A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, November 2, 1856.

I am very thankful for the privilege that I enjoy this morning, with so many of the Latter-day Saints. I am thankful that we have the privilege of assembling here to worship the Lord in so comfortable a building, and in quite a moderate climate. I am happy for the privilege of addressing the Saints, and I could hope with all my heart, that I may never be called upon to address any other class of people; still, the Gospel must be preached to the world, that the wicked may be left without excuse. We have done a great deal of preaching and talking to persons that knew nothing of the Gospel of salvation, and I have occupied many years in trying to lay before the inhabitants of the earth the principles of life and salvation, until, through the providence of God, I have been called to other duties than to mingle or associate with those who would not believe and practice the Gospel. Still, I should have been more than satisfied, had my duty led me in a path to associate, more or less, with unbelievers, for I can say that I would rather preach to them, would rather associate with them, would rather take my chance among a people who have never heard the Gospel preached at all, than to live in the midst of the ungodly. The term ungodly conveys an idea to my mind, perhaps, that it does not to all present, for it is a fact that a man or woman must know the ways of God before they can become ungodly. Persons may be sinners, may be un– righteous, may be wicked, who have never heard the plan of salvation, who are even unacquainted with the history of the Son of Man, or who have heard of the name of the Savior, and, perhaps, the history of his life while on the earth, but have been taught unbelief through their tradition and education; but to be ungodly, in the strict sense of the word, they must measurably understand godliness.

It is lamentable to any person who understands by the visions of eternity the plan of salvation, the providences of God to His creatures, to see one who has his mind opened to see, understand, and embrace the principles of life and salvation in his faith, and who has the privilege of being adopted into the family of heaven, of becoming an heir with the Saints that have formerly lived upon the earth, an heir with the Prophets and with Jesus Christ, and of being numbered with the children of the Most High, with a legal administrator to officiate for the attainment of all these privileges, and to open the door of salvation and admittance into the kingdom, neglect so great a salvation. But for any of this people who enjoy the privilege of seeking unto the Lord their God, of being made acquainted with the ways of life and salvation, to procure to themselves an eternal exaltation, who have the privilege of preparing themselves to dwell with Christ in the presence of their Father and their God, of being joint heirs with Christ, and with all the Holy Ones that have lived, to turn from those holy commandments, to cease or neglect performing every duty made known to them, and to let the gay and giddy fancies of this life entangle their feelings, and draw them from the principles of eternal salvation, is most astonishing to me, or to any person that ever had the vision of their minds opened.

Every principle of philosophy that is known upon the face of the earth, every argument and reason that can be adduced, would prove that such a man or woman was taking a course destructive to themselves; that they were blindfolding themselves by shutting their own eyes, and, literally speaking, rushing to a precipice from whose verge they would be dashed to pieces. It is most astonishing to every principle of intelligence that any man or woman will close their eyes upon eternal things after they have been made acquainted with them, and let the gay things of this world, the lusts of the eye, and the lusts of the flesh, entangle their minds and draw them one hair’s breadth from the principles of life.

True there are many in the world who profess to be what we call infidels, who have no knowledge of anything beyond the researches of their education, who have not the faculty to pry into and understand things beyond what they can see with their natural eyes, hear with their ears, or comprehend with their natural understandings; yet there are but few that are really left indeed in the dark, left to be in reality what they profess to be. And those few have not one particle of good sound reason, not one argument on their side, to prove that a licentious, ungodly life is of any advantage to any person on the earth, but will argue the point, and that strenuously, that strict morality should be observed among all intelligences, and an honest bearing, an upright walk, and a gen– tlemanly conversation, not giving way to vulgarity and foul language, nor doing anything in the dark that they would not be willing to be scanned in daylight. For all this they argue strenuously, and yet say that they know nothing about God and eternity. We are here, we exist on the earth. I am sure that I am alive, for I can see others living. I am endowed with a certain degree of intelligence, where did it come from? An infidel might say, “I do not know.” Where did I originate? “I do not know.” Who was the maker and former of all we can see? “I do not know.” Yet those very characters will argue the necessity of a moral life, of an honest upright walk, one with the other.

But what are their arguments and what are their hopes? Why, they say, “We are today, tomorrow, perhaps, we shall be no more. We came into existence, but how we cannot tell. We have no faith, or belief, or confidence in the God that you Christians talk about; we have no confidence in His providence; by chance we are, and by chance we shall go and be no more.” Do you not perceive that their arguments land them in the vortex of ignorance and unbelief, of misery and annihilation? Go into the world and observe those who do not possess principles that reach into eternity, and that are in eternity, principles by which they exist and by which God created all things, and you will see that those principles are lost to them, and that, whether they believe in those principles or not, their course and profession will land them without an existence, or the possession of the least thing in heaven, earth, or hell.

These reflections bring to my understanding the greatest ignorance that can be manifested by an intelligent people, those in particular that are now before me, who have had the privilege of the holy Gospel and neg– lected their duty, turned away from the holy commandments, and ceased to live their religion in every point; such conduct does manifest the greatest weakness, ignorance, foolery, and wickedness that can be produced by intelligences. If you comprehend my ideas you will agree with me, for no sensible man or woman can see the subject in any different light. If we are here by chance, if we happened to slip into this world from nothing, we shall soon slip out of this world to nothing, hence nothing will remain; consequently we have nothing to gain or lose. But the man of better judgment, of more sound reasoning, must know that everything that was, that is, or that will be, everything that can be in all the eternities in the vast expanse that we behold, must have had a Creator. No principles exhibited to the human family will suggest that a book, a bench, a house, a tree, or any growing or manufactured article, can be produced without a producer. All we know, all we see, hear, and understand, proves to us that there is no fabric without a constructor.

These reflections lead me to contrast the world with a people like this before me, a people endowed with intelligence and a knowledge of heavenly principles. That is our profession before the world, and is our confession to God and angels, to all that have lived on the earth and that are now on it; and you will hear the world exclaim, “You poor Mormons, you Latter-day Saints that have left your homes, your houses, your friends, your families, your possessions, the place of your birth, and everything that is near and dear to you, you say that the visions of your minds have been opened, that you have had the visions of eternity opened to your understanding, so that you do know that there is a God, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world; so that you do know of the principles of life and salvation proffered to you; and for these you have forsaken all and gone to the mountains.”

Of these things the whole world are witnesses against us and for us, wherever the sound of this Gospel has been; and you can hardly find a nook on the earth where the sound of it has not reached, for it has gone to the uttermost parts of the earth, and hosts are witnesses of this. Yet all acknowledge that you have something superior, that you have light and intelligence that others do not enjoy; that God has opened up the heavens to your minds, and taken away the veil from your understandings. And you say that there is a God, that you understand His character, that He has revealed Himself to you, and that you have left all and come to the mountains, and what is the cry here? Why the people need reforming, there is necessity for reformation.

“I am thankful,” says one, “that I found the spirit of reformation when I came home.” What would an angel of the Lord say, if he came here, or a devil either? “O, shame on these Latter-day Saints, it is a disgrace to intelligence, to your officers as Elders in Israel, to your characters, to your names and beings on the earth, that you have had the visions of eternity opened to you, and many have forsaken everything that is near and dear to them by way of preparation for the Celestial kingdom, and now cry out the necessity of a reformation. It is most astonishing.” I will leave it to every man, woman, and child, if it does not look strange. What! Reformation? Yes, for in one sense we intend, that is as knowledge comes to us, to reform daily. But shall the sound go forth that we do not see and understand things as we did when in England, in France, in Germany, in Denmark, in the East Indies, or anywhere else on this earth? This sound goes forth, it is echoed by the angels into the ears of our God and Father in eternity, and it is carried on the wings of the wind over the earth, that the Latter-day Saints are digging and toiling, going by sea and by land, traversing distances of thousands of miles and circumscribing the earth to be with their brethren, and when they get here they need reforming. Why? Because they have backslidden.

You may ask me whether there is a need of reformation. Yes; and if I were to dictate you how to reform I should have to tell the old story over again, as I already have hundreds of times. First, reform as to your moral character, dealing, walk, precepts and examples. Reform first morally, before you get down before the Lord and plead with Him for the visions of eternity to be opened to your understandings, before you ask for the veil to be taken from your eyes. First reform in your moral character and conduct one towards another, so that every man and woman will deal honestly, and walk uprightly with one another, and extend the arm of charity and benevolence to each other, as necessity requires. Be moral and strictly honest in every point, before you ask God to reform your spirit.

If the people in their present situation and mode of dealing in this city, to say nothing of those out of the city, all go to work now and have meetings and call upon God to get the spirit of reformation, but sing and pray about doing right without doing it, instead of singing themselves away to “everlasting bliss,” they will sing and pray themselves into hell, shouting hallelujah. You cannot be saved by any other principle than that of the holy Gospel; and if you live in the neglect of the performance of the duties that you know are required at your hands, if you do not walk uprightly before God and your brethren, if you do not deal justly with one another, if you do not walk in honesty and soberness with one another, your faith is vain and your reformation is vain. You must repent of your evil deeds and first of all morally reform yourselves, before you can ask God for His Spirit to reform and enlighten your spirits. This is my doctrine and philosophy; were it not, I would say, let those who steal, steal on; and you that are in the habit of swearing, swear away; and you that have been in the habit of taking advantage of each other, cheat away; and those who lie, lie away; and you that trespass upon your brother, trespass away; and so continue, Christian like, only be sure, just as you are going to die, to look out and not have death catch you asleep, that when it comes you may be awake enough just to repent of all your sins and turn to God, and then you will be as fit subjects for heaven as powder would be for a burning dwelling. Our limekiln, when it is burning to its zenith, would be as fit a place for a powder house, as is the celestial kingdom for such characters.

Do you think that I am telling you the truth? I do not care one groat whether you think that I am telling you the truth, or not; for when the day comes that we shall be weighed in the balance, you will know. I am charged by the whole world with almost every degree of immoral conduct, with the most erroneous practices that were ever indulged in by any person on the earth, and for what? Because I have such an influence over these men who are sitting here; because you all hearken to your leader. I would to God that this was altogether the truth, for I tell you, in the name of the Lord, that there would not be a professed Latter-day Saint in this Territory, but what would live his religion. They think we are all one, but when the Saints gather here they are far from being one; they have not yet learned to be one in Christ, they do not understand the principle of being one in a church capacity, to say nothing about being one in a family capacity, or in a neighborhood capacity. The people might have known, long ago, what the difficulty is, if the influences, temptations, and lusts that are in us naturally are given way to, and we are led captive at the will of him that rules the world; that forms the grand difficulty.

Do you want to know the reason why I speak of our being so comfortably situated this morning in so comfortable a meetinghouse? We can return home and sit down and warm our feet before the fire, and can eat our bread and butter, &c., but my mind is yonder in the snow, where those immigrating Saints are, and my mind has been with them ever since I had the report of their start from Winter Quarters (Florence), on the 3rd of September. I cannot talk about anything, I cannot go out or come in, but what in every minute or two minutes my mind reverts to them; and the questions—whereabouts are my brethren and sisters who are on the Plains, and what is their condition—force themselves upon me and annoy my feelings all the time. And were I to answer my own feelings, I should do so by undertaking to do what the conference voted I should not do, that is, I should be with them now in the snow, even though it should be up to the knees, up to the waist, or up to the neck. My mind is there, and my faith is there; I have a great many reflections about them.

Have any of you suffered while coming here? Yes. How many of you sisters present buried your husbands, or your fathers, or your mothers, or children, on the Plains? How many of you brethren buried your wives? Have you suffered, and been in peril and trouble? Yes, you had to endure anguish and pain from the effects of cholera, toil, and weariness. Do you live your religion when you get here, after all the trouble, afflictions, and pains you have passed through to come to Zion? And to a pretty Zion! Men and women start across the Plains for this place, and are they willing to wade through the snow? Yes. To travel through snow storms? Yes. To wade rivers? Yes. What for? To get to Zion. And here we are in Zion, and what a Zion! Where it is necessary for the cry of reformation to go through the land, both a spiritual and temporal reformation. God is more merciful than man can be, and it is well for us. Again, when I consider the backsliding of the people, and their sins, I will not ask God to be more merciful, and have more sympathy towards me, than I have for my brethren and sisters.

A good many teams have already gone out to meet the Saints who are struggling to gain this place; I can hardly keep from talking about them all the time, for when I am preaching they are uppermost in my mind. The brethren were liberal last Sunday in turning out to meet them with teams, still if any more feel desirous of going to their assistance, I will give them the privilege, and advise them to take feed, not only for their own animals, but also for those of the brethren who have already gone out, for they will very likely be short. But I should be more particularly thankful if the minds of this community could be so impressed and stirred up, so wakened up, that when those poor brethren and sisters who are now on the Plains do arrive they may be able to say of a truth and in very deed, “God be thanked, we have got to Zion.” But fearfulness and forebodings of disappointment to them are in my feelings. How far they may be disappointed, I do not know.

I do not wish to be personal in this congregation, but let me say to the authorities, to the Elders of Israel, the Seventies, High Priests, Bishops, or any other quorum or class of officers, if you will appoint meetings and have only those present whom we wish to be there, I will then tell you how to commence a reformation. I will there be particular and personal in my remarks, if necessary, and I will talk to you as severely as I already have to some of the quorums. Now then, morally reform. “In what?” In everything. Reform your moral character, and be at least as moral as you would if you belonged to a Methodist, Presbyterian, or Baptist church, or to the Roman Catholics: be as moral as those classes of people, for heaven’s sake. Then there will be a chance for you to reform in spirit, and to get the light of eternity to shine upon your efforts.

There are a great many things to be taught and practiced. I have frequently thought that I would rather preach to and baptize new converts than to fashion over the old ones, for you can seldom get a good pattern out of them. Some will be full of seams and checks, and you never can make a sound piece out of them. If I had the material to work with I would rather make new ones, than patch up the old ones: but as we have not the new materials to work upon, we must patch up the old ones. Patch up yourselves—make your characters comely to each other. I am not so anxious about the Spirit; let a man walk as pure and holy as the Gods and angels, and then see if there will not be the light of eternity in him. Let a man or woman walk without spot or blemish and the Spirit and power of God Almighty will be with them all the time, and the angels of God will be round about them all the time, they will be preserved to do the will of God preparatory to an eternal exaltation.

Do not talk to me and tell me that you are so backslidden and dark, but reform and get the light of God within you. Some get up here and say, “I will live my religion, I will brethren; O pray for me, I will live my religion, if it costs me my life.” Yes, some of the great men of Israel talk in that style. Some of the Presidents come here and say, “I will live my religion, God being my helper, if it takes away my life.” When a man talks about his religion costing him his life, I want to ask that man if he has any common sense about him. Have you any true philosophy, argument, light, or intelligence in the least degree? “O yes, we are philosophers.” Then ask yourselves from whence you derive your lives, your means, your property, everything you can enjoy in time and eternity. Do you receive them outside of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No you do not. And still a man will get up here and say, “I will serve the Lord, if it costs me my life.” I will say what I said yesterday, such a man is a fool. Such a man is condemned, and the wrath of God is upon him. His eyes are closed, and he is no more fit for a President of the Seventies, or any other quorum, than a red hot limekiln is for a powder house. Cut such a man off from the Church, for he has backslidden to that degree that nothing but death stares him in the face, when he looks to God and Christ with a view of keeping their law. We wish those rotten branches cut off from the Church, severed from the trunk of the tree; slash them off, and put a little wax on where you cut the limb off, that the wound may heal over, and the tree grow more thrifty. May the Lord bless us. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, November 2, 1856.

Brother Kimball, in his remarks, touched upon an idea that had not previously entered my mind, that is, that some of the people were dissatisfied with me and my counselors, on account of the lateness of this season’s immigration. I do not know but what such may be the case, as I am aware that those persons now on the Plains have a great many friends and relatives here; but it never came into my mind that I was in the least degree censurable for any person’s being now upon the Plains. Why? Because there is not the least shadow of reason for casting such censure upon me. I am about as free from what is called jealousy, as any man that lives; I am not jealous of anybody, though I know what the feeling is; but it never troubled me much, even in my younger days. Neither am I suspicious of my brethren, therefore I was not suspecting any censure of the kind just named.

Aside from entire want of foundation, and aside from my freedom from jealousy and suspicion, there are other reasons why I could not be expected to have indulged in the suspicion of such a charge. Our general epistles usually go from here twice a year, and the immigration, the gathering of the people, is dictated in those epistles, with a considerable degree of minute detail; I also advance many ideas on the same subject, from time to time, which are written and published; and I write a great many letters on this subject, and many of these are published.

There is not a person, who knows anything about the counsel of the First Presidency concerning the immigration, but what knows that we have recommended it to start in season. True, we have not expressly, and with a penalty, forbidden the immigration to start late, but hereafter I am going to lay an injunction and place a penalty, to be suffered by any Elder or Elders who will start the immigration across the Plains after a given time; and the penalty shall be that they shall be severed from the Church, for I will not have such late starts. You know my life; there is not a person in this Church and kingdom but what must acknowledge that gold and silver, houses and lands, &c., do multiply in my hands. There is not an individual but what must acknowledge that I am as good a financier as they ever knew, in all things that I put my hands to. This is well known by the people, and they consider me a frugal, saving man, therefore there is no ground or room for their suspecting that my mismanagement caused the present sufferings on the Plains. I presume that brother Kimball never would have thought of such an idea, had he not heard it.

Say that we start a company from the Missouri River as late as the first of June, and allow them three months in which to perform the journey, then they have time to travel moderately and one month of good weather for leeway, in which to finish the journey, provided they do not complete it in three months; then they may be ninety days or more in coming a thousand miles, which a child of four years old could walk it in that time. They may stop and feed their teams, and after they arrive they will have the autumn in which to look round and prepare for winter. This is my policy, and then during the first half of the journey the cattle can get what is called prairie grass while it is at its best, for it is easily killed by frost, and cattle must have the privilege of feeding upon it before it is too dry, or frostbitten. The month of June is the best month for that grass, and this all know who are acquainted with the western prairies. Then they come to the mountain grass in the latter part of their journey, which though probably dry by the time they get to it, is filled with nutrition, nearly as much so as grain, and will fatten cattle.

They can come along moderately, take their time, and arrive here in August. They should be here in that month, what for? To help us harvest our late wheat, corn, potatoes; to help get up wood, put up fences and prepare for winter. This plan also puts into the possession of newcomers time and ability to secure to themselves their winter’s provision. Do you not see that such is the result? I have known this all the time. I have always said, send the companies across the Plains early. Companies have suffered loss upon loss of lives and property, but never by the dictation of the First Presidency. Do you not readily understand that if the immigration had been here a few months ago, or by the first of September, that they would have had opportunity to rest, and then to secure wheat, to lay up a few potatoes, to get up wood and lay in the staple necessaries for winter?

But our Elders abroad say, by their conduct all the time, that we here in the mountains do not understand what is wanted in the east, as well as they do. They do not proclaim it in so many words, but their conduct does, and “by their fruits ye shall know them.” Their actions assert that they know more than we do, but I say that they do not. If they had sent our immigration in the season that they should have done, you and I could have kept our teams at home; we could have fenced our five and ten acre lots; we could have put in our fall wheat; could have got up wood for ourselves and for the poor that cannot help themselves; and thus we might have been providing for ourselves, and making ourselves comfortable; whereas, now your hands and mine are tied.

This people are this day deprived of thousands of acres of wheat that would have been sowed by this time, had it not been for the misconduct of our immigration affairs this year, and we would have had an early harvest, but now we may have to live on roots and weeds again before we get the wheat. I look at this matter as plainly as I do upon your faces. I have a philosophical forecast, and I do know the results of men’s work; I know what the conduct of this people will produce in their future life. If I have not this power naturally, God has surely given it to me.

Well, what shall be done? Why, we must bear it. The Elders east fancy that they know more about what is wanted here than we do, and we have to bear it. Let me have had the dictation of the emigration from Liverpool, and I could have brought many more persons here, and at a cost of not more than from three to five dollars of what it has now cost, provided I could have dictated matters at every point. That is not boasting; I only want to tell you that I know more than they know. But what have we to do now? We have to be compassionate, we have to be merciful to our brethren.

Here is brother Franklin D. Richards who has but little knowledge of business, except what he has learned in the Church; he came into the Church when a boy, and all the public business he has been in is the little he has done while in Liverpool, England; and here is brother Daniel Spencer, brother Richards’ First Counselor and a man of age and experience, and I do not know that I will attach blame to either of them. But if, while at the Missouri River, they had received a hint from any person on this earth, or if even a bird had chirped it in the ears of brothers Richards and Spencer, they would have known better than to rush men, women, and children on to the prairie in the autumn months, on the third of September, to travel over a thousand miles. I repeat that if a bird had chirped the inconsistency of such a course in their ears, they would have thought and considered for one moment, and would have stopped those men, women, and children there until another year.

If any man or woman complains of me or of my Counselors, in regard to the lateness of some of this season’s immigration, let the curse of God be on them and blast their substance with mildew and destruction, until their names are forgotten from the earth. I never thought of my being accused of advising or having anything to do with so late a start. The people must know that I know how to handle money and means, and I never supposed that anybody had a doubt of it. It will cost this people more to bring in those companies from the Plains, than it would to have seasonably brought them from the outfitting point on the Missouri River. I do not believe that the biggest fool in the community could entertain the thought that all this loss of life, time, and means, was through the mismanagement of the First Presidency.

I know how to dictate affairs; and no man need to have walked in darkness touching his duty with regard to the foreign immigration. You can read their duty in our epistles, letters, and sermons; and what is the purport of those documents, on this point? That we are new settlers in a wild and uninhabited country, and are thrown upon our own resources; that we need all our teams and means to prepare for those persons who are coming, instead of crippling us by taking our bread, men, and teams, and going out to meet them. And if the present system continues, this people will be found like the Kilkenny cats, which eat up each other clear to their tails, and they were left jumping at one another; such operations will financially use us up.

Last year my back and head ached, and I have been about half mad ever since, and that too righteously, because of the reckless squandering of means and leaving me to foot the bills. Last year, without asking me a word of counsel, without a word being spoken to me about the matter, there was over sixty thousand dollars of indebtedness incurred for me to pay. What for? To fetch a few immigrants here, when I could have brought the whole of them with one quarter of the means.

What is the cause of our immigration being so late this season? The ignorance and mismanagement of some who had to do with it, and still, perhaps they did the best they knew how.

Are those people in the frost and snow by my doings? No, my skirts are clear of their blood, God knows. If a bird had chirped in brother Franklin’s ears in Florence, and the brethren there had held a council, he would have stopped the rear companies there, and we would have been putting in our wheat, &c., instead of going on to the Plains and spending weeks and months to succor our brethren. I make these remarks because they are true.

As to the companies now out, we must bring them in; and another year we will send men to the Missouri River who understand the right management of affairs, and will send them in the speediest conveyances, so that they may not get the “big head” before they arrive there, and then they may be able to do as we tell them.

Can people come across the Plains with handcarts? Ask brothers Edmund Ellsworth, Daniel D. McArthur and William Bunker, who led the three handcart companies that have already arrived; and the brethren and sisters in those companies state that they crossed quicker and easier than the wagon companies.

Those who counseled the companies to come on have nearly all gone back to their assistance, after staying at home but about two days, after their return from a long mission, thus manifesting their faith by their works.

I cannot help what is out of my reach, but I am on hand to send more teams, and to send and send, until, if it is necessary, we are perfectly stopped in every kind of business. Brother Heber says that he will send another team, and I mean to send as many more as he does; I ought to send more than brother Heber, for I am fourteen days older than he is. I can send more teams, but I do not intend that the fetters shall be on me another season.

I will mention something more. You cannot hear George D. Grant, Daniel Spencer and others of the lately returned missionaries speak without eulogizing Franklin D. Richards. They are full of eulogizing Franklin D. Richards, but they need to be careful or they will have the “big head” and become as dead and devoid of the Spirit as old pumpkins. And with them it is, “What could I have done without brother George? And what could we have done without brother Franklin? And when you hear me calling you Rabbi, know ye that I want to be called Rabbi;” and so it goes, but I suppose that this is not what they do it for.

Don’t you know that I know whether you are good for anything, or not, without my praising you? I know all about you, without telling what great things you have done, and what you have not done. But the very spirit some have in them of pride, arrogance, and self-esteem, has led men and women to die on the Plains, by scores, at least their folly has. And if they had not had any such spirit about them, God would have whispered to them to have held a council, and would have stopped them from rushing their brethren and sisters into such suffering. But we must now rescue those people, and may God help us to do it. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 5, 1856.

I wish the most strict attention of the entire congregation, for if there is walking and talking within and around this bowery, a great many will not be able to hear. And I request those who wish to talk and whisper, to remove so far that they will not disturb the congregation today, nor during the Conference, as the assembly, undoubtedly, will be very large.

If we could possibly build a bowery, or a tabernacle, that would bring the people so near to us that we would not have to speak so loud, we should certainly do it; but this we cannot do, for by the time that we could build a tabernacle for seating fifteen thousand persons nearer the speaker than are the outskirts of this congregation, the people would have so increased, that we should just be as far from our object as now.

I shall require the people to be perfectly still, while they are here and we are trying to speak to them. Let there be no talking, whispering, nor shuffling of feet. It would be beneficial for mothers who have small children here that will cry, to leave the bowery, if they cannot keep their children still. I make this suggestion, in consequence of what has passed.

I will say, in regard to the sisters who bring children here to make a noise, they have never yet sufficiently thought, nor sufficiently considered their own place in this world, nor the place of others, to know that there is any other person living on the earth but themselves; and they think, when they hear people talk, that it is a noise through a dark veil. I cannot say much for the education, based on good feeling, that such persons have. Were I to describe it in a plain way, I should say that they are people of no breeding, that they were never bred but came up; that is about as good a character as I can afford to give to any mother that will keep a squalling child in a meeting. I have never said to the congregation, look and see who they are, for you may distinguish by your ears, without looking, the mothers that have had good teaching and been brought up in a civilized society.

So it is with some men; and to the disgrace of some of our police, I will state that in Conference times, and when we have unusually large assemblies, they will converse right in the congregation, and just on the outside, disturbing the meeting. I would that we had a police that understood good breeding. If the police want to know how to manage to keep order, notwithstanding I have frequently told them, I will now tell them again. Instead of shouting “silence,” go and touch the unruly person.

Were I a policeman I would follow a practice of my father’s; it used to be a word and a blow, with him, but the blow came first. I should act upon that plan, when persons are holding caucus meetings in or about our congregations; and if they would not desist, I would rap them hard enough for them to take the hint without my speaking.

I make these remarks, because I wish the brethren who will speak to you today, the Elders who have lately returned, to be heard. Those who speak in large assemblies understand that they often have to raise their voices as though they were giving commands to a large army, but we expect our Elders will speak as they have been in the habit of doing. If they can raise their voices above the crying of children and the talking and whispering of the people, so that all can hear, it will be well; but this we cannot expect.

Tomorrow our semi-annual Conference commences, and I notice that many have come in from a distance. We shall have large congregations during the Conference, and we wish perfect order maintained.

I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak today and during the Conference, it is this, on the 5th day of October, 1856, many of our brethren and sisters are on the Plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be—to get them here! I want the brethren who may speak to understand that their text is the people on the Plains, and the subject matter for this community is to send for them and bring them in before the winter sets in.

That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess, it is to save the people. We must bring them in from the Plains, and when we get them here, we will try to keep the same spirit that we have had, and teach them the way of life and salvation; tell them how they can be saved, and how they can save their friends. This is the salvation I am now seeking for, to save our bre– thren that would be apt to perish, or suffer extremely, if we do not send them assistance.

I shall call upon the Bishops this day, I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until next day, for sixty good mule teams and twelve or fifteen wagons. I do not want to send oxen, I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them; also twelve tons of flour and forty good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams. This is dividing my text into heads; first, forty good young men who know how to drive teams, to take charge of the teams that are now managed by men, women, and children who know nothing about driving them; second, sixty or sixty-five good spans of mules, or horses, with harness, whipple-trees, neck-yokes, stretchers, load chains, &c.; and, thirdly, twenty-four thousand pounds of flour, which we have on hand.

I will repeat the division; forty extra teamsters is number one; sixty spans of mules or horses is part of number two; twelve tons of flour, and wagons to take it, is number three; and, fourthly, I will allow the brethren to tell something about their missions, by way of exhortation to wind up with.

I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the Plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain; the preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you. Any man or woman can reason this out in their own minds, without trouble. The Gospel has been already preached to those brethren and sisters now on the Plains; they have believed and obeyed it, and are willing to do anything for salvation; they are doing all they can do, and the Lord has done all that is required of Him to do, and has given us power to bring them in from the Plains, and teach them the further things of the kingdom of God, and prepare them to enter into the celestial kingdom of their Father. First and foremost is to secure our own salvation and do right pertaining to ourselves, and then extend the hand of right to save others.

I have given you my text and the subject, and shall give way to the brethren, and request close attention, and that there be no noise; for I realize that men who go forth to preach are in the habit of speaking to small congregations, in small halls, where all can hear without much elevation of the voice. This cannot be done here, for we have to shout, and exercise our lungs to the utmost, to make so many people hear.

I am satisfied that the prayer by brother Spencer was not heard by one-third of the congregation this morning; a little moving of the feet, a little whispering, the noise occasioned by mothers trying to keep their children still, a little noise of this kind and a little of that, all tend to break the sound of the speaker’s voice, and the people cannot catch his words, and of course are not edified. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 28, 1856.

I think it is now proven to a certainty that men, women, and children can cross the Plains, from the settlements on the Missouri River to this place on foot, and draw handcarts, loaded with a good portion of the articles needed to sustain them on the way.

To me this is no more a matter of fact this morning, after seeing the companies that have crossed the Plains, than it was years ago. I have no different knowledge, feelings, or faith, upon this subject today than I have had from the beginning. It has been a matter of doubt with many of our Elders who have gone out to preach, and with many who have stayed at home, as to the propriety of starting a train upon the Plains for men, women, and children to walk.

Probably my faith has been based upon actual knowledge. There are a great many men who know but little about what they can do, and there are a great many women that never consider what they can perform; people do not fully reflect upon their own acts, upon their own ability, and therefore do not understand what they are capable of doing.

My reasoning has been like this: Take small children, those that are over five years of age, and if their steps were counted and measured, those that they take in the course of one day, you would find that they had taken enough to have traveled from twelve to twenty miles.

Count the steps that a woman takes when she is doing her work, let them be measured, and it will be found that in many instances she had taken steps enough to have traveled from fifteen to twenty miles a day; I will warrant this to be the case. The steps of women who spin would, in all probability, make from twenty to thirty miles a day.

So with men, they do not consider the steps they make when they are at their labor; they are all the time walking. Even our masons upon the walls are all the time stepping; they take a step almost at every breath.

Many people have believed that they could not walk much of a distance, if they had to walk right along in a road, but this is not so. Our carpenters, joiners, masons, tenders, road makers, tillers of the soil, and persons of almost all avocations in life, men, women, and children, are subject to continual travel. These things I have contemplated, and I have seen walking put into practice.

The longest journey on foot that ever I took at one time was in the year 1834, when a company of the brethren went up to Missouri, the next season after the Saints were driven out of Jackson County. Many in this congregation, and some on the stand, were in that company; brother Kimball and brother Woodruff were in it. We performed a journey of two thousand miles on foot; we star– ted on the 5th day of May, and accomplished that journey inside of three months, carrying our guns on our shoulders, doing our own cooking, &c. And instead of walking along without having to labor, much of the way we had to draw our baggage wagons through mud holes and over sections of bad road. Twenty or thirty men would take hold and draw a wagon up a hill, or through a mud hole; and it was seldom that I ever laid down to rest until eleven or twelve o’clock at night, and we always rose very early in the morning, I think the horn was blown at three o’clock to arouse us, to prepare breakfast, &c., and get an early start; and we averaged in the outward trip upwards of forty miles a day,

If we laid by a day, or half a day, we generally calculated to make the travel of the week average forty miles a day.

We spent considerable time in waiting upon the sick; and some days and nights the brethren who were able, were standing over the sick and dying, and burying the dead; we buried eighteen of the company. Notwithstanding all this, inside of three months we walked about two thousand miles.

I am not a good walker, though I have walked a great deal in the course of my life, but it is not natural to me to be a great walker. I have walked much during my missions to preach the Gospel; and we have many in this congregation who have walked from twenty to thirty miles on a Sabbath, after working hard all the week and then preached two or three times.

When I was in England I found that I was poor at walking, in comparison with the females there. Brother Edmund Ellsworth, who has led this first company of handcarts over the Plains, says that the females have stood the journey better than the males; taking the girls and the boys of equal age, the men and the women, and the females have best endured the travel.

In England I could walk comfortably with the men, but if the women undertook, they could easily outdo me in walking.

Our American women think it strange to advance such an idea as women’s walking. I will refer you to one individual that many of you know, and that is sister Turley, who now lives in San Bernardino; after working hard all the week, she and her husband frequently used to walk twenty or thirty miles on the Sabbath, and attend three meetings.

There are many in this congregation that used to walk and preach, and some of them did so on weekdays as well as on Sabbaths.

True, in those old countries people are not in the habit of taking journeys of hundreds of miles as the Americans do, but they walk through their towns and counties, throughout their circuits, and walk a great deal more and better than do the Americans.

The common people, the masses that work in the factories, do not own teams in the old countries, and if they wish to visit or go to a fair, they go on foot. If they should get any way of conveyance to places where the railroads have not yet reached, they hire a cart, or perhaps a wagon on springs, and six, eight, twelve, or twenty persons will get in and ride for a few miles; but that is only for the sake of the name of riding, and not particularly for the comfort of it, for they would, as a general thing, rather foot it than ride in many of their modes of conveyance.

To the American this seems strange; but you may go into Scotland and Wales, and then cross to the little island called Ireland, and then to France and the German States, and pass on to Italy, and you will find the generality of the people in the habit of performing their journeys on foot, not depending upon being conveyed in vehicles.

They are in the habit of working and walking, and their toils and labors are very excessive, and apparently without cessation. Go into the mountainous regions of some of these old countries, and you will see men, women, and children packing soil, like it would be to take it from the banks of Jordan and carry it halfway up the sides of these mountains, and, when they can get one, two, or three rods of level surface, making their gardens upon the rocks.

They will take cows up to such places, and pack up fodder, and there keep them, for they are not able to go down and feed and return again the same day.

They will walk on the brinks of precipices, clamber around the rocks, pack up the soil from the bottoms, and thus make a subsistence, raising a few potatoes and whatever vegetables they can, and there they live summer and winter; they are all the time toiling and laboring.

In many districts of England, it is the custom to put children into factories at five years of age, and there they remain so long as they live. Children from five years old and upwards, will go for miles to their labor early in the morning, winter and summer, and must be at the factory at factory time, and there they must stand upon their feet until they are dismissed for half an hour, or an hour, to eat their breakfast, or their dinner, and all the rest of the time they are upon their feet. They are used to labor, accustomed to being on their feet and walking.

We have not yet had a report from any of the brethren who have led the handcart companies, with regard to their traveling across the Plains, any more than to say they are here. I think brother Ellsworth says that seven persons died in his company, between here and Iowa City. How many died in the companies last year? How many will die in the companies who ride? Double that number, very likely. As for health, it is far healthier to walk than to ride, and better every way for the people. When they get up in the morning, instead of wearying the women with running through the long grass hunting the oxen, &c., they are there in camp, and if they wish to do any walking, they can take hold of their little handcarts and go on about their business. When they come to sandy hills, it is then no doubt hard. (Voice, they can then double teams.) Yes, they can easily double teams, for they are right on hand all the time.

The handcarts look rather broken up, but if they had been made of good seasoned timber, they would have come in as nice as when they started with them. True, the brethren and sisters that came in with handcarts have eaten up their provisions, and some have hired their clothing brought, and they had but little on their carts when they came in.

They also started with full loads, and I presume it was hard for them at first, but they became inured to it. And yesterday I heard many of them, and especially the women, observing to some of the sisters that came to see them, while they were questioning them about their journey across the Plains on foot, “that if we had the journey to perform again, and had our choice, we would go on foot rather than go with teams, and be plagued with oxen and wagons.” Why, I will answer one query, “We have not time to wait for oxen and wagons.”

The handcart companies that have come in, had a few strong teams with them, well able to travel, but the companies had to wait every day for these teams, and they hindered them exceedingly. If this is not so, let brother Ellsworth correct me; this is what I have heard some of them say.

They could have been here ten days ago, perhaps twelve, had it not been for waiting for the teams. If persons have a journey to perform and can get at railroad speed with handcarts, it is better than to drag along with ox teams.

This is the subject I have on my mind, and I presume the people feel as I do; it is an interesting subject, an interesting event in our history as a people. There is nothing that can be brought before the Latter-day Saints of deeper interest than to know how they can be gathered together, without so great an expense as has hitherto attended the gathering.

We know that our sorrows and our cares in this particular are measurably at an end if we can avoid buying teams and expensive outfits to bring the people here. We have now proved that they can come pretty much by themselves, working their way along and drawing their own provisions, and also their little ones, and the maimed, and old, and blind. If any way can be opened for the gathering together of the poor, it takes off a great burden and labor from the body of the people.

It is an interesting subject, and my feelings are precisely as they have been all the time. I have believed, and I believe today, that I can take my own family, my women and children, across those Plains, asking no odds of any team in the world, only what we make ourselves; and I believe I could beat any ox train at it. I have always believed it, I believe it today. I presume my family would feel, as others feel, that it is a hard task, a great trial; who can bear such great afflictions? To have to walk a thousand miles? Those who get into the Celestial Kingdom will count this a very light task in the end, and if they have to walk thousands of miles, they will feel themselves happy for the privilege, that they may know how to enjoy celestial glory.

I recollect that in my young days, before I made any profession of religion, when people were disposed to call me an infidel (though they did not know what infidelity was) because I did not believe in the sectarian religion, I could not see any utility in it, any further than a moral character was concerned, yet I believed the Bible. I felt in those days, after I had made a profession of religion, that if I could see the face of a Prophet, such as had lived on the earth in former times, a man that had revelations, to whom the heavens were opened, who knew God and His character, I would freely circumscribe the earth on my hands and knees; I thought that there was no hardship but what I would undergo, if I could see one person that knew what God is and where He is, what was His character, and what eternity was; and I presume that the people feel with regard to religion, to the doctrine of the Gospel, partially, if not altogether, as I did. They are very anxious to know the ways of life, they want to know the ways of God; they want to become acquainted with His character, to know who He is and what He is. They want to understand just as they are directed to understand in the New Testament, and said to be the words of the Savior, “this is eternal life, to know the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” To know that God, and to know Jesus, the people who wish to do right are willing to undergo anything. Those that gather here, if they will do the best they know, will know God, and Jesus whom He has sent, and be as familiar with Him as they can be with any character whose face they see not; they can know His character and understand His ways.

I shall now give way, and call upon brother Ellsworth to address you; and if any of the other brethren who have been called upon to come to the stand, are in the congregation, they will please come forward, for it is of great interest to me, to learn something of the travels of our brethren and sisters.

Instructions by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 21, 1856.

I have an impulse within me to preach the Gospel of salvation. I am here by the providence of our God; I have professed to be a teacher of righteousness for many years, and to preach the Gospel of salvation which is still within me, and I feel to pour it forth upon the people; and I present myself here this morning as a teacher in Israel, as a man having the words of eternal life for the people.

I feel to call upon this congregation to know whether any of them, or whether all of them wish salvation. If they do, I have the Gospel of salvation for them; and I call upon the people to know whether they are the friends of God, or only of themselves individually. I do not know of any better way to get an expression from the people, as to whether they wish the Gospel preached to them, whether they desire to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to obey his counsels, and live to his glory, denying themselves of worldly lusts and of everything that is sensual and contrary to his Gospel, and feel as though they wanted to be Saints of the Most High, than to have the brethren and sisters, those who so wish and desire, manifest it by rising upon their feet. You will observe all who do not rise. [The vast congregation all responded by standing up.] Take your seats again. You have manifested that you want to be Saints, and I am happy for the privilege of talking to such a people.

When we get the font prepared that is now being built, I will take you into the waters of baptism, if you repent of your sins. If you will covenant to live your religion and be Saints of the Most High, you shall have that privilege, and I will have the honor of baptizing you in that font, or of seeing that it is done.

As for living here, as I have done for a length of time, hid up in the chambers of the Lord, with a people that are full of contention, full of covetousness, full of pride, and full of iniquity, I will not do it. And if the people will not repent, let the sinners and hypocrites look out. I will repent with you and I will try with my might to get the spirit of my calling; and if I have not that spirit now to a fulness, I will get more of it, so as to enjoy it to its fulness. And if I should be filled with the power and spirit of the mission that is upon me, I shall not spare the wicked; I shall be like a flaming sword against them, and so will all those that live their religion; it is not to be suffered any longer.

As I told you last Sabbath, if I was not mistaken, my feelings were that this people were preparing themselves, many of them, for apostasy; were preparing themselves for the apostasy of their neighbors and their families; their children and their friends were all leading the way of the sinner. I had not then an idea that I was mistaken; I have not now an idea that I am mistaken. I understand these things perfectly well; and if the people are disposed to awake out of their lethargy and walk up to their religion, to their duty, to the highest privilege that ever was or ever can be granted to mortal man upon this earth, which is eternal life, and will do so, then we will be brethren. And if not, the thread must be severed, for I cannot hold men and women in fellowship that serve the devil and themselves, and give no heed to the Almighty; I cannot do it.

This people have been taught a great deal; they have had principle and doctrine fed to them till they are surfeited; and where is the man, the officer, or the community, that understands what has been taught them? There may be one here and there that understands, but generally the eyes of the people are closed upon eternal things, and they seek for that which pleases the eye, that which is in accordance with the lusts of the flesh, that which is full of iniquity, and they care not for the righteousness of our God.

I repeat that, as for as those who are disposed to refrain from their evils, to renew their covenants and live their religion, I will have the honor and you the privilege of going forth and renewing your covenants, otherwise their must be a separation. Let those who have been with us ten or fifteen years, who have passed through the sorrowful scenes that Joseph and many others who have gone behind the veil had to wade through, look back and see the hand of God that has led us to a land where we enjoy liberty, where we enjoy all the freedom that ever the city of Enoch enjoyed, until they were more perfectly made acquainted with God. All that we can enjoy more than we do, unless we further acquaint ourselves with our God and become His friends and His associates, will be but very little more than we now possess.

I tell you that this people will not be suffered to walk as they have walked, to do as they have done, to live as they have lived. God will have a reckoning with us ere long, and we must refrain from our evils and turn to the Lord our God, or He will come out in judgment against us. I refer to the doctrine and the teachings that have been laid before this people; and I will say that it would take me weeks and months to tell you what has been already told you. But it passes into your ears and out again, and is no more remembered.

Show me the man who knows enough about his God, and is sufficiently acquainted with the principle of eternal lives to be able to say, “I can handle the gold and the silver, the goods, the chattels, and the possessions of this world, with my heart no more set upon them than it is upon the wind. I know how to use them, to deal out this and to distribute that, and to do all to the glory of my Father in heaven.” If there is one in this congregation that knows how to do all this, will you please to rise up? These are things that I have taught you week after week, and year after year, but do you understand them? No. You may say, with shamefacedness, that there is hardly a man in this congregation that can righteously manage even earthly things. Just as quick as you are prospered you are lost to the Lord, you are filled with darkness.

Do you think the angels of the Lord lust after the things that are before them? All heaven is before us, and all this earth, the gold and the silver, all these are at our command, and shall we lust after them? They are all within our reach; they are for the Saints whom God loves, even all who fix their minds upon Him and the interests of His king– dom. Our Father possesses all the riches of eternity, and all those riches are vouchsafed unto us, and yet we lust after them.

I have taught you these things weeks and months ago, and yet there is not a man or woman in this congregation that understands them in their fulness. These are simple principles that should be learned; and although they have been taught you from time to time, yet you have not learned them. And for me to repeat to you what I have taught you, and what my brethren have taught you, would take me weeks.

And notwithstanding all that has been taught, still the people are full of idolatry, the spirit of contention and the spirit of the world are in them, and they are full of the things of the world.

Well, I just say, my brethren and sisters, it cannot be suffered any longer, a separation must take place; you must part with your sins, or the righteous must be separated from the ungodly. I will now give way, and call upon others of the brethren to speak to you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 21, 1856.

Before I sit down, I shall offer a proposition to the congregation; though I will first say a few words concerning our religion, our circumstances, and the circumstances of the brethren and people generally that inhabit these valleys, but more especially of these that have the privilege of assembling at this Tabernacle from Sabbath to Sabbath.

If they will rightly consider their situation, they will believe for themselves that they are in a place, in a country, where they can be Saints as well as in any other place there is on the face of this earth.

True, we hear some complaints from those who lose the spirit of their religion, who turn away from us. They think that this people will suffer here. I will give you my feelings upon the subject.

There is not a hardship, there is not a disappointment, there is not a trial, there is not a hard time, that comes upon this people in this place, but that I am more thankful for than I am for full granaries.

We have been hunting during the past twenty-six years, for a place where we could raise Saints, not merely wheat, and corn. Compara– tively I care but little about the wheat and corn, though a little is very useful.

It is true that this is a good country for fruits of some kinds; this soil produces as good peaches as can be raised on any soil, and also grapes, apples, and so on. But what of all that? The man, or the woman, that mainly looks after the fruit, after the luxuries of life, good food, fine apparel, and at the same time professes to be a Latter-day Saint, if he does not get that spirit out of his heart, it will obtain a perfect victory over him; whereas he is required to obtain a victory over his lusts and over his unwise feelings; and if he does not get rid of that spirit, the quicker he starts east for the States, or west for California, the better.

If we could not raise any fruit, if we could not raise an ear of corn, I should be quite thankful if we could raise the oats and the peas, and make the oat bread and the pea broth, and live on them from year to year.

I say hallelujah, this is a first-rate place to raise Saints. Let the people complain of hard times, complain of their poverty, their poor fare and their hard labor; that wood is scarce, that we have to go far for it, and have to toil so hard to raise our grain; that we lose our stock upon the prairie, that a cow is gone today, and an ox was lost last year; that if we turn out our cattle they will stray off, and we shall see them no more.

How would you feel were you in a country where you could not raise stock, except you provided comfortable shelter and an abundance of fodder for them all?

In the country where I was brought up, could you turn out a calf in the fall and have it live through the winter? There never was such a thing done, to my knowledge; and no man ever thought of such a thing as wintering a calf, unless he had a shel– ter prepared for it almost as warm as the rooms for the children.

I mention these things for the benefit of those here today, if any, who think that this is not a good country, and who do not really know whether they wish to stay, or whether we are right or wrong, or whether “Mormonism” is true or false.

I would advise those persons to repent of their sins forthwith, and to try with all their might to get the spirit of their religion upon them, and if they cannot do that, to take their own course and go where their hearts desire, for doubtless there is some place where you would wish to go.

Those that have the Gospel, who enjoy the Spirit of their religion, lie down in peace, and wake up full of rejoicing, full of peace, of glory, of faith and thanksgiving; this is the case with all who are full of good works.

We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need a thorough reform, for I know that very many are in a dozy condition with regard to their religion; I know this as well as I should if you were now to doze and go to sleep before my eyes.

You are losing the spirit of the Gospel, is there any cause for it? No, only that which there is in the world. You have the weakness of human nature to contend with, and you suffer that weakness to decoy you away from the truth, to the side of the adversary; but now it is time to awake, before the time of burning.

Whether the time of burning will be this week, or the next, or next year, I do not know that I care; and I do not know that I would ask, if I was sure the Lord would tell me. But I tell you that which I do know, and that is sufficient.

I do know that the trying day will soon come to you and to me; and ere long we will have to lay down these tabernacles and go into the spirit world. And I do know that as we lie down, so judgment will find us, and that is scriptural; “as the tree falls, so it shall lie,” or, in other words, as death leaves us so judgment will find us.

I will explain how judgment will be laid to the line. If we all live to the age of man the end thereof will soon be here, and that will burn enough, without anything else; and the present is a day of trial, enough for you and me.

We have got to be rightly prepared to go into the spirit world, in order to become kings. That is, so far as the power of Satan is concerned you and I have got to be free from his power, but we cannot be while we are in the flesh.

Here we shall be perplexed and hunted by him; but when we go into the spirit world there we are masters over the power of Satan, and he cannot afflict us anymore, and this is enough for me to know.

Whether the world is going to be burned up within a year, or within a thousand years, does not matter a groat to you and me. We have the words of eternal life, we have the privilege of obtaining glory, immortality, and eternal lives, now will you obtain these blessings?

Will you spend your lives to obtain a seat in the kingdom of God, or will you lie down and sleep, and go down to hell?

I want all the people to say what they will do, and I know that God wishes all His servants, all His faithful sons and daughters, the men and the women that inhabit this city, to repent of their wickedness, or we will cut them off.

I could give you a logical reason for all the transgressions in this world, for all that are committed in this probationary state, and especially for those committed by men.

There are sins that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, and if they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins; and the smoking incense would atone for their sins, whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit world.

I know, when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it is strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them.

Of all the children of Israel that started to pass through the wilderness, none inherited the land which had been promised, except Caleb and Joshua, and what was the reason? It was because of their rebellion and wickedness; and because the Lord had promised Abraham that he would save his seed.

They had to travel to and fro to every point of the compass, and were wasted away, because God was determined to save their spirits. But they could not enter into His rest in the flesh, because of their transgressions, consequently He destroyed them in the wilderness.

I do know that there are sins committed, of such a nature that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of their situation. And furthermore, I know that there are transgressors, who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further; I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins.

It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit. As it was in ancient days, so it is in our day; and though the principles are taught publicly from this stand, still the people do not understand them; yet the law is precisely the same. There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man. That is the reason why men talk to you as they do from this stand; they understand the doctrine and throw out a few words about it. You have been taught that doctrine, but you do not understand it.

It is our desire to be prepared for a celestial seat with our Father in heaven. It was observed by brother Grant that we have not seen God, that we cannot converse with Him; and it is true that men in their sins do not know much about God. When you hear a man pour out eternal things, how well you feel, to what a nearness you seem to be brought with God. What a delight it was to hear brother Joseph talk upon the great principles of eternity; he would bring them down to the capacity of a child, and he would unite heaven with earth, this is the beauty of our religion.

When it was mentioned this morning about seeing God, about what kind of a being He was, and how we could see and measurably understand Him, I thought I would tell you. If we could see our heavenly Father, we should see a being similar to our earthly parent, with this difference, our Father in heaven is exalted and glorified. He has received His thrones, His principalities and powers, and He sits as a governor, as a monarch, and overrules kingdoms, thrones, and dominions that have been bequeathed to Him, and such as we anticipate receiving. While He was in the flesh, as we are, He was as we are. But it is now written of Him that our God is as a consuming fire, that He dwells in everlasting burnings, and this is why sin cannot be where He is.

There are principles that will endure through all eternity, and no fire can obliterate them from existence. They are those principles that are pure, and fire is made typical use of to show the glory and purity of the gods, and of all perfect beings. God is the Father of our spirits; He begat them, and has sent them here to receive tabernacles, and to prove whether we will honor them. If we do, then our tabernacles will be exalted; but if we do not, we shall be destroyed; one of the two—dissolution or life. The second death will decompose all tabernacles over whom it gains the ascendancy; and this is the effect of the second death, the tabernacles go back to their native element.

We are of the earth, earthy; and our Father is heavenly and pure. But we will be glorified and purified, if we obey our brethren and the teachings which are given.

When you see celestial beings, you will see men and women, but you will see those beings clothed upon with robes of celestial purity. We cannot bear the presence of our Father now; and we are placed at a distance to prove whether we will honor these tabernacles, whether we will be obedient and prepare ourselves to live in the glory of the light, privileges, and blessings of celestial beings. We could not have the glory and the light without first knowing the contrast. Do you comprehend that we could have no exaltation, without first learning by contrast?

When you are prepared to see our Father, you will see a being with whom you have long been acquainted, and He will receive you into His arms, and you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him, as you would your fathers and friends that have been dead for a score of years, you will be so glad and joyful. Would you not rejoice? When you are qualified and purified, so that you can endure the glory of eternity, so that you can see your Father, and your friends who have gone behind the veil, you will fall upon their necks and kiss them, as we do an earthly friend that has been long absent from us, and that we have been anxiously desiring to see. This is the people that are and will be permitted to enjoy the society of those happy and exalted beings.

Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say they are unhappy. Men will say, “My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife;” “No, not a happy day for a year,” says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused: that they are misused and have not the liberty they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men, together with their own folly.

I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. “What, first wife too?” Yes, I will liberate you all.

I know what my women will say; they will say, “You can have as many women as you please, Brigham.” But I want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners; I do not want them to receive a part of the truth and spurn the rest out of doors.

I wish my women, and brother Kimball’s and brother Grant’s to leave, and every woman in this Territory, or else say in their hearts that they will embrace the Gospel—the whole of it. Tell the Gentiles that I will free every woman in this Territory at our next Conference. “What, the first wife too?” Yes, there shall not be one held in bondage, all shall be set free. And then let the father be the head of the family, the master of his own household; and let him treat them as an angel would treat them; and let the wives and the children say amen to what he says, and be subject to his dictates, instead of their dictating the man, instead of their trying to govern him.

No doubt some are thinking, “I wish brother Brigham would say what would become of the children.” I will tell you what my feelings are; I will let my wives take the children, and I have property enough to support them, and can educate them, and then give them a good fortune, and I can take a fresh start.

I do not desire to keep a particle of my property, except enough to protect me from a state of nudity. And I would say, wives you are welcome to the children, only do not teach them iniquity; for if you do, I will send an Elder, or come myself, to teach them the Gospel. You teach them life and salvation, or I will send Elders to instruct them.

Let every man thus treat his wives, keeping raiment enough to clothe his body; and say to your wives, “Take all that I have and be set at liberty; but if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that too without any murmuring and whining. You must fulfil the law of God in every respect, and round up your shoulders to walk up to the mark without any grunting.”

Now recollect that two weeks from tomorrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first wife will say, “It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;” then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever would bare, the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children.

Do you understand this? I have told you many times that there are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty?—to prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can; hence if my women leave, I will go and search up others who will abide the celestial law, and let all I now have go where they please; though I will send the Gospel to them.

This is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits which are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth.

If the men of the world were right, or if they were anywhere near right, there might not be the necessity which there now is. But they are wholly given up to idolatry, and to all manner of wickedness.

Do I think that my children will be damned? No, I do not, for I am going to fight the devil until I save them all; I have got my sword ready, and it is a two-edged one. I have not a fear about that, for I would almost be ashamed of my body if it would beget a child that would not abide the law of God, though I may have some unruly children.

I am going to ask you a good many things, and to begin with I will ask, what is your prayer? Do you not ask for the righteous to increase, while the unrighteous shall decrease and dwindle away? Yes, that is the prayer of every person that prays at all. The Methodists pray for it, the Baptists pray for it, and the Church of England and all the reformers, the Shaking Quakers not excepted. And if the women belonging to this Church will turn Shaking Quakers, I think their sorrows will soon be at an end.

Sisters, I am not joking, I do not throw out my proposition to banter your feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. But I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whining of many of the women in this Territory; I am satisfied that this is the case. And if the women will turn from the commandments of God and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the curse of the Almighty may be close to their heels, and that it may be following them all the day long. And those that enter into it and are faithful, I will promise them that they shall be queens in heaven, and rulers to all eternity.

“But,” says one, “I want to have my paradise now.” And says another, “I did think I should be in paradise if I was sealed to brother Brigham, and I thought I should be happy when I became his wife, or brother Heber’s. I loved you so much, that I thought I was going to have a heaven right off, right here on the spot.”

What a curious doctrine it is, that we are preparing to enjoy! The only heaven for you is that which you make yourselves. My heaven is here—[laying his hand upon his heart]. I carry it with me. When do I expect it in its perfection? When I come up in the resurrection; then I shall have it, and not till then.

But now we have got to fight the good fight of faith, sword in hand, as much so as men have when they go to battle; and it is one continual warfare from morning to evening, with sword in hand. This is my duty, and this is my life.

But the women come and say, “Really brother John, and brother William, I thought you were going to make a heaven for me,” and they get into trouble because a heaven is not made for them by the men, even though agency is upon women as well as upon men. True there is a curse upon the woman that is not upon the man, namely, that “her whole affections shall be towards her husband,” and what is the next? “He shall rule over you.”

But how is it now? Your desire is to your husband, but you strive to rule over him, whereas the man should rule over you.

Some may ask whether that is the case with me; go to my house and live, and then you will learn that I am very kind, but know how to rule.

If I had only wise men to talk to, there would be no necessity for my saying what I am going to say. Many and many an Elder knows no better than to go home and abuse as good a woman as dwells upon this earth, because of what I have said this afternoon. Are you, who act in that way, fit to have a family? No, you are not, and never will be, until you get good common sense.

Then you can go to work and magnify your callings; and you can do the best you know how; and on that ground I will promise you salvation, but upon no other principle.

If I were talking to a people that understood themselves and the doctrine of the holy Gospel, there would be no necessity for saying this, because you would understand. But many have been (what shall I say? pardon me, brethren), henpecked so much, that they do not know the place of either man or woman; they abuse and rule a good woman with an iron hand. With them it is as Solomon said—“Bray a fool in a mortar among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” You may talk to them about their duties, about what is required of them, and still they are fools, and will continue to be.

Prepare yourselves for two weeks from tomorrow; and I will tell you now, that if you will tarry with your husbands, after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from tomorrow; but, remember, that I will not hear any more of this whining.

In the midst of all my harsh sayings, shall I say chastisements?—I am disposed, in my heart, to bless this people; and I do bless you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 31, 1856.

I appear before you to bear my testimony to the truth of “Mormonism,” that Joseph Smith, Jun., was a Prophet called of God, and that he did translate the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. This same testimony all can bear, who have received and continue to retain the Spirit of the Gospel.

We are happy to hear from our brethren who have returned from the fields of their labor, it rejoices our hearts, and we like to see their faces. I know how they feel when they return home, for I have felt many times, in returning to the Saints, as though the privilege of beholding their faces was a feast to overflowing, my soul has been full. I rejoice all the time, and I can understand why brother Clinton has rejoiced so exceedingly; it is because the lightning and thunder are in him, and because he gave vent to his feelings. Brother Robins’ calling has been different, of such a nature that the lightning and thunder in him have lain dormant, to a certain degree, and he has not enjoyed himself so well as he would, had he been sent solely to preach and build up churches.

Let me reduce this to your understandings. Right here, in our midst, many who gather from foreign lands, who have undergone all the toil, labor, and hardship that it is possible for their nature to sustain on their jour– ney, after they arrive in these valleys begin to sink in their spirits, neglect their duties, and in a little time do not know whether “Mormonism” is true or not. Take the same persons and keep them among the wicked, and they will preserve their armor bright, but it has become dull and rusty here; this is the cause of so many leaving these valleys. The seas are so calm and the vessel is wafted over them so smoothly, and in a manner so congenial to the feelings of the people, that they forget that they are in Zion’s ship. This is the main reason of so many leaving for the States, California, and other places. Send those persons among their enemies, among those who will oppose “Mormonism,” among those who will oppose the truth, and let them be continually persecuted, and they will know very quickly whether they are “Mormons” or not, for they must go to the one side or the other. But the condition of society here, and the feelings of the people, are so different from those of the wicked, that many glide smoothly along, forget their religion and their God, and finally think that this is not the place for them and go away.

I will now state that I am thus far perfectly satisfied with the labors of the brethren who have returned from their missions this season, and have come on the stand today, and at other times; I am highly gratified with the doings and labors of those Elders.

With regard to brother John Taylor, I will say that he has one of the strongest intellects of any man that can be found; he is a powerful man, he is a mighty man, and we may say that he is a powerful editor, but I will use a term to suit myself, and say that he is one of the strongest editors that ever wrote. Concerning his financial abilities, I have nothing to say; those who are acquainted with the matter, know how “The Mormon” has been sustained. We sent brother Taylor, and other brethren with him, to start that paper without purse or scrip, and if they had not accomplished that object, we should have known that they did not trust in their God, and did not do their duty.

Let me call your reflections to the days of Joseph; here are some of the Twelve, here are the Seventies and High Priests, and members of the High Council, and several who have been long in the Church, did any of you ever receive any support from the Church, while on your missions in the days of Joseph? Were you all to answer, you would say that you do not know the time.

I came into this Church in the spring of 1832. Previous to my being baptized, I took a mission to Canada at my own expense; and from the time that I was baptized until the day of our sorrow and affliction, at the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, no summer passed over my head but what I was traveling and preaching, and the only thing I ever received from the Church, during over twelve years, and the only means that were ever given me by the Prophet, that I now recollect, was in 1842, when brother Joseph sent me the half of a small pig that the brethren had brought to him, I did not ask him for it; it weighed 93 pounds. And that fall, previous to my receiving that half of a pig, brother H. C. Kimball and myself were engaged all the time in pricing property that came in on tithing, and we were also engaged in gathering tithing, and I had an old saddle valued at two dollars presented to me, and brother Heber was credited two dollars in the Church books for one day’s services, by brother Willard Richards who was then keeping those books. Brother Heber said, “Blot that out, for I don’t want it.” I think it was crossed out, and so was the saddle, for I did not want it, even had it been given to me. These were the only articles I ever received in the days of Joseph, so far as I recollect.

I have traveled and preached, and at the same time sustained my family by my labor and economy. If I borrowed one hundred dollars, or fifty, or if I had five dollars, it almost universally went into the hands of brother Joseph, to pay lawyers’ fees and to liberate him from the power of his enemies, so far as it would go. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars that I have managed to get, to borrow and trade for, I have handed over to Joseph when I came home. That is the way I got help, and it was good for me; it learned me a great deal, though I had learned, before I heard of “Mormonism,” to take care of number one.

For me to travel and preach without purse or scrip, was never hard; I never saw the day, I never was in the place, nor went into a house, when I was alone, or when I would take the lead and do the talking, but what I could get all I wanted. Though I have been with those who would take the lead and be mouth, and been turned out of doors a great many times, and could not get a night’s lodging. But when I was mouth I never was turned out of doors; I could make the acquaintance of the family, and sit and sing to them and chat with them, and they would feel friendly towards me; and when they learned that I was a “Mormon” Elder, it was after I had gained their good feelings.

When the brethren were talking about starting a press in New York, and how it has been upheld, I did wish to relate an incident in my experience. In company with several of the Twelve I was sent to England in 1839. We started from home without purse or scrip, and most of the Twelve were sick; and those who were not sick when they started were sick on the way to Ohio; brother Taylor was left to die by the road-side, by old father Coltrin, though he did not die. I was not able to walk to the river, not so far as across this block, no, not more than half as far; I had to be helped to the river, in order to get into a boat to cross it. This was about our situation. I had not even an overcoat; I took a small quilt from the trundle bed, and that served for my overcoat, while I was traveling to the State of New York, when I had a coarse sattinet overcoat given to me. Thus we went to England, to a strange land to sojourn among strangers.

When we reached England we designed to start a paper, but we had not the first penny to do it with. I had enough to buy a hat and pay my passage to Preston, for from the time I left home, I had worn an old cap which my wife made out of a pair of old pantaloons; but the most of us were entirely destitute of means to buy even any necessary article.

We went to Preston and held our Conference, and decided that we would publish a paper; brother Parley P. Pratt craved the privilege of editing it, and we granted him the privilege. We also decided to print three thousand hymn books, though we had not the first cent to begin with, and were strangers in a strange land. We appointed brother Woodruff to Herefordshire, and I accompanied him on his journey to that place. I wrote to brother Pratt for information about his plans, and he sent me his prospectus, which stated that when he had a sufficient number of subscribers and money enough in hand to justify his publishing the paper, he would proceed with it. How long we might have waited for that I know not, but I wrote to him to publish two thousand papers, and I would foot the bill. I borrowed two hundred and fifty pounds of sister Jane Benbow, one hundred of brother Thomas Kington, and returned to Manchester, where we printed three thousand Hymn Books, and five thousand Books of Mormon, and issued two thousand Millennial Stars monthly, and in the course of the summer printed and gave away rising of sixty thousand tracts. I also paid from five to ten dollars per week for my board, and hired a house for brother Willard Richards and his wife who came to Manchester, and sustained them; and gave sixty pounds to brother P. P. Pratt to bring his wife from New York. I also commenced the emigration in that year.

I was there one year and sixteen days, with my brethren the Twelve and during that time I bought all my clothing, except one pair of pantaloons, which the sisters gave me in Liverpool soon after I arrived there, and which I really needed: I told the brethren, in one of my discourses, that there was no need of their begging, for if they needed anything the sisters could understand that. The sisters took the hint, and the pantaloons were forthcoming.

I paid three hundred and eighty dollars to get the work started in London, and when I arrived home, in Nauvoo, I owed no person one farthing. Brother Kington received his pay from the books that were printed, and sister Benbow, who started to America the same year, left names enough of her friends to receive the two hundred and fifty pounds, which amount was paid them, notwithstanding I held her agreement that she had given it to the Church.

We left two thousand five hundred dollars worth of books in the Office, paid our passages home, and paid about six hundred dollars to emigrate the poor who were starving to death, besides giving away the sixty thousand tracts; and that too though I had not a sixpence when we first landed in Preston, and I do not know that one of the Twelve had.

I could not help thinking that if I could accomplish that much in England, in that poor, hard country, it could not be much of a job for a man to establish a paper in New York. I thought that to be one of the smallest things that could be; I could make money at it. We sent brother George Q. Cannon, one of brother Taylor’s nephews, to California, over a year ago last spring, to print the Book of Mormon in the Hawaiian language. He has printed a large and handsome edition of that book; has published a weekly paper and paid for it; has paid for the press and the type, and paid his board and clothing bills, though he had not a farthing to start with, that is, he went without purse and scrip, so far as I know, as did also brothers Bull and Wilkie who went with him.

It is one of the smallest labors that I could think of to establish a paper and sustain it in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or any of the eastern cities. I wish to say this much, for the information of those who think it a great task to establish and sustain a paper; though I am not aware that any of the brethren think so.

I will relate another incident, which occurred during our journey to Eng– land. Brother George A. Smith accompanied me to New York City, and we had not money enough to pay the last five miles’ fare.

We started from New Haven in a steamboat, and when we left the boat, I hired passage in the stage to New York; the captain of the steamboat happened to be in the same stage.

When we left the coach, I said to the captain, will you have the kindness to pay this gentleman’s passage and mine. I had had no conversation with him during the day, only in interchanging the common and usual compliments, but when we left him he greeted us cordially, and said that he had paid our stage-fare with the greatest pleasure, and shook our hands as heartily as a brother, saying, “May God bless and prosper you in your labors.”

In five minutes we were in the house with Parley P. Pratt, who had moved to that city the fall before. As soon as those of the Twelve who were appointed on that mission to England came in, we concluded that we would not go among the Branches, but seek out and preach to those who had not had an opportunity of hearing the Gospel.

Accordingly we separated and went into many parts of the State of New York, Long Island and New Jersey, and some went into the city of Philadelphia.

After we had got through with the regular meetings, we proposed to the brethren, if any of them wished to have meetings in their private houses and would tell us when and where, that we would meet with them.

It was not more than a week or ten days before we had been in fifty different places in New York City and the surrounding country, and those who came to hear us invited their neighbors, and thus we preached and baptized, and soon gathered means enough to defray the expenses of our passage to England, principally from those who were the fruits of our own labors.

Though the people in the States are daily becoming more hardened against the truth, yet if I was in New York this day, and it was my business to be there, I would not be there long before I would have many Elders preaching through different parts of that city; I would have them preaching in the English, Danish, French, German, and other languages. And soon would have Elders dispersed all over the State, and would raise up new friends enough to sustain me, that is if the Lord would help me, and if He did not I would leave.

That is the way we have traveled and preached, but now we do a great deal for our missionaries, for they gather money on tithing, and ask me to credit such and such a man so much on tithing; this course tends to shut up every avenue for business here.

We do not receive cash on tithing from abroad, because our missionaries are so liberal, and feel so rich, that they gather every dollar that can be scraped up, and then come here and have it credited to such and such individuals on tithing, without handing over the money.

This course hedges up the work at headquarters. Did I have that privilege? No, never; and men should not have it now. If a paper should be published, brethren ought to have wisdom enough to sustain themselves and the paper, and they can do it.

I do not wish to find fault with our missionaries, but many of them now live on cream and shortcake, butter, honey, light biscuit, and sweetmeats, while we had to take the buttermilk and potatoes. That kind of fare was good enough for us, but now it is shortcake and cream, light biscuit, with butter and honey, and sweetmeats of every kind, and even then some of them think that they are abused.

I see some here who did not have as good fare as buttermilk and potatoes; I see some of the brethren who have been to Australia, the East Indies, &c. When I returned from England, I said it is the last time I will travel as I have done, unless the Lord specially requires me to do so; for if we could ride even as comfortably as brother Woodruff once rode on one of the Mississippi steamboats we considered ourselves well off. All the bed he had was the chines of barrels, with his feet hanging on a brace, and he thought himself well off to get the privilege of riding in any shape, to escape constant walking.

How do they go now? They take the first cabins, cars, and carriages. I wish to see them cross the Plains on foot, and then have wisdom enough to preach their way to the city of New York, and there, in the same manner, to get money enough to cross the ocean. But no, they must start from here with a full purse, and take broadcloth from here, or money to buy it in the States, and hire first cabin passages in the best ocean steamers; and after all this many think it is hard times.

I want to see the Elders live on buttermilk and potatoes, and when they return be more faithful. But they go as missionaries of the kingdom of God, and when they have been gone a year or two, many of them come back merchants, and how they swell, “how popular ‘Mormonism’ is, we can get trusted in St. Louis for ten thousand dollars as well as not, and in New York brother Brigham’s word is so good that we can get all the goods we want; ‘Mormonism’ is becoming quite popular.” Yes, and so are hell and the works of the devil.

When “Mormonism” finds favor with the wicked in this land, it will have gone into the shade; but until the power of the Priesthood is gone, “Mormonism” will never become popular with the wicked. “Mormonism” is not one farthing better than it was in the days of Joseph.

The hand of the Almighty is over mankind, and “Mormonism” is hid from them; they do not know anything about it. The Lord deals with this people, and draws them into close quarters, and makes them run the gauntlet, and tries their faith and feelings. He draws them into diverse circumstances to prove whether they believe in Jesus Christ, or not; and if need be He will let the enemy persecute us and destroy many of us; He will let them take our substance and drive us from our homes. Was “Mormonism” popular with those who have formerly persecuted, killed and driven us? Yes, as much so as it is at this day.

The hand of the Almighty is over the wicked, and He handles them according to His good pleasure, as He does the Saints. His hand is over us, and His hand is over them. But there is a thick mist cast before their eyes, so they do not discern the truth of “Mormonism.” Do you wonder that they are mad, when they see the progress of truth? I do not.

The different political parties are in opposition. One party says, “We are republicans, and we are opposed in principle to all who are not of our party.” Can the various parties be reconciled? No. Each party wishes to elect a President of the United States. We design to elect Jesus Christ for our President, and the wicked wish to elect Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, and swear that they will have him; and we declare that we will serve Jesus Christ, and he shall be our President.

Do you think that the democrats and republicans have made friends? No, they are just as much opposed to each other now as ever they were, and the devil is just as much opposed to Jesus now as he was when the revolt took place in heaven. And as the devil increases his numbers by getting the people to be wicked, so Jesus Christ increases his numbers and strength by getting the people to be humble and righteous. The human family are going to the polls by and by, and they wish to know which party is going to carry the day.

When you see mild weather, when all is smooth and our religion is becoming popular, the Lord is casting mist before the eyes of the wicked, and they do not see nor understand what will take place at the polls when the day of voting comes. Those who vote for Jesus will be on the right hand, and those who vote for Lucifer on the left; one part will be right and the other wrong. We calculate that we are right, and we are going to vote for the sovereign we believe in; and when he comes behold he will go into the chair of state and take the reins of government. Do you suppose the wicked will feel bad about it? That is what they are afraid of all the time.

They may kill the bodies we have, they may strive to injure us, but when the day of the great election comes, as the Lord Almighty lives, we shall gain our President, and we anticipate holding office under him. Do you blame the wicked for being mad? No. They desire to rule, to hold the reins of government on this earth; they have held them a great while. I do not blame them for being suspicious of us; men in high standing are suspicious of us, hence the frequent cry, “Treason, treason, we are going to have trouble with the people in Utah.” What is the matter? Wherein can they point out one particle of injury that we have done to them?

True we have more wives than one, and what of that? They have their scores of thousands of prostitutes, we have none. But polygamy they are unconstitutionally striving to prevent: when they will accomplish their object is not for me to say. They have already presented a resolution in Congress that no man, in any of the Territories of the United States, shall be allowed to have more than one wife, under a penalty not exceeding five years imprisonment, and five hundred dollars fine. How will they get rid of this awful evil in Utah? They will have to expend about three hundred millions of dollars for building a prison, for we must all go into prison. And after they have expended that amount for a prison, and roofed it over from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the summit of the Sierra Nevada, we will dig out and go preaching through the world. (Voice on the stand: what will become of the women, will they go to prison with us?) Brother Heber seems concerned about the women’s going with us; they will be with us, for we shall be here together. This is a little amusing.

Brother Robbins, in his remarks, said that the Constitution of the United States forbids making an ex post facto law. The presenting of the resolution alluded to shows their feelings, they wish the Constitution out of existence, and there is no question but that they will get rid of it as quickly as they can, and that would be by ex post facto law, which the Constitution of the United States strictly forbids.

Brother Robbins also spoke of what they term the “nigger drivers and nigger worshippers,” and observed how keen their feelings are upon their favorite topic slavery. The State of New York used to be a slave State, but there slavery has for some time been abolished. Under their law for abolishing slavery the then male slaves had to serve until they were 28 years old, and if my memory serves me correctly, the females until they were 25, before they could be free. This was to avoid the loss of, what they called, property in the hands of individuals. After that law was passed the people began to dispose of their blacks, and to let them buy themselves off. They then passed a law that black children should be free, the same as white children, and so it remains to this day.

But at the time that slavery was tolerated in the northern and eastern States, if you touched that question it would fire a man quicker than anything else in the world; there was something very peculiar about it, and it is so now. Go into a slave State and speak to a man on the subject, even though he never owned a slave, and you fire up his feelings in defense of that institution; there is no other subject that will touch him as quickly. They are very tenacious and sensitive on those points, and the North are becoming as sensitive as the South. The North are slow and considerate; they have their peculiar customs; and are influenced by the force of education, climate, &c., in a manner which causes them to think twice before they act; and often they will think and speak many times before they act. The spirit of the South is to think, speak, and act all at the same moment. This is the difference between the two people.

Matters are coming to such a point, the feelings of both parties are aroused to that degree, that they would as soon fight as not. But I do not wish to speak any longer in that strain, though, if you want to know what I think about the question, I think both parties are decidedly wrong.

It is not the prerogative of the President of the United States to meddle with this matter, and Congress is not allowed, according to the Con– stitution, to legislate upon it. If Utah was admitted into the Union as a sovereign State, and we chose to introduce slavery here, it is not their business to meddle with it; and even if we treated our slaves in an oppressive manner, it is still none of their business and they ought not to meddle with it.

If we introduce the practice of polygamy it is not their prerogative to meddle with it; if we should all turn to be Roman Catholics today, if we all turned to the old Mother Church, it would not be their prerogative, it would not be their business, to meddle with us on that account. If we are Mormons or Methodists, or worship the sun or a white dog, or if we worship a dumb idol, or all turn Shaking Quakers and have no wife, it is not their prerogative to meddle with these affairs, for in so doing they would violate the Constitution.

There is not a Territory in the Union that is looked upon with so suspicious an eye as is Utah, and yet it is the only part of the nation that cares anything about the Constitution. What have they done in the States? Why, in some places they have celebrated the fourth of July by hoisting the National flag bottom side up, making a burlesque of the celebration, but “Utah is hell and the devil.” This reminds me of a circumstance that transpired in England. A boy was brushing his shoes on Sunday morning, and a priest observing him said, “What, do you brush your shoes on Sunday?” “Yes, sir; do you brush your coat?” “Yes.” “Well I suppose it is life and salvation for you to brush your coat, but hell and damnation for me to brush my shoes.” That is the difference.

“Mormonism” is true, and all hell cannot overthrow it. All the devil’s servants on the earth may do all they can, and, as brother Clinton has just said, after twenty-six years faithful operation and exertion by our enemies, including the times when Joseph had scarcely a man to stand by him, and when the persecution was as severe on him as it ever was in the world, what have they accomplished? They have succeeded in making us an organized Territory, and they are determined to make us an independent State or Government, and as the Lord lives it will be so. (The congregation shouted amen.) I say, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State in the Union, or an independent nation by ourselves, and let them drive us from this place if they can; they cannot do it. I do not throw this out as a banter; you Gentiles, and hickory and basswood “Mormons,” can write it down if you please, but write it as I speak it.

I wish you to understand that God rules and reigns, that he led us to this land and gave us a Territorial government. Was this the design of the wicked? No. Their design was to banish us from the earth, but they have driven us into notoriety and power; we are now raised to a position where we can converse with kings and emperors.

In the days of Joseph it was considered a great privilege to be permitted to speak to a member of Congress, but twenty-six years will not pass away before the Elders of this Church will be as much thought of as the kings on their thrones. The Lord Almighty will roll on the wheels of His work, and none can stop them; and they cannot drive us from these mountains, because the Lord will not suffer them to do so. I desire them to let us alone; “hands off and money down,” we crave no jobs and make none. Let them attend to their own business, and we will build up Zion while they go to hell. Jesus Christ will be the President, and we are his officers, and they will have to leave the ground: for they will find that Jesus has the right of soil. This they are afraid of, do you blame them? No, I do not, and you should not: let them feel bad and worry.

I have frequently told you, and I tell you again, that the very report of the Church and kingdom of God on earth is a terror to all nations, wheresoever the sound thereof goeth. The sound of “Mormonism” is a terror to towns, counties, states, the pretended republican governments, and to all the world. Why? Because, as the Lord Almighty lives and the Prophets have ever written the truth, this work is destined to revolutionize the world and bring all under subjection to the law of God, who is our lawgiver.

I am still governor of this Territory, to the constant chagrin of my enemies; but I do not in the least neglect the duties of my Priesthood, nor my office as governor; and while I honor my Priesthood I will do honor to my office as governor. This is hard to be understood by the wicked, but it is true. The feelings of many are much irritated because I am here, and Congress has requested the President to inquire why I still hold the office of governor in the Territory of Utah. I can answer that question; I hold the office by appointment, and am to hold it until my successor is appointed and qualified, which has not yet been done. I shall bow to Jesus, my Governor, and under him, to brother Joseph. Though he has gone behind the veil, and I cannot see him, he is my head, under Jesus Christ and the ancient Apostles, and I shall go ahead and build up the kingdom. But if I was now sitting in the chair of state at the White House in Washington, everything in my office would be subject to my religion. Why? Because it teaches me to deal justice and mercy to all. I am satisfied to love righteousness and be full of the Holy Ghost, while all hell yawns to destroy me, though it cannot do it.

If I were to forsake this kingdom, the car of righteousness would roll over and crush me into insignificance; and so it will every other man that gets out of the right path. What then are we going to do? We had better stick to the ship than jump overboard, because if we stay aboard we stand a good chance to be saved, but if we jump over we shall be drowned.

Who can help all these things? I did not devise the great scheme of the Lord’s opening the way to send this people to these mountains. Joseph contemplated the move for years before it took place, but he could not get here, for there was a watch placed upon him continually to see that he had no communication with the Indians. This was in consequence of that which is written in the Book of Mormon; one of the first evils alleged against him was that he was going to connive with the Indians; but did he ever do anything of the kind? No, he always strove to promote the best interest of all, both red and white. Was it by any act of ours that this people were driven into their midst? We are now their neighbors, we are on their land, for it belongs to them as much as any soil ever belonged to any man on earth; we are drinking their water, using their fuel and timber, and raising our food from their ground.

I do not wish men to understand I had anything to do with our being moved here, that was the providence of the Almighty; it was the power of God that wrought out salvation for this people, I never could have devised such a plan. What shall we do? Be still and know that the Lord is God: and let all people be silent and know that the Lord Almighty reigns, and does His pleasure on the earth. What had we better do? Be submissive and passive, serve our God and walk humbly before Him.

The same Spirit pervades the Latter-day Saints in all the world, and what the Lord designs doing here is made manifest to the brethren in different parts, and the world feels the power of it and begins to persecute. When we commence that temple you will hear the devils howl.

We are now doing but little besides taking care of ourselves, but the kingdom has got to be taken and the Lord Jesus come to reign here. When you wonder why it is that we are building many large buildings here and the temple not going on, be silent and patient.

Here let me ask the old Saints a question. Have you ever seen a temple finished, since this Church commenced? You have not. The Lord says, “Be patient and gather together the strength of my house;” then do not fret yourselves, and if you feel a little worried, be sure that you are right, and do as you are counseled.

Why do we urge this upon the people? They are only counseled to love God and do His will. You cannot point out where a man has been counseled one hair’s breadth from this course, and in this we have a right to be urgent, and strenuous, and sharp in our remarks. Serve your God and love your religion.

I could tell you a great many lessons that I have learned in “Mormonism,” but it is very seldom that I refer to past scenes, they occupy but a small portion of my time and attention. Do you wish to know the reason of this? It is because there is an eternity ahead of me, and my eyes are ever open and gazing upon it, and I have but little time to reflect upon the many circumstances I have been placed in thus far during life. They are behind me, and I am thankful that I have not time to reflect on past transactions, only once in a while, when it seems almost necessary to refer to them.

May the Lord God of heaven and earth bless you, and may He preserve us and all good men and women upon the earth, and give us power to blow the Gospel trump to earth’s remotest bounds, and gather up the honest in heart, build up Zion, redeem Israel, rebuild Jerusalem, and fill the earth with the glory and knowledge of our God, and we will shout hallelujah! Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, August 17, 1856.

We have had the privilege of hearing the testimony of brother Whiting, who has just returned from his mission, upon which he started two years ago from San Pete.

Brothers Merrill and Clinton, and several others, have lately arrived from their missions, and I will here give an invitation to those brethren to come to the stand, Sabbath after Sabbath, and bear their testimony and speak to the people. I wish to say to the Elders who arrive, come, we would be happy to see you with us; come, we will find seats for you; and if you are not all eloquent preachers, come and bear your testimony. Brother Whiting says that he is a man of but few words. I am satisfied that there is greater wisdom with many who say but little, than there is with those who talk so much; as for the multitude of words, they are but of little consequence, the ideas are of far the greatest importance.

The kingdom of our God, that is set up on the earth, does not require men of many words and flaming oratorical talents, to establish truth and righteousness. It is not the many words that accomplish the designs of our Father in heaven, with Him it is the acts of the people more than their words; this I was convinced of, before I embraced the Gospel. Had it not been that I clearly saw and understood that the Lord Almighty would take the weak things of this world to confound the mighty, the wise, and the talented, there was nothing that could have induced me, or persuaded me to have ever become a public speaker. I did think, and I now think, that I am personally as well acquainted with my own weaknesses as any other mortal is with them, for this is my fortune, my good fortune and blessing, and I am ready to acknowledge that it is more than many have got. I am of the opinion that I know and understand myself, about as well as any person can know and understand me; yet I may think that I know my weaknesses and incapabilities to the fullest, while others may see weaknesses that I do not. Still I am so constituted that when I discover my weaknesses I bear them off as well as I can; and I say to all people, if you discover that I falter, when I do the best I can, what are you going to do about it?

When I first commenced preaching, I made up my mind to declare the things that I understood, fearless of friends and threats, and regardless of caresses. They were nothing to me, for if it was my duty to rise before a congregation of strangers and say that the Lord lives, that He has revealed Himself in this our day, that He has given to us a Prophet, and brought forth the new and everlasting covenant for the restoration of Israel, and if that was all I could say, I must be just as satisfied as though I could get up and talk for hours. If I could only say that I was a monument of the Lord’s work upon the earth, that was sufficient; and had it not been for this feeling, nothing could have induced me to have become a public speaker.

With regard to preaching, let a man present himself before the Saints, or go into the world before the nobles and great men of the earth, and let him stand up full of the Holy Ghost, full of the power of God, and though he may use words and sentences in an awkward style, he will convince and convert more, of the truth, than can the most polished orator destitute of the Holy Ghost; for that Spirit will prepare the minds of the people to receive the truth, and the spirit of the speaker will influence the hearers so that they will feel it.

These reflections are my true sentiments, and it is knowledge with me with regard to speakers and people who have honest hearts, who desire the knowledge of the Lord, who are seeking to know the will of God, and willing to become subject to it. The Spirit of truth will do more to bring persons to light and knowledge, than flowery words. This is my experience, and I presume it is the experience of many of you, and that you can call that to mind when you first received the Spirit of this Gospel.

When you see a person at a distance, you can, at times, see the spirit of that person before you have the opportunity of speaking to him; you can discern his spirit by the appearance of his countenance. This has been my experience from my younger days, and more especially since I have become acquainted with sacred things. My later experience has been very vivid with regard to the spirits of people, and it matters not to me whether they say much or little, so they but let me hear their voices and see them, let me hear and see the manifestation of their spirit, that I may know whether they are constantly with us in their feelings. I wish to know the spirits of those that are around and with us.

Brethren, you who have returned and are this season returning from missions, we shall be happy to have you take your seats with us on this stand, and when opportunity offers we shall be glad to hear your voices and testimonies.

When I rise before you, brethren and sisters, I often speak of the faults of the people and try to correct them; I strive to put the Saints in a right course and plead with them to live their religion, to become better and to purify themselves before the Lord; to sanctify themselves, to be prepared for the days that are fast approaching. I do this oftener than I speak of the good qualities of this people, and I have reasons for this which, perhaps you would like to hear.

The froward and disobedient need chastisement, the humble and faithful are sealed by the Spirit of the Gospel that we have received. I have not time nor opportunity to caress the people, nor flatter them to do right; nor often to speak well of them, portraying their good qualities.

The consolations of the Holy Spirit of our Gospel comfort the hearts of men and women, old and young, in every condition of this mortal life. The humble, the meek, and faithful are all the time consoled and comforted by the Spirit of the Gospel that we preach; consequently, their comfort, happiness, joy, and peace must be received from the fountainhead. As Jesus says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye have peace,” so we say to ourselves, so we say to the Saints; in the Lord ye have joy and comfort, and the light of truth which shines upon your path.

The Holy Ghost reveals unto you things past, present, and to come; it makes your minds quick and vivid to understand the handiwork of the Lord. Your joy is made full in beholding the footsteps of our Father going forth among the inhabitants of the earth; this is invisible to the world, but it is made visible to the Saints, and they behold the Lord in His providences, bringing forth the work of the last days.

The hearts of the meek and humble are full of joy and comfort continually; do such need comfort from me? Yes, if any mourn, perhaps a few encouraging words from me would give them consolation and do them good. I am always ready to impart what I have to this people, that which will cheer and comfort their hearts, and if the Lord will lead me by His Spirit into that train of reflections and teaching, I am more willing and ready to speak comforting words to this people, than I am to chastise them.

But I hope and trust in the Lord my God that I shall never be left to praise this people, to speak well of them, for the purpose of cheering and comforting them by the art of flattery; to lead them on by smooth speeches day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, and let them roll sin as a sweet morsel under their tongues, and be guilty of transgressing the law of God. I hope I shall never be left to flatter this people, or any people on the earth, in their iniquity, but far rather chasten them for their wickedness and praise them for their goodness.

The Lord praises you and comforts you, if you live as you are directed; if you live with your life hid with Christ in God, you do receive, from the fountainhead, life, joy, peace, truth, and every good and wholesome principle that the Lord bestows upon this people, and your hearts exult in it, and your joy is made full.

This people are the best people upon the face of the earth, that we have any knowledge of. Take the congregation now before me, and what portion of them has been in the Church twenty-six years? What portion has been in the Church fifteen years? But a small part.

How many of those before me were personally acquainted with Joseph, our Prophet? I can see now and then one; you can pick up one here and another there; but the most of the people now inhabiting this Ter– ritory never behold the face of our Prophet; even quite a portion of this congregation never beheld his face. All this I consider.

But few of this congregation have been assembled together more than a very few years, to receive and be benefited with the teachings from the fountainhead, directly from the living oracles.

How long have they been gathered? Some one year, some two years, and some five or six years; and I can only pick out a few in this congregation, who were acquainted with the Prophet.

I could pick out a few of this assembly who have been here seven and eight years.

You who understand the process of preparing mortar, know that it ought to lay a certain time before it is in the best condition for use. Now, suppose that our workmen should work over a portion and prepare it for use, and when it is rightly tempered, suppose someone should throw into the mixture a large quantity of unslacked lime, this would at once destroy its cementing quality, and you would have to work it all over and over again.

This is precisely like what we have to do with this people; when a new batch is mixed with the lime and sand which were prepared ten days ago, before it is fit for use it has to be worked all over with the ingredients and proportions that were used to make the first.

Some think this rather hard, but they have to be worked over, because they are in the batch. Again, they are in the mill, and like the potter’s clay which brother Kimball uses for a figure, they have got to be ground over and worked on the table, until they are made perfectly pliable and in readiness to be put on the wheel, to be turned into vessels of honor.

Now, suppose, when it is in this good state, that somebody should throw in a batch of unworked clay, it would spoil the lot, and the potter would have to work it all over; the clay that was prepared has to be worked over with the unprepared.

This principle makes many feet sore, and some are starting for the States, and some for California, because they will not be worked over so much, and we cannot set a guard over the mill to keep the new clay from being thrown in.

You may say that that is my business; no, it is my business to throw in the new clay, and work it over and over, and to use the wire to draw from the lump any material that would obstruct the potter from preparing a vessel unto honor.

I do not wish you to think that I chastise good men and good women; chastisements do not belong to them, but we have some unruly people here, those who know the law of God, but will not abide it. They have to be talked to; and we have to keep talking to them, and talking to them, until by and by they will forsake their evils, and turn round and become good people, or take up their line of march and leave us.

I have reflected much upon the true character of mankind, pertaining to the Gospel of salvation, and more particularly in reference to the character of that portion of mankind that is here in the capacity in which we now are. How hard it is for people to see and understand things as they are. I allude, in my remarks, to this people who do reflect, and who profess to believe in a Supreme Being, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who have professed, by their acts, that God has spoken in the last days, that unto us He has revealed His will; that He has given unto us the oracles of divine truth, the Gospel of life and salvation, with the privilege of making sure unto ourselves eternal life; this is the people I am now preaching to, and unto whom I wish to address my few remarks.

How slow many of us are to believe the things of God, O how slow. How many men and women can I find here who place implicit confidence in their God? Perhaps you might wish an explanation with regard to the term I here make use of. I will acknowledge my inability to explain to the fullest extent, what I regard as implicit confidence in our God; the reason of this is the ten thousand opinions that people have.

If I were to urge that we ought to have implicit confidence in the power and willingness of our God to sustain us by doing everything for us, that would cut the thread of my own faith, it would run counter to many of my ideas in regard to the dealings of the Almighty with the human family. On the other hand, how much confidence shall I have in God? One says, “I have no confidence in Him, any further than what I can see, hear, and understand. I have no confidence that wheat will grow here, unless I put it into the ground; or that I will have food to eat, unless I take the proper steps for raising it, or purchase it from those that have it.” Both of these points are true in part, but the minds of the people are more or less beclouded.

To explain how much confidence we should have in God, were I using a term to suit myself, I should say implicit confidence. I have faith in my God, and that faith corresponds with the works I produce. I have no confidence in faith without works. Shall I explain this? I do not think I can fully present the idea to your understanding, but I will a portion of it; and to do so, I will refer to a circumstance that transpired in Nauvoo. A President of the Elders’ Quorum, old father Baker, was called upon to visit a very sick woman, a sister in the Church; they sent for him to lay hands upon her. It was a very sickly time, and there was scarcely a person to attend upon the sick, for nearly all were afflicted. Father Baker was one of those tenacious, ignorant, self-willed, overrighteous Elders, and when he went into the house he enquired what the woman wanted. She told him that she wished him to lay hands upon her. Father Baker saw a teapot on the coals, and supposed that there was tea in it, and immediately turned upon his heels, saying, “God don’t want me to lay hands on those who do not keep the Word of Wisdom,” and he went out. He did not know whether the pot contained catnip, pennyroyal, or some other mild herb, and he did not wait for anyone to tell him. That class of people are ignorant and overrighteous, and they are not in the true line by any means.

You may go to some people here, and ask what ails them, and they answer, “I don’t know, but we feel a dreadful distress in the stomach and in the back; we feel all out of order, and we wish you to lay hands upon us.” “Have you used any remedies?” “No. We wish the Elders to lay hands upon us, and we have faith that we shall be healed.” That is very inconsistent according to my faith. If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and to ask my Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, to sanctify that application to the healing of my body; to another this may appear inconsistent.

If a person afflicted with a cancer should come to me and ask me to heal him, I would rather go the graveyard and try to raise a dead person, comparatively speaking. But supposing we were traveling in the mountains and all we had or could get, in the shape of nourishment, was a little venison, and one or two were taken sick, without anything in the world in the shape of healing medicine within our reach, what should we do? According to my faith, ask the Lord Almighty to send an angel to heal the sick. This is our privilege, when so situated that we cannot get anything to help ourselves. Then the Lord and his servants can do all. But it is my duty to do, when I have it in my power. Many people are unwilling to do one thing for themselves, in case of sickness, but ask God to do it all.

A portion of our community have so much confidence in God, even men and women in this city, that if you put in their possession five bushels of wheat, they will dispose of it and trust in God for their food for a year to come. To me this is inconsistent; I know nothing about the consistency of such a confidence in God. But to me it is consistent for the poor man, or woman, that has been gleaning wheat, and has saved five or ten bushels, to lay it up for a time of need; though I understand that some of them are trying to sell it. Poor men and women who have had to beg for the last six months, and who have had nothing but what they obtained through charity, but who have now obtained a few bushels of wheat, are ready to sell it for something of no intrinsic worth, trusting in God to provide for them. This is inconsistent to me.

How shall I present consistent faith and religion, so that you may comprehend the subject? I will do my best, and leave the event with God. I believe, according to my understanding of the principles of eternal truth, that I should have implicit faith in our God; and when we are where we have no help for ourselves in the case of diseases, that we have the right to ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to administer by His power and heal the sick, and I am sure it will be done to those who have implicit confidence in Him.

Again, in regard to food, implicit faith and confidence in God is for you and I to do everything we can to sustain and preserve ourselves; and the community that works together, heart and hand, to accomplish this, their efforts will be like the efforts of one man. The past year was a hard one for us with regard to provisions, but I never had one faltering feeling in reference to this community’s suffering, provided all had understood their religion and lived it. Some few understand their religion and live it; others make a profession, without understanding their religion, and do not live it; consequently there has been a lack of union of effort to sustain ourselves, which has made it very hard for the few.

Suppose that we had done our best and had not raised one bushel of grain this year, I have confidence enough in my God to believe that we could stay here, and not starve to death. If all our cattle had died through the severity of the past winter, if the insects had cut off all our crops, if we still proved faithful to our God and to our religion, I have confidence to believe that the Lord would send manna and flocks of quails to us. But He will not do this, if we murmur and are neglectful and disunited.

Not having breadstuff nor manna, if we are cut off from those resources, from our provisions, the Lord can fill these mountains and valleys with antelope, mountain sheep, elk, deer, and other animals; He can cause the buffalo to take a stampede on the east side of the Rocky mountains, and fill these mountains and valleys with beef; I have just that confidence in my God. I have confidence enough to believe that if we had not raised our own provisions this year, and had proved true and faithful to our God and to our religion, that the Lord would have given us a little bread, even though he should have to put it in the minds of the people in the States to go to California and Oregon, and to load their wagons with sugar, flour, and everything needed, more than they could consume, and cause them to leave their superabundance here, as some did a great quantity of clothing, dried fruit, tools, and various other useful articles, in 1849, the first season that large emigrating companies passed through this valley to California. I could then buy a vest for twenty-five cents, that would now sell here for two or three dollars; and coats could be bought for a dollar each, such as are now selling for fifteen dollars.

This is my confidence in my God. I am no more concerned about this people’s suffering unto death, than I am concerned about the sun’s falling out of its orbit and ceasing to shine on this earth again. I know that we should have that confidence in God; this has been my experience, I have been led into this confidence by the miraculous providences of God. My implicit confidence in God causes me to husband every iota of property He gives me; I will take the best care of my farm, I will prepare my ground as well as I can, and put in the best seed I have got, and trust in God for the result, for it is the Lord that gives the increase.

I will illustrate by relating a circumstance which occurred this summer. A certain brother sowed a field with wheat, and he has been afraid, and afraid, all the summer, about the water, saying, “When shall we get the water? We shall quit farming, for I am tired of it.” I said to him, it is God that gives the increase, and it is for us to do the best we can; and if there is no water for the grain, He is close by, and is careful to give the increase, when it is necessary. This brother had sowed five or six acres; and the straw was so short, that a portion of the crop had to be pulled, and when thrashed, he had over one hundred and seventy bushels of wheat.

The Lord wishes to show this people that He is close by, that He walks in our midst daily and we know but little about him; yet He intends to train us until we find out. This year, I think, gives us a positive manifestation of the hand of our God in giving the increase. I do not know that any person can cavil upon that question any more, and say that it is all in accordance with natural philosophy, as the world term it.

Natural philosophy, as you and I understand it, would not have produced one bushel of grain, where we now have ten. I would like the philosopher to make it appear how the trees have grown so luxuriantly this year, with so little water. Have you ever before seen the weeds flourish so finely on these dry hills? Look at your grain; though much of it is so low that you have to pull it, can you tell what it is that has caused the kernels to be so numerous and plump? Let the natural philosopher tell the reason, if he can; he cannot do it.

After all that has been said and done, after He has led this people so long, do you not perceive that there is a lack of confidence in our God? Can you perceive it in yourselves? You may ask, “Brother Brigham, do you perceive it in yourself?” I do, I can see that I yet lack confidence, to some extent, in Him whom I trust. Why? Because I have not the power, in consequence of that which the fall has brought upon me. I have just told you that I have no lack of confidence in the Lord’s sustaining this people; I never had one shadow of doubt on that point.

But through the power of fallen nature, something rises up within me, at times, that measurably draws a dividing line between my interest and the interest of my Father in heaven—something that makes my interest and the interest of my Father in heaven not precisely one.

I know that we should feel and understand, as far as possible, as far as fallen nature will let us, as far as we can get faith and knowledge to understand ourselves, that the interest of that God whom we serve is our interest, and that we have no other, neither in time nor in eternity.

If I have an interest in any object, but should not live to enjoy that object, you can perceive that it is cut off from me, and that my interest and my hopes are gone, so far as worldly things are concerned. If anyone has an interest in an object that is changeable, in anything of an earthly nature, and is separated from it, it can be of but little use to him, and should cease to be an object of great care or desire. Any object or interest that we have, aside from our Father in heaven, will be taken from us, and though we may seem to enjoy it here, in eternity we shall be deprived of it.

Consequently, I say that we have no true interest, only conjointly with our Father in heaven. We are His children, His sons and daughters, and this should not be a mystery to this people, even though there are many who have been gathered with us but a short time. He is the God and Father of our spirits; He devised the plan that produced our tabernacles, the houses for our spirits to dwell in.

My interests are with His, yours are there, and if you, seemingly, have any interest anywhere else, it will be severed from you, and you will never enjoy it. Still there is a feeling which has come by the fall, by transgression, in the heart of every person, that his interest is individually to himself; and that if he serves God, or does anything for Him, it is for some being for whom he has no particular concern. This is a mistaken idea; for everything you do, every act you perform, every duty incumbent upon you, is solely for your interest in God, and nowhere else, neither can it be.

When you promote His interest, you promote your own; and when you promote your own interest, you promote His. When you gain a title of glory, or any good thing, you gain this to your Father in heaven as well as to yourself. And every object you are in pursuit of, should be that which will pertain to eternity, and let time take care of itself, only be sure to do the duties pertaining to it.

If we can see and realize that our interests are hid in God, and that we can have no interest anywhere else, perhaps we can learn obedience faster than we now do. Many think, “Well, I am an independent character; I do not like to be counseled, governed, or controlled; I wish to do as I please.” That feeling, in a degree, is in every person.

There is an impulse in man that separates his interest from the interest of his God, and the interest of our Father in heaven from ours.

This must be learned so that you can discern it in yourselves, so that you can apply all your efforts, every act of your lives, to the interest that pertains to your eternal exaltation.

If in this world we had every object that we could desire, of an earthly nature, do you not understand that death would separate us from it? You can understand that naturally. A man possessing thrones, kingdoms, and power, leaves them when he is laid in the grave. Now suppose that you let the common mode of reflection and practice reach into eternal things, upon the same principle you would have a selfish interest in eternity; you would there be to yourself, by yourself, and for yourself, regardless of every other creature. But the truth is, you are not going to have a separate kingdom; I am not going to have a separate kingdom; it is not our prerogative to have it on this earth.

If you have a kingdom and a dominion here, it must be concentrated in the head; if we are ever prepared for an eternal exaltation, we must be concentrated in the head of the eternal Godhead. Why? Because everything else is opposed to that kingdom, and the heir of that kingdom will keep up the warfare with that opposing power until death is destroyed, and him that hath the power of it; not annihilated, but sent back to native element. He will never cease to contend with the opposite power, with that power that contends against the heir of this earth; consequently, if we fancy that we have an independent interest here and in the world to come, we shall fail in getting any of it.

Your interest must be concentrated in the head on the earth, and all of our interest must center in the Godhead in eternity, and there is no durable interest in any other channel.

I desire the people to consider whether they have any faltering in their feelings, any misgivings, or lack of confidence in their God. If they have, they should seek, with all the spirit and power they are in possession of, until they can understand the principle of eternity and eternal exaltation, and then apply the actions of their lives to these principles, that they may be prepared to enjoy that which their hearts now anticipate and desire. If we will learn these things correctly and advance, and advance, and conti– nue to advance, though the new clay may be continually thrown into the mill, we will bring it to the same pliability as the old, much sooner than if it was ground alone; for the old clay soon mixes with the new and makes the whole lump passive. If we apply our hearts to these things, we shall soon learn to have our interests one here on the earth.

The principles of eternity and eternal exaltation are of no use to us, unless they are brought down to our capacities so that we practice them in our lives. We must learn the principles of government, must learn ourselves, the eternal government of our God, the interest that the Father has here on the earth and the interest that we have; then we will place our interest with the interest of our Father and God, and will have no self-interest, no interest only in His kingdom that is set up on the earth; then we will begin and apply these principles in our lives.

How shall we apply them? We must learn that we have not one farthing’s worth of anything in heaven, earth, or hell, not even our own being.

We have been brought forth on this earth, organized for the purpose of giving us an opportunity of proving ourselves worthy to possess something by and by.

We make farms, build fine houses, get possessions around us, and these we call ours, when not a dime’s worth of them is either yours or mine. This is what we must learn.

I have much property in my possession, and we use the terms, “my farm, my house, my cattle, my horses, my carriage,” &c., but the fact is we do not truly own anything; we never did and never will, until many long ages after this. We seemingly have property; we have gold and silver in our possession, and houses and lands, and goods, &c. These things we are accustomed to call ours, but that is for the want of understanding.

Every man and woman has got to feel that not one farthing of anything in their possession is rightfully theirs, in the strict sense of ownership. When we learn this lesson, where will be my interest and my effort? I do not own anything—it is my Father’s. How came I by my possessions? His providence has thrown them into my care; He has appointed me a steward over them, and I am His servant, His steward, His hired man, one with whom He has placed certain property in charge for the time being, that is, pertaining to the things of this world.

Says one, “It was preached thirty years ago, that nothing belongs to us, and, if I have a thousand dollars, to at once give it all to the poor.” That is your enthusiasm and ignorance. Were you to make an equal distribution of property today, one year would not pass before there would be as great an inequality as now.

How could you ever get a people equal with regard to their possessions? They never can be, no more than they can be in the appearance of their faces.

Are we equal? Yes. Wherein? We are equal in the interest of eternal things, in our God, not aside from Him.

We behold Church property, and not one farthing of it is yours or mine. Of the possessions that are called mine, my individual property, not a dollar’s worth is mine; and of all that you seem to possess, not a dollar’s worth is yours.

Did you ever organize a tree, gold, silver, or any other kind of metal, or any other natural production? No, you have not yet attained to that power, and it will be ages before you do. Who owns all the elements with which we are commanded and permitted to operate? The Lord, and we are stewards over them. It is not for me to take the Lord’s property placed under my charge and wantonly distribute it; I must do with it as He tells me. In my stewardship I am not to be guided by the mere whims of human folly, by those who are more ignorant than I am, not by the lesser power, but by the superior and wiser.

Those who are in favor of an equality in property say that that is the doctrine taught in the New Testament. True, the Savior said to the young man, “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me,” in order to try him and prove whether he had faith or not.

In the days of the Apostles, the brethren sold their possessions and laid them at the Apostles’ feet. And where did many of those brethren go to? To naught, to confusion and destruction. Could those Apostles keep the Church together, on those principles? No. Could they build up the kingdom on those principles? No, they never could. Many of those persons were good men, but they were filled with enthusiasm, insomuch that if they owned a little possession they would place it at the feet of the Apostles.

Will such a course sustain the kingdom? No. Did it, in the days of the Apostles? No. Such a policy would be the ruin of this people, and scatter them to the four winds. We are to be guided by superior knowledge, by a higher influence and power.

The superior is not to be directed by the inferior, consequently you need not ask me to throw that which the Lord has put into my hands to the four winds. If, by industrious habits and honorable dealings, you obtain thousands or millions, little or much, it is your duty to use all that is put in your possession, as judiciously as you have knowledge, to build up the kingdom of God on the earth. Let this people equalize their means, and it would be one of the greatest injuries that could be done to them. During the past season, those who lived their religion acted upon the principles thereof by extending the hand of charity and benevolence to the poor, freely distributing their flour and other provisions, yet I am fearful that that mode was an injury instead of a real good, although it was designed for good.

Many poor people who receive flour of the brethren, if they have a bushel of wheat will sell it in the stores for that which will do them no good. My object is to accomplish the greatest good to this people. If I can by my wisdom and the wisdom of my brethren, by the wisdom that the Lord gives unto us, get this people into a situation in which they can actually sustain themselves and help their neighbors, it will be one of the greatest temporal blessings that can be conferred upon them. If you wish to place persons in a backsliding condition, make them idle and dilatory in temporal things, even though they may be good Saints in other respects. If the whole of this people can be put in a situation to take care of themselves, individually, and collectively, it will save a great many from apostatizing, and be productive of much good. I have got to wait for the Lord to dictate from day to day, and from time to time, as to what particular course to pursue for the accomplishment of so desirable a result.

Suppose that we should say that we intend to sell flour at ten dollars per hundred, would that make the people take care of themselves and their grain? It is not so very material what flour costs, nor whether the brethren sell it for three or ten cents a pound, as it is whether each will strive to secure and economise his own provisions. If you establish the selling price of flour at one dollar a hundred, or even at thirty cents, here are some who will sell all they have before night, and then beg their living of their neighbors. What course shall we pursue to produce the greatest good? We have the Gospel and the ordinances of salvation, and if we can get the people to do that which will produce the greatest good, then we shall further promote the interests of the kingdom of God on the earth.

I do not like to have the Saints, those who profess to be Saints, get such extravagant confidence in our God that they will not do one thing to provide for the body, but omit securing provision enough to sustain themselves, and say, “O, I shall have as long as there is any means, or wheat, or flour; I know that brother Brigham will not see me suffer. Mr. Storekeeper, take the little I have and give me some ribbons for it, or a nice dress, for I want the best I can get, and I know that brother Brigham will not let me suffer.” Will this course produce good to the people, or are they ignorant that they do not know what course to pursue?

The grand difficulty with this community is simply this, their interest is not one. When you will have your interests concentrated in one, then you will work jointly, and we shall not have to scold and find fault, as much as we are now required to. Somebody ought to be reproved here today, for some of our farmers are bringing in wheat and selling it to the stores for a dollar and a half a bushel. Would they sell it that low to the poor? No, they would not, if the poor had money to pay for it. If this is the best way, the most conducive of the greatest good to this community, all right, but I cannot see any good resulting from it.

I can see no good accruing to this community in maintaining a divided interest; our interest must be one throughout, in order to produce the good we desire. Many are distrustful in the providences of God; they profess faith enough to have the Lord extract a cancer from their flesh, or drive a fever from them, though they would not do a single thing for themselves; yet if they have a few bushels of grain, or five dollars, and you touch that, you touch the apple of their eye. You will run counter to the feelings of “here is my individual family, my individual substance, my individual habitation, and my individual property that I have gathered together; it is all my own, it is not yours.”

I know that there is great liberality among this people, and on the other hand there is much liberality like this, though I do not know that I can fully explain it to you, but I will try. A few years ago we wished to drive all the cattle not needed here, so as to leave the feed for our milk cows, and there was not a man who was not heart and hand for the policy. When the time came to gather up the cattle, every man said to his neighbor, “This is one of the best possible plans for our stock, now you drive off your cattle,” so each man said to his neighbor, and thought to himself “mine will have a better chance.” And in the matter of fencing, each one says to his neighbor, “You put up a good fence round your garden and herd your cattle,” at the same time intending to let his own run at large. These few instances explain the feelings and conduct of some, and in what manner they are liberal.

I again say that I do not wish any to take chastisement but those who need it, though most of the people are generally so righteous and liberal that they give over every part of it to their neighbors; they consider that none of it belongs to them. Some are so liberal that they will pick up my cattle on the range and butcher them, saying, “There is nothing here belonging to brother Brigham, nor to anybody else, it is the Lord’s, and I will have a little beef.”

I wish the people to understand that they have no interest apart from the Lord our God. The moment you have a divided interest, that moment you sever yourselves from eternal principles.

It is reported that many are going away; I say, gentlemen and ladies, you who wish to go to California, or to the States, go and welcome; I had rather you would go than stay. I wish every one to go who prefers doing so, and if they will go like gentlemen, they go with my best feelings; but if they go like rascals and knaves, they cannot have them. I have never requested but two things of those who leave, namely, to pay their debts and not steal; that is all that I have required of them. Go about your business, for I would rather you would go than stay.

The moment a person decides to leave this people, he is cut off from every object that is durable for time and eternity, and I have told you the reason why. Everything that is opposed to God and His Son Jesus Christ, to the celestial kingdom and to celestial laws, those celestial laws and beings will hold warfare with, until every particle of the opposite is turned back to its native element, though it should take millions and millions of ages to accomplish it. Christ will never cease the warfare, until he destroys death and him that hath the power of it. Every possession and object of affection will be taken from those who forsake the truth, and their identity and existence will eventually cease. “That is strange doctrine.” No matter, they have not an object which they can place their hands or affections upon, but what will vanish and pass away. That is the course and will be the tendency of every man and woman, when they decide to leave this kingdom.

They are welcome to go, and to stay where they go; I heartily wish that a great many would go, such as I can point out. Like old Lorenzo Dow, when he was trying to detect the person who had stolen an axe; he said that he could throw the stone which he had carried into the pulpit and hit the man that stole the axe; he handled the stone as though he would throw it, and the guilty person dodged, when he said, that is the man. So I could throw and hit a great many that I wish to go.

I say again, you that wish to go, go in peace, and we like to have you go; and those that wish to come here we like to have them come and be Saints, and if they would, they would stay; but if not, I like to have them leave, no matter whether they belong to the Church or not.

My soul feels hallelujah, it exults in God, that He has planted this people in a place that is not desired by the wicked; for if the wicked come here they do not wish to stay, no matter how well they are treated, and I thank the Lord for it; and I want hard times, so that every person that does not wish to stay, for the sake of his religion, will leave. This is a good place to make Saints, and it is a good place for Saints to live; it is the place the Lord has appointed, and we shall stay here until He tells us to go somewhere else.

All I ask of the Saints is to live their religion, serve their God, and recollect that their interest should be in Him and nowhere else; that the inferior must be controlled by the superior, and our efforts and affections all be concentrated in one, namely, in building up the kingdom of God to the destruction of wickedness; and may God help us to do it, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 22, 1856.

I am happy for the privilege of rising again before you to converse upon those things that pertain to our peace, that most deeply interest us in our reflections and in our lives, it is a matter of constant joy and comfort to me.

It gives me great pleasure to look upon the congregations of the Saints, while I reflect that some of us have been faithful in this Church for many years, have preached to the Saints and to sinners, have called upon people to repent while the finger of scorn has been pointed at us and all manner of evil has been spoken against us falsely. And many times the Elders, while laboring faithfully in preaching to the people, would not find where to lay their heads, no doors open to receive them, and no one to feed them, yet they have traveled and searched until they have found a great many that ought to be honest in heart—a great many who have embraced the Gospel.

It has been a hard labor upon many of the Elders of this Church to accomplish what has been done, to preach this Gospel to so many people in so many different nations and kingdoms.

If the miles our missionaries have traveled were counted they would amount to a great sum, and if you could know how many days they have been without eating, while calling upon the people to repent, you would find them to be a great number.

If the troubles of this people from the commencement of this work, from the early history of the Prophet, and the persecutions of the Saints, could be presented before this congregation you would be astonished, you would marvel at them. You would not believe that a people could endure so much as this people have endured, you would think it an impossibility for men and women to endure and pass through what a great many in this Church have. Truly it is a miracle that we are here.

Taking these things into consideration, and viewing our present circumstances and the privileges we enjoy, there is not a heart that fully realizes what we have passed through and the blessings we now enjoy, without praising God continually and feeling to exclaim, “O praise the name of our God.”

True, many think and feel that we have hard times here, that it is a hard country to live in. We have long cold winters, and we have a great many difficulties to encounter—the Indian wars, the cricket wars, the grasshopper wars, and the drouths.

What we have suffered during the two years past comes before us, and now the prospect is gloomy pertaining to sustenance for man.

How many are there who feel and say like this? “Were it not for ‘Mormonism’ I should know at once what to do; I know the course I would pursue.” What would you do, brother? “I would pick up my duds and leave; I would sell what I have here, if I could, and if I could not I would leave it.” These are the feelings of some.

I will tell you what my feelings are, they are, praise God for hard times, for I feel that it is one of the greatest privileges to be in a country that is not desirable, where the wicked will pass by.

Now, do we all realize this? No, we do not; though I have no doubt but that some do. I will tell you what will make you realize it; to suffer the loss of all things here by the enemy’s coming along and driving you out of your houses, from your farms and fields, and taking your horses, cattle, farming implements, and what little substance you have, and banishing you from this place and sending you off five or six hundred miles, bereft of all you possessed, without suitable clothing and provisions for the journey.

Then you go to work, and toil and labor with all your might, for a few years, to get another home, and then let another set come and drive you out of that place, taking your cattle, your farms, and all you have, telling you that they want your possessions, and by the time they had thus driven you four or five times, as they have many of us, and made you leave everything you have, and threatened you with death, and watched for you by day and by night, to get a chance to kill you, and they suffered to go at large with impunity, and would kill you in open daylight if they dare, after having passed through fifteen or sixteen years of this kind of persecution, you would thank God for hard times, for a country where mobs do not wish to live.

Many of the people in these valleys have no experience in these things, and I would be very glad to have such persons escape those trials, if they could receive the same glory and exaltation that they would if they had passed through them.

I look upon the people, and as I frequently say, I have compassion upon them, for all have not experience. It was told you this morning that you could not be made perfect Saints in one day, that is impossible. You might as well undertake to learn a child every branch of English literature during its first week’s attendance at school, this cannot be done.

We are not capacitated to receive in one day, nor in one year, the knowledge and experience calculated to make us perfect Saints, but we learn from time to time, from day to day, consequently we are to have compassion one upon another, to look upon each other as we would wish others to look upon us, and to remember that we are frail mortal beings, and that we can be changed for the better only by the Gospel of salvation.

As it was observed this morning, we ought to be ourselves and not anybody else. We do not wish to be anybody else, neither do we wish to be anybody but Saints. We wish the Gospel to take effect upon each one of us; and we can change in our feelings, in our dispositions and natures, to the extent that was observed by brother Kimball in the comparison which he made.

A man, or a woman, desiring to know the will of God, and having an opportunity to know it, will apply their hearts to this wisdom until it becomes easy and familiar to them, and they will love to do good instead of evil. They will love to promote every good principle, and will soon abhor everything that tends to evil; they will gain light and knowledge to discern between evil and good.

The person that applies his heart to wisdom, and seeks diligently for understanding, will grow to be mighty in Israel.

Call to mind when you first embraced the Gospel, how much did you then know compared with what you now know? Could you detect error then as now? Could you then understand the operations of the different spirits as you can now understand them? I know what your reply would be to these interrogations.

In the first rise of the Church, when the gifts of the Gospel were bestowed on an individual, or upon individuals, the people could not understand but that the giver of the gift gave also the exercise of it; how much labor the Elders that understood this matter have had to make it plain to the understandings of the people.

Take, for instance, the gift of tongues; years ago in this Church you could find men of age, and seemingly of experience, who would preach and raise up Branches, and when quite young boys or girls would get up and speak in tongues, and others interpret, and perhaps that interpretation instructing the Elders who brought them into the Church, they would turn round and say, “I know my duty, this is the word of the Lord to me and I must do as these boys or girls have spoken in tongues.”

You ask one of the Elders if they understand things so now, and they will say, “No, the gifts are from the Lord, and we are agents to use them as we please.”

If a man is called to be a Prophet, and the gift of prophecy is poured upon him, though he afterwards actually defies the power of God and turns away from the holy commandments, that man will continue in his gift and will prophesy lies.

He will make false prophecies, yet he will do it by the spirit of prophecy; he will feel that he is a prophet and can prophesy, but he does it by another spirit and power than that which was given him of the Lord. He uses the gift as much as you and I use ours.

The gift of seeing with the natural eyes is just as much a gift as the gift of tongues. The Lord gave that gift and we can do as we please with regard to seeing; we can use the sight of the eye to the glory of God, or to our own destruction.

The gift of taste is the gift of God, we can use that to feed and pamper the lusts of the flesh, or we can use it to the glory of God.

The gift of communicating one with another is the gift of God, just as much so as the gift of prophecy, of discerning spirits, of tongues, of healing, or any other gift, though sight, taste, and speech, are so generally bestowed that they are not considered in the same miraculous light as are those gifts mentioned in the Gospel.

We can use these gifts, and every other gift God has given us, to the praise and glory of God, to serve Him, or we can use them to dishonor Him and His cause; we can use the gift of speech to blaspheme His name. That is true, and I have as good a right as brother Kimball, to say that what I am talking about is true.

He said that all his talk in the forenoon was true, and I have as good a right to say that my talk is true, as he has to say that his is true.

These principles are correct in regard to the gifts which we receive for the express purpose of using them, in order that we may endure and be exalted, and that the organization we have received shall not come to an end, but endure to all eternity.

By a close application of the gifts bestowed upon us, we can secure to ourselves the resurrection of these bodies that we now possess, that our spirits inhabit, and when they are resurrected they will be made pure and holy; then they will endure to all eternity.

But we cannot receive all at once, we cannot understand all at once; we have to receive a little here and a little there. If we receive a little, let us improve upon that little; and if we receive much, let us improve upon it.

If we get a line today, improve upon it; if we get another tomorrow, improve upon it; and every line, and precept, and gift that we receive, we are to labor upon, so as to become perfect before the Lord.

This is the way that we are to change ourselves, and change one another, pertaining to the principles of righteousness.

As brother Joseph observed this morning, “Joseph must be Joseph; Brigham must be Brigham; Heber must be Heber; Amasa must be Amasa; Orson must be Orson; and Parley must be Parley;” we must be ourselves.

What should we be, and what are we? I will take the liberty of saying a few words upon this. We were created upright, pure, and holy, in the image of our father and our mother, in the image of our God.

Wherein do we differ? In the talents that are given us, and in our callings. We are made of the same materials; our spirits were begotten by the same parents; in the begetting of the flesh we are of the same first parents, and all the kindreds of the earth are made of one flesh; but we are different in regard to our callings.

In the first place, we may vary with regard to our organizations pertaining to the flesh; brother Kimball explained this morning why and how we vary.

Let a man be devoted to his God and to his religion, and his wives with him, and he is very apt to have children that will grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If the whole of the father and mother in all their acts is devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth, if they have no desire but to do right, if righteousness reigns predominant, then the spirit that is within them controls, to a certain extent, the flesh in their posterity.

Yet every son and daughter have got to go through the ordeal that you and I have to pass through; they must be tried, tempted and buffeted, in order to act upon their agency before God and prove themselves worthy of an exaltation.

Though our children are begotten in righteousness, brought forth in holiness, they must be tried and tempted, for they are agents before our Father and God, the same as you and I.

They must bring this agency into action; the passions and appetites must be governed and controlled; the eye, the speech, the tastes, the desires, all must be controlled.

If the people would thus control themselves in their lives, it would make a great alteration in the generations yet to come.

But we cannot clear ourselves from the power of Satan; we must know what it is to be tried and tempted, for no man or woman can be exalted upon any other principle, as was beautifully exhibited in the life of the Savior.

According to the philosophy of our religion we understand that if he had not descended below all things, he could not have ascended above all things.

As he was appointed to ascend above all things, his father and his God so brought it about by the handiwork of His providence, that he was actually accounted, in his birth and in his life, below all things.

Did he descend below all things? His parents had not a house nor even a tent for him to be born in, but were obliged to go to a stable, doubtless because they were denied the privilege of a house.

The Son of Man could not be born in a house, and the poor mother in her distress crawled into a manger, among the litter that had been left by the cattle.

Others may have been born in as low a state as this, but it is hard to find anybody, among the civilized portions of mankind, that gets any lower.

But in the opinion of the people they were not considered worthy of anything better, and by some means it happened so, though they did not know why, neither did the people.

The history of Joseph and Mary is given to us by their best friends, and precisely as we will give the history of the Prophet Joseph. We know him to have been a good man, we know that he performed his mission, we know that he was an honorable man and dealt justly, we know his true character.

But let his enemies give his character, and they will make him out one of the basest men that ever lived. Let the enemies of Joseph and Mary give their characters to us, and you would be strongly tempted to believe as the Jews believe.

Let the enemies of Jesus give his character to us, and, in the absence of the testimony of his friends, I do not know but that the present Christian world would all be Jews, so far as their belief that Jesus Christ was an impostor and one of the most degraded men that ever lived.

Jesus descended very low in his parentage and birth; but the question may be asked, did he condescend to be reduced in his understanding?

By the same reasoning I would believe that he did. I would believe that he was one of the weakest children that was ever born, one of the most helpless at his birth; so helpless that it might have been supposed that he would never grow up to manhood.

What is his history? Read for yourselves the account given by his friends. It is said that Josephus has given a pretty just account of Joseph and Mary, of the Apostles, &c., but he has only given just about as good an account of Jesus and his parents as some person in London lately has about the “Mormons” and Joseph Smith their Prophet, though he gives a pretty fair account.

Take a man in Paris or in London and let him write a history of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints thirty years after Joseph figured on the earth, for the history of Christ by Josephus was written several years after he was crucified, and he would come as nigh to the truth, perhaps, as Josephus did in the history he has given of Jesus and his Apostles. Josephus was a pretty fair man, but he knew but little about them.

What account would Jesus have given of himself, could he have transmitted his own statements? Such as every good man would, for he would have told the truth; but now we have to take his history from his friends and from his foes.

What history do we get from the Jews? I will venture to say that no man living on the face of the earth, capable of using language to portray the character of any individual that lives on the earth, could paint a worse character than they have given to Jesus Christ.

Compare that with all that has been said against Joseph Smith, and you will find that the wisdom of this generation will have to succumb to that of the Jews, for they portrayed the meanest character in the history they have given of Jesus; but let that pass.

You can discern that we have to control ourselves, that by the Gospel we can actually do so and reform. Each man and woman, by the spirit of truth, can conform to that principle to improve until we will know and understand the things of God, so as to save ourselves by the commandments and will of God.

The Gospel is simple, it is plain. The mystery of godliness, or of the Gospel, is actually couched in our own ignorance; that is the cause of the mystery that we suppose to be in the revelations given to us; it is in our own misunderstanding—in our ignorance.

There is no mystery throughout the whole plan of salvation, only to those who do not understand.

Brother Joseph, in the forenoon, touched upon one principle that I wish to talk about, that is, our future state—futurity.

From time to time our fathers and our mothers leave us, their bodies are consigned to the silent tomb; our Prophets are taken from us; our companions are taken away; our brothers and sisters leave this world.

The organization that pertains to this life decays, it becomes lifeless, we lay it down. Disease fastens upon our children, and they are gone.

I said a few words upon the principle of affection last Sabbath, now I wish to say a few words with regard to our lives hereafter; I will extend these remarks further than our existence here in the flesh.

We understand, for it has long been told us, that we had an existence before we came into the world. Our spirits came here pure to take these tabernacles; they came to occupy them as habitations, with the understanding that all that had passed previously to our coming here should be taken away from us, that we should not know anything about it.

We come here to live a few days, and then we are gone again. How long the starry heavens have been in existence we cannot say; how long they will continue to be we cannot say. How long there will be air, water, earth; how long the elements will endure, in their present combinations, it is not for us to say. Our religion teaches us that there never was a time when they were not, and there never will be a time when they will cease to be; they are here, and will be here forever.

I will give you a figure that brother Hyde had in a dream. He had been thinking a great deal about time and eternity; he wished to know the difference, but how to understand it he did not know. He asked the Lord to show him, and after he had prayed about it the Lord gave him a dream, at least I presume He did, or permitted it so to be, at any rate he had a dream; his mind was opened so that he could understand time and eternity. He said that he thought he saw a stream issuing forth from a misty cloud which spread upon his right and upon his left, and that the stream ran past him and entered the cloud again. He was told that the stream was time, that it had no place where it commenced to run, neither was there any end to its running; and that the time which he was thinking about and talking about, what he could see between the two clouds, was a portion of or one with that which he could not perceive.

So it is with you and I; here is time, where is eternity? It is here, just as much as anywhere in all the expanse of space; a measured space of time is only a part of eternity.

We have a short period of duration allotted to us, and we call it time. We exist here, we have life within us, let that life be taken away and the lungs will cease to heave, and the body will become lifeless. Is that life extinct? No, it continues to exist as much as it did when the lungs would heave, when the mortal body was invigorated with air, food and the elements in which it lived, it has only left the body. The life, the animating principles are still in existence, as much so as they were yesterday when the body was in good health. Here the inquiry will naturally arise, when our spirits leave our bodies where do they go to?

I will tell you. Will I locate them? Yes, if you wish me to. They do not pass out of the organization of this earth on which we live. You read in the Bible that when the spirit leaves the body it goes to God who gave it. Now tell me where God is not, if you please; you cannot. How far would you have to go in order to go to God, if your spirits were unclothed? Would you have to go out of this bowery to find God, if you were in the spirit? If God is not here, we had better reserve this place to gather the wicked into, for they will desire to be where God is not. The Lord Almighty is here by His Spirit, by His influence, by His presence. I am not in the north end of this bowery, my body is in the south end of it, but my influence and my voice extend to all parts if it; in like manner is the Lord here.

It reads that the spirit goes to God who gave it. Let me render this Scripture a little plainer; when the spirits leave their bodies they are in the presence of our Father and God, they are prepared then to see, hear and understand spiritual things. But where is the spirit world? It is incorporated within this celestial system. Can you see it with your natural eyes? No. Can you see spirits in this room? No. Suppose the Lord should touch your eyes that you might see, could you then see the spirits? Yes, as plainly as you now see bodies, as did the servant of Elijah. If the Lord would permit it, and it was His will that it should be done, you could see the spirits that have departed from this world, as plainly as you now see bodies with your natural eyes; as plainly as brothers Kimball and Hyde saw those wicked disembodied spirits in Preston, England. They saw devils there, as we see one another; they could hear them speak, and knew what they said. Could they hear them with the natural ear? No. Did they see those wicked spirits with their natural eyes? No. They could not see them the next morning, when they were not in the spirit; neither could they see them the day before, nor at any other time; their spiritual eyes were touched by the power of the Almighty.

They said they looked through their natural eyes, and I suppose they did. Brother Kimball saw them, but I know not whether his natural eyes were open at the time or not; brother Kimball said that he lay upon the floor part of the time, and I presume his eyes were shut, but he saw them as also did brother Hyde, and they heard them speak.

We may enquire where the spirits dwell, that the devil has power over? They dwell anywhere, in Preston, as well as in other places in England. Do they dwell anywhere else? Yes, on this continent; it is full of them. If you could see, and would walk over many parts of North America, you would see millions on millions of the spirits of those who have been slain upon this continent. Would you see the spirits of those who were as good in the flesh as they knew how to be? Yes. Would you see the spirits of the wicked? Yes. Could you see the spirits of devils? Yes, and that is all there is of them. They have been deprived of bodies, and that constitutes their curse, that is to say, speaking after the manner of men, you shall be wanderers on the earth, you have got to live out of doors all the time you live.

That is the situation of the spirits that were sent to the earth, when the revolt took place in heaven, when Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, was cast out. Where did he go? He came here, and one-third part of the spirits in heaven came with him. Do you suppose that one-third part of all the beings that existed in eternity came with him? No, but one-third part of the spirits that were begotten and organized and brought forth to became tenants of fleshly bodies to dwell upon this earth. They forsook Jesus Christ, the rightful heir, and joined with Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, and came to this earth; they got here first. As soon as Mother Eve made her appearance in the garden of Eden, the devil was on hand.

You cannot give any person their exaltation, unless they know what evil is, what sin, sorrow, and misery are, for no person could comprehend, appreciate, and enjoy an exaltation upon any other principle. The devil with one-third part of the spirits of our Father’s Kingdom got here before us, and we tarried there with our friends, until the time came for us to come to the earth and take tabernacles; but those spirits that revolted were forbidden ever to have tabernacles of their own. You can now comprehend how it is that they are always trying to get possession of the bodies of human beings; we read of a man’s being possessed of a legion, and Mary Magdalene had seven.

You may now see people with legions of evil spirits in and around them; there are men who walk our streets that have more than a hundred devils in them and round about them, prompting them to all manner of evil, and some too that profess to be Latter-day Saints, and if you were to take the devils out of them and from about them, you would leave them dead corpses; for I believe there would be nothing left of them.

I want you to understand these things; and if you should say or think that I know nothing about them, be pleased to find out and inform me. You can see the acts of these evil spirits in every place, the whole country is full of them, the whole earth is alive with them, and they are continually trying to get into the taber– nacles of the human family, and are always on hand to prompt us to depart from the strict line of our duty.

You know that we sometimes need a prompter; if anyone of you was called by the government of the United States to go to Germany, Italy, or any foreign nation, as an Ambassador, if you did not understand the language somebody would have to interpret for you. Well, these evil spirits are ready to prompt you. Do they prompt us? Yes, and I could put my hands on a dozen of them while I have been on this stand; they are here on the stand. Could we do without the devils? No, we could not get along without them. They are here, and they suggest this, that, and the other.

When you lay down this tabernacle, where are you going? Into the spiritual world. Are you going into Abraham’s bosom. No, not anywhere nigh there, but into the spirit world. Where is the spirit world? It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes, they do. Do they both inhabit one kingdom? Yes, they do. Do they go to the sun? No. Do they go beyond the boundaries of this organized earth? No, they do not. They are brought forth upon this earth, for the express purpose of inhabiting it to all eternity. Where else are you going? Nowhere else, only as you may be permitted.

When the spirits of mankind leave their bodies, no matter whether the individual was a Prophet or the meanest person that you could find, where do they go? To the spirit world. Where is it? I am telling you. The spirit of Joseph, I do not know that it is just now in this bowery, but I will assure you that it is close to the Latter-day Saints, is active in preaching to the spirits in prison and preparing the way to redeem the nations of the earth, those who lived in darkness previous to the introduction of the Gospel by himself in these days.

He has just as much labor on hand as I have; he has just as much to do. Father Smith and Carlos and brother Partridge, yes, and every other good Saint, are just as busy in the spirit world as you and I are here. They can see us, but we cannot see them unless our eyes were opened. What are they doing there? They are preaching, preaching all the time, and preparing the way for us to hasten our work in building temples here and elsewhere, and to go back to Jackson County and build the great temple of the Lord. They are hurrying to get ready by the time that we are ready, and we are all hurrying to get ready by the time our Elder Brother is ready.

The wicked spirits that leave here and go into the spirit world, are they wicked there? Yes.

The spirits of people that have lived upon the earth according to the the best light they had, who were as honest and sincere as men and women could be, if they lived on the earth without the privilege of the Gospel and the Priesthood and the keys thereof are still under the power and control of evil spirits, to a certain extent. No matter where they lived on the face of the earth, all men and women that have died without the keys and power of the Priesthood, though they might have been honest and sincere and have done everything they could, are under the influence of the devil, more or less. Are they as much so as others? No, no. Take those that were wicked designedly, who knowingly lived without the Gospel when it was within their reach, they are given up to the devil, they become tools to the devil and spirits of devils.

Go to the time when the Gospel came to the earth in the days of Joseph, take the wicked that have opposed this people and persecuted them to the death, and they are sent to hell. Where are they? They are in the spirit world, and are just as busy as they possibly can be to do everything they can against the Prophet and the Apostles, against Jesus and his kingdom. They are just as wicked and malicious in their actions against the cause of truth, as they were while on the earth in their fleshly tabernacles.

Joseph, also, goes there, but has the devil power over him? No, because he held the keys and power of the eternal Priesthood here, and got the victory while here in the flesh.

Before I proceed further I will give you an illustration. Send a man that is used to magnetizing people, and see if he can magnetize an Elder in Israel, one that is full of the faith, or a faithful sister in the Church of God. Could Le Roy Sunderland, one of their greatest characters, magnetize one of the Latter-day Saints? No. He might as well try to magnetize the sun in the firmament. Why? Because the Priesthood is upon you, and he would try to magnetize you by another and lesser power.

The principle of animal magnetism is true, but wicked men use it to an evil purpose. I have never told you much about my belief in this magnetic principle. Speaking is a true gift, but I can speak to the glory of God, or to the injury of His cause and to my condemnation, as I please; and still the gift is of God. The gift of animal magnetism is a gift of God, but wicked men use it to promote the cause of the devil, and that is precisely the difference. You may travel through the world and make inquiries where the Elders have traveled, and you cannot find an instance where the devil has gained power over a good and faithful Elder through this power. He cannot do it, because the faithful Elder of this Church holds keys and power above that which is used by those who go round lecturing on magnetism, and operating upon all who will become passive to their will. They have not the same power that the faithful Elders of Israel have, for those Elders have the eternal Priesthood upon them, which is above and presides over every other power.

When the faithful Elders, holding this Priesthood, go into the spirit world they carry with them the same power and Priesthood that they had while in the mortal tabernacle. They have got the victory over the power of the enemy here, consequently when they leave this world they have perfect control over those evil spirits, and they cannot be buffeted by Satan. But as long as they live in the flesh no being on this earth, of the posterity of Adam, can be free from the power of the devil.

When this portion of the school is out, the one in which we descend below all things and commence upon this earth to learn the first lessons for an eternal exaltation, if you have been a faithful scholar, and have overcome, if you have brought the flesh into subjection by the power of the Priesthood, if you have honored the body, when it crumbles to the earth and your spirit is freed from this home of clay, has the devil any power over it? Not one particle.

This is an advantage which the faithful will gain; but while they live on earth they are subject to the buffetings of Satan. Joseph and those who have died in the faith of the Gospel are free from this; if a mob should come upon Joseph now, he has power to disperse them with the motion of his hand, and to drive them where he pleases. But is Joseph glorified? No, he is preaching to the spirits in prison. He will get his resurrection the first of anyone in this kingdom, for he was the first that God made choice of to bring forth the work of the last days.

His office is not taken from him, he has only gone to labor in another department of the operations of the Al– mighty. He is still an Apostle, still a Prophet, and is doing the work of an Apostle and Prophet; he has gone one step beyond us and gained a victory that you and I have not gained, still he has not yet gone into the celestial kingdom, or if he has it has been by a direct command of the Almighty, and that too to return again so soon as the purpose has been accomplished.

No man can enter the celestial kingdom and be crowned with a celestial glory, until he gets his resurrected body; but Joseph and the faithful who have died have gained a victory over the power of the devil, which you and I have not yet gained. So long as we live in these tabernacles, so long we will be subject to the temptations and power of the devil; but when we lay them down, if we have been faithful, we have gained the victory so far; but even then we are not so far advanced at once as to be beyond the neighborhood of evil spirits.

The third part of the hosts of heaven, that were cast out, have not been taken away, at least not that I have found out, and the other two-thirds have got to come and take bodies, all of them who have not, and have the opportunity of preparing for a glorious resurrection and exaltation, before we get through with this world; and those who are faithful in the flesh to the requirements of the Gospel will gain this victory over the spirits that are not allowed to take bodies, which class comprises one-third of the hosts of Heaven.

Those who have died without the Gospel are continually afflicted by those evil spirits, who say to them—“Do not go to hear that man Joseph Smith preach, or David Patten, or any of their associates, for they are deceivers.”

Spirits are just as familiar with spirits as bodies are with bodies, though spirits are composed of matter so re– fined as not to be tangible to this coarser organization. They walk, converse, and have their meetings; and the spirits of good men like Joseph and the Elders, who have left this Church on earth for a season to operate in another sphere, are rallying all their powers and going from place to place preaching the Gospel, and Joseph is directing them, saying, go ahead, my brethren, and if they hedge up your way, walk up and command them to disperse. You have the Priesthood and can disperse them, but if any of them wish to hear the Gospel, preach to them.

Can they baptize them? No. What can they do? They can preach the Gospel, and when we have the privilege of building up Zion, the time will come for saviors to come up on Mount Zion. My brother Joseph spoke of this principle this forenoon. Some of those who are not in mortality will come along and say, “Here are a thousand names I wish you to attend to in this temple, and when you have got through with them I will give you another thousand;” and the Elders of Israel and their wives will go forth to officiate for their forefathers, the men for the men, and the women for the women.

A man is ordained and receives his washings, anointings, and endowments for the male portion of his and his wife’s progenitors, and his wife for the female portion.

Then in the spirit world they will say, “Do you not see somebody at work for you? The Lord remembers you and has revealed to His servants on the earth, what to do for you.”

Is the spirit world here? It is not beyond the sun, but is on this earth that was organized for the people that have lived and that do and will live upon it. No other people can have it, and we can have no other kingdom until we are prepared to inhabit this eternally. In the spirit world those who have got the victory go on to prepare the way for those who live in the flesh, fulfilling the work of saviors on Mount Zion.

To accomplish this work there will have to be not only one temple but thousands of them, and thousands and tens of thousands of men and women will go into those temples and officiate for people who have lived as far back as the Lord shall reveal. If we are faithful enough to go back and build that great temple which Joseph has written about, and should the Lord acknowledge the labor of His servants, then watch, for you will see somebody whom you have seen before, and many of you will see him whom you have not seen before, but you will know him as soon as you see him.

This privilege we cannot enjoy now, because the power of Satan is such that we cannot perform the labor that is necessary to enable us to obtain it.

When we commence again on the walls of the temple to be built on this Block, the news will fly from Maine to California. Who will tell them? Those little devils that are around here, that are around this earth in the spirit world; there will be millions of them ready to communicate the news to devils in Missouri, Illinois, California, Mexico, and in all the world. And the question will be, “What is the news? There is some devilish thing going on among the ‘Mormons’ and I know it. Those ‘Mormons’ ought to be killed.” They do not know what stirs them up to this feeling, it is those spirits that are continually near to them.

We all have got spirits to attend us; when the eyes of the servant of Elijah were opened he saw that those for them were more than those that were against them. There are two-thirds for us, and one-third against us; and there is not a son or daughter of Adam but what will be saved in some kingdom and receive glory and an exaltation to a degree, except those who have had the privilege of the Gospel and rejected it and sinned against the Holy Ghost, they will become servants to devils.

How long will they exist? I do not know, neither do I care. Every one of this people, with the Saints that have lived before us, from the days of Adam until now, and those that may come after us, all say, “Build up the kingdom of God.” What for? To save the inhabitants of the earth, to get them all back into some kind of a kingdom where they can be administered to, and not have this organized matter return again to its native element, for we wish this work to be preserved.

You know that when you make a farm you dislike to see it overrun with weeds, and it would hurt your feelings to see your houses, barns, and other property destroyed. True, you can make more, but how do you suppose the Lord feels, who is much more compassionate than we are, when He sees the devil gaining an advantage over His creatures to lead them away to destroy them? Do you not suppose that the bowels of His compassion yearn over this people, and that He is angry with the wicked? Do you not suppose that He often feels like saying, “O, my children, why do you not hearken to what I tell you, and take hold of the principles of life, and cease pursuing a course that is calculated to destroy you? I have labored to bring forth this organization, and I do not wish to lose my labor, but I desire to have you hearken to the counsel I give to you and prepare yourselves to endure forever and come into my presence, and if you cannot do that and abide a celestial law, at least abide the law of a kingdom where I can send angels to you, and I will send and comfort you and administer unto you and will raise you up and make you glad and happy, and will fill you with joy and with peace.”

It is our business to live our religion, and it is all that we have to do. “But,” says one, “I thought we had got to raise grain.” I have told you, many a time, that I would not give you anything for your faith, without you add works. How are you going to work to build up the kingdom?

I now wish to leave the subject we have been considering, for I think I have talked enough about it for the present, and tell you how to prepare yourselves to build up the kingdom of God and save the honest in heart.

Here we are in the valleys of these mountains, and I say that there is not a people on the earth that would live here but the Latter-day Saints, and it seems almost more than they can do to stay here. Now if they would be as swift to hearken to counsel as they are to get rich, and as they are in pleasing their own dispositions, we should not see the hard times that we now see.

When we first came here we had not been two weeks on this square, before the Big Cottonwood canal which we are now building, was just as visible to me as it ever will be when it is completed, and you will yet see boats on it. It has to be there. What for? To sustain this people. Do you think we want the water that is now wasted in those natural channels? Say, sisters, do you think we want any more water for irrigation? Yes, you do, for your peas are drying up, and you are not likely to have many cucumbers for pickling.

Have this people been as swift to hearken to counsel as to get rich? No, and many of you would rather pray the Lord to send rain, than to appropriate, by your labor, the waters that are continually flowing from these canyons. I tell you now, as I have before said, I do not have much faith to pray for rain; and if I had faith and power to bring rain upon the crops in these valleys, I would not do it. Why? Because it would throw many of you into lazy slothful, idle habits, and every Gentile that came through here would covet your farms, and would say, “This is the finest country we ever saw, how rich you are, how your cattle thrive upon the hills, your grain grows almost without labor in cultivating the earth.”

They would soon begin to desire your inheritances, those houses and this city, and it would be but a few years before we would have to leave, or contend with them. As it is now, there is no people that would live here, except the Latter-day Saints, and they are decidedly the best people upon the earth, even though I sometimes chastise them, and what I say is true, for a few deserve chastising.

I do not believe that the city of Enoch made greater advancement, in the same period of time, than this people have done in the twenty-six years of their career, which is saying a great deal for them. Who else would live here? Nobody. Put Gentiles here and tell them that they had to be confined here, and they would consider themselves in a worse prison than a penitentiary.

Do some of the brethren murmur a little, and say if it were not for “Mormonism,” they would do thus and so? What of that? Is there any other people who would do as well as you do? No, not another.

When I find fault with the people for not hearkening to counsel, it is because I want them to live so as speedily to obtain the reward of righteousness, and not have to wait so long for it.

This is a good people, though there are some in our midst who do not do right. Plant the Gentiles here, and you would soon see cutting throats and hear the sharp crack of the rifle at the water sects. There would be far more fighting for water than there is among the “Mormons” though some of them steal it now.

Many of the brethren feel as I do; if I had my crops growing and somebody should came along and steal my water, I should say, you will raise grain, will you not? Well, go ahead, for we shall get it, if you raise it.

Here sits a man I can now look upon who says I am a greater despot than the Emperor of Russia. Maybe I am, for should I see the poor suffering, I could knock open flour barrels better than Alexander II, and give the contents to the poor with a better heart than he could.

Who in the wide world could live here more peaceably than we do? Nobody; and I thank God for hard times. Do you suppose that the Gentiles want this country? No; they say, “It is a Godforsaken country,” and I say, hallelujah, for it is the very country I prefer, a country where nobody else will live but those who are willing to keep the commandments of God.

I wish to be tyrannical enough, if that is the proper term, to make you good men and good women. Go to with your might this year, and see if we cannot prepare for another. This is a great Saint raising country; we have seen wheat grow here almost spontaneously, and there could not be a better Saint raising country.

If a person is honest before God and has more than he needs for his own use, and does not covet it, he will make a distribution to those who have not, and there need not any person go without necessary food. I know that there are many here who have given out much flour, and they have by no means suffered on account of their liberality. There is a man sitting on the stand who says that his wife scraped the bottom of the flour barrel, and on the next morning has gone to scrape again, to give out more to the poor, and found it half full. She asked him “If he had put it there.” He answered, “No.” “Well,” said she, “I scraped it out last night.”

The Lord wishes to try you; shall we say that we will hoard up the blessings of God, that we may be able to say that we have a large amount to ourselves? No, but divide them out, and do so with an honest heart, in all humility; and let those who receive blessings receive them with an honest heart, in all humility and thankfulness. Some who have, will withhold, and some of the poor are covetous and will grab a little here and there and lay it up, or waste it. If you continue in covetousness, your substance will shrink and waste away.

Let the poor, those who have to depend upon their brethren for bread, after they have done all they can to obtain it themselves be thankful, and take no more than they require to use in a frugal manner. By taking such a course, no person would suffer.

With some there is a fearfulness, a want of faith and confidence in God, and a stingy closefistedness; this is the cause of many being so pinched. As I have often done, I again invite those who are distrustful, and fearful that God is going to forsake this people, to leave, if they do not wish to be Saints and repose confidence in the God of the Saints. I wish such characters would leave; I shall be glad if they will leave. I would not have them stay; I would rather give them flour and help them to leave because they are a curse to the Saints. And if the devil puts it into their hearts to leave, I know there will be a certain portion of those evil spirits go with them, and still we shall always have plenty more coming.

All I ask of you is to apply your hearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be Saints. I will not ask anything else on this earth of you only to live so as to know the mind and will of God when you receive it, and then abide in it. If you will do that, you will be prepared to do a great many things, and you will find that there is much good to be done.

We have no time to spend foolishly, for we have just as much on our hands as we can probably do, to keep pace with that portion of our brethren who have gone into the other room.

And when we have passed into the sphere where Joseph is, there is still another department, and then another, and another, and so on to an eternal progression in exaltation and eternal lives. That is the exaltation I am looking for. May God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 15, 1856.

As I have frequently remarked, it seems that the people need a great deal of preaching; they require to be preached to continually to put them in mind of their duties, and to stir them up to perform the works which they know that they ought to do. This at first appears strange, and then again it is not so strange. Our organization is such we are subject to so many spirits and influences that are in the world, that it is not strange that our minds require stirring up to remembrance, and our physical powers to diligence.

As Saints in the last days we have much to learn; there is an eternity of knowledge before us; at most we receive but very little in this stage of our progression.

The most learned men that have ever lived on the earth have only been able to obtain a small amount of knowledge, in comparison to the vast store of information that exists for the faithful Saints.

It cannot be understandingly exhibited by any individual, not even by an angel, to the people any further than they are able to receive and comprehend it; consequently the Lord has to descend to our capacities and give us a little here and a little there, line upon line, and precept upon precept, as the Prophet has said.

But we are so organized, and it is so ordained, that we can receive that little, and still continue to receive a little and a little more, and treasure up and retain in our memories that which we have received, so that it will be ready when it is necessary to bring it forth. What we learn today does not prevent our learning more tomorrow, and so on.

This principle is inherent in the organization of all intelligent beings, so that we are capable of receiving, and receiving, and receiving from the inexhaustible fountain of knowledge and truth.

It has been frequently stated to us, and is a doctrine we understand, that this people have got to become of one heart and one mind. They have to know the will of God and do it, for to know the will of God is one thing, and to bring our wills, our dispositions, into subjection to that which we do understand to be the will of God is another.

We might say that this is the first lesson we have to learn and one of the easiest, one that is calculated and adapted to the capacity of the child, to learn to be submissive to our Father in heaven. Parents require this duty of their children, when they have become intelligent enough to understand that the parent is superior in point of government, and strict obedience is required by that authority. That the parent is his superior is one of the first lessons that the child learns—that he is his dictator to measure and guide his steps, as soon as he comes to an understanding of what is required.

If we are obedient to the will of our Father in heaven it accomplishes one grand object, namely, our being the disciples of Christ, for he observed to his disciples, “Except ye are one ye are not mine.” “I am in my Father and ye in me, and I in you,” one eternal principle governing and controlling the intelligence that dwells in the persons of the Father and the Son. I have these principles within me, Jesus has them within him, and you have them within you. I am governed and controlled by them, my elder brother, Jesus, is governed and controlled by them, and his Father is governed and controlled by them. He learned them, Jesus learned them, and we must learn them in order to receive crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives.

The principle of eternal life that sustains all intelligent beings, that governs and controls all things in eternity, the principle by which matter does exist, the principle by which it is organized, by which it is redeemed and brought into celestial glory, is the principle that is in you and me, that is in our heavenly Father.

It is life, it is the life of Christ and of every Saint; in this capacity they are in us and we in them. We must be possessed of the spirit that governs and controls the angels, we must have the same spirit within us that our Father in heaven is in possession of.

That spirit must rule you and me, it must control our actions and dictate us in life, we must cling to it and imbibe it until it becomes a second nature to us. We are accustomed to saying second nature, but in reality it is the first nature that we had, though sin has perverted it. God planted it there as the predominant principle, but our giving way to temptation has frustrated the plan and driven it from us.

How easy it is for people to understand and do the will of God, if they will throw off their unrighteous traditions and let truth stand for truth, light for light, and let that which is of God be received as such.

When truth comes, receive it as from the Lord, and let everything be simplified to us as unto children, for the Lord has ordained that we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth, and be able to receive more knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, and it is not possible for us to receive it any other way, only as we apply our hearts strictly to overcome every evil and cleave to that which is pleasing to the Lord—to that which tends to life and salvation. This is the only channel in which we can become of one heart and of one mind.

This has been the burden of our exhortations, prayers, and pleadings. It was the burden of the exhortations, prayers, and pleadings of the servants of God who lived in ancient days, as much as it is of those who live now. No good person has ever lived on the earth—one who understood the principles of life—but what he has desired to see the time when the people would be governed by other principles than those of sin and selfishness.

All the righteous have desired to see the people governed by principles that will endure, and that will give durability to all who obey them. Their bowels of compassion yearned continually after the sons of men, and they labored to bring them under the control and government of the principles of eternal life, and to cut them loose from the little, selfish, frivolous, trifling, deathly principles that pertain to this flesh.

What would be the result of this effort and desire, if accomplished among us? We should be of one heart and of one mind; we should cease to play the hypocrite; we should cease to be slothful servants; we should cease to do evil and do good continually.

The reflections of many are that they cannot govern and control themselves. And should we ask some whether their memory is good, whether they can recollect certain transactions which have transpired thus and so, they would reply, “No, our memory is very treacherous.” That is true, but in different degrees, with all people.

We may ask one person, can you remember anything you wish to, and the reply may be, “It is with difficulty that we remember anything.” This lack of mental force is found in a large class of mankind, but to search into the causes of this would take us far back, for they pertain to parents as well as to children, to the ancient as well as to the modern inhabitants of this globe.

Another peculiarity of memory is, the stronger recollection of an injury than a favor; for instance, take a person of the most treacherous memory and apply a little cayenne pepper to his eyes, and he will remember that act as long as he lives.

It is an old saying, “That we can forgive (it is man’s privilege) but we cannot forget.” Can you forget an injury? No, you will always remember it. But on the other hand, suppose that a friend should come, in the hour of your distress, to relieve you from pain and suffering, and by laying his hands upon you your pain is gone; or furnish you food when you have none, and administer to your wants in everything calculated to make you happy and comfortable in body and mind, you will forget those kind acts many times quicker than the act of throwing a little cayenne pepper in your eyes.

Think of that and ask yourselves the cause; reason as to why it is that you can remember an injury better than a kindness; why you can retain hatred longer than love. Is it through your fallen nature? Is it because you were begotten and born in sin? Or is it not rather because the power of the tempter has control over you, and because the world is full of evil principles, and you have adhered to them? Yes, this is the cause, and you must acknowledge it. The whole world is contaminated with a spirit to remember evil and forget the good.

Mankind are organized of element designed to endure to all eternity; it never had a beginning and never can have an end. There never was a time when this matter, of which you and I are composed, was not in existence, and there never can be a time when it will pass out of existence; it cannot be annihilated.

It is brought together, organized, and capacitated to receive knowledge and intelligence, to be enthroned in glory, to be made angels, Gods—beings who will hold control over the elements, and have power by their word to command the creation and redemption of worlds, or to extinguish suns by their breath, and disorganize worlds, hurling them back into their chaotic state. This is what you and I are created for.

But in view of all this, what can we discover in ourselves? As an instance, A has a favorite dog, which B discovers doing mischief on his grounds, and kills, whereupon A, who was fond of his dog for serving him so well, and guarding his house and children so long and faithfully, becomes highly enraged, and says, “I tell you I cannot stand it, I am so angry, that I feel as though I should fly all to pieces, and I have almost a mind to take my rifle and shoot you.” What, for a dog?

Let a man or woman come forward that can say they have not had such feelings, to a certain degree. Yes, you have similar feelings in consequence of someone’s abusing your dog, but when you enter into the holy city (should you be so happy as to get there), you will learn that the dogs will all be on the outside of the walls with the murderers, adulterers, fornicators, liars, and those who take the name of God in vain. “For your conduct towards my dog, I am almost ready to kill you, neighbor.”

Do you hear such language used? Yes, right in our midst. Kill almost any person’s favorite animal, and he is ready to draw the rifle to his eye, in a moment, to shed the blood of his neighbor. This is the passion of the animal organization that the devil has power over. When such feelings assail you, stop and reflect, and let the spirit within you reason, and it would say, “Shame on you, Brigham, John, Mary, or Jane.” Grant that an individual has done wrong, should we be so provoked about it?

We are organized for the express purpose of controlling the elements of organizing and disorganizing, of ruling over kingdoms, principalities, and powers, and yet our affections are often too highly placed upon paltry, perishable objects. We love houses, gold, silver, and various kinds of property, and all who unduly prize any object there is beneath the celestial world are idolaters.

Some say, “We are placed here, the devils were here, the world is full of wickedness, and we are subjected to all this without any agency on our part,” but this assertion does not prove such to be the case. Will you subject your children to wickedness when it is in your power to deliver them from it? We are measurably subjected to it because of the sin that was in our parents, but have we now the knowledge to deliver our children from this power? We have. Then let us begin and do it, and cast off your unrighteous traditions, as I have often taught and counseled you. Let every man and woman bring up their children according to the law of heaven. Teach your children from their youth, never to set their hearts immoderately upon an object of this world.

Should you train yourselves? Yes, you should. Can you remember to do good instead of evil? Do you watch the operations of the spirits upon the people, upon their affections, upon their hearts? Can you not hear some of this congregation, as they leave the meeting, and afterwards, begin to find fault and complain on this wise? “Well, I do not like this, and I do not like that, and I think I shall go back to the States. I wish I was back in England. I will not pay my money for flour, but I will beg it, and send my children to beg it, and spend my money to get away from here.”

Have I done you any harm since you have been here? Did my brothers who proclaimed the Gospel to you, do you anything but good? “No, O, no.” If they have done the least thing to injure you, why will you not tell of it before you leave? But no, you will not, and as soon as you go away your testimony will be, “Brothers Brigham, and Heber, and Jedediah, and the Twelve, and all the brethren at Great Salt Lake are the worst people we ever saw.” Can you tell of one thing wherein they have wronged you? They may have fed you, you may have lived here on their bounty and kindness, but as soon as you go away, you partake of the spirit of the world, which I am trying to contrast with the spirit of the Gospel.

As soon as you are overcome by the spirit of the world, you forget every good deed and kindness that has been extended to you, and you only remember the transpiring and infliction of what you deemed to be evil. You imagine a thousand things to be evil that would have resulted in good, had you done right. Can you believe that? “O, yes.” Those who have apostatized and left, cannot recollect a kindness that I have done them, but I can say to the praise of a few Gentiles, who have passed through here, they have recollected the kindnesses done to them by this people. Almost universally, after having received the greatest kindnesses they ever received, apostates and some Gentiles after they leave these valleys, vividly remember and proclaim, from Dan to Beersheba, every fancied injury.

Brother Tobin lately arrived from the army in Oregon; he there became acquainted with a part of Colonel Steptoe’s command. Yesterday, as we were walking about, I told him that the Indians who were tried for the murder of Captain Gunnison were confined within the walls of the Penitentiary. He said that he thought they had made their escape; that he had been informed that the lock was broken, the gate opened, and the Indians sent off.

I informed him that it was true that the Indian prisoners escaped, but that I soon recovered them, placed them in charge of the Warden, and wrote to Colonel Steptoe, who was at Bear River en route for California, acquaint– ing him with the circumstances. The Colonel replied, and thanked me in his note. I asked brother Tobin whether the Colonel did not tell him that those Indians were recovered. He replied, “No, but it has appeared in nearly all, if not all, the western papers, that the “Mormons” let the Indians out of prison.” They could publish that the Indians escaped, but they would not proclaim that the “Mormons” speedily recovered them, and that they are still safely lodged in prison.

Those who love righteousness and possess the Spirit of God, those who delight to do good can remember good. They can remember every good principle and every good act; and when they read the Bible, the sayings of the Prophets and Apostles will be as near their hearts as lies are to the hearts of the wicked. By this you may know whether you are Saints or not. Can you remember good? If you forget good and remember evil, you may lay it down as a positive fact that you are on the highway to destruction. If you love the truth you can remember it.

One may here inquire, “Can I strengthen my memory and bring it into lively exercise?” Yes, by applying your mind to the point you wish to improve upon, and you can learn and remember righteous deeds if you are full of integrity.

The Gospel of salvation has been revealed unto us expressly to teach our hearts understanding, and when I learn the principles of charity or righteousness I will adhere to them, and say to selfishness, you must not have that which you want, and when it urges that I have no more flour than I shall need until harvest, and that I must not give any away, not even a pound, I say, get out of my door. And when it argues that a brother will not be profited by our endeavors to benefit him, that you had better keep your money to yourselves and not let him have this ox, that farm or cow, &c., and strives to persuade you not to feed such a poor person, not to do anything for the P. E. F. Company, that you have not any more than you need, just do as the man did in Vermont, for by the report we would judge him to be a pretty good man. He had a farm, raised a large quantity of grain, and usually had some to spare. It so happened one season that a poor neighbor thrashed out his rye, and was to receive his pay in grain. The poor man came; the farmer told him to leave his bags and he would measure up the amount and have it ready when again called for. He was alone when measuring the grain, and as he put into the measure, something whispered to him, “Pour it in lightly,” but instead of doing this, he gave the measure a kick. When he put on the strike something said to him, “When you take that off, take a little out, the poor man will know nothing about it.” At last the farmer said, “Mr. Devil, walk out of my barn, or I will heap every half bushel I measure for the poor man.”

When you are tempted to do wrong, do not stop one moment to argue, but tell Mr. Devil to walk out of your barn, or you will heap up every half bushel; you can do that I know. A drunkard can walk by a tavern, though I have heard it said that some men cannot go by, or if they do manage to get by, that they say, “Now I know I am the master, and I will go back and treat resolution.”

I am aware that some will argue that they cannot do good without evil being present with them; that has nothing to do with the case. Though it may be present with them, as it was with Paul, there is no necessity for any man’s giving way to that evil. If we should do good, do it, and tell the evil to stand out of the way. You are privileged to be masters of yourselves; you can strengthen your memories, and by a close application you can train yourselves to remember the good instead of the evil. If anybody has injured you, forget it. Can you do so? I know you can.

Forget the imperfections of your brethren; for often the injuries which you imagine to have been done, arise through the weakness of the flesh, and without the individual’s being aware that he has done you an injury, and when no evil was designed. Judge not according to the outward appearance, but according to the intentions of the heart. If they designed to injure you, they sinned; if they have injured you without design, you are bound to forgive. Remember good principles, and when you hear the truth, if you have a love for it, you will remember it.

It is frequently said by mothers, and is a universal characteristic of the rising generation, “How easy it is for children to learn mischief; I do not like to have my children associated with such and such children, or go to this or that school.” Do they learn any good? Perhaps they do a little, and a great deal of evil. It is natural for children to learn that which they should not, and to do that which they should not, but no more so than it is for you and me. There are many now before me who desire something put in their possession which would be injurious to them, therefore do not blame the children so much for desiring to handle that which is not meet for them to handle, and to possess that which they cannot take care of.

What shall we do? We will cut off every avenue of evil, as fast and as far as may lay in our power. You can stop those evil communications that corrupt good manners in yourselves first, and then keep your children as strictly from evil as possible, and not many generations will pass away ere the heavens will acknowledge that there is a reformation among the Latter-day Saints. How many generations we do not know, but I sometimes think that the Lamanites will become a white and delightsome people about as quick. It belongs to us to commence the work of reformation, and in the first place to set the example of good works before our children, and when they grow up they will say, these are the traditions of my fathers. They will thus improve a little, and the next generation will improve a little more, until the traditions of the children are in accordance with the principles of the eternal Priesthood, which will produce life and salvation.

I will speak a little more upon placing your affections on beings who are not worthy of them. Take a Prophet, an Apostle, a man of God, one who is just as good in his calling and capacity as Jesus Christ was in his, a man who has adorned the doctrine of his profession, until he is sealed up unto eternal lives by the power of the Priesthood, one who is sure of a glorious resurrection, and let him desire to have a wife. Now suppose that he gains the affection of a lovely woman and marries her, how much shall that righteous man love that woman? Shall he say, “I love this woman to such a degree that I will go to hell rather than not have her, I will do even this rather than lose my wife?” No, for you ought to love a woman only so far as she adorns the doctrine you profess; so far as she adorns that doctrine, just so far let your love extend to her. When will she be worthy of the full extent of your affection? When she has lived long enough to secure to herself a glorious resurrection and an eternal exaltation as your companion, and never until then.

Elders, never love your wives one hair’s breadth further than they adorn the Gospel, never love them so but that you can leave them at a moment’s warning without shedding a tear. Should you love a child any more than this? No. Here are Apostles and Prophets who are destined to be exalted with the Gods, to become rulers in the kingdoms of our Father, to become equal with the Father and the Son, and will you let your affections be unduly placed on anything this side that kingdom and glory? If you do, you disgrace your calling and Priesthood. The very moment that persons in this Church suffer their affections to be immoderately placed upon an object this side the celestial kingdom, they disgrace their profession and calling. When you love your wives and children, are fond of your horses, your carriages, your fine houses, your goods and chattels, or anything of an earthly nature, before your affections become too strong, wait until you and your family are sealed up unto eternal lives, and you know they are yours from that time henceforth and forever.

I will now ask the sisters, do you believe that you are worthy of any greater love than you bestow upon your children? Do you believe that you should be beloved by your husbands and parents any further than you acknowledge and practice the principle of eternal lives? Every person who understands this principle would answer in a moment, “Let no being’s affections be placed upon me any further than mine are on eternal principles—principles that are calculated to endure and exalt me, and bring me up to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.” This is what every person who has a correct understanding would say.

Owing to the weaknesses of human nature you often see a mother mourn upon the death of her child, the tears of bitterness are found upon her cheeks, her pillow is wet with the dews of sorrow, anguish, and mourning for her child, and she exclaims, “O that my infant were restored to me,” and weeps day and night. To me such conduct is unwise, for until that child returned to its Father, was it worthy of your fullest love? No, for it was imperfect, but now it is secure in the bosom of the Father, to dwell there to all eternity; now it is in a condition where it is worthy of your perfect love, and your anxiety and effort should be that you may enter at the same gate to immortality.

When the wife secures to herself a glorious resurrection, she is worthy of the full measure of the love of the faithful husband, but never before. And when a man has passed through the veil, and secured to himself an eternal exaltation, he is then worthy of the love of his wife and children, and not until then, unless he has received the promise of and is sealed up unto eternal lives. Then he may be an object fully worthy of their affections and love on the earth, and not before.

I will now briefly call your minds to the principle of being one. Do you not comprehend that you ought to have your affections concentrated in the kingdom of God on the earth? As I observed here last Sabbath, I do not reflect much whether I have friends or foes, or care one groat about it. I do not care whether you take my counsel or not, provided you take the counsel of the Almighty. I do not care what the people do, if they will only serve God and build up this kingdom. I do not care what be– come of the things of this world, of the gold, of the silver, of the houses and of the lands, so we have power to gather the house of Israel, redeem Zion, and establish the kingdom of God on the earth. I would not give a cent for all the rest. True, these things which the Lord bestows upon us are for our comfort, for our happiness and convenience, but everything must be devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth. I may say that this Gospel is to spread to the nations of the earth, Israel is to be gathered, Zion redeemed, and the land of Joseph, which is the land of Zion, is to be in the possession of the Saints, if the Lord Almighty lets me live; and if I go behind the veil somebody else must see to it. My brethren must bear it off shoulder to shoulder. We must be of one heart and one mind and roll forth this kingdom; and when we get the first Presidency, the Twelve, and so on, shoulder to shoulder to forward the kingdom, wives and children, what are you going to do? Will you pull another way? No, but let your affections, faith, and all your works be with your husbands, and be obedient to them as unto the Lord. And husbands, serve the Lord with all your hearts, and then we shall be a blessed people, and be of one heart and mind, and the Lord will withhold no good thing from us, but we shall put down the power of Satan, walk triumphantly through the world, preach the Gospel and gather the Saints. I say then, let us be faithful, and may God bless you. Amen.