Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 6, 1870.

In February, 1831, just after the organization of the Church, we received a revelation through Joseph Smith, commanding the members of the Church to let the beauty of their garments be the workmanship of their own hands. It reads as follows: “And again, thou shalt not be proud in thy heart; let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands; and let all things be done in cleanliness before me. Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.” This revelation was given almost forty years ago, but slowly, very slowly, have we advanced in fulfilling it; and it really seems that some of the first commandments given to the Church are amongst the last obeyed. I realize the reason of this, when reflecting upon the great work to be done in molding the children of God, gathered from the various nations and denominations, with all their prejudices, traditions, and varied habits of living. They come here filled with ideas averse to those of God and differing from each other; and under these circumstances it is difficult for them to arrive at a oneness in their associations—to use an expression common amongst us at the present—it is difficult for them to cooperate to build up Zion in the last days. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was three hundred and sixty-five years preparing the people, before the saying went forth: “Zion has fled.” “Enoch was 25 years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam, and he was 65 and Adam blessed him, and he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God 365 years, making him 430 years old when he was translated.” Doc. and Cov., sec. 3, par. 24. Three hundred and sixty-five years teaching and instructing the people, and setting examples before them, and forming a city that should be a model city of Zion. It was in an age when men lived longer, and when, peradventure, they had not become so full of tradition as at the present day; yet when we consider the time that it took Enoch to accomplish this work, we have every reason to rejoice at the progress of Zion at the present time. Most of the efforts we have made to advance the cause of Zion we have been able to carry through successfully. For instance, when in the temple of the Lord at Nauvoo, we entered into a covenant that we would, to the extent of our influence and property, do all in our power to help our poor brethren and sisters in emancipating themselves from tyranny and oppression, that they might come to the mountains, where they could enjoy religious liberty. Just as soon as food was raised in this Valley this work continued, and every effort and energy was used to fulfil this covenant. It required unity of effort, but it has been a success. Roads had to be constructed, bridges built, ways sought out, mountains, as it were, torn down, deserts turned into fruitful fields, and savages more wild than the mountain gorges they inhabit conciliated and controlled, and all this to effect a purpose. But it has been done by unity of effort, and hundreds and thousands of Latter-day Saints rejoice in the fact.

We extended our work of gathering the Saints across the mighty deep, and aided the poor brethren in Europe, continuing our donations in money, and, in addition to this, we went with our hundred, two hundred, three hundred or five hundred teams annually across the great desert plains, to bring home to Zion those who desired to be gathered. This was done by cooperation, by unity and a determined purpose.

It appears that we have gathered many to Zion who do not fully appreciate the great work of these days—namely, to place the people of God in a condition that they can sustain themselves, against the time that Babylon the Great shall fall. Some will say that it is ridiculous to suppose that Babylon, the “Mother of Harlots,” is going to fall. Ridiculous as it may seem, the time will come when no man will buy her merchandise, and when the Latter-day Saints will be under the necessity of providing for themselves, or going without. “This may be a wild idea,” but it is no more wild or wonderful than what has already transpired, and that before our eyes. When we are counseled to “provide for your wants within yourselves,” we are only told to prepare for that day. When we are told, “Unite your interests and establish every variety of business that may be necessary to supply your wants,” we are only told to lay a plan to enjoy liberty, peace and plenty.

Many years ago efforts were made on the part of the Presidency to extend the settlements into the warm valleys south of the rim of the Basin. The country was very forbidding and sterile. Many were invited and called upon to go and settle there. Numbers went, but many of them returned disheartened; but the mass of those who went, confident that the blessings of God would be upon their labors, pushed forth their exertions and built up towns, cities and villages; they established cotton fields and erected factories, and supplied many wants which could not be supplied within the rim of the Basin.

It has been my lot to visit these regions recently, and I have felt to rejoice to see the kind spirit, genial dispositions and warm hearts that were manifested in all those settlements, where men and women had taken hold with all their hearts to obey the commandments of God, and to lay a foundation for Zion to become self-sustaining. I feel that those who have turned away from that country and swerved from the mission assigned them there have lost a great and glorious blessing, which it will be exceedingly difficult for them ever to regain. I am exceedingly gratified at the progress which has been made in that country, and I realize that our brethren, from year to year, are becoming more and more united.

Some tell us that we want capital, and that we should send abroad and get men to come here with money to build factories. This is not what we need. If the cotton lord and the millionaire come here and hire you to build factories and pay you their money for their work, when the factory is erected they own it, and they set their price upon your labor and your wool or cotton—they have dominion over you. But if, by your own efforts and exertions, you cooperate together and build a factory it is your own. You are the lords of the land, and if fortunes are made the means is yours and it is used to oppress no one. The profits are divided among those whose labor produced it, and will be used to build up the country. Hence it is not capital, that is, it is not so much money that is needed. It is unity of effort on the part of the bone, sinew, skill and ingenuity which we have in our midst, and which, in whatever enterprise has been attempted hitherto, under the direction of the servants of the Lord, with whole-souled unity on the part of the people, has proved successful. Let us be diligent in these things. Why send abroad for our cloth when we have the necessary means and skill to manufacture it for ourselves? Why not let these mountains produce the fine wool? And why not let the low valleys produce the silk, flax, and all other articles that are necessary which it is possible to produce within the range of our climate, and thus secure to ourselves independence? I am very well aware that this has looked, and to many still looks, a wild undertaking; but that which has been accomplished gives abundant evidence of what may be. If we continue to import our hats, bonnets, boots, shoes and clothing, and send away all the gold, silver and currency that we can command to pay for them, we shall ever remain dependent upon the labor of others for many of the actual necessaries of life. If, on the other hand, we devise means to produce them from the elements by our own labor we keep our money at home, and it can be used for other and more noble purposes, and we become independent.

Some may say, “We are willing that you should preach faith and repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, but we do not want you to have anything to say about business matters.” No idea could be more delusive; this oversight in temporal matters being indispensably necessary; for the Latter-day Saints have been gathered from the old settled nations of the earth and are unacquainted with the manner of life in new and sparsely settled countries. An intelligent citizen of Provo, on his arrival in this country, came to my garden to work; he undertook to set out some vegetables—onions, carrots, and parsnips, and he set every one of them wrongside up. My wife went out, and, seeing what he was doing, she said, “You are foolish.” “Why so?” said he, “I thought I was pretty smart.” “Why you have planted these things all wrong end up.” “Have I, I did not know any better. I never saw such things planted before.” That man became a wealthy farmer. But he had to learn; he had never seen a carrot planted to produce seed in his life, and did not realize which end up to put it in the ground. We have tens of thousands of men, women and children who have had to learn how to get a living in this country, who perhaps had spent their days in painting a tea cup, turning a bowl, weaving a ribbon or spinning a thread, and knew nothing else. Here they have had to work at several kinds of work at once, and had to learn how, and it required all the power, energy and influence of the Elders of Israel to instruct them and tell them how to live. I have been astonished at the patience, perseverance, determination and incessant labor of President Young in giving these instructions—telling men how to build mills and houses, so that they would not fall over their own heads; telling them how to yoke cattle, harness horses, how to make fences, and, in fact, how to do almost every kind of business.

There are very few in our midst now who know how to make good bread. I advise the ladies’ relief societies to teach all the sisters to make first-class bread. Many of them do not know how; and let every sister in Israel be thankful for instruction in relation to cooking or any other useful information that can be imparted unto her. Do not let pride and independence make you feel that you know how to do everything. There are a great many things that the smartest among us do not know how to do; then we should be anxious and willing to be taught, and go to work and learn.

Much of the sickness which is amongst our children is the result of improperly prepared food. We raise choice wheat; our millers make good flour, yet in many instances bread is so prepared that it is heavy and unpalatable, causing disease of the stomach and bowels, with which many of our little ones are afflicted, and find rest in premature graves. Give the children good light bread that they may be healthy.

Brethren and sisters, may the blessings of Israel’s God be upon you and may you continue to improve in everything useful and good. Seek after the Lord with all your hearts. Cooperate in building factories, importing merchandise and machinery, taking care of your cattle, and in every kind of business. Remember that, “United we stand, divided we fall.”

May God bless you forever. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 6, 1870.

I believe this is the largest assembly of Saints or sinners, Jew or Gentile, that ever I saw together under one roof. There are very few of us capable of making such an assembly hear, unless it is very still; and when persons have come from twenty to two hundred and fifty miles to attend Conference, it certainly is important that we give them a chance to hear what is said.

It is true that God has set his hand in these latter days to bring to pass his act, his strange act, and to accomplish his work, his strange work—that truth should spring out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven; and it certainly would be strange if these things were not performed. The Supreme Ruler would not be like a God who had created a world like this and peopled it if he let it go at random, without any purpose or plan for the benefit and salvation of the children of men.

I want to say a few words on this subject. I consider that the work we now see taking place in these mountains, and which has been going on from the time this Church was organized, is but carrying out the great plan of our Father in heaven—that plan which was ordained from before the foundation of the world. In fact there is no dispensation that has been looked upon with as much interest by all the prophets of God and inspired men, from the day of Joseph Smith, as that in which we live, in which the Zion of God is being built up, and the earth is being prepared for the coming of the Son of Man.

Isaiah, in looking by prophetic vision to this day, makes use of very strong language in endeavoring to express his feelings in relation to it. In one instance he says, “Sing, O heavens; and rejoice, O earth! Break forth into singing, O ye mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted yet.” Zion says, “The Lord has forsaken me, my God has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?” “Yea,” the Lord says, “a woman may do that,” but he will not forget Zion. Says he, “Zion is engraven on the palms of my hands, her walls are continually before me.”

Now this Zion of God has been before his face from before the foundation of the world, and it is no more going to fail in the latter days than any of the purposes of God are going to fail, hence I look upon this work as the work of God, and it makes no difference to the Lord Almighty, nor to his Saints, what the world may think or do about it, or what course they may pursue with regard to it; they cannot stop its progress, because it is the work of God. If it were the work of man it would not exist as it does today. If God had no hand in this work, we should not have seen this assembly here today in this Tabernacle, nor this Territory filled with cities and towns. But being the work of God, he asks no odds of any nation, kindred, tongue or people under the whole heavens, any further than they are willing to keep his commandments and do his will; for as the Lord God Almighty lives, so true will the work, the foundation of which has been laid in these latter days, increase and continue until its consummation is effected, and the great Zion of God is established in beauty, power and glory, and the dominion of the kingdom of our God extends over the whole earth.

Joseph Smith laid the foundation of this work; he was chosen by the Lord for that purpose, and was ordained by prophets and inspired men who formerly held the keys of the kingdom of God upon the earth. They laid their hands upon his head and ordained him to the Priesthood, and gave him power to unlock the heavens and to administer the ordinances of the house of God upon the earth. This work he performed in the face of difficulty, persecution, opposition and oppression; but the hand of God sustained him. He knew what few men or people on the whole face of the earth know—that God lives, and he also knew that the work whose foundations he laid was the work of God.

This is what has sustained President Young through all his labors. Many men have looked upon him, and, in consequence of outside pressure, have expected him to say this, that, and the other; but all the time he has taken a straightforward course, walking in the path pointed out by the God of heaven; and that same hand has sustained him and you and me and every good and virtuous man and woman on the face of the earth who has listened to the commandments of God.

Isaiah and other prophets saw in vision much concerning the building up and establishment of the latter-day Zion of God upon the earth. They saw the people gathering from the nations of the earth to the mountains of Israel; they speak of a great company coming up to Zion, the women with child and her that travailed with child together; and a great many other things in relation to the internal workings of the inhabitants of Zion in building up the kingdom of God they do not mention, whether they ever saw them or not. Isaiah has not written concerning many of these things, neither has anybody yet that we know of. Perhaps when the remainder of the plates, which were delivered to the Prophet Joseph, and which he was commanded not to translate, come forth, we may learn many more things pertaining to our labor on the earth which we do not know now. But be this as it may, all this internal work is left for the Holy Ghost to reveal to the living oracles, as they guide, lead, dictate and direct the people day by day. This is one thing I want to say to my friends and to the Saints of God, that without the Holy Ghost, without direct revelation and the inspiration of God continually, Brigham Young could not lead this people twenty-four hours. He could not lead them at all. Joseph could not have done it, neither could any man. This power is in the bosom of Almighty God, and he imparts it to his servants the prophets as they stand in need of it day by day to build up Zion.

I want to say to my brethren and sisters that President Young is our leader; he is our lawgiver in the Church and kingdom of God. He is called to this office; it is his prerogative to tell this people what to do, and it is our duty to obey the counsel that he has given today to the sisters and the brethren. We, as a people, should not treat lightly this counsel, for I will tell you in the name of the Lord—and I have watched it from the time I became a member of this Church—there is no man who undertakes to run counter to the counsel of the legally authorized leader of this people that ever prospers, and no such man ever will prosper. Many things I might name, if it were wisdom to do so, to prove the truth of this statement, but you may watch for yourselves, and you will find that all persons who take a stand against this counsel will never prosper.

A great deal has been said with regard to guiding this people in temporal matters. I ask you in the name of the Lord, who is called to guide the temporal affairs of this Church and kingdom, for its advantage, redemption and exaltation, as pure as a bride adorned for her husband, if it be not that man who is placed as the lawgiver and leader of Israel? There is no man on the footstool of God who has this authority but him who stands at the head; and his Counselors and the Apostles, Bishops and Elders ought to be coworkers with him, and they should work together in carrying out his counsel. And when counsel comes we should not treat it lightly, no matter to what subject it pertains, for if we do it will work evil unto us. Cooperation, it is well known to every Saint who has his eyes and ears open, has brought much good to Israel, yet from the very commencement of it there has been more or less discontent and dissatisfaction felt and manifested towards it; but there is not an individual who has attempted to work against it but who has lost the Spirit of God unless he has repented. It is so in all things, as every one of us who has had experience in this kingdom has seen over and over again. No man has ever prospered by this course, but if he has continued it he, by and by, has gone downward instead of upward; no such man ever received and gained to himself honor by taking such a course, and no man ever will. They may try it as often as they wish; no matter whether they are insiders or outsiders, every man who undertakes to fight against this work and people will, in God’s own time, receive chastisement at his hand. Many who have done so, have been cut off, and others will follow. This is true, whether it is in regard to following counsel or not. We cannot treat lightly the counsel of God without incurring his displeasure.

Does any man or woman wonder that President Young leads out, and calls upon us to follow, in directing temporal affairs? What would become of us and Zion if there were no one to give counsel in temporal matters? We could not advance if such were the case; but we have been guided so far by the servants of God and the Spirit of God. We have been dull scholars perhaps in a great many things, but I thank God that it is as well as it is with us today. The organization of this Church took place forty years ago with six members, and here is a congregation that would make two thousand branches of the Church as large as the first branch that was established, and this is only one congregation, while we have 600 miles of towns, villages and settlements in this Territory. It is progress all the time. Why? Because it is the work of God. No one can stand in the way of the work of God in safety. The Lord is not dependent upon any man on his footstool; if one man will not do his bidding, another will. He gives his law to all men, and inasmuch as they reject it they are under condemnation.

I fear not the world. We are the only people under heaven who are one, and we are not half as much one as we ought to be; we have to im– prove. We are the only people in the whole Christian world who make any pretensions to oneness in building up the Zion of God on the earth. We profess to be one in the Gospel, and we have to become so in temporal matters. We have to become of one heart and mind in giving attention and obedience to the counsel of God in all things, both spiritual and temporal. Zion has got to advance; she has got to rise and shine and put on her beautiful garments. She is advancing and has been from the time of the organization of this Church, and she will continue to do so until the winding up scene.

When I look at the blessing of the Gospel of Christ, and at the blessings which we as a people enjoy; when I look at the glorious principles which God has revealed for the exaltation and glory of man, I rejoice in them, and ask who will obey them? I feel that we ought to be thankful to God day and night; we should be humble and always ready to listen to counsel. Let us go to and carry out these principles. “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” says the Lord Jesus. President Young preached on that subject a few Sabbaths ago, showing that however great our professions as Saints may be, they are vain unless we keep the commandments and counsels of the Lord given unto us. What are they? We have the moral law and we have the Gospel in the Scriptures; but there are commandments and ordinances, and there is counsel which we have to observe which are not contained in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, or in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. In fact there is very little there in regard to our work and labors here as a people.

The Lord has put into our hands the power to build up this great Zion, which all the ancient prophets re– joiced in and prophesied about. What manner of people ought we to be who are called to carry out this work? We ought to be the Saints and children of God in very deed. Our hearts ought to be open and prepared to receive instruction, light and truth, and to carry out all principles which may be communicated unto us by the servants of the Lord. The counsels we have had today are of great value to the Latter-day Saints. By and by Babylon will fall; in a little while “no man will buy her merchandise,” and the sooner we are prepared for the changes which are about to take place in our nation and in the nations of the earth the better for us. We are all interested in the welfare of Zion. Our wives, daughters and sons are interested in the welfare of the husbands and fathers, and the children in that of the parents; and we all should be interested in each other’s temporal and spiritual labors, and there should not be a selfish feeling on the part of any portion of a family—“I do not care what becomes of this, that or the other, if I can only get what I want myself.” This is selfishness, it produces disunion and is inconsistent with the profession of a Saint of God. We should labor, each and every one of us to put such feelings from our hearts, and then we, in our family organizations, should strive to promote the general interest of the members thereof; but the interest of Zion and the kingdom of God should be first with us all the time, for we are all members of that kingdom and its welfare is ours.

I consider that we are in a position in which we have every chance to do a great deal of good in our day and generation, we have every chance to work with the Lord, every chance to fulfil our mission and calling here on the earth. We have every chance to build up the Zion of God. I rejoice in the faith that has been manifested by those who have charge of the affairs of the kingdom of God, in the revelations of God. By their works they have manifested their determination continually to carry out the commands of God. “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I command and am not obeyed?” “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I promise and do not fulfil?” The Lord has never made a promise to the children of men but what he has fulfilled it; and all the promises that the Lord has made and all the revelations that have been given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, will have their fulfillment, and we have nothing to fear. As President Young said a few Sabbaths ago, the only thing we need fear is that we shall not keep the commandments of the Lord. Let us keep the commandments of God and then we shall have power with him; the word of the Lord will sustain us and he will fight our battles. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” saith the Lord. We need have no fears with regard to the future. The Zion of God is before his face continually. He has laid a foundation and He will build upon it, and his Saints will build upon it; and thousands and tens of thousands of the meek of the earth will yet take hold and become co-workers in the great work of God. I feel, myself, as though we should lay these counsels that we receive to heart; we should not treat them lightly. We have been called upon by the Lord and his servants to keep the Word of Wisdom; it is time we did it. Wherein we have failed in these things in the past we should try to improve.

I rejoice in this work, I rejoice in the Gospel of Christ. I rejoice that we live in a day when we have inspiration, when we have prophets, Apostles and inspired men to lead us, and when we are made partakers of the blessings of the kingdom of God upon the earth. It is safe for us to pursue that course wherein we can walk in the light, and we need not find fault with the principles of the Gospel because any brother does that which we cannot endorse. It is for us, each of us, individually, to see to our own conduct, and never follow the errors of others. It is not difficult to find them in our own conduct. We should all bring this home to ourselves.

I do hope that the sisters, generally, and the Female Relief Societies in particular, will listen to the counsel that has been given today, and that they will go to and establish braiding schools in all their societies, where the young ladies may be taught to braid straw. President Young has called upon them to do it from time to time. It is true that he has not always commanded them, in the name of the Lord, to do thus and so, and this has been a great blessing to Israel. We have been governed by counsel instead of commandment in many things, which has been a blessing to the Saints, for “he that is commanded in all things” and obeyeth it with slothfulness and not a willing mind, is not qualified before the Lord as that man is who, having the power within him, bringeth to pass much righteousness without being commanded in all that he does.

I feel thankful for the blessings that we enjoy. The Prophet Joseph was called an idler and a gold digger. We have been called a great many things—such as lazy, indolent, and many other things discreditable. Why, every man possessing reason and judgment, who knows anything about the Territory of Utah, will at once pronounce such assertions nonsensical, for this city and every portion of the Territory bear witness to the untiring labor and industry of the Latter-day Saints, and the people, as a general thing outside, are beginning to give up the idea that we are an idle people. They formerly found a great deal of fault with Joseph Smith, because they said he was a gold digger; but since then nearly all the Christian world have turned gold diggers. Hundreds of thousands of them have run into this western country to dig gold; and, while they formerly found fault with us for digging gold they have lately found fault because we do not dig it. I hope and trust that all the accusations of wrong brought against us in the future will be as groundless as those of the past. Let us show our faith by our works, let us show to the Lord our God that we have faith and confidence in his word and works.

We have to become united as a people in all our labors—in our agriculture, manufactures, and every branch of our temporal labors. It is of great importance to the Latter-day Saints that they should unite together on the principle of cooperation. Where this is not done we still ought to try individually to manufacture all we can. I was pleased, a few days ago, while paying a visit to Jenning’s shoe factory, to see the large number of homemade boots and shoes, many of which were made with machinery which had been imported for the purpose. This should be done wherever it is possible; the people should cooperate and import labor-saving machinery, so as to be able to compete with foreign manufacturers of goods of all kinds. President Young has set an example in introducing carding machines and in establishing factories here. He has done all he could in this direction, and we should follow in the wake as far as we can. I know that God will bless the people by doing this.

I do not wish to occupy any more time. I feel to say God bless you. Lay these things to heart. Let us lay hold and build up Zion. Let us realize that we are the children of God, that he is at work with us and that we are at work with him. It has been said that the Lord and a good man are a great majority. He has got a great many good men on the earth, and he is gathering them together to build up Zion, to carry out his work and to do his will. He will also control the course of human events so as to forward his purposes. He holds the destinies of the nations in his hands. He holds Zion in his hands and he will carry out his work and do all he has promised. Those who fight against Zion fight against God, and he will break every weapon formed against his kingdom, and will bring his people triumphant over every obstacle, and finally give them eternal life, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God. May God grant that it may be bestowed upon us by our faith, works, and labors, through his mercy and goodness, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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

If I can have the ears and attention of the people, I want to preach to them a short sermon on our present condition and on some particulars with regard to our customs. We, the Latter-day Saints, as a people, received a command many years ago to gather out from the wicked world and to gather ourselves together to stand in holy places, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man. We have been gathered together promiscuously from the nations of the earth, and in many respects we are like the rest of the world. But I wish to make a few remarks on some points wherein we differ. We differ from the infidel world in our belief, and from the vulgar world in regard to the language we use. It is not common for the Latter-day Saints to take the name of the Deity in vain, while it is common and quite fashionable to do so in Christendom. Herein we disagree with the outside world, or we may call it the vulgar world, for no matter how high or how low their position may be, or how poor or how wealthy, when people use language which is unbecoming they descend to a very low level, and in this respect I am happy to say that the Latter-day Saints differ from the wicked or vulgar world. I will also put in the political world. It is a very common practice throughout the fashionable, political world to gamble; we differ also in this respect, for the Latter-day Saints are not in the habit of gambling at any game whatever; neither are they in the habit of drinking intoxicating liquors, which, throughout the world at large, and especially the Christian world, is such a prolific source of wretchedness and misery. In a great degree, I may also say that, as a people, we are not in the habit of lying and deceiving; but there is one thing that we are too much guilty of, and that is, evil speaking of our neighbors—bearing false witness against them. As a people we are too lavish in our conversation in this respect, our words come too easy and cheap, and we use them too freely in many instances. This is one thing in which we do not differ so much from the world as I should wish. There is another point on which the same remark is true, and that is fashion in dress. Look over this congregation and we see this demonstrated before us, and on this particular item I wish to lay my views before the minds of the people.

To me a desire to follow the ever-varying fashions of the world manifests a great weakness of mind in either gentleman or lady. We are too apt to follow the foolish fashions of the world; and if means were plentiful, I do not think that there are many families among the Latter-day Saints but what would be up to the highest and latest fashions of the day. Perhaps there are a great many that would not follow these fashions had they ever so much means. But too many of this people follow after the foolish, giddy, vain fashions of the world. If any persons want proof of this they need only look over this congregation, and view the bonnets, hats or headdresses of our fashionable ladies. Do they wear bonnets that will screen their faces from the sun, or shelter their heads from the rain? Oh, no, it is not fashionable. Well what do they wear? Just such as the wicked would wear.

My discourse will have to be brief, and I am going to ask my sisters in particular to stop following these foolish fashions, and to introduce fashions of their own. This is the place, and this the time to make known the word of the Lord to the people.

It is vain and foolish, it does not evince godliness, and is inconsistent with the spirit of a saint to follow after the fashions of the world. I wish to impress these remarks especially on the minds of my young sisters—the daughters of the Elders of Israel. Not but what our wives as well as daughters follow many fashions that are uncomely, foolish and vain. What do you say? “Shall we introduce a fashion of our own, and what shall it be?” Do you want us to answer and tell you how to make your bonnets? Let me say to you that, in the works of God, you see an eternal variety, consequently we do not ask the people to become Quakers, and all the men wear wide-brimmed hats, and the ladies wear drab or cream-colored silk bonnets projecting in the front, perhaps six or seven inches, rounded on the corners, with a cape behind. This is Quakerism, that is, so far as headdresses are concerned for ladies and gentlemen. But while we do not ask this, we do ask the sisters to make their bonnets so as to shelter themselves from the storm and from the rays of the sun. I have heard a saying that three straws and a ribbon would make a headdress for a fashionable lady. This was a year or two ago; and the same varying, fantastic, foolish notions prevail with regard to other portions of a lady’s habiliments as much as with her headdress. A few years ago it took about sixteen yards of common-width cloth to make a dress for a lady, for she wanted two or three yards to drag in the streets, to be smeared by every nuisance she walked over. Now I suppose they make their dresses out of five yards and a half, and then have abundance left for an apron. They put me now strongly in mind of the ladies I used to see in Canada some years ago, who made their dresses out of two breadths of tow and linen, and when they were in meeting they were all the time busy pulling them down, for they would draw up. The young ladies look now as if they needed somebody to walk after them to keep pulling down their dresses.

How foolish and unwise this is, and how contrary to the spirit of the Gospel that we have embraced! This Gospel is full of good sense, judgment, discretion and intelligence. Does this look intelligent? Suppose the ladies continue the fashion of shortening their dresses, how long will it be before three-quarters of a yard will be enough for them? You may say that such extravagant comparisons are ridiculous. I say, no more than your dresses and many of your habits and fashions now, only they may be a little exaggerated, that is all. Anything is ridiculous, more or less, that is not comely. I do beseech my sisters to stop their foolishness and to go to work and make their own headdresses. If they will they will be blessed. Do you say, “How shall we be blessed?” I will tell you—by introducing a spirit of industry into your families, and a spirit of contentment into your hearts, which will give you an interest in your domestic cares and affairs that you have not hitherto enjoyed. Doctor Young says that “Life’s cares are comforts,” and they who take an interest in and try to promote their individual welfare, that of their neighbors or of the human family, will find a pleasure such as is derived from few other sources. They derive delight and pleasure from it, and are filled with peace. But when the eyes of people are like the fool’s eyes—wandering to the ends of the earth, continually wishing, longing for and desiring that which they have not got, they are never happy. If we will take the course I have indicated, we shall be benefited in our spirits, and shall have more of the Spirit of the Lord.

I wish to say to you, and you may read it in the Bible if you wish, that he who has the love of the world within him hath not the love of the Father. They who love the things of this world are destitute of the love of the Gospel of the Son of God. This is my Scripture: They who long and lust after the fashions of the world are destitute of the Spirit of God. Every person of experience will testify that this is the truth. Now, my sisters, let me urge you to make your own headdresses. You have the material here, and if you wish to make your hat with a brim six, twelve, twenty, or three inches wide, we will not quarrel with you; but make your own headdresses, and do not hunt after the fashions of the wicked world. If you wish to make a cottage, or a corn-fan bonnet, or a hat, make it to suit yourselves, but do not run after the fashions of the world. I expect, by and by, if this taste for fashion be not checked, to see this house alive, more or less, with what are termed “shoo fly” hats, bonnets and headdresses, and what else you’ll get I do not know. But no matter what the name nor what the fashion if we do not lust after the wicked world. And when you buy yourselves dresses do not purchase one for six or eight dollars, and then want about twenty more for trimmings. What is the use of it? I asked some of my wives the other evening, “What is the use of all this velvet ribbon—perhaps ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty yards, on a linsey dress?” Said I, “What is the use of it? Does it do any good?” I was asked, very spiritedly and promptly, in return, “What good do those buttons do on the back of your coat?” Said I, “How many have I got?” and turning round I showed that there were none there.

This reform in fashion and extravagance in dress is needed. God has a purpose in it, and so have his servants. What is it? If the Lord has given me means and I spend it needlessly, in rings for my fingers, and jewelry for adornment, I deprive the Priesthood of that which they ought to have to gather the poor, to preach the Gospel, to build temples and to feed the hungry in our midst. I deprive a people, who will by and by inherit the earth, of so many blessings. Every yard of ribbon that I buy that is needless, every flounce, and every gewgaw that is purchased for my family needlessly, robs the Church of God of just so much. But it seems as though the people do not think of these things; they do not lay them to heart. Our wives and daughters seem to forget that they have responsibilities resting upon them in these respects. The conduct of a great many of them indicates a care for nothing but, “How much can I get? Can I get everything I want? I wish I could see something new, I want to pattern after it!” This manifests the spirit of the world, and a foolish, vain disposition. Not but that I am guilty myself, perhaps, of using means for my individual person that is not necessary; but if I do, will some of you kindly tell me? I recollect once, when preaching in England, that I passed through Smithfield Market, in Manchester, and I saw some very fine grapes just arrived from France. I spent a penny for some of them, but I had not taken half a dozen steps from the stand where I purchased them, before I saw an old lady passing along who, I could tell by her appearance, was starving to death. Said I, “I have done wrong in spending that penny, I should have given it to that old lady.” I made it a practice, before leaving my office, of going to a drawer, taking out a handful of pence, in order to give to the numerous beggars which everywhere meet the eye in walking the streets in the large towns in that country, and in this instance I felt guilty at having spent a penny on grapes, and I thought of it many times after. What else did I spend needlessly? Not much. “Well,” but say some, “Brother Brigham do not you have good horses?” Yes, I do. Do you know where I got them? But some of them were given to me, and I thank God and those who bestowed them, and I use them prudently. But I would as lief my poor brethren and sisters would ride in my carriage as to ride in it myself. Yet in many things I may be to blame, and do wrong, but in many things I know that we as a people do wrong.

“Well, Brother Brigham, what shall we do?” I say make your own headdresses; here is abundance of material to do it with, and it is not right for me to pay out hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars annually for needless articles of dress for my family. The same is true of my brethren. If that means were to go to gather the poor this season, it would bring many from the old countries. About this, however, I will say that it is rather discouraging to bring people here and to put them in situations to live and accumulate, and then they, as soon as they make a little means, lift their heel against God and his anointed. Nevertheless it is our duty to feed nine persons who are unworthy rather than to turn away the tenth, if he be worthy. It is better to bring ninety-nine persons here who are unworthy than to leave one that is worthy to perish there, consequently we say we will do all we can. They, whom we bring here, are agents for themselves before God, and they act for themselves.

But now, brethren and sisters, let us stop and again consider and think. Can we not sustain ourselves more than we do? I do not ask my sisters to make themselves sunbonnets and wear them and nothing else. I do not say, all of you adopt some particular fashion and stick to that alone. This is not the question; the question is, will we stop wearing that that is so useless and needless? If we will, we can have scores of thousands annually to bestow upon the poor, to rear temples, to build tabernacles and schoolhouses, to endow schools, to educate our children, and to aid every charitable institution and every other purpose that will advance the kingdom of God on the earth.

This would be wisdom in us. What do we think about it? What do you say, young ladies—I mean all of you this side of a hundred years old—will you stop following the foolish fashions of the world, and begin to act like people possessing moral courage and good natural sense? If this is your mind, brethren and sisters, I ask you, young and old, to make it manifest, as I do, by raising your right hand. (A sea of hands was immediately raised.) Some, no doubt, feel ready to say, “Why, Brother Brigham, do not you know that your family is the most fashionable in the city?” No, I do not; but I am sure that my wives and children, in their fashions and gewgaws, cannot beat some of my neighbors. I will tell you what I have said to my wives and children; shall I? Shall I expose what I say to them on these points? Yes, I will. I have said to my wives, “If you will not stop these foolish fashions and customs I will give you a bill if you want it.” That is what I have said, and that is what I think. “Well, but you would not part with your wives?” Yes, indeed I would. I am not bound to wife or child, to house or farm, or anything else on the face of the earth, but the Gospel of the Son of God. I have enlisted all in this cause, and in it is my heart, and here is my treasure. Some may say, “Why, really, Brother Brigham, you almost worship your family; you think a great deal of your wives.” Yes, I do, but, from my youth up, I never had but one object in taking a wife, and that was to do her good. The first one I had was the poorest girl I could find in the town; and my object with the second, and third, and so on to the last one was to save them. You say,” Do I humor them?” Yes I do, and perhaps too much.

Now, my brethren and sisters, a few words more. We have been striving for some time to get the people to observe the Word of Wisdom. But why do they not observe it? Why will they cling to those habits that are inimical to life and health? “Well,” says a sister, “I cannot leave off my tea, I must have a cup of tea every morning, I feel so sick.” I say then, go to bed, and there lie until you are better. “Oh, but it will kill me if I quit it.” Then die, and die in the faith, instead of living and breaking the requests of Heaven. That is my mind about the sisters dying for the want of tea. With regard to drinking liquor, I am happy to say that we are improving. But there are some of our Elders who still drink a little liquor occasionally, I think, and use a little tobacco. They feel as though they would die without it, but I say they will die with it, and they will die transgressing the revelations and commands of Heaven, and the wishes of our heavenly Father, who has said hot drinks are not good.

Now let us observe the Word of Wisdom. Shall I take a vote on it? Everybody would vote, but who would observe it? A good many, but not all. I can say that a good many do observe their covenants in this thing. But who is it that understands wisdom before God? In some respects we have to define it for ourselves—each for himself—according to our own views, judgment and faith, and the observance of the Word of Wisdom, or the interpretation of God’s requirements on this subject, must be left, partially, with the people. We cannot make laws like the Medes and Persians. We cannot say you shall never drink a cup of tea, or you shall never taste of this, or you shall never taste of that; but we can say that Wisdom is justified of her children. Brethren and sisters, hearken to these things. I do not know that we shall have much time to talk about them; but take the little counsel given, and observe it. This is the place to give counsel to the people. Go home, Bishops and Elders, when the Conference is over, and observe what has been told you here. If we commence making our own bonnets, we shall find that we shall increase in other directions besides making leather for our boots and shoes, and cloth for coats and pantaloons.

It is very pleasant in passing through the Territory to have brethren in the various settlements say, “Bro. Brigham, Brother Geo. A., or Brother Daniel, come and see our store, or our shop; here are boots and shoes made from leather of our own manufacture;” and some are as fine looking as you can see anywhere. They are doing a good deal in this city, and also in other places. Some are making straw hats and bonnets, and others are endeavoring to promote other branches of home manufacture. This is very pleasant, but we want to see it more general in this great community. If it were so this season in the one branch of straw hat and bonnet manufacture we should not see the scores and hundreds of five-dollar hats brought here and sold, that are good for nothing in the world. They have no strength about them. The manufacturers of these hats pick up old cloth that is rotten and good for nothing, and make hats of it, and the result is that the hats brought here have very little wear in them. They may look decent to begin with, but after being worn a few times they are shapeless and worthless. Let us go to work and make them for ourselves and save this expense. If we do this, we are wise; if we do it not, we are foolish.

We heard Brother Taylor’s exposition of what is called Socialism this morning. What can they do? Live on each other and beg. It is a poor, unwise and very imbecile people who cannot take care of themselves. Well, we, in the providences of God, are forced to do a great many things that are very advantageous to us. Let us observe the Word of Wisdom, and also begin and manufacture our clothing. We are doing a good deal now, but let us do more. I have learned one fact that is very gratifying: A few years ago when we commenced our little factories here we could obtain no wool—the sheep were not taken care of. As soon as we commenced to manufacture cloth and to distribute it among the people, taking their wool in exchange, we found that the wool increased; and this season, if we had had the factory, in course of construction at Provo, finished, the supply of wool would have been so great that the factory would have been overstocked. Some idea may be formed of the great increase in the supply of wool when I state that the Provo factory, when running, will be capable of making perhaps ten or twelve hundred yards of cloth per day. This is pleasing. Let us get factories built. I find they are building South, and they are preparing to build North; and pretty soon you will see the brethren, as a general thing, dressed in homemade.

Some here are thinking, probably: “Brigham, why don’t you dress in homemade?” I do. “Well, have you got it on today?” No, but I want to wear out, if I can, what I have on hand. I give away a suit every little while, and I would like to give some more away if I could find anybody my clothes would fit. I travel in homemade and wear it at home. As for fashion, it does not trouble me, my fashion is convenience and comfort. The most comfortable coat that a man can wear in my opinion is what the old Yankees and Eastern and Southern people call a “warmus.” Some of the people here know what I mean; it is something between an overshirt and a blouse, buttons round the neck and wrists. I have worked in one many a day. If I introduce the fashion of wearing them here who will follow it? I expect a good many would. I recollect that I wore one when Colonel Kane was here. Said he, “I am gratified to see that you do not ask any odds about the fashions, you have one of your own.” My feelings then, as now, were, whatever in Brother Brigham’s judgment is comfortable and comely is the fashion with him, and he cares nothing about the fashions of the world. There is a style of pantaloons very generally worn, about which I would say something if there were no ladies here. When I first saw them I gave them a name. I never wore them; I consider them uncomely and indecent. But why is it that they are worn so generally by others? Because they are fashionable. If it were the fashion to go with them unbuttoned I expect you would see plenty of our Elders wearing them unbuttoned. This shows the power that fashion exerts over the majority of minds. You may see it in the theater; if you had attended ours recently you might have seen that that was not comely; you might have seen Mazeppa ride, with but a very small amount of clothing on. In New York I am told it is much worse. I heard a gentleman say that a full dress for Mazeppa there was one Government stamp. I do not know whether it is so or not. Fashion has great influence everywhere, Salt Lake not excepted. No matter how ridiculous, the fashions must be followed. If it be for the ladies to have their dresses to drag along the streets, or so short that they show their garters, we see it here; the same is true if they are sixteen or twenty-four feet round, or so tight that they can hardly walk. A great many seem to regard and follow fashion, with all its follies and vagaries, far more fervently than duty. How foolish is such a course. I have talked long enough. God bless you.

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 5, 1870.

It has pleased God in the day and generation in which we live to reveal His holy Gospel. I expect that He knew the time to bring it forth; that He understood the proper time to introduce its principles, and chose that period in the world’s history in which it would be received by, at least, a portion of His children. I apprehend that He made no mistake; that the angel which John prophesied should come forth, bearing the everlasting Gospel to the children of men, came to the right person, to the true Joseph—to the one who would receive it, and bear testimony that he had seen an angel, though all the world should deride and point the finger of scorn, call him a dreamer, and treat him with every kind of contumely and reproach; and though they eventually persecuted him unto the death, they could not prevail upon him to deny that he had seen an angel, and that he received from the Lord those principles which he taught.

We believe, then, that it was the right time, and that he, the angel, came to the right person; that the Gospel has gone forth unto the world, that the minds of the children of men have been touched with the light of truth, and that it has had the effect to inspire some to seek after the Lord, to observe and keep His laws, learn His ways and walk in His paths. The object and purpose of our gathering together, brethren and sisters, is to learn of His ways, and walk in His paths.

It is one of the greatest conceivable blessings which can be conferred upon the children of men to live in the day and generation in which the Lord has sent forth His Gospel; in an age in which He has conferred upon men the authority of the holy Priesthood to administer in sacred and holy things. It is one of the greatest blessings that could be conferred upon His children to become the happy recipients of that knowledge which leads to eternal life and exaltation in His kingdom. All people have this privilege so far as the knowledge of the Gospel has come to their ears. In this the children of men are independent; they have their volition and agency to receive or to reject these principles when they shall hear them; but when they are sent forth with the authority of the holy Priesthood, which is the authority of God, and are sounded in the ears of God’s creatures here on the earth, and they reject them, they incur a fearful responsibility. Still they have the power to act as they please in this matter; but the consequences rest upon themselves—the Lord has left them without excuse. It is a matter for you and me and for all persons to canvas in their own minds, and we can then act upon our own volition in receiving or rejecting the truth.

All who have not heard the prin– ciples of life and salvation proclaimed will have the privilege of doing so; if not here, then in some other sphere or state of existence. The plan of salvation is ample, full and complete, and will save all the children of men who let it, and the Lord will be left without excuse in the final winding up, so far as the probation of man on the earth is concerned.

We read in the Scriptures that to know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, is life eternal. To enable His creatures to obtain this knowledge the Lord has kindly sent forth His revelations from time to time; but we do honestly believe that the Latter-day Saints are the only people on the face of the earth at the present time that have any true knowledge of God, of the relationship that does exist between Him and the inhabitants of the earth and of the design and object of the Almighty in bringing them into existence, and the purpose to be accomplished thereby in their future state. I say we believe that the Latter-day Saints are the only people who possess this knowledge. The world have no just conceptions of the Deity; even the Christian world are without the knowledge of God as much as the heathen nations. This may be deemed a sweeping declaration, but it is susceptible of proof, if we take the Scriptures for our guide and as the foundation of our argument; that is, if the Christian world believe as they profess to do. I do not care to illustrate at this present time, or to bring evidence to bear to sustain my position, to a people who understand these arguments and principles, and who have learned better things, as is the case with this congregation. We know in whom we have trusted; we know who has led us forth to the valleys of the mountains; who has blessed the land and caused it to bring forth its strength for our sustenance; who has shielded and protected us from the power of the adversary—those who have sought our overthrow and destruction. We have learned to know Him as our Father, the Father of our spirits, and the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has exercised a parental care over us, and has delivered us at all times from the power of our enemies, brought us an inheritance in a goodly land, blessed the land and caused it to bring forth in its strength for our sustenance. We know that we are dependent upon Him for our very existence, and that by Him only are we preserved, just as well as we know that the children of men, impelled by the great adversary, Satan, are seeking to overthrow us, to break in pieces the kingdom of God, and to destroy from the face of the earth the rule and authority of the Priesthood of God.

Are we prepared to take upon ourselves the labor, the self-denial, the self-abnegation, I might say the persecution, if it should be permitted to come upon us, that continually besets the pathway of the Saint of God? If we are, we are all right; if we are not, we had better repent and seek unto the Lord for strength, retrace our steps, and get the Spirit of God in our hearts that we may become more confirmed in our most holy faith. When we received the Gospel we felt as though it would be a great privilege to devote our whole lives and all our interests in this existence to the extension of this great and glorious cause. Have we grown lukewarm in our feelings and love? If so it is time to retrace our steps, lest we become darkened in the counsel of our minds and turn away to the beggarly elements of the world.

I will say, this morning, that the Gospel that I received is as sweet to me today as it ever was during my existence on the earth, yea, more so, for as I advance, greater and more glorious truths and beauties develop themselves and come home to my understanding. If the first principles of the Gospel were true in the days of Joseph, they are true today. If the principles that have been developed as we have passed along were true when they first struck our minds with their convincing proofs, they are also true today. If what we believed were the whisperings of the Spirit of God confirming these truths on our minds, were really so, and we received them from Heaven, we should live faithful to what we have received, that we may progress and improve as we pass along. We have received an item of truth here and another there, as we could receive and maintain it; but the revelations declare that there are things yet to be revealed which have been kept hid from the foundations of the world. I, for one, expect that the volume of revelation will remain open, and that the servants of God will, in the future as they have in the past, read to us from the Book of Life. The reflection that we shall not be confined to what has already been given, but that we shall continue to grow and increase in the knowledge of God, and in every good, is one of the most highly-prized principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

How true it is that, when any new principle, or any new idea concerning an old principle is promulgated, the human heart seems to rise up in rebellion against it, and the Saints are no exception in this respect, for when the Lord condescends to reveal any new principle pertaining to their welfare and the building up of His kingdom on the earth, many are ready, both in feelings and practices, to rise up and rebel against it. What is the matter? Are we pent up in a nutshell and confined in our feelings to such an extent that we cannot receive new revelations and instructions from time to time when they come from the proper source? No. I think that, for the great majority of the Latter-day Saints, I can answer it is not so. It may be so with individuals; but as a general thing the Saints are glad to receive instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as they can receive and endure it. I heard President Young say that he told the Prophet Joseph never to reveal a new principle to him if he thought that he could not receive it, that it would be detrimental to his faith or cause him to turn from that which he had received. He said he would rather remain in ignorance than to have it prove a stumblingblock to him. I have seen a great many people anxious for revelation, and for the development of some great mystery concerning the kingdom of God. I have never felt so; I have been satisfied with what the Lord should condescend to reveal, and more than glad if, when it did come, I was able to receive and practice it.

How many are there within the hearing of my voice who have felt infringed upon in their feelings when they were told to sustain Zion and not to trade with their enemies. This was a new feature, but it touched things of a temporal nature. Why a great many felt as though they could not submit to be dictated to, though it was by the servant of God, in regard to temporal affairs. Is not this true, and we, too, right in the midst of Israel? O, yes, we can’t deny it, there has been considerable howling made concerning this item. But yet this is the kingdom of God, and the kingdom and the greatness thereof are to be given to the Saints of the Most High. Can we expect anything else than that His servant will dictate us concerning our temporal matters? I do not understand it in any other way. When, I would ask, can the kingdom of God be established on the earth, or in other words when can the kingdom and the greatness thereof be given to the Saints of the Most High? Never until a people is found possessing sufficient good, hard, sound sense to use the blessings of that kingdom to build it up and not to give it to the devil just as fast as the Lord hands them over to them. We have come up to Zion that we may be taught in the ways of the Lord and that we may learn to walk in His paths. And you know I have told you how independent we are—we can either receive the Gospel, or reject it and take the consequences. But let no man lay the flattering unction to his soul that he can do just as he pleases and obtain celestial glory. We can never do this except we make our ways, notions and ideas correspond with the Lord’s. If we expect to attain to celestial glory, and be prepared and qualified to receive the kingdom of God in its greatness upon the earth, we shall have to make our ways correspond with the Lord’s, so much so at least as to be found faithful in making good use of the blessings which He has entrusted to us. It is those who are found faithful over a few things unto whom the promise is made that they shall become rulers over many things. It is not those who fly the track at the moment of peril and difficulty who will obtain the blessings of high heaven; no, the Lord tests and tries us, to prove if we have integrity, and the man who flies the track, when tested, proves that he is lacking in integrity and is not worthy to receive the blessings of those who are faithful and true. Blessings are no doubt withheld in kindness for a time, for many who receive them grow fat and kick, thus proving to the Lord that they are not worthy; and peradventure He withholds blessings from many very good people, who will finally triumph over their own peculiar notions and ideas, and make their ways so far correspond with the Lord’s as to be worthy.

We are in a school of experience, brethren and sisters, and it will be well for us if we will wisely use and apply the blessings we receive and the experience that we are passing through, and so govern and control ourselves in the future that the experience of the past may be a light to our feet in time to come.

It is most desirable to us all that we should be preserved in the purity of our most holy faith, and never depart therefrom or swerve either to the right hand or to the left. The fate of others who have departed from the path of rectitude ought to be a warning to as all to be careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit, lest we fall into the same pit. It is a very easy thing for a man to get into the dark, and small things often lead to it. He sees, peradventure, something in his Bishop or Teacher, or in some of the authorities, which he does not like, and instead of going to the proper place to ascertain the truth in the case, and informing his mind correctly concerning the matter, he lets it corrode in his heart until disaffection is produced and he begins to lose confidence. In a short time, if he indulges in this spirit, he mouths it to some confidant or friend, and after doing it once he mouths it again, and if you follow that man a little longer you will find that he neglects his prayers and the duties of his calling, and very soon the counsel of his mind becomes darkened, and soon he is on the highway to apostasy, and, in fact, he has been there from the beginning, if he had only known it; and if no good friend should tell him his error, in a short time such a man goes over the dam and makes shipwreck of his faith, and that is the greatest calamity that can befall any person.

What matters it to the Saints what path they are led into if the Lord leads? If they are submissive and yield to His dictation, no matter whether it brings weal or woe, it will work out good; it may bring poverty, so far as the things of the world are concerned, but it will never bring poverty to the soul. And it will be a happy reflection when we have passed through this mortal existence, that we were able to stand the test, enduring the ordeals and remaining steadfast and faithful to the end.

I do not know that we are promised anything here but the hatred and persecution of the world; and this has been the portion of the Saints of God in every age of the world. I do believe, however, that the table is going to change; I believe that when the people are sufficiently pure and worthy, and capable of wisely using the blessings of which I have spoken, the blessings of earth and heaven will be poured upon them in rich abundance. We have a little foretaste of this in the blessings that we have received and enjoy today. Although the power of the Adversary is very great, and he still seeks the overthrow and destruction of the cause and kingdom of God on the earth; yet it is a different age of the world, it is a different dispensation; it is the dispensation of the fulness of times, in which, no matter how much we may be overturned, no matter how much individuals may suffer, or how much they may be called to endure, the final result will be triumph to the kingdom, and it will not be given to another people; but we shall have power to redeem Zion and to build that great and glorious temple in which the Saints will receive the blessings of eternity, and on which the glory of God will rest as a cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night. This people are that people; these Saints are the Saints of the Most High, to whom the kingdom and the greatness thereof will be given, and another people shall never possess it.

This should be a great satisfaction to us, and should encourage us in our pathway through all the difficulties we may have to encounter. We would not be worth much if we could not pass through ordeals. The Savior of the world had to pass through them, and we should not complain if we have to tread in his footsteps in order to obtain great blessings at the end of the race. Let us reflect on these things and go on our way rejoicing, filling the full measure of our creation with credit to ourselves, and with honor to God, our Father, who brought us to this state of existence, which is my prayer for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 5, 1870.

It is a great pleasure to meet with the brethren again in Conference, and it is certainly very gratifying to see the people so comfortably seated, with a prospect of enjoying the benefits and blessings of the Conference; even should the elements not be favorable we have a shelter and a shade. It has been the fortune of the Latter-day Saints never to stay in any place long enough to build a house sufficiently large to hold the people; but, with the blessing of the Lord and the united efforts of the brethren, we have room sufficient to hold a very large audience, though no doubt occasions will still occur when we shall cry out, “More room,” and probably before our Conference closes. I think, however, that we need not ask any of our brethren who reside in this city, as we have had to do, to stay at home to make room for those who may be in from a distance; all may come and be accommodated. The acoustic properties of the Tabernacle are evidently improved by the erection of the gallery, and if all who attend Conference will leave their coughing at home, sit still while here and omit shuffling their feet, they may have an opportunity of hearing pretty much everything that may be said. It will certainly require, even when all these conditions are complied with, considerable effort to fill so large a house with one voice, and that effort must be met by a corresponding effort on the part of the audience to preserve perfect stillness.

It was forty years ago on the 6th of last month since the organization of the Church took place, in the chamber of Father Whitmer, in Fayette, Seneca county, New York, with six members. The history of that forty years would require volumes to record. The institution, as it then commenced, was in its infancy; yet the Lord revealed to His servant, that He had laid the foundation of a great work; the truth of that saying has been realized by the progress of events. The changes that have transpired in connection with this people have been very remarkable. The work commenced by preaching faith in the Lord Jesus, repentance and the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was an innovation upon the creeds and practices of every other religious sect; I am not aware that any one denomination believed in and practiced all the principles that were introduced at the organization of this Church. The first three of these principles were faith in the Lord Jesus, repentance, and baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. The next principle was the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, precisely as it was pointed out by the Savior and practiced by his disciples in Judea.

There were denominations who believed in baptism by immersion, but not for the remission of sins, they believed that remission of sins was necessary previous to baptism; but they were ignorant of the possibility of the reception of the Holy Ghost, and, consequently, of the doctrine of the laying on of hands. The Church of England, it is true, would confirm by the laying on of the hand of the bishops, but not for confirming the gift of the Holy Ghost on the heads of the believers; and while all the professed believers in the doctrine of Christ had some portions or fragments of his Gospel as revealed and established by him and his Apostles, it was the Church of Latter-day Saints which introduced and established, complete, the principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance towards God, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. These principles were all important, and the moment the Bible was brought forth everybody could find that they coincided exactly with the principles set forth by the Savior, and it required to be spiritualized and changed to make it appear otherwise. But the Christian world had gone astray from these things, and when they were restored they rejected them. There were, however, honest persons in all of the denominations, and God has respect to every man who is honest of heart and purpose, though he may be deceived, and in error as to principle and doctrine; yet so far as that error is the result of their being deceived by the cunning craftiness of men, or of circumstances over which such have no control, the Lord in His abundant mercy looks with allowance thereon, and in His great economy He has provided different glories and ordained that all persons shall be judged according to the knowledge they possess and the use they make of that knowledge, and according to the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil.

“And again, we saw the terrestrial world, and behold and lo, these are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of the church of the Firstborn who have received the fullness of the Father, even as that of the moon differs from that of the sun in the firmament. Behold, these are they who died without law; And also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh; Who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it. These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men. These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fullness. These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fullness of the Father. Wherefore, they are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the moon differs from the sun. These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.”

In opening this Conference it would be well for us individually to ask ourselves, Have we received the first principles of the Gospel of Christ, and have we continued in those principles which were first taught unto us; or is it necessary for us again to lay the foundation of repentance from dead works? It is very singular that when the principles of the Gospel, as I have stated them, were presented to the different sects, they were disposed to reject them and to persecute those who preached them in their fullness. Such, however, was the fact, and it is owing to this that the Latter-day Saints are now in the Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains, in the heart of the American continent, in the enjoyment of political and religious liberty and freedom, for which they have sacrificed more perhaps than any other people on the face of the earth. And we have the greatest reason of all people to be thankful to God for these blessings.

Then let us ask ourselves, Are we prepared for the great blessings which God has bestowed upon us? Are we living up to our callings and magnifying the same? Do we observe the duties which are imposed upon us by our holy religion? Or are we foolish enough, while recognizing its truth, and professing to be Latter-day Saints, to treat it with carelessness and neglect, and failing to live up to our high and holy calling?

From the earliest days of the preaching of the Gospel by Joseph Smith men were tried and tempted and led astray by false spirits and doctrines of devils. We find at the commencement of Joseph’s mission that many who entered into covenant turned away, and some became very bitter enemies. It was necessary from the very beginning that there should be a sifting, for the Lord declared unto His people that He would sift them as with a sieve. This sifting had to continue, and hence every time the Latter-day Saints were driven, scattered, or otherwise persecuted, it caused those who could not abide in the faith to pass quietly away, or to make their wickedness manifest unto the church and unto the world. But while this was going on, the strength of Zion was increasing. It is said, and I presume correctly, that Oliver Cowdery remarked at one time to Joseph Smith, “If I should apostatize and leave the Church, the Church would be broken up.” The answer of the Prophet was, “What and who are you? This is the work of God, and if you turn against it and withdraw from it, it will still roll on and you will not be missed.” It was not long until Oliver turned away, but the work continued. God raised up men from obscurity to step forth and shoulder the burdens, and it was hardly known when and where he went. In about ten years he came back again, came before a local Conference at Mosquito Creek, Pottawatomie Co., Iowa, Oct., 1848, and acknowledged his faults. He bore testimony of the mission of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and of the truth of the Book of Mormon; he exhorted the Saints to follow the authority of the Holy Priesthood, which he assured them was with the Twelve Apostles. He said, “When the Saints follow the main channel of the stream, they find themselves in deep water and always right, pursuing their journey with safety; but when they turned aside into sloughs and bayous, they are left to flounder in the mud and are lost, for the Angel of God said unto Joseph in my hearing that this Priesthood shall remain on the earth until the end.”

Oliver declared he took pleasure in bearing this testimony to the largest congregation of Saints he had ever seen together. He was rebaptized and made arrangements to come to the mountains, but died soon after, while on a visit to the Whitmers, in Missouri.

This circumstance shows how little God depends upon man to carry on His work. He does it by His own power, His own majesty, by His own mighty hand and for the accomplishment of His own glorious purposes.

It was thought and felt throughout the world, about the year 1844, that if Joseph Smith, the Prophet, could be destroyed, that would be the end of the Latter-day Saints. Men conspired together to shed his blood; they sought occasion against him; they made him an offender for a word; they swore falsely against him, and some who had been his friends turned traitors and conspired with the wicked and shed his blood. It was generally believed by the enemies of the Saints that that was the end of the work of the Lord. The pulpit resounded with thanks to God that the great arch-impostor, Joseph Smith, was slain. The priests rejoiced over it; and though there was a feeling, tolerably widespread, that it was barbarous to kill him, under the plighted faith of Illinois, yet the general feeling was that it was a good thing that he was dead. But God had a work to perform, and it did not depend upon the life of one or two individuals. It was His work, His kingdom, His Church, His plan of salvation, and He, by His own wisdom and His own mighty hand bore it off.

These were the facts, and these continue to be the facts; and all that the Latter-day Saints have to do is to live within the confines of God’s holy law and up to their privileges. Are we doing so? Are we walking in accordance with these principles? Let us ask ourselves these questions, and if any of us are remiss, let us immediately commence to reform, humble ourselves before God, and be ready to sacrifice ourselves and all we have, if necessary, for the building up and redemption of Zion and for our salvation.

We have come together as a Conference to compare notes with each other, to rejoice together and to receive instruction; and let every man and woman that has come or that may yet come, lift their hearts to God in solemn prayer that His blessing may rest upon His servants, that they may be inspired with a double portion of His holy Spirit, that the Priesthood, in all its life, power and glory, may speak forth the words of truth, light and intelligence that shall pour comfort into the hearts of the Saints, and guide and strengthen them, and illuminate their path, that we, one and all, may continue in the great and glorious work which we have commenced.

May the Lord God of Hosts bless you, and peace be and abide in your hearts, that you may appreciate these things, and exercise faith, union, knowledge, power, and wisdom in your walk and conduct henceforth, and that these meetings may be a blessing to all who attend them, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 5, 1870.

It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that I arise before so large an assembly of people this afternoon, in the capacity of a General Conference. It is truly wonderful to me that God has begun so great and important a work in the day in which I am permitted to live. I do not read in history of any other work of a similar character since the creation of the world. We behold before us, in these interior wilds of North America, a great people called the Latter-day Saints—a people whose faith and doctrine are one, who believe in the same God, and in the same great plan of salvation; who believe that God has established His kingdom on the earth for the last time. It has been a manifestation of faith on the part of this people to gather here; they have exhibited to one another and before all mankind that they have faith in the doctrines which they have received. What other purpose could have gathered out so great a people? If we had gathered into a healthy, rich country where there was an expectation of bettering our condition, temporarily; where there were prospects of our becoming exceedingly rich in the goods of this world, it might have been supposed that we had some selfish motive in view in thus assembling ourselves together. But there were no such prospects before us. We came here, some 1,200 miles, from the Eastern settlements to this isolated region, almost naked and barefoot, having been despoiled by our enemies—having suffered the loss of property to the extent of millions—having been reduced to the last degree of poverty. We came here—not into the midst of a land of cities and villages, not into the midst of a country where all was prepared for us beforehand; but we came into the heart of a desert, since, in some measure, reclaimed from its barrenness and sterility. We came because we had faith in our religion, because we not only believed, but most of us knew with a certainty, that God had spoken from on high and had commanded us to gather together. In this we have manifested a sincerity that ought to be convincing to all the world that we have embraced a religion in all of the depths of the sincerity of our hearts. We did not care for the riches and honors of the world; we did not care for the pleasures of our native countries, nor for the luxuries with which those countries abounded; but we came because we verily believed in our hearts that it was our duty to do so in obedience to the voice of the Lord through His servants. It is true that some of this people came to this land because they were forced hither by persecution; but whether obliged to come or not we, many of us, clearly understood from the spirit of prophecy and revelation, as manifested through our prophet and leader before his martyrdom, that we should be required to locate ourselves in the heart of this continent. We came here then to fulfil the commandments of the Lord our God, and to be free, in a measure, from the persecutions of our enemies, that we might have none to mob or molest us as they had done from the time of the rise of the Church until our flight to these mountains. We came here because we loved God, because we loved His laws—we loved the plan of salvation, we loved the principles that He had revealed, and because we knew that in process of time, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy respecting the Latter-day Zion and the Church of the Most High God, we should become a great and powerful people.

We are taught in the Jewish record, the Bible, that a little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation. We believe these prophecies, we know this to be the kingdom of God. We well understood by the spirit of revelation that God intended to fulfil all that was spoken by the mouths of His ancient prophets, as well as that which had been delivered in our day in regard to the future glory and prosperity of Zion, or the Church of the living God. We understood that Zion was to be located in the mountains; we understood, as I have often repeated, from the 40th chapter of Isaiah, that the time would come when the Lord would command His people, saying unto Zion, “Get up into the high mountains.” These things had not been fulfilled in former ages, consequently we know that they were yet in the future. We knew that the Zion of the latter days must be located in the mountains. We could read the ancient prophecies of that great prophet—Isaiah, in the 18th chapter, that a great work should be performed in the mountains, a work that should attract the attention of all the nations of the earth, so much so that the prophet, when gazing upon the work as shown to him by the spirit of prophecy, calls upon all the inhabitants of the world and the dwellers on the earth to see when the Lord should lift up an ensign upon the mountains. That ensign we knew must be reared, that great work must be accomplished, and all people—not only those on the American continent but all dwelling in the four quarters of the globe, however obscure, and however distant they might be from the place where the ensign was to be reared, would be required by the power of the Lord, and by the marvelous work that He should perform, to open their eyes and contemplate that ensign, understand its nature and comprehend, in some measure, its purpose.

We came here to fulfil these ancient prophecies. God has lifted up this Church—this kingdom, as a standard—as an ensign to which the nations are invited, and the ambassadors of the Most High are sent forth from these mountains carrying the glad tidings of salvation in their mouths—carrying forth the great and glorious principles that God has revealed in establishing his latter-day kingdom on the earth. Beautiful indeed are the feet of those who are sent forth from the mountains of Zion to publish glad tidings of great joy among the various nations and kingdoms of the earth; God is with them in very deed. His power is over them, and His arm encircles them round about. Their voice is lifted up to the nations; their hands are pointed to the West, to the heart of the American continent—to the everlasting hills, saying to mankind, “Yonder, in those mountains, is a kingdom that is never to be destroyed, a kingdom that must exist forever; while all earthly kingdoms and governments will crumble to the dust and will be blown away, like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, to the four winds of heaven.”

Jesus said on a certain occasion to his disciples, and to the multitudes, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” There are tens of thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands, of people now upon our globe who profess to love Jesus Christ. Do they keep his commandments? Some of them no doubt strive to do so. But there are many things to be taken into consideration in connection with the keeping of the commandments of Jesus. In the first place it is very essential and necessary that we should know what his commandments are before we can keep them. In the second place it is very important and essential that we should give heed to all those commandments, whether they appear great or small in our estimation.

Do this people, called Latter-day Saints, really love the Lord their God, or is it a mere profession? When God raised up His servant Joseph Smith and inspired him from on high to give commandments and revelations and to organize His Church, forty years ago, we were but few in number. I well recollect when I was but a boy of nineteen visiting the place where this Church was organized, and visiting the Prophet Joseph, who resided at that time in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, at the house where the Church was organized. I became acquainted more fully with that man and with the revelations and commandments that God had given to him; also with the few people who had been organized into a Church capacity. I saw the spirit of the people, that is, I saw there was a desire to do good, to love the Lord, and to be obedient to the commandments which the Prophet Joseph had delivered unto them.

On the 2nd day of January, 1831, a Conference was held in the same house where this Church was organized, and the various Branches in the State of New York were there gathered together. By the solicitations of the Conference the Prophet Joseph enquired of the Lord to know what was His will concerning the few Latter-day Saints that were then in existence. The Lord hearkened to him, and gave on that occasion a revelation contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in which certain commandments were given, one being that all the Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons of the various Branches of the Church, instead of going out to preach, should go to with all their might and labor for the gathering up of the people from the State of New York to the State of Ohio; that is, they were to assist those in the various Branches who had property to dispose of the same, and in regulating all their affairs, and to arrange business in such a manner that they might be able to keep this commandment to gather together.

Now, suppose the people had refused to comply with this commandment; suppose that the Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons had considered the physical labor which the carrying out of this command entailed upon them beneath their notice, and had refused to make preparations to flee from the State of New York and to gather up some six hundred miles to the State of Ohio, what would have been the result? Would the love of God have dwelt in their hearts? No. Would they have manifested before the heavens that they loved God with all their hearts? No. Would they have manifested to the Prophet, to the Priesthood and to one another that they really were sincere in their religion? No. There was no possible way for these Latter-day Saints to show their love to God, only by obeying His command that was given and written for their instruction on that occasion. If there were any who refused to do that, I will venture to say that they are not members of the Church today. If there were any who had so much means or property that they did not feel disposed to leave their pleasant homes and make a sacrifice of their wealth, in some measure, in order to fulfil the commandment of Jehovah, I will venture to say that they are not in the Church today. Why? Because God would withdraw His Holy Spirit from them. They might make great profession, and say how much they loved the Lord and His ways; how much they loved Jesus, who was crucified for the sins of the world, yet all this would be foolish and vain if they refused to keep his commandments, for, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” saith the Savior. Again, it is written, “This is the love of God, that ye do keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.” His commandments to most of the people of the Latter-day Saints were not grievous in the winter and spring of 1831. They rejoiced in having the privilege of obeying the Lord’s commandments, through His servant, the Prophet. Hence they gathered up all the various Branches of the Church, with some few exceptions, to Kirtland, in the State of Ohio.

This is the right way to keep the Lord’s commandments; but it is, in the first place, necessary to find what His commandments are. You might have taken this big book, the Jewish record, or Bible, and searched it from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation to find out your duties as Saints, and you never could have found within it what the Lord required of His Saints at that time—namely, to remove from the State of New York to the State of Ohio. No such Scripture as that was given. That was the duty required of individuals in the nineteenth century. No other people were ever required to do that; it cannot be found within the lids of the Bible. That commandment was specially adapted to the circumstances of the few Latter-day Saints then existing, and they were the ones required to keep it. The ancients were not required to do that, neither are we; it was a commandment having relation to the time then being, and it was fulfilled. With that commandment we have nothing further to do, provided that we, or as many of us as were included among those to whom it was given, kept it. If we have not kept it we have something further to do with it—we shall have to meet it in the great judgment day.

When we came to Kirtland the Lord gave us further commandments, and He revealed a great many things through His servant Joseph. Among others, He gave one that the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, should go to with their might and build a house to His name, wherein He promised to bestow great and choice blessings upon His people. He revealed the pattern according to which that house should be built, pointing out the various courts and apartments, telling the size of the house, the order of the pulpits, and in fact everything pertaining to it was clearly pointed out by revelation. God gave a vision of these things, not only to Joseph, but to several others, and they were strictly commanded to build according to the pattern revealed from the heavens.

Now, then, no other people was ever commanded to do that work in Kirt– land, Ohio, but the people then living there, called Latter-day Saints. It was not a work required of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, nor of any other man that ever existed on the earth, nor of any people but those to whom it was given, then living in the State of Ohio. Supposing they had said, “We will not build the house; we can meet in a common meetinghouse, after the order of the Gentiles, and we will take their forms of building, it does not matter, we do not think it necessary to be at all this expense, and we can hire a house.” Would that have been sufficient? No, the only way we could witness to one another and before the Lord of hosts that we loved Him with all our hearts was to go to and build a house just according to the pattern.

Well, when we did build it, did the Lord accept it, according to promise? He did, and He revealed great and important things in that house through His servant, Joseph the Prophet; and not only did Joseph have the privilege of seeing and understanding the mind and will of the Lord, but after the house was built many others had this great privilege given to them. For instance, the Lord had promised to reveal Himself unto many of His people and His Priesthood in that house. He did so. Among other great revelations and visions given there, was the revelation, which you will find recorded in our Church history, of Elijah, the Prophet, of him who was translated to heaven in a chariot of fire. That same personage came and stood in that temple and manifested certain keys, gave these keys to the servant of the Lord, the Prophet Joseph, and said unto him that that was the fulfillment of that which was spoken by the Prophet Malachi. What has Malachi said? He has told us of the great day of the Lord that should come, when it should burn as an oven, and when all the proud and they that do wickedly shall become as stubble and shall be burned up, leaving them neither root nor branch. He has told us that before that great and terrible day the Lord would send Elijah the Prophet. Or, to quote the words of Scripture, “Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come.” What great object had the Lord in view in sending His ancient prophet as a ministering angel to His people on the earth? It is expressed in one sentence—“He shall turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children and the hearts of the children unto the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” In other words, there will be no flesh prepared to escape the day appointed—no flesh but what will become as stubble, no flesh will be able to abide the presence of the Lord until Elijah comes. He did come in that Kirtland Temple; he appeared in his glorious majesty, and there revealed the keys unto the servants of the Lord which should restore this union between the fathers and the children—something that we did not understand anything about, until the angel Elijah revealed it unto us. This was a great work to be accomplished in the latter days, in order that the fathers, from the days of the ancient Priesthood, or those who were in the spirit world—millions and millions of them, might be redeemed through the ordinance of baptism for the dead, turning the minds and thoughts and affections of the children, living on the earth, to search after their ancient fathers and to be baptized for them according to that which is contained in the New Testament about baptism for the dead. Moreover it turned the hearts of those ancient fathers to their children, for they looked to us, their children, to accomplish a work that is needful to be accomplished in their behalf, for God’s house is a house of order; God’s kingdom is a kingdom of order; and His ordinances were instituted from before the foundation of the world, and they are adapted to the condition of the living and the dead; and God revealed these things that our fathers, in all past generations, might rejoice with their children in the latter days, by being united in the same bonds, in the same New and Everlasting Covenants. They died without the Gospel, without understanding the plan of salvation. They were brought up in the midst of the sectarian world, where all was confusion and darkness; where no voice of God was heard; no voice of living prophets or Apostles to direct them, or to teach them in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. They went down to their graves as sincere, many of them, as you and I are. Must they be forever cast off? Must they always remain in prison and be forever deprived of the society of their children that should live on the earth in the latter days, when God should again open the heavens and send His angels to minister to His people? No; they without us cannot be made perfect; for there is no way for them to receive the Gospel only through their children. We have the work to do for them, and that work we could not commence until Elijah the Prophet was sent from heaven, holding the keys that were to be committed to the children in behalf of the fathers, in the last dispensation, before the great day of the Lord should come.

Then you see that even this one revelation, which God gave in that Temple, paid the people for the toil they had endured in erecting it. What a satisfaction it was to them to know that angels administered in that Temple! What a satisfaction it was for them to go into that Temple and have the heavens opened to them so that they could gaze on the glory of God! What a satisfaction it was for them to know that the Lord accepted, as His own, the house which they had built according to the pattern which He had given! And what a satisfaction it was for them to know that they loved God by keeping His commandments!

Elijah was not the only angel that administered in that house. Others holding keys pertaining to the last dispensation of the fullness of times came forth and manifested those keys and bestowed the authority upon the servants of God living in the flesh to carry out certain great and important purposes pertaining to this dispensation. These keys are still on the earth. Here are the servants of the living God, sitting on my right hand and on my left, who have had these keys committed into their hands by authority from the proper source, from those who received them from the heavenly messengers. These keys, being now in the hands of the Priesthood, never will be taken from them while the earth shall stand or eternal duration shall roll on. There may be apostates, those who fight against the anointed of the Lord and lift up their heel against those holding these keys; yet be it known to the Latter-day Saints and to all the ends of the earth that the almighty hand of the Great Jehovah is stretched out and He will accomplish the purposes ordained by Him in regard to this great and important work of the latter days.

Are these the only commandments that God has given for us to keep wherein we have manifested our love towards Him? No. God gave commandment to His people in the summer of 1831 that they should gather up from the Eastern lands, New York, the New England States, Pennsylvania and the Middle States, from Ohio and various parts of the United States, upon the western frontiers of Missouri; that is, that they should continue to gather, but not let their flight be in haste, and let all things be prepared before them. God led forth the Prophet that He had raised up to the western part of Missouri, and pointed out, by His own finger, where the great city of Zion should stand in the latter days, the great city of the New Jerusalem that should be built up on the American continent. I say He pointed out these things and gave direction to His people to gather to that land, and commanded them to lay the corner stone of a great and magnificent temple that was to be built during the generation in which the people then lived. The corner stone was laid in the summer of 1831, in Jackson County, State of Missouri. All these things were done by the people of God by commandment and revelation, and in this way they still further showed, one to another and to all people as well as to the heavens, that they did love the Lord their God.

Many commandments were given to the people about affairs there in Jackson County—how they should regulate their property and how they should become one—revelations that were intended to produce the greatest possible union that could exist among the people of God, if they had been complied with. The people complied with them in part, but yet, through inexperience, for the want of understanding, because of the weakness of mortality, and because of the wicked and corrupt traditions that they had imbibed in regard to property, they did not fully carry out the mind and will of God in relation to their con– secrations and inheritances. It is true that they purchased the land from the American Government, or much of it, and paid their money into the land office in that county; but yet, not carrying out the command of God to the very letter, the Lord was not pleased, and before they had been located there fourteen months He threatened them very severely. Said He, “If you do not remember my commandments to keep them, and not only my commandments, but the Book of Mormon, which I have caused to come forth and to be written for your edification, as the New and Everlasting Covenant; if you do not give heed to the words of instruction and counsel, and the commandments written in that book, behold, saith the Lord, there remains a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the inhabitants of Zion.”

We did not know what the judgment or scourging was. We had only been about fourteen months on the land, and we did not understand the nature of it. The Lord told us in another revelation, which is published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that, inasmuch as we did not do just precisely as He told us to do in regard to obtaining our lands, we should be driven by our enemies—“Behold and lo, your enemies shall be upon you; you shall be persecuted and driven from city to city, and but few of you shall stand to receive an inheritance.” We could not comprehend all this. We thought perhaps we should be faithful enough that this prophecy might not be fulfilled upon our heads. Although they were the very best people on the earth, yet there was a lack among them, through want of experience or through the former traditions of the Gentiles which they had imbibed from their childhood; but the Lord required us to be very good and to give heed to every word that proceeded out of His mouth, and never disobey the least thing; and consequently when He found that we lacked in some of these things, He told us He would not suffer that land to be polluted by those who were called by His name; for it was a choice land—a holy land, and those who were called by His name, and professed to be His disciples, should not pollute it, and if they did they should be scourged and driven away and persecuted, and there would be few left who would receive their inheritance there.

In the year 1833, in the month of November, we began to feel this scourge that the Lord had forewarned us of. Yet so anxious was the Prophet Joseph that the scourge might be averted that he took a journey, in connection with some of the prominent Elders of the Church, from the State of Ohio, about one thousand miles, to the western frontiers of Missouri, to warn the people of the terrible judgment that would overtake them, if they were not more obedient. But, alas! their repentance was not sufficient, though they were such a good people—far better than any other people or Church on the face of the earth; but yet they did not come up to the letter of the law which God had revealed, consequently they did not manifest before Him that they loved Him with all their hearts, souls, might, mind and strength, and judgment came upon them and they were driven. Two hundred houses were burned, our haystacks were burned, our cattle were shot down by the mob, our merchandise were strewn in the streets, our household furniture broken up and scattered, and the people were driven forth on the bleak prairies in the cold month of November. Then they remembered the prophecies which the Lord had delivered by His servant Joseph; they remembered what had been written and published, which they had been warned of time and time again, both by letter and by the personal ministry of the servants of God in their midst.

They fled to Clay County and were driven thence in a few months, when they fled still further north into other unsettled portions of the State of Missouri, and again purchased lands of the Government, and entered them and continued there a few years; but by and by we were again driven, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord through His servant Joseph—that we should be persecuted and driven from place to place and from city to city unless we did as He told us. Finally, we were driven into the State of Illinois, where we purchased a beautiful spot of ground on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, called Commerce, which we afterwards called Nauvoo, a Hebrew word which means beautiful for location.

After we had worked in Nauvoo for a few years, and had gathered together our people from various parts of the United States and some from Great Britain, to the number of some fifteen or twenty thousand souls, in Nauvoo and the regions round about, behold the mob was again upon us and we were driven again, thus fulfilling more fully the prophecies that had been made, and we were driven here to these mountains. We came here by the direction of the servant of God, being led by him on whom the Lord had placed the great responsibility of leading this people. He brought us here, and established us in the heart of this country. Here we have extended our settlements south, north, east and west, until the country is now populated with, as I suppose, some hundred thousand inhabitants. I do not know how many, it may be a hundred and fifty thousand for aught I know. Suffice it to say, we have over a hundred towns, cities and villages built up in the various portions of this great Basin, this desert country. We have beautified our inheritances; we have planted fruit trees in abundance and ornamental shade trees, so as to make our residences cheering and beautiful in the midst of a desert. God has been with us from the time that we came to this land, and I hope that the days of our tribulation are past. I hope this, because God promised in the year 1832 that we should, before the generation then living had passed away, return and build up the City of Zion in Jackson County; that we should return and build up the temple of the Most High where we formerly laid the corner stone. He promised us that He would manifest Himself on that temple, that the glory of God should be upon it; and not only upon the temple, but within it, even a cloud by day and a flaming fire by night.

We believe in these promises as much as we believe in any promise ever uttered by the mouth of Jehovah. The Latter-day Saints just as much expect to receive a fulfillment of that promise during the generation that was in existence in 1832 as they expect that the sun will rise and set tomorrow. Why? Because God cannot lie. He will fulfil all His promises. He has spoken, it must come to pass. This is our faith. It will depend upon the conduct of the Latter-day Saints whether we suffer more tribulation. We may suffer tribulation although we are righteous in every respect, though there were no sin found in the midst of the people. Why? Because the wicked always did persecute the righteous, they always did hate the principles and plan of salvation; still we have greater claim upon the arm of Jehovah for protection and assistance when we keep His commandments and love and serve Him.

Did you ever hear of the Elders of this Church getting up like the sectarian world and speaking about the love of God dwelling in their bosoms, and saying how much they loved Jesus, and at the same time transgressing his laws? No, we have no right to make any such declaration as this; hence we show to the heavens that we are determined to do the will of God. Then we may say that we love God; then we can say that we love His ways, and His Priesthood, and His Church, and His kingdom, and His Gospel which He has sent forth by His angels in the latter day.

I feel truly grateful to the Most High God that such a great improvement has been made among the Latter-day Saints in these mountains. I think I am able to judge. I have been with this people from my youth up. Forty years have almost expired since I was baptized into this Church and kingdom. I have known the former history of the Saints; and I know and understand, in some measure, their present condition, and I can contrast the two, and I see a decided improvement. Is there more union amongst them? Yes; far more than there was in the lifetime of Joseph; and all that the great mass of the people want is to know what God requires, and, with one heart and mind, they will do it. If God requires them to be baptized for their dead, as far as they can search and find out their ancestors’ names, they will do it with all their hearts and souls. If He requires them to receive the sacred ordinance of the endowments, by which they may attain to greater blessings and glory in His presence, they will go to with one heart and mind to receive those ordinances. If God requires His people to take a plurality of wives and have them sealed to them for time and eternity, behold they will do these things. If God requires the young, middle-aged, or even the aged, Elders to start from their farms or from their various occupations and leave this Territory on a journey across the Plains or across the great ocean and to the different nations of the earth and study their language and preach to the people, behold they will do it. If God calls upon this people to go forth into the South country, which is still more barren and desolate than the northern portion of the Territory, behold they are willing to go and do it. If God requires anything at their hands there is a union, oneness and willingness to go forward and carry out His great designs and purposes in regard to the rolling forth of His kingdom in the last days. By all these acts, by all these manifestations, by the good feeling that exists in the bosoms of this people, we know that they have made great improvement and advancement in the things of the kingdom of God since our Prophet was called upon to offer his great and last testimony by the shedding of his blood.

This union will increase and become stronger and stronger; it will continue until this people shall be prepared and sanctified before the heavens, and be permitted to return and build up the waste places of Zion in the western frontiers of the United States. This people will wax stronger in faith, in love towards God, in the power of the Priesthood and in the demonstration of the Spirit, until they are able to build the city wherein God shall reveal Himself, as He did in ancient times before the flood, among the people of ancient Zion—the Zion built up by Enoch. This people will increase in union, faith, greatness and glory, until the heavens shall come down and embrace us, and we shall embrace them, and all the heavenly host shall be united together in one with the hosts of the Saints of God here on earth, and a union will be created such as exists nowhere but in the celestial kingdom of our God, for the Saints themselves will ere long become celestial. Amen.

Discourse by President Orson Hyde, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 5, 1870.

Brethren and sisters, my heart almost falters at the idea of attempting to make you all distinctly hear me, but by the aid of the Spirit of the Lord, in answer to your good wishes and prayers, I will do my best to make you hear such things as it may suggest to me. I am thankful for this opportunity of meeting the Saints from different parts of the Territory, of beholding their friendly faces, and of greeting them with a cordial “How do you do?” and “God bless you.” It really fills me with joy and gladness, and I am thankful that I have the privilege of meeting with my brethren who bear the Priesthood, and of mingling my testimony with theirs, to establish the truths of heaven long since revealed by the Lord to His people—the Latter-day Saints. Brethren and sisters, I know that the cause in which we are engaged is the cause of God. I know that Joseph Smith was a true and faithful Prophet of the Most High God. I know that he sealed his testimony with his blood, and though he is invisible to our natural eyes at the present time, he is moving the cause of Zion by an influence which we can better feel than see. I feel thankful that I have the privilege of bearing this testimony; and not only do I bear it in behalf of the martyred Prophet, but I bear the same testimony in behalf of him whom God has placed to lead, guide and govern the affairs of His kingdom on the earth—namely, President Brigham Young.

You can all behold the “Twin Peaks” down here, when you are out in the open air, towering aloft towards heaven. You have seen the clouds gather around their brow, you have heard the thunders roll and seen the lightnings flash as if they would demolish those proud monuments of nature, and the elements have expended upon them their fury, yet after all, the clouds retired, the thunders ceased to roll, the lightnings to flash, and the sky became clearer; and there stand today those proud monuments, unscathed and unmoved. Why? Because God Almighty’s hand reared them and placed them there. And the elements by which we are more or less surrounded may gather around our President, Brigham Young, until his name is almost obscured for the time being; the thunders may roll over his head, the lightnings may flash or the clouds gather; is he affected? Is he not the same identical pillar, leading, guiding and sustaining the cause of God? Most assuredly he is. And remember that, although the elements are lively and they play around the “Twin Peaks” with a great deal of force and fury, they can have but very little effect upon them; and so it is with the man whom God has ordained and placed to guide His Saints. Apostates may cause the clouds to gather, and they may thunder and they may lighten, and they may do this, that and the other, but at last they must yield and give place to the monument that God has erected; and he will stand forth in bold relief, towering to heaven and pointing the way to eternal life.

This is my testimony. This is the way my heart feels today; and it is the way it has ever felt towards that individual; it is the way that I am inclined to think that it ever will feel. It is my determination. Why? Because I have had evidence that is unmistakable that I am occupying grounds that are correct, that are true and faithful, and I cannot forget it. I pray the Lord that He may always lead me to keep the truth in mind, vivid and clear as the sun at noonday.

Brethren and sisters, if we will be united in keeping the commandments of God, in observing and cleaving to the Word of Wisdom, not for the time being only, but always while life shall last; if we will remember our prayers and be faithful in the discharge of our duties, I will tell you that any measure, inimical to our welfare and interests it may seem, that may be sought to be carried against us, will utterly fail. We have the means within ourselves to defeat almost anything that is intended for our destruction and overthrow. However I want to talk but little about this. I have endeavored to instruct the brethren and sisters where I have labored in relation to this matter, and if I shall repeat here today some things that I have said heretofore, do not think that it is because Brother Hyde lacks a subject; but he is happy to have the opportunity of declaring the truth; and truth never becomes stale because of being often repeated.

We are a commercial and trading people, although far inland, and hence we buy and sell. Now the question is, are we always punctual to pay according to promise and agreement? I am sorry to say that in too many instances we are careless and indifferent with regard to fulfilling our word and agreement. We are told in the good Book that we should owe no man anything but love and good will; and if every man that hears the sound of my voice today could stand out like an angel of God and say, “I owe no man anything but love and good will,” what missile from the enemies’ ranks could be successfully hurled against us? I say not one. We have paid that which we owe, and no man can say aught in complaint against us because we are delinquents; and every one that knows us will be ready to say, “God bless you, you are punctual and faithful.” Do we all desire, brethren and sisters, to maintain this character and stand upon this ground? I know that cases will arise, and almost unavoidably, in which we may be indebted to our brethren; but how is it with some of us when those to whom we are indebted apply for payment? I am afraid that such creditors, instead of receiving that which is their due, are sometimes turned away with an excuse; when, if the debtor would exert himself, he might pay about as well then as at any other time. But though we may turn away a brother with an excuse, does that turn away the demands of justice and right? I tell you no. I have seen individuals who would contract a debt, apparently regardless whether they paid or not. I do not know that there are any here, but if there are I hope they will heed the words which I speak. Let me say that I very much question whether, if we have contracted debts and do not pay them, nor manifest any desire to do so, we shall go into the celestial kingdom. I cannot tell how this will be, but I should rather fear that, instead of going into the celestial kingdom, we should go down to that prison that is spoken of in the Scriptures. Hence we are exhorted to “agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison: verily, verily, I say unto thee that thou shalt not come out thence until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Whether this Scripture legitimately applies in this case, I will not say; but to my mind it has a strong beginning in that direction. Well, if I have to go to prison and there work to pay the uttermost farthing, heaven nerve my arm so that I may meet and pay my obligations while I am in the flesh. I know that in relation to these matters some of us have been in the habit of considering, “Well, it is a brother to whom I owe this debt, and I can put him off, he will bear with me, and if he begins to make any particular demonstration towards collecting it, I will twine around him, and say, ‘Bear with me a little, and I will pay you,’” when perhaps we have no real, firm and fixed determination to pay that debt at all.

Will the Lord hear and answer our prayers if this be our condition? I cannot say, but I will tell you I would rather be clear of any obligation except those of love and good will. I would rather risk prayer offered under these circumstances than when offered while the suppliant is involved in debts and obligations he has failed to discharge.

Now, brethren and sisters, if we will train ourselves never to contract a debt, unless we feel sure, and not only feel sure, but determined, to pay according to promise, we shall not have the burdens on our shoulders that we otherwise shall have. Times are changing. Sometimes we are tempted by the allurements of the world, by the flow of money and by the abundance of everything, to go beyond the mark, and we contract debts; then perhaps there is a shutdown on the sources of prosperity, and a dark, dull time, financially, may set in, and everything we have got is at stake. Which, then, is the better way? The better way, in my opinion, is to keep clear of debt; whether times are prosperous or tight, keep clear of debt if possible.

Some will run into debt to gratify pride, and they will really rob themselves and their creditors just to keep up with this fanciful thing called fashion. Brother or sister So and So says, “I must have this or that, because somebody else has it;” or somebody has got such a thing, and I feel that I am as much entitled to it as he or she. I say let somebody else have as many fashions as they like, but let us abide by what God has given us and be content therewith; and if we really want more, let us make a little extra exertion, and before we spend money let us earn it. I know men who will actually go to work and sell the crop, that they are perhaps planting now, to merchants; and when they irrigate those crops it is not for themselves, but for them to whom they have sold it. The same is true when the grain is harvested and when it is threshed. There is no liberty, independence or nobility in this; but they who take this course are bound down and are slaves to somebody else. I feel that a little economy and self-denial would relieve us very much from this embarrassment and encumbrance. I believe the good Book says, “Except a man deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple.” Do we seek to deny ourselves or to gratify ourselves? Which is the greater labor, to gratify or to deny ourselves? I will tell you that if we would bestow as much labor in denying ourselves as we do in gratifying ourselves, we should feel better and should be happier, and the heavens would plead our cause more effectually. How comfortable a man feels when he can say to himself, “Though I have but little, thank God I do not owe anybody anything.” I have paid up my tithing, my emigration indebtedness, I have paid for my newspaper, and done the best I could to keep the hearts of my brethren whole by paying promptly, according to promise, so that the great machine of progress may move without obstruction and hindrance? I believe that if we will all turn in from this time and be honest, and really pay our debts and obligations, we have no great reason to fear anything injurious proceeding from any quarter.

Suppose now, brethren and sisters, that we should be united in this one thing, and should actually go to and pay our debts and obligations. Let me suggest to you one thing. Says one, “Really, I would very much like if I had the assurance that God heard my prayers.” Now, when you go home, just think of them to whom you are indebted and who is in most need among your creditors, and then go right to that individual and bless him with an installment of what you owe him, and I tell you that will aid very much the acceptance of your offering unto God; it will induce Him to hear your prayer and to answer it. If you don’t believe it, try it, and instead of putting off your brother, to whom you are indebted, and making a thousand excuses and apologies, and trying to get out of his road, go right to him, be honest, lay your heart open to him, and say, “My brother, I will do all I can for you. I will bless you by paying you what I owe, or a portion of it, and I will pay you the remainder as fast as I possibly can.” Let this course be taken throughout Israel, and see if the tables will not turn in favor of Zion. I feel that they will; let us all take this course and see.

I intend, if the Lord will let me live, and I believe He will, to work just as hard as I can to pay every just obligation that I owe, and I believe I shall accomplish it. I pray the Lord to let me live until I can say, boldly and honestly and truly, that I owe no man anything but love and goodwill; and then as much longer as He pleases. That is what I desire and intend. And I believe that if we, as a people, do this, remember our prayers, and keep the words of wisdom, the Lord will not suffer the enemy to prevail against us.

Now I look around this congregation, and contemplate that there are, perhaps, some ten or twelve thousand persons, and it may be more, I do not know, there is a very large number; then when I think that numerous as we are here we are but the representatives—not more than a tithing of those left behind, of the same stripe, iy reminds me of the words of Joseph the Prophet, when he said, “Brethren, remember that the majority of this people will never go astray; and as long as you keep with the majority you are sure to enter the celestial kingdom.” I am satisfied, brethren, that if we will go to with our might and strength and pay our debts and liabilities the blessing of God will attend us, and that too in the eyes of all the world.

I will tell you what I expect. I expect to live to see the day when those in our midst, who have sought our injury and ruin, will stand the same as men do, when discovered, that I read of in the papers, who rob henroosts or steal sheep. You know how they feel—they feel “cheap,” they would feel very mean in the presence of honorable men. I expect to live to see the day, brethren, when those who have sought our injury will quail in our presence.

Well, this is no time for long sermons. There are my brethren of the Twelve here, besides many others, who want to speak; and I presume to say that I have occupied my share of the time. One thing more, however, I will say. You who have money owing to you, do not, from my remarks, go to him who owes you and take him by the throat and say, “Pay me that which thou owest.” Do not do that. No, let your debtor remain undisturbed by you; you be silent, and see whether that man’s conscience will operate upon him so as to induce him to come and make reasonable and proper satisfaction to you; and if he will not when this subject is fully laid before him you may begin to think that he is not as honest as he should be, and by and by he will work himself out of the kingdom.

I feel, brethren and sisters, that I am in the right company. If I can only manage to keep right myself, if I can only manage to be true and faithful to my God and myself, while I am in the midst of this assembly—the representatives of a host of Latter-day Saints—their hearts beating in unison with my words, and my words with their hearts, I feel that I am not following the few who break off, but that I am with the majority, and we are bound for the celestial kingdom.

God defend His people and their rights, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 5, 1870.

During our Conference we shall require the people to pay attention and to preserve good order, and perhaps we shall require that that will not be altogether pleasing in some respects. One thing which strikes me here this morning, and which is a source of considerable annoyance to the congregation, appears to me might be avoided, and that is bringing children here who are not capable of understanding the preaching. If we were to set them on the stand, where they could hear every word, it would convey to them no knowledge or instruction, and would not be the least benefit to them. I will ask my sisters: Cannot we avoid this? Have you not daughters, sisters, or friends, or some one who can take care of these children while you attend meeting? When meetings are over, the mothers can go home and bestow all the care and attention upon their children which may be necessary. I cannot understand the utility of bringing children into such a congregation as we shall have here through the Conference, just for the sake of pleasing the mothers, when the noise made by them disturbs all around them. I therefore request that the sisters will leave their babies at home in the care of good nurses. And when you come here, sisters and brethren, sit still and make no noise by shuffling your feet or whispering. Wait till meeting is dismissed, then you may go out and talk and walk as much as you please; but while you are in this house it is necessary to keep perfectly still.

I hope our doorkeepers are instructed and understand, so that they will keep order, and also be still themselves. I have noticed sometimes that our doorkeepers and policemen will make more disturbance in a congregation than the people do. This is very unbecoming, and it certainly exhibits a great lack of understanding. If a look or motion will not answer, do not holloa; we, on the Stand, will do all the talking necessary. But if a doorkeeper holloas to this one and that one, he makes more confusion than the people will make. Now, doorkeepers, be sure that you are perfectly still; and if you are obliged to walk around here much, I would recommend that you wear india-rubber overshoes, so that you may be able to walk without making a noise.

There is another subject I wish to refer to. Last Sabbath this front gallery, the gentleman’s gallery, was very full. After meeting was dismissed I took a walk through it, and to see the floor that had been occupied by those professing to be gentlemen, and I do not know but brethren, you might have supposed that cattle had been there rolling and standing around, for here and there were great quids of tobacco, and places one or two feet square smeared with tobacco juice. I want to say to the doorkeepers that when you see gentlemen who cannot omit chewing and spitting while in this house, request them to leave; and if such persons refuse to leave, and continue their spitting, just take them and lead them out carefully and kindly. We do not want to have the house thus defiled. It is an imposition for gentlemen to spit tobacco juice around, or to leave their quids of tobacco on the floor; they dirty the house, and if a lady happen to besmear the bottom of her dress, which can hardly be avoided, it is highly offensive. We therefore request all gentlemen attending Conference to omit tobacco chewing while here. To the Elders of Israel who cannot and will not keep the Word of Wisdom, I say, omit tobacco chewing while here.

In all probability our congregations will be large, and we shall be under the necessity of being a little stringent and exacting in regard to leaving the children at home and in preserving quietness and order while in the house. You may think it a little unreasonable, sisters, to make such a request, but it is not so, for you who are here this morning have seen the great amount of confusion and annoyance the crying of children has caused; and if you cannot, for the space of two or three hours, forego the pleasure of gazing upon the faces of your little darlings, just stay at home with them. This we earnestly request while we are here in Conference. We have all the brethren of the Twelve here, except Brother Carrington, who is in Liverpool, and we shall have speeches, exhortations and advice from them, which, if followed and observed by the people, will lead them in the path of truth, light, intelligence, virtue, soberness and godliness, and we want such good order preserved and maintained that all attending Conference can hear the instructions given.

We have many things to say to the people. They need a great amount of talking to and instruction. They are a good deal like children and need to have words of counsel and advice constantly reiterated. The mother says to the child, “My darling little Johnny, don’t you get that knife,” or “Can’t you let your father’s razor alone,” or “Let the crockery alone, you will break it.” And the “little darling Johnny” lets it alone for a minute or two, but soon he makes another stretch after the knife, razor, tumbler, pitcher, or something that his mother does not want him to have, and again her voice is heard, “Johnny, let that alone, it is not good for you to have;” or, “You will break that pitcher.” Johnny sets down the pitcher, and pretty soon it is gone from his mind, but he runs around a little, and then he wants a drink, and while getting the pitcher, or perhaps the knife, the mother coaxingly says, “My darling dear, will you let that alone,” and finally, wearied with talking to “Johnny,” she probably boxes his ears. It is precisely so with the people, or many of them. We exhort them to observe the Word of Wisdom, to be faithful, truthful and prayerful, and so on, but many of them forget, and we have to ask and beseech them again and again.

We shall now dismiss our morning’s meeting, and shall assemble again at two o’clock this afternoon, and I trust that strict attention will be paid to what is said. I am of the opinion that what is said will be instructive and good for the people. We do not want the teachings of the Elders to drop upon senseless, careless, indolent ears; but let every ear be open, and every heart receive understanding, that good may result from our labors. We are teaching the people how to be saved—how to walk and talk so as to secure eternal salvation, and I do hope and pray my brethren and sisters to pay attention, that the Spirit of the Lord may be in your hearts, that you may see and understand things as they are. I would say, still further, if there be error advanced here, do not receive it, pass it by, and live so that you will know truth from error, light from darkness, the things that are of God from those not of God; and if an error should drop from the lips of one of our Elders, do not receive, believe, or practice it. Truth is what we want, and we ought to live so that we can understand and know it for ourselves. This is our privilege and duty; and we request of the Latter-day Saints, and of all people, to live so that they may know and understand the things of God, and receive and embrace them in their faith, and practice them in their lives.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, April 24, 1870.

The 16th verse of the 20th chapter of Exodus, one of the ten commandments, reads as follows: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” We, as a people, are situated in the Great Basin, among the mountains, and occupy the little valleys which form the backbone of the American continent. We have been here about 23 years, and we have had the privilege of contending with the fury of the elements, with a sterile country and with desolation itself, and by the magic wand of industry and the blessing of our heavenly Father upon our labors, and upon the waters and the land, we have been able to make for ourselves comfortable homes and to enjoy religious liberty—a blessing which had been denied to us in other localities where we had resided. No other community can be found on the face of the earth that has had more good order, peace and harmony. In all the settlements, protection, safety, and every necessary blessing have been extended to the traveler, to the stranger and the resident alike. I believe that for the forty or fifty thousand square miles we have occupied in spots, the desert of course intervening between the settlements, there have better police regulations and more safety to all parties than have existed in the streets of New York or Washington. And the protection which has existed and which does still exist has been the work of the Latter-day Saints. Of this we have every reason to be proud.

I have recently traveled more than 1,000 miles among the settlements, and have visited perhaps 30,000 people. During that journey I have not seen an idler, loafer, or heard an oath or blasphemous word; I have not seen a drinking saloon, dram shop, gambling hell, or brothel; but all has been perfect order and peace, the people worshipping God as they understand the Gospel and rejoicing in the same.

It was my lot, during the past season, to be present much of the time in this city, which was visited by great numbers of men, from nearly all parts of the earth. Many of them were clergymen of the various denominations—Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, and others. Some of these men occupied our pulpits in this and the New Tabernacle. We were glad to hear them. We had many good reasons for wishing them to preach to us. Many of the younger members of our community have not been conversant with the religions of the age. The elder members of our body have been, for most of us were raised in some one or other of the religious denominations, and have felt and realized the effects of their principles, and are fully acquainted with their doctrines. Thousands of our Elders have traveled abroad in the earth preaching and have been observant of their workings and progress. But the young and rising generation among us have not had this opportunity. It is therefore very desirable to us, whenever ministers of standing in their own denominations visit us, to have them set forth their doctrines and sentiments before us, that the young persons among us may understand all other religions as well as ours, and be able to compare the doctrines that are taught or held in Christendom with those which we have been introducing under the revelations given to Joseph Smith. It was on this and other grounds that the general spiritual liberty, so marked among us in the days of Joseph Smith, had been constantly continued. We all remember, who lived in the days of Joseph, that every clergyman of any prominence who visited Nauvoo was invited to preach to our congregations. This has ever been our course. It was so at Kirtland. They preached in our Temple and in other localities, and it has been continued up to the present time. During the long years that we were in a manner isolated from the rest of the world, ministers passing across the continent by stage or in emigrant companies have spoken in our tabernacles.

It is true that when our Elders have been abroad preaching they have not met with similar courtesy. There was not long since, in the Vermont Journal, a little article in relation to Rev. John Todd, D.D., at Pittsfield, Mass., who, the Journal says, did not reciprocate the courtesies shown him at Salt Lake last summer. He preached in this building, and afterwards requested the privilege of preaching in the New Tabernacle. He did so, and was treated with due courtesy. He delivered us an address, showing us his faith and religion, which was what we desired him to do. We requested him to conduct the meeting as he chose, as we wished to see his manner of worship, or rather that our young people might see it. He went away and published a book in which he misrepresented us in many things and asserted that there was no liberty nor freedom here, that he felt bound, and he hoped that this plague spot of Sodom would be removed, and prayed that God might speed the day.

This course, pursued by Dr. Todd, put me in mind of the commandment—our text, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

A freer people do not exist on the earth, nor any who have greater opportunities for free thought and understanding. Elders are going forth to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, preaching the Gospel and gathering up the poor and needy; and their going and returning keep us posted thoroughly in relation to the progress and improvements made by and going on in the religious, scientific and mechanical world. These are the facts, and every man has the privilege of exercising his own will and freedom; and the privilege of preaching in our congregations is extended through all our settlements to ministers and men of standing in other religious bodies. I saw recently invitations published to the learned of all denominations, to occupy the halls of Brigham City; and the same is true of other settlements. All that we desire of our fellow men, when they visit us, is to tell the truth about us, and not to tell for truth the forecastle yarns they have heard spun at some street corner by some who, while manufacturing lies, were trying to imitate Dean Swift’s tales of Gulliver. Many men who have called here have done this.

I remember one particular instance which occurred last season. There were five gentlemen of the Baptist Church who came here, with whom I had a conversation. They said their people had never, under any circumstances, persecuted the Latter-day Saints. I told them that I did not know that they had as a church. But I told them that the Rev. I. McCoy, a Baptist minister, with his gun on his shoulder, at the head of forty men, drove women and children out of their houses and robbed them in Jackson County, Missouri, in 1833; that Levi Williams, a Baptist preacher, led the party of men who murdered Joseph Smith; and that the Rev. Thomas Brockman, of the Reformed Baptists, at the head of 1,800 men, drove forth to perish 500 or 600 Saints, men, women, and children, poor and helpless, who were left in Nauvoo, Ills., having previously cannonaded the town for three days. I did not know that, as a church, they had persecuted us, but certain individuals of their persuasion had taken part in the matter. They seemed considerably hurt to hear it. They wished to preach to us, and they had the opportunity to do so in the New Tabernacle. It was not long before an article appeared in the Baptist paper, describing the meeting. I presume most of the audience recollect the discourse of Dr. Backus. The description these gentlemen gave of the meeting was something like this. The Twelve Apostles were on the stand, and they looked around to see which was Judas; finally they came to the conclusion that they were all Judases, except Elder Taylor. The paper said it was desired and hoped that in a short time the Government would adopt efficient measures to put a stop to Mormonism.

Now I do really think that it is degrading to the religion, science and civilization of the age, where there are five hundred thousand ministers, editors and public teachers in the country, to ask the Government to interfere in any manner whatever to correct any moral or religious error. I think it is acknowledging a weakness in the civilization and religion of the age to do so.

I wish to say to our friends who have visited us, in conclusion, we are glad to see you; you are welcome among us; we like to hear you speak, but when you go away tell the truth about us, and remember the commandment of God, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, April 24, 1870.

We delight in the spirit manifested by our young friend who has just spoken. He advocates the use of the sword of the Spirit, or the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, backed by the spirit of that Gospel, to convince people of the error of their ways. We, as a people, or the Elders of this Church, have carried that over the face of the earth; we have offered it to the people in nearly all parts of the earth, without money and without price.

We delight to meet together to worship God; we delight to have our brethren and sisters come together for this purpose, and we also esteem it a pleasure to have strangers of age and experience, who have the spirit to discern, meet with and preach to us. In our community we have very few from the heathen world; but from the Christian world thousands have gathered here. They understand and know the effects of what is called Christianity. But it is otherwise with our children. They have been brought up here; and, except in a few instances, they have heard nothing but the Gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints. They are not capable of judging what the outside world is until they have had it exhibited before them, which has been their privilege occasionally; and I always feel to urge our youth to attend meetings when strangers preach, that they may be able to understand that which is and that which is not of God, and learn the difference between the doctrine taught by us and others. We believe a great many things that the Christian world cannot believe. If their eyes were open and they had the spirit to see things as they are, they could understand them. There is not a man or woman on the earth but what, if they understood God and the things of God, would yield obedience to His requirements. Those who set themselves up against the truth do it in consequence of not seeing things as they are—in consequence of ignorance, and were it not for this ignorance with regard to God and His Gospel they would be able to believe in the Gospel. The Latter-day Saints believe in the Gospel of the Son of God, simply because it is true. They believe in baptism for the remission of sins, personal and by proxy; they believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world; they believe that all who attain to any glory whatever, in any kingdom, will do so because Jesus has purchased it by his atonement.

The Christian world says, “We are going to the kingdom of Heaven;” but what is to become of those who have died, not believing as they do, or who have died without hearing the Gospel? Millions of them have passed away, both in the Christian and in the heathen worlds, just as honest, virtuous and upright as any now living. The Christian world say they are lost; but the Lord will save them, or, at least, all who will receive the Gospel. The plan of salvation which Jesus has revealed, and which we preach, reaches to the lowest and most degraded of Adam’s lost race. Is He going to save all in the same glory and bring all to the same state of felicity? Will they who refuse to obey the Gospel of the Son of God be saved and exalted in the same kingdom and glory as they who have obeyed? No, never, never! It is impossible. Do you suppose that a person can see the kingdom of heaven without being born of the Spirit? Jesus said not. Shall we say to the contrary, and maintain that we can see the kingdom of God without being born of the Spirit, and say that Jesus is a liar? Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man is born of the spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Shall we admit that Jesus spoke the truth, or shall man say that his doctrine is true and Jesus spoke that which is not true? Which shall we do? There is no alternative but to admit that Jesus is true, and will save on no other condition than that laid down in the Scriptures, and that all who preach any other doctrine take the testimony of men instead of the testimony of Jesus, or that the Christian world with their varied opinions and creeds are true and that Jesus is untrue.

This is plain talk, my friends. Can you mistake it? Can you gain any idea from what I say except what I mean—let God be true, if it makes every man a liar. I think my words are so pointed and emphatic that no person can mistake them. Did Jesus say, “Except a man is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God?” Yes, all Christians will admit that. Then do you think there was one plan of salvation for Nicodemus and another for you and me? It is all folly for any person to expect any such thing! Come with the sword of the Spirit! Let the whole world of Christendom come with their arguments and Scriptures, and let us argue these things together! Let us lay them before the people and see who is right and who is wrong.

Let me say to you, if it is true that no man can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and of the Spirit, God must provide a plan by which those who have died ignorant of the Gospel may have the privilege of doing so, or he would appear to be a partial being. Has He provided that way? He has. The Christian world have taught, preached, contemplated, meditated, sung about and prayed for the Millennium. What are you going to do during that period, Christians? Do you know what the Millennium is for, and what work will have to be done during that period? Suppose the Christian world were now one in heart, faith, sentiment and works, so that the Lord could commence the Millennium in power and glory, do you know what would be done? Would you sit and sing yourselves away to everlasting bliss? No, I reckon not. I think there is a work to be done then which the whole world seems determined we shall not do. What is it? To build temples. We never yet commenced to lay the foundation of a temple but what all hell was in arms against us. That is the difficulty now: we have commenced the foundation of this temple. What are we going to do in these temples? Anything to be done there? Yes, and we will not wait for the Millennium and the fullness of the glory of God on the earth; we will commence, as soon as we have a temple, and work for the salvation of our forefathers; we will get their genealogies as far as we can. By and by, we shall get them perfect. In these temples we will officiate in the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for our friends, for no man can enter the kingdom of God without being born of the water and of the Spirit. We will officiate for them who are in the spirit world, where Jesus went to preach to the spirits, as Peter has written in the third chapter, verses 18, 19, and 20, of his first epistle:

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,” etc.

In the next chapter, Peter, alluding to this same subject, says—

“For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

What will we do for and in behalf of the dead? We will be baptized for the remission of sins, as Paul has said, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, 15th chapter and 29th verse:

“Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?”

We will also have hands laid on us for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and then we will receive the washings and anointings for and in their behalf, preparatory to their becoming heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Are you going to do this, Latter-day Saints? Yes. What will the Christian world do with their dead? Let them sleep an eternal sleep, for there are no provisions made for them in the gospel they believe in and have taught to them.

This is one item of doctrine believed in by the Latter-day Saints that the inhabitants of the earth are opposed to. Why? Because they are governed and controlled by the spirit of darkness. This may seem harsh, but it is true. They are opposed to Jesus, to God, and to the salvation of the children of men, and are controlled by this evil spirit, and they know it not. They say:

“Latter-day Saints, let your dead and ordinances for their benefit alone, we will pass laws forbidding you the observance and practice of the ordinances of the house of God.”

We trust in God. I reckon He will fight our battles and we will be baptized for and in behalf of the human family during a thousand years; and we will have hundreds of temples and thousands of men and women officiating therein for those who have fallen asleep, without having had the privilege of hearing and obeying the Gospel, that they may be brought forth and have a glorious resurrection, and enjoy the kingdom which God has prepared for them. The devil will fight hard to hinder us, and we shall not take an inch of ground except by obedience to the power of, and faith in, the Gospel of the Son of God. The whole world is opposed to this doctrine. But is there any harm in it? If they could only see it as it is in the Lord, they would rejoice in it, and instead of fighting it, they would praise God for having revealed so glorious a doctrine. Suppose that the notion entertained by some is true, that after the death of our bodies our spirits sleep an eternal sleep, and I am baptized for my father, grandfather, and so on, does it injure them? Answer, all ye intelligences on the face of the earth, above, beneath, or around about the earth! All will admit that no harm would be done in practicing these ordinances. Then let us alone if our practices will do no harm, why oppose us in their observance? The result might possibly affect beneficially our progenitors, and then you who oppose would be found fighting against God. Better let the Gospel have its course.

We have had a nice discourse this morning from the Rev. Mr. Andrews, exhorting all to believe in Jesus. His text was as good a one as ever a man quoted, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation unto all them that believe; to the Jew first, and then to the Greek,” or to the rest of the world. Jesus says, pointedly, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” This is the test? Are there any commandments? Yes, plenty of them, and the only way to prove our belief in and love for the Lord Jesus is by observing the sayings that he has left on record.

They are coming from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South to sit down in our Father’s kingdom; but no man can sit down there unless he gain admittance through the faithful observance of the commands of God, and obedience to the ordinances of His house. Then why not repent and obey the ordinances and commandments? Why not be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any harm in it? I say to every being on the face of the earth, Christian, Pagan, or Jew, supposing my doctrine is not true, and that there is no necessity for believing in Jesus, being baptized for the remission of sins and having hands laid upon you for the Holy Ghost, will it do you any harm? Pagan, will it do you any harm? Believers or unbelievers, will it do you any harm? Universalian, will it do you any harm? Apostates, will it do you any harm? Wise man, will it do you any harm? Fools, will it do you any harm? What is your answer? ‘”No; it will not.” Well, then, let me alone. I may be right, and you wrong; and if I should be right, you are cut off, and I have the advantage of you; but if you are right, and I am wrong, I am with you and will share in all the blessings that you can get.

This Gospel will save the whole human family; the blood of Jesus will atone for our sins, if we accept the terms he has laid down; but we must accept those terms or else it will avail nothing in our behalf.

I have talked long enough. I bid you all welcome to the Gospel. Jesus Christ has commissioned me to say to the whole human family, “You can have this Gospel without money and without price.” We have traversed the world over and offered it to the human family and asked them to receive it. We are still saying to them, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, keep his commandments, and obey his ordinances, that it may be well with you. God bless you. Amen.