formed against Zion; and every nation, kindred, tongue and people that will not serve Zion shall be utterly wasted away.”

When I see the world making warfare against the Zion and people of God because they have borne record and testimony of his work on the earth I can tell pretty well what the end will be; I can see it. We are living in a time when the work of God is going to increase in interest every day until it is wound up. No man knows the day or the hour when Christ will come, yet the generation has been pointed out by Jesus himself. He told his disciples when they passed by the temple as they walked out of Jerusalem that that generation should not pass away before not one stone of that magnificent temple should be left standing upon another and the Jews should be scattered among the nations; and history tells how remarkably that prediction was fulfilled. Moses and the prophets also prophesied of this as well as Jesus. The Savior, when speaking to his disciples of his second coming and the establishment of his kingdom on the earth, said the Jews should be scattered and trodden under foot until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. But, said he, when you see light breaking forth among the Gentiles referring to the preaching of his Gospel amongst them; when you see salvation offered to the Gentiles, and the Jews—the seed of Israel—passed by, the last first and the first last; when you see this you may know that the time of my second coming is at hand as surely as you know that summer is nigh when the fig tree puts forth its leaves; and when these things commence that generation shall not pass away until all are fulfilled.

We are living in the dispensation and generation to which Jesus referred—the time appointed by God for the last six thousand years, through the mouths of all the prophets and inspired men who have lived and left their sayings on record, in which his Zion should be built up and continue upon the earth. Those prophecies will have their fulfillment before the world; and all who will not repent will be engulfed in the destructions which are in store for the wicked. If men do not cease from their murders, whoredoms, and all the wickedness and abominations which fill the black catalogue of the crimes of the world, judgment will overtake them; and whether we are believed or not, these sayings are true, and I bear my testimony as a servant of God and as an Elder in Israel to the truth of the events which are going to follow very fast on each other.

The Lord is going to make a short work in the earth; he is going to cut it short in righteousness, or no flesh would be saved. What Brother Rich has said today is true. These principles will sustain us. Virtuous and godly principles—the principles of the Gospel will, in the end, come off triumphant; and they will sustain and preserve any people who practice them, whether they are popular or not in the estimation of the world. All who embrace the principles of the Gospel of Christ will be saved by them. He that abides a law will be preserved by it. Any man who abides the law of the Gospel will be saved and receive exaltation and glory by it. Let us remember these things, for all that has been spoken concerning this Zion of God in the mountains will come to pass. It is the work of God, and his eyes are over it; the heavens behold it. Every prophet and Apostle who ever bore testimony to this work is watching us with the deepest interest; they watch our labors and faithfulness, and are anxious about the course we pursue. Many of them desired to live in our day, but had not the privilege. We have been permitted to see and live in this great and eventful age of the world. The God of heaven has put into our hands the Gospel, the Priesthood, the keys of his kingdom, and the power to redeem the earth from the dominion of sin and wickedness under which it has groaned for centuries, and under which it groans today. Let us lay these things to heart, and try to live our religion; so that when we get through we may look back on our lives, and feel that we have done what was required of us, individually and collectively. The Lord requires much at our hands—more than he has ever required of any generation that has preceded us; for no generation that has ever lived on the earth was called upon to establish the kingdom of God on the earth, knowing that it should be thrown down no more forever. Daniel saw this; the Prophet Isaiah had spoken of it; in fact three-fourths of all his predictions relate to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the latter days; to our persecutions, to our travels to these valleys of the mountains, to the lifting up of the standard to the people on the mountains of Israel; to the casting up of the great highway—this national railroad, which the ransomed of the Lord should walk over, and on which the Gentiles should come to the light of Zion, and kings to the brightness of her rising.

These things are to come to pass in our day, and the beginning has commenced, and the end will come by the power of God and in fulfillment of his promises; and it is at our hands the work is required. Therefore I feel to bear my testimony today that this is the work of God, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that Brigham Young is a prophet of God, and is inspired, led, dictated and directed of the Lord, and has been very profitable to the Latter-day Saints, and is doing all he can for the salvation of the world. So did Joseph Smith, while he lived. He came in fulfillment of prophecy, accomplished what was required of him, laid the foundation of the work, received the keys of the Priesthood and Apostleship, and every gift and grace in the organization of the Church necessary to carry it on. We are called to build on the foundation he laid, until Zion shall arise and put on her beautiful garments and the people of God become united as the heart of one man; until the little stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth, and accomplishes all God has spoken concerning it.

Brethren and sisters, let us unite together and be faithful, and live our religion every day, and do our duty in 1871 as in any of the years that are past and gone since we have been acquainted with the Gospel of Christ. If we do this we shall come off triumphant. The God of heaven is our friend, and blessed is that people whose God is the Lord. Blessed is that people who do not turn to any other God but the living and true God.

May God bless you, bless this assembly, bless us as a people, and the honest and meek of the earth everywhere, and prepare us for the great events which await this generation, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, December 18, 1870.

I will read a few passages of Scripture, which will be found in the 50th Psalm—

“The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

“He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

This congregation, the members of which are generally speaking Bible believers, have no doubt in their minds but the ancient servants of God were inspired by the gift of the Holy Ghost to utter many things concerning the future, to deliver many predictions concerning events which should take place among mankind down to the latest generations. David, in a peculiar manner, was inspired, and composed his psalms by the spirit of prophecy; he foresaw, by that spirit that knows all things, some of the grand events of the future, pertaining to the inhabitants of this world, and the purposes of God in relation to this creation. These passages which I have read have reference to some of these great events, a portion of which have already, in a measure, been fulfilled; but the greater portion remains yet to be accomplished. “The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken,” has literally been fulfilled so far as this present generation is concerned. It has been fulfilled also in relation to past generations; but it is very evident from the meaning of the context, that the speaking of the Lord here referred to was a work of latter times when God should again speak to the inhabitants of the earth; when he should again call upon all people, far and near, “from the rising of the sun,” as he expresses here, “to the going down thereof.” To show more fully that this was a latter-day work, he speaks or predicts that the “Lord our God shall come and not keep silence.” This had no reference to his first coming; for though he did then come and utter forth his doctrine and did not keep silence, yet you will see by reading a little further, that the Psalmist had reference to another coming of the Son of God, very different in its character from his first advent. “Our God shall come and shall not keep silence.” Now mark, in an especial manner, the following sentence, and you will see that it has no reference to his first coming—“A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.” This was not a characteristic of his first coming; there was nothing specially connected with that event that would excite the attention of mankind generally. He came in a very meek and humble manner; his birth and advent into this world were in the most humble position. Born, as it were, in a stable, laid down in a manger. Not born in king’s palace—not born among the great and noble, but in a very obscure manner. He grew up from infancy to manhood engaged in the carpenter’s business. Some thirty years of his life were spent at home with his reputed father, and with his mother Mary, dwelling comparatively in obscurity, occasionally breaking forth and arguing with the wise and the great. Nothing characterizing him as the Great Creator of this world, or as its Redeemer, only to those who were well acquainted with the predictions of the Prophets. But this last coming, or the coming here spoken of by the Psalmist, represents him as coming with power—“A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above,” says the next passage, “and to the earth from beneath.” What object had he in view, in calling upon the heavens above and upon the earth beneath? What end had he in view in again speaking and breaking the silence of ages, and in giving a revelation to the heavens and then to the earth? It was in order to bring about a preparatory work before the face of his coming the second time, when he should come in flaming fire. A preparation was needed, and this preparation is mentioned in part in the last verse which I read, which declares that he should call to the heavens from above and to the earth from beneath.

He gives us some insight into the nature of that call. His call to his servants was, “Gather ye my Saints together unto me, they that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

This seems, then, to be a work preparatory to the coming of the Lord in flaming fire. The nature of the fire that will be exhibited at his second coming in the clouds of heaven will be such that it will consume the wicked and ungodly, and those who repent not and who do not sanctify themselves before the Lord. Our God in that day will be a consuming fire; the intensity of this fire will be so great that the very hills, the Psalmist David informs us in another place, “will melt like wax before his presence.” The Prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the fire or heat that would accompany the second advent of the Son of God, declares that the mountains shall flow down at his presence. The elements that now constitute these rugged mountains which we see here on this continent and in all parts of the earth where we travel will melt with fervent heat, and will flow down before the presence of the Lord. The brightness of this fire will be greater than that of the sun in its glory. I mean our temporal, literal sun, from which we receive light and heat, as you will find recorded in the last verse of the 24th chapter of Isaiah, which says that “when the Lord of Hosts shall come to reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously, the sun shall hide his face in shame and the moon shall be confounded.” With all the brightness of that luminary which lights this creation it will hide its face in shame; and the bright luminaries of heaven will be confounded as it were, so great will be the glory of his presence—a fire devouring before him, and all nature feeling the power of the Almighty, which will be exerted on that grand occasion.

Will the wicked be able to endure this intense heat and not be consumed? I now have reference to their physical tabernacles, their temporal bodies. Hear what prophecy has declared in relation to this. Read the last chapter contained in the Old Testament; that will answer the question.

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”

Notice, now, how completely it will sweep the proud and those who do wickedly from the face of this creation. The fire that proceeds forth from the presence of God at his second coming shall burn as an oven, and shall not only affect the mountains and the elements so as to melt them, but it will also consume the proud and them that do wickedly from the face of the globe. What effect will this intense heat have upon the righteous? No more than the heated furnace of Nebuchadnezzar had upon the Hebrews who were cast therein; and though it was heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated and slew those who cast their fellows into it, yet they who were thrown into it received no harm, not even the smell of fire on their garments. They were protected by a miracle, and the fire that slew their enemies was their preservation. So likewise when the Son of God shall burn up the wicked and consume their bodies to ashes, both root and branch, leaving no remnants of them among all people, nations and tongues, the righteous will be prepared to enter into the midst of this flaming fire without receiving any harm; indeed they will be caught up into the very presence of God, and they will be surrounded with a pillar of fire as Moses was when he came down from Mount Sinai, only to a far greater extent; but it will have no power over them, in fact it will be their protection and salvation, their glory, happiness and joy.

To prepare the people for that great day it is necessary that the Saints should be gathered together, as predicted in the 5th verse, when he should give this great and grand revelation in the last days, when the mighty God, even the Lord, shall speak. He will call to the heavens to assist in the great latter-day work; and all the angels and the heavenly hosts, who do his bidding, will go forth as swift messengers to execute his decrees and fulfil his purposes in bringing about this grand gathering of his elect from the four quarters of the earth. Who will they be? Those who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice. What kind of a sacrifice? The sacrifice of every earthly thing required, their native countries, their fathers and mothers, for in many instances these who obey the Gospel are compelled to sever the nearest earthly ties—parents from their children, children from their parents and kindred from their kin, in order that they may come forth and be gathered into one grand body preparatory to the coming of the Son of God in flaming fire.

There are many people who have believed that the coming of our Lord was near at hand. We might refer to many persons by name who have even set times for his coming—certain particular days, months and years in which the Lord would be revealed from heaven. But they have entirely overlooked the prophecies of the great preparatory work for his coming. If they had read closely, and instead of studying for dates had carefully looked for the great purposes to be fulfilled before he comes they would have known that their predictions were false. There is to be a grand gathering of all his people from the four quarters of the earth into one body, one family as it were; one people consolidated in one region of country, before he shall come.

Let me refer to this great gathering of the Saints from every land and nation; we find it predicted in various portions of the prophetic writings. I will first refer you to the prediction recorded, if I recollect aright, in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah. There is a prediction that before the great day of rest the Lord will again speak and will say to the north give up, to the south keep not back! Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—the same thing that David has reference to.

This is not a work to be accomplished by the wisdom of man or by a combination of the wisest men that are uninspired, among the nations; but the Lord is to speak, and will say to the north give up. A new revelation is to be given: he will say to the south keep not back, and he will command that his sons and his daughters be brought from the ends of the earth.

Has any such thing happened in our days? Has the mighty God, even the Lord, spoken in our days? Yes, and connected with this proclamation we are informed that the elect of God are to be gathered from the four winds of heaven; and we have been called upon to perform this work. How much have we accomplished during the forty years that have intervened since the Lord spoke? In the year 1827, ’28, ’29 and ’30 the Lord spoke and gave many revelations, among which was this record called the Book of Mormon, unfolding to us not only the everlasting Gospel in all its plainness, simplicity and ancient purity, as it was taught to the inhabitants of this continent eighteen hundred years ago; but also many sacred predictions relating to the great work which God would accomplish when he should bring this record forth in the latter days. This book was translated by a mighty Prophet who was inspired of God for the purpose; and since it came forth—in the short space of forty years—it has been published in many of the languages of the earth. It has gone forth in the German, Italian, French, Welsh and Scandinavian languages, and also in the tongue spoken by the Sandwich Islanders; and it has been proclaimed, as it were, on the housetops, in the streets and highways, upon the hills and mountains and in all public places, so far as the Missionaries and Elders of this Church could find access and liberty to proclaim it; and wherever the people have repented and turned from their sins and have desired to receive the everlasting Gospel, they have continued to gather together in one. This gathering has been going on for nearly forty years, until the effects can now be seen in this Territory, by any person who will travel through it in the towns and cities which have been built, the settlements which have been formed, the meetinghouses and schoolhouses and public halls that have been erected; and in the fencing of farms, and the opening of water canals and ditches for irrigating the soil. I say those who will travel through this Territory may see some of the effects of the gathering out of the Saints who have made a covenant with the Lord by sacrifice. If we had gathered together into a country that was well timbered, where we could go out and get a load of fence poles or firewood before breakfast; if we had settled in a country that was not, comparatively a desert, and that was blessed with the rains of heaven, we could no doubt have accomplished far more than we now see. But the Lord purposely led us into this desert to fulfil prophecy. A great many people, perhaps, reflect upon and wonder at our coming into a sterile, barren district of country, inhabited by hostile savages, and which, to all natural appearance, would not sustain a farming or agricultural population. But the Lord brought us into a country of this description in order that he might fulfil prophecies that must come to pass before “our God shall come in flaming fire.”

In proof of this let me refer you to the nature of the country, the redemption of the desert and so forth, that is to take place before the Lord comes. I will refer you now to some of the sayings of the Prophet Isaiah. In the last two verses of his 34th chapter he says:

“Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

“And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.”

In the 35th chapter, first and second verses, you will find these words:

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

“It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.”

Notice now that the Lord, by his Spirit, is to have a great gathering in the latter days of his people, and we are advised to seek out of the book of the Lord and learn of this gathering, and how his Saints should inhabit the land. It should be divided unto them by lot, the same as many people received their inheritances when they came into this desert. They cast lots, and drew their lots and inheritances. “And the wilderness and the solitary places shall be glad for them.” If you can find a country that answers better the description here given anywhere in the four quarters of the earth, I should like to know it. When we came here, the country to all natural appearance was so barren that it seemed impossible to locate a people upon it. But you see what we have accomplished. Not by our own wisdom nor by our own strength, but by being gathered by the voice of the Lord and by his commandment, and being guided and directed by the spirit of inspiration.

After we are gathered, the desert is to rejoice and blossom as the rose. How often I have thought of this in the spring time, when all of this city, covering some four, or perhaps five square miles with orchards and gardens, is in bloom! Then is the time to realize how literally this prophecy has been fulfilled. Everyone knows that fruitful as it now is, when we came here it was called a desert. If you do not believe me, go to the old maps, and you will find this section of the country laid down as “The Great American Desert.” That is the name that was given to it then. People, when banded together in a numerous company, and well armed would hardly venture to pass through this desert country, it was so unpropitious and forbidding, the rains of heaven never having been, apparently, shed forth upon it. When we came we could dig down some eighteen inches or two feet, and in other places there was no moisture at all, and it looked as though there never had been any rain here. But “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be made glad for them, and the desert shall blossom abundantly, ever with joy and singing.”

“But,” says one, “perhaps this had reference to some other period and not to the preparatory work for the coming of the Lord.” Let us read a few verses further in this 35th chapter of Isaiah’s prophecies. The third and fourth verses read:

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

“Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.”

Now notice, this is not the first coming. He did not come with vengeance then; he came to be spit upon, to be meek and lowly, to be ridiculed by the mob if they felt disposed, and finally to be lifted up upon the cross and crucified for the sins of the world. But the people who are to be gathered together, and for whom the desert is to rejoice, are called upon not to fear—“Don’t be fainthearted, don’t be discouraged.” Says the Prophet, “Be strong, fear not, for behold your God will come with vengeance; he will come with a recompence and he will save you,” that is, you who are in the desert. Then there will be splendid miracles wrought again, as in ancient days. Then the eyes of the blind are to be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then “shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert.”

Latter-day Saints, and what I ask of you I might ask of the whole people of the Territory, have you seen a fulfilment of this saying of the Prophet Isaiah since you have been located here in the desert? Has there been any such things as springs breaking out in the wilderness and rivulets of water in the desert? Yes, not in one or two isolated instances, but in almost every settlement throughout this Territory. Many places in which, in early days, there was not water enough for a settlement, of twenty individuals, now support their hundreds. In what way? By the great increase of water. How was Salt Lake when we first came here? We, that is, a few of the Pioneers, went over in July 1847, to the banks of Salt Lake, to what is called the Black Rock. Some of us went in bathing, and we could walk out to Black Rock, and look down on the water on each side. But how is it now? The waters are some ten feet above that land that we trod upon then. What is the matter? Ought not the waters of the Lake to have decreased, seeing that the waters of the various streams that, before our arrival, emptied their contents into it, are turned broadcast over thousands and tens of thousands of acres of land? Certainly one would think so, for when all this water is turned on the land it evaporates instead of going to increase the volume of the Great Salt Lake; but instead of diminishing, the waters of the Lake have risen some ten or twelve feet above the surface as it existed in 1847, when I first saw it. Hence streams have broken out in the desert, and waters in the wilderness, as it is prophesied, not only in this chapter, but also in various portions of the Psalms.

When speaking of the great day of the coming of the Lord, how often do Isaiah and David speak of the desert, and the waters, rivers and springs that should break out to water the barren, thirsty land! “The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.”

We might go on and speak about the highway that the Lord would have there, that has also been thrown up since we came here. It is even called a highway by the world, that know nothing of these prophecies. I believe I will say, as I pass along, something about the highway, for the same Prophet that predicts about this alteration in the desert, also says there shall be a highway there. Let me refer to another prophecy about this highway, by the same Prophet. It reads thus: “And the Lord shall proclaim to the ends of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” But in the sentence preceding this the Prophet says: “Cast up, cast up a highway; gather out the stones; prepare ye the way of the people; lift up a standard for the people.” Then come in the words I have quoted. How was the great highway that crosses this continent constructed? You ought to know, for you were the ones who constructed it through these mountains; you were the ones who built some four hundred miles of this railroad, you therefore know how it was done. Did you gather out the stones? Did you prepare the level places for this great highway that the Prophet had predicted? Did you cast it up where there were hollows? Did you fill up the hollows and gather out the stones in order to make it level and convenient? O, yes. Did you make any tunnels and gateways? I don’t suppose that the ancient Prophet knew what a tunnel was, hence he says, “go through, go through the gates; cast up, cast up a highway.” No doubt he saw in vision how the railroad looked, saw the carriages driving along with almost lightning speed, darting into the mountains on one side, and by and by saw them coming out on the other side; and he did not know how to represent it any better than to speak of it as a gate—“go through, go through the gates,” &c. “Prepare ye the way of the people, cast up, cast up a highway, and lift up a standard for the people;” and then come in those notable words, showing that it was a highway to be cast up before the coming of the Son of God. “The Lord has proclaimed to the ends of the world, Say ye to the daughters of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.”

Don’t you see from these passages that this is a latter-day work? That there is a proclamation connected with the casting up of this highway? And that it is a proclamation which has reference to every nation, kindred, tongue and people? God was to speak, deliver a message, send forth his servants as missionaries; they were to publish that message to the ends of the world, and to declare to all people that the Lord was to come, “Behold, thy salvation cometh, and his reward is with him, and his work is before him.” The Prophet further says “They shall call them,” for whom this highway was built that their way might be prepared, and for whom a standard should be raised, “the redeemed of the Lord, a holy people; they shall be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” Oh, how different from old Jerusalem, a city that has been forsaken! It is almost two thousand years since the Lord forsook it, and the Jews have been forsaken, and scattered among all people.

But when the Lord lifts up this highway, gathers out the stones, sends forth his proclamation and gathers out his Saints who have made a covenant by sacrifice, they will build a city, one that shall be sought out. Old Jerusalem was not sought out; it was built before the Jews went to inhabit it. It was one of the early cities of the ancient nations of Canaan. But this latter-day city, that is called Zion, is to be sought out, and the people that were to search it out were to be a very good people. “They shall call them the Redeemed of the Lord; they shall be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.”

Now, with all the difficulties we have encountered here, and with all the imaginations of our enemies in regard to us, I humbly trust and hope that the time has come for this prophecy to be literally fulfilled; when this city of the Lord, which is built up according to this prophecy will not be forsaken. I hope that the Lord our God will protect his people and guarantee to them the rights already guaranteed by the Constitution of our Country to every religious denomination in the land.

There are some other prophecies about the gathering of the Saints. I think I will read one that has reference to our coming to this place. You will find it in the 107th Psalm, and it is very applicable to the journey which we performed when we came here.

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

“And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

“Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

“Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

“And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

“Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”

This has been fulfilled since the day that David uttered it. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” What redeemed of the Lord? Not those who were gathered out of the land of Egypt before the days of David, but those who are gathered out of all lands, says the Prophet, “’from the East and from the West, and from the North and from the South.” From the four points of the compass, from every nation and every clime. “Let them praise the Lord and give thanks to his holy name, because of his mercy and his goodness to them.” They were not to find it at first all to their satisfaction; their journey was to be in a solitary way; they were to find no city to dwell in. I can bear testimony to this, for I was among the pioneers, and when we came here we didn’t find any great city, with houses already built to go into. We had to live in our wagons, and had to build a little fort to defend ourselves against the half-naked Indians. And thus we located in the midst of a dried-up and thirsty land—a desert; and here in this region, where the solitude was so great that it was only broken by the yells of savages and the howling of wild beasts, we had to go to work to prepare a city for habitation. We had some afflictions—hunger and thirst; “and their souls fainted within them,” says David, “but they cried unto the Lord in their afflictions, and he had mercy upon them and delivered them out of their distresses.”

In the 31st and 32nd verses the Psalmist says—

“Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”

“Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.”

Why should they be so glad to praise him? He tells us in the next verses—

“He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground.”

“A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.”

This has reference to what will take place in the fruitful lands of the Gentiles by and by; but he is going to reverse this so far as his people in the desert are concerned, for he turns the wilderness into standing water, and the dry ground into watersprings; and “there he makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitations.” Just as you did, brethren and sisters. “’And sow the fields and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.”

Has this been fulfilled? I have been away a great many years, and I do not know so much about it as some of these old farmers; but I think if we will traverse this Territory, we will find that our cattle have not decreased since we came here.

There is another prophecy in this Psalm to which I will call your attention, connected with this people that was to be gathered out from all lands into a wilderness and solitary place. The Prophet says—“Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.” Now, is that true? I would ask some of my brethren here, as I have been gone so much, Is there any man here who has families like a flock? If you have, you are fulfilling this prophecy of the Psalmist. I think I heard of and saw in my travels in the Territory quite a number of such men, quite poor men, just such men as David refers to. What wonderful things take place in the last days, in order to fulfil prophecy! “The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” This latter clause has yet to be fulfilled, it has not yet come to pass. “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, November 27, 1870.

We have assembled ourselves together this afternoon to partake of bread, and also the contents of the cup, to witness before the heavens that we remember the crucifixion, death and sufferings of our Savior; that we are willing to keep his commandments and determined to be his followers and obey him to the end of our lives. We have also assembled to speak and to listen concerning those things that pertain to our peace and welfare, not only in this world, but in that which is to come.

We, as a people, called Latter-day Saints, are a very peculiar people, not only in the eyes of one another, but in the eyes of the world and also in the eyes of God and all the heavenly host. We are a peculiar people in some respects—namely, we believe that God has spoken and sent an angel from the heavens, as we heard this forenoon, and, by new revelation has established his kingdom or Church upon the earth, according to the predictions of the ancient prophets. In this respect we are very peculiar.

We are also peculiar in another respect. Instead of remaining where we embraced this Gospel among the various nations, we have left our na– tive lands and have emigrated to the interior of North America, and have founded settlements in the Rocky Mountains under the most unfavorable circumstances. In this respect, again, we are peculiar.

There is another respect wherein this people are very peculiar. We not only believe in the Jewish Bible—the Old and New Testament—but we also believe in the ancient American Bible, called the Book of Mormon; which no other people do believe in, and hence, on this latter point, we are regarded as very peculiar.

We might point out a great many peculiarities relating to this people; but I do not know that it is necessary to mention all the differences between this people and the religious Christian denominations of the age. I think those already named are sufficient to render us a distinct people from the rest of mankind. We believe that God has fulfilled that which was spoken of this forenoon, that was predicted by the mouth of the revelator John: that he has sent an angel from heaven, and by the ministration of this angel he has revealed the everlasting Gospel in all its ancient purity and fulness to be proclaimed to every nation under heaven. And let me dwell on this subject a little while—the restoration of the everlasting Gospel by an angel, for this is a peculiar doctrine and the Latter-day Saints are the only people on earth who believe in it.

Let us now inquire, for a few moments, in what manner this Gospel was restored by an angel. Did it come to us verbally—from his mouth, or was there a revelation communicated and written containing this everlasting gospel? We testify that by the ministration of this angel, sent from heaven, in fulfillment of John, an ancient Bible, kept by ancient prophets, was brought to light—the Bible of ancient America. Of course it has a little different name—we call it the Book of Mormon. This Bible contains the everlasting Gospel. But in order to know whether it does contain this everlasting Gospel, it may not be amiss for me to state, in a very few words, what the everlasting Gospel is.

I would state that the everlasting Gospel must be the same that was published in the Eastern Continent some eighteen centuries ago, as recorded in the New Testament. We and our forefathers have had a record of that Gospel from ancient times unto the present; but a record is one thing and the power and authority to administer it is another. They are entirely distinct, as much so as the history of a good dinner enjoyed in ancient days is distinct from the partaking of that dinner in our day. The history of such an event will not satisfy a man’s hunger, any more than the mere record of what the everlasting Gospel is will confer the authority to administer its ordinances. We may read, when we are very hungry, about the three or five thousand eating the loaves and fishes; but our appetite would still remain unsatisfied. It is very good to think that somebody else was fed and had their hunger satisfied; but it does us no good, so far as satisfying the cravings of our own appetites is concerned. So with regard to the New Testament containing the everlasting Gospel. None could embrace that Gospel, from the simple fact that none were authorized to administer its ordinances. After the Apostles and righteous men of ancient days, who held this authority, were killed off, you might read the Gospel and relate over to one another its various principles and ordinances, but you could not embrace them.

That everlasting Gospel required a man to be baptized for the remission of his sins. That is very important; and everybody who believes in God, and in Jesus Christ will acknowledge that the sins of men and women should be forgiven. God ordained in the everlasting Gospel that his creatures should be baptized for the remission of their sins; but how could I or any other person be baptized for the remission of sins if no man on the earth had the authority to administer the ordinance of baptism? Would God forgive my sins through my faith and repentance, without being legally baptized in water? Is there any promise in this everlasting Gospel that we can receive forgiveness of sins unless we connect with our faith, baptism by immersion in water? No, the everlasting Gospel, as preached in ancient times, contained no such promise. Read the record of it in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where it was first promulgated after the commission was given to the ancient apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature. They were commanded to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they received power to preach that Gospel and administer its ordinances to the people. They did so, and on the Day of Pentecost they received this power. The Holy Ghost came upon them; the whole house, where they were sitting was filled with cloven tongues, like fire, and sat on each of them; and they rose up before a large multitude of people, many thousands in number, and proclaimed the everlasting Gospel. They informed the people that that despised being, called Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified, was both Lord and Christ. They proved it effectually by appealing to the prophetic writings. After having proved this fact and having convinced the people, by sufficient testimony exhibited before their minds, that he was really the Lord and Savior, that he was the Great Redeemer, and had come in fulfillment of the law of Moses to be offered as a sacrifice, the people were pricked to their hearts; they were convicted, or in other words, faith had come by hearing the evidence presented before them, and they were convinced that Jesus was really and truly both Lord and Christ; and seeing the importance and necessity of repenting of their sins, they cried out in the anguish of their hearts: “Men and brethren what shall we do?” As much as to say: “We see, by the testimony which you have presented before us that we have crucified the Savior, that he was that being that the law of Moses typified; we see that we have committed a great sin, that our nation has transgressed, and that we are under great condemnation. Now, how shall we be saved, can you inform us how we can receive the remission of our sins?” The answer was ready. Peter said unto them: “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the Holy Ghost; for the promise is to you, and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” These were the first principles of the Gospel of the Son of God; these constituted in part, so far as its elements were concerned, the everlasting Gospel that was to be brought by the angel in the latter days and committed to the inhabitants of the earth.

You will notice that, on the Day of Pentecost, faith was not sufficient for the remission of sins; neither were faith and repentance; neither were faith, repentance and prayer sufficient to obtain the great blessing of the remission of sins. There was a sacred ordinance connected with these principles by which only the remission of sins was promised—namely, baptism by immersion in water.

After having been born of the water and justified from all their sins they had the promise of the Holy Ghost—that is, the birth of the spirit, as well as the birth of the water. And this baptism of the Holy Ghost, like all other blessings that the Lord has promised unto the people, came through the administration of an holy ordinance. What was that ordinance? The hands of the servants of God had to be laid on the baptized believer—the penitent soul who had received the first principles of the Gospel; for God committed to his servants whom he called to preach in ancient days, the power not only to administer the Gospel in word, but also its ordinances and spirit.

I know that there are many at the present day, in Christendom, who will ask “What is the use of these outward ordinances? What particular benefit is it for me to go and be immersed in water, or to have hands laid upon me for the gift of the Holy Ghost? They are only outward ordinances.” In explanation, let me say to the congregation that the blessings which God has promised in his word, generally come through some act required of the creature. When the man with the withered hand was healed, the Lord did not say I command you to be healed, without any act on his part; but he commanded him to stretch forth his hand. That, apparently, was an impossibility, for his arm was withered, powerless; and he might have thought that it was impossible for him to perform the act required of him. But an exercise of faith was required on the part of that man—something connected with the mental faculties, by which the blessing of healing might be secured.

So it is in regard to the blessing of the remission of sins. God, in order to prove that we have faith, requires us to be baptized for the remission of our sins. If we do this he stands ready to impart forgiveness to us. So in regard to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He is willing to grant this spirit to those who are willing to be obedient; but if they are unwilling to receive this simple act of the laying on of hands, considering it nonessential, God will not be willing to pour out his spirit; if they will not obey so simple an ordinance he will withhold his spirit. This, then, was the everlasting Gospel, so far as its first principles are concerned, as preached in ancient days.

Now, then, let us consider this Gospel, so far as the power of it is concerned. We have shown you how to obtain the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, what are the powers of this Holy Ghost, as promised to the believer? For we have seen that the promise is not a limited one. When the apostle made the promise on the Day of Pentecost he said, “the promise is to you,”—a large multitude; and it is not only to you, but “to your children,” meaning the then rising generation; and not only to “you and your children” but “to all afar off”—meaning the distant nations of the earth, and to all that “the Lord our God shall call,” every human creature on the face of the earth that has the Gospel preached to him has the promise of the Holy Ghost, if he or she will yield obedience.

Now what are the powers of the Holy Ghost? What are its gifts and blessings? How are we to know when we receive the Holy Ghost? I will mention the Scriptural account of the blessings and gifts that pertain to the Holy Spirit. You read the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians and you will have a description of the various powers and gifts of the Holy Ghost. We there learn that God gave to every man, that is, every man in the Church, the demonstration of the Holy Spirit to profit withal. Says Paul, “We are all baptized into the same body by the same spirit.” That is, they were not baptized into half a dozen or a hundred different bodies, or denominations of people, called Christians; but they were all baptized into the same body by the same spirit, and all made partakers of the gifts of that spirit, enjoying the blessings and powers of the same. The members constituting the body of Christ are diversified: and being filled with the Holy Ghost it operates in various ways. “To one,” says Paul, “is given through the spirit the word of wisdom; to another is given by the same spirit, the word of knowledge; to another is given faith by the same spirit; to another the gift of healing; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these work after the one and the selfsame spirit, severally as he will.”

Here then we see what it is that constitutes the body of Christ, or in other words his Church. First, those principles that I have named—faith, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins; then the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost; then, when the spirit falls upon the Church, it diversifies all these gifts that are named throughout the whole body of the Church. This agrees with the promise that Jesus made when he gave the great, last commission to his apostles to preach the Gospel in all the world to every creature. On that occasion he made certain promises to every creature that should dwell on the earth. Said he, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned; and these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils.” Now, notice, this promise was not exclusively made to the apostles, they were the ones who received the commission to go and preach the Gospel; but the promises that I am now repeating were made to all persons in the world that should believe that Gospel they preached. They who believed should not only have the gift of salvation conferred upon them, but, “these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues; and if they take up serpents, or drink any deadly thing they shall not hurt them, and they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”

These are the gifts of that ancient Gospel—the powers that pertain to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, promised to every believer in the world. These were the powers that were remarkable in the Church of the living God, and which constituted that Church the body of Christ.

Now, we will inquire where has this body of Christ been during the last seventeen hundred years? Has it existed among the Greeks or Roman Catholics? Or has it existed among the Protestant denominations for the past two or three centuries? No; these gifts have been banished from the earth for several centuries and the universal cry in the religious world of Christendom is, that “These gifts were only intended for the first age of Christianity.” But if these gifts are part of the Gospel, you do them away and you do away with the Gospel. Let me quote a passage to prove that these gifts were to remain among the true believers so long as true believers should be on the earth. We have already quoted one passage to prove this, which is to be found in the last chapter of Mark, where all believers in the four quarters of the earth are promised that certain signs should follow them. Another passage you will find in the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, which says that when Jesus ascended up on high he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, pastors and teachers. All these various gifts that I have quoted were given unto men when Jesus ascended up on high.

What was the purpose for which they were given? Were they given, as the Christian world say, merely for the sake of establishing the Gospel, and when that was thoroughly established they were no longer necessary? Is this the language of the ancient apostle? Hear what he says—They were given for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”—the Church. Now, if they were given for these three special purposes, let us inquire whether they are needed for these purposes at the present day? Is the work of the ministry needed now? “O, yes,” all denominations will tell you that the work of the ministry is needed now. Well, recollect that, according to the words of the apostle Paul, these gifts were given for the work of the ministry. You take away these gifts, and how can there be a ministry? There can only be a false ministry—only those who have no power of God with them—a ministry that God has nothing to do with. They may go and preach, but their preaching is as powerless as the preaching of the heathen priests.

Another purpose for which these gifts were given was for the perfecting of the Saints. Can Saints be perfected now, any more than in the days of Paul, without the gifts of prophecy, revelation, visions, the ministrations of angels, tongues, the interpretation of tongues, healing, wisdom and knowledge by the power and spirit of God? If they can be perfected without these gifts then we have a new Gospel, and not the everlasting Gospel spoken of by the ancient apostle. But it seems that mankind, at the present day, have so fallen into tradition, and have preached a Gospel without its gifts so long, that I have no doubt there are thousands of them who really believe it, and believe that God will acknowledge their Gospels to be divine, and acknowledge their Churches to be his Church. It is the greatest piece of foolishness that could possibly be conjured up in the minds of men to suppose that the Church of the living God could be here without inspired prophets and apostles in it! How could Saints be perfected? Has God altered the Gospel or changed the pattern of things that is recorded in the New Testament? Has he predicted that the time should come when the Saints should no longer need the gifts to perfect them, or that they should be perfected by the learning and wisdom of man? If he has in– troduced, or designs to introduce, any such order of things he has not told us anything about it, but has left us entirely in ignorance on the subject. If his people are to be perfected by learning, or by men studying years and years, pouring over the theology of the day, if anything of this kind is intended to perfect the children of men, then I don’t read the Scriptures aright; for I am told in the Scriptures that God gave these gifts specially, because we cannot be perfected without them. They were given, says Paul, for the edifying of the body of Christ. O, how much the Christian world seem to be edified at the present day! If they can hear a minister use very flowery language, a great deal of oratory, and bring into his subject, as it were, all the various parts and points of logic and rhetoric, their ears are tickled, and they feel that they are wonderfully edified, but it is a false edification. The edification the Scriptures speak of are those miraculous gifts that Jesus gave when he ascended up on high. Without them the world is liable to be deceived and carried away by every wind of doctrine that is incorrect; and Paul tells us that they were given for the edifying of the body of Christ until we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That is, they were never to cease, they were never to be done away until the Church arrived at that period when they should no longer look through a glass darkly, but see face to face, and become immortal and be exalted to his presence; then these gifts would no longer be necessary. The gift of healing will no longer be needed when we are all immortal; there will be no need of the gift of tongues or interpretation when all have one language.

Besides being designed to bring the Saints to this state of perfection these gifts were also intended to prevent the Church from being carried about by every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. You take a people who have not these gifts, and you will see them carried about by every wind of doctrine. One leaning to the Methodist, another after the Baptists, another after the Presbyterians, and another after this sect and another after that. They have not the gifts necessary to keep them in the unity of the faith; and not being kept in the unity of the faith, not having the power to call upon God and receive revelations from him to guide and direct them in regard to doctrine and principle, they are overcome by the power and persuasion of the children of men, by their sleight and cunning craftiness until they are overpowered and dragged away, as it were, into every species of wild enthusiasm, the doctrines of men. So much for the Gospel as taught by holy and inspired men in former days. Now for another part of my subject.

I told you that God had revealed an ancient Bible—the Bible of ancient America, by the ministration of an angel, sent forth from heaven. What does it contain? A record of this same Gospel that I have already named. “But,” says one, “we have a record of that already, in the New Testament: what is the use of another record of it?” In answering that question, I will ask another. When Matthew had written his Gospel, what was the use of Mark writing one afterwards; and when Matthew and Mark had each written the Gospel what was the use of Luke writing it; and when these three had written it what was the use of John the Revelator writing another record of it? And so we might go on and say, after Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had written, why should God reveal to us another Bible containing the same Gospel? I will tell you—It is because God intends to give just as many witnesses to the children of men as seems him good. If we have the testimony and witness of the Jewish nation on the eastern continent to that everlasting Gospel, is it not reasonable that God should also give us the testimony of the inhabitants who formerly lived on the great western world. Let us reason together on this subject. The infidel says, “Why was the Lord so narrow in his feelings that he confined his operations to that little spot of ground called Palestine? Why didn’t he reveal his will, requirements and laws to other nations?” This is one of the arguments of the infidel, and it is very good so far as it goes. The infidel sometimes happens to hit upon some truth. I would say the same. God had a people here in ancient America, there is no mistake about this, and all who want to know for certain in regard to this Continent being settled, just read the history of its antiquities—read the works of Stevens and Catherwood and many others, on the great and mighty ancient cities whose ruins are seen on various parts of this Continent, especially in Central America and the northern part of South America. Ruins, too, that not only speak of a former civilization of the inhabitants who dwelt there, but which show that they were a people who understood the arts—understood building magnificent cities, temples and great palaces. They were a very different people from the present aboriginal inhabitants of the Continent.

Now if God had a people living on this Continent ages and ages ago, would it not be reasonable that he should speak to them as well as to the people of Asia? Reflect upon it for a few moments! Why should God leave the great western world out of the plan of salvation? Has he not declared himself to be an impartial being? And if he is impartial would he not remember those who are of the same blood? We are all created by the same Creator; the inhabitants of the four quarters of the earth descended from the same parentage; they are all of the same blood, and consequently they are immortal beings, and have souls to be saved. Then was it not needful, in order to be saved, that the fulness of the Gospel should be revealed to the people of the West as well as to the people of the East? Now, reason, independent of anything else, would say that it would be perfectly Godlike for him to reveal himself to the people of ancient America as well as to the people of the eastern world; that they might know about Jesus, and the atonement that he wrought out, and be made partakers of the same gifts and blessings as the children of God in the eastern lands. This is a reasonable conclusion to come to.

And, again, if God did reveal to the people of this continent the plan of salvation, showing that he is an impartial being, why should it be thought incredible by the learned or by any reflecting person that he should bring these revelations to light, especially when he had promised, according to what you heard this forenoon, to send an angel with the everlasting Gospel to be preached to every people, nation and kindred under the whole heaven? Why not bring to light, by the ministration of an angel, the record of the Gospel that was preached here on this western hemisphere?

Perhaps some may say that we have neither witness nor testimony, save it be the Book of Mormon, and the living witnesses whose names are attached to that book, that the people of this continent know anything about God or about revelation. But let me inform such persons that they are mistaken. Only a few years ago—in 1835, thirty-eight years after the plates of the Book of Mormon were taken out of the earth by Joseph Smith, one of the great mounds in the State of Ohio was opened, near Newark, in Licking County. It was a very large mound: it measured, before they began to cart away the stones and dirt, 580 feet in circumference, and was from forty to fifty feet in height. After they had carted away from this mound several thousand loads of dirt and stones, for the purpose of canalling or fixing a canal, they found on the outer edge near the circumference of the base of this mound, just within the circle, several smaller mounds, built entirely of fire clay, that had the appearance of putty. When digging into one of these smaller mounds they came to something that had the appearance of wood, and after having removed the upper surface of it, they found a trough, and in that trough several metallic rings, probably the ancient coins of the country. They also found that the interior trough had been lined with some kind of cloth, but it was in such a state of decomposition that only the least bit of it would hold together, not even a piece as large as your thumb nail. There was also some human bones in this trough and a lock of fine black hair. Underneath this trough, still further down in the fire clay, they found a stone, and when it was taken out they found that it was hollow and that there was something inside of it. They found by inspection that it had been cemented together with hard cement. With considerable exertion they broke the stone in two. It was oval, or elliptical in form. They separated it where it was cemented together, and in the inside they found another kind of stone on which was engraven the Ten Commandments in the ancient Hebrew. This stone was immediately sent to Cincinnati, where many learned men saw it and they declared the inscriptions were in ancient Hebrew, and translated the Ten Commandments. The stone was nearly seven inches long, nearly three inches wide, and almost two in thickness. On one side of it there was a depression, and in this depression was a raised profile, the likeness of a man clothed with a robe—that is, carved out of the stone, with his left side partly facing the beholder, and the robe and girdle upon his left shoulder; he had also a turban on. Over his head was written in Hebrew, Moshe, which is the Hebrew name for Moses. They therefore represented this person, thus carved out, as Moses. Around about him, that is on the various sides of the stone, were written the Ten Commandments in ancient Hebrew.

Now what does this prove? It proves that the inhabitants of this country were acquainted with the revelations of heaven—those given to Moses; and if they understood these would they not naturally look forward to the coming of the Messiah? Would they not look for the Lord to raise up such a being, which their law indicated by types? And when that being came is it to be supposed that he would leave the inhabitants of America ignorant concerning that event? By no means. He would not forget them. And this record—the Book of Mormon, gives us an account of that very people.

Let me here state that I have seen this stone; with my own eyes I have seen the Hebrew engravings upon it; and though many of the characters were altered in shape from the present Hebrew, yet I had sufficient knowledge of them to understand and know how to translate the inscription. This stone was sent to the New York Ethnological Society, and while there, by the politeness of the Secretary of the Society, I had the pleasure of seeing it. Another mound was opened in the same county, in Ohio, and out of it were taken stones with other Hebrew inscriptions; and in 1860 and 1865 there were several of these antiquities exhumed with Hebrew characters on, and one with characters that were not Hebrew, and which the learned could not translate, showing that the people of this continent not only understood the Hebrew, but some other kind of an alphabet. This book—the Book of Mormon, informs us that the Lord brought the colony to this country six hundred years before Christ, and that he brought them from Jerusalem. Was there anything connected with these ancient characters that would indicate such a great antiquity? Yes. The Hebrew, since six hundred years before Christ, every learned scholar knows, has been greatly altered in the shape of its characters. It now has square characters, with vowel points; that is, the form of the Hebrew characters now is entirely different in many respects from the ancient characters, such as are found on coins and engravings lately exhumed in Palestine. Moreover since the period that colony was brought to America, not only have the forms of the Hebrew characters been changed, but some fourteen different new characters have been introduced. Now, the stones taken from these mounds, on which the Ten Commandments were engraved, had none of these new characters, which shows that the inscriptions were of a more ancient date than the modern Hebrew. Still further. The Hebrew as it now stands, has a great many of what are termed final characters that it did not have six hundred years before Christ. You do not find these characters on these stones that were taken out of the Ohio mounds. All these circumstances prove, pointedly, the great antiquity of the people who formed these mounds and wrote the characters on these stones.

The Book of Mormon informs us that they understood the Egyptian as well as the Hebrew. They kept many of their records in the Egyptian character as well as the Hebrew character. That book also informs us that Jesus, after he was crucified in Jerusalem, appeared on this American continent, and commanded the people to do away with the law of Moses which their fathers were in possession of and kept; and he introduced the everlasting Gospel in their midst; and he commanded them to write it on the plates, from which this book was translated. Thus you see that this is a record of the everlasting Gospel, as Jesus, himself, administered it to the people of this continent eighteen hundred years ago, that is, after his resurrection from the dead, and after he had finished his ministry in Jerusalem.

On what part of this continent did Jesus appear? He appeared in what is now termed the northern part of South America, where they had a temple built, at which place the people were gathered together, some twenty-five hundred in number, marveling and wondering at the great earthquake that had taken place on this land, which had destroyed so many cities, &c., and the great darkness that had overshadowed the land, which was a sign given them by prophecy concerning the crucifixion of Christ. They were marveling and wondering about it, and while they were talking over it, nearly a year after the resurrection of Jesus, they heard a voice in the heavens, and casting their eyes heavenward they saw a man descend out of heaven, clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them, and told them he was Christ, about whom their prophets had written; and that he had been crucified for the sins of the world. He then choose twelve disciples from amongst them, and administered his Gospel unto them.

Thus you see that when we testify that God has fulfilled that saying in the 14th chapter of Revelation, that he would send an angel having the everlasting Gospel to preach to all people, nations and tongues on the earth, we have something tangible, something contained in the form of a revelation; it is not a mere verbal message by the voice of an angel, but an entire record, a sacred history of the western world, of one half of our globe, detailing the wars of the people of this continent, the same as the Jewish record contains the history of the wars and doings of the Jews on the eastern continent. God has brought this forth and confirmed it to others by the ministration of holy angels. Joseph Smith was not the only one, but there were three men besides him to whom the Lord sent his angel, clothed in glory, who exhibited the plates before their eyes after they had been translated, and commanded them to bear record of it to all people, nations and tongues. They have given their testimony in this book. These witnesses I am well acquainted with, as well as with Joseph Smith. He also exhibited the plates to eight other men. Thus we have twelve witnesses in all, four of whom saw the angel, and the others saw the plates and the engravings thereon and handled them; and their testimony is also recorded in the book to go to all people, nations and tongues under the whole heavens.

And having revealed this book, and it having been translated by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost—the same gift and spirit which enabled Joseph Smith to interpret the language of this record by the use of the Urim and Thummim; I say, having done this, the Lord commanded his servants to organize his Church, and in obedience to this commandment they gathered together on the 6th of April, 1830; and while thus gathered together the Lord God spake unto them, and commanded them after what order his Church and kingdom should be organized. It was then organized, and it has continued to receive acquisitions from that day until this, and has rolled forth among many nations and kingdoms; and the people have been gathered out from those nations here into the midst of these mountains in fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

God Almighty has spoken, he has given commandment in relation to the organization of this kingdom. He has sent his angel and restored the Gospel; he has given commandment for his servants to gather out his elect from the four quarters of the earth unto one place. He has given commandment to prepare his people for the great day of the coming of the Son of God in the clouds of heaven. And we have gone forth and labored diligently from that day to this to establish the kingdom of our God. We have succeeded, so far as time will permit, in gathering up a great people to these mountains. Here they must become acquainted with the Lord more fully; here they must become sanctified before the Lord of Hosts; here they must learn to be more obedient in keeping the commands and counsels of God, or he may withhold from them the sacred blessings and gifts which he heretofore bestowed so bountifully upon them. Here the Saints must became acquainted with those celestial laws which are calculated to exalt them into the presence of God, and into the fulness of his glory. Here, you Latter-day Saints must be prepared to carry out and fulfill his purposes in the last days pertaining to the redemption of the desert, that joy and thanksgiving may be offered up in all parts of it in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which has often been sung by the Christian world—“The Lord shall comfort Zion, he shall comfort all her waste places, make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” You here see the beginning of the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy. Isaiah in his 40th chapter also says, “Zion shall go up into the high mountains.” Zion in the high mountains! Zion in the midst of the great American desert is beginning to redeem it and make it blossom as the rose, making it like the garden of Eden, that joy and thanksgiving and songs of praise and prayer and gladness may ascend up from all her habitations and settlements throughout the length and breadth of this desert, and thus the prophecies will be fulfilled. Amen.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Nov. 20, 1870.

In rising before the Saints I ever feel a desire to be guided and inspired by the light of the Holy Spirit to speak as the circumstances and condition of the people require. It is not as I used to observe in my boyhood. I would hear our minister pray the Lord to give him His Spirit to dictate and indite precisely such matter as should be suited to the wants and condition of the assembly, and then be would open his Bible and slip in his written pamphlet and read a sermon. Now, I confess that I never had such remarkable answers to my prayers on this subject. The Lord furnished it to him already written and pointed plainly, and he had nothing to do but to read it. Whether preaching by notes in this way is the better policy or not is doubted by many of the Protestant churches; but I believe it is the custom among most of them. There are some clergymen who differ from this rule, thinking probably that, if a man sits in his study and composes his discourse, he does not have the spirit of delivering it and enforcing it upon his audience as if it were delivered extemporary.

With the Latter-day Saints the idea of writing sermons or preparing addresses beforehand is entirely discarded, it never was practiced amongst them. It was the order of God to choose the weak things of the world. The learned, as a general thing, scouted the idea of the Lord revealing Himself to an ignorant man like Joseph Smith, or of Joseph Smith having faith to obtain knowledge from God. I know they used to say, “Why did not the Lord call upon a learned man who has devoted his whole life to the study of divinity if He wanted anything done?” The real fact was they thought they knew too much, they would not listen to anything the Lord might have to say. He simply called upon Joseph, because he got puzzled with hearing those learned men preach. He had heard them preach four or five different doctrines, and then had seen them quarrel over the converts; he went humbly to God and asked Him, according to the advice given by the Apostle James, who says, “If any lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.” Joseph Smith was just foolish and simple enough to take this advice, and he went humbly before the Lord and asked Him which was the right way, and the Lord showed him. To be sure, I have heard, in theory, sentiments of this kind in the sectarian world. I have heard men pray the Lord for a pentecost in their meetings. You know on the day of Pentecost the disciples prophesied, and spoke in so many tongues that devout men from almost every nation under heaven, assembled in Jerusalem, heard the Gospel preached in the language in which they were born. Now, if any such event should take place in a Christian church in modern times there would be a very great excitement, the people would be alarmed, they do not believe in any such thing. The gifts of the Spirit—tongues, prophecy, &c., were done away with long ago, they say, and they are governed by the written word, and they differ very much in their interpretation of that written word.

Joseph Smith taught that every man and woman should seek the Lord for wisdom, that they might get knowledge from Him who is the fountain of knowledge; and the promises of the Gospel, as revealed, were such as to authorize us to believe, that by taking this course we should gain the object of our pursuit. “He that believes in me,” says the Savior, “the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these, because I go to the Father.” We find that, when the Savior commenced his mission, he came to John and was baptized of him in Jordan, thus setting an example for others to follow; and he declared that those who believed in him must take up their cross and follow him. He furthermore promised them that, in rendering obedience to his doctrines, they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and be born of the Spirit; and that by the light of the Spirit he would lead them into all truth and make known to them things to come.

How many of us Latter-day Saints are living up to this calling and in the light of this Spirit? How many of us are guided as we ought to be by the light of the Holy Ghost? Have not many of us become careless, thoughtless, negligent, heedless, and turned away to the right or to the left, and fallen into snares and temptations, and suffered ourselves to be led astray by false spirits and the doctrines of devils?

The Apostle says the Lord set in His Church Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, that they who believe might be no more children, carried away by every wind of doctrine, by the cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive. Hunt the world for this organization and you cannot find it except among the Latter-day Saints; it does not exist anywhere else, that is, so far as travel and a knowledge of humanity have developed. I remember once going to a Baptist church when quite a youth. I asked the gentleman at the door what church it was. He said it was the Church of Christ. Said I, “What Apostle built it up?” He said, “There are no Apostles in these days.” “Well,” I remarked, “Paul tells us that God sets in His Church first Apostles.” “Oh,” he replied, “the organization of the priesthood, with its authority and power, as mentioned in the New Testament, is done away.” That is the trouble throughout Christendom. This man to whom I refer, asserted however that they had the priesthood in the Baptist Church, and that it had descended to them through the Waldenses. This idea naturally sets us to inquire who the Waldenses were. One Peter Waldo, we are told by Buck, was a merchant who used a certain portion of his fortune in hiring a monk to translate the four Gospels; and on the strength of this work he commenced preaching and gathered around him a number of persons who believed in his doctrines. They were severely persecuted by the Catholic Church, which anathematized them and inflicted upon them every penalty in its power—even excommunication, sword and fire. Notwithstanding all this the Waldenses progressed, and their doctrines and the work they performed was a nursery for the Reformation.

But so far as the question of priesthood is concerned, if the Catholic Church had the authority, it cut the Waldenses off; and if it had none, all the Waldenses had was derived from it, for the Waldenses were seceders from the Catholic Church. The result is that the Baptists could have no priesthood except by special revelation, and to this they lay no claim whatever.

The same rule will apply to other denominations; for I believe all of them have to acknowledge that they received, either directly or indirectly, their priesthood originally from the Roman Catholic Church. Now if that church is not true, the priesthood which came from it could not be true; if their priesthood and authority were genuine and bona fide, their expulsion of the so-called Reformers would have its effect; the result is that, viewed in any light whatever, these various denominations are left without a duly authorized and legal priesthood. Unless the Catholic Church had it, they could not receive it from it; and if the Catholics did have it they cut the Reformers off, or expelled them. If you talk with the various Protestant denominations about these points they will tell you that the Catholic Church had degenerated, that it had gone into darkness, was anti-Christ, and all this sort of thing, which doubtless was correct; and according to modern revelation this must be true; and being true, we are urged to the conclusion that all the sects and parties of the religious world are wandering in darkness.

Now one denomination out of five or six hundred, more or less, the number grown out of the original Church, might probably be correct; but it is quite certain that no two of them, differing in faith and practice, could be; and under these circumstances the difficulty would be to determine which was right. It was in this position of perplexity and doubt that Joseph Smith was placed when he went and asked the Lord to tell him which was right; and the Lord revealed to him, through an holy angel, that they were all wrong, and said He: “I call upon you to go and preach the Gospel in simplicity and purity.” The result was that the Elders went forth and proclaimed the Gospel, and it produced a very singular effect on the minds of the people. A few received it, but they were treated with scorn; their preachers were mobbed, daubed with tar and feathers, pelted with eggs, their houses torn down and burned, and finally the leaders of the Church were murdered, and their followers expelled from the face of society and driven into the wilderness, or were compelled to renounce their religion, and the very great majority took shelter from the face of man in the midst of wild deserts, savage beasts and savage men. This was the history of it, and this tells why we are here.

Now, brethren, knowing these facts are we faithful to our calling? Do we live in the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit? Or do we suffer the things of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the trials incident to our humanity to lead us into difficulty and cause us to forget God, to neglect our prayers, our tithes and offerings, our fast meetings, our secret prayers, and other duties devolving upon us as Saints? How is it with us? Let us ask ourselves these questions and awake to the performance of our several duties. If we have been careless, repent of the carelessness. If we are negligent, wake up! If we suffer ourselves to do wrong, cease to do so, and live in obedience to the principles of our faith and the dictations of the Holy Spirit. The fact is, in relation to our religion, that if we do not abide by it and observe it, it would have been better for us if we had never known it; and if we do observe it, much is expected at our hands, both on our own behalf and on behalf of our forefathers.

You know Paul tells us, in the 15th chapter of Corinthians, speaking of the resurrection, as an argument in favor of it, “Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?” This was a principle connected with the Christian religion that pertained to the dead, and it was so thoroughly understood that it was used as an argument in favor of the doctrine of the resurrection. I suppose that this is seldom or ever thought of by the Protestants; and when Joseph Smith came forth and announced that it was the duty of the Latter-day Saints to go forth and be baptized for their relatives who had died without the knowledge of the Gospel, it was regarded as an astounding idea; yet, as I understand the passage in Corinthians, no man can give any other interpretation to it.

In order to have the benefits and blessings of this ordinance resting upon ourselves and our progenitors it is necessary for us to live up to our calling and to pay strict attention to our duties. According to the revelations which were given through Joseph Smith certain places were set apart for the administration of these ordinances. Temples had to be built and fonts prepared and dedicated for this purpose.

The Prophet Malachi, in speaking of the latter days, says, “the day shall come that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble, it shall burn them up, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” But the Lord declares through Malachi that He will send the Prophet Elijah before that great and terrible day shall come, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest He come and smite the earth with a curse. This prophecy has a reference to the revelation of the doctrine of baptism for the dead in the last days.

The Apostle Paul, in enumerating the great blessings which were bestowed on the ancients through faith, speaks in glowing terms of those who subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; he says women received their dead to life; others were tortured, sawn asunder, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, and dwelt in dens and caves of the earth, and all this for the faith; and then he winds up by saying that they without us could not be made perfect. Think then, brethren and sisters, of the duties that we owe to ourselves and to our ancestors! But, if we suffer ourselves to go into darkness, if we indulge in wickedness, fall into snares and temptations, we lose the Holy Spirit and the blessings which pertain to ourselves and our progenitors, referred to by Obadiah, who says that in the last days saviors shall stand on Mount Zion, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

These sentiments may be clearly and readily appreciated by Latter-day Saints; and to stir them up to diligence, faithfulness and obedience I would refer them to the revelation given on the 19th of January, 1841, through Joseph Smith, relative to the building of the temple at Nauvoo. It was there said that there was not a baptismal font in the world, and the Church was required to build that Temple, and the promise was that if it was built the people should receive certain blessings. It was further stated that when the Lord commanded any people to do a work, and they were hindered from performing it by their enemies or by oppression, the Lord would not require that work at their hands any more. No people on the face of the earth, probably, during the present generation at least, or perhaps in any other, were more oppressed than were the people of Nauvoo while laboring to perform this work. They were persecuted in various ways: attacked through vexatious lawsuits by the State of Missouri and by the State authorities of Illinois, and all means that could be taken within reach of the law were used to bring distress upon them. Then the conclusion was, that if law could not reach them powder and ball should, and the result was that the Prophet and Patriarch of the Church were murdered, and other Elders severely wounded. Hundreds of houses were burned and every kind of outrage that could be imagined was committed on the Saints; and while building this Temple the brethren had to stand guard at night; and when working they were in a manner compelled to have their weapons of defense in one hand and their tools to work with in the other. But they continued amid all this storm of persecution, during which numbers had to flee to the wilderness, until the Temple was finished and dedicated; and having completed this task they had the promise of the Lord to go with them into the wilderness, with all the powers, blessings and privileges of the Priesthood, that in the wilderness they might receive and administer the ordinances for their dead.

We should now continue the work for the Temple which the Latter-day Saints are always commanded to build. We have a foundation here, a very good substantial one, and that must be approved by good men and pleasing to the Lord. We have to haul the material seventeen miles to continue this work, which has been interrupted from time to time through various causes. Still it progresses and we should not let it sleep, but should continue the work until we have an edifice reared according to the pattern, and dedicate it to the Most High God; and build in its basement a baptismal font, something after the pattern of King Solomon’s brazen sea, for the baptism of the dead, that within the walls of that sacred edifice we may be able to perform the duties and ordinances pertaining to the dead which God has commanded. Every Latter-day Saint, man or woman, young or old, should feel alive and awake to this great duty.

I understand why it is that men persecute the Latter-day Saints. It is because of the priesthood and power which exist among them: Satan stirs up the hearts of the children of men to wickedness, and to hate and persecute the Saints, to drive them and murder their leaders. This is the only cause; for the Latter-day Saints, from the time of their organization to the present time, have been the most orderly, law-abiding, industrious, temperate, and moral people that have lived on the face of the earth; and they are the same in this Territory as they have been elsewhere. For instance, let a man pass through this country, as Major Powell did last year, and he comes back and published a statement that he has visited five hundred miles of Mormon villages, and has seen a people happy and contented, and has not seen a grog shop, a loafer, drunkard or idler; but everybody enjoying himself, and that peace and good order prevail throughout, such a man will have the same greeting as Major Powell. “Why, Major, you are interested some way or the other; the ‘Mormons’ have got you blinded.” That, is the spirit and feeling manifested if a man tells the truth about the Latter-day Saints; and it is one of the greatest evidences of the truth of the work. The Lord says, “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.” Sometimes I have known the papers say this and that good thing about the “Mormons,” and I have said, “What’s up? Are we getting wicked, that the world loves us?” And I almost wondered at it. The fact is we should live our religion, keep the commandments of God and observe all things required of us, and care nothing whatever what the world either says or does about us. “Well, but suppose they should get up armies and kill you?” If they do they will send us right straight to heaven; and our duty is to labor in this life as long as we can and do all the good in our power, and never flinch from the truth or the principles of eternity. If our enemies are permitted to kill us they ensure to us a martyr’s crown, and we go to glory celestial. I have heard of men so foolish as to jump overboard from Zion’s ship because they thought she was going to sink. Why, if she does we shall only sink with her, and the man who jumps overboard is sure to sink anyhow.

I know men who apostatized in Missouri just to save their property. We were told there, “If you ‘Mormons’ will renounce your religion, you can stay here on your farms.” I remember one man who stayed there just for that reason. I got a letter from him a short time ago. He professes to be a friend to the “Mormons;” but he apostatized from them for the sake of keeping his property. I could have stayed in Missouri, and President Young could have stayed there, if we would have renounced our “Mormonism,” and our faith in Joseph Smith as a prophet, in the ordinances of anointing the sick with oil and baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; but we knew these things were true, and we would not renounce them, and we had to leave what we had. Some called it a sacrifice. To be sure it was a pretty country and rich soil, and we had made handsome improvements, and were having many beautiful farms opened around us; and we were building towns and villages. But what were they when compared with our religion? We built them, and we knew how to build more; we had tried it twice in Missouri and in Illinois; and when they drove us again we thought that we would go into a country so wretched and miserable that no man on earth could want it. So we came right into the heart of the American Desert and built this place; and singularly enough, some say now, that this is too good a place for the “Mormons,” and they must drive us out.

Now, brethren, if we live our religion and are faithful to the Lord, we may escape the necessity of being driven again. It will not be a great while before many of us will take great pleasure in moving; because when the day comes that the Constitution of the United States becomes the supreme law of this land—the land of America, every man will be protected in His religious faith, and then we will go right back to Jackson County, and build a Temple, the most beautiful ever built on this continent or any other. We are going to do it, and the time is not far distant; and knowing this, our hearts do not cling in the least to any spot in the world any longer than is necessary to stay there to do our duty. When that day comes, and it will come, our countrymen will become so converted that their intolerance will cease and they will come to the conclusion that all men may enjoy their faith in the Supreme Being as they please without being interrupted. If we wait awhile, and are worthy, we will see this day and then we shall be able to go and build our Temple.

Now let us all be diligent and faithful and trust in the Lord and seek His protection; for it is worth all the protection a man can give a thousand times told. What can man do? He can kill the body. What else? That is the end of it, he has no further power. The principles of Mormonism cannot only destroy the body, but the soul and spirit; and they can confer the bliss of eternal glory and increase.

I do not expect to be permitted to address you again for some months. I expect to travel and visit the brethren in the southern country during the winter; shall probably visit some thirty-three settlements in our Dixie, and be absent several months. I wish to bear my testimony to the principles of the Gospel which have been revealed. I know these things are true. I don’t come here believing them simply, I know they are true, and that God has revealed them; and I also know that all the plans, powers and schemes of the wicked can never overthrow them. Distress may be brought upon individuals; and the fact is, that many of us, who have seemed to move along prosperously, and have surrounded ourselves in an incredibly short space of time with many of the comforts of life may cling too close to them and be unwilling to surrender them; and it may be necessary that we and the Lord should know by actual experiment whether we worship the things of this world more than we do the things of a better. It may be necessary for us to ask ourselves the question, and consider it thoroughly and carefully: “Do we love the Lord Jesus Christ, and his laws and the principles of his Gospel more than we love a piece of land, a little orchard, a garden, field, store, vineyard, ranch, or a herd of cattle, &c. How is it? Ask these questions, and if we do, it is time for us to repent, and we had better begin and make sacrifices. We had better contribute for the Temple, to help the poor and needy, &c. I remember, very well, reading of a man who came to the Savior, and said, “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” After the Savior had answered him he said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up.” The Savior replied, “Yet lackest thou one thing, go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor and come and follow me.” And we are told that he went away sorrowful. Why? Because he had great possessions and could not part with them. Are we getting into that track? The Savior once remarked that it was very hard for a rich man to get into heaven. I do not pretend to quote these passages exactly, you are familiar with them. But we are told that it is a very hard matter for a rich man to get into heaven. That is the substance of it. Don’t let us get so rich that we can’t go there; and don’t let us get so poor that we can’t contribute our mite to help to roll on the work of God. I remember reading in the Proverbs of an individual who prayed the Lord not to make him either rich or poor. He didn’t want to be rich for fear he should get proud and forget the Lord; and if he became poor he was afraid he might steal and take the name of the Lord in vain. We don’t want to go to either extreme. The time is coming, and is not far hence, when the Latter-day Saints will get so much knowledge of the things of God that they will be able to bear wealth and control it, and use it to the glory of God; and when that time comes, to use a familiar expression, “the Lord will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon them that there will not be room to receive it.”

I ask my brethren and sisters to cultivate their minds. My counsel is sustain your Sunday schools; remember and send your children there, and go yourselves and act as teachers, and contribute the means necessary to carry them on. Remember also all the duties devolving upon us as Saints in the domestic circle. We are almost all ready to go on a mission to preach; we should not forget to preach in our houses, families and wards, and bear testi– mony to the truth, and don’t let heathens grow up in our midst. Impress on the minds of your children their duties. You understand the law in relation to it. We are commanded to teach our children the principles of salvation, the doctrine of repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the principles of righteousness to that extent that when they reach a proper age, they will wish to be baptized. We are to set before them examples, precepts and teachings, that they may grow up without sin unto salvation. These are duties devolving upon us. And when any of our children rebel against us and turn to wickedness, for all have to have their trials and temptations, parents ought to ask themselves, “Have we done our duty?” You know it is said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Now, a very excellent way for parents to pursue with regard to their children, is to walk in that way themselves.

I bear my testimony to the principles of the Gospel, and I pray that the blessings of Heaven may be upon you; that you may be able to keep the faith, understand the law and abide in it, and roll on the great and glorious work. In a short season we shall be with you again, bearing our testimony, for we are determined to fulfil our calling and preach the Gospel, which was sealed upon our heads by Joseph Smith, by the commands of God. Bear testimony of the truths of salvation, and instruct the children of men; and there is no field in which greater good can be done in preaching and in missionary labor by the Elders of Israel than in Utah amongst the Latter-day Saints.

May the blessings of Israel’s God be upon you all is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden City, Nov. 13, 1870.

The instructions which we have heard from our brethren, this morning and afternoon, are calculated to benefit every one of us, if we have listened attentively and are disposed to treasure them up in our hearts; but that is the great difficulty with us as individuals and as a people. We hear so much good instruction that it is apt to pall upon us, like persons who have plenty of food; they sometimes eat to satiety and lose their appetite, their food does not relish as it did when they were pinched with hunger and did not have such abundance. I do not know that you ever have that feeling here in Ogden; it is a feeling that no Latter-day Saints should have. In fact, there is this peculiarity about the truth, as it is preached by the servants of God—the more it is listened to the more it is sought after and cultivated, and the more precious and sweet is its influence upon the hearts of those who take this course. But where there is indifference and formality, and people don’t seek, as Brother Heber used to say, to dig down to the roots, it may in such cases become wearisome and fail to have the effect it should have. But when I look at the progress that the brethren and sisters are making I feel gratified. There are times, perhaps, when I feel as others do—that we are not making the progress that we should do; that we are more careless and harder in our hearts and less under the influences of the Holy Spirit and the counsels of the servants of God than we should be. This is my feeling sometimes; but when I look calmly at the Saints, and consider the many difficulties with which they have to contend and the vast amount of tradition that has to be uprooted and overcome, I am gratified at the progress which they make, and feel comforted in the prospects that are before us, and before the Zion of God with which we are connected.

It is these traditions that we have to contend with that are so difficult for us to overcome, that interfere so seriously with the progress of the people in the things of God. They cling more closely to us than many of us imagine, and it is only when the Spirit of God rests upon us and we realize its power to a greater extent that we can understand and comprehend the power of tradition over our minds and conduct. This is the great obstruction to the teachings of the Elders and to the reception of and obedience to counsel; and that prevents the people being united as the heart of one man. It is this which prevents us entering upon the more perfect order that God has revealed, and that gives our enemies more power in our midst than they otherwise would have. It should be the aim of every one of us to seek, as far as possible, to put these things away from us. It is our privilege to have power from God, to have sufficient faith bestowed upon us through His Holy Spirit, to overcome these traditions. The writers in the Book of Mormon, in speaking of the veil of darkness that rested upon the minds of the people, alluded to it as a veil which can be rent asunder by the exercise of faith and by the blessing of God upon His Saints. There is a veil over our minds in consequence of the Fall, and our being shut, as it were, through that, from the presence of God. He can see us, but to us He is invisible, and we can know Him only through His Holy Spirit, as He reveals Himself to us from time to time. In consequence of this the adversary has great power over the hearts of the children of men; and it is only by exercising faith, by seeking earnestly for that Spirit which He bestows, that we are enabled to counteract this darkness and the influence which Satan seeks to exercise over our hearts.

I rejoice in one fact which God has revealed; it comforts my heart when I think of our condition and circumstances and of His kingdom, and that is that we live in the day when, according to the words of the prophets and according to the revelations which God has given to us in this dispensation, the power of Satan is becoming less and less, and the power of God is to increase and to be made more and more manifest, to the exposing of the works of darkness and to the breaking of the yoke which the enemy of all righteousness seeks to fasten upon the minds and understandings of the children of men.

It is a glorious thought for us to reflect upon that we live in a day and at a time in which God has promised to exercise His power in our behalf; when He and Jesus and the holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect are all engaged with us in hastening the great work of redemption, and in banishing from the earth the power of evil which has so long held it in thralldom. God has given us this promise, and if we will labor with the zeal and industry which should characterize His Saints in carrying out His purposes He will bestow upon us every blessing that we need, and will give us power, as I have said, to overcome our traditions, to see the things of God in their true light, and to behold the truth in all its splendor and beauty.

There is one great truth that we have to learn. Brother Carrington alluded to it in his remarks; and all the Elders allude to it more or less when addressing the Saints, and that is, that the Gospel offers every advantage to those who obey and are faithful to it that God can bestow upon His children. There is no advantage to be gained outside of this Church or outside this Gospel; there is no blessing that we can seek for or desire, or that would be proper for us to receive under our present circumstances that we cannot obtain inside the Gospel, or inside the truth; or that we can obtain outside the Gospel, or by departing from the servants of God. You may let your minds run, if you please, over all there is pertaining to the earth and man, or that will contribute to the happiness of man on the earth, and you cannot conceive of any blessing or advantage that is not within your reach legitimately, if you pursue the path God has marked out and by abiding the counsels He makes known from time to time.

A great many do not comprehend this; and this is one of the traditions that we have to contend with, and it arises from the lack of faith in our hearts, and the unbelief that we have received from our forefathers. And we have to contend with it when counsel is given to us in relation to our temporal circumstances and other matters. It is frequently the case that we cannot see any particular advantage in that counsel; it does not strike us favorably. We imagine that some other course would be better for us to pursue, and that by adopting some other line of policy or conduct greater advantages would accrue unto us. But we have to learn, if we have not already learned it, that obedience to counsel is the policy for us to pursue; and that when we indulge in thoughts of an opposite character we suffer ourselves to be led astray by the power of the adversary. Hence it has become almost proverbial among the Saints that the path of counsel is the path of safety. Those who have had years of experience in the Church have arrived at the conclusion that the path marked out for us to walk in by those who have authority to counsel and dictate is invariably the path of safety to those who adopt it. But our traditions interfere with this.

You look back over the policy that has been taught us for the past few years. I refer more particularly to this because, having been at home in the midst of the Saints, I have been more familiar with the counsels given. I can cast my eyes back for that time, and see, and doubtless you can when you reflect upon it, that there have been many items of counsel given that the Saints have been reluctant to obey or adopt, and which, if they had been carried out in the spirit in which they were given, would have resulted in great advantage to us as a people, and doubtless as individuals. I will refer to one item, that has been talked about a great deal—namely, sustaining our enemies. Now it seems that a moment’s reflection on this point would satisfy every individual that the policy foreshadowed in this counsel was the best that could be adopted by a people surrounded with such circumstances as those surrounding us. But how difficult it has been to induce the people to carry that counsel out; why it has been so difficult that in some instances men have actually run the risk of losing their standing in the Church of Jesus Christ rather than forego the gratification of traditions and desires, which, seemingly, have taken entire possession of them—namely, to do as they please in relation to these matters.

Now, as I have said, a moment’s reflection ought to satisfy everybody that this is the true course for us to pursue; that if we intend to build up the Zion of God and to become a great people, it is essential that we should concentrate our means in one channel; that we should sustain those who are friendly to and whose whole interest is centered in the cause of Zion; and that, instead of spending our means in fostering a power in our midst that is opposed to the work of God, we should be willing, rather than do this, to forego what may seem to be an advantage to us, and even deprive ourselves of comforts and submit to privation if necessary to carry out this policy. If our minds were not blinded by tradition we should see at once that it would be an advantage to us as a people to put our means in one direction, and not allow it to go outside the kingdom of God any more than it is absolutely necessary; and that we should never use the influence which God has given us, or the means which He has bestowed upon us to foster or maintain any man or anything that is opposed to His cause. Why, the security that we have here in these mountains depends upon our taking this course to a very great extent.

We are engaged, as has been remarked, in a warfare. The enemy that we have to oppose is one that does not relent in the least degree; he does not yield or show the least sign of mercy or even to give us fair play; but continually shows a disposition to crowd us to the wall and take every advantage, and to overwhelm us in every possible manner. God has brought us to this land; He has given it unto us and has made it a blest land for our sakes. He has sustained us in a wonderful manner for a great many years, and has given unto us the means whereby we could surround ourselves with those things necessary for our convenience and comfort. For long years the effort has been incessant on the part of God’s servants to induce us to become a self-sustaining people. Now that the railway is completed we can see God’s Spirit and His wisdom in this, impelling His servants to dwell upon this theme. Year after year, conference after conference, and meeting after meeting were the Saints instructed and continually urged to establish home manufactures, and to develop the resources which they had in their own midst, so that they might become self-sustaining. There was a providence in this. As I now view it, I can see its force more clearly than ever, although I always saw the force and necessity of the counsel; but now that events have worked out the results that we see around us, I can see the propriety in God inspiring His servants to give this counsel so many years ago. He could see in His divine wisdom that a day was coming when we should be, so to speak, overwhelmed, or when attempts would be made to overthrow us, and when there would be a greater necessity, apparently, than at that day, that we should be able to sustain ourselves, and to keep our means within ourselves, and not be under the necessity of fostering those from abroad who might come amongst us to acquire fortunes from our means and labors. For years has counsel on these subjects been reiterated in our ears, and scarcely a meeting has been held by the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, or any of the Elders of Israel in which this subject has not been prominently dwelt upon, the Elders feeling in their spirit and in their entire being that it was essentially important that the Latter-day Saints should carry out this policy strictly. We can now begin to see, if this counsel had not been given, and the Saints had continued to spend their money with anybody and everybody, no matter if it were the greatest enemy of the kingdom of God, what would have been our position today. Our enemies would have been in our midst, numbering hundreds where they now only number tens; and the efforts to disintegrate the kingdom of God might have been attended with a degree of success, whereas they have been entirely abortive.

You may trace the counsels that have been given to us from the beginning, one step following another in natural order and succession; one principle leading to another, and one important truth engendering, as it were, another important truth, revealing it and bringing it more forcibly home to our minds, until finally cooperation and its necessity have been brought to our attention and enforced upon us. Here tradition has come up again and has had its effect; and it has required days, weeks, and it may be said years of preaching to bring this principle home to the minds of the Latter-day Saints, so that they could see and understand its beauty and propriety, and the advantages which would result from its adoption in our midst. If we had not these traditions to contend with, cooperation would be sustained with hardly a dissentient. We should grasp the idea at once, and see beauty in it. We would say, “That is a principle I can recognize; I see its force and its advantages, and I am ready to adopt it and carry it out.” But no, there are these traditions; there is this unbelief, this reluctance on the part of the people to part with their old systems and to adopt the principles of the Gospel and the revelations of Jesus Christ, as they are given unto us. There is that terrible tradition, that has such strong hold of all our minds, that the Priesthood of God and the religion of Jesus Christ have nothing to do particularly with temporal matters. It is a tradition almost as old as Christianity. It has come down to us for generations and centuries, and is fully interwoven in the hearts, minds and feelings of the children of men, and it is an exceedingly difficult thing to get them to comprehend that temporal things and spiritual things are alike in the sight of God; that there is no line of demarcation between the two; that the religion of Jesus Christ applies to one as much as another, and comprehends within its scope, temporal equally with spiritual matters.

This has made it difficult to enforce upon us the necessity of practically carrying out the principle of cooperation. “O,” say men, “that is a temporal matter, pertaining merely to the buying and selling of goods; it is not particularly connected with life and salvation or with eternal glory in the kingdom of God.” But there they mistake. I look upon that principle, though it may be subordinate in some respects, as divine, as coming through revelation, and as necessary in its place as any other principle that can be mentioned which is connected with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are all alike to me—all alike necessary and divine. Divine wisdom has prompted their practice, and has inspired the servant of God who presides and whom God has chosen to be His mouthpiece in our midst, to reveal them, one as much as another, unto us as a people.

When we have practiced this principle long enough, and are sufficiently advanced in it, there are other principles, now ahead, which we shall be prepared to enter upon and practice. But we must get rid of this tradition that envelopes us and which lies in our pathway, and which is so serious an obstacle to our progress. As fast as we overcome our traditions there will be other principles revealed to us, and thus it will go on, law after law and principle after principle being revealed until we shall be prepared to enter into the glory of our God, and to dwell in the presence of God and the Lamb.

It is essentially necessary then, in view of these things, that we should exercise faith. Our minds should be drawn out and our faith exercised. It may be but little in the beginning. As the Prophet Alma said, when addressing the people on one occasion, and referring to the word of the Lord, it was like seed planted in the heart; its influence and effect at first were not very powerful; but if it were planted in the heart, by and by it began to germinate and grow and the possessor of it said, “Why it is a good seed, I feel it growing!” And if it were nourished, and cherished it would continue to grow until, to use a figure, it would become a great tree, and fill the whole man with light, knowledge and wisdom, and with the gifts and qualifications necessary to make him perfect before the Lord. Our faith may be small in the beginning, but if we cultivate it, it will grow; if we do not it will die out, noxious weeds will spring up and choke it. But if we exercise it as we should, the veil of darkness that separates us from God, and which prevents us comprehending the things of His kingdom, will grow thinner and thinner, until we see with great distinctness and clearness the purposes of God our heavenly Father, and comprehend them as He designs we should, and carry them out in our lives.

This should be our aim as a people and as individuals, every day living so near to God that we shall have more of His Spirit and power, and more of the gifts and endowments of the holy Gospel of the Son of God. If we take and continue in this course we shall feel and understand that we are progressing in the knowledge of God and in the comprehension of truth. And let me tell you, my brethren and sisters, if we thus live, when counsel is given, no matter what it may be, or what principle it may refer to, it will be plain and simple, and as clear unto our minds as the light we now see; and our understandings will be enlightened by it and we shall see beauty in it. If it be to stop trading with our enemies, we will adopt it. We shall feel, “That principle is true, it recommends itself to my understanding; the Spirit of God bears witness to my spirit that it is true, and I will adopt it.” And then, after awhile, when cooperation is taught unto us we will receive that also in a like spirit and faith; and if our minds are possessed of the Spirit of God we will say, “There is light in this principle; I see its advantages, I will sustain it by carrying it out myself, and I will try and exercise influence with my friends and induce them to do the same, that it may become universally practiced in the midst of the Saints.” It will be thus, if we live our religion, not only with every principle that God has revealed, but that He may hereafter reveal. We shall know for ourselves concerning them; they will be plain and simple and in harmony with our feelings. There will be no disturbance of mind, no difficulty in carrying them out. This will go on under the leadership of him whom God has chosen to be our guide, and we shall progress step by step, week by week, gaining power, knowledge, influence, territory and wealth, until we shall emancipate this land and redeem it from the thralldom of sin and from the power of Satan; and the kingdom of Satan will recede before the light, faith and power of the Saints of the kingdom of God.

This is the work in which we are engaged. It is not a work to occupy our attention for one day, and then have it diverted from it for a week; but it is the work of our entire lifetime, all that we have to do. It is a mission that God has given to us here on earth. We can’t be engaged in anything more noble than this work, for it is the work of God—a work in which He, Himself, is engaged—a work that occupies the attention and labors of Jesus, and every holy apostle, prophet, and Saint that has ever lived on the earth. These things are not gained without exertion; they require industry, zeal and attention on our part; and when we thus bestow attention on the work in which we are occupied, why God is with us, angels around about us, the heavens are open to us, the Spirit of God is poured out upon us, and our lives are a pleasant flowing stream, full of peace, joy and heaven. We feel that we have heaven indeed, here below; and wherever we go we carry this holy influence with us and diffuse it around us; and thus the power of Satan is weakened on the earth, and the power of God is increased.

There are some of the brethren and sisters, doubtless, who cannot see these things in this light. You will hear them very frequently say, “I cannot see this counsel, I can’t comprehend it, it don’t strike me;” but there is no fault in the counsel. They would, by their words, reflect on the counsel; they would convey the idea to those who listen to them, that there is something at fault; they are right, but the counsel is wrong. Now, it may be given as a rule, I believe, to the Latter-day Saints, that in every such case, whether it be man or woman, he or she has got to repent and seek unto the Lord for faith and for the light of His Holy Spirit to be given unto them.

How was it with us when we first heard the truth? Oh! How sweet and delightful the sound of the Elder’s voice when he proclaimed that God had spoken from the heavens; that angels had come to the earth again, and that the holy Priesthood was bestowed upon men! How sweet, when he said that the Church was organized with its ancient power and purity and pristine fullness; that the Holy Ghost, with its wealth of gifts, and blessings, had been bestowed upon men! How was it with those who were prepared for these tidings when they heard them proclaimed? Their hearts burned within them and they were filled with joy when the testimony of the truth came to them; and when other principles were taught unto them, O, the joy that filled them in listening to them, and they knew by the testimony of Jesus and by the Spirit and power of God that rested upon them that these things were true! They could get up in their meetings and testify “I know this is true.” When they heard the gathering preached they had the testimony that it was true; and some had it before it was preached. They knew it was from God and that God established His Zion, and their hearts burned at the thought that they would soon be with the Saints of God in Zion. They yearned for the land of Zion and for the society of the people of God. This was their testimony, and they had it in the States, Europe, Africa, Asia, islands of the sea, and in every land where the Gospel has been preached and the people have been prepared to receive it.

This has been the testimony, and if this spirit has continued to rest upon them every principle that has been taught has been plain and delightful to them. Is not this our experience, brethren and sisters? We can all bear testimony to it. Then whence come this darkness and these doubts respecting counsel? Whence comes this query about cooperation? Whence comes this distrust about other counsel in relation to temporal matters? Why, it is very easy to understand whence it comes and what its origin is. It can be traced to neglect of duty, to the hardening of the heart, to the indulgence of a spirit of unbelief, to the neglect of prayer, to becoming selfish and sordid, and to the commission of sin. There are causes for all this, for let me tell you, and testify to you today, that the Latter-day Saint who lives near to God, and has the Spirit of God constantly resting upon him or her, never has any doubts about any principle that God has revealed. When the gathering was taught they were prepared for it; when the payment of tithing was taught they were prepared for it; when consecration was taught they were prepared for it; when the move South was taught they were prepared for it; when the move back was taught they were prepared for it; when celestial marriage was taught they were prepared for it; when the word came, “Cease to trade with our enemies,” they were prepared for it; and when cooperation was taught they were prepared for it. There was no doubt in their minds, because the same Spirit that taught them that this was the truth in the beginning, and that God had spoken from the heavens, taught them also that all these things were true. But when you have doubts respecting counsel given by the servants of God, then be assured, my brethren and sisters, there is room for repentance; we are not living as near to God as we should do; we have not the Spirit of God as we once had it, and we should seek unto God with full purpose of heart, that the light of His Spirit may be bestowed upon us again. Then, when the servant of God stands up and teaches us concerning the things of the kingdom, his words will find a lodging place in our hearts; his counsels will be clear and sweet unto us, and there will be no dubiety, no distress, neither any disposition to repel these counsels or to feel offended at them. And if the word come to us to go on a foreign mission, to go to “Dixie,” to Bear Lake, or any other place to perform this or that labor, we shall be ready to obey, for the Spirit will reveal to us beforehand what we have to do and prepare us for its performance.

These are the privileges of the Latter-day Saints. I talk not of something that is theory, or away off, or that happened years ago; I talk not of that which is out of our reach, but I speak of that which is within our reach, within the reach of all: it is practical. We can obtain and possess and enjoy it; and if we do not, we do not live up to our privileges as Latter-day Saints. O! I feel sometimes, I wish I had the tongue of an angel to proclaim to the children of men the glad tidings of salvation that God has revealed to us in the day in which we live. This blessed time! This time of times, when God in His mercy has restored His Church to the earth, and has given us prophets and Apostles and the Holy Ghost and its gifts; and in His great mercy has brought us to this land, where we can dwell in peace, where we can go out and in before the Lord without any to molest or make us afraid.

My brethren and sisters, what blessed privileges we do enjoy when compared with the Saints in former days; and even when compared with our own circumstances in the early history of the Church, what blessed privileges God has given us in this glorious land! We have rulers of our own choice—men whom God has chosen; we have the voice of God in our midst, so that we need not walk in darkness and doubt. There is no uncertainty in all the land of Zion concerning the purposes of God. It need not be said of us as it was of Israel, “There is no Urim and Thummim; there is no dream or vision, and no prophet in the land.” We have the prophet of God; we have the visions of the Almighty; we have the Spirit of God descending upon us like sweet dew; we have the gifts of the Spirit of God; we have the Gospel in the fulness and plenitude of its power. We have all this, and we have the promises of God concerning us and our posterity; and, as I have said, we have this glorious land of freedom and liberty, where we can build up the kingdom of God in power and great glory; where we can be a free people, if we so choose. If this is not the case, it is because we are wicked, because we disobey counsel; because we harden our hearts and have placed ourselves in a position to be scourged. It is not God’s will that we should be, or that our enemies should have power over us. It is His good will and pleasure to give unto us the kingdom and dominion, and to strengthen and uphold us.

Let us then be faithful! Let us live day by day, from morning until night, in the moments of business and when perplexed with its cares, with our thoughts on the kingdom, and our prayers ascending to the God of our fathers, yea, unto our Father, for His blessings upon us; and that He may fill us with His spirit and prepare us for the things that await us, and help us to be faithful even unto the end.

That we may all be thus faithful and overcome, and be counted worthy to sit down with our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and with all the holy ones in the presence of God and the Lamb, and be crowned with glory, immortality and endless lives, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden City, Nov. 13, 1870.

While I attempt to speak to the people I would like their attention, and for them to keep quiet. I do not particularly object to the crying of children, but I do to the whispering of the people. I suppose that, if we were in the congregations of some of our Christian fellow countrymen, we would not hear any children crying. I believe they have none in some societies. I am very happy to hear the children crying when it is really necessary and they cannot be kept from it. One thing is certain, wherever we go there is a proof that the people are keeping the commandments of the Lord, especially the first one—to multiply and replenish the earth.

The first of my remarks this afternoon will consist of a petition. We are told to pray, and this is one of the practices that we consider absolutely necessary. We frequently offer prayers to kings, legislators, presidents, governors, etc.; but I am going to offer up a prayer to the Latter-day Saints and my prayer is simply—I beseech you, my brethren and sisters, in the name of the Lord, in the name of humanity, in the name of honor and for the sake of honor, justice and mercy, that you do listen and pay attention to the exhortation of my brother Joseph, delivered this morning, in behalf of our poor brethren in foreign lands. I might ask the Lord a thousand times over to deliver them from the oppression and poverty with which they are now surrounded, and He would not do it unless the means were provided; He will not do it without agents and agencies. He will not build balloons or come down with his chariots and pick up the poor in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, Scandinavia, the islands of the sea, or any other parts of the globe where they dwell, and load up with them and their baggage and bring them to this land while He has given us the ability to gather ourselves and the poor. If the Latter-day Saints do not understand this, it is time they did. And when we pray the Lord to open the way for the gathering of the poor, we merely mean that He will operate upon the hearts of those who have the means, that they will be reasonable with themselves, their faith and covenants and the requirements of God and toward those who are members of the same family with us.

You heard the statement of Brother Joseph this morning, and there are a great many witnesses here, to the truth of what he said. When people are in poverty and in their low estate, when they are pinched with hunger and destitute of the clothing necessary to make them comfortable, how deeply they can feel for their friends! But place those very ones where they can have all they need to eat, of food that relishes and suits their appetite, and clothing enough to keep them warm and comfortable, and many of them will sit down and fold their hands, and if you speak to them about the wants of their poor brethren in foreign lands, and mention their own situation in former days, their reply will be: “Oh, I had forgotten all about that! Yes, I believe, now you mention it, that I have seen the time when I had not sufficient food to satisfy the demands of hunger, nor clothing to make me comfortable and respectable. But, dear me, I had forgotten all that, that was in the past, and I have plenty now, and, what is that you are saying?” “’Why, your brethren and sisters in foreign lands are suffering.” “What! Did you say that some of our brethren and sisters are suffering? I have enough to eat, and all the clothing I need to make me comfortable, and a pretty good cabin that I built myself, and I am in debt to no one and quite happy and comfortable; and I wish you would not trouble me about other people.”

This is the story and these are the feelings of some of the Latter-day Saints that have been gathered from the depths of poverty. I do not wish to chide them for their well doing, and neither do I nor my brethren require of them things that are unreasonable; but we are under obligations to our families, connections and friends, and then to the whole human family. We are not independent of them; we are not here isolated and alone, differently formed and composed of different material from the rest of the human race. We belong to and are part of this family, consequently we are under obligations one to another, and the Latter-day Saints in these mountains are under obligations to their brethren and sisters scattered in the nations who, through indigent circumstances, are unable to gather to themselves the comforts of life. No matter what may be the cause of their poverty, they are helpless and destitute. Could I pick out any in this congregation who have been in these circumstances? I presume I could, a few score.

Sometimes I am inclined to be silent rather than speak of facts that have come under my own observation. I have seen people in districts of country, where they were so destitute of the comforts of life that if they gave a meal to a friend they had to pinch themselves, perhaps, for a week, having barely sufficient to keep body and spirit together; and yet when these very individuals get into circumstances in which they are well fed and well clothed they forget their former lives.

There are certain things connected with what we see and know to be facts, that actually form principles, and resolve themselves into eternal principles; and if people could see and understand them they would be a benefit to them. But we are on the surface, or outlines of the facts concerning the Latter-day Saints. There are many of our brethren who have been born and brought up in America, who have never been called to pass through the ordeals of poverty that some of our people have in the old countries. A few of these American Elders, wanting in faith, honesty and integrity, while on foreign missions, have borrowed money from these impoverished people, with a promise to pay when they returned home; but these promises have not been observed. I do not know whether there are any such Elders here this afternoon; but, whether there is or not, I want to say to them, wherever they may be, that I have no fellowship for a man that will make a promise and not fulfil it, and especially under such circumstances as I am talking about now; and if there is such an Elder in this congregation I say omit partaking of the sacrament here today, and never cease your efforts until you pay that honest debt. I do not offer this as a petition, but as counsel, to be observed by all such individuals in the Church on the penalty of being disfellowshipped by the Saints. But to myself and all of you who are free from such obligations I pray you to listen to the prayers of those who are asking for deliverance; and I have a few words to say with regard to this matter on this wise: We have nothing but what has been given or loaned us of the Lord; and if we have our hundreds or thousands we may foster the idea that we have nothing more than we need; but such a notion is entirely erroneous, for our real wants are very limited. What do we absolutely need? I possess everything on the face of the earth that I need, as I appear before you on this stand. I am not hungry, but I am well fed; I am not cold, but I am well clothed. I am not suffering for a hat, for I have hair on my head, and when I go outdoors I have my hat to put on; and with these and a shelter to protect me from the scorching heat or the piercing cold I have everything that a man needs or can enjoy if he owned the whole world. If I were the king of the earth I could enjoy no more. When you have what you wish to eat and sufficient clothing to make you comfortable you have all that you need, I have all that I need. Some persons, I know, will ask, “Why not give the rest to the poor?” I will answer this question, as far as I am concerned, by saying I do give to the poor and am willing to.

If the poor had all the surplus property of the rich many of them would waste it on the lusts of the flesh, and destroy themselves in using it. For this reason the Lord does not require the rich to give all their substance to the poor. It is true that when the young man came to Jesus to know what he must do to be saved, he told him, finally, “sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me;” and a great many think that he told the young man to give away all that he had, but Jesus did not require any such thing, neither did he say so, but simply, “distribute to the poor.” If the poor knew what to do with what they have many, yea very many, in this land would have all that is necessary to make them comfortable. But it is different with the great majority of our friends over the water—they are fettered and bound, and in the prison of poverty, and have not power to extricate themselves from the thralldom and wretchedness they are in, and hence it becomes our duty to lend a helping hand and send for them.

Many of us may think that we have nothing we can spare; but the providences of God might speedily make us think otherwise. If the Lord were to let loose our enemies upon us! Let Him hiss for the fly, and whisper for the locust, and they would come here by myriads and eat up every green thing there is in these mountains; and when they were destroyed, if the Lord so willed it, they could commence on the people and the cattle and devour every living creature on the land. Do we know this? We might know and realize it. Then, if we had a little bread to eat we should be happy and contented, and in our poverty we would be willing to divide with and assist our poor brethren and sisters, and help to save them from starvation. But now the cry is, “I have a house, and I want my furniture! I have a farm, I want my teams and my wagons, and then I want a carriage and time to ride,” until the whole world is swallowed up by the few.

You will excuse me if I say a few words with regard to myself in these charitable sermons. What is my feeling today? The same as it has been for years concerning houses, lands and possessions. I say to the people, “If you will give me for my property half what it has cost me I will devote that means for the gathering of the poor and the building of Zion upon the earth, and will start again with nothing. I have done it before, and I am willing to do it again if the people will take my property on these terms, and the means, to the last dollar, shall be used to send for the poor if they apostatize the next year. They will not apostatize where they are now; you could not hire them to do it, you could not whip them to it; you cannot starve their religion out of them; but bring them here and give them houses and lands, horses and chariots, make merchants and traders of them, and give them our means, then some of them will apostatize, but not all. Some of them will apostatize for very little, it takes but few dollars; but they will not do it where they are. I would bring them here if they would apostatize, for they must have a chance to prove themselves before God and angels with regard to their integrity to and faith in the religion that we believe in.

Now, brethren and sisters, I pray you to remember the poor, and every time you feel like spending twenty-five or fifty cents in tea or coffee, liquor or tobacco, stay your hand and put that money into a safety or charitable fund to help to gather the poor. Brother Joseph has been pleading for them; I am giving you the plan. If we will leave off tea, coffee, liquor and tobacco and devote the means as I have requested, we shall bring the blessings of heaven to ourselves and bestow the blessings of earth upon our brethren and sisters, and we shall feel that comfort and consolation that we could not feel otherwise. Our hearts will rejoice, our food will be sweet to us, our dreams will be pleasant and our reflections will be filled with peace, comfort and consolation in the power of God. But if we shut up our bowels of compassion our condition will be exactly the reverse.

If the people will take this course towards their poor brethren and sisters it will relieve our hands at once. I suppose that there is a million of money now due the Perpetual Emigration Fund; by those who have been gathered who have not paid their arrearage. But we cannot get it. If we were to send an agent through the Territory to collect this indebtedness from these brethren and sisters, it would probably cost more to sustain him than the amount he would collect, consequently we conclude to say nothing about it, and to use the means we have or that is contributed for this purpose.

As for our being comfortable, I will venture to say that we could pick out, in this congregation, needless articles of dress that have cost several hundred if not thousands of dollars. I do not like to charge the ladies with extravagance, but how many yards of cloth does it take now to make a dress? If Brother Heber C. Kimball were here he would tell you he used to buy six yards of calico for his wife Vilate, who was a tall woman. That used to make a dress, and it was a pretty large pattern; then it got up to seven since my recollection, then to eight, then to nine, then to eleven, and I have been called upon to buy sixteen, seventeen and eighteen yards for a dress. I know there is a cause for this. My wife will say, “Dear me! Sister so and so wears such and such a thing, and I want to look as well as she does; and you have plenty of means, Brigham; O, yes, you have plenty of means, and you can buy it as well as not.” Well, all that I have said, and my general reply is, “If I am pressed to the necessity of indulging my family in these needless articles the responsibility must be upon themselves, not upon me.” I will not take that responsibility. In the day of reckoning if we are in debt and found wanting in consequence of our extravagance I will not bear any more responsibility than I have incurred in my own person in the gratification of this taste for needless articles of dress, and that will not be much I reckon.

Now, brethren and sisters, do you indulge in this taste for fashion and frivolity in dress? Most assuredly you do, and circumstances right before my eyes furnish proof of this. I will venture to say that my mother wore the cloak and hood that her mother before her wore, and wore them until the day of her death when she had occasion to wear a cloak; and when she left this place for the next apartment she was forty-nine years old; and they went to her daughter. I do not know what has become of them. She did not take a cloak worth twenty-five, thirty, forty or fifty dollars and sit down in it with a child with a piece of meat in each hand to grease it all over. But, now, let some women get a silk or satin dress and they will, perhaps, while wearing it, take up a child that has a piece of chicken in one hand and a piece of pork in the other, or a cup of milk to drink, and as likely as not some of it is spilled on the dress, and then they say, “Well, I declare my dress is spoiled.”

I recollect very well, and so do others in this room, when our fathers and mothers raised the flax and the wool, and when it was carded with handcards, spun on handwheels, and woven into cloth on handlooms, and in this way the wants of the family had to be supplied or they had to go without. But now every woman wants a sewing machine. What, for? To do her sewing. Well, but she can do a hundred times as much sewing with a machine as she could by hand, and she does not need a machine more than one day in two or three weeks. “O yes,” she says, “I want my sewing machine every day of my life.” “What are you going to do with it?” “I am going to sew;” and when the sewing machine is procured they want a hundred times as much cloth as they used to have. Now, too, they want a hired girl for every child; and a hired man to every cow in the yard. I will admit that I am extravagant in these expressions; but they show the present condition of affairs. The improvements which have taken place during the last half century in matters pertaining to domestic life are wonderful, but has not the extravagance of the people kept pace with these improvements? It is true that the people are getting wiser in some respects, and some are getting wealthy; but there is only so much property in the world. There are the elements that belong to this globe, and no more. We do not go to the moon to borrow; neither send to the sun or any of the planets; all our commercial transactions must be confined to this little earth and its wealth cannot be increased or diminished; and though the improvements in the arts of life which have taken place within the memory of many now living are very wonderful, there is no question that extravagance has more than kept pace with them.

We talk to the Latter-day Saints a great deal, and we wish them to become a thinking people, a people that will reflect and begin to systematize their lives, and know the object of their existence here. This life is as precious and valuable as any life ever possessed, or that ever will be possessed by any intelligent being, and hence the necessity and propriety of understanding its object and using it to the best advantage in every respect, and of understanding principle in all things.

It was observed here by Brother Taylor, this morning, when speaking of the arts and sciences, they are from eternity to eternity. They can neither be increased nor diminished; and the Lord has had to teach the people all that they know, no matter whether it be the wicked who acknowledge Him not, or the righteous, both are alike in that respect—they receive their knowledge from the same source. The construction of the electric telegraph and the method of using it, enabling the people to send messages from one end of the earth to the other, is just as much a revelation from God as any ever given. The same is true with regard to making machinery, whether it be a steamboat, a carding machine, a sailing vessel, a rowing vessel, a plow, harrow, rake, sewing machine, threshing machine, or anything else, it makes no difference—these things have existed from all eternity and will continue to all eternity, and the Lord has revealed them to His children.

In the infancy of creation the human family commenced down at the bottom of the ladder, and had to make their way upward. How small and frail that commencement looks now; why it is considered almost beneath the notice of the wise of this day to talk of the intelligence of our First Parents. When they waked from their sleep and found themselves in a state of nudity, we are told that they hid themselves, because they were ashamed and mortified and did not wish to expose themselves when the Lord came along. And he picked some fig leaves—what a simple idea! He picked some fig leaves and sewed them together and made aprons of them. I do not know whether he used scissors or His penknife for the cutting out of the garments, or what kind of a needle and thread He used, but he made aprons for the whole human family—Adam and Eve! What a simple idea! It is beneath the notice of the mechanic or artist, or the science of the world now-a-days. Yet simple as it seems now, the Lord had to reveal to our first parents the modus operandi of the manufacture of an apron of fig leaves. And when they wanted a little copper made up, after having found the ore, the Lord had to come along and show them how to do it; and how to manufacture the iron. How simple this is! It is beneath the notice of the intelligence and science that are in the world now; the scientific men of the present time say those were the days of ignorance. Yes, that was in the period of the childhood of the human family; in the infancy of the world. But what does it manifest unto us? Why that there is a Being superior to man, and though we may not know the place where He resides, He has come along occasionally and shown His creatures how to make and work up brass, iron, copper, and in fact has revealed to them everything they know at various stages of their development and progress.

The people of this day think they know more than all who have preceded them—that this is the wisest generation that ever did live on the earth. Perhaps it is in worldly things, and in some of the arts and sciences it may be; but there is no question that many things of great worth known anciently have been lost. Archaeological developments and investigations bring to light facts in the mechanical arts which set at defiance the skill of the world in our day. For instance, where is the mechanic now, who can sharpen copper so that it would shave the beard from a man’s face, or chop timber like an axe made of steel? The skill to do that is not in existence now; yet it once was, and many other arts, revealed to man anciently, have been lost through the wickedness of the people.

I want to say a few words about our religion, but first I will ask you to remember this prayer which I offered at the commencement of my remarks with regard to the poor. If you will do that, they will be looked after and brought home. Now we will talk a little about our religion. Ask the scientific men of the world how many of the arts can be reduced to a science? When they are so reduced they become permanent; but until then they are uncertain. They go and come, appear and disappear. When they are reduced to science and system their permanency and stability are assured. It is so with government—until it is reduced to a science it is liable to be rent asunder by anarchy and confusion, and caprice, and scattered to the four winds. Government, to be stable and permanent and have any show for success, must be reduced to a science. It is the same with religion; but our traditions are such that it is one of the most difficult things in the world to make men believe that the revealed religion of heaven is a pure science, and all true science in the possession of men now is a part of the religion of heaven and has been revealed from that source. But it is hard to get the people to believe that God is a scientific character, that He lives by science or strict law, that by this He is, and by law He was made what He is; and will remain to all eternity because of His faithful adherence to law. It is a most difficult thing to make the people believe that every art and science and all wisdom comes from Him, and that He is their Author. Our spirits are His: He begot them. We are His children; He set the machine in motion to produce our tabernacles; and when men discard the principle of the existence of a Supreme Being, and treat it with lightness, as Brother Taylor says, they are fools. It is strange that scientific men do not realize that all they know is derived from Him; to suppose, or to foster the idea for one moment, that they are the originators of the wisdom they possess is folly in the highest! Such men do not know themselves. As for ignoring the principle of the existence of a Supreme Being, I would as soon ignore the idea that this house came into existence without the agency of intelligent beings.

Well, the Latter-day Saints are beginning to comprehend that true religion is a science; and their religion consists of principles, law and order, and they acknowledge God in all things; and the time will come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess to and acknowledge Him, and when they who have lived upon the earth and have spurned the idea of a Supreme Being and of revelations from Him, will fall with shamefacedness and humble themselves before Him, exclaiming, “There is a God! O, God, we once rejected Thee and disbelieved Thy word and set at naught Thy counsels, but now we bow down in shame and we do acknowledge that there is a God, and that Jesus is the Christ.” This time will come, most assuredly. We have the faith of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. It is not a frenzied, frantic idea, like the systems of religion invented by men. We have ceremonies, but there is life in those ceremonies; and our religion has organization, body and soul. The religious systems of men have a kind of organization, and seemingly they will build a body, but they have no soul, and some seem to have a soul without a body, but it is like their god, it cannot be found.

We reason with and try to convince the Latter-day Saints that they should live their religion so that God is in all their thoughts and reflections, and they should acknowledge Him in their daily walk and conversation and business transactions as well as in their prayers. Each of us should continually feel, and live so as to have it so. “God must be with me and I must have His Spirit with me under all circumstances.” How many are there of our Elders who carry out their religion in all the affairs of life? Set them to merchandising, for instance, and Brother John, William or Caleb will say, “You set me here at merchandising, and my mind is altogether occupied with my business. I have to lay my plans, and do my best to make my business successful, and I have not time to pray and seek unto the Lord; I have not got the spirit of preaching, and do not call upon me to preach, I cannot do it, I have to attend to this store.” I say it is almost impossible to get it into the mind of a business man that he needs God with him in carrying on his business. Says he, “I must do this by my natural ability; my business qualities must be brought into exercise, and that is all I want.” To persons who feel thus I say, Stop and think! Hold on! Do you know how to buy goods? “Yes,” Mr. Merchant says, “I think I understand goods as well as any man.” Where did you get your knowledge, can you tell me? “Oh, I got that from practice. I have learned, as soon as I touch a piece of broadcloth, linen, or cotton cloth, to tell its quality without ever looking at the fabric; I can tell instantly by the touch of the finger. I have got this by practice.” Very good, we will say you did. Did you plant that ability in your finger, and which gives sensibility to your nervous system from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet, which is the foundation of the knowledge you have acquired by practice? Acquired or practical knowledge is one thing, but natural or internal knowledge is the foundation of practical or acquired knowledge, and without this in the soul no being could acquire it any more than this stand, not one particle more. Now, Mr. Merchant, that is the secret of your acquired knowledge or skill. Then acknowledge it, manly, honestly, uprightly, firmly, and positively, and give God the praise and honor, for to Him they belong.

Do you need anything more than this innate ability to acquire knowledge to guide you and to ensure success in your business? Yes, you do. They say when a person preaches experience, the facts are not easily got over. I am going to tell Mr. Merchant what he needs. You take a man who conducts his business on his own resources, and however well he may lay his plans his business frequently fails on his hands and he becomes bankrupt; for he cannot foresee what is going to transpire in the markets. “Well, how are you going to prevent such mishaps?” You need the Spirit of the Lord to enable you to foresee. This is what is needed when you buy goods, where you trade and do business; you need the spirit of revelation to be with you. We frequently hear our merchants say they cannot do business and then go into the pulpit to preach. I will say that there is not a merchant in this Territory who attends to as much of what is called worldly business, or temporal things, as I do, yet I can afford to preach several times each week, and say my prayers as long as I wish to. Now, if I preach experience, who can controvert it? If anyone does not believe my statement, let him live with me and he will soon learn that a pressure of business that will take a merchant a week to think about, I know the moment it is mentioned to me. I see and understand it from beginning to end, and I say, at once, “Do thus and so,” “Go yonder,” or “Take such and such a course;” but I need the Spirit of the Lord continually to guide and dictate me in business pertaining to farms, merchandising, mining, missions, buying, selling, etc., etc.; and the more I have to do the more revelation I need, and the more acute my spirit must become.

It is a great mystery to many people, and especially to strangers, how I have preserved myself. My life depends upon the Spirit of the Lord, although my body gets sometimes a little out of order, and it is very probable my stomach will ache pretty bad after this loud talking, for I am neither iron nor immortal. But a great many marvel at my preservation. I have revealed the secret a great many times, and can now—I never worry about anything. I try to live so as to know my business and understand my duty, and to do it at the moment without a long study. If ever I am in the least bothered with anything that comes before me it is in some frivolous case, trying to give counsel and advice to an individual without doing any mischief. If they want to do right, regardless of self or the world, it is no trouble to tell them what to do. And I say to a farmer or a merchant, if you want to live so as to prolong your days, never worry about anything; but have the Spirit of the Lord so as to know what to do, and when you have done or counseled right never fret about the result. It is in the hands of the Lord, and He will work out the problem, and you need not be at all afraid of the matter. And this is true of all the acts of the children of men. The Lord has constituted us rational beings, and our volition is free to choose good or evil, just as we will; but when we have followed out our choice the Lord will overrule the result of our acts—it is in His hands and He will bring it out to suit Himself, and He will make the wrath of man praise Him. When men undertake, as we see them occasionally, to interrupt every movement of the kingdom of God, and lay their plans, and have the train well laid in their own minds, for the destruction of the kingdom, the first thing they know they are in the mud and the Saints are thrown up. We have seen this scores of times. It is just so in the world. Men may propose, but God will dispose according to His good will and pleasure.

I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, and to those who are not Saints, we have faith in God, and we have a reason for it. Every character who has declared himself to be God, except the one we serve, has failed and been foiled in his calculations; he has come short in his plans and been put to shame. There is no question but foul spirits have declared themselves to be deities; we have history to this effect. But they have come off in shame. But the Lord is our God and it is He whom we serve; and we say to the whole world that He is a tangible Being. We have a God with ears, eyes, nose, mouth; He can and does speak. He has arms, hands, body, legs and feet; He talks and walks; and we are formed after His likeness. The good book—the Bible, tells us what kind of a character our Heavenly Father is. In the first chapter of Genesis and the 27th verse, speaking of the Lord creating men, it reads as plain as it can read, and He created man in His own image and likeness; and if He created Adam and Eve in His own image, the whole human family are like Him. This same truth is borne out by the Savior. Said he, when talking to his disciples: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” and, “I and my Father are one.” The Scripture says that He, the Lord, came walking in the Temple, with His train; I do not know who they were, unless His wives and children; but at any rate they filled the Temple, and how many there were who could not get into the Temple I cannot say. This is the account given by Isaiah, whether he told the truth or not I leave everybody to judge for himself.

The Bible also says the Lord talked with Moses; He talked with the rich and the poor, the noble and the ignoble. He sent His angels, and at last sent His Son, who was in the express image of the Father–His Only Begotten Son, according to the flesh, here on this earth. That is the God we serve and believe in. He is a God of system, order, law, science, and art; a God of knowledge and of power. He says to the human family, “Do as you please, but I will overrule the results of your actions.” He says to the wicked, “You may fight these Latter-day Saints, but they are my people, I have called them, and commanded them to come out of Babylon and to gather themselves together. You, wicked world, may fight them; you may lay your plans and schemes, but with all your machinations and wisdom I will show you that I am greater than you all, and I will put you to shame, and blast your expectations, and disappoint your calculations, and your attempts to injure my people will be foiled; for Zion shall arise, her glory shall be seen, and the kings of the earth shall enquire of the wisdom of Zion; and God shall be great, and His name shall be terrible among the inhabitants of the earth; and He will bring forth His kingdom and establish His government, and Jesus will come and rule, King of nations, as he does King of Saints.” We have law, we have rule, we have regulations; and they are here, they are written and published to the world. They are in the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants; and we call upon all the earth, the rich and the poor, to hearken unto these things! Who will receive them? Not many rich, not many noble, not many great men of the earth; but the poor of this world the Lord has chosen, and He will make them rich, and they will be heirs of the earth. But they will be heirs with pure hearts, not with that covetousness we see manifested now. When we are prepared to receive the kingdom in its purity, and to honor its laws and principles in our lives, just so soon the Lord Almighty will bestow upon us strength, power, wisdom, glory, riches and honor, and all the good things that pertain to His kingdom; and the Lord will be great among the people, and they will revere and acknowledge His name.

God bless you brethren and sisters, Amen.

Discourse by Elder Joseph F. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden City, Nov. 12, 1870.

In rising before you this evening I desire an interest in your prayers that I may be able to speak to our mutual edification. I realize, most truly, in my own experience, that it is a very difficult matter to rise before a congregation of Saints and preach the Gospel without the assistance of God’s Spirit; I do not feel capable of doing it, and I therefore pray that that Spirit may be enjoyed by us who are here this evening. I feel that we have had a good and profitable time today, if we can but treasure up the instructions which have been given. But the great difficulty is—we are too careless, listless and unconcerned in relation to what is taught us from time to time; we do not weigh, with that thought and care that we should do, the instructions and counsels which we receive. We allow other things to occupy our minds; the cares of the world, the desire for gain, the anxiety to promote our own interests and to provide for the necessities of life choke out the word of God to some extent. This is too much so with the Latter-day Saints, and it is pre-eminently so with the world at large. They do not believe the Gospel when they are taught it, which is the reason that our Elders meet with so little success abroad. The world has grown so indifferent to the Gospel, that it is almost impossible to excite inquiry regarding it. Perhaps one cause of this is that there has been too much teaching and too many varieties of it, and the minds of the people are unsettled and filled with speculation regarding the principles of salvation. They see men preaching various doctrines, hence they conclude that they who claim to be ministers and presume to preach have neither the authority to do so, nor the spirit of the Gospel, the knowledge of the truth or the testimony of Jesus, and they are losing confidence in them. People who reflect cannot do otherwise, for, however much the various gospels are taught to the people, nothing but dissatisfaction, doubt and disappointment result therefrom. There is no prospect, to all earthly appearance, of their ever arriving at a knowledge of the truth; in fact, the Christian world today are in exactly the position described by the ancient Apostle—they have a “form of godliness, but deny the power thereof;“ and “they are ever learning, but never come to the knowledge of the truth.”

But while this is the condition of the world, why should we, who have received the Gospel, as revealed in our day through Joseph Smith, sink to a level with them in our faith and actions? Having received the Gospel, it is our privilege to receive the testimony of the same; and if we have not, it is our own fault, for it is promised freely to every man and woman who will obey it; and there is not a son or daughter of Adam with common reason, but he or she is entitled to a perfect knowledge of the Gospel of salvation upon rendering obedience to its requirements; and if all who do so do not receive the promised blessings, it is their own fault, and not the fault of the Gospel or its Originator. The Gospel plan is broad and ample, and its Author has promised that they who seek shall find, and to them that knock the door shall be opened. James, the Apostle, says, “If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.” This is well known in the world, for the Scriptures are read there, and they are aware of the existence of these promises; and I presume that many of them endeavor to ask for what they need in conformity with the teachings of the Scriptures; for they do certainly realize, to some extent, that they need wisdom and understanding which they have not, and which seems out of their power to obtain. But why do they not get what they ask for? The promise is very pointed, and is given in language that cannot be mistaken. James explains this. Says he, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.” “For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” But he who asks in a proper manner, who humbles himself before the Lord like a little child before its earthly parent, and is willing to trust in God, and comes before him doubting nothing, that man, or that woman, will receive what he or she shall ask for. God has said it; He has promised it by the mouths of His servants, the Prophets and the Apostles, and the promise is sure and unfailing; and if there is any fault, it is on our part, and through our own lack of faith, meekness and humility before the Lord.

The Apostle James says that “ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” We may ask blessings of the Lord, from now to all eternity, and if we ask with pride and ambition in our hearts, and with a desire to increase our worldly possessions for our own aggrandizement, God will not grant what we ask. Hence the necessity of learning how to approach our Creator, and of asking Him according to the way He has appointed.

When we meet together it is for the purpose of listening and being instructed and uniting our hearts in prayer to God, not as individuals, but as a community, that by our combined supplications we may obtain from His hands that which we need. We do not come together, as some do, to admire fashionable attire; but we meet to worship God, and to be instructed regarding the principles of salvation, that we may be strengthened and encouraged in the prosecution of the labors devolving upon us, in overcoming the evils of our own fallen natures and bringing ourselves into subjection to the law of God. Those who come together for this purpose will receive their reward.

There are evils in the midst of Israel as well as in the world, arising from pride and neglect of duty. Many have no anxiety for anything but the things of the world. A man, for instance, has a farm and flocks, and they engross his whole time and attention. If he does take a little time to rest from his toils in the field and attends meeting, he comes drowsy and thoughtless, and leaves no better than when he came. He has learned nothing; in fact he did not come to be taught. He came, perhaps, simply because it was customary, or because some of his family or neighbors came, and not because he felt any interest in being there himself. If an angel should address a congregation of such individuals, his words would have no effect. The words of an angel would have no effect on the minds of women who attend meeting to look at the bonnets of their neighbors, or to see how the fashions change, any more than upon the minds of men who do the same thing for form’s sake. Such persons have no conception of truth, and have no place for its reception; it is shut out from their understanding, and they sit like figure heads, and derive no benefit from the instructions of the servants of God. So far as their influence goes, if they have any, it is as a damper thrown upon those around them.

I do not believe it would be necessary to preach so much to the Saints, as it now appears to be, if we lived our religion, and would exercise one-tenth part of the faith that we should exercise for our own good and the good of Israel; but, under present circumstances, it seems to be absolutely necessary to preach day after day and week after week to the Saints to keep them anywhere within the bounds of the Gospel. We are so easily led astray, so easily benumbed and chilled in our perceptions of truth. If there ever was a time that we needed to live the religion of Jesus Christ it is at the present. We should begin to realize that every man and woman is an agent, and exercises a certain amount of influence in the sphere in which he or she moves. Parents have an influence over their children; children have an influence over each other; neighbor has an influence with neighbor; and although we may not perceive that our example has any influence or weight, I assure you many times injury has been done by acts that we regarded as trifling through the influence they had upon our neighbors or children. Who can tell the result of a promise, made and not kept, by a father to his child? Will the child grow up in the belief that the father and mother guilty of this practice, mean what they say, or that they say one thing and mean another? From the conduct of the parents in this respect the child is very likely to take license to follow their example, and perhaps to do worse. Who can tell how long evils of this nature will tell upon children, transmitted through them to their posterity? Yet we see fathers and mothers set an example before their children which they themselves condemn and warn their children against. The inconsistent conduct of parents has a tendency to blunt the sensibilities of children, and to lead them from the way of life and salvation, for if parents teach their children principles which they do not practice themselves, that teaching is not likely to have much weight or effect, except for evil. We do not look at and reflect upon these things as we should. What will a child, when he begins to reflect, think of a parent who, professing to believe that the Word of Wisdom is part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and has been given by revelation, violates it every day of his life? He will grow up to believe that his parent is a hypocrite and without faith in the Gospel. They who take such a course incur fearful responsibilities. We cannot be too consistent in our course, neither can we be too faithful in fulfilling promises.

What confidence would you have in a man who will tell you, “Tomorrow morning I will pay you what I owe you;” but when tomorrow morning comes he does not fulfil his word? You meet him during the day and says he, “Brother, I forgot all about that little matter, but I will call in the morning.” The morning comes, but he does not come, and so it passes on day after day, and that promise remains unredeemed. You may extend this to any other promise or profession. If men are untruthful and fail to meet their obligations, you come finally to the conclusion that they are dishonest and all confidence is lost in them. They cannot be trusted in anything, and you are compelled to regard them as little else than liars and swindlers, and you avoid having anything to do with them. Yet there are such men who have been down into the waters of baptism for the remission of sin, and have covenanted with God to forsake every evil. What does such a profession of repentance amount to? No mouth profession of repentance is acceptable to God unless it is carried out in practice. We must have works as well as faith; we must do as well as pretend to do. The majority of the Latter-day Saints that have been gathered to these valleys any length of time have made covenants with God that they will keep His commandments, and walk in the counsels of the Almighty at all hazards; yet many, nevertheless, continually dabble in the contemptible customs of corrupt and degenerate human nature. Instead of raising themselves to the standard of the Gospel, they are content to descend to the level of the wicked and corrupt. Many of the Elders of Israel who have responsibilities resting upon them, with which they will find they cannot trifle with impunity, are taking this course all the time. What wonder, then, that the Spirit of the Lord is grieved? What wonder that the Latter-day Saints need to be preached to continually? It is no wonder to me when I contemplate the condition of the people of these valleys, and especially Salt Lake City, Ogden, and our cities contiguous to the railways.

What is to become of us, if we are to give way to every temptation, and ape every poor skunk that comes from the world? I mean those who do not regard themselves as gentlemen; I do not mean men who profess to be gentlemen and who carry out their professions, and there are many such in the world. I now have reference to that class who do not scruple to do any mean thing to serve their purposes or gratify their desires. Some of us, I regret to say, feel to follow their examples in our dealings, habits and customs. What will God do with us? What are we worth? What will we come to? What will God Almighty make of us? What kind of an exaltation, glory and reward will we gain if this is the height of our ambition and the strength of our morality, integrity and stamina in the cause of Jesus Christ? It will be said to such, “Depart from me, ye cursed, I never knew you.” “What, Lord, never knew me? Why, I am Elder B—. I lived at Ogden, or Salt Lake City, and associated with Thy servant Brigham, with the Apostles, and with the Elders of the Church. I bore the Holy Priesthood; I have healed the sick by the laying on of hands; I have cast out devils in Thy name, and you don’t know me?” “No, I don’t know you; depart from me, ye cursed.” “Why?” “Because you are a hypocrite, a liar, a sophist, a poor, weak, miserable creature, who didn’t live near to God and had not strength to overcome the follies and weaknesses of your own nature, but were ready and willing to fall right into the habits and follies of the people from the midst of whom you were gathered that you might escape their plagues and the destruction to which they were doomed.”

I would not give much for a man that could not be a Latter-day Saint in one place as well as another. If a man cannot be a Latter-day Saint in the mountains, canyons and fields, or in the midst of strangers, as well as at home under the droppings of the sanctuary in the midst of his brethren, he has not got the pure metal in him, and the time will come when he will be tried and will fall, just as sure as he lives. I want to see men live their religion everywhere, and while performing every kind of labor. The idea is quite prevalent with a certain class of Latter-day Saints, that if they engage in mining they must adopt all the habits of the miner—they must swear a little, swagger a great deal, drink liquor, tea and coffee, because they are in the mountains mining, as was the case at our drill to some extent. For the first two or three meals the tea or coffee was scarcely thought of; but before the camp broke up I noticed several good brethren who never missed having tea or coffee at their meals, and they endeavored to justify themselves because they were on a campaign. I enjoyed my cup of cold water while there, and had as good health as any of them. I don’t believe that wrong is right anywhere. God has said it is wrong to take hot or strong drinks. I believe that He meant what He said, and that it applies to me today, tomorrow, next week, and through my whole life, whether in the canyons or at home, or wherever my lot may be cast. I also believe that it applies to the whole Church, that no man or woman can consistently rear a family in the Church unless they will strictly observe these counsels of God given for the guidance and salvation of all Saints. I believe that men and women who are rearing families and neglect these things incur fearful responsibilities.

God has given much to us, and He will require much at our hands. He has restored the Gospel with its gifts, blessings and powers; He has restored the Holy Priesthood, and has organized His Church on the earth; He has deigned to acknowledge His people, and has signally blessed them since the Church was organized to the present moment. We have professed to receive that Gospel, acknowledged the name of God, and have been gathered out from the nations of the earth for the purpose of being purified ourselves, that we may have power to save our children, setting before them worthy examples, and rearing them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that God may have a pure and righteous people, whom he will delight to acknowledge and honor. This is one object of our gathering together; but take heed lest, through our unfaithfulness over the little God has imparted unto us, He will be unable to bestow the great blessings which He has in store for the faithful. The Lord will give to those who merit. His compassion is turned to us continually, but we do not realize it.

I rejoice in being able to testify to you that we have received the Gospel that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and that he was instrumental in the hands of God in revealing principles that are calculated to unite the whole human family in the bonds of fellowship, brotherhood and love, and making of them one people, with one King, on the face of the earth. I know this, and I bear my testimony to it, as one having received a knowledge thereof, for I do know that this is true. But, notwithstanding this knowledge, salvation depends upon ourselves; we are agents, and can choose or reject the Gospel, follow the examples of the Savior or Lucifer. It is left optional with us. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and have the privilege of attaining to glory and exaltation in the kingdom where Jesus and the sanctified dwell, but it is left optional with us to choose or refuse. God has declared that He will require nothing at our hands but what He will enable us to perform. If He asks and requires duties of us that are difficult for us to perform, looking at them naturally, He will give us power to accomplish them. But unless we are worthy, and use all the energy and intelligence that we possess naturally, the promise on His part will not be fulfilled, because it is made on conditions that we do our part.

I would now warn my brethren and sisters to look well to their ways in future, and to let their words and examples be such as to ensure upon them the blessing and approval of God. If they profess to be Latter-day Saints and desire to continue steadfast, they should prove before God and their brethren that they have repented of their sins with a repentance that needs not to be repented of; for if we repent only in profession and say that we are Latter-day Saints when we are not, it is a mockery before God, and we incur the penalty for hypocrisy which will be awarded to us sooner or later.

He called forth the Prophet Joseph Smith in this dispensation to be His agent in establishing His Gospel upon the earth, that the honest in heart, like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is over, might be gathered out as the Apostle John beheld in vision while on the Isle of Patmos. He saw an angel flying through the midst of heaven, crying aloud, “Come out of her, O, my people.” The same great truth is also contained in the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph, and the Saints are being gathered from the uttermost parts of the earth that they may receive the ordinances and blessings of the Gospel, that they may be prepared to rear, to the name of God, temples and cities and communities worthy of His continual blessings and favors.

This is the work before the Saints; and the residue of the inhabitants of the earth will be visited with the judgments of the Almighty, and “Babylon the mother of harlots,” will fall to rise no more. I tell you, in the name of Israel’s God, that this world and its inhabitants are doomed; their doom is sealed, and the only way of escape is the Gospel of the Son of God, the door to which is baptism for the remission of sins, after repenting of and forsaking every practice that tends to degrade and degenerate the human race. Nothing but this will save the world from the doom that is hanging over it, which God has decreed shall be poured out upon it. When the testimony of His servants has gone forth in the midst of its inhabitants.

They are first to be warned by the testimony of His servants, afterwards by the voice of thunders and lightnings, earthquakes, famines, pestilence and devastation; and He will send them in their midst until they are wasted away, whether the world believe it or not; they may laugh the declaration to scorn and derision, and regard it as fanaticism; but that little stone seen by the Prophet Daniel, which was taken out of the mountains without hands, is beginning to roll, and it will as surely break in pieces the great image, as that the great image exists. The kingdom of God exists, and it will become a great mountain and fill the whole earth, just as Daniel foresaw. I am a witness to this, and so are the Latter-day Saints. We do know that God has revealed these things, and all who desire can test what we say, and prove whether we speak of ourselves, or are commanded of God. The path is clear, so that all may know whether we speak the truth and have received the Holy Ghost and the Gospel of the Son of God or not—repent of your sins by forsaking them; be baptized by one having authority, for the remission of sins, and have hands laid on you for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and you shall know whether the doctrine we preach is true or false, and whether or not this is, as we say, the only way in which man can obtain eternal life. We invite all men to walk in this path, and we are fearless as to the result, for in my own experience, in hundreds and thousands of instances, I have received a witness and testimony that this is the truth. Thousands of Latter-day Saints can bear the same testimony, and we desire that all the honest in heart may receive this testimony, and know for themselves. I bear this testimony for the benefit of those who know not, but desire to gain a knowledge of the truth; and also for the benefit of the weak, if there be any here, who may be called Latter-day Saints. I have borne this testimony to strangers abroad, and I do it here for your encouragement. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 30, 1870.

I can say to the people, as I have frequently said, if we were apt scholars to learn the truth and to understand the mind and will of God concerning us, and would then each and every one of us with fervency perform his duty, it would not be necessary to talk quite so loud and quite so long as we do now. But we are still children and can learn but little at a time; and we need to have our lessons repeated in our hearing very frequently, for we are apt to lay down our books when we go out of these schools where instructions are given. We are very apt to slumber and sleep and forget what resolutions we have made in our own minds, and to forget what we have heard from the servants of God. If we could learn our lessons, treasure them up and practice upon them, it would not be necessary to spend so much time in talking or in listening to these who talk; but it is necessary for us to talk and then to practice and show the people as well as teach them how to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth. It is quite a pity that we do not understand things! Take the inhabitants of the earth as they are, and in many things pertaining to what is called worldly wisdom—mechanism, the sciences and the arts, there seems to be a great deal of knowledge displayed; but they are ignorant, at the same time, of the fountain of this knowledge. They cannot conceive of anything any broader or deeper than the extension of their own minds and that of their neighbors. If we—that is, mankind generally, could understand that whatever we enjoy, whatever wisdom and knowledge we possess, is bestowed upon us by and comes from God, we should perhaps be more willing to acknowledge Him in these blessings; and until the people called Latter-day Saints do this, we shall continue to talk to them and to ourselves.

The Word of Wisdom has been preached to this people, first and last, a good deal, that is the written word in the Doctrine and Covenants. It has been read and taught to the people now, some thirty-eight years! And yet we neglect to observe this trifling lesson concerning our health. Is it not strange? Yes, it is; it is passing strange; it is astonishing! How many there are of our brethren who say, “I can’t dispense with my tobacco! I can’t lay down my pipe or cigar and let it alone; I must take it up again, I can’t live unless I have a little tobacco in my mouth, or in my nose.” I have no knowledge of their using it in their ears. Old men, middle-aged men, men strong in intellect and physical force, athletic men, will say, “I must have a little tobacco.” Is this the case with the Elders of Israel? You recollect that, here, a year ago I think it was last Conference, if my memory serves me aright, when the Bishop of the Church was presented for acceptance to the people, and then his counselors came up, I made this reservation—I would vote for them if they would let their liquor and tobacco alone; and I believe the people voted for them on the ground that they were to cease using ardent spirits and tobacco. If they have not used it from that day to this, there were but few days that they did not use it. They should be examples to the Church; they should be like fathers to the Church. If they are really the counselors of the Bishop, they should practice everything that is good that he practices; and if the Bishop himself should neglect any duty, they should perform their duty as counselors, and should teach, guide, direct and counsel the Bishop to improve in his life.

But to return to the brethren and the use of tobacco. There are many of our Elders who say, “I can’t live without indulging in this unseemly appetite.” To say that the nature of man requires tobacco and spirits is absurd. I do not know but we might prove that the nature of a dumb brute desires this at certain times. I am not sure but what certain would drink liquor if it were reduced considerably; perhaps they might drink it when rather strong. I think I have heard of some few instances in the course of my life. But you put cattle into a field where there is tobacco and you will see that none of them will eat it unless they are sick, they will take it then, but at no other time. If a horse, ox or sheep be in good, ordinary health it will not touch it, and to say that it is necessary for man is absurd! Well, is it good for nothing? Was it created in vain? No, the Word of Wisdom tells us that tobacco is for sick cattle, and the dumb brute will demonstrate this if it is sick and can get at it. The tobacco plant and the lobelia plant are similar in taste and outward appearance, though not in their effects; but the former is for cattle, the latter for man. The difference in their effects is chiefly, that lobelia has no narcotic influence, while tobacco has.

I wish to ask those brethren who are in the habit of using tobacco, Won’t you leave it alone and try lobelia, and see if you can become attached to it? If you can, it will prove that it possesses narcotic properties; if you cannot, it will prove that it possesses no such properties. Mankind would not become attached to these unnecessary articles were it not for the poison they contain. The poisonous or narcotic properties in spirits, tobacco and tea are the cause of their being so much liked by those who use them. I hear something occasionally about tea, but I say if the ladies would take the natural leaf from the stem and dry it upon wood they would not become attached to it as they do to the green tea, Young Hyson, Gunpowder and other popular brands, for these kinds are cured on copper, and they partake more or less of the nature of the copper on which they are dried, through being impregnated with its poisonous qualities.

I say this to the brethren and sisters, that they may see if they can become attached to and really crave any of these stimulants that do not contain quite a quantity of poison. There is no doubt whatever that the food we eat, and which is absolutely necessary to sustain us, contains poison. I do not dispute that the poison contained in the bread that has been distributed from the table this afternoon, if extracted by a skillful chemist, would be enough to kill; but still, as combined with the other constituent elements of which bread is composed, it is not injurious, and we eat it without harm. But where we find so much poison in articles the people will become very strongly attached to them in a very short time. For instance, how quickly persons become attached to the practice of opium eating; they cannot live without it! If there was no poison in it it would not operate upon the system as it does. In some countries it is said that the fair sex are in the habit of arsenic eating, and this is for the special purpose of improving the complexion. Let a lady commence taking the smallest possible particle of this article, and if she continues the practice, in a few years she will not be able to live without it.

Many of our sisters think they cannot live without tea. I will tell you what we can do—I have frequently said it to my brethren and sisters—if they cannot live without tea, coffee, brandy, whiskey, wine, beer, tobacco, &c., they can die without them. This is beyond controversy. If we had the determination that we should have, we would live without them or die without them. Let the mother impregnate her system with these narcotic influences when she is bringing forth a family on the earth, and what does she do? She lays the foundation of weakness, palpitation of the heart, nervous affections, and many other ills and diseases in the system of her offspring that will afflict them from the cradle to the grave. Is this righteous or unrighteous, good or evil? Let my sisters ask and answer the question for themselves, and the conclusion which each and every one of them may come to is this, “If I do an injury to my child, I sin.”

We very well know that the customs which prevail in the world are such as to cause millions and millions of children to go to untimely graves. Infants, children, youth, young men and young women, thousands and tens of thousands of them go to an untimely grave through the diseases engendered in their systems by their progenitors. Is this wrong or is it right? If it is wrong we should abstain from every influence and practice which produces these evil effects; if it is right, then practice them. But we say it is wrong; God says it is wrong, and He has pointed out in a few instances the path for us to walk in, by observing the Word of Wisdom, and He has declared that it is fitted to the capacity of the Saints, yea the weakest of all who are or can be called Saints. And this Word of Wisdom prohibits the use of hot drinks and tobacco. I have heard it argued that tea and coffee are not mentioned therein; that is very true; but what were the people in the habit of taking as hot drinks when that revelation was given? Tea and coffee. We were not in the habit of drinking water very hot, but tea and coffee—the beverages in common use. And the Lord said hot drinks are not good for the body nor the belly, liquor is not good for the body nor the belly, but for the washing of the body, &c. Tobacco is not good, save for sick cattle, and for bruises and sores, its cleansing properties being then very useful.

Now then, will we observe the Word of Wisdom? Will we let our tea, coffee, whiskey and tobacco alone? Shall I answer for my brethren and sisters? Yes, I will answer. A large proportion of the Elders of Israel will let these things alone, they do let them alone; but there is a certain percentage of them that you might as well talk to the wind as to talk to them about these things. As for my sisters, I can answer the question for them. They may not have their tea on the table when the husband sits down to breakfast or supper, and their teacups, saucers and teapot may be out of sight, but I will insure that many of them take a little tea for the stomach’s sake in the course of the day, whether the father or husband knows anything about it or not; and if the question is asked why I think so, I answer from the statistics of the sales of tea and coffee in our stores; they prove this. We were very urgent, a year or two ago, with regard to the Word of Wisdom, and the influence then raised made an impression on the people which caused them to forsake the use of these unnecessary articles for the time being. It was our wish then, and is still, that the money generally paid out for tea and coffee, liquor, tobacco, &c., be used to send for the poor Saints and bring them to a land where they can accumulate the common necessaries of life, instead of staying in their own land, and going down to an untimely grave for the want of food. I recollect one sister said to me, one day, “Brother Brigham, here is twenty dollars”—I think that was the sum—“I give this into the poor fund. At such a time you advised us to let our tea and coffee alone, and contribute the same amount that we would expend for these articles in bringing the poor from the old country. It would have taken me twenty dollars to supply me with these articles to this time. I have saved the money; my health now is more than fifty percent better than when I left off tea. I can now work ten, or perhaps twelve, hours a day easier than I could two or three when I took these stimulants.” Some others have sent in a few dollars thus accumulated for the relief of the poor; but I think most of our sisters have taken to their old practice of drinking tea again. Perhaps I do not judge rightly, but my conclusions are formed from information in my possession, as to the amount of this article sold.

As far as I can learn the cup of tea stands on the stoves in the houses of my near neighbors, associates, and those with whom I am best acquainted. I go along occasionally and take up a tin cup, and say, “What is this?” “It is a little tea; we have just made a little tea this morning;” or, “we thought we would have a little tea this morning.” I have not seen any on my table, but frequently I am asked, “Will you have a little tea?” I can say I have tasted it to see whether I have liked it or not. I have desired not to like it. I never was in the habit of using it, except a very small portion of my life. But I do not like it. It has got to be made very delicate, about as weak as if for a child, and then a good share of nice cream and sugar in it for me to like it at all. I have frequently taken a spoon and said, “Let us see what you are drinking? Oh, yes, tea! It wants a little sugar and cream in it.” If you who use it will drink a large share of sugar and cream in it, it will not have that same influence on your stomach as if you drink it raw, I mean without the sugar and cream; it will not injure the coating of the stomach to the same extent. And if you adopt this practice, adding a little more sugar and cream, and having your tea gradually weaker and weaker you may finally get rid of it.

I ask again will we observe the Word of Wisdom? “No, we will not, unless we have a mind to.” That is the answer. “If we have a mind to and feel disposed to do so, we will observe it, but not without.” I say to all the Elders of Israel, if it makes you sick and so sleepy that you cannot keep out of bed unless you have tobacco, go to bed and there lie. How long? Until you can get up and go to your business like rational men, like men who have heads on their shoulders and who are not controlled by their foolish appetites. I have said to my family, and I now say to all the sisters in the Church, if you cannot get up and do your washing without a cup of tea in the morning, go to bed, and there lie. How long? Until the influence of tea is out of the system. Will it take a month? No matter if it does; if it takes three months, six months, or a year, it is better to lie there in bed until the influence of tea, coffee and liquor is out of the system, so that you may go about your business like rational persons, than to give way to these foolish habits. They are destructive to the human system; they filch money from our pockets, and they deprive the poor of the necessaries of life. Hundreds and thousands could have keen brought here to this Territory, where they could have had food to eat, raiment to wear, and been taught so as to have a house of their own, could have known how to build a good cabin, lived under their own roof and eaten their own bread; whereas, now they are perishing by scores and hundreds. Do these habits rob the poor? Yes, they do. Do they produce evil? Yes, they do. They do not bring that sweet satisfaction of the Spirit of God to our hearts and our feelings and affections that would come to us by the observance of the Word of Wisdom, and using the means thus wasted to feed the poor and clothe the naked.

A few words with regard to our tithes and offerings—a subject that was presented to the people yesterday. You come to the rich, that is, those who are best off, for we cannot boast that anybody is rich in our community, but those who have the most means, as a general thing, do the least. Our tithes and offerings are neglected; the poor are needy, they want bread, and a little of something to make them comfortable. There may be a few, perhaps, sick in this Ward, and the next, and so on through the Wards, and there is nothing contributed for their assistance. I know it is the disposition of many to turn round and say, “We pay our tithing.” I want to inform the Latter-day Saints that since we have been in these valleys there has not been one-tenth part of the tithing paid into the Church that was due to it; but everything that we can rake and scrape goes to the poor, and for the building of the kingdom of God, as it was designed; and the poor and the needy get pretty much all of it. If they do not, I do not know it. It is left in the hands of our agents and clerks, and I know it is dealt out to our workmen and the poor as long as we have anything left. And then upon this God has blessed me sufficiently that I feed and clothe my scores of poor, independent of the tithing office; and He will bless any man, any family, or any people who is liberal. As it is written in the good book,” The liberal man deviseth liberal things,” and if he deviseth liberal things by his liberality he shall stand. The Lord will bless that people that is full of charity, kindness and good works. When our monthly fast days come round, do we think of the poor? If we do, we should send in our mite, no matter what it is. What is it to give ten or twenty pounds of flour, or a hundred pounds of flour? What is it to give a little meat, or sugar, or a little money, or whatever is wanted? Does it impoverish us? It does not. If this people have not been sustained by the hand of the Almighty, I ask how they have been sustained? Could any other people have lived in these valleys except the Latter-day Saints? No, they could not. The elements would not have produced the corn, the wheat, the oats, the rye, the peas, the barley, the vegetables and the fruit. These elements in which we live would not have produced them for anybody else. But the Lord suffered us to be driven here from our homes, and He promised us He would lead us into a goodly land. He has done so. He has blessed the soil, the water and the atmosphere; He has blessed the shining sun and the falling rain, and He has forbidden the hoary frosts to cut off our crops, as they did when we first came here; and we have been sustained and preserved, and if the Lord Almighty has not done it, let some man tell who has. As far as my knowledge goes, the providences of God have sustained this people, the hand of the Lord has fed and clothed them, and given them all they possess. We were not fit to live in Christian society; we were not worthy of the holiness, beauty, excellency and glory of the Christian world, let our enemies tell the story; but they must drive us into the wilderness, there to perish as they thought. And if God has not sustained us after all that we have passed through, let some one tell how we have been sustained.

Will He sustain us in being covetous? No; let the hearts of the people dry up with regard to the poor, in sending for those in foreign lands, in sending the Elders to the nations of the earth, in preaching the Gospel, in purifying ourselves here; let us neglect the Word of Wisdom, neglect our prayers, tithes, offerings, donations, and public works, and see how much we will enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. The danger now in the midst of the people arises from their neglect of these things; it leaves them in cold and darkness. See the apostasy in our midst; see also the love of riches. The spirit of the world and of apostasy is prevalent here, and the people want stirring up, and sometimes I feel as if they wanted a rap on each side of the head to wake them up, that they may see where they are going and what they are doing.

How is it with most of those who were our merchants here? “A little more of your money, brethren and sisters;” and the best of them are so today. I hardly know where I could draw the line of distinction between the just and the unjust; between those who, while trading, let their avaricious, craving disposition control them, and those who dealt justly. It is hard to draw the line between them, the feeling was to general. “A little more of your money, a little more wealth, a little more ease, a little more land, a little more means, a little finer house, a little better carriage, a few more horses, a few more possessions; give us your money, it is all we want of you.” And that spirit is distributed among the people.

I will stop right here and say to the Latter-day Saints, I have sought to teach you how to get rich, but I never taught you to neglect your duty; I never instructed you nor taught you to forsake the Lord; and today I would rather not own one farthing, and take my valise in my hand, as I did at the rise of the Church, and travel among the nations of the earth, and beg my bread from door to door, than to neglect my duty and lose the Spirit of Almighty God. If I have wealth and cannot use it to the glory of God and the building up of His kingdom I ask the Lord to take it from me. But how is it with some of the people? A little more ease, a little more ease to my eyelids; as the Prophet said, “a little more sleep and a little more slumber and a little more folding of the hands.” Say some, “We are pretty easy in circumstances, have quite enough to last us through life; but we want a little more for our children; and when we get enough for them we want a little more for grandchildren, and then a little more for our great-grandchildren,” and finally they never want to stop until they get the whole world; and, in very many cases, what they get will canker their souls and send them down to hell. It has been so in this Church from the beginning.

I will say to you that we have the capacity to receive, but we need teaching continually. We had three sermons this morning, and we had not half enough; and we shall keep this meeting two hours this afternoon; and we might talk to each other again tomorrow morning, and continue until our hearts get full of the kingdom of God, and building it up and the establishment of peace and righteousness upon the earth. We are called, as it has been told you, to redeem the nations of the earth. The fathers cannot be made perfect without us; we cannot be made perfect without the fathers. There must be this chain in the holy Priesthood; it must be welded together from the latest generation that lives on the earth back to Father Adam, to bring back all that can be saved and placed where they can receive salvation and a glory in some kingdom. This Priesthood has to do it; this Priesthood is for this purpose. God has revealed the plan of salvation, we know how to carry it out. If we neglect this will we be justified? No, we will not; we must carry out this plan of salvation, and in so doing we expect the whole world to be against us. It was revealed to me in the commencement of this Church, that the Church would spread, prosper, grow and extend, and that in proportion to the spread of the Gospel among the nations of the earth, so would the power of Satan rise. It was told you here that Brother Joseph warned the Elders of Israel against false spirits. It was revealed to me that if the people did not receive the spirit of revelation that God had sent for the salvation of the world, they would receive false spirits, and would have revelation. Men would have revelation, women would have revelation, the priest in the pulpit and the deacon under the pulpit would have revelation, and the people would have revelation enough to damn the whole nation, and nations of them, unless they would hearken to the voice of God. It was not only revealed to Joseph, but to your humble servant, that false spirits would be as prevalent and as common among the inhabitants of the earth as we now see them.

Seeing that I have got on this thread, I will ask, Is there any revelation in the world? Yes, plenty of it. We are accused of being nothing more nor less than a people possessing what they term the higher order of Spiritualism. Whenever I see this in print, or hear it spoken, “You are right,” say I. “Yes, we belong to that higher order of Spiritualism; our revelations are from above, yours from beneath. This is the difference. We receive revelation from Heaven, you receive your revelations from every foul spirit that has departed this life, and gone out of the bodies of mobbers, murderers, highwaymen, drunkards, thieves, liars, and every kind of debauched character, whose spirits are floating around here, and searching and seeking whom they can destroy; for they are the servants of the devil, and they are permitted to come now to reveal to the people.” It was not so once, anciently or formerly, when there was no Priesthood on the earth, no revelations from Heaven. Then the Lord Almighty shut up this evidence, and all intercourse between men on the earth and the foul spirits, so that the latter could not deceive and destroy the former with their revelations. But God has spoken now, and so has the devil; Jesus has revealed his Priesthood, so has the devil revealed his, and there is quite a difference between the two. One forms a perfect chain, the links of which cannot be separated; one has perfect order, laws, rules, regulations, organization; it forms, fashions, makes, creates, produces, protects and holds in existence the inhabitants of the earth in a pure and holy form of government, preparatory to their entering the kingdom of Heaven. The other is a rope of sand; it is disjointed, jargon, confusion, discord, everybody receiving revelation to suit himself. If I were disposed to go into their rings I could make every table, every dot, every particle of their revelations prove that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I could lay my hands on the table with them, and if I would consent to have the spirits wrap, I would make them prove every time that Joseph Smith was a prophet; but let me go, and another man come along, a wicked man, and he would have all the evidence he desired that Joseph was not a prophet of God. I could make them say, every time, that this is the Church of Christ; while a wicked man might enter the circle and he would be told that this was not the Church of Christ; and this is their system—it is confusion and discord. It is like a rope of sand. There is no order, no organization; it cannot be reduced to a system, it is uncertainty. That is the difference between the two spiritual systems—yes, this is the higher order of spiritualism, to be led, governed and controlled by law, and that, too, the law of heaven that governs and controls the Gods and the angels. There is no being in heaven that could endure there, that could abide the heavens unless he is sanctified, purified and glorified by law, and lives by law. But take the other party, and it is without law. Well, what is it? Death. What is that? Dissolution of the body. And what will be next? The second death, and I leave every person to speculate to suit himself with regard to that; but the Scriptures say “Blessed is he on whom the second death hath no power;” and they who serve God and keep His commandments, that receive the holy Priesthood of the Son of God, have something tangible, and if they live according to this law the second death has nothing to do with them. They are above it, free from it, they are masters of it, for they command in the name of Jesus, and their words are obeyed; and what they say shall be done, is done. This is the authority that God gives. As the Scriptures say, “Whatsoever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you loose on earth, is loosed in heaven; and whosesoever sins you remit on earth, shall be remitted to them in heaven; and whosesoever sins ye retain on earth, are retained in heaven.” This is the authority of the kingdom of God on the earth, and we possess and expect nothing less.

Look at the Christian world! How many times it was said to me, in my early career: “Oh, if the Lord had spoken to such a man, to such a divine that we have all confidence in; if the Lord had revealed His will to that man, we could have believed the whole thing.” The Lord Almighty could not do it. Do you know the reason why? I do. I was acquainted with some of the best reformers that ever walked on the American continent, as good to all appearance as lived. They would say: “We have prayed, we have fasted, we have sought, we have believed, we have had faith that God was about to reveal something from the heavens, but He has not revealed it to us.” That was the trouble. They had their way marked out before them, and if the Lord would not walk in that path they would not have anything to do with Him, and their conduct proved it. When men say: “O Lord, we are the clay, you are the potter! Fashion, shape and make us, and do with us as seems good in Thy sight, only let us know Thy will, we are here to perform whatever Thou requirest,” it makes me think of that second person that came forth in the heavens when the voice went forth: “Who will redeem the earth, who will go forth and make the sacrifice for the earth and all things it contains?” The eldest son said: “Here am I;” but he did not say “send me.” But the second one, which was “Lucifer, son of the morning,” said, “Lord, here am I, send me, I will redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve that lives on the earth, or that ever goes on the earth.” “But,” says the Father, “that will not answer at all. I give each and every individual his agency; all must use that in order to gain exaltation in my kingdom; inasmuch as they have the power of choice they must exercise that power. They are my children; the attributes which you see in me are in my children and they must use their agency. If you undertake to save all, you must save them in unrighteousness and corruption. You will be the man that will say to the thief on the cross, to the murderer on the gallows, and to him who has killed his father, mother, brothers, and sisters and little ones, “Now, if you will say, I repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, or on the Savior of the world, you shall be saved.” This is what all the religious sects of the day are saying now, but Jesus did not say any such thing.

How many churches are there upon the earth? Two. Let everybody speculate just as much as they please about this, there are no more, and the earth never saw but two, and there never will be but two. If one is for good, what must the other be? Why, for evil. If one is right, what must the other be? Why, wrong. And there cannot be two just right without being one. The Father cannot operate without the Son, neither can the Son officiate and operate without the Father. They cannot divide their kingdom, and one go to the right and the other to the left, like Abraham and Lot, when they divided their stock; no, they must live together; they must be one, and labor together, and all their efforts being for the salvation of the human family, must be one. If they made a division they would fall. Consequently the Lord Jesus works just as he said he would. “I come not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” He also said, “I do nothing of myself; but what I have seen the Father do, that does the Son.” “Whosoever has seen the Son has seen the Father.” All this you know, with hundreds of other Scriptures and testimonies had in ancient days, showing that the people must be sanctified by law, they must live according to that law; and they must be justified, purified, and sanctified in order to get into the kingdom of heaven, that is, the highest glory.

That saying, “the highest glory,” may give rise to a little speculation on the part of some. Let me quote one passage of Scripture. When Jesus was about to go hence, said he, “I will go away, but I will not leave you comfortless, but I will send you another comforter,” &c. I have not worded it exactly as it is in the Scriptures, that is a little fuller. He then said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it had not been so I would have told you; but I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also.” What kind of mansions did Jesus refer to? This is a question which I shall not pretend to answer at this time, for I have not time; neither how many there are, nor the rules, laws and regulations that pertain to each. But Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions;” or, in other words, in my Father’s dominion are many houses, apartments, degrees, &c. Well, what does this signify, if it does not mean in my Father’s house or dominions are many grades and degrees of glory? Now speculate just as much as you please; it is no matter how much you say or think or reflect upon this. There is space, and in that space there are mansions or kingdoms which God has prepared for His children to inhabit, according to their several capacities. We shall all go somewhere, and all upon whom the second death has no power will live eternally. We want to prepare for that mansion that Jesus went to prepare for his disciples.

The whole world of wickedness is opposed to this kingdom; but when they reduce every doctrine and principle that is believed in and preached by the Latter-day Saints, they will not find one iota, I will be as particular as Bro. Carrington was in defining the wisdom and power of man, and I will say there is not the dot of an i nor the crossing of a t that makes anything against the welfare of the human family for time or eternity; but all for comfort, help, satisfaction, glory and immortality; and all for the glory of God, to be crowned with glory and eternal lives in the presence of the Father and the Son. Every doctrine and principle that is believed in and taught by the Latter-day Saints leads, guides and directs man into the presence of the Father and the Son. May God help us to take that path. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1870.

As we have met in the capacity of a General Conference, we shall expect to hear instructions from the Elders pertaining to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth. This is our calling, this is the labor devolving upon us, and it should occupy our attention day by day from morning until evening and from week to week; in fact, we have no other calling or business, and if we are humble and faithful, God will strengthen us and increase our ability and give us power sufficient to accomplish the tasks devolving upon us in the performance of His work.

The oracles of truth are delivered; men have been called and ordained; the gifts and graces of the Gospel are restored; the kingdom is organized; it is committed to the servants of the Lord, and if we are faithful we shall bear it off; we will establish it and make it firm in the earth, no more to be interrupted or removed, and the teachings that we shall hear will be pertaining to our spiritual and temporal labors in this kingdom. With God, and also with those who understand the principles of life and salvation, the Priesthood, the oracles of truth and the gifts and callings of God to the children of men, there is no difference in spiritual and temporal labors—all are one. If I am in the line of my duty, I am doing the will of God, whether I am preaching, praying, laboring with my hands for an honorable support; whether I am in the field, mechanic’s shop, or following mercantile business, or wherever duty calls, I am serving God as much in one place as another; and so it is with all, each in his place, turn and time. Consequently our teachings during Conference will be to instruct the people how to live and order their lives before the Lord and each other; how to accomplish the work devolving upon them in building up Zion on the earth. To accomplish this will require steady faith and firm determination, and we come together in this capacity that our faith and determination may be increased and strengthened. When we have spent three, four or five days together in giving instruction, we shall only just have commenced to instruct the people; and when we have spent a lifetime in learning and dispensing what we do learn to our fellow beings, we have only commenced in the career of intelligence. Our faith and prayers, the ordinances that we attend to, our assembling ourselves together, our dispersing after attending to the business of life, in our schools, all our educational pursuits are in the service of God, for all these labors are to establish truth on the earth, and that we may increase in knowledge, wisdom, understanding in the power of faith and in the wisdom of God, that we may become fit subjects to dwell in a higher state of existence and intelligence than we now enjoy. We can attain to this only by adding faith to faith, knowledge to knowledge, temperance to temperance, patience to patience, and godliness to godliness, and so increasing in the principles of happiness and salvation.

We shall call upon the Elders to speak to the congregation as they assemble here from day to day, and I hope and trust that the brethren and sisters will treasure up in their hearts the instructions that they receive, and that they will carry them out in their lives. This Sunday religion that a great many of our Christian brethren believe in and practice, when their everyday life is spent in selfishness and for self-aggrandizement, will not do for the Latter-day Saints; with us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday must be spent to the glory of God, as much as Sunday, or we shall come short of the object of our pursuit. Consequently we must pay attention to the things that we hear, and to the principles of the religion that we have embraced in our faith, and seek diligently to break up the prejudices and prepossessed notions and feelings that have woven themselves around us through the traditions of the fathers, and endeavor to know and understand as God knows, that we may do His will. Our traditions are so firmly fixed in our feelings that it is almost impossible to rise above, override, or get rid of them; they cling to us like the affections of tender friends. But we must learn to know the will of God and do it, and let our traditions go, then we shall be blessed.

There are many things that we should understand with regard to ourselves and our children; and when the mind opens upon the vision of life by the spirit of revelation, there is not a person but what can see the eternity of teaching yet to be imparted to the Saints.

I trust that we shall be edified and rejoice together, and shall return from this place strengthened and confirmed in our faith and hopes, feeling that steadiness of nerve, by the spirit of revelation, that we shall not be wafted to and fro, imagining a thousand things incorrect, and pass by those doctrines and truths that are calculated to exalt the human family.