Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 27, 1862.

I have been highly gratified at the few remarks I have heard this morning from the brethren who are about to leave us to fulfil their Missions. They have a great deal of talk in them, and they will soon be in their fields of labor where they can free their minds.

Brother George Sims’ remarks created considerable empty levity. I like to be pleased myself; I like to be filled with joy, but if I cannot be filled with joy and gladness that is full of meat and marrow, or, in other words, full of meaning and sense, I would rather retain my gravity.

There is but one step between life and death, between faithfulness and apostasy, between the sublime and the ridiculous. We preach the Gospel and gather the Saints, but are all Saints when they are gathered? No, we gather the goats with the sheep. We gather people here, and then the most trifling incidents that may occur in their lives, contrary to their wishes, will turn them aside, and they will forsake their religion and their God. I am sorry for this.

Never give way to vain laughter. I have seldom laughed aloud for twenty or thirty years without regretting it, and I always blush for those who laugh aloud without meaning.

I am often full of joy and gladness, and were I to give way to the promptings of my nature at such times, it would lead to unreasonable levity which would be a source of mortification and sorrow to me. I noticed that the brethren gave way to that laugh which I choose not to hear. I hope they will accept of this caution, and watch, govern, control and subdue their passions. I am satisfied that those persons who stamp, clap hands, whistle, and make other noisy and boisterous demonstrations in the theaters so untimed and uncalled for, have but little sense, and know not the difference between a happy smile of satisfaction to cheer the countenance of a friend, or a contemptuous sneer that brings the curses of man upon man.

I am rejoiced, my brethren, when I hear the Elders of Israel speak as they did this morning. I care little for a man’s language, if his spirit proves to me that he has the love of God within him. Brother Erastus Snow remarked that the time would come when the law of God would be written on the hearts of the people. A Pharisee and a lawyer asked Jesus Christ a question, tempting him, saying, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” When we can keep these two commandments, do you not think that the law of God will be written in our hearts? Yes, and it will never be erased. When I have a manifestation, through the brethren that speak, that the love of God is planted in their souls, that God rules and reigns in their affections, I care not what language they make use of to express their ideas, there is joy, peace, and solid satisfaction in listening to the words of their mouths.

Brother Erastus Snow has been preaching since he was fifteen years of age, and has been a faithful Minister to preach the Gospel from that day to this, and yet he is troubled with the same diffidence that others are troubled with. When we look upon the human face we look upon the image of our Father and God; there is a divinity in each person male and female; there is the heavenly, there is the divine and with this is amalgamated the human, the earthly, the weaker portions of our nature, and it is the human that shrinks in the presence of the divine, and this accounts for our manfearing spirit, and it is all there is of it. Many public lecturers, by faithful application in their studies and constant practice in public speaking, have overcome to a great degree what is usually called a manfearing spirit.

I am now looking upon beings who are expressly created to inhabit the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. They are the children of God, the brethren and sisters of Jesus Christ, of the same family and descent. My best efforts are too feeble to portray before you the worth of the life we now possess. Probably there is not a single person upon the earth that properly magnifies his life to the fullest extent, or, as it was designed he should, to prepare him to dwell with God and holy angels. Many passages of Scripture can be produced showing how the ancients complained of the folly and wickedness of mankind, but they never undervalued life. The first life must be magnified as a preparatory step to the enjoyment of the second. Those immortal and glorified beings that inherit higher spheres understood this principle, have magnified their mortal existence and passed on to immortality, to possess exaltations in eternal life. We ought not to speak lightly of and undervalue the life we now enjoy, but so dispose of each passing day that the hours and minutes are spent in doing good, or at least doing no harm, in making ourselves useful, in improving our talents and abilities to do more good, cultivating the principle of kindness to every being pertaining to our earthly sphere, learning their uses and how to apply them to produce the greatest possible amount of good; learning to conduct ourselves towards our families and friends in a way to win the love and confidence of the good, and overcome every ungovernable passion by a constant practice of cool judgment and deliberate thoughts.

I feel continually to say God bless the people. God bless the brethren who go on Missions to preach the Gospel, and those who are already in their fields of labor. I desire to see righteousness prevail, this is my whole delight; I have no other business on hand; I wish to have no other. I have no other joy or affection for anything, only the perfection of the kingdom of God, and to see righteousness reign triumphantly. I delight to see my brethren and sisters live in a way to promote that life which will never end. Instead of preparing to die, prepare to live in the midst of all the exaltations of the Gods. I do not mean to leave this world, God being my helper, until sin and iniquity are banished from it, and the reign of everlasting righteousness is introduced, and Jesus Christ comes and reigns king of nations as he does king of Saints, and the earth with all the Saints that dwell upon it are brought into the presence of the Father and Son, there to dwell forever.

God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1862.

The remarks of Elder Orson Pratt are founded upon Constitutional principles. I have long been aware that he was a profound mathematician, but I was not aware that he was so thoroughly read in Constitutional law, as his remarks this forenoon so fully evidence.

I went to Washington with Elder John Taylor in 1856; we were the bearers of the Constitution of Deseret, adopted by the unanimous vote of the whole people, and a memorial to the great men of the nation for the admission of Deseret into the union of States upon an equal footing with the original States.

When we arrived at the capitol we found the gates closed against our admission by the acts of a national convention, pledging the great and rising party of the country to united opposition to our admission in consequence of an item of our religious faith being objectionable. Notwithstanding this flat refusal before we had asked, we conferred with many of the principal men of the nation—of all parties by whom it was generally conceded we had a constitutional right to admission, and that we had manifested that energy, perseverance and intelligence in exploring, settling, and subduing this country, which clearly proved that we were capable of self-government, and able to sustain ourselves as a State. We had organized a civilized community, framed a Constitution, republican in form, and unexceptionable in principle and called into order an efficient government. But, said Congressmen, there is an objection, and although we ought not to name it, the religious views of your people are objectionable to the great body of the American people—Constitutionally this is no objection, but politically it is an impassable barrier. For any member to vote for the admission of Deseret, or advocate it would entail upon himself, what we all dread, a political grave. “You must know, yourselves, you cannot help but know,” said Senator Douglas, “that there is an awful prejudice against you—ahem! ahem! an insurmountable objection. We have no right to talk of religious tests or institutions—ahem! ahem! but I know of but one objection; your peculiar religion, your domestic institutions!”

Well might Congressmen use interjections while trembling between the influence of priestcraft, and a solemn oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully perform those duties required by it.

The Constitution declares, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prevent the free exercise thereof.” “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States.”

General Hall, of Missouri, who was at that time somewhat distinguished for his prowess in knocking down the doorkeeper of the Democratic National Convention, at Cincinnati, for refusing admittance to the delegation of the Benton Wing of the Missouri Democracy, raised a new and somewhat novel objection to our admission while canvassing the subject with a company of gentlemen at the National Hotel in Washington, he declared it would never do to admit Deseret, for it would recognize polygamy, and that would ruin all the houses of ill fame in the country, in a short time. Why, said he, no woman would ever consent to become a prostitute if she could have a husband, who would honor and protect her, and maintain and educate her children; and under this new arrangement every woman could obtain such a husband and protector, and every house of assignation would be closed, and the gentlemen of the country undone.

I went on my Mission to Washington in full faith to ask for the admission of Deseret, never asking myself the question whether I would accomplish it or not, striving to believe with all the power and faith I could command, that we would accomplish our Mission.

I sometimes sat in the gallery of the House of Representatives and heard the members wrangle, and asked myself if it was possible that the Lord wished us to join hands with such unhallowed confusion and political chicanery. After my return home, some of the brethren asked me how much faith I had that we should be admitted. I concluded my faith had been like that of a certain pious lady, whose minister called upon her and inquired concerning her religious welfare. She replied that she was well satisfied with her spiritual progression, but in her temporal welfare she was not equally prosperous. She was destitute of bread and had nothing to sustain life. The minister kindly told her to exercise faith and she could make stones into bread. She thanked him for his timely advice, she had never thought of that, and accordingly went and procured some stones of suitable size for loaves of bread, washed them, put them in pans, heated her oven in which she placed them, closed the door, exclaimed, “I have firm faith, that when these stones come out of the oven they will be good bread.” After patiently waiting the proper time, she opened the oven door and looked anxiously in; “There!” she declared, they are stones yet, and I knew they would be all the time.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1862.

I wish to inform all the inhabitants of the Territory of Utah, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, black and white, red, copper-colored, and yellow, that, in organizing a State Government, we shall not infringe in the least upon the Constitution of our country, upon any principle contained in the Declaration of Independence, nor upon any constitutional law that has been enacted by the Congress of the United States. Will this step bring upon us the disapprobation of the Government of the United States? That is not for me to say; it will be as God may direct.

As the kingdom of God rises and advances upon the earth, so will the power of Satan increase to impede its progress until God shall purge that power from the earth, and so give the Saints the victory, that they can bear off his kingdom triumphantly in spite of the powers of Satan and wicked men. But so far as the power of Satan extends, just so far will be seen his operations to overthrow all righteousness. There is nothing that would so soon weaken my hope and discourage me as to see this people in full fellowship with the world, and receive no more persecution from them because they are one with them. In such an event, we might bid farewell to the Holy Priesthood with all its blessings, privileges and aids to exaltations, principalities, and powers in the eternities of the Gods.

I can say with confidence, if we will live so as to enjoy the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ to ourselves day by day, overcoming every passion, feeling and desire that has been sown in our nature through the fall, overcoming all that is contrary to the law of Heaven and the principles of salvation that is purchased by Jesus Christ for us, which is the plan God has devised to exalt the human family to immortality and eternal lives, if we will let that Spirit and power of God reign within us; we shall never be afflicted more than we can bear, and that is as far as I can promise.

We have seen the power and wisdom that have been displayed by our enemies since we have been in these mountains, which has all amounted to but little toward accomplishing what they desired. No more will be accomplished than has been.

Brother Orson Pratt’s remarks on the powers of the Congress of the United States are strictly correct. It is well known that the Congress of the United States has no power granted in the Constitution to organize a Territorial Government, and every power that is not named in the Constitution for Congress to act upon is reserved to the people. But Congress assumes powers that does not belong to it, and if it continues to do so, soon the last vestige of the free, independent, Republican and Democratic Government we have enjoyed will be merged in a military despotism, if there is anything left.

Our Government is at present engaged in an expensive war. It has been supposed that the South would soon be subjugated, that they would yield the point and submit. They will not, and the war has scarcely commenced.

The slave States do not as yet appear to be whipped or conquered. Both North and South are in the hands of the Lord, and so are we.

Let us from this time strive more diligently to overcome our own evil passions. We may talk about Priesthood, about power and authority, about blessings and exaltations, about the kingdom of God upon the earth, about gathering the house of Israel, about redeeming Zion and enjoying its fulness, about preparing for the coming of the Son of Man and enjoying celestial glory with him, but all this is vain if we do not sanctify our– selves before God, and sanctify the Lord our God in our hearts. We wish you fully to comprehend this; and when you go from this Conference, we do not wish to hear of contentions. And as soon as Elders have wisdom sufficient to magnify their calling and Priesthood, we will give to every Branch, no matter how small the Ward, both a Bishop and a President.

It is our privilege and duty to sanctify our own hearts. Perhaps I have as much acknowledgment to make as anybody for sometimes suffering my feelings to be a little ruffled. I cannot say that I felt entirely free from vexations at remarks made, by one of the speakers this morning, upon the impurity of seeds in our Territory. Notwithstanding so much has been said upon that subject, there does not seem to be care enough in the heads of Israel to provide even for themselves, to say nothing about setting a proper example to the people. If it were left to such men, there never would be a grain of pure sugar cane seed in the country. Where is your care for Israel? You will preach the spiritual things of the kingdom, and let your bodies and the bodies of the people go into the grave. Before you preach to a starving man to arise and be baptized, first carry him some bread and wine; first unlock his prison house and let him go free. Is there a Bishop in this Territory that knows whether there is a particle of pure cabbage seed in the Territory, or in his Ward? Whether there is a bushel of pure buckwheat, or California barley? Whether there is a peck of clean, pure flaxseed, &c. Bishops, how much flaxseed is going to be sown in your respective Wards this season? “Don’t know.” How much wheat, oats, and barley? “Don’t know. I have a little speculation on hand, and I wish to provide for my own family, for the convenience and comfort of my own household, for this I esteem to be my first duty.”

There was a Bishop in Far West, who, as Trustee-in-Trust, held the property of the Church; no other man had the means he had to help the poor Saints. I tried to get my voice to his ears for days, and could not. At last I accosted him and said—“Bishop, what are you going to do toward helping the poor Saints out of the State of Missouri, as we agreed?” He was irritated in a moment. I supposed that he thought it was none of my business, but I knew that it was, and calculated to attend to it. He did not speak good naturedly, although naturally a mild-tempered man. At last he said, “I am going to take my family and leave the State, and the people may take care of themselves.” Many of our Bishops feel like that; they will plant their potatoes, take care of their calves and themselves, and the people may go to the devil for ought they care.

I, perhaps, ought not to find fault about such things; but why not my brethren of the Twelve take an interest in such matters, and not leave everything of that kind for me and my Counselors to attend to?

I ask the Agricultural and Manufacturing Society of this Territory, if they have one ounce of pure cabbage seed on hand, or know who has. It is doubtful whether an affirmative answer could be given to this question. But if you have a few excellent peaches, or a basket of choice apples to give them to eat, they will be as proud as a little boy with a new top, and boast long and loud about what nice things we have in this Territory. I cannot complain of the vigilance of the tasting committee, but what do they do for the benefit of the people? To eat the people’s fruit and praise them for raising it, calling them “beloved brethren, and won’t you bring us in a little more next fall?” &c., may be well enough, but what does this Society do? What do the Twelve and the First Presidency do in teaching this people to sustain themselves? We all take care of ourselves, do we not? Is that all? No. There is not a thing my eye is not upon, that will enhance the welfare of this people. Who imported the first carding machine to this country, and the only good ones that have been brought here? Who imported the nail machines, the paper machine, steam engines and other valuable machinery? I use everything I can rake and scrape together for the interest of this people. I only need a little food and a small amount of clothing, and as for the rest the people are welcome to it.

I wish the other brethren to look after the welfare of the people, as well as myself. I do not wish to again hear any of the leaders of Israel complain that there is not any pure sugarcane seed, flaxseed, cotton seed, &c., in the country, but I wish them to be fully informed as to where pure seeds of all kinds can be had, and as to what is going on among the people in every part of each Ward or district; and then I want to inform the Bishops, and direct their tongues to speak and their hands to act. I wish this particularly to apply to those who preside where the First Presidency do not go.

The Agricultural Society ought to make arrangements to have and keep on hand the best varieties of all kinds of garden seeds, the best varieties of fruits, of grain, and every useful product of the soil, that all may be able to procure the purest and best seeds, scions, fruit and shade trees, shrubbery, &c. Brother T. W. Ellerbeck and a few others have done considerable in introducing several valuable varieties of fruits and seeds.

Brother Lorenzo Snow says that the Lord will bless my brethren and sisters. He says that all the mules in the Territory cannot haul away the gold that is concealed in these mountains. Riches do not consist of gold and silver. It may be said that with them we can buy all the comforts we need for the body. That may be so under certain circumstances; still gold and silver are merely a convenient means of exchange. Earthly riches are concealed in the elements God has given to man, and the essence of wealth is power to organize from these elements every comfort and convenience of life for our sustenance here, and for eternal existence hereafter. The possession of all the gold and silver in the world would not satisfy the cravings of the immortal soul of man. The gift of the Holy Spirit of the Lord alone can produce a good, wholesome, contented mind. Instead of looking for gold and silver, look to the heavens and try to learn wisdom until you can organize the native elements for your benefit; then, and not until then, will you begin to possess the true riches. All the riches, wealth, glory and happiness that we shall ever possess in heaven will be possessed on and around this earth when it is brought up into the presence of God in a sanctified and glorified state; and the sanctified ones who enter through the gate and pass the sentinel into the New Jerusalem, and into the presence of the Father and the Son, are the ones who will inherit the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of God, for here is the eternity, the glory and the power. When we possess all things, it will be when we possess power to organize the native elements that fill the immensity of space, bringing forth and organizing, bringing forth and organizing, again and again, dealing out the providence of God, dictating, guiding, and directing the kingdoms that will be made forever and forever. This is eternal riches—it is eternal life.

“What, did Jesus mean, when he said, Lay up treasures in heaven, &c. What mortal ever went there to lay up treasures? Is there an apartment, a business house there, a Dr. and Cr. account, &c.?” Ask the Lord yourselves, what he meant by that expression, and if you have the Spirit of Christ, you will find out the truth. I think that the Savior referred particularly to laying up in pure and sanctified bodies, holy principles that belong to the heavens, until we are brought back into the presence of the Father, and we, with the earth upon which we stand, are cleansed and sanctified beyond the power of Satan.

I will now say that we wish to go on with the Temple this year; we shall also send out teams to bring home the poor, send Missionaries to the nations, &c., &c. If the hearts of this people are right, if they are filled with faith in God; if they act with an eye single to his glory and the building up of his kingdom on the earth, they will lock up their teams, secure their seed grain and farming utensils, will look and live for rain, for water in abundance to irrigate their lands, for sunshine, for day and night and everything, that will give us a fruitful season this coming summer. What will you do with the increase of your fields? Will you strew it to strangers? Some complain at the hand of Jehovah for giving them wheat. I have heard it said, “It is a curse to us; it annoys me to see so much wheat.” There never has been a land, from the days of Adam until now, that has been blessed more than this land has been blessed by our Father in heaven; and it will still be blessed more and more, if we are faithful and humble, and thankful to God for the wheat and the corn, the oats, the fruit, the vegetables, the cattle, and everything he bestows upon us, and try to use them for the building up of his kingdom on the earth.

There will be no lack of teams for doing our work, if we will go to with our mights to bring the poor Saints here and to build this Temple. There will be teams to bring us the rock from the quarries; and let the young men come and learn to cut stone. I wish to hurry the building of the Temple, for I would like to have it completed before we are called to more important duties.

God bless the righteous. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

I am constantly exercised in my desires for the welfare of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world. My whole interest is in this Church and for this people. I am proud of this people when they do right, I am proud of my wives and children when they honor their God and his Priesthood, and set a good example before all people. I am proud to see all the officers of this Church and kingdom lively members in the body of Christ. Brother Brigham has said that the living oracles or the revelations of the Holy Ghost should dwell in every man, and in every woman. We are a branch of the house of Israel, and the Priesthood we hold came from the Father, and we should be alive like a lively branch of a thrifty tree; for every branch that bringeth forth fruit the Father purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit; and every branch that bringeth not forth fruit he taketh away. It is necessary that every person should possess the Spirit of revelation, in order to understand and properly appreciate the teachings and instructions given to them by the living oracles of God on earth. Those who are not thus inspired need again to be taught the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Were we all thus inspired we should become one in Christ Jesus; and Jesus says, “Except ye are one ye are not mine.” As long as we are one, and every man doing his duty before God, we have no cause to fear anything the world can do against us; but if we are divided, it will be with us as it was with the people of God of old, he suffered their enemies to come upon them and overthrow them because of their sins. But there are good men and good women enough among this community to preserve it, and all the powers of hell combined cannot overthrow it. The power of God will preserve us, through our righteousness against any power that may come against us. It is easy for us to do right. Let us do right and stop doing anything wrong, cease tattling and lying, and trying to injure one another by bearing false witness against our neighbor. Let us guard ourselves against becoming prejudiced against an honest person, and strive to become honest, upright, and generous, doing as we would wish to be done by, for we are sons of God and heirs to his fulness. He has said to his children ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you. But we may ask as much as we please if our works do not correspond with our petitions. Let us be guided by the conclusions of one mind in all our great movements, operating constantly together on the square of righteousness and God will bless us forever. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

This is the place to give items of instruction to the people. I am satisfied that it is my duty to improve this opportunity, and should be very happy if I could speak with ease; if I could do so I should talk a great deal more than I do.

Ask a Bishop by what authority he is acting as a Bishop; “I suppose I am a Bishop according to the Priesthood.” By what Priesthood do you act as a Bishop? “I really cannot answer that question.” Are you a High Priest? “Yes.” Why do you so officiate? “Because I have been ordained to so officiate; the First Presidency ordained Bishop Hunter to ordain me a High Priest, and set me apart to be a Bishop in this district.” After a person is ordained a High Priest he then has authority to act in all the duties of the lesser Priesthood, when called upon by the proper authority so to do. Some of the Bishops understand their true position and some do not, for which reason a few remarks in addition to those I made this forenoon will, perhaps, not be amiss.

There is no retrograde movement in ordaining a High Priest to the office of a Bishop, for, properly speaking, he is set apart to act in that office. When we ordain a man to officiate in a branch of the Church as a Bishop, he does so according to the best of his knowledge; and now and then one believes that he has a right, when ordained as a Bishop, to officiate and preside over every temporal and spiritual interest in his district by virtue of his Bishopric; he believes that he ought to go into a Seventies’ Council in his Ward and preside because he is a Bishop: and under this impression he dictates, guides and directs all things in his district; he baptizes, confirms and administers the sacrament as a Bishop, performing, under this impression, every spiritual and temporal duty. Were we to inquire of the Bishops of this Church what duties are assigned to the Aaronic Priesthood they hold, and what are assigned to the Melchizedek, those who could answer correctly are in the minority. I am satisfied of this, for I have been placed in positions that made it necessary to propound questions to some of our most intelligent Bishops relating to misunderstandings and difficulties that have occurred in their districts touching their authority, when their answers convinced me that they knew little about it; perhaps from not having an opportunity of finding out, or, in a word, they have not so lived that the heavens have been opened to them to teach them so fully and effectually their duties that they need no man to teach them. The duties and powers of a Bishop cease the very moment he steps over the Aaronic Priesthood, which is to officiate in temporal things; when he passes this he immediately begins to officiate by the authority and power of the Mel– chizedek Priesthood, though he may not know it.

We have scores of branches of this Church in different parts of this country, and had we better now place officers, helps and governments in these branches, or wait till the people come to understanding, and learn to appreciate and honor such appointments? It is chiefly because of the ignorance of the people that we often concentrate in one man these different offices and callings, but when the people are sufficiently informed and have advanced further in the knowledge of the truth, it will not be so, but every branch will have its full quota of officers—a Patriarch, President, Bishop, High Council, and all officers that are necessary for the work of the Ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ. Until the people can receive and honor these helps and governments, and be benefited by them, the different offices will be concentrated in as few men as possible, for men will contend for power, and as to which shall be the greatest, until they are better informed.

If the people fully understood and would observe the relationship these offices have to each other, there would never be a word of altercation. In this city we have no altercation about authorities. We but seldom get up a trouble for a High Council case. When the people come to sufficient understanding, we shall not put the onerous task upon one man to act both as President and Bishop, but we will give you a full organization of helps, governments, &c.; but at present we shall take a course to confine the offices of the Church in such a manner as to give the least cause for contention and trouble. There are men who have a contentious disposition; they will contend against a Bishop, a Magistrate, a Judge, or any man holding an office; in short, they wish to destroy every power in Heaven and on earth that they do not hold themselves. This is the spirit of Satan that was made so visibly manifest in Heaven and which proved his overthrow, and he now afflicts this people with it; he wants to dictate and rule every principle and power that leads to exaltation and eternal life, and those whom he influences wish to walk underfoot every person who stands in authority over them.

I now wish to say a few words about assisting the mail and telegraph companies. It has been asked, “Shall we assist these companies? Shall they be supplied with grain and that help which is necessary to facilitate the expeditious and safe carrying of the mail?” I say, yes. Shall the telegraph company receive favors at our hands? Yes. I do not know of two greater temporal blessings of the kind that can be bestowed upon this people. If we happen to lay in bed a little later than usual, by the aid of the telegraph wires we can read the news of the morning from Washington and New York; and by-and-by we may be favored with the news of yesterday from London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, and all the principal cities in the old world. We are among the people of this world; our bodies are of the earth, and our spirits are like the spirits of other people and from the same source, only we are trying to establish the kingdom of God on earth, to introduce righteousness, and prepare the people for the reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. One man says, “I have agreed to do thus and so.” Then go and do it. Fulfill your contracts and sacredly keep your word.

What should be the course of this people in these matters? Let them act by the counsel of the men who understand such things better than they do. When I say supply so much labor, or so much grain, or do so much hauling, you will be justified, otherwise you will not. If I might dictate this matter and get my pay for it, I would fill this whole mail route with “Mormon” boys who would labor faithfully, conduct honorably, and see that the mails were carried safely and promptly. If it were left to me, I would fill this whole route, as we would have done a few years ago if the contract had not been unjustly taken from us, with a line of conveyances, wherein men might sleep by day or by night in perfect safety as to their persons and property; and if a pocket book dropped out of a pocket it would be as safe as though it were under lock and key, so far as its being stolen is concerned. How is it now?

If A, B, and C say they will begin to sell whiskey, then if it is right for them to sell whiskey in the streets of this city, it is right for me. Whiskey is useful in making vinegar, and we need it for cutting camphor gum, for medicine, washings, &c., but is it necessary to keep a whiskey shop? No. And if it is right for one man to keep a whiskey shop, it is right for another, until all become whiskey peddlers and whiskey drinkers, and all go to the devil together. It does not require much illumination of mind to comprehend that unless the selling of spirituous liquors is managed by proper persons, it will result in the ruination of many of the community. So with the selling and disposing of our produce to outside interests; for those who expend their means and labor in a way that does not enrich and build up Zion will apostatize and go out of this kingdom, sooner or later. When you are appointed to haul grain here or there, you will feel justified. Or, if you wish to drive a train, or to go as a guard on the mail route, or to attend to this or that, and the counsel is yes, go, and be honest and upright before God and man and deal justly with everybody, and if you do not so conduct, you will be brought home and dealt with, then, if you go in this way, you will be justified. Whatever is done let it be done by counsel and common consent; then we can be paid for our labor and our produce; wealth will increase around us, which we can put to use in gathering home the poor Saints from all nations by hundreds and by thousands. In the course the people have taken they will make themselves poor, while we might be rich. I feel very friendly towards Mr. Street and many others connected with the telegraph line. They have treated this community as gentlemen will. I have rendered them some assistance, and am ready to render them more; and they have been very accommodating to us. The Overland Mail company brings our letters, books, magazines, &c., and is as great an accommodation as can well be until we have a railroad through here, which I hope we shall have ere long, if it is right. They should be assisted, and that by the Counsel of the Kingdom of God in these mountains; and let it be done by common consent, or no longer say that we are one with the interests of this kingdom. If you are one with the vine, you are one with the main branch; if you are not thus one, you will be severed from the vine and will wither and die.

May the Lord bless the Latter-day Saints, is my prayer all the time. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

Without revelation direct from heaven, it is impossible for any person to fully understand the plan of salvation. We often hear it said that the living oracles must be in the Church, in order that the kingdom of God may be established and prosper on the earth. I will give another version of this sentiment. I say that the living oracles of God, or the Spirit of revelation must be in each and every individual, to know the plan of salvation and keep in the path that leads them to the presence of God.

How true is the text that brother George A. Smith has quoted. There are thousands of our Elders who ought now to be teachers, and to know enough to commence the kingdom of God on the earth, and establish it, and continue to lead, guide, and direct it, leading the people directly through the gate into the celestial kingdom of our Father and God, and yet they need to be taught like children.

From what has been remarked it appears that, in some instances, the President and the Bishop of a Branch infringe upon the rights of each other, perhaps honestly; and they think that they possess this power and that authority, and thereby contention arises in the midst of this people, creating alienation of feeling and apostasy. What a pity it is that such circumstances should exist; they create sincere regret in the soul of every person who desires to see the kingdom of God prosper on the earth.

The spiritual and the temporal cannot be separated, and, in the economy of the Framer of the Universe, are not designed to be. For example, were we a congregation who had not heard the plan of salvation and knew nothing of the kingdom of God upon earth, and were listening patiently to a stranger opening the plan of salvation to us, our hearts would be touched by the fire in the speaker, the eyes of our understandings would be opened, and we would begin to comprehend, admire, and rejoice in the truth. This is a spiritual work, an internal work, a work upon the heart and affections. This is what we call spiritual impressions. The speaker has portrayed before our minds the beauties of the kingdom of God on earth so rationally, and in a manner so congenial to the feelings of all honest persons, that they are all influenced to believe the Gospel. What is the next step? You next ask the preacher to baptize you, and here you commence a temporal labor with both body and spirit. The preacher has been laboring with his body, exercising his lungs, and his whole spiritual and temporal system, and this labor produces a spiritual and temporal benefit on those who believe and practice his teachings. It is so extremely nice a point to draw the line of demarcation, between the temporal and spiritual acts of man, that it is impossible to separate the two. There is a class of men who do not believe anything in religion to be temporal; they are baptized in their hearts, partake of the sacrament in their hearts, preach in their hearts, and worship the Lord in their hearts, while their bodies are constantly scrambling after the dimes. To be baptized, change your wet clothes for dry ones, go to meeting to worship the Lord, and to bring the body into subjection to the will of Christ, is all a temporal labor aided by the Divine Spirit.

I will say a few words with regard to a Bishop. Except we find a literal descendant of Aaron, a man has to be ordained to the High Priesthood to administer as did Aaron and his sons. Suppose we then place the same man also as a President in a Branch, how are we going to divide his duties and labors? I said a few words in this subject last year, and can say more about it. Can the Bishop baptize the people, according to his Bishopric? He can. When the people he has baptized assemble for confirmation, can he confirm them? He cannot, under the power of his Bishopric; but as he has been ordained to the office of a High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, to prepare him to act in the office of a Bishop in the Priesthood of Aaron, when he has baptized the people under the authority of his Bishopric, he has a right as a High Priest to confirm them into the Church by the laying on of hands. Bishops begin a contention in their Branch, where they operate in their calling, when they amalgamate with their Bishop’s office the office of the High Priesthood, when they try to bring the authority of the High Priesthood in the kingdom of God down to the capacity of the Priesthood that belongs to the office of an acting Bishop; here they make a grave mistake, and fall into perplexing errors.

What are the duties of a President and a Bishop? We will first notice a duty that belongs to a President. For instance, he wishes a comfortable place prepared for the people to meet in, and he calls on the Bishop to marshal his forces to gather the material to build a house, and the house is prepared for the comfort and accommodation of all. In this instance you observe the duty and office of a Bishop is attended to. In his capacity the Bishop knows nobody only as a member of the kingdom of God, and in the performance of this duty he calls upon the President and everyone else to aid in accomplishing the wishes of the President, to go to the canyon to get out timber, to quarry rock, make adobies, &c., &c., for everybody is entitled to pay Tithing. When the house is put up according to the President’s direction, then the President calls on the Bishop to see that it is well seated, lighted, and warmed, for the convenience and comfort of the congregation. Then in like manner he sees that the sacrament is prepared and administered, for it is the right, and privilege, and duty of the President to baptize, and confirm, and administer the sacrament, and do all things for the spiritual building up of the kingdom of God; and also it is the right of the Bishop to preach, baptize, and administer the sacrament.

On Monday morning the Bishop calls upon the President and everybody it concerns, to send their Tithing to the General Tithing Office. The President, who officiates as presiding officer on Sunday, is as subject to the Bishop on Monday as anybody else. My Bishop has just as good a right to come to my house and demand of me my Tithing, as he has to demand it of any other person in his ward, also to inquire into the state of my family, whether I attend to my prayers, whether I have contention with my neighbors, &c., in his capacity as a Bishop.

So these callings and Priesthoods are interwoven one with another, for the convenience and furtherance of the kingdom of God, in the absence of a literal descendant of Aaron. A Bishop sometimes officiates as a High Priest, and sometimes as a Bishop. In his High Priesthood he can act, when called upon so to do by the proper authority in every calling in the Church, except that of an Apostle; there are still keys and powers that can be conferred upon him; but when a man is ordained to the office of an Apostle, he is ordained to the fullest extent a man can be on earth.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1862.

Instead of giving a text to be dwelt upon by those who may address us during this Conference, as I have done on some occasions, I say to the Elders, speak upon such subjects as may be in your minds. Open your mouths, and have faith that God will fill them with useful and instructive information, that all who hear may be blessed and built up in the strength of God. If we meet as we should, conduct ourselves as we should while we are assembled, and live as we should when we are separated, our meetings will certainly advance the kingdom of God on the earth.

As formerly, I present myself before you this morning in the capacity Providence has led me to occupy, acknowledged and sustained by you as the dictator, counselor, and adviser of the people of God. Hundreds and thousands of the Latter-day Saints exercise faith for me, and pray for me and my Counselors, and for the Twelve Apostles and others who are leaders and dictators in this Church and kingdom, but neglect to pray for themselves. They apparently have more faith for me than they have for themselves. Apparently, they will be more fervent in spirit while in prayer before God for the leaders of this people, than they will be for themselves. They wish their leaders to be far more holy, to be filled with more light, more intelligence, more faith, more compassion, more charity, more love, more humility than they themselves are. They wish their leaders to be filled with the patience of Job and the integrity of the angels, while they themselves neglect to attain to all this fulness. They do not sufficiently control themselves; they give way too much to passion and the idle follies of life.

I seek as diligently as you do that the leaders of this people may be and do precisely as God wishes them to. I pray as fervently as you do that the will of God may be done on the earth as it is in heaven, and that we may be molded and fashioned in all goodness, after the image of Christ. I have the same faith that you have for the leaders of this people, and I have all the fervency of desire I am capable of, that God will make the people just as pure as they want their leaders to be.

This is a great and good people. I am well acquainted with their inmost wishes and desires, for what they pray, and what they labor and toil to accomplish. Is their labor fully effectual, and their toil altogether calculated to bring them that which they desire? No matter what our exercises may be before the Lord for the advancement of truth and the power of the kingdom of God upon the earth, if our everyday life does not accord with our profession, our religious exercises are all in vain. We may have all faith so as to remove mountains, to pluck up trees by the roots and plant them in the sea, and be enabled to perform greater wonders than have ever been performed by man in the name of Jesus Christ with his Priesthood upon us, yet if we are not pure in our affections, true and fervent in our love for God, and holy in our spirits, all this will avail us but little. Our spirits should reign supreme in our bodies, to bring the flesh into subjection to the will and law of Christ, until the carnal, devilish spirit that fills the heart with anger, malice, wrath, strife, contention, bickering, faultfinding, bearing false witness, and with every evil that afflicts men, is entirely subdued. If this evil power is not vanquished by the power and love of God, the whole course of nature will be set on fire with the fire of hell, until the whole body and spirit are consumed. This is the way I read the order of God, the will of God, the law of God and his holy Priesthood, the love of God, and all that pertains to his kingdom on the earth.

The Apostle Paul says we are nothing without charity, whatever else we may possess. Using my own language I should say, without the pure principle of the love of God in the heart to subdue, control, overrule, and utterly consume every vestige of the consequences of the fall, the fire that is kindled within the nature of every person by the fall will consume the whole in an utter and irretrievable destruction.

We meet to be instructed; and at the termination of our Conference we should be a little farther advanced toward the holy kingdom of our Father and God, and be better prepared to build up his kingdom on the earth, than we were at its commencement.

In speaking of the tongue the Apostle says, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” If the tongue cannot be tamed, it can be bridled. “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridle not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” If this unruly member is not held in subjection it will work our ruin, for, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, and it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” If the tongue is unbridled and uncontrolled, it sets in motion all the elements of the devilish disposition engendered in man through the fall. The Apostle has represented it well, in comparing its influence to the fire of hell which will eventually consume the whole man.

We are met in this Conference, expressly for the purpose of enlarging our views upon the importance of our Priesthood and duties; that our love for God, truth, and the household of faith may be increased; that our sensibilities may be sharpened to a keen relish for goodness and a just sense of right; that our judgments may become more impartial and discreet in all their conclusions, so that when we go from this Conference whether as Bishops, Elders, High Priests, High Councilors, or as members of the Church and kingdom of God in the last days, we may find ourselves sensibly improved, our aspirations more elevated, our natures more divested of low selfishness, and in every way better prepared to judge in Israel, and to lead the sheep of the fold of Christ in a manner more acceptable to the Great Shepherd.

It would be a matter of great satisfaction to me if all the Bishops were perfectly impartial when sitting in judgment on their brethren, and completely invulnerable to the influence of bribes and selfish leanings to the dictates of prejudices formed in favor of this or that person. I may not be entirely free from such prejudices, but, if I am required to sit in judgment upon an individual against whom I have entertained a prejudice, it has ever been my manner to inform that person of it upon the first opportunity that presented itself. Will you do this Bishops, and frankly acknowledge that you are unqualified to sit in judgment upon any person against whom you are strongly prejudiced?

So far as I have power, and with all the understanding God has given me, I seek to base all my conclusions upon facts when I am judging my brethren. When they are penurious, covetous, and for a trifling gain of some kind will overlook right, frown upon the majesty of truth, disregard justice and in all their actions manifest a strong preference for the god and glory of this world, I am prejudiced against their unrighteous preferences, but not against them as individuals; for if all the good and the evil, the strength and the weakness of which they are capable will range within the limits of a few square inches, as individuals they require my sympathy, while I abominate their sins.

I am not ignorant of the weaknesses of mankind; and in many instances when they would do a good act, the Devil, by some means, takes the advantage of them and leads them to commit an evil; as the Apostle says, “when I would do good, evil is present with me.” There is a number of people in this Church, who, when they would correct their lives, and conclude to perform the greatest good in their power, do that which brings disgrace upon them—the very thing they did not want to do. This weakness we should struggle bravely to overcome. We hold them in full fellowship in the Church of Christ because they design in their hearts to do right, but do not at all times manage to perform it. All men are not equally afflicted with these weaknesses. We have Bishops, Presidents, men of standing and experience in the kingdom of God, who, according to my judgment, do very wrong in many instances, but they may be blinded through selfishness.

I will here refer to a principle that has not been named by me for years. With the introduction of the Priesthood upon the earth was also introduced the sealing ordinance, that the chain of the Priesthood from Adam to the latest generation might be united in one unbroken continuance. It is the same power and the same keys that Elijah held, and was to exercise in the last days. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” By this power men will be sealed to men back to Adam, completing and making perfect the chain of the Priesthood from his day to the winding up scene. I have known men that I positively think would fellowship the Devil, if he would agree to be sealed to them. “Oh, be sealed to me, brother; I care not what you do, you may lie and steal, or anything else, I can put up with all your meanness, if you will only be sealed to me.” Now this is not so much weakness as it is selfishness. It is a great and glorious doctrine, but the reason I have not preached it in the midst of this people, is, I could not do it without turning so many of them to the Devil. Some would go to hell for the sake of getting the Devil sealed to them.

I have had visions and revelations instructing me how to organize this people so that they can live like the family of heaven, but I cannot do it while so much selfishness and wickedness reign in the Elders of Israel. Many would make of the greatest blessings a curse to them, as they do now the plurality of wives—the abuse of that principle will send thousands to hell. There are many great and glorious privileges for the people, which they are not prepared to receive. How long it will be before they are prepared to enjoy the blessings God has in store for them, I know not—it has not been revealed to me. I know the Lord wants to pour blessings upon this people, but were he to do so in their present ignorance, they would not know what to do with them. They can receive only a very little and that must be administered to them with great care.

A portion of this community will not improve, will not plant out a fruit tree nor a shade tree, expecting to be driven from their homes. Such neglect of duty is the very way to bring the power of the Devil upon us. Let every man go to with his might and build a good house for his family to live in, and make them comfortable and happy, and gather around them an abundance of the blessings and comforts of life, and do it by the power of God and the Spirit of the Holy One, in all diligence and faithfulness, and let us preach the Gospel, send the Elders to gather the poor and the meek of the earth, each one doing all the time all he can to accumulate means to accelerate this great and glorious work in the name of Israel’s God, being full of faith, humility, and charity; then we have done our duty, and all we can do to further the kingdom of God.

When we are doing the work of the Lord with all our might, and the evil within us is subdued by the power of God, and the light of Christ so shines within us that we can see clearly the things of God and men truly as they are, and all is judged by a righteous judgment, then we may look at and talk about the faults of each other without in the least disturbing our peace. When we do this, working faithfully for the building up of God’s kingdom, we are ready to acknowledge all things we possess to be the Lord’s, holding them for him in time, not knowing what he will do with them in the future. Let us teach our families the principles of righteousness by our conduct, which will go further than mere words. Let our private life be worthy the imitation of the best on earth, for it preaches a more lasting sermon than the tongue can preach. If we pursue this course the Lord will never suffer us to be driven from our homes. “I always thought,” said one, “that you were driven from Jackson County for your wickedness?” Yes, and I always acknowledge it; it was to bring us to our senses.

The Lord wants us to live up to the spirit of the times, and in the ratio the wicked nations are going down, he wants his people to rise in intelligence and importance as statesmen, noblemen, and rulers; first learning to govern and control themselves.

I will recur again to the sealing power I have already glanced at. If men are sealed to me, it is because they want to be; and if they will be good, and hearken to my counsel and live a righteous life, I will agree to dictate and counsel them; but when men want to be sealed to me to have me feed and clothe them, and then act like the Devil, I have no more feeling and affection for them than I have for the greatest stranger in the world. Because a man is sealed to me, do you suppose that he can escape being judged according to his works? No. Were he sealed to the Savior, it would make no difference; he would be judged like other men. Let us do what we do from a pure and holy principle, desiring only to promote the kingdom of God and be as nigh right as possible, that when we judge, we may judge in righteousness.

One great blessing the Lord wishes to pour upon this people is that they may return to Jackson County, Missouri, and establish the Center Stake of Zion. If our enemies do not cease their oppression upon this people, as sure as the Lord lives it will not be many days before we will occupy that land and there build up a Temple to the Lord. If they would keep us from accomplishing this work very soon, they had better let us alone. “I will purge the land,” saith the Lord, “cut off the evildoer, and prepare a way for the return of my people to their inheritance.” We pray for this, but are we preparing ourselves, to live according to the laws of Zion? This I will say, to the praise of the Latter-day Saints, there are hundreds and thousands of them who have been in the Church, some longer and some shorter, who, when you inquire about them, are paying attention to their own business; this proves that they live in peace with their God and their neighbors, doing as well as they know how. But when we speak of the officers of this Church, a great deal is required of them by the Lord and the people.

I wish to endure, and live the doctrine I preach to the people; to live with them, and with them fight the Devil until we kick the last one off from the earth.

If a Bishop does not want drunkenness in his Ward, let him be a sober man. If he does not want gambling, he must not be a gambler. If he wishes the truth always spoken, he should not lie. If he wishes the rights of the people respected in the holding of property, he should not steal. We wish to see the kingdom of God advance, that we may be prepared for the blessings the Lord is anxious to give to us.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1862.

When we first came to these valleys, we urged the brethren to believe that they could raise grain here, for but few of them believed it; and raising peaches was supposed by nearly all to be entirely out of the question. It is now proved beyond a doubt that we can raise in these mountains, not only the best of grain, but the finest of fruit.

If the Elders of Israel had taken the counsel which has been given them for eight years past, we would have had gold enough on hand to buy one quarter of the State of Missouri; which we might have owned as well as not, and lived in it when we pleased. There is one practice among this people that I am at war with, and I pray God to give me strength and ability, with the faith of the righteous, to root it out from our midst, and that is, they would seemingly rather be damned than not give their money to their enemies. Will they raise flax, cotton, and fruit? No; but they will put fortunes in the pockets of strangers, to import from a distance what we can produce at home. If this people had followed the counsel given to them, there is not a man in Israel would have raised a bushel of wheat for our enemies who came here to cut our throats, without making them pay from five to ten dollars a bushel for it. I do not wish to scold, but still I do most cordially dislike the conduct of certain men with whom we are obliged to associate in a Church capacity. It is impossible for me to speak pleasantly of their conduct while they, in their feelings and affections, lean toward the wicked who will take the name of God in vain and curse the chosen of God. Even now, many of our brethren are running after them begging for a little job of hauling, for a little employment here and there, and apparently would lick the dust of their feet for five cents.

While brother Erastus Snow was speaking upon our being under the necessity of importing various articles from abroad, I tried to think what there is that we cannot make here. There is as good material in this Territory for making hats as there is in any part of the world, and we have the mechanics who can put it together. We have an excellent button machine, one capable of producing as good buttons as these I now wear in the bosom of my shirt. There are tons of bones and horns bleaching upon the prairie, which can be manufactured into as good buttons as any man need to wear, if some of our button makers would take hold of the machine and work it. We also have men here who can make pressed buttons which will do very well.

I see here, today, many who are dressed in homespun, and they look comfortable and comparatively independent. Some of the sisters I see, wear homemade shawls, and to me, they appear far more appropriate than do the gaudy trappings of foreign make. I cannot see why we should send to buy from strangers that which we can manufacture ourselves, if it is not to satisfy a disposition to please and pamper that power which is opposed to the kingdom of God on the earth.

When the Lord cuts off every resource from this people, only that which is immediately around them, they can then live as well if not better than they do now, and attain to a state of self-sustenance much sooner than if he should continue to plead with them to rise up in their strength and do as they ought toward becoming independent before all foreign temporal facilities are entirely cut off. Enoch was three hundred and sixty-five years in getting a people ready to receive the blessings the Lord had to bestow upon them, but in the latter days his work will be cut short in righteousness. Were the Lord to be as indulgent with us as many want him to be, and continue to bear with the sins of the wicked, I presume it would take him fully as long to prepare the people in his day, but he will not wait so long. The Lord can oblige this people to come to the standard he wishes them to reach, but I have very little faith that many will attain to it in the flesh.

If we could not buy imported hats, we would make them of the material we have here. If we could not buy a yard of cotton cloth, we would raise cotton and make it. We can make spinning wheels and jennies; but brother Erastus inquires where are we going to get the spindles, if we do not import them. That we have need to import spindles is not correct. We have plenty of men here who know how to make iron, and steel, and spindles. Brother N. V. Jones has produced specimens of iron from magnetic ore. He has not made cast iron from that ore, but the best of wrought iron can be made from it. Do our brethren make it? No. They want to go to California after gold, or they wish to freight for this man or that man who has nothing in common with the interests of the kingdom of God. In the same proportion that men operate to encourage the importation of foreign productions, so far, according to their influence and means, they operate against the advancement of the kingdom of God on the earth. Many may not believe this statement, though to me it has become an established fact. Any man of this Church and kingdom who exerts his influence, strength, and means to promote any community, or to build up any city, except the people and cities of Zion, is exerting his strength and means against the kingdom of God.

Our speaker this afternoon commiserated our friends in the east who are now destroying each other, but who were once united in taking from us our homes and possessions, and winked at the shedding of the blood of our best men, and who have taken the lives of our brethren and sisters, of our fathers and mothers, of our wives and children. The tottering grayhaired sire excited no commiseration in their breasts, neither did the aged grandmother whom they deprived of her children—her last prop and stay, except her God, and left her to fall into the grave without a relation to speak an encouraging word in her dying moments. Our history records hundreds of such cases in consequence of the persecutions, mobbings, and drivings to which this people have been exposed. Infants, the youth, and the middle-aged have dropped into untimely graves by hundreds. They have taken our lives from the earth and swallowed up our substance, and forsooth we feel very much to pity them in their present condition. I will inform sympathizers, that if the fountain of pity and commiseration keeps pace with the increasing calamities that will come upon our enemies, where they only have yielded drops, rivers will flow, for the press is only just beginning to come down upon the ungodly—they can only just begin to feel its pressure; but there is a weight hanging over them that is ponderous in its crushing and desolating force. Would I lift it off from them if I had the power? No, but I would let it crush the guilty, ungodly wretches—the priest in the pulpit, the judge on the bench, the governor, and the rulers, and would let the common people go free.

After a long struggle we expect to be able to redeem Zion, to establish the Center Stake thereof, and from thence spread abroad in the vastness of our increasing numbers, and in the greatness of our power and infinitude of our wealth, build hundreds and thousands of cities and magnificent temples to the name and honor of our God; and we will enter those temples and officiate for our forefathers and our relatives who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel, and for those ignorant thousands who are paid for killing each other in the present war, and we will give them a salvation—All who have not sinned against the Holy Ghost, or shed innocent blood or consented thereto. The priests have riveted their fetters and chains around the millions, and they more or less influence every political man in our Government, to ridicule and fight against God and every holy principle that comes from heaven. If these fetters were broken asunder, and every man and every family permitted to judge for themselves, hundreds of thousands would embrace the Gospel as soon as they could have the privilege of hearing it, receive their ordinations and endowments, and be ready to go forth and hasten the work of building Temples wherein to officiate for those who had not in their lives the privilege of going into a Temple to receive their washings and anointings. Were it not for priestcraft and political-craft, I am satisfied that scores of thousands on this continent would now embrace the Gospel.

I would like to see the footsteps of the Almighty (and they are now beginning to be visible) in his going forth to cut off the bitter branches; and by-and-by the stone cut out of the mountain will begin to roll, and if it does not soon crush some of the toes of the great image, I am mistaken. From present appearances I think the toes will be pretty well mutilated before the stone reaches them. I pray for this constantly, for I would be glad to see the inhabitants of the earth have the privilege of believing the Gospel for themselves, and not any more be bound by the blighting influences of priestcraft. In this country and in the old countries politicians and wealthy men, who have any influence whatever over their neighbors, or over a family, or district, exert that influence to keep the people from embracing the Gospel the Lord has restored again to the world, by threatening to injure them, to stop their wages, turn them out of employment, or out of their houses, if they embrace “Mormonism,” and thus the masses are bound down.

Will we still continue to build up and foster our enemies, and give them our life’s blood? If we intend to cease doing so, we will cease trading with them in the way and manner we have done and are doing. You may enquire what we are going to do. I will tell you what I have not done; I have not sent to the States this season for any factory cloth, nor for any calico, and I shall say to my family you must make your own clothing or go without. “What are we going to do for pins and needles?” Do without them, or use thorns. When we cease importing them, necessity may become the mother of invention in this as well as in many other cases. I have often wished there was not such a thing as a pin or a needle when I have found them sticking in garments, in my shirt, on my pillow, in the chairs, on the door rugs, strewed over the floors and passages, and in the streets. I will venture to say that the quantity of pins and needles that has been brought into this Territory has not done one-tenth part of the service they would, if they had been properly taken care of and not wasted. People will hardly stoop down to pick up a needle or a pin, but they will go to the stores and buy them. Ladies will take a dollar ivory comb, put it in water, and then comb a child’s hair with it; it is never dry, the ivory softens, and the comb is used up in a very short time, when a good comb of that description ought to last five years in a common family. Mothers have not learned that water will spoil an ivory comb. There are some combs made of gutta percha, that comb the hair better than horn, but they are brittle and require to be used with care; but the first you know, one is on the floor and the rocker of the rockingchair has passed over it and rendered it useless.

Where do you keep your needles? On the floor, in the cradle, on the bed, upstairs and downstairs, in every nook and corner of the house. Where are the pins? All over; you can pick up one wherever you are. Do we answer the end of our creation in thus wasting, with a prodigal hand, the good things which our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us? The people are ignorant and careless touching these matters, and in them do not answer the end of their creation, and will not without prudently making the best possible use of that which God gives us.

We can make everything we want; and that is not all, we can, if we are disposed to, cease to want that which we cannot make. The moment we do this, and are satisfied with our productions, we are an independent people.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 23, 1862.

I am now looking upon the best people on the earth, that we have any knowledge of. There is not another community that presents the same amount of honesty, purity of heart and life, and integrity to God and to one another; yet much can be said upon our weaknesses, shortsightedness, and proneness to wander from right and do evil. I do not know that I should do right in giving full vent to some of my views and feelings concerning this people.

While conversing with some brethren the other day upon the conduct of this people as viewed by the intelligence of Heaven, I said, that it was a wonder to me that God had not long ago destroyed us all. His mercy and long-suffering are truly marvelous. Again, when I realize the object of our creation, the day of our trial we are now passing through, the weaknesses the Lord has ordained to come upon the children of men, and the steps to be taken for the exaltation of the human family my heart is filled with gratitude to God, it exults in his great beneficence. I glorify his name that he has spoken from the heavens, and noticed us mortals. I am exceedingly rejoiced that we have the privilege of living in the day when the Lord has spoken to the children of men, and revealed the Priesthood and placed it upon men, giving them the privilege of attaining to glory, immortality, and eternal lives. In the midst of our great weaknesses and manifold failings, we have abundant cause for exceeding great joy in the Gospel of our salvation. Are these great weaknesses to be found in the birds of the air, in the fishes of the sea, or in the beasts of the field? No. The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms abide the law of their Creator; the whole earth and all things pertaining to it, except man, abide the law of their creation.

I now see before me beings who are in the image of those heavenly personages who are enthroned in glory and crowned with eternal lives, in the very image of those beings who organized the earth and its fulness, and who constitute the Godhead—still here is the evil, and we are the ones who are accountable; for we are the “lords of creation.” We hold in subjection the creation; we avail ourselves of the great truths found in the arts and sciences, we navigate the seas, we survey the land, we convey intelligence with lightning speed, we harness steam and make it our servant, we tame the animals and make them do our drudgery and administer to our wants in many ways, yet man alone is not tamed—he is not subject to his Great Creator. Our ignorant animals are faithful to us, and will do our bidding as long as they have any strength; yet man who is the offspring of the Gods, will not become subject to the most reasonable and self-exalting principles. How often have we witnessed a faithful animal conveying his master home so drunk that he could not see his way or sit up; yet his faithful animal will plod through mud, shun stumps, trees, and bad places, and land him safely at home.

Are we even obedient to our better judgments and to truth that is self-evident? Many of us have been taught the doctrine of total depravity—that man is not naturally inclined to do good. I am satisfied that he is more inclined to do right than to do wrong. There is a greater power within him to shun evil and perform good, than to do the opposite. We have the powers of darkness, or the influences opposite to good, to contend with, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” There are two classes of influences, one tends to good and the other to evil; one to truth and life, the other to falsehood and death. Evil is sown in our nature, but there is not a person who is not prompted to do good and forsake evil, though there are but few who, from their own volition, will subject themselves to be perfectly obedient to the law of Christ, yet there are dispositions that will be subject to the truth through cruel mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonment. Truth is for us, right is for us, life is ours.

Our enemies accuse the leaders of this Church of having too much influence over the people. How much influence have I, or any other man that ever lived in this kingdom, over an apostate? It is now as it was in the days of Joseph. While people retained the spirit of their religion, they looked upon him as one of the best men on the earth; but when they gave way to the spirit of apostasy, then he was the worst of men. This has been so in all ages with every Prophet, Apostle, and righteous man and woman; they have had the warmest friends, and the bitterest enemies. No man has friends like those who are righteous; their friendship is even unto death, and then it reaches throughout all eternity. The friendship of the wicked must fade away, sooner or later; while the friendship of the righteous will last forever and ever. When we understand the truth let us abide by it, and boast not in our own strength, but glory in the strength of the Almighty.

The Elders often tell how many they have converted, and how many churches they have built up in different parts of the world. When persons apostatize from the path of right, I think some of them are man-made converts; as a Methodist preacher remarked to a drunken man lying by the wayside, who hailed him with delight saying, “You are my father in Christ, you converted me.” “I should think so,” said the preacher, “for it is very clear that you are not one of the Lord’s converts.” We cannot make Latter-day Saints of anybody on this earth but ourselves; we have not even power to make a Saint of a wife, or a child, a brother, or sister, in the least degree, unless they will hearken to counsel and obey the principles of righteousness, which I contend they are naturally inclined to do, were it not for the awful apostasy there is in the world. All persons must possess their intelligence free and independent before God.

I preach the Gospel to the Latter-day Saints; and if a person comes into our community and wishes to know further with regard to life and salvation, I will tell him as freely as ever I breathed the mountain air; but you cannot find one person that I ever crowded my religion upon either in or out of the Church. I have my reasons for taking this course. I never preach such sermons as, “Well, Mr. C., or D., have you heard any of our Elders preach? Do you know anything about Mormonism?” “No.” “Why, our Gospel is the Gospel of life and salvation, it is the only true plan of salvation for the people; and you must be a ‘Mormon;’ if you are not a ‘Mormon,’ you must expect to be damned.” If a person wishes to know my religion, I am willing that he should know the whole of it. There is nothing secret or hidden in it; the whole plan of salvation is for the human family, and is as free as the waters that flow from our mountains into the valleys. If you thirst, drink until you are satisfied, for you are truly welcome. This is the nature of the Gospel, and the character of Him who has sent it. It is free for all. But I am not disposed to compel any person to partake of that which they dislike, or have an aversion for.

This may not be right in every case. Why it is right with me is, that, if a person urges upon me that which I am not disposed to receive, it creates in me an alienation of feeling toward that person. I am naturally opposed to being crowded, and am opposed to any person who undertakes to force me to do this, or not do that. In my youth I was supposed to be an infidel, and perhaps in one respect I was, though I would have freely given all the gold and silver I ever could possess, to have met with one individual who could show me anything about God, heaven, or the plan of salvation, so that I could pursue the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven; but I did not want to be urged, and I am so inclined to this day. Yet I am convinced that it would not do for every man to pursue this course in every circumstance. We can guide, direct, and prune a tender sprout, and it inclines to our direction, if it is wisely and skillfully applied. So, if we surround a child with healthy and salutary influences, give him suitable instructions, and store his mind with truthful traditions, maybe that will direct his feet in the way of life.

There are persons of twenty, forty, and sixty years of age, who never saw a day in which they knew their own minds. They seem to be undecided in all their actions, like a child a few years old, and need some person to direct them. I am somewhat different from this class of persons. Should I be told that it is time to wash my face and eat my breakfast, I should be strongly inclined to notify my informant that I knew that as well as he did. So some of our Elders who preach in the world, will go into this or that house, begin to converse with the members of the family, and tell them they must be baptized or be damned. This will turn some persons against them and the truth, simply because they will not be compelled to do anything; while there are others in the world who would not embrace the truth, unless they were ordered to do it; probably they are those who will be compelled to come in.

There is a class of people that will not move to do themselves good, only as they are urged and commanded. There is a wide difference in people in this respect. There are instances in this community that if a wife does not urge her husband to pray in his family, he would never do so. And again, there are men in this city and throughout the settlements as good men as need be, who are driven from this duty by the teasing of a wife. “Now, pa, come, do let us have prayers; I have got all the children here and the Bible, and I do want to have prayers.” He cannot bow to that kind of compulsion, to save him; and if he should be damned he will not be made to pray in such a manner, for when he prays he means to do it for his God, and not because a woman teases him to do it. If a wife of mine should undertake to direct me in such a manner, I should give her to understand that I would tell her and the children when to come to prayers, when to go to parties, and how to reverence the Holy Priesthood and their God; I should never pray in creation, if I could not do it independent of the dictation of a woman.

I know that the people need more or less teaching and urging all the time, Sunday after Sunday, to keep them in the path of safety. How easy we get out of patience! We get a little hasty, and do a little wrong, because we do not train ourselves—do not conquer ourselves, and subject ourselves to the law of Christ. Sisters speak evil of sisters, they hear of it, and straightway return the compliment in a spirit of vindictiveness. Elders have contention with Elders; they do not understand alike, and are not disposed to in their deal. Elders are agreed on the way and manner necessary to obtain celestial glory, but they quarrel about a dollar. When principles of eternal life are brought before them—God and the things pertaining to God and godliness—they apparently care not half so much about them as they do about five cents. “We want the dollars.” What are they good for? Dollars will do good, if you can keep them until they will do good, using them in the right way. Men will scramble over each other to get gold and silver, and when they have it they waste it; it passes from them, and they know not how, doing them no good.

You can go into many houses in this Territory and find, for cooking utensils, an old skillet in which they cook their meat, heat their dishwater, wash their dishes, mix up pig feed, &c.; and when they set their table it is in keeping with the old skillet; you find little to eat, and that is half burnt and half cooked, unpalatable and unhealthy. The wife and children have scarcely a decent dress, and all around, in the house and out of it, is a picture of misery. Yet if you ask the owner of the house whether he has any cattle on the range, “Oh, yes.” How many? “I do not know; I had fifty head the other day, but I am not sure how many oxen and cows I have.” How many calves have you? “I think I have fifteen or twenty.” Do you have any butter for breakfast? “No;” and when they have any, it is about the size of a walnut and as white as cheese curd. They do not know how to make butter and cheese, yarn and cloth, nor do they try to learn. The wool is wasting; the flax, if any is grown, is left to rot; indolence, dirt, and scarcity reign where cleanliness, beauty, order, and plenty could be produced by the hand of industry, economy, frugality, and care. There is a wonderful amount of ignorance with regard to our temporal life, to say nothing of our spiritual life.

A misunderstanding of five dollars in a settlement will sometimes set some of our Elders to quarrelling and contending, and spending the time of the High Council and Bishop Courts, and making a cost of a hundred dollars. You cannot bring up anything that relates to Priesthood, God, heaven, or heavenly things, that will move them in the direction of a quarrel, and yet they will contend about a little filthy lucre which they cannot hold; they pass by the things of God as naught compared with it, living year after year, learning little or nothing that pertains to life eternal, but would rake earth and hell to secure a few cents. Money is not wealth; neither can you subsist upon it, in the absence of the common aliments of life. It is the love of money that is a mischief—that is the root of all evil. Love not gold, nor silver, nor anything of the kind, but gather around you that which will make you “healthy, wealthy, and wise;” then all will be right, and real wealth will increase around you, and wisdom from God will illuminate your course through life.

We pray for wisdom, but God will as soon put bread and meat in our cupboards without any endeavor of ours, as he will give us wisdom without our trying to get it. If a man wants a farm, let him make it; if he wishes an orchard he plants it; if he wants a house for his family to live in, he must gather the materials and build it. The Lord instructed the people in primitive times how to smelt the ores and work in the different metals, how to hew stone, how to build houses and temples. He will give us wisdom in these things, but he will not come down to do the manual labor.

As we prepare materials to build a house or temple, so man can prepare himself for the reception of eternal wisdom. We go where the materials for a house are, and prepare them to answer our purpose; so we may go to where eternal wisdom dwells, and there diligently seek to possess it, for its price is above rubies. I have frequently said that the greatest endowment God ever gave to man is good, sound, solid sense to know how to govern ourselves, how to choose the good and refuse the evil, to know how to sever the right from the wrong, the light from the darkness, and gather to ourselves that wisdom which comes from God, and reject that which comes from beneath. Let all be brought into subjection to the will of God, and then there would be no contention about a trifle, but every man would contend lawfully for the things of God, and more earnestly than for silver and gold.

May the Lord bless the good and fill the earth with the righteous. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 16, 1862.

It is often remarked that we do not understand things alike, but I am of the opinion that the inhabitants of the earth understand in the spirit, or, in other words, in the intelligent portion of their organisms, nearer alike than they have power to communicate.

We believe we are entitled to the gift of the Holy Ghost in extent according to the discretion and wisdom of God and our faithfulness; which gift brings all things to our remembrance, past, present, and to come, that are necessary for us to know, and as far as our minds are prepared to receive the knowledge of God revealed by that all-wise Agent. The Holy Ghost is God’s minister, and is delegated to visit the sons and daughters of men. All intelligent beings pertaining to this earth are instructed from the same source.

In the New Testament and Book of Mormon, we learn that when the Gospel is preached the people are taught to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins, be baptized for the remission of sin, and receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; the Holy Ghost is then the special gift of the Father, and is his minister. He also gives intelligence by angels, as well as by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and by opening the minds of the Saints to behold in vision things as they are in eternity. When true doctrines are advanced, though they may be new to the hearers, yet the principles con– tained in them are perfectly natural and easy to be understood, so much so that the hearers often imagine that they had always known them. This arises from the influence of the Spirit of Truth upon the spirit of intelligence that is within each person. The influence that comes from heaven is all the time teaching the children of men. “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” Again, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” Again, “How oft is the candle of the wicked put out!” We have nothing independent of the Almighty. We preach, we hear, and we are instructed. We try to so live as to gain more information, more light, more command over ourselves, and more influence and power to increase the good and discourage the evil, until we can comprehend the great principles of existence and eternal progression.

We should be more happy, if we could more successfully carry into effect the knowledge we now have. The Lord said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” The Council in heaven said let there be an earth, and let there be a firmament above and beneath it, and it was so. They said let there be heat and cold, and it was so. They said let there be spring and summer, autumn and winter, and it was so. We can say let the people be clothed, and they are clothed; let them be warmed, and they are warmed; let them be housed, and they are housed. If we put forth the ability God has given us, we can bring forth the very things we say shall come. If we say let there be wool, or let there be flax, they will come; if we say let there be iron, steel, brass, or any other metal we need, it will come. If we say let there be cotton and woolen yarn and let them be made into cloth, it will be done. The Lord said let there be an earth, let there be light to light it, let there be seas and dry land, air, rocks, trees, fruits, and shrubs of all kinds, grasses and flowers, and vines that yield fruit above the ground and in the ground, for the use of man and beast, and it was so; but all these productions come according to natural principles. Man is surrounded by those productive principles, and is endowed with power to act upon them; and according to the amount of intelligence he possesses and the labor he expends are the productive results.

This people are increasing in the wisdom which cometh from God, and their power to organize the crude elements around them into the necessaries of life is in ratio to their increase of intelligence and application of labor. In this way we ought to understand these great principles. We need not seek for a revelation to know how to make cloth, when the mode is plainly marked before our eyes. Sheep produce a textile material, and how to make it into cloth has been known time out of mind; we can raise sheep in abundance. I do not look for power from the heavens that will produce for us wool, cloth, iron, food, or anything we need, without being made with hands. We should understand what is required of us to sustain ourselves.

It was observed this morning, that the teachings the people are con– stantly receiving are of a temporal character, and I should think that, if such teachings were carried into practice by them, spiritual blessings would be attained through temporal means. It is all of God. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.” The mountains, valleys, and plains, all the wealth of precious metals hid in their bosoms, all the teeming fulness of vegetable productions, and all animal existences in their endless variety are the Lord’s. All that can be produced from the soil by the ingenuity and industry of man is the Lord’s. The Lord has given the earth to the children of men, that by the union of mind and matter, inspired and directed by the power of the eternal Priesthood, all may be made subject to the Great Supreme of the universe. It is our duty individually as well as our privilege, to learn how to dispose of the earthly wealth we may possess, to the glory of him who has permitted us to hold it, for in temporal blessings honestly obtained and wisely placed to their legitimate use are concealed mines of spiritual and eternal wealth. If we magnify and make honorable this temporal existence, by the practice of every good and righteous principle that comes within our knowledge, we honor and magnify that spiritual existence, and that heavenly intelligence, which the Father of all has placed within us. This is the way to increase in temporal and spiritual wealth. If we pursue diligently this path, there is not the least danger of any persons being lost, but they will be prepared to inherit after death a more glorious and heavenly sphere than they now dwell in.

I know that the great majority of mankind, who are created for a noble and glorious purpose, are ignorant of these heavenly principles; and they cleave to their ignorance, and love darkness rather than light. They will not be taught by an authorized minister of heaven, but they hire men who are as blind and as ignorant as themselves to guide them in the way they choose to walk in. From the days of the creation until now, I do not think there is one man out of a million who has made so much as a scratch upon the world’s history, to show that he was entirely devoted to God and truth; but the generations of mankind have sprung up and decayed like the grass of the field.

When the Spirit of revelation from God inspires a man, his mind is opened to behold the beauty, order, and glory of the creation of this earth and its inhabitants, the object of its creation, and the purpose of its creator in peopling it with his children. He can then clearly understand that our existence here is for the sole purpose of exaltation and restoration to the presence of our Father and God, where we may progress endlessly in the power of godliness. After the mind has thus been illuminated, the ignorance and blindness of the great mass of mankind are more apparent. Yet there is no son or daughter of Adam and Eve but what has incorporated in their organization the priceless gem of endless life, for the endless duration and endless lives which they are approaching.

Are the people glorifying their Father who is in heaven? Do they take every step possible to do the will of God on earth, and magnify their calling? Is every act of their lives made to increase their intelligence, to add to their faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, and to improve upon every gift and grace which God has bestowed on them through the Gospel? I fear not. There is yet to be seen a willful and covetous disposition in some few of our brethren and sisters. “I want a ribbon,” says a sister, “and I will have it whatever the consequence may be.” “And,” says a brother, “I want a horse, and I will have it, if I steal it, and run the risk of being damned for it.” I am sorry to say that some few of the Elders of Israel have such feelings and desires. One of the brethren this morning was complaining of sins rising in the heart, and of the self-will of fallen man, and the evil which the Devil had power to engender in the hearts of our parents, who have entailed it on their children. How shall we overcome this inclination to evil? Let the will of God predominate over the will of the creature. Let the husband and father learn to bend his will to the will of his God, and then instruct his wives and children in this lesson of self-government by his example as well as by precept, and his neighbors also, showing them how to be brave and steadfast in subduing this rebellious and sinful disposition. Such a course as this will eventually subdue that unhallowed influence which works upon the human heart.

We are all endowed with the resolution, more or less, to deal with ourselves as we would deal with a child or with a neighbor. In case a child will not be controlled by his parents, but is disobedient and refractory to a hopeless degree, what would his parents be apt to do? I can answer for myself: I presume I should say to such a child—leave me. But I have no such children; and it is hard to say what I might do, were I tried. If a child of mine, who has come to years of discretion, should say to me, “I will do this, and I will not do what you require of me,” I should use the rod of correction sufficiently to teach that child better. Why not in the same way, institute a proper and salutary correction over the rebellious spirit that at times arises in the human breast? Why not govern and control the appetite, that it may be subject to the law of Christ? But how is it? Why, “I must have some tobacco, if I am damned for it.” Or, “I must have a cup of tea, if I am damned for it.” Or, “I must have this or that, if I should have to go to hell for it.” It is like saying to our Heavenly Father, “I will not mind you, I will not obey your commandments, but I will have my own way and follow the bent of my own inclinations; my appetite shall be nursed and pampered, though it be at the expense of your displeasure.” Instead of pursuing this course, listen to that Spirit God has given to all, which teaches the right and how to avoid the wrong, and say to appetite, to disposition, to temper, to the whole man, you must do as I command you; I am an officer, a general in the army of Christ and I will be obeyed.

Every man and woman is called to the same office; let us magnify it, and exert a mighty influence over this organization, and rise up in the strength of the great I Am, and by the power of his eternal Priesthood, command every power, every pulse of our natures to be subject to the law of God and truth, and not suffer this low, sinful, groveling, dark, benighted, cursed spirit we have received from the fall to bear rule in us. All persons who suffer themselves thus to be ruled, disgrace themselves and do not honor the being God has given them. If men are ruled by the power, principles, and righteousness of the Holy Priesthood, they will find themselves in possession of all the wisdom they need to meet every emergency of this changing existence, and all they require to conquer the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

How very far the inhabitants of the earth live short of their privileges! How far they live beneath the blessings the Lord has in store for them! Is it not more or less so with us as individuals and as a community, who profess to be the friends of God? We live far short of the blessings the Lord has in store for us. When the visions of our minds are opened, we can then more fully realize this truth. And again, when the vision is closed up we are found, as a general thing, doing the best we know how, and we may be considered pretty good men and women. This is true, yet there is an eternity of knowledge before us to learn.

It is as much as I can do with all the power I have with the heavens and with the Latter-day Saints to say, let there be a carding machine in this Territory, and it is done; to say, let there be a nail factory in this Territory, and it is here. Again, all that has been said, and all the praying that has been done, and all the faith that has been exercised, and all the combination and union of effort among the Saints have not brought to pass one say of the President’s in regard to iron; he said, let there be iron, but there is no iron yet. Brother Wells has told you the reason, this morning. A man says, “I am going to make iron, and I will have the credit of making the first iron in the Territory. I will have the credit of knowing how to flux the ore that is found in these regions, and bringing out the metal in abundance, or no other man shall.” Now, the beauty and glory of this kind of proceeding is the blackest of darkness, and its comeliness as deformity.

We have said, let there be a carding machine, and it is here. Let there be sheep, and there are sheep; wool, and it is here; and now who will say let there be flax and then produce it? Let there be linen cloth, and then produce it by means of the power and ability we possess? We know how to perform this labor, and how to produce this material. There are brethren before me who know how to make as good linen cloth as was ever manufactured in any country. It is so with other things. By-and-by, somebody will say, let there be silk, and silk will be produced here. All we have to do is to grow the mulberry tree, import the eggs of the silkworm, and apply the skill that is already in our possession, and we can produce an abundance of sewing silk, silk dress patterns, silk vesting, and anything we need in the shape of silk drapery. Silk is in the elements around us, and not only silk, but all things which pertain to the earth; and again, all things which pertain to the heavens; all things which pertain to time, and all things which pertain to eternity, which is the same with God today, yesterday, and forever. I am extremely anxious that this people should understand the value of their existence here, and the great worth of that immortal spirit which is clothed upon with an earthly house, preparatory to an eternal exaltation and eternal lives. Honor this earthly house, for in it are concealed the rudiments of all knowledge, the root and foundation of science that we have any knowledge of. Mankind are capable of collecting and retaining an immense amount of knowledge, if they will diligently apply the ability God has given them; in fact, they are made to travel on through an endless progression of improvement. I have only time to give a few hints on this subject, though it might prove very interesting to you, were I to classify these great truths and dwell upon them, item by item, through a course of lectures.

Do you know, mother, the worth of that child in your lap? There is not a mother here, I presume, that knows the real value of her offspring. We say, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away,” &c., when our children die. The truth is, the Lord has given and we do not know the value of the gift we have received, and it is taken from us; not because the Lord wants the child, for there are myriads of spirits in heaven, and more coming all the time. They do not want the spirit back again—they do not need it in the spirit world. It should remain here, and we should know the worth of it sufficiently to take care of it and preserve it on earth, until it has fulfilled the measure of its creation—brought forth all the fruits of its existence, and become ripe to go home to a higher state of glory to rest for a season, until it is time again to unite the body with the spirit.

A thousand glorious principles open up to my mind, that I cannot now dwell upon; but there is one subject pertaining to our temporal existence that I wish to present; the news we receive from the east and from the west is of wars and floods, trouble and sorrow. Our southern settlements have suffered by floods; they have lost their farms, gardens, and orchards. The water has risen twenty-five feet higher than it has ever been known to rise before in San Bernardino and other parts of California. I wish to warn this people, that they be not caught unprepared when spring opens. Make the best provisions in your power to ward off destruction by high water into City Creek and other mountain streams running through our settlements. Particularly, let the brethren who are living on the Cottonwood bottoms, take care, or we may hear of their passing down Jordan. The earth is now saturated with rain and melted snow, and if the snow in City Creek goes away with a warm spring rain, the first we know, some of the people may be washed down into the river.

May the Lord bless us. Amen.