A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 2, 1857.

I suppose that my brethren and sisters are acquainted with George A.; and whenever he presents himself in the presence of the Saints, and attempts to entertain them or amuse them with his chin-music, they expect that he will say something funny.

I have been interested today very much in listening to the instructions of brother Elias, and brother Kimball, and the President. I have been interested, amused, and instructed, and I may say chastened and reproved, perhaps, all at the same time; and I hope that the instructions of the forenoon will be of lasting benefit to me. In every part of the Territory, and in every other place where I have been, I have taken a good deal of pleasure in endeavoring to talk to the people, to preach to them; but whenever I have been in Great Salt Lake City, I have felt disposed to listen and to take counsel from my brethren; and I have felt that there were many others whose appearance in addressing the Saints would be much more acceptable; and hence I have felt to hold my tongue.

My father, late Patriarch John Smith, was the sixth son of Asahel Smith, and was born in New Hampshire. Joseph Smith, the father of the Prophet, and second son of Asahel, was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts. The second Asahel Smith, the father of Elias who addressed you this forenoon, was the third son of my grandfather.

I merely name this fact because, as brother Kimball and brother Young remarked, so very few of that family have been valiant for the truth. There are but few comparatively of their numerous posterity that have been valiant for the truth.

After the family of Joseph Smith, senior, was destroyed, there were but few left to stand up for the truth of the Gospel, of all that numerous family. My father’s elder brother was the father of a numerous posterity, and was a bitter enemy to the truth, and his descendants remain so to the present time. The only remaining brother of the Prophet, William, has done all that he could do—all that was in his power, I may say, from the time of the Prophet’s death, to annihilate and destroy the principles which the Prophet taught to the nations of the earth.

My uncle Silas Smith, the fourth son of Asahel, died on his way to Missouri, or rather on his return from there, being driven from that State in 1839, in Pike County, Illinois. He had been in the Church some years, and had been faithful.

Asahel Smith, the father of Elias, was a man of an extraordinary retentive memory, and possessed a great knowledge of the Bible, so much so that he could read it as well without the book as with it; and after he embraced “Mormonism,” nobody could oppose him successfully, for all their objections were answered from the Bible immediately, giving chapter and verse. He died on his way to the Valley, in the State of Iowa, in 1848. He was a Patriarch in the Church, and bore a faithful testimony to the truth.

Of my grandfather’s family there is but one living—an old lady by the name of Waller, residing in the city of New York, and she is 90 years of age, and remembers all that has transpired during the last eighty years just as well as if it had all just occurred. I visited her when I was last back there, and in talking with me she would talk of things that had transpired many years back, as though they had occurred within a year. She is sanguine in relation to the truth of “Mormonism,” although she has never embraced it; and, to use the language of her son, she preaches it all the time.

My grandfather, Asahel Smith, heard of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and he said it was true, for he knew that something would turn up in his family that would revolutionize the world. The news came to us in 1828: we then lived in New York. The four brothers were there, Asahel, Silas, Jesse, and John; the old man, my grandfather, living with them.

We received the news that some place had been discovered containing plates of gold. The old man, as I remarked, said that it was true, although his oldest son felt disposed to ridicule it. He lived till the Book of Mormon was brought to him, and died when he had read it, about half through, being 87 years of age.

The congregation will excuse me for naming this; but I was so disgusted with the conduct of William, that, when I was in the Eastern States, I almost took pains to obliterate the fact from the earth that my name was Smith; for I considered it was the worst thing a man could do to endeavor to build himself up on the merits of others, and I feel so yet; and for cousin William to go and endeavor to pull down the work of his brother, I feel that he has disgraced the family and the name.

I have never suffered one single exertion to be omitted on my part that would in any way tend to sustain the principles and doctrines of the Holy Gospel, and aid in the development of the Holy Priesthood which God has revealed. I have endeavored all the time to preserve as perfect a history of the Prophet and those connected with him, from the organization of the Church to the present time, as I possibly could.

The Saints could have carried William upon their shoulders; they could have carried him in their arms, and have done anything for him, if he would have laid aside his follies and wickedness, and would have done right. It is like the Latin figure—but I beg your pardon, I never studied Latin; but suffice it to say, the husbandman found a rattlesnake cold and frozen, and he took it, and he put it in his bosom, and kept it there till it was warm; and then the snake coiled about the husbandman and destroyed his life.

This was the conduct of William Smith in the days of Joseph and afterwards, up to the present time. The principle that a man should stand upon in this world is simply this—He should do right himself, and thereby set an example to others. But for a man to have good blood in his veins, and then to go and disgrace that blood, is perhaps a double responsibility.

If we descended from Abraham, or from Joseph, or from any other virtuous, good, upright man, and we do not emulate his deeds and follow his example, the greater will be our shame.

When I was about eleven years old, my grandfather received letters containing the news that Joseph, the son of uncle Joseph, had discovered, by the revelations of the Almighty, some gold plates, and that these gold plates contained a record of great worth.

It was generally ridiculed and laughed at. A short time after this, another letter came, written by Joseph himself, and this letter bore testimony of the wickedness and the fallen condition of the Christian world. My father read the letter, and I well remember the remark he made about it. “Why,” said he, “he writes like a prophet.”

Some time in August 1830, my uncle Joseph Smith and Don Carlos Smith came some two hundred and fifty miles from where the Prophet was residing in Ontario County, New York, and they brought a Book of Mormon with them. I had never seen them before, and I felt astonished at their sayings.

Uncle Joseph and Don Carlos were anxious to get to Stockholm to see grandfather. Accordingly they started, and my father went to carry them. I and my mother spent the whole of Saturday, all day Sunday, and Sunday night in reading the Book of Mormon; and I believe I read and studied it more then than I have done ever since. I studied it attentively and penned down what I considered to be serious objections. Although I was but thirteen years of age, yet I considered the objections I had discovered to be sufficient to overthrow it.

About five o’clock in the evening the neighbors came in and wanted to see the book. They took hold of the book, and some of them were professors of religion, and they began to raise their objections, to find fault with and ridicule the book, and there was no one to defend it; so I thought I would try. I commenced to argue in favor of the book, and answered one objection after another, until I came off victoriously and got the compliment of being a very smart boy. No one brought the objections to the book that I had: mine were geographical objections. I had studied geography a few weeks, but that few weeks’ study made me think that I knew a good deal about it.

It is like a man that studies the Hebrew language; he has to drink deep before he can do much with it, and I thought I could confound them. In a few days I saw my uncle and talked with him, and in about half-an-hour all my learned objections to the Book of Mormon were dispensed with, and I found myself in the same position as my neighbors; and from that day to this I have been an advocate of the Book of Mormon, and have never suffered it to be slandered nor spoken against without saying something in its favor, with one exception, and then I said something.

I had been the favorite of my uncle Jesse, and he was a religious man—a “Covenanter;” and I thought what he did not know was not worth knowing. He came out with all his strength against it, and exerted the most cruel tyranny over his family, prohibited my uncle Joseph from talking in his house, and threatened to hew down with his broad axe any who dared to preach such nonsense in his presence.

I went to visit him, and he abused me because I had become favorable, and because uncle Joseph had a private conversation with me. I had always treated him with the greatest respect, and entertained a very high opinion of him. He was a man of good education, and had considerable display; and, being the elder of the family, he naturally elicited from us more or less respect.

Finally, in conversation upon various subjects, he turned and talked about that private conversation, and he said, “Joe dare not talk in my presence.” Then says he, “the Devil never shut my mouth.” I replied, “Perhaps he opened it, uncle.” I thought I should have lost my iden– tity: he gave me to the Devil instanter. I went and told uncle Asahel what had transpired, and the old gentleman laughed; and I then went to see uncle Silas and told him; and he said, “If old men begin to talk with boys, they must take boys’ play.” And from that day to the present, if I have said anything, I have said what I have thought.

During the fall of 1830, a gentleman who lived in our neighborhood went to Western New York and saw the Prophet, got baptized and ordained an Elder; and that was Elder Solomon Humphrey. Very few knew the old gentleman: he died in Missouri in 1835. He was a very faithful man. Previous to joining the Church he was a Baptist exhorter. He came back to our place of residence in company with a man named Wakefield, who is named in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. They came and preached and baptized for the remission of sins.

I had been raised a Presbyterian, and my mother was a very pious woman. The Reverend Elijah Lyman, her uncle, who lived in Brookfield, Vermont, was the standard of religion in that country, and he had bestowed upon her the greatest care, that her religion might be of the best kind; and of course I had a great deal of this religion in me, which I had learned from her.

I wanted to know what I should do to be saved; so I went to a Presbyterian revival meeting to get religion, that I might be prepared to join the Latter-day Saints, or “Mormons,” as they are termed.

At the time, my father was sick with the consumption and given up to die. I had a herd of cattle to take care of; but, notwithstanding my numerous duties, I went to the protracted meeting, and took a load of persons with me; I carried them there and brought them back every day. They had a fashion of religion that I had never heard of, and it was one that was not known in the days of the Apostles; and even John Wesley, nor any of the old reformers had got such a thing into their heads—that of converting souls by machinery.

The process was like this: All who desired to be prayed for were to take certain seats, and then one of the ministers preached to them and depicted the miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Then those people were taken to a praying establishment, where praying was carried on night and day. Then, after a certain time, they were brought back and preached to again, the ministers keeping before their eyes the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. When the ministers got them to feel anxious, they would sing with them, and then pray again. When a man by this process was declared to be converted, then he was required to get up and formally renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and to tell his experience. This was about the process as near as I can recollect. I did not go to the anxious seat myself, for I was not yet under conviction.

During this time of going to the protracted meeting, I had firewood to cut, my sick father to attend to, and to take care of our stock; but still I endeavored to attend meetings, partly to accommodate my friends, and partly because I desired to be present myself. Subject to these circumstances I was under the necessity of returning home every evening, and hence I could not stay as late as many of them.

While at the protracted meeting, however, I had the satisfaction of hearing some of my own comrades who had got converted formally renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and promise henceforth to be Christians.

In the midst of all this, you may depend upon it that, if ever a poor soul asked God to show him the way of life, I did—and that, too, with all my might, mind, and strength. I could not be a hypocrite; and to say I was afraid of damnation, when I had no fear of it at all, that was what I could not do.

I always had the credit of being the greatest coward in the family, and hence the others used to take pleasure in ridiculing what they termed my cowardice. It is also well known that whenever there has been anything the matter in the shape of Indian difficulties, I have had the character of being the greatest coward in the country, especially in the southern part of this Territory; and yet I was not afraid of hell, when all its miseries were painted before my eyes, neither would I say that I was under conviction when I was not.

This meeting was a great one, and the progress made in converting souls was also great; and they made hell look so terrible to nearly all present, that they burnt out and frightened about all the sinners in the place, except myself. At one time they had two hundred sinners under conviction; and such crying, groaning, sighing, and lamentation for sins I never heard either before or since: they were so forcible and terrific, that they are indelibly written on my memory.

I soon found myself alone; not a soul except myself but was either converted or awfully on the way. Mr. Cannon, our minister, pointed his finger at me as I sat alone; for there was not a sinner in the gallery except myself; and he said, “O sinner, I seal you up to eternal damnation, in the name of Jesus Christ.” He repeated it three times over, and concluded by saying, “O sinner, may your blood be upon your own head.”

I went home that evening and scattered my friends about, leaving the girls at their respective homes; for I, like my brethren, am very fond of the ladies; therefore I carried a goodly proportion of them to meeting every day. I thought a good deal upon what I had heard, and scarcely knew whether to go again or not, but finally concluded that I would go; therefore the next morning I gathered up my load of passengers, and carried them to meeting again.

When on the way to meeting, a young man by the name of Cary asked me where I was going to sit that day. I told him I was not very particular. “Well,” said he, “suppose you sit with me.” I said, “Agreed.” I had heard this same young man in a previous meeting formally renounce this world, the flesh, and the Devil.

When we arrived at the place of meeting, according to agreement, I followed him with the intention of sitting with him. I had a decided objection against being driven to heaven, but I found he was actually leading me to the anxious bench; and I considered that if the priest the day before, who had sealed me up to eternal damnation, had any authority, it was very little use in my going to the anxious bench.

I did not discover where friend Cary was leading me to, till I got nearby the minister. He looked at me, when I turned away from the anxious bench, and he again walked into the pulpit, and pronounced the solemn sealing of eternal damnation upon me, and again appended to it that my blood was to be upon my own head.

On that day, the Reverend Mr. Williams delivered an address on the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Whether my mind was then agitated in consequence of the solemn woes pronounced upon me by the other minister, or whether the address was such a very eloquent one, I cannot now say; but, of all the discourses describing hell, eternal damnation, and the complication of miseries to which damned souls were subjected, it seemed to me that his address was the most terrific. I admired it for its sublimity and the beautiful descriptive powers that were exhibited throughout the whole discourse; and where he got it from I did not know, and of course could not tell.

At the conclusion of the meeting, I gathered up my passengers, took them home, and distributed them about, and told them that I had no idea of going any more to the protracted meeting; for, said I, I have been sealed up nine times to eternal damnation, and hence, if the priest had any authority, it is no use in my going any more; but, said I, if he indeed had any, he would not act the infernal fool.

[Elder O. Hyde blessed the sacramental cup.]

I have, no doubt, wearied you with so minute a detail of my experience; but it is at least a gratification to me to relate it; and hence, I trust, you will excuse my being so minute in detail.

A short time after this, the Elders of Israel preached in our neighborhood the doctrines of repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, precisely as preached by the Apostle Peter and by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These doctrines I was pleased to hear. I believed them and received them in my heart.

Now, you are all aware how I was formerly sealed up to eternal damnation. Notwithstanding this, I was waited upon by the agent of the “Presbyterian Young Man’s Society,” and told that if I would abandon my father, and pledge myself never to become a “Mormon,” they would give me seven years’ education; and then, at the expiration of that time, I might study divinity, and become a minister of the Presbyterian order.

But, said I, Mr. Cannon sealed me up to eternal damnation, and hence it would not do for me to become a minister. He replied, “Oh, that don’t make any difference.” Well, then, said I, if that is all the force your religion and your ministers have, I will not have anything to do with them. Then he concluded they would not require me to preach, but he said they would give me seven years’ education, and then I might choose what profession I liked.

I told him I was required to honor my father, and as he was sick, I should attend to him at present, however much I might desire an education.

As soon as I had got baptized, all the folks in the neighborhood commenced imposing upon me. The idea that they had of a religious man was this—If he would stand still to be spit upon, to be mocked, and abused, then he was religious; but if he resented any of these insults, then they considered that he had no religion.

I was very large of my age, but I had not strength in proportion to my size, and I was always very clumsy; but finally I told the boys who were imposing upon me, that it was part of my religion to fight, and I pulled off my coat and flogged the whole school, and from that day I was respected so long as I stayed in the neighborhood.

It was with a good deal of reluctance, however, that many of the boys who had previously been able to handle me would yield; for some of them were four or five years older than I was: but in two days it was all finished up, and I had peace.

That winter I commenced to study arithmetic. I had previously studied geography, as you have already learned and during that winter I worked at arithmetic until I got to “Vulgar Fractions,” but I could not find out what vulgar fractions were, and I don’t know yet, and hence I do not think I am entitled to much credit for the proficiency attained in my education.

I always took great pleasure in reading history, both religious and profane; but as to getting an education such as is requisite for a professional man in the world, I did not have the chance, excepting the one before alluded to, and that I did not choose to accept of.

In 1833 I moved to Kirtland with my father, and went to work on the Temple, doing whatever I was able to do.

I will here digress from the subject of my experience, and remark that I have asked a great many if they could tell who those twenty-four Elders were who laid the foundation of that Temple; but I have never yet got the information: and if there are any who can give it, they are smarter than me, and I was there and looked on. If there are any of the brethren who have this information, they should hand it in to the Historian’s Office, where it can be preserved in the archives of the Church.

It is proper here to say that I went to work at the first principles, and that you know is necessary for everyone to do. I went to work at quarrying rock, then hauling rock, tending mason, and performing such other work as I was considered capable of doing in my bungling way.

We were a pious people in those days; but, notwithstanding our piety, our neighbors soon talked of mobbing us. They had already tarred and feathered the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon, and they threatened us with mobbing and expulsion. As I remarked, we were then very pious, and we prayed the Lord to kill the mob.

It was but a little time before the Saints were driven out of Jackson County, Missouri, the printing press destroyed, men tarred and feathered, women ravished, and men, women, and children scattered to the four winds of heaven, all in consequence of our religion.

Now, I am never afraid when I do not think anything is going to hurt me. When I am certain that there is no danger, then I am not the least afraid. The reason I have been called a coward has been from the fact that, whenever I believed there was any danger, I have always gone in for providing for it, and used my ingenuity to thwart that danger; and hence I have been called a coward by some.

With my brethren who have addressed you, I have lain by the side of the Prophet, in Kirtland, to guard him half of each night for a whole winter, so that, if anything occurred, I could give notice to all the brethren in a very short time.

I have been by those crossroads that some of the brethren remember, and have seen our enemies pass by so near that I could have knocked them down with a stick. Things were so arranged that, if a considerable number came along, I was prepared to communicate it to the brethren. I have had considerable experience, and I have learned that, curious as it may appear, whenever a man becomes a Latter-day Saint, the Devil wants to kill him.

As I have told you, I was raised in the northern part of New York, a rough country, where, instead of going to get poles to fence with, we used to cut down hemlock trees, and split them up into rails.

East is said to be the quarter for light: hence it may be admitted that I have acquired a little. I once strayed as far as Massachusetts, and in a town where there were several Baptist priests. I endeavored to preach the Gospel; but they sent their sons into the meetinghouse, who smoked out the congregation with brimstone; and that is a specimen of what would be poured out upon the Saints by the whole Christian world, if they had the opportunity.

In an address delivered some years ago, I spoke of Maryland as a State of liberty; but our reporters made me say Massachusetts—though they are not to blame, for they are raw Englishmen, and therefore the fault must have been with the Editor.

I said that Massachusetts was the hotbed of superstition and religious intolerance, and that Maryland was the first State that by her laws and institutions allowed men to worship God as they pleased. Whether this mistake was accidental or not, I cannot say, but I wish now to correct it; for I do believe Massachusetts to be the very hotbed of superstition and religious intolerance.

In the progress of this Church, mobs gathered around us, and continued to grow thicker till our history brought us to Far West, where the Governor ordered out seventeen thousand troops to exterminate the “Mormons,” and a great many were marched on to the ground preparatory to being shot by the order of Major Clark.

There are a great many men alive that were there, and lived through the operation, and who were finally driven from Missouri, not to say anything of the hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands who are dead, whose deaths were more or less caused by the sufferings and distress that were brought upon them by their extermination.

It was a free State; it was a free country: it had a Constitution that guaranteed liberty, at least to every white man. All religions were tolerated by their laws; but we must be exterminated from the State, because we were that kingdom which had been spoken of.

The result was that Prophets and High Priests were arrested and put in prison, numbers of them were murdered, women were ravished, goods and property stolen, houses burnt, and children butchered, and every possible cruelty was invented to cure men of their religion.

I told Mr. Morril, of Vermont, last winter, that it was utterly impossible by law to change men’s opinions. If a man believes a thing, you may whip him, and he will believe it still.

Men and women are as apt to be tenacious as the old lady was down in the country, where men have but one wife. She got quarrelling with her husband, and called him “cracklouse.” He told her that if she called him that any more, he would drown her. She repeated it again, and he took and put her in the river, then took her out, and she said, “Cracklouse!” So he put her in again, and held her down awhile, till she was almost gone. Then he took her out again, and she could hardly speak, but finally she made out to say, “C-r-a-c-k-l-o-u-s-e!” He was determined to use her up; so he put her down, and held her under till she was dead; but she came up with her finger nails clenched, or rather in the position required for cracking a louse. So, you see, she stuck to it to the last moment.

So it is with our Uncle Sam—our dear, infirm, old uncle; although he has got very rich, and has got several millions of money in the Treasury that he scarcely knows what to do with, he wants to expend some of it in bringing us to the standard of virtue and righteousness according to their notions. To this end he is sending out 2,500 troops, with ministers and schoolmasters to regulate things in Utah. Notwithstanding all this, he may possibly find some instances where people may be as determined and stern in their notions as the old lady was of whom I have been speaking.

Now, a religion that is not worth living for is not worth having. If religion is not worth living for, I am sure it is not worth dying for; and of course, if we are not willing to stand the test, our religion is of very little use. Our enemies judge us by themselves, for they know that the best of them will renounce their religion for the sake of self interest. They treat it as a mere work of time.

A gentleman once asked another why he turned from the reformed Methodists to the Episcopalians; and he said, in reply, “A good fat living will change any of us.” If we can be changed in our religious views by a few soldiers or a few threats, we certainly made a great blunder in coming out here, that we may have the privilege of turning a little, and of giving a little change into the bargain. Our dear old Uncle has had a desire to give us a little of the change from the time we came here. Soon after we arrived, we began to turn this desert into a garden. There came a captain with troops into this city: they were a specimen of the virtue and morality of the United States. They came here and began to insult the people, and then tried to cover up their wickedness by the dignity of Uncle Samdom. Passing along, they came to a lone house, and there undertook to ravish a woman in open daylight; and the brother who interfered to prevent this villainous outrage was most shamefully maltreated by them, and got some of his bones broken. After this outrage, the officers of the company were soon told that if they did not take their troops out of the city, the “Mormons” would cut all their damned throats; and that was the last we had of them here.

I may be a little mistaken as to the precise language made use of; but this subject follows up so close to what I had in my mind, that I wanted to ask myself what I was now going to do in case the soldiers come here.

From year to year we have had companies of these gentry visiting us, and remaining for a season, and then going away. The Government have tried, year after year, to establish garrisons, and get troops into these valleys. They have had troops at Laramie, at Fort Hall, and several other points; but circumstances so turned that they soon marched into Oregon.

The talk now is that they are going to bring 2,500 soldiers into this Territory. That is not a peace establishment; for twenty-five hundred men are not enough to obtain peace in an Indian country. These troops, we are informed, are to be furnished with fifteen months’ provisions, to be delivered in this city this fall, and twelve months’ provisions to be lodged on the other side of the mountain. They are to have four hundred mule teams for hauling their extra baggage, and they are to be provided with judges, and a full corps of territorial officers; and these soldiers are sent along to enforce their rule. This is what we understand from those channels which have been opened to us.

Whether it is done with the intention of making a disturbance here and taking the lives of our leaders, the facts in the case being known to the Government of the United States is not for me at present to say. The mail is stopped, and no more permitted to run, because, they say, of the unsettled state of affairs in Utah.

Now, I am a “Mormon,” and a descendant of the old Puritanical stock that descended from the old Anglo-Saxon reformers, and hence I feel all the sentiments of resentment that any man could feel during the rise against the mother country, when our forefathers were determined to break off the yoke of bondage and be free. When I see men, the descendants of those worthy sires who were the first to stand forth and create the resolution of the colonies, and to break loose from the King of Great Britain—I say, when I realize that my own country and nation are disposed to hold the sword over my head and to threaten me with extermination, I feel to say, Let them send who they please. They are determined to send who they please for Governor, who they please for Judges, and who they please for our Territorial Officers, and to permit those men whom they send to place their interpretation upon the acts of our Territorial Legislature, and upon the condition of things as they surround us; and I care but little what comes next.

They will send men here who are ignorant of the circumstances that surround us—men who are totally ignorant of the irrigation of the land by mountain streams; they will permit them to interfere with the rights of the people of this Territory, with fifteen hundred or two thousand bayonets to back them up.

Under these circumstances, as big a coward as I am, I would say what I pleased; and for one thing I would say that every man that had anything to do with such a filthy, unconstitutional affair was a damned scoundrel. There is not a man, from the President of the United States to the Editors of their sanctorums, clear down to the low-bred letter-writers in this Territory, but would rob the coppers from a dead nigger’s eyes, if they had a good opportunity. If I had the command of thunder and lightning, I would never let one of the damned scoundrels get here alive.

I have heretofore said but very little about the Gentiles; but I have heard all that Drummond has said, and I have read all his lying, infamous letters; and although I have said but little, I think a heap. You must know that I love my friends, and God Almighty knows that I do hate my enemies. There have been men, and women, and children enough who have died through the oppression and tyranny of our enemies to damn any nation under heaven; and now a nation of 25,000,000 of people must exercise its wealth in violation of its own principles and the rights guaranteed by the blood of their fathers—blood that is more sacred than their own heart springs; and this they are doing to crush down a little handful who dwell in the midst of these mountains, and who dare to worship God as they please, and who dare to sing, pray, preach, think, and act as they please.

All I have to say is, Just go ahead and burst your boiler. [Voice: They will.] This is the way the thing shapes itself in my mind; and if I were not afraid to die, I would fight as long as there was a finger left. Yes, if I were not afraid to die, I would fight till there was not as much left of me as there was of the Kilkenny cats. Just look at him—view his conduct towards this people: besides his being my uncle, he has acted most shamefully mean. When I told my uncle I was afraid, he only laughed at me; but I now tell you that if I were not such a well-known coward, I would die like a man of war. The very idea that a man has been awed down by the bayonet is something that I cannot stand. It will do very well for the Emperor of France, and it may do for the Autocrat of Russia, but it don’t do for freeborn men; and if asked which we will prefer—slavery or death, we should be very apt to answer in the language of a Roman senator, if we had any voice in this matter, who, when this question was once put in the days of Julius Caesar and Pompey, promptly answered, We prefer death to slavery. But you know we are Latter-day Saints—we are “Mormons,” and hence we cannot be treated as free men.

Report says that the plan is deep, and it is laid with the intention of murdering every man that will stand up for “Mormonism.” But the evil which they design towards us will fall upon their own heads, and it will grind them to powder. The men that have been living in these valleys, living their religion, and serving their God. They will laugh at their calamities, and mock when their fear cometh.

We must die like the Irishman, and then we shall do well enough. An old parson was riding along one day, and met with an Irishman, and said, “Sir, have you made your peace with God?” Pat replied, “Faith, an I’ve never had a falling out.” The parson seemed very much surprised at the answer, and very piously said, “You are lost, you are lost!” The Irishman very quaintly answered, “Faith, and how can I be lost right in the middle of a great big turnpike?” The moral which I wish to deduce from this is, that, if we have not had a falling out with our God, we are in the middle of the great turnpike. They may cut off our supplies of tobacco and tea. [Voice: What a pity!] Why, bless you, there are young men in Israel who would suffer far more, if deprived of their tobacco, than the ladies would if their ribbons had to be stripped off right in the public meeting; and therefore I advise them to go to work and plant tobacco, for if they were deprived of it, it would take away their peace and happiness, and they could not nasty and besmear everything within a mile of them; and when they wanted to come and get counsel, they would not be able to let out of their mouths a stench that would drive away a skunk.

I feel great pity for those young men, and I would like to discipline them as a certain lieutenant did the cabin boy on a steam packet. He said, “Boy, there is something the matter with your mouth,” whereupon he ordered one of the sailors to bring him a pair of tongs, and ordered the boy to open his mouth, and with the tongs took out a large quid of tobacco. He then called for some canvass and sand and scoured the boy’s mouth out, and told him that when he got sick and needed that again, he was to call on him and he would give him another dose.

I consider it a disgrace to any young man under thirty-five years of age to use tobacco. [Voice: Forty is the age.] That is my age: I was thinking I was thirty-five.

Brethren and sisters, I am a Latter-day Saint, and I know that this is the people of God; I know that this people have the Priesthood, and that Brigham Young is as much an inspired man as was Moses or any other man that ever lived upon the earth.

This is my testimony, and I believe that if I were cut in pieces, though I never was killed, and of course don’t know how it feels; but I do not believe that it would alter my testimony.

I am a good deal like the man in the old world, where they have but one wife. He was shaving, and at the same time having some unpleasant words with his wife: finally, he said he would cut his throat if she did not hold her noise. She replied, “Cut away; I am young and handsome.” “I would, if I did not think it would hurt so damned bad.” And I don’t know but it would feel so very bad to be killed, that I am really afraid where there is any danger. But just so long as I think there is no danger, I shall go ahead.

Brethren and sisters, pardon me for detaining you so long; and may the Lord God of Israel bless you, and may He curse and damn every scoundrel that would bring misery and injury upon this innocent people. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, July 26, 1857.

I arise this morning, my brethren and sisters, feeling considerable dependence upon your faith to give me ability to address you. The prayer of faith of the righteous, availeth much; and if the Saints desire to be instructed by me this morning to any considerable extent, I am certainly satisfied that faith must be exercised in my behalf, as my lungs are not in a suitable condition to enable me to say much.

In entering into a congregation of the Saints, a man who feels the Spirit of the Lord, and has this ruling principle in him, must, under all circumstances of the kind, rejoice with exceeding great joy for the privilege of beholding the faces and of addressing the Saints of the Most High, and of bearing testimony of the truths of the everlasting Gospel in their presence.

Last year at this time I was in the city of Washington, surrounded by those who are struggling by any and every process that can be imagined to get their hands into Uncle Sam’s pockets. It was the principle and almost the only business of every man there to invent some scheme, or find some means or contrivance to make a draw on the Treasury. It was necessary that all their motives and their policy be guarded, and that they be careful of their acquaintances and cautious in their conversation, lest something they might say might endanger the object they were endeavoring to obtain. Praying, thanks– giving to God, and acknowledging His hand in all things was the last thing thought of, if thought of at all; but that is exceedingly doubtful. I looked upon the confusion, the struggling for power and place, the thirst for gold, the contention and strife that were attracting together so many thousands from the different parts of the United States, and all by the glittering of the United States’ Treasury; and I wondered. I cannot say that it produced in my mind the first pleasant feeling. The spirit of wrangling—the spirit of contention seemed to be determined to rend in pieces and utterly destroy the Union. There is a trampling under foot of the principles upon which the Union was founded, and this caused me to be sorrowful.

I frequently went into the Capitol to take a look at the boiling foam of political strife that was amongst them; and I saw a spirit that seemed to be determined to demolish the fabric reared by our fathers, or to disable it by anarchy and misrule.

Brother Heywood and I roomed together, we prayed together, we conversed together, and we visited brother Bernhisel, and talked to him, counseled with him, and comforted him all we could. I believe that we three were the only men in the city of Washington that had any idea that it was of any use asking God for anything, except they did it as a form. To be sure there are meetinghouses and temples of worship for the Catho– lics, for the Presbyterians, for the Methodists, for the Episcopalians, and for the various sects of Protestants; and there were chaplains who prayed a few minutes in the Senate Chamber and in the Hall of Representatives.

I heard the old gentleman pray several times who was the Chaplain in the House of Representatives. I used to go into the Representatives’ Hall with brother Bernhisel in the morning, and he would introduce me to the members and to the chaplain; and I could stay there until the praying was over: then all had to leave but members and officers.

They had a very fine man for Chaplain in the House. He was ninety-six years old. He had served in the revolutionary war. He was a sober, fine man; but his mind was set down to what he had learned forty-five years ago. I conversed with him, and told him what an excellent man Governor Young was—how kind he was to the Indians; and he replied that he was glad to hear it. The last session we discovered that his step began to falter, and that from one session to another he was considerably altered; but he made out to continue his duties through the session. The old man made it his business to preach in the Capitol on Sundays: he exhorted the people to do right. What they were to do to be saved had never, I suppose, entered into his brain. I must to the last of my days have respect for the old Chaplain; for I considered him a fair specimen of the old school soldiery.

As I became acquainted with the gentlemen of the House, the subject of “Mormonism” was soon introduced; and most generally the first question would indicate prejudice and the want of knowledge of our feelings and views here in the mountains.

It was said by some of the old Prophets that, “The people had made lies their refuge, and under falsehood hid themselves.” It is an old adage that falsehood will go round the world while truth is getting on its boots. In talking with strangers, I found very few who, from all they had heard and read, had formed any correct notions of this people, and of this Territory, and the circumstances which surround us: but tales of falsehood, tales of folly, tales of wickedness, and stories imaginary of various kinds—these could be found anywhere; but very little of the truth seems to have rested in anybody’s brain.

The Old Book talks about a city called the New Jerusalem. The passage I refer to is in the Revelation of John, 21st chapter, and from the 8th to the 11th verses—“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” [President H. C. Kimball: “They have got to die a second time.“] “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” John goes on and describes the city to a great length, and then in the following chapter and 15th verse, speaking of the same city, he says—“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

Just let me tell the truth—the naked facts as they exist in open day, to any person I would visit or meet, and they would look at me with distrust; and it would be plainly manifest in their countenances that the truth had no resting place there. No matter if I conversed with the great and wise men of the nation, they seemed not inclined to receive the truth; but let them read a falsehood or an exaggerated statement, and it would strike their attention in a moment. They loved lies, they loved falsehood, they loved corruption, they loved whoremongers, they loved wickedness.

I used to suppose that all that was necessary was to convince the children of men that anything that was presented was right, and I thought that all men naturally had a disposition to receive anything, and to accede to anything that was right; but I learned from the observations I made that the right of the case was about the last thing to be considered, and that justice, truth, or the righteousness of a subject is the last thing to be brought under consideration.

The question to be considered is, Is there any money in it, or is there a chance to make any? Is there a chance to get any political influence? Is there a chance to elevate ourselves in the eyes of our constituents? It makes no difference whether it murders an innocent person or not, if it is only popular, and money can be made at it. This appears to be the ruling power with the children of men in their present wicked and degenerate state.

We are here in the Valleys of the Mountains, and we profess a religion that has a form; and we are very technical in regard to the form, and in regard to our prayers, in regard to our baptism, in regard to our confirmation, in regard to our administrations to the sick, and in regard to all those things that pertain to our religious faith. We are very particu– lar, the most of us, in our feelings, and quite strenuous to observe strictly those outside ordinances—but no more so than we should be.

But the question arises, and we all ask ourselves the question, Is it the form only, or are we suffering ourselves to carry out the form without the inward work and the power of the Holy Spirit? Notwithstanding all this, we should realize that the Lord looks on the heart.

My desires and my feelings are that, if I can observe the forms of religion, I must also use my utmost exertions not to suffer the spirit to be lacking; for all these things must be done heartily and as unto the Lord. Now, I have some knowledge in relation to this work; I have been in the Church from my boyhood, and I have grown grey and bald in the midst of Israel. I have been in the Church when there were but few comparatively—when one such city as we now count by numbers in these valleys would have embraced all that were in the Church.

I was baptized in the year 1832, and I have grown and seen its windings and changings, and I can now bear testimony that every evil and distress that has come upon the Saints has been in consequence of not listening to the counsel of their Prophet and President; and this has been by misunderstanding, and in adhering to our old prejudices, and by not listening to the testimony and warning of the Prophet Joseph. For these causes our enemies have fallen upon our leading men, and operated among us like a mighty sieve to separate the chaff from the wheat.

The supposition is that the smut machine is ahead, and that by-and-by every man and every woman who feel disposed to serve the Lord with all their hearts will have a chance to be tried whether they love the Lord or the things of this world the best— whether they love the things of the Most High God, or whether their religion is a mere form carried out to please their Bishop, to satisfy their Teachers, or whether they do give their hearts to the Lord, and all their might, mind, and strength.

Now, I feel, my brethren, to thank my Heavenly Father for the spirit of reformation that I have witnessed since I returned; and I feel to pray that it may continue, and feel to exhort the people to fear God, who can destroy both the soul and body in hell; and also for them not to suffer doubt to trouble them, to make them wayward in their hearts or thoughts; for I have seen the effect of this to a great extent in times past.

I do know that the world is full of wickedness, and that it is bound in bundles, and is fast preparing for the day of burning; and I do know there is no chance of deliverance or of safety but in being tried, that they may be screened and sifted, and that all unrighteousness may be cleansed from their midst.

This is my testimony of these truths, brethren and sisters; and I pray that we may live up to them, and be prepared to inherit the glory of God in the worlds to come, through Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 31, 1857.

It appears on the present occasion that we enjoy the privilege of partaking of the sacrament in commemoration of the death and suffering of our Lord and Savior, to witness to each other that we are willing to keep his commandments, and to observe the requirements of the fulness of the Gospel until he shall come. Under these circumstances we assemble and call together our wandering thoughts and minds. We review our conduct, our feelings to our Heavenly Father, our actions and doings in relation to His laws, and also our faith towards our brethren, and make a kind of settlement with ourselves, a balance of accounts in our minds, repenting of our sins and follies, and we lay the foundation in our own minds to renew our diligence and exertions in future, that wherein we have failed to walk up to the line of our duty we may improve, and that we may partake of those emblems under an express influence, and with a perfect understanding of a covenant that we will remember Him in all things until he comes. Marvel not, says the Savior, if the world hate you; for remember that it hated me before it hated you.

One of the first principles that we are brought to feel, perhaps, on receiving the Gospel, is, that the world hates us. You may ascend or descend into every department of its society, and you find that hatred more or less manifests itself; and this causes a great many people who receive the truth to have misgivings, and they will ask why is it that we are under the necessity of receiving a religion that is hated of all men? The Savior said to his disciples, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; and blessed are ye when all men shall persecute you, and speak all manner of evil of you falsely for my name’s sake.” But this is a kind of blessing that we hardly appreciate; but at the present time I am a witness that no people upon the face of the earth have so much reason to be thankful, neither have Latter-day Saints seen any time when they have had greater reason to consider themselves blessed under this promise of our Savior, than at the present time.

Much is said of the powerful engine of the press, the powerful medium by which truth or falsehood are so quietly circulated. And for the last year, or the last six or eight months, those engines have been universally turned with vengeance upon the devoted heads of this people.

There is nothing that excites more interest in the minds of the reading public, nothing that creates greater anxiety, nothing that is so readily received as statements, or information, as it is termed, concerning the “Mormons;” and nothing that is true can be printed, but to a very limited extent; whereas anything that is false, it matters not how false or exaggerated, it is circulated and represented to the uttermost extreme. It is as an old gentleman told me in Virginia: said he, “There is nothing published that is so extravagant concerning your people but what we believe it readily.”

The spirit of lies has taken hold of the people; it has got possession of their hearts. They love lies; they like to read them; they like to print them, and they really relish them; but truth is another thing. “Truth,” says the Prophet, “has fallen in the streets; yea, truth faileth; he that departeth from iniquity maketh himself a prey.” Such is the case in the present generation. There are lies from responsible sources, lies over fictitious names, lies certified by responsible editors; and lies certified and clothed with judicial authority are current, and are the most important information that is or has been current in the United States for the last season.

What does it all amount to? Men will have what they like; for the spirit that is in men loves lies; they will read them and believe them. At the same time, there is no man or woman upon the face of the earth but what is more or less responsible for what they read and receive; for there is an innate spirit in the man who desires to know the truth that will generally dictate to him which is truth and which is falsehood.

A terrible people these “Mormons!” A dreadful set of fellows! An awful state of society! Oh, tremendous bad people! I was conversing with a gentleman from Vermont on the subject of “Mormonism,” and he expressed himself tremendously shocked at the immorality of the “Mormons,” and was particularly anxious to regulate their morals. He was strongly in favor of having them corrected by the power of the Federal Government. He said it must be done, for he considered them a disgrace to the nation. I told him that we regarded the Vermont people as a very immoral community. Said I, “We consider their laws of a very immoral character; and we believe that the people would be better, but that their laws and institutions are of a character that tends to prevent it—that their laws are calculated to encourage licentiousness, and to cause them to live in open violation of the first commandment, to multiply and replenish the earth.” “Why how so? Vermont is the most moral State in the Union.” I replied, “It may be so, sir; but your laws provide that no man shall have but one wife; and there is a great proportion of females over that of males, and there is a great proportion of males that are too wicked and corrupt to marry and raise up families; and the consequence is that a great proportion of your females are compelled to live single, and hence many of them become prostitutes. We deprecate such a corrupt order of things; but as it is in your State, it is your business and not ours; therefore we shall not interfere with it.” I never saw a man more astonished, to think that I should question the moral tendency of the institutions of Vermont. “But, in our country,” I said, “we are determined that every man shall acknowledge and sanction his own blood. We shall not interfere with Vermont, Massachusetts, or Maryland about their immorality; it is their own business, and they must attend to it themselves; but we do not wish to submit to such immoral regulations in Utah.”

I was talking with a member of Congress, who was very pious (he was a minister, by the bye), and he intimated that the doctrine of plurality of wives was so at variance—so grossly at variance with all the civilized world, that it was intolerable to all Christians. I told him that I was surprised at that; “for,” said I, “all our Christian friends expect to sit down in the kingdom of God with father Abraham; and he practiced Polygamy.” “Father Abraham,” said he, “was guilty of a great many eccentric tricks.” I replied, “Eccentric as he might be, it is in his bosom that all Christians expect to rest.”

Strange as it may appear, yet it is true that these things are not understood or appreciated; but the corrupt, the licentious of the world are the people who are respected, while the sayings of the honest and truthful are not allowed to spread. Such is the corruption of the world. They lay down, in the first place, the position that “Mormonism” is not true. If you ask why it is not true, they begin to bring their reasons, and they are a good deal like this—“The Mormons are deceived; and the reason why they are deceived is, because they are deceived, sir.” The people actually take such logic as this for argument; they take it for granted and for certain, and they lay it down as a matter of fact, that “Mormonism” is false, and so it follows. Oh, they say it will all come to an end and fall to pieces in a few days; and they have been saying this for the last twenty years; they have kept crying “Mormonism” will go down; it is bound to fall in pieces. Still the bubble rolls ahead and does not burst up; it does not fly to pieces as they have predicted.

I consider that it is necessary that every man should mind his own business and suffer his neighbors to do likewise. I do not know how careful they may be in relation to us. So far as our being admitted into the Union is concerned, we are on just as good and fair a footing as Oregon, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Washington. To be sure, they have prejudices against us because we are “Mormons;” but they also hate each other, and they calculate to use each other up, and then to use up the “Mormons.”

I came up the Missouri River with some Free State men, who said, “If ever a fuss breaks out again, we are ready for it; we have got the “Volcanic Rifles,” and we calculate to wipe the border ruffians out of existence;” and they showed that they had the tools which do up the business. Whenever I conversed with any of the pro-slavery men on this subject, they generally told me that if the other party should begin again, they were prepared to wipe them out all at once, and leave them much in the same position that Dr. Kane’s ship “Advance” was, when it came between two immense masses of ice, and they found themselves liable to be crushed up in what the Arctic men call a “nip.” After they use each other up, we will stand a little better chance. They need not be alarmed if they see some of the “Mormons” in the Congress of the nations. No, they need not be surprised if they yet see some of our Elders in the halls of Congress—men who understand national affairs equal to any in the nation standing forth to save that Constitution which we are now accused of opposing.

I thank the Lord that I am once more in your midst, and for the privilege of striking hands with my brethren and sisters. But when I think that the enemies of all righteousness are raging, I feel to thank the Lord for the fulfillment of the words of His servants. I realize and know that the keys of exaltation rest in the midst of Israel; and when the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, then “He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh at their calamity: the Lord shall have them in derision.” Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1857.

It is with the greatest pleasure, brethren and sisters, that I have the privilege of beholding your faces, and of hearing the voice, testimony, and narrative of our worthy President, Brigham Young. It is not easy for me to find language to describe my feelings and to express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father, and to my brethren and sisters, for the preservation of my life, and for the privilege I enjoy among you on the present occasion.

I went abroad, and have been absent a little more than one year and one month to perform a mission which was new to me, depending upon the faith of the Saints and the blessings of the Almighty, that through their faith and my own exertions I might accomplish the work I started out to do; but it came out a good deal like the fishermen in the days of our Savior who toiled all night and caught nothing; still it has been to me a school of experience, as I have had a chance to behold something of the manner, and have observed a little of the principles, the honor, and the integrity which rule the actions of the Federal Government of our great and glorious union.

It is generally considered in the world that truth bears away the victory. It was in fact laid down by some of the ancient prophets that such was really the case. Things have changed a little now-a-days, but it is an age of improvement. If a man tells the truth, he stands no earthly chance whatever; he has got to lie and mix so much lie with the truth that it will hide it almost entirely, or he cannot receive any credit whatever. So it is to a great extent, and instead of truth governing the world at the present time, lies and falsehood govern it, as far as I have observed.

It will be recollected, when I left the Valley, there was a great scarcity of provisions; we were on half rations, and very frequently not half. We were making the best estimate we could to stretch out flour until harvest, and picking up everything we could to sustain ourselves until the glorious day of harvest should come. Such was the case with a great many of us; and those who had provisions were dividing it out to those who had none, by the spoonful. If they had a spoonful, they divided it; and if they had two, they were dividing that; and this condition of affairs was proving to the world that brotherly love and affection existed here, unheard of and unknown in the history of mankind, except in Deseret, for a whole people to be so straitened for provisions, and at the same time not a solitary person perish of starvation or want—I say such a thing is unheard of in the history of mankind. When this was fairly commencing, I went away. It was understood in the States that we were all starving to death. When I got down there, I told them I was as short of provisions as anybody else, and consequently had come down where they had something to eat.

I went away from here weighing 243 pounds at the Tithing Office, and not being well fed at that, and falling off considerably during the last year previous to going away.

When I got down to the States, where the climate did not agree with my lungs, I spent a good share of the winter in doing some of the tallest coughing of any man living. However, I fatted up considerably, and got to be quite a decent looking “chap.” When I left St. Louis, I weighed 260 pounds. I thought I was going home in fine order; but, behold, and lo! All my Missouri and eastern beef I had gathered shook off on the plains, and I found myself the poor, “lean,” meager man you see before you. When I got to the Tithing Office, the other day, I was about seven pounds lighter than when I went away; and I expect I have made that up since I have got home. My health has greatly improved since I left the Missouri River, with my decreasing weight.

I am very thankful that the Lord has preserved me and returned me again to your midst. The news which you probably have received is unimportant, though you have received very little for the last six months; for, you know, Uncle Sam is poor, and not able to carry his mails; and the winter has been very hard and the circumstances have been such that he could not even send out messages or anything. But the rivers all run the same way they did when I was there before, and they run in about the same direction. Railroad collisions, steamboat accidents, fires, and freezing to death are just as common as before, and a little more so. And another thing I suppose you will be glad to learn—the devil is not dead. [Brigham Young: I feel thankful for that.]

A great portion of the people have come to the conclusion, after having been a great many years considering the subject over, that we are a very desperate set of fellows out here. Politicians are a little vexed, for they do not know what to do with us. They did not admit any Territory into the Union during this session of Congress, though they did grant a permission graciously to 250,000 inhabitants residing in the Territory of Minnesota to make a constitution.

I have looked on and taken items, thought and reflected, saw how it was going, waiting for an opportunity. You know it was a very modest mission I went down on; I went to Washington to ask permission to enter the Union; and I did not want to go in until I saw a fair chance; I hated to ask, and be refused admission. I have rejoiced very much at every particle of news that I could receive from the mountains. I received letters from President Young and others, three, four, and sometimes six months after they were written. When they did arrive, they afforded me a great deal of pleasure, and were a source of rejoicing, especially to learn that the Saints were waking up.

On my way here with the mail, I had the additional cause of rejoicing in beholding that a great many sick persons—persons whose lives had been dreadfully in danger—had been lucky enough to escape, and by escaping the narrow chance of a hundred thousand deaths, have been enabled to travel to some peaceable land where they expect to enjoy themselves. But I must say, from the little observation I had of them, they were a sickly crowd; and when they had an opportunity, they vomited freely, and by that process would be able, probably, to keep along until they got down to the Missouri River.

But we understand they are not agreed. A part of the party would relate their narrow escape, their hair’s breadth deliverance, and the other part would pronounce it all a lie—not a word of truth in it. One end of the party would contradict what the other end of it would affirm. If I ever desired anything on the earth with all my heart, since I came to these Valleys, it was that the Lord would gather out of our midst all those that offend. Every time I met a party, I felt like shouting “Glory, hallelujah.” The work I saw was going on, and I felt to rejoice.

I did not go to Washington putting my trust in man, neither do I come home putting my trust in man. The Almighty God is at the helm; He rules His people, He governs and controls all men, and He can restrain the wicked at His pleasure; but let me tell you, if the designs of the spirit of the devil that reigns in the hearts of the wicked against us, prompting them to our destruction, could be executed, we would be exterminated from the face of the earth; but God limits their power, and as long as they cannot gratify their whole desires, just so long they may rage and foam; but if you put any trust whatever in man, if you rely on the arm of man to protect you, you will be disappointed. What protection have we ever had from the day we commenced to preach the Gospel to the present day? We expect nothing but the arm of the Almighty to protect His people; let us, therefore, put our trust in Him, and just let the devil howl.

I had a little serious conversation with Captain Smith at Fort Kearney. The very gentlemanly commander of that fort, Major Wharton, had nearly lost his eyesight, principally by watching for the hostile Cheyenne Indians through the spyglass, and Captain Smith was acting commander. I enquired what was the condition of the dragoons stationed there? He replied, they had about fifty horses but their hoofs had come off. How many have you that can do efficient service, if called upon? He said they had about ten or twelve in good condition, but fresh horses were expected.

The company of handcart Elders were an astonishment to everybody that saw them. The traders on the road say that mules are nowhere by the side of them. I never saw such a pretty sight in my life. We had a meeting with them on Horseshoe Creek, and a better set of men I never saw, and men that were old when I was a boy were as active as boys, rolling on with their handcarts, singing and rejoicing.

Perhaps, when I get some other opportunity, I may feel free, without intruding on the time of others, to speak more particularly on the things that pertained to my mission. May the Lord bless us, and enable us to live righteously and soberly, and rise with the Star of the Morning, and enjoy eternal glory, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1856.

It certainly is enough to try the nerves of the strongest man and the lungs of a giant, to rise and address such an immense assemblage as is here this morning, especially with the reflection that they are expecting to listen to and be edified with what I may be able to say.

When I reflect that yesterday I saw the Saints coming in from the south, and some of them on foot, both men and women, bringing their children some fifty miles in their arms, as many did, to get here and attend this Conference, and consider that such labor is to be requited by the instruction and intelligence which they will receive, and then undertake to address an assembly under these circumstances, I feel the necessity for the faith of the Saints to be exercised in my behalf, to enable me to speak for the instruction and edification of so vast an assemblage.

When I was about twenty-one years old I went on a mission, in company with Elder Don C. Smith, the youngest brother of the Prophet Joseph, through the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. When he rose to preach he wished to see a pretty good sized assembly, and to talk at least a couple of hours; when it was my turn to speak, some thirty minutes, perhaps, was as much time as I would wish to occupy. We occasionally had a small assembly, then Don would say, “Come, George A., you are good at preaching a picayune sermon; suppose you try this time.”

It would seem today as though a picayune sermon would not answer the purpose, if the size of the congregation is the scale in which the discourse should be weighed.

It is said, in one of the parables, that “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.”

In 1830, on the 6th day of April, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with only six members. Joseph, in one of his letters in relation to Alexander Campbell, in December 1835, said that “the three measures of meal might be compared to the three witnesses who were called upon to testify of the Book of Mormon, and who selected and ordained twelve Apostles to go forth and be special witnesses to all the world.”

Whether the application was really intended to be laid down as a rule I will not say, but it is very evident that when Joseph Smith laid the foundation of this kingdom he commenced depositing the leaven of truth, and that that leaven has continued to increase up to 1856, when an assemblage of the Saints, who are here as representatives of this people, is crowded out of such a spacious building as the Tabernacle, and obliged to assemble in this large Bowery, also densely filled.

It shows that the leaven is operating, and I may say gives fair and conclusive ground upon which to expect that the whole lump will eventually be leavened.

The condition of our Territory, the nature of our soil, the peculiarities of our climate, appear as if designed expressly by the Almighty for the fulfillment of this prophesy, and the upbuilding of the kingdom of heaven in the last days.

It matters not what corner of the earth men come from, unless they possess the spirit of the leaven of truth they will remain but a short time in these mountains before they begin to consider it the wrong place, for the leaven is working, they cannot quite endure the climate and the peculiarities of the country, or something of the kind, and off they go.

On account of our altitude we are most advantageously situated for the drainage of the filth, scum, and corruption, when it accumulates to a certain extent, for it flows off in different directions, thus leaving the people of the kingdom remaining as it were alone.

Could anyone have supposed that, when the proclamation of the Gospel was commenced twenty-six years ago, the people who would receive that testimony would be knocking for admittance into the national confederacy as an independent State?

Had it then been predicted, prophesied, or proclaimed to the world, that such would be the case, the very strangeness of the matter, the difficulty of the task, the unheard of idea, would have been so great an apparent absurdity that men, who would have believed it, would have been considered greater fools than those were deemed who received the testimony of the Prophet concerning the ministry of angels.

We stand here today a great and mighty people, the servants of the Most High God, and almost every single circumstance, which has occurred from that time to this, has had a tendency to condense us together, to unite us more and more, and to place us in circumstances and situations to spread forth the curtains of Zion, to enlarge her habitations, to lengthen her cords and strengthen her Stakes, and to make the place of the feet of the Saints glorious.

Such, then, is the present aspect of affairs. Much has been done, and much now remains for us to do. The great work has only just commenced. When we entered into this Church we began our education, and it frequently happens that two or three years, and perhaps more, have to be spent in unlearning what we had learned amiss.

The human mind is wonderfully susceptible and tenacious of traditions, and whatever may have been our traditions, it is an extremely difficult task for us, as human beings, to dispense with our traditions at once. They will hang about us, we will retain them, more or less, hence it often happens that, when you baptize a sectarian preacher into this Church, and a great many of them have been so baptized, in a little time his foolish traditions will become so apparent as to make him despise himself.

For this cause scores of them have turned away and joined the mob to destroy the Saints, rather than be stripped of their traditions, which they had so long hugged to their bosoms, and considered of so much value.

A portion of the persecutions which followed this people in their early history have been influenced, to a considerable extent, by the corruptions of those who professed to be in the midst of the Saints, who had been baptized and lived with the Saints, but finally, when their corrupt practices and traditions were about to be exposed, would turn away and join the enemies of this people, and seek their destruction with greater malice, seemingly, than those who had never joined us.

We ought to make profitable lessons for ourselves from observations of the past. I know, brethren, that we have our traditions on a great many subjects. Take a man, for instance, who has been a lawyer, or a magistrate, in the States, or in England, one who has read Blackstone, Kent, and a few other law books, and undertake to explain to him a simple mode of administering justice, one that can be plainly understood by all the people, and I do not care how much education or “Mormonism” he has, the very moment the simplicity of administering justice is laid before him it comes in contact with his traditions, and he will quibble about the meaning and placing of words, the mode of spelling, or the tail of a comma, and continue so to do, perhaps, during his whole life, without ever learning that matters brought before us ought to be dealt with according to the nature of the case and the circumstances, without going back a thousand years for precedents to govern us.

Take a man who has been educated a sectarian minister, he has certain grave ideas imprinted on his mind, he must pray in a certain form, and perhaps use a certain tone of voice when he offers up his prayer, and however much he may believe the Gospel of the last days, he will constantly be at a loss to know whether he is governed in some things by the principles of truth, or whether in reality he is not following some of the whims or traditions of his early education.

You may apply the same rule in farming. Take a man from the Western States, place him on some of our farming lands and tell him, “Here are twenty acres of land, and it is all you can properly farm, unless you have more help than yourself. Now fence and cultivate it, and you can make an abundant living.” He would be apt to say, “You must be mad; bless you, I need 160 acres, I can cultivate that much at least. I have always done so, and I will not have anything to do with such a little patch.”

I have seen many engage in farming here, and have known them to work four or five years without having the first acre secured by a good fence, and without cultivating the ground in a manner suited to the soil and climate. Why? Traditions interfere, they have been traditionated to run over a great quantity of ground, and to not half cultivate it, until farms are almost entirely exhausted.

Incorrect traditions, though long followed, have to be surrendered, and we have to build up Zion. The plan of Zion contemplates that the earth, the gardens, and fields of Zion, be beautiful and cultivated in the best possible manner. Our traditions have got to yield to that plan, circumstances will bring us to that point, and eventually we shall be under the necessity of learning and adopting the plan of beautifying and cultivating every foot of the soil of Zion in the best possible manner.

When the Saints become instructed, when this people become united as they should be, when they learn things as they should learn them, they will not be subject to the constant and unpleasant annoyances to which they have been subject.

Many think there is no necessity of doing anything more than to throw a little seed in the ground and plough it under, that then they are sure of a crop. They often farm without fences, sow their seed without properly preparing the land and attending to it, and then trust in God for the balance.

Others think it irreligious to speak upon temporal subjects on the Sabbath day, that it is a violation of the day to talk concerning our business transactions on the Sabbath.

If I understand the order of building up the kingdom, it is a spiritual work, on every occasion, to give proper instructions necessary for the good of the kingdom. Very small matters lead sometimes to great results.

There are many here, as religious as this congregation looks, who have not got a good fence around their farms, yet they will kneel down in the morning, perhaps, to offer a prayer. By the time they have got one knee fairly to the floor, peradventure somebody thunders away at the door and cries out, “Neighbor, there are twenty head of cattle in your wheat; they have been there all night, and are there now.”

The man of no fence is roused up, and instead of praying he is apt to think, “Damn it,” and to start off to get the cattle out and put them into the stray pen.

Perhaps another neighbor has not been quite as wide awake in the morning, and had prepared no place in which to secure his cattle: he is about ready to say his prayers when his ears are saluted with, “Neighbor, all your cattle are in the stray pen, and $100 damage is to pay.”

Thus you must see that some temporal arrangements are necessary, to enable men to enjoy that quiet which would be desirable in attempting to worship our Heavenly Father.

You may think that these small matters amount to but little, but sometimes it happens that out of a small matter grows something exceedingly great. For instance, while the Saints were living in Far West, there were two sisters wishing to make cheese and, neither of them possessing the requisite number of cows, they agreed to exchange milk.

The wife of Thomas B. Marsh, who was then President of the Twelve Apostles, and sister Harris concluded they would exchange milk, in order to make a little larger cheese than they otherwise could. To be sure to have justice done, it was agreed that they should not save the strippings, but that the milk and strippings should all go together. Small matters to talk about here, to be sure, two women’s exchanging milk to make cheese.

Mrs. Harris, it appeared, was faithful to the agreement and carried to Mrs. Marsh the milk and strippings, but Mrs. Marsh, wishing to make some extra good cheese, saved a pint of strippings from each cow and sent Mrs. Harris the milk without the strippings.

Finally it leaked out that Mrs. Marsh had saved strippings, and it became a matter to be settled by the Teachers. They began to examine the matter, and it was proved that Mrs. Marsh had saved the strippings, and consequently had wronged Mrs. Harris out of that amount.

An appeal was taken from the Teacher to the Bishop, and a regular Church trial was had. President Marsh did not consider that the Bishop had done him and his lady justice, for they decided that the strippings were wrongfully saved, and that the woman had violated her covenant.

Marsh immediately took an appeal to the High Council, who investigated the question with much patience, and I assure you they were a grave body. Marsh being extremely anxious to maintain the character of his wife, as he was the President of the Twelve Apostles, and a great man in Israel, made a desperate defense, but the High Council finally confirmed the Bishop’s decision.

Marsh, not being satisfied, took an appeal to the First Presidency of the Church, and Joseph and his Counselors had to sit upon the case, and they approved the decision of the High Council.

This little affair, you will observe, kicked up a considerable breeze, and Thomas B. Marsh then declared that he would sustain the character of his wife, even if he had to go to hell for it.

The then President of the Twelve Apostles, the man who should have been the first to do justice and cause reparation to be made for wrong, committed by any member of his family, took that position, and what next? He went before a magistrate and swore that the “Mormons” were hostile towards the State of Missouri.

That affidavit brought from the government of Missouri an exterminating order, which drove some 15,000 Saints from their homes and habitations, and some thousands perished through suffering the exposure consequent on this state of affairs.

Do you understand what trouble was consequent to the dispute about a pint of strippings? Do you understand that the want of fences around gardens, fields, and yards, in town and country, allowing cattle to get into mischief and into the stray pen, may end in some serious result? That the corroding influence of such circumstances may be brought to bear upon us, in such a way that we may lose the Spirit of the Almighty and become hostile to the people? And if we should not bring about as mighty results as the pint of strippings, yet we might bring entire destruction to ourselves. If you wish to enjoy your religion and the Spirit of the Almighty, you must make your calculations to avoid annoyances, as much as possible. When brother Brigham was anxious to have men take ten acres of land each and fence it, many thought that he was behind the times. The result is, from the time I came into the Valleys, in 1849, to the present, I never have been to the big field south of this City, or around or through it when it was fenced, and if any other man has seen it fenced, he has seen it at some time when I did not. The reason of this is, and has been, either we undertake to accomplish more than we can do, or neglect to do our duty in many respects.

In traveling through the other settlements you find similar difficulties. I do know that there has been more quarrelling, faultfinding, and complaining, throughout the settlements south of this County, in consequence of bad fences, in consequence of men neglecting to fence their fields and secure their crops, than from almost any other source of annoyance.

People have undertaken to fence far more land than they have ever tried to cultivate as it should be.

Brother Kimball requested me to preach on matters of policy, and I have come to the conclusion that the best policy is to undertake to cultivate a little land, and to fence and cultivate it as it should be, and to only keep as many cattle as we can take care of, and keep from destroying our neighbors crops. In that way I believe we will be able to avoid a good many annoyances, and to adopt a great deal better policy than we now have in those respects. In the City of Provo, there has been more grain destroyed, every year since I first went there, than has been saved, and the main cause has been the want of proper fences.

In the commencement of new settlements, we have generally committed an error in undertaking to fence too large a field. When we first established the settlement of Parowan, in Iron County, the brethren got together in a general council, and took into consideration the propriety of fencing a field. I recommended that they should fence 640 acres with a heavy, substantial fence, and cultivate it like a garden; and when that was done, then they might increase their possessions. There was not half a dozen men, out of the hundreds who were there, who came with me, who agreed with me. I was told that I was no farmer, though they would admit that I had a little experience in preaching.

It was urged that my advice, if adopted, would be equivalent to ruining the settlement, consequently, to avoid a general murmuring throughout the camp, it was concluded to fence in 6,000 acres.

We have worked at that job from that day to this, and have not yet had an acre of land securely fenced. They have now come to the conclusion to adopt the identical plan suggested at first, and to fence in a section of land to begin with.

There has been a constant complaint about selling the land for fencing, quarrelling here and there about cattle doing mischief, and they have become thoroughly converted to the doctrine I recommended. Experience had to teach them the lesson, though it was not so much experience with me, for my father taught me that a man could not raise a crop with any certainty unless he first fenced his land, and it was considered one of the most ridiculous things a man could be guilty of, in a new country, to plant a crop and let the cattle destroy it for want of a fence. Some settlements have made tolerably good fences, but as a general thing the poles are stretched too long for their size, the points sag down, and should a cow or an ox happen to pass by such an apology for a fence, and understand that it was designed to keep out animals, they would be insulted, and, were it not against the law to fight a duel, you might expect such cow or ox to give you a challenge for such gross insult. The inhabitants of this County, perhaps, know better how their fences look than I do. I am going to advise my brethren, the farmers, if they have more land than they can fence, to sell, rent, or throw it out to the commons, and secure one acre at least, and from that to ten, or as much as they can actually enclose as it should be, and then cultivate it in good style. Do not haul off the straw to burn, but save it all, and all the manure you can produce. In this way Zion can be made to blossom as a rose, and the beauty of Zion will begin to shine forth like the morning, and if the brethren have not learned by experience that this is the course to pursue, by that time they will learn it. I presume a great many have become satisfied that it would be better to avoid many of these annoyances.

There has been some grumbling, in many of the settlements, that the Indians destroy the crops, that they go through the fences and let their horses into the fields. It has been in my way, frequently, to look at these fields, and, as a general thing, there was no fence there, or, if a fence at all, not such an one as would induce any person to go round it. The leaving of bars, the throwing down of fences have been as often through the carelessness and neglect of white men as of Indians.

On one occasion last season, I heard a tremendous complaint brought up in meeting, that the Indians had done great damage by throwing their fences down and turning their horses into the fields, but before the meeting was dismissed it was made apparent that the Indians only traveled the path made by the white man, and were actually more careful than many white men, for they had been seen to take down the fence and put it up again, when white men would take it down and leave it so, or break it by driving over. I recommend, as a system of economy, that we commence from the year 1856 to avoid these errors, these blunders, that we may escape the results flowing from them.

There is another thing that I think by this time has become understood throughout the Territory, and that is, that we live in a cold northern latitude, at a high altitude, and that we are liable to have very cold winters. There have been several severe winters already. In the winter of 1849-50, many of the animals belonging to the United States’ troops perished in Cache Valley. Many have supposed that our cattle were going to live without being fed; that they would run on the range and fat all the winter, as in Central America; this supposition must have been this winter pretty fully exploded. A system of true policy and domestic economy would indicate, then, that we must collect and preserve feed for our animals, and prepare barns and stables to shelter those necessary to be kept for immediate use.

At last Spring’s Conference, the brethren came in their carriages by hundreds and thousands; I now see numbers of the same persons footing it to this Conference with sore feet, walking 50 or 100 miles. What has become of their horses? They are so poor they cannot get up alone, or are out on the range, as there was nothing to feed them with. Let us take a valuable lesson from this circumstance, and make suitable provision for our stock.

So many coming to this Conference on foot, called to mind some of the history of my early days. I have traveled some thirty thousand miles on foot, and a great portion of that distance with a valise on my back, without purse or scrip, to preach the Gospel, and I understand something about sore feet. But I must say, when I saw brother Graves and his wife walking fifty miles to attend Conference, and carrying a child, that I thought they were indeed anxious to hear instructions. Says sister Graves, “I came all the way here from England to hear brother Brigham, I have not yet had a chance, and I am now determined to hear him.” I will prophesy that the time will come when they, through faith and perseverance, will come to Conference in their carriage.

Good domestic policy requires us to be careful in providing such comforts and necessaries as we can produce within ourselves. If we let our sheep perish our clothing will be scanty, or we shall be forced into the stores to support distant producers. If we let our cattle die we shall not only lack beef, but our homemade leather will be missing. In short, the difficulties and wrongs which may grow out of such carelessness are numerous. It should by all means be our policy to produce every article, which we can, within ourselves.

These sentiments are strictly within the scope of my religion, and those comforts and conveniences, which we are constantly in need from day to day, are necessary to enable us to perform the duties God requires at our hands. One of those duties is, to take a course that will enable us to enjoy the blessings and comforts of life, that we may preserve our health and strength to labor for the upbuilding and spread of the kingdom of God.

Much is said in the world, and considerable excitement raised on the subject of “women’s rights.” Complaint is made that the rights of women are taken away, that they have not the privilege of working outdoors like men, have not a chance of voting at elections, of holding commissions in the army and navy, or of being elected to honorable offices in government. Whether “women’s rights conventions” will terminate as did the lady’s rebellion in Hungary, in almost universal war, is not now for me to say. But I will say to our “Mormon” sisters that they have the best prospect of having their rights, of enjoying the privilege of a healthful share of our outdoor labor, of cultivating the gardens and of aiding in the management of business, of any women at present on the earth, for every Conference calls for a considerable number of missionaries, who are sent forth to preach the Gospel, and to perform other duties in relation to the upbuilding of the kingdom in the last days. This operation leaves many wives and daughters at home, frequently not under the most favorable pecuniary circumstances, and the result is that it calls into requisition their economy, brings out their energies, educates them in matters of business, and, I think, enables them to exercise, as long as they probably may wish to, those avocations and duties which custom has assigned to men, but which are so earnestly sought for by the “women’s rights conventions.”

If any of our ladies are really anxious for the privilege of cultivating the earth and producing the necessaries of life, they most certainly have a fair field to labor in; and if any lack this privilege, and will let that fact be known, their husbands can be advantageously sent forth to preach the Gospel.

The various policies now agitating the world, indicate the crazy state of its society, all split up into parties; and law, and agitation appear to be the general order of the day. Our women, who feel proud to exert their talent in sustaining and administering to the wants of those around them, while their husbands are abroad gathering the Saints or preaching the fullness of the Gospel, merit a constant prayer that the Lord will guide, direct and counsel them, and enable them to fulfil the duties of their several callings, to the end that their husbands may feel at ease while abroad fulfilling their duties, that the anxiety which would naturally rest upon their minds, in relation to affairs at home, may be entirely removed, that they may devote their whole faith and energy in the spread of the Gospel among the different nations whither they may be called to travel.

Many of us have, formerly, been very anxious to be made partakers of the privilege of civilizing the Indians, but now we have become exceedingly annoyed with the loose conduct of some few of them, and may have felt a bloodthirsty disposition towards them. The Lord has placed us in a position through which we are brought in contact with them, and requires us to use all reasonable exertion to reclaim the fallen remnants of Israel. We are not to be discouraged if we have to labor much to reclaim them, and should not thirst for their blood, nor suffer ourselves to be led into a feeling to shed their blood, but should cultivate a strong desire to ameliorate their condition, in every instance where it is possible so to do. Reflect how long the Lord has borne with us and our many follies, and learn to labor long and patiently with the children of the forests, that we may, peradventure bring them, or their children, to the knowledge of their fathers, for it is written that the remnants of them shall be saved. After the remnants of Israel shall be gathered in, not many generations shall pass away before they shall become a white and delightsome people. Then we may, perhaps, look back with regret at our present impatience, and at the disposition of some to destroy that race. God created them, and wickedness and corruption have degraded them to their present condition, but according to the education they have had, the code of morals they have learned, they are more moral and virtuous than many of the white men in the world.

It is said that men will be judged according to their works, based upon the knowledge they have been privileged to possess. Now, I believe that many of the Indians residing in these mountains have done better, according to their opportunities and knowledge, than have some of us. We have had far superior advantages, and of course better conduct and a more perfect walk ought to be expected from us. I have frequently observed the feelings of our brethren towards the Indians, and it takes but very little to rouse in some a disposition to kill and destroy them. Of all the policies that is the worst, for it is much easier, cheaper, and in every way better to feed than to fight them. Aside from that view, in one case you are not guilty of shedding blood, but in the other you bring their blood upon your heads, provided it is not shed justifiably. Occasions may occur, perhaps, when it is necessary to fight them, but they might be far more rare if the brethren would always strictly fulfil their duties.

The history of the settlement of most if not all new States has been fraught, checkered, blooded, with the perpetration of cruelties to the Indians. These should learn us a profitable and valuable lesson, and all the brethren should cultivate a disposition to conciliate under all circumstances, and to avoid, so far as possible, every cause of offense between us and these scattered remnants of Jacob. I have always endeavored to exercise a pacific policy, and still believe it to be the best. The past has proven that a few Indians can conceal themselves in the mountains, and keep a settlement in a state of constant alarm for years. And how has it been even in a level country? The Florida war cost the government of the United States thousands of lives, some twenty millions of dollars, and lasted many years, and after all they purchased a peace, when they could not otherwise reach Sam Jones and his party. Billy Bowlegs, when passing through the gallery of portraits in New York City, recogni– zed the likenesses of Generals Scott and Taylor, and said, “I licked both those generals in the Florida war.”

Peace had to be bought and presents made, which could have been much easier done at the beginning, and thus have avoided the difficulties and consequent expense and loss of life. I hope our brethren will always be courteous, and take a course to avoid the occurrence of any difficulty in this Territory.

I will return to the subjects of home products. We are so situated that we cannot profitably transport our grain to a market outside our borders, nor in case of scarcity easily bring grain here; for these reasons prudence would dictate us to make timely and suitable provisions for storing all surplus, that in case of famine, or great scarcity, we might have a supply of bread.

The Emperor of China has a policy for the preservation of the people of his empire, something like this: he receives one-fifth of all the grain produced, and stores it up against a day of scarcity. That country is so well provided with canals, that in case grain is cut off in any portion of the empire, breadstuff can be easily furnished to the people. And even in case of a general famine, the immense population could be sustained, for some years, from the Imperial stores which have accumulated.

We as well as others, should learn to store our provisions when there is plenty, that we may be prepared against a time of need. The First Presidency, from time to time, since we came here, have taught that it was necessary for us to provide against the day of famine and great trouble, and that it was not only necessary for us to provide for ourselves, but also for the thousands and millions who are flocking to these mountains, for shelter from the calamities that are fast falling upon the world. A goodly share of the human race are now in extreme destitution, and those who are not in very straightened circumstances manifest great wrath towards each other, and war and cruelty are the consequent results. Millions and millions of funds are diverted from the industrial channels and invested in the operations of war, leaving multitudes of people in a state of utmost destitution.

The grain ports of Russia have been closed for a long time, the war question continues to grow still more complete, and as the perplexity increases, multitudes more are deprived of necessary food. These derangements are constantly increasing, and will increase; and the time is not far distant when millions of people will fly to these Valleys as the only peaceful, plentiful place of refuge. Then it becomes the Saints to store up food for themselves, and for the hosts who will come here for sustenance and protection, for as the Lord lives they will flow here by thousands and millions, and seek bread and protection at the hands of this people.

I lately asked one of the brethren why he had not built a house; said he, “I thought we might be driven away from here, and I should lose my labor.” You can understand what I think about being driven, for I calculate that the Lord has got His children into the mountains where He can handle them at His pleasure, and He is perfectly willing that we should stay here and will not suffer our enemies to drive us, unless we rebel against Him, and I do not presume that we shall do that. We are so nicely situated that when a man gets uneasy, or feels like leaving, he can travel over the rim of the Basin and disappear in the far-off regions of gold and plenty, where the comforts of life abound, and that is all he cares about.

When a man apostatizes from this Church, rejects the authorities of the Priesthood and rebels against the principles of the Gospel, he cares no more for anything spiritual, or what pertains to pure religion, than the wild bull of the plains. All he cares about is to satisfy his appetites, gratify his lusts and be filled with the good things of the earth. I have heard numbers of such persons say, “From this day on I care nothing about religion: it is only for myself, my family, and the things we can get, that I care about.” When a man begins to think that brother Brigham is stringent in his measures, and to feel that there is not room enough, that he cannot get enough land, the next thing is he will be seen drunk in San Bernardino, or somewhere else, although he did not go there with the intent to get drunk, but that is the natural result of losing the spirit of the Almighty. It actually does seem that the Lord has placed us in the most complete position for getting rid of all such characters, and occasional seasons of scarcity, occasional dry years, occasional visits of grasshoppers, and an occasional severe winter, produce constant annoyance in the minds of those who wish to get into a paradise in a hurry. If those who are disposed to complain will but reflect a little, they will understand that we are actually situated in the best country in the world.

Do any of you recollect when you used to have the ague THIRTEEN months in the year? Do you recollect of ever calling upon an Elder to lay hands on the sick, and of his beginning to shake while he was attending to the ordinances? Can you not recollect that at times, in Nauvoo, there would not be a house without two or three sick persons in it a great portion of the year? And when a heavy person died there, do you not remember that it was as much as we could do to get enough men round the coffin to lift it, because we all were so used up with the ague, and were so very sickly? Is it so now? Are nine out of ten of the brethren sick here? Do you go to your houses and find a couple shaking on one bed, another in a fever, and a child on the floor unable to get up, and perhaps not one in the family able to get another a drink of water? You can remember such scenes in our former locations, but you are now in a country where these things are comparatively unknown. Do you recollect the time, when in the midst of agues, that the only nourishment many could give the sick was a coarse corn dodger? Corn was often not worth more than twelve cents a bushel, but you could not always get out to carry it to mill; and when you could, you often found the mill so constructed that it would grind two kernels into one, and such was the nourishment for the sick.

Every night the sickly season was talked of, and that sickly season lasted all that part of the year in which we wanted to be at work raising bread. And when you went to meeting, and looked round upon the congregation, you saw an assemblage of pale countenances; and often saw numbers of them starting off before the close of the meeting, because they were unable to stay any longer, and looking as though they would fall down and never be able to rise again. But I now challenge the world to produce a healthier looking congregation than this.

I have heard some say that they were bothered to get provisions, but if there is a fatter, heartier looking congregation in the world I do not know where it is, and challenge the world to produce one. Some have been asking me what I was going to say, at Washington, about our present scarcity, and I gave them to understand that I should tell them that I was about the only person in the Territory but what had plenty to eat, and that the people had thought best to send me away, for fear I would get too lean. The health which has been enjoyed by this people, since they have been in the mountains, exceeds all bounds of previous belief. Through exposure in crossing the Plains, and during our persecutions, has resulted a great portion of the small amount of disease that has appeared among the community. Notwithstanding all these circumstances—the health and the manifold blessings conferred upon us—some have been discontented. I have known men come here so poor that they had to beg the first meal of victuals, and by working three or four years become independently rich, but still they alleged that the country was so hard that they could not live in it, and that they must leave because they had to pay so many taxes, and because so many difficulties surrounded them. I have seen those same men laying on the banks of the Mississippi shaking with the ague, and begging me to administer to their wants, and I suppose they think they will be pretty happy if they can only get back there again. These facts display the weakness of human nature, indicate that our feelings are liable to fluctuate, that our memories are often short and our dispositions uneasy.

These tabernacles must be dissolved, but it is our duty to exercise our talents to the best advantage, and to perform the most good in our power, that we may rightly fulfil the end of our creation, benefit our fellow men, and be prepared for the next state of existence. Let us then be careful not to defile ourselves or corrupt our way before the Lord, not to have our integrity tarnished, but live in humility and in righteousness all our days.

Of all men upon the face of the earth, we are the most favored; we have the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, the keys of revelation and exaltation, the privilege of making our own rules and regulations, and are not opposed by anybody. No king, prince, potentate, or dominion, has rightful authority to crush and oppress us. We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded, pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy, and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. They ought to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices; and it is not to be wondered at that they should envy those who so much better understand the social relations.

I have offered these remarks, on the subject of policy, in rather a rambling manner, something like the parson, who was told that he did not speak to his text, “Very well,” says he, “scattering shots hit the most birds.” May the Lord bless us all, and prepare us to enter His kingdom. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 23, 1855.

I arise before you this morning, unexpectedly; but as I always feel willing to make an attempt to offer some reflections for the consideration of my brethren and sisters, I feel a degree of pleasure. While looking at the improved appearance of our benches today, I see quite a number of comfortable seats have been brought here, which will in a great degree dispense with the occasional breaking of temporary seats, disturbing the congregation.

The Lord has said, in a revelation given through Joseph Smith, that it is His purpose to take care of His Saints. He also promised His peo– ple, in the commencement of the foundation of this Church, to sift them as with a sieve. Some of the old Prophets, in referring to the work of the last days, speak of the sieve of vanity. The history of this people since the Church was organized, has been one continued scene of changes.

In the early years of the Church, there was a great anxiety among the brethren to travel and preach the Gospel among the Lamanites, but the rigid laws of the United States at that time, prevented any intercourse with them. The brethren used to feel animated upon the subject; they would speak in tongues and prophesy, and rejoice exceedingly in the things that were about to transpire, or that they believed would transpire when they should be permitted to go and preach the Gospel to the Lamanites.

A series of unexpected and unthought of events has at length brought about an opportunity, on our part, to instruct these remnants of the house of Israel in the best knowledge it is possible for us to impart to them.

We have now been for eight years right in their midst, where we could have an opportunity of teaching them to read, if we chose; of teaching them to work, or anything else we may take the time, labor, and expense to teach them. We are now familiar with their habits, character, and customs, to a considerable extent.

When the curse of the Almighty comes upon a people, it certainly is the work of generations to remove it. When Cain brought a curse upon his own head, and that of his household, his after generations bore the same curse.

The curse that came upon Canaan, the son of Ham, has extended to a great portion of the human race, and has continued to the present day.

For the last hundred years, philanthropists, who were ignorant of the order of God—of the irrevocable decrees of the Almighty—have exerted themselves vigorously to thwart the purposes of the Almighty, in trying to remove the curse of servitude from the descendants of Canaan; but their endeavors are vain and useless; it is labor lost, and answers no end, only so far as it serves to multiply the difficulties and perplexities which are arising in this generation, to bring about the great destruction of corruption and wickedness from the earth; in this way it all indirectly serves a purpose.

When God has decreed a certain way for men to be in servitude, and has designed they shall hold that position, it is worse than useless for any man or set of men, to undertake to put them in a position to rule.

The Lord conferred portions of the Priesthood upon certain races of men, and through promises made to their fathers they were entitled to the rights, and blessings, and privileges of that Priesthood. Other races, in consequence of their corruptions, their murders, their wickedness, or the wickedness of their fathers, had the Priesthood taken from them, and the curse that was upon them was decreed should descend upon their posterity after them, it was decreed that they should not bear rule.

In looking abroad on the earth and seeing the effects produced upon different races of men, it will be plainly discovered that there are races who have never been permitted to bear rule to any great extent.

The God of heaven is the creator and proprietor of the earth; we will admit, however, that His claim to it has been considered by men very weak for many generations; His title has been, I would not say disputed, but it has been absolutely denied for a great while, so much so, that when the Son of God came on the earth he had nowhere to lay his head; he said himself, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

We also read that when the Savior was taken by the tempter on to an exceeding high mountain, he showed him the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, saying, “All these will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me,” although “the poor devil” did not own a single foot of it.

This proves that Satan considered himself so much in possession of the earth, as to actually exclude the Savior’s supremacy entirely, and wished to place him in a position that it might never be acknowledged; but the Savior said, “Get thee behind me, Satan: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

The dominion of portions of the earth has changed hands frequently, and sometimes in a very unexpected and miraculous manner; the Romans overpowered it to a very great extent, and all that was considered habitable, or that was then known, was either reduced to submission to the Roman sway, compelled to pay tribute, or at least to acknowledge Roman supremacy, with a very few exceptions; this is as far as profane history extends: hence, says Luke, “And it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.”—ii. 1, 3. This circumstance shows the existence of several emperors possessed of sufficient domains and power in the Roman empire to demand taxation of all the world.

That nation has been compared to a nation of iron in the visions of the Prophet Daniel; it has been considered, by most commentators upon the word of God, that the Prophet Daniel considered the Roman empire to be typified by the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, in which it is represented as being of iron in the great image which he saw.

I believe it came nearer exercising universal dominion than any other empire that has ever existed. Nations of the present time have obtained dominion over a greater extent of the earth’s surface than the Roman empire did, yet it appears to be inhabited, cultivated, improved, and discovered to a far greater extent in proportion.

It has been said by some geographers that the empire of Russia is the most extensive one that ever existed; others, that the empire of Charles the Fifth of Germany, which included Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Mexico, Guatemala, and nearly all South America, was the greatest. Others say the present dominions of Queen Victoria are the most extensive of any other. Be that as it may, it is but a mere matter of speculation. Rome at its time was the only government that was considered all powerful. That this power was given by the Almighty, no man who believes in the dealings of God with men will dispute, though many who are skeptical on this subject may produce different ideas and views.

From the time Rome was founded—a small city upon the seven hills of the Tiber, to the final extent of its dominion, was eight hundred years, when it commenced to crumble, and continued so doing until it fell in pieces.

About six hundred years after Christ a prophet rose in Arabia, by the name of Mahomet, who was born in 569; he was an orphan boy; his father (Abdallah) having died, he was left in childhood, and was raised under the care of his uncle, whose name was Abu Taleb, and finally became an apprentice to learn the mercantile business; he was sent by his master several times on trading expeditions, as his agent, to take charge of his train of merchandise.

He subsequently married Kadija, the widow of his employer, who had left her, at his death, considerable wealth.

Mahomet carried on the business his master left, profitably, until he professed and proclaimed to the world to have received a mission from heaven. He was five years in making his first convert; this was rather slow progress; and that convert, when made, was only a boy of eleven years of age, whose name was Ali, the son of Abu Taleb.

It will be recollected that the climate of Arabia brings persons to maturity in body and mind much earlier than colder climates. Mahomet and Ali commenced to preach, and finally succeeded in gathering around them a considerable number of adherents.

Mahomet descended from one of the most noble families of the Koreish; he came direct in descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham.

He was set upon by that powerful and popular tribe, the Koreish, who were determined to destroy him, as he proclaimed that their idol gods were all a humbug, and setting forth but one true and living God for them to worship. The persecution continued to increase until he was obliged to leave Mecca, and flee for his life to Medina, on 15th July, 622, which is the great Hegira or Mahometan era. On leaving his native city, Al Abbas, his uncle, one of the most powerful chiefs of the Koreish, made the Ansars, as his friends in Medina were called, promise and swear that they would not deceive, but would protect his nephew at the expense of their lives, though Al Abbas himself did not then believe in his divine mission.

Mahomet continued preaching; there was nothing in his religion to license iniquity or corruption; he preached the moral doctrines which the Savior taught; viz., to do as they would be done by; and not to do violence to any man, nor to render evil for evil; and to worship one God.

He continued so to preach until he was driven from his home. After he had commenced preaching his doctrine extensively in different parts of Arabia, and many had believed it, his persecutors at Mecca gathered a large force, and, followed him, with a determination to exterminate him and his friends. They followed him up with their persecutions until he got so mad, that he could not stand it any longer; his religion caved in, he drew his sword, gathered his followers, and gave his enemies such a drubbing that they went off ashamed. This was the battle of Bedr.

They raised a superior force of 3,000 men, and had a second fight with the prophet (in 626) who could scarcely muster 1,200 men; his orders not being obeyed, his followers left the field, but the prophet was determined not to be beat from the track, and concluded to fight the battle alone; his intrepidity and boldness on the occasion converted a leader of the infidel army, named Khaled, and he subsequently made him his general, and surnamed him the sword of God. This is called the battle of Ohud.

One hundred years extended the Mahometan power over more territory than the Romans gained in eight hundred years; in a very short time all Arabia bowed to his scepter, and he was confirmed in his kingly power, and assumed the ensigns of royalty in 628.

He then sends his ambassadors to visit the neighboring nations, for he was now the monarch of Arabia, and asked them to receive his religion. They visited Khosroes the Great, king of the Persians, one of the most warlike sovereigns of his time. Mahomet’s ministers presented his letters, but the Persian king haughtily tore them in pieces, ordered the ambassadors to be scourged, and sent them home in disgrace. They returned to Medina and found Mahomet mending his shoes, and reported their treatment; with tears he replied, “You need not be alarmed, boys, for many of you will live to riot in the white palace of Khosroes.”

It was thought that Mahomet’s death would put a final stop to the progress of his religion; some persons gave him poison to see whether he was a prophet or not, and it was his belief that poison was the cause of his death. He died at the age of sixty-three, in 632, and was succeeded by his father-in-law, Abu Bukker, who was very faithful in sustaining the prophet during his life, and who was acknowledged as the first Khalif after the prophet’s death. This man continued the war which Mahomet had commenced, for when the prophet had found that the people would not leave their idols by being preached to, he concluded the sword was the best argument; he therefore decided he would take up the line of march to his native city, sustained by a powerful army. He destroyed the idols in the Kaaba, the temple of Mecca, and dedicated it to be the great temple of Mahomet, and the center of Mahometan worship, which position it has held up to the present time. Mahomet set his examples, gave out his laws in relation to pilgrimage, prayer, and matrimony, and adopted many rigid rules, which he kept strictly himself, and which his followers have observed for many generations; and in his last pilgrimage, in 632, 114,000 Mussulmen converts marched under his banner.

Now this man descended from Abraham and was no doubt raised up by God on purpose to scourge the world for their idolatry. Immediately after his death, his successors commenced a series of campaigns against the Roman or Greek empire, under the command of Khaled the Great, surnamed the sword of God, and Abu Obeidah. During the two years of the reign of Abu Bukker, who ascended the throne in 632, he determined to enforce the new religion upon the inhabitants of Persia. This expedition, however, failed in consequence of its being too weak; but the expeditions against the Greeks were more successful; battle after battle was fought, province after province was surrendered, and millions were converted to the new faith; and on the death of Abu Bukker, Omar Ebu Al Khattab ascended the throne in 634, and the war continued.

During the reign of Omar they conquered Syria and Egypt, overthrew the Persian monarchy, the old dynasty of the Sassanides yielded their standard (the blacksmith’s leather apron), which had floated for several hundred years in triumph over the Persian monarchy, to the Saracen rule, and many who surrounded Mahomet’s person in times of his greatest danger rioted in the white palace of Khosroes, which was taken by the Arabs in 637, and where they divided among themselves a spoil of sixty millions of pounds sterling, and many of the companions of the prophet wept when they saw this prophecy so literally fulfilled.

Their manner of doing business was singular; they had a way of their own. When they entered the Persian empire, led by Saud-e-Wekkauss, they received a message from Zezdejird the king, that they were a pack of poor devils, that they came from a country which was a desert, and had not much to eat, and if they would go home and mind their own business he would lead their camels with dates. They replied, that they did not come for his riches, nor yet for the fruits of his country, they knew they were poor, and had lived on green lizards and snails, but that had nothing to do with the matter, their business was to present to the king and his people the pure religion which God had revealed to them, and if they would accept of it, and obey its precepts, not one hair of their heads should be hurt, if they would not accept of it, if they would not obey it, they would require of them all to pay tribute, and if they would not pay tribute, they would cut off their heads. It was all told in three words, the Koran, tribute, or the sword.

The proud monarch could not bow to this, but called out his immense armies and placed them under the command of Rustum, the son of Furrukh-zaud and Ameir ul Omra of the empire. And a decisive battle was fought at Kaudsiah; this opened the whole of the Persian monarchy to Saracenic dominion. Saud-e-Wekkauss was afflicted with a disease called the Sciatica, which rendered his joints so stiff that he could not ride on horseback; he sounded the Tekbair (alla hu akbar—God he is great) from a terrace of the palace in Kaudsiah, which was the signal of battle.

The Persian king drew up his hosts amounting to one hundred and twenty thousand men, while the Mahometan army amounted only to thirty thousand men. The battle commenced in the morning at eight o’clock and lasted until dark, when every Saracen lay down on the ground where he finished his day’s work.

The women of the Saracens carried them food, and dressed their wounds, and carried away the wounded and dead, but the soldiers, men, and officers, never left their position until the call was given in the morning, “God is great.” On account of the position which each army occupied, the one army could not present a greater front than the other; they fought the second day, the third, and the fourth, until tens of thousands were killed. On the second day the Saracens received a reinforcement of two thousand men that had marched five hundred miles under forced marches; the Persians also received a reinforcement of 30,000 men, and on the fourth day at noon the conflict was decided, after about one hundred thousand men had been slaughtered on the field.

I relate this to show you what religious zeal will accomplish. Mahomet, in his day, cautioned his people not to drink wine, or in other words, he had given them a “word of wisdom,” showing that it was not proper to drink wine. There was a warrior whose name was Abu Mohudjen, of some considerable reputation at the time, who had broken this law of Mahomet; he had taken some of the good wine of Persia, in consequence of which he had been put in chains, by order of Saud, and confined in the palace of Kaudsiah, while the battle was going on so severely. The general had not left a single staff officer to communicate the word of command, from the point the Mahometan general occupied, to his officers in the field, so he had to send them by his wives, or his servants. The only man left about the house was the general, and this officer in irons, who begged of the women to beseech the general to dismiss him, and let him go and fight, but they dare not do it for fear of the wrath of their husband. He importuned so earnestly when they brought to him his provisions, declaring that if he did not die in the field, he would return again and put on the irons, that they concluded to let him go, so they gave him the general’s piebald mare and a suit of his armor, and away he went to the battlefield.

Saud was not long in observing the actions of the disguised warrior, whose extraordinary prowess excited his admiration. He inquired of his attendants who he was, but they were unable to give him any information. He concluded that if it were possible to suppose that God sent assistance on such occasions, it must be the immortal Kezzer, which word signifies Enoch, Elias, St. John the Evangelist, or St. George.

The Arabs, through suffering severely from the annoyance of the Persians’ elephants, and from the firm and resolute resistance of the troops of Rustum where he commanded in person, were repulsed and thrown into disorder, and were only recovered by the extraordinary and unlooked for exertions of Abu Mohudjen, disguised in the armor of Saud.

After the battle the imprisoned officer returned to his quarters, and the women again put the irons on him, and nothing was said to the general about his having been set at liberty. While the general was exulting over his victory, and the immense spoil he had taken, he told his wives that the immortal Kezzer had fought for him; says he, “The prophet knew I could not ride, and I saw a mighty warrior on my piebald mare, leading the way wherever the battle was thickest.”

His wives then told him who it was he saw; Saud says, “Bring him here, take off his chains, give him the piebald mare and armor, and let him drink all the wine he pleases all the days of his life.” “But,” says the old officer, “if I drink wine now, I shall be doing that which is contrary to the law of God, which if I could atone for by imprisonment I would drink it, but as I cannot, I will drink no more wine;” and he kept his word.

I relate this to show you what union and religious enthusiasm will accomplish: the Greek empire in Asia was crushed to atoms, and in one hundred years the Mahometan dominion was more extensive than that of the Roman empire in eight hundred years from its foundation.

Persia, Egypt, Mauritiana, and nearly all of Northern Africa, Cyprus, and Rhodes were subdued previous to 637, together with Syria, Asia Minor, and the countries now known as Turkistan, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Circassia, and Asia Minor, and a part of Chinese Tartary. Tarick and Musa completed their conquest of Spain in 714; and had it not been for dissensions among themselves, the probability is, that the crescent would have now surmounted the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, instead of the cross.

Christianity had become so corrupt and divided, that none of the Christian princes were willing to unite their power with the Greek emperor to defend themselves against the Mahometan power, or to prevent them overpowering one Christian nation after another, for so they continued to do until division among themselves prevented their increasing; and now their national existence is waning little by little, until it is becoming very weak.

The battle of Tours, in which 370,000 Mussulmen were killed, which prevented the Saracens from not only overrunning France, but all Europe, was fought in the year 732, by the French, under Charles Martel, who was styled in his time, “the hammerer,” because he struck such hard blows in battle. He seized on a quantity of church revenues to pay his troops, and for this the Catholics damned him to purgatory, and required his children for generations to pay for prayers for his relief, but he was the great chieftain, as far as man is concerned, that prevented the utter annihilation of the religion of the cross, and the constituting in the place thereof that of the crescent.

History is a natural theme with me, and while I have taken so much license of your time in tracing the progress of the history of nations, I will still say to you, that this Mahometan race, this dominant power of the 7th and 8th centuries, were the descendants of Abraham, which Mahometan records show in a straightforward genealogy, from the family of Mahomet direct to that of Abraham, through the loins of Ishmael, the son of Abraham; and in this dominion there certainly was a recognition of the dominion of the sons of Abraham, and just as long as they abode in the teachings which Mahomet gave them, and walked in strict accordance with them, they were united, and prospered; but when they ceased to do this, they lost their power and influence, to a very great extent.

I am aware that it is a difficult matter to get an honest history of Mahometanism translated into any of the Christian languages. One of the best works I ever read upon the subject, and one I can put the most confidence in, is Simon Ockley’s History of the Saracens; it was a translation of a Mahometan historian named Abu Abdollah Mahommed Ebu Omar Al Wakidi, who wrote eighty years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca. Ockley prided himself in rendering the Arabic in good style, although his religious prejudices were so strong that he durst not render the sentiments he translated in full force, without rather blinding them a little. He would frequently translate as it ought to be, as nigh as he could, and then stick down a note in the margin, and say, “That was only done out of hypocrisy. “He is one of the best authors, or the one I would rather read.

It is a hard matter, as I have said, to get an honest history of any nation or people by their enemies. For instance, read Governor Ford’s History of Illinois, and you will find that he will contradict himself half-a-dozen times in one statement, for fear that he will not flatter the prejudices the people had against the “Mormons.” He would in one place assert that he had never done anything to favor the Anti-Mormons, and then immediately afterwards declare that he could not see why the Anti-Mormons could have any feelings against him, when he had done so much for them; and then go on to enumerate how he prevented Backenstos from arresting the house burners; yet he declares he had never done anything to favor them, and wonders why that party should feel crossways to him. This is the temper of almost all men who undertake to write the history of their enemies.

Just read the reports of different generals on the battlefields of the Crimea, and you will see that every one has a different side to it. These reports have got to be received with great allowance all round.

All the Christian translations of Mahometan history, as well as of the Koran, should be received with a great deal of allowance. I would recommend the reading of Major David Price’s “History of the Mahometan Empire.” He was educated and trained to be a Church of England man, but had not many conscientious scruples on religion; still he had prejudices against the Mahometans, so that when you read it, you must throw your ear a little quartering. I consider Bush’s “Life of Mahomet” written under the influence of a violent Christian prejudice. I would prefer the account in Crichton’s “Arabia” to Bush.

I would like to inspire in the minds of the youth a disposition to study oriental history, because a great deal of human nature is learned therein: how powerful dominions grew up in a short time, and how, through the violation of the principles of union, those nations have as quickly come to naught. Many useful lessons are taught on the pages of history.

Within the last eighty years our own republican government has increased its territorial limits about threefold, and it is constantly on the increase.

The fact is, if a man who is in the habit of raising trees makes his top to grow larger in proportion to the roots and the main trunk of the tree, it will break asunder or be uprooted. The American power is in danger of losing its balance by extending its limits faster than it accumulates strength to consolidate them together.

I will explain one term which I have used. At the time that Mahomet fled from Mecca (July 15, 622), it was the new moon: the Mussulmen therefore adopted the crescent as their religious emblem.

When the Mahometans conquered a Christian church, and turned it into a mosque, they put the crescent on the top of the cross. The old Greek cathedral church of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, is now a mosque: the cross is surmounted by a crescent. The Russians have conquered and overpowered various countries that were held by the Mahometan power, where you may now find the Greek cross mounted over the crescent, turning many Mahometan mosques into Christian churches. I give this explanation, thinking it may perhaps be information to some of our young people present.

A great deal has been said about some of the religious emperors who have had dominion in the earth being remarkably good men; but if their characters were impartially examined with any degree of criticism, it would be found that many of them used their religion as a matter of policy; as the present pretender to the throne of France of the house of Bourbon, who is so pious that it is said he goes to church six times a day, and that Pope Pius IX has christened him his own dear son; I suppose he feels that he is honest in heart, but he would like the throne of France, and there is probably a better chance to get it by making a great deal of pretension to religion than by any other process; and if he gets it, he thinks he will have a little better chance to keep it.

Such speculations have a tendency to make men religious. Like men who write to President Young, saying, “I am a physician, and graduated so and so, and I would like you to write to me, and let me know if there ain’t a good chance for me to make a comfortable living in your place, in case I should embrace your religion, and settle among you.” We frequently receive just such communications. These are the principles that are rankling in the breasts of selfish and ambitious men. I say, ever since Adam ate the apple, it has been more or less the case.

There was Constantine the Great, who was the first Christian emperor; his dominion was termed a Christian dominion, or in other words, it was a Catholic dominion, and extended far and wide, and everything that dared to oppose it was made to suffer the most cruel tyranny. The truths of the Gospel becoming absorbed and swallowed up by Paganism, and Christianity left only in name, there grew out of his administration Christian division, dispute, war, and destruction, which have continued to the present time.

Look in the history of the revolutions and conspiracies of Europe, and you will find that religion has always a finger in the matter, even in the present great war: it amounts to about simply this—whether the Catholic power shall exclusively control the holy places, or whether the Greek power shall. The probability is, that the Mahometans have got to surrender them to the Christian powers soon; even the mosque of Omar, which is upon the site of King Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem, will soon be surrendered to some Christian power; the only thing that delays it is the Christian quarrel between the Greek and Catholic nations.

I do not consider Great Britain has waged this war so much for the sake of religion as to control the trade of India, and the way to it: England is after the purse. But all the Catholic powers that are in any way concerned in the matter are the leading influence in the business to check the growing power of the Greek Church; hence it is a religious war. But the men to whose ancestors God has given Priesthood, and to whom in the last days the privilege of receiving it has been conferred, have been abroad, and published the principles of salvation, and the voice of the Prophet of God to the world, and now the nations are left to wrangle with and destroy each other. It is an old proverb, and one of long standing, that “whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Peace is taken from the earth, and wrath and indignation among the people is the result: they care not for anything but to quarrel and destroy each other.

The same spirit that dwelt in the breasts of the Nephites during the last battles that were fought by them on this continent, when they continued to fight until they were exterminated, is again on the earth, and is increasing.

I was amused the other day in hearing a relation of a visit of brother Barlow to his native State, Kentucky. He said, “The people are so united in secret conspiracies that everything they do not choose to uphold, they will proscribe in every way.” Says he, “If I had mended a clock or a piece of jewelry, it would have been desecrated, and the man that dared to employ me or feed me would have been proscribed by the community, through their secret organizations.” That is the spirit that is abroad on the earth, and one party will unite against another, and so on, to the utter destruction of every single principle of liberty, human happiness, and human right upon the face of the earth, and bring down upon the heads of the wicked a terrible destruction, which has been predicted by the Prophets.

I have seen the same spirit operate in the midst of these mountains. I have seen individuals here who are filled with the spirit of contention—who are filled with the spirit of wickedness; I have heard them complain, murmur, and find fault, until, by and by, they conclude Brigham is wrong, the Church is wrong, and everything is wrong, and that they would go to California, and there stay until the great day, when the Prophet should come and set things right.

This spirit will in the end lead a man to destruction; and all that will preserve the Saints in the last days from the general destruction in the vortex of ruin to which the world is rushing, will be their unity with each other, their clinging with all their might, mind, and strength to the building up of this kingdom, and making it their only interest, that they may hang together as one; knowing the text we started on, that it is the Lord’s business to provide for His Saints.

If you excuse me for my Mahometan narrative, I will close my remarks, praying that the Lord may bless you, and lead you in peace to inherit the celestial kingdom in the end. Amen.

An Address by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake, City, Aug. 12, 1855.

It used to be, in the days of the Prophet Joseph, a kind of common adage that “Mormonism” flourished best out of doors, and although we struggled hard at the time that the brethren undertook in Missouri to build a hewed log house that would cost about $1,200, yet that tried the faith of many, and was more than we accomplished before the Saints were driven from Jackson County, and we failed to erect a building big enough to hold the Saints previous to the death of the Prophet. At the time of his death we were still trying to build a Temple, but all our exertions only resulted in our having to go out of doors for room enough.

We on the present occasion have the pleasure of sitting out of doors, and of listening to the counsel and instruction of the servants of God without being crowded, from the fact that we have Father’s big kitchen to meet in, and in this capacious Bowery we can enjoy a great deal of comfort, instead of being jammed into our large Tabernacle, those of us who could get in, and the balance being obliged to go home.

It is by the request of my brethren that I arise on the present occasion to offer a few reflections for your consideration. When I was first called upon by the Prophet to go and preach the Gospel, I received a little good advice, which I have endeavored to profit by ever since, and that too, to the best of my ability.

In the morning, as I was about to start on my first mission to preach the Gospel, I waited upon brother Joseph, and asked if he had any advice to give me. “Yes,” said he, “George A., preach short sermons, make short prayers, deliver your sermons with a prayerful heart, and you will be blessed, and the truth will prosper in your hands.” I was a boy of seventeen at the time, and I called this my college education; I however took a second degree, calling upon father Joseph Smith, who was the Patriarch of the Church, and as I was about starting, he said, “One word of advice George A., whatever you do, be careful to go in at the little end of the horn, then, if you increase, though it be but a very little, you are sure to come out at the big end; but if you go in at the big end, you are certain to come out at the small end.”

Ever since that time I have applied it, and thought often of the old gentleman’s counsel, and I have found it to be very correct.

At that time Elder Sidney Rigdon, our great preacher (the perfect comber of all the sects), a man that could bring to bear all the big, jaw-cracking words of the English language, and who could fill up the interstices with quotations from other languages, and bring all to illustrate the Gospel of Christ, and to contrast it with the errors of the different sects to which he had formerly belonged, I remember seeing him get up to preach when there were present Professor Seixas and several other learned gentlemen who were on a visit to Kirtland, and President Rigdon wanted to show himself to the best possible advantage. I discovered his error when he first began speaking; I saw that he was in his high heeled boots, and at the commencement he soared so far above his subject that he could not get down to it; his whole discourse was a constant series of efforts to descend to a style requisite to illustrate the simplicity of the Gospel, the natural result of his commencing on too high a key—the difficulty and trouble was that he commenced on too grand a scale to carry it through successfully.

Now if he had commenced to preach to those learned men the first simple principles of the Gospel, and then, as the Spirit had opened up things to his mind, have gone into the more advanced principles, he might have succeeded as he desired, but he got up with the intention of showing his great big self, and began at the big end of the horn.

There are several young Elders present, who are going on missions, and the advice that I received may not be uninteresting to them. I have known many young Elders go out preaching, and the first thing they would do when they began to preach would be to tell what a tremendous smart sermon they were going to preach, and what wonderful results would follow; and I have seen these dashing kind of fellows carry on until they withered, and became depreciated, and went out at the little end of the horn.

Now when we present ourselves to a congregation of people, the first thing should be plainly and simply to communicate to them the first principles that we receive, in the best possible manner. But what is the best way to communicate them to the inhabitants of the earth? Shall we select the greatest jaw-cracking words in the English language, and from other languages, or shall we use reasoning the most abstruse and mysterious? The best method is to select the best and simplest way in our possession, and you will find that to be the most successful method of proclaiming the Gospel. You may note it when you will, in men that go forth to proclaim the truth, and you discover that the man who has the fewest words communicates his ideas to the people, as a general thing, in the plainest manner.

When a man uses ten or fifteen superfluous words to convey one simple idea, his real meaning is lost, he reaches beyond all the rules of grammar and rhetoric, and his idea, which, had it been clothed with simple and appropriate language, might have been good, is lost for want of more suitable words. It is like Massa Gratian’s wit—“two grains of wheat hid in three barrels of chaff.” It is my advice that our Elders should study brevity in all their discourses and communications to the people, and that they should speak in the plainest and simplest manner; for if they were to do this—speak so that the unlearned can comprehend, then the learned will be sure to understand, unless they have got their ears so twisted that it is vulgar for them to listen to common conversation; they are like the young gentleman who had just come from college and was desirous of making a considerable show, so when he stopped at a country hotel, he gave the following orders to the ostler—“You will extricate the quadruped from the vehicle, stabulate him, donate him an adequate supply of nutritious aliment, and when the Aurora of man shall illumine the celestial horizon I will award thee a pecuniary compensation.”

The lad went into the house to the old man, crying—“Landlord, there is a Dutchman out here; I can’t understand a word he says, do come and talk to him yourself.” (Laughter). Now if he had said—“Unharness the horse, water and feed him, and I will pay you for it in the morning,” he would have been understood by the ostler. But the fact is, the world through their wisdom know not God, and have lost sight of and forgotten the simplicity of our fathers, and the plainness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the reason is, that from the beginning the plan of salvation was too plain and simple to be interesting to the learned, and it has ever since been the design of men of learning, to couch the wisdom and knowledge of the world in such high flown language that the poorer classes of mankind could not get anywhere near them, and thereby hide it in the superabundance of nonsense they made use of; they made use of thousands of words to blind the ignorant and illiterate, that they might be kept in the dark, and remain in ignorance all through the learning and cunning of men.

These are my sentiments upon that subject in brief, and however much I may break or violate the instructions I received from President Joseph Smith to preach short sermons, and make short prayers, I have always endeavored to observe those instructions, though I may have failed on some occasions. Sometimes perhaps overanxiety has led me beyond the mark, but as a general thing I have endeavored to observe them strictly, and have found it to be good to do so, and I have often and do yet frequently think of my first degree.

But I ought to make some acknowledgment and confessions probably. I well remember the first time I ever broke those instructions; I was preaching in Virginia, in the County of Tyler. There was a Methodist preacher by the name of West, that would follow me wherever I went, and when I got through preaching he would get up to burlesque me, and he would talk for an hour or two, and then he would get his congregation to sing, but with all he could do he could not get more than thirty or forty to come and hear him preach, whereas I had from three to four hundred attentive hearers. So on one certain occasion he came with his Methodist friends to the meeting, and I invited him to preach first, but no—he said he was “going to preach just as soon as I got through;” so I said to myself, “You will have to wait a pretty considerable spell, old gentleman;” and I then selected and read one of the longest chapters I could find in the Bible, and read it slowly; then read a long hymn and lined it off, and got the preacher to sing it for me, after which I preached about two hours and a half. I saw the preacher was in a terrible great hurry to get a chance to speak; the reason was, there were many at the meeting who had come from 20 to 30 miles on purpose to hear me, the country being very thinly settled, and some of them would have turned their pigs out of the pen if they had known West was going to preach in it, and the very moment I had done speaking, he jumped up and said he wanted to preach before I dismissed the congregation. When he commenced, about 300 of the congregation left.

He had made a practice of following every “Mormon” Elder that came into the country, and keeping up his harangue against the truth, then his Methodist brethren would join him and sing at the top of their voices until the congregation dispersed, and it was his intention to serve me the same, but he did not succeed quite so well as he anticipated.

That was the first time that I recollect violating the instructions I had received, and I must say that I did not repent of it for a good many years, and I have not fully done so yet, for I thought that a man must be pardoned for straining his instructions on an occasion like that; and the fact is we do not often find such men. This man followed and harassed our Elders every time they went into the country, and kept on their track until he had run them clear out of the country. When he perceived I would preach about there, he gave public notice that if I came into the neighborhood where he lived I should get a coat of tar and feathers; so on hearing this, I resolved to go and try it.

There was a man by the name of Mr. Willey, a near neighbor of the Rev. Mr. West. He was a small man of about 130 lbs. weight, with a red head, and he had 13 boys with red heads, each of them weighing from 180 to 250 lbs. He had his boys perfectly drilled, and when he could not beat the opposite party at the ballot box by voting, he could always beat them by fighting; for he and his redheaded boys (for they had hair as red as my wig that I wear sometimes), were more than a match for any party they come in contact with in the County of Tyler; when he could not beat them in the election, he always could the other way. When he heard that West, the Methodist preacher, was going to have me tarred and feathered, he sent his best looking daughter on horseback over the mountains, dressed in the finest silk, and invited me to go over and preach, and assured me that I need not fear the least danger from the Methodists threatening to tar and feather me. I sent an appointment that I would preach at his house in two weeks. Accordingly I proceeded on my way to visit the old man, filling some appointments previously given on Buffalo Creek, Monongahela County, and about 15 miles from Mr. Willey’s, I met three young men, all with red heads, well mounted, and standing about 6 feet 2 inches, dressed in Kentucky jeans, but very neat and clean. They looked big enough to have been employed in Erebus, as strikers for Vulcan, forging thunderbolts for Jupiter. They informed me that they were the sons of Mr. Willey, and that he had sent them to show me the way through the mountains. They remarked that it was rather a wild country to travel in alone, and they likewise informed me that the rumor was that West, the Methodist priest, was intending to meet me with a party of his pious brethren, and give me a coat of tar and feathers, but assured me, in the name of their father, that I need not apprehend the least possible danger.

Before I got into the neighborhood I was met by two or three other redheaded gentlemen, and we shortly after arrived at the old man’s residence, where I was treated with every kindness, and the first salutation was an assurance that I need not be the least afraid, or anticipate that any harm would come to me from my Methodist friends: and the beauty of it was, as I learned afterward, he had long desired an opportunity to whip the whole Methodist church; and if they had turned out to mob me, he would then have had a good chance to pounce upon them. This is an illustration of what men will do to accomplish their ends, or the objects they have in view.

And as long as I remained in that part of the county of Tyler, the old man would have two or three of these boys go along with me to show me the way through the country wherever I wished to go, and two or three more looking out. I suppose he really wanted to have the Methodists execute their threat, and attempt to mob me; but West knowing the feelings of the redheaded troop, he concluded it was best not to do so.

Notwithstanding all the opposition, we did succeed in gathering a few “Mormons” in that county. I am aware that things were different then to what they are now, for then when an Elder presented “Mormonism” in a town or city, everyone that is acquainted with our history knows that it was looked upon by all as a mere matter of humbug. “Why,” they would say, “it will be all down in two or three weeks; these are some idle fellows going about for the sake of getting a living.” But now it is altogether different; when a “Mormon” goes forth to preach, however much they may oppose him and abuse him, they know that he represents an almighty people, and that he stands in connection with and is backed up by the greatest men of the age. They know that the “Mormons” cannot be successfully contended with by argument and moral suasion, but only on the old Missourian system of mobocracy; they know that the priests have given it up years ago. “O,” say they, “if you talk with a Mormon Elder, you are sure to get worsted; tar and feather them, mob them, and stone them out of the country, for if you listen to them, you will be deceived.”

I remember when Joseph first got the Abrahamic records (and let me here say that I hope those brethren and sisters who are not already subscribers to the Deseret News, will go to the office and commence to take it while that important record is being published, for it will be of great service in years to come), there was in the State of New York a very pious Presbyterian deacon, who was very intimate with my father and mother, when they were members of the same church; and, as he was passing through Kirtland, called to see them. It was almost a violation of the pious old man’s faith to shake hands with my father when he met him, but he ventured, and finally got courage enough to call, and not only shake hands, but have a little conversation.

My father told him that Joseph had got this Book of Abraham, and that he could translate it, and that it revealed some very important principles. “It is curious,” replied the old man, “I really would like to see the record.”

“Well, deacon,” said my father, “come, I will go over with you to the Prophet’s, and show you the papyrus.”

“Well, Mr. Smith, but I don’t know about going over now.”

“O come along,” said my father, “there is plenty of time before dinner, it is but a few steps—let us walk over while dinner is being prepared.”

“Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, there is great danger of being de—cei—ved! Mr. Smith—I’d rather not go!”

This is the way men feel; they are all the time afraid of being deceived; when the truth comes, they dare not trust their eyes, their ears, or their understanding; they are all the day long fearing and trembling lest they should be deceived. And at the same time, Infidelity, Mesmerism, Electrobiology, spiritual communications of various kinds and grades are taking hold of the minds of the human race, from those in the highest ranks of society to the lowest.

And here in the newspapers we will find half their columns taken up with accounts of murder, suicide, plunder, bloodshed, and every other species of crime. “And what of it,” says one. Why, crime seems to be the principal feature of the day. And what is the cause of all this? The reason is because the people have rejected the truth, and therefore the light of truth has ceased to shine in their hearts.

They thirst for one another’s blood, and they thirst after and desire each other’s destruction, and they have no feeling for anything but blood and slaughter: and the great question the world over, but especially in the East, is whether the Emperor of Russia shall have the privilege of building as many ships as he may think proper, and putting them in the Black Sea. He says that a part of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff are in his dominions, and that he will do as he pleases; but the allied powers swear that he shall not, and they stake the lives of millions, and declare that he shall not build any more ships than some half dozen other nations see proper to keep in that sea. This seems to be the whole question which causes the lives of millions to be in jeopardy continually.

I say, read the Deseret News; read the accounts of the missions of the Elders; read the great things that are being revealed week after week—the History of the Prophet, the revelations which came through him, and see how rapidly they are fulfilling, and observe how partyism and constant wrangling are seizing the human mind, and how tremendously they will contend with each other, and sustain one another in lies, and speak evil of those who are good.

With these remarks I shall give way, praying that the Lord may bless you forever. Amen.

An Address by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 5, 1855.

I have listened, brethren and sisters, to the remarks of Elder Seth M. Blair with a good deal of interest, and I can appreciate to a considerable extent the sensation that a man feels when he leaves the division, corruption, and savage dispositions that are prevalent among the nations of mankind, and comes among the Saints. Where there is unity and the blessings of the Spirit of the Lord dwelling in the hearts of the people, peace and prosperity will attend their exertions, temporal as well as spiritual, for they will act in unity, and their exertions for each other’s welfare being unanimous and simultaneous, success is bound to be their reward.

I am very happy to enjoy the privilege of seeing the faces, and listening to the voices and testimonies, of our Elders when they return from their missions, and I do know that the greatest school to which any man in this Church can be sent, is through the world to preach the Gospel. I used to say when I was a young man and was traveling to preach the Gospel, I would forgive the worst enemy I had if he would only travel among the Presbyterians, Seceders, and Covenanters in Pennsylvania, and preach the fulness of the everlasting Gospel faithfully, without purse or scrip. I would forgive him from the fact that if he lived three months among them in that way, he would have been literally starved into a full atonement for any injury that he could have inflicted on me.

There was, from the beginning, fixed hatred in the minds of the world at large against this people. It is not here as it is in the Christian world generally, for there the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Universalists, although bitterly opposed to each other, can all unite to persecute the poor “Mormons,” they are all in error together, but they can unite whenever the truth comes along, and use all their combined influences to put it down. They differ on a kind of complimentary principles, but when they speak of the Saints of God, there is in the hearts of the whole of them, a deep-seated, deadly hatred, and they will do all in their power to put them down. I do not know how the people generally feel about it, but it must seem strange to individuals having the Spirit of the Lord, that these different sects and parties despise and hate each other, and differ so materially, and yet the very moment that an Elder comes into a city, town, or village, they all unite to mob him out of the place. He may perhaps allude to some of their doctrines, and perhaps not, but they will all join together to put down the “Mormons.” The only difficulty is that the Baptists, Universalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists, and the others have all got different meetinghouses, or else we might conclude that their opposition to the Saints would unite them into one, for some of them believe that they will all be saved, notwithstanding their difference of opinion, but the very moment that a “Mormon” comes and preaches the first principles of the Gospel, you will see the utmost confusion among them, their preachers all put their heads together to form plans by which to overthrow “Mormonism,” and even if there is an infidel that they consider or think is a little smarter than they are, they will sustain him if they can persuade him to unite with them to put down “Mormonism,” and if arguments are likely to fail, they start a fresh or more sure method by raising a mob, and exciting the public feeling, and driving out the “Mormons,” believing that to allow the “Mormons” to obtain any influence would be hurtful; they are fearful that it would really injure their cause.

And what is the reason that such fear and alarm should seize them when the Elders go among them? Why, it is plain and simple: the man of God who goes forth without purse and scrip, he has the truth, and he has the Spirit of the Almighty God, and he has the truth as it was anciently and as it is modernly revealed, and he lays the axe at the root of the tree, and annihilates error wherever he finds it.

All the systems of Christendom have got so mixed up with the world, and so mixed and interwoven with the corruptions thereof, that the adversary has perfect dominion over them all, and hence the very moment that a man having the Priesthood comes along and pours in a flood of light upon the world, the adversary tells them like this, “Why we should put that down, or it will cause us trouble,” and the very spirit that is in them is the spirit of the adversary, and they go to work with all their might, and try to put down all who dare to advocate such strange doctrines, and thereby trammel everything under their control. And nothing is more sure than that when the Spirit of the Lord is withdrawn from a people who have previously received the light of the Gospel, or who have had the opportunity of receiving it, they become violent persecutors, and hence it is that the editors of the newspapers in the United States breathe forth their most bitter anathemas against this innocent and law-abiding people, because that spirit of darkness which rules them is afraid of the truth.

It was cowardly fear that caused the Allies to banish Napoleon the First to St. Helena, and there watch him as they would a wild beast to the day of his death. It is a similar fear that causes the enemies of this people to attempt our utter destruction, and that prompts the great writers and statesmen of the age to cry out, “Annihilate the ‘Mormons,’ or Christianity is down,” and thereby seek to raise the ruthless hand of military power to annihilate and destroy innocent, unoffending, law-abiding citizens of a rapidly improving Territory. Every honest man that comes into our Territory, after a short existence in the midst of the Saints, reasonably concludes we have greater respect for the Constitution of the United States, than any other people, notwithstanding all that may have been said by howling priests about the tyranny in the midst of these mountains.

Circumstances have proven, beyond all successful contradiction, that the Elders and authorities of this Church do respect the great principles of the Constitution, and the Latter-day Saints in and of every nation do respect the constitution and laws of their country; the principles of their faith make this obligatory upon them.

We have been driven from our comfortable homes in the United States, into these mountains, and it is only under the kind hand and protecting care of the Almighty that we are kept here; He gave us the privilege of sheltering and of staying here for the time being.

We are the children of the Most High, and we have been called upon by Him to make sacrifices for the building up of His kingdom, and it behooves us to be awake to our duties as sons and daughters of God. And I tell you it is for us to depend upon Him, the giver of all good, and if we do not so live as to be partakers of the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel, and of His watchful care, we may anticipate that more destruction will come upon our heads, for the Lord will purify us.

We are blessed indeed to be in a position which is of the utmost importance to the fulfillment of the purposes of God and the accomplishment of the Latter-day work, which we shall be the means of bringing about if we dedicate ourselves to the interests of His work.

We are perfectly aware of the bloody hatred that exists towards us throughout the world, and we are perfectly aware of the hot persecution that we have to endure because of our religion; we know the people of God always were persecuted, and we expect they always will be, until the power of the devil is subdued and the kingdom and the greatness thereof shall be given to the Saints of the Most High, to possess forever and forever. Although we have met with opposition from all quarters, yet thousands and thousands of exertions have been made by this people for the express purpose of causing the inhabitants of the world to abandon their corruptions, forsake their wicked practices, leave off and repent of their foolish doings; and our constant exertions have been rebutted with constant abuse from those we were trying to benefit.

The blood of our Prophet and Patriarch, and hundreds of innocent men, women, and children, and the destruction of millions and millions of dollars’ worth of property, the long list of abuses to which we have been subjected, and the patience, forbear– ance, and fortitude with which these abuses have been borne, only prove in the first place the intense hatred with which the world hate us, and in the second the sterling integrity of the people called Latter-day Saints, and their determination to abide the laws of their country.

Then I say, let us be united, and let our voices ascend to Him as the voice of one man, and let every foolish notion depart from our midst, that we may have power with Him, for I tell you we depend alone upon the Almighty for protection, and if we depend upon His arm and upon His power, we can work in faith, believing that He will help us. I do know that if this people were united, and would exercise faith, and listen to the counsel of the Presidency as they ought, and be united as one man, all the powers of earth and hell could not prevail against them; and if no power could prevail, of course there would be but little danger. But if feuds, discord, selfishness, and contentions are permitted to break up our unity, we shall then become like others, weak in consequence of our division.

I have listened with pleasure to the remarks of our brother, and I can appreciate his feelings while he preached the everlasting Gospel on the soil of Texas, for the liberties of which, he had in the days of his youth periled his life on many a bloody battlefield.

I realize the sensation of endearment of native country that flows in the breast of a man who has been driven from his rights and privileges, a feeling of a peculiar nature, for when a man is abused by those around him, it is rather humiliating to have to quietly submit to be deprived of his rights; but we have to seek those rights we cannot get at the hands of our fellow men, at the hands of the Almighty; for wicked men will not extend them to us, and therefore we must depend upon Him who is the source of all good, and from whom protection must be derived, for as the Lord lives, peace is taken from the earth, and every man’s hand is against that of his neighbor, and death and destruction and all the powers of earth and hell seem to be manifest to bring about the consumption determined for the last days.

There is considerable anxiety among the Elders to go and preach the Gospel to distant nations, to those who profess to be enlightened, but brethren and sisters, let us preach the Gospel at home, in our houses, to those natives in the mountains who are sunk in misery and distress.

Let us open good schools for the Indians, and use the influence that we have got, for their redemption, and let us endeavor to bring them back to the light, bring them back from their long lost and degraded condition, bringing them back to the Gospel enjoyed by their fathers, for they prophesied that their children should wander in darkness for many generations, and then the Lord would commence His work amongst them again; and let us do it, and do it with faithfulness and tenderness, with kindness and generosity, and act as fathers would act towards their children; and let us spend our means and labor, let us toil, and even spend our all for their redemption and preservation. And let us not take hold of it as a light matter, as a matter that we will never let come near our hearts, but with willingness, long-suffering, and continued endeavors to do them good, and when we are foiled in our endeavors to benefit those people, let us recollect that we are not to be discouraged, but let us remember that we are to keep trying, and pray God to give you wisdom to act aright. Put away from your hearts all desires to shed their blood, and put far from you the disposition that causes you to think they are troublesome, and we should like to get rid of them. Let us consider that they have rights here, that they are the original settlers. They have natural rights, and all our kindness and generosity and all our faith exercised to benefit them will be acknowledged.

I know the feelings of some; they think the best and only method to deal with them would be to kill off and exterminate their race.

But the Lord has placed us here to try us, and if we have suffering He will bless us for our labors among that people.

Do not let us be weary, but let the hearts of young and old throb with emotions to be missionaries, throb with desires to teach them the arts of civilization.

Let these be our feelings and desires, and may God bless us in our faith and works, that we may bring them back to the knowledge of their fathers and the blessings of the Gospel according to the promises. Amen.

Speech by Elder G. A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 4, 1855.

My Friends—I arise on the present occasion to address you, with my heart filled with emotions that are not easily described, apart from feelings which pervade my mind resulting from the present celebration of the anniversary of our country’s independence. It is with a high degree of pleasure that I witness such an immense assembly, and compare it with celebrations of this ever-memorable day which I have attended in my native State, in my early life. The anniversary of the day on which our fathers declared the independence of the American States I have ever felt a disposition to celebrate, whenever circumstances and situation would possibly admit of it, as the day on which our fathers declared the independence and freedom of millions of people yet unborn. It was a great step for a few colonies to take, to attempt to wring from the hands of the king of the most powerful nation upon the face of the earth their liberties, the right of self-government—of choosing their own rulers—those inalienable rights which belong to man, and are the boon of his Creator, and which kings had held in their grasp for ages. Our revolutionary fathers were unwilling longer to be ground down by iron rules and cast-iron notions of one stupid and corrupt ruler that oppressed them, and struggled for their freedom. Under the guidance and fostering care of the God of heaven, these colonies were made free—free to act in obedience to all those principles he has given the sons of men their agency to act upon.

This is a great illustration of the importance and power of the principle of union. When the signers of the Declaration of Independence put their names to that heaven-born instrument, they were perfectly aware that the success of their cause depended upon their being united. It was absolutely necessary that they should all hang together; for if they did not, they were perfectly sensible they would all hang separately. The united colonies at that time were ready to sustain the leader of the revolution almost en masse. There were a few districts where divisions took place, and those divisions caused more cruelty, bloodshed, and sorrow than any other circumstance pertaining to the whole revolutionary struggle.

By this grand step our fathers secured to us the right of self-government. However much wicked men may have opposed and abused the institutions the revolutionary fathers have established and put in motion—whatever corrupt officeholders may have done in violation of them, the great point is gained which enables the American people to choose their own rulers and produce such a form of government and such protection as are necessary for their growth, their freedom, and their continual well-being.

It was through the most flagrant violation of these sacred rights and principles of the Constitution of our country by perjured officers, who were sworn to do their duty and suppress mobs and violence, that the rights of freemen, which were bequeathed to us a priceless legacy, sealed with the blood of our fathers—that the Latter-day Saints were driven, en masse, from their peaceful homes in the United States, and were obliged to flee, destitute, into a desolate wilderness, where we are laying a foundation for a State in the great Federal Union, where we can enjoy our own religious institutions and form a government, and where we are organizing our own community, agreeable to the general Constitution of our country, that we may be made partakers of the blessings which are actually guaranteed unto us by that sacred instrument. Under these circumstances we rest until the day shall come that shall so revolutionize our American Government as to put every treacherous scoundrel where he ought to be, to reap the reward of perjury and corruption, that he may have the privilege of being banished by his Maker—that he may enjoy the society of the father of lies, until he is satisfied with that kind of fare. [At this point of the speaker’s remarks, a small round table, that had been brought for the Honorable Judge Kinney to lay his papers upon, fell from the stand upon which the speakers were sitting, and was broken by the fall.] So, the end cometh suddenly, the day of corruption is short, and its downfall is sure. [Great laughter.] The old fabric of corruption is getting so rotten, it will fall of itself and crumble to dust, without any effort to overthrow it; and the pure principles of good government, justice, righteousness, and purity will become so clearly unfolded, that we shall wonder that it was ever possible such a mass of corruption ever shrouded our country, or that so great a number of the rulers of the American States should ever give countenance to the rule of mobs, or the destruction of the people’s rights by any common convention of scoundrels.

The circumstances and pleasures of the day which have so far passed would have been without alloy or a pang of grief; but I behold on this platform the vacant seat of one who was associated with us on the last celebration—one who addressed us on that occasion with such a flow of natural eloquence and pathos of feeling, and to whose talents and instruction we were indebted for a great portion of the interest of that occasion. The Honorable Leonidas Shaver, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and Judge of this judicial district, has been suddenly called from the busy scenes of this life into eternity—a worthy man and profound jurist, who, by his straightforward and upright course, has honored his profession. His studious attention to his duty, his fine intellect, polished education, and gentlemanly bearing have won for him the universal admiration and respect of this community. It was only necessary to be acquainted with him to love him. Our worthy instructor and expositor of the law has been called from our midst suddenly. He not only administered the law, but honored it himself. Hear it, O ye judicators of the law, and pattern after him. And we this day look round upon those that surround us, with this solemn reflection, that but a short season can pass until it will be our turn to follow him.

This circumstance should caution us against sin of every description, and prompt us to live uprightly, walking in accordance with all the laws and principles of human right and Divine revelation, that we may be prepared for so great and solemn an event, when it shall come, when it will be our turn to participate in the realities of death.

It is well understood that the principles of truth are bound to prevail. It makes no difference what the opposition may be, or what length of time that opposition may continue, or how much sin is perpetrated to prevent it, or rivers of blood and millions of treasure wasted to oppose it, yet truth will ultimately prevail; and the day will come when a “Mormon” can be respected in other portions of the world as much as any other man—yes, exactly as much as though he professed any other religion. Why? Because “Mormonism” is truth, and truth will prevail. Those principles which are laid down in the very formation and genius of the General Government of the United States knew no religious sect: all were alike. And when these principles can prevail as our fathers handed them down to us, freedom will not be a name: and the day is approaching, and it is not far distant, when all the corruption and wickedness which serve to bring distress and misery upon a considerable portion of the community will be done away. That order of things will vanish, and this people will have the opportunity of enjoying all their privileges and rights in every portion of their loved country that they can in these mountains.

If ever William Tell was happy when he found himself free from the grasp of his enemies, so this people felt to rejoice when they were encircled within these vast deserts and almost impenetrable mountain walls. It was not the beauty of the country, the barren deserts, the rocky mountains, this isolated position, that invited us here: we came here simply because it was the only place of refuge which offered to us security from the hands of our persecutors, where we could actually enjoy our constitutional rights. We are here, thank God, enjoying all the privileges of American freemen, and all the blessings and ordinances and powers which lead to an eternal exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our God.

And I will tell you, my friends, what I hope. I hope that the first mob that rises in these valleys will experience the same sensation (and worse, if possible) that a certain gentleman, a leader of a mob in Jackson County, Missouri, did, whose name was James Campbell, who had been long famed among his comrades as one of the bravest men in that county. It was on the occasion of the Battle of the Blue. He gathered up his men and fired fifty-three rifles into a small party of the “Mormons” that were hastily gathered together for mutual protection. There were only fifteen or sixteen guns among the “Mormons.” They returned the fire, at which many of Campbell’s comrades left in a hurry; but he concluded to stay and tussle it out with the “Mormons.” There was an old revolutionary soldier, named Brace, in the “Mormon” company, who had fought in many battles under Washington, in the war of Independence. He fired his musket at Campbell without effect, and he fired at the old soldier also without effect; but Campbell being able to load quicker than he could, there was no alternative for Brace but to run at him with the butt end of his gun before he could reload: so he commenced yelling like ten thousand Indians, and charged Campbell with the butt end of his musket. Campbell, to save himself, suddenly wheeled his horse and plied the whip. This gave the old veteran a chance to re-load. He then fired his piece, and killed Campbell’s horse as he was jumping over a fence, which left him hanging there; but Campbell in his terror did not know whether he was running on his feet or riding on his horse. So he ran across the country with all the power he possessed, whipping behind him, as he supposed, his horse, crying, “Get up, or the Mormons will kill us! Get up, or the Mormons will kill us!” So I want the first mob that rises in this country to feel, and all those who hold power and influence in the nation, who, by that means seek to distress and afflict the innocent—I want all such men to feel like the illustrious Campbell. I want the same terror to fall upon them that fell upon him, and the same powers of locomotion to clear out, crying, “Get up, or the Mormons will kill us!” as he did, although his horse lay on the fence dead, near a mile behind him.

With these sentiments, these few ideas, which are offered without having had time for studied reflection and preparation, I say, May we long live on the face of the earth, and enjoy the blessings and privileges of American Independence! Amen.

A Sermon by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 24, 1855.

I must say, brethren and sisters, that it is with a degree of pleasure that I enjoy the privilege, this morning, of rising for the purpose of addressing you. However probable it may be that there are those present who might do so more to your satisfaction; yet, if the spirit of prayer and faith is exercised in the assembly, I may be able to present to your consideration some items which may not be altogether uninteresting.

I have taken a good deal of pleasure in preaching in the different settlements of this territory, wherever I have had the opportunity of meeting with the Saints; but it is seldom I arise in this stand for that purpose, for it requires a voice rather, if any thing, beyond the strength of my lungs, to speak in this large congregation, any length of time, and consequently I do not appear in this stand as often as I otherwise would.

There are many subjects which I take pleasure in discussing in the presence of the Saints. I have felt, ever since I received my ordination, a great desire to preach upon the first princi– ples of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world; and to spend my time in proclaiming to the Saints those doctrines of obedience, faith, and charity which are so generally understood, and which by a great many persons are neglected, to their own injury. There is not a person of common intelligence among the Saints, who has resided in this valley for the past three years, who has not heard enough of the principles of salvation to know perfectly what to do to be saved, if they had given that attention to the subject which they ought to have done, if such persons desire to carry out the views and sentiments which have been from time to time proclaimed from this stand.

To be sure we frequently hear inferences drawn, which do not comport altogether with our former sentiments, sentiments and opinions which we have formed by tradition, or which have been the result of circumstances by which we have been surrounded.

I suppose no person will take exceptions if I should in the continuation of my remarks take a text, which will be found recorded in the 4th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark. “And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” If such a passage as this does not occur in the 4th chapter of Mark, then I will acknowledge myself mistaken. But whether there is or not, the subject that presents itself to my mind is illustrated by the words of this text.

I remember twenty-four years ago, when the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were first being proclaimed to the inhabitants of the earth, we were told that we were to participate in the same blessings, and would be subject to the same kind of persecutions, as was the common lot of all former-day Saints; that the same gifts that were enjoyed in the days of our Savior and his Apostles were and should be in the last days; and that if these things did not follow, it was for want of obedience to the will of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was this spirit of revelation that pointed out the only way; and because the different churches did not have in their midst the same offices, gifts, and blessings, and the same privileges, the reason assigned was plainly and simply that they had not been faithful in their obedience to the principles which had been revealed, and had thereby lost the spirit of revelation, had slid from the original platform, and had fallen back to principles of folly, teaching for doctrine the precepts of men. The Christian world, as we shall denominate it, being then composed of several hun– dred different denominations, who all professed to form portions of the Church of Christ, and separately professed to have the only true Church, and the only true doctrines that were upon the earth, each one of them claimed to have the only true plan of salvation that was upon God’s footstool, and to disclaim all others as being heretical, erroneous, and corrupt; and yet each and all were differing on some principles. This division of principle had unquestionably, for many centuries, been the cause of bloody war, and millions of people had been slain in consequence; the quantity of blood spilt, and amount of human suffering produced, were immense. These same Christian divisions, which had been so thirsty for human blood, so tenacious to their peculiar doctrines, and that had been so fruitful in producing creeds and systems which they maintained by the edge of the sword, almost invariably, as they would use every means that came within their power to build up themselves, and the more they had of subdivisions the more new schisms; new, because a new division had been made—the whole may be considered a practical illustration of the sentiment of the Irish Poet—

“Who can believe it? the cause is rather odd— They hate one another for the love of God.”

The Lord sent His servant Joseph Smith to proclaim to the world the original principles of the Gospel; and the very moment they heard him calling upon them to come back to the original principles, and partake of the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as they were originally preached by those whom Jesus himself sent to preach, all those different sects and denominations began to call for authority! On being told that it was revealed from heaven, and that the foundation was revelation from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, authori– ty given by him, and that He had commanded the reestablishment of his Church, or of laying the foundation of his Church upon its primitive or original foundation, they all exclaimed, “There is to be no more revelation, there is to be no more prophesying, no more visions, no more ministering of angels.” Hard as it is to believe, and strange as it may appear, these religionists who had read and professed to believe the New Testament, and knew that John did declare, more than sixty years after Christ, that he saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, see Rev. xiv. 6—these same men would rise up and declare that such a thing never was to take place; and although John plainly declares that what he saw was to come to pass hereafter, yet they believed it not, and said all such manifestations had an end when the Apostles, or fathers, fell asleep.

Thus they commenced a persecution, an untiring crusade, against the Latter-day Saints, and by every means in their power endeavored to stop the progress of the work.

“Why,” said they, “we have authority direct from Jesus Christ.” I remember a circumstance of a certain learned Baptist preacher, rising in a congregation where I had been preaching, and stating that the Baptists had all the authority of the Gospel Priesthood that was required in the Baptist church, and that it had come to them from the Apostles, pure and unadulterated, by way of the Waldenses, and that he was prepared to prove the channel through which it had come. I do not know but his congregation believed what he said; but at any rate, the gentlemen declined to produce his evidence when I called upon him to do so, and all the evidence that he could have adduced was, that about the year 1160, in Lyons, a man named Peter Waldo, hired a catholic priest to translate the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and they formed a church, which took the name of its mercantile founder. And this is as far as the authority can be traced by the Baptists; this method of tracing authority is of no use, unless they adopt the authority of the pope; and if the Catholic church be taken as authority, then when the Catholic church brings out the edict of expulsion, it certainly deprives those whom it expels of all their authority, for it is impossible for a stream to rise higher than its fountain.

If the pope and his church be corrupt, the authority of no other church can be of any value that has descended from it, and is built upon the validity of its Priesthood.

The Presbyterians consider that they can trace the matter a little further back. They consider that their authority originated somewhere else, but after spending their time and toil they can only get back to the Catholic church, for they renounced its principles and came out from it, set up a new set of doctrines, part of them borrowed and part of their own manufacture. They denied the spirit of revelation, and consequently had no knowledge from the eternal world, and with the exception of those doctrines which they had picked up, they had no priesthood but that which they had borrowed from the mother church; and the mother church having pronounced an edict of expulsion against them, which must have been valid if she had possessed any authority to confer.

Perhaps a Wesleyan might tell us that in their church they had authority from God. Then we ask, where did it come from? “From Mr. John Wesley,” they will reply. And where did he get it ? “Why he was a minister of the Church of England.” And where did the Church of England get the authority from? From Henry the Eighth, who is designated among English kings as the wife killer. And where did he get it? Why, when the Romish church refused to sanction the divorce of his lawful wife, without any just cause, and refused to grant him his wishes, he put away his wife, rebelled against the church, which he had acknowledged, and from which he had received the title of Defender of the Faith, from the Roman pontiff; but yet he came out, excommunicated the pope, and declared the Catholic church to be heretical and abominable and declared himself to be the head of the church. He enforced his title by military power, seized the revenues of all religious establishments, used them for his own aggrandizement, created new ones upon his own authority, and established the Church of England priesthood. And this is as far as the matter can be traced, and there is the extent of their authority, the idol of their hearts, and the head of the Church of England excommunicated from the Church of Rome for his own corruption. This is a pretty seat of authority! Some persons will tell us that God has never intended to give any more revelations, notwithstanding they read that God set in His Church Apostles and Prophets, Pastors and Teachers, and that they had gifts, prophecies, and revelations and that they were placed in the Church for the express purpose of the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and that they might be no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

This is plainly and clearly illustrated before any persons who believe the New Testament, and yet the principles and doctrines, when set forth in boldness and simplicity, have been rejected by them.

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was first founded, you could see persons rise up and ask, “What sign will you show us that we may be made to believe?” I recollect a Campbellite preacher who came to Joseph Smith, I think his name was Hayden. He came in and made himself known to Joseph, and said that he had come a considerable distance to be convinced of the truth. “Why,” said he, “Mr. Smith, I want to know the truth, and when I am convinced, I will spend all my talents and time in defending and spreading the doctrines of your religion, and I will give you to understand that to convince me is equivalent to convincing all my society, amounting to several hundreds.” Well, Joseph commenced laying before him the coming forth of the work, and the first principles of the Gospel, when Mr. Hayden exclaimed, “O this is not the evidence I want, the evidence that I wish to have is a notable miracle; I want to see some powerful manifestation of the power of God, I want to see a notable miracle performed; and if you perform such a one, then I will believe with all my heart and soul, and will exert all my power and all my extensive influence to convince others; and if you will not perform a miracle of this kind, then I am your worst and bitterest enemy.” “Well,” said Joseph, “what will you have done? Will you be struck blind, or dumb? Will you be paralyzed, or will you have one hand withered? Take your choice, choose which you please, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it shall be done.” “That is not the kind of miracle I want,” said the preacher. “Then, sir,” replied Joseph, “I can perform none, I am not going to bring any trouble upon anybody else, sir, to convince you. I will tell you what you make me think of—the very first person who asked a sign of the Savior, for it is written, in the New Testament, that Satan came to the Savior in the desert, when he was hungry with forty days’ fasting,” and said, “If you be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.” “And now,” said Joseph, “the children of the devil and his servants have been asking for signs ever since; and when the people in that day continued asking him for signs to prove the truth of the Gospel which he preached, the Savior replied, “It is a wicked and an adulterous generation that seeketh a sign,” &c.

But the poor preacher had so much faith in the power of the Prophet that he daren’t risk being struck blind, lame, dumb, or having one hand withered, or anything of the kind. We have frequently heard men calling for signs without knowing actually what they did want. Could he not have tested the principles, and thus have ascertained the truth? But this is not the disposition of men of the religious world. To be sure, I have seen those whom would get up and reason that Christ built his Church upon the rock—for say such men, “Jesus promised and said, ‘Upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’” From this declaration they claim that the Church being built upon a rock would always remain upon the earth in its purity, and the Priesthood and authority be preserved, and this argument would be produced with a degree of triumph. How say they? “If ‘Mormonism’ be true, and the pure Priesthood had been lost, and the true Church had therefore become extinct upon the earth, the gates of hell would have prevailed against it, or the Savior’s words failed.” If this conclusion be correct, what was the cause of Mr. Wesley beginning a reformation in his day? The church had got into darkness, and the devil had got such power that it was necessary that a reform should be got up.

Where was the necessity of Waldo beginning a new church in his day? The power of the devil, the great adversary, had entirely overcome the church; and, hence, it was necessary to begin anew. Now suppose we were to read the passage, and see what it was that the Savior did say upon the subject. The Savior said, on a certain occasion, addressing his Apostles, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” His disciples say, “They have different opinions about you—some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the old Prophets has risen from the dead.” “But,” says the Savior, “whom do ye say that I am?” “Why,” says Peter, “thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Savior replied, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

This argument would be introduced by those who believe that Christ built his Church upon St. Peter, and you then come to read the passage, and what do you learn by it? You simply learn that Peter had made the discovery, by revelation, that Jesus was the Son of the living God, and that upon the rock (revelation) he (Christ) would build his Church, and upon nothing else, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Not being a linguist, like my brother behind me, I shall say that the common accepted meaning of the word “hell,” is a place of miserable departed spirits, and hence the Savior told Peter that the gates of departed miserable spirits should never prevail against his Church. This is the principle here illustrated, and consequently whenever a reformation becomes necessary in the Church of God, it must be founded upon the rock—revelation; and whenever the Church left the principles of revelation they ceased to be the Church of God; and nothing could bring them back again, or reestablish them, but being replaced upon the same foundation, and by the same authority.

I have heard arguments brought against this Church, by men endeavoring to prove that there was to be no more revelation. For instance, learned men have quoted the epistle of Paul to Timothy, to prove that all revelations ceased in the time of the Apostles, for at the time Paul wrote to Timothy he made a declaration to him, which the learned have endeavored to use to some advantage. Paul says, “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.”

Now I have heard and seen learned priests rise up against this Church, and say, “There, Paul says that the holy Scriptures were able to make Timothy wise unto salvation, and the ‘holy Scriptures’ means the Bible, and that is all the Scripture that is necessary now, for it is only necessary to be made wise unto salvation; and if Timothy had enough to make him wise unto salvation, why all Christians have enough, who are believers.” Let me here ask a question—are we sure that we have got all the Scriptures that Timothy had known from his childhood? He tells Timothy that from a child he had known the holy Scriptures. Now if Timothy was a man of very mature years, he might have been a child before our Savior’s crucifixion; as Paul’s epistle was written 30 years after that event, therefore he must have been a child before the writing of the four Gospels, for one of them was not written until years after. Then those Scriptures which he was acquainted with, were those which were written previous to the New Testament, and if we can believe the testimony of the Old Testament, it is found that a great many books were acknowledged as Scriptures and as revelation, which were not by King James’ translators considered to be such, and are not at the present day, as they are not incorporated in this Bible. For instance, we learn of the “Book of Enoch;” we read a reference made by Moses to “the Book of the Wars of the Lord.” Now what kind of a book, or what kind of Scriptures those books might have been, we cannot tell; but it is probable that they were in Timothy’s knowledge, for he had known the holy Scriptures from a child.

This was the great knockdown argument brought by the Campbellites against the Latter-day Saints—“That from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.” What Scriptures? To be sure John’s Gospel was not written at that time, neither were his three epistles, or his revelations, and several other books were not written at that time, although King James’ translators considered those books necessary, and inserted them in our Bible. But suppose we read the passage a little further: 2 Tim. iii. 15-17. “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Then you discover that those Scriptures which were given were only sufficient to make even Timothy wise unto salvation, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that all Scripture given by inspiration was profitable and actually necessary to make the man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Now, my friends, get into heaven without revelation if you can; for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and the man of God cannot be thoroughly furnished with all good works without getting a knowledge of the Scriptures. It matters not through whom, this is the principle upon which the true Church is founded, and the gates of hell will never prevail against it; but when they reject revelation they adopt another religion, that is built upon another and sandy foundation, and that has another head, different from the true Gospel; the clouds will come, and the winds blow and beat upon their fabric, and the fabric that has become old and venerated will be thrown down, and great will be the fall thereof; and it will be more tolerable for the heathen than for such churches.

Well, this is the very state and position of Christendom when Joseph Smith introduced the fulness of the everlasting Gospel into the world.

I have narrated the facts relative to the quarrels they had with each other in the several denominations; and yet they united to destroy the little illiterate boy, as he was called. If education were necessary to proclaim the revelations which Jesus Christ had revealed unto him (the boy) then we may conclude the Lord did not select the proper person. They persecuted him (not for being wicked), burnt his houses, stole his property, tarred and feathered, scourged and imprisoned him; and his friends also shared a similar fate—they were whipped and driven from place to place; and finally when he was placed under the pledge of protection from the executive of the State in which he lived, he was treacherously murdered, almost the whole Christian world said, “It is too barbarous to kill him in that way, but then it is a good thing that he is dead.”

“But,” say some, “how is it that all the power, and all the miracles, and all the manifestations and blessings of the Priesthood have not been manifested in the Church, that were manifested in the Church of God formerly by the Prophets of old?”

I do not believe that the history of the world records as great a miracle as Deseret now is. The history of the sacred volume does not contain a record of as great and wonderful a miracle as the fleeing of this people into the wilderness, robbed of every earthly thing that could make life desirable, driven before the muskets of the Christian mob, exposed to the vicissitudes of new climates, and exploring into the mountains in a new and desert country, and contending with every difficulty that the devil could introduce, and with all the clamor and calumny that could be invented to harden the hearts of men and women against them. In the midst of all this, they rejoiced, and after locating themselves in the wilderness, a thousand miles from settlements, in a place that was pronounced by all scientific travelers to be uninhabitable, and there producing the bounties of life in great abundance, and to see how it has risen in splendor, in every respect, I say it is a wonder and a marvel far beyond any other recorded upon this earth. The fact of it was, before we were driven from the United States, we petitioned the Governor of every State in the Union for an asylum where we might be permitted to enjoy the blessings of our religion unmolested; and all our petitions were treated with cruel neglect. When our enemies drove us into the wilderness, a great share of the Christian world felt like saying, “They will starve to death, the Indians will destroy them, and we shall have done with Mormonism;” and they concluded that, in the eyes of posterity, they would give us such a bad name as to justify their cruel actions towards us, and as we should be sure to perish, there would nobody live who would tell the truth for us, and that would be the end of the matter.

We were quite willing to go, for the best of all reasons, we could not stay. There was no chance under the heavens for us to stay, and be protected, in any State in the Union; and I suppose some of them felt as the pious old Quaker did when he was on board a vessel which was attacked by pirates—he was too pious to fight, it was against his conscience, but when one of the pirates started to climb a rope and get upon the vessel, the old Quaker picked up a hatchet and said, “Friend, if thee wants that piece of rope, thee can have it and welcome,” and immediately cut the rope and let him drop into the sea, where he was drowned. So our enemies thought they would let us go into the heart of the Great American Desert and starve, as they compelled us to leave everything that would make life desirable.

It was even counseled in high places to disarm the “Mormons” after they started, that is, to take from them the few old fusees and cheap arms which they had been able to scrape together, after they had been disarmed the third time by executive authority, and they had subsequently picked up some old fusees to kill game with; and it was gravely discussed to disarm them, so that they would not be able to kill game, or defend themselves against the Indians; but through the providence of God, and our prayers, we were enabled to pack off the few old guns, and started for the mountains. But instead of starting to kill the Indians, as our puritan fathers did, we began endeavoring to teach them to work and be industrious; and had it not been for the interference of other spirits, we would have got along very smoothly; and this has been the result of the united efforts of those who have been willing to listen to the counsel and instruction given to this people. Those who have been unwilling to listen to the counsel and instructions of President Young, have caused us more trouble than everything else we have had to contend with among the Indians.

For instance, in the year 1849, a company of Missourians passing through the country to California, shot a number of squaws, for the sake of stealing their horses, and pursued their journey. This produced enmity among the Indians towards the white men.

A few such circumstances have caused some of our brethren to lose their lives; but not a thousandth part of troubles have occurred here, that was brought upon those colonies established upon the coast, with the single exception of Pennsylvania.

No man that has had to do with the Indians, has ever been able to do the good to them that Governor Young has done; and some of the statesmen have acknowledged it.

And the discovery has actually been made, that the “Mormons” did not starve to death, and that the Almighty did sustain them in the midst of every difficulty which possibly could be brought upon their heads.

I have seen men, even in this Church, who have become discouraged at a few trials. I can tell you, brethren and sisters, if all such men will trace their conduct to its source, they will find that they have fostered an evil spirit, evil principles, and lived in open rebellion to the religion which they have professed; and consequently darkness has come over their minds, and they soon felt as a very self-righteous man did some years ago. He was in the Church, and he said he had proved the revelations of Joseph Smith to be untrue. “How did you prove them so?” “Why,” said he, “one of Joseph Smith’s revelations says, that if a man shall commit adul– tery, he shall lose the Spirit of the Lord, and deny the faith, and shall be cast out. Now,” says he, “I have been guilty of that crime, and I have not apostatized, and consequently that revelation is not true, and that proves Joseph Smith is not a true Prophet.” This was the darkness which his corruptions had brought upon him, and this is the kind of darkness which transgression will bring upon all men in this Church.

This people are different from any other people that live upon the face of the earth; they have the Holy Priesthood, and there is no man in all the house of Israel that fulfills the duties of his calling as a Saint, but receives a portion of the holy Priesthood, and every person has his duties to fulfil.

Every man that would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that would receive the doctrines he taught, and those taught by his Apostles, that would listen to his counsel, and obey his precepts, were promised, and did receive, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and that Spirit did lead, and guide, and teach him or her that received it, into all truth, unless the receiver afterwards defiled his temple by wickedness and corruptions. And he (the Spirit) would lead into all truth, and that truth when revealed would become a matter of knowledge in the breast of every Saint. And no man can rise up, that has lived in obedience to those principles, and say that he has not realized the very thing promised.

The very first thing that Joseph told the brethren, when they were going out to preach, was, that their salary would be tar and feathers, abuse and persecution—“You will be driven from house to house, and from country to country, and be hated of all men because of your religion;” and this has been fulfilled, and that too by the people in free America. Thousands of people have been driven over and over again by people living under the free institutions of the United States. Who could have thought that their teachers and leaders would have been murdered while under the protection of the Governor of a State? And who could have believed that this could have been done in free America, without a single murderer being brought to justice?

When Joseph proclaimed these things to the world beforehand, all men said, “Let him alone, he will prove himself a liar in that;” but even that was proved true; the vengeance of the wicked fell upon him, and they took his life, and not a single individual was ever brought to justice for it!

Now in the days of early Christians, when Pagan Rome persecuted the Apostles, it was a different case altogether; for the Pagan religion was the acknowledged creed of the land, therefore the Pagan religion being established by law, made the innovation by the early Christians a violation of their laws; but it has not been so in this land, where freedom of opinion upon all subjects is guaranteed to all, by both State and Federal constitutions. And every murder, every house that has been robbed or burnt, and every act of cruelty and oppression which has been committed upon the “Mormons,” has been in violation of both laws and Constitution, and these things have been known to the officers of state, and yet, remarkable to tell, not one has ever been punished; still the evidence was in their possession, which would have brought the perpetrators of those crimes to justice. They were sworn to support the Constitution and to faithfully execute the laws, the neglect of which was perjury; and they had the laws of their country and of their Senate to back them.

Not so with the Romans. When the Romans carried on their persecution of the Apostles, the laws of their country and senate supported them, for the proclamation of the disciples of Christ was defaming the gods that the laws of their country commanded to be worshipped; but in this instance it was entirely another thing, for freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience in religious matters is guaranteed to all people who might choose to come there; and in the face and eyes of all this, not only were their privileges taken away as citizens, but the laws and Constitution of their very country, the country in which many of their fathers fought and bled, were treated with utter contempt. And religious prejudices, and Christian stupidity, that defy a comparison or parallel in the history of nations, produced this identical effect.

This, however, is not all the work which is presented to us as an illustration of the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Prophet, that has been accomplished. It is only the commencement of the mighty purposes which have been predicted, for when the Prophet first made his appearance he proclaimed the distresses that were to come upon the nations of the earth; and what has been the result? Why at the present time the nations are filled with madness; they are dashing against each other with perfect madness, slaying their thousands daily. It appears as if all the rulers and great men of the earth had lost their reason, and as if the feelings of the human race were bent perfectly like butchering and destroying each other. Millions of lives during the past year have been sacrificed, either in the battlefield or in sickness, or accident by sea, or the sickness which is the result of the war, and yet greater preparations are being made to contest the point; and what point is it? Why, whether a certain tract of land, which neither of the great parties ever saw, or probably ever will see, shall be governed by a man called Sultan, or by a man called Czar. But the real thing is, the spirit of peace is taken from the earth, and the spirit of war and bloodshed runs through the earth, and that to an extent hitherto unknown.

We sometimes see men make their appearance among us, and after a short stay they will say, “Why I believe I will go off to some place and wait till ancient Mormonism comes round again, for this is not ancient Mormonism; these are not the original doctrines that were preached.” Well, there were similar persons in the days of the apostle Paul. He in writing to the Hebrews, v. ch., 12 ver., says, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,” that is, when you have been long enough in the Church to become teachers, “ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” “You,” says he, “have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and you belong to that class who have need of milk.” Now when I hear a “Mormon” talk of going back to “Ancient Mormonism,” it forcibly reminds me of this passage of Scripture which I have just cited.

To be sure, when the work first commenced, men would rise up and say, “Show us the wonderful power and miracles which were performed by Moses.”

The text shows the kingdom of heaven is likened unto seed cast into the ground; it is compared to corn; it springs up, first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear.

You are all aware that it has never been in any one period of the world’s history that corn or any other grain has come to maturity at once, and you are also aware that a kingdom or country or nation, of any kind or con– dition, is not the work of a moment. But the kingdom of heaven was likened by our Savior to seed sown in the ground; it springs up, first the blade, and afterwards the full corn in the ear, and when harvest comes, the sickle is thrust in and the harvest is gathered, and thus the work is progressive. And the Prophets, in speaking of the work of the last days, have said that the Lord will give line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, and that a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a great nation; I the Lord will hasten in its time: so is the kingdom of God.

This people have nothing to expect but persecution, for just as long as they adhere to the principles of revelation, just so long as they are governed by the original principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will every priest upon the face of this earth, that is an hireling, raise his influence to destroy the kingdom and those who bear the Holy Priesthood.

The fulfillment of the predictions of the Apostle is in our own day, viz., that men would after their own ungodly lusts heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and turn their ears from truth unto fables! Not wait till God sent men among them, they would not listen to men whom heaven might send with new revelation, but they would go to work to educate them themselves, heap to themselves teachers of their own manufacture, get up their own factories, and manufacture their own teachers or preachers, who should turn the hearts of the people from the truth, and turn them unto fables, and teach for doctrines the precepts of men.

These will act as the Apostle Peter tells us, for says he, “There shall come false preachers and false teachers in the last days, who shall turn the hearts of the people from the truth, and shall say unto them, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain as they were from the beginning, and the great day is passed, and we are under the necessity of rejecting anything and everything that professes to be revealed from God.”

And unless this people so live before God as to have the light of revelation constantly before their eyes, the powers of darkness will prevail over them, for that very day spoken of by the Savior is near at hand, when nation is lifting up sword against nation, and when it is necessary that we should see and understand the signs for ourselves, for it is nearly the time when the sign of the Son of Man shall be again seen.

The signs of the times thicken in the heavens, and the earth shows forth her wonders. And as this is frequently denominated the fast age, I will say that it is fast ripening for the burning, for ere long the Savior will make his appearance among his people, when they are sufficiently united, when they become sufficiently agreed that they can all work with one feeling, one mind, one soul, and with one spirit; the heavens then can be revealed, the curtains unrolled, and the Savior appear in the midst of his Saints.

Some feelings have been created in the world because the Saints are so firmly united. Now they need not be afraid, for it is the work of God, and although they scatter us a hundred times to the four winds of heaven, although they murder thousands of us, and burn and destroy our property, it is the work of the Almighty, and they cannot prevail against it. Whatever may be done will only serve to roll it forth, and hurry forward the work of the Almighty.

The fact is, the time is near at hand when the consummation of the wicked will take place; the day of the Lord is near; the harvest is not far ahead. The wicked are slaying the wicked, and times are growing worse and worse; all the world feel it; and we should watch for the coming of the Son of Man.

This puts me in mind of a little anecdote that I have heard our Irish brother tell of a son of the Green Isle, who was placed in prison with a Yorkshireman. The Yorkshireman had stolen a cow, and Patrick had been stealing a watch. While they were there, Yorkshire concluded that he would joke his companion about stealing the watch, so says he to Patrick, “What time is it ?” “About milking time,” said Pat. And I say that it is about harvest time, and it will not be long before the story of the Kilkenny cats will be acted out in earnest; the nations will devour and destroy each other, for peace is taken from the earth.

I shall close, praying the blessings of heaven to rest upon you continually in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.