A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered at the Special Conference, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 14, 1853.

I am disposed this morning to give my testimony to this congregation upon the subject of true riches. Wealth and poverty are much talked of by all people. The subject was tolerably well discussed yesterday, and according to my understanding, the most that I have heard said upon that point has been on the negative of the question.

If you wish me to take a text, I will take the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, referring, if you please, to both text and context, and let the people distribute, or apply them according to their own pleasure. I will, however, use one passage of Scripture as a text, that was used yesterday. Jesus said to his disciples, to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them that were without, it was not given. If we were to examine the subject closely, we should learn that a very scanty portion of the things of the kingdom were ever revealed, even to the disciples. If we were prepared to gaze upon the mysteries of the kingdom, as they are with God, we should then know that only a very small portion of them has been handed out here and there. God, by His Spirit, has revealed many things to His people, but, in almost all cases, He has straightway shut up the vision of the mind. He will let His servants gaze upon eternal things for a moment, but straightway the vision is closed, and they are left as they were, that they may learn to act by faith, or as the Apostle has it, not walking by sight, but by faith.

In viewing this subject, permit me to preach what I have to preach, without framing or systematizing my address. When I have endeavored to address a congregation, I have almost always felt a repugnance in my heart to the practice of premeditation, or of pre-construction a discourse to deliver to the people, but let me ask God my heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, to give me His Spirit, and put into my heart the things He wishes me to speak whether they be for better or worse. These have been my private feelings, as a general thing. I would ask our Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, to pour His Spirit upon each one of us this morning, that we might speak and hear with an understanding heart, that a hint, a key word, or a short sentence pertaining to the things of God, might open the vision of our minds, so that we might comprehend the things of eternity, and rejoice exceedingly therein.

In the first place, suppose we commence by examining the principles that have been laid before us this Conference, taking up the negative of the question; suppose, in our social capacity here, we have a system that feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, administers to the widow and the fatherless, so that we can say of a truth, as they did in the days of the Apostles, we have no poor among us. Would it establish the principle that we are rich? To me it would establish no more than a good wholesome principle upon which the wicked may act, as well as the righteous—a principle upon which the world ought to act, by the moral obligations they are under to stretch out the arm of charity to every person, to fill up their days with industry, prudence, and faithfulness, procuring means to sustain themselves, and to administer to the wants of those who are unable to administer to themselves. To me, I say, this principle manifests no more than a moral obligation under which all are placed. Though some may think it a decided mark of Christianity, that it is a proof of deep piety, and bespeaks the character of Saints, and all this, if we scan the subject closely, it amounts to nothing more than a moral obligation all are under to each other.

Again, we call up the question of riches, wealth. We may behold one upon the right, that commands his thousands of gold and silver, which he has treasured up; he has houses and lands to occupy, goods and chattels to fill his storehouses, cattle to cover his fields, and servants to obey his commands; we call such an individual rich, wealthy, but when we take into consideration the “true riches” spoken of in this book [the Bible], they are not riches. We may behold another upon the left, reigning as a monarch; the gold, and the silver, yea all the treasures of the kingdom over which he reigns are at his command; and all his subjects are fully disposed to do the will of their sovereign. He reigns, he rules, he governs, and controls, and there are none to gainsay, none to offer a single word of opposition, his word is the law, his commands are supreme, he rides in his richly-adorned chariots, and wears his crown of gold, set with the most precious stones. He sets up one, and drags down another. Those who have in the least incurred his displeasure, he condemns to the block, and he exalts others to sudden wealth and power. This monarch reigns for a day, a month, a year, or for half a century, according to the will of Him by whom kings sway the scepter of power; and the world say he is a rich man, a powerful and wealthy man. But this is not riches according to the saying of the Savior in the New Testament.

Suppose we could heap to ourselves the treasures of the earth, as was mentioned yesterday; suppose we could load our wagons with the purest of gold; with it we could open our commercial business on an extensive scale, we could build our temples and mansions, macadamise our streets, beautify our gardens, and make these valleys as it were like the Garden of Eden, but would it prove we were actually rich? It would not. As it was said yesterday, and justly, too, we might be brought into circumstances, in the midst of this supposed wealth, to be glad to give a barrel of gold for as much flour. In such a circumstance, of what benefit to us would be this wealth, so called? Would not the idea which the wicked, and, I may say, with some propriety, the Saints, have of wealth vanish like smoke, and should we not find ourselves poor indeed? if we possessed mountains of gold, should we not perish without bread, without something to feed the body? Most assuredly. Though an individual, or a nation of people, could command their millions of millions of gold and silver, houses, lands, goods, and chattels, horses and chariots, crowns, and thrones, or even the products of the soil—the wheat, the fine flour, the oil, and the wine, and all the precious metals of the earth in abundance—though they were flooded with all these good things, yet if the Almighty should withdraw His hand, they would be smitten with the mildew, and disappear; their wealth would become the most abject poverty. The possession of these things is not wealth to me. Not that I would cast them away as a thing of naught, or look upon the good things of this earth, and the riches of the world, as things of naught, but they are not the true riches, the pearl of great price spoken of in the Scriptures, when a man found which, he sold all he had to purchase; they do not belong to those principles couched in the saying of our Lord, touching the mysteries of the kingdom. The riches of this world are nothing more than a stepping stone, or necessary means whereby people may obtain the true riches—by which they can sustain themselves until they can procure the true riches of the kingdom of God. As such they ought to be looked upon and handled. “Seek first the kingdom of God.” “Seek first” that durable object. “Seek first” the righteousness that will never betray you. Obtain “first” the prize that will not forsake you. Procure to yourselves “first” of all, that which will endure through time, and through all the eternities that will be. “Seek first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness,” and let the gold and silver, the houses, the lands, the horses, the chariots, the crowns, the thrones, and the dominions of this world be dead to you, as it is necessary you should secure for yourselves eternal riches that will never forsake you in time nor in all eternity.

The negative of the question is present with the people. If they begin to seek the kingdom of heaven, if they set out to glorify God in their souls and bodies, which are His, how quick their feelings and desires, how soon their natural propensities cling with greater pertinacity to the things that are perishable. On the right hand and on the left we see persons whose trust is wholly in the riches of this world; they say, “I have gathered to myself substance, if you rob me of it you rob me of my all. I have my flocks and herds around me, if you take these from me all is gone.” These men or women to whom this will apply have not eternal riches abiding in them. Their minds are set upon the things of this world, upon a shadow, upon the substance that passes away, like the shadow of morn, or like the morning dew upon the flowers. They are like a thing of naught to those who understand the things of the kingdom of God. They are to be used, but not abused. They are to be handled with discretion, and looked upon in their true light, without any lustful desires, as the means to feed, clothe, and make us comfortable, that we may be prepared to secure to ourselves eternal riches.

Suppose we should remain here to discuss the subject, for days, months, and years, and scan it with a scrutinizing examination, in the end of all our labor we should find that the things of this world called riches, are in reality not riches. We should find they are like miracles to the ignorant, mere phenomena to the inhabitants of the earth; today they are, tomorrow they are not; they were, but now they are gone, it is not known where. The earthly king upon his throne, who reigns triumphantly over his subjects, is blasted, with all his kingdom, and brought to naught at one breath of Him who possesses true riches. Let Him who possesses the true riches say to the elements around that kingdom, “produce no wheat, nor oil, nor wine, but let there be a famine upon that people,” in such a circumstance where is the wealth of that king, his power, his grandeur, and his crown? There is no bread, no oil, there are no flocks, no herds, for they have perished upon the plains, his wheat is blasted, and all his crops are mildewed. What good does his wealth do him? His subjects are lying all around him lifeless for want of bread; he may cry to them, but in vain; his wealth, power, and influence have vanished, they are swept away like the flimsy fabric of a cobweb.

Again, the rich merchant, or private individuals, may have millions of gold and silver deposited, hid in the ground, or elsewhere, perhaps, and this is their god. Should the Lord Almighty say, as he did in the days of the Nephites, Let their substance become slippery, let it disappear that they cannot find it again; it is gone, and they may hunt for it in vain. Or let it be deposited in a bank, the first they know, the bank is broken, their substance is gone, and they are left in perfect beggary. To possess gold and silver, or earthly power and wealth, is not riches to me, but it is the negative of the question.

There are hundreds of people in these valleys, who never owned a cow in the world, until they came here, but now they have got a few cows and sheep around them, a yoke of oxen, and a horse to ride upon, they feel to be personages of far greater importance than Jesus Christ was, when he rode into Jerusalem upon an ass’s colt. They become puffed up in pride, and selfishness, and their minds become attached to the things of this world. They become covetous, which makes them idolaters. Their substance engrosses so much of their attention, they forget their prayers, and forget to attend the assemblies of the Saints, for they must see to their land, or to their crops that are suffering, until by and by the grasshoppers come like a cloud, and cut away the bread from their mouth introducing famine and distress, to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God. Or the Indians will come and drive off their cattle; where then is their wealth in their grain, and in their cattle? Are these things riches? No. They are the things of this world, made to decay, to perish, or to be decomposed, and thus pass away.

Were we to spend the period of our lives and try to trace the history of mankind upon this world, from the beginning to the present time, by referring to the lives of kings, rulers, governors, and potentates; to the wealth, magnificence, and power of nations; also to the poverty, wretchedness, war, bloodshed, and distress there have been among the inhabitants of the earth, it could not all be told, but I have noticed some few of the items which I call the negative of the question. To possess this world’s goods is not in reality wealth, it is not riches, it is nothing more nor less than that which is common to all men, to the just and the unjust, to the Saint and to the sinner. The sun rises upon the evil and the good; the Lord sends His rain upon the just and upon the unjust; this is manifest before our eyes, and in our daily experience. Old King Solomon, the wise man, says, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither riches to men of wisdom. The truth of this saying comes within our daily observation. Those whom we consider swift are not always the ones that gain the mastery in the race, but those who are considered not so fleet, or not fleet at all, often gain the prize. It is, I may say, the unseen hand of Providence, that overruling power that controls the destinies of men and nations, that so ordains these things. The weak, trembling, and feeble, are the ones frequently who gain the battle; and the ignorant, foolish, and unwise will blunder into wealth. This is all before us, it is the common lot of man, in short, I may say, it is the philosophical providence of a philosophical world.

Suppose we look for a short time after the true riches—after the pearl of great price. In doing this were I to systematize, I would say, let us leave this subject, which is the negative of the question, and take up another, entirely different. We would have to take up the subject of salvation to the human family, calling up the characters who have officiated in this great work, and have brought forth redemption, and placed it before the world, putting it within the reach of every individual of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. Yet it is all the same subject.

Where shall we direct our course to find true riches? Who is there that possesses them? Were we to admit scriptural testimony, I could refer you to the Bible, where we read of people exhibiting a power that gave their beholders satisfactory proof of their possessing the true riches. The riches of the world are natural, and common to the human family, but who governs and controls them? Who holds the destiny of the wealth of the nations in his hand? Do the kings, rulers, governors, or the inhabitants of the earth generally? No, not one of them, by any means. Have there ever been persons upon the earth who have exhibited the principles of true riches? Yes. The Bible tells us who they are, and delineates the principles of true riches.

Again, here is the philosophical world, the terra firma on which we tread. Here is the atmosphere which the wise men of the world tell us it is surrounded with, which is congenial to the constitution of the vegetable and animal world, it is the air we breathe. Philosophers tell us that the terra firma on which we walk is surrounded with it 40 miles high from the surface of the earth. It revolves in this subtle element, which is a combination of other elements. This is a philosophical world. What then are the results of the philosophical world? Why, if you were to put wheat in the ground that has been well tilled, it would grow, and bring an increase to repay the husbandman for his labor. If you plant potatoes in the ground the philosophy of the earth is, it will bring forth potatoes. If you plant corn, corn will be produced in abundance, and this will apply to all the grain, and vegetables, and products of this earth.

What is there here, in the valleys of these mountains? Why, the same that was centuries ago. As I told my brethren six years ago, I said, there are here wheat, corn, potatoes, buckwheat, beets, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, onions, apples, peaches, plums, pears, and fruits of every description and kind. They are all in the philosophical world—in the air we breathe, and in the water we drink; it needs nothing more than philosophical applications to bring them forth. The most delicate silks, the finest linen, and fine cloth of every description, that were ever produced upon the earth, are right here in this valley, and it requires nothing more than a philosophical application to bring them forth to administer to our wants. What more is there here! When we first came into this valley we had no knowledge that our brethren could find gold in California, or perhaps we might have been digging gold over there at this time; but our thoughts were occupied with how we should get our wives and children here; we were thinking about wheat, potatoes, watermelons, peaches, apples, plums, &c. But allow me to tell you, that gold and silver, platina, zinc, copper, lead, and every element that there is in any part of the earth, can be found here; and all that is required, when we need them, is a philosophical application to make them subservient to our wants.

Here we pause, and think—“What! is there gold here, silver here? Are the finest and most beautiful silks that were ever made, to be found here?” Yes. Is there fine linen here? Yes, and the finest broadcloths, and shawls and dresses of every description. We are walking over them, drinking them, and breathing them every day we live. They are here with us, and we can make ourselves rich, for all these things are within our reach. What hinders us from being truly rich? This is the point. I will tell you when you and I may consider ourselves truly rich—When we can speak to the earth—to the native elements in boundless space, and say to them—“Be ye organized, and planted here, or there, and stay until I command you hence;” when at our command the gold is hid so that no man can find it, any more than they could in California until within a few years back.

Again, we have a little absolute truth still nearer, and which comes under our own knowledge. There is the Sweet Water that runs into the Platte River, that this people have passed by for years. There have been no pains spared to find gold on that stream and its tributaries, but it could not be seen, and yet of late an abundance of it has been discovered, ranging over a district of country from the South Platte to the South Pass. There are men present here today, I have no doubt, who have it in their pockets, or in their wagons. There are as good prospects for gold there, as there ever were in California. How is this? Why He that hath all power and all true riches in His possession, has said, “Let that sleep, let it be out of sight to this people, until I say the word; I organized the elements, and control them, and place them where I please.” When He says, “Let it be found;” it is right there on the top of the earth. Where was it before? I do not know; it was out of sight. In the very place where men have gone from this valley, to my knowledge, and hunted weeks and weeks for gold, and could not find it, there is plenty of it now. When you and I can say, “Let there be gold in this valley,” and turn round again, and command it to disappear, that it is not to be found; when we can call gold and silver together from the eternity of matter in the immensity of space, and all the other precious metals, and command them to remain or to move at our pleasure; when we can say to the native element, “Be thou combined, and produce those commodities necessary for the use and sustenance of man, and to make this earth beautiful and glorious, and prepare it for the habitation of the sanctified;” then we shall be in possession of true riches. This is true riches to me, and nothing short of it constitutes them. When I have gold and silver in my possession, which a thief may steal, or friends borrow, and never pay me back again, or which may take the wings of the morning, and I behold it no more, I only possess the negative of the true riches. When the riches of this world leave me, I cannot say—“Gold, return thou to my chest.” I cannot say to the gold I pick up out of the earth, “Be thou separated from every particle of dross, and let me see the pure virgin gold.” I cannot do that without submitting to a tedious process of chemical action.

All those who wish to possess true riches, desire the riches that will endure. Then look at the subject of salvation, where you will find true riches. They are to be found in the principles of the Gospel of salvation, and are not to be found anywhere else. With whom abide eternally the true riches? With that God whom we serve, who holds all things in His hands, that we know anything of; He is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who at one survey looks upon all the workmanship of His hands; who has the words of eternal life, and holds the hearts of the child– ren of men in His hand, and turns them whithersoever He will, even as the rivers of waters are turned; who commands the earth to perform its revolutions, or stand still, at His pleasure; who has given the sun, the planets, the earths, and far distant systems their orbits, their times, and their seasons; whose commands they all obey. With Him abide the true riches.

I will now notice the character who exhibited the power of true riches on the earth, though he himself was in a state of abject poverty, to all human appearance, for he was made poor that we might be made rich, and he descended below all things that he might ascend above all things. When the only begotten Son of God was upon the earth, he understood the nature of these elements, how they were brought together to make this world and all things that are thereon, for he helped to make them. He had the power of organizing, what we would call, in a miraculous manner. That which to him was no miracle, is called miraculous by the inhabitants of the earth. On one occasion he commanded a sufficient amount of bread to be formed to feed his disciples and the multitude. It was in the air, in the water, and in the earth they walked upon. He, unperceived by his disciples and the multitude, spoke to the native elements, and brought forth bread. He had the power. We have not that power, but are under the necessity of producing bread according to a systematic plan. We are obliged to till the ground, and sow wheat, in order to obtain wheat. But when we possess the true riches, we shall be able to call forth the bread from the native element, like as Jesus Christ did. Everything that is good for man, is there. Jesus said to his disciples, Make the multitude sit down, and divide them into companies, and take this bread and break it, and distribute it among them. They did not know but that it was the few loaves and fishes that fed the whole of them as they ate. The truth is, he called forth bread from the native elements. Is that mystery to you? Did you never think of it before? How do you suppose he fed them, he did not feed them upon nothing at all, but they ate bread and fish, substantial bread and fish! until they were satisfied. This the Savior called from the surrounding elements; he was quite capable of doing it, because he had the keys and power of true riches, if any man possess which, he is rich in time, and in eternity both.

Again, the Savior changed water into wine, in the same manner, by commanding the elements. Can that be done by a chemical process. I admit it can by the persons who understand the process; and that men can make bread also. As quick as I admit that the history Moses gives of himself is true, I cannot have any question in the world but what in ancient days they understood in a measure how to command the elements. The magicians of Egypt were instructed in things pertaining to true riches, and had obtained keys and powers enough to produce a bogus in opposition to the true coin, as it were, and thus they deceived the king and the people. They could cause frogs to come upon the land, as well as Moses could. They could turn the waters of Egypt into blood, and in many more things compete with Moses. There was one thing, however, they could not do, though they produced a very good bogus, but it was not quite the true coin. When they threw their staffs on the floor before the king, they could not swallow the staff of Moses, but the staff of Moses swallowed the staffs of the magicians. I have no doubt that men can perform many such wonders by the principles of natural philosophy. Again, they can deceive the inhabitants of the earth, and make them believe that things were done, which in reality were not. If there were not a true coin in existence, how could there be a bogus produced? The true coin is what we are after, the true riches. We are seeking to be made rich in the power of God, so as to be able to control the elements, and say—“Let there be light,” and there is light; “Let there be water,” and there is water; “Let this or that come,” and it cometh; by the power that is within us to command the elements; and they obey, just as they did the Savior when he changed the water into wine, or made bread to feed the multitudes.

What shall we say? Do the things of this world, in their present state, offer unto us true riches? I say they are not riches, in the true sense of the word; there is no such thing as a man being truly rich until he has power over death, hell, the grave, and him that hath the power of death, which is the devil. For what are the riches, the wealth possessed by the inhabitants of the earth? Why, they are a phantom, a mere shadow, a bubble on the wave, that bursts with the least breath of air. Suppose I possessed millions on millions of wealth of every description I could think of or ask for, and I took a sudden pain in my head, which threw me entirely out of my mind, and baffled the skill of the most eminent physicians, what good would that money do me, in the absence of the power to say to that pain, “Depart?” But suppose I possessed power to say to the pain, “Go thou to the land from whence thou camest;” and say, “Come, health, and give strength to my body;” and when I want death, to say, “Come you, for I have claim upon you, a right, a guarantee deed, for this body must be dissolved;” says death, “I want it, to prey upon;” but again I can say to death, “Depart from me, thou canst not touch me;” would I not be rich indeed. How is it now? Let the slightest accident come upon one of the human family, and they are no more. Do we then possess true riches in this state? We do not.

What shall we do to secure the true riches? “Seek first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness.” Lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moth cannot eat, rust corrode, nor thieves break through and steal them. If we find the pearl of great price, go and sell all we have to purchase it, and secure to ourselves the friendship of God, and our Elder Brother Jesus Christ, and walk humbly before God, and obey those whom He has told us to obey, all the days of our lives, and He will say, “These are my friends, and I will withhold nothing from them.”

And is it indeed possible that we can come into that power, while we are in this mortality, to say to death, “Touch me not?” Were it possible, I for one do not want it, I would not accept it were it offered to me. If the Lord Almighty proffered to revoke the decree, “Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return,” and say to me, “You can live forever as you are;” I should say, “Father, I want to ask you a few questions upon this point. Shall I still be subject to the toothache, to the headache, to the chills and fever, and to all the diseases incident to the mortal body?” “O yes, but you can live, and never die.” “Then I would have you, Father, to let the old decree stand good; I find no fault with your offer, it may be a good one; but I have the promise of receiving my body again—of this body coming up in the morning of the resurrection, and being reunited with the spirit, and being filled with the principles of immortality and eternal life. Thank you, Father, I would rather take a new body, and then I shall get a good set of new teeth. My sight, too, is failing; if I want to read, I cannot do it without using glasses; and if I wish to walk a few miles, I cannot do it without making myself sick; if I wish to go out on a journey, I am under the necessity of taking the utmost care of myself for fear of injuring my health; but when I get a new body, this will not be so; I shall be out of the reach of him that hath the power of death in his hands, for Jesus Christ will conquer that foe, and I shall receive a new body, which will be filled with eternal life, health, and beauty.”

What more? Why, to him that overcometh shall be glory, immortality, and eternal life. What more? Jesus says, as it was said yesterday, Except ye are one, ye are not mine. Again, he says, I pray thee, Father, to make these, my disciples, one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. This is a curiosity that ranks among the mysteries that the people do not understand. The Father and I are one, you disciples and I are one; it is quite a curiosity, but it is as true as it is curious. It is nothing more than a key word to exaltation, glory, power, and excellency, by which principalities, kingdoms, dominions, and eternal lives will surround us.

That will give you true riches, and nothing else will. The only true riches in existence are for you and I to secure for ourselves a holy resurrection; then we have command of the gold and the silver, and can place it where we please, and in whose hands we please. We can place it here and there, where it can be found, and in abundance, when we say the word. We can say then to the flies, and to the grasshoppers, “Be ye extinct,” and it will be so; and again say, “Go ye, and make a work of devastation,” and at our word clouds of them darken the sun, and cover the ground, the crops are destroyed in a day. We can then say to the hailstorm, “Stay thou thy rage, and hurt not the fields and fruit trees of the servants of God;” and we are obeyed. On the other hand, when they need a little chastisement, we can say to the rain, to the lightnings, and to the thunders, “Chasten ye the people;” and the elements are at once in a state of agitation, and they are chastened by the destruction of their crops, and cities are swallowed up in the yawning earthquake, when God can bear their wickedness no longer. He does not want to slay His children who love and serve him, He is not a hard master, nor a severe Father, but when He chastens, it is because He wishes to bring His children to understanding, that they may know where the true riches are, and what are the true riches of eternity, and rejoice with Him in His presence, being made equal with Him.

These are some of my reflections upon true riches. Why will the Latter-day Saints wander off after the things of this world? But are they not good? We cannot do very well without them, for we are of the world, we are in the world, we partake of the elements of which it is composed; it is our mother earth, we are composed of the same native material. It is all good, the air, the water, the gold and silver; the wheat, the fine flour, and the cattle upon a thousand hills are all good; but, why do men set their hearts upon them in their present organized state? Why not lay a sure foundation to control them hereafter? Why do we not keep it continually before us that all flesh is grass; it is today, and tomorrow it is not; it is like the flower of the grass when it is cut down, it withers, and is no more? Why do the children of men set their hearts upon earthly things? They are to be used, but not to the abusing of yourselves. They are to be used to make us comfortable. Suppose all the good things of this world should be given to us, the gold and the silver, the cattle and the horses, and all the flocks of a thousand hills; it would be for the express purpose of building mansions and temples, of feeding the poor that cannot feed themselves, of succoring the tried and the tempted, of sending Elders to preach the Gospel from nation to nation, from island to island, and of gathering Israel from the four quarters of the globe. But that moment that men seek to build up themselves, in preference to the kingdom of God and seek to hoard up riches, while the widow and the fatherless, the sick and afflicted, around them, are in poverty and want, it proves that their hearts are weaned from their God; and their riches will perish in their fingers, and they with them.

Where are the true riches—the pearl of great price? They are here. How can we secure them? By being obedient, for the willing and obedient will eat the good of the land by and by; but those who heap to themselves riches, and set their hearts upon them, where will they be by and by? There are men in our midst who will quarrel for five dollars, and have their trials before Bishops and other tribunals if it costs all they possess. They say, “I will have my rights.” They tell about their rights, when they know nothing about rights; in this they are governed solely by the influence of former traditions. Why do they not say, “I will satisfy my hellish will, if it destroys me for time and all eternity.” If they would say that, they would say the truth. If a man says, “It is my right to have this or that,” he knows nothing about rights, so never say anything more about rights. But if you can find one individual who knows what right is, ask him, and then say, “That is right, and I will do it.” Take that course, and rejoice that you have found somebody to tell you what right is. When my heart trembles with rage, and my nervous system becomes irritated to knock down and kill, it is for me to say, Brigham, hold on, you should not do this. Do you wish me to tell you what right is? I will point out the way if you will walk in it. If your neighbor or your brother should sue you at the law for your coat, give it to him, and your cloak also, and not turn round and say, “It is my right; are you going to rob me?” The instructions of the Savior of the world, which I have quoted, are right; and I could prove it so by philosophical reasoning, and make you believe it, and you would be satisfied it is the best course you could pursue. I will give you the key to it, which is this—it gives you an influence you never can obtain by contending for your rights. You say, “Take it, it is no matter whether it is my right or not.” If a man asks you to go with him one mile, go two, and then you can say, “You only asked me to go one mile, but I have gone two.” That is the counsel Jesus Christ gave. If you sit down and calmly reason the case, you cannot but discover that it gives you an influence over that man, which you could not gain by contending with him in anger. All the power which is gained by contending with people is usurped power.

The power which belongs to the true riches is gained by pursuing a righteous course, by maintaining an upright deportment towards all men, and especially towards the household of faith, yielding to each other, giving freely of that which the Lord has given to you, thus you can secure to yourselves eternal riches; and gain influence and power over all your friends, as well as your enemies. “If you want anything I have, here, take it, and I will have influence and power over you;” this is a key word to gain the true riches; that is the amount of it.

I want to hint at the negative of the question again. I have, from time to time, said many things to you in this tabernacle, and so have my brethren, and the people are much inclined for the mysteries of the kingdom. I can tell you what they are, in some degree. The idea appears very foolish to me when we are talking about it, but we are obliged to use the English language as it is, which is scarcely a similitude of what we want. Again it is first rate to communicate our ideas, and good to enable us to talk one way, and mean another, when we have a disposition to do so. Brother Hyde preached us a good discourse on mystery yesterday.

What is a mystery? We do not know, it is beyond our comprehension. When we talk about mystery, we talk about eternal obscurity; for that which is known, ceases to be a mystery; and all that is known, we may know as we progress in the scale of intelligence. That which is eternally beyond the comprehension of all our intelligence is mystery, yet this word is used by the translators of the Bible. They write about mystery, and talk about mystery; what are they talking about? I do not know what they mean, nor what they wish to convey by that word, and they do not know themselves. This language is made use of in the Bible, because they have nothing better. Things transpire almost every day in our lives which we class under the term mystery, for want of a better term. What does it mean, in reality? Why, nothing at all. But for the accommodation of those who speak the English language, we will continue to use the term, and proceed to examine the negative of true riches.

Here are the earth and the inhabitants upon its face, organized for the express purpose of a glorious resurrection. The terra firma on which we walk, and from which we gain our bread, is looking forth for the morning of the resurrection, and will get a resurrection, and be cleansed from the filthiness that has gone forth out of her. This is Bible doctrine. What filthiness has gone forth out of her? You and I, and all the inhabitants of the earth; the human body, and all earthly bodies, both animal and vegetable; are composed of the native element that we breathe, that we drink, and that we walk upon; we till the earth for our bread, which is one of the materials of which your body is composed, it comes forth from the native elements into an organized state; what for? To be exalted, to get a glorious resurrection. We are of the earth, earthy, and not only will the portion of mother earth which composes these bodies get a resurrection, but the earth itself. It has already had a baptism. You who have read the Bible must know that that is Bible doctrine. What does it matter if it is not stated in the same words that I use, it is none the less true that it was baptized for the remission of sins. The Lord said, “I will deluge (or immerse) the earth in water for the remission of the sins of the people;” or if you will allow me to express myself in a familiar style, to kill all the vermin that were nitting, and breeding, and polluting its body; it was cleansed of its filthiness; and soaked in the water, as long as some of our people ought to soak. The Lord baptized the earth for the remission of sins, and it has been once cleansed from the filthiness that has gone out of it, which was in the inhabitants who dwelt upon its face.

The earth is organized for a glorious resurrection, and life and death are set before the people, true riches and false riches; and the whole world are gone after the false riches; after that which is not life, after decomposition, after that which perishes, and passes away like the twilight of evening. The Lord has set before the inhabitants of the earth, true riches, from the days of Adam until now. In olden times, in the ages we call “the dark ages of the world,” men could talk to the Lord face to face, and He looked like another man. When He had a mind to do so, He could walk into the assemblies of the people, and none of them would know him, only they knew He was a stranger that had visited their meeting. He understands the difference between true riches and the bogus which passed current in the days of Pharaoh in Egypt. We see the bogus power again exhibited in the days of Saul the king of Israel, by the witch of Endor, who, at the request of Saul, brought forth the spirit of Samuel, or some other spirit. They understood the principles of life, for the Lord had set life and death before them, true riches and false riches, or in other words, composition and decomposition, and the laws, principles, and powers of the eternal world; and the people of the early ages of this world understood them.

The people in this age, are like the old miser, whose latter end was drawing nigh; he had saved a good purse of gold, but he was blind and could not see it, so he requested the attendants to bring him the gold that he might put his hand on it; when he laid his hand upon it, he could go to sleep. He possessed the negative of true riches. Again, they are like the man who found a lump of gold which weighed 100 pounds, the last that was heard of him was, he was sitting upon it, offering a great price to the passers by for something to eat, and swearing that if he had to starve to death, he would stick by the gold, and die a rich man. If he had understood the principles of life—the principles of true riches, he could have commanded that gold in California, in England, or anywhere else; but he had no power over it, and died like a fool, no doubt. What good was his gold to him? He had not the power of endless life in him, and he will be decomposed, and the particles which compose his body and spirit will return to their native element. I told you some time ago what would become of such men. But I will quote the Scriptures on this point, and, you can make what you please of it. Jesus says, he will destroy death and him that hath the power of it. What can you make of this but decomposition, the returning of the organized particles to their native element, after suffering the wrath of God until the time appointed. That appears a mystery, but the principle has been in existence from all eternity, only it is something you have not known or thought of. When the elements in an organized form do not fill the end of their creation, they are thrown back again, like brother Kimball’s old pottery ware, to be ground up, and made over again. All I have to say about it is what Jesus says—I will destroy Death, and him that hath the power of it, which is the devil. And if he ever makes “a full end of the wicked,” what else can he do than entirely disorganize them, and reduce them to their native element? Here are some of the mysteries of the kingdom.

On the other hand, let us take the affirmative of the question; and inquire what is life and salvation? It is to take that course wherein we can abide forever and ever, and be exalted to thrones, kingdoms, governments, dominions, and have full power to control the elements, according to our pleasure to all eternity; the one is life, and the other is death, which is nothing more or less than the decomposition of organized native element. There can be no such thing as power to annihilate element. There is one eternity of element, which can be organized or disorganized, composed or decomposed; it may be put into this shape or into that, according to the will of the intelligence that com– mands it, but there is no such thing as putting it entirely out of existence.

I never studied philosophy to any great extent, but on one occasion I had a kind of a confab with Professor Orson Pratt, who endeavored to prove that there was empty space, I supposed there was no such thing. He thought he had proved it; but I thought he had not proved a word of it, and told him the idea was folly. After hearing a good many arguments from him, and other men, his colleagues in learning, I wished them to tell me where empty space was situated, that I might tell the wicked, who wish to hide themselves from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, where to go, for they will then be where God is not, if they can find empty space. To argue such a question as that, would be, to confute my own arguments in favor of other truths I have advocated, and oppose my own system of faith. We believe that God is round about all things, above all things, in all things, and through all things. To tell about empty space is to tell of a space where God is not, and where the wicked might safely hide from His presence. There is no such thing as empty space.

Remember, that true riches—life, happiness, and salvation, is to secure for ourselves a part in the first resurrection, where we are out of the reach of death, and him that hath the power of it; then we are exalted to thrones, and have power to organize element. Yes, they that are faithful, and that overcome, shall be crowned with crowns of eternal glory. They shall see the time when their cities shall be paved with gold; for there is no end to the precious metals, they are in the native element, and there is an eternity of it. If you want a world of the most precious substance, you will have nothing to do but say the word, and it is done. You can macadamize streets with it, and beautify and make glorious the temples. We can then say to the elements, “Produce ye the best oranges, lemons, apples, figs, grapes, and every other good fruit.” I presume we do not draw a single breath that there are not particles of these things mingled in it. But we have not the knowledge now to organize them at our pleasure. Until we have that power we are not fully in possession of the true riches, which is the affirmative of the question, and the negative of the question is no riches at all in reality.

Well, brethren, I think I have stood out first rate. When I rose I did not think I could speak over ten minutes. May the Lord God bless you, and have mercy upon the world, and upon this people, that we may be saved in His kingdom. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered at the Special Conference in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 13, 1853.

The preaching we have had by brother Joseph Young, is the kind I love. It is very unlike the mixed up preaching of the world; but it is music to my ears; there are no jars nor discord when we hear the sounds of the glorious Gospel of the Son of God. It matters not to me what kind of an instrument it is played on, it is music to me and to you; but if you will tear in pieces the best and most perfect thing on the earth, it will not look well in that condition.

The Gospel and plan of salvation that I have embraced, is music to me; it is sweet to my body, and congenial to my spirit; and it is more lovely than anything else I have ever seen since I have been in the world. I love it, and that is why I love this people better than any other people on God’s earth, because there was never a better people, that is, I am speaking of the majority of them; but if you take them as a whole, I do not know that you can find any worse—that is, there are some that will compare with the worst in the world for sin and wickedness.

As brother Joseph said, so say I—Do not fear anything this side of hell, or that is in the east, west, north or south. I do not fear it any more than I do that the sun will fall from its position in the heavens, if this people will do just precisely as they are told. You know I preach upon this a great deal. The world considers it to be quite ridiculous for us to be of one heart, and of one mind. It is this union among those who are faithful “Mormons” that makes the world afraid of us; they fear us because we differ from the world. In the United States and in the old countries, they are divided into six or seven hundred different religious denominations, all disagreeing with each other; besides political and a thousand other kinds of divisions and differences, such as whiggery, democratism, socialism, which, in short, may all be summed up under the term, Devilism. This is not the policy of the Latter-day Saints. Jesus says, if you are not one, you are not mine. Let the Christian world who profess to believe in Jesus Christ, and in his Father, and in this book, the Bible, note that passage, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.”

There is more oneness in this people, than in any people that ever lived upon the earth. There was not that oneness in the days of Jesus, that there is now, and I suppose there never has been since the days of Enoch. Because there was such a oneness among the people of Enoch, and they could not continue to be one, and live with the people in the same world, God took them and their city with a part of the earth to Himself, and they sailed away like one ship at sea separating from another.

Jesus says, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.” And yet the Christian world take a course to justify themselves in division, in strife, in animosity, in quarreling, in envy, in jealousy, in war and bloodshed. And yet they say they are one: I say THEY LIE. A man that says it, lies to me, and he lies to God. I say this to all the world, and to those who are passing through the city as emigrants; if you profess to be disciples of Christ, and have hatred to us in your hearts, I say you lie; in the name of the Lord God Almighty I say it. Do you not think He will sustain me in it? Yes, and all His faithful followers will too; and those who desire to be the disciples of Christ and to be one, will gather together.

I referred to the days of Jesus; was there that union then, that might have been? Jesus said to the disciples, when the people turned away from him, “Will ye also go?” This he said to the Twelve. Many of the disciples forsook him. Even Peter, the chief Apostle, turned away from him when he was in the greatest trouble, and denied him with cursing and swearing.

In this day and age of the world, we profess to be one. Jesus said then, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not. He will do so now if you will let him; he will gather us together from the four quarters of the earth—I mean the Saints, the honest in heart, the elect of God; that they may become one, and lay aside their selfishness, their bickering, their murmuring and complaining, and everything of this nature.

If a man wants my ox, let him come and tell me so, and he shall have it; he need not quarrel with me about it; and if he robs me of it, I want him to enjoy the stolen property, if he can; for I will not quarrel about the foolish things of this world, for they will soon decay, and return to their mother earth, as you and I will.

Now, brethren and sisters, I will say to the emigrants who are passing through this city, and to the world at large, that it is our intention to become perfectly one in heart and mind. Have those who have separated themselves from this people prospered? They may have prospered for a season; but by and by they become like a limb that is severed from the tree; they wither and vanish away; and all such will continue to do so from this time henceforth and forever. It is just as much impossible for a people to exist that withdraw from this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is for a limb of a tree to live when it is severed from the body of the tree. Of this I am positive, because I know it. So I will say concerning the world and all the sects and denominations and kingdoms of the world, that oppose this work and people of God, they will wither in due time likewise, and they cannot help themselves.

When brother Joseph Smith lived, he was our Prophet, our Seer, and Revelator; he was our dictator in the things of God, and it was for us to listen to him, and do just as he told us. Now that appears very absurd in the eyes of the world; but they all say, if they had lived in the days of Peter, Moses, or Jesus, they would not have done as the people in those days did to them; but at the same time they would take their lives if they could, and do just like them.

We are the servants of God; we have been called of God through the ministry of that holy Prophet Joseph Smith, who received his authority through the ministry of holy angels. Now he was just as true a Prophet as Moses was, or as any Prophet that has ever been upon the earth; and we are just as much the authorized servants of God, as the Apostles and disciples in the days of Jesus Christ were, and I know it. And I bear testimony of it to the United States, and to the nations of the world. They say they do not believe it. What do I care whether they do or not? I know it, and God requires me to bear testimony of it, to be valiant in testimony to the truth of this work, and to preach the Gospel, and to lay before my brethren their duty.

Brother Joseph is gone, and now brother Brigham Young, the Governor of the Territory of Utah, is our Prophet, our leader, our Revelator; and it is for me and you to listen to him with all diligence, the same as we would listen to Joseph were he alive. Brother Brigham is his successor; his word is sacred; and if you do not observe it, it will not be well, and there is where I fear for you, brethren. I do not fear so much for myself as I do for you, because it will go hard with you, if you disobey his advice. There will many of you turn from the faith; you will turn your backs to us, and some will be guilty of shedding innocent blood, if you are not aware. This will be the result of apostasy. When that spirit attacks you, you will be led to do as other apostates have, who have turned from the Church of Christ.

Judas, when he lost the faith, received the power of the devil, and betrayed the Son of God into the hands of murderers. Joseph Smith in like manner was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, who took his life. He was betrayed by apostates, by men whom he once loved when they were in our midst, and had the Spirit of the Lord. We also would have been slain, if they could have got hold of us; but they were afraid to touch us; they knew it would be certain death to the man who lifted his heel against us. Just so now. I have got my old Gospel preparation laid up drying, preparing himself for action. Do I fear? No. I do not fear anything that lives on the earth, or that is in hell; Indians or anything else never will disturb us, the Saints, from this time to all eternity, if we will do precisely as we are told.

I do not speak of these things to establish myself as a Prophet, but I know what I say; I know you will prosper, and live in peace in the mountains of the Great Salt Lake, and be perfectly independent. You will have food and raiment, houses and lands, flocks and herds, and everything your hearts can desire, that there is in heaven and on earth, if you but do as you are told. If you will do this, you will think my words are very profitable to you, whether I am a Prophet or not. I am not saying anything but what my President has said time and time again. You will live in peace, and God will be your defense; and you will increase in knowledge, in power, in grace, and in every good thing that you can think of, or mention. I have said often, you may go and write blessings for yourselves, and insert every good thing you can think of, that is in heaven or on the earth, and it will all come to pass on your heads, if you do right.

What do I care for what the world says? I care no more about it than I do for the squawking of a goose. It is none of their business if I have a mind to be a Saint, and keep the commandments of God; and as you have heard it said, so say I—the time will come in which you will dwell in peace and safety; and when the time comes that you will go back to Jackson County, you will be independent, and live without any opposition at all. Can the Lord do it? Yes. All the people are in His hands, and He can turn the nations as I can an obedient horse. They are governed and controlled by the Almighty as much as we are. What can they do against us? Why nothing whatever, but if we do not do right they will be a scourge in the hands of God to scourge us, just as the Indians are at this time. There never would have been a disturbance if this people had done as they were told.

I am not speaking of the people in this city any more than of the people of other settlements. To my certain knowledge there is not a settlement in these mountains but were instructed by brother Brigham to build good forts and live in them; and on these conditions alone were volunteers permitted to go out and make new settlements.

Have any of them built forts? Tell of one settlement, if you please, excepting they commenced one in Iron County which remains unfinished yet. The Indians are now upon us, and our brethren are scattered off, three, four, and five families in a place, away off in this and in that direction, exposed to the Lamanites. They have been called into the city that they might be safe, and they are now teasing us, and wanting to go back again, and live in those exposed locations without a fort.

The Lord has made the Lamanites—the Indians, a scourge; but if this people will turn to and do just as they have been told, their wrath will be turned away in a short time, but not until the Lord God sees that this people are determined to do right. Upon the same principle that my wrath would be turned away from a child that repented under the rod of correction, so will the Lord’s wrath be turned away from His children when they repent, and go and do what they are told. A spirit of compassion seizes me the moment I see a repenting child; so it is with our heavenly Father. But the most of parents, when they tell their children to do a thing, and happen to give them a little slap on the ear for disobedience, the next moment they are saying, “O my dear child, I am sorry, let me give you a piece of bread and butter.” Our Father in heaven does not do so, until he sees contrition of heart in His children, for their wrongs.

We live in the days of Prophets, Apostles, High Priests, and servants of God who have the Priesthood upon them, and I know it. Gentlemen, I have been a member of this Church near 23 years, and passed through the whole of the difficulties in Kirtland, Ohio, and Missouri. When brother Brigham and myself and others, with our families, left Kirtland to go to Missouri with Joseph Smith, we had to lie with our firelocks by our side. When we arrived in Missouri, the devil contrived to raise the armies of the wicked against us there; and all the Elders and male members that could be counted from the western boundaries of Missouri to Nova Scotia, were not more than 205 men. We went up to Missouri to reinstate our brethren who had been driven out of Jackson County. We went up near 1,000 miles with our firelocks in our hands. Was there any fear in us? No. It never entered into our hearts, from the day we started to the time we returned again. I never saw the time but I could whip out twenty of the best men on earth.

I had a spirit on me as much superior to this earth, as the earth is superior to the degraded spirits of the wicked that dwell on its face. It was the Spirit of the Lord that stood by me, and diffused strength into my body, and into my limbs, until the very hair of my head felt all alive. Did they fear us in that upper country? Yes, they ran as though they were never going to stop in the world. We felt perfectly able to clear out that country to Nova Scotia, and we could have done it with 205 men, if the Lord God had commanded us, as the Gideonites did in days of old. Yes; 205 men, with the Spirit and power of God upon them, and their faces shining like the sun, it cannot be told what they could accomplish; neither can we form any conception of it.

Let us be as one person from this time henceforth, and do not let us suffer ourselves to become cold and stupid, but be Saints all the day long; and we shall build up the kingdom of God, and be prospered in all things we set our hands to do.

These are a few things I wanted to say; still there are many more things of great importance to us if we will only listen to them. One is, take care of your grain; for it is of more worth to you than gold and silver. I know you will see harder times before another harvest, than you have seen this season. Do you believe it? Did they believe it last year, when there were 15,000 bushels of wheat in the Tithing Office? No. When brother Brigham said the same thing last spring, to stir up the people to be careful of their grain, they said, “O no, brother Brigham, we cannot surely come to such scarcity as you foretell; look at the storehouse, it is full.” How much was there in the storehouse this harvest? There is not one bushel of grain of any kind, and I do not know that there will be.

There has been a great quantity thrashed out this harvest, but little of it has come into the public store, and the hands on the public works are obliged to live. If you go into the joiner’s shop, it is almost left desolate. If you go into the machine shops, and into the mason’s shop, they are the same; and yet there are thousands of bushels being thrashed out and ground into flour, and sold for from seven to ten dollars per hundred weight to the world—the emigrants who are passing through here yet—and at the same time the business on the public works stopped for want of it.

Brethren and sisters, please to look at this; you know I am telling you the truth, which is every day exhibited before your eyes.

The public ground here has to be enclosed before we can put forth a hand to build a Temple to the name of our God; and you are ready to feed everybody else under the heavens but the workmen. Have you turned from the Lord your God, and forgot His purposes? Think of it, you farmers!

I do not know but I am wearying the brethren, but these things were on my mind, and I have got a back load of them yet; I see them, and reflect upon them in my heart. O Lord God, what will become of us? Have the people forgotten thee and thy purposes, with the Holy Priesthood upon them—with the sacred ordinances of God’s house upon them? Now think of it, brethren and sisters. There is enough, and we need never want bread; but if we do not take the right course, we are sure to see sorrow, and the greatest you have ever seen. Some of you never saw any in your lives. Those who were never without bread, and clothing, and good houses to dwell in, murmur the worst; and those who never had any troubles and trials since they have been in this Church, or since they have been on the earth, are the most ready to complain. This may appear strange doctrine to you, but you know it is true.

As to getting rich, why bless your souls, is not the earth the Lord’s and the fulness thereof? Are not the gold and precious metals in the mountains, in the dells, and in the cliffs of the earth, all the Lord’s? He created all; and the human family, with all the treasures of earth, are in His hand. They all belong to the Lord our God, and we are His people if we do His will. Are we not heirs to all these riches? Certainly we are; every son and daughter of Adam, who loves the great Father of our spirits and His Son Jesus Christ, and obeys the Gospel, and listens to him whom God has delegated as an Apostle and Prophet to counsel His people, I tell you that all this treasure is theirs, and the devils cannot help themselves. I am just as sure of it as I am that the sun will rise and set tomorrow. Do you believe it, brethren and sisters? Do you know it? Yes, you know it. Now if you ever expect to enjoy it, you have got to live for it, as individuals, independent of any other man or woman. You have got to live as independent Saints, and obey the will of God independently as it is taught, and laid before you from time to time. All that wish to be delivered from the scourge, and from afflictions, will have to rise up and do right to their God, and to each other, not as a Conference merely, but as a people, as the Saints of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am not going to command you to do it; but my advice is for you to do it. Rise up now, and do just as you are told, and you will see happy times.

I know there is a greater desire in this people for things that perish, for theatrical performances and dancings, than there is for the public interests of the Kingdom of God. Well, let us be Saints indeed, and show to the world that we are for God and for none else.

Among some people in the world it is popular to be a Christian; and among another class it is not popular; but it is popular with me to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and then it is popular for me to do the will of the Holy Spirit.

A single man can accomplish more with the power of the Spirit of God, than this whole people can, if they will not do right. Do I fear anything? No; but if I have to bow down to the chastening rod, as I have already done many times in this Church, I will do it like a man of God. I have been driven five or six times, and yonder are my habitations, and they may rot there. And so have some of you been driven in like manner; and some of you never had one thing to trouble you in your lives. I am now well off; but if I have got to come to it again as I have in former times, I will round up my back to the burden, and make it as tough as a piece of sole leather, to bear what shall be laid upon me manfully, or else I will die. I have no fears upon that ground at all; but my prayers are, by night or by day, for the Lord to take me from the earth, rather than I should sin against Him, or against my brethren, or against our President Brigham Young. I have known him 30 years, and he and brother Joseph Smith have been comrades together; and better men never lived on the earth than they are; and you may tell the kings and rulers of the earth this, and the nations over which they preside, if you please. The reason why we would rather have him to be our Governor than any other man, is because he is the best man we are acquainted with.

I have lived in the State of New York, town of Bloomfield, Monroe County, right in the heart of the country where the ancient Lamanites, and other veterans, destroyed each other, root and branch; where the Book of Mormon was discovered in the hill of Cumorah. From among those rich hills the people are flocking to these mountains. Why? Because this is the richest place in the world.

The country adjacent to the Sweet Waters has actually become a rich gold mine. Talk about gold! The Lord can change any of the elements into gold as easy as He could change the water into wine.

I suppose I had better bring my disjointed remarks to a close. I feel first-rate; I feel like a soldier of Christ, like a man of God. I feel sometimes that I could take one of those mountains, and handle it as I could a football. Bless your souls! If you will only do as the Lord tells you through His delegated agent, who gives you the voice of God and the wisdom of God, I am not troubled at all. The question is asked many times, “Has brother Brigham got the Urim and Thummim?” Yes, he has got everything; everything that is necessary for him to receive the will and mind of God to this people. Do I know it? Yes, I know all about it; and what more do you want? That is true, gentlemen; I am one of his witnesses in the last days, and to bear testimony of the truth of “Mormonism.”

I say to the Saints, do not look upon us as perfect beings; notwithstanding, if you are perfect yourselves, then look for it in us, and not until then. If any of you are perfect, we want you to come here that we may see such beings, and know how to model ourselves after you; just as I take a piece of clay and shape it after another model more beautiful still.

Some of you think you have passed through awful tribulations in leaving your mothers and friends. I was glad when I got away from mine, because they persecuted me, and lied about me, and persecuted my brethren; so I was glad to get away from them. But they will see the day when they will be glad to come to brother Heber, and say, “Let me black your boots, clean your horse, or drive your carriage,” &c.

You talk about carriages; good heavens! I am just as sure of enjoying these blessings as I am of enjoying anything on this earth. If you do not believe it, read that book (the Bible), which speaks about the armies of heaven, and about horsemen and chariots, and men armed with swords, and all kinds of instruments of music; it is all spoken of in this book, and we will enjoy it, while those who seek our destruction, and all sinners, will go to hell.

All this enjoyment of the good things of heaven and earth will come by a separation of the righteous and the wicked. There was a time when an eruption took place in heaven, and Michael and his armies arose, and cast out the rebellious portion of the angels from heaven. Don’t you think they got tired of contention, and broils, and tumults? Yes, so they universally agreed to cast it out. We will get tired of it too, in these last days, and we will make a separation between Saint and Sinner. The Sectarian priests have written and preached about forty years ago, and have proved to their readers, and to their hearers, that there would be a separation, and the sheep would be placed on the right hand and the goats on the left; I suppose the goats mean those that are not good for much, they bear no wool.

I guess I had better stop speaking. May the Lord God bless you forever; and may union, peace, righteousness, and salvation be with you forever and ever. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Jedediah M. Grant, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Aug. 7, 1853.

The weather being warm, and the people generally of the laboring class, I presume are the cause of a rather late attendance at meeting this morning.

There are peculiarities connected with our duties, that make them differ from the duties of almost every other community. Other communities have gold and silver to aid them, in building, in planting, in gathering, and in all the different avocations of life; but this people have to accomplish all they do accomplish, by the bone and sinew alone, which the Almighty has given them; and where it is constantly employed, it has an effect upon the bank more or less; not, however, that the specie is exhausted, or the bills depreciated in value, but it exhibits a feature in our history which has been frequently exhibited, and is, as it has been, peculiar to this society.

The world, and the inhabitants thereof, are fluctuating; not only the inhabitants, but the elements that surround the earth are frequently in a fluctuating condition. I have often listened, with a great deal of attention and interest, to the explanations given of the beauties and of the uniformity of nature, contrasted with the fluctuations and changes of men, of nations, of kingdoms, and of countries.

Man is sometimes represented as if he were the only fluctuating and changeable being in existence; but when I contrast in my thoughts the revolutions of nations, with the revolutions and changes that have taken place upon the face of our globe, I am sometimes led to the conclusion that the elements change as often as the inhabitants that dwell upon the earth.

We see at one time, the earth shaken, as it were, from center to circumference; we hear the sound of bellowing earthquakes; we see the smoke of the towering mountains, and the yawning crater belching forth its boiling lava; indeed every mountain, valley and dell, the rivers, and the ocean into which they empty their waters, and all the elements with which we are surrounded, exhibit one constant scene of change, one constant scene of variety, and one constant scene of commotion.

We cannot say, “Man, thou art the only changeable creature, the only changeable substance we gaze upon.” But the ocean, and all the waters communicating therewith; the earth, with its ten thousand lofty mountains, verdant valleys, and extended plains; exhibit to our view a variety of changes that have been, and that we may expect will continue to be, from this time forth.

Consequently, when we see man excited to follow any avocation in life, whether it be for gold, silver, or other precious ores, for which he leaves his all, acts unwisely and inconsistently, sacrificing his home, his family, and everything dear and near to him, we can exclaim, “This wild career of man is not the only wildness exhibited in nature.”

If you refer back to the earliest ages, and trace the history of the world, where can you find uniformity in nature’s works? If you can find a uniformity at any time in the earth, the sea, the air, or in the elements, pray tell me when it was.

Was it when our first parents were cast out of the Garden of Eden, when it became desecrated by sin; or when old father Noah rode safely over the mighty deep, protected by the arm of Jehovah, while every other living thing sank in the depths of a watery grave? Was it when Abel rose up to offer in sacrifice the first fruits of his flock to the Most High God, and Cain his brother rose up and murdered, or sacrificed him for doing so? Was that a day of uniformity? Were the elements calm and composed? Did nature exhibit a serene and smooth surface?

You pass further down the lapse of time, from the days of our earliest progenitors, until the earth was deluged in water, and the lofty summits were submerged in the raging element. After the waters subside, and the inhabitants of the earth begin to increase and go forth upon its face, you soon discover a change in them and in the earth itself.

If you look for uniformity in man, was it when the descendants of Noah sought to build a great tower, that they might, as they thought, climb up to where their Father in Heaven lived, and thus try to defy His power, should He again bring a flood of water to deluge the earth? Was that the age, when people studied to know the purposes of a righteous God?

Pass on from that day, until you come to the illustrious Abraham, the father of the faithful, and ask yourselves if his course was very uniform, and if the course of the inhabitants of the earth around him was very uniform, and something to be admired. You see him rushing forth to war. Not only did he sally out to the field to fight with the weapons of death in his hands, but we might take a glance at his course in the domestic circle. Was it uniform in Sarah and Hagar to quarrel with each other, and when Hagar had to be banished with her son Ishmael? Even in the domestic circle of the great Patriarch, we discover nature was not uniform. Was it uniform when the cry of the banished Hagar ascended to heaven, and brought an angel to give drink to the young urchin who was dying of thirst under one of the shrubs?

If you pass on through the line of his descendants you find the same lack of uniformity. How sublime the quarrel that took place between Joseph and his brethren! What remarkable contentions existed among them. Look at the old Patriarch Jacob in his family circle, and you see him goaded with thorns of grief because of his family broils. Do we find the elements around that family very calm, pacific, uniform, serene, angelic, and Godlike? How calm they were when one of his wives, in order to get her rights, had to purchase her husband with mandrakes?

You discover a scene of vexatious broils in the domestic circle; though they were not at war with surrounding nations, yet the elements were at war in the very center of that venerable house.

Such, then, were the scenes in early ages among those righteous, pure, holy, just, and noble Patriarchs, who conversed with God, wrestled with angels, obtained promises, and coped with high heaven.

If you pass on and seek to find uniformity, beauty, and sublimity, will you find it when the Israelites were bondmen in Egypt, when they were compelled by hard task masters to gather straw and make bricks for a living?

If you should pass on to the time the illustrious meek man of God, Moses, was sent to them, how much uniformity do you discover when he led them to the Red Sea, and a mighty host from Egypt around them threatening their destruction, but the sea opened and let them through dry shod, and the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs? Was this a scene where we may look for uniformity? Or, after he led them forth to Sinai, where the voice of God, the roaring thunder, and vivid lightning were exhibited. While Moses was upon the mount conversing with the Most High God, Aaron took the gold offered to him by the people, and made a calf for Israel to worship, and they said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Was there any sublimity, glory, and loyalty to God in this? When Moses descended from the mountain, was everything calm and peaceable, and uniform? No! The Israelites had made a golden calf, and were dancing round the god they had made out of their earrings and jewelry they had pilfered from the Egyptians—they had stolen by revelation, by divine direction; they were having a grand dance around this molten calf, when Moses in his anger broke the tables. Can you find any uniformity, any beauty, any order reigning in the house of Israel?

Pass on, and look at affairs in the days of Solomon—how uniform that mighty king was in his course, with his seven hundred wives, and a legion of concubines. How uniform he was in his passions and feelings. He was not contented with the fair daughters of Israel, but the queen of Sheba, and the women of nations afar off, captivated this wise king—by whom he was led astray, and desecrated the altars of God, the sanctuaries of Israel, and the Urim and Thummim, by introducing the idolatrous worship of the strange gods of his wives and concubines.

There was also David, the father of Solomon, and the man after God’s own heart. Though his wives were many, and his family numerous, yet he could not cast his eyes out of a window, and see a beautiful woman in a bath, without lusting after her. His heart was so susceptible of love, that he conceived the murder of her husband to possess her, and caused his victim to be stationed in the front of the battle where he would be sure to be slain. This was the kind of sublimity the men of God exhibited anciently.

Look at the difficulties that existed between Israel and the Prophets; look at the murders, devastation, destruction, altars smoking with blood, cities wrapped in flame, and thousands and tens of thousands mantled in death upon the bloodstained earth by contending armies; and ask yourselves if that is the time to look for uniformity.

Was it to be found in the days of Alexander the Great, when he conquered the world, and spilled rivers of blood to attain his purpose? Was it to be found among the Romans, or among the Medes and Persians? Shall we look to any of the ancient nations for uniformity.

But we will pass by these dark ages, and come down to the interesting time when the Son of God unfolded the glorious theme of the Gospel of peace, of matchless glory, of matchless love; when the babe of Bethlehem was born; when the sun of righteousness appeared with healing in his wings; and when beauty, and glory, and sublimity were displayed in their grandeur, full bloom and glory.

You do not wish us to understand, that that was the time when Herod put forth his hand to put to death the young children under a certain age, in hopes to kill the young child Jesus. Is this the beauty of that age—the sublimity to which you call our attention—when the reigning king put to death thousands of helpless children, drenching the earth with their innocent blood?

When the babe Jesus returns from Egypt, he exclaims of himself, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Even in that age, look at the commotion, the turmoil, the strife, and the difficulties that existed.

Were sublimity, uniformity, and beauty seen at the time when the King of righteousness, the anointed of God, was carried up unto an exceeding high mountain by Lucifer, who showed him the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, saying, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Was that uniformity?

Suppose a Prophet should arise now, and proclaim to the world he is a Prophet of God, and Lucifer should take him by the coat collar, or by the hair of the head, and escort him to the top of a high pinnacle, and hold him there, would they believe he was a Prophet? The uniformity of that age is thus exhibited, however, by the writers of the New Testament.

Again we find it exhibited when a legion of devils was cast out of a man, and entered into a herd of swine, causing them to run down a steep place into the sea, where they were drowned. These are some of the characteristic features of the age in which Christ and his apostles lived.

If you pass on to the time when Jesus Christ the Son of God was put to death, when they mocked him, spit upon him, placed a crown of thorns upon his head, and smote him upon the cheek, saying, “Prophesy.” Is that the time for us to look for uniformity? If you wait until they arraign him before an earthly tribunal, condemn, and put him to death, and place him in the tomb, do you there look for beauty and uniformity? What do you see? A host of soldiers guarding the mouth of the tomb to keep his disciples from stealing his dead body; they did not only think they would steal his dead body, but that they would lie about it afterwards, and say he had risen from the dead, and palm an imposition upon that age of the world. These are some of the sublimities of the Christian religion in the days of its Founder; and the confidence the multitude had in the advocates of that religion.

But if you still wait until he who was once the babe in Bethlehem, bursts the barriers of the tomb, and approaches and speaks to his disciples, and commissions them to preach his Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, what do you see? Watch the movements of the disciples. The Son of God told them to wait the appointed time at Jerusalem. And when the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they began to speak by the inspiration and power thereof, the multitude cried out, “These men are full of new wine.” This was the uniform testimony of the multitude. But if you will notice the assembly preached to on that occasion, there were some few who gave a contrary testimony. But what were a few thousands, compared to the vast number then assembled? In some small hamlet a few thousands of people might be a decided majority, and perhaps take in all to baptize so many. But a few thousands in comparison with the great multitude that dwelt in Jerusalem, was only like one grain of sand in comparison to a handful. The grand majority of the mass governs; the uniform testimony of the million was, that they were drunk, and of course you are to believe according to the greatest amount of testimony, are you not? Then if you arraign those disciples before the grand tribunals of the nations, the great majority of the multitude would say they were drunk; but if only a flew thousands say they were not, which are you to believe? Where then is the uniformity in this testimony? Look at the discrepancy, and the array of testimony against the disciples. It is certainly overwhelming in its nature.

But if you look still further, and seek to find uniformity in that age of the world, follow the disciples; when they left Jerusalem to go forth with the proclamation of the Gospel, and we find wherever they went, they were considered insane, mad, and possessed of devils. It was said of Jesus their master, he was leagued with Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And, said the Savior, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” Wherever they went, then, they were called Nazarites, and Christians was an odious name in that age. They were hooted at by the Jews, pointed at by the Gentiles, and scoffed at by the world; if you seek for testimony in that age of the world, was it for or against them?

Pass on still further in their history, and look at their course and conduct, if you will believe the writers that lived in that age. What does old Celsus say, who was a physician in the first century, whose medical works are esteemed very highly at the present time. His works on theology were burned with fire by the Catholics, they were so shocked at what they called their impiety. Celsus was a heathen philosopher; and what does he say upon the subject of Christ and his Apostles, and their belief? He says, “The grand reason why the Gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ, was, because he had so many wives; there were Elizabeth, and Mary, and a host of others that followed him.” After Jesus went from the stage of action, the Apostles followed the example of their master. For instance, John the beloved disciple, writes in his second Epistle, “Unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth.” Again, he says, “Having many things to write unto you (or communicate), I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.” Again—“The children of thy elect sister greet thee.” This ancient philosopher says they were both John’s wives. Paul says, “Mine answer to them that do examine me is this …

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas.” He, according to Celsus, had a numerous train of wives.

The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were “Mormons.”

But if you pass on in their history to seek for uniformity and beauty, you will find some grand flare-ups among them. Look, for instance, at Paul and Peter, disputing and quarrelling with each other; and Paul and Barnabas contending, and parting asunder with angry feelings. “When Peter came to Antioch,” says Paul, “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed,” &c. Paul does not gain much credit with the Mormons for taking this course. We know he had no right to rebuke Peter; but some man said he was like Almon Babbit, he wanted to boast of rebuking Peter. He thought it was a feather in his cap because he coped with Peter and rebuked him. Had that affair come before a “Mormon” tribunal, they would have decided in favor of Peter and against Paul. We believe when Paul rebuked Peter, he had in him a spirit of rebellion, and was decidedly wrong in rebelling against the man who held the keys of the kingdom of God on the earth.

But I will proceed, and I wish you to understand that I am only just giving you a rap here and there; you know spiritual rappings are quite common in this day.

If you will pass along in the days of the Apostles, after awhile you see them thrust into cauldrons of oil, crucified with their heads downwards, and persecuted in various ways until they became extinct. After awhile, you have the beauty, the sublimity of Catholicism. Look at the old mother, seated upon a scarlet-colored beast, boxing the ears of her daughters; and the Church of England in turn boxing the ears of the old mother, assisted by her other numerous offspring, and then mark the bitter contentions and bloody feuds among the children! O, have they not had a sublime time—a beautiful dish of suckertash. What a uniform course they have taken!

But are the inhabitants of the earth the only portion of nature that is not uniform? No.

Look at the bellowing earthquake, uprooting the mountains and precipitating them from their beds, and rending the rocks with violence, leaving the trembling earth in a state of horrible devastation; and then for men to teach me about the uniformity of nature’s course, and that man is the only being in nature that is uniform, is folly. Talk not to me about the uniformity of nature; where is it to be found upon this earth, among men, in the mountains, among the valleys, in the ocean, or among the streams that water the land.

Before you censure my views upon this subject, look at mother earth, at the ocean, at the rocks, at the planets that bespangle the blue vault of heaven; in short, at nature in all her works, which you will find stamped with the insignia of continual change. But pass on.

You look and you see the Church, as it were, driven from the earth; you see it left without a Prophet, without a Seer, without Apostles, and without the voice of inspira– tion. You hear the professed ministers of Christ teaching the benighted multitude, that the day when angels administer to men has ceased; that the sacred Urim and Thummim is lost; that the holy Priesthood is no longer needed, and the sacred place where they offered sacrifices for Israel is gone, all are gone.

In this way, century after century passed away; nation rose against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; nations and kingdoms rose, and in their turn fell in succession, to give place to others, while nature, in her convulsive throes, shook the earth from center to circumference. Pass on still, and do you look for uniformity?

But says one, “You Mormons tell us, that in the age in which we live there is a work commenced on the earth that will entirely eclipse every other dispensation, and usher in a day of righteousness, overcome Lucifer the arch deceiver; a day wherein he is to be bound, and thrust into the pit, and lose his power; when the earth will be redeemed, and appear in her primeval bloom and beauty, and man shall cease to war against his fellow man; when the convulsions of the earth shall cease—the earthquake cease to bellow, the thunder cease to roar, and the lightning cease to become destructive, and to mar the face of nature, spreading terror and dismay among animated beings; when the earth and all nature shall become calm and tranquil, and the glory of God shall be among men.”

“Why bless me, with the exception of a few points,” say statesmen, “your society has decidedly changed from what it was in the days of Mr. Smith. Because of the peculiar traits of his character, it could not have possibly existed under his government; we are glad to see the decided improvement that has been made since his death; and under the administration of Mr. Young.” This is their language. They suppose that the “Mormons” have turned a somerset, have apostatized, and altered their character and creed as a people. I always take great pleasure in telling such honorable men, such wise men, that that which they call “Mormonism” changeth not. It is the same now as in the days of Joseph.

“And do you Mormons in the Valley believe and advocate the same doctrines that Joseph Smith did?”

Yes, sir, precisely, not one practical point of the religion has changed; but we as a people may be fluctuating, but our religion changeth not. You see some of our men want to go to California for gold—they want to do this, and to do that; but the people generally are right at home.

But you must look in the last days for a kingdom that in its commencement will be the least of all, and is compared to the mustard seed. If then it is the smallest of all kingdoms, we need not look for a large church like the church of Rome, or the English church, but like a mustard seed; look for that, and it will grow and become the largest of all herbs, so that the birds of the air will shelter in it.

Says one, “I like it very well, if you did not gather together, and suffer Brigham Young to lead you like one man.”

In that consists the beauty of our religion; and he can wield us as a people, like God does the armies of heaven. He can wield us to preach, to pray, or to fight. We have everything spiritual, temporal, and natural, as it should be. We believe it is just as much our religion to talk about wheat, plowing, sowing, and gathering in at harvest time, it is just as much our religion as anything connected with it.

“Pertaining to the Mormons away off in the Valley, they never will be much anyhow,” says one. They used to tell Joseph Smith he could never accomplish anything, for he had neither money nor friends. They tell us we cannot accomplish much, “for everybody says you are crazy followers of Joe Smith, and believers in the Book of Mormon; therefore what can you do?” We will do just as Jesus Christ said the mustard seed would do. If you will read and learn what it did, you will then know something about the future history of “Mormonism.” You will ascertain just what we will do.

“But do you really believe your Church is the kingdom Daniel spoke of—the stone that should be hewn out of the mountain without hands?” I suppose he might have said with hands just as well, for it is no matter whether it was hewn out with or without; suffice it to say, the result of it is what we see; no matter how it came out of the mountain. What does the historian represent by that stone? Something that would begin to roll, and smite the great image on its feet, and roll forth until it should fill the whole earth. If you want to know what “Mormonism” is, it is that which will roll forth until it fills the whole earth.

Do we expect to find uniformity at this time? No sir; but we look for mobs, and the very scum of hell to boil over. Do we look for a privilege to fold our hands and sing lullaby baby, etc.? No; we expect the rage of all hell to be aimed at us to overthrow us; we expect mobs, and troubles with the Indians. The earth will be rent with earthquakes, and a thousand thunders will utter their voices, and make the ears of mortals tingle, and their hearts to fail within them; and the voice of God will be heard, that will pierce the wicked to the very core.

Do the Latter-day Saints expect to settle in peace? Mark you, your peace has not come yet, for Lucifer is not yet bound; and while the earth is fearfully convulsed because of the wickedness on its face, the nations will gather themselves and make an effort to wrest the kingdom from the Saints, and destroy them root and branch.

We are not coping with a few people here and there, but with the world, with all the enemies of God, with all hell, and with the devil and his host. That is “Mormonism.”

You need not wonder that we raise stout boys in the mountains, for we want children of the right blood; we do not want a scrubby breed here. Men of “Mormon” blood are not afraid to die. The men that tremble, and whose hearts go pit-a-pat because they have got to die, are not worth a picayune. A man that refuses to walk up in the track, no matter what comes, and steadily press forward, though there should be a lion in the way, is not of “Mormon” grit. That was the grit Joseph Smith had; and when he spoke, he spoke by the power of an endless Priesthood, which was upon him; and that is the power by which Brigham speaks. When he stood up in the majesty of his Priesthood, and rebuked the judges here, I know some of our milk-and-water-folks thought all the fat was in the fire. “Brother Brigham has gone rather too far; he might have spoken a little milder than he did; I think it would have been much better,” &c. This was the language of some hearts; and I feel to say, damn all such poor pussyism. When a man of God speaks, let him speak what he pleases, and let all Israel say, Amen.

We expect to see and hear tell of earthquakes, and other mighty convulsions in the earth, as it has been in former times; and if the devil exerted his power in ancient days to destroy the work of God, so he will in the latter days.

My exhortation to the Latter-day Saints is to keep the commandments until truth shall prevail, the devil is bound, and righteousness prevails; then watch for the Lord’s coming, for you know not the day nor the hour the Son of man cometh. Amen.

An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, July 31, 1853.

I wish to say a few words to the Latter-day Saints this morning, as there seems to be considerable excitement in the feelings of the people, and many inquiring what will be the result of the present Indian difficulties.

I will give you my testimony, as far as I have one on the subject, concerning these difficulties in this territory, north and south, pertaining to our brethren, the Lamanites. My testimony to all is—it is right, and perfectly calculated, like all other providences of the Lord, of the like nature, to chasten this people until they are willing to take counsel. They will purify and sanctify the Saints, and prepare the wicked for their doom.

There has nothing strange and uncommon to man, yet occurred; nothing has yet happened out of the ordinary providences of the Lord. These com– mon dealings of our great Head with His people have been manifested from days of old, in blessings and chastisements. Wars, commotions, tumults, strife, nation contending against nation, and people against people, have all been governed and controlled by Him whose right it is to control such matters.

Among wicked nations, or among Saints, among the ancient Israelites, Philistines, and Romans, the hand of the Lord was felt; in short, all the powers that have been upon the earth, have been dictated, governed, controlled, and the final issue of their existence has been brought to pass, according to the wisdom of the Almighty. Then my testimony is, it is all right.

There seems to be some excitement among the people, and fears are arising in the breasts of many, as to the general safety. Some person has been shot at by the Indians, or some Indians were seen in an hostile condition. And away go messengers to report to headquarters, saying, “What shall we do? For we cannot tell, but we shall all be killed by them; they have stolen our horses, and driven off some cattle, which has created a great excitement in our settlement,” &c.; when, perhaps, tomorrow, the very Indians who have committed these depredations will come and say, “How do you do? We are friendly, cannot you give us some Chitcup?” They will shake hands, and appear as though it were impossible for them to be guilty of another hostility. And what is the next move? Why, our wise men, the Elders of Israel, are either so fluctuating in their feelings, so unstable in their ways, or so ignorant of the Indian character, that the least mark of friendship manifested by these treacherous red men, will lull all their fears, throw them entirely off their guard, saying, “It is all right; wife, take care of the stock, for I am going to the canyon for a load of wood.“

Away he goes without a gun or a pistol to defend himself, in case of an attack from some Indian or Indians, to rob him of his cattle, and perhaps his life. Herds of cattle are driven upon the range, the feelings of the people are divested of all fear by this little show of Indian friendship, and their hearts are at peace with all mankind. They lie down to sleep at night with the doors of their houses open, and in many instances with no way to close them if they were willing, only by means of hanging up a blanket. Thus they go to sleep with their guns unloaded, and entirely without any means of defense, in case they should be attacked in the night. On the other hand, they no sooner discover an Indian in an hostile attitude, than the hue and cry is “We shall all be murdered immediately.” That is the kind of stability, the kind of unshaken self-command, the style of generalship and wisdom manifested by Elders in Israel. Today all are in arms, war is on hand; “we are going to be destroyed, or to fight our way through,” is in every mouth. Tomorrow all is peace, and every man turns to his own way, wherever the common avocations of life call him. No concern is felt as to protection in the future, but “all is right, all is safety, there is no fear of any further trouble,” is the language of people’s thoughts, and they lie down to sleep in a false security, to be murdered in the night by their enemies, if they are disposed to murder them.

I can tell you one thing with regard to excitement and war. You may take Israel here, as a community, with all their experience, and with all they have passed through in the shape of war, and difficulties of various kinds, and these wild Indians are actually wiser in their generations in the art of war than this people are. They lay better plans, display greater skill, and are steadier in their feel– ings. They are not so easily excited, and when excited are not so easily allayed, as the men who have come, to inhabit these mountains, from where they have been trained and educated in the civilization of modern nations. You may not believe this assertion; it is, however, no matter whether you do or do not, the fact remains unaltered, as well as the conviction of my own mind regarding it.

I have been frequently asked, what is going to be the result of these troubles? I answer—the result will be good. What did you hear, you who have come to these valleys within the last few years, previous to your leaving your native country? You heard that all was peace and safety among the Saints in these regions; that the earth yielded in her strength, giving an abundance of food; and that this was a splendid country to raise stock. Your determination was then formed to go up to the Valleys of the mountains, where you could enjoy peace and quiet, and follow the avocations of life, undisturbed. When the people arrive here, many of them come to me and say, “Brother Brigham, can we go here, or there, to get us farms? Shall we enter into this or that speculation? We have been very poor, and we want to make some money, or we want the privilege of taking with us a few families to make a settlement in this or that distant valley.” If I inquire, why they cannot stay here, their answer is, “because there is no room, the land is chiefly taken up, and we have a considerable stock of cattle, we want to go where we can have plenty of range for our stock, where we can mount our horses, and ride over the prairies, and say, I am Lord of all I survey. We do not wish to be disturbed, in any way, nor to be asked to pay tithing, to work upon the roads, nor pay territorial tax, but we wish all the time to ourselves, to appropriate to our own use. I want you, brother Brigham, to give us counsel that we can get the whole world in a string after us, and have it all in our own possession, by and by.” If there is light enough in Israel, let it shine in your consciences, and illuminate your understandings, and give you to know that I tell you the truth. This is the object many have, in wishing to settle and take in land that is far distant from the main body of the people. I have not given you the language of their lips to me, but the language of their hearts.

Elders of Israel are greedy after the things of this world. If you ask them if they are ready to build up the kingdom of God, their answer is prompt—“Why, to be sure we are, with our whole souls; but we want first to get so much gold, speculate and get rich, and then we can help the Church considerably. We will go to California and get gold, go and buy goods and get rich, trade with the emigrants, build a mill, make a farm, get a large herd of cattle, and then we can do a great deal for Israel.” When will you be ready to do it? “In a few years, brother Brigham, if you do not disturb us. We do not believe in the necessity of doing military duty, in giving over our surplus property for tithing; we never could see into it; but we want to go and get rich, to accumulate and amass wealth, by securing all the land adjoining us, and all we have knowledge of.” If that is not the spirit of this people, then I do not know what the truth is concerning the matter.

Now I wish to say to you who are fearing and trembling, do not be afraid at all, for it is certain if we should be killed off by the Indians, we could not die any younger; this is about as good a time as can be for us to die, and if we all go together, why you know, we shall have a good company along with us; it will not be lonesome passing through the valley, which is said to have a veil drawn over it. If we all go together, the dark valley of the shadow of death will be lighted up by us, so do not be scared. But there will not be enough slain by the Indians at this time to make the company very conspicuous in that dark valley. Do you begin to secretly wish you had stayed in the States or in England a little longer, until this Indian war had come to an end? There is a mighty fearing and trembling in the hearts of many. I know what men have done heretofore, when they have seen the enemy advancing, they have skulked, they were sure to be somewhere else than on hand when there was fighting to do, although, upon the whole, I have no fault to find with the Latter-day Saints, or with the Elders of Israel upon that subject, for they love to fight a little too well. If I were to have fears concerning them, it would not be that they would make war, but in the case of war being made on them, I should have more fear in consequence of the ignorant and foolish audacity of the Elders, than of their being afraid. I should fear they would rush into danger like an unthinking horse into battle. So I will not find fault with regard to their courage. On that point I am a coward myself, and if people would do as I tell them, I would not only save my own life, but theirs likewise.

Suppose, now, that we should say to this congregation, and to all the wards in this city, the time has come for us to fort up; do you not think a great many persons would come immediately to me, and inquire if I did not think their houses quite safe enough, without being put to that trouble and expense? Yes, my office would be crowded with such persons, wanting to know if they might not live where they were now living, “for” they would say, “we have got good houses, and well finished off, besides, such a course will ruin them, and our gardens will go to destruction; we really cannot fort up.” Would there not be a great amount of hard feelings upon the subject? I think so, whether you do or not. I think I should want as many as a legion of angels to assist me to convince every family it was necessary, if it actually was so.

I do not know but the time may come, and that speedily, when I shall build a fort myself in this city, and those who are disposed can go into it with me, while the rest can stay out. When I see it is absolutely necessary to do this, I shall do it. If the people of Utah Territory would do as they were told, they would always be safe. If the people in San Pete County had done as they were told, from the beginning of that settlement, they would have been safe at this time, and would not have lost their cattle. The day before yesterday, Friday, July 29th, the Indians came from the mountains, to Father Allred’s settlement, and drove off all the stock, amounting to two hundred head. If the people had done as they were told, they would not have suffered this severe loss, which is a just chastisement.

I recollect when we were down at Father Allred’s settlement last April, they had previously been to me not only to know if they might settle in San Pete, but if they might separate widely from each other, over a piece of land about two miles square, each having a five acre lot for their garden, near their farms. They were told to build a good substantial fort, until the settlement became sufficiently strong, and not live so far apart, and expose themselves and their property to danger. Father Allred told me they were then so nigh together, they did not know how to live! I told him they had better make up their minds to be baptized into the Church again, and get the Spirit of God, that each one might be able to live at peace with his neighbor in close quarters, and not think himself infringed upon. They wanted to know if they were to build a fort. “Why, yes,” I said, “build a strong fort, and a corral, to put your cattle in, that the Indians cannot get them away from you.” “Do you think, brother Brigham, the Indians will trouble us here?” they inquired. I said, “It is none of your business whether they will or not, but you will see the time that you will need such preparations.” But I did not think it would come so quickly. There will more come upon this people to destroy them than they at present think of, unless they are prepared to defend themselves, which I shall not take time, this morning, to dwell upon. I said also to the brethren at Utah, “Do you make a fort, and let it be strong enough, that Indians cannot break into it.” They commenced, and did not make even the shadow of a fort, for in some places there was nothing more than a line to mark where the approaching shadow would be. They began to settle round upon the various creeks and streamlets, and the part of a fort that existed was finally pulled up, and carried away somewhere else. I have told you, from the beginning, you would need forts, where to build them, and how strong. I told you, six years ago, to build a fort that the Devil could not get into, unless you were disposed to let him in, and that would keep out the Indians. Excuse me for saying devil; I do not often use the old gentleman’s name in vain, and if I do it, it is always in the pulpit, where I do all my swearing. I make this apology because it is considered a sin to say devil, and it grates on refined ears.

I told the settlement in San Pete, at the first, to build a fort. They did not do it, but huddled together beside a stone quarry, without a place of common shelter where they could defend themselves, in case of an In– dian difficulty. They had faith they could keep the Indians off. Well, now is the time to call it into exercise. They did, after a while, build a temporary fort at San Pete, which now shields them in a time of trouble.

When the brethren went to Salt Creek, they wanted to make a settlement there, and inquired of me if they might do so. I told them, no, unless they first built an efficient fort. I forbade them taking their women and children there, until that preparatory work was fully accomplished. Has it ever been done? No, but families went there and lived in wagons and brush houses, perfectly exposed to be killed. If they have faith enough to keep the Indians off, it is all right.

From the time these distant valleys began to be settled, until now, there has scarcely been a day but what I have felt a twenty-five ton weight, as it were, upon me, in exercising faith to keep this people from destroying themselves; but if any of them can exercise faith enough for themselves, and wish to excuse me, I will take my faith back.

The word has gone out now, to the different settlements, in the time of harvest, requiring them to build forts. Could it not have been done last winter, better than now? Yes. Do you not suppose people will now wish they had built forts when they were told? If they do not, it proves what they have been all the time, shall I say fools? If that is too harsh a term, I will say they have been foolish. It is better for me to labor in building a house or a fort, to get out fencing timber, and wood to consume through winter, when I have nothing else to do, and not be under the necessity of leaving my grain on the ground to do those things. Harvest is no time to build forts, neither is it the time to do it when we should be plowing and sowing.

Now the harvest is upon us, I wish to say a few words concerning it. I desire you to tell your neighbors, and wish them to tell their neighbors, and thus let it go to the several counties around—now is the time for women and children to assist in the harvest fields, the same as they do in other countries. I never asked this of them before; I do not now ask it as a general thing, but those employed in the expedition south, in the work of defending their brethren from Indian depredations, who have heavy harvests on hand, rather than suffer the grain to waste, let the women get in the harvest, and put it where the Indians cannot steal it. And when you go into the harvest field, carry a good butcher knife in your belt, that if an Indian should come upon you, supposing you to be unarmed, you would be sure to kill him.

Tell your neighbors of this, and go to work, men, women, and children, and gather in your grain, and gather it clean, leave none to waste, and put it where the Indians cannot destroy it.

Does this language intimate anything terrific to you? It need not. If you will do as you are told, you will be safe continually. Secure your breadstuff, your wheat, and your corn, when it is ripe, and let every particle of grain raised in these valleys be put where it will be safe, and as much as possible from vermin, and especially from the Indians, and then build forts.

Let every man and woman who has a house make that house a fort, from which you can kill ten where you can now only kill one, if Indians come upon you. “Brother Brigham, do you really expect Indians to come upon us in this city?” This inquiry, I have no doubt, is at this moment in the hearts of a few, almost breathless with fear. Were I to answer such inquirers as I feel, I should say, it is none of your business; but I will say, you are so instructed, to see if you will do as you are told. Let your dwelling house be a perfect fort. From the day I lived where brother Joseph Smith lived, I have been fortified all the time so as to resist twenty men, if they should come to my house in the night, with an intent to molest my family, assault my person, or destroy my property; and I have always been in the habit of sleeping with one eye open, and if I cannot then sufficiently watch, I will get my wife to help me. Let an hostile band of Indians come round my house, and I am good for quite a number of them. If one hundred should come, I calculate that only fifty would be able to go to the next house, and if the Saints there used up the other fifty, the third house would be safe.

But instead of the people taking this course, almost every good rifle in the territory has been traded away to the Indians, with quantities of powder and lead, though they waste it in various ways when they have got it. The whites would sell the title to their lives, for the sake of trading with the Indians.

They will learn better, I expect, by and by, for the people have never received such strict orders as they have got now. I will give you the pith of the last orders issued—“That man or family who will not do as they are told in the orders, are to be treated as strangers, yea, even as enemies, and not as friends.” And if there should be a contest, if we should be called upon to defend our lives, our liberty, and our possessions, we would cut such off the first, and walk over their bodies to conquer the foe outside.

Martial law is not enforced yet, although the whole territory is in a state of war, apparently, but it is only the Utah [Indians] who have declared war on Utah [Territory.] Deseret has not yet declared war; how soon it will be declared is not for me to say; but we have a right, and it is our duty, to put ourselves in a state of self-defense.

The few families that settled in Cedar Valley, at the point of the mountains, were instructed to leave there, last spring. They have gone back again, upon their own responsibility, and now want to know what they must do. They have been told to do just as they have a mind to.

Those who have taken their wives and children in the canyons to live, have been told to remove them into the city; and if you want to make shingles, or do any other work that requires you to remain there, have your gun in a situation that an Indian cannot creep up and steal it from you before you are aware, that you can be good for a few Indians if they should chance to come upon you.

If I wished to live away from the body of the people, my first effort should be directed towards building a good and efficient fort. When new settlements were made in the eastern countries, they built them of timber, and they were called “block houses.” I would advise that every house in a new settlement should be made good for all the Indians that could approach it, with an intention to tear it down. If I did not do that, I would go to where I could be safe, I would take up my abode with the body of the people. I would take my family there at least. By taking this course, every person will be safe from the depredations of the Indians, which are generally committed upon the defenseless and unprotected portions of the community.

I know what the feelings of the generality of the people are, at this time—they think all the Indians in the mountains are coming to kill off the Latter-day Saints. I have no more fear of that, than I have of the sun ceasing to give light upon the earth. I have studied the Indian character sufficiently to know when the In– dians are in war, I have been with them more or less from my youth upward, where they have often had wars among themselves. Let every man, woman, and child, that can handle a butcher knife, be good for one Indian, and you are safe.

I am aware that the people want to ask me a thousand and one questions, whether they have done it or not, touching the present Indian difficulties. I have tried to answer them all, in my own mind, by saying, it will be just as the Lord will.

How many times have I been asked in the past week, what I intend to do with Walker. I say, let him alone, severely. I have not made war on the Indians, nor am I calculating to do it. My policy is to give them presents, and be kind to them. Instead of being Walker’s enemy, I have sent him a great pile of tobacco to smoke when he is lonely in the mountains. He is now at war with the only friends he has upon this earth, and I want him to have some tobacco to smoke.

I calculate to pursue just such a course with the Indians, and when I am dictated to by existing circumstances, and the Spirit of the Lord, to change my course, I will do it, and not until then.

If you were to see Walker, do you think you would kill him? You that want to kill him, I will give you a mission to that effect. A great many appear very bold, and desire to go and bring me Walker’s head, but they want all the people in Utah to go with them. I could point out thousands in this Territory who would follow these Indians, and continue to follow them, and leave the cattle to be driven off by the emigrants, and the grain to perish, and thus subject the whole community to the ravages of famine, and its consequent evils. I have been teased and teased by men who will come to me and say, “Just give me twenty-five, fifty, or a hundred men, and I will go and fetch you Walker’s head.” I do not want his head, but I wish him to do all the Devil wants him to do, so far as the Lord will suffer him and the Devil to chastise this people for their good.

I say to the Indians, as I have often said to the mob, go your length. You say you are going to kill us all off, you say you are going to obliterate the Latter-day Saints, and wipe them from the earth; why don’t you do it, you poor miserable curses? The mob only had power to drive the Saints to their duty, and to remember the Lord their God, and that is all the Indians can do. This people are worldly-minded, they want to get rich in earthly substance, and are apt to forget their God, the pit from which they were dug, and the rock from which they were hewn, every man turning to his own way. Seemingly the Lord is chastening us until we turn and do His will. What are you willing to do? Would you be willing to build a fort, and all go in there to live? I tell you, you would have a hell of your own, and devils enough to carry it on. Do you suppose you will ever see the time you would do that, and live at peace with each other, and have the Spirit of the Lord enough to look each other in the face, and say, with a heart full of kindness, “Good morning, Mary,” or “How do you do, Maria“? You will be whipped until you have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ sufficiently to love your brethren and sisters freely, men, women, and children; until you can live at peace with yourselves, and with every family around you; until you can treat every child as though it were the tender offspring of your own body, every man as your brother, and every woman as your sister; and until the young persons treat the old with that respect due to parents, and all learn to shake hands, with a warm heart, and a friendly grip, and say, “God blessyou,” from morning till evening; until each person can say, “I love you all, I have no evil in my heart to any individual, I can send my children to school with yours, and can correct your children, when they do wrong, as though they were my own, and I am willing you should correct mine, and let us live together until we are a holy and sanctified society.” There will always be Indians or somebody else to chastise you, until you come to that spot; so amen to the present Indian trouble, for it is all right. I am just as willing the rebellious of this people should be kicked, and cuffed, and mobbed, and hunted by the Indians, as not, for I have preached to them until I am tired. I will give no more counsel to any person upon the duties of self-preservation; you can do as you please; if you will not preserve yourselves, I may reason with you until my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, to no avail. Let the Lord extend the hand of benevolence to brother Walker, and he will make you do it by other means than exhortations given in mildness.

This very same Indian Walker has a mission upon him, and I do not blame him for what he is now doing: he is helping me to do the will of the Lord to this people, he is doing with a chastening rod what I have failed to accomplish with soft words, while I have been handing out my substance, feeding the hungry, comforting the sick. But this has no effect upon this people at all, my counsel has not been needed, so the Lord is making brother Walker an instrument to help me, and perhaps the means that he will use will have their due effect.

Do you suppose I want to kill him? No. I should be killing the very means that will make this people do what we wanted them to do years ago.

There are hundreds of witnesses to bear testimony that I have counseled this people, from the beginning, what to do to save themselves both temporally and spiritually.

In one of our orders issued lately, the southern settlements were advised to send their surplus cattle to this valley. No quicker had the news reached them, than our ears were greeted with one continued whine, which meant, “We are afraid you want them.” So we did, to take care of them for you.

When Father Allred was advised to adopt measures to secure themselves and their property, he replied, “O, I do not think there is the least danger in the world; we are perfectly able to take care of our stock, and protect ourselves against the Indians.” All right, I thought, let circumstances prove that.

Now as difficulties surround them, they say to me, “Why, brother Brigham, if you had only told us what to do, we would have done it. Were we not always willing to take your counsel?” Yes, you are a great deal more willing to take it, than to obey it. If people are willing to carry out good counsel, they will secure themselves accordingly.

I have thought of setting a pattern, by securing myself; but were I to build a fort for myself and family, I should want about a legion of angels from the throne of God, to stay nine months with me, to get my folks willing to go into it. But I am so independent about it, I care not the snap of my finger for one of them. If my wives will not go into a place of security with me, it is all right, they can stay out, and I will go in and take my children with me. I say, I do not know but I may take a notion to set a pattern by building a fort; if I do, someone in this city may follow my example, and then somebody else, &c., until we have a perfect city of forts.

“Brother Brigham, do you really think we shall ever need them?” Yes, I do. All the difficulties there is in the community this year, is not a drop in comparison to the heavy shower that will come. “Well, and where is it coming from?” From hell, where every other trouble comes from. “And who do you think will be the actors?” Why, the Devil and his imps. [W. W. Phelps in the stand, We could not do very well without a devil.] No, sir, you are quite aware of that; you know we could not do without him. If there had been no devil to tempt Eve, she never would have got her eyes opened. We need a devil to stir up the wicked on the earth to purify the Saints. Therefore let devils howl, let them rage, and thus exhibit themselves in the form of those poor foolish Lamanites. Let them go on in their work, and do you not desire to kill them, until they ought to be killed, and then we will extinguish the Indian title, if it is required.

Did you never feel to pity them on viewing their wretched condition? Walker with a small band has succeeded in making all the Indian bands in these mountains fear him. He has been in the habit of stealing from the Californians, and of making every train of emigrants that passed along the Spanish trail to California pay tithing to him. He finally began to steal children from those bands to sell to the Spaniards; and through fear of him, he has managed to bring in subjection almost all the Utah tribes.

I will relate one action of Walker’s life, which will serve to illustrate his character. He, with his band, about last Feb., fell in with a small band of Piedes, and killed off the whole of the men, took the squaws prisoners, and sold the children to the Mexicans, and some few were disposed of in this territory. This transaction was told by Arapeen, Walker’s brother, though he was not at the affray himself.

The Indians in these mountains are continually on the decrease; bands that numbered 150 warriors when we first came here, number not more than 35 now; and some of the little tribes in the southern parts of this territory, towards New Mexico, have not a single squaw amongst them, for they have traded them off for horses, &c. This practice will soon make the race extinct. Besides, Walker is continually, whenever an opportunity presents itself, killing and stealing children from the wandering bands that he has any power over, which also has its tendency to extinguish the race.

Walker is hemmed in, he dare not go into California again. Dare he go east to the Snakes? No. Dare he go north? No, for they would rejoice to kill him. Here he is, penned up in a small compass, surrounded by his enemies; and now the Elders of Israel long to eat up, as it were, him and his little band. What are they? They are a set of cursed fools. Do you not rather pity them? They dare not move over a certain boundary, on any of the four points of the compass, for fear of being killed; then they are killing one another, and making war upon this people that could use them up, and they not be a breakfast spell for them if they felt so disposed. See their condition, and I ask you, do you not pity them? From all appearance, there will not be an Indian left, in a short time, to steal a horse. Are they not fools, under these circumstances, to make war with their best friends?

Do you want to run after them to kill them? I say, let them alone, for peradventure God may pour out His Spirit upon them, and show them the error of their ways. We may yet have to fight them, though they are of the house of Israel to whom the message of salvation is sent; for their wickedness is so great, that the Lord Almighty cannot get at the hearts of the older ones to teach them saving principles. Joseph Smith said we should have to fight them. He said, “When this people mingle among the Lamanites, if they do not bow down in obedience to the Gospel, they will hunt them until there is but a small remnant of them left upon this continent.” They have either got to bow down to the Gospel or be slain. Shall we slay them simply because they will not obey the Gospel? No. But they will come to us and try to kill us, and we shall be under the necessity of killing them to save our own lives.

I wished to lay these things before the people this morning, to answer a great many questions, and allay their fears. Yesterday, brother Kimball heard at his mill, ten miles north, that I had sent word to him, that the mountains were full of Indians, and he and the families with him were to move into the city; so they immediately obeyed this report. Brother Kimball came to me and inquired if I had sent such orders. I said, no. But it is all right, for I wanted the women and children from there. This shows the excited state of the people.

One thing more. I ask you men who have been with Joseph in the wars he passed through, and who were with him at the time of his death, what was it that preserved us, to all outward appearances? It is true, in reality, God did it. But by what means did He keep the mob from destroying us? It was by means of being well armed with the weapons of death to send them to hell cross lots. Just so you have got to do.

As for this people fostering to themselves that the day has come for them to sell their guns and ammunition to their enemies, and sit down to sleep in peace, they will find themselves deceived, and before they know, they will sleep until they are slain. They have got to carry weapons with them, to be ready to send their enemies to hell cross lots, whether they be Lamanites, or mobs who may come to take their lives, or destroy their property. We must be so prepared that they dare not come to us in a hostile manner without being assured they will meet a vigorous resistance, and ten to one they will meet their grave.

The Lord will suffer no more trouble to come upon us than is necessary to bring this people to their senses. You need not go to sleep under the impression that it is the north and south only that is in danger, and we are all safe here. Now mind, let this people here lie down to sleep, and be entirely off their watch, and the first thing they know, they are in the greatest danger. You must not desert the watch tower, but do as I do—keep some person awake in your house all night long, and be ready, at the least tap of the foot, to offer a stout resistance, if it is required. Be rely at any moment to kill twenty of your enemies at least. Let every house be a fort.

After the cattle were stolen at San Pete, a messenger arrived here in about thirty hours to report the affair, and obtain advice. I told brother Wells, “you can write to them, and say, ‘Inasmuch as you have no cows and oxen to trouble you, you can go to harvesting, and take care of yourselves.’” If you do not take care of yourselves, brethren, you will not be taken care of. I take care of them that help themselves. I will help you that try to help yourselves, and carry out the maxim of Doctor Dick—“God helps them that help themselves.”

I am my own policeman, and have slept, scores of nights, with my gun and sword by my side, that is, if I slept at all. I am still a policeman. Now is the day to watch. It is as important for me to watch now, as well as pray, as it ever has been since I came into this kingdom. It requires watching, as well as praying men; take turns at it, let some watch while others pray, and then change round, but never let any time pass without a watcher, lest you be overtaken in an hour when you think not; it will come as a thief in the night. Look out for your enemies, for we know not how they will come, and what enemy it will be. Take care of yourselves.

Again, let me reiterate to the sisters, do not be afraid of going into the harvest field. If you are found there helping your sons, your husbands, and your brethren, to gather in the harvest, I say, God bless you, and I will also.

Take care of your grain, and take care of yourselves, that no enemy come to slay you. Be always on hand to meet them with death, and send them to hell, if they come to you. May God bless you all. Amen.

A Discourse by President B. Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, July 24, 1853.

I feel disposed to occupy a portion of time this morning.

I have no doubt but the people, who are Saints, are much edified by the preaching and exhortations given from this stand. Were I to speak for myself, I could truly say, I am glad, I rejoice, and I feel exceedingly happy, when preaching myself, and when listening to preaching, exhortations, and prayer, and when associating with the Saints in other occupations and pursuits of life. Also in a family capacity, in our family prayer meetings, and in all the avocations of life that concern myself as an individual, I am happy.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is given in the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in the experience of every true Christian who has lived and still lives upon the earth, teaches that it is the privilege of every Saint so to live and walk before their God, as to enjoy the light of the spirit of truth from day to day, from week to week, and from year to year, through their whole lives. Without this privilege in the Gospel, connected with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, I should be inclined to believe that the religion that is taught in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon, would amount to nothing more than a mere phantom—an imaginary thing. It would be inadequate to satisfy, in any degree, the mind of man, as it is now organized.

I can appeal to the experience of thousands, as well as to my own, that the doctrine of the Savior is true, that the history given in the New Testament is a true history, as far as it goes, of the feelings and the experience common to every variety of human life, and chimes with the experience of every true believer in Jesus Christ in all ages of the world, though the expression, “true believer,” needs qualifying, for many believe who do not obey—I will qualify it by saying, a believer in Jesus Christ, who manifests his faith to God, angels, and his brethren, by his obedience. Not but that there are believers who do not obey, but the only true believers are they who prove their belief by their obedience to the requirements of the Gospel.

It is a special privilege and blessing of the holy Gospel to every true believer, to know the truth for himself. For orators to speak to us, Prophets to expound the law, and teach us doctrine, for the special purpose of giving us comfort, is not particularly required; but in the reflections and meditations of the mind in contemplating the things of God and the rich treasures of infinite wisdom, which are opened to the children of men who obey the Gospel, they enjoy a continual feast to the soul. This is the privilege of Latter-day Saints, it is the privilege of the whole world, as quick as the knowledge of God can be disseminated among the people. It is true, the world groans in darkness. They are bound with the fetters of unbelief, error, and ignorance, more than we are; yet we can say truly, that we only begin to see the dawning of truth through the deep mantle of ignorance in which we are enveloped. To those who live faithfully in their duty as Saints of God, and continue to serve Him, time will develop that the Latter-day Saints—the best of them—the most intelligent among them, are still in ignorance, still wanting, still looking for something more, still increasing, still growing; I say, time will develop to their satisfaction that at this stage of their existence they were in ignorance, but not to the same degree as those who had not had the privileges they enjoyed.

It is frequently observed—especially by the Latter-day Saints—what a curiosity it is, how singular that the Gospel of Jesus Christ should have the effect upon the minds of the people that it does have. It is remarkable! It is strange! When people reflect upon it, they are astonished that the Gospel of salvation should so disturb the feelings, the quiet, the peace of the community. Does it have this effect upon the world? Your own observation enables you to answer in the affirmative. It is a true saying of the Savior’s, that he came not into the world to make peace, to unite the whole people, but to make division. He came for the express purpose of dividing the righteous from the wicked. This formed as much a part of his holy ministry as any other part of the will of his Father.

We see this principle verified from days of old. It was demonstrated in the very commencement of the peopling of the earth. How soon an opposition was introduced in the morning of creation, when righteousness was proclaimed, when truth was revealed, when the light and knowledge of eternity shone with lustrous beauty upon Adam and his children, Cain must rise up and slay his brother, while they were walking with the Lord, while He visited them from day to day, administered to them, conversed with them, preached to them, and gave them instruction, as I and my brethren instruct you from this stand. He taught them how to live, how to order their course, and acted in all points like a tender and affectionate parent, yet at the same time there must be an opposition.

It is very true had not sin entered into the world, and opposition been introduced, death would not have entered. From that time to this, death, opposition, selfishness, malice, anger, pride, darkness, and wickedness of every description that could be invented by the children of men, as they have multiplied and spread abroad on the earth, have increased. Yes, verily, they have increased. And the days that we, as Christians, call the days of darkness and ignorance, were days of light, knowledge, and intelligence, to exceed that which we enjoy in this age.

We discover that the Gospel of life and salvation is perfectly calculated to disturb the wicked. Shall we say they are at peace? Are they in happiness? Are they enjoying that which their hearts desire? We can truly say they are seeking for it as well as they know how, but the result is, the increase of wickedness upon the earth, and the increased unhappiness of the human family. Mankind, indeed, cannot be happy unless they are first miserable; they cannot be easy, they cannot be at rest and feel comfortable, unless they are first in pain; they cannot be joyful, unless they are first in sorrow. Refer, for instance, to your own dispositions, to the fallen nature that is in you. When passion rises within you, can you satisfy your feelings unless you give way to them, to the injury of yourselves and others? You cannot sit down and feel at rest unless you can satiate the burning vengeance of passion, by reeking your vengeance upon some person, or upon some helpless animal.

The Gospel of salvation is perfectly calculated to cause division. It strikes at the root of the very existence of mankind in their wickedness, evil designs, passions, and wicked calculations. There is no evil among the human family, but at the foundation of which it strikes effectually, and comes in contact with every evil passion that rises in the heart of man. It is opposed to every evil practice of men, and consequently it disturbs them in the wicked courses they are pursuing.

When the Gospel which was preached by Jesus and His Apostles was preached to the children of Israel by Moses, it created the same effect among them. When he taught them to forsake their sins, to forsake every evil principle and practice of their lives, and turn to the Lord with all their hearts, it created such a division that Moses could not establish the Gospel among them, after all the kindness the Lord had shown towards them, though He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand, dividing the sea, causing the water to gush out of the dry rock to quench their thirst, manna to fall from heaven to satisfy their hunger, and quails to satisfy their desire for flesh. He also ordained that their clothing should not wax old, nor their shoes wear out for the space of forty years. They did not have to plough, to reap, or gather into barns, as we do. Notwithstanding this manifestation of the goodness of their God, he could not establish the Gospel among them, and was obliged to give them a law of carnal commandments. Why did not the Lord destroy them, seeing they were so very wicked? He did; and out of all who left Egypt, only two went into the land of Canaan—Joshua and Caleb.

Whenever the Gospel is preached in towns, cities, country places, or in any community who are in darkness, it never fails to bring light; it mani– fests their ignorance; it distracts them, and annoys their peace. They say, “I supposed I was wise, happy, comfortable, and well enough off; but here comes something that informs me I am mistaken, that this and the other thing are wrong. It reflects light upon my understanding, and teaches me that my acts, while I live upon the earth, should tend to the glory of God and the peace of mankind. This naturally seems contrary to my feelings, disposition, passions, and traditions, and to everything about me, except the reflection of truth upon my mind, which enlightens my understanding, and teaches me to glorify God, and do good to my fellow creatures.”

The Gospel is not only calculated to divide the people, but it will divide sin from those who embrace it with a true heart. In the world we find goodness, honesty, humility, and prudence, which are prompted by the motives of a good heart. But virtue is trampled into the dust, honesty and prudence are pointed at with the finger of scorn and derision! We see almost every principle of righteousness discarded. If the whole world are not in this condition already, it needs but a few steps more to lead them into the depths of it, and complete them in their rebellion against all good and its Author.

It is the darkness upon the earth, the gross darkness that broods over the minds of the people, that leads them into error, wickedness, and destruction, yet in the midst of this ignorance and awful corruption of the human mind, there are to be found humility, goodness, and virtue. But what use is made of them? They are destroyed; they are used according to the wishes of the wicked, and according to the designs of the evil designer. This is almost universally the case.

The Gospel is calculated to divide this wickedness from those who em– brace it, and then it will divide those who embrace it from those who reject it. Christ and Belial cannot be made friends, neither can the Church of Christ and the worshippers of Belial unite together. They cannot amalgamate. Consequently, those who receive the Gospel with all their hearts, after believing the testimony of God’s servants, will divide themselves from those who do not receive it. In this Gospel, life and salvation are offered to every honest soul; in the world they find tribulation, but in Jesus Christ peace. In obeying the Gospel is comfort, but in the glory of the world, sadness and sorrow.

If the inquiry should arise in our minds, why it is that we are in the position we this morning occupy, it is very easily answered and understood by every person who understands the nature of the Gospel of Christ. It is because it is impossible to unite Christ and Belial—to unite righteousness with unrighteousness, for they never can go hand in hand. Righteousness cannot become unrighteousness, and wickedness never can inherit a righteous kingdom.

The ancient Saints were and the Saints of latter days have been driven from pillar to post, their name a hiss and a by-word, and their character traduced to the lowest degree. I will appeal to men in this congregation, who have lived for years in the society of the world, who are judges, magistrates, sheriffs, merchants, mechanics, and farmers, if anything was ever alleged against their character until they joined the Latter-day Saints. But where are your characters now in the world? Your former friends now have found out that you always were miserable creatures, they now declare they never had any confidence in you, for you always were enthusiastic beings, and knew not what you were doing. They always believed you would prove yourselves dishonest, &c. This has been the character given to the Saints by the world in all ages.

Suppose we now notice that part of the world called Christians, that profess to believe the Old and New Testament, King James’ translation. They say they believe this Bible, yet if you are in France, Germany, England, in the United States, in the Canadas, in the islands of the sea, or no matter where among the Christian nations, the moment you make it known that you have embraced the Book of Mormon, and that you believe Joseph Smith is a Prophet, they will at once accuse you of throwing away the Bible, they will publish abroad that you have become a “Latter-day Saint,” “a Mormon,” and consequently have denied the Bible you formerly believed, and have cast it entirely away. What is the reason of this, which I need not undertake to substantiate, for it is a fact that almost every person knows? Now, we are believers in the Bible, and in consequence of our unshaken faith in its precepts, doctrine, and prophecy, may be attributed “the strangeness of our course,” and the unwarrantable conduct of many towards this people.

Come, my brother Presbyterian; come, my brother professors of every persuasion of long standing and popular distinction in the world, who are dubbed with the word “Orthodox;” come, we are all good Christians; I find no fault with you—why should you find fault with me? But you reply, “I cannot be a Latter-day Saint, consequently we must be separated, and we cannot be brethren any longer.”

Come, my good brother Methodist, and my good brother Baptist, you are free and open in your views and feelings, for you hold forth a free salvation. This is a favorite doctrine of the Methodists. They say salvation is handed out to all the human family, without money and without price, and invite them to come and partake of the waters of life freely. I declare the same. I am a believer in Jesus Christ, in God the Father, and in the doctrines of salvation as they are taught in the Old and New Testaments, though not so pointedly in the Old as in the New. Yet the same principles of life and salvation are set forth in both of these books, and I believe them. Come, my brother B., do you believe them? You reply, “Yes, and have for these thirty years, twenty-seven of which I have been a preacher of the Gospel. I believe in the Son of God, and in the Old and New Testaments.” Well, then, what in the world do you want to quarrel with me for? “Because you are not a believer, you have thrown away the Bible.” You are mistaken, Mr. B.; for instead of that, I have learned wisdom, got light, knowledge, and understanding, so that I know how to believe the Bible. I ask you, brother B., how I must believe the Bible, and how shall you and every other follower of the Lord Jesus Christ believe it? “Brother Mormon, how do you believe it?” I believe it just as it is. I do not believe in putting any man’s interpretation upon it, whatever, unless it should be directed by the Lord Himself in some way. I do not believe we need interpreters and expounders of the Scriptures, to wrest them from their literal, plain, simple meaning.

Let us take up a point of Scripture, and we will try to agree with Mr. B., and take him along with us a few moments, and find out where we disagree. We read in the Bible many things pertaining to life and salvation. We first begin to read that Jesus came in the flesh. Now to touch that point, which I do not purpose to do but slightly this morning, I am sure we shall disagree at the commencement. But suppose I examine that, a moment. The New Testament tells me that the Father gave His only begotten Son a ransom for the sins of the world. Do you believe that, brother B.? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father? “Yes.” Do you believe the Son was begotten by the Father, as the Apostles said he was? Here I shall have to disagree with you, to begin with; for I believe the Father came down from heaven, as the Apostles said He did, and begat the Savior of the world; for he is the only begotten of the Father, which could not be if the Father did not actually beget him in person.

“I cannot believe that, for he is a God without body, parts, or passions; He has no person, therefore, I must disagree with you, brother Mormon.” I believe the Father came down in His tabernacle and begat Jesus Christ. Mr. B. believes He has no tabernacle. I believe He has a tabernacle, and begat Jesus Christ in His express image and likeness, because the Bible expressly declares it. You disbelieve it, because your priest and your mother have taught you it is not so. When your mothers first read this Scripture, it was so plain to their understandings and to their children, that they understood it as an angel would, but deacon Jones must be called in to explain, and he explained it away. So I disagree with you, Mr. B., in the first point we have noticed, for you believe that God is without body and parts, while the Bible declares He has a corporeal body; that in His likeness, precisely, He created Adam. The priests of this age declare it is not so. The God Mr. B. believes in is without body, parts, and passions. The God that his “brother Mormon” believes in, is described in the Bible as being a personage of tabernacle, having eyes to see, for he that made the eye shall he not see? Having ears to hear, for his ears are open to hear the prayers of the righteous. He has limbs that he can walk, for the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day. He conversed with His children, as in the case of Moses at the fiery bush, and with Abraham on the plains of Mamre. He also ate and drank with Abraham and others. That is the God the “Mormons” believe in, but their very religious Christian brethren do not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is the God the Bible sets forth, as an organized corporeal being. In this one point, you can now clearly see wherein we disagree.

You say, I have thrown away the New Testament. I say, I have not. You say, I have sacrificed it for the Book of Mormon. I say, I have not. I have acknowledged the Bible from the time I could be taught by my parents to revere it. They taught me that it was the sacred word of God. And as far as it could be translated correctly from the Hebrew and Greek languages, it is given to us as pure as it possibly could be given. The Bible is mine, and I am not prepared to have you rob me of it, without my consent. The doctrine in it is mine, which I firmly believe. I believe the Father begat the Son, and gave him to be a propitiation for the sins of the world. I believe he died for the redemption of man, and rose again the third day.

Do you believe in the death and resurrection of Christ for the salvation of man, Mr. B.? “Yes.”

Again, I believe he endowed the Apostles to go and preach the Gospel of life and salvation to the world. For, said Jesus Christ, “Ye are my witnesses; go and preach my resurrection from the dead. Tell the people, the Father gave me for their sins; but in Adam all die, but in me all shall again be made alive. If they ask you what they shall do to be saved, tell them what I have told every other person who has been sa– ved; that they can only be saved in acts of obedience to prove they believe in me, in the Father, in heaven, in angels, and in you, that you are my servants and true believers in me. Tell them to go into the waters of baptism, and be baptized for the remission of sins. That is the first ordinance to be attended to after believing. After they have manifested their faith in God the Father, in me, and in your words by their repentance, then immerse them in water in imitation of my burial, and raise them up again out of the water, in imitation of my resurrection.”

“Oh,” says brother B., “I believe in baptism, but still I believe a person can be saved purely by the blood of Jesus, without the first drop of water.” But Jesus told them to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.

“And do you believe it is absolutely necessary to be baptized in order to be saved? I cannot believe that.” This is another point wherein you and I differ, Mr. B. You cannot say with a good grace, you believe the Bible, while in your works you deny it. I not only say I believe, but prove it by my works. I go and submit to be baptized for the remission of sins, as I am commanded.

“But, brother Mormon, do you really suppose that water will wash away your sins?” I will tell you what I suppose. I suppose the Lord said it would, and further it is none of my business. Baptism has been instituted for the remission of sins; I therefore do it to take away my sins; if there is any guilt in this, it rests upon the Author of it, and not upon me. Paul was told to be baptized to wash away his sins.

My Christian brethren in the world say it is a piece of folly—a species of extreme nonsense, to believe that wa– ter will wash away sins. It is no matter to me what they say; it is a commandment of the Lord; there is no mistake in it, it tells for itself. He says, Do thus and so, and your sins shall be washed away. I care not how they are taken away; whether an angel takes them to the Lord to get forgiveness, whether they sink to the bottom of the stream, or float on the top, and be scattered to the four winds; He says, Go into the water and be baptized, and they shall be washed away; which is enough for me. On this point also the Christian world and the “Mormons” disagree. But I want to know if we agree with the teachings of the Bible, in our belief and practice. The Latter-day Saints believe in doing just what the Lord has told them to do in this book. If they go forth and are baptized for the remission of sins, their sins are remitted to them, if they go with all good conscience, calculating to serve the Lord all the rest of their days.

What next? Jesus instructed his servants, after they had baptized believers, to lay their hands upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost. We believe in that. What do you believe concerning it, Mr. B.? “Why, I believe it is necessary to give up our hearts to God.” We believe that, as much as you do. “I believe in going to our great meetings, to our prayer meetings, and protracted meetings, and camp meetings, and reformation meetings; for they are got up for the purpose of exciting the feelings of the people; I believe in going there and struggling with the Lord for the forgiveness of sins.” We do not care how long or how loud you pray; you may pray loud enough to break up the roof of the house, and send it to the four winds, but are you going to get the forgiveness of sins in this way? “O yes, brother Mormon, do you not see the world is almost evangelized by our meetings, our tract societies, and our missionary societies. We are going to convert the world in that way. I was converted so, and I am trying with all my might to convert others in the same way. We tell sinners to go to the anxious seat to get remission of their sins.” Here is where we differ again. You tell them to go to the anxious seat to get forgiveness; Christ, his Apostles, and we, tell them to be baptized for the remission of sins. You also tell them to go to the anxious seat to get the Holy Ghost; we tell them to receive it by the laying on of hands, as the Bible instructs us.

“Well, Mr. Mormon, and do you actually receive the Holy Ghost in that way?” Yes, we do. If you call for testimony to substantiate this, we can give the highest, the testimony of Jesus Christ. He said to his ancient servants, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name 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.” We appeal to thousands in this Church, who can testify to the fulfilment of this quotation. At any rate, for one I am here to testify to hundreds of instances, of men, women, and children being healed by the power of God, through the laying on of hands: and many I have seen raised from the gates of death, and brought back from the verge of eternity; and some whose spirits had actually left their bodies, returned again. I testify that I have seen the sick healed by the laying on of hands, according to the promise of the Savior.

“Well,” says Mr. B., “if you have got this great power, and can heal the sick by the laying on of hands, come with me and heal the sick in our neighborhood; or how is it that any of you Mormons die at all?” Take your time, Mr. B. The Bible teaches me I am dust, and to dust I must return. It is not for me to thwart the plans of Jehovah, or do away with any item of doctrine the Lord has taught me. From dust I am, and to dust I must return. So it is with the rest of us, we shall all die and be buried in the silent grave, unless we can obtain faith sufficient to overcome death. We die because we have not conquered death, hell, and the grave. But if we continue obeying the Gospel, you will see the time when we will have that power.

Here again we disagree, as to the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Mr. B. converts people with long prayers and loud shouting; we convert people by preaching repentance, and baptizing them for the remission of sins, and laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; which spirit broods over them continually for their good, heals their bodies, enlightens their minds, and makes them humble, meek, and harmless as little children. When a person receives the Holy Ghost by legal authority, he is like a child in its mother’s lap; all is harmony, praise to God, and good will to the children of men on the earth. He is full of peace, comfort, and salvation, and feels like crying hallelujah all the time. He is perfectly humble and passive, and the Lord can do with him as He pleases. Will this state of feeling always remain? Will passion ever rise again? Yes; for you then commence a warfare, though the Comforter fills your heart, making you rejoice in God your Savior, with the atmosphere of your existence clear and unclouded; this is not to continue, but soon the day of trial and temptation darkens the fair prospect, to teach you to lean on the Lord, and to overcome the world. Under the influence of the Holy Ghost I have felt as happy as I possibly could feel, my heart has been full of joy; I cling to that, and hold fast to the promise of the Lord in the hour of temptation, and call upon Him to give me strength to overcome.

I must break from the thread of my discourse here, and say—Husbands, is that the way you do? Wives, do you adopt that plan when passion arises in your hearts against each other? Do you call upon the name of Jesus Christ, and say, “Father, I ask thee for the gift of thy Spirit to conquer this rising passion;” or do you give way to it, and scold at your wives, or at your children, in bitter and vindictive language? I say, shame on that man who will give way to his passions, and use the name of God or of Christ to curse his ox or his horse, or any creature which God has made; it is a disgrace to him.

After this short digression, I will again resume the thread of my subject. You remember the points upon which we disagree with our brother Christians; our disagreement is mutual; they disagree as much with us as we with them. The Bible leads us to disagree with all the Christian nations, and then with all the world. It has drawn the line of demarcation between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.

The Holy Ghost takes of the Father, and of the Son, and shows it to the disciples. It shows them things past, present, and to come. It opens the vision of the mind, unlocks the treasures of wisdom, and they begin to understand the things of God; their minds are exalted on high; their conceptions of God and His creations are dignified, and “Hallelujah to God and the Lamb in the highest,” is the constant language of their hearts. They comprehend themselves and the great object of their existence. They also comprehend the designs of the wicked one, and the designs of those who serve him; they comprehend the designs of the Almighty in forming the earth, and mankind upon it, and the ultimate purpose of all His creations. It leads them to drink at the fountain of eternal wisdom, justice, and truth; they grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, until they see as they are seen, and know as they are known.

“What!” says Mr. B., “a man or a woman have revelation in these days—in this enlightened age!” Yes, my brethren and sisters here, both men and women, have revelation, and I can say with Moses of old—“Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” But in this point we disagree.

Mr. B. is a stormer to preach, and to work upon the sympathies of the people, and especially upon the tender feelings of the female portion of his congregation. He will tell about their children dying, and picture out the sufferings of the poor, little, tender creatures. He will tell about their husbands dying, and about wives dying, and how they are lying in the lowly and silent grave. Add to this subject, which is so thrilling to the sensations of mortals, a peculiar trembling, plaintive tone, and perhaps accompanied with a shower of tears streaming down the preacher’s face, and it is well calculated to disturb the equilibrium of the naturally tenderhearted, throw them into tears and sobs, and make them suppose it is the operations of the Holy Spirit, when in reality there is not one word of common sense or saving truth in all the preaching.

Again, they will walk up into the pulpit and pray for God the Father to descend into their midst, for Jesus Christ and angels to mingle in their company, and be one with them. They will pray for a Pentecostal shower of the Holy Ghost, whereas, in very deed, the persons who want the Holy Ghost, angels, the Son, the Father, and all heaven in their midst, when they have done praying, will straightway tell the people that God does not give the Holy Ghost, and that there is no such thing in these days as revelation; that Joseph Smith was an impostor because he professed to have received new revelation; that the Latter-day Saints are all impostors, and have thrown away the Old and New Testaments; that they are dangerous persons; and advise their hearers to keep away from them, or they are sure to be deluded, and carried away with their false doctrines; that they are the most wicked and dangerous people on the earth, &c.

Well, Mr. B., on this point you and I disagree. We believe the New Testament, and consequently, to be consistent, we must believe in new revelation, visions, angels, in all the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and all the promises contained in these books, and believe it about as it reads. We give great credit to the Apostles, translators, and the fathers that have preserved and handed down the Bible to us, their children, and defended it through blood and fire. In this they have certainly bequeathed a great blessing to the world, if they will be guided by the plain instructions contained in that book.

The Latter-day Saints understand the Bible as it reads, but the generality of modern Christians disagree with us, and say it needs interpreting. They cannot believe our Lord means what he says in the 16th chapter of Mark, when he tells his Apostles to go “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,” &c. “Now,” say they, “we cannot believe that as it is written, but we have a very pretty interpretation which suits us much better than the plain text. And furthermore we have a sweeping argument that will destroy all your system from beginning to end, and prove there is to be no more revelation.” Let us look at the passage here referred to. John, while upon the Isle of Patmos, had a revelation which he wrote, and he concluded the same by saying, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” When this book, the Bible, was compiled, it was selected by the council of Carthage from a pile of books more than this pulpit could hold, which has been printed, and bound in almost all shapes and sizes, and called the Bible. John’s revelation was one of the many books destined by that council to form the Bible. And the saying which we have quoted, and which constitutes the sweeping argument of modern Christians against new revelation, only alludes to this particular book, which was to be kept sacred, as the word of the Lord to John, and not to the whole Bible; nor does it prohibit the Saints in his day, or the Saints in any future time, from getting new revelation for themselves. That is not all; if we turn to the writings of Moses, we find the same sentiment, and almost the same language used. Moses says, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” So if such quotations are given with the intent to shut the heavens, and put an end to all new revelation, then the revelations given to Prophets who arose after Moses, and the revelations given to Jesus Christ and his Apostles, including John and his revelation on the Isle of Patmos, all amount to nothing, and are not worthy of our notice. This “sweeping argument,” when it is examined, sweeps away rather too much; besides, John’s Gospel and his epistle to his brethren were written after he wrote his revelation on the Isle of Patmos, consequently he would destroy his own system; but it sets forth the ignorance and shortsightedness of those who have not the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.

In this we disagree. They say that the Bible needs interpreting; that it does not mean what it sets forth; that the Holy Ghost has not been given since the days of the Apostles; that there is no need of any more revelation, the canon of Scripture being full. My knowledge is, if you will follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament, every man and woman will be put in possession of the Holy Ghost; every person will become a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and an expounder of truth. They will know things that are, that will be, and that have been. They will understand things in heaven, things on the earth, and things under the earth, things of time, and things of eternity, according to their several callings and capacities.

There is one idea entertained by the “Mormons” which is somewhat of a stumblingblock to the people, and apostates handle it to suit their purpose. It is, that we consider the Bible merely as a guide or fingerboard, pointing to a certain destination. This is a true doctrine, which we boldly advance. If you will follow the doctrines, and be guided by the precepts, of that book, it will direct you where you may see as you are seen, where you may converse with Jesus Christ, have the visitation of angels, have dreams, visions, and revelations, and understand and know God for yourselves. Is it not a stay and a staff to you? Yes: it will prove to you that you are following in the footsteps of the ancients. You can see what they saw, understand what they understood, and enjoy what they enjoyed.

Is this throwing the Bible away? No, not at all; but it adds faith to faith, virtue to virtue, knowledge to knowledge, light to light, truth to truth; for truth embraces truth, light cleaves to light, and every holy principle cleaveth to its own. We have always differed in these items.

I have always, from my first experience, been ready to talk, converse, and exchange ideas with every man and woman in whose society I have chanced to be thrown. I say to all parties, I have no quarrels with you, no contentions, but I am willing to exhibit my belief before you, for it is the doctrine of the New Testament, which is also the doctrine of the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, which books contain the revelations of Jesus Christ, and lead to eternal life. I give them to you freely. If you have got anything extra, and worth more than what I have, why not be willing to give to me as I am to give to you? Have you got true principles of Christianity? They are also mine. I never had any occasion to have a quarrel or debate with any man.

You say you belong to the Presbyterians; it is no matter if you have got the truth. Are you a Calvinist, or a Wesleyan? It is no matter, if you have got the truth; that truth is also mine. Do you belong to the Methodist’s society? And have you got the truth? It is right, that truth is “Mormonism,” it is my property. Are you a Quaker? It is no matter, if you have the truth, that same truth is mine. Are you a Catholic, and have got the truth? That is my doctrine, and I will not quarrel about it.

“Well,” says one, “I am a Jew; I guess I can get up a quarrel with you.” No, you cannot. I shall not contend with you, for the Jews have got true principles, and they possess no truth but what belongs to “Mormonism;” for there is not a truth on earth or in heaven, that is not embraced in “Mormonism.”

Another steps forward and says, “I am a Pagan; I think you will not agree with me.” Yes I will, as far as you follow the path of truth; and when you have got to the end of that, I will give you more truth; but if you reject it, it is your own business, and not mine. I will not ask any person to embrace anything that is not in the New Testament, until they have asked God if it is true or untrue, who will satisfy them if they ask in faith nothing doubting. I will not ask any person to embrace the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, to believe that we talk with God and angels, until they find out the truth of it for themselves. If you say you believe it, because I say it is true, and never seek to know it for yourselves, my testimony will do you very little good. For me to say, I believe in Christ, and not obey the Gospel, will do me very little good; to say that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and not obey his Gospel, would not profit me.

This may be considered strong language. But I will say further: if I attain to the knowledge of all true principles that have ever existed, and do not govern myself by them, they will damn me deeper in hell than if I had never known anything about them.

I have noticed a few principles upon which the Christian world so called, and the Latter-day Saints, disagree. Now let me say to you, my hearers, to Saints and sinners: there is the New Testament; you may leave out the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and follow the precepts of that book faithfully, and I will warrant you to arrive at salvation.

“That is what we have believed all the time,” say some; “we never did believe in gathering to the Salt Lake Valley; we have always believed the Lord could save us in our own land as well as in America. Cannot the Lord save us in England as well as in that far off distant valley? And we never thought it was very necessary to embrace the Book of Mormon.” But if you will follow up the testimony of that book (the New Testament), and square your lives strictly by its doctrines, precepts, and commandments, you will come to me and say, “Brother Brigham, baptize me, that I may receive the Holy Ghost, for the Lord has told me that I must be baptized for the remission of my sins by one who has authority; and the Latter-day Saints hold the keys of the kingdom;” and by that means find out that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of the Lord, that an angel from heaven administered to him, that the Latter-day Saints have got the true Gospel, that John the Baptist came to Joseph Smith and committed to him the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; and that Peter, James, and John also came to him, and gave him the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God. “And now, brother Brigham, Joseph has sent an angel to me, who has told me all about it, and I am going with you to the Salt Lake Valley in the mountains.” So by faithfully attending to the first principles of the Gospel laid down in the New Testament, you are introduced into the knowledge of the works of God in the dispensation of the fulness of times. I say to the Christian world, all this is as true as the Lord God liveth; but is this my testimony to convert anybody? No. Nevertheless it is verily true.

If the Christian world would follow the instructions of the New Testament, they would believe the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints: and our swords would be beaten into plowshares, and our spears into pruninghooks, and we should hail each other as brethren. All quarrelling upon these plains would come to an end, and all desire to injure each other would cease. The word in each person’s mouth would be “Brother, what can I do for you? Have I anything you need, that I can serve you with, which is necessary to administer to your sick wife and children? Are your cattle lost, and shall I help you to find them?” All the weapons of warfare would be buried in the dust, no more to be resurrected, and each man would say, “Come, let us hail each other as brethren, and do each other good instead of evil.”

How is it with the Latter-day Saints? I dare scarcely talk about them. We that have been inside among the Saints, have known longer than you who have been outside, that they are not over righteous, though we are not guilty of what you think we are.

Let me explain. A man or woman who has embraced, and who enjoys, the principles of this Church, ought to live like an angel. They ought never to be angry with each other, but live in the light of the truth continually, and every man be kind to his neighbor. Instead of that, there are bickering, quarrelling, and hard feelings, and men who are seeking to build up themselves, and get glory at the ex– pense of their brethren. I would not give much for the exaltation of such men, unless they seek to do good for this people, and the people immediately around them. The Lord does not thank you for your alms, long prayers, sanctimonious speeches, and long faces, if you refuse to extend the hand of benevolence and charity to your fellow creatures, and lift them up, and encourage and strengthen the feeble, while they are contending against the current of mortal ills.

Cease your anger, and sullenness of temper, and serve the Lord with cheerfulness, and singleness of heart. You need not expect salvation, except you can administer the same salvation to others, both in precept and example. If you expect compassion from me, administer the same to me. If you wish kind words and kind treatment from me, give me the same blessing you desire yourself; and that is the way you will be saved.

I say, O! ye Latter-day Saints, cease your wickedness; serve the Lord with all your hearts, and keep your covenants with God and your brethren. Then we shall gain the victory, and our warfare very soon will come to a close. We will gain the upper hand of the enemy and subdue our foe, and find ourselves in heaven with our families and friends.

This is Zion; and if we do not get this union among ourselves, it is not Zion that will make us happy. We must begin and make Zion in our own hearts, and then extend it to our neighborhoods, and so continue until the Lord shall reign upon the earth.

These broken remarks I have dealt out to you freely. May God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by Parley P. Pratt, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, July 10, 1853.

I hope the congregation will lend us their undivided attention, and exercise their faith and prayers for those that speak, that the truth may be drawn out to the edification of all.

I always feel diffident to address the assemblies of the people of God, at the seat of the government of the Church, knowing that there are many that can edify and enlighten our minds better than I can. I always feel that I would sooner hear than speak. But nevertheless, I feel it my duty to impart my testimony, and exercise my gift among my brethren, according to my calling; I therefore shall address you for a while this morning.

There may be many strangers assembled with us as at this season of the year; many are passing through this city from different parts of the world. The members of the Church need not complain, if I should address myself to the people as if they were all strangers, on the principles that are sometimes designated “Mormonism;” and confine myself to some of the plain, simple, introductory principles of that system. It will refresh the minds of those acquainted with them, and perhaps edify them, and at the same time edify others.

Suppose I were to ask a question this morning, as a stranger, “What is Mormonism?” I suppose it is known to most men at all conversant with principles classed under that name, that it is a nickname, or a name applied by the public, and not used officially by the Church so called. Mormon was a man, a Prophet, an author, a compiler, and a writer of a book. Mormon was a teacher of righteousness, holding certain doctrines. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are agreed with Mormon, as well as with many other ancient writers, and hold to the same principles; therefore their neighbors have seen fit to call those principles they hold, “Mormonism.” They might as well have called them, Abrahamism, Enochism, or Isaiahism; because the ancient Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles, held to the same truths in general terms, only differing in circumstances, in distant countries and ages of the world, and acted upon the same general principles, according to the particular circumstances that surrounded them. But the world, out of all the ancients, have selected one called Mormon, and all the principles held by all good, inspired men of all ages and countries they have seen fit to sum up, and call “Mormonism.” Well, it is as well as anything else, for aught I know; the name does not affect the principles.

The word of God, as written in the good old Book, designates the people of God by the name of Saints; which name is almost or quite as ancient, as any writings extant. Saint was spoken of by Enoch long before the flood. The same term was applied to the people of God by the Prophets, the Psalmist, and by the writers of the New Testament.

Not only was this term applied to Saints in ancient days, but the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles applied it prophetically, speaking of the people of God in the latter days, when the kingdom should be given to the people of God, and the principles of God should bear rule over all the earth. Daniel and the other Prophets, in speaking of this subject, always call them the Saints of the Most High. They do not call them “Mormonites,” Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Jews, Pagans, or Muhammadans, nor yet Catholics; but the language of the Apostles and Prophets is, that the Saints of the Most High shall prevail—prevail over the world, establish a true order of government, and, in short, rule the lower world, and that all the nations shall bow to him who is at their head, and to the principles held by them.

Why not this be continued and sustained, O ye people of Christendom, and, letting these party names go by the board, and be classed among the things that were in the darker ages, come to the proper and correct Scripture language, and when we speak of the people of God, call them Saints of the Most High?

Well, then, such is the name that the Church which I represent, do their business in. As such, they are known on their own records, and on the records of heaven, inasmuch as they are recognized there. But we know what the world mean when they say “Mormonism,” and “Mormon.” What are the principles called “Mormonism?” You may ask those who profess to be instructors of the people abroad in the States, and elsewhere—and very few of them will give you one correct idea in regard to the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints. Indeed they have not informed themselves, but remain in ignorance on the subject; and when they would show others, of course they cannot inform them correctly on that subject. But you will generally be informed, that “Mormonism” is a new religion, that it is something new under the sun, and of course is an innovation—a kind of trespass on Christianity, on the Bible, or on the good old way. “O,” say some of the editors that ought to be the most enlightened, and that profess to be, “if Mormonism prevails, Christianity will come down.”

Now suppose that we examine, principle by principle, some of the fundamental principles of “Mormonism,” and see whether there is one item that is new, or that is in any way an innovation on Christianity.

What is the first start towards an introduction of these principles in this age, and the organization of a people? What is it that first disturbed the world, or any part of it, or called the attention of the people towards it, giving rise to the system now called “Mormonism?” It was the ministration of angels to certain individuals; or in other words, certain individuals in this age enjoyed open visions.

Now we will stop, right at this point; it is called “Mormonism.” Let us dwell on it. Is that a new principle? Is it adding something to Christianity, or taking something from it? Do not let our modern notions weigh anything, but come right to the fact of the matter. If Peter the Apostle were here today, and a person were to relate to him a vision wherein an angel appeared to him and said something to him, would Peter call together the rest of the Apostles, and sit in council on that man’s head for error? Would they say to that man, “Sir, you have introduced something here in your experience that is derogatory to Christianity, and contrary to the system of religion we have taught, and introduced into the world?” I need not answer this question, neither need I bring Scripture to show what were the teachings and experience of Peter and the rest of the Apostles on this subject. The Bible is too common a book, too widely circulated in the world, and the people of the United States, especially, are too well read in its contents to suppose, for a moment, that Peter or the rest of the Apostles would condemn a man because he believed in the ministration of angels, because he related an experience wherein he had had a vision of an angel.

Now that was the principle that disturbed this generation, in the commencement of the introduction of that which is now called “Mormonism”—a principle as common in the ancient Church as the doctrine of repentance. I will say more—it is a principle that has been common in all dispensations; it is a principle which was had before the flood, and fully enjoyed by the ancient Saints, or at least held to by them; a principle that was common among them; not that every man attained to it.

But where can we read, under the government of the Patriarchs, before the flood or after it; before Moses or after him; before Christ or after Christ—where can we read in sacred history of a people of God by whom the doctrine of visions and ministering of angels would be discarded, or be considered erroneous? It was common to all dispensations, it was enjoyed by the Patriarchs and Prophets under the law of Moses, before it and after it, and by the people of God among the Ten Tribes, and among the Jews. We will carry it still further. It was enjoyed among the Gentiles, before there was a people of God fully organized among them in the days of Christ. Cornelius had the ministering of angels before he became a member of the Christian Church, or understood there was a crucified and risen Redeemer. He prayed to the living God, and gave alms of such things as he had. He was a good man, and an angel came to him and told him his prayers were heard, and his alms had come up as a memorial before God.

It is astonishing then, to me, that the modern Christian world consider this a new doctrine, an innovation—a trespass on Christianity. No! It is as old as the world, and as common among the true people of God, as His every day dealings with man. We will leave that point, and say, it is the Christian world, and not the Latter-day Saints, that have a new doctrine, provided they discard that principle.

What next? Why, that man, by vision, the ministering of angels, and by revelation, should be called with a high and holy calling—commissioned with a holy mission to preach, and teach, and warn, and prophesy, and call men to repentance. That was one of the first principles introductory to what is now called “Mormonism” in this age.

Is there anything new about that, anything strange, anything that differs from the Patriarchal ages, from the Jewish economy, the Mosaic dispensation, or from the dispensation called Christian? Similar things happened before Moses, in his day, and after his day; and among the Prophets, and in different ages. Were not such things common in the days of Jesus Christ, and after that in the days of the Apostles? Was not John the Baptist thus commissioned? Was not Jesus thus commissioned. And were not His Apostles, Elders, and Seventies? After his resurrection, and ascension into heaven, were not others called, and ordained under the hands of those who were thus commissioned, and called sometimes by visions and revelations directing them to those who were thus commissioned in order to be ordained? That was no new doctrine, no innovation on Christianity, no perversion of the Scriptural system, nor was it anything new, unless you call the old principle new.

Well, then, that the man thus commissioned should call upon others to turn from their sins; and that an individual, a government, a house, a city, a nation, or a world of people should perish unless they did turn from their sins—is that anything new? No. Everyone conversant with the Bible will say, that such things took place frequently under all the different dispensations. The heathen were warned in this way. Individuals, households, cities, nations, and the world have to be warned in this way, and especially under the Christian dispensation. So there was a special commission given to the servants of God, to go to all the world, and call upon everybody to repent, or whole nations should become disfranchised, scattered, and millions be destroyed, as for instance the Jews at Jerusalem, because they would not hearken to it. It is nothing new, to cry to all men to repent, and warn different cities and nations of wars coming upon them, or that they will be damned if they do not repent. This is one of the early principles called “Mormonism.” Is there anything new in this? Is there anything strange or unscriptural? No; no sensible professing Christian will maintain such a point for a moment.

Suppose that some people should hearken, when the ministering of angels takes place. Among many men one certain man is commissioned by revelation to preach the Gospel, and cry repentance. Suppose that some persons hearken and repent, and he should take them and walk down to the water, and bury them in the water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and raise them again out of the water, to represent the death and burial of Jesus Christ, and his resurrection from the dead; and to represent the faith of the individual thus ministered to, that he does believe in Jesus Christ, that he died, and that he did rise from the dead, and that he, the individual, does put his trust and confidence in him for the remission of sins and eternal life—is that anything new? Would that be new to Peter? Suppose some person was to relate before Peter and Paul today, and the Christians with them, that lived when they lived—suppose they were all present, and this person told them that a man came along preaching repentance, and he called upon us to believe in Jesus Christ, and we did so, believing their testimony, and they took us and buried us in water, and raised us again out of the water unto newness of life—would Peter or John blame him? Would Paul say, “It is something new?” Or would he say, “Brother, thousands of us received the very same thing in ancient days?”

The Catholic Church profess to be the true Church—the ground and pillar of the truth, handed down by regular succession from the ancient Church, of which they are still members; and their priesthood and apostles are now of the very same Church which the New Testament calls the true Church at Rome. These Roman Catholics of modern times profess to be members of the very same Church that Paul wrote that epistle to. If they are, I will show you to demonstration, if the Scriptures be true, that this doctrine called “Mormonism” is not a new doctrine. Paul, writing to that Church, of which they profess to be members, says, Know ye not, brethren, ye Romans, that as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death, being buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ rose from the dead, even so ye may walk in newness of life? Now this epistle containing this doctrine was written by Paul to the Church at Rome, and which these modern people called Roman Catholics profess to be members of. If they are what they profess to be, every one of them have been buried with Christ in baptism, and have risen again to newness of life. We will, however, leave them to describe whether that is really the case, or whether they are contented to sprinkle a few drops of water on an infant’s face and call that a burial! Paul said that was a principle of the true Church of Rome that had been buried with Christ by baptism into death, and had risen to newness of life. Have these modern Roman Catholics gone forward repenting of their sins, and been buried in water, in the likeness of the death of Jesus Christ according to this pattern? If they have not, they are a spurious Church of Rome, and not real. Therefore, if they be the real Church of Rome, it will be no new thing to them when the Latter-day Saints inform them upon being buried with Christ in the likeness of his death, &c. If this is a new doctrine to them, they had better be looking about them to see if they have not got up a counterfeit Church of Rome, for Paul knew of only one, and the members of it were all buried with Christ in baptism.

If 500 persons here were to say they came repenting of their sins, and went down and were buried in the waters of baptism, and had risen again to walk in newness of life, Paul would say, if he were here, “It is just what we used to do in ancient times; and I wrote to the Church of Rome, telling them that as many of them as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death, buried with him by baptism into death,” &c.

Now if this doctrine is new to the church of Rome, then that is that Church, that priesthood, and those members that have introduced something new, who are departing from the old Christian religion, and not the “Mormons.”

This reasoning applies just the same to the Church of England. They have just as good a right to have a Church in England as anywhere else—to have a national Church of England by law established, but if they are a true Church of God, all of them have been buried with Christ in baptism, &c., or the Apostle must have been mistaken, or there are two different kinds of Gospel.

Now if I were speaking to the state church of England, or the state churches of the Catholic world, I would tell them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to repent of their new doctrine, and come back to the old standard spoken of by the Apostle, when he says, “though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed,” &c.

I need not go through with this same application upon the Lutherans, upon the Presbyterians, upon the Methodists, and others, for all these people sprinkle infants; for the principle once carried out will apply to the whole. If they are Christians according to the doctrine of the ancient Church, they hold the doctrine of the Apostles, they have repented of their sins, after believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have been BURIED with Christ by baptism into death, &c. If not, they may judge themselves, for I will not judge them. If they have got a new doctrine, different from that believed by the Apostles, and the Latter-day Saints have got the old one, why not say, then, “If sectarianism prevails, Christianity, as held by the Mormons will be in danger,” instead of saying the opposite? Why not turn the thing right about? If we have no one new principle in our religion, why are we considered innovators, and opposed to Christianity? And why is Christianity in the world in danger if “Mormonism” prevails? It is because that floating Christianity, called so by the world, is a spurious one; they have departed from the doctrine of the Apostles. Then, I ask again, why say, “If Mormonism prevails Christianity is in danger?” For if it is a false Christianity, the quicker it falls the better.

We have examined three general principles, to see if there is anything new in “Mormonism.” First, the ministering of angels. Second, the commission of ministers, Apostles, Prophets, and Elders to administer in holy things, by revelation and the authority of heaven. Third, that all those that hear them, believe their words, and repent of their sins, shall go down into the waters of baptism, and be immersed or buried in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and thus show that they do believe in a crucified and risen Redeemer, and in the remission of sins through his name. So far, I think, we have fairly stated some of the first principles of what the world calls “Mormonism;” and everyone who has heard us, must decide that there is nothing new in these principles, but rather, that those who have departed from them, are justly chargeable with introducing new things, and innovations on Christianity.

Now suppose that one, two, or a dozen, or a hundred thousand, or even millions of individuals thus baptized, should all come together, in their several congregations, and should unite in earnest prayer, and a man commissioned in the ministry of Jesus Christ should rise and lay his hands on them, praying the Almighty God to give the Holy Spirit, and it be given as in days of old, and he confirms that promise upon them according to the pattern in the New Testament—would that be something new? Would it be an innovation upon Christianity? Would it be right to say “this is Mormonism, come to do away with Christianity?” Why, no! Every sensible man at all acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, would laugh at the idea. If the ancient Saints were here, they would tell you that it was their ancient manner; they would ask you if you had not read over their history, which describes how the Holy Spirit was administered in days of old. Every man who has read the Bible, knows it.

Well, then, the different sections of what is called Christianity, never do this, and call it something new. When the “Mormons” do it, they are at once charged with innovation; and yet we have not got anything new in that respect, but simply a restoration of that which was. They are the persons chargeable with new doctrine, and not the Latter-day Saints.

Well, then, suppose that after this ordinance, the Holy Spirit falls upon these congregations, or upon these individuals thus baptized and confirmed, and fills them, and enlightens their minds, and bears testimony to them of the truth which they have received, and confirms them in the faith of it, and fills them with the spirit of utterance and prayer, and with gifts whereby they prophesy, or speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick and they recover, in the name of Jesus, or whereby they are filled with the spirit of any gift, renewed in their utterance, strengthened in their powers of intellect, so as to be able to speak with eloquence to the edification of others by the word of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy; or peradventure some one, two, or three of them have a heavenly vision, and happen to relate it—is this something new? Are these things an innovation on Christianity?

Let the Apostles of the ancient Church come up now, and be judges, not these innovators. O yes, Saints of ancient days, are these things new to you? “NO,” they reply, “but just exactly what we used to have among us; and you who have read the New Testament know it is so.” If this, then, is “Mormonism,” it is nothing new, but simply that which should have been in the world in order to constitute true Christianity.

Now suppose, after all these have been established, the people organize on them; and that in the enjoyment and cultivation of them, this people unite in their efforts, both temporally and spiritually, to build up themselves as a people, and each other as individuals, in righteousness upon the earth; and the Spirit of the Lord God into which they were all baptized, should make them very great in union—in union of effort, in counsel, in operation, in fellowship, in temporal things in a great measure, and in spiritual things, by which they are all of one heart and mind to a great degree, and growing in it every day—is this something new, because it is “Mormonism?” Or is this the very doctrine which was inculcated in days of old by the Apostles of Jesus Christ?

It was the main object for which the Holy Spirit was given, that they might all grow up in union, in fellowship, in cooperation, in holiness in the Lord. No man who has read the New Testament, will say this is new, when we say that the great object of the Gospel is, that we may all become one in Christ Jesus—one in knowledge, and in the love and practice of the peaceable things of God. Is it anything new? No. Well, it is a part of what the world calls “Mormonism;” and I would to God it was more perfected among this people than it is.

If any one of these principles in practice, should prevail over the whole world, it would be nothing new; but the world only hold this last as a theory; as to the practice of it, they are strangers.

We have examined five or six general principles, called “Mormonism,” and found nothing new in them. “But,” says one, “I heard you had got a new Bible; that is certainly an innovation.” But stop; suppose, on inquiry, you become as much surprised and disappointed as many have who have asked for a “Mormon Bible,” and when we have presented them with one, behold, it is King James’ translation of the Scriptures, the standard we read, containing the covenants, predictions, and hopes of the ancients, and the doctrines of Jesus Christ, just as we believe them, and hope for their fulfilment. Is that anything new?

“Well, if you have not a new Bible, you have certainly got a new book.” Is that anything strange? Have not other societies got new books? The Church of England have not only the Scriptures, but the Book of Common Prayer, and the time was when they did not have such a book, therefore when they made that, it was something new. They are not alone in that however, for the Methodists have a new book called the “Methodist’s Discipline.” One hundred and twenty years ago there was no such thing in existence. If having a new book be an innovation, then all are guilty of it as well as the “Mormons.”

“But those other people do not profess that their books are inspired, and we have learned that you have a book that you believe is inspired. What is it, anyhow?” This is all a fact, and if it is wrong we will cheerfully plead guilty. We have got another book besides the Bible, that was an ancient book, and profess that it is inspired, and was written by Prophets, and men that enjoyed the ministering of angels, more or less of them, and had communion with the heavens, and the spirit of prophecy. And moreover, we profess that this ancient book was restored to the knowledge of the modern world by inspiration, and the ministering of angels. Is that something new? It may be new to the world in its history, and in its bearings; in that respect it may be new to them; but suppose, after all, it should contain no new doctrine, no new principle, no new prophecy, that is, differing from or doing away that which is already extant in the Bible? Well, then, I do not say that it would be a new doctrine. Men had books revealed in the days of old.

“If it is no new doctrine, and if its predictions do not differ from those contained in the old and new Testaments, what is the use of it?” The same question was investigated in ancient times. A great conqueror had taken possession of an ancient library, when there were no printing presses, containing one hundred thousand volumes, all in manuscript comprising more history than was in any library extant in the ancient world. The conqueror was a Mahommedan. He wrote to the head of the department to know what to do with this library. It was invaluable in its cost and intrinsic worth. “What shall I do with it?” The reply was, “If it agrees with the Koran, we have no use for it; and if it does not agree with the Koran, it is false anyhow; so in either case burn it.”

“Now if these Latter-day Saints have a book extant among them, and it agrees with the Bible, there is no kind of use for it,” says the opposer, “for the Bible contains all that is necessary; if it does not agree with the Bible, it is false anyhow; so in either case burn it.” This was a principle of Mahommedanism, and may be a principle of what is called modern Christianity. I hope not, however.

“What is the use of the book in question, anyhow?” Why, in the first place, it differs in its history from the Bible. The Bible is a history of things that took place in Asia, principally, and a little of what took place in Europe and Africa. The Book of Mormon is a history of things in another hemisphere: The one book is the ancient history of the Eastern Hemisphere, in part; and the other is a history of the Western Hemisphere, in part. Shall we say, because we have the history of one part of the world, that the history of the other part of the world is good for nothing? Could the rulers of nations realize that fact, and could they only have a copy in their libraries at the cost of $100,000, they would appropriate it for this history of the Western Hemisphere.

Discredit it as you will, we have it in genuineness and in truth, written by the ancient Prophets that lived upon this land, and revealed in modern times by the ministering of angels, and inspiration from the Almighty. It is in the world, and the world cannot get it out of the world. It is in the world in six or seven languages of Europe. It is as important in its history as the Bible, and it is just as interesting and as necessary for men to get an understanding of the ancient history of America, as it is for them to get an understanding of the history of Asia.

“But are the merits of history all that it is good for?” It is good in doctrine also. If two or more writers, one living in Asia, and the other in America, and contemporary, have the same doctrine revealed to them, and both bear record of the same plan of salvation, who is he that shall say that the record of one is of no worth?

Is it not a satisfaction to sit down and read, that a country far removed from Bible scenes, from that part of the stage on which figured the Patriarchs of old, with Moses and the Jewish Prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and the Apostles, was also the theater of revelation, prophecy, visions, angels, of the ministration of the doctrine of Christ, of the organization and government of his true Church; that there too were angels, that there too were Apostles, that there too was the word of God, that there too faith came by hearing, and salvation by faith! Shall we say that such things and such good news are worth nothing, when that very news corroborates the song of the heavenly hosts, when they declared to the shepherds of Judea, in joyful songs, that they brought glad tiding of great joy, that should be to all people! And here comes a book informing us that these glad tidings were also to another hemisphere at the same time.

Now, stop a moment, and let us reason. Suppose yourself an angel of God at that time, full of benevolence, full of joy, full of a soul-inspiring hope, full of charity for poor, ignorant, perishing mortals, and you felt so full of poetry, and song, and gladness, that you could scarcely hold your peace. Suppose you had a bird’s eye view of our little, dark, benighted world, by soaring above it, and in a moment you could light down upon any part of it. You come to Palestine, in Asia; that part of the globe is rolling under your feet; you visit it, and sing to the shepherds the glorious tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: “for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.” The earth rolls on about half way round, you look down again with a bird’s eye view, and you discover the Western Hemisphere, and it is full of people: I wonder whether your soul would still swell with the same glad tidings—or would your charity trove become exhausted? Would you not fly and declare these glad tidings to them also, and sing them a song of joy, and tell them what day the Savior was born, that would reach their case as well as the case of those who dwelt upon the continent of Asia? “Yes,” you reply, “if I were an angel, and had liberty to tell these glad tidings, I would never tell them to one part of the earth and go to sleep there, while the other part rolled under my feet unnoticed.”

Were those angels commissioned and endowed to bear glad tidings to all people, that the Savior was born? I say that the choir of angels which sang that song, had full liberty, not only to tell the plan of salvation to chosen vessels of the Lord in one country, but also to another country—not only that the Savior was born, in general terms, but the place where, and the time when, he was born. These were the tidings, “Go to all people.” An angel must be a limited being, or be very ignorant in geographical knowledge, or partake largely of sectarian feelings of heart, to bear such tidings to one half of the globe, and not to the other.

I knew an infidel once, who did not believe in the Christian religion, nor in the New Testament, nor in the Savior of the world. I asked him why he did not believe this. “Because,” says he, “according to the New Testament the manifestation of such an important affair was so limited. Here was half of the world, according to the New Testament, that never heard of it. A message so important should have been made more public.” “Well,” said I, “if I will produce you a record, and a history, as well authenticated as the New Testament, showing that angels, the risen Savior, holy inspired Prophets and Apostles, ministered in the western hemisphere, and preached the Gospel to every creature, and handed it down to ages, will you then believe?” “Yes,” he answered, “I will.” I presented him the Book of Mormon, which he perused. I inquired if he now believed. “Yes,” he said, “I do.” And he has lived a Christian until now, for aught I know. I have seen him in this congregation, and he may be here today. His name is Alger.

What objection have you to the hope of eternal life being as widely developed as the ravages of death, sorrow, and mourning? What objection have you to the angels of God, Apostles of God, the Son of God, or to the Holy Spirit of prophecy being poured out in more countries than one? You may say the keys of the Gospel were given to the Jewish Apostles, but they were so far off as not to be able to reach the western hemisphere, even if they had had a knowledge of it. Were there ships and steam vessels to bear them to this country? No. Was there any communication kept up, or was this country known to them? No. But the waves, and winds, and elements, and the great depths that intervened, even the unexplored ocean, said to the ancient Apostles, “Thus far shall ye go, and no further.” This ocean however was no barrier to the fleet-footed angel of God, to the risen Jesus, and to immortal man. They could come to this hemisphere, and reveal the things of heaven to the people, and could rejoice in the same glad tidings, whether it was here or in Jerusalem, or if it were in the uttermost parts of the earth.

Though Peter was crucified at Rome, and Paul suffered in the same manner; though Saints of the Most High were slaughtered by thousands and tens of thousands, and bled at the feet of Roman altars; yet a crucified and risen Redeemer, angels of God, and the Holy Spirit of truth that fills all things, were not thus curtailed and limited, but could minister truth to the uttermost bounds of the universe of God, where intelligences were mourning in darkness; wherever the ravages of death had spread sorrow, wherever there was a broken heart to be bound up, or wherever there was a despairing mortal to be inspired with hope, they could go and tell the glad tidings of life and salvation. The Book of Mormon says they did come to this continent. It is a history of their coming, and contains the doctrine taught to the people here by the risen Jesus, and by his predecessors. In short, the doctrine taught and practiced in ancient America is there portrayed, together with the history of the people.

Again, is this book of no interest with regard to the prophetic value? It reveals many things not noticed by the Jewish Prophets. Did the old Prophets touch upon every item that pertains to man in other countries? No, they did not, only in general terms together with the rest of the world. These other Prophets portrayed many things not in their book, though agreeing with it as far as it goes, but touching events on which their book is silent.

Has any person any cause to say that there has not been a multiplicity of revelations, testimony, prophecy, history, and doctrine developed in various countries by the same Spirit of God, and by angels? And is not all this of great worth, to compare, in order to blend it together, that we may see more clearly the principles of the doctrine of salvation, and understand prophecy more extensively, especially in an age when the mind has been obscured by priestcraft?

If these are the principles of “Mormonism,” where can you point out an innovation on Christianity? “But is this all?” No, this is not all, and I shall not tell it all today. I do not know it all yet. I have been twenty three years learning “Mormonism,” and I know but little of it. If anyone expects to learn all the doctrines of “Mormonism,” he must learn more than twenty-three years. For be it known unto you all, that “Mormonism,” instead of being confined to a few dogmas or general truths, opens the floodgates of all truth and knowledge, and teaches mankind to retain all the truth they can already comprehend, and comprehend as much more as they can all the time.

“Have you not other books?” Yes, we have histories and compilations of the dealings of God with us as a people. We keep a record, if you must know not only individually some of us, but as a Church, as a body, or community. We have revelation penned, revelations and visions penned, we have revelation and prophecy penned, we have knowledge penned, we have knowledge and principle penned, we have prin- ciple and history penned; the history comprising but a small portion, such as can be written, revealed to us Latter-day Saints, and practiced upon; so that our modern books are like the ancient books—a mixture of revelation, prophecy, history, and doctrine. Has any person any objections to this? I ask, should an angel administer to this or that man, or suppose an open vision was manifested to him, revealing many precious truths, would he not be a simpleton not to write it? If the power of God, and the ministering of God, and the visions of the Almighty are extant in the world, these will be written. The practical part of history will be written, for if all were written, the world would not contain the books. The ancient Apostles and Prophets wrote a few of the items revealed to them, and a history of the practical workings of the system over which they presided. Do we differ from them? No.

“Well,” says one, “to be plain with you, Mr. Speaker, we have been taught to believe that the one book, called the Bible, contains all the revelations that God ever revealed to man, therefore it is an innovation to offer anything else to the world as a revelation.” This is a tradition of your own, so I have nothing to do with it. The Bible never taught that to you, nor angels, neither did any minister of God ever teach it to you; and if it is a modern sectarian tradition, it is calculated to bind men into a cast-iron creed, and the sooner you break the fetters the better; burst them asunder, and come out into liberty and freedom, and know and understand that there is no such doctrine in the broad principles of eternal truth, that heaven is full of knowledge, and the earth ought to be full of Prophets, heaven and earth full of angels, and both full of inspiration; and if the inhabitants of all the worlds of the universe were scribes, every blade of grass a pen, and every ocean ink, they could not write all the doings of the Almighty, of His servants, and of His angels. If I were to live for millions of years to come, and then millions of millions more, I expect there would always be some being ready to reveal something new, and somebody would write it. The art of writing will never cease. We may not have pens and ink, but we may have something better. Suffice it to say, that the arts and sciences will not come to an end, yet man may have been traditionated to believe that one small book contains all that God ever said or did. Such persons are to be pitied, and not to be reasoned with.

What is “Mormonism?” It is a restoration by new revelation, by the authorities of heaven, by the ministration of angels, by the ordination of Prophets and Apostles, and ministers or Elders, by their testimony and ministry on the earth, by the organization of Saints, by the administration of ordinances, by the operations of the Holy Spirit; it is a restoration of these ancient principles revealed from heaven, for the government of man.

Says one, “You have said you are not going to tell the whole system today.” I do not know it all, and I shall not state the half I do know. What I have said are a few everyday items, a few of the first principles of the Gospel of Christ, as believed and practiced by the “Mormons.”

I will tell one more before I close. “Your marriages,” says the objector, “are founded upon principles entirely new, and different from the Christian world.” I say, without any hesitancy, I defy the world to establish that assertion. I say our marriage relations are nothing new at all. There is no man, or set of men, or nation of men, where the Bible is extant, and they are readers, but what know that the institutions of marriage contained in the Bible, and the organization of families, differ widely from modern Christianity. We differ from modern Christianity, but not from the Bible. Patriarchs of the remotest ages, that obeyed the Lord God in regard to their marriages and family organizations, have not disagreed with us, nor we with them, so far as we and they have obeyed the law of God. If there is any difference at all, it was more developed among them than it is among us, we being in our infancy. If it should happen to be, that the whole modern world differ from the Bible—have done away with the law of God, and we have come in contact with them, instead of with the word of God, then the boot is on the other foot, and in reality what is said to us applies to them. It is like the farmer and the lawyer. A certain farmer came to a neighboring lawyer, and frankly confessed that his bull had had the misfortune to kill one of his (the lawyer’s) oxen. The lawyer replied, “Thou art a very honest fellow, and will not think it wrong that I have one of thy oxen in return.” “But,” said the farmer, “I am mistaken, it was thy bull that killed my ox.” “O,” replied the lawyer, “that alters the case, and if, if, i-f—.”

Now, then, if it is the whole Christian world, from Catholicism down to the latest of her daughters, that have made void the law of God, and trampled under foot the institutions of heaven, the holy principles of matrimony and family government, and have made them void also, by their traditions, and introduced that which God never did, and “Mormonism” has restored the law of God, in theory and practice, then it is the so-called Christian world, and not us, that are wrong. Whether it regards family organization, the law of God, Patriarchal government, ordinances, principles, and prophecy, I know of nothing new, or of nothing wherein we are innovators.

As I said before, and I am able to maintain it when called upon, “Mormonism” is a system which was understood and enjoyed by the ancients, and restored unto us by revelation. And if carried out, what will it do? It will simply fulfill the sayings of the Prophets, both ancient and modern, put down all wickedness, abuse, proscription, misrule, oppression, ig– norance, darkness, and tyranny, and restore mankind to righteousness, truth, liberty, law, and government, in which the Lord’s will will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. That is what “Mormonism” will do, when carried out.

May God bless you all. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, July 10, 1853.

Life and death are set before us, and we are at liberty to choose which we will.

I have frequently reflected upon these two principles, but were I to explain in full my own views upon them, they might perhaps come too much in contact with the feelings and views of many people.

To me, these principles are like the vision of open day upon this beautiful earth. Life and death are easily understood in the light of the Holy Ghost, but, like everything else, they are hard to be understood in its absence.

To choose life is to choose an eternal existence in an organized capacity: to refuse life and choose death is to refuse an eternal existence in an organized capacity, and be contented to become decomposed, and return again to native element.

Life is an accumulation of every property and principle that is calculated to enrich, to ennoble, to enlarge, and to increase, in every particular, the dominion of individual man. To me, life would signify an extension. I have the privilege of spreading abroad, of enlarging my borders, of increasing in endless knowledge, wisdom, and power, and in every gift of God.

To live as I am, without progress, is not life, in fact we may say that is impossible. There is no such principle in existence, neither can there be. All organized existence is in progress, either to an endless advancement in eternal perfections, or back to dissolution. You may explore all the eternities that have been, were it possible, then come to that which we now understand according to the principles of natural philosophy, and where is there an element, an individual living thing, an organized body, of whatever nature, that continues as it is? It cannot be found. All things that have come within the bounds of man’s limited knowledge—the things he naturally understands, teach him, that there is no period, in all the eternities, wherein organized existence will become stationary, that it cannot advance in knowledge, wisdom, power, and glory.

If a man could ever arrive at the point that would put an end to the accumulation of life—the point at which he could increase no more, and advance no further, we should naturally say he commenced to decrease at the same point. Again, when he has gained the zenith of knowledge, wisdom, and power, it is the point at which he be– gins to retrograde; his natural abilities will begin to contract, and so he will continue to decrease, until all he knew is lost in the chaos of forgetfulness. As we understand naturally, this is the conclusion we must come to, if a termination to the increase of life and the acquisition of knowledge is true.

Because of the weakness of human nature, it must crumble to the dust. But in all the revolutions and changes in the existence of men, in the eternal world which they inhabit, and in the knowledge they have obtained as people on the earth, there is no such thing as principle, power, wisdom, knowledge, life, position, or anything that can be imagined, that remains stationary—they must increase or decrease.

To me, life is increase; death is the opposite. When our fellow creatures die, is it the death we talk about? The ideas we have of it are conceived in the mind, according to a false tradition. Death does not mean what we naturally think it means. Apparently it destroys, puts out of existence, and leaves empty space, but there is no such death as this. Death, in reality, is to decompose or decrease, and life is to increase.

Much is written in the Bible, and in the other revelations of God, and much is said by the people, publicly and privately, upon this subject. Life and death are in the world, and all are acquainted with them more or less. We live, we die, we are, we are not, are mixed up in the conversation of every person, to a lesser or a greater degree. Why is it so? Because all creation is in progress; coming into existence, and going out of existence, as we use the terms; but another form of language fits this phenomenon of nature much better, (viz.) forming, growing, increasing, then begins the opposite operation—decreasing, decomposition, returning back to native ele– ment, &c. These revolutions we measurably understand.

But to simply take the path pointed out in the Gospel, by those who have given us the plan of salvation, is to take the path that leads to life, to eternal increase; it is to pursue that course wherein we shall never, never lose what we obtain, but continue to collect, to gather together, to increase, to spread abroad, and extend to an endless duration. Those persons who strive to gain eternal life, gain that which will produce the increase their hearts will be satisfied with. Nothing less than the privilege of increasing eternally, in every sense of the word, can satisfy the immortal spirit. If the endless stream of knowledge from the eternal fountain could all be drunk in by organized intelligences, so sure immortality would come to an end, and all eternity be thrown upon the retrograde path.

If mankind will choose the opposite to life held out in the Gospel, it will lead them to dissolution, to decomposition, to death; they will be destroyed, but not as it is commonly understood; For instance, we would have destroyed more of the material called flour, had we possessed it this spring in greater abundance. We should have destroyed more of the wood that grows on the mountains, could we have got it with more ease, which seems to us to be utterly destroyed when it is consumed with fire. But such is not the case, it will exist in native element. That which is consumed by eating, or by burning, is nothing more than simply reduced to another shape, in which it is ready for another process of action. We grow, and we behold all the visible creation growing and increasing, and continuing to increase, until it has arrived at its zenith, at which point it begins to decompose. This is the nature of all things which constitute this organized world. Even the solid rocks in the mountains continue to grow until they have come to their perfection, at which point they begin to decompose. The forests grow, increase, extend, and spread abroad their branches until they attain a certain age. What then? Do they die? Are they annihilated? No! They begin to decompose, and pass into native element. Men, and all things upon the earth, are subject to the same process.

We say this is natural, and easy to comprehend, being plainly manifested before our eyes. It is easy to see anything in sight; but hard, very hard, to see anything out of sight.

If I look through my telescope, and my friends inquire how far I can see, I tell them I can see anything in sight, no matter how far from me the object may be; but I cannot see anything out of sight, or that which is beyond the power of the instrument. So it is in the intellectual faculties of mankind; it is easy for them to see that which is before their eyes, but when the object is out of sight, it is a difficult matter for them to see it; and they are at a loss how to form an estimate of it, or what position to put themselves in, so as to see the object they desire to see.

In regard to eternal things, they are all out of sight to them, and will so remain, unless the Lord lifts the curtain. The only reason why I cannot see the heavy range of mountains situated in the Middle States of the American Confederacy, is because of the natural elevations that raise themselves betwixt me and them, above the level of my eye, making them out of sight to me. Why cannot we behold all things in space? Because there is a curtain dropped, which makes them out of sight to us. Why cannot we behold the inhabitants in Kolob, or the inhabitants in any of those distant planets? For the same reason; because there is a curtain dropped that interrupts our vision. So it is, some– thing intervenes between us and them, which we cannot penetrate. We are short sighted, and deprived of the knowledge which we might have. I might say this is right without offering any explanation.

But there are many reasons, and much good sound logic that could be produced, showing why we are thus in the dark touching eternal things. If our agency was not given to us, we might, perhaps, now have been enjoying that we do not enjoy. On the other hand, if our agency had not been given to us, we could never have enjoyed that we now enjoy. Which would produce the greatest good to man, to give him his agency, and draw a veil over him, or, to give him certain blessings and privileges, let him live in a certain degree of light, and enjoy a certain glory, and take his agency from him, compelling him to remain in that position, without any possible chance of progress? I say, the greatest good that could be produced by the all wise Conductor of the universe to His creature, man, was to do just as He has done—bring him forth on the face of the earth, drawing a veil before his eyes. He has caused us to forget everything we once knew before our spirits entered within this veil of flesh. For instance, it is like this: when we lie down to sleep, our minds are often as bright and active as the mind of an angel, at least they are as active as when our bodies are awake. They will range over the earth, visit distant friends, and, for aught we know, the planets, and accomplish great feats; do that which will enhance our happiness, increase to us every enjoyment of life, and prepare us for celestial glory; but when we wake in the morning, it is all gone from us; we have forgotten it. This illustration will explain in part the nature of the veil which is over the inhabitants of the earth; they have forgotten that they once knew. This is right; were it different, where would be the trial of our faith? In a word, be it so; it is as it should be.

Now understand, to choose life is to choose principles that will lead you to an eternal increase, and nothing short of them will produce life in the resurrection for the faithful. Those that choose death, make choice of the path which leads to the end of their organization. The one leads to endless increase and progression, the other to the destruction of the organized being, ending in its entire decomposition into the particles that compose the native elements. Is this so in all cases, you inquire? Yes, for aught I know. I shall not pretend to deny but what it is so in all cases. This much I wanted to say to the brethren, with regard to life and death.

As to the word annihilate, as we understand it, there is no such principle as to put a thing which exists, entirely out of existence, so that it does not exist in any term, shape, or place whatever. It would be as reasonable to say that endless, which is synonymous to the word eternity, has both a beginning and an end. For instance, supposing we get one of the best mathematicians that can be found, and let him commence at one point of time, the operation of multiplication when he has exhausted all his knowledge of counting in millions, &c., until he can proceed no further, he is no nigher the outside of eternity than when he commenced. This has been understood from the beginning. The ancients understood it, it was taught by Jesus and his Apostles, who understood the true principles of eternity. In consequence of some expressions of the ancient servants of God, has come the tradition of the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You hear some of them preach and teach that which I never taught; you hear them preach people into hell. Such a doctrine never en– tered into my heart; but you hear others preach, that people will go there to dwell throughout the endless ages of eternity. Such persons know no more about eternity, and are no more capable of instructing others upon the subject, than a little child. They tell about going to hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, where you must dwell. How long? Why, I should say, just as long as you please.

One thing more. The beauty of our religion, that very erroneous doctrine, which the world call “Mormonism,” we had set before us this morning by Elder Parley P. Pratt. The whole object of my existence is, to continue to live, to increase, to spread abroad, and gather around me to an endless duration. What shall I say? You may unite the efforts of the best mathematicians the world can produce, and when they have counted as many millions of ages, worlds, and eternities, as the power of numbers within their knowledge will embrace, they are still as ignorant of eternity as when they began. Then ask people of general intelligence; people who understand in a great degree, the philosophical principles of creation, which, they have studied and learned by a practical course of education, and what do they know about it? It is true they know a little, and that little every other sane person knows, whether he is educated or uneducated; they know about that portion of eternity called time. Suppose I ask the learned when was the beginning of eternity? Can they think of it? No! And I should very much doubt some of the sayings of one of the best philosophers and writers of the age, that we call brother, with regard to the character of the Lord God whom we serve. I very much doubt whether it has ever entered into his heart to comprehend eternity. These are principles and ideas I scarcely ever meddle with. The prac– tical part of our religion is that which more particularly interests me. Still my mind reflects upon life, death, eternity, knowledge, wisdom, the expansion of the soul, and the knowledge of the Gods that are, that have been, and that are to be. What shall we say? We are lost in the depth of our own thoughts. Suppose we say there was once a beginning to all things, then we must conclude there will undoubtedly be an end. Can eternity be circumscribed? If it can, there is an end of all wisdom, knowledge, power, and glory—all will sink into eternal annihilation.

What is life to you and me? It is the utmost extent of our desires. Do you wish to increase, to continue? Do you wish to possess kingdoms and thrones, principalities and powers; to exist, and continue to exist; to grow in understanding, in wisdom, in knowledge, in power, and in glory throughout an endless duration? Why, yes, is the reply natural to every heart that has been warmed with the lifegiving influences of the Holy Ghost. And when we have lived, and gathered around us more kingdoms and creations than it is possible for the mind of mortals to comprehend, (just think of it, and how it commenced like a grain of mustard seed, cast into the ground!) then, I may say we could comprehend the very dawning of eternity, which term I use to accommodate the idea in my mind, not that it will at all apply to eternity. When you have reached this stage in the onward course of your progression, you will be perfectly satisfied not to be in a hurry.

The inquiry should not be, if the principles of the Gospel will put us in possession of the earth, of this farm, that piece of property, of a few thousand pounds, or as many thousand dollars, but, if they will put us in possession of principles that are endless, and calculated in their nature for an eternal increase; that is, to add life to life, being to being, kingdom to kingdom, principle to principle, power to power, thrones to thrones, dominions to dominions, and crowns to crowns.

When we have lived long enough by following out the principles that are durable, that are tangible, that are calculated in their nature to produce endless life—I say, when we have lived long enough in them to see the least Saint, that can be possibly called a Saint, in possession of more solar systems like this than it is possible for mortals to number, or than there are stars in the firmament of heaven visible, or sands on the seashore, we shall then have a faint idea of eternity, and begin to realize that we are in the midst of it.

Brethren, you that have the principles of life in you, be sure you are gathering around you kindred principles, that will endure to all eternity.

I do not desire to talk any more at this time.

An Oration by Elder P. P. Pratt, Delivered at Great Salt Lake City, 1853, on the Anniversary of the 4th of July, 1776.

Friends and Fellow Citizens—We have been edified and instructed today, our hearts have been warmed, and our minds entertained with a variety. Shall I say interspersed with music? No, for it has all been music, whether flowing from the hearts of our fel–low citizens, or produced by the skill of our hands in the use of musical instruments. All has been music— music to the ear, and poetry to the heart. We have had a variety, all tending, however, to one point, all chiming in one common harmony, without a jarring string. We have had the gushing eloquence of youth, kindled as it were with liquid fire, portraying the glories of our country, and touching upon some portion of its history.

Our sympathies, and feelings of patriotism, have been moved in listening to the items relating to the “Mormon Battalion”—their sufferings upon the plains of Sonora, and the variety of scenes of joy, and sorrow, and patriotism; and the results in their march. We have had portrayed before us at one moment the opening of the treasures of the western mines, and the cause that led to it, pouring into the treasuries of nations, as it were, a stream of gold. At another moment we have been entertained with a view of the results of the actions of our fathers, and the causes that led to the great Declaration of Independence, and to the statement of the principles contained in that instrument, which was read today; contemplating, not only the direct bearing of those actions of our fathers in setting a nation free, but the indirect bearing and influences of such movements upon the whole world of mankind—upon the destiny of the race of which we form a part.

At another moment we have listened to the grave eloquence of official gentlemen, portraying the history of our fathers in the anxious movements that finally resulted in the establishment and in the maintainance of those great principles and truths put forth in the Declaration. In short, we have had a variety, and we have had entertainment that has been profitable to the mind, and that has caused us to reflect. And as to the display of eloquence, poetry, music, and above all of patriotic feeling, good sentiment, and wholesome doctrine, what is there left?

I, for one, feel, in rising under these circumstances, as though I would rather sit and contemplate, and reflect upon the history of the past, and the glorious prospect of the future. But on the other hand, I feel willing as a fellow citizen to contribute my mite, realizing at the same time my own weakness, and not having had time to prepare anything in writing.

I will express my ideas, or rather a few of them, in regard to the Constitution of our own country, and its political principles, of their effects, and of the results of the movements which gave rise to that Constitution. The longer I live, and the more acquainted I am with men and things, the more I realize that these movements, and particularly that instrument called the Constitution of American Liberty, was certainly dictated by the spirit of wisdom, by a spirit of unparalleled liberality, and by a spirit of political utility. And if that Constitution be carried out by a just and wise administration, it is calculated to benefit not only all the people that are born under its particular jurisdiction, but all the people of the earth, of whatever nation, kindred, tongue, religion, or tradition, that may seek to take a shelter under its banner. It seems broad enough, and large enough, to receive and protect all that may be in any way deprived of the common rights of man. It was doubtless dictated by the spirit of eternal wisdom, and has thus far proved itself adequate to the wants of the nation, and to the wants of all mankind that have seen fit to attach themselves to it, to come under its protection, and share in its blessings.

The great question, as has been before observed today more than once, is, not the operations of the instruments, the beauty of the writing, the formation of the language, or the principle of liberty guaranteed therein, but the administration of those prin– ciples. For instance, paper itself cannot enforce its own precepts; and unhallowed principles in the people, or in the rulers which they choose, may pervert any form of government, however sacred, true, and liberal. They may overthrow and destroy the practical working of those very principles, which are so true, and so dear to us, and in which we so rejoice. It is the living administration, after all, that is the government, although a good form opens the way for good results, if carried out; but if not carried out, the form becomes a dead letter. Much depends on the feeling and action of the people in their choice of men and measures, and much depends on the administration of those they may choose.

In the principles of the Constitution formed by our fathers, and handed down to their children, and those who should see fit to adopt this country as theirs, there is no difficulty, that is, in the laws and instruments themselves. They embrace eternal truths, principles of eternal liberty, not the principles of one peculiar country, or the sectional interest of any particular people, but the great, fundamental eternal principles of liberty to rational beings—liberty of conscience, liberty to do business, liberty to increase in intelligence and in improvement, in the comforts, conveniences, and elegances of this life, and in the intellectual principles that tend to progress in all lives.

The more I contemplate our country, the providences which have attended it, the principles upon which it is governed, the principles upon which the Constitution is founded, and the practical working of it when properly carried out; the more I look at the spirit of our institutions; and the more I contemplate the circumstances of mankind in general; the more I realize that which before I had scarcely thought of, that which even the largest capa– city had failed to grasp—the greatness of the destiny of those principles. One thing is certain, in the minds of all Christians who admit the truth of the Bible, and who have perused its pages, and that is, there is a day coming when all mankind upon this earth will be free. When they will no longer be shackled, either by ignorance, by religious or political bondage, by tyranny, by oppression, by priestcraft, kingcraft, or any other kind of craft, but when all will positively have the knowledge of the truth, and freely enjoy it with their neighbors. However they may do in other points, these points are clearly developed in that good Book which Christendom acknowledges. This is the destiny that the Prophets of old have predicted in regard to the race of mortals upon the earth. Whatever principles of darkness have united to obscure ages and generations; whatever of wrong and bloodshed might prevail; whatever of corruption, deception, or superstition might enslave the mind of man, and chain down his body; however the earth might be drenched in the blood of millions; however many might be the futile struggles of nations or individuals for liberty; yet, in the final result, the darkness which has covered the earth will be chased away, light will prevail, liberty triumph, mankind be free, the nations be brethren, and none have need to say to his neighbor, “Know ye the Lord,” or the truth, which is just the same thing; for all will know Him, from the least to the greatest. If such is to be the final result, how natural it is for men to look at the workings of the causes that will bring it about, and to contemplate the great things that are growing out of so little, comparatively speaking. When a single individual conceived a big thought, and formed a grand design of taking an unbeaten track, and penetrating the unexplored seas of the West, who could have contemplated the result that has grown out of it in about 300 and odd years?

On the other hand, when a few colonies, weak and feeble, settled on these western shores, called New England, when all the grain they had in their possession, in a little while after they landed, might have been measured in a pint cup, who then could have contemplated the result? Or when a few small colonies, weak and far separated from each other by dreary miles, without the aid of steam cars, or steam boats, or the convenience of the telegraph to convey news from place to place with lightning speed, were united, and by their representatives made this Declaration we have heard today, and pledged themselves, though few in number—only between two and three millions, to defend and carry it out, who could have contemplated the result even of that? And when these few colonies were once set free to manage their own affairs, and, having achieved that which they so bravely undertook to accomplish, and establish liberty, they came together to establish a capital that should be central and convenient for the colonies that were then strewed along the shores—at that time who could have contemplated a nation that would stretch its dominions and settlements from Maine to Florida, and from the northeast, washed by the Atlantic, to the very interior of the continent then unknown to civilized man? And that the shores of the Pacific would have formed our western limits, its seas been whitened with our sails, and the unnumbered millions of Asia influenced by our institutions?

Our hearts beat high for liberty. The valleys of the mountains, the backbone of the American Continent, are peopled with 20 or 80 millions of free people scattered over the land, and dwelling securely under the same banner, and now are we assem– bled to celebrate the day on which freedom dawned.

Who can realize the present and future bearing of this? Mine eyes have beheld the downtrodden people of our ancient mother country—England. I have contemplated the working of European nations, not after the hearing of the ear only, but mine eyes have beheld it. I have also beheld a portion of the great Pacific, and seen our brethren of mankind at war with each other in Spanish America, for I have crossed the equator, and been far along the western shores of the Pacific. I have also seen thousands of people of Asia, from the most despotic government on the earth, swarming upon our western shores, dwelling under the common banner of freedom—I mean the Chinese.

We have heard something today about the prospects of annexation, or enlargement of the dominions of the Constitution of America. The principle of annexation of large countries is not important, but the influence of our institutions, the pattern we set, the working of these institutions, and their influence abroad will bring about the same results precisely, whether it is particularly by annexation or not. The Spanish American, who is he? He possesses a country and resources almost unbounded. Put that country and its resources with the United States, with the Canadas, and I will guarantee that every man that now stands upon the earth could be sustained by these resources, if the rest of the world were to sink.

The natural elements of the American continent, that are not developed, would sustain the world. The Spanish American possesses a country that is rich in everything that is desirable, as a climate in all its varieties. It is rich in mineral wealth and agricultural resources, in timber, and in all the elements of wealth and greatness, and is comparatively undeveloped and unoc– cupied. But who are these Spanish Americans? They are in a great measure aboriginal inhabitants of this country, mingled with European people, from the pure white of old Spain, and in all its shades until you come to the full blooded Indian, or Redman.

What institutions are they under? They are said to have liberty, something after the pattern of the United States, but in many instances, I am sorry to say, only in part, not in spirit, nor in truth; for while they profess liberty, they themselves are in bondage to a religion established by law. While their institutions may be nominally free in many respects, they have this awful clause specifying a certain religion, that shall be the religion of the State, to the prohibition of all other religions, or public exercise of other religions. Hence the people are trammeled by priestcraft, by a yoke of bondage, first enforced upon them by the sword in the days of Cortez and Pizarro, and afterwards riveted by the traditions of three centuries. They know not how to appreciate liberty, they know not how to throw off the yoke that goads their neck.

As it has been observed today by one of the orators, mankind are progressive beings, and there are no obstacles that might be thrown in the way of their progress, that could not be overcome. This will apply to our brethren of every shade on this continent, and to mankind in general. It is hardly possible for one dwelling at home to realize the influence that American and English institutions, which are the best, exert over the nations, and among them. They look to America for instruction and example in the first place, and they next look to England; they look to these countries for everything that is yet undeveloped, of liberty, art, science, education, and improvement. You may say they are Catholics, but who blames them for this? The law of their coun– try made them so, and tradition has fastened the bands, and makes them so yet. But when they speak to Americans, they speak with those whom they suppose can teach them. When they contemplate the United States, they contemplate a country that they suppose is setting them an example worthy to be patterned after. They delight to sit for hours and learn of our institutions, of our railroads, of our telegraph, of the speed by which we can convey ourselves and goods from place to place, and of our wonderful quickness of conveying news. They love to hear of our improvements in steam, of our navigation, of our schools, of our newspaper liberty, or the liberty of the press, of our liberty of conscience, of our universal adaptation of education, and of our system of paying for education out of the public funds, leaving the people to contribute freely according to their own judgment and desires for the support of religion. These things have a bearing upon their minds; they are ready to converse upon them, and when they have heard the description, say they, “It is good, far better than our own institutions,” and they are ready to condemn the priestcraft among them, but they have to follow it because they have nothing else. Their organs of thought are not accustomed to much exercise, they want the information to liberate themselves.

When we contemplate the designs of the country, and its influence, we contemplate not merely our own liberty, happiness, and progress, nationally and individually, but we contemplate the emancipation of the world, the flowing of the nations to this fountain, and to the occupation of these elements, blending together in one common brotherhood. They will thus seek deliverance from oppression, not in the style of revolution, but by voluntarily emerging into freedom, and the free occupation of the free elements of life. In contemplating the fulfilment of things so clearly developed by the Prophets, I do not view it as do many, who suppose a revolution should take place in France, in Austria, in Germany, and the other nations, and that one revolution following another, would gradually emancipate mankind in every nation, and give progress to the principles of freedom, to liberty of thought and action, and to the free circulation of intelligence. We have seen it tried, and tried in vain. The people are not able to throw off those fetters of bondage, and that heavy yoke. Circumstances are against them. But Providence opens the way whereby they may liberate themselves—I mean the first and best spirits from all countries under the heavens. They may leave the old constitutions to crumble down in their own rottenness, and emerge from them, and come out where they may enjoy sufficient of the elements upon free, good, and equitable principles; operate upon these elements, and increase their numbers and powers by the union of the best spirits of all nations of the earth.

On the one hand the Chinese emerges from the institutions of ages almost immemorial, from the antiquated creeds and regulations that he thought every man in the world had been governed by for thousands of years. He emerges from that superstitious government, and lands upon these shores, and learns principles of freedom faster than he does the English language—his old traditions are swept away, and he is a man. But take that whole nation, and they could not be brought to think of liberty as we do; take from ten to a thousand individuals and put them where they may think, and they will think; and as they think, their old traditions will vanish one by one. At the same time the Spanish American follows, and all the other nations in the train; the barriers will be bro– ken, and they will begin to emerge into freedom. In short, all the people of the earth, though they cannot master their tyrants at home at one fell swoop, and burst asunder their chains and the fetters of priestcraft that have bound them down, and trammeled the free circulation of thought, yet one by one, family by family, can flow out from those countries, to where they have a right to the elements to sustain them. What is to be the result in the end? They will step on the other side of the big ship called the world, or in other words the Eastern Hemisphere, and take their stand together, at least upon general principles, if not upon particular items, and begin to think. It will be a long time, of course, before all things will settle into a state of harmony; it will be a long time before many will begin to think at all. They will ultimately begin to think, and think until they form habits of thinking, and perhaps after awhile they will learn to think truly. Men who are not in the habit of thinking are as apt to think wrong as to think right, but when the habit is once formed they will begin to discriminate, and use faculties with which they are naturally endowed. When they emigrate to this land, the first thing they think of is to improve the elements, and provide for themselves the means of subsistence.

But the stepping of the people on this side of the ship, or on the land shadowing with wings, in such numbers, would, to use a figure, almost turn the world over; they would, in other words, overbalance it, the same as a ship would be overbalanced by the shifting of the cargo from one side of the vessel to the other.

You take the people from the Eastern Hemisphere, and put them on the western, far away from tyranny and oppression, and let them use their individual exertions to improve themselves, mentally and nationally, and their influence will ultimately overbalance the world, they will overturn those institutions which they could not conquer in their own country.

Hence we contemplate that small beginning made by the American pioneers, by Columbus as the first pioneer, and by our fathers the pioneers of religion and liberty; we contemplate how that influence has spread and increased in the earth, influencing the feelings of individuals as well as national institutions, until among all the nations of the earth, a sufficient number are gathered together, and the elements sufficiently developed that now lie unoccupied, and sufficient light is infused for them to comprehend, to contemplate, to investigate, and interchange with each other the blessings of Providence, until by and by the rest of the world is overwhelmed, that it is obliged to bow to their superior greatness. “Do you mean that we shall return again to our fathers’ land, and compel them to be American citizens?” No. But to two hundred millions of people on the American continent, dignified by the principles of American freedom, Europe must bow, by the indirect influence which must necessarily be exercised on those despotic nations.

Suffice it to say the continent is discovered, the elements for life and happiness are known to exist, and are partly developed, and constitutions and governments formed, and principles beginning to be instituted and developed, and influences are at work of such magnitude and greatness, that language is inadequate to express the probable result; we can only borrow the language of the Prophets, which is also insufficient to convey the idea properly, that is, The earth shall be full of knowledge, light, liberty, brotherly kindness and friendship; none will have need to teach his neighbor to know the Lord, but all will know Him from the least to the greatest; darkness will flee away, oppression will be known no more, and men will employ blacksmiths to beat up their old weapons of war into ploughshares and pruninghooks. Their occupation will be to develop the inexhaustible resources of nature, improve the intellect, and lay hold of the Spirit of the Lord, and live by it. The world will be renovated both politically and religiously.

These are but partial ideas. To view the subject in its true light, would lead the mind to contemplate all the practical truths in the universe, that are within the grasp of mortal man; indeed it may reach into immortality. We will acknowledge the hand of God in the movements of men, and in the development of minds, the result of which will be the fulfillment of what the Prophet has spoken—the renovation of our race, and the establishment of a universal Kingdom of God, in which His will will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

An Address by President B. Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 19, 1853.

I do not feel like making a military or a political speech on the present occasion; but I wish to say a few words in reference to some of the items that have occupied the tongue and the lips of so many of this community.

The expression, “Old Zechariah Taylor is dead and in hell, and I am glad of it,” which the returning officers, in their Report, alleged was said by me, I do not know that I ever thought of, until I heard Brocchus himself mention it on the stand in the Old Bowery. When he made the statement there, I simply bore testimony to the truth of it. But until then, I do not know that it ever came into my mind whether Taylor was in hell or not, any more than it did that any other wicked man was there. I suppose he is where all the ignorant wicked are gone, and where they will continue to go. The Bible declares that the Lord Almighty turns the wicked into hell, with all the nations that forget God. But I did not suppose that Zechariah Taylor could be classed with those that forget God, for he never knew anything about Him. I am confident that such a thing was never mentioned by me.

When wicked men die—Zechariah Taylor, or any other wicked man, they go to hell. This has been explained to a congregation in this hall by Elder Hyde, and also in the Frontier Guardian. If as good a man as Jesus Christ went to hell, we may well expect that a wicked and ungodly man will go there to atone for his sins. Enough upon that matter: suffice it to say, that all, when they die, go somewhere; and if the people want to know particularly where they are going when they die, let them read the Bible and learn. As for this people, as for the disturbances and Reports of the returned judges, as for the say so of one nation, and all the nations upon the earth, I am entirely unconcerned; but I hope one thing concerning this people and kingdom of God which are established upon the earth, that they will turn neither to the right nor to the left, but maintain continually a steady and unslackened pace to build up the cause of truth. Let small men or large men, officers of state or citizens, kings or beggars, say or do what they please, it is all the same to the Almighty. The king upon his throne, the president in his chair, the judges upon the bench, and the beggar in the street, are all overruled in their actions by the Almighty God of heaven and earth. Who can successfully fight against Him? All persons who are acquainted with this kingdom, who knew Joseph Smith from his boyhood, from the time the Lord revealed to him where the plates containing the matter in the Book of Mormon were deposited, from the time the first revelation was given to him, and as far back as he was known, in anywise whatever, as a person professing to have received a visitation from heaven—all must know that as much priestcraft as was then within the circle of the knowledge of Joseph Smith, Jun., he had to bear on his back, and to lift from time to time. On the other hand, as his name spread abroad, and the principles of the Gospel began to be more extensively taught, in the same proportion he had more to bear. The Lord began to raise him up, and endow him with wisdom and power that astonished both his friends and his foes. Did Joseph rise? He did. Did his influence grow and spread far and wide? It did. Under what circumstances? Why, with all the influence and power that could possibly be arrayed against him, by priests and people, by doctors and lawyers, judges and juries, backed up by the whole mass of the wicked world. All this he had to raise up, and carry with him.

If anything oppose the progress of this great work, if any person, whether great or small, should stand in the way of it, do you suppose it will stop? Do you think the great car will stay in its onward progress, because some infernal scoundrel stands on the track? No; but the wheels will roll over him, and crush him, until, like the pig brother Bernhisel spoke of, he will “die all over.”

I admit it is hard for our Elders, for our brethren that are abroad, when anything of a transverse nature occurs in the midst of this people, especially in our present organization. It is hard for our Elders to meet with interruptions in their course, to meet with, and have to combat, the prejudices of the people. But who causes prejudice against this people? Do they cause it themselves? No. It is the wicked. They court it, and nourish and cherish it; they suck it in like the infant child the mother’s milk, they love it, they languish for it; it is their food, it is their life. Why do they love it? Because it is falsehood.

Do the righteous of this people cause persecution to come upon themselves? No. Do the principles of the Gospel create prejudice and persecution against them? No. But it is the disposition of the wicked to oppose the principles of truth and righteousness, which cause it.

When the officers returned from this territory to the States, did we send them away? We did not. But I will tell you what I did, and what I will do again—I did chastise the mean ruffian, the poor miserable creature, who came here by the name of Brocchus, when he arose before this people to preach to them, and tell them of meanness which he supposed they were guilty of, and traduce their character. But they bore the insult like Saints of God. It is true, as it is said in the Report of these officers, if I had crooked my little finger, he would have been used up, but I did not bend it. If I had, the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have chopped him in pieces. I did not, however, do it, but suffered him to fill up the measure of his shame and iniquity until his cup is running over. He was not hurt in the least.

With regard to the four different Reports of those judges, which were in existence at the same time, brother Bernhisel seems to wonder how they came. I know how they came. Some friends of those judges, thinking they could better the matter for them, were the authors of those extra Reports. But those friends found that the Reports did not answer their expectations, and those officers themselves would not acknowledge who wrote them. In this instance, they overshot their mark, and foiled, in a signal manner, their own purposes.

There is one circumstance the doctor did not relate, which is worthy of notice. Secretary Harris stated that he did sign Doctor Bernhisel’s certificate, but that he was intimidated by Governor Young, and dare not but do it. How could this be, when no person knew about this signing, but the doctor and Harris? Thus every man that operates against the truth, will forestall himself, and be confounded by his own arguments and operations in every movement and act that he shall perform; it will all work to his own injury and disgrace. Every man that comes to impose upon this people, no matter by whom they are sent, or who they are that are sent, lay the axe at the root of the tree to kill themselves. I will do as I said I would, last Conference. Apostates, or men who never made any profession of religion, had better be careful how they come here, lest I should bend my little finger.

If the congregation wish to know if we are well situated for territorial officers at the present time, I will say, for their information, I believe we are. I will speak for this people, and say, we cannot be situated better in that respect than we are at the present time, so far as we know. One of our judges, Judge Shaver, has been here through the winter, and, as far as he is known, he is a straightforward, judicious, upright man, and a good adjudicator in the law. This I believe, and so do others who are acquainted with his acts. He cannot be beaten among Jews or Gentiles. He and Judge Reid, who has lately arrived, I believe will do the best they can, and all is right. They have not come here with the impression that we are going to send them as our delegates to Washington, as others did, so they are not disappointed. As far as I know, we are just as well situated in this respect as we need ask to be.

I have no fears whatever of Franklin Pierce excusing me from office, and saying that another man shall be the Governor of this territory. At the beginning of our settlements here, when we sent Almon W. Babbit to Washington with our Constitution for a State Government, and to ask leave to adopt it, he requested that I should not sign my name to it as Governor; “for,” said he, “if you do, it will thwart all your plans.” I said, “My name will go as it is in that document, and stay there from this time henceforth and forever. Now,” I continued, “if you do not believe it, you may go to Washington, and give those papers to Doctor Bernhisel, and operate against him, and against our getting a State Government, and you cannot hinder it, I will be Governor still, after you have done everything you possibly can to prevent it.”

We have got a Territorial Government, and I am and will be Governor, and no power can hinder it, until the Lord Almighty says, “Brigham, you need not be Governor any longer;” and then I am willing to yield to another Governor. I have told you the truth about that, I entertain no concern about it, or about the changing of any of our other officers; we are well enough off in this respect at present.

It came into my mind when brother Bernhisel was speaking, and the same thing strikes me now, that is, inasmuch as he has done first-rate, as our delegate in Washington, to move that we send him again next season, though it is the Sabbath Day. I understand these things, and say as other people say, “We are Mormons.” We do things that are necessary to be done; when the time comes for us to do them. If we wish to make political speeches, and it is necessary, for the best interest of the cause and kingdom of God, to make them on the Sabbath, we do it. Now, suffer not your prejudices to hurt you, do not suffer this to try you, nor be tempted in consequence of it, nor think we are wandering out of the way, for it is all embraced in our religion, from first to last.

Brother Kimball has seconded the motion, that Doctor Bernhisel be sent back to Washington, as our delegate. All who are in favor of it, raise your right hands. [More than two thousand hands were at once seen above the heads of the congregation.]

This has turned into a caucus meeting. It is all right. I would call for an opposite vote if I thought any person would vote. I will try it, however. [Not a single hand was raised in opposition.]

I will now say, not only to our delegate to Congress, but to the Elders who leave the body of the Church, that he thought that all the cats and kittens were let out of the bag when brother Pratt went back last fall, and published the Revelation concerning the plurality of wives: it was thought there was no other cat to let out. But allow me to tell you, Elders of Israel, and delegates to Congress, you may expect an eternity of cats, that have not yet escaped from the bag. Bless your souls, there is no end to them, for if there is not one thing, there will always be another.

Do you suppose that this people will ever see the day that they will rest in perfect security, in hopes of becoming like another people, nation, state, kingdom, or society? They never will. Christ and Satan never can be friends. Light and darkness always remain opposites. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan will always remain two kingdoms; and so long as they are, you will find from time to time that the citizens of Satan’s kingdom will be telling you of cats that are ready to leap out of the bag, of something that is wonderful and alarming in its nature, as much so as the circumstance which brother Bernhisel touched at, which created a great excitement in Washington—that we had revolted from the parent Government, and hoisted the flag of our independence. I know how that report originated. The letter containing this startling intelligence, and purporting to have been received at California from this place, was written in Washington. After the originators had failed in their object, they supposed that nothing more would be said about it, but the whole of the United States believed the report to be true, and thought that all the citizens in Utah were rebels.

Do you understand the reason why such feelings exist against this people? Go to the United States, into Europe, or wherever you can come across men who have been in the midst of this people, and one will tell you that we are a poor, ignorant, deluded people; the next will tell you that we are the most industrious and intelligent people on the earth, and are destined to rise to eminence as a nation, and spread, and continue to spread, until we revolutionize the whole earth. If you pass on to the third man, and inquire what he thinks of the “Mormons,” he will say they are fools, duped and led astray by Joe Smith, who was a knave, a false Prophet, and a money digger. Why is all this? It is because there is a spirit in man. And when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached on the earth and the kingdom of God is established, there is also a spirit in these things, and an Almighty spirit too. When these two spirits come in contact one with the other, the spirit of the Gospel reflects light upon the spirit which God has placed in man, and wakes him up to a consciousness of his true state, which makes him afraid he will be condemned, for he perceives at once that “Mormonism” is true. “Our craft is in danger,” is the first thought that strikes the wicked and dishonest of mankind, when the light of truth shines upon them. Say they, “If these people called Latter-day Saints are correct in their views, the whole world must be wrong, and what will become of our time-honored institutions, and of our influence, which we have swayed successfully over the minds of the people for ages. This Mormonism must be put down.” So priestcraft presented a bold and extended front against the truth, and with this we have to contend, this is our deadliest foe.

Why should there be anymore excitement when a public officer is chastised in Utah for publicly insulting a loyal people, than there would be if a similar occurrence transpired in Oregon, Minnesota, or any other territory? It is because we are Latter-day Saints. And let me tell you the Devil has put the whole world on the watch against us. It is impossible for us to make the least move without exciting, if not all the world, at least a considerable portion of it. They are excited at what we do, and, strange to relate, they are no less excited at what we do not do.

You will find that there will be cats and kittens leaping out of the bag continually. “What can come next I wonder!” I do not know; but this I know, the Lord Almighty will not suffer the Saints, neither the world, to slumber upon their oars. The time is past for them to fold their hands, and say, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands.” This people will never see that day, for the Lord will keep them on the alert all the time; they will continually have something to contend with to keep them from dropping to sleep, and it is no matter to me as to what means He may use to do it.

Inasmuch as we send brother Bernhisel back to Washington, I say to him, Fear not their faces, nor their power, for we are perfectly prepared to take all the nations of the earth on our back; they are there already, and we will round up our shoulders, and bear up the ponderous weight, carry the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, gather Israel, redeem Zion, and continue our operations until we bind Satan, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ; and no power can hinder it.

I care not what may come, I will do the work the Lord has appointed unto me. You do the same, and fear not, for the Lord manages the helm of the ship of Zion; and on any other ship I do not wish to be. As I once said to Sidney Rigdon, our boat is an old snag boat, and has never been out of snag harbor, but it will root up the snags, run them down, split them up, and scatter them to the four winds. Our ship is the old ship of Zion. Nothing that runs foul of it can resist the shock and fire.

The hue and cry in the world about this people is—“What an awful set of people these Mormons are! Why, they are a dreadful people!” What makes them so? “They are Mormons.” And that is all the people can say about the matter.

Do you know what it is that scares the world? As I have already said, it is the Spirit of the Lord that is placed in man, and the reflection of light from it upon his spirit wakes up the sensibilities in him, and creates conviction. That Spirit, with the Gospel of Christ, interrupts the whole world in their common career, in every capacity of life. That Spirit does not chime in and harmonize with any earthly kingdom or government, either in their political or religious institutions; but it seems to put a check upon everything, to throw into disorder the best laid plans of the wise and farseeing among men; in short, it turns the whole current of earthly calculations back upon the world, and deluges it in the dark waters of confusion.

As this kingdom of God grows, spreads, increases, and prospers in its course, it will cleanse, thoroughly purge, and purify the world from wickedness. He who supposes his house to be built upon a rock, and well calculated to withstand any test that may be applied to it, finds, when it is tried by the Gospel of the kingdom, that its foundation proves to be sand, and the whole fabric appears nothing in which a man may securely trust for salvation. One of the weakest of our Elders, I mean one of our boys, who is conversant with the Bible, is well qualified to instruct the learned priest, confound in Bible doctrine the greatest theologians upon the earth, and throw into confusion, and interrupt, and fill with contradictions and inconsistencies, their choicest theories.

Imagine to yourselves a learned doctor of divinity, securely surrounded with the bulwarks of his religious lore, pampered with the applause of thousands who hang on his skirts for reli– gious instructions; he is satisfied that he knows and understands the Bible from the beginning to the end of it, and is capable of withstanding all creation upon Bible doctrine, and is as well skilled in theological researches as a man can be—imagine this great man sailing triumphantly over the sea of time, and the little unassuming bark, the boy, darts along, and strikes this proud hulk, this great, tremendous vessel, and pierces it through below the water mark; it begins to sink, and turns to make battle, but the little craft hits it on the keel and capsizes it, sinking it in shame and bitter disappointment. Such will be the fate of all who will oppose the truth.

The report of the Gospel of Jesus Christ terrifies the people, it goes forth with such gigantic strides. When this Church first commenced, I used to say to the people, “If you do not like my preaching, when I do the best I can, I cannot help it, but if you will let us alone, and suffer us peaceably to enjoy our religion, we shall enjoy ourselves better together, as friends, neighbors, and citizens. If you will come to my house, I will give you your dinner and your supper, I will treat you hospitably, as one friend ought to treat another; and when I come into your neighborhood, do the same to me, for, in pursuing this course, we shall feel much better than if we suffered a difference of opinion to make us enemies. I will tell you what we will do—we will preach the Gospel, and revolutionize the whole earth, that is, if you will let us alone, but if you persecute us, we will do it quicker. This places the wicked in the same circumstances as the drunken man, who would fall down if he tried to stand, and fall if he tried to walk. So, if they will let us alone, we will evangelize the whole earth; and if they do not, we will do it the quicker.

How often, to all human appearance, has this kingdom been blotted out from the earth, but the Lord has put His hand over the people, and it has passed through, and come out two, three, and four times larger than before. Our enemies have kicked us and cuffed us, and driven us from pillar to post, and we have multiplied and increased the more, until we have become what we are this day, in possession of a territory with an appropriate government. Let them still continue to persecute us, and who cares? If they will let us alone, we will preach the Gospel to all nations, and gather Israel. If they continue to abuse us, we will overrun them entirely, until all shall be brought in subjection to the will of heaven.

Do not be afraid, whether you are at Washington or anywhere else, for we will progress. I say to brother Bernhisel and everybody else, Put your shoulders to the wheel, and do not go from this place with your hearts in your mouths, you that go to the nations, and be so faint that you have need to carry a bottle of camphor with you, but go like men of great hearts, and say, in the midst of your enemies—I stand here in the name of Him who sent me, and who has called me to defend the truth, which I am determined to do, whether I live or die.

God bless you all, brethren, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 12, 1853.

In rising to address you this morning, I do it with feelings of peculiar pleasure, for I always love to meet with the Saints of the Most High; I always loved to speak or to hear of the things associated with the kingdom of God; and consequently, as we are all engaged in the worship of the Almighty, and meet together from time to time, to sing, to pray, to speak, to edify, and be edified, it is of little importance to me what part I take in the drama, I am pleased at all times to hear my brethren speak, and it likewise gives me pleasure to address the Saints for their edification.

As men and women of intelligence, as those who profess to be the servants of the Most High, we all have more or less reflection pertaining to the kingdom of God. The ideas that we have entertained, relative to this kingdom, have brought us here; these feelings and principles have caused us to leave our native homes, our former habitations and associations, and to mingle with the Saints of the Most High in the valleys of these mountains. If we have suffered afflictions and privations, if we have passed through troubles or sorrows, if we have had to do with the chequered scenes of this life, more particularly as it is associated with the kingdom of God, it is because we have been stimulated by thoughts, feelings, hopes, and desires, pertaining to the eternal world, and those things associated with our everlasting welfare.

If these are not our feelings, what are we doing here? Why are we found in this distant land? Why have we left the land of our birth, and dwelling place? Why have we quitted our former associations and friends, in different nations, countries, tongues, and peoples, and thus become amalgamated? Why do we together worship the Most High in the valleys of the mountains, if these have not been our feelings? We have come here expressly for this purpose. This has been our only object, our only hope, our chief desire, and may account for our singular gathering, and our peculiar location here. And notwithstanding we may have a few trials and difficulties, and various things that frequently perplex and annoy our minds, and disturb our feelings, yet the polar star of our minds, the strong and deep feeling of affection, and the principle of truth within us, still point to the same thing for which we started at the commencement of our career; and when we bow down before our God, when we enter into our closet and call upon the Lord, when associated with our families to supplicate the Most High, when we mingle with the Saints in public worship, or whenever we are led seriously to reflect upon the true position of this kingdom, our rejoicing is, that our face is Zion– ward, that our hopes are placed upon God, and we know that He is our Father and Friend. We contemplate with joy that the heavens have been opened, that truth has been revealed, and the power of God developed; that angels have manifested themselves, that the glory of the eternal world has been made known, and that we have been made participators in that light, glory, and intelligence which God has been pleased to reveal for the blessing, salvation, and exaltation of the human family in this time and throughout all eternity. These are our feelings.

We believe that God has set His hand in these last days to accomplish His purposes, to gather together His elect from the four winds, even to fulfill the words which He has spoken by all the holy Prophets, to redeem the earth from the power of the curse to save the human family from the ruins of the fall, and to place mankind in that position which God designed them to occupy before this world came into existence, or the morning stars sang together for joy. We believe in and realize these things; we feel them, we appreciate them, and therefore are we thus assembled together.

I know that, as other men, we have our trials, afflictions, sorrows, and privations; we meet with difficulties; we have to contend with the world, with the powers of darkness, with the corruptions of men, and a variety of evils; yet at the same time through these things we have to be made perfect. It is necessary that we should have a knowledge of ourselves, of our true position and standing before God, and comprehend our strength, our weakness, our ignorance and intelligence, our wisdom and our folly, that we may know how to appreciate true principles, and comprehend, and put a proper value upon, all things as they present themselves before our minds. It is necessary that we should know our own weakness, and the weak– nesses of our fellow men; our own strength, as well as the strength of others; and comprehend our true position before God, angels, and men; that we may be inclined to treat all with due respect, and not to overvalue our own wisdom or strength, nor depreciate it, nor that of others, but put our trust in the living God, and follow after Him, and realize that we are His children, and that He is our Father, and that our dependence is upon Him, and that every blessing we receive flows from His beneficent hand.

It is necessary, then, that we pass through the school of suffering, trial, affliction, and privation, to know ourselves, to know others, and to know our God. Therefore it was necessary, when the Savior was upon the earth, that he should be tempted in all points, like unto us, and “be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” to comprehend the weaknesses and strength, the perfections and imperfections of poor fallen human nature. And having accomplished the thing he came into the world to do; having had to grapple with the hypocrisy, corruption, weakness, and imbecility of man; having met with temptation and trial in all its various forms, and overcome, he has become a “faithful High Priest” to intercede for us in the everlasting kingdom of His Father. He knows how to estimate and put a proper value upon human nature, for he having been placed in the same position as we are, knows how to bear with our weaknesses and infirmities, and can fully comprehend the depth, power, and strength of the afflictions and trials that men have to cope with in this world, and thus understandingly and by experience, he can bear with them as a father and an elder brother.

It is necessary, also, inasmuch as we profess that we are aiming at the same glory, exaltation, power, and blessings in the eternal world, that we should pass through the same afflictions, endure the same privations, conquer as he conquered, and overcome as he did, and thus by integrity, truth, virtue, purity, and a high-minded and honorable course before God, angels, and men, secure for ourselves an eternal exaltation in the eternal world, as he did.

The world, at the present time, is all confused, and it seems to me, sometimes, that even we have made very little improvement indeed, according to the light and intelligence God has communicated to us. But what has the world done? Whether you look at it morally, religiously, philosophically, or politically, or in what way you please, you will find it is all a chaotic mass. Confusion, disorder, weakness, corruption, and vice of every kind are abounding, and the whole world seems to be confused and retrograding. The human family have departed from the principles which God has laid down for their guidance, direction, and support; they have forsaken Him the fountain of living waters, and hewn out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

I shall not, at the present, examine particularly their philosophy or politics; these things you are already acquainted with, for you have had more or less to do with them; you have seen their weakness, and incompetency to accomplish anything they desired in times past. There is no project they have put on foot, to the present time, if carried out to the furthest extent, according to the most sanguine desires of its advocates, that would be capable of producing happiness to the human family. I shall not enter into a detail of these things at the present, but merely make this statement. Suffice it to say that we have been satisfied of these things years ago, and therefore have come here. Have we come here because we expect to become more rich? No. Have we united with this Church because we expect to become more honorable in the eyes of the world? No. I think this work would have been the last ship we should have boarded, if that had been what we sought. This reminds me of a minister that I once conversed with in England. He wanted a little private conversation, after having had some public debate with me. Said he, “Elder Taylor, is there any way you know of that I can be saved without uniting with your Church?” These were the feelings most of us had when we first heard the Gospel. “Mormonism” is the first impression, and the “Mormons” are looked upon as being deluded fanatics and fools, the offscouring of the earth. This is the way we have been looked upon, and in this light we looked upon “Mormonism,” ourselves, at the first. When I first read about the Gospel preached by the Latter-day Saints, I thought it was nothing akin to religion; and I presume now that the people in England, and in the United States, particularly since they have heard some of the late doctrines which have been proclaimed, think it is nothing like religion. I know what their feelings are, and I know that nothing but a sterling desire to do the will of God will cause men to endure the contumely and reproach of their fellow men, and associate themselves with the people denominated Latter-day Saints or “Mormons.” We had similar feelings to these ourselves; and we united with this people because we considered there was truth associated with their religion, otherwise we never should have become converts to it, we should never have been here, but we should have been with the world, and following in their path. But we are here; the world have their ideas, and we have ours. I was going to say, they think they are right; but on reflecting a moment, I am led to think they do not think so, but they are at a loss to know how to mend themselves. The difference between them and us is, they think they do not know a better way than that they are pursuing; we think we do, and some of us know we do. I confess, myself, that if I knew no other religion, than the religions that are propagated abroad, I would not be a religious man at all, but I would lay it all aside, as something beneath my notice, and worship God as the great Supreme of the Universe, according to my own judgment, independent of the opinions of man, and without having any regard to the ridiculous dogmas taught in the world.

Many find fault with and blame the infidel community, and say that none but scoundrels would be associated with them, &c. The most intelligent men in the world are found among the Infidel class of society. They see a variety of sects and parties contending for all kinds of conflicting dogmas. They know that persecution and wrong have prevailed, under the cloak of religion, causing many to be imprisoned and put to death. In fact there has been no inhumanity, barbarity, or cruelty equal to that practiced by the professors of religion. Humanity shudders at the thought, and yet the hypocrites tell us, it is all for the love of God. And they do it for the benefit of the human family. The Catholics have killed Protestants by thousands, and vice versa, and yet we must believe it is for the love of God, and for the welfare of souls. Can I think that God has anything to do with influencing such a course of conduct? No. What can there be more ridiculous, for instance, at the present day, than two Christian nations fighting with each other, and both worshipping the same God, and whose ministers call upon God, as they say, in sincerity. What for? For God to destroy their enemies, their brother Christians, who are going to the same heaven. The other party pray for the same thing, and when both have been praying, then comes the clang of arms, the deadly strife, the groans of the dying, blood, carnage, and desolation. And after they have got through, the victorious party thank God that He has given them the victory over their enemies.

These kinds of Christian feelings do exist. I speak of this as one circumstance. What can I think of such priests, and of such prayers? I think just as much of the one as I do of the other. But what would you think of the gullibility of the people who would listen to such things? Would I be gulled by such inconsistencies? Not if I had my reason. At the present time, take Christians in general, which, you know, we all suppose to be the best people in the world, and one half of their time is spent in polemical essays and strife; and I think sometimes our Elders engage too much in that matter. But I am not surprised at it, because they have come from that school, and have been trained in that element. They seem to have the bump of combativeness well developed, for almost the very first thing that men do when they go out to preach, is to run against these Christians, and their principles. We are not among them here, but gathered out from them, and if we refer to their inconsistencies, it is that we may comprehend our own, and the position of others.

There are Catholicism, Presbyterianism, and all other isms, the advocates of which worship the same God, though their doctrine, precepts, and belief are not the same; they think differently, and worship differently, and each party sends to hell, in a wholesale manner, all who differ from them! And if God was no more merciful than they are, we should find ourselves all there together. This is the way things exist down in the world. If it was not for the religion I profess, which gives me to know something about the matter, by revelation for myself, I would not have anything to do with religion at all. I would worship God the best way I knew how, and act justly and honorably with my neighbor; which I believe thousands of that class of men called Infidels do at the present day. But I never would submit to be gulled with the nonsense that exists in the world, under the name of religion.

What is it, then, that we believe in? We believe in the restoration of all things. We believe that God has spoken from the heavens. If I did not believe He had, I would not be here. We believe that angels have appeared, that the heavens have been opened. We believe in eternal principles, in an eternal Gospel, an eternal Priesthood, in eternal communications and associations. Everything associated with the Gospel that we believe in is eternal. If it were not so, I would want nothing to do with it. I do not want to make a profession, and worship a God because this one, that one, or the other one does it, and I not know whether I am right, and those whom I imitate not know, anymore than myself, whether they are right or wrong.

I profess to know for myself, and if I did not know for myself, I would have nothing to do with it. Acting upon this principle, I associated myself with the Latter-day Saints. I preach that doctrine which I verily believe with my whole soul. I believe in its principles, because there is something intelligent about it. For instance—if I am an eternal being, I want something that is calculated to satisfy the capacious desires of that eternal mind. If I am a being that came into the world yesterday, and leaves it again to morrow, I might as well have one religion as another, or none at all; “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” If I am an eternal being, I want to know something about that eternity with which I am associated. I want to know something about God, the devil, heaven, and hell. If hell is a place of misery, and heaven a place of happiness, I want to know how to escape the one, and obtain the other. If I cannot know something about these things which are to come in the eternal world, I have no religion, I would not have any, I would not give a straw for it. It would be too low and groveling a consideration for a man of intelligence, in the absence of this knowledge. If there is a God, I want a religion that supplies some means of certain and tangible communication with Him. If there is a heaven, I want to know what sort of a place it is. If there are angels, I want to know their nature, and their occupation, and of what they are composed. If I am an eternal being, I want to know what I am to do when I get through with time; whether I shall plant corn and hoe it, or be engaged in some other employment. I do not want any person to tell me about a heaven that is “beyond the bounds of time and space,” a place that no person can possibly know anything about, or ever reach, if they did. I do not wish any person to frighten me nearly to death, by telling me about a hell where sinners are roasted upon gridirons, and tossed up by devils upon pitchforks, and other sharp pointed instruments. These notions are traditionary, and have come from the old mother church.

I have a Catholic book containing pictures of devils roasting sinners on gridirons, tossing them about with pitchforks; of snakes and dragons devouring them, &c.; which I have brought with me from the old country. The Protestants are indebted to the Catholics for all this blessed information, and all the glory associated with it, and I suppose the Catholics are indebted to some of the ancient painters for it. I want nothing to do with such things, I care nothing about them. But as an intelligent being, if I have a mind capable of reflection, I wish to contemplate the works of nature, and to know something of nature’s God, and my destiny. I love to view the things around me; to gaze upon the sun, moon, and stars; to study the planetary system, and the world we inhabit; to behold their beauty, order, harmony, and the operations of existence around me. I can see something more than that mean jargon, those childish quibbles, this heaven beyond the bounds of time and space, where they have nothing to do but sit and sing themselves away to everlasting bliss, or go and roast on gridirons. There is nothing like that to be found in nature—everything is beautifully harmonious, and perfectly adapted to the position it occupies in the world. Whether you look at birds, beasts, or the human system, you see something exquisitely beautiful and harmonious, and worthy of the contemplation of all intelligence. What is man’s wisdom in comparison to it? I could not help but believe there was a God, if there was no such thing as religion in the world.

If we look at men, with the best and most exalted talents you can find what do they know or comprehend, or what can they do in comparison to the works of God. What is there that is worthy of notice in all the mechanism of men, with all their intelligence and science combined, upon which they have been improving from year to year, and from generation to generation? What do they know to the present time? If you look at their governments you see none of them pursuing their legitimate object of promoting the happiness of the world, but they are engaged in watching each other for evil, and destroying themselves. They have organized armies, navies, customhouse officers, &c., in order to support their own peculiar locality and interests, independent of anything else, or any regard to the rest of mankind. They look upon each other as upon as many thieves, and maintain their armies and navies for self-defense against the intrusions of their neighboring brother robbers.

Such is the nature of the main organization of the nations at the present time. But if we look back for a few ages, we shall discover that where the most mighty nations existed generations ago, is now a desolate waste, and a howling wilderness. We are now occupying a place that was a wilderness, before we commenced to people it, but which was densely populated generations ago. Such is the case, in a great measure, with Palestine, Babylon, and many parts of the Assyrian empire. Changes have been going on continually, and the ambition of man has desolated nations, overturned kingdoms, depopulated empires, overthrown countries, and millions have had to welter in their gore. This has been the wisdom of Gentile governments, with all their intelligence and philosophy.

We look again at the works of God, and see nothing exhibited there but perfection, harmony, symmetry, and order. If we look at the planetary system, we see this principle beautifully and most perfectly maintained. Immense planets revolve round our sun, and this system; and other suns, with their systems, round another; and that, and innumerable other suns and systems, with our own, around another yet greater and more magnificent; and so, millions of systems more in their order, until it is past our comprehension, and yet everything is beautiful, perfect, and harmonious. If it was otherwise, if the kingdoms of God were governed by the same confused order of things that are characteristic of the governments of this world, we would have had planet dashing against planet in wild confusion, and millions of their inhabitants sent to desolation in a moment.

God’s works are perfect. If you examine vegetation, how beautiful that is. Who is there that can imitate it? We can see some painters who have managed to make rough daubs in imitation. One of the greatest feats that a painter ever did, was to paint a curtain so perfectly as to deceive another painter so, that he went forward to draw it aside to exhibit a picture behind it. There are millions of curtains in the works of nature, which spring forth from the works of God by that light which is in them, which is imparted to them by the great Eloheim.

We see men who are considered very talented, whose names are handed down to posterity as great sculptors or painters. Their works are among the ancient ruins, and are exhibited as specimens of artistic skill, that men may see how intelligent their forefathers were. And what is it which they had wisdom to make? Something like a man, or a beast. But break off an arm or a leg, and you discover that it is but a lifeless piece of matter, though the outlines may be true to nature; and in this alone consist the beauty and skill of the artist. But there is no life in them, and they fall far short of perfection, beauty, and symmetry, as it is seen in the human system, or that of any other animal. Look upon a man, he is a perfect being, he is perfect inside and outside. If you remove the skin, the perfect covering of the human form, the nerves, muscles, arteries, veins, and everything necessary for this peculiar system, are there found in perfect harmony, and in every way adapted to make complete a living, moving machine. Not only so, but he is an intelligent being, capable of reflecting and acting. We profess to know a great deal, but what of our philosophy? Who is there can tell me by what power I lift my right arm? If that cannot be told, what do we know? How far short, then, are we of that intelligence that governs the universe, and regulates all the works of nature. I look at the bones of the mammoth, and they tell me of something that was. I can gaze upon an elephant, as it now is, a mighty, ponderous moving machine, with strength and energy. Who planned and contrived these mighty beings? I look again at the animalculae, a thousand of which can float in a drop of water, and I see, by means of a powerful glass, the veins, muscles, and everything that is perfect to constitute a living, moving creature, invisible to the naked eye. He who organized the one, regulates the other. Man is an intelligent being, but how far does his intelligence fall short of that which regulates the world! He cannot even govern himself, he never was able to do it, and never will be able until he receives that wisdom and intelligence which comes from God. If every man can obtain intelligence of that kind, and from that source, which governs the world, and keeps in order all the planetary systems, and adapts every fish, fowl, and insect to its own peculiar position in the world, and supplies all its wants; if he can receive it from God, as his instructor, he is then able to govern himself, possessing intelligence which he now knows nothing about; and intelligence which indeed is worthy of God and man. If I cannot have a portion of that intelligence and that wisdom, if the great Eloheim cannot impart a portion of that spirit to me, and teach me the same lessons that He understands, I want nothing to do with a system of theology at all.

I believe in obtaining from Him, intelligence to enable me to comprehend all the works of God, to comprehend all the purposes of God. And if I cannot know something of these, I am altogether in the background, and shall not be able to comprehend my true position in society, and for what I came into the world.

What are we? We are noble, intelligent beings, bearing the impress of a Jehovah. With all our imperfections, we can reflect upon things back, and things to come. Our minds are capable of flying from one part of the earth to the other, in less than a moment of time. We can contemplate things we did in the years of our infancy, and thousands of miles distant from our present position; and in another moment contemplate things that are ahead of us. That is a degree of wisdom and intelligence which God has imparted unto us, and which we may improve as intelligent beings, and, having tasted of the fountain, go and drink, and participate more fully in all those blessings which are in store for us.

I have often been amused at the narrow contracted ideas of men, when I have looked abroad in the world, and seen their cogitations and calculations in their writings. One man believes in justification by faith, another in justification by works. Some believe in one thing, and some in another; all have their own peculiar ideas, unguided and ungoverned by the only legitimate rule and standard of truth—the living and eternal Priesthood of God. Few can extend their charity sufficiently for to believe it is possible that some will be saved as well as themselves; but that some few thousands of people are going to heaven and all the rest, to hell, is the prevailing belief; and if a few, besides these “elect,” reach heaven, they think it will be a hard chance. The Protestants believe the Catholics are all in error, and pack the whole church off to hell as the mother of harlots, without any trouble, or without even a sigh. And the old mother is just as uncharitable towards her daughters, for they are her offspring, and she sends the whole of them uncere– moniously to the same place. The Catholics and Protestants are generally united in sending all the Mahometans and Heathens there. It would be something like it was with me once, when I was discussing with a minister on the principles of “Mormonism.” Before I got through with him, he nearly destroyed and cast away the whole of the Bible, in his zeal to destroy our faith. He threw away one book after another, until but a small portion remained. So it is with the religious world generally; each one packs off his neighbor to hell; and after such narrow minds have made their selections of the worthy ones, and put them right, as they think, few besides will get to heaven.

Others will take everybody to heaven, no matter who or what they are. I think the latter idea is as ridiculous as the former, although there is something more pleasing in the last idea, I must confess, than in the other. The only thing I would hate in it, is being associated with a multitude of cutthroats and blacklegs there. For instance—the old world was cut off through their wickedness and corruption. I could not think it right of the Lord to take all those wicked fellows straight to heaven, because they were wicked and unworthy, and leave Noah and his family to combat with the troubles of earth because they were righteous. But such are the ideas of men; while some are all charity, others have none at all. I have sometimes thought that we “Mormons” are almost as uncharitable as others.

I believe God has a great design in view, in the creation of the human family. I do not believe that an all-wise Being would ever make a beautiful earth like this, and people it with man, and a multiplicity of other kinds of beings designed to exist upon it, and all for no purpose. I do not believe that 350,000,000 of people that live in China in a state of heathen darkness are created to live in this state, and be damned because they have not the right religion. I do not believe that all the nations that worship various kinds of idols, in different parts of the earth, and know nothing about the true God, will be consigned to be burned in fire hereafter, because they know no better than worship as they do. I cannot receive any such ideas into my mind. Although I was going to say I am not a Universalist, but I am, and I am also a Presbyterian, and a Roman Catholic, and a Methodist, in short, I believe in every true principle that is imbibed by any person or sect, and reject the false. If there is any truth in heaven, earth, or hell, I want to embrace it, I care not what shape it comes in to me, who brings it, or who believes in it, whether it is popular or unpopular. Truth, eternal truth, I wish to float in and enjoy.

Now I come to us, “Mormons.” We are the only true Church, so we say. We have got the only true faith, so we say and believe. I believe we have got many great and true principles revealed from the heavens. I will tell you how I feel about it, and what I have said many times when I have been abroad among the priests, people, and philosophers. If any man under the heavens can show me one principle of error that I have entertained, I will lay it aside forthwith, and be thankful for the information. On the other hand if any man has got any principle of truth, whether moral, religious, philosophical, or of any other kind, that is calculated to benefit mankind, I promise him I will embrace it, but I will not partake of his errors along with it. If a man should say, I am in possession of one piece of truth, and, because I have got that, I must be right, am I to believe him? Certainly not. It does not follow that he has not many errors.

The Catholics have many pieces of truth; so have the Protestants, the Mahometans, and Heathens; and am I to embrace one of these systems because it has got certain things that are right? No. Suppose a person should tell me that two multiplied by two makes four. Well, that is right. I believe it with all my heart. But suppose he believes and teaches also, that six and four make twenty, and exhorts me to believe it, saying—I was right in the other calculation, did I not prove the other to you? O yes, but you did not prove that six and four make twenty. I will take out the truth and leave the error.

Then you believe that we, as “Mormons,” have got truth? O yes, I do, and for this reason, I have traveled extensively in most of the States of the Union, and in Canada; also in England, Ireland, and Scotland; in the Isle of Man, Jersey, and other islands of the sea; in France, Germany, Belgium, and other parts of the earth; and I have not yet seen a man that could find one error in doctrine or principle connected with the religion of the Latter-day Saints. I do not talk of practice. God knows there is too much delinquency among us. I speak of principle. Then if you have got a thing that nobody can overturn, but can be sustained everywhere; that bids defiance to the wisdom and intelligence of the world to find one fault in it, you must say it is right, until it is proven to be wrong.

Can anybody prove to you that two multiplied by two makes six? There are certain things which are matters of fact—two multiplied by two makes four, and two parallel lines infinitely extended will never meet at right angles, but run to eternity. These truths demonstrate themselves, no man can alter these matters of fact. And if I have got principles which are out of the power of man to prove false, I consider they are right, and I stand upon them as a sure foundation.

On the other hand, am I to think it is right, because I am right, to send everybody else to hell? No, I will leave them in the hands of God. He has told me to preach the Gospel to every creature, saying, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.” He has told me to do this. And how many millions of mankind are there who have never heard the Gospel? And are they going to be damned for not believing in a thing they have not heard, and that never came within their range, and that they have not the slightest knowledge of? No. What is it we have to do? We must spread forth the light of the Gospel. Why? Because God has communicated a system of religion which is calculated to ennoble and exalt the human family.

The world is confused, it is in darkness and ignorance, and knows nothing about God, His purposes, designs, or the object of His creations. God knows how to touch my understanding, and how to touch theirs; and if they live and die without a knowledge of God, and His law, we are told that they will be judged according to the light they have, and not according to that they have not. Those that have lived without law, will be judged without law.

Am I going to weep over the condition of the world? No. God made it, and if He suffers millions to dwell upon it in ignorance of Him, I have nothing to do with it. All I have to do is, when God sends me, to go and teach the people the principles of light, intelligence, and truth, so far as I know them, and no further; and if they reject them, it is none of my business. In many instances, they do it for want of information, and according to the government, priestcraft, prejudices, &c., of which they are un– der the dominion. It is difficult for them to comprehend correct principles when they hear them, or to know the light when they see it shine. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. They understand many things, perhaps better than you do, but they do not understand the principles of the Gospel as you do, for want of the light of the Spirit of God. No man can understand that without the Spirit. A great many among the prevailing sects of the day have to some considerable extent encompassed sea and land to make proselytes, and in the majority of instances where they have been successful, they have made them ten fold more the children of hell than they were before. They have taught them hypocrisy, and evils of many kinds, of which they were ignorant before. They do not understand how to propagate true principles, for they do not understand them themselves, and how can they teach them to others? But I will love them, and let them go.

We “Mormons” think that we have made a wonderful stretch, for we say that all Israel is going to be saved, and we believe we are of Israel, and that we shall be gathered into the fold with them. And when we are gathered in with all the Israel of God, as we call them, that have lived in the various ages of the world up to the present time, we with them shall be redeemed and saved in the eternal kingdom of God. What else? Then His work will be accomplished, you may say. But I do not think it will, though it will certainly be a great work. This looks like the time of the restoration of all things, but in reality it is only a restoration of a few. Why, you may inquire, will you take in somebody besides the Israelites? Certainly. We are told they were beloved for the fathers’ sakes, and in consequence of the promises made to the fathers. If they are brought in, it will be in consequence of these promises. I wonder if there were no other men of faith besides Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that existed previous to their days. And if there were, I want to know if they knew anything about God, and obtained promises for their offspring. I will go a little further than old Abraham, and say, I am glad to see your posterity saved, Abraham, but I think some of your descendants prophesied of the time when Ammon would stretch out his hands to God, and Moab and Philistia be blessed with the same blessing. I think some of your descendants, when their minds were enlightened and expanded, looked forward into the womb of the future, to a time when there would be a great gathering, when people from Hamath, Cush, and from the islands of the sea, when different tribes and nations, should flow together to the name of the Lord of Hosts. If Abraham knew how to obtain promises, I wonder, for instance, if the old man that was called Melchizedek, who lived before Abraham, and whom Paul in his writings makes a greater man than Abraham, for, says he, “the lesser was blessed of the greater”—I wonder if Melchizedek did not know also how to obtain promises for his seed? There was an old man who lived in the land of Uz, who is said to have been a very patient man; notwithstanding he cursed the day he was born, and the womb that gave him birth. He surely knew how to obtain blessings from God. God came to him, and he obtained blessings from God, and could look forward through the dark vista of ages and contemplate the purposes of God, and he saw himself not only dead and buried, but, said he, “though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” He had the kind of religion I believe in, exactly—a religion that caused him to know and understand something of God and His purposes; and he acted upon it, and profited by it. Very well, if he knew about these things, I want to know whether he will not have some promises to claim for himself and descendants by and by, when they are hunted up.

I will go further back yet; to old Noah, for instance. He was a good man, and while the whole earth was destroyed, his life was preserved, and his posterity with him. He was a man of God. I want to know if he could also obtain blessings for his posterity, and whether he will feel after them sometime or other, and if the time will come round that they may partake of the covenants and blessings of God, and stand in their proper place, and not be consigned to all eternity in this dreadful hell. I think he would not like to see his posterity there, more than Abraham would like to see his. All these holy men have their interest to feel after their posterity, and all desire to see them brought forth.

“But,” says one, “they are felled creatures.” And so are the Israelites. Where will you find a more corrupt set than the descendants of Ephraim, so far fallen and so debased a set as the Indians that dwell in these mountains, and that roam wildly over the broad prairies of this country? Their fathers have got to do something for them, to bring them forth to inherit the promises. It is for Abraham to feel after his seed, and be interested in their welfare.

We will go back to old Adam, and see him coming on the earth, as he is the head and father of us all. Well, now I want to know if the old gentleman would like to see his children packed off by nations into a place of torment, millions and millions turned off into the Catholic hell, to roast there to all eternity. I think he has fatherly feeling to his numerous offspring, and would desire, and seek earnestly to have them saved, to have them redeemed from their fallen and degraded condition. For they are no worse fallen, no more degraded and corrupt, than the Israelites are, and have as much right to be brought forth at the proper time, and be blessed, as they have. This is my doctrine, and these are my feelings.

You may go to the head fountain of all, to the God who made Adam, and say, O Lord, why did you make the earth, and cause the sun, and moon, and stars to be made to give light to it, and man to inhabit it, telling him to multiply, and replenish the earth, and cause it to bring forth in its strength for man and beast?

I will go back further, and find the spirits that are existing with him in the eternal world. They came here and obtained bodies, that both bodies and spirits might receive an exaltation among the Gods, and be capable of eternal increase worlds without end. I think this agrees more with philosophy and truth, with an intelligent and extensive mind, with true religion, with our fathers, and with God, than anything else we see abroad.

I see the world of mankind in darkness, and try my best to enlighten them as much as possible. If I can do them any good, I will do it. God has revealed His truth to us, “Mormons.” What to do? To make us glory in it, and in nothing but what God gives to us; and to teach it to others, that they may be put in possession of the same intelligence that we enjoy. What have we to do? To spread this Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, that the Spirit of the Lord may operate upon those who love the truth, that they may have an opportunity of embracing it, and of participating in the same blessings we enjoy, and forming a nucleus whereby a fulness of eternal truth may be developed, and angels come again and communicate with the human family, that the earth may answer the end of its creation, and that all men whoever did or ever will live may answer the end of their creation, that men who have fallen from righteousness may suffer for their sins and transgressions, and by and by come forth and enjoy their proper lot in the eternal world.

“O then,” say you, “I will do as I please in this world.” Very well, go and do it. It will prove that you do not live by the truth because you love it, but if you follow the truth, you are actuated to do so by a dastardly fear of hell. If that is the case, I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for ten thousand such “Mormons.” If a man cannot stand up in the defense of truth, to the death, it is not worth having, and he is not a man who is acknowledged or considered worthy among the Saints. But such will find it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I will notice an instance for your information, to stir up your pure minds, if you have got such minds. I read of many people who were destroyed by the flood; and in Jesus Christ’s day, we read that he was put to death in the flesh, and quickened by the Spirit, by which he went to preach to the spirits in prison, who had been disobedient in the days of Noah, &c. He preached to them, and they came forth out of their confinement. “Well, that would be all right,” you say. O yes, but I want to know how you would like to be shut up in prison, three or four thousand years, or even one year. It is said in Scripture, that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” It also says that “the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God.” Do you believe that? “Certainly I do.” I remember a minister once asking me a question upon this subject. Says he, “Do you believe in eternal punish– ment?” “O yes, I believe the wicked will be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God.” “Do you believe they will stay there?” “O no.” “Why do you not?” “Because it is not according to Scripture.” “But if they all be turned into hell, who forget God, and will go away into everlasting punishment, will they not stay there forever?” “Yes,” I said, “they will go into everlasting punishment, but they will come out again.” “How is that?” “Why the Scriptures declare that death and hell will deliver up their dead, and the sea deliver up the dead that is in it; and all nations will stand before God, to be judged according to the deeds done in the body.” So you see they have got to come out to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or evil. Suppose we have a States prison, for instance, in this place, a transgressor of the laws of the land is put in for a certain time, according to the deeds which he has done, and the evidence and circumstances of the case. After he has suffered according to law, he is set at liberty, but, mark you, the prison still remains, which may be compared to eternal punishment, or God’s punishment. Who will go there? The wicked, for the punishment of their sins, and to teach them a useful lesson. The Scriptures say that some will not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come, but these we will leave in the hands of God.

Some people will ask if we think the devil will be saved. You must ask him, for I have nothing to say about it. I have gone far enough in my remarks. I believe God will accomplish all His purposes, and Satan will not have power to frustrate His designs in any way whatever; for if he did, he would be more powerful than God. Every man will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. Those who have received pure and heavenly principles, and lived up to them, and kept the celestial law of God, will enjoy a celestial kingdom. Those who have not attained to this perfection, but can obey a terrestrial law, will receive a terrestrial glory, and enjoy a terrestrial kingdom, and so on. But I believe, furthermore, that there are eternal grades of progression, which will continue worlds without end, and to an infinity of enjoyment, expansion, glory, progression, and of everything calculated to ennoble and exalt mankind.

This is one of our first estates, or it is our second estate, if you please, and so we move on from state to state, with a knowledge of the true principles of the eternal world revealed to us, which principles are eternal—eternal truth, eternal life, eternal intelligence, leading us on to the possession of celestial kingdoms of God. From intelligence to intelligence, from glory to glory, from power to power we proceed onward, until we possess thrones, and powers, and dominions in the eternal worlds. And I pray God to give us power to obtain all these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.