A Discourse by Elder P. P. Pratt, Delivered at the General Conference, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 10, 1853.

At the request of my brethren, I rise to occupy a portion of the time. I realize that there are many present who are equally prepared to administer in the things of the Spirit of God. The time is precious, and I desire that I may have the Spirit of God, with the prayers and confidence of the people, to speak in wisdom that which is necessary, and then give opportunity to my brethren; for I love to hear them, and so do this people.

I have reflected a little upon the text that was presented to us by our President a few days since, and upon the excellent remarks made by himself and others upon the subject of heirship, or the inherent rights of the firstborn, and of election. I consider, indeed, that it opens a broad field, and that there is no danger of exhausting the subject, whatever may be said of it.

The covenants made with the fathers, and the rights of the children by reason of them, are an interesting subject to me.

In the first place, if all men were created alike, if all had the same degree of intelligence and purity of disposition, all would be equal. But, notwithstanding the declaration of American sages, and of the fathers of our country, to the contrary, it is a fact that all beings are not equal in their intellectual capacity, in their dispositions, and in the gifts and callings of God. It is a fact that some beings are more intelligent than others, and some are endowed with abilities or gifts which others do not possess.

In organizing and peopling the worlds, it was found necessary to place among the inhabitants some superior intelligences, who were capacitated to teach, to rule, and preside among other intelligences. In short, a variety of gifts, and adaptations to the different arts, sciences, and occupations, was as necessary as the uses and benefits arising therefrom have proved to be. Hence one intelligence is peculiarly adapted to one department of usefulness, and another to another. We read much in the Bible in relation to a choice or election, on the part of Deity, towards intelligences in His government on earth, whereby some were chosen to fill stations very different from others. And this election not only affected the individuals thus chosen, but their posterity for long generations, or even forever.

It may be inquired where this election first originated, and upon what principle a just and impartial God exercises the elective franchise. We will go back to the earliest knowledge we have of the existence of intelligences. We learn from the writings of Abraham and others, and from modern revelation, that the intelligences that now inhabit these tabernacles of earth were living, active intelligences in yonder world, while the particles of matter which now compose our outward bodies were yet mingled with their native element; that then our embodied spirits lived, moved, conversed, and exercised an agency. All intelligences which exist possess a degree of independence in their own sphere. For instance, the bee can go at will in search of honey, or remain in the hive. It can visit one flower or another, as independent in its own sphere as God is in His. We find a degree of independence in everything which possesses any degree of intelligence; that thinks, moves, or acts: because the very principle of voluntary action implies an independent will to direct such action.

Among the intelligences which existed in the beginning, some were more intelligent than others, or, in other words, more noble; and God said to Abraham, “These I will make my rulers!” God said unto Abraham, “Thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.”

Noble! Does He use the word noble? Yes; the word noble, or that which signified it, was used in conversation between God and Abraham, and applied to superior intelligences on earth, and which had pre-existed in the heavens.

I am aware that the term is greatly abused, in Europe and elsewhere, being applied to those titled, and to those who inherit certain titles and estates, whether they are wise men or fools, virtuous or vicious. A man may even be an idiot, a drunkard, an adulterer, or a murderer, and still be called a nobleman by the world. And all this because his ancestor, for some worthy action, or perhaps for being skilled in murder and robbery, under the false glare of “military glory,” obtained a title, and the possession of a large estate, from which he had helped to drive the rightful occupant.

Now the Lord did not predicate His principle of election or nobility upon such an unequal, unjust, and useless order of things. When He speaks of nobility, He simply means an election made, and an office or a title conferred, on the principle of superiority of intellect, or nobleness of action, or of capacity to act. And when this election, with its titles, dignities, and estates, includes the unborn posterity of a chosen man, as in the case of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is with a view of the noble spirits of the eternal world coming through their lineage, and being taught in the commandments of God. Hence the Prophets, Kings, Priests, Patriarchs, Apostles, and even Jesus Christ, were included in the election of Abraham, and of his seed, as manifested to him in an eternal covenant.

Although some eternal intelligences may be superior to others, and although some are more noble, and consequently are elected to fill certain useful and necessary offices for the good of others, yet the greater and the less may both be innocent, and both be justified, and be useful, each in their own capacity; if each magnify their own calling, and act in their own capacity, it is all right.

It may be inquired, why God made one unequal to another, or inferior in intellect or capacity. To which I reply, that He did not create their intelligence at all. It never was created, being an inherent attribute of the eternal element called spirit, which element composes each individual spirit, and which element exists in an infinitude of degrees in the scale of intellect, in all the varieties manifested in the eternal God, and thence to the lowest agent, which acts by its own will.

It is a fixed law of nature that the higher intelligence presides over, or has more or less influence over, or control of, that which is less.

The Lord, in surveying the eternal intelligences which stood before Him, found some more noble or intellectual than others, who were equally innocent. This being so, He exercised the elective franchise upon wise principles, and, like a good and kind father among his children, He chose those for rulers who were most capable of benefiting the residue. Among these was our noble ancestor, Abraham.

I do not take up the subject in the middle of it, like the natural man who knows little of the past or future, and who judges by the things present before his eyes. Such a one might suppose that it so happened that Abraham came along, and was picked up without any particular reference to the past, or to eternal principles, and was elected to office; that it might just as well have been somebody else instead of him. But instead of this, he was chosen before the world was, and came into the world for the very purpose which he fulfilled. But, notwithstanding this pre-election in passing the veil, and entering a tabernacle of flesh, he became a little child, forgot all he had once known in the heavens, and commenced anew to receive intelligence in this world, as is the case with all. He therefore was necessitated to come up by degrees, receive an experience, be tried and proved. And when he had been sufficiently proved according to the flesh, the Lord manifested to him the elec– tion before exercised towards him in the eternal world. He then renewed that election and covenant, and blessed him, and his seed after him. And He said—In multiplying, I will multiply thee; and in blessing I will bless thee.

The Sodomites, Canaanites, &c., received the reverse of this blessing. Instead of giving them a multiplicity of wives and children, He cut them off, root and branch, and blotted their name from under heaven, that there might be an end of a race so degenerate. Now this severity was a mercy. If we were like the people before the flood, full of violence and oppression; or if we, like the Sodomites or Canaanites, were full of all manner of lawless abominations, holding promiscuous intercourse with the other sex, and stooping to a level with the brute creation, and predisposing our children, by every means in our power, to be fully given to strange and unnatural lusts, appetites, and passions, would it not be a mercy to cut us off, root and branch, and thus put an end to our increase upon the earth? You will all say it would. The spirits in heaven would thank God for preventing them from being born into the world under such circumstances. Would not the spirits in heaven rejoice in the covenant and blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in relation to the multiplying of their seed, and in every additional wife which God gave to them as a means of multiplying? Yes, they would; for they could say—“Now there is an opportunity for us to take bodies in the lineage of a noble race, and to be educated in the true science of life, and in the commandments of God.” O what an unspeakable contrast, between being a child of Sodom, and a child of Abraham!

Now, Abraham, by his former superiority of intelligence and nobility, by his former election before the world was, and by conducting himself in this world so as to obtain the renewal of the same according to the flesh, brought upon his posterity, as well as upon himself, that which will influence them more or less to the remotest generations of time, and in eternity.

Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, when speaking upon this subject, testifies that the children of Israel differ much every way from the Gentiles, for to them, says he, pertains the election, the covenants, the promises, the service of God, the adoption, the glory, the giving of the law, and the coming of Christ in the flesh. He then goes on to trace the peculiar branches in which the heirship is perpetuated. Abraham had a son Ishmael, and several children by his other wives and concubines which the Lord gave unto him. They might all be blessed, but the peculiar blessings of heirship and Priesthood remained and were perpetuated in Isaac.

Again, when Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, had conceived twins, the election to these peculiar blessings ran in the lineage of Jacob, and not of Esau. True, Esau was the firstborn, and was heir to the inheritance, which always pertains to the birthright, but the election to hold and perpetuate the keys of eternal Priesthood was peculiar to Jacob, and even that which Esau did inherit was forfeited by transgression, and therefore transferred to Jacob.

The Lord blessed Ishmael in many things, because he was Abraham’s seed. The Lord blessed Esau in many things, because he was a son of Abraham and Isaac, but the peculiar things of the Priesthood, through which all nations should be blessed, pertained exclusively to that peculiar branch of the Hebrews which sprang from Jacob.

Now before these two children were born, or had done any good or evil in this life, God, who was acquainted with them in the former life, and who knew the grades of intelligence or of nobility possessed by each, revealed to Rebecca, their mother, that two nations or manner of people would spring from these twins, and that one people should be stronger than the other, and that the elder should serve the younger. When these two children had been born, and had died, and when their posterity had become two nations, then the Lord spoke by the Prophet Malachi, that He loved Jacob, because of some good he had done, and that He hated Esau, and laid his mountains waste, because of certain evils specified in the same declaration.

The Apostle Paul, in speaking of Jacob and Esau, quotes the revelation of Rebecca, before they were born and the revelation to Malachi after they had become two nations; and the two quotations, both following in immediate connection in Paul’s writings, have been mistaken by many, as if God had revealed both sayings before the two children were born; and thus the Scriptures are wrested and made to say that God hated a child before he was born, or had done any good or evil. A more false and erroneous doctrine could hardly be conceived, or a worse charge sustained against Juggernaut, than the imputation of hating children before they are born.

Here I would inquire, if it is anything inconsistent, or derogatory to the character of a good or impartial father, who loves all his children, for him to elect or appoint one of them to fulfil a certain purpose or calling, and another to fulfil another useful calling? Is it anything strange for one person to be stronger than another, for one person to serve another, or for one person to have a more numerous posterity than another? Is it anything strange or unrighteous for one person to be a farmer, a vinedresser, or a builder, and another a teacher, a governor, or a minister of justice and equity? What is more natural, more useful, or just, than for a father who discovers the several abilities or adaptations of his children, to appoint them their several callings or occupations?

God did not say that Jacob should be saved in the kingdom of God, and Esau be doomed to eternal hell, without any regard to their deeds; but He simply said that two distinct nations, widely differing, should spring from them, and one should be stronger than the other, and the elder should serve the younger. If one nation is stronger than the other, it can assist to defend the other. If the one nation serves the other, it will have a claim on a just remuneration for services rendered. If one inherits a blessing or Priesthood, through which all nations shall be blessed, surely the nation which is composed of his brother’s children will have an early claim on salvation through this ministry. I should esteem it a great privilege if, while I was serving my brother, and we were both partaking of the fruits of my labors, he should be elected to a Priesthood, through the ministry of which myself and all my posterity, as well as his own, might be taught, exalted, and eternally saved. By our mutual labors, then, we could be mutually benefited in time and in eternity. I am administering to him, and I am happy. He is administering to me, and he is happy. It is a kind of mutual service, a classification of labor, wherein each attends to the business most natural to him, and wherein there is mutual benefit. Why, then, should I find fault, or entertain envy or hatred towards my brother? Dressing a vine, ploughing a field, harvesting, or building, is just as necessary as teaching, or administering the ordinances of salvation; one acts in one capacity, and the other in another, but they are mutually blessed and benefited by their separate callings and endowments.

On the subject of hatred, I feel much as the Lord did when He hated Esau, and laid his mountains waste. When the children of Jacob were in trouble with their enemies, Esau’s descendants joined with the enemy, and did not stand by their brethren. When Jacob was unpopular, and the nations hated him because of the peculiarities of his religion, Esau forsook his brother and disowned relationship, fellowshipping with his brother’s persecutors. I also hate a traitor, who turns against me in a day of adversity, when I have claim on him as a brother.

But to return to the subject of election, and of heirship. In the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, according to the flesh, was held the right of heirship to the keys of Priesthood for the blessings and for the salvation of all nations. From this lineage sprang the Prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostles; and from this lineage sprang the great Prophet and restorer in modern times, and the Apostles who hold the keys under his hand. It is true, that Melchizedek and the fathers before him held the same Priesthood, and that Abraham was ordained and blessed under his hand, but this was an older branch of the chosen seed. I am speaking more fully of those who have lived since the older branches passed away, and since the transfer of the keys to Abraham and his seed. No Ishmaelite, no Edomite, no Gentile has since then been privileged to hold the presiding keys of Priesthood, or of the ministry of salvation. In this peculiar lineage, and in no other should all the nations be blessed. From the days of Abraham until now, if the people of any country, age, or nation, have been blessed with the blessings peculiar to the everlasting covenant of the Gospel, its sealing powers, Priesthood, and ordinances, it has been through the ministry of that lineage, and the keys of Priesthood held by the lawful heirs according to the flesh. Were the twelve Apostles which Christ ordained, Gentiles? Were any of them Ishmaelites, Edomites, Canaanites, Greeks, Egyptians, or Romans by descent? No, verily. One of the Twelve was called a “Canaanite,” but this could not have alluded to his lineage, but rather to the locality of his nativity, for Christ was not commissioned to minister in person to the Gentiles, much less to ordain any of them to the Priesthood, which pertained to the children of Abraham. I would risk my soul upon the fact that Simon the Apostle was not a Canaanite by blood, He was perhaps a Canaanite upon the same principle that Jesus was a Nazarite, which is expressive of the locality of his birth or sojourn. But no man can hold the keys of Priesthood or of Apostleship, to bless or administer salvation to the nations, unless he is a literal descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus Christ and his ancient Apostles of both hemispheres were of that lineage. When they passed away, and the Saints, their followers, were destroyed from the earth, then the light of truth no longer shone in its fulness.

The world have from that day to this been manufacturing priests, without any particular regard to lineage. But what have they accomplished? They have done what man could do; but man could not bestow that which he did not possess, consequently he could not bestow the eternal keys of power which would constitute the Priesthood. They have manufactured something, and called it Priesthood, and the world has been cursed with it up to this time.

But God Almighty, in fulfilment of the covenants made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with the Prophets, Apostles, and Saints of old, raised up a Joseph, and conferred upon him the ancient records, oracles, and keys of the eternal Priesthood. If he was the impostor the world took him to be, why did he not happen to state in his book that he was a descendant of the Romans, or that he had come through the loins of Socrates, or sprung from some of the Greek philosophers, or Roman generals? Why not a descendant of some noble house of the Gentile kings or nobles? As we were ignorant of the peculiarities of election and heirship to the royal Priesthood, why did not the Book of Mormon predict that a noble Gentile should be the instrument to receive and translate it in modern times, that through the Gentiles the Jews might obtain mercy? It is true the book was brought forth and published among the Gentiles: it is also true that it comes from the Gentiles to Israel, speaking rationally; but when it predicts the name and lineage of its modern translator, “Behold, he is a descendant of Joseph of Egypt,” why should an imputed impostor be consistent in this as well as in all other items? The reason is obvious. It is because the record is true, and its translator no impostor.

Knowing of the covenants and promises made to the fathers, as I now know them, and the rights of heirship to the Priesthood, as manifested in the election of God, I would never receive any man as an Apostle or a Priest, holding the keys of restoration, to bless the nations, while he claimed to be of any other lineage than Israel.

The word of the Lord, through our Prophet and founder, to the chosen instruments of the modern Priesthood, was this—“Ye are lawful heirs according to the flesh, and your lives have been hid with Christ in God.” That is to say, they have been held in reserve during the reign of Mystic Babel, to be born in due time, as successors to the Apostles and Prophets of old, being their children, of the same royal line. They have come forth, at length, as heirs to the keys of power, knowledge, glory, and blessing, to minister to all the nations of the Gentiles, and afterwards to restore the tribes of Israel. They are of the royal blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and have a right to claim the ordination and endowments of the Priesthood, inasmuch as they repent, and obey the Lord God of their fathers.

Those who are not of this lineage, whether they are Gentiles, Edomites, or Ishmaelites, or of whatever nation, have a right to remission of sins and the Gift of the Holy Spirit, through their ministry, on conditions of faith, repentance, and baptism, in the name of Jesus Christ. Through this Gospel they are adopted into the same family, and are counted for the seed of Abraham; they can then receive a portion of this ministry under those (literal descendants) who hold the presiding keys of the same.

By obeying the Gospel, or by adoption through the Gospel, we are all made joint heirs with Abraham, and with his seed, and we shall, by continuance in well doing, all be blessed in Abraham and his seed, no matter whether we are descended from Melchizedek, from Edom, from Ishmael, or whether we be Jews or Gentiles. On the principles of Gospel adoption, the blessing is broad enough to gather all good, penitent, obedient people under its wings, and to extend to all nations the principles of salvation. We would therefore more cordially invite all nations to join themselves to this favored lineage, and come with all humility and penitence to its royal Priesthood, if they wish to be instructed and blessed, for to be blessed in this peculiar sense in any other way, or by any other institutions or government, they cannot, while the promises and covenants of God hold good to the elect seed.

Turn from all your sins, ye Gentiles; turn from all your sins, ye people of the house of Israel, ye Edomites, Jews, and Ishmaelites; all ye nations of the earth, and come, to the legal Priesthood, and be ye blessed. The promise is to each and all of you; do not reject it. The keys of the kingdom, of government, of Priesthood, of Apostleship; the keys of salvation to build up, govern, organize, and administer in temporal and spiritual salvation to the ends of the earth, are now restored, and held by the chosen instruments of this lineage.

I have spoken in a national capacity and in general principles. In regard to individual heirship and the rights of fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, &c., I have not the power, if I had the time; to make the subject any plainer than our President made it the other day. It is for us to learn more and more from day to day, and continue to learn and practice those principles and laws that will secure to each individual and family its rights, according to the ancient order of the government of God, which is now being restored.

The living oracles or Priesthood in our midst can develop these principles from time to time as we need them, for they minister in holy things, and soon they will enter with us into the holy temple, where we may learn more fully; and if we are still lacking, they will with us enjoy the great thousand years in which to teach, qualify, and prepare us for eternity.

We have need to learn more fully the relationship we sustain to our families, to the community, to the nations of the earth, to the house of Israel, to heaven, to earth, to time, and to eternity. We have need to learn more fully to fulfil the duties of those relationships. We must learn by degrees. Truth is not all told at once, nor learned in a few days. A little was developed by our President the other day, for which we are very glad; we will treasure it up, and as circumstances call for it, we shall receive a little more, until by degrees the law of God is learned from those who hold the keys, even every item which pertains to our own rights, and the rights of our children, so that we shall not trespass on another’s. In this manner all the good people on earth, in the spirit world, or in the world of the resurrections, may become one in love, peace, goodwill, purity, and confidence, and in keeping the laws of Jesus Christ and of the holy Priesthood. If each person has the knowledge and the disposition to do right, and then does it continually, even as he would wish others to do to him, this will not only give to each his right, but create the utmost confidence, love, and goodwill, by which a perfect union may be formed between each other, and with all good spirits and angels, and, finally, with Jesus Christ and his Father in worlds without end. Amen.

A sermon delivered by Elder P. P. Pratt, before the conference at Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1853.

I was led to reflection on this subject, not only by my acquaintance with the present state of the world, and the movements and powers which seem new to many, but because this text, written by Isaiah so many centuries since, and copied by Nephi ages before the birth of Jesus Christ, seemed as appropriate, and as directly adapted to the present state of things, as if written but yesterday, or a year since.

“Should not a people seek unto their God, for the living to hear from the dead?” is a question by the Prophet, and at a time when they shall invite you to seek unto those familiar with spirits, and to wizards, &c., or in other words, to magnetizers, rappers, clairvoyants, writing mediums, &c. When they shall say these things unto you, then is the time to consider the question of that ancient Prophet—“Should not a people seek unto their God, for the living to hear from the dead?”

We hear much, of late, about visions, trances, clairvoyance, mediums of communication with the spirit world, writing mediums, &c., by which the world of spirits is said to have found means to communicate with spirits in the flesh. They are not working in a corner. The world is agitated on these subjects. Religious ministers are said to preach, editors to write and print, judges to judge, &c., by this kind of inspiration. It is brought into requisition to develop the sciences, to detect crime, and in short to mingle in all the interests of life.

In the first place, what are we talking about, when we touch the question of the living hearing from the dead? It is a saying, that “dead men tell no tales.” If this is not in the Bible, it is somewhere else; and if it be true, it is just as good as if it were in the Bible.

The Sadducees in the time of Jesus, believed there were no such things as angels or spirits, or existence in another sphere; that when an individual was dead, it was the final end of the workings of his intellectual being, that the elements were dissolved, and mingled with the great fountain from which they emanated, which was the end of individuality, or conscious existence.

Jesus, in reply to them, took up the argument from the Scriptures, or history of the ancient fathers, venerated by reason of antiquity, in hopes, by this means, to influence the Sadducees, or at least the Pharisees and others, by means so powerful and so well adapted to the end in view.

Said he, God has declared Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living; as much as to say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not dead, but living; that they had never been dead at all, but had always been living; that they never did die, in the sense of the word that these Sadducees supposed, but were absolutely alive.

Now if intelligent beings, who once inhabited flesh, such as our fathers, mothers, wives, children, &c., have really died, and are now dead in the sense of the word, as understood by the ancient Sadducees, or modern Atheist, then it is in vain to talk of conversing with the dead. All controversy, in that case, is at an end on the subject of correspondence with the dead, because an intelligence must exist before it can communicate. If these individuals are dead, in the sense that the human body dies, then there is no communication from them. This we know, because of our own observation and experience. We have seen many dead bodies, but have never known of a single instance of any intelligence communicated therefrom.

Jesus, in his argument with the Sadducees, handled the subject according to the strictest principles of ancient and modern theology, and true philosophy. He conveyed the idea in the clearest terms, that an individual intelligence or identity could never die.

The outward tabernacle, inhabited by a spirit, returns to the element from which it emanated. But the thinking being, the individual, active agent or identity that inhabited that tabernacle, never ceased to exist, to think, act, live, move, or have a being; never ceased to exercise those sympathies, affections, hopes, and aspirations, which are founded in the very nature of intelligences, being the inherent and invaluable principles of their eternal existence.

No, they never cease. They live, move, think, act, converse, feel, love, hate, believe, doubt, hope, and desire.

But what are they, if they are not flesh and bones? What are they, if they are not tangible to our gross organs of sense? Of what are they composed, that we can neither see, hear, nor handle them, except we are quickened, or our organs touched by the principles of vision, clairvoyance, or spiritual sight? What are they? Why, they are organized intelligences. What are they made of? They are made of the element which we call spirit, which is as much an element of material existence, as earth, air, electricity, or any other tangible substance recognized by man; but so subtle, so refined is its nature, that it is not tangible to our gross organs. It is invisible to us, unless we are quickened by a portion of the same element; and, like electricity, and several other substances, it is only known or made manifest to our senses by its effects. For instance, electricity is not always visible to us, but its existence is made manifest by its operations upon the wire, or upon the nerves. We cannot see the air, but we feel its effects, and without it we cannot breathe.

If a wire were extended in connection with the equatorial line of our globe in one entire circle of 25,000 miles in extent, the electric fluid would convey a token from one intelligence to another, the length of the entire circle, in a very small portion of a second, or, we will say in the twinkling of an eye. This, then, proves that the spiritual fluid or element called electricity is an actual, physical, and tangible power, and is as much a real and tangible substance, as the ponderous rocks which were laid on yesterday in the foundation of our contemplated Temple.

It is true that this subtle fluid or spiritual element is endowed with the powers of locomotion in a far greater degree than the more gross or solid elements of nature; that its refined particles penetrate amid the other elements with greater ease, and meet with less resistance from the air or other substances, than would the more gross elements. Hence its speed, or superior powers of motion.

Now let us apply this philosophy to all the degrees of spiritual element from electricity, which may be as– sumed to be one of the lowest or more gross elements of spiritual matter, up through all the gradations of the invisible fluids, till we arrive at a substance so holy, so pure, so endowed with intellectual attributes and sympathetic affections, that it may be said to be on a par, or level, in its attributes, with man.

Let a given quantity of this element, thus endowed, or capacitated, be organized in the size and form of man, let every organ be developed, formed, and endowed, precisely after the pattern or model of man’s outward or fleshly tabernacle—what would we call this individual, organized portion of the spiritual element?

We would call it a spiritual body, an individual intelligence, an agent endowed with life, with a degree of independence, or inherent will, with the powers of motion, of thought, and with the attributes of moral, intellectual, and sympathetic affections and emotions.

We would conceive of it as possessing eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to handle; as in possession of the organ of taste, of smelling, and of speech.

Such beings are we, when we have laid off this outward tabernacle of flesh. We are in every way interested, in our relationships, kindred ties, sympathies, affections, and hopes, as if we had continued to live, but had stepped aside, and were experiencing the loneliness of absence for a season. Our ancestors, our posterity, to the remotest ages of antiquity, or of future time, are all brought within the circle of our sphere of joys, sorrows, interests, or expectations; each forms a link in the great chain of life, and in the science of mutual salvation, improvement, and exaltation through the blood of the Lamb.

Our prospects, hopes, faith, charity, enlightenment, improvement, in short, all our interests, are blended, and more or less influenced by the acts of each.

Is this the kind of being that departs from our sight when its earthly tabernacle is laid off, and the veil of eternity is lowered between us? Yes, verily. Where then does it go?

To heaven, says one; to the eternal world of glory, says another; to the celestial kingdom, to inherit thrones and crowns, in all the fullness of the presence of the Father, and of Jesus Christ, says a third.

Now, my dear hearers, these things are not so. Nothing of the kind. Thrones, kingdoms, crowns, principalities, and powers, in the celestial and eternal worlds, and the fullness of the presence of the Father, and of His Son Jesus Christ, are reserved for resurrected beings, who dwell in immortal flesh. The world of resurrected beings, and the world of spirits, are two distinct spheres, as much so as our own sphere is distinct from that of the spirit world.

Where then does the spirit go, on its departure from its earthly tabernacle? It passes to the next sphere of human existence, called the world of spirits, a veil being drawn between us in the flesh, and that world of spirits. Well, says one, is there no more than one place in the spirit world? Yes, there are many places and degrees in that world, as in this. Jesus Christ, when absent from his flesh, did not ascend to the Father, to be crowned, and enthroned in power. Why? Because he had not yet a resurrected body, and had therefore a mission to perform in another sphere. Where then did he go? To the world of spirits, to wicked, sinful spirits, who died in their sins, being swept off by the flood of Noah. The thief on the cross, who died at the same time, also went to the same world, and to the same particular place in the same world, for he was a sinner, and would of course go to the prison of the con– demned, there to await the ministry of that Gospel which had failed to reach his case while on the earth.

How many other places Jesus might have visited while in the spirit world is not for me to say, but there was a moment in which the poor, uncultivated, ignorant thief was with him in that world. And as he commenced, though late, to repent while on the earth, we have reason to hope that that moment was improved by our Savior, in ministering to him that Gospel which he had no opportunity to teach to him, while expiring on the cross. “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise,” said Jesus, or, in other words, this day shalt thou be with me in the next sphere of existence—the world of spirits.

Now mark the difference. Jesus was there, as a preacher of righteousness, as one holding the keys of Apostleship, or Priesthood, anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken hearted, to preach liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound. What did the thief go there for? He went there in a state of ignorance, and sin, being uncultivated, unimproved, and unprepared for salvation. He went there to be taught, and to complete that repentance, which in a dying moment he commenced on the earth.

He had beheld Jesus expire on the cross, and he had implored him to remember him when he should come into possession of his kingdom. The Savior under these extreme circumstances, did not then teach him the Gospel, but referred him to the next opportunity, when they should meet in the spirit world. If the thief thus favored continued to improve, he is no doubt waiting in hope for the signal to be given, at the sound of the next trump, for him to leave the spirit world, and to reenter the fleshly tabernacle, and to ascend to a higher degree of felicity. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, departed from the spirit world on the third day, and reentered his fleshly tabernacle, in which he ascended, and was crowned at the right hand of the Father. Jesus Christ then, and the thief on the cross, have not dwelt together in the same kingdom or place, for this eighteen hundred years, nor have we proof that they have seen each other during that time.

To say that Jesus Christ dwells in the world of spirits, with those whose bodies are dead, would not be the truth. He is not there. He only stayed there till the third day. He then returned to his tabernacle, and ministered among the sons of earth for forty days, where he ate, drank, talked, preached, reasoned out of the Scriptures, commissioned, commanded, blessed, &c. Why did he do this? Because he had ascended on high, and been crowned with all power in heaven and on earth, therefore he had authority to do all these things.

So much then for that wonderful question that has been asked by our Christian neighbors, so many thousand times, in the abundance of their charity for those who, like the thief on the cross, die in their sins, or without baptism, and the other Gospel ordinances.

The question naturally arises—Do all the people who die without the Gospel hear it as soon as they arrive in the world of spirits? To illustrate this, let us look at the dealings of God with the people of this world. “What can we reason but from what we know?” We know and understand the things of this world, in some degree, because they are visible, and we are daily conversant with them. Do all the people in this world hear the Gospel as soon as they are capable of understanding? No, indeed, but very few in comparison have heard it at all.

Ask the poor Lamanites who have, with their fathers before them, inhabited these mountains for a thousand years, whether they have ever heard the Gospel, and they will tell you nay. But why not? Is it not preached on the earth? Yea, verily, but the earth is wide, and circumstances differ very greatly among its different inhabitants. The Jews once had the Gospel, with its Apostleship, powers, and blessings offered unto them, but they rejected it as a people, and for this reason it was taken from them, and thus many generations of them have been born, and have lived and died without it. So with the Gentiles, and so with the Lamanites. God has seen proper to offer the Gospel, with its Priesthood and powers, in different ages and countries, but it has been as often rejected, and therefore withdrawn from the earth. The consequence is that the generations of men have, for many ages, come and gone in ignorance of its principles, and the glorious hopes they inspire.

Now these blessings would have continued on the earth, and would have been enjoyed in all the ages and nations of man, but for the agency of the people. They chose their own forms of government, laws, institutions, religions, rulers, and priests, instead of yielding to the influence and guidance of the chosen vessels of the Lord, who were appointed to instruct and govern them.

Now, how are they situated in the spirit world? If we reason from analogy, we should at once conclude that things exist there after the same pattern. I have not the least doubt but there are spirits there who have dwelt there a thousand years, who, if we could converse with them face to face, would be found as ignorant of the truths, the ordinances, powers, keys, Priesthood, resurrection, and eternal life of the body, in short, as ignorant of the fullness of the Gospel, with its hopes and consolations, as is the Pope of Rome, or the Bishop of Canterbury, or as are the Chiefs of the Indian tribes of Utah.

And why this ignorance in the spirit world? Because a portion of the inhabitants thereof are found unworthy of the consolations of the Gospel, until the fullness of time, until they have suffered in hell, in the dungeons of darkness, or the prisons of the condemned, amid the buffetings of fiends, and malicious and lying spirits.

As in earth, so in the spirit world. No person can enter into the privileges of the Gospel, until the keys are turned, and the Gospel opened by those in authority, for all which there is a time, according to the wise dispensations of justice and mercy.

It was many, many centuries before Christ lived in the flesh, that a whole generation, eight souls excepted, were cut off by the flood. What became of them? I do not know exactly all their history in the spirit world. But this much I know—they have heard the Gospel from the lips of a crucified Redeemer, and have the privilege of being judged according to men in the flesh. As these persons were ministered to by Jesus Christ, after he had been put to death, it is reasonable to suppose that they had waited all that time, without the knowledge or privileges of the Gospel.

How long did they wait? You may reckon for yourselves. The long ages, centuries, thousands of years which intervened between the flood of Noah and the death of Christ. Oh! the weariness, the tardy movement of time! The lingering ages for a people to dwell in condemnation, darkness, ignorance, and despondency, as a punishment for their sins. For they had been filled with violence while on the earth in the flesh, and had rejected the preaching of Noah, and the Prophets which were before him.

Between these two dispensations, so distant from each other in point of time, they were left to linger without hope, and without God, in the spirit world; and similar has been the fate of the poor Jew, the miserable Lamanite, and many others in the flesh. Between the commission and ministry of the Former and Latter-day Saints, and Apostles, there has been a long and dreary night of darkness. Some fifteen to seventeen centuries have passed away, in which the generations of man have lived without the keys of the Gospel.

Whether in the flesh, or in the spirit world, is this not hell enough? Who can imagine a greater hell than that before our eyes, in the circumstances of the poor, miserable, degraded Indian and his ancestors, since the keys of the Gospel were taken from them some fifteen hundred years ago? Those who had the Gospel in the former dispensations, and were made partakers of its spirit, its knowledge, and its powers, and then turned away, and became the enemies of God, and of His Saints, the malicious and willful opposers of that which they knew to be true, have no forgiveness in this world, neither in the spirit world, which is the world next to come.

Such apostates seek, in all dispensations, to bring destruction on the innocent, and to shed innocent blood, or consent thereto. For such, I again repeat, I know no forgiveness. Their children, who, by the conduct of such fathers, have been plunged into ignorance and misery for so many ages, and have lived without the privileges of the Gospel, will look down upon such a parentage with mingled feelings of horror, contempt, reproach, and pity, as the agents who plunged their posterity into the depths of misery and woe.

Think of those swept away by the flood in the days of Noah. Did they wait a long time in prison? Forty years! O what a time to be im– prisoned! What do you say to a hundred, a thousand, two thousand, three or four thousand years to wait? Without what? Without even a clear idea or hope of a resurrection from the dead, without the broken heart being bound up, the captive delivered, or the door of the prison opened. Did not they wait? Yes they did, until Christ was put to death in the flesh.

Now what would have been the result, if they had repented while in the flesh at the preaching of Noah? Why, they would have died in hope of a glorious resurrection, and would have enjoyed the society of the redeemed, and lived in happiness in the spirit world, till the resurrection of the Son of God. Then they would have received their bodies, and would have ascended with him, amid thrones, principalities, and powers in heavenly places.

I will suppose, in the spirit world, a grade of spirits of the lowest order, composed of murderers, robbers, thieves, adulterers, drunkards, and persons ignorant, uncultivated, &c., who are in prison, or in hell, without hope, without God, and unworthy as yet of Gospel instruction. Such spirits, if they could communicate, would not tell you of the resurrection or of any of the Gospel truths, for they know nothing about them. They would not tell you about heaven, or Priesthood, for in all their meanderings in the world of spirits, they have never been privileged with the ministry of a holy Priest. If they should tell all the truth they possess, they could not tell much.

Take another class of spirits—pious, well-disposed men; for instance, the honest Quaker, Presbyterian, or other sectarian, who, although honest, and well disposed, had not, while in the flesh, the privilege of the Priesthood and Gospel. They believed in Jesus Christ, but died in ignorance of his ordinances, and had not clear conceptions of his doctrine, and of the resurrection. They expected to go to that place called heaven, as soon as they were dead, and that their doom would then and there be fixed, without any further alteration or preparation. Suppose they should come back, with liberty to tell all they know? How much light could we get from them? They could only tell you about the nature of things in the world in which they live. And even that world you could not comprehend, by their description thereof, any more than you can describe colors to a man born blind, or sounds to those who have never heard.

What, then, could you get from them? Why, common chit chat, in which there would be a mixture of truth, and of error and mistakes, in mingled confusion: all their communications would betray the same want of clear and logical conceptions, and sound sense and philosophy, as would characterize the same class of spirits in the flesh.

Who, then, is prepared, among the spirits in the spirit world, to communicate the truth on the subject of salvation, to guide the people, to give advice, to confer consolation, to heal the sick, to administer joy, and gladness, and hope of immortality and eternal life, founded on manifest truth?

All that have been raised from the dead, and clothed with immortality, all that have ascended to yonder heavens, and been crowned as Kings and Priests, all such are our fellow servants, and of our brethren the Prophets, who have the testimony of Jesus; all such are waiting for the work of God among their posterity on the earth.

They could declare glad tidings if we were only prepared to commune with them. What else? Peter, James, Joseph, Hyrum, Father Smith, any, or all of those ancient or modern Saints, who have departed this life, who are clothed upon with the powers of the eternal Apostleship, or Priesthood, who have gone to the world of spirits, not to sorrow, but as joyful messengers, bearing glad tidings of eternal truth to the spirits in prison—could not these teach us good things? Yes, if they were permitted so to do.

But suppose all spirits were honest, and aimed at truth, yet each one could only converse of the things he is privileged to know, or comprehend, or which have been revealed to his understanding, or brought within the range of his intellect.

If this be the case, what then do we wish, in communicating with the eternal world, by visions, angels, or ministering spirits? Why, if a person is sick they would like to be visited, comforted, or healed by an angel or spirit! If a man is in prison, he would like an angel or spirit to visit him, and comfort or deliver him. A man shipwrecked would like to be instructed in the way of escape for himself and fellows from a watery grave. In case of extreme hunger a loaf of bread brought by an angel would not be unacceptable.

If a man were journeying, and murderers were lying in wait for him in a certain road, an angel would be useful to him in telling him of the circumstance, and to take another road.

If a man were journeying to preach the Gospel, an angel would be useful to tell the neighbors of his high and holy calling, as in case of Peter and Cornelius. Or would you not like to have angels all around you, to guard, guide, and advise you in every emergency?

The Saints would like to enter a holy temple, and have their President and his assistants administer for their dead. They love their fathers, although they had once almost for– gotten them. Our fathers have forgotten to hand down to us their genealogy. They have not felt sufficient interest to transmit to us their names, and the time and place of birth, and in many instances they have not taught us when and where ourselves were born, or who were our grandparents, and their ancestry. Why is all this? It is because of that veil of blindness which is cast over the earth, because there has been no true Church, Priesthood, or Patriarchal order, no holy place for the deposit or preservation of the sacred archives of antiquity, no knowledge of the eternal kindred ties, relationship, or mutual interests of eternity. The hearts of the children had become estranged from the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers from the children, until one came in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the keys of these things, to open communication between worlds, and to kindle in our bosoms that glow of eternal affection which lay dormant.

Suppose our temple was ready, and we should enter there to act for the dead, we could only act for those whose names are known to us. And these are few with the most of us Americans. And why is this? We have never had time to look to the heavens, or to the past or future, so busy have we been with the things of the earth. We have hardly had time to think of ourselves, to say nothing of our fathers.

It is time that all this stupidity and indifference should come to an end, and that our hearts were opened, and our charities extended, and that our bosoms expanded, to reach forth after whom? Those whom we consider dead! God has condescended so far to our capacity, as to speak of our fathers as if they were dead, although they are all living spirits, and will live forever. We have no dead! Only think of it! Our fathers are all living, thinking, active agents; we have only been taught that they are dead!

Shall I speak my feelings, that I had on yesterday, while we were laying those Corner Stones of the Temple? Yes, I will utter them, if I can.

It was not with my eyes, not with the power of actual vision, but by my intellect, by the natural faculties inherent in man, by the exercise of my reason, upon known principles, or by the power of the Spirit, that it appeared to me that Joseph Smith, and his associate spirits, the Latter-day Saints, hovered about us on the brink of that foundation, and with them all the angels and spirits from the other world, that might be permitted, or that were not too busy elsewhere.

Why should I think so? In the first place, what else on this earth have they to be interested about? Where would their eyes be turned, in the wide earth, if not centered here? Where would their hearts and affections be, if they cast a look or a thought towards the dark speck in the heavens which we inhabit, unless to the people of these valleys and mountains? Are there others who have the keys for the redemption of the dead? Is anyone else preparing a sanctuary for the holy conversation and ministrations pertaining to their exaltation? No, verily. No other people have opened their hearts to conceive ideas so grand. No other people have their sympathies drawn out to such an extent towards the fathers.

No. If you go from this people, to hear the doctrines of others, you will hear the doleful sayings—“As the tree falls, so it lyeth. As death leaves you, so judgment will find you. There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave, &c., &c. There is no change after death, but you are fixed, irretrievably fixed, for all eternity. The moment the breath leaves the body, you must go to an extreme of heaven or of hell, there to rejoice with Peter on thrones of power in the presence of Jesus Christ in the third heavens, or, on the other hand, to roll in the flames of hell with murderers and devils.” Such are the doctrines of our sectarian brethren, who profess to believe in Christ, but who know not the mysteries of godliness, and the boundless resources of eternal charity, and of that mercy which endureth forever.

It is here, that the spirit world would look with an intense interest, it is here that the nations of the dead, if I may so call them, would concentrate their hopes of ministration on the earth in their behalf. It is here that the countless millions of the spirit world would look for the ordinances of redemption, so far as they have been enlightened by the preaching of the Gospel, since the keys of the former dispensation were taken away from the earth.

Why? If they looked upon the earth at all, it would be upon those Corner Stones which we laid yesterday; if they listened at all, it would be to hear the sounds of voices and instruments, and the blending of sacred and martial music in honor of the commencement of a temple for the redemption of the dead. With what intensity of interest did they listen to the songs of Zion, and witness the feelings of their friends. They were glad to behold the glittering bayonets of the guards around the temple ground, and they longed for the day when there would be a thousand where there is now but one. They wish to see a strong people, gathered and united, in sufficient power to maintain a spot on earth where a baptismal font might be erected for the baptism for the dead.

It was here that all their expectations were centered. What cared they for all the golden palaces, marble pavements, or gilded halls of state on earth? What cared they for all the splendor, equipage, tides, and empty sounds of the self-styled great of this world, which all pass away as the dew of the morning before the rising sun? What cared they for the struggles, the battles, the victories, and numerous other worldly interests that vibrate the bosoms of men on either side? None of these things would interest them. Their interests were centered here, and thence extended to the work of God among the nations of the earth.

Did Joseph, in the spirit world, think of anything else, yesterday, but the doings of his brethren on the earth? He might have been necessarily employed, and so busy as to be obliged to think of other things. But if I were to judge from the acquaintance I had with him in his life, and from my knowledge of the spirit of Priesthood, I would suppose him to be so hurried as to have little or no time to cast an eye or a thought after his friends on the earth. He was always busy while here, and so are we. The spirit of our holy ordination and anointing will not let us rest. The spirit of his calling will never suffer him to rest, while Satan, sin, death, or darkness, possesses a foot of ground on this earth. While the spirit world contains the spirit of one of his friends or the grave holds captive one of their bodies, he will never rest, or slacken his labors.

You might as well talk of Saul, king of Israel, resting while Israel was oppressed by the Canaanites or Philistines, after Samuel had anointed him to be king. At first he was like another man, but when occasion called into action the energies of a king, the spirit of his anointing came upon him. He slew an ox, divided it into twelve parts, and sent a part to each of the tribes of Israel, with this proclamation—“So shall it be done to the ox of the man who will not come up to the help of the Lord of hosts.”

Ye Elders of Israel! You will find that there is a spirit upon you which will urge you to continued exertion, and will never suffer you to feel at ease in Zion while a work remains unfinished in the great plan of redemption of our race. It will inspire the Saints to build, plant, improve, cultivate, make the desert fruitful, in short, to use the elements, send missions abroad, build up states and kingdoms and temples at home, and send abroad the light of a never-ending day to every people and nation of the globe.

You have been baptized, you have had the laying on of hands, and some have been ordained, and some anointed with a holy anointing. A spirit has been given you. And you will find, if you undertake to rest, it will be the hardest work you ever performed. I came home here from a foreign mission. I presented myself to our President, and inquired what I should do next. “Rest,” said he.

If I had been set to turn the world over, to dig down a mountain, to go to the ends of the earth, or traverse the deserts of Arabia, it would have been easier than to have undertaken to rest, while the Priesthood was upon me. I have received the holy anointing, and I can never rest till the last enemy is conquered, death destroyed, and truth reigns triumphant.

May God bless you all. Amen.

An Oration by Elder Parley P. Pratt, Delivered on the Northeast Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the Twelve Apostles, the First Presidency of the Seventies, and the Presidency of the Elders’ Quorum had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

“And when they shall say unto you: Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter—should not a people seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead?”

The foregoing text was copied by Nephi, from the Book of Isaiah, about six hundred years before Christ, and is now contained in the second Book of Nephi, chap. ix.

For the last few years the world has been disturbed very much by alleged communications from the world of spirits. “Mesmerism,” “Clairvoyance,” “Spiritual Knockings,” “Writing Mediums,” &c., are said to be channels of communication between the living and the dead. How often one meets with an invitation to seek to some “medium”—to someone “familiar with spirits,” in order to hear from a deceased father, mother, husband, wife, or other relative or friend.

On the other hand, these alleged communications from the spirit world are zealously opposed, on the ground that there is no such philosophy in nature; that there can be no medium of communication between the living and those who have passed the veil of death; and that, therefore, all alleged communications from that source must necessarily be false.

It becomes the Saints to be able on this, as on all other subjects, to judge correctly and understandingly, by their knowledge of the principles of true philosophy, and of the laws of God and nature.

If on the one hand we admit the principle of communication between the spirit world and our own, and yield ourselves to the unreserved or indiscriminate guidance of every spiritual manifestation, we are liable to be led about by every wind of doctrine, and by every kind of spirit which constitute the varieties of being and of thought in the spirit world. Demons, foul or unclean spirits, adulterous or murderous spirits, those who love or make a lie, can communicate with beings in the flesh, as well as those who are more true and virtuous.

Again—The spirits who are ignorant, uncultivated, and who remain in error, can communicate through the same medium as those better informed.

To illustrate this subject, we will consider the telegraphic wire as a medium of communication between New York and Boston.

Through this medium a holy Prophet or Apostle could communicate the holy and sacred words of truth; while through the same, could be communicated words of truth in relation to news, business transactions, the sciences, &c.; and also every species of lie, error, imposition, fraud, &c. Hence, if the people of New York should submit to the guidance of beings in Boston, who communicate with them by telegraph or other mediums, they would be guided by a mixture of intelligence, truth, error, falsehood, &c., in every conceivable variety. So with communications from the spirit world, if we once credit the philosophy or fact of an existing medium of communication.

If, on the other hand, we deny the philosophy or the fact of spiritual communication between the living and those who have died, we deny the very fountain from which emanated the great truths or principles which were the foundation of both the ancient and modern Church.

Who communicated with Jesus and his disciples on the holy mount? Moses and Elias, from the invisible world. Who bestowed upon the Apostles the commission to preach the Gospel to every creature in all the world? He that had passed the veil of death, and had dwelt in the spirit world, yea, he that had ascended far on high above the realms of death, and far beyond all the principalities and powers of the spirit world, and had entered, and been crowned, in the mansions of immortal flesh.

Who communicated with the beloved disciple on the Isle of Patmos, and revealed those sublime truths contained in his prophetic book? He that liveth and was dead, through his angel, who declared to John—Behold, I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, that have the testimony of Jesus.

Who communicated with our great modern Prophet, and revealed through him as a medium, the ancient history of a hemisphere, and the records of the ancient dead? Moroni, who had lived upon the earth fourteen hundred years before. Who ordained Joseph the Prophet, and his fellowservant, to the preparatory Priesthood, to baptize for remission of sins? John the Baptist, who had been beheaded! Who ordained our first founders to the Apostleship, to hold the keys of the kingdom of God, in these the times of restoration? Peter, James, and John, from the eternal world. Who instructed him in the mysteries of the Kingdom, and in all things pertaining to Priesthood, law, philosophy, sacred architecture, ordinances, sealings, anointings, baptisms for the dead, and in the mysteries of the first, second, and third heavens, many of which are unlawful to utter? Angels and spirits from the eternal worlds.

Who revealed to him the plan of redemption, and of exaltation for the dead who had died without the Gospel? And the keys and preparations necessary for holy and perpetual converse with Jesus Christ, and with the spirits of just men made perfect, and with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, in the holy of holies? Those from the dead!

Again—How do the Saints expect the necessary information by which to complete the ministrations for the salvation and exaltation of their friends who have died?

By one holding the keys of the oracles of God, as a medium through which the living can hear from the dead.

Shall we, then, deny the principle, the philosophy, the fact of communication between worlds? No! Verily no!

The spiritual philosophy of the present age was introduced to the modern world by Joseph Smith. The people of the United States abandoned him to martyrdom, and his followers to fire, and sword, and plunder, and imprisonment, and final banishment to these far-off mountains and deserts, simply because a medium of communication with the invisible world had been found, whereby the living could hear from the dead. No sooner had the people and nation, thus guilty of innocent blood, completed the banishment of the Saints from their midst, than they began to adopt some of the same principles of spiritual philosophy, although in a perverted sense of the word.

Editors, statesmen, philosophers, priests, and lawyers, as well as the common people, began to advocate the principle of converse with the dead, by visions, divination, clairvoyance, knocking, and writing mediums, &c., &c. This spiritual philosophy of converse with the dead, once established by the labors, toils, sufferings, and martyrdom of its modern founders, and now embraced by a large portion of the learned world, shows a triumph more rapid and complete—a victory more extensive, than has ever been achieved in the same length of time in our world.

A quarter of a century since, an obscure boy and his few associates, in the western wilds of New York, commenced to hold converse with the dead. Now, vision, new revelation, clairvoyance, mediums, oracles, &c., are talked of and advocated as far as the modern press extends its influence, or steam its powers of locomotion.

An important point is gained, a victory won, and a countless host of opposing powers vanquished, on one of the leading or fundamental truths of “Mormon” philosophy, viz.—“That the living may hear from the dead.”

But, notwithstanding these great victories of truth over error, ignorance, and superstition, in certain points of spiritual philosophy, yet much remains to be done, ere pure, uncontaminated truth will reign triumphant, and darkness and error surrender their last stronghold on the earth.

The fact of spiritual communications being established, by which the living hear from the dead—being no longer a question of controversy with the well informed, we drop that point, and call attention to the means of discriminating or judging between the lawful and the unlawful mediums or channels of communication—between the holy and impure, the truths and falsehoods, thus communicated.

The words of the holy Prophet in our text, while they admit the principle of the living hearing from the dead, openly rebuke, and sharply reprove, persons for seeking to those who have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep and mutter, and remind us that a people should seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead!

By what means, then, can a people seek unto their God, for such an important blessing as to hear from the dead?

And how shall we discriminate between those who seek to Him, and those who seek the same by unlawful means?

In the first place, no persons can successfully seek to God for this privilege, unless they believe in direct revelation in modern times.

Secondly, it is impossible for us to seek Him successfully, and remain in our sins. A thorough repentance and reformation of life are absolutely necessary, if we would seek to Him.

Thirdly, Jesus Christ is the only name given under heaven as a medium through which to approach to God. None, then, can be lawful mediums, who are unbelievers in Jesus Christ, or in modern revelation; or who remain in their sins; or who act in their own name, instead of the name appointed.

And moreover, the Lord has appointed a Holy Priesthood on the earth, and in the heavens, and also in the world of spirits; which Priesthood is after the order or similitude of His Son; and has committed to this Priesthood the keys of holy and divine revelation, and of correspondence, or communication between angels, spirits, and men, and between all the holy de– partments, principalities, and powers of His government in all worlds.

And again—The Lord has ordained that all the most holy things pertaining to the salvation of the dead, and all the most holy conversations and correspondence with God, angels, and spirits, shall be had only in the sanctuary of His holy Temple on the earth, when prepared for that purpose by His Saints; and shall be received and administered by those who are ordained and sealed unto this power, to hold the keys of the sacred oracles of God.

To this same principle the Prophets Isaiah and Micah bear testimony, saying, that in the last days all nations shall go up to the house (or Temple) of the Lord, in order to be taught in His ways, and to walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, &c. Now it is evident that the people of all nations in the last days would be utterly unable to learn the ways of the Lord to perfection, in any other place except in a holy Temple erected among the mountains. For if the oracles, and most holy ordinances, and the keys or the mysteries, could be had elsewhere, or in any and every place, the people would never take the pains to resort to one house amid the mountains in order to learn of His ways, and to walk in His paths.

It is, then, a matter of certainty, according to the things revealed to the ancient Prophets, and renewed unto us, that all the animal magnetic phenomena, all the trances and visions of clairvoyant states, all the phenomena of spiritual knockings, writing mediums, &c., are from impure, unlawful, and unholy sources; and that those holy and chosen vessels which hold the keys of Priesthood in this world, in the spirit world, or in the world of resurrected beings, stand as far aloof from all these improper channels, or unholy mediums, of spiritual communication, as the heavens are higher than the earth, or as the mys– teries of the third heaven, which are unlawful to utter, differ from the jargon of sectarian ignorance and folly, or the divinations of foul spirits, abandoned wizards, magic-mongers, jugglers, and fortunetellers.

Ye Latter-day Saints! Ye thousands of the hosts of Israel! Ye are assembled here today, and have laid these Corner Stones, for the express purpose that the living might hear from the dead, and that we may prepare a holy sanctuary, where “the people may seek unto their God, for the living to hear from the dead,” and that heaven and earth, and the world of spirits may commune together—that the kings, nobles, presidents, rulers, judges, priests, counselors, and senators, which compose the general assembly of the Church of the Firstborn in all these different spheres of temporal and spiritual existence, may sit in grand Council, and hold a Congress or court on the earth, to concert measures for the overthrow of the “mystery of iniquity,” the thrones of tyrants, the sanctuaries of priestcraft and superstition, and the reign of ignorance, sin, and death.

Saints! These victories will be achieved, and Jesus Christ and his Saints will subdue all opposing powers, and attain to universal empire in heaven and on earth, as sure as innocent blood was ever shed on Mount Calvary, or the official seal broken on the door of the tomb of the Son of God. This day’s work, in laying these Corner Stones for a Temple amid the mountains, is one advancing step in the progress of the necessary preparations for these mighty revolutions.

Let Zion complete this Temple, let it be dedicated to, and accepted by, the Almighty, let it be preserved in holiness according to the laws of the Holy Priesthood, and Zion shall not want for a man to stand before the Lord, and to receive the oracles, and administer in His holy sanctuary, and to administer the keys of His government upon the earth,

While sun, or moon, or stars shall shine, Or principalities endure.

If the Saints accomplish these things, and fail not to keep the commandments of Jesus Christ and the counsels of his servants, the kingdoms of the world shall never prevail against them from this time forth and forever.

But remember, O ye Saints of the Most High! Remember that the enemy is on the alert. That old serpent and his angels, who have ruled this lower world, with few exceptions, for so many ages, will not tamely, and without a struggle, submit to have the kingdom, and seat of government, and sanctuary of our God, again erected on our planet, no more to be thrown down or subdued, till every square yard of the vast dominion shall be re-conquered by its rightful owners. No! From the moment the ground was broken for this Temple, those inspired by him [Satan] have commenced to rage; and he will continue to stir up his servants to anger against that which is good; but, if we are faithful, the victory is ours, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

An Address by Elder P. P. Pratt, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 27th, 1853.

Brethren and Sisters—My feelings are with those who have spoken, decidedly and firmly so. You have heard with reference to the experience of the past. I have had an opportunity to obtain experience in the past, and to observe as much perhaps as any one individual now living, as it regards the Church of the Saints in this age.

And I bear testimony, not only by the Holy Spirit, but by personal observation, memory, experience, and knowledge, that what has been said is true, strictly speaking, in all its bearings, in regard to the result of apostasy, as it relates to persecutions, breaking up, robbing, plundering, suffering, and martyrdom in this world.

The subject that has been presented here by President Young, I have revolved over in my own mind, and reflected upon it in its order. I remember well several scenes, and the places, he referred to; and I do not know of one single persecution, of any magnitude, that brought trouble and general distress upon the people of God in this age, that was not brought about directly by means of those that went out from ourselves, who professed to be of us, if I may except the first trouble in Jackson County, Missouri. I lived there at that time, and I do not personally know that apostates, or unlawful conduct on the part of those professing to be Saints, was the particular agent of bringing about that persecution. I do not know, so far as my own acquaintance with the circumstances is concerned, but that may be an exception. I do not recollect but what the world there, without aid from apostates, arose up and did what they did.

[Mr. Pratt’s mind was refreshed by a person in the stand, that there was an apostate who wrote a book previous to that persecution.] I now recollect there were some writers, among which was a Mr. Booth, that had been ordained to the Priesthood in this Church. He published things well calculated to bring on persecution. There might have been others also.

But I was speaking of personal actors, there, in the county. It was not then, as generally is the case, or as it has been since, aided by those from among ourselves. In all the general persecutions, from that time to the present, I do not recollect of a single instance, that the general storm was not brought about by men from among ourselves, professing the name, membership, and Priesthood of the Latter-day Saints, traitors to the cause that they professed to believe. This was the direct means of the suffering, and the breaking up, of the community in Kirtland; of the breaking up of the community in, and the expulsion of them from, Missouri. It was the direct means of this last persecution which led to the martyrdom of the Prophet, and the destruction of many others; the plundering of millions, the burning of our Temple, and our migration to this country. We came here for peace. We are now in a place where the extended desert, and snow clad mountains, widely intervene on every side between us and our neighbors, that they may not tread on our toes, and that we may not tread on theirs.

We know who led us here. It was not only the Almighty God, by His matchless providence, but by His servant—he that stands at the head of this people, and those that were with him. These were they that led us here—that so counseled and arranged and organized our local matters, that we have been sustained here, and have been fed, clothed, sheltered, and preserved. We have obtained our local, political rights and privileges, and have been enabled to preserve them inviolate in the face of all the opposition, lies, and slanders, which have been so industriously circulated.

Many of us here, as well as many who sleep in the dust, have been worn out in industriously accumulating property, making homes, and being deprived of them by violence and robbery. We have spent our lives in making homesteads, fencing, improving, cultivating, &c., without enjoying the fruits of our labors.

Sooner than be subjected to a repetition of these wrongs, I, for one, would rather march out today and be shot down. These are my feelings, and have been for some time. Talk about liberty of conscience! Have not men liberty of conscience here? Yes. The Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, &c., have here the liberty to worship God in their own way, and so has every man in the world. People have the privilege of apostatizing from this Church, and of worshipping devils, snakes, toads, or geese, if they please, and only let their neighbors alone. But they have not the privilege to disturb the peace, nor to endanger life or liberty; that is the idea. If they will take that privilege, I need not repeat their doom, it has been told here today, they have been faithfully warned.

Why is it that these apostates wish to cram down people’s stomachs that which they loathe? That which they have no wish either to hear, think about, or digest? If the people of a neighborhood, ward, or city, wish to speak, hear, or worship, or to discuss any subject, they have public and private buildings, schoolhouses, churches, or assembly rooms in abundance. Why, then, are our streets disturbed by tumults, railings, slanderous, abusive, and treasonable language, under the name of preaching? If the city, or a large portion of its citizens, wish to discuss any general principle, here is the Tabernacle, and yonder is the State House, or the Theater—all owned by the people, and under their control. Where is the need, then, of preaching in the streets. But where is the city or community to be found, who wish to discuss that which they already know and understand? As to this man, or rather “thing,” called Gladden Bishop, and his pretended visions and revelations, I know him of old. I knew him in Ohio, some eighteen or twenty years ago. I remember his name. My memory is poor in names, many of you know; but when there is something associated with a name, that stamps it strongly on my mind, I am not apt to forget it. I scarcely ever heard that name in my life, that it was not associated with some imposition or falsehood in the name of the Lord. If he was tried before the Councils of the Church, he would confess that he had lied, in pretending to visions, angels, and revelations, and ask forgiveness. If he was excommunicated, he would join again, &c.

I never heard of him in any other light, but as a man or a “thing” that crept in from time to time among the Saints, with attempts to deceive the people with one imposition or another.

His difficulty all the time was, that the people would not be deceived by him. I will not put him on a level with other apostates. Where can we find one of them that has not had some influence? I know of no one that had not some followers for awhile, although none could keep them; but I never knew Gladden Bishop to gain a single follower among his personal acquaintance. He was disfellowshipped, and received on his professions of repentance, so often, that the Church at length refused to admit him any more as a member. These apostates talk of proof! Have we not proved Joseph Smith to be a Prophet—a restorer, standing at the head of this dispensation? Have we not proved the Priesthood which he placed upon others by the command of God?

I see no ground, then, to prove or to investigate the calling of an apostate, who has always been trying to impose upon this people. It is too late in the day for us to stop to inquire whether such an outcast has the truth.

We have truths already developed, unfulfilled by us—unacted upon. There are more truths poured out from the eternal fountain, already, than our minds can contain, or than we have places and preparations to carry out. And yet we are called upon to prove—what? Whether an egg that was known to be rotten fifteen years ago, has really improved by reason of age!!

“You are going to be destroyed,” say they, “destruction awaits this City!” Well! What if we are? We are as able to be destroyed as any people living. What care we whether we are destroyed or not? These old tabernacles will die of themselves, if let alone.

We have nothing to fear on that head, for we are as well prepared to die as to live. One thing we have heard today, and I am glad to hear it. We shall not be destroyed in the old way—as we have been heretofore. We shall have a change in the manner, at least. We shall probably be destroyed standing, this time, and not in a sitting or lying position. We can die as well as others who are not as well prepared! I am glad that while we do live we shall not submit to be yoked or saddled like a dumb ass. We shall not stand still to see men, women, and children murdered, robbed, plundered, and driven any more, as in the States heretofore. Nor does God require it at our hands. That is the best news we have heard today.

You may say, Wait till an enemy forms a league with others for your destruction. We would do this, if we did not know the spirit that actuates our enemies. Ignorant of this, we might sit down and wait till men did actually cut our throats, in order to prove them. But if you will manifest to me a spirit in any person, I will tell you where that spirit leads, and so can President Young and his Counselors, and every true-hearted Saint who has experience in the operations of spiritual powers. We will try to act in time, and not suffer the spirit of destruction to ripen in our midst.

It is not enough for people to have liberty to worship according to sectarianism, Judaism, heathenism, and everything else, but they wish the liberty to stab you to the heart.

It is policy not to wait till you are killed, but act on the defensive while you still live. I have said enough on this subject.

I rejoice in living with this people. As brother Kimball said, this was his heaven. It is mine. There might be a better people, but we can’t find them—they are not known upon the earth, in mortal flesh. If we find a better people we shall have to wait till people grow better.

If we should find a better people before ourselves are grown better, we could not live among them, and that would be the hell of it. We have found a people as good as we are, and we are agreed to live together. The light of truth has united us, and the spirit has baptized us into a degree of oneness. The world thinks we are one in the highest sense of the term; but God sees that there is much room for us to improve in oneness. Where shall we begin to improve? I don’t know of anything better calculated to improve our union than to have some wide meshes in the net, to let those slip through who don’t wish to be gathered, and to unite with the rest. There is an accumulation here of the good and the bad, the chaff and the wheat, the tares and the good grain, the good and bad fish which the Gospel net gathers. The only safe way is for the good and bad to be separated. I like to see the roads open, the snow disappear from the canyons, that spirits not congenial to the Gospel of peace may go as many roads as there are points of the compass. Such movements give opportunity for the Saints to draw the cords of union still closer. May God bless you all. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Parley P. Pratt, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 30, 1853.

Brethren and Friends—I am glad to see you once more, and for the privilege of meeting with you. I did not expect to address you this morning, not being well in health; but at the request of my brother, who pre– sides over me, and in the absence of many who might edify you, I rise to speak a short time, and give place to others.

I desire your prayers, that my body may be strengthened, and also for the Gift of the Holy Spirit, without which no man can edify his fellow man.

We are told, by the Prophet of old, in the good old Bible, and by that peculiar Prophet that the Christian world (that portion of them that esteem the Bible) consider more clear, and more eloquent than any other, whose prophecies are on record—the Prophet Isaiah; we are told by him, that the Lord would, some time, “lift up a standard for the people,” “an ensign for the nations,” and that He would not only do this, but do it as a manifestation which should result in the great restoration of all things spoken of by the Prophets, in the restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel from the four quarters of the earth, to their own country, nationality, institutions, and religion; that they might again be nationalized, established, and reinstated in their covenant renewed unto them, as in days of old, and have their own Priesthood, rulers, governors, and consequently their own blessings. I say, we are told, by one of the greatest Prophets, whose prophecies are on record, that a standard would be lifted up or manifested, in order to bring about that great restoration. What is that standard? Let us reason a little upon that subject, this morning. Some might say it is a book. It might be, in a certain sense. A dictionary of a language is sometimes called a standard, that is, something established, something that is a sufficient authority, something to which all can refer, as to a sample or doctrine, to decide a question or an uncertainty in the meaning of words.

In point of principle or doctrine, a book that we might call a “standard,“ might be considered to contain truths. But I do not understand the prediction to which I refer as exclusively pertaining to a book, but rather to a religion, to a set of principles developed, to a covenant established, or, to carry it out more fully, to a people organized, gathered together, and established in one, having one faith, one spirit, one baptism, one God, one eternal and everlasting covenant by which they are all united, and one set of principles by which they are governed. For where such a government might be subdivided by local circumstances, whether these principles were written in one book or in a thousand books, or whether they were taught and acted upon without any book, whether the people could read a book or could not, nothing short of the development of certain principles of religion, law, and government, embraced by a certain portion of people, by which they could see eye to eye, in which they were united, and by the spirit of which they were made one in light and truth and fellowship, and gathered, organized, planted, established—in short, a system containing a development of all the principles that constitute a heavenly government, nothing short of this, if I understand the prediction of Isaiah, would be considered by the Jews, and by the other tribes of Israel, wherever they were found, and finally by the whole of the Gentile world that might live to see it, as a “standard.” This would be something worthy to be called a standard, something to which they could look, and come to, and be organized, consolidated, nationalized, and governed by, politically and religiously; or more truly and consistently speaking, religiously, because that includes all the political governments that are worth naming or striving for in heaven or on earth.

A system of religion, or a people organized upon it, should include every branch of government that they could possibly need for their dwelling with each other, for their organization, peace, welfare, defense, order, happiness, and for their dwelling with neighboring nations. A system of religion that is from heaven never would stop short of including all these principles. Therefore it is inconsistent, it is because of the ignorance that is in the world that two terms—“political government” and “religious government,” are used.

Men have been in the habit of walking with, of being organized and identified with, religions more or less false, and not sufficient in themselves to carry out all the principles of government; they are a kind of Sunday convenience, separate and distinct from the everyday affairs of life; a kind of a big religious cloak, to be put on for that day, but not to be considered to have anything to do with everyday affairs. This kind of religion not being sufficient for the happiness and government, enlightenment and improvement, education and regulation of mankind, or of society in all its branches, of course men would get up something else separate from it, and call that “the policy of civil government.” I do not blame them, for a false religion, or one partly false and partly true, never was calculated to answer the purpose. A religion not wholly true could not possibly develop all the resources, principles, branches, departments, officers, and powers adapted to the government, organization, peace, order, happiness, and defense of society, and for its regulation while dwelling with foreign departments and powers.

Men require something more than these imperfect systems, which are a mixture of truth and error, that exist in the world (and they have no better, of course); they need something else besides their Sunday arrangements, besides this machinery of theories; they need something of everyday practical utility; and this they call civil government and politics, distinct from religion, though in some countries they blend one with the other, and both are in force. But I use the terms politics and religion to adapt myself to those obsolete ideas, that are about passing away with us, but under which a great majority of mankind still labor. In addressing the Saints, I make no distinction; when I say a religious system, I mean that which unites principles of political government and religions, which is perfectly sufficient for, and completely adapted to, all the wants of cities, boroughs, counties, states, kingdoms, empires, or the world, or a million of worlds; that system of religion or government, just which you please to call it, that regulates things in heaven, and for which all professing Christian men pray.

Whether men realize it or not, when they say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” it is as much as to say, “O God, sweep away all the falsehood and abuses of power there are in the world, whether religious or political; down with the tyrants, down with the abuses, down with the false nobility, down with the pride, extravagance, and idleness of the one class, and down with the hard trials, want, oppression, and poverty that are heaped upon the other class; do away with all the kingcraft, priestcraft, and republic craft that are in the world. And in the place of all these false governments and religions, in political and social life, introduce that eternal government, that pure order of things, those eternal principles and institutions, which govern society in those better worlds, the worlds of immortality and eternal life.” That is what a man prays for, as well as I can tell it, when he says, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” He says, “Sweep away all abuses, all corruption, all falsehood, all war, all ungodly and selfish ambition; and in its place introduce a new government for universal man, a system that will touch all his wants, religiously, politically, and every other way; which will organize and govern society upon the principles that society is governed upon in heaven.”

I pray for that day, understanding it in that light. And if anybody uses that prayer, and does not mean it in that light, it is for want of reflection. For instance—does any man in his senses, believe that the government of the eternal heavens in the presence of God, consists of a variety of kingdoms, empires, republics, and states, governed by various principles, ruled by aspirants, and sometimes by tyrants, that differ widely one from another in the principles by which they rule, one jarring with, and encroaching upon, the other, and frequently going to war with him, having a thousand different ways of worship, and of religious and political administration? I ask, again, does any sane person, who reflects, believe that heaven is governed in that way? No. Every reflecting person believes as well as I, that if there is a world of immortality at all, where righteousness rules, the same principles, as far as they go, are developed unto all, and adapted to all. Some may have more truth, ascend to greater degrees of perfection, and be able to receive higher and more glorious principles of government than others, even in heaven. Some may attain to a celestial glory, of which the sun is typical; others be as telestial beings, the glory of which is compared with the stars, as they appear to our sight; and these two classes may differ as widely from each other as the stars differ from the sun in glory, as seen by man. So far as heavenly beings have become enlightened by revelation in the laws of eternal government, a sameness exists in their possession of principles of truth, as far as it goes. Some may be in possession of the same portion of truth, but may not possess it in fulness, but it is true so far as it goes, by which all are in union, peace, and love, and by which they all do right, and all glorify God, and maintain an eternal peace and bond of happiness.

In viewing heaven thus, “I do not believe I differ, except in degree, from the expectations and views of all Christendom that believe in a hereafter.” They would not contend for a moment for the jargon and division that exist in this world, that produce—what? Envy, hatred, darkness, and ignorance. They do not believe for a moment that anything of this kind exists in heaven. They pray as well as we, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” They pray, whether they think of it or not, that all the jargon, errors, abuses, darkness, and ignorance that now exist in the world, under the name of religion, government, or anything else, may come to an end; that, so far as there is unrighteousness, or any error in principle, thrones may be cast down; that all the powers of earth, whether republic or monarchial, that are not in accordance with the law and government of heaven, may pass away, and those principles be introduced that govern the sanctified in heaven, so far as man in this life is capable of receiving these good things, and enjoying them in truth, union, and peace. Then with this view of the subject, such a system introduced, even among a few men they being organized upon it, and acting it out in a good measure, we should call this a “standard.” The Jews could look to it and call it a “standard.” The ten tribes, and the scattered remnants, and all that appertain to the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, scattered through the world, waiting for the redemption, and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, could look to such a “standard,” to the people or- ganized upon these principles developed from heaven, and carrying them out in all their points, for they are capable of governing a world, or a million of worlds; to this they could look and say, there is a “standard.”

If all the railroads, steamboats, and other swift means of conveyance, with all the gold and silver, were in the hands and under the control of the right lineage, and all the sea captains and railroad proprietors stood ready to serve them, as the Jew turned his attention to the brightening prospect, and to his own land the question would naturally arise in his mind—under what standard shall I go? You may say under the colors of Great Britain, but that is not sufficient. Upon what principles shall we be organized, religiously and politically? Which of all the churches in Christendom will present us with a just standard, constituted to our capacity? Which of all the nations will present a government standard, constituted to our position?

“Well, but,” you say, “let the Jews take their own standard.” Then they will neither have the Christian dispensation, nor that of Moses and the Prophets, because both of these had power in them that the Jews do not profess to have. The Christian religion had its inspired men, Apostles and Prophets. Those the Jews have not got. Moses and the Prophets had their miracles, gifts, powers, and oracles, men who were raised up by heaven, to direct, make laws and governments, and organize a kingdom among the Jews; they have not got these either. The most they pretend to have is a Book that gives the history of their fathers, and of Moses and the Prophets; showing that they lived under a dispensation of Priesthood, revealed from heaven, and handed down from the fathers, from generation to generation, which Priesthood held the Urim and Thummim, and the charge of the holy place, containing the holy things, and power to inquire of God, and to instruct the people in what was for their peace, defense, welfare, government, judgment, and law. The Jews cannot say they have these things now. Moses and the Prophets had the ministering of angels. The Jews at this day have not. Moses and the Prophets had living oracles from heaven. The Jews have not. Moses and the Prophets had power to control the elements, and work mighty wonders in the name of the Lord, some of them even rolled the earth back on its axis. Have the Jews this power? No. To restore them to Palestine, and let their own institutions be a standard, would be to put there what neither resemble Moses and the Prophets, nor Jesus and the Prophets.

“But suppose we try to convert them to the present Christian institutions,” says one. Well, where is the “standard?” Who has got it? The Christian institution consisted of Apostles and Prophets, ministers whose Priesthood was after the order of the Son of God, and ordained by himself, for he says, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you;” “ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.” Connected with the Apostleship are the keys and powers of government, the administration of ordinances, and the gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit. This is a “standard,” which the Jews, and the ten tribes would all acknowledge, and it is a Christian one, yet such a one all Christendom cannot present. They can present a book, like the Jews; the one is a book that testifies that Moses and the Prophets had this power, the other that Jesus and his Apostles had it, but neither of these books can be the “standard,” because the mere history that somebody had this power would not be a living “standard.” If the Christians pre– sent the Jews with the New Testament, the Jews will present the Christians with the Old Testament, and the writers of both of them had the power. The Jew would have to admit, that the power and “standard” that his book was the key of, had passed away; and the Christian, that the angels, gifts, and blessings that his book gave an account of, had also passed away.

If you take the despotic standard of Russia, or the standard of any other of the nations of Europe, some of them are unlimited in their provisions—the sovereign is the law; others are limited—the sovereign only being part of the law and power, frequent bloody wars arise between the monarch and the people; and those who come direct to the throne by hereditary right are beset by the same evils. Besides that, in Russia there is one kind of religion; in Greece, another; in Rome, a third; and in England, a fourth; all widely differing from each other.

To take the republican form of government, and set it up as a standard, would be to set the Jews and the Ten Tribes, when they get home, to creating their own government, religion, and officers. They would say, “This is not a restoration of all things to the order of the fathers. Whoever heard of a nation’s rising up, and making its own ministry of angels, its own Prophets, Apostles, and Priesthood to speak the word of God, and to inquire of Him?” The Lord would turn round and say, “I have not chosen this man, you have chosen him and ordained him.” Did the people elect and appoint Moses to receive all his powers, to hold communion with the burning bush, and divide the waters of the Red Sea? Did they elect Joshua to that faith by which he lived to lead Israel into Canaan, and divide Jordan by the word of God? Did they instruct him to lengthen out the day while Israel conquered their enemies? No. God Al– mighty chose Moses and ordained him; and Moses laid his hands upon Joshua and ordained him, and therefore the two were full of the Spirit of God to fill a similar calling.

The Jews and the Ten Tribes know better than to bow to such an order of things, for no rule, precedent, or example, can be found in the history of the fathers to substantiate such a course; they would either conclude that God had changed, or that such proceedings were an imposition, and pertained to no real government from heaven at all.

“Well, then,” says the Lord, “I will set up a standard for my people, and lift up my hand to the Gentiles. A system shall be developed from heaven, by which the people are to be planted in one, that is, those who embrace it; by which shall be developed among them all, one spirit, one doctrine, one order of Priesthood, worship, power, and government, to lead, direct, control, and say what religion they shall adopt, including every department of government, sufficient for all the affairs of state, both internal and external, and that would contribute to their enlightenment, improvement, defense, exaltation, and their relations with all the world.” Such a thing would be a “standard.” It would answer the purpose to plant and govern them. It would bring the Gentiles to it. In order for this, it would be a principle of government developed in all its parts, not differing so much from the old one either. “Do you mean the law of Moses?” Yes, but only so far as the same eternal principles existed in that law. There were many principles given in that law which pertained not to the eternal kingdom of God; they had to be fulfilled in Christ, and then have an end.

“Well, then, what do you mean? Do you mean to say that this modern standard must not differ from the in– stitutions revealed and carried out in the days of Christ and his Apostles?” No, this is not what I mean, because it must differ in some of its bearings from those institutions. “Wherein?” In this respect, if nothing more—Peter and the rest of the Apostles having done what we are doing now, that is, talked about that “standard,” and the restoration of the kingdom and government to Israel, said to Jesus, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” That is, “Wilt thou at this time raise a standard with all the powers of government, break down the Roman Empire, and give the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven to thy Saints, that so all Israel may be saved?” So far from a satisfactory answer being given to Peter and the Apostles, the Savior said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons” when this shall be done, letting alone doing it, for the knowledge of these times “the Father hath put in his own power.” Jesus did not turn round and answer them as the sectarians would—“You are entirely mistaken, my kingdom will always be a spiritual kingdom; and you will be very much disappointed if you look for anything else.” He virtually said—“Suffice it to say, it is not given to you Apostles to hold the keys of my kingdom in that day and age of the world, or even to know the time that I will do that work.” “Well, Lord, what will you have us to do? As the Scriptures are more full upon that subject than almost any other, for kings and Prophets spoke of little else, and you will not tell us of that, but reserve it for some other people, and to be known at some other time, which we are not to know, what is it you would have us to do?” “Simply be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. Baptize the people, if they will repent, after you have taught them to believe in me, their eternal King and great High Priest, who rose from the dead, and ascended up on high in your presence, to reign in heaven, and eventually upon the earth. Go and tell the people that, and let them repent, and turn to me with full purpose of heart, and know that I am the law, and the way, and the truth; and if they shall keep my words, they shall have eternal life; and if they do not, they shall remain in condemnation. If they hear you, they hear me; and if they receive you, they receive me; and if they receive me, they receive him that sent me; and if they reject you, they reject me. And whatsoever they do to you, it is the same as though they did it to me. You are my ambassadors, my representatives, my ministers, and if they do good to you, it is the same as though they did it to me. If they discard you, and believe not your words, and withhold their hands from helping you to carry out the principles of truth, it is the same as though they did it unto me.” “But, master, how shall we establish a standard of government, and peace, so as to maintain these principles?” “You cannot do it.” Did Jesus Christ and his Apostles say these things in so many words? No. But in words that amounted to the same thing. Says he—“The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” And unto Peter, the head of the Apostles, Jesus said, speaking of the death Peter should die—“When thou shall be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” Jesus told his servants they would be scourged from city to city, and from place to place, and from synagogue to synagogue, and be overcome, for another power would rise different from the kingdom of God, and it should make war with them, and overcome them, and be drunken with the blood of the Saints, and hold dominion over all the kings of the earth, over every tribe and tongue and people, until the words of God should be fulfilled; therefore they were not to think to gather the people, to establish a kingdom or government on the earth, for they could not do it. There was another power to rise, that would put their power down, and bear rule over all nations, and all nations would be deceived by it.

Now you take the instructions of the Apostles to the Saints in former days, and the manifestations of the Lord to the last of the Twelve while he was on the Isle of Patmos, and see if they do not amount to the above.

Well, then, give us a dispensation like the one they had, one fitted to the New Testament; and it is simply to run through the world, and witness of the manifestations of the Lord of life and glory in the flesh, and his resurrection from the dead; to call upon the people to repent and be baptized, and give them the first principles of the Gospel, and prepare them to reign in yonder world of glory, so far as they could by being faithful through the Gospel; and as fast as they were baptized, say to them, “You may expect to be killed, and if you are not willing to lay down your life, do not put your name among us, nor be baptized at all, for the wicked will make war with the Saints and overcome them.” To repent, and be baptized, and receive the Gospel for the remission of sins, be killed and go home to glory, was the Gospel the ancient Apostles preached. I say, if we had a dispensation precisely like that which Peter and the rest of the former-day Apostles had, that is just as far as we could carry it. Where is the place where we could build up the kingdom of God? Nowhere. If you lived in Rome (and Rome was the world), and submitted to its butcheries, until the words of God should be fulfilled, you would be slain and go into yonder world.

Hence the kingdom of God had to be set up twice, once in the days of Peter, wherein those who obeyed the Gospel ordinances had to submit to the Roman power and be killed. After they are killed, and the Priesthood is taken from the earth, and the keys of it are gone from the earth also, or hid up, so that nobody holds them, and all nations are deceived, as it was written by the Revelator John by this ruling power, which is nothing more nor less than Rome, for that was the world then known—after all this, when the time comes for the word of God to be fulfilled, and for a standard to be set up, what does this book, the Bible, say? What does Jesus Christ himself say? “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear;” and he goes on to say that when you shall see these things come to pass, then know that the kingdom of God is at hand.

The Millerites mistook it, and thought it meant, then know that the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is just at the door. A great many have been mistaken on this subject, among Christian communities, so called. But if they had searched diligently to know, they would not have taken the second advent of Messiah, and put it in the place of his kingdom, to be at hand when you see the signs begin to take place; then “know ye, that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”

Now it is evident that the kingdom of God was to be set up twice—at two distinct times, or else the whole matter is a mistake from the beginning to the end, because John the Baptist said it was at hand in his day, Jesus Christ said the same, the Apostles and Seventies said, in their days, that it was right at the door. And then Jesus Christ predicted a whole string of events, including the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews. He then predicted signs that were to be seen in the sun, moon, and stars, and said, lo! “the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Just as sure as the sun shines, the kingdom had to be set up twice, or there is no meaning to the Book, and the last, too, at the time the Millerites and others have set for the personal appearance of the Savior.

The Lord, in speaking to his Apostles, said, “It is not given for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” What would he say to the Apostles in the last days? He would say quite the reverse of this—“To you it is given to know the times and the seasons, because you are the very men to do that work, but my old Apostles were only to bear witness of me to the world. As the received traditions and religion of the world were at war with the principle of the resurrection presented in my body, I required my ancient Apostles to bear witness of it in Jerusalem and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, wherever they could find followers. But I now will raise up you and other men, and ordain you, and cause keys of power to be committed to you, as in days of old, in the same Gospel ordinances and spirit; but when they come, you will not be required to fulfil any such thing as my servants did anciently, which was, to bear witness, preach repentance, baptize the people, and be killed. You will know the times and the seasons, which the Father put in His own power, and which my other Apostles could not know, and then go to work with your mights and fulfil it.”

Hence the gathering of the Saints; the organization of the kingdom of God, religiously and politically, if you will; the revelation of the law of God, and the new and everlasting covenant made to Abraham of old and his seed, which has never been altered by the Lord, only lost to the people. Paul said that the law given upon Mount Sinai, four hundred and thirty years after that covenant was made, might not disannul it. Jesus Christ was that man spoken of when God said, “In thee and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” Thus, Paul and Jesus, in so many words, confirmed the covenant made with Abraham, that neither the law of Moses nor Jesus Christ ever disannulled. What was it? A great many things, but the principal thing was, “I will greatly multiply thy seed;” in short, a law was given him by which he and his posterity should be regulated and governed, with regard to matrimony and posterity.

Now, then, to restore the new and everlasting covenant made with Abraham, and not disannulled by Moses, the Prophets, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles; to restore an organization of principles, of law; a development that would make a standard to regulate families, households, and kingdoms in every respect; that would be to fulfil the words of Isaiah, where he says, I will “set up my standard to the people;” then I will gather you. Going to work to gather them to a standard set up by modern professors would be nonsense, for it would not chime in with the law that governed Abraham and his family matters, when he and a great many others should come together and sit down in the kingdom of God. Such a standard would be lame in some points.

If I were a Jew, you might cry to me and preach to me until doomsday, and then take a sword, and hold it over me to sever my head from my body, but I should say, “I will not move one step to the standard that is not Abraham’s, nor from the everlasting covenant in which my fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the holy Prophets will come and sit down in the presence of God, upon the same principles with their modern children. I am a Jew, and my hope is in the covenants of the fathers. If you nations who are not numbered in that covenant wish to be blessed, it must be in that covenant, and in no other way; and you cannot bring me any other standard that is a lawful one. You may teach me Christianity, as you call it; you may try to govern me by a republican government, as you call it; and ten thousand other things; but when you have taught them all to me, neither for your fire, your sword, your government, your religion, your threats, nor anything else will I ever embrace any other system but the standard, the covenant, in which all my nation, all the Ten Tribes and the scattered remnants can be blessed; a covenant that will look them up, with all the Gentile world; and raise all the ancients from the dead, and by which all can sit down together in the same kingdom, and be governed by the same principles, covenants, laws, and ordinances forever.” That is the stubbornness I should have in my nature, if I were a Jew. And the blood that flows quick through my veins tells me I am not one whit behind the Jew; it tells me I am of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; therefore I am just about as hard as they are to believe in anything but a full and complete standard, a development of that system which will organize me and my house, and all the people, whether Jew or Gentile, that will embrace it, in all the world, if they will repent. I read it, in so many words of the good old Prophet, that “the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” I would say to king Agrippa, if he were here today, “Believest thou the Prophets?” If the world would believe, then, the whole of their kingcraft, and priestcraft, and confused systems would soon pass away, and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to which the Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles looked forward, would be established.

“When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Is it a system of government, to organize and gather the people? Yes, a people that will not have their heads cut off any more by that government that has deceived the whole world, and drunk the blood of the Saints of the Most High. It is a kingdom that the wicked will not be permitted again to possess or destroy. How shall we look for it? It will be one of the smallest of governments upon this earth, to which a grain of mustard seed is brought as a comparison. When we see the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and among different nations, it proves that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand; we may then begin to look around for it. We must not look to Russia, or to England, to become this kingdom, but to the smallest of the governments in this world, one so small that it is compared to a grain of mustard seed. Where must we look for it? In the very spot where it has room to grow, and in its smallness be overshadowed with weeds and plants of other kinds; so we must look for its organization, establishment, and development in some country where that little few compose the majority, and should rule. Now with these great characteristics, and plain directions, which any man can gather from the Bible, we need not look to any other place where we may find this kingdom. Then among the Saints right here, where they compose the majority, where there is not another larger government, where they are hemmed in with mountains, and can establish peace, and a kingdom, and a government, and a law. “Well,” says one, “you are a republican government; how does that chime in with the word kingdom?” It matters not as to the outward name, whether it takes the name of republic or kingdom, or this, that, or the other; it is not the name that does the business. We call England a monarchy, because its Presidency perpetually comes from one line, it is hereditary. We call the United States a republican government, because they put in a man to rule, and put him out once in four years. I have been in both countries and lived and acted more or less under the two governments. I went to England with a good deal of prejudice; for I was brought up to believe that a republican government was the only good government in the world, and the British were made to be killed off. When my brother Orson began to speak at all, the first word which I can remember he ever said, was—“Why, dad’s gone to shoot the British.” So I must have gone there more or less prejudiced against that government. What is the fact, against all these prejudices of early life? It is, that government is tolerably good in both countries. The United States have the best institutions of the two, but I tell you, if they had carried them out better for us, we might have been here, not so poor as we are today. I like England the better of the two; not because her institutions are better, but because they are carried out better. A government well carried out is better than any other form of government not carried out. You may spread your forms on paper, but paper will lie a long time before it will take off a man’s head for breaking the law.

Here we are, and, thank God for it, a small government, you may call it a republican government, or what you please; but the spirit, and Gospel, and law, and principles of union are here, and nobody can help it. There is no law against unity, against being baptized, against receiving the administration of angels, or the keys of the Apostleship, against laying hands on others that men may be filled with the Holy Ghost. There is no law against these things, thank God. This makes us united, it makes us do our duty, and remain in the spirit of oneness and in faith, operating diligently upon the principles developed by revelation upon revelation, and precept upon precept, and law upon law, and truth upon truth. We find ourselves a government organized upon these great principles, and a government in peace. This government has to maintain its character, and become a standard, having developed in it every principle for the salvation of the living and the dead; to hold the keys of the Priesthood that bear rule in heaven, on earth, and in hell, and maintain a people built upon it, which is all necessary in order to become a standard. To this the Ten Tribes will look, to this will look the scattered remnants that are aware of the promise to Abraham, that in his seed, and not in some other Priesthood and lineage, shall all the nations and people of the earth be blessed. Where should they look, if we were to be scattered abroad, if we should come to a standstill, and stick our stakes, and say to the Almighty and to His servants—“We will do this, and that, and that is what we will not do, but we will go our own way?” Suppose now the spirit of prophecy should descend upon the Ten Tribes of Israel, and they smite the mountains of ice by the word of God, and the mountains flow down, and their Prophets travel abroad to search the world through, for they have seen the signs in the heavens, and they feel like the wise men of the east as they inquired for the Savior; suppose the Ten Tribes come and inquire—“Where is the Temple of God, for we have seen the signs in the heavens; where shall we find it?” And we were to scatter and divide, and lose the Spirit of God, and become sectarians, or something worse; the Ten Tribes Would then have to search with a lighted candle, and could not find the Temple here, and I defy them to find it anywhere else.

“Now, then, brother Pratt, we have embraced all this good Gospel, which you tell about. We have been baptized, we have come into the new and everlasting covenant, we are one, our sins are forgiven us, and we have received a portion of the Holy Ghost.” Having availed ourselves of all these things, what we are as individuals, we have gained together as number one and two, and all are justified together, and the common interests of the kingdom are carried out. Some may say, “There are warmer climates than this, why not go to them, and accommodate ourselves better than we can here? Besides that, there are places where men get more gold and silver, and can buy sugar, fruit, &c., where wood is plentiful, and where the country presents more beautiful scenery, and is more like Paradise than this place is; the whole earth is before us, why can we not go and possess it where we please? Why can we not go and serve ourselves awhile, and let the kingdom of God take care of itself, or let these good, pious Elders and Apostles that are so attached to it, take care of it?” If it is right for you to set your minds upon warmer climates, upon more convenient timber, and upon making money, then it is right for every one of us to do the same. If it is right for you, it is right for our President, and his Council, and the Twelve, and everybody else. If each person should get his own way, go to where the climate will suit him best, where there are a market and all other conveniences, I want to know, then, where the kingdom of God is? What worldly government could you live under, as the kingdom of God, when you had satisfied these desires? Just point your finger to the place, on this wide earth, where there is any better climate than this, any better market than this, where the staple necessaries and conveniences of life exist in greater abundance than they do here. Point your finger to such a place, and convince me by mathematical demonstration that this people can live there, and be a majority there, and reign there, and maintain the kingdom of God there, and I am not sure but I will go with you, and, I believe, the President will, and I think the Lord would be pleased with it. If we had such a place, and could go and enjoy it, who cares? The less time it will take to get a living, the more time we shall have to attend to the teaching of others, and the more convenience to gather them to it. I do not know that the Lord would have any objection to it, if you could name such a place.

What kind of a government is there out yonder, west of us? The very scum floods out of the United States into that goodly land, that golden country; there is a concentration of jargon, ignorance, folly, corruption, and abomination, all gathered together in one focus, and then corrupting itself after being made of corruption. A Saint of God might put all the advantages of climate, timber, soil, trade, and money together in the world, and he could not live under that government. Why did you not stop in Rome, and serve God there? You were in a fine country, a salubrious climate, the timber was handy, and you possessed a delightful situation. Why? Because the Apostles could not live under the Roman Government without being killed; and how could you do it without sharing the same fate? If you did live in Rome, you cannot say that the government is according to the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why not stay in England? It is a fine climate, and, in many respects, it has a good soil, with trade, and plenty of coal for fuel. Why not stay in the United States, where you can get sugar for three cents per pound? Why did you ever leave your countries, your native homes, to come here? Look at these snow-clad mountains, and naked plains—look at the scarcity of timber, and the difficulty of traveling such a distance to get here, and so far from any market. Bless your soul, you will not find conveniences in the world, anywhere, handier than they are here! Why not stay where you were? “Why,” you say, “I thought I should get a little instruction here, that I could not get anywhere else; but, having got that instruction, I thought to enjoy it, and go where I pleased.” My view of the subject is this—to gather, and stay gathered, to be organized into the government of God, and call it what you please as to name. They used the word kingdom in ancient times, meaning nothing more nor less than government. We should stay gathered, and count one in schools, in meetings, in paying tithing, in paying taxes, in acting our part as members of the community; count one when men are needed, if necessary, to go against the savages; count one in influence, in beauty, in spirit, in faith, and in works; to build Temples, to attend to the ordinances, and administer to the living and the dead, and set an example worthy of imitation. What would a million of people do if they were all doing this, under one covenant, being actuated by the same spirit, baptized by one baptism? They would be a million of that faith, a million of that spirit, a million of that light and truth, a million possessing the very powers of peace, and heaven, and Zion in their bo– soms. What would they do? Why, the world itself would see their light. Like a lighted candle on a candlestick, it could not be hid. Do you want riches? This is gold, it is silver, it is clothing, it is bone, it is sinew, it is industry and power. It will come flowing to you like a flowing stream. Your Apostles and your First Presidency, instead of being perplexed with the cares of this world, as to how to plow their fields, or build their cabins, would not have time scarcely to go out of yonder temple to get their breakfast, if we had the temple built. To a people thus consolidated, nations of the earth would come. The kings and queens, and governors and rulers, and a great many of the house of Israel, and people of influence and power out of all nations, would come. They would say, “The Lord is there, the power of God is there;” and if they had any money they would make a deposit of it there, for the nations would be breaking up, and the people would want to escape with their life from war, and distress of nations. The people would say, “There is where we will go to find safety, for there the inhabitants live in union, they have the light of eternal truth, while other people are in darkness and ignorance without measure. Those happy people know how to unite and defend themselves: it is not their numbers that constitute their strength, but it is their union, and, of course, their numbers have an influence.”

If one man is mighty, there are more mighty. If a man wants the riches of time and eternity, let him have a good government, education, and the laws of heaven to bring up his children in the right way. He never will get rich as fast as he would if he cooperated with the kingdom of God. You know when anything is wanted of me, I am on hand all the time, though there would not be a man you could hire. Men will go to California, to the States, or anywhere else, but you could not get them to do it ordinarily without hiring them. But if you appoint them to take a mission without purse or scrip, the same as an angel, they will go to hell, if the Lord will give them a mission there, and be mighty glad to get back as soon as they have done it.

I have detained you too long. May the Lord bless you. Amen.