Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Settlements South of Great Salt Lake City, in April and May, 1863.

On the 20th of April, 1863, the President and company left Great Salt Lake City and arrived at American Fork, when the following instructions commenced—

We shall never see the time when we shall not need to be taught, nor when there will not be an object to be gained. I never expect to see the time that there will not be a superior power and a superior knowledge, and, consequently, incitements to further progress and further improvement.

To look for salvation fifty years hence and do nothing for salvation at the present time is preposterous. God has placed the means of salvation within our reach, and the volition of the creature is at his own disposal. When his sons and daughters avail themselves of the means he has supplied for their salvation, doing good for themselves, it is gratifying to him.

We may rejoice greatly in the possession of the spirit of truth and in the power of God, which elevates the soul to the contemplation of heavenly things, but it does not teach men how to raise corn. The Lord could impart this information in a special revelation, the same as he instructed Adam and Eve how to cover their nakedness. He showed them how to make aprons of leaves and then coats of skins, and instructed Adam in extracting the metals from their ores, the same as one man instructs another. People often wish they had the power of God upon them. This is a good wish, and the power of God is a power that would aid men to accomplish much more than they now do, if they possessed along with it a liberal supply of sound information and good sense. The power of God and true knowledge are component parts of godliness, and all the providences of God dealt out to us are for the furtherance of his kingdom upon the earth. We should be willing to acknowledge his hand in all things and be his faithful sons and daughters, always ready and willing to do what he bids us.

“Mormonism” is as dear as ever to me. In all the prophecies delivered by Joseph Smith, I do not think there has been one failure; and all that has been foretold by ancient Prophets concerning the last days has been fulfilled so far; not one jot or tittle has failed or will fail. The Lord is kind to this people, and if we could understand things as they really are and be as willing to help ourselves as the Lord is to help us, we should advance much more rapidly in the knowledge of God than we do. Every providence and dispensation of God to his earthly children tends directly to life and salvation, while the influences and powers exerted by the enemy upon mankind and every suggestion of our corrupt natures tends to death. If there exists within us one feeling, one desire that is not devoted to the Gospel of the Son of God and to the building up of his kingdom on the earth, that feeling or desire so far tends to death.

Knowledge increases among this people; they know more of the things of the kingdom of God today than they did in the days of Joseph Smith. There was confidence due from his brethren to Joseph which he did not receive. In his death they learned a profitable lesson, and afterwards felt that if he could only be restored to them how obedient they would be to his counsels. The influence and confidence that were denied to him have since, to a great degree, been centered where they see it belongs. Still the old leaven more or less reigns within us; our traditions lead us to reflect upon death as we formerly did, and to suppose that this life is only designed to prepare us to meet the last moments of the dissolution of the body. This life is now the only life to us; and if we do not appreciate it properly it is impossible to prepare for a higher and more exalted life. We live today to prepare for life tomorrow; and if we are prepared to live, death is divested of its terrors, for we die only to live in another condition. In fact, if we only appreciate this life, we will never die. Our bodies may sleep in the grave for a short time—the earthly particles of this tabernacle will return to their mother earth—but that ever-living power within us will never sleep, and we shall receive our bodies again.

The purpose of our life should be to build up the Zion of our God, to gather the house of Israel, bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, restore and bless the earth with our ability and make it as the Garden of Eden, store up treasures of knowledge and wisdom in our own understandings, purify our own hearts and prepare a people to meet the Lord when he comes.

The world is wrong and we have to right it under the direction of Heaven. For this purpose are we located upon the land of Zion, and the land of Zion is North and South America—the land where our heavenly Father made his appearance and planted the Garden of Eden. This land is choice above all other lands upon the face of the earth. We occupy these mountains as a safe retreat from the power of our enemies. When we first came here we did not know that we could raise grain of any kind. Probably some parts of South America are as good for raising wheat as this is; and in no part of North America can they raise better wheat than is raised here. God has blessed the soil for our sakes, and we live and prosper contrary to the expectations of our persecutors. Those who are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel may try to live here, but without our aid they cannot raise a subsistence.

The country where Joseph Smith, Jun., found the plates was then as good a country for grain and fruit as could be found upon the whole land, but when the Latter-day Saints were obliged to leave that region the ground began to cease yielding the accustomed amount, and the yield of wheat decreased probably one half. The Lord blesses the land, the air, and the water where the Saints are permitted to live.

The blessings of the Lord are great upon this people. They are increasing in flocks and herds and are gathering around them property in abundance on the right hand and on the left; let them be careful that they do not place their affections upon the things of this world and forget the Lord their God. The earthly means which we have been enabled to gather around us is not ours, it is the Lord’s, and he has placed it in our hands for the building up of his kingdom and to extend our ability and resources for reaching after the poor in other lands.

We are here personages of tabernacle, designed to be prepared to dwell with the Gods; but we are far from that knowledge we might have possessed had our forefathers enjoyed the Priesthood we have and had we been brought up in it from our youth. Seeing that we possess the holy Priesthood, we should introduce a code of traditions among our children which they will not need to unlearn, as we have had to do. We have received the spirit of life, light and intelligence that comes from God out of heaven, and thus we have become his Saints; and we have gathered to these mountains to learn how to live and what the Lord designs to do with us. We came to these mountains because we had no other place to go to. We had to leave our homes and possessions on the fertile lands of Illinois to make our dwelling places in these desert wilds, on barren, sterile plains, amid lofty, rugged mountains. None dare come here to live until we came here, and we now find it to be one of the best countries in the world for us.

The world of mankind have taken a course to alienate the feelings of each other; they have destroyed the little fellowship and confidence that were formerly placed in man towards his fellow man. I now allude, in particular, to the Christian world. They have taken a course to break up and rend to pieces every trait of friendship. With few exceptions, none dare trust his neighbor, and we have to restore that confidence which has been lost; we have to restore wholesome government and administer wholesome laws to bind the feelings of the people together. The Lord has instituted laws sufficient for the government of his people and has given us rulers and judges that are of our– selves, and it is our business to accomplish this work of reformation, beginning with ourselves.

I try to better my life, and I believe that my brethren do. I can see a visible improvement in those with whom I am most intimately acquainted. Though we are in the world, yet we should be as perfect as mortals are required to be. We are not required in our sphere to be as perfect as Gods and angels are in their spheres, yet man is the king of kings and lord of lords in embryo. Could I in the flesh become as perfect as God in the spirit, I could not stay on the earth with my friends to hold close communion with them and speak with them face to face as men speak to each other. Earth, home, family, and friends have endearments which tie us here until we have accomplished our work in this probation and become ripe for that great change which awaits us all. I would like to stay on this earth in the flesh and fight the Devils until the last one is subdued; and when the earth and its fulness are wholly devoted to the Savior of mankind I will be perfectly satisfied and willing to go into my grave or be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as the Lord will.

As weak and frail as we are, the Latter-day Saints are my delight; their society is sweet to me; I crave no other; they are the only people I wish to see and associate with. Unless in the line of my duty, I do not wish ever to associate with any people who do not believe in the Gospel of the Son of God. I have no desire to again behold the face of an unbeliever; especially of those who have had the privilege of receiving the Gospel and have rejected it. I hope I shall live to see this people serve the Lord with an undivided heart and affection all their days, devoting every day to God and his Work. They have assembled from different parts of the earth to these valleys expressly to serve God and live their religion. The nations of the earth, without exception, have wandered far from the fountain of knowledge and the intelligence the Lord gives to his covenant people. It seems as though it might take the age of an earth like this to bring back the children of God to where they may know their Father and understand that they are his offspring.

In consideration of these things, is it not strange that we should lust after the gay, foolish, vain things of this world? That we should be proud, haughty, arrogant, selfish, covetous and contentious? Should not every person professing to be a Saint so live that the Spirit of God will dwell within them like a burning fire? And when chastisement is necessary, let it always be administered in the spirit of meekness, whether to a wife, a child, a brother, or a sister, &c. God wishes every one of his sons and daughters to purify their hearts to be prepared to dwell with him. We should never permit ourselves, in the beginning of a new day, to converse with a wife, a child, or a neighbor, unless the Spirit of God is with us, retaining it for our companion through the labors and business of the day until we retire to rest at night. Jesus says, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you,” &c. Because we are commanded to love our enemies, shall we forsake the society of the Saints and leave for California and other places to mingle with them, and swear, curse, gamble and do all manner of iniquity with them? No; this is not the way to love your enemies. I would not exhort you to hate your enemies, but I do wish that you would let them alone severely. If we do anything we will pray for them, instead of giving them for naught our time, our energies, our gold and silver, our grain and the good things the Lord has given us for our individual and mutual benefit. Pray for them; but let them alone, unless they are willing to hear the truth.

I wish this people to pay particular attention to the education of their children. If we can do no more, we should give them the facilities of a common education, that when our sons are sent into the world as ministers of salvation and as representatives of the kingdom of God in the mountains, they can mingle with the best society and intelligibly and sensibly present the principles of truth to mankind, for all truth is the offspring of heaven and is incorporated in the religion which we have embraced. We are progressing in this branch of mental improvement. Some of our brethren have been indomitable in their perseverance to divert the minds of our youth from an excess of frivolous and light amusements to the more useful and profitable habits of study and learning. I might here mention Elder David O. Calder, who has successfully been teaching, in Great Salt Lake City, the “Tonic Sol Fa” method of singing. He teaches three distinct classes, altogether numbering five hundred scholars, twice a week. Every accomplishment, every polished grace, every useful attainment in mathematics, music, and in all science and art belong to the Saints, and they should avail themselves as expeditiously as possible of the wealth of knowledge the sciences offer to every diligent and persevering scholar.

I am very much opposed to the practice of sending our boys out on the range to herd stock. In doing this they pass the greater portion of their time from under the influence of their parents and teachers, and are kept in ignorance of the rudiments of learning and of the principles of moral rectitude, and are exposed to the pestilential influences of evil, and to the temptations of those who are older and more experienced in the nefarious practice of stealing and running off horses and cattle. They learn to gamble, to steal, to blaspheme the name of God, to lie, to chew and smoke tobacco, and drink whiskey, while they are in the bush herding our stock. Some of the sons of our citizens have come to a premature grave because they would steal, and, if the truth were known, this fatal practice can, in almost every case, be traced to have found its origin in them when they were herd boys. They then learned to skillfully throw the lasso, they became helps to older thieves for a trifling bribe, until finally they by degrees became lost to all self-respect, refused to labor for an honest livelihood, having imbibed the idea that they could live easier by stealing, became a pest to society, and prematurely met a felon’s fate. We are the guardians of our children; their training and education are committed to our care, and if we do not ourselves pursue a course which will save them from the influence of evil, when we are weighed in the balance we shall be found wanting, and the sin will be laid at our doors.

Let good schools be established throughout all the settlements of the Saints in Utah. Let good teachers, who are Latter-day Saints in principle and at heart, be employed to educate our children. A good school teacher is one of the most essential members in society; he relieves parents, in part, of a great responsibility and labor; we should, therefore, make the business of school teaching a permanent institution, and the remuneration should be in amount and in kind equal to the receipts of our best mechanics; it should also be promptly and willingly paid, and school commissioners and trustees should see to it that teachers are properly qualified and do earn their pay. Could I have my wish, I would introduce into our system of education every real improvement, for all the great discoveries and appliances in the arts and sciences are expressly designed by the Lord for the benefit of Zion in the last days, and would be for the benefit of all mankind it they would cease to be wicked, and learn to acknowledge the hand of God in all things.

The Saints of God should be self-sustaining. While they are laboring to gain the mastery over themselves, to subdue every passion and feeling of their nature to the law of Christ; while they are striving to possess the Holy Ghost to guide them every moment of their lives, they should not lose sight of their temporal deliverance from the thralldom which has been thrown around them by the traditions of their fathers and the false education they have received in the nations where they were born and reared. In Utah territory they are well located for variety of climate suitable to the production of materials necessary to gratify every reasonable want. So far as we have learned the resources of the country, we are satisfied that we need not depend upon our neighbors abroad for any single necessity of life, for in the elements around us exists every ingredient of food and raiment; we can be fed with the daintiest luxuries, and can be clothed almost equal to the lilies of the field. Cotton and fruits of tropical climes can be grown to perfection and in abundance in the southern portions of Utah, while cereal crops, flax, wool, silk, and a great variety of fruit can be produced in perfection in the northern. Our object is not to find and possess great stores of the precious metals. Iron and coal would be far more valuable to us than mines of silver and gold.

To increase clothing in the ratio of the growth of our community and its wants makes it very necessary that we import and make machinery to work up the raw material in great quantities. In the meantime let our wives and daughters employ themselves industriously at their wheels at home, that our wants may be partially supplied until more machinery shall be made and set up in different districts of our territory. Anciently garments were made of linen and of wool, and the Israelites were forbidden to mix wool and linen together; and we read in the book of Genesis that Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in “vestures of silk.” It is of more modern date that cotton has become so extensively used throughout the world as an article of clothing and adorning the body. This southern country is well adapted to the production of cotton; we should raise it and manufacture it in sufficient quantities to meet the wants of our increasing population.

This community has not yet concluded to entirely dispense with the use of tobacco, and great quantities have been imported into our territory. The silver and gold which we have paid out for this article alone, since we first came into Utah, would have built several extensive cotton and woolen factories, and filled them with machinery. I know of no better climate and soil than are here for the successful culture of tobacco. Instead of buying it in a foreign market and importing it over a thousand miles, why not raise it in our own country or do without it? True principles of domestic and political economy would suggest the production at home of every article of home consumption, for herein lies the basis of wealth and independence for any people.

Importing sugar has been a great drain upon our floating currency. I am satisfied that it is altogether unnecessary to purchase sugar in a foreign market. The sorghum is a profitable crop, in Great Salt Lake and the adjoining counties, for the manufacture of molasses; in this section it can be profitably raised for the manufacture of sugar. I have tasted samples of sugar produced from the sorghum raised in the south of Utah, and a better quality of raw sugar I never saw. Let some enterprising persons prosecute this branch of home production, and thus effectually stop another outlet for our money. Sugar ranks high among the staples of life, and should be produced in great abundance.

Tea is in great demand in Utah, and anything under that name sells readily at an extravagant price. This article opens a wide drain for the escape of much of our circulating medium. The tea of commerce is extensively adulterated, not only by the Chinese, but also by numerous others through whose hands it passes before it reaches the consumer. Tea can be produced in this territory in sufficient quantities for home consumption, and if we raise it ourselves we know that we have the pure article. If we do not raise it, I would suggest that we do without it.

Dyestuffs have opened another drain through which considerable of our money has passed off. Wherever Indian corn will flourish madder can be produced in great quantities, yet we have been paying out our money to strangers for this article. Indigo can be successfully and profitably raised in this region. An article in the Deseret News on the culture of indigo, and manufacturing it for coloring, would be interesting, espe– cially to the people of our southern settlements.

Whatsoever administers to the sustenance, comfort and health of mankind forms the basis of the commerce of the world. Gold and silver in coin are only valuable as mediums in trade to facilitate exchange. They can be made useful to us and add to our comfort when made into cups, plates, &c., in our household economy.

Let groves of olive trees be planted, and vineyards of the most approved varieties of grapes, that there may be wine and oil in the land; and let sweet potatoes be raised in abundance, and all trees and roots that bear fruit in the ground and above the ground that can be used as food for man and beast, that plenty may flow in the land like a river, and contentment be enthroned in every household, while industry, frugality, and peace prevail everywhere.

I will offer a few more reflections upon cotton. The first cotton that was raised in this country cost the company that made the experiment $3.65 a pound. The year following it cost them $1.82 a pound. We became satisfied that cotton could be raised here in sufficient quantities to supply our wants and to pay the cultivator. Thousands of the Saints have since then settled in this region, and are engaged in developing its resources. Much has been said with regard to raising and saving cotton. There is no use in raising wheat to let it be destroyed, nor in raising cotton to let it be wasted. When we visited the southern settlements last year the question was asked, “What can we do with our cotton when we have raised it? We have no cards to card it, no machinery to spin and weave it into cloth,” and the belief seemed to be gaining ground that there was no use or profit in raising it. We told the brethren that if they would save their cotton it would in a short time become useful to them. How much they saved or how much they permitted to be wasted I know not. I supposed, by the appearance of the cotton crop in the different settlements, that a great many tons would be ready for market this spring, and be transported to our northern settlements. While conversing upon the subject with a few of the brethren in Great Salt Lake City, brother Wm. S. Godbe said he would buy cotton of the brethren in the south if they would sell. He had some goods passing through this section en route for Great Salt Lake City, and he exchanged a portion of them for cotton. You remember that last summer and fall there was no want of cotton in the eastern country. In the month of January or February according to our dispatches, raw cotton was sold in New York as high as $1.05 a pound. We thought that was a high price for cotton. On the first of March raw cotton was sold in the same city for $0.93 a pound. At this price we thought it would be a safe investment to buy your cotton and send it to the States, and expected you would have some fifty or a hundred tons to throw into the market. Brother Godbe could only get some fifteen thousand pounds. Since that time the price of cotton in the east is reduced to $0.45 a pound, and that is a pretty good price.

Can we make anything by raising cotton and transporting it to the States to be sold at forty-five cents a pound? I think we can. Let some of the brethren try the experiment by raising thirty-five hundred pounds of cotton this season, putting it into a light wagon, hitching on three yoke of cattle, and hauling it to the States, and having it there worked up on shares. If they would manufacture it on halves that would give—making a rough estimate—seventeen hundred and fifty pounds of yarn, which is worth a dollar and twenty-five cents a pound in St. Louis: this would give a handsome profit to the producer. I should think the factories in the east would willingly work up cotton from Utah in this way, as cotton is scarce with them: and they might find it to their advantage to work it up for a less share than one-half. If you have it made into cloth, I would not be surprised if the manufacturer should give you three and take one; but suppose we say that you get one-half in cloth, that would give you some fifty-one hundred yards, which, as it is now selling in Great Salt Lake City, would be equal to about the same number of bushels of oats. By importing one load of cotton to the east a man can make cloth enough to clothe his family many years.

This system of exporting cotton may do very well, until we have multiplied machinery sufficient to work up our cotton at home. The little machinery we have working at Parowan is now making an improved quality of yarn; and they are improving the machinery so fast that I am encouraged, and I believe that we shall be successful in making good cloth. Brother Hanks, who is now superintending that little factory, left some yarn with me, and my family have begun to color and weave it. The yarn is better than we can get from the east, taking one bunch with another.

Brother Horace S. Eldredge expects this season to import machinery for a small cotton factory, and to bring with him a man of experience to set it up. This will create a market in this territory for our cotton.

I wish the brethren of the cotton country to import machinery and make their cotton into cloth, and we will put up machinery in Great Salt Lake City, buy our cotton from you, and haul it to the city. In the meantime, let every appliance for home spinning and weaving be improved upon; let hand cards be used, and spinning-wheels, and let each family make the cloth they wear, for if they do not, they will have to go without it. Is it not apparent to all since the commencement of the war, that we must become self-sustaining? This we have told the people for years.

Let us apply our hearts to our God and our religion, that we may soon be prepared to be more fully organized as the children of God our Father; that we may be qualified to go back to Jackson County, instead of calling for five hundred teams to go to the Missouri River for the poor. Were we to call for teams to go back to Jackson County, five thousand would be on hand. This, however, cannot be until the people are better organized in a temporal point of view, that all their temporal actions may point to the building up of the kingdom of God, when no man will say that ought he possesses is his own, but hold it only for the interest and good of the whole community of the Saints.

With regard to the country southeast of us, let no man move there until he gets word from me. The First Presidency will give you the word to move when it is time. We want the brethren to enlarge their borders here, and extend their settlements up the rivers Rio Virgin and Santa Clara; and by-and-by they will reach the Severe, from which point we have a good route through Sanpete to Great Salt Lake City.

Let me now say to my brethren, the Elders of Israel, it is always proper to kindly and affectionately ask the people to perform what you wish performed, instead of ordering them to do it. This principle is always good for parents and teachers to observe.

Build good commodious dwelling houses, plant good gardens, and surround yourselves with every comfort, and learn to beautify the earth, and prepare it for the coming of the Son of Man. May God bless you: Amen.

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 29, 1863.

I feel thankful for a part and lot in the great Work of the last days. It is a calling that ought to engage all our interests and welfare, being inculcated in the maintenance of those principles which alone can bring salvation to the human family. My soul delights in them. They must be sustained, though all the world should rise in opposition.

We live in that age of the world which the ancient Prophets have foreseen, when the wicked would “make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.” I have often thought that the world does not know what righteousness towards God con– sists in; they place great stress upon this, that and the other doctrine or principle as being necessary to salvation, which has not been thought of by any person who has been sent of God to lay before the children of men the true way. They have made laws and rules of faith, and set up church governments that cannot be drawn from anything to be found in the holy Scriptures or in any revelation I know anything about.

Obedience towards God is righteousness towards God. “Jesus answered and said unto them, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him,” &c. In order to become a holy and righteous people, it is necessary to listen to and obey every word that proceeds from the mouth of God through his servants whom he has placed to guide his kingdom, on the earth. This is righteousness towards God. It is said we can do nothing for the Lord, that if he was an hungered, he would not ask us for bread, &c.; but we can perform the duties we owe to him by the performance of the duties we owe to each other; in this way we can show ourselves approved before our Father who is in heaven. “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Who has a greater opportunity of doing good to the brethren than the Latter-day Saints? Who has a finer chance of showing their faith by their works?

The gathering of Israel I will mention as one of the many opportunities that this people have of showing their good works to their brethren in distant nations, who are now suffering for want of the common necessaries of life; who are pleading day by day with their brethren and with the Lord continually for temporal deliverance. In these Valleys the people are well provided for, are wealthy and exceedingly prosperous, and can well afford to prove their loyalty to the heavens in expending a portion of their means to gather Israel. A great many are doing what they think they can do, but I think we might do more, as a people, in aiding to gather Israel, which is one portion of the great Work of the last days. This is a part of our religion, to do all the good we can in aiding and assisting our brethren in distress who are of the household of faith, and in placing them in a condition like unto ourselves in these quiet vales of the mountains, where they can be freed from the thralldom of sin and oppression in which they have lived to the present time. We have so far effected our deliverance, and in this the Lord has been extremely kind to us, in planting our feet in these goodly valleys where we have been blessed and prospered. No person here need go without the common necessaries of life. How much will we devote to the deliverance of our brethren, who are as anxious as we are to identify their interests with the kingdom of God at headquarters, where they, like us, can be benefited in the instructions we receive here from time to time? I have often thought that we do not fairly comprehend the great mercies and blessings the Almighty has conferred upon us; if we did, we should show our appreciation of them by our actions in aiding those who are so anxious to be delivered from Babylon to be planted in these valleys and participate in the blessings we enjoy.

As I said in the beginning, the world is opposed to us, but we have nothing to do with them in one sense, but to do our duty and sustain righteous principles with an eye single to the glory of God; in this he will sustain us and bring us off victorious at last. We have great reason to be thankful this morning for the great peace and prosperity which attends us as a people; we have great cause to rejoice before the Lord of Hosts, who has been a kind Father unto us from our early infancy to this time. What has he not done for us? Do we not live in an age of the world in which he has revealed his holy Gospel and sent his messengers with the light of the Gospel, and have we not become the happy participants of this knowledge? Are not our feet planted upon the rock of salvation? Has he not delivered us from the power of wicked, ungodly and designing men, and given us an inheritance far from their power, where we can worship him, none daring to make us afraid? Has he not blessed this land in a miraculous manner to bring forth for the sustenance of his people? He has shielded us from the savage foe, and given us influence over them, whereby we can travel to and fro among them and from place to place in comparative safety. How can we render unto him sufficient homage, thanksgiving and praise to prove unto him that we do appreciate his great and manifold mercies? I know of no better way than to be obedient to the calls made upon us from time to time, to respond to them in that free way that shall prove to God that all we have and all we can do is held and devoted to the promotion of the cause we have espoused, regardless of the consequences.

We should not hesitate when anything is proposed to be done for the promotion of the cause of God on the earth, but should say, Make way, prejudices; go by the board, whatever traditions would rise up. When the Lord speaks, let everything else give way; as the masses of the people would fall back on the approach of the king, so let our own ideas and prepossessed notions give place to the word of the Lord and to the wisdom that emanates from him; let everything else become subservient to those principles, doctrines and truths. This is the way I have always felt since I became acquainted with this Gospel and with this people.

This Work is not done in a corner, but it has been sent to the whole world, and all men have the privilege of adopting the same principles of truth which we have embraced, if they shall choose to do so; but because they do not choose to do so, it should not become a rock of offense and a stumbling block to them nor to us. We have undertaken to sustain these holy principles which have been revealed in the last days. Shall we now falter? Or shall we, because others point the finger of scorn at us, be ashamed of this holy cause and back out from it? Does it make any difference as to what other people think of it? No. It is for us to cling together and go onward continually in the path we have chosen to walk in.

There are few, probably, in this Church and kingdom but what have in their possession some kind of a testimony which proves to their satisfaction that this is the Work of Heaven; it has touched their hearts. Thousands who do not belong to the Church have evidence of its truth, but will not admit it. The mind is bound to receive and to believe the truth according to the amount of testimony given and the evidence produced, but through pride the majority of the human family will not admit the truth openly, although they may do so secretly and believe in the same doctrines we do. Let them do as they please, that is no reason why we should falter, change our course in the least, or alter our views; but let us press onward continually and prove to the Lord that we are true and faithful to him.

We live in a land of liberty, where the power and the control rests with the people, or should do so; to a great extent it does so. We have great liberty, we have great freedom, notwithstanding the efforts of some to abridge our liberties and our freedom; still the Lord is not unmindful of us, for he directs and governs the affairs of the children of men, more especially now since he has commenced his Work in the last days: I think I might qualify this a little, by saying more especially to our understanding. I have no doubt but what he has always done so; but the heavens, in a manner, have been shut up to the vision and view of mankind for a long time, but now his dealings with them have become more manifest than in ages gone by; we can now see his footprints more clearly and can realize more sensibly the Work in which he is moving, bringing to pass his purposes for the redemption of the world, for the overthrow of sin and iniquity and for the establishment of his kingdom, which Prophets, long ages past and gone, have seen would be set up in the last days. We have undertaken to do our part towards establishing his kingdom, which will eventually reign over the whole earth, where all nations, kingdoms, tongues, and people will acknowledge Emanuel’s sway and the earth be lit up with the glory of God and be prepared for his kingdom and coming.

In these valleys of the mountains a nucleus is finally formed of a people who have been gathered out from all the nations of the earth, for the express purpose of sustaining holy and righteous principles which the Almighty has revealed from the heavens and to form a community that shall be self-sustaining. Latter-day Saints associate together in a community to prove to the Lord and to the world that they can sustain themselves; that the doctrines and principles God has revealed to them are self-sustaining in their nature—so much so, that a whole community may be sustained by practicing and living faithfully up to them. Hence it is that the shafts of the enemy are directed against us for the overthrow and destruction of those holy principles.

We know of a verity that the Work in which we are engaged is of God; we know we have the knowledge of God our Father and of his Son Jesus Christ, whom to know is life everlasting; we know in whom we have put our trust; we know the principles which we have espoused are based upon a solid and sure foundation; we know they are true, and truth is eternal and will lead to ex– altation in the kingdom of God if we are true to each other and to the principles which have been revealed. We are not guessing at these things, nor groping our way in the dark in relation to them. Should not our course be to turn aside every shaft of the enemy aimed at our brother as well as at ourselves? When we see danger, should we not warn our brother against it and use every exertion to assist each other to walk faithfully in the right way, shielding each other from the power of the enemy and endeavoring to pick up those who are wandering into bye and forbidden paths, pointing out to them the right way and exhorting them to walk in it? We should guide the footsteps of the young and ignorant, and teach them the principles which have a tendency to bring them into the path of life and glory. We should try to overcome all weaknesses and eradicate from our bosoms every unholy desire and remove from our footsteps every evil way. We too often see carelessness and indifference in the midst of this people with regard to these small matters; I call them small, because they are so often passed by and neglected.

We ought to instil into our children a nice sense of honor and truthfulness in their words, that when they come to act in real life they may receive and reverence principles of holiness that will lead them ultimately to the possession of eternal life and salvation. People often speak jestingly of the holy things which we hold, or should hold sacred. I have heard people do it, and always tell them they would satisfy my feelings much better if they would not make a jest of things I hold sacred. I remember a man in Nauvoo, who was conspicuous in this Church, once at a party saying to the fiddler, “Let me lay hands on that old fiddle, and then perhaps you will not have so much trouble with the strings.” I was then a Gentile, as they called them, and he, no doubt, thought that such jesting with holy things would please me, but I always despised him afterwards for making use of such an expression and making light of one of the holy ordinances of God which he professed to believe in. Jesting on sacred matters grates on my ears. I do not suppose people mean any harm when they do it, but it has a deleterious influence upon our children, whom we ought to teach to reverence sacred things. I would like their sense of honor to be such that they will do right because they love to do right, and not refrain from doing wrong merely because they are afraid somebody will see them do wrong. Let the love of right be bred in them, that feeling of honest consciousness of doing right, and not evil, that shall preserve them in the hour of temptation. Let the love of right be instilled in their young and tender minds, that it may grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength, learning to love the truth for its beauty and the things of God because they are worthy of being loved. Often people are deterred from doing right because of what the world will say and for fear of the pointing of the finger of scorn. That is not what we should care about; we should care to please God and do the things that are right before him, and then let the world wag as it will. This ought to be our motto, and we ought constantly to seek to instil this feeling into the bosoms of our children, that they may act upon the principles of right because they love them and prefer them because they are good before the Lord, and eschewing evil because it is hateful to them. The child is naturally inclined to this way. It is their associations with the wickedness that is in the world that teaches them hypocrisy and evil of every descrip– tion, and the fear of the world’s scorn, their laugh and ribald jest have their influence upon the mind of the child. Hence it becomes necessary that more pains should be taken in instructing them and showing them the propriety of truthfulness and honest uprightness of conduct to strengthen and protect them in the hour of temptation.

This great work in regard to training our children should not be neglected, because it is while they are young that we can have the greatest and most lasting influence over them. It is the privilege of the Latter-day Saints in these valleys of the mountains more especially to attend to this sacred duty, because when we mingled with the outside world we could not there enjoy the rights, the liberty and the freedom we enjoy in these mountains. No child is laughed and scoffed at here because his father and mother are Mormons. Then let us attend to these matters and govern ourselves by the holy principles that have been revealed to our understandings, live our holy religion faithfully and bring forth the blessings of peace, the blessings of the Almighty which are ready to drop from the heavens upon us as fast as we are able to receive and use them profitably to ourselves and to the Work in which we are engaged. The child needs first to ripen in judgment and good understanding before the father can commit any great trust to his charge. So it is in the dealings of our Heavenly Father with his people; he knows better than we do when to bestow great blessings upon us and what is for our best good. We should improve upon the blessings he has already given us to the fullest extent of the light and information we can get, and not trouble ourselves as to what is in the future, because that is just beyond our reach. If we travel in the path I have been trying to mark out, we shall attain everything we can ask for in due time. By improving upon what we have, by keeping ourselves unspotted from this untoward generation, by walking in faith and obedience before our God, we can attain to more than we have now any knowledge of. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the things that are in store for the faithful,” when they shall attain to that stature in Christ that will entitle them to receive them.

I do not, however, wish to throw the mind of the community upon something great in the future to the neglect of present blessings and present duties. Let us count over the blessings we this day enjoy; let us look into the past and mark the constant flow of blessings with which the history of this people has been attended from the beginning. Neither do I wish us to stop here and say that we have all we need; but while we are desiring blessings that are still future to us, let us not neglect the things which are now within our reach day by day, but live constantly our holy religion, being faithful and diligent in all things that are for us today, cleaving closely to the Lord, knowing that we are in his hands and that we are his children, having all confidence in him and in his constituted authorities on the earth, then will our knowledge and intelligence increase and our blessings will continue in a steady flow. This is all the business we have on hand to attend to, to serve our God and make ourselves comfortable and happy, securing from the elements everything we need for our sustenance and support, building houses, making roads, opening farms, planting orchards and vineyards, bringing from the mountains timber and lumber and all things else we need. All this labor is necessary to sustain us, and that the Lord may have a people who are zealous of good works and who will do his bidding, and through whom his kingdom may be established upon the earth and become a self-sustaining community, being governed and controlled in every particular by the revelations of the Most High, and by the principles which he has revealed. We are now the best governed people in the world, and for the best of all reasons—we have the best Government and the best Governor; our Heavenly Father is at the helm, from whom emanates all wisdom, truth and righteousness. No matter what the difficulties are which we are called upon to overcome, still we have everything to encourage us; we can go to the great fountain of all good; nothing can compare with this. Should we not feel encouraged and rejoice, and give praise and thanksgiving to God, who is so good a Father to us, who has watched over us to this day, to say nothing of the glorious future which is opening up before us continually.

This people have a future which the world little dreams of. They will see the time when those who seek to destroy them from under heaven will come bowing and scraping to them obsequiously and sycophantic enough, no doubt. That, however, does not affect us one way or the other; it is for us to do right and please our God with full purpose of heart, that his will may be done on the earth as it is done in heaven. The Lord will not slacken his hand nor look backward, but will progress onward with his people who will abide faithful and true to him. Righteousness must predominate in the midst of this people, and iniquity will have no part or lot with them, but if any among them wish to work iniquity and do not delight in holy principles, this is not the place for them; they had better go where there are influences more congenial, where they will not be abridged of their desires to do evil. No man has liberty to do evil, though he may have the power, nor has he any right to do evil. There is no law against doing right, but the law is against doing wrong. Man has power to do right or wrong as he pleases, but he is held responsible for that power and the exercise of it.

May God bless us and help us to do right, to keep his laws and commandments and statutes holy, and be obedient to him in all things, is my prayer in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1863.

I do not wish to confine myself to any particular subject this afternoon.

The rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its history up to this day are vividly portrayed in my memory. I referred to that subject this morning, and to the persecution we, as a people, have received, and the persecuting the Prophet Joseph Smith unto death. I have also in my mind the condition of the Christian world, as well as the revealed religion of the Savior; also the Jewish as the forerunner of the Christian religion.

This morning I referred to the intelligence we have, and the position of the world. The people want to know a great deal—they want to know all, but it cannot all be learned in one day nor in a short period of time. We expect to learn to all eternity.

This people are an object of derision and astonishment to our Christian neighbors, and to the whole world an object of reflection and serious thought. Almost every man occupying a public position in the political, religious, or heathen world wishes to possess great influence and to extend his power. There is only one way to obtain power and influence in the kingdom of God, and only one way to obtain foreknowledge, and that is to so live that that influence will come from our Creator, enlightening the mind and revealing things that are past, present and future pertaining to the earth and its inhabitants, and to the dealings of God with the children of men; in short, there is no source of true information outside of the Spirit of revelation; it maketh manifest all things, and revealeth the dispositions of communities and of individuals. By possessing this Spirit, mankind can obtain power that is durable, beneficial, and that will result in a higher state of knowledge, of honor and of glory. This can be obtained only by strictly marking the path of truth, and walking faithfully therein.

We are objectionable to our neighbors. We have a warfare. As the Apostle says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This warfare commences within us.

The spirits that live in these tabernacles were as pure as the heavens, when they entered them. They came to tabernacles that are contaminated, pertaining to the flesh, by the fall of man. The Psalmist says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This Scripture has established in the minds of some the doctrine of total depravity—that it is impossible for them to have one good thought, that they are altogether sinful, that there is no good, no soundness, and no spiritual health in them. This is not correct, yet we have a warfare within us. We have to contend against evil passions, or the seeds of iniquity that are sown in the flesh through the fall. The pure spirits that occupy these tabernacles are operated upon, and it is the right of Him that sent them into these tabernacles to hold the preeminence, and to always give the Spirit of truth to influence the spirits of men, that it may triumph and reign predominently in our tabernacles the God and Lord of every motion. We not only have this warfare continually, day by day, within ourselves, but we also have an outside influence or pressure to resist. Both the religious and the political world have influences to contend against that very much resemble each other; they are more or less exercised, governed and controlled by surrounding influences. We Latter-day Saints have an influence of this kind to contend against.

The inquiry has often been made of us in the course of our history, why we do not contradict such and such statements, “Why do you not confute this or that?” “Why do you not enlighten the people in regard to certain statements which are urged against you, and disabuse the public mind?” Our position at the present day is far superior to what it was sixteen, twenty and thirty years ago. Sixteen years ago we were on the inhospitable prairies, and in an Indian country. Five hundred of our able-bodied men had been taken from us by the call of the Government, and went to fight the battles of their country. There are women and children sitting here today, whose husbands, sons and fathers went on that campaign to prove to our Government that we were loyal, who became widows and orphans in consequence of that requisition. Those noble men left their wives and children and their aged fathers and mothers houseless and without protection upon the wild prairies and surrounded by savages, exposed to all the rigors and changes of the weather, to heat and cold, to rains and storms without protectors, until many sank under it and left their lifeless remains to be laid be– neath the prairie sod. When this call was made upon us, to put to the test our loyalty, we had traveled from Nauvoo and were resting in the western part of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Had we boots and shoes to our feet? No. A few had, but the majority of the people had not. Had our wives clothing to last them five years? No. Had our children clothing to last them that length of time? No. The great majority of the people had not clothing nor shoes to make them comfortable a single day. We were obliged to leave our property behind us, with the lame and blind and feeble who were pounced upon while we were absent to find them a safe abiding place.

This is the outside pressure. It forced us from Ohio to Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois into the wilderness. We were accused of disloyalty, alienation, and apostasy from the Constitution of our country. We were accused of being secessionists. I am, so help me God, and ever expect to be a secessionist from their wickedness, unrighteousness, dishonesty, and unhallowed principles in a religious point of view; but am I or this people secessionists with regard to the glorious Constitution of our country? No. Were we secessionists when we so promptly responded to the call of the General Government, when we were houseless and friendless on the wild prairies of Pottawattamie? I think not. We there told the brethren to enlist, and they obeyed without a murmur.

With regard to our going into the wilderness, and our there being called upon to turn out five hundred able-bodied men to go to Mexico, we had then seen every religious and political right trampled under foot by mobocrats; there were none left to defend our rights; we were driven from every right which freemen ought to possess. In forming that battalion of five hundred men, brother Kimball and myself rode day and night, until we had raised the full number of men the Government called for. Captain Allen said to me, using his own words, “I have fallen in love with your people. I love them as I never loved a people before.” He was a friend to the uttermost. When he had marched that Mormon battalion as far as Fort Leavenworth, he was thrown upon a sick bed where I then believed, and do now, he was nursed, taken care of, and doctored to the silent tomb, and the battalion went on with God for their Friend.

That battalion took up their line of march from Fort Leavenworth by way of Santa Fe, and over a desert and dreary route, and planted themselves in the lower part of California, to the joy of all the officers and men that were loyal. At the time of their arrival, General Kearney was in a straitened position, and Colonel P. St. George Cooke promptly marched the battalion to his relief, and said to him, “We have the boys here now that can put all things right.” The boys in that battalion performed their duty faithfully. I never think of that little company of men without the next thoughts being, “God bless them forever and forever.” All this we did to prove to the Government that we were loyal. Previous to this, when we left Nauvoo, we knew that they were going to call upon us, and we were prepared for it in our faith and in our feelings. I knew then as well as I do now that the Government would call for a battalion of men out of that part of Israel, to test our loyalty to the Government. Thomas H. Benton, if I have been rightly informed, obtained the requisition to call for that battalion, and, in case of noncompliance with that requisition, to call on the militia of Missouri and Iowa, and other States, if necessary, and to call volunteers from Illinois, from which State we had been driven, to destroy the camp of Israel. This same Mr. Benton said to the President of the United States, in the presence of some other persons, “Sir, they are a pestilential race, and ought to become extinct.”

I will again urge upon this people to so live that they will have the knowledge they desire, as we have knowledge not of all, but only of that which is necessary. Have we not shown to the world that we love the Constitution of our country and its institutions better than do those who have been and are now distracting the nation? You cannot find a community, placed under the circumstances that we were, that would have done as we did on the occasion of furnishing the Mormon Battalion, after our leading men had been slain and we had been compelled to leave our farms, gardens, homes and firesides, while, at the same time, the general Government was called upon in vain to put a stop to such a series of abuses against an innocent people.

The people said, “Give us redress for our wrongs!”

Government: “Did you say anything? Hard of hearing; can’t hear a single word you say.”

“Mr. President, Mr. Senator, Messrs. everybody else, can you hear the cries of the widow and fatherless?”

Government: “Did you speak? Can’t hear you gentlemen; mark what I say, I can’t hear you.”

After all this, to prove our loyalty to the Constitution and not to their infernal meanness, we went to fight the battles of a free country to give it power and influence, and to extend our happy institutions in other parts of this widely extended republic. In this way we have proved our loyalty. We have done everything that has been required of us. Can there anything reasonable and constitutional be asked that we would not perform? No. But if the Government of the United States should now ask for a battalion of men to fight in the present battlefields of the nation, while there is a camp of soldiers from abroad located within the corporate limits of this city, I would not ask one man to go; I would see them in hell first. What was the result a year ago, when our then Governor, and I thank God for such a Governor as we had a year ago, called for men to go and guard the mail route? Were they promptly on hand? Yes, and when President Lincoln wrote to me requesting me to fit out one hundred men to guard the mail route, we at once enlisted the one hundred men for ninety days. On Monday evening I received the instruction, and on Wednesday afternoon that hundred men were mustered into service and encamped ready for moving. But all this does not prove any loyalty to political tyrants.

We guarded the mail route; but they do not know what we know with regard to guarding this route, and they will find that out by and by. We do not need any soldiers here from any other States or Territories to perform that service, neither does the Government, as they would know if they were wise. I will, comparatively speaking, take one plug of tobacco, a shirt and three cents’ worth of paint, and save more life and hinder more Indian depredations than they can by expending millions of dollars vested in an army to fight and kill the Indians. Feed and clothe them a little and you will save life; fight them, and you pave the way for the destruction of the innocent. This will be found out after a while, but now it is not known except by comparatively a few.

We complain of the barbarity of the red men for killing innocent men, women, and children, especially for killing women and children. They are to blame for this. But remember that they are savages, and that it is an usage among them to kill the innocent for acts of the guilty.

I will ask every person who is acquainted with the history of the colonization of the Continent of North and South America, if they ever knew any colony of whites to get along any better with their savage neighbors than the inhabitants of Utah have done. Talk about making treaties with the Indians! Has there been any one treaty with the Indians fulfilled in good faith by the Government? If there is one, I wish you would let me know. But we call them savages, while at the same time the whites too often do as badly as they have done, and worse, when difference of intelligence and training are taken into account. This has been so in almost every case of difficulty with the red skins. When soldiers have pounced upon these poor, ignorant, low, degraded, miserable creatures, mention a time, if you can, when they have spared their women and children. They have indiscriminately massacred the helpless, the blind, the old, the infant, and the mother.

I am a human being, and I have the care of human beings. I wish to save life, and have no desire to destroy life. If I had my wish, I should entirely stop the shedding of human blood. The people abroad do not generally understand this, but they will. Like Paul, they do that they would not do, and leave undone that they would do because of the sin that reigns in their members. The nations of the world may apply this same text to their own case. They want to do something, but what to do rightly they do not find.

We have not only the man of sin to contend with, but also the outside pressure. Now then, what should we say concerning this people? I will answer. There has never been a time or circumstance since this Territory was organized, but what the civil law has reigned triumphantly in the hearts and acts of this people. The outside pressure now is that this people, called the Latter-day Saints, are secessionists in their feelings, and alien to the Constitution and institutions of our country. This is entirely false. There is not another people upon the face of the earth that could have borne what we have, and still remain as loyal to our brethren as we have been and are. They might be displeased with some of the acts of the administrators of the law, but not with the Constitutional laws and institutions of the Government.

This people are filled with patience and long-suffering, clinging to the institutions bequeathed to us by our fathers as closely and as tenaciously as ever babe clung to the Maternal breast, and we would that the Government had always been so wisely administered as to bind the best feelings of the people together, and to create and still continue to create a union instead of alienation. The affections of the masses of American citizens—both of the people in the North and in the South, are alienated from each other, and they are divided. We would it could be otherwise, but this is the result of the acts of leading politicians of our nation. When the people’s affections are interwoven with a Republican government administered in all its purity, if the administrators act not in virtue and truth it is but natural that the people become disaffected with maladministration, and divide and subdivide into parties, until the body politic is shivered to pieces. There is no other platform that any government can stand upon and endure, but the platform of truth and virtue.

What can we do? We can serve God, and mind our own business; keep our power dry, and be prepared for every emergency to which we may be exposed, and sustain the civil law to which we are subject. We have an adjudicator of the law in this Judicial District who has been here some eight or ten years. Has he found any difficulty or trouble in the performance of his official acts in this district, which we may say is the brain, the lungs, the vitals of the whole Territory? Has he met with any difficulty in administering the civil law here? He has not, except in the case where tyrants have sought to interrupt the even course and administration of it. Those who aim to soar to power and fame by taking such a course, pluck out the pinions of their own wings, and rob themselves of the glory and power which they so earnestly seek.

We have our own difficulties to encounter as a people, arising from influences that cannot be fully comprehended by those who are not of us and are not living with us. As for offering refutations to charges made against us, it would be impossible to keep pace with the thousands of freshly invented falsehoods that the powers spiritual and the powers temporal would produce to feed the credulity of the ignorant masses. Bunyan says that it requires a legion of devils to watch one Christian; it would require a legion of refutations to keep pace with one infernal liar, therefore we say, “lie on, falsify everything you want to falsify, and say what you please; there is a God in Israel, and if you have not yet learned it, you will learn it.”

Some of my friends and brethren have lately thought that there is an influence being got up against us. I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for any influence that our officials here, who are operating against this people, have in Washington. If their true characters were only known there, their influence would be devoid of weight in the mind of any right thinking man. I am in no way concerned about what they can do against us. I wish one course to be pursued by this people, and all the rest will be right. If they will walk faithfully in the path of their duty, in uprightness before God, clinging to right, and so conducting themselves that no being in the Heavens, on the earth, under the earth, or in hell, can say in truth that they are guilty of any unjust or wicked action committed knowingly, all will be right. God rules in the Heavens, and he does his pleasure among the inhabitants of the earth, he causes victory to perch here, and defeat and disgrace there, as he will, and contending armies know not the cause of their victory or their defeat. It is God who rules.

We are in the midst of these mountains, and we have good and salutary laws to govern us. We have our Constitutional laws and our Territorial laws; we are subject to these laws, and always expect to be, for we love to be. If there is any man among us who has violated any constitutional law, try the law upon him, and let us see whether there is any virtue in it, before we try the strong arm of despotism and tyranny. I stand for Constitutional law, and if any transgress, let them be tried by it, and, if guilty, suffer its penalty.

In 1857, it is estimated that eleven thousand troops were ordered here; some seven thousand started for this place, with several thousand hangers on. They came into this Territory when a company of emigrants were traveling on the south route to California. Nearly all of that company were destroyed by the Indians. That unfortunate affair has been laid to the charge of the whites. A certain judge that was then in this Territory wanted the whole army to accompany him to Iron County to try the whites for the murder of that company of emigrants. I told Governor Cumming that if he would take an unprejudiced judge into the district where that horrid affair occurred, I would pledge myself that every man in the regions round about should be forthcoming when called for, to be condemned or acquitted as an impartial, unprejudiced judge and jury should decide; and I pledged him that the court should be protected from any violence or hindrance in the prosecution of the laws; and if any were guilty of the blood of those who suffered in the Mountain Meadow massacre, let them suffer the penalty of the law; but to this day they have not touched the matter, for fear the Mormons would be acquitted from the charge of having any hand in it, and our enemies would thus be deprived of a favorite topic to talk about, when urging hostility against us. “The Mountain Meadow massacre! Only think of the Mountain Meadow massacre!!” is their cry from one end of the land to the other.

“Come, let us make war on the Mormons, for they burnt government property.” And what was the government doing there with their property? They were coming to destroy the Mormons, in violation of every right principle of law and justice. A little of their property was destroyed, and they were left to gnaw, not a file, but dead cattle’s bones. I was informed that one man brought five bloodhounds to hunt the Mormons in the mountains, and that the poor devil had to kill them and eat them before spring to save himself from starving to death, and that he was fool enough to acknowledge it afterwards in this city. This is the kind of outside pressure we have to meet with. Who wanted the army of 1857 here? Who sent for them? Liars, thieves, murderers, gamblers, whoremasters, and speculators in the rights and blood of the Mormon people cried to government, and government opened its ears, long and broad, saying, “I hear you, my children, lie on, my faithful sons Brocchus, Drummond, and Co.,” and so they did lie on until the parent sent an army to use up the Mormons. Now I say, for the consolation of all my brethren and sisters, they cannot do it; and that is worse to them than all the rest; they cannot do it.

The rank, rabid abolitionists, whom I call black-hearted Republicans, have set the whole national fabric on fire. Do you know this, Democrats? They have kindled the fire that is raging now from the north to the south, and from the south to the north. I am no abolitionist, neither am I a proslavery man; I hate some of their principles and especially some of their conduct, as I do the gates of hell. The Southerners make the negroes, and the Northerners worship them; this is all the difference between slaveholders and abolitionists. I would like the President of the United States and all the world to hear this.

Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. The nations of the earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and he awaketh and behold he is empty.

The following saying of the prophet is fulfilled: “Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, &c.” God rules in the armies of Heaven and does his pleasure upon the earth, and no man can help it. Who can stay the hand of Jehovah, or turn aside the providences of the Almighty? I say to all men and all women, submit to God, to his ordinances and to His rule; serve Him, and cease your quarrelling, and stay the shedding of each other’s blood.

If the Government of the United States, in Congress assembled, had the right to pass an anti-polygamy bill, they had also the right to pass a law that slaves should not be abused as they have been; they had also a right to make a law that negroes should be used like human beings, and not worse than dumb brutes. For their abuse of that race, the whites will be cursed, unless they repent.

I am neither an abolitionist nor a pro-slavery man. If I could have been influenced by private injury to choose one side in preference to the other, I should certainly be against the pro-slavery side of the question, for it was pro-slavery men that pointed the bayonet at me and my brethren in Missouri, and said, “Damn you we will kill you.” I have not much love for them, only in the Gospel. I would cause them to repent, if I could, and make them good men and a good community. I have no fellowship for their avarice, blindness, and ungodly actions. To be great, is to be good before the Heavens and before all good men. I will not fellowship the wicked in their sins, so help me God.

Joseph Smith, in forty-seven prosecutions was never proven guilty of one violation of the laws of his country. They accused him of treason, because he would not fellowship their wickedness. Suppose the land should be cleansed from its filthiness and the law of God should predominate, if a man or woman should be found who had corrupted themselves and thereby become diseased, that man or woman would be placed by themselves, as the lepers were anciently, never more to commune with the human family. Purify your flesh and blood, your spirits, your habitations, and your country, and then you will be pure before God. This change has got to be before this earth will be taken back into a celestial atmosphere.

Find fault with me because I have wives! They would corrupt every wife I have, if they had the power; and then they cry to the government, “You had better do something with the Mormons; they are deceitful and disloyal!!” I am disloyal to their sins and filthiness. Cleanse your hearts and the whole person, and make yourselves as pure as the angels, and then I will fellowship you.

I say to every man and woman in this community, suffer not your affections to wander after that which is unholy; do not lust after gold, nor the things of this world. Sanctify yourselves before your God and before one another, until you are pure outside and in and all around you, and see that you faithfully perform every duty.

Now, as we are accused of secession, my counsel to this congregation is to secede, what from? From the Constitution of the United States? No. From the institutions of our country? No. Well then, what from? From sin and the practice thereof. That is my counsel to this congregation and to the whole world.

May God bless everybody that wishes well to his kingdom on the earth. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1863.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perhaps one of the most comprehensive subjects that mankind can reflect upon. It not only embraces things as they now exist, associated with the human family, but it takes us back to days that are past and gone, to the organizations of this world and of other worlds, and by the principle of revelation it develops, unfolds and makes manifest unto the human family the great purposes of God as they shall transpire throughout every succeeding age. There are thousands of details or minutiae mixed up with these great projects, purposes, and designs, some of them we comprehend correctly, or think we do; others are not so clear and comprehensible to our minds.

There are some things we, as a people, have to do with perhaps more than any other people that exist, though they have to do with all people, if the people would have to do with them. But, in relation more particularly to the position that we occupy before God, before the world and before each other; and the faith we have in God, in his Work, in his ordinances, in his laws and in his kingdoms—and the reasons of that faith are to me and to all Latter-day Saints matters of very great importance—we are led to inquire upon what is our faith based, why are we Latter-day Saints? Why do we believe, as we do, in the doctrines of this Church? And whence do we obtain our faith or our knowledge, as the case may be, in relation to these matters? Why is it that there has been so singular a religious movement as that which has taken place within the last thirty years, introducing views that are contrary to the commonly established views of the whole religious world? Why is it that this people, say in this Territory, embracing a scope of country of some five hundred miles in extent, with a population that, comparatively speaking, may be called dense for a country like this, has assumed the proportions of a body politic, if you please, that have organized themselves into a Territory and have asked for admission as a State into the great American Confederation? Why is it that a thing so singular as this has taken place? Is it because there has been a desire among the originators of this Work, or any part of them, to establish a political power? I am not aware that this is the case. If there has been any such feeling and desire apart from other leading principles it is something I am not acquainted with. We have commenced to gather ourselves together under certain influences, certain principles and under a certain faith. We have gathered ourselves together from various parts, and although there has been a strong influence used to separate us, to scatter us abroad, to produce disunion, to sever us one from another; yet no influence, no power, no reasoning, nor anything whatever that has been brought to bear on this people to accomplish that object has succeeded; there is some cause, some reason for this. There are mighty motives underlying, overruling and overreaching all motives of a political character. The first thing that ever was proclaimed by the Elders of this Church was the Gospel of peace on the earth, and goodwill towards men has continued to be preached, and among other influences there has been a certain influence that has gathered the people to together. There has been no influence that could be brought to bear upon this people that could sever or separate them.

There must be, therefore, some reason for movements of this kind. Such movements are not very common in the world. It is common for various religious societies to arise in the world; but, generally, they are very narrow and contracted in their notions. They are not adhesive or cohesive, they do not unite or combine. You may take the Methodist society, the Presbyterian society, the Baptist society, the Episcopalian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, or any other you please, and you will find that motives of a political character will separate them and make them enemies to one another and make them take up arms against one another, fight one another and shed each others blood. They not only seek to destroy each other, but they all pray to the same God to help them to do so. There is nothing strange or singular in this; for there is no motive, principle or power to cement or unite them together further than a sort of fancied religion which does not possess the principles of union; for instance, in some of the great wars that took place in Europe some years ago; one of the last with which we are the most familiarly acquainted, was between Russia, England, and France. Who took up sides in the struggle? There was the Greek Church under the Russians, Protestant England, Catholic France, and the Muhammadan or Turk fighting against each other. The Catholics were Christians, the Protestants were Christians, the Russians were of the Greek or Christian Church, the Turks were Muhammadans; all worshippers of the same God, under different forms. These were arrayed against each other in deadly strife all praying to the same God to give them power over their enemies, and their enemies were also Christians; then they went to slaying and destroying each other. Let us notice the difficulties between France and Italy against Austria. In this case there were two Catholic powers engaged against another power which was also Catholic. Religious considerations do not confine or control them in the least. They fought just as hard to kill their fellow Christians, as the Muhammadans or any other people would fight to kill their enemies. They were all in the same church, all partaking of the same sacrament, all believing in the same doctrines and worshipping the same God.

How has it been in the United States? Precisely the same. Who were the first to separate? It was the religious communities of the country that separated first, Baptist from Baptist, Methodist from Methodist, Universalist from Universalist, &c. The churches made a division long before the States divided, showing that there was less virtue or unity in churches than in the state of the body politic. The Northern and Southern armies are composed of members of these different sects that exist in the Federal and Confederate States.

I mention these things to show you that there is no adhesive principle sufficiently powerful to unite the people of any portion of the earth, similar to the one that has sprung forth in our day and right among this people; if there is anything of that sort abroad in the world I am not acquainted with it. Then it follows, as a natural consequence, that if there is nothing to unite the people together they are deficient in some principle, doctrine, faith, or practice. Philosophy has not united the people together; politics has never done it; no social principles have ever accomplished it.

Freemasonry is one of the strongest binding contracts that exists between man and man, yet Freemasons are mixed up in those different armies, trying to kill each other, and so they have contended against each other for generations past. There must be something, then, to control this people different from that which seems to control other people socially, religiously, politically or any other way. There is some kind of a cohesive power, some kind of an attractive principle, something that unites and concentrates this people together in a manner altogether different from that of any other people under the face of the heavens; and so singular is it, that it attracts the attention of philosophers, of statesmen, of politicians and of leading men of every grade—they wonder at it, as they wondered at Jesus when he was upon the earth; they wonder what this state of things will grow to; they are fearful of the consequences and results of this union. We are naturally led to inquire how these things originated; from whence springs this principle, this influence, this power, for it is a very important one. It has dragged us from our homes; it has sent hundreds of Elders wandering up and down the earth for these ten, twenty and thirty years past; it has made us, in the estimation of our friends we used to associate with, laughingstocks and fools, and it has finally brought us together in this place; it has also assumed a political power as a natural consequence or result, simply because there was no other course for us to pursue. Whenever a body of people are thrown together, the inevitable consequence is a political power. It cannot be otherwise. They must have organizations, representation, laws and administrators of law; there must be a body politic formed whenever a body of people are gathered together as we are; and the very fact of our organization, religiously and politically, the very fact of that oneness that so universally prevails among this people produces a terror to evildoers and to those who are opposed to us. Why is it that a principle of this kind should exist among this people? For we can readily discover, in looking abroad in the world, that it does not exist anywhere else. Is it because we are more learned than they are? Is it because we are more intellectual and refined? Because we are greater philosophers, better statesmen, more acquainted with cause and effect, have studied more extensively the position of the world generally and its government and laws? I do not so understand it. There is something besides this; naturally, we are no smarter than other men and no more intelligent than they are; but there is a kind of principle of some sort that infuses itself into our very nature, is a great principle in our body politic and is mixed up with our religion and with our morals; it is a sort of secret spring of some kind that governs, actuates, controls, unites, and cements us together in a manner that no other people under the face of the heavens are united. I would like to try to make it plain to others, if the Lord will help me, why it is that these things have taken place. To begin, we will go back to the time when this movement first commenced. It would seem that a record had been hid up upon this continent for generations past. It would seem that a people had lived upon this continent who were full of the Holy Ghost, who had a knowledge of God, who possessed revelation, who had Prophets inspired by the Spirit of God, as they were on the Asiatic continent or in any other part of the world. It would seem that these Prophets, in common with the Prophets on the Asiatic continent and with the men of God in former ages, had looked forward to a time that we read of in the Bible, called the “Dispensation of the fulness of times, when God would gather together all things in one, whether they be things in the heavens or things upon the earth.”

It would seem that these Prophets had recorded these things in this record, that in the time of the dispensation of the fulness of time, when God should commence his great Latter-day Work, that among other things men should be taught the laws of life and the knowledge of God, and that the coming forth of this Work was to be the starting point of a great event; one of sufficient magnitude to have attracted the attention of all the ancient Prophets that ever did live; one of sufficient magnitude to influence the attention of the Gods in the eternal worlds; one of sufficient magnitude to cause that a medium of communication should be opened between the heavens and the earth, that light should again burst forth from the heavenly world, that the spirit of prophecy and revelation should again be unfolded, that an era should be inaugurated pregnant with life, light, and intelligence unto those that then lived, that they might have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, of knowing his laws, purposes and designs, his Gospel, the principles of eternal truth, the laws of life, that men should again be acquainted with things that had been, with things that were and with things that were to come.

The ancient Prophets of the two continents foresaw that the issuing forth of that record was to be the commencement of the Latter-day Work; one said, “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” “The meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” It is one of those sticks that Ezekiel saw should be written upon, even the stick of Joseph which should be written for Ephraim, and be united with the stick of Judah, and become one stick—one in prophecy, one in revelation, one in doctrine, one in ordinances, one in unfolding the purposes and designs of God, and in leading mankind to a knowledge of the truth, as it was to be introduced in “the times of the restitution of all things spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began.”

The revealing of these records was to be one of the starting points in relation to this matter. Then it needed some instrument, some individual, some messenger, some communication, because it would be impossible without something of this kind that these things could transpire. There needed some authorized messenger, some communion from the Lord to reveal, unfold and make these things manifest. To talk about the world as it is, and the authority they have to preach the Gospel and administer the ordinances and dictate the affairs of the kingdom of God, is foolishness to reason upon; but we will merely give it a passing notice. Where did the different religious sects get their authority from? Who ordained them to administer in the name of God? Who gave them that authority? The Church of England gave authority to all the seceding sects that have sprung out of her, and they left her because she was corrupt. Where did the Church of England obtain her authority? From the Church of Rome, which they say is the mother of harlots and the abomination of all things. Where does the Church of Rome obtain her authority? They tell you that they get it down in an unbroken chain of descent from the Apostles’ times. Their statement is the most reasonable, rational and consistent of them all. The Greek Church professes to be governed by the same authority. When we apply a test to them we find that they do not stand upon a very good foundation. When, and wherein, and how have they departed from the true authority of God? I will quote a certain Scripture by one of the old Apostles, “He that transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” Do they abide in the doctrine of Christ? I think not.

Who taught them to sprinkle little children? Did the Gospel of Jesus Christ teach them this? No. But they rely on an unbroken descent for their authority. In answer to this, the Protestants tell them that the chain of their Popedom has been broken at different times. I do not care whether it has or not. If the Pope transgressed, it is not to say that the bishops and priests and the whole community did; this would not be a sufficient argument to satisfy me that the Roman Catholics had departed from the faith of Christ; but when they gathered together the authorities of the church from all the world in a solemn conclave, as they did at the Councils of Nice and Trent, and passed resolutions which admitted of doctrines and principles in direct violation of the laws of God and of the Church of God, then as a church, with the voice of their representatives they forsook God and introduced the doctrines of men. “He that transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God;” and if they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ they do not retain their priesthood and authority to administer in the ordinances of God. Then we are left without authority on the earth.

Shall we go to the Greek Church for the true authority? It is based pretty much upon the same principle as the Roman Catholic Church is, and all the sectarian bodies of Christendom are as destitute of the true authority of God as the mother church is.

Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom. There is no people that have held communion with God, no true church, priesthood, or authority, no medium of communication between God and man for church government, to dictate, regulate, manage, and control the affairs of his kingdom upon the earth.

How did this state of things called Mormonism originate? We read that an angel came down and revealed himself to Joseph Smith and manifested unto him in vision the true position of the world in a religious point of view. He was surrounded with light and glory while the heavenly messenger communicated these things unto him, after a series of visitations and communications from the Apostle Peter and others who held the authority of the holy Priesthood, not only on the earth formerly but in the heavens afterwards. That they hold it in the heavens we know from the Scriptures. In them there are certain principles revealed in relation to that matter that nobody could reveal unless they were acquainted with the principle of revelation. Moses and Elias were seen with Jesus on the mount, when Peter and his brethren saw them, who said, “Master, it is good for us to be here: let us build three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.” Who was this Moses? He was a man who had officiated before on the earth, had held the holy Priesthood, had been a teacher of righteousness, and who, with the Elders of Israel, had talked with God, and had received revelations from him, holding the Priesthood that administered in time and eternity. When he got through with this world his official duties were not ended, for he appeared to Jesus, Peter, James, and John upon the mount, to confer on them certain principles, authorities and Priesthood, that they might also be enabled to administer in the ordinances of salvation, and officiate as the representatives of God upon the earth. And hence, when Joseph Smith came, those who had held the keys before came to him, so he told me and others, and revealed unto him certain things pertaining to the kingdom of God upon the earth, and ordained him and set him apart to the ministry and Apostleship unto which he was called. He presented himself before the world and informed the people that God had spoken, and that he had spoken to him. He told them that the heavens had been opened and that angels clothed in light and glory had appeared to him and revealed unto him certain things. Then we have Oliver Cowdery, who tells us something about these things, and gives his testimony as a living witness. Again, there were eleven witnesses in relation to the Book of Mormon, who testify that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation from God. And some of these witnesses tell us that an angel of God came and laid before them the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and they knew that their testimony was true and faithful. Others tell us that they saw and handled the plates from which the record was taken. I have conversed with several of those men who say they have seen the plates that Joseph Smith took out of the hill Cumorah; I have also conversed with Joseph Smith, who has told me of these things and many more that it would be unnecessary on the present occasion to relate. Here, then, is an abundance of testimony that assumes a supernatural agency—an interposition of the Almighty—an opening and an unfolding of something to the human family with which they have been unacquainted. These things are left for the human family to reason upon; they are presented unto us in that capacity, just as things were presented formerly to others. We were told formerly that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and how can they hear without a preacher, and how can he preach unless he be sent.” Here, then, was a medium introduced by the Almighty to excite the faith or unbelief of the people. Here are certain records unfolded, and here is a man presenting himself before the people, declaring that God was about to usher in the dispensation of the fulness of times; and for this purpose he had introduced an ancient record that had belonged to the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent, together with that, he tells them that the so-called Christian churches had gone astray, and all mankind were laboring under gross darkness, and that darkness had covered the whole earth. He furthermore tells them that God had it in his mind to reveal unto them his will, and draw back the dark veil that overspreads the minds of the people—to introduce the principles of eternal truth, and that he came as a messenger from God, having been set apart by holy angels sent by the Almighty for that purpose, that, in the first place, he might be acquainted with correct principles, and then be able to teach them to others. This is the phase which this thing assumed at that time; and the people felt about it as the old Jews did when Jesus told them that they were deceivers, whited walls and painted sepulchres; they said, Away with such a fellow from the earth. When Joseph Smith told the priests, the good Methodists, the righteous Presbyterians, and the holy Roman Catholics that they were all wrong, how could they endure it. But you must endure it, for God has spoken and the word has gone forth. The Lord, in the first place, commanded all men everywhere to repent and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, giving them a promise that they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is different to anything that has been before in the world. That which was before, assumed no shape and came with no authority from God. The various sects of the world imagined that they had the Holy Ghost, but they forgot that it was to lead men into all truth. That spirit which they have mistaken for the Holy Ghost has led them into confusion, contention, and strife, and consequently it is not the Holy Ghost spoken of in the Scripture. Joseph Smith, having found and made manifest these things, and having turned the key that unlocks the destinies of the human family, having had committed unto him the key of this dispensation, he began to unfold and make manifest the things of God to the world, to all who were desirous to listen and yield obedience thereunto. A good many felt as the people felt when Jesus came, that “This man speaks with authority, and not as the scribes;” there were other principles and another spirit introduced developing other precepts, laws, ordinances, manifestations, and doctrines, and a greater power was associated with it than had been with any previous manifestations. What then? Why, the Lord was reasonable—he always has been; he is a good and gracious God, a benefactor and friend, suiting his doctrines and principles to the capacities of the human family. What was the consequence when men heard those principles? Many of them had a portion of the Spirit of the Lord among them, and as light cleaves to light, truth to truth, and intelligence to intelligence, wherever there was the light of the Spirit of God in the mind of man it discovered, comprehended, and embraced the truth. What is it? God has spoken; a record has been revealed, making manifest the events that have transpired on this Continent, and prophecy, and revelations, and visions, and the purposes of God, &c. This agrees with the Old Record; there is no need to bring argument here on that question, for it has been argued and investigated throughout the world. What then? Did I know because Joseph Smith knew? Not exactly. Joseph Smith had certain things revealed to him, and he was commanded to communicate those things unto others. What then? He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and shall know for himself of the things which he has believed in. This was the principle upon which my faith was based at the commencement. For instance, an Elder came to me and preached the Gospel and told me all these things. I was struck at once with them. I was well acquainted with the Bible, yet I had never heard such teachings before; had never seen such principles developed; had never listened to such words as came from his mouth, illustrating, making manifest and explaining the Scriptures, the Book of Mormon, and the revelations of God, and opening the heavens as it were to my view. It was to me one of the greatest things I had ever heard. He said to me, “If you will be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as you go in faith and humility and obedience to the law of God and forsake your sins,” &c. This was precisely the same thing that Peter told the people in his day. Said he, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” What will it do for us, Peter? “It will cause your old men to dream dreams, and your young men to see visions, and your servants and handmaids shall prophesy; it will bring things past to your remembrance, lead you into all truth, and show you things to come.” Here was quite a chance for a man to detect whether Peter was an impostor or not; and there was a favorable opportunity to detect whether the Mormon Elder was an impostor or not, for he promised the same things that Peter promised to believers, and all the Elders do the same. Can you find a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Roman Catholic that dare tell you what Paul said anciently, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ?” Why? Have you not been persecuted and afflicted and been let down in a basket over a wall, been driven from place to place and considered a deceiver? Yes. “But I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; and therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” I have obeyed the same Gospel. What then? Did the signs follow? Yes; I believed before I obeyed, and after I had been baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, that Holy Ghost took of the things of God and showed them unto me, so that I then knew for myself. But did I believe particularly because I heard tongues and prophesyings and saw healings? No; but these made me glad, for in them I saw the ancient order of things brought back again. It made me rejoice to see the sick healed, the lame to leap for joy and the blind receive their sight, the deaf to hear and the dumb speak. This was a certain amount of testimony for the doctrines that had been advanced. But, besides this, there was an inward evidence—an invisible manifestation of the Spirit of the living God, bearing witness with mine that this was the work of God that he had established in the last days, and I knew it for myself and not because anybody said so. At first I believed it on the testimony of others, and then obtained a knowledge for myself. If there is no other man under the heavens that knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God I do, and I bear testimony of it to God, angels, and men. How did it operate upon others? In the same way, inasmuch as they were sincere and faithful, and diligent in observing the laws of God, and hence, as the Scriptures say, “You are all baptized into one baptism, and have all partaken of the same Spirit,” and that is the Spirit that first commenced to be revealed through Joseph Smith, and the administration of holy angels, and the development and restoration of the holy Priesthood. If you do not know in the same way that I know this is the Work of God, I would not give a straw for your religion.

Having received this knowledge, it operates the same upon all and hence the union that exists among us. It is the same in Canada, the same in the Northern States, the same in the Eastern States, the same in the Western States, and the same in the Southern States; the same in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Denmark, Germany, the islands of the sea, and the different parts of the earth wherever this seed has been sown and the Elders have gone forth in the name of Jesus Christ bearing the precious seeds of eternal life. Wherever that has rested in good hearts it has produced the same results, giving the same signs, if not the same degree of evidence, and this has cemented and united us together; it is the little leaven that begins to leaven the whole lump; it is a part of the Spirit of God—a living spark that is struck from the fire of his eternal blaze that has made itself manifest on the earth; it is the still small voice that whispers peace to the soul—the thing that Jesus spoke of when he said—

“My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.”

They feel the peace that passeth all human understanding. They possess the Spirit of God, though they cannot always tell the whys and wherefores. It is not because a man is learned and polished after the learning of this world that he knows, but because he comprehends and listens to the whisperings of the Spirit of God speaking peace to his bosom and giving him understanding that he is accepted of his Heavenly Father—“I in thee, and thou in me,” &c. It is this which has drawn us together—this that has cemented and united us, that has led us from our homes to the position we now occupy in these mountains.

An Elder whose mind was darkened once came to me to tell me that something was seriously wrong in the Church. How am I to believe you? said I. I was told by you one year ago that if I were to obey the Gospel I should know of the doctrines whether they were of God. I have obeyed and I know for myself, and am no longer dependent upon your testimony, and you cannot make me now unknow it. No matter what your ideas and notions are, now I know for myself. God is our teacher; he has organized his Priesthood and government upon the earth, which is the cementing influence that unites this people together, and as the Lord said formerly, “If you are not one you are not of me.” I remember on a certain occasion in Liverpool we were told not to say anything about the gathering. A lady came to me and said she had had a singular dream. “I dreamed,” she said, “that the whole Church was going off to America, and that you were there; we were going on board of a ship and leaving for America.” What was the reason of this singular dreaming? She had embraced the Gospel, and it revealed certain things to her that she could not know in any other way. “Your old men shall dream dreams,” &c. Can you keep people in the dark in relation to these things? No. And when a people live their religion, and all the Quorums of the Church are walking up to their privileges, then a certain ancient aphorism would be correct, “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” and the voice of God is the voice of the people—it would suit either way. It is upon this principle that we are united; and hence, no matter where this people come from nor what their former views and prejudices, they may have been different in regard to many things and opposed each other previously in politics, governments, rights, morals, religion, and theories, yet they will all agree now that they know this to be the Work of God.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ produces the same results among all people and in all generations, and if they cannot fully understand the whys and wherefores about it, they feel a good deal as the man did about Jesus and the child that had been healed. When Jesus had healed the child, some of the righteous people said, “Come, now, give God the glory: for we know this man is a sinner.” The man replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not I cannot say: but I do know that this child was blind, and now he sees.” So with the people of this Church, they know that, whereas they were once blind, now they see. Having partaken of this, what can separate us? “Shall life, or death, or principalities, or powers, or things present, or things to come, or anything on earth, in heaven or hell, separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Hence the secret of the union of this people.

One of the most irrefragable proofs of the Divinity of this Work is found in one thing—that everything that has been spoken by Joseph Smith in relation to these things has thus far been literally fulfilled, and you are his witnesses, as also is the Holy Ghost that bears witness of him. What next? Why, it is as it was in former times, “All are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s,” we are one with him, and one with the Father. “I in thee, and thou in me, that they all might be one, as I and the Father are one.” This is the reason we are found together in a religious capacity, and why we are not disunited like the rest of the world. This is the reason why we are united politically, because this is bound to follow. You get some thousands of people together and they are obliged to be governed by law, and form themselves into a body politic. We have been kicked and cuffed and abused almost all the day long, yet we are not much hurt, so far. We are here, and all is right, all is well, and we are bound to grow and increase.

Do you think the Lord, and the holy Prophets that have existed on this and on the other Continent, and the Gods in the eternal worlds have started this thing to end here? No. It is simply a nucleus of light, of intelligence, of truth, of virtue, of correct principles, of the holy Priesthood, of the revelations of God, and of something that has got to spread and to grow, increase and expand until it becomes a great nation and fills the whole earth; until all that has been spoken of by the holy Prophets shall be fulfilled in relation to these matters; until error shall give place to truth, wrong to right; until corruption and tyranny shall give place to justice and equity: instead of man bearing rule and having his own way, “God shall be king over the whole earth: and his name one;” “and unto him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, to the glory of God the Father.” We are only just commencing in this Work, which will grow, and spread, and increase, and no power on this side of hell shall stop its onward progress; it is onward, onward, onward, until the purposes of God and all he has designed shall be fulfilled and accomplished.

This is truly a great Work—a Work with which God and angels and Saints that have lived before us, and the souls that are beneath the altar praying unto God for the accomplishment of these things, are engaged in. The heavens and the earth, at the present time, are in communication, and God is our judge, our ruler, our lawgiver, our guide and director to lead us on in the ways of life, and no matter about events that may transpire; no matter whether our path is very rough and rugged or smooth, it makes little difference: it is for us to do right, maintain our integrity, honor our calling and magnify it and honor our God and one another, obeying faithfully those who are placed over us. Do I know that Brigham Young is called of God to lead this people? I do, upon the same principle that I knew Joseph Smith was. What can any of us do without God, without his law and without the principles of eternal truth?

I pray that we may be enabled to work righteousness and be exalted into heavenly places in Jesus Christ! That we may fear God in our hearts, do the thing that is acceptable to the Most High, prepare ourselves for a celestial inheritance and an exaltation in his kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 22, 1863.

“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament of my blood, which is shed for you.” There is nothing very peculiar in this ordinance, though it is rather a strange institution when we reflect upon it. This ceremony has been attended to throughout generations that are past, and still it is attended to. Jesus said also, “Do this until I come again.” Notwithstanding the great falling off—the great apostasy since the days of Christ and his Apostles, this ordinance has generally been adopted by the Christian churches, so called, however they may err in many other principles of faith and doctrine. This ordinance has been renewed to us, and is part and parcel of the new covenant God has made with his people in the latter days. It was practiced among the ancient Saints who resided upon this Continent, long before it was discovered by Columbus, as well as upon the Continent of Asia among the Saints that lived there. When we attend to this ordinance we do it upon the same principle that they did anciently, whether among the Saints of God on the Asiatic Continent or among the Saints on the American Continent.

I was a little struck with the hymn that was sung—

“Behold the Savior of mankind.” My mind was led to reflect back to the time when he was upon the earth, and to the time previous to his sojourn here, and to the way and manner in which he came upon the earth, and the designs of his heavenly Father in his coming here, also the designs of God relating to the world and to his Saints in particular. As we find ourselves upon this stage of action, it is very natural that we should inquire something about the position that we occupy here and our relationship to God, and something about the plan of salvation and about those who have acted and operated in this plan. It would seem from all that we can gather, both from old and new revelations, that God has had a design to accomplish in relation to the world whereon we dwell, and also in relation to the inhabitants that have dwelt and will dwell thereon, and also in regard to the heavens; in relation, also, to those spirits that have not yet come into existence, as well as those that have; in relation to those who have lived and died without the Gospel, as well as those who have had the privilege of the Gospel—to bring to pass things that he has contemplated before the world was. We, as a portion of the human family, are interested in these events, and ought to understand our position in relation to them and also to God, and, at the same time, we ought to comprehend in some measure our relationship to each other. We ought to know what course to pursue to secure the approbation of our heavenly Father, and fulfil our destiny upon the earth in the best possible manner, and aid with all our might to accomplish those things God has designed before the world was.

It would seem that the coming of the Savior to the world, his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension to the position he occupies in the eternal world before his heavenly Father, has a great deal to do with our interests and happiness; and hence this continued memorial that we partake of every Sabbath. This sacrament is the fulfillment of the last request of Jesus Christ to his disciples. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord’s death till he comes.” Faith in this ordinance would necessarily imply that we have faith in Jesus Christ, that he is the only begotten of the Father, that he came from the heavens to the earth to accomplish a certain purpose which God had designed—even to secure the salvation and exaltation of the human family. All this has a great deal to do with our welfare and happiness here and hereafter. The death of Jesus Christ would not have taken place had it not been necessary. That this ceremony should be instituted to keep that circumstance before the minds of his people, bespeaks its importance as embracing certain unexplained purposes and mysterious designs of God; they are explained in part, but they are not fully comprehended. It is not fully comprehended why it was necessary that Jesus Christ should leave the heavens, his Father’s abode and presence, and come upon the earth to offer himself up a sacrifice; that he should, according to the Scripture saying, “Take away sin by the sacrifice of himself;” why this should be, why it was necessary that his blood should be shed is an apparent mystery. It is true that we are told that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins; but why this? Why should such a law exist? It is left with us as a matter of faith, that it was necessary he should come and, being necessary, he shrank not from the task, but came to take away sin by offering up himself.

Jesus Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures as “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” What sins of the world did he take away? We are told that it is the sin which Adam committed. We do not know much about Adam nor what he did; but we know that this sacrifice took place and that we are in the position we now occupy, and we are ready to believe from the testimonies we have received in relation to this sacrifice that it was the will of God he should thus offer himself up and that he came here for that purpose. He was “The first begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;” and suffered his body to be broken and his blood to be spilled, doing “Not his own will, but the will of him that sent him,” not to accomplish his own purpose particularly but the purpose of him that sent him, and hence we are told to observe this rite until he comes again.

There is something also to be looked to in the future. The Son of God has again to figure in the grand drama of the world. He has been here once and “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” It would seem that his ancient disciples upon this Continent or upon the Continent of Asia actually looked forward to the time when Jesus would come again and hence he is frequently spoken of in the Scriptures having a reference to his second advent, that to these who look for him “He would appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Again, Isaiah, in speaking of him, says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of my people was he stricken,” &c. Again, the same Prophet spoke of him as coming in power, glory and dominion, and as having his wrath and indignation kindled against the nations of the earth. “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” Jesus accomplished what he was sent to do, and, feeling satisfied of this, when he was about to leave the earth he said he had finished the work his Father gave him to do. But there was another work, another event that was to transpire in the latter days, when he should not be led as a lamb to the slaughter or be like a sheep before the shearers; when he would not act in that state of humiliation and quiescence, but when he will go forth as a man of war and tread down the people in his anger and trample them in his fury, when blood should be on his garments and the day of vengeance in his heart, when he would rule the nations with an iron rod and break them to pieces like a potter’s vessel. There must be some reason why he was allowed to suffer and endure; why it was necessary that he should give up his life a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and there must be a reason why he should come forth in judgment to execute vengeance, indignation and wrath upon the ungodly. In these reasons we and all the world are intimately concerned; there is something of great importance in all this to us. The whys and wherefores of these great events are pregnant with importance to us all. When he comes again he comes to take vengeance on the ungodly and to bring deliverance unto his Saints; “For the day of vengeance,” it is said, “is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” It behooves us to be made well aware which class we belong to, that if we are not already among the redeemed we may immediately join that society, that when the Son of God shall come the second time with all the holy angels with him, arrayed in power and great glory to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel, or when he shall come in flaming fire, we shall be among that number who shall be ready to meet him with gladness in our hearts and hail him as our great deliverer and friend. In relation to all events that have transpired and to the designs of God connected with the earth and all grades of men upon it, and to the events that transpired before we came into this existence, if there is anything we cannot clearly comprehend we can leave it for the future to reveal. True it is the privilege of a certain class of people to have the Holy Ghost that Jesus said should bring things past, present and to come to their remembrance and lead them into all truth. We can have a portion of that Spirit by which we can draw back the veil of eternity and comprehend the designs of God that have been hidden up for generations past and gone; we can go back to our former existence and contemplate the designs of God in the formation of this earth and all things that per– tain to it; unravel its destiny and the designs of God in relation to our past, present and future existence. If we can comprehend all these things so much the better. If we do not understand everything in relation to every event of the past and the future, it is necessary we should know something about the things that now exist, something about the position of the world we live in, and something about our relationship to that God who still lives and will continue to live, and something about our interests in that redemption wrought out for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose death and sufferings we are now commemorating. We should know enough about this to save ourselves and to know how to save the generation with which we are associated; enough to know how to save our families and to teach them the laws of life and the way that leads to God and exaltation; enough to know how to live and enjoy life and how to avoid the calamities that are coming upon the earth and how to prepare ourselves for celestial glory in the eternal worlds. How shall we know the laws of life? How shall we know anything about God? How shall we know anything of futurity? I know of no other way than that which has been communicated to man formerly; I know of no other way than the way that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Enoch, Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles obtained their knowledge, and that was by revelation. Jesus said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” No matter what ability and talent a man may possess, all must come under this rule if they wish to know the Father and the Son. If knowledge of them is not obtained through revelation it cannot be obtained at all. Hence we are told, “This is the stone which was set at naught by you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” and unto him every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, and hence he is called the Mediator of the New Covenant, and hence we are told to ask for blessings in the name of Jesus Christ and to approach the Father in his name. We are told that to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent is eternal life. This knowledge cannot be obtained independently of revelation. We cannot come to God except through Jesus Christ; he is the only medium through which we can approach the Father. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What rock? The kind of evidence he had that Jesus was the Christ—the principle of revelation; flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him, but his Father in heaven, and upon this rock Jesus built his church. Upon the same principle that we know that Jesus is the Christ and that God is his Father and the church of Christ is built on this and has been in all ages. This principle alone can give the knowledge of God which is life eternal and the only power by which a man can stand unscathed in the trying hour. Those who possess this principle are one with Jesus Christ and one with the Father, as says Jesus, “I in them and thou in me, that they all may be one, even as I and the Father are one, that they may be one in us.” They are baptized with the same baptism, they are baptized with the same Spirit, they are in possession of the same knowledge and they know God, whom to know is life everlasting. When built upon this rock the storms may blow, the rains may descend and beat upon the house, but it cannot fall because it is founded upon a rock. These are some of my reflections in relation to this ordinance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. As to the whys and wherefores of this, there are a great many of them; the world is full of them, and eternity is full of them; all comprehensive, just, true, reasonable, all scientific, and according to the strictest principles of philosophy, if we could only understand the philosophy. The philosophers in the world understand something of the rules of natural philosophy; but those rules will never lead a man to the knowledge of God; if he ever obtains this knowledge it must be by the principle of revelation. All the works of God, whether on the earth or in the heavens, are constructed on strictly philosophical principles. We understand in part the things of earth; when we see things as God sees them, we shall then understand the philosophy of the heavens: the mysteries of eternity will be unfolded and the operations of mind, matter, spirit, purposes and designs, causes and effects, and all the stupendous operations of God will be developed, and they will be found to accord with the strictest principles of philosophy, even the philosophy of the heavens. In regard to the events that will transpire on the earth, we have had a thousand ideas and many of them probably correct. We have believed that God had an object to accomplish in relation to this world; we believe we came here for this purpose and that the myriads of human beings that have inhabited this earth since its organization have come and gone for a certain purpose. We have believed that there have been conflicting elements and conflicting spirits and powers, and we have believed that God has designed ultimately to root out and remove from the earth everything that is contrary to his will, designs, and purposes in relation to the earth. As a people we believe that God has commenced in these last days to build up his kingdom and root out the ungodly from the earth and establish correct principles. We believe there is an antagonism in the world to God and to his laws and to the principles of truth, not only with the bodies of men but with the spirits of men who have left the earth and the spirits who are in opposition to God. There are various influences at work to oppose God and his laws and the establishment of his kingdom upon the earth. We believe, moreover, that he will ultimately accomplish his own purposes, establish his own government, root out the wicked, take the reins of government into his own hands and possess the kingdom himself. We are not singular in this belief. The same things have been believed by every man that has known God in all ages of the world; all who have ever been inspired by him have had the same views in relation to these matters that we have, hence Paul says, “That the times of restitution have been spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began.” So all men who are inspired of God know him and can look into futurity; and all who ever have lived who were thus inspired looked through the vista of future ages to the time we are speaking of, and which we commemorate when we partake of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. They looked forward to the time when he would come again and when a reign of righteousness would be introduced on the earth. The next time he comes he will see that right bears the sway and the meek of the earth increase their joy in the Lord and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel; when trouble and sorrow shall have an end and the scorner shall be consumed and those who watch for iniquity shall be cut off. Righteousness will take the place of error, wrong give place to right, falsehood and guile to truth and sincerity and every principle that has demoralized, corrupted, and enthralled the inhabitants of the earth will be destroyed; when not only one people, one individual, or an isolated few will participate in this blessed state of things, but every knee shall bow to him and every tongue confess to him that he is the Christ to the glory of God the Father, whose authority will be acknowledged throughout the world. The earth no more will groan under corruption and sin, and its inhabitants will no more suffer from the powers of darkness, but will be fully and thoroughly redeemed from the thralldom thereof, and truth, righteousness, judgment, and equity will reign with universal empire. We believe the commencement of these great changes has come in our day. We believe that God has revealed to the human family, through Joseph Smith, the great principles upon which the latter-day kingdom is founded. We believe that God has begun now to gather together his elect, as the Scriptures have foretold he would do. We believe the Lord is beginning to put forth his law as fast as the people will listen to it and feel willing to obey his precepts. Says John the Revelator, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This Gospel, it appears, was again to be sounded in the ears of all people, all the world was to be made acquainted with the revelations God had communicated, and they were to be told to fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come. We believe that God has commenced this operation, and that we are gathered for this purpose that we may learn the way of life and be instructed in the things of God, to be prepared for all that is about to transpire. In the old world and in the new world I have mixed up with philosophers, divines, and politicians, and with all grades of men, but I never found anybody that knew anything about these important matters. Years ago I found a man by the name of Miller, who took up certain Scriptural numbers and began to calculate when Jesus would come; he found himself, however, under a great mistake, for Jesus did not come at the time he had set for him to come. He might have known that, for no man can know the things of God but by the Spirit of God. This people have obeyed the Gospel and felt the effects of it, notwithstanding all our infirmities and weaknesses. This people know something of God; and if they do not there is not anybody under the heavens that does. But do we know how to regulate, manage, control, and dictate the affairs of the Church and kingdom of God? No—if we are destitute of the principle of revelation; and if we have it, only then according to our Priesthood and calling. God has organized his kingdom and set in order his Priesthood, setting every Quorum in its place and position, and it is for all the Saints to bow and yield obedience to it and be governed by it; if they do not, what better are we than the world? It would be with us as with some of the ancient Saints, who were told they had commenced in the spirit and sought to be made perfect in the flesh; they commenced with the wisdom of God and sought to perfect themselves by worldly wisdom and human judgment. To know God and the ways of life is infinitely more important than any worldly consideration. “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” We ought to know something about God and the laws of life and the laws of his kingdom, and seek to be made acquainted with the events that will transpire in the latter days, events with which we are intimately associated at the present time. Things take place that we cannot always reconcile to our judgment. I do not know why Jesus should leave his Father’s throne and be offered up a sacrifice for the sin of the world, and why mankind have to be put through such an ordeal as they have to pass through on this earth; we reason upon this, and the Scriptures say that it is because man cannot be made perfect only through suffering. We might ask why could not mankind be saved in another way? Why could not salvation be wrought out without suffering? I receive it in my faith that this is the only way, and I rejoice that we have a Savior who had the goodness to come forth and redeem us, and I rejoice that we have a Savior who yet looks forward to the redemption of the world. I rejoice that we are watched over for good by invisible agencies of God who are determined ultimately to put an end to sin, darkness, confusion and misery with which the world has been enveloped, and deliver us and not only us but the spirits of the dead. O what a glorious principle this is when we reflect upon it; our progenitors will not be lost. When I first read the revelation which was given to Joseph Smith upon this subject, I thought it was one of the most sublime revelations I had ever read. God will bring order out of all the confusion that has existed, measure out mercy to all Adam’s posterity and give to all a fair opportunity of being saved. What a glorious thought. If it is a delusion, it is a pleasant one. I have thought over these things and rejoiced over them, as I do this day. If I cannot understand all the whys and wherefores about the purposes of God if he brings to pass all that is spoken in the revelation I have referred to, with the many glories mentioned, and we discover that God has extended mercy so far as he possibly could to the veriest wretch that ever crawled on the earth, and has brought forth and redeemed all the human family, as far as possible, and exalted them as far as they are capacitated to receive exaltation, we can afford to excuse a great many things we cannot now comprehend in relation to God and in relation to his laws and dealings with the human family. It might look curious to some for God to talk of treading the people in his anger; but as we have to do with eternity as well as with time, and as it is necessary the earth should be purged and righteousness should take the place of corruption, which will some time have an end here, we can then conclude that the Judge of all the earth will do right. We should seek to magnify our calling and honor our God, being co-workers with God in the things he has engaged to do. The Lord has begun to vex the nations, beginning with our own nation; he is vexing it and will vex other nations, and his judgments will go forth and all the wicked nations of the world will feel the avenging hand of God, and he will continue to overthrow nation after nation until He whose right it is will take the government into his own hand, and he will continue to increase and progress until every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them shall be heard to say, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Shall we be found among that number who will thus magnify the name of God, crying, “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth?”

I pray God this may be the case, that we may not be compelled to call for rocks to fall upon us and mountains to hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. May God bless us and guide us in the way of peace, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 26, 1862.

The Gospel of salvation is interesting to me, to you, and should be to all the world, for by it we are to be judged. This test will be put to all. The principles of life and salvation the Gospel offers to us, which if we neglect will be brought up against us in a day to come. The light of truth has been revealed by the Savior, and through the mercy of the Lord he has sent forth his servants to proclaim this Gospel to all nations. What for? To injure them? No; but to bless them. The time has come in this age of the world when God has set himself to take the rule and the power of the earth into his own hands. He has sent forth Joseph, and Hyrum, and Brigham, and Heber, and Jedediah, and Willard, and Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles and the other authorities of the Holy Priesthood which is established upon the earth. The communication has been opened up between the heavens and the earth. He has sent forth a message to all nations, saying, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.” It has been proclaimed to the world by faithful men for many years—it has been sounded in the by-ways and highways, in city and hamlet, and in the nooks and corners of the earth; and, in a coming day the people will be judged by it, because it has been sent forth by the direct counsel of Heaven.

It is our duty to sustain the principles of truth, virtue, and integrity, and every principle that has been revealed from the Almighty to his children on the earth. If it is the duty of one man to do this, it is the duty of every man to do the same; and every man will be found wanting unless he obeys this Heavenly message. How shall we do it when we are compassed about by all the powers of earth and hell to overcome, overthrow and destroy us? By cleaving to the Lord of hosts, who is mighty to save, and by cleaving to those holy principles of life and power which he has revealed. The more the floods of iniquity surge up against us, the closer let us cling to those principles, for they will bear us off victoriously to exaltation and glory in this world and in the worlds to come. The same principles have exalted our Father and our God to his present state of glory and power, and they will exalt you and me and all who will abide them in the scale of human existence and eternal progression. They are the same principles which have been revealed in the latter days for the salvation of mankind, and for their exaltation to the presence of God the Father in heaven. They have always existed, and always will continue to exist. They will abide after the refuge of lies has been swept away. It is not now as it has been in days and years gone by. The kingdom is now established; it is upon the earth never again to be prevailed against or to be overcome by sin and iniquity.

All men have their volition, and are responsible to God alone for it. As the kingdom of God grows and becomes mighty upon the earth, laws will be given suited to the condition of the children of men, in their respective governments and nationalities, according to their views and principles. The supreme law of the world will be the law of God, and all people will choose to obey or disobey as they list. All will be governed according to their circumstances and the principles which will be revealed from time to time for their best good. This is not the work of a day, but of eternity—it is without beginning of days or end of years.

I feel gratified that I live in this day and age of the world; I am thankful for this privilege. “Would you not have preferred to live in the days of Jesus?” says one. No, nor in the days of Moses, nor in the days of Noah. Had I lived in Noah’s days I might have been drowned in the great flood. I prefer to live now—today—in the days of Brigham and Heber, and in the days of the great Prophet Joseph and Hyrum, although they did not stay long with us. They are not far away from us, neither is the Lord. Brigham is here, Heber and Daniel are here, and the Twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ are here, and the organization of the Church and kingdom of God is here, with the Holy Priesthood which is after the order of the Son of God; and this is the great chain which opens up a communication between the heavens and the earth, and in it there is safety; and through it truth will prevail over the face of the whole earth, and by its power the kingdom of God will be established upon the earth no more to be prevailed against. What matters it to us who speaks in anger against it? The truth is all the same, no matter who walks it under their feet. The eternal principles of salvation and exaltation are the same, no matter who does despite to them.

In trying to injure the truth, and impede it in its progress, they only injure themselves, and will bring upon themselves swift destruction and a righteous judgment according as it shall be ordered by our Father in heaven. God is merciful and forbearing. Can we forbear as well as he can? We can, although we are far from being as good as he is. If he can forbear many years with a man who will not say grace over his meat, or bend his knee to his God in acknowledgment of his mercy, we surely can bear a little with the infirmities of our brethren, and the ignorance of the ungodly world.

As a people and community we have borne much; and all we have ever asked of any people or government has been our rights in common with the rest of mankind; but these they seek to withhold from us, which they have no right to do, hence they are under condemnation, and we shall go free. We believe and worship as we choose, and live under a Government that guarantees unto us that right. Inasmuch as they do not give us those rights, they violate one of the holiest and most sacred provisions of the Constitution of our country, and destruction will be the consequence. The fathers of the revolution fought and bled to secure this holy right to their children so long as the world should last or the Government continue. We are therefore bold in declaring our principles, and in defending our rights. There are countries in the world where imprisonment would be the penalty of the free expression of principles and rights; but they do not live under and enjoy the blessings of the Constitution which we live under. Yet even in this free country some have sought to deprive us of the free enjoyment of the privileges granted unto us in the Consti– tution of our country, and they will have to pay the penalty for so doing, for they trample under foot the Constitution that grants to them their own liberties, and thus subvert their own liberties, which it becomes them as well as us to preserve inviolate. It becomes us to cleave to God and our holy religion, trusting in him because in him there is power—in him there is strength; and if we remain faithful, we shall come off victorious, and walk under our feet every principle that is calculated to destroy, and rear the standard of truth and righteousness in the world in spite of hell and all the hosts thereof. Let us be encouraged, and go steadily on in the performance of our duties, cultivating the earth, and bringing from the elements all we need for our sustenance that we may be free and independent, so far as we can, by depending on our own resources with which the Lord has abundantly blessed us. We are greatly blessed in that the Lord has planted our feet in these quiet valleys from those who sought our destruction; while he has brought an overwhelming destruction on them, he has brought safety to us. We can see his wisdom, and his mighty hand manifested in this. Let us henceforth put our trust in that arm which has been so prominently made bare in saving the righteous. May God add his blessing. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862.

I do not know that it is necessary for me to tell you that I am glad to be here. If you have but a little of the feeling that influences me, you know very well that I am glad to be here. I am not glad to be here because my mission is ended, for such I do not consider to be the case at all. We often say we have been on a mission, and have fulfilled a mission, and have returned as though that something had been completed and accomplished. I have been on a mission, but I have not come from a mission, or from that mission. I have been on a mission; I have come home on a mission; I am still on a mission. The obligations of that mission, I feel, are not ceasing, not becoming less, but they increase from day to day and from year to year with the increase of knowledge and understanding and the apprehension of the principles of truth. I am here today for the same purpose, for the prosecution of the same labor that I have been in, in every place that I have occupied as a minister of the truth since I first became acquainted with its principles, and by such acquaintance I became connected with the Work of God.

My text is furnished me in the people that are before me today. Who could look upon this assembly and be so dull, so stupid that the inquiry would not arise in his mind, What are we here for? Why all this gathering together of this mixed multitude of people; people from so many nations; people of different tongues, of different customs, different traditions and notions, yet having one and the same feeling in reference to a few of the details that make up the great aggregate of life’s actions? For what purpose have we been gathered together from distant nations? Some may have thought that our gathering here was only for the sake of being together, for the sake of creating a multitudinous community. The multitude we see assembled here today are here because the kingdom of God is to be built up; for if the kingdom of God is to be built up, there must be people to constitute it; there must be a people to be ruled, or the rulers would have nothing over which to rule. If the mere assembling of the people together constitutes the kingdom of God now, why has it not constituted the kingdom of God at other times? People have assembled together before; communities have existed before, yet the existence of such communities has not and does not now constitute them the kingdom of God. One reason why the gathering together of the people does not constitute the kingdom of God is, that the mere gathering of the people is not particularly an intellectual operation, it does not of itself particularly inform the judgment or enlighten the mind in reference to God, and man’s relationship to God and his purposes.

We commenced our labors with you in lands far distant from this we preached the Gospel to you; listening to that, and receiving the testimony of the servants of God and following the course that was indicated by them, you have become changed in your circumstances and locality. You were located in other parts of the globe and were citizens of other nations, but now you are here located in the peaceful vales of Utah. It is now time for the gathered Saints to begin to learn still more, if they have not already begun to do so; and if they have begun to learn, to continue to learn something of the reason why they are gathered together, that they may be able to discover the true relationship between the actions they perform, the labors, duties and services that are required of them, and the development, increase and growth into strength and power of the kingdom of God on the earth. When we talk about the kingdom of God our thoughts are apt to travel away from scenes of earth, as though it were a matter of the ideas alone and not connected with our earthly operations, labors, duties and services.

There is no action in life, no labor that we perform, no relationship that we sustain to God and one another, but what should be connected directly with the development of the kingdom of God. Says one—“We must become perfect and holy; we must become Godlike; we must become like the angels or like the spirits of the just who dwell with God.” This is true; but where is that transformation, that change in our condition, feelings and circumstances to be wrought out—in heaven or on earth, at home or abroad? Where is the school in which we are to be taught the plain, simple, unvarnished administrations of truth in a way to bring it within the range of our feeble comprehension of truth that we may understand it? Are we to learn it in any one place to the exclusion of all others? No. Are we to learn God and truth where we live? Yes. If not, where in Heaven’s name do you expect to learn of him? Do you live in heaven with God and his angels? No; you live here on the earth, here in Utah among the rugged mountains that are around us. All you know you know here, and all you can learn you must learn here while you are here. To acquire a knowledge of God is eternal life. That appears to many to be a great something. I say something, because people know nothing of God. Where are you going to obtain a knowledge of God.

People talk about going to heaven, but when we find ourselves in heaven we shall find that we have reached it, without going to it. Heaven is a development of internal powers and external changes. We learn to know God now as human beings, influenced by the effects of sin and folly, degraded and surrounded with darkness, misery and wretchedness. Shall we wait until these are put off before we can learn of God and get to know that which will constitute in us that knowledge which is eternal life? No. We came here to the valleys of Utah in obedience to the requirements of the Gospel, simply that we might here continue to be taught. We came to this distant region to learn of God. How? By, in the first place, learning ourselves. Can we know God in this way? Yes; we can know him in no other way. We cannot go to where he is, to be taught of him personally and to associate with him. What have we in this world that gives a truthful indication of his character to the mind that is open to the light of truth? We have ourselves been made in the image of God. Then it is essentially necessary that we should learn ourselves as an all-important step to the knowledge of God. We must learn to correct our lives and our actions; we must learn to govern ourselves and sanctify our affections, that we may be prepared to hold communion with heavenly intelligences.

The kingdom of God is established now for the development and increase of its principles within us, to reflect light on the darkness that surrounds us and reveal to our understanding the true relationship we sustain to God, and the reason why the requirements of the Gospel are laid upon us and why we can be saved by listening to them, and why we are not saved if we refuse to listen to them.

When the sound of the Gospel first reached me, I used to have this childish idea, that if I ever knew the truth it must be because the heavens would be opened for me to gaze upon the glory that is within the veil, and this would be the only assurance I could receive that the Gospel is true. I lived under the influence of this idea until I passed measurably from the condition of childhood, of hearing as a child and understanding as a child. When I began to approximate towards a riper condition of mind, I became satisfied that it was not by merely looking at something that the mind became enlightened; that it was not by merely guessing at something that is incomprehensible that knowledge is developed in the soul. I learned that the Gospel was true in a very simple way. The Gospel required me to pursue an upright, just, virtuous, honest course of life with all the world around me and to live at peace with all men. I commenced living in the world without quarreling with anybody; I followed the dictation of the Gospel and its requirements, and it has saved me from war, contention, and strife with my fellow man, from quarreling with my family, with my brethren, with my friends and with my neighbors. In this way I found out that so much of the Gospel was true, and I did not have to go to heaven to find this out neither. This is the way I want you to begin to learn God, and the consequences will be peace and the joy that springs from peace. Then heaven will be in the home where you dwell, in the land and country where you live, in your associations with your friends and neighbors and kindred in all life’s varied relations. Another conse– quence will be a constant indwelling of the Spirit of God; that Spirit that brings life and light, and knowledge and understanding to the soul of man, that quickens the intellect of man and sanctifies every power to hold communion with still higher and holier principles.

We say we want the Holy Spirit; then let us so live our religion that we may have the Holy Spirit, which will improve our condition continually, making us better and better citizens of the kingdom of God with every degree of gain over ourselves. In this way we may cultivate and develop in us individually the principle of immortality that will constitute, when applied to the great body of the people of God, the immortality of his kingdom, the basis of its eternal and deathless perpetuity. Then the development of the kingdom of God in power on earth, temporally, depends upon the self-culture of its members, upon the culture of the feelings that rule the soul and that give character to the action of the creature. When we consider that purity of life is necessary and requisite to qualify a man to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, we shall cultivate that quality and labor for its development and increase. To how many of the infinitesimal details of life’s actions does this principle extend? It should extend to them all. We cannot do any wrong that will render us acceptable to God and make us better. That is right which improves and gives life. There is a right way and a wrong one to all we do.

If we cultivate the ground there is a way which, if pursued, will be fruitful of consequences the most disastrous, while an opposite way will produce profit and reward us for our labors. There is a way that is fruitful of noxious weeds where something better should grow, and this is as truthfully the result of the conduct of the farmer as is the rich harvest of healthy grain that affords him bread and sustenance. Some people think they can pray the weeds out of their fields and gardens, but their prayers can only be effectual when accompanied with a reasonable amount of honest labor rightly and wisely applied. I am in favor of praying. I love to pray myself, and I love to have the Saints pray. But when you have a great many weeds growing on your land, pray for your land, and do not forget to go out on to that land and pull up, remove and destroy by your diligent labor the weed-plants that so much annoy you.

We have been told that the Lord will not plant our grain for us and cultivate our fields. We are here to learn how to do that for ourselves, if we do not know. This part of our education we have to gain, if we have not already gained it; and this will enable us to aid in the building up and development in its greatness and power of the kingdom of God. Let our labor be so applied, that when we bow down before our heavenly Father to ask him to bless anything we have or do, that we can do so consistently. Let us hoe up the weeds and enrich our fields, and ask God to give us a bountiful crop to reward our toils. We will do all we can do, and then ask God to bless that labor and leave the result with him. If your wagon has been fixed in the mud get hold of the wheel yourself and lift all you can, and then ask somebody else to help you if you need help.

There is another field that is equally taxed with the support of a noxious growth: I refer to ourselves at home. We carry about with us our notions, our habits of thought; and our habits of thought give character to our actions. When, for instance, the storm of passion is aroused in our bosom, we yield ourselves up to it without an effort and unresist– ingly allow ourselves to be carried away by its influence from a course of propriety and right, and we do wrong and say wrong things. Let rising anger be suppressed; let the place where it had its incipient being become its grave. Never let the mouth utter the word that should not be spoken. This counsel is just as applicable to myself as it is to you. I have learned long since that I was not called to preach the Gospel because I had no improvement to make on myself, or because I could not become any better. I have come to the conclusion that the more I talk about the right and the less I talk about the wrong, and the more I become occupied with the right the less danger I shall be in of becoming occupied by the wrong. This is good for me, and, being good for me, I recommend it to the Saints. I want them to live peaceably and quietly with one another and learn to do the little things in life’s duty right. That we may learn to do this, it is necessary that we should control our passions, for if we do not control them they will control us, and under such control we do wrong. When we control ourselves, the result is equanimity of feeling such as is necessary to the exercise of an enlightened judgment, if such judgment exists within us. Cannot God help us? It altogether depends upon whether we are disposed to help ourselves or not. God will help and bless us when we pursue the course that is acceptable to him. If we strive to subdue stormy passions within us, he will assist us in the good work until the Spirit of God is not merely a casual visitor, but a constant dweller within us to increase our store of knowledge, extend our views and make our conceptions of God and truth more as they should be. Let us live in this way and we shall speak kindly of one another and be more charitable to all men.

The result of our education is differences of feeling and differences in our way of life; we have brought these differences with us from our distant homes. We have brought with us to Utah more or less of the old notions that have grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength; throughout our lives their influence has been upon us. So far as these are in opposition to the truth and the right, they must be overcome, for as we learn the truth we must exchange our incorrect notions for notions that are correct in reference to living with one another and in reference to our general conduct in life. It is not some service we have to perform at some remote place from where we are now living that will benefit us, but it is how we deport ourselves here towards one another and towards God; how we shall make our farms, cultivate our grounds, and how to use that which we have been blessed with as faithful stewards of the manifold mercies of God. We have much yet to learn; the improvements we have not yet made are all to be made, whether they relate to the cultivation of our fields and gardens or to the cultivation of our minds; it is our duty to garnish and embellish them and make them beautiful and lovely as the residence and heritage of intellectual men and women. This will bring into existence God’s temporal kingdom on the earth; then the sanctified and holy and acceptable of his children will dwell in palaces, will be surrounded with wealth, and there will be no desire of their hearts but what may be satisfied. There will be a fountain opened to them where they may satisfy their thirst, however intense it may be for ought that is good, great and ennobling.

Learn, sisters, when you teach the truth to your children who prattle around your knee, and are trying to cultivate a love of it in them, that you are determining their destiny and your own, and their relationship unchangeably with the increase, perpetual and eternal growth of God’s kingdom. Think of this, and do not for a moment pass by those labors of love to your children as matters of comparatively little value, for in them are your hopes of glory, heaven, happiness, bliss, and joy in that great future of glory we are looking for. How can a mother teach her children the right if she is reckless of it herself? How can a father do that if he neglects to set before his household the example of propriety that should constitute the constant and ceaseless labor of a father? Then, let us remember that all this work is upon us; it is to redeem the earth, to be learning how to cultivate and improve its condition; it is to bring into existence a holy nation of men and women before God.

Who are they which constitute the bright hosts that worship around the throne of God? They are men and women and children, such as we see here today; intellectual beings like ourselves, who have been educated, taught, trained, led onward and upward from a condition of ignorance to the possession of that infinitude of knowledge that makes so incomprehensible a difference between us. As we are, so were they; and as they are in all their brightness and glory around the throne of God, so may we be with our wives and children, friends and associates in the kingdom of God on earth, when we have traveled along to that state of exaltation to which they have attained, when we have learned to vanquish the monster of sin and death, rising above him to live in the elements of truth and holiness in a state free from corruption and sin. This has had its beginning here, in all our life’s labor, care and relationship to one another; the existence beyond this is only the finished constellation of the glory which is commenced here, an advanced stage of its development. We are not so blind and dumb that we cannot comprehend the difference between the household where the words of righteousness are uttered, where examples of purity are set, and that household where such noble examples are not seen. Would you see your children around the throne of God? Would you see them clad in glory and crowned with immortality and eternal lives? Then teach them truth while they prattle around your knee; learn them to lisp the truth, teach them to love it ere they can fully know its worth, and as they grow in capacity to reason and understand they will then bless the father and mother that taught them truth and purity, and to hate and despise the wrong and choose the good. Truth will regulate all life’s details; I care not how numerous they may be, all will yield to the saving, sanctifying, hallowed influence and supreme love of truth. When we teach the truth to our children, it is one of the best proofs that we love the truth ourselves with all our minds, might, and strength. If we take this course we shall see the kingdom of God growing; its outward embellishments will appear, its wealth will increase and its power will spread abroad on the right hand and on the left until untold millions of earth’s children will repose in security, safety, and happiness, and be blessed beneath its banner. Then, its temples will rise in beauty, grandeur, and glory, and the home of every Saint will become a temple where God will delight to reveal the richness of his blessings to his faithful children. If our God shines as the perfection of beauty out of Zion, Zion must reflect that beauty; it must have an existence in Zion reflecting its beauty outwardly upon the world around. The glory of Zion must be created by the children of Zion. We cannot attain to this all in a moment. We first begin to make our homes tidy and to subdue every enemy to our peace, that we may have more comfort. If we wish our children to have an exalted taste for the lovely and beautiful, create something lovely for them to look upon, let them behold a practical example and exhibition of the beautiful and lovely when they are at home; when they go into the garden let them see the development of beauty, and when they come to maturity and remove far away they will think of the paternal home with delight and pleasure as the place where peace reigns, where joy is developed, where the odor of sweet flowers are inhaled by the visitors, greeting our early rising or cheering us when we retire to our rest. This is the picture of the home of a Saint, of him who loves to beautify Zion and exalt the children of Zion above all other people on the earth.

It does not follow of necessity that the poor man must possess broad acres. If your garden is no larger than this stand, cultivate it properly, plant fruit trees and other useful plants, and rivet the attention of your growing family to the contemplation of their duty; let them see an example in you from day to day and from year to year which will exercise a salutary influence upon the minds of your children throughout their future lives. If I have not myself been able hitherto to make such a home, it is the home that lives in my mind. I show you the ladder over which you may travel from any condition of degradation and ignorance to all that is noble, exalted, and Godlike. We must start from where we are, and we shall soon see better houses, more fruitful and lovely gardens; the residences of the Saints will grow into beauty and the cities of the Saints into magnificence.

The Prophet Joseph once took me by the arm in the street, and said, “I have so many blessings, and there is nothing but what you can enjoy in your time and place the same as I do, and so can every man.” But I have prayed this prayer, “If the bestowal of wealth upon thy servant, O Lord, will make him a fool and cause him to forsake the truth, may I remain poor until I can bear it.” We might as well complain that we were not all born at the same time as to complain of any disparity that may exist between us in pecuniary matters. Let the Saints who have just come to these valleys from their fatherland learn to be contented in whatsoever position they are placed in, that is, when you are in circumstances that neither you nor your friends can change for the better. To complain of circumstances that cannot at the present be improved would simply be a waste of your time, and your time is precious, for we are not going to live many years according to the common course of things to improve ourselves here. It will be to our advantage to live in this world as long as we can improve, and the longer we live here and improve, the stronger grow the ties that bind us to this existence. I want to see the kingdom of God grow from this small beginning that is right around us, until the whole earth is filled and blessed with its glory as it now blesses and fills the valleys of Deseret in a degree. We are connected with an enterprise that is great, noble, and honorable, with an enterprise that is not satisfied with a limited acquisition, with a small victory over sin, but it is an enterprise that grasps the world’s emancipation from sin, darkness, and death; it looks at no smaller object than the world’s freedom from sin and its consequences.

Being connected with so great an enterprise, I do not feel any more that I am a worm of the earth, but that I am associated with the Gods of eternity, and that angels are my kindred and of my family. This is the way I want the Saints to feel. If they feel this way they will shun all wickedness, and seek for right and try to do it all the time. I for one am engaged in the great work of building up the kingdom of God upon the earth, and I want to get the Saints to see the value of that practical purity of life that will utterly destroy the power of sin, purge out the transgressor from our assemblies and render us more and more acceptable to God all the time, because better calculated to bless the world.

God bless you: Amen.

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

I will offer a few remarks in relation to the difference between this and the next state of existence. The next state of existence is a spiritual one. The spirit which is now clothed with mortal flesh will be set free from that encumbrance, and the spirits of Saints will be free from the power of sin and Satan.

This state is a state of trial, wherein the spirit clothed upon with flesh labors to sanctify, redeem and save the flesh, that in the resurrection the spirit and the body may be made eternally one, through the power of the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The next state of existence is the paradisiacal state of the spirit, a state of waiting until the body shall pass through the purification and refinement given to it by passing through death and the grave; then cometh the resurrection which bringeth to pass the reunion of the body and the spirit. “O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirit of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body are restored to each other again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls,” &c.

From the state of embryo to the time of birth, and from infancy to ripe old age, unseen dangers lurk in our path to mar our bodies or to render our senses inefficient; hence we see the lame, the maimed, the blind, the deaf, dumb, weak, sickly, and so on.

I think it has been taught by some that as we lay our bodies down, they will so rise again in the resurrection with all the impediments and imperfections that they had here; and that if a wife does not love her husband in this state she cannot love him in the next. This is not so. Those who attain to the blessing of the first or celestial resurrection will be pure and holy, and perfect in body. Every man and woman that reaches to this unspeakable attainment will be as beautiful as the angels that surround the throne of God. If you can, by faithfulness in this life, obtain the right to come up in the morning of the resurrection, you need entertain no fears that the wife will be dissatisfied with her husband, or the husband with the wife; for those of the first resurrection will be free from sin and from the consequences and power of sin. This body “is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

God has done his part towards putting us in possession of celestial glory and happiness, by providing the means whereby we may attain to it; and if ever we possess it, we must do so by conforming to the means provided. God has given the children of men dominion over the earth and over all things that pertain to it, and has commanded them to subdue it, and to sanctify themselves before him, and also to sanctify and beautify the earth by their industry, and by their wisdom and skill which cometh from God. Learn, for instance, how to yoke together a pair of oxen, how to manage and drive them across the plains, how to get timber from the canyons, how to make brick, and how to hew stone and bring them into shape and position to please the eye and create com– fort and happiness for the Saints. These are some of the mysteries of the kingdom. To receive the Gospel and believe and enjoy it in the spirit, is the simplest part of the work the Latter-day Saints have to learn and perform.

God has made man lord of all things here below, and it is the labor of man to bring all things unto subjection to God, by first subjecting himself to the will of God, and then subjecting all things over which he has control, in their time and order. The will of God is eternal life to his people and to all they control.

May God bless you. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1862.

We have opened our Conference to present before the congregation such principles and doctrines and to transact such business as may be necessary for the instruction and edification of the Saints and the advancement of the cause of truth.

It has been remarked by some of the Missionaries who have lately returned, that though they had arrived at home, they did not consider their missions at an end. When persons become subjects of the kingdom of God they enter upon a mission that will never end. They may turn away from the holy commandments, and forsake the kingdom, but so long as they remain faithful so long will their missions as advocates for God and his righteousness be continued. There may be intervals of rest, of relaxation from the more arduous duties of their missions, but in such times they are not by any means to consider their missions ended. Christ will not cease his labors pertaining to this earth until it is redeemed and sanctified ready to be presented spotless to the Father.

Luke records the words of Christ as follows—“But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew records the saying still fuller—“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jesus Christ did not exhort his followers to seek something they could not find, something that was not within their reach. He did not exhort them to ascend up to heaven to bring the kingdom down, nor to descend into the deep to bring it up, but he came to establish that kingdom, and it was nigh unto them. I would say to the Latter-day Saints, seek to know that the kingdom of God has been organized in our own time. When this kingdom is organized in any age, the Spirit of it dwells in the hearts of the faithful, while its visible department exists among the people, with laws, ordinances, helps, governments, officers, administrators, and every other appendage necessary for its complete operation to the attainment of the end in view. Seek to know that the kingdom of God is organized upon the earth, and be sure to know that you have an interest in that kingdom, and enjoy the Spirit of it day by day, for this is, or ought to be, nearer to our hearts than all earthly considerations. This privilege is within the reach of all, when the Gospel is proclaimed to them. When men truly and heartily repent, and make manifest to the heavens that their repentance is genuine by obedience to the requirements made known to them through the laws of the Gospel, then are they entitled to the administration of salvation, and no power can withhold the good Spirit from them. Cornelius is an instance of this. The Holy Ghost fell on him and his household, through their faith and earnest repentance, before they were baptized.

That we may understand things as they are, and thereby learn to sanctify ourselves before the Lord our God, it is essentially necessary that we practically live our religion. Every true believer of this Gospel is anxious to gather to the home of the Saints. I think I am safe in saying, that if there was a highway cast up from England to the shores of the continent of America, there are men who would be willing to measure the ground with their bodies to reach this place. Even this does not tell their anxiety to be here; it must be seen in the spirit, to know it as it really is. We are agreed in gathering the Saints, as well as in the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel of peace.

It may be said that the tug of trials has commenced when the Saints begin to cross the plains to this place. This temporal duty puts all their spiritual attainments to the test. There are but few persons who thoroughly understand how to organize and lead a company across the plains, and in this alone arises many inconveniences and trials to the immigrants. How many hearts are prepared to meet the difficulties, privations, trials, and labors to be encountered on the plains, without murmuring and complaining? I should think but few. To believe the Gospel and embrace it, to believe all that is written in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants, is but a small matter compared with giving up comfortable homes, friends, and relatives, being tossed upon the boisterous ocean, con– fined in narrow limits, and being jostled in railway cars, exposed to the insults and ridicule of rude and wicked persons that always assemble on the public highways, and suffering the hardships and privations incident to traveling over the plains.

I wish the people not to lose sight of one thing: that every day’s labor, every moment’s toil, every prayer and exertion which they make points to the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth. Let us seek daily to know that the kingdom of God is established among us, according to the pattern in the heavens. Under this knowledge our actions will constantly point in the right direction, and every move we make will enhance the interests of the general cause. When this kingdom is established in its two-fold capacity—spiritually and temporally—then it is given unto us to know how to secure everything else that is necessary to enjoy on the earth. But it is our duty first to seek to know that the kingdom of God is established and organized upon the earth, that we have an interest in it, that that interest above all others is the nearest and dearest to our hearts, as our present and eternal welfare is embraced in it, and that we possess the Spirit of this kingdom and enjoy it day by day.

Remarks have been made relating to the Saints traveling in independent companies. When an independent company undertakes to travel across the plains, they are generally too independent for their own safety and good. There never was and never will be a people in heaven nor on earth, in time nor in eternity, that can be considered truly and entirely independent of counsel and direction. Our independent companies entertain the same mistaken views of independence as people generally do of the independence of a Republican Govern– ment. Man in his ignorance is impatient of control, and when he finds himself from under its influence he supposes that he is then independent, or, in other words, that he is a free man. Independence so viewed and so employed, either individually or collectively, religiously or politically must open a wide arena of action for all the evil, selfish and malignant qualities of depraved men, introducing destruction into every ramification of society, destroying confidence, checking the onward progress of industry and universal prosperity, and bringing in famine, pestilence, and destruction everywhere. An independent company of immigrants can appoint their own captain to guide them across the plains, and they can also dispute every act of his for their good. They can find fault with him for camping too soon or too late; for camping in this, that, or the other place; and if he offers them good advice, reject it because they are independent and free, as they suppose. Individual self-government lies at the root of all true and effective government, whether in heaven or on earth. Those who govern should be wiser and better than the governed, that the lesser may be blessed of the greater. Were this so, then the people would willingly repose their dearest interests to the trusts of their rulers or leaders, and with a feeling of pleasure bow to and carry out to the letter their instructions and conclusions on all matters that pertained to the general good. This will apply to great kingdoms and mighty nations, to small companies of immigrants crossing the plains, or to the home circle. A Republican Government in the hands of a wicked people must terminate in woe to that people, but in the hands of the righteous it is everlasting, while its power reaches to heaven.

I had the pleasure of leading the first company of Saints to these valleys, assisted by a few of my brethren. In this business we have had a good experience.

I will here take the liberty of relating a little of my first career in “Mormonism.” In 1834, brother Joseph Smith the Prophet, started with a company from the State of Ohio, picking up others as he passed through various States on his route until he arrived in Missouri. We had grumblers in that camp. We had to be troubled with uneasy, unruly and discontented spirits. This was the first time we had ever traveled in the capacity of a large company, and it was my first experience in that mode of traveling. Brother Joseph led, counseled and guided the company, and contended against those unruly, evil disposed persons. When we arrived in Missouri, the Lord spoke to his servant Joseph and said, “I have accepted your offering,” and we had the privilege to return again. On my return many friends asked me what profit there was in calling men from their labor to go up to Missouri and then return, without apparently accomplishing anything. “Who has it benefited?” asked they. “If the Lord did command it to be done, what object had he in view in doing so?” I was then comparatively ignorant, to what I am now, in regard to the spirits and actions of mankind. But I then learned that those persons who asked me such questions were weak in the faith and, like a faulty column in an edifice, could not bear up under the burden designed to rest upon them. This has since proved to be the case. I wish this fact to sink into your hearts, that when men or women have doubts, they also have fear; and when they have fear, they are in danger of what? Of themselves. Want of confidence is the parent of moral imbecility and intellectual weakness. Hear it, ye Saints, that man or woman that is crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives will never be heard to grumble or complain. I told those brethren that I was well paid—paid with heavy interest—yea that my measure was filled to overflowing with the knowledge that I had received by traveling with the Prophet. When companies are led across the plains by inexperienced persons, especially independent companies, they are very apt to break into pieces, to divide up into fragments, become weakened, and thus expose themselves to the influences of death and destruction.

I sometimes think that I would be willing to give anything, to do almost anything in reason, to see one fully organized Branch of this kingdom—one fully organized Ward. “But,” says one, “I had supposed that the kingdom of God was organized long ago.” So it is, in one sense; and again, in another sense it is not. Wheresoever this Gospel has been preached and people have received it, the spiritual kingdom is set up and organized, but is Zion organized? No. Is there even in this Territory a fully organized Ward? Not one. It may be asked, “Why do you not fully organize the Church?” Because the people are incapable of being organized. I could organize a large Ward who would be subject to a full organization, by selecting families from the different Wards, but at present such a Branch of the Church is not in existence.

I am satisfied that the mechanical ability of the people of this Territory will rank with that of any other people, but there is not one in five hundred that knows how to husband his ability and economize his labor when he first comes to this new country. They are for a time like a feather in the wind, until some circumstance occurs to settle them in some position where they can begin to do something to provide for themselves. It is not easy to find a Bishop that knows how to settle, in a proper way, the smallest difficulty that may occur in his Ward. There are but few men that can guide themselves, and gather around them the comforts and wealth of this life. In the settlements I passed through during my late visit south, I saw comparatively little wisdom manifested in the style and extent of their improvements. Men who have been in this Church ten, fifteen, and twenty years, and in this country from the first settlement of it, possessing flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and horses running upon the plains, what kind of houses have they? Log hovels and mud huts. What have they in their houses? Two tin plates, a broken knife, and a fork with one prong. If a person calls for lodgings, “O yes, you can stay and welcome. Come wife, bake some potatoes and squash, and roast some meat, bake some biscuit, and stew a little of that fruit I bought at the store,” and all this the poor woman has to do in one little bake kettle. A good-natured man enough, an easy going sort of person, and his hair looks as though it had not been cut or combed for years. After supper you retire to bed, and before morning you are made fully satisfied that you are a man of feeling. Is such enterprise worthy of Saints? Is this the way to build up cities and make the earth like the garden of Eden? Do such people know that the kingdom of God is set up on the earth? “O yes, I have it in me.” You have the spiritual kingdom within you, but there is a literal kingdom to build up.

There are scores of Elders in this Church who can preach, baptize, and lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, that do not know how to produce a livelihood for themselves, a wife, and one child. It requires but little experience to do this, and much less do they know how to build a good house, how to lay out and build up a city, how to lay the foundations of Zion, &c., &c. Can they lead a company of Saints cross the plains? They can try, and very likely the company will break to pieces, unless the power of God is among them. This gives us a striking proof of the necessity of the people’s having faith and power with the heavens, that if their Bishop does not know what he ought, their faith will keep him in the right path and the Spirit of the Lord will open to the vision of his mind the things that he should do. That is the duty of the people.

We have a kingdom to organize, and I say, Seek to know that you have the kingdom within you and that you are in it. Seek to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, for that will give you wisdom to add to yourselves everything necessary. The Lord will not himself plough our grounds, sow our grain, and reap it when it is ripe. The man that understands the kingdom of God will seek to understand the elements in which he lives, and to know something of his own organization, the design of it, and the designs of Heaven in it. Is the kingdom of God in its perfection on the earth? It is not. True, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe in his ordinances. We believe that the Lord called Joseph Smith and ordained him an Apostle and Prophet to this generation, giving him the keys and power of the Holy Priesthood. We believe in the gathering of the house of Israel in the latter days, in the redemption of Zion, in the building up and establishment of Jerusalem, and in the gathering of the Jews from their long dispersion; in short, we believe all that the ancient Prophets have spoken, but where is the people that is willing to build up the visible kingdom of God and that is capable of dictating this great work.

The Lord will make the people willing in the day of his power. This cannot refer to making the people willing to acknowledge Jesus to be the Christ; it must refer to something else. Shall we wait until we are whipped from among the wicked before we are willing to gather out from among them and flee to Zion? This has been the case with some, and what are such persons good for when they get to Zion? I do not, however, wish to disturb anybody’s feelings; I am glad to see them come to a place of safety when they are obliged to; but I would rather have seen them come in the beginning, when they could have helped to kill the snakes, build the bridges, make the roads, and manifest their faith that we could raise fruit, grain and every staple necessary of life in this country, help to open the canyons, build the mills, bring out the lumber, and build towns and cities. But we are glad to see them as they are, and we will do the best we can with them. There are more coming.

Which will be best eventually, to go to with our might, to build up the Zion of God on the earth, or wait until we are whipped to it? I can only broach the subject of building up the kingdom of God as it must be built up in the latter days; I will leave it for others to talk upon during the Conference, or not, as they please. I know what I have to do, and that is to teach this people to appreciate their own present lives. There is no life more precious than the present life which we enjoy; there is no life that is worth any more to us than this life is. It may be said that an eternal life is worth more. We are in eternity, and all that we have to do is to take the road that leads into the eternal lives. Eternal life is an inherent quality of the creature, and nothing but sin can put a termination to it. The elements in their nature are as eternal as are the Gods. Let us learn, under the guidance and direction of Heaven how to use these eternal elements for the building up, establishment, and sending forth of the kingdom of God, gathering up the poor in heart to begin with, and the further things we will learn as we progress.

Some of you may ask why the Lord did not perfectly organize at least one Branch of the Church? When a great blessing is bestowed upon a people, and that blessing is not strictly honored and lived to, in proportion to the greatness of that blessing, over and above what has been previously enjoyed, it will be a curse to them. I recollect that Joseph once said to me, when he was talking upon the principle of the Lord’s raising up seed to himself upon the earth—a royal Priesthood, a holy nation that can offer sacrifices acceptable to God—“Brother Brigham, it will damn many of the Elders of Israel.” There are but few men in this kingdom that are now worthy of that blessing, yet all who are in full fellowship must enjoy it.

We will wait patiently until we can get the people to know how to secure to themselves the comforts of life, good houses, for instance, and know how to raise fruit as well as bread. The best fruit I ever saw in any country I saw exhibited in our recent fair. It has been told the people, from the first of our coming into this country, there existed in these elements as good material for fruit as can be found anywhere. Then let us go forth in faith and plant seed in the ground, and cultivate mother earth and pray over the earth and over our crops and over all we possess, and the curse will be removed, and God will restore geniality to the atmosphere and fertility to the soil.

I wish to teach the Elders of this Church how to lead a company across the plains, as well as how to preach the Gospel; to learn them how to be a Bishop, a father to the people, as well as how to kneel down and pray, or to rise up and preach. I wish to learn them how to reconcile the people one to another, how to build cities, how to beautify and redeem the earth, how to lead and guide this people to life eternal, how to preside over their families, and how to conduct themselves in the common avocations of life. I have all this and more constantly before me.

Brethren is your Mission ended? No, it is as much upon you here as when you are out in the distant parts of the earth preaching the Gospel. Jesus Christ made water into wine by calling together from the elements the properties of wine. He fed thousands of people with five loaves and two small fishes by calling the elements together to compose bread and fish; and he says, “Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father.” It is our privilege and our duty to continue to learn, until we shall have wisdom enough to command the elements as he did, and until the earth is brought back to its paradisiacal state. But we must first redeem ourselves from every root of bitterness that may be in our nature, striving daily to overcome the evil that is in the world and in ourselves, sanctifying our hearts and affections until there shall be nothing abiding in us contrary to the Holy Ghost in its perfect and full fruition of enjoyment to the creature.

I think it likely that after a while I may be able to so humble myself and become like a little child, as to be taught more fully by the Heavens. Perhaps, when I am eighty years of age, I may be able to talk with some Being of a higher sphere than this. Moses saw the glory of God at that age, and held converse with better beings than he had formerly conversed with. I hope and trust that by the time I am that age I shall also be counted worthy to enjoy the same privilege.

I pray you not to forget what I have said to you this morning, but lay it up in your hearts, and pray that it may bring forth fruit for the more perfect establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 28, 1862.

We have had a very interesting journey to the southern settlements. In twenty-five days we have traveled nearly eight hundred miles, held thirty meetings, and spoken to thousands and thousands of Saints. I am somewhat fatigued, and would like to be excused from speaking long today.

My heart is full of blessings for the people; I feel to bear them continually in my prayers before my Father in heaven.

I trust we shall be benefited by the discourse we have just heard from Elder Amasa M. Lyman. We should seek to understand and know the principles he has advanced, striving continually to know the things of God for ourselves. All the works of mankind amount to but little, unless they are performed in the name of the Lord and under the direction of his Spirit. Let every man seek to learn the things of God by the revelations of Jesus Christ to himself. The Gospel we have been hearing this morning I am seeking continually to understand. I reduce the Gospel to the present time, cir– cumstances and condition of the people, and I can say truly, that the longer I live, and the more experience I gain, the more I see the weakness of humanity. We are but children, and are far from being capable of beholding the great things of eternity.

As far as we can compare eternal things with earthly things that lie within the scope of our understanding, so far we can understand them. We can think of the greatest earthly wealth, grandeur, magnificence, and power that it is possible for mortals to attain, and somewhat understand how great a blessing it would be to be entitled to the possession of all this throughout eternity; but, to be told that there never was a time when there did not exist an earth like this, peopled with men and women as this is, is a declaration that reaches far beyond the limits of our comprehension. No man can comprehend that there never was a time when there did not exist an enemy to God, that there never was a beginning to the order of creation in which we find ourselves situated. Who can com– prehend the duration of time? To return to our friends after an absence of some time and greet them with a glad heart, to mingle our mutual joy, happiness and congratulations, is one of the sweetest phases of human bliss, and were we told that there never would be a time when this heaven of happiness cannot be enjoyed, we could partially understand it; we only understand it so far as we are capable of appreciating the comingling of kindred joys at the reunion of parted friends. The present is that portion of time that more particularly concerns us, and the greatest and most important labor we have to perform is to cultivate ourselves. That man may know his fellow creatures, it is necessary that he should first know himself. When he thoroughly knows himself, he measurably knows God, whom to know is eternal life.

We have been hearing that Jesus Christ is our elder Brother. Yes, he is one of us, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, and became a partaker with us of all that is earthly. He also inherited a greater portion of the divine nature than we can possess in this life. He was the Son of our heavenly Father, as we are the sons of our earthly fathers. God is the Father of our spirits, which are clothed upon by fleshly bodies, begotten for us by our earthly fathers. Jesus is our elder Brother spirit clothed upon with an earthly body begotten by the Father of our spirits.

Our heavenly Father delights in his good children, he delights continually to bless them, yea, “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” All are equally his children. We are all the children of our common Father, who has placed us on the earth to prove ourselves, to govern, control, educate and sanctify ourselves, body and spirit, unto him, according to his will and pleasure. When all that class of spirits designed to take bodies upon this earth have done so, then will come the winding-up scene of this particular department of the works of God on this earth. It is his will that we should prepare ourselves to build up his kingdom, gather the house of Israel, redeem and build up Zion and Jerusalem, revolutionize the world, and bring back that which has been lost through the fall.

The inhabitants of the earth are ignorant of the way to secure their present and future happiness, but, if we are faithful, we shall see the time when we can speak to the understandings of the people. It is now very difficult to do that. Their minds are closed against every conviction that would lead to their present and eternal welfare. They take the downward road. This is very lamentable. Let all who call themselves Latter-day Saints walk in the path that points to eternal life. I mourn and lament when any of my brethren come to me and confess that they have been guilty of this or that crime, especially when I learn that they have been in the Church for years. We are yet subject to sin, and more or less give way to it; and in so doing we more or less disgrace the Priesthood and the high vocation to which we are called. Latter-day Saints should live their religion, as they would that their neighbors should live it. If I delight to see my brother walk in the path of obedience, let me pursue the same path, saying come, brethren and sisters, walk as I walk, and follow Christ as I follow him. Were this the case, but few could be found who would raise their voices against the kingdom of God upon the earth.

To say that sin is necessary is an unusual saying. Sin is in the world, but it is not necessary that we should sin, because sin is in the world; but, to the contrary, it is necessary that we should resist sin, and for this purpose is sin necessary. Sin exists in all the eternities. Sin is co-eternal with righteousness, for it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things.

I exhort the Latter-day Saints to live their religion and learn to take care of themselves. The elements with which we are surrounded are as eternal as we are, and are loaded with supplies of every kind for the comfort and happiness of the human race. It is designed by the Great Architect of the universe that our bodily wants shall be supplied from the elements, and by judicious and well-directed labor and a reasonable amount of industry, the wealth of food, clothing and shelter can be obtained by all.

It has been supposed that wealth gives power. In a depraved state of society, in a certain sense it does, if opening a wide field for unrighteous monopolies, by which the poor are robbed and oppressed and the wealthy are more enriched, is power. In a depraved state of society money can buy positions and titles, can cover up a multitude of incapabilities, can open wide the gates of fashionable society to the lowest and most depraved of human beings; it divides society into castes without any reference to goodness, virtue or truth. It is made to pander to the most brutal passions of the human soul; it is made to subvert every wholesome law of God and man, and to trample down every sacred bond that should tie society together in a national, municipal, domestic, and every other relationship. Wealth thus used is used out of its legitimate channel. If a man wishes to stamp an honorable fame upon the tablets of eternity, he can do so only by living a holy and virtuous life. While stations, emoluments, scepters, thrones, or any honor this world can give, do not in the sight of God raise the possessor above the standing of the poor, humble, hungry supplicant for bread at his gate. God is cognizant of the acts of all men, and dictates the results thereof to his glory, to the salvation of his people, and to the interests of his kingdom on the face of all the earth. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father’s notice. But the very hairs on your head are numbered.”

There cannot be a more truthful saying than that this people do not yet fully know how to take care of themselves, and hence they expose themselves to many unnecessary sufferings and inconveniences. After we have smoothed the path through this life all in our power, by accumulating around us all the common creature comforts, and done all in our power to make those who depend upon us happy and comfortable, still, there is enough of trial to sufficiently prove to God and the faithful ones, whether we will be true to him and to our holy religion, or false to him and to our best interests. Let God be first in our thoughts when we awake in the morning, and let our actions through each day reflect honor on ourselves, credit on the cause of God, and secure to us the confidence and goodwill of all good and holy beings. While we should be diligent and industrious, filling every moment of our time to some advantage and profit to ourselves and others, we should not suffer a covetous and grasping spirit to take possession of us. It is lamentable to see the ignorance manifested by many of this people in that respect, for no man who possesses the wealth of wisdom would worship the wealth of mammon. Let the people build good houses, plant good vineyards and orchards, make good roads, build beautiful cities in which may be found magnificent edifices for the convenience of the public, handsome streets skirted with shade trees, fountains of water, crystal streams, and every tree, shrub, and flower that will flourish in this climate, to make our mountain home a paradise and our hearts wells of gratitude to the God of Joseph, enjoying it all with thankful hearts, saying constantly, “not mine but thy will be done, O Father.”

The earth must be redeemed, and it and all that have dwelt upon it be brought back into the presence of God, for all have suffered more or less by the sin that has entered into the world. This is indeed a great work, and our God has given us the privilege of taking part in it; then let us prepare ourselves for this stupendous undertaking by seeking above all things to understand the things of God, by seeking studiously to understand ourselves, remembering that no man can know himself without so far knowing God. There is no mystery in the Gospel of salvation for those who are heirs of salvation, and they can readily comprehend the truth in many places of the Bible where the language does not do justice to the principles designed to be set forth.

Brother Amasa M. Lyman, this morning, quoted the following passage, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” The Apostle understood full well the principles here advanced, but it would have filled volumes to have written them out in full as they were revealed from God by the power and gift of the Holy Spirit. God foreknows all, and has predestinated all who believe the truth to the possession of eternal life, and this in short is all there is of it. He foreknew Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and placed him upon the throne of Egypt for the express purpose of showing forth his power to Israel, and to the wicked nations of the Gentiles. The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the same way that he hardeneth the hearts of his enemies at the present day, after they have rejected the testimony of his servants and oppressed his elect.

The Lord has led this people out of bondage with a high hand and an outstretched arm. No man acquainted with the history of this people is ignorant of the almighty power of God that has been manifested in the organization, growth and present condition of the Church, though they may be unable naturally to account for it. And the more we grow and prosper, the more our enemies are angry with us. They are angry with us because we told them, thirty years ago, that calamity would come upon this nation. Their anger still increases, while they are drinking of the bitter cup; and at the same time the Saints are increasing in numbers, in faith, in hope, in wealth, and in power. I have talked with men who professed to be gentlemen and dispensers of life and salvation to the people, who, Pharaoh-like, declared that they would rather be damned than believe that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God. I promised them they should have their choice. Who is to blame for this? Moses was not to blame because Pharaoh’s heart became more and more hard. He was not to blame because an overwhelming destruction came upon that devoted army. Neither is God, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, myself, or the Apostles and Prophets of this last dispensation to blame for the unbelief of this nation, and for the dark and lowering tempest that now threatens to overthrow them with a terrible destruction. Still, as Pharaoh’s heart became harder and harder, so will it be with the persecutors of God’s people and purposes in the latter times, until they are utterly destroyed.

Not only did God foreknow the wicked and predestinate them, but he also foreknew the righteous and predestinated them; he knew that they would be conformed to the image of his Son and live according to the words of Christ, while he knew that the wicked would not fulfil the terms requisite to be conformed to the image of his Son, but would do the works of the Devil whom they would list to serve. It is written that God knows all things and has all power. He has the rule and command of this earth, and is the Father of all the human beings that have lived, do live and will live upon it. If any of his children become heirs to all things, they in their turn can say, by-and-by, that they know all things, and they will be called Supreme, Almighty, King of kings, and Lord of lords. All this and more that cannot enter into our hearts to conceive is promised to the faithful, and are but so many stages in that ceaseless progression of eternal lives. This will not detract anything from the glory and might of our heavenly Father, for he will still remain our Father, and we shall still be subject to him, and as we progress, in glory and power it the more enhances the glory and power of our heavenly Father. This principle holds good in either state, whether mortal or immortal; “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.” There will be no end to the increase of the faithful. What a pleasing thought! We shall enjoy each other’s society in purity, in holiness, and in the power of God, and no time will ever come when we may not enjoy this. Such great happiness is beyond the comprehension of mortals.

There never was a time when man did not exist, and there never will be time when he will cease to exist. Eternity is without confines, and all things animate and inanimate have their existence in it. The Priesthood of God, that was given to the ancients and is given to men in the latter days, as co-equal in duration with eternity—is without beginning of days or end of life. It is unchangeable in its system of government and its Gospel of salvation. It gives to Gods and angels their supremacy and power, and offers wealth, influence, posterity, exaltations, power, glory, kingdoms, and thrones, ceaseless in their duration, to all who will accept them on the terms upon which they are offered.

It is very pleasing to dwell upon the glory to be revealed in the future, but while our thoughts are thus occupied we should not fail to give our attention to our present wants and necessities. Do we know how to procure the means for our present subsistence? Have we learned how to handle the things of this life in the name of Israel’s God to his glory, for the building up of his kingdom, for the bringing forth of his Zion, for the redemption of the earth, for the establishment of everlasting righteousness, and for the endless happiness of those who will thus be made happy? I am satisfied that there are hundreds of people in this community who would starve to death, if they were not continually told how to obtain the means of subsistence. Do they know how to cultivate the earth and draw from its bosom beauty and embellishment? No; they would do no more towards this than the Indians do, unless some person not only tells them how, but also shows them by his own works. How many of the ladies present have made the ribbons they wear? How many of them have made the bonnets and hats they wear? The time is at hand when you must make them or do without them.

I love to see the human form and the human face adorned, but let our adorning be the workmanship of our hands, from the elements with which we are constantly surrounded. I love beauty whether adorned or unadorned. I love chaste and refined manners, especially when they are founded upon virtue. The etiquette that is of the world is not after God and godliness. It bears upon it a false gloss; it has not for its purpose the happiness of mankind. The etiquette which is after God is to make my brother or my sister as happy as I am, if they will accept of it. It is to teach men how to rise from a state of degradation to an honorable standing in the society of the just.

In the days of the Apostles it was written, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, &c.” This was all right in the Apostles, to show a certain principle that was hereafter to be acted upon. It does not require more than common enlightenment to discover that such an order of things, if persisted in, would result in poverty, hunger, nakedness, and destitution. I say to my brethren and sisters, come let us learn how to gather around us from the elements an abundance of every comfort of life, and convert them to our wants and happiness, filling our storehouses with wheat, wine, and oil, filling our wardrobes with woolen cloth and fine linen, with silks and satins of the finest quality and patterns from the looms of Deseret, going onward and upward until the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. Let us not remain ignorant with the ignorant, but let us show the ignorant how to be wise.

I am constantly trying to teach the people how to extract from the elements the means for their present comfort and independence, and how to first become perfectly obedient to the Gospel of Christ, and then children will be obedient to their parents, and in the Church and kingdom of God every person will learn to act in his order and station, and wisdom will take up her abode with us. Let fathers be willing to be taught by the Holy Priesthood, then let them in all mildness, by example and precept, teach their families; and let wives be one with their husbands in this labor of salvation, that the rising generation may be a better class of people than is the present.

I have promised the people South, that if they will cultivate the ground and ask the blessings of God upon it, the desert shall blossom as a rose, pools of living water shall spring up on the parched ground, and the wilderness shall become glad. The Lord has planted the feet of the Saints in the most forbidding portion of the earth, apparently, that he may see what they will do with it. I may confidently say that no other people on the earth could live here and make themselves comfortable. If we settle on these desert and parched plains, upon the sides of these rugged and sterile mountains, and cultivate the earth, praying the blessing of God upon our labors, he will make this country as fruitful as any other portion of the earth. May the Lord bless the people. Amen.