Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, July 11, 1869.

I need the attention of the congregation and the faith of those who have faith; I need the wisdom of God and His Spirit to be in my heart to enable me to speak to the edification of the people. Although I have been a public speaker for thirty-seven years, it is seldom that I rise before a congregation without feeling a childlike timidity; if I live to the age of Methuselah I do not know that I shall outgrow it. There are reasons for this which I understand. When I look upon the faces of intelligent beings I look upon the image of the God I serve. There are none but what have a certain portion of divinity within them; and though we are clothed with bodies which are in the image of our God, yet this mortality shrinks before that portion of divinity which we inherit from our Father. This is the cause of my timidity, and of all others who feel this embarrassment when they address their fellow beings.

While we are administering the sacrament I will read the 16th verse of the 10th chapter of Corinthians, where Paul, speaking of the administration of this ordinance, says, “The cup of blessings which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

There are many passages of Scrip– ture which refer to the administering of the sacrament. A saying, direct from the lips of Jesus, has not been understood by all those who have believed in his name. When he was about to take his departure from this world he called his disciples into an upper room and he took bread and brake it and blessed it and gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” He then took the cup and blessed it and gave to his disciples, saying, “Drink ye all of it.” If we were to stop here, I think it would be more difficult to understand than if we were to read the rest of his sayings on this subject. This is my body which is given for you; this is my blood of the New Testament. This do in remembrance of me; I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

We do this in remembrance of the death of our Savior; it is required of his disciples until he comes again, no matter how long that may be. No matter how many generations come and go, believers in him are required to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of his death and sufferings until he comes again. Why are they required to do this? To witness unto the Father, to Jesus and to the angels that they are believers in and desire to follow him in the regeneration, keep his commandments, build up his kingdom, revere his name and serve him with an undivided heart, that they may be worthy to eat and drink with him in his Father’s kingdom. This is why the Latter-day Saints partake of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.

I know that in the Christian world sermon after sermon is preached on this subject; yet people there differ in their belief concerning these emblems. The Mother Church of the Christian world believes that the bread becomes the actual flesh of Jesus, and that the wine becomes his blood; this is preposterous to me. It is bread, and it is wine; but both are blessed to the souls of those who partake thereof. But to be followers of the Lord Jesus more is required than merely to partake of the bread and wine—the emblems of his death and suffering—it is necessary that strict obedience be rendered to his requirements.

On one occasion when the Savior was speaking to his disciples he gave them a mission, saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” These are the words spoken by Jesus when he sent his disciples forth to preach the Gospel.

In the search after truth, those who are unconverted might say with propriety that where the signs follow believer’s there is the Gospel. Yet, in the Christian world, it is generally conceded that signs are no longer necessary, and that miracles are not needed now, and were given in the days of Jesus merely to establish the validity of the Gospel he preached and the authenticity of his mission from heaven to earth. I do not so understand it. I think if I had lived in the days of Jesus my mind would have been led very much as it is now. I do not want to see a miracle to confirm the truth of any doctrine or saying that is revealed to me. If I can see that it is calculated to purify the hearts of the people and to sanctify their affections, and to reconcile them to God and to His law and government, it satisfies me; and so far as this goes I might say that I am like the Christian world, in the belief that miracles are no longer needed. But I believe that miracles are as absolutely necessary now as they ever were. Yet I will say with regard to miracles, there is no such thing save to the ignorant—that is, there never was a result wrought out by God or by any of His creatures without there being a cause for it. There may be results, the causes of which we do not see or understand, and what we call miracles are no more than this—they are the results or effects of causes hidden from our understandings.

This, in my own mind, is argued out perfectly, upon natural principles. It is natural for me to believe that, if I plough the ground and sow wheat, in the proper season I shall reap a crop of wheat; this is the natural result. It was precisely so with the miracles that Jesus wrought upon the earth. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, when they had drunk all the wine they went to the Savior and asked him what they should do. He ordered them to fill up their pots with water, and after having done so they drew forth of that water and found that it was wine. I believe that was real wine; I do not believe that it was done on the principle that such things are done in these days by wicked men, who, by means of what they term psychology, electro-biology, mesmerism, &c., influence men and make them believe that water is wine, and other things of a similar character. The Savior converted the water into wine. He knew how to call the necessary elements together in order to fill the water with the properties of wine. The elements are all around us; we eat, drink and breathe them, and Jesus, understanding the process of calling them together, performed no miracle except to those who were ignorant of that process. It was the same with the woman who was healed by touching the hem of his garment; she was healed by faith, but it was no miracle to Jesus. He understood the process, and although he was pressed by the crowd, behind and before, and on each side, so that he could scarcely make his way through it, the moment she touched him he felt virtue leave him and enquired who touched him. This was no miracle to him. He had the issues of life and death in his power; he had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again. This is what he says, and we must believe this if we believe the history of the Savior and the sayings of the apostles recorded in the New Testament. Jesus had this power in and of himself; the Father bequeathed it to him; it was his legacy, and he had the power to lay down his life and take it again. He had the streams and issues of life within him and when he said “LIVE” to individuals, they lived. The diseases that are and ever have been prevalent among the human family are from beneath, and are entailed upon them through the fall—through the disobedience of our first parents; but Jesus, having the issues of life at his command, could counteract those diseases at his pleasure. The case of the Centurion’s servant is a striking instance of this. The Centurion sent and besought Jesus to heal his servant. “Say in a word,” said he, “and my servant shall be healed.” Jesus, seeing the man’s earnestness and solicitude, said, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” And it is said that they who were sent, returned to the Centurion’s house and found the servant healed. Jesus counteracted the disease preying upon the system of this man, but to himself, knowing the principle by which the disease was rebuked, it was no miracle.

But these miracles or manifestations of the power of God, though not believed in by the Christian world, are necessary for you and me and for all who wish to be blessed by their means. Some may say, “How are we to obtain them?” I answer by obedience to all the commandments of God in the Gospel of life and salvation. After obedience to these requirements an individual is entitled to and may enjoy the blessing of miracles just as well as Jesus did. To the same degree? Perhaps not. Very few on the earth have ever had power to raise the dead. We read that Peter did. But it was a common thing for Jesus to raise the dead, heal the sick, make the deaf to hear, the blind to see and the lame to walk; and every person is entitled to those things according to the obedience and faithfulness inherent in him. When do we need them? I will tell you when I need them—when my family is sick, and they need something to counteract the principle of death working in their systems. Under such circumstances some might want to administer an emetic to the sick, which might be very well if they lacked faith; but if we have faith to feel that the issues of life and death are in our power, we can say to disease, “Be ye rebuked in the name of Jesus, and let life and health come into the system of this individual, from God, to counteract this disease;” and our faith will bring this by the laying on of hands by administering the ordinances of the holy Gospel.

I am happy to say I have never been under the necessity of calling a doctor to my family for forty years. I have had them in my family, but not from necessity. I like them when they are gentlemen; when they are wise and full of intelligence I am very fond of them; but I do not ask them to doctor my family in any case; and there are no circumstances under which I think them necessary except in case of a broken bone, or where skillful mechanical or surgical aid is necessary. But to call a doctor to my family to administer physic to them, I am not under the necessity of doing it. Is this so? Yes, it is; and if the experiment could be tried, independent of the Gospel and of faith, in any community, I care not where, nor for what length of time, of having any number of persons, with regularly qualified physicians to attend them; and the same number without such physicians, but who will doctor themselves according to nature and their own judgments, among that portion without doctors there would be less sickness and fewer deaths than among those who had their doctors. The experience of the Latter-day Saints in Utah confirms this. When we first came here we had no sickness, and we had no sickness until we had doctors. When they began to obey the Gospel they did not want to dig in the field, hoe potatoes, go to the canyon for lumber or wood, to secure for themselves and families the necessaries of life; but they wanted to live by doctoring the people, and from that time on, as we got richer and built warm houses, and have lived more richly, indulging in sweet cake, plum pudding, roast beef and so on, we have had more or less disease among us. Perhaps I have said enough about doctors.

I say, again, however, that it is absolutely necessary that we all possess the gift God has seen fit to bestow upon His children to counteract the power of death. How long? To live forever? O no, men must die; it is the decree of the Almighty that all men shall die within the thousand years. Said He, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” This body must sleep in the bosom of mother earth; this is the decree of the Almighty, hence it is necessary that all must die of disease or old age, but for all that, to my certain knowledge, the sick in hundreds of instances are healed by the power of God through administering the ordinances of His Gospel.

The first principle of the Gospel is faith in God—faith in a Supreme Being. This is a point that meets the infidel, and is one upon which I have reflected and talked a great deal, and I have come to this conclusion—that good, solid, sound sense teaches me never to judge a matter until I understand it, and infidels should never pass their opinion with regard to the character of a Supreme Being until they know whether there is one or not. If this principle were an article in the creed of the infidel world, I think they would not be quite so skeptical as they are; I think we should not meet with any person who would deny the existence of a Deity. The infidel looks abroad and sees the works of nature, in all their diversity—the mountain piercing the clouds with its snowy peaks, the mighty river, fertilizing, in its course to the sea, the valleys and plains in every direction, the sun in his glory at midday, the moon in her silvery splendor, and the myriad organizations from man to the minutest form of insect life, all giving the most irrefutable evidence of a designer and creator of infinite wisdom, skill and power, and yet he says there is no Deity, no Supreme Ruler, but all is the result of blind chance. How preposterous! Now, here is a book called the Bible. It is enclosed in what we call the cover, consisting of boards, paper and leather. Within the covers we see a vast amount of writing—syllables, words and sentences; now if we say there never was a person to compose, write, print or bind this book, but that it is here wholly as the result of chance, we shall only give expression to the faith, if faith it can be called, of those who are termed infidels; in fact this is infidelity. I do not want to say much about it, it is too vain! In my travels and labors I have met a great many persons who have desired to contend about the principles I taught, though I am happy to say I have passed through the world thus far without a discussion. My grounds have always been, when out preaching, “If you have a truth and I have errors, I will give you ten errors for one truth just as long as we have any to exchange; and if in setting my views before the people you say that any portion of the principles I preach is untrue, you must prove it or be forever silent; and if I affirm that anything you have to deliver to the people is false, I must prove it or forever hold my peace.” On these grounds I have been free from discussions. So much for infidelity and debating.

The Gospel that we preach is the power of God unto salvation; and the first principle of that Gospel is, as I have already said, faith in God, and faith in Jesus Christ His Son our Savior. We must believe that he is the character he is represented to be in the holy Scriptures. Believe that he told the truth when he said to his disciples, “Go ye forth and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.” We must believe that this same Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world, that is for the original sin, not the actual individual transgressions of the people; not but that the blood of Christ will cleanse from all sin, all who are disposed to act their part by repentance, and faith in his name. But the original sin was atoned for by the death of Christ, although its effects we still see in the diseases, tempers and every species of wickedness with which the human family is afflicted. Again, if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. There is not a spiritually minded man in the world who reads the Bible but will acknowledge that the Elders of Israel, the Latter-day Saints, proclaim the Gospel, precisely, as Jesus and his apostles proclaimed it. Is this heresy? I pause and ask the question of the Christian world, is this heresy? Do not my brethren believe in the Bible? Do not all the Christian world say that they believe in the Bible? They do. Then if we preach Jesus and him crucified as the apostles did, and as they have left it on record, what more can be said? Is there any harm or sin in this? No; for this pertains to the Gospel of life and salvation. Jesus set in his Church, so say his apostles, firstly, apostles. Now I will ask the religious and philosophical world if they have ever obtained any informa– tion or revelation about Christ having taken them out again? No, they have not; and if there are no apostles, there is no Church. Jesus set in his Church, according to Paul’s words to the Corinthians, firstly apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Again I will ask the question: has there been any revelation from heaven that God has taken these gifts out of His Church; and if so through whom and when? Many persons think if they see a prophet they see one possessing all the keys of the kingdom of God on the earth. This is not so; many persons have prophesied without having any Priesthood on them at all. It is no particular revelation or gift for a person to prophesy. You take a good statesman, for instance, he will tell you what will become of a nation by their actions. He foresees this and that, and knows the results; this is what makes a statesman, and no man is a good statesman unless he can foresee the results of any line of policy that may be pursued. To be a prophet is simply to be a foreteller of future events; but an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, has the keys of the holy Priesthood, and the power thereof is sealed upon his head, and by this he is authorized to proclaim the truth to the people, and if they receive it, well; if not, the sin be upon their own heads.

I have already said that Christ set in his Church apostles and prophets; he also set in his Church evangelists, pastors and teachers; also the gifts of the Spirit, such as diverse tongues, healing the sick, discernment of spirits, and various other gifts. Now, I would ask the whole world, who has received revelation that the Lord has discontinued these offices and gifts in his Church? I have not. I have had revelation that they should be in the Church, and that there is no Church without them. I have had many revelations proving to me that the Old and New Testaments are true. Their doctrines are comprised in the Gospel that we preach, which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. What are the traits of this Gospel when it is received into the heart of an individual? It will make a bad man good, and a good man better; it increases their light, knowledge, and intelligence, and enables them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, as the Savior did, until they understand men and things, the world and its doctrines, whether Christian, heathen or Pagan, and will ultimately lead them to a knowledge of things in heaven, on the earth or under the earth. I will say one thing more about the Gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints, and I will quote the words of Jesus—this Gospel will eventually lead all who faithfully observe its precepts to a knowledge of the “only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, whom to know is life eternal.”

Now I would ask the Christian world a question, and in doing so I do not mean to reflect upon, or cast an insinuation in the least derogatory to, all Christians, or to any who believe in God; but I would ask them, what do you know of God? Take all the divines on the face of the earth and place them in this stand, and beyond the attributes of God they know nothing of Him; they are entirely ignorant of His person. There is the difference between the various religious sects of the Christian world and the Latter-day Saints. We do know God, and we know Jesus Christ. We understand why Jesus came to the earth; we know the design of the Father in sending him. We also understand the earth, and the nature of the earth, and why God permitted Mother Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit. We should not have been here today if she had not; we could never have possessed wisdom and intelligence if she had not done it. It was all in the economy of heaven, and we need not talk about it; it is all right. We should never blame Mother Eve, not the least. I am thankful to God that I know good from evil, the bitter from the sweet, the things of God from the things not of God. When I look at the economy of heaven my heart leaps for joy, and if I had the tongue of an angel, or the tongues of the whole human family combined, I would praise God in the highest for His great wisdom and condescension in suffering the children of men to fall into the very sin into which they have fallen, for He did it that they, like Jesus, might descend below all things and then press forward and rise above all. Our spirits once dwelt in the heavens and were as pure and holy as the angels; but angels have tabernacles and spirits have none, and they are anxious to take tabernacles and they come to the meanest, lowest and humblest of the human race to obtain one rather than run any risk of not doing so. I have heard that the celebrated Mr. Beecher, of Brooklyn, once said that the greatest misfortune that could ever happen to man was to be born; but I say that the greatest good fortune that ever happened or can happen to human beings is to be born on this earth, for then life and salvation are before them; then they have the privilege of overcoming death, and of walking sin and iniquity under their feet, of incorporating into their daily lives every principle of life and salvation and of dwelling eternally with the Gods. I would hardly dare say this, but Jesus said, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods? If He called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blasphemest, because I said I am the Son of God?” The Apostle Paul has also said, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.” “And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” And all who are faithful to the precepts of the Gospel will see Jesus and be as he is.

I recollect once, not long after we came to the Valley, I think it was in 1851, a Baptist preacher came here; he put up at my house; I kept him while he stayed in the city. He was a gentlemen, very kind and very good. I preached one day on the character of the Deity, and when I reached a certain point, a point where he could learn nothing further, I left it. When we reached home he said to me, “Brother Young, why did you not proceed with your discourse? I would have given anything in the world if you had, for I should then have learned your belief with regard to our heavenly Father.” I said to him, “Do you believe the Bible?” “O yes,” he replied. I then quoted to him the 26th and 27th verses of the 1st chapter of Genesis, in which we find the following words: “And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”

I also referred to the visit of the Lord to Abraham in which Abraham said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on.” I also referred to where the Lord, talking to Moses, says, “Behold there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

All of these passages, said I, to the reverend gentleman, go to prove, if they prove anything at all, that man is made in the image of his Maker, and that he is His exact image, having eye for eye, forehead for forehead, eyebrows for eyebrows, nose for nose, cheekbones for cheekbones, mouth for mouth, chin for chin, ears for ears, precisely like our Father in heaven.” “Well,” said he, “I have been for twenty-nine years a preacher of the truth, and never thought that man was created in the exact image of his Father; I always had the idea that God was a being without body, parts or passions.” He admitted, however, that he had never gained that idea from the Bible. And notwithstanding the Scriptures dwell upon this point with such force and clearness, the idea entertained by this gentleman is that entertained by the Christian world in general. We are told that Jesus was “the express image of his Father’s person.” Think of it! Was Jesus a man? Yes. Clothed upon as we are? Yes. Did he pass for a man the same as others? He did. When he did not wish to be known he could pass through a crowd, and from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood, town to town, without the people knowing who he was. He had this power; and yet he was like other men, having eyes, forehead, nose, eyebrows, mouth, cheekbones and chin like we have, and the Apostle tells us that he was the express image of his Father’s person; and if the saying is true, that to know the only true and wise God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is eternal life, we have eternal life, for we know them.

I have talked a great deal about what we believe as far as spiritual things are concerned; but the result of our faith I have not done with. The faith of the Latter-day Saints, so far as moral excellence is concerned, leads them to adopt in their lives, the practice of every moral principle believed in by the Christian world. It leads them to do good to each other and to all their fellow beings, and to injure none. It leads us to honor our beings upon the earth as sons and daughters of the Almighty; to honor Him that created us, to observe every true principle, everything that produces peace and happiness, for everything that has this tendency is of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches him that has stolen to steal no more; it teaches the swearer to swear no more; him that has borne false witness to do it no more; him that has dishonored his being to do it no more; and, in fact, there is no height, depth, length or breadth in moral conduct believed in and practiced by the Christian world but what we are one with them; and we go so far beyond them in the things of God that they are lost, and yet they think we are lost. I have smiled thousands of times within myself to hear them talk; they are ignorant, but they think we are. Besides being far ahead of the Christian world in the things of God, I will say that in their morals and their recreations the Latter-day Saints will compare favorably with any of them. The question arises sometimes in me, Is there anything immoral in recreation? If I see my sons and daughters enjoying themselves, chatting, visiting, riding, going to a party or a dance, is there anything immoral in that? I watch very closely, and if I hear a word, see a look, or a sneer at divine things or anything derogatory to a good moral character, I feel it in a moment, and I say, “If you follow that, it will not lead to good, it is evil; it will not lead to the fountain of life and intelligence; follow, only, the path that leads to life everlasting.” Where is it? God has it.

Not only does the religion of Jesus Christ make the people acquainted with the things of God, and develop within them moral excellence and purity, but it holds out every encouragement and inducement possible, for them to increase in knowledge and intelligence, in every branch of mechanism, or in the arts and sciences, for all wisdom, and all the arts and sciences in the world are from God, and are designed for the good of His people. If I had only seen in my young days an interest manifested by those who had wealth, power and influence to reach down a hand to take the suffering, ignorant poor and elevate them to the standard they occupied, and to place them in possession of every comfort, it would have been a matter of great joy to me. But it was not so then, neither is it now. Men generally use their wealth for selfish purposes, and do not seek to devote it to God and to the glory of His name. In the kingdom of God only will the poor and the ignorant of the children of men be purified and elevated and prepared to hold the positions God has designed for His children.

I have heard a great many tell about what they have suffered for Christ’s sake. I am happy to say I never had occasion to. I have enjoyed a great deal; but so far as suffering goes I have compared it a great many times, in my feelings and before congregations, to a man wearing an old, worn-out, tattered and dirty coat, and somebody comes along and gives him one that is new, whole and beautiful. This is the comparison I draw when I think of what I have suffered for the Gospel’s sake—I have thrown away an old coat and have put on a new one. No man or woman ever heard me tell about suffering. “Did you not leave a handsome property in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois?” Yes. “And have you not suffered through that?” No, I have been growing better and better all the time, and so have this people. And you may take the history of the world from the days of Adam down, and I am at the defiance of any historian to prove that the Saints have ever suffered as much as the sinners. This is my belief about the religion of Jesus Christ. Some may say, “Did not the children of Israel suffer?” Yes. “Why?” Because of their iniquity. They transgressed the laws God has given them; they changed the ordinances and broke the everlasting covenant, and for their sin and disobedience they were led into captivity. If they had been obedient, I reckon they would have been led direct to the Holy Land and stayed there. Some may say, “Now, Mr. Speaker, you have been driven from your home, was it for righteousness?” No, I expect not. I expect it was to chasten me and make me better. I never attributed the driving of the Saints from Jackson County to anything but that it was necessary to chasten them and prepare them to build up Zion. They were driven from Ohio to Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois here, only for the advancement of Zion and the work of God on the earth. I do not complain of persecution. I have left a great deal of property in different States, considerable in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Do I care anything about it? No, we have more land here than we can occupy. God led us from a sickly to a healthy country, and I thank him for it. Were the Latter-day Saints driven time after time on account of their sins? One of the first revelations that God gave to Joseph Smith was for the gathering of Israel, and when the people came to Jackson County, Missouri, they were as far from believing and obeying that revelation as the east is from the west, and a great deal further, for the east joins the west; but the people were so far from obeying that revelation that they scarcely complied with it in one instance. They were ignorant and had neither eyes to see, ears to hear, nor hearts to understand, and God suffered their enemies to drive them. What were we driven for? Was it because of polygamy? No, for that was not known generally until after our arrival in these valleys, although we received the revelation years before. The accusation brought against the Latter-day Saints was that they tampered with the slaves in Missouri, with the design of setting them free, and because of this the people were driven, and the Lord suffered it. But I ask did the Latter-day Saints ever suffer in Missouri as the Missourians did in the late struggle? No, not a drop in a bucket compared with it. The Missourians have been driven from their houses and hung up, their property confiscated, their women and children murdered, and every conceivable evil has been heaped upon them. Did we ever suffer like that? In very few instances; and it is a shame for the Latter-day Saints ever to talk about suffering.

What are we doing here, for the people that we are gathering from the nations? The majority of those that we gather are from the poorest that can be found; we gather a few scientific and learned men, but the great majority are the poor and the ignorant. We take them and we calculate to make them rich; we have taken the foolish and we calculate to make them wise; we take the weak and we calculate to make them strong. We calculate to build up this people until they know as much as any other people on the face of the earth, in mechanics, in the arts and sciences, and in every true principle of philosophy. All true wisdom that mankind have they have received from God, whether they know it or not. There is no ingenious mind that has ever invented anything beneficial to the human family but what he obtained it from that One Source, whether he knows or believes it or not. There is only one source from whence men obtain wisdom, and that is God, the fountain of all wisdom; and though men may claim to make their discoveries by their own wisdom, by meditation and reflection, they are indebted to our Father in heaven for all.

We calculate to make this people just as wise and prudent as they will be made and just as humble as they will be made. When I look at the world of mankind and see their pomp, splendor, covetousness and worldly-mindedness, I think what a shame! What have you got to be so proud of? They have gold, silver, houses, lands and possessions, and they feel, “O, we are kings, potentates, or men of great influence, because of our wealth.” But where did they get their wealth? They will say they have been fortunate and have gathered it together; or it was bequeathed to them by their father or grandfather. But none of them have aught but what came from Him who lives and reigns in the heavens—the God whom we serve, who alone bestows blessings upon His children, the sons and daughters of Adam.

I have heard a great many sermons, prayers and exhortations for people to go and get religion and have their names written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” I want to inform the whole world, all the sons and daughters of Adam, that their names are written there, and there they will remain to all eternity unless they by their evil acts blot them out. I want to inform everybody of this fact.

I want now to say a few words on political matters. First, I will say we are a very religious people; the world knows that; and it was our religion that influenced our minds to leave our homes and parents, and in many instances our companions and children. Are we a political people? Yes, very political indeed. But what party do you belong to or would you vote for? I will tell you whom we will vote for: we will vote for the man who will sustain the principles of civil and religious liberty, the man who knows the most and who has the best heart and brain for a statesman; and we do not care a farthing whether he is a whig, a democrat, a barnburner, a republican, a new light or anything else. These are our politics. If we could have got men to control the affairs of the nation who had sufficient foresight and forethought to know the results of their own actions, it would have been better for the nation than it is at present. But we are just as we are; no matter what brought about the present condition of things. I leave the people to judge whether it is righteousness or sin that has brought upon the nation the evils it has been called to endure. Of one thing I am sure: God never institutes war; God is not the author of confusion or of war; they are the results of the acts of the children of men. Confusion and war necessarily come as the results of the foolish acts and policy of men; but they do not come because God desires they should come. If the people, generally, would turn to the Lord, there would never be any war. Let men turn from their iniquities and sins, and, instead of being covetous and wicked, turn to God and seek to promote peace and happiness throughout the land, and wars would cease. We expect to see the day when swords shall be turned into ploughshares, spears into pruninghooks, and when men shall learn war no more. This is what we want. We are for peace, plenty and happiness to all the human family.

A great deal could be said about our peculiar faith, and our peculiar internal institutions, as the world terms them. I do not want to say anything about them; I act them out. I have got a family, and a pretty large one. I am willing to compare them with any family on the face of the earth when the privileges they have enjoyed are considered. I think that so far as I myself am concerned, when it is remembered that I never went to school but eleven days in my life, and that until I commenced to preach the Gospel I had to work hard every day for my bread, I have made some improvement. I think this people are improving; and I think we shall continue our work until the whole human family will give up all notion of going to war with each other. I expect to see the time when this people will possess every good thing. All knowledge and wisdom and every good that the heart of man can desire is within the circuit and circle of the faith we have embraced. The day will come when the Gospel will be presented to the kings and queens and great ones of the earth; but it will be presented with a different influence from that with which it has been presented to the poor, but it will be the same Gospel. We shall not present any other Gospel; it is the same from everlasting to everlasting. No man will be saved and come into the presence of the Father only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the same for one as the other. The Lord has His cause, His ways, His work; He will finish it up. Jesus is laboring with his might to sanctify and redeem the earth and to bring back his brethren and sisters into the presence of the Father. We are laboring with him for the purification of the whole human family, that we and they may be prepared to dwell with God in His kingdom.

God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 8, 1869.

I understand that many of the brethren and sisters in the old country lent money to their friends now here to assist them to emigrate; quite a number of letters have been sent, stating that those friends covenanted before leaving that they would repay that means with the first money they earned after arriving here, and that they would also send more than they had borrowed, in order to assist those who had previously assisted them. A number of our elders who have been from here on missions to England and other countries, have been in the habit of borrowing money, or of getting it in some way. Some of these elders, when asked to refund what they had borrowed, have said, “We did not borrow it, it was a gift to us.” I wish to say to such elders, return the money with interest. If it was a gift, return the gift, that it may go back and help many instead of one.

I do not wish to spend much time on this subject, I wish to give instruction, and to tell you my mind with regard to those elders who have borrowed money from the Saints in Europe. They may pretend to say that it was given to them to excuse themselves for not repaying it, but if they do not refund it, they are unworthy of the fellowship of the Saints, and I ask their bishops to cut every one of them from the Church, without favor or affection. If the bishops do this, they will be doing their duty. Disfellowship them, they are not worthy of a standing in the Church and Kingdom of God.

I wish to ask my brethren, the elders of Israel, to give liberally to help home our brethren and sisters who are now in bondage in the old countries. We have not said anything to the people for a long time with regard to donations. A year ago last fall we commenced a subscription to bring home the Saints. By the following February the amount reached, I think, some nine thousand dollars. Our agent left here about the 27th of February, and about ten days before he started we gave notice that he was going, and between that time and the time he left, the nine thousand had swelled to about thirty thousand; and in the course of three months from then the amount had increased to seventy-six or seventy– seven thousand dollars. With this amount a great many were helped here who could only raise part means, some were brought all the way. The brethren and sisters continued to give through the summer, and if I recollect rightly, we have now over thirty thousand dollars in money to help home the poor. Most of this has been sent to Liverpool, but we have some in this city. Now we wish the charity of the brethren and sisters to be extended to bring home the poor Saints, and perhaps it would be as well for me to commence the list. I will say to our clerk he may put down two thousand dollars for Brother Brigham; also one thousand for William H. Hooper, our delegate in Congress, who told me before he went away that he would give another thousand. Now we are ready to receive your thousands or your hundreds, and we will not refuse a five-dollar bill. We got a great many of them from the sisters last fall, more than the people would imagine; if the list were read of the sisters who put in five dollars, ten dollars, and some twenty-five, it would astonish you. This is a short sermon on this subject. The brethren here from the settlements throughout the Territory can carry it home, and it will become generally known.

I have thought of proposing certain conditions in relation to those who are helped here from abroad; but whether it would be prudent and consistent to do so, I leave the Latter-day Saints to judge. The cogitations of my mind on the subject of bringing home the Saints are somewhat strict. I have thought it would be as well, before helping the poor to emigrate, to have them covenant that after arriving here they would be Saints in every sense of the word. Now, to particularize, I will say that we gather a family here, consisting of father, mother, four, eight, or twelve children, as the case may be. They are Latter-day Saints; they wish to gather to Zion and to enjoy all the blessings of Zion; they are anxiously waiting for every gift and blessing God has in store for the faithful, and to be numbered with the Church of the Firstborn; but when they reach here, if we go into their houses, we shall very often find, if they have the means to do it, that they will perfectly soak their systems with tea and coffee, and are perhaps chewing tobacco and doing a little tippling, a little swearing, and so on. This is the way with some who were gathered last year. Now, whether it is better to leave such people to die in the faith in their native lands, or to bring them here to apostatize and deny their Lord and Master, is a question. I think, if I had the knowledge and the power, I would never gather another member of the Church who would apostatize; but I have not this knowledge. I cannot say to a man, you stop and let your family come to Zion. I cannot say to a woman, you stop where you are, you are in the faith now, but if you gather you will apostatize; but your husband and family can gather, they will stick to the faith. I cannot say this, I have not the power, and hence we see many after they arrive here turn away from the holy commandments. I do not know but what it would be perfectly reasonable to make every man and woman, before leaving their native lands, covenant before God to observe the Word of Wisdom, let liquor alone, use no language unbecoming a Saint, and, in a word, live their religion after arriving here. Whether it would be reasonable and consistent to lay such injunctions on the people before assisting them to gather I do not know. If we were to say to them, before leaving their homes, “Now if we gather you home, will you live your religion?” they would jump up, clap their hands together, shout “hallelujah,” and say, “Yes, we will do anything you require if you will only gather us to Zion.”

Do you not see that I am perfectly tied up? and so are all the elders of Israel in this respect. We may lay all these injunctions on the Saints, and some would break them all. All these things are turned over in my mind, and I look at every side of the question, sound every principle and behold the people as they are. Well, what is to be done? I do not know any better way, perhaps, than to gather the Saints and try to sanctify them after they are gathered together, for when they are baptized they virtually covenant to observe all these rules. When we see the course that the Saints, or those professing to be such, have taken in feeding, clothing and making our enemies rich here in our midst, it makes me feel that it is time to cease gathering those who will not be Saints indeed. I know, as well as I know that I am a living being, that there is not one professing to be a Latter-day Saint, who has the spirit of his calling, who would not cease this course as quick as he would draw his hands out of the fire, if he thoroughly knew and understood that it tends to the overthrow of the Kingdom of God; and the fact that he helped to sustain the enemies of the Kingdom of God must be attributed to his ignorance. The people have eyes, but they see not; they have hearts, but they do not understand. I will ensure that there are scores, and perhaps hundreds, looking at me while I am speaking, who think, “Brother Brigham, you are a fool; we have as good a right to trade with one man as another; and we will go to what store we please, and do what we please with our means, and we will trade with those who will do the best by us.” Yet there are hundreds who, and in fact the most of the people, understand the folly of this course, as the experience of the past six months has proved. During that period we have done wonders in guiding the minds and the movements of the Latter-day Saints. Still there are some who seem to have no understanding. I will venture to say they are the foolish virgins. I was going to say they are like the foolish virgins; but they are the foolish virgins, and by and by they will find they have no oil in their vessels, and nothing to prepare them to go and meet the bridegroom, and they will be found wanting. But so it is, and we must cultivate the wheat with the tares; the sheep and the goats have to run together. Here I am thinking of exacting a covenant from men and women before they are gathered, that they will be Saints indeed afterwards; but while I have such feelings the question stares me in the face, how do you know whether they will be or not? You see men and women here who have been in the Church thirty years, and the most trifling, frivolous, foolish little circumstance imaginable will throw them off the track, and they will go to the devil. It is astonishing, it is marvelous! When I think of these things it recalls a saying that I have sometimes made, that I do my swearing in the pulpit, for they make me think that we have those in our midst who profess to be Latter-day Saints, but who are damned fools. You may say that is swearing; but they are damned, and the wrath of God is upon them, just as much as it was in the days of the old apostles. Men and women would take a very different course if they could see and understand things as they are. But I will take back the expression “if they could see and understand.” I say they can see and understand, if they have a mind to cast out of their hearts the love of the world, the love of riches, and the little frivolous traits of character they so often manifest. The love of fashion, for instance, which darkens, beclouds, and casts a shade over the spirits of our sisters. They cannot have this, and they do not like that, and the next thing anger creeps into their hearts and they feel revengeful, and “I wish I could do somebody an injury; I wish I could come up with my husband; I wish I could do something or other to mar his peace, inasmuch as mine is marred, because I cannot follow somebody else’s fashion.” Such little, trifling, contemptible, frivolous, things cast a dark shade over their feelings, and the first thing they know they give way to a revengeful, vindictive, wicked spirit, which leads them to destruction.

Now, I will go back again to my text—whether we should exact the injunctions I have named of the Saints before gathering, or whether we should not? I leave it to the people, for I do not care much about it, for the simple reason that I do not know enough to decide, and yet I know as much as anybody else. I might pick up this man and that woman, and this family and that family, and leave others because I might not think them worthy, when those who are left behind would probably stick to the faith, while those who are gathered might apostatize. I do not know how to do any better than we are doing, unless the Lord reveals it. I will say to the brethren and sisters, we are ready to receive your donations. Open your hearts and your purse strings. I leave this matter now for your action.

I spoke a little here yesterday and the day before; but I have not really said what I wish, and whether I shall be able to answer my own feelings with regard to our success in our cooperative system of merchandising I do not know. I want to say to the Latter-day Saints we have wrought wonders. It was observed here by one of the brethren that to guide the minds of the people and to govern and control them is a greater miracle than to raise the dead. That is very true. The Lord Almighty could resuscitate a corpse lying before us a thousand times easier than He could control the congregation in this house. He has the material on hand, and He knows every process, and He could give life to a lifeless being, with ease, by the elements He would operate upon and with. This is a great miracle in our estimation; but it would be no miracle at all to the Lord, because He knows precisely how to do it. There is no miracle to any being in the heavens or on the earth, only to the ignorant. To a man who understands the philosophy of all the phenomena that transpire, there is no such thing as a miracle. A great many think there are results without causes; there is no such thing in existence; there is a cause for every result that ever was or ever will be, and they are all in the providences and in the work of the Lord. It would be no particular miracle for the Lord to resuscitate a person whose breath had left the body. By bringing the elements to bear on the system, He could make that system breathe again and live, but to control this people can only be done by persuasion. We have the privilege of choosing, refusing, acting, rising up, sitting down, doing this or not doing; we are just as independent in our sphere as the Gods are in theirs, and our agency is our own, and we can do as we please. We can govern and control ourselves, and when we do this by the law of truth it produces life within us and leads to eternal life; but when we take the opposite course and yield to principles that tend downward the result is death and destruction. Now I will make the application, that you and I have done just as we please. We have traded with whom we please. We shall do so as far as we can. We cannot all do just as we please, because a great many times we want to and cannot, and that is what produces misery, which is called hell. We have done as we please with regard to trading. We requested the people last Conference in this room to cease trading with their enemies. Do you see the effects of this? Yes, they are apparent to every inhabitant of this Territory; they are apparent to the passer-by, to the transient person and to the world; and the commercial world has said, “This is the first thing we have ever seen in the character of you Latter-day Saints, that manifested that you knew enough to take care of yourselves.” It tells also upon our enemies. Suppose we had not checked this trading with outsiders, and had not turned the stream into another channel, you would have seen, perhaps, one hundred merchants in this city now more than last year. They would have brought their clerks and friends and a great number who would have operated against us. Not but what there are many here now, and have been, who have been very gentlemanly and kind; but where is their friendship? Is there a man who does not belong to this church who would not vote for a man out of the church for mayor of the city, and for men who do not belong to the church for aldermen and councilors? No, there is not one amongst them but what would do this. And what would they not do? They would not do right and righteously, that is what they would not do. But anything on the face of this earth to remove power and influence from the Latter-day Saints, and to remove them from their homes, many of them would do. We have been able to check this, and it is for our advantage. Many of us have suffered the loss of all things several times. I have been broken up five times and left a handsome property, and have taken the spoiling of my goods just as patiently as I could. I do not want to see these things enacted again. I know how to avert them. If the people will hearken to the counsel which God gives through His servants, they will never experience any such thing again; but if they will not, they will, perhaps, suffer just as they have heretofore—the good with the bad, the righteous through the evil deeds of those who profess to be righteous and are not; the simple, the honest and the good will have to suffer with the hypocrite and the wicked. I am thankful to God that the ears of the Latter-day Saints have been open to hear and their hearts open to receive and act upon good counsel as far as they have been.

The sisters in our Female Relief Societies have done great good. Can you tell the amount of good that the mothers and daughters in Israel are capable of doing? No, it is impossible. And the good they do will follow them to all eternity. If we get the sisters on our side with regard to trading in stores, with regard to donations, or with regard to improvement, we have gained all that we can ask. What do men care about fashion? You will not find one man in a thousand that cares anything about it. Men have their business before them, and their care and attention is occupied with that. You will find that the farmer, the blacksmith, the carpenter and even the merchant, were it not that he is compelled to appear decently in society, care nothing about fashion. They want the dollars and the dimes. The lawyer cares nothing about fashion, only to gain the feelings of the people and have influence over them, that he can bring them one against another, so that he may get their dimes; that is all he cares about fashion. The doctor cares nothing about fashion. If he can make the people believe that he knows it all, and that they know nothing, he would as soon wear a hat with a brim six inches wide, and the crown an inch and a half high, as he would wear one with the crown six inches high and the brim an inch and a half wide. He cares no more for fashion than that, if he can only get the purses of the people, that is all he cares for. I speak now in general terms, for there are exceptions in every class. It is the ladies who care for fashion. They are looking continually to see how this and that lady are dressed. But if we can enlist their feelings and interests in business matters, then victory is sure. The mothers and daughters in Israel have better judgment, and they do know more than females in the world. They do understand the true principles of comfort, and how to adorn their persons so that they may present an attractive appearance to their husbands, families, friends and neighbors; and if we can make them believe this, I reckon that, by and by, they will begin and make fashions to suit themselves, and will not be under the necessity of sending to Paris or to the East to find out the fashions or to find out whether they shall make their Grecian bends one-half, two-thirds or one-third as large as in New York; or whether they shall cut a frock so as to show their garters every step or to drag yards on the ground behind them. I think that, after a while, they will consider that they know a little of something as well as other people, and if we can enlist their sympathies and judgments, tastes and abilities with regard to trading, fashion, etc., the battle is won.

The sisters have already done much good, and I wish them to continue and go ahead. Have a Female Relief Society in every ward in the mountains; and have a Cooperative store in every ward, and let the people do their own trading. There are some of the brethren around who have asked me whether they shall trade at the Parent Store or whether they shall send East for their goods. They cannot see and understand things; after a while they will. You take the Lehi Cooperative Store, for instance: Bishop Evans started it there last summer. Suppose he had sent East for his goods in July; if he had had the same luck that others have had, they would have been landed about this time, and some of them by and by, and when they had been operating three months what would they have made? Nothing. But they came down here and bought their goods and took them home, only a thirty miles’ drive, and put them on the shelves, and they were soon bought up. They sent to Salt Lake City about once a week to replenish their store, and when five months had passed away they struck a balance sheet and every man that had put in twenty-five dollars—the amount of a share—had, in addition to that amount, a little over twenty-eight dollars to his credit. Have any of our city merchants who have traded from here to New York, made money like this? Not one, and yet the people here have paid one-third more for their goods than the people had to pay in the Cooperative Stores. I understand the brethren in Cache Valley are going to send East for their goods. Well, send for them, and you will get a little knowledge; but you will buy it; however bought wit is pretty good, if you do not pay too dear for it.

Recollect that in trading there is great advantage in turning over your capital often. Suppose the Cooperative Stores were to send to New York for their goods, they might turn over their capital once a year; then instead of making anything they would run under.

I want to impress one thing on the minds of the people, which will be for their advantage if they will hear it. When you start your Cooperative Store in a ward, you will find the men of capital stepping forward, and one says, “I will put in ten thousand dollars;” another says, “I will put in five thousand.” But I say to you, bishops, do not let these men take five thousand, or one thousand, but call on the brethren and sisters who are poor and tell them to put in their five dollars or their twenty-five, and let those who have capital stand back and give the poor the advantage of this quick trading. This is what I am after and have been all the time. I have capital, and have offered some to every ward in the country when I have had a chance. I would take shares in such institutions. I am not at all afraid; but nobody would let me take any, except in Provo and in the wholesale store here. I will say to Bishop Woolley, in the 13th ward, do not let these men with capital take all the shares, but let the poor have them. I say the same to the 14th ward and to every ward in the city; and you bishops, tell the man who has five thousand or two thousand to put in, to stand back, he cannot have it. If your capital is doubled every three months, it would make him rich too fast, and he cannot have the privilege; we want the poor brethren and sisters to have the advantage of it. Do you understand this, bishops and people?

The capitalists may say, “What are we to do with our means?” Go and build factories and have one, two, or three thousand spindles going. Send for fifty, a hundred, or a thousand sheep and raise wool. Some of you go to raising flax and build a factory to manufacture it, and do not take every advantage and pocket every dollar that is to be made. You are rich, and I want to turn the stream so as to do good to the whole community.

I am delighted every time I hear a company say, “We do not want your capital, we have plenty.” I know what to do with mine. I have been the means, in the hands of God, of starting every woollen and cotton factory there is in the Territory, and almost every carding machine. We are going to build a large factory at Provo. Some say we have not wool to carry on the business. Yes, we have, and we have plenty of capital. Suppose we send to the States and buy a hundred thousand or five hundred thousand pounds of wool; we are as well able to do it as others; or suppose we send to California or Oregon and buy fifty thousand pounds of wool, and ship it on the railroad and work it up. Will the people wear it? Yes, just as quick as we get the women to tell their husbands to wear homemade instead of broadcloth, they will do it. I would not even wear out the cloth that has been given to me were it not that my wives and daughters want me. If they were to say, “Brother Brigham, wear your homemade, we like to see you in it,” I would give away my broadcloth, but to please the dear creatures I wear almost anything. Only let us get the sisters into this mind, and homemade clothing will soon become the fashion throughout the Territory. I had a present sent me the other day of some homemade linen for a coat, and I calculate to wear it this summer. I wear my homemade a great deal, but I have not got it on today; if I could only get my wives to say, “Brother Brigham, your homemade is very nice, and we should like to see you wear it,” I should certainly wear it.

When the first merchants came here I foresaw all that we have passed through. I knew the foundation was laid for the destruction of this people if they were fostered here, and I know so today. We have turned the current, and we are controlling it, and the sisters are helping us. Now, sisters, if you will continue to help us, and will trade with none but Latter-day Saints, just hold up your hands. [The vote was unanimous.] Now, I will tell you why we bother you women, though I acknowledge that if we did not go to see the women they would come and see us; but we are so anxious to see you that we follow you up. But the reason why we are so anxious to have you sisters on our side in regard to these trading matters, is because we know if you will only say whom you will trade with and with whom you will not trade, that we shall follow you.

What I have been saying with regard to these ward cooperative stores doubling their capital once in three months, is for the encouragement of the poor, and to induce them to invest their little means and do something for themselves. Here is the 10th and the 5th and 6th wards, which are looked upon as the poorest wards in the city, though I believe the bishop of the 3rd ward feels that his ward is the poorest in the city; but I will venture to say that if these wards will each establish a store and concentrate their influence, they will double their capital every three months. I know that the 10th ward, which started with 700 dollars, three weeks afterwards had a thousand dollars worth of goods paid for and considerable money in the drawer. Think of that, in that poor little ward, though I will give it the praise of being one of the best wards in the city. It has one of the finest bands of music in the city, and they make one of the best turnouts when they exhibit themselves.

I have talked long enough. I will turn again to my starting point. Let us have your money to bring home the poor Saints. I feel also to urge upon my brethren and sisters to observe every word that the Lord speaks. Observe the counsel that leads to life, peace, glory and happiness, but do not observe that which leads to contention, ruin and destruction. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1869.

I think I shall not be under the necessity of talking long, as there has been a great deal said to the people this afternoon. I will commence by saying to the Latter-day Saints and to all the inhabitants of the earth that I am responsible for the doctrine I teach; but I am not responsible for the obedience of the people to that doctrine. My position in the presence of God, before the Angels and upon the face of the earth, is that it is easier and more delightful to serve God than to serve ourselves and the devil.

There has been considerable said this afternoon with regard to redeeming and building up Zion, the Order of Enoch, &c. I see men and women in this congregation—only a few of them—who were driven from the central stake of Zion. Ask them if they had any sorrow or trouble; then let them look at the beautiful land that the Lord would have given them if all had been faithful in keeping His commandments, and had walked before Him as they should; and then ask them with regard to the blessings they would have received. If they tell you the sentiments of their minds, they will tell you that the yoke of Jesus would have been easy and his burden would have been light, and that it would have been a delightful task to have walked in obedience to his commands and to have been of one heart and one mind; but through the selfishness of some, which is idolatry, through their covetousness, which is the same, and the lustful desire of their minds, they were cast out and driven from their homes. We have been driven many times; but each time, if they who professed to be the servants of God had served Him with an undivided heart, they would have had the privilege of living in their houses, possessing their lands, attending to their meetings, and spreading abroad on the right and the left, lengthening the cords of Zion, and strengthening her stakes until the land had been dedicated to the Gospel of the Son of God. Well, I have been with the rest and I expect I have been covetous like them, and probably I am now; but if I am, I wish somebody would tell me wherein.

Brother Pratt, in his discourse, had considerable to say with regard to the property of the Saints. I would like very much if the time was now when the Lord would say, “Lay down your substance at the feet of the bishops,” and find out who in this Church would be willing to give up all. This cooperative movement is only a stepping stone to what is called the Order of Enoch, but which is in reality the Order of Heaven. It was revealed to Enoch when he built up his city and gathered the people together and sanctified them, so that they became so holy and pure that they could not live among the rest of the people and the Lord took them away.

Ask any Christian in the world if he thinks the Lord rules and reigns supreme in heaven, and he will tell you, “Yes.” Is it right for the Lord to reign? “Certainly it is.” Ask him if he would delight to live in a place where one character rules and reigns supreme, and he will answer, “Yes, if I could go to heaven.” Why? “Why, the Lord reigns there.” Just ask the Christian if he knows the Lord, and he will tell you, “No.” Did you ever see him? “No.” Can you tell me anything of His character? “No, only He is something without body, parts, and passions.” One of the apostles says that “God is love, and they who dwell in God dwell in love.” Ask the Christian world if their know anything about God, and they will tell you they do not. Ask if He has eyes, and they will say, “No—yes, He is all eyes.” Has he a head? “Yes, He is all head.” Has he ears? “Yes, He is all ears, He is all mouth, He is all body, and all limbs;” and still without, body, parts, or passions. Why what do they make of Him? A monster, if He is anything; that is what they make of Him. Would you like to go to heaven? “O, yes,” says the Christian, “the Lord reigns there.” How do you know you would like the place and the order when you get there? Do you think you will have your farm and your substance by yourself, and live in the gratification of your selfish propensities as you now do? “O, no, we expect to be made pure and holy.” Where will you begin to be pure and holy? If you do not begin here, I do not know where you will begin. “O,” says the Christian, “if we are going to heaven, where God and angels dwell, and live where one-man power prevails, we should all be satisfied, I expect.” We, Latter-day Saints, say so, too. We like to see that power manifested by those whom God calls to lead the people in righteousness, purity, and holiness. This opens up a subject that I am not going to talk about.

Brother Orson has spoken on the Word of Wisdom. The people have done pretty well in keeping it for the last year or two. But are they going to continue, or will they return to their old habits like the dog to his vomit, or like the sow that is washed, to her wallowing in the mire? The sale of tobacco, tea, and coffee is increasing in the midst of this people at the present time. What does this prove? It proves that, stealthily or openly, the people are eating and drinking that which is not good for them. Hot drinks, tobacco, and spi– rits are not good for them. Will the people continue to keep the Word of Wisdom, or will they become like the brutes in the parable, or, like fools, return to that which will injure and destroy them? The elders of Israel have talked a great deal to the people upon the principles of life and about the course they should pursue to lay a foundation for health. Let a mother stimulate her system with tobacco, tea, coffee, or liquor, or suffer herself to hanker after such things at certain times, and she lays the foundation for the destruction of her offspring. Do they realize this? No, and in very many instances they care nothing about it. With all the teachings given to this people I think they are very much like the rest of the world, or like the dumb brute beasts that are made to be taken and destroyed. And it almost seems that the last comparison is the most appropriate, for intelligence is given us to preserve ourselves, to preserve our health and prolong our natural lives, preserve our posterity, preserve and beautify the earth and make it like the Garden of Eden. But what is the disposition of the people? It is true we are in advance of the world, but we are only just commencing to learn the things of God. I know that some say the revelations upon these points are not given by way of commandment. Very well, but we are commanded to observe every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

I cannot say that my family is clear in this respect. They want a little of this and a little of that that it is not wise to use, and I suppose it is the same in other families. Every man, I expect, indulges his wife and children and allows them to take this or that when he knows it is not the best for them. But we, in and of ourselves, ought to be independent; every son and daughter in Israel should say, we will keep the “Word of Wisdom” independent of father, mother, or any elder in the church; we know what is right and we will do it. By so doing this people will increase health in their systems, and the destroying angel, when he comes along, will pass them by. Will you take this course? I, as the leader and dictator of this people, feel disgraced when I think they are becoming slothful and negligent and are returning to their former foolish and useless habits; and, refusing to hearken to the least counsel, are turning away to the counsel of the Evil One and doing that which leads to death.

I want to say a few words still further to the people with regard to their faith in temporal things. If the people called Latter-day Saints do not become one in temporal things as they are in spiritual things, they will not redeem and build up the Zion of God upon the earth. This cooperative movement is a stepping stone. We say to the people, take advantage of it, it is your privilege. Instead of giving it into the hands of a few individuals to make their hundreds and thousands, let the people, generally, enjoy the benefit arising from the sale of merchandise. I have already told you that this will stop the operations of many little traders, but it will make them producers as well as consumers. You will find that if the people unitedly hearken to the counsel that is given them, it will not be long before the hats, caps, bonnets, boots and shoes, pants, coats, vests and underclothing of this entire community will all be made in our midst. What next? Shall we have to run to London, Paris, or New York for the fashions? When I see the disposition among the Latter-day Saints to follow the fashions and customs of the world, I think, why do you stay here? You had better go back again. I am tired of this everlasting ding-dong about fashions. If I happen to have a coat on that is not what is called fashionable, some of my wives will be sure to say, “Husband, or Mr. President, may I give this away;” or, “I wish it was out of sight, it is not fashionable.” If I were to tell the truth I should say, who cares for the fashions of the world? I do not; if I get anything that is comfortable and sits well, and suits my system, it is all I ask. I do not care who wears a bonnet that is six feet above the head behind, twelve feet in front, or that sits close to the crown of her head, or whether it is three straws thrown over the head with ribbons to them. But to see a people who say, “We are the teachers of life and salvation,” and yet are anxious to follow the nasty, pernicious fashions of the day, I say it is too insipid to talk or think about. It is beneath the character of the Latter-day Saints that they should have no more independence of mind or feeling than to follow after the groveling customs and fashions of a poor, miserable, wicked world. All who do not want to sustain cooperation and fall into the ranks of improvement, and endeavor to improve themselves by every good book and then by every principle that has been received from heaven, had better go back to England, Ireland, France, Scandinavia, or the Eastern States; we do not care where you go, if you will only go.

I will take up my text again—I am responsible for the doctrine I teach. I will say to this people, as I have said ever since I commenced to lift up my voice to the inhabitants of the earth, I will read to them out of the Book of Life. If they will hear it, well; if they will not, I am clear of their blood. I read to the Latter-day Saints out of the Book of Life, and I can give them lessons that will lead them back to the presence of God in the celestial kingdom. But oh, the slothfulness, negligence, and the low, groveling feelings in the midst of this people are a disgrace to them. Will we improve? Yes, let us try and redeem the time and commence anew.

Yesterday we explained a little with regard to cooperation; we can explain just as far as the people wish to hear and know. Those who rise up against this or any other measure do it because darkness and the spirit of the Evil One reign within them. There is not a man and woman in this Church and Kingdom, who is in possession of the Holy Ghost, but what will lift up their hands to heaven and say, “Blessed be God, there is somebody to lead and improve the people,” when they contemplate this movement and the results it will work out; and they who fight against it and feel to murmur are actuated by a spirit from beneath.

I frequently think of the difference between the power of God and the power of the devil. To illustrate, here is a structure in which we can be seated comfortably, protected from the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Now, it required labor, mechanical skill and ingenuity and faithfulness and diligence to erect this building, but any poor, miserable fool or devil can set fire to it and destroy it. That is just what the devil can do, but he never can build anything. The difference between God and the devil is that God creates and organizes, while the whole study of the devil is to destroy. Everyone that follows the evil inclinations of his own natural evil heart, is going to destruction, and sooner or later he will be no more. I pray you Latter-day Saints to live your religion. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.

I have it in my mind to say a few words upon cooperation. I will quote a saying of one, whose partial history is given to us in the New Testament. The saying is this, “my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” The knowledge I have gained in my private experience proves to me that there is not a man or woman, community or family, but what, if they will hearken to the council that God gives them, can do better in everything, spiritual or temporal, than they can if they take their own way.

Taking up the system of our cooperative method of merchandising, it gives to the people ease and money. They are not obliged to run a mile or two through the mud to buy a yard of ribbon, they have it in their own Ward, and they can purchase it twenty or thirty percent cheaper than they ever could before. I know it is frequently said by our Elders when any new system is introduced to the people, “put down your names, hand over your money, and if you are required to pay two dollars for that which is worth only one, do it and ask no questions.” I have never requested my brethren and sisters to act in any such way. I want their eyes opened and their understandings enlightened; I wish them to know and understand their business transactions and everything they do just as perfectly as a woman knows how to wash dishes, sweep a room, make a bed or bake a cake. I want it to be just as familiar to the brethren as to make a pair of shoes, to sow and gather their grain or any other portion of their ordinary labor. I do not ask any of you to go blindfolded into any matters or any system of business whatever; instead of that I prefer that you should know and understand all about it. I wish to enlighten your minds a little with regard to the system of merchandising which has heretofore prevailed in this Territory.

There is quite a number of the community who were acquainted with the first merchants who came here. It is true that a few of our own brethren brought a few goods; but the first merchants who came here were Livingston and Kinkead. They, to my certain knowledge, commenced by selling the goods they brought at from two to five hundred percent above cost. There were a few articles, with the real value of which everybody was acquainted, that they did not put quite so high; but just as quick as they came to a piece of goods, the value of which everybody did not understand, the people might look out for the five hundred percent. They continued their operations here until they made hundreds of thousands of dollars. I do not think I ever heard a person, professing to be a Latter-day Saint, complain of those merchants. Others followed them. They came here, commenced their trade and made money, in fact we poured it into their laps. I recollect once going into the store of Livingston and Kinkead, and there being a press of people in the store, I passed behind one of the counters. I saw several brass kettles under it, full of gold pieces—sovereigns, eagles, half eagles, etc. One of the men shouted, “Bring another brass kettle.” They did so, and set it down, and the gold was thrown into it, “chink,” “chink,” “chink,” until, in a short time it was filled. I saw this; the whole drift of the people was to get rid of their money. I have heard more complaints the last few weeks about the cooperative movement than I ever heard before about merchandising.

Now, I will tell you the facts about this movement. We started the cooperative system here when we thought we would wait no longer; we opened the Wholesale Cooperative Store, and since that, retail stores have been established, although some of the latter were opened before the Wholesale store was opened. I know this, that as soon as this movement was commenced the price of goods came down from twenty to thirty percent. I recollect very well, after our vote last October Conference, that it was soon buzzed around, “Why you can get calico down street at eighteen, and seventeen cents a yard;” and it came down to sixteen. But when it came down to sixteen cents, who had a chance to buy any? Why nobody, unless it was just a few yards that were sold to them as a favor. But when it came to the Wholesale Cooperative Store the price was put at sixteen cents, and retail stores are selling it today at seventeen and a half or eighteen cents a yard. I will tell you that which I expect will hurt the feelings of many of you: Among this people, called Latter-day Saints, when the devil has got the crowns, sovereigns, guineas and the twenty dollar pieces, it has been all right; but let the Lord get a sixpence and there is an eternal grunt about it.

I will relate a little circumstance in relation to cooperation at Lehi. Five months after they had commenced their retail store on this cooperative system there, they struck a dividend to see what they had made; and they found that every man who had paid in twenty-five dollars—the price of a share, had a few cents over twenty-eight dollars handed back or credited to him. Is not this cruel? Is not this a shame? It is ridiculous to think that they are making money so fast. Did they sell their goods cheaper than the people of Lehi could buy them before? Yes. Did they fetch the goods to them? O, yes, and yet they made money. A few weeks ago I was in the Wholesale Store in this city, and I was asking a brother from American Fork how cooperation worked there; and I learned that three months after commencing every man who had put in five dollars, or twenty-five dollars had that amount handed back to him and still had his capital stock in the Institution; and still they had sold their goods cheaper than anybody else had ever sold them there.

The question may arise with some how can this be? I will tell you how it is: our own merchants make a calculation of charging you just fifty percent on their staple goods, and from one hundred to five hundred on their fancy goods. Now these Cooperative Stores sell their goods for twenty percent less than they can be bought from the merchants; and although they sell at a lower rate, the reason is they recruit their stock of goods every week if necessary, while our merchants, up till very recently, did it only about once a year. These little stores at American Fork, Lehi, Provo, and other wards and places around, can drive their teams here in a day and replenish their stocks of goods, and that enables them to turn over their money quickly; and if they put on six or eight percent instead of fifty, by turning their money over every week, in about twelve weeks they make a dollar double itself. That comes the nearest keeping the cake and eating it of anything I know. I have heard people say you cannot do that, but those who are investing their little means in these stores are actually doing it.

I know that many of our traders in this city are feeling very bad and sore over this. They say, “you are taking the bread out of our mouths.” We wish to do it, for they have made themselves rich. Take my community, three-eighths of whom are living on the labor of the remaining five-eighths, and you will find the few are living on the many. Take the whole world, and comparatively few of its inhabitants are producers. If the members of this community wish to get rich and to enjoy the fruits of the earth they must be producers as well as consumers.

As to these little traders, we are going to shut them off. We feel a little sorry for them. Some of them have but just commenced their trad– ing operations, and they want to keep them up. They have made, perhaps, a few hundred dollars, and they would like to continue so as to make a few thousands; and then they would want scores of thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Instead of trading we want them to go into some other branches of business. Do you say, what business? Why, some of them may go to raising broom corn to supply the Territory with brooms, instead of bringing them from the States. Others may go to raising sugar cane, and thus supply the Territory with a good sweet; we have to send to the States for our sugar now. We will get some more of them to gathering up hides and making them into leather, and manufacturing that leather into boots and shoes; this will be far more profitable than letting hundreds and thousands of hides go to waste as they have done. Others may go and make baskets; we do not care what they go at, provided they produce that which will prove of general benefit. Those who are able can erect woolen factories, get a few spindles, raise sheep and manufacture the wool. Others may raise flax and manufacture that into linen cloth, that we may not be under the necessity of sending abroad for it. If we go on in this way, we shall turn these little traders into producers, which will help to enrich the entire people.

Another thing I will say with regard to our trading. Our Female Relief Societies are doing immense good now, but they can take hold and do all the trading for these wards just as well as to keep a big loafer to do it. It is always disgusting to me to see a big, fat, lubberly fellow handing out calicoes and measuring ribbon; I would rather see the ladies do it. The ladies can learn to keep books as well as the men; we have some few, already, who are just as good accountants as any of our brethren. Why not teach more to keep books and sell goods, and let them do this business, and let the men go to raising sheep, wheat, or cattle, or go and do something or other to beautify the earth and help to make it like the Garden of Eden, instead of spending their time in a lazy, loafing manner?

Now, if you think this is speculation, brethren and sisters, just enter into it for it is the best speculation that has been got up for a great while. I recollect the people used to say we were speculating when we were preaching the Gospel. They accused “Joe Smith,” as they called him, of being a speculator and a money digger.” I acknowledged then, and I acknowledge now, that I am engaged in the greatest speculation a man can be engaged in. The best business to pursue that was ever introduced on the face of the earth is to follow the path of eternal life. Why, it gives us fathers, mothers, wives, friends, houses and lands. Jesus said they who followed Him would have to forsake these things. I reckon some of us have done it already; and all who will live faithful, may have the privilege of so doing. Many of this people have sacrificed all they possessed on this earth, over and over again, for the truth’s sake; and if Jesus gave us the truth in relation to this, we shall be entitled to fathers, mothers, wives, children, gold and silver, houses, lands and possessions a hundred fold. But we do not want the spirit of the world with all this. What is the advantage of following the path of life? It makes good neighbors, and fills everybody with peace, joy and contentment. Is there contention in a family that follows in the path of eter– nal life? Not the least. Is there quarrelling among neighbors where this course is followed? No. Any going to law one with another? Such a thing is unknown. I say praise to the Latter-day Saints, as far as these things are concerned.

What I have in my mind with regard to this cooperative business is this—There are very few people who cannot get twenty-five dollars to put into one of these cooperative stores. There are hundreds and thousands of women who, by prudence and industry, can obtain this sum. And we say to you put your capital into one of these stores. What for? To bring you interest for your money. Put your time and talents to usury. We have the parable before us. If we have one, two, three or five talents, of what advantage will they be if we wrap them in a napkin and lay them away? None at all. Put them out to usury. These cooperative stores are instituted to give the poor a little advantage as well as the rich. I have said to my brethren, in starting these stores in different places, “If you want help I will find means to put in to give the thing a start;” but I have only found two places in the Territory in which they were willing to sell me stock—Provo, where they wanted a wholesale store, and the wholesale store in this city. Go to this ward or the other and the answer is invariably, “we want no more means, we can get all we need.” They did not think they could before starting. I recollect the Tenth Ward in this city had but seven hundred dollars to start with; in two or three weeks after they commenced I asked some of the brethren how they were prospering, and was told they had a thousand dollars’ worth of goods on the shelves and money in the drawer and owed nothing. This is considered one of the poorest wards in the city, but it is not so.

Now take upon you this yoke; it is a great deal easier than to pay so much more for goods as you have been doing. I say the “yoke is easy and the burden is light” and we can bear it. If we will work unitedly, we can work ourselves into wealth, health, prosperity and power, and this is required of us. It is the duty of a Saint of God to gain all the influence he can on this earth, and to use every particle of that influence to do good. If this is not his duty, I do not understand what the duty of man is. I thank you for your attention, brethren and sisters. God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Jan. 10th, 1869.

If the congregation can bear with me a few minutes I have a few reflections to offer with regard to our religion. It is a matter that should occupy the attention of the wise, the good and the noble. When we converse, in public or private, on the religion we profess, we are apt to regard it as something strange, new; something unheard of before, and as being unworthy of the attention of the wise and to be passed by by the great and noble. These reflections I have, and I presume others have them. Why is it so? The question can be readily answered by saying that the natural man is at enmity with God. That fallen nature in everyone is naturally opposed, inherently, through the fall, to God and to His Kingdom, and wants nothing to do with them. Is there anything connected with our religion that is derogatory to the character of the most refined? No, there is not. Though there may be good morals taught in the world our religion strengthens that which is good and adds to it, and is calculated to benefit everyone. It reaches after every condition of the human family from the time that Adam came to the earth to the latest of his posterity, no matter where they are. It calls upon those who are now here in the flesh and commends itself to the good. Are the nations wise? Admit that they are, what would the Gospel of the Son of God do for them? Make them wiser. Are the people good? O yes, we say they are. What would the Gospel do for them? Make them better. It will add virtue to virtue, knowledge to knowledge, holiness to holiness, godliness to godliness, brotherly kindness to brotherly kindness, charity to charity and every qualification calculated to ennoble, benefit and exalt the intelligence that is now upon the earth, even into the presence of our Father. Now we possess intelligence as nations, as individuals, as rulers and as ruled, as ministers, as speakers, as preachers and as people. We belong to that family that is crowned with intelligence, the highest there is in the eternities.

Is there anything in our religion that should startle the nations of the earth? No, there is not, not the least thing in the world. And yet we talk about it as though the people would be struck with wonder if we should tell them what it is. Why it is nothing more than to receive the things of God—the knowledge that God possesses, and by which He has been crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives; the knowledge that is possessed by the angels and by those who live in the presence of the Father; to receive of that knowledge, to dispense it to others, and through this to acquire every qualification necessary to prepare us to enter again into His presence. Is there anything very starting about this? No, there is not. Not alluding to anything that has been said here, we always talk and feel as though there is something or other about the Gospel of the Son of God that the people cannot bear. What is it? Truth. “What caused the Latter-day Saints to embrace the Gospel?” is a question that has been asked your humble servant many times. The answer is very obvious and clear—because it is true. The very reason why I embraced the Gospel is because it contained all truth. Is there anything so startling about this to men and women, intelligent beings, who are fashioned after the very image, and who are the children of our Father and God, whom we worship and who sits enthroned in yonder heavens and who rules, governs and controls all things? I pause upon this; He controls all that He can control. He will not control you and myself in our own agency; but He will control and govern and bring forth the results of our acts, let them be good or evil.

We are the offspring of that Being, each and every one of us, no matter who we are. If we go to the West, East, North or South or to the uttermost parts of the earth, and gather up the human family and bring them here, they are the offspring of that Being we worship as God. Is this very strange? Is this anything that should be very startling to the minds of any people on the face of the earth? I ask you, my brethren and sisters, is there anything so very strange in this? And yet, perhaps, the most of us who are now here in this room today, mingle with those who fear not God nor regard His word in the least, and we would almost be ashamed to acknowledge that we are professors of religion, that we are Latter-day Saints, that we believe in Jesus Christ, that we have been baptized for the remission of our sins and that we believe in the ordinances of the House of God. How is it with each and every one of you on this point?

We see the inhabitants of the earth are filled with intelligence. Look at the progress made during the past few years in the sciences, and perhaps we may say, in some particulars, in the arts; but especially in the sciences. From whom has this knowledge been obtained? Has man, of himself, searched out the improvements by which the human race is now so much benefited and blessed? No, he has not. Where did he get it? It came from Him who is the giver of every good and perfect gift, no matter what it is, if it be to make any one of these my sisters excel as a wise and discreet housekeeper even that knowledge comes from Him. We have received our lives and everything that tends to life and salvation, to truth and holiness; everything pertaining to the things of God, in the heavens, on the earth, all mechanism, every improvement that is made has its source with God.

Now what is there about our religion that should be very startling? We say we have progressed; so we have. We say the religion we have embraced will increase and extend on the earth. This I believe myself, but whether we shall be benefited by it or not depends entirely upon our faithfulness to it. Do you think the Lord Almighty will reveal the great improvements in the arts and sciences which are being constantly made known and will not revive a pure religion? If any man imagines that with the mighty strides which the sciences have been making for a few years past, there will be no improvement in religion that man is vain in his imagination. God will improve the religion of the nations of the earth in proportion to the improvement made in the sciences. This is true whether you believe it or not. The Lord has commenced the work, and it is a marvelous one.

Let me ask my brethren and sisters around me, Can you tell when the first carding machine was brought to America? Do you remember, my aged brethren and sisters, when you used to have to card your cotton and wool and tow by hand? Yes, many of you, Americans, remember it; (it is not so with our foreign brethren;) but some of the Americans here can remember when there was no such thing on the continent of America as a carding machine. Yet now look into the houses of the poorest sisters we have and see the crockery, and fine linen with which they can spread and adorn their tables! How was it seventy years ago? It is only a little over a hundred years since they first made crockery in England, and since I can remember the people used to eat off wooden plates. But see the advancement and improvement the Lord has conferred on the children of men, and then say if you think He is not going to improve their morals and their religion. It is a mistaken idea to suppose that He will not. He will improve us in every sense of the word, in every trait of life, and bring us up to the wisdom He designs to bestow upon His children here on the earth. If we reject this truth and knowledge we shall go back to ignorance. Let the inhabitants of the earth join hands now to obliterate this people called Latter-day Saints and their religion from the earth, and they will go to heathenism; but let them favor, foster, nourish and cherish them, and the sciences will ad– vance with double strides from what they have hitherto. These are a few of my reflections.

As to the morals of the world, I have said it a great many times and still say that there are just as good men and women on the earth in other societies and communities as we have here, as far as they understand; and we are after such ones.

Now, my brethren and sisters, be encouraged, and if you meet with a gentleman, do not say, “well, I think he does not profess religion, and it will not do for me to say I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” but take a pride in acknowledging the Savior. Train and educate yourselves until you will take a pride in acknowledging God the Author of all. Take a pride in the religion that makes you pure and holy, and that produces in the heart of every individual who embraces it a feeling to be truthful in every word he speaks, to be honest in every act he performs, in all his dealings with his neighbors. Take a pride in this and fear not the wicked.

I have often said, and I can say it now in truth, there is not a wicked man on the face of the earth but what reveres a pure servant of God. They may not acknowledge it with their organs of speech, but in their hearts, sentiments, and feelings they revere such a character. When they see a pure and holy man or woman, say they, “I wish I was as good as you are.” Then let us take a pride in acknowledging our religion and living it, by being virtuous, true and good in everything, and then take pride in educating your minds until you can conquer and control yourselves in everything. Educate your children in all the knowledge the world can give them. God has given it to the world, it is all His. Every true principle, every true science, every art, and all the knowledge that men possess, or that they ever did or ever will possess is from God. We should take pains and pride to instill this knowledge into the minds of our neighbors, and our brethren, and rear our children so that the learning and education of the world may be theirs, and that virtue, truth and holiness may crown their lives that they may be saved in the Kingdom of God.

May the Lord help us to do so. Amen.

By President Brigham Young, at the Funeral of the Late President Daniel Spencer, on Thursday, December 10th, 1868, at the 13th Ward Assembly Rooms, Great Salt Lake City.

“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord: yea, saith the spirit, henceforth they rest from their labors;” or, in other words, blessed are those who have received the Priesthood of the Son of God, and have honored it in their lives. Those who have honored their calling and Priesthood to the end die in the Lord, and their works do follow them. Our brother has lived faithful during his life, and has gone to his rest. We do not mourn as others do. We can truly say that we have a hope—a knowledge. The way of life and salvation has been revealed to us, giving us knowledge of the present and future. We rejoice. Shall we rejoice that we have the opportunity of paying the last respects due to this lifeless clay, which a few days ago was alive and active, full of spirit, attending the High Council, giving decisions full of knowledge? Yes, we will rejoice. It is a matter of rejoicing more than the day of his birth. It is true it is grievous to part with our friends. We are creatures of passion, of sympathy, of love, and it is painful for us to part with our friends. We would keep them in the mortal house, though they should suffer pain. Are we not selfish in this? Should we not rather rejoice at the departure of those whose lives have been devoted to doing good, to a good old age? Brother Spencer has lived beyond what is counted to be the common age of man some four or five years; his judgment was as active as it was twenty-five years ago. He has been faithful in this holy war. He instructed all with whom he met in the way of life. He never gave counsel but what marked the way to life everlasting.

I say to the wives and children and relations, we have more reason to rejoice for Daniel Spencer today, than on any day of his mortal life. He lives—he has gone on a mission. We are taking steps to the very place he has gone to. That which was made subject to sin through the fall, has fled to its eternal place. This is only a mystery to those who do not understand. But we have joy in the dissolution of the body. While the spirit remains in the body, it is liable to sin and overthrow. We are only preserved by the grace of God and our own faithfulness. Brother Spencer was, while in the body, subject to temptations and the vanities that are in the world. So with us. That silent clay is consigned to rest, and the spirit is free—gone to God who gave it. How far had he to go to get to the Lord? According to the ancients, he is dwelling there. David says, “If I were to flee to the uttermost parts of the earth, thou art there.” God is everywhere by His Spirit, and his spirit is free—it can see the Lord as well in this room as to travel millions of miles away. If he is watching us now, he has not the privilege of speaking to us. God has placed the spirits of the departed subject to bounds, and they are controlled by certain laws. They have not the privilege of joining with us in our mental exercises; yet brother Spencer is in the presence of the Lord. Shall we be in the presence of God, as brother Spencer is? Yes, if we are faithful, for we have the privilege of being crowned with immortality and eternal lives. All people have their guardian angels. Whether our departed dead guard us is not for me to say. I can say we have our guardian angels.

I say to the family of brother Spencer, there is no cause to mourn. This body is sown in mortality. This tabernacle is from the elements of the earth. We are of the earth, earthy, yet this tabernacle, through faithfulness whilst here in the flesh, has the promise of a glorious resurrection. If the spirit brought into subjection the whole man, bringing every portion of the flesh subject to the law of God, it has the promise of a resurrection. All the component parts of this body, which now lies before us, will be resurrected, and be prepared to enter into the presence of the Father and the Son. Some have supposed that it matters not what particles we receive again. In this they are mistaken. The parts which have been honored by the faithfulness of the spirit in this life will be joined in the life to come.

It has been the idea of many that the spirit goes directly to God who gave it. Does it remain there? Go on the great battlefield of the past, and if they could be seen the spirits of the slain are hovering around their dust. They stay about this earth until there is another call for them. The kingdom and place where brother Spencer is called to dwell, he will be in. Every departed spirit is subject to the laws that govern the spirit world. What do we gain by being faithful to the Gospel of the Son of God? We gain life and salvation. Salvation in this world and the world to come. When they leave the body those spirits are free from the power of the enemy. There are wicked men in the spirit world. Millions of them will have the privilege of receiving the Gospel in the spirit, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh, and no doubt but many will reject the Gospel there. Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison. The faithful Elders who leave this world will preach to the spirits in the spirit world. In that world there are millions and millions to every Elder who leaves here, and yet every spirit will be preached to that has had a tabernacle on the earth and become accountable.

This is the plan of salvation. Jesus will never cease his work until all are brought up to the enjoyment of a kingdom in the mansions of his Father, where there are many kingdoms and many glories, to suit the works and faithfulness of all men that have lived on the earth. Some will obey the celestial law and receive of its glory, some will abide the terrestrial and some the telestial, and others will receive a glory. Our brother is living today, and is bright with intelligence to preach the Gospel in the spirit world. We know where his remains are. They are here. But where is his spirit? He is in the line of his duty, and prepared to do more good than if he were upon the earth. As quickly as the spirit is unlocked from this house of clay, it is free to travel with lightning speed to any planet, or fixed star, or to the uttermost part of the earth, or to the depths of the sea, according to the will of Him who dictates. Every faithful man’s labor will continue as long as the labor of Jesus, until all things are redeemed that can be re– deemed, and presented to the Father. There is a great work before us. We plant the seed in the ground and it comes forth, being warmed by the sun and nourished by the earth. By the same great laws of God the earth and its fullness have been produced, giving various degrees of intelligence. The Lord is raising a crop, and He will continue to labor until the work is finished.

May we all be faithful as brother Spencer was. I say to his family, God bless you. You have cause to rejoice. In 1840 he was ready to go into the grave with consumption, but he embraced the Gospel, health was restored to him, and he has lived to a good old age and has done a good work. May God bless you. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Nov. 29th, 1868.

To the Latter-day Saints the Gospel of life and salvation is worthy of particular attention. In my reflections upon the great work that the Lord has commenced, its operations appear marvelous to me. I look upon those who have separated themselves from sin with a great deal of pleasure and delight; they are a very peculiar people. When the elders go and preach the Gospel, all who have the privilege of hearing, with a very few exceptions, are convinced of its truth in a greater or smaller degree. Perhaps there may be a few who have received traditions to that degree that the truth cannot find the way to their hearts; but such persons are very rare. When a man preaches the Gospel by the power of God sent down from heaven, it is hard for me to believe that they who hear him are not convinced of its truth. Then, when I look upon the few of the blood of Ephraim scattered among the people who have the courage, fortitude and self-will to acknowledge the truth of the Gospel and to yield obedience to it, I think they are very peculiarly organized.

This Gospel is adapted to the capacity of the whole human family. Why are the principles of truth and the people whom embrace them so ridiculed? I can attribute it to nothing but sin, or a determination to do that which is wrong. Go to these portions of the world where the El– ders have labored their lives almost out to preach to the people the words of eternal life and to put them in possession of that which would save them here and hereafter, and it has been the fact that hardly a word of truth has been told about us. This is astonishing. And this work, according to the words of the prophet, is “a marvelous work and a wonder.” It appears to me that if the human family had the least conception of the principles of life and salvation, they would not do as they do, or they must believe that they would be chastened, like disobedient children, who many times, seemingly, are disobedient expressly to be corrected. There is no need of this, especially among the Latter-day Saints. What few words I have to say to them is upon this wise—be perfect, wise, pure, holy, and fear and revere the word of the Lord, His commandments and requirements.

When we look at the Latter-day Saints we ask, is there any necessity of their being persecuted? Yes, if they are disobedient. Is there any necessity of chastening a son or a daughter? Yes, if they are disobedient. But suppose they are perfectly obedient to every requirement of their parents, is there any necessity of chastening them then? If there is, I do not understand the principle of it. I have not yet been able to see the necessity of chastening an obedient child, neither have I been able to see the necessity of chastisement from the Lord upon a people who are perfectly obedient. Have this people been chastened? Yes, they have.

Although we preach the Gospel of life and salvation to the inhabitants of the earth, and tell them that this Gospel is calculated to save every son and daughter of Adam and Eve who will hearken to it, whether it be those who have lived, those who are now living, or those who may hereafter live, will the present generation have this Gospel? No, they will not. Why? Because they have so much religion already that they do not know what to do with it. I have often said to them, “If you will not believe the Gospel, because you say you have religion already, will you not please repent of your religion?” Is there any need for them to repent of their religion? Yes. Why? Because it is not correct. The whole world of mankind is full of religion, and if they do not worship one object they worship another. It is just as natural for the children of men to worship and revere something as it is to breathe, hence the Christian world is full of religion, and it is the same with the heathen world. We, too, have our religion, and it is adapted to the capacity of the whole human family. It does not send a portion of the people to howl in torment forever and ever, but it reaches after the last son and daughter of Adam and Eve, and will pluck them from the prison, unlock the doors, and burst the bonds and bring forth every soul who will receive salvation.

I ask the nations of the earth what objection is there to this? “Oh,” say they, “you are different from us.” How different? “Why you have many doctrines we do not believe in.” We cannot help it. We have taken this book, called the Old and the New Testament for our standard. We believe this book and receive it as the word of the Lord. Not but there are many words in this book that are not the words of the Lord, but that which came from the heavens, and which the Lord has delivered to us, we receive, and especially the sayings of the Savior. We receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and we believe in Him as our Savior. There are many persons in this city who ridicule the idea that Jesus was the Christ; but take those very individuals, both male and female, and let them square their course through life in all respects according to the words of the Savior, and would they not be better men and women than they now are? Yes, they would. Then where is the harm or evil of believing in a character whose doctrine from beginning to end is perfectly pure and holy? Although the children of Judah, universally, and many others ridicule the idea that Jesus is the Christ, yet take the doctrines that He taught His disciples and which they preached to the people, and endeavored to practice, and let any people live in accordance with them, and you will find a pure, holy and perfect community. There would be no wars, bloodshed nor contention among them as nations, communities, neighborhoods and families.

It has been said here that there are some whose feelings cannot accede to all that is taught by the Latter-day Saints. But let me say there never was a doctrine taught by Jesus Christ and His apostles, by the prophets before them, or by Joseph Smith and this people, but what, if followed out, brings peace to every family and individual who observes it. Do we enjoy peace? A great many do not. What is the reason? Because they do not faithfully carry out those doctrines.

I am going to ask a question—Is there any necessity, my brethren and sisters, that you and I should suffer persecution to perfect us? Are we willing to be obedient, and to sanctify ourselves and to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts without the rod of chastisement? If we are, we shall bring in the doctrine that has been taught to the people on temporal matters. We say, and profess, that we are one, and in a great measure we are. In our religious and political sentiments we are one; but in the pursuit of life and happiness, as individuals and families, we are not one. Now, if we will believe the Gospel, which can do no harm to anyone—I say this for all ears—it does not contain a single doctrine but what is true. You may ask the question: Has no one Elder in Israel ever taught false doctrine? Yes, but no man has who has been authorized to teach, guide and direct the Saints. Did Jesus, Peter, James, John or Joseph Smith ever teach a false or incorrect doctrine? Not that you or I know of; we cannot find it. Now, if we have got correct doctrines, and will fashion our lives by them we may sanctify ourselves without being chastened.

We look forward to the day when this people will be pure, holy and sanctified, and when we will be prepared to build up Zion. Are we prepared now? No, we are not. We are only professedly Latter-day Saints; practically, we are only so in part. To be a Saint is to be as Jesus was; to be assimilated to the spirit and character which He exhibited while here on earth. Now, I exhort the Latter-day Saints to live so that each and everyone may enjoy the spirit of the Lord Jesus day by day, that we may be one in all things, in temporal matters as well as spiritual.

As I have but a few minutes that I want to speak, I shall now come to temporal matters. You and I wish to live, and to have the privilege of pursuing, unmolested, the path that leads to happiness. Now, I cannot say it of you all, but I can of a few here, that they have been trying to serve the Lord for nearly forty years. During that period we have passed through scenes we do not wish to behold again. Five times many of us here have been broken up, and have left our houses, gardens, farms, orchards, vineyards and all we had, and have had to run for our lives. What for? Because we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ—and tried to practice the doctrine He taught. For anything else? No. Were all perfect? No. Did some sin? O, yes, we were all sinners. Why were we obliged to leave our homes? Did we disturb our neighbors, or pilfer and purloin their substance? No. What did we do? We taught the Gospel of life and salvation. Not that all were righteous, but our sins—of worldly-mindedness, covetousness and selfishness—were between ourselves and our God, and for this the Lord suffered us to be chastened. The faith that we profess is the best and the only doctrine calculated to save the children of men.

I say, five times some of this people have been broken up, and the last time, when we left the State of Illinois, we cut our road through the timber, we hunted our path over the prairies, and dug our roads through the canyons, for fourteen hundred miles to this place, because we were obliged to go somewhere.

Our prophet, before us, told us that if we could get out of the way of Christianity, so called, and civilization, we could serve God and build up His kingdom, and we could be happy. We came here to these isolated and lonely valleys. Who led us here? Did our nation hold out a fostering hand to us? No: to this day they never gave us a dollar; but now we expect they will give us our homesteads here. Have the wicked become more righteous? No. Has the world become more enlightened in the things of God? No, it has not; and the enmity that did exist, exists still, and has grown, increased and strengthened, and this warfare between the power of the devil and the power of Jesus Christ will continue until Jesus obtains possession of the kingdom. These words are meant for the ears of all, both Saints and sinners.

Did we ask any of the outside merchants in this City to come here? They are called “gentiles,” but we do not know whether they are “gentiles” or not, for a gentile is one who has none of the blood of Israel within him. There may be some of this class among the Israelites. But what do these outsiders follow us up for? They say “we know you Latter-day Saints are a very nice people, very kind, very free, generous and benevolent; we know you believe in helping the stranger, and that is not all, we know you believe in giving all your substance to your enemies.” Is this proved? Yes, right here before our eyes. Now, I would say to every man and woman on the earth if I could speak to them, it is no matter what men say, but it is how they say it, I will tell you what we want—and we know what you want—we want the privilege of building up the kingdom of God on the earth, and of living in peace one with another. We want our streets so that we can traverse them in safety by day or by night, and so that if a midwife is called up at midnight, or one o’clock in the morning to go to a neighbor’s house she can go there without being plundered or destroyed before she gets to the place of her destination. And if our daughters are out visiting until nine, ten, eleven or twelve o’clock at night, that they can pass along these streets without molestation. We want a community that does not take the name of God in vain; that does not lie, or purloin that which is not their own, and that will live day by day, week by week and year by year in perfect peace. This is not according to the feelings of a great many, they would rather see quarrelling and strife. I have learned of so many facts that exist in the world in relation to contentions, speaking of them in a family capacity, that to my certain knowledge there is more there with but one wife than here where there are ten, where this obnoxious doctrine our brother has just referred to is practiced. So don’t worry about contentions any of you, for they exist all over the world. Look at the kings and queens, and then at the lower classes; and from them to the House of Representatives, the lords, dukes, knights and every grand character you can mention or think of, and how do they live? We know how they live, they live in jeopardy, in fear, and jealousy, which is the mother of torment. And the inhabitants of the earth are jealous of one another, and they have reason to be. Have we any facts in the case? Yes, thousands of them, all over the world. Take the king upon his throne, he must pay a doctor more than anybody else, or he will be poisoned to death. It is so with the queens, if they have not power to buy everybody around them there is no knowing what day poison will be put into their coffee or their tea or some of their food. If the husband steps out of doors, she don’t know where he is; and if the lady is left alone in the house or rides out, the husband does not know where she is. But you come to the Saints and you know about them. If we send an Elder to preach the Gospel and he travels the earth over, when he returns we know where he has been and what he has been doing, and if he has been guilty of that crime to which the world is so much addicted he cannot keep it; he must confess it; then he is not a fit character to be a member of the Church or an Elder in Israel, and we deprive him of his standing and license. But you take an Elder in Israel who honors his calling, and though he may travel the world over, his wife, at home says: “I am perfectly satisfied with regard to my husband, he would suffer his head to be taken from his shoulders before he would violate his covenants with me, they are sacred before God.” It is so with our women as well as our men; it is so with Israel in the latter days. Here I pause, and say, not with all Israel.

Our sisters need not be worried about any doctrine. Brother Penrose said it would be better for them if they believed in the doctrine of polygamy. But they do believe it; they know it is true, and that is their torment. It perplexes and annoys many of them because they are not sanctified by the spirit of it; if they were there would be no trouble. I want to say this much—the sisters do believe it. Where is the proof? You take a woman in this Church who does not believe in the doctrine of celestial marriage or plurality of wives, and she does not believe anything at all about the Gospel, and she will soon manifest this by her unwise course, and by and by she drops off and away she goes. But our sisters believe and know that this doctrine is true, and consequently they feel bound to abide it.

Now, I will return to my remarks about our present condition. We do not wish to be broken up and compelled to leave our homes again. What do you want, outsiders? You want all the money the “Mormons” can make. I do not blame you for it, I never did. It is reasonable and right, and you are as much entitled to it as to any other money you can get. But we are not going to let you have it. Is there any harm in this? “Exclusive,” are we? We are not half exclusive enough. There is no other way to save this people from being broken up again than by trading with ourselves. I know this as well as I know the sun shines. I have passed through it, and know all about it. Now, I do not wish to see this people, of whom I am proud, and in whom I delight, pack up their goods and go off again. Where should we go? When we were in Missouri we had a place we could go to; when we were in Illinois we had a place we could go to, but now, that we have come here to the middle of this continent, where can we go? Is there another place we can go to?

If I were to say to the financial world, we have taken it into our heads to do our own internal business, and not foster those in our midst who are not of us, what would they say? They would say this is the first step the Latter-day Saints ever took that manifested wisdom. How exclusive do we want to be? Just enough so to sustain and preserve ourselves, to build our own houses, make our gardens and orchards, our carriages and our own places of amusement, like our theater. I built that theater to attract the young of our community and to provide amusement for the boys and girls, rather than have them running all over creation for recreation. Long before that was built I said to the bishops, “Get up your parties and pleasure grounds to amuse the people.” This brings my former experience and that of my friends right to me. Whenever we get into the kingdom of Heaven, where God and Christ dwell, we shall find something more to do than to “sit and sing ourselves away to everlasting bliss.” The mind of man is active, and we must have exercise and amusement for the mind as well as the body.

You go into that theater, and what is there behind the curtain that would disgrace the most perfect lady on the face of the earth? Not the least in the world. I have to watch some who come here as actors and actresses, and if they do not manifest the marks and traits of a lady and gentleman, I say, “Stop a moment. I want to tell you something. Your course will lead you wrong, and if you persist in it you cannot present yourself before the public.” So much for that.

We say to the bishops and to everybody, exercise yourselves, provide innocent amusement for the youth, attract the minds of the children, and get the upper hand of them and be on the lead. I see mothers right among us whose course is very imprudent with their children. You ought always to take the lead of your children in their minds and affections. Instead of being behind with the whip, always be in advance, then you can say, “Come along,” and you will have no use for the rod. They will delight to follow you, and will like your words and ways, because you are always comforting them and giving them pleasure and enjoyment. If they get a little naughty, stop them when they have gone far enough. We say to the brethren, humor your wives and children as far as you can, but when they transgress, and transcend certain bounds we want them to stop. If you are in the lead they will stop, they cannot run over you; but if you are behind they will run away from you. Husbands, always be in advance of your wives, and then if they undertake to do something that is very displeasing to you they will run right against you, and then stop and sit down because they can’t go any further. Do you know how to do this? “No,” says one, “I don’t know that I do.” Well, then, learn by searching after truth, according to the revelations given in this book. Search after truth in all good books, and learn the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God, and put them together and you will be able to benefit yourselves.

I will now say to my friends—and I call you all, and all mankind, friends, until you have proved yourselves enemies—you who do not belong to this Church, that we have got the Gospel of life and salvation. I do not say that we have a Gospel, but I say that we have the definite and only Gospel that ever was or ever will be that will save the children of men. Hearken to this every one of you, and all the inhabitants of the earth, and do not say, “you are Mormons, and we do not want to hear anything about you.” Wait until you have searched and researched and have obtained wisdom to understand what we preach, or to prove it to be untrue. If you cannot prove it untrue and are not disposed to receive it, let it alone. If it is the work of God, it will stand. What do you say, outsiders? What do you say, Christian world and heathen world? If we have the truth to present to you, which will do you good here and hereafter, which will save you today and tomorrow and every day, until it saves you in the kingdom of God and brings you to a perfect state of felicity and happiness in the presence of the Father, will you have it?

I want to say again to the brethren and sisters—and this is the great secret we are teaching in the School of the Prophets—be exclusive enough to sustain the kingdom of God. We want our means ourselves, and if we trade with outsiders at all we want it to be yonder at a distance, and not here. What do you say to this, friends? Is it wisdom? Try it, and see what you would do under the same circumstances. Have you been driven from your homes? Yes, there may be a few from the Southern States who have been driven from their homes and suffered the loss of all they had on earth; but it was not for their religion. We suffered at the hands of Missourians and Southerners for our religion; they have suffered for their wickedness. We have never suffered as they have. But we do not want to suffer again; we do not want to be driven from our homes again. We like this country, and we do not want to support any persons in our midst who will lay a foundation to overslaugh this people so that they will have to pull up stakes and leave. “A burnt child dreads the fire.” Do you know it? Put your hand in the fire until it has burned you severely, and it will cause you pain enough to remember it for years, and until you have forgotten that pain you will not want to put your hand in the fire again. But we did not put it there, somebody else did.

Have we not the right to our own money? We are not digging for gold and silver; we are not bringing a society here among whom you can hear shooting all night long through our streets, or cursing and swearing or fiddling and dancing. Do you want this “civilization,” outsiders? There may be a few who do not. I will tell you what the priests want. They want to see a groggery at the corner of every street, and houses of accommodation between and behind them, and they want to hear cursing and swearing, and they want to see drinking and carousing and the drunkard falling in the street and rolling in the mire, then they could come along with their long faces, crying, “Oh, what a sinful people!” We do not want any such thing. We want to see every countenance full of cheerfulness, and every eye bright with the hope of future happiness.

Do you suppose you can find a person on this earth who is not seeking for happiness? There may be a few who, if they are not seeking for happiness, are seeking to get rid of their misery. This makes me to think of one I heard of who committed suicide in New York, in one of those fine houses, which you would suppose was a palace, where ladies and gentlemen live in a perfect paradise, but which are in reality gambling houses. This individual that I heard of had played there all night, and in the morning, when his last dollar was gone, he leaned back on his seat and said, “I am played out,” and drawing a pistol from his pocket he shot himself and fell dead on the floor. This man sought to get rid of his misery.

The whole world are after happiness. It is not in gold and silver, but it is in peace and love. Did I say love? Yes. You watch your own feelings when you hear delightful sounds, for instance, or when you see anything beautiful. Are those feelings productive of misery? No, they produce happiness, peace and joy. Well, then, pursue and walk in that path that leads to that, and walk in it day by day. And you, sisters, cease trading with any man or being in this city or country who does not belong to the church. If you do not, we are going to cut you off from the church, for we are determined not to be driven or broken up again, and we are determined to deal with love and sustain our nation, our community. We mean to live here. We came 1,400 miles to get away from that power which is trying to get into our midst to break us up again. We have subdued the country and made it fruitful, and have fed hundreds of thousands passing on their way east and west, and we calculate to stay here if you will do as I tell you, and cease trading with those who are not of us. Do you suppose that Jesus did not understand the spirit and the feelings of the world when He said, “He who is not for us is against us.” Every man and woman of intelligence that ever was or ever will be upon the earth is either for God or against Him.

When I see the Latter-day Saints I see a motley mass of dispositions, a perfect curiosity. I was in a store not long since, and they asked my opinion with regard to the amount of trade that would be done this season providing we had plenty of goods. Said I, “you must find out how much money the Latter-day Saints have, and then how much credit they have, and you will find out pretty nearly how much business will be done.” If we were like other people and would only hearken to wisdom, these men sitting each side of me today, instead of spending their money would save it and buy the land that will shortly be in the market. The government has at last condescended to take into consideration the propriety of selling their land to the Latter-day Saints. A few have tried year after year to get up an act to prevent us from owning a foot of land in America, but they are out of the way. Now we have the privilege of purchasing our lands, and if our brethren had any wisdom they would purchase them. “O,” but says one, “why we can get a homestead.” I would rather pay my $200 and buy their lands, and tell them we made the country and now we are willing to purchase it. We are willing to pay our taxes, and we have proven that we are willing to fight their battles, and to do anything to promote peace and happiness in the country. But we say, hands off.

Now, if you don’t want to quarrel, take measures to prevent it. That is what we are after. We are trying to get the people to hearken to counsel that will prevent a quarrel, and a serious one. If you can prevent a quarrel in a family you do a good thing. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” We are peacemakers. We are preserving the peace. Is it our right? You take the Catholics in London, and they would go by a thousand doors to find one of their own faith to spend three halfpence. Do not the Jews do it? Yes, they do it all over the world. They say we are obliged to trade with them, but we are not. We would just as soon trade with them as anybody else outside the Church. But do they build up the kingdom of God? No, they hold the very name of Jesus in derision, and yet they are as full of religion as any sect there is. You may take the Mother Church, and the whole family of Protestants, and the House of Judah is as full of religion as any of them. But are they correct? No, they are not. We offer life and salvation to the whole human family in the Gospel of the Son of God, and if they are not disposed to receive it they will suffer the conse– quence. It is for the Latter-day Saints to live their religion.

Now, brethren and sisters, do you think it is necessary for us to be chastened? Can we not sanctify ourselves without the chastening hand of the Almighty upon us? We can, if we will do as we are told. By whom? By the Old and New Testaments, and all the revelations given in them and the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. They all center on one point in this respect—You, Saints, gather yourselves together, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, live by yourselves and build up the kingdom of God. We might just as well stay in Scotland as to be here in the midst of the wicked and ungodly; just as well stay in Scandinavia as come here, if we have to dwell amid drunkenness and debauchery. You have gathered out to sanctify yourselves. Then live your religion, sustain the kingdom of God and those who sustain it, and let everybody else alone. May the Lord help us to do it. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 8th, 1868.

I wish to say to those who are called to go on the Southern mission, that I expect some of them cannot conveniently go; if so, they can be excused just as others have been. I think we called about one hundred and seventy-five one year ago to go on the Southern mission. Of those who responded to that call and went south, twelve or fifteen stayed; the rest have returned, I do not know whether to see their mothers or not. We hope a few will go out of this company, and a few of those will return who were called last year. We have our reasons for requesting the brethren to go into those new settlements; if they do not know the reasons now, let them wait until they do. We calculate to spread abroad, and when we have settled one valley we calculate to settle another. We are settling north, south, east and west, and we mean to keep it up. There are some who will be excused. One of the brethren has excused him– self on the ground that he is building himself a barn. Now, this is so reasonable that I think we will excuse him, at any rate until he gets it finished. Perhaps we will find some who have married wives, others who have bought a yoke of oxen, and because of this they cannot go.

There is no necessity for the brethren hurrying away. They can go down this Fall, tarry through the Winter, and be prepared for the Spring. We shall excuse those who ought to be excused, and especially if they are building barns. As for those who have been there and have left, we expect to see the time that they will wish they had stayed there; and that those who have been called and have not gone will wish they had done so.

There are a few items I wish to lay before the Conference before we dismiss, which I think we shall do when we get through our meeting this afternoon. One of these items is to present to the congregation the Deseret Alphabet. We have now many thousands of small books, called the first and second readers, adapted to school purposes, on the way to this city. As soon as they arrive we shall distribute them throughout the Territory. We wish to introduce this alphabet into our schools, consequently we give this public notice. We have been contemplating this for years. The advantages of this alphabet will soon be realized, especially by foreigners. Brethren who come here knowing nothing of the English language will find its acquisition greatly facilitated by means of this alphabet, by which all the sounds of the language can be represented and expressed with the greatest ease. As this is the grand difficulty foreigners experience in learning the English language, they will find a knowledge of this alphabet will greatly facilitate their efforts in acquiring at least a partial English education. It will also be very advantageous to our children. It will be the means of introducing uniformity in our orthography, and the years that are now required to learn to read and spell can be devoted to other studies.

I wish to call the attention of our sisters to our Relief Societies. We are happy to say that many of them have done a great deal. We wish them to continue and progress. During this Conference, many of the ladies have worn very nice straw hats of home manufacture. This is commendable, and this course should be persevered in, until our hats and dresses are the workmanship of our own hands. To my view no trimming for a hat looks more beautiful than a nice straw rosette, bow or button; it looks better than a feather or artificial flower. In our Relief Societies we wish to introduce many improvements. We wish our sisters of experience to teach the young girls not to be so anxious for the gratification of their imaginary wants, but to confine themselves more to their real necessities. Fancy has no bounds, and I often think it is without form and comeliness. We are too apt to give way to the imagination of our hearts, but if we will be guided by wisdom, our judgment will be corrected, and we will find that we can improve very much. We can improve the language we use. I want my children to use better language than I sometimes use. Still, I have thought as the prophet Joseph has said, when you speak to a people or person you must use language to represent your ideas, so that they will be remembered. When you wish the people to feel what you say, you have got to use language that they will remember, or else the ideas are lost to them. Consequently, in many in– stances we use language that we would rather not use. When talking to a refined people we should use refined language. When we become perfectly civilized we will leave off every harsh expression. We should correct our children in these matters, and teach them good language. I would like to urge upon my brethren and sisters the necessity of doing this. We should instill into the minds of our children good ideas and principles. If we teach them that there are prophets and apostles now on the earth, we shall teach them the truth. If we teach them that the Bible is true, it will be very wholesome for them to believe; but instead of teaching them that it requires a spiritual explanation, by men not endowed with the Spirit of God, teach them that such a notion is incorrect, and that if the word of God does not mean what it says, no man or woman can explain it without a direct revelation from Heaven.

We wish to introduce into this community manufactures and manufacturing so thoroughly that the people will consider themselves under obligation to feed and clothe themselves. Many of us are in the habit of doing only just what we like to do or of sitting with our arms folded, trusting to others to feed and clothe us. It is the duty of the husband to provide for the wife or wives and children, and it is the duty of the wife or wives and children to assist the husband and father all they can. If it is required of the father or husband to furnish his wives and children with flour, it is equally required of the wives, sisters and daughters to be careful in the use of that flour and see that it is not wasted. If it is the duty of the husband or father to furnish his family with cloth to dress themselves, it is their duty to see that that cloth is cut and made prudently and not wasted. It is a disgrace to a community to drag their cloth in the dirt. How many women are there here today who walked to this Tabernacle without throwing dirt every step they took, not only on themselves but upon those who walked near them? I shun them; when I see them coming I try to make my way in some other direction in order to avoid their dust. I can get enough of it without receiving it from them. If there is a nuisance in the path, they are sure to wipe up a portion of it with their dress, and then trail it on to their carpet or into the bedrooms and distribute it through the house. This is a disgrace to them. It is not the duty of my brethren to buy cloth to be dragged through these streets, and the wife or daughter who will not cease dragging her dress through them, ought to have it cut shorter. I have borne it and so have my brethren until duty demands that we put a stop to it. I have politely expostulated with my wives and daughters on this subject. I have asked them if they think it looks nice, and have been told that it did, their reason for thinking so being that somebody else wore it so. That is all the argument that can be brought in its favor. There is no reason in the world why a dress looks well trailing through the streets.

On the other hand I will say, ladies, if we ask you to make your dresses a little shorter, do not be extravagant and cut them so short that we can see the tops of your stockings. Bring them down to the top of your shoes, and have them so that you can walk and clear the dust, and do not expose your persons. Have your dresses neat and comely, and conduct yourselves, in the strictest sense of the word, in chastity. If you do this you set a good example before the rising generation. Use good language, wear comely clothing and act in all things so that you can respect yourselves and respect each other. We wish you to remember and carry out these counsels.

Can you, ladies, manufacture bonnets for yourselves and daughters, and hats for your husbands, sons and brothers? Yes, you can, and save us scores of thousands of dollars.

I wonder if there is any person in our community who understands the manufacture of silk. We have some raw silk on hand that could be manufactured if we can find persons who understand the business. I am now building a house that will be sufficient to contain a million worms another year, it is a hundred feet long in the clear, and twenty broad. I calculate to fill it with worms next season, and make silk. I am going to invite some of the brethren to make up this silk into thread, and to color it and weave it. We can make our own thread and twist as easily as we can buy it. I have never seen better sewing silk than I once bought of a sister here, of her own manufacture. I would like to find somebody who knows how to manage the worms, and to double, twist, reel and weave the silk.

By ceasing the foolish practice of which we have so long been guilty—namely, trading off our produce at the stores for every little thing we have thought we needed—we shall drive ourselves to the necessity of sustaining ourselves. If we take this course and live our religion, do you think we will be respected? Yes. We are frequently told that the world is increasing in wickedness. We want the Saints to increase in goodness, until our mechanics, for instance, are so honest and reliable that this Railroad Company will say, “Give us a Mormon elder for an engineer, then none need have the least fear to ride, for if he knows there is danger he will take every measure necessary to preserve the lives of those entrusted to his care.” I want to see our elders so full of integrity that they will be preferred by this Company for their engine builders, watchmen, engineers, clerks and business managers. If we live our religion and are worthy the name of Latter-day Saints, we are just the men that all such business can be entrusted to with perfect safety; if it cannot it will prove that we do not live our religion.

A few words with regard to our Emigration Fund. We are going to continue our donations to this fund. We started our new subscriptions here on Tuesday night, and what do you think they amounted to? To two thousand dollars. That was a pretty good beginning. How many names do you think it took for that sum? Just two—a thousand dollars each. Now, sisters, do as you did last year—save the money you usually spend in tea and coffee and ribbons, and let us have it to send for the poor. We did remarkably well last year, though our prospects were not very flattering at the start. On the 1st of February, the time we thought of sending our agents East, we had nine thousand dollars, but on the 17th of the same month when brothers Clawson and Staines started we had a little over twenty-nine thousand. When the brethren said, “How dare you think of sending for the poor, we are getting no means?” I replied, “We will send for them and trust in God for the means.” And the means came in fast. The brethren and sisters brought in their five dollars, their tens, fifties, hundreds, and their thousands, and the poor were gathered. The Walker Brothers gave a thousand dollars, and they will be blest for it, if we do not wish to trade with them. Others of our merchants also contributed liberally. The poor are deserving of it. Why? Because from them they got their means. The merchants of this city have got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the poor, and if they give a little back to them it is no more than their due.

How our friends, the outside merchants will complain because we are going to stop trading with them! We cannot help it. It is not our duty to do it. Our policy in this respect, hitherto, has been one of the most foolish in the world. Henceforth it must be to let this trade alone, and save our means for other purposes than to enrich outsiders. We must use it to spread the Gospel, to gather the poor, build temples, sustain our poor, build houses for ourselves, and convert this means to a better use than to give it to those who will use it against us.

We have talked to the brethren and sisters a great deal with regard to sustaining ourselves and ceasing this outside trade. Now what say you, are you for it as well as we? Are we of one heart and one mind on this subject? We can get what we wish by sending to New York for it ourselves, as well as letting others send for us. We have skill and ability to trade for all we need; and if we have to send abroad we can send our agents to buy and bring home what we need. My feelings are that every man and woman who will not obey this counsel shall be severed from the Church, and let all who feel as I do lift up the right hand. [The vote was unanimous.] That is a pretty good vote. You who feel otherwise have the privilege of lifting up your hand to signify the same. I guess it was pretty nigh right. Joseph used to say, “When you get the Latter-day Saints to agree on any point, you may know it is the voice of God.” I knew this before, but now it is proven to the whole people.

Will the nation find fault with us for this? No. Will the commercial world find fault? No; they will say, “This is the first trait in the ‘Mormon’ character we ever saw worthy of notice; it is praiseworthy, and they will be blessed.” That is what they will say. Why there is scarcely a decent man comes here but what says “Why don’t you ‘Mormons’ do your own trading? Why do you sustain outsiders? It is the most impolitic thing you can do.”

I wish to say to the Conference that for one I feel well satisfied with our labors. We have labored diligently to sanctify ourselves and the people. If we succeed in doing this we shall be prepared to inherit life everlasting in the presence of our Father. I will say to all people, to those in the church and to those out, I want it distinctly understood that if we, that is myself, my counselors and my brethren the Twelve Apostles, and all who are heart and hand with us, can succeed in getting this people to come together in their feelings to sustain themselves and let other people alone, it will be one of the proudest days of our lives. We spread this to the world. Would to God that we had influence enough to induce all the inhabitants of the earth to listen to and obey the voice of God through his servants, to repent of their sins, be baptized for their remission and live to the glory of God that they might receive eternal life. I pray that this may be our lot, and I ask it in the name of Jesus.

This Conference is now adjourned until the 6th of next April.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 8th, 1868.

I wish to say a few words to the congregation, but if they are not perfectly still it will be very difficult for them to hear, as usual. I wish to speak to the people on salvation, and to teach them, as my brethren have been doing, how to preserve themselves. The object of the teachings at this Conference, and I may say for years past, has been to teach the people how to save themselves daily, in a temporal point of view, and also spiritually, that when the morrow comes they may be saved that day, and the next day, and so continue in a state of salvation every day that they live. According to the traditions of our fathers the salvation of the body and the salvation of the soul have no connection the one with the other. This is not in accordance with the doctrine which has been revealed to us in this our day. The kingdom that the Lord is about to establish and has commenced on the earth will, in every part and portion be a literal kingdom, a temporal kingdom and a spiritual kingdom; but while we are in a temporal state, and possess our temporalities, our abilities must correspond with the spiritual kingdom that we believe in. Consequently we have a kingdom that is actually spiritual, and to the natural eye it looks like a temporal kingdom. Still it is the kingdom where God dwells, even in these earthly tabernacles, consequently these tabernacles must be preserved in the truth, in righteousness, purity and holiness, or the Lord will not dwell therein.

We are called upon as individuals, each of us who form this community, to come out from the wicked world, from Babylon. All those who believe the history given by John, the “beloved disciple,” know that the time would come when the Lord would call upon all people, who believe in Him, delight to do His will, and seek to understand the requirements of heaven, to gather out from the midst of Babylon. John wrote plainly in reference to this gathering, and we have believed it. We are called upon to come out from among the wicked, as it is written, “Come out of her, O my people,” that is, come out of Babylon. What is Babylon? Why, it is the confused world: come out of her, then, and cease to partake of her sins, for if you do not you will be partakers of her plagues.

This people, whether they wished to separate themselves or not from the rest of mankind, have been forced to do it. Ask the Latter-day Saints, if after embracing the Gospel, they had the privilege of associating with former friends and neighbors on the same terms as they did previous to receiving the Gospel, and their answers will be, that the thread of affection that formerly existed seemed to be severed, that former friends forsook them, they passed them by and turned their eyes another way, and would hardly speak even when they met in company. Is not this the fact? It is as far as my experience has gone, and I have had a tolerable opportunity of testing the matter. We have been forced to separate ourselves, been under the necessity of leaving the society of those who did not believe as we did. We have been driven from our homes time and time again without the privilege of disposing of our property, and have taken joyfully the spoiling of our goods repeatedly, until we were under the necessity of fleeing to some land where there were none whom we could annoy.

If we have annoyed our neighbors so seriously, the question naturally arises, From what did this annoyance proceed? Was it from drinking and carousing, or hallooing in the streets by night? Was it from revelling by day or night? Was it from intruding on the rights of our neighbors? No, not from any of these causes by any means. What was it, then? This people believe in revelation. This people did believe, and do believe that the Lord has spoken from the heavens. They did believe and do believe that God has sent angels to proclaim the everlasting Gospel, according to the testimony of John. It was this that gave rise to the malice, hatred and vindictive feelings that have been so often made manifest against them. Some may say it was the political world. It was not so, although they had a share in it. It may be said that it was the moral world, but why should they entertain these feelings towards us? Are the Latter-day Saints immoral? O, no, their faith teaches men, women and children to be as moral as people can be. This cannot be the reason then. It was neither the political nor moral world; then whence did this hatred proceed? From the fanatically religious world. There was the rise and foundation of that hatred and malice that ultimately forced us to separate from the rest of mankind.

What are the teachings of the Christian world? Many of you have had an experience among them, and can answer this question very well. I have had an experience in their midst, though I never bowed down to their creeds. I never could submit to their doctrines, for they taught that which was not in the Bible, and denied that which was found in the Bible, consequently I could not be a convert to their fanaticism. I am not today. When I can hear a man, on his knees before a congregation, pray for God to come down into their midst and be one with them—“Come, O Lord, and dwell with us, open the heavens to us, give unto us the Holy Ghost, send Thine angels and administer to us,” and then get up and preach to the people that there is no such thing as revelations, no gift of the Holy Ghost, no such thing as the Lord speaking from the heavens, or men knowing anything about Heaven, I cannot receive nor bow in obedience to such absurdities. I have asked of the Christian world, “Where is heaven, where does the Lord dwell? What kind of Being is He, and is He a Being of tabernacle?” To all of which their reply would be “We do not know;” and they have mystified the character of the Deity—our Father and our God—to that degree that every person is left in the dark, feeling his way to the grave through a dark, cold, unfriendly and benighted world as best he may. Is this the state of Christendom? Yes, verily it is. They have mystified everything concerning God, heaven and eternity, until there is no man on earth, when you turn from the Latter-day Saints, who is capable of teaching the people the way of life and salvation. This is the grand difficulty, this is what stirs up the people. The priests are at the root of the matter. In the whole history of this people you cannot find an instance of a mob ever being led on except by a priest; and then the political world would take the advantage of it and come in for their share of the spoil.

Now, although it is so popular to cry delusion when referring to this Latter-day Gospel, I frequently ask myself, if it does not circumscribe all that is good and true, possessed by either the infidel or the Christian world, by our Mother Church, or any of her daughters? If the world were to embrace the Gospel we teach, would they believe all that is true in the faith of the Catholic? Yes, every iota. Would they believe all that is true in the faith of the Episcopalian, or in the faiths of the whole Christian world? Yes, every particle, every excellency, every good word and work they possess is circumscribed by and contained in the Gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints. Then go to the scientific or philosophical world, and this Latter-day work circumscribes all the truth they possess. Well, then, we ask, why are we worse than other people? Do we teach our people to swear or to take God’s name in vain? Oh, no, to the reverse; we forbid it. The Lord says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Is this good in and of itself? It is. Are we worse than other Christians? If so, wherein? Do they pray? So do we. Do the Christian world believe in being strictly honest? So do the Latter-day Saints. Do the Christian word believe in intruding upon the rights of their neighbors? No; neither do the Latter-day Saints. Do the Christian world profess to believe in charity? Yes; and the Latter-day Saints more abundantly. Do they believe in God the Father and in God the Son? Yes, so do the Latter-day Saints. Do they believe in the Holy Ghost? They say they do; so do the Latter-day Saints. Then wherein do we differ? Why, the Latter-day Saints believe that God has spoken from the heavens. The Christian world do not believe this. They do not believe that the Lord has called upon His people to come out from amongst the wicked world; but the Latter-day Saints do believe so. Is there any harm in their believing so? I frequently ask myself if there is any harm in a man having his own family around him, or in associating with his friends and neighbors? No, there is no harm in this; the Christian world believe that it is a man’s privilege to do this. Is there any harm in the Latter-day Saints doing the same thing? Not the least. There is no law against it in heaven or on earth that we know of. Then wherein are we worse than our Christian friends, that is, the so-called Christian world? Are they Christ-like, or are they not? This is a matter we can test by reading the Bible, if we choose to do so. Do they lack wisdom? Apparently they do. If they, as individuals, do not acknowledge it, their neighbors acknowledge it. Do they ask of God? If they do, they do not receive. Where is there a Christian sect, now on the earth, except the Latter-day Saints, who preach the Gospel that Jesus taught—faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, the gift of tongues, the gift of healing and the discerning of spirits? Who, in all the Christian world believes such a doctrine? None that we know of, except the Latter-day Saints. It is this which separates us and draws the division line. Well, is there any harm in our gathering out and living according to the revelations that have been given to us? Not the least. Do we injure any person in so doing? No, we do not.

This people have got to be self-sustaining, if they believe in the revelations given to them. You will find by and by that this same Babylon, which the Saints of God are required to leave, will fall. Will there be anybody left on the face of the earth? Yes, probably millions. Who will they be? Why the servants and handmaidens of the Almighty, those who love and serve Him. Now, I will ask the question, suppose this is true concerning the gathering out of the Saints, and that Babylon, or a confused and wicked world, will cease its operations as they are now going on, and the time spoken of shall have come, when the merchants will mourn and weep because there is no one to buy their merchandise, will the inhabitants of Zion go down to buy their silks and satins and keep up his trade? No. By and by there will be a gulf between the righteous and the wicked so that they cannot trade with each other, and national intercourse will cease. It is not so now, they can pass from one to the other with ease. But if this is the Kingdom of God and if we are the Saints of God—I leave you all to judge for yourselves about this—are we not required to sustain ourselves and to manufacture that which we consume, to cease our bartering, trading, mingling, drinking, smoking, chewing and joining with all the filth of Babylon? You may judge for yourselves in relation to this. But I can say that we have been striving for twenty-one years in these valleys, and before we came here, to bring this people to this point. When we look at ladies and gentlemen we can see that their wants are many, but their real necessities are very few. Now let the Latter-day Saints see that their necessities are supplied, and omit their wants for the present, and until we can manufacture what we want. We want you henceforth to be a self-sustaining people. Hear it, O Israel! Hear it neighbors, friends and enemies, this is what the Lord requires of this people.

We have been driven from our homes time and time again. I have been driven from a good handsome property and home five times without having the privilege of selling it, or making fifty cents from it, and what for? Because I was a thief? No. Because my brethren were thieves? No. Because they were liars? No. Because they were swearers? No. Because they were swindlers? No. Because they were adulterers or fornicators? No. Because they loved and made lies? No; but because they believed that God had spoken from the heavens and had bestowed upon His servant Joseph the keys of the holy priesthood of His Son. The Latter-day Saints believed this, and because they did so the Christian world said, “Up, get ye out of this place, we want your houses and possessions.” And they took them; but I will swear to them that they will never take them again. (The congregation said, Amen.)

When Colonel Kane was here I and others said to him, “Colonel, you will find this the entering wedge for the division of our government.” Said we, “If the Government of the United States consent to rout this people again, and take it into their own hands to break us in pieces, they will go to pieces.” Did they? Did they have war? Answer the question yourselves. Have they made peace yet? Answer for your– selves. Is there any such thing today as the thirty-four United States that once composed the Federal Union, or is there not? Answer this question for yourselves, and then I will answer it, by saying there never will be again, unless they are brought together and cemented by the power of God.

Well, again I ask, what worse are the Latter-day Saints than other people? Have we the privilege of planting and eating the fruits thereof like others? Yes, politically, morally, religiously and financially. Have we the privilege of building and inhabiting our houses? Yes, we have, and there if no law against it. But this is not the question at all. I will say to my brethren who have talked to the congregation, the question is not whether we have the right to be self-sustaining or not, but will we be self-sustaining? This is the question, and we say we will be. What do you say brethren and sisters? All of you who say that we will be a self-sustaining people signify it by the show of your right hands.

[The motion was put and unanimously carried.]

This is what terrifies the Christian world, not the moral nor political portion of it; but it is the fanatics, the priests who are afraid, and they continually seek to stir up strife and mischief. They are not all so; but our past experience has given us good reason to come to this conclusion.

Bro. George A. related something in the historical discourse delivered by him yesterday and today, about the brethren going to solicit donations. In reference to this I will say that when we found we were obliged to leave Nauvoo, to deprive this nation of all excuse, and to clear our skirts of their blood, we wrote to all the governors of the States and Territories and also to the President so– liciting aid and redress. We did this to deprive them of the chance of saying at the day of judgment, “you could have had an asylum with us if you had applied for it.” The result of our appeal you have already heard; redress or sympathy there was none, but “you, Mormons, may seek a home on Mexican or some other soil.”

As for the donations, here are Bro’s Benson and Little, who went with Colonel, now General Thomas L. Kane, to Philadelphia, Boston, New York and other places, and solicited aid of the mayors and city councils of the various places they visited, for this people who had been robbed, plundered and driven, and who, in answer to a requisition from the Government, had sent 503 men, the flower of their strength, to the Mexican war, leaving their fathers, mothers, wives and children destitute, sick and dying on the naked prairie. The result of the appeal for donations was the raising of a trifling sum. I will venture to say that we have given hundreds of dollars to them where they have given us one, consequently we are not in their debt, neither are we in debt to our merchants, not in the least. We did not ask them to come here; we do not ask them to stay, neither do we ask them to go away. We do not ask them to give us their goods, neither do we ask them to take them away. They are at perfect liberty to open their stores and exhibit their goods for sale, and we have the privilege of letting them alone; and that is not all, I mean that we shall do so.

Are we going to cut off all communication and deal with outsiders? No. If they want a house built, we will build it for them, if they will pay us the money. If they want our grain, they are welcome to it, if they will pay us the money for it. And we will take that money, and make the percentage they have made. We have as good a right to it as they have. We will furnish this little corps of United States men, here on the hill, all the hay, flour, oats and barley, and everything that they want; but we must have their money in return for it. We do not want them to stick their trade into the hands of our enemies, and thus furnish them money to use against us, while they pay us for our produce in rags at an extravagant advance above cost. This we do not want, and we will not have it. Why, how tight are you going to draw the reins? I want to tell my brethren, my friends and my enemies, that we are going to draw the reins so tight as not to let a Latter-day Saint trade with an outsider. We will trade with you, if you will give us your money; we are entitled to it. We made and broke the road from Nauvoo to this place. Some of the time we followed Indian trails; some of the time we ran by the compass; when we left the Missouri River we followed the Platte. And we killed rattlesnakes by the cord in some places; and made roads and built bridges till our backs ached. Where we could not build bridges across rivers we ferried our people across, until we arrived here, where we found a few naked Indians, a few wolves and rabbits, and any amount of crickets; but as for a green tree or a fruit tree, or any green fields, we found nothing of the kind, with the exception of a few cottonwoods and willows on the edge of City Creek. For some 1200 or 1300 miles we carried every particle of provision we had when we arrived here. When we left our homes we picked up what the mob did not steal of our horses, oxen and calves, and some women drove their own teams here. Instead of 365 pounds of breadstuff when they started from the Missouri River, there was not half of them had half of it. We had to bring our seed grain, our farming utensils, bureaus, secretaries, sideboards, sofas, pianos, large looking glasses, fine chairs, carpets, nice shovels and tongs, and other fine furniture, with all the parlor, cook stoves, &c.; and we had to bring these things piled together with the women and children, helter skelter, topsy turvy, with broken down horses, ringboned, spavined, poll evil, fistula and hipped; oxen with three legs, and cows with one tit. This was our only means of transportation, and if we had not brought our goods in this manner we should not have had them, for there was nothing here. You may say this is a burlesque. Well, I mean it as such, for we, comparatively speaking, really came here naked and barefoot.

Instead of crying over our sufferings, as some seem inclined to do, I would rather tell a good story, and leave the crying to others. I do not know that I have ever suffered; I do not realize it. Have I not gone without eating and not half clad? Yes, but that was not suffering. I was used to that in my youth. I used to work in the woods logging and driving team, summer and winter, not half clad, and with insufficient food until my stomach would ache, so that I am used to all this, and have had no suffering. As I said to the brethren the other night, the only suffering I ever realized in this Church was to preserve my temper towards my enemies. But I have even got pretty much over this. Do what you please, and we will not be angry; it is not becoming in Saints to be so. Let us do right ourselves, and we will find honor. Let the Latter-day Saints live their religion, and they will be the most honored of any people in the world by saint and sinner. Will we associate with outsiders? Yes, we will invite them to our houses, and go to theirs, if we have a mind to. We will treat gentlemen as gentlemen, friends as friends, speculators as speculators, and we will treat our enemies as enemies, by letting them alone.

Now, some of the people, I expect, will think they are never going to have the privilege of trading or doing anything again with outsiders. I will tell you how I feel with regard to such persons—they are the very ones we want to apostatize. All men and women that long after sin and sinners, iniquity and corruption we want to apostatize immediately and go their own way, go with those who are corrupt.

Our outside friends say they want to civilize us here. What do they mean by civilization? Why they mean by that, to establish gambling holes—they are called gambling hells—grog shops and houses of ill fame on every corner of every block in the city; also swearing, drinking, shooting and debauching each other. Then they would send their missionaries here with faces as long as jackasses’ ears, who would go crying and groaning through the streets “Oh, what a poor, miserable, sinful world!” That is what is meant by civilization. That is what priests and deacons want to introduce here; tradesmen want it, lawyers and doctors want it, and all hell wants it. But the Saints do not want it, and we will not have it. (Congregation said, AMEN.) Why, with all the boasted attainments of the world in art and science they are as far from being really civilized as our Indians here, and farther in reality. A true system of civilization will not encourage the existence of every abomination and crime in a community but will lead them to observe the laws Heaven has laid down for the regulation of the life of man. There is no other civilization. A truly civilized person is one who is a real gentleman or lady; in language and manners he is truly refined, and gives way to no practice that is unhallowed or uncomely. This is what we are after, and trying to attain to.

We have been driven here to these mountains and have been followed up. We want to be followed up by gentlemen; we want gentlemen to associate with. We want to associate with men who aspire after pure knowledge, wisdom and advancement, and who are for introducing every improvement in the midst of the people, like the company who are building this railroad. We thank them and the government for it. Every time I think of it I feel God bless them, hallelujah! Do they want to skin us? I hope not. Do they want to destroy us? I think not. They want to meet us as friends, and we want to meet them as friends, and to share equally with them in the business of the country. Do we believe in trade and commerce? Yes. And by and by we will send our products to the east and to the west. And how long will it be before they will be sending for our dried peaches and apples? How is it now for growing fruit in the country in which Joseph obtained the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated? I remember when it was the cream of the world in this respect. But can they raise an apple or peach there now that is sound and good? No, they cannot. And where we used to reap and cradle sixty bushels of wheat to the acre they don’t get more than from five to ten now. The land is barren, waste and desolate; the curse of God is upon it, and it will be so wherever the Latter-day Saints have to leave. Talk about these rich valleys, why there is not another people on the earth that could have come here and lived. We prayed over the land, and dedicated it and the water, air and everything pertaining to them unto the Lord, and the smiles of Heaven rested on the land and it became productive, and today yields us the best of grain, fruit and vegetables. But if the Latter-day Saints were compelled to leave here it would not be five years until the soil would cease to yield to sustain a community as it does now. Do you believe this, outsiders? No, you do not. No matter, I say it, and we know it, and if we know it that is satisfactory to us, without being any interruption to the faith or views of any person in the world.

There is an idea abroad that the “Mormons” are going to give way; but there is no fear that the kingdom of God—“Mormonism”—will ever give way. The only thing for you and me to fear, is whether we will build up the kingdom, whether our souls are in the kingdom or not. Here is the fear; it is not with regard to the kingdom, it will stand forever and ever; but you and I may not. The kingdom is pure; you and I are not pure. The doctrine we preach is pure and holy, and if we will abide it, it will make us pure and holy. Are we as good now as the rest of the Christian world? They say we are fools to believe in revelation. But I ask, What harm does such belief cause? It leads men and women to truth and righteousness, and leads every individual by whom it is entertained to purity and holiness of character on the earth. It also teaches us to deal justly, love mercy, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the widow and the fatherless, the poor and the homeless, and to deal kindly with all the inhabitants of the earth. To take the young and tender mind and teach it all that it can grasp, until it can comprehend all the science and philosophy of the day, and then the revelations of the Lord Jesus resting upon it teach that which cannot be learned by the wisdom of man. What harm is there in a faith like this? If Universalism is true, and the Lord is going to save all, He would certainly save those who believe thus as soon as He would a murderer or an infidel. You ask the outside world, an infidel or a Universalian, and they will say we are as well off as they are. Then I ask what harm is there in a man or woman being a Christian? Is there any harm in it? If there is, will you not point it out to us? We say to the priest and the people, if you have anything better than we have; hand it over, it is ours. If we have errors by the thousand, and you have truth, we will give you all our errors for one truth. Is there any harm in being Saints, or in our producing what we need? No. I look upon the people, and I can say our wants are many, but our real necessities are very few. Let us govern our wants by our necessities, and we shall find that we are not compelled to spend our mo– ney for nought. Let us save our money to enter and pay for our land, to buy flocks of sheep and improve them, and to buy machinery and start more woolen factories. We have a good many now, and the people will sustain them. You may call this tyranny, and say it is abridging the privileges of the Latter-day Saints. No, it is not; God requires it, angels require it; the ancient apostles and prophets required it, and why should not we require it? It does not infringe upon me in the least, why should it upon you? We will make up our wool and our flax, and manufacture our silk, we will do this here. There is no harm in it, no law against it, and we have the indisputable right to do it.

I will tell you how I feel, God bless every good man. God bless the works of nature, God bless His own work, overthrow the wicked and ungodly and them that would destroy their fellowbeings, that war and contentions may cease on the earth O Lord, remove these from office and place good men at the head of the nations, that they may learn war no more, but go to, like rational and civilized beings, sustain peace on the earth and do good to each other. May the Lord help us. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Aug. 16th, 1868.

I wish to make a few remarks to the Elders of Israel, who are the ones who are called to preach the gospel at home and abroad, and to administer in the ordinances of the House of God. My remarks will apply to the sisters, if they wish to receive them. I wish to say that, when I see Elders in Israel who are careless and unconcerned, who trifle away their time, and neglect to attend High Council and other Meetings where there are opportunities to learn, my experience for the best part of forty years teaches me that they never progress—they are as they were, and as they no doubt will be. I notice that the seats of the Elders here in this Tabernacle are frequently vacant. I also notice in the High Council, where intricate matters are often tried, in which the principles of government and law are involved, the consideration of which would be profitable and instructive, that whenever an Elder can make an excuse his place is vacant. In my experience I never did let an opportunity pass of getting with the Prophet Joseph and of hearing him speak in public or in private, so that I might draw understanding from the fountain from which he spoke, that I might have it and bring it forth when it was needed. My own experience tells me that the great success with which the Lord has crowned my labors is owing to the fact of applying my heart to wisdom. I notice that even my own natural brothers when they come into my office, which is very seldom, if there are important matters on hand—when I am teaching the brethren the principles of government, and how to apply them to families, neighborhoods and nations, will leave the office as though it was a thing of no account. And this is the case with too many of the Elders in the Church. This is mortifying to me. In the days of the Prophet Joseph, such moments were more precious to me than all the wealth of the world. No matter how great my poverty—if I had to borrow meal to feed my wife and children, I never let an opportunity pass of learning what the Prophet had to impart. This is the secret of the success of your humble servant. I make this application to the Elders of Israel.

Brother Carrington has been speaking of his mission, and of his long stay at home. I do not know that I can altogether excuse him, but I think that my remarks are partially applicable to him, although we have called him to fill as important a station as there is in the Church. If Brother Albert Carrington, who is on the eve of departure for a foreign mission, is not prepared now to teach the nations of the earth, and to lead them home to Zion, it is his own fault. He has been in the midst of counsel ever since he has been in the Church; and others have been here with us all the day long, and if they are not filled with wisdom and the power of God it is their own fault.

I want, now, to say a few words with regard to a term that is frequently used in our midst. I refer to the term “Gentile.” I have explained this a great many times to the Elders both in public and in private, and I was surprised at the use made of the term this afternoon. “Gentile,” or “gentilism,” applies only to those who reject the gospel, and will not submit to and receive the plan of salvation. Will you remember this? It does not apply to any only those who are opposed to God and His Kingdom. When the Jews, as a nation, were in their glory, they called the nations around them Gentiles. Why? Because they were opposed to the laws and precepts that the Lord, through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, had revealed for the guidance of Israel. But it does not apply to this or any other nation, simply because they are not of our faith; and in fact, in these days, on account of their conduct, the term could be more properly applied to the Jews than to any other people; but it does not apply to them for they are of the chosen seed. Among the nations of the earth there is a great mixture, but there are many millions that we shall yet gather into this Church.

Remember this, O, ye Elders of Israel, and do not apply the term “Gentile” to a man because he is not baptized. There are some of pure gentile blood will come into this Church. There are a few already, but very few. When a person of real gentile blood, through honesty of heart, submits to the gospel and is baptized and receives the laying on of hands from a man duly authorized, you might naturally suppose, from the contortions of the muscles, that such a person had a fit, for the power of the Holy Ghost falls upon and renovates that rebellious blood and stirs it up, and perhaps the person thus administered to falls prostrate on the floor. I have seen this, and it is in consequence of the power of the Holy Ghost operating upon the power of the enemy within the individual. Whoever has been in our Councils would never make the application of “Gentile” to a man or woman, simply because he or she was not baptized, for that has nothing to do with it either one way or the other. I want the brethren to learn this, and everything that is useful.

A few words now with reference to the isolation that Bro. Carrington has been talking about. We have come out from the world that we might bid farewell to sin; and we are not only the salt of the earth, but we are the light of the world. Do you suppose that if a man wanted a light that he would light a candle and put it under a bushel, or where it could not be seen? No. And do you think that our Father, who has revealed the way of life and salvation, the path in which every person should walk in order to gain eternal life, would put that light under a bushel? No, He has put it in on a candlestick and set it in a place where it can be seen by the whole world. Are we isolated? No, I do not think we are. We are right in the great highway from sea to sea. And instead of the railroad being any detriment to us, all I have to regret is that they tried to get it on the north side of the Lake; we want it in this city where it belongs. And that is not all, the attempt to carry it in that direction is an insult to the people of this city, for in so doing they have tried to shun us. They would not have had a telegraph or railroad across the continent, and coaches would not have run as they do now for one generation yet, if it not had been for the Latter-day Saints; and for them to try to take it away from us I look upon as an insult. We do not care about it; we are in the habit of being insulted and imposed upon. Far from wishing not to have a railroad, it ought to have been built years ago. When we came to this valley we never traveled a day with– out marking the path for the road to this place. We anticipated it, and if they had done as they should have done, instead of going to war and killing each other, we should have had a railroad long ago.

These are my feelings with regard to the railroad; and whether it comes through this city or not, it is all right, because God rules, and He will have things as He pleases. We can act, but He will overrule. Man proposes, but God disposes. He does it all the time, and it is all right, just as right as it is for the grasshoppers to come and teach us what the Lord can do when he opens the windows of his judgments from His secret chambers. He can chasten or consume a nation with grasshoppers at His pleasure. If we do not understand it now, we shall see the time when we shall have to come to the mark, and shall be able to see and understand the providences of God. He is teaching us to lay up our breadstuffs. How many of our sisters are there here who have gone into the field and gleaned wheat, and after getting it cleaned, instead of laying it up, have taken it to the stores and sold it for a trifle to buy a tassel, artificial for their bonnets, a waist ribbon, or some frivolous thing that was of no earthly use to them? The Lord is going to teach us, and we may as well begin to understand His providences. The Lord knows what he is doing, and it is all right.

A few words now, with regard to preaching. The greatest and loudest sermon that can be preached, or that ever was preached on the face of the earth, is practice. No other is equal to it. Can we preach to the world by practice? Yes, we are preaching to them by setting out these shade trees. When they come here from north, south, east, or west, they say, “Your city is a perfect paradise, with its streams of water and beautiful shade trees down every street.” Every little cot, no matter how humble, is encircled with beautiful shade trees; and they want to know who these people are who take such pride in beautifying and adorning their city. Why they are the poor “Mormons” who have been driven into the mountains. I have been driven from a good, handsome property five times. Many of my brethren have been served in the same manner. But here we are again, and we are teaching the people to be industrious, and how to raise their own bread, make their own clothing and gather around them the fruits of the earth, that there may be no suffering through our whole community. Is not this praiseworthy? Yes, it is, and the statesmen of this nation—those of them who have brains—are looking at the industry of this people; they admire it. Is this preaching? Yes, and there are many amongst them that we shall gather in yet. They would come now by thousands and thousands, if the Latter-day Saints were only popular. “What, these honorable men?” Yes, they would say, “I want to be baptized. I admire your industry, and your skill in governing. You have a system of governing that is not to be found anywhere else. You know how to govern cities, territories, or a world, and I would like to join you.” But take care, if you join this people without the love of God in your soul it will do you no good. If they were to do this, they would bring in their sophistry, and introduce that which would poison the innocent and honest and lead them astray. I look at this, and I am satisfied that it will not do for the Lord to make this people popular. Why? Because all hell would want to be in the church. The people must be kept where the finger of scorn can be pointed at them. Al– though it is admitted that we are honest, industrious, truthful, virtuous, self-denying, and, as a community, possess every moral excellence, yet we must be looked upon as ignorant and unworthy, and as the offscouring of society, and be hated by the world. What is the reason of this? Christ and Baal cannot become friends. When I see this people grow and spread and prosper, I feel that there is more danger than when they are in poverty. Being driven from city to city or into the mountains is nothing compared to the danger of our becoming rich and being hailed by outsiders as a first-class community. I am afraid of only one thing. What is that? That we will not live our religion, and that we will partially slide a little from the path of rectitude, and go part of the way to meet our friends. They say now that if we will only give up the doctrine of plurality of wives, they will admit us as a state, and hail us as “a pet state,” give us the preference to all the states, for our industry and prudence.

But hold on, were we driven into the mountains here for polygamy? Were we drives from York State to Ohio and persecuted and hated for polygamy? No. Was Joseph Smith persecuted and driven from Pennsylvania to York State, and from York State to Pennsylvania, with writ after writ, for polygamy? No; no such thing was ever thought of. When we were driven from Jackson into Clay, Caldwell and Davis and other counties, and from there out of the State by the mob, was it for polygamy? By no means. When we were driven from Nauvoo, after having made it like the Garden of Eden, was it because polygamy was offensive to the people? No; they knew nothing of it. Why was it that we were thus compelled to leave State after State, and ultimately the United States? “Because you are Mormons, and we hate you.” We know the root and foundation of this hatred. It comes from the pulpit, from corrupt priests. Say they, “These people possess a union and a power that we do not possess, and if we let them alone, they will come and take away our place and nation, and we shall lose our fat livings.” There is where it originated—with priests and deacons, with hounds professing to be Christians, but who are no better than the devils in hell. From the pulpit it has spread into political society, and they all hate us. Why? Because the priesthood of the Son of God is among this people, and they know that if we are let alone we shall convert the world and bring it into subjection to the law of Christ. The devil says, “I have had power over the earth for six thousand years, and do you think I am going to loose my grasp upon it? No, I will hold it, and before ever the Latter-day Saints obtain one foot of inheritance upon it they will have to contest it inch by inch.” But we will contend with him until we gain power and influence sufficient to convert the world.

I, and every faithful elder in Israel, want the whole of this people to be Saints in deed, word and feeling; Saints when they are asleep, Saints when they are awake, when they rise up and when they lie down, when they go out and when they come in. We want every individual to live his religion; and if we do this we shall gain influence and the devil cannot help it; and just as sure as we live our religion will our influence increase. And in our intercourse with outsiders—do not call them gentiles—let our example be such as is worthy of imitation; then everyone among them who is honest will say, “I guess you are right, I think I will come and stay with you.” Thousands of them are looking right here to the Latter-day Saints. What says the man who has a daughter that he wants taken care of? Says he, “I will take her to the Mormons and leave her there, because I know that she will be safe among them, for the Mormon elders will protect her to the death, yet they have more wives than one.” And if we had not a wife at all we would protect them to the death, and preserve them inviolate, or we are not Saints. This cannot be said of other communities. Says the man who wants to go on a journey and leave his family behind, “I will take them to the Mormons and leave them there, because I know that they will be safe.” I will just refer you to one gentleman who used to be here. He said, “Let me be in New York and I want double bolts, and fire-proof safes, and I want a safe in a safe, and even then I do not feel safe to have my money there; but when I get into the streets of Salt Lake City I feel safe.” The Latter-day Saints should live so that this confidence may increase.

I want every man and woman to live in such a way that outsiders who wish their children taught truth and righteousness will be anxious to get them into a “Mormon” family. If we will live our religion we will be honest, truthful and upright in all things, dealing with others as we wish them to do by us under the same circumstances. If we do this we will be honored. The devils cannot help but honor us. They may look from hell and say, “there is a people whom we cannot influence to do wrong, and we will give up the chase.” I want this city to be sanctified. Let the people live as they should live, devoting themselves to God and His cause, and this ground is hallowed, sacred and will be preserved for His Saints, and the power of the enemy never can get foothold here just as sure as we do it. Can we extend this? Yes, to other towns, counties, through the Territory, to other Territories, through the mountains and plains until the earth is redeemed and sanctified and the people enjoy the rights and privileges God has designed for them.

Let me say a few words with regard to Zion. We profess to be Zion. If we are the pure in heart we are so, for Zion is the pure in heart.” Now when Zion is built up and reigns, the question may arise with some, will all be Latter-day Saints? No. Will there be this variety of classes and faiths that we now behold? I do not know whether there will be as many, or whether there will be more. There may be more societies than 666 for aught I know. But be that as it may, Jesus has gone to prepare mansions for every creature. Who will go down as “sons of perdition” and receive the reward of the damned? None but those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost. All others will be gathered into kingdoms where there will be a certain amount of peace and glory. Will the Methodists have their heaven? I will venture to say that John Wesley, if he never hears the gospel preached in the world of spirits, will enjoy all the happiness and glory that he ever thought of. And so it will be with others; I mention him merely because he is a noted character. In all those kingdoms the people will be as varied as they are here. In the millennium men will have the privilege of being Presbyterians, Methodists or Infidels, but they will not have the privilege of treating the name and character of Deity as they have done heretofore. No, but every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus is the Christ. This is a strange doctrine to outsiders. But what do they know about the Bible, heaven, angels or God? Nothing; they have not the least conception about their true character, although they feel an influence that is divine, that comes from heaven, which leads them to worship that which is pure, but they know nothing of Him from whom all good comes.

I have talked long enough for the present. I do hope and pray that the Latter-day Saints will be Saints indeed. I do not ask God to make you Saints, for He has done everything that can be done for a fallen world. I pray you, Latter-day Saints, to live your religion, and may God help you to do so. Amen.