An Address by President B. Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 5, 1853.

I feel disposed to say a few words on the present occasion. It is said, that “at the sight of the eyes the heart is made to rejoice.” This is truly the case with me this afternoon, when I look upon the congregation, to see this spacious hall filled with the Saints of the Most High, for the purpose of partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It is a sight which I have not had the privilege of seeing before, only on Conference days. This morning I looked around to see how the house was crowded, which was packed to that extent that scores could not be seated. I looked if peradventure I could designate any person that did not belong to the Church, that did not profess to be a Saint; but I could not see a single person of that description, that I knew of. I thought, why not be as diligent to attend the afternoon meetings, to partake of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, as to attend the morning meetings? Hitherto it has not been the case, but my heart rejoices to see the house so well filled this afternoon. I feel in my heart to bless you; it is full of blessings and not cursings. It is something that does not occupy my feelings, to curse any individual, but I will modify this by saying those who ought not to be cursed. Who ought to be? Those who know their master’s will, and do it not; they are worthy of many stripes; it is not those who do not know, and do not do, but those who know it, and do not do it—they are the ones to be chastised.

While the brethren have been speaking upon the blessings the Lord bestows upon this people, my mind has reflected upon many of the circumstances of life, and upon certain principles. I will ask you a question—Do you think persons can be blessed too much? I will answer it myself. Yes, they can, they can be blessed to their injury. For instance, suppose a person should be blessed with the knowledge of the holy Gospel, whose heart is set in him to do evil. We esteem this as a blessing, and would not the Lord consider it a blessing to bestow His favors and mercies upon any individual, by giving him a knowledge of life and salvation? But suppose He bestowed it upon persons whose hearts were set in them to do evil, who would by their wickedness turn these blessings into curses, they would be blessed too much. It is possible to bless people to death, you can bless them to everlasting misery by heaping too many blessings upon them. Perhaps this is what was meant by the saying—It is like heaping coals of fire upon their heads; it will injure them, consume them, burn them, destroy them. Suffice it to say, that people can be blessed too much. Can you bless a wise man too much? A man who knows what to do with his blessings when they are bestowed upon him? No, you cannot. Can you bless a wise people too much? No, it is impossible, when they know how to improve upon all blessings that are bestowed upon them. But the Lord does and will bless the inhabitants of the earth with such great and inestimable blessings, in the proclamation of the Gospel, that they will be damned who reject them, for light brings condemnation to men who love darkness rather than light.

Have this people been blessed too much? I will not positively say, but I think they have, inasmuch as their blessings in some instances have been to their injury. Why? Because they have not known what to do with their blessings.

While the brethren were speaking of the liberal hand of Providence in bestowing abundantly the products of the earth, it occurred to me, that this people, to my certain knowledge, had felt that they had too much, and they esteemed it as good for nothing. It is true what brother Jedediah Grant said with regard to wheat, and other grains, for I have seen it myself. I have seen hundreds, and thousands, and scores of thousands of bushels of grain lying to waste and rot, when it has not brought a great price. Many of this people have thought, and expressed themselves in language like this—“I can go to California, and get so much gold, or I can trade and make so much gold, I cannot therefore spend time to take care of wheat, nor to raise it; let it lie there and rot while I go and accumulate riches.” They were then wealthy, for their granaries and barns were full of the blessings of the Lord, but now they are empty, because they did not know what to do with their blessings.

I can tell this people how to dispose of all their blessings, if they will only allow me time enough; and if I cannot tell them how, I can show them. For instance, you who have fields of wheat, beyond the limits of grasshoppers, will have considerable crops when it is harvested, and perhaps so much that you will not know what to do with it. I know what you ought to do with it; you ought to say to your poor brethren—“Come and help take care of my grain, and share with me, and feed yourselves and your families.” If you have so much that you cannot take care of it, and have nowhere to put it, and your neighbor is not without bread, tell Bishop Hunter that you have got so many hundred bushels to lay over in the store, and you will have the benefit of it on your tithing. That is what I recommend you to do with your blessings, when you have more than you can take care of yourselves. I say, hand it over and let your neighbors take care of it for you.

This makes me think of what I saw the first year I came into this valley, the same year I moved my family, which was the next season after the pioneers arrived here. It was late in the season when I arrived, but from the ground where this house now stands, there had been cut two crops of wheat. They had harvested the first crop very early, and the water being flooded over, it again started from the roots, and produced a fair crop, say from ten to twelve bushels to the acre. That was harvested, and it was coming up again. I said to the brethren, “Let these my brethren who have come with me gather up this wheat,” but they would not suffer them to do it. Some of the brethren had gathered their crops of grain, and left a great deal wasting on the fields. I said, “Let the poor brethren, who have come in from abroad, glean in your fields.” You can bear me witness that a great many widows and poor men came here, and brought but very little with them, and there never was a man, to my knowledge, ever expressed a desire to let them glean in his field. “All right,” I said, “we can live on greens,” while at the same time there was more wasted that season than to make up the deficiency, that all might have been comfortable. Late in the fall I saw one man working among his corn; he had a large crop, more than a single man could take care of. I saw he was going to let it go to waste; I said to him, “Brother, let the brethren and sisters help you to husk your corn, to gather it and put it safely away, for so much it will benefit them and help you.” “O,” he replied, “I have nothing to spare, I can take care of it myself.” I saw it wasting, and said to him, “Brother, get your corn husked immediately, and let the brethren do it, and pay them with a portion of it.” He replied, “I cannot spare a bit of it.” I have no question of it at all in my mind, but three-fourths of his corn went into the mud, and was trampled down by the cattle; and women and children went without bread in consequence of it. That man had no judgment, he knew not what to do with the blessings the Lord had bestowed upon him.

Were I to ask the question, how much wheat or anything else a man must have to justify him in letting it go to waste, it would be hard to answer; figures are inadequate to give the amount. Never let anything go to waste. Be prudent, save everything, and what you get more than you can take care of yourselves, ask your neighbors to help you. There are scores and hundreds of men in this house, if the question were asked them if they considered their grain a burden and a drudge to them, when they had plenty last year and the year before, that would answer in the affirmative, and were ready to part with it for next to nothing. How do they feel now, when their granaries are empty? If they had a few thousand bushels to spare now, would they not consider it a blessing? They would. Why? Because it would bring the gold and silver. But pause for a moment, and suppose you had millions of bushels to sell, and could sell it for twenty dollars per bushel, or for a million dollars per bushel, no matter what amount, so that you sell all your wheat, and transport it out of the country, and you are left with nothing more than a pile of gold, what good would it do you? You could not eat it, drink it, wear it, or carry it off where you could have something to eat. The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat. Gold is not to be compared with it in value. Why would it be precious to you now? Simply because you could get gold for it? Gold is good for nothing, only as men value it. It is no better than a piece of iron, a piece of limestone, or a piece of sandstone, and it is not half so good as the soil from which we raise our wheat, and other necessaries of life. The children of men love it, they lust after it, are greedy for it, and are ready to destroy themselves, and those around them, over whom they have any influence, to gain it.

When this people are blessed so much that they consider their blessings a burden and a drudge to them, you may always calculate on a cricket war, a grasshopper war, a drought, too much rain, or something else to make the scales preponderate the other way. This people have been blessed too much, so that they have not known what to do with their blessings.

What do we hear from the inhabitants of the different settlements? The cry is—“I do not wish to live out yonder, for there is no chance to speculate and trade with the emigrants.” Have you plenty to eat? Have you plenty of wheat, fowls, butter, cheese, and calves? Are you not raising stock in abundance for flesh meat of different kinds? What use is gold when you get enough to eat, drink, and wear without it? What is the matter? “Why, we are away off, and cannot get rich all at once.” You are lusting after that which you do not know what to do with, for few men know what to do with riches when they possess them. The inhabitants of this valley have proved it. They have proved it by their reckless waste of the products of the earth, by their undervaluing the blessings conferred upon them by the emigration, which has administered clothing and other necessaries to them. We can see men who can clothe themselves and their families easily, go into the canyons in their broadcloth pantaloons to get wood, or you may see them take a horse, and ride barebacked until they tear them to pieces, that they are not fit to come to meeting in. They do not know how to take care of good clothing. Again, if we were digging in a water ditch tomorrow, that required all hands, in consequence of the rising of the water, I have no doubt but you would see what I saw the other day—one of our young dandies, who was perhaps not worth the shirt on his back, came to work in a water ditch, dressed in his fine broadcloth pantaloons, and a fine bosomed shirt, and I have no doubt he would have worn gloves too if he had been worth a pair. You would see men of this description, who are without understanding, whole hearted, good fellows, and ready to do anything for the advancement of the public good, commence to dig in the mud and wet, in their fine clothes, and go into the water, up to their knees, with their fine calfskin boots. This is a wanton waste of the blessings of God, that cannot be justifiable in His eyes, and in the eyes of prudent, thinking men, under ordinary circumstances. If prudence and economy are necessary at one time more than at another, it is when a family or a nation are thrown upon their own resources, as we are. But you may trace the whole lives of some men, and it will be impossible for you to point out a single portion of time when they knew how to appreciate and how to use even the common comforts of life, when they had them, to say nothing of an abundance of wealth.

Again, there have been more contention and trouble between neighbors, in these valleys, with regard to surplus property, which was not needed by this people, than any other thing. For instance, a widow woman comes in here from the United States, and turns out on the range beyond Jordan three yoke of oxen and a few cows, for she considers she is too poor to have them herded. Again, a man comes in with ten yoke of oxen; he also turns them out to wander where they please. If he is asked why he does not put them in a herd, he will tell you, “I do not want to pay the herding fee.” Another comes on with three or four span of horses, and twenty or thirty yoke of cattle. Has he any for sale? No, but he turns them all out upon the range and they are gone. By and by he sends a boy on horseback to hunt them, who is unsuccessful in finding them after a week’s toil. The owner turns out himself, and all hands, to hunt up his stock, but they also fail in finding them, they are all lost except a very few. He was not able to have them herded, he thought, though he possessed so much property, and knew nothing more than to turn them out to run at large. Thus he consumes his time, running after his lost property. He frets his feelings, for his mind is continually upon it; he is in such a hurry in the morning to go out to hunt his stock, that he has no time to pray; when he returns home late at night, worn out with toil and anxiety of mind, he is unfit to pray; his cattle are lost, his mind is unhinged and darkened through the neglect of his duty, and apostasy stares him in the face, for he is not satisfied with himself, and murmurs against his brethren, and against his God. By and by some of his cattle turn up with a strange brand upon them; they have been taken up and sold to this person or that one. This brings contention and dissatisfaction between neighbor and neighbor. Such a person has too much property, more than he knows what to do with. It would be much better for a man who is a mechanic, and intends to follow his business, to give one out of two cattle which he may possess, to some person, for taking care of the other. It would be better for those who possess a great quantity of stock, to sell half of them to fence in a piece of land, to secure the other half, than to drive them all out to run at large, and lose three-fourths of them. If there are half-a-dozen men round me, and I can put a cow in their way or anything else that will do them good, for fencing up a lot for me, the property I thus pay is not out of the world, but is turned over to those men who had not a mouthful of meat, butter, or milk; it is doing them good, and I am reaping the profit and benefit of their labors in exchange. If I did not do this, I must either see them suffer, or make a free distribution of a part of what I have among them.

It is impossible for me to tell you how much a man must possess to entitle him to the liberty of wasting anything, or of letting it be stolen and run away with by the Indians. The surplus property of this community, as poor as we are, has done more real mischief than everything else besides.

I will propose a plan to stop the stealing of cattle in coming time, and it is this—let those who have cattle on hand join in a company, and fence in about fifty thousand acres of land, make a dividend of their cattle, and appropriate what they can spare, to fence in a large field, and this will give employment to immigrants who are coming in. When you have done this, then get up another company, and so keep on fencing until all the vacant land is substantially enclosed.

Some persons will perhaps say—“I do not know how good and how high a fence it will be necessary to build to keep thieves out.” I do not know either, except you build one that will keep out the devil. Build a fence which the boys and the cattle cannot pull down, and I will ensure you will keep your stock. Let every man lay his plans so as to secure enough for his present necessities, and hand over the rest to the laboring man; keep making improvements, building, and making farms, and that will not only advance his own wealth, but the wealth of the community.

A man has no right with property, which, according to the laws of the land, legally belongs to him, if he does not want to use it; he ought to possess no more than he can put to usury, and cause to do good to himself and his fellow man. When will a man accumulate money enough to justify him in salting it down, or, in other words, laying it away in the chest, to lock it up, there to lie, doing no manner of good either to himself or his neighbor. It is impossible for a man ever to do it. No man should keep money or property by him that he cannot put to usury for the advancement of that property in value or amount, and for the good of the community in which he lives; if he does, it becomes a dead weight upon him, it will rust, canker, and gnaw his soul, and finally work his destruction, for his heart is set upon it. Every man who has got cattle, money, or wealth of any description, bone and sinew, should put it out to usury. If a man has the arm, body, head, the component parts of a system to constitute him a laboring man, and has nothing in the world to depend upon but his hands, let him put them to usury. Never hide up anything in a napkin, but put it forth to bring an increase. If you have got property of any kind, that you do not know what to do with, lay it out in making a farm, or building a sawmill or a woolen factory, and go to with your mights to put all your property to usury.

If you have more oxen and other cattle than you need, put them in the hands of other men, and receive their labor in return, and put that labor where it will increase your property in value.

I hope you will now lay your plans to set men to work who will be in here by and by, for there will be a host of them, and they will all want employment, who trust to their labor for a subsistence; they will all want something to eat, and calculate to work for it. In the first place, keep the ground in good order to produce you plentiful crops of grain and vegetables, and then take care of them.

Let me say to the sisters, those who have children, never consider that you have bread enough around you to suffer your children to waste a crust or a crumb of it. If a man is worth millions of bushels of wheat and corn, he is not wealthy enough to suffer his servant girl to sweep a single kernel of it into the fire; let it be eaten by something, and pass again into the earth, and thus fulfil the purpose for which it grew. Some mothers would fill a basket full of bread to make a plaything for their children, but I have not had flour enough in the time of my greatest abundance, to let my children waste one morsel of bread with my consent. No, I would rather feed the greatest enemy I have on the earth with it, than have it go into the fire. Remember it, do not waste anything, but take care of everything, save your grain, and make your calculations, so that when the brethren come in from the United States, from England, and other places, you can give them some potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, parsnips, watermelons, or anything else which you have, to comfort them, and cheer up their hearts, and if you have wheat, dispose of it to them, and receive their labor in return. Raise enough and to spare of all the staple necessaries of life, and lay your plans to hire your brethren who will come in this fall to fence your farms, improve your gardens, and make your city lots beautiful. Lay your plans to secure enough to feed yourselves, and one or two of the brethren that are coming to dwell with us.

When we first came into the Valley, the question was asked me, if men would ever be allowed to come into this Church, and remain in it, and hoard up their property. I say, no. That is a short answer, and it is a pointed one. The man who lays up his gold and silver, who caches it away in a bank, or in his iron safe, or buries it up in the earth, and comes here, and professes to be a Saint, would tie up the hands of every individual in this kingdom, and make them his servants if he could. It is an unrighteous, unhallowed, unholy, covetous principle; it is of the devil, and is from beneath. Let every person who has capital, put it to usury. Is he required to bring his purse to me, to any of the Twelve, or to any person whatever, and lay it at their feet? No, not by me. But I will tell you what to do with your means. If a man comes in the midst of this people with money, let him use it in making improvements, in building, in beautifying his inheritance in Zion, and in increasing his capital by thus putting out his money to usury. Let him go and make a great farm, and stock it well, and fortify all around with a good and efficient fence. What for? Why for the purpose of spending his money. Then let him cut it up into fields, and adorn it with trees, and build a fine house upon it. What for? Why for the purpose of spending his money. What will he do when his money is gone? The money thus spent, with a wise and prudent hand, is in a situation to accumulate and increase a hundredfold. When he has done making his farm, and his means still increase by his diligent use of it, he can then commence and build a woolen factory for instance, he can send and buy the sheep and have them brought here, have them herded here, and shear them here, and take care of them, then set the boys and girls to cleaning, carding, spinning, and weaving the wool into cloth, and thus employ hundreds and thousands of the brethren and sisters who have come from the manufacturing districts of the old country, and have not been accustomed to dig in the earth for their livelihood, who have not learned anything else but to work in the factory. This would feed them and clothe them, and put within their reach the comforts of life; it would also create at home a steady market for the produce of the agriculturist, and the labor of the mechanic. When he has spent his hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which he began business with, and fed five hundred persons, from five to ten years, besides realizing a handsome profit from the labor of the hands employed, by the increased population, and consequent increased demand for manufactured goods, at the end of ten years, his factory would be worth five hundred thousand dollars. Suppose he had wrapped up his hundred and fifty thousand in a napkin, for fear of losing it, it would have sent him down to perdition, for the principle is from beneath. But when he puts forth his money to usury, not to me or any other person, but where it will redouble itself, by making farms, building factories for the manufacture of every kind of material necessary for home consumption, establishing blacksmith’s shops and other mechanical establishments, making extensive improvements to beautify the whole face of the earth, until it shall become like the garden of Eden, it becomes a saving blessing to him and those around him. And when the kings, princes, and rulers of the earth shall come to Zion, bringing their gold, and silver, and precious stones with them, they will admire and desire your possessions, your fine farms, beautiful vineyards, and splendid mansions. They will say—“We have got plenty of money, but we are destitute of such possessions as these.” Their money loses its value in their eyes when compared with the comfortable possessions of the Saints, and they will want to purchase your property. The industrious capitalist inquires of one of them—“Do you want to purchase this property? I have obtained it by my economy and judgment, and by the labor of my brethren, and in exchange for their labor I have been feeding and clothing them, until they also have comfortable situations, and means to live. I have this farm, which I am willing to sell to enable me to advance my other improvements.” “Well,” says the rich man, “how much must I give you for it?” “Five hundred thousand dollars,” and perhaps it has not cost him more than one hundred thousand. He takes the money and builds up three or four such farms, and employs hundreds of his brethren who are poor.

Money is not real capital, it bears the title only. True capital is labor, and is confined to the laboring classes. They only possess it. It is the bone, sinew, nerve, and muscle of man that subdue the earth, make it yield its strength, and administer to his varied wants. This power tears down mountains and fills up valleys, builds cities and temples, and paves the streets. In short, what is there that yields shelter and comfort to civilized man, that is not produced by the strength of his arm making the elements bend to his will?

I will now ask the question again— How much must a man possess to authorize him to waste anything? Three or four years ago money was of little value in this country; you might go round exhibiting a back load of gold, and hold out a large piece to a man, I was going to say, almost as big as this bible, and ask him to work for you, but he would laugh at your offer, and tell you he was looking for someone to work for him. He would then hail another man who had been in Nauvoo, and passed through the pinches there, and had scarcely a shirt to his back, but he would reply—“I was looking for some man to work for me.” Gold could not purchase labor, it was no temptation whatever, but those times are passed. It is not now as it was then. I consequently alter my counsel to the brethren. I used to counsel you to hand over your surplus property, or that which you could not take care of, to me, and I would apply it to a good purpose, but now I counsel you to put it into the hands of men who have nothing at all, and let them pay you for it in labor.

I have never been troubled with thieves stealing my property. If I am not smart enough to take care of what the Lord lends me, I am smart enough to hold my tongue about it, until I come across the thief myself, and then I am ready to tie a string round his neck.

I have not the least hesitation in saying that the loose conduct, and calculations, and manner of doing business, which have characterized men who have had property in their hands, have laid the foundation to bring our boys into the spirit of stealing. You have caused them to do it, you have laid before them every inducement possible, to learn their hands and train their minds to take that which is not their own. Those young men who have been taken up the past season and condemned to ignominious punishment, may trace the cause of their shame to that foundation. Distribute your property. The man that thinks he requires ten yoke of cattle, and can only use one yoke, is laboring under a mistake, he ought to let nine yoke go to the laboring community. If every man would do this with the property which he is not using, all would be employed and have sufficient. This would be the most effectual means of bringing the vile practice of stealing cattle and other property to a termination, which, as I have already said, has been encouraged by covetous, selfish men, who have refused to use their property for their own good, or the community’s.

Let us hold before our mind the miser. If the people of this community feel as though they wanted the whole world to themselves, hate any other person to possess anything, and would hoard up their property, and place it in a situation where it would not benefit either themselves or the community, they are just as guilty as the man who steals my property. You may inquire—“What should be done with such a character?” Why, cut him off from the Church. I would disfellowship a man who had received liberally from the Lord, and refused to put it out to usury. We know this is right.

I recollect well the days brother Grant was telling of, when it was so hard to raise fifty dollars for brother Joseph. I also remember we had a man for trial before the High Council, a man who had plenty of money, and refused to loan it, or use it for the advancement of the cause of truth. He would not put his money out to usury. I was going into the Council when he was making his plea, and he wept and sobbed. His name was Isaac McWithy, a man of about fifty-three years of age. I knew him when he lived on his farm in York state. He told them, in his plea, what he had done for the cause, that he had al– ways been a Christian, and had done so much for the Churches, and for the Priests, and been so liberal since he had been in this Church, which was between three and four years. Some of the brethren said—“Brother McWithy, how much do you suppose you have ever given for the support of the Gospel?” The tears rolled down his checks, and he said, “Brethren, I believe I have given away in my life time two hundred and fifty dollars.” I spake out and said, “If I could not preach as many months each year in this kingdom as you have been years in this Church, and give no more than two hundred and fifty dollars, I should be ashamed of myself.”

On one occasion, brother Joseph Young and myself had traveled more than two hours among snow, and in a piercing cold, to preach in his neighborhood one evening. Having had no dinner or supper, we went home with him, and he never asked us to eat a mouthful of supper, though he did muster courage enough to go into the cellar with a little basket, he came up with the tears almost running down his cheeks, and said with some difficulty—“Brethren, have some apples.“ He held out the basket to us, and when we were about to help ourselves, his niggardly soul made him draw it back again, for fear we should take any. I saw he did not intend us to have any apples, so I put my hand on the basket, and drew it out of his hand, saying—“Come here.” I took it on my knees, and invited brother Joseph to eat some apples. He did make out to give us some breakfast in the morning, and even then he got up from the table before we had time to half finish our breakfast, to see if we would not give over eating. Said I—“Never mind, I shall eat what I want before I stop.”

I am happy to say, through your Trustee-in-trust, that the Latter-day Saints, in the capacity of a Church and kingdom, do not owe near as much money as they have on hand. A year ago last April Conference, we owed over sixty thousand dollars, but we do not now owe a single red cent.

May God bless us, that we may always have enough, and know what to do with what we have, and how to use it for the good of all, for I would not give much for property unless I did know what to do with it.

An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 8, 1853.

I take the liberty to occupy a short time, this morning, in addressing my brethren and sisters.

I do not profess to be extensively versed in historical lore, still I expect to be able to relate a small portion of my own history to you this morning, referring especially to the latter part of my life, say for three weeks past.

It is known by you all, that I started from this place with the intention of journeying south to the extent of our southern settlements, but I have returned short of performing that journey. I will state the reasons why, that the minds of the people may be at rest, and freed from anxiety.

We went to the city of Provo, in Utah Valley; where I had some business to attend to. We tarried there a short time before proceeding on our journey, the principal items of which I wish to lay before the brethren, in connection with some circumstances that had transpired previous to our leaving this place. These circumstances combined together, caused a suspicious feeling in my own heart. I have endeavored all my life to follow one portion of the instructions of the Sa– vior to his disciples, that is, to “watch.” I am a very watchful man.

Previous to my starting from this city, there was an express sent from Iron county, that Indian Walker manifested hostile feelings; for it seems he had drawn out his men on a small portion of our brethren, and commanded them to return home, when they were in pursuit of supposed thieves; these Indians would not suffer them to proceed any further.

This circumstance, small as it might appear to some, caused suspicion in my mind that all was not right with the Indian chief, though I expected to visit him on my journey.

After tarrying at the city of Provo a day and a night, I was accosted in a very abrupt manner by a stranger, a person that I knew nothing of, and had never seen before. I have learned since that he is an American from the State of New York, and has been living in New Mexico some years. This person came to my carriage, while I was standing upon the steps of it, arranging my luggage, preparatory to proceeding onward, and said in a rough, authoritative tone, “Is Governor Young in this carriage?” “No, sir,” I said, “but he is on the steps of it. What is wanting?” I turned round to see who addressed me, and saw this stranger, dressed in buck-skin, pretty well smoked. He said, “I have a little privacy with you.” Stepping aside, far enough not to be heard by any other person, I said, “Say on, sir.” “But I want to see you in private,” he replied. I said, “I have no privacy with strangers; if you have any communication to make to me, you can do it by letter.” He walked, and left me. That was all that passed between us. As soon as he intimated that he wanted a private conference with me, I scanned the man, and saw that his pockets were filled with deadly weapons, and of his intentions I had my own thoughts.

I went about my business, but in the meantime sent a man to reconnoitre him, to whom he made some haughty expression about Governor Young. Said he, “Governor Young need not feel so damned important, I associate with Governors when I am at home, and have money enough to buy Governor Young and all his wives.” He further said, “I have four hundred Mexicans waiting my orders, and can have as many more if I wish, besides, the Indians here are all at my command.”

I soon learned to my satisfaction, that he had come into the Territory to buy Indian children, and sell them again for slaves. Therefore I issued the Proclamation which you have no doubt read in the pages of the News, gave orders to the Lieutenant General, and he has done what he has.

We proceeded on our journey, and found that this man had been trading with the Indians. He said, “He asked no odds of the authorities of this Territory, but calculated to buy all the Indian children he could.” He was told it was against the law. He replied, “Catching is before hanging.”

When I arrived at San Pete, I learned that one hundred and fifty Yampa Utes on the west fork of the Sevier River, had come over to Walker’s camp. I did not believe that this Mexican trader had four hundred Mexicans lying on the head waters of the Sevier, for I did not think that men would patiently wait in the snow and frost for a man of his appearance. Instead of Mexicans, they turned out to be those Yampa Utes.

I sent out a reconnoitering party consisting of thirty men, to learn their intentions, if possible; also the whereabouts of D. B. Huntington, who had gone previously, but I have not heard from them, nor him, since they left us at Salt Creek, about a week ago last Tuesday morning. Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich proceeded on their journey, and omitted calling at San Pete. I went to San Pete to learn the situation and proceedings of the Indians. Arapeen, it appeared from some cause, had been dissatisfied, and had left. Before he left, he gave them to understand that he desired peace, and wanted to live in peace. However, I was prepared for whites, reds, or blacks, by night and by day, and always intend to be.

This is a short account of my journey. I wished to lay it before you as it was, in consequence of the different statements which have been made, that vary considerably from the truth, after passing through a few hands. After relating the simple facts as they existed, you may regard them as you please; but when you tell them over again to your neighbors, tell them as they were, or not at all.

I have heard a great many different stories since I came home, and find the minds of the people very much agitated about the probable result of the hostilities of the Indians, and the presence of the Mexicans among them. I will tell you the reason why I returned home before accomplishing the remainder of my contemplated journey—it was because I wished to return. You may inquire why I wished to return. I will tell you. I am a great coward myself, I do not wish to rush into danger imprudently. If there should happen to be any trouble with Indians, and I away from this place, there would be more trouble here than with me. Of this I was fully aware, and it was proved to my satisfaction when I returned home. Imagined danger always produces the most trouble. The Indians are very much as they say the whites are, that is, uncertain—not to be trusted. The whites may be uncertain, but I know the Indians are. I dislike to trust them far. I never wish to be injured, nor have this people injured by Indian depredations, committed upon them; and if the Saints will do as they are told, they will never suffer from that quarter in this Territory.

Take up the history of the first settling of America, and you cannot read of a colony ever being settled in the midst of savages, without having trouble, and suffering more from them than this people have in Utah. What is the reason? It is because those people did not know how to take care of themselves. We can scarcely read of one colony founded among the aborigines in the first settling of this country, wherein the tomahawk of wild Indians did not drink the blood of whole families. Here there have been no such deeds committed; because when we first entered Utah, we were prepared to meet all the Indians in these mountains, and kill every soul of them if we had been obliged so to do. This preparation secured to us peace.

Every settlement that have been made in these valleys of the mountains, have received strict charges from me, to build, in the first place, a Fort, and live in it until they were sufficiently strong to live in a town; to keep their guns and ammunition well prepared for any emergency; and never cease to keep up a night watch, if any apprehensions of the Indians being hostile were entertained. We have suffered nothing from them, compared with what we have suffered from white men who are disposed to steal; and I would rather take my chance today for good treatment among Indians, than I would among white men of this character.

I have no recollection of the Indians killing any of this community, except one man, which happened about three years ago this spring, who had started for California, on foot and alone, against counsel. The red skins found him and slew him. I have never heard of their even disturbing a family; and I do not intend that they ever shall, if watching, and praying, and being ready for them will prevent it.

I have always acknowledged myself a coward, and hope I always may be, to make me cautious enough to preserve myself and my brethren from falling ignobly by a band of Indians. I am satisfied that the men who follow Walker, who is the king of the Indians in these mountains, do it out of fear, and not because they have real regard for their leader. If he becomes hostile, and wishes to commit depredations upon the persons or property of this people, he shall be wiped out of existence, and every man that will follow him. This is my calculation, and I wish you to be ready for it.

Yesterday morning, we received a communication from father Morley, in which we were informed that Walker and Arapeen came down to pay him a visit. The morning that we left San Pete, we sent back by the hands of Arapeen’s two messengers, some little presents in the shape of shirts and tobacco. Walker said to Father Morley, “Tell brother Brigham, we have smoked the tobacco he sent us in the pipe of peace; I want to be at peace, and be a brother to him.” That is all right. But it is truly characteristic of the cunning Indian, when he finds he cannot get advantage over his enemy, to curl down at once, and say “I love you.” It is enough for me to know that Walker dare not attempt to hurt any of our settlements. I care not whether they love me or not. I am resolved, however, not to trust his love any more than I would a stranger’s. I do not repose confidence in persons, only as they prove themselves confi– dential; and I shall live a long while before I can believe that an Indian is my friend, when it would be to his advantage to be my enemy.

I wish now to put you in mind of a few things. Do you pray for Israel? You will no doubt answer in the affirmative. These Indians are the seed of Israel, through the loins of Joseph who was sold into Egypt; they are the children of Abraham, and belong to the chosen seed; were it not so, you would never have seen them with dark, red skins. This is in consequence of the curse that has been placed upon them, which never would have come upon them in the world, had their fathers not violated the order of God, which was formerly among them; for in proportion to the light they sinned against, so were they reduced by the curse of God, which has been visited upon their children for many generations. They are of the House of Israel, and the time has come for the Lord to favor Zion, and redeem Israel. We are here in the mountains, with these Lamanites for our neighbors, and I hesitate not to say, if this people possessed the faith they ought to have, the Lord Almighty would never suffer any of the sons of Jacob to injure them in the least; no never.

But I am suspicious that this people do not possess the faith they should have, therefore I calculate to carry with me proper weapons of defense, that if a man should aim a blow at my person to take away my life, before he is aware, he himself is numbered with the dead. I have always been thus prepared for years. It is a matter of serious doubt in my mind, whether this people have faith enough to control the Indians in these mountains, by that alone, without works. Again, you may pray as fervently for them as for yourselves, which I have always done; it is my business to pray for them, and seek the redemp– tion of Israel, but something more is wanted to hold them at bay.

Who are Israel? They are those who are of the seed of Abraham, that have received the promise through their forefathers; and all the rest of the children of men, who receive the truth, are also Israel. My heart is always drawn out for them, whenever I go to the throne of grace. I love Israel, I long for their salvation, and look forward with a desire full of hope and peace to the day when they will be gathered and saved; when their forefathers who enjoyed the Gospel, and through their faithfulness received great promises and blessings for their posterity, shall see them fulfilled upon their heads.

I wish you to have faith to lay hold on the promises, and claim them as your own. If you had faith like the ancients, you might escape the edge of the sword, stop the mouths of the lions, quench the violence of fire, open the prison doors, and burst asunder iron fetters—all this could be accomplished by faith. But, lest you should not have faith, we have caused to be done that which has been done, in having this people prepared for any emergency that should arise. My advice is be on the watch all the time. Do not lie down, and go to sleep, and say all is well, lest, in an hour when you think not, sudden destruction overtake you.

We will carry this out a little further. Never permit yourself to sleep in your houses until your doors are made perfectly secure, that the Indians cannot come in and kill you in your sleep. In this respect the people generally are careless, and perfectly unconcerned. Some want to be separated far from their neighbors, and own all the land around them saying, “all is right, all is peace, and the Indians are perfectly good natured, and wish us no harm;” wrapping themselves up in the mantle of security, with a few shattered boards roughly put together for a door to their houses, and that without any fastening. Were it not that the people of this city are kept stirred up continually, and teased from time to time by some person on this matter, it would not be one year before fifty men could conquer and slay the whole of the inhabitants.

Are you sure you have faith enough to bind Satan so that he can have no influence in this city? If you are not, you had better watch as well as pray. Are you sure you have faith enough to control the ungovernable nature of the Lamanites, or subdue a Gentile mob? If you have, I am glad of it, it is the first time this people ever enjoyed it. Even suppose you have faith to accomplish all this, will you add no works to your faith? And if you have the spirit of prayer to an almost unlimited degree, will you cease to watch? I have prayed many times, and had a man at the door to watch for the murderer who thirsted for my blood. Then he would pray, and I would watch. What for? To kill the bloodthirsty villain. I would not go and seek for him, but when he came to kill me in my own house, I wished to be prepared to disembody his spirit, to save my own tabernacle, and send his down to the dust, and let him go to the place prepared for murderers, even to hell.

Suppose we had faith enough to accomplish all we have been speaking of, which would be the most proper, to use prayer alone without watching, and have faith alone without works, or watch and add works to faith? I will mix works with my faith, and watching with my prayer, and reap the benefits of their united operation.

A few words more concerning Walker the Indian. He sent word to us that he was coming down to this city to trade. That is all right, it is very good. I expect he will be peaceable, and the rest of the Indians also. I have no doubt of it. Why? Because they dare not be any other way. If they dare be otherwise, I know not how quick they would be at war with us. But they will be kind and peaceable, because they are afraid to die, and that is enough for me.

If they will in the least receive the spirit of the Gospel, I shall be glad of it. There is no doubt in my mind but Walker has felt it from time to time, and I am satisfied that our faith and prayers will do a great deal of good to these wretched remnants of Abraham’s seed. We must continue our labors until we have faith to bind Satan; and if you and I do not live to do it, our posterity will step forward and accomplish it after we are gone.

When a person is placed in circumstances that he cannot possibly obtain one particle of anything to sustain life, it would then be his privilege to exercise faith in God to feed him, who might cause a raven to pick up a piece of dried meat from some quarter where there was plenty, and drop it over the famishing man. When I cannot feed myself through the means God has placed in my power, it is then time enough for Him to exercise His providence in an unusual manner to administer to my wants. But while we can help ourselves, it is our duty to do so. If a Saint of God be locked up in prison, by his enemies, to starve to death, it is then time enough for God to interpose, and feed him.

While we have a rich soil in this valley, and seed to put in the ground, we need not ask God to feed us, nor follow us round with a loaf of bread begging of us to eat it. He will not do it, neither would I, were I the Lord. We can feed ourselves here; and if we are ever placed in circumstances where we cannot, it will then be time enough for the Lord to work a miracle to sustain us.

If you wish to know what you must do hereafter, I will tell you in a few words—keep your powder, and lead, and your guns in good order. Go about your work, plough your fields, work in your mechanic shops, and be ready in the morning, at noon, or in the night, that whenever you are called upon, you can put your hand upon your musket and ammunition at the shortest notice. “Be ye also ready, for in an hour you think not behold the thief comes,” and takes away your horse from your stable.

How many complaints have been made to me by men who have had their horses stolen out of their stables, or out of their corrals, or of clothes being taken from the line. The reason why people lose their property is because they do not watch it. Have I ever complained of any such thing? No! Why? Because I watch my corral. Do I lose anything out of my barn. No. Because I lock it up, and keep somebody there to watch it. Do I lose any clothing? Not that I know of. I tell my folks not to leave out their clothing. “Why,” they ask, “is there any danger of their being stolen?” It is none of your business, they will not dry after dark, therefore take them in, and hang them out again in the morning. That is the way to live, and this is what I wish to say to you concerning these matters, that your minds may be at peace. All will be peace this summer, if you will keep on watching.

If you want to know what to do with a thief that you may find stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and never suffer him to commit another iniquity. That is what I expect I shall do, though never, in the days of my life, have I hurt a man with the palm of my hand. I never have hurt any person any other way except with this unruly member, my tongue. Notwithstanding this, if I caught a man stealing on my premises I should be very apt to send him straight home, and that is what I wish every man to do, to put a stop to that abominable practice in the midst of this people.

I know this appears hard, and throws a cold chill over our revered traditions received by early education. I had a great many such feelings to contend with myself, and was as much of a sectarian in my notions as any other man, and as mild, perhaps, in my natural disposition, but I have trained myself to measure things by the line of justice, to estimate them by the rule of equity and truth, and not by the false tradition of the fathers, or the sympathies of the natural mind. If you will cause all those whom you know to be thieves, to be placed in a line before the mouth of one of our largest cannon, well loaded with chain shot, I will prove by my works whether I can mete out justice to such persons, or not. I would consider it just as much my duty to do that, as to baptize a man for the remission of his sins. That is a short discourse on thieves, I acknowledge, but I tell you the truth as it is in my heart.

As you have heard the history of our journey south, I will now give you a little of what is going on in the world beneath us, gleaned from the eastern mail which came in last evening. I know there is a great anxiety in the minds of the people to learn the news, as it is now seven months since we had anything from that quarter.

I understand that New York is yet standing in the same place, also the cities of Philadelphia and Washington still flourish, also the old Bay States, with the Northern, Southern, and Western States, are all there yet, and Franklin Pierce is President of them. That we guessed would be the case, last year. But if the Whigs had had half the cunning that men have here, they would have beaten that party, and Franklin Pierce would not have been President; but they do not knew enough.

Brother Orson Pratt was in Washington, when he wrote last March; he is probably now in England. He has published a paper called The Seer, seven Numbers of which have appeared before the public. He also hired a Hall in that city, when he first arrived there in December last. Many came to hear him at first, but they kept dropping off, until there were so few that he gave it up, but he continues publishing.

There is influence enough there, among the priests, and the members of Congress, to keep the people away from hearing Orson Pratt. They are all well persuaded that if they contend with him, he will break up their churches. Ignorant as they are in other matters, they know enough to guard against that. The paper has a good effect. He says, “A great many who have apostatized, say, had they seen the Revelation on Celestial Marriage, years ago, they would never have left the Church. They believed ‘Mormonism;’ but supposed there was no such Revelation in existence.”

He says that hundreds of families from whom the light of truth had well nigh departed, are again reviving, and inquiring how they may get to the Valley. There is no opposition compared with what has been. The public prints burlesque the doctrine published in The Seer, which is about all the opposition there is. And what can they say? Nothing more than what they always have said. I can sum up all the arguments used against Joseph Smith and ‘Mormonism’ in a very few words, the merits of which will be found in “Old Joe Smith. Impostor, Money Digger. Old Joe Smith. Spiritual Wife Doctrine. Imposture. The Doctrine is False. Money Digger. False Prophet. Delusion. Spiritual Wife Doctrine. Oh, my dear brethren and sisters, keep away from them, for the sake of your never dying souls. False Prophets that should come in the last days. Old Joe Smith. ANTI-CHRIST. Money Digger, Money Digger, Money Digger.” And the whole is wound up with an appeal, not to the good sense of the people, but to their unnatural feelings, in a canting, hypocritical tone, and there it ends.

I have not learned anything yet of any change being made touching the Executive Officer of this Territory. Brigham Young is still the Governor of Utah. Brother Bernhisel has succeeded in getting liberal appropriations for the Territory, among which twenty thousand dollars has been appropriated for a Penitentiary. I appointed Dr. Willard Richards, Secretary pro. tem., which appointment has been honored by the General Government, and one thousand eight hundred dollars appropriated for his services; notwithstanding I rebuked the runaway Secretary in a public manner, when he and his companion publicly insulted this great people; and notwithstanding the hue and cry which they made about the “Mormons in Salt Lake Valley.” I have courage enough to tell a man of his meanness no matter whether he be a Sheriff, a Judge, a Governor, a Priest, or a King. I have courage enough to tell them of their wickedness, and expect I always shall have.

The general news you will get through the columns of our city paper.

We have a great many letters still back at Laramie; when our mail carriers left there, there were seventeen mail bags, six of which they brought away. As a general thing, the people will get their letters; as the newspaper bags were chiefly left, and the letter bags brought on.

I will say a word concerning the brethren who left here last fall. Daniel Carn had to leave Germany, and bro– ther Orson Spencer could not obtain permission to stay in Prussia. The Governor said to the brethren who went to Jamaica, that they might minister among the people; and the minister from the States did all he could to have them stay there, but they had to leave on account of the prejudices of the community, and they are now preaching in the United States. These are some of the leading items we have received per this Mail.

I now wish to say to the Latter-day Saints that which will be a great comfort to them. We laid before you our Church indebtedness a year ago, last April Conference; it now gives me great consolation to be able to say that every dime of that debt is paid, and money left, enough to answer our purpose at present. [A general expression of satisfaction in the congregation.]

The Lord has delivered us from this difficulty. I never liked to be in bondage to my enemies, but I would be as willing to owe the brethren money as not, for it is better doing good in my hand, than to be looked up in a chest, doing no good.

When the brethren go to the world to administer salvation to them, we wish them to go perfectly clean, and represent an honorable and independent people. It is a great consolation to me that we do not owe the Gentiles one red cent, or not more than one tenth part of the money we have got on hand, at the furthest.

We can now put forth our hand and help the poor Saints, that are scattered abroad, to this place. We can now obtain articles to build the Temple we have commenced. Joseph Smith laid the foundation of the great fabric, and we have commenced to build upon it. If we do right, there will be an eternal increase among this people in talent, strength of intellect, and earthly wealth, from this time, henceforth, and forever.

I might tell you many great and good things, but I will tell you at once, if you will do your duty, and live as you ought to live before God and your brethren, you will have good with you all the time. It is our duty to apply our hearts to wisdom, and learn enough of the things of God to enable us to see the world as it is, which is one of the greatest privileges that can be granted to man. It is not only a privilege, but a duty for the Saints to seek unto the Lord their God for wisdom and understanding, to be in possession of the spirit that fills the heavens, until their eyes are anointed and opened to see the world as it really is, to know what it is made for, and why all things are as they are. It is one of the most happifying subjects that can be named, for a person, or people, to have the privilege of gaining wisdom enough while in their mortal tabernacle, to be able to look through the whys and wherefores of the existence of man, like looking through a piece of glass that is perfectly transparent; and understand the design of the Great Maker of this beautiful creation. Let the people do this, and their hearts will be weaned from the world.

If this people will pursue the course they are bound by their obligations and covenants to take, they will obtain spirit enough to see and understand all things in heaven and on earth, that are sufficient for their salvation. The cobwebs of early traditions and antiquated superstitions will be brushed away, and they will plainly see that the world is just the world, and nothing but the world, and we are no– thing but people on the world, designed to fill the measure of our creation, to bring to pass certain results that pertain to our exaltation.

Let us seek the Lord with all our hearts, then shall we be weaned from the world; no man will love this, that, or the other thing, except to do good with it, to promote the eternal interests of mankind, and prepare them to be exalted in immortality. No man can be exalted unless he be independent. I will use a comparison to illustrate this idea. If you put an animal or being not endowed with intelligence on a throne, he would be nothing but an animal still; but put intelligence into that creature, to give him knowledge how to prepare himself to reign on that throne, and fortify it with strength, then he is exalted. Mankind are naturally independent and intelligent beings, they have been created for the express purpose of exalting themselves. When they apply their hearts to wisdom, they will then get understanding. There is the fountain, go and drink at it, ask and receive all you wish, for there is an eternity of it, it will never become any less. It is for you and me to receive wisdom so as to be prepared for exaltation and eternal lives in kingdoms that now exist in eternity.

May God bless you. Peace be upon you. Be fervent in spirit, humble, teachable, and prayerful, taking care of yourselves, endeavoring to save yourselves and all you have any influence over, which is my continual prayer for you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 17, 1853.

I will embrace the present opportunity for making a few remarks, as I expect to leave this city before another Sabbath, to be gone several weeks.

You have heard good instructions, counsel, and advice from Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich; I desire to profit by their sayings, and I hope this people will.

We see men before us who are old Elders in this Church, veterans in the kingdom of God; I hope they will live many years to grace our ranks. Those who have been in the Church from the beginning are men and women who have paid attention to their faith, and to the doctrine of sound common sense; they have been good scholars, and by this time must understand tolerably well what they believe. They must also be schooled in the study of man, and in matters which pertain to nations and kingdoms, and in circumstances which concern us as individuals.

The doctrine we have heard is good; we have listened to principles that pertain to life and salvation; and I repeat again what you have heard often, “Secure for yourselves first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness.” When you have done this, every good principle, every good thing, every great endowment, every peaceful influence, and all that can be enjoyed by celestial beings are and will be yours.

We may be within the pale of the kingdom of God on earth, yet we are liable to be overcome of evil. There are many spirits who have gone abroad in the world, and men are overcome by false spirits, and led astray from the path of truth. They will begin by doing some evil thing out of sight, and say, “O, it is nothing, it is a mere trifle, and the Lord is merciful, and forgiveth sin.” The sins which are considered trifles lay the foundation for greater evils, and expose men to be tempted, and buffeted by Satan, and they will be overcome little by little, until by and by they are overtaken in a fault which is more aggravating in the sight of justice, which lays the foundation for another trial more severe, and to be buffeted more by the devil, for they lay themselves more liable to his power. We might refer you to many instances of Elders of Israel becoming victims to evil—but I pass over that disagreeable matter.

God never bestows His grace upon an individual without trying it in that person, to see if the compound is good. Men do not realize this, nor think upon it as they ought; if they did they would be more careful never to speak against the Father, against the Son, against any heavenly being, or against any being on the earth.

Brethren, seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, then all the blessings that brother Amasa anticipates enjoying will be yours. But no man or woman can enjoy them unless they have first secured to themselves the kingdom of heaven—unless they have secured to themselves eternal life.

Our bodies are satisfied with plenty of food, and we have property around us of various kinds, which satisfies our temporal wants for the moment. But, as I told you some time since, the king seated upon his throne wearing a glittering crown, and surrounded with all the glory of his greatness today, tomorrow may be numbered with the beggar, and his crown given to another. Today we possess riches, and tomorrow they may take the wings of the morning and leave us poor indeed.

How long shall we enjoy the happiness we now enjoy, in coming to this house to worship the Lord, and in associating in other capacities with our dear friends? Perhaps by another Sabbath many of us may be laid away, if not in the graveyard, upon a bed of sickness. We cannot trust to the certainty of mortal possessions; they are transitory, and a dependence upon them will plunge into hopeless disappointment all those who trust in them. When men act upon the principles which will secure to them eternal salvation, they are sure of obtaining all their hearts’ desire, sooner or later; if it does not come today, it may come tomorrow; if it does not come in this time, it will in the next.

If people would contemplate the stupendous works of God, and be honest and candid in their investigations, there is much to be learned that would show them how comparatively worthless are earthly things. We see the spangled vault of the starry heavens stretched over us; but little is known of the wonders of the firmament. Astronomers have, by their researches, discovered some general facts that have proved useful and instructing to the scientific portion of mankind. The phenomena of the motions of the heavenly bodies, and their times and seasons are understood pretty accurately. But who knows what those distant planets are? Who can tell the part they play in the grand theater of worlds? Who inhabits them, and who rules over them? Do they contain intelligent beings, who are capable of the happiness, light, glory, power, and enjoyments that would satisfy the mind of an angel of God? Who can tell these things? Can they be discovered by the light of science? They cannot. Let every intelligent person seriously contemplate this subject, and let the true light of reason illuminate the understanding, and a sound judgment inspired by the Spirit of Christ be your guide, and what will be your conclusions? They will be what mine are—that the Lord Almighty reigns there; that His people are there; and that they are, or have been, earths to fulfil a similar destiny to the one we inhabit; and there is eternity; and as Enoch of old said—“Thy curtains are stretched out still.”

Can any of the astronomers in the world point out the kingdom or the world where God is not? Where He does not reign? Can a kingdom be found, by worldly wisdom, study, or by any means that can be employed, over which He does not sway His scepter? If such a kingdom exists, I will acknowledge that the doctrine I taught you the other day is incorrect; and besides that, you will have to blot out some of the writings of the ancient Scriptures.

I wish to make an application of this, with the sayings we have heard from brother Amasa Lyman today.

We talk about true riches—about the eternal attributes of the Deity—and about that which He has given to the children of men. I also heard something said the other day about sanctification. This doctrine I heard taught many years ago, and I perceive that men do not fully understand these principles; even the best of the Latter-day Saints have but a faint idea of the attributes of the Deity.

Were the former and Latter-day Saints, with their Apostles, Prophets, Seers, and Revelators collected together to discuss this matter, I am led to think there would be found a great variety in their views and feelings upon this subject without direct revelation from the Lord. It is as much my right to differ from other men, as it is theirs to differ from me, in points of doctrine and principle, when our minds cannot at once arrive at the same conclusion. I feel it sometimes very difficult indeed to word my thoughts as they exist in my own mind, which, I presume, is the grand cause of many apparent differences in sentiment which may exist among the Saints.

What I consider to be virtue, and the only principle of virtue there is, is to do the will of our Father in heaven. That is the only virtue I wish to know. I do not recognize any other virtue than to do what the Lord Almighty requires of me from day to day. In this sense virtue embraces all good; it branches out into every avenue of mortal life, passes through the ranks of the sanctified in heaven, and makes its throne in the breast of the Deity. When the Lord commands the people, let them obey. That is virtue.

The same principle will embrace what is called sanctification. When the will, passions, and feelings of a person are perfectly submissive to God and His requirements, that person is sanctified. It is for my will to be swallowed up in the will of God, that will lead me into all good, and crown me ultimately with immortality and eternal lives.

There are numbers of men who can say much with regard to their faith in, and exalted views of “Mormonism;” they could converse continually about it. In a word, if “Mormonism” is not my life, I do not know that I have any. I do not understand anything else, for it embraces everything that comes within the range of the understanding of man. If it does not circumscribe everything that is in heaven and on earth, it is not what it purports to be.

I will inform you how I became a “Mormon”—how the first solid impression was made upon my mind. When I undertook to sound the doctrine of “Mormonism,” I supposed I could handle it as I could the Methodist, Presbyterian, and other creeds of Christendom, which I had paid some considerable attention to, from the first of my knowing anything about religion. When “Mormonism” was first presented to me, I had not seen one sect of religionists whose doctrines, from beginning to end, did not appear to me like the man’s masonry which he had in a box, and which he exhibited for a certain sum. He opened the main box from which he took another box; he unlocked that and slipped out another, then another, and another, and thus continued to take box out of box until he came to an exceedingly small piece of wood; he then said to the spectators, “That, gentlemen and ladies, is free masonry.”

I found all religions comparatively like this—they were so deficient in doctrine that when I tried to tie the loose ends and fragments together, they would break in my hands. When I commenced to examine “Mormonism,” I found it impossible to take hold of either end of it; I found it was from eternity, passed through time, and into eternity again. When I discovered this, I said, “It is worthy of the notice of man.” Then I applied my heart to wisdom, and sought diligently for understanding.

But the natural wisdom and judgment which were given me from my youth, were sufficient to enable me to easily comprehend the discrepancies and lack in the creeds of the day.

“Mormonism” is all in all to me; everything else in the shape of false government and false religion will perish in the due time of the Lord, or else the ancient Prophets have been mistaken. If death is not destroyed, and him that hath the power of it, and every man and woman who are not prepared to enjoy a kingdom where angels administer, then much of the Bible is exceedingly erroneous. Every kingdom will be blotted out of existence, except the one whose ruling spirit is the Holy Ghost; and whose king is the Lord. The Lord said to Jeremiah the Prophet, “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” The clay that marred in the potter’s hands was thrown back into the unprepared portion, to be prepared over again. So it will be with every wicked man and woman, and every wicked nation, kingdom, and government upon earth, sooner or later; they will be thrown back to the native element from which they originated, to be worked over again, and be prepared to enjoy some sort of a kingdom.

Then where will be their glory—their lands—their silver and gold—their precious diamonds and jewels—and all their fine pictures, and precious ornaments? In the hands of the Saints. Will the wicked inherit them? No; they will be disinherited.

I do not wonder at the ancients marveling at the wickedness and unbelief of the people. I do not wonder at the words of the Savior, which will apply to the people generally as well now as then, when he said, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” This generation are seeking eagerly after that which will perish in their hands; they are madly rushing forward, hazarding their eternal all, to secure transitory possessions, which, when they think they have obtained them, are not fully satisfactory; they have grasped at the walls of an airy phantom, and sacrificed an enduring substance. How foolish, in the eyes of the truly intelligent, the pursuits of the wicked appear. They set their hearts’ affections upon that which is not durable, seeking happiness where misery and all its attendant effects are sure to be realized. Jesus said to his disciples, when he was about to leave them, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Who wishes to overvalue earthly things as they are now constituted? They are made to be changed, they are subject to decay. But the earth will not be utterly destroyed; the elements of which it is composed will not be annihilated, but they will be changed. Neither shall those be consumed who can abide the day of the Lord Almighty, and stand in His presence. The earth in that great day will be renovated—cleansed from wickedness—purified from dross, sanctified, and prepared for the habitation of the Saints of the Most High.

On the other hand, the wicked shall be consumed with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming. The gold, the silver, the precious stones, and all that is desirable to beautify the heaven of the Saints, will be made pure, and fit for them to handle. It is the misapplied intelligence God has given us that makes all the mischief on the earth. That intelligence He de– signed to carry out the purposes of His will, and endowed it with capabilities to grow, spread abroad, accumulate, and endeavor to enjoy greater happiness, glory, and honor, and continue to expand wider and wider, until eternity is comprehended by it; if not applied to this purpose, but to the groveling things of earth, it will be taken away, and given to one who has made better use of this gift of God.

I say again—“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,”and in due time, no matter when, whether in this year or in the next, in this life or in the life to come, “all these things” (that appear so necessary to have in the world) “shall be added unto you.” Everything that is in heaven, on the earth, and in the earth, everything the most fruitful mind can imagine, shall be yours, sooner or later. I wish you would square your lives according to what has been said to you today, especially while I am gone.

I wish to say to all the brethren, young men, and boys, while I am gone from your midst for a season, let your conduct and conversation be such as becometh your profession in all things. I hope I shall not hear of drunkenness, confusion, and quarrelling when I return. I am never afraid of it when I am here, for I can manage such characters so completely that they do not think it worthwhile to begin. While I am gone, behave yourselves. I will preach to you the same sermon I preached to the missionaries a week ago, viz., “Walk uprightly.” When I return, and find you have done this, all will be well; if you have violated this counsel, you may expect to be chastised. Let it be said when I return, “All is right; all has been peace; and good order has prevailed in your absence.”

I wish to say a few words about some men and families in this city, called Gladdenites. We have been pretty severe upon them, but nowhere, except in the pulpit, to my knowledge. I counsel my brethren to keep away from their houses; let them alone, and treat them as courteously as you would any other person. Do you enquire whether I have any grounds for giving this advice? I answer, I have. For there are few men in this congregation who know when to stop, should they find themselves engaged in a contest with one of that class of people, therefore let them alone entirely. Those individuals are disagreeable to me, and so are their doctrines. The man they hold up is so low and degraded in his spirit, feelings, and life, I have not patience to hear anything said about him. I have known him too long, and too well, not to be satisfied of the wickedness of his heart.

You say you wish to do right, and please the Lord in all your actions; but were I to adopt an evil practice, the greater portion of this community would follow it. Why not follow me then in doing right? Righteousness, in whomsoever found, will never lead you astray; while wickedness will lead you to ruin. No man possessing the Spirit of the Lord, can for a moment believe Gladden Bishop’s writings. If it were possible, his system is more foolish than the exhibition of free masonry I have referred to.

I wish this community to understand, that what has been said here touching those men and their views, has been with no other design than to cause them to use their tongues as they ought, and cease abusing me and this people. Some of them visited me yesterday, and wished to know if it was safe for them to stay here. I told them they were as safe as I was, if they did not undertake to make us swallow, whether or not, something we are not willing to take. “We have been driven, and re-driven,” said I, “and if corrupt people stay in our midst, they have got to use their tongues properly.” They promised they would, if they might stay.

If they wish to live here in peace, I am willing they should, but I do not wish them to stir up strife. I never expected that this community would be composed entirely of Latter-day Saints, but I expected there would be goats mixed among the sheep, until they are separated. I do not look for anything else, but I wish them to behave themselves in their sphere, also the sheep; and let the goats associate with their goatish companions, and not endeavor to disturb the equanimity of the sheep in their pasture.

This comparison will apply to this people, and those men. If they wish to labor, and obtain a living, they are welcome to do so; but they are not at liberty to disturb the peace of their neighbors in any way; neither let this people disturb them, but grant them every privilege claimed by, and belonging to, American citizens. Let them meet together and pray if they please; this is their own business. Let them do as some did in a camp meeting in York State—One man met another and said, “How do you do? How are they getting along on the campground?” “Why they are serving God like the very devil,” was the reply. And the Gladdenites may serve God like the devil, if they will keep out of my way, and out of the way of this people.

The men who visited me yesterday, stated that they believed Joseph was a true Prophet, and that they were full-blooded “Mormons;” indeed they seemed to have in them an extra charge of “Mormon” blood. I asked one of them if he had any confidence in the endowment. He confessed he had no faith in it. I then asked him if he did not believe that Joseph Smith was a fallen Prophet. His reply was, “I rather think he is.”

When a man throws a stone at me, and with it dashes his own brains out, I have nothing to say. He called himself a full-blooded “Mormon,” and almost in the same breath declared Joseph was a fallen Prophet, and that he had no confidence in the endowment. How is it in reality with those men? Why they have not a particle of faith either in Joseph Smith, or in the Book of Mormon. I told one of them, who professed to be so honest, that he wanted the Lord to come down from heaven that moment and judge him, that five years would not pass away before he would be cursing, and swearing, and proclaiming blasphemously against every good principle in heaven and on earth.

They do not know what they believe, neither do they know what they have received. They think they know all about it. They think they know that you are out of the right way, and that they are walking in it. When they say this people are going to be destroyed by the judgments of God, it is to me like the crackling of thorns under the pot. Pass along, and mind your own business, is a fit reply to their declarations.

There has never been a Church of God on the earth without such characters. According to their outward appearance, they are as good men and women as you might think could possibly be. You might say with safety, “They are truly Saints,” if you were to judge by the appearance of the outside of the platter. But what does Jesus Christ say? “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Again? “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

He that doeth the will of God, is His disciple. You may say Joseph was a devil, if you like, but he is at home, and still holds the keys of the kingdom, which were committed to him by heavenly messengers, and always will. Do you ask who brother Brigham is? He is an humble instrument in the hands of God, to keep His people in the path which He has marked out through the instrumentality of His servant Joseph; and to travel in which is all I ask of them. I said some time since on this stand, if I was not a Prophet, I certainly had been profitable to this people. I know I have, by the blessing of the Lord, been successful in profiting them. The Lord has done it through me.

There is a man named Martin Harris, and he is the one who gave the holy roll to Gladden. When Martin was with Joseph Smith, he was continually trying to make the people believe that he (Joseph) was the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. I have heard Joseph chastise him severely for it, and he told me that such a course, if persisted in, would destroy the kingdom of God. Who else ever said that Joseph Smith was anything but an unlearned son of a backwoodsman; who had all his lifetime, ever since he could handle an ax, helped his father to support his little family by cutting wood?

Thus the Lord found him, and called him to be a Prophet, and made him a successful instrument in laying the foundation of His kingdom for the last time. This people never professed that Joseph Smith was anything more than a Prophet given to them of the Lord; and to whom the Lord gave the keys of this last dispensation, which were not to be taken from him in time, neither will they be in eternity.

I wish to see this people fulfil in every particular what Joseph told them to do, and build up the kingdom of God, and this they are doing. I give them praise today, for they are a God-blessed people. Which of these Elders that are sitting round me, if they were asked to go on a mission for five, ten, or twenty years, would not rise up and say, “I am ready,” notwithstanding all their weaknesses and foolishness?

Ask an apostate to go and preach salvation to a perishing world, and his reply would be, “I cannot go, I am too poor.” They are a perfect abomination among men. Did they ever build up the kingdom of God in any way? Never. They have done nothing but apostatize, and they will now continually try to destroy the work of God with all their might. This is all they ever did do, and it is all they ever will do. There is not a faithful Elder here who would not, if called upon, readily go forth to preach the Gospel in distant countries, though he had not a shoe to his feet, or a coat to his back. Would an apostate do it? No, they cannot do anything without money! money! money! which is their god. The faithful children of God will be faithful in preaching the Gospel, in building up the cause of their God, and in carrying salvation to thousands and millions of the fallen race of Adam, which we have done.

I wonder what apostate would do as we did when we went to England? I was better off than many of my brethren, for I had three shillings to pay my expenses to Preston. On we went to that town, and held our Conference, and from thence we started out every way, preaching the Gospel in the regions round about.

Allow me the privilege of boasting, though it is not me but the Lord that has done it. We sustained ourselves, and assisted the poor to a very large amount, and only stayed in England one year and sixteen days. This means was gathered up by faith, and we baptized over seven thousand people, gave away about sixty thousand tracts, for which I paid the money, and sent Elders out to preach in every direction. Would an apostate do this? No. But they wish to sour, corrupt, and desecrate with apostasy every Saint they come in contact with. It is not in them to do any good to the cause of truth; but out of the evil they design the Lord will bring good.

This people commenced with nothing. Joseph Smith, the honored instrument in the hands of God to lay the foundation of this work, commenced with nothing; he had neither the wisdom nor the riches of this world. And it is proven to our satisfaction, that when rich men have come into this Church, the Lord has been determined to take their riches from them and make them poor; that all His Saints may learn to obtain that which they possess by faith.

How many times has He made us poor? Thousands of dollars worth of property in houses and lands, which the Lord gave me, are now in the East, in the hands of our enemies. I never said they were mine, they were the Lord’s, and I was one of His stewards. When I went to Kirtland, I had not a coat in the world, for previous to this I had given away everything I possessed, that I might be free to go forth and proclaim the plan of salvation to the inhabitants of the earth. Neither had I a shoe to my feet, and I had to borrow a pair of pants and a pair of boots. I stayed there five years, and accumulated five thousand dollars. How do you think I accomplished this? Why, the Lord Almighty gave me those means. I have often had that done for me that has caused me to marvel. I know, as well as I know I am standing before you today, that I have had money put into my trunk and into my pocket without the instrumentality of any man. This I know to a certainty. Ask an apostate, if they can, in truth, bear testimony to such a thing. They cannot do it. Enough about that.

Again, I say if “Mormonism” is not all I anticipated it to be, it is nothing. If it is not in me, and I in it, if it is not all and in all to me, I am deceived in myself. It is everything in heaven and on earth to those who possess it truly; but lose this, and, as I told you the other day, what remains will dwindle, perish, decay, decompose, and be reduced to its native element, or, in other words, be thrown into the mill to be ground over.

The Lord Almighty will not let anything endure that offers hospitality to the devil and his imps. Those who suffer their bodies to be dwellings for evil spirits, must suffer loss, for devils cannot construct a house that will in any way answer their purpose; neither have they been able to do so in all the eternities there are; that is the very thing which causes us trouble continually; for they are trying all the time to get into our dwellings, because they have none of their own. Did you ever desire to take possession of another person’s tabernacle, and leave your own? No rational person owning a tabernacle would wish to do so. The devils have no tabernacles, which is the reason of their wanting to possess human bodies. If any of you have suffered any of these houseless spirits to enter you, turn them out, and they will perhaps seek refuge in the body of an ox, or some other animal, or maybe go into Jordan.

Do you think the legion we read of, that entered the swine, in the days of Christ, had bodies of their own? No; they have no meetinghouses but in ballrooms, gaming houses, brothels, gin palaces, parlors, bedrooms, and other places which they frequent in the bodies of those they lead captive; otherwise they are wandering to and fro in the earth, seeking to possess tabernacles that other spirits, not of their order, already occupy. They are in our midst watching for an opportunity to enter where they may. What will be the doom of those who give way to them, and yield to them the possession of their tabernacles? They will wander to and fro, happiness will be hid from them, they will weep, and wail, and suffer, until their bodies return to their mother earth, and their spirits to judgment.

Brethren and sisters, you are on the right track; be virtuous, humble, thankful, generous, and true to your God, and to each other, loving Him more than all things else, and making His Law your delight day and night. If I did not love the Lord enough to leave houses, lands, father, mother, wives, and children, and even be ready to lay down my life freely for the kingdom of God’s sake, I should not consider I was worthy of it. Were I to forsake all for it, I should lose nothing; for the man who honors and serves God cannot suffer loss.

The very laws which govern eternity are planned to sustain an eternal growth, gathering together and increasing; so that the true servant of God cannot possibly suffer loss, but will reap eternal gain, though he, for the cause of truth, is poor and needy through the whole of this short life. He has made truth his theme; and what is it? I will say it is that which endures; it is eternity, and its power is to grow, increase, and expand, adding life to life, and power to power, worlds without end.

May God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered at a General Conference held in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1853.

I wish to deliver a short discourse, which may, perhaps, become a lengthy one before the close of this Conference.

I will now give the text, and probably shall call upon the brethren to fill out the sermon. I do not know that I can refer you to the Bible for the particular chapter and verse, to find the text; but the text may be given here, and the book referred to hereafter.

The text is the Right of Heirship. I will, however, make an addition to the Scripture before I proceed further with my remarks, and say, The Right of Heirship in the Priesthood; for unquestionably this will be connected with the text and brought into the discourse.

In the little that I shall say, I will endeavor to point out the items of doctrine and the right view to be contemplated and spoken upon by the brethren; for I wish this subject to be properly understood.

Pertaining to the kingdom of God, to this earth, to the organization of it, to the bringing forth of the children of men upon it, to the preparatory Gospel or law to fit and prepare them, after receiving their tabernacles, to enter again into the presence of their Father and God, this heirship, this right did belong, still belongs, and forever will belong to the firstborn son in every family of Adam’s race.

This is understood from the Bible, not only by the Latter-day Saints, but also by the Christian world. Jesus Christ, first begotten of the Father, of all the rest of the children, and of all they possess, alone is the lawful heir. This is no mystery.

After passing over the ages and generations of the children of men for about six thousand years, we will come to the present congregation and say the right of heirship is the same now that it was in the beginning. It is as it was and as it ever will be, worlds without end. This I wish the Latter-day Saints to understand a little better than they have heretofore. I will give you my reason.

For instance, there are sisters in this Church that have been bereaved of their husbands, who died full of faith in the holy Gospel and full of hope for a glorious resurrection to eternal life. One of them is visited by a High Priest, of whom she seeks information touching her situation and that of her husband. At the same time, the woman has a son twenty-five years of age, who is an Elder in one of the Quorums of Seventies, and faithful in all the duties connected with his calling. She has also other sons and daughters. She asks this High Priest what she shall do for her husband, and he very religiously says to her, “You must be sealed to me, and I will bring up your husband, stand as proxy for him, receive his endowments and all the sealing, keys, and blessings, and eternal Priesthood for him, and be the father of your children.”

Hear it ye mothers! The mother that does that barters away the sacred right of her son. Does she know it? No. This has been done in hundreds of instances, though innocently and in ignorance, which makes it excusa– ble. For my own part, I am willing to wink at the ignorance of the people, and I believe our heavenly Father is.

But you that will hear and be made to understand the true principles that govern this matter, go from this place and do hereafter as has been done in bygone days; and instead of the children being robbed of their just rights, the woman shall lose her children, and they shall yet stand in their place and be put in the possession of their rights. What is to be done? Let mothers honor their children. If a woman has a son, let her honor that son.

But a mother may say, “My son is only five years old. I never had but one son among a number of daughters. I am advancing in years, and may die before I can be sealed to my husband.” Let that son wait until he is old enough to officiate for his father; and though you may go into your grave, let your son do his duty, and [you] never hang to the skirts of a man that is avaricious.

You may see a great many miserly persons with regard to dollars and cents. It is just as natural for men to be miserly with regard to their religious blessings. You may see hundreds of Elders who say to the sisters, “Come and be sealed to me,” crawling round to make the holy ordinances of God a matter of speculation to administer to their avaricious dispositions. They will tell you that you will go into eternity and find yourselves without husbands, and cannot get an exaltation—that you cannot have this, that, or the other, unless you are sealed to them. I am free, and so are you. My advice to the sisters is, Never be sealed to any man unless you wish to be. I say to you High Priests and Elders, Never from this time ask a woman to be sealed to you, unless she wants to be; but let the widows and children alone.

I will refer you to a discourse I delivered here last season upon the subject of the resurrection and the millennium, setting forth before the people the work to be accomplished in that period of time. We have at least one thousand years, counting three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and fifty-seven seconds to the year, if I recollect right, wherein the Elders of Israel will enter holy temples of the Lord and officiate for just such persons as you and I, that have done the work we were called to do in our day, whether it was much or little. There will be hundreds of thousands of the sons of Jacob to administer in these temples for you and me. Joseph, Hyrum, father Smith, and many others will be there to dictate and preside. Joseph will stand at the head of this dispensation and hold the keys of it, for they are not taken from him: they never were in time; they never will be in eternity. I shall be there if I live or if I die. If I die, my brethren or my children will officiate for me. I shall lose nothing through death. Magnify your calling in this Church, and I will warrant you an exaltation just as good and as great as you can ask for.

I might notice many more items pertaining to this matter; but the Elders going round telling the sisters they must be sealed to them, or they cannot get an exaltation, particularly has wounded my feelings. How ignorant such men are! This to me is like a shadow. To talk about it is sheer nonsense. Let every man and woman magnify their calling in the kingdom of God, and he will take care that we have our exaltation.

Sisters come to me and inquire what they shall do, saying, Brother A or B taught me so and so. They are as wild as the deer on the mountains. Their ideas and calculations are derogatory to every shade of good sound sense and to every principle of the Priesthood of heaven.

Brethren, learn to be patient and submissive to your duty and callings in life, and not be anxious to accumulate to yourselves that which, when you have obtained, you are at a loss to know what to do with. There are scores of men in this house that, if they could pile up an almost unlimited amount of gold, in a short time would not possess one dime of it. There are also scores of Elders here who, if they had five hundred women sealed to them and a thousand children, would destroy themselves and those over whom they exercise any influence. They would not know what to do with them. You want to have another wife: but do you use well the one you have got? It is a bad omen to me when a man wants another wife, and the one he has got is ready to leave him. If you cannot keep the jewel you already possess, be cautious how you take more, lest you lose them both.

I did not design to speak long, as it hurts me. I think I have laid out the text before the brethren plain enough for them to preach upon it. I wish them so to exhibit the subject before the people, that they may carry it away in their understandings.

Let me hear no more of this “You must be sealed to me, or you cannot get an exaltation.” If a man gets the widow of a good man, sealed, married to him, with a view to hold control over and rob every child in that family of their birthright, he will be mistaken. It will not be. I say to you, my brethren, young men, you Elders, Rise up and magnify your calling, honor the Priesthood; and if a man has stepped up and married your mother under the influence of such an expectation, TURN HIM OUT OF YOUR HOUSE, AND MAINTAIN YOUR BIRTHRIGHT.

An Oration by President Brigham Young, Delivered on the Southeast Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the First Presidency and the Patriarch had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853

This morning we have assembled on one of the most solemn, interesting, joyful, and glorious occasions, that ever have transpired, or will transpire among the children of men, while the earth continues in its present organization, and is occupied for its present purposes. And I congratulate my brethren and sisters that it is our unspeakable privilege to stand here this day, and minister before the Lord on an occasion which has caused the tongues and pens of Prophets to speak and write for many scores of centuries which are past.

When the Lord Jesus Christ tabernacled in the flesh—when he had left the most exalted regions of His Father’s glory, to suffer and shed his blood for sinning, fallen creatures, like ourselves, and the people crowded around him, a certain man said unto him, “Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” Jesus said unto him, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay HIS head.” And we find no record that this man followed him any farther.

Why had not the Son of Man where to lay his head? Because his Father had no house upon the earth—none dedicated to Him, and preserved for His exclusive use, and the benefit of His obedient children.

The Ark containing the covenant—or the Ark of the Covenant in the days of Moses, containing the sacred records, was moved from place to place in a cart. And so sacred was that Ark, if a man stretched forth his hand to steady it, when the cart jostled, he was smitten, and died. And would to God that all who attempt to do the same in this day, figuratively speaking, might share the same fate. And they will share it sooner or later, if they do not keep their hands, and tongues too, in their proper places, and stop dictating the order of the Gods of the Eternal Worlds.

When the Ark of the Covenant rested, or when the children of Israel had an opportunity to rest (for they were mobbed and harassed somewhat like the Latter-day Saints), the Lord, through Moses, commanded a Tabernacle to be built, wherein should rest and be stationed, the Ark of the Covenant. And particular instructions were given by revelation to Moses, how every part of said Tabernacle should be constructed, even to the curtains—the number thereof, and of what they should be made; and the covering, and the wood for the boards, and for the bars, and the court, and the pins, and the vessels, and the furniture, and everything pertaining to the Tabernacle. Why did Moses need such a particular revelation to build a Tabernacle? Because he had never seen one, and did not know how to build it without revelation, without a pattern.

Thus the Ark of the Covenant continued until the days of David, King of Israel, standing or occupying a Tabernacle, or tent. But to David, God gave commandment that he should build Him a house, wherein He, Himself, might dwell, or which He might visit, and in which He might commune with His servants when He pleased.

From the day the children of Israel were led out of Egypt to the days of Solomon, Jehovah had no resting place upon the earth (and for how long a period before that day, the history is unpublished), but walked in the tent or Tabernacle, before the Ark, as it seemed Him good, having no place to lay His head.

David was not permitted to build the house which he was commanded to build, because he was a “man of blood,” that is, he was beset by enemies on every hand, and had to spend his days in war and bloodshed to save Israel (much as the Latter-day Saints have done, only he had the privilege to defend himself and people from mobocrats and murderers, while we have hitherto been denied that privilege), and, consequently, he had no time to build a house unto the Lord but commanded his son Solomon, who succeeded him on the throne, to erect the Temple at Jerusalem, which God had required at his hands.

The pattern of this Temple, the length, and breadth, and height of the inner and outer courts, with all the fixtures thereunto appertaining, were given to Solomon by revelation, through the proper source. And why was this revelation-pattern necessary? Because that Solomon had never built a Temple, and did not know what was necessary in the arrangement of the different apartments, any better than Moses did what was needed in the Tabernacle.

This Temple, called Solomon’s Temple, because Solomon was the master workman, was completed some time previous to the appearance of the Son of Man on the earth, in the form of the babe of Bethlehem, and had been dedicated as the House of the Lord, and accepted as a finished work by the Father, who commanded it to be built, that His Son might have a resting place on the earth, when he should enter on his mission.

Why, then, did Jesus exclaim to the man who volunteered to follow him wheresoever he went, that “the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head?” Jesus knew the pretended Saint and follower to be a hypocrite, and that if he told him plainly that he would not fare as well as the birds and foxes, he would leave him at once, and that would save Him much trouble.

But how could Jesus’ saying, that he had “not where to lay his head,” be true? Because the house which the Father had commanded to be built for his reception, although completed, had become polluted, and hence the saying, “My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves,” and he made a scourge of cords, and drove the moneychangers, and dove sellers, and faro gamblers, all out of his house, and overthrew their tables; but that did not purify the house, so that he could not sleep in it, for an holy thing dwelleth not in an unholy Temple.

If Jesus could not lay his head in an unholy, polluted temple, how can the Latter-day Saints expect that the Holy Spirit will take and abide its residence with them, in their tabernacles and temples of clay, unless they keep themselves pure, spotless, and undefiled?

It is no wonder that the Son of Man, soon after his resurrection from the tomb, ascended to his Father, for he had no place on earth to lay his head; his house still remaining in the possession of his enemies, so that no one had the privilege of purifying it, if they had the disposition, and otherwise the power, to do it; and the occupants thereof were professors in name, but hypocrites and apostates, from whom no good thing can be expected.

Soon after the ascension of Jesus, through mobocracy, martyrdom, and apostasy, the Church of Christ became extinct from the earth, the Man Child—the Holy Priesthood, was received up into heaven from whence it came, and we hear no more of it on the earth, until the Angels restored it to Joseph Smith, by whose ministry the Church of Jesus Christ was restored, reorganized on earth, twenty-three years ago this day, with the title of “Latter-day Saints,” to distinguish them from the Former-day Saints.

Soon after, the Church, through our beloved Prophet Joseph, was commanded to build a Temple to the Most High, in Kirtland, Ohio, and this was the next House of the Lord we hear of on the earth, since the days of Solomon’s Temple. Joseph not only received revelation and commandment to build a Temple, but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomon for his Temple; for without a pattern, he could not know what was wanting, having never seen one, and not having experienced its use.

Without revelation, Joseph could not know what was wanting, any more than any other man, and, without commandment, the Church were too few in numbers, too weak in faith and too poor in purse, to attempt such a mighty enterprise. But by means of all these stimulants, a mere handful of men, living on air, and a little hominy and milk, and often salt or no salt when milk could not be had; the great Prophet Joseph, in the stone quarry, quarrying rock with his own hands; and the few then in the Church, following his example of obedience and diligence wherever most needed; with laborers on the walls, holding the sword in one hand to protect themselves from the mob, while they placed the stone and moved the trowel with the other, the Kirtland Temple—the second House of the Lord, that we have any published record of on the earth, was so far completed as to be dedicated. And those first Elders who helped to build it, received a portion of their first endowments, or we might say more clearly, some of the first, or introductory, or initiatory ordinances, preparatory to an endowment.

The preparatory ordinances there administered, though accompanied by the ministration of angels, and the presence of the Lord Jesus, were but a faint similitude of the ordinances of the House of the Lord in their fulness; yet many, through the instigation of the devil, thought they had received all, and knew as much as God; they have apostatized, and gone to hell. But be assured, brethren, there are but few, very few of the Elders of Israel, now on earth, who know the meaning of the word endowment. To know, they must experience; and to experience, a Temple must be built.

Let me give you the definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.

Who has received and understands such an endowment, in this assembly? You need not answer. Your voices would be few and far between, yet the keys to these endowments are among you, and thousands have received them, so that the devil, with all his aids, need not suppose he can again destroy the Holy Priesthood from the earth, by killing a few, for he cannot do it. God has set His hand, for the last time, to redeem His people, the honest in heart, and Lucifer cannot hinder Him.

Before these endowments could be given at Kirtland, the Saints had to flee before mobocracy. And, by toil and daily labor, they found places in Missouri, where they laid the cornerstones of Temples, in Zion and her Stakes, and then had to retreat to Illinois, to save the lives of those who could get away alive from Missouri, where fell the Apostle David W. Patten, with many like associates, and where were imprisoned in loathsome dungeons, and fed on human flesh, Joseph and Hyrum, and many others. But before all this had transpired, the Temple at Kirtland had fallen into the hands of wicked men, and by them been polluted, like the Temple at Jerusalem, and consequently it was disowned by the Father and the Son.

At Nauvoo, Joseph dedicated another Temple, the third on record. He knew what was wanting, for he had previously given most of the prominent individuals then before him their endowment. He needed no revelation, then, of a thing he had long experienced, any more than those now do, who have experienced the same things. It is only where experience fails, that revelation is needed.

Before the Nauvoo Temple was completed, Joseph was murdered—murdered at sunlight, under the protection of the most noble government that then existed, and that now exists, on our earth. Has his blood been atoned for? No! And why? A martyr’s blood to true religion was never atoned for on our earth. No man, or nation of men, without the Priesthood, has power to make atonement for such sins. The souls of all such, since the days of Jesus, are “under the altar,” and are crying to God, day and night, for vengeance. And shall they cry in vain? God forbid! He has promised He will hear them in His own due time, and recompense a righteous reward.

But what of the Temple in Nauvoo? By the aid of sword in one hand, and trowel and hammer in the other, with fire arms at hand, and a strong band of police, and the blessings of heaven, the Saints, through hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and watchings, and prayings, so far completed the Temple, despite the devices of the mob, that many received a small portion of their endowment, but we know of no one who received it in its fulness. And then, to save the lives of all the Saints from cruel murder, we removed westward, and being led by the all-searching eye of the Great Jehovah, we arrived at this place.

Of our journey hither, we need say nothing, only, God led us. Of the sufferings of those who were compelled to, and did, leave Nauvoo in the winter of 1846, we need say nothing. Those who experienced it know it, and those who did not, to tell them of it would be like exhibiting a beautiful painting to a blind man.

We will not stop to tell you of the sufferings of widows and orphans on Omaha lands, while their husbands and fathers were traversing the burning plains of the South, to fight the battles of a country which had banished them from civilization, for they secured the land on which we dwell, from our nation’s foe, exposed the gold of California, and turned the world upside down. All these things are before you—you know them, and we need not repeat them.

While these things were transpiring with the Saints in the wilderness; the Temple at Nauvoo passed into the hands of the enemy, who polluted it to that extent the Lord not only ceased to occupy it, but He loathed to have it called by His name, and permitted the wrath of its possessors to purify it by fire, as a token of what will speedily fall on them and their habitations, unless they repent.

But what are we here for, this day? To celebrate the birthday of our religion! To lay the foundation of a Temple to the Most High God, so that when His Son, our Elder Brother, shall again appear, he may have a place where he can lay his head, and not only spend a night or a day, but find a place of peace, that he may stay till he can say, “I am satisfied.”

Brethren, shall the Son of Man be satisfied with our proceedings this day? Shall he have a house on the earth which he can call his own? Shall he have place where he can lay his head, and rest overnight, and tarry as long as he pleases, and be satisfied and pleased with his accommodations?

These are questions for you to answer. If you say yes, you have got to do the work, or it will not be done. We do not want any whiners about this Temple. If you cannot commence cheerfully, and go through the labor of the whole building cheerfully, start for California, and the quicker the better. Make you a golden calf, and worship it. If your care for the ordinances of salvation, for yourselves, your living, and dead, is not first and foremost in your hearts, in your actions, and in everything you possess, go! Pay your debts, if you have any, and go in peace, and prove to God and all His Saints that you are what you profess to be, by your acts—a God of Gods, and know more than He that made you.

But if you are what you profess to be, do your duty—stay with the Saints, pay your Tithing, and be prompt in paying, as you are in feeding your family; and the Temple, of which we have now laid the Southeast Corner Stone, will arise in beauty and grandeur, in a manner and time which you have not hitherto known or contemplated.

The Saints of these valleys have grown in riches, and abundance of the comforts of life, in a manner hitherto unparalleled on the page of history, and if they will do by their Heavenly Father as He has done by them, soon will this Temple be enclosed. But if you go in for a speculation with passers by, as many have hitherto done, you will not live to see the Topstone of this Temple laid; and your labors and toils for yourselves and friends, dead and alive, will be worse than though you had had no existence.

We dedicate this, the Southeast Corner Stone of this Temple, to the Most High God. May it remain in peace till it has done its work, and until He who has inspired our hearts to fulfil the prophecies of His holy Prophets, that the House of the Lord should be reared in the “Tops of the Mountains,” shall be satisfied, and say, “It is enough.” And may every tongue, pen, and weapon, that may rise against this or any other Corner Stone of this building, feel the wrath and scourging of an incensed God! May sinners in Zion be afraid, and fearful news surprise the hypocrite, from this hour. And may all who do not feel to say Amen, go speedily to that long night of rest from which no sleeper will awake, till roused by the trump of the Second Resurrection.

A Sermon by President B. Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1853, at the General Conference.

We have assembled together this afternoon to continue the business of the Conference, a portion of which I feel should be devoted to instruction, teachings, traversing the experience of the Church, or in any way the Spirit of the Lord shall manifest.

The special business that has to be transacted in a Conference like this, can be done very quickly—perhaps we might do all that is necessary in half a day, or in a day at the furthest.

We came together for the purpose of worshipping the Lord, and many have come from a distance, who wished to come up here and join with their brethren in contemplating the work of the last days, and in speaking to each other comforting words, for it is a very agreeable exercise, on occasions like this, as well as in other meetings, to rehearse over to each other the scenes of life, the feelings of the heart, the tragedies that have passed among us, the difficulties we have surmounted, and the days, months, and years we have been brought through.

I will say, for one, so far as it concerns my own feelings, my brethren are at liberty to talk about that that is in their hearts. This is my privilege, and I wish it to be understood that it is the privilege of those who shall address this Conference. If they want to preach us a discourse on doctrine—on the gathering of Israel, for instance, they are at liberty so to do. If anyone wishes to preach the first principles of the Gospel—repentance and baptism, with the gifts, he is at liberty.

Were it not that our bodies have to be fed and clothed, I would propose that we tarry here a few months, to give all a chance to speak, to exhort, to pray, to prophesy, to sing, to speak in tongues, or to do whatsoever the Spirit should manifest unto them. But our work is a work of the present. The salvation we are seeking is for the present, and, sought correctly, it can be obtained, and be continually enjoyed. If it continues today, it is upon the same principle that it will continue tomorrow, the next day, the next week, or the next year, and, we might say, the next eternity.

If we are saved, we are happy, we are filled with light, glory, intelligence, and we pursue a course to enjoy the blessings that the Lord has in store for us. If we continue to pursue that course, it produces just the thing we want, that is, to be saved at this present moment. And this will lay the foundation to be saved forever and forever, which will amount to an eternal salvation.

Brethren, we have accomplished the design of our hearts, that we listed to accomplish. And really, this thought inadvertently rushes upon my mind—Wherein have we not accomplished all we have listed to do? Not only in excavating the earth, and laying down the Cornerstones in the center of the main body of the building we shall rear for the Temple, but wherein have we contemplated doing one thing we have not done, to build up the Kingdom of God? If there has been a failure, it does not occur to my mind at present. I cannot now recall to my mind one circumstance of that kind, with all the mobbing, driving, and afflictions that this people have passed through.

Though the enemy had power to kill our Prophet, that is, kill his body, did he not accomplish all that was in his heart to accomplish in his day? He did, to my certain knowledge, and I have many witnesses here that heard him declare that he had done everything he could do—he had revealed everything that could be revealed at present, he had prepared the way for the people to walk in, and no man or woman should be deprived of going into the presence of the Father and the Son, and enjoying an eternal exaltation, if they would walk in the path he had pointed out.

From the day that he fell, until this day, if there is one item of business, if there is one thing that should have been done by this people, that has not been done, I cannot call it to mind, though it looked gloomy for a month or six weeks past, the weather being so unfavorable with regard to being ready to lay those Cornerstones, today.

I am happy to say that there has been a great deal of faith manifested by the Saints, and, through that faith the Lord has granted unto us the desire of our hearts, or else the devil has been sent on an errand another way, and has forgotten himself. I do not think, however, he need trouble himself much about the world, for he has them secure enough. Perhaps he may have slept a little too long, as he has not been here on this notable day. I attribute it to our Father in heaven, for giving us this beautiful weather today.

The congregation was not accom– modated as we desired. We should have been pleased if they could have been so situated that all could have heard the orations, and prayers that were made upon those four stones; but they will be in print, so you can read them at your leisure.

I do not like to prophesy much, I never do, but I will venture to guess, that this day, and the work we have performed on it, will long be remembered by this people, and be sounded as with a trumpet’s voice throughout the world, as far, as loud, and as long as steam, wind, and the electric current can carry it. It is a day in which all the faithful will rejoice in all time to come.

Some will inquire, “Do you suppose we shall finish this Temple, brother Brigham?” I have had such questions put to me already. My answer is, I do not know, and I do not care anymore about it than I should if my body was dead and in the grave, and my spirit in Paradise. I never have cared but for one thing, and that is, simply to know that I am now right before my Father in Heaven. If I am this moment, this day, doing the things God requires of my hands, and precisely where my Father in Heaven wants me to be, I care no more about tomorrow than though it never would come. I do not know where I shall be tomorrow, nor when this Temple will be done—I know no more about it than you do. If God reveals anything for you, I will tell you of it as freely as to say, go to City Creek, and drink until you are satisfied.

This I do know—there should be a Temple built here. I do know it is the duty of this people to commence to build a Temple. Now, some will want to know what kind of a building it will be. Wait patiently, brethren, until it is done, and put forth your hands willingly to finish it. I know what it will be. I am not a visionary man, neither am I given much to prophesy– ing. When I want any of that done I call on brother Heber—he is my Prophet, he loves to prophesy, and I love to hear him. I scarcely ever say much about revelations, or visions, but suffice it to say, five years ago last July I was here, and saw in the Spirit the Temple not ten feet from where we have laid the Chief Cornerstone. I have not inquired what kind of a Temple we should build. Why? Because it was represented before me. I have never looked upon that ground, but the vision of it was there. I see it as plainly as if it was in reality before me. Wait until it is done. I will say, however, that it will have six towers, to begin with, instead of one. Now do not any of you apostatize because it will have six towers, and Joseph only built one. It is easier for us to build sixteen, than it was for him to build one. The time will come when there will be one in the center of Temples we shall build, and, on the top, groves and fish ponds. But we shall not see them here, at present.

The First Presidency proceeded to the southeast corner, to lay the first stone, though it is customary to commence at the northeast corner—that is the beginning point most generally, I believe, in the world. At this side of the equator we commence at the southeast corner. We sometimes look for light, you know, brethren. You old men that have been through the mill pretty well, have been inquiring after light—which way do you go? You will tell me you go to the east for light? So we commence by laying the stone on the south-east corner, because there is the most light.

Just as quick as the minutes of this day’s proceedings are out, there will be Elders, High Priests, and Seventies, inquiring whether the same order has been carried out today, as was observed in laying the Cornerstones of the other Temples. I want to give you a little history of it, that you may know.

When the cornerstones were laid in Kirtland, they had to pick up boys of fifteen and sixteen years of age, and ordain them Elders, to get officers enough to lay the Cornerstones. The Quorum of the Twelve, and the High Council, and many other authorities that now exist, were not then in existence. Joseph presided over the Church, by the voice of the Church.

Perhaps it may make some of you stumble, were I to ask you a question—Does a man’s being a Prophet in this Church prove that he shall be the President of it? I answer, no! A man may be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and it may have nothing to do with his being the President of the Church. Suffice it to say, that Joseph was the President of the Church, as long as he lived: the people chose to have it so. He always filled that responsible station, by the voice of the people. Can you find any revelation appointing him the President of the Church? The keys of the Priesthood were committed to Joseph, to build up the Kingdom of God on the earth, and were not to be taken from him in time or in eternity; but when he was called to preside over the Church, it was by the voice of the people; though he held the keys of the Priesthood, independent of their voice.

I want the Elders of Israel to reflect upon this subject. I would be glad to teach you something, that you may not get into such snarls as heretofore. You make me think of a child that is trying to make rope of a parcel of old thrums, until he gets the whole into snarls. It is so with the Elders of Israel as touching their ideas of the Priesthood.

Now hear me, and I will try to talk so that you can understand. I will presume to go a little further than I did, with regard to the President of the Church, and say to this people, a man might have visions, the angels of God might administer to him, he might have revelations, and see as many visions as you could count; he might have the heavens opened to him, and see the finger of the Lord, and all this would not make him the President of the Church, or an Elder, a High Priest, an Apostle; neither would it prove that he was even a Saint: something else is wanted to prove it. Why I mention this, is because of the frailty, weakness, and shortsightedness of the people. If a man should come and tell you he had had a vision, and could appear to substantiate his testimony that he had had the heavens opened to him, you would be ready to bow down and worship him; and he might be, at the same time, perfectly calculated to destroy the people—one of the biggest devils on earth. He would appear to be one of the finest of men, to be honest and unassuming, and come with all the grace and generalship of the devil, which is so well calculated to deceive the people. Admit this to be the case.

If you ask me what will prove a man or woman to be a Saint, I will answer the question. “If you love me,” says Jesus, “you will keep my sayings.” That is the touchstone. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father, you will keep the commandments of the Son—you will do his will. If you neglect to do this, you may have all the visions and revelations that could be bestowed upon a mortal being, and yet be nothing but a devil. Why I use this expression is because when a man’s mind is enlightened, and he turns from that light to darkness, it prepares him to be a devil. A man never knew how to be wicked, until light and truth were first made manifest to him. Then is the time for men to make their decision, and if they turn away from the Lord, it prepares them to become devils.

Now, I want to go back, for I have wandered on a little with regard to laying the Cornerstones, and take up the Apostleship, in connection with this. Let me ask the High Priests’ Quorum a question, in order to bring out the thing I wish to lay before you. I ask the High Priests, from whence does the Apostleship grow? Does it grow out of the High Priesthood? I will venture to say, if I was not here today, and this question was proposed for debate, you would find the Elders in this congregation, perhaps, nearly equally divided on the point. There would be as many High Priests to say the Apostleship grows out of the High Priesthood, as there would to say it does not. Let me answer the question. Now recollect that the High Priesthood, and the Lesser Priesthood, and all the Priesthood there is, are combined, centered in, composed of, and circumscribed by, the Apostleship. Brethren, did you ever know that before? If you had read that book attentively [pointing to the Book of Covenants], it would have told you the story as I am now telling it to you, yet the High Priests did not know it.

I speak thus to show you the order of the Priesthood. We will now commence with the Apostleship, where Joseph commenced. Joseph was ordained an Apostle—that you can read and understand. After he was ordained to this office, then he had the right to organize and build up the kingdom of God, for he had committed unto him the keys of the Priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek—the High Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God. And this, remember, by being ordained an Apostle.

Could he have built up the Kingdom of God, without first being an Apostle? No, he never could. The keys of the eternal Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God, are comprehended by being an Apostle. All the Priesthood, all the keys, all the gifts, all the endowments, and everything preparatory to entering into the presence of the Father and of the Son, are in, composed of, circumscribed by, or I might say incorporated within the circumference of, the Apostleship.

Now who do we set, in the first place, to lay the Chief, the South East, Cornerstone—the corner from whence light emanates to illuminate the whole fabric that is to be lighted? We begin with the First Presidency, with the Apostleship, for Joseph commenced, always, with the keys of the Apostleship, and he, by the voice of the people, presiding over the whole community of Latter-day Saints, officiated in the Apostleship, as the first President.

What comes next in the Church? I will now refer you directly to the building up of the Kingdom of God in the last days. What do we see next? Joseph as an Apostle of the Lamb, with the keys of the eternal Priesthood committed unto him by Peter, James, and John. What for? To build up the Kingdom of God on the earth. Next grows out an office pertaining to the temporal affairs of this Kingdom, the keys of which are committed to man on the earth, preparatory to its establishment, preparatory to its spreading, growing, increasing, and prospering among the nations. The next step we see taken by the Lord, is to provide for the body, therefore some person must be appointed to fill this office, to stand side by side with this Apostle, this first President. Who was it? It was not brother Hunter. Who was it? It was brother Partridge. We see brother Partridge was called to fill that place before there was an Elders’ Quorum, or a High Priests’ Quorum, in existence, yea, before the thing was talked of, and also before the Twelve Apostles were chosen, not, however, before the revelation was given to signify there would be such a Quorum.

We see this Apostle with the keys of the Priesthood to build up the Kingdom, to give light to those who were in darkness, to succor those who were feeble, to sustain the trembling, to administer salvation to the penitent, and to be a stay and a staff to those who were ready to fall. We see this gigantic Apostle thus standing forth, clothed with the authority of heaven, to build up His cause on the earth. Him the Lord told to call a Bishop. So the Bishop was the next standing authority in the Kingdom of God; therefore we set the Bishop at the second corner of the building. The Melchizedek Priesthood, with the altar, fixtures, and furniture belonging thereunto, is situated on the East, and the Aaronic Priesthood belongs in the West; consequently the Presiding Bishop laid the second stone.

Do you ask, was it so in the other buildings? I do not know, neither do I care.

The High Priests’ Quorum—do they come next in order, do they next step into the field? No, not particularly, anymore than the Elders, nor the Elders anymore than the High Council, nor the High Council anymore than the Teachers, Deacons, or Priests. The High Priests’ Quorum is a standing Quorum, abiding at home. So is the Elders’ Quorum; but the place of the Bishop is in the temporal affairs in the Church; so then what shall we say? Why, out of due respect to the High Priesthood, which is nothing more than what is right and reasonable, that we should honor the Priesthood that God has bequeathed to us, we say to the High Priests; lay the third cornerstone.

We started at the South East Corner, with the Apostleship; then the Lesser Priesthood laid the second stone; we bring them in our ranks to the third stone, which the High Priests and Elders laid; we take them under our wing to the North East Cornerstone, which the Twelve and Seventies laid, and there again join the Apostleship. It circumscribes every other Priesthood, for it is the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of God.

To say a man is an Apostle, is equal to saying that a man is ordained to build up the Kingdom of God from first to last; but it is not so by saying he is ordained a High Priest. The Bishopric by right belongs to the literal descendants of Aaron, but we shall have to ordain from the other tribes, men who hold the High Priesthood, to act in the Lesser, until we can find a literal descendant of Aaron, who is prepared to receive it.

The Lesser Priesthood then, you perceive, comes within the purview of the Apostleship, because a man that holds it has a right to act or officiate as a High Priest, as one of the High Council, as a Patriarch, as a Bishop, Elder, Priest, Teacher, and Deacon, and in every other office and calling that is in the Church, from first to last, when duty demands it.

This is the order of the Priesthood, brethren. I felt as though I wished to make some remarks upon this subject on the Temple ground; but dismissing the congregation hurt me much. I wanted to make some remarks at the same time, but I despaired of making you hear, so I thought I would omit speaking in the open air, and say what I had to say in the Tabernacle.

I know what was done at Nauvoo; it was all right. Everything is right with me. There the Twelve were called to lay the North West Cornerstone, if I mistake not. However, it is no matter, they were just as well there, as anywhere else. But to take up the Priesthood in its perfect order and form, you perceive that the Apos– tleship circumscribes everything in the Church of God on earth. This is the order, and I have endeavored to carry it out before you, that you all might know hereafter, what is the true order, as far as it can be exhibited in the laying of Cornerstones. So far as simply laying a cornerstone is concerned, one corner is just as good to me as another.

I will give you the explanation why we proceeded as we have. It was suggested to me, that perhaps the Twelve would feel better to lay the second stone. When I told them the fourth stone was the stone they should lay, it struck my mind that I was ordained an Apostle; and I still belong to the Apostleship; did you ever cut me off, brethren? [Voices in the stand, No.] It struck my mind if you wanted to lay the second stone, you did not feel that you had the Apostleship in you, or you did not feel like as I did; for it is the beginning and the end, the height, depth, length, and breadth of all that is, that was, and ever can be to all eternity. I have not heard that there were any feelings about the matter, only somebody suggested the thing. It was three of the Twelve, then, that laid the first stone, and then the Quorum of the Twelve laid the fourth.

Now will it cause some of you to marvel that I was not ordained a High Priest before I was ordained an Apostle? Brother Kimball and myself were never ordained High Priests. How wonderful! I was going to say how little some of the brethren understood the Priesthood, after the Twelve were called. In our early career in this Church, on one occasion, in one of our Councils, we were telling about some of the Twelve wanting to ordain us High Priests, and what I said to brother Patten when he wanted to ordain me in York State: said I, brother Patten, wait until I can lift my hand to heaven and say, I have magnified the office of an Elder. After our conversation was over in the Council, some of the brethren began to query, and said we ought to be ordained High Priests; at the same time I did not consider that an Apostle needed to be ordained a High Priest, an Elder, or a Teacher. I did not express my views on the subject, at that time, but thought I would hear what brother Joseph would say about it. It was William E. McLellin who told Joseph, that I and Heber were not ordained High Priests, and wanted to know if it should not be done. Said Joseph, “Will you insult the Priesthood? Is that all the knowledge you have of the office of an Apostle? Do you not know that the man who receives the Apostleship, receives all the keys that ever were, or that can be, conferred upon mortal man? What are you talking about? I am astonished!” Nothing more was said about it.

I know that Joseph received his Apostleship from Peter, James, and John, before a revelation on the subject was printed, and he never had a right to organize a Church before he was an Apostle.

I have tried to shew you, brethren, as briefly as possible, the order of the Priesthood. When a man is ordained to be an Apostle, his Priesthood is without beginning of days, or end of life, like the Priesthood of Melchizedek; for it was his Priesthood that was spoken of in this language, and not the man.

When I arose to address you, I wanted to talk to you a little of my experience in practical “Mormonism,” but I have not had time, and have talked long enough already. I have been round about it, you know, for it is all inside of what I have been telling you.

May the Lord bless you forever, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 27th, 1853.

I do not know that I can speak so that you can hear me, as you perceive something affects my throat; I wish, however, to say a few words to you this morning; I would like to say considerable—a good many words, but perhaps a few will answer.

There are a goodly number in the congregation, who have been acquainted with this Church and kingdom from its rise, and that knew Joseph in his first career in the Gospel. There are many here that have been in the Church for fifteen, sixteen, and some more than twenty years. I have been in the Church, wanting a few days of twenty-one years, and there are a considerable number that I know have been in it longer than I have. They knew Joseph—they knew him from week to week, and from year to year, they knew what he did, they knew how he spake, they knew the spirit he possessed, they were acquainted with it, it is the same spirit they possess to the present day—the spirit of “Mormonism,” the spirit of the Gospel. I will ask those brethren, and those sisters, if they believe Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God? If they believe that he magnified his calling? I will ask them if Joseph lived and died a Prophet of God, and what would they answer? All men and women know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, by the spirit they know it, by the light that is in them, for light cleaveth to light, and truth embraces truth. These pure attributes, as I told you here a few Sabbaths ago, stand upon their own basis—the fabric sustains itself, but falsehood, and that which is built upon it, will, sooner or later, fall.

How many witnesses could we bring, men that are upon the islands of the sea, in foreign lands, and people scattered through the United States, hundreds and thousands in their poverty, who are not able to gather with the Saints; I ask, what would they witness if they were here today? They would tell you; and they would sound it so that all the world might hear, if they could, that Joseph Smith was a man called of God to build up His kingdom in the last days, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man.

There are many witnesses here, not only witnesses of Joseph and his career, but witnesses of the disaffected spirits that have come into this Church, and gone out again. Are there witnesses of men trying to rise up and usurp Joseph’s place in his day? Yes, there are many witnesses, that many men tried it. Are there witnesses here, of the rise and fall of men in this kingdom? Yes, plenty of them. I have witnessed more than has been pleasing to me. It delights me to see men come into the Church, and magnify the Holy Priesthood, but it is a grievous matter to see men turn away from the holy commandments delivered unto them, gather to themselves false spirits, follow after a phantom, and be duped by the devil—be ensnared by the power of the enemy, and give way to it until they fall. It is a source of regret, but we witness it, we could name many of this class.

Let me ask this congregation, that portion of it that was in Jackson County; and again that portion that was in Kirtland in the days of Joseph, and in leaving Kirtland; then those that were in Caldwell and Davis counties, Missouri; then ask these who were in Nauvoo in his day, and after he was slain; these portions of my congregation which I have mentioned I will ask, what has produced your persecutions and sorrow? What has been the starting point of all your afflictions? They began with apostates in your midst; these disaffected spirits caused others to come in, worse than they, who would run out and bring in all the devils they possibly could. That has been the starting point and grand cause of all our difficulties, every time we were driven. Are there not witnesses of this, here? Yes, a good portion of this congregation are witnesses of these things, although many of them never saw Joseph, and were not personally acquainted with him.

We have been persecuted—we have built houses, made farms, cultivated the land, broken up the wild prairie, and made it like the Garden of Eden; we have fenced, built, and gathered substance around us many times, and as many times have been driven from our possessions, until we came to this inheritance which we now enjoy in these valleys of the mountains.

Now think a moment, reflect, and ask yourselves what do we see here? I am coming nearer home, I am coming to this place; what do we see here? Do we see disaffected spirits here? We do. Do we see apostates? We do. Do we see men that are following after false and delusive spirits? Yes. When a man comes right out, as an independent devil, and says, “Damn Mormonism, and all the Mormons,” and is off with himself, not to Texas, but to California, (you know it used to be to Texas), I say he is a gentleman, by the side of a nasty sneaking apostate who is opposed to nothing but Christianity. I say to the former, Go in peace, sir, go and prosper if you can. But we have got a set of spirits here worse than such a character. When I went from meeting, last Sabbath, my ears were saluted with an apostate crying in the streets here.

I want to know if any one of you who has got the spirit of “Mormonism” in you, the spirit that Joseph and Hyrum had, or that we have here, would say, Let us hear both sides of the question, let us listen, and prove all things? What do you want to prove? Do you want to prove that an old apostate, who has been cut off from the Church thirteen times for lying, is anything worthy of notice?

I heard that a certain gentleman, a picture maker in this city, when the boys would have moved away the wagon in which this apostate was standing, became violent with them, saying, “Let this man alone, these are Saints that are persecuting (sneeringly).” We want such men to go to California, or anywhere they choose. I say to those persons, you must not court persecution here, lest you get so much of it you will not know what to do with it. Do not court persecution. We have known Gladden Bishop for more than twenty years, and know him to be a poor, dirty curse. Here is sister Vilate Kimball, brother Heber’s wife, has borne more from that man than any other woman on earth could bear; but she won’t bear it again. I say again, you Gladdenites, do not court persecution, or you will get more than you want, and it will come quicker than you want it. I say to you Bishops, do not allow them to preach in your wards. Who broke the roads to these valleys? Did this little nasty Smith, and his wife? No, they stayed in St. Louis while we did it, peddling ribbons, and kissing the Gentiles. I know what they have done here—they have asked exorbitant prices for their nasty stinking ribbons. [Voices, “that’s true.“] We broke the roads to this country. Now, you Gladdenites, keep your tongues still, lest sudden destruction come upon you.

I will tell you a dream that I had last night. I dreamed that I was in the midst of a people who were dressed in rags and tatters, they had turbans upon their heads, and these were also hanging in tatters. The rags were of many colors, and, when the people moved, they were all in motion. Their object in this appeared to be, to attract attention. Said they to me, “We are Mormons, brother Brigham.” “No, you are not,” I replied. “But we have been,” said they, and they began to jump, and caper about, and dance, and their rags of many colors were all in motion, to attract the attention of the people. I said, “You are no Saints, you are a disgrace to them.” Said they, “We have been Mormons.” By and by, along came some mobocrats, and they greeted them with, “How do you do, sir, I am happy to see you.” They kept on that way for an hour. I felt ashamed of them, for they were in my eyes a disgrace to “Mormonism.” Then I saw two ruffians, whom I knew to be mobbers and murderers, and they crept into a bed, where one of my wives and children were. I said, “You that call yourselves brethren, tell me, is this the fashion among you?” They said, “O, they are good men, they are gentlemen.” With that, I took my large bowie knife, that I used to wear as a bosom pin in Nauvoo, and cut one of their throats from ear to ear, saying, “Go to hell across lots.” The other one said, “You dare not serve me so.” I instantly sprang at him, seized him by the hair of the head, and, bringing him down, cut his throat, and sent him after his comrade; then told them both, if they would behave themselves they should yet live, but if they did not, I would unjoint their necks. At this I awoke.

I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife, and conquer or die. [Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration.] Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. [Voices, generally, “go it, go it.“] If you say it is right, raise your hands. [All hands up.] Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work.

After Alfred Smith was called upon to go on a mission, he would not go, and I knew he would apostatize. Do you suppose that after a man has refused to fulfil his calling, he can retain the spirit of truth, and stand? He cannot. They say they believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet raised up to establish the work of the last days, and bring forth the Book of Mormon; and thus they deceive. But if you will examine them you will not find anything but contradiction to every principle of truth.

I felt to say this that I have said, though my throat is very sore, but I think this exercise has done it good. I feel to say to Jew and to Gentile, Let this people alone in these valleys of the mountains, or you will find that which you are not looking for. We are on the Lord’s side, and we have the tools to work with. But shall this people sink? No. The time has come that Israel shall be redeemed, and they never shall be trampled under foot again. Now is the time; Joseph told us, before he was killed, the set time to favor Zion had come. I want you to hear, Bishops, what I am about to tell you. Kick these men out of your wards. If you want to apostatize, apostatize, and behave yourselves. You shall not disturb my peace, nor the peace of this people. If you want to go to California, go, and serve Gladden Bishop there, if you wish, but disturb not this community, or else you will find judgment is laid to the line. Do not court persecution, for, remember, you are not playing with shadows, but it is the voice and the hand of the Almighty you are trying to play with, and you will find yourselves mistaken if you think to the contrary.

May the Lord bless you, my brethren; and I pray, all the time, that we may be preserved in the truth, that when the Lord has anything for us, we may be ready to receive it, and thus serve Him all the day long. If we have not been driven far enough to enjoy peace, tell me where next we can be driven to, to find it; and if apostates follow, let them follow.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 27, 1853.

I arise to make a few remarks, upon the subject on which brother Hyde was speaking, concerning the privileges of the Saints. I think that he has plainly shown us, that privileges are, in a measure, disconnected with duties; and although we may not exercise ourselves in all of them that we might, still, we shall not fall under condemnation for this neglect.

The privileges of the Saints of God, and that are granted unto the inhabitants of the earth, are founded upon the principles of truth and righteousness; but many people use them to their own condemnation; yet, if they knew how to receive and act upon them, there would be no condemnation, but to the contrary, a blessing. This remark applies not only to the privilege of dancing (for such it is), that has been spoken of this morning, but to all other acts and privileges that exist, and still are not specifically pointed out by revelation as duties or requirements. All blessings of this nature are to be used as such, understandingly, by the Saints, and upon righteous principles.

What are the privileges of the Saints in these valleys? Are they abridged in the least? Can they not accumulate wealth by trading with each other with emigrants, by cultivating the soil, raising stock, going to the mines and digging for gold—in short, pursuing any and every avocation to increase in wealth, and accumulate unto themselves the things of this world? Still further, if they wish to act upon unrighteous principles, they can take advantage of their neighbor’s necessity, ask extortionate prices for rendering any little-assistance or service, and after thus dishonestly filling their purses, go to the gambling table, or grog shop, and spend it by getting drunk, and rolling in the streets. Almost numberless indeed are the privileges and blessings of the human family, and their abuses co-extensive therewith.

But when blessings and privileges are to be used by the Saints, it should be so as not to bring condemnation. Upon what principle, when, and where may we use them? I have the privilege of associating myself with my brethren and sisters in the dance. When can I do this without abusing this privilege, and thereby bringing condemnation upon myself? I answer, it is when I have performed every act, every duty that is incumbent upon me, when every necessary labor and requirement is accomplished, when I have served my God and my brethren, when I have performed every act required of me, until nothing remains to be done, but to lie down and rest, to seek recreation, then it becomes my lawful privilege, and not before. I fear this is quite different from the practice of many. I also, as well as others, could act upon unrighteous principles, if I would, and neglect my duties pertaining to life and salvation.

Suppose you go into some of the wards and say, “we have obtained some music, let us go into the schoolhouse and have a dance.” “O yes!” is the ready response, and they will immediately prepare, get ready their sons and their daughters, and, leaving all important duties pertaining to their welfare here and hereafter, unattended to, fill the house to overflowing. Brethren, you will use these privileges to your own destruction, if you are not careful. Yes, you could have a full house, dancing attendance to the sounds of revelry and music; but, on the other hand, suppose your invitation is to your neighbor, “Come, brethren, sisters, we are going to have a prayer meeting over at the schoolhouse. Will you go? Will you come? Not to dance, but to pray!” “Well, really, I do not see how I can; my work is not done; I have a few chores [trifling domestic affairs] to do yet; I have agreed to go to a neighbor’s on business; a neighbor promised to call on me tonight, and I cannot well leave. I should like very much to go, but I really do not see that I can tonight.” In short, excuses are not wanting. I say to you, my brethren, and to myself, if we take this course, condemnation is our doom, we will ruin, condemn ourselves, and the Lord Almighty will judge us out of our own mouths. This is the tale told as it is. It is not for any of us to enjoy the privilege of the dance, or any other recreation, until every duty that is enjoined upon us is performed.

I cannot, legally, have the privilege of exercising myself perfectly independent of my brethren, until I have performed every requirement that they have placed upon me; the same applies to you and all Saints.

I ask the brethren, do you pray before you go to these dances? When you return, are you not tired, fatigued, and is not your mind filled with nonsense, so that you do not want to pray; and finally, do you not conclude to wait, to put it off until morning? This abuse of this privilege, of this blessing, will bring condemnation to thousands; and not this alone, but all the privileges of this life, if they are not wisely used.

When you go to amuse, or recreate yourselves in any manner whatever, if you cannot enjoy the Spirit of the Lord then and there, as you would at a prayer meeting, leave that place; and return not to such amusements or recreation, until you have obtained the mastery over yourself, until you can command the influences around you, that you may have the Spirit of the Lord in any situation in which you may be placed. Then, and not until then, does it become the privilege of you, of me, or of any of the Saints, to join in the festivities designed by our Creator for our recreation. I wish that you would remember it; and that you may, I repeat that it is not your lawful privilege to yield to anything in the shape of amusement, until you have performed every duty, and obtained the power of God to enable you to withstand and resist all foul spirits that might attack you, and lead you astray; until you have command over them, and by your faith, obtained, through prayer and supplication, the blessings of the Holy Spirit, and it rests upon, and abides continually with you.

You can never obtain my consent to engage in amusements and recreations, until you are in this situation, until you are exercised and influenced by the Spirit of the Lord our God. Hear it, all ye Latter-day Saints! Will you spend the time of your probation for naught, and fool away your existence and being? You were organized, and brought into being, for the purpose of enduring forever, if you fulfil the measure of your creation, pursue the right path, observe the requirements of the Celestial law, and obey the commandments of our God. It is then, and then only, you may expect that the blessing of eternal lives will be conferred upon you. It can be obtained upon no other principle. Do you understand that you will cease to be, that you come to a full end, by pursuing the opposite course?

The privileges and blessings of the Saints of the Most High God are many. Yes! All there is in heaven, and on the earth—kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, heights, depths, things present, and things to come; with all you can see, hear, or think of, realize or contemplate; everything in heaven; earth, or hell, is for your glory, exaltation, and excellence, if by your lives you honor the Priesthood which has been conferred upon you; and, in the proper time, all will become subservient unto you, but not until then. But if you submit to serve your own feelings, and if you desire not to build up the kingdom of God, and sanctify your hearts, they will lead you down to be eternally subject thereunto—subject to the power that will afflict and torment you, and eventually bring you to destruction; whereas, if you pursue the opposite course, those feelings and passions will become subject unto you; you will be enabled to govern and control them, and cause them to serve you, and subserve the object and design for which they were planted in your bosoms.

Often have I looked at individuals passing to and fro through our Territory, and heard them say, “These are the jolly Mormons; these are the merry Mormons, I never saw such a society!” Why is this? Simply because they enjoy themselves, because they take so much comfort.

Is a man a Saint, who comes into the Church of God under such influences, merely because the Saints appear to be happy? No, he is not. No person can be a Saint, unless he receives the Holy Gospel, for the purity, justice, holiness, and eternal duration of it. Everything else tends to decay, separation, annihilation; no, not annihilation, as we use the English term, there is no such principle as this, but dissolution or decomposition.

Now, you Elders who understand the principles of the kingdom of God, what would you not give, do, or sacrifice, to assist in building up His kingdom upon the earth? Says one, “I would do anything in my power, anything that the Lord would help me to do, to build up His kingdom.” Says another, “I would sacrifice all my property.” Wonderful indeed! Do you not know that the possession of your property is like a shadow, or the dew of the morning before the noonday sun, that you cannot have any assurance of its control for a single moment! It is the unseen hand of Providence that controls it. In short, what would you not sacrifice? The Saints sacrifice everything; but, strictly speaking, there is no sacrifice about it. If you give a penny for a million of gold! A handful of earth for a planet! A temporary worn out tenement for one glorified, that will exist, abide, and continue to increase throughout a never ending eternity, what a sacrifice to be sure!

Many, no doubt, would consider it a great sacrifice to be called to go on a mission a few years; to leave wife, children, friends, comfortable homes, travel perhaps on foot, encounter storms on the sea, be in perils on land among mobs, and be hated of all men. It is true we might consider this a great sacrifice, and yet men do all this, and more—they risk their own lives upon their venture to get gold, to follow the allurements of pleasure. And should not the Saints of the Most High God be more willing, more anxious to promote the cause of their holy religion, devoting themselves, their influence, property, and, if necessary, their existence, than the votaries of fashion, the devotees of wealth and pleasure, and to merely sensual, temporary objects of worldly gain or aggrandizement? Verily I say unto you, if you are not, and if you have a spirit to seek after the giddy, vain, foolish vanities of the world, the things pertaining only to the gratification of present feelings, passions, and selfish desires, and have no spirit of prayer and supplication, cannot and do not feel to exercise an interest above all others, for the cause of truth, my advice and counsel is for all such, to go straightway to the gold mines of California, and seek for gold, for rest assured, as many as have this spirit, will run as their unrighteous feelings prompt or dictate. Yes! Go to the gold region, and do not come and seek my counsel about it, whether I am willing that you should go or not, for I am not only willing that you should leave, but anxious that you may as soon as possible.

If you do not love God, and His cause, better than everything else besides, and cannot with a good heart and willing hand, build it up upon the earth; if you will not repent of your follies, and get the Spirit of truth in you, so as to love it, and feel willing to sacrifice all for it, you cannot build up the kingdom of God.

Confidence, brethren, Confidence in our God, and in each other, is the text I gave the Twelve and all others who preached last sabbath, to preach from. The Twelve received missions to preach to the people in these valleys, in their various locations, last Conference; and I believe they have been tolerably faithful, under the direction of the President of their Quorum, brother Hyde. Let them now preach from this text, Confidence; and let the entire people act upon its principles, and notice when and where it will begin and end, and see if we do not establish such confidence in this community, among this people, as never did, nor ever will exist upon the earth, in any community of people but Saints. I may say, that we have it already; but I think that an increase of faith in our God, and confidence in each other, is desirable. If we could obtain that faith and confidence in each other, and in our God, that when we ask a favor, we could do so with a full assurance and knowledge that we should receive, do you not perceive that it would lead us directly to do as we would be done by, in every transaction and circumstance of life. It would prompt us to do, not only as much as requested, but more. If your brother should request you to go with him a mile, you would go two; if he should sue you for your coat, you would give him your cloak also. This principle prompts us to do all we can to promote the interest of each other, the cause of God on the earth, and whatever the Lord desires us to do; makes us ready and willing to perform it at once. It needs the language of angels to express our ideas, to converse with each other in a manner to be perfectly understood. When we see and comprehend things in the Spirit, we ofttimes realize an utter inability to simplify and tell them in our language, to others; though we may receive principles, and convey the same to others, to some extent. It would be a great consolation to me, inasmuch as faith comes by hearing the word of God, if I had language to express my feelings. No man can tell all that he can see in the Spirit, when the vision of the Spirit is upon him. He can see and understand in the Spirit only. He cannot tell it, yet many things may be given, in part, to others.

I thought, while brother Rich was speaking upon certain principles, how beautiful, how satisfactory it would be to the Saints, could they converse in a pure language; if they could have the language of angels with which to communicate with each other. I have contemplated the principles that per– tain to salvation—the principles which I have been trying to lay before you; the acts of men, and how they should be ordered before their God. I would simply say, we must attend to the duties which are laid upon us, before we enjoy our privileges.

What principle does this convey to your minds? None, unless your minds are open, and enlightened by the visions of the Holy Spirit. The principles of truth are eternal. The mind would ask at once, what is truth? It is any thing, principle, or fact that actually has an existence. If a falsehood, yet it is true that falsehood exists. It is as true that devils exist, as that Gods exist.

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The devil also says, “I am, I exist;” and consequently, by the same rule, “I am Truth.” How far short is this of what the Lord reveals by His Holy Spirit! Jesus Christ, his Father before him, all the faithful, the Gods of eternity, and all organized elements, have been organized for the express purpose of being exalted to an eternal increase; or suppose I say to eternal truth. Would this convey to your minds that the devil, because it is a truth that he exists, could attain to the same power and exaltation? Suppose that we admit the idea that we shall see the time when we can combine and organize elements, bring worlds into existence, redeem, and bring them up to eternal glory, by merely saying—“I am Truth.” As before quoted, “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.” We can turn round and say—Satan is the way, the truth, and the death; or the way, and the falsehood. Can you perceive the difference? But to say that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, is equivalent to saying that he is the only continued or eternal existence. The Lord Jesus Christ works upon a plan of eternal increase of wisdom, intelligence, honor, excel– lence, power, glory, might, and dominion, and the attributes that fill eternity. What principle does the devil work upon? It is to destroy, dissolve, decompose, and tear in pieces. The principle of separation, or disorganization, is as much an eternal principle, as much a truth, as that of organization. Both always did and will exist. Can I point out to you the difference in these principles, and show clearly and satisfactorily the benefit, the propriety, and necessity of acting upon one, anymore than the other? I will try in my own way, as briefly as I can. It is plain to me, but can you understand it?

In the first place, matter is eternal. The principle of annihilation, of striking out of existence anything that has existed, or had a being, so as to leave an empty space which that thing occupied, is false, there is no such principle in all the eternities. What does exist? Matter is eternal. We grow our wheat, our fruit, and our animals. There they are organized, they increase and grow; but, after awhile, they decay, dissolve, become disorganized, and return to their mother earth. No matter by what process, these are the revolutions which they undergo; but the elements of the particles of which they were composed, still do, always have, and always will exist, and through this principle of change, we have an eternal increase.

But Satan works upon the opposite principle; he seeks to destroy, would annihilate if he could, but only decomposes, disorganizes. Permit me to inquire what was his curse? It was, that he should not increase anymore, but come to an end.

When I came to the door of the tabernacle, this morning, I heard brother Rich telling about one-third part of the heavenly host revolting from the government of Jehovah. This was their curse—to never have tabernacles to dwell in. They now exist in Spirit, but shall never have a body, nor be exalted; they shall have no further addition to their existence; whilst those who did not rebel, could have tabernacles, and, through the resurrection, become personages of tabernacle in the eternal world. There it is, on the one hand, and on the other. You can now see the benefit, the propriety of obeying the principles which lead to eternal lives, exaltations, and increase; and why it is that Jesus Christ has so much more power than Satan. The power of the evil one is beyond the conception of man; his cunning craft, and winning ways to insinuate and introduce himself into a community, an individual. This is to obtain, if possible, a tabernacle, which, although a borrowed one, yet increases his power, so long as he can wield it to suit his purposes; and if he fails in this, and in enticing unto evil, then, his object is to decompose, to destroy, that the good power, the good influence, may, like himself, become bereft of the power pertaining to an embodied spirit.

The Lord operates upon the principles of continuing to organize, of adding to, gathering up, bringing forth, increasing and spreading abroad; while the opposite power does not. It shows the nature of his opposition to that peculiar trait of Christianity, based upon the principles of eternal duration, increase, power, glory, and exaltation; and points out the difference between the two adverse powers.

Again, what do you love truth for? Is it because you can discover a beauty in it, because it is congenial to you or because you think it will make you a ruler, or a Lord? If you conceive that you will attain to power upon such a motive, you are much mistaken. It is a trick of the unseen power, that is abroad amongst the inhabitants of the earth, that leads them astray, binds their minds, and subverts their understanding.

Suppose that our Father in heaven, our elder brother, the risen Redeemer, the Savior of the world, or any of the Gods of eternity should act upon this principle, to love truth, knowledge, and wisdom, because they are all powerful, and by the aid of this power they could send devils to hell, torment the people of the earth, exercise sovereignty over them, and make them miserable at their pleasure; they would cease to be Gods; and as fast as they adopted and acted upon such principles, they would become devils, and be thrust down in the twinkling of an eye; the extension of their kingdom would cease, and their Godhead come to an end.

Language, to convey all the truth, does not exist. Even in the Bible, and all books that have been revealed from heaven unto man, the language fails to convey all the truth as it is. Truth, wisdom, power, glory, light, and intelligence exist upon their own qualities; they do not, neither can they, exist upon any other principle. Truth is congenial with itself, and light cleaves unto light, it seeks after itself, and clings thereto. It is the same with knowledge, and virtue, and all the eternal attributes; they follow after and attract each other. Mercy cleaves to mercy, because it is mercy; light to light, because it is light, and there is no darkness, no deception, no falsehood in it. Truth cleaves unto truth, because it is truth; and it is to be adored, because it is an attribute of God, for its excellence, for itself. It is upon this principle, that these principles should be held, esteemed, practiced. Any persons, men or women, who do not receive these principles for the love which they bear towards them, because of their beauty, excellence, and glory; and because they are congenial to their feelings upon this principle, are not Saints! They exist upon their own basis, and rest upon their own foundation. Eternal justice, mercy, love, and truth, never can be moved; they are attributes that correspond, and are congenial with each other; they promote each other, fortify the heavens, the Gods, and that which the Gods possess.

Now look upon the opposite side of these principles. Suppose you say, “We will give up the pursuits of our holy religion. We are not Latter-day Saints. Let us go and seek after the things of the world, speculate, get unto ourselves riches, turn away from our duties, neglect the things pertaining to our salvation, go with the giddy, the frivolous, the seeker after gold, to California, Australia, or elsewhere, for the purpose of acquiring wealth.” I tell you the result of that course. You would cease to increase in all the attributes of excellence, glory, and eternal duration, from that very moment. So soon as you conceive such ideas, they find a soil within you prepared to nurture them, and it brings forth their direful effects; from that very moment you cease to increase. The opposite principle seizes you, fastens itself upon you, and you decrease, lessen, diminish, decay, and waste away in quality, excellence, and strength, until your organization becomes extinct, oblivion covers you, your name is blotted out from the Book of Life, from the heavens, from the earth, and from under the earth, and you will return, and sink into your natural element, which cannot be destroyed, though many read the Bible as conveying such an idea, but it does not.

The principle opposite to that of eternal increase from the beginning, leads down to hell; the person decreases, loses his knowledge, tact, talent, and ultimately, in a short period of time, is lost; he returns to his mother earth, his name is forgotten. But where, Oh! Where is his spirit? I will not now take the time to follow his destiny; but here, strong language could be used, for when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed, after the termination of the thousand years’ rest, he will summon the armies of heaven for the conflict, he will come forth in flaming fire, he will descend to execute the mandates of an incensed God, and, amid the thunderings of the wrath of Omnipotence, roll up the heavens as a scroll, and destroy death, and him that has the power of it. The rebellious will be thrown back into their native element, there to remain myriads of years before their dust will again be revived, before they will be reorganized. Some might argue that this principle would lead to the reorganization of Satan, and all the devils. I say nothing about this, only what the Lord says—that when he comes, “he will destroy death, and him that has the power of it.” It cannot be annihilated; you cannot annihilate matter. If you could, it would prove there was empty space. If philosophers could annihilate the least conceivable amount of matter, they could then prove there was the minutest vacuum, or empty space; but there is not even that much, and it is beyond the power of man to prove that there is any.

Brethren, what is it that you love the truth for? Is it because it gives you the power, the authority of the Priesthood? Is it because it makes you rulers, kings, and priests unto our God, and gives you great power? There are men professing to be Saints, even in this congregation, within the sound of my voice, who feel how almighty they have become. They will curse you, if you do not see proper to comply with their wishes. Many men have feelings in their hearts towards their wives, that if they will not do precisely as they wish to perform this or that, they will curse them. What wonderful things they are going to do! “If you do not obey my voice, my counsel, I will send you to hell, and turn the keys upon you, that you may never! No Never! be released.” Sisters, you might as well heed the crackling of thorns under the pot, the passing idle bird, or the croaking of a crane, so far as their Priesthood is concerned. You are safe, if they will only keep their hands off from you; let them curse. It reminds me of a proverb which the Arabs have, that “cursings are like young chickens, they will still come home to roost.”

Is it for this—is it because it gives you such great power and authority, that you love the Truth? That it gives you power to curse your neighbors, your neighbor’s children, their cattle, and everything around you? Let all such go away to their own place, to California, by the northern route; not to San Bernardino, at brothers Lyman and Rich’s location, for they have devils enough there already; but go into the world entirely away from the Saints, and the sooner the better.

Men should act upon the principle of righteousness, because it is right, and is a principle which they love to cherish and see practiced by all men. They should love mercy, because of its benevolence, charity, love, clemency, and of all of its lovely attributes, and be inspired thereby to deal justly, fairly, honorably, meting out to others their just deservings.

If selfishness prompts you to embrace the truth, if it is merely to exalt yourself and your friends that you covenant to serve your God, and that is your only motive, you had better pass on the northern route, for we can do you no good if you wait, or remain with us; not but that God has regard for all His children; but He loves those who love all the principles of righteousness, because they are righteous, and have a delight in the exercise of pure principles, of virtue, of excellence and truth, of meekness, long-suffering, and self-denial, mercy, and charity.

I am aware that my language fails to convey my ideas to you as I could wish. But I will proceed a little further. A great promise was made to Abraham, which was—you shall have seed, and unto your increase there shall be no end. The same promise was made unto the Savior; and unto every true and faithful man who serves God with all his heart, and whose delight is in keeping the law of the Lord, obeying the behests of Jehovah, and building up His kingdom upon the earth.

The Elders of Israel frequently call upon me—“Brother Brigham, a word in private, if you please.” Bless me, this is no secret to me, I know what you want, it is to get a wife! “Yes, brother Brigham, if you are willing.”

I tell you here, now, in the presence of the Almighty God, it is not the privilege of any Elder to have even one wife, before he has honored his Priesthood, before he has magnified his calling. If you obtain one, it is by mere permission, to see what you will do, how you will act, whether you will conduct yourself in righteousness in that holy estate. Take care! Elders of Israel, be cautious! Or you will lose your wives and your children. If you abuse your wives, turn them out of doors, and treat them in a harsh and cruel manner, you will be left wifeless and childless; you will have no increase in eternity. You will have bartered this blessing, this privilege, away; you will have sold your birthright, as Esau did his blessing, and it can never come to you again, never, no never!

Look to it, ye Elders! You will awake from your dream, alas! But too soon, and then you will realize the truth of the remarks I am making today. Whose privilege is it to have women sealed to him? It is his who has stood the test, whose integrity is unswerving, who loves righteousness because it is right, and the truth be- cause there is no error therein, and virtue because it is a principle that dwells in the bosom of Him who sits enthroned in the highest heavens; for it is a principle which existed with God in all eternities, and is a cooperator, a coworker betwixt man and his Maker, to exalt man, and bring him into His presence, and make him like unto Himself! It is such a man’s privilege to have wives and children, and neighbors, and friends, who wish to be sealed to him. Who else? No one. I tell you nobody else. Do you hear it?

Many applications will unquestionably be made to me for wives, and, perhaps, by men too who will steal, or trespass upon me, their neighbors, kill their stock, do wickedly in various ways. Nothing would damn such men sooner than to give them this privilege. I answer the brethren, they have to go upon their own responsibility. I tell you the truth. If you are a first-rate good man, and honor your Priesthood, it is your privilege. The man who has proved himself before God, has been faithful, has gone through and performed everything the Lord has laid upon him to do, for the purpose of building up and sustaining His kingdom, has proved himself before men, angels, and his Father in heaven, he is the only character that will increase, and obtain a celestial glory. Others may seem to prosper, to increase for a season, but by and by they are left in the shade, their glory is clipped, and their house is left unto them desolate.

Pray the Lord to inspire your hearts. Ask for wisdom and knowledge. It is our duty to seek after it. Let us seek, and we shall find; knock, and it will be opened unto us. But as for His coming down here to pour His Spirit upon you, while you are aiming after the vain and frivolous things of the world; indulging in all the vanity, nonsense, and foolery which surrounds you; drinking in all the filthy abomination which should be spurned from every community on the earth—so long as you continue this course, rest assured He will not come near you.

I will not enter into particulars. You already know enough about them. I ask that you would leave it off; refrain, purify, and sanctify yourselves before your God, and get so much of the spirit of truth that you may become filled with it, so that you can shout aloud with all your might to the praise of God, and feel your hearts clear as the noonday sun. Then you can dance, and glorify God; and as you shall abide in the truth, God will raise you up, and add to your numbers, so that your train will fill the Holy Temple, as it was said of the Lord by one of old. May the Lord bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered at the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 20, 1853.

Truly happy is that man, or woman, or that people, who enjoys the privileges of the Gospel of the Son of God, and who know how to appreciate his blessings. Who is that person, or that people? We are ready to reply, “The Latter-day Saints are the only people on earth, that we have any knowledge of, to whom the everlasting Gospel has been given in these days; they are the only people who are the heirs to it, with all its blessings and privileges. Not to our knowledge is there any other people on the face of this globe, that enjoy this inestimable blessing.” True, all mankind enjoy to a certain degree its influence, the manifestations of the Author, Proprietor, and Giver of the Gospel of life and salvation to fallen man. All the offspring of Adam from his day to this, have enjoyed, to a greater or less degree, the light, the glory, and the manifestations of the countenance of their Lord. But they have not enjoyed in all ages the Gospel, with its ordinances, blessings, and privileges. This is the only people that now enjoys such signal favors. The Priesthood has been upon the earth from time to time, and the kingdom of God has been organized to certain degrees, but we can truly say, this is the time of times, we live in the day of days, we enjoy the blessings of the blessed, and have bestowed upon us, in the fulness of times, privileges that surpass all privileges hitherto bestowed upon mankind. In this dispensation all things will be gathered together in one, and, strange and marvelous as it may appear to the world, these are the people who are the instruments in the hand of God to bring it to pass. This is a truth that no arguments can successfully bear down. No matter how it is despised, persecuted, or neglected, as a frivolous, trifling, and childish work, it is true, and it will remain; it is the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. Here is the plan of salvation, here are the words of life, here is the light of eternity, here is the intelligence that will instruct kings, and impart judgment to rulers. It is em- bodied here in the midst of this people, and from them the rays of heavenly light, wisdom, and intelligence have spread upon the wide earth; and the Spirit of the Lord, that fills immensity, has been poured out upon its face, giving light to every man and woman that cometh into this world.

Brethren and sisters, can we realize its greatness? Arouse the reflecting and reasoning faculties with which you are endowed, reason upon your past experience in this Church, and then inquire if you are as happy as you anticipated you would be, if you have received that which you desired, if you enjoy that which was once in the future to you—and what will be your reasonable conclusions? What would an enlightened judgment tell you? What would the spirit of truth decide? That here are the pure rays of light, here is heaven on earth; and no argument, no intelligence, no influence of earth and hell combined could disprove it, or produce one good reason to the contrary. You may then ascend to the powers supreme, and consult the intelligence that fills the bosom of eternity; you may inquire of the Creator, Organizer, and Preserver of the Universe, our Father who is in heaven; you may associate with the glorious retinue of Saints, angels, martyrs, and the spirits of just men made perfect; and they will all, with one voice as it were, testify to the truth of this work in which we are engaged. On the other hand, nothing short of the power of the Almighty, nothing short of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, can prove to you that this is the work of God. Men uninspired of God cannot by their worldly wisdom disprove it, or prevail against it; neither can they by wisdom alone prove it to be true, either to themselves or to others. Their not being able to prevail against it does not prove it to be the kingdom of God, for there are many theories and systems on the earth, incontrovertible by the wisdom of the world, which are nevertheless false. Nothing less than the power of the Almighty, enlightening the understandings of men, can demonstrate this glorious truth to the human mind.

When you were in your native homes in the old countries and in the United States, before you gathered with the people of God, what were your thoughts and expectations, when you looked forward to the period of your being embodied with the Saints? What were the vision of your mind, and the operations of the Spirit upon your understanding? When you were gathered with the Saints of the Most High, and became associated as a brother, a sister, and a neighbor with that blessed society, you expected to enjoy the manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ, to walk in the light of his countenance, and by the power of the Holy Ghost have the oracles of truth revealed to you continually, and that you would be in heaven, and in the Zion of the Lord. These were your expectations. You did not expect to hear the name of the God we serve blasphemed from morning until evening; you expected to be delivered from hearing the blasphemies of your wicked shopmates, from the tyranny of your ungodly employers, and from the persecutions of the bigoted religionists, who were all united to pick you to pieces, and destroy you both temporally and spiritually, if it were possible; on one side you were sheared, and on the other shaved. You were annoyed with the ungodly conversation and filthy deeds of your neighbors, your peace was destroyed, and you could not enjoy that happiness held out to you in the Gospel; yet you felt the influence of the spirit of truth burning in your heart, which kindled in you a longing desire to mingle with the Saints; you would exclaim, “Oh! that I could enjoy the society of the Saints, and make my escape from this ungodly place. Oh! that I had means to gather up my little family, and journey to the place of the gathering of the Saints of the Most High.” This was your feeling, and this your prayer. You anticipated deliverance from hell, to find a heaven with the Saints; you expected to exchange confusion for a Zion of order and beauty, misery for peace and happiness, blasphemy and tumult for quietness and reverence to the name of God, starvation for plenty; in short, you expected to find a place where all evil had ceased, and iniquity and sorrow were brought to an end, and where you would bask undisturbed in the smiles of the countenance of your Lord from day to day. I think I have drawn a faithful picture of what were the thoughts of the majority of this people, before they were gathered to the body of the Church.

Now, brethren and sisters, what hinders you from enjoying all you anticipated? The calm reflections of your own minds, and the conclusions of a well balanced judgment, enlightened by the Spirit of the Lord, will give you a correct answer to this question. I can answer it for myself, and perhaps for many of you. If I do not enjoy all I anticipated, if my happiness is not as complete as I anticipated, if the light of the Holy Spirit is not in my heart to that degree which I expected it would be, if I have not obtained all I anticipated when I was down in yonder world, mingled with the wicked, the cause is in myself, in my own heart, in my own disposition, in the weakness of human nature; it is my own will that prevents me from enjoying all I anticipated, and more. It is a mistaken idea to suppose that others can prevent me from enjoying the light of God in my soul; all hell cannot hinder me from enjoying Zion in my own heart, if my individual will yields obedience to the requirements and mandates of my heavenly Master. He has set me a pattern to copy, which, if I imitate faithfully, will yield to me all and more of heaven in my own heart than I can anticipate. This is my answer.

Brother Erastus Snow asked a question—“If my neighbor shall do wrong to me, am I thereby compelled to do wrong to my next neighbor?” I say, no. If a brother shall tread down my grain, that is ripening in the field, am I thereby compelled to run through and tread down yours? No. When a person steals my poles from the fence, am I compelled to steal yours? If my neighbor, or my brother in the Church, shall swear, and take the name of God in vain, does it necessarily follow that I must use the same language? If my brother shall do wrong in any way, it does not follow that I shall be justified in committing one single evil in all the acts of my life. Let each Latter-day Saint examine himself, and inquire, “Am I one of those persons who will do right in all things, though others may do wrong? Am I that person that will serve the Lord with my house, that will cease from every evil act, and from every evil word, though my neighbors, or my brethren and sisters, may do the opposite?” Let the spirit within you reply to these questions, and in every breast the response is, “Let me be that person, let me do right from this time henceforth and forever, without committing another evil.” Then what, have you got? You have got heaven in your own bosoms, you have got Zion in your hearts, you have obtained all the glory, all the peace, all the joy, all the comfort, and all the light you anticipated when you were mingling with the wicked world. If you are deceived, who will deceive you? If you are wronged, who wrongs you? If you are cheated out of your crown at last, who has cheated you? These questions may apply in different ways. They may apply to the business operations of the world, as well as to the grace of God in the heart, and the salvation of the soul. It is to the latter I wish them more particularly to apply. Who has influence over any one of you, to cause you to miss salvation in the celestial kingdom of God? I will answer these questions for myself. If brother Brigham and I shall take a wrong track, and be shut out of the kingdom of heaven, no person will be to blame but brother Brigham and I. I am the only being in heaven, earth, or hell, that can be blamed.

This will equally apply to every Latter-day Saint. Salvation is an individual operation. I am the only person that can possibly save myself. When salvation is sent to me, I can reject or receive it. In receiving it, I yield implicit obedience and submission to its great Author throughout my life, and to those whom He shall appoint to instruct me; in rejecting it, I follow the dictates of my own will in preference to the will of my Creator. There are those among this people who are influenced, controlled, and biased in their thoughts, actions, and feelings by some other individual or family, on whom they place their dependence for spiritual and temporal instruction, and for salvation in the end. These persons do not depend upon themselves for salvation, but upon another of their poor, weak, fellow mortals. “I do not depend upon any inherent goodness of my own,” say they, “to introduce me into the kingdom of glory, but I depend upon you, brother Joseph, upon you, brother Brigham, upon you, brother Heber, or upon you, brother James; I believe your judgment is superior to mine, and consequently I let you judge for me; your spirit is better than mine, therefore you can do good for me; I will submit myself wholly to you, and place in you all my confidence for life and salvation; where you go I will go, and where you tarry there I will stay; expecting that you will introduce me through the gates into the heavenly Jerusalem.”

I wish to notice this. We read in the Bible, that there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. In the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, these glories are called telestial, terrestrial, and celestial, which is the highest. These are worlds, different departments, or mansions, in our Father’s house. Now those men, or those women, who know no more about the power of God, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, than to be led entirely by another person, suspending their own understanding, and pinning their faith upon another’s sleeve, will never be capable of entering into the celestial glory, to be crowned as they anticipate; they will never be capable of becoming Gods. They cannot rule themselves, to say nothing of ruling others, but they must be dictated to in every trifle, like a child. They cannot control themselves in the least, but James, Peter, or somebody else must control them. They never can become Gods, nor be crowned as rulers with glory, immortality, and eternal lives. They never can hold scepters of glory, majesty, and power in the celestial kingdom. Who will? Those who are valiant and inspired with the true independence of heaven, who will go forth boldly in the service of their God, leaving others to do as they please, determined to do right, though all mankind besides should take the opposite course. Will this apply to any of you? Your own hearts can answer. Do you know what is right and just, as well as I do? In some things you do, and in some things you may not know as well; but I will explain what I mean, in the following words—I will do all the good I can, and all I know how to do, and I will shun every evil that I know to be an evil. You can all do that much. I will apply my heart to wisdom, and ask the Lord to impart it to me; and if I know but little, I will improve upon it, that tomorrow I may have more, and thus grow from day to day, in the knowledge of the truth, as Jesus Christ grew in stature and knowledge from a babe to manhood; and if I am not now capable of judging for myself, perhaps I shall be in another year. We are organized to progress in the scale of intelligence, and the least Saint by adhering strictly to the order of God, may attain to a full and complete salvation through the grace of God, by his own faithfulness.

I know how it was in Jackson County. There are families in this city that went to that county twenty-one or twenty-two years ago last fall, if I mistake not. I know what their feelings were. All their desire was to got into the town of Independence, Jackson County, where they expected to find all sin and iniquity dried up, heaven begun on earth, and an end to all their mortal griefs. That was the motive that prompted them to go there. Poor souls, how little they knew about salvation and its mode. I might have gone there too, but I wanted to thunder and roar out the Gospel to the nations. It burned in my bones like fire pent up, so I turned my back upon Jackson County to preach the Gospel of life to the people. Such were the feelings of those who went up to Jackson County, but I did not want to go there, nothing would satisfy me but to cry abroad in the world, what the Lord was doing in the latter days. After awhile this undercurrent began to work two ways; and they had more trouble in Independence than we had in York State; it came foaming, and bellowing, and pressing upon them until they had to fly.

I wish to ask those persons who were driven from Jackson County, if they suffered as much in the actual driving as they would have done in the anticipation of it a year before it took place? You will all reply that, if you had known it a year beforehand, you would not have endured the thought. I wish to apply this both ways. You that have not passed through the trials, and persecutions, and drivings, with this people from the beginning, but have only read of them, or heard some of them related may think how awful they were to endure, and wonder that the Saints survived them at all. The thought of it makes your hearts sink within you, your brains reel, and your bodies tremble, and you are ready to exclaim, “I could not have endured it.” I have been in the heat of it, and I never felt better in all my life; I never felt; the peace and power of the Almighty more copiously poured upon me than in the keenest part of our trials. They appeared nothing to me. I hear people talk about their troubles, their sore privations, and the great sacrifices they have made for the Gospel’s sake. It never was a sacrifice to me. Anything I can do or suffer in the cause of the Gospel, is only like dropping a pin into the sea; the blessings, gifts, powers, honor, joy, truth, salvation, glory, immortality, and eternal lives, as far outswell anything I can do in return for such precious gifts, as the great ocean exceeds in expansion, bulk, and weight, the pin that I drop into it. Had I had millions of wealth, and had I devoted it all to the building up of this people, and said, “Take it, and build temples, cities, and fortifications with it,” and left myself pennyless, would it have been a sacrifice? No, not to my feelings. Suppose I should be called to preach the Gospel until my head is white, and my limbs become weak with age, until I go down into my grave, and never see my family and friends again in the flesh, would it be a sacrifice? No, but one of the greatest blessings that could be conferred upon mortal man, to have the privilege of calling thousands, and perhaps millions, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan and unrighteousness to the principles of truth and righteousness in the living God.

I was as ready to pass through the scenes of mobbing and driving in Jackson County, as I was to pass through the troubles in Kirtland, Ohio; in Davis and Caldwell Counties, Missouri; in Illinois; and up to this place. And what of it? I have not known or seen a single sacrifice that this people have made. There has not been one such providence of the Almighty to this people, that was not calculated to sanctify the pure in heart, and enrich them with blessings instead of curses—enrich them not only with earthly blessings, but with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives in the presence of God. Where, then, is the sacrifice this people have ever made? There is no such thing—they have only exchanged a worse condition for a better one, every time they have been moved—they have exchanged ignorance for knowledge, and inexperience for its opposite.

I want you to look at the Saints before they first gathered to be mobbed; they expected all sin to be at an end at the place of gathering. These were my own feelings, though I did not gather with them at that time. I had to go out and preach, lest my bones should consume within me. But I will tell you what I did do, I commenced to contract my business operations and dealings, and laid away my ledger, and notebooks, saying, “I shall never want you any more.” I believe that those who want– ed to be Saints indeed, should do everything to promote righteous principles and peace among men, and be perfectly of one heart and of one mind. I laid aside my old account books, because I expected we should be one family, each seeking to do his neighbor good, and all be engaged to do all the good possible. To carry out this principle faithfully, would crown the people of God with good to overflowing. It is easy for us to think how things should be, but the difficulty is, things are not always as we would like to have them. Though if the Saints at that time could have rightly judged of appearances, could have understood the aspect around them, it was clear that sorrow and trouble were impending. It was right they did not see the dark cloud that was ready to burst with violence upon their heads.

In the short speech of not more than five minutes, which I delivered in the old Bowery, when that judge publicly insulted this people, there were men and women in the congregation who suffered more in the anticipation of what might be the result of it in future, than the generality of this people have suffered in being actually mobbed. They could see, in imagination, all hell let loose upon us, themselves strung up, their ears cut off, their bowels torn out, and this whole people cut to pieces. After they had had time to think, they found themselves still alive and unhurt, to their great astonishment. They suffered as much as though they had been sent to the bottom of the bottomless pit. They suffered all this, because I told that corrupt man, that he ought to be kicked out of the territory for his insolence and barefaced presumption. I know this people have suffered more by the contemplation of trouble, than they have when actually passing through it.

As they have magnified future trouble almost infinitely beyond its real dimensions, so they have imagined to themselves a greater heaven than they can find in Zion, at its present stage of progression. You do not enjoy the Zion you anticipated. That mankind make mistakes in these two ways must be apparent to those who have felt the workings of hope and fear in their nature. People suffer more in the anticipation of death, than in death itself. There is more suffering in what I call borrowed trouble, than in the trouble itself. On the other hand, you have anticipated more Zion, more happiness, and more glory in the flesh than you will ever realize in this mortality. Those who are apt to go to one extreme, are almost sure to go to the other, which always causes disappointment, either agreeably, or disagreeably. These two extremes have caused the Saints much trouble; and some, for want of patience, and a little reasonable thought, have laid the blame of their disappointments in the wrong quarter, and have apostatized from the Church, never thinking the blame was in themselves. Upon these weaknesses of human nature the devil works sometimes very successfully. But brethren, we cannot escape from ourselves; and while we remain in this tabernacle, our onward course will be obstructed, more or less, by the weakness to which the mortal flesh is subject. By and by our bodies will go to their mother earth, and receive a resurrection, and become glorious; then we shall enjoy all, and more than the heart of man can conceive, unless it is inspired by the Holy Ghost. This will be the inheritance of the faithful.

There is much room for improvement in all. If we commence from this day, and do all the good we can, and never do another evil, we shall come to that which I want the brethren to preach about, and endeavor to establish. I wish it preached by the Bishops, by the Deacons, and by every officer in the Church; I wish fathers to teach it to their children; and I desire the subject to be taken up by all bodies of the Saints throughout the world, viz., establish confidence in each other. Take this for a text if you like, and preach upon it, both verbally and practically, until confidence in each other reigns universally among the Saints, and then will be accomplished what I wish to see. If we wish to establish a confidence such as the Gods enjoy, let us cease from every evil act, and from the contemplation of every evil design; never infringe upon another’s right, but let each one sustain his brother in the enjoyment of his privileges and rights, holding them as sacred as our own salvation. If confidence has been lost, this is the surest and only successful way to restore it. Hear it, ye preachers, ye Apostles, and Prophets; ye Elders, High Priests, and Seventies; ye Priests, Teachers, Deacons, and Bishops; every man and woman in the Church of God throughout the world; commence to preach this discourse at home, beginning with your own heart; then teach your wives and your children; then let it spread its warming and cheering influence, like the genial sunbeam, from family to family, until the whole Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is united as the heart of one man.

I will illustrate the method of establishing confidence in each other by taking, for example, the child of four or five years of age. The mother allows that child to own a small chest in which to keep his little trinkets, such as little bosom pins, ribbons, doll clothes, &c. This is considered by all the family the child’s chest. Now let none go into that chest and take anything from it, without the consent of the child. This is a very small matter, some may think; but begin at as small a point as this to create confidence, and let it grow up from little to much. Wives, let your husband’s stores alone, if they have not committed them to your charge. Husbands, commit that to your wives that belongs to them and never search their boxes without their consent. I can boast of this. I have lived in the marriage relation nearly thirty years, and I never was man to open my wife’s chest, without her consent, except once and that was to get out a likeness that I wanted on the instant, and she was not at home to get it for me. That was the first time I ever opened a trunk in my life, that belonged to my wife, or to my child. The child’s little chest, with its contents, is as sacred to him, as mine is to me. If this principle were strictly carried out by every man, woman, and child among the Saints, it would make them a blessed people indeed. We should seek to preserve our neighbor’s horse or ox from starving in the cold of winter, and if we see any of his property in jeopardy, we should be as careful of it as if it were our own; our object should be to save everything we can, both of our neighbor’s and our own.

Let every man pay his just debts. The editor of the News has published a piece in the paper about owing no man anything; read it, reflect upon and practice it. I can owe everybody everything; that is one side of the matter, and to pay everybody is the other. I mean to owe every man a debt of gratitude.

I have perhaps spoken too long I have given you all a text to preach upon, and to act upon in your lives; do it faithfully, and it will do you good.

May the Lord God of Israel bless you, and save you in His kingdom, is my prayer. Amen.

An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered on the Temple Block, Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 14, 1853.

If the congregation will give me their attention, I will detain them but a short time. Our history is too well known to render it necessary for me to enter into particulars on the subject this morning. Suffice it to say, to this congregation, that we shall attempt to build a temple to the name of our God. This has been attempted several times, but we have never yet had the privilege of completing and enjoying one. Perhaps we may in this place, but if, in the providence of God, we should not, it is all the same. It is for us to do those things which the Lord requires at our hands, and leave the result with Him. It is for us to labor with a cheerful good will; and if we build a temple that is worth a million of money, and it requires all our time and means, we should leave it with cheerful hearts, if the Lord in His providence tells us so to do. If the Lord permits our enemies to drive us from it, why we should abandon it with as much cheerfulness of heart as we ever enjoy a blessing. It is no matter to us what the Lord does, or how He disposes of the labor of His servants. But when He commands, it is for His people to obey. We should be as cheerful in building this temple, if we knew beforehand that we should never enter into it when it was finished, as we would though we knew we were to live here a thousand years to enjoy it.

If the inquiry is in the hearts of the people—“Does the Lord require the building of a temple at our hands?“ I can say that He requires it just as much as ever He required one to be built elsewhere. If you should ask, “Brother Brigham, have you any knowledge concerning this? Have you ever had a revelation from heaven upon it?” I can answer truly, it is before me all the time, not only today, but it was almost five years ago, when we were on this ground, looking for locations, sending our scouting parties through the country, to the right and to the left, to the north and the south, to the east and the west; before we had any returns from any of them, I knew, just as well as I now know, that this was the ground on which to erect a temple—it was before me.

The Lord wished us to gather to this place, He wished us to cultivate the earth, and make these valleys like the Garden of Eden, and make all the improvements in our power, and build a temple as soon as circumstances would permit. And further, if the people and the Lord required it, I would give a written revelation, but let the people do the things they know to be right. Permit me to ask the question—do you not know that it is your duty to accumulate your daily bread, to cease your wickedness? Are not these duties required at your hands? Do you not know this of yourselves? There is not an individual in this assembly that does not understand this, that is not as well convinced of it as I am.

Concerning revelations pertaining to building temples, I will give you the words of our beloved Prophet while he was yet living upon the earth. Many of us that are here today, were with him from the commencement of the church. He was frequently speaking upon the building of temples in Kirtland, Missouri, and Illinois. When the people refused in Kirtland to build a temple, unless by a special revelation, it grieved his heart that they should be so penurious in their feelings as to require the Lord to command them to build a house to His name. It was not only grievous to him, but to the Holy Spirit also. He frequently said, that if it were not for the covetousness of the people, the Lord would not give revelations concerning the building of temples, for we already knew all about them; the revelations giving us the order of the Priesthood make known to us what is wanting in that respect at our hands. If you should go to work to build a dwelling house, you know you would want a kitchen, a buttery, sitting rooms, bedrooms, halls, passages, and alleys. He said, you might as well ask the Lord to give revelation upon the dimensions and construction of the various apartments of your dwelling houses, as upon the erection of temples, for we know before hand what is necessary.

Concerning this house, I wish to say, if we are prospered we will soon show you the likeness of it, at least upon paper, and then if any man can make any improvement in it, or if he has faith enough to bring one of the old Nephites along, or an angel from heaven, and he can introduce improvements, he is at liberty so to do. But wait until I dictate, and construct it to the best of my ability, and according to the knowledge I possess, with the wisdom God shall give me, and with the assistance of my brethren; when these are exhausted, if any improvement can be made, all good men upon the earth are at liberty to intro– duce their improvements. But I trust this people do not require commanding, every day of their lives, to pray, to do unto others as they would that others should do unto them: I trust they do not want a special command for this; if not, upon the same principle, they will not want any commandment upon the subject of building a temple, more than what is before them.

A few words to this people, upon the principles which were laid before them yesterday, in the tabernacle. One thing is required at the hands of this people, and to understand which there is no necessity for receiving a commandment every year, viz.—to pay their tithing. I do not suppose for a moment, that there is a person in this Church, who is unacquainted with the duty of paying tithing, neither is it necessary to have a revelation every year upon the subject. There is the law—pay one tenth. I wish to say to you, and I wish you to tell your neighbors, if there is any man or woman who do not want to pay their tithing, we do not want they should. It is for your particular benefit, and that of every individual upon the face of the earth. To me, as an individual, it is no matter whether you build a temple or not; I and my brethren have received our endowments, keys, blessings—all the tokens, signs, and every preparatory ordinance, that can be given to man, for his entrance into the celestial gate.

The Prophet’s feelings were often wounded because he was under the necessity of giving commandments concerning duties that were already before the people, until the temple was completed; but had he not done so, the temple would not have been built; had he waited until the minds of the people were opened, and they were led to see and do their duty, without commandment, he would have been slain before the keys of the Priesthood could have been committed to others, but the Lord put it into his heart to give this power to his brethren before his martyrdom.

If the people will pay their tithing, we have all the means we can ask or wish for. If the tithing is paid, we do not want the brethren and sisters to give up their surplus property, for there will be a great surplus in the storehouse of the Lord. This is what is required of this people, not to give all they have, though it should be constantly upon the altar, but to be ready, if required; but if the people will pay their tithing punctually, there will be an abundance, yes, and a surplus. For me to ask the people if they will give their surplus property, would be useless. I shall not ask any such question, but I shall now ask the people to pay their labor tithing, that we may excavate this foundation, and prepare for the stone work by the 1st of April. I expect to see a great turn out, no doubt we shall have all the help we can require.

While the brethren are before me, let me say, that we cannot commence to lay rock here without time, and we cannot get the stone for the foundation without the railroad from this place to the quarry is completed; these two items must be attended to. This is sufficient to say upon that matter.

Let us revert for a moment to the past, to the years we have spent in toil and labor, though very agreeably. Seven years ago tomorrow, about eleven o’clock, I crossed the Mississippi River, with my brethren, for this place, not knowing, at that time, whither we were going, but firmly believing that the Lord had in reserve for us a good place in the mountains, and that He would lead us directly to it. It is but seven years since we left Nauvoo, and we are now ready to build another temple. I look back upon our labors with pleasure. Here are hundreds and thousands of people that have not had the privileges that some of us have had. Do you ask, what privileges? Why, of running the gauntlet, of passing through the narrows. They have not had the privilege of being robbed and plundered of their property, of being in the midst of mobs and death, as many of us have.

Only be faithful, brethren and sisters, and I promise that you shall have all such privileges as shall be for your good. You need not be discouraged, or mourn, because you were not in Jackson County persecutions, or were not driven from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and stripped, robbed, and plundered of all your property. Do not mourn and feel bad, because you were not in Nauvoo; have no fears, for if the word of the Lord is true, you shall yet be tried in all things, so rejoice, and pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, even if it is in the spoiling of your goods, for it is the hand of God that leads us, and will continue so to do. Let every man and woman sanctify themselves before the Lord, and every providence of the Almighty shall be sanctified for good to them. I will now close my remarks.