Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 20, 1857.

Brother Heber wants to know whether he has said anything wrong. So far as I am concerned, and so far as the truth is concerned, he has not. He is very careless in the use of language; but I do not so much care how he or any of the brethren express their ideas, when their hearts are right before God.

When we have only the one desire to promote the kingdom of God on the earth, the people will be right.

Brother Heber is very full of comparisons; and I will liken brother Heber’s language to the conduct of some of this people. He talks just as ideas happen to come into his mind; and some of the people act just as it happens at the moment, not thinking what they do. And yet their desire is to do right; and the greatest faults that most of them see in each other arise through weakness and ignorance, and not through an evil design. They desire to do right, just as brother Heber desires to talk as straight as a line; but he has so long been in the habit of making his own dictionary and using his words out of it, that it would be difficult for him to change his style now.

No matter what the outward appearance is—if I can know of a truth that the hearts of the people are fully set to do the will of their Father in heaven, though they may falter and do a great many things through the weaknesses of human nature, yet, they will be saved. You will hear among such persons observations that appear very much out of the way; but, at the same time, they will say that “it does seem that when I would try to do good, and to do my best, evil will come before me.”

If there is an outward appearance of mistakes or evils, we ought to have the Spirit of the Lord to look at the designs of the actors, and know whether they act from impure or sinister motives. If their motives are pure—no matter whether their outward appearance is particularly precise, their acts will be discerned by the Spirit of the Lord, and will be appreciated for what they were intended. If people act from pure motives, though their outward movements may not always be so pleasant as our traditions would prefer, yet God will make those acts result in the best good to the people.

I wish the people to know that they have to come to the position that, in their feelings and affections, the kingdom of God must be all in all to us. If we are not in that position, you will find that we will be scourged and afflicted until we are. With us it must be the kingdom of God all the time: it must be that or nothing. The time has come in which that must be the common feeling with the Saints.

As to the world’s being in fellowship with us, it never was and it never can be. We cut off the Gentiles just before we left Nauvoo; and they have cut us off from their fellowship. The thread is cut that has hitherto connected us; and now we have to act for ourselves and build up the kingdom of God on the earth, which we will do, by the help of the Lord; for he has decreed that his kingdom shall take the ascendancy over all other kingdoms under heaven.

It was observed by brother Spencer that the time had come for this work to be making far more rapid strides than it has hitherto done. You will find that it has not been by any act of our own that this thread has been cut; but we will now have to sustain ourselves, or we will go under. We have not desired it—we have not naturally wished for this crisis to come; but inasmuch as it has come, if the people, in the strength of Israel’s God, sustain themselves, they will be sustained.

If we are united, we are independent of the powers of hell and of the world, which terms are synonymous with me. We are now free and easy; and if we succumb to the wicked, our hearts sink within us and we sicken and die; but when my feelings are decided that we will defend ourselves against all who come here to destroy us or to oppose the establishment of truth on the earth, I feel perfectly free and light as the air. Does brother Spencer feel so? I presume that he does, and also that every Saint feels as free as the mountain breezes.

I am free and easy, and I am not concerned about having too much rest; though, when my feelings are at rest, and I have not an hundred tons weight upon my shoulders, a feeling comes over me like this—“Are you not becoming slothful?” As soon as I have a good sound reflection upon the matter, I feel to thank God that he will let me rest at times, and not always require me to bear a burden like carrying a hundred tons.

Be faithful; and if you are attentive to your duties, God will take care of the rest.

We talk of enjoying, multiplying, and increasing in the things of God. All that we can do is to prepare to receive anything that God may see fit to give. I do not know but that I am just as well prepared to receive revelations this morning as I shall be millions of years hence. I do not know but that I shall be prepared to do the will of God, according to my capacity, as well today or tomorrow as I shall be when I have spent millions of years in his presence.

You hear people in the sectarian world talk about preparing to die; but the religion that we have embraced teaches us to prepare to live. If we were now going to exchange this world for another, I do not know but that we are as well prepared as we shall be in years to come. I have felt that I never should be better prepared to receive the glory of the spirit world than I am now, according to my present capacity. While brother Heber was talking about our travels in 1834, I remember that brother Joseph said the camp should be cursed. We had some wicked men in the company, and Joseph discerned the spirits of those men, and said that the camp should be cursed and that they should feel the heavy hand of the Lord. Brother Heber came to me and said, “I do not know that I could have done any better, even though it had been to save my natural life;” and he did do well and continued to do so. And I will say that I do not know that I can do any better than I am doing.

You and I may be ready to fight: we may be ready to plant seed, and, if called upon, to cache grain in the mountains, and to do whatever the Lord may require at our hands. Let us do whatever may be required. If we are called upon to take our women and children into the mountains, let us do that; if to burn, let us be on hand to burn; if to build more, let us do that; and whatever we are required to do, let us do.

We called up a Bishop, the other night, to go on an express; and when he came to my office, I said to him, “Brother Thomas, are you ready?” He replied, “Yes.” Though he did not know what was wanted of him, yet he was ready. He asked, “When do you want me?” I replied, “Early tomorrow morning” (now, yesterday morning); and he was there at the time—which is the way that men should feel and act.

The main object of my present remarks has been to have the people know whether they are taught right—to have them know whether they are receiving the word of the Lord from this stand—to have them know whether they are led right.

As to being afflicted, never fear that: only fear that you are not living as well as you might, and then there is no danger. You know how you have been led, and I can say that you try to walk in the path that leads to improvement and purity and to never do a known evil. When you know that an evil is before you, pass it by, and do that which tends to good, and all will be right.

If you are not led right, or if you are afraid that you are not going to be led right, just find out a better way; for that is your privilege, if you are not already led right. And if you will live so as to know God better than any other man, or find someone that knows God better, and of whom you can learn more of God—a man that knows better how to dictate the affairs of the Church, all will be right.

I wish that every man would live so that he could have communion with angels—so that Jesus would come to visit him. I wish I could see this people in such a position; but there is yet too much sin in our midst: our traditions cling to us so strongly, that we cannot yet break through into that liberty; but we will see the day, if faithful, in which we can converse with angels. There are persons in this congregation that will converse with angels just as freely as we converse with each other.

Be faithful, and God will not only fight for us, but he will also lead us to victory. What has been said today is true. You know that brother Heber almost always testifies to the truth of what he says; but I do not care whether you think that what I say is true or not, for that does not concern me. You may judge of the truth you hear today and of that which you will hear in times to come; for we shall be judges of ourselves as well as of our enemies, and we shall also judge angels. God bless you! Amen.

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 20, 1857.

I listened with very great pleasure to the remarks made this morning both by President Young and President Kimball, and it always affords me pleasure to listen to anything that is associated with the kingdom of God and its interests; and, on the other hand, I feel as ready and willing to communicate anything that the Lord may have committed unto me.

[Asked a blessing on the bread.]

In relation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is something that is full of importance and information, and is associated with our present and eternal welfare: it enters into all the ramifications of life where we can understand it. It is not a sing-song sort of a thing, such as we hear taught among the sectarians; but there is something tangible about it: it consists of eternal principles, unfolding light and intelligence, and is adapted to the nature of man as a mortal and immortal being—principles that affect us in time and in eternity, in life, in health, in sickness, in death, and which lead to life everlasting.

We heard some remarks made this morning upon education—about words and language, and so forth. In relation to the education of the world generally, a great amount of it is of very little value, consisting more of words than ideas; and whilst men are verbose in their speaking or writing, you have to hunt for ideas or truth like hunting for a grain of wheat among piles of chaff or rubbish. It is true that a great amount of it is really valuable, and it is for us to select the good from the bad.

The education of men ought to be adapted to their positions, both as temporal and eternal beings. It is well to understand the arts and sciences; it is well to understand language and history; it is well to understand agriculture, to be acquainted with mechanics, and to be instructed in everything that is calculated to promote the happiness, the well-being, and the comfort of the human family.

That education which but amounts to a little outward appearance and applies only to a few conveniences of this life is very far short of that education and intelligence which immortal beings ought to be in possession of. The education of the present day is generally misapplied; indeed, men have misapplied the education which they have received for generations and generations.

The priests in Egypt had mysteries immediately associated with themselves, and the calculation was to keep their people ignorant of those things which they knew, that they might govern them the more readily and that they might reign and tyrannize over them. Among the various nations in different ages, their sages and wise men held their intelligence as a secret mystery to be divulged almost or altogether to their disciples, who generally conveyed it in unknown characters, symbols, or hieroglyphics. The Egyptians had their priests, the Assyrians their magi and astrologers, the Greeks their philosophers, and the Jews their wise men, and all more or less mysterious or cabalistic.

This was a misapplication of information, or that which they might possess; although, in many instances, the information amounted to nothing in reality.

The same is applicable, in a great measure, to our lawyers, doctors, and priests: they make use of terms that nobody can understand but the initiated. If you study medicine, law, or botany, and many of the sciences, you must study Latin first, because the doctors and professors make use of that language to convey their ideas in; and the calculation is for all except men of science or linguists to be befogged and bewildered—yes, all except the initiated few who have been able to bestow the same amount of time as they have in learning some of the dead languages.

Whom does their learning benefit? Certainly not the multitude. I will tell you my idea of true intelligence and true eloquence. It is not as some people do—to take a very small idea and use a great many grandiloquent words without meaning—something to befog and mystify it with—something to tickle the ear and please the imagination only: that is not true intelligence. But it is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it. I do not care what words you make use of, if you have the principles and are enabled to convey those principles to the understandings of men.

It is true, at the same time, that a man who has a good use of language can present his ideas to better advantage than one who has not, in some instances, and in some he cannot; for the Lord gives some men a natural talent and powers of description that others do not possess and cannot acquire. But the great principle that we have to come to is the knowledge of God, of the relationship that we sustain to each other, and of the various duties we have to attend to in the various spheres of life in which we are called to act as mortal and immortal, intelligent, eternal beings, in order that we may magnify our calling and approve ourselves before God and the holy angels: and if we obtain knowledge of this kind, we shall do well; for this is the greatest good of the whole: it embraces everything that we want.

In relation to the principles of eternal life, we are told that these treasures we have in earthen vessels were given of the Lord and retained in those vessels through our faithfulness.

Now, then, if men, without much of the advantage of what is termed education in this world, are filled with the Spirit of God, the revelations of the Holy Ghost, and can comprehend the relationship of man to God, can know their duties, and can teach a people, a nation, or a world how they may be saved and obtain thrones, principalities, powers, and dominions in the eternal worlds—if men can understand these principles by the gift of the Holy Ghost and the revelations of the Most High, and are enabled to place them before the people so that they can comprehend them, then, I say, these are the men of education—the men of intellect—the men who are calculated to bless and ennoble the human family. This is the kind of education that we want; and the more simple those principles can be conveyed the better: they are more adapted to the wants and intelligence of the human family.

Here is the difference between us at the present time and the priestcraft and kingcraft and the craft of the various systems among the nations. They have tended to befog, bewilder, bind down, and lead the masses into ignorance; but the principles of the Gospel are calculated to expand the mind, enlarge the heart, unfold the capacity, and make all men feel their relationship to God and to each other, that we may be all partakers of the same blessing, that we may all be intelligent, that we may all be learned in the things of the kingdom of God, and all be prepared for the celestial inheritance in the eternal worlds. This is the difference between the system that we have embraced and the systems of the world—they are of men, this is of God. Among the Gentiles, they tread upon one another and ride into power and influence on the ruin of others; and they do not care who sinks, if they swim. The kingdom of God exalts the good, blesses all, enlightens all, expands the minds of all, and puts within the reach of all the blessings of eternity.

Do you repudiate education, then? No—not at all. I appreciate all true intelligence, whether moral, social, scientific, political, or philosophical; but I despise the folly that they hang on to it and the folly that they call education.

What did any of us know as rational, eternal beings, until we were educated in this Church?

It is true that we are eternal beings; but did we know or understand anything about the principles of eternal life? Nothing. Yet we have believed that we were going to live forever. But did we know anything about where we came from, or what was our origin, or what was the object of our creation? We did not know anything about where we were going. We had a dreamy idea of heaven—of a God without body, parts, and passions—of a heaven beyond the bounds of time and space; and the hell we believed in was a bottomless pit. We had a dreamy idea of these things; but what did we know? Was there any authority, religion, or philosophy that could unravel these mysteries? No, not any.

Then of what practical use is their philosophy or religion to us? It did not unfold unto us our position; it did not show us how to obtain eternal life: it could not do it. Of what use was our intelligence as applied to our position?

How many times have you listened to preaching from a speaker who was considered quite an eloquent man? He would study his sermons well, and perhaps write them. They were full of words—the language was eloquent; but, after all, it was mere verbosity, empty sound, and barren in ideas. Then you would go away and say, “What an eloquent sermon Mr. So-and-so preached! He preached the best today I ever heard him. It was such a treat—so rich, so great, and so deep!” “What was it about?” “Oh, it was so deep that I could not understand a word of it,” as brother Brigham says.

“Well, what was it about?” “I do not know; but I heard it, and it was so deep and so profound that I could not understand it.” “But how was it that you could not understand what he was preaching about, when he was so eloquent, so refined, and made use of such elegant language?” Shall I tell you? The man did not know what he was preaching about himself; and as he could not understand it himself, he could not explain it to you. How could he lead others to comprehend that which he did not know himself? These are facts: this is the education of the world. If you examine the philosophy of France and Germany, and other parts of the earth, you will find them to be on a par with the religious world: they are going to ameliorate the condition of mankind and to perform wonders, according to their professions. If you attempt to reason with them about their philosophy, like the Paddy’s flea, when you attempt to put your finger on them, they are not there.

[Voice: “All the difference is, there is nothing there.“]

All their philosophy is mere chimeras of the brain. I met with so much of it in those countries that I was sickened with it.

A gentleman came to me in Paris—an Englishman, and, pointing to a species of very light cake, asked me what it was called. (It is a kind of bread that is so light that a man can eat all the time and not fill himself, and you could blow it away with a puff of your breath.) I told him I did not know what they called it, but I would give it a name; I will call it fried froth, or philosophy, just which you please—fried bubbles, or the bubbles of learned men; for it reminded me of their philosophy.

I believe in the solid bread, and I do not care if it comes in big chunks; for then it is better than when there is not enough to satisfy the appetite. Truth and intelligence have a tendency to enlarge the capacity, to expand the soul, and to show man his real position—his relationship to himself and to his God, both in relation to the present and the future, that he may know how to live on the earth and be prepared to mingle with the Gods in the eternal worlds.

Now, if men will teach me these principles, I do not care what words they use. If truth comes, tail or head foremost, I am not very particular.

It is the principles of truth which cement us together and make us act in union and strength: it is those principles that buoy up our feelings, animate our souls, and make us feel joyous and jubilant under all circumstances. It is light, it is truth, it is intelligence, it comes from and leads to God, exaltation, and celestial glory. We feel joyous because we have the principles of eternal life within us. It is because we have partaken at the fountain of life, and know our rela– tionship to the Lord, and have a position in his Church and kingdom.

Being, then, in possession of the truth—of a knowledge of those principles which develop the revelations of God, and knowing that he has given unto us the Holy Priesthood, restored Prophets, Apostles, and Revelators to give revelation unto his people, therefore have we confidence in our God and our religion.

And what is that revelation, this order, and this organization for? They are to enlighten us, to enlarge our minds, to teach us all principles associated with our present and eternal welfare. This revelation is the word of God, the eternal truths of heaven, the everlasting Gospel, the word of life and salvation.

No matter what words are used, it is the principles we are after, and our religion interests and affects us in all the ramifications of life: it does not set up God as some austere being that we cannot approach, but it tells us he is our Father, and that we are his children, and that he cherishes in his bosom a paternal regard for us; and we have experienced something of the feelings that exist between father and son, mother and daughter, parents and children; but we could not apply that unto our God and consider that he was our Father before we embraced the Gospel.

We have been taught by the simple principles of the Gospel to go to our Father who is heaven, and that he will hear us. We have also been taught that if we, as earthly parents, will not give our children stones when they ask for bread, and that if we will not give them scorpions when they ask for fish, God, as our Father, will not give us one thing when we ask another, but that he feels as much concerned about our welfare as we possibly can do about that of our children.

This is the way that we now regard our God; but this is not the way we used to look at him: we used to be all the day long subject to bondage, through the fear of death. Do we feel anything of that now? No, we do not: that feeling is taken away. Now we feel that if it is required of us to die, it is well; if to live, it is well. We feel that we are eternal beings and have laid hold of eternal life, and therefore all is well. We feel altogether different to what we did before we heard this Gospel: it teaches us our duty to each other; it teaches us to reverence God’s name, and not blaspheme it as the Christians do.

I will tell you how it is in the world. In the world the masses do not care what the devil they do, if men do not see them; and I am sorry to say that we also are cursed with a few such scoundrels. They do not care about God seeing them, for they have not the fear of God before them, but they have fear of men.

We never ought to do a thing that we would be afraid of God seeing us do; and if we are not afraid of God seeing us, we should not be afraid of man seeing us.

Well, then, we are taught our duty to our God by our brethren. And who are our brethren? The officers and authorities of this Church—the servants of the living God. Who is President Young? The mouthpiece of God to this Church and to the world. Has God any other? Yes, lots of them appointed by him, but he is the head.

[Blessed the sacramental cup.]

Formerly every man used to take his own way: we used to claim a great many rights, privileges, and immunities that belonged to us individually. Well, we enjoy many of them yet; but we did not acknowledge the authority of God, and we could not do it, for the simple reason that we knew nothing of it.

There was no one to come with “Thus saith the Lord”—no man that could go forth and say he was commissioned of Jesus Christ; therefore there was no authority. There was no umpire—no standard of truth to go to, to decide any doctrine that you might have in your mind. But now we have, “Thus saith the Lord God.”

Is there any other place under heaven where there is anybody to say, “Thus saith the Lord?” If there is, I have heard nothing about it; I have not read nor heard of it, and I am satisfied there is no such thing.

I suppose there are in the neighborhood of from 1,000,000,000 to 1,200,000,000 of inhabitants upon the earth; and nowhere but in this place can there be found a man to say, “Thus saith the Lord God”—nowhere but here, or where those are who have been sent from here.

Are there men of intelligence in the nations? Yes, as to the world’s intelligence—as to the intelligence associated with the arts and sciences, natural philosophy, and mechanism, they are as intelligent as any that can be found, without God. There are also many learned professional men, princes, statesmen, and potentates. The latter have the power to govern the nations over which they rule, and yet among the whole of them not a man can be found that can say, “Thus saith the Lord God.”

Well, if this is the case in relation to them, and if this is the position of the world, is it not time for the Almighty to interfere? I speak of them, for many of the thousands who are now before me are come from the different nations, and they comprehend what I say, and they know that this is true.

What is our position? Are we not favored ten thousand times more than any other people under the heavens? Are we not put in a position to have communication with the Lord? Have we not the principles of life given unto us from day to day and from week to week? Have we not the opportunity of hearing the word of the Lord from his chosen servant—the only mouthpiece to lead the people that he has under the heavens?

Can we appreciate this and realize our position? Can we really appreciate our blessings? Do we really feel as we ought to in relation to these matters? Why, we begin to experience, in part, the riches of eternity. They begin to be unfolded before we can fully appreciate them.

We are favored at the present time, but we cannot comprehend our blessings fully: we can only see in part, comprehend in part, and shall not fully comprehend until the fulness of the blessings of God shall be revealed; then we shall be able to appreciate our position, our relationship to God, and the great blessings we enjoy, as servants of the Most High.

We are only little children now. This is the way I feel. I feel as a little child, and I pray to God, O God, expand my mind that I may understand and comprehend the things of God, and not act the fool, but be a wise man, and be able to comprehend the blessings that are around me.

Why, the kingdom of God is established, the Prophet of God and his servants are among us, and we are now enjoying the very things that Prophets prophesied of as they looked through the dark vista of ages unborn and contemplated these blessings that we enjoy.

They told about the time when the kingdom of God would be established upon the earth, when he would restore the ancient order of things, when his Spirit would be poured out, when light and revelation would be communicated, when his purposes would be developed, and when the little stone would be cut out of the mountain without hands. They saw, in vision, that a little nucleus here in the moun– tains would arise, and that the mountain of the Lord’s house would be established above the hills, and that all nations should flock to the standard, as doves to their windows.

They saw the things in visions that we are now doing; they sang and prophesied and rejoiced at what we have now commenced—the building up of the kingdom of God.

Well, now, can we really appreciate these things? Do not we often feel as we did in the Gentile world? We used to say, “I will be damned if I do not have my own way.” I tell you that you will be damned if you do.

But how much of that feeling exists? I could not but think of it when I heard the remarks of brother Kimball this morning. They led me to reflect upon this subject. Some of us think we are smart men; some of us think we know what is for our good as well as our leaders, and that our judgment is quite as good as theirs; and some feel like saying, “We will be damned if we submit to them.” But you will be damned if you do not.

Now, I will suppose that you were God, and that you had inspired some men to go forth and preach the Gospel, to gather the people, to establish a kingdom upon the earth—that you had got a few together, and they gathered others; finally, you issued your will and your law to the people: what would you think if they turned round and said they would do as they pleased? Says one, “I do not know;” and says another, “I do not know.” Supposing they should say, “We think we understand better than you do,” how would you, as God, regulate the affairs of the earth? What could you do with a people that would not be obedient to your law? Just the same as God did with the antediluvians, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Jews. If you could not do anything with them, how could God?

The Presbyterians used to say that people ought to thank God for the privilege of being damned. But I would not thank anybody for being damned; but I think, however, that such men as would not submit to his authority and rule ought to be damned, whether they like it or not. Nothing but obedience to his law, obedience in families, obedience to Bishops and to the Priesthood in all its ramifications, and especially to President Brigham Young as the head, to carry out his law to the whole people, can accomplish the purposes of God or our salvation as a people.

If the Lord can have a people to listen to his law, there may be a chance to establish his kingdom upon the earth: if not, the only way he can establish his kingdom is to remove them from the earth, or give up his kingdom until another time; for it is impossible to establish his kingdom without having a people obedient to him.

What does that obedience imply? Obedience in all things—that the Twelve should be obedient to the Presidency, the Seventies to the Twelve, and so on through all the ramifications of the Priesthood—obedience of wives to husbands, children to parents—and that a general order of this kind should be established in every neighborhood, in every house, and in every heart.

Well, this is the feeling that ought to exist; and where this feeling does not exist the Spirit of God does not exist; and where there is not a feeling of obedience, the Spirit of God will be withdrawn: people cannot retain it and be in rebellion against the authorities and counsels of the church and kingdom of God.

When the kingdom of God is established and his word is listened to, the spirit of obedience extends through the ramifications of the body of Christ, even as the sap extends through the trunk of a tree till it reaches to the ex– treme branches and twigs, and to every part of it. It is just like some of those large streams issuing from the mountains and dividing into smaller streams until they reach to every field and garden throughout the city.

Well, now, suppose some of you should say, or suppose a branch should say, “I want to be independent, and I will not be dependent upon the larger branches.” I ask, how will you help yourselves, except you take a course to be cut off? And then where will your sap come from? You will wither and wilt down.

Suppose you undertake to water the garden, and you say that you will not be dependent upon that larger stream. “It is true,” say you, “that I got my water from that stream; but I will not have anything to do with it now.” Will your vegetation flourish, if you discard the larger stream from whence you get your water? It will not. So in regard to the water of life, and so in regard to a tree. Jesus said, “A branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine;” nor can you do anything without obedience, for the moment you rebel you are in this position.

If we, as a little company gathered together on the tops of these mountains, in possession of the great and glorious privileges that we enjoy—if we cannot magnify our calling and honor the Priesthood conferred upon us, how do we expect salvation to flow to the world? How can we expect men to do what we do not do? To listen to and obey us, if we do not obey our superior officers?

Furthermore, as the servants of God here living in these mountains, the Lord is determined to try to prove us in every way; and we are, as it were, just broken loose from the old barren stalk. The old ship is about being launched, and we are thrown upon God and our own resources, both in a governmental and a mental capa– city. The Devil will be enraged—the powers of hell let loose upon us.

Now, let me ask how we are going to stand, except we are guided by the revelations of God? And let me further ask how you are going to get the revelations of God, except you live your religion and obey those set over you? Let me further ask, What is the use professing to be the people of God if we do not live our religion and magnify our calling?

I speak of these things merely for argument’s sake. I believe that, so far as I have seen, the general feeling among this people is to do right; but I merely speak of them, for it is necessary that we should have line upon line, precept upon precept: it is necessary that we should understand our true relationship.

For instance, there is an army coming up here. Can any of you tell what will be the result, except the proper authorities dictate? Do you know what will be the best? But suppose we get through with this, and I suppose that some of you may begin to guess for this year: but can you for next? Is there a man here that can tell how and where to hide his family and his grain? Are there any in this congregation who know anything about it and that give counsel to this people either for present or coming emergencies? This is bringing things to a focus. Now, you wise men, or men of education and literary attainments, or philosophers, speak and display your wisdom. If you cannot, and if we have not any knowledge in this matter, what next? Why, we have got to be dependent upon the authority that is over us; and if we cannot submit, how can we be governed by it?

This principle pervades all, whether in a civil or military capacity or in any other capacity. We used to have a difference between Church and State, but it is all one now. Thank God, we have no more temporal and spiritual! We have got Church and State together, and we used to talk of baptism and repentance, and we used to whip out sectarian priests with their own Bible, and we thought that we were tremendous fellows.

But in what part of the Bible do you find what we are to do this year or the next? This will be part of a new Bible, for when it takes place it will be written, and then that will be a Bible, and then the world will find that we shall have a “Mormon Bible.”

Men have been opposed to the Book of Mormon because it was a new Bible. The poor fools did not know that wherever there was a true Church there was revelation, and that wherever there was revelation there was the word of God to man and materials to make Bibles of. We are all of us now in the harness, and the issue is fast rolling upon us: it is therefore necessary that we understand our position. We have all had the opportunity of going away from here; but I do not know that you can have that opportunity now, for I see a proclamation here, and you cannot go without permission.

We have no vague theories: you have now to ask leave to go. The time has come for decisive action; and whether you are called to act in a religious, civil, or military capacity, it is all in the kingdom of God and the will of God is to be done upon the earth as angels do it in heaven.

We are not fit to occupy our places in the kingdom, either as High Priests, or as Seventies, or as Apostles, or as anything else, except we are willing and obedient: and the same thing applies to our families. Then let us seek to submit ourselves to the law of God and do it.

I do not know but I have talked long enough. God bless you, in the name of Jesus! Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, September 20, 1857.

There is but one course for this people to take, in order to be Saints; and that is to do right, to be just, to be true, and to be honest. I will tell you, gentlemen, it is not the character of a Saint to lie, to deceive, and to take the advantage of one another: that is not the character of a Saint. It is to receive the truth from God, from his Son Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Ghost.

Just as sure as I abide in the vine, so sure am I to partake of that Spirit that is in the Father; and it comes down through the Son, continuing down through that vine till it comes to me.

Well, I am standing very near the head of that vine; that is, the vine that is springing out of the Father, even in the latter days. Brother Brigham is the head of the vine, and I stand right by him, and every man that holds the Priesthood stands right by us, and should have the same Spirit that we have, and the same that was in Jesus Christ.

Now, if I have got the Holy Ghost in me, I am dictated by the Father, and by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost; and everything is clean and right between me and the Father. Then what is there to hinder me asking the Father, in the name of Jesus, and receiving, if all is right and there is no obstruction?

If there is an obstruction, that obstruction is not in the Father, it is not in Jesus, neither is it in the Holy Ghost; but if there is an obstruction, it is in me. I caused it, did I not? Yes, I did. But if we have the principles of this Gospel dwelling in us, that is by the Spirit of truth; and they are life.

Every word of truth you receive and treasure up in your bosoms is light and life, for light is life; and if these principles are in us, and we cultivate them, I tell you there is no spirit of death in us. But we abandon the principles of death, and there is no place in us for death; but it is light, and life, and intelligence; and if those principles continue to dwell in us, we will be like a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

How can a man lie when there is not an untruth in him? How can he take the advantage of his brother? How can he act the hypocrite? How can he be dishonest, when there are none of these things in him? How can he do any of these evil things, when there is nothing but light and truth in him?

I am aware that a great many people have not an idea that light is life, and truth is light: they do not believe it nor comprehend it; but it is so. Have I a disposition to lie to my brother? If I had said anything, and brother Brigham was to say, “Brother Heber, how is it? Is it so?” I would not dare to lie to him; for he holds the keys of life, light, and intelligence to this whole nation: he holds the keys of light and truth; and you might as well lie to God as to lie to him; for the man that would lie to him would lie to God.

Now, if any man follow the practice of lying, deceiving, or working any manner of iniquity, I do not care if he pretends to be a Saint today, his corruption will surely be made manifest; and although he may have a name to live and to dwell among this people, yet, if he continues that course, he will go to destruction, both body and spirit.

Take a person that practices evil, and you will see that person uneasy: such individuals are never easy a minute. But you take a person who has got the Spirit of God, who is humble, meek, and of a childlike spirit, that is the man. I do not care if he is in a mudhole, neither do I care if he has forty mobocrats after him, or if he is astraddle of a cannon, he is happy.

This makes me think of brother Amasa and brother McGinn: the mob took them and rode them on a cannon. Well, this is easier than it is to ride on a rail.

They asked them to preach; so brother McGinn preached to them, showing the reverence of the animal creation towards their God, and said, “The hen put down her head and took a drink of water, and then lifted up her head in thanks and adoration to her God. Well, you see, there is a good deal of thankfulness and reverence in a hen.” “Amen,” says brother Amasa: “Lord, make us all hens.” That was about the winding up of the discourse; and by preaching these things they gained the affections of those mobbers, so that they let them go.

Brethren, let us take the counsel that we received from brother Spencer; and let us be humble and be Saints; and let every man honor his calling and make it honorable; and by so doing, God will honor that man, and he will honour every man who honors that man and who honors his religion. If every man will live his religion, serve his God, and honor his Priesthood, we never will be troubled from this day henceforth and forever; no, never.

Will our enemies come among us? They won’t come this year; they may try as much as they please.

[President B. Young: “Except we let them in.”]

No, never can they come here, except we let them in.

Well, as the evil is measurably turned away this year, if the Saints will be faithful, they will be foiled next year, and then more abundantly the year after that, and so on. But they will keep sending their troops and forces from year to year and from time to time, and you need not lay down your watch. The day has come when the Devil is coming with all his combined forces: he has laid a siege against the kingdom of God, and it never will cease till this kingdom triumphs.

It is for you to be just as good judges of the truth as I am; and you will be, if the truth dwells in you.

Brethren, let me tell you that I have no spirit in me to shed blood. I never had it in me but once in my life, except I have it in me when I am angry. Once I was inspired by the Almighty with that spirit, and that was in Nauvoo; and so was brother Brigham; and I felt to say that I was sorry that peace was declared. We had just got ready when the gap was shut up.

Do I want to shed the blood of my brethren and sisters, or to see it shed? No: and neither do you, unless the Holy Ghost dictates for us to shed the blood of our enemies; then it is just as right as it is for us to partake of the sacrament. But I wish they would take the hint, and go the other way, and not attempt to come here. We do not want to hurt them; but if they come upon us, and we have to repel them by the force of arms, God Almighty will give us the power to do it: now, mark it.

You know, I said that I had wives enough to whip the United States; and why? Because they will whip themselves, and my wives would not have to resist them.

This is a good day; and what is there for us to do? It is for us to take a course to lay up our grain, our corn, our barley, and oats. A great many of you have been brought up on oatmeal porridge. I have been in the old country, and seen you live on it, and have eaten it with you; and so has brother Hyde.

There are thousands of people in England that would consider they were perfectly happy, if they could get one spoonful of oatmeal each day for life. I have heard brother Brigham state the same thing. Why, here are women, and men, too, who sing before us, with whom I have eaten oatmeal porridge; and I like it, for it is digested very quickly, and leaves people very comfortable.

And now, take a course to lay up your stores and prepare for the worst. We are blest, this year, above all the blessings that have been since the earth was organized.

Here is brother James Smithies: he is working some land on shares for me upon the Church farm. He has this year raised one-third more than any previous year, and on less ground. And this people are blest in proportion like that. Who has done it? God has done it, and has blest this people, because they have repented of and forsaken their sins, and confessed them, many of them.

Well, if we take this course, he will continue to bless us and to multiply blessings upon us; but, let me tell you, brethren and sisters, if you persist in evil, in lying, and in your deceptions, the curse of God will be upon you, and you will be cursed.

I do not allude to any, only those of that character; and if there are any of that character present, I will say to them, If you feel disposed to persist in your wickedness, you shall see sorrow, while the virtuous and the honest shall increase in blessings; their crops, their stock, and all that they have shall increase. There is no blessing that can be withheld from a righteous man or a righteous woman: the heavens cannot withhold its blessings; but all the blessings of the heavens and of the earth are theirs, because they are heirs.

We are to become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What blessings are to be withheld from Jesus Christ? There is no blessing pertaining to this earth but what belongs to Jesus: then there is no blessing that will be withheld from the faithful.

Brethren and sisters, we are heirs with him to the estate of his Father, just as much as two sons and one daughter and their faithful children are legal heirs to a father’s estate. When a father dies and makes his will, he wills that property to them that are faithful to him; and so it is with us; and it is natural.

I feel to ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to help my brethren to live their religion, honor their Priesthood and calling; and I pray you, brethren, to live your religion and serve your God, that we may see the power and the magnitude of our God in the last days. I tell you there never were any people, since the world was organized, that have seen such mighty and romantic power of God as this people will see.

Is there a collision between us and the United States? No; we have not collashed: that is the word that sounds nearest to what I mean. But now the thread is cut between them and us, and we never will gybe again; no, never, worlds without end.

[Voices: “Amen.”]

You may think that I am not correct; but I am in the habit of telling the truth when in fun as well as in earnest; and men that cannot are not worth much.

We have never been the aggressors, but they have raised the weapons of war to exterminate us as many as five times, and they have robbed us of all we had. I have but three little articles in this world that I obtained before I was a “Mormon”—an earthen vessel, a tin tea canister, and a chest that brother Brigham made for me: he made me several, but that was the first one.

I have been robbed, and plundered, and afflicted, if you call it affliction; but I do not call it affliction. I have heard many tell of what sorrowful times they have had; but they are as good times as ever I had in this life. I leave it to brother Brigham, if I have not been as happy in the mud as I have been anywhere. Some of you have seen these times in Iowa: I think some of you were there. I had happy days during those times; and I am happy and thankful that I live in the tops of these mountains, right on the backbone, where we have got on some good spurs. I tell you we boast that we are on the tops of the mountains; but let us boast in the Lord and in his strength.

We have received the Gospel of repentance—of baptism for the remission of sins; and we have received the Holy Ghost, and it has brought us here. Well, a great many tell what sorrowful times they have had. “O dear, I think I have a perfect right to lie like the Devil; for I think what I have passed through ought to atone for all I have done.” It is a poor coot, let me tell you, that will make such excuses. Let me tell you, that does not pay for one lie.

Supposing you lie, or steal, or commit adultery, and so on—what you have suffered is not going to pay for this debt. Independently of these things, what are trials for? To prove our integrity—to try us, whether we will stand to God and to his kingdom. The Bible says that we are to come up through great tribulation; that is, the hardest kind of trials. You know, the harder you put on the robes to the washboard, the better they are washed.

I want to bring up a comparison. Brother Brigham is the head of the limb: and which has the hardest work to bear—he that has to lug all that is attached to that vine, or you that are branches of that vine? Which is the hardest, and which has the most to carry—the tree, or the one apple that clings to the tree? Which has the most suffering to pass through—one individual apple, or the tree itself?

Your troubles, and trials, and perplexities are nothing more than one apple, in comparison to brother Brigham’s cares; and still I presume there are lots who think that they have more trouble than brother Brigham or brother Heber. But you do not appreciate your privileges and blessings: you are not thankful to the giver, or to the benefactor; and that makes you troublesome, and you feel as if you could not endure it: you feel that you are passing through more than all the rest of the Saints.

Do you suppose that I calculate to get any pay for what I pass through? No; but I am thankful, and praise the Lord every day of my life that I was true to Joseph, and to Hyrum, and the brethren that have gone. What would those give that were not faithful, if they had been as true as brother Brigham and brother Heber? They would give all they have got; yes, they would sit down and be skinned from head to foot, and have every nail pulled out of their toes and fingers. I am thankful that I was faithful; but I am sorry for them: but that man that has murmured, and complained, and tried to make brother Joseph a dishonest and unhallowed man, has great need to mourn for himself.

If I were in the position of some, instead of letting a week pass before I made an atonement to the satisfaction of those offended, I would go right off and do it at once. Some men come upon this stand who have acted unrighteously, and forsaken and betrayed us, and thereby brought death and destruction upon thousands of men, women, and children. They will get up and say, “I have sinned against God and in his sight; and now, brethren, I want you to restore me to perfect fellowship and friendship.”

Do you not see that they want to be restored, every limb and joint, to the perfect embraces of this people? Well, we have to take them at their word and receive them into fellowship. Do I feel to say, Yes, receive them? Yes, I do. But are they in full fellowship when they have been out of the Church ten or twenty years? How can such a man be restored to full fellowship without a time for making restitution to the complete satisfaction of all the parties aggrieved—until we can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into our joys and partake of our blessings?” This is my faith. If a person takes a course to injure me, although he might not injure, yet it is the same as though he did: the will is taken for the deed.

I look to my head and to my governor—the man who holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven on the earth. I have thought, a great many times, of what the Lord has said, through his servant Joseph the Prophet, that not a hair falleth from the head of a righteous man without the notice of our heavenly Father. Do you think that God does not notice little lies and deceptions—little this, that, and the other?

Do you believe, brethren and sisters, that that man who does not appreciate the kindness of his benefactor that feeds him, and clothes him, and administers to his wants—do you suppose that he will be thankful to God for his favors? No; the men or the women who do not appreciate the kindness of their benefactor, are not thankful to God. They are under condemnation; they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; and I know it.

Did I ever receive a kindness or a blessing from a person without being grateful for it? No, never; but, say I, “Thank you for this, because it comes when I am in need of it.” Well, supposing I mete out to a person from year to year, and he or she does not appreciate it, but says, “It is nothing more than your reasonable service, Mr. Kimball, to give me a living.” Well, we admit of that; and it is no more than reasonable that you should make some kind of acknowledgement and show kindness to me.

I would not give a dime for you, except your love is manifested by your works—by your faith and works. Love or hatred is manifested in this way. Do not I prove to that man that I return the compliment to him by my kindness? The man or woman that will not return the compliment is not of much account.

I have said for years that never—no, never again will I be subject to such cursed scoundrels as the United States Government have sent here as officers. I say, in the name of Israel’s God, I will not.

[Voices: “Amen.”]

James Buchanan now occupies the chair of state. He and his counselors, his coadjutors, his cabinet, and Congress have met and planned the destruction of this people—of brother Brigham and his associates in particular; and the priests of the day say amen to it; and they exhort the people to say amen to it; and the whole people of the United States are under condemnation. They consented to the death of Joseph, Hyrum, David, Parley, and lots of men, women, and children. The ground is planted with men, women, and children, from Nauvoo to this place; and the world have consented to it, and they say it is just.

The Government, the President, the heads of the military departments and of all the governmental affairs have consented to these things.

When we were poor, and lived on cow-hides and cattle, skunks and thistle roots, brother Brigham and his brethren paddled this way and that way, and sought out this place.

While we were in Winter Quarters, 500 men were demanded. They traveled over the Plains and gained a part of Mexico, which is this land. Then came grasshoppers and crickets, and eat up our crops; and our enemies have all the time been saying that it is just—they deserve it.

Now, brethren, if you can comprehend what I have said, they shall suffer all that we have, and it shall be doubled upon them, and then it shall be pressed down.

I know that while you and I have no feelings of anger, we are right. Jesus says, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” The Scriptures say that Jesus said this; but if he did not, it is just as true as anything that is written: it is God Almighty’s truth. Yes, they will meet it in the United States, beginning at the head.

But we are free! They have laid a snare to entrap us and to kill brother Brigham; and they want to hang him between the heavens and the earth, and every other man that will support him: but as the Lord God Almighty lives, they shall meet that also; and if I had the power, I would tell it to them so that they could hear it. Do I fear them? I do not fear anything that is upon this earth.

Do I fear my God? No; but I love him, and I fear to offend him. He is my Father, and I sprang out of his loins, just as my son William Kimball’s children sprang out of his loins; and every man and woman that has been upon this earth was once in our Father’s loins, just as much as my children ever were in mine; and Jesus was the firstborn, and we are heirs of our Father and our God, and we will gain the prize through much tribulation.

Let me tell you that ten years will not pass away before God will play with this nation as he did with Pharaoh, only worse.

I tell you these things, that you may know that wherein you measure out you have got to receive back; and where you lie, you have got to take that lie back; and where you offend your God and benefactor, as the Lord God liveth, you have to take that back, or you will get a scourging—that is, where your benefactor is a man of truth and is walking in his calling.

If I abuse brother Brigham, it is my business to make satisfaction to that man. Well, I would not offend him nor any good man in this congregation; no, I would not. If I offend him, I do it ignorantly; and if I did, I would repent of it. I did offend him once or twice in my life, and I repented in tears and in sorrow; and I wish to God there had never such things existed since I was born. Well, I was ignorant, and I was a child. Well, if I have got to make those recantations, you have, too, when you offend or do wrong to each other.

I am teaching what you call strong doctrine; but I am teaching nothing but what is true. It was true to me, and it is equally true to you. It is the duty of every Elder, Teacher, High Priest, and Deacon to begin to live a new life. Why? Can you do any better than you are doing this day? Yes.

This year I have built a barn 102 feet long. Well, then, the next year I may build two such barns. This proves that the more a man does the more he is capable of doing. But because I made ten rods of fence last week, does that prove that I can make twenty this week? If you, sisters, knit one stocking this week, must you knit two next week, and kill yourselves? Or, if you have put ten yards of cloth in your skirt this year, should you put in twenty next year? No; but put in six next year. But I want to show you the extremes.

I was speaking here, last Sunday, by the permission of brother Brigham, of brother Eddington. He is an honest man; or, if he is not, we will prove him.

[President B. Young: “You will prove him to be an honest man.”]

Well, brother Eddington seemed to fall in with the idea. We want the ladies to bring in their surplus clothes for brother Eddington to sell for wheat and other grain. I speak of the females, because they have got the most clothes in their hands. If you have got five dresses, hand two over to him, and let him buy wheat, corn, barley, pork, mutton, tallow, &c.; and then he will pay you in those articles for your coats, jackets, pantaloons, and bustles! Just put in your bustles there, and get them full of wheat instead of bran!

I have foreseen the necessities of these things.

Go and take your clothes, and do not be afraid that you will never get any more; for, let me tell you, if you will lay up these stores, you will have clothing till it shall be a drug and a trouble to you.

You do not believe that, some of you; but I tell you, if you do not believe it, and if you do not know it, it is because you are not living your religion. But the day will be, and it is right at our doors, when thousands and millions in the United States and in the old countries will come to us and render to us all the rich things that this earth affords, in exchange for food.

Brother Eddington says that where there is one person that brings clothing there are twenty that have wheat to dispose of. Go into the country north and south, and there is not one woman in ten that has got as much cloth as you have on your backs today.

There are many before me that have got an abundance of as good clothes as ever were put on, while those who live in the country have scarcely any.

Do not be afraid of brother Eddington, for he is an honorable man, and will pay you in wheat, corn, buckwheat, tallow, or anything else that he can command. Well, you take a course to sustain him and buy wheat; and if you do not want it, there are others that are ready to take it; and the day will come when you will hand over your rich clothing and jewelry for it.

Do you not know that brother Brigham told you he would not deal it free again?

[President B. Young: “We will buy them too.”]

Brother Brigham Young does not lie, nor his brother Heber.

Well, now, am I going to save men and women by lying. No; I will save myself by telling the truth; and I will take the truth all the time, and others may take lies, and see which get to heaven first. I tell you, you will find us as far apart as are heaven and hell.

“Well,” says one, “Are you going to do this?” Yes, I am going to put one suit of clothes on and sell the rest, except a change; and see if the day does not come when I will have so many clothes that my wives will not have boxes to put them in.

I realize that I am a poor man—a worm of creation; but I just know that when I dwell in the truth—in Jesus Christ—when I dwell in his light and partake of his Spirit, I am right. I would give more for one hundred men of this character than I would give for this whole people, if they were not of that character. Can they whip the world? Yes; men of that character will whip everything that can be put on that road, from this place to Dan, and from there to Beersheba. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 13, 1857.

The last time, I believe, brethren and sisters, that I had the privilege of speaking from this stand, was the day previous to my starting for the southern country. We were then expecting a visit from a very formidable force, directly from the State of Missouri. It waked up in my mind the feelings that I used to have—say from ten to twenty years ago, in hearing the constant annoyance of an approaching enemy. And according to the report which has been published of my remarks, I talked rather strong. But one thing is evident—if I did not talk strong, it was not because I did not feel strong on the occasion.

I left the next morning and wended my way southward. I visited the different settlements hurriedly, until I reached Parowan, in the county of Iron, the place of the first settlement in the southern part of the Territory. When I arrived there, it appeared that some rumor or spirit of surprise had reached them; for there were active operations going on, seemingly preparing for something that was near at hand. As I drove in at the gate, I beheld the military on the square exercising, and was immediately surrounded by the “Iron Battalion,” which seemed to have held its own very well since it was organized in that place.

They had assembled together under the impression that their country was about to be invaded by an army from the United States, and that it was necessary to make preparation by examining each other’s arms, and to make everything ready by preparing to strike in any direction and march to such places as might be necessary in the defense of their homes.

As it will be well recollected, I was the President of the company that first made the settlement there. I was received with every feeling of enthusiasm, and I never found them in better spirits. They were willing any moment to touch fire to their homes, and hide themselves in the mountains, and to defend their country to the very last extremity.

Now, there had been no such preaching as that when I went away; but the Spirit seemed to burn in my bones to visit all these settlements in that southern region. Colonel Dame was about organizing the military of that district under the law of last winter. As the Colonel was going along to organize the military, I got into the carriage and went on a mission of peace, to preach to the people. When I got to Cedar, I found the Battalions on parade, and the Colonel talked to them and completed the new organization.

On the following day, I addressed the Saints at their meetinghouse. I never had greater liberty of speech to proclaim to the people my feelings and views; and in spite of all I could do, I found myself preaching a military discourse; and I told them, in case of invasion, it might be necessary to set fire to our property, and hide in the mountains, and leave our enemies to do the best they could. It seemed to be hailed with the same enthusiasm that it was at Parowan. That was the same Sabbath that brother Young was preaching the same kind of doctrine; and I am perfectly satisfied that all the districts in the southern country would have given him their unanimous vote.

I then went to Harmony. Brother Dame preached to the military, and I to the civil powers; and I must say that my discourse partook of the military more than the religious. But it seemed that I was perfectly running over with it, and hence I had to say something about it.

I then went over a lovely country, and passed over “Peter’s Leap,” and some other such lovely places. It is rather rough; but I could not but admire its extreme beauty; and I think, if the Lord had got up all the rough, rocky, and the broken fragments of the earth in one, he might have dropped it down there.

When I reached the cotton country, I had previously learned that they were failing in their attempts to raise cotton, and that the waters of the Rio Virgin were poisoning the cotton. But I learned that the seed had not come up: but what had come up, perhaps one-third of it was exceedingly fine. The difficulty was, that their cotton was planted very late, and the sun heated the sand; for the soil is nothing but the red sand of Sahara. They planted in the sand, as there was nowhere else to plant it, and the sun was scorching it; but they found that all that was necessary was to keep the sand wet; and when they poured on the water, the cotton grew. And old cotton growers told me that they had never seen a better prospect for cotton, for the time it had been planted, in the world; and this is the condition of things in that country, and the prospect is, that they will have pretty good cotton and about the third of a crop, and the next year they will be able to raise lots of cotton; for they will be there early enough, and have seed that can be depended upon.

The corn in Tutse-gabbot’s field, which was planted early, was eighteen feet high. If the sand was not wet, it would all blow away. The country seemed very hot to me; otherwise, I enjoyed the visit very well. But the brethren insisted that it was a very cool spell while I was there.

I preached to them in Washington City, and I thank the Lord for the desert holes that we live in, and for all the land that can be watered—in all, amounting to but a few hundred acres. There are but a few rods wide that can be watered in a place; but I tell you, when the day comes that the Saints need these hills to be covered with vegetation, they have only to exercise faith, and God will turn them into fruitful fields.

We started from Washington in the night, and the brethren told me, if I had seen the roads, I would not travel them. But I told them I did not want to see the roads; for I was determined to go ahead.

We traveled ten miles, and camped by a small spring, called “Allen’s Spring.” Some Indians took our horses. We told them we were afraid they would get into some cornfields. They told us they would put them where they would get plenty to eat and do no mischief. The Indians brought our horses early in the morning, and we arrived at “Jacob’s Wikeup,” as the Indians call Fort Clara, about nine o’clock, and found their crops suffering for want of water. I saw beautiful indigo, cotton, and corn; and the stalks of the corn were perfectly dry, while the ears were green and fit to boil.

We also had a glorious interview in this, as in other places, with the natives of the desert. We remained there through the heat of the day, and then proceeded down “Jacob’s Twist” (a magnificent canyon), to where the California road joins the Santa Clara, and then followed up the Santa Clara in the dark of the night—a river upon whose banks many scenes of desperation have been enacted.

About ten o’clock at night, we were surrounded by some hundreds of the natives that were anxious we should stop overnight. They took care of our horses, built us campfires, and roasted us corn, and made us as comfortable as they could; and I never ate better corn or better melons in my life. We stopped overnight with them, and not one of them asked me for a thing; which is remarkable, as the Indians are intolerable beggars. But I was treated as well as if I had been among the Saints, and I never enjoyed a treat better.

We pursued our visit to the Mountain Meadows, and there were kindly treated by the families of the missionaries, who lived at this place on account of the abundant grass for their stock. I then went to Penter, and there addressed a houseful of people in the evening, and then proceeded to Cedar the next day. They had heard they were going to have an army of 600 dragoons come down from the East on to the town. The Major seemed very sanguine about the matter. I asked him, if this rumor should prove true, if he was not going to wait for instructions. He replied, There was no time to wait for any instruction; and he was going to take his battalion and use them up before they could get down through the canyons; for, said he, if they are coming here, they are coming for no good.

I admired his grit, but I thought he would not have the privilege of using them up, for want of an opportunity. I also visited the Saints at Paragoonah and preached to them, and in every place felt the same spirit. I then came over to Beaver, which is a new settlement; and the day previous, an Indian came in and told them there were shod horses’ tracks at a spring over the big mountains about twenty miles to the east.

Major Farnsworth, supposing that there was a body of men in the neighborhood, and that these were the tracks of the scouts, they immediately went over the mountains and traced the horses’ tracks, until they ascertained they came from Parowan. I do not know whether the inhabitants of Parowan intended to whip a regiment of dragoons, or not; but it is certain they are wide awake, and are not going to be taken by surprise. There was only one thing that I dreaded, and that was a spirit in the breasts of some to wish that their enemies might come and give them a chance to fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States. They did feel that they hated to owe a debt and not be able to pay it, and they felt like an old man that lives in Provo, brother Jameson, who has carried a few ounces of lead in his body ever since the Haun’s Mill massacre in Missouri; and he wants to pay it back with usury; and he undertook to preach at Provo, and prayed that God would send them along; for he wanted to have a chance at them.

Now, I never felt so; but I do not know but it is on account of my extreme timidity; for I would a great deal rather the Lord would fight the battles than me; and I feel to pray that he will punish them with that hell which is to want to and can’t; and it is my prayer and wish all the time that this may be their doom. This is what I want to inculcate all the time; and at the same time, if the Lord brings us in collision with them, and it is his will, let us take hold—not in the spirit of revenge or anger, but simply to avenge God of his enemies and to protect our homes and firesides. But I am perfectly aware that all the settlements I visited in the south, Fillmore included, one single sentence is enough to put every man in motion. In fact, a word is enough to set in motion every man, or set a torch to every building, where the safety of this people is jeopardized.

I have understood that there are half-a-dozen fellows in Provo that have but one wife each, and that they are not for fighting, because they say this trouble has come on account of plurality. Well, I pity them, because I know the women will leave them, and that it would not be but a few days before there would be so many brokenhearted, disconsolate men; for the women among the Latter-day Saints will not live with such men.

I have rejoiced and enjoyed myself on this visit to the south as much as at any time; for I perceive a hearty willingness to do and sacrifice anything that was required for the preservation of Zion; and whenever I got up to preach, I was full, and it seemed as if I could not stop; and before I got through, I would be tired.

I will say to the brethren and sisters, that I feel to return to my heavenly Father my thanks that he has thus far frustrated the designs of our enemies; and I know that he has got the power to wield and frustrate them at his will; and I know, if we are humble and united, and moved upon by the right Spirit, God will fight our battles. And if any of us are called to lay down our lives in the defense of our religion, God will save us in celestial glory, and he will preserve us, though all the world be against us.

[President B. Young: “That is true.”]

These are my feelings, and this is my faith. No matter what day or hour we are called to go into the presence of our Father in heaven; for every man and woman that has not got a religion that is worth more than their mortal lives, and unless we are willing to sacrifice all that pertains to these temporal feelings, we are not worthy of salvation.

Why, there was an honest Dutchman came to me this morning, and he had just heard that the President had concluded to let the soldiers in here. His heart had sunk within him at the thought, and “Oh!” says he, “can I live to see those troops come in here?” He can live through a great many things besides that. God will protect his people, and he will fight their battles; and if he wants a little help, I presume that he will find us ready.

I have preached to the brethren to live their religion, and “trust in God and keep their powder dry.” I borrowed it from Cromwell. Be ready to defend Israel; and when we have done all we can, the Lord will do the balance. Why, say the world, it is presumption for you to talk so. Uncle Sam has twenty-five millions of people, and 100,000,000 of surplus money in the treasury, and thousands of men in the country that are aching to be killed. We used to talk to them in this way when we lived down in their midst; and then, when it came to the sticking point, we would bow to them; and what did we get by it? Brother Taylor told you that thousands had suffered in consequence.

I tell you, we have suffered more waste of life and property than we will to face the music; and let them do their cursedest, and then every honest Dutchman and every man will get all he wants; and many of us Yankees will get many of our dirty tricks purged and pruned out of us; and our picayunary will vanish; it will all fail; for everything that we have in our hearts that is not right will be purged out; for our interest will be centered in the kingdom of God.

When I was back in Washington last season, I had a long conversation with Senator Douglas; and he is a kind of personification of modern democracy—very thick, but not very long. He asked a great many questions about our Temple, and I gave him a description of the foundation, and he asked me if I expected we would ever be able to accomplish it? The manner he communicated it was to show that he had his eye upon another thing than that which he alluded to; but I realized then just as well as I did when I read his proposition to “cut out the loathsome ulcer.” I said to him, “O Judge, we are not a little handful, as we were in Nauvoo: we can now do anything we have a mind to.”

Some of our national statesmen profess to be Christians and wonderfully pious. Mr. Morill, of Vermont, said to me, “Your domestic relations are so at variance with sacred books!” Why, said I, the Father of the faithful, our father Abraham, seemed to have the same view of the matter that we do. “Oh,” says he, “Abraham was guilty of a great many eccentric tricks.” “Eccentric as he might be,” I replied, “it is in his bosom that all Christians expect to rest; and we do not expect that he is going to kick his wives out to please anybody.”

Many people do not know why it is that they feel so enraged against us. I found in talking with hundreds and thousands of persons, in the course of our travels, that there was a deep-rooted spirit of hatred; and in talking of this I found that my reasons were superior to theirs; and they felt it and realized it, and my conversation seemed to suit and carry a good influence.

Our Elders have preached the Gospel freely throughout the world, and they have tarred and feathered them and put them to death. If they could have defeated them by arguments, all well enough: but no—these weapons proved ineffectual, and they tried mobs and violence; and now they array the armies of the United States against us, that under their wings they may send missionaries among us to convert our souls. Poor cursed slinks! Do not they know that we were raised among them in the very hotbed of sectarian bigotry, and that we know all that the priests know about their religion, and ten thousand times more?

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, September 13, 1857.

Before the meeting closes, I want to make a few remarks. My feelings are so complicated that I want to say a few words, and I do not want to; I want to talk, and I do not want to talk. You recollect hearing one of the Elders state upon the stand, not long since, that he came into the Church mad, and had been mad ever since. And I am too angry this morning to preach.

I have been in this kingdom a good while—twenty-five years and upwards, and I have been driven from place to place; my brethren have been driven, my sisters have been driven; we have been scattered and peeled, and every time without any provocation upon our part, only that we were united, obedient to the laws of the land, and striving to worship God. Mobs repeatedly gathered against this people, but they never had any power to prevail until Governors issued their orders and called out a force under the letter of the law, but breaking the spirit, to hold the “Mormons” still while infernal scamps cut their throats. I have had all that before me through the night past, and it makes me too angry to preach. Also to see that we are in a Government whose administrators are always trying to injure us, while we are constantly at the defiance of all hell to prove any just grounds for their hostility against us; and yet they are organizing their forces to come here, and protect infernal scamps who are anxious to come and kill whom they please, destroy whom they please, and finally exterminate the “Mormons.”

I did not arrive till late; and brother Taylor was then preaching upon this subject, and I was glad of it. He has taught you good principles. This people are free; they are not in bondage to any government on God’s footstool. We have transgressed no law, and we have no occasion to do so, neither do we intend to; but as for any nation’s coming to destroy this people, God Almighty being my helper, they cannot come here. [The congregation responded by a loud Amen.] That is my feeling upon that point.

On the 24th of July last, a number of us went to Big Cottonwood Canyon, to pass the anniversary of our arrival into this Valley. Ten years ago the 24th of July last, a few of the Elders arrived here, and began to plough and to plant seeds, to raise food to sustain themselves. Whilst speaking to the brethren on that day, I said, inadvertently, If the people of the United States will let us alone for ten years, we will ask no odds of them; and ten years from that very day, we had a message by brothers Smoot, Stoddard, and Rockwell, that the Government had stopped the mail, and that they had ordered 2,500 troops to come here and hold the “Mormons” still, while priests, politicians, speculators, whoremongers, and every mean, filthy character that could be raked up should come here and kill off the “Mormons.” I did not think about what I had said ten years ago, till I heard that the President of the United States had so unjustly ordered troops here; and then I said, when my former expression came to my mind, In the name of Israel’s God, we ask no odds of them.

I do not often get angry; but when I do, I am righteously angry; and the bosom of the Almighty burns with anger towards those scoundrels; and they shall be consumed, in the name of Israel’s God. We have borne enough of their oppression and hellish abuse, and we will not bear any more of it; for there is no just law requiring further forbearance on our part. And I am not going to have troops here to protect the priests and a hellish rabble in efforts to drive us from the land we possess; for the Lord does not want us to be driven, and has said, “If you will assert your rights, and keep my commandments, you shall never again be brought into bondage by your enemies.”

The officer in command of the United States’ army, on its way to Utah, detailed one of his staff, Captain Van Vliet, who is now on the stand, to come here and learn whether he could procure the necessary supplies for the army. Many of you are already aware of this, and some of you have been previously acquainted with the Captain. Captain Van Vliet visited us in Winter Quarters (now Florence); and, if I remember correctly, he was then officiating as Assistant-Quartermaster. He is again in our midst in the capacity of Assistant-Quartermaster. From the day of his visit to Winter Quarters, many of this people have become personally acquainted with him, both through casual intercourse with and working for him. He has invariably treated them kindly, as he would a Baptist, a Methodist, or any other person; for that is his character. He has always been found to be free and frank, and to be a man that wishes to do right; and no doubt he would deal out justice to all, if he had the power. Many of you have labored for him, and found him to be a kind, good man; and I understand that he has much influence in the army, through his kind treatment to the soldiers. He treats them as human beings, while there are those who treat them worse than brute beasts.

Well, the enquiry is, “What is the news? What is the conclusion?” It is this—We have to trust in God. I am not in the least concerned as to the result, if we put our trust in God. The administrators of our Government have issued orders for marching troops and expending much treasure, and all predicated upon falsehoods, while every honorable man would have first made an economical and peaceful enquiry into the circumstances. And even now, every honorable man would use all his influence to avert the present unjust and entirely groundless movement against us; but Captains, Majors, Colonels, and other subordinate officers have not the power. Wicked persons, solely for the accomplishment of their unhallowed schemes, have had the power to array the Government against us, through their lying and misrepresentation; but citizens, unorganized into cliques and parties, no matter how good their intentions and wishes, have not the power to avert the blow when the Administration of our Government is arrayed against us, unless they will also unite against the few well-organized scoundrels who are plundering our treasury and fast urging our country to dissolution. We have got to protect ourselves by the strength of our God. Do not be concerned in the least with regard to all the affairs that are before you; for we shall live and grow finely, as said a certain woman, who weighed but two pounds when an infant, and was put in a quart cup. Upon being asked whether she lived, “O yes,” she said, “I lived and grew finely.” It will also be said of the Latter-day Saints, “They lived and grew finely.”

You are taught from Sabbath to Sabbath what to do; and if you do that, all will be well. There is only one thing to fear, and that is, that you will not be faithful to the kingdom of God. We have that kingdom; and it will spread its balmy wings over thousands and millions who have not yet heard the Gospel, and they will find Israel to be “the head, and not the tail.”

What is the cause of the hostile feeling against this people? Brother Taylor has been telling you. God has restored the Gospel of salvation to earth again. That unites the hearts of the people, brings together those of different nations, notwithstanding their various traditions and their different manners and customs, and makes them of one heart and of one mind. And what follows? All hell is moved against them, because the kingdoms of this world—the kingdoms of darkness—are in danger. All hell is moved against this people, because we are of one heart and of one mind.

The faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is calculated to unite the people in one, and to bring them back to the unity and faith of those who obeyed the Gospel anciently, and finally to bring them back to glory. Then do you wonder that all the sects of the day are enraged against us? I have told you that I do not wonder; neither do I wonder that governors and rulers are enraged at our success. Are there any Democrats, any Whigs, any Methodists, any Baptists, or anything like the parties and sects of the day among us? No. What is there? Those who want to do the will of their Father in heaven; and when they can know his will, their faith is one, their hope is one, and they are one in all things.

It is not alone the United States that is in fear because of the union that exists with this people, but all Europe trembles this day in consequence of the faith there is here. Some may think that it is not so; but I know more about the United States than men do who come here direct from Washington. I read their history and their feelings every day. You need not think that the world are not opposed to us—you need not think that politicians are not opposed to us, for they are.

We have sent a delegate to Congress during the past six years, and has there ever been an opposing vote in his election? No. The people only want to know who the right man is, and then they will support him. Dr. Bernhisel is our delegate; and has it cost him thousands of dollars to gain his election? No; it has not cost him a single dollar; no, not so much as a red cent. We think that he is the most suitable man for us to send to Washington, and we say, “Let us send him,” and he is unanimously elected. And if we had a thousand officers to elect—if we had to elect the President of the United States, you would never see a dissenting vote.

Parties in our Government have no better idea than to think the republic stands all the firmer upon opposition; but I say that it is not so. A republican Government consists in letting the people rule by their united voice, without a dissension—in learning what is for the best, and unitedly doing it. That is true republicanism.

Do not be angry. I will permit you to be as angry as I am. Do not get so angry that you cannot pray: do not allow yourselves to become so angry that you cannot feed an enemy—even your worst enemy, if an opportunity should present itself. There is a wicked anger, and there is a righteous anger. The Lord does not suffer wicked anger to be in his heart; but there is anger in his bosom, and he will hold a controversy with the nations, and will sift them, and no power can stay his hand.

The Government of our country will go by the board through its own corruptions, and no power can save it. If we can avert the blow for another season, it is probable that our enemies will have enough to attend to at home, without worrying the Latter-day Saints. Have faith, and all will be well with us. I would like this people to have faith enough to turn away their enemies. I have prayed fervently about this matter; for it has been said that the troops would come: but I have said that, if my faith will prevent it, they shall not come. If God will turn them whithersoever he will, so that they do not come here, I shall be perfectly satisfied. But another man steps up, and says to the one that prays for our enemies to be turned away, “Brother, you are a coward; damn them, let them come, for I want fight to them.” Herein you perceive a conflict in our faith; and that should not be. If there was a perfect union of our faith, our enemies could never cross the Rocky Mountains; or, if they undertook to come some other way, they never could cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains, nor the Basin Rim, on our north, nor the deserts at the south. But, says one, “I want to fight.” Do all such persons know that they are not right? If they will examine their hearts, they will find a wicked anger and a malice there; and they cannot get into the kingdom of God with those feelings.

Learn to control yourselves; learn to be in the hands of God as clay in the hands of the potter; and if he will turn our enemies away, praised be his name. But if it should become a duty to take the sword, let us do it manfully and in the strength of Israel’s God. Then “one will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight.” The day will be in which a man will go out and say to an army of a hundred thousand men, “Do thus, and so, or we are upon you;” and they will hear the rumbling of chariots and the rushing of troops, as in the days of Elijah.

You recollect of a Prophet’s telling what bread and meal should be sold for in a straitened city the following day. The enemy thought that there were millions of the Israelites after them, for they heard the rolling of chariot wheels, the clashing of armor, and the trampling of horses, and they fled. The Prophet had told the king that he would be trodden to death in the gate, and he was; and a measure of meal was sold in the city for a penny, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord. The doctrines of salvation are the same now as they were in the days of Adam, or Elijah, or Jesus, when he was upon the earth.

While brother Taylor was speaking of the sectarian world, it occurred to my mind that the wicked do not know any more than the dumb brutes, comparatively speaking; but it is our business to hunt up and gather out all the honest portion of the nations of the earth, and give them salvation. We may very properly say that the sectarian world do not know anything correctly, so far as pertains to salvation. Ask them where heaven is? Where they are going to when they die? Where Paradise is? And there is not a priest in the world that can answer your questions. Ask them what kind of a being our Heavenly Father is, and they cannot tell you so much as Balaam’s ass told him. They are more ignorant than children.

We have the knowledge of those things; and we have the greatest reason to be thankful of any people upon the face of the earth. If others ought to do right, we more. Be full of love and compassion to your fellow beings, full of kindness, such as human beings can possess, for that is our business. The only business that we have on hand is to build up the kingdom of God and prepare the way of the Son of Man.

If you do your duty in this respect, you need not be afraid of mobs, nor of forces sent out in violation of the very genius of our free institutions, holding you till mobs kill you. Mobs? Yes; for where is there the least particle of authority, either in our Constitution or laws, for sending troops here, or even for appointing civil officers contrary to the voluntary consent of the governed? We came here without any help from our enemies, and we intend to stay as long as we please.

They say that their army is legal, and I say that such a statement is as false as hell, and that they are as rotten as an old pumpkin that has been frozen seven times and then melted in a harvest sun. Come on with your thousands of illegally-ordered troops, and I will promise you, in the name of Israel’s God, that you shall melt away as the snow before a July sun.

There is one thing that I want, for the satisfaction of Captain Van Vliet. One of our old senators, Stephen A. Douglas, recently said before his constituents in Illinois, that nine-tenths of our people were aliens. We have a larger proportion of foreigners in this city than in any other part of the Territory, and there are a good many here today who have just come in from the Plains. I want those who are native born and naturalized American citizens to raise their right hands. [Over two-thirds of the congregation raised their hands.] You who have not yet received your naturalization papers will please manifest it in the same way. [Less than a third of the congregation raised their hands.] Now, Captain, you can see for yourself that over two-thirds of this congregation are either native born or naturalized American citizens.

I have called this vote that Captain Van Vliet may be able to do as he always does—speak the truth boldly, and tell them of it next winter in Washington; and that he can, if he sees Senator Douglas in Washington, tell him that his statement was false, for he has seen for himself.

If it were any use, I would ask whether there is ONE person in this congregation who wants to go to the United States; but I know that I should not find any. But I will pledge myself that if there is a man, woman, or child that wants to go back to the States, if they will pay their debts, and not steal anything, they can go; and if they are poor and honest, we will help them to go. That has been my well-known position all the time.

Brother Taylor has said that he bantered the United States for a trade, and promised them that if they would send all to Utah that wanted to come, we would send all to the States that wanted to go. We would get our thousands to their one, if they would make that trade. But no—they must keep on lying, howling, and trying to oppress and kill the innocent.

When some went away last spring, I told them to go in peace, and they did so. What are they doing now? Many of them are struggling to get back, and the rest are wishing that they had never left here. It is a kind of dear business to apostatize every year. I would rather stick to the old ship Zion.

When I was written to in Nauvoo by the President of the United States, through another person, enquiring, “Where are you going, Mr. Young?” I replied that I did not know where we should land. We had men in England trying to negotiate for Vancouver’s Island, and we sent a shipload of Saints round Cape Horn to California. Men in authority asked, “Where are you going to?” “We may go to California, or to Vancouver’s Island.” When the Pioneer company reached Green River, we met Samuel Brannan and a few others from California, and they wanted us to go there. I remarked, “Let us go to California, and we cannot stay there over five years; but let us stay in the mountains, and we can raise our own potatoes, and eat them; and I calculate to stay here.” We are still on the backbone of the animal, where the bone and the sinew are, and we intend to stay here, and all hell cannot help themselves.

We are not to be persecuted as we have been. We can say, “Come as a mob, and we can sweeten you up right suddenly.” They never did anything against Joseph till they had ostensibly legalized a mob; and I shall treat every army and every armed company that attempts to come here as a mob. [The congregation responded, “Amen.“] You might as well tell me that you can make hell into a powder-house as to tell me that you could let an army in here and have peace; and I intend to tell them and show them this, if they do not keep away. By taking this course, you will find that every man and woman feels happy, and they say, “All is right, all is well;” and I say that our enemies shall not slip the bow on “Old Bright’s neck” again.

God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday Morning, September 13, 1857.

It is rather a strange anomaly, particularly in the estimation of the world, that a people so numerous as the Latter-day Saints should be gathered together in one place, having the one faith, and believing in the same doctrines. It is the more strange because there have been various social and political movements, aided by philosophy, established among men in various ages of the world; and almost, if not all of these have signally failed.

Among the number of social movements in our day, there is that of Robert Dale Owen, who thought he could ameliorate the condition of mankind by a sort of communism, having a fellowship of goods among them—a sort of common stock principle. Everything pertaining to this speculation, however, has flatted out; and in all his schemes and movements, whether in England or in this country, they have signally failed.

It is so also with Fourierism—a species of French philosophy, established by one Fourier, a Frenchman, and advocated by Greeley of the New York Tribune. They had tried it in France, and then came over to this country; and not far from New York a society of this kind was established. They had a good deal of property, and I am informed they established something of the nature of what is called the free love principle; but within twelve months back, while I was residing in New York, everything they had was sold under the hammer.

Mr. Cabet commenced lecturing in France, and had very extensive societies there. About the time we left Nauvoo to come to this land, Mr. Cabet, with a company of his men, came there. This is a species of communism; they are called “Communists,” believing, with Mr. Owen, in a community of goods. They published a newspaper in Nauvoo, and one or more in France. I baptized one of their editors while in Paris on my mission—a man who is now in this valley, by the name of Bertrand.

Mr. Krolokoski, who was also an editor of the same paper with Mr. Bertrand, came to me to have a conversation about the first principles of the Gospel. After a long conversation, he said, “Mr. Taylor, do you propose no other plan to ameliorate the condition of mankind than that of baptism for the remission of sins?”

I replied—“This is all I propose about the matter.”

“Well,” he said, “I wish you every success; but I am afraid you will not succeed.”

Said I, “Mr. Krolokoski, you sent, some time ago, Mr. Cabet to Nauvoo. He was considered your leader—the most talented man you had. He went to Nauvoo when it was deserted—when houses and lands were at a mere nominal value: he went there with his community at the time we left. Rich farms were deserted, and thousands of us had left our houses and furniture in them, and there was everything that was calculated to promote the happiness of human beings there. Never could a person go to a place under more happy circumstances. Mr. Cabet, to try his experiment, had also the selection in France of whom he pleased. He and his company went to Nauvoo, and what is the result? You have seen the published account in the papers. We were banished from civilized society into the valleys of the Rocky Mountains to seek for that protection among savages which Christian civilization denied us—among the peau rouges, or red skins, as they call them. There our people have built houses, enclosed lands, cultivated gardens, built schoolhouses, opened farms, and have organized a government and are prospering in all the blessings and immunities of civilized life. Not only this, but they have sent thousands and thousands of dollars over to Europe to assist the suffering poor to go to America, where they might find an asylum. You, on the other hand, that went to our empty houses and farms—you, I say, went there under most favorable circumstances. Now, what is the result? I read in all of your reports from there, published in your own paper in Paris, a continued cry for help. The cry is to you for money, money: ‘We want money to help us to carry out our designs.’ The society that I represent comes with the fear of God—the worship of the great Eloheim: they offer the simple plan ordained of God—viz., repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Our people have not been seeking the influence of the world, nor the power of government, but they have obtained both; whilst you, with your philosophy independent of God, have been seeking to build up a system of communism and a government which is, according to your own accounts, the way to introduce the millennial reign. Now, which is the best—our religion, or your philosophy?”

“Well,” said he, “I cannot say anything.”

He could not, because these were facts that he was familiar with.

What has become of that society? There are very few of them left. They have had dissensions, bickerings, trouble, and desertions, until they are nearly dwindled to nothing.

I might enumerate many societies of a similar nature, commenced in different parts of the world and at various times. The results, however, would be proved to be the same: they commenced in the wisdom of man, and ended as speculative bubbles. Truth, based on eternal principles, alone can stand the test.

If Owen, Fourier, Cabot, and other philosophers have failed—if all the varied schemes of communism have failed—if human philosophy is found to be at fault, and all its plans incompetent, and we have not failed, it shows there is something associated with this people and with “Mormonism” that there is not with them.

Now the question is, What is this principle? Why is there a difference?

The first account I ever heard of this Gospel was simply preaching what are termed the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. There was nothing very ostentatious about it—nothing very grand—no great pomp or parade. The Elders were in many instances uneducated: they had no particular advantages among men; but they had received certain principles, certain doctrines, that were plain and easy to comprehend—things that were childlike and simple, and that recommended themselves to every intelligent, unblessed mind.

What was it we first learned in relation to this Gospel? Was it something very profound and philosophical, that some sage either in this or some other country had dis– covered—the plan of some politician or statesman?

Verily no; it was no such thing. What was it? It was a proclamation made, declaring that a holy angel from heaven had appeared—that he had revealed himself unto a young man that was born in the backwoods of America—a farmer’s son, without any particular educational advantages; that this angel, having appeared unto him, had revealed unto him an ancient record that gave an account of the aboriginal inhabitants of this country; that in this record there was an account of Prophets having existed on this continent in former days, of Jesus having appeared, and of angels having administered unto them—an account of their having been in possession of the Gospel, having the same doctrines, the same blessings, the same privileges and powers that were associated with the Gospel on the Asiatic continent; and that this record agreed with the Bible in doctrines, ordinances, teachings, and blessings.

And furthermore, these men referred us to the Bible, and showed us that this book was spoken of—that it was to come forth—that it was the “stick of Joseph,” and that it was to be one with the “stick of Judah,”—one in prophecy, one in revelation, one in unfolding the purposes of God, and one in bringing to pass the great events that were to transpire in the last days.

We heard of these things, and to many of us they seemed foolish. We heard the cry of “False prophet and deceiver!” The first thing that I heard from a priest, after hearing this Gospel preached by Parley P. Pratt, some twenty years ago, was the cry of “Delusion!” I was immediately informed that “Joe Smith was a money-digger,” that he tried to deceive people by walking on planks laid under the water, and that he was a wicked and corrupt man, a deceiver, and one of the biggest fools in creation, and so forth. I heard every kind of story; and the priests have kept up the same things, pretty much, to the present day.

I remember, when I first had an Elder introduced to me, I said to him, “I do not know what to think about you ‘Mormons.’ I do not believe any kind of fanaticism: I profess to be acquainted with the Bible; and, sir,” said I, “in any conversation we may have, I wish you to confine yourself to the Bible; for I tell you I shall not listen to anything in opposition to that word.”

From the report which I had heard of “Mormonism,” I thought it was anything but a religious system. I was told about the French prophets—I was told about Matthias, Johanna Southcote, and of all the follies that had existed for centuries; and then they put “Mormonism” at the end of them all.

In my researches, I examined things very carefully and critically. I wrote down six of the first sermons I heard preached by Parley P. Pratt, in order that I might compare them with the Bible, and I could not find any difference. I could easily controvert any other doctrine, but I could not overturn one principle of “Mormonism.”

I have traveled to preach these doctrines in most of the United States and in the Canadas; I have preached them in England, in Scotland, in Wales, in the Isles of Man and the Jerseys, in France, Germany, in the principal cities of America and Europe, and to many prominent men in the world; and I have not yet found a man that could controvert one principle of “Mormonism” upon scriptural grounds. If there is a man, I have yet to find him.

The first proclamation by the Elders was, that the ancient Gospel had been restored. We had had Methodism, Presbyterianism, Dunkerism, Shakerism, Catholicism, Quakerism, and every other ism that you could think of; but there was none that had the ancient Gospel—no, not one.

I was, however, well acquainted with theology. I consider that if ever I lost any time in my life, it was while studying the Christian theology. Sectarian theology is the greatest tomfoolery in the world.

There are certain principles in reason which are unalterable. Two and two made four 1,800 years ago, and they still make the same. Two parallel lines never would meet: they will not now. A Gospel that was true 1,800 years ago could not be false now. If they, then, have the same Bible, and profess to have the same Spirit, and to be educated men, why do they not see alike? If there are any of whom we have spoken possessed of good common sense, it would lead them to union, and not to discord; for the scriptures tell us, there is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, who is above all, in you all, and through you all.”

We used to quarrel with one another, when we were among the sectarians, about our peculiar doctrines. One was a brother Methodist, and another was a brother Presbyterian; and we used to fall out about which was right—whether the doctrine of free will or of fate was right; for we did not know which was right—though both were right, if we had understood them. There was also much wrangling as to whether infants that died went to hell or not. Some sent them to heaven, and some to hell, where they were to be pitched up with pitchforks, and stung with scorpions, and wasted there everlastingly.

This is the doctrine of the Catholic Church. I have got a book at home that I obtained in France, which represents sinners falling into a tremen– dous fire; and there are dragons, scorpions, serpents, and every kind of reptile searching like fiends for their prey. Naked sinners are depicted falling into devouring flames, and a great dragon with open mouth, forked tongue, and horrid teeth, ready to receive them. If they should miss it, there are scorpions, and serpents, and devils, with three-pronged pitchforks, waiting a little below, that they may get the sinners and give them a good roasting.

You are here, a conglomeration from all the different churches. The day when you came into this Church was the time when you showed your honesty. What! Are there honest-hearted Methodists and Presbyterians? Yes. And honest Baptists? Yes. Persons have been brought into this Church of all those different kinds of faith, and you are actually all one.

[President B. Young: “That scares the world.“]

Yes, as President Young says, that scares the world. Why are they not one? Because they have not the Gospel as it existed in its purity.

Peter preached it, Jesus, and James, John, and Paul preached it, and the Apostles and Elders preached it on this continent; for the Gospel in the Book of Mormon and the Gospel in the Bible both agree: the doctrines in both books are one. The historical part differs only: the one gives the history of an Asiatic, the other of an American people.

Stephens and Catherwood, after examining the ruins that were found at Guatemala, in Central America, and gazing upon magnificent ruins, moldering temples, stately edifices, rich sculpture, elegant statuary, and all the traces of a highly cultivated and civilized people, said—“Here are the works of a great and mighty people that have inhabited these ruins; but now they are no more: history is silent on the subject, and no man can unravel this profound mystery. Nations have planted, and reaped, and built, and lived, and died, that are now no more; and no one can tell anything about them or reveal their history.”

Why, there was a young man in Ontario County, New York, to whom the angel of God appeared and gave an account of the whole. These majestic ruins bespeak the existence of a mighty people. The Book of Mormon unfolds their history. O yes; but his was of too humble an origin, like Jesus of Nazareth. It was not some great professor, who had got an education in a European or an American college, but one who professed to have a revelation from God—and the world don’t believe in revelation; but nevertheless it is true, and we know it.

Those men who profess so much intelligence that they cannot listen to the word of the Lord, and have so much egotism and philosophy that they cannot listen to sound reason and common sense, cannot be edified by these things, while we, who have not such lofty pretensions, enjoy them.

Now, what did Jesus teach? He said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark xvi. 15—18.)

This is what Jesus taught: this is the Gospel that he and his disciples taught. Who teaches this Gospel now? Do the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Dunkers, the Baptists, or the Catholics? Could you find anybody that taught the doctrines that Jesus taught his disciples to teach? I have not found them any– where; and yet the thing is so plain that he that runs may read.

Go and preach the Gospel to every creature; and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. “O yes, we believe that.” Well, then, read on. “O no,” they will say; “stop there if you please.” But it reads: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

“But,” say they, “you must not read that.” But it is in the Bible. “True,” say they; “but it is a spiritual thing: it means those that are sick spiritually—they shall be healed.” “It means,” say they, “the sin-sick soul.”

It is like the school-ma’m who came to a difficult word, and not understanding it herself, told the child to say “hard word,” and pass on. You must not say that which is contrary to their belief.

Now, if we look a little further, we shall find that the disciples were instructed to “tarry at Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from on high.” It was necessary that they should be qualified. Did they tarry? They did.

Why was it necessary for them to tarry? Had they not been with Jesus? And had they not ate and drank with him? Yes. Had they not seen his miracles? They had; and they were called to go and preach the Gospel. And were they not prepared? No, not until they had received the necessary qualification. It was not every upstart that could go and preach the Gospel.

There are some, nowadays that go to college; and by their learning they think they will preach a Gospel without God. There are others who go because they are fools. Now, when the Lord qualified the Apostles to go forth and preach the Gospel, he endowed them with wisdom and inspired them from on high, and they spake as the Holy Ghost gave them utterance; and the word that they spake was not the word of man, but the word of God, dictated by the Spirit of God, pointing out to the people the way of life.

Why was it necessary for those Apostles to tarry at Jerusalem? They had an important mission to perform; their testimony was going to seal the doom of nations. Their message was, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.”

Could the Methodists, Baptists, or Presbyterians say this? No. No one professes to say that their word will seal the doom of nations, among modern Christians.

Those men, however, who stayed at Jerusalem till they were endowed with power from on high, made this profession. They assembled in an upper room, and the Spirit of the Lord God rested upon them, and they spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance. There were no Methodists, or Presbyterians, or Baptists there.

As soon as it was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and some said, “Why, these men are drunk: we have got a lot of drunken scamps here—the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.” But Peter said, “O no, this is not the case; it is but the third hour of the day.” The Jews never got drunk before nine o’clock in the morning; so that was a sufficient argument.

Peter said, “These men are not drunk as ye suppose; but this is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel—“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” (Acts ii.) This is not drunkenness, but it is the power of God beginning to be made manifest: these are the servants of the living God, the Apostles of the Lord, set apart to preach the principles of eternal truth to the nations of the earth; and they are speaking as the Spirit gives them utterance.”

The Apostles began to tell them about Jesus, that he was the Son of God, that they had rejected him, crucified, and slain him. They testified that he was not an impostor, as the people had supposed, but that he was the Messiah.

When they heard these things, they were pricked to the heart, and cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

You have heard this kind of cry in those revival meetings among the sectarians: people would get convinced and under a sort of contraction of mind, and they would want to know what they should do to be saved.

Now, here was a lot of people gathered from all parts of the surrounding country, speaking different languages; and Peter was preaching to them to believe, repent, and be baptized: and while reasoning upon the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, they cried out, “What shall we do?” Did he tell them to go to the anxious seat to be prayed for? No, he did not know anything about such a seat: the Devil had not yet invented it. Did he tell them to go and put their names into a classbook, and that they would receive them on probation, and then, if they were worthy, they would be received as members? No: this is something in advance of Peter’s time; it is something of Christian civilization.

It was necessary that we should have the enlightenment of the 19th century to reveal these things. Did he tell them to pray? No, he did not. Prayer is well enough in the season thereof; but they had something else to do.

Is it not right to go into your closet and pray? Yes. But when you have ordinances to attend to, then that is your business. What did Peter say to them? He said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

You perceive that he told the people the same that Jesus told him to teach.

“In the first place, you tell us to repent, and then to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and what then?”

To have hands laid upon you for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

“What will the Holy Ghost do for us, Peter?”

You have seen its effects upon us. It shall bring things past to your remembrance; it shall show you things to come; it shall make prophets of you; your sons and daughters shall see visions; the heavens shall be opened unto you; you shall know of your origin, comprehend who you are, what you are, where you are going to, the relationship which exists between you and your God; and there shall be a channel opened between the eternal worlds and you; and the purposes of God shall be made known unto you.

What did the Elders of this Church preach to you? The very same things which Peter taught. And have not the same effects, or signs, followed them that believe? They have, as you all know this day. (See 1st Cor. chap. xii.)

I will tell you how I felt when I was investigating the doctrines of “Mormonism.” I compared them to try if they agreed with the Scriptures; but when I tried to pick “Mormonism” to pieces, I could not do it. And now, said I to the Elders, you promise me that if I embrace the doctrines you teach, I shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost: what will this produce? They told me it would produce the same as it did anciently. If I had not experienced those things and seen them manifested around me, I would have got up and called those men impostors. I would have said, “Sirs, you promised me and others blessings which we have not experienced, and this people and you, sirs, are impostors.”

I do not call the priests of the day impostors, because they do not profess anything of the kind that I have spoken of: they are simply false teachers, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” as the Scriptures say.

We read the Book of Mormon, and found it contained the same doctrines the Apostles taught on the Asiatic continent.

And what has this Gospel done? It has caused you to leave your families, your connections, your homes, and your associations in life. Many of you have left thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of property; you have wandered over oceans, deserts, plains, and mountains; you have been mobbed and scourged from city to city, and from State to State, and you have endured all this. Why? Because of that hope which is within your bosoms, which blooms with immortality and eternal lives. You have asked this question to yourselves, “Who am I, and what is the design of my existence?” and the Gospel has unfolded these things to your understandings. You feel that you are eternal beings: you feel that you are living for eternity and not for time only.

I have heard it recommended, by some poor fools in the shape of editors in the United States, to send missionaries here to convert the people. I told them to send them, and promised they should have a hearing. They thought if they came here and introduced some of their good Christian ideas and practices and some of their pure morals, that you would see such a striking difference that you must be enamored with them, and that you would be broken up.

Why, said I, poor fools! Do you think that this people have left their friends, associations, and everything that would render life precious among men, and wandered off among those who are called fanatics and fools—those who are everywhere spoken against?—and do you think that they are going to be led astray by your poor-pussy priests?

Are you to be like the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Catholics? No; you are to have one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one Holy Spirit.

You are terribly tyrannized over, according to what I hear; and many of you want to leave.

I engaged, when I was back in the States, that if they would send all to Utah that wanted to come, we would send all back that wanted to go. That would be a fair bargain, you know; but I think they would have the heaviest job on hand.

[Voices: We know they would.]

What was your object in coming here? Was it to rebel against the General Government?

[President B. Young: To get away from Christians.]

Brother Young says it was to get away from Christians—from that unbounded charity which you had experienced amongst them. In consequence of their treatment, you had to come away to seek a home in the desert wilds, and to obtain that protection among savages which Christian philanthropy denied you.

We came here because we could not help it, and now we have got an idea to stay here because we can help it: this is about the feeling.

What was it that implanted the idea of gathering and union in our bosoms? It was the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and that principle is implanted in our breasts by the power of the Holy Ghost, which earth and hell cannot eradicate.

There are certain ideas of God, and futurity, and the nature and fitness of things implanted in the human bosom, even while in the world; for there are many things which lead to reflection.

Why do this people feel so comfortable when an army is approaching? Are you not afraid of being killed? No, not a great deal. Why are you not mourning and sorrowing, and why are you not distressed and troubled? Because you have got a principle within you that cannot be conquered in time nor in eternity: you possess the principles of eternal life in your bosoms, that cannot be subdued. You know what your relationship is with the Eternal God, and his Spirit gives joy and consolation to your bosoms.

I have heard men and women rejoice in France and in Germany as much as in any parts of the world, and in their own tongue blessing and thanking God that ever he permitted the light of truth to beam upon their minds. You feel the same: you have got the treasure in earthen vessels; you have got that within you of which Jesus spake—a well of water “springing up unto eternal life.” You are looking forward to the time when thrones, principalities, powers, and eternal lives will be given unto you in the kingdoms of our God.

Again: You know that you are in the kingdom of God; for God, among other things, has revealed this to you. And while the Communists, Fourier– ites, and others have sought to bring about a reign of righteousness without revelation, God has revealed unto you a kingdom that shall abide forever, by the principles of eternal truth and by the revelations of God. You know that you are associated with this kingdom: you feel it; and no man can deprive you of this feeling, nor rob you of that Spirit.

Satan has had the dominion over the world for centuries, and no nation or people has acknowledged God or bowed to his scepter. They have anointed their kings, they have hewn down and trampled upon the rights of man, and their hands reek with blood. In this condition they have had priests to come and anoint them kings! But they are wholesale murderers and robbers.

Who has reigned by the grace of God in the nations? And who has had authority from heaven? Who has acknowledged God in all their ways? Has any kingdom or dominion under heaven? Not one! You go into any kingdom, or let a Prophet of God go into any cabinet, to any governor, or potentate, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord! and they would kick him out. [Voice: “They would kill him.”] Would they do it in the United States? They would anywhere.

To behold man, whose breath is in his nostrils, who flourishes, and is cut down like the grass that exists, and withers and dies, that expands and bursts like a bubble—poor, pusillanimous man—assume government, authority, and power, without any authority from God, to regulate the kingdoms of the earth, shows his littleness, weakness, egotism, and pusillanimity, and reminds one of boys playing marbles or building cob houses.

Why was this earth made? And who made it? We are told in the Scriptures that “all things were created by him and for him; whether they be principalities, powers, or dominions, all things were created by him, and for him.” Has he had the dominion? If so, when and where has he had it? He did partially rule for a short time among the ancient Patriarchs, and also among the Jews; but all the rest of the nations have ruled without him and taken to themselves the glory. They have assumed to themselves certain positions and powers, and, aided by their peers, lords, governors, and immediate associates, they have oppressed the human family, and brought them into bondage.

The nations have forgotten God. They have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water; and like dogs, wolves, panthers, and beasts of prey, they have done nothing but tear each other to pieces.

Read the history of nations, and examine the paintings they have in their National Galleries, and you will find they represent, almost exclusively, scenes of blood, deadly struggles, triumphant victories, or sanguinary battles, and the groanings, troubles, sighs, sufferings, and death of the human family.

This has been the way that things have been carried on by kings and governors; but where and when has there been a person to save, and bless, and act as a father and benefactor to the world? And where has there been a servant of God listened to? Jesus came among his friends; but they would not listen to him. He sent his servants—his Apostles, but they put them to death. He has sent again in the last days; he has anointed his servant Joseph Smith, and afterwards Brigham Young, to speak as his mouthpiece to the people, for the government of his Saints not only here, but to all that will hear and obey the Gospel throughout the world.

God has determined to have a people that will serve him. What have you heard taught here? Nothing but the law of God and obedience to the laws of the land. Nobody but the most blackhearted villains that ever lived would have gone among our enemies and represented things otherwise.

You comprehend liberty, and you will have this boon. Many of your fathers have fought for this, and you are resolved to enjoy it. Will you endeavor to disannul the Government? No; but we will rally round the Constitution that was purchased by the blood of our fathers, and will support it.

These are our views; and while we do not trample under foot the Constitution, we will take care that others do not do it.

[The congregation responded, “Amen.”]

What has been the difficulty with you for some time past? You have had doctrines of purity revealed unto you; you have been taught principles of righteousness, to repent of all your evils, to purify yourselves, that, as Saints of the living God, you might come and receive blessings at the hands of the Almighty.

While you have been doing this, the spirit of psychology has been operating in the hearts of men, even the spirits and powers of darkness; devils have been railing, and men thundering out their anathemas; all hell has been to pay, and “no pitch hot,” and why? Because you have been adhering to the principles of truth, and been doing better than you have before.

What was the reason that they crucified Jesus Christ? Because he adhered to the truth; and those very men that persecute us would crucify him, if he was here today.

[Voices: “Yes, they would.”]

Well, what is the matter? The Lord has given to us a Prophet who receives the word of the Lord for us. These revelations have led us from principle to principle, from doctrine to doctrine, and from ordinance to ordinance, until we are found as we are at the present time.

We feel well, our spirits are light and buoyant, and our hopes strong in the God of Israel. If we could not trust in God, we should indeed be without hope. How many have gone from here to teach the principles that God has revealed? Thousands of the Elders of Israel. They were sent to do the people good, and have been more disinterested in it than any other people.

Have you, Elders, gone because you were sent by missionary societies? No, you have not. Have you gone because you had drafts and acceptances on banks and merchants? No: you have gone without purse or scrip. President Young, brother Woodruff, brother Hyde, brother Franklin, myself, and others, have traveled thousands and thousands of miles without purse or scrip, trusting in the living God.

Did we have to beg? No. I do not believe in begging: God will take care of us. It is not so with other ministers. You tell them to trust in God for the support of their bodies, and they are not willing to do it. They will be quite willing to trust in God for their spirits; but they dare not trust him for their bodies.

Go to the United States, and I will engage to give $50,000, if you will find a thousand men in all the United States that will go without purse or scrip to the nations of the earth to preach the Gospel. Come, now, I will banter the world with this offer.

On the other hand, if President Young wants a thousand men, they will be ready in one day, if it is necessary. Is it not so, brethren?

[Thousands of voices responded, “Yes.”]

This state of things exists in the world because they are governed by filthy lucre.

We have embraced the Gospel because we knew it was true. I have traveled with brother Young thousands of miles, preaching the Gospel, and with brother Woodruff, brother Hyde, brother Smith, brother Franklin, and many others around me. What did we do? We went trusting in Israel’s God; and we are doing the same now. What did we go for? Because we loved the human family, and knowing that God had revealed principles that would exalt men and women in the kingdom of God. We wandered forth to preach those principles voluntarily. We did it because we loved mankind.

Why have this people confidence in President Young and others? Because they have seen them leave their homes and go forth and endure every privation to promote their welfare in time and in eternity. They could not have confidence in a priest that would not go to preach except he had $10,000.

Furthermore, this people have confidence in their leaders, because in times of trouble and trial they have stemmed the torrents and been foremost in the battle. It is not a kind of soft, smooth eloquence to tickle the ears of men, but it is stern matters of fact that the people know.

As Paul said, “Can anything separate us from the love of God?” No, brethren; we are cemented together by eternal ties that the world does not know, nor can it comprehend. Talk to us of bowing to the Gentile yoke! Nonsense. What would be your feeling if the United States wanted to have the honor of driving us from our homes and bringing us subject to their depraved standard of moral and religious truth? Would you, if necessary, brethren, put the torch to your buildings, and lay them in ashes, and wander houseless into the mountains? I know what you would say and what you would do.

[President Brigham Young: Try the vote.]

All you that are willing to set fire to your property and lay it in ashes, rather than submit to their military rule and oppression, manifest it by raising your hands.

[The congregation unanimously raised their hands.]

I know what your feelings are. We have been persecuted and robbed long enough; and, in the name of Israel’s God, we will be free! [The whole congregation responded, “Amen.” And President B. Young said, “I say amen all the time to that.”]

I feel to thank God that I am associated with such men, with such a people, where honesty and truth dwell in the heart—where men have got a religion that they are not afraid to live by, and that they are not afraid to die by; and I would not give a straw for anything short of that.

The great God has set his hand to roll forth his purposes; and the hand that opposes it shall be palsied. The power of God shall be felt among the nations that reject the truth. All is right in Israel, and we do not want to hurt anybody; but we feel to bless everybody, and our hearts are full of blessings for all who will work righteousness.

Shall we still bless the human family? Yes. Shall we rally around the Constitution of the United States, and protect it in its purity? Yes; we will save it when others forsake it.

In the day of our sorrow and affliction, when hunted by our enemies, was there anybody to pour in comfort to the wounded bosom? Have there been any of the priests and editors to take our part? Where are they?

Brethren, I feel thankful that God has revealed unto us the keys of the kingdom of God and given us a knowledge of the things that shall transpire in these last days.

I ask my heavenly Father that I may be counted worthy and faithful to endure to the end, that I may obtain the crown that is in reversion for me.

I do not care anything about shooting: I have been shot. Neither do I care anything about dying; for I could have died many a time if I had desired to; but I had not got ready. But I do care about those principles of truth which I have received; and I would not exchange my position for that of any emperor, king, or potentate in any nation under heaven.

God will put a hook in the jaws of our enemies and turn them aside; and the day is not far distant when empires will crumble to pieces and the hand of God be against the nations; and they will know that there is a God in heaven, and a hand that is stronger than theirs.

Brethren, all we have to do is to live our religion, to obey the counsel of our President, be humble and faithful, and not exalted in our own strength; but ask wisdom of God, and see that we have peace with God, with our families, with one another, that peace may reign in our bosoms and in our community.

I pray God to preserve you in peace unto the day of redemption, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 13, 1857.

I would like very well to hear some of the rest of the brethren speak, if I had entirely got over being angry and had patience to sit and hear. I think, however, that I shall be able to calm and control my feelings, though I do not expect to become entirely settled until the affairs around me are settled.

It is a pretty bold stand for this people to take, to say that they will not be controlled by the corrupt administrators of our General Government. We will be controlled by them, if they will be controlled by the Constitution and laws; but they will not. Many of them do not care any more about the Constitution and the laws that they make than they do about the laws of another nation. That class trample the rights of the people under their feet, while there are also many who would like to honor them. All we have ever asked for is our constitutional rights. We wish the laws of our Government honored, and we have ever honored them; but they are trampled under foot by administrators.

There cannot be a more damnable, dastardly order issued than was issued by the Administration to this people while they were in an Indian country, in 1846. Before we left Nauvoo, not less than two United States’ senators came to receive a pledge from us that we would leave the United States; and then, while we were doing our best to leave their borders, the poor, low, degraded curses sent a requisition for five hundred of our men to go and fight their battles! That was President Polk; and he is now weltering in hell with old Zachary Taylor, where the present administrators will soon be, if they do not repent.

Liars have reported that this people have committed treason; and upon their lies, the President has ordered out troops to aid in officering this Territory: and if those officers are like many who have previously been sent here (and we have reason to believe that they are, or they would not come when they know they are not wanted), they are poor, miserable blacklegs, broken-down political hacks, robbers, and whoremongers—men that are not fit for civilized society; so they must dragoon them upon us for officers. I feel that I won’t bear such cursed treatment, and that is enough to say; for we are just as free as the mountain air.

I do not lift my voice against the great and glorious Government guaranteed to every citizen by our Constitution, but against those corrupt administrators who trample the Constitution and just laws under their feet. They care no more about them than they do about the Government of France; but they walk them under their feet with impunity. And the most of the characters they have sent here as officers cared no more about the laws of our country and of this Territory than they did about the laws of China, but walked them under their feet with all the recklessness of despots.

I do not want to be angry, nor to have my feelings wrought up; but I cannot keep quiet under the continued outrageous tyranny of the wicked.

I have said that if the brethren will have faith, the Lord will fight our battles, and we will have the privilege of living here in peace. I have counted the cost to this people of a collision with our enemies; but I cannot begin to count the cost it will be to them.

I have told you that if this people will live their religion, all will be well; and I have told you that if there is any man or woman that is not willing to destroy anything and everything of their property that would be of use to an enemy, if left, I wanted them to go out of the Territory; and I again say so today; for when the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be sheared down; for “judgment will be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” Now the fainthearted can go in peace; but should that time come, they must not interfere. Before I will suffer what I have in times gone by, there shall not be one building, nor one foot of lumber, nor a stick, nor a tree, nor a particle of grass and hay, that will burn, left in reach of our enemies. I am sworn, if driven to extremity, to utterly lay waste, in the name of Israel’s God.

I know that the Saints, both the brethren and sisters, pray that our enemies may not come here; for their entrance is designed by our Government to be the prelude to the introduction of abominations and death. And you cannot talk to a brother, or even to a sister, but that she will tell you that, if she consents in her feelings to have our enemies come here, she feels uncomfortable, and her heart sinks within her. If I consent in my feelings to have them come here, my heart sinks within too, my buoyant spirits are gone, and I have no comfort; for I know the hellish designs concealed under the present movement. But we are free, and every man says, “Stand by the kingdom.” When this is the case, every man is like a troop; they are like lions.

Admit of corrupt administrators sending troops here, and what would be the result? All hell would follow after. I naturally dislike to have any trouble, and would not, were I not obliged to; but we are obliged to defend ourselves against the persecution of our oppressors, or have our constitutional rights rent from us, and have ourselves destroyed. We must either suffer that, or stand up and maintain the kingdom of God on the earth.

We have known all the time that the kingdoms of darkness were opposed to the kingdom of God—that the powers of earth and hell were combined against it. Christ and Baal cannot make friends with each other: you cannot mix oil and water, righteousness and wickedness. This is the kingdom of God; all others are of the Devil. They never can be united in this world, nor in any other: there is no possibility of the two kingdoms becoming one. Those who believe and obey the Gospel of the Son of God, and forsake all for its interests, belong to the kingdom of God, and all the rest belong to the other kingdom. There is a distinction, and the line must be drawn; and you and I have to stand up to it, even though it may take from us our right eyes and right hands. We must stand up to the line and maintain the kingdom of God, or we will all go to destruction together.

I am perfectly willing that the brethren should stop all improvements, if they choose, and spend a few years in seeing what our enemies will do; though their efforts against us will only tend to use them up the faster. If the people prefer it, they may stop their improvements and take care of their wheat, and cache a supply of grain, flour, &c., where no other per– sons can find it; though we can raise grain here all the time—yes, all the time.

Suppose that our enemies send 50,000 troops here, they will have to transport all that will be requisite to sustain them over one winter; for I will promise them, before they come, that there shall not be one particle of forage, nor one mouthful of food for them, should they come. They will have to bring all their provisions and forage; and though they start their teams with as heavy loads as they can draw, there is no team that can bring enough to sustain itself, to say nothing of the men. If there were no more men here than there are in the Seminole nation, our enemies never could use us up; but they could use up themselves, which they will do. The Seminoles—a little tribe of a few hundred in Florida—have cost our government, I suppose, in the neighborhood of 100,000,000 dollars; and they are no nearer being conquered than when the war commenced. And what few have removed have been induced to do so by compromise; and it would be far cheapest for the Government to pay the debts they honestly owe us, and leave us unmolested in the peaceful enjoyment of our rights.

Would not our enemies feel well in going to the canyons for wood the first night to cook their suppers with? The idea puts me in mind of an anecdote told by one Brown about the man who took the first barrel of whiskey up the Missouri River on a log raft.

They might stay amid blackened desolation till they had ate up what they had brought, and then they would have to go back.

It has been asked, “Have you counted the cost?” Yes, for ourselves; but I cannot begin to count it for our enemies. It will cost them all they have in this world, and will land them in hell in the world to come, while the only trouble with us is that we have two or three times more men than we need for using up all who can come here to deprive us of our rights.

As I said this morning, ten years ago on this ground I stated that we would not ask any odds of our enemies in ten years from that date; and the next time that I thought of it was ten years afterwards to a day. “They are now sending their troops” was the news; and it directly occurred to me, “Will you ask any odds of them?” No; in the name of Israel’s God we will not; for as soon as we ask odds, we get ends—of bayonets. When we have asked them for bread, they have given us stones; and when we have asked them for meat, they have given us scorpions; and what is the use in asking any more? I do not ask any odds of those who are striving to deprive us of every vestige of freedom and to destroy us from the earth.

Suppose that we should now bow down, and they should order their troops back, and then send a Governor and other officers here, how long would it be before some miserable scamp would get into a fuss with the Indians in Utah County, or in some other county, and get killed? Then the Governor would order out the Militia—probably two or three hundred men—to kill off those Indians. Well, the brethren, knowing that the aggressor is a white man, do not want to turn out and, like Gen. Harney, kill the squaws; and they say, “We shall not go.” Then the Governor would say, “They have committed treason;” and it would be, “Send an army here, and shoot and hang them.” Our enemies are determined to bring us into collision with the Government, so that they can kill us; but they shall not come here.

If the troops are now this side of Laramie, remember that the Sweetwater is this side of that place. They must have some place to winter, for they cannot come through here this season. We could go out and use them up, and it would not require fifty men to do it. But probably we shall not have occasion to take that course, for we do not want to kill men. They may winter in peace at some place east of us; but when spring comes, they must go back to the States, or, at any rate, they must leave the mountains.

We have no desire to kill men, but we wish to keep the devils from killing us. If you hear that they are near the upper crossing of the Platte, they will probably stay there till they can collect 50,000 troops. We will say that 9 and 3 equal 17; and if that is so, how long will it take to get those troops here? Let an arithmetician figure out how long it will be before 9 and 3 will make 17; for that will just be as soon as our enemies will get 50,000 troops here.

We have got to be called treasoners by our enemies. Joseph was taken up six times, if I remember rightly, on the charge of treason. Once he was brought into court by some enemies who thought they could prove that he had committed adultery, and that they termed treason. At another time our brethren wanted to vote in Davies County, Missouri, and said they would cast their votes and have their rights with other citizens; whereupon Joseph was taken up for treason. Another time, he was taken up on a charge of high treason; and when he came before the grand jury, his enemies wanted to prove that he had more than one wife, asserting that that was high treason.

Our enemies are constantly yelling “Rebellion! Treason!” no matter how peaceful, orderly, and loyal we may be. And now to come out in open opposition to their cursed, corrupt practices, will of course be counted treason. But let me tell you that the real, actual treason is committed in Washington, by the administrators of our Government sending an army to take the lives of innocent citizens. Every man is allowed by the Constitution to have what religion he pleases and to profess what religion he pleases. That liberty is guaranteed by the Constitution; “but you, ‘Mormons,’ an army must be sent against you, because you are Latter-day Saints.” Yes, an army must be sent to drive us from the earth.

There is high treason in Washington; and if the law was carried out, it would hang up many of them. And the very act of James K. Polk in taking five hundred of our men, while we were making our way out of the country under an agreement forced upon us, would have hung him between the heavens and the earth, if the laws had been faithfully executed. And now, if they can send a force against this people, we have every constitutional and legal right to send them to hell, and we calculate to send them there.

When I get over being angry, I may preach something else; but the past travels and sufferings of this people through mobocracy are before me.

I am not speaking of the Government, but of the corrupt administrators of the Government. They make me think of a sign in New York, upon which was lettered, “All manner of twisting and turning done here.” It is just so in Washington City; they can twist and turn in any and every way, to suit their hellish appetites.

Were I an officer sent to Utah for the purpose of aiding the unhallowed oppression of the innocent (and in this connection I disclaim all personalities), I would know the facts in the case before I would make any hostile move; and sooner than side with tyranny and murder, I would resign my commission, and say, “Take it and stick it in your boot, and go to hell, and I will go my way.” And I would rather go and raise my own potatoes for my wives and children than to hold office under such a set of administrators and bow down to their wicked designs; though, if I were of the world, I should probably do as the rest do.

I have already told you that the main cause of an army being now sent here is a political scheme for the purpose of getting money out of the United States’ treasury. Politicians and traders combine to lay plans, no matter how devilish, for getting their hands into the treasury of the United States, that they may have money with which to sow corruption and gratify their debauched natures.

Some men do not realize what they are doing. I said, a few weeks ago, that the deeds of some men are out of sight. Our merchants here have fanned the flame, and what for? To peddle off my blood and yours for gold and silver. Although that design may have been out of their sight, yet such is the case; but they will not make money by the operation. Should the crisis come, they will find themselves in poor pasture, with nothing but greasewood and sage to feed upon. It will not do for them to sell us for money; for we are worth more than the Methodist society was sold for in Canada, where they were sold at three cents a head.

I am aware that you will want to know what will be the result of the present movement against us. “Mormonism” will take an almighty stride into influence and power, while our enemies will sink and become weaker and weaker, and be no more; and I know it just as well now as I shall five years hence. The Lord Almighty wants a name and a character; and he will show our enemies that he is God, and that he has set to his hand again to gather Israel, and to try our faith and integrity. And he is saying, “Now, you, my children, dare you take a step to promote righteousness, in direct and open opposition to the popular feelings of all the wicked in your Government? If you do, I will fight your battles.”

Our enemies had better count the cost; for if they continue the job, they will want to let it out to subcontractors, before they get half through with it. If they persist in sending troops here, I want the people in the west and in the east to understand that it will not be safe for them to cross the Plains.

It has cost the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the Indians in other territories than it has in this; and I have saved the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars, by keeping the Indians peaceable in Utah. Hundreds of miles have the Indians traveled to see me, to know whether they might use up the emigrants, saying—“They have killed many of us; and they damn you and damn us, and shall we stand it?” I have always told them to hold on, to stop shedding blood, and to live in peace. But I have been told that the first company of packers that went through here this season, on their way from California to the States, shot at every Indian they saw between Carson Valley and Box Elder; and what has been the result? Probably scores of persons have been killed; animals have been taken from nearly all the emigrants that have passed on that road; and the Indians in that region have now more stock than they know how to take care of; and they come into settlements with their pockets full of gold. The whites first commenced on the Indians; and now, if they do not quit such conduct, they must stop traveling through this country; for it is more than I can do to keep the Indians still under such outrageous treatment.

The people do not realize what they have done by driving us into the midst of the Lamanites. They prevented Joseph from associating with the Indians; but they, through their ignorance, thought that we were going to Vancouver’s Island, or on the borders of the Pacific; but lo they have driven us into the midst of the Lamanites. These Lamanites begin to have a knowledge of their forefathers, and they are cultivating the earth. Here were the most degraded classes of Indians to be found; but now there is not a tribe so enlightened, nor one that has so good a knowledge of its real position and standing before the Lord as have some of these Utah Indians. It is now very different with them to what it was when we first came here. It is now becoming a universal practice with them to punish the guilty, and not the innocent: they have been taught that from the time we first came here. Talk with them, and you will learn that they have a good deal of knowledge. They must be saved, for they are the children of Abraham.

The Lord in his mercy has suffered our enemies to do that which we could not have accomplished for many years; and, let a war commence, and there is no knowing where we shall next land in Jackson County, Missouri. They will learn that “Mormonism” is a living creature.

All the world have to learn that the Lord is God, and that he is the God of his children. He will protect his anointed; he will defend his own family; and all we have to do is to do his will; and every man, woman, and child ought to seek to learn the will of God and do it. When that is the case, we need not fear all earth and hell. Do not offend God by not doing as he wants you to.

May the Lord God bless you, brethren and sisters. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday, September 6th, 1857.

Brother Thomas B. Marsh, formerly the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has now come to us, after an absence of nearly nineteen years. He is on the stand today, and wishes to make a few remarks to the congregation.

You will comprehend the purport of the remarks he wishes to make, by my relating a part of his conversation with me yesterday. He came into my office and wished to know whether I could be reconciled to him, and whether there could be a reconciliation between himself and the Church of the living God. He reflected for a moment and said, I am reconciled to the Church, but I want to know whether the Church can be reconciled to me.

He is here, and I want him to say what he may wish to. [Brother Marsh then arose, and the President continued.] Brethren and sisters, I now introduce to you brother Thomas B. Marsh. When the Quorum of the Twelve was first organized, he was appointed to be their President.

REMARKS BY THOMAS B. MARSH. I do not know that I can make all this vast congregation hear and understand me. My voice never was very strong, but it has been very much weakened of late years by the afflicting rod of Jehovah. He loved me too much to let me go without whipping. I have seen the hand of the Lord in the chastisement which I have received. I have seen and known that it has proved he loved me; for if he had not cared anything about me, he would not have taken me by the arm and given me such a shaking.

If there are any among this people who should ever apostatize and do as I have done, prepare your backs for a good whipping, if you are such as the Lord loves. But if you will take my advice, you will stand by the authorities; but if you go away and the Lord loves you as much as he did me, he will whip you back again.

Many have said to me, “How is it that a man like you, who understood so much of the revelations of God as recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, should fall away?” I told them not to feel too secure, but to take heed lest they also should fall; for I had no scruples in my mind as to the possibility of men falling away.

I can say, in reference to the Quorum of the Twelve, to which I belonged, that I did not consider myself a whit behind any of them, and I suppose that others had the same opinion; but, let no one feel too secure: for, before you think of it, your steps will slide. You will not then think nor feel for a moment as you did before you lost the Spirit of Christ; for when men apostatize, they are left to grovel in the dark.

I have sought diligently to know the Spirit of Christ since I turned my face Zionward, and I believe I have obtained it. I have frequently wanted to know how my apostasy began, and I have come to the conclusion that I must have lost the Spirit of the Lord out of my heart.

The next question is, “How and when did you lose the Spirit?” I became jealous of the Prophet, and then I saw double, and overlooked everything that was right, and spent all my time in looking for the evil; and then, when the Devil began to lead me, it was easy for the carnal mind to rise up, which is anger, jealousy, and wrath. I could feel it within me; I felt angry and wrathful; and the Spirit of the Lord being gone, as the Scriptures say, I was blinded, and I thought I saw a beam in brother Joseph’s eye, but it was nothing but a mote, and my own eye was filled with the beam; but I thought I saw a beam in his, and I wanted to get it out; and, as brother Heber says, I got mad, and I wanted everybody else to be mad. I talked with Brother Brigham and Brother Heber, and I wanted them to be mad like myself; and I saw they were not mad, and I got madder still because they were not. Brother Brigham, with a cautious look, said, “Are you the leader of the Church, brother Thomas?” I answered, “No.” “Well then,” said he, “Why do you not let that alone?”

Well, this is about the amount of my hypocrisy—I meddled with that which was not my business. But let me tell you, my brethren and friends, if you do not want to suffer in body and mind, as I have done—if there are any of you that have the seeds of apostasy in you, do not let them make their appearance, but nip that spirit in the bud; for it is misery and affliction in this world, and destruction in the world to come. I know that I was a very stiffnecked man, and I felt, for the first four or five years especially, that I would never return to the Church; but towards the latter part of the time, I began to wake up and to be sensible that I was being chastised by the Almighty; and I felt to realize the language of Jeremiah concerning Ephraim in the last days, where he says, “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy on him, saith the Lord.”

Thinks I, this language suits my condition. I then thought, I will go back and see if the Lord will heal me, for I am of the seed of Ephraim, and I felt troubled from that day, and my soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of those Sodomites.

After forming this resolution, I tried to get an outfit, and I kept trying for two or three years; for I did not want to come here sick, lame, decrepid, and dependent; and therefore I kept on trying; but instead of gaining, I was like the man that undertook to climb the tree—I slipt down farther than I got up. I then thought to myself, I am getting old, and every year makes me older and weaker; and if I do not start, I shall soon die, and then whose fault will it be? I concluded it would be my own fault if I stayed. I therefore said, “I will go now.” That was last January. I looked round a few days to see what I could raise, and I raised five dollars and ten cents, and I said. “Lord, if you will help me, I will go.” I felt that he would: therefore I started with but five dollars and ten cents, from Harrison County, Missouri, to come all the way to this Valley. I knew that I could not come here with that small sum, and I did not see how I was to get any more; but before I got out of the State, the Lord had changed my fortune, and I had $55.05. I then concluded within myself that the Lord was with me; but still I had some hardships; for I traveled on foot in some severely cold weather, and I found that my chastisement was not over, notwithstanding the favor of the Lord in helping me to some means. I remarked that I had fifty-five dollars when I left the States, and that, too, obtained honestly, without any speculation, trading, swapping, or stealing; but I earned what I got, and left a good name behind me.

I have given you some items of my apostasy. I will now relate some of my recent experience.

When I got to Florence, or Winter Quarters, where I had to stay, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Plains, I read many of the publications and works of the Church, and became strengthened and informed in regard to the Priesthood of the Son of God. Although I knew something about the Priesthood before, so far as the theory was concerned, yet I discovered that I had never properly understood it; and hence I feel that my faith is greatly strengthened. I wanted to get posted up and see what the “Mormons” had learned since I left them; and I learned very much by reading the discourses that had been preached here.

The doctrine of plurality was a great bugbear to me, till I got to Florence and read the works of brother Orson Pratt; and now I see that it is heaven’s own doctrine, and the Church of Jesus Christ can never be perfect without it. Had I known as much of the Church of Jesus Christ and its doctrines before I apostatized as I now know, I think I could not have backslidden.

I have come here to get good society—to get your fellowship. I want your fellowship; I want your God to be my God, and I want to live with you forever, in time and eternity. I never want to forsake the people of God any more. I want to have your confidence, and I want to be one in the house of God. I have learned to understand what David said when he exclaimed, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” I have not come here to seek for any office, except it be to be a doorkeeper or a deacon; no, I am neither worthy nor fit; but I want a place among you as a humble servant of the Lord.

I did say once, when coming along, inadvertently, They may think that I am coming to get office, but if they offer it to me I will not have it, and that will show them I do not want any; but I took a second thought and said, I will say, The will of the Lord be done.

I have now got a better understanding of the Presidency of the Church than I formerly had. I used to ask myself, What is the difference between the President of our Church and a Pope? True, he is not called a Pope, but names do not alter realities, and therefore he is a Pope.

God is at the head of this kingdom, and he has sustained it. I was along in the start of it, and then Joseph was the little one; but, as the Scriptures say, “The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation;” and Joseph lived to become a thousand, and this people are fast becoming a strong nation.

I am just as confident as I can be in the truth of those things that brother Heber has spoken of; for I see in my meditations how the Priesthood has been restored, when the Lord had taken it from the earth by the death of the Apostles, and how the authority to administer in the name of Jesus Christ was also taken, and that, when the authority went, miracles were taken away and the power of God ceased to be manifested through men during the long period of the rule of antichrist and anarchy.

I see the propriety of God’s vesting the authority in one man, and in having a head, or something tangible to see, hear, and understand the mind and will of God. When I saw this, I said, It is consistent: Christ is the great head of the Church. Christ is the head of his Church in the same relationship as every head is to the body to which it belongs; for every head must have eyes to see, a mouth to speak, and ears to hear. Well, Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, and he has got a man to represent him on the earth—viz., President Brigham Young. Jesus Christ is still the head of the Church; and his will to man on the earth is known by means of the mouthpiece of God, the Prophet, and Seer.

When I came to these conclusions, I said, Now I will go there among them; for I have found out how I may learn wisdom from God. I want to learn wisdom, and not to be ruled by my own imaginations.

God has given me reasoning powers, and I will use them, so far as I am capable, in the acquirement of knowledge. But how will I get wisdom from God? The answer is plain. He speaks through his mouthpiece, therefore I will go and place my ears close to his mouth—for I am not good of hearing—and I will pray to God in secret; and to such he has said he will answer them openly. I will pray for the thing that I want; and the chief desire of my heart before God is, that I may know that he accepts me.

Well, where shall I go, was the next question, to get a response to this desire? The answer was, Go to the President of the Church—to the mouthpiece of God, and then you can be taught, and there will be no difficulty in learning the mind and will of God.

I thank God that he has brought me back here, where I can receive such instructions, and with a prospect of seeing, notwithstanding my advanced age, the glory of God. Many of you that are young will live, as has been said, to see the glory of God manifested on the earth. Amen.

FURTHER REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG

A portion of the congregation have heard what brother Marsh has said; but he spoke so low that you could not all hear. He wants to know whether this people are willing to receive him into full fellowship. When he came to Florence, he applied to brother Cunningham, who was then presiding there, for baptism. Brother Cunningham at first refused to baptize him, probably thinking that it would be better for him to wait till he came to this place; but he afterwards gave his consent to brother Marsh’s being baptized. Brother Marsh now wishes to be received into full fellowship, and to be again baptized here.

There are many here who have formerly been acquainted with him—with his moral character, and they can judge as well as myself. Those who are not acquainted with him will be willing to coincide with the judgment of those who once knew him.

I shall call a vote, to ascertain whether the people are willing that he should be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and be acknowledged a member in full fellowship. I wish those who are willing to receive brother Marsh into full fellowship as a member in this Church and kingdom to manifest it by the uplifted hand. [All hands appeared to be raised.] If there are any who are not willing, they now have the privilege of manifesting it by the uplifted hand. [Not a hand was raised.]

Brother Marsh, I think that will be satisfactory to you.

[T. B. Marsh: “It is, and I thank God for it.”]

I presume that brother Marsh will take no offense if I talk a little about him. We have manifested our feelings towards him, and we know his situation. With regard to this Church’s being reconciled to him, I can say that this Church and people were never dissatisfied with him; for when men and women apostatize and go from us, we have nothing to do with them. If they do that which is evil, they will suffer for it. Brother Marsh has suffered. He told me, yesterday, that the Christians might hang up their fiddle in regard to there being no Catholic Tophet or Purgatory.

You are aware that the children of the Mother Church have dissented from the idea of there being such a place as Purgatory; but brother Marsh says that there is such a place, and that he has been in it during the past eighteen years and upwards. I asked him whether he did not have to pray himself out. He answered, “Yes.” I then remarked—If you prayed yourself out, I suppose you saved the priests’ fees. “Yes,” he said; “It did not cost me a cent of money.” However, it cost him a great deal of labor, trouble, and pain.

In conversing with brother Marsh, I find that he is about the same Thomas that he always was—full of anecdotes and chit-chat. He could hardly converse for ten minutes without telling an anecdote. His voice and style of conversation are familiar to me.

He has told you that he is an old man. Do you think that I am an old man? I could prove to this congregation that I am young; for I could find more girls who would choose me for a husband than can any of the young men.

Brother Thomas considers himself very aged and infirm, and you can see that he is, brethren and sisters. What is the cause of it? He left the Gospel of salvation. What do you think the difference is between his age and mine? One year and seven months to a day; and he is one year, seven months, and fourteen days older than brother Heber C. Kimball.

“Mormonism” keeps men and women young and handsome; and when they are full of the Spirit of God, there are none of them but what will have a glow upon their countenances; and that is what makes you and me young; for the Spirit of God is with us and within us.

When brother Thomas thought of returning to the Church, the plurality of wives troubled him a good deal. Look at him. Do you think it need to? I do not; for I doubt whether he could get one wife. Why it should have troubled an infirm old man like him is not for me to say. He read brother Orson Pratt’s work upon that subject, and discovered that the doctrine was beautiful, consistent, and exalting, and that the kingdom could not be perfect without it. Neither can it be perfect without a great many things that the people do not yet understand, though they will come in the own due time of the Lord.

As I have but a few minutes for speaking, I will relate a little of the current news of the day.

On Friday evening, the 11th inst., two of the brethren who accompanied brothers Samuel W. Richards and George Snider from Deer Creek to 118 miles below Laramie, came in, and reported that soldiers and a heavy freight train were there encamped opposite to them and on the south side of the Platte. They could tell that they were soldiers, from the appearance of their carriages, wagons, tents, and mode of encampment. We did not learn anything very definite from these two brethren lately arrived.

Messrs. Russel and Waddle are freighting for Government, and some of their trains were scattered along to the Sweetwater. They have twenty-six wagons in each train, with a teamster and six yoke of oxen to a wagon. Some of those trains were on the Sweetwater when brother Samuel passed down, and quite a number of them are in advance of the soldiers. The brethren learned that Captain Van Vliet, Assistant Quartermaster, was coming on to purchase lumber and such things as might be needed for the army.

Last evening, brother John R. Murdock arrived direct from St. Louis. He left here with the mail on the 2nd day of July, and reached Independence in sixteen days, making by far the shortest trip on record, and in eighteen days-and-a-half from here landed in St. Louis. He tarried there till brother Horace S. Eldredge and brother Groesbeck had transacted some business, and then started up the river with a small train. On the 9th of August, brother Murdock left Atchison, K.T. Troubles were daily expected to break out in Kansas between the Republican, or Free State, and the pro-slavery parties; for which reason General Harney, with the cavalry, a portion of the infantry, and, I think, one or two companies of the Artillery, were detained there by orders from Washington, and Colonel Johnson ordered to assume the command of the army for Utah.

Some fifteen or sixteen hundred infantry started from Leavenworth; and when brother Murdock passed them, one hundred miles below Laramie, about five hundred had deserted, leaving, as he was told, about one thousand men on their way to this place. He passed a few freight trains, which were entirely deserted by the teamsters, and Russel and Waddle were not able to hire teamsters to bring those trains forward.

Brother Murdock did not think that they could get here this fall, unless we helped them in. Their teams are pretty good, but they are very much jaded. Their mule teams are in better condition, because they regularly feed them on grain.

From the time that I heard that the President of the United States had issued orders for soldiers to come here, they have had my best faith that the Lord would not let them get here. I have seen this people, when palsied with agues, fevers, and with various other diseases, hurled out of doors, driven away from their cellars full of potatoes, from their meal chests, from their cows, houses, barns, orchards, fields, and finally from their happy homes and all the comforts of life. I have seen that a good many times, and I pray that I may never see it again, unless it is absolutely necessary for the welfare and advancement of God’s purposes on the earth. I want to see no more suffering. I will not use the word suffering, for I call it joy instead of sorrow, affliction, and suffering. If we live our religion and exercise faith, it is our firm belief that it is our right to so exercise our united faith that our enemies never can come here, unless the Lord in his providence sees that it will be for our good.

It is my faith and feelings that, if we live as we should live, they cannot come here; but I am decided in my opinion that, if worse comes to worst, and the Lord permits them to come upon us, I will desolate this whole Territory before I will again submit to the hellish corruption and bondage the wicked are striving to thrust upon us solely for our exercising our right of freedom of conscience.

I will say, in reference to President Buchanan, that, for his outrageous wickedness in this movement, he shall wear the yoke as long as he lives; he shall be led about by his party with the yoke on his neck, until they have accomplished their ends, and he can do no more for them; and his name shall be forgotten; and “Old Bright,” as brother Kimball calls him, shall be free. I am persuaded that for their horrible, wicked treatment to this people—the only loyal people in the United States—the only people who know the worth of the Constitution—they will be sorely punished.

After doing what they already have done to this people—after sending among us the filth and scum of all creation (as some of the officers were) as officers of the Government, contrary to the genius of our institutions, I want to tell them that, though they continue to send poor pusillanimous curses here to be Government officers, we will not submit to it, troops or no troops. I shall tell them this in plainness and simplicity; and they shall find that in my simplicity I will try to sustain so righteous a position. And I believe that the point is yielded, both in Europe and America; and I believe they acknowledge that Brigham is a man of his word; and I have come to the conclusion that we will not again have officers thrust upon us contrary to our consent, the Lord helping us.

When brother Murdock left St. Louis, Mr. Cummings, the person who had received the appointment of Governor of Utah, was going to Washington, and he could not learn that there was one of the Territorial officers with the soldiers: hence I do not see but that I shall have to again preside over our Legislative Assembly this winter. I do not see that it can be otherwise; and William H. Hooper will be Secretary, just as he was last winter. They have refused to pay the expenses of the last Assembly and other just debts due to this Territory; but God will overrule those things for our good and the advancement of his kingdom, if we live our religion.

Our enemies will yet be glad to come to us for safety and salvation; and we will do as brother Kimball has said—we will save the old veteran fathers; and the time will come when we will be baptized for them, while those who trample upon the rights of their fellow men will be weltering in hell. Yes, we will bring up those old revolutionary sires and save them; for God loves men who are true to each other and are true to him.

If any want to apostatize, I want them to look at brother Marsh. I wish you could all see and understand what he has suffered. He has suffered a little; and I could tell you a good deal of the suffering induced by the weaknesses of men.

When the Quorum of the Twelve was first chosen, Lyman Johnson’s name was called first, Brigham Young’s second, Heber C. Kimball’s third, and so on. I had seen brother Marsh and others who were nominated for the Quorum of the Twelve, and I looked upon them as men of great powers of mind—as men of ability—men who understood the things of heaven. I looked upon them as angels, and I looked up to them just as my children look up to me.

I considered brother Marsh a great man; but as soon as I became acquainted with him, I saw that the weakness of the flesh was visibly manifest in him. I saw that he was ignorant and shattered in his understanding, if ever he had good understanding. He manifests the same weakness today. Has he the stability of a sound mind? No, and never had. And if he had good sense and judgment, he would not have spoken as he has. He has just said, “I will be faithful, and I will be true to you.” He has not wisdom enough to see that he has betrayed us once, and don’t know but what he will again. He has told me that he would be faithful, and that he would do this and the other; but he don’t know what he will do next week or next year.

I do not know what I shall do next year; I always speak for the present. But a man that will be once fooled by the Devil—a man that has not sense to discern between steel grey mixed and iron grey mixed, when one is dyed with logwood and the other with indigo, may be deceived again. You never heard me say that I was going to be true to my God; for I know too much of human weakness: but I pray God to preserve me from falling away—to preserve me in the truth. I depend not upon myself; for I know too much of human weakness and of myself, to indulge in such remarks.

I derive strength from a superior source. I have been drinking from that source for many years; and, as I told you last Sabbath, I have been trying to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And, if we are faithful, we will all be counted worthy to be his disciples. God bless you! Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 6, 1857.

I can say, brethren, as far as I am concerned, that I have no particular anxiety about the final issue of “Mormonism.” But if I have any trouble about the matter, it is about a great many limbs or vines connected to that vine. Probably you understand what I mean when I am talking about vines and trees. I speak about these things because I most humbly desire to touch upon simple principles—that is, the most simple figures, that the most simple person in this congregation may understand me.

I am not troubled about the learned few—those that have learned right, and are taught of the Lord: I have no trouble about their understanding; for children may understand the things that I present, and any man that is taught directly from God will understand; he will understand the most simple things, and he will understand the greatest things; for the greatest things are the simplest things. Do you not know it?

There are thousands of men in the house of Israel, and among the Elders of Israel, that are now considered to be small men, and not of much account, that will supersede, eventually, thousands of men who may now think that they are the smartest. That may be queer to you; it may be singular to many; but I have known of a great many instances of that kind.

When we go into a fruit orchard or vineyard, we find the husbandman, as he is called, who has charge of it; and I have myself seen very inferior trees that never brought forth any fruit. A great many men would come along and say to the husbandman, “Why don’t you take up that tree? It never will be of any account.” Those men do not understand, as the husbandman does, or they never would make such a speech.

Is there a way to restore that tree, and to make it one of the most thrifty trees in all the vineyard? Yes, there is. Well, what course will you take to do that? Take the old stock away and put a thrifty graft into the root, and then it becomes one of the most thrifty trees in the vineyard, because the young stock renews the old, and the old becomes a good tree.

So it is with you, many of you: yes, thousands of you will become mighty men, inasmuch as you honor your calling and receive nourishment from the Father, or from the root; for it comes from the root, and then spreads itself all through the vine, and every vine that is attached to that partakes of the same nourishment, and to the same extent, and in the same degree as the others.

Now, can you realize that? Bless your souls! Go into the gardens. I am going to talk to you as I would to little children; for there are a great many of you that need to be taught. Go into your gardens and take a cucumber vine, and do you not know that in the latter part of the season you will find the largest and longest at the most extended part of the vine? Do you know that? [Voices: “Yes.“] There is one woman that knows it; but she would not if she did not work in her garden; and those that do not work there do not know anything about it. I am talking to you that go into your gardens to work.

You may take watermelons, and you will find the largest at the extreme part of the vine. Can it be possible that the most extended part of the vine can bring forth as much as the most extended limb on a tree? Yes, it can. Where does it come from? From the root, and from thence into the main limb or vine, and then into every branch and twig that is connected to that vine.

Does not that prove, that you who seem to be small now, can become great and mighty men in the kingdom of God—yes, even Prophets? Does it not prove that you can become great and mighty men, as well as those that are now more intimately connected to the vine? Of course it does.

Now, you may take an apple tree, a grape vine, a plum tree, and you may take a cucumber vine, and all these trees and vines are one in their organization: they are all alike, only one is called a tree, and another a vine. They are also a little different in the fruit they bear: one is a peach, or a plum, another a grape, &c.; and these fruits are different in appearance, yet they are one in relation to the principle that governs them.

One man is called upon to be a Prophet, another to be an Apostle, another to be a Seventy, another a High Priest, another a Patriarch, and so on; and don’t you see they are all, in general features, alike? There is not one of them that is not attached to a root. How could I grow, if I were not attached to a tree or to a vine? I could not produce fruit.

Well, the nearer I approach to my Father and to Jesus in my conduct, the more I become like Joseph and the servants of God; and the more I become like those characters, the more perfect a pattern I become for others; and of course my fruit will be just like the characters I pattern after; and then, of course, my fruit will be just like the characters I am connected to. Will it have the same effect upon you? Why, of course it will. Will it have the same effect upon you, ladies—you, sisters? Yes; and it will have the same effect upon your children.

I do not know whether you understand me or not, but I wish you would have your gardens trimmed and kept clean; and if you do not have any, go into the mountains and to the timber countries.

I merely touch upon these things to refresh your minds, though I did not think anything about them when I got up; but if you will go and look at them—I mean every Elder, High Priest, Apostle, and Prophet in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—you will be benefited; for you ought to be exactly like one tree. What! Bring forth the same fruit? Yes, all be one in your works for the benefit of Israel.

Some time ago I brought up a comparison about an apple tree, and although I did not know it then, I have got one tree that has probably got fifty limbs on it, and there is not one but is so full that I have had to pick apples off it twice, and every limb is weighed down with fruit. Well, I have tried it since then, and there is not one particle of difference in the fruit of all those limbs. Is it good fruit? No; the first limb is not worth a dime, and all the rest are just like it.

Can a pure tree bring forth impure fruit? The tree of which I have spoken is not impure in its appearance, but it is very smooth externally, and likely to look upon; but there is not a particle of goodness in it, or, at least, there is not in the fruit it produces. That is the case with many of you.

Well, then, we say that, if the root is good, the tree is good, and the limbs, because they are attached to the tree and receive nourishment from the tree.

Well, if the root is not very good, the limbs, the tree, and the apples will not be very good, because the root is not very good.

You take a man that is not very good, and that has a wife that is not very good, and they cannot produce very good fruit, because the root is not good. Do you understand that, brother Hunter? [“Yes, Sir.”] Is it as plain as cattle? You understand how to originate good stock, and so do I. You go into England and into the New England States, and every man that is raising stock is taking a course to take away the ringed, and the streaked, and the little, dried-up fixings, and to produce a more noble stock. It is upon the same principle that this people should become regenerated.

Well, supposing that a man is a long way beneath his fellows, and is a little, dried-up, knotty, inferior man; can that man be cultivated? Yes, sir, he can; he can take a course in the principles of righteousness, by treasuring up truth; and truth is light, and light is life. Every word of truth that you gather into your bosoms is light and life; and the most inferior man or woman can be regenerated through the word of the living God; for that word will be in you springing up unto everlasting life. That is the principle.

I throw out these few ideas to cause you to reflect. They may seem eccentric, but they are true.

Sometimes I am at work at an apple tree, and sometimes at a cucumber vine; but what is the difference? They have all roots, and they have all cores, and they are all produced for a noble purpose.

The aristocracy—that is, those that are called the aristocracy, came out of the old country: they came as far as Lehi came from Jerusalem, and so on, till they came into this country; but still those that remained behind considered themselves the aristocracy. But let me tell you those men that came here were the true aristocracy; they were the original stock; they were produced by the aristocracy, and they are the original stock. Those men were choice characters, and God spoke to them, and they came over here.

That is what they call aristocracy; that is as it is; though I never studied grammar; but I have looked into the Bible and into the Book of Mormon, and I have looked into the visions of eternity, and I know that I am true, and that I am of the true vine. I am one of the sons of those old veterans, and so is brother Brigham.

Will you let me talk just as I please today, ladies and gentlemen?

[Voices: “Yes.”]

Now, I will refer to brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and lots of other men. Brother Joseph actually saw those men in vision; he saw us in a day when we were all together. We have been separated by marriage and thrown apart; but he saw the day when we all came out of one stock, and that was out of the aristocracy. Yes, we came directly down through the Prophets, and not only us, but lots of others—the whole Smith race. I could remember probably twenty or thirty that Joseph mentioned came down through that channel.

My father’s father and his brothers intermixed by marriage with the Smiths, and uncle John Smith was baptized in Nauvoo for upwards of twenty of my kindred. They mixed up in marriage, and in that way the names became changed; for they were the old veterans.

There is another thing that brother Joseph said—viz., that we were positively heirs of the Priesthood; for he had seen us as such in his vision; yes, just as much so as my children are that have been born since I received my endowment. Our fathers were heirs to that Priesthood, which was handed down from father to son, and we came through that lineage.

Never mind, brethren and sisters, give me your attention a little while. The gentleman that came to the stand with brother Brigham is Thomas B. Marsh. I tell you this, that you need not be overanxious.

Joseph told us these things, and I know them to be true. I know them by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and so do a great many men. We are and we were heirs when we were called and ordained to the Apostleship: we were of that class; yes, we were the sons and daughters of those that came down through that lineage.

We will yet save the Constitution of the United States. We will do it, as the Lord liveth, and we will save this nation, everyone of them that will be saved. Brother Brigham Young and brother Joseph Smith stand at our head, and will do that thing, as the Lord liveth. Yes, we, as their children, with our children to assist us, will do it. We have got that power, and so have they, and will bear the kingdom off victoriously to every nation that is upon God’s footstool; and I know it.

Let your hearts be comforted; for just as sure as that is true, so sure will we have good peace for three years from last winter. And why? Because we will make peace, and we will sustain it and support it, and we will bear off the kingdom and establish it. We will bring forth every one of those old veterans, and we will place them upon this land that they fought for. Now, mark it; for we will do it, and all the devils in hell cannot hinder it, if this people will only live their religion and do as they are told; and you cannot do as you are told without living your religion; and if you will do that, we never shall be troubled.

I tell you, if we now live our religion every day, inasmuch as the President of the United States, or the Senators or Legislators make laws to afflict us, the thing they design to bring upon us shall come upon themselves; and the affliction, the snares, the traps, and the gins which they lay for us, they themselves shall suffer with and be caught in. These words never shall fail.

Brethren and sisters, can you do as you are told? It is the easiest thing in the world.

[President Brigham Young: “Tell them something to do.”]

We want some thirty or forty yoke of oxen to go out and meet James A. Little’s company. Do you all say yes?

[The congregation responded, “Yes.”]

Tomorrow morning, at seven o’clock, we want forty yoke of cattle to help in our trains. You, Bishops, see to that, will you?

[” Yes, Sir.”]

I tell you we have got enough for you to do: we will call on you for another hitch by-and-by. Take care of your grain, and have all the sisters help to take care of it, and do not let the children waste it; for we do not want you to have enough scattered round to fat three hogs on the crumbs and pieces of bread that are around your door yards. Will you do that?

[President Young: “I guess they will.”]

My discourse is rather eccentric. It is in detachments. [Voice: “That is the way they are building the big ship in London.”] That is right, is it not, brother Carrington?

[” Yes, Sir.”]

But let us be attached together, and then we are one; let us yield up our will, and let it run into the tree or branch to which we are connected. Yield up your wills.

I will compare you to a drop of water; inasmuch as you are not willing to yield up, you cannot be one. Now, just let us all run into one drop, and let all the branches be connected to that one tree; and then will we not increase? We will.

Now, as to those enemies down here below, they are not going to trouble us: the brethren will have to go and help them in. Some of those baggage wagons are nearly to Bridger now, and they cannot get back. Their teams are failing fast, and the supposition is, they will have to hire our teams to help them in, but the soldiers will not come. There is nobody to molest them, but their minds are not quiet: they are scared almost to death; and the nearer those baggage wagons get here, the more they are afraid.

As to the army, one-fifth of them have deserted, and the others are making preparations to do so likewise. And as to old Harney, the old squaw-killer, they have made him stop to aid the Governor of Kansas, and, it is likely, to kick up jack. But we do not care anything about it or them. Let us lay up our grain and prepare for the siege, for it will come.

We commenced last Sunday to declare that we are a free people, and we will be free from this day henceforth and forever; and we never will come under that yoke again. I tell you, as my soul lives, the bow-pin has dropped out of old Bright’s bow, and the bow has dropped out, and the yoke is now on old Buchanan’s neck.

Did you ever see a yoke of cattle, and see one get loose, and the off-ox swinging round the yoke and knocking everybody’s shins? If you have, that is just the way with old Buchanan: he cannot do anything, but he will bruise somebody’s shins, and they will be after him, and he never shall rest again—no, never, until the time comes for us to redeem him. And that is not all. All his coadjutors, his cabinet, and all his governors—yes, I will say from here, or from Dan to Jerusalem—they shall go over the dam: they never shall rest in peace till the Lord Almighty has scourged them until they are fully satisfied.

The Lord God is going to play with them, as he did with Pharaoh in Egypt; and let me tell you, there will not be much fighting for us to do, if we live our religion; but God will use them to accomplish his own works, as the monkey did the cat, when he took the cat’s paw to pull the nut out of the fire. We will make monkeys of them, and we will make them crawl on all-fours, and they never will rest.

They have afflicted us ever since the day that Joseph got the plates. They have driven us five times and broken us up, and here we are. Have they ever repented? No, they have not. Have they afflicted us as many as seventy times seven? They have, speaking of it individually. Well, they are not yet punished as they will be; but they are in punishment, are they not, Thomas? They are. Our government is God’s government on the earth, and he will see to the interests of his kingdom. He will know the designs of our enemies, and he will know at all times to take them when they do not think of it.

The President of this nation and his brethren in office, with all the rulers and all the priests, have sanctioned the destruction of this people. Yes, the President and all his coadjutors have sanctioned our death as much as if they had taken our lives, and they are a bloodthirsty nation. They have killed our Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles, and they have slain, or caused to fall, thousands—yea, thousands of our brethren and sisters, our wives, our fathers, and our mothers; and they shall see the same fulfilled upon themselves, and it shall be measured to them double for all they have dealt out unto us.

When we consider all things, are they not to be pitied? They are. If you will live your religion, you never will have anything to do but to live your religion and lay up stores and prepare for the scenarios that are to come; for, as true as the Lord lives, the people of the nations will come by hundreds and by thousands for food, and for raiment, and for protection; and that time is right at our door.

This is one thing to rouse our feelings; for God saw that you would not listen to the words of his servants, but you listen to your own words, and you did not have confidence to lay up stores. There is not one man to a hundred that ever did it; and that is proof sufficient that you did not believe what was said. This is but a shadow of what is coming: it is in embryo. You will see such a time as you never saw. But bless you we won’t be troubled. We will live as in the presence of God and of angels. And will we ever have to go into the moun– tains? No, never. If you will live your religion, you never will.

[Voice: “That is true.”]

Do just as brother Brigham tells you; for he always tells you what is right, and he generally tells you what I say is right; and if there is anything wrong, he will correct it and give you the truth. But do I wish to teach you an error? No; I have not such a desire in my heart.

Had I a desire before I was a “Mormon” to propagate an error? No. Why, bless you, I always was a “Mormon.” My father and grandfather were “Mormons;” and it is “Mormonism” right away back.

You know brother Brigham and I know our daddies; and if no other men on the face of the earth do, you may feel perfectly satisfied that all is right with us.

Now, let us be faithful, let us be humble, let us lay aside our pride and everything that is calculated to distress us or to distress our wives; and then let wives lay aside everything that is calculated to distress their husbands.

Wives, lay aside your vanity, and go to work and make everything that we need, until the time comes when the Lord will consecrate the whole earth unto this people. But that time is not now.

I do not do as many do; for many have looked at these troops that are coming with a degree of fear. But what are they? [Voice: “Scarcely worth picking up.”]

I wish there would never a pin’s worth of their property come in here, because there are those who think more of a pound of tea than they do of their religion.

[President B. Young: “There are not many of that class.”]

But there are a few. If there were not, I should feel discouraged; I should feel to give counsel for you to go to work and accumulate as fast as you could. Bless your souls! There is nothing but what we could make here.

Need we send to the States for anything? No; we need not send even for sugar; and we can make almost everything under heaven, and all the rest is in heaven; and they can be sent down here to us; for heaven and earth are connected by this Priesthood as much as my body and spirit are connected. All these things are in heaven—sugar, flocks and herds, wool and silks, and everything else; and they are not only in the heavens, but in the earth, just as much as that pitcher was taken out of the earth. It was in the earth, and the same kinds are also in the heavens.

We can make all these things ourselves; and all we have to do is to organize the elements that God has created or that he organized; for he did not create this earth any more than the potter created this pitcher. The potter took the rough material and ground it, and put it on his wheel, and made it just into the shape you see it now.

It was so with our God. The elements were already created, and he took them and shaped them into an earth; and this is the way that all things are organized.

Can we make silk? I have told you that if you go to work and raise flax, you should have the privilege, in my lifetime, of reaping four times as much flax as you ever reaped in the States; that is, you shall have a fourfold crop.

Do I believe that such can be the case with sheep? I know it can; for we have sheared more wool from the sheep here than we ever did in the States, and have we not done the same by wheat?

I heard brother Brigham and brother Wells speaking of a person that took from an acre and thirty rods ninety-six bushels and a half of wheat, and there are others who have taken their fifty-seven bushels an acre. Why, Thomas, you never saw such things in the States! God bless you, Thomas! You shall become a sound man, and be a comfort to us in our old age.

Well, I have no feelings in me against anyone—not against brother Marsh; but I feel to bless him with the blessings of God, with the blessings of the earth, from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet; for this is my calling, and I do not feel to curse. But as for our enemies, they have cursed themselves with all the curses they can bear; and the cursings that are on them they never can get off, neither can those who sustain them. The Church and kingdom to which we belong will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, and brother Brigham Young will become President of the United States.

[Voices responded, “Amen.”]

And I tell you he will be something more; but we do not now want to give him the name: but he is called and ordained to a far greater station than that, and he is foreordained to take that station, and he has got it; and I am Vice-President, and brother Wells is the Secretary of the Interior—yes, and of all the armies in the flesh.

You don’t believe that; but I can tell you it is one of the smallest things that I can think of. You may think that I am joking; but I am perfectly willing that brother Long should write every word of it; for I can see it, just as naturally as I see the earth and the productions thereof.

Let us live our religion, serve our God, be good and kind one to another, cease all those contentions in your houses, and live in peace.

Sisters, if you have got husbands, nourish them and cherish them; for they have got an almighty work to do; they have enough to do to lay up the comforts of life; and you wives are the women to nourish them that nourish you; for they feed you, and clothe you, and give you every mouthful that you eat and drink, and they have brought you to these valleys of the mountains, that you might see the sons of Jacob become a mighty host. Good heavens! You may yet see the day when the sons of Jacob will be ten times thicker than they now are; and I know it will be so.

We will build up Jackson County, and I am going to tell them of it, with your consent, brother Brigham; and if you do not find any fault with it, I do not know that anybody else has a right to.

Sisters, love your husbands, and encourage them to listen to their file leaders and to their officers pertaining to this Church; for this is their calling, and not to sit down and cry, snuffle, and find fault with their leaders and the other authorities in the Church; for there is where so many go over the dam.

Brother Thomas has learned that this won’t do. He has said he got mad with brother Joseph, and then he got mad with brother Brigham and me, because we did not get mad also, like him. The truth was, we were so busy, we had no time to get mad. It was nothing to us what brother Joseph did, and it is just so with you: it is none of your business what brother Brigham does, though you all know that he would not do anything wrong. Why, bless you, brother Brigham would die ten thousand deaths rather than walk one hair to the right or to the left from that which is right.

Well, we are not jealous of you. Do your duty, and you will make every house and every place a palace, and your homes will be as the gate of heaven, and a source of joy to your husbands. Of course you must have a heaven of that which you have made.

Why, I would go to work and make an altar and a heaven, and I never would take any other course than that which is honorable before God; and how can you live your religion without this?

You poor, miserable, disaffected beings, if there are any such here, learn to do right.

Sisters, sustain and comfort your husbands; for they have got plenty to do in these last days. After we have laid up stores and got seven years’ provisions, there will be seven years for us to be on guard, but never can our enemies touch us if we do right.

We are up in the tops of the mountains, and our Governor is here. What do you say to that? And his God is here, and his associates are listening.

Well, if it is time for the Government of the United States to cut the thread, we are perfectly competent to take care of ourselves. We would not give a dime for this people to be one more in number than they are. There are enough of us; for the Lord is going to manifest his power and to play with our enemies as he did with Pharaoh and all his host. Now, mark it, and see if it does not come so, or something similar. All these things are in this dispensation, and why? Because this is the fulness of times: it is the time fixed for all to make a sacrifice before God.

God bless you, and may you receive the blessings of brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Daniel, the Twelve Apostles, and the blessings of the Patriarchs of the living God.

Peace be unto this people. Peace be in these valleys and upon the mountains around us! And peace be upon everything that we possess! But peace shall not rest upon those who will grumble and find fault with the servants of God. No; and he or she that will do it shall be as a barren tree.

God bless you and make your minds fruitful, and fill you with revelation, with dreams, and with the visions of eternity, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 30, 1857.

I did not expect to be called upon to address you this afternoon; but I always feel ready to speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, whenever I am called upon.

Brother Kimball said he would like to hear me say something about the RIGHTS of “Mormonism.” The rights of “Mormonism” are so varied and extensive, that it would be very difficult to speak of them all in one discourse. We have the right to live. That is “Mormonism.” We have the right to eat and drink, and to pursue that course that we may think proper, so long as we do not interfere with other persons’ rights. We have a right to live free and unmolested; and there is no law, human or divine, that rightfully has a right, if you please, to interfere with us. We have a right to think, and we have a right, after we have thought, to express our thoughts, and to write them, and to publish them. We possess as many rights and as much liberty in relation to this as any other persons; and there is no law, human or divine, that can rightfully rob us of those liberties or trample upon our rights. We have a right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; and no man, legally, in this land, has a right to interfere with us for so doing. We have a right to believe in and practice as we please in relation to matrimony. We have a right to choose whether we will have one wife or twenty; and there is no law of the land that can legally interfere with us; neither is there a man that I have met with, that professed to be a man at all, that can say that we are acting illegally. We have a right to secure the favor of God, and we have rights as the citizens of the kingdom of God. We have rights upon earth, and we have rights in heaven; we have rights that affect us and our posterity and progenitors, worlds without end; and they are rights that no man can interfere with. We have a right to our own Governor, as brother Kimball says; we have a right to our own Judges; we have a right to make our own laws and to regulate our own affairs.

These are some of the rights that belong to us; but when you come to talk about rights, they are so various, complicated, and extensive, that it is difficult, without reflection, to enumerate them. They exist with us here and all around us, and they are rights that affect us, our progenitors, and posterity, worlds without end. But in regard to some of the things with which we are more intimately connected, we have our individual, our social, and political rights, so far as existing here as a people is concerned. I do not know but that you will think that I am for sticking to my text pretty well: however, I will try, as well as I can, to do justice to it.

If we look at the very foundation of government, we may enquire, How were governments formed? Who organized them? And whence did they obtain their power? It is a subject for deep thought and reflection, and one that very few have understood; nor is it very easy to define, definitely, the rights of man politically, socially, and nationally.

Now, I will suppose there was no government in the world, but that we were thrown right back into the primitive state, and that we had to form a government to regulate ourselves; what would be the position? Why, the strong man would intrude upon the weak, even as a strong animal intrudes upon a weaker, taking from it its rights; for that is a natural animal propensity that exists in all the creatures, as well as in man.

How was society organized? Upon natural principles. I am not now speaking about God and his government, but upon the rights of man. If there were a few bullies in the land, and we had to organize the government anew, the people would combine to protect themselves against them to protect themselves against those who had injured them, that would rob them of their labor, of their cattle, of their grain, or of anything they might have.

What would be the result of this course? It would be that a combination would exist that would organize to protect themselves, that the weak might be protected in his rights, that the feeble might not be trampled under foot. This would be the natural construction and organization of society.

Very well; when society became large and extensive, and could not convene in a general assembly to represent themselves, they would send their representatives, who would combine to represent their interests by delegation, or proxy.

Who would those individuals represent? They would represent the parties of that neighborhood, of that state, of that country or district of country that sent them, would they not? And what would you think of those men that were sent, if they attempted to rule over those who sent them? Why, you would say, “Come back here, you rascals, and we will send others; we sent you to represent us, and now you are combining to put your feet upon our necks.”

This has been the case ever since governments were organized; and hence have arisen governors, kings, and emperors. They have generally contrived to get the reins of power into their own hands; and, through the cunning of priestcraft and kingcraft, they have generally managed to bring the people under their feet and to trample upon their rights. Such has been the case in the nations of Europe and Asia. It is, in fact, the history of the world.

By what right have any kings obtained their dominions? Has it been from God? No. Has it been from the people? No. How did they get in possession of their kingdoms? How was France organized? How England? How Germany? And how were other states and nations organized? They have been organized because men usurped power, brought into subjection other men, trampled under foot their rights, and made slaves of them, and made them carry out their laws, and do their pleasure without any peculiar interest in the things that were done. And those men, instead of governing the people according to the principles of righteousness and truth, have generally made yokes and put them on their necks, and trampled them in the dust—so much so, that in many of the countries of Europe you cannot travel but you must have a passport; and every little upstart has a right to examine it and to stop you, if he likes.

You have to ask a right to stop in cities, and they will prevent you when they please, and not only strangers, but their own citizens; and there are many European cities now, where, if a father was to receive his own son into his house, if he had been absent without the permission of the police, he would be subject to a heavy fine.

It is the governors of the people that bring them into subjection in this manner, until the people think that kings and priests have rights—and they have no rights—until they think that presidents, governors, and kings are the persons who possess certain inalienable rights, and that no one has a right to interfere with them.

Kings, presidents, and priests combined govern men, body and soul. The first fetter them in their bodies and liberties, and the latter in their minds and consciences; and the human family, instead of being free, are literally and almost universally in a state of vassalage.

At the time of the Reformation, men began to break off their political fetters and to claim their rights, both politically and religiously. Many people talk of that event as a church concern alone: it was as much a political matter as anything else. The causes that prompted them to take the steps they did were both religious and political, the benefits accruing only very limited and partial; still it was a resistance to tyranny and oppression. The kings that sustained the Reformers did so merely upon political grounds, and not that they cared for their religion.

What made people come from the old countries to this land? It was because they were oppressed in England, in Germany, and in other states, and they fled from that power which sought to bind chains upon their necks. And why were they determined to flee from that government into this country? Because the mother country tried to make them subject to institutions and laws that they were unwilling to submit to, and because she wanted to put yokes upon their necks. Then the mother country sent armed men over here, and sought to enforce their armed minions upon the people; but they would not submit to it; for it was on that very account that they had fled from their mother country.

Such were the feelings of your fathers, and these were the things they talked about, a few years ago; and on account of the encroachments of the parent government, they took up the sword, and declared that they would live or die free men.

What was that freedom for which they contended? Just what I said a few minutes ago; it was the right to think, the right to speak, the right to act, the right to legislate, and the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and the right to do their own business without being interfered with.

We have come here to this land as citizens of the United States; and why have we come? Because there were men who sought to rob of us our rights, and because there was not sufficient purity and justice in the Government to protect us in our rights—because magistrates, constables, judges, governors, presidents, and officers of state, either directly or indirectly drove us, or suffered us to be driven—suffered us to be dispossessed of that which legally belonged to us.

Who are we? We are men made in the image of God, possessing the rights of other men. We have turned this desert into a flourishing field, and the desert has blossomed as the rose, and God has blessed our labors. And whom have we interfered with? Have we gone over to the States and interfered with them? Have we gone over to California and interfered with them? Have we gone to Oregon? Have we gone to New Mexico? Have we gone to any State and interfered with their rights, their laws, their immunities, or their privileges? I say we have not.

Well, then, what right has anybody to interfere with us? Oh, because they have got the power! That is, there is no right to it; there is no legal authority to it; there is no more right to it than there is in a bully and a blackguard insulting a little, weak man, because he has the power to do so. They have just the same authority that a large ox has to goad a small one, because he has the power.

They dare not interfere with some nations as they are doing with us: they dare not interfere with England or France, for fear of the consequences; and it is nothing but a principle of nasty little meanness that would try to interfere with us, and try to make you believe that they are the lords of creation. Great God! Who are they? Poor, pusillanimous curses, that have not manhood nor gentility enough about them to be gentlemen. They have just the same right that the highwayman has to put his hands into your pockets and take out your money.

Who led us here? Not the Christians of the United States, nor their governors, legislators, nor president. Who provided for us? Did the Government of the United States? Verily, no. Who built the houses in this city? Who made the improvements around it and through this Territory? Did the inhabitants of the United States? No. But they have done all that lay in their power to discourage us in every possible way. Who have fed you and clothed you? Your own right hands—your own energy and industry, by the blessing of the Almighty.

Then by what right, and by what authority, in the name of God, and in the name of every principle of right, honor, and integrity, have they a right to interfere with us?

“Oh,” say they, “the land belongs to us.” Ah! indeed; and I wonder where you got it from? “Oh, we got it by right of treaty with Mexico.” And whence did the Mexicans obtain it? Who treated with those Indians? Did they pay them for it? “No: but they are good Christians, and the Indians are poor savages; and what right have savages to land?” Where are their deeds and their right of possession? Will anybody tell me? “Oh, we took it because we had the power, and the United States took it from Mexico, because they had power.”

It is just like a lot of boys playing together, and one of them steals the other’s marbles because he has the power; and then another steals them, and calls them his, because he is a little more powerful than the other: or, when one man meets another and robs him of what he has, then two more go and take from him what he has stolen from the first one.

The simple fact in the case is, they say, “You are left upon our land, and therefore you must be in subjection to us, and we must rule over you.” But even on this principle they are at fault; for we, if there is any glory in the conquest, sent five hundred men, and possess equal rights with them as American citizens.

In speaking upon this subject once before, I showed you that, by the Constitution and the very genius of our Government, they had no right to interfere with us.

Again, on the common principle of justice, where did they get their rights to interfere with us? They did not bring us here, nor cultivate our farms; they did not send us either schoolmasters or priests to teach us; and we are not indebted to them for anything else. I would like to know what right they had to interfere with us? They have not a right upon religious grounds; for they kicked us out because of our religion; and, consequently, they have nothing to do with that. It is not because we have learned any morals of them; for we got our morals from a superior source. We have not learned either our religion or morality from them. We have not had them to cultivate our farms nor to build our houses. They have not done anything for us.

In relation to the land, I will suppose they did steal it, which they did. They obtained it because they had the power, and Mexico obtained it upon the same principle: the United States made a quarrel with the latter nation, because they knew they could bring them into subjection, and they intended to capitulate for California before they began the quarrel, and they took it upon those grounds. But that is righteousness—that is purity, truth and holiness, in the eyes of a corrupt and mighty nation.

We have got a little place that nobody else would live upon; and I will warrant that if any other people had been here, half of them would have died, the last two years, of starvation. But they cannot let us alone. This is their greatness—this their magnanimity, and this is the compassion manifested by the fathers of our great country. Of course we must feel patriotic; we cannot but feel strongly attached to such a kind, such a benevolent, such a merciful Government as we have got! How can we feel otherwise? They would take from us the right to live, and then it would be in their hearts to sweep us from the face of the earth; but they cannot do it.

There is no right associated with this matter; there is no justice about it. There are old rights and privileges the people used to have, and we have our rights. In the first place, we have a God that lives, and He will help us to take care of them, to maintain and preserve them. Then look at this in whichever light you please, you cannot change it: we are citizens of the United States, and have a right to the soil, if they did steal it.

I am ashamed of being associated with such things, but we cannot help ourselves; we are a part of the people, and we had to partake of their evil deeds.

When we came here, we came as American citizens; and we had just as much right to be here as any other American citizens in the United States.

They have made a religious pretext to rob us of the right of preemption—that is because we have more wives than one. This is the course they have pursued towards us.

Have they a right to force upon us judges and send officers under a military escort? The very act says they are afraid of something. Have they a right to send those men to rule over us, without our having a voice in the matter? I say they have not, according to the laws which exist among men; they have not according to the principles of justice and truth; they have not according to the principles upon which this Government is established: but they want to rule over us contrary to the principles of the Government; and, as you have expressed it, you have a right to withstand it.

God be thanked, there are not as many sneaks here as there are in the old country: men here dare think and speak.

Well, these are our feelings and some of our rights; but I will speak to you of other rights; for we have greater rights, that I have not yet touched upon.

[Blessed the sacramental cup.]

I speak of those other things because they are inalienable rights that belong to men—to us as American citizens—to us as citizens of the world; but there are other rights, other grounds upon which we claim these rights.

The Lord God has spoken in these last days; he has revealed the fulness of the everlasting Gospel; he has restored that Gospel in all its fulness, blessings, richness, power, and glory; he has put us in possession of the principles of eternal life; and he has established his kingdom upon the earth, and we are the legitimate heirs and inheritors of this kingdom. He has established his Priesthood, revealed his authority, his government, and his laws; and the grand reason why there is union and power here, and nowhere else, is because it emanated from God.

When we talk over those other things, we are under a lesser law, that we can any of us keep and that we have kept. We are not rebelling against the United States, neither are we resisting the Constitution of the United States; but it is wicked and corrupt usurpers that are oppressing us and that would take our rights from us.

To speak of our rights as citizens of the kingdom of God, we then speak of another law, we then move in a more exalted sphere; and it is of these things we have a right to speak.

God has established his kingdom; he has rolled back that cloud that has overspread the moral horizon of the world; he has opened the heavens, revealed the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel, organized his kingdom according to the pattern that exists in the heavens; and he has placed certain keys, powers, and oracles in our midst; and we are the people of God; we are his government. The Priesthood upon the earth is the legitimate government of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth.

Some people ask, “What is Priesthood?” I answer, “It is the legitimate rule of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth;” and it is the only legitimate power that has a right to rule upon the earth; and when the will of God is done on earth as it is in the heavens, no other power will bear rule.

Then, if we look at it in this point of view, we are standing in a peculiar position; we are standing here as the representatives of God, and the only true representatives he has upon the earth; for there is not another power or government upon the earth that acknowledges God for their ruler, or head, but this: there is not another.

Why did we come here? We came here because the people drove us, and because the Lord would have us come here; for it was necessary we should come into our secret places, and hide ourselves till the indignation of the Lord be overpast—until the Lord has shaken our enemies by the nape of the neck, as it were, until nations and empires are overthrown. We came to serve our God, to a place where we could more fully keep his commandments—where we could fulfil his behests upon the earth. This is the reason why we came here.

Well, then, if we are the only people that God acknowledges as a nation, have not we a right to the privileges which we enjoy? Who owns the gold, the silver, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? God. Who, then, has a right to appoint rulers? None but him, or the man that he appoints.

Who has ruled the earth? Who has borne sway? Man, who, by the power of the sword, has got possession of thrones, powers, and dominions, and has waded through seas of blood.

You read history, and what is it? A history of the depopulation of the nations, brought on by the overthrow of empires, and through the tyranny and ambition of wicked men, who have waded through seas of blood in order to possess themselves of that power which they now enjoy.

If we go to the United States and enquire into their rights, we may ask, have they a right to drive back the Indians, from time to time, and dispossess them of their rights? So long as they purchased of them it was well enough; but when they forced them into a swap, just as the Indians did with some of the traders back here, and made them trade on their own terms, that is something which they have no right to do; and, to use the language of one of the Indian Chiefs, “They have not left room for us to spread our blanket.” Have they purchased this Territory of them? No—nor made any arrangements to do so; but they have taken possession of it.

What authority has the President of the United States, or the Representatives of the several States? They have no authority but what the people give them, according to the institutions of the United States.

What authority had England over this land before they came here and took possession? None.

By what right, then, do nations and governments rule generally? Do they rule by the grace of God? I will tell you. They rule by the power of the sword.

Read the history of England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and other nations, and you will find they obtain their authority by their swords; and then, when they have obtained, they go to work and sanctify it; they appoint and anoint kings by the grace of God and through the agency of their priests. That is the way they get their authority, and that is all the authority they have.

When the Pope was going to put the crown upon the head of Napoleon, he said, “Here, let me put that on; I won it myself.” But they generally want the priests to put it on.

You may go into any court in the world and say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and they will kick you out. Try it and see.

[Voices: “You have tried it.”]

No man can go and say, “Thus saith the Lord” amongst them; for they would put a straightjacket on him, if he was a respectable man; if he was not, they would kick him out. Such is the feeling of the people and the condition of the world, and yet they profess to worship God that rules on high.

Where does God rule on earth? Is he listened to in any nation? Is there any that will acknowledge him and his authority? I will tell you the nearest that I ever saw of it. It was Nicholas of Russia: he was an autocrat, you know. Some years ago, when they had the cholera very bad there, a feeling prevailed among the inhabitants that the wells had been poisoned: a mob arose, and they were going to kill many; but Nicholas went in amongst them and said, “My children, this is not so; this is the hand of God. Let us fall on our knees, and acknowledge our sins, and ask him to forgive us.”

That is the nearest to acknowledging God that I have heard of among the nations; but as to their authority, it is not there. Their emperors and rulers have been the most beastly in their conduct and oppressive in their acts of any other nations that rule under heaven.

Now, where can you find a nation that acknowledges God? They are very religious. Why, the Queen of England is said to be “Defender of the Faith.” Then it is not the faith of the Church of America—it is not the faith of the Church of France, nor of Germany, nor anywhere else, except the Church of England. Where did she get her right from? She is the descendant of a line of kings.

Henry the Eighth, some time since, wrote a book against the Protestants, and the Pope gave him the title of “Defender of the Faith,” which faith he afterwards sought to destroy, rebelled against the Pope, and started the Reformation, because the Pope would not allow him to divorce his wife. Hence the Protestant kings and queens of England have stolen the Roman Catholic title, to rule or defend the faith of the Protestants by kings and queens, whom they now anoint.

How do they anoint them? They anoint them by their Bishops, who declare them to be kings and queens by the grace of God. Go back, however, to their origin, and you will find that their kingdoms were first obtained by the sword; they stole their kingdoms and power, and then got priests to sanctify the theft.

Go back in England to the time of William the Conqueror, and you will find that he was a usurper; he was a Norman and a wholesale robber; and then, when he had subdued the Anglo-Saxons, the priests turned round and anointed him king by the grace of God. That is a fair example of the other European nations, and is all the authority that any of them had.

What is the Government of the United States? It does not profess any religion. There is no religion nor priesthood connected with it nationally, only they allow, or profess to allow, everybody to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; but nationally they are a nation of infidels. They have no national creed, no national religious institutions; and hence the absurdity of interfering with us, when forsooth they have none themselves, and they do not want that we should have any.

Do they seek to acknowledge God in their acts? Or, is there any other nation that profess to acknowledge God? There are the Mahomedans, they had a Prophet, and professed to be governed by him. There is some talk about his being a false one: he might have been, or he might have been a true one, for aught I know; I leave them in the hands of God.

The Mahomedans have a certain faith or profession, which is spoken of in the Koran, or Alkoran. They, however, like the rest, obtained their nationality by the sword. We cannot find a nation upon the earth that has obtained its dominion or power to rule from God. If there is any people, except this people, I know them not.

The Lord has said, “If ye observe my law, ye have no need to break the law of the land.” We have not broken the law of the land, and we do not mean to, although he has revealed to us his will and given us certain privileges and immunities that he never gave to any other people. Still, we have not broken the law, and there is not another people who maintain the laws of the United States as faithfully as this people do.

Why, they are in storm and trouble every way in the United States, and here is the most perfect peace and the best morality that can be found in the world by a thousandfold: yes, it is a thousandfold better than I have seen in any part of the earth where I have been. There is not a place that can compare with it; and nothing but the very Devil himself could inspire the hearts of the children of men to make war against such a people as this.

What are we engaged in? We are engaged in building up the kingdom of God, and many of you have been ordained by the revelations of the Almighty to hold the power and authority of the Holy Priesthood. Besides this, you have been ordained kings and queens, and priests and priestesses to your Lord; you have been put in possession of principles that all the kings, potentates, and powers upon the earth are entirely ignorant of: they do not understand it; but you have received this from the hands of God.

The kingdom is put upon the shoulders of President Young and this people to carry it out, and by whom? By the Lord God—by him who holds dominion throughout the universe; by him who created all by the word of his power; by him who said, “Let there be light, and there was light;” by him who spake, and the worlds rolled into existence. By him you received rights that are not of this world—rights that flow from the great Eloheim.

What are we going to do, then? We are going to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth. This is our privilege—our right, if you please. But I consider it a high privilege—the greatest boon that can be bestowed upon mortals on the earth, to be the representatives of God. Let me say another thing. The people of the earth, their legislators, their princes, their kings, and their emperors, if they ever get salvation, have got to have it through us: if they obtain a celestial kingdom, they have got to go through the door that God has appointed, and there is no other way for it.

What are we doing here? We are here to stand up in defense of our individual rights—to stand up for our farms, our families, and our property, if it be necessary. Property! Why great conscience! It is just like the chaff and straw; and I was glad to see when the vote was taken, that if it was necessary to burn every house and all our property, every hand went right up for it. I was glad to see you appreciate these things.

Would we fight for these things? Just so far as I am concerned, they might take what I have got, and go to Gibraltar with it, or to Halifax; and I would say, You poor, miserable, corrupt creatures, take it.

But this is not all. The Lord has put us into a place where we cannot dodge, if we wish. We have asked for the blessing of his kingdom, and he has poured out blessings upon us, and there is no backing out. God has rolled his kingdom upon our should– ers; and now I ask, as a poet did some years ago,

“Shall we, for fear of feeble man, The Spirit’s course in us restrain?”

Shall we, for fear of those miserable curses, barter away eternal lives? Shall we set at naught those principles that God has imparted to us? Shall we exchange the pearl of great price, the riches of eternity, for the dirt and filth that the Gentiles wallow in? I know we do not feel like it.

Brother Kimball says we have to stand up to what we say, and the Lord will bring us to it; and I will tell you what I heard Joseph say years ago. He said, if God had known any other way that he could have tried Abraham better than he did, he would have put it upon him. And he will try us to see whether we will be faithful to the great and high calling that he has put upon us.

What are we doing? God has seen proper to establish his kingdom upon the earth, and here is that kingdom—that stone which has been cut out of the mountain without hands, and it is rolling forth to fill the whole earth.

A great charge is committed to us as a people: it is for us to walk up to the rack, resist the powers of darkness, and bear off the kingdom of God, that the powers of darkness may be rolled back with all their forces.

We are placed in this position to see if we will let the kingdom of God be trampled under foot of men. It is not a little thing, but it is one that is associated with our progenitors and posterity, as eternal beings, having to do with the past, the present, and the future.

The little stone was to smite the image on the toes; and I would not be surprised if there was to be a monstrous kicking—particularly, as brother Kimball says, if there should be any corns on the toes.

It is not whether we can stop here, and eat and drink, and say, poor pussy, and put off the evil day. It is not an evil day; it is a day of rejoicing—a day of bursting off the fetters from us; it is a day when every son and daughter of God ought to sing, Hosannah to the God of Israel! We know we used to sing sometimes,

“We’ll burst off all our fetters, and break the Gentile yoke,

For long it has beset us, but now it shall be broke:

No more shall Jacob bow his neck; henceforth he shall be free, In Upper California:

O! that’s the land for me,” &c.

We used to sing that years ago, and we can sing it now; but we have got to do it. Yes, it is “Yankee doodle do it.”

Well, what are we doing? We are laying the foundation for salvation for ourselves, for our progenitors, for our children, and our posterity after us, from generation to generation. The foundation of liberty, whereby the bond that has been on the neck of the nations, shall be burst asunder; for it is here that liberty shall spring from.

Here is a nucleus—a band of brethren inspired from on high, having the oracles of God in their midst—the only people that are taught by the revelations of God. Here is the place where the standard is to be erected to all nations.

We were talking, sometime ago, about our rights: these are our duties; we have got through with our rights. There is an old motto that they have got very conspicuously in England; it is this—“England expects every man to do his duty.”

What is a man’s duty here? It is obedience to the oracles of God that are in our midst; and so long as we keep the commandments of God, we need not fear any evil; for the Lord will be with us in time and in eternity.

“But,” says one, “I have got a son, who has gone out upon the Plains, and perhaps the soldiers will kill him.” Let them kill him. [President Kimball, “There can be more made.”] I suppose there can.

Did you ever know your sons were in possession of eternal life, and that this is only a probation or a space between time and eternity? We existed before, in eternity that was, and we shall exist in eternity that is to come; and the question only is, whether it is better to die with the harness on, or to be found a poor, miserable coward.

All that I said to my son Joseph, after blessing him, before he went out, was, “Joseph, do not be found with a hole in your back.” I do not want any cowardice—any tremblings or feelings of that kind.

What of our friends that have gone behind the veil—are they dead? No; they live, and they move, in a more exalted sphere. Did they fight for the kingdom of God when here? Yes, they did. Are they battling for it now? Yes; and the time is approaching when the wicked nations have to be destroyed; and the time is near when every creature is to be heard saying, “Honor, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion be ascribed to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

We have got to bring this about, whether we do it in this world or that which is to come. I have seen the time I could have died as easily as to have turned my hand over; but I did not feel like it.

[President H. C. Kimball: “You did not have time.”]

Supposing I live, I have got a work to do; and if I die, I shall still be engaged in the cause of Zion. Why, great conscience! What difference does it make? They can only kill the body. And do not we know that we have an interest beyond the grave? That we have drunk of that fountain which springs up into eternal lives? Then what difference does it make?

These are my feelings. If it is for life, let it be for life; and if it is for death, let it be for death, that the spirit may move in a more exalted sphere; and then all is well with us. If we live, we live to God; and if we die, we die to God; and we are God’s, anyway.

We have friends gone behind the veil. There are Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, Jedediah, and many of our friends that are there, and they have been moving and acting there for years; and if any of us are called to go, it is all right: there is a Priesthood there to regulate things, as well as here; and if we have to go there, we might as well go by a ball as by a fever, or any other distressing disease. I want to go with the harness on; and if others go a little before us, does it make any difference? Do not you know the old Apostle said, “They without us cannot be made perfect?” Could they attend to these ordinances that are being attended to here on earth while they are there? No, they cannot. Can you do what they are doing? No, you cannot; but when you get there you can.

When in the old country you were striving to get here, many of you had friends here; and when you came, they would say, “I am glad to see you, brother William, and sister Jane, or Mary, or Elizabeth.” Now, when a person dies, you say, “I am glad to see you go, but still I am sorry that you are going.”

I remember saying so to uncle John Smith. When I went to see him, I felt that his time was come, and I said, “I am glad you are going, but still I am sorry to part with you;” and said, “I hope you will carry my respects to our friends behind the veil.” He said, “I will.”

We have angels that are ministers of salvation; we have Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, Jedediah, and lots of others that are engaged in rolling on the work of the Lord in the upper worlds. What if they want any of us? Why, let us go, old men or young men. What if we are called by a ball, or die by a fever, what difference does it make?

What! Are we all going to die together? God has designed and said he would establish his kingdom upon the earth, and that the Devil shall not reign forever; but he whose right it is shall come and take the kingdom, and possess it forever and ever.

Now, brother Brigham has said all is right, and he is the representative of the Almighty upon the earth, and it is for us to stand by him and obey him; and he says, “Rejoice, and live your religion, and all shall be well.” Is not that the voice of God? It is. Shall we not listen to it? Yes; and we will maintain our rights as citizens of the United States.

I pray that God may bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.