Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7th, 1868.

The subjects which have been touched upon by brother George A. Smith ought to be of paramount importance to us as a people under our present circumstances. The gospel of life and salvation, which we have received, would be of comparatively little avail to us unless we can prolong our lives and the lives of our children and posterity on the earth. The greatest boon that God has given us, and that upon which every other hinges, is life. With life we need health, the power to carry out designs of our being upon the earth. Without these blessings everyone must perceive that other blessings which we value very highly would be of little or no account. God has moved upon His servant Brigham in a very powerful manner of late to stir up the peoples minds to the consideration of a great variety of subjects connected with our temporal well-being; and the more these subjects are reflected upon the more important do they appear, and the more we hear about them, the more we are impressed with the necessity of paying attention to them.

We have heard considerable of late, especially since twelve months today, on the subject of the Word of Wisdom. Almost every elder who has spoken from this stand has felt the necessity and importance of calling the attention of the people to this subject. We are told, and very plainly too, that hot drinks—tea, coffee, chocolate, cocoa and all drinks of this kind are not good for man. We are also told that alcoholic drinks are not good, and that tobacco when either smoked or chewed is an evil. We are told that swine’s flesh is not good, and that we should dispense with it; and we are told that flesh of any kind is not suitable to man in the summer time, and ought to be eaten sparingly in the winter. The question arises in the minds of a great many people, “What then are we to eat if we drop swine’s flesh and eat very little beef or mutton, and cannot drink tea or coffee, why, dear me, we shall starve to death.” In conversation with one of the brethren the other day, he remarked “the diet of the poor is principally bread and meat, and if they dispense with meat, they will be reduced to very hard fare.” I reasoned with him on the subject, and before we had got through, I believe I convinced him that other articles of food could be raised more cheaply and in greater variety than the flesh of animals. But just at the present time we are destitute, to some extent, of this needed variety; and, hence, the very apparent necessity that we as a people should turn our attention to the multiplication of varieties of food in our midst. We should not confine ourselves to a few articles of diet and be content therewith; but the people who have the opportunity of so doing should cultivate a variety of food for the benefit of themselves and families.

It is a fact, which the experience of ages has confirmed, that man of all creatures, requires the greatest variety of food. His stomach is fitted to digest a greater variety of food than the stomach of any other animal. God has created him lord of creation, and all that is created around us is created for man’s use and benefit. It would therefore be very unwise for intelligent man, inasmuch as God has given to him the vegetable creation, and has made him lord of the animal creation and placed him as monarch of the finny tribes, to be content to sit down and eat as our degraded Indians do.

It is to remedy this that we hear the teachings that are given at the present time by the servants of God. Man requires food to build up his body. He requires food that is adapted to the development of bone, muscle and sinew; but this is not all. He requires food that is suitable to feed his brain and to supply the waste sustained in consequence of the use of his mental faculties. There is a necessity, therefore, for us to take these things into consideration. My opinion is that it will be most difficult for fathers of families to induce their wives and children to refrain from the use of tea and coffee, if they do not supply their tables with other articles in their place, and unless food, suitable to the requirements of the human system, is provided, our wives and children will be exposed to constant temptation to transgress the counsels that are given in regard to our diet. It is an exceedingly difficult thing for most people to break off and discontinue cherished and long standing habits. A man who has never drunk tea, coffee or spirit, or one who has never chewed or smoked tobacco, is not at all affected by the counsel to discontinue their use; but they who have been accustomed to them miss them when they are deprived of them, and they want something to supply their place. I speak, now, not from my own experience, but from what I have heard others say on these things. There is a craving felt by parties when they discontinue the use of these stimulants, and they need variety. This variety must be supplied, and we must take steps to supply it.

The culture of fish has been alluded to. Physiologists say that fish contains more of the elements necessary to strengthen and build up the brain than almost any other known substance. It would supply a great want if we had it in abundance. But our supply of this article of food is very limited, and hence we are taught at the present time to take measures for its increase. I see no reason why we should not raise our own fish as we do our eggs or chickens. This Territory is better adapted to the raising of fish, in consequence of our system of irrigation, than any on the Continent we know anything of, and I believe that the time is not far distant when our farmers will raise fish for their own tables as they now raise beef, mutton, pork, fruit or any other article of diet now in use. It can be done easily by bestowing a little attention, thought and care on the subject.

We must also cultivate fruit more extensively than we now do; and we must multiply every variety of diet, and if it is possible discover new varieties. It is only a few hundred years since the potato was discovered, and what a blessings it has proven to man. There are other vegetables, probably, as good and as healthful as it is if we could only bring them into use. But vegetables are not grown among us as they should be; there is not that attention paid to them that, it seems to me, they should receive. My theory is, that if we wish to raise a healthy, noble looking, intellectual and perfect race of men and women we must feed our children properly. We must prevent the use by them of every article that is hurtful or noxious in its nature. We must not permit them to drink liquor or hot drinks, or hot soups or to use tobacco or other articles that are injurious. I do not believe that you could ever make as great and noble race of men, if you feed them on one article of food alone, as if you gave them a variety of diet. We have illustrations of this in India, where the chief diet is rice—of itself a very good article of food. We have other illustrations in the case of other races. A people who, for instance, are fed on potatoes alone do not have the stamina that they would have if they had a greater variety of food. Such a people could, I believe, be kept subjected more easily to thralldom than a nation which is better fed. The millions of India are kept in subjection by as many thousands of Europeans. There are doubtless many causes for this, among the chief of which is their diet.

God has given to us a land that is bounteous; every variety of food can be produced here in the greatest profusion. It only requires the exercise of the powers with which we are endowed, with proper industry, to bring forth food in the greatest abundance and supply every want of man and beast. But whilst I speak in this strain about a variety of food, I am opposed in my own feelings, to a great variety of food at one meal. I believe that we enslave our women; we crush out their lives by following the pernicious habits of our forefathers in this respect. We sit down to table and, especially if we have friends, our tables are covered with every delicacy and variety that we can think of. I believe in variety at different meals, but not at one meal. I do not believe in mixing up our food. This is hurtful. It destroys the stomach by overtaxing the digestive powers; and in addition to that it almost wears out the lives of our females by keeping them so closely confined over cooking stoves. A variety of food is not incompatible with simplicity of cooking; they can go hand in hand. We can have a variety in diet, and yet have simplicity. We can have a diet that will be easily prepared, and yet have it healthful. We can have a diet that will be tasteful, nutritious and delightful to us, and easy to digest; and yet not wear out the lives of our mothers, wives, daughters and sisters in its preparation.

These are topics, my brethren and sisters, that should claim the attention of the Latter-day Saints, because they pertain to our everyday existence here on the earth; and if we follow the course marked out, and seek to follow the counsels given, the result will be that, here in these valleys, we shall raise a race of men who will be the joy of the earth, whose complexions will be like the complexions of angels—full of health, purity, innocence and vitality; men who will live until the wheels of life will stand still in consequence of the gradual decay of the body; not afflicted and brought to the grave prematurely by disease engendered by improper feeding and other unhealthy habits. We can do what no other people ever could do, at least no other people living in the present generation. We are here a new people, forming our habits and laying the foundation of a great work, and of course are in a state of transition. We can therefore, if we so please, accommodate ourselves to new habits—habits recommended and taught to us by the servants of God. One of the great advantages that would result from our having a more simple diet would be that we should be less apt to overload our stomachs through the tempting character of the food we eat. How often is it the case, after we have eaten enough, somebody will say, “Here is something I would like you to eat a little of; do taste it.” Well, you taste, and before you are aware of it, you have eaten more than you should; your stomach rebels, and you feel that you have done a wrong, and if your stomachs are weak, you have to pay the penalty of your imprudence.

We are expecting a heavy emigra– tion this season. We hope to see them come by thousands. How are these brethren and sisters to be employed? Already we are under tribute. The great majority of the articles of clothing that we wear is imported, and there is nothing more apparent, to those who reflect on this subject, than that we as a people must turn our attention to the creation of new industries. Our President has led out in this direction. He has set an example to the capitalists of this Territory, worthy of all imitation by introducing machinery and urging upon the people the cultivation of certain articles—such, for instance, as cotton and wool. It is a matter of necessity for us to turn our attention to these branches. We must use the facilities God has given us in the best possible manner for increasing the means of employing those who come into our midst. It should be our aim as individuals, as families and as a community to dispense with everything that we cannot manufacture. I am told that thousands of dollars a year are expended in supplying our tables with mustard imported from the East. I have no means of knowing the truth of this, but it seems incredible, that we, with the facilities we have for its production, should depend upon importation for the supply of a common article like mustard.

But this is only one article. When we sit down to our tables, and take a survey, we find many articles that are thus imported. It may be, and frequently is said by a certain class of persons that articles can be imported much cheaper than they can be manufactured here. This is urged by them as a reason for importing; but it is a delusion and a snare, and the man who utters such a sentiment is an ignoramus. He knows nothing about the true principles of building up a people and kingdom. That which is manufactured here, though it cost ten times the amount it would cost in the east, is the cheaper, for that is the commencement of independence. The man or the family who carries on home manufacture is laying the foundation for true and lasting independence. They are helping to emancipate the people here from the thralldom under which we have groaned, sweat, toiled and bled for years. This Territory has been bled of its money and life by this erroneous idea. We must stop this drain or we will sink into slavery more abject than that felt by any other people on the continent. The cause of God requires us to take a different course, and if we pursue that marked out for us, means and facilities will increase on every hand. We would like to see it fashionable in the Territory to dispense with all articles that are imported. But now, when one family procures an imported article, their neighbors feel that they are not in the fashion unless they have the same. One lady and gentleman must have a fashionable bonnet and hat, and their neighbors must have the same. You can see the result—these fashions make us slaves. Our young ladies are ashamed to go into company unless they can dress like their companions; our young men feel the same. And it is not confined to one class; we all partake of it to a certain extent. We must reform; there is nothing more apparent than that. We must change our habits, and make it fashionable to have articles of our own manufacture, and dispense with all articles that are not so, unless they are absolutely necessary for our comfort and well-being.

The Lord has multiplied around us every facility for making us a great and mighty people. We have been able, in an astonishing manner, to create comfortable homes; the land has been touched by the power of God, and it yields to us of its strength in abundance. Nowhere on the face of the earth can food be raised of a better quality than here. Our cereals, fruit and vegetables are unsurpassed in the world. We can also produce the finest of hemp, flax, wool and silk. All these articles can be produced in abundance here, if we will bestow the attention and care necessary for their culture.

When we reflect upon our position twenty years ago—then this Territory was a desert and we were cut off by almost illimitable stretches of barren waste from the rest of the world—we can realize to some extent what God has done for us. Now we and our children and the stranger can dwell here in peace, comfort and security. This should stimulate us to press forward. There is no work too great, under the blessing of God, for us to accomplish if we will only exercise the ability and power that He has bestowed upon us. I look forward to the day, and I trust it is not far distant, when we will have everything in our midst necessary to make us a great and mighty people; when our young people will be the best educated, trained to the best manners, dressed in the best clothing, and appear to better advantage than any people on the continent or in the world. I look forward to this; and it seems to me that it is in the near future. Great and wonderful changes will be effected in Zion. Our young people will be educated in true principles; they will be healthy and beautiful, filled with the Holy Spirit, and attractive to God and man. Our habitations will be delightful to visit; our orchards and gardens and all our surroundings will be the most beautiful that can be imagined. Is there anything to prevent it? Nothing but our own unfaithfulness. God, who has blessed us as we are blessed today, is willing to bless us more abundantly. Heaven is full of blessings to be poured out upon us, if we will only prepare ourselves to receive them. The faith that the Saints are now manifesting in sending for the poor will bring down the blessings of God upon them, and will increase our faith to accomplish those labors that we have yet to perform. Send for five thousand people! Yes, and the Latter-day Saints can do it and perform their other labors too. What effect does this have upon us? It fills us with faith and confidence that there is no labor that can be assigned to us that we cannot perform. And this is the training that God is giving to us. It is upon the principle that gymnasts perform their feats of almost super human strength—by continued practice. It is so with us. God in the beginning gave us small works to accomplish. We performed them, and as a consequence, had faith to attempt greater, and thus we have gone on until today. And the work we are now doing is preparatory to some greater work that He has yet in store for us to accomplish.

May God bless us, my brethren and sisters and His wisdom be given unto us. May His Holy Spirit rest mightily on all the Latter-day Saints that their minds may be filled with it, that when the prophet and servants of God speak unto us, our hearts may be prepared to receive their counsels, treasure up our words and carry them out in our lives, that when Jesus comes we may be prepared to meet Him, which may God grant for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Bowery, Salt Lake City, July 21, 1867.

It has been very interesting to me, and no doubt it has to all who have been present, to listen to the remarks of our brethren this morning, in relation to the principles of the Gospel as taught by us, and their experience in this work. While Brother Lawrence was speaking in relation to our position in Nauvoo, my mind reverted to the time when we left there, and to the reluctance displayed by many of our people to cross the river and take their journey westward. It required a great amount of faith on the part of the people, to venture into an unexplored and desert country to attempt again to build up homes, and to perform the labors enjoined upon us by God, our Heavenly Father. There was a cry of exultation went up throughout all that country when we were broken up, and the hope was indulged in by all who were inimical to us, that the solution of the Mormon problem had been arrived at, and that the subject of Mormonism might henceforth be dismissed from every mind. We had gone forth into the wilderness, and it was not at all likely that we would ever trouble civilization again. It was naturally supposed, by those who knew but little of us, that we must be quite as bad as we had been represented to be; and if we were, of course we had nobody to steal from in the wilderness but ourselves; nobody to aggress and prey upon but ourselves, and these being our characteristics, as they believed, they very naturally came to the conclusion that we would quarrel one with another, and the result would be our extermination through our own quarrels, or that we should fall an easy prey to the Indians. How these anticipations have been realized, the lapse of twenty-one years has proved. For a number of years after leaving Nauvoo we were not deemed particularly worthy of notice. Men’s minds were attracted in other directions, and our operations here, being so far removed from all communication with them, were almost overlooked. But time has wrought great changes, not only with us and in our position, but also in the position and feelings of the world by which we are surrounded. Instead of being regarded as a people scarcely worthy of notice, we now, through the blessings of our Heavenly Father, inhabit a large Territory, and if we are alluded to at all by the world, it is in a national capacity. Have these changes been accidental and unlooked for? Did no one anticipate such results as we now behold being wrought out? Or were they anticipated years and years ago by those most familiar with the genius and organization of the kingdom of God? Those who are not familiar with our early history have but to read the utterances of those who were engaged in the founding of this work, to become convinced that they were anticipated long ago by those who contemplated the future growth and development of the kingdom of God. There is no feature connected with our circumstances today that has not been familiar for years to the minds of those who have contemplated the future of this work. When the church was organized, and a small house would hold all its members, predictions were indulged in that the circumstances of today but partially fulfil, and years will yet have to elapse before they are completely fulfilled. Our Heavenly Father poured out his spirit upon his servants in the beginning, which enabled them to comprehend the work he had established on the earth, and through the spirit of prophecy and revelation they could plainly see the great results which would be wrought out through the faithfulness of the people of God. Can we now see the limit of this work? Is the horizon of our vision bounded by those things actually transpiring around us, or do we still stretch forward to a future, for this people, too glorious for description? I do not suppose there is one here who has ever thought on this great subject and attempted to grasp the circumstances by which we are surrounded, that has not stretched forward in delightful anticipation of the glorious future that awaits the people of God, if they are only faithful to the truth that he has committed unto them. Would to God that all the inhabitants of the earth could see and comprehend these things! Would to God that they would divest themselves of their prejudices and preconceived ideas, and that they would calmly look truth in the face and reflect upon the work that God, our Heavenly Father, is performing in the midst of the nations of the earth! If they would do this, they might avoid a great many difficulties into which they will otherwise be inevitably involved. It is no more, nor no less, true today, than it was thirty-seven years ago, that God has stretched forth his hand to accomplish a great and a mighty work, that shall stand forever, and shall not be given into the hands of another people; but it will go on increasing and spreading abroad, until it has accomplished that for which it was destined by our Almighty Father. I say it is as true now as it was then, and no more true today than then, and they who paid heed to it then have never had cause to regret doing so; and they who give heed to it today will never have cause to regret it in the future. To us who are familiar with this work, and understand the operations of the spirit, and can see the design of God, our Heavenly Father, it seems strange that mankind should be so indifferent to so great a work as this in which we are engaged. Yet it is so. You would imagine that men going forth with the proclamation that the elders bear would receive everywhere that attention that the importance of their proclamation demands, at least until men were satisfied in their own minds of the truth or falsity of the message they bear. But this is not the case. No man ever calmly sat down with a prayerful heart to ex– amine the claims of this work, popularly termed Mormonism, who did not rise from the investigation convinced that there was a power, an influence and a spirit accompanying this work, that he had never met with before. Are they who investigate the ones who fight against this work, and persecute and slay the servants of God? No; they who do this are the ignorant, who have never investigated, or, having investigated and embraced it, have afterwards apostatized, and have thus become two-fold more the children of hell, through rejecting the truth. God our Heavenly Father has commenced a great and mighty work, and has given the strongest kind of evidence in favor of it, if the inhabitants of the earth would only receive it; but their condemnation will consist in their rejection of this work and the evidence of its truth which is spread before them. The whole history of this people, from the commencement until the present time, affords abundant evidence of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. When our elders go forth into the world men cry aloud for miracles, for some supernatural manifestation of power, that will convince them that we are the people we profess to be Jesus said, “A wicked and an adulterous generation seek a sign, but no sign shall be given them save the sign of the prophet Jonah.” But God, our Heavenly Father, has nevertheless left his handwriting, as it were, to be seen by all the nations of the earth on the work that he has established. Divinity is marked in every feature of this great work; in every step of its progress, from its commencement until the present time, we see divinity exhibited, and the power of God manifested in its preservation, growth and development. What is it that brings this people from the nations of the earth, binds them together, and makes a unity of the people of the various nationalities here assembled together? Is it the power of man? Is it delusion? Or, is it a manifestation of the restoration of that power bestowed upon men in ancient days, and which has been so long withdrawn from the earth? Why is it that we love one another? Is it as the Apostle John said, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren?” We love one another because we have bowed in obedience to the truth which God has revealed, and through the reception of the Holy Spirit of promise we have the love of God in our hearts. If mankind loved the truth and would examine these things, they would see something desirable about this work, and they would be prompted to investigate. But the difficulty now is, as it has been in every age when God has attempted to establish his work upon the earth—men in general are blinded by the traditions of their fathers. This, and the love of ease, and popularity, and other worldly objects that surround them, prevent men from seeing the work of God in its true light, and blinds them to their highest interests. They cannot see how they are going to receive any benefit from this work. That which is material is right before them, and they can understand the material advantages accruing to them through not obeying this work; but the advantages and blessings that would result from obedience are hidden from their sight, being discernible only by the light of the Spirit of God. Yet there is this peculiar feature about the work of God today, more especially than at any other time since the days of Enoch, that they who embrace it not only receive the Spirit of God, with its gifts, but they also receive blessings of a temporal nature, which they would never receive outside of it. Those who have joined the Church, as a mass, have been benefited temporally, though at the time of rendering obedience, they probably could not see how advantages of this nature could result. They could see that their names would be cast out as evil, that they would be hated of all men, persecuted and probably driven from place to place, but how they would be blessed temporally they could not see. But God, our Heavenly Father, has held in reserve until these days great and glorious blessings for his people, who are faithful to the truth. He has reserved for his Saints the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens. Not something beyond the bounds of time and space, not something that we will inherit in eternity alone; but he has also temporal advantages to bestow upon his people here. A great many people imagine that we hold these out as inducements to get people to join the Church; but they who join the Church for the love of these things, and with a desire to obtain them, are invariably disappointed. If people join the Church of God with any other motive than to embrace the truth and to be associated with the people of God, and to receive the spirit of the Gospel, they are invariably disappointed; but when they come in for the love of the truth, willing to take upon them the cross of Christ, and endure all the persecutions incident to the life of a Saint, submit, to the contumely and privation that in the providence of God they may be called to endure, God thus tests their faith, and if they continue faithful he will bestow upon them every blessing promised to the most faithful.

The work in which we are engaged differs in some respects from the work in which the Apostles were engaged in the days of Jesus Christ. Many things operated against them that we have not to contend with. They had to scatter out and preach the Gospel in various places; they could not gather together with the same facility that we can. But God, our Heavenly Father, reserved this—the land of promise—for the especial purpose of building up his kingdom in the latter days. As the “Book of Mormon” informs us, it has been hid from the eyes of the generations of men for this purpose. If it had not been thus hidden the nations of the earth would have overrun the land until there would have been no foothold found for the establishment of the kingdom of God upon it. But the Lord concealed it, from the days of the flood, from the eyes of men, excepting those whom he led hither; as we are informed by the “Book of Mormon” that no nation after the flood, knew anything about this land; although I believe it is said in the Norwegian Antiquarian researches, that this land was visited by the Icelanders in the eleventh century. But there is nothing authentic in this. But be that as it may, this land was kept secret until Columbus was moved upon by the Spirit of God, to go forth and penetrate the western ocean. Then the land was settled and a government was formed under the protecting aegis of liberty, and a place was found for the establishment of the kingdom of God, to which the Saints from every nation under Heaven could gather together. Hence we are surrounded by many more favorable circumstances than they who preceded us in the work of God in the days of Jesus and the Apostles. They did not possess the advantages that we enjoy; but we have them, and our Heavenly Father intends that we shall possess them, and that we shall build up his kingdom on the earth, establish righteousness and bring about that improvement alluded to by brother Jesse N. Smith, in his remarks. Our circumstances, then, being different, we can indulge in anticipations no other people have ever been able to indulge in, unless it be the people of Enoch and the Nephites, to whom Jesus appeared on this Continent.

Those who investigate the Gospel with a desire to keep the commandments of God, as I have remarked, rise from its investigation with convictions of its truth, for an honest man cannot go to the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ, and ask Him respecting this Gospel without receiving a knowledge for himself that it is true. In my preaching to the world, I have many times dared them to this test, that if they would go in honesty before the Lord and ask Him in the name of Jesus Christ to show to them the truth of this Gospel, I would pledge myself that the Lord would show them and they would become convinced that the principles we taught were indeed the principles of life and salvation. No person ever investigated this Gospel with that spirit without being convinced of its truth, because our Heavenly Father bestows upon everyone who embraces it with the right spirit a knowledge of the truth. What a glorious privilege it is to have this knowledge bestowed upon us. This testimony emboldens us to declare to the inhabitants of the earth, no matter to what nation we may be sent, that if they will embrace the truth, as it is taught by the Elders of this Church, they shall know for themselves that this is the work of God. This testimony it is the privilege of all to possess. It is this that binds us together, and gives the Priesthood influence over the Saints of God. My brethren and sisters, it is only by faithfulness that we can retain this knowledge. A man may be an Apostle and may have had the administration of holy angels, and the heavens opened to his view, and behold the things of eternity, but if he is not faithful himself, pursuing a right and proper course before God, he cannot retain his standing in this Church and keep that knowledge God has given him undimmed by error; but errors will creep into his heart and false spirits take possession of him, and sooner or later he will become alienated from the work of God. We should everyone be careful on these points. This is the work of God, and there is a well-established principle upon which we can remain connected with it, and that is by being true and faithful to the principles which God our Heavenly Father has revealed. We cannot grieve the Spirit of God with impunity; we cannot indulge in frivolity nor in anything that is wrong without driving that spirit from us with its holy and sweet influence. We should seek, therefore, as individuals, whether Apostles, High Priests, Seventies, High Councilors, Elders, Priests, Teachers, Deacons or members of the Church, to have the spirit of our holy religion continually resting upon us. How can we retain this? Can we retain it by being negligent and indifferent to its claims? Do men gather earthly riches around them by being negligent? We all know that, as a rule, the man who is the most diligent in business is he who gains the greatest amount of profit for his labor; we are proving this every day in earthly business, and if necessary in earthly business, it is equally so in the things of the kingdom of God. The men and women who most diligently keep the commandments of God, offer up prayers in sincerity, not with their lips, but with their hearts, making it a rule to live near the Lord, are they who retain the light of the Holy Spirit; and they are they who, when persecution or affliction comes, feel that God is near to them; and that when they pray He is not afar off, but He hears their prayers and pours consolation, peace, and every good gift upon them, and they can rejoice from morning to night among the changing vicissitudes to which we are exposed in this mortal life. My brethren and sisters, we are commanded not to give the whole of our attention to the accumulation of earthly things; we are commanded also to lay up treasures in heaven. We are required to build up Zion on the earth; then let us take a course that will ensure to us the blessing and favor of God our Heavenly Father, that our prayers and thanksgiving may be acceptable before Him. We should do this, especially when we reflect upon the nature of the work in which we are engaged, and the nature of the opposition with which we have to contend. We have the whole world to contend with to a certain extent, or rather, we have to defend ourselves against the whole world; they are combating us. There are probably thousands of honest men and women in the world who manifest no disposition to persecute or oppose us; but this is not the case with the majority. There is a spirit of opposition to this work gone abroad in the world; and, as in the beginning, we had a township to meet and contend with, afterwards a county and counties, then a State, and ultimately we had a nation, so to speak, in arms against us; so in the future we will have the whole world to contend with. Not only this nation, but every nation on the face of the earth will manifest greater or less opposition to us as a people, and we will have a thousand things to contend with. Why? Because Satan has influence over the hearts of the children of men; he has power with them, and so long as there is a foot of this earth upon which he can maintain foothold, so long may we expect warfare, and find difficulties to contend with, and it will only be by the power of God manifested in our behalf that we will overcome. This warfare will not be a contest with cannons, rifles, or earthly weapons of war, so much as a moral warfare. We are engaged in a great moral warfare; it is by the exercise of moral force that we are going to achieve the victories that God our heavenly Father has promised us. We may be threatened, as we have been, with weapons of war, and it will doubtless be necessary, so long as we have an existence on the earth, to be prepared for every contingency. This will no doubt be necessary, but the day is probably far distant when we will have to shoulder weapons and engage in actual warfare. I look for a moral contest, a moral triumph, and moral victories, gained by the force of truth, and the exercise of those Godlike qualities with which we have been endowed by our heavenly Father. And when the great victory is achieved, there will be no blood to mourn over, no sorrow to be indulged in, and nothing to prevent us from building the Temples of God, as was the case with David, because he was a man of blood. I anticipate that we will be free from this, and that we, like Solomon, can go forward and build the Temples of God according to His commandments. While brother Henry W. Lawrence was talking about the Temple in Nauvoo, I felt to echo the sentiment I have heard expressed by President Young respecting that Temple. I am glad it is destroyed; I am glad that it was burned and purified by fire from the pollution our enemies inflicted upon it, and I am glad there is nothing of it left; and I would prefer that this Temple in course of erection here, should never be completed, and that we should never build another, than to see those holy places built by God’s commands, pass into the hands of our enemies and be defiled by them.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and enable us to be faithful and true in keeping His commandments, is my prayer for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 21st, 1867.

It is always exceedingly interesting to listen to missionaries expressing their feelings either before going on missions or after their return, especially when they return possessing the Spirit of God, having fulfilled their missions honorably. I, for one, can testify, and I presume that all can who have listened to the brethren today and last Sunday, that if they go forth possessing the spirit they have manifested in their remarks here, and are influenced and guided by it in their addresses to and associations with the people during their absence, the result will be great glory to themselves and salvation to the honest in heart with whom they come in contact.

There is an influence and power attending the testimony of an honest man inspired by the Spirit of God, that carries conviction to the souls of those who are unprejudiced, and who listen dispassionately to what he has to say, and when the inhabitants of the earth hear these testimonies borne in meekness and simplicity, and, through prejudice, reject them, condemnation falls upon them. If all who have heard the gospel, and have received testimonies of its truth, had embraced it, the Church of Jesus Christ, today, would have numbered millions. There is a testimony accompanying the words of truth spoken in soberness that carries conviction to the heart of every honest person who hears it, and there is no man or woman to whom it is declared but what has a secret conviction that there is something more in it than they are willing to allow.

It has been truly said that it makes but little difference in what direction our labors are applied. We have learned by experience, individually and as a people, that God our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us. He knows our wants and circumstances, and how our labors can be best applied, and in directing us He is always guided by infinite wisdom. It makes but little difference what will be the results of the labors of these brethren. If they do not bring many to a knowledge of the truth, they, at least, can return with a consciousness of having done what was required at their hands, and their garments will be clear of the blood of the people. The Lord has said that after the testimonies of His servants He would send other testimonies, which should bear witness of the truth of that which they had spoken. These testimonies have been, and are being, sent among the people, and they are being increased; and, no doubt, thousands of the honest-in-heart through the nations of the earth, whose minds have been darkened by the precepts and traditions of men, will be aroused to reflection, and will have their feelings of prejudice removed by the circumstances through which they are called to pass, and they will see truth as they never saw it before. Hence, there is a constant necessity for the elders to go forth and proclaim the gospel among the nations of the earth.

We are living in a very eventful period; the events now transpiring in the nations have been predicted to us years and years ago. We were almost as familiar with them before they came to pass as we are now. Scarcely an event has befallen our nation but what we had an intimation of long before it transpired. I recollect very well that in the fall of 1860, while going to England, we were invited at Omaha to preach the gospel to the people of that city. A good many of the leading citizens procured the Courthouse for us, and br. Pratt preached. By request, I read the revelation given through Joseph Smith, on the 25th of December, 1832, respecting the secession of the Southern States. It created a great sensation, the election of Abraham Lincoln having just been consummated, and it being well known that there was a great deal of feeling in the South in relation to it. A great many persons came forward and examined the book from which the revelation was read to see the date, to satisfy themselves that it was not a thing of recent manufacture. The revelation was in the Pearl of Great Price, which was published 1851. And when the people saw this they were struck with surprise, and were more especially impressed when, in the course of a few hours afterwards, the news reached Omaha that South Carolina had passed the Ordinance of Secession. There was a direct confirmation of the words of the Prophet Joseph spoken twenty-eight years previously. But who in that congregation were prepared to receive that prediction as one that had emanated from Heaven? We understood and were prepared for it. It made no difference to us whether South Carolina had then seceded, or whether secession had been deferred for years, we knew that the words of God must be fulfilled, and that the words which He had spoken by the mouth of His servant would come to pass.

There are a great many who have been stirred up to reflection by recent events, which have been mapped out, as it were, before the Saints of God through the spirit of inspiration and prophecy, which our Heavenly Father has poured out upon His servants and people; and if we continue to be diligent, humble, and faithful, there never will be a time from this time forward, so long as the earth endures, that we will be destitute of the knowledge necessary to guide us. There never has been a time since we came to these valleys that we have been ignorant of the course that we should take. It is true that many invidious remarks are made by those not of us upon the men who preside over us. They do not know how it is that President Young has been able to lead us through every difficulty as he has done. They imagine that it is all attributable to his superior wisdom and smartness, and that what we term revelation and the spirit of prophecy are the concoction of his brain or the fabrication of those who are immediately associated with him. But we who, from the organization of the Church until the present, have been led by the spirit of inspiration, know that it is nothing of the kind, but that God our Heavenly Father does actually make known His mind and will to His servants in these days as He did anciently.

Men’s ideas differ very much in relation to what a prophet is or should be; they have certain ideas and opinions as to how he should receive the gift of prophecy and revelation, and if a man professing to be a prophet or servant of God does not conform to those ideas, he is, of course, set down as an impostor. The spirit of revelation is not so mysterious and incomprehensible as many imagine it to be. Men have imagined that it is something they cannot understand, and that men in possession of it must differ very remarkably from those who are destitute of it. But the Lord in His dealings with the children of men never did produce these monstrosities. His servants were not so remarkable in appearance as to strike everybody who saw them with surprise, but on the contrary they were natural men, similar in form, feature, and apparel, and speaking the same language as others, and because of this men could not entertain the idea that they were the servants of God or were intimate with His purposes, or that they could possess more wisdom than man obtains by the exercise of his natural mind. My brethren and sisters, it is a glorious privilege that we possess, of living so before the Lord our God that we can have the testimony constantly within us that we are operating and laboring in conformity with the requirements of Heaven.

There is one subject that I wish to speak upon in connection with the departure of these missionaries. There has been a movement made in some of the wards to raise the means necessary to send the missionaries from these wards to the nations to which they have been appointed. I do not know how many wards are engaged in this movement, but it is desirable that the whole people should do what they can to assist in sending the missionaries, and also to assist their families while they are away. It will probably be easy for the 13th, 14th, and 20th wards to send the brethren who are called from them, but there may be some wards that are too poor to assist to the extent that is needed, and a unity of action on the part of the people generally may therefore be necessary. President Young desires that all who are here this morning should do what they can, and that all who come this afternoon should come prepared to do the same. And all here are requested to notify all they can to this effect. A few years ago an exertion was made to raise a Missionary Fund, and for a time that fund was tolerably well sustained, but by degrees the feelings of the people became cool, whether for the want of being reminded or not I do not know, but for some time this matter has fallen into disuse.

A good many are now being called to go on missions, and as we have done very well in this matter in the past we must not be unmindful now. It is true we have a great many labors to perform; we have to pay our tithing, and in various ways have to contribute of our means for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God, and it is by taking a course of this kind that we shall become a great and mighty people. We have proved this to our satisfaction. We have proved that we can go to the nations of the earth and spend years, if necessary, in proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then come back and accumulate means as rapidly as if we had never gone. And those who remain at home and devote their energies and means to building up the Kingdom of God increase in wealth and material advantages far more rapidly than they who have neither given their time abroad nor their means at home. We are surrounded with the blessings of God, and He can multiply or withdraw them as seems good in His sight, and it ought to be, and I have no doubt that it is, a pleasure to the Latter-day Saints to do all they can to roll forth His work. When we have gone, seemingly, as far as we can, the Lord opens our way and makes it plain before us, just as He does for the elders when they go forth to preach.

There have been times with the elders abroad preaching when it seemed as though they could do no more—all was dark before them, every door seemed closed, and they did not know where to get food to eat, raiment to wear, or a place of shelter; and, when they could do no other thing, God has opened the way for them, their faith has been increased, and they have gone forward with renewed energy to perform the labors devolving upon them. So it is with us here, my brethren and sisters. I look upon the training we are receiving as essentially necessary. God is testing us and trying our faith. Our means are comparatively very limited, but by their proper use, and the exercise of faith, God will open up our way before us. This people, called Latter-day Saints, have performed the mightiest works ever accomplished with the least means. It is in consequence of their faith, and it will be more and more the case as we progress in the things of the kingdom; and if we continually comply with the requirements of Heaven we shall become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And if we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ we expect to have control over many things, and there is reason to believe that our dominion will be very extensive. But before we attain to that dominion we must learn to be wise rulers over the few things that God has placed in our charge, and to use them for His glory and the advancement of His purposes on the earth. When He sees that our eyes are single to His glory, and that our hearts are pure and free from avarice and every sordid and selfish feeling, He will multiply His blessings upon us, because He will then know by testing us that we are fit to be trusted, and it will be said to us according to the words of the Scriptures, “You have been faithful over a few things and you shall become rulers over many things.”

We cannot say what good will follow from our exertions, though very feeble and like bread cast upon the waters, yet if we perform the duties devolving upon us in the Spirit of the Lord, and pray that His blessing may attend them, great results will follow to us and others. We all ought to have learned this long ago, and I doubt not that, with few exceptions, we all have; and the spirit that has been awakened within us of late, respecting keeping the Word of Wisdom and other things of a kindred character, ought to keep us keenly alive to the importance of using to the best advantage all the means God places in our hands. I recollect very well a saying of President Young, some seven years ago, I think, this coming summer, in speaking of the missionaries who were then going abroad, he said that when he was in England he hesitated to spend a penny for fruit or anything of that kind, because he thought of what that penny, or a few pence, would do if judiciously expended for the benefit of the work of God. We should all feel like this, and should endeavor to deny ourselves of a great many things that are injurious to us that we may be better prepared to help to roll forth the work of God our Heavenly Father. If we have obeyed the counsel given at Conference we have already saved something in denying ourselves of some of those things which we call luxuries, and we can donate that, if no more; but we might as well donate something in anticipation of the amount we will save during the coming year by strictly following the counsel that has been given to us. By so doing we will confer a blessing upon those going on missions, and we will have the satisfaction of knowing that our means has been used for the accomplishment of God’s purposes.

I have been very much pleased, as an individual, to hear the instructions which have been given on these points. I called in at a Bishops’ meeting the other evening and heard some remarks which were being made on this subject. I would have liked very much, if circumstances had permitted, to have added something to what was said. I do not like to hear anybody express himself as though this movement in relation to keeping the Word of Wisdom is one got up and sustained only by enthusiasm. I do not call that enthusiasm which prompts people to walk up to the line of their duty and renounce evil practices, and when I hear men say—“I have seen the people get enthusiastic about the Word of Wisdom before, but they have soon relapsed into their old habits,” I consider it wrong. We ought not to require to be talked to and counseled on points so well recognized and established as this. God has given to us a most positive promise on this subject, and we should be diligent in carrying it into effect without waiting to be counseled, getting up an excitement, or acting on the spur of the moment and after awhile returning to old habits. I do not think any person will be benefited by acting in this manner. There should be a well settled conviction in the mind of every person belonging to this Church that it would be a real benefit for him or for her to observe the Word of Wisdom, and to carry into effect the counsel God has given on any point. If I do not see the evils that result from smoking and chewing tobacco, drinking liquor, tea, and coffee, or eating meats to excess, and the benefits that would result from abstaining, what anybody else may see would only have a temporary effect upon me. I must feel in my own heart that it is injurious to me to indulge in these things, there must be a well settled conviction within me that this is the case, then when I am thrown in contact with persons who use them, and inducements are offered me to do the same, it is easy for me to decline, because I am satisfied in my own mind that they are injurious, and there is no need of excitement or enthusiasm to enable me to refrain.

Our teachings during Conference will, at any rate, induce parents and guardians to keep their children from learning pernicious habits, which in early life are so easily acquired, and which when acquired retain their hold upon us with such tenacity, and if, in addition to this, five hundred people throughout the Territory are induced to keep the Word of Wisdom I do not think that our preaching will have been in vain. But I anticipate far greater results than this. It is true, probably, that there are many points concerning our welfare that may not have been touched upon by our Heavenly Father in the Word of Wisdom, but in my experience I have noticed that they who practice what the Lord has already given are keenly alive to other words of wisdom and counsel that may be given. I would consider that for a person who was in a profuse perspiration to go into the wind without being properly clothed would be more foolish and injurious than to eat meat or to drink tea or coffee to excess. There are a thousand ways in which we can act unwisely; our attention has been directed to some few points, and if we observe them the Lord has promised us great treasures of wisdom, which will enable us to see a thousand points where we can take better care of our bodies, preserve our health, and which will enable us to train our children in the way of the Lord. The result will be that our children will be healthy and strong, and we will raise up a generation that will be a blessing to us, and through whom the Lord can accomplish His great and mighty works in the earth.

These things are very desirable, my brethren and sisters, and I hope that no person in this congregation will consider that the teachings we have had during Conference, or their results, arise from enthusiasm, but attribute them to the right source, the promptings of the Spirit of God. This is the true view of the matter, and it is for everyone of us to carry them into effect. We do not wish the people to be coerced or asked, even, to make covenants to observe these teachings. It is not desirable or wise that this should be done. If the bishops and teachers in their wards and blocks choose to ascertain how many will observe this counsel, it may be wise to do so, but it would be decidedly unwise to go and exact covenants of this character, because I have noticed that when we make covenants there is a power brought to bear against us, and temptations thrown in our path to cause us if possible to break them. We should be exceedingly careful in these things, and, if we wish to carry them out let us resolve to do so upon principle and by the help of God, and not in our own strength, or because somebody else tells us to do so. This is the course for us, as Latter-day Saints, to take, then the benefits re– sulting will be permanent. It is the design of the Lord to develop within every man and woman the principle of knowledge, that all may know for themselves. He has poured out His holy spirit upon all of us, and not upon President Young nor upon bro. Joseph alone. The Lord designs that the principle of knowledge shall be developed in every heart, that all may stand before Him in the dignity of their manhood, doing understandingly what He requires of them, not depending upon nor being blindly led by their priests or leaders, as is the universal custom, and one of the most fruitful sources of evil to the people on the face of the earth. God intends to break down this order of things, and to develop in the bosom of every human being who will be obedient to the gospel and the principles of truth and righteousness, that knowledge which will enable them to perform understandingly all the labors and duties he requires of them.

If we, in our experience, have not yet proved the truth of the words of the prophet—“Cursed is he that trusteth in man, or maketh flesh his arm”—probably we will do if we live long enough. There is a curse attending every man and woman who does this. If we will watch the operations of the gospel of Jesus Christ among us, we will see that it has a tendency to develop knowledge in the bosoms of all, and it is the design of Providence that it should be so. We must all learn to depend upon God and upon Him alone. Why, the very man upon whom we think we can rely with unbounded confidence, and trust with all we possess, may disappoint us sometimes, but trust in God and He never fails. We can go before Him at all times, and upon all occasions, and pour out our souls and desires before Him, and we feel that we lean upon a rock that will not fail, and upon a friend that will not desert us in the day of trial. He is omnipotent, and in Him only can we trust under all circumstances, therefore we perceive why the prophet has said—“Cursed is he that trusteth in man, or maketh flesh his arm.”

God, our Heavenly Father, designs that all who will observe truth and righteousness should possess wisdom and understanding for themselves, and He is bringing us through circumstances that will develop within us that portion of the Godhead or Deity which we have received from Him, that we may become worthy of our high and glorious parentage. This being His design respecting us, we should seek by every means in our power to aid Him in carrying it out, until the whole people are enlightened by His Spirit, and act understandingly and in concert in carrying out His designs. In other systems the design is to keep the people down in ignorance and darkness respecting the principles that are taught them, to keep the knowledge in the hands of a select few, upon whom the people are forced to depend, but this is not the genius of the kingdom of God. The spirit of the church of God is that manifested by Moses when, in answer to Joshua, who wished him to reprove some who were prophesying, he said—“No; but I would to God that all were prophets.” That is the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The genius of the kingdom with which we are associated is to disseminate knowledge through all the ranks of the people, and to make every man a prophet and every woman a prophetess, that they may understand the plans and purposes of God. For this purpose the gospel has been sent to us, and the humblest may obtain its spirit and testimony, and the weakest of the weak may obtain a knowledge respecting the purposes of God. This is the difference between the church and kingdom of God and the creeds and institutions of men. The idea that prevails in the world concerning us is that we are hoodwinked and led blindly by our leaders; but the contrary to this is the case, for it is the wish of every man who comprehends this work that the people should all understand it. The bishops and teachers, if they have the right spirit, wish their wards to understand the principles of the gospel and the requirements of heaven as they understand them, and so it is through all grades of the priesthood and through all the ramifications of the church of God. If we take this course continually we will become a great and mighty people before the Lord. If we do anything let us do it understandingly. If we hear any principle taught from the stand that we do not understand let us seek to comprehend it by the Spirit of God. If it be not of God we have the privilege of knowing it. We are not required to receive for doctrine everything that we hear. We may say—“I do not know whether this is true or not, I will not fight it, neither will I endorse it, but I will seek knowledge from God, for that is my privilege, and I will never rest satisfied until I have obtained the light I require.” If you hear a doctrine that does not agree with your feelings, or that you do not believe, take this course; do not reject nor endorse hastily, without knowing or understanding. By taking this course you will develop the principle that God designs we should possess, and we will thus become a wise and understanding people, for we will be based on the Rock of Revelation.

May this be the case with you, my brethren and sisters, until you are brought back into the presence of God, to dwell at His right hand eter– nally, is my prayer for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 7th, 1867.

There have been a great many excellent remarks made to us since we assembled ourselves together to celebrate the anniversary of the organization of the Church, remarks which, if treasured up in our hearts and practiced in our lives, cannot fail to make us a much better people than we are today. It should be clear to the mind of every Latter-day Saint that there is an extreme necessity for us to be united. It is to our union alone, imperfect though it may have been, that we may attribute our suc– cess in the past, under the blessing of God. If we have any name or prestige in the earth, if there is anything attached to the name of Latter-day Saint or “Mormonism” that conveys the idea of power to the minds of the people, it has its origin in our union, obedience, concentration of effort, and our oneness of action, and the more this oneness increases the more marked and distinct we will be among the nations of the earth. What is it that has made us the people we are today? It is obedience to the counsels which God has revealed through His servants. If there is anything on the earth that will continue to add distinction and power to us, and elevate us and make us strong and mighty, it is an increase of this obedience which has already given us this distinction.

I have thought considerably since we have been together of the counsels which have been given to us, and of the action of the people in the past. There was a time when every Latter-day Saint who had the spirit of his religion felt as though he wished to devote himself and all that he had to the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God. This feeling doubtless predominates today, but it has been partially buried up and covered by other feelings—the love of gain, the desire to acquire property, and feelings akin to these. There was a law revealed to us—the law of consecration—through obedience to which every man expected to hold all that he possessed subject to the dictation of the servants of God. It is right that we should recollect this law, and continually seek to carry it out. We should feel that we are placed as stewards over the property God has placed in our hands, and that all we have is subject primarily to the counsels of God’s servant, and that before we take any step of importance it is our duty to seek counsel from him who has the right to counsel. Imagine the power there would be in this Territory, and it would be felt throughout the nations of the earth, if this entire people, from Bear Lake Valley in the north to the settlements on the Muddy in the south, were thus united, holding themselves and all the wealth that God has so bountifully bestowed upon them, subject to the counsel that God has placed in His Church. What would be the effect of this? If you will allow your minds to expand you may be able to contemplate to some small extent the great results that would follow such a concentration of action on the part of this people. Is it the will of God that it should be so? It is.

The Lord has placed a man at our head upon whom He has bestowed great wisdom. There has never been a time when he has lacked the wisdom necessary to guide all the affairs of the Kingdom of God. Joseph of old had wisdom given to him by which he was enabled to save Egypt. God has given to us a leader who has wisdom equal to any emergency, and if we will be obedient to his counsels we shall realize as great salvation as was wrought out by Joseph for those with whom he was associated. Herein we possess advantages not possessed by other people; we have revelation to guide us, we have the word of the Lord in our midst; we are not dependent upon man’s wisdom, nor upon human plans, but we have the wisdom of eternity manifested through the servants of God to guide us. We have the opportunity of building up the Kingdom of God and of carrying out the designs of heaven according to His plan; and if we will do so we shall fulfil the word of the Lord given anciently, when speaking of and comparing his people with the people of the world. Said he, “My servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry; my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed; my servants shall sing with gladness of heart, but you shall sorrow with sadness of heart and howl with vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name.”

It seems as though the day had come when God will slay the wicked, and when He will call His people by another name. How will these words of the ancient prophets be fulfilled? By our listening to the counsel of him whom he has placed to preside over us, and being guided in wisdom in all things. When we do this we will be a mighty and a powerful people, and President Young will be what he ought to be today, the head of this people, the mouthpiece of God in our midst; and when his counsel is given it will be listened to by all Israel; no one will disobey from one end of the land to the other. How much good could be accomplished if this were the case! What mighty labors could be achieved if this people were in this condition today. What hinders it being so? Nothing but the disposition within us to be careless and indifferent to the principles taught us.

This condition of things will be brought about, and it might be more rapidly than it is if the people would be obedient and diligent in carrying out the counsels given to them. All within the sound of my voice, probably, have heard that Israel, in the days of Moses, were commanded to sprinkle their doorposts with the blood of a lamb, that they might escape destruction; now if we had been told that Israel were destroyed because they paid no regard to this instruction, who among us would not have said, How foolish Israel must have been to have suffered destruction rather than do such a simple thing as this! Yet what has God said to us in these days with regard to the Word of Wisdom? He has said that “all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, and walk in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health to their navel and marrow to their bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And they shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them.” Here is a promise that the Lord has given to us on condition that we obey this requirement, or rather this counsel. It is wise counsel; we have proved its wisdom. What has disobedience to this counsel done for this people? It has made us in many respects, to a certain extent, subject to our enemies. How many called Latter-day Saints, through disobedience to the Word of Wisdom, have been led away to California and other places where they could obtain these things which they thought so necessary to their comfort, but which God had counseled them to forsake? A great many have been led away through this; and every time we disobey this counsel we bring ourselves more completely under bondage to our own appetites and to the enemies of the Kingdom of God.

As a people we should arise, and with one effort say we will follow the example, in this respect, of him who leads us. Does President Young drink tea, or coffee, or liquor, or chew tobacco? No; his life is exemplary, and we should copy after it. There is no man among us more exemplary in these things than he is; and it is a shame to us, as a people, if we do not follow his wise example. The Lord is bearing testimony to us through His Spirit, that we should carry these things into effect; and I trust that the people from one end of the Territory to the other, will manifest by their future course that they will observe the counsel that has been given at this Conference, and thus seek to be one with the President. There is no need to disguise the fact that he is anxious to have us subject to him in these matters. He is anxious that his power should be felt through the length and breadth of this Territory sufficiently to control and govern the people for good. Why? Because he knows that God has revealed principles by which they can be led back into His presence if they will only be obedient to His counsel.

Short sermons are the order, and I will not lengthen out my remarks. My prayer is, my brethren and sisters, that God will enable everyone of us to see these things aright, and to understand the obligations resting upon us; and that union may pervade the bosoms of the Saints from the lowest to the highest, from the least in the land to the Presidency of the Church, which may God grant for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 3, 1867.

The Lord bestows His blessings upon the children of men according to their faith and diligence. It is true that there are a great many blessings which they receive and enjoy independent of their conduct, to a very great extent. They have this life, the use of their reason, the blessings of air and earth, and the elements which are incorporated or connected with the earth; the sun warms them with its rays, and the showers of heaven revive them. Many of these blessings descend on the children of men in numerous instances regardless of their conduct, and apparently independent of their actions. But there are blessings which mankind cannot receive, only through obedience to the commandments of God, our heavenly Father; there are privileges and gifts which cannot be enjoyed, only through the diligence of those upon whom they are bestowed. The gifts that pertain to the gospel of Jesus Christ can only be obtained by obedience to the truth; and can only be retained by a faithful adherence to the commandments of God; and in order that these may be multiplied upon the people, they must be appreciated by those upon whom they are bestowed. When our hearts are filled with thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise to God, we are in a fit condition to receive additional blessings, and to have more of the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. When we see the deliverances that He vouchsafes to us, and appreciate those deliverances, we are in a fit condition to receive additional strength, power, and salvation, because we acknowledge His hand in all the blessings we receive, and in all the circumstances which surround us.

The things of God are not discerned by those who are not spiritually minded; for the Holy Spirit reveals the things of God to those upon whom it is bestowed. Men in the world at present, place the greatest dependence on the evidence which their outward senses afford them. If they can see, hear, taste, or handle anything with which they may come in contact, they place more value upon that external evidence than upon any internal evidence. Hence, when the elders go forth to preach the gospel to the nations, there is almost a constant demand, made by those to whom they are sent, for the evidence of miracles. They wish to hear the elders speak in tongues, or prophesy; they want to see the sight of the blind restored, the sick healed, the dead raised, or some miraculous manifestation of power, in order that their outward senses may be gratified. Many attach a great deal of importance to the evidence which they receive in this manner; and to this class of persons the things of God are to a very great extent incomprehensible, because the evidence which they look for they do not often receive; or if they do, it comes in such a form that it is not entirely reliable to them. The man or the woman who is convinced of the truth of the gospel by seeing the ears of the deaf unstopped, or the tongue of the dumb unloosed, or by dreams or visions, as a general thing, requires a continuation of these manifestations from that time forward to keep them in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This our experience confirms. There is another class who obey the truth because it is the truth, and receive the testimony of the Spirit without any particular manifestations, but in whose hearts the Spirit of God continues to burn and increase, imparting to them all its gifts and filling them with joy and peace unspeakable. They retain their faith in the work of God, and as days, weeks, months, and years pass over their heads, their faith and confidence increase.

No doubt there are many saints present this afternoon who have seen illustrations of this kind. They probably can allow their minds to refer to their early experience in the Church, in the branches to which they belonged when they embraced the gospel. Probably there were many of their companions who embraced the gospel at about the same time they did, who received great manifestations, and whose minds never seemed to be content with what they would term the small things of the gospel; but they were constantly reaching after visions and dreams, and extraordinary manifestations of the power of God; and, in nine cases out of ten, with the desire of consuming those manifestations on their own lusts, to have some wonderful testimony to bear, to be a little ahead of, and to excel their brethren and sisters in the things of God. Probably many present can recollect instances of this kind, and have watched the course of such individuals until they have lost the faith and have gone out of the Church. On the other hand there are men and women who were not favored in these respects, and, in consequence, probably felt that they had committed some sin almost unpardonable in the sight of Heaven; yet through their humility and the constant exercise of faith they have continued to increase in wisdom and strength, and in all the gifts of the Spirit necessary for the perfecting of the Saints; and today they can look back through their whole career in the Church, and can see that God has given them the best possible kind of evidence to enable them to retain their standing in the Church. There are probably thousands of people, at the present time, among the nations of the earth, who would say, that if they could see the sick healed, or the blind restored to sight, see a person who was on the verge of the grave snatched from the grasp of death and restored to perfect health, or hear a man speak in tongues or interpret a language of which he was entirely ignorant, they would be perfectly willing to embrace the gospel and become Latter-day Saints for the rest of their lives. I have no doubt there are men in our midst who would say that if they could have evidence of this kind they would be Latter-day Saints; and in making such a statement they would imagine they were perfectly safe, and that it would be consistent with God’s plan for them to expect such evidence. Experience in this work has proved that this is not the best kind of evidence, but that there is a kind which is of a higher order, and which is calculated to preserve those who receive it from all the snares and temptations of the adversary with which they may be assailed. God, our heavenly Father, has promised the Holy Ghost, with all its gifts to those who receive His gospel. He has said that those who go forth in humility and meekness, forsaking their sins and truly repenting, shall receive for themselves a knowledge of the principles which they have embraced; that they shall receive the Comforter, who will take of the things of God and show them to them; and the history of this entire people has proved that such is the case, and that the Spirit of God, with its accompanying gifts, is abundantly poured out upon those who live so as to receive them.

The gospel of Jesus Christ claims our obedience, whether we receive the gifts of the Spirit or not. The Lord in His mercy has promised to us these gifts; but when He makes demand on His children, it is not for them to stand still and make conditions with Him about the principles they are going to receive; and those who do so commit sin in the very outset. They grieve the Spirit of God by manifesting such a want of confidence; whereas, those who go forth in humility, trusting in God, and who receive the truth because God has revealed it, and because it is sweet unto them, have no cause to mourn that He has not bestowed upon them all that He has promised. But, on the contrary, their souls are filled to overflowing with the outpourings of the Spirit of God, and with the gifts of that Spirit which are bestowed upon them. This has ever been the case; it is so today, and it will be so as long as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exists in purity on the earth, or there is a man left on the earth to administer in the ordinances of the holy priesthood of the Son of God.

The great difficulty with mankind is that they have arranged in their own minds plans for the salvation of the human race. You can scarcely meet with a man in the world—although he may acknowledge that God has not spoken to the children of men for nearly 1,800 years, and that he never saw a divinely inspired servant of God, one who had the right to exercise the priesthood of the Son of God as the ancient servants of God did—but has a plan arranged in his own mind respecting the course which he thinks God should take in saving His children. Begin to talk with them, and the traditions they have received from their fathers, preachers, or schoolmasters immediately rise up, and if what you state comes in contact with those traditions, no matter how pure, heavenly, and attractive it may otherwise be, they will reject it. This is the rock on which the nations of the earth are making shipwreck, because, instead of receiving the truth when presented to them in humility and meekness like little children, they feel to dictate, and prescribe the laws and requirements of the gospel, and the manner in which it should be preached. Wherever this spirit exists, there is no room for the meek and lowly spirit of Jesus to have place; another spirit has possession and controls them.

How many men are there who come from afar and see Zion being built up, and see the work of God progressing on this land, who recognize the features that the prophets have said should characterize and attend on Zion and the work of God in the last days? Why, it is as much as the Latter-day Saints can do who come from the nations of the earth, to recognize in the work of God now progressing in this Territory, the Zion of God. They have their traditions and preconceived notions and ideas respecting the work of God, and what it should be; and when they come here and see the work in actual operation, many of them fail to recognize it and fail to see the power of God manifested. Why is this? It is because of those preconceived notions; it is because they have marked out and adopted a plan in their own minds upon which they expect Zion to be built up, and to which they expect Zion to conform. This is much more the case with those who have no knowledge of the truth, and who have not received the Spirit of God through baptism, the laying on of hands, and obedience to the other ordinances of the house of God. But if they were to come here dispossessed of prejudice and tradition, and were to look at the work of God as it is now progressing through this land, they would be enabled to appreciate it, and to acknowledge that there is a power and a spirit manifested among this people that does not belong to men and women under ordinary circumstances. Who does comprehend the work which the Lord is accomplishing with such rapidity? Why there is not a Latter-day Saint within the sound of my voice, no matter how young, humble, ignorant, or void of understanding he or she may be, who knows anything about the Spirit or the things of God, but can see divinity and the power of God manifested in every move made, and in all that has been done in connection with this work, from the beginning of their experience to the present time. They see God and recognize His hand in this work; and they also understand that man could not bestow upon them the blessings of peace and joy that they have in the Holy Ghost. Though a man may be very learned in the ancient and modern sciences, may have traveled extensively, may understand the various phases of human nature, and be thoroughly acquainted with the history of our race so far as it has been handed down to us, yet, if he have not the Spirit of God, his knowledge fades away if placed alongside that of the otherwise ignorant Saint, for it is found insufficient to reveal to him that this is the work of God. He looks at it from a worldly standpoint and he sees neither God nor divinity in it; neither can he recognize any exhibition of God’s power in this work, and in his mind it is all delusion. But that so-called ignorant man or woman who stands beside him, who may not know one-fiftieth part of that which he knows respecting the earth, its inhabitants, and its sciences, recognizes God in it all. He knows that is the Zion of God; his faith is based on the rock of ages; he knows and can bear testimony that this is the work of God, and he can see the hand of God in it all. The power of God is in his soul; he is in communion with God; and the gifts of the Spirit are manifested in and through him; and he rejoices in this knowledge which the man of the world has no comprehension of.

This is the difference, my brethren and sisters, between seeing the things of God from a natural or worldly standpoint, and seeing them from the standpoint God has established for us. Is this peculiar to the work of God in the last days? No; it is a peculiarity which has characterized all ages and dispensations when God has had a people on the earth. In the days of Jesus, who discovered divinity in him? Who saw in the humble son of a carpenter the lineaments of his divine origin, and recognized the Deity there? Why, a few humble fishermen, ignorant, illiterate men, who, as we learn from the “Acts of the Apostles,” could not speak their mother tongue grammatically. But did the high priests or the learned among the Jews, or those who had been educated in the schools, comprehend it? Though it was an age of enlightenment, so called, they could not recognize God in Jesus, nor divinity in the work which he performed; neither could they recognize any of the power of the apostleship in his Apostles. Who did see it? Why those who bowed in submission to the plan which God revealed through His son Jesus Christ; they comprehended these things, and were able to distinguish between the man of God and the man of the world; they were able to distinguish between the truth of heaven when it came pure and unadulterated from the throne of Jehovah, and the systems of men proclaimed on every hand. Hence, for men spiritually unenlightened to be unable to comprehend the things of God is not peculiar to the dispensation in which we live, but it has been so in every age when God made known His will to the children of men. Such individuals may come in contact with the greatest of Heaven’s children and may associate with them day by day, and yet through not having that Spirit they will fail to recognize their nobility of character, and that they are divinely inspired. Some of the members, even, of Jesus’ own family, as we learn from the sacred record, ridiculed him; they could not recognize that their own brother, the son of their mother, was the Son of God, who was to die for the sins of the world; although they had been brought up with Jesus from childhood, they failed to recognize it for the very reason that Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young, and every prophet and apostle that ever lived on the face of the earth have not been recognized by many of their associates. If their minds had been enlightened by the Spirit of God they would have recognized the men of God, and could have comprehended the things of God and the plan of salvation; they could have seen God in it all; every feature would have beamed with the godhead and with the divinity; they would have recognized it as an emanation from heaven and would have sustained the Son of God as the being he professed to be, and which he was; and his Apostles would have had no occasion to have gone about as they did—persecuted and hated, and afterwards cruelly killed for the testimony of Jesus which they bore to mankind. Noah would not have had such a difficult work in trying to convince the inhabitants of the earth in his day of the message God had given to him, neither would all the prophets from his day down have had the difficulty they had. No man with his natural wisdom can comprehend the things of God; man never did do it and never can do it. Priests may study all the arts and sciences, and finally graduate at a theological college; and after they have passed through it all they have no more conception of God and the things of God, than if such a Being had never existed. A man filled with the power of God might go to them, and they would not understand him; if he told them the most precious things ever uttered by mortal lips, they would not comprehend it, and would be far more likely to reject him than not, because they are imbued with prejudices and preconceived ideas respecting God and His works.

There was a necessity therefore for Jesus to say, that they should receive His kingdom as little children. There is this necessity, my brethren and sisters, today, on our part, that we should so receive the kingdom of God. What did any of us know respecting the truth until the Prophet revealed it? What do we know today? Why a great many of us think we know a great many things. It is an exceedingly difficult thing for a Bishop to teach us, or for an Apostle to impress our minds with the truth he is filled with, or for President Young and his counselors to convey to our minds and have us comprehend the truth which God has revealed to them. Why is this? It is because we are filled with our traditions and preconceived notions as to what is right and what is wrong. We relinquish and part with those notions and traditions very slowly; we cannot cast them aside apparently without great effort, and it requires the work of years to emancipate us from this thralldom. But there is, nevertheless, a great necessity that we should exert ourselves to the utmost of our ability in this labor. We should seek to have our minds spread out and expand so that when the things of God are told to us we can adopt them, and throw aside everything that comes in contact with them. There is a great work before us, and the progress that the Church has made during the last thirty-seven years, only enables us to see a little glimmer of the immensity that stretches out before us. The distance between us and the celestial kingdom of our God is inconceivably great to us at the present time; our minds cannot grasp the distance we have to traverse before we reach the presence of God and are prepared to dwell with Him eternally. By the Spirit of God we can comprehend some little of it; we can comprehend the distance we have yet to travel by thinking of the distance we have traveled.

We have come out of, and tra– velled from Babylon, according to the command of God, that we may become a people directly opposite to everything existing in Babylon. This was the proclamation made to us; and the object of the proclamation was that we might be emancipated completely from the things of the world, that we might be prepared to dwell with God eternally in the heavens.

Now, think of the distance there is between us and the people of Babylon today. The distance we have traveled is scarcely perceptible to some; and on some points we are so near that we can reach and shake hands with them, we have made so little progress. Yet there is nothing truer than this, that before we are prepared to dwell in the presence of God we must be directly opposite to them in almost every respect. Morality is taught and moral truths are enforced among them; but aside from the theory, everything is rotten and corrupt from the base to the topmost stone. God has said so, and we have had some little experience in it ourselves; and so far as we have gone we can say that such is the case. Society has to be differently organized under the rule of the Church of God. We have already made a great stride in this respect. The one great institution which God has revealed has done more to emancipate us, and create a difference between us and the world than anything I can conceive of; that is the order of marriage. It creates a complete distinctness between us and the people of the world. We can see how much we are progressing in this direction, and they who are living their religion are making rapid progress. There was a necessity for the revelation of this principle in order that the people of God might be entirely distinct from the people of Babylon. As long as we lived under those old institutions which are so full of rottenness and corruption, we were liable all the time to become assimilated to the world. But God has laid the foundation of that great distinction which must eventuate in the complete triumph of truth and the establishment of His kingdom on the earth. He has laid the foundation where the foundation of all governments begins—in the family; and it will go on and increase until it permeates every institution and organization, making us entirely different and distinct from the people of the world. You can allow your minds to stretch out if you like to their utmost capacity and they will not begin to comprehend the difference that will be created through the operation of those principles which God has already revealed. Like the pebble that is dropped in the mill pond, every circle goes on increasing and widening until it covers the whole pond. So it is with the truth which God has revealed; it will spread until the institutions of the kingdom of God will revolutionize everything that exists on the earth.

We have this work before us, it belongs to us; it does not belong to the First Presidency alone, or to the Twelve alone, or to the Bishops of wards, or to the Presidents of the settlements or stakes of Zion; but it belongs to every man, woman, and child who has a standing in this Church. God has laid it upon us all individually and collectively, and He expects it at our hands. It is true that the work of God will go forth from triumph to triumph until complete victory shall crown the efforts of the servants of God. But we are the members of this Church, and it is for us to say whether we will be diligent, or whether we will fall back and allow our places to be filled by others more diligent and more capable of comprehending the greatness of the work, and the greatness and facilities that God has given to us, than we are; whether we will combat with and contend against the evils that everywhere exist, govern our houses in righteousness, and bring up our children in the fear of God, or whether we will neglect these things, and suffer the glorious opportunities God has given us to pass by unimproved, to be improved by others more zealous, diligent, and wise in their generation than we are. There is no individual in Zion but can do a great deal of good if they will only allow their minds to expand, and will seek out opportunities to accomplish the work of God. They can correct and prepare themselves to carry on the work of God, and, in doing so, they will help to prepare somebody else; for no one can carry on the work of perfection without being a benefit to all with whom they associate.

We talk about going back to build up the Center Stake of Zion; it is the burden of our daily prayers. The aspirations of thousands of the people ascend in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth in behalf of the redemption of Zion, and that the purposes of God may be forwarded, and that the time may soon come when the Center Stake of Zion shall be built up and the people be prepared to go back and inhabit that land. Why do we wish this? Because we anticipate when that day shall come that we will be that much nearer the day of triumph, the day when Jesus will come and reign among his Saints. We are, as it were, in a school where we are to be taught of God, and prepared for the great events that are coming on the earth. We do not wish to leave this land, because it is not fertile, or because it is not a favored land. We appreciate the home that God has given us here, so fruitful in blessings to the Saints; but we look forward to that land with indescribable feelings, because it is the place where God has said His City shall be built. It is the land where Adam, the Ancient of Days, will gather his posterity again, and where the blessings of God will descend upon them. It is the land for which the wise and learned have traveled and sought in vain. Asia has been ransacked in endeavoring to locate the Garden of Eden. Men have supposed that because the Ark rested on Ararat that the flood commenced there, or rather that it was from thence the Ark started to sail. But God in His revelations has informed us that it was on this choice land of Joseph where Adam was placed and the Garden of Eden was laid out. The spot has been designated, and we look forward with peculiar feelings to repossessing that land. We expect when that day shall come that we will be a very different people to what we are today. We will be prepared to commune with heavenly beings; at any rate, the preparation will be going on very rapidly for Jesus to be revealed. We expect that a society will be organized there that will be a pattern of heavenly society, that when Jesus and the heavenly beings who come with him are revealed in the clouds of heaven, their feelings will not be shocked by the change, for a society will be organized on the earth whose members will be prepared through the revelations of God to meet and associate with them, if not on terms of perfect equality, at least with some degree of equality.

How much preparation have we made for this? We have made considerable progress in some directions. Since the days of Joseph the authority of the holy priesthood has increased. Bishops who are doing their duty have more authority in their wards than Bro. Joseph had formerly in the whole Church. The people understand the requirements made of them and carry them out understandingly and intelligently. This is very good, but a great change has still to be made; we have much more progress to make.

Our enemies are complaining of this one-man power; they want to concoct some plan that will destroy the power of the holy priesthood. They have stated that if anything should happen to Bro. Brigham that this kingdom would fall to pieces. They delude themselves with the same ideas that the wicked did before the death of Joseph. They think we are a severely oppressed people, and they would like to emancipate us from the thralldom we endure. Do they know anything about us? No. We are free, and we are living lives of happiness and contentment. We never were so happy in our lives before as we are today if we are faithful. Our wives never felt so free in their lives as they do today. What, not when their husbands had only one wife? No, not even then; and the assertion can be sustained that there are no women on the earth so thoroughly and completely free as the women among the Latter-day Saints. You who can doubt this can let your minds refer to the condition of society in other places. See the bondage in which women are placed, and the lives of sorrow they have to drag through, until, worn out, they drop into their graves—the grave being the only refuge from the troubles with which they are oppressed. That is not the case with us, we are a free people, although our enemies say we are oppressed.

We may imagine in our present state of knowledge, that when we reach the point to which I am endeavoring to direct the minds of the people, we shall not feel so well as we do today. I tell you we shall feel far better, for the greater the progress the more freedom we shall enjoy. Though every being in heaven obeys the behests of Jehovah implicitly, we will all admit that they are far happier than we are on the earth. We have to progress till we reach that state when all our labors will be under the dictation, guidance, and direction of those whom God has appointed to preside over us. And as we approximate to this condition, they will increase in wisdom and ability to direct, so that harmony will be maintained. As the people increase in obedience God will pour out wisdom on His servants commensurate with that obedience.

It has been said that we are very willing to go on missions when we are told, and in regard to our spiritual labors we are very willing to be directed. In these respects there is no people so easily managed and directed as we are. That obedience which characterizes us in spiritual things will have to be manifested in temporal things. Many of the people think “I know more about this matter than my bishop does,” when some temporal matter is agitated. That feeling is running through the minds of numbers of the people; and while this is the case your bishops will probably not be as wise as they might be; they have not your faith to sustain them. But when the time comes that you have implicit faith and confidence in God, and in those whom He appoints to preside over you, in things temporal as well as spiritual, your bishops will have all the wisdom needed to give you the counsel you require.

This time must come; and not only must it be the case with the brethren but it must be so with their families also, for, as I said, family government is the foundation of all government. Show me a community where children are brought up in holiness and purity, and trained in the fear and knowledge of God, and I can prophesy future greatness and prosperity for that people. If I see a family where the children are obedient to their parents, and listen to their voices as to the voice of an angel; and where wives are obedient to their husbands, meeting their wishes and seeking to gratify them in everything in the Lord, I know there is greatness before that family. So with this entire people. If our children be trained in the fear of God, if within their minds are instilled the principles of truth, righteousness, faith, and godliness, we may dismiss all fears respecting the future growth, development, and prosperity of our Father’s kingdom on the earth. When we see our children growing up in unbelief and hardness of heart, then have we cause to fear and tremble. Every one of you, my sisters, can do a great deal towards building up this kingdom. A great glory is bestowed on woman, for she is permitted to bring forth the souls of men. You have the opportunity of training children who shall bear the holy priesthood, and go forth and magnify it in the midst of the earth. It is a glorious mission which God has assigned to his daughters, and they should be correspondingly proud of it, and should realize its importance and seek to be missionaries in their own families, training up their children in the fear of God. It is an established fact, or at least it is so regarded in the world, that scarcely any great man ever had a poor weak-minded mother. If you read of the great men of antiquity, or of modern times, you will find that in almost every instance they have had great mothers, who have molded and fashioned the plastic minds of their sons according to their own notions of greatness, and sent them forth to battle with the circumstances of life, like gods almost. Great interests are in the hands of mothers. God has reposed in them great power; if they wield that power for good it will be productive of peace and happiness and exaltation to them. They will be blessed in seeing the greatness of their posterity. Their hearts will be gratified in having a posterity who will rise up and called them blessed.

It is something glorious to contemplate, but how few there are who realize the great blessings God has bestowed upon them. God has blessed us with these privileges so that we can lay, in our own households, the foundation for the future greatness of the kingdom of God, by instilling into the minds of our children those lessons and precepts of godliness which will make them mighty in days to come, and will prepare them when they reach manhood, to bear off the work of God and magnify the truth by being exemplars of the gospel of Jesus Christ among the nations of the earth.

God bless you, brethren and sisters; and may He enable us all to be faithful to the truth and to comprehend the greatness of the age in which we live, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 6, 1866.

It is very gratifying to me, as it must be to all the Saints, to hear the testimonies of the Elders who return from their missions accompanied by the Spirit of God. There is no position that I know of where a man is more likely to derive a knowledge—a fixed and reliable knowledge—for himself respecting the work of God, than to be called to go to the nations of the earth, without purse and scrip, to travel among the people to proclaim unto them the restoration of the everlasting Gospel in its fullness again to the earth. It is not that there is more power manifested abroad than there is in Zion; but the position in which the Elders are placed is of such a nature, that they are compelled, of necessity, to seek unto God to obtain all the power possible for them to receive through faithfulness and diligence. Men are compelled, if they have any desire whatever to magnify their calling, to live so near unto the Lord that his Spirit and power will be with them all the time; for without these blessings every man, who has had any experience whatever, well knows it is impossible for man to edify and build up the people.

The Lord, since the establishment of his Church upon the earth in these latter days, has performed a great many marvelous works. When our minds are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and we take a review of the Work from the beginning to the present, the only reflection that we can have is one of wonder, that in the midst of the many evidences of divinity which have been exhibited to the inhabitants of the earth since the foundation of this Work, men still justify themselves in the rejection of these principles and the denouncement of those who advocate them. It would be impossible, in the brief time allotted for our meeting, to enumerate all the evidences of the divinity of this Work, which are patent to the observer; but, look wherever we will, in contemplating this Work in the various changes through which it has passed from its first origin to the present, we see the hand of God manifested and his power exhibited, and these things have been no more shown forth in the past than they are being shown forth at the present. The present circumstances which surround us are of such a nature that every man, who can divest himself sufficiently of prejudice and view this Work calmly, must be convinced that there is a power greater than that of man connected with it.

This morning, Brother George A. Smith, in his narrative of the trials through which the Church passed in its early days, alluded to the great number of persons who have apos– tatized from this Church. There is a peculiar feature attending those who apostatize, of which the parallel cannot be found among any other people, except we go back to the primitive Christians—the immediate disciples of Jesus. Men may belong to any of the so-called Christian sects of the day, and they may renounce their belief or dissolve their connection with the religious bodies of which they are members, and we do not see that virulence, that spirit and disposition to seek for the blood of those with whom they were formerly connected, manifested on their part, which are manifested by those who have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have apostatized therefrom. In consequence of this, the inhabitants of the earth are frequently deceived. Many honest people may have been deceived through this manifestation of hatred, and animosity, and bloodthirstiness on the part of those who have been connected with us. They do not trace these manifestations to their proper cause, and they jump at the conclusion that the people who are so much hated and maligned, and whose injury is so diligently sought by those who were once connected with them, must of course be a very bad people, or there could not be such feelings manifested towards them. Men are misled on this point, because they are not acquainted with the causes which operate on the minds of those who reject the work of God.

The work of God, from its beginning on the earth until the present time, is something that has not a parallel, there being nothing like it that we can see elsewhere. There are traits of character and manifestations of disposition exhibited by the Latter-day Saints which are not to be found elsewhere among men. Under the operations of the Gospel upon the people who obey it, new motives and new manifestations are brought into existence. They may be called new, because they have not been witnessed among men for many generations past. And as there are new and peculiar features of character developed and exhibited by the Saints, so also there are traits manifested by those who oppose the Saints, which are diverse from any that the opponents of other systems exhibit. This is particularly the case with those who have been connected with us, and have apostatized, and thereby dissolved that connection.

We who are Latter-day Saints understand this; some, probably, understand it better than others; but still, there is a general understanding among the Saints of God respecting this work. We know that it is as strict a law of heaven as any other that has been given, that the man who enters into this Church, and practices impurity, will lose the Spirit of God, and, sooner or later, will be opposed to this Work. This is a truth that has been proclaimed almost daily in our hearing, from the time the Church was organized until now. There is no general truth that has been so frequently dwelt upon, and so powerfully enforced upon the minds of this people, as this truth to which I now allude. We who are connected with this Church, and retain our membership with this people, must be pure in our thoughts, in our words, and in our actions; we must take a course to retain the Spirit of God in our hearts; and if we do not take a course of this kind, the Spirit of God will inevitably leave us, and that light which has illumined our understandings, that joy and peace which have filled our souls and caused us to rejoice exceedingly before the Lord, will depart from us, and we shall be left in a worse condition than we were before we obeyed the Gospel.

If we turn to the history of the Apostles we find a striking instance of this in the case of Judas, one of the twelve Apostles—one of the chosen disciples of the Lamb—whom we may suppose was once possessed of the Spirit of truth; but he was a hypocrite; he broke the commandments of God; he did that which is evil. How did this disposition manifest itself? As soon as he chose to dissolve his connection with the people of God, did he go and bury himself among the rest of the Jews, and from that time say nothing more about the work of God he had been connected with? No; but the first promptings of his evil heart were to sell his Lord and Master—to be his betrayer, and the destroyer of the innocent—prostituting the knowledge which he had received to a base purpose, distorting and misrepresenting it in such a manner that it proved the means of condemning the man whom he had previously looked upon as his Lord. This is the spirit that will manifest itself, the spirit that the ancient Apostles had to contend with in the midst of those who were opposed to them, and who had formerly been connected with them—false brethren. Whenever a man loses the spirit of the Gospel, whenever the Spirit of God is supplanted by the spirit of the evil one, that man is a fit tool for the adversary to work with and to use to effect his accursed purposes in shedding the blood of innocence; because he gives way to the spirit of him who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning, and whose works have been evil from the creation until now. In our day the two spirits are manifested, only with more power, with more strength than have been witnessed on the earth since the days of the Apostles.

For generations there has been an indifference manifested by the ad– versary of truth to the systems of religion which have prevailed among men. When men partake of error, when they are not accompanied by the Spirit of God, when the power and authority which God imparts to fulfill his great purposes are not in existence among them, then there is an indifference manifested by the adversary; religious organizations and religious movements are regarded by him with unconcern, because the necessity does not exist, under those circumstances, for vigilant exertion on his part. But the moment the Holy Priesthood of God is restored, being the power and authority imparted by heaven to men, which gives them capacity to go forth and administer in the things of God, then all hell is moved, all who are under the influence of the adversary are at once in commotion, and they seek to destroy all those who have the temerity to stand up in the defense of the truth and righteousness in the power of the Holy Priesthood of the Son of God. This has been the case from the beginning until now, from the shedding of the blood of righteous Abel down to the time that the last Apostle was slain. There have been feelings manifested, dispositions exhibited in connection with this Work which have not been seen among men for a great length of time before. There have been a faith and devotion, a love and integrity manifested by the Saints of God, by those who have received the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that have not been seen for a long period of time. On the other hand, there have been intense feelings of bitterness, hatred, and strife, and murder, and everything that is evil, manifested in opposition thereunto. As I have said, these manifestations are traceable to the fact that God has attempted to do a work again among men at the present time, which is an uncommon thing to this generation.

If we converse with the votaries of modern Christianity about the persecutions which the Apostles and Prophets endured, and which all righteous men in every age have endured from the hands of the wicked, they say that those were ages of barbarism and darkness; civilization and enlightenment had not spread their benign influences over the inhabitants of the earth; the printing press was not in existence, and the benefits that flow therefrom were not known and enjoyed by man; they were, consequently, dark, uneducated, and ignorant, and therefore superstitious and cruel. To such ignorance and darkness do many modern Christians attribute the persecutions righteous men met with in former days. But in this day, they say, we live in the blaze of Gospel light; the Bible is published in almost every language, and extensive means have been taken to disseminate the truth, and the exhibition of those cruel feelings which were common in ancient times are not to be seen now. Thus they delude themselves with the idea that they are better than were the fathers, even as the Jews did in the days of Jesus when they exclaimed, “If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets;” and they built the tombs of the Prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous; but Jesus said unto them, “Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.” “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.”

To reason with many men upon this subject, and to have them reason in return, they would impress you with the idea that the antagonism which formerly existed between Satan and God has ceased, and that there is a sort of amnesty existing between them, and hence Satan does not have that power over the hearts of men that he had formerly. This is a very great delusion, and a very common one. It is a delusion which has been common to every generation when the Gospel has been preached among the inhabitants of the earth. Every generation has flattered itself that it is a little better than the one that preceded it. Every generation has prided itself in its knowledge and great advancement in the arts and sciences and its superiority over preceding generations; yet the power of the adversary and his hatred of righteousness and truth are as great today as they ever were since the creation of the earth. The moment a man undertakes to proclaim true principles—to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ and exhort the people to cry unto God in faith, he stirs up in the hearts of the people a feeling of opposition and strife which, if he be not acquainted with the cause, strikes him with wonder and astonishment. How often has it been the case that our Elders, in going forth to preach, have labored among people who were ignorant of the existence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and of their principles, or, if they have heard anything, it has been but little. This could not be done now; but there have been times in the past when it could be done. But when Elders could go to places where the people had heard but little or nothing about the Latter-day Saints, as soon as they commenced declaring to the people that God had spoken from the heavens, and exhorted the people to seek unto God, and He would answer their prayers as anciently, a spirit of opposition would be aroused. This has been so time and time again with our people, showing that it is not the evils of the Latter-day Saints, nor because they are polygamists, &c., that they are hated; for they met with opposition before anything was known of the doctrine. This feeling did not have its origin in any of these causes; but in the hatred which the adversary always has to the truth, and in the power which he exercises over the hearts of the children of disobedience, prompting them to go to any and every length to prevent the accomplishment of that which God our Heavenly Father seeks to bring to pass among the people.

It is the most foolish thing that people ever attempted to tell us that if we were to do so and so, take such and such a course, that we should not be persecuted. Men who make such assertions do not know this Work; they cannot comprehend it; they know nothing about the characteristics of this people, nor the work which they are connected with; if they did, they would know that the world would love its own, and that it would hate everything that is not of the world, and that comes in contact with religious popularity in the world, and that everything of this kind is hated by the world and by him who is the master of the world.

My brethren and sisters, we are engaged in the greatest of all warfares. No sooner did Joseph Smith receive the Holy Priesthood from heaven, and the power and authority to administer the ordinances of life and salvation, than this warfare commenced; and it has gone on widening and increasing until it has assumed its present dimensions; and it will go on increasing until it will fill the whole earth—until the warfare that has been inaugurated will occupy the thoughts and minds of all the inhabitants of the earth, and until one of these powers will prevail in the earth. It was said on one occasion by a leading statesman of our nation, “that the conflict between freedom and slavery was irrepressible.” It may be truthfully said respecting the warfare in which we are engaged that it is irrepressible, and it will not terminate until one power or the other succumbs to the other. Which power shall succumb? There will be no cessation to this strife and contest. One or the other has to ride triumphant and hold dominion over this earth. Truth must prevail, or error must hold sway.

God has spoken on this point in unmistakable terms, that it is his intention to establish his kingdom and carry on his work, which the Prophets in vision had seen from the commencement of the earth until now; that it is his intention to roll forth his kingdom until it shall fill the whole earth—until the laws of the kingdom of God shall be universally respected and obeyed by all the inhabitants of the earth; until he whose right it is to reign shall sway his scepter over an obedient earth, or over a population who will be obedient to him.

On the other hand, a declaration has been made, not by the adversary directly, but by his emissaries, and those who are under the influence of his spirit, that the work of God must stand still—that it must go backward and be overwhelmed.

The contest is not with cannon or with rifles and swords, and weapons of this description; but it is, nevertheless, a warfare—a warfare between the spirit of darkness and that of light—between he who attempts to usurp the dominion of this earth and the God of heaven. The war which was waged in heaven has been transferred to the earth, and it is now being waged by the hosts of error and darkness against God and truth; and the conflict will not cease until sin is vanquished and this earth is fully redeemed from the power of the adversary, and from the misrule and oppression which have so long exercised power over the earth. Do you wonder, then, that there is hatred and bitterness manifested; that the servants of God have had to watch continually to guard against the attacks of the enemy; that the blood of Joseph and Hyrum, David Patten, and others has been shed, and that the Saints, whose only crime was desiring to serve God in truth, virtue, uprightness, and sincerity, have been persecuted and afflicted all the day long? I do not wonder at it; there is no room for wonder in the minds of those who understand the work in which we are engaged.

This power, which is waging a warfare against us, would shed the blood of every man and woman who profess to be Latter-day Saints and who try with all their might to live their religion and honor the Holy Priesthood. There is no excess of cruelty at which they who are influenced by it would stop, no length to which they would not go to accomplish their damnable and hellish purposes. Why? Because the devil was a murderer from the beginning—he has murdered from the beginning; he prompted the first murder, and he prompted the last one. It was he who prompted men at all times to shed the blood of innocence, and seek by so doing to stop the work of God. He induced Judas to betray and shed the blood of Jesus Christ—to shed the most precious blood that ever flowed in human veins. He it was who stirred men up to commit these murders, impressing them with the false idea that some great advantage would result from such crimes, and that they would be able to check the progress of the kingdom of God and arrest the purposes of Jehovah. And it is the same power which is at work today and that suggested to men to shed the blood of Joseph, and instilled into their minds the thought that if they could kill him they could thereby interrupt the work of God. But, as we see, instead of accomplishing what they expected, they have only forwarded the purposes of God our heavenly Father.

In suggesting to men to shed the blood of Jesus Christ, and the blood of innocence in every dispensation and age when God has had a people on the earth, the devil has shown great ignorance and blindness, and God has, through his superior wisdom and power, overruled all these acts for his own glory, and for the accomplishment of his own purposes and the salvation of man upon the earth. We shall have his hatred to meet, and no man need suppose for a moment that Latter-day Saints can avoid it, for in so doing he deceives himself. As long as there is any power on the earth that can be wielded by Satan we shall have to encounter these things and contend with them; and any man not connected with us who imagines that this continued and unceasing warfare is going to discourage us, or cause our determination to roll forth the kingdom of God to slacken in the least, deceives himself. He knows not the men who are engaged in this work, and the power which God has bestowed, and the light and intelligence he has imparted to us respecting this conflict in which we are engaged. God has reserved spirits for this dispensation who have the courage and determination to face the world, and all the powers of the evil one, visible and invisible, to proclaim the Gospel, and maintain the truth, and establish and build up the Zion of our God, fearless of all consequences. He has sent these spirits in this generation to lay the foundation of Zion never more to be overthrown, and to raise up a seed that will be righteous, and that will honor God, and honor him supremely, and be obedient to him under all circumstances.

The experience that we have gained in this respect in the past is only a foretaste of that which is in the future. Those who started in this Work with an understanding of its nature, made their calculations that, if it were necessary to lay down their lives and sacrifice everything that is near and dear to them, they, with the Lord’s help, would do so to break the yoke of Satan and free mankind from the thralldom of sin that has so long oppressed them. There is no doubt that many have had their lives shortened through the cruelty of their enemies; many have been spoiled of their goods and have been called upon to make sacrifices, if we may term them such, but in our view they are not sacrifices, yet we cannot express the idea better than by using this word. The difficulties which we have encountered in the past in this respect we shall doubtless meet in the future, with this difference, that the kingdom of God is gaining power and strength; the people are gaining faith and experience, which enable them to endure far more than in former days.

This morning, Brother George A. Smith alluded to circumstances in the early history of this people which caused those who called themselves Saints to apostatize. While he was speaking I contrasted the difference in my mind between the Saints today and then. There is a very great difference. Many apostatized then from trivial and foolish causes; they were so ignorant of the nature of the work of God. Now it is somewhat better understood, and apostasy is not near so common as then; people begin to understand the mind of the Lord. The adversary has less power and influence over the Latter-day Saints than he had in that early day. The kingdom of God is becoming more consolidated, and it wields greater influence every day; and it will be so from this time forward until the Priesthood shall prevail.

The hatred of the adversary will not be lessened by the lapse of time; in fact, I sometimes think that he will make more desperate exertions; he will arouse all the inhabitants of the earth by his influence, and by slanders, and lies, and storms of vituperation, and, by his mists of darkness, endeavor to becloud the understandings of mankind, so that they will be deceived respecting this Work. We have these agencies at work here.

I heard a gentleman remark lately, who himself had just arrived in the city, that he supposed from the reports that were circulated about affairs at this city that all the people here were in a blaze of excitement, that men dare not go out of their houses, and that a certain class were in danger of their lives. Now, we who live here know how false these reports are; yet, it shows the nature of the agencies which are at work, and the means wicked men use to becloud the understanding and to stir up the anger of the powers that be—the Government and its agents—to take steps to crush, if possible, this people. Doubtless, we shall have this to contend with from this time forward to an increased extent, as the kingdom advances and occupies a larger share of public attention and a more conspicuous position among the nations. But, with the increase of this disposition among the wicked, there will be an increase of strength, and power, and faith, and experience on the part of the Latter-day Saints.

I often think about our circumstances today, and those which we have been surrounded with for some time. Who, do you think, on all the face of the earth could enjoy themselves so calmly as we do with the influences operating against them that we have working against us? We know that men have gone from here with the avowed purpose and determination to do all in their power to stir up the power of the nation against us, and endeavor to get a military force sent here to enforce their obnoxious views. They have boasted of this, and have in anticipation rejoiced over the fulfillment of their accursed hate. Have these things disturbed us as a people? No. I do not know a person in this entire community who has lost five minutes’ sleep through concern and agitation on these points. We have gone to bed as calmly as though all mankind were at peace with us, and we had not an enemy in the world who sought our injury. What is the cause of this calmness? It originated in the experience we have gained. God has promised that we shall be delivered. We believe his promise. He has delivered us in the past, and he will in the future. It is His work, and it is for us to do our duty and leave events with Him.

Our enemies are only fulfilling their mission, as we are fulfilling ours. They are accomplishing the works they have undertaken, and we are performing those for which we have enlisted, namely, the works of God. They are foolish for taking that path which leads to their destruction, when they might take the opposite course. I have all these thoughts respecting them; but then God gives them their agency, and it is not my place to quarrel with them about the way in which they exercise that agency. If they choose to be the tools of wicked and designing men, and of him who is the father of lies, they will get their reward according to their works. If we are faithful, if we are humble, live our religion, and cultivate the Spirit of God and cherish it continually, we will get our reward, and in proportion to our diligence. That is a consola– tion that we have; therefore, we have no cause to be disturbed at the wicked. Let them fill their destiny and perform their part in the great drama of the last days. It is necessary, probably, in the wisdom of God that every man and woman on the face of the earth should have the free and unrestrained exercise of their agency to do good or evil.

In speaking about apostasy, it is a remarkable feature connected with it and with those who favor apostates and consort with them, that they are filled with the spirit of fear. It can be truthfully said of the Latter-day Saints, that they are a fearless people. Even our enemies give us credit for this—that in the midst of dangers and difficulties we are undisturbed and not easily appalled. But there is this peculiarity connected with apostasy and apostates, and with those who consort with and favor them: they are continually in dread of some impending danger—some evil that is about to be perpetrated upon them by the Latter-day Saints. Go where you will among apostates, you will see this feature in their character, but especially in Zion. Hence, so many stories about destroying angels, Danites, &c., &c., being among the Saints. The moment a man loses the Spirit of God and the spirit of the adversary takes possession of him, he is filled with fear; for “the sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites.” They say their lives are in danger. All the terrible stories that are circulated in the east and the west about the people of Utah have their origin in the fears of the wicked, in the fears of these who have a consciousness within themselves of having committed wrong. No honest man or woman need fear; indeed they never fear. What are they afraid of? They have done nothing to cause the spirit of fear to come upon them. It is only when a man does that which is wrong that he receives the spirit of fear.

This peculiarity has been manifest from the beginning of this Church up to the present time. As was stated here a few Sundays ago, it was exhibited by William Law in Nauvoo. He thought that somebody had designs against his life. His fear had its origin in the spirit of apostasy and adultery with which he was filled. Whenever a man indulges in the spirit of apostasy, he begins to be filled with fear. Those who have the Spirit of God and love their religion have nothing to fear; they can meet their brethren and sisters, the angels of God, and even the Lord himself, without having that dastard fear with them. In the knowledge of their weakness, and their ignorance, and doing many things unintentionally, they feel sorry; but still they are sustained with a consciousness of doing no intentional wrong.

The spirit of evil takes possession of the wicked—the same spirit that is possessed by the damned; that spirit seizes upon them while they are in the flesh.

The Latter-day Saints who live their religion partake of the joys of heaven; the spirit of it shines in their countenances; it is in their habitations; it is around about them, and all who come in contact with them feel its influence resting upon them. This will increase more and more.

May God help us to cultivate it, and may we approximate nearer to our Father and God, and be able to fight the good fight of faith, not laying off our armor, and bravely resist the adversary, and carry forward this great Work until it shall prevail throughout the length and breadth of the earth, and the sound shall go forth that the earth is redeemed and the purposes of God are consummated, which may God grant. Amen.

Remarks made by Elder George Q. Cannon, in the Bowery, General Conference, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 8, 1865.

I appreciate very highly the privilege that I have this morning, and that I have had during this Conference, in meeting with the Saints; it is the first Fall Conference I have had the opportunity of attending for sixteen years. These are, indeed, precious privileges which God, our Heavenly Father, has given unto us; these opportunities which we now have of assembling ourselves together and dismissing the cares that press us from week to week and month to month, casting them aside to concentrate our minds and our thoughts upon the things of His kingdom, devoting our attention to those heavenly principles which have produced so much happiness and peace in our midst. It is good for us to thus devote a portion of our time to the worship of our God. I do not know how the Conference felt; but, for myself, after the vote was taken yesterday to continue our Conference a week or a month if it were necessary, or as long as the servants of God should feel inclined to continue it, I experienced a great relief in my feelings; I felt that that restraint was removed which had, to a certain extent, oppressed us, with the view of hurrying through the business and getting done by this evening. I thought that it was right, and I felt a spirit of freedom that I had not experienced before, and I presume that all the Saints felt alike on this subject. There is nothing more important for us to attend to than that which we are engaged in today. We cannot think of anything that is of greater importance to us, as individuals and as a people, than this service. It is a delightful work—a labor of love that our Heavenly Father has guaranteed unto us the privilege of performing. The organization that we now behold, the wonderful fruits and results which have attended us from the beginning, and that are so delightful to contemplate today, have all sprung from the service that we are now engaged in. We may devote time, as it is necessary we should, to the labors of this life—to plowing, to sowing, to harvesting, to building settlements, to accomplishing the labors that devolve upon us of a temporal character; these labors are important and necessary, but they are no more necessary than those that we are now engaged in; they are no more necessary than that we should assemble ourselves together frequently to listen to the word of God, to be instructed in the principles of life and salvation by those who have been our fathers in the Gospel.

It is necessary that we should examine ourselves, bring ourselves to the light of truth, to learn whether we are taking the right course: like the mariner, when he returns to port, he compares his ship chronometers with the correct time on shore, to see whether they have been keeping true time and are in good condition to enter upon another voyage, to enable him to obtain his bearings correctly, that he may not lose himself when he is on the trackless ocean. We can come to Conference in this manner and examine ourselves like men returning from a mission after an absence of years among the nations. They come back desirous of comparing themselves with their brethren in Zion, saying, like Paul of old, that they have indeed not run in vain; ascertaining for themselves that the Spirit that they have been possessed of, and the course that they have taken, are the Spirit and course that their brethren in Zion have been possessed of and taken. There is a great deal of profit to be derived from associations of this character. It is necessary that we should be brought very frequently to a sense of our condition, of our dependence upon God, of our relationship to him, of the obligations that rest upon us as his children, and servants, and handmaidens. We cannot do this as we should when we neglect opportunities like this; but, when we come together and our hearts are filled with prayers and anxious desire before God for his Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us, we then can see if we have erred, if we have gone astray, if we have done anything wrong and displeasing in the sight of our Father. These things are brought to our minds, and we see ourselves in the light of the Holy Spirit, we renew our strength before the Lord, and our determinations to go forth and serve him with greater diligence and faithfulness in the future than we have done in the past.

There is a mine of wealth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is yet comparatively undiscovered by us. We see the world around us digging here and there, and wandering over valleys and mountains in search of hidden treasures; they spend their days and nights in searching for those things and in planning by what means they can obtain them; but we have, in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which has been revealed unto us, an inexhaustible mine of wealth that is eternal. There is room for us to continually exercise every faculty of our minds and of our bodies in searching out the deep and inexhaustible riches of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which has been committed unto us. We have already partaken to some extent of this wealth; we already have realized to some extent its richness, its abundance; and what we have already obtained of it should be an incentive to us to be still more diligent and persevering in seeking with earnestness and faith unto God to give unto us of his power, and more and more of his Spirit, and of that wealth which He alone possesses, that we may go on increasing in eternal riches on earth to be prepared to enjoy them throughout eternity. That man is truly rich, whatever his worldly circumstances may be, who improves the opportunities he has, and who seeks with all diligence to obtain all the blessings that pertain unto the holy religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are those, however, whom I have met with, who profess to be good Latter-day Saints, who seem to be satisfied with the profession of their religion, who seem to be satisfied with the fact that what is called “Mormonism” is superior to everything else that is taught among men. I presume they are of that class of whom President Young has spoken—men who have been compelled to bow in submission to the truth, because they could not contradict nor gainsay it; and that they have become connected with this system has seemed to be enough for them; but is it enough?

In one sense it ought to be enough for us to know that we have received the truth and be satisfied with it, yet we should continue to seek with energy and with faith to partake of those blessings and of that power which our Father and God has to bestow upon us. If we would seek to be possessed of these things with the same diligence the world seeks for earthly riches, there is not a soul within the sound of my voice but what will be refreshed, filled, and satisfied with the blessings God will bestow upon him or upon her. It is a characteristic of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to not be easily exhausted; on the contrary, it is always attractive. You hear it today, as you heard it thirty years or thirty-five years ago, and it possesses as many charms and as many attractions now as then; repeating it does not wear it out—does not make the subject threadbare—does not deprive it of its interest; but, on the contrary, its interest increases as years roll over our heads; as they pass by our interest in the work of God, and our love for it, and our appreciation of its greatness, increase. In this respect it differs from everything else we know of; it satisfies every want of man’s nature. Is there a want you can think of, is there anything, in fact, connected with man’s existence here, spiritual or temporal, mental or physical, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not satisfy? If there is, I have failed to discover it. It comprehends everything; it gives light and it gives intelligence, it gives wisdom upon every department of human life, it satisfies every longing desire of the soul.

Before the Gospel reached you, my brethren and sisters who have received it since you were of mature years, there were wants that existed which now no longer exist; there were long– ing desires which you indulged in, and which were ungratified by that which you could obtain from the world, that are today gratified to their fullest extent; there is no desire of your heart, there is no feeling of your soul, that cannot be satisfied legitimately and consistently with your nature in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how you were, those of you who embraced the Gospel in Babylon—you know how you were when the Gospel found you; there was, to quote a familiar expression, an aching void within you. There were desires of your soul, or of your spirit, which could not be gratified by the chaff and husks fed unto you by the so-called teachers of the day; there were aspirations for knowledge, for truth, and for God, that nothing could satisfy; you sought in vain for their gratification; you searched on the right hand and on the left, you inquired here and there, but you could not get the knowledge you needed; there was no one who could give you the satisfaction you yearned after; but no sooner did you hear the truth, no sooner did you hear the sound of the everlasting Gospel, and the voice of a man endowed with the Priesthood, than you felt that you had found the pearl of great price, you felt that the desire of your heart was about to be gratified, and that if this religion proved true, if these statements and testimonies could be relied upon, then that which you had so long sought for and desired was within your grasp.

Men may strive to repress these yearnings and desires after knowledge, as priests and teachers do today throughout the earth; they may ridicule and deny their existence, but there is that within us, as children of God, which speaks louder and has more force, potency, and effect than the traditions of our fathers or the teachings of our former priests and teachers ever had; there is the voice of nature, there is the voice of heaven in our hearts, which calls for revelation from God, which calls for knowledge, which calls for certainty, which calls for something that is tangible and that can be relied upon, and which man with his man-made systems and with his fooleries, cannot gratify nor supply by any means in his power. We hear men constantly talk about the delusion that exists here, and about the folly of men seeking for revelation and knowledge from God. The man must be an idiot who talks so; he who makes such assertions does not understand the human character. If he had studied himself he would have seen that there was something within himself which claimed more than that which man can give—that there was a voice within him which demanded and called loudly for truth—tangible, reliable truth—something that could be understood and that came from God. If this were not so, why do we see so many men running hither and thither after knowledge, after spirit rappers, astrologers, fortune tellers, and phrenologists, to tell them their fortunes and reveal something relating to the future; they will do anything that will give them any idea of their future. These may be the perversions of the feeling, yet you see the manifestations of this want cropping out in various forms all over the earth, among every people, and even among the heathen. When it is not governed by truthful principles, it is found running astray, and leading men and women astray who are guided by it.

Wherever human nature exists, there is found a desire for the knowledge of truth, a want of that which pertains to God and to eternity, and this want or desire cannot be repressed. There is no power on earth that can repress it; men’s traditions may stifle it; but when the spirit is allowed to operate freely and unrestrained, it breaks through all these barriers, and brushes aside these cobwebs to seek for truth—pure truth as it comes from the Eternal; and when it once obtains a taste from the fountain of truth, and can drink freely, it is refreshed, and the one great desire of the heart is satisfied. This is as it has been with us, my brethren and sisters; hence the contentment that prevails through our valleys and settlements; hence the peace that is to be observed in our families. Peace broods over Zion; there is life and buoyancy in the hearts of the children of Zion. Why is this? It is because we have received that which we have desired; because we are living in harmony with the laws of our being; it is because the wants of our nature are being gratified through the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If there be any among us who are not satisfied, if there be any among us who are wandering hither and thither, looking for something that they do not have, they are the ones who have committed sin and transgression; they are the ones who have grieved the Spirit of God; they are the ones who have forfeited their claims upon God for his Spirit and his love, and they go with their souls unsatisfied, seeking for contentment but finding it not. If there be any among us who are thus seeking, they form a class that is distinct from the faithful, humble Saints of God who live their religion and work righteousness.

It should be a cause of thanksgiving and gratitude with us that God, our Heavenly Father, in the abundance of his goodness and mercy has revealed unto us his everlasting Gospel; that in his kindness he has sent his Holy Angels from the heavens, with the truth, and the power, and authority to administer the truth, and the ordinances per– taining to the truth, unto the inhabitants of the earth. Yes, God in his mercy has visited our planet, where darkness reigned, where confusion and ignorance had spread their dread consequences, and all were like the blind groping for the wall, when the voice of God sounded from the heavens and broke the long silence that had existed for so many generations. Brother Brigham has said that, in his young days, when he looked at the inhabitants of the earth he was reminded of an ant hill in a state of excitement, with the ants running hither and thither without aim or purpose. Now, this was the condition of ourselves and fathers when the sound of the everlasting Gospel came to the earth. The inhabitants of the earth were running hither and thither, and there was no one to guide them, no one to control them, no voice to be heard among the children of men saying with authority, “Here is the way, walk ye in it;” there was none to say, “Thus saith the Lord;” not a voice inspired of God, to be heard from pole to pole, from east to west; but all were ignorant, all were confused, all were dark. But since the Gospel has been restored, since it was received by Brother Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and preached to the people, and they listened to the testimony of God, what a charge has taken place in the character of some portion of the population of the globe since that time.

There are principles and qualities that have been and are being developed for the last thirty-five years, that were supposed to have no existence among men; it was supposed that they had disappeared, that they never would be restored again. The key of knowledge through which the Apostles wrought such wonders in the days in which they lived was no longer to be found among men; but as soon as the Holy Priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith—for he received the power and authority from heaven, and through him the principles of heaven were restored to the earth—then what a change we behold! From the midst of the chaos that existed, order has been produced; from the midst of the strife that everywhere prevailed, union has been brought to light; from the midst of confusion and war, peace has been established; and we see qualities developed now in the midst of our fellow men which we supposed never could have existed again. What is this attributable to? Says one, “It is attributable to imposture and delusion.” So they said in the days of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; but, let them say as they please, we enjoy these fruits; for, whereas we lived in strife, we now live in peace; whereas we lived in confusion, we now live in the midst of good order; whereas we lived in ignorance, we now live in the midst of knowledge, we bask now in the light of eternity, in the rays of that light which surrounds the throne of God our Heavenly Father, and our souls are satisfied, and we can rejoice and be glad, and thank God from morning until night for having bestowed upon us his everlasting truth. Why should it not be so?

We are taught to believe that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every soul that believes. Salvation from what? “Oh,” says one, “salvation to our souls.” It is the power of God unto salvation—the salvation not only of our spirits, but of our bodies. In ancient days it saved the Jews, the Greeks, and the Barbarians from error, from evil of various kinds, and it will in like manner save us. In heaven, we believe, it produces order, peace, and happiness; and we expect, when we leave here, to go to a sphere where, under the influence of the Gospel, every good quality of our nature will be developed. Why should we not receive, by the application of those heavenly principles to us and our lives here on the earth, the same results? They have produced them in days gone by, they are producing them now, and will continue to produce them as long as we live in accordance with them.

Now, my brethren and sisters, there is nothing left for us to do but to be faithful to that which has been revealed unto us. The evidences which we have received are of that character that we will be under the heaviest condemnation unless we live agreeably to the principles God has given unto us. We cannot plead, as many can, that we are ignorant; we cannot make excuses of this kind, for we are not ignorant; we are in the enjoyment of knowledge. We never went to prayer in our lives, in secret, and supplicated God in faith for the blessings that we needed, that we did not receive the desires of our hearts, and we arose from our knees feeling that God was with us, and that his Spirit and power were near unto us, and resting upon us. There never was a time, from the day that we became Latter-day Saints to this day, that we have asked in humility and meekness for any blessing and have had to arise from our knees dissatisfied and empty; but we have always received those blessings that have been necessary for us when we have asked in faith. What a blessed and glorious privilege is this! When we are in trouble, in the midst of affliction, and harassed by our enemies, we can go unto Him, who is the Author of our being, unto Him who created all things, who has the power to control our enemies, and pour out our souls in prayer and in supplication, and feel that the record has been made, that the incense of our hearts has ascended acceptably unto God, and is treasured up there, and held in remembrance by his Holy Angels in his presence. What a glorious privilege is this that we have, as a people and as individuals, no matter how bowed down in sorrow, no matter how deep the affliction that may be around us, this is an unfailing source of strength that God has given unto us, and to this may be attributed the wonderful preservations that we have experienced from the beginning.

How diligently our enemies have sought to destroy us, to destroy the Holy Priesthood from the earth and kill the Lord’s anointed! How often has it seemed that they were just upon the point of closing upon us, when it seemed that no earthly power that could be exerted could save us from destruction! To whom shall we attribute these wonderful deliverances which we have experienced? Shall we attribute them to mortal power? Oh, no; we have learned too well how weak and futile is mortal power. But what is it attributable to? To the faith that God has implanted in us through the revelation of the truth unto us. It is attributable to his having rent the veil of darkness that has covered the earth and revealed himself unto us. It is attributable to His having opened up the channel of communication between Himself and us. Yes, there is a channel of communication between this people, the men and women who compose this people, and the throne of our Father and God; and our prayers have ascended acceptably in His ears, and they have been registered on high, and they will be answered in their time. There never has been a prayer offered up in faith, meekness, and humility, from the day this Church was founded until now, but has reached the ears of the Lord, and is registered in His presence, and will be fulfilled, sooner or later, upon the earth we inhabit, upon our posterity, and upon the wicked who have afflicted us. Is not this a glorious consolation? Do not your hearts swell with gratitude and thanksgiving to God when you reflect upon this? It has been as a wall of strength surrounding us; it has been greater than the munitions of rocks and the lasting hills that have been reared like a mighty bulwark around our homes. The prayers of the faithful servants of God, which have been exercised from the beginning in behalf of Zion, have been a tower of strength. Shall we call ourselves Latter-day Saints, and fail to appreciate and make a right use of the privileges and blessings which our God has given unto us? If we do, we are unworthy of them; and if we continue to do so, the privileges and the blessings which we may enjoy will be withdrawn from those who do so and given to those who appreciate them, and who are more worthy of them. You may depend upon that, as surely as you may depend that night will come in the course of a few hours when the earth has performed its diurnal revolution.

If I were to ask you today, my brethren and sisters, what you would take for your standing and your privileges as Latter-day Saints, is there anything that you could name? Is there anything on earth that would be sufficient in your estimation to induce you to barter off the standing you have in the Church of God and the privileges you enjoy as members of his Church? There is nothing. You would say, if the wealth of the world were to be laid at your feet in exchange, you would spurn it as a thing of naught. But Satan does not tempt us in that style; he knows better. He understands our nature more perfectly than this. The experience he has gained in the past has enabled him to understand the best way of approaching the human heart, how he can best beguile us and insidiously lead us astray by temptations that are most effective. If a man who was in the enjoyment of the Spirit of God one year ago had been told that yesterday, on the 7th of October, a trifling temptation would be presented to him of a certain character (and that at the time he would think contemptible) and he would yield to it, he would be astonished; he would scarcely believe it. “What! Will I barter the wealth that God has given me, the wealth of the Gospel, the wealth of freedom which is contained in it? What! Will I barter the joy, peace, and happiness that I now have for so contemptible a temptation as that? Will I do it? No; I will not.” Yet the year passes away and the 7th of October comes to hand, the temptation is presented, and the man who thought himself so impregnable in the truth, and thought that he could not be tempted and seduced from it, falls a victim, and to what? To the wealth of the world? No; but to something that is so truly contemptible, mean, and low, that it is a matter of astonishment to everybody who knows him how he could be overcome by it.

By this we see the power of Satan, the knowledge of Satan, and his cunning. He understands the avenues through which he approach us best; he knows the weaknesses of our character, and we do not know the moment we may be seduced by him, and be overcome and fall victims to him. Our only preservation is in living near to God, day by day, and serving him in faithfulness, and having the light of revelation and truth in our hearts continually, so that, when Satan approaches, we will see him and understand the snare that he has laid for us, and we will have the power to say, “O no; God being my helper, I will not yield to it; I will not do that which is wrong; I will not grieve the Spirit of God; I will not deviate from the path that my Father has marked out for me; but I will walk in it.” Can we do this without the light of the Spirit? No; we cannot see where the path upon which we have entered will lead to; we cannot tell what the results will be; but when the light of the Spirit of God illuminates our minds and we are enlightened by it, we plainly see the results; and if we do not see them at the time, the Lord soon reveals them to us, and shows us that if we continue to take that course we will grieve his Spirit and fall victims to the adversary.

As I said in the beginning of my remarks, there is wealth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ of which we have little knowledge today. There is an eternity of truth and knowledge, principle after principle, law after law, until every quality of our nature, of that Godlike nature which we have inherited from our Father and God, shall be fully developed; until we shall be made capable of associating with God and angels through eternity. The Gospel that has been revealed unto us contains the principles that will bring this about. As we progress in it we will receive additional knowledge, additional light and intelligence, and our souls will be more and more satisfied. I rejoice exceedingly in this, I thank my God for it, because my soul is satisfied in this Gospel, and I know it would not have been anywhere else. I know there is every good thing for us if we will live the religion of the Lord Jesus.

There is this difference between God and Satan in the treatment of mankind. Satan is perfectly reckless as to what the consequences may be of anything he may give to the children of men. He will heap temptation upon temptation before them, give them honor, riches, and position, and, if necessary, he will give them revelation. What for? To damn them. He does not care anything as to what may become of them; but he offers them all he can control without judgment or discrimination. God does not do so. What is the course God has taken with us from the beginning to the present time? Is there a parent in the congregation who has watched as carefully over his children as God has over us? Is there a parent in the congregation who has withheld improper blessings as carefully from them as God has from us? He has watched over us tenderly and kindly, giving us a blessing here and a blessing there, a revelation here and a revelation there, a precept here and a precept there, as we could bear them, developing our experience, and knowledge, and our wisdom, leading us gently and safely in the path that will bring us into his presence. This is the difference between God and Satan; but I can only give you a little idea of it. Our Heavenly Father is a loving and a kind and beneficent Parent. He, himself, has trod the path we are now treading. He is familiar with every step of the road, with all the meanderings of this life; for he has had the experience in it. He knows how to guide us and how to time his blessings to our wants; and when you feel impatient and dissatisfied because he does not give you more than you now have, and when you are afflicted and bowed down in sorrow and pain, let the reflection enter into your hearts to comfort you, that our Father and God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, trod the path we are now treading, that there is no affliction and sorrow that we are acquainted with, or can be, that the Lord has not already had an experience in; and he knows our condition, he knows what is good for us. If we need a gift and a blessing, he knows when to bestow it upon us. This ought to comfort us; it ought to cause us to rejoice and be glad, and our hearts to be filled with thanksgiving continually before the Lord our God for his abundant mercy and kindness unto us his children.

Can we think of anything that would be good for us, or that we ought to possess, that Satan can offer unto us, that we will not obtain if we are faithful? Will he present unto us a good outfit by going to California or to any other place? If we are only patient, and abide our time, and serve God faithfully, he will bestow on us far more than that. There is no good thing that may be presented to us that we cannot obtain in the Gospel. We may let our minds range over the earth and think of the greatness and glory possessed by kings and potentates, these things are all embraced in the Gospel as a reward for the Saints, who will enjoy even greater blessings than these through their faithfulness. We talk about kings and nobles, and we have admired their glory; but the day is not far distant when there will be thousands of men in Zion holding more power, and having more glory, honor, and wealth than the greatest and the richest of the nobles of the earth. The earth and its fulness are promised unto us by the Lord our God, as soon as we have the wisdom and experience necessary to wield this power and wealth. Shall we not be patient, then, and diligent when we have so much assistance given unto us? Shall we not plod unwearingly and unmurmuringly forward in the path God has marked out for us, when we have the help, the comfort, and the consolation which he gives us day by day?

We are not working for that which is in the distance, and toiling for the reward that is far removed, and that we have to look forward to; but we are receiving our reward as we go along, even the rich blessings of heaven, day by day and hour by hour, and we rejoice in them; and if we are houseless and friendless—that is, so far as the world is concerned—we have within us a wealth of comfort and joy that the world know nothing of; they cannot give it, they cannot take it away, for it comes from God. Why should we not be encouraged, then, under these circumstances? If the Latter-day Saints conduct themselves so as to receive condemnation, their condemnation will be most severe, for they have light, they have knowledge, they have blessings the superior of which no other people that we have any account of ever received in the same length of time on the earth. Well, I rejoice in these things. I do not wish to occupy your time any longer. My prayer is, that God will bless you and us all, and enable us to appreciate the great salvation he has committed unto us, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 19, 1865.

A number of excellent remarks have been made today in our hearing by the brethren who have spoken, to the truth of which, the Spirit of God accompanying them has borne record in our hearts. The Elders testify to the truth of the principles that we have embraced, and to speak upon them is as delightful a treat as we can have. There is nothing more delightful to the human mind, properly constituted, than to listen to the words of life and salvation spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; they are sweeter than the sweetest honey, and more satisfying than the best and most nutritious food; because they fill our spirits with joy and gladness, and we feel benefited, and refreshed, and strengthened by them, and then we occupy a closer relationship to our Father and God than before hearing his word. These are my feelings today, and they always have been whenever I have attended a meeting where the Spirit of God has prevailed.

A remark was made today which called up some reflections in my mind respecting us as a people. The speaker said that we were called illiterate and uneducated, and that we were despised because of our ignorance—because of the class of society from which the mass of us have been gathered. This, doubtless, is the feeling that is entertained in many parts respecting the Latter-day Saints. The remark brought into my mind a number of reflections respecting the position that Jesus occupied, that Jesus who is at the present time acknowledged, by all Christians at least, to be the greatest Being that ever trod the footstool of the Almighty. I thought of his lowly position, humble and obscure birth, and the surroundings he was brought up under; how he must have been despised by those who knew him when they heard the declarations which he made respecting his relationship to God our Father in heaven, and when they saw the men who had been appointed by him to proclaim the Gospel of salvation to the people, and also those associated with him. But now, as I have already stated, there is no doubt in the minds of those who profess to be Christians, that this same Jesus is the Son of God, the Creator of the world; that by him and through him all things were and are created, and that unto him we owe the salvation we have all received, and which we will eventually receive when we attain to the fulness of the glory promised unto us. It is not always they who are called from the humblest classes who are the most illiterate in the true sense of the word; at least, it is not the case with us as a people, nor with any people who have ever been called to the knowledge of the Gospel, or upon whom he has bestowed the power to administer the laws of salvation.

I reflect with great pleasure upon the prospects before us, and upon the past history of our people, and the wisdom God has given unto his servants, and to this people, to establish his truth, and to proclaim it unto the inhabitants of the earth, to accomplish his purposes in building up the kingdom he has so long promised he would establish in the latter times no more to be thrown down. When we see how God made choice of his servant Joseph, and brought him from obscurity and from the midst of ignorance, and bestowed upon him the wisdom of eternity, how he trained him in that knowledge which is necessary, both temporal and spiritual, to enable him to organize this great people—I call us a great people, not because of our numbers, but because of our prospects, our power, and our organization—He gave him wisdom necessary to organize His kingdom upon permanent principles, that it might grow like a seed planted in good ground—small in the beginning, but germinating and growing until it becomes a great and mighty tree. It was by means of the wisdom God gave unto Joseph Smith that he was enabled to organize the kingdom of God upon the earth out of the contending, conflicting elements in Babylon, upon principles that will cause it to increase until it shall spread over the whole earth. He not only gave this wisdom to his prophet Joseph, but he has also given it to his prophet Brigham, whom he has endowed with power and wisdom to take hold of His work where Joseph left it when he passed beyond the veil, and carrying it forward until, in the eyes of all observing and thinking men, it is the greatest wonder of the present age.

It is a wonder that when all nations of the earth are full of contention, strife, and disunion, when they are warring in deadly strife one against another, when they have not the power to cement themselves together, that there has been one man in the midst of the nations who has had such controlling influence that people have been gathered together from every nation, creed, and church, speaking a great variety of languages—men and women trained under different influences, circumstances, and habits. It is a wonder to see them collected as this people are today, to see them united and dwelling in peace, to see them governed by the slightest whisper of him God has appointed to preside, to see every obstruction moved from the path of the onward progress of the kingdom of God; not only this, but to see this wisdom developing itself through all the ramifications of that kingdom, to see it filling the breasts of those occupying the various offices in the Church—to see Bishops, Bishops’ Counselors, Presidents and Presidents’ Counselors, Apostles, High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons filling the various offices assigned unto them to perform; though the same knowledge fills them to a less extent, still that spirit and that power are increasing in them which give promise unto them that the organization with which they are connected will become greats and mighty, and overwhelming in the midst of the earth.

We are called uneducated, illiterate, but there is a wisdom which is being developed in the midst of this people, and they are being trained in those principles that will make them great and mighty before God and man. We can see this now, but, with the eye of faith, we can see much more in the future, when the nations will seek for that wisdom which is alone in the possession of this people—a wisdom that will save them from the calamities and the evils that are coming upon them. It is not far distant. It will not be very long before men will seek to be taught of this people the principles that pertain to this and the next world. Though they now pretend to despise them, that knowledge is, nevertheless, in the midst of this people alone. They understand the principles that will save men—not only men individually, but as nations and communities, from the evils with which they are threatened here and hereafter. They have been obtained by us in the same manner in which they were obtained by Jesus Christ, by Peter, and by those associated with him; they have been obtained by the knowledge, and light, and intelligence of heaven, bestowed on men in answer to prayer and faith properly exercised. There is something very delightful and consoling in the reflection that men and women, no matter how ignorant, if they become acquainted with the principles of the Gospel, will become wise unto salvation, and be elevated and be developed, and continue to increase in everything that is great and desirable before God and man. We see this promise, which the Gospel holds out to us, being fulfilled.

We talk about the glory which is in store for us, and well we may talk about it, because we have, to a certain extent, had a foretaste on the earth of those promises, the fulness of which we shall enjoy in that world to which we are all hastening. We can see the effects of the Gospel upon the minds of the people, and upon our own minds; we see the people being morally developed in everything that will make them mighty before God. I know that the Lord, for a wise purpose, has called the noblest spirits that he had around him to come forth in this dispensation. He called them to come in humble circumstances, that they might receive the experience necessary to try and prove them in all things, that they might descend below all things, and gradually begin to ascend above all things; there was a wise design in this, and we see it carried out at the present time.

I take great delight in these things; it is a great pleasure to reflect upon this Work; for, view it which way you will, look at it from any standpoint, there is something attractive and lovely connected with it. We can all have this enjoyment, there is no defect or flaw in the system; there is nothing about it, if we had the power, that we could improve or make better. That is a great consolation to us; it is not the work of man, a cunningly devised fable man has constructed. It is not made to suit our peculiar tastes and views, but it is eternal; it has always existed, and it accords with our being, and with the laws of our being, because the plan of salvation emanated from the same eternal source that we emanated from, and everything connected with us and this system is in perfect harmony. There is nothing conflicting between the perfect laws of our nature and the laws of God, revealed in the Gospel. It is this that makes it so beautiful, that causes it to have such an elevating effect upon us; and we have to live in agreement with it, in order to eventually be exalted in the presence of our Father and God; which, may God grant, may be our happy lot, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Jan. 1, 1865.

My prayer and desire is that while I shall attempt to speak unto you this afternoon, I may be led and dictated by the Spirit of God, and I presume that this is the desire of all the Saints who have assembled themselves together for the purpose of worshipping our Father and God this afternoon in this tabernacle.

There is one point that was alluded to this morning by Brother Lorenzo Snow, in his remarks, which struck me with a great deal of force. It was in relation to the Saints entertaining a feeling of gratitude to God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us—that the Lord loves those who entertain such feelings, and who appreciate the blessings and kindness he bestows upon them.

This truth accounts for the frequency with which the Elders, when led by the Spirit of God and speaking unto the people, dwell upon the many blessings, and privileges, and favors we have received since our obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To many persons, such frequent allusions to the blessings and favors that we enjoy, and the privileges that have been bestowed on us as a people, seem unnecessary, and in the ears of some not acquainted with us and our character, and with the principles we have espoused, sound like egotism; but I can, myself, recognize a great propriety in this style of preaching or exhortation. I can see that there is a necessity for it; that we should be continually stirred up to remember the Lord our God and the favors which he has bestowed upon us from the time we embraced the Gospel until now; and not only from that time, but from the earliest period of our infancy to this time, because his kindness, and providence, and long-suffering have not been extended to us alone since we have embraced the Gospel, but from the time of our birth until now.

The Lord has said that he is angry with none except those who acknowledge not his hand in all things. He is angry with those who do not acknowledge his hand in the various dispensations of providence meted out to man.

It is right that we, as a people and as individuals, should be continually grateful to God for what he has done for us. Unless we appreciate these blessings, it is not likely they will be increased upon us—it is not reasonable that greater blessings than those already received will be bestowed upon us; but if we are humble, meek, and filled with thanksgiving and gratitude to our Father and God under all circumstances, appreciating and putting a high value on the mercies he extends unto us, it is more than probable that those blessings and mercies will be increased upon us according to our wants and necessities, and we shall still have increased cause for gratitude and thanksgiving before him.

While the brethren were blessing the bread, it struck me how grateful we ought to be for the blessings which God has guaranteed unto us—the great and the inestimable blessings—through the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How grateful we ought to be every day that we live, that our Father and our God has provided a way and means of salvation for us, that before we were born and took upon us the form of mortal men and women, the Lord in his mercy, and in his wisdom and kindness, had provided a way whereby we should be redeemed from the power of Satan, from the power of death, and be brought back into his presence, and be clothed with immortality and all the blessings which attend such a condition. Every time we partake of the sacrament, our hearts should swell with thanksgiving and gratitude for God’s mercy unto us in this respect; yet it is too frequently the case with these blessings, as with many other blessings which God has bestowed upon us, their being so widespread prevents us from appreciating them as we should were they confined to a few of us and were not bestowed upon all the family of man. The blessings of air, of water, of the earth—the blessings that all the family of man enjoy in common one with another—because they are so widely spread and so universally enjoyed, are not appreciated as are other blessings which are more confined in their application and in the result which attends them to the children of men. The blessings of the air we breathe, the earth upon which we tread, of the water which courses down in crystal streams to satisfy our wants, and all the blessings that are so bountifully bestowed upon us, ought to be as much the cause of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father as though they were confined to a few families only. And so, also, the great blessings of that salvation, which is extended universally, through Christ, to all the children of men who will be obedient to his requirements, ought to be appreciated just as much as though confined to us alone, to a few families, or to a small portion of the community which occupies these valleys.

The Lord has truly provided for us a plan of salvation that is as wide as eternity, that is Godlike in its nature and in its origin; it is intended to exalt us, his children, and bring us back into his presence. For this purpose our Lord and Savior came in the meridian of time. His blood was shed that an expiation might be made by which the plan of salvation could be completed, that we, whose bodies would otherwise continue subject to an everlasting sleep in the grave, might have our mortal tabernacles resurrected and brought into the presence of our Father and God, there to dwell eternally.

It should be a subject of thanksgiving and gratitude to us that we have the privilege of comprehending the truth sufficiently to derive the full benefit of the salvation which is offered unto us through the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; because we are assured in the word of God that there is a class, who through their sinfulness and neglect of the privileges and opportunities granted unto them, and their disobedience to the requirements of God, are cut off from the full benefits of that salvation which they would enjoy were they more obedient. But unto us is offered the salvation in its fulness, extended through the death of Jesus. After we have done with this mortal life we are promised a glorious resurrection in the first resurrection, and that our bodies shall not sleep in the tomb any length of time, only so long as is actually necessary to fulfil the requirements of the Lord.

Through the revelations of the truth, which have been made unto us, we are promised all that men and women could ask. All that God has ever promised to his faithful children we will receive, even every blessing that is necessary for our eternal happiness in the presence of God, if we will live subject to the requirements he has made of us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This should be a constant theme of thanksgiving in our hearts, and I believe it is so; I really believe that the Latter-day Saints are the most grateful people upon the face of the earth; I believe they give evidence of it in their actions. There is, however, room continually given unto us for improvement in this respect. We cannot be too grateful; we cannot get to a point where there is a necessity for us to slacken in this respect; and the more we comprehend of the purposes of our God, the more grateful and more full of thanksgiving we will be. I notice that among those who are not as fully acquainted as they should be with the principles of the Gospel, there is more ingratitude and a greater disposition to murmur, and a greater lack of thankfulness, than among those who are educated—educated, I mean, in the knowledge of the truth, in the principles of life and salvation. I notice that among those who have the most experience, and have made the greatest advancement in the things of God, there is the greatest disposition to be thankful and grateful, and to pour out their souls in prayer before God; and I notice as the Saints increase in the knowledge of the truth, and the comprehension of the principles of life and salvation, their disposition in this direction increases with their knowledge.

Looking at it with the world’s view, we have abundant cause to be thankful; but to look at it through the light of the Spirit of God, our gratitude and thanksgiving should be unbounded to God; there should be no limit to it in our hearts every time we reflect on our position and on the blessings that have been bestowed upon us. What people on the face of the earth today can compare with us in temporal blessings? And when we look at the blessings we enjoy, as Saints of the Most High, from the standpoint from which the Latter-day Saints should view this work, how can we limit the feelings which should animate our hearts continually with praise to our Father and God?

When unprejudiced strangers look upon us, they see our temporal advantages, and they think we are a blessed and happy people; but there are other blessings that we enjoy. We enjoy promises which are extended unto us, of which strangers know nothing—of which they have not the least conception; blessings and promises which no man can comprehend, except they who have received the Spirit of God. We have blessings, we have favors, we have causes of peace, of which the human family know nothing. While our hearts are burning with joy, with happiness and with peace; while the Spirit of God is descending upon us and we are filled therewith, they who look upon us cannot see or comprehend the spirit that we are of—they cannot understand the feelings that animate our hearts, they only see us as natural men and women; they know not that power which has been communicated unto us and been poured out upon us. While we feel as though we could sing Hosannah to God and the Lamb, they cannot see anything to cause us to have such feelings, because they have not access to that power—to that fountain of knowledge, of light, and wisdom, which our God has opened unto us as a people. We have, then, in addition to the temporal advantages which God has bestowed upon us, abundant cause for gratitude on other points.

There will be no time in the vast future when our cause for thanksgiving and for gratitude will cease; for the more we know and the more we comprehend the purposes of God, the more gratitude we will have. The angels who surround his throne indulge in thanksgiving and praise to God and the Lamb to a greater extent than we can do, because their causes for thanksgiving are greater; they have attained to a glorious exaltation, and they bask in the sunshine of the presence of the great Eternal. Although they are there, they still have cause to sing Hosannah to God and the Lamb; though they are in possession of such great blessings, dwelling as they do in a state of immortality, and freed from the power of Satan, sin, and death, they, nevertheless, see causes for thanksgiving to God our Father; and the nearer we approximate to them and to their perfection, the more we shall have of this feeling in our hearts, the more causes of thanksgiving we will perceive, and the more frequently we will express these feelings.

There is no time that we can conceive of throughout the vast ages of eternity, if we continue our onward progress, when we will become cloyed in our religion and in our worship of God; it will not be a matter of form with us, a duty that will be wearying and onerous upon us; on the contrary, it will increase in its pleasures. These are reflections connected with the truth as revealed to us, which are cheering. If we will let our imaginations stretch into the future, there will be no time when we will arrive at such a condition that we will, through weariness, relax our efforts and our exertions, and cease to feel thanksgiving and gratitude; but there will be increased causes contributed continually to prompt us to indulge in these feelings more and more, and take pleasure in their indulgence.

There never was a people on the face of the earth to whom the same promises have been given as to us. Others, who have preceded us in the enjoyment of the blessings of the Gospel, have looked forward to the time of their decease, and have seen that after they should pass away, the work they then were engaged in would disappear from the earth; they saw that the power of the adversary would be again wielded to great effect among men, and that their labors would be comparatively lost sight of through the evil that would prevail upon the earth. But this is not the case with us; unto us are extended promises which have never been extended to any other people who have lived upon the earth from the days of Adam to this time; unto us a promise is given that this kingdom shall stand forever, that it shall not be given into the hands of another people, that it shall roll forth, increase, and spread abroad until it fills the whole earth—until all the inhabitants of the earth can dwell in peace and safety under its shadow, being freed from misrule, oppression, and every evil that exists among the inhabitants of the earth; that a reign of truth and righteousness shall be inaugurated, the reign of God and of his Son Jesus Christ on the face of the earth.

This is the promise which has been extended unto us, and the work is committed unto us and to the dispensation in which we live. Such a promise was not extended unto Enoch, unto Noah, unto Abraham, or unto any of the prophets who succeeded them down to the days of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When the apostles asked the Lord Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom, he parried their question; it was not for the people who lived in that dispensation to participate, while in the flesh, in the blessings of the restoration of the kingdom of God on the earth and its final establishment in the latter days. It was reserved for the great and last dispensation of the fulness of times, that great dispensation in which we now live, when the Gospel should be restored to the earth in its fulness, and the eternal Priesthood be revealed; when every angel and every prophet who have lived upon our earth should revisit the earth again, and bestow every key and all power and authority which they held on the man who was elected to stand at the head of this dispensation.

We live in this day, and our posterity will participate in the blessings of this dispensation, if we and they should be faithful. In looking forward to our future generations for the next thousand years, we are not under the necessity of beholding, in vision, our posterity straying into darkness in such a manner as to close the heavens and shut off the communication between God and man. God has taught us differently: he has taught us that instead of the heavens becoming more closed, and communications less frequent and seldom received, truth will be more abundantly bestowed on man; instead of angels ceasing to communicate with man, angels will communicate with him more and more until man shall bask in the full light of eternity.

These are the prospects that are extended to us as individuals and as a people. Hence, I have said that we have greater cause than any other people that ever lived to be thankful to our Father and God for what he has done for us and promised unto us; yet, do we understand it, do we appreciate it? When we have the Spirit of God resting upon us, and our minds are enlightened by it, I presume we do to some extent; we feel then that we would constantly witness unto God by our acts that we really appreciate his kindness in permitting us to come forth at such a time and be associated with such a people. But when the counsels of God come to us through his servants, and they are contrary to our prepossessed notions, we forget that the inspiration of the Almighty is with our brethren, that the power of the Highest is with them, and, as Brother Snow alluded to Jonah this morning, if we do not go to Tarshish, we frequently go somewhere else to avoid doing the things that God requires at our hands.

Now, the day has come when we, as a people, will have to listen to the voice of the servants of God, to the instructions of the Almighty through his servants, and obey them as implicitly as though God was in our midst. Yet, how often is it the case that, when we have counsel imparted unto us, we feel as though we had some suggestions to make that would make that counsel better and more applicable to us. I have seen the Spirit of God grieved, and the understanding of the man of God beclouded by men taking such a course as this. When the servant of God has been under the inspiration of the Almighty to counsel a certain course, somebody has stepped forward and suggested something different, and by that means the counsel of God has been darkened, the spirit of revelation has been grieved, and the benefit which otherwise would be, has not been received.

I have seen this under various circumstances, and I have looked upon it as an evil and something we should never do. When the counsel of God comes through his servants to us, we should bow to that, no matter how much it may come in contact with our preconceived ideas; submit to it as though God spoke it, and feel such a reverence towards it as though we believed that the servant of God had the inspiration of the Almighty resting upon him. While many are willing to admit that the servants of God understand everything connected with the work of God, and with the various departments of it on the earth, they think there are some kinds of knowledge which they possess in a superior degree to them who preside over us. They will admit that the servants of God may possess all the knowledge that is needed to spread the Gospel and have it carried to the remotest regions, to build up Zion; but there is something connected with their particular calling that, they think, they understand to a far greater extent than he or they who are appointed to preside over them.

This feeling is not infrequently manifested. The persons who exhibit it would be reluctant to say in words that this is their feeling, but they express it in their actions. This causes an interference with the Spirit of God, and frequently counsel is darkened by men taking this course. I know that if we follow implicitly the counsel of God’s servants when they are inspired to give counsel, even if they may not know everything about the matter, we will be blessed if we bow to it, and God will overrule everything for good, and it will result as God wishes it.

It is a great thing for us to have the counsel and instruction of the Almighty in our midst. The servants of God are inspired by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the revelations of Jesus are within them; and if we follow their counsels strictly, we shall be led into the presence of God, and I know that they are the only men on the earth who have this power, authority, and knowledge. If we take a course of this kind, you can readily perceive how harmoniously everything connected with the work of God will roll forth; beauty and order will be witnessed in all the ramifications of the kingdom of God at home and abroad, and salvation will be extended unto us.

My prayer and desires are, that the Lord will bless you, and that we may have the Spirit and the power of God resting upon us. Which may God grant, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, Nov. 27, 1864.

The remarks made by the brethren this afternoon, and all through the day, have been to me exceedingly edifying and instructive. If I could impart to you one tenth of the feelings and reflections that have been awakened in me by them, I would be satisfied. So many points have been touched upon that I think every person present has felt to rejoice for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which we have enjoyed. There is one point in relation to the great work with which we are identified, and its further movements, to which I wish to refer. It has been alluded to this afternoon that some entertain the idea that we may have to leave these upper valleys and retire to the more southern ones before our enemies. For my part, I cannot believe this. I never have believed it. I believe we are in the very place which God designed we should occupy; and I believe with all my heart the words of President Young, when he spoke respecting our movement south and the sacrifice we made of our homes here, which we were willing to put the torch to and burn sooner than our enemies should possess them. He said, when we came back again, that we had begun to return—to retrace our steps in the path we had been compelled to tread by the inhumanity of our enemies, and we would not stop returning until we should re-occupy the lands from which we have been driven. I felt then that it was true, and still feel so; and, to me, it looks like childishness for any of us to cease improving the advantages our Father and God has given us in this valley and in the valleys north, south, east, and west.

The Lord has blessed us to a very great extent. He has constantly poured out upon his servants the spirit of instruction and revelation. There has been no move that it has been necessary for us, as a people, to make that we have not been forewarned of by our leaders; and when they counsel us to take measures for the improvement of our city or the adjacent country, or for doing anything that will make us great and powerful, it is our duty, being the mind and will of God, to adhere to and obey their counsels and instructions; and he who would think by word, or thought, or expression to weaken the effect of that counsel, is an enemy to the Zion of our God—he who would try to weaken the counsels of the Presidency is an enemy in disguise, and unless he drives that spirit from his heart, he will sooner or later be found arrayed in the ranks of the enemies of God and truth. There is but one course that can be pursued in safety, and that is the course pointed out by those who are placed to preside over us. It may seem unnecessary to say so; but it is necessary. It seems, at times, as though we had not sufficiently learned the lesson of obedience, and it requires the servants of God to continually remind us of these things, and impress it upon us that in this path alone can we obtain salvation.

The Lord told us years ago that we were called to lay the foundation of a great work. The Latter-day Saint who looks to his own benefit alone, and does not recognize the extent of the work and its influence upon the people—not only upon the people gathered together here, but upon the nations of the earth, has failed to comprehend the position he occupies as a servant of God; and, unless he changes his course, instead of increasing in the things of God, he will decrease, and the Spirit of the Lord will not be with him to the extent it would be, were he alive to his duties and responsibilities as a servant of God. We are engaged in a work that affects ourselves, our neighbors, our posterity, and progenitors, and all the nations of the earth, and it will not do to be blinded by petty interests; to think in relation to the counsel to bring out the waters of Jordan, for instance, is it going to benefit my farm or my city lot? To reason in this way betrays a narrowness of mind that does not harmonize with the greatness of the work we are engaged in. If we look at matters in this light, we are not worthy to occupy the position we hold.

While Brother Joseph W. Young and Brother Gates were speaking, my mind reverted to the history of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, the progenitor, perhaps, of the greatest portion of this congregation. An axiom came to my mind, that history repeats itself. And the great majority of us who are his descendants are not unlikely to accomplish a work similar to that which he accomplished. You know what has been meted out to us by our brethren. It has been our fortune, like him, to be dreamers. Like him, we related our dreams to our brethren, and they acted towards us as his brethren did towards him. They said, “We will not have this dreamer to rule over us.” They put him into a pit, and afterwards sold him to the Ishmaelites, and he was carried to Egypt, where they thought they would never see him or hear from him again. But God overruled their acts, and the fulfillment of the dreams for which they sold him into slavery was brought about by that very means. So our brethren, instead of owning the truth of our visions, acted towards us as the brethren of Joseph did towards him. They would not own the power of God, nor look upon us as their benefactors, but abused us and treated us cruelly, driving us from their midst; yet out of it God will bring salvation to the remnant which is left of them.

You may depend upon it, we are repeating the history of the past. We will yet have to feed our brethren in the flesh; we will yet be the head and will extend unto them the salvation and deliverance, spiritually and temporally, which they need. We can see plainly that the Lord is overruling circumstances for the accomplishment of this end. Shall we not, then, be willing agents in his hands, and seek with all the energy of our nature to do what he requires of us? I believe this is the feeling of every Latter-day Saint, and those who love righteousness are determined in their hearts to do all that is required of them by the servants of God. There is no one under the sound of my voice today but has felt happiness in doing what has been required of him by the servants of God. This is the secret of the power wielded by President Young over this people. Because they have a living and abiding testi– mony of the Spirit with them when doing their duty, their hearts are filled with joy, thanksgiving, and happiness; but when they take an opposite course, and go contrary to what is required of them by the servants of God, they feel miserable, they know they have taken a wrong course, and, if they are wise, they repent speedily of their sins and are obedient to the counsel given.

I hope to see the day when we will have land and water, food and fruit, and everything that is pleasing and useful, everything that is necessary for the comfort and well-being of man, to enjoy ourselves and share with those who come to us and live with us. And I know the measures taken by our leaders now will be attended with these results, if we abide their counsels. Whenever there has been a failure in carrying out any measure that has been counseled, it has been because of a lack of faith on the part of those to whom the counsel has been given. It is time we should begin to think what we are going to be, and rise above those little petty feelings that are characteristic of the world. We should allow our minds to be filled with the Spirit of God to such an extent that we can have enlarged thoughts and views. We should feel to say that “anything which benefits my brethren and sisters, whether it furthers my interests or not, let it be done; let the community be blessed, whether my personal interests are prospered or not by the course taken.” The person who cherishes this feeling will be sure to receive temporal prosperity.

I know we live in the kingdom of God and serve a liberal Master, and though we may be called upon to make what we may view as sacrifices, if we do so willingly and liberally, God will give to us a liberal reward. “The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand,” was said by one of old, and can be said in truth of the day in which we live. If we act upon this principle, God will deal with us in a similar manner. I know this to be true, and that God will reward us with every blessing we need, as a people, if we take the course that is pointed out. There is no circumstance or difficulty we have to contend with but what is for our good; and will ultimately prove so, if we are faithful. No matter what labor we are required to perform, we are in the very position, and doing the very work, God requires at our hands. It is necessary for our development and increase in the faith of the Lord Jesus. This is a glorious consolation to me.

I know that everything will be overruled for our good if we do right. No matter how difficult circumstances may be to bear at the time, they are for our good, and God watches over us; his angels are round about us all the time. The spirit of prophecy and the angels of God are continually with His servant Brigham; and when the people receive and act upon his counsel, it results in good to them. May God bless us, and fill us with more faith and power, that we may go forth in mighty strength to accomplish the work of our God on the earth. Amen.