Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1867.

We have met together on the present occasion to attend our annual Conference. The object of our meeting is not altogether for religious purposes, but to consult upon all matters for the interest of the Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth. On these occasions it is quite common for missionaries to be appointed to the different nations of the earth, and it is also usual to discuss the principles and doctrines that we believe in, and to attend to any business that may have to be presented from the different parts of this Territory, and from all parts of the earth; and we try to build up the people in their most holy faith. We meet also to consult upon the best course for us to pursue with regard to temporal things as well as spiritual things. For as we possess bodies as well as spirits, and have to live by eating, drinking, and wearing, it becomes necessary that temporal matters should be considered and discussed in our Conferences, and that we should deliberate upon all things that are calculated to benefit, bless, and exalt the Saints of God, whether they refer to our spiritual affairs or to our avocations and duties in life as husbands and wives, as parents and children, as masters and servants; whether they refer to the policy we should pursue in our commercial relations, to protecting ourselves against the incursions of savages, or to any other matter affecting us as human beings composing part of the body politic of this nation or as citizens of the world. The idea of strictly religious feelings with us, and nothing else, is out of the question; yet we do everything in the fear of God. Our religion is more comprehensive than that of the world; it does not prompt its votaries with the desire to “sit and sing themselves away to everlasting bliss,” but it embraces all the interests of humanity in every conceivable phase, and every truth in the world comes within its scope. The Lord is making a great experiment, and we are trying to help Him. Through the instrumentality of His servants He has inaugurated the greatest work ever commenced on earth. We are taking a stand to revolutionize the ideas of ages, to overturn the fallacies of centuries, and to root out and destroy the corruptions of past generations by introducing the law of the most high God. Standing upon this elevated platform, having the world as it was, is, and as it will be before us, we feel the responsibility resting upon us to be true and faithful to the calling which the great God has placed upon us. As Jesus said he came not to do his own will, so we are not here to do our own will, to accomplish any favorite project, or to introduce any fanciful creed, notion, or idea. We are not here to propagate any favorite or pleasant dogma, but our object is to make known the laws of life and the designs of the great Eloheim with regard to the earth and its inhabitants.

As President Young remarked this morning, “our object is not to elevate the few at the expense of the many, but to elevate and exalt the whole; to pour health, wealth, and life upon all who will receive our teachings.” Consequently, when we assemble on occasions like this, all these interests present themselves for our consideration and reflection. Before we came into this Church many of us belonged to the various churches of the day—the Roman Catholic, the Greek, and Episcopal, and to the various dissenting bodies, and we had our peculiar creeds and articles of religious faith. But we have laid those doctrines aside, and now we are Latter-day Saints, and we believe in their doctrines. We believe that God has spoken, that the heavens have been opened, that holy angels have appeared, that the truths of God, which for ages have slumbered, have again burst forth upon us, and that man, once more, is brought into communion with his Maker. Before entering this Church we were ignorant in regard to the past and the future, but now we comprehend them in part. We have laid aside our religious dogmas, theories, follies, and nonsense; and we have one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one hope of our calling, one idea in relation to what we were, what we are, and what we are going to be, and that idea is in accordance with what God has revealed through the Priesthood. I was unable to comprehend religion until it was taught me by the Priesthood; and anything in opposition to their teachings is not worth the ashes of a rye straw. Like Moses’ serpent, which swallowed up all other serpents, “Mormonism” has banished all our preconceived notions of religion, and has made us one. Why do we believe and feel as we do on these points? Because God has spoken, and we have believed Him. We are aiming at something more than religious unity. We have a political existence that none can ignore nor destroy; they think they can, but they cannot. They cannot make us mingle with the confusion of Babylon any more than they can make oil and water coalesce. There is no affinity between us. They profess very little faith in God, and know nothing about him; while we profess faith in God, and do know that He lives and speaks to His people; hence unity between them and us is impossible.

I referred just now to our political existence, but before I dwell upon that let us touch a little on our social ideas. They are very different from those of the world. We differ very materially, for instance, with them on the relationship that exists between the sexes. They say the course we pursue has a tendency to degrade women; we think it has a tendency to elevate them, and the course pursued by the world is one of the most damnably corrupt and oppressive that it is possible to conceive of. It is true they will marry their wives until death parts them. But what of their mistresses? By thousands and hundreds of thousands they are seduced and deceived and are being dragged down to death and perdition. Their bodies are weak, corrupt, and emaciated, and they are without pleasure in life and without hope in the future. Yet men who are steeped to the lips in such foul depravity and horrid practices will preach to us about purity and morality, and would have us embrace a system so deeply damned as theirs. It is enough to make a man vomit to hear them. No, sirs, we have come out from that, and are trying to carry out the principle which God has revealed—which is, to make all women wives, to respect, honor, and bless them while they live on the earth, and to exalt them to thrones in the celestial kingdom of God hereafter. Is there anything low, groveling, or calculated to humble or destroy in that? It is the most blessed, most noble, most exalted principle that ever God revealed to man. Who desires the world to continue in its present course of hypocrisy and corruption? Can the religion or politics of the day stem the evils that everywhere prevail, root out this corroding, fetid, moral curse, and establish pure, correct, and virtuous principles? If they had the wish to do so they have not the power. Nothing short of the power and intelligence of God can ever accomplish that. We are striving to introduce correct moral principles to the people, that men and women may understand their proper relationship to each other, that they may fill the measure of their creation and stand pure and uncontaminated before God, angels, and men, that when they have done with the things of time they may be transplanted to a celestial kingdom and be associated with the Gods in the eternal world.

In political matters we are pretty well united. At our elections we generally vote as a unit. This, we know, is contrary to the general custom, and because we do not disagree and contend as the world do, they say that we are wrong. If we had intended to do as they do we should not have left them. We have long ago weighed them in the balances and found them wanting. We have no desire to be affiliated with them; but in politics as in everything else we want to know the will of God, and then to do it. It is true that a little of the old leaven will manifest itself once in a while. Sometimes some little consequential persons who want to be somebody will gather here and seek to exalt themselves, but our opinion is that it is time enough for men to be somebody when God makes them so, and that manmade men are only poor miserable creatures at the best.

Do we not believe in the voice of the people? Yes; but we believe in the voice of God first, in the middle, and in the end. God says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last;” and we want to be governed by Him in everything—firstly, secondly, thirdly, and lastly. We do not think we have wisdom to manage our political affairs without the interposition of the Most High. Sometime ago we had an army sent against us by the United States. How did we conquer it? Perhaps you will say we did not conquer it; perhaps we did not, but no matter about that. Why did not they conquer us? Because our trust was in the living God, and He has told us that it was His “business to take care of His Saints.” We believed Him; we asked Him to take care of us, and He did. He took care of them, too, and after a while they went sneaking off as they came, and did nothing. We have had difficulties in the south of our Territory with Indians; we have today. What is the best course for us to take in regard to them? Who can dictate us in these matters? If the Lord does not, I am sure I do not know who can. I consider that we are all in the hands of God. He could let the red men upon us to chastise us if He saw proper; and He could say to them “Hold, be still,” and they would be as still as mice. It is so with the United States—they are in His hands as well as we; and when any man or set of men seek to interfere with us or our rights it is just as easy for Him to say to them, as to the waves of Jordan, “Hither shall ye come, and no further.” It is necessary for us to understand this; and to realize our position, and also to be united in carrying out any enterprise or policy that the Lord shall dictate to us through His servants. In relation to what may be called political economy the people think “we have the right to do as we please.” I do not know so much about that. You had a right to become “Mormons” or to let “Mormonism” alone, and you had the right to gather to Zion or to stay where you were. You have the right to be “Mormons” here or not, as you please; but I very much doubt the right of men to do as they please when they profess to be Latter-day Saints; because we have covenanted together to keep the commandments of God and obey the holy priesthood, and in this and other Conferences vote to uphold them and not to destroy, plot against, and overturn the power of the priesthood, or individuals, or nations, but to uphold righteousness, maintain truth, establish justice, and spread peace throughout the earth. That is what we plot, contrive, and pray for, and that has been the head and front of our offending from the organization of the Church till the present day. Well, but would we like to have our own way? Yes; and we do to a great extent. But when we do have so much of it we do not get along quite so well. Have you never heard President Young tell the story about the dog that was so very obedient? Said its master, “that dog will obey me in everything;” and to prove his assertion, said he, “Caesar, go out!” But Caesar did not go out, he went under the bed. “Well,” said his master, “if you will not go out, go under the bed, then, you shall obey me.” President Young feels a good deal like this with the Saints. They like their own way, and says he, “Well, if you will not do as the Lord wants you, why, do so and so, for you shall obey me.” What does this feature show? It shows that we are not very strong in the faith, that we are not living up to the privileges that God has given, and that we are not treading in the steps of our file leader as good men and women do.

We could progress a great deal faster, and could prosper a thousand times more than we do if we would be one in carrying out the counsels given us by the Lord through His servants. What did Jesus pray for when about leaving His disciples? “Father, I pray for these whom thou hast given me that they may be one, even as thou and I, Father, are one, that they may be one in us. Neither pray I for these alone, but for all who shall believe in me through their words, that they all may be one.” One in what? In everything. What did President Young say this morning when speaking of some of these things? That we would ask the Lord to bless us and preserve us from our enemies, and the very next step we were hand and glove with them in everything. If we do not feel ashamed when we hear such things we ought to be. What has been the teachings to this people for years? To be self-sustaining. What a poor miserable effort some of us would have made of it if we had lived in Adam’s day! The Lord placed him on the earth and told him to be “fruitful, to multiply and replenish the earth, and to subdue it.” Now, Adam never thought of sending to the States for merchandise. If he wanted a coat he had to be his own tailor. The Lord showed him how to make his clothes. I expect He is a good hand, and understands all about these things. The Lord has brought us out here, and has given us a good land, which we have been cultivating for a number of years, and we have done pretty well.

A few days ago I came across a man of the name of Ivins, whose father apostatized in Nauvoo. The son has been around in the mines. I asked him who were the best off—the people here or those following mining pursuits? He said that we were a long way ahead of them. The reason is that we have not been following a vague phantom; but, we have been cultivating the earth, raising sheep and cattle, and the result is that most of us have our houses, gardens, farms, cattle, and sheep, and are comparatively well off; and my opinion is that no community in the world with our numbers are so prosperous as the people of Utah. There are places where there are richer men than you can find amongst us, but there are great numbers steeped in poverty. Have we any among us who are crying for bread? Can you find widows and orphans in our midst who are destitute? Here are men present from all parts of this Territory, can you tell of any such cases? I know of none myself. Can such a state of things be found in any other country? I have never met with it in any country where I have traveled. Why is this? Because the Lord has taught us principles that prompt us to provide for all, hence we do not allow any among us to suffer. But if we were obedient in all things we should be a great deal better off than we are, and would have less care and anxiety than we now have.

I was traveling south a while ago, and as I went along I made inquiries whether the people had all the grain they needed till harvest. I learned that a great many of them had not, the reason being that many had traded it off to the stores, some had bills to meet, and, owing to the fall in the price of grain, it took a great deal more to pay them than was anticipated. Is there any need for this? Not a particle. I was talking not long since with a brother on this subject. He was referring to Sanpete. He said—“It cost about as much to haul the grain from Sanpete to this city as it is worth, and, consequently, the people get nothing for their grain but the pay for hauling it.” Said I—“What is the matter? There is something wrong.” Is there any necessity that the people should bring their grain here or carry it anywhere else and get nothing for it but the pay for hauling? I do not know why it should be so, nor why the people should be so anxious to get rid of everything they have. I do not understand it.

Suppose the people in Sanpete, or any other county, were to establish a small woollen factory in each settlement, if they could not afford more than one or two carding machines, with a sufficient number of spindles to spin up the rolls, and had weavers to make it into cloth and other material necessary for the stockings, pants, vests, coats, dresses, shawls, nubias, &c., that they required, they would have no need, hereafter, to haul their grain to this city or elsewhere to pay for such things; but they might manufacture all the woollen fabric they need and still raise as much grain as they do now.

Let the people take care of their sheep and manufacture their wool, and there would be no uneasiness about their coats wearing out, or their shawls and dresses getting threadbare, for they would know there were plenty more growing.

Another branch of home manufacture that should be more generally encouraged is tanning. I have been told that a good many of the boots and shoes we wear now are made of gum and paper. I will guarantee that there are hides enough rotting around this city to shoe half this people, and I presume it is the case in other places. The effort of the people should be to establish a tannery, where none exists, to tan these hides into leather, and let the farmers haul bark for the tanners and exchange it for leather to shoe their families, and so manufacture leather enough to supply their wants, and if there was any surplus all the better. By adopting this course, boots and shoes for men, women, and children might be made of the hides from our cattle, while the stockings, pants, vests, coats, shawls, dresses, and nubias would come from the sheep. Then there is an article called flax that grows in this country, and if I were looking after the interests of a people I should require them to cultivate it and manufacture it into linen for towels, table cloths, and bed quilts; then if I could not manage to raise cotton enough from any source to make a shirt, I could, on a pinch, wear a linen one. With regard to hats, our hatters should be employed to make them at home, and the ladies could make hats of straw, as was spoken of by President Young this morning. If we procured machinery to do it, it would ease up on the ladies a little, and the work could be done better and more expeditiously. Nine-tenths of the people’s wants could be supplied in this way, and you would still have your grain. Then the farmer, shoemaker, tailor, weaver, and so on through the whole people, could have their bins filled, and have on hand one, two, or three years’ supply. By and by if somebody came along and said the grasshoppers or the crickets are coming, the feeling would be, “let them ‘crick,’ we do not care, we are safe, our grain is laid up.” That would make the people feel free, easy, and independent, and it ought to be their position today.

Well, so much for the political economy that ought to exist in our midst, and by which we as a people ought to be governed. I believe it is the duty of the Bishops and of all our leading men to see these things carried out. I know it is the wish of President Young and of the Lord. We profess to be the people of God, let us subject ourselves to His sway and carry out His designs. We have laid aside our old religion, morals, and politics long ago, and have got a better kind. Let us lay aside our old political economy and get one that is calculated to sustain us in every position in life and be one in that as in other things. I see I am talking too long. May the Lord bless and guide us and help us to be one, that we may be one with Him in His kingdom, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 31, 1867.

Brother Cannon stated this morning that we were the most independent people on the earth. That, I presume, is a correct statement, although the majority of the people on the earth think we are the most dependent. They consider that we are dependent on them for their good or bad opinion, that we are dependent upon the United States for peace and tranquility, and that we are dependent upon popular feeling for the existence of our institutions, whether political, religious, or social. Hence men come among us from time to time, and setting themselves up as standards of perfection, they wish to measure us by their ideas of politics and morality; whereas if they only understood the truth, they would know that we are very independent on these points, and that we care no more about their notions and opinions in regard to us than we care for the motion of a passing bird.

We have no tremor in relation to the action of this or any other government. They do not know the true sentiments and feelings of the Latter-day Saints; hence they are not capable of judging us. We feel that we are dependent upon God only, for our existence, whether it be socially, politically, or morally. We do not look upon things as they exist in the world as being correct, and in animadverting upon their acts we could tell a great many things that we believe are essentially wrong, whether relating to their morals, politics, religion, philosophy, or anything else; and some of us are pretty well acquainted with the ideas they entertain, and the morals that prevail amongst them. We did not come here to copy after anything that exists in the world; we had no such idea or intention, and if this fact is not understood by all the Latter-day Saints it ought to be. When men come among us we should be very sorry indeed if they found us like the world; we are not like them, neither do we wish to be. We did not come here to set up a government to be separate and distinct from other governments, and to seek to possess a certain power and influence over our own members or over other people; this never entered into our minds. We do not, today, try to imitate any of the governments of the earth; we do not admire their policy; we do not believe that their systems are correct. We believe that they have the seeds of dissolution within themselves, and through the lack of correct principles by which to regulate themselves, that they will eventually crumble to pieces. Neither do we believe in their religion, and we should be sorry if any of our people were like them, or even attempted to be like them in a religious point of view. Most of us have been associated with their varied systems of religion before we came here. We have been mixed up with them in the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and other parts of the earth, and have long ago renounced their religion, because we considered it false. We do not consider it any more true today, and, of course, men who think they are right, and measuring us by their standard, must necessarily conclude that we are wrong; that is the only conclusion at which they can arrive. Having been associated with the various churches—Roman Catholic, Greek, Episcopalian or English, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, and other churches and denominations of the day, we know what their ideas are religiously, and we did not leave them because we thought they were right, but because we believed them to be in error and that the whole of them had departed from the principles laid down in the Scriptures of truth. We left them because we conceived that they lacked the principles of life, vitality, intelligence, and revelation possessed by the religion that Jesus Christ introduced upon the earth. That, I confess, was the reason why I left them.

I remember once calling at a man’s house who was a Presbyterian. After talking to him a little about his religion, said he, “You entertain curious notions.” Said I, “I believe I got my notions from the Bible.” Afterwards an infidel came in with whom I had a long conversation, trying to prove to him that the Bible and the Christian religion were true, or at least that taught by the Bible. “Well,” said this gentleman to me, “I am surprised; I thought you were an infidel.” “Why?” said I. “Because,” he replied, “I thought you did not believe in the Bible.” Said I, “You are laboring under a great mistake; I do believe in the Bible, but not in principles contrary to the Bible, and consequently as the religion of the present day does not agree with the Bible I do not agree with it.” I suppose these have been the feelings, more or less, with the majority of the Saints, at least with those who reasoned upon and contemplated these matters. For instance, the Scriptures speak about there being “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, who is above all, through all, and in you all;” and when men of reflection look around and see systems of religion as numerous as gods used to be among the old heathens, how could they suppose or believe that these were all inspired of God? It was impossible for a man of reflection and intelligence to entertain such an idea. We are in pursuit of principles that emanate from God, and we believe that God has spoken, and therefore we are here. We believe that He has revealed to us His will; that He has restored the ancient gospel with all its fullness, blessings, richness, power, and glory. We believe that this gospel will redeem all men who believe in it, and that it will elevate them to a knowledge of the true God, whom to know is life eternal. We believe that God has restored to the earth again Apostles and Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers the same as existed in His Church in former days; and we believe that if men repent of their sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for their remission that they will receive the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. We believe that that Spirit leads them into all truth; that it brings things past to their remembrance, and shows them things to come; and in this respect we differ from the religions of the world, for they have no such idea as this; they do not believe in it. We believe that the Lord has commenced to establish His kingdom on the earth, and we look to Him for wisdom and intelligence in regard to all matters, whether they be of a political, social, or moral nature; hence, in these respects, we differ very materially from the rest of the world. In the various religious denominations their ministers are set apart by the will and dictum of men; their religions, too, are established by men. God had nothing to do with the matter. He never thought of them. It is no uncommon thing in the Church of England, with which I was associated in my early days, for a man who has three or four sons to educate one to be a doctor, another for a lawyer, another, perhaps, is assigned to the army or navy, as the case may be; and if there is one a little duller than the rest he is generally educated for the ministry and is called a Doctor of Divinity. And it is expected that that dull man, without common sense and without instruction from God, but simply because he is a fool, will point out the way to the kingdom of heaven. Among the Methodists, with whom I was afterwards associated because I thought the Church of England was not good enough, they tell us that “God chooses the base things of the world to bring to nought the things that are.” That is true enough, but they come to wrong conclusions from these premises—that is, they suppose because God can choose a man and endow him with wisdom, that therefore they can pick the biggest fools they have got and set them to work to preach.

There is a wide difference between God choosing a man and endowing him with the spirit of intelligence, wisdom, and revelation, and sending him forth to preach the truths of heaven to the nations of the earth, and men picking up their weakest members and setting them to do the same thing; because God can inspire men with wisdom and intelligence from above, while men are incapable of so doing. Hence I do not wonder that men, who are accustomed to listen to, and who believe such teachings, should consider that we are a strange people, for our religious notions evidently do not agree with theirs; if they did, as I said before, we should not have been here, for it was principally on religious grounds that we left them to come here. One of our judges, after leaving here, informed the Administration that the inhabitants of Utah were mostly “Mormons,” and were a very peculiar people. He thought he had made quite a discovery, and that he was putting the world in possession of important information.

We have left the various churches and sects of the day, and infidel associations of all kinds, and have united ourselves with the “Mormons,” and have gathered together here simply because we believed they were all wrong, hence a man must be a fool to suppose that we are like them, for we have a faith that is entirely diverse from theirs. Our ideas, socially and morally, are entirely different from theirs, because ours come from God, and they get theirs from the notions that exist among men.

Who that is acquainted with the moral state of Christendom at the present time does not shudder when reflecting upon the depravity, corruption, licentiousness, and debauchery that everywhere stalk around? We have left this state of things, and the Lord has introduced a new order amongst us, for we profess to be under His guidance and direction, and consequently our ideas and practices must be very different from those which obtain in the world. We have more wives than one. Why? Because God ordained it. And we maintain our wives and children; but they do not maintain their mistresses and children, yet they will prate to us about their beautiful systems. There is a great difference between their system and ours; they think their’s is best, but we, who look at things from an entirely different point of view, prefer our system. If we have wives and children we are not afraid to acknowledge them as such. We do not have the children of one woman riding with us in a carriage, while those of another are sweeping the streets and asking us for a halfpenny; nor are they paupers on the community. We do not believe in any such morality as that, we discard it altogether. Many of those who do believe in and sustain it are ashamed of many of their own deeds, and act the hypocrite by trying to cover them up and keep them in the dark, and presenting the bright side only for us to copy after. But we want to take things as a whole, and we will receive no system but that which will bear the scrutiny of the world, and that is just, equitable, and honorable before God, angels, and men. I am not surprised at men, coming from the midst of scenes and practices, forming such incorrect notions in relation to us; but dare they acknowledge their acts as we dare acknowledge ours? No; they dare not; their own laws would punish them if their acts were brought to light.

In relation to our political affairs, we are gathered together as a community, and being so numerous it is impossible but that we should form a part and parcel of the body politic. We have a city here, for instance, and numerous other cities throughout this Territory. We must have an organization in these cities. We want our Mayors and City Councilors and Aldermen, and municipal laws to protect the weak, the virtuous, the pure, and holy, and restrain the wicked, the riotous, the thief, and debauchee, and to maintain order in the community. We have a number of towns and cities extending for some five hundred miles, and it is ne– cessary that we should have a government to regulate and manage affairs in our midst. We are forced into this position, we cannot help ourselves, and hence we become a Territory, and have our Governor, Judges, Marshal, and Secretary of State sent us by the United States; and our Representative in the Congress of the United States.

Then we have our local Legislature, as other Territories have, to enact laws for the protection of the good and virtuous, for punishment of crime, the execution of justice, and the preservation of peace and good order throughout the Territory. Is there anything wrong in all this? Not that I am aware of. Whose rights have we interfered with? Who cannot obtain justice here? Who are deprived of their rights here? Is there any man, woman, or child, stranger or citizen deprived of his or her rights, or who cannot obtain a hearing for grievances real or imaginary? Who is there throughout the length and breadth of the Territory who cannot obtain the full benefit of law, equity, and justice? No one. Well, we are here in this capacity, and there are other things that underlie these, if you please. The Republicans, you know, in the States, have been very fond for a long time of talking about a higher law of some kind. We, too, have a higher law, not a negro law particularly, but a law that emanates from God; a law that is calculated to promote the best interests and the happiness of this people, and of the world when they will listen to it. Then do you profess to ignore the laws of the land? No; not unless they are unconstitutional, then I would do it all the time. Whenever the Congress of the United States, for instance, pass a law interfering with my religion, or with my reli– gious rights, I will read a small portion of that instrument called the Constitution of the United States, now almost obsolete, which says—“Congress shall pass no law interfering with religion or the free exercise thereof;” and I would say, gentlemen, you may go to Gibraltar with your law, and I will live my religion. When you become violators of the Constitution you have sworn before high heaven to uphold, and perjure yourselves before God, then I will maintain the right, and leave you to take the wrong just as you please. There are other things, too, that I, as an individual would do. There have been attempts made here to interfere with the trial by jury, a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States as well as by the Magna Charta of England. And we have had cases right in our midst where a judge has told the jury that if they did not bring in such a verdict as he had instructed them to, he would set it aside. Of what use, then, is a jury? Why not let the judge act without them; if they are to be dictated to by him what becomes of our freedom? If my services as a juryman were required, I would give my opinion frankly and honestly, and no judge should control me; but I would try to be a man, and would not be cowed by any man sent among us trying to pervert justice. No man should make a scapegoat of me; if he wished to violate constitutional rights he should do it on his own responsibility. Some men will endure a great deal in matters of this kind, and they will call it humility; but I desire no such humility. I want a principle that will maintain, uphold, and stand by the rights of man, giving to all men everywhere equal rights, and that will preserve inviolate the fundamental principles of the Constitution of our country.

After all, we, as a people, have not much to complain of; we have a great deal of liberty here, and we can do pretty much as we have a mind to if we will only do right. We can think, write, and worship as we please, and we are free from some things that some portions, even of our nation, are perplexed with at the present time. We have no military government, for instance, and we are free to exercise our judgment and to maintain our rights by jury if we have the manhood to do it, and I consider that after all we are very much blessed out here. It is true that the President and Congress quarrel down yonder sometimes; but before the sound reaches us it is so faint that it produces no electric shock; in fact, we scarcely feel it. In the South, too, they are laboring under many difficulties; but they are so far from us that we fail to realize matters as they exist there, and our affairs go on as usual. The smoke comes out of the chimneys, men walk on their feet, the sun rises and sets at proper time, and everything goes on perfectly natural, and I do not know that we have anything to complain of, and for the many blessings that we enjoy I feel thankful to Almighty God. Now, what are we as a people aiming at? To begin with, we are aiming to live our religion more faithfully. We have got the right principles, but I think, sometimes, that we do not live them as well as we might. We have been baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of our sins, and have had hands laid upon us for the reception of the Holy Ghost; but in many instances we have failed to live our religion by giving way to our evil tempers, passions, and appetites, and we want to live our religion better than we have done. We must be more moral, and more honest with each other and be– fore God; and we must pray more and swear less than we do. Our strength is from God; and if we do not have strength, wisdom, intelligence, and grace from Him we do not have it; and it is living our religion that leads us to Him. It is not altogether in ceremonials; it is not because I go to church or meeting; but it is because my heart is right before God, because I do my duty, because I love the Lord and His people and all men, and my desire is to promote the happiness and well-being of the human family. This is the feeling that all ought to have. I hear oaths sometimes issuing from the mouths of those who are called Saints, from our young boys, as though it made men of them, and was something great to imitate the Gentiles. It is low, mean, degrading, unhallowed, and it is in opposition to every sacred and holy principle. Some of our boys are fond of getting a cigar into their mouths, they think it makes them look manly; there is nothing at all manly about smoking and strutting; why, a monkey could do that. It shows weakness, shallowness, and, I was going to say, a species of idiocy; and for the children of Latter-day Saints to indulge in such things is low and degrading. We want, then, to live our religion more closely, and we should feel all the time that God sees us, that His eye is upon us watching our motions and actions, and that it is necessary for us to humble ourselves before Him, that we may obtain His Holy Spirit to guide us aright. We need to study our morals, to see that they are correct in every respect. Would you, Elders in Israel, who have families growing up, want to act in a manner that you would be ashamed of your sons and daughters copying after? Would it not be a shame, disgrace, and an outrage for you to act so? Do we watch over the morals of our children? Do we pray to God for wisdom to train them aright? Do we pray for power to overcome our own evil passions and propensities that we may set before our children an example worthy of imitation? Or, are we letting them take any course they please and go down to the gates of death? What are you doing, you Elders in Israel? Ask yourselves the question and see how far your conduct is calculated to elevate and exalt your families. The Lord, in speaking of Abraham, said, “I know that Abraham will fear me, and that he will command his children after him to do so.” Can the Lord say the same of you, ye Elders of Israel? We ought to be careful about how we act and speak, and our thoughts and feelings ought to be subject to the law of God. We ought to feel like one of old when he said, “Search me, O Lord, and prove me, and if there is any way of wickedness within me, bid it depart, and let me stand accepted before thee.”

Do we not expect by and by to associate with the Gods in the eternal worlds? Let us conduct ourselves, then, here upon the earth so that we may honor our religion and Priesthood. We differ entirely from the world in our political ideas. In the nation with which we are associated, the idea prevails generally that the voice of the people is the voice of God; hence the favorite maxim—“Vox populi, vox dei.” The voice of the people, however, is not always the voice of God. Sometimes “Vox populi, vox diaboli” would more truthfully express it; that is, the voice of the people is the voice of the devil. The latter would more generally express the feelings of any people who are under a corrupt government or religion than “Vox populi, vox dei.” We believe in the voice of God first, and in the voice of the people afterwards, and that in political as well as in religious matters all men ought to be guided by the Lord, and that because they have not been so guided, bloodshed, strife, dissension, and confusion have overspread the earth. The wisdom of God is necessary in controlling worldly affairs whether political or otherwise, as it is in controlling the planetary system. In the latter, everything moves harmoniously, and if in the political affairs of a nation, or of the world, the same wisdom dictated, the same harmony would exist. If the Lord were to copy after the examples of men, system would dash against system, and world against world in mad confusion, and there would be a crash of worlds and a wreck of matter. But God controls His own affairs, and if we can live so as to obtain His guidance, we will risk the results, and this is what we are aiming after. We are borne out in this by the Scriptures. They speak of a time when the Lord will reign, when His empire will be universal; when His dominion “shall extend from the rivers to the ends of the earth,” and when, “to Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.” They speak of, “The law of the Lord going forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” They speak of a time when, “He shall smite the nations as with a rod of iron, and when he will dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel,” and when He will introduce a new order of things. We have confidence in the Bible, and in the revelations of God; and there again we differ from the religious world, for they have not. We are anxiously waiting upon and praying to the Lord to give us wisdom that we may be able to carry out His designs. These are our feelings, but others think and feel differently; they put their trust in swords, guns, spears, and so forth. Our strength is in the Lord of Hosts, and we believe we shall conquer. In all our operations in life we are trying to obtain wisdom from God to manage and direct all our affairs. We are seeking to establish a oneness, and that oneness under the guidance and direction of the Almighty. Others are not seeking for that. You will hear them all the time uttering their tirades against the one-man power. We want one-man power and one-God power. Would not they who cry out against it like to have one-man power if they could get it? Yes. Is there now or was there ever a political party in the United States but what would seek to carry their own points? No. Would not the President like to have his own way if he could? He would, and the reason he does not, he has not the power. We consider that union is the great principle that we ought to cultivate; union in religion, morals, politics, and everything else.

Jesus, when about to leave his disciples, seemed to think it was very important, for, said he, “Father, I pray for these whom thou hast given me, that they may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us.” “Neither,” said he, “do I pray for these alone, but for all who shall believe in me through their word.” I am sorry to say that His prayer has not been answered in regard to the Christians at the present time. If there is any principle for which we contend with greater tenacity than another, it is this oneness. We are one in a great many things, but we have to become one in all things before we reach the standard indicated by the prayer of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have to become one in money matters, and in our deal, and in the course in which our labors shall be directed; and if we could only see and comprehend this principle correctly we should be more like what God requires us to be. But it is difficult for us to understand and realize the importance of this principle. To the world this principle is a gross error, for amongst them it is every man for himself; every man follows his own ideas, his own religion, his own morals, and the course in everything that suits his own notions. But the Lord dictates differently. We are under His guidance, and we should seek to be one with him and with all the authorities of His Church and kingdom on the earth in all the affairs of life. We all of us bow before the Lord day by day (or if we do not it is a shame), and ask the Lord to inspire Presidents Young, Kimball, and Wells with revelation to direct the affairs of the church aright. And what are the feelings of the First Presidency? Be ye one, O Israel! That is the feeling. One in everything; then we shall grow, and prosper like a green bay tree. Then will riches, honor, and power flow to the Latter-day Saints in far greater abundance than they have ever yet done; then you and your offspring will be the blessed of the Lord. This is what we are after, and when we have attained to this ourselves, we want to teach the nations of the earth the same pure principles that have emanated from the Great Eloheim. We want Zion to rise and shine that the glory of God may be manifest in her midst, that the nations of the earth, when they behold her, may be obliged to confess that she is the praise of the whole earth. We never intend to stop until this point is attained through the teaching and guidance of the Lord and our obedience to His laws. Then, when men say unto us, “you are not like us,” we reply, “we know it; we do not want to be.” We want to be like the Lord, we want to secure His favor and approbation and to live under His smile, and to acknowledge, as ancient Israel did on a certain occasion, “The Lord is our God, our judge, and our king, and He shall reign over us.” These are my feelings, and the feelings of all good Latter-day Saints. May God help us to live our religion by keeping His commandments, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 3, 1867.

The Lord bestows His blessings upon the children of men according to their faith and diligence. It is true that there are a great many blessings which they receive and enjoy independent of their conduct, to a very great extent. They have this life, the use of their reason, the blessings of air and earth, and the elements which are incorporated or connected with the earth; the sun warms them with its rays, and the showers of heaven revive them. Many of these blessings descend on the children of men in numerous instances regardless of their conduct, and apparently independent of their actions. But there are blessings which mankind cannot receive, only through obedience to the commandments of God, our heavenly Father; there are privileges and gifts which cannot be enjoyed, only through the diligence of those upon whom they are bestowed. The gifts that pertain to the gospel of Jesus Christ can only be obtained by obedience to the truth; and can only be retained by a faithful adherence to the commandments of God; and in order that these may be multiplied upon the people, they must be appreciated by those upon whom they are bestowed. When our hearts are filled with thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise to God, we are in a fit condition to receive additional blessings, and to have more of the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. When we see the deliverances that He vouchsafes to us, and appreciate those deliverances, we are in a fit condition to receive additional strength, power, and salvation, because we acknowledge His hand in all the blessings we receive, and in all the circumstances which surround us.

The things of God are not discerned by those who are not spiritually minded; for the Holy Spirit reveals the things of God to those upon whom it is bestowed. Men in the world at present, place the greatest dependence on the evidence which their outward senses afford them. If they can see, hear, taste, or handle anything with which they may come in contact, they place more value upon that external evidence than upon any internal evidence. Hence, when the elders go forth to preach the gospel to the nations, there is almost a constant demand, made by those to whom they are sent, for the evidence of miracles. They wish to hear the elders speak in tongues, or prophesy; they want to see the sight of the blind restored, the sick healed, the dead raised, or some miraculous manifestation of power, in order that their outward senses may be gratified. Many attach a great deal of importance to the evidence which they receive in this manner; and to this class of persons the things of God are to a very great extent incomprehensible, because the evidence which they look for they do not often receive; or if they do, it comes in such a form that it is not entirely reliable to them. The man or the woman who is convinced of the truth of the gospel by seeing the ears of the deaf unstopped, or the tongue of the dumb unloosed, or by dreams or visions, as a general thing, requires a continuation of these manifestations from that time forward to keep them in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This our experience confirms. There is another class who obey the truth because it is the truth, and receive the testimony of the Spirit without any particular manifestations, but in whose hearts the Spirit of God continues to burn and increase, imparting to them all its gifts and filling them with joy and peace unspeakable. They retain their faith in the work of God, and as days, weeks, months, and years pass over their heads, their faith and confidence increase.

No doubt there are many saints present this afternoon who have seen illustrations of this kind. They probably can allow their minds to refer to their early experience in the Church, in the branches to which they belonged when they embraced the gospel. Probably there were many of their companions who embraced the gospel at about the same time they did, who received great manifestations, and whose minds never seemed to be content with what they would term the small things of the gospel; but they were constantly reaching after visions and dreams, and extraordinary manifestations of the power of God; and, in nine cases out of ten, with the desire of consuming those manifestations on their own lusts, to have some wonderful testimony to bear, to be a little ahead of, and to excel their brethren and sisters in the things of God. Probably many present can recollect instances of this kind, and have watched the course of such individuals until they have lost the faith and have gone out of the Church. On the other hand there are men and women who were not favored in these respects, and, in consequence, probably felt that they had committed some sin almost unpardonable in the sight of Heaven; yet through their humility and the constant exercise of faith they have continued to increase in wisdom and strength, and in all the gifts of the Spirit necessary for the perfecting of the Saints; and today they can look back through their whole career in the Church, and can see that God has given them the best possible kind of evidence to enable them to retain their standing in the Church. There are probably thousands of people, at the present time, among the nations of the earth, who would say, that if they could see the sick healed, or the blind restored to sight, see a person who was on the verge of the grave snatched from the grasp of death and restored to perfect health, or hear a man speak in tongues or interpret a language of which he was entirely ignorant, they would be perfectly willing to embrace the gospel and become Latter-day Saints for the rest of their lives. I have no doubt there are men in our midst who would say that if they could have evidence of this kind they would be Latter-day Saints; and in making such a statement they would imagine they were perfectly safe, and that it would be consistent with God’s plan for them to expect such evidence. Experience in this work has proved that this is not the best kind of evidence, but that there is a kind which is of a higher order, and which is calculated to preserve those who receive it from all the snares and temptations of the adversary with which they may be assailed. God, our heavenly Father, has promised the Holy Ghost, with all its gifts to those who receive His gospel. He has said that those who go forth in humility and meekness, forsaking their sins and truly repenting, shall receive for themselves a knowledge of the principles which they have embraced; that they shall receive the Comforter, who will take of the things of God and show them to them; and the history of this entire people has proved that such is the case, and that the Spirit of God, with its accompanying gifts, is abundantly poured out upon those who live so as to receive them.

The gospel of Jesus Christ claims our obedience, whether we receive the gifts of the Spirit or not. The Lord in His mercy has promised to us these gifts; but when He makes demand on His children, it is not for them to stand still and make conditions with Him about the principles they are going to receive; and those who do so commit sin in the very outset. They grieve the Spirit of God by manifesting such a want of confidence; whereas, those who go forth in humility, trusting in God, and who receive the truth because God has revealed it, and because it is sweet unto them, have no cause to mourn that He has not bestowed upon them all that He has promised. But, on the contrary, their souls are filled to overflowing with the outpourings of the Spirit of God, and with the gifts of that Spirit which are bestowed upon them. This has ever been the case; it is so today, and it will be so as long as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exists in purity on the earth, or there is a man left on the earth to administer in the ordinances of the holy priesthood of the Son of God.

The great difficulty with mankind is that they have arranged in their own minds plans for the salvation of the human race. You can scarcely meet with a man in the world—although he may acknowledge that God has not spoken to the children of men for nearly 1,800 years, and that he never saw a divinely inspired servant of God, one who had the right to exercise the priesthood of the Son of God as the ancient servants of God did—but has a plan arranged in his own mind respecting the course which he thinks God should take in saving His children. Begin to talk with them, and the traditions they have received from their fathers, preachers, or schoolmasters immediately rise up, and if what you state comes in contact with those traditions, no matter how pure, heavenly, and attractive it may otherwise be, they will reject it. This is the rock on which the nations of the earth are making shipwreck, because, instead of receiving the truth when presented to them in humility and meekness like little children, they feel to dictate, and prescribe the laws and requirements of the gospel, and the manner in which it should be preached. Wherever this spirit exists, there is no room for the meek and lowly spirit of Jesus to have place; another spirit has possession and controls them.

How many men are there who come from afar and see Zion being built up, and see the work of God progressing on this land, who recognize the features that the prophets have said should characterize and attend on Zion and the work of God in the last days? Why, it is as much as the Latter-day Saints can do who come from the nations of the earth, to recognize in the work of God now progressing in this Territory, the Zion of God. They have their traditions and preconceived notions and ideas respecting the work of God, and what it should be; and when they come here and see the work in actual operation, many of them fail to recognize it and fail to see the power of God manifested. Why is this? It is because of those preconceived notions; it is because they have marked out and adopted a plan in their own minds upon which they expect Zion to be built up, and to which they expect Zion to conform. This is much more the case with those who have no knowledge of the truth, and who have not received the Spirit of God through baptism, the laying on of hands, and obedience to the other ordinances of the house of God. But if they were to come here dispossessed of prejudice and tradition, and were to look at the work of God as it is now progressing through this land, they would be enabled to appreciate it, and to acknowledge that there is a power and a spirit manifested among this people that does not belong to men and women under ordinary circumstances. Who does comprehend the work which the Lord is accomplishing with such rapidity? Why there is not a Latter-day Saint within the sound of my voice, no matter how young, humble, ignorant, or void of understanding he or she may be, who knows anything about the Spirit or the things of God, but can see divinity and the power of God manifested in every move made, and in all that has been done in connection with this work, from the beginning of their experience to the present time. They see God and recognize His hand in this work; and they also understand that man could not bestow upon them the blessings of peace and joy that they have in the Holy Ghost. Though a man may be very learned in the ancient and modern sciences, may have traveled extensively, may understand the various phases of human nature, and be thoroughly acquainted with the history of our race so far as it has been handed down to us, yet, if he have not the Spirit of God, his knowledge fades away if placed alongside that of the otherwise ignorant Saint, for it is found insufficient to reveal to him that this is the work of God. He looks at it from a worldly standpoint and he sees neither God nor divinity in it; neither can he recognize any exhibition of God’s power in this work, and in his mind it is all delusion. But that so-called ignorant man or woman who stands beside him, who may not know one-fiftieth part of that which he knows respecting the earth, its inhabitants, and its sciences, recognizes God in it all. He knows that is the Zion of God; his faith is based on the rock of ages; he knows and can bear testimony that this is the work of God, and he can see the hand of God in it all. The power of God is in his soul; he is in communion with God; and the gifts of the Spirit are manifested in and through him; and he rejoices in this knowledge which the man of the world has no comprehension of.

This is the difference, my brethren and sisters, between seeing the things of God from a natural or worldly standpoint, and seeing them from the standpoint God has established for us. Is this peculiar to the work of God in the last days? No; it is a peculiarity which has characterized all ages and dispensations when God has had a people on the earth. In the days of Jesus, who discovered divinity in him? Who saw in the humble son of a carpenter the lineaments of his divine origin, and recognized the Deity there? Why, a few humble fishermen, ignorant, illiterate men, who, as we learn from the “Acts of the Apostles,” could not speak their mother tongue grammatically. But did the high priests or the learned among the Jews, or those who had been educated in the schools, comprehend it? Though it was an age of enlightenment, so called, they could not recognize God in Jesus, nor divinity in the work which he performed; neither could they recognize any of the power of the apostleship in his Apostles. Who did see it? Why those who bowed in submission to the plan which God revealed through His son Jesus Christ; they comprehended these things, and were able to distinguish between the man of God and the man of the world; they were able to distinguish between the truth of heaven when it came pure and unadulterated from the throne of Jehovah, and the systems of men proclaimed on every hand. Hence, for men spiritually unenlightened to be unable to comprehend the things of God is not peculiar to the dispensation in which we live, but it has been so in every age when God made known His will to the children of men. Such individuals may come in contact with the greatest of Heaven’s children and may associate with them day by day, and yet through not having that Spirit they will fail to recognize their nobility of character, and that they are divinely inspired. Some of the members, even, of Jesus’ own family, as we learn from the sacred record, ridiculed him; they could not recognize that their own brother, the son of their mother, was the Son of God, who was to die for the sins of the world; although they had been brought up with Jesus from childhood, they failed to recognize it for the very reason that Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young, and every prophet and apostle that ever lived on the face of the earth have not been recognized by many of their associates. If their minds had been enlightened by the Spirit of God they would have recognized the men of God, and could have comprehended the things of God and the plan of salvation; they could have seen God in it all; every feature would have beamed with the godhead and with the divinity; they would have recognized it as an emanation from heaven and would have sustained the Son of God as the being he professed to be, and which he was; and his Apostles would have had no occasion to have gone about as they did—persecuted and hated, and afterwards cruelly killed for the testimony of Jesus which they bore to mankind. Noah would not have had such a difficult work in trying to convince the inhabitants of the earth in his day of the message God had given to him, neither would all the prophets from his day down have had the difficulty they had. No man with his natural wisdom can comprehend the things of God; man never did do it and never can do it. Priests may study all the arts and sciences, and finally graduate at a theological college; and after they have passed through it all they have no more conception of God and the things of God, than if such a Being had never existed. A man filled with the power of God might go to them, and they would not understand him; if he told them the most precious things ever uttered by mortal lips, they would not comprehend it, and would be far more likely to reject him than not, because they are imbued with prejudices and preconceived ideas respecting God and His works.

There was a necessity therefore for Jesus to say, that they should receive His kingdom as little children. There is this necessity, my brethren and sisters, today, on our part, that we should so receive the kingdom of God. What did any of us know respecting the truth until the Prophet revealed it? What do we know today? Why a great many of us think we know a great many things. It is an exceedingly difficult thing for a Bishop to teach us, or for an Apostle to impress our minds with the truth he is filled with, or for President Young and his counselors to convey to our minds and have us comprehend the truth which God has revealed to them. Why is this? It is because we are filled with our traditions and preconceived notions as to what is right and what is wrong. We relinquish and part with those notions and traditions very slowly; we cannot cast them aside apparently without great effort, and it requires the work of years to emancipate us from this thralldom. But there is, nevertheless, a great necessity that we should exert ourselves to the utmost of our ability in this labor. We should seek to have our minds spread out and expand so that when the things of God are told to us we can adopt them, and throw aside everything that comes in contact with them. There is a great work before us, and the progress that the Church has made during the last thirty-seven years, only enables us to see a little glimmer of the immensity that stretches out before us. The distance between us and the celestial kingdom of our God is inconceivably great to us at the present time; our minds cannot grasp the distance we have to traverse before we reach the presence of God and are prepared to dwell with Him eternally. By the Spirit of God we can comprehend some little of it; we can comprehend the distance we have yet to travel by thinking of the distance we have traveled.

We have come out of, and tra– velled from Babylon, according to the command of God, that we may become a people directly opposite to everything existing in Babylon. This was the proclamation made to us; and the object of the proclamation was that we might be emancipated completely from the things of the world, that we might be prepared to dwell with God eternally in the heavens.

Now, think of the distance there is between us and the people of Babylon today. The distance we have traveled is scarcely perceptible to some; and on some points we are so near that we can reach and shake hands with them, we have made so little progress. Yet there is nothing truer than this, that before we are prepared to dwell in the presence of God we must be directly opposite to them in almost every respect. Morality is taught and moral truths are enforced among them; but aside from the theory, everything is rotten and corrupt from the base to the topmost stone. God has said so, and we have had some little experience in it ourselves; and so far as we have gone we can say that such is the case. Society has to be differently organized under the rule of the Church of God. We have already made a great stride in this respect. The one great institution which God has revealed has done more to emancipate us, and create a difference between us and the world than anything I can conceive of; that is the order of marriage. It creates a complete distinctness between us and the people of the world. We can see how much we are progressing in this direction, and they who are living their religion are making rapid progress. There was a necessity for the revelation of this principle in order that the people of God might be entirely distinct from the people of Babylon. As long as we lived under those old institutions which are so full of rottenness and corruption, we were liable all the time to become assimilated to the world. But God has laid the foundation of that great distinction which must eventuate in the complete triumph of truth and the establishment of His kingdom on the earth. He has laid the foundation where the foundation of all governments begins—in the family; and it will go on and increase until it permeates every institution and organization, making us entirely different and distinct from the people of the world. You can allow your minds to stretch out if you like to their utmost capacity and they will not begin to comprehend the difference that will be created through the operation of those principles which God has already revealed. Like the pebble that is dropped in the mill pond, every circle goes on increasing and widening until it covers the whole pond. So it is with the truth which God has revealed; it will spread until the institutions of the kingdom of God will revolutionize everything that exists on the earth.

We have this work before us, it belongs to us; it does not belong to the First Presidency alone, or to the Twelve alone, or to the Bishops of wards, or to the Presidents of the settlements or stakes of Zion; but it belongs to every man, woman, and child who has a standing in this Church. God has laid it upon us all individually and collectively, and He expects it at our hands. It is true that the work of God will go forth from triumph to triumph until complete victory shall crown the efforts of the servants of God. But we are the members of this Church, and it is for us to say whether we will be diligent, or whether we will fall back and allow our places to be filled by others more diligent and more capable of comprehending the greatness of the work, and the greatness and facilities that God has given to us, than we are; whether we will combat with and contend against the evils that everywhere exist, govern our houses in righteousness, and bring up our children in the fear of God, or whether we will neglect these things, and suffer the glorious opportunities God has given us to pass by unimproved, to be improved by others more zealous, diligent, and wise in their generation than we are. There is no individual in Zion but can do a great deal of good if they will only allow their minds to expand, and will seek out opportunities to accomplish the work of God. They can correct and prepare themselves to carry on the work of God, and, in doing so, they will help to prepare somebody else; for no one can carry on the work of perfection without being a benefit to all with whom they associate.

We talk about going back to build up the Center Stake of Zion; it is the burden of our daily prayers. The aspirations of thousands of the people ascend in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth in behalf of the redemption of Zion, and that the purposes of God may be forwarded, and that the time may soon come when the Center Stake of Zion shall be built up and the people be prepared to go back and inhabit that land. Why do we wish this? Because we anticipate when that day shall come that we will be that much nearer the day of triumph, the day when Jesus will come and reign among his Saints. We are, as it were, in a school where we are to be taught of God, and prepared for the great events that are coming on the earth. We do not wish to leave this land, because it is not fertile, or because it is not a favored land. We appreciate the home that God has given us here, so fruitful in blessings to the Saints; but we look forward to that land with indescribable feelings, because it is the place where God has said His City shall be built. It is the land where Adam, the Ancient of Days, will gather his posterity again, and where the blessings of God will descend upon them. It is the land for which the wise and learned have traveled and sought in vain. Asia has been ransacked in endeavoring to locate the Garden of Eden. Men have supposed that because the Ark rested on Ararat that the flood commenced there, or rather that it was from thence the Ark started to sail. But God in His revelations has informed us that it was on this choice land of Joseph where Adam was placed and the Garden of Eden was laid out. The spot has been designated, and we look forward with peculiar feelings to repossessing that land. We expect when that day shall come that we will be a very different people to what we are today. We will be prepared to commune with heavenly beings; at any rate, the preparation will be going on very rapidly for Jesus to be revealed. We expect that a society will be organized there that will be a pattern of heavenly society, that when Jesus and the heavenly beings who come with him are revealed in the clouds of heaven, their feelings will not be shocked by the change, for a society will be organized on the earth whose members will be prepared through the revelations of God to meet and associate with them, if not on terms of perfect equality, at least with some degree of equality.

How much preparation have we made for this? We have made considerable progress in some directions. Since the days of Joseph the authority of the holy priesthood has increased. Bishops who are doing their duty have more authority in their wards than Bro. Joseph had formerly in the whole Church. The people understand the requirements made of them and carry them out understandingly and intelligently. This is very good, but a great change has still to be made; we have much more progress to make.

Our enemies are complaining of this one-man power; they want to concoct some plan that will destroy the power of the holy priesthood. They have stated that if anything should happen to Bro. Brigham that this kingdom would fall to pieces. They delude themselves with the same ideas that the wicked did before the death of Joseph. They think we are a severely oppressed people, and they would like to emancipate us from the thralldom we endure. Do they know anything about us? No. We are free, and we are living lives of happiness and contentment. We never were so happy in our lives before as we are today if we are faithful. Our wives never felt so free in their lives as they do today. What, not when their husbands had only one wife? No, not even then; and the assertion can be sustained that there are no women on the earth so thoroughly and completely free as the women among the Latter-day Saints. You who can doubt this can let your minds refer to the condition of society in other places. See the bondage in which women are placed, and the lives of sorrow they have to drag through, until, worn out, they drop into their graves—the grave being the only refuge from the troubles with which they are oppressed. That is not the case with us, we are a free people, although our enemies say we are oppressed.

We may imagine in our present state of knowledge, that when we reach the point to which I am endeavoring to direct the minds of the people, we shall not feel so well as we do today. I tell you we shall feel far better, for the greater the progress the more freedom we shall enjoy. Though every being in heaven obeys the behests of Jehovah implicitly, we will all admit that they are far happier than we are on the earth. We have to progress till we reach that state when all our labors will be under the dictation, guidance, and direction of those whom God has appointed to preside over us. And as we approximate to this condition, they will increase in wisdom and ability to direct, so that harmony will be maintained. As the people increase in obedience God will pour out wisdom on His servants commensurate with that obedience.

It has been said that we are very willing to go on missions when we are told, and in regard to our spiritual labors we are very willing to be directed. In these respects there is no people so easily managed and directed as we are. That obedience which characterizes us in spiritual things will have to be manifested in temporal things. Many of the people think “I know more about this matter than my bishop does,” when some temporal matter is agitated. That feeling is running through the minds of numbers of the people; and while this is the case your bishops will probably not be as wise as they might be; they have not your faith to sustain them. But when the time comes that you have implicit faith and confidence in God, and in those whom He appoints to preside over you, in things temporal as well as spiritual, your bishops will have all the wisdom needed to give you the counsel you require.

This time must come; and not only must it be the case with the brethren but it must be so with their families also, for, as I said, family government is the foundation of all government. Show me a community where children are brought up in holiness and purity, and trained in the fear and knowledge of God, and I can prophesy future greatness and prosperity for that people. If I see a family where the children are obedient to their parents, and listen to their voices as to the voice of an angel; and where wives are obedient to their husbands, meeting their wishes and seeking to gratify them in everything in the Lord, I know there is greatness before that family. So with this entire people. If our children be trained in the fear of God, if within their minds are instilled the principles of truth, righteousness, faith, and godliness, we may dismiss all fears respecting the future growth, development, and prosperity of our Father’s kingdom on the earth. When we see our children growing up in unbelief and hardness of heart, then have we cause to fear and tremble. Every one of you, my sisters, can do a great deal towards building up this kingdom. A great glory is bestowed on woman, for she is permitted to bring forth the souls of men. You have the opportunity of training children who shall bear the holy priesthood, and go forth and magnify it in the midst of the earth. It is a glorious mission which God has assigned to his daughters, and they should be correspondingly proud of it, and should realize its importance and seek to be missionaries in their own families, training up their children in the fear of God. It is an established fact, or at least it is so regarded in the world, that scarcely any great man ever had a poor weak-minded mother. If you read of the great men of antiquity, or of modern times, you will find that in almost every instance they have had great mothers, who have molded and fashioned the plastic minds of their sons according to their own notions of greatness, and sent them forth to battle with the circumstances of life, like gods almost. Great interests are in the hands of mothers. God has reposed in them great power; if they wield that power for good it will be productive of peace and happiness and exaltation to them. They will be blessed in seeing the greatness of their posterity. Their hearts will be gratified in having a posterity who will rise up and called them blessed.

It is something glorious to contemplate, but how few there are who realize the great blessings God has bestowed upon them. God has blessed us with these privileges so that we can lay, in our own households, the foundation for the future greatness of the kingdom of God, by instilling into the minds of our children those lessons and precepts of godliness which will make them mighty in days to come, and will prepare them when they reach manhood, to bear off the work of God and magnify the truth by being exemplars of the gospel of Jesus Christ among the nations of the earth.

God bless you, brethren and sisters; and may He enable us all to be faithful to the truth and to comprehend the greatness of the age in which we live, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 24, 1867.

We have heard a good many interesting remarks from Brother Stevenson; in fact, everything pertaining to the church and kingdom of God on the earth is interesting, to those who are desirous for the welfare of Zion. As Brother Stevenson has remarked—“we are engaged in a great work,” and it is with us “the kingdom of God or nothing;” but as the kingdom of God can only be comprehended by the spirit of revelation and the principle of eternal truth, unless men are in possession of this principle, and have the light of revelation, they do not appreciate, neither can they understand correctly the work in which we are engaged.

One of old said, “As high as the heavens are above the earth so are his thoughts above our thoughts, and so are his ways above our ways.” There is necessarily, then, a very great difference between him and us in intellect, and in appreciating and comprehending the position that we occupy here on the earth and the relationship that we sustain to him and to the heavens. Men of the world, generally, are engaged in the pursuit of objects that come within their natural reason unaided by the spirit of revelation; and hence, formerly the inhabitants of the earth admired gods that were tangible—something that they could see, more than things they could not see. This led them to worship gods of gold, silver, wood, iron, brass, and stone, to which they attributed certain virtues, powers, and privileges; and they supplicated God, the invisible God, through this kind of sensuous representation. The people at the present day have a rather more spiritual and refined idea of Deity than was entertained anciently. They attach more importance to faith in the Savior and his works than men did anciently; still we find the same disposition existing in the human mind generally as that which existed formerly. Men, naturally, do not like God; they want to be free to follow their own inclinations and to be unrestrained in regard to religious ideas and notions; hence they make religion, as the ancients made gods, to suit their own views; and it is very difficult for such men to understand the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

In these days men study and take great pleasure in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, politics, war, mechanism; and certain kinds of divinity, particularly if they are paying institutions, are studied. Anything that comes within the reach of their natural senses; but beyond this they do not trouble themselves. They would like, it is true, to go to heaven when they die; but what that heaven is, or what the God is they worship, where he resides, or what kind of enjoyment they will have they know nothing; and care as little. They consider that we are fools because we entertain ideas different from theirs. If you examine their wisdom, however, it does not amount to so much as they would represent. The men of this world do not know a great deal, and what they do understand, if traced to its source, is found to consist of certain laws or principles of nature, and pertains to the organization of this earth, its elements, forces, products, and inhabitants. A surgeon, for instance, is said to be a very intelligent man when he becomes acquainted with anatomy of the human system, can point out the configuration of the bones and describe the motion and power of the muscles; when he can designate the various arteries, veins, and nerves, and understands the circulation of the blood through the human system; the action and operation of the lungs, heart, eye, ear, nose, mouth, and other portions of the human body. Men write about these things, and set themselves down as very intelligent beings, and so they are. The human system is a beautiful machine, a wonderful piece of mechanism; but whence our boast? Who organized this human system? Did man? Or can man do it? What does man discover? Why, simply the formation of a machine, a species of mechanism that has been organized by the Deity, that is all. And all the intelligence he displays is simply the investigation and discovery of something that God has made. Some men will study botany, and a very beautiful study it is; but because they can classify herbs and plants, and call them by name, or further, because they understand their nature, and can tell the various medicinal and other properties of herbs, plants, shrubs, flowers, and trees, are they to be considered profoundly learned? Who organized these plants and gave them powers of reproduction that they might perpetuate themselves on the earth? And who placed those powers and properties within them? Why the great God, it was not man; there is not a man breathing today that has the power to make the least flower, shrub, or plant that grows, or even a leaf or a blade of grass. And yet we see men strutting about and boasting of their intelligence, when all the wisdom they possess amounts to no more than the discovery of certain laws or properties created by a superior Being, who also created them.

Others will study astronomy, and they will tell us about the motion and velocity of the heavenly bodies and when eclipses of the sun or moon will take place. This is a beautiful study; but who gave these stars their revolutions, placed them in their present positions and controls them by his power, saying “Thus far shalt thou go and no farther!” Why the great God. But because men discover their distances and velocity, are they to be set down as profound philosophers whom everybody must admire, and almost worship.

A man invents the steam engine, and he and others immediately begin to expatiate and boast of his powers, his philosophy and the profundity of his intellectual acquirements. The Lord revealed it unto him, but he takes the glory to himself. Why, that power has always existed, but men were such big fools that they did not understand it. Electricity, too, always existed, but men did not know how to use it until recently. One man is an architect, and he comprehends the structure of buildings, the strength of materials, and how to adapt and place those materials so as to give strength, beauty, and symmetry to the buildings he erects. Others will study music, and others again various kinds of philosophy, and it is very good to understand these things; but when we get through what do they all amount to? What has become of the wisest philosopher, the most correct historian, the most formidable warrior, the greatest statesman or philosopher? All their wisdom and great discoveries amount to no more than feeble glimmerings of certain properties and operations of nature given by the great God in the organization of this earth, while they themselves have returned to dust and become food for worms. Said one, whose conceptions of worldly greatness were very just, “When I am dead you will raise a tombstone over me, upon which you will write ‘Here lies the great,’” said he, “If I could rise then, I would say, ‘False marble where? Nothing but poor sordid dust lies there!’”

What is the history of all these things? Go back if you please to the pyramids of Egypt, and look at those magnificent structures raised by the ambitious living, in which to deposit the remains of the dead. Look at the greatest works ever executed by man, and what are they? Why the “cloud-clapped towers and the gorgeous palaces have dissolved,” and the bodies of some of the greatest among men, who have been embalmed, and preserved for ages, are today being used for fuel in fire engines in order to move passenger trains on railroads. That is the end of all their greatness, philosophy, foresight, and intelligence. What does it all amount to if there is no hereafter? If there is nothing in those things with which we are associated and are grasping, there is certainly nothing in that which they have been seeking after. What difference will it make to me when my body is crumbling to dust and food for worms, whether mankind shall say I was a smart man or a fool? If there is no hereafter, the present is a matter of very little importance; and as one of old said, “let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” for we are as the grass that withers and fades, and is cast into the oven, and there is no more of it.

I have as poor an idea of the world and its operations today as of any age that ever existed, on account of the wickedness, corruption, fraud, and iniquity everywhere prevalent; and if there is no kingdom of God, they have nothing to hold out that is worth a thought or reflection.

Brother Stevenson was talking about merchants. I do not refer to them more than anybody else, for I am willing everybody should live if they will live honestly and righteously; but I will suppose that you or I was a merchant, and we could grasp at everything within our reach, could build splendid edifices, had a large amount of credit and any amount of cash, no fear of bankruptcy, and nothing in the world to trouble us, and that we die and there is no hereafter, neither hell nor anything else, but we just live like fools and die like fools, what difference is there between the poor fool and the rich fool? They will both occupy about two feet by six, that is all. No matter what their possessions may have been, or what amount of wealth they may have accumulated, they brought nothing into the world, and they can take nothing out of it. Suppose we take another view of earthly greatness: Many people are very anxious to become legislators, governors, presidents, mayors of cities, or to use a vulgar expression they want to be “big bugs” in society. Now on the principle that there is no hereafter, what difference is there between President Lincoln and the man who was killed for killing him? None. They both occupy about the same space, and if there is nothing certain with regard to the future, I know of no difference in their positions. Neither do I know of any kind of philosophy that will instruct me in these things. I am sure a president has just as much trouble while he lives as the man who works for his daily bread; and I am sure the merchant has more perplexity and annoyance than the poor man has. The man who can supply his family with the common necessaries of life is the happiest man of the two, for he has less care and responsibility. I am sure I do not envy those men at all.

What is true philosophy? It seems to me to be a true principle for men to try and find out who they are. I like to examine myself a little, and I sometimes ask who am I? Where did I come from? What am I doing here? And what will be the condition of things when I leave here?

If there is anybody who can tell me anything about these things, I want to know. If I had an existence before I came here, I want to know something about it; and if I shall have an existence hereafter, I want to know what kind of an existence it will be. I do not want to be frightened about hell fire, pitchforks, and serpents, nor to be scared to death with hobgoblins and ghosts, nor anything of the kind that is got up to scare the ignorant; but I want truth, intelligence, and something that will bear investigation. I want to probe things to the bottom and to find out the truth if there is any way to find it out.

If I have a spirit within me, which is according to the popularly received notion among men, I want to know whence it came; and if there is a God in existence I want to become acquainted with him. It is not enough for me to know that a man called Moses, who lived thousands of years ago, said he talked with God and that angels came and ministered to him. And if there was such a man as Abraham, and he lived and talked with and obtained promises from God, I want that intelligence that will enable me to do so. I want something more than that which will just take me to the grave, and there leave me to take a leap in the dark, and be forever forgotten and be dependent on somebody else to root me up, investigate my existence, and bring me forth. I want to understand these principles myself. This, it seems to me, is true philosophy and correct principle; and nothing short of this will satisfy my feelings and desires.

Perhaps some people will say you are a fool. Well, I know without any further explanation that you are fools if you have no higher aspirations than to live, get a few dollars, die, and be damned or forgotten. Some men will say we do not trouble ourselves about religious matters, we leave them to others. That proves you are fools. A man who will leave his eternal interest to the care of somebody else who cares nothing about him, must be a fool.

If man is an eternal being, and believes that he has an immortal soul, and that that soul will exist somewhere in happiness or misery “while life, and thought, and being last, or immortality endures,” and yet he will say he is not concerned about it; such a man must be a fool. I set him down as such; and I do not care what his opinion may be of me. He may think or say I am one, because, in relation to these matters, I choose to find out, if I can something in relation to my existence as an immortal and eternal being. I want to know who I am, to whom I am related, what I am doing here, where I am going when I leave here; and if there is any way of making preparations for eternity I want to know it. That seems to me to be intelligence, reason, and philosophy.

But, would you not like to know something about natural philosophy, anatomy, mineralogy, botany, geology, and the variety of other sciences? Of course I would. I would like to be acquainted with human nature and all pertaining to it; not only with the nature of the human body, but with the organization of the human mind, and with all things on the earth. Then I would like to become acquainted with the heavens, and with the Being who created the heavens and the earth, and my relationship to him.

Some people are very anxious to trace and preserve their genealogies, and tell where they came from; but I wish to go a little further, and if I have a spirit within me I want to know where it came from, when and how it was organized, and how it existed. And if I have a heavenly Father I want to know him, and know how I can have access to him; and then I want to go through the various formula necessary to lead me to him, for the Scriptures tell me that to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent is eternal life. I believe that Jesus lived on the earth, and imparted intelligence to his followers, and that among other things he told them that if he went away, he would come again and receive them to himself. But what is his coming again to me, if I am to die and there is to be no more of me? If there is any hereafter, any eternal life, I want to understand it, and to participate therein. I want to gain possession of that of which Christ spake to the woman of Samaria—the water that should be within her as a well springing up into eternal life. If there is any correct principle whereby I can obtain possession of this I want to find it out. There is another curious saying of his: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And he that liveth and believeth shall never die.” These are curious sayings, remarkable expressions made use of by Christ in regard to the future. Some men have had visions concerning things that were to come relative to the restoration of Israel; the building up of Zion; the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the earth; the reign of righteousness, when iniquity should be swept from the face thereof, when the “law should go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;” when all men should be subject to that law, and when to Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. There are a great many curious sayings in the Scriptures in relation to these things. Where did they all come from? Where did these ideas, theories, and notions, so numerous in what we call the Word of God, originate? We all believe they come by inspiration, “that holy men of God,” as the Scriptures say, “spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost.” I believe they were men who knew how to approach God, and that when they did they obtained visions, revelations and the ministering of angels, and could look through the dark vista of future ages and see the purposes and designs of God rolling on to their accomplishment. I believe they could see his purposes in regard to the creation and organization of this earth, and the placing of man upon it, and all the vicissitudes that each succeeding generation should pass through, until the Lord should have accomplished his purposes, till the earth should be cleansed from wickedness, and purity should be universal, and all, from the least to the greatest, should know God.

If men of old had a knowledge of these things I want to know something about them too. And how am I to acquire this knowledge? The way to do so was made known to me when I first heard the Gospel. I was told to repent of my sins, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for their remission, and have hands laid upon me for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and that the Holy Ghost should take of the things of God and show them to me; that it should bring things past to my remembrance, should lead me to a knowledge of the truth and show me things to come. Is it foolish to understand these things? If I have a body I want to know how to save it. If I have a spirit I want to know how to save it. If there is any such thing as a first resurrection I want to participate in it, and I want to become acquainted with the “whys” and “wherefores” in relation to all of these matters.

I was told that God had spoken, that the heavens had been opened, that angels had appeared, that the kingdom of God was established on the earth, and that the Lord had commenced to fulfil his purposes with regard to the earth; and I believed it, and I was buried in the waters of baptism, had hands laid upon me by a man having authority, and through that medium I obtained a knowledge of these things. Hence, when I talk on these matters, I talk about what I know, and what my natural and spiritual senses comprehend. When I talk to you I talk to a people that understand the things of which I speak, and the operations of the Spirit of the Lord; and if all are not informed in regard to the sciences and learning of the day, yet all good and virtuous men and women who have lived their religion and maintained their integrity before God, feel as certain about these matters as did the man whose son Jesus healed who was born blind. The Pharisees came to him and said, “Give God the glory: for we know that this man is a sinner.” Said he, “I do not know much about this man, but one thing I do know—that he was once blind, but that now he sees.” So it is with you, through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ you have become enlightened, and although at one time you were blind, you now see. You know another thing too that you did not know before obeying the Gospel. It was said in former times concerning the Jews that they were, all their life long, subject to bondage through the fear of death. That bondage exists today among all grades in the world, whether religionists or irreligionists—they are afraid of death. You talk to ministers, and they will tell you to get prepared for death. I want to know nothing about death, it is life, eternal life I am after, and I do not care anything about the grim monster; let him grin, operate and work, it is life I am after, eternal life, and that consists in knowing “the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.” And through obedience to the Gospel we receive the Holy Ghost which opens up communication between us and the heavens, and enables us to exclaim with Paul, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are standing then, may I, shall I say on a more elevated platform than the world, for we know what we talk about. I do know that when this earthly house of my tabernacle is dissolved that I have a building of God not made with hands. I know I shall live forever, and that God is my father and friend; if nobody else knows this, I know it. Do I want to go back to the beggarly elements of the world? Do I want to compare light, truth, intelligence, and the revelations of God with the darkness, ignorance, and corruption of the world? Do I want to leave the light of eternity and mix myself up with that that dies and is forgotten in the tomb? No, sirs! I want something that is calculated to elevate, ennoble, and exalt the human mind, and that will place men as the sons of God on the earth, full of light, life, intelligence, and the power of God, with the revelations of God beaming upon them, and the visions of eternity open to their minds. This is the kind of religion I believe in; it tells me who my Father is, how I may please him, secure his favor and obtain for myself and my posterity everlasting life in the celestial kingdom of God. Then knowing and comprehending these things in part I would like others to walk in the same track, grasp the same intelligence and act as rational, intelligent beings, that they may stand upon Mount Zion as saviors, help to redeem Israel, and spread light to the world. This is what we are after. But I find time is flying. God bless you, and may he guide us all in the way of peace and help us to fear him and keep his commandments that we may be saved in his kingdom, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 10, 1867.

When I look at the faces of people, I look at the image of our Creator. When I behold one of the images or likenesses of our Creator, I behold more or less of His character by the manifestations and the influences of the spirit that is in man. “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding.” There is none without a spirit; this spirit is from heaven, and when we look at each other we behold, more or less, the power that is in Him who created and brought us forth, and who sustains all things.

In hearing doctrines and exhortations do we recollect those portions that will actually benefit and purify, and enable us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth?

We as a people are commanded to leave our places of abode in the countries where we received the gospel, and are required to gather together. This makes us conspicuous; it places us in a position where we are looked at. If we have any influence it is felt; if we do exist, if we have a being here as a congregated people, as I think we have, of course we are so conspicuous that we are noticed by the world. Whether this makes us as Saints, any better, is for our experience, and those who have wisdom, to decide. But we are here I do believe; I do not want anybody to pinch me, to know whether I am in existence or not; I am pretty well convinced that I live, move, and have a being.

Many of the Latter-day Saints are fearful that trouble will come to us. I do not know that our condition is any more critical or dangerous than that of other people. It is true, it appears that we are in a very peculiar and dangerous condition. We have had our enemies after us, to my certain knowledge, for the last thirty-five years, and today. I am as free from the influences of the wicked as I ever was any day in my life. I never enjoyed more liberty and freedom, nor had greater access to that which is good than I have today. This is what we all believe, and what our experience proves. My beloved brother Joseph, who has been speaking to you, testifies that he realizes that the condition of this people, though they may be a target for the whole world, is safer than that of any other people, no matter who they are nor where they live.

Suppose br. Joseph, the prophet, were with us today, do you not think that he would feel safer than he ever did before on any day of his public life? He would. I recollect a little of his history that I will relate. I think it has been told to the congregation, or a portion of them, by br. George A. Smith. When he had almost finished translating the Book of Mormon, nearly forty years ago, and some time before the Church was organized, he was hunted, harassed, tormented, afflicted, and perplexed; taken before this magistrate and that magistrate, and sometimes they would keep him a whole night trying to prove something or other against him. “O, he was guilty man! His crimes were enormous! No man was ever so guilty as he.” The priests commenced this outcry against him: “Did you not hear this man say so and so?” said they to their deacons and the members of their church. “Well, no, we do not know that we did hear him.” “Has he not said or done something or other, transgressed some law of the land, spoken against the government, or something by which he can be proved guilty?” And so he was hunted and hunted, and at one time I recollect that Mr. Reed, the father of the present Secretary of our Territory, then something of a lawyer, defended him from court to court, night after night—they kept Joseph I do not know how many days and nights, and finally they could find nothing against him. They knew in the first place that he was guilty of nothing; but from that time to his last persecution when they served a writ on him in Carthage and he delivered himself up to the Governor, and was examined and committed to prison by the magistrate, their cry was, “Has not Mr. Smith said something or other that we can make treason out of it?” “Well, Dr. Bennett says so, or Jackson and the Laws say so.” “Will you not come forward and testify something or other so that we can condemn this man?” No. They could not get parties to swear this, that, or the other; but they wanted to prove him guilty of treason by trying to prove that he had more than one wife. Very singular treason, that! But so it was.

Now, as bad as myself and my brethren are, and as far as we are from the mark, and from the privileges we should enjoy, if Joseph Smith, Jun., the prophet, could have seen the people in his day as willing to obey his voice, as they are today to obey the voice of their President, he would have been a happy man. He lived, labored, toiled, and worked; his courage was like the courage of an angel, and his will was like the will of the Almighty, and he labored till they killed him.

We had to leave, and we have come here into these mountains, and do you think we are going to be swallowed up by our enemies? Why, they have already done their uttermost. “Could they not send a hundred thousand men here to destroy the ‘Mormons?’” Yes; that is, they could try. In the winter of 1857-58, when the army was at Bridger, Col. Kane came here to see what he could do for the benefit of the people, and to caution and advise me. He was all the time fearful that I would not take the right step, and that I would do something or other that would bring upon us the ire of the nation. “Why,” said he, “at one word there would be a hundred thousand men ready to come here.” I replied that “I would like to see them trying it.” Afterwards a calculation was made that, for men to come here—tarry through the winter and get back the next summer, it would require four and a half oxen to carry the food, clothing, and ammunition necessary for each man. This was more stock than they could take care of, to say nothing about fighting. I was resolved that they would find nothing here to eat, nor houses to live in, for we were determined that we would not leave a green thing, and if I had time not one adobie should be left standing on another. I was satisfied that if Col. Kane could see what I saw, he would know that the weight of such an army would be so ponderous that it would crush itself, and it could never get here. It is just so now, too.

James Buchanan did all he could do, and when he found he could do nothing, he sent a pardon here. What did he pardon us for? He was the man that had transgressed the laws, and had trampled the Constitution of the United States under his feet. We had neither transgressed against the one nor violated the other. But we did receive his pardon, you know, and when they find out they can do nothing they will be sending on their pardons again. I do not know how it will be out west in Nevada, which is a part of the State of Deseret. In the first place they obtained from the government the right of a Territorial government, and, finally, the right to become a State was granted. But they cannot maintain themselves; they have nothing to eat; and a great many of them cannot get anything to wear unless they steal it. Now they have sent their petition to Washington to have Utah annexed to them, so that they can get a little bread. Now, you see, we are gone in and no mistake; I say, if Nevada should really obtain the rest of Utah we are gone in. They have not thought of it, it has never entered their minds at all, but they have opened the door and we have gone in and taken possession of the house. This does not frighten me, not at all. One gentleman from the west sent a telegram to br. Kimball for money to enable him to stop this petition. I told br. Kimball to give no attention to it, and not to pay a dime. Finally the memorial went over the wires, and I received a short account from our Delegate; I telegraphed back to him, saying, “Change the name from Nevada to Deseret. Go ahead, and we have our State government.” They do not have more than one-quarter or one-third the people there that we have in Utah, and I rather think the majority would rule in this case.

There is not much danger, however, from that quarter. But are they not sending troops on here? Yes; and they will have plenty for them to do. Eleven thousand were ordered here by James Buchanan; seven thousand arrived, and about ten thousand hangers on—gamblers, thieves, and so forth. It made a pretty good army, but what did they accomplish? They used one another up. I recollect in the days of Camp Floyd it was thought nothing of to hear every morning of two or three men being killed; but now, if one is killed about once in six months all hell is on the move. If the whiskey drinkers and gamblers who were here to winter, were to go to work, and kill off a few of themselves every night, it would stop all excitement about killing.

What would be said if the United States mail were robbed in this neighborhood, as it is east, west, and north of this city every few weeks? It would be thought that we were becoming civilized; but in the absence of frequent deeds of this character, whenever a scoundrel meets with his just desserts here, there is a great outcry raised.

Now, to tell the truth, there are but few, in comparison with the numbers that now live, who are rabid against and seek to destroy the kingdom of God. A great portion of the human family are honorable men and women, and they would just as soon that “Mormonism” should live as any other ism. The few who seek to destroy the kingdom of God are priests, politicians, and office seekers, and they would care nothing about it, only they are afraid we will take away their place and nation. Let them tell the truth, and they say that we have the best government to be found anywhere, and that no other people are controlled so easily as the people in this Territory. I believe that Governor Cumming came to the conclusion that he was Governor of the Territory as domain; but that Brigham Young was Governor of the people. They have to acknowledge this, no matter whom they may send here. And where is there another people that is controlled as easily as this people? It is true that we have not come to understanding as much as we expect to. We have yet to be trained and schooled and receive our lessons with regard to this life. We can go to any part of the world and preach this gospel, and the people will believe and enter the Church, and they receive all the blessings and ordinances necessary till they gather together. But here they have to be instructed with regard to their everyday life. We may talk about the great things of the kingdom, and how glorious the millennium will be, that there will be no sin, nor pain, nor death, and we will pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; and have it like a camp meeting; but what is the use of all this to us? You and I are gathered here expressly to prepare for that day; we could not enjoy it now, but our duty is to prepare ourselves in enjoy the glory that the Lord has in store for the faithful. We are going to try and save ourselves, and when we come to under– standing we will then be counted worthy to possess Zion, even the Center Stake of Zion. It is true this is Zion—North and South America are Zion, and the land where the Lord commenced His work; and where He commenced He will finish. This is the land of Zion; but we are not yet prepared to go and establish the Center Stake of Zion. The Lord tried this in the first place. He called the people together to the place where the New Jerusalem and the great temple will be built, and where He will prepare for the City of Enoch. And He gave revelation after revelation; but the people could not abide them, and the Church was scattered and peeled, and the people hunted from place to place till, finally, they were driven into the mountains, and here we are. Now, it is for you and me to prepare to return back again; not to our fatherland, in many cases, but to return east, and by-and-by to build up the Center Stake of Zion. We are not prepared to do this now, but we are here to learn until we are of one heart and of one mind in the things of this life. Do all the Latter-day Saints arrive at this? No; they have not, our former experience has proved this. Of the great many who have been baptized into this Church, but few have been able to abide the word of the Lord; they have fallen out on the right and on the left, and have foundered by the way, and a few have gathered together. Will these be prepared to enter the celestial kingdom? Some of them will be, and will become kings and priests; but not all of these, only a portion of them. They do not know what to do with the revelations, commandments, and blessings of God. Talking, for instance, about everyday things, how many do we see here that know what to do with money and property when they get it? Are their eyes single to the building up of the kingdom of God? No; they are single to the building up of themselves. With all the knowledge that Elders have obtained who have traveled in the Church five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years, there are few who understand the principles of the kingdom and whose eyes are single to the building of it up in all respects; but their eyes are like the fool’s eye—looking to the ends of the earth. They want this and that, and they do not know what to do; they lack wisdom. By-and-by, perhaps, their wealth will depart from them, and when left poor and penniless, they will humble themselves before the Lord that they may be saved.

This is the situation of the Latter-day Saints, yet they are increasing. It is astonishing to look back and see the ignorance that was manifested by the people in their first gathering together; their experience then was far less than their experience and doings now. Still we are far short of being what we should and must be.

When the people assemble together they should be instructed with regard to their temporal lives. It is good to assemble together and pray, and preach, and exhort, so that we may obtain the power of God to that degree that we can heal the sick, cast out devils, speak with tongues, prophecy and enjoy all the blessings and gifts of the holy gospel; but that does not raise our bread, nor perfect the Saints in wisdom. I referred here, last Sunday, to men out of the Church who possess great gifts and who are not in the Church. Men who know nothing of the Priesthood receive revelation and prophecy, and yet these gifts belong to the Church, and those who are faithful in the kingdom of God inherit them and are entitled to them; and all ought to live so as to enjoy the spirit of these gifts and callings continually.

Do we know and understand that it is our business to build up Zion? To have seen the way this people have conducted themselves in years past, one would not have had the least idea that such was our business; but it made no difference whom we built cities for; many would build for Jew or Gentile, Greek, Mahommedan, or Pagan, every class of men on the earth, as readily, apparently, as they would build up Zion. Yet the word of the Lord to us is to build up Zion and her cities and stakes. Lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes, O ye House of Israel; add to her beauty and add to her strength! Why, to have seen the conduct of the people you might have supposed they knew no more about Zion than about a city of the Chinese, or a city in France, Italy, Germany, or Asia; just as soon build up a city in Asia or Africa as anywhere else, “no matter whom we build for if we only get the dollar, only get our pay for our work.” Yet the commandment of God to us is to build up Zion and her cities. I told you here last Sunday what Joseph said in this respect—what we should build and what we should not build up. This book [the book of Doctrine and Covenants] is full of it.

We say we believe Joseph was a prophet, that he had the priesthood and was called of God to gather the people together and establish Zion. If we believe this, why not let our lives prove that we believe the doctrine that we profess? Can you see any of the Christians in the world who do not believe the doctrine they profess? It is a very dark picture to look upon—a sad affair that we disbelieve our own doctrines. Let us remember them and live accordingly.

I will take the liberty of reading a portion of a revelation given in November, 1831 (Book Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 21), in reference to duties into which W. W. Phelps, Joseph Smith, Edward Partridge, Sidney Gilbert, and a few others were called: “Wherefore, a commandment I give unto them, that they shall not give these things unto the church, neither unto the world; Nevertheless, inasmuch as they receive more than is needful for their necessities and their wants, it shall be given into my storehouse; And the benefits shall be consecrated unto the inhabitants of Zion, and unto their generations, inasmuch as they become heirs according to the laws of the kingdom.

“Behold, this is what the Lord requires of every man in his stewardship, even as I, the Lord, have appointed or shall hereafter appoint unto any man. And behold, none are exempt from this law who belong to the church of the living God; Yea, neither the bishop, neither the agent who keepeth the Lord’s storehouse, neither he who is appointed in a stewardship over temporal things. He who is appointed to administer spiritual things, the same is worthy of his hire, even as those who are appointed to a stewardship to administer in temporal things.”

In the next revelation it speaks of Sidney Gilbert, “And let my servant Sidney Gilbert stand in the office which I have appointed him, to receive moneys, to be an agent unto the church, to buy lands in all the regions round about, inasmuch as can be done in righteousness, and as wisdom shall direct.

“And let my servant Edward Partridge stand in the office which I have appointed him, to divide unto the saints their inheritance, even as I have commanded; and also those whom he has appointed to assist him.

“And again, verily I say unto you, let my servant Sidney Gilbert plant himself in this place,” [that was Independence, Jackson County, Missouri,] “and establish a store, that he may sell goods without fraud, that he may obtain money to buy lands for the good of the saints, and that he may obtain whatsoever things the disciples may need to plant them in their inheritance.”

Sell goods without fraud! That is a point I wish our merchants to look at, if that does not hit them square in the face I am mistaken. Does the Lord talk about a merchant as though he was a mere trader who had gathered for the purpose of clutching all he possibly could without caring for anybody else?

Will the time ever come that we can commence and organize this people as a family? It will. Do we know how? Yes; what was lacking in these revelations from Joseph to enable us to do so was revealed to me. Do you think we will ever be one? When we get home to our Father and God will we not wish to be in the family? Will it not be our highest ambition and desire to be reckoned as the sons of the living God, as the daughters of the Almighty, with a right to the household, and the faith that belongs to the household, heirs of the Father, His goods, His wealth, His power, His excellency, His knowledge and wisdom? Ought it not to be our highest ambition to attain to this? How many families do you think there will be then? It is true that we read in the Bible with regard to the twelve tribes of Israel, that they will be gathered together tribe by tribe, and that when they are so gathered they will hear the sentence of the Ancient of Days.

They were commanded never to go out of their own family—the family of Abraham—to seek a partner for life. Did they keep that command? No; but they ran here and there, to the rebellious nations around, and got their wives; and so they continued transgressing and rebelling until the days of Moses, when the gospel was offered to, and utterly rejected by them, and so the Lord gave them the law of Carnal Commandments, in which they were forbidden to marry, as you can read in the Bible. That was a yoke of bondage. And the whole religious world swallow this down as the revelations of the Lord Almighty to His people; they were to His people, but were given in consequence of their rebellion. A great many arguments might be adduced in favor of this, many more, I think, than could be advanced against it. Still we do not care anything about that; we look at facts just as they are. Abraham married his half sister according to the Bible; but there is a discrepancy in the record, for it is stated in his own writings that she was the daughter of his older brother, and he was the chosen of the Lord; and all can read for themselves and see whom Isaac and Jacob got for wives. Did not Jacob, when going to his uncle’s house, see Rachel at the well drawing water? Said he, “She is a pretty nice looking girl, I guess I’ll help her,” and going to do so, he found she was the daughter of the very man to whose house the Lord had sent him; and he liked her well enough to work seven years for her for a wife, and then Leah was palmed onto him, so he worked seven years more for Rachel, and Jacob and his wives were his own cousins. Jacob’s mother and his wives’ father were sister and brother; consequently his wives’ grandfather and grandmother—Ne– hor and Milcah—were his grandfather and grandmother. Besides, Nehor was the brother of Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather on his father’s side—and Milcah was the sister of Sarah—his grandmother on his father’s side. So it was with Israel, in the days of their obedience they were commanded to take partners in their own families; but Israel was finally divided up into twelve parts, and they will be brought up so. This, however, is something that I understand, and which the people may understand, perhaps, sometime. They will come up tribe by tribe, and the Ancient of Days, He who led Abraham, and talked to Noah, Enoch, Isaac, and Jacob, that very Being will come and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. He will say, “You rebelled, and you have been left to the mercies of the wicked.” See the tribe of Judah and the half tribe of Benjamin, that tarried in Palestine when the rest went into the north country, how they have been trampled down! They have not outgrown it to this day. Take them in England, or across on the Continent, or even in this country, no matter what you do to them, they will not resent it; they submit to it. But they will rise by-and-by and assert their rights and have them. They are the oldest nation in the world, and they have as bright talents as any other people in the world, and the time will come when they will obtain their rights and be restored to the land of their fathers, only be patient about it.

There is another class of individuals to whom I will briefly refer. Shall we call them Christians? They were Christians originally. We cannot be admitted into their social societies, into their places of gathering at certain times and on certain occasions, because they are afraid of polygamy. I will give you their title that you may all know whom I am talking about it—I refer to the Freemasons. They have refused our brethren membership in their lodge, because they were polygamists. Who was the founder of Freemasonry? They can go back as far as Solomon, and there they stop. There is the king who established this high and holy order. Now was he a polygamist, or was he not? If he did believe in monogamy he did not practice it a great deal, for he had seven hundred wives, and that is more than I have; and he had three hundred concubines, of which I have none that I know of. Yet the whole fraternity throughout Christendom will cry out against this order. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” What is the matter? “I am in pain,” they all cry out, “I am suffering at witnessing the wickedness there is in our land. Here is one of the ‘relics of barbarism!’” Yes, one of the relics of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, David, Solomon, the Prophets, of Jesus, and his Apostles. And the other relic they have—you know whether they have used it up or not. Now what does our Bible tell us about this? Under this law of Carnal Commandments, the Lord told Moses to command the people to release their manservants and their maidservants, and forgive their debts once in seven years, and to let their land rest one year in seven; and when seven times seven years had passed over they were commanded to rest seven years, and to release all their manservants and maidservants. How will it be in eternity? We will wait till we get there, for there is no use in telling you; you would not know anything about it. I reckon there will be servants there, and I do not think they will be released once in seven years either; if they are, they will have to be brought right in again, for they will not know how to get their bread, and will have to be taken care of.

A certain portion of the human family have to be looked after and taken care of. If you do not know it, just look through the world and see the very few heads and brains that do all the legislating, and even the obtaining of what the children eat; it is only just a few that do this, out of the inhabitants of the whole earth. We are trying to teach this people to use their brains, that they may obtain knowledge and wisdom to sustain themselves and to dictate for others; that they may be worthy to be made kings and priests to God, which they never can be unless they learn, here or somewhere else, to govern, manage, legislate, and sustain themselves, their families, and friends, even to the making of nations, and nation after nation. If they cannot attain to this, they will have to be servants somewhere.

I say unto you that it is wisdom for us to apply ourselves to the revelations that the Lord has given us, and seek after Him that we may know His will concerning us, that we may be able to abide the day of His wrath, and be counted worthy, through our obedience and faithfulness, to enjoy the blessings that are prepared for the faithful.

We frequently talk about variety. My brother Joseph was talking about the variety in the feelings of this people. Can you see two faces alike in this congregation? If you cannot, you cannot find two spirits alike, you cannot find two who are the same in disposition. And if you search the world over, and all the works of God, you will find that same eternal variety.

We are capable of talking, thinking, and communicating; then we are capable of receiving, and we can receive a little here, and a little there, as the prophet has said, “Line upon line, and precept upon precept,” until we come to understanding. This is our privilege; we are capable of doing this, and if we will go to work with our might, and apply ourselves to learning the things of God, you will find there will not be quite so much selfishness as there is now.

I do not know but some people would ask br. Brigham if he is ready to hand over what he has got? Just as ready as the man who has only three dimes—just exactly, it is nothing to me. If we could live as one family, and could see that intelligence that is distributed among the minds of the people acted upon, we should see no idleness, slothfulness, wastefulness, covetousness, nor contention one with another, but every man and woman would be content with what was given them, and with all their souls would seek to obtain salvation, and would not be so eager after a little worldly honor or pleasure, and they would not feel “If I do not have my heaven here, I do not know that I shall ever have it.” You cannot have it unless you enjoy the spirit of the Lord, not one of you; you cannot find comfort, solace, or bliss without the Spirit of the Lord. All else contaminates and mars, and is calculated to destroy. As I said to the brethren the other day in the Thirteenth Ward Schoolhouse, with regard to worldly pleasure, comfort, and enjoyment; you may take as much as you please of the Spirit of the Lord, and it will not make your stomach or head ache. You may drink nine cups of strong spiritual drink, and it will not hurt you; but if you drink nine cups of strong tea, see what it will do for you. Let a person that is very thirsty and warm satiate his appetite with cold water, and when he gets through he will perhaps have laid the foundation for death, and may go to an untimely grave, which is frequently done. Excessive eating, drinking, or exercise all tend to the grave; but you may take as much of the Spirit of the Lord as you have a mind to, I do not care if you take a good hearty supper of it and then go right to bed, it will not hurt you in the least; if you take it early in the morning it will not spoil your breakfast. It will never hurt you, but will give life, joy, peace, satisfaction, and contentment; it is light, intelligence, strength, power, glory, wisdom, and finally, it comprehends the kingdoms that are, that were, or that will be, and all that we can contemplate or desire, and will lead us to everlasting life. Only let us have the Spirit of the Lord and we can be happy; while the things of this world, that are so eagerly sought after, all point directly to the grave. Men and women who are trying to make themselves happy in the possession of wealth or power will miss it, for nothing short of the gospel of the Son of God can make the inhabitants of the earth happy, and prepare them to enjoy heaven here and hereafter.

May the Lord bless you.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 3, 1867.

If the people can hear me as well as I can hear their noise walking, there will not be much difficulty in my making myself understood. This walking carelessly with heavy boots makes quite a confusion in the hall. In addressing the Saints, whether by the word of exhortation, admonition, correction or in doctrine, it requires good attention for a person to retain even a small portion of that which they hear. This is why it is so necessary for us to be talked to and preached to so much. If we read the Bible, it soon goes from us; we gather principles and have the pleasure of perusing the experience of others who have lived in former days; but we soon forget them. Our own cares and reflections, and the multitude of thoughts that pass through our minds take away from our recollections that which we hear and read, and our minds are upon present objects—our woes, our trials, our joys, or whatever seems to be present with us and directly in the future, and we forget what we have heard.

When I address the Latter-day Saints, I address a people who wish to be Saints indeed. I look upon my brethren and sisters, and I think, what have you come here for? What brought you here into to this territory—this mountainous country—into these wild regions? Why, the answer is, at once, “I came here because I was a Latter-day Saint, I wanted to gather with this people; my heart was with those who had embraced the Gospel, and I wished to be with the Saints.” There are none who have done so but would like to gather. What for? What is the object of being a Saint? For the express purpose of enjoying the blessings of the pure in heart—of those who will be prepared to dwell in the presence of the Father and the Son. For this I have left my all—left, perhaps, father, mother, sisters, brothers, friends, relatives, a good home; in many instances left a wife, left a husband, left our children for the sake of the society of the Saints. And when we are gathered together we can look around and inquire of ourselves, if we are really what we profess to be; do we walk in that path that is marked out for the faithful and obedient as strictly and as tenaciously as we should, devoting ourselves entirely to the service of God, for the building up of his kingdom, and the sanctifying of ourselves—striving to overcome every evil passion, every unhallowed appetite; seeking to the Lord for strength to subdue every obnoxious weed that seems to grow in our affections, and overcome the same to that degree that we may be sanctified? We can examine ourselves, and decide upon this question, without asking the counsel of bishop or presiding elder, or Apostle or any man or woman in this church. We are capable of deciding this for ourselves.

If any of the Latter-day Saints would like to have the path of duty pointed out to them in plainness and simplicity, and the road that leads to perfection marked before them so as to travel therein with ease, they should seek unto the Lord and obtain his spirit—the Spirit of Christ—so that they can read and understand for themselves. Do they love God with all their hearts? Do they keep his commandments? Do we know whether we do love the Lord? Do we know whether we keep his commandments? Do we know whe– ther we are walking in the path of obedience or not?

There is a trait in the character of man which is frequently made manifest in the Saints. It is simply this—to see faults in others when we do not examine our own. When you see people, professing to be Latter-day Saints, examining the faults of others, you may know that they are not walking in the path of obedience as strictly as they should. For this simple reason—it is all that you and I can do as individuals, as members in the Church and Kingdom of God, to purify ourselves, to sanctify our own hearts, and to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. It may be observed, or the question may be asked: “Are we never to know the doings of others? Are we never to look to see how others are walking and progressing in this Gospel? Must we forever and forever confine our minds to thinking of ourselves, and our eyes to looking at ourselves?” I can merely say that if persons only understand the path of duty and walk therein, attending strictly to whatever is required of them, they will have plenty to do to examine themselves and to purify their own hearts; and if they look at their neighbors and examine their conduct, they will look for good and not for evil.

It is true that under some circumstances we may have to look at others. For instance, here is the High Council, they are called to act upon cases that come before them. Of course their duty, then, is to examine into the conduct of their brethren and sisters; and this is required of them. And if they do it without prejudice, without selfishness, by the power of the Holy Ghost, divested of every improper feeling, judging righteous judgment between man and man, the performance of this duty will purify themselves just as much as any other labor. If a person is not called to sit in the High Council, he may be called to be a Bishop, and if he is through his ward, faithfully looking after the wants of the poor, examining into the conduct of each and every family to know whether they are orderly and respectable, and whether they conduct themselves accordingly to the word and law of God, seeing there is no evil, backbiting, mischief or any conduct unbecoming Christians, he is laboring faithfully in the discharge of his duty, and is entitled to the Spirit of the Lord to sanctify his own heart and to purify himself, just as much as if he were on his knees praying. If an elder is called to go and preach the Gospel, and he travels over the plains, in a train or in the coach, or by the railroad, or goes aboard a ship and crosses the ocean, he is attending to his duty in this just as much as though he were in the High Council or on his knees praying all the time. If a man is called to go and labor for the poor, if his Bishop calls upon him to go into the canyon after a load of wood for the poor, and he goes there, with his heart uplifted to God, and with his eye single to the building up of the kingdom, and gets the load of wood and lays it at the door of the Bishop for the poor, for the widow or for those who cannot help themselves, he is just as much in the line of his duty in so doing as though he were on his knees praying. And so we can proceed with the whole duty of man. No matter what the person is called to do, if it is to build up the kingdom of God on the earth, if he cheerfully perform the duty, he is entitled to the Spirit of the Lord—the Spirit of Truth—the Holy Ghost; and will most assuredly possess the same. There is a time for preaching, for praying, for sacrament meetings, for labor, and when we are attending to any or all of these, in the season thereof, we are entitled to the purifying influence of the Spirit of God. If a man is called to go and farm, and he goes faithfully about it, because he is directed to do so by the authorities that are over him, and he raises his grain, his cattle, and brings forth his crops to sustain man and beast, and does this with an eye single to the glory of God and for the building up of his kingdom, he is just as much entitled to the Spirit of the Lord, following his plough, as I am in this pulpit preaching, according to the ministry and calling, and the duties devolving upon him. If a man is called to deal in merchandise for the benefit of the people of God; in traveling to buy his goods, and looking after them and their safety until they reach their place of destination, and distributing those goods to the Saints and taking his pay for them, let him act with an eye single to the glory of God and the upbuilding of his kingdom on the earth, and he is as much entitled to the Spirit of the Lord and the Holy Ghost as a man is preaching. If a man is called to raise stock, and to procure machinery to manufacture the clothing that is necessary for the Saints, and he goes at that business with his eye single to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth, he is entitled to the Spirit of the Holy Gospel, and he will receive and enjoy it just as much as if he were preaching the Gospel. Will he have the spirit of teaching and expounding the Scriptures? No, he has the spirit to know how to raise sheep, to procure the wool, to put machinery in operation to make the clothing for the advancement, benefit, and building up of the people of God on the earth. And the Spirit of the Lord is here in these labors—farming, merchandising and in all mechanical business just as much as it is in preaching the Gospel, if men will live for it.

Suppose we bring a few illustrations in regard to the present feelings and knowledge of the elders of Israel. We need not go back to Nauvoo or Kirtland, to find illustrations among our merchants, but take them as we find them here. If they enter upon their business without God in their thoughts, it is “How much can I get for this? And how much can I make on that? And how much will the people give for this and for that? And how last can I get rich? And how long will it take me to be a millionaire?” Which thoughts should never come into the mind of a merchant who professes to be a Latter-day Saint. But it should be, “What can I do to benefit this people? And when they live, act, and do business upon this principle, and think, “What can I do to benefit the kingdom of God on the earth, to establish the laws of this kingdom, to make this kingdom and people honorable, and bring them into note, and give them influence among the nations, so that they can gather the pure in heart, build up Zion, redeem the House of Israel, and perhaps assist (though I do not thinks there will be any need of it), to gather the Jews to Jerusalem and prepare for the coming of the Son of Man?” And labor with all their might for their own sanctification and the sanctification of their brethren and sisters, they will find that the idea of, “How much can I make this year? Can I make sixty thousand dollars? Can I make in my little trade a hundred thousand dollars?” never would enter their minds; they never would think of it. But I am sorry to say they do not. Our merchants may turn round and ask us if we expect them to make anything. Yes, we are perfectly willing they should get rich; no matter how rich they are, but what will you do with those riches? The question will not arise with the Lord, nor with the messengers of the Almighty, “How much wealth a man has got, but how has he come by this wealth, and what will he do with it?”

I can reveal things to the people, if it would do any good; give them the mind of the Lord if they could hear and then profit by it, with regard to wealth. The Lord has no objection to his people being wealthy; but he has a great objection to people hoarding up their wealth, and not devoting it, expressly, for the advancement of his cause and kingdom on the earth. He has a great objection to this.

And our mechanics, do they labor for the express purpose of building up Zion and the kingdom of God? I am sorry to say that I think there are but very few into whose hearts it has entered, or whose thoughts are occupied in the least with such a principle; but it is, “How much can I make?” If our mechanics would work upon the principle of establishing the Kingdom of God upon the earth, and building up Zion, they would, as the prophet Joseph said, in the year 1833, never do another day’s work but with that end in view. In that year a number of Elders came up to Kirtland; I think there were some twenty or thirty Elders. Brother Joseph Smith gave us the word of the Lord; it was simply this: “Never do another day’s work to build up a Gentile city; never lay out another dollar while you live, to advance the world in its present state; it is full of wickedness and violence; no regard is paid to the prophets, nor the prophesyings of the prophets, nor to Jesus nor his sayings, nor the word of the Lord that was given anciently, nor to that given in our day. They have gone astray, and they are building up themselves, and they are promoting sin and iniquity upon the earth; and,” said he, “it is the word and commandment of the Lord to his servants that they shall never do another day’s work, nor spend another dollar to build up a Gentile city or nation.”

Now, if anyone is disposed to ask whether Brother Brigham has ever, since then, worked a day, or half a day, or an hour, to build up a Gentile city or the Gentile world, he will most emphatically tell the Latter-day Saints that he never has.

I could illustrate by circumstances, and could relate if I were disposed to give them to you, the providences of God, and how favorable they are to those who walk humbly before him. In the summer of 1833, in July, Brother Joseph gave the word of the Lord to the Elders, as I have been telling you. I returned east; and in September Brother Kimball and I went up together with our little families. When we arrived in Kirtland, if any man that ever did gather with the Saints was any poorer than I was—it was because he had nothing. I had something and I had nothing; if he had less than I had, I do not know what it could be. I had two children to take care of—that was all. I was a widower. “Brother Brigham, had you any shoes?” No; not a shoe to my foot, except a pair of borrowed boots. I had no winter clothing, except a homemade coat that I had had three or four years. “Any panta– loons?” No. “What did you do? Did you go without?” No; I borrowed a pair to wear till I could get another pair. I had traveled and preached and given away every dollar of my property. I was worth a little property when I started to preach; but I was something like Bunyan—it was “life, life, eternal life,” with me, everything else was secondary. I had traveled and preached until I had nothing left to gather with; but Joseph said: “come up;” and I went up the best I could, hiring Brother Kimball to take my two little children and myself and carry us up to Kirtland. In those days provisions and clothing were as dear as they are now in this place; and a mechanic in that country who got a dollar a day and boarded himself was considered rather an extra man. A dollar a day! And my brethren when they have three or five dollars a day, and have worked a year, will be sure to come out four or five or six hundred dollars in debt if they can get it. We did not live so in that country; we never used anything more than our means. When I reached Kirtland I went to work as soon as the word was that I could work and not preach. I knew that I could get plenty; for I knew how; I always could gather around me and make property.

There were some thirty or forty Elders gathered to Kirtland that fall; but there was only one mechanic in the entire number whom I knew that did not go to Cleveland and the neighboring towns to work during the winter—for the simple reason, that they thought they could not get one day’s work and get their pay for it, in the place Joseph was trying to build up—and that exception was your humble servant. I made up my mind that I would stay in Kirtland, and work if I never got a farthing for it; and I went to work for Brother Cahoon, one of the Trustees of the Temple, to build his new house. I worked all winter, and when spring came, was called upon to go to Missouri—a tramp of a thousand miles on foot—and a thousand back. Before going, the brethren gathered in who had been to the surrounding places during the winter—joiners, painters, masons and plasterers. I asked some of the brethren how much they had made? I had worked there through the winter, and at its commencement had not the least prospect of getting twenty-five cents for my winter’s work. I told Brother Cahoon I would work whether I could get anything for it or not, “for,” said I, “the word of the Lord is for me to work, to build up Zion, and poor as I am, I shall do it.” But the Lord opened the way; and I gained Brother Cahoon’s heart to that degree that if he received anything he always came to me, and said, “Brother Brigham, I have so and so, and I will divide it with you.” Brother William F. Cahoon and I kept to work at the house until his father got into it. When we had finished the house, he had paid me all that was coming to me. The Lord had opened the way. This work finished, another job came, and then another, and when the spring opened, I can safely say that there was not any four, nor perhaps any six or ten of the brethren who had gone elsewhere to work who could produce as much property, made by them through that winter, as I had made.

You can see from this the providences of God, with one winter’s work in Kirtland, when it was one of the hardest places that ever mortal man had to get a living in, and that too, when I had to work for nothing and find myself, that is, seem– ingly so, to all outward appearance.

I had my pants and coats, two cows, a hired house, and a wife in the meantime. And I was better off than any other man who came to Kirtland the fall before, according to the property that we came with, and I had enough to live with my family and leave them comfortable, and my gun and sword and money enough to pay my expenses. If I had no work to do, and there was nobody to hire me, there was plenty of timber and I made some bedsteads or stands, and if anybody wanted such things they would come along and say, I will give you a little oats or a little corn, or something or other for them, and so the Lord opened the way most astonishingly.

I tell this, because it is an experience I am acquainted with, for it is my own. I am not so well acquainted with the providences of God in the experience of others, as I am with my own, except by faith and the visions of the Spirit.

I stayed in Kirtland from 1833 till 1837; I preached every summer. Here are brethren who know what I am saying. I traveled and preached, and still went back nothing; but was willing to exchange, deal, work and labor for the benefit of my brethren and myself, with the kingdom and nothing else before me all the time. When I left there for Missouri, I left property worth over five thousand dollars in gold, that I got comparatively nothing for. I could travel along, with regard to my experience, to this valley. I left my property in Nauvoo, and many know that I left a number of good houses and lots and a farm, and came here without one farthing for them, with the exception of a span of horses, harness, and carriage, that Almon W. Babbit let me have for my own dwelling house that my family lived in; and when I arrived here I owed for my horses, cows, oxen, and wagons. Now, the brethren say—“Why, Brother Brigham you are rich.” I simply relate this to show yet how I have lived and what I have been doing, and the result, that God, and not I, has brought forth. Now, I have some four or five grist mills, besides saw mills and farms; and let anyone ask my clerks if they ever hear me mention them from one year’s end to another, unless somebody comes into the office and alludes to them; but my mind is upon increasing the wealth and advancing the interests of this people, and upon the spread of the Gospel on the continents and the islands of the sea. Ask my clerks and my closest associates if they ever hear me mention my individual property unless somebody speaks about it. I own property, and I employ the best men I can find to look after it. If God does not give it to me, I do not want it; if he does, I will do the very best I can with it; but as for spending my own time in doing it, or letting my own mind dwell upon the affairs of this world, I will not do it. I have no heart to look after my own individual advantage, I never have had; my heart is not upon the things of this world.

Excuse me for referring to myself. But I know that there is no man on this earth who can call around him property, be he a merchant, tradesman, or farmer, with his mind continually occupied with: “How shall I get this or that; how rich can I get; or, how much can I get out of this brother or from that brother?” and dicker and work, and take advantage here and there—no such man ever can magnify the priesthood nor enter the celestial kingdom. Now, remember, they will not enter that kingdom; and if they happen to go there, it will be because somebody takes them by the hand, saying, “I want you for a servant;” or, “Master, will you let this man pass in my service?” “Yes, he may go into your service; but he is not fit for a lord, nor a master, nor fit to be crowned;” and if such men get there, it will be because somebody takes them in as servants.

I have now related a little of my own experience. My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give, out and out, to man or woman, money, food, clothing, or anything else, if they are able-bodied, and can work and earn what they need, when there is anything on the earth for them to do. This is my principle, and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers. People trained in this way have no interest in working; “but,” say they, “we can beg, or we can get this, that, or the other.” No, my plan and counsel would be, let every person, able to work, work and earn what he needs; and if the poor come around me—able-bodied men and women—take them and put them into the house. “Do you need them?” No; but I will teach this girl to do housework, and teach that woman to sew and do other kinds of work, that they may be profitable when they get married or go for themselves. “Will you give them anything to wear?” O, yes, make them comfortable, give them plenty to eat and teach them to labor and earn what they need; for the bone and sinew of men and women are the capital of the world.

If I could see my brethren and my sisters as willing to be taught, led, and directed in the little trifling affairs of life, with regard to their food, raiment, houses, and labors, and how to make themselves useful and not waste their time and strength on that which does them no good; if I could see this people as willing to be taught in these things as they are in the great things—the revelations of the prophets, and what Jesus has said, and the beauties of eternity, and the excellency of the millennium, and what great men and women we are going to be, that would be delightful. But what would you be good for if you were in that condition? Nothing. What would you do? Nothing at all. Learn to be good for something. We have these things to learn here, or, if not here, somewhere else; and if we are not willing to learn here, and practice what we know for the benefit of ourselves, and improve on the grace God gives to us, how can he bestow his blessings upon us in the next state of existence? He will not do it; we have to learn and be willing to be taught here.

To return to the subjects of merchandising and merchants. I know, and knew sixteen years ago as well as I do today, that from the very first the merchants who came here were laying the foundation for the uprooting of this people unless we had exceeding great faith; and that every dollar that was given to them was given to ruin you and me, and to destroy the kingdom of God on the earth. Can you believe this? “I do not know anything about that,” says one, “but I think I shall go where I call buy my calico the cheapest, and I do not know that it is any of your business where I buy my ribbons, hats or coats; I think that it is my business.” It is just as much my business, Latter-day Saints, to dictate in these things as it is in regard to the sacrament we are partaking of here today. Do the people know it? It is strange to them. Because your priests in England, France, Germany, in the Eastern or Southern states, and the islands of the sea, did not preach such doctrine, you cannot receive it. Did they preach baptism for the remission of sins? No. Then why receive it? Our fathers and priests did not preach any such doctrine as that a man has a right to dictate in temporal matters. Now by the same kind of reasoning, it might be proved that you could never receive the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins. Why? Because the priests did not preach it; your fathers did not tell you that it was correct doctrine, and why did you receive it? Well, you did receive it, and the Spirit of the Lord bore witness that it was true. The Spirit also bore witness that you should have hands laid upon you for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and that the gifts of tongues, of prophecy, of faith, and the healing of the sick were to be enjoyed by the Saints. Now ask the Father in the name of Jesus whether I am telling you the truth about temporal things or not, and the same Spirit that bore witness to you that baptism by immersion is the correct way according to the Scriptures, will bear witness that the man whom God calls to dictate affairs in the building up of his Zion has the right to dictate about everything connected with the building up of Zion, yes even to the ribbons the women wear; and any person who denies it is ignorant. There is not a man or woman in the world who rises up against this principle but what is ignorant; all such are destitute of the spirit of revelation and enjoy not the Spirit of Christ.

Do I want to dictate? No, I am just as far from that, naturally, as a man can be; it is not in my heart. How glad would I be to be excused from this. Would I not rejoice to be left to mind my own concerns, and to attend to my own business, providing for the wants of my family and enjoying myself just as much as you? Yes. But the Spirit prompts me to perform the labors which devolve upon me, to plead with and urge the people to act for their own benefit. If this people would hearken to the counsel given them, and be of one heart and one mind in their temporal affairs, can you not see the result? These men who have been urging trouble upon us, writing lies, and whose whole study is to destroy the kingdom of God from the earth would not be in our midst. Why? There would be nothing for them to do. “No;” says the sister, “if I give you ten dollars profit on your goods, you use that for the destruction of this kingdom that I think so much of.” “No;” says a brother, “if I give you one dollar or one thousand dollars profit on your goods, you use that for the destruction of the kingdom of God that I am willing to sacrifice everything for. I cannot give it to you, it is not reasonable to think that I must give this to you.”

“But,” says the merchant, “I demand it of you.” “Yes, but I have just as good a right to go where I please to trade as you have to trade, and I shall give my ten, hundred, or thousand dollars to the man who would devote that means to the building up of the kingdom of God.” I do not say that all our merchants, mechanics or tradesmen are precisely as they should be before the Lord with regard to devoting their means. Touch their means, and in many instances you touch their souls. Still what does that prove? It proves that they are wrong and not right. And they should be right and their whole souls should be centered on the building up of the kingdom of God. There are many persons here who when they get five hundred or five thousand dollars, want to bring a few wagon loads of goods here to speculate upon. Why not bring machinery here? Why not raise silk? Through my own exertions I have the mulberry tree growing here in great abundance. The foundation is at length laid for making as much silk as we wish. But we have to tease the women to get them to weave silk here as they did in the old country. Have we no ladies here who can weave silk ribbons? If not we can soon send for some. But no, the manufacture of silk is not thought of; it is, “How shall I get money to spend with my enemies?” “How rich can I get this year?” “How much can I make out of this people?” I am sorry to see it; it is not very creditable; for in so doing, we foster our enemies in our midst—they who seek with all the power they have to uproot us. You who have been in the Church thirty or thirty-five years know that there has always been a set of scavengers following the people to pick up what they could; and they are with us here to collect the filth. Are they willing to go and build up a city for themselves? No; they are not. I am speaking of those who deserve this; but there are many that are not of those speculators. Are they willing to go and take up a farm? No, they would not give a farthing for a farm unless they obtain a “Mormon’s” claim and bring about a fight in getting it. The latter they can do very easily; they can find all the fight they want. Their designs are to interrupt this community; they want some gambling houses, and they will have them. The City Council is no more willing now than ever to license gambling houses and grog shops; but it must be done, and all hell is stirred up if I ask the people to suppress them. What do they want them for? They want what they call “civilization”—that is fighting, gambling, killing, whorehouses, drinking houses, and every species of debauchery that can be imagined on the face of the earth. That is their “civilization,” and what they want introduced here. These scavengers are here and they want to introduce their systems. There are not a great many of them perhaps at the present time; but they will follow up, and I can tell the Latter-day Saints that we will be followed just as long as the devil reigns on the earth. He is untiring in his exertions, fervent in every act possible, for the accomplishment of his work. If the people would take the counsel given them, health, wealth, influence, and power among the nations of the earth would surely come to them in a tenfold degree to what it ever has; it would come in such a manner that you would not know what to do with it, and you would wonder and be astonished. “But no,” say many, “we will mingle with, live among, and nourish and cherish the servants of the devil, and give our money to, and associate with, and have his coadjutors in our midst.” And so we have got to continue to labor, fight, toil, counsel, exercise faith, ask God over and over, and have been praying to the Lord for thirty odd years for that which we might have received and accomplished in one year.

“I do not know,” says one, “how to do better than I do.” The Lord has given you and me the privilege of gathering up from among the wicked. “Come out of her my people,” are some of the last words revealed through his servant John in the last of the revelations given in the New Testament. And one of the last writers we have here in this book—John the Revelator—looking at the Church in the latter days, says: “Come out of her, my people”—out of Babylon, out of this confusion and wickedness, which they call “civilization.” Civilization! It is corruption and wickedness of the deepest dye. It is no society for you, my people, come out of her. Gather out where you can pray, where you can have meetings and sacraments; where you can meet, associate, and mingle together; where you can beautify the earth and gather around you the necessaries of life, and make everything as beautiful as Zion, and begin to establish Zion on the earth; sanctify yourselves, sanctify your houses, the lands that you live upon; your farms, the streams of water that flow through your cities, country places and farms; sanctify your hills and mountains and valleys, and the land around about, and begin to build up Zion. Now, “come out of her, my people,” for this purpose, “and partake not of her sins, lest ye receive of her plagues.” After all these revelations and commandments the people who profess to be Saints will mingle with the wicked, and foster those who would cut their throats, and feed and clothe, and give them everything they can gather together.

How is it if you come down to the acts of the people? Will the women knit their own stockings, and make their own clothing? Some of them may try to do so; but as a general thing, no. It is: “Husband, I want some money to go to the store to buy a bonnet; I will not be troubled with braiding the straw; I want some shoes, frocks, and pants for my boys, and I will not be at the trouble of spinning this dirty wool.” And the man will not be at the trouble of raising it.

That is not the way to get rich. If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money; but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage. Then go to work, and save everything, and make your own bonnets and clothing. And let our merchants do their business for the building up of the kingdom of God. If our merchants do not take this course, the time is not far distant when they will be cut off from the Church. Let them go their own road. If they think that a little money or property will pay their way into the kingdom of God, they may try it. They will find themselves mistaken; they will miss the gate and take another road. The same will apply to our mechanics—if they will not labor for the building up of this kingdom, instead of working to get rich, they will miss the gate of the celestial kingdom, and will not get in there unless we take them in for servants. I do not care whether a man is a merchant or a beggar, whether he has much or little, he must live so that neither the things of this world, nor the cares of this life will becloud his mind, nor exclude him from the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ; but all, whether merchants or preachers, tradesmen or farmers, and mechanics and laborers of every kind, whether they work in the ditch, or building post and rail fence, must live so that the revelations of the Lord Jesus are upon them; and if they live not according to this rule, they will miss the kingdom they are anticipating.

You may think this is pretty hard talk; but recollect the saying of one of the Apostles, when speaking about getting into the kingdom of heaven, that “if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” The best man that ever lived on this earth only just made out to save himself through the grace of God. The best woman that ever lived on the earth has only just made her escape from this world to a better one, with a full assurance of enjoying the first resurrection. It requires all the atonement of Christ, the mercy of the Father, the pity of angels and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with us always, and then to do the very best we possibly can, to get rid of this sin within us, so that we may escape from this world into the celestial kingdom. This is just as much as we can do, and there is no room for that carelessness manifested by too many among us.

I do not wonder at this people having trouble; I do not wonder at some of our sisters having sorrow in what is termed plural marriage; for they do not live so as to have the Spirit and power of God upon them; if they did, they would see its beauty and excellence, and not a word would be said against it from this time henceforth and forever. But they see this with a selfish eye, and say, “I want my glory and my comfort here;” their eye is not on the resurrection and on the kingdom we are looking for when Jesus will come and reign King of nations as he does King of Saints.

With regard to the wealth of this people, I can say they would soon get immensely rich if they would take the counsel that is given them. For instance, here is one little circumstance: we have quite an outlet for our grain; our oats, barley, and flour are very much wanted in the neighboring Territories. Who raised this grain? The Latter-day Saints. Suppose they were perfectly united, do you not think they could get a suitable price for it? They could. We required Brother Hunter to counsel the Bishops to take measures to bring about union in this direction, and we saved for the Territory two or three hundred thousand dollars a year for two or three years. Then business slackened; but I was satisfied; we had shown the people what could be done; they have became comparatively well off, and if they have a mind to pursue a proper policy, they have matters in their own hands. Many will not, however, do this. One says, “I want to sell my oats; how much are they selling at?” “They are selling at one dollar and a quarter today; but there is nobody buying.” “How much will you give?” “Well, I’ll give you a dollar;” and so they are sold; we are so anxious for the money. There is a story, which I have told before, but it will do to tell again. Four years ago a certain sister took down a hundred pounds of flour to the square, hearing that flour was being sold there; but owing to the number of sellers, reduction in price had been continually going on. Our sister, however, determined to sell at any price, said “you can have my flour for one dollar,” and she actually sold her hundred pounds of flour and the sack for one dollar. One of the brethren, who had recently arrived here, went on to the square, and saw a load of wheat for sale. He inquired of the owner how much he asked for his wheat. The owner of the wheat told him, and a bargain was made for it. Before they reached the house of the purchaser, the seller suspected he had sold to a “Mormon;” and, upon inquiry, finding it was so, “ah” said he, “had I known that you belonged to the Church I should have made you pay for it.” Such little things as these are like straws—they tell which way the wind blows. If the people would only take the counsel given them, instead of there being people in our midst, in want, or that could be called poor, there would not have been a family in the whole community, but would have been so far above want that it might have been safely said, hard times would come again no more. Every man and woman wishes to work for his or her own interest, but they do not know how, they do not know what is for their best interest and greatest good.

Now, we are here to build up the kingdom of God, and for nothing else; but here are our enemies determined that the kingdom of God shall not be built up. I have often thought that I ought not to blame them so much. They have had possession of this earth some six thousand years; the devil has reigned triumphant, and without a rival has held possession; the wicked rule all over the earth, and they have had possession of this little farm, called earth, so long that they think they are the rightful heirs, and inherit it from the Father. But the Lord has said that the Saints should possess it. And when Joseph translated the Book of Mormon, and revealed the Gospel as it was among God’s children on this continent anciently, that was the starting point. The Lord said, “I am going to establish my kingdom; my open foe has had possession of this earth long enough, and I am going to show all the inhabitants of the earth, saint and sinner, good and bad, that it is time for Jesus, according to his promise, sufferings, and death to commence to redeem the earth and those who will hearken to his counsel, and bring them forth to enjoy his presence.”

The enemy has had possession of the earth a great while, and they really feel as though it is their right, and that they are the legal heirs.

If this Gospel goes to the uttermost parts of the earth and fulfills its destiny as predicted by the Prophets, by Jesus, and by the Apostles, it will eventually swallow up all the good there is on the earth; it will take every honest, truthful, and virtuous man and woman and every good person and gather them into the fold of this kingdom, and this society will enlarge, spread abroad, and multiply, and will increase in knowledge until the members composing it know enough to lengthen out their days and man’s longevity returns, and they begin to live as men did anciently.

This people are spreading and increasing, and religiously—so far as the ordinances of the house of God are concerned—they are of one heart and one mind.

How is it politically? Do they vote the Democratic ticket or do they take the Republican side of the question? I rather think that so far as voting is concerned they are of one heart and one mind; then they are one religiously and politically. “Oh,” say our enemies, “what will be the result if this people are let alone? The idea of such a thing is rather fearful.” Another man says: “I wish they could be let alone for a hundred years, just to see what they would amount to.” “But,” says another, “I should not; I tell you if those people prosper as they seem to do, I am not going to hold my place in a national capacity.” The Priests in their pulpits, from the holy Catholic down, say, “If this religion is right, ours is wrong, and it is terrible to us to see the prosperity that prevails in their midst, and to know that they are of one heart and of one mind.”

Now, then, here comes this party, and say to us, “You do not own a farm on this earth; we have had power on the earth so long, and shall still reign, and every foot of it shall be divided among us and our adherents.” “It is true,” say they, “that in the days of Moses the Lord did once send a messenger to preach the Gospel to the children of Israel, but our master had such power in their midst that they would not receive the kingdom.” In the days of Abraham, also, long before the days of Moses, the Lord revealed the principles of the kingdom, but they would not have them. And even before that the Lord delivered the principles of the kingdom to Noah, but they were not received by his posterity. Enoch and his band received sufficient of those principles to lead them on step by step till they were so far perfected that the Lord took them from this earth; and down from Enoch to Noah, Abraham and Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness; these latter, however, would not have the Gospel.

If you turn over this Bible you may read that when the children of Israel would not receive the Gospel, the Lord gave to them what is called the law of carnal commandments. In that he tells them whom a man shall not marry; you can read it for yourselves—he shall not marry his wife’s mother, nor her sister, nor his wife’s aunt, &c. Previous to this the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, through Abraham, Isaac, and through Jacob and the twelve patriarchs never to marry out of their own families. But they would run over yonder to a strange nation and worship other gods, and bring back a wife, or two, or three into a family; and then go into another nation and worship idols, and bring their corruption into the midst of Israel, till at length they became so alienated and estranged from the principles of righteousness and the Holy Gospel, that when Moses delivered to them the principles of life and salvation they utterly rejected them, and this is the reason the Lord gave to them the law of carnal commandments.

We are raising up a little party by ourselves; we are actually getting a people here not of the world. We are gathering out of the world, and assembling together, and we have the right to purchase a farm, build a a city or inhabit a Territory or State. But it is grievous for the other party to bear. Yet we “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s;” we pay our taxes and keep the laws of the land. I do not know that I blame them for exercising all their ability to prevent Jesus from coming to reign King of nations as he does King of Saints. They have so long held the reins of government with undisputed sway. They have swept over the earth and have controlled all its inhabitants so long that I do not know that I can blame them for feeling, “We do not like these Latter-day Saints to increase. It is dangerous, very dangerous. If they are going to trade with themselves—have merchants of their own, and not going to trade with us, it is a terrible thing. If they are going to be permitted to buy land and occupy it, the nation ought to take it in hand. If they are going to cease licensing gambling houses, the nation ought to take it in hand.” I cannot blame them so much for feeling so—they see the danger.

They are for themselves and their master, and if they let the Saints alone it will be, as it was said in the days of Jesus, “If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” So it will be with the Latter-day Saints; if they are let alone, their doctrine will spread and prosper till it gathers up all the truth in the world; it will gather every good person in the world and will save and preserve them from the ravages of the enemy.

As I said here, once, with regard to preaching the Gospel, a very simple person can tell the truth, but it takes a very smart person to tell a lie and make it appear like the truth. Go into the sectarian world with their systems called religion now before the people; it requires a very learned and talented man to make it appear anyways commendable to the hearts of the honest, so far as doctrine is concerned. When we come to the doctrines that Jesus taught, they are what can save the people, and the only ones on the face of the earth that can. In conversation not long since with a visitor who was about returning to the Eastern States, said he, “You, as a people, consider that you are perfect?” “Oh, no;” said I, “not by any means. Let me define to you. The doctrine that we have embraced is perfect; but when we come to the people, we have just as many imperfections as you can ask for. We are not perfect; but the Gospel that we preach is calculated to perfect the people so that they can obtain a glorious resurrection and enter into the presence of the Father and the Son.”

Our doctrine embraces all the good. It descends to the capacities of the weakest of the weak; it will teach the girl how to knit, and to be a good housekeeper, and the man how to plant corn. It will teach men and women every vocation in life; how they should eat; how much to eat; how to feed, clothe, and take care of themselves and their children; how to preserve themselves in life and health. But you will ask, how? By close application, and learning from others, and obtaining all the knowledge possible from our surroundings, and by the assistance of the Spirit, as all who have introduced art and science into the world by the aid of revelation. The Gospel will teach us all that variety that we see before us in nature—the greatest variety imaginable. One sister would get up a certain fashioned bonnet, and another one another fashion; one would trim it in a certain way, and another in another way. When the brethren build their houses, the styles would be different; and in walking through the city one would see a vast variety in the gardens, in the orchards, in the walks and in the houses. The same variety would exist in the internal arrangements of the houses. We should see this variety with regard to families—here is one’s taste, and another’s taste, and this constant variety would give beauty to the whole. Thus a variety of talent would be brought forth and exhibited of which nothing would be known, if houses and dresses and other things were all alike. But let the people bring out their talents, and have the variety within them brought forth and made manifest so that we can behold it, like the variety in the works of nature. See the variety God has created—no two trees alike, no two leaves, no two spears of grass alike. The same variety that we see in all the works of God, that we see in the features, visages, and forms, exists in the spirits of men. Now let us develop the variety within us, and show to the world that we have talent and taste, and prove to the heavens that our minds are set on beauty and true excellence, so that we can become worthy to enjoy the society of angels, and raise ourselves above the level of the wicked world and begin to increase in faith, and the power that God has given us, and so show to the world an example worthy of imitation.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, delivered in the Bowery, in Great Salt Lake City, General Conference, Oct. 9. 1865.

I am happy to meet with you, my brethren and sisters, this morning, and I simply give expression to my feelings, in repeating what has been expressed by others, that this Conference has been to me one of interest—richly instructive and edifying.

In the admonitions that have been imparted we have been led to see, what in us is weak, dark, and should be improved. And in addition to that, the instructions have been rich in suggestions as to the ways and means by which we can secure to ourselves the blessings of that much needed improvement. While I have listened, the inquiry has risen in my mind as to how we, the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could substantially and profitably pursue the labors devolving upon us and honestly continue the struggle to become what we are denominated—Saints.

In the admonition that has been imparted we were truthfully told, that we were as yet only in part what we should be as Saints; that with all our labors and experience, with all the advantages for acquiring knowledge that have characterized our history thus far, we have yet much to learn. This truth, it appears to me, should be impressed upon the minds of all who think and reflect. It is one that is evinced in our conduct and actions as a people. There is no one feature in our history that is rendered more distinct or plain to be read and comprehended by the reflecting mind than this—that we, in all our learning, learn but slowly, and have as yet learned comparatively little of that large amount that may be learned, and that we yet manifest in our lives but a small degree of that perfection that should characterize us as the children of God, as the people of the Saints of the Most High, who are blessed with the light of the Gospel, ministered to them continually in simplicity and in truth. All our meetings, like the present, where there is congregated together the largest representation of the people of God to be met with in any one place, still continue to be characterized by instruction and teaching on those principles that it has ever been the object of our heavenly Father, and of his servants, to impress upon the minds of the Saints.

Now, how shall we, as the servants and ministers of God, expect to see in ourselves, and in the people to whom our ministrations extend, a permanent and progressive improvement, as the fruits of our labors, unless we, to some extent, justly and truthfully comprehend the principles that are involved in the work that is devolved upon us? It appears to me, as but consistent and truthful, that the enlightenment of the people and the development in them of the knowledge necessary for their blessing and exaltation, should legitimately follow the development of knowledge and a just comprehension of truth in those who minister to them.

Well, we are almost all teachers and preachers; in some relationship in life, in some position in the community, we all put on the character of teachers; and when we take into account the sum of the evils that exist as barriers between us and the enjoyment of a fulness of happiness, when we consider what these are, to remove, conquer, and overcome them should be our labor. And if the knowledge of God, of truth, and of the principles of the Gospel is necessary to the accomplishment of this work, it should be our business, as servants of God and of the people, to learn this lesson ourselves; for it is evident to my mind that our attention and devotion to the truth and to such a course of action as the knowledge of the truth would suggest to us, is that which should regulate us in life, and the extent of our devotion to this is always marked and determined by our appreciation of its value.

If we, as a people, were capable of appreciating, and had justly estimated the counsels that have been imparted to us continually in relation to what is denominated our temporal salvation, our devotion to the advice would have produced far different results. There would not have been, as there is today, a feeling to expostulate with the people on the necessity of laying up and securing to themselves bread against a time of want. There would not be the empty granaries and the comparative lack of that which should exist in abundance among the people.

I do not know what name men may give to the causes that have induced this condition of things. In my mind there exists but one general reason—our lack of comprehending the truth in relation to the nature of the work in which we are engaged; and that with all our opportunities of acquiring knowledge and getting understanding we are, as has been truthfully told us in the fatherly admonitions imparted to us during this Conference, only just beginning to be Saints—only just entering on that work, the consummation of which will make of us that kind of a people for whom the Lord says it is his business to provide.

Now, perhaps, we may have been to some extent presuming too much upon the kindness, charity, and goodness of our heavenly Father. We may have fancied, perchance, that he is pledged to preserve us irrespective of the course that we pursue, simply because we have supposed that we are Saints, because we have been baptized into the Church. But this truth cannot be too forcibly impressed on our minds—that if it is the business of the Lord to provide for his Saints, it is our business exclusively so to live that the Lord may have Saints for whom to care and provide, whom He may protect, and who may securely rest beneath the shadow of His wings, enjoying the blessings of His protection against evil.

But what is it that will constitute us Saints? A knowledge of the work we have to perform, and then a faithful, humble, undivided, and unreserved devotion to its accomplishment. That will constitute us Saints; that will constitute us teachers in the midst of the people; that will constitute us a people to whom the ministrations of the Priesthood will extend as a fountain of blessings.

The attainment of this knowledge, the possession of this rich understanding, is that to which you and I must reach ere we are established in the truth beyond a chance of becoming unsettled. This is the way it appears to me. My paths may be crooked, and my efforts to attain to this position and condition may be feeble, and not only feeble, but they may be characterized by a corresponding amount of improprieties and inconsistencies; but this is what appears to me to be the great object that is before me, that invites my exertions, induces me to labor and struggle—not till I am worn out, but until I find the realization of my brightest hopes in the possession of that which I seek.

As the Gospel presents itself to me, as the work of God is spread out before my mind, so I judge of it, so I appreciate it, so I talk about it, so I recommend it to you, my brethren and sisters.

“Well,” says one, “when will we learn?” That depends altogether upon ourselves. “Why,” says one, “will not the Lord have something to do with it?” The Lord has to do with it; and if we would be more careful about what we should do, instead of troubling ourselves about what the Lord should do, it might perhaps result in bringing us to the enjoyment of greater and richer blessings. Why, the Lord knows what to do, and He has no need of our instruction. The Lord is supposed, by me at any rate, to be fully up to all that devolves upon Him in relation to ourselves. The Lord is waiting for us to come along; He is only waiting for us to come up to that which it is our privilege to enjoy.

Some people may suppose, perchance, that the channels of knowledge are not open to all the people, as they are to the few. Some may cherish the idea that position, or place in the Church and kingdom of God may make a vast difference in the attainment of the blessings requisite to our happiness, and to our acceptance with God, and to our progress as Saints in the way of life. Position may make vast differences, perchance; but I do not know of an individual so low, I do not know of an individual so poor, but what the fountains of knowledge are as accessible to him as to the highest, as well to the last as to the first. It is not from the fact that the fountain of knowledge is only open to the teachers among the people, that they occupy their position. The teachers in the midst of the people are something like what we see in our schools. You go into our schools, and if the teacher has a large number of pupils in charge, he very likely will have recourse to this bit of policy—he takes some of his most advanced scholars and gives them the position of teachers amongst their schoolfellows and associates. Well, does this exalt them above the character or capacity of pupils? No! They are still learners in the school, and it is just as necessary for them to continue their labor for the acquisition of knowledge as before. This is the character of the teachers in Israel; that is, as I view it. This is the way I view myself as a teacher in the midst of Israel—as one upon whom has devolved the duty of extending the principles of salvation to those around me. When I labor to teach or instruct, I do not feel that they whom I am instructing need instruction any more than I do myself. I feel that all the necessity that may exist for any increase of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in reference to the humblest soul in the kingdom of God, exists in all its force for me.

Well, with this feeling I look upon the work of God, I think of it, I study about it, and then I make my efforts for the accomplishment of the duties that seem to devolve upon me. And when I get to know more and become wiser with that increase of wisdom, I shall not need to tell anybody, it will be evinced in increased propriety of action to the accomplishment of what I seek to accomplish. What duty, then, devolves upon us as the ministers of God—the Priesthood dispersed and living among the people? Why, we should seek for the development in ourselves of that knowledge without which we tell the people that neither they nor we can be exalted to glory and greatness.

“But,” says my brother, “we must tell the people they should be correct in the duties of life in its multiplied details.” Yes, this is good; this must be; but what is it that will correct all these matters? My neighbor kindly takes me by the hand today and says, “Brother Lyman, you can walk in this, that, or the other direction, it is safe.” It may be ground that I have not explored and do not understand, and I feel that his direction and instruction are a blessing to me. So is that a blessing which shall lead and guide the people until the “day shall dawn, and the day star shall arise in their hearts,” whether it be the kindly instruction of teachers who live in their midst, and with whom they meet and associate from time to time, or whether it be the suggestions of the written history of those who have long since passed away, it makes no difference. The history or record contained in the Bible presents an example of the right, and it is suggestive of right to those who read it, and upon the same principle that what could be said to you by the living teacher is suggestive of the truth.

Now, this appears to be what we need; we want to have understanding developed within us. Well, what is it? Perhaps if I were to describe my notions and views of things, it would not be the same as if described by some other man. One of the ancient apostles spoke of understanding in such a way that we can judge something of what his views were in regard to it. Said he, “We know that Jesus has come.” It was a great question in New Testament times among the immediate successors of Jesus—“Has Jesus come, or has he not?” “Has Jesus been and died, or is it an imposture?” the same as it is about the Saints now—“Is this the work of God or is it an imposture?” Well, now, says the apostle, “When that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding to determine between those that serve God and those who do not.” This is what we want; we want understanding, that we may know for ourselves that this is the work of God. Why? Until this is developed within us there is a chance for uncertainty to hang around and cling to us, and a possibility that our feet may be moved from the path of rectitude and truth. We may be like men whom I have seen that have traveled for a score of years with, and have labored in the Church, and have suffered—that is, about as far as men have suffered who have not died—and then, after the expiration of this time, we find them floating off to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south. “Why, good brother, what is the matter? I did not believe you would ever have left the Church.” “Ah!” said he, “I have not found it what it was said to be.” Such individuals have not understanding developed within them; they do not know that this is the work of God. The apostle in ancient times knew that Jesus had come, because of the gift of understanding by which he was able to determine for himself. It is this understanding that, when developed in the mind or soul of a man, sets aside all uncertainty and silences all doubt. Uncertainty departs from the mind at once, and the soul settles in unbroken, undisturbed tranquility and repose, so far as the nature of the work in which it is engaged is concerned, and the language of that soul is, “I know that this is the work of God.”

Now we, as the ministers of God, called from among the people to labor among them, should remember all the time, that it is our first great duty to learn ourselves, to obtain knowledge and understanding ourselves, and then to use all the judgment and understanding with which God may favor and bless us, to enlighten the people and to lead them onward.

But, says one, the people have been taught for years, and they have not yet learned; when will they learn? I will tell you. When they have been taught long enough they will learn. How? Just as you and I when we went to school. We had to study our lessons until we could master them, and then that labor was completed.

I am glad of this continuous principle that seems to mark the character of the work of God. If we do not learn in two, five, ten, twenty, or thirty years the truth that would make us free, still the opportunity is open, still the chance is afforded us to learn and to mend our crooked ways. This is why I love the Gospel; this is what first fixed a deep and abiding regard for it in my affections—the mercy that was in it, the kind for– bearance, that seemed to have a life like the life of the Almighty—eternal, that would never die.

Let us be encouraged to hope for such an increase of intelligence among the people—the fruit of the labors and ministrations of the ministry in their midst, as shall develop increasing perfection of action among the people, and by-and-by they will know enough of themselves to adopt such a policy as would enrich and save them temporally.

Well, says one, would they not get spiritually saved if they were not temporally saved? I do not know. I want to be saved, and I would like to be temporally and spiritually saved. If there should be any difference between them, I want them both. This is the salvation before us. If we had that spiritual salvation which, in the language of the Savior, constitutes eternal life—the knowledge of God, an understanding of the principles of salvation, if we had a sufficiency of divine wisdom, in that light would vanish all these dark clouds that exist around us as so many drawbacks to our prosperity and to our progress in the way of life. In that light we would be able to appreciate the value of doing right, above that of doing wrong. This is the way the matter appears to me, and I look forward to the time when the Saints will be all they should be, as Saints. I hope and labor for it, and there is no feeling in my soul but what reaches forward with hopeful confidence to a time when the last dark cloud shall be moved from the minds, not of everybody, but of the Saints with whom our labors in this work begun, and with whom we have been associated the last thirty years of our lives; of the Saints with whom we have endured toil, with whom we have been driven, and in whose fate and fortunes we have shared. We expect it for them, we hope for it for them, and we labor for it for them. Will not you labor with us? We tell you that to know God is eternal life, which is simply repeating the truth declared by the Savior of the world; and while we impress this repeatedly, again and again, on your minds, and bring it to your attention, will not you unite with us in struggling for the acquisition of that knowledge for yourselves? Why, says one, can’t you get it for us? No; it is all I can do to get knowledge for myself. Well, but, says one, can’t you impart to us? I can do what I am doing this morning—making the best effort in my power, within the compass of my ability, to awaken such trains of thought and reflection in your minds as will lead you to seek after the truth, and seeking, find it. If what I have learned, if the little knowledge I possess should have enlightened any other mind than mine, or could be possessed by any other individual than me, without his action being required for its attainment, things would be different from what they are. Our Father has fixed it so that we might live, and find the elements of happiness and joy for ourselves; and when they were acquired, they would be ours to possess, fixed within, the treasure of our own souls, forever ours, constituting our happiness with all its eternal increase and greatness.

Let us wake up and feel that we are the children of God, and that as God’s children, the object of our being here is to find and realize within ourselves that development of our natures that we inherit from our Father and God, that will exalt us till we can be fit associates for Him, that between Him and ourselves there may exist all that wealth of harmony that will constitute the happiness of heaven, the bliss, and glory of the saved and sanctified.

Well, now, to acquire this, what is the labor before us? What is neces– sary? That we turn from evil. Well, how shall we know evil? Why our evils are pointed out continually, not only by the feeble dawnings of light within us, but by the light of that inspiration that burns in the hearts of the servants of God, making their comprehensions of truth reach incomparably beyond those who have not in such a way devoted themselves to the acquirement of knowledge. In that light our weaknesses and follies are brought to our understanding, that we may see them, and that seeing and comprehending we may go to work and regulate our actions so that when God blesses, aids, and strengthens us, we may acquire that knowledge that will exalt us above the influence of the ignorance that is around us.

Now, my brethren and sisters, having expressed these few thoughts, I hope that we may be able to go away from this Conference to our respective homes to live and labor in the great work of our Father, and that when the half-year shall have passed away, and we are again assembled in this capacity, that we may feel, and not only feel, but that it may be true, that we are a wiser and better people than today; and that we may entertain more truthful conceptions of God and the character of his work, and be acting in a manner better calculated to please Him and to secure His blessings upon us, than today.

That this may be our happy lot, and that God’s blessings may attend our every exertion for the development of Zion on the earth, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Nov. 15th, 1863.

The occasion of administering the Sacrament, the emblems of the death and sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is a suitable time for every Latter-day Saint to make the inquiry, why are we Latter-day Saints; and for making an examination of some of the reasons which have moved upon us to receive the doctrines of this Latter-day dispensation, thereby subjecting ourselves to the jeers, scoffs and ridicule of our former friends and acquaintances.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on the 6th of April, 1830, with six members, who had received baptism through the administration of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, the first elders of the Church. The cause of that organization is something we should consider when we inquire, why we are Latter-day Saints. At that time, as at present, there existed in the world a great variety of religious denominations, which were divided under general heads, and sub– divided into smaller divisions. Those who worship idols comprise probably more than one-half of the inhabitants of the earth; the followers of Mahomet, a very large portion of the remainder, perhaps one hundred and fifty millions of people. They receive the doctrines of the Arabian prophet. They discard idols, and follow the rules, precepts and ceremonies laid down in the Koran. They are subdivided into numerous sects. The portion of the world who acknowledge the Christian religion probably embraces a population of two hundred and fifty millions, the three main divisions of which are the Holy Catholic Church, or Church of Rome, the Greek Church, and the Protestant Churches. There are a great many subdivisions of the Protestant Churches, such as the Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and others. I will not undertake to enumerate them. I have heard it said that the number corresponds with the number of the beast spoken of by John in Revelation, who declares the number of the name of the beast to be 666.

In a debate, some years ago, between Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Disciples or Reform Baptists, and Bishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, on the Catholic religion, Mr. Campbell undertook to prove that the numeral letters that composed the name of the beast would answer to the name of the Catholic Church. Bishop Purcell made a very facetious reply, saying that he could find the same numeral letters in the name of Alexander Campbell, and could find in these numerals, he thought, the beast with a hump on his back.

Now, though all these sects professing Christianity differ on various points, there is one peculiarity belonging to the whole of them—they all unite in declaring that God has ceased to give revelation and that He has ceased to inspire men with the spirit of prophecy. While they are all united on this point, they are divided on other points, such, for instance, as the doctrine of Transubstantiation, or the belief entertained by the Catholics, that the bread and wine consecrated for the Sacrament become the actual body and blood of Christ. I suppose that tens of thousands of men have died on the field of battle endeavoring to settle this question by the sword. Another point of difference is in relation to the form of baptism, some contending that to dip the finger into a cup of water and sprinkle an infant will answer as well as for an adult to go down into the water and be immersed as the Savior was. Thousands of learned men have exhausted their ingenuity trying to determine whether a certain Greek word, from which the word baptism is derived, means to immerse, to sprinkle or to pour.

In consequence of these differences of opinion societies and churches have been organized, not one of them having knowledge enough to inquire of the Lord and get a revelation to decide the matter. And if anyone tried to think of it and proposed such a thing he would subject himself to the ridicule of the whole, for they say, “all these things are done away with.”

When Joseph Smith was about fourteen or fifteen years old, living in the Western part of the State of New York, there was a revival of religion, and the different sects in that portion of the State—principally Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists—preached the necessity of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance in order to be saved, declaring that unless men and women did this, and obtained what they termed, “a hope for the future,” they would be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, and there remain forever. I have heard men spend hours in endeavoring to explain how long this hell would last. It was frequently illustrated in this manner, “Suppose a bird could carry a drop of water from this planet to another, and be gone a year on the journey, and continue this until every drop of water on the earth was carried away, and then should take a particle of sand and go to another planet and be gone a thousand years, and carry one article of sand at a time until every particle of matter of which this globe is composed was carried away, that then this eternal punishment would have just commenced, and that the torture and pain there inflicted were so great that no mortal could conceive anything about it.” The general effort in their preaching was to scare men into the road to heaven by such descriptions of eternal punishment. When eloquent men deliver such discourses they produce, especially upon ignorant people, more or less agitation, and when this is pretty general it is called a revival of religion. But when the excitement subsides and the converts have obtained what is termed “a hope,” then the sects who may have united in bringing about such results begin to scramble to secure the converts. It was so at the time to which I have referred in western New York. The Baptists wanted their share, and the Methodists and Presbyterians theirs; and the scramble ended in a very unpleasant and unchristian state of feeling.

Joseph Smith had attended these meetings, and when this result was reached he saw clearly that something was wrong. He had read the Bible and had found that passage in James which says, “If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not,” and taking this literally, he went humbly before the Lord and inquired of Him, and the Lord answered his prayer, and revealed to Joseph, by the ministration of angels, the true condition of the religious world. When the holy angel appeared, Joseph inquired which of all these denominations was right and which he should join, and was told they were all wrong—they had all gone astray, transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances and broken the everlasting covenant, and that the Lord was about to restore the priesthood and establish His Church, which would be the only true and living Church on the face of the whole earth.

Joseph, feeling that to make known such a vision would be to subject himself to the ridicule of all around him, knew not what to do. But the vision was repeated several times, and in these repetitions he was instructed to communicate that which he had seen to his father. His father was not a member of any church, but was a man of exemplary life. His mother and bro. Hyrum were members of the Presbyterian church. Joseph communicated what he had seen to his father, who believed his testimony, and told him to observe the instructions that had been given him.

These visits led, in a short time, to the bringing forth of the record known as the Book of Mormon, which contained the fullness of the Gospel as it had been preached by the Savior and his apostles to the inhabitants of this land; also a history of the falling away of the people who dwelt on this continent and the dealings of God with them.

A great many of us can recollect that when we read the Bible in our young days it was like a sealed book; and we were taught, and the sentiment had been impressed upon us, that its contents had a two or threefold spiritual meaning, and that it required a man who had studied divinity to explain these hidden meanings. Yet we found in the New Testament that “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” When we read the Book of Mormon it was a key to unlock the scriptures to our understandings; while perusing its pages, light burst upon our minds, and in this way the Book of Mormon revealed to us the light of the Gospel which before had seemed obscure.

The Gospel has connected with it certain ordinances, such for instance as the ordinance of baptism. Who has authority to administer this ordinance?

If we make the inquiry among the sects, the Baptists will say, “We have.” Where did you get it? “One Peter Waldo, a merchant, translated the four gospels and he established a church.” Where did he get his authority? “Why, some say he hired a monk to translate the gospels.” Where did the monk get his priesthood and authority to administer? “I think it must have come down through the church of Rome, if the church of Rome had authority.” When these reformers came out from it they were cut off and denounced as apostates, and if the priesthood they received came from the church of Rome, of course a stream cannot rise higher than its fountain, hence if the Romish church had the authority of the priesthood to give them she had the power to take it away. The question therefore answers itself. If there were any authority at all it was in the Romish church, yet these apostates from her united in denouncing her as the mother of harlots. It is clear enough, therefore, that they were all in darkness, and that none of them had revelations from God but were depending upon forms of godliness without the power for the support of their several religions, however holy they might call them. The result of this universal darkness and apostasy was that God had to reveal the priesthood anew, and through the administration of holy angels he gave authority to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, to baptize each other and to baptize, confirm and ordain others and to preach and administer the Gospel to this generation. This authority was not derived from the church of Rome or any other organization, but was given by special and direct revelation from Heaven.

It was no sooner noised abroad that Joseph Smith was preaching the Gospel in its purity and administering its ordinances than a howl went up from all the world that he was an impostor, an ignorant fellow, a man without education, and the Book of Mormon was denounced as ungrammatical. An argument was raised that if it had been translated by the gift and power of God it would have been strictly grammatical. Now so far as grammar is concerned we have King James’ Bible before us which was translated two hundred and fifty years ago, by a large number of the most learned men that could be found in Great Britain, and it was put into the best language of that time; but since that day the English language has undergone so many changes and improvements that societies have been formed in various countries for the express purpose of retranslating the Bible so as to make it in accordance with the modern usages of our language. When the Lord reveals anything to men He reveals it in language that accords with their own. If any or you were to converse with an angel, and you used strictly grammatical language he would do the same. But if you used two negatives in a sentence the heavenly messenger would use language to correspond with your understanding, and this very objection to the Book of Mormon is an evidence in its favor.

It has been claimed that a Presbyterian minister, named Solomon Spaulding, wrote the Book of Mormon; but the very language and style of the book are abundant evidence that it never was written by a learned man and that it never was written by a man who designed to make a romance or novel. It is very well known to hundreds and thousands that this statement in relation to Solomon Spaulding is entirely false, and that no such man ever had any acquaintance with Joseph Smith. It is also known to hundreds that the Book of Mormon was written by Oliver Cowdery, word for word as dictated by Joseph Smith, and that the original copy of that work was in Cowdery’s handwriting.

When Joseph Smith commenced to bear testimony to the things of the kingdom and to tell the people to repent of their sins and put away their hypocrisy and corruption, and to be baptized for the remission of their sins and receive the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost fell on them who obeyed, and bore testimony to them that they had received the truth. And thousands of the Elders have testified throughout the earth that they knew this was the work of God, for God had revealed it unto them; and they have declared that all who would humble themselves before the Lord and obey the principles of the Gospel, though they might subject themselves to the jeers and scoffs of those around them, and suffer persecution at the hands of mobs, would receive a testimony from God that this was His work.

The Elders, in bearing this testimony, have received anything but encouraging treatment. They have been mobbed, stoned, daubed with tar and feathers, driven from place to place and persecuted in every way. The pulpit and the press have teemed with abuse against them, and the whole Christian world has appeared to be anxious to destroy the “Mormons” as they are called. Elder Parley P. Pratt, before receiving the Gospel, was a minister of the Reformed Baptist, or Campbellite, Church in Ohio. This sect had a brick meetinghouse in Mentor, Geauga, now Lake Co. The people who owned this house had prided themselves on their great liberality, they would give everybody a chance to preach. Bro. Pratt, wishing to preach to them went there but found the door shut against him, and the congregation assembled outside. He preached on the door step. Quite a number of his former Christian brethren had gone to a neighboring grocery and qualified the inner man with something stimulating, and having supplied themselves with eggs, and procured a drum and fife they marched backwards and forwards in front of the speaker, throwing their eggs at him until their supply—five dozen—was exhausted. Elder Pratt kept on preaching and bearing testimony of the truth of the Gospel. Among those present who seemed to enjoy the scene was a Campbellite, a grave looking deacon, to whom a young man, a stranger, who happened to be present said, “Is this the way you worship God in this country?” “Oh, no Sir!” answered the deacon, “that man is a ‘Mormon.’” The stranger then remarked, “his talk is very reasonable.” “Yes,” said the old gentleman, “but he is a ‘Mormon,’ and we do not intend that he shall preach here.” “He appears very cool,” remarked the stranger. “Yes,” said the deacon, “he is used to it, he has been in such scrapes before.”

This circumstance illustrates the manner in which the Elders were received when they went forth to preach the Gospel, and it required the testimony of the Holy Spirit, a strong sense of duty and revelation from the Almighty to stir them up to go forth under such circumstances. Not only did this persecution extend to those who preached the Gospel, but to all believers, for, although the Saints were industrious, peaceable and virtuous, every kind of falsehood was told against them, their houses were torn down, their property destroyed and every species of injustice and cruelty was heaped upon them.

Our labors in these valleys will prove that we are an industrious people. When we came here we had to make the roads into the country and to bring all our supplies for 1200 or 1400 miles. We labored in this desert country, from which the Heavens withheld rain, and yet we had to cultivate the earth. Now, visitors exclaim, “what an industrious people you are!” We were always so. When we settled in the state of Missouri we made the prairie blossom like the rose. But our enemies lied about us and published scandal concerning us, although we were law-abiding. There was not a solitary man in the county of Jackson, who held office, who was a “Mormon,” yet there was never a lawsuit or complaint against the Latter-day Saints up to the time the mobs in Jackson County broke loose upon us and drove us away and robbed us of our homes; and when the mob published their manifesto, to which the whole of them placed their names, they declared that the civil law gave them no hold of “this people, who profess to heal their sick with holy oil.” The Apostle James says, “if any are sick, let them send for the Elders, who shall anoint them with oil, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” The Latter-day Saints believed and practiced this, and this was urged as a reason for driving us from our homes, tearing down our houses, tarring and feathering the bishops and leading men, whipping the Elders, destroying their property, and sending them forth, outcasts, into the world. This puts me in mind of the old Quaker, who was very particular about taking life. He was very much annoyed at a dog that came into his store, but not wishing to kill him, he said, “I’ll not kill thee, but I’ll give thee a bad name,” so he turned him out, at the same time crying, “bad dog, bad dog!” Somebody hearing this, thought the Quaker said, “mad dog,” and shot him. After they had turned us out they gave us a bad name.

These circumstances have a tendency to impress deeply upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints a determination to know why they are such. The God of heaven has revealed to us that this is His work. He has implanted in the hearts of the faithful a living, burning, eternal testimony that this is the only way of salvation, and that all things else are comparatively worthless.

Why have we penetrated these mountains? To establish ourselves here that we might enjoy religious liberty. We have sacrificed more for religious liberty than any set of men in this generation and we are here for this purpose. And in every act of our lives we should do our best to preserve unchanged, and unalloyed the pure faith of the everlasting Gospel which God has revealed to us for our salvation.

I bear testimony that these things are true, and that God did inspire His servant Joseph Smith and the Elders of Israel to lay the foundation of the only true Church upon the face of the earth, and did inspire His servant Brigham Young to lead forth the Saints to build up Zion in the chambers of the mountains in these last days—and this is the path to celestial glory. Oh, but, says one, “Are you going to send everybody who does not believe in ‘Mormonism’ to that burning lake you were talking about?” No, we are not, we expect that God will deal with every man according to his works, whether good or evil; but we testify that no man can ever attain to the fullness of the blessings of celestial glory without obeying the ordinances which God has revealed to the Latter-day Saints. But there is a glory of the sun, and of the moon and of the stars, and one star differeth from another star in glory; so it is in the eternal worlds; in the great diversity of glories there is a place for all in accordance with their works, knowledge and understanding. But when we have come to a knowledge of the truth, if we fall therefrom our position is worse than if we had never obeyed it, hence the necessity of continued zeal on our part to fulfil the great duties required of us that we may be prepared for exaltation in the kingdom of God, which may God grant us in the name of Jesus. Amen.