Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 14, 1863.

I am very fond of hearing my brethren speak to the congregations of the Saints; it affords a pleasing variety of the talent and ability that exists in the Elders of Israel. The object of our meeting together is to learn and to increase in the knowledge of the truth. Truth cleaves to truth and light to light. No man possessing the spirit of his religion can arise to speak to the Saints without imparting something that is bene– ficial. We are blessed with a great privilege in meeting here to worship the Lord our God and to speak comforting words to each other.

It would be very gratifying to me if I had the ability to so speak to the Saints as to divest them of every error they possess and give them eternal truth without in the least ruffling their feelings. Our weaknesses are known to ourselves, and in many instances to each other, but we have the privilege of learning and of increasing in faith and in the knowledge of God and godliness. We have the privilege of learning more and more of the earth which we inhabit, of the object of its creation, of the people that dwell upon it and of all things pertaining to ourselves.

The Lord has revealed a great many precious principles to this people, and knowledge which cannot be obtained by the study of the learned of the world, “who are ever learning, and never come to the knowledge of the truth.” One of the greatest blessings that can be bestowed upon the children of men is to have true knowledge concerning themselves, concerning the human family and the designs of Heaven concerning them. It is also a great blessing to have wisdom to use this knowledge in a way to produce the greatest good to ourselves and all men. All the power of earthly wealth cannot give this knowledge and this wisdom.

If mankind could know the object God has in their creation, and what they might obtain by doing right and by applying to the source and fountain of wisdom for information, how quickly they would turn away from every ungodly action and custom. But as the Prophet says, “Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone.” “Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.” Instead of seeking unto the Lord for wisdom, they seek unto vain philosophy and the deceit and traditions of men, which are after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. They are led by their own imaginations and by the dictates of their selfish will, which will lead them in the end to miss the object of their pursuit. Were you to inquire of the leading men of the world—of kings, rulers, philosophers and wise men—the end or result of their pursuits, they cannot tell you. This I believe; and I think it is quite evident, according to what I have witnessed.

What object was there, we might ask, for inaugurating the present war that is spreading dismay through our once happy land? Is it to kill off the African race? No; but ostensibly to give freedom to millions that are bound, and in doing this they did not know that they would lay the foundation for their own destruction as well as that of the object of their pursuit. Those whose minds are opened to see and understand the purposes of the Most High are made happy in a timely deliverance from approaching evil. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” We have the priceless privilege of applying our hearts to wisdom, and of learning the things of God while the wisdom of the wise men of the world perishes and the understanding of their prudent is hid.

I can say, for the satisfaction of my brethren who have spoken today, that I do not know that I have heard them say anything but truth; they have advanced good doctrine, good ideas, even to having our clothing last us for years; I should be quite willing to have mine last for a great length of time. The coat I am now wearing I have had six or eight years, and I would like to have it last me six or eight years longer, and use any money I might have for buying another coat to deliver some honest, poor, starving soul who is deprived of liberty and the common comforts of life. I would like to take the price of this coat and send it abroad to gather the poor and place them in like circumstances we are now enjoy– ing, that they might have the privilege of going to the same fountain that we do for food, raiment and intelligence. The old adage has it, “The back will trust, but the belly will not.” Hundreds of our brethren and sisters in foreign lands are now in a dying condition through want of food. If my hat, coat, boots, shoes, &c., would last half a century or a whole one, and I had the means every year to buy myself a fresh supply, I would thank God to put it into my heart to send that means to gather the poor.

The doctrine is correct, the advice is good for this people to be prudent with what they have around them and not to waste their substance. When brother G. D. Watt was speaking this morning I could not entirely free this people from the imputation of shamefully and disgracefully wasting a portion of the substance which God has so kindly and so abundantly given to them. We were exhorted by brother Watt to be prudent, saving, frugal and economical; to learn to gather the good things of life around us in abundance, to extend our possessions on the right and on the left and hold them all for God. If we are permitted to gather around us gold and silver and all the treasures that the Gentiles seek, instead of hoarding them up in iron chests or burying them in the ground for use in a future day, let us use them to send the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, to gather the poor Saints from every land, and to gather from the rocks and caves and dens of the earth the house of Israel. It is the duty of every person to thus put their money and other means to usury. We should all learn to use the blessings God has bestowed upon us with the greatest possible economy, doing good with the means he puts into our hands, and he will enlarge our means and our capacity to do more good. We do not possess a great deal at the most. I am blessed with plenty of food and raiment, with good houses for my family to live in, &c. I wish some good man, that is worth his millions, would give me half what my property is worth, I would be thankful, and give every dollar of it to preaching the Gospel, gathering the poor Saints, building the Temple and Tabernacle or anything else to do good and build up the kingdom of God, and I would commence afresh to make more property.

There are a great many things with regard to the providences of God which this people do not yet understand. The Jews did not understand that God, in his kind providence, was building up his Church among them in the days of the Apostles. The same ignorance blinded the world in the days of Noah, and so it is in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

My brethren who spoke this morning will excuse me for referring to their remarks. Brother Little exhorted the brethren, this morning, to take from their little piles, as he called them, and add to brother Brigham’s big pile. Brigham’s individual pile is already large enough, though, in reality, we should have only one mess chest, one place of deposit, one storehouse, one “pile,” and that is the kingdom of God upon the earth; it is the only storehouse there is for Saints, it is the only “pile,” the only safe place of deposit, the only place to invest our capital. This is rational to me; and all who contend for an individual interest, a personal “pile,” independent of the kingdom of God, will be destroyed. I, apparently, own horses, carriages, houses, lands, flocks, herds, &c. The Lord has entrusted to me all this property, in his providence; I have not run after it or sought it, it is the Lord’s; if, under this consideration, you agree to add to Brigham’s “pile,” I am willing you should do so.

I would not have an individual interest for all the gold and silver upon the earth or in it. What I possess, whether wives and children, goods and chattels, will not be mine, in the strict sense of the word, until I have passed all the ordeals that God has ordained that his children shall pass; until I have overcome every sin and every obstacle to my being crowned in the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. If I am unfaithful with that which God has put in my possession, it will be taken from me and be given to another. I have no individual “pile,” no individual storehouse. I do not think a man or woman can be found who can truly testify that they ever knew Brigham, for an individual interest, to neglect one moment any public duty that devolved upon him in the kingdom of God. That is my only business; it is all the business I have on hand. I take the Lord at his word, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all other things shall be added unto you.” I do not know but that he will take away every particle of property I seem to have and let me become a beggar; and if that is his wish, I would as soon beg my bread from door to door, if it is the mind of God and will add glory and honor to his kingdom, as to possess my thousands and live in luxury. “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;” if the Lord adds “all other things,” all right; and if he does not, it is all right.

Scores of my brethren cleave to the gold and silver and wealth of this world; if their minds were right before the Heavens, as they should be, the Lord would pour into their laps an abundance of gold and silver until they were satisfied, but to give it to them now would damn them. He withholds it from them, and I am thankful that he does. I pray him to withhold from me and this people everything that will do us an injury. As fast as we prepare ourselves for the blessings the Lord has in store for us, so fast will the Lord pour them upon us.

Thirty years ago, when I first began to tell the people about the Gospel of life and salvation, I told them just as I do now, that the kingdom of God will extend, increase, grow and spread abroad on the right and on the left until, by-and-by, the inhabitants of the world will know that the Lord is God, and that he has set to his hand again to gather Israel and establish forever the kingdom that is spoken of in the prophecy of Daniel, which is now set up, and it will go forth until it rules all things upon the face of the earth. When I first bore this testimony it was to those who heard it like an empty sound; only a few obeyed, but now the mere sound, the mere report of this Work heard from afar, penetrates their ears and sinks into their hearts, bringing fear and dread to the wicked. But let me say to all the inhabitants of the earth, “Fear not, borrow no trouble; but to those who are afraid of truth and justice, fear on.” There is no question but what many fear justice and truth and the attributes of God more than they dread and fear anything else.

To all who love truth, mercy, and justice, I will say, that when God rules on the earth he will rule in righteousness, dealing out mercy to all such persons, and they will be perfectly satisfied with the reign of Christ. But they who have sinned so great a sin that they cannot be forgiven will dread the day when Jesus Christ shall reign. Multitudes now read about that time, and it will come and the kingdom of God will go forth to the east, to the west, to the south, and to the north, and none will be found who dare lift up their voices against the rule and reign of the Son of God. “To him every knee will bow, and every tongue confess,” and we cannot help it. I look forth to that day with a great deal of real pleasure and satisfaction, when the righteous will reign upon all the face of the earth.

We are all liable to err; are subject, more or less, to the errors incident to the human family. We would be pleased to get along without these errors, and many may think that a man in my standing ought to be perfect; no such thing. If you would only think of it for a moment you would not have me perfect, for if I were perfect the Lord would take me to Paradise quicker than you would be willing to have me go there. I want to stay with you; and I expect to be just perfect enough to lead you on—to still know a little more than you know; you may increase as fast as you can, and I will keep just a little ahead of you; if you do not believe it, try it, and you will learn whether the Lord is not capable of still leading you through as weak an instrument as your humble servant.

We have a great labor before us. The building of this Temple is not a drop to a bucketful when compared with the labor we have to do. Let this people say that they will not build the Temple by Tithing, and then let the Lord say to a few of us, “My servants, will you build that Temple?” Our reply would be, “Yes.” I could build it alone, if required, as well as I could build any other building, and the Lord would throw every means into my hands that I needed for the work. It is God who gives the increase; he throws into our path the blessings we enjoy. Every man and woman ought to know that they can do all that he wishes them to perform; but there is an abundance of Tithing, and more than we need, if it could be had in a shape that we could use it to advantage. It now costs us nearly as much as it is worth to take care of the Tithing, because the people throw on to a few the responsibility of caring for the Tithing property. Is it not public property? And should not a mutual interest be felt for its preservation and proper disbursement?

When the brethren come to work out their labor Tithing, they do not expect us to board them and find them tools to work with. I accidentally learned one thing when I was south, and might have known it before if I had only thought of it. I went into a little bit of a Tithing room where there was a few hundred pounds of bacon; I said, “You have some meat here.” “Yes,” was the reply, “but the most of it is gone, for we have sent a great deal with the teams which have gone for the poor, and we expect the rest of it to be wanted for our teamsters who are hauling rock for the Temple.” Try the experiment with one who comes here to pay labor Tithing, get up a boarding house and board him, a clothing store and clothe him, and the labor that is done will not cover half the expense of feeding and clothing them. What did we expect you to do when we said, in the circular, take a little of this and a little of that? We expected the people to bear this expense and not take it out of the Tithing Office. But it seems that what should have come to this Tithing Office has been sent for the poor. I did not ask the Tithing Office for meat and clothing to fit out what teams I have sent, and never thought of it. When we first called for teams to go to Florence, we called for thirty; twenty-seven went, and I furnished more than half of them and did not ask the Church to find me meat, but others have, and they can have all of this, that and the other they want out of the Tithing Office; and if a Bishop gets ten dollars in money or other good pay he is sure to manage to send a load of wood or brush to some person in his Ward, charge the Church with ten dollars, and put the money in his pocket. Can we build a Temple on such terms?

Where are the bacon and eggs that should come to feed the workmen? I had my teams ready to go out for such articles, but they are away towards the States with the teamsters; the meat, the lard, the eggs, the butter, the cheese, and everything is gone to the States. We have said to the teamsters who have gone east, We will give you credit on labor Tithing; and we have to board them, too, have we? I expect we shall have to find wagons for them by-and-by, and then oxen and everything else. You can see how men can think and contrive how to use up this and that—to use up all the butter, all the eggs, all the meat, all the cheese, and all the money—“and when we cannot sell wheat at any price, then you poor slaves who work on the public works may take it and build up the kingdom with it.” This is a little harder than I spoke last Sunday, and you may judge of it as you please. “Do you know all this to be true, brother Brigham?” I do.

I do not wish any of my remarks applied where they do not belong. If there is a presiding officer in this kingdom who is not equally with myself under obligation to see the kingdom of God built up, I would like to see him. Some may be careless, unconcerned, drink whiskey, and loiter away their time, or try to accumulate for themselves, but I will promise such that they will sink to rise no more; they will dwindle away to nothing, and their names will be forgotten among men.

We had better build up the kingdom of God, and consider ourselves under obligations to do it, and see that we actually magnify our high and holy calling before the heavens. We have the privilege of preparing ourselves to inherit the celestial kingdom. Is there another people on the earth that has the same reason for rejoicing that we have? Those who have power to overcome temptation, to subdue their own passions and inclinations to evil, have more reason to be thankful than those who have not thus overcome. Let us have compassion upon each other, and let the strong tenderly nurse the weak into strength, and let those who can see guide the blind until they can see the way for themselves.

I exhort the Bishops and the people to do better. Do not charge to my account hundreds and thousands of dollars when it is where I cannot handle it and do good with it. I could have made this whole people rich long ago if I had possessed their confidence, as I should, but if I had made them rich, through the blessings of the Lord, I expect it would have destroyed them. I do not, however, ask your confidence any further than you can be made subject to the law of Christ and not love the world and the things of the world. I do not wish an influence that would be to my injury and to the injury of this people, but I really fancy to myself that if this people called Latter-day Saints were devoted perfectly to the building up of the kingdom of God, I should have a great deal more influence with them than I now possess, and I should be able to control their purses as well as their souls.

Many, when they come here, are in the depths of poverty, but when they find that they can stand alone and become a little independent, how quickly they forsake their God and their religion for that which is of no profit. Let us desire and pray for these things which will do us good, trusting in the Lord, seeking to know and do his will, and we shall come off conquerors and be crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives in the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. I hope this will be the case with most of us, and should like it to be the case with all. I would delight in seeing the inhabitants of Zion prepared to enjoy all the glory there is for the faithful.

May the Lord help us: Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 7, 1863.

I have a few things to say to the Latter-day Saints with regard to ourselves. From the first of our coming into these valleys we have instructed the people concerning the facts that are now so visible and manifest in the nation to which we are attached. It was then understood by us and was as plainly before our minds as are the facts that are now in their progress.

We also have a warfare to engage in, and, as the Apostle says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”

The warfare that I wish particularly to speak of today is that which wars against all opposition to economy and to the obtaining of the knowledge of God and that wisdom which comes from him pertaining to self-preservation. My warfare is, and has been for years, to get the people to understand that if they do not take care of themselves they will not be taken care of; that if we do not lay the foundation to feed and clothe and shelter ourselves we shall perish with hunger and with cold; we might also suffer in the summer season from the direct rays of the sun upon our naked and unprotected bodies. We have striven for years to convince the Latter-day Saints that rags and ruffles will cease being brought to us from a foreign market, though a struggle is still made to bring them here. We have warred against the principle of promoting and making wealthy those who wish us no good, and we have found it hard to convince our brethren and sisters that the saying of the Savior is really as true when applied to us as it was when applied to his followers in his day, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” Thousands of this people this day will not believe that saying. We have this to war against, and the warfare should be engaged in by every Latter-day Saint. The same responsibility, the same influence, the same power and the same objects to be attained should rest upon every person who is a member of the Church, as much as upon me and my brethren who are contending with me constantly for the permanent good of Israel. We have contended long to convince this people that they must become self-sustaining.

I can, notwithstanding this, endorse all that brother George A. Smith said this morning concerning the great improvement of this people and the good feeling they manifested to us on our southern trip. The people who have settled in that country are certainly contented. Many of them said to me, “We love to live in Great Salt Lake City, love to go to meeting there, but we should very much dislike now to be counseled to return there again to make our permanent abode. We like the country and climate here, we like our calling and situation, and we are happy and contented.” I am ready to endorse all the goodness and good-feeling that were manifested, and I can truly say that love, union, faith, fervency of spirit, and faithfulness to our religion are greatly on the increase among the Latter-day Saints, or I am much mistaken; still the warfare is not ended in regard to our being self-sustaining.

We have evidence now before us which sufficiently proves that the ruffles and the rags will not continue to come here for a great length of time, and we shall have to do without them or make them ourselves. Sixteen years ago, when we were camped upon this temple block, I told the people that there existed, in the ele– ments around us in these mountain regions, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp, silk, and every element for producing the necessary articles used by man for food, raiment and shelter. We breathe it in the atmosphere, drink it in the water, dig it when we dig in the earth, and walk over it when we walk. Here are the elements for every cereal, vegetable, and fruit, and for every textile material that grows in the same latitude and altitude in any part of the world. No country in the world will yield more and a greater variety of the products of life than will portions of this mountain country. We have proven all this to be true. There is not a better wheat country than this, and we can raise as good rye and corn as can be produced in any part of the earth; we can also raise as good vegetables as I ever saw, and in as great a variety as need be asked for. We have raised hemp, flax, cotton, and silk, all of the best quality. We can make ropes and sacking, and cotton, silk and woolen goods in abundance; we have the elements and skill to combine them.

There is no better sheep country than this. Some farmers suppose that their failure to raise wool is owing to ill luck; this is a mistake. I have expended more, in the early settlement of this country, to produce wool than any one man. I have bought sheep by hundreds, but I never saw the time that I could go out and herd them myself, consequently had to depend upon others. The treatment that sheep receive from most of those having them in care is by no means conducive to their thrift. The lambs are too often left for the wolves and dogs to herd or to the care of an inexperienced boy or girl. Large numbers of sheep are often huddled into little, filthy pens and kept sixteen hours out of the twenty-four in their own filth and stench. For this you will be called to judgment, and if there is no one else to charge you with the wrongs I will. There is not a better country in the world to produce wool than this mountain country, if the sheep are properly taken care of.

Now, then, I ask, how many of my brethren and sisters will enlist with me in this warfare, not to contend with and against carnal weapons, but against the foolish traditions, pride, and vain imaginations of the people called Latter-day Saints? Will my wives and children enlist with me in this work? I have striven with all my might to set a good example before this people; I have striven with all the power I possessed to introduce every good into their midst. I do not know of an evil practice that I am not willing to part with this hour to do good to this people. If there is a wrong in my practice, religiously, morally, politically or financially, I wish some of you would let me know it. If I strive to do right and to take a course to save myself and this people, should not the people do the same? Myself and my brethren who are with me heart and hand are always ready and willing to do everything in our power to promote the kingdom of God upon the earth and to save the people who profess to be Saints, and all the inhabitants of the earth that can be saved, then why should not all the Saints do and feel the same? Are we not all under obligation to be Saints, to build up the kingdom of God, to bring forth righteousness and deliverance to the honest-in-heart, to gather up the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to send the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, giving all a privilege to hear and believe it and to build up the Zion of our God upon the earth? Is not this obligatory upon every member of this Church and kingdom, upon one as well as upon another in their calling and capacity? You all answer in the affirmative. Then why not begin from this day to sustain ourselves and cease feeding and clothing those who wish us no good and giving them our money for that which is comparatively worthless?

Is brother Heber C. Kimball willing to enlist with me in this work? I can say yes for him. Are his wives and children willing to enlist with him and then with me? Is brother Daniel H. Wells willing to enlist with us? I can answer favorably for him and for a great many others. Why not every man and woman go to with their mights and try to do something towards sustaining themselves?

The feelings of many are, “How are we going to get gold to buy what we want—to procure what we consider the necessaries of life?”

You have read that piece of excellent advice called the “Word of Wisdom.” I shall not say you must obey it; you can read it over again and refresh your memories, and I give the privilege to the Elders of Israel to cease using tobacco, and if they will not cease using it, then raise it; and then, also, to cease using spirituous liquors to excess. At the time Mr. Holladay kept store opposite the south gate of this block, he annually received not less than $29,000 for the article, tobacco. His books will now show this. Into Livingston’s store I presume this people annually paid for the article, tobacco, not less than $35,000, and that, too, when we were but few; what must our bills be at the present time? I think I am safe in saying that we have paid, for tobacco alone, at least $100,000 a year during the last thirteen years. Now, especially you Elders and leading men of Israel, will you do yourselves a favor by letting it alone from this time? Brother George A. Smith says that the two-penny institution of Jackson and Stewart, in Provo, took over $15,000 a year for tobacco alone. If you will let this article alone you will benefit both yourselves and the community. If you will cease drinking spirituous liquors you will thereby be benefited individually and benefit the community. A man who indulges in any habit that is pernicious to the general good in its example and influence, is not only an enemy to himself but to the community so far as the influence of that habit goes. A man who would not sacrifice a pernicious habit for the good it would do the community is, to say the least of it, lukewarm in his desires and wishes for public and general improvement. Tobacco is not good for man; spirituous liquor is not good for a beverage, but in many cases it is good for washing the body.

Dare I venture to invite the sisters to favor themselves by letting alone the article called tea? Some of that which is imported to this country from California, and for which you pay from three to four dollars a pound, is not much better than hay. I merely wish to say that you now have the privilege and invitation tendered to you to cease drinking the filthy stuff. Again, I kindly tender you the privilege of making your own bonnets from straw or grass. There are no handsomer bonnets nor trimmings for them than are and can be made from straw. I have raised rye year after year for the express purpose of having the straw manufactured into hats and bonnets, and have invited my sisters to gather and use it and welcome. Some thirty years ago, at a State fair held in the State of Ohio, a young lady took the premium on Leghorn bonnets, and her sample of Leghorn was made of the common red-top grass of which we grow an abundance in this valley. You can have the privilege of gather– ing the red-top grass and preparing it to make Leghorn bonnets and hats for yourselves and your children. I will invite my brethren to procure and plant the multicaulus or mulberry tree; let your wives and daughters feed silkworms with the leaves, and thus produce silk for ribbons, for dresses, for bonnets, for scarfs, shawls, neckties, gentlemen’s vests, &c. We have skillful artisans among us who can dye and weave the silk into every possible design for beauty and utility. Let us be active in procuring machinery that will manufacture our cotton and flax into fine yarns for thread of every number and fabric of every quality; then our sisters can knit and manufacture in different ways their frills, ruffles, and laces to suit their tastes.

I am perfectly able to send to the east and buy what I and my family need, but there is a mighty influence in a good example, and what would my precept be worth without my example, besides the conscious gratification of having performed my duty to my God, to myself, to my family and to this people?

I have engaged in this warfare and I have tried to teach my family, my neighbors and their families the necessity of our leading out in these matters, and thus set the example for the whole Church to follow. This hat was made of straw which grew on my farm near this city. It has been my handsome hat for twelve years, and does it not look well yet? It is all homemade excepting the ribbon. Trimmings made of straw are the nearest and richest for straw bonnets and straw hats.

Shall we make our light clothing of the cotton which we can raise here in abundance? They will raise more cotton in our southern settlements than we can possibly use before another crop comes off. Shall we buy their cotton from them and manu– facture it into clothing, or pay the stores seventy-five cents a yard for cotton cloth? We have power to perform this useful labor, or to neglect it and tease husbands and fathers to buy at the stores the articles which we think we need.

Who will enter with me and my brethren into this warfare with their whole souls? I call it warfare, because it has been so with me for years; it has continually been a heavy weight upon my shoulders. I have for years been pleading with the people to take a course to sustain themselves. Some few are trying to do so but it would be a great relief to me if I could in truth say that we, as a people, are trying to do so. I could sound the feelings of the whole community upon this subject by organizing clubs and societies for this, that, and the other, all pointing to and having in view the great self-sustaining principle, but such clubs, societies, or firms are apt to clash more or less and run into sectional differences and sectional feelings. This I do not want. When we say we will do a good thing, I want the whole community to be of one heart and of one mind in that matter. If we say we will sustain ourselves and be independent of foreign productions and a foreign market, let the whole community at once become a unit on this point by forthwith beginning to supply themselves with the necessaries of life produced in their mountain home.

Some will argue that they could not wear in warm weather a garment made of the cotton yarn spun in our little factory in Parowan; I do not think the argument a good one. It has been strenuously argued by our ladies that hoops are a cool and comfortable fashion, but I cannot understand how they derive the benefit that is claimed for crinoline when the accustomed quantity of clothing is still worn. This argument is something like the one often used in favor of drinking spirituous liquors, “We drink liquor in summer to cool us and in winter to warm us.” “We put on crinoline and the accustomed number of garments in summer to keep us comfortably cool and in winter to keep us comfortably warm.” I argue that a dress made of Utah yarn, worn over a reasonable quantity of underclothing, would be more light, comfortable and healthy than the style of dress now used by our ladies.

What do you say? Shall we make ourselves clothing from Utah cotton, from Utah flax, from Utah silk, from Utah wool, and wear cloth from Utah looms, or go without? And you, my sisters, my wives, and my daughters, come here to meeting clothed and adorned with the workmanship of your own hands and rejoice therein; and do the same if you have occasion to go to a party, and tell your neighbors what you have done.

The wicked and selfish portion of mankind are constantly engaged in pandering to their own selfish and avaricious desires, regarding not the wants and sufferings of their fellow beings. Were the biographies of all the really great and good of mankind known to us, we should know that they lived to do good to their fellow beings, to benefit and bless their families, neighbors, friends and the human family at large; such men have proved themselves worthy of their existence. Let us all seek diligently to know what we can do to benefit our fellow beings. We must try with all our power to overcome every injurious tradition and custom we have learned from our fathers and teachers.

We must learn to think for ourselves, and know for ourselves, and provide for ourselves. We can here produce any amount of the raw ma– terial, and we are importing machinery, and shall continue to do so until we shall be victorious over the traditions and customs which oppose themselves to our becoming self-sustaining and independent. I never mean to give up the conflict; I never mean to yield one point until I see this accomplished; while every obstacle surmounted, every object gained, every purpose accomplished and every aim in view is to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth, save and redeem the house of Jacob, and save all the inhabitants of the earth that can be saved.

I shall not worry while I am struggling to gain this great conquest, but I intend to live and feel well about it. The man who fights with coolness and calculation in moral and domestic reform will win every time. Let us apply our minds to know what our life is worth and what we can do to sustain it and the lives of those who are connected with us, instead of continually whining for something to satisfy “great, big self,” instead of wanting this and that, instead of being miserable because we do not do this or because we do not do that, instead of being unhappy because this is so or because that is not so, all of which we cannot help with all of our complaining. Let us see what we can do to do good to our children, to our neighbors, to our husbands, to our wives, to our brethren and sisters, and then to the inhabitants of the whole earth. Let us make ourselves capable of doing at least a little good, and this will occupy our minds upon something that is indeed profitable to others, and will somewhat divert our attention from worshiping ourselves and blaming everybody that does not do the same.

I will now address the Bishops, and the people through their Bishops and Teachers. Why are we not as willing to pattern after good as after evil? Since we again commenced labor on the Temple we have been much troubled and perplexed with regard to getting Tithing labor. I immediately put on the work two good mule teams with a good man to manage each, then I put on two good common laborers to work on this block; I feed, clothe and pay the men, sustain the teams and keep the wagons in repair. I shall receive credit for this on labor Tithing. Besides this, I have kept two and sometimes three teams with drivers traveling to and from the country settlements to gather and bring in butter, cheese, eggs, &c., for the hands who work on the public works. For this team work I ask nothing but labor Tithing. I have given other men the privilege of doing the same. Have they done it? No, not one, with the exception of brother Daniel H. Wells’ having one yoke of oxen and a wagon on the public works.

Since I have been in these valleys, when I have received fifty cents, fifty dollars, or ten thousand dollars, I have invariably put it into the general fund; not every dollar, because I have my family to support. Who has followed that practice? Very few, if any. They may not have had the means nor the advantages for getting them that I have had. Do those who have the means do this? They do not. From the beginning I have striven with my might to get men to bring machinery into the country, to get them to raise sheep and wool, have the wool made into cloth and then wear it. Who has followed my example in this? Instead of bringing in machinery and in every way within my power encouraging home production, suppose I had brought large quantities of goods from abroad, encouraged gold mining, trading, trafficking, specu– lating, erecting whiskey palaces and gambling saloons, I should have been hailed as a great Prophet, a wise leader, and a great financier by those who love to swim in such waters, and hundreds would have been with me heart and hand.

When there was no whiskey to be had here, and we needed it for rational purposes, I built a house to make it in. When the distillery was almost completed and in good working order, an army was heard of in our vicinity and I shut up the works; I did not make a gallon of whiskey at my works, because it came here in great quantities, more than was needed. I could have made thousands of dollars from my still, which has ever since been as dead property. Have others followed my example in this? They have not, but there was a whiskey shop established here and another there. Some have even told me that they would starve if they did not make whiskey. I said to them, make it then, and be damned, for they will be damned anyhow. Am not I able to make whiskey? Yes; there stands the still and the stillhouse to this day, which I have never used and from which I might make thousands of dollars. Have I made whiskey and sold it in what some call Whiskey Street? No. Had I done so how many would have hailed me with, “You are a good man, brother Brigham, and you are the right man to lead Israel; thank God for such a man: he keeps a whiskey shop, drinks liquor, trades with our enemies and hugs them to his heart as long as there is any money in their pockets, and takes them to his house and introduces them to his wives and daughters; what a blessed man brother Brigham is.”

I will now confine a few of my remarks directly to the people who live within easy reach of this Temple Block. They say they pay labor Tithing. If the farmer, merchant, and mechanic are asked to pay a little labor Tithing, “O yes, and we mean to be credited for it in full.” “When will you pay it?” “When it is too cold, wet, and stormy to go a fishing and hunting. While we can work in the field, go after wood, or go to shoot ducks with pleasure, we will not pay you one day of labor Tithing.” They come in the winter to pay it when labor is not wanted. Who pays labor Tithing? “Everybody.” Who pays their grain Tithing, their stock Tithing, and their money Tithing? “Everybody.”

We feed and clothe some two thousand persons on these public works. Let me ask the Bishops of this city, and there are twenty Wards, how much money have you paid into the Public Treasury these five years past? Then ask the Bishops of the different Wards throughout the Territory the same question, and I think, if they answer the question fairly, it will be found that they have not paid one dollar to where we have had to pay out five hundred in cash or its equivalent. Our public hands have hats, coats, vests, shirts, garments, pantaloons, shoes, &c.; who buys these articles of clothing? They have to be bought and the money paid for them. The wives and children of our work-hands are well and comfortably clothed; who buys and pays for this clothing? Brother Wells could tell you a story about this, if he had a mind to do so. I say to the public hands, henceforth, if we have not the articles on hand that you want we shall not go to the store and buy them, neither will I permit brother Wells to do so; if he does he must pay the debt, for I will not.

I will now say to the Latter-day Saints, though this belongs to a General Conference, Will you do me the kindness to cease paying Tithing from this time forth, unless you pay it in a different manner than heretofore? They pile up wheat in Cache County, in Utah County, in Sanpete and in every other county distant from this city, in bins and houses where much of it becomes musty and good for nothing. Will they draw it to us here, where it can be put to use? Not much of it. They will let it spoil, unless they can have the privilege of using it themselves, and in many instances they have had the use of it. If wheat in the distant counties could be sold for a dollar-and-a-half a bushel in cash, we should get a comparatively small quantity of wheat in this Tithing Office. If they would give us fifty cents for every bushel of grain they pretend to pay in on Tithing in some kind of property that we can make use of, we would be much obliged to them. We cannot even get this; too many manage through their Bishops to pay their Tithing in a way to do us but little good.

If the people will cease paying Tithing, and let us understand it, we can build up the Temple ourselves, for I can put forty more teams to work on the public works, if I say the word. Presidents Kimball and Wells can do the same.

I am going to give the people the privilege to build the Temple by donations; as to saying that it is being built by Tithing, it is not so.

Some hundred thousand dollars a year are paid out by the community for tobacco, and the cash Tithing paid on this money expenditure probably does not amount to a thousand cents. How can the people be justified while committing such errors only upon the score of ignorance? We are trying to instruct you in the knowledge of the truth, that you may learn better. I do not condemn the Latter-day Saints for all this.

It is almost useless to ask any man possessing means to pay a little labor Tithing; if any is paid in the season when it is wanted, the poorest portions of the community pay it. The Second Ward is one of the poorest Wards in the city, and I have observed, when I have been at the Bishop’s meeting, that that Ward has responded to the calls of the Bishop better than any other Ward in the city.

I will now give the privilege to Bishop Hunter to put a good mule team to work on this Temple Block, and there sustain it and let it work until we say it is enough. I give brother Kimball the same privilege. And there are Bishops Raleigh, Cunningham, J. C. Little, and Leonard W. Hardy, to whom I give the same privilege, and they need not ask one farthing, only to be credited on labor Tithing. Then there are Bishops Sheets, Pugmire, and Edwin D. Woolley and John M. Woolley, and all the rest of the Bishops, with the members of the Wards who are able, I will give them the same privilege, that we may have what team work we want. I wish you all to bring your free donations to this work, and not seek to put your property in a shape that it cannot do the good we wish, and then say you owe no Tithing.

If the people have a mind to pay Tithing, pay it as it ought to be paid. I would rather have fifty cents a bushel in good available property, than to have all the grain that is paid in where it is not available, for it would do more good. The argument generally used is, “I pay my Tithing, and that is all that is required of me.” But have you no care, no responsibility beyond this? Do you not feel that the interest of this kingdom is your interest? And should you not feel anxious that the kingdom of God should be built up, become mighty, able to protect itself and independent of all other kingdoms? Should you be entirely indifferent; as to how the financial affairs of God’s kingdom on earth are managed? If this kingdom suffers, will you not suffer with it? If it prospers, becomes wealthy and powerful, will you not prosper and become wealthy and powerful with it?

I am willing to give you an account of my stewardship. Let every man have a care for the public property which is devoted for the public good. If a man knowingly puts a hundred bushels of good Tithing wheat into a bin of smutty, unsound wheat, but thinks that it is none of his business, he does an evil and his offering is not acceptable to the Lord; it is his duty to see that his good Tithing wheat, or anything else, is deposited where it will be taken care of and properly appropriated. We will either stop the paying of Tithing, or have it paid in a way that will do us good.

If we want a job done, we will tell you about it; then we want you to do it in the proper time and place, but we do not want labor Tithing paid in the winter. The Lord requires obedience of his people, which is better than sacrifice.

There is a warfare in which we are all engaged, and there is a victory which we have to win to become self-sustaining and independent, preparing ourselves for the days that are fast approaching.

May the Lord bless you: Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1863.

We have met to commemorate the first day of the week, and we hope that every heart will be concentrated upon the business before us. We do not hold that the first day of the week is the only day upon which to worship God, for we ought also to worship him on the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. It was the custom of Christ’s disciples to meet together on the first day of the week to break bread in remembrance of his death and resurrection; we follow the same custom. The Lord knows the wants of his mortal children, and has appointed unto them one-seventh part of the time for rest, though we cannot say, in every sense of the word, that this is a day of rest to the Latter-day Saints or to the professing Christians, some of whom are in the habit of rising at sunrise to hold prayer meetings; they then eat breakfast and hurry away to the morning service until noon; in the afternoon they again have meetings, and class meet– ings, prayer meetings, confessing meetings, &c., and so continue until nine in the evening. To such persons I cannot consider it really a day of rest. According to the revelations given to us, it is a day upon which we are commanded to meet to break bread, to confess our faults to God and to one another, being determined to lay aside every evil and prepare ourselves for the duties of the coming week; so we meet together to worship the Lord and to speak of his goodness, to wait before him, to be instructed and have our minds guided and directed in the ways of life and to remember the Lord’s death until he comes again. I am happy that we have the privilege this morning of meeting in this capacity, under the quiet shade of this comfortable Bowery.

Our hearts have been made to feel the divine influence that comes from heaven to prepare us to build up the Zion of our God upon the earth in the latter days. That we may enjoy our meeting this morning, let us strive to concentrate our thoughts upon the object of our assembling, for there is a proneness in the mind to wander, and it often requires considerable effort to stay it upon any one purpose. The cares and wants of this life occupy our minds deeply, but when we come to understanding we shall learn that our Father in heaven takes cognizance of all these matters. “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.” “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.” If we are faithful we shall learn in due time that all things are sustained and endured by his all-wise providences. We are too apt to trust entirely to our own ability for procuring the desirable necessaries of life. We are too apt to suppose that we alone guide, govern and control our doings and their results. We are too apt to aspire to the power to control the whole world and to make all bend to our wishes and dictation.

Man is the lord of the earth, but with his knowledge and power he is not able to tell how a blade of grass grows. All men must come to this very rational conclusion, that “Paul may plant, and Apollos may water; but it is God who gives the increase.” It was not our choice that we came into the midst of this desert region, but through the providence of Him who governs and controls all things we are planted in the midst of these deserts. There are reasons for this, and causes produce their effects; in short, we are here for the express purpose of preparing for the coming of the Son of Man, to bear off his kingdom to the nations and gather up the house of Israel, according to the words of the ancient prophets and the revelations given to us in our day.

We are now gathering the children of Abraham who have come through the loins of Joseph and his sons, more especially through Ephraim, whose children are mixed among all the nations of the earth. The sons of Ephraim are wild and uncultivated, unruly, ungovernable. The spirit in them is turbulent and resolute; they are the Anglo-Saxon race, and they are upon the face of the whole earth, bearing the spirit of rule and dictation, to go forth from conquering to conquer. They search wide creation and scan every nook and corner of this earth to find out what is upon and within it. I see a congregation of them before me today. No hardship will discourage these men; they will penetrate the deepest wilds and overcome almost insurmountable difficulties to develop the treasures of the earth, to further their indomitable spirit for adventure.

We are not in this region by choice, and there is no hardship that this people would not face and overcome. If there is a corner of the earth that can possibly be inhabited by mortals, the Latter-day Saints would venture there if they conceived it to be their duty, and overcome every obstacle and soon make the desert waste blossom as a rose. Such an undertaking is as easy to them, comparatively speaking, as it is to go from one town to another. It is marvelous to the world that the poor, ignorant, deluded “Mormons,” as they call them, can make so much real improvement. Is there another people on the earth, with the same facilities, that can do what the Latter-day Saints can? There is not. Is there another people on this earth that are as united as they are? There is not. Is there another people on this earth that can be controlled as easily as they can? There is not. There is a good reason for all this. There is a certain portion of divinity within mankind. This prompts man to seek in every possible way after that which will sustain him.

It is true mankind have wandered and have fallen from that which they might have attained through the redemption made by Jesus Christ; but there is one point in connection with this statement on which I differ from the orthodox divines of the day. They say that man is naturally prone to evil. In some respects this is true, where by the force of example and wrong tradition has become ingrained, but if man had always been permitted to follow the instincts of his nature, had he always followed the great and holy principles of his organism, they would have led him into the path of life everlasting, which the whole human family are constantly trying to find.

Every person is, to a greater or less degree, seeking to sustain himself, to obtain influence, power, wealth, wisdom and knowledge, all to further his individual aims. It is somewhat remarkable that wealth is considered the root and foundation of all earthly influence and power, when the truth is that gold is not power. A man may possess all the gold, silver, and precious stones in the world, which are called wealth, and yet starve to death. Wealth does not give true greatness. It will purchase medical aid in case of sickness; it will purchase food, clothing and shelter; but true wealth consists in the skill to produce those conveniences and comforts from the elements. All the power and dignity that wealth can bestow is a mere shadow, the substance is found in the bone and sinew of the toiling millions. Well directed labor is the true power that supplies our wants. It gives regal grandeur to potentates, education and supplies to religious and political ministers, and supplies the wants of the thousands of millions of earth’s sons and daughters. There are conditions and panics in society that all the power of earthly wealth cannot avert.

How happy, how secure that nation or people would be who knew how to sustain themselves forever and forever. Had the rulers of our nation known how to sustain the Union to an everlasting continuance, this knowledge would have been beyond all price. Had they possessed wisdom to have maintained the nation in its true character, in all its liberal institutions built upon the Constitution and Declaration of Rights, the Government would have continued inviolate in truth and purity and power, and would have continued to increase in power, importance and extent. True knowledge would have enabled them easily to accomplish all this. True knowledge is true power, and power adds to power—influence to influence. If this had continued in our nation, it would not merely have annexed Texas to our flag, but would have added the whole continent of North and South America. What would the nation have given for the knowledge to accomplish all this? What would the present rulers give for knowledge and power to so control the minds of that portion of the people who are still in the Union as to continue themselves in office—the leading spirits of the nation—to dictate the condition, future life and prosperity of this great and magnanimous people?

When the pioneers came into these valleys we knew nearly all the families which composed the settlements in Upper and Lower California. Is there a man that has ever been elected to represent that people in Congress that has not bought his election with money? Men are willing to spend all they have to attain the accomplishment of their purposes in a political point of view. All this power can be obtained by political aspirants without money, if they possessed true knowledge. I could be sent as a delegate to Congress without giving one farthing for the office, because I have true knowledge. Teach the people true knowledge, and they will govern themselves.

Men marvel that I possess the influence I do over this people, no matter where on the earth they are located. If we had fifty thousand members of the Church in China, though they never saw me, they would obey my counsel, because I send true knowledge to them and teach them the principles that tend to their own good and happiness. Their eyes are open to see this, and they willingly obey my counsel. Men think the power and influence I possess are obtained by necromancy or some other evil power. The power of the Devil is great upon the earth, but it is fast playing out, and the inhabitants of the earth must have true knowledge.

It has been told me from my youth up that opposition is the life of business, especially in the political arena. It is opposition that has ruined our nation, and has been, is and will be the ruin of all nations. In our nation slavery is the great bone of contention. Do we oppose the principle of servitude? I oppose it not in my judgment. If I have a manservant or a maidservant, they are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone—they are the children of God as much as I am. In the providences of God their ability is such that they cannot rise above the position of a servant, and they are willing to serve me and have me dictate their labor. Then let them do service to me, and it is my duty to treat them kindly and reward them accordingly. All the nations of the earth are composed of one flesh and blood, and God will bring into judgment the nation that abuses the liberties it possesses. If he has given me power to rule this people, or to own a hundred slaves, he requires at my hands how I use this influence and power over his creatures, and he will punish me if I abuse it. If I were the dictator of the nation in which I live, I should be held responsible to Him for that power and influence. He would expect me to rule in righteousness.

This people is an astonishment to all the world. We pick up the beggar in the street in England—and we have baptized hundreds of them—we bring him here and put him in a situation to earn his living. They never owned anything before, but after they come here they soon begin to own a pig, a cow, a few chickens, and by-and-by a team; then open farms and soon become men of wealth. It is our business to elevate the beggar and not keep him in ignorance.

If you wish to gain power in the minds of any people, give them the same opportunity that you possess to become independent and self-sustaining, and endow them with all the wisdom and knowledge that they are capable of receiving, and let them increase with you and unitedly grow and become strong. Through their oneness, the Latter-day Saints have become a terror to the enemies of truth. We do not buy the people with money, but we have striven in every way that is lawful and right to get a little money to bring the poor and destitute of other nations here and put them in a position to take care of themselves. I am sorry to say that some few have requited this kindness by joining hands with our foes against us and have become our most deadly enemies. They, however, have no power to injure us, for God rules in the heavens; and if we pursue our course and the even tenor of our lives, the Lord will spread truth in the world and all nations will possess it and be influenced by it; then they will know how to govern and control themselves, but now they do not. With all the power I possess, I cannot prevent a man from cursing and swearing if he is disposed to do so; the Lord himself has not influence enough to do it, what then is to be done with him? Guide his mind and affections into a better channel until he sees the folly of his course and understands the benefit of a more righteous way and a more manly life, then will he pursue the path to truth, peace and the fellowship of the Saints of God on earth and in the heavens; then will he increase in love, joy, wisdom, knowledge, and power. Are not these things so? Judge ye, my friends.

I am accused of a thousand evils, but I have never feared but one thing with regard to myself—and that is, that I should be left to do an evil that people may truly blame me; while they cannot speak evil of me and tell the truth, it never harms me. I care nothing what false statements are made about me when I faithfully follow the counsels of Heaven; they are no more to me than the croaking of the crane that flies over my head. If a High Priest, an Elder, or any other man that comes within the purview of my influence does wrong, I would as soon tell him of it as not and show him how to do right; if he is offended at me for so doing, it proves that he is destitute of knowledge. If the angel of darkness reproves you for your evil deeds, thank him for it, but tell him to keep at a respectable distance and that you will try not to need any more of his kind offices.

The nation that is angry at the reproof and rebuke of the righteous proves that it is on the high way to ruin. We do not coerce nor drive people. I am very much of the opinion that it would be useless for anybody to undertake to drive me to heaven or to hell. My independence is sacred to me—it is a portion of that same Deity that rules in the heavens. There is not a being upon the face of the earth who is made in the image of God, who stands erect and is organized as God is, that should be deprived of the free exercise of his agency so far as he does not infringe upon others’ rights, save by good advice and a good example.

It is written in the Scriptures, “If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long a time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” The Father is a perfect man in every part, a person of tabernacle endowed with all the features and attributes of a perfect being.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” How vain it is for us to think that we are going to grasp all things independently of God. Monarchs on their thrones have taken unto themselves power to hold and control the destinies of the people over whom they reign, when suddenly death in some way has seized them and their thrones have been left vacant for other aspirants to power and rule. When misuse of power has reached a certain stage, the divinity that is within the people asserts its right and they free themselves from the power of despotism. The nation that lifts itself up against God and rules in unrighteousness he will call to an account in his own way.

Elevation, exaltation and glory are the objects of the Father in peopling this earth with his progeny. Do not be afraid that I say too much when I call his earthly children his progeny. It is supposed by many modern Christians that the Old Testament has become obsolete; they regard it more as a book of history relating more particularly to past ages than to us; but we will quote from if in support of God’s being our Father and our being his progeny. Moses gives us to understand that Adam was created precisely after the image and likeness of his God. And in the New Testament Jesus Christ says, “and call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.” Again, Paul says, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” He is the Father of every spirit that has ever taken an earthly tabernacle. Again, Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, says, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,” &c.; and “I and my Father are one,” says Jesus; what, one body? No, it never entered the Savior’s mind that such a rendering of this saying would ever enter into the minds of persons holding the least claim to good sense. They are no more one person than I and one of my sons are one person. If my son receives my teaching, will walk in the path I mark out for him to walk in, if his faith is the same as mine, his purpose is the same, and he does the work of his father as Jesus did the work of his Father, then is my son one with me in the Scriptural sense. “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” Jesus was the express image of his Father, and he was so much like the rest of the people in his day that he passed and repassed among them as another man, without creating any special remark. “Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”

Christ and his Father are one in their faith, in their views, in their ministry, in their purpose and in their operations to accomplish their Godlike designs. Jesus came from the heavens to the earth to subdue all things and bring all into subjection to the will of the Father, “That they all may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” No one can suppose that Jesus wished to be understood that he and his Father and his disciples were all one person.

We believe in one God, one Mediator and one Holy Ghost. We cannot believe for a moment that God is destitute of body, parts, passions or attributes. Attributes can be made manifest only through an organized personage. All attributes are couched in and are the results of organized existence. True knowledge will teach the people who they are and the design of their creation. We are the sons and daughters of celestial beings, and the germ of the Deity dwells within us. When our spirits took possession of these tabernacles, they were as pure as the angels of God, wherefore total depravity cannot be a true doctrine. “You must be a freethinker, Mr. Young.” Yes, and also a freedoer. I am not afraid to rebuke any person when necessary, nor to tell the truth anywhere when it is proper and I am called upon to do so.

I am limited in knowledge and in the ability to convey the knowledge that is within me and often resort to gestures to convey what my language fails to impart; neither am I mighty in writing—I can convey more by language than I can by writing.

Do you wish to possess enlarged influence in a political point of view? Gather around you the poor and honest of mankind and bestow your charity on them, not by giving them in the way that charity is almost universally understood, but supply them labor that will pay an interest on the outlay of means and, at the same time, afford food, raiment, and shelter to the laborer; in this way the man of means becomes a benefactor to his race. Let him instruct those who know not how to cultivate the soil, who know not how to plant gardens and orchards and vineyards, in all these useful and profitable employments. Let him teach them the use of animals and how to profit by their labors and products. After he has taught them how to raise the wool and the flax, let him teach them how to make clothing of various kinds. Now they have their bread, meat, clothing, vegetables, fruit and dwellings which they have produced by their labor under the direction of the rich, good man whose capital and wisdom have elevated those poor persons from a state of destitution and want to a state of comfort and comparative independence. Now, I ask, has he not gained great influence over that people? And as they increase will not his influence become more extensive? Then let him teach them the truth, and not divide them up into Whigs, Tories, Democrats, &c.

Who is the most suitable judge between man and man? The man who is the most capable of judging between right and wrong; let him sit upon the judgment seat, and do not ask him whether he is a Democrat, a Whig, a Tory, or a Republican. Is he a just man, and will he render in impartial judgment? If so, I care not to what political party he belongs; I am content that he should adjudicate between me and my neighbor.

We teach the whole human family the way of life and salvation. The Latter-day Saints have the advantage of the same power that revealed to Peter of old that Jesus was the Christ; “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

The Latter-day Saints and every other person who is entitled to salvation, and all except those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost, may know that Jesus is the Christ in the same way that Peter knew it. Miracles do not give this knowledge to mankind, though they may serve as collateral evidence to strengthen the believer. The miracles of Jesus were known to the Jews, yet they suffered him to be put to death as a deceiver of mankind and one possessed of a devil.

If miracles prove a person to be divinely sent, then we are safe in declaring the Witch of Endor, who raised up Samuel, and the magicians of Egypt to be divinely sent. I will have it printed and sent to the world that no miracle is any proof of a man’s being sent of God to perform a mission in his name. Though Jesus Christ wrought miracles before the eyes of the Jews, they clamored for his blood and said, “Crucify him, crucify him, and let his blood be upon us and our children.” This has certainly come upon them. Jesus Christ told what would befall the nation of the Jews, and it has been literally fulfilled. Were I to bring a proof in favor of our religion I would quote the sayings, relating to this nation, of that man whom God has sent in the latter days with eternal life to them. There is more solid proof in favor of a Prophet’s being divinely sent when his words are fulfilled than all the miracles he can work.

The nineteenth century is not destitute of miracles; we have spirit rapping, spirit writing, spirit muttering, table moving, and the curing of diseases of long standing by the same influence and power. “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?”

If all men understood the great work of the last days brought forth by the Prophet Joseph and its ultimate results, they would invest all their capital stock in this great speculation. We are for self, for power, for knowledge, for thrones, for dominions, for eternal life. We are for the kingdoms that God has promised to the righteous; and they have received great and precious promises. Paul says, “For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours,” &c. Again, “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” He has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, and he will give them all things. We are serving a good master, and he will give us all he has promised. Will you all enlist and serve this great Captain of our salvation to the end of the war? Then shall you obtain all the influence and power you can wish for. In the govern– ment of God there is all the security offered to its subjects they can desire; in it their individual rights and property are perfectly safe. Were I worth millions of money I should wish to invest it under a government that offered to me the greatest protection and security. God rules in the heavens and on the earth; he sendeth seed time and harvest; winter and summer; he controls the good and the evil, and stays the evil and the plague when it has answered his pleasure; when the contending armies of our nation have served his purpose, he will say peace be still and the civil strife will cease.

My brethren and sisters are anxious for my safety, and will warn me of danger. I know better than they do when there is danger, and when it lies harmless like a lifeless tiger at the feet of the hunter. There have been times when I could travel abroad with impunity, and within twenty-four hours afterwards the assassin would be on my path. There are times when I could go to California and they would hail me as one friend hails another, and the spirit of the times would soon be reversed. Joseph Smith knew this, and when he went to Carthage he said, “I go to death; I go like a lamb to the slaughter; I go to my fate.” Those who understand the spirit that rules in the atmosphere and in the hearts of the children of men are aware that they do not feel today as yesterday, tomorrow as today. Many men have greeted me and my brethren with all the cordiality with which one man can greet another, and in a short time their feelings have changed to the most deadly hatred. Confidence has left the human family; there is but little substantial principle or virtue left in which confidence can be placed. We have to restore confidence to the world by being just and true to ourselves, to one another and to our God from this time henceforth and forever.

I suppose that more than half a million of the brave sons of our country now sleep in the dust in consequence of what I consider an unnecessary war, and the end is not yet. They have left their wives and daughters unprotected in a land rent asunder with a fratricidal war, and what are to become of them? You remember the scripture which reads, “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” He may say in the latter times, Now, my sons, take unto yourselves wives of the daughters of men and raise up a posterity unto me, and teach them the way of life and salvation and the arts of peace, that they may war no more forever. And they will gather up the old cannon and weapons of war that are now making such devastation, and convert them into implements of husbandry and useful machinery. By and by it will be said to the servants of God, “Go down and see if there is anything worth saving,” for it is written, “Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.”

Let us faithfully live our religion and learn what our present lives are worth.

May God bless everybody that can be blessed is my prayer all the time: Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 24, 1863.

I am thankful for the privilege of meeting with you here this morning, and I pray that we may all be able to properly appreciate the blessings we enjoy in the many opportunities we have of worshiping the Lord our God in peace and quietude.

Two weeks ago this day, we met with the people in the city of St. George, situated in what is called “Mormon Dixie.” Our congregations there were nearly as large as the congregations that commonly meet in this Tabernacle. We met a great many familiar faces, and for a moment we could have almost imagined ourselves in Great Salt Lake City.

Our southern journey has been one of great satisfaction to me, more so, I think, than any journey I have formerly taken to visit the Saints in this Territory.

Until this year brother Kimball has not been further south with me than Harmony. He could not refrain from speaking in fervent terms of the good spirit that was manifested through the thousands of cheerful countenances that were uplifted in the settlements to greet us as we passed along. This, and numerous other indications and manifestations in their cordial greetings, bespeak a great improvement in the moral and physical condition of the people. We cannot be deceived in coming to this conclusion, for whoever enjoys the light of truth and has so lived as to increase the Spirit of truth within himself can testify to the workings of that Spirit upon the hearts, the understanding and works of the Saints generally. I speak for myself; I am sensible of the increase of the knowledge and Spirit of God within myself. This being the case with myself, I can easily realize the increase of the same Spirit in my brethren. This is a matter of great joy and rejoicing to me and my brethren. I do not think that brother Kimball attended one meeting where he did not express his thankfulness because of the improvement visible among the Latter-day Saints.

It would take some time to give you a detailed account of our journey. The Deseret News correspondent has, through that paper, given you a pretty fair account of our travels, and what of interest has not already been laid before the public will appear in due time. I do not deem it necessary to make lengthy statements touching our journey south. Suffice it to say that in the short space of thirty days we traveled some eight hundred and fifty miles and held thirty-nine meetings. I spoke in all the meetings except one, speaking comforting and encouraging words to the people. I believe that brother Kimball spoke in nearly all the meetings we held during our journey.

It would be a source of great joy to me if I could speak of all the Latter-day Saints in the same terms of commendation that I can of a few. As people increase in the knowledge of God and godliness their joy will increase, though some seem to think that knowledge does not produce joy, peace, and glory. So far as my experience has taught me, the knowledge of God possessed by persons of good understanding gives great satisfaction and joy, not only under ordinary circumstances but far more in the midst of deepest affliction. Where the spirit of happy submission to the providences of God is not to be found, I conclude at once that there is a lack of the knowledge of God, pertaining to his purposes and designs regarding his people individually and collectively. As a people advance in the knowledge of God, joy will increase with them, and, whether in bonds or free, they can behold the goodness, the mercy and the long-suffering of God to the workmanship of his hands. If we could understand ourselves, our own organization, the great plan of the heavens, and the attributes with which we are endowed, exercising them to accomplish the purpose for which they were placed within us, we could be constantly happy in every circumstance and under every providence of God in which we may be placed. Let our minds once be opened to behold only in part the handiworks of God, the stupendous machinery of the heavens and the earth, the power by which all things are sustained, the harmony that pervades all the works of God’s hands, distributing his favors to all impartially, causing his sun to shine on the just and unjust, then can we be happy, indeed, in every changing scene and shifting circumstance of life. We are made to enjoy all that God enjoys, to inherit all he inherits, to possess all the power that he possesses, all the excellency with which he is endowed—all things are to be brought into subjection to him by his faithful children, that they may enjoy all things with him; these considerations bring peace to the heart that is opened to understanding.

Our teachings to the brethren and sisters south have been such as would meet their circumstances and wants, as our teachings are to the people here. You can readily understand, without any particular explanation, that the teachings of the Heavens to men on earth have, I may say, a certain amount of sameness, varying as the providences of God vary. He instructs people according to their circumstances, locations, wants and the dispensations in which they live. We have not preached faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost with the gifts and powers of the Gospel, &c.; but we have taught them how to build up a literal kingdom of God here upon earth. The first principles of the Gospel have been taught this people in the countries from whence they have been gathered, the ordinances of the Gospel have been administered to them, and in this they have experienced great joy, but they were, at the same time, taught to gather to Zion where they might be instructed how to live one with another without sinning, how to overcome every evil propensity in their nature, how to rise in the morning, how to take care of and sustain their bodies through the day, how to go to rest at night, how to feel one towards another and towards their God; not to bring heaven down, not to unveil the beauties and glories of the upper world, not to unveil the face of Him who sits upon the throne, whose face we could not behold in our present state and live, but to make heaven here by teaching the husband how to live and deal with his wife or wives, with his sons and with his daughters; by teaching the wife how to live with and treat her husband and her children, and the husband, wife and children how to live with their neighbors, that all anger and malice and all sin may be overcome by the people and never again gain mastery over them. These are the mysteries that belong to the kingdom of God upon the earth; as to the mysteries pertaining to the Father and the Son, to angels, and to the powers of the heavens and the fulness of the glory of Zion, we shall learn in good time.

Tradition has taught us that the great purpose of religion is to prepare people to die; that when they have passed through a change of heart, become converted, then they are ready for glory at any moment and to dwell with the Father and the Son in the heavens to all eternity. This is a mistake; for they have to improve, become substantially changed from bad to good, from sin to holiness, here or somewhere else, before they are prepared for the society they anticipate enjoying. They would not be nearly so well prepared for the society of the sanctified in heaven as a person brought up in the lowest classes of society would be prepared to properly present and conduct himself among the highest and most polished grades of mankind. Those who are counted worthy to dwell with the Father and the Son have previously received an education fitting them for that society; they have been made fully acquainted with every password, token, and sign which have enabled them to pass by the porters through the doors into the celestial kingdom. We have been traditioned to think that to rise up and speak in a meeting is to bear the cross of Christ. How often we have been exhorted to take up our cross by telling our experience before our brethren? This is but a small part of the experience and labor of the faithful Saint. I will prove you and try you, saith the Lord, by placing you in the most abject circumstances you can be placed in; I will surround you with your enemies, expose you to their derisive laugh, to the finger of scorn and to the hatred of the wicked, then will I see whether you will acknowledge me and bear your cross manfully. All this and more has to be taught the people in Zion. They must learn there how to sanctify themselves and become steadfast in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have taught the brethren, during our southern trip, what pertains to their everyday life, just as we teach you. We want all the Latter-day Saints to understand how to build up Zion. The City of Zion, in beauty and magnificence, will outstrip anything that is now known upon the earth. The curse will be taken from the earth and sin and corruption will be swept from its face. Who will do this great work? Is the Lord coming here to convert the people, and then drown the whole of them as the Catholic priest served the Jew? No. Is he going to convince the people that he will redeem the Center Stake of Zion, beautify it and then place them there without any exertion on their part? No. He will not come here to build a Temple, a Tabernacle, a Bowery, or to set out fruit trees, make aprons of fig leaves or coats of skins, or work in brass and iron, for we already know how to do these things. He will not come here to teach us how to raise and manufacture cotton, how to make hand cards, how to card, how to make spinning machines, looms, &c., &c. We have to build up Zion, if we do our duty.

In the first place, we have to become sanctified; and I may here say that our views of sanctification differ very much from the views held by some of the popular sects of the day, for they think that sanctification consists in shutting the door and securely bolting it against fulfilling the first commandment that God gave to our first parents. I will put my own definition to the term sanctification, and say it consists in overcoming every sin and bringing all into subjection to the law of Christ. God has placed in us a pure spirit; when this reigns predominant, without let or hindrance, and triumphs over the flesh and rules and governs and controls as the Lord controls the heavens and the earth, this I call the blessing of sanctification. Will sin be perfectly destroyed? No, it will not, for it is not so designed in the economy of Heaven.

All the Lord has called us to do is to renovate our own hearts, then our families, extending the principles to neighborhoods, to the earth we occupy, and so continue until we drive the power of Satan from the earth and Satan to his own place. That is the work Jesus is engaged in, and we will be co-workers with him. Do not suppose that we shall ever in the flesh be free from temptations to sin. Some suppose that they can in the flesh be sanctified body and spirit and become so pure that they will never again feel the effects of the power of the adversary of truth. Were it possible for a person to attain to this degree of perfection in the flesh, he could not die neither remain in a world where sin predominates. Sin has entered into the world, and death by sin. I think we shall more or less feel the effects of sin so long as we live, and finally have to pass the ordeals of death. Do not understand that in the flesh we shall ever overcome the power of sin to such a degree that we shall never taste death. I do not look for any such thing, though what we call death, or laying down this body, is only the door to a higher state of life for the faithful. If we live our religion it will enable us to so overcome sin that it will not reign in our mortal bodies but will become subject to us, and the world and its fulness will become our servant instead of our master. Those who list to obey sin are the servants of sin. We should never list to obey that which corrupts, for in so doing we become servants to corruption. We should so live as to make the world and all its natural blessings subservient to our reasonable wants and holy desires.

The Latter-day Saints are improving, and I am rejoiced; my heart is filled with joy on this account. Do they improve in building? Not as much as they should. Do they improve by manufacturing the things they need to wear? Not as much as they should. Do they improve in educating their children? Not as much as they should. But they improve in their faith and in their love one to another; they improve in the light of the holy Gospel. The people are generally improving in these respects, and we are glad of it.

Great Salt Lake City is the first established city in the mountains, and we look for more improvement in the spirit of the people here than in any other settlement. The Lord expects this place to advance faster than any other place among all the settlements of the Latter-day Saints. Do we know how to rise in the morning? Do we leave our couches in the morning with anger in our hearts? Do we feel disconsolate, afflicted and oppressed by the Adversary? We can get rid of all this by going down upon our knees and praying until we overcome that feeling of discontent and misery and become kind to our companions and offspring, to the inmates of our habitation, to our flocks and herds, to our neighbors and to every creature God has made. We may say that our work drives us and that we have not time to pray, hardly time to eat our breakfasts. Then let the breakfasts go, and pray; get down upon our knees and pray until we are filled with the Spirit of peace. I may say, my wife is hurrying me and I feel out of sorts; perhaps I have not had very pleasant dreams, have thought somebody was abusing me or got angry with somebody in my sleep, and I rise in the morning tired and feeling unpleasant with myself and everybody around me: while the Elder who has dreamed of preaching the Gospel to the nations, of building up Zion and laboring for the Gospel all night in his mind and feelings, being filled with the Holy Ghost, rejoices in his sleep; his slumbers are sweet to him and he rises in the morning filled with the good Spirit, and with him it is, “God bless you wife, God bless you my children.” He feels to bless his house and his gardens, his orchards, his flocks and his herds, and everything looks pleasant to him and he rejoices exceedingly in the works of God’s hands. He cherishes no malice, no anger; the spirit of the enemy has no place in him. How happy is such a person when compared with the man who is constantly laboring to amass gold and property, making this his only end and aim. How the Devil will play with a man who so worships gain.

Let me say to the brethren and sisters, when you are chastened by any of your leaders, never consider that the enemy does it, but receive it always as a kindness from the hand of a friend and not as from an enemy. If your Presidents were your enemies they would let you alone in your faults. If you are beloved of the Lord you will be chastened; receive it with joy.

We are in one of the strongholds of Zion; let us, therefore, so live that our days and nights will be pleasant unto us, and never spend an hour without the light of truth beaming upon our understandings. I ask my friends who are with me daily, I ask my family, “When do you see me out of sorts?” You say, “We do not expect to see you angry, brother Brigham; we do not expect to see you anything but just right.” If you expect to see me just right, why do you not try with a little more determination to become just right yourselves? How is it, my brethren and sisters? If I am expected of our Heavenly Father to live just right, is not the same expected of you? If I am are you not also in duty bound to so live as to enjoy the Spirit of truth, light and intelligence? Are you not under the same obligation to purify your hearts as I am? If any of the First Presidency or the Twelve should speak an angry word, you consider it to be very much out of character, but are you any more privileged to speak angry words or to indulge in scolding at and quarreling with one another? The First Presidency have no such privilege, and if they have no such privilege why should you have? Let each of us begin at home and train ourselves until we become masters of ourselves, gaining the victory over every passion, if we have to pray one-half of each day until the Spirit of truth reigns within our hearts.

Some think that they should not, if they feel evil in their hearts, at the same time appear to feel good—that they should not dissemble in the least. The Devil can quote Scripture in abundance against hypocrisy. If I did not show anger towards a brother when I felt it, I should be considered a hypocrite. The Devil says, do not dissemble, do not carry two faces, do not show a pleasant countenance when you at the same time feel angry in your heart. I say, suffer not anger to rise in your countenance, to speak through your eyes, nor through your organs of speech, and in this way keep it down until you are free from it, as you would any other evil. To say that inward evil must outwardly be made manifest in order to escape the opprobrium of hypocrisy is a trick of the Devil to cheat men out of the blessings that are in store for them. By the word hypocrisy I do not here mean a counterfeiting of religion or goodliness to gain sordid ends, but to appear good and practice goodness contrary to the promptings of the evil one or the unregenerated impulses of the human heart. If the Devil says you cannot pray when you are angry, tell him it is none of his business, and pray until that species of insanity is dispelled and serenity is restored to the mind.

We are inhabitants of a world of sin and sorrow; pain and anguish, every ill that can be heaped upon intelligent beings in a probation we are heirs to. I suppose that God never organized an earth and peopled it that was ever reduced to a lower state of darkness, sin and ignorance than this. I suppose this is one of the lowest kingdoms that ever the Lord Almighty created, and on that account is capable of becoming exalted to be one of the highest kingdoms that has ever had an exaltation in all the eternities. In proportion as it has been reduced so it will be exalted, with that portion of its inhabitants who in their humiliation have cleaved to righteousness and acknowledged God in all things. In proportion to our fall through sin, so shall we be exalted in the presence of our Father and God, through Jesus Christ and by living the righteousness of his Gospel. All this the people will understand in due time through their faithfulness, and learn to rejoice even in the midst of afflictions.

We have taught the brethren south to raise flax and cotton and to put up machinery for manufacturing cloth. We have also taught them to live so as to ever be at peace and on the best of terms with each other. Two cases of difficulty, I think, were the only ones we were called upon to examine. As to High Council and Bishops’ Courts, we have almost forgotten that any such courts exist. Why is this? Because we are continually importuning the brethren to faithfully live their religion and not let a few dimes and dollars or a little mistake infringe upon the fellowship of one with another. Perhaps a neighbor’s cow is in his garden, and he is angry with his neighbor, when, at the same time, that neighbor is as innocent as an angel. Nine hundred and ninety-nine cases of difficulty out of a thousand arise from circumstances not worthy of notice. There are but few persons who really design to injure each other. I do not believe there is one man or woman in a thousand, in this community, who designs to do wrong, though there are hundreds that do wrong, and some who do a great many wrongs, but they do not design to do wrong. They can truly say, with the Apostle Paul, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.” Paul had been a very wicked man; he had done all he could to destroy the Church of God, and, consequently, was given over to the buffetings of Satan, so that when he would do good the Devil had such power over him that he had to keep up a continual warfare. Let us endeavor to do the good and leave undone the evil.

Some desire to do good all the time, still it seems that almost every act they perform results in evil; look upon such persons as they are, through eyes of mercy, and not measure them with your measure. If you are endowed with wisdom and understand– ing, if you escape the evil and do the good, thank God that you have knowledge, and do not condemn your brethren and sisters who are weaker than you are for falling into evil when they know no better. This is the teaching of the Spirit of the Lord all the day long.

When the books are opened, out of which the human family are to be judged, how disappointed the professedly sanctified, longfaced hypocrites and smooth-toned Pharisees will be, when the publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before them; people that appeared to be full of evil, but the Lord says they never designed to do wrong; the Devil had power over them, and they suffered in their mortal state a thousand times more than you poor, miserable, canting, cheating, sniveling, hypocritical Pharisees; you were dressed in purple and fine linen, and bound burdens upon your weaker brethren that you would not so much as help to lift with your little fingers. Did you ever go without food, suffer with toothache, sore eyes, rheumatism, or the chills and fever? You have fared sumptuously all your days and you condemned to an everlasting hell these poor harlots and publicans who never designed an evil. Are you not guilty of committing an evil with that poor harlot? Yes, and you will be damned while she will be saved.

Let us look at our neighbors as they are, and not as we want them to be; let us learn enough to know what we are ourselves and what our brethren and sisters are, and learn the true designs of their hearts, and then judge them as God judges them and not according to outward appearance; then every contention will cease, every heart will beat high to build up Zion, and the follies and weaknesses of our neighbors we shall not think of.

We all know that we need material for clothing; then let us look out for it and not neglect the matter until we are found in a state of nudity, without the power to clothe ourselves. These are the mysteries of the kingdom of God upon the earth, to know how to purify and sanctify our affections, the earth upon which we stand, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the houses in which we dwell, and the cities which we build, that when strangers come into our country they may feel a hallowed influence and acknowledge a power to which they are strangers, “For all is dedicated to the Lord and consecrated to him, and the Spirit and power of God reigns there and the power of the enemy can find no place.” When the people of the Saints have attained to this happy state, then will they say, “Give us more room to dwell,” and they will never be driven from such ground. All hell may then give up the chase, for they never can drive the Saints from a spot that is hallowed by the faith of the Saints, through the medium of Jesus Christ by the power of the Father, for that place is dedicated and sanctified to him.

We are in possession of the valleys in the mountains, and the Lord has led us here. We have tried to be admitted into the family of States, but we are scarcely permitted to be a Territory. We are here, and they can do nothing against us. They are not capable of afflicting this people, if we live our religion. Let every man and woman sanctify themselves and their possessions, dedicating all unto the Lord, then will we be driven? No, neither will our possessions be given to the kingdom of the Devil; they belong to God, and he will hold them for himself, and they will remain uncontaminated and we with them, until we go back to build up the Center Stake of Zion.

This season we called for five hundred teams to send for the poor; some of those teams came some four hun– dred miles and then started on the journey over the plains to bring in the poor. Suppose we should call for five thousand teams to go and build up the Center Stake of Zion and establish it that it shall never be thrown down, would they be forthcoming? They would, and when that time comes we shall leave a great many more in the mountains than are now here, and we shall see Zion rolling forth on the right and on the left, like the waves of the sea, which no earthly power can stem.

I will here mention the incident of two of our Elders, while on their way to the Sandwich Islands, being blown up and killed on a steamboat. It is all right. If you wish to know how I feel about them, I will say that the Lord took them while they were in the humor of trying to do good. I would not have given a red cent for all the good they would have done in the vineyard. It made me think of an anecdote I have already alluded to, concerning the Jew whom the Roman Catholic priest pushed under the ice while he professed belief in the Christian religion. God dictates all these matters, and will work out his designs in his own way. He will deal with the Latter-day Saints for their good and with our enemies for our good; and when a nation kills his Prophets he will deal with them accordingly: he will chasten them, as he is doing at this time.

I am for the kingdom of God. I like a good government, and then I like to have it wisely and justly administered. The government of heaven, if wickedly administered, would become one of the worst governments upon the face of the earth. No matter how good a government is, unless it is administered by righteous men, an evil government will be made of it. The Lord has his eye upon all the kingdoms and nations of men, with their kings, governors and rulers, and he will sink the wicked to misery and woe, and we cannot help it.

Let us be just, merciful, faithful and true, and let us live our religion, and we shall be taught all things pertaining to the building up of Zion. Let us train our minds until we delight in that which is good, lovely and holy, seeking continually after that intelligence which will enable us effectually to build up Zion, which consists in building houses, tabernacles, temples, streets, and every convenience necessary to embellish and beautify, seeking to do the will of the Lord all the days of our lives, improving our minds in all scientific and mechanical knowledge, seeking diligently to understand the great design and plan of all created things, that we may know what to do with our lives and how to improve upon the facilities placed within our reach.

This is as good an earth as need be, if we will make it so. The Lord has redeemed it, and it is his wish that his Saints should beautify and sanctify it and bring it back to the presence of the Father and Son yet more pure, more holy and more excellent than it was in its original state, with ourselves upon it.

It pleased me very much, when I returned home, to see a good many little boys learning to cut rock, thus doing good to their parents, themselves and the kingdom of God. Send on some more boys and put them in the joiner shops, or learn them to make shoes, harness and everything that will be useful and profitable. Every Elder should have at least one trade, and if possible more than one, and still continue to learn and improve in a knowledge of the world and all things pertaining to it, learning how to better the condition of everything that exists—in particular of ourselves and those around us. Let the husband make an improvement upon his kitchen and pantry and upon his bedrooms for the benefit of his family, and improve his gardens, walks, &c., beautifying your habitations and their surroundings, making pavements and planting shade trees.

Cease lying, cease taking the name of God in vain, cease being dishonest with your employers, with one another and with your God, and the Lord will love and bless us. Let us learn our duties one toward another, the husband to the wife, the parents to their children, and the children to their parents, and let us all learn and practice our duties to God and his kingdom. God bless you: Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May God bless you. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 31, 1862.

We have just been listening to the testimony of one of the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, also an Apostle of him whom the Lord has called in our day to establish his kingdom no more to be overcome by wickedness on the earth. To say that we are Apostles of Joseph Smith is rather a dark saying to many. Jesus Christ being sent of the Father to perform a certain work, became an Apostle. It is written in the book called Hebrews, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.” The Savior called upon a number of men to assist him in the work his Father had sent him to do, and sent them into the world to proclaim his mission and Gospel, instructing them to bap– tize all believers. In this way they became the Apostles of Jesus Christ, and at the day of his coming they will stand at his right hand in a pillar of fire, being clothed with robes of righteousness, with crowns upon their heads, in glory to judge the whole house of Israel.

Joseph Smith was the first Apostle of this Church, and was commanded of Jesus Christ to call and ordain other Apostles and send them into all the world with a message to all people, and with authority to baptize all who should believe the fulness of the Gospel and sincerely repent of all their sins. These other Apostles are Apostles of Jesus Christ, and of Joseph Smith the chief Apostle of this last dispensation.

Joseph Smith has laid the foundation of the kingdom of God in the last days; others will rear the super– structure. Its laws and ordinances, its blessings and privileges have been laid before all people who would hear; the testimony of God’s servants has sounded like the voice of a trumpet from nation to nation, and from people to people, warning the honest and meek of the earth to flee from Babylon to the chambers in the mountains for safety until the indignation shall be past. If all the inhabitants of the earth had been as diligent in searching out the truth and as willing to receive it as hundreds in this congregation have been, the world would have been converted long ago. But few people, compared with the masses, have ever received and lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in any age of the world in which it has been preached.

Enoch possessed intelligence and wisdom from God that few men ever enjoyed, walking and talking with God for many years; yet, according to the history written by Moses, he was a great length of time in establishing his kingdom among men. The few that followed him enjoyed the fulness of the Gospel, and the rest of the world rejected it. Enoch and his party were taken from the earth, and the world continued to ripen in iniquity until they were overthrown by the great flood in the days of Noah; and, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.”

So sure as the Lord called upon Joseph Smith, Jun., to bring forth his Gospel and establish his kingdom, just so sure will he hold this generation accountable for their acts in relation thereto. If any people reject the Gospel, God will destroy that people or nation. The majority of the people of the world declare that Joseph Smith was not called of God. If they know that, then are they safe in rejecting his testimony. I know that he was called of God, and this I know by the reve– lations of Jesus Christ to me, and by the testimony of the Holy Ghost. Had I not so learned this truth, I should never have been what is called a “Mormon,” neither should I have been here today. The world is as uncertain of the calling of Joseph Smith, as their religious ministers are that they are called of God; they hope they are so called; they hope they have experienced a change of heart; they hope they are renewed in spirit; they hope their sins are forgiven; they hope the Lord is gracious to them, &c., &c. If I did not know that my sins were forgiven, my hope would do me but little good.

For argument’s sake I will say, if we should be mistaken as to the legality of Joseph Smith’s calling, we still bear the same relationship towards the heavens as any other portion of mankind, and have the same chance of salvation, standing on equal grounds with them. Joseph told us that Jesus was the Christ, the Mediator between God and man, and the Savior of the world. He told us that there was no other name in the heavens nor under the heavens, neither could there be, by which mankind could be saved in the presence of the Father, but by and through the name and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the atonement he made on Mount Calvary. Joseph also told us that the Savior requires strict obedience to all the commandments, ordinances and laws pertaining to his kingdom, and that if we would do this we should be made partakers of all the blessings promised in his Gospel.

We have already been made partakers of the blessings of the Gospel which he promised to his disciples. One in particular I will name, and that is peace. Jesus says, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” There are hundreds now before me who can testify that in the world they have had tribulation, but in the Gospel, as we believe it, they have found peace. Again, “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for behold your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers unto the Prophets.” Have the world separated the Latter-day Saints from their company? They have. For what? For disobeying the laws of the land? No. They cast them out for believing in Jesus Christ and in Joseph Smith as his Prophet. This whole people were cast out for believing that God spake to Joseph Smith and chose him to be his messenger—his Apostle—to this generation. I testify to you that we were not cast out for teaching and practicing the Patriarchal doctrine, as our enemies now declare, for at that time it not been published to the world, but it was for believing, preaching, and practicing the doctrines of the New Testament; for believing in the events to take place in the latter days, as foretold by the ancient Prophets; and, for believing the declarations of Joseph Smith, that Jesus was indeed the Christ and the Savior of all men, but especially of them that believe, and that he had set to his hand the second time to gather his people, to establish his kingdom, to build up Zion, redeem Jerusalem, empty the earth of wickedness and bring in everlasting righteousness.

Joseph Smith testified that he had received revelations from God, that holy angels had administered to him, that he had seen the heavens opened, had seen Jesus Christ and knew that he lived, and that all the people must acknowledge him to be the Christ, the Savior of the world, and to obtain salvation through him must obey his ordinances, keep inviolate their covenants with him and with each other, and try with all their might to restore the covenants broken by the fathers, that the celestial gates leading to the presence of God may be opened to all believers. And this is our testimony, last of all, that God has spoken from the heavens, commanding us to preach repentance to this generation, giving us authority to baptize for the remission of sins, and to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. The remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the favor of God cannot be obtained in any other way. These are God’s unchangeable conditions for mankind to observe, when they are called upon to enter into an everlasting covenant with him to serve him and none else. For preaching this Gospel Joseph Smith was cast out and murdered; and for the same cause this people have been persecuted and afflicted, and finally cast out beyond the confines of so-called civilization.

What do we now see abroad? Confusion in all the ramifications of society. In the days of the great tower of Babel God confounded their language, and spread confusion and dismay among them, and ultimately scattered them to the four winds of heaven. The confusion will be no less great in these days, and the destruction of human life will be so great that but few men will be left. With the people in Christendom it is “oh, here,” and “lo, there”—“Christ, is here, and Christ is there.” Some say, “observe one ordinance and no more;” others say, “observe two ordinances and no more;” some say, “observe none at all;” and so on. There is no true faith, for all is uncertainty—every man pursuing his own way. They have no light of revelation to guide them, and that which would have saved this nation from its present awful chastisement they have cast out from them, therefore, “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word.”

When Joseph Smith came to the people with the message of the Gospel in its fullness, they said, “let us kill him, or he will change our customs, overthrow our religions, make proselytes in foreign lands and flood our country with them, expose our political corruptions, and may take away our place in the nation; come, let us kill him.” They did kill him, that debt is upon them, and they have it to pay. The Lord pity them; I do. I pity them because they are so shortsighted, so wicked, and so determined to fight God and his laws. They killed Joseph Smith, and cast out this people for believing in him. Are they still upon our track? They are.

In a correspondence between Mr. Greeley, of New York, and the President, Mr. Lincoln declared it was his intention to do everything in his power that he thought would save the Union. This was very just and correct in him, but has his course invariably tended to save the Union? Time will show. There is no man can see, unless he sees by the gift and power of revelation, that every move that has been made by the Government has been made to fulfil the sayings of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and all earth and hell cannot help it. The wedge to divide the Union was entered in South Carolina, and all the power of the Government could not prevent it. The Lord spoke to Joseph Smith, on the 25th day of December, 1832, as follows—“Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls; And the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place. For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations,” &c. The wickedness of the wicked is onward and downward, while the righteousness of the righteous is onward and upward. Light and darkness, or in other words, right and wrong are with us, and men choose darkness rather than light, wrong rather than right. This is their condemnation. They despise the truth and those who will declare it.

On one occasion, in the wars of the kings of Israel and Judah with the King of Syria, the kings of Israel and Judah sent for all the Prophets they could find to prophesy good concerning their going down to the battle; and a lying spirit was sent to speak through the Prophets to lure Ahab, King of Israel, to the battlefield. Jehosaphat, King of Judah, inquired whether there was not yet another Prophet of the Lord that they might inquire of. “And the King of Israel said unto Jehosaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” Micaiah was brought before the king and said, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd.” Ahab ordered Micaiah to be put in prison and fed on the bread of affliction, until he should return in peace. An archer drew a bow at a venture and slew Ahab, who went to the field of battle in disguise, and the words of the Prophet were fulfilled. It is so in this day; the man who will speak the word of the Lord fearlessly is hated, while false prophets and false teachers, who pander to human vanity and to human greatness for gain, are fostered by wicked rulers and exalted to the chief seats in the synagogues.

We are determined to build up the kingdom of God on the earth; to bring forth Zion, to promote the cause of righteousness on the earth, and to walk under foot sin and wickedness. There is an opposing party who are determined that the kingdom of God shall not be built up, and who do all in their power to destroy it and its supporters. This has been the case from the beginning, and wickedness has triumphed, because the measure of the earth was not complete, and those mighty spirits calculated to bring to pass the winding up scene had not yet been born in the flesh. The time has now come when this work will be consummated. Satan’s rule and Satan’s kingdom will be destroyed, and everlasting righteousness and peace will be brought in upon the face of the whole earth.

Joseph Smith knew what was coming upon the nation of the United States, and said, “If they will let me, I will save the nation.” They would not let him, but treated him as a traitor. They arrested him in Missouri for treason, when he had not said a word with regard to political affairs, but preached the Gospel to his brethren. They put him in Carthage Jail in Illinois, under the same false allegation, and slew him without a trial before his peers. At this day, if they had the power, they would show us that their malignity is no less than it was in the days of Joseph Smith, but they have not the power to injure the kingdom of God and the Lord’s anointed. They do not make a move on the national checkerboard without my knowing their designs. They may send men here, with their mouths sealed as to their instructions, to dictate and guide affairs in Utah as they would have them, but all their deep laid plots will vanish into thin air and their fondly anticipated purposes will fail.

Our course is onward to build up Zion, and the nation that has slain the Prophet of God and cast out his people will have to pay the debt. They will be broken in pieces like a potter’s vessel; yea worse, they will be ground to powder. “And whoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.” If there is a people within the pales of this nation that is worthy of the constitution, good laws and institutions of the American Government, it is this people called Latter-day Saints. It is the best earthly Government that ever was framed by man, and the true and righteous are alone worthy of it. It cannot long be administered by wicked hands. “When the wicked rule, the people mourn.”

My heart is filled with pain for the inhabitants of the earth. We desire with all our hearts to do them good. There are scores of Elders beneath the sound of my voice who have preached enough to convert the world. I have myself traveled many thousands of miles, carrying my valise and sustaining myself, to preach the Gospel to this generation and to bear testimony to the truth as I do today. I take liberties here, in referring to the world and its vanities, that I wish my brethren not to take. It is our duty to pray for them and place before them the holy principles of the Gospel by precept, and in the acts of our lives, rather than to hold prominently forward their manifold corruptions. They are in the hands of God, and so are we. Great and mighty empires are raised to the summit of human greatness by him, to bring to pass his inscrutable purposes, and at his pleasure they are swept from existence and lost in the oblivion of antiquity. All these mighty changes are pointing to and preparing the way for the introduction of his kingdom in the latter times, that will stand forever and grow in greatness and power until a holy, lasting, religious, and political peace shall make the hearts of the poor among men exult with joy in the Holy One of Israel, and that his kingdom is everywhere triumphant.

The Lord is willing that we should be the pioneers of this work, and it is now our duty to prove ourselves worthy of his confidence, by educating ourselves until our traditions are precisely according to the Gospel and will of God. The revelations of God to Joseph Smith instruct the Latter-day Saints to live their religion day by day, and to meet on the first day of the week to break bread, confess their faults one to another and pray with and for each other. I would like this tradition fastened not only upon the people generally, but particularly upon the Bishops and other leaders of this Church.

We should seek substantial information, and trust little to that kind of so-called learning that is based entirely upon theory. We should pluck fruit from the tree of knowledge, and taste, then shall our eyes be open to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to understand. I would recommend the same course to those who have not embraced and tasted the sweets of “Mormonism.” We should get wisdom by reading and by study. We should introduce the best books into our schools for the education and improvement of our children. Let our schoolteachers seek constantly to fasten upon the young mind useful information, and banish from their schools every study that only tends to perplex the student and waste his valuable time. I know of no branch in the rudiments of English education that is more difficult to conquer than its orthography; indeed, very few men have ever become perfect in it, and I know of no branch of learning that needs more reforming.

After introducing into our schools every useful branch of education, let our teachers ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to bestow upon them and upon their scholars the Spirit of wisdom and intelligence from heaven; ask for skill to control and ability to teach on the part of the teacher, and willingness to be controlled and aptability to be taught on the part of the scholars. Let parents aid the teacher in his labors, by seeing that their children attend school punctually, with a proper supply of books, slates, pencils, &c.; and permit not a good, diligent, faithful schoolteacher to suffer for the common necessaries of life, while he is laboring to educate and bless their children.

Every good and perfect gift cometh from God. Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God, though but few acknowledge it. It has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and Satan. We should take advantage of all these great discoveries, the accumulated wisdom of ages, and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work.

Endless variety is stamped upon the works of God’s hands. There are no two productions of nature, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, that are exactly alike, and all are crowned with a degree of polish and perfection that cannot be obtained by ignorant man in his most exquisite mechanical productions. Man’s machinery makes things alike; God’s machinery gives to things which appear alike a pleasing difference. Fields and mountains, trees and flowers, and all that fly, swim, or move upon the ground are lessons for study in the great school our heavenly Father has instituted for the benefit of his children. Let us explore this great field of information that is open before us in good books and in the great laboratory of nature, and let every man become his own lawyer, every family have its own doctor, and every person be his own accountant, &c. Let even the female portion of our community be taught how to do business, in the absence of their guardians. It is an erroneous idea that a very learned man should not work with his hands, and is better than other people because he is learned. Education is the handmaid to honest labor. I should be pleased to have our young females study the fine arts, music, painting, &c., for which there is fine talent here, but I would not have them suppose that education in the fine arts alone constitutes them ladies, or will fit them for the active duties of life. It is more necessary that they should know themselves and the duties that will be required of them when they are wives and mothers; to educate them thus, is a duty that is particularly binding upon mothers.

Let there be a mutual desire in every man to disseminate knowledge, that all may know. I have always followed out the rule of dispensing what I know to others, and been blessed in so doing. After all our endeavors to obtain wisdom from the best books, &c., there still remains an open fountain for all; “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” Let every Latter-day Saint constantly practice himself in the performance of every good word and work, to acknowledge God to be God, to be strict in keeping his laws and learning to love mercy, eschew evil, and delight in constantly doing that which is pleasing to God. This is the only sure way to obtain influence with God and all good men. I want the fellowship and confidence of those who are justified before the heavens, and to have this I must walk in the path Christ has marked out, and let all the rest go their own way. Let all who are for God and his laws, walk with me and gain influence with those heavenly powers, and there is no danger but what they will gain influence with all good persons who labor for the same influence, which will bear us off conquerors over all our enemies, spiritual and temporal. May the Lord bless you. Amen.