Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 9, 1862.

I have four sermons that I wish to preach this morning, and I wish about thirty-five minutes in which to preach them.

The first subject I shall notice this morning is robbing the dead. Many have desired me to express myself in public relative to what has transpired in our graveyard during four or five years past. Robbing the dead is not a new thing. Robbing dead people of their jewelry and clothing is customary in the cities of Europe; and it has been and is customary in many places to steal the body for the purpose of dissection. I have, in the course of my life, been under the necessity of watching graves to keep them from being robbed.

It appears that a man named John Baptiste has practiced robbing the dead of their clothing in our graveyard during some five years past. If you wish to know what I think about it, I answer, I am unable to think so low as to fully get at such a mean, contemptible, damnable trick. To hang a man for such a deed would not begin to satisfy my feelings. What shall we do with him? Shoot him? No, that would do no good to anybody but himself. Would you imprison him during life? That would do nobody any good. What I would do with him came to me quickly, after I heard of the circumstance; this I will mention, before I make other remarks. If it was left to me, I would make him a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth. This would be my sentence, but probably the people will not want this done.

Many are anxious to know what effect it will have upon their dead who have been robbed. I have three sisters in the graveyard in this city, and two wives, and several children, besides other connections and near relatives. I have not been to open any of their graves to see whether they were robbed, and do not mean to do so. I gave them as good a burial as I could; and in burying our dead, we all have made everything as agreeable and as comfortable as we could to the eye and taste of the people in their various capacities, according to the best of our judgments; we have done our duty in this particular, and I for one am satisfied. I will defy any thief there is on the earth or in hell to rob a Saint of one blessing. A thief may dig up dead bodies and sell them for the dissecting knife, or may take their raiment from them, but when the resurrection takes place, the Saints will come forth with all the glory, beauty, and excellency of resurrected Saints clothed as they were when they were laid away.

Some may inquire whether it is necessary to put fresh linen into the coffins of those who have been robbed of their clothing. As to this you can pursue the course that will give you the most contentment and satisfaction; but if the dead are laid away as well as they can be, I will promise you that they will be well clothed in the resurrection, for the earth and the elements around it are full of these things. All that is needed is power to bring forth those things necessary, as Jesus did when he fed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes, perhaps no more than would on ordinary occasions feed six men; he organized the elements around, and fed five thousand. In the resurrection everything that is necessary will be brought from the elements to clothe and to beautify the resurrected Saints, who will receive their reward. I do not trouble myself about my dead. If they are stripped of their clothing, I do not want to know it.

Some, I have been informed, can now remember having had singular dreams, and others have heard rappings on the floor, on the bedstead, on the door, on the table, &c., and have imagined that they might have proceeded from the spirits of the dead calling on their friends to give them clothing, for they were naked. My dead friends have not been to me to tell me that they were naked, cold, &c.; and if any such rappings should come to me, I should tell them to go to their own place. I have little faith in those rappings. If I felt that I ought to pay attention to such things, I would not, so to speak, let my right hand know what my left did; and it would require a greater power than John Baptiste to make me believe either a truth or a lie.

I thought the remark made by a lad to a group of weeping women was very appropriate, though I do not blame them for weeping when they saw the clothing they had put upon their departed darlings; said he, “supposing the linen was all burnt up and the ashes scattered to the four winds, could not the angel Gabriel call those particles together as easily as he could call together the particles of the body?” The elements are all here, and they will be called forth in their proper time and place. Let the minds of the people be at rest upon this matter. What has been done they cannot help. If any wish to open the graves of their dead and put clothing in the coffins to satisfy their feelings, all right; I am satisfied. I am also satisfied that had we been brought up and traditionated to burn a wife upon the funeral pile, we should not be satisfied unless this practice was followed out; we would have the same grief and sorrow that we now have when we find that our dead have been robbed of their clothing. Or if we had been brought up as our natives are, when a chief died if we did not kill a wife or two, a few horses, or a few prisoners, &c., as soon as the darkness of night set in we very likely should fancy ourselves haunted with the spirits of the dead, dissatisfied at our not giving them proper burial rites, and company to pass with them through the dark shadows of the grave to the good land where there are better hunting grounds. The power and influence of tradition has a great deal to do with the way we feel about this matter of our dead being robbed.

We are here in circumstances to bury our dead according to the order of the Priesthood. But some of our brethren die upon the ocean; they cannot be buried in a burying ground, but they are sewed up in canvas and cast into the sea, and perhaps in two minutes after they are in the bowels of the shark, yet those persons will come forth in the resurrection, and receive all the glory of which they are worthy, and be clothed upon with all the beauty of resurrected Saints, as much so as if they had been laid away in a gold or silver coffin, and in a place expressly for burying the dead. If you think opposite to this your thoughts are in vain. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of these things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” If the particles of which the body is composed are distributed to the four quarters of the earth, at the sound of the trumpet, when the dead are to come forth the dust that composed their bodies, that portion which is suffered to endure, will come from the ends of the earth, mote by mote, particle by particle, atom to atom, bone to bone, sinew to sinew, and flesh will cover them, and the same body will come forth in the resurrection, as much so as the body of Jesus came forth from the tomb.

Do as you please with regard to taking up your friends. If I should undertake to do anything of the kind, I should clothe them completely and then lay them away again. And if you are afraid of their being robbed again, put them into your gardens, where you can watch them by day and night until you are pretty sure that the clothing is rotted, and then lay them away in the burying ground. I would let my friends lay and sleep in peace. I am aware of the excited state of the feelings of the community; I have little to say about the cause of it. The meanness of the act is so far beneath my comprehension that I have not ventured to think much about it.

I will now proceed to my next text. I have lately preached a short sermon to the Bishops, in a Bishops’ meeting, and I now wish to present the subject of those remarks to this congregation; they were in relation to the Bishops building dancing rooms for their schoolhouses and ward meetings. In my heart, soul, affections, feelings, and judgment, I am opposed to making a cotillion hall a place of worship. All men have their agency, and should be permitted to act as freely as consistent, that they may manifest by their acts whether they are controlled by the pure principle of righteousness. Many of you remember that at first we assembled in a bowery on the southeast corner of this block, where we met for some time under its shade, and held preaching meetings, sacrament meetings, political meetings, and every kind of public gathering, because it was the only place that would then accommodate the people. Soon after that we built this Tabernacle. We probably had not the first stick of timber on the ground before I was besought to build it for dancing in and for theatrical purposes. I said no, to everyone that requested me to do that. I told them that dancing and theatrical performances were no part of our religion; we are merely permitted to occupy a portion of the time in those amusements, being very careful not to grieve the Spirit of the Lord. More or less amusement of that kind suits our organization, but when we come to the things of God, I had rather not have them mixed up with amusement like a dish of succotash.

I like to dance, but do I want to sin? No; rather than sin I would wish never to dance or hear a fiddle again while I live. Let that which I would sin in be taken from me, and let me be kept from it from this time henceforth and forever, no matter what it is. I like my pastimes and enjoy myself as you do, in amusements wherein we do not sin. Brother E. D. Woolley and myself had some conversation on this subject, and he thought that he would build a house to accommodate social gatherings but could not at that time very well do it, so I built the hall which is called the Social Hall. In it are combined a dancing room and a small stage for theatrical performances. That is our fun hall, and not a place in which to administer the sacrament. We dedicated it to the purpose for which it was built, and from the day we first met there until now, I would rather see it laid in ashes in a moment than to see it possessed by the wicked. We prayed that the Lord would preserve it to the Saints; and if it could not thus be preserved, let it be destroyed and not be occupied by the wicked. You know what spirit attends that room. There we have had governors, judges, doctors, lawyers, merchants, passersby, &c., who did not belong to our Church, and what has been the universal declaration of each and every one? “I never felt so well before in all my life at any party as I do here;” and the Saints do not feel as well in any other place of amusement. We have a beautiful assembly room in the 13th Ward, but you cannot feel as well in a party there as you can in the hall that was built and dedicated to that purpose. Everything in its time, and everything in its place.

In the year 1849, I think it was, I was called upon to give a draft for a schoolhouse, that would be commodious and suitable for each ward. I gave that draft, and I do not think that I could now alter it for the better. Has there been a schoolhouse built according to the draft? There have been a few wings built, and the main body of the building I drafted was not intended for a dancing hall. By referring to the plan I gave, you can see my idea of a Ward schoolhouse, but it has not been carried out. It is now whispered around that we are opposed to dancing in the 14th Ward Schoolroom. This is not so. I have been there several times, and enjoyed myself well, as also in the 13th Ward house, which is called the Assembly Rooms, though I would call it a cotillion hall. I am opposed to making the youth of our land believe that dancing and frolicking are a part of our religion, when in truth they are not any part of it, though I hear from every quarter that the Gentiles say, “I like this part of your religion, for I understand that this is one branch of your religion, and I like this dancing very much.” It is no part of our religion, and I am opposed to devoting to a cotillion room, a house set apart for the worship of God. I am opposed to having cotillions or theatrical performances in this Tabernacle. I am opposed to making this a fun hall, I do not mean for wickedness, I mean for the recuperation of our spirits and bodies. I shall not be opposed to the brethren’s building a meetinghouse somewhere else, and keeping their cotillions halls for parties, but I am not willing that they should convert the house that has been set apart for religious meetings into a dancing hall.

I will now pass to my third text. I can say with confidence, that there is no people on the face of this earth that pay more respect to females than do this people. I know of no community where females enjoy the privileges they do here. If anyone of them is old and withered and so dried up that you have to put weights on her skirts to keep her from blowing away, she is so privileged that she is in everybody’s dish or platter—her nose is everywhere present—and still she will go home and tell her husband that she is slighted. Here we see the marked effect of the curse that was in the beginning placed upon woman, their desire is to their husbands all the time. It is also written, “and he shall rule over you.” Now put the two together. Nobody else must be spoken to, no other body must be danced with, no other lady must sit at the head of the table with her husband.

A few years ago one of my wives, when talking about wives leaving their husbands said, “I wish my husband’s wives would leave him, every soul of them except myself.” That is the way they all feel, more or less, at times, both old and young. The ladies of seventy, seventy-five, eighty, and eighty-five years of age are greeted here with the same cheerfulness as are the rest. All are greeted with kindness, respect, and gentleness, no matter whether they wear linsey or silks and satin, they are all alike respected and beloved according to their behavior; at least they are so far as I am concerned.

It may be all well enough if a woman can attain faith to throw off the curse, but there is one thing she cannot away with, at least not so far as I am concerned, and that is, “and he shall rule over thee.” I can do that by causing my women to do as they have a mind to; and at the same time they do not know what is going on. When I say rule, I do not mean with an iron hand, but merely to take the lead—to lead them in the path I wish them to walk in. They may be determined not to answer my will, but they are doing it all the time without knowing it. Kindness, love, and affection are the best rod to use upon the refractory. Solomon is said to have been the wisest man that ever lived, and he is said to have recommended another kind of rod. I have tried both kinds on children. I can pick out scores of men in this congregation who have driven their children from them by using the wooden rod. Where there is severity there is no affection or filial feeling in the hearts of either party; the children would rather be away from father than be with him.

In some families the children are afraid to see father—they will run and hide as from a tyrant. My children are not afraid of my footfall; except in the case of their having done something wrong they are not afraid to approach me. I could break the wills of my little children, and whip them to this, that, and the other, but this I do not do. Let the child have a mild training until it has judgment and sense to guide it. I differ with Solomon’s recorded saying as to spoiling the child by sparing the rod. True it is written in the New Testament that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” It is necessary to try the faith of children as well as of grown people, but there are ways of doing so besides taking a club and knocking them down with it. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” There is nothing consistent in abusing your wives and children. There is quite a portion of the Elders of Israel who do not know how to use one wife well. I love my wives, respect them, and honor them, but to make a queen of one and peasants of the rest I have no such disposition, neither do I expect to do it.

I will now pass to my fourth text, and the sermon will be quite brief. It is well known that we now receive news from the west and east by the telegraphic wire that is stretched across the Continent. Last night we read a manuscript telegram, containing yesterday’s news from New York City and Chicago. There are a great many in this Territory, who want that news while it is fresh, but it goes into our printing office, and there remains from two to five days before the people can get it. I want a company raised to stretch a wire through our settlements in this Territory, that information may be communicated to all parts with lightning speed.

I am now constantly annoyed with “What is the news? Have you received it?” Yes, we have received it. “When?” Three or four days ago, but it is not yet set up; when, at the same time, if there is a particle of manuscript telegram in my office, they never rest until they get it; and when they have got it they seem to care no more about it.

I wish some kind of arrangements entered into whereby we can have the news before us in some reasonable time. We have been put off with printers’ excuses until I am tired. We send down to the printing office, and inquire if the extra is out. Answer—“It will be out in a few minutes.” We wait until morning and send again. “It will be out in a few minutes; we are now working at it;” when, perhaps, it has never been touched. This I do not like. Thus endeth my fourth and last sermon.

May the Lord bless you all, brethren. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 2, 1862.

I have a few items of business that I wish to lay before you this morning, and the first is a call upon the brethren for teams to haul the granite blocks from Little Cottonwood to the Temple Block. The road became so muddy that the teams were sent home, but we understand that the road is now very good. This county, Davis, Tooele, and the northern part of Utah counties can forward teams in a day or two, and if the road again becomes bad, they are not so far from their homes but what they can easily return. I wish to have all the teams that can be gathered from this city and the adjoining neighborhoods and Wards go to work immediately, so that our stonecutters may have constant work. Some of them are from a distance, and we do not like to have them out of work through want of rough blocks. It requires a large quantity of rock for the first story of the Temple, and we would like to complete the walls of that story, and as much more as possible during the present season.

I have another call to make upon the people now, which I wish to go out from this place. You will recollect that a year ago this coming spring we sent some two hundred teams to the Frontiers to bring the Saints to this Territory. We wish to send three hundred this year, and they are as few as will answer to accomplish the purpose. Last season I think there were rising of sixty teams went from this city. I shall propose that we make the dividend as we did last year, and let this city take the lead; and if we are not over one quarter in number, we ought to be in faith and good works. We know that the people in this city and in the regions round about are wealthy in cattle, and you know very well that it is against my doctrine and feelings for men to scrape together the wealth of the world and let it waste and do no good. We have more stock than we well take care of. We want to send some twelve hundred yoke of cattle to the States for freight and people, and we want to send some cattle to sell and purchase things that are needed for families when crossing the Plains, for we wish to bring all the poor that can get to the Frontiers in time to come on this season.

Now I have a particular request to make of all our capitalists, and that is, for them to send and procure machinery to aid in supplying all our reasonable wants in manufactured articles, that we may have everything within ourselves for houses, for goods, for chattels, for chariots, for ribbons, and for ruffles, yes, everything that we require to clothe ourselves with from the stockings on our feet to the articles worn on our heads. You who have money and other available means, send and get such machinery as is really necessary for manufacturing those things that we require to make us comfortable. It is our duty to do this, and it is not your duty neither is it mine to send and get ten thousand dollars worth of ribbons.

It may be asked, “Does not brother Brigham buy as many store goods for his wives and children as any man in the Territory of Utah?” I buy more. Probably I bestow more, according to the number I have to sustain, than any other man. “Why do you do so?” Shall I say, to keep peace out of the family, or to keep peace in the family? Which is it? I will leave that for you to answer. Such buying is no part of the duty of any man in this community; neither is it the duty of any man to be a merchant in this community, in the manner that many are and have been. I frequently tell the people that it is no part of my religion or duty to dance, but it is as much a part of my religious duty to dance as it is to buy ribbons and other useless articles of clothing. We are permitted to do such things because of our ignorance, and the sin that is in the world; because of the want of the knowledge possessed by heavenly beings; the want of true knowledge concerning the earth and the inhabitants thereon. Were it not for this ignorance and darkness we should not be pardoned as we are now. When we become weaned from the love of the world, become humble, penitent, contrite in spirit, and begin to love the Lord a little, it almost distracts us—some almost go crazy.

At no distant period merchandising in imported goods will cease in this Territory, and the fabrics we wear will be manufactured by ourselves—imported fabrics will not be here. The inquiry may arise, “What will be done with the money that will accumulate?” for we have paid merchants here during eleven to twelve years past not less than from six to ten hundred thousand dollars annually. If any should be fearful that they will be cumbered with sur– plus means, I will promise them to provide a way in which they may expend their means for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. I do not feel to find fault, complain, or cast reflections upon myself, upon my family, or upon my brethren and sisters for what we have hitherto done and still are doing in the capacity of merchants, or purchasers, or consumers. I look forward to the time when this people will possess what is called the wealth of the earth, that is, those articles which are accounted very valuable, but many of which are in reality of very little worth. The diamond is considered of the most value, still its intrinsic value is but trifling; by heat it can be burned like other coal. I esteem gold as more valuable, for it cannot be consumed by fire. We would like to have a little of this metal, for how much better would it be to drink out of a gold cup than out of an old rusty tin basin. We expect to have earthenware, it is true, when we get men here that know how to put the material together to make it, but if you accidentally let a piece of fine expensive earthenware drop, it breaks and that is the end of it; should a child or a grown person make a misstep and fall, when carrying a gold or silver cup or vessel, it cannot be broken. But this will be hereafter, it is not yet. When we see the time that the people will possess the true riches of the earth and the heavens, we can preserve that which we have, it will not be stolen by thieves.

Apparently the merchandising interest in this community is coming to a close, and I feel like urging upon the people the necessity of preparing to grow and manufacture that which they consume. It is my indispensable duty to urge this important item upon them and to warn them of coming evil to themselves, unless they attend to it. We want, in view of this, a liberal turn out of teams to bring machinery from the East this coming summer. It may be asked what we need here. Why are your wives unable to card a little wool into rolls to spin and knit you and your children some stockings? Because they have no cards. Suppose there was not a carding machine in this Territory or a single pair of hand cards, and they were not to be had, how could we make ourselves comfortable without them? We might possibly manage to make cloth in a rude way, but the demand would be far beyond the supply—it could not possibly keep pace with the wants of our growing community. We need a cardmaking machine here, one that will draw the wire, perforate the leather, and cut, bend, and insert the teeth. We could make one here, but it would cost much more than to import one. I want some of the brethren to send and get one or more machines of this kind, for we do not need many; but when we come to cotton and woolen fabrics that we need to wear every day, and without which we cannot be so comfortable as we now are, we need much machinery to manufacture them. We now need twenty times more carding machines in this Territory than we have. Wool now lies in the mill month after month before it can be carded, which injures it. Will our capitalists send and bring in carding machines and other machinery? I want to see fifty or one hundred cotton spinning jennies, introduced into the country, they will cost about one hundred dollars each, and with one of them a child twelve or fifteen years old can in a day gin, card, and spin cotton enough to make twelve yards of cloth.

These are matters that pertain to our present life, to us at this time and in our present circumstances. I am anxious that the people should fully understand the vital importance of maintaining their present lives to make them useful, hence I speak much in this strain. There is great credit due the female portion of our community for the things they try to teach their children; still I would like to see a closer application in giving their daughters a good sound practical moral education. I feel gratified when I look around upon the congregation and see many of the mothers wearing dresses they have made themselves of wool grown in this Territory; and I have not seen in any new country a better article of cloth than our sisters make here; it will bear the inspection of the most fastidious votaries of pride and fashion; in that class of goods it cannot be excelled. Great credit is due to this people for the progress they have made. We have not in our society an aristocratic circle. Whether a brother wears a coonskin cap or a fine beaver hat is all the same to us. If a person is a faithful servant of God we do not object to his coming to meeting, though he has only but a piece of buffalo skin to wear on his head. We partake of the sacrament with him, hail him in the street as a brother and a friend, ride with him, converse with him, meet with him in social parties, and greet him as an equal. I also see brethren walk into meeting with overcoats on which their wives and daughters have made, but suppose you had not the means for getting your wool carded, nor the means for carding it yourselves, could you have produced the excellent cloth you now wear? You could not.

I delight to see the mother learn her daughters to be housekeepers; to be particular, clean, and neat; to sew, spin, and weave; to make butter and cheese; and I have no objection to their learning to cultivate flowers herbs, and useful shrubs in the gardens. It is good for their health to rise early in the morning and work in the soil an hour or two before breakfast; this practice is especially beneficial to those who have weak lungs. And while you delight in raising flowers, &c., do not neglect to learn how to take care of the cream, and how to make of it good wholesome butter, and of the milk good healthy nutritious cheese; neither forget your sewing, spinning, and weaving; and I would not have them neglect to learn music and would encourage them to read history and the Scriptures, to take up a newspaper, geography, and other publications, and make themselves acquainted with the manners and customs of distant kingdoms and nations, with their laws, religion, geographical location on the face of the world, their climate, natural productions, the extent of their commerce, and the nature of their political organization; in fine, let our boys and girls be thoroughly instructed in every useful branch of physical and mental education. Let this education begin early. Teach little children the principles of order; the little girl to put the broom in its right place, to arrange the stove furniture in the nearest possible way, and everything in its own place. Teach them to lay away their clothing neatly, and where it can be found; and when they tear their frocks and aprons teach them how to mend the rent so neatly that the place cannot be seen at a short distance; and instead of asking your husbands to buy them ribbons and frills, learn them to make them of the material we can produce. Teach the little boys to lay away the garden hoe, the spade, &c., where they will not be destroyed by rust; and let them have access to tools that they may learn their use, and develop their mechanical skill while young; and see that they gather up the tools when they have done with them, and deposit them in the proper place. Let both males and females encourage within them mechanical ingenuity, and seek constantly to understand the world they are in, and what use to make of their existence.

It is unnecessary to send to England, to France, to the East Indies, to China, or to any other country for a little crockeryware, silk, calico, muslin, &c., for we can make those articles here. We need the machinery; let us unite and get it. Last fall brother A. R. Wright brought in an excellent piece of machinery for manufacturing flax; it now belongs to brother Pyper. I would like to see some man manifest interest enough to take that machinery and put it to work. Thousands of pounds of flax could be worked up by it this coming fall and next winter. Who will do this? I know not.

This people are dilatory in some things. What are many of them thinking about? The kingdom of God, sometimes. They want to pray and have faith just sufficient to keep in the path of the angel that is going round to gather up the righteous, and the rest of the time their minds are upon a gold mine, or upon going to the States to buy goods, and they see themselves behind a counter, “Ah,” think they, “Won’t I look a gentlemanly looking man when I am dealing out the calico?” I never could, the poorest day I ever saw in my life, descend so low as to stand behind a counter. Taking that class of men as a whole, I think they are of extremely small caliber.

Women and children can deal out pins, and needles, and ribbons; this is too trifling a business for men. Their business is to organize the elements and draw from them the raw material in abundance, and then manufacture it into those things which are calculated to make comfortable, beautiful, lovely, healthy, and happy God’s people. Our brethren calculate on the increase of their stock, and are keen to gather around them the riches of this life, but they do not make judicious calculations how to dispose of those riches to the best advantage. They will fill the whole country with stock of every kind, but can see no way how it should be put to proper use. The merchant calculates that he will make fifty or a hundred thousand dollars in so many years, but if you ask him what he is going to do with it he is astonished at the question, for he never thought of that. All he thought of was piling up the riches. Did you ever think it was your privilege to place those riches out to usury in building up the kingdom of God? Do you not belong to the Church of God? Do you not pray? What do you pray for? One says, “I pray the Lord to keep and preserve me, to sanctify me and prepare me for his kingdom and glory; I just want to slip inside the gate, I am not very ambitious.” Do you think anything about preparing for it here? “Only in heart, or in spirit.”

My doctrine is to put every dollar to usury for building up the kingdom of God, whether it be much or little. I want the brethren to man out their teams, and send down three hundred this season, and four or five hundred when required. And then I want to see the brethren join together their teams and money and send for machinery, besides sending teams for the poor; and thus we will fill the Territory with the necessary articles of machinery for a self-sustaining people. It is necessary for us to sustain ourselves, or we will be left in poverty, nakedness, and distress, as a consequence of war and the breaking up of the general govern– ment. We now meet men who seemingly have very little clothing—they wear patch upon patch. I would not by this remark have it understood that clothing ought not to be neatly and somewhat extensively mended, but I have seen men wear pantaloons so patched that it would puzzle you to place your finger upon a piece of the original. They have wives and daughters, but they do not spin. In Exodus we read, “And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands.” If, instead of our wives and daughters passing their hours in idleness, folding their hands, and rocking themselves in their easy chairs, they would spin a little wool, and a little cotton from our Dixie, or that grown in their own gardens and fields, and make some good warm clothing for the men and boys, and some linsey frocks for the women and girls, they could with propriety be called wise women in Israel. If you happen to be in a party where I am and wearing dresses made with your own hands, I shall take pleasure in dancing with you in preference to the lady dressed in silks and satins. We can do this, but we need to be taught day after day, month after month, and year after year.

Human beings are expected by their Creator to be actively employed in doing good every day of their lives, either in improving their own mental and physical condition or that of their neighbors. But there are thousands whose days, months, and years are nothing more than a blank; there is not a single trace upon their life’s pages that might be construed as useful to the cause of humanity. This people have embraced the philosophy of eternal lives, and in view of this we should cease to be children and become philosophers, understanding our own existence, its purpose and ultimate design, then our days will not become a blank through ignorance, but every day will bring with it its useful and profitable employment. God has placed us here, given us the ability we possess, and supplied the means upon which we can operate to produce social, national, and eternal happiness.

Seeing we are so wonderfully endowed with priceless gifts by our Heavenly Father, will he not require usury at our hands? He will. But he has made us agents to ourselves, which makes us responsible for the way in which we use the talents he has given us, for the manner we expend the gold and silver, the wheat and fine flour, the cattle upon a thousand hills, and the wine and oil, for they all belong to Him; and we too belong to Him, but he has created man after His own image, and endowed him with a germ of independence that will crown him a God through his faithfulness. He required us to devote these godlike powers to our own advantage, life, wealth, beauty, comfort, and exaltation by giving to His cause—the cause of righteousness—universal triumph over sin. Then do not hoard up your gold; if you do, it will canker, but put out every dollar to usury. Instead of your souls being bound up in your cattle and other property, put it all where it should be placed for the benefit of the kingdom of God on earth and for his glory.

I have merely touched this subject. I wish the Elders, and we have many talented Elders, to verbally follow out this subject in the afternoon, and then physically follow it out by rightly using your cattle and wagons, your silver and gold, and your time and talents, then God will bless us. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 26, 1862.

I do not know that I have ever spoken to the Saints upon any principle of the Gospel of salvation when I could do more than offer a few opening remarks, there is so much to learn. The oldest and most experienced persons in this Church are satisfied that they have by no means learned all that is to be learned concerning things that pertain to this world. To even thoroughly learn all the different branches of mechanism is more than one man can do in this mortal life. The object of this existence is to learn, which we can only do a little at a time. “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? those that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”

How gladly would we understand every principle pertaining to science and art, and become thoroughly acquainted with every intricate operation of nature, and with all the chemical changes that are constantly going on around us! How delightful this would be, and what a boundless field of truth and power is open for us to explore! We are only just approaching the shores of the vast ocean of information that pertains to this physical world, to say nothing of that which pertains to the heavens, to angels and celestial beings, to the place of their habitation, to the manner of their life, and their progress to still higher degrees of perfection.

We hear many glorious truths in the discourses delivered by our Elders here and in other places, but we return to our homes and tomorrow we are about as we were yesterday. It is our privilege to improve each day of our lives, but can we improve fast enough to even gain all the knowledge that pertains to this world in the life we now possess? No; but we can gain knowledge faster than we now do, by exercising still greater diligence.

When we meet in a worshipping capacity, we are apt to feel anxious to hear something new concerning the Deity or the place of his habitation. How delightful it is to hear a man expound the prophecies—to hear the revelations of God and things which pertain to the celestial kingdom of God delineated! How joyful, how pleasing, how glorious this is to both male and female, old and young, who seem to know all about these matters, but who at home do not know enough to make a hoe handle so that you could tell whether it was designed for an oxbow, plow handle, or hoe handle. And the sister that rejoices so much in the glories of the upper world, when she is at home, very likely, does not know enough to pursue her daily avocations as she ought. Can she teach her little girls so much as to knit a stocking tie? No; but when there is plenty of wool and yarn in the house, she calls upon her husband to buy garters, suspenders, &c., from the store, while her children are running in the streets with their heels and toes naked; she cannot even mend a stocking decently. Can she cut her little boy a pair of pantaloons? No; a tailor must do it. Can she make him a cap out of some old cloth that has been worn in a coat, but is good enough for that purpose, and thereby save a few dollars? No; she must plague her husband to spend means at the store, when perhaps he cannot well spare it. Can she make little shoes for her infant? No, pa, buys all the shoes. She seems of no manner of earthly use as an helpmeet to her husband; yet it is her greatest delight to know how the Gods live and how the heavens and all things are sustained, but at the same time is not willing to move a finger to sustain herself.

When Adam found himself in a state of nudity, he hid himself; and when he heard the footsteps of the Lord in the garden, he quaked and trembled with fear. The Lord could do nothing more for him than take some fig leaves and probably some grass to stitch them together for an apron to cover Adam’s nakedness. The Lord could not in a few minutes teach Adam how to make broadcloth and a pair of pantaloons, &c.; for he had forgotten all he formerly knew, and had to gain knowledge by degrees. Can we learn in a day how to make broadcloth or satin and clothing or dresses? No; for it is as much as some persons can do to learn in one day how to knit so much as a stocking tie or a pair of suspenders.

The people are striving with all their might to learn the things of God; but if I could only get them to understand the work and the worth of their present life, I should feel well satisfied. We talk and think a great deal about the life that is to come, and the life labor of the Christian part of the world is to prepare for that. The time we now occupy is in eternity; it is a portion of eternity. Our present life is just as much a life in eternity as the life of any being can possibly be. Could we all live so as to honor the life that we now possess, I should not have one anxious thought with regard to being fully prepared for the life which is to come. I wish to urge upon the people the necessity of knowing what to do with their present life, which pertains more particularly to temporalities. The very object of our existence here is to handle the temporal elements of this world and subdue the earth, multiplying those organisms of plants and animals God has designed shall dwell upon it. When we have learned to live according to the full value of the life we now possess, we are prepared for further advancement in the scale of eternal progression—for a more glorious and exalted sphere.

One of the speakers this morning exhorted us to take care of that which we produce. All the energies of a farmer appear to be drawn out to raise wheat; but when it is matured, he seems to retire in satisfaction that he has accomplished what he sought; his energies flag and the crop is not cared for, but is left to return again to the earth; or, if he gathers it, he either has not the ability to properly save and husband it, or he cares not to exert himself to do so. It is the same in his stock raising; he values his calves and lambs—labors hard to raise them; but when they have attained to that stage of existence to do good to himself or the community, he suffers them to die by starvation in the winter, or to be destroyed by the Indians or by somebody else who gets his living by stealing cattle on the ranges. The wheat wasted this year, for want of proper care, would feed this whole community for a considerable length of time. Farmers do not seem to think that every kernel of grain should be gathered and saved as far as possible. The atmosphere that presses upon the face of our fields imparts nourishment to the soil, and the rains from the heavens and the waters that come dancing from the mountains and are led over our fields are laden with plant food, so that we can gather from this benchland—from this gravelly soil—thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, which does not answer the end in the economy of nature for which it is created, if it is suffered again to return to the ground unappropriated in the way designed by the Almighty. If it is distributed in another shape than that designed, the wheat element may be entirely removed to another portion of the earth; and after a few years you may not be able to raise wheat in this country. If a single constituent part of any plant be exhausted from the soil, the plant cannot be produced until the wanting element is restored.

Our Father in heaven wishes us to preserve that which he gives to us. If we are prodigal and wasteful of his blessings, it will be said—“Take from them that which they seem to have and give it to another people.” We wish to gain all that is to be gained; we wish to enrich ourselves; but, as a people, in a great many instances, we take a course to make ourselves poor. If we could only learn enough to be self-preserving and self-sustaining, we should then have learned what the Gods have learned before us, and what we must eventually learn before we can be exalted. Trace the history of the favored people of God in any age of the world and on any portion of the earth, and you will find that the Lord has poured out great abundance upon them, he has blessed them as individuals, as communities, and as nations. We have also been greatly blessed, but we have treated lightly our blessings in neglecting to properly and frugally use them.

That individual, neighborhood, people, or nation that will not acknowledge the hand of God in all things, but will squander their blessings, and thus pour contempt upon his kind favors, will become desolate and be wasted away. So long as any people live up to the best light they have, the Almighty will multiply blessings upon them by blessing the earth and causing it to bring forth in its strength to fill their storehouses with plenty; but if they become fat, and are lofty, and kick against the Lord, and trample his blessings under their feet in reckless wastefulness, he will cause them to inherit barrenness, and he will give them “cleanness of teeth in all their cities, and want of bread in all their places.” The Lord needs only to say to his angel, “Pass over the land and take away the elements of wheat,” and that crop ceases to be produced. This very thing has transpired in the lands from whence we have been driven, and their fruit is blasted; in fact, nothing grows there in the same abundance and perfection that it once did. Desolation is in the path of the wicked. It would have been so with us, if we had remained in our former homes, and had not lived to honor the life God has given us. In consequence of the hatred, malice, and disposition in the hearts of the wicked to persecute his people, God has so cursed the land and blasted the elements that they are not fruitful.

I do not think that I ever beheld anything in my life more painful to my heart and more distressing to my feelings than I saw manifested in the spirit and actions of this community in the years 1849, 50, 51, and 52, in the way they trampled upon the blessings of God so bountifully bestowed upon them. Wheat was suffered to go to waste in a shameful manner. It was fed to horses, thrown to hogs, and trampled in the mud. I told them they would want bread, and they did. If it had not been for the kind hand of God in his merciful providences to us, we should have suffered much more than we did; our sufferings would have been extreme. The Lord has poured out his blessings on the atmosphere, on the water, and on the soil of this country. No other people but the people of the Saints could have sustained themselves here. If we abuse these choice blessings, the Lord will blast the fertilizing elements with his withering touch, and leave us desolate. Let us be thankful for what we have in possession, and use it exclusively for building up the kingdom of God, the establishment of Zion, and the triumph of righteousness and truth. Let every penny, every dollar, every sum of money, large or small, be devoted to this all-absorbing interest, as also every moment of time. These are matters with which we are all acquainted; they are not mysteries that are far beyond our comprehension.

Twenty-five, twenty-eight, and thirty years ago, our influence and national character were but small indeed. The image which now presents itself is still small, we admit; nevertheless it presents a bold front to the nations, and has become worthy of their notice. We are trying to be the image of those who live in heaven; we are trying to pattern after them, to look like them, to walk and talk like them, to deal like them, and build up the kingdom of heaven as they have done. I think that after a while we shall attain to the very image and likeness of the children of God who have lived before us. This image will increase, and grow, and spread abroad, and still expand in its proportions, stretching to the right hand and to the left, struggling for room on all sides, in proportion as we are faithful and learn to appreciate the blessings we have already received.

Do we appreciate the blessings of this our mountain home, far removed from the war, blood, carnage, and death that are laying low in the dust thousands of our fellow creatures in the very streets where we have walked and in the cities and towns where we have lived? If we constantly live under a proper sense of the greatness of our blessings, the stone in the mountains will soon begin to attain colossal proportions and roll with crushing weight upon the toes of the “great image.”

We have often heard it said by our Elders that all the heaven we shall ever have is the one we make for ourselves. How vast the meaning of this simple sentence! This one saying is a text worthy for all the holy beings in heaven and on earth to preach upon; it embraces a subject vast as eternity. We are exhorted to make our own heaven, our own paradise, our own Zion. How is this to be done? By hearkening diligently to the voice of the Spirit of the Lord that entices to righteousness, applauds truth, and exults continually in goodness. This Spirit is the companion of every faithful person! Listen to its whisperings, and pursue with alacrity the path it points out. In this way we may all grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, and by so doing we shall honor the life we now possess, while by pursuing an opposite course we disgrace it. This life is worth as much to us as any life in the eternities of the Gods. In that helpless infant upon its mother’s breast we see a man, an Apostle, a Saint—yea generations of men with kingdoms, thrones, and dominions. Then the life of that little frail mortal is fraught with great and mighty results, and its value is inestimable.

If this be true of an infant, what may we expect to grow out of this infant kingdom? We may look forward to all that belongs to greatness and goodness, to might and power, to dominion and glory. Then how jealously we ought to guard the rights of this infant power! How zealous and constant we should be in maintaining its interests and supporting its laws and sacred institutions! No less vigilant should we be in preserving the lives of our children, for they are of the kingdom of heaven. No pains should be spared, no care omitted, in guarding the tender infant through the perilous hours of childhood to maturer years. Through the inattention and ignorance of parents, death makes many victims among our children, and they are deprived of magnifying their mortal life according to the designs of the All-wise Creator. Numbers of our children are carried off by death, through want of sufficient promptitude in battling the destroyer when its insidious approaches are first discovered. We have power in a great measure to prevent disease; and when it fastens upon the vitals of our little ones, we have power, faith, and means at hand, if promptly applied, to restore our children to life and health, to boyhood, then to manhood, and to honor and power in Israel. Yet we neglect our children, and let them run out in the cold and wet. They are sick at night; nothing is done for them; but they are sent to bed to lie all night with a burning fever, and so they are suffered to linger on day after day, while the Destroyer is busily at work consuming their lives. At length the parents become alarmed and send for a doctor, who is just as apt to destroy the life of the child as to restore it again to good health. We mourn over the little fragile remains as we lay them in the tomb, and comfort ourselves by saying, “Thy will be done, O Lord; thou givest and thou takest away at thy pleasure,” &c., when by our ignorance and carelessness we have destroyed the life God gave to us for a kingdom of glory and power, which can only be obtained through our posterity. From this one child, this Isaac, could his life have been preserved, nations would have sprung into existence, until the multitudes of people through him would have become as the sands upon the seashore for number. But he is gone, and his spirit has returned back to God, and that is the end of his life upon the earth; your posterity is cut off, and from whence will you receive your kingdom and glory?

It is to our advantage to take good care of the blessings God bestows upon us; if we pursue the opposite course, we cut off the power and glory God designs we should inherit. It is through our own carefulness, frugality, and judgment which God has given us, that we are enabled to preserve our grain, our flocks and herds, wives and children, houses and lands, and increase them around us, continually gaining power and influence for ourselves as individuals and for the kingdom of God as a whole. People lose their property. Why? Because they do not take care of it. Once in a while we hear of property being destroyed by fire, though this does not often occur among this people. What did you do with the fire when you retired to rest? All such occurrences happen through carelessness, want of judgment, or ignorance. For instance, on a very dry, windy day, with a foul chimney, a wife wishes to prepare a chicken for supper, and she must burn off the pin feathers; she gathers up an armful of shavings, sets fire to them, and the flame that is singeing off the pin feathers is also firing the chimney; from that it spreads to the roof, and from the roof to the stackyard. A thousand dollars’ worth of property is destroyed by carelessly singeing the pin feathers off a chicken. Our wives are not apt to think of this, any more than they do when they suffer their little children to get cold, and the croup, and then death.

This people, in their notions concerning life, are similar to the whole world. We have brought our traditions from the world, but we wish to learn better, and get rid of every false notion and practice. As I told you the other day, it is impossible to believe a truth that is not embraced in “Mormonism,” whether it is found in the mental education or physical pursuits of mortals, in the spiritual refinement of the Gods, or in culling immortal fruits from trees that grow in the Elysian fields of Paradise. “The life that now is” more immediately demands our attention, and I am fearful that many spend their lives for naught. There are persons in this community who, if they could have their own will gratified and be possessed of plenty of means, would not do another day’s work in their lives, unless they were urged to it. Such persons are told that they should devote their lifetime they now have to usefulness; but they have sufficient, they say, and have no need to be useful in performing any kind of labor. This is a mistake. Though I possessed millions of money and property, that does not excuse me from performing the labor that it is my calling to perform, so far as I have strength and ability, any more than the poorest man in the com– munity is excused. The more we are blessed with means, the more we are blessed with responsibility; the more we are blessed with wisdom and ability, the more we are placed under the necessity of using that wisdom and ability in the spread of righteousness, the subjugation of sin and misery, and the amelioration of the condition of mankind. The man that has only one talent and the man that has five talents have responsibility accordingly. If we have a world of means, we have a world of responsibility. If we have an eternity of knowledge, we shall have an eternity of business to transact and to occupy every particle of the knowledge bestowed upon us.

Then, instead of searching after what the Lord is going to do for us, let us inquire what we can do for ourselves, and the answer will be, We can make our own hats, bonnets, shoes, and clothing, and we can make our own heaven here below; and if there is anything that we cannot make now, we will wear what we have until we can make more. I have a word of praise for our sisters. I have seen the handsomest homemade plaid in this city that I ever saw in any country. I would like to see them wear it when they go to parties, instead of donning silks and satins. Their homemade plaid will look better to me than all the silk and satin they can put on. But when sister Susan gets a fine dress, then Betsy will not go to the party unless she has as good a frock as Susan’s; and Sarah must have as good a one as either of the others, or a little better. Perhaps she wants a little more gimp, a little extra braid, some insertion, or something to make a better dress than has either of her sisters; and so we waste for a thing of naught the blessings we should otherwise improve.

Be careful of the clothing you have. Do not let your children’s clothing lie underfoot when you undress them at night, but teach your boys and girls, when they come into the house, to find a place for their hats, cloaks, and bonnets, that, when they want them, they can put their hands upon them in a moment. When they take off their boots and shoes, let them be deposited where they can be found in the dark, that, if the children are obliged to get up at night, perhaps in case of fire, they can find their clothing, and not be under the necessity of being turned out naked. If a person can put his hand on his clothing, he can dress in the dark. I couple the necessity with the convenience. I hope we shall never be under the necessity of fleeing from under a burning roof, either in the night or day. Let there be “a place for everything, and everything in its place.”

I believe in indulging children, in a reasonable way. If the little girls want dolls, shall they have them? Yes. But must they be taken to the dressmaker’s to be dressed? No. Let the girls learn to cut and sew the clothing for their dolls, and in a few years they will know how to make a dress for themselves and others. Let the little boys have tools, and let them make their sleds, little wagons, &c.; and when they grow up, they are acquainted with the use of tools and can build a carriage, a house, or anything else. When we see the boys or girls inclined in this direction, let us encourage them and use every means in our power to direct their minds in the right direction to the most useful result.

Novel reading—is it profitable? I would rather that persons read novels than read nothing. There are women in our community, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty years of age, who would rather read a trifling, lying novel than read history, the Book of Mormon, or any other useful print. Such women are not worth their room. It would do no good for me to say, Don’t read them; read on, and get the spirit of lying in which they are written, and then lie on until you find yourselves in hell. If it would do any good, I would advise you to read books that are worth reading; read reliable history, and search wisdom out of the best books you can procure. How I would be delighted if our young men would do this, instead of continually studying nonsense. And in addition to this, let the boys from ten to twenty years of age get up schools to learn sword exercise, musket and rifle exercise, and, in short, every art of war. Shall we need this knowledge? No matter; it is good to be acquainted with this kind of exercise. Let a few schools be started by those who are capable of teaching the sciences. The science of architecture, for instance, is worthy the attention of every student. It yields a great amount of real pleasure to be able to understand the grand architectural designs of those magnificent structures that are scattered over Europe and other countries.

Learn all you can. Learn how to raise calves, chickens, lambs, and all kinds of useful fowls and animals; learn how to till the ground to the best advantage for raising all useful products of the soil; and learn how to manufacture molasses and sugar from the sugar cane. Raise flax, husbands, and let your wives learn to manufacture fine linen. In the war of 1812, cotton raised in price from five to eleven cents per pound; it is now from thirty-five to sixty-three cents a pound in New York City. What are we going to do for our factory cloth? We have got to make it. I am selling cotton cloth to those who work for me for the same price they are now selling it in St. Louis and New York. What will be the price by-and-by, as circumstances are now shaping themselves in the nation?

If what I have now said about temporal things is faithfully carried out, it will lead to our independence as a people, and to our comfort and happiness as individuals.

May God bless you! Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 19, 1862.

I was sorry for an expression made by one of our officials in relation to the late killing of three thieves. He considered that they were dealt with by mob violence. Our officers of the law are provided with means to defend themselves against those who would slay them. The three persons that were lately killed were notorious thieves, and resisted the officers in the discharge of their duty. I thank God that our officers will not suffer themselves to be shot down by notorious scoundrels. [The congregation said “Amen.“] If there are any who sympathize with thieves, I want to know who they are, and let them be cut off from the Church. There has been enough said to such characters, and they must quit such practices. I say, If they will not reform, I wish they would resist the officers, and then there is an end of them and of their depredations upon the honest citizens of Utah.

The best people in the world are in this Territory, and yet there is not another community, according to our numbers, so infested by thieves as we are. Their depredations are perpetrated with such impunity and barefaced effrontery that it is almost impossible for me to keep a decent handkerchief. Some women, when they come into my house to work, if they can steal a few handkerchiefs or pillowcases, or this or that, and make up a small bundle, they sack it and go. If you should leave an axe, a wagonwheel, a spade, or anything of that kind in the canyon, when you go for it, it has been stolen.

I have no fellowship for a man that will bail out a thief, for he will go to stealing as soon as he is out. Talk about a thief’s keeping company with a girl! If there is a woman in this Territory that would keep company with such an infernal scoundrel, I hope she will speedily make her exit to some other country.

Let the people in this Territory be righteous, and we are safe from all the powers of Satan and from all the evil powers of this earth. But for thieves, cutthroats, liars, adulterers, and every foul and wicked person that can be brought out to mingle with this community, I am sick and tired of it. It is time to cleanse the inside of the platter; and if a United States’ official says it is mob law, let him say so until he is tired. We will teach men not to resist the officers in this Territory while they are in the discharge of their duty; and let me here say to the Presiding Bishop, If he knows of any Bishop who sympathizes with those thieves who have infested our community, report him, and we will remove him. And I say to the Bishops, If you find any in your Wards who sympathize with a person who has been guilty of highway robbery, and has fallen by the hand of justice, try them for their fellowship.

I mourn not that a thief is killed, but that any human being would so far debase himself as to become a mean, low, degraded thief. No matter if it is your husband, your father, your brother, your child—if he should fall by the hand of justice for stealing and resisting the officers of the law to persist in wickedness, have no sympathy for the evildoer. If any of my family should be guilty of stealing, I shall request them to leave my house, never to enter it again. I would not cover over their iniquity, but I would expose it and deal with the sympathizer, should they by the strong arm of justice be leveled to the dust. I would disown them. If a child or relative of mine forsakes the Gospel, the holy Priesthood, his God, and the kingdom of God, farewell to that child or relative, whether near or distant. I own none as relatives, only those who love and serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All that belong to my Father’s house I own. I love them, I delight in their society, no matter whether they are poor or rich, learned or unlearned, if they observe the laws of the kingdom of God and live according to it.

As brother Cox observed this morning, let us be sure to build up the kingdom of God, for in doing this we build up ourselves. In the early history of this Church, Joseph Smith was accused of being a speculator. So far as I am concerned, I never denied being a speculator; for, in one sense of the word, it is one of the greatest speculations ever entered into by man. In building up the kingdom of God, I am decidedly for self, and so are you. If you wish to obtain wealth, power, glory, excellency, and exaltation of every kind, be for God and truth, and he will give to you more than your hearts can conceive of. We are not going to be satisfied with a few paltry picayunes. We are not going to be satisfied with a mere preemption right on the soil in this Territory. Should the Government grant to every head of a family six hundred and forty acres of land, and to each wife and child their portion, as was done in Oregon Territory, that would give to me and to my sons and daughters quite a scope of country, and the whole people would swallow up all the land in this Territory. But shall we be satisfied with that? I am going to have a larger preemption than the Territory of Utah. In a few years this Territory will not contain my own posterity. In twenty years from now this spacious hall will not hold them, and in twenty years more they will more than fill this Territory. I cannot put up with this small possession.

I have always said to the thieves, Wait until I tell you to steal. The first thing I mean to take is the State of Missouri, and then I shall not be satisfied. Next, I shall want the State of Illinois. All this Territory, Missouri, and Illinois are not going to be sufficient territory for Heber and me, to say nothing of brothers Wells, Taylor, Woodruff, and all the faithful brethren. “For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. And the children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.” In fine, I am not going to be satisfied until the Saints possess the whole earth to the glory of God. There is no way to glorify our God and Father but to glorify ourselves; and there is no way to happify and glorify ourselves, only by keeping his commandments. Let us be one with the Father, with the Son, and with one another, being of one heart and of one mind.

Do not steal a horse, for it costs more to hide it than it is worth. Do not steal Governor Dawson’s blankets and beaver robe. I understand that the officers have found the stolen blankets and robe. Those thieves also stole some eight hundred dollars in money from a hardworking man. I hope the officers will also find that. The officers have been diligent in arresting the marauders and in recovering the stolen property; but I wish it distinctly understood that this has been done solely to magnify the law in the preservation of rights.

One of our friends tells us that he is afraid we shall have trouble. I told him that we were not afraid of it in the least, so long as we serve God and keep his commandments. The Lord has already once overruled the great power and supreme excellency of the military skill of those who were enemies, and caused them to waste their strength in walking up and down Ham’s Fork, and to eat mule meat to sustain their lives, and placed them in a constant state of fear and dread. They saw a few men in the mountains cutting fence poles, or firewood, and they dared not send out a company to guard in the money that was sent to pay them. “Come in,” cried the officer, “for God’s sake; for the Mormons are around.”

It is said that one of the members of Congress, confident of the great military ability of the officers and the bravery of the army they commanded at Bull’s Run, rode out in his buggy, expecting to shout with the rest in the exultations of victory. According to report, this member of Congress was a brave man, tied his horse at a respectable distance, and repaired to an eminence to see the fight. When the “Booby Run” commenced, he made for his buggy, but, to his consternation, found it appropriated. Now this member of Congress was not only brave, but fleet on foot; for it is said that he arrived in the city of Washington an hour and thirty minutes before his horse and buggy. He won laurels at what I call the “Booby Run.”

I cannot be intimidated by saying that there is trouble ahead for us from the Government of the United States, so long as righteousness shall prevail among the people of God, even if they should be so unwise as to again attempt to oppress us.

Let every man in this Territory be a vigilant officer, and, when a thief is found in the act of stealing, take him, dead or alive. There is one trait in our officers that I delight in, and that is, they will not stand to be shot down by a set of scoundrels. Let every man be vigilant to frown down iniquity wherever it shows itself, and suffer it not to gain a foothold in our country.

We are about to constitutionally organize a State Government, and to again petition for admission into the family of States, to secure to ourselves the inalienable rights of American citizens. This we do to please ourselves and our God. If we can please our Heavenly Father, our Elder Brother Jesus Christ, and the holy angels, and the Saints that have lived and died, and please ourselves in righteousness, we then ask no odds of all hell and their abettors. And if armies are again sent here, thy will find the road up Jordan a hard road to travel. As for us, we will honor and preserve inviolate the Constitution of our country, as we ever have.

I was lately looking over the Constitution we framed for a State Government six years ago. It is very near as we want it now. We wish a Constitution that is Republican. In it treason is stated to be one of the highest crimes in any government, and to consist in levying war on this State. Who has done this? James Buchanan has, and so have those who associated with him, in sending an army here; and the very great majority of the priests and people said Amen. They are as much treasoners as ever lived on this earth, and the day will come when justice will be meted out to them. They made war on the loyal citizens of this Territory; and if they again make war upon us, I know not what the Lord may do. We will try to do what the Lord wants us to do.

I am for scourging out the ungodly and all who work iniquity among this people. If our laws are not stringent enough to do this, we will put a little bayberry into the composition, or a little oak-root bark, to make it a little more stringent. Those who are against the kingdom of God must suffer. Those who give way to unhallowed practices would destroy the kingdom of God from the earth, and I disown all such, whether they are of my family or not; and I will declare, by-and-by, that I never knew them, as Jesus will also say. They do not belong to me; they are not of my blood and kin. “But, father, do you not remember that we were born at such a time and in such a place?” No matter; you belong to another kingdom; you cannot come here: we do not wish your society.

I can tell all the world that we mean to sustain the Constitution of the United States and all righteous laws. We are not by any means treasoners, secessionists, or abolitionists. We are neither negro-drivers nor negro-worshippers. We belong to the family of heaven, and we intend to walk over every unrighteous and unholy principle, and view everybody and everything as it is before God, and put everything in its place.

A good housewife, whether she possesses much or little, will have a place for everything she has in the house, and make her house orderly and comfortable, and everything when wanted can be found in its place. So we will adjust ourselves according to the lawful doings of the nation, and will not secede from our Government; neither will we be traitors to Jesus Christ, through ungodly rulers, but will take the privilege to chasten them and guide them into the path of right, if they will be led therein. This we will do fearlessly and perfectly regardless of consequences; for, if God is for us, it matters little who are against us.

It seems that the people ought to see that the Lord dictates, guides, and directs; that if a people are blessed, they are blessed of the Lord; and that if we exalt him and his kingdom, love him, serve him, and build up Zion upon the earth, we are sure to be exalted and possess the thing we desire, if our affections are centered in God and truth. “Therefore let no man glory in man. 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; And ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

God bless the humble and the righteous, and may he have compassion upon us because of the weakness that is in our nature. And considering the great weakness and ignorance of mortals, let us have mercy upon each other. How it would rejoice my heart to see the most froward, young and old, in this community, forsake their evil doings and seek to do right! But if they will not do this, I cannot fellowship them. My constant prayer is for the Lord to increase the righteous and righteousness in the land, and waste away the ungodly, that the power of the government may pass into the hands of the just. May God soon grant this sight to our eyes. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 12, 1862.

In the early history of this Church, our public speakers, through their traditions, did not like to have their errors in doctrine corrected. It hurt their feelings to be instructed and enlightened for the furtherance of knowledge and wisdom. I am happy to say that now the Elders, almost universally, are willing to be instructed in the truth. It is their delight to receive intelligence and knowledge that pertain to the heavens and the earth—the plan of salvation.

Many of the Elders say that they are timid and embarrassed when they attempt to speak before the congregated people, and are unable to express the rich ideas and glorious principles suggested to their minds. I frequently feel anxious to help them, and tell for them what they would communicate. When they are at work in their shops or in their fields, or when going up the canyons for wood (if their cattle behave well), in their reflections, they preach many excellent sermons; but when they try to make their secret thoughts audible before a congregation, their thoughts desert them and they are left a blank.

Brother Jackman’s mind led him to praise and thank the Lord Almighty for one principle he revealed through Joseph the Prophet, different from that generally believed and taught among religionists. They, you understand, condemn all who differ from their views to hell, there to remain in a state of the most acute consciousness of the most extreme suffering throughout endless eternities, without one single ray of hope that will ever be delivered. Brother Jackman wished to speak on this point, but his heart failed him. The Lord says, through Joseph Smith, “Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s glory. Wherefore, I will explain unto you this mystery, for it is meet unto you to know even as mine apostles. I speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as one, that you may enter into my rest. For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—

Eternal punishment is God’s punishment. Endless punishment is God’s punishment.”

The punishment of God is Godlike. It endures forever, because there never will be a time when people ought not to be damned, and there must always be a hell to send them to. How long the damned remain in hell, I know not, nor what degree of suffering they endure. If we could by any means compute how much wickedness they are guilty of, it might be possible to ascertain the amount of suffering they will receive. They will receive according as their deeds have been while in the body. God’s punishment is eternal, but that does not prove that a wicked person will remain eternally in a state of punishment.

All the doctrines of life and salvation are as plain to the understanding as the geographical lines of a correctly executed map. This doctrine, revealed in these latter times, is worthy the attention of all men. It gives the positive situation in which they will stand before the Heavens when they have finished their earthly career. Generation after generation is constantly coming and passing away. They all possess more or less intelligence, which forms the foundation within them for the reception of an eternal increase of intelligence. The endowments that human beings have received from their Great Creator are to them inestimable blessings. How wonderful and how excellent they are! What priceless blessings and exquisite enjoyments they secure to man, if by truth and righteousness they are made honorable in the sight of God. By the means of his wonderful and Godlike endowments, man can drink at the fountain of eternal wisdom and bask in everlasting felicity.

But hundreds of millions of human beings have been born, lived out their short earthly span, and passed away, ignorant alike of themselves and of the plan of salvation provided for them. It gives great consolation, however, to know that this glorious plan devised by Heaven follows them into the next existence, offering for their acceptance eternal life and exaltation to thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers in the presence of their Father and God, through Jesus Christ his Son. How glorious—how ample is the Gospel plan in its saving properties and merciful designs. This one revelation, containing this principle, is worth worlds on worlds to mankind. It is worth forsaking fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, wives and children, houses and lands, for the knowledge it reveals; and this is but one item in the great plan of human redemption.

I will notice another idea. We frequently say “Mormonism,” as it is called, must be true because there are so many evidences in its favor. We say we do positively know it is true (using the words of brother Jackman), “in fair weather; but when it is foul weather and the storms beat upon our frail bark, some may conclude it is not true.” I wish you all to understand “Mormonism” as it is. We embraced it in different parts of the world, because we considered it the best religion we could find. Can we tell how much better “Mormonism” is than other religions and isms of the present day? More or less truth may be found in them all, both in civilized and barbarous nations. How has it transpired that theological truth is thus so widely disseminated? It is because God was once known on the earth among his children of mankind, as we know one another. Adam was as conversant with his Father who placed him upon this earth as we are conversant with our earthly parents. The Father frequently came to visit his son Adam, and talked and walked with him; and the children of Adam were more or less acquainted with their Grandfather, and their children were more or less acquainted with their Great-Grandfather; and the things that pertain to God and to heaven were as familiar among mankind, in the first ages of their existence on the earth, as these mountains are to our mountain boys, as our gardens are to our wives and children, or as the road to the Western Ocean is to the experienced traveler. From this source mankind have received their religious traditions.

I will tell you in a few words what I understand “Mormonism” to be. Our religion is called “Mormonism” because the ancient records revealed to Joseph Smith were entitled the Book of Mormon, according to the instructions given to him by the Lord; but I will call it the plan of salvation devised in the heavens for the redemption of mankind from sin, and their restoration to the presence of God. It is contained in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in all the revelations that God has hitherto given and will give in the future.

It embraces every fact there is in the heavens and in the heaven of heavens—every fact there is upon the surface of the earth, in the bowels of the earth, and in the starry heavens; in fine, it embraces all truth there is in all the eternities of the Gods. How, then, can we deny it? We cannot. Were we arraigned face to face with the terrors of death, and called upon to deny our religion or die, we might speak a lie and say “Mormonism” is untrue, and might continue the same testimony all the time we were in hell; but that would make no difference with the truth. The devils and damned spirits in hell cannot deny the truth of “Mormonism” and speak the truth. I wish all those who profess to believe it did as much as the devils in hell do.

“Mormonism” embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical.

No matter how many deny their God and their religion, God is the same, his holy religion is the same, and all the truth is the same. There is no plan, no device, no possible way in which we can get rid of “Mormonism,” only by taking the downward road which leads to hell, until spiritually and temporally the whole organized being is dissolved and the particles thereof have returned again to native elements. We read in the Scriptures of the second death not having power over certain ones. The first death is the separation of the spirit from the body; the second death is, as I have stated, the dissolution of the organized particles which compose the spirit, and their return to their native element. The wicked spirit will have to endure the wrath of the Almighty, until it has paid the uttermost farthing, where the “worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Every debt that has been contracted by it must be canceled.

I will say a few words in regard to your belief in being led, guided, and directed by one man. Brother Jackman has said that our enemies hate the fact of our being led by one man. Thousands of times my soul has been lifted to God the Father, in the name of Jesus, to make that verily true in every sense of the word, that we may be led by the man Jesus Christ, through Joseph Smith the Prophet. You may inquire how we are to know that we are so led. I refer you to the exhortation you have heard so frequently from me. Do not be deceived, any of you; if you are deceived, it is because you deceive yourselves. You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know the way home; for every principle God has revealed carries its own convictions of its truth to the human mind, and there is no calling of God to man on earth but what brings with it the evidences of its authenticity. Let us take a course that leads to the perpetuity of the natural life which God has given us, and honor it. Should we pursue this course faithfully, and never bestow one thought for the life that is to come, we are just as sure of that immortal life as we are of the life we now possess. This, in fact, is the only way in which we can be prepared to inherit that more glorious life.

What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. This has been my exhortation continually.

Brother Joseph W. Young remarked this morning that he wished the people to receive the word of the Lord through his servants, be dictated by them, and have no will of their own. I would express it in this wise: God has placed within us a will, and we should be satisfied to have it controlled by the will of the Almighty. Let the human will be indomitable for right. It has been the custom of parents to break the will until it is weakened, and the noble, Godlike powers of the child are reduced to a comparative state of imbecility and cowardice. Let that heaven-born property of human agents be properly tempered and wisely directed, instead of pursuing the opposite course, and it will conquer in the cause of right. Break not the spirit of any person, but guide it to feel that it is its greatest delight and highest ambition to be controlled by the revelations of Jesus Christ; then the will of man becomes Godlike in overcoming the evil that is sown in the flesh, until God shall reign within us to will and do of his good pleasure.

Let all persons be fervent in prayer, until they know the things of God for themselves and become certain that they are walking in the path that leads to everlasting life; then will envy, the child of ignorance, vanish, and there will be no disposition in any man to place himself above another; for such a feeling meets no countenance in the order of heaven. Jesus Christ never wanted to be different from his father: they were and are one. If a people are led by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and they are cognizant of the fact through their faithfulness, there is no fear but they will be one in Christ Jesus, and see eye to eye.

We shall not be entirely free from sin for some time yet; but so long as it is in a state of perfect subjection, we are so far sanctified to keep up this warfare against the power of sin until we have obtained a perfect mastery over the evil that is within our organisms, and are able to control it constantly until death shall end the struggle: then shall we be prepared for a glorious resurrection. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 28, 1861.

When I came into this Church, I started right out as a missionary, and took a text, and began to travel on a circuit. Truth is my text, the Gospel of salvation my subject, and the world my circuit. I presume I shall not soon go all over it, but I am still preaching and traveling occasionally. I expect to be here about every other Sabbath, as I have been for a few weeks or months past, except when I was in the south.

While I am here with you, I want to talk to the Saints. I like to look at them; I like to instruct them, and to be instructed. We pray continually for the redemption of Zion, for the Lord to hasten the time when we can return and establish the Center Stake of Zion, and build up the great temple of the Lord upon which his glory will rest as a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. We pray that we may be sanctified, that we may be made pure in heart; and we pray that the Lord will teach us his will continually, and reveal unto us precisely his mind, so that we may have the mind of Christ, and know precisely what to do.

When will Zion be redeemed? When will the Savior make his appearance in the midst of his people? When will the veil be taken away, that we may behold the glory of God? Can any of you answer these questions? Yes, readily, when I tell you. The redemption of Zion is the first step preparatory to the two last-named events. Just as soon as the Latter-day Saints are ready and prepared to return to Independence, Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, North America, just so soon will the voice of the Lord be heard, “Arise now, Israel, and make your way to the Center Stake of Zion.” Do you think there is any danger of our being ready before the Lord prepares the other end of the route? Do you believe that we, as Latter-day Saints, are preparing our own hearts, our own lives, to return to take possession of the Center Stake of Zion, as fast as the Lord is preparing to cleanse the land from those ungodly persons who dwell there? You can read, reflect, and make your own calculations. If we are not very careful, the earth will be cleansed from wickedness before we are prepared to take possession of it. We must be pure to be prepared to build up Zion. To all appearance, the Lord is preparing that end of the route faster than we are preparing ourselves to go there.

His grace is here, his judgments are here, his wisdom and Spirit are here, and every qualification that Saints can require is here ready to be poured out upon the people, if they are prepared to receive them. Are we prepared to receive those qualifications? Are we prepared to march back and take possession of the Center Stake of Zion, build up the great Temple of the Lord, and gather in the nations of the earth?

There are hundreds and thousands coming here this season. We are gathering the people as fast as we can. We are gathering them to make Saints of them and of ourselves. Probably many of them will apostatize, though some will not apostatize until you give them their endowments; and then, if you do not speak out of the right corner of your mouth, they will apostatize; and if you do not laugh out of the right corner of your mouth, they will go. We are gathering a few that will be faithful in the midst of this people, and prepare themselves to be crowned kings and priests unto God. By-and-by you will see the Saints flock together. Will they come merely by one or two shiploads? No; it will require many more ships than we have heretofore employed to bring home the gathering thousands to Zion. Millions of people that now sit in darkness—that are now, to all appearance, in the region and shadow of death, will come to Zion.

When Joseph first revealed the land where the Saints should gather, a woman in Canada asked if we thought that Jackson County would be large enough to gather all the people that would want to go to Zion. I will answer the question really as it is. Zion will extend, eventually, all over this earth. There will be no nook or corner upon the earth but what will be in Zion. It will all be Zion. I remember that the lady was answered by asking her whether she thought the ark was large enough to hold those that were to go into it in the days of Noah? “Yes,” was the reply. Then of course Zion will be just large enough to receive all that will be prepared to possess it, as the ark was.

We are going to gather as many as we can, bless them, give them their endowments, etc., preach to them the truth, lay the principles of eternal life before them, inform their minds all we have power to do, and lead them into the path of truth and righteousness; and those who will not abide the truth will apostatize. A few will remain, and a good share of them will cleave to the promises of the Lord, will be true in every respect, and will be accounted worthy to enter in at the strait gate. Strait is the gate and narrow is the path that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it. Millions will come and live in Zion when the laws of Zion reign predominant over creation; but will all be prepared to be crowned kings and priests unto God? No. You cannot imagine anything that will not be in Zion, except sin and iniquity, and reviling against God and against his kingdom. All classes of people will come to Zion. Will there be Methodists there? Yes; and they will have the privilege to worship a God without body, parts, and passions, just as they do now, if they choose to. Every person and every community will receive according to the extent of their capacity and ability. Every person then will be blessed, will be filled with joy, will be filled with peace, with light, and intelligence according to the endowments with which they are endowed. Will all become kings and priests? No; not even all that will embrace the fulness of the Gospel.

There are only a few shiploads of Saints coming this season. They will come thicker and faster, by-and-by, and will begin to inquire after the wisdom that is in Zion. The Lord is coming out of his hiding place, and is beginning to scourge this nation with a sore scourging, and vex it with a sore vexation. He is coming forth, and the sound of the report of what is coming on the earth and the power of God that is made manifest will vex the wicked and the ungodly, and will bring great joy and rejoicing to the Saints. There are millions of people, both among the Christian and heathen nations, that are still in darkness, and exclaiming, “Oh, how glad we would be to have some knowledge of the Gospel of salvation!” By-and-by, when the Lord sends forth his servants and his angels to gather them, they will be brought home to Zion and be taught the peaceable things of the kingdom; and those that abide a celestial law will receive a celestial glory, and those that can abide the next law in order can abide the glory pertaining to it, and so on. Were I to enumerate thousands of different degrees of glory and kingdoms, I probably should overenumerate the kingdoms God has prepared and will prepare for the people according to their capacities, endowments, and what they can receive and arrive to.

We ought to be careful and not lay down our Priesthood. The brethren and sisters ought to hold fast to their covenants, and walk in that way, in that path, which is pointed out by the Gospel. Shall we love the world? In one sense, we should. Should we love it with a divine love? Not yet. Should we love the world and the things of the world according to the nature of the world? We should. We are commanded in this Bible not to love the world and the things of the world; and then you read a little further in the same book, and you are commanded to love the world and the things of the world. How shall we understand these things? With the divinity that is within us we should love divine things. Our spirits are born of our Parents in heaven, divine, heavenly, angelic. Shall these spirits condescend to love an earthly object, to worship it? If they do, they become inferior to their calling and station before God. The body is framed for the tabernacle or house in which the spirit has to dwell. This tabernacle is formed expressly to hold its spirit and shield it. Should we love this tabernacle? Yes, enough to nourish it, cherish it, and treat it kindly, and foster and nourish and cherish it by the power of the spirit, and make this body divine. The spirit must overcome the body in the flesh, and the flesh become subject to the spirit in all things; then we will love the world as it ought to be loved—not with a divine love, but with a human love, a moral love, loving all things according to their worth and capacity.

We love our wives and children—we love that which is calculated to make us happy and comfortable; but the divine spirit is to overcome the body and continue so to do, looking forth until the body also becomes divine; and then, when all has become divine, we may love all with a divine affection, but not till then. After the body and spirit are separated by death, what, pertaining to this earth, shall we receive first? The body; that is the first object of a divine affection beyond the grave. We first come in possession of the body. The spirit has overcome the body, and the body is made subject in every respect to that divine principle God has planted in the person. The spirit within is pure and holy, and goes back pure and holy to God, dwells in the spirit world pure and holy, and, by-and-by, will have the privilege of coming and taking the body again. Some person holding the keys of the resurrection, having previously passed through that ordeal, will be delegated to resurrect our bodies, and our spirits will be there and prepared to enter into their bodies. Then, when we are prepared to receive our bodies, they are the first earthly objects that bear divinity personified in the capacity of the man. Only the body dies; the spirit is looking forth, as you read in the Bible concerning the souls or spirits of those who lay under the altar, as John saw on the Isle of Patmos, and they were crying to God to know how long it would be before they would again have their bodies. Were we turned out-of-doors, and not permitted to go into a house for six months or a year, we would look forward to the time when we could build a house, and reflect, “I wish I had a good house wherein I could be free from the inclemency of the weather, as I once had.”

When the body comes forth again, it will be divine, Godlike, according to the capacity and ordinations of the Lord. Some are foreordained to one station, and some to another. We want a house, and when we get it and our spirits enter into it, then we can begin to look forth, for what? For our friends. We want them resurrected. Here is this friend and that friend, until by-and-by all are resurrected. And the earth is resurrected? Yes, and every living thing on the earth that has abided the law by which it was made. Then that which you and I respect, are fond of, and love with an earthly love, will become divine, and we can then love it with that affection which it is not now worthy of.

Here is matter we see organized in ourselves. We look upon each other, and we are matter organized. Look upon the brute creation, the vegetable creation, and both are matter organized. Who knows how much of this is going to abide the law of its creation and the law by which it is made? Man is the only object you can find upon the face of the earth that will not abide the law by which he is made. When he abides this law, he is prepared for a glorious resurrection. Are my wives and friends going to be prepared to receive this resurrection? Are my children going to be prepared to receive this resurrection? They all have the power of choice, the same as I have; the same power of divinity is in them that is in me and you. I cannot love them with that sacred, divine love, until they become immortal and prove themselves worthy of such a supreme affection. I do not suffer myself to love a wife or a child with that divinity that is within me, until they, with myself, are immortalized and glorified, and they are given to me as my own in that future state. I am fond of them; I will nourish, cherish, and guide them, and do all I can for them, so that they can prove themselves worthy to receive their bodies in a glorious resurrected state, and be prepared to enter into the joy of their Lord with me: then they are worthy of my supreme love, and not before.

When I tell the truth, that is enough, and I care not whether those who hear it believe it or not, for that is their business. If you had lived in the days of Jesus, Peter, John, etc., and had seen men called to be Apostles of the Lord Jesus, every time they taught the people, every time they preached, every time they prayed, and every time they administered in the house of God, if they did not do it by the Spirit of revelation and by the power of God, they did not magnify their calling. There are not many who know this. If we do not speak to you by the Spirit of revelation and the power of God, we do not magnify our calling. I think that I tell you the words of the Lord Almighty every time I rise here to speak to you. I may blunder in the use of the English language; but suppose I should use language that would grate on the ears of some of the learned, what of that? God can understand it, and so could you, if you had the Spirit of the Lord.

I had brother Kimball ask me if his mode of communication pleased me. Yes; for I know what he means. I read his spirit when he preaches; and if he preaches by the power of God, I can understand it, if he speaks it back end forward, as well as if he spoke it straightforward and in picked and choice language. The Spirit of revelation is the best grammar you ever studied. As I was telling you this morning, let the power of God come upon this congregation and open the vision of your minds, and an angel of God appear here, and you would be in the light of eternity and in vision in a moment, without a word being spoken, and volumes would be revealed to this people. What do we care about words? Chiefly to speak and to hear others speak so as to be understood. We have our language; but if a man speaks by the power of God, it is little matter to me what his words are, or the language he uses. If I understand the spirit of it, that is the way I find “Mormonism” to be true. The brethren who came to preach the Gospel to me, I could easily outtalk them, though I had never preached; but their testimony was like fire in my bones; I understood the spirit of their preaching; I received that spirit; it was light, intelligence, power, and truth, and it bore witness to my spirit, and that was enough for me. I have received it, and I have tried to improve upon it.

If I do not speak here by the power of God, if it is not revelation to you every time I speak to you here, I do not magnify my calling. What do you think about it? I neither know nor care. If I do not magnify my calling, I shall be removed from the place I occupy. God does not suffer you to be deceived. Here are my brethren and sisters pouring out their souls to God, and their prayers and faith are like one solid cloud ascending to the heavens. They want to be led right; they want the truth; they want to know how to serve God and prepare for a celestial kingdom. Do you think the Lord will allow you to be fooled and led astray? No.

Brother Kimball said, today, when he was speaking, if you suffer yourselves to find fault with your Bishop, you condescend to the spirit of apostasy. Do any of you do this? If you do, you do not realize that you expose yourself to the power of the Enemy. What should your faith and position be before God? Such that, if a Bishop does not do right, the Lord will remove him out of your Ward. You are not to find fault. As brother Wells has said, speak not lightly of the anointed of the Lord. But you say they are out of the way. Who has made any of my brethren a judge over their Bishop? You read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in a revelation to Joseph Smith (brother Kimball and myself were present), that it takes twelve High Priests to sit in council upon the head of a Bishop. Can they judge him? No; for they must then have the Presidency of the High Priesthood to sit at their head and preside over them. Yet many rise up and condemn their Bishop. Perhaps that Bishop has been appointed expressly to try those persons and cause them to apostatize. A great many will not apostatize until they arrive here; and who knows but what the Lord has prompted a Bishop to do so-and-so to cause somebody to apostatize. One of the first steps to apostasy is to find fault with your Bishop; and when that is done, unless repented of, a second step is soon taken, and by-and-by the person is cut off from the Church, and that is the end of it. Will you allow yourselves to find fault with your Bishop? No; but come to me, go to the High Council, or to the President of the Stake, and ascertain whether your Bishop is doing wrong, before you find fault and suffer yourselves to speak against a presiding officer. I want you to have faith enough concerning myself and my Counselors for the Lord to remove us out of the way, if we do not magnify our calling, and put men in our places that will do right. I had the promise, years ago, that I never should apostatize and bring an evil upon this people. God revealed that through Joseph, long before he died; and if I am not doing right, you may calculate that the Lord is going to take me home. He will not send me to hell, but he will take me home to himself. “I will take you up here, Brigham, and give you a few lessons.” I am going where He is, for I have that promise, and so have many others. I am telling you these things for your comfort. In all this there are no new principles and doctrines, though it is new to many of you. You must have faith in God that he will lead his people right, in a way to preserve them from every evil.

You can read in the writings of the ancient Prophets that the Lord is going to bring again Zion. The Prophet said that very quickly: it took him not more than half a minute. Let me ask the Latter-day Saints, How long will it take this people to fulfil that short sentence? How can they, unless they live in the light of revelation, and God leads them day by day? Then can they do it in a moment, in an hour, in a week, in a month, or in a year? No. It will take years to perform that saying of the Prophet that he wrote down so soon. And it will take more than one Prophet or person; it will take hundreds and thousands of them to fulfil that saying; and they cannot begin to fulfil one part of it without the power of revelation.

You may read another text—“The Lord will empty the earth”—I will not say whether of wickedness or righteousness. How is this to be understood, and how are the people going to fulfil this saying of the Prophet? How is the Lord going to empty the earth? Will it be done in a week or a year? No. He has begun to do it. President Lincoln called out soldiers for three months, and was going to wipe the blot of secession from the escutcheon of the American Republic. The three months are gone, and the labor is scarcely begun. Now they are beginning to enlist men for three years; soon they will want to enlist during the war; and then, I was going to say, they will want them to enlist during the duration of hell. Do they know what they are doing? No; but they have begun to empty the earth, to cleanse the land, and prepare the way for the return of the Latter-day Saints to the Center Stake of Zion.

Have we inheritances there? When I left the State of Missouri, I had a deed for five pieces of as good land as any in the State, and I expect to go back to it. Do we own anything in Illinois? Yes. In Ohio? Yes. The Lord will call back the Latter-day Saints, although it is written in the revelations, speaking of the Saints being driven from Jackson County, that they should be driven from State to State, from city to city, and but few would remain to receive their inheritance. I did not receive any inheritance in Jackson County, Missouri. I never was there, and I do not think of anyone present who was there, except Judge Phelps. There are also a few others in the Territory who received theirs. A few will remain and receive their inheritance. Will we return and receive an inheritance there? Many of the Saints will return to Missouri, and there receive an inheritance. This is not worded exactly as is the revelation, but it is according to the nature of things. The earth will also be emptied upon natural principles: it cannot be done otherwise.

The South say, “We could not bear the insults and the affliction heaped upon us by the North. We cannot help revolting from the rank Abolitionists that would destroy us and our negroes; we will not hold fellowship with the North any longer, but we will come out from them and be separate.” The Abolitionists would set free the negroes at the expense of the lives of their masters; they would let the negroes loose to massacre every white person: that is the spirit of many of the Abolitionists that I have conversed with. Proslavery men are determined to hold their negroes, and the North reply—“It is false language to say that we are in a free and independent government that holds four millions of persons in abject slavery: we do not believe in it, and they shall be free.” How natural it is for the two parties to come to the sword, to the cannon’s mouth, and fight. “We of the North are fighting to emancipate four millions of people that are in bondage,” and “we of the South are fighting for our liberties;” and the right will continue until the earth is empty. Will it be over in six months or in three years? No; it will take years and years, and will never cease until the work is accomplished. There may be seasons that the fire will appear to be extinguished, and the first you know it will break out in another portion, and all is on fire again, and it will spread and continue until the land is emptied. Will they all be killed? No.

I shall see the day when thousands will seek succor at the hands of this people. If you say, “Husband, I shall leave you, if you take another wife,” you had better leave now when you may stand a chance of getting another husband. You cannot read in the Bible that women take the lead—that the responsibility is upon the women, for it is not so. What was the saying of Jesus, when the woman caught in sin was brought before him? That publicans and harlots should enter into the kingdom of heaven before the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. I do not like to associate with such characters, but that Scripture will be fulfilled.

The responsibility is upon the men, and they will be used up, for they go to war, and will fall in battle by hundreds and thousands, until the earth is emptied. Young men, prepare yourselves; for a greater responsibility will come upon you than you have ever dreamed of. Millions will seek to you for salvation. Are you prepared for this? No, you are not. There are but very few men, old or young, that are capable of taking proper charge of themselves, to say nothing of a Ward, a community, or a nation.

It is said that woman is the weaker vessel, and that an Irishman whipped his wife because she carried too much sail. The nations have been led by the weaker vessel; but, by-and-by it will not be so. It is impossible to guide ships that carry too much sail, and have too little ballast in proportion to their hulls. I should trim off some of the spankers. You sisters who have crossed the sea know what I mean. You must also cut off part of the jib, and then you can guide the vessel a little easier. When you come to the mainsail, reef it, tie it up, and not have it quite so large.

You can scarcely find a man that knows how to properly treat himself, and it is worse when you come to his directing others. You will see the time when thousands will seek salvation at the hands of this people, and say, “Guide us in the way of life; the earth is emptied of wickedness, and it has come to an end.” The Lord knows whether or not the Elders of this Church will be ready to step forward and take upon themselves these great responsibilities.

Let these remarks remain with you; take them home with you, and wait and see what the result will be. The Lord is building up Zion, and is emptying the earth of wickedness, gathering his people, bringing again Zion, redeeming his Israel, sending forth his work, withdrawing his Spirit from the wicked world, and commencing to build up his kingdom. Can this be done without revelation? No. You will not make a move, or do anything—plant corn, build a hall or a temple, make a farm, or go to the States—no, not a thing towards building up Zion, without the power of revelation.

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

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Mill Creek Ward, May 7, 1861.

In order to come to a proper understanding—to see eye to eye—it is necessary that we be instructed, that we may be workmen that need not be ashamed before God and his holy angels. I pray for you continually, that the wisdom of God may rest upon you and upon all his Saints. I am happy for the privilege of meeting with you, and can say, according to the best of my knowledge, that there is a great improvement in the midst of the Saints: they are increasing in understanding. The little apparent difficulty you seem to have here is no difficulty at all. In the rise of this Church, and for years afterwards, if four men had been appointed to live in the capacity of a neighborhood, there would have been more real difficulty in one month than there has been in this Ward since brother Miller has been its Bishop. This proves that the people are learning to let things alone that they do not know to be right, and wait until they know what right is. This is a great lesson to learn. It is also a precious gift, that some people seem to be possessed of, to have knowledge enough not to talk until they can say something to advantage and benefit to themselves, or others, or both.

The instructions some of you need here I presume would be good for all. It is not always an easy matter for persons to understand the true position they really hold before God and before their brethren. People do not seem to understand fully their position and the duties they are called upon to perform; but when a person comes to understanding, he will not go amiss. There are so many traits in the lives of the people possessing the Priesthood, that, touch it where you will, you cannot touch it amiss; and if you know and understand it, it is to you a source of great satisfaction, while those who do not understand are still left in the dark.

When brother Miller was at the Seventies’ meeting in the city, a week ago last Saturday, I made some remarks on the items of doctrine before us, and the clerk wrote down a few of them. I took, I think, the purport of these remarks, and published them in the last week’s News. I then and there stated that a Bishop, in his Bishopric, cannot try any individual for error in doctrine. In reflecting upon this, let me ask, how do we understand doctrine? By revelation. What are the privileges of a Bishop? Has he the privilege of the administration of angels? Yes; this belongs to the lesser Priesthood. Has he the privilege of using the Urim and Thummim? Yes. The breastplate of Aaron that you read of in the Scriptures was a Urim and Thummim, fixed in bows similar to the one Joseph Smith found. Aaron wore this Urim and Thum– mim on his breast, and looked into it like looking on a mirror, and the information he needed was there obtained. This earth, when it becomes purified and sanctified, or celestialized, will become like a sea of glass; and a person, by looking into it, can know things past, present, and to come; though none but celestialized beings can enjoy this privilege. They will look into the earth, and the things they desire to know will be exhibited to them, the same as the face is seen by looking into a mirror.

The office of a Bishop belongs to the lesser Priesthood. He is the highest officer in the Aaronic Priesthood, and has the privilege of using the Urim and Thummim—has the administration of angels, if he has faith, and lives so that he can receive and enjoy all the blessings Aaron enjoyed. At the same time, could Aaron rise up and say, “I have as much power and authority as you, Moses?” No; for Moses held the keys and authority above all the rest upon the earth. He holds the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which is the Priesthood of the Son of God, which holds the keys of all these Priesthoods, dispensing the blessings and privileges of both Priesthoods to the people, as he did in the days of the children of Israel when he led them out of Egypt. This Priesthood has been on the earth at various times. Adam had it, Seth had it, Enoch had it, Noah had it, Abraham and Lot had it, and it was handed down to the days of the Prophets, long after the days of the ancients. But the people would not receive the Prophets, but persecuted them, stoned them and thrust them out of their cities, and they had to wander in the wilderness and make dens and caves their homes. The children of Israel never received the Melchizedek Priesthood; they went into bondage to enjoy it in part, but all its privileges and blessings they never would receive in full, until Jesus came, and then but a few of them would receive it. This High Priesthood rules, directs, governs, and controls all the Priesthoods, because it is the highest of all.

What ordination should a man receive to possess all the keys and powers of the Holy Priesthood that were delivered to the sons of Adam? He should be ordained an Apostle of Jesus Christ. That office puts him in possession of every key, every power, every authority, communication, benefit, blessing, glory, and kingdom that was ever revealed to man. That pertains to the office of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. In the last week’s News I published a portion of a revelation, showing the authority of the First Presidency of the Church, composed at first of Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. When this revelation was given, the two last-named brethren were Joseph Smith’s counselors, and this First Presidency possessed the power and authority of building up the kingdom of God upon all the earth, and of setting the Church in order in its perfection. You read in the revelation alluded to that when the Twelve were called and ordained, they possessed the same power and authority as the three First Presidents; and in reading further you find that there must needs be appendages and helps growing out of this Priesthood. The Seventies possess the same power and authority; they hold the keys of establishing, building up, regulating, ordaining, and setting in order the kingdom of God in all its perfections upon the earth. We have a Quorum of High Priests, and there are a great many of them. They are a local body—they tarry at home; but the Seventies travel and preach; so also do the High Priests, when they are called upon. They possess precisely the same Priesthood that the Seventies and the Twelve and the First Presidency possess; but are they ordained to officiate in all the authority, powers, and keys of this Priesthood? No, they are not. Still, they are High Priests of God; and if they magnify their Priesthood, they will receive at some time all the authority and power that it is possible for man to receive.

Suppose that Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams had been taken away or had apostatized, as one of them did soon after the revelation I have referred to was given, and there had been only Joseph Smith left of the First Presidency, would he alone have had authority to set in order the kingdom of God on the earth? Yes. Again: Suppose that eleven of the Twelve had been taken away by the power of the Adversary, that one Apostle has the same power that Joseph had, and could preach, baptize, and set in order the whole kingdom of God upon the earth, as much so as the Twelve, were they all together. Again: If in the providence of God he should permit the Enemy to destroy these two first Quorums, and then destroy the Quorum of Seventy, all but one man, what is his power? It would be to go and preach, baptize, confirm, lay on hands, ordain, set in order, build up, and establish the whole kingdom of God as it is now. Can we go any further? Yes; and I think you will see the reason of it, and how easy it is to be understood, and see the propriety of it. I really believe, and it is my doctrine, that if I speak to the brethren by the power of the Spirit of my calling, the evidences are commended to those who hear, and the reasons they see in the spirit of the remarks I make. Suppose the Enemy had power to destroy all but one of the High Priests from the face of the earth, what would that one possess in the power of his Priesthood? He would have power and authority to go and preach, baptize, confirm, ordain, and set in order the kingdom of God in all its perfection on the earth. Could he do this without revelation? No. Could the Seventies? No. Could the Twelve? No. And we ask, Could Joseph Smith or the First Presidency do this without revelation? No; not one of them could do such a work without revelation direct from God. I can go still further. Whoever is ordained to the office of an Elder to a certain degree possesses the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood; and suppose only one Elder should be left on the earth, could he go and set in order the kingdom of God? Yes, by revelation.

How came these Apostles, these Seventies, these High Priests, and all this organization we now enjoy? It came by revelation. Father Cahoon, who lately died in your neighborhood, was one of the first men ordained to the office of High Priest in this kingdom. In the year 1831, the Prophet Joseph went to Ohio. He left the State of New York on the last of April, if my memory serves me, and arrived in Kirtland sometime in May. They held a General Conference, which was the first General Conference ever called or held in Ohio. Joseph then received a revelation, and ordained High Priests. You read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants how he received the Priesthood in the first place. It is there stated how Joseph received the Aaronic Priesthood. John the Baptist came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. When a person passes behind the veil, he can only officiate in the spirit world; but when he is resurrected he officiates as a resurrected being, and not as a mortal being. You read in the revelation that Joseph was ordained, as it is written. When he received the Melchizedek Priesthood, he had another revelation. Peter, James, and John came to him. You can read the revelation at your leisure. When he received this revelation in Kirtland, the Lord revealed to him that he should begin and ordain High Priests; and he then ordained quite a number, all whose names I do not now recollect; but Lyman Wight was one; Fathers Cahoon and Morley, John Murdock, Sidney Rigdon, and others were also then ordained. These were the first that were ordained to this office in the Church. I relate this to show you how Joseph proceeded step by step in organizing the Church. At that time there were no Seventies nor Twelve Apostles.

Twenty-seven years ago, on the 5th of this month, in the year 1834, a company started from Kirtland to redeem the land of Zion. Brother Heber C. Kimball and my brother Joseph were in that camp. There had not then been ordained any Twelve Apostles, nor any Seventies, although there was a revelation pertaining to the Apostles and Seventies. There were High Priests, but no High Priests’ Quorum. I am relating this as a little matter of history that will no doubt be interesting to those who were not there.

After we returned from Missouri, my brother Joseph Young and myself had been singing after preaching in a meeting; and when the meeting was dismissed, brother Joseph Smith said, “Come, go down to my house with me.” We went and sung to him a long time, and talked with him. He then opened the subject of the Twelve and Seventies for the first time I ever thought of it. He said, “Brethren, I am going to call out Twelve Apostles. I think we will get together, by-and-by, and select Twelve Apostles, and select a Quorum of Seventies from those who have been up to Zion, out of the camp boys.” In 1835, the last of January or in February, or about that time, we held our meetings from day to day, and brother Joseph called out Twelve Apostles at that time. He had a revelation when we were singing to him. Those who were acquainted with him knew when the spirit of revelation was upon him, for his countenance wore an expression peculiar to himself while under that influence. He preached by the Spirit of revelation, and taught in his council by it, and those who were acquainted with him could discover it at once, for at such times there was a peculiar clearness and transparency in his face. He followed up that revelation until he organized the Church, and so along until the baptism of the dead was revealed.

I relate these circumstances to show you that a person who is ordained to the office of an Elder in this kingdom has the same Priesthood that the High Priests, that the Twelve Apostles, that the Seventies, and that the First Presidency hold; but all are not called to be one of the Twelve Apostles, nor are all called to be one of the First Presidency, nor to be one of the First Presidents of all the Seventies, nor to be one of the Presidents of a Quorum of Seventies, nor to preside over the High Priests’ Quorum; but every man in his order and place, possessing a portion of the same Priesthood, according to the gifts and callings to each. Does not this clear up the subject? [Voices: “It does.“] This will explain it to you so that you can understand it. When we find where our callings and positions are in the midst of the people of God, and every person wil– ling to act in the discharge of his duty, there is enough for us all to do. All persons can have all they desire to do to promote the kingdom of God on the earth; they can exercise themselves in all that God has granted to them to prove themselves worthy before God and the people.

I will again refer to the office of a Bishop. If you will look over the revelations and search the Scriptures, you will find that the office of Bishop was bestowed upon Aaron, Moses’ half-brother, for certain services he had performed, which Priesthood was to continue with Aaron’s posterity. We have not the literal descendants of Aaron in the Church to fill the Bishopric, but the Church is mostly composed of the literal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are entitled to the Melchizedek Priesthood, that holds the keys of all the Priesthoods ever delivered to the children of men. But we want Bishops in the Church. Here are brethren settling in different neighborhoods, and we learn that the office of a Bishop is to attend to the temporal affairs of the Church—to see that the poor are taken care of—to see that the brethren judiciously and wisely conduct themselves in the capacity of a community. The President of the Church cannot attend to these temporal affairs in all the different settlements, and the Twelve Apostles are away preaching, and the Seventies are away preaching, and the High Priests are scattered here and there in their local capacity; and we want men who are literal descendants of Aaron to act in the Aaronic Priesthood, to which pertains the Bishopric; but we have not got them. Under these circumstances, we take a High Priest and ordain him to the office of a Bishop, to which he is not entitled by lineage; but in his calling he possesses the keys and power of the holy Priesthood of the Son of God on the earth, and this qualifies him to officiate in all the lesser offices. We take this man and set him apart to be a Bishop. “What! Ordain a High Priest to the lesser Priesthood?” No; we call it ordaining a Bishop; and though we say, “We ordain you to be a Bishop, with our hands upon your head,” it really and virtually means, “We set you apart to officiate as a Bishop in the midst of the people of God, by virtue of your holy Priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of God. We set you apart to officiate in this office of the Aaronic Priesthood, blessing you with all the keys and authority of the same.” This Bishop can call two men to be his Counselors, but it would not be so if we had a literal descendant of Aaron. When we find such a man, and he is ordained to act or is set apart to act in his lineal Priesthood, he is to all intents and purposes a Bishop, and needs no Counselors. This seems to be a great curiosity. A man who is a Priest, and cannot hold any higher office, can preside as a Bishop over a community of people where he is appointed to preside, and dictate the temporal affairs of the people of God, and that too without a Counselor from among his brethren; but a High Priest cannot act in this office without two Counselors. Is not this a novel thing—a strange peculiarity? It requires three High Priests to perform the duties, fill the office, and attend to the callings of a literal descendant of Aaron, who cannot hold a higher Priesthood. That is the order, and what Joseph did is according to the revelation he received.

When we take a High Priest and set him apart to officiate in the office of a Priest as a Priest or as a Bishop, while he is acting in this calling do we expect him to officiate as a High Priest? When Bishop Miller finds that the Seventies in his Ward are teaching doctrine that he does not believe in, he has nothing to do with the matter while acting in the capacity of a Bishop. He would say, “I stand here as your Bishop, and I have nothing to do with the doctrines you teach. I cannot control the higher Priesthood, while in my present calling. I cannot officiate here as an Apostle, as a Revelator, as one who has authority to say, ‘Thus saith the Lord’ to the people concerning spiritual things.” The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us whom they are to be decided by. Though brother Miller, as a Bishop, should say nothing on controverted points of doctrine, yet he can meet with his brethren of the High Priesthood who may be in his neighborhood. Three High Priests form a Quorum; five form a Quorum; seven form a Quorum; twelve form a Quorum. Let a Quorum of High Priests go into an upper room, and there appear before the Lord in the garments of the holy Priesthood, and offer up before the Father, in the name of Jesus, the signs of the holy Priesthood, and then ask God to give a revelation concerning that doctrine, and they have a right to receive it. If you cannot get the information in any other way, suppose you were upon the islands of the sea, far away from the main body of the Church, you are entitled to the administration of angels who administer in the terrestrial kingdom; and they have a right to receive administrations from the celestial. In this capacity you could ask for revelations pertaining to doctrine.

In the capacity of a Bishop, has any person a right to direct the spiritual affairs of the kingdom of God? No. In that capacity his right is restricted to affairs in a temporal and moral point of view. He has a right to deal with the transgressor. I do not care what office a transgressor bears in the Church and kingdom of God, if he should be one of the Twelve Apostles, and come into a Bishop’s neighborhood, and purloin his neighbor’s goods, defile his neighbor’s bed, or commit any breach of the moral law, the Bishop has a right to take that man before himself and his council, and there hold him to answer for the crime he has been guilty of, and deal with him for his membership in the Church, and cut him off from the Church to all intents and purposes, to all time and eternity, if he will not make restitution and sincerely repent. “What! One of the Seventies?” Yes. “One of the High Priests?” Yes. “One of the Twelve Apostles?” Yes, anybody that happens to come into his neighborhood and transgresses the moral law. On the other hand, can the Seventies try a Bishop? No. Can the High Priests try him? No, unless they call twelve High Priests in the capacity of a High Council; and then you must have the Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood to preside over the council, and there you can try a Bishop. How curiously it is all woven together to make the fabric so strong that no one man or set of men can rend it asunder! The Lord has so effectually woven it for the salvation of the people, that it takes tremendous power to destroy it from the earth. All this is designed to guard against evil. A Bishop can try a man for a breach of moral conduct, but he cannot sit in judgment on controverted points of doctrine, for they are to be referred to those who hold the keys of the higher Priesthood, and their decision is the end of all strife.

In trying all matters of doctrine, to make a decision valid, it is necessary to obtain a unanimous voice, faith, and decision. In the capacity of a Quorum, the three First Presidents must be one in their voice—the Twelve Apostles must be unanimous in their voice, to obtain a righteous decision upon any matter that may come before them, as you may read in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Seventies may decide upon the same principle. Whenever you see these Quorums unanimous in their declaration, you may set it down as true. Let the Elders get together, being faithful and true; and when they agree upon any point, you may know that it is true.

I will now say a few words upon the callings of men in a neighborhood or Ward capacity. Some of the High Priests may be ordained to officiate in callings pertaining to the Church in Ward capacities. Now I will ask the Bishop of this Ward if he has a right to neglect this Ward to meet with the High Priests’ Quorum in their meetings. He has no such right—he has no right to neglect this Ward one minute for the sake of such meeting. That is not his right and calling when his services are required here as Bishop. There is a poor widow, a sick family, business is going at random here and there, and he has no right to believe that he has the privilege of leaving all his Ward to look out for themselves, and say, “If you do well, it is well: and if you do ill, I cannot help it, I am going to my Quorum meeting.” It is his duty to devote his time, from New Year’s morning to New Year’s morning again, for the benefit of his ward. He is placed to preside over it, and he will dictate all in his Ward. If he sees a Seventy or a High Priest squandering his property, or if he sees any getting drunk, gambling, or loafing about, wasting their time, he has a perfect right to call them to account.

We have mass Quorums of Seven– ties in most of the settlements in the Territory; and I have frequently thought, if the brethren did not improve pretty fast, the title would have to be altered a little; but as they have improved, we do not see any necessity for making the application and calling them muss Quorums. Joseph Smith never would permit the Seventies to get together and believe themselves a separate body from the rest of the Church. I never cared much about this, for I was not a particle afraid that they would get any power that truly does not belong to them; for, if they did, I was always satisfied that is would be blown to the four winds. I want to inform the Seventies living in Bishop Miller’s Ward (and what I now say applies to all the other Wards and Bishops), if he calls on them to act as Teachers, it is their imperative duty to act as Teachers, seeking to benefit and bless the people by enlarging their understandings, that they may prove themselves before God and one another. There is a world of intelligence to impart, and the Priesthood (in its various callings, appointments, helps, and governments), is the means, through its ministers, of imparting it to the people. It is not the duty of a Seventy or High Priest, who is appointed a Teacher or a Bishop, to neglect the duties of those callings to attend a Seventies’ or High Priests’ meeting. Attend to the wishes of your Bishop, and never ask who has the most power. The man who has the most power with God will wield it, and earth and hell cannot hinder it. Talk about power, and “I want you to give me influence!” There are but few things that offend me more than to have men come to me and say, “Brother Brigham, give me influence, for I am a great man in this kingdom.” And what would he do with it? He would take himself and all who would follow him to the Devil. Every man who has true influence has obtained it before God through faithfulness, and in all such cases there is not the least danger but what he will have it before the Saints. It is the man who converses with the heavens, who delights in doing so, and knows for himself that this is the kingdom of God, who has true influence.

As I said last Sabbath, the greatest proof and the least to prove that this is the kingdom of God, consists in its embracing every truth and rejecting every error, and that embraces God and heaven and all holy beings. Who, then, has the greatest power? Those who best do the will of God. When a Bishop calls upon a man to officiate as an assistant to him, he does not call upon him as a Seventy or as a High Priest, but as one of his own family—as a member of his Ward. You know what the Spirit of the Lord teaches me, to see that the widows go not hungry, that the orphans are clothed, and every able-bodied man is judiciously and profitably employed, and that every man is doing his duty—to see that the cattle and wagons are got together when they are wanted; and it is as much the duty of the Seventies to look after these matters as it is the duty of any of their brethren. When the Bishops say, “Go and drive that team, do this, or do that,” “Oh yes,” says a Seventy, “with all my heart.” “Bishop, we thought we would meet once a week as Seventies or High Priests; can we have your permission?” “Yes; go to the schoolhouse and sound life eternal to the people.”

Told by their President to have a muss Quorum meeting here! No; no such power is vested in the Seventies anywhere. No man gets power from God to raise disturbance in any Branch of the Church. Such power is obtained from an evil source.

Now, High Priests and Apostles, go to with your might and assist your Bishops in providing for the widows and fatherless.

If Bishop Miller is not responsible for this Ward, to dictate all this Ward, who is? He is the man that is appointed here to preside, and as a High Priest he has a right to meet with his brethren of that Quorum, and to baptize, confirm, bless children, administer to the sick, and perform all other duties pertaining to the office and calling of a High Priest. His being a Bishop does not take away any of his Priesthood or power.

May God bless you! Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1861.

I have no objections to the tenor of the remarks we have just heard pertaining to our temporal affairs, though they are rather more appropriate, according to custom, in such a meeting as we had last evening with the Bishops, High Priests, &c. I wish to say a few words on the subject last spoken of by brother Kimball. I think he will be very successful in obtaining oil from flax or linseed. For a beginning, and for persons that never saw oil made before, which is the case with the workmen who are making it—they knew nothing about making oil—I think they have done extraordinary well. If I remember correctly, in the States five quarts of oil from a bushel of seed was considered a good yield. There I was some little acquainted with making oil, and very much acquainted with using it.

Brother Kimball spoke of the oil that is imported to this country. I am doubtful whether there has ever been a gallon of pure linseed oil imported into this Territory; and the person that told brother Kimball that he could reduce his oil so that the adulteration could not be detected, is mistaken, for I could detect it by rubbing it between my fingers. Before I knew anything of “Mormonism,” I knew how to adulterate oil. Brother Kimball says that alkali is often mixed with linseed oil. In my young days I had to quit the business of painting purely because I had either to be dishonest or quit; and I quit. I will venture to say that, let me have the oil that is made at brother Kimball’s mill, and have pure white lead of our own manufacture, and I will put a coat of paint on to the outside woodwork of buildings that will last twenty years, better than the materials we import and now use for painting will last two years. When you buy the oil that is imported and make putty with it and what is commonly called Spanish white—if you set glass in windows with that putty, in a year or two the glass will be falling out; but when you use the pure oil, in two years you could scarcely get the glass out without the use of a knife or chisel to first cut out the putty. Let it stand ten years, and probably you would have to cut the sash to pieces to let the glass out. The oil we get from the East is worth but little, only for present show. That which we make here will last in this climate.

Our painters tell us that it is the climate that destroys the paint. I do not think there is a painter in this Territory that knows what pure linseed oil is. They tell us that the climate destroys the paint. That is a mistake; the paint is not good. Can you tell whether there is alkali mixed with the linseed oil? I can. I can also tell whether there is Spanish white in the paint. Plaster of Paris (by some called Paris white) is also mixed with white lead, and our houses are painted with it. Other paints are adulterated. I pay from thirty to fifty dollars to have a carriage painted, and in three months it needs painting again. Let it stand six months, and you would hardly suppose that it had been painted in sixteen years.

We ought to have spoken last night in regard to raising flax in this Territory, and I will now say to the brethren that we wish them to return the flax seed they have borrowed at the Tithing Office. We also wish you to raise flax and make linen cloth. We have as good workmen at this business as there are in the world. The American brethren do not generally know how to raise flax for making fine linen, but they can easily learn. Instead of sowing five pecks to the acre, sow five or more bushels, and you will raise flax as soft as silk; from such flax fibers can be hatcheled as fine as spinster’s webs. Most of the linen we import is more than half cotton. The flax is put into machines and cut and torn to pieces; it then goes through another rotting process, is then mixed with cotton, carded, spun, and called linen. I once in a while see a genuine piece of linen, which will as well last six years as the most we buy will last six months, if it is not washed to death. This you know, if you have been accustomed to using tow cloth. In clearing out brush, cutting down trees, logging, and all kinds of rough work, the one or two pairs of genuine tow trousers and a couple of tow frocks will last through a summer; but put on that heavy so-called linen you buy in the stores, and do nothing but come into a pulpit, and before you have had it three months it is cut to pieces and en– tirely done. But I will not detain you longer upon this point.

Brother Kimball mentioned about some of the brethren’s sending to the States for nails. Send to the States, go to the stores, buy where you please, and do you think that you can get better nails than you can get at our nail factory? I know what nails are; I have driven a great many. There is not a better nail made at Boston or in Germany than there is at this factory. I never saw a better nail, nor better nail machinery than that which we have running.

We should now make our own iron. We have already spent about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to make iron here, but we have failed, not for want of ore or for want of skill. Where is the difficulty? There has not been union enough in the men who engaged in that work. After we had spent about one hundred thousand dollars, an ingenious man, named Peter Shirts, would have brought out the iron as good as ever was made, and that, too, by means of a small furnace of trifling cost; but they ran him out of the county. The citizens pronounced him a nuisance, confiscated his property, and drove him out. Every man said—“I will have the name and honor of making the first iron made in this Territory, or I will destroy the work.” That is the difficulty. We have the best of iron ore, and we have coal close by it; and some man will go to work, by-and-by, who is not worth fifty dollars, and make iron. Go into Vermont and you will there see a farmer, when he has a little leisure, take his wagon, get the ore, smelt it, hammer it out, and make two or three hundred pounds of iron in a day. He takes care of it, and by-and-by someone comes along and buys it of him. Travel through that country, and you will find hundreds of such little iron forges. Men who do not pretend even to be blacksmiths get some person to teach them how to use a trip hammer to draw out the iron after they have put on their blast and run out some two or three hundred pounds. On a rainy day a farmer has his ore ready and makes iron when he cannot work in the field. We have shown you that we can make nails. I cannot do everything. Who has brought carding machines and other machinery here? Who has entered into every kind of mechanism that has been started in this Territory? Twelve thousand dollars we have spent to get the manufacture of pottery under way. By-and-by some man will come along, not worth fifty dollars, and take the feldspar, which enters so largely into our granite rock, and make the best of chinaware.

We want glass. Some man will come along, by-and-by, and take the quartz rock, rig up a little furnace, and make glass.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1861.

I wish to speak upon what pertains to our temporal affairs, which I would very well have liked to have been brought before the Bishops’ meeting without detaining a congregation like this on such matters. I wish to urge upon the people the necessity of providing for themselves, and not being dependent entirely upon others.

The Lord has given us ability to do a great many things. What a blessing this is! Do you ever think of it? A man has ability to take the raw materials and build a good, comfortable habitation for the accommodation of himself, his wives, and children. The wife can spread a table with wholesome food, and in a manner pleasant to the eye, while the food is gratifying to the palate. They have the ability to provide, if they choose, downy beds upon which to rest their weary bodies. Do you ever think of this? I presume the greater part of the inhabitants of the earth have lived and died without reflecting much upon whence they derived this ability, to whom they were indebted for the ingenuity they possess, or the capability that is organized within them to gather around them the comforts of life. Do you, brethren, think of it?

We have ability to cultivate the earth; we know how to raise stock, how to make clothing, and are not obliged to go naked like the Indians. We are not obliged to lie down in the open air with perhaps a few sage brush around us, as do many of the natives. We have ability to make ourselves comfortable as to the physical wants of this life. Where did we get that ability? Are your hearts lifted to the Donor of those blessings? Do you remember from whence your ability came? Who organized these tabernacles? Who put into them these thinking powers? Who has placed the spirit in the body, and organized them together, and made us capable of reflecting? Where did you get this ability? A well-read historian and geographical scholar can contemplate his antipodes, and in his mind see what they are doing. He can also behold the various exhibitions of human skill in different nations; both in their social and political capacity; for they are in the vision of his mind. Who gave the ability to reflect and to behold the earth and the inhabitants thereof? Is not this a blessing? How cheering, how comforting, how consoling, how exalting! I would be glad if we could realize the blessings we possess.

The Lord has placed in our possession the elements pertaining to this earth. As I told the people, when we first came into this Valley in 1847, there is plenty of silk in the elements here, as much so as in any other part of the earth. Here is also the fine linen. Were there any sheep here when we came first here? No. Were there any silk raisers then here? No. Were there any flax raisers here? No; neither was there a stalk of flax growing, except what was growing wild. The elements are here. Bring the seeds, the eggs of the silkworm, raise the trees for feeding the worms, and let us see if we cannot produce silk here. It is in the elements. We have the elements to produce as good wheat as grows. The elements here will produce the apple, the peach, the pear, the plum, the apricot, the cherry, the currant, and every kind of fruit in abundance, and every variety of plant and vegetable we desire. Have you the ability to bring any of these things forth from the native element? Yes; here are men who know how to raise fruit, and here are the women who know how to dry and cook it. Here are the men who know how to raise sheep, and how to take their fleeces and deliver them into the hands of their families to be manufactured. Here are women who know how to spin, weave, and make the finest of cloth. So with the flax, and so with every material calculated to make us comfortable. Where did we get this ability? We got it from our Father who is in heaven. Be thankful for these precious gifts. As brother Kimball justly said, “Remember, first of all, the Giver;” worship and adore the Giver. Some will lose a great deal by neglecting the Giver and by worshipping the gift. Such will find that they will meet with losses.

I look forward to no distant period when this people, called Latter-day Saints, will be obliged to sustain themselves. We must prepare to gather around us every necessary of life, to make every implement we may wish to use, and to produce from the earth every grain, vegetable, and fruit that we need, and not go to any other place to buy. Produce every article of clothing that we need, and stop this importation that we are now encumbered with. We must produce all we can enjoy. I expect that I soon shall do so.

I will now make a request of the sisters—one which I wish them to hear, remember, and put in practice. Carefully save all castoff linen and cotton articles of dress, all old shirts, wagon covers, sheets, and every article of cotton and linen fabric, instead of letting them go to waste in your dooryards or in the streets; for we want those rags to supply the paper mill we are now putting up. We have as good machinery for making paper as there is in the United States or in the world. We have brought it here at a heavy expense—it has cost us some twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars. We are now putting it up, and we want the sisters to save rags, and we want the brethren to raise hemp, flax, &c. We want to make our own paper. The inquiry is, “Will it pay cost?” How much paper do we want to use? There is annually imported into and used in this Territory some thirty thousand dollars’ worth of paper. Were we making our own paper, much more would be used, for we could then fill the Territory with schoolbooks printed here, and could supply all the paper required throughout the Territory, thereby saving a great many thousand dollars now paid for transportation. We are not able to print a book for want of paper. Now we are prepared to go to work and make our own paper. As I have remarked, we have most excellent machinery; we also have good papermakers; and what hinders our making the best of paper, and all the paper we want to use? Then we can print, in book form, the History of Joseph Smith, and do it in a respectable manner. Then we can print the Church History for ourselves and for the world, and every book we need. To aid in accomplishing so laudable an object, I want the sisters to gather the rags and hand them over to the Bishops, and we will pay for them with paper. We also want hemp, flax, and every material suitable for making good paper.

There are a great many things we wish to talk about; and I do not wish, if we could well avoid it, to bring such things before the Conference, especially on the Sabbath. The sacrament is being administered, and we would like to talk about the spiritual welfare of the people; but if we cannot save ourselves temporally, we may despair of saving ourselves or the people spiritually. The first thing is to save our natural lives and devote them to building up the kingdom of God on the earth.

Place ourselves back ten centuries, read the prophecies, and behold by prophetic vision what the Lord was going to do in the latter days. “The time is coming when the Saints are to be called, and they will assemble themselves together.” “Can it be possible?” “Yes; for the Prophets have foretold it.” “The time is coming when the Lord will speak from the heavens and send his angel to administer to men on earth, when the Priesthood will be restored and bestowed upon the children of men. Look forth in vision and behold these events.” They would appear far more beautiful than they appear to the natural man while acting in them. I sometimes think that we are far beneath our privileges in a spiritual point of view. The Prophets and other ancient holy men saw our day. They did not look at the human family now upon the stage of action in all their weaknesses; they did not see every little trifling affair, every little quarrel that more or less embitters life; they did not see our darkness and contentions, sorrow, pain, anguish, grief, and strife. No; they beheld the glory of God resting upon the people, as we now enjoy it.

Many sects and societies of people have at different times tried to assemble themselves together, because it was in the prophecies that the Saints should be assembled in the latter days—that the Lord God would gather his people. They have tried to gather their societies, but what have they effected? Comparatively nothing. If the Lord had spoken from heaven to them and revealed only this one privilege, and no more, that Christians might assemble themselves together, and live, walk, talk, and commune with each other uninterruptedly, without being obliged to mingle with the world, they would have esteemed it one of the greatest blessings that could have been bestowed upon them.

I shall repeat my request to these my sisters. We wish you to save every article about your house that will make paper, instead of throwing it away. Put the rags in a way that they will get to the paper mill, which is four miles from here. We have taken the Sugar House and converted it into a paper mill, and we will try to make paper, if we did not make sugar. And I urge it upon the brethren to raise sheep, save the wool, and put it in the hands of their wives and daughters. And I enjoin it upon the sister, old and young, to make clothing for their husbands, brothers, children, and themselves, and stop running after imported goods.

In regard to the quality and utility of calico, by some called prints, I can speak from actual knowledge. Take a good seamstress who has four children, and let her sew from Monday morning until Saturday might, and she can scarcely make up the calicos as fast as those four children will wear it out; and let her do her washing to please her, and she will want help in the house, or the children will have to go dirty and ragged. What are these imported rags good for? They are hardly worth making up. There is not half the calico that comes here that is worth making up, if you give it to the people free of charge, if they could do better. Now we can do better.

Raise flax, brethren. There is no place in the world where flax and hemp will grow better than they will here, though they will not do well in every locality. Hunt out places and soil most suitable for flax and hemp, and there let them be grown: also raise and take care of sheep. It is thought by some that this country is unhealthy for sheep, but it is not. There is not a climate or soil better adapted to sheep raising than are these mountains. Some may think that other countries are better, but they are not, so far as I am acquainted. But keep hundreds and hundreds of sheep in a small pen, shut them in there nights, with hardly room to lie down, and let them remain there until ten or eleven o’clock in the day, before they are turned out to grass, as has been done here more or less, and it would kill every sheep in England or Scotland. Let them have plenty of room by day and by night, and they will not become diseased. Give them well-ventilated pens, proper exercise, and proper food, and you will not see them diseased. The disease that is among our sheep is not natural to the climate; it was brought here, and has been fostered by bad management.

When you find the soil that will produce the best and greatest amount of sugar—that best adapted to raising cane, let the cane be raised there, and there let the molasses and sugar be made. Just now we want our quarter-of-an-acre of cane, our quarter-of-an-acre of flax and hemp, our proportion of wheat, corn, and everything else; but by-and-by our labors will be systematized, and we will find the place where we can raise the best cane, and let that place be devoted to raising it, and make sugar, and stop importing it. The English brethren and the brethren from the Eastern and Northern and Western States and from the Canadas know nothing about making sugar from the cane; and when they see newly-made cane sugar, they say it is not good. I have never seen a purer article of sugar made than is made here. Eat the new cane sugar that is made in the Southern States, and it has a very unpleasant taste. Take our sugar and cleanse it as they do, and let it stand until it is ripe for the market, and you will find as good an article of cane sugar as ever was made. The Chinese sugar cane is a better plant to produce sweet than is the cane they raise in the South and on the West India Islands. We can make our own sugar. We send out a large amount of money to buy sugar, and we want this practice stopped. Now, farmers, raise what sugar you want: you can do it as well as not. Go into the business systematically.

You know that we all profess to believe the “Word of Wisdom.” There has been a great deal said about it, more in former than in latter years. We, as Latter-day Saints, care but little about tobacco; but, as “Mormons,” we use a vast quantity of it. As Saints, we use but little; as “Mormons,” we use a great deal. How much do you suppose goes annually from this Territory, and has for ten or twelve years past, in gold and silver, to supply the people with tobacco? I will say $60,000. Brother William H. Hooper, our Delegate in Congress, came here in 1849, and during about eight years he was selling goods his sales for tobacco alone amounted to over $28,000 a year. At the same time there were other stores that sold their share and drew their share of the money expended yearly, besides what has been brought in by the keg and by the half keg. The traders and passing emigration have sold tons of tobacco, besides what is sold here regularly. I say that $60,000 annually is the smallest figure I can estimate the sales at. Tobacco can be raised here as well as it can be raised in any other place. It wants attention and care. If we use it, let us raise it here. I recommend for some man to go to raising tobacco. One man, who came here last fall, is going to do so; and if he is diligent, he will raise quite a quantity. I want to see some man go to and make a business of raising tobacco and stop sending money out the Territory for that article.

Some of the brethren are very strenuous upon the “Word of Wisdom,” and would like to have me preach upon it, and urge it upon the brethren, and make it a test of fellowship. I do not think that I shall do so. I have never done so. We annually expend only $60,000 to break the “Word of Wisdom,” and we can save the money and still break it, if we will break it. Some would ask brother Brigham whether he keeps the “Word of Wisdom.” No: and I can say still further, as I told one of the teachers in Nauvoo, I come as near doing so as any man in this generation. It is not using tobacco that particularly breaks the “Word of Wisdom,” nor is that the only bad practice it corrects; but it is profitable in every path of life. If our young persons were manly enough to govern their appetites a little, they would not contract these bad habits; but they must have some weaknesses; they must not be perfect and exactly right in everything. It is a loathsome practice to use tobacco in any way. A doctor told an old lady in New York, when she insisted upon his telling her whether snuff would injure her brain, “It will not hurt the brain: there is no fear of snuff’s hurting the brain of anyone, for no person that has brains will take snuff.” I will say that the most filthy way of using tobacco is to smoke it. What is the neat way? If you are going to direct any course for the people to use tobacco, let us know what it is. Cannot you who have used it for years point out a neat, modest, judicious way of using it? The “Word of Wisdom” says that tobacco is good for sick cattle; and when you want another chew, down with it as you would a pill. It may make you vomit a little, but that is soon over, and it is good for sick cattle. That is the neatest way you can use tobacco.

I will now speak a little in regard to people’s making themselves happy. We heard something upon that subject today and yesterday; and we frequently hear people preaching about heaven, paradise, and Zion; and if there is a comfort, a felicity, and good feeling, I want to say a few words about them; and I shall begin upon the doctrine so much beloved by Saint and sinner, and that is the plurality of women. The Saints like a plurality of wives, and the sinners like a plurality of men and women. I will say to the sisters that I have heard but very few women, and not a great many men, ever talk sensibly upon the plurality of wives. When they begin to talk about it, they exhibit, almost without an exception, passion instead of principle. Were we to appeal to passions of the people, we should promote the doctrine of a plurality of men and of women. But when we address ourselves to the Saints of the Most High God, it is very different and in a different light. It is for my sisters to be mothers of holy men and holy women—to receive and conceive in the name and by the power of the Holy Ghost—to bring forth their fruits to the praise and honor of the God of heaven. But what are the people doing here? “I want another wife,” and almost universally passion is exhibited instead of principle.

If the plurality of wives is to pander to the low passions of men and women, the sooner it is abolished the better. “How far would you go in abolishing it?” I would say, if the Lord should reveal that it is his will to go so far as to become a Shaking Quaker, Amen to it, and let the sexes have no connection. If so far as for a man to have but one wife, let it be so. The word and will of the Lord is what I want—the will and mind of God. He has revealed his mind and will. The time is coming when the Lord is going to raise up a holy nation. He will bring up a royal Priesthood upon the earth, and he has introduced a plurality of wives for that express purpose, and not to gratify lustful passion in the least. I would rather take my valise in my hand today, and never see a wife or a child again, and preach the Gospel until I go into the grave, than to live as I do, unless God commands it. I never entered into the order of plurality of wives to gratify passion. And were I now asked whether I desired and wanted another wife, my reply would be, It should be one by whom the Spirit will bring forth noble children. I am almost sixty years old; and if I now live for passion, I pray the Lord Almighty to take my life from the earth.

I know the weaknesses of humanity, and I understand the passions of men and women. I am sorry for them. I wish they had grace according to their day, creating such fortitude in them that they would determine to suffer unto death rather than violate a holy command of the Almighty, or transgress the bounds God has set. “Is that the way you have lived?” It is. It is the example I have set before my family from the day the Lord opened my mind to see the Gospel. Ask these sisters (many of them have known me for years), what my life has been in private and in public. It has been like the angel Gabriel’s, if he had visited you; and I can live so still. But how are we to be made happy? There is one course—love the Giver more than the gift; love Him that has placed passion in me more than my passions. Let passion lie at the feet of judgment, and let every attribute that God has bestowed on me be devoted to the righteous cause he has commenced upon the earth. This, and this alone, produces happiness. He has brought us forth, and we live and see this day that Prophets, kings, and millions of great and good men have prayed to see, but died without the sight. When they looked at it in vision, it cast a halo, around which was like the dawning of heaven to their souls, and they shouted, “Hallelujah!” beholding the spirit and glory of these times that we now live in. And we yield to passion? I say, Shame on the individual that says passion has anything to do with his life. It is crucified. It lies, as it were, at the foot of the cross. That is my faith, and it has been my life.

How will you be happy? Love the Giver more than the gift. Delight yourselves in your duties, mothers. Here are the middle-aged and the young. I am now almost daily sealing young girls to men of age and experience. Love your duties, sisters. Are you sealed to a good man? Yes, to a man of God. It is for you to bear fruit and bring forth, to the praise of God, the spirits that are born in yonder heavens and are to take tabernacles on the earth. You have the privilege of forming tabernacles for those spirits, instead of their being brought into this wicked world, that God may have a royal Priesthood, a royal people, on the earth. That is what plurality of wives is for, and not to gratify lustful desires. Sisters, do you wish to make yourselves happy? Then what is your duty? It is for you to bear children, in the name of the Lord, that are full of faith and the power of God—to receive, conceive, bear, and bring forth in the name of Israel’s God, that you may have the honor of being the mothers of great and good men—of kings, princes, and potentates that shall yet live on the earth and govern and control the nations. Do you look forward to that? Or are you tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you? I would not care whether they loved a particle or not; but I would cry out, like one of old, in the joy of my heart, “I have got a man from the Lord!” “Hallelujah! I am a mother—I have borne an image of God!” Let your prayers ascend to God, and that continually, that he will overshadow the child by the power of the Holy Ghost before and after its birth—that the Holy Ghost may attend it continually. The mother should inquire what her duty is. It is to teach her children holiness, prayer to God, and to trust in Him. Teach them the holy religion and the commandments that are calculated to sanctify the people and bring them into the presence of our Father and God. But no; too often it is passion. If my passion is served, I am in heaven. The fire will have to burn them up. We must live by principle; and if we do, we shall attain to perfection—to being crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives. I would rather be purified here than to live ten thousand years to attain the same point in another existence. The man that enters into this order by the prompting of passion, and not with a view to honor God and carry out his purposes, the curse of God will rest upon him, and that which he seems to have will be taken from him and given to those that act according to principle. Remember it.

The world cries out against this obnoxious doctrine, that I should have more wives than one. And what would they do? Destroy the virtue of every woman in this community if they had the power. What do they care about virtue? With comparatively few exceptions, no more than do the devils in hell. Most of the officers who have been sent here would have defiled every bed in this Territory, had they have had the power. Tell about this doctrine’s being obnoxious to their delicate feelings! Yes, it is, in one sense. It keeps them at bay; it is hell to them; it is burning them up; and I say they may burn up, and they will.

Elders of Israel, have you entered into the doctrine that has been revealed, through passion? If you have, you will find that that course will take that which you seem to have, and the Lord will say—“Let this man, that man, or the other man go, for he has acted on passion, and not on principle. Take that which he seems to have, and give it to him that has been faithful with the five, the two, the three, or the one talent.” That is the way it will be, by-and-by.

Sisters, do not ask whether you can make yourselves happy, but whether you can do your husband’s will, if he is a good man. Teach your children; for you are their guardians, to act as father and mother to them until they are out of your care. The teachings and examples of our mothers have formed, to a great extent, our characters and directed our lives. This is their right, when they act by the power of the Priesthood, to direct the child until it is of a proper age, and then hand it over to the husband and father, and into the hands of God, with such faith and such love of virtue and truth, and with such love of God and its parents, that that child can never suppose that it is out of the hand and from under the control of the parent. Do not call it “mine.” Let your maxim be, “This is not mine,” whether you have one child or a dozen. “It is not mine, but the Lord has seen fit to let me bear the souls of the children of men. It is from my Father and God, and I will do my duty and hand it over to him,” and have that faith that the child can never wring itself out of the hands of a good father and mother—can never stray away—no, never. That is the privilege of mothers. It is you who guide the affections and feelings of the child. It is the mothers, after all, that rule the nations of the earth. They form, dictate, and direct the minds of statesmen, and the feelings, course, life, notions, and sentiments of the great and the small, of kings, rulers, governors, and of the people in general.

Now, mothers, act upon principle, and see whether you can do anything to promote happiness in your families; see whether you can guide the minds of your children, teach them their letters, &c. I thought to speak upon the last-named point, but I will omit it. You can, at least, teach your children faith, and pay attention to knitting their stockings, making their clothing, &c.; see that the chickens are taken care of, that the milk is cleanly milked from the cow, and that the children are made comfortable. And if your husband is here or there, do not fret yourselves, whether he leaves you or not. If he is a good man, he can take care of himself, and will safely return to you again. The mother that takes this course will be a happy mother—a happy woman. But where you find women jealous of each other, and “I am watching my husband,” I would ask, Where are your children? They are nearly all the time in the mud, or in some mischief. And what are you doing, mother? You are “watching that man.” “Who is he?” “He is my husband.” I used to tell the sisters in Nauvoo that they did not care where their children were, if they could only keep in sight of their husbands.

A traveler in the Eastern country overtook an old gentleman walking towards a town, and asked him, “Who is the great man of that little town? Who is your leading man? Who is the governor and controlling spirit of that little place?” The old gentleman replied, “I am the king of that little town.” “Really,” says the traveler, “are you the leading man?” “Yes, sir, I am king in that place, and reign as king.” “How do you make this to appear? Are you in affluent circumstances?” “No, I am poor; but in that little village there are so many children. All those children go to my school; I rule the children, and they rule their parents, and that makes me king.” I frequently think of this. Let the children rule the mother, and the mother the father, and that makes the children kings. How frequently you find this. How is it, my brethren? When you call your families together for prayers, where are your children? Were this question asked me, I should say, “I do not know.” Mothers, where are your children? “We do not know; it is as much as we can do to be here.” Why do you not have your children together? It is your duty to look after them; they should not be running at random in the streets. Some mothers will put a ten-dollar frock on a child and let it go straight into the mud, while they are watching the father and trying to keep him in bounds. Take care of your children, clothe them comfortably, and avoid all extravagance.

I am ashamed, not only in my own family, but others, to see the gewgaws that are so often put upon children, when an antelope skin or a piece of blue factory would make much more suitable clothing for them. Dress them in strong, durable cloth, and that, too, made by your own hands. But no; the finest fabrics must be put upon them to play in. Some, if they could get it, would put fifty dollars’ worth on a child, and send him into the streets to ride upon rails, climb trees, &c. And when prayer time comes, the husband inquires, “Where are your children?” “I don’t know.” It is your duty, mothers, to look after them; and when you have your children in the prayer room, tell them that their father is coming to pray with them. Also, let it be your delight that your children do not waste bread and other food. If you have bread to spare, give it to the poor, and see that your children do not destroy it. Do not let them destroy valuable clothing, but put strong, durable cloth upon them, and save where you can, and give it to gathering the poor. I do not rule my family with an iron hand, as many do, but in kindness and with pleasant words; and if soft words would teach them, they would know as much as any family on this earth. See that your children are taught every principle of goodness and virtue, and do not let them run uncontrolled in the streets, with expensive food in their hands to waste and expensive clothing upon their backs to tear and destroy. If you get a frock worth three dollars when a two-dollar one will answer, and maybe last longer, you might have saved a dollar to give for gathering the poor. Treat your children like children.

Some mothers try to make father believe that a child five years old knows as much as the father. Another great cause of dissatisfaction is that so many women are such noble women, and know so much more than their husbands. They say, “This man is not capable of leading me.” That is a positive proof to me that that man does not know his ability and calling. I will acknowledge that many women are smarter than their husbands. But when people are married, instead of trying to get rid of each other, reflect that you have made your choice, and strive to honor and keep it. Do not manifest that you have acted unwisely, and say that you have made a bad choice, nor let anybody know that you think you have. You made your choice; stick to it, and strive to comfort and assist each other.

There are other things that I would like to speak about, but I will now stop speaking. God bless you! Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1861.

We have always had larger congregations on such occasions as this than we have had buildings to accommodate; and had it not been that I requested the brethren of the city to tarry at home, so as to give room to these who should come from a distance, the house would have been crowded to overflowing, and there would have been a large congregation outside. I do not know that, this side of the day of rest that we are looking for, we shall ever have a building large enough to accommodate our congregations. When we have overcome the enemy to righteousness and have a thousand years to work unmolested, I think that we then can build a room that will contain as many people as can hear the speaker’s voice. We have the privilege, it is true, of assembling in the open air, where most of our Conferences have been held.

We now enjoy the anniversary of our General Conference. The Church is thirty-one years old today. It seems but a short time—but a few days, since there were only six mem– bers in this Church. It seems but a short time since I desired most fervently to see someone who was a foreigner baptized into this Church. I well remember how anxious I was that an English preacher belonging to the Independents, and with whom I was acquainted, should come into the Church, that he could go to his native land and preach the Gospel there. What were the feelings of the few, thirty-one years ago today?

Brother Kimball observed in his remarks, that he could recollect the history of this Church from its beginning, and understood the persecutions against this people. The Book of Mormon was translated near where we then resided, as we might say, in our own neighborhood. It was translated about as far from where brother Kimball then lived as it is from here to Little Cottonwood; and where Joseph first discovered the plates was about as far from where I then lived as it is from here to Provo. Here we would have considered the discoverer of those plates and the translator of the Book of Mormon as one of our neighbors. We are in the habit here of traveling more frequently and further than we were there. From the time that Joseph had his first revelation, in the neighborhood where brother Kimball and I then lived, appears but a few days. Since then this people have passed through, experienced, and learned a great deal.

If there is a person in the midst of the Latter-day Saints—one who has named the name of Christ as a Latter-day Saint, that can ask for any more literal testimony than we have, I do not know what he would ask. He might wish to see some person that had power to bring fire down from heaven. Should such a person appear, the exercise of that power would by no means prove that he was a messenger of salvation. Or suppose that I should see a man capable of raising the dead every hour in a day, could I merely for that believe he was sent of God? No. Some may think it strange, but should I see a man come along here and cast his cane on the floor, and it became a serpent and ran out of the door, would I anymore believe that man to be sent of God? No, I would not. Were I to see a person fill the air with living creatures, turn the dust into life, or the river Jordan into blood, do you suppose I would any more for that consider that man sent of God? Not in the least. There is but one witness—one testimony, pertaining to the evidence of the Gospel of the Son of God, and that is the Spirit that he diffused among his disciples. Do his will, and we shall know whether he speaks by the authority of the Father or of himself. Do as he commands us to do, and we shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God or not. It is only by the revelations of the Spirit that we can know the things of God.

Suppose that we should see a man capable of raising the dead and he should say, “Consequently, I ought to be the leader of the Church—the legitimate heir that God has appointed to perform his work in the last days,” would I for that believe him? No. I have never seen the day, since I arrived at the years of discretion, when it would have made any difference in my feelings. Almost one of the first things I read in the Bible was that Saul, in his darkness and unbelief, called on the Witch of Endor for a revelation, and she had power to raise Samuel from the dead. What proof was that that she was a Saint of God? If the people want anymore witness than they have, I do not know what they would call for. Seek for the Spirit of Truth, and that will bring all things to your remembrance that Jesus spake and performed—all that has been, is, and that which is to come, so far as may be necessary. That is the Spirit by which Joseph spoke.

I am thankful that we live to see this day, and have the privilege of assembling ourselves in these valleys. We are not now mingling in the turmoils of strife, warring, and contention, that we would have been obliged to have mingled in, had not the Lord suffered us to have been driven to these mountains—one of the greatest blessings that could have been visited upon us. It has been designed for many generations to hide up the Saints in the last days until the indignation of the Almighty be over. His wrath will be poured out upon the nations of the earth. We see the nations steadily driving along to the precipice. The Lord has spoken from the heavens, and he is about to fulfil the prophecies of his ancient and modern Prophets. He will bring the nations into judgment, and deal with them and make a full end of them. Do you wish to see it done today? Are you prepared for the crisis that will eventually come? No.

I have frequently thought upon the preparation that is necessary. Suppose the word should come, “Return and build up the Center Stake of Zion,” are we ready for it? No. I have often alluded to our mechanics. We have not a mechanic that would know how to lay the first stone for the foundation of the wall around the New Jerusalem, to say nothing about the temples of our God. Are you prepared for the day of vengeance to come, when the Lord will consume the wicked by the brightness of his coming? No. Then do not be too anxious for the Lord to hasten his work. Let our anxiety be centered upon this one thing, the sanctification of our own hearts, the purifying of our own affections, the preparing of ourselves for the approach of the events that are hastening upon us. This should be our concern, this should be our study, this should be our daily prayer, and not to be in a hurry to see the overthrow of the wicked. Be careful; for if they were all to be overthrown at once, how many would there be left that are called Saints? Not as many as I would have remain. We are prepared for the day that is approaching: let us then prepare ourselves for the presence of our Master—for the coming of the Son of Man. The wicked and the ungodly are preparing for their own utter overthrow, and the nation in which we live is doing so as fast as the wheels of time can roll, and ere long sudden destruction will come upon them. Seek not to hasten it, but be satisfied to let the Lord have his own time and way, and be patient. Seek to have the Spirit of Christ, that we may wait patiently the time of the Lord, and prepare ourselves for the times that are coming. This is our duty.

We are blessed in these mountains. This is the best place on the earth for the Latter-day Saints. Search the history of all the nations, and every geographical position on the face of the earth, and you cannot find another situation so well adapted for the Saints as are these mountains. Here is the place in which the Lord designed to hide his people. Be thankful for it; be true to your covenants; be faithful, each and every one. How frequently we hear from each other, “Be ready to receive the truth. If it is contrary to our feelings—let it be ever so opposite to our own feelings or affections—receive the words of counsel from those who are appointed to lead us.” How my heart longs to see the brethren and sisters in a condition that when the words of truth and virtue—righteous words of counsel—are poured upon them, they will meet like drops of water meeting each other. How I long to see the brethren, when they hear the words of truth poured upon them, ready to receive those words because they are perfectly congenial to their feelings, and every soul exclaim, “Those words savor of the Spirit that is in me; they are my delight, my meat, and my drink; they are the streams of eternal life. How congenial they are, instead of their being contrary to my feelings.”

If I or any other man give counsel that meets with opposition, that intrudes upon the affections, meditations, and feelings of the people, and is harsh to their ears, bitter to their souls, it is either not the words of truth, or they have not the fountain of life within them, one of the two. If the Lord speaks from the heavens, reveals his will, and it comes in contact with our feelings and notions of things, or with our judgments, we are destitute of that fountain of truth which we should possess. If our hearts are filled with the Spirit of truth, with the Spirit of the Lord, no matter what the true words from heaven are, when God speaks, all his subjects shout “Hallelujah! Praise God! We are ready to receive those words, for they are true.”

Much has been said in regard to the Government in which we live. We say that it is the best form of human government upon the earth. The laws and institutions are good, but how can a republican government stand? Did you ever ask yourselves this question? I wonder whether our great men of the nation have ever asked themselves this question. The heads of different departments—governors, judges, cabinet officers, senators, representatives, presidents—I wonder whether they ever ask themselves the question, “How can a republican government stand?” There is only one way for it to stand. It can endure; but how? It can endure, as the government of heaven endures, upon the eternal rock of truth and virtue; and that is the only basis upon which any government can endure. Let the people become corrupt, let them begin to deceive each other, and they will all deceive themselves, as our Government has. When we made application to the General Government for a restoration of our property and rights in Missouri, if Martin Van Buren had said, “Yes, I will restore your lands to you, and will defend you in the possession of your rights, if I have power; and if I have not, my name shall not remain as President of the United States,” he could have reinstated us in our rights. A few words from the General Government to the Government of Missouri would have restored to us our lands and stayed the operations of the mob. If Van Buren had said, “Be still, or I will chasten you and keep sacred the oath of my office,” we should not have been mobbed, and the nation would not have been as it is today.

Our present President, what is his strength? It is like a rope of sand, or like a rope made of water. He is as weak as water. What can he do? Very little. Has he power to execute the laws? No. I am an American-born citizen—born under the Green Mountains in Vermont, from whose summits you can look down upon the Atlantic States; and I feel chagrined and mortified when I reflect upon the condition of my nation. Of late, at times, I have almost wished that I had been born in a foreign nation. I feel disgraced in having been born under a government that has so little power, disposition, and influence for truth and right; but I cannot help it. What is the cause of their weakness and imbecility? They have left the paths of truth and virtue, they have joined themselves to falsehood, they have made lies their refuge, they have turned aside the innocent from their rights, and justified the iniquitous doers. They have justified thieving and lying and every species of debauchery; they have fostered those who have purloined money out of the public treasury—those who have plundered the coffers of the people, and have said, “Let it be so; you secrete my faults, you assist me to plunder and deceive, and I am with you to cover up your iniquity.” Shame, shame on the rulers of the nation! I feel myself disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen, though I think I shall live through it. I will endure it as well as I can; but the corruption, the iniquity, and the deception of men in high places no man can tell.

I have previously related one little circumstance, which occurred not long ago, illustrative of the mode in which payment of claims against the Government is sometimes secured. A certain gentleman had attended many sessions of Congress, trying to get payment of a claim due to widows and orphans; but could not. In a short time, the claim was adjusted. Brother George A. Smith, when in Washington, saw a gentleman who had been years in endeavoring to get a claim allowed and paid; one thousand dollars more to grease the wheels, and through it went—the claim was paid. We have long been trying to get our claims paid for expenditures in quelling Indian disturbances in 1853. When the appropriation had reached the last move to be made, it could not go. “What is the matter?” “Somebody is throwing sand on the axletree, and the wheel is stuck.” “What must be done?” “Thirteen hundred dollars must grease it.” It then moved through—the appropriation was made. It is so all the time—every day. These instances are comparatively of little moment, and I merely allude to them to show how minutely corruption prevails where justice should exist.

These corruptions flow very naturally from the indebtedness contracted to attain power. In elections, the successful become indebted to their friends; and they promise them the patronage of the President, that they shall be sent as a minister to such or such a country, or be appointed a judge here or there, or a governor yonder. They cannot obtain their election without paying largely for it, both in promises and money; and to recover the means, they must either become thieves or repudiate their debts. “Such a one owes me so much for contributing to his election, and he will not pay me.” It often happens that he cannot, unless he steals it.

The whole Government is gone; it is as weak as water. I heard Joseph Smith say, nearly thirty years ago, “They shall have mobbing to their heart’s content, if they do not redress the wrongs of the Latter-day Saints.” Mobs will not decrease, but will increase until the whole Government becomes a mob, and eventually it will be State against State, city against city, neighborhood against neighborhood, Methodists against Methodists, and so on. Probably you remember reading, not a week ago, an account of a Conference being held in Baltimore, in the course of which they seceded from their fellow churches in the free States. It will be the same with other denominations of professing Christians, and it will be Christian against Christian, and man against man; and those who will not take up the sword against their neighbors must flee to Zion.

Where is Zion? Let us be prepared to receive the honorable men of the earth—those who are good. Are there any good people among them? Yes, hundreds and thousands and thousands right in our Government, rotten as it is; but they are so priest-ridden that they have no mind of their own—they have not strength and fortitude. And I ask you, and I can appeal to your own experience, place any of us back in the midst of our old neighbors, would it not be hard to break out and say, “We are Latter-day Saints and followers of Joseph Smith; we believe ‘Mormonism:’ good bye?” There are hundreds and thousands in this situation in the States, who desire to see truth, righteousness, and right prevail; but they have not strength and power of mind to break loose and say, “We will be for God and none else.” They follow the customs of their fathers, and more or less cling to the faith and religion of their fathers. They are bound down with priestcraft. I look forward to the days when their bands will be broken. I pray this people to do right. Purify yourselves, sanctify yourselves, and prepare to receive those persons into everlasting habitations. It is time to close our forenoon meeting. This afternoon, probably, we will take up the business of the Conference, and continue our meeting; and when we are through and wish to adjourn, we will do so. We all feel like praying for the prosperity of the kingdom. The whole body is continually seeking the welfare of each individual part. The eye wishes the foot well, the foot wishes the head well, and will walk to get food for the head and stomach, and they are united, and we shall become more and more united. And I pray that the Lord will pour out his grace on his sons and daughters, and I pray the Saints to improve upon it until we are sanctified. God bless you! Amen.