Discourse by Elder C. W. Penrose, delivered in the Salt Lake Assembly Hall, Sunday Afternoon, April 11th, 1880.

I am thankful today for this opportunity of meeting with my brethren and sisters in this fine hall to worship God and spend a little time in reflecting upon the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am thankful also for this opportunity of bearing my testimony to the truth of the work in which we are engaged. I trust that during the short time I shall stand before you I may be led by the Holy Spirit to say something which will edify and instruct the people.

It was remarked by Brother N. H. Felt, who has just addressed us, that it would be a difficult matter to answer the question—wherein do the Latter-day Saints, or “Mormons,” differ in their views from the rest of the people who profess the Christian religion. True this would be a difficult question to answer in a few minutes satisfactorily. There are a great many points of difference between our doctrines and the doctrines of the so-called Christian world, but if I were to attempt to answer the question in brief I would say the chief difference consists in this—That the religion which we have received has come down from God out of heaven direct, by revelation, in the day and age in which we live, while the religions which are believed in by the various Christian denominations who meet today in different parts of the world to worship God, most of which have been in existence for a long time have been in every case arranged by men. The people who belong to the various Christian sects all profess to believe in one Book—the Bible, and in one God; but their ideas in regard to religion and in regard to the manner in which God shall be worshipped and served are very different, and when we trace up the origin of their religion we find that in every case, with perhaps one exception, they have been started by men; by individuals who, no doubt, in the first place, believed they were enlightened of God and had come to the conclusion that such and such doctrines were the doctrines of Christ, and that it was their duty to preach these doctrines. They convinced others of the truth of the ideas which they had adopted, and together they formed a religious society. Now, we shall find that this is the case with all those different sects and parties, that compose modern Christendom with the exception perhaps of the Church which is called the Church of Rome, the Roman Catholic church. That church professes to be a continuation of the Church which Jesus Christ established. It professes to have the same authority, handed down from generation to generation, which was exercised by the ancient apostles. It professes to have the keys that Peter held. The Pope of Rome professes to be the successor of St. Peter, and the priesthood of the church of Rome profess to have the same authority, or similar authority, or a succession of the authority, which was held in the primitive Christian Church. They say there has been no interruption of this line of priesthood in the church which Jesus Christ established, to build up which the ancient apostles lost their lives—that this priesthood has been continued down through the stream of time to our own period. All the rest of the denominations called Christian have sprung from that body directly or indirectly, and their organization was started in the way that I have briefly described.

You see then there is a great difference between our professions and the professions of all the rest of the Christian world in this particular. We testify that in the day and age in which we live, God, who spoke in ancient times to the prophets, and in the meridian of time by his Only Begotten Son, has uttered his voice again out of heaven; that Jesus who died on Calvary, that we might live, has manifested himself in this day and age of the world; that the angels of God, who were men that ministered in the name of the Lord, in the flesh, in times of old, who died in the truth and live in God, have come to the earth in this age of the world and revealed the things of God; and that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been organized, not by the wis– dom of man, not by persons who have reflected and studied and come to certain conclusions in their own minds and then founded a church, but that it has been organized and established and carried on and directed under the immediate revelations of the Most High God. You see this is quite a difference. There is quite a distinction between us and all the rest of the people called Christians. I do not know, however, whether the great body of people called Christians will allow us to adopt that name. They dispute our right to the title of Christians. They call us “Mormons”—rather a foolish title to give us. Mormon is the name of a man, a servant of God, a prophet of the Most High, who lived anciently on this continent and wrote some of the things revealed to him in a book called the Book of Mormon; and because we believe in that book, our “Christian” friends call us “Mormons.” We might just as well call them Peters, because they believe in Peter; we might just as well call them Pauls, Jeremiahs, Isaiahs, or Lukes, because they believe in the sayings of these men written in the book called the Bible.

But the stranger might say, “It is very well for you to make such a statement as you have made, that your Church has been organized by the commandment of God and by divine revelation from him in the present day, but how can you prove that to the world?” There is a very simple way by which this can be found out, by which the truth or falsity of what I have said can be established. The people who live here in Utah, who have been gathered here from a great many different parts of the earth, are here because they know that what I have spoken of this afternoon is true. This is what brought them here. They have not come up to the heights of these mountains to dig for gold or silver, to make themselves rich with the fruits and products of the earth, or to unite together to establish some socialistic system for the mere bettering of their temporal circumstances. They have come here from the east, from the west, from the north and from the south, from the different continents and from the islands of the sea, because in their own souls they have received a testimony similar to that which I have borne this afternoon. They have investigated the subject; they took the course pointed out to them by which they could find out the truth or falsity of this work for themselves, and having received a testimony that it is true they have come up here to these mountains; they have left their homes in various lands, they have turned their backs on their former homes and relationships, broken up their business affairs, many of them having left friends and family and have come up here to these mountains that they may learn more of this important work, having first of all received a testimony from God that it is true. Well, someone may say, “How did they find it out? Did they find it out because somebody told them? Did they receive their testimony from some other man or woman? No; they received it direct from the Lord, direct from the heavens, for “God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him. “He is just as willing to manifest himself to an Englishman, an American, a Scotchman, an Irishman, a Dutchman, a Scandinavian, a South Sea Islander or anybody else, as to a Jew. How did they obtain this testimony? The Apostle James, some of whose writings we have in this book called the New Testament, told the people in his day, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” Now when the elders of this Church went out with this testimony that God had again spoken from the heavens, that communication between the heavens and the earth, which was once enjoyed by men of old had again been opened up, they told the people who heard their words that if they would believe in the true and living God, if they would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if they would repent of their sins and be baptized in water for the remission of sins, they should receive the Holy Ghost, and by this Spirit they should obtain a testimony direct from the Almighty to their own souls, that God had in very deed commenced the great work of the latter days, spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began. What was the result of this teaching? Why, in every place, in every part of the world, among any people, no matter what their former customs or religion might have been, no matter what condition they might be in, no matter how they had been educated, no matter of what race they might be, wherever they heard the sound of this Gospel and obeyed it, they received a testimony of the truth of this work and therefore have gathered up to these mountains.

This is my testimony to this congregation this afternoon: that, having received this Gospel and obeyed it in the way that I have pointed out, I received a testimony to my own soul, from the Almighty, by which I have no longer any doubt as to its truth; no longer to depend upon the testimony of man. I can say for myself, before God, before the heavenly hosts, before all nations wherever I may be sent, that I know this work is true. I know that God lives. I know that God hears and answers prayers. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that angels have come down from the heavens in these the last times and restored the ancient Gospel. I know that the holy priesthood, the power of God, the authority to administer in the name of the Lord, held by men, in ancient times, has been restored to men in these the latter days, and that it is here upon the earth, never to be taken away again until the work has been accomplished for which it was sent; until every nation shall hear the sound of the Gospel; until every nation, kindred, tongue and people, shall hear of the purposes of the Great Jehovah; until all people shall be warned, and the honest and upright, and the truth-loving in every clime shall be gathered unto the fold of Christ; until the way shall be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ—to reign in Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously; until the earth is redeemed from the curse; until Satan and his hosts are bound; until the great work of God is accomplished and all his children brought up from death and hell and the grave, and placed in a position where they can glorify God throughout the countless ages of eternity.

It is popularly supposed that when our elders go out as missionaries to the different countries of the earth, they go for the purpose of inducing people to gather here to these peaceful valleys, that they might be made subservient to our leaders. That is the popular idea. There cannot, however, be anything more false and ridiculous than this. What object could men have in taking the trouble to go, as our elders do, to face the frowns of the world, to be scoffed at and despised, to travel “without purse or scrip,” as did the ancient servants of God, suffering contumely, persecution, privation, and even hunger and thirst, traveling footsore and weary, among a people who, generally speaking, do not desire to hear their testimony? Their object is to preach the Gospel of Christ, and to bear witness of this great work. It is not merely to gather people to these mountains. When people do come here they come just as I have said—because they have received the Gospel, and know it to be true. They come up here that they may learn more of the ways of the Lord. And this is the testimony that our elders bear wherever they may be sent: That God has restored the ancient Gospel and that he is building up his Church on the earth again for the last time; that the hour of God’s judgment is nigh; that the angel, to whom Brother Felt referred, and about whom he quoted from the revelations of St. John, has come to the earth with “the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” This is our testimony, this is why we go forth, and when the people hear our testimony and believe it, and call upon the Lord for a witness, they receive it, and then they are willing to forego everything for the sake of the Gospel.

There is another great difference between our religion and the reli– gions of the world, and that consists in the power and authority of the priesthood to which I have briefly referred. Now, it is true that the church called the Church of Rome, professes to have the priesthood. That church professes to have the same authority which was in the ancient church, and that it has been handed down from generation to generation to our own times. The Church of England—or the Episcopal Church as it is called here—professes to have a portion of that same authority. The Greek Church also professes to have a portion of that authority. They are branches or offshoots from this Roman Catholic Church; but the rest of the Christian denominations repudiate any idea of a priesthood. They think there is no need for any priesthood. They say that Jesus was the Great High Priest, and that there is no need for any more priests; that is the prevalent idea among the rest of the Christian sects. But we do believe in the necessity of this priesthood, and say that it has been restored from heaven in this our own times. In what way? In the first place John the Baptist, who went before Jesus to prepare the way for him as the prophets predicted, who held the priesthood of Aaron, or the Levitical priesthood—that same person who baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, and who was beheaded for preaching the word of the Lord, has come to the earth in this day and age of the world, and ordained man to the same authority and priesthood that he held while he was in the flesh. Now, I do not know that there is another people on the face of the earth that possess any such thing as that, so that in that respect there is a great difference between our religion and the religions of the world. Further, we testify that not only this lesser priesthood which was held by John the Baptist has been restored, but that Peter, James and John, who held the Apostleship, the same priesthood which Christ held, have come in this our own time and restored the authority which they held. “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,” said Jesus to his disciples. They were ordained to the same authority that He held. What authority was that? We are told that Christ was called to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, an unchangeable priesthood, everlasting, without beginning of days or end of years. He conferred the same priesthood upon His apostles, and Peter, James and John were left to take charge of the Church when He departed; they had the keys of the kingdom; whatsoever they should bind on earth was to be bound in heaven, and whatever they should loose on earth was to be loosed in heaven. Now, we testify that these three individuals holding the keys of that apostleship, the higher priesthood, have come down to the earth as ministering beings in our own times, and ordained the Prophet Joseph Smith to the same apostleship and priesthood and authority which they held, and through him it has been conferred upon others, so that the ancient authority and priesthood held by men of God in times of old, is here on the earth in this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Then there is another difference between us and the rest of the people called Christian, who profess to believe in the Christian religion. This lesser priesthood holds the power to baptize for the remission of sins among other things, but it does not hold the power to confer the Holy Ghost upon the people. When John the Baptist baptized for the remission of sins he said, “There cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” And we read in the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles, that on a certain occasion when the apostles were passing through the upper coasts of Ephesus, they found certain disciples who had simply been baptized with the baptism of John, who did nothing but baptize for the remission of sins, he having no authority to lay his hands upon the people; they had not received the Holy Ghost. But the apostles had received that power and authority from Jesus Christ which He himself held, and they laid their hands upon these people, and they received the Holy Ghost. Here is the difference, or one point of difference, between those two priesthoods. Now this priesthood has not remained upon the earth, hence the necessity of restoring it. The only person in Christendom who professes to have the keys of the apostolic priesthood is the Pope of Rome. What is the Pope of Rome? Is he an apostle? No; he does not profess to be an apostle. Then how came he to be the successor of Peter? Peter was an apostle. He held the keys that Christ gave to him. Christ ordained him. Does the Pope of Rome profess to have the keys of revelation? No, he does not profess to receive any new revelation. He, with others, sometimes meet in holy Convocation, as it is called; they meet in council, they enunciate certain dogmas, but he does not profess to receive any revelation from God. What was the great power of the ancient apostleship? The power to commune with the Highest. The form of the apostleship was nothing; the power was everything. That power departed from the earth. The people in ancient times were unworthy of it. They put out the lights of God which He had placed in the world, and left themselves in darkness. They cut short the apostles’ lives, and the world was left in the gloom. They would not have the power and authority of that apostleship in their midst, and instead of the ancient Church of Christ with the power of God, with the ministration of angels, with the gifts and blessings we read about in the New Testament, we find arising a church of a different form, a church that has persecuted the Saints, a church that is stained with the blood of the innocent, a church that put people to death for their religious belief (which the Church of Christ never did), and yet that church, including all the various contending denominations and sects extant upon the earth, is called “Christian!”

Now, our testimony to the world is that God has restored these two ancient priesthoods—that is, the power to administer in the name of the Lord by authority, and that the power of God accompanies that authority. Here are men who profess to have the right to administer the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins, who profess to have the authority to lay hands upon the people for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, an impostor might profess to have this power. Having read about it in the New Testament, and seeing that the ancient servants of God possessed such power, a man might profess to have authority to lay hands upon people for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost. But an impostor cannot really confer the Holy Ghost. That comes from God. No man can bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost upon anyone; that is the gift of God. We read about a man who thought he could purchase this power. He offered the apostles money for it. But Peter said unto him, “Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.”

Now, here we have in Utah about 150,000 people. A great many of them came to these mountains under very adverse circumstances. They left their various homes in different parts of the world to gather out here with the Saints. Why? Because they knew that this was the work of God by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. How did they receive it? They received it by the laying on of hands of men who professed to have the authority to do so. Now, the fact that they received the gift of the Holy Ghost is a proof that the power of God accompanies the administration. The same fruits that were made manifest in days of old are made manifest today. We read in the New Testament that certain gifts existed in the ancient Church. The sick were healed and the lame made to walk. Some had the gift of tongues, others the interpretation of tongues, others the gift of prophecy, etc. What was the effect of the existence of these gifts? Union, concord, brotherly love, all seeing eye to eye. Now, inasmuch as we find the same gifts among the Latter-day Saints—although of different nationalities, formerly of different religions, brought up in different ways—it is evidence clear and plain that the power of God is in the midst of this people; that the Holy Ghost has been conferred upon them, and this is their united testimony. This is clear to me, but it may not be clear to everybody else. I do not believe it possible for others to see things as I do, unless they take the same course as I have done, and test the matter for themselves.

If a man believes in God, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Scriptures, he will manifest his faith by receiving the doctrines laid down and the commandments given; and if he will ask of God he will receive a testimony. I can make bold to promise this blessing to every man and woman in this house—and I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—if they will obey this Gospel which God has sent from heaven for the salvation of mankind. My friends, if you will turn away from your evil deeds, if you will turn unto the Lord God, obey the ordinances and ask for a testimony of the truth of this work; if you will do this in sincerity, I promise you in the name of the Lord you shall receive the testimony you seek. Is there any minister upon the face of the whole earth, amongst the so-called Christian sects, who can make you a similar promise? No. Why? Because they have not been called to this work. This is another point of difference between our religion and that of the world. Our elders go forth with boldness, because they are not sent by men. They are not called to preach for hire. They are called of God to bear the holy priesthood and carry forth this message of glad tidings wherever they may be sent. It is their duty to proclaim this Gospel to the uttermost bounds of the earth, and their testimony is similar to that I have borne here today, and our witnesses are the Latter-day Saints—gathered from the nations—who dwell in the valleys of the mountains.

There are a great many other points of difference between us and the so-called Christian world, that I have not time to refer to. For instance, we believe in the doctrine of gathering to this land from all parts of the world. When we go out to preach this Gospel, we do not advise the people to stay and erect great churches in the countries where they receive the Gospel. We bear testimony to them that this is the time of God’s judgments. We say, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” We testify that the time is near at hand when great Babylon shall fall; when God shall smite terribly all the nations of the earth; when he will turn and overturn; when nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; people against people and family against family; when there shall be wars and rumors of wars; plagues, famines and pestilence; such a time as has never been known upon the earth from the beginning even unto the present day. Therefore we call upon the elect of God to come out from the nations of the earth, and they come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, to this chosen land, to serve the Lord, to learn of his ways and to walk in his paths, and prepare themselves for the great events that are about to transpire on the earth.

Another great point of difference is the building of Temples. The different Christian denominations build houses and call them St. Paul’s church, St. Peter’s church, St. Mark’s church, etc. They build churches to these various saints, but they know nothing about building a house to the name of the Most High God—a temple in which the Lord may come and place his feet; for this is the day spoken of by the prophets, when “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiners’s fire,” etc. We call upon the people to come out and help build temples in which ordinances can be administered for the benefit of the living and the redemption of the dead. The redemption of the dead! Can the living do anything for the dead? When people pass away from the earth, is not their condition settled? When the tree falls, does it not lie there? Yes, it does, till it is moved. In connection with the Gospel we have received glad tidings of salvation which is preached to the living and to the dead. The Lord has revealed to us the glorious doctrine of redemption for the dead—a plan by which the living may aid the dead. Not by saying mass over the soul of the departed, but by attending to certain ordinances for them which belong to the Gospel. Are all the thousands and millions of people who have passed away without a knowledge of the Gospel to perish? No. There is no name under heaven but the name of Jesus whereby man shall be saved. Ask our Christian friends if the millions of heathens who have passed away from this world have ever heard the name of Jesus. If not, what is to become of them? Millions of people who dwell upon the earth even in so-called Christian countries know nothing about the true Gospel. The so-called Christian churches lack this knowledge and light. By the confession of the Episcopal Church, in its homily of the perils of idolatry, the whole of Christendom, “clergy and laity, men, women and children of all ages, sexes and degrees, have been at the time the homily was written, buried in the most abominable idolatry for the space of 800 years or more.” According to the testimony of the Apostle in the Apocalypse, the whole world, Christian as well as heathen, has gone astray, all nations have become drunk with the wine of the wrath of the fornication of Babylon the great, the mother of harlots; and there has been no voice from heaven, no revelation from God, no communication with the eternal world for many centuries. Although a great many people have tried to do the best they could—and so far being accepted of God—yet they have not received the Gospel by which they can enter into the presence of the eternal Father; they have not entered in at the straight and narrow gate which leadeth to lives eternal.

By this Gospel which has been revealed to us, the servants of God who depart from this mortal sphere, take with them the authority and priesthood they hold, as Christ did, when he went to preach to the spirits in prison. So the servants of God, bearing the same priesthood, go and minister to the spirits behind the veil whether Christian, heathen or pagan. No matter what clime or race they belong to, all must hear the same Gospel and be judged by it on the great day of judgment. They have therefore an opportunity of repenting in the spirit, if they did not hear the Gospel in the flesh. The Spirit can believe, can be informed and instructed in the ways of God, but the Spirit beyond the veil cannot attend to ordinances pertaining to the flesh. To this end, therefore, we are building temples so that, when they are sanctified and accepted of God, the holy priesthood may administer both for the living and the dead. For this is the great dispensation of the fulness of times in which Christ will gather together in one, all things that are in him, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. This is the last dispensation of God’s mercy to man. The work has been commenced and it will roll on until the Gospel has been preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, and the honest in heart have been gathered out from among the Gentiles. Then the Lord will send his servants unto the Jews and the House of Israel, and thus fully accomplish all he has spoken by the holy prophets. We will therefore work while we dwell in the flesh, and when we have finished the work we will pass behind the veil to sweet rest. Rest from our trials and sufferings, from our sorrows and tribulations, from our persecutions and misrepresentations, but not to cease from our labors of love, but to minister in the power, in the strength, in the might and majesty of the eternal priesthood among the hosts behind the veil, and those that dwell upon the earth will continue to build temples and minister therein, that the dead may be redeemed.

I have not time to continue further on this subject. I have briefly pointed out some of the differences between us and the “Christian” world. And now I will bear my testimony to this congregation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that this is not the work of man; that “Mormonism” is the work of the Great God, and no power can overturn it. And I testify further, that every nation and kingdom that shall rise against this work shall perish and be utterly wasted away. The Lord will have a reckoning with that nation, no matter where it is, for all the nations of the earth are in the hands of God, and every human government that will not serve him shall be brought low, until his kingdom spreads forth and is established upon the whole earth with Christ the Redeemer, as King, whose right it is to rule.

May the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, rest in the hearts of the Saints, and also guide all people who desire the truth, in the way of life eternal, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Elder H. W. Naisbitt, delivered in the 16th Ward Meetinghouse, Sunday Afternoon, March 7th, 1880.

I presume we all understand that the Spirit of the Lord is in the congregation of the Saints. If we do not understand it and if there is any one that does not realize the necessity of enjoying it, it would be a good thing perhaps for him to get up here a while.

When a person is called upon to address a congregation and notices the upturned faces before him, waiting, wishing, very likely praying, for the blessings which they particularly desire, I think that no man can look upon such a sight unmoved, he must feel his own ignorance and weakness, and dependence, and when he does this I believe that all public administrations will be an advantage and blessing both to the speaker and hearers, and I am sure that is my object this afternoon. I have no personal ambition to serve, but I do want to bless and I do know that I need to be blessed. And this is the place appointed (so far as this ward is concerned) for the reception of those blessings which pertain to the public services of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here is the place where there should be intelligence. Here is the place where there should be wisdom. Here is the place to expect revelation, and that not in any vague, misty, half understood sense—not lost or covered up by a multitude of words, but divested of everything that will deprive us of knowledge as to the essential principles which belong really to revelation. The world, however, holds very peculiar ideas in regard to this. Every elder in Israel who will look back upon his experience, if it reaches even to the early history of this Church, will comprehend how odd and mythical the ideas in regard to revelation were as then held by mankind. It is true that the masses of the people as well as the teachers believed that in the ancient times there had been some communication with the intelligences who dwell behind the veil. They all agreed—all Christians did at all events—that the Spirit was made manifest and its utterances recorded in a book. They believed that without that book the world was in a lost condition, that men were left to grope in darkness and to wander in ignorance, but with that book it was believed that every man and every woman could understand themselves; they could understand something of their origin and the purpose for which they were dwelling upon the earth, the destiny which belonged to the human family, and also the process by which that destiny could be best secured. But it is astonishing what a little light will do for a man. It is astonishing how our minds expand when we receive the key to the situation. And when we look at the vast difference there is between the community who inhabit these mountains and the communities of the nations from which we have been gathered—probably most can see and are aware that between the two there exists a great and ever widening gulf. Men who reject the principle of revelation in any direction must inevitably become stunted, they must inevitably cease to live, because revelation is the element of life, it is the secret of growth, it is the power of increase, and it is only in proportion to the receptive ability of a man, or woman, or child, that they can increase in intelligence. Now, divested of all extraneous or outside ideas, divested of all the mystery that has been thrown around the idea of revelation by manmade teachers, divested of all traditions and thoughts that have been written in regard to it, what is the essential idea involved in revelation in its significant simplicity? What is there that is difficult of comprehension? What is there that it should need men of classical education to explain it; what is there that there should be these large colleges and this immense army of ministers in order that the world may be enlightened in regard to the principle of revelation? Why, when you come to probe and to reach the foundation of the idea it is nothing more nor less than the communication of intelligence possessed by one to another who in regard to that subject remains in ignorance. That is all there is involved in revelation, and whenever you find a human being who is ignorant of any subject pertaining to any direction of human thought, or in regard to any useful field of human experience, there revelation is an absolute necessity.

Now, then, revelation may vary in degree; it may vary in character, according to the necessities of the case, according to the intelligence of individuals. The mother who guides the destiny of a family and endows it with all the comforts of domestic and social life finds herself surrounded by a few crude men and women, or, as we call them, boys or girls. You consider the character of this offspring. When they were born they were helpless, and in infancy they possessed no intelligence save those animal instincts which lead only to the preservation of life. But in a few weeks or months the spirit of intelligence begins to dawn. The mother watches the growing spark and seeks to fan it to a flame; to point out the remedy where difficulty occurs in early experience; to explain the educational process through which the child must pass from man or womanhood; and to show that when the first efforts are made, and even when they are comparative failures, that these only stand as sentinels or pointsmen in the great highway of success—prompters to ultimate and final success. The probability is that every young woman who has learned to make bread has had an experience of this character. And it is true that many of the first trials, unless the mother watched very closely, would not be successful, the bread might be heavy, or it become sour. Now it is the mother’s duty to reveal, to give from her intelligence to one comparatively ignorant, a solution or remedy for the difficulty. The young girl is expected to listen to the mother. She has the faculty to receive the intelligence that is communicated, and to put that intelligence into practice. And when the bread was heavy the mother showed the cause which brought about that condition. If the bread was sour, a little neutralizing element had to be put into the dough, in order that the acidity might be removed, a little soda or something of that kind; and this is a revelatory process from the mother to the child. If you take one of our good mothers in Israel who has grown grey under the weight of experience, you will find that she possesses a vast fund of information, and in every direction in domestic or social life she is the great standard of appeal, and even when the daughter has become a married woman, when she passes into the responsibility of motherhood, when sickness takes hold of the darling that God has given her, she instantly appeals to the higher or wider intelligence and experience of the mother, and that which the mother, by the advantage of years, by the experience through which she has passed, has gained, she communicates unto the daughter, and thus the daughter becomes the recipient of revelation. And as it is with the mother and the daughter, so also it is with the father and the son; so also it is with those who are learning a trade, so also it is with those who attend our daily or our Sabbath schools, and the very fact that we are so constituted that we can receive revelation in these channels is a revelation in and of itself, written in the fundamental organization of the human character, that revelation is not only possible and desirable, but that it is also a necessary and inevitable element pertaining to the highest welfare and the grand destiny and future of those who submit to its varied processes from day to day! Now, this character of intelligence may be said to mark the very lowest phases of human life; but while man is an animal, while he has his physical necessities, while he is surrounded with domestic life, while he is subject to and is a member of the social arena of life, there are also attributes of character which are beyond this physical, this animal, and this social cast. There is something in every man and in every woman which savors of the divine, in all the circumstances of life there is a reaching out after something which is beyond the grasp; there is a soaring of the spirit, a seeking after something to which the present surroundings gave no clue. Man feels that he is. He not only feels that he is, but thousands and millions of the human family have an inkling of the great fact that they have been, and millions and millions more have an inkling of the other great fact that when they leave this stage of existence they will continue to be. And it is the realization of such things which establishes the idea outside of any other special revelation that our origin is divine as well as human. When we sense these ideas, when they become interwoven into the fabric of our lives, when we instinctively feel that we do possess this characteristic, there must be certain elements and certain principles which will minister to the growth of such ideas; just as there are elements of and in nature which minister to the welfare of the lower, so there are elements which minister to the higher, and fitted for the cultivation of every attribute of the human character, no matter how low we may esteem it to be, or how lofty we may conceive it to be, there are resources in the economy of God for the development and growth and glory of that characteristic. Hence when a man realizes that he had a pre-existence, when he realizes that the present existence is but a transitory condition, when he realizes that there is a vast and illimitable future before him, he desires to comprehend how he shall best minister to his individual welfare in that future. And here steps in the necessity of revelation based upon philosophy, based upon human necessities and human needs. The only way that we can be educated in this direction is by revelation coming to us from outside sources, from higher intelligences; from those who have passed through the selfsame experience as we ourselves have and will forever pass.

Now, then, as a fundamental process for our education in this respect we have given unto us the Gospel. That Gospel is just as systematic and just as orderly as are the details of education in a school. It is just as orderly and systematic as are the methods by which our boys are taught and trained in the various branches of education or trade. It is just as orderly and systematic as the education our wives give to their daughters, or that mothers give to their married girls. You never find a mother, in training her children for domestic life, begin to tell them in the first place how to make one of those very rich cakes that we sometimes make ourselves sick with at Christmas. You would scarcely find a man who took an apprentice, begin to teach him in the first place some higher branches of his trade. You would scarcely find a teacher begin to teach his pupils the advanced principles pertaining to a classical education. There is an order; there are steps and processes in every educational direction, which we take in their order and in their time and place. Now one of the most startling revelations that has been given to the human family in the day and age in which we live, by the elders of Israel, to a dark and benighted world, is the great fundamental idea of “the fatherhood of God.” Now, this may not appear so startling to the American citizen whose mind is impregnated with the idea that the human family are equal—that one man is as good as another, but in the Old World there exists conditions of class and of caste. You who have come from England or from any European nation, will realize what I mean by class and caste. There is the charmed circle of the royal blood, into which the plebeian never enters. There is the larger circle of the aristocracy, or, as we call them, the “upper ten,” and into the precincts of that circle, jealously guarded as they are, a stranger scarcely ever enters. Then you were surrounded in England by what is called the middle classes, and even they look upon the lower classes as being made of some material distinct and different from themselves; but when the elders of Israel landed in Old England and proclaimed “the fatherhood of God,” and laid the axe at the root of caste and class, they were preparing for the foundation of a kingdom that should recognize the essential unity of the human family and of necessity the brotherhood of man. It is quite true that under some social, religious or political circumstances, we hear of a certain unity and equality among the human family; but if you attempt to put that unity and equality into practice, what are the results that inevitably flow from such a course? You are surrounded with obstacles on every hand, and it is only perhaps after the lapse of two or three generations that a man in his posterity is able to make his way from the ranks and associate with the higher class. It is true there are those here and there who do this, and they do it by virtue of inherent genius or some chance legacy, and when they are accepted into this higher class, it is by virtue of this chance, etc., but as a rule they are looked upon as intruders. Take the Prime Minister of England, Lord Beaconsfield. There is a man who has made himself a necessity to the government of the country, to Her Majesty, to the higher classes; he has done this by virtue of the inspiration of the Almighty, and yet with all his grand attainments, that man is looked upon more or less as an intruder because he was not nobly born! And so I might multiply illustrations which would be familiar to you all. But the Gospel sets out in the first place with these two ideas, twin ideas, that never can be put asunder, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of the human family.

Now, then, if we are one in our origin, if we are really one in destiny, we must all reach that destiny by the selfsame process, and that process is to be found in the ordinances of the Gospel, in the power of inspiration and revelation resting upon those who initiate men and women into that order. And in connection with this, wherever and whenever you comprehend this higher intelligence that bears rule in the eternities, controlling the destines of these great orbs that we see from time to time in the midnight heavens—wherever you find those that have graded from a fallen world you will find those who graded up and through the instrumentality of the selfsame Gospel that is given to you and me. There is no other Gospel. There is no other way to that exaltation which pertains to the Gods only through the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So that there is “no royal road” to heaven; no matter what a man’s condition, no matter what the class to which he may have been known in social life on earth by virtue of birth or by virtue of wealth; no matter what position he may occupy because of his ignorance or lack of information; no matter whether he may live in a hovel or dwell in a palace, or though he may have but a crust to eat or his table be laden with all the good things of the earth, he must submit to the selfsame ordinances, be controlled by the selfsame spirit of revelation, and reach the final issue through the selfsame channel.

Now, then, what is it that we expect through the Gospel? Why, that it may develop in you and me, from our crude, ignorant, unlovable condition—the results of many a fearful fall—the appearance and the characteristics of the eternal Father. This selfsame idea animated the Saints in ancient times. They had faith that by obedience to righteous laws there would be evolved in and from them, through the attributes which they already possessed, measurably dormant or measurably active as the case may be—that they would be able to produce the likeness of God the eternal Father. Now, at first view this may appear sur– prising, but suppose we reason upon it for a moment or two.

Here are some of you good brethren; you go to work this spring and you set out an orchard of apple trees, and by and by the time for fruit arrives and you go and look for pears, or plums, or cherries upon the apple trees! Now, what would be thought of your intelligence? Why everybody would say you have certainly made a mistake; they were apple trees that you planted, and apples are the fruit; if you want pears you must plant pear trees. Men don’t gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles. Then, if we are the children of our Father you can see at a glance by that illustration that if we submit to the process of education which he had pointed out and laid down, we must become like him. Well, now, this may seem incredible to some that a human being, defiled and deformed as he is by sin and transgression, the result of ages—I say it may seem almost incredible that a human being should be able to rise to the characteristics and attributes and appearance of the Father; but it is not only possible but it is inevitable, and all the ancient Saints had this idea. One of the old prophets, for instance, when under the inspiration of the Almighty, has said, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness;” and in the New Testament, one of the apostles said, looking forward to the time of the resurrection, that, “When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” We shall have an opportunity of demonstrating our likeness. We shall be able to make the contrast, “We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” And of Jesus it was said that, “He was the brightness of his Father’s glory and the express image of his person.” He was like his Father, and this likeness was in him by virtue of the fact that he lived in possession of the inspiration of revelation; his course was marked out by that spirit. It animated every faculty, controlled every action, prompted every motive, and because that spirit was poured upon him “without measure,” he became the glory of his Father and exhibited in himself the “express image of his person,” and he, in speaking to his disciples, declared that they should become “like unto him, even as he was like his Father,” by the reception of “line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” Now, probably I might illustrate this from the facts of everyday life, the possibility, I mean, of a change in the features of those with whom we are familiar. Did you ever notice a man and wife who had lived happily together, whose thoughts were one, who had become assimilated to each other in their tastes and feelings so far and to such an extent that when you see them white with the snow of years you would say of them, “I never saw a couple so much alike; they are positively like brother and sister.” Did that ever come under your observation? It has come under mine many and many a time. Now, what was the secret of that? Why the wife had become assimilated to the husband and the husband to the wife; they were actuated upon in a great measure by the selfsame impulses, until they had become similar in their habits of life, so thoroughly one that they were like each other even in their facial expression, and when death claimed one or the other, but a few hours or days would pass before they were again and for evermore united. And this is a characteristic in which we glory. But to illustrate this in another direction. Here is a mother, now, or a young wife. Her heart overflows with affection for the husband of her youth. God has blessed the union that was made by the authority of the priesthood. She passes along until she attains to the condition of motherhood, and in the fulness of her heart she brings the babe to the assembly of the Saints that by the authority of the priesthood it may be dedicated to the service of God and to the building up of this kingdom. The mother’s heart is full. It bursts almost with gratitude for the great boon she has received. She breathes many a prayer for the child that God has given, and by and by, even when the cup seems full to the very brim, some of her sisters come along and say, “what a beautiful baby you have got; how very like its father;” and that is the last drop needful to make the mother’s soul and ambition full to overflowing. To say that the babe was like herself would perhaps have been quite as correct; but when it was pronounced to be like his father, more especially if its father was a good husband, if he was everything that he should be in regard to character—there was no limit to the love and affection she could bear for her husband and their child. * * * * *

There is an illustration we can apply in another direction. We have all come down from the eternities of the past to this period of probation. I think the probabilities are that while we dwelt there we were in possession of a good deal of intelligence. There were many facilities, I expect, for the acquisition of such intelligence as was adapted to our condition. I believe that we were there taught the necessity and advantage of taking a probation upon the earth. I believe that there we exhibited a great many of the attributes of our Father, the Father of our spirits; but we came down here and we took upon us tabernacles; these tabernacles are given to us by our earthly father and by our mother. And they came to us corrupted, they came to us contaminated by the vast variety of evils with which our fathers have afflicted themselves during many generations. When we consider the exalted character of our first father, when we consider the position that he occupies, and when we consider his offspring on the earth subject to the infirmities of the flesh, it is not unlikely that many are led to say, “how can we be the children of our father who art in heaven? And if we are his children how can we renew or be restored to his image and likeness, how can we develop the attributes which he possesses, how can we become like him in our spirits and more or less in our tabernacles.” Why we shall have to do this by the reception of his spirit, and by cultivating the principles of life that come through revelation. When we come to look at each other as we are, we see stamped in our countenances selfishness, we see exhibitions of sensuality, we see the evidences of a thousand and one conditions to which we have been subjected and our fathers before us. Now, the Gospel has been given us to do away with sin and death; it has been given to develop in us the attributes and characteristics of our Father in heaven from faculties we already possess. Well, now, we will suppose that one of those angels of intelligence surrounding the throne of God comes down to the streets of Salt Lake City. He goes up one of the principal thoroughfares and peers into the face of everyone that passes. He marks our plainness, or, in some instances, ugliness. He can detect at a glance where the faculties are perverted, and where they are in their normal condition. He can see in a moment how we have been beclouded by sin, how we have been subjected to evil influences, how we have given way to temptation, and how we are the subjects of the conditions which surround us. But as he passes along he meets one of a little different stamp. A man may be dwelling in a hovel on the bench or in the low wards of the city, and he steps up to such a one and says, “how do you do.” “Why,” says the person addressed, “you have the advantage of me, I do not know that I ever saw you before.” “Well, now, probably you never did, but,” says he, “I know you although I never saw you.” “Well, how do you know me.” “Why, I am from the eternities that are beyond the veil, I am come from where your Father dwells and I can see in the luster of your eye, I can feel by the aura or influence which surrounds you as you move from place to place, that you are animated by the spirit of your Father’s house, I can discern in your physiognomy the lineage of your progenitors.” Well, what is the secret? Simply that there is a man living his religion. He is filled with the Spirit and power of God. It is a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. It actuates him in all the circumstances of life; as a father, as a member of the Church to which he belongs and as a citizen. It is this which gives luster to the eye and elasticity to the step, even when the body is bent with weight of years, and the stranger who has come direct from the eternal worlds can see that there is a man who has been with Jesus and has learned of him. Will it glorify a man and woman in this respect while they are in the flesh? Yes, it will, and when men and women in general come in contact with them, they will be prepared to bear testimony that they are in the enjoyment of a good, or as we may say, right spirit. While they are tabernacling in the flesh they are preparing for the more exalted condition and state which belongs to them in the future, and many and many a man and woman have exhibited some of the characteristics which were exhibited by the individual who came to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. John fell at his feet to worship him, “See thou do it not (said he), I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” John thought from the glory surrounding him that he must be God himself; and he began to bow the knee to him. “See thou do it not.” And when we see a man whom we recognize as faithful in all the conditions of life, as “a man whom we can tie to”—to use a common expression, a man who is on hand all the time, who is living his religion, we feel involuntarily to lift our hats to such a one, and this intuitive reverence which we pay to human character, is testimony of God within the veil of flesh, and also an evidence of the spirit of revelation and inspiration.

Now, this is the purpose of our religion, and although our receptive faculties may be comparatively dormant, yet they can become enlarged. You and I have a right to enjoy revelation and inspiration. It is not confined to officials or to the ordained elders of Israel, it is not confined to the first presidency, to the twelve apostles, to the seventies or the high priests, but it is within the reach of every man and woman in Israel, and we can bring that spirit of revelation to bear upon our duty, in our social as well as our religious life. Now, I know there are a great many who think that the spirit of revelation and inspiration is of no use in the details of every day life. This, however, is a mistake, for the selfsame inspiration and revelation can qualify a man in business, it can help his faculties, enlarge his reason, and make him more noble and godlike and intelligent in all the directions he may be called upon to act in. To be sure there are those who say that our religion has nothing to do with our business. I recollect one of our leading men asserting that President Young might direct in spiritual things, he might direct in matters pertaining to the Gospel, “but, when it came to business, he knew what business was!” Now, that is a mistake because the object of this Gospel is to minister to our spiritual and also to our temporal wants and interests. Take our bishops as an illustration. Are they not called to administer in the temporal affairs of the kingdom? What is their office? They are fathers to the people. They are to see that every man becomes self-sustaining. They are called upon to open up industries for the growing youth of our Territory. We sustain them in that office. Thus our religion enters into temporal things and they are ordained and set apart for this. When Brother George Q. Cannon goes to represent us in Congress he is set apart for that office, and the priesthood lay their hands upon him in order that he may be blessed in that capacity. When Brother Staines goes down to New York, he goes there to attend to those duties which are temporal, but he is set apart by the Authorities of this Church to officiate in that character. The Gospel therefore interferes in our temporal arrangements. And this is no new theory. It is as old as the everlasting hills; it pertains to eternity, it will exist throughout all the eternities of the future. If you turn back in the old book to the history of the tabernacle in the wilderness, you find that under the jurisdiction of Moses, there were certain men who labored on that building that were inspired of God. He caused his Spirit to rest upon them, and you will notice it in a greater degree when you come to the building of the temple of Solomon. You will find there were men inspired to work in that direction. And that which was good in the years of the past is good in the day and age in which we live, and the day will yet come in Israel when men will be set apart to act in more temporal capacities than many in Israel dare to think of now. When a man shows that he has received a gift from God, no matter about its character, whether it is a gift of wisdom, or whether it is a gift leading into mechanics, science or literature—whenever that man exhibits these attainments, and he is taken and set apart by the servants of God, you will see that spirit enlarge his faculties, increase his judgment, and when that day comes, you will see a good spirit in the midst of Israel. It will glow and grow and increase in every direction that will minister to the welfare of the kingdom as a whole. Why, even now, in the building of our Temples, Brother T. O. Angell and others are sustained as architects. Now, what has religion to do with building a house? Much. Has it to do with teaching a school? Yes. Has it to do with domestic economy? Yes; I know it has; and wherever you find men and women who will cultivate that spirit and follow its counsel, you will find that they will become famous in the direction in which they act. They are inspired of God, led by his spirit, and have access to the intelligence that lies behind the veil, and those who have had experience there will minister to our wants, so that when Zion begins to grow she will fairly shine. She will support everything that will contribute to the welfare and glory of the greatest kingdom that was yet set up upon the earth, until men shall say, “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Now, this is the purpose for which you and I have come from the Old World, from the different States in the New World, and from the different parts of Europe and the islands of the sea, to be taught of God, to enjoy his Spirit, to be educated in his Church, to be subject to his authority, and to grow and increase in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is something worth having, something that is worth living for, something that outshines and outdistances all the organizations and systems which men may have introduced. It is the Gospel of the living God. It is the Spirit of the living God burning in the hearts of the Saints. But far too many of us neglect this Spirit, we grieve it, we do not listen to its admonitions. How many in Israel have bartered their homes and sunk their means in a “hole in the ground,” because they would not listen to the counsels of God through his servants? How many failures in life, because of our ignorance, notwithstanding the fountains of intelligence are open at which we can drink? How many of us lose our children because we fail to apply to these great fountains, so that all could operate and under– stand how to resist adverse influences, while we are in the flesh. Now, if we would cultivate this spirit, if we would listen to its teachings, it would come to us in many ways, in visions, in dreams and manifestations of the power of God. We could have the ministration of angels, and many of us probably the ministration of the Son—as some have done in the history and experience of this Church—and this is the position to which we will all arrive if we are faithful to the great trust that is laid upon us; we shall not only enjoy the society of “an innumerable company of angels,” not only come “to the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn,” but we shall also be privileged to go to Jesus, and to God the Father of us all and there bask in his presence and be educated in his ways and sit down to the glory which awaits the just.

Now, may God bless us with his Spirit, may he lift us from the groveling condition in which we find ourselves placed; may he infuse into and surround us with the influence of his Spirit, that we may live indeed a new life, and so glorify God “in our bodies and spirits which are his,” is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Salt Lake Assembly Hall, at the Quarterly Conference, Sunday Afternoon, January 4th, 1880.

I have been very much pleased and interested in the proceedings of this conference and in the teachings that we have had from those who have addressed us, and I take very great pleasure in performing my part in these exercises in which we are now engaged. It would seem that this building is rather too small for us at present; I do not know that we can stretch it any; consequently we will put up with things as they are. However it will only be on extraordinary occasions that we shall have the amount of people in it that there is today. By and by the storms will be over and the winter past, and we have got a larger building close by, that we can go to. I am very much pleased, however, with the exertions that have been made in preparing this building so far, it is true that it is in an unfinished condition for the assembling of the Saints at this conference; but I suppose that it will be quite gratifying to the priesthood and to all who have assembled together on this occasion, to possess the privilege we now enjoy.

There are a few thoughts that have passed through my mind in hearing the remarks of some of my brethren. I was much pleased this morning in listening to the remarks made by Brother Pratt and the brethren who succeeded him, particularly in regard to the subject that they seemed to have their minds upon, that is in relation to the observance of the word of wisdom; and although, like Brother Pratt, I should have to make an acknowledgement that I have not fulfilled that always, yet, I heartily sustain and coincide with every principle that God has revealed for the temporal or spiritual salvation of his people. There were some remarks associated with those made by some of the brethren that also bore a little on my mind, namely, that our religion did not consist simply in one principle but in many, agreeable to what has been spoken in ancient days that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” But we are none of us justified in repudiating or ignoring any one of those principles which God has given unto us, and if we have been negligent in these or other matters the proper way for us to do is to reform, to begin anew, or, at least if we have let down any stitches, as the sisters sometimes say when they are knitting, gather them up again and put things in proper position that we may be able, not only in that but in everything else, to honor our God in all sincerity, fidelity and integrity; that we may be able to present ourselves before the Lord in a manner which shall always have his acceptance.

We need teaching continually, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. Hence we have our various organizations of the priesthood, calculated to oversee, to manipulate, to regulate, to teach, to instruct, and to enter into all the ramifications of life whether they pertain to this world or the world to come. We need continually not only the guidance and the teachings of the apostles, the presidents, the bishops, priests, teachers, deacons and the various organizations of the priesthood; but we need individually to look unto the Lord for wisdom to direct us in all the affairs of life, that we may speak aright, that we may think aright, that we may act aright, and we may perform the various duties devolving upon us to attend to in all of the avocations of life, and in our prayers, in our various devotions in a family capacity, in a church capacity and in every position that we occupy, we need the guidance and direction of the Almighty. And it is with individuals as it is with families and branches and portions of families, we need to seek unto the Lord and obtain wisdom from him. There is one fact, and that is a great many people—scarcely any of us—know what is good for us. We may have our ideas about that; but we need continually the guidance and direction of the Almighty. The disciples, that is the apostles of old, understood this principle and they asked the Lord to teach them how to pray and in a very few words he uttered one of the most comprehensive forms that has ever been penned or spoken. He said when you pray say, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” That is a most comprehensive prayer. In the first place the God of the universe is recognized, our Father who is in the heavens, the God and the Father of Jesus Christ. And what else? The God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. We recognize and reverence him as “Our Father which art in heaven,” we bow before him and seek unto him for his guidance and direction. We hallow and reverence his name. And then what next? “Thy kingdom come.” What kingdom? All those things branch out into great and important principles, that can only be understood by revelations from the Most High. “Thy kingdom come.” Why? That “thy will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

I wish to refer a little to some of these things, those ideas and principles that are developed in this saying, in part, because these things can only be done in part. We talk a good deal about the church and kingdom of God. I sometimes think we understand very little about either. The kingdom of God means the government of God. That means power, authority, rule, dominion, and a people to rule over; but that principle will not be fulfilled, cannot be entirely fulfilled, until, as we are told in the Scriptures, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he will rule over them. And when unto him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Christ, to the glory of God, the Father. That time has not yet come, but there are certain principles associated therewith that have come, namely, the introduction of that kingdom, and the introduction of that kingdom could only be made by that being who is the king and ruler, and the head of that government, first communicating his ideas, his principles, his laws, his government to the people; otherwise we should not know what his laws were. The world has been governed in every kind of form; we have had every species of government. Sometimes we have had patriarchal government, at other times we have had unlimited monarchies or what may be called despotic governments, where the power to rule is in the hands of one individual. At other times we have had limited monarchies such as exist in many places now upon the face of the earth. In other places and at different ages we have had what is termed republican governments where the voice of the people has ruled and governed and managed the people’s affairs. There have been various forms independent of these, which I do not wish to enter into at present, but nowhere have we had the government of God. It is true that for a limited period among a very small people in early days, among the Jews, they profess– ed to be under the guidance of God for a certain length of time. But they were continually departing therefrom. They had their priesthood, they had their prophets, they had their Urim and Thummim, and through these mediums they sought the wisdom and guidance of God in regard to many of the prominent enterprises in which they engaged. The law given by Moses was one of those things that emanated from God. Moses received from the Lord the ten commandments written upon tables of stone—written by the finger of God—and this people, who were then quite a small people comparatively speaking, received the commands of God and professed, at least, to be governed thereby. The Lord gave them commands and they were proclaimed to the people, and when proclaimed it was usual for all the people to say “Amen. These laws we will observe and do.” But this was among a very limited people. Very soon they desired to have a king to rule over them, but the idea that was then considered proper among them was: “The Lord is our king, the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, and he shall rule over us.” We see the feeling which they had and entertained as a people, but they departed from it and they sought a king and were led astray from correct principles—led into folly, darkness, ignorance—until they were scattered abroad to the four winds of heaven.

There has been a time spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world was, when God should govern his people, and the Jews, when the Messiah came, expected that he was come to reign over Israel as a temporal king, that he was going to take possession of his kingdom to overthrow all other kingdoms, empires, dynasties and powers, and declare himself the king of Israel and of the world. But they did not understand many things associated therewith, and they do not now; and the world does not, and we ourselves understand very little about them. But the Scriptures say that “till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” Now then, if the kingdoms of this world have never yet become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ they will be, and it is necessary that there should be a commencement to this as well as to every other thing. This is a matter that has been looked forward to by prophets and apostles, patriarchs, and men of God in the various dispensations of time. It is called “the dispensation of the fulness of times” when God will gather together all things in one whether they be things on the earth or things in the heavens. Now there must of necessity be a starting point for this, and the question is how is it to originate? Who among the nations of the earth knew or comprehended anything about the government of God? None did; nowhere; no king, no emperor, no potentate, no president, no power upon the face of the earth; no divine or theologian, no scientist, no philosopher, understood anything about this matter. It is indeed the kingdom of God, and being his kingdom, it must originate with him, it must receive from him its teachings, its forms, its principles, its laws, its ordinances, its institutions, and everything connected therewith must emanate from God, and as it was necessary that it should originate with him, it is also necessary that it should be upheld and sustained by him and that those who should operate in this kingdom should be governed by the same spirit that you heard Brother Pratt talk about this morning. It became necessary also that a medium should be introduced whereby man might be placed in communion with God that they might comprehend him, that they might understand his laws when he gave them, that they might be acquainted with the principles which he had to develop; for there is one great principle that men very little understand, viz.: “The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God,” and if they don’t know only through his wisdom, it would be in vain for God to communicate with a people who could not comprehend him, who had not the capacity to receive these principles which he had to communicate. The same principle holds good everywhere among all the principles with which we are acquainted or know anything about. You cannot teach a child algebra, nor arithmetic, until it has gone through a certain system of training. You cannot teach the arts and sciences without necessary preparation for their introduction, nor can you teach people in the government of God without they are placed in communication with him, and hence comes the Church of God, and what is meant by that? A school, if you please, wherein men are taught certain principles, wherein we can receive a certain spirit through obedience to certain ordinances. And we, having received this spirit through those ordinances, were then prepared to take the initiatory steps in relation to other matters, and hence as a commencement the Lord appeared unto Joseph Smith, both the Father and the Son, the Father pointing to the Son said, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Hear ye Him!” Here, then, was a communication from the heavens made known unto man on the earth, and he at that time came into possession of a fact that no man knew in the world but he, and that is that God lived, for he had seen him, and that his Son Jesus Christ lived, for he also had seen him. What next? Now says the Father, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.” The manner, the mode, the why, and the wherefore, he designed to introduce through him were not explained; but he, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of man, he was the one pointed out to be the guide, the director, the instructor, and the leader in the development of the great principles of that kingdom and that government which he then commenced to institute. What next? The next step was that men having held the priesthood, that had ministered in time and eternity and that held the keys of the priesthood came and conferred them upon Joseph Smith. John the Baptist conferred upon him the Aaronic priesthood, and Peter, James and John the Melchizedek priesthood; and then others who had operated in the various ages of the world, such as Moses and Enoch, appeared and conferred upon him the authority that they held pertaining to these matters. Why? Because it was “the dispensation of the fullness of times,” not of one time only but of all the times; it was the initiatory step for the development of all the principles that ever existed, or would exist pertaining to this world, or the world to come. What next? He was commanded to set apart other men, to baptize them that believed, that had faith in God and in his kingdom, and in his revelations and in his government. After they were put in possession of these principles, they were commanded to baptize those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who repented of their sins, that they were to be baptized for a remission of their sins and to have hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost. What then? There was a priesthood organized, a First Presidency, the Twelve, a High Council, Patriarchs, quorums of High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Bishops, Priests, Teachers and Deacons, to carry on the purposes of God, and to instruct men in the laws pertaining to his kingdom, even the laws of life. Men were sent forth in the name of God to preach the principles of truth which had been revealed, and a great many believed and were baptized and were initiated into the Church of God, and we may say into the initiatory or preparatory steps necessary for the establishment of the kingdom of God. They then received the Spirit of God, which is “no cunningly devised fable;” it did not originate with man, it was the gift of God to man. The Elders, for instance, were told to go forth and call upon men to repent, to be baptized, and they were to lay their hands upon them that they should receive the Holy Ghost. And what should that do? Take of the things of God and shew them unto the people. This is one of the greatest developments of power that ever existed among men. You Elders, hundreds of you that are now listening to me, have gone forth to preach this Gospel. You have called upon men to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and they have done it. You have called upon men to repent, and they have done it. You have told them to be baptized and you have baptized them. You have then laid your hands upon their heads and said “receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and they have received it. And you know, and this congregation knows, that what I say is true, and by that principle, through obedience to the law of God that he had introduced in his Gospel. What for? To prepare men to be placed in communion with God. To prepare them to be members not only of his Church but of his Kingdom, and to prepare them to take part in this great event that had to transpire in the last days. Now these are facts that you cannot controvert, nor anybody else. You know that these things are true. What does it prove? That it is God’s kingdom, he has introduced it, and as it was said in former times, “Ye are my witnesses,” as well as the Holy Ghost that beareth witness of us. Now, then, could you have received this without the interposition of the Almighty and his Son Jesus Christ? No you could not. Could you have received it without the keys of the priesthood being restored and which some men affect to despise so much? No you could not. Hence we trace out the order of these institutions as they dwelt in the mind of God, and as they were made manifest among men. Have those elders that perform these ceremonies their weaknesses? Yes, just as much as Elder Pratt and I have our weaknesses. Have they their infirmities? Yes. Was it a rich treasure that was conferred upon us? Yes, but we received it in earthen vessels, surrounded with the infirmities of man. But God knew these infirmities; he was acquainted with all our weaknesses. Nevertheless, he conferred upon us this priesthood, this power, and this authority, and when we went forth in his name and by his authority, God sanctioned our acts. Is God with us while these things take place? I think so. What do you think about it? It is a principle that is clear, and plain and demonstrable. Well, what next? Then we began to gather together. And why do we gather together? Some of us can hardly tell why, and I am often surprised when I read letters importuning us in regard to this matter. I get letters time and again praying that some means may be devised that the Saints may be delivered and gathered to Zion, and be enabled to live with the Saints of God. What is the reason of it? Why do they want to gather? Because there was a spirit and influence associated with this Church and this kingdom which led and propelled them to this action, and you who hear me have felt this influence; you felt a desire to gather, and you came, and those that are not here now feel as strong a desire to gather as you did. And when you have gathered, many of you think it is a curious kind of Zion, don’t you? It is; for while the net gathers in the good, it brings all kinds as well, good and bad. We have some very good fish, and some very bad ones, and some a kind of half and half, and some feel like saying “Good Lord and good devil,” as they do not know into whose hands they may fall. Nevertheless, this is the order, and the wheat and tares, I suppose, have got to grow together until the harvest comes, and that is not quite here yet, and hence we are jostling one against another, and some of us hardly know whether it is us or somebody else. Difficulties and trials beset us, and we are amazed. But we are here, and we are here according to the command of God and according to the operation of the Spirit of God that rests upon us, and did rest upon us, and led us here, and I was going to say, we are here because we could not help it.

Well, what next? Who are we, and what are we when we are here? Some good Latter-day Saints, and some, as I have said, half and half, some one thing and some another. But how do we stand in the position we occupy as a Church and as other people stand? We believe in God. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in virtue, purity, holiness, integrity, honesty. We believe in good citizens and good Saints. We believe in keeping the commandments of God, and carrying out his purposes. We believe in spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We believe in gathering together the honest in heart. We believe in building temples and administering therein for the living and for the dead, and we believe in acting as saviors upon Mount Zion according to the word of the Lord. All these things and a great many more are leading principles which we as Saints profess to believe in. Well, we have a right to do that, although there are others who do not believe in those things. They have just as much right not to believe in our principles as we have to believe in them. And we sometimes feel angry and out of sorts with others because they do not believe as we do. Well, we do not believe as they do. Some of them think we are very foolish, very enthusiastic, very superstitious, and very wicked. Those that know us do not think we are so bad after all. We have our weaknesses and imperfections, yet we are quite as good as the balance of them, and a little better, and we ought to be, for we make great pretensions. But they think these things about us. They think we are deluded. Now the only difference between us and them is that we know they are superstitious and corrupt, and that they violate those laws they profess to believe in and those principles which they profess to be governed and guided by. But we have no right to expect everybody to submit to our doctrines, our views, our principles, it is a matter of free will with them, and as I said they have just as much right to believe as they think proper and to worship as they choose as we have. These are some principles that are really correct. Well, they try to prevent us from worshipping as we believe? Now that is—what shall I call it? A doctrine of devils, it does not come from God, he is more free and generous in his feelings than that. He does not control the consciences of men nor force them to obey his behests; it is a matter of free grace, it is a matter of free will. Well, though they think they have a right to interfere with us, we do not think we have a right to interfere with them. And I do not think we do. There is a number of institutions here in this city, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, etc., and I do not know how many more, quite a pile of them. If they think they are right I am quite willing they should think so. I do not wish to interfere with them. Who interferes with their building meetinghouses? Who interferes with their worship? If there is anything of this sort I do not know of it; I hope I shall not know of it; I hope never to hear of such things. I believe that all men have the privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences and then I think we possess just the same right; and when they depart from this principle and wish to curtail us of our rights they are violating the spirit and genius of the institutions of our common country, and also those of the kingdom of heaven with which we are associated. They are also violating those good feelings that ought to exist between man and man, brother and brother, and they are interfering with things that in no wise belong to them.

Now then, here is the ground that we stand on in a religious capacity. If I can find a way and you can find a way, whereby we can approach our God and have him for our guide, our teacher and instructor, if they cannot do it, it is none of their business what we do. They have nothing to do with it, it is none of their business in any way whatever, and any interference is an interference with the legitimate rights and inherent principles that belong to humanity.

Well, so far as they stand on their platform and we on ours, they may be Methodists, they may be Presbyterians; all right. They may get up their revival meetings and think they are doing a great deal of good; all right, and so far as they teach good moral principles, and do not depart from truth, all right. So far as they obey the laws of the land, all right; we have nothing to do with them? Have you? Has the city? Has the Territory? No.

Well then, we will go a little further. By being here we become an integral part of the government of the United States, as a Territory. Very well. Here is another thing we are talking about. Is that the government of God? Not quite, but it is the government we are living under, and if they treat us right and extend to us any kindness we appreciate that. If they treat us wrong, we think it is not according to correct principles. We think as American citizens we ought to receive all the privileges equally with other people; we think we ought to be allowed to worship God according to the dictates of our consciences and be protected in our worship. So far, then, as I have said before, we are on a level. Now then, we are on the same ground in regard to political circumstances. We are under the United States, but the United States is not the kingdom of God. It does not profess to be under his rule, nor his government, nor his authority. Yet we are expected as citizens of the United States to keep the laws of the United States, and hence we are, as I said before, an integral part of the government. Very well, what is expected of us? That we observe its laws, that we conform to its usages, that we are governed by good and wholesome principles, that we maintain the laws in their integrity and that we sustain the government, and we ought to do it. But there is a principle here that I wish to speak about. God dictates in a great measure the affairs of the nations of the earth, their kingdoms and governments and rulers and those that hold dominion. He sets up one and pulls down another, according to his will. That is an old doctrine, but it is true today. Have we governors? Have we a president of the United States? Have we men in authority? Yes. Is it right to traduce their characters? No, it is not. Is it right for us to oppose them? No, it is not. Is it right for them to traduce us? No, it is not. Is it right for them to oppress us in any way? No, it is not. We ought to pray for these people, for those that are in authority, that they may be led in the right way, that they may be preserved from evil, that they may administer the government in righteousness, and that they may pursue a course that will receive the approbation of heaven. Well, what else? Then we ought to pray for ourselves that when any plans or contrivances or opposition to the law of God, to the Church and kingdom of God, or to his people, are introduced, and whenever we are sought to be made the victims of tyranny and oppression, that the hand of God may be over us and over them to paralyze their acts and protect us, for as it is written, the wrath of man shall praise him, the remainder of wrath shall he restrain.

Now, we in Utah here are under the government of the United States; we are a very little portion of it. It is true we have our legislators, we have our probate judges, we have our marshals, constables, etc., we have our city charters, etc., etc., and certain immunities and privileges of this kind. Well, shall we be governed by them? Yes. Shall we obey the law? Yes. Shall I as a citizen of this city obey the laws of this city? Yes. Shall I cause trouble or speak evil of the mayor or city council or any of the administrators of the law? No, I ought to pray for them that they may lead aright and administer justice equitably and act for the welfare and interest of the community wherein they live and for whom they operate. Am I a citizen of the United States? Yes, and I ought to feel the same toward them.

Well, now, there are some important points come in here. As I have said, we are a very small portion of this government. Now, do we wish to overthrow the government. I think not. I think we do not. Do we wish to cause them trouble? Not that I know of. I know we are accused of that; but it is not true. These statements are not correct. Our religion, however, differs from the religion of many others, and as I have said before, while they look for liberty to worship God as they please, they do not want us to possess the same privileges. There is nothing new in this; but because of this have they a right to interfere with the institutions of which we have become a part? Do not our legislators, our governors, and all men here swear fealty not only to the Territory, but to the United States, and say they will support the Constitution, laws, and institutions thereof? They do. This is the position we occupy. But we are placed in a peculiar position in some things. They—I was going to say in their wisdom, but I will say in their folly, and I hope they will excuse me, for I look upon it in that way—have passed certain laws trying to interfere with us in our operations in religious affairs. Well, we cannot help that. I told you a while ago—you believe me, this congregation believes me with very few exceptions—that God had introduced and instituted this Church, that he was the founder of it, that it emanated from him, the doctrines, ordinances, principles, government, priesthood, authority, and all that pertain to it emanated from him; we had nothing to do with it. Joseph Smith had nothing to do with it, only as a passive worker in the hands of the Lord. Brigham Young had nothing to do with it only acting in that capacity. I have nothing to do with it, nor my brethren of the Twelve. God revealed it. I cannot help it. Can you? Can anyone? Now, then, this people have been received into this Church in the way that I have spoken of, and have actually received communication from God by the laying on of hands, received the Holy Ghost, and have a hope within them blooming with immortality and eternal lives, and are in possession of a hope that enters within the veil whither Christ has gone. Can you uproot that from the minds of this people? No, no power on earth, no power in heaven, nor all the combined nations of the earth can do it; God planted it there, man cannot take it away, and men are foolish in trying to attempt it. Very well. But they do try to interfere with us under a pretence that we are very wicked here. Well, it is enough to make a person laugh sometimes, when we think about these things, and enough to make us sorry when we know of the hypocrisy, lasciviousness, crime, murder, bloodshed that prevail in this nation and other nations, to hear them talk to us about our morality. We know when they talk in that way that they are hypocrites. We know that they know better when they tell these things to the world.

Now, then, the United States pass a law that a man shall not marry wives according to the order that God has revealed. Now it is a fact that we should like to obey the laws of the United States, if we could do it. If they could only tell us how to get out of the dilemma they have placed us in we should be very much obliged to them, we really should like to get out of it. But we have had no hand in either of these things. We had no hand in making the commandment that God has given to his people, and we have had no hand in making the law of the United States pertaining to these things. We feel very desirous of keeping the laws of the land if they would only let us; but we should pray our Father in heaven that he might preserve them from making laws that we cannot conscientiously keep without violating our consciences and transgressing the law of God. And if they do we shall be under the necessity of leaving them in the hands of God for him to deal with them as he may deem proper, and we will put our trust in the living God and risk the consequences let them be what they may.

Now, these are our feelings on this point. Is it well to tell these feelings? Yes. We want to be frank and open and candid and free from hypocrisy of every kind, and feel as though we were the children of our Father in heaven without guilt, without treachery, without fraud of any kind. Let us be sincere worshippers of God and believers in him and in his law. But do we propose to govern, interfere with, or rebel against the Government of the United States? No, we do not. That is not in the program. Has God given us a law? Yes. All right we will get along and do the best we can, but we won’t forsake our God. All who are willing to abide by the laws of God signify it by raising the right hand (unanimous vote). Now try and keep them. But will we fight against the United States? No, we will not. Well, how will these things be brought about? Don’t you expect that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ? Yes, I do, as much as I believe I am speaking to you and you are hearing me, and I not only believe it but know it. Well, now, how will that be brought about if you do not pitch in? We need not do this. There is plenty that will pitch in; there will be plenty of trouble by and by without our interference, when men begin to tear away one plank after another out of the platform of constitutional liberty; there will not be much to tie to. And how will you get along with them? We will leave them to get along with themselves. And how will that be? We are told the wicked shall slay the wicked, but says the Lord: “It is my business to take care of the Saints.” God will stand by Israel, and Zion shall triumph and this work will go on until the kingdom is established and all nations bow to its standard.

May God bless you, may he lead you in the path of light, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the 14th Ward Meetinghouse, Sunday Evening, December 7th, 1879.

We meet together from time to time to speak, to hear, to reflect, to converse, and to exchange views in regard to the worship of Almighty God. There is something associated with these matters that has generally attracted the attention of the human family in all ages, among all peoples, and under almost all circumstances. There is and always has been a feeling of reverence existing among the human family for a Divine Being of some kind and of some form, even amongst the most low and debased people of the earth. The position that we occupy in the world, our ideas of the mutability of affairs of time and sense, the continuous departure of one after another from this stage of existence to another, leads us, as well as other portions of the human family generally, more or less to reflect upon those things pertaining to the future. Various ideas and theories have existed amongst different peoples. Some have worshipped a great variety of Gods of their own making, while others have followed the notions and theories of men in regard to certain doctrines, formulas, theories and ideas that have been promulgated among what would be termed the wise, the prudent, and the intelligent of the earth. But in relation to religious matters there is no one can have any true or correct conception of a hereafter unless it has been revealed by the Almighty, who alone is able to comprehend the end from the beginning and is acquainted with the position and destinies of men and of the world.

We have had revealed to us from time to time, as manifested in the Scriptures, developed therein, many ideas pertaining to God and to futurity; but any intelligence in regard to these matters was generally obtained directly from the Lord, or through the ministering of angels, or by the Spirit of prophecy and revelation given to them by the Almighty. And it is emphatically stated in the Scriptures that “the things of God knoweth no man but by the Spirit of God,” and hence when men assume to comprehend principles pertaining to futurity, predicated upon the learning, the wisdom, the intelligence or the science of the world, they are always very much at fault. Who can comprehend the Almighty or under– stand his designs? As one of old said, “It is high as heaven.” What can’st thou know? “Deeper than hell.” Who can penetrate its mysteries? What really do we know? To commence with, who can understand the designs of God in relation to the organization of this world, or in relation to the position of man and his destiny? His past operations, his present dealings with the nations and his designs in the future, to the uninspired, are all a profound enigma. Who knows anything about it? We find all kinds of theories, notions and opinions in existence at the present day, but what do they amount to? What would my unsupported opinion be worth, or what would anybody’s opinion be in relation to these matters? It would amount to nothing. In regard to other principles, of a more material nature that we are intimately associated with, there are certain facts that scientists and men of intelligence always wish to be demonstrated, and unless they are, they pay very little attention to any unsupported hypothesis. If this be true in regard to the known sciences, how much more particular should we be in regard to more important matters. Theories, hypotheses, notions, dogmas and opinions amount to very little when associated with the great and eternal principles connected with the welfare of mankind, and the salvation of a world. And hence we need something higher, something of more intelligence than anything that man possesses to give unto us information pertaining to these matters.

When God created the world and placed man upon it he had certain ideas and designs that were fixed, immutable, and eternal, they were based or predicated, in the most consummate wisdom; the most profound intelligence; the wisdom and intelligence, if you please, that dwells with the Gods. The organization of the heavens and the earth, the creation of the world as we understand it, and also the creation of man and beast, fowl, fish and insect, and everything that exists upon the face of this earth. There was an object and design in relation to all these matters. We could know nothing about that, however, unless it had been revealed unto us, unless it had been communicated by the being who knows the end from the beginning, and who comprehends all things pertaining to the present condition as well as the past and the future destiny of the human family and of the world.

Certain men in different ages have told us, so it is recorded here in the Bible, about certain communications which they had from the Almighty. They seemed to have a mode and manner of approaching him, and he in the various dispensations made choice of and selected individuals through whom and to whom he communicated his will to the human family. There is something very remarkable in regard to these things. There are many remarkable things in the old antediluvian history of the world, that we have only very imperfectly related to us in the Bible. We read, for instance, of a man by the name of Enoch—we are told in the Bible that “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” That is about all that is said about him except that he was a man that feared God. But Enoch, when we come to know more of his history from the revelations that have been given, we find, was a man that had communication with God from time to time. The Bible says he walked with God and was not, for God took him, but in other revelations which we have received, we have an account of the kind of ministry that he had, the labors that he performed, the preaching that he did, the manifestation of the power of God on his behalf, and finally of his gathering together a large number of people. That he built a city; that in that city they were under the guidance, direction and control of the Almighty; and that he and his city and people, or many of them, were translated, and hence as the Bible says, “he was not; for God took him,” and he also took the people that were with him, those that feared him and worked righteousness.

There are other events associated with these matters which are very interesting when we come to examine them. The people had corrupted themselves very much, departed from the law of God, violated his ordinances, and committed all kinds of iniquity, so that, as the Bible tells us, all the thoughts of their hearts were only evil and that continually, and it repented the Lord that he had made man because of the wickedness and corruption that then existed. We have a very short account of this in the Scriptures, but through other means that have been communicated to us we have received a further knowledge of these matters; for other men that embraced the Gospel in former ages became preachers of righteousness as well as Enoch. They had the Spirit of the Gospel as Moses had it, as Jesus had it, and as we have it. They held communion with God and were under the inspiration of the Almighty, in their administration, and when they came together—those that feared God and worked righteousness—they had visions and revelations and prophesied of events that should transpire. There were many prophets in those days and they prophesied of a prison house that God had prepared, told the people of the destruction that was coming upon the earth: that they should be swept off the face of the earth by the waters of the flood and that none should be spared except a few to perpetuate the name and fame of the Almighty and again propagate their species. This is a thing that has seemed very singular to some men who do not comprehend the designs of God, and they suppose that there was a degree of cruelty attached to the Almighty in sweeping off the whole people of the land, with the exception of a very few. They assume to say there was a degree of injustice, cruelty and tyranny associated with it. However, that is for want of an understanding of correct principle, and the designs of the Almighty, and many conclusions that people arrive at, predicated upon the same ground—arise from a lack of understanding the principle that they talk about.

There are some principles connected with these things which put matters in a very different light. When we understand the nature of man, when we consider that he is a dual being, that he is possessed of a body and spirit, that he is associated with time and with eternity, that according to the Scriptures the spirits of all men were created before this world was made, and that God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh; and being God and Father of the spirits of all flesh, it was his right and his prerogative to dictate what should be done for the benefit of those spirits and his children that he had created here upon the earth. It was not a matter of theory, according to the opinions of men, but an immutable plan, according to the eternal wisdom of God as it existed in his bosom before the world was, or “before the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” These spirits, that he was the father of, had their rights and privileges and immunities; and as he had created man upon the earth or prepared a tabernacle, or a body, if you please, for these spirits to inhabit, it became his interest, as the Father of the human family, to look after their welfare. They had been led aside by the influence of Satan and had corrupted themselves and departed from correct principles, and violated the law of God, and became degraded and sunken in iniquity and infamy. Now, suppose we take ourselves back into the presence of our Father, and looking down upon these degraded wretches that inhabited the earth at that time, would we not turn to our Father as a just God and say, “Father, do you see the corruption, the degradation, the infamy and the evil that exists and permeates the world of mankind?” “Yes, yes, of course I see it.” “Is it just that our spirits should be condemned to go and inhabit the bodies of these men, or of their seed, that are so fallen, so degraded and so corrupt, and whose actions and operations are so at variance with thee and thy laws? Is it just and equitable that we should go and be mixed up with these infamies and be led astray like them into the paths of vice and suffer for things that we have not done and could not help ourselves in: is it just?” “Why, no it is not, and I will cut them off; and as they possess the power of propagating their species upon the earth, I will stop that power by a flood and raise up another people, that justice may be done you, my sons and daughters, and that the judge of all the earth may do right.” When we look at things in that point of view, it places them in another position from what they would appear otherwise, and justifies the ways of God with man.

Now, when this event took place, people were cast into the pit, into the prisons, as it had before been said that they should be. Well, what about that? Trace things forward to the time that Jesus appears upon the earth, and we see something then pertaining to these very individuals, in the acts of the Almighty, as they transpired at that time. When Jesus accomplished his work, when he had fulfilled the mission that he had to do here upon the earth, and when he was put to death in the flesh and quickened by the Spirit, he went and preached to the spirits in prison “that sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah;” and although they had suffered the wrath of Almighty God, he who had come to proclaim deliverance to the captive, to open the prison doors to those that were bound, to release them and to proclaim the acceptable time of the Lord, he went to them as their Savior, in common with others, and preached the Gospel unto them. Hence we find the acts of God justified in relation to these matters, and while he had power to destroy, while he had power to send them to prison, he also had power to conceive a plan for their deliverance therefrom, when the time should come that they should be delivered after they had suffered sufficiently for the crimes, evils and iniquities that they had committed upon the earth. There are many singular things associated with these matters that men do not really comprehend.

We come again to another prominent character, that is Abraham, a very remarkable man in his day and age; although at the present time men look upon him as a kind of an old shepherd, a man that attended flocks and herds and sheep, a sort of herdsman and a shepherd; and there was very little of him known except that he lived in his day almost as a barbarian. That is the opinion that many men have formed of him—that he was something like our backwoodsmen, some of our farmers who have not mixed up with the elite of society, or made themselves familiar with the intelligence that pervades the world. I look upon him as another character entirely, and from information that we can gather from revelations that have been referred to, we find that there was something very peculiar about him. We read his history and we find that he was a man that sought after righteousness, that he desired to obtain more righteousness, that he examined the records of his fathers, that he found in examining the records, tracing them back through the flood, clear away back unto Adam’s day, he found many circumstances that were connected with mankind, not only to Adam’s day, but before the world was. In doing this, among other things, he found he had a right to the priesthood. I need not stop to tell you what that is, you Latter-day Saints. You understand it is the rule and government of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth, and when we talk of the kingdom of God we talk of something that pertains to rule, government, authority and dominion; and that priesthood is the ruling principle that exists in the heavens or on the earth, associated with the affairs of God. Hence, we are told in the Scriptures that Christ was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Then of what order was Melchizedek? A priest forever after the order of the Son of God, for if Christ was after the order of Melchizedek, Melchizedek must have been after the order of Christ, as a necessary consequence. Very well. Now, then, in relation to that priesthood it was something that ministered in time and through eternity; it was a principle that held the keys of the mysteries of the revelations of God, and was intimately associated with the Gospel, and the Gospel, wherever it existed, was in possession of this priesthood; and it could not exist without it. It always “brought life and immortality to light.” The notions and opinions and religions of man generally are altogether devoid of a principle of that kind, they know nothing about it. Whenever men are placed in communication with God and are in possession of the Gospel of the Son of God, it brings life and immortality to light, and places them in relationship with God that other men know nothing about.

They were spoken of in former times as the “sons of God.” “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.” It was this priesthood that would be the means of introducing him into the presence of God that Abraham found that he was a rightful inheritor of, according to his lineage and descent, and he applied for an ordination, which he received, according to the revelation given unto us, and with that ordination the powers, the blessings, the light, intelligence and revelation associated with the Gospel of the Son of God. And what then? The next that we read of is that he had the Urim and Thummim, and thus he sought unto God for himself, and while searching unto him, God revealed himself unto Abraham and said: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” There is something very remarkable about this when we reflect upon it, and when we examine the position that he occupied, and that his seed occupied, we can see the fulfillment of these things. Afterwards, the Lord revealed himself to him from time to time, communicated his will to him, and he was made acquainted with the designs of the Almighty. The Lord showed unto him the order of the creation of this earth on which we stand, and revealed unto him some of the greatest and most sublime truths that ever were made known to man. He got these through revelation from God and through the medium of the Gospel of the Son of God.

Well, let us look a little at the fulfillment of some of these things. “I will bless them that bless thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” We read sometime afterwards of Isaac and Jacob. Jacob had communication with God. The Lord appeared unto him from time to time, and revealed his purposes and designs unto him. Abraham prophesied that the children of Israel should be in bondage in Egypt for 400 years, that after that time they should be delivered; and Moses was raised up as a deliverer and he conversed with God. He saw a bush that burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. He afterwards conversed with the Lord upon mount Sinai, and received tables of stone written upon by the finger of God, which were the commandments of the Lord to the children of Israel. And who was Moses? A descendant of Abraham.

We also read of prophets who, by the spirit of inspiration, could draw aside the dark veil of futurity and penetrate into the invisible world, and contemplate the purposes of God as they should roll forth in after ages in all their majesty and power and glory. And who were they? They were the seed of Abraham. We read that Jesus, also, who was the Son of God, was born of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh. Who were His apostles? The seed of Abraham. Then there were Nephi, Lehi, Ishmael and others who came from the land of Jerusalem to this continent according to the Book of Mormon. Who were they? The seed of Abraham. There were also the Twelve Apostles called and set apart upon this continent, who went forth by the power and Spirit of God, aided by intelligence and revelation such as they never had on the other continent. Who were they? The seed of Abraham. “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed”—not cursed; that was not what the priesthood of God was introduced for, but to spread light, truth, and intelligence, to unfold unto mankind the ways, purposes and designs of God, to make man acquainted with his origin, his position in life and his future destiny; and to make him acquainted, as an eternal, intelligent being, with things past, with things present, and with things to come. This is what Jesus taught them on the continent of America. “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you;” which is the Spirit of God. And what shall it do? It shall bring things past to your remembrance. You shall be made acquainted with the actions of the ancient principles and of God in ages that have preceded you. It shall lead unto all truth. You shall comprehend all matters that are necessary for you to know by the light, intelligence, and revelation which flows from God. And what else shall it do? It shall show you of things to come. It shall draw aside the veil of the invisible world. It shall make you acquainted with the things pertaining to eternity, and you will be enabled to square your lives according to the eternal principles of intelligence as it dwells in the bosom of God, and as the Holy Ghost will make known and reveal unto you. It is this priceless treasure that is spoken of that we possess in earthen vessels “that ye are come,” says Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews, “unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” This is what the Gospel does for you, it brings life and immortality to light.

These are some of the leading, prominent principles as they have existed heretofore, along with thousands of others that we have not time to mention or touch upon this evening.

Now, we will come to other events, of later date; events with which we are associated—I refer now to the time that Joseph Smith came among men. What was his position? And how was he situated? I can tell you what he told me about it. He said that he was very ignorant of the ways, designs and purposes of God, and knew nothing about them; he was a youth unacquainted with religious matters or the systems and theories of the day. He went to the Lord, having read James’ statement, that, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” He believed that statement and went to the Lord and asked him, and the Lord revealed himself to him together with his Son Jesus, and, pointing to the latter, said: “This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him!” He then asked in regard to the various religions with which he was surrounded. He enquired which of them was right for he wanted to know the right way and to walk in it. He was told that none of them was right, that they had all departed from the right way, that they had forsaken God the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no water. Afterwards the Angel Moroni came to him and revealed to him the Book of Mormon, with the history of which you are generally familiar, and also with the statements that I am now making pertaining to these things. And then came Nephi, one of the ancient prophets, that had lived upon this continent, who had an interest in the welfare of the people that he had lived amongst in those days.

But how is it in relation to these people and in regard to some of these matters? Why and how should these men that have lived here upon the earth have anything to do with the people that now live upon it? You Latter-day Saints ought to be acquainted with these matters, and I suppose you are; but I will show one or two princi– ples here in case, peradventure, there may be those present who have not thought or reflected properly upon the subject. The Melchizedek Priesthood, we are told by Paul, is without beginning of days or end of years. He speaks of Melchizedek as a man “without father, without mother, without descent.” Now, he would be a very singular man, according to our idea of things, without father or mother, without beginning of days or end of years, but it was the priesthood of which he spake in contradistinction to the priesthood of Aaron. He was then among the Jews. The Jews believed in the Aaronic priesthood; but they knew very little or nothing about the Melchizedek priesthood, and a man to be a priest of Aaron must be a literal descendant of Aaron, and of the tribe of Levi, and he must be able to prove his lineage from the records. But in contradistinction to this priesthood there was the priesthood of Melchizedek, hence we come to account for some of these things of which I have been speaking. And now I will go a little further in regard to this matter. I find, for instance, a man by the name of Moses who lived at a certain time to whom I have referred. I find another man by the name of Elijah, who was a great prophet and who had great power with God, among other things in controlling the elements, in shutting up the heavens and in again opening them by his prayer of faith under certain circumstances, which it is not necessary for us now to enter into. We find that when Jesus was here upon the earth he ascended a mount with his disciples, Peter, James and John, and there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, in great glory. Peter, turning to Jesus, said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” Now then, the question arises, What was Moses doing here? What was Elias doing here? Where had they come from? Why, they had the Gospel. The Gospel is an everlasting Gospel as spoken of in the Scriptures, and associated with that Gospel is the priesthood that administers in time and in eternity. And Moses, who had led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and had conversed with God and given the law of the Lord unto the people, with Elias the prophet, who was also a man of God—the Melchizedek priesthood, which held the keys of the mysteries of God, and it ministers in time and in eternity. Both of these men had ministered on the earth, and, holding that priesthood in the heavens they came to minister to Jesus, and to Peter, James and John, upon the earth. There is nothing very remarkable about that.

We come again to John on the Isle of Patmos, where he had been banished because of his religion. I do not know whether he was a practical polygamist or not; but his religion was very much opposed to the ideas and theories of the people in that day. He was a Christian and he dared to fear God and keep his commandments, and they banished him to the Isle of Patmos, that he might labor amongst the slaves there in the lead mines. But while there, being in possession of the light, the truth, the intelligence and revelation that proceeded from God, he gazed upon the purposes of God as they should roll forth in a subsequent period of time, and he contemplated the position of man in the various ages of the world unto the time that the heavens and the earth should pass away; when there should “be a new heaven and a new earth whereon dwelt righteousness.” He gazed upon all these things and fell down at the feet of the angel to worship him, whereupon the angel said, “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” In other words: “I was like you once, on the earth, persecuted, cast out, condemned, despised, had every kind of opprobrium and approach cast upon me; wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented; wandered in deserts and mountains, and dwelt in dens and caves of the earth. I am one of thy fellowservants the prophets, I have fought the good fight, finished my course, I have kept the faith, I was true to my covenants, my God, and my priesthood, and I come now to minister to you.” Again who more likely than Mormon and Nephi, and some of those prophets who had ministered to the people upon this continent, under the influence of the same Gospel, to operate again as its representatives? Who more likely than those who had officiated in the holy Melchizedek priesthood to administer to Joseph Smith and reveal unto him the great principles which were developed?

Now, then, what has he revealed? Anything new? Why, yes; a new Gospel; but an everlasting Gospel. What is it that John said he saw? “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, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” Did John see that among other things? Has it come to pass? Yes, it has, “And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Who was Joseph Smith? The Book of Mormon tells us he was of the seed of Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and hence he was selected as Abraham was to fulfil a work upon the earth. God chose this young man. He was ignorant of letters as the world has it, but the most profoundly learned and intelligent man that I ever met in my life, and I have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, been on different continents and mingled among all classes and creeds of people, yet I have never met a man so intelligent as he was. And where did he get his intelligence from? Not from books; not from the logic or science or philosophy of the day, but he obtained it through the revelation of God made known to him through the medium of the everlasting Gospel. Now people who are ignorant of these things are ready to point the finger of scorn, and heap contumely and reproach upon him and upon others who dare have the hardihood, as they say, to express the same kind of sentiments that he did. I dare do it! I have done it among the nations of the earth, and dare do it today before any man or any set of men that the world can produce, and I defy them to successfully controvert or overturn any principle that God has revealed through the Gospel of the Son of God in these last days!

But could Joseph Smith help being selected of God? There is, to say the least of it, an intelligence displayed that the world knows nothing of. Is that to be despised? Is that to be regretted? Was he the enemy of man? No; no more than Abraham was; no more than the prophets were; no more than Jesus was; but could Abraham, or the pro– phets know what God was going to demand of them? No, they could not. And if they could not, if they were to tell a truth that God has revealed to them, would their telling it make it a falsehood? I think not. It was an unpleasant thing for a man to rise up and tell the people they were wrong. To go to our divines—our right reverend divines—and their followers and tell them they were all out of the way! I expect they would be no more satisfied with such a message than the same class were with the teachings of Jesus when he spoke of the Scribes and Pharisees and called them hypocrites, like unto whited sepulchers which appeared fair on the outside to men, but inwardly they were nothing but rottenness and dead men’s bones. This was not very palatable for some of the wise of the Jews and some of the leading men of that day who professed such a great amount of piety. But he came to tell them the truth, not to speak his own words but the words of his Father who sent him and to communicate those great principles which God had revealed to him.

Well, now, do I believe that Joseph Smith saw the several angels alleged to have been seen by him as described, one after another? Yes, I do. Why do I believe it? Because I obeyed this Gospel. And what was there connected with the obeying of it? What was the Gospel that he taught? Precisely the same as that that Jesus and his disciples taught both on the continent of Asia and on this continent. What did he do? Why, says he to his disciples: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Was he an enemy of mankind? I think not. Go unto all the world and tell them of the love of God to man, preach the Gospel to every creature, and, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” What else? “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Here was something practicable, something real, something intelligent, something that was worthy of a God, communicated by the Son of God for the welfare of the human family.

What have we now? Ideas, notions, theories, opinions, hypotheses, and all the various confusion of ideas and notions, but no man to say “thus saith the Lord.” They used to say “thus saith the Lord;” they had the word of God for the people, and not the opinions and creeds and notions and fancies of men.

The Lord has restored the same Spirit by which we know of the truth of the principles declared by Joseph Smith and by others. I know it and so do you, many of you, who hear me. Was it an injury to the world in the days of Jesus for his disciples to go and proclaim salvation? I think not. Is it an injury to the people today for us to proclaim the same Gospel to the world? I think not. You can find very few people who will do what thousands of our elders have done—go out without purse or scrip to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation, things that they not only believe in but know for themselves before God that they are true—go out as the friends of mankind to publish the same Gospel under the same authority that others had in former ages. Did they prosecute and persecute men in former ages? They did. Why? Was it because they were wicked and corrupt? No; it was because they dared to tell a corrupt world that God had spoken, that light and truth had been revealed from heaven, that the Son of God had appeared and that if they would repent of their sins and be baptized for the remission of them, they should receive the Holy Ghost, that should take of the things of God and show them unto them. That was the doctrine they taught; that is the doctrine that we teach. Is there anything very remarkable about it? Yes, very remarkable. Is there a people that dare say what the Elders of the Latter-day Saints dare say to the world? I think not. What have these elders done, many of whom are here? Gone to the ends of the earth without purse or scrip proclaiming the Gospel of the Son of God. And what did they tell the people to do? To repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins and to have hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and you do the same; you baptize them when they believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And what does a name mean? Power and authority. Supposing a man was to come here as Governor or Secretary, or holding any other office under the government of the United States; he comes in the name of the United States, or by the power or authority of the United States, does he not? Yes. But supposing some of you was to set up here as Governor, they would want to see your credentials and know by what authority you came here and whether you were appointed by the legitimate authorities of the United States or not. If not, they would pay no attention to you; they would look upon you as a very commonplace, foolish individual, and moreover, they would also look upon you as a fraud. Well, then, if God does not send men, of course they cannot act under the authority of God; if they do, they act fraudulently. Now, how can men go in the name of God when they tell you that God has never spoken for the last eighteen hundred years, and that he does not now reveal himself? That being the case, how then can they go forth in the name of God? I do not know; it is a mystery to me; these people possess some mysteries which I cannot fathom, and that is one of them. I know of only three ways of obtaining authority of that kind—one is by lineal descent, another by writing, and a third by speaking. Now, then, if we can find no record among the people who profess to teach in the name of God, and they do not profess to have a lineal descent, and they even hold that God has not spoken for eighteen hundred years—they place themselves in a very awkward position. But when you come to understand, to fully comprehend the priesthood held by our forefathers, you can see by what authority the Holy priesthood is conferred upon you. Well, then, where did you get this authority from—from the world? No, the world did not have it to give, and consequently you could not get it from them; and if God has not spoken, if the angel of God has not appeared to Joseph Smith, and if these things are not true of which we speak, then the whole thing is an imposture from beginning to end. There is no half-way house, no middle path about the matter; it is either one thing or the other. Now you go forth to the nations of the earth in the name of the Lord, I appeal to you elders, you contradict me if you can—and when people believe and have been baptized, you lay your hands upon them in the name of the Lord, and you say unto them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and they receive it, do they not? They do, and you are my witnesses of that. And what does the Holy Ghost do? It takes of the things of God and shews them unto us. Can we conceive of a greater principle, of one more majestic, and grand, and noble, and exalted? What is man? A poor feeble worm of the earth, going forth in the name of God to call upon the human family to repent and be baptized for a remission of their sins, and after the name of God, he lays his hands upon their head, for the reception of the Holy Ghost. Who gives it? God, and it is the greatest evidence that exists upon the face of the whole earth; no men anywhere have an evidence like that which is given from the Almighty. It did not come from us, it did not come from Joseph Smith, though he was the medium through which those things were communicated; it did not come from Brigham Young, it did not come from me or any other individual; it comes as the free gift of God according to the eternal laws of the everlasting Gospel.

Now, then, here we are. We find ourselves in this position, having entered into these principles, we believe in them and are willing to be governed by them.

The Lord, however, has revealed many other great and important principles to us, and among these the eternal covenant between man and woman. Did Joseph reveal that principle? Yes, he did. Do you know it? Yes, I do know it; if nobody else knows it, I do. Did he tell you of it? Yes, he did; but I have had other manifestations besides that, and therefore I know of what I speak, and I know the principle is of God. Now there are some people who tell us we are very wicked. Are we? Why, yes, in many respects we are. But not in that! Not in that! Not in that! Are we careless? Are we indifferent? Are we covetous? Do we love the world more than we ought to do, and allow our minds, our feelings and affections to be carried away by the transitory things of time and sense? Yes, yes, to our shame, in many instances, be it spoken; this is true. Do we violate in many instances the great principles that God has revealed? We do, to our shame be it spoken, many of us; but we do not violate the law of God nor the laws of chastity in that thing. Well, what are we to do? God has revealed a principle to us; do we know it? Yes. Do I know it? Yes. Do you? Yes, yes, a very great many of you that are here and hear me speak know it. But does the Congress of the United States know it? No. Does the Supreme court know it? No; they cannot know of the things of God but by the Spirit of God. Do they know anything about eternal relationship and perpetuity in the eternal world? No, they do not, they are ignorant of the principle, they know nothing about it, and we did not until it was revealed to us. Now, then, what is to be done? They place us in a position like this; God says this is an eternal law associated with the eternal perpetuity of lives in time and throughout the eternities that are to come; that a man having a wife must have her sealed to him for time and for all eternity. Why, long ago we have heard of a religion to live by but none to die by; none that could reach to the other side of the veil and prepare us for eternal associations and eternal lives in the eternal world, or eternities that are to come. But this principle involves that thing and places us in this position: God says, “Go and obey my law.” Congress says, “No, you shall not do it.” Now the question is—who shall we obey? We would like to be in accord with Congress. We would like to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man. We would like to be good and peaceable citizens, which we are. We don’t wish, however, to follow their corruptions—don’t we know enough of them? Yes, we do. We know a good deal more about them than they know about us. We know their crimes, we know their licentiousness, we know of the millions of murders that are perpetrated by mothers and fathers of children and they know it. Many of these murders are committed while the children are prenatal; they kill them either before or after they are born, just as it happens. We also know of this horrible social evil that exists among them, and of the corruption, degradation and rottenness that exist in their midst. And as I have said to some of them sometimes, “You come from these dens of infamy, reeking with corruption and rottenness, steeped in crime and bloodshed and you will come here, will you, and teach morality to us? Go home, attend to your own business, cleanse yourselves from your corruptions, for they are a stink in the nostrils of Jehovah, and of all honest men, and don’t come to set us right in regard to things that God has given us to do, and which with the help of the Lord we will carry out.”

Now, these are our feelings in relation to these matters. This Gospel reveals to us, as it did in former days, the light and intelligence of God. It opens up the visions of eternity; it places us in communication with the Lord. It prepares us for life and for death and for exaltation, and we are going to go on with our temples and administer in them in the name of the Lord. We shall enter therein and be baptized for the living and the dead and stand as saviors upon Mount Zion, and let the world wallow in corruption and follow the evil desires of their hearts, let them pursue their own course, fighting, if they please, against the Zion of our God, but the Lord will be after them and they will know before they get through that there is a God that rules in the heavens and he will say to them as he did to the waves of the mighty deep, “Hitherto thou shall come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.”

What, then, shall we do? Fear God, be faithful, be honest and upright and full of integrity and truthfulness; shun evil of every kind, preserve our bodies and spirits pure, maintain our covenants before God, and he will smile upon us, he will be on the side of right, and his kingdom will grow and increase and spread until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, whose right it is to rule forever and ever.

May God help us to be faithful in keeping his commandments that we may be saved in his kingdom, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder H. W. Naisbitt, delivered in the 13th Ward Meetinghouse, Salt Lake City, November 23rd, 1879.

My brethren and sisters: I can say that I have had some very pleasant and interesting reflections while listening to Brother Fowler’s remarks, and think the purpose for which we have met this evening has been a success. I have felt that I have been fed, that I have been blessed, and that I shall carry with me more or less of the influence and spirit of those remarks, and upon re– flection we all understand that this is really the purpose for which we come together.

Mormonism, in a sense, is opposed to formality. All that there is associated with it is meant for use, and there are results expected to accrue from all the practices of the Church that have been established by revelation, and everything is intended to aid in the great work which we call salvation. To be sure, that is a very common word, it is a word that we are all familiar with, it is something that we have heard from the time that we were children, from the time that we went to Sabbath school, and before we went there, and after we attained to youth and manhood. But in the light of the Gospel how narrow and contracted and how offensive the word in its sectarian sense becomes to us, so much so that many of us scarcely like to use it; we would prefer to use another expression which more thoroughly carries with it all the ideas associated with the reception and practice of the Gospel.

Our memory has been cited to the fact that during the history of this Church, and during the history of the primitive church, there were those who possessed the spirit of unbelief, there were those who became more or less indifferent and negligent in regard to that which they received, and we have been referred to the history of those who have fallen from this Church—men who have seen great things, men who have had wonderful experiences, men whom we might have considered as stable as the eternal hills by virtue of that experience. Now what is the difficulty in such cases? What is the difficulty in any cases, in your case, and in my case, when we lose an interest in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God? Is it a healthy sign? Or is it not rather, if continued, a sign of approximating death? Is the man or the woman who are alive to their duties—are they those who apostatize? Is it the faithful man or the active, stirring woman, who are laboring earnestly, following the practice and principles of the Gospel, that leave the Church? No, it is not, but it is those who, from some cause or other, become cold, heartless, indifferent, and neglectful of their duties.

Salvation, in its largest aspect, consists in the proportion of truth received; men and women only are saved in proportion to the truth which they appropriate. An ignorant man will only obtain the salvation which belongs to the ignorant. The idler will only obtain that salvation which belongs to an idle man. Is it not “the hand of the diligent that maketh rich?” And there are parallels running through all the actions of the Saints in a religious sense similar to those which run through the actions of men in a social sense, even down to the lowest details of human life, into every avenue of life, in every direction in which human happiness is involved, constituting as they do in their entirety that which is spoken by the Apostle Paul, “how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” I presume, if I am to judge by my experience, that every man and every woman realizes that it is just in proportion to our experience, our use of the opportunities of life, our understanding of the principles involved, that we are successful. If you find a man who essays to be a merchant, who desires the accumulation of wealth, you will find a man who points his energies in that direction. He is a man who not only looks at things in general but at things in detail; he not only looks at his business as a whole but he looks at it in its parts; and if he were to abstain or refrain from a consideration of the details which insure success the probability is that he would find himself in the courts of liquidation. Many a man, fortunate in a mercantile sense, has gone to the wall through carelessness in regard to little things as boxes, paper, time, etc., through trivial waste that every prudent man would be disposed to notice; but the successful merchant in almost any instance—and these instances are the exception and not the rule, is the man who is economical, prudent and careful of the details of his business. If you go into our houses, and you take our girls that are grown up, and they are unable to bake bread, unable to cook a potato, unable to wash and attend to all the duties which belong to domestic life, how much of a domestic salvation will they receive? What attraction will there be for the husband, working away in the battle of life, when he comes home to find that rest which is so desirable? Our domestic salvation depends upon attention to the details which lie at the foundation of domestic happiness, and there can be no peace in the domestic circle where there is a lack of intelligence, there can be no success only where the good housewife masters the details of her daily life.

As it is in these two everyday yet diverse instances of life, so also it is in all other directions, and the same principle is just as prominent and just as applicable to the details of our most holy faith. You go out into the missionary field and preach the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After you have finished your discourse some one may come up to you and say, “my friend, I believe the doctrine which you teach, I acknowledge the existence of the Deity, I believe in the message of his son, I understand the necessity of obedience to the first principles—including baptism.” But mark when a man has been baptized if he becomes careless and indifferent and says “Well, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to this extent.” In your estimation now, what would be the amount of salvation that man would receive? Why, he might receive the remission of his sins and that is all he is entitled to, but the salvation which belongs to the ordinance of the “laying on of hands” would form no part of his blessings. But supposing he advances a step further and says: “Having done so well I would like to enjoy a little more of the blessings,” and he goes and receives the laying on of hands. He feels the promptings of the spirit of intelligence from above, he rejoices in its influence; it suggests, persuades, counsels, and advises. Supposing that under the operations of this spirit he should turn a deaf ear to its promptings—suppose that it prompts him to go in one direction and he feels to run the other, suppose that he should resist this influence, how much of a salvation in that respect would he receive? For instance, you are all aware of the power of the spirit, or rather the impulse it gives to gathering. We have all felt this. It has been a part of our experience when we have been under the influence of that spirit; we desired to associate with the Saints in a local capacity in their general assemblies, and in a larger sense we have been desirous of gathering with them to the great gathering place wherever that may be. Suppose that spirit of gathering is resisted, and a man says “Well, I have got a good situation here, a nice little home, I enjoy the society in which I mingle”—and he continues in that course, how on earth or heaven or anywhere else, can that man get the special and particular salvation which belongs to gathering? It cannot be done; it is not in the nature of things. If he would enjoy that salvation he must absorb the principle of gathering until it grows and blossoms into life. And there are those even in this Territory who, when they get among the Saints believe that all the purposes of their holy religion have been served in their experience, and they set themselves down and say, “Well now, I will endeavor to get for myself a good home; I will try to make myself comfortable; I will spread out on the right hand and on the left; and as for some duties which pertain to my religion—well, I have not time to attend to them, they absorb too much of my attention, and I will give my life to making myself and family comfortable.” They think that because they have been baptized, because they enjoy the spirit of the Lord through the laying on of hands, because they have forsaken fatherland and come to the mountains, that, therefore, they are sure of “the great salvation” which the Gospel brings. Why, it is all a mistake. They will get the salvation which is necessary consequent upon the truth which they have absorbed and put into practice; no more and no less.

Again, we find that some of our people when Christmas comes round will begin to make excuses in regard to their tithing. Now, tithing is one of the eternal principles which pertains to the order of God. But a man goes up to his Bishop and says, “Well now, it’s all I can do to make both ends meet; the necessities of my family, the responsibilities and cares that belong to the position in which I move, compel me to use all the income I receive, and it scarcely suffices to serve my wants.” Do you believe that that man will ever enjoy that particular portion of salvation which belongs to those who promptly pay their tithes to the Lord? No, it cannot be done; that man never can enjoy the special and peculiar blessing that belongs to all those who pay their tithing.

You go into a man’s house and you find there disorder, children disputing, the wives—two or three as the case may be—at loggerheads (to use a rather vulgar expression) in fact the spirit of peace has fled from the hearthstone, what salvation in a domestic sense does that man enjoy? Is that the outcome of the order of family government, or rather was it not instituted to promote peace and harmony, so that we might have a type of the great heaven which we desire to enjoy in the not far distant future? The man who would have domestic salvation has got to work for it. He must understand the nature of the element with which he deals, he must so manipulate that it will bring forth the domestic salvation which he earnestly seeks. But supposing a man has got the peace he desires in this respect, yet in the morning as in the evening the song of prayer or praise is never heard in his house. Now there is a certain position of domestic salvation which pertains to the carrying out of these ideas and principles which we have received that cannot be secured by any other process, and the man who neglects to have family prayers, and to induce and persuade his family to join in, has lost one of the great elements which operate and secure for him and his, domestic salvation.

Well, now, there are some who attend to all these duties; but still there are a great many other principles that require to be observed. A man, for instance, has got the wife of his youth and a little family growing up, yet there is a principle in the Church of Christ called patriarchal marriage, and many a woman in regard to this will say to her husband, “Now let us be satisfied to leave well enough alone. If your family circle is enlarged, you will increase your responsibility, and there is great risk connected with the introduction of a foreign element in your family. It is true there may be peace, but it is far more likely that there will be contention or division.” Now, is there any advantage in the practice of the patriarchal order? That is the question. If there is—and I know there is, in spite of any difficulty connected therewith—how can you expect to enjoy any benefit which accrues from the practice of this eternal principle and yet remain in neglect or disobedience of that principle. It cannot be done. A great many think that it can, and they will employ all manner of subterfuge to back up their position. They will read the revelation on the subject, and they will construe and misconstrue all that it says, in order to justify themselves in the position which they have assumed; but every man and every woman may rest satisfied that the blessings which flow from this order of the Church of Christ cannot be secured by any other process than the one pointed out by Divine authority. “But,” says one, “I have known in my experience where difficulties have originated through the practice of this principle.” Very true. Have you never known of difficulties originating in any other direction or arising from the practice of any other principle? Were there no difficulties set before you when you were baptized? Were there no difficulties presented before you when you thought of gathering? Were there no difficulties in your way when you endeavored to make your feet fast in the valleys of the mountains? Is it not difficulties that make the man? Is it not difficulties that make the woman? Is it not those circumstances and changes of life that call forth every energy and arouse us to continued action so that we may ensure success? In the common walks of life we are accustomed to notice men and women who pride themselves in the assurance that where others have failed they have brought forth success. The same idea is applicable to many in the direction of the patriarchal order. Where a man has failed in one or some other given direction, that failure should be an impetus to his neighbor, requiring and stirring him to use all his ability so as to secure success.

Now when I was in the old world I met a great many of the brethren there who were engaged like myself in the work of the ministry, and whenever I met a man of the character I have described I invariably found that he was shorn of power, that he did not carry with him that full influence which a missionary of the Gospel should carry; at all events he had not that influence which practice and experience gives in this direction and I have imagined a case to myself sometimes. In going into any small town or country village, into the midst of those peculiar influences which exist in England, you will find an audience congregated on the village green or elsewhere listening to the missionary. After he is through with his discourse a man steps up and says, I have heard the remarks you have made; I believe in the principles that you advocate; but I am at the mercy of the squire, or of the ‘Lord of the Manor’ here, or the owner of this coal pit, or the one who runs this factory, and if I should embrace the doctrine that you preach I should be turned out of my cottage; I should lose the opportunity of earning my bread, my boys and girls would be thrown out of employment, and I should soon be all astray in a financial and industrial sense.” What does the elder say in a case of that kind? He says, “My friend I hear all your argument. It is very good, that is so far as it goes, but the Lord has promised to take care of his Saints; he has promised that when one door shuts another shall open; and he has declared by revelation that it is his business to provide for his Saints; and now if you will go down in humility and be baptized and associate yourselves with the church and kingdom of God upon the earth your way will be opened before you.” The elder believes what he is advocating. The man goes down and is baptized, and sure enough directly it comes to his employer’s ears, he receives a week’s notice to quit his work, or quit his cottage, as the case may be. He pulls a long face when the elder comes round again, but the elder says, “never mind, all will come out right; exercise your faith; trust in Providence; do what is right and let the consequence follow.” Soon after this the man gets a good situation and an advance of a few shillings per week probably; the Lord has blessed him, he has opened up his way before him, and the words of the servant of God have been fulfilled. By and by through this increase he gets to Zion, and arriving there he goes to visit the house of this missionary and be introduced to his family. After awhile he takes the elder to one side and says, “How long have you been in Utah?” And the answer is ten, fifteen, or twenty years, as the case may be. “You are pretty comfortable, nice little house well furnished.” “Oh yes, first rate.” “Is this all the family you have got?” “Yes, this is all I have got; never had but one wife; I could not maintain any more families.” “But,” says the man, “did you not tell me when I got baptized to keep all the commandments of God; did you not tell me it was the Lord’s business to provide for the Saints; did you not make the assertion that the path of duty was the path of safety?” “Yes,” says the elder, “that may do very well for Babylon, but it won’t do here in Zion.” Now there is something not right here; there is surely a weak point somewhere. If the principle is good in the midst of the nations, it is good at home, and if men are honest and honorable in the practice of that which they know to be right in the valleys of the mountains, the path of success will as surely open before them as it did to the man who received the Gospel in a foreign land. A great many of the brethren think they cannot afford to keep any more families. I remember when I was a lad I used to think and say I should not be able to keep myself, and on remarking this to my landlady she replied: “I have often found that a man who thinks he cannot keep himself can keep a wife and five or six children.” Why? Because the responsibility called forth his energies; he became speculative and energetic in order to secure success. There is a blessing, there is an element of salvation, there is something which tends to progress in the obedience to every principle that has been received, so far, in connection with the church and kingdom of God, and every man and every woman will receive only that amount of salvation for which they work. Our measure of salvation, then, consists in the absorption of the truth we hear. Truth neglected, truth unemployed, truth unappropriated, is as valueless as the snows of ten winters ago are for the irrigation of our fields in the coming summer. But where the spirit of life is, where the spirit of vitality exists, where throughout the whole organization of a man there burns the spirit of intelligence, the spirit of advancement, he will lead out continually in the right direction, and his wives and children will follow after him, they will catch his spirit, his neighbors will feel his influence, the ward to which he belongs will feel after and emulate his example, and society generally will be the better for his presence; but when this coldness, this indifference, this negligence comes in, why, the blessings that belong to obedience will not be received any more than the blessings that belong to our attending meeting on a Sunday can be received if we stay at home. I recollect a person saying to me once, “Well, who preached today?” “Oh brother so and so.” “Well, I know all he can say; and besides when such and such persons preach I can stay at home and read the Bible”—and not much of that I think—“I can read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, DESERET NEWS, and any of the books published by the Church and I enjoy myself better than I do in going to meeting.” Now is that a fact? A man may think so; but is it a fact that a man can increase in the knowledge of the things of God if he absents himself from the services of the sanctuary as established by divine appointment? I say, no. The meetinghouse is the place where the table is spread, where the food is prepared by the eternal spirit, and when we go there and hear men speak to us under the influence of that spirit, and we are in possession of the same spirit—we are fed, we grow and increase, and the roots and fibers of our being run deeper, and so enable us to “bring forth more fruit.”

I presume the time is exhausted. I desire to continue faithful to the appropriation of truth, wheresoever it may originate: no matter where, for all truth is divine. It is my privilege to enjoy the spirit of inspiration, to feel the flow of revelation from above; and that God may grant us peace and wisdom and save us in his kingdom is my prayer, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 26, 1879.

I will read a few passages of Scripture which will be found in the 54th chapter of Isaiah. (The speaker then read most of the chapter referred to.) Continuing, he said:

I hope that the congregation will pardon me for undertaking three Sabbaths running to instruct them when there are so many of our brethren—those who are ordained and filled with the spirit of truth—who would be glad, no doubt, to speak to the people; but a great many of my younger brethren, younger than I am, may perhaps have a great many opportunities after I may pass away, provided that the Lord sees proper in His wisdom to call me hence.

I feel a great pleasure in standing before a congregation of Latter-day Saints, or a mixed assembly of those who belong to the Church and those who have not received the great message which the Church has received. It gives me great joy and great satisfaction to speak to them in the name of the Lord, and unfold, as far as the Spirit will give me utterance, that which the Lord has said concerning His people in the latter days. I had nothing upon my mind when I arose and walked into the stand, but upon opening the Bible my eyes fell upon this chapter, and I thought that I would read it—and perhaps something might occur in relation to this chapter that would be interesting in regard to the latter days, for certainly what I have read relates to future times—times that have not yet come.

“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;” is the exhortation of the prophet to some class of people that should dwell on the earth. If we wish to know what class of people the Prophet had reference to, read the last verse of this chapter: “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” It would seem then, from the declaration given in that clause of the seventeenth verse of this chapter, that the Prophet was speaking of his servants and their heritage—that is, the heritage that his servants should occupy—that they were not to be narrowed and contracted in their feelings in regard to their inheritance as though it were to be in a small tract or region of country. The Lord had otherwise determined according to the words of this chapter. He intends they should inherit a great land, that they were to stretch forth the curtains of their habitations, and for fear that they would be limited in their views and contract themselves to a small region of country, the Lord says expressly, “Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.” Well, we are trying to do this as Latter-day Saints. When we first came here we located this city in the month of July, 1847, some 32 years ago this last summer. Then it was thought by many that had not a knowledge of prophecy, that we were too expanded in our views to lay out a city—being only a handful of pioneers—to lay out a city covering several miles of ground, when there was not yet a house built; when comparatively there was before us a great dry, barren desert. It seemed almost folly to even some of the Latter-day Saints to see the surveyor with his measure line, others with their instruments of observation, getting the height of this land above the sea level—making great preparations, while we yet camped, a little handful of us, in wagons and in a few tents. It seemed folly to lay out a city covering an area of several square miles; but those who did this work were under the direction and inspiration of the Almighty. We knew that this people would become a very great people. We knew that the words of Isaiah would be fulfilled which are recorded in the 60th chapter, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” Now we believed that. It was not merely all opinion such as might be formed by the enlightened judgment of the human family, but by the inspiration of that Spirit which knows all things, we laid out a city sufficiently large in extent to accommodate and gather together an extensive population for this inland country and desert. Have we been disappointed? Has the Lord disappointed us in our expectation? Go over the area of this whole city, over these northern wards and western wards, and travel and traverse all the different lots and streets, and see if you find many vacant places. Is not the land generally taken up? Is it not generally occupied? Are there many vacant lots, where there are no houses or habitations? Are there many places where there are no fruit trees, no gardens? Are there many streets where there are no ornamental trees, no water ditches? We find after we have traveled several days and traversed nearly all the streets of this city, gone for miles each way, that all the lots with some very few exceptions, seem to be occupied, and not only so but some of the lots originally intended only for one family are now split up, divided and subdivided, and contain several habitations in the same lot, and scarcely room enough at that. We find the population coming into this city so great that there seems to be scarcely room, and even our water in dry seasons seems to be very scarce, not sufficient to water even the trees that are so necessary to be kept alive, to say nothing of gardens and flowers and shrubbery. “Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not;” that is don’t be stingy, don’t be contracted, don’t limit yourselves to a small area of country but break forth on the right hand and on the left. Already within the last 32 years we have been fulfilling this commandment. We have stretched forth the gardens of our habitation several hundred miles in the south especially, and one or two hundred miles in the north, into the Territory of Idaho. Utah does not seem sufficient for us, hence we have built many large towns and villages in Idaho. We have spread forth our towns, our villages and our settlements to the south for some 300 or 400 miles, and even after doing this we find the place is too strait, and the saying is: “give place to me that I may dwell.” We would scarcely suppose that a work of this great and important magnitude would have been accomplished in so short a time as scarcely one-third of a century, when all this great basin—nearly all with the exception of one or two small portions of the country traversed by Fremont and a few of his followers—was explored and considered an unprofitable desert, considered unfit for the habitation of man, in consequence of the dryness and parched condition of its soil. But the Lord when He begins to fulfill and accomplish a work among His people does so by degrees. He did not convert this great American desert, several hundred miles in extent, into a fruitful garden in one day, nor in one year; but in a few years, comparatively speaking, He has accomplished this work and has done it too with an eye to the predictions that were uttered by His servant Isaiah, the Prophet, and His servant, David, the Psalmist.

The Sabbath before last I addressed the congregation and spoke of the people inhabiting the great mountain territory, removing. You will recollect this. You know our enemies have had a great many speculations about our moving. A great many have supposed that we would remove to an island of the sea; others have pointed out Vancouver’s Island, others Russian America, as it used to be called; others have pointed out Mexico; others the islands of the Indian Ocean; and others South America, as the future destination of the Latter-day Saints. But Sunday before last I endeavored to point out to you our hopes, our views as contrasted with the views of our enemies, in relation to our future destination. I will repeat again, to bring to the remembrance of the Latter-day Saints, and those who might have been present on that occasion, what was then said. We expect that these mountains will not be the residence of all the Latter-day Saints; we expect that the great majority of the people will emigrate. We want to tell you where our eyes are fixed. As stated in our former discourse, they are fixed upon a land—not in the distant islands of the Indian Ocean, nor in the Pacific Ocean, nor in South America, but our eyes are fixed upon a land on the western boundaries of the State of Missouri and the boundaries of the State of Kansas. We expect to go there just as much as we expect the sun will rise and set. We have no other expectation. We expect to return there just as much as the Jews expect to return to old Jerusalem in the latter days. Perhaps you may inquire if we expect to return as a majority. Yes. Do we expect to return as a great people? Yes. Do we expect to return with our wives and our children? Yes. Do we expect to return in a peaceable manner? Of course. Have you ever seen any other feeling on the part of the Latter-day Saints, only to promote peace wherever they may settle? What has been our object from the commencement? Peace and goodwill to all men. But perhaps you may still further inquire concerning our emigration to the eastern boundaries of the State of Kansas, and to the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, what we intend to do in that part of the country? We expect to be farmers, a great many of us. We expect to introduce all kinds of machinery and manufactures. We expect to build mills. We expect to become a very industrious, frugal, economical people. We expect to have our merchandise and our stores and storehouses in that land. We expect to build a great many hundred schoolhouses in that country, just the same as we have already done in this country and in the two adjacent Territories, Idaho in the north and Arizona in the south. We do not calculate to neglect our children in regard to their education. We expect to build a great number of academies or the higher schools, and besides a great many schoolhouses. We expect to erect universities for the still higher blanches to be taught. We expect to build many hundreds of meetinghouses, and we expect to be a people very densely located there—not one man taking up six or eight miles of land, and calling it his farm; we don’t expect to live in that way, but we expect to settle a very dense settlement in that region of country. We expect to own the land, too. How? By purchase. We expect to purchase the land that we have not already purchased. We have already purchased a great deal of land in Jackson County and Clay County, Missouri, and our purchases are on record if they have not destroyed the record; but we were driven from that land, from our farms and homes; our houses were burned down, our merchandise that we had in our store was taken and strewn through the street; our printing office—one of the most distant western offices in the Union—was also destroyed; the type was taken out and scattered through the streets; our hay stacks were burned, our cattle were shot down, and we were driven in the cold month of November from our houses and lands purchased of the general Government, and we fled before our enemies. “Well,” says one, “are you not afraid to go back again to purchase land in that country when you were thus treated in the early settlement in 1833, when you were driven from your homes, some of you massacred, your property destroyed—are you not afraid to return?” O, I expect they are more civilized now. Do you think civilized people would murder now? Do you think they would drive people from their homes now? We may give them a chance to see. At any rate we shall fulfill our part, purchase the land, gather together upon our own purchased land, and we calculate to obey all the laws of the State of Missouri, and all the laws of the State of Kansas that are constitutional in their nature. But, says one, suppose the people should rise up and say you should not possess the land, what would you do? We would leave the matter in the hands of the Lord, just the same as we did at first when He led us by revelation to where the great central stake of Zion should be built. We went there because the Lord told us to go. We settled upon the very spot where the Lord commanded us. We commenced to lay the foundation of a temple about three-quarters of a mile from Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. It was then a wilderness, with large trees on the temple block. I visited that place 47 years afterwards, namely, a year ago last September, and not a tree was to be found on that temple block—not so much as a stump—everything seemed to be cleared off, and one would scarcely know, unless very well acquainted with the ground, where the temple site was located. There, however, we expect to build a temple different from all other temples in some respects. It will be built much larger, cover a larger area of ground, far larger than this Tabernacle covers, and this Tabernacle will accommodate from 12,000 to 15,000 people. We expect to build a temple much larger, very much larger, according to the revelation God gave to us forty years ago in regard to that temple. But you may ask in what form will it be built? Will it be built in one large room, like this Tabernacle? No; there will be 24 different compartments in the Temple that will be built in Jackson County. The names of these compartments were given to us some 45 or 46 years ago; the names we still have, and when we build these 24 rooms, in a circular form and arched over the center, we shall give the names to all these different compartments just as the Lord specified through Joseph Smith. Now, our enemies do not believe one word of this. They think we are enthusiastic, they think that this is all nonsense, and I do not know but there may be some of the Latter-day Saints that begin to partake of the same spirit, owing to their assimilating themselves so much to the fashion of the world, that they have lost their strong and powerful faith in that which God has predicted by the mouth of his servants. Perhaps you may ask for what purpose these 24 compartments are to be built. I answer not to assemble the outside world in, nor to assemble the Saints all in one place, but these buildings will be built with a special view to the different orders, or in other words the different quorums or councils of the two Priesthoods that God has ordained on the earth. That is the object of having 24 rooms so that each of these different quorums, whether they be High Priests or Seventies, or Elders, or Bishops, or lesser Priesthood, or Teachers, or Deacons, or Patriarchs, or Apostles, or High Councils, or whatever may be the duties that are assigned to them, they will have rooms in the Temple of the Most High God, adapted, set apart, constructed, and dedicated for this special purpose. Now, I have not only told you that we shall have these rooms, but I have told you the object of these rooms in short, not in full. But will there be any other buildings excepting those 24 rooms that are all joined together in a circular form and arched over the center—are there any other rooms that will be built—detached from the Temple? Yes. There will be tabernacles, there will be meeting houses for the assembling of the people on the Sabbath day. There will be various places of meeting so that the people may gather together; but the Temple will be dedicated to the Priesthood of the Most High God, and for most sacred and holy purposes. Then you see that, notwithstanding all these Temples that are now building in this Territory, and those that have been built before we came here in Kirtland and Nauvoo, the Lord is not confined to an exact pattern in relation to these Temples building in the different Stakes any more than He is confined in the creation of worlds to make them all of the same size. He does not make them all of one size, nor does He set them rolling on their axes in the same plane, nor does He construct any in many respects alike; there is variation as much as there is in the human form. Take men and women. There are general outlines that are common to all, but did you ever see two faces alike among all the millions of the human family? What a great variety, and yet all are constructed in general outline alike—after the image of God. So in regard to the building of Temples. The Lord will not confine Himself to any one special method to be so many feet long, so many feet wide, and so many places for the Priesthood to stand, but He will construct His Temples in a great variety of ways, and by and by, when the more perfect order shall exist we shall construct them, through the aid of revelation, in accordance with the Temples that exist in yonder heaven. And when I speak of yonder heaven I do not refer to that kind of heaven the sectarian world sings about, beyond the bounds of time and space. I have no reference to any heaven beyond space, but I have reference to the heaven that the Lord has sanctified and made heaven in other worlds that he has created, consisting of all kinds of materials the same as our world is, and when this world passes through its various ordeals, it, too, by and by, will pass away and die like the body of man and be resuscitated again, a new heaven and a new earth, eternal in its nature. The new worlds that are thus constructed and quickened by the fullness of the celestial glory will be the heavens where the Gods will dwell, or in other words, those that are made like unto God, when their bodies are changed in all respects like unto His glorious body, changed from materiality and cleansed from sin and redeemed, they will then be immortal and dwell in a heavenly world. Now, in this world there will be Temples, and these Temples will be constructed according to the most perfect law of the celestial kingdom, for the world in which they are built or in which they stand will be a celestial body. This last Temple that I am speaking of, or this last one to be built in Jackson County, Missouri, will be constructed after that heavenly pattern in all particulars. Why? Because it will never perish, it will exist forever. “What! Do you mean to say,” says one, “that the materials of that temple will not wear?” “Do you mean to say,” some of you may inquire in your hearts, “that age will have no effect upon the walls and the materials of that temple?” This is what I mean—I mean to say that not only the Temple, but all the buildings that shall be built round about that Temple, and the city that will be built round about it, which will be called the New Jerusalem, will be built of materials that never will decay. “But,” says one, “that will be contrary to the laws of nature.” You may cite me to some of the buildings that existed before Christ that were built out of the most durable materials that could be found, and yet when the storms of hail, rain and snow came, these buildings began to waste away until they could scarcely be recognized. Well, I do not ask you to think that this temple and the city round about it will defy the rough hand of time and the work of the elements of our globe, and exist forever, so far as natural laws are concerned; but there is a principle higher than these natural laws. Did you never think of it—a higher principle, a higher kingdom that governs all these laws of nature, such as you and I have been accustomed to understand ever since our youth. I say there is a higher law, a controlling power over all the laws of nature, that will prevent these buildings from decaying; and I wish while dwelling upon this subject to say a little about another subject; that is, the building up of Palestine with the new Jerusalem. It will be the old Jerusalem rebuilt upon its former site. Now, will that city ever be destroyed, will it ever decay? Will the Temple to be built in Palestine ever be thrown down or ever be furrowed with hail, rain, snow and frost—will these ever have any effect upon it? No, not in the least.

Why? Because God will be there. So He will be in the temple of Zion on this continent, and by His power, by His laws—which are superior to all those grosser laws of nature—He will preserve both of these cities, one on the western hemisphere, and one on the eastern hemisphere, from any decay whatever. Now, we have it recorded here in this book, in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, that this city on the eastern continent shall not be thrown down any more forever. It seems, therefore, to be an eternal city, never to be destroyed. “But,” says one, “I cannot believe that; I cannot believe but what these cities will be subject, just as much as anything else to decay.” Do you believe this good book—the Bible? If you do, you are obliged to believe that such things are possible. Do you want to know some of them? I will mention one instance. You will recollect that Moses commanded Aaron to take a pot of manna and lay it before the Lord, to be kept for their generations. Now it was a noted fact that if the children of Israel gathered more manna than would last them until after the next morning, it would decay, but on the last day before the Sabbath they gathered manna for two days, and they found that on the Sabbath day it was preserved. Who preserved it? Why did it last two days instead of one? Because God counteracted those lesser laws, or laws of nature, by His divine power, which is greater than them all, and He therefore preserved for two days that which would not last longer on the other days of the week than twenty-four hours. Well, we find that the Lord ordered the manna to be placed in the tabernacle to be kept for their generations, that they might see the bread wherewith He had fed them in the wilderness, when He brought them forth from the land of Egypt. Did that manna decay? No, it remained fresh and pure in the tabernacle. Why? Because God was there; His divine power was there; a miracle was wrought to counteract the general laws of nature such as we generally understand them to be, and this manna was preserved from generation to generation. Now the Being that could produce this effect upon a small quantity of substance on a pot of manna, could He not do the same in regard to whole buildings, or is His arm so limited that He has to work in a little narrow corner and preserve a little handful of manna from spoiling through decay. I would say that the same Being that could perform this, which we might term a lesser miracle, could extend the same power to stone, wood, and to all kinds of metal and material that might enter into the construction of a Temple. Shall I limit that power to the preserving of a Temple! No. The same Being could preserve the city round about the Temple, hence it is a city that shall never be destroyed nor thrown down from that time henceforth and forever. God will be in the city. He will take care that the building materials suffer nothing from the laws of nature. He will take care that the city is illuminated by His divine power, and especially the Temple, the most sacred of all the Temples, where He will have His throne, where the Twelve Apostles will have their thrones, as the judges of the twelve tribes of Israel; He will take care that there is nothing in that Temple that shall decay in the least degree. So it will be in the New Jerusalem. Zion upon this great western hemisphere will have a city called the New Jerusalem (because it has never been built before) and God will preserve it by His divine power. Read what the Psalmist, David, has said in the 50th Psalm: “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Perhaps you may ask why it is called “the perfection of beauty.” Shall I read from the chapter I opened with? In the 11th verse of that chapter we read: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” Now any person that is acquainted with mineralogy or with geology, and any person that has studied these things to any great extent, knows concerning these precious stones how very precious they are esteemed, and how a small portion of these stones is very frequently valued at more than its weight in gold, some of them one hundred times their weight in gold, and yet the Lord will bring or create, or form, as the case may be, or tell His children how to form those precious stones in great abundance, sufficiently pure and crystallized in order to complete the foundations and also the temples and the public buildings of that great city called the New Jerusalem. But before this shall commence, the Lord has addressed them as a people afflicted: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted.” Just as the Latter-day Saints have been now for upwards of forty years driven from place to place before we emigrated to this great mountain desert, persecuted by our enemies, our cities taken from us, our villages taken from us, our farms taken from us, our flocks and herds shot down; we were robbed of all these things, and yet without any redress from the Government under which we live. We then came forth beyond these great rocky chains of mountains, hoping that in the distant desert, where no other people would have thought of locating themselves, we might live undisturbed. We have been greatly prospered in this desert. We have lived here long enough to fulfill a great many of the prophecies that are contained in this good Jewish Bible. But we have not yet got through with fulfilling prophecies. We are designed as a people to fulfill a great many prophecies. We shall move however, as I have already stated, down into that region of country. But you may say—that is, some of the weak Latter-day Saints may say—that it will cost so much; we will have to purchase all that country sufficiently extensive to give place to all this people. How are you going to obtain means enough to purchase a country large enough for all this people to dwell in? Well, now, the Lord has that in His own hands, don’t you know it? Is it a difficult thing for the Lord to make his people rich when they are prepared for it, after days of tribulation, after passing through a great many afflictions and difficulties, tossed to and fro; would it be a difficult matter for the Lord to open up whenever He pleases, means of unmeasurable riches, more than all the Latter-day Saints would know how to use? Hear what the Lord says: “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.” Who were the people here spoken of? They were people that should be clothed upon with this light that I have been speaking of, this glorious light; the presence of the Lord will be in their midst, and it will radiate over their temples, it will light their city by night and by day. “But are you sure,” says one, “that such a thing will take place?” I have no time to read all the Lord says on the subject, but if you read the 60th chapter of Isaiah, you will find that the sun shall be no longer necessary by day, nor the moon by night, to give light to a certain people. Why? Because “the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down.” Not like our sun which arises in the morning and exists above the horizon for a few hours, then descends, and darkness covers the earth. Not so with this light, the glorious divine light that will lighten up the heights of Zion. It will never go down, it will be a standing miracle by day and by night, from one week to another, month after month, year after year, until the one thousand years shall have rolled away over the heads of the people that dwell on the earth. But let us see what more is said. That same God that has spoken of these great riches, brass for gold, iron instead of silver, for wood brass, and for stones iron—I say that that same God has exhorted the latter-day people called Zion to “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” I do not mean something that never can be discerned. I mean that true light that emanates from the great fountain of light, the Messiah, the Redeemer; that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; that true light which is in all things and giveth light to all things; that true light that lighteth up the understanding of the children of men and quickeneth their memory; that true light that quickens the eyes of this mortal tabernacle, that we are able to discern objects round about us; that true light which is of God, will be rendered visible to the eyes of all the inhabitants of that city. And shall I limit it there? No. The light will shine so conspicuously from that city, extending to the very heavens, that it will in reality be like unto a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid, and it will have quite a tendency to strike terror to all the nations of the earth. Will all see it? No, some may be too far off, beyond the ocean, to behold that miraculous light that will shine forth in this city, but I will tell you the effect it will have upon the kings, queens, rulers, congressmen and judges of the earth—they will hear of it by telegraph; the news will be flashed over the civilized nations of the earth, but they will not believe it. They will say, “Let us cross the ocean, and let us see this thing that is reported to us by telegraph; let us see whether it is so or not.” Well, when they get within a day or two’s journey of the city they will be alarmed. Some of these kings and nobles, when they see the light shining forth like the northern lights in the arctic regions, illuminating the whole face of the heavens—when they see this light shining forth long before they reach the city, fear will take hold of them there, says the Psalmist, in the 48th Psalm, they will become weak, and their knees will smite together like the knees of Belshazzar. They will try to haste away from the glory of God and from the power of God, and to get out of the country as soon as possible. Fear and terror will be upon them. It will have an effect upon many other kings and nobles, more pure in heart, more honest, that are willing to receive the truth; it will have a different effect upon them, so much so, that they will say with Isaiah, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen from thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” These are the different effects which it will have upon the rulers of the various nations, some believing, some trembling, some humbling themselves and willing to forsake their thrones and their kingdoms and their empires to come and dwell with the people of God, while others more wicked, more corrupt, will not be able to endure it. This shining light will be seen for many miles distant, and the wicked will flee away; they will be fearful lest they be smitten by that power that illuminates the people of God, hence the terror of the Lord will be there. Terror will take hold of the wicked when Zion becomes as fair as the sun and as clear as the moon, and her banners will be terrible to all nations. One would naturally suppose when we see the present hardness of heart that exists among our enemies, when we see our Elders waylaid, young peaceable boys that are taking their first mission abroad to proclaim the Gospel of the Son of God—when we see them shot down and their murderers tried by a jury and acquitted, and then tried for riot and acquitted of that—one would naturally suppose that a people so hard in their hearts would not be converted to believe even if they should see the power of God manifested. But do you suppose that among these people where such things are carried on in the light of day, where murderers go free and where judges say, “commit murder, commit riots, take the life of the innocent; we will free you”—do you suppose that there are no honest hearted among the people that are allowed to do this? If you do you are mistaken. There are many of the honest in heart deceived by the cunning craftiness of the children of men, by priestcraft which lies at the foundation of all the persecutions endured by the Latter-day Saints. Priests, afraid of their craft, afraid of this little one, afraid that the little one will become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation, say: “let us down upon them, let us drive them from their homes, let us burn their houses, let us persecute them from city to city, let us fall upon their missionaries and put them to death.” We would hardly suppose that there could be found an honest person among such a people, but there are. There are goodhearted people all through the States. In Missouri, where they first drove us? Yes, many. In Ohio, where we were also driven? Yes, many which are honest before God, and will receive the testimony of the Gospel, and unto this Zion that I have been speaking of such will gather together, to swell the numbers of the Latter-day Saints, and we will become a strong nation and they cannot help themselves, and this is what makes them feel so bad. But, says one, we can help ourselves. We have got the Secretary of State, Mr. Evarts, and he in connection with others of the Cabinet, have published a circular unto the nations of Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, asking their help; “Will you not step forward,” say they, “and put a stop to the emigration of the Latter-day Saints. We are afraid they are growing too strong. We are afraid there are too many of them in yonder hills. O, Great Britain, help us! O Germany, help us! Let your arm stretch forth and allow no more of these Latter-day Saints to gather to the mountains of Utah! O keep them back. Shut up the ports of Liverpool, of Europe, and let no more emigrate to that land!” Do you think they can shut the ports of heaven? Do you think that yonder spirits that dwell in the presence of God the Father, will be kept back, and will not come here and take infant tabernacles to swell the borders of Zion? Think you, you can shut down the gates of heaven and control this matter? Stretch forth your arm and try to stay the arm of the Almighty, that He send no more spirits here to swell the borders of Zion! Would it not be well to pass laws to prevent these spirits coming, to prevent this heavenly emigration? Think you, you can stay the purposes of the Great Jehovah? No; these spirits will come and our streets will be full of children, sons and daughters, and they will say, as they crowd up: “The place is too strait, Give place to me that I may dwell,” and they will stretch forth the curtains of their habitations, they will lengthen their cords and strengthen their stakes in spite of all the powers of earth and hell combined. “A little one,” says the Prophet Isaiah, “shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” Daniel caught the same spirit. He saw a little one planted in the mountains. He saw a kingdom organized, an ecclesiastical government called the Kingdom of the God of Heaven. He saw it organized—not in the lower countries of the earth, but he saw it organized in a high and lofty region; in other words, as is recorded in the 18th chapter of his prophecies, he saw an ensign lifted up upon the mountains. What is an ensign? “Why,” says one, “according to our dictionary, and according to our opinion upon this subject, I should suppose an ensign, or standard, to be something unto which the people will gather.” You have thought right. This ensign, says the Lord, shall be lifted up upon the mountain. What is an ensign? It is not only something unto which the people will gather, but it is something of divine appointment, something that the Lord organizes, something that will be a pattern to all peoples, nations and governments erected in the mountains, and He calls upon all the inhabitants of the earth to see it. In another place the Prophet Isaiah says: “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Can you hinder it? Can you oppose the almighty hand of Jehovah that he shall not accomplish His purposes? It cannot be done. You may afflict, you may pass laws, you may call upon distant nations to help you, you may shut down the emigration against the Latter-day Saints, you may drive them, you may burn their houses—you may do all this, but they will continue to live and to stretch forth in spite of all the powers beneath the heavens, and become a great people under the Constitution of this great land. We never want to be freed from the Constitution of our country. It is built upon heavenly principles. It is established as firm as the rock of ages, and when those that abuse it shall molder in corruption under the surface of the earth, the American Constitution will stand and no people can destroy it, because God raised it by our ancient fathers, and inspired them to frame that sacred instrument. The Constitution is one thing; corrupt politicians are another thing. One may be bright as the sun at noonday, the other as corrupt as hell itself; that is the difference. Because we have a good Constitution that is no sign that the strong arm of the law, founded upon that Constitution, will protect the minority as well as the majority. The politician may suffer the majority to trample upon the rights guaranteed by that Constitution to the minority. They have done it before, and perchance they will continue to do it until they are wasted away. Then will be fulfilled another saying in this same chapter which I have read—“For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.” Now, there are a great many cities in the United States that will not be totally destroyed when the inhabitants are swept off the surface of the earth. Their houses, their desolate cities will still remain unoccupied until Zion in her glory and strength shall enlarge the place of her tents, and stretch forth the curtains of her habitations. That is the destiny of this nation, and the destiny of the Latter-day Saints. Amen.

Discourse by Elder F. D. Richards, delivered at the General Conference, held in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 6, 1879.

In contemplating the condition of the work of the Lord as it is on the earth today, and as we have had to contemplate it from the light of history in its existence in former periods of time, we find a very striking analogy exists.

I scarcely need tell my congregation this afternoon that we as a people bear a significant relation to the people of the United States in a political point of view, and without undertaking to review the various periods of the earth’s history, and the relationship which the work of God at different times has sustained to its inhabitants, it may perhaps be enough to refer to one circumstance in the days of our Savior. When John the Baptist had gone forth among the people of Palestine, telling them that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and calling upon all who entertained faith in his mission to come and be baptized—it appears that he created quite a sensation among the people, insomuch that all they of Jerusalem and Judea and the regions round about went forth and were baptized by him in great multitudes, as recorded in Mark, i, 8. This had a political effect upon the rulers of that day, and when John was followed by Jesus and his wonderful works, they began to say—“If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.” It was very directly a matter of political significance and importance.

I recollect that some fifty years ago, in the days of my youth, and in the land of the Puritans, I used to hear and to see aged matrons as well as reverend ministers wringing their hands and lifting up their eyes with holy horror, because there was a great evil in the land called slavery. They could scarcely eat or drink in peace, or worship God with the spirit and understanding, by reason of a terrible sense of condemnation resting on their consciences—because their brethren in the Southern States believed in slavery. This came to be worked up by the preachers in the pulpits, by the politicians in their stump speeches, by the parents of households, and fulminated by the press, until in nearly every class of society there was a continual stir and sensation about slavery in the Southern States. This terrible evil had become one of such vast importance that it must some day bring a national scourge, and in their great anxiety and horror over this, and their determination to put it away, they stirred up the fire until the North were at enmity and hostility against the South, and the South were at enmity and hostility against the North. We well recollect what were the consequences of the recent terrible conflict that devastated and demoralized so much of our beloved country. While this fanaticism was raging in the North, and silent preparations for defense were going on in the South, none seemed to consider the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, or the taxation necessary to pay a few hundred millions of war debt, and still less the demoralizing influences thereby fastened upon the country.

About the same time, or very soon after, when the Elders began to preach the Gospel in that region, I recollect that there arose quite a sensation about this people that professed to have new revelation. It to seemed strike these same conscientious, religious people with consternation that anybody should dare to say that God would now reveal himself to the human family; that it was the most impious blasphemy to preach that the priesthood had been restored, or to assert that the Holy Ghost was given in the latter days, or that the gifts of the Spirit were made to abound among the children of men. No indeed; it was not to be tolerated any more than the doctrine of slavery. There were here and there a few, though but very few in proportion to the general population, that did receive this very alarming doctrine among those professing religious belief in the mission of our blessed Redeemer. It will be borne in mind that at the time I now speak of, the doctrine of plurality of wives had not been heard of as a doctrine of the Church in the last dispensation; but it was the gifts of the Spirit, it was the doctrine of present revelation, it was the terrible repulsive idea that there could be a man raised up in our day who should be a prophet that should bring again the word of the Lord and speak his mind and will to the people, that created a fresh outburst of pious indignation in the minds of those who were so devout, and who claimed to occupy the “cradle of liberty.”

It was but a short time after this—stepping along rather rapidly in the history of events—till the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed to the Saints, away in the West, on the banks of the Mississippi, though not publicly proclaimed until 1852, in Utah. But the sound of this sacred scriptural doctrine, when it came to be made known, seemed the very acme of all that was corrupt, abominable and ungodly, and they who professed to believe in the doctrine of polygamy were not deemed fit to live on the earth. Consequently, if I were to take a text to preach from. I would take “Where are we now?”

About the year 1854, or 1856, the terrible odium of these two principal doctrines, and polygamy especially, had attached such a political hold on the minds of the religious community, that they were prepared to place these as two planks in the party platform, which was to be adopted as a ground upon which a President was to be elected. The celebrated Senator Douglas, after we had come out from the midst of the people and come into the wilderness, a thousand miles from any settlement of civilization, announced to the country that if he were made a candidate for the presidency of the United States, his opinion was that “the loathsome ulcer must be cut out from the side of the body politic.” That was his political faith in regard to this one of the twins. President Buchanan was elected with a clear understanding that the abolition of polygamy was one of the jobs he was undertaking. He tried his hand at this first, but on finding that it took two years for his army to reach the field of their operations, and then in their decimated condition were dependent upon polygamists for subsistence, the prestige of the campaign dwindled down to what was commonly known as the “contractor’s war on the Treasury.”

When, in 1860, the Republican party came into power, it assumed the obligation which President Buchanan had failed to discharge in regard to the “twin relics;” and, to avoid repeating the mistake which he had made, turned its attention to the other twin. This soon furnished occasion for a recall of the remaining troops in Utah to the other field of conflict.

I feel more interest in narrating these facts, because our rising generation, as well as many Saints who have immigrated to our midst from abroad, are not familiar with the circumstances, which have brought us to our present position. A little patience and I will notice some of the circumstances attendant upon what has been done, and perhaps we may judge therefore what has to be done, if it ever gets done at all.

Formerly, the Representatives and Senators from New England went to Washington laden with petitions to Congress to abolish slavery, in the District of Columbia, even more strongly than priest and people have recently been asking Congress to abolish polygamy. Ex-President John Q. Adams presented lengthy petitions containing thousands of names on many yards of paper, and became known as the Member who manufactured public opinion by the yard. These applications were repeated year after year. Be it remembered that the District of Columbia is not a State, but is governed by direct legislation of Congress. And what was the result of the strenuous and powerful efforts of the most brilliant and profound statesmen of the North, contested, of course, by the best statesmen from the South? The result was that slavery was not abolished in answer to the petitions of the Northern people, but it continued a political question, and became a powerful factor in the politics of the country. If an anti-slavery State was admitted into the Union from the North, a pro-slavery State was admitted from the South. Compromises were made between parties for the admission of certain States, until some of the Southern States declared for secession, and on the question of their right to do so the war commenced, and not on the direct question of the abolition of slavery.

From the firing of the first gun the demon of war seemed to inspire the contending parties with the most bitter enmity and rancorous hate towards each other, while multitudes met their near kinsmen in mortal combat. Year after year the war raged, till the Southern armies were recruited by their slaves; the Treasury of the nation was rapidly depleting; fierce engagements and wasting disease had done their work and recruits were enlisted for three years, or till the end of the war, and President Lincoln, by proclamation, abolished the slavery of several millions of negroes, not as a political measure, but as a measure justified by the exigencies of war. I state these facts without any argument as to whether slavery should be justi– fied, or condemned. Their great ancestor said they should be servants of servants among their brethren, making their servitude the fulfillment of prophecy, whether according to the will of God or not.

But where are we today? We find slavery disposed of, but what of polygamy? This question is assuming proportions which seem to overshadow us so completely that even John Chinaman gets no special consideration in Utah.

About the time of the “Bull Run Stampede,” in 1862, when officers, raw recruits, and congressmen fled from the battlefield and took shelter in the Capital, Congress passed a law making plurality of wives, bigamy, or polygamy if you please, a penal offense. Now it should be distinctly understood that this offense is not sinful because Congress has made it penal. There is no ungodliness in it, because God has revealed it, he has commanded it. Congress of the United States says that it must not be permitted. Well, then, “Where are we today?” What have we to expect? This law has been passed—although we had hoped that Congress and the nation had sufficient virtue, enlightenment, liberty, and the spirit of the constitution of the fathers left among them, that they could see that this was not a sin or an evil—yet we find they have closed their eyes against this, and have determined that it is sin, while corruptions of every kind are permitted to be carried on in the country, such as prostitution, feticide, infanticide, etc., that because we have embraced the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we must be demolished or give up our religious faith. The highest court of the nation has declared polygamy unconstitutional, yet in its nature it is the only potent remedy by which to eradicate the so-called social evil, with all its concomitants, from the land. Yet they cannot see it, and they declare that all who engage in polygamy shall suffer from two to five years imprisonment and not exceeding a $500 fine.

Now I want to place it clearly before you, my hearers, that this is no longer the business of a party, it is today the voice of a nation. Mr. Secretary Evarts in his circular letter sent to ministers in foreign countries, says in the last clause that “this government has determined to prosecute polygamy to the extent of the law and to eradicate the institution from the country.” These are his words. That is authority so far as authority from the United States government goes. We find the same thing reiterated in the charge to the grand jury in this city, a short time ago, that the voice of forty to fifty millions of people must have its rule and that one hundred thousand must be sacrificed or as many of them as insist on the doctrine of polygamy. That is about where we are today. Now I ask my brethren and sisters—are you prepared for whatever comes on this question? Did you when you entered into the waters of baptism make up a reckoning what the Gospel of Jesus Christ was worth? Have we considered that it was worth fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and our own lives also? If we did not we figured up wrong, for he that is not willing to forsake all things and make them secondary to a whole-souled belief in and faithful obedience to the Gospel, is not worthy of it. I ask my brethren and sisters who have come from the antipodes of the earth to this place for the Gospel’s sake, if you came prepared and having made such a reckoning? Jesus says in one of his parables, “Which of you, intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it, lest, haply after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Now that is about the way with us. There is no use our laying the flattering unction to our souls that government is not going to do this. We have got an example of what they have done to the Southern States, and have no doubt they are just as ready and willing to do that much to abolish polygamy among us if God will let them. They have come to that point. They have pronounced against polygamy and are ready to invite, hire and bribe men’s wives to aid in the conviction of their husbands, I have no doubt of it; you need not have. They are here telling us plainly that this is their business, and we need only to look around us and see where we are today.

Now, as regards this matter, nobody need tremble at all. I do not think that any who have received the Holy Spirit, and learned of the revelations of Jesus Christ, and know of their influence, need fear, or that anybody’s heart who is faithful before God, need be any heavier than it is in the habit of being, or that their faces need be any longer than they are used to be. Not at all; we must look upon this as only a part of the “all things” we agree to endure for the Gospel’s sake and our salvation. Now, they may go to law, and fix up, as we see already, packed juries, just such as they want, so that no Latter-day Saint who is a believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether he believe in polygamy or not, can have any place among them, or any say as to who are innocent or who are guilty. We have evidence that they will do all this and having done this much, it would be very easy for them next winter to fix up such laws concerning juries and testimony as will enable them to carry out what they have undertaken. We give them credit for all this, and we have evidence they will do it, from the fact that the Constitution has been no limit to their former enactment. Indeed, it has virtually been cast overboard, and liberty taken to enact any such laws as might be desirable to carry favorite measures, and it will be just as consistent for them to do anything they please in regard to polygamy; and thus one thing after another, until they shall have attained the object which they have determined to accomplish.

The true issue of this question is not exactly between us individually and the courts, or the government. The issue is between the two governments. If they who make us offenders are at a loss to know which is the higher law, they will have plenty of time to find out. It is a violation of both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, and of good and true government of this nation, that there should be any law made that should restrict our belief or practice of any religious doctrine, which does not infringe upon the rights of others. The Constitution expressly says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Neither is there anything in the Constitution that tells Presidents, Congressmen, Judges or juries, what shall be religion, or what shall not be religion.

In the days of Jesus, their Senate and House of Representatives, their supreme and lesser courts were comprehended in the Sanhedrin, or Chief Council, which was an institution of the Jewish government to determine all matters, secular or religious. In our day, although there is no law except the law of God that determines what we may accept as religion, and what we shall not, there is a principle which I call your attention to, that will enable us to understand our position in relation to each other and to our fellow men. I may perhaps illustrate this best by stating a circumstance which took place a few years ago, while I was in Europe. A gentleman from one of the European States had emigrated to this country and had become an American citizen. He returned to his native country to attend to some business. While there that government undertook to enforce from him some act of subordination, as though he were still a subject of that government. What was the result? The government of the United States, when appealed to, informed the authorities of that land that his rights as an American citizen must be respected. We see, then, that when a difficulty arose that abridged this man’s liberties, the responsibility was upon the parent government of asserting and maintaining the rights of this man’s citizenship. The authorities of Europe as well as America lauded the wisdom of Daniel Webster in this case, and the man was delivered.

Now, in our case, the government has determined that polygamy shall be abolished, but the government of heaven had previously determined that polygamy should be established, and that sin and wickedness shall be rooted up; that men and women shall have the right to obey that higher law in their marital relations.

This is our position, this is where we are today. We have accepted this doctrine, this principle of faith from the Lord Jesus Christ, and we, or some of us, have lived it more than thirty years in this Territory. And in the matter of our appeal, inasmuch as the government is determined to eradicate this item of our faith, and us with it, of course, and inasmuch as we can get no redress therefrom, our appeal must be to the government of heaven, to which we have vowed allegiance. Jehovah will hold a contention with this nation, and will show them which is the higher and eternal law, and which is the lesser and more recent law. While they are carrying on this high-handed proceeding, regardless of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, the God of heaven and earth will notify the earthly government that the rights and liberties of His citizens must be respected and maintained.

The whole procedure is inconsistent, and utterly at variance with the fundamental principles of law. The great legal apostle, Blackstone, has plainly stated, and every lawyer knows, that human laws and governments are professedly derived from, and founded upon the revealed law of God, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, and every man of them who rejects the revelations of Jesus Christ, must know that he is condemning himself in the thing he professes to allow. The eternal law of celestial marriage and plurality of wives stands out with singular prominence in all the law and prophets, and is evidenced in the personal humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Plurality, as believed and practiced by the Latter-day Saints, is no crime in and of itself; it presumes no deception or fraud; it infringes upon no other rights, but vests additional rights in him who accepts the heavenly doctrine, whose Author has said, “It shall be visited with blessings and not cursings, and with my power, saith the Lord.” It cannot therefore be malum in se, but is only malum prohibitum, by the Act of Congress.

With this view of the subject before us, what have we to do? What is our privilege and our duty in the premises? It is that we draw near to God, the Author of our faith, in humility and in obedience to all his requirements, remembering our covenants sacredly before Him, that our cause may reach His ears, and when He sees our trouble He will in His own good time step forth and deliver us. We have erred and sinned more or less, some of our children may have departed from the way of the Lord. If we have violated the Sabbath, taken the name of the Lord in vain, or violated any of our covenants, it is time for us to turn to the Lord and do so no more. If we do this, He in his own due time will say, “Hitherto shall thou come, but no further: and here let thy proud waves be stayed.” While, then, we see all the blandishments of civilization among us, while we see all the troubles that human governments can make, in our view we have only to trust in God as Daniel did. Notwithstanding the edict of the King, he worshipped the True and Living God. So must we. And peradventure all these things must happen to us. There are a great many among us who say, “Lord, Lord,” and do not pretend to do the things which God requires of us. We have to keep the commandments of God, we have to sense it, and to learn the lesson in all sobriety. Have we any time to waste with these outside characters? Have we any time to dally around grog shops and play in billiard saloons? No, my brethren and sisters, we have not. It is our duty to be alive to our work, day by day, knowing that the eyes of God are upon us. It is He that will do all things marvelously well for us; it is He that will fight our battles for us. Then the only way for us to gain deliverance is to remain devoted to his service, that we may help to build up His kingdom, and be found worthy of that assistance which He has promised to render us in the time of need.

There are two sides to this question. Peradventure it may be necessary that our enemies should carry out the works of their father, the devil, that they may show sooner or more fully to the heavens when the purpose and measure of their wickedness is full. As to the ultimate establishment of truth on the earth, there is no question. The prophets have all prophesied of it, the angels have looked forward to it with glorious anticipation, and we have the testimony of the Holy Ghost that this work shall be accomplished. The thing for us to do is to live true and faithful to our religion, irrespective of what may be going on around us.

That the Lord may inspire us by his Spirit to be faithful to our duty, to draw near to him, leave the wickedness of the world alone, and sanctify ourselves before him, is my earnest prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered at the General Conference, held in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 6th, 1879.

I have been very much interested in the remarks of Brother Orson Pratt.

I wish during the short time that I occupy the stand to make a few observations in reference to the foundation upon which we have established our faith and belief in the principles of the everlasting Gospel which we have espoused, and to see what means the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints employ in establishing these principles in the hearts of the people in the various nations where they are proclaiming the fulness of the Gospel. It is well perhaps in view of the surrounding circumstances, and in consideration of the difficulties that arise in our midst—and which may possibly try our faith—to examine occasionally more closely into the foundation upon which we ground our hopes—our hopes in regard to our property and in regard to our ability to accomplish the commandments of God and withstand the temptations that will be presented to try our faith, and overcome the difficulties that may come in our way in the path of our progress. In preaching the Gospel in the days of the apostles there were certain things that followed their labors, that inspired individuals that received the doctrine from their hands that filled them with great confidence in regard to those principles as is shown on a certain occasion where one of the Apostles uses language like this: “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” The people who had received the Gospel were reminded of the peculiar blessings and powers that attended it in its administration. When the disciples were ordained by the Savior and sent forth to proclaim the Gospel to the world, they were told that certain blessings and assurances should follow its administration. On another occasion it was said by the Savior, when people were anxious to know in regard to the divinity of his mission, he told them that if they would do the will of God they should know of the doctrine. And again, on a certain time when his disciples came together, he asked them what the people said in relation to him, the character that they gave him, and the feeling he had produced among them in regard to the divinity of his character. He was informed that the people had various ideas and views in relation to it. Some thought that he was one of the prophets that had risen, that he was Elias or Jeremiah, or John the Baptist that had been beheaded. In the midst of this confusion of ideas, however, there was one individual that had obtained correct information on the subject, and from a quarter that every person that receives the fulness of the Gospel is privileged to obtain a perfect knowledge of its divinity. Turning to the disciples he said, “But whom say ye that I am,” and Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Now, he had obtained a revelation in regard to the character of the Son of God. He had not obtained it through the observance of the miracles that Jesus had performed. He had not obtained it from any other quarter or source save from God the Eternal Father. Jesus told him that “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.” That is, upon the rock of revelation, for the nature of the Gospel is such, that when it is proclaimed and honestly obeyed, individuals receive a testimony in regard to the divinity of the doctrine. This was confirmed on the day of Pentecost. Peter in preaching to the people said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. This gift of the Holy Ghost is a different principle from anything that we see manifested in the sectarian world. It is a principle of intelligence, and revelation. It is a principle that reveals things past, present and to come, and these gifts of the Holy Ghost were to be received through obedience to the requirements of the Gospel as proclaimed by the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in these days. It was upon this rock that their faith should be grounded; from this quarter they should receive a knowledge of the doctrine they had espoused, and we are told by the Savior “that the gates of hell should not prevail against them.” Thus the Church was organized upon the principle of revelation. In it were placed “first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” Thus God placed in his kingdom and in his Church those things that were according to the mind and will of heaven, according to the laws of the celestial world. In another place we are told that God gave gifts unto, men. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Now for what purpose were they given? We are told that they were given “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” How long were these gifts to continue? We are told they were to continue “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” These were the principles taught by the apostles, and when they went forth among strangers they could say, “We have authority to administer in the ordinances of the Gospel; but you cannot know these things except you receive this knowledge from the eternal world. We profess to have this authority, but you are not acquainted with us, you do not know our character. We require you to repent of your sins and to be baptized for a remission of the same, and then you shall have a knowledge of the truth.” These are the declarations of our Elders in these days; it is by this means that the people are gathered here from the various nations of the earth. Here we have a people from England, Denmark, Sweden, France and from almost all the nations of the earth. Why are we gathered into these mountain valleys? Why have we left our homes in distant lands? Because we realize the truth of the gospel as proclaimed by the Elders. We have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, which has revealed to us this knowledge; and it is because of this knowledge that we are here today. Where in all the world can you find a class of ministers that dare take the position our elders do? Where is the man or the set of men that can be found that dare to present themselves before the world and say that they have been authorized of God to administer certain ordinances to the people through which they may receive revelation from God? Anyone announcing a doctrine of this kind would soon be found out if he were an impostor—he would place himself in a very dangerous position, and would soon be discovered if he held no such authority. Our elders, however, dare take this position. We have taken this position for nearly fifty years. God has sent his holy angels from heaven and restored the authority to man to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, and through these the gift of the Holy Ghost now confers upon man a knowledge in regard to the divinity of this work. Now, we talk about people succumbing because of their inferiority in numbers or because they are partly in the minority. That may be all very well providing it is simply man’s work. We can very well see that in such case 150,000 could not expect to prosper or succeed in opposition, or in holding principles that are in conflict to those of 45,000,000 of people. Noah could not expect to succeed against a whole generation while his doctrine was accepted only by seven individuals, providing it had been only man’s work. Neither could Moses when he proclaimed his message expect to have succeeded against the Egyptian government and its influence had he not been inspired and had authority from God. It is not that one man or set of men should proclaim principles as divine and demand their acceptance unless he have authority beyond that of man. If, therefore, the elders of Israel have been authorized, if they have received authority from the Almighty to proclaim these principles, then it will be very easy to understand who will succumb in the end. If it is the work of God we may expect very well what will be the result. There was a law in the days of king Nebuchadnezzar that all nations should bow to the golden image which he set up; it was made obligatory upon every individual that he should not offer prayer to the God of heaven. Well, what were the results? It is very easy to see; it is very easy to see what will be the results at all times when God has a work to accomplish in the midst of a people. When men of integrity, men of honesty, receive a knowledge of any principle, divine principle, when they receive a manifestation of the Almighty concerning the truth of any work or any doctrine, it is a very difficult matter to destroy or force that knowledge from them. You cannot do it by imprisonment, you cannot by any method of torture. So in regard to the people called Latter-day Saints. Inasmuch as they have received these doctrines in various nations where the Gospel has been proclaimed, and inasmuch as they have received a divine manifestation of the truth of these principles, we do not expect when they come here to these mountain valleys that they are to be frightened out of these things, because a man’s religion is more dear to him than life. Has anybody received a revelation to the contrary? Has anybody received a revelation that Joseph Smith was not endowed with power from on high, or that the Elders of Israel have not been authorized to preach this Gospel? No; but we can bring thousands of individuals that have received revelation that these things are true; thousands upon thousands. Well, then, the foundation upon which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is built is the rock of revelation—upon the rock that Jesus said He would build His church, and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. We have not received this knowledge through flesh and blood, we have not received this testimony from man, we have not received it through the reading of the Bible, New Testament or Book of Mormon, but we have received it through the operations of the Holy Ghost, that teaches of the things of God, things past, present and to come, and that takes of the things of God, making them clearly manifest unto us. You cannot take this knowledge from us by imprisonment or any kind of persecution. We will stand by it unto death.

And now all the Latter-day Saints have to do, all that is required of us to make us perfectly safe under all circumstances of trouble or persecution, is to do the will of God, to be honest, faithful and to keep ourselves devoted to the principles that we have received; do right one by another; trespass upon no man’s rights; live by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God and his Holy Spirit will aid and assist us under all circumstances, and we will come out of the midst of it all abundantly blessed in our houses, in our families, in our flocks, in our fields—and in every way God will bless us. He will give us knowledge upon knowledge, intelligence upon intelligence, wisdom upon wisdom.

May God add his blessing upon this people. May we be faithful to ourselves, faithful to all the principles we have received, seeking one another’s interests with all our heart, and God will pour out his Spirit upon us, and we will come off victorious in the end, which I ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 21st, 1879.

If the congregation will give their attention, I will read a portion of the word of God, given in these last days, dated March, 1829—a portion of revelation—through the Prophet, and Seer, and Revelator, Joseph Smith, in Harmony, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, a little over one year before the rise of this Church, commencing with the 10th verse:

“But this generation shall have my word through you; And in addition to your testimony, the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things, and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you. Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them. I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are; And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation, in this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my Church out of the wilderness—clear as the moon, and fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word. And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit—And you must wait yet a little while, for ye are not yet ordained—And their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them; For a desolating scourge shall go forth among the inhabitants of the earth, and shall continue to be poured out from time to time, if they repent not, until the earth is empty, and the inhabitants thereof are consumed away and utterly destroyed by the brightness of my coming. Behold, I tell you these things, even as I also told the people of the destruction of Jerusalem; and my word shall be verified at this time as it hath hitherto been verified.”

Fifty two years shall have passed tomorrow since the Lord permitted his holy angel to descend from heaven and commit into the care and charge of Joseph Smith, a young man, plates which had the appearance of gold, filled with engravings. He obtained these plates on the 22nd day of September in the year 1827, being then not quite twenty-two years of age. This young man was not learned, like those educated in colleges and theological institutions; indeed, he was a farmer’s boy, unacquainted with the arguments, and the tenets, and the creeds, and the institutions of religion that existed around him, except what he had heard from time to time, in the neighborhood where his father resided; a young man not versed in the Scriptures any more than most of the common lads of that age. And we all know that there are but a very few among farmers that have the opportunity of informing their minds at so early a period—at the age of twenty-one—in regard to the doctrines and prophecies contained in the Scripture.

You may, some of you, wonder, perhaps, why the Lord should select an instrument of this kind; why he did not take a person more qualified by education, more experienced in the doctrines taught among the human family, more conversant with the Bible. You perhaps, may think in your own mind that if you had had the selection of the individual to begin the work of the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth in the last days, and you had followed the best wisdom you had on the subject, that you certainly would have selected a person well trained and skilled in the different doctrines of the day. But the Lord does not see as man sees, his thoughts are not like our thoughts, neither are his ways like our ways. Hence he chose a man unconnected with any of the religious societies of the day—untaught in the Scriptures and doctrines of the different religious denominations—he selected a man of his own choice, as he had frequently done in former ages of the world.

We all recollect the selection that the Lord made in relation to David, when he was called to be king of the House of Israel, and anointed for that purpose. There were, I think, seven brethren older than David—men of fair appearance, men of experience—men that probably their neighbors, their acquaintances, would have selected either one of them in preference to the youth that was tending the sheep. But Samuel, being a prophet of the Lord, when these certain brethren came up before him, said: “The Lord hath not chosen him,” and continued to say so until all the seven had passed by, and then the inquiry was made, “Is there not another?” “Why, yes, there is a boy; but he is keeping his father’s sheep.” “Send and fetch him,” said the Prophet Samuel. He was brought in—he was goodly to look upon, but he was simply a youth, untrammeled with the traditions around him, but yet an honest-hearted boy. The Lord chose him, the anointing oil was poured upon his head, and he was appointed to be the future king of Israel.

Now, the Lord did not have any prophets in the year 1827 on all the face of the earth. There was no Samuel existing, no person who had the spirit of prophecy; consequently the Lord, instead of sending a Samuel, sent an angel to make the selection. This angel committed, as I have always said, the plates of the Book of Mormon, together with the Urim and Thummim, into the hands of this youth, and also gave him many instructions informing him that he must be very strict in keeping the commandments of God, and that he must do with these plates as he was counseled from time to time, not to shew them to everybody that might wish to see them, but was strictly forbidden, by the angel, to shew them unto any person until the Lord should give him commandment so to do. He translated these plates unlearned as he was. And now let me ask, would you naturally expect that if he—this unlearned youth—did this by his own wisdom, that it would agree with the Jewish record in all the doctrines taught, or said to be taught in the translation of this record? Would it be reasonable to expect that this unlearned, inexperienced youth could be able to sit down and in a very short period of time translate a book two-thirds as long as the Old Testament, without contradicting himself in some way? Would it be reasonable to suppose or to conclude that he would get all the doctrines, contained in that Book of nearly 600 pages to agree in every respect with the ancient Gospel as it was taught in the New Testament, especially when there were several thousand different notions in regard to that doctrine? We could not expect any such thing. The more inexperienced a man is the less qualified he is to write, by his own human wisdom, and get into proper shape, a history said to extend over a thousand years or a little more—a history commencing with the colony that came from Jerusalem to this continent, down until the records were sealed and hid in the earth—a thousand years’ history of a nation, of two nations that were opposed to each other, of their wars and their travels to and fro upon a large continent, like ours—we would naturally expect that a young man, so inexperienced, would, by his own human wisdom, get that country awfully muddled up as regards places, as regards the location of cities, and location of countries. We would naturally expect, I say, such contradiction to occur in the writings of an unlearned youth.

But what is still more marvelous, is the prophetic portions of this record, called the Book of Mormon. It is full of prophecies from the open– ing of the record unto the closing thereof. Predictions, not only concerning events that took place after this colony left Jerusalem, during 600 years before Christ, predictions that were to take place down to the coming of Christ in the flesh, but predictions that were to be fulfilled after the first coming of Christ down until the end of time. The book is full of these predictions. Would you not naturally expect therefore, could you look for any other thing than that an inexperienced, unlettered young man, unread in prophetic history, should contradict himself in different parts of the record; speak of an event on one occasion and forget and speak of something quite different on another? Then again, where did you find a young man, unacquainted with the Jewish record, that could make all these predictions and prophecies coincide with the ancient prophecies of the Jews? Would it be likely that he could do so by his own wisdom? I think not. All these things, therefore, so far as the history is concerned in the Book of Mormon, so far as the prophetic writings are concerned in this late record, so far as the doctrinal parts of that Book are concerned, it is a marvel in the age in which we live; it is a marvel in my eyes; but perhaps my eyes are not constituted as the eyes of others. To me, however, it is one of the greatest marvels of the age. I am familiar with this; and I have read it, perhaps, more carefully than any other man that has ever lived in this generation, and probably ten or fifteen times more than any other man has done. Why, when I was a boy, 21 years of age, I had, for the two years during my first acquaintance with the book, read it so much that I could repeat over chapter after chapter, page after page, of many portions of the Book of Mormon, and could do it just as well, with the Book closed or laid to one side, as I could with the Book open; and I have continued to read it from that day down to the present, without finding one contradiction in the book. I have read the comments, I have read the writings of our greatest opposers who have undertaken to examine the book from the beginning to the end. I have tried to follow their arguments, in relation to the contents of this book, but I have never unto the present day—and it is forty-nine years since I became acquainted therewith—been able to find one contradiction in the whole work.

Can we say as much concerning the Jewish Bible in the present state of its existence? What is the great fault found by the opposers to the Jewish Bible? The infidel says, “We do not believe it, because it apparently contradicts itself in doctrine, in history, and in many other portions.” And the Christian undertakes to read it, he undertakes to show that these are not contradictions; but with the arguments of the Christian on the one side, and the infidels on the other, in relation to the Bible, it is confessed by the generality of mankind that there are many contradictions, not original contradictions, but contradictions that have been introduced into the record since it was originally given—introduced by the wisdom of man, or rather by the wickedness of man. But does the Book of Mormon contradict the teachings of the present day? Yes. There is a great difference between the Book of Mormon and modern Christian religion; but there is no difference between that book and ancient Christianity. We may hunt the wide world over, amongst some 400 millions of Chris– tians, so called, and search deeply for a complete, and good, and thorough understanding of their doctrines, and when we have made ourselves thoroughly acquainted with them, take up the Book of Mormon, compare their doctrines with this Bible of ancient America, and there is a great difference, a fundamental difference, not a trifling difference, but a difference that lies at the foundation. It is the same when we come to compare these modern doctrines of Christendom with the doctrine taught in the New Testament. Where can we find a man who can reconcile the two? Or the thousand if you please? Who is able to show that the New Testament proves and sets forth clearly the ancient doctrine of the Gospel? There may be now and then an item which each denomination has in accordance with the New Testament; but where is the authority which lies at the foundation of Christianity? Where is the man among all these 400 millions of Christians that is a revelator, that is a prophet, or is inspired of God? He cannot be found and yet the ancient Christianity, recorded in the Bible advocates that great gift as one that lies at the foundation of Christianity. Christianity is built upon it, built upon Jesus, who was the great revelator of the Church, and built upon apostles who were also revelators, as well as Jesus, and who received their revelations by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, by inspiration as men of God. Can you find such an order of things in Christendom? Do any profess to have these gifts? They say that they are unnecessary; they say that these gifts were intended for the first age of Christianity, but when Christianity was once established these high gifts were no longer necessary. This is their argument almost as one. They seemed to be agreed, however much they may be opposed in other points of doctrine—they all, almost without an exception, seem to be agreed that there is no need of these high gifts of inspiration, and prophecy, and new revelation that accompanied the preaching of the Gospel in ancient times. “The Gospel is established,” say they; “we have no need of it.” As much as to say that these gifts are no part of the Gospel; that the Gospel is one thing and the gifts are another; that the Gospel was established by the evidence of the gifts, but the gifts are no part of the Gospel. They are as much a part of it as faith; just as much a part of the Gospel as repentance, as baptism for the remission of sins, or as the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; and to undertake to separate the blessings of the Gospel, and then call something else the Gospel, does seem very absurd, very inconsistent, and is something that cannot be proved from the divine record. Now, here is something that is of minor importance, something that is not particularly necessary, that might be called nonessential, but something that lies at the very foundation of Christianity. These gifts are a portion of Christianity. Revelation, inspiration and the gift of prophecy, are part and portion of the Gospel as taught by the ancient apostles and men of God, and by our Savior; and to do away with these gifts destroys the fundamental principles of Christianity.

What does the Book of Mormon advocate? It comes directly in contact with all modern Christendom, and goes back to the old Gospel as it was taught nearly 1,800 years ago, and maintains that there must be in the kingdom and Church of God, in every age of the world, these gifts as well as outward forms and ceremonies—maintains that these gifts are a part of the ancient Gospel and must exist wherever the Gospel exists—and when they cease the Gospel ceases to be preached, and true believers, in a Scriptural sense, cease to exist with them.

Now, it does not seem likely to me, that a young man whose beard had scarcely grown—a youth untutored, untaught in the sectarian notions of the day, brought up to labor hard on his farmer’s farm, should be able to make these great distinctions, to come out in opposition to all modern systems of religion, and establish the very fundamental principles that are necessary to the very existence of Christianity in the last days. But God was with that young man. He was not his own teacher, he was not left to his own judgment in regard to what Christianity should be and what it should not be. The angel that came from heaven and revealed himself to the youth understood his mission. He understood what the Gospel was and should be; he understood the revelations of St. John; he understood that these revelations never could be fulfilled unless an angel were sent from heaven in the last days, with the message of the Gospel to be proclaimed unto the inhabitants of the earth, not to a sectional portion of it, not to some corner of it, or to some obscure people, but to commit the everlasting Gospel unto the inhabitants of the earth, to be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. He understood the difference between modern Christianity and ancient Christianity. And when the Urim and Thummim was lighted up by the power of God, and magnified before the eyes of this youth, those ancient characters upon the plates of the Book of Mormon, the distinction was clearly made, between the purity of the Gospel as it was taught in ancient days, and the doctrines and innovations of man as have been taught during many long centuries of apostasy.

How I have rejoiced, since I was a youth of nineteen, in this record! Why I esteem it—I was going to bring up some earthly comparison, but I will not compare great and glorious and heavenly things—so great, so pure and so important, as that of the plan of salvation, with anything of an earthly nature, as there cannot really be any comparison. When I look at all the earthly riches and grandeur of this world, and then look at the Book of Mormon and the Bible, with power to select, which should I choose? Why, the grandeur of this world, the riches of this world, the glories of this world, would be nothing; they would be like the dream of a night vision when a person is disturbed, not by the Spirit of God, but by his own cogitations in the night. I would look upon them as nothing, as vanity and foolishness, as unworthy of the love or approbation of any man of God, were they to be set before me and contrasted with the glory of this book. It is a record given to this generation as one of the choicest gifts of heaven! No other books exist upon the face of our globe so choice as the books which God has given in different ages of the world: the Bible for one, the Book of Mormon for another, and the book called the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, containing the revelations which God gave through his servant the prophet, during some seventeen of the last years of his existence here upon the earth. These revelations, these books are more precious than the riches, and kingdoms, and glories, and honors of this present life, so far as I am concerned. Do I esteem them more than I do my own life? I would be unworthy of my Father and my God in the eternal worlds if I would refuse to lay down my life, if it were required of me of the Lord. If I should save it for a moment, and deny the Book of Mormon; if I were to deny the gifts of the Gospel, or any of the revelations that God has given that are published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—if I were to do such a thing, could I look upon my Father’s face without blushing? Could I think upon God without blushing? Could I think upon anything that was pure and holy, without being, in my own mind, in perfect torment? If I were to be so ungrateful as to deny anything that God has given me, I should be unworthy of the kingdom of God. I do most sincerely and humbly hope and trust that the Lord will not call me and try me in this respect, for I know the weakness of man; I know that man has been weak in all ages, and I do not wish to be thus tried, I do not covet this trial, I do not pray for it; but if ever I should be brought to this condition, with my present feelings, with the feelings I have had for a great many years, I would say: “Come martyrdom, come burnings at the stake, come any calamity and affliction of the body, that may be devised by wicked and ungodly men—let me choose that, and have eternal life beyond the grave; but let me not deny the work of God.” Why do I thus feel? If I had not a knowledge that the Book of Mormon was true, I should not have these feelings. Then I should probably say, if I only had faith that the Book of Mormon is true, “My life is precious, let me save my life, let me deny something which I do not know is true.” But when a person has a knowledge, as I have, of the divinity of this work—having this revealed to me when I was but a beardless boy—I hope never to be brought in that condition, where the trial will be upon me, but should it come I hope to be able to lift up my hands to high heaven, and say, “Oh Lord enable me to endure the trials and afflictions that may come, that I may be faithful unto death.”

Am I the only one that feels in this way, among the Later-day Saints? Are there no other persons that have this knowledge, excepting your humble servant? Yes, there are scores of thousands, if they testify the truth, and I have no reason to think that they would falsify their word; scores of thousands who know as well as they know they have an existence, that the Book of Mormon is a divine record; that the Bible is a divine record; that the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, are divine; they know it. Would they be willing to suffer martyrdom? I think they would. There might be individual cases, as in ancient times, where they might reject the truth, lose their hopes of salvation, to save their temporal lives; but take the great mass of this people, they would be willing to lay down their lives, or be burned at the stake before they would reject their religion.

How kind, how good was our Heavenly Father, before the rise of this Church, after he had inspired this boy to translate these records; how good it was to send an angel from heaven to three other persons, namely: David Whitmer, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith being with them on the occasion. The angel descended from heaven, clothed with light and glory, and, taking these records in his hands, turned them over leaf after leaf, showing to these three other men, besides the translator, the engravings on the plates. How kind this was. A Church was to be raised up. The Lord was willing that they should have all the evidence that they could reasonably ask for, before even the first branch of the Church was organized. Did he condescend, in many of the past ages of the world, to do so much for the different generations that have lived, as he has done for the present generation? Look at the days of Noah. He had a message to deliver—a message that affected the human family. He had to tell the people that were living around him that God had spoken. “And what has God said?” He has told me that because of your wickedness he will send the floods upon you. He will break up the foundations of the great deep, he will open the windows from on high and he will pour out the floods upon these nations and they will be swept away root and branch, except a few that will believe in my message, and come into the ark that I am building. How many witnesses did God raise up then? I expect he must have revealed himself to the sons of Noah, as well as to Noah. That would be but four witnesses; but we have no account that the Lord revealed himself to these three sons. They, however, believed the testimony of their father; whether they knew it or not we do not know. At any rate their faith was sufficiently strong to cause them to labor with the old man, and they labored along year after year, weary no doubt, in forming the timbers of this huge ark or vessel. Finally they got it fixed together, and the beasts of the field—that appeared to have more inspiration than the men and the women of that age, began to come from the forests towards the ark, and finally the door was closed. They must have been prophetic beasts, beasts that had revelations, beasts that were able to judge far better than the world of mankind in that age. The rains descended, and the earth was covered with the flood, and we read that Noah by his testimony condemned the whole world. What! One witness? One witness alone condemned the whole world, and they perished from off the face of the earth, because one witness was sent unto them! The Lord has done a little better with this generation. He sent four witnesses before he organized the Church, and that was not all. There were other men that had great testimony and evidence given to them; but they did not see the angel; they did not see the plates in the hands of the angel; but what did they see? They saw this boy have these plates. They took the plates and handled them themselves. They saw the engravings upon these plates—eight other men, besides the four I have mentioned—and they testify to what they saw. They bear witness in words of soberness, that they did handle the plates with their own hands, that they did feel the weight of the plates, that they did observe the engravings thereon, that they had the appearance of ancient work and of curious workmanship, and they bear testimony to what their eyes saw and to what they handled with their hands. Their names, as also the names of the four that saw the angel, were attached to this record, when the first edition of that book was issued from the press. Twelve witnesses then did God condescend to raise up immediately before he organized this Church. Are not twelve witnesses sufficient to condemn the world in this age, if one witness condemned the world in the days of Noah? I think that God has been very lenient, very kind and very merciful in beginning the work with so many witnesses.

But there seem to be other witnesses and evidences concerning the correctness and divinity of this book that are far greater than those I have named. There is a promise to all the human family, that is far better than the ministrations of angels to others. What knowledge does it give to me, to you, to any other person, among all the nations and kindreds of the earth, concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon, because four witnesses, that lived in some portion of our globe, state that an angel had come from heaven? Does that give me a knowledge? No. Did that impart a knowledge to any other creature on the face of the globe? No. Did we not need a knowledge as well as they? Yes. I have a soul as well as these four men that must be saved or must be lost. If that be the case, ought I not also to have a knowledge concerning my safety as well as they? I think so. Has the Lord made it impossible for me to obtain this knowledge? No. The very message itself in the book, and in the New Testament, and in the modern revelations that are given through the prophet, told me, told you, told all the people upon the face of this earth, how they also might obtain a knowledge of the truth of the Book of Mormon and of this work. How? By getting a vision or manifestation from that same God? No. That we should all have the ministration of angels? No. To some is given one gift, and to some are given other gifts. To some it is given to know in one way, and to some it is given to know in some other way. The Lord has promised that if I will repent, if you will repent, if the people of the United States will repent, if the people of all the nations of the earth will repent, turn unto him and obey his commandments that they should receive the Holy Ghost. Will that give us a knowledge as clear, as definite, as pointed as could be revealed by the ministration of angels? Yes.

Supposing now that I were a natural man, never had received the Holy Ghost. Supposing that a person should come and testify to me that he had received the Holy Ghost, that he had received Heavenly visions that the Lord had sent angels to him, what would I know about it? What would I know about the Holy Spirit, if I never had received it? No man can discern the things of God, but by the Spirit of God; so says the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. It is impossible for the natural man to know the things of God, and if I were a natural man, and had never partaken of the Holy Ghost I might hear a cloud of witnesses testifying to what they had received. I might say, “Well you seem a sincere people, you seem to be honest in your declarations, you say you have had the visitation of angels, you say you had heavenly visions, you say the Holy Ghost has been poured out upon you, but I have never received these things as a natural man.” Now what reason would there be to condemn me on the great judgment day, if I rejected their testimony? They would tell me that I might be put in communication with the heavens the same as they. They might tell me that on certain conditions, I might obtain the Holy Ghost, as well as they, if I would only exercise sufficient faith, to repent of my sins and to be baptized for a remission of them, and to have the servants of God lay their hands upon my head for the reception of the Holy Ghost; that if I would enter into a covenant with the Most High God, to obey his commandments and to call upon his name in faith, and to exercise faith before him—I expect if I did not do all these things, that all this cloud of witnesses that I have named, would stand up on the day of judgment and would condemn me. But if I would exercise faith though I had no knowledge, and would obey the commandments, would be obedient to the principles, and then I received for myself the testimony, I should then be dependent neither upon David Whitmer, Martin Harris nor Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith, nor any of the twelve witnesses that saw the plates, nor any other man living on the whole earth. I could then say, “Oh Lord, my God, thou hast fulfilled thy promise which thou hast made. Thou hast said if I would repent and be baptized I would receive such and such blessings. They have been given unto me, and now I know that thy word is true.” And from that forth I could be a witness myself, but before that I could not be a witness.

Are the ministers of the different denominations of this day, who have never had the spirit of revelation upon them—are they competent witnesses of God to stand before this generation and declare the things of God? No. Can they stand up in the great judgment day and condemn any of this generation to whom they have preached? No. Why not? From the very fact that they are not witnesses. They can tell what the ancients say, how the ancients became witnesses, but they themselves have not an experience in these things, and therefore, God has not made them witnesses. They cannot condemn any man living on the face of the earth, by their preaching and their testimony.

We are living, then, in the great and last dispensation, in which God has provided a way that he might raise up scores of thousands of witnesses, a way that all might know as Peter did. Peter did not get his knowledge from seeing miracles wrought. He did not obtain his knowledge because some other man had received a knowledge. The Savior blessed him and said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” The Lord had revealed this knowledge unto Peter, consequently Peter was constituted a witness. And so the Lord, by having given revelation from the heavens to scores of thousands of the Latter-day Saints, has made them witnesses of the divinity of this work.

O, how the Latter-day Saints ought to rejoice! How faithful we all ought to be! How frivolous are the things of this present life, compared with the knowledge of God, which you have received! Do you appreciate this, Latter-day Saints? Do you realize it as you ought to, or are your minds swayed to and fro by the frivolities and vanities of this present life? Do they absorb the greater portion of your attention? Do you forget your God, the greatness of your calling, and the knowledge which you have received? I have not.

I believe that the Latter-day Saints are the very best people on the face of our globe. Why? Because they have been willing to endure hardships, persecutions all the day long. They have been willing to leave their houses, their lands, their possessions, have been willing to see all fall into the hands of their enemies and flee to a desert country for the sake of their religion. Has God forgotten all these things? O, ye children of Zion! Do you suppose that the Lord has forgotten, because many years have passed away, your tribulation, your sacrifices if they can be called such—your mobbings and persecutions in times that are past? No. They are written as it were on the palms of his hands, they are printed indelibly upon the thoughts of his heart. He has all these things in remembrance, and a day of controversy is coming, and it is not far in the future—a controversy for Zion; a controversy with all the nations of the earth that fight against Mount Zion—the Lord has all these things in his mind, and he will fulfil them in his own due time and season. But now is the day of our tribulation and has been for some forty years and upwards that are past. Are there better days to come? Yes. How far in the future I am not prophet enough to know. All that I do know is that they are nigh, near at the very door, when the Lord will rise up and come forth out of his hiding place and fulfil that which he has spoken concerning Zion and the inhabitants of this land. Zion is not destined to be crushed down forever into the dust. Zion is not destined to be overcome by the kingdoms of this world forever. The turning point will come, and that is nigh at hand. The days are coming—I know they are close at hand—when the young and rising generation that are now sitting in this congregation, and who are spread forth upon the face of the land, throughout these mountains and valleys, will see the turning point for Zion. What will they see? They will see a man raised up like unto Moses in days of old—a man to whom the Lord will reveal himself, as he did to his servant Moses, by angels, by visions, by revelation from the heavens, and will give unto him commandments, and make him an instrument in his hands, to redeem the people and to establish them in their everlasting inheritance upon the face of this American continent. Will he show forth his power in that day as he did unto his servant Moses and to Israel? Yes, only more abundantly, more extensively than in the days of Moses, for there is a larger continent than the land of Egypt, in which the Lord will make manifest his power—a greater people than the Egyptians, among whom he will work. Consequently he will show forth his power unto all the inhabitants of this land. He will fulfil the plain predictions of the Prophet Isaiah that the Lord shall make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, until all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. What will be said then concerning this people and Zion? It will then be said by those that are spared in the midst of the terrible judgments that will fall upon these nations, “Surely the people called Latter-day Saints, the people of Zion, are the people of our God. God is there, his power is there, it is his power that delivers that people; it is his power that is over them as a cloud by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. It is his power that protects their congregations, protects their settlements, protects their holy temple. Let us no longer fight against Zion or the people of God, let us enter into the everlasting covenant which has been revealed anew. We will join ourselves with the people of God.” In that day will be fulfilled that which has been spoken by Isaiah in the second chapter, by the prophet Micah, in the fourth chapter, that in the last days many nations shall say: “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

May God bless—not the wicked, not the ungodly, not those that blaspheme the name of the Lord, not those that fight against Zion—but all the true, pure hearted Latter-day Saints, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, September 7th, 1879.

It is with feelings of thanksgiving to my Father who is in heaven, that I stand before you this afternoon, after having been absent from this place for some nine months that are past.

I suppose that the Latter-day Saints who are congregated here, understand the object of the mission which was given to me, to go to Great Britain, and there get the pages of the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, electrotyped, with double sets of plates, for the purpose of spreading forth copies of these works, among the inhabitants of the earth by hundreds of thousands. I therefore, feel very much pleased to have the privilege of bearing testimony to you, that I have, through the blessing of the Lord, been enabled to finish or complete the work that was given me to do, in relation to these two standard works of our Church.

Had it not been for the Book of Mormon this territory would not be occupied by a people called the Latter-day Saints. That lies at the foundation of the work of the last days, in which we are engaged. All of you are acquainted, if you have endeavored to exercise your judgment and your capacities as intelligent beings, with the nature of that book. If you are not acquainted with it you certainly ought to be. We all ought to inform ourselves concerning every principle that is contained in that record. We ought to make ourselves very familiar also, with the Book that is called the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, given by divine revelation in the generation in which we are permitted to live. These two books, we as a people, esteem to be as sacred as any other revelations which were ever given to the human family. We look upon the Book of Mormon as a very precious record—a precious blessing to the people who live in this dispensation, a divine work—a divine revelation. It has now been before the world almost 50 years, being published over 49 years; and the whole world, if they had seen proper to inform themselves, concerning the nature of the work, could have been blessed with the privilege. It is a work which the Lord our God has commenced by his own power. The book was not written by the wisdom of man, by the inspiration of man, but it was written by the commandment of the Most High God. It was written as revealed to a young man, the founder of this Church, under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. This young man being inspired of God, and having revelations granted to him from heaven, had the privilege of bringing forth this sacred record to this generation. The record was translated, as the Latter-day Saints understand, and as the world generally have been informed, by revelation, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, through the aid of an instrument that was used anciently and called the Urim and Thummim. The Lord did not, in revealing this work to us, require us to receive it blindly and enthusiastically, but to receive it on good, substantial, sound evidence, such as we cannot controvert, such as we cannot contradict—evidence that no reasonable person, having the common reasoning faculties of man, can consistently reject. The Lord did not raise up this Church—did not commence its foundation, until he revealed this Book; and in the revelation of this Book, he fulfilled many predictions, made in ancient days, by the mouth of the Jewish prophets, and also the apostles that succeeded the Jewish prophets. They spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and they predicted that such a work would come forth in the latter times; and if this is not the work, as the world say it is not, then we are to look forward to the day when a similar work will be brought forth by the power of Almighty God; for the events predicted by the mouth of the prophets, recorded in the Jewish Bible, never can be fulfilled, never can be brought to pass, unless a work of a similar description, to the one that has been presented to the people of the nineteenth century shall come forth.

The Book of Mormon, we say, is just as sacred as the Bible—the Old and New Testaments. We cannot see any reason why we should exclude all other books from the compiled books of the Jewish Bible. We have nothing in the compiled works of the Bible (King James’ translation), we have no declarations in this Book, that the canon of Scripture should be full at the close of the fourth century of the Christian era. We have no declarations in this Book, that about 400 years after Christ there should be a church or people on the earth that should collect together manuscript books and call them the Bible, and that that should be a complete revelation of God’s will; or that there were no other sacred books in existence, only what the Catholic church, at the close of the fourth century, happened to collect together.

We believe that God is the God of all nations, as well as the God of the Jews. We believe that he did not confine his divine power and the inspiration of his Spirit to one little spot of our globe; although he did work wonderfully, and in a marvelous manner, in the land of Palestine among the Jews, and did shew forth his power by raising up prophets, and revelators, and apostles. Yet we cannot, in our views, limit the Almighty, as the Christian nations do, and say that he has never spoken to any other people. We cannot, with the intelligence and light that God has given to us, say that the Bible is the only revelation of God to man. We believe that he made all nations, and all the inhabitants of the earth. We believe that he had as much regard for the ten tribes, after they revolted from the house of Judah and separated themselves into a distinct nation—when they wrought righteousness, as he had for the Jews who dwelt in Jerusalem, and in the vicinity of that great capital city. Indeed the Lord has shown to us that he was no respecter of persons. So far as the ten tribes were concerned, he had revealed himself to them. Some of the greatest prophets that were raised up in days of old, before the coming of the Messiah, were prophets that lived among the ten tribes, who were not Jews: not included in the house of Judah, or the two years and a half. For instance, Elijah, who had such great power given him from God, that he could call upon His name and the heavens would be shut up so that there would be no rain fall upon the earth, according to his prayer, for three and a half years. A man with such faith, that after three and a half years of great famine, he prayed for the Lord to send rain, and rain was given immediately. A man with such power that when a captain of fifty with his fifty came to take him—who mockingly called him a man of God—he said to the captain, “If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty,” and it was done, according to his word. He was not a Jewish prophet; he was a prophet of the ten tribes. A man also that had such great faith in God, that he was taken away from the earth, in a chariot of fire, and wafted to the abodes of immortality, among the immortal beings. Here then was a prophet raised up among another branch of the house of Israel. Here was also Elisha, another prophet, not of the Jews but of the ten tribes. Were not their revelations just as sacred as the revelations of the prophets of Judah? They certainly were; and were incorporated in the Jewish Bible. Were there any other branches of Israel besides those ten tribes, who dwelt in the northern parts of the Land of Palestine, and the Jews? Yes, we read in various parts of this Bible, that many of the house of Israel were taken away from the main body who dwelt in Palestine, and scattered to the four quarters of the earth. Did God forget them and their generations after them, after they were thus scattered? I think not. He did not forget them; and in the days of their righteousness, he revealed himself to them and to his prophets. And this great and choice American continent was once peopled by the seed of Israel, not the ten tribes or Jewish nation especially, but a small remnant of one tribe, namely the descendants of Joseph who was carried into Egypt. These American Indians scattered over this great continent of ours, are the literal descendants of the chosen seed. Now, do you suppose that the Almighty, who desires the salvation of the children of men, would take a company, however great or small it might be, and locate them upon such a great and vast continent as ours, and leave them without any guidance by revelation from him? Leave them from generation to generation without prophets and without revelators? Such an event is inconsistent to my mind. God, who is no respecter of persons, who loves all people of all nations, of all kindreds and tongues, surely would not thus lead away the chosen seed, and plant them upon such a vast continent as ours and obscure or withdraw himself, leaving them in total ignorance, without any revelation from heaven. What is the Book of Mormon? It is their record, their Bible, their revelations, their predictions, their doctrines, their manifestations and visions, and their history, the same as the Bible is the record and history of the Jews. Why then should it be thought inconsistent with the character of God that he should bring forth records, so sacred, so great, so important to join with the testimony of the Jewish record that the nations of the last days might have the testimony of two hemispheres that God is the same God, that his doctrines are everlasting, the same unchangeable Gospel and plan of salvation, and that his people Israel were as precious to him on the western hemisphere as they were on the eastern, and that the great atonement which we are now celebrating in this house, should not be shut out from the minds of the people in the western hemisphere? Is it consistent that this should be the case? There is not a man living, who will free himself from the traditions of false doctrines that have prevailed for many generations, but what will say it is godlike, it is consistent with the character of the Almighty to reveal himself to the western hemisphere as well as to the great eastern hemisphere, and if he did this would there be anything inconsistent that these records should be brought to light in the last days? Is God limited in his power? I appeal to the whole of Christendom, do we as Christians believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father, as being limited in their power, and that people should be left without divine knowledge, without information from heaven, when it is so easy for them to reveal? Is not the knowledge of God to cover the earth, according to the prediction of Isaiah the prophet, as the waters cover the great deep, before the end shall come? Are not many, in the last days, to run to and fro, and knowledge be increased, and when I speak of knowledge I mean that knowledge which is of God, the knowledge revealed from heaven, concerning the great plan of salvation. It is reasonable, it is consistent, it is in accordance with the Jewish Bible, that God should reveal himself and the plan of salvation to the people of the latter days, that the knowledge of God may truly cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep. In revealing this additional knowledge, will it do any harm? Is there any church on the face of the whole earth that is in the least degree harmed by the additional revelations sent from heaven? I think not. What harm is there in the Lord’s making manifest to the people in this western hemisphere, that the same Gospel was preached to the inhabitants of this land as was preached to the Jews and the people of the eastern continent in ancient days? Who is harmed among all the religious denominations of Christendom, the four hundred millions of Christians, so called, by the addition of further revelation? Did it harm any of the branches of the church that were anciently Christian, after they had the Book of Matthew revealed to them, to be permitted to have a testimony from another inspired man, called the Book of Mark? I think there was no harm in Mark’s writing his Gospel, after Matthew had written his. It did no harm to the ancient Christians that Luke should write his testimony of the Gospel; that John should write his, that John should be permitted to receive great prophecy and revelation on the isle of Patmos. Did that close revelation from God? No, because we find that the Lord inspired John to write his testimony of the Gospel, showing that the canon of Scripture was not closed up when John left Patmos. What harm is there for another nation to know about the Prophet Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the atonement that he made by his own suffering and death? Would it not be a privilege and blessing for the ancient inhabitants of America to be informed concerning the only way by which they could be saved in the kingdom of God? The Book of Mormon records the fact that Jesus did appear on this American continent, after his resurrection from the dead; that he did administer in person, in his immortal body, after his resurrection, for several days, in the midst of this remnant of Israel, the forefathers of these American Indians. What Gospel did he teach? Did he teach one Gospel in Asia and another in ancient America? No. If the same Gospel then is taught, who is harmed among the four hundred millions of Christians, by having the information concerning it? It seems to me as if I could imagine the feeling of the strangers that may be present this afternoon. I can imagine someone saying, “Oh, it would be a very beautiful theory, if we could only believe it; if we only had testimony sufficient to believe what you Latter-day Saints declare, that the Book of Mormon is actually a divine revelation of the Gospel as it was preached in ancient America; if we knew this fact we could not denounce it as something that was calculated in its nature to destroy the peace and happiness of Christendom, but we should consider it a great blessing to the human family if we only had the evidence and testimony that the facts are as you state them.” Now I expect these thoughts are running through the minds of some individuals here. Well, now, what must be the evidence? What would you naturally suppose would be the kind of evidence that the Lord Almighty would give to substantiate the divinity of a book that is almost two-thirds as voluminous as the Jewish Bible? Can you imagine any testimony that ought to be given to convince the children of men? “Well,” says one, “if we could only have it confirmed by the ministration of angels, that would be an evidence, a great evidence or testimony.” The inhabitants of this generation, for nearly fifty years, have had the testimony of three men, besides the boy that translated the Book of Mormon—the testimony of three witnesses. The Lord would not suffer his Church to be organized, would not suffer his servants to build up this kingdom on the earth—this ecclesiastical kingdom, until he gave sufficient evidence unto three chosen witnesses, as well as the boy that translated the work. Their testimony is given, in connection with the book, and there is no man living that can contradict their testimony or can prove it to be untrue. The witnesses themselves have never denied their testimony; and not only three other witnesses who saw the angel, heard the words of his mouth, saw the glory of his countenance, and saw the plates—the original plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, but also eight other witnesses who saw the plates, but did not see the angel; they saw the plates at another time; saw the engravings upon the plates, handled them with their hands, and have recorded their testimony. Hence we have the testimony of the young man that was called by the angel to translate and bring forth the book, and then the testimony of eleven other witnesses besides. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, we are told in the Jewish record, every word shall be established. But God saw fit to give twelve witnesses before the Church of the Latter-day Saints ever had an existence on this earth. That certainly ought to be sufficient to begin the work with, to begin to enlighten the minds of the children of men, concerning what God was about to do upon the face of the earth. But are we confined to these twelve men and their testimony? Are there no other means by which we may for ourselves come to a knowledge that this work is divine? I will tell you how the Lord has provided in a godlike manner, just as we would naturally expect he would do—that the children of men, however weak, frail, and imperfect in their judgment, if they have the common sense and common attainments that the children of men generally have, may not only have a faith concerning the truth of this work, founded on the evidence of others, but also a knowledge for themselves. And how is this? How can people get a real knowledge that this Book is divine? Says one: “I should like to embrace it, but then you are so unpopular. Still if I knew it to be true,” perhaps some stranger may say in his heart, “if I knew that God was the author of it, I would not mind anything about the contumely, or anything about the unpopularity of the people called Latter-day Saints.” There is a way to know whether this work be true, if you will follow the conditions. And what are the conditions that God has pointed out, by which we may receive a knowledge now as well as they received a knowledge in ancient times, concerning similar doctrines and principles? It is by obedience to the Gospel of the Son of God. The Lord, before he suffered this Church to be organized gave authority to his servants to preach the Gospel and to organize his kingdom on the earth in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies. In connection with this authority, he gave them authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel to those that would repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave them not only power and authority to baptize—that is divine authority to baptize—for the remission of sins, but also to lay their hands upon the heads of baptized believers and pronounce upon them the blessings of the Holy Ghost as they did in ancient days. This was placing the people of this generation in a condition to prove whether this work was divine or not. The elders were sent forth in the early rise of this Church, saying unto the people, “If you will repent of your sins—if you will turn from everything that is evil, if you will with all your hearts enter into a covenant with the Almighty to obey the Lord of righteousness, to keep his commandments, to do right all your future days, and will be baptized by the authority that God has given from heaven, and also be confirmed by the laying on of hands, God will give you the Holy Ghost, and by this gift of the Holy Ghost you shall know that the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation, and that this is the Church and the kingdom of the living God.” Very many honest hearted people in the American Union, in the nation of Great Britain, in the various nations of Europe, and upon the islands of the Sea, have tested the truth of this commandment of God given unto his servant in the first rise and beginning of this Church. Did they receive the Holy Ghost? They testify that they did. They say, that “by obeying that message which you brought to us, which you testified that God had sent you to preach, the promises you made to us are fulfilled. You stated that we should receive the Holy Ghost. We have received it because we have humbled ourselves before God. We have been baptized by you. You stated you held authority. We believed it from testimony that you gave us, that such was the case, but we did not know it. We went forth and acted upon our faith, and now we can testify we know you are the servants of God; for God has fulfilled the promise which he has given to us through your word.” Thus scores of thousands have proved the divinity of this work. You marvel that this people are so well united. You marvel that we come out from the nations of the earth and assemble ourselves in one. You marvel what it is that prompts this people called Latter-day Saints to come from the lands of their forefathers, from the islands of the Sea, from distant nations, and assemble themselves here in this great basin of North America. It is not man that has accomplished this work. It is because you have received the Holy Ghost that you are here in these valleys. It is because God witnessed unto you in your own lands, before you started upon your journey that he had again spoken to the inhabitants of the earth as in ancient days. You there learned that this was his true Church, his true kingdom established upon the earth as he predicted by the mouth of his servants, and you felt anxious to be gathered with the rest of the Saints that had the same testimony with you. Hence you gather not only from choice, but by actual commandment. We do not gather here merely for the sake of being together, but it is because the same God who revealed the Book of Mormon by his servant Joseph, the youth of whom I have spoken—that same boy received another revelation which is published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, which I now hold in my hand, commanding the Latter-day Saints to gather out of all nations of the earth, to this American continent. Hence you came here because you had received the Holy Ghost. You have come here because you knew this work was true. You have come here that you might fulfil the commandment which God gave near the time of the rise of this Church in relation to the gathering of his Saints from among all the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Has God fulfilled that which he spoke when we were but a little handful of people, not numbering one hundred souls? He told us that his people should be gathered from all quarters of the earth into one place upon the face of this great continent. Has he fulfilled it? The testimony is before the eyes not only of the Latter-day Saints, but the eyes of all people, nations and tongues, and among the most distant nations of the earth concerning the gathering of the people called Latter-day Saints. God has fulfilled his word—this word, which was given nearly fifty years ago, as to the gathering of his people from the four quarters of the earth. Now this great work of the last days never could be accomplished without this gathering together of the Saints. There are no other people fulfilling it. For instance, take the Roman Catholics; they were not gathering from all parts of the earth. Take the Greek Church; they do not come out from the nations from which they receive their doctrine. Take all the Protestant denominations, and who among them all are assembling themselves together in one? If they should issue a proclamation by human wisdom and by human commandment, requiring their members to gather together, they could not accomplish it. Why? Because there is not enough unity amongst them; the Holy Ghost has not been given to them in its fulness, as given to the ancient Saints; hence they could not gather the people together. But the Lord has done it through this people. And what will he yet do? Permit me to prophesy, not in my own name nor by my own wisdom, but on the strength of that which God has revealed to this Church since the year 1830, and that also which is given in the Book of Mormon—I prophesy that this is only just the beginning, as it were of the great work of the gathering of the Latter-day Saints.

[I would say that some of our friends that have called in this afternoon are obliged, in consequence of the cars leaving, to retire. May the Lord bless them, pour out his Spirit upon them, may he manifest the truth unto them that they may be blessed in common with all those who keep the commandments of God.]

The Lord our God has therefore fulfilled that which he spoke; and as I said this work, instead of being nearly accomplished, nearly fulfilled, and all things brought about according to the purposes of the Almighty, only the foundation, as it were, is now laid, and instead of being gathered in a little company of 150,000, by and by we shall be gathered in hundreds of thousands and even millions. Now, do you believe it? I not only believe it but know it will come to pass just as much as a great many other things which have already been fulfilled since the promises were uttered and published in this book. I knew they would come to pass, for God has revealed these things to me, and given me a knowledge of them, and I also know concerning the future of this people, as also do a great many of our brethren that have received testimonies concerning these matters. Is God limited to this little narrow spot, called the great basin of North America? Why, no. It is only for the present, for the time being that we dwell here. Where will we dwell in the future? What is our future destiny? It is not on the Sandwich islands, it is not in New Zealand, it is not in Australia, it is not in any of the islands of the sea, but I will tell you the future destiny of this people in a very few words. Not many years hence—I do not say the number of years—you will look forth to the western counties of the State of Missouri, and to the eastern counties of the State of Kansas, and in all that region round about you will see a thickly populated country, inhabited by a peaceful people, having their orchards, their fruit trees, their fields of grain, their beautiful houses and shade trees, their cities and towns and villages. And you may ask—Who are all these people? And the answer will be—Latter-day Saints! Where have they come from? They have come from the nations of the earth! They have come from the mountains of Utah, from Arizona, from Idaho, and from the mountainous territories of the North American Continent, they have come down here, and are quietly cultivating the lands of these States! Now, this will all come to pass, just as sure to come to pass as there is a God that reigns in yonder heavens, and not many years hence either. Thus you see that for some time to come, our future destiny is not to build up this kingdom upon any of the islands of the sea, but to be located where God has decreed, by his own power that his people shall dwell. “Oh, but,” says one, “you have to get the land first.” But I would ask is there any breaking of the Constitution—is there anything calculated to take away the rights of American citizenship by emigrants going from one part of this nation to another, peacefully and quietly, purchasing the land and locating upon it? I think not. “But,” says one, “perhaps they will not allow you to purchase the land.” The Lord will take care of that; that is in the hands of the Lord. That same being who will assist in the building of a great city on the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, has all power; and when we purchase the land, and go and take possession of it, I do not think we will be driven from our own lands, if we mind our own business and do not meddle with our neighbors’ business, and do not undertake to injure them in their rights and privileges, guaranteed to them by the Constitution of our country. If we conduct ourselves in a peaceable manner, I do not see why we may not dwell there as well as other citizens. We have the strongest assurance that such will be the case. These were promises made to us, before there were a hundred persons in this Church. It was promised that we should have a land as an inheritance; but we were commanded of God, to purchase the land. Now, when the time comes for purchasing this land, we will have means. How this means will be brought about it is not for me to say. Perhaps the Lord will open up mines containing gold and silver, or in some other way as seemeth to him best, wealth will be poured into the laps of the Latter-day Saints till they will scarcely know what to do with it. I will here again prophesy on the strength of former revelation that there are no people on the face of the whole globe, not even excepting London, Paris, New York, or any of the great mercantile cities of the globe—there are no people now upon the face of the earth, so rich as the Latter-day Saints will be in a few years to come. Having their millions; therefore they will purchase the land, build up cities, towns and villages, build a great capital city at headquarters, in Jackson County, Missouri. Will we have a temple there? Yes; will we have a beautiful city? Yes, one of the most beautiful cities that will ever be erected on the continent of America will be built up by the Latter-day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. Consequently, when congressmen and statesmen, and the great men of our nation, want to know what the future destiny of the Latter-day Saints will be, let them remember the words of your humble servant, who has addressed you this afternoon; for they will come to pass—they will be fulfilled. We have seen too many revelations fulfilled, already, to be mistaken in regard to these matters. Amen.